Plan: MARXISM

'Marxist critics tend to believe that literature is the product of the writers own cultural values and that literary texts are themselves products of a particular ideology.' Using ideas from the critical anthology and Wilfred Owens poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' to what extent do you agree with this view?


Introduction

 

Paragraph 2- first argument: Language, structure and form- Marxist opinion- context


From his experiences in the war he is aware of all the false patriotic ideologies as he has witnessed it first hand, shouting out to the audience and the higher class himself, giving the proletariat a voice for a change.


Statement by Owen: "All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the poet must be truthful."

'My friend, you would not tell with such high zest' 


•Direct address to writer Jessica Pope, who glorifies war when writing.
•'If you were to have seen it yourself you would not describe it as glory'
•He sees war as brutal and wasteful of young lives.
•The Direct Address to another writer will highlight to the reader that even other writers are oblivious to the reality of war and they should listen to someone who spent their days fighting in it.

'The old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' • TRANSLATION: Sweet and honourable to die for ones country.
•Link to the title.
•Making it clear that by seeing the war ground himself the higher class is lying to people of England by saying that going to war is sweet and honourable, however, they should listen to the first hand account, as although he is from a lower class he seen the war first hand and as a result knows the truth.
•Overall message of the poem: what the higher class present about the war is all lies.
•Wilfred Owen overall shows the reader the truth about being a soldier, and if at the time the reader is reading the poem while the war is taking place, the reader may feel unsettled, as Owen describes all what is like to go to war, and society at the time does not recognise the torture and devastation the soldiers have to face.


S.I.W


 'Lad'
'See him going, aye and glad.'


•Colloquial language: voice of the working class.
•Giving working class a voice.





Paragraph 3-  Second argument: Language, structure and form-Marxist opinion- context




Patriotic ideology false: effect it has on soldiers:


'Old beggars'
'Coughing like hags'
•Reduced further into the bottom of the social hierarchy accepting their plight and following the orders of their higher class superiors.
•Powerless.
•Considering Owen describes the soldiers as old and weakened, the reader will maybe begin to understand the horrific circumstances the soldiers had to face as it shows that war has broken the soldiers. 



'All went lame; all went blind'
•War affects all men.
•No escape from the horrendous circumstances they find themselves in.
•Complete opposite to 'sweet and honourable.'
•Denying the trauma they have witnessed.
•Slowly loosing their will knowing they have to keep going, and if they stop they will no longer have the energy to carry on through the turmoil.
•The reader will see that no matter who the soldier is, they will not come out the war healthy, as war affects all men, due to its brutality.


'Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues'
•The higher class don't understand the effect that the war will have on the soldiers, the soldiers will always have the memories and stories to tell that will never be forgotten.
•The higher class aren't innocent, its the men that they are sacrificing in the name of the war that are suffering.
•Wilfred Owen emphasises the effects the war will have on each soldier by saying every sore is incurable and that every soldier is innocent, because of this the reader will feel sympathy towards the soldiers, as all the lies to the superior class has broadcasted to the public did not prepare the soldiers for the trauma they had to face.


S.I.W


'Untrapped the wretch'
•' It is this feeling of never being able to escape which drives the boy soldier to take events into his own hands and to escape the horrors of war by killing himself.' QUOTE FROM: http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2630


'And truthfully wrote to his mother, 'Tim died smiling'.'
 
•Killed himself to escaped the horrors of the war.
•He was truthfully happy due to him escaping the war scenes.





Paragraph 4- Third argument:  Language, structure and form-Marxist opinion- context


Patriotic ideology false: Ruling elite actions are wrong for sending the innocent to their deaths due to their conflict with other higher class members:


'Like a devils sick sin'

•Negative
•Very religious during the time of the war.
•Direct address to the higher class; comparing them to the devil.
•War is the devils work.
•Having to deal with the hand they have dealt, with no choice.
•Due to the England's in the 1900's being extremely religious, the reader will see the direct address to the higher class superior being described as the devil, automatically this creates a negative imagery towards the bourgeoisie, due to the impressions created by Wilfred Owen.

'Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues'

•The higher class don't understand the effect that the war will have on the soldiers, the soldiers will always have the memories and stories to tell that will never be forgotten.
•The higher class aren't innocent, its the men that they are sacrificing in the name of the war that are suffering.
•Wilfred Owen emphasises the effects the war will have on each soldier by saying every sore is incurable and that every soldier is innocent, because of this the reader will feel sympathy towards the soldiers, as all the lies to the superior class has broadcasted to the public did not prepare the soldiers for the trauma they had to face.

