What do you find interesting about how Browning Presents The Poem To The Reader

What do you find interesting about how Browning presents the poem to the reader.

Fra Lippo Lippi:
In Fra Lippo Lippi the reader can immediately react to the pure length of the poem. The narrative is of a monk who has been found by the police, he is drunk and has just come out of a brothel. This in the first extract is interesting as we all know that monk's are forbidden from doing such things, i think he chose to start with this as it allows the reader to quite involved with the story.
Browning also chooses to express the oppression within the monastery about not allowing to do stuff that normal men and women could do like drink and have sex. By him leaving the monastery for even one night it is showing his needs to be free of the monastery as he never got the chance to do anything, as he was thrust into the monastery at such a young age. I think it is a good way of showing how Monks are not so free loving and godly they like to do "naughty" things as well.
In the poem i also think Fra Lippo Lippi comes across as rather self centered as he is talking about himself and how hard his life was and the only good thing he can do was paint, But as the character opens himself up the reader you start to feel sorry for him although he is being really self centered he is a character that you cannot help feeling sorry for.
I also think it is interesting as Fra Lippo Lippi starts to rant about how vanity will get the better of people and how that is why he won't be caught in his crime although he has been because he knows he belongs to a wealthy family and he knows that because he is a good painter he can get away with all the naughty things he does.
I think Browning presents an urge of freedom in this poem as for the monk to escape he had to climb down a rope made out of blankets which suggest to the reader that he was trapped within his wealthy family that do allow him to go out of bounds but they keep him locked away fro themselves so that know one else can have his art work.
In the poem Browning also shows a very religious view to the reader as he expresses his own feelings through Fra Lippo Lippi, about how no-one can change what god has created and how they shouldn't be painted any prettier or uglier then they are in real life , which is what the church where trying to do at this moment in time. He is saying that there shouldn't have to be a constant reminder of what god has given us, in vanity we want more, but to just live life and not expect anything more or less.

Chapter 179 - Curious Incident

In this chapter Christopher uses a lot of diagrams to help us see what he is seeing inside his head, this allows us to see that the inner workings of his mind are quite complex and his thinking is very logical as he uses a lot of maps and workings out to get places and to organise himself. In this chapter we also see a lot more references to Sherlock Holmes and how Christopher relates his own detectie and plan making skills to Sherlock Holmes. This is important becasue where his mental ability is less then that of someone who has fully functioning brain power he is exceedingly clever.

He also has to formulate a plan before he does something which shows that he needs to know everything. He can't just be happy-go-lucky. This is a good comparison to sherlock holmes as he also couldnt just do something of the mark he had to have a plan.

The strucutre of this chapter is a lot more like a diary then a book, as there are a lot of he said she said and a lot of examples of where he's been. We also get the main introduction to his plan, this is good as we then can conduct in our own minds what he is about to do.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

So my favourite bits of the book are chapter 181.
I like the way the starts the chapter on page 174
"I see everything"
As creepy as it sound it is quite frank and too the point. I like the way throughout the book he is very blunt about his surroundings and the people around him. It allows us to understand him more.
The person i dislike in the book the most is Christopher's mother, is like shes forgotten who he actually is as a person and how he needs to understand everything and how he doesn't like to be touched. This annoys me because if she really did care she would make a effort to see him and not just write letters too him.

I also like the way christopher is explaining his emotions also as they aren't actually what he see's as emotions, they are just things he feel but they do not have a name.
I like the way the author of the book goes into so much depth of a person with asperger's syndrome. He had to of gone into soo much effort of finding information on how they think and feel.

How far can we say that the play is a Tragedy?

All my sons was wirtten in the 1940's a short period after the second world war and it is based around the events that happened during the war that involves the keller family. Straight away from the time period we know that something dramatic will happen or has happened to this family as the war has an enormous affect on everyone.
The dictionary definition of Tragedy is : a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction.
so how many of these characteristics of tragedy can we see in "All my sons"? so first thing of we see the serious and or somber theme of the after affects of the war, we may not be told the affects of it at first but it is still there in the background, looming.
Then we are told of the great flaw, of the fate filled day that Joe was "sick" this then leading to his inevitable destruction.
This character flaw effects the lives of others, including that of his son Larry, who kills himself, chris and kate who in the end lose their brother and their mother and Joe himself who comits suicide.

So considering we have two suicides, two great losses, all the effect of a fanatical flaw we can consider this to be a tragedy.

Act One : All My Sons

At the start of the play Arthur Miller gives some very good character descriptions, he allows us to completely imagine the characters the way he wants us too see them, i think he does this as he obviously later on in the play changes all descriptions completely! Doing this he gives us, the readers, a false sense of security with the charcters we feel for.
Joe Keller appears at the start to be a simple man in his 60's whose got a happy family that has been affected by the war, which we are told has taken a son from him, Larry.

Kate Keller at the start of the play is still in mourning of her sons larry who died in the war, this thought is kept alive by the neighbour Frank, who highly believes in the stars, and who predicts that Larry is still alive.

Chris Keller at the start of the play tells us in the conversation to his dad , that he believes larry is dead but that they are toying with their mothers feelings by telling her any different. By giving us this explantion we are able to see chris as a realist. We then also get the information aout Ann who chris wnats to marry, we then get anns background information about her going out with larry, chris's brother.
The first act is a all abit cosmic as we get the story about kates dream, and the stroy about larrys and this all happens on the day Ann arrives, its all a bit connected which sends kate into a flurry of cosmic beliefs. when Ann herself arrives , kate confronts her and asks if she is still waiting for larry, she is not, this interrupts kates cosmic balance.
When Ann announces that george her brother is coming to see her, everything gets a bit tense and Joe and Kate are worried that she is only interested in Chris to allow her dad to be exonerated from his prison sentence.

Symbolism is introduced in this act. The tree symbolises larrys death and the "prison" in joe basment symbolises the reality that prison is out there. Kate dislikes the fact that joe jokes around with a fake prison, so get very touchy about it, by doing this she is showing the readers that she dislikes the thought of her husbands in prison although secretly she knows thats where he should be. When the tree breaks it symbolises that something is going to happen that does involved him or somewhat his memory.


The first act of this play, allows us to see how the characters are in their home life, they are all quite friendly towards each other although clearly they all have a secret that isn't being told to the other. This creates alot of unknown conflict within the family, when Ann arrives the conflicts come out into the open and creates alot of tension within the family.

A convergence of the Twain

I am mixed minds about this poem as it believe that some of the stanza's dont blend in with the feel of the poem. I think that Thomas Hardy didn't at all pity the people of the Titanic as he is saying in irony how foolish they were to be destroyed by an Iceberg. I think also he is tryibng to create quite a violent and creepy image for the audinece reading in stanza 8, i think this becasue he desrcibe how the ship is growing out into the wide open sea and how the she is growing is grace staue and hue, but then he goes onto describe the iceberg which is getting closer and closer, its as if its like a pantomine and he wants to shout "he's behind you".

I think this poem starts at the end, it allows Thomas Hardy to create an image of the Ship on the bottom of the sea. He then includes the sea-worm, which is so small and insignificant to be quite happily crawls over something to great and powerful.

Throughout the poem he uses very descriptive words, he manages to change the appearance of something and manages to change our take on it. in Stanza 4 he is describing The jewelry of the woman adn men on the ship lying lifeless at the bottom of the sea, he changes the fact that jewelry which is supposed to sit on a lady's neck and look out on people and sparkle to be changed to a blury and blind of it sparkle which it was made for.

Throughout the poem Thomas Hardy does use sexual references and i think this allows him at the end to say "the consummation comes", its the end of something so great and something definatly unexpected. As quite a Romantic poet i think this is very different to what he normally goes for, but considering the creepyness of the poem it is quite romantic using the sexual references.