Chapter 179 - Curious Incident

This chapter is very interesting because it gives the readers a real view as to how Christopher thinks and acts in situations that need a lot of plans, decisions and actions that people with Asperger's normally do not deal with or do not know how to deal with. We get to go inside his head and think about how logical his brain thinks, even with just simple emotions. For example, he describes getting emotionally hurt with a physical hurt he had experienced before and he describes placing that hurt inside his head. I think this is another great insight to the illness and how, to Christopher, thinking and feeling like this is just normal.

As readers, we could easily judge the writing technique and the peculiar descriptions but thinking about it in depth, it is just different based on the narrator and it is Haddon's very clever way of putting us in Christopher's shoes. Christopher also thinks step by step, imagining visual plans in his head and planning how to follow instructions that he gives himself to get his goal. This, again, differs Christopher from 'normal' people because decisions come to us almost instantly. We do not need to create maps or charts in our head to figure out the next step. We think about things almost subconciously.

There is a lot of repetition in this chapter as well. He uses 'and then' to start of paragraphs and sentences frequently. There is also a monotony in the dialogues as Christopher describes conversations. There are no references to how people say things and what their expressions are, only what has been said and who said it. This isn't a criticism as such to Haddon but more of a compliment that he really relates the book to how Christopher would write if he was a real person with Asperger's. Vocabulary isn't his strongest point and the sentence construction really suggests that this isn't just any normal author writing a best-seller book. Even so, he talks about the universe and equations in so much depth that even we find it hard to read and understand. He may not use complicated words to describe simple things but he can relate the tiniest of matters to the bigger picture.

Descriptions aren't normally what people with Christopher's illness are good at. They describe things how they are but never in as much detail as a normal author would. It is like Haddon is writing it to make us feel like we are there on the spot with Christopher, with no time to describe what, to him, may be irrelevant sights (e.g. what the person he is talking to looks like, what they are wearing, etc). However, probably on Siobhan's recommendation, Christopher uses colour descriptions and even similes once every so often and uses a significant amount in this chapter in particular. This makes us empathise with the character, how Christopher must have tried so hard to get to a point where he can take someone else's advice on board to be able to make his work better. It makes us proud of him, another brilliant way Haddon has used for the readers to empathise more and realise the character development he is probably trying to portray.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Favourite Bit:
Page 2-3 (Introducing himself and Siobhan)

This is a very short passage about Christopher and the different emotions that Siobhan drew for him so that he understands what emotions other people are trying to portray to him. This is one of the very first parts of the book and I think it grips the readers because even at such an early stage, we already get the hint that this book is not going to be like any other. 'Then she drew some other pictures but I was unable to say what these meant.. and now if I don't know what someone is saying I ask them what they mean or I walk away' - this is very humourous and insightful in a way because it gives us an idea as to what people with Asperger's Syndrome are like and also, Christopher makes us laugh even probably without meaning to. He is just describing what he feels and what he does or does not understand.

He describes what he remembers very bluntly, for example when he talks about Siobhan - 'and then she laughed'. It seems like there are no ups and downs to his tone of voice but just constantly thinking and describing anything that comes to mind. Once again, it hints to a very different kind of book because the narrator himself has an illness. We, as readers, already think of adjusting to his way of thinking as we get this very first impression of him. He also draws images of the different faces Siobhan has described to him. This isn't what you would expect from a novel and I think Mark Haddon uses this to surprise and even make the readers expect the unexpected. I think that this is a very good way of keeping the readers gripped to the story. Again, it is another insight to Christopher as a person because he exposes himself as a visual learner. From a very short and early passage, we get quite a lot from his character already.

The Going - Settings

This poem does not have a certain setting that the readers can actually visualise. The setting that Thomas Hardy is trying to portray is based on his mental state more than his physical state. He sets the poem within his own thoughts, particularly thoughts of the past and the thoughts of his wife dying. Yes, he remembers actual places like the 'Beeny Crest' where he first met his wife but these are subtle settings that we can visualise only for the moment. The most important thing is what is happening within Hardy's heart and mind, which is where the poem really is set. It is through his heart and mind that he even mentions these places connected to him and his his wife. 'The Going' is a poem portraying melancholy and loss. The poem concentrates on Hardy's feeling of distress, why he had lost his wife and questions of how he could possibly cope with not being able to see her again. His mentality is connected with that of his wife even though he knows his wife is now somewhere that he 'could not follow'. Hardy also shows a feeling of regret and sets himself back to the times when they had their good memories. He dwells on the memory of those places and regrets not making the most of their time together when it was still possible. He says - 'Did we not think of those days long dead, and ere you're vanishing strive to seek that time's renewal?'. The whole poem is set in the past, Hardy's mind and heart going along with it, with no sense of hope, as he says it is 'unchangeable', and no hope of setting himself back to the present to be able to start moving on and forward.

