the crucible and the dressmaker sample essay

VCE Study Tips

English Language

Private Tutoring

Only one more step to getting your FREE text response mini-guide!

Simply fill in the form below, and the download will start straight away

English & EAL

Comparing The Crucible and The Dressmaker

August 13, 2020

Want insider tips? Sign up here!

Go ahead and tilt your mobile the right way (portrait). the kool kids don't use landscape....

Updated 24/12/2020

• Themes, Motifs and Key Ideas
• Comparative Essay Prompt Example
• Sample Essay Topics

The Crucible is a four-act play that portrays the atmosphere of the witch trials in Salem. As an allegory of McCarthyism, the play primarily focuses on criticising the ways in which innocent people are prosecuted without any founded evidence, reflecting the unjust nature of the corrupted authoritarian system that governs Salem. It starts off with the girls dancing in the woods and Betty’s unconsciousness, which causes the people of Salem to look for unnatural causes. People start scapegoating others to escape prosecution and falsely accuse others to gain power and land, facilitating mass hysteria which ultimately leads to the downfall of the Salem theocracy. The protagonist John Proctor is one of those that decides to defy the courts and sacrifices his life towards the end of the play, ending the play on a quiet note in contrast with its frenzied conflict throughout the acts.

The Dressmaker shows the audience the treatment towards Tilly Dunnage upon her return to fictional town Dungatar years after she was wrongly accused of being a murderess. Rosalie Ham critiques the impacts of rumours on Tilly and Molly, also establishing her condemnation of the societal stigma of this isolated town. Tilly starts making haute couture outfits to transform the lives of the women in the town and help them present themselves as more desirable and elevate their ranks. However, the townspeople still see Tilly negatively, except for some individuals who are able to look past the opinions of others and get to know Tilly themselves. Ham’s gothic novel garners the audience’s sympathy towards the outcasts of the town and antagonises those who find pleasure in creating drama and spreading rumours about others.  

2. Themes, Motifs and Key Ideas

Through discussing themes, motifs, and key ideas , we’ll gain a clearer understanding of some super important ideas to bring out in your essays. Remember, that when it comes to themes, there’s a whole host of ways you can express your ideas - but this is what I’d suggest as the most impressive method to blow away the VCAA examiners. Throughout this section, we'll be adhering to the CONVERGENT and DIVERGENT strategy to help us easily find points of similarity and difference. This is particularly important when it comes to essay writing, because you want to know that you're coming up with unique comparative points (compared to the rest of the Victorian cohort!). I don't discuss this strategy in detail here, but if you're interested, check out How To Write A Killer Comparative . I use this strategy throughout this discussion of themes and in the next section, Comparative Essay Prompt Example.

Similarities and Differences (CONVERGENT and DIVERGENT Ideas)

Social class .

Both The Crucible and The Dressmaker talk extensively about class. By class, what I mean is the economic and social divisions which determine where people sit in society. For instance, we could say that the British Royals are ‘upper class’, whilst people living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to get by are ‘lower class’.

Ultimately, both The Crucible and The Dressmaker are set in classist societies where there is no opportunity for social advancement. Whilst Thomas Putnam steals the land of poor Salemites accused of witchcraft, the McSwineys are left to live in absolute poverty and never leave the ‘tip’ where they have lived for generations. Dungatar and Salem view this social division as a ‘given’ and reject the idea that there is anything wrong with certain people living a life of suffering so others can have lives of wealth and pleasure. As such, for both Salem and Dungatar, the very idea that anyone could move between the classes and make a better life for themselves is inherently dangerous. What we can see here is that class shapes the way communities deal with crisis. Anything that overturns class is dangerous because it challenges the social order – meaning that individuals such as Reverend Parris in The Crucible , or Councillor Pettyman in The Dressmaker may lose all their power and authority.

For The Crucible , that’s precisely why the witchcraft crisis is so threatening, as the Salemites are prepared to replace Reverend Parris and deny his authority. Although Abigail and the group of girls thus single-handedly overturn Salem’s class structures and replace it with their own tyranny, Parris’ original intention was to use their power to reinforce his authority. In The Dressmaker , Tilly is threatening because she doesn’t neatly fit in to Dungatar’s class structure. Having travelled the outside world, she represents a worldly mindset and breadth of experiences which the townspeople know they cannot match.

For this theme, there’s a DIVERGENCE of ideas too, and this is clear because the way that class is expressed and enforced in both texts is vastly different. For The Crucible , it’s all about religion – Reverend Parris’ assertion that all Christians must be loyal to him ensures the class structure remains intact. More than that, to challenge him would be to challenge God, which also guides Danforth in executing those who don’t follow his will. In the case of The Dressmaker , there’s no central authority who imposes class on Dungatar. Rather, the people do it themselves; putting people back in their place through rumour and suspicion. However, by creating extravagant, expensive dresses for the townspeople, Tilly inadvertently provides people with another way to express class.  

Isolated Communities

CONVERGENT:

The setting forms an essential thematic element of The Crucible and The Dressmaker . Both communities are thoroughly isolated and, in colloquial terms, live in the ‘middle of no-where’.

However, what is starkly different between the texts is how this isolation shapes the respective communities’ self-image. For Salem, its citizens adopt a mindset of religious and cultural superiority – believing that their faith, dedication to hard work and unity under God make them the most blessed people in the world. Individuals as diverse as Rebecca Nurse and Thomas Putnam perceive Salem to be a genuinely incredible place. They see Salem as the first battleground between God and the Devil in the Americas, and as such, construct a grand narrative in which they are God’s soldiers protecting his kingdom. Even the name ‘Salem’ references ‘Jerusalem’, revealing that the Salemites see themselves as the second coming of Christ, and the fulfilment of the Bible’s promises.

Not much of the same can be said for The Dressmaker . Dungatar lacks the same religious context, and the very name of ‘Dungatar’ references ‘dung’, or beetle poop. The next part of the name is 'tar', a sticky substance, creating the impression that Dungatar's people are stuck in their disgusting ways. The townspeople of Dungatar are acutely aware of their own inadequacy, and that is why they fight so hard to remain isolated from the outside world. Tilly is therefore a threat because she challenges their isolation and forces the men and women of Dungatar to reconsider why their community has shunned progress for so long. In short, she makes a once-isolated people realise that fear, paranoia, division and superstition are no way to run a town, and brings them to acknowledge the terribly harmful impacts of their own hatred.

On top of that, because Salem is literally the only Christian, European settlement for miles, it is simply impossible for them to even think about alternatives to their way of life. They are completely isolated and thus, all of their problems come from ‘within’ and are a result of their own division. For Dungatar, it’s a mix of societal issues on the inside being made worse by the arrival of people from the outside. The township is isolated, but unlike Salem, it at least has contact with the outside world. All Tilly does, therefore, is show the people of Dungatar an alternative to their way of life. But, for a community used to the way they have lived for decades, it ultimately contributes to its destruction.

By the way, to download a PDF version of this blog for printing or offline use, click here !

3. Comparative Essay Prompt Example

The following essay topic breakdown was written by Lindsey Dang. If you'd like to see a completed A+ essay based off this same essay topic, then check out LSG's A Killer Comparative Guide: The Crucible & The Dressmaker , written by 50 study scorer and LSG tutor, Jordan Bassilious!

[Modified Video Transcription]

Compare the ways in which outcasts are treated in The Crucible and The Dressmaker.

Step 1: Analyse

Before writing our topic sentences, we need to look at our key words first. The keywords in this prompt are outcasts and treated .

So, who are considered outcasts in the two texts? Outcasts can be those of traditionally lower classes, they can be characters with physical flaws, those that are different to others or those who do not abide by the standards of their respective societies.

• In The Crucible : Tituba, Abigail, John Proctor or even Martha Giles can be considered as outcasts.
• In The Dressmaker : We can consider Tilly, Molly, The McSwineys, etc.

We also need to look our second key word ‘treated’. How would we describe the treatment towards these characters? Are they treated nicely or are they mistreated and discriminated against? Do ALL members of that community have that same treatment towards those outcasts or are there exceptions? Remember this point because we might be able to use this to challenge the prompt.

We’re going to skip Step 2: Brainstorm today, but if you’re familiar with LSG teachings, including the THINK and EXECUTE strategy discussed in my How To Write A Killer Text Response ebook, then you’ll be good for this part.

Step 3: Create a Plan

Both texts portray outcasts as victims of relentless accusations or rumours, seeking to engage the pathos of the audience towards those who are marginalised.

• In The Crucible , Tituba the ‘Negro slave’ is the first person to be accused by witchcraft in Salem. Her ‘consequent low standing’ is also shown through her use of language ‘You beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm’ which is fraught with grammatical errors, compared to Judge Danforth who uses legal jargon and the Putnams who are much more well-spoken.
• Similarly, the McSwineys are also those of lower class and are seen as the outcasts of Dungatar. Their names show us their position in the social hierarchy because they are associated with swines which are pigs. This is confirmed by Sergeant Farrat who said ‘Teddy McSwiney was, by the natural order of the town, an outcast who lived by the tip’. Even when Teddy McSwiney died, the townspeople still did not reflect on the impacts that their prejudice and bigotry had on him, eventually forcing the McSwineys to leave the town because they could not find a sense of belonging living there.
• Tilly is also poorly treated due to the fact that she is fatherless, being bullied by the kids at school especially Stewart Pettyman and also used by William as a leverage to marry Gertrude, threatening Elsbeth that ‘it’s either her [Gertrude] or Tilly Dunnage’
• Also discuss Giles Corey’s death and the significance of his punishment as the stones that are laid on his chest can be argued to symbolise the weight of authority

Miller and Ham also denounce the ways in which outcasts are maltreated due to their position in the social hierarchy through his antagonisation of other townspeople.

• There’s also a quote on this by Molly ‘But you don’t matter – it’s open slather on outcasts'. Herein, she warns the audience of how quickly outcasts can become victims of rumours and accusations as the term ‘slather’ carries negative connotations.
• Similarly, the theocracy that governs Salem dictates the rights of their people and children. He specifically states 'children were anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak', which explains the girls’ extreme fear of being whipped. Salem is very violent to children, slaves and helpers and it can be seen that this is the result of the social hierarchy and the Puritan ideology.
• For The Dressmaker , also discuss the ways in which they name others in this quote ‘daughter of Mad Molly is back – the murderess!’ Likewise discuss how Goody Osbourne the ‘drunkard half-witted’ and Sarah Good an old beggar woman are the first ones to be named. You can talk about Martha who is accused of being a witch just because she has been ‘reading strange books’, and Sarah Good due to the mere act of ‘mumbling’. The normality of these actions underlines the absurdity of the accusations made against these individuals, furthering Miller’s chastisement of the fictitious nature of the trials and also the ways in which outcasts are the first to be scapegoated.

However, there are still characters that are driven by their sense of morality or remorse instead of mistreating the outcasts of their community.

• Both Sergeant Farrat and Proctor are motivated by their remorse to make amends. Proctor’s evasion of ‘tearing the paper’ and finding ‘his goodness’ is motivated by his desire to atone for his sin (having committed adultery with Abigail), and Sergeant regretted sending Tilly away. He, in his eulogy, says ‘if you had included [Tilly], Teddy would have always been with us’, expressing his regret for the ways outcasts are treated in Dungatar. Similarly, Teddy McSwiney also has a pure relationship with Tilly and treats her differently instead of judging her based on the rumours about her being a ‘murderess’.
• While those who can sympathise with outcasts in The Dressmaker are either outcasts themselves or are remorseful (or both), there are those in The Crucible that are purely and solely motivated by their moral uprightness. Rebecca Nurse is neither an outcast (as she is highly respected for her wisdom) nor remorseful (as she has remained kind and pure from the beginning of the play). She is always the voice of reason in the play and tries to stop authoritative figures from convicting and prosecuting outcasts. A quote you can use would be ‘I think you best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguin’ again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year'.

4. Sample Essay Topics

1. 'I say—I say—God is dead.' —John Proctor, The Crucible . Explore how communities respond to crisis.

2. People must conform to societal expectations in The Crucible and The Dressmaker . Do you agree?

3. Discuss how The Crucible and The Dressmaker use textual features to convey the author’s perspective.

4. Gender repression is rife in both The Crucible and The Dressmaker . Discuss.

Now it's your turn! Give these essay topics a go. If you're interested in reading a 50 study scorer's completed essays based off these 4 essay topics, along with annotations so you can understand his thinking process, then I would highly recommend checking out LSG's A Killer Comparative Guide: The Crucible & The Dressmaker.

This blog has written contributions from Lindsey Dang.

Download a PDF version of this blog for printing or offline use

Understanding Context in The Crucible and The Dressmaker

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham

Get our FREE VCE English Text Response mini-guide

Now quite sure how to nail your text response essays? Then download our free mini-guide, where we break down the art of writing the perfect text-response essay into three comprehensive steps. Click below to get your own copy today!

Access a FREE sample of our The Crucible & The Dressmaker study guide

Written by Jordan Bassilious who achieved a perfect study score of 50, English Premier's Award and a 99.5 ATAR:

• Learn unique points of comparison through LSG'S CONVERGENT and DIVERGENT strategy and stand out from the rest of the Victorian cohort
• Sample A+ essays, with EVERY essay annotated and broken down on HOW and WHY these essays achieved A+
• Advanced discussions like structural feature analysis, views and values and critical readings.

We've curated essay prompts based off our Ransom and Invictus Study Guide which explores themes, characters, and quotes.

• 'Without mortality and fallibility, humility cannot exist.' Compare how the two texts explore the importance of humility.
• Compare the ways the two texts explore the efficacy of different leadership types.
• "In a world that is also subject to chance." ( Ransom ) "Under the bludgeonings of chance; My head is bloody, but unbow'd." ( Invictus ). Compare how chance influences lives and societies in these texts.
• Compare how these texts examine the societal consequences of conformation and rebellion.
• Compare how Invictus and Ransom explore resistance to change.
• 'Forgiveness can correct any miscarriage of justice committed.' Compare how this idea is demonstrated in these texts.
• 'Leadership and sacrifice are never mutually exclusive.' Compare the connections between leadership and sacrifice in Invictus and Ransom .
• Compare the ways the two texts explore the power of shared experiences.
• '...let his name, from now on, be Priam, the price paid" ( Ransom ) Compare how Invictus and Ransom show the roles of the past in determining one's future.
• "But the women's presence is stronger than [Achilles']. This is their world." ( Ransom ) Compare what these texts say about the power of women in societies focused on masculinity and male experiences.
• 'Family can have many interpretations and meanings.' Compare the ways family is perceived in these texts.
• Compare how the two texts explore intergenerational relations and their importance.
• Compare how, in Invictus and Ransom , the aftermath of forgiveness is both redeeming and transient.
• "Words are powerful. They too can be the agents of what is new, of what is conceivable and can be thought and let loose upon the world." ( Ransom ) "Just words. But they helped me to stand when all I wanted was to lie down." ( Invictus ) Compare how words shape one's hope for change is explored in both texts.
• 'Stories hold unseen truth and potential.' Compare how the two texts explore the importance of storytelling.

