Themes and Links Flashcards
Passage of Time
Nothing to be said + Mean Time - cruelty of time and its unceasing progression (either through morbid or romantic lens)
Dockery and Son + Brothers - Life pathways diverge with time (either through platonic or familial level)
Nothing to be said + Pluto - time progressing humanity towards death (either universal experience, or more focused on an individual)
Reference Back + Brothers - familial relationships decay with time (either maternal or sibling detachment)
Love songs in age + First love - optimistic view of love’s strength and durability despite the passing of time (either with the fulfilment of love maintaining its memory or emotions surviving where physical symbols don’t)
Humanity/Society
Havisham + Mr Bleaney - socially marginalised characters (either vivid ostracization or more subtle implied isolation, also one on individual, one extends it to wider society)
The Importance of Elsewhere + The Cliche Kid - constrictive nature of societal stereotypes (either through an outside perspective, or the child’s current state of isolation)
The Importance of Elsewhere - the freeing nature of being away from home society (either limitations of social culture or more illicit gambling connotations)
Afternoons + Litany = the marginalised role of women (either through lens of motherhood or a child’s perspective
Characters
Havisham + Bleaney - socially marginalised and isolated characters (either devastating image or more subtle isolation and sympathy)
Self’s the man + The Captain of the… - portray a character imprisoned in their mundane quotidian (either through marriage or uselessness of past joys, or narrator directly confronts Arthur whilst the other realises it themselves)
Afternoons + Before you were mine - unfulfillment and marginalisation of motherhood (either a group of mothers from a distance, or individual focus with more personal exploration)
Dissapointment
Afternoons + Before you were mine - dissapointment and lack of satisfaction of motherhood (either societal burden or child’s oppression of their identity, or more universal or individual)
Mr Bleaney + Room - unhappiness and disappointment through setting (either through working class connotations or more universality in experience, or 1st vs 3rd person perspective)
Talking in Bed + Havisham - devastation and disappointment with relationships (either endemic within relationships or after its break down, and subtle vs direct
Everyday Life
The importance of elsewhere + the cliche kid - everyday existence on the peripheries (either through outside perspective, or a child’s current struggle_
Before you were mine + afternoons - everyday isolation of mothers (either individual focus or universal experience, personal vs from a distance)
Relationships
Talking in Bed + Close - Toxic relationships (either lack of communication, or more vivid emotional abuse)
Brothers + Reference Back - decaying of familial relationships (either through siblings or maternal relationship)
Disgrace + Self’s the Man - unfulfillment of relationships (either stagnating relationship or burden of marriage)
Death
Nothing to be said + Pluto - humanities progression towards death (either universal experience or focused on the individual)
Home is so Sad + The Suicide - explore the consequences for what is left behind after death (either through personification of their home, or literal impact on those around the narrator)
Ambulances + Mean Time - cruelty of death in all its forms - either literal passing away of death of love/relationships
Loneliness
Mr Bleaney + Room - both explore loneliness through setting (either implied working class experience or more universal, either 1st or 3rd person perspective)
Talking in Bed +
The Importance of Elsewhere + The Cliche Kid - marginalising effects of social culture and stereotypes (either from outside perspective, or from a child’s current struggle with societal pressure)
change
Before you were mine + Afternoons - how motherhood changes priorities and therefore identity (Either universal or individual experience, more personal or detached narrator)
Talking in Bed + Mean Time - decaying of relationships (either sudden, abrupt change or gradual decay - equally depressing)
Dockery and Son + Brothers - diverging pathways of life distancing people (either familial or platonic)
popular culture
Captain of the… + Sunny Prestatyn - both suggest the futility and deception of culture (either through pointlessness of it as you age, or façade or imitation of Hollywood glamour)
Valentine + The Large Cool Store - portray commercialism as an unfulfilling aspect of culture (either romantic and personal, or materialistic and universal, or critical of class or shallow, superficial love
Freedom
The Cliche Kid + The Importance of Elsewhere - imprisonment of social culture (either escapes this or doesn’t, or impact on child v adult)
Before you were mine + Afternoons - Imprisonment of motherhood (either more individual or universal, or more personal or detached narrator)
Love
Havisham + Adultery - sudden disruption to love (either adulterous or left at the altar - both betrayal)
Valentine + The Whitsun Weddings - cynicism around shallow love (either commercialisation or common working class marriage)
Brothers + Reference Back - decaying of familial love (either maternal or sibling detachment
Memory
Love Songs in Age + Beachcomber - vividness and permanence of memory inspiring cruelty (either through inaccessibility or unfulfillment)
Before you were mine + Afternoons - distant memory of happiness before motherhood completely eroded and disrupted (either through individual or universal perspective, or personal or detached narrator)
Captain of the…. + An Arundel Tomb - pointlessness and failings of memory (either due to its futility in adulthood or false memorialisation of love giving false hope)
Gender
Before you were mine + Afternoons - marginalisation of women through motherhood (either individual or universal experience, or more personal or detached narrator)
could also talk about litany - marginalisation of women
Stuffed + Sunny Prestatyn - Sexualisation and objectification of women (either to disturb the reader with domination or for deceptive commercialisation
Hone/setting
Mr Bleaney + Room - isolation through setting (one with working class connotations the other applies more universally)
The Windows + The Importance of Elsewhere - both create an escape from the dull and limiting quotidian (one is accessible the other isn’t)
Never go back + Home is so sad - consequences of leaving a setting behind (either nothing changes or brings about decay and stagnation)
Appearance Vs Reality
Steam + An Arundel Tomb - role of deception and concealment in relationships (either through metaphor of concealment or literal false memorialisation of couple)
also talking in bed - role of lies in relationship
Litany + Sunny Prestatyn - juxtaposition of façade of perfection/attractiveness of image and brutality of reality (either through marginalised existence or sexualised image of women)
