Historical Background 3

Table of Contents

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 3

THE GREAT PLAGUE 3 MEDICINE IN THE 17TH CENTURY 4 THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE 17TH CENTURY 4 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT 5 RELIGION 6 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ACTIVITY 7

THE PLOT 6

CAUSE AND EFFECT ACTIVITY 6

THE CHARACTERS 10

CHARACTER LIST 10 ANNA 12 MICHAEL MOMPELLION 13 ELINOR MOMPELLION 14 APHRA AND JOS BONT 15 THE GOWDIES 16 CHARACTER ACTIVITIES 17

THE THEMES 19

KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE 19 THE STATUS OF WOMEN 20 GRIEF 21 RELGION, FAITH AND NATURE 22 THEME ACTIVITY 23

THE TECHNIQUES 24

CHARACTERISATION 24 IMAGERY 26 TECHNIQUE ACTIVITY 27

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER 28

THE TITLE 28 ESSAY TOPICS 28

QUOTES 30

MASTER LIST OF QUOTES 30

FURTHER RESOURCES 34

LIST OF WEB LINKS 34

Copyright Ticking Mind 2010. Only to be reproduced with permission. Historical Background to Year of Wonders

The Great Plague –

George Viccars lay with his head pushed to one side by a lump the size of a newborn piglet, a great, shiny, yellow-purple knob of pulsing flesh…Then the purple thing burst all of a sudden open, slitting like a pea pod and issuing forth creamy pus all spotted through with sheds of dead flesh. P. 43-43

I could see it was a dead rat, a sorry little corpse, all wet and rheumy-eyed with a smear of bright blood around its muzzle…The woodpile is full of them…p. 72

…the damp after the heat brought the fleas beyond any infestation…In my house, the fleas feasted on my tender children…p. 73

To save our lives, my friends, I believe we must undertake here a great burning…p. 239

The plague of the novel is based upon the Great Plague of 1665. The plague mostly affected London where 20% of the population perished. However, other places, like Eyam, were also affected. Symptons of the plague came in various forms: sneezing, the appearance of plague rings (that looked like flowers or tokens) on the skin or, the most painful and dramatic form, pus filled bulbs under the armpit or in the groin area. 17th Century science and medicine has no understanding of how the plague spread or how to stop it. Cats and dogs were blamed for spreading the plague in London. In desperation to find a prevention or cure for the plague which they didn’t understand and which was killing thousands, people turned to all manner of strange supposed remedies – herbal or supernatural. Today we know that the plague was spread for the most part by fleas who infected people when their bites. Fleas were carried by many things – rats for example, or even bolts of cloth. Fleas could be killed by the cold or, as was the case in London, by fire. A huge part of London burnt down in 1666 in what was called the great fire of London. This ended the plague outbreak.

Medicine in the 17th Century –

The poor little soul was covered in squirming leeches…p. 74 It contains a palliative…The man who sent it is a well esteemed physician…’It contains a toad’…p. 85

(the) barber’s surgeon… used a thatcher’s hook…I saw the tiny, torn off arm of my still-born sister. P. 120

Although towards the end of the 17th century medical knowledge began to improve, scientific understanding of the body was still very limited. It was not known, for example, that blood circulated around the body. Draining people of blood, through leeches, was thought wise to rid people of ‘bad’ blood. The most common medical practitioners were barber surgeons – men who not only cut hair and shaved men, but also operated on people. Barber surgeons usually had no professional training.

The Status of Women in the 17th Century –

I think you like to come and go without a man’s say so. P. 54

I’m not made to be a man’s chattel. P. 54

I saw my mother’s face framed in the iron bars…the inhuman sounds that came from her throat as the iron bit pressed hard against her tongue. He had clapped the branks on her after she had cursed him in public for his constant drunkenness. P. 133

The role of women is depicted with special emphasis in Year of Wonders. Brooks is careful to show the reader what few rights women have and what powers men can have over them. Laws of the time legalised wife beating and when married a woman transferred the ownership of all things – her body included – to her husband. Widows were the only women who tended to be independent. Below is a text from the early 17th century which summarises the duties of man and wife:

A Godly Form of Household Government (1598)

The husband his duty is, first, to love his wife as his own flesh. Then to govern her in all duties that properly concern the state of marriage, in knowledge, in wisdom, judgment, and justice. Thirdly, to dwell with her. Fourthly, to use her in all due benevolence, honestly, soberly, and chastely.