Ransom and Invictus is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Comparative (also known as Reading and Comparing). For a detailed guide on Comparative , check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Comparative .

Written expression is often overlooked in our essays. Often, if we are made aware of clunky or awkward expression, we are also not quite sure how to go about improving it. Although sophisticated and pertinent ideas serve as the foundation of a successful essay, how we construct our sentences and express these ideas may be what distinguishes a good essay from a great essay.

These differences can be rather subtle, but the small things can and do matter.

1) USE YOUR VOCAL CHORDS  

(to read out loud, not sing… unless you really want to)

Take your essay and read it out loud. Let your own conscience guide you in terms of whether a particular sentence flows well, is complete and makes sense. Keep your eye out for these small errors in particular: Grammar: Does your sentence actually make sense? Let’s have a look at an example: Although Funder suggests that the act of telling one’s story, especially one of victimisation, can catalyse the internal confrontation and healing required to move on.

(This is not grammatically correct! This is because this example only contains a subordinate clause and is lacking a main clause.)

But wait… what is this ‘subordinate clause’ and ‘main clause’?

A clause includes a subject and a verb .

Melissa ate an apple.After Wendy ate an apple.

What is the difference between the two clauses above?

‘Melissa ate an apple’ makes grammatical sense on its own. This is what we call a main clause (or an independent clause). On the other hand, ‘ After Wendy ate an apple’ is an incomplete sentence as it does not make sense. What happened after Wendy ate her apple? This is the information that is missing from the latter clause, making this a subordinate clause (or a dependent clause).

So now let’s try again…

Although Funder suggests that the act of telling one’s story, especially one of victimisation, can catalyse the internal confrontation and healing required to move on, ultimately, these individuals can never be truly free from the past that has irrevocably defined them.  

(Hooray! This is a complete sentence now.)

Spelling : Are the title of the text, the author or director’s name, characters’ names, publisher’s name, etc. all spelt correctly (and capitalised, underlined, and italicised appropriately)?

Did you use the correct there, their and they’re? How about it’s and its? (and so on).

Sentence length: Did that sentence just go on for 5 lines on a page and you are out of breath now? You can most probably split that overloaded sentence into two or more sentences that make much more sense. Check whether you have a clear subject in your sentence. If you have three different ideas in one sentence, give each idea its own opportunity (ie. sentence) to shine. The opposite also applies: if it is for a very short sentence, did that sentence pack enough content or analysis?

One spelling error or half-finished sentence in an essay will not severely affect your mark, but they can easily add up if they occur often enough. Consequently, this will distract the reader from engaging with your ideas fully and thus disrupt the flow of your essay.

By being aware of these aspects, you are now able to easily fix them and boost your writing.

2) BE SUBTLE

Try not to be casual or overt in your writing as it can be quite jarring to read and unfortunately give readers a potentially negative impression of your piece.

Try not to use phrases such as:

- In my opinion… (You do not need it as your entire essay should be your implicit opinion!)

- This quote shows that… (Embed the quote and link to its implication instead)

- This technique is designed to… (Identify the technique and be specific, especially in Language Analysis)

- I think that…, I believe… (Avoid using first person in a formal essay. Use of first person in creative writing is fine though if required)

They are redundant and do not add much to your ideas and analysis. Try omitting them and see whether that helps your sentence flow better and seem more formal.

3) LINK ‘EM UP

Sentences that seem disjointed or a clear connection can make it difficult for your teacher or the assessor to join the dots between an idea and an implication or consequence. Use linking words as they are fantastic for explicitly showing the reader how your ideas are related and thus allow your writing to proceed smoothly.

Therefore, hence, thus, thereby, consequently, subsequently, in addition, additionally, furthermore, moreover, on the other hand, on the contrary, however, henceforth, and so on… The list is endless!

4) ADD OOMPH (through vocabulary)

In general, having a wide vocabulary will allow you to express your ideas and analysis more accurately as you are likely to have access to a precise word that can capture the essence of your idea. Make a vocabulary list for a particular text or for Language Analysis (such as tone words) and aim to use varied language to convey yourself well.

If you’d like to see a list of sentence starters and essay phrases to help you get a headstart on expanding your vocabulary, check out this blog .

Focus on verbs and expanding your list of synonyms for words such as shows, demonstrates, highlights, emphasises, suggests and so on. An individual, character, author or director may not only be conveying but also denigrating or remonstrating or bolstering or glorifying or insinuating . Adding precision to your writing through careful vocabulary choice will distinguish your writing and also add complexity.

BEWARE! There is a fine line to tread with sophisticated vocabulary - do not overload your writing as you can risk writing convoluted sentences that hinder the reader’s ability to understand your piece. Also make sure that you understand the nuances of each synonym and that they are used in the correct context! (They are synonyms after all - not the same word!)

If you are debating whether to use a word, ask yourself: do you know what it means? 

If yes: Go for it!

If no: Do not use it until you know what it means.

Reading sample essays, The Age Text Talks, reviews and more of the texts you are currently studying will expose you to not only a multitude of interpretations of your text, but also to different sentence structures, writing styles or vocabulary that you could incorporate into your own writing.

I would also highly recommend that you read outside of the texts you are studying if you have time, whether that may be novels by the same author or even newspapers. Your written expression will only benefit from this exposure as the ways you can express yourself through writing continue to increase upon seeing others’ eloquence.

6) GET WRITING

If you do not write, you will never be able to improve your written expression. Put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard) and start constructing that essay. You can only fix your writing once you have writing to fix.

For a detailed guide on Comparative, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Comparative.

In a previous video , we covered some of the themes found in both The 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory. I’d recommend that you watch that video first (or read it’s accompanying blog post if you prefer reading) because once you know some of the themes, you can get even more out of this video. In this video, we’ll be looking at a scene each from both The 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory , and trying to compare them a little bit. 

We’ll be applying the CONVERGENT and DIVERGENT strategy from LSG’s How To Write A Killer Comparative and exploring how ideas are developed in similar or different thematic directions in these texts. CONVERGENT ideas lead to similar conclusions and messages, while DIVERGENT ideas take us to different conclusions. If you’d like to learn more about this strategy which can help you build more insightful discussions of the text by finding unique points of comparison, then I’d recommend you check out the LSG’s How To Write A Killer Comparative study guide. 

The Play ( The 7 Stages of Grieving )

‍ Let’s go to scene 14 of the play - this should be the report of Daniel Yocke’s death in police custody. The woman recounts his death in a factual, impersonal style as if reading from a court report. She describes how the police pursued and arrested Yocke after he went out drinking with a group of friends, and how he was detained and taken to the watchhouse. He arrives without a pulse, but the report doesn’t go into detail about how that happened between his arrest and his arrival. The woman breaks into bursts of emotion toward the end of the scene.

While most of the play deals with issues that are universal and timeless for First Nations peoples, this scene looks at a specific real event . However, this doesn’t mean that this scene isn’t timeless - First Nations deaths in custody are still a major issue for which no police officer has been held legally accountable - but this scene chooses just one example out of several hundred. 

The emotionally detached tone makes the situation feel serious, but in a way, that distances us and the woman from the brutality and the violence of what must’ve happened. After all, how exactly was Yocke dead upon arriving at the watchhouse? How badly must the police have mishandled him for that to have happened? Along the way, there are little outbursts of emotion (like the little outburst of ‘people called him Boonie!’) and these remind us that the detachment belies the true significance of what happened - the needless loss of yet another Aboriginal person’s life. 

This has been such a persistent problem in our history - this scene happened in 1993, but even in today’s time we’re still dealing with the same problem. The institution of policing has been unaccountable and violent for decades, at least, and something desperately needs to change. 

The Novel ( The Longest Memory )

‍ Let’s go to the novel now and look at Chapter 6: Plantation Owners.

In this chapter, Mr. Whitechapel is talking to his peers about Chapel’s death in this clubhouse that his father had built for his own peers. Mr. Whitechapel is initially nervous that they’ll make fun of him, and they kind of do - they point out how hypocritical it is for him to think that he can treat the people he’s enslaved with humanity, and to stick to this argument even after Chapel had been whipped to death. At some point in this banter, he realises this physical violence is unjust and starts proposing ‘another way to organise the economy’ that isn’t slavery, but this draws even more mockery. He ultimately leaves feeling a little more convinced by the perspectives of his peers.

What does this chapter tell us, and how is it similar to the scene from the play?

Well, in both scenes, white men get away with murdering a Black man, and it comes down to socio-economic and institutional power. In this chapter, Mr. Whitechapel and his fellow enslavers all inherit significant wealth and extremely prejudiced attitudes from their fathers, and this creates not only pressure, but also a financial incentive, to conform to the system of slavery. He touches on the possibility of abolition, but this is seen as impossible - certainly, none of these men want to lose their power. 

Looking more closely at this chapter, we also see how Mr. Whitechapel is exactly the hypocrite that everybody says he is - it’s ridiculous for him to pretend he’s treating black people fairly when they are dying under his watch. He says he’s feeding enslaved workers adequately and treating them with respect, but none of this is actually going to protect them from violence, and none of this is going to level the playing field so that white enslavers are held accountable. Ultimately, Mr. Whitechapel isn’t seriously interested in making substantive changes to slavery in the name of morality; he is simply trying to save face. 

I’ve chosen these two scenes because they both illustrate the dynamics of race and power which pervade both texts, but these two scenes might not be the first ones that come to your mind as a pair that you can analyse together, and that’s totally fine! I encourage you to find your own scenes to compare because that’s what makes English powerful. If you, as a unique student, can compare two scenes that nobody else has compared, that’s going to give you an extra edge because you’re more likely to say something original. 

If you’re interested in finding more unique ways to compare these two texts, I’d recommend LSG’s The 7 Stages of Grieving & The Longest Memory study guide. I know there aren’t many resources out there for this text pairing, so what we’ve done at LSG is work really hard at ensuring that all the information in this study guide will actually be beneficial for you. We’re not here just to make you read more guides - we’ve really thought about what would be meaningful for you as a student learning this pairing. That’s why you’ll see that I’ve used some of the ideas mentioned in this video and turned them into an A+ essay, so you can see exactly how knowing this information translates into your SAC/exam.

There’s a free sample of the study guide you can check out to see if it’s right for you!

We've curated essay prompts based off our The Crucible and Year of Wonders Study Guide which explores themes, characters, and quotes.

• Compare how the conflict between illusion and reality is explored in these texts. ‍
• 'Uncertainty breeds fear, and fear breeds further uncertainty.' Compare how this idea is demonstrated in The Crucible and Year of Wonders . ‍
• Compare how secrets and superstition affect the characters in both texts. ‍
• Compare how The Crucible and Year of Wonders explore issues of human fallibility and deception. ‍
• Compare the ways these texts examine the preservation of morality amidst accusation and condemnation. ‍
• 'Humans are ultimately inclined towards evil rather than good.' Compare how the two texts explore this inclination. ‍
• Compare how The Crucible and Year of Wonders examines the strength of one's faith during hardship and conflict. ‍
• “How little we know, I thought, of the people we live amongst.” ( Year of Wonders ) Compare what the two texts say about community and one's understanding of reality. ‍
• "Here we are, alive, and you and I will have to make it what we can.” ( Year of Wonders) 'It is only possible to discover what it means to live when faced with death.' Compare the ways these texts explore this possibility. ‍
• “It is the essence of power that it accrues to those with the ability to determine the nature of the real.” ( The Crucible ) Compare the ways the two texts demonstrate the connection between power and controlling the truth. ‍
• Compare how truths and falsehoods shape the lives and societies in The Crucible and Year of Wonders . ‍
• Compare how The Crucible and Year of Wonders shows that conflict can cause both regression and strengthening of integrity and humanity. ‍
• Compare how women are perceived in both The Crucible and Year of Wonders . ‍
• Compare the ways morality is examined and determined in these texts. ‍
• "Man, remember, until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in heaven?" ( The Crucible ) Compare how the two texts explore the repercussions of disillusionment.

The Crucible and Year of Wonders is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Comparative (also known as Reading and Comparing). For a detailed guide on Comparative , check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Comparative .

David Malouf’s Ransom and Stephan Frears’ The Queen was a brand-new text pairing added to the study design in 2020. It is a unit with many nuances and intricacies to discuss, making it a perfect pairing to unpack in an essay topic breakdown!  

For some context, backstory and a plot summary of both Ransom and The Queen , head to an earlier post Understanding Ransom and The Queen . This may help with your understanding of the essay prompt later in this post. And if you need a refresher on what the Comparative is, see our Ultimate Guide to VCE Comparative .

Overall, both Ransom and The Queen overlap fairly heavily in terms of key themes, ideas and messages. Even if you haven’t watched The Queen or read Ransom yourself, the essay topic I have chosen can give you an idea of how to seamlessly integrate such thematic overlaps and similarities into your own writing, whilst also acknowledging the differences in both texts.

Breaking Down the Prompt: THINK

Whenever you get a new essay topic, you can use LSG’s THINK and EXECUTE strategy , a technique to help you write better VCE essays. This essay topic breakdown will focus on the THINK part of the strategy. If you’re unfamiliar with this strategy, then check it out in How To Write A Killer Text Response .

Within the THINK strategy, we have 3 steps, or ABC. These ABC components are:

Step 1: A nalyse

Step 2: B rainstorm

Step 3: C reate a Plan

The Essay Prompt:

'it is true that the gods made me a king, but they also made me a man, and mortal.' – Priam (87-88)

'Your Majesty, there’s a last minute addition from Downing Street. They’re suggesting adding and as a grandmother here.' – Janvrin (Script, 87th Minute)

How do both texts explore the tensions that are created between a person’s public and private life? 

Step 1: Analyse 

This prompt is both a quote-based, and a how-based prompt (learn more about the five types of prompts here). This means that the examiner wants us to explain how the text creators (Frears and Malouf) convey tensions between one’s public and private life, using the quote to help us do so.

Step 2: Brainstorm

First, let’s break down the prompt part of the essay question. Here, the keywords are:

‘tensions’ - we have to focus on the contrast, and the hardships, that stem from the characters in both texts as they juggle their roles as leaders and individuals of their own accord. These difficulties are explored in more detail in an earlier LSG blog Ransom and The Queen.

‘public and private lives’ - invites us to consider the individuals in both texts, specifically leaders such as Queen Elizabeth and Priam, who have distinctly different public and private personas. Specifically, we want to focus on how the differences that arise between these two ‘lives’ suggest that compromises must be made in order for leaders to perform their role to its greatest potential.

Now it’s time to break down the quote itself!

Both the quotes from Ransom and The Queen illustrate points of tension in the lives of leaders.  

Priam’s quote occurs toward the climax of Ransom . The examiner is directing you to discuss how being ‘a man’ , and therefore seemingly unremarkable in nature, challenges Priam’s existence as a ‘king’ , thus creating a point of tension in his reign.

Similarly, Janvrin’s quote also highlights how being a ‘grandmother’ is a role that must be performed by Queen Elizabeth in conjunction with her existence as the Queen of England. Yet, the inclusion of ‘Downing Street’ in this quote also moves you to consider how the queen’s own private affairs, such as Diana’s death, must be handled in conjunction with an outside team such as Tony Blair as British Prime Minister, thus entangling both her public and private personas.

Through both quotes, it is evident that when responding to how Frears and Malouf explore tensions in their respective texts, you should analyse the key characters of each text and their roles as both leaders and individuals in their own right. 

I’ve grouped my ideas in a logical order so you can easily identify how each idea relates to my essay plan in Section C. During your own brainstorming, this will be difficult to achieve, so just keep in mind that you don’t need a logical layout of ideas until the planning stage!

• At the beginning of both texts, each protagonist fails to recognise and adequately perform their role as a ‘man’ and ‘grandmother’ respectively, due to their duties as a leader. This leaves them out-of-touch with the people around them, suggesting that being a leader can negatively impact one’s relationships with those they care about most.
• Priam refers to himself as ‘mortal’ in the prompt, revealing his own vulnerability. Furthermore, the inclusion of ‘Downing Street’ encourages discussion surrounding Tony Blair and his role as a public figure. In both cases, these men express their emotions to their people and those closest to them, leaving them open to backlash and criticism of their authority as leaders.
• For Queen Elizabeth, expressing her grief ‘as a grandmother’ allows her to connect emotionally to her people and regain their support, whilst for Priam, appearing to Achilles simply as ‘a man’ enables him to return to Troy both successful in his mission and respected by his people. This reveals that leaders should not let their public and private lives evoke tension, but rather should harness elements of each respective realm to build a modern, effective and relatable leadership style.

By dissecting the prompt’s keywords and briefly analysing the quote and its meaning, I have come up with three main points:

Paragraph 1: In both texts, Frears and Malouf suggest that in allowing themselves to be controlled by their public personas, leaders may struggle to connect with both their people and their own families

• Ransom : Somax is initially unable to connect with Priam due to his adherence to royal protocol and tradition
• The Queen : Queen is unable to provide emotional support to her grandsons following their mother’s death, due to her own stoicism and emotionally distant nature 

Paragraph 2: Yet, in revealing an aspect of their personal lives, leaders risk compromising their public authority

• Ransom : When Priam breaks protocol and leaves the walls of Troy, the Trojan people question the strength and competence of their leader
• The Queen : Tony Blair’s unconventional style means he initially fails to gain respect from the Royal Family, despite being elected British Prime Minister

Paragraph 3: This delicate balance between one’s public and private lives is achieved most successfully when leaders reveal an element of their private selves and make themselves vulnerable and relatable to their people.

• Ransom : Priam recognises the importance of being a father as well as a leader, allowing him to bury Hector’s body whilst retaining respect and admiration from his people
• The Queen : By adopting Blair’s suggestions and addressing the British people in an honest, vulnerable way, Queen Elizabeth is able to regain their trust and respect.

Stephen Frears’ film The Queen , set in contemporary England, and David Malouf’s novel Ransom , taking place in Ancient Greece, both explore the concept that one’s public identity can create tensions between their ceremonial constructed persona, and their own private identities. In both texts, Frears and Malouf (1) suggest that in allowing themselves to be controlled by their public personas, leaders may struggle to connect with their people, and their own families. Yet, in revealing an aspect of their own lives, they may also risk compromising their own public authority. This delicate balance between one’s public and private lives, therefore, is conveyed throughout Ransom and The Queen to be achieved most successfully when leaders reveal an element of their private lives and make themselves both vulnerable and relatable to their people, harnessing aspects of both their public and private lives in order to confidently perform their roles to the greatest extent possible. (2)

Annotations (1) Make sure to refer to the author/director in your introduction and continually throughout your essay. This helps to ensure you are considering their purpose and its intended effect/message to the audience (see Views and Values for more on this).

(2) This is where I have included the broader implications of the topic – it will be my final paragraph where I somewhat challenge the prompt

In both Ransom and The Queen , leaders that allow themselves to be dictated by their public identities and subsequent rules, protocols and expectations, are portrayed to express difficulty in connecting with their constituents and their own families. In The Queen , Queen Elizabeth finds comfort in placing 'duty first, self second', as in performing in her role as a monarch for many years, she foregrounds such identity over her ability to connect personally with those around her. However, this struggle to formulate intimate connections is conveyed by Frears (3) to, at times, be at her detriment. Upon meeting the Royal Family, Cherie Blair, who symbolises the wider British society (4) , describes that family as 'a bunch of free loading, emotionally retarded nutters'. This blunt description serves to indicate that in acting according to 'how [she] was brought up' and 'all [she’s] ever known', the queen compromises her public image and relatability to her people. In a similar manner, in Ransom , Somax describes only having 'seen King Priam at a distance…he is surprised at how old he looks', clearly illustrating the emotional and physical distance between the king and the people of Troy. Such distance is portrayed by Malouf to not only affect the way the people view their king, but also the manner in which Priam himself is able to formulate and express basic human emotions, as 'royal custom – the habit of averting his gaze', initially prevents him from connecting with Somax on a more intimate level. Through this, both Malouf and Frears highlight how, (5) in allowing themselves to be consumed by their roles as leaders, both Priam and Queen Elizabeth have sacrificed their ability to truly connect and engage with those around them, leaving them out-of-touch with the same people they govern. However, this lack of connection is also shown to extend to their families, as the queen is pictured by Frears to be physically disconnected with her own grandsons. Upon learning of Diana’s death, Prince Charles is depicted delivering the news to his sons, whilst the queen watches on from the corridor, as Frears uses a mid-shot with the door frame obstructing the audience’s view of Queen Elizabeth herself. This can be seen to symbolise (6) the ‘barricade’ between the queen and her own family, as her role as monarch separates her from those she loves. (7) In a similar manner, Priam’s only recollection of the birth of his son is 'recall[ing] a series of small squalling bundles', as his 'role…to hold myself apart in ceremonial stillness' directly prevents him from understanding, and becoming involved with his family, emotionally distancing himself from his own sons. Consequently, Frears and Malouf convey to their audience that the role of being a leader can negatively impact upon one’s relationship with others, serving as a constant burden and barrier to achieving intimate emotional connections.

Annotations (3) In writing ‘conveyed by Frears’ as opposed to ‘conveyed’ I am trying to demonstrate that I am aware the film is a construction made by a director (in this case Frears) for a purpose – he is trying to communicate with the audience through the actions of his characters. See LSG’s Views and Values blog post or How To Write A Killer Text Response (the Views and Values section) for more on this.

(4) In this case, I am attempting to go ‘beyond’ what is simply portrayed in this scene and incorporate the setting of the text – in this case, highlighting my awareness of the time and place in which the film is set (i.e. context ). While aimed at Literature students, this blog on context is helpful as it walks you through some contextual aspects you should consider. 

(5) This is one of the main ways I would link my two ideas in Year 12, and draw ‘mini conclusion’ or a link (think of the TEEL structure ) back to the topic. Yet, in beginning with ‘Malouf and Frears’, I am keeping the purpose of each text central to my link.

(6) When using film techniques , try to analyse their meaning. Rather than simply stating ‘Frears uses a mid-shot’, tell your assessor WHY he does this and what its intended effect is on the audience. This not only acts as a form of ‘textual evidence’ but also demonstrates your understanding of the text itself.

(7) In this sentence, I have tried to draw connections between the physical world and the author’s purpose in portraying the isolation of the British Royal family. Here, I’m referring to the ideas, views and values of the author/director.

On the other hand, however, in revealing one’s private life and expressing humility, leaders are also shown to risk their public authority. In Ransom , Priam becomes determined, following the death of Hector, to try 'something impossible. Something new' and allow for an element of vulnerability to be expressed, in order to successfully ransom his son’s body. Such an unusual, unconventional method of leadership, however, is depicted to take the people of Troy by surprise, as they witness their leader dressed 'in plain white' (8) , stripped of his former royal gown. Therefore, the Trojans, who 'crowd the ramparts of the city' and 'line the walls of Troy' each day, in an attempt to view and 'cheer' their leader, 'do not know how to react' upon viewing Priam in such a common, ignoble state, reconsidering the way in which they regard and respect him. In a similar manner, in The Queen , Tony Blair is a Prime Minister whose ‘unconventional' style of leadership is seen to initially unnerve the Royal family. Upon being elected, Blair is described in a montage scene (9) to be a 'wonderful new Prime Minister…a compassionate young man…such a breath of fresh air', a different style of leader to previous Prime Ministers whom the queen previously worked with. The description of Blair as a 'compassionate young man' is significant as such compassion, combined with his youth, acts as a deterrent for the Royals in showing him respect as a leader, taken aback by his unusual views and values. Consequently, upon the death of Diana, although Blair attempts to advise Queen Elizabeth on behalf of the British People, Prince Phillip declares 'who does he think he’s talking to? You’re the sovereign. The head of state. You don’t get dictated to' clearly symbolising their lack of respect and willingness to consider Blair’s perspectives and ideas. In this way, Frears highlights how, in adopting an unconventional style of leadership, those in power may struggle to gain the respect of others around them, particularly their fellow leaders, with the Queen Mother’s statement of 'silly Mr Blair and his Cheshire cat grin' clearly portraying Tony Blair’s lack of authority within the Royal Family. Whilst, in Ransom , the people of Troy struggle to come to terms with Priam’s own change in his leadership style, wondering 'is the king deserting them?', those in The Queen are seen to accept Blair’s leadership style, evident through his 'landslide victory', as, unlike the people of Troy, they are seen to be open to a more progressive form of leadership. In both texts, however, Frears and Malouf demonstrate that leaders who illustrate an element of vulnerability, such as Priam and Tony Blair, may struggle asserting their authority over those with more traditional standards and views, such as the Trojan people and the Royal Family, and thus sacrifice an element of their public image and reputation.

Annotations (8) This is a brief quote – these are useful to ‘replace’ your own words. It ensures you are remaining relevant in your analysis (aka not going off track!!) and acts as a way to ‘show off’ to your assessors that you know your text. However, as these quotes are so simple, I would rarely go into depth with my analysis of them – save this for your longer quotations.

(9) Although naming the scene as a ‘montage’ isn’t entirely necessary in this case, it shows the assessor that you remember where this scene takes place and gives a bit of context , further achieving that first criterion.

Yet, both David Malouf and Stephen Frears examine the notion that in revealing an element of their private life and making themselves vulnerable, a leader may be able to become more relevant, thereby easing the tension between their public and private personas (10). In The Queen , Queen Elizabeth’s adamant refusal to 'dance to their tune' and abide by the requests of her people leads her to proclaim 'I don’t think I have ever been hated like that', with Frears’ depiction of her crying outside Balmoral evident of her realisation that she needs to adapt to the 'change…shift in values' occurring among her constituents. This private expression of vulnerability by Elizabeth is the catalyst for her change in leadership style, with the setting of Balmoral itself, and subsequent events that take place there, symbolising the ability for leaders to harness an element of their personal lives and use it to adapt and connect with their people. In a similar manner, Priam’s declaration that coming to Achilles 'as a man of sorrow' gives him the 'chance to break free of the obligation of always being the hero' highlights Malouf’s view that, at times, leaders must 'break free' of the overwhelming 'obligation[s]' of their public life in order to achieve their objectives and desires within the private sphere. Priam’s realisation that the 'gods made me…mortal' (11) and subsequent appearance as 'a man of sorrow' allow him to successfully bury the body of his son, as he places his identity as 'a man' at the forefront. Priam’s ability to use his emotion in order to fulfil the desires of both him, as 'a father', and the wider people of Troy in allowing their most esteemed warrior to receive a proper burial, is mirrored in The Queen , where Queen Elizabeth adopts the use of emotion to regain the respect of British society. In returning from Balmoral, the queen directly interacts with the people outside Buckingham Palace, with Frears using a long shot to capture the extremely large numbers that had gathered outside the palace gates to emphasise the scale of public sorrow occurring. The queen’s interaction with her people, combined with her public address 'as a grandmother' (12) , symbolises the way in which she was able to harness her identity both 'as your queen, and as a grandmother' to appeal to her people, gain their respect, and successfully lead them through an unprecedented, tumultuous event, thus easing the strain between her public and private personas. Likewise, Priam’s claim 'that the gods made me a king, but also made me a man' (13) highlights that he too has developed an understanding that in order to lead most successfully, one must express an element of vulnerability and humility, allowing for the people to emotionally connect and relate to those whom they admire. Therefore, both Malouf and Frears highlight that expressing elements of their private lives through their public identities is a method most effective in gaining leaders the respect and admiration they crave, as those they lead are able to find an element of commonality and relatability within such esteemed individuals.

Annotations (10) Here is where I begin to go beyond simply the limitations or ‘obvious’ points made in the prompt and consider its wider implications. One strategy I used to help plan and write these paragraphs in Year 12 was to ask myself ‘Why is this a topic? What is the author/director trying to tell me as a member of the audience?’ It usually helps to closely consider the author’s purpose , thus ensuring you achieve a coherent and comprehensive analysis.

(11) Here, I am using part of the quote in the prompt to serve as evidence and back up my point regarding Priam’s combination of both his public and private identities. See How To Embed Quotes in Your Essay Like a Boss to learn how to seamlessly include quotes in your writing. 

(12) It is here where I have used the quote from the prompt to influence my reasoning and my overall argument.

(13) Now I am moving on to explain the significance of the quote in the prompt.

Ultimately, both The Queen and Ransom explore the various tensions that can occur throughout the public and private lives of leaders, and their need to grapple with and understand such a concept in order to perform their duties most effectively. Whilst being constrained by one’s public persona may create emotional distance between an individual and those around them, in revealing an element of vulnerability, both texts illustrate that leaders risk losing respect and authority within public society. However, Frears and Malouf suggest that despite the difficult balance between one’s public and private lives, in order to lead most effectively, esteemed individuals should not allow each respective realm to create tension and unease, but rather harness elements of both their intimate and public personas in order to create a modern, effective and relatable leadership style (14) .

Annotations (14) My final sentence aims to focus on the ‘bigger picture’. Think of this as your ‘mic drop moment’ – you want to finish your essay with an overall statement that touches upon the author’s expressed or implied point of view. 5 Tips for a Mic-Drop Worth Essay Conclusion will help you nail your conclusion.

Throughout this essay, I have implemented the CONVERGENT and DIVERGENT strategy to help me discuss insightful points of similarity and difference. This is particularly important when it comes to essay writing, because you want to know that you're coming up with unique comparative points (compared to the rest of the Victorian cohort!). I don't discuss this strategy in detail here, but if you're interested, check out How To Write A Killer Comparative .

If you found this helpful and you’d like to dive deeper into this text pairing, see A Killer Comparative Guide: Ransom & The Queen. In this guide you'll learn unique points of comparison, we'll teach you how to think like a 45+ study scorer through advanced discussion on topics like literary and cinematic techniques, and we give you 5 A+ sample essay fully annotated!

Have you ever wondered how you can read your books so efficiently that you will be able to identify the most important passages, quotes, symbols, author’s views and values etc. all in one go? Well, I’m going to share some handy tips you can adopt while annotating a novel that will hopefully help you achieve this. Warning – if you are a reader who likes to preserve their books and keep them crispy clean, this study guide probably isn’t for you. However, keep in mind that annotating texts is a powerful step in getting to know your text and optimising your essay responses.

Before we get started, what exactly is ‘annotating’? To annotate means to add notes to a text where you provide extra comments or explanations (usually in the margins of the book). It is very much an activity for yourself, because it allows you to become an  active reader –  where you are engaged in thinking about the plot, themes, characters etc. as you are reading and jotting down key thoughts. As a result, active readers are more likely to become immersed in the story, absorb the ideas better, be more open-minded and therefore usually develop their own unique interpretation of the text. While annotating may not come so naturally to some of you, this guide below should definitely equip you with a good starting ground!

1. Think of your text as a colouring book.  Use different coloured highlighters for different themes. This way when you’re rummaging through your book to find a certain quote to support a theme, say you specifically only highlight ‘romance’ theme in pink, it’s much easier for you to find the pink than to look through a whole book highlighted all in green. Think of it as creating a trail for you to follow throughout the book. Creating a legend at the start of the book (for example, in the contents page) can help you keep track of which colour stands for which theme.

2. Circle new vocabulary.  Look it up and then write their definitions next to the word. Next, keep a word bank in a workbook or on a word document containing any words you’ve learnt. Now you’ve successfully killed two stones with one bird –  you’ve broadened your vocabulary and you’ve got a handy sophisticated vocabulary list you can always refer to when it comes to essay writing!

3. Write notes in the margins.  Here you can summarise the significant points of a passage without needing to re-read the whole thing again. Use a pencil rather than pen. If you don’t like writing on paper, you can always use sticky notes and stick them to the pages. However, avoid writing full comprehensive notes in the margins. You’re not trying to write another book inside the empty sections of a book. Use a separate workbook or a word document for that!

4. Be open to different interpretations.  Just because your teacher or a study guide interprets the text in particular way, doesn’t mean that you need to agree. If you see things from a different angle, that’s an advantage for you. Remember that you can be ambiguous with your ideas, understanding a certain character or theme from multiple perspectives offers you a variety of ideas that can be applied in your essay. This idea is echoed by English assessors in the VCAA 2013 Examination Report,

…students should be encouraged to have confidence in their own reading and demonstrate a personal understanding of their text, rather than relying exclusively on commercially produced material. All texts are complex works of art with a wealth of opportunity for exploration. There is no ‘expected’ response to a topic, and the most successful pieces were those that were thoughtful and fresh.

5. Got burning questions that pop up?  Don’t dismiss what you don’t understand! Put down a question mark and do some research. The better you understand your text now, the greater understanding you will have of events that occur later in the text.

6. Mark literary devices.  Symbols, metaphors, alliteration, assonance – the list goes on. Use shapes such as circles, triangles, squares and create a legend in order to keep track of the different literary devices that present themselves throughout the text. Bear in mind that the best essays always include a well-rounded discussion about the author’s choices in literary techniques and how they develop specific themes and/or characters.

7. Dog-ear important passages . Some key passages can be lengthy (spreading over several pages), and it can be a pain to highlight pages and pages of a book (it might too much for your eyes to handle too – ouch!) so instead, fold the corners of those pages down so that you know exactly where that key event occurs.

8. Find unique phrases/quotes.  You’ll come across the same quotes that are repeatedly mentioned in class, study guides and essays that other students have written. To stand out, you should try to find those quotes that are equally powerful but are somewhat overlooked or underrated.

9. Annotate study notes and study guides.  These notes are written by another reader who has developed their own ideas about the text – this doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to share the same ideas as there is always opportunity to disagree with another’s opinion. Draw smiley faces or frowns in areas where you agree or disagree. This can be the basis of an interesting discussion in your own essay.

10. Don’t be afraid to destroy that book!  Yes, it’s nice to have a book crispy and clean, but think of annotating as a way to own that book! Show that you know the in and outs of the text so well that if someone else were to pick it up, they would have no idea where to even begin! Having proper notes in the right places and annotations will make the biggest difference.

Keep in mind that annotating does not equal skimming (where you briefly speed-read through your text). If you’re planning to only flick through the book, you are probably not going to find those unique passages or under-used yet powerful quotes. Take it slow and easy!

The following is a snippet from my study guide, How To Write A Killer Oral Presentation . It's filled with unique advice that takes you from start to finish in mimicking the techniques used by a perfect-scorer VCE Year 12 student. You may want to start off reading Our Ultimate Guide to Oral Presentations and come back to this blog if you haven't already!

This blog covers the first step within Pillar 2: Writing The ‘This Is-Going-To-Blow-You-Away’ Speech. Once you've chosen an interesting topic and have researched all of its different viewpoints, it's time to formulate your contention. Often, creating a killer contention is about avoiding some common traps that will make your overall presentation boring, bland and just like the rest of your cohorts'.

So, I like to avoid: ‍

Broad, overarching statements

If you think your contention is, ‘abortion in Australia’ then you’re wrong. This is simply not a contention! A contention is an opinion. The example, ‘abortion in Australia’ offers no insight into your opinion on the issue at all. Instead, ‘We need to consider women’s mental health when judging their decision on abortion’ is an opinion. ‍

A contention that is just plain obvious

Let’s say we use the issue of ‘homelessness in Australia’. Arguing ‘homelessness in Australia is a problem’ or ‘we need to fix the homelessness issue in Australia’ just isn’t going to cut it because you’d never argue the opposite, ‘homelessness is great’. There are no differing viewpoints against your contention which means that you have nothing to argue against.

You need to be more specific with your issue - that’s why you looked up all those viewpoints in your research. For example, you could contend, ‘We need to fix the problems in homes in order to fix Australia’s homeless issue.’ This does has varied viewpoints because someone else’s solution could be to give homeless people greater access to help.

TEST: Before you move on to writing structure, ask yourself, can people argue against my contention? If yes, proceed ahead! If no, you’ll need to revise your contention again. Do this over and over until you can confidently answer ‘yes’ to the above question.

Avoid a contention that is generally accepted as true in today’s age ‍

When climate change first came onto the radar, the main debate was whether it was a real or a conspiracy theory. These discussions were in full force over 5+ years ago. These days (with the exception of climate change skeptics of course), discussion on climate change revolves more heavily around the slow pace of policy implementation, intergenerational effects of climate change, and mental health surrounding climate change.

Rather than arguing, ‘Climate change is real?’ (which your teacher has probably listened to a dozen times), you’re better suited to argue ‘Young people, not governments, should lead the fight against climate change’. Not only does this tie into the LSG belief that you should be more specific with your issue, it’ll also mean that your contention is relevant to today.

Now it's your turn. Give it a go! You might need to take a few tries to get your contention right, and that's absolutely OK.

If even after that you’re still unsure about your contention, make it a priority to speak to your teacher about it. Ask them if they could review your proposed contention and offer you any constructive feedback. Heck, even if you are confident with your contention, I’d ask your teacher anyway for any insight you mightn’t have thought of.

Wondering where to go from here? Well, luckily, my eBook, How To Write A Killer Oral Presentation, details my exact step-by-step process so you can get that A+ in your SAC this year.

• Access a step-by-step guide on how to write your Oral Presentation with simple, easy-to-follow advice
• Read and analyse sample A+ Oral Presentations with EVERY speech annotated and broken down on HOW and WHY students achieved A+ so you reach your goal
• Learn how to stand out from other students with advice on your speech delivery

Sounds like something that'd help you? I think so too! Access the full eBook by clicking here !

EXECUTE is the writing component that ticks off the English criteria so that your teacher is wowed by your essay and wished it was longer. So, what are these criteria points? Each school may express these points differently, however at the end of the day, teachers and examiners are all looking for the same thing:

An understanding of social, cultural or religious background in the text and how that shapes the themes, ideas, and characters. Without a clear understanding of the context of your text, you cannot fully comprehend the views and values of the author, nor the overall meaning of a text.

For example, Austen was hunched over her small writing desk in the village of Chawton during England’s Georgian era as she wrote Persuasion. You are more likely reading it in a cozy bed, listening to Taylor Swift and half considering what you’re going to watch on Netflix later. Remember, your current social and cultural context can have a great influence on how you read a text, so it’s always important to imagine the author’s own context – whether this be very similar, or very different from the context of their text. It’s as easy as a Google search!

✔️Views and values

An understanding of the author's message and purpose.

Writers use literature to criticise or endorse social conditions, expressing their own opinions and viewpoints of the world they live in. It is important to remember that each piece of literature is a deliberate construction. Every decision a writer makes reflects their views and values about their culture, morality, politics, gender, class, history or religion. This is implicit within the style and content of the text, rather than in overt statements. This means that the writer’s views and values are always open to interpretation, and possibly even controversial. This is what you (as an astute English student) must do – interpret the relationship between your text and the ideas it explores and examines, endorses or challenges in the writer’s society.

✔️Different interpretations by different readers

An understanding of how different readers and develop different interpretations, and how this changes an author's message.

Like our example using Austen vs. you as a modern reader above, the way you interpret an idea or view a character can change based on your unique views and values.

✔️Metalanguage

An understanding of how author's constructs their text through specific choices in words.

For example, the use of the word 'bright' vs. 'dull' to describe a landscape is intended to effect the way you perceive particular ideas or characters in a text.

A high-graded English essay will cover all of these points without fail. If you're unfamiliar with any of these, you are missing out on ways to differentiate yourself from other students. At the end of the day, there are only so many themes and characters to discuss, so you need to find unique angles to discuss these themes and characters. This will help your essay move from generic to original (yeah boy!).

If you're interested, How To Write a Killer Text Response ebook shows you the inner workings of my brain 💭- what I think when I see an essay topic, how I tackle it, and how I turn these thoughts into a high-scoring essay. The ebook includes:

‍ - 50-pages teaching you how to respond to ANY essay topic

- Examples from 15+ popular VCE English texts

- Know exactly what to  THINK  about so you can formulate the best possible essay response

- Plus a bonus 20-pages of high vs low scoring essays , fully annotated (what works and what doesn't) so you know exactly what you need to do

Click here to access the FULL version now!

We've curated essay prompts based off our The Golden Age Study Guide which explores themes, characters, and quotes.

Before getting started on your own essay writing using our essay topics, feel free to watch the video below where Lisa brainstorms and breaks down the topic:

"The Golden Age is primarily a tragic tale of isolation. Discuss"

If you're looking for more support, including a sample The Golden Age essay, Vindhya (English study score of 46) offers her take on how to write an essay in Dissecting an A+ Essay .

LSG-curated The Golden Age essay topics

1.     “Being close made them stronger.” In The Golden Age , adversities are tempered by camaraderie. Do you agree?

2.     Despite the grim context, The Golden Age highlights and celebrates the potential of life. Discuss.

3.     Memories of past successes and failures have significant lingering effects on characters in The Golden Age . Is this an accurate assessment?

4.     “[I would be] a fox, following a Palomino.” How do animals such as these contribute symbolically to The Golden Age ?

5.     It is largely loneliness which defines the struggles of the children in The Golden Age . Discuss.

6.     In what ways is The Golden Age a novel of displacement?

7.     Fear of the unknown is something which permeates The Golden Age . Is this true?

8.     What is the role of family in Joan London’s The Golden Age ?

9.     Isolation in The Golden Age exists in many oppressive forms. Discuss.

10.  Throughout The Golden Age , London draws attention to beauty rather than to suffering. Discuss.

11.  In spite of their youth, it is the children of The Golden Age who understand best what it means to be an individual in the world. Do you agree?

12.  How do characters from The Golden Age learn, grow and mature as the novel takes its course?

13.  Due to the range of different onset stories, each of the children and their families in The Golden Age face a different struggle with their identity. Discuss.

14.  “Home. She hadn’t called Hungary that for years.” In spite of all their struggle, the Golds never truly feel any sense of belonging in Australia. To what extent do you agree?

15.  Explore the factors which drive Joan London’s characters to persevere.

The Golden Age is usually studied in the Australian curriculum under Area of Study 1 - Text Response. For a detailed guide on Text Response, check out our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

If you’ve been studying John Donne’s metaphysical poetry, you’ve probably noticed that his works are riddled with different symbols and motifs. Embedded throughout his poetry, these literary devices may seem slightly abstruse to the reader. You may find yourself asking: What do they mean? And in relation to what? Even Donne’s contemporaries failed to appreciate his poetry. The neoclassical poet John Dryden rejected Donne’s works because it “affects the metaphysics” and “perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts, and entertain them with the softnesses of love”.

One thing that you should understand about Donne’s romantic poetry, is that while his stark images of compasses and spheres may seem foreign to you, they were also alien to his predecessors too. So, if you’re struggling to comprehend his enigmatic poetry, not to fear! Because John Donne’s poetic peers didn’t initially get it either.

The reason for this is because Donne refused to conform to the poetic conventions of the time. The poet emerged as an idiosyncratic in the Elizabethan era, the Renaissance. Unlike his contemporaries, he didn’t employ elaborate descriptions of symbol natural landscapes, classical myths and female beauty. The reason for this was because Donne did not believe in the one-sided love and emotional frustrations that his contemporaries tried so hard to convey in such imagery.

Donne’s poetry was so different because he rejected and even openly mocked the idea of such a high-minded religious worship in literary romance. In “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning,” Donne criticises the “tear-floods” and “sigh-tempests” of the “dull sublunary lovers.”. In a similar vein, Donne satirises the “sighs” and “tears” (The Canonisation) so prevalent in Petrarchan works.

Instead, Donne advocated for a different kind of love. He espoused a love that comprised of the Body and the Soul, which was a dominant intellectual issue in the literary treatment of love in the 1590s. More specifically, Donne embraced the balance between Platonic love and the Ovidian love.

Platonic: Platonic love is essentially love that surpasses the mere sensual and physical. It is a very spiritual concept and is based on reason, affection, respect, intellect and compatibility.

Ovidian: Ovidian love

The idea of balance derived from discoveries being made about the human body during the Elizabethan era. The Renaissance was fundamentally a time of discovery (particularly in the area of science). Elizabethans believed that elements in the body needed to be balanced,

Top Tip: When you’re analysing John Donne’s poetry and writing essays, be aware of Donne’s overarching message in his romantic poetry. Most explanations about his use transcendent relationship with his lover is thus determined by obtaining a balance between the spiritual and earthly pleasures. Most examination questions will leave room for to discuss the connection between the material and the divine world! Make sure to understand this, because this is a huge component to his poetry.

Introduction

If you, like me, grew up Asian in Australia, you might think you already know a thing or two about, well, growing up Asian in Australia. Our stories can be pretty similar—just have a scroll through the ‘subtle asian traits’ Facebook group, or have a conversation with literally any Asian Australian about their parents.

At the same time, it’s also important to recognise that everyone’s experiences are diverse, especially given how broad an identity ‘Asian’ can be. Also important is to recognise how broad and intersectional identity can be in general—intersectional meaning that race isn’t the only thing that defines any one of us. Things like gender, socio-economic status, ability, sexual orientation and religion can also be really central, for example. Each of these things can impact the way we navigate the world.

Covering a broad range of these stories is Alice Pung’s anthology, Growing Up Asian In Australia . Some of the contributors in this volume include Sunil Badami , Matt Huynh , Bon-Wai Chou , Diana Nguyen , Michelle and Benjamin Law, and Shaun Tan , and already this cross-section is fairly diverse in nature. You can also click on their names to find out a bit more about each of their work. I think this is worth a few minutes, just to get acquainted with the sheer range of Asian-Australian creatives who are represented in this book, and to locate their work within the themes they write about—in other words, having a think about the ways that cultural heritage, or experiences with family, or economic hardship permeate their work, both in the anthology and in their lives outside it.

The anthology is (perhaps quite helpfully) divided into sections which revolve around key themes, which is also going to inform the structure of this guide. I’ll be using this guide to go through an exercise that I found really helpful when learning the text, which involves:

• taking two stories per section and drawing up some dot-point similarities and differences
• translating two of those points into paragraphs, a bit like a ‘mini-essay’

We’ll go through some an example of what this might look like, and why it’s a helpful exercise to try.

Before we start diving into Growing Up Asian in Australia , I'd highly recommend checking out LSG's Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

Strine (Badami & Tseng)

Strine is what’s called a syncope , a shortened way of pronouncing Australian (a bit like ‘Straya’)—it refers to Australian English as it’s spoken by locals. This section of the book is all about language , and about the difficulties of juggling two languages growing up, and Badami and Tseng’s stories are great examples of this.

1. Similarity: connections to one’s mother tongue fade over time. Tseng recounts how, one by one, she and her sisters stopped learning Chinese as they progressed through their Australian education. Badami on the other hand compromises his name which stood out as too Indian when he “just wanted to fit in.”

2. Similarity: for ‘third-culture kids’, losing knowledge of their language also strains their relationship with their forebears. Badami’s mother is shocked to hear the anglicisation of his name despite the significance it carrie for her (“she spat my unreal new name out like something bitter and stringy”), and Tseng describes the experience of communicating with her father in “Chinglish” so that they can both understand each other.

3. Difference: language can be an internalised, personal experience, or a highly exposed and interpersonal one. While Tseng feels her loss of her language as a “sense of shame, a vague unease”, Badami is almost bullied into changing his name, “Sunil? Like banana peel?”

The Clan (Law & Chau)

This section delves into the complex ties that hold migrant families together. Chau’s poems are starkly different to Law’s story, so it’ll be interesting to compare how these different narrative forms work to explore those ideas.

1. Similarity : it can take at least one generation for migrant families to dig their roots into their new home. While Law’s parents are proud tourists at Queensland theme parks, he and his siblings “groan” at their comportment. Chau’s poem ‘The Firstborn’ traces his ancestry forward until he arrived, “an ABC” and his son “by amniotic sea”, both of them born into Australia.

2 . Similarity: family dynamics are still traditional and therefore gendered. Law notes how his mother’s health suffered when divorcing his father, and Chau notes that the women members of his family were “cast off” the family tree “as if they were never born.

3. Difference: family history and heritage can vary in importance. Chau’s family traces back “twenty-eight generations” of history, whereas Law’s family very much lives in the present, the only tie to older generations being his “Ma-Ma”, or grandma.

4. Difference: families show their love in different ways. Whether it’s dedicating a poem to his son about his life as one of “ten thousand rivers” of Chinese diaspora into the Australian sea, or taking the kids to theme parks on weekends, all sorts of affection can hold families together.

Putting it together

So I’ve tried to choose two sections (and four stories) that are all a bit different to try and mix it up and get some rich comparative discussion out of these. You might be studying this text alone, but even as one text, remember that there’s a lot of diverse experiences being represented in it, so discussing how stories connect, compare and contrast is just as important as discussing the content of individual stories themselves.

If we do a mini-essay, we might as well go about it properly and pick some sort of contention. Without a fixed prompt though, it might be easier to start with those dot points and pick which ones we want to write out and string together. Let’s pick two—connections to mother tongue fading over time (Strine similarity 1) and digging roots into Australia over time (The Clan similarity 1). A contention covering these points might look like:

While second generation migrants may struggle with loss of culture, they also constitute a unique and significant part of the diaspora.

Many migrants lose connections to their heritage over time, and these connections are often in the form of language. Particularly for Asian migrants, there is not as strong a need to preserve their mother tongue in the English-speaking Australia, and as such their knowledge of those languages can be easily lost. Ivy Tseng, for instance, recalls how she was never able to “grasp the significance” of learning Chinese as a child, and eventually she and her sisters would prioritise “study” and other academic pursuits over learning Chinese. Because tertiary study and education as an institution generally carry a lot of weight in migrant cultures, there is often a compromise made at the expense of heritage and language. These compromises can come from other factors as well, particularly the group dynamics of being in white-dominated Australia. Bullying is a frequent culprit, and Badami for example is indeed peer-pressured into resenting—and ultimately anglicising—his name, “Sunil? Like banana peel?” More generally speaking, a sense of shame for one’s difference is a common part of the migrant experience—Law experiences it as well at theme parks, where he and his siblings attempt to “set [them]selves apart” from the faux-pas of their parents. Not always an intentional goal, but a general willingness to compromise connections to heritage underscores many Asian Australian migrant stories, particularly of second-generation migrants.

However, the extent to which migrants feel socially integrated in society shifts generationally and over time as well. Second generation migrants are thus unique in that they have the closest connection to their heritage while also initiating this process of integration. Law and his siblings exemplify this, with their “Australian accents” and “proper grammar and syntax.” While some loss of their native Cantonese takes place, they are also the first in their family to sound Australian, one step closer to being Australian. They constitute part of the distinct, third culture of “ABC”—Australian-born Chinese—to which Chau alludes in his poem, ‘The Firstborn’. Distinct from first-generation migrants, ABCs are a product of diaspora and spend their formative years immersed in the Australian way of life. Chau’s poem goes on to highlight how sizeable this demographic now is—“the sea is awash with the unfathomable Chinese sons.” Thus, we can see how ABCs, or second generation Asian migrants, represent a unique and significant social group exemplified by great compromise, but also great change.

Why is this useful?/How can I apply this?

I like this exercise because it gets you thinking creatively about the key implications of the stories. Within a section or theme, you want to identify similarities in how both stories contribute to our understanding of that theme . You also want to identify differences to explore how stories can be unique and nuanced , which will provide your essay with more depth when you ultimately need it. Then, putting it all together helps you synthesise new connections between themes .

For an analytical study of this text, you’d flesh out those ideas until they become paragraphs, introducing relevant evidence and mixing it up with explanatory sentences as you go. Explanatory sentences keep you analysing rather than story-telling, and they usually don’t have any quotes—an example from above might be “because tertiary study and education as an institution generally carry a lot of weight in migrant cultures, there is often a compromise made at the expense of heritage and language.”

For a creative study, you’d take away those ideas and look at how else you might explore them in other stories. Feel free to challenge yourself for this; I remember falling back on more personal writing when studying this creatively, but don’t neglect other genres or forms! If second generation migrants are in fact more on their way to belonging, write a speculative story about how an apocalypse tests those connections to white Australians. I dunno, but don’t be afraid to really push the boundaries here and test the implications you draw from the stories.

Give it a go

Try it for some of these:

• UnAustralian? (Loewald & Law) and Leaving Home (Diana Nguyen & Paul Nguyen)
• Battlers (Dac & Law/Huynh) and Mates (Phommavanh & Ahmed)
• The Folks (Lazaroo & Tran) and Homecoming (Beeby & Larkin)

Growing Up Asian in Australia Essay Prompt Breakdown

Video Transcription

The essay topic we’ll be looking at today is short and sweet;

To belong is to sacrifice. Discuss. 

The key terms are evidently “to belong” and “to sacrifice”, so these are the words and definitions that we’ll have to interrogate. 

Belonging is a feeling of being accepted by someone or being a member of something, so we’d have to ask who is doing the accepting, and what are the writers seeking to be members of. On the other hand, sacrifice is loss, it’s giving something up—it’s implied that seeking belonging means you may have to navigate compromises to what you have, how you live, or maybe, who you are. Have a think about what sacrifices are made by whom, and why.

With that in mind, let’s brainstorm a contention . We usually want to avoid going fully agree or fully disagree to create a bit more ‘grit’ for the essay—and in this case, the prompt is pretty deterministic or absolute; it’s saying that belonging is all about sacrifice. 

I’d probably argue that belonging is sometimes about sacrifice, and for migrant children they often give up some of their culture or heritage for Western lifestyle or values. That being said, belonging in these cases is probably more about synthesis than sacrifice—it’s about being able to negotiate and bring heritage into increasingly Australian ways of life.

The brainstorming section of writing a killer essay is where my THINK and EXECUTE strategy comes in. If you haven’t heard of it before, essentially, it’s a method of essay writing that emphasises the importance of really thinking about all aspects of a prompt and exploring all the different avenues you can go down. To be able to EXECUTE a well-reasoned, coherent and articulate essay that contains enough nitty-gritty analysis, you have to do enough THINKing to get some meat on the essay’s skeleton, so to speak. To learn more, check out my top selling eBook, How To Write A Killer Text Response .

In paragraphs , we could start by looking at some of the sacrifices people make in order to belong . The poem, ’Be Good, Little Migrants’ has a more of a cynical take on this, suggesting that migrant groups are expected to sacrifice economic mobility and even personal dignity in order to gain favour with locals: “give us your faithful service”, “display your gratitude but don’t be heard, don’t be seen.” 

Economic sacrifices are seen across many stories, from the working class “decent enough income” in ‘Family Life’ to the failing business in ‘ABC Supermarket’. Other forms of sacrifice might be less material—for example Benjamin Law’s sacrifice of his Mariah Carey cassettes in an attempt to fit in at school from the story ‘Towards Manhood’. This example is interesting because it isn’t a cultural sacrifice, but a gendered one—it’s a good reminder that identity is always multi-layered. 

For migrant children though, the sacrifices usually revolve around their race and culture . Diana Nguyen for example notes language as a key sacrifice: she quits Vietnamese school because she didn’t feel like she belonged with the grade ones in her class, and her ultimate “lack of interest in learning [Vietnamese] created a lasting barrier” between her mother and her. In Sunil Badami’s story, ‘Sticks and Stones and Such-Like’, the sacrifice is his name, as he Anglicises it to Neil. When his mother finds out, “she spat my unreal new name out like something bitter and stringy, too difficult to swallow.” The common denominator here is that Asians growing up in Australia often have to navigate sacrificing some of their heritage in order to belong in western society. 

However, the challenges faced by the Asian diaspora growing up abroad are more complex and more nuanced than just sacrifice. More often than not, they’re required to synthesise a ‘third culture’ identity that balances their heritage with western values and lifestyles. 

Diana Nguyen goes on to discuss her career trajectory in becoming a “working actor” in Melbourne’s entertainment industry, carving out a path for herself in spite of her parents’ disapproval, and going on to represent a new generation of Asian Australians in the media. The story ‘Wei-Lei and Me’ also points to this shifting demographic in Australia, as Gouvernel and her best friend stave off a racist primary school bully only to see their home change for the better as they grew up, with new restaurants from their home cuisines opening up. At the same time, they “had become what [they] thought [they] could never be: Australian,” describing a way of life in Canberra that is unmistakably Australian. 

So, belonging isn’t necessarily all about sacrifice—it doesn’t mean you can’t pursue your passions or become ‘Australian’. Sure, sometimes sacrifice is necessary, but ‘third culture kids’ synthesise conflicting identities in order to belong. 

Having arrived at the contention, let’s just have another think about the takeaway message - being able to bring other themes into an essay topic that only really raises one theme. To answer this topic fully, a good essay wouldn’t just discuss belonging and sacrifice, but it would also bring in discussion about family, friends, careers and cultures, just to name a few. Hopefully this is something you can translate into your own future work!

Growing Up Asian In Australia is an anthology with a lot to unpack, but there are plenty of unique stories with plenty of interesting links to be made. However you’re learning this text, being able to draw conclusions from stories and extrapolate them into your writing is a really important skill.

As you go, ask yourself about the implications: ‘so what?’ and ‘why?’. These sorts of questions will help you get richer insights and write about the anthology in a more interesting way.

We’ve all been doing Text Response essays from as young as Year 7. At this point in VCE, we should be feeling relatively comfortable with tackling themes and characters in our essays. However, the danger with just discussing themes and characters is that we often fall into the trap of simply paraphrasing the novel, or retelling the story. So how do we elevate our essays to become more sophisticated and complex analyses that offer insight?

Before reading on, make sure you've read our Ultimate Guide to VCE Text Response .

An important distinction to be aware of is that the expectation of Year 11 English was geared more toward themes and characters. However in Year 12, teachers and examiners expect students to focus on the author’s construction of the text . By keeping in mind that the text is a DELIBERATE CONSTRUCTION, this can help eliminate retelling. A good guideline to follow is to include the author’s name at least once every paragraph.

Some examples are:

- (author) elicits

- (author) endorses or condemns

- (author) conveys

Move beyond talking about character and relationships. How are those characters used to explore ideas? How are they used to show readers what the author values?

To explore the text BEYOND characters, themes and ideas, tackle the following criteria:

Social, cultural and historical values embodied in text

In other words, this means the context in which the text was written. Think about how that influenced the author, and how those views and values are reflected in the text. How does the author create social commentary on humanity?

For a more in-depth look into this issue and how to get it right in your essays, read Context and Authorial Intention in VCE English .

Linguistic structures and features

These involve the author’s use of symbols, metaphors, subtext, or genres. Consider why the author chose those particular words, images or symbols? What effect did it evoke within the reader? What themes or characters are embodied within these literary devices? Metalanguage is essential in VCE essays, so ensure you are confident in this field.

If the text is a film, it’s important to include why the director chose certain cinematography techniques . Comment on the mise-en-scene, camera angles, overview shots, close ups, flashbacks, soundtrack, to name a few. Or if it’s a play, examine the stage directions. These contain great detail of the author’s intentions.

How text is open to different interpretations

“While some may perceive… others may believe…” is a good guideline to follow in order to explore different angles and complexities of the text.

Skilful weaving in of appropriate quotes

This is how to create a well-substantiated essay. To weave in textual evidence, don’t simply ‘plonk’ in sentence long quotes. Instead, use worded quotes within your sentences so the transition is seamless.

Do you know how to embed quotes like a boss? Test yourself with our blog post here .