'Obscene as cancer; bitter as cud'

•The word cancer at the time of the war was taboo, because of the destruction it comes with, and the fact that Owen uses the word in one of his poems shows the reader the catastrophic circumstances war can bring, in contrast to the higher classes views of war being 'sweet and honourable.'
•The word almost fails the reality of war.
•The word cancer emphasises to the reader the disastrous circumstances of the war, and the everlasting disease it will have in the soldiers mind.


'The old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' • TRANSLATION: Sweet and honourable to die for ones country.
•Link to the title.
•Making it clear that by seeing the war ground himself the higher class is lying to people of England by saying that going to war is sweet and honourable, however, they should listen to the first hand account, as although he is from a lower class he seen the war first hand and as a result knows the truth.
•Overall message of the poem: what the higher class present about the war is all lies.
•Wilfred Owen overall shows the reader the truth about being a soldier, and if at the time the reader is reading the poem while the war is taking place, the reader may feel unsettled, as Owen describes all what is like to go to war, and society at the time does not recognise the torture and devastation the soldiers have to face.


S.I.W


'At the pleasure of this world's Powers who'd run amok.'•Ruling elite causes suffering to the lower class within the hierarchy.
•Lower class are alienated by being forced into the horrors of war.

'And truthfully wrote to his mother, 'Tim died smiling'.'
 
•Killed himself to escaped the horrors of the war.
•He was truthfully happy due to him escaping the war scenes.

Statement by Owen: "I am more and more a Christian... Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Being bullied, be outraged, be killed: but do not kill." Letter to his mother, May 1917. 
Paragraph 5- Fourth argument: Language, structure and form-Marxist- context


Patriotic ideology false: Direct address to audience to unravel the truth:


'My friend, you would not tell with such high zest' 


•Direct address to writer Jessica Pope, who glorifies war when writing.
•'If you were to have seen it yourself you would not describe it as glory'
•He sees war as brutal and wasteful of young lives.
•The Direct Address to another writer will highlight to the reader that even other writers are oblivious to the reality of war and they should listen to someone who spent their days fighting in it.


S.I.W


'Father would sooner him dead than in disgrace'
'Death sooner than dishonour that's the style!'•Don't want his son to be seen as coward.
•War is more important than a family members life.
•'Owen emphasises the power of the father’s voice by telling us twice of his views on war and fighting' QUOTE FROM: http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2630


"Perhaps his mother whimpered oh how shed fret until he got a nice safe wound to nurse."

•Pressurising him to come home safely, with only 'safe wounds.'

 'Girls to could shoot, charge, curse...'

•Feminist viewpoint: girls not being able to face wars.
•War written to the public as a honourable event.
•Pressurises brother to live up to expectations. 


Statement by Owen: "The people of England needn't hope. They must agitate." Letter 19 January,1917, shortly after arriving at the front line in France.


Paragraph 6- Counter argument: Marxist opinion- context


Owen although is clearly against the patriotic ideology, he was a Officer so was caught up in the war machinery and is to a certain extent part of the dominant ideology. QUOTE FROM: Anthology of suggested poems for the NEA.
Due to being an officer he is one of the victims who is witnessing the deaths of all the soldiers that take his orders, yet because he has seen the horrors of war he is reaching out to the audience from a proletariat's point of view, so his literature is not the product of the writers own cultural values, due to him not actually emotionally or physically being in the state of one of the soldiers from a lower economic class than himself.


Paragraph 7- Counter argument: Marxist opinion- context


Although he himself isn't going through the exact traumas of those from a lower class, he is giving the lower class a voice by writing the catastrophic events of the war, and if he was to write the conditions of war for them due to him being higher in the social hierarchy he may be able to reveal the alienation of the soldiers by the ruling elite to the public. Additionally, it is obvious that he feels guilt for the traumas of the war when he reflects on the misery majority of the soldiers had to go through, one of them being when he witnesses a man choking on his own lung fluid because of the gas attack in the poem Dulce et Decorum est.




Paragraph 8- Conclusion: sum up key points- use a named critic to back you up

Meeting all the Assessment Objectives

AO2 – Explore how the writer gets his/her ideas across. How do they use language devices, structural devices, written form.