* * * The wife, her duty is, in all reverence and humility, to submit and subject herself to her husband in all such duties as properly belong to marriage. Secondly, therein to be an help unto him, according to God's ordinance. Thirdly, to obey his commandments in all things which he may command by the authority of an husband. Fourthly and lastly, to give him mutual benevolence.

The duty of the husband is to get goods; and of the wife, to gather them together and save them. The duty of the husband is to travel abroad to seek living; and the wife's duty is to keep the house. The duty of the husband is to get money and provision; and of the wife's, not vainly to spend it. The duty of the husband is to deal with many men; and of the wife's to talk with few. The duty of the husband is to be intermeddling; and of the wife, to be solitary and withdrawn. The duty of the man is to be skillful in talk; and of the wife, to boast of silence. The duty of the husband is to be a giver, and of the wife, to be a saver. The duty of the man is to apparel himself as he may; and of the woman, as it becometh her. The duty of the husband is to be lord of all; and of the wife, to give account of all. The duty of the husband is to dispatch all things without door; and of the wife, to oversee and give order for all things within the house. Now where the husband and wife performeth these duties in their house, we may call it a college of quietness. The house wherein these are neglected, we may term it a hell.

Witches and Witchcraft –

I knew how easy it was for a widow to be turned witch in the common mind…p. 38

‘Let’s swim her!’ yelled an ale-soused voice. p. 90

I saw plainly what she tried to hide. It was a spell…p. 145

From the 15th through to the 17th century a general hysteria that witches existed and were evil consumed Europe. So much so that it is estimated that between 50,000 to 80,000 individuals were executed, believed to be witches. Since it was common for accused witches to be burnt at the stake, the witch hysteria is often known as ‘the burning times’. Accused witches were often subjected to ‘ordeals’ which were thought to betray their guilt or show their innocence. Once such ordeal was by water where an accused witch was dunked – if they sank they were innocent, if they floated they had supernatural powers. Today, many historians believe that witch executions were in fact a form of ‘gender-cide’. Typically women who were marginalized from society, had knowledge of the healing properties of plants, or had other knowledge or ideas that may have somehow went against the pervasive ignorance or prejudices of the society they were in, found themselves accused of being witches.

Religion – The Puritans, who are few amongst us now, and sorely pressed, had the running of the village then. It was their sermons we grew up listening to in a church bare of adornment, their notion of what was heathenish that hushed the Sabbath and quieted the church bells…p. 7

Dark and light…that was how I had been taught to view the world. p. 55

My father did not come to Delft, not the first Sunday no any following. In normal times he would have been…set in the stocks for such behaviour. P. 192

As John Gordon moved up the path, I perceived that he stopped, every five paces or so, straightened, and raised the scourge to strike himself. One of the spikes was bent crooked, like a fish hook, so that when it connected with the skin it caught and tore away a tiny piece of flesh. p. 219

Religion in the 17th century was a serious business. In England, only one form of religion existed – Christianity. And only one form of religion was really sanctioned by the King and parliament – and that was Anglicanism (the Church of England). For a short while, during the mid 17th century, Puritans had become a powerful force. Puritans, as their name implies, believed in what they thought was a very ‘pure’ form of Christianity. They lived simply, dressed simply, worshipped simply and believed the world was simply divided into good and evil aspects. The majority of Christians found Puritanism extreme. In the second half of the 17th century any person who followed a form of Christianity that was not Anglicanism (such as Quakers, who also feature in the novel) was labelled a non-conformist and in some cases persecuted. Flagellants were another form of Christian extremists. Flagellants believed that humans were innately sinful and needed to be punished, thus the self-whipping.

Activity: Show you understanding of the historical context of The Year of Wonders and how it links to the novel by filling in the chart below.

Important What is important Historical Fact that happens in the novel based upon this history The plague Medicine

Witches

Religion

The Plot – Cause and Effect

Activity: Listed below are important events in the plot of Year of Wonders. Cut each event out. On a large piece of poster paper arrange these events into a cause and effect flowchart. There are many ways to set out a cause and effect flow chart. For excellent examples log on to this website: http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/GO/cause_effect.htm Activity: Instead of completing the historical facts chart above, annotate your cause and effect flow chart with historical facts. For at least five events you list as a cause, write down an historical facts next to it.