Strong turn of phrase

Ensure your essay is always linked to the prompt; don’t go off on an unrelated tangent. Linking words such as “conversely” or “furthermore” increase coherence within your essay. Begin each paragraph with a strong topic sentence, and finish each paragraph with a broader perception that links back to the topic and the next paragraph. To see what this looks like in practice, check out What Does Improving Your English Really Look Like? for multiple sample paragraphs.

This is also where having a wide range of vocabulary is crucial to presenting your ideas in a sophisticated manner. Create a word bank from assessor’s reports, sample essays, or teacher’s notes, and by the end of the year you’ll have an extensive list to choose from. Also, referring to literary devices contributes to a great vocabulary, exhibiting a strong turn of phrase!

Consider the topic

What does it imply? Find the underlying message and the implications behind the prompt. There is always tension within the topic that needs to be resolved by the conclusion of your essay. A must-know technique to ensure you actually answer the prompt is by knowing the 5 types of different essay topics, and how your essay structure changes as a result. The How To Write A Killer Text Response ebook is a great way to learn how to identify the type of essay topic you have in front of you immediately, and start writing an A+ essay.

Finally, simply enjoy writing about your text! It will help you write with a sense of personal voice and a personal engagement with the text, which the teachers and assessors will always enjoy.

Get exclusive weekly advice from Lisa, only available via email.

Power-up your learning with free essay topics, downloadable word banks, and updates on the latest VCE strategies.

latest articles

Check out our latest thought leadership on enterprise innovation., vce creative writing: how to structure your story.

VCE English Unit 3, Area of Study 2: Creating Texts - What Is It?

Breaking Down Themes & Key Quotes in The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie

Keep in touch

Have questions? Get in touch with us here - we usually reply in 24 business hours.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to answer any emails here requesting personal help with your study or homework here!

Copyright © Lisa's Study Guides. All Rights Reserved. The VCAA does not endorse and is not affiliated with Lisa's Study Guides or vcestudyguides.com. The VCAA provides the only official, up to date versions of VCAA publications and information about courses including the VCE. VCE® is a registered trademark of the VCAA.

03 9028 5603 Call us: Monday to Friday between 3pm - 6pm or leave us a message and we'll call you back! Address: Level 2 Little Collins St Melbourne 3000 VIC

• Mar 28, 2020

Comparing Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Rosalie Ham’s The Dressmaker

Updated: Jul 10, 2022

This post is a great read for anybody, but it will be especially intriguing for:

Teachers of Unit Four VCE English, Area of Study One

Students studying these texts as a part of VCE Reading and Comparing Texts

Those who enjoy either of the texts and would like to read something new.

What happens when our behaviour is tied more to the group we are a part of and less about our own desires?

How is human behaviour changed when people are aware that every action will be judged by those around them?

What is it within a society that can lead people to resort to absurd or abhorrent behaviour?

Contextually separated by centuries and continents, The Dressmaker and The Crucible find common ground in their exploration of the most awful side of human behaviour and the pressure felt by individuals within a society that sets a strict moral and social code. Students will find similarities in the isolation of Dungatar and Salem, as well as the herd mentality of their citizens. What may prove more challenging however, will be teasing out the differences between these texts and their comments on how individuals can be led to panic, fear, jealousy and denial.

The people of Dungatar are introduced in a manner which some students may find disorienting and difficult to grasp. However, as the novel continues, the interactions between the townspeople and their connections to each other are made more clear. Gradually, we begin to see them as a collective through the social events and the eisteddfod, as well as through the rejection of Tilly. By outlining each character’s personal experiences before bringing them together, Ham is able to convey the lack of privacy and the unspoken open secrets known by the people. Farrat refers to them as his “flock”, however other terms such as ‘mob’ and ‘herd’ may be more applicable in certain sections.

Tilly’s reemergence exposes the swift and lasting justice of the rural community as the townspeople won’t forget the past and continue to ostracise Tilly. Ham’s description of “The Hill” and the tip enhance this rejection as it is made clear that the people of Dungatar find comfort and solidarity within their tight knit community. The rejection and hatred opens an avenue for the venting of frustrations and the people are able to use Tilly and Molly as a scapegoat for all of the pressures they experience at the hands of their fellow townspeople and those within their own families. The unspoken acceptance of violence, control and abuse is tempered by their lashing out at the ones they reject - promiscuity becoming a sin that they can all stand in judgement of in order to help them cope with their own failings.

Further huddling for comfort can be seen as Tilly begins dressing them in beautiful gowns. Ham amplifies the group setting by commenting that the women of Dungatar had been “renovated” and the reader now sees them as a collective. The period of excitement for the town is temporary, as the social gatherings and delight in wearing such beautiful gowns culminate in a disastrous rendition of Macbeth. By the novel’s end, most characters have succumbed to the pressures of their personal lives or the expectations of those around them. The “costumes” and the gowns designed to work with their flaws are not enough for them to project who they wish to be in the eyes of others and both the social fabric, as well as the physical buildings of the town are destroyed.

Miller’s play also examines the tendency for individuals to seek confidence within the strength of a group. Similarly to the people of Dungatar, the families of Salem experience a period of immense pressure which heightens existing feuds and creates division amongst a terrified populace. In a scramble to find meaning for the hardships they’ve experienced, or to bolster their own sense of righteousness, the people of Salem turn on eachother and seek a scapegoat as a release for all of their frustrations.

It is worth examining the codes followed by both groups and the social structures that keep these in place. The theocracy that dominates the town of Salem is strong and can be felt by all of those within the township as they conform to the word of the church and collectively fear all that exists outside of Salem in the “virgin forest...the devil’s last preserve”. This strict moral code is much more prevalent in the daily lives of the people of Salem, yet it holds similar bonds to the code adhered to by the people of Dungatar. In the absence of a single religion or ideal to all fall behind, the characters from The Dressmaker still rigidly conform to the conservative values of 1950s Australia. The sins of the people are covered over, hidden from view or subtly ignored. As Molly points out to her daughter, “Everybody knows everything about everyone but no one ever tittle-tattles because then some else’ll tell of them. But you don’t matter – it’s open slather on outcasts.”

As readers, we can analyse the manner in which both Miller and Ham allow us to be removed from the people of their texts as we are disgusted, amused or distrubed by the goings on in Salem and Dungatar. Miller points out that “one can only pity them all” and when we view his characters in this manner, the play becomes a prism in which we can sympathise with the fear and hysteria and see how such strict expectations of behaviour and conscience can lead to such awful outcomes. In a similar manner, by the time the bus drives back to a scorched Dungatar, the reader views the residents as a collective of hypocritical, absurd individuals who have buckled under the pressure of social expectation and the struggle to conform to a society so full of expectation and judgement.

Where we can find differences in these texts is in the source of the pressure that leads to their downfall, as well as their ability or inability to heed the words of those who hold authority. The people of Dungatar are torn apart by their own actions and the pressures they place upon those close to them and others within the town. Through revenge, aspiration to prove one’s self and jealousy, the people of the town are led down a path of destruction. This pressure not only exists in the projection of an image towards the rest of the society, but also by the expectations (some absurd, some abhorrently evil) placed upon people by those in their own homes. The desire to be something more and to outdo rivals leads to an eruption of emotion amongst the people as the novel concludes. Amongst the destruction, Farrat stands hopeless as he is unable to save the town or it’s population from themselves and what they have created.

Whilst there is most definitely pressure within Salem and its households, the arrival of Hale, Danforth and the other judges introduces a dynamic of authority which aims to cleanse the town of evil. Under such a microscope, its people panic and hysteria ensues. The people find comfort in each other, however they succumb to a mob mentality that sees this validation come from the accusations of others and the blaming of all evil and wrongdoing upon those who are outside of their mob. The people’s trust in authority and fear of Danforth’s judgement leads them to become such a pakicked mob. Their adherence to the authority and fear of others can be seen differently to the people of Dungatar who have a leader in Sergeant Farrat who espouses messages of tolerance and love. Tragically, the people of the country town are completely deaf to his message and opt to continue in a cycle of hatred and jealousy. As Farrat aims to protect his “flock”, the people can not, or will not hear his sermon and their behaviour proves to be their own undoing.

Taking a step back and viewing Salem and Dungatar as stages with tragic characters playing out their lives can open us up to a critical understanding of the dangers of a herd mentality and why people seek comfort in the company of some and the exclusion of others. To see the fractured societies and the tangible and intangible destruction of the town and village allows students to analyse what led to such destruction. Whilst there are many similarities within these texts, the richest analysis and comparison will come from unpacking the differences in what leads people to act in such hysterical or plainly evil ways.

Ben Taylor - The English Lab

We’ve got lots more to say about this pair!

Our Reading and Creating workshops have finished for this term, but are still available as webinar replays. Two hours of great PD in your own time, at your own pace for $120!

Head to the resources section to purchase the booklet and receive the link for the webinar recording.

Here’s what some of our attendees of the live webinars had to say:

"A really practical-based session, provision of effective strategies and teacher support on how to implement these to get the best out of every student. This has to be the best Comparative PD yet! Highly recommend it!"

- Caitlin, Elisabeth Murdoch College

"These resources feel immediately useful, and collated in a meaningful sequence...I feel as thought I could confidently give the the workbook to use as the 'unit plan'. It's a huge weight off my shoulders and a wonderful way to begin a unit."

"Being in a regional area meant being able to access this online was actually a real bonus. I also really appreciate the fact that I can go back over the presentation again as I need to."

- Kath, King's College

In this presentation, teachers will be provided with a booklet of resources which push students to think about the texts in a conceptual manner. You'll be introduced to new ideas and points of comparison, before being taken through worked examples which utilise lessons about writing succinct, insightful and comparative pieces.

Recent Posts

Understanding An Open Letter to Doubting Thomas - Writing About Play

Understanding All That We Know of Dreaming - Writing About Play

Understanding Harrison Bergeron - Writing About Protest

Comentarios

• Essay Prompts

The Crucible and The Dressmaker

Fear/mass hysteria.

Hysteria is often devalued as a temper-tantrum but the medical term refers to a serious functional disturbance of the entire nervous system, often activated by severe stress or conflicting impulses. Mary Warren describes the classic onset of symptoms that mark her first hysterical episode in court: ‘a misty coldness’ (Act 2), crawling flesh, a choking sensation, dissociation, ‘a screaming voice’ (Act 2) and then the realisation that the voice was her own. Unlike Mary, who can’t even pretend to faint on order, Abigail calculates the most effective moment to stage her hysterical visions of persecution. She manages to hold power over the community and as Elizabeth observes ‘where she [Abigail] walks the crowd will part for her like the sea for Israel’ (Act 2) – the sudden power that the girls have gained from their antics are surely motivation enough for them to continue the ordeal for as long as the township believe them. Mary Warren confirms the notion that the girls are enjoying their newfound power when she speaks of the ‘weighty work’ (Act 2) that the girls do in court as they claim to be hunting the ‘Devil [that is] loose in Salem’ (Act 2). Her impression that ‘four judges and the King’s deputy sat to dinner with us [the girls] but an hour ago’ (Act 2) instils that she feels she has the right to be spoken to civilly from now on by the Proctors, her employers.

Strategically, Abby and the other girls use this power to their advantage, ‘scream[ing] and fall[ing] to the floor’ (Act 2) when the accused are brought before them. In the same way, Abby and the others point with fear into the rafters of the courthouse during the final court scene, screaming with fright in the belief that Mary Warren has conjured herself as a small yellow bird that Abby wails ‘want[s] to tear my [her] face’ (Act 3). Naturally, the use of spectral evidence within the courtroom (evidence that the accused spirit or spectre appeared to the victim and hurt or threatened them, despite the actual accused person being elsewhere and accounted for) condemns Mary Warren in this instance and others are likewise accused by the same means. It is madness that George Jacobs is condemned for attacking the young Ruth Putnam and Martha Corey is questioned why she ‘hurt these children’ (Act 3) without even being in the same room when the victims were afflicted, and in real life the use of spectral evidence was dismissed when officials cited the ridiculous nature of the Salem trials as evidence of the absurdity.

In the same way, the town of Dungatar become madly enthralled with the dressmaker Tilly after it becomes evident at Gertrude and William’s wedding that she is ‘an absolute wizard with fabric and scissors’ (Part 2) and the right creation for the bride-to-be was magnificent enough to make her feel ‘safe’ (Part 2) and secure that her groom would not stray from her. Tilly’s bespoke creations become much sought after as women begin to see the power that the seductive gowns designed specifically for them are able to do; making them feel confident whilst also bewitching the men. Elsbeth and Gertrude’s appearance wearing ridiculously unsuitable dresses ‘huge and domed in yards and yards of taffeta’ (Part 2) coincides with Gertrude announcing that she be hereon known as Trudy, in a chameleon like shift from the mousy daughter of a store owner to fashion extraordinaire.

The women’s obsession with the ‘exquisite’ (Part 2) new gowns that they believe will ‘set[s] women back ten years’ (Part 2) grows into a mania to acquire the same exact look and in some situations, the same lifestyle as the super models in Tilly’s fashion magazines – she [Nancy] ‘held the January edition of Vogue up in front of her and pointed to a model in an elegant tapered trouser suit in bright swirling colours. “See her? That’s what I want.”‘ In this instance, the impressionable Nancy Pickett, who is in a secret lesbian relationship with Ruth Dimm, associates fashion with her desire for women.

The repercussions of Tilly’s creations filter through and become a mad competition between the women as they exclaim their sole reason for purchasing such extravagant gowns to be that they ‘have to look better than everyone else’ (Part 2) and whilst the Pratts’ haberdashery counter expanded with new materials to cater for a more couture crowd, so did the citizens’ rivalry of one another.

This intense hysteria culminates in the final part of the novel; when tensions reach an all-time high as the performance evening for the Eisteddfod play rapidly approaches. The cast go from ‘progressing slowly’ (Part 4) through the rehearsals to ‘looked[ing] increasingly stressed and tired’ and finding little joy in the practice that has become a laborious task, often causing ‘someone… any other lousy actor here… [to have] a bit of a bawl’ (Part 4) and the fractious crew bicker constantly. The deterioration of Trudy throughout the rehearsals seems fitting but nonetheless is a jarring incident to occur to someone so young and over something as trivial as a county play; but connections can be drawn between the ‘screeching and pounding’ (Part 4) Trudy who claims that the glory is ‘MINE, MINE’ (Part 4) and the heinous Lady Macbeth, the character Trudy was originally intended to portray in the play.

Likewise, the intense hysteria that plagues the people of Salem is given way over reason, and any reliable cross-examination that consistently casts doubt on the accusers is dismissed in favour of rooting out the devil and cleansing the village. The deposition signed by many that the women (Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor) are women of good character is not only unheeded by Danforth but he issues warrants for each of the signatures, dismissing the argument that ‘so many of the women have lived with such upright reputations’ (Act 3) in favour of accumulating more suspects. Likewise, when Proctor casts his good name aside and admits to adultery with Abigail, Elizabeth lies to protect his reputation and instead of seeing the logic in this ‘natural lie’ (Act 3), Danforth becomes swept up in the hysteria and believes Proctor and his wife to be ‘combined with Anti-Christ’ (Act 4).

The village’s prodigious fear of the devil and the ‘black allegiance’ (Act 4) that they so readily believed could overrun them is acute. Although Hale’s visitation to the town eases concerns momentarily as he refers to the Devil being ‘stripped of all his brute disguises’ (Act 1) by his skill set in detecting those afflicted, his sensibility is soon cast aside for the more frenzied ‘thundering wrath’ (Act 2) that Hale warns has been drawn down from heaven on the village; Hale becomes irrelevant and becomes akin to the livestock that wander the roads abandoned, sporting a ‘mad look’ (Act 4), as he makes his way from one accused to the next seeking a confession that will save their lives. The hysteria has gripped the town entirely and Hale notes that there are ‘orphans wandering from house to house, abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs everywhere…’ (Act 4); Salem is in disarray and the last remaining few that possess logic and sense are set to be executed that very morning.

Similarly, Dungatar’s suspicious notions about Tilly’s return to their quaint town are completely unfounded but nevertheless, cause havoc. Their constant gossiping and snide comments ostracize Tilly and by proxy, her mother Molly, as the townspeople venomously believe that ‘she’s [Tilly’s] up to no good that one, worse than her mother’ (Part 2) and that she ‘can never make up for it’ (Part 1) when referring to the accidental death of Stewart Pettyman. The women are in hysterics that the ‘daughter of Mad Molly is back – the murderess!’ (Part 3) and quake at the sight of Tilly when she and her mother venture down to town for supplies – ‘The nerve of that girl… not natural…’ (Part 1). Despite Teddy teasing Tilly that ‘I’m [he’s] the one that should be frightened of you [her]’ (Part 1), Tilly’s notion that bad luck follows her is cemented as the residents of Dungatar begin dying and Tilly fears their wrath more than ever when Teddy passes and irrespective of Farrat’s attempts to re direct the blame, Tilly is in their sights – ‘Tilly feared football defeat would send the people to her, that they would spill wet and dripping from the gateway of the oval to stream up The Hill with clenched fists for revenge blood.’ (Part 4)

Fear and Mass Hysteria Quotes

Edward always remembered the look on Evan’s face at that moment… when he realised fully what it all meant, what it had come to. (Edward McSwiney reflects on when he told the town how Stewart Pettyman had died) Part 3

‘Abby, we’ve got to tell, Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’ and the other things!’ (Mary Warren is frightened about keeping the truth from the courts) Act 1

‘Nonsense! Mister, I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good and numerous others that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They have confessed it!’ ‘And why not, if they must hang for denying it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you ever thought of that?’ (Hale and Proctor arguing about the accused) Act 2

Judgement and Justice

In a small rural town in Outback Australia in the 1950s, residents will do almost anything to protect their reputations. In addition, people’s reputations follow them around for decades and even remain long after those with them have left the town.

Tilly’s reputation as a murderess resonates in the small-minded residents of Dungatar, and even her hiatus to Europe where she trained under the prestigious fashion magnates of Paris was not enough to erase the memory of her association with Stewart Pettyman’s death. The judgement upon Tilly is so acute that William uses it as leverage to marry Gertrude when his mother sees through the young girls ploy to trick him into marriage using sex. Knowing that Gertrude would be his mother’s preference, he threatens Elsbeth that ‘it’s either her [Gertrude] or Tilly Dunnage’ (Part 2) to which she resigns.

This notion doesn’t escape Molly, who reminds her daughter that ‘everybody knows everything about everyone’ (Part 1) but the townsfolk have learnt not to gossip about one another, lest ‘some [one] else’ll tell of them’ (Part 1). This perpetual tit-for-tat speaks of childishness in the dynamic characters of Dungatar who lack the intelligence to understand the social politics of living in a small town. It is not only the outcasts of the town that are victims of the ‘open slather’ (Part 1) but anyone who seems to have stepped out of line. The morning after the dance, the local ladies natter between themselves excitedly with ‘you’ll never guess what she wore… or almost wore’ (Part 2) and don’t hesitate in openly condemning Tilly and assuming ‘she’s up to no good again, that one’ (Part 2) in an effort to keep the hatred and distrust for Tilly alive. It seems that Gertrude’s paranoia about ‘my [her] reputation’ (Part 2) is well founded when they move on from Tilly and begin to attack Trudy – ‘and guess who Gertrude was with, all night’ (Part 2). Ham’s skills in storytelling give us the sense that the vicious rumours are spreading like wildfire through the town when a few pages later Irma and Lois stipulate that although they are ‘not gossipin’ or anythink…’ (Part 2), they retell the story of Tilly’s scandalous frock and Gertrude’s relationship status with extra assumption.

When Gertrude and William finally appear as a couple together, the sniggers of the townspeople who has already been privy to the rumour that a hasty marriage was on horizon after the two lovebirds ‘spent the whole night wif each other…’ (Part 2) is reason enough for them to make remarks to each other on the snide.

In the same way, judging yourself and judging one another is ubiquitous in Miller’s play and the narrative pivots on how one person might judge another. Naturally, in the strict Puritan community, the looming judgment from God sees the citizens of Salem living under constant threat of condemnation. Despite Hale’s keenness to apply theological arguments and collect confessions peaceably, he soon comes to realise that the Salem courtroom is not interested in dispensing justice but instead, prides itself on imposing it. In this society, the Bible is the basis for the law and as Danforth subscribes in his soliloquy to the girls, ‘the law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by Almighty God, forbid the practice of witchcraft, and describe death as the penalty thereof. By likewise, children, the law and the Bible damn all bearers of false witness’ (Act 3). From this, we can see that it is his single motive that he should hunt down all those that are afflicted and not ‘flounder’ (Act 4) in his quest for them. The justice that the supreme government of the province intends for the citizens of Salem is a ‘hot fire [here]…[that] melts down all concealment’ (Act 3) and his solution to the situation in Act 4 is to place pressure on the weakest person and break a confession from them, tells us that he (representative of the judicial system) has lost his way and in an effort to protect himself, will damn the prisoners regardless – ‘which of these in your [Parris] opinion may be brought to God? I will myself strive with them till dawn’ (Act 4).

In Dungatar, Ham reminds us that the citizens value others’ opinions of them in preference to most other things; and their attempts to improve their standing amongst the community is not only reflected on a larger scale by the women who have been ‘renovated’ (Part 2) by Tilly’s creations, but also in the minute changes the citizens conduct in order to elevate themselves to a higher social class. Whilst the ‘couturiered ladies of Dungatar… enter[ed] the halls at three minute intervals, poised, their noses aimed at the lights… slowly down the centre if the hall through the gaping guests from Winyerp’ (Part 2) symbolises the superficiality of their aspirations, the sudden notion to use euphemisms such as the porch, ‘now being called the back patio’ (Part 3), speaks of a deeper need to be seen as something they are not by others around them. But it seems there’s a lesson for those that meddle and judge others – when Beula Harridene sneaks up to The Hill and overhears Tilly and Farrat drunkenly singing about their woes she is hit by a radiogram that Tilly throws out in her stupor and the wound festers in her face, becoming a ‘raw flesh cavity’ (Part 4) that oozes, a fitting symbol indicative of what happens to those that judge others unfairly.

Judging one another, and oneself, is seen as equally as burdensome. Proctor’s aversion to Elizabeth’s suspicion is infuriating and although in his eyes, he has earned such suspicion, he believes he has tolerated it for too long and no exception has been made for his behaviour in the last seven months where he has ‘gone tiptoe in this house… since she [Abby] is gone’ (Act 2). Elizabeth acknowledges the truth that John judges himself in his actions more then any other and this can be seen in the little respect he has for himself. When Francis Nurse refuses to believe John’s confession of having an affair with Abby, Proctor ‘wish[es] you [Francis] had some evil in you [him] that you [he] might know me [him]’ (Act 3) for the man that he truly is and has kept secret for seven months gone. Similarly, in his final act of redemption Proctor himself is stunned by the ability he has to stand strong under scrutiny and mount the scaffold as a truthful man, in possession of his good name – Hale: ‘Man, you will hang! You cannot!’ Proctor: ‘I can. And there’s your first marvel that I can. You have made your magic now; for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs.’ Act 4

Much like Proctor, Tilly’s final appearance is met with admiration as she rises out of the mire of rumour and segregation and seeks revenge in a manner mirroring the early dramatical climax of ‘Deas Ex Machina’; whereas a complicated and seemingly hopeless plot is resolved neatly as the protagonist escapes the scene unscathed. In the case of The Dressmaker, the train that stops briefly at the Dungatar station provides the rapid getaway and Tilly’s future, although uncertain, is victorious over the villains of her hometown.

Judgement and Justice Quotes

William was slumped in a battered deckchair on what was now called ‘the back patio’, formerly the porch. Part 3

‘You can’t keep anything secret here,’ said the old woman [Molly]. ‘Everybody knows everything about everyone but no one ever tittle-tattles because then some else’ll tell of them. But you don’t matter – it’s open slather on outcasts.’ Part 2

‘The others were happy to let you die. I saved you. It’s me they’ll try to kill now.’ (Tilly to Molly) Part 1

‘He spoke of love and hate and the power of both and he reminded them how much they loved Teddy McSwiney. He said that Teddy McSwiney was, by the natural order of the town, an outcast who lived by the tip.’ Part 3

‘They drove up The Hill to throw rocks onto the cottage roof in the middle of the night, driving around and around, revving, calling ‘Murderers! Witches!’ Part 3

‘My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!’ (Abby defending herself to Parris) Act 1

‘Spare me! You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she is gone. I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into court when I come into this house!’ (Proctor to Elizabeth) Act 2

‘I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!’ (Proctor to Elizabeth) Act 2

‘Now believe me, Proctor, how heavy be the law, all its tonnage I do carry on my back tonight.’ (Cheever is made to arrest many people for questioning, including Elizabeth) Act 2

‘I have confessed myself! Is there not good penitence but it be made public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are!’ (Proctor when the court decided his false confession should be hung publicly) Act 4

Belonging and Diversity

It is a natural human instinct shared by many other living creatures, to belong to a group, herd or tribe of some kind. There is safety in numbers; but belonging to a group has its obligations as well as benefits and depending on the group dynamics, sometimes the drawbacks of belonging to a group outweigh the advantages. The play is set in the tight Christian community network bound by strict moral, legal and religious beliefs and practices in a recently established pioneer settlement. People conform more or less to the agreed rules – they want to feel the security of belonging and they also fear the repercussions of straying from the Puritan way of life. There are however, all kinds of personal conflicts between individuals and families simmering beneath the surface that are easily stirred up when a threat to the community is perceived.

Miller himself noted that by virtue of being Puritan, a religion based on maintaining Christian goodness and unity of purpose, it is inevitable that the society must exclude and prohibit anything that appeared to undermine that cohesion. An example of this within the text is that of Sarah Osburn, the ‘drunk and half-witted’ (Act 2) citizen that is accused simply because she is different; likewise Sarah Good, an old beggar woman who was called into the court for questioning when Mary Warren believed that she had rendered her unwell when she had come begging at the door of the Proctors and she refused her charity. Notably, Mary made mention that she ‘say [said] to myself [herself], I [she] must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor’ (Act 2), an admittance by proxy that Sarah Good was excluded in the community and therefore a convenient target. That she and Osburn were named by Tituba, signified that according to the hierarchy of Salem’s peer groups, these three (Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn) are at the bottom. Tituba is the minority in Salem. Miller’s stage notes take heed of the ‘colour of her skin and consequent low standing’ (stage notes) which inevitably lower her in society’s eyes and when she is placed under scrutiny in the bedroom of the afflicted Betty, notably not in a courthouse where all other accusers are given their trial, she is threatened to be ‘whip[ped] to [your] death’ (Act 1) by the village minister Parris. By openly acknowledging the race distinction when she cries out that the devil boasted ‘I [he] have white people belong to me [him]’ (Act 1), she contributes to the larger debate within the Salem township – one must either belong to the rest of the community or be on the outer and therefore, in peril.

Proctor reticence to attend Church, although a bone of contention for Hale as he visits the accused to ascertain the ‘Christian character of this [the Proctors’] house’ (Act 2), sets him up as an outsider. His reluctance to attend court is remarked upon by Hale, as though his aversion speaks of a more sinister issue – Proctor: ‘I had not reckoned with goin’ into court. But if I must, I will.’ Hale: ‘Do you falter here?’ Proctor: ‘I falter nothing…’ Act 2

The decade of the 1950s is often looked back on as the halcyon days of morality and the nuclear family, but Ham’s novel reveals what remains when the veneer is striped back and we see ordinary citizens for what they are. Although Ham avoids the subjects such as race, there is segregation from the community nonetheless. The McSwiney family were ‘by natural order of the town’ (Part 3) outcasts and despite the fact that Mae McSwiney ‘did what was expected of her from the people of Dungatar’ (Part 3) and her husband Edward ‘worked hard…fixed people’s pipes… trimmed their tree and delivered their waste to the tip’ (Part 3) they were and would always remain on the outer circle of society. It is assumed that their proximity to the tip, the presence of slow-witted Barney and their affiliation with the Dunnage women were the reasons for this but as is so often in small rural towns, sometimes there is no concrete reason and it is more a matter of demoting one group so as to elevate another. Despite this example it seems that diversity in Dungatar is hardly a reason to be considered an outsider; Nancy and Ruth’s taboo relationship doesn’t exclude them from society, and in the same way, Mr Almanac’s crippled body and pious manner does not secure him a position on the outer circle of society. It seems people of necessity, such as Ruth who runs the town post and telegraph office and Almanac who concocts remedies for those that fall ill, are kept on the periphery of the inner circle for convenience. In contrast to Tituba, from Miller’s play, those that are allowed to belong to the society serve some purpose and are therefore, tolerated. However, it is those who are considerably less deserving that incur the scathing judgement of the town – such as Molly who ‘wished for herself’ (Part 4) a ‘life of love and acceptance’ (Part 4) and failed to find that sense of belonging she so longed for.

The McSwiney family help bridge the gap between the lower and middle classes; Teddy is known for his congeniality to the broader townsfolk and is similarly kind and charismatic with Tilly and her mother. Despite Sergeant Farrat reminding the citizens at the funeral of Teddy that ‘if you [they] had included her [Tilly], Teddy would have always been with us [them]’ (Part 3), the message falls on deaf ears and the Dungatar residents failed to see what their prejudice and bigotry had done to the town’s ‘cheeky boy’ (Part 3). In the end, the McSwineys leave Dungatar in a line of ‘sad, rag dolls’ (Part 3), resigned that they will never belong. Ham works to highlight this separation with the formation of the ‘Progressive Minded Ladies of Dungatah’ (Part 2) by Elsbeth and Trudy, who begin organising a variety of town events including ‘functions… fund raisers, tea parties, croquet games, dances…’ (Part 2) and who later induct Ruth and Pru Dimm, Nancy and Lois Pickett, Beula Harridene, Irma Almanac and Marigold Pettyman. But instead of visiting The Hill to invite Molly and Tilly, the newly formed Dungatar Social Club, who had coincidentally ‘acquired an accent overnight – an enunciated Dungatar interpretation of queenly English’ (Part 3) insist she make them dresses to rival the others in their group. When this same social group plans to hold a play, being directly involved in the proceedings becomes essential to each of the residents and as they ‘queued on the tiny stage like extras from a Hollywood film’ (Part 4), the resident’s personalities meld together and readers begin to observe them as a collective enemy, neither one more forgivable than the other.

The fitting punishment for a the group who ostracized those around them was to suffer their fate together, and as they ‘walked in a pack’ (Part 4) back to their town and the fire had claimed everything, once more Ham writes about them in the collective as they ‘all started to cry… they groaned and rocked, bawled and howled… they were homeless and heartbroken… a motley bunch…’ (Part 4).

Despite the numerous couples and romantic dalliances in The Dressmaker , Ham promotes the idea of pure, true love with the classic couple, Tilly and Teddy. In juxtaposition to Lesley and Mona, and William and Gertrude, whose partnerships were a result of succumbing to the pressures of society, Tilly and Teddy share a deep and real love. As the novel sees William and Gertrude marry and merely exist in a loveless marriage with one another, Tilly and Teddy ‘made love over and over again and were made one person in their intentions’ (Part 3). The resignation that is shared by Lesley and Mona after the marry that they’ll ‘do the best we [they] can together’ (Part 3) is a suffocating prospect when we consider the endless possibilities of real love as Teddy and Tilly begin to plan a full life together.

Moreover, as much as Tilly tries to fool herself that she is not bothered by what others think of her, she is acutely concerned that ‘they’ll [the townsfolk] hate me [her] even more’ (Part 2) and is hounded by their hate of her, dreaming that the men of the town ‘stood shaking their fingers at her’ (Part 4) and that the residents will crawl up The Hill, armed with ‘firewood and flames, stakes and chains’ (Part 4) in a twisted amalgamation of a witch-hunt. Her fears bloom just as Teddy is buried and she fears the ‘football defeat’ (Part 3) will bring people to the house baying for her blood because she’d killed their star full forward.

After the loss of her mother, Tilly is no longer comforted by the promise Molly made to her that ‘it’s me and you; there is only you and you have only me’ (Part 3) – her isolation is confirmed when very few people attend Molly’s funeral and Tilly’s blames the rain.

Belonging and Diversity Quotes

Tilly stood alone in her brilliant magenta Lys Noir gown, then wrapped her shawl tight about her and reached for the handle. (after being spat at by Evan and called names by Beula at the social gathering) Part 2

T. Dunnage was printed lightly beneath T. McSwiney but it had been scribbled out.’ Part 2

… tragedy includes everyone… wasn’t everyone else in the town different, yet included? (at Teddy’s funeral) Part 3

‘Now, look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all.’ (Abby threatening the girls) Act 1

‘I think you best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguin’ again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year.’ (Rebecca Nurse is concerned that Hale’s appearance in the town will cause mischief) Act 1

‘Your soul alone is the issue here, Mister, and you will prove its whiteness or you cannot live in a Christian country.’ (Danforth to Proctor) Act 4

Truth and Lies

In Ham’s The Dressmaker , the truth has little value; instead the citizens are embroiled in malicious gossip and snide falsifications that serve only to elevate their selfish needs. By the time Tilly returns to her hometown, the manner in which young Stewart Pettyman died had far become the thing of legend. The fact that small Tilly was ‘cornered beside the library… just trying to save herself’ (Part 3) became irrelevant and all that was remembered was the grotesque image of the ‘boy… with his neck broken and his round podgy body at right angles to his head’ (Part 3) and as such, Tilly had been sent away from the town. Such is the insidious nature of the lies told, the fateful incident caused by a barbaric child attacking another became a by-product of Tilly’s curse. Similarly, Ham’s writing in the latter half of the novel strips back the façade and the once ‘couturiered ladies of Dungatar’ (Part 2) become ‘snobby old Elsbeth… puny Mona… putrid gossiping Lois, leathery old sticky-beak Ruth, venomous Beula’ (Part 3) as Tilly (and inadvertently, the reader) become aware of the true nature of these women. After their behaviour has been disclosed, Ham begins to morph the descriptions of these dynamic characters in an animalistic manner, likening them to lumbering livestock that mindlessly ‘traipse[ing]’ and ‘amble[d]’ (Part 4) wherever the crowd is going; failing to think for themselves until their behaviours and words are indistinguishable from the rest of the flock.

The animalistic association is also included as Ham courageously addresses the theme of sex within the novel. The characters of Dungatar are besotted with their carnal instincts – Mona’s ‘quiet, evening orgasm’ (Part 1), Trudy and William’s inability to remain chaste until a proper marriage is conducted and Evan Pettyman’s libidinous inclinations both toward his wife, whom he frequently drugs and rapes, or the countless women he either has affairs with or harasses, the citizens of Dungatar are presented as beasts unable to rise above their most base bodily needs. The revealing nature of Dungatar’s auspicious Councillor Pettyman whose inability to get an arousal suspiciously coincides with Tilly’s vengeful concoction foreshadows his demasculinasation both literally and figuratively as his wife later learns of his affair and not only exposes his filthy collection of pornography but also slices his ankle tendon which hobbles him like ‘tortured elephant’ (Part 4), like the beast he is.

Although the truth behind the heinous Evan Pettyman is exposed, it does little to assuage the hatred the citizens feel toward the Dunnage family and Sergeant Farrat’s honest eulogy at Molly’s funeral captures the desperate attempts she had gone to in order to avoid the ‘full glare of scrutiny and torment’ (Part 4). The ‘grey, crying sky’ (Part 4) during Molly’s burial cements to Tilly that she is alone; the end of her family line. In the end, Farrat is her last remaining friend and suggests that they ‘drink laced tea until we [they] feel some understanding’ (Part 4) in an effort to disguise their grief and avoid facing the truth.

In contrast, the truth can prove to a liberation to some; the moral idyll of the 50s era proved overwhelmingly stifling for some characters and hence, breaking away from societal expectations proved cathartic. Sergeant Farrat’s penchant for women’s clothing works in direct contrast to the reliable law enforcement model typical in small rural towns scattered across the Australian outback. Not only does he harbour the secret passion for haberdashery and artistic flair, his insight when it comes to those around him is flooring. Delivering the eulogy at both Teddy and Molly’s funerals, he berates the citizens for their piety and espouses forgiveness and an understanding that Tilly was not to blame for the death of Teddy, even if it means bending the truth when he assures them that he ‘instead [he] wrote the Teddy McSwiney had slipped and that it was his own terrible mistake’ (Part 3). In addition, his suspicions about the ‘new seamstress in town’ (Part 3) not being well travelled and not having ‘received any sophisticated training’ (Part 3) suggests that he is perhaps still tainted by the same judgemental affliction that the other residents have. However, Farrat’s sensitivity to the affects of his actions, such as when Tilly was sent away after the death of Stewart, awards him an element of retrospection that is acutely lacking in so many of the other characters. His duality within the novel is complete when he attends Molly’s funeral dressed in a ‘black knee-length wool-crepe frock with a draped neck… black stockings and sensible black pumps’ (Part 3) in an effort to both aggravate the deceased Molly whilst also paying homage to her unconventionality.

The seventeenth-century Puritan worldview saw the battle between God and the Devil for Christian souls as a titanic reality, made apparent as an ever-present spiritual conflict between good and evil. Danforth is a constant reminder throughout the text of the vast quest Puritans undertook in order to expose the lies within their community when he observes the witch-trials have unearthed a ‘precise time’ (Act 3) where the townsfolk are no longer ‘in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world’ (Act 3); Salem has moved under the eye of the Puritan men that would see it cleansed.

In an effort to assuage humanity, Miller condones some of the lies told within the play, if they are for the betterment of others. This notion connects well with the historical context of when Miller wrote the play, when much like Salem, accusers were pressed to name others and the temptation to alleviate some of the focus by mentioning another name was great. Like the HUAC trials, citizens were placed in situations where lies were the only viable option and as Proctor notes, the truth is not as appealing when it is only a lie that will save someone from the rope. Ironically, the only lie Elizabeth has ever told condemned the man she was trying to protect. Her reputation as a woman that ‘cannot lie’ (Act 3) sees her and her husband arrested and Abby set free, in a monstrous display of the inefficacy of the justice system. Likewise, Proctor’s inclination to ‘sign myself [himself] to lies’ (Act 4) and sign his name to a document stating that he trafficked with the devil is done in an effort to save his neck. He, like Mary Warren in the earlier court scene, wrestles with inner conflict – a moral conundrum that sees their truths condemning them to hang but their lies saving them.

In contrast to this, holding onto the truth is seen through the character of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death in an effort to force him to name an informant. The ‘great stones’ (Act 4) that were placed upon his chest are metaphoric of the weight of ‘stand[ing] mute’ (Act 4) and lying in order to save others. In this way, Miller not only excuses lies but often celebrates them as a noble way to conduct oneself if the truth will be prove to be more damaging.

Furthermore, ‘pleading the belly’ is a term used to describe the practice of women, who were condemned to be executed, and informed their captors that they were pregnant in an attempt to stall the sentence. The claim that Goody Good requested a delay on her execution because she was pregnant foreshadows Elizabeth’s later claim that she is with child as well, and despite being examined and there being ‘no sign of it’ (Act 3), Danforth observes that it ‘too convenient to be credited’ (Act 3). Without solid proof, he informs Proctor that Elizabeth will be spared another year until she is delivered and audiences are left guessing whether this is a lie Elizabeth has devised to stall or if Proctor’s summation of her being unable to lie is correct and she is with child.

Truth and Lies Quotes

Ruth stood by her electric kettle steaming open a fat letter addressed to Tilly Dunnage. Part 1

Sergeant Farrat’s secret wardrobe hung in a locked cupboard next to the front door. Part 4

‘It’s all very hazy now, but you left I seem to remember, because your mother became unwell?’ (Marigold discusses her confusion with Tilly) Part 4

‘Some people don’t think they have to honour their marriage vows either,’ said Nancy. ‘At least I have a preference for men, some sick people in this town…’ (Lois and Nancy are arguing during rehearsals) Part 4

‘You are not wintry man. I know you, John… I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes?’ (Abby pleads with Proctor) Act 1

‘Aye, sir. She [Mary Warren] swears now that she never saw Satan; nor any spirit, vague or clear, that Satan may have sent to hurt her. And she declares her friends are lying now.’ (Proctor to Danforth) Act 3

‘It does not escape me that this deposition may be devised to blind us… but if she speaks true, I bid you now drop your guile and confess your pretense, for a quick confession will go easier with you. Abigail Williams… is there any truth in this?’ (Danforth questions Abby one final time) Act 3

‘Let him [Proctor] give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgement in this, for it may well be that God damns a liar less that he that throws his life away for pride.’ (Hale to Elizabeth) Act 4

‘Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang!’ (Proctor as he is signing his false confession) Act 4

• Terms and Conditions
• Privacy Policy

©2024 Green Bee Study Guides

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details.

Join Now to View Premium Content

GradeSaver provides access to 2360 study guide PDFs and quizzes, 11007 literature essays, 2767 sample college application essays, 926 lesson plans, and ad-free surfing in this premium content, “Members Only” section of the site! Membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders.

The Crucible

How envy drives unfair judgment: comparing the crucible (drama) and the dressmaker (novel) forest lin 12th grade.

In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" and Rosalie Ham's "The Dressmaker", an unbalanced power distribution stemming from an unjust social hierarchy causes much jealousy displayed amongst the citizens of Salem and Dungatar, influencing their judgements on other individuals. The 17th century Puritan collective of Salem, fraught with economic disparity, are blinded by a desire for money and the power that it brings in their flawed hierarchy, unfairly judging and accusing individuals in order to achieve monetary gain. The rural Australian town of Dungatar, despite being set 300 years later, have the same socioeconomic inequities in their society, with the richer and more influential population still envious over the poorer collective, oppressing them to satisfy the greed for wealth. Both Miller and Ham similarly explore the dangers of an unfair patriarchal system in communities as well, exposing the capacity for this oppression to cause women to be envious of one another, influencing their judgements and ideas as a whole. Miller and Ham analogously highlight the capacity for an individual with a lower social status to eventually despise their lack of influence enough to seek revenge on the collective which mistreated them, which can be...

GradeSaver provides access to 2313 study guide PDFs and quizzes, 10989 literature essays, 2751 sample college application essays, 911 lesson plans, and ad-free surfing in this premium content, “Members Only” section of the site! Membership includes a 10% discount on all editing orders.

Already a member? Log in

No products in the cart.

The Crucible / The Dressmaker – Comparative Sample Essay

Insight Sample Essays are high-level sample essays written by experienced teachers, assessors and experts in the analysis of literature, poetry, film and dramatic texts. Each sample essay shows students how to identify and analyse the explicit and implied ideas, values and themes in each text, and the ways in which textual features create meaning.

EACH SAMPLE ESSAY FEATURES

• Essay topics designed to conform in style and focus to the 2017-2021 Study Design for VCE English/EAL
• Annotations, with assessor comments identifying the elements of the essay that work well, as well as identifying areas for improvement
• Tips on how to approach the essay topic, with appropriate strategies for analysis and selection of relevant textual material

Related products

Like a house on fire – insight sample essay 1, extinction – insight sample essay 2, burial rites – insight sample essay 1, behind the beautiful forevers – insight sample essay 2.

• 3/350 Charman Road Cheltenham, Victoria 3192
• [email protected]

Insight Publications is an independent Australian-owned company with over 50 years of experience publishing English resources for secondary teachers and students. We develop innovative, engaging and evolving English resources to challenge, to inspire and to enrich learning.

Information

• Credit Reporting Policy
• Insight Catalogue
• Privacy Policy
• Returns Policy
• Shipping Information
• Terms & Conditions

• +61 3 8571 4950

In the spirit of reconciliation, Insight Publications acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Free Resources

Free text guides, popular text guides.

An Ultimate Guide to Wordsworth’s Poetry

Romantic works are often centred around the life experience of individuals within both the spiritual and physical realms; they attempt to capture individual variations in perception, multiplying and co-existing truths, and the capacity the receptive consciousness has to filter and re-create reality.

An Ultimate Guide to Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder

Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film noir written and directed by Billy Wilder. It follows Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, as he stumbles upon former movie star Norma Desmond.

An Ultimate Guide to Rainbow's End by Jane Harrison

Jane Harrison’s 2007 play ‘Rainbow’s End’ invites its audience into the household of three Indigenous women as they struggle to realise their dreams in an era of racial segregation and dispossession. 

Latest Blog Articles

An Ultimate Guide to Analysing Plays

Annotating a Full-mark Sunset Boulevard Essay with a 50 Study Scorer

VCE Literature 2024: Developing Interpretations on Bram Stoker's Dracula & Sample Responses