AO3 – Explore the contexts that influence the text: biographical, setting, cultural, social: attitudes to gender, race, social class, morality, religion.

AO4 – Show you understand that a text is influenced by its genre: poetry, prose, gothic, romance, realist, bildungsroman, romance, thriller, pastoral etc.

AO5 – Explore different critical interpretations: Feminist, Marxist.


Wilfred Owen


AO2: Dulce et Decorum est:
"The poem opens with a description of trench life and the conditions faced by the soldiers. Then comes the gas attack, and the poem offers a graphic description of the effects of such an attack."  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryowen/2owen_dulcestructrev1.shtml
The opening stanza is characterised by language about 'fatigue': the soldiers 'marched asleep', they 'trudge', and 'limped on'. They are 'deaf', 'lame' and 'blind'; all rather pitiful language intended to reveal the reality of war and its effects.
The speaker describes a vision in a dream of a gas victim 'guttering, choking, drowning'. The listed verbs are associated with a lack of air and death.
The language used in the sections depicting the gas attack is strong, representing both the anguish of the victims of the gas attack as well as the effect on those haunted by what they have seen: 'watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face'. The repetition of the word 'face' makes it clear which element disturbs the speaker most: the transformation in the face of the victim. The use of alliteration on the 'w' sound reflects the agonised twisting of the gas victim.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryowen/2owen_dulcestructrev2.shtml
This nightmare scenario is heightened by words which gather in intensity: ‘guttering,’ ‘choking,’ and ‘drowning’ in l.16. The use of the word ‘guttering’ is particularly unsettling. A candle gutters as it goes out for lack of air, just as the man dies for lack of oxygen.
Owen’s use of repeated sounds picks up the alliteration of the title. ‘Dulce’ and ‘Decorum’ are the two contentious, abstract nouns meaning ‘sweet’ and ‘honourable’, which he revisits in the final lines of the poem. Joined as they are by the similar sounds of ‘et’ and ‘est’, they set a pattern for the alliteration which follows.
S.I.W: STRUCTURE: The Prologue: A prologue is that which goes before or leads to another event or action. In prologue Owen explains the background that will produce the events of the main action.

The Action: The dramatic heart of S.I.W is the boys suicide we only get to hear of the manner of his death, rather than being present at the moment when he puts the rifle in his mouth.

The Poem: Owen uses this unusual heading for his own reflection on the reason for his action.

The Epilogue: The opposite of the prologue is the epilogue- what happened afterwards, Owen simply and ironically tells us how the story ends- another death in war is not a shocking circumstance due to war being 'war'.
Colloquial language: 'Lad' giving the working class a voice, as the majority are the ones suffering the pain due to the ruling classes decisions.
The family of the boy who committed suicide at the front line had expectations and attitudes of war being honourable, which mirrors the attitudes and expectations of the public during the time of World War One.
During the poem the reality of death becomes a routine when Owen mentions 'men shoots their hands' and the 'English ball.'
Throughout the poem, Owen builds tension of a young boy trying to fight through war ensuring his family that he is okay, when in reality he wants to escape the torture which he soon acts upon by taking his own life and dying 'smiling.'
The everyday realities of the Western Front are communicated by references to things such as the ‘butt’ of the lad’s rifle , the hourly ‘bullet’ , the ‘sandbags’, lack of ‘leave’, ‘wounds’, ‘fever’, ‘trench foot’ and ‘shock.' http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2629


AO3: Wilfred Owen wrote about his intense experiences of being a soldier in the British World War. Owen was generally influenced by the lies the ruling elite shared to the public, and it was in his greatest interest to share his personal experience to shock the audience of the traumatic realities of War. Within a matter of weeks of being at the front line he began to witness the ugliness of the War, and was to an extent shocked  considering all the lies of the War being described as 'honourable' by the clueless and the powerful. He wrote to portray his truthful emotions and thoughts while present at the war himself, and to speak strongly against the patriotic ideology, which was the main cause of the continuation of the First World War.
'From the age of nineteen Wilfred Owen was motivated in becoming a poet and immersed himself in poetry, being especially influence by Keats and Shelley.'
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owena.htm


Three statements by Owen


"All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the poet must be truthful."
"The people of England needn't hope. They must agitate." Letter 19 January, 1917, shortly after arriving at the front line in France.
"I am more and more a Christian... Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Being bullied, be outraged, be killed: but do not kill." Letter to his mother, May 1917.  http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owena.htm


AO4:  World War I.
           Genre.
           War poem.
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the First World War.
Owen often resists the dominant patriotic ideology in both of his poems, it is also obvious that Owen is against the ruling elites views in both and consistently goes against the opinions of the higher class giving the proletariat a voice. The two poems often reflect back to home life throughout, addressing to the audience at the time of the World War that the pressure of sending their family to war is killing them, and those like the ruling class are to blame. Overall the most obvious opinion of his throughout the two poems is this hate towards the bourgeoisie, which is expressed due to the experiences he has had being alienated by them being at the front line himself.


AO5: http://abbiecolemanluttlit123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/wilfred-owen-useful-quotations-marxism.html 

Wilfred Owen: Useful quotations, MARXISM.

  
'Marxist critics tend to believe that literature is the product of the writers own cultural values and that literary texts are themselves products of a particular ideology. 'Using ideas from the critical anthology and Wilfred Owens poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' to what extent do you agree with this view?
 
Dulce et Decorum est 
 'Old beggars'
'Coughing like hags'
 
•Reduced further into the bottom of the social hierarchy accepting their plight and following the orders of their higher class superiors. •Powerless.
•Considering Owen describes the soldiers as old and weakened, the reader will maybe begin to understand the horrific circumstances the soldiers had to face as it shows that war has broken the soldiers. 
'All went lame; all went blind'
 
•War affects all men.
•No escape from the horrendous circumstances they find themselves in.
•Complete opposite to 'sweet and honourable.'
•Denying the trauma they have witnessed.
•Slowly loosing their will knowing they have to keep going, and if they stop they will no longer have the energy to carry on through the turmoil.
•The reader will see that no matter who the soldier is, they will not come out the war healthy, as war affects all men, due to its brutality.

'Like a devils sick sin'

•Negative
•Very religious during the time of the war.
•Direct address to the higher class; comparing them to the devil.
•War is the devils work.
•Having to deal with the hand they have dealt, with no choice.
•Due to the England's in the 1900's being extremely religious, the reader will see the direct address to the higher class superior being described as the devil, automatically this creates a negative imagery towards the bourgeoisie, due to the impressions created by Wilfred Owen.

'Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues'
 
•The higher class don't understand the effect that the war will have on the soldiers, the soldiers will always have the memories and stories to tell that will never be forgotten.
•The higher class aren't innocent, its the men that they are sacrificing in the name of the war that are suffering.
•Wilfred Owen emphasises the effects the war will have on each soldier by saying every sore is incurable and that every soldier is innocent, because of this the reader will feel sympathy towards the soldiers, as all the lies to the superior class has broadcasted to the public did not prepare the soldiers for the trauma they had to face.

'Obscene as cancer; bitter as cud'

•The word cancer at the time of the war was taboo, because of the destruction it comes with, and the fact that Owen uses the word in one of his poems shows the reader the catastrophic circumstances war can bring, in contrast to the higher classes views of war being 'sweet and honourable.'
•The word almost fails the reality of war.
•The word cancer emphasises to the reader the disastrous circumstances of the war, and the everlasting disease it will have in the soldiers mind.

'My friend, you would not tell with such high zest' 


•Direct address to writer Jessica Pope, who glorifies war when writing.
•'If you were to have seen it yourself you would not describe it as glory'
•He sees war as brutal and wasteful of young lives.
•The Direct Address to another writer will highlight to the reader that even other writers are oblivious to the reality of war and they should listen to someone who spent their days fighting in it. 

'To children arden for some desperate glory'
 
•Young men are almost lured to the war by the promise of 'desperate glory.'
•Higher class target the younger as they are easily persuaded and naïve.
•Young innocent lives are lost through a lie told by the superior.
•The use of the word children creates sympathy towards the soldiers as it emphasises the young lives the war takes, when they haven't had the chance to live.

'The old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori'
 
• TRANSLATION: Sweet and honourable to die for ones country.
•Link to the title.
•Making it clear that by seeing the war ground himself the higher class is lying to people of England by saying that going to war is sweet and honourable, however, they should listen to the first hand account, as although he is from a lower class he seen the war first hand and as a result knows the truth.
•Overall message of the poem: what the higher class present about the war is all lies.
•Wilfred Owen overall shows the reader the truth about being a soldier, and if at the time the reader is reading the poem while the war is taking place, the reader may feel unsettled, as Owen describes all what is like to go to war, and society at the time does not recognise the torture and devastation the soldiers have to face.