Elizabeth Bradford tries to kill her newborn illegitimate half-sister.

Michael Mompellion convinces the villagers to quarantine themselves. The Bradfords flee from Eyam.

Elinor Mompellion is stabbed and killed by Aphra.

George Viccars dies of the plague.

Anna flees England with Mrs Bradfords illegitimate daughter.

Jos Bont is convicted of theft and sentenced to be impaled with knives through the hands. He dies.

Michael Mompellion and Anna sleep together.

John Gordon becomes a flagellant. Several other families follow him in this.

In the summer, plague deaths increase.

Many families buy spells and charms from a person claiming to be the ghost of Anys Gowdie.

Alexander Hadfield imports bolts of cloth from London. They are probably infected with fleas that carry the plague.

Michael Mompellion leads the villagers in a great burning of their goods.

The plague outbreak ends.

Mem and Anys Gowdie are accused of being witches. Mem is drowned, Anys is hanged.

Anna delivers Mrs Bradford illegitimate daughter.

Aphra is apprehended at the impersonator of Anys Gowdie.

The gravedigger dies from overwork.

Anna becomes the village midwife. She and Elinor use the Gowdie’s garden of herb to develop herbal remedies.

Brand Rigney and Robert Snee keep Aphra overnight in a well of manure.

In the first two weeks of the plague outbreak members of the Hadfield, Hancock and Hamilton Family are infected with the plague or die of it.

Michael Mompellion is consumed with grief.

Anna’s sons die of the plague. The Characters

Anna’s Family:

Anna Frith: Narrator of the novel. Her two young sons, Jamie and Tom, are amongst the first victims of the plague.

Sam Frith: Deceased husband of Anna Frith. Died in a mining accident

Josiah Bont: Anna’s father

Aphra Bont: Josiah Bont’s second wife. All her children die of the plague.

The Religious Leaders: Elinor Mompellion: The vicar’s wife. Killed by Aphra.

Michael Mompellion: The vicar of Eyam.

Thomas Stanley: A Puritan preacher who resigned from being the village rector because he did not believe in Anglicanism

The Accused Witches:

Anys & Mem Gowdie: Mem Gowdie is a widow who looks after her niece Anys when Any’s mother dies.

The Witch Accusers:

John & Urith Gordon: Accused Mem of being a witch. John becomes a flagellant. Dies falling from a cliff in his sleep.

The Hadfields: Alexander Hadfield was the resident tailor. He is the second husband of Mary. Alexander and his children are the first to die of the plague after George Viccars. Mary accuses Mem of being a witch.

Lib Hancock: Anna’s best friend since childhood. Her husband dies early on from the plague. Accused Mem of being a witch. She dies from the plague.

Brad & Grace Hamilton: Accused Mem of being a witch. Grace and her children die of the plague

The Plague Victims:

George Viccars: Travelling tailor. First to die of the plague.

George & Cleath Wickford: A Quaker couple. Both die orphaning their daughter Merry.

Maggie Cantwell: Cook at the Bradford’s. Dies of a stroke after fleeing an angry mob.

Jon Millstone: The aged gravedigger. Dies from overwork.

Kate & Richard Talbot: Richard is a farrier. Kate buys a spell to try and cure him of the plague.

The Survivors:

Colonel Henry Bradford: The rich country gentleman of the village. Elizabeth Bradford: Daughter of Colonel Bradford.

Mrs Bradford: The adulterous wife of Henry. Her first name is never given.

Brand Rigney: Pantry boy who brings Maggie back to Eyam after she has a stroke.

Alun Houghton: The Barmester who is head of the Body of the Mine which governs the miners.

Christopher Unwin: Survives the plague only to be nearly murdered by Jos Bont.

Jane Martin: Puritan girl who minds Anna’s sons. Her entire family dies of the plague.

Mary and Randoll Daniel: Anna delivers Mary’s first baby.

Anna Frith had a miserable childhood as a daughter of a violent, drunk and lazy father. She married young to the simple, but loving Sam. For Anna, the plague brings incredible loss and grief. However, it also becomes a catalyst for her to change. Her empathy and understanding for the knowledge of the Gowdie’s grow and with it a belief in her independence as a woman. While others turn to superstition in the desperation of the plague, Anna, led by Elinor, turns to science and nature.

Key Quotes:

 I…wished to know how things stood in the world. P. 27  I think you like to come and go without a man’s say so. P. 54  I wonder if you know how you have changed. P. 235  I was meant to go on; away from death and towards life, from birth to birth, from seed to blossom…p. 287  For I was not Elinor, after all, but Anna. P. 299

Key passages: p. 122-23, p. 273, p. 299

What’s your point of view?

Considering the quotes and passages above, what is your view on the statements below?

 Anna is able to overcome her grief because of the fundamentally different understanding she has of the world to Michael Mompellion.

 Anna is the only woman in the novel who is genuinely independent

Michael Mompellion:

In a way Michael and Elinor Mompellion are complete opposites. Elinor was from a distinguished and rich family, Michael from the poor family of a rector. He was orphaned when his father died and worked on the estate of Elinor’s father. Elinor fell into disgrace when she eloped with a neighbour at 14. He abandoned her and she aborted her pregnancy. Michael, on the other hand, led an apparently blameless youth, working hard under the patronage of Elinor’s father to be educated at Cambridge, to join the church and to marry Elinor. Anna says at one stage that because of Michael’s poor, working background he seems to be able to associate easily with the working families of Eyam. While this is the case in some ways, it is also certainly true that Michael and Elinor have complete opposite attitudes to Anna. Elinor’s attitude is to embrace her has an equal and a friend, Michael’s to remind her of her place. Key Quotes:

 It was a voice full of light and dark. P. 45  His body is strong, but I fear that the strength of his will far exceeds it. It can drive him to do what any normal man cannot do. P. 160  ‘On your knees sinner!’ He took a step towards us, a looming black figure. P. 222  She has taken the pure vessel of her body and filled it with corruption. P. 222  None of us is master of himself as we should be in these times. P. 223  It is for Him to decide who shall suffer; He, and the vicars he appoints to give you penances. P. 227  The more I could make her love me, the more the penance might weigh in the balance equal to her sin. P. 281  As for Jane Martin, had I cared for her…I never would have relented, but punished her…p. 281

Key passages to think about: p. 68-71, p. 150-55, p. 222-23, p. 279-282

Considering the quotes and passages above, what is your view on the statements below?

 Michael’s actions were heroic, but he is not an admirable character.

 Michael criticises the flagellants, but his own attitude to sin and atonement is basically the same.

Elinor Mompellion

Michael Mompellion seems to be a character filled with much pride. He sees fit to admonish the local aristocrat, Henry Bradford, about his actions and to chide Anna on becoming too close with Elinor. While Elinor is also a proud character, she certainly does not see herself as above others. Throughout the course of the novel she develops a strong friendship with Anna, eventually confiding in her the guilt and grief she harbours because of the pregnancy she aborted after she was seduced as a teenager. While strong willed, she clearly defers to Michael. She is a contrast to Anna and a woman clearly defined by her era.

Key Quotes:

 When she discovered that I hungered to learn, she commenced to shovel knowledge my way…p. 36  The frail body was paired with a sinewy mind, capable of violent enthusiasms…p. 35  To the world at large, it seemed that I stooped to marry him…But… the sacrifice in the match was all on the side of my dear Michael. p. 155  Because of her, I had known the warmth of a motherly concern…She never reminded me of my place…she was my friend. P. 234

Key Passages: p. 35-40, p. 70, p. 150-155

 While independent in her thought, in reality Elinor is no more independent than any other wife in Eyam.  Elinor grieves still because of her abortion. Because of her grief and guilt she sees the difficult things she does during the plague as a type of penance.

Aphra & Jos Bont

While Jos Bont is undoubtedly a violent, drunken and lazy man, he has had a horrible childhood. At sea as a teenager he was repeatedly physically and sexually assaulted, bullied, and traumatised by the violence he witnessed. Having escaped a life at sea, he was kidnapped by a ‘press gang,’ a group who forced him to continue to work at sea. Jos’ first wife was Anna’s mother. He mistreated her and she died in childbirth. His second wife is Aphra. Anna suggests that Aphra marries Jos after she is over 26 and has limited options. Several of Aphra’s children died when still very young and she counsels Anna not to love her children until they are beyond their infant years. It is clear that Aphra practices witchcraft.

Key Quotes:  She approached Anys with a mixture of fