CH8-Ruth Flashcards
What is the plot summary of Ruth?
- Story of Winnet Stonejar who is adopted by the magician and then must leave
- Elsie’s funeral-J now lives in Morecambe
- Winnet goes to village but is still an outsider
- Elsie’s funeral
- Winnet decides to go to the city
- J is now in city, makes long journey home
- Mrs W informs J of the embezzlement in the Society for the Lost
- Sir Perceval has vision of peace
- J explores town and remembers Melanie now works with Mrs W
- Sir Perceval examines his hands
- We end on Mrs W’s radio
What are the links of the Bible story of Ruth to Oranges?
Old Testament: Ruth is devoted to her m-in-law Naomi. After the death of her husband, Ruth remains and has a son whom Noami treats as her own. Ruth is a Moab, Naomi a Hebrew. Lots of Anti-Moab prejudice and exile
Oranges: Death of Elsie who treated J as her own, prejudice of J and Winnet
What context should we know for Ruth?
- ‘Ancient city’ refers to Oxford where Winterson escaped to study
- Fragmented narrative reflects post-modernist writing which is designed to question the form of the novel
- ‘Why be happy when you can be normal?’ Elsie never existed in real life for Winterson- she created her as a mother figure
What is the significance of the Winnet Stonejar metanarrative within Ruth?
- Winnet Stonejar is a partial anagram of Jeanette Winterson
- Winnet’s relationship with the sorceror reflects Jeanette and Louie’s unconventional genesis of motherhood and betrayal. Winnet and J are both exiled and must leave to find their own identity outside of the Church.
What is the significance of the Sir Perceval metanarrative in Ruth?
Sir Perceval comes to the realisation that he will never find the Holy Grail. J will never find peace in her mother’s home.
What are the key methods in Ruth?
-Metanarrative of Winnet Stonejar
-characterisation of sorceror
-Metanarrative of SIr Perceval
-Brecktian reference
-motif of raven and rough brown pebble
-motif of thread
-child-like imagery
-characterisation of the Church
-metaphor of journey (quest narrative)
-repetition
-final irony
What quotes support:
-characterisation of sorceror?
‘I know your name’
‘you tricked me.’
What quotes support:-Metanarrative of SIr Perceval?
‘He was a warrior who longed to grow herbs’
What quotes support:-Brechtian reference?
‘just an extension of the chalk circle you drew around yourself’
Brechtian techniques are methods that writers use to distance audiences from the narrative and make them think critically about the message
What quotes support:-motif of raven and rough brown pebble?
‘Winnet had noticed a strange thing following her, a black thing with huge wings’
Wizards’s chalk becomes the ‘rough brown pebble’
‘my heart grew thick with sorrow, and finally set’
What quotes support:-motif of thread?
the sorceror ‘tying an invisble thread around one of her buttons’
‘He felt himself being pulled like a bobbin of cotton’ ‘then a raven came and flew through his thread’
‘there are threads that help you find your way back, and there are threads that intend to bring you back’
‘she had tied a thread aroundmy button, to tug when she pleased
What quotes support:-child-like imagery?
‘I grabbed my mother by the coat sleeve’
What quotes support:-characterisation of the Church?
‘Elsie’s dead’
‘The pastor motioned to the flock’
‘I still don’t think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray’.
‘What quotes support:-metaphor of journey (quest narrative)?
‘It was an ancient city, guarded by tigers’
‘she must find a boat and sail in it. No guarentee of shore.’
What quotes support:-repetition?
‘betrayal is betrayal wherever you find it’