SIW


STRUCTURE:

The Prologue: A prologue is that which goes before or leads to another event or action. In prologue Owen explains the background that will produce the events of the main action.

The Action: The dramatic heart of S.I.W is the boys suicide we only get to hear of the manner of his death, rather than being present at the moment when he puts the rifle in his mouth.

The Poem: Owen uses this unusual heading for his own reflection on the reason for his action.

The Epilogue: The opposite of the prologue is the epilogue- what happened afterwards, Owen simply and ironically tells us how the story ends- another death in war is not a shocking circumstance due to war being 'war'.

'SIW'

• Self inflicted wound. •Harming ones self.
 •Foreshadowing end of the poem.

EPIGRAPH:

Short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.

'I will to the King
And offer him consolation in his trouble,
For that man there has set his teeth to die, And being one that hates obedience,
Discipline, and orderliness of life,
 I cannot mourn him."'                    W.B. YEATS


• "S.I.W. begins with an epigraph from a play by W. B. Yeats: The King’s Threshold. This tells the story of a poet once expelled from a King’s court. The poet is determined to make the King aware of the need for poetry and poets. In order to do this the poet goes on hunger strike. He ‘has set his teeth to die’ just as the young soldier in S.I.W. kissed the muzzle with his teeth." QUOTE FROM: http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2628
  'Lad'
'See him going, aye and glad.'

•Colloquial language: voice of the working class.
•Giving working class a voice.
  'Father would sooner him dead than in disgrace'
'Death sooner than dishonour that's the style!'

•Don't want his son to be seen as coward.
•War is more important than a family members life.
•'Owen emphasises the power of the father’s voice by telling us twice of his views on war and fighting' QUOTE FROM: http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2630



"Perhaps his mother whimpered oh how shed fret until he got a nice safe wound to nurse."

•Pressurising him to come home safely, with only 'safe wounds.'

 'Girls to could shoot, charge, curse...'
 
•Feminist viewpoint: girls not being able to face wars.
•War written to the public as a honourable event.
•Pressurises brother to live up to expectations. 
'Each week, month after month they wrote the same.'

•Owen is exaggerating the length and the repetition of the war.
•Not letting family know the devastation of the war.
 'Where once an hour a bullet missed its aim' 
•He suffers existence.
•He cannot escape. 
'Courage leaked, as sand from the best sand-bags after years of rain'
•Emphasising the length of war.
•War destroys all courage, no matter how much courage one had.

'Untrapped the wretch'
 
•' It is this feeling of never being able to escape which drives the boy soldier to take events into his own hands and to escape the horrors of war by killing himself.' QUOTE FROM: http://crossref-it.info/textguide/wilfred-owen-selected-poems/36/2630

'At the pleasure of this world's Powers who'd run amok.'

•Ruling elite causes suffering to the lower class within the hierarchy.
•Lower class are alienated by being forced into the horrors of war.

'Death had not missed.'
 
•He died.
 
'Later they find an English ball.'
•English bullet: they knew it came from his side.

'And truthfully wrote to his mother, 'Tim died smiling'.'
 
•Killed himself to escaped the horrors of the war.
•He was truthfully happy due to him escaping the war scenes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Final English Wilfred Owen question

'Marxist critics tend to believe that literature is the product of the writers own cultural values and that literary texts are themselves products of a particular ideology.'


Using ideas from the critical anthology and Wilfred Owens poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' to what extent do you agree with this view?

Potential Wilfred Owen English questions.

'Wilfred Owen's poetry speaks out strongly against the patriotic ideology which was the cause and continuation of the First World War in 1914.'


Using the critical anthology to inform your argument, to what extent do you agree with this view?




'Marxist critics tend to believe that literature is the product of the writers own cultural values and that literary texts are themselves products of a particular ideology.'


Using ideas from the critical anthology and Wilfred Owens poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' to what extent do you agree with this view?




Marxist critic H.Bertens argues 'the economic 'base' indeed determines the cultural 'superstructure,' then writers will not have all that much freedom in their creative effort.'


Using ideas from the critical anthology and Wilfred Owens poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' to what extent do you agree with this view?