Adultery + 1914 - destructive nature of appearances (either in romantic betrayal or enticement of warfare)
Identity
The Cliche Kid + The Importance of Elsewhere - imprisonment of social culture (one from outside perspective, one discusses it through current struggle, one adult perspective one child
Before you were mine + Afternoons - Imprisonment of motherhood (either more individual focus or more universal, or more personal or detached)
Religion
Faith Healing + Confession - mocking practices and customs of the church (either supposed healing or cruelty and hypocrisy)
Prayer + Water - a less traditional yet more fulfilling form of religion/spirituality (one has undertones of criticism, the other discusses the ubiquity of spirituality
Loss
The Suicide + Home is So Sad - the loss of perhaps death (one is direct other is more nuanced, one is voice of the dying other is personified home)
Havisham + Talking in bed - loss of love and connection (either sudden or gradual)
Afternoons + Before you were mine - loss of identity as a result of motherhood (either universal or individual, or more personal or detached narrator)
Unusual subject/ surprise and shock
Take one home for the kiddies + Stuffed - using a normal subject matter and extracting something shocking (either disturbing objectification or morbidity)
A study of reading habits + Caul - Unusual or unexpected subject matter to explore loss in childhood (either at birth or lost in adulthood, or dismissive meta fictionality or unusual focus of caul)
Jouneys
Beachcomber + Love Songs in Age - Journeying into the past (either cannot get simplicity and innocence back or there never being any satisfaction at all)
Stafford Afternoons + Here - Journey through devastated setting (either critical of working class or individuals, and either long distanced train or close proximity of Stafford
Autobiographical experience
Self’s the man + adultery - Relationships of the poets (either affairs or dissatisfaction of marriage)
The Cliché Kid + The importance of elsewhere - Life on the peripherals (either escapable or inescapable marginalisation)
Disturbing subjects
Stuffed + Sunny Prestatyn - Disturbing objectification of women (either through oppression of a male or commercialisation)
The Suicide + Ambulances - disturbing nature of death (either individual or universal, bringing on own reflection)
Family
Brothers + Reference Back - decaying familial relationships (either sibling or parental, or either difference in age or separation with time)
Before you were mine + Afternoons - unfulfillment of maternal relationships (either individual or universal, or either personal or detached narrator)
Self’s the man + The Windows - Quotidian family life (pessimistic either through the life itself being unfulfilling, or through its unreachability)
Celebration
Broadcast + First love - celebration of love (past or current love, therefore mature or childish love)
The importance of elsewhere + Away and See - celebration of escape (either focused on escaping homeland or more towards promise of exploration, therefore pessimism either through abandoned narrator or of homeland
Imagination
First love + Broadcast - imagination and its importance for love (either remembering past or current lover)
Beachcomber + Love Songs in age - imagination bringing on pain and loss (either lost childhood innocence because of incomplete memory or unfulfillment of love through lasting memory
The Past
love songs in age + first love - reflecting on past loves (either wholly optimistic or realisation of pessimism)
Before you were mine + afternoons - distant past of self-identity and governance with overwhelming maternal responsibility (either individual or universal, personal or detached narrator)
Captain + A Study of reading habits - futility of past childhood pleasures in adulthood (either knowledge gained or the unfulfillment of fiction in adulthood)
Symmpathetic commentary
Afternoons + Before you were mine - narrator sympathetic towards mothers (either individual or universal and matching narrators)
Havisham + Self’s the man - sympathy for a toxic or damaged relationship (one is pure sympathy through giving her a voice other realises true intentions and withdraws sympathy)
Domestic Life
Before you were mine + afternoons - distant past of self-identity and governance with overwhelming maternal domestic responsibility (either individual or universal, personal or detached narrator)
Disgrace + Before you were mine - Unfulfillment of domestic life through romantic relationship (either through vivid domestic setting itself or domestic responsibility once again)
Pain
The Suicide + Home is so sad - pain as a result perhaps of death (either shared pain of the dying and those left behind, or more nuanced pain through personification of home)
Love songs in age + Beachcomber - pain of remembrance/reflection (either romantic dissatisfaction or loss of childhood)
special events
Havisham + The Whitsun Weddings - critical of weddings (either how they are not as special for the working class as they seem, or cruel rejection)
Never go Back + Dockery and Son - special event of travelling into past life bringing on reflection (either realises never to return or realisation of the variety of life
Significance of ordinary objects or events
Steam + Talking in bed -extracting the concealment and dishonesty in relationships through ordinary occurrence (either symbolised or explored through language itself)
Stuffed + take one home for the kiddies - ordinary and normal activity bringing on something disturbing (either violent objectification of women or morbidity)
meaning/purpose in life
Mr Bleaney + Room - purposelessness of life through setting (either extended to working class or more focused on general human experience)
Broadcast + First love - purpose through love (either past or current enrichment of life)
Havisham + Self’s the man - purposelessness through marriage (either shocking and devastating or more gradual erosion of character and identity)
conflict
Self’s the man + Close - conflict in romantic relationships (either more subtle quarrel or vivid abuse)
The Cliché Kid + The importance of elsewhere - internal conflict of identity (either escapable or inescapable)
Historical value/ relevance
Café Royal + MMXIV - a warning for individuals (either devastating conflict or cruel prejudice against Wilde)
An Arundel Tomb + Havisham - both present the disruption of love and its image (either raw vivid abandonment at the altar, or more subtle mis construal of love over time)
material world/ zooming in on detail
Valentine + Essential Beauty - commercialism (critical of either shallow love by comparison of more profound amour, or the unreachability of idyllic advertising by comparison of the dull working class quotidian)
Self’s the man + Havisham - critical of marriage through detail (either responsibilities listing or physical image of decay)