The Convergence of the Twain

I think the phrase ' deep from human vanity' is an interesting way to start off the poem. I think the author is trying to portray that the iceberg is purely a thing of nature and 'human vanity' kind of criticises the Titanic in a way because it belittles the ship's greatness, making it sound like it is out of human vanity and how it affects nature (the iceberg). The need to be the greatest made the ship suffer from something little. This idea also comes across in the eighth stanza where it says - 'And as the smart ship grew, in stature, grace, and hue, in shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too'. This is interesting because it talks about both things getting nearer to each other as 'growing', which also emphasises that the greater and mightier the ship looked, the greater the power the iceberg had to ruin it, even if it doesn't compare to the ship in size. Also, the fact that the word 'Iceberg' starts off with a capital letter, shows that the author wanted it to be a proper noun, like the 'Titanic'. To me, it seems like the author is trying to portray both things as equal to each other, even if at the time, it didn't seem like it. They overestimated the ship's capabilities. The author also refers to them as 'twin halves' in the tenth stanza, which supports this idea that he wanted them to seem equal.

The way the author describes the Titanic in the fourth stanza is very contradicting. He talks about jewels and how they 'ravish the sensuous mind' but then goes on to talk about it as 'lightless', 'bleared', 'black' and 'blind'. This shows how the Titanic was before and after it crossed paths with the iceberg. This is an interesting way to tell the story because the numbered stanzas suggest that each events are chronological but then again, the author talks about how destiny changed this and how unfortunate and unexpected events ruined the ship's mightiness. He gives clues all throughout like in the fourth stanza, describing it like the ship had died already. And also, he talks about 'the Pride of Life that planned her' in the first stanza, which suggests that the iceberg had a destiny waiting for it, that it had a purpose.

There are many sexual references throughout the poem as well such as 'intimate welding', 'sensuous mind' and 'consummation'. This is interesting because it is describing how the ship and the iceberg clashed. However, describing it through sexual terms makes it sound like it was a good thing, when it was one of the worst tragedies in history. This suggests a hint of irony.

Calling the ship and the iceberg as 'two hemispheres', in the very last phrase of the last stanza, in my opinion, is also very dramatic and a great end to the poem. This is because the word hempishere makes them both sound more mighty and bigger than they actually were. It is kind of like a parting lesson that no matter how big and mighty you look on the outside, you can still suffer or fail.

Comments on Act III
(Dramatic Features and Tragic Elements)

Act 3 is where the play, within a play, occurs and Hamlet proves that Claudius was indeed the man who killed his father. The players enact a play that is very similar to the murder of the previous king and the drama emerges from the way Claudius reacts. He walks out and the guilt is very obviously shown through this. Hamlet confronts his mother, and another dramatic feature is the way he speaks to her, the way he lets his anger out to her. He says to her that his madness is all an act but the violence he shows and the things he say to his mother do not make sense in the slightest. His mother is just led on to think that he is even madder than she thought he was. Also, he is extremely rude to her and basically calling her a whore. He suggests a lot of sexual nature in his speeches to her, which is what you would expect the least from a son talking to his own mother. His anger gets the better of him.

Act Three is very dramatic and tragic at the same time because it contains the death of Polonius. Hamlet's slow-pace plan leads to a death that didn't really have to occur. It was very unexpected. However, you could argue that it wasn't unexpected at all due to Polonius's inevitable spying. This occurs while Hamlet is showing aggression towards Gertrude and Polonius shouts for help. His death shows an unexpected tragedy while Hamlet's sudden actions, thinking that it was his uncle, portrays the drama. Once again, his anger gets the better of him. The drama develops all throughout these scenes because Hamlet, before confronting his mother, also tries to kill Claudius while he prays. This builds up tension but he withdraws his sword with the reason of it being not the right time to kill him. He wants Claudius to know that it is him, getting revenge on his father and he doesn't want him to go to heaven. The audience could accept this reason to be the truth but another way to percept it is that he has basically just chickened out. For whatever reason, he is not ready to kill him.

Comments on Ophelia (Act IV)

I think that Ophelia is a pretty trivial character in the play. She adds to the dramatic features in the play because she is always in the background, always the innocent that gets affected by the actions of all the men in her life. No one seems to think of her feelings much. Hamlet disgregards her and doesn't trust her with his plan even after declaring his love for her. Her father makes her do his bidding even if it is against her will while her brother, being the only person that Ophelia could actually confide in, left her.

In my opinion, the play would still be the same if Shakespeare took her out. Yes, she does add to the drama because the audience is bound to feel sorry for her and her death is, in a sense, tragic because she has not done anything to deserve the pain she went through. She is merely a pawn in his father's plans with the King and Queen to spy on Hamlet. I think there is enough drama to be getting on with without her getting affected by everything on the sideline. Without her, there would have been other means of spying on Hamlet and his madness would have been blamed solely on the death of his father and the sudden marriage of his mother and his uncle. The play would still be similar if you took her out.

However, I think Shakespeare uses her role to emphasise the tragedy and the extent to which Hamlet would go to get his revenge. Yes, he didn't plan to kill Polonius but if he truly loved Ophelia he would have thought of the consequences that her father's death might bring to her. Instead, he carries on as if Polonius's death was of no real importance and Ophelia was left to go mad. She is the symbol of abandonment and solitude, the woman who took all the pain but never actually got any sympathy back. Her character is tragic in every way.

Her death was portrayed beautifully and romantically, which I think contrasts to the way her character has been seen throughout all her appearances in the play. She seemed weak and unable to make up her own mind. She was like a puppet, the victim of what she thought was Hamlet's real madness and the means in which the King and Queen could find out the real truth about their son. In her death, Shakespeare showed the real beauty within her. Shakespeare made her death very grand and picturesque as if to make the audience really imagine the scene. Even if she still died quite alone, it made her the centre of attention for once, making the audience think about the effect and the consequence of all the characters' actions in the play.

English Literature Homework - Hamlet Act 1 and 2
Comments on tragedy and Hamlet's character

Hamlet goes through several stages in the first two acts. First of all, we see grief and disappointment. The death of his father and the fact that he is mourning alone, because his mother married again to his uncle not long after, has affected him as a person. His soliloquies often reflect these feelings. We find out that Hamlet has a lover, Ophelia, but we do not really get to see the romantic side of him, we only hear Ophelia's version of their love, which is quite interesting in a way because it leads on to the second act where he puts on a 'mad' act and lets Ophelia witness it first. Ophelia ignored Hamlet on her father's orders and I get the feeling that Hamlet lacks trust amongst the people around him. Finding out about his uncle's treachery to his father most probably affected his thoughts about everyone else around him. He cannot trust anyone again, not even the girl he has proposed his love to. He doesn't share his plan with Ophelia and leaves her confused and with only herself to blame for Hamlet's 'transformation'.

Hamlet calls himself a 'coward' because he hasn't killed Claudius, his uncle, straight away after finding out that he murdered his father. His dilemma is a big one, that he has to think about his mother's feelings and not rush into anything. He also has to prove that what the Ghost said was true. He wants to get revenge but he has to go the long way about it, which frustrates him and makes him feel like he hasn't progressed at all.

Tragedy, in the modern sense, is conveyed through the death of Hamlet's father. The loss of his father is a tragedy not only because his own brother killed him but because Hamlet is left mourning his loss alone and he is also alone in succeeding in getting revenge for his father. Arguably, another tragedy within the first two acts is that Hamlet has lost his mother too. Death might not be the case here but Hamlet probably wanted to mourn with her but instead she moved on with none other than his father's own brother and his murderer nonetheless. Also, tragedy is conveyed through Ophelia and Hamlet. The lack of trust between them shows and the fact that Ophelia didn't fight for their love with her father also shows weakness, leaving their relationship torn and leaving Hamlet with no choice but to act mad around her too instead of sharing his plans with her, in fear that she will obey her father to spy on him.