faustus tutorial
DESCRIPTION
Open University module 'The Arts: Past and Present' (AA100) Dr Faustus tutorialTRANSCRIPT
Doctor Faustus (on Mars)
1st March 2011
Aims of the Session
• Introduce the language of Doctor Faustus• Think about meter • Look at poetic imagery• Close analysis of text
‘I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti’
‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat’
Iambic Pentameter
• Poetic rhythm measured in small groups syllables: feet
• Combination of stressed and unstressed syllables
• Iambic: unstressed followed by stressed syllable: trapeze
Iambic Pentameter
• Number of feet in each line is measured and named• Pentameter has 5 feet in each line – 10 syllables.• Iambic Pentameter has 5 feet in each line, in each foot
the stress falls on the second syllable – • da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM
Iambic Pentameter
Shall I compare thee to a sum mer's day?
da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM
Iambic Pentameter
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM
Iambic Pentameter
A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse
Robert Frost, ‘Mending Wall’Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing.
Tennyson, ‘Tithonus’
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Other meters
• iamb goes: di-dum.• trochee goes: dum-di.• spondee goes: dum! dum! e.g. ‘Praise him’, well-loved• pyrrhic goes: di-di• anapest goes: di-di-dum• dactyl goes: dum-di-di
Trochees Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Peter, Peter pumpkin-eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night
Variations and DisruptionsEnjambement• the sentence runs on past the end of line, uninterrupted by
punctuation (contrast with ‘end stopped’)
Why bother where I went?
for I went spinning on the
four wheels of my car
along the wet road until
I saw a girl with one leg
over the rail of a balcony
The Right of Way, William Carlos Williams, from Spring and All (1923)
Variations and Disruptions
• Caesura• Punctuation breaks the rhythm within a line.• How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Life on Mars – Part 1• Read John Sim’s comments on the character of Sam.• How would you direct your character in this scene?• How would you stage your scene?
Life on Mars – Part 2• Re-write your section of script in blank verse. You may
wish to change the meter for effect!• You can change the words to fit the meter, but try to
maintain the meaning and the tone.• Use your language to reflect Sam’s character
Metaphor and SimileMetaphor• the application of a name or a descriptive term to an
object to which it is not literally applicable. • Don’t use ‘like’ or ‘as’• A is B• ‘Love is a burning thing and it makes a fiery ring’
Simile• A is as/like B• Jennie drinks like a fish
Everyday metaphors
Metaphor Activity• Match the objects to the descriptions.• Make notes on why you think that they go together as
you go.• Swap your list of matched metaphors with the next
group.• Make notes on why you think that they have matched
them as they have.
Making Metaphors:A: to find poetic metaphors for the following
B: to use the following as metaphors for something else• Cleopatra• Joy• Youth• Tiger• Fire• Desire• A river• the A23
Close reading: Act 5, Scene 2, p. 109, ll. 66 – 87.• Meter• Punctuation• Imagery • Language• Voice/tone• Staging?• Translation?
And finally . . . • Why do you think that I chose Life on Mars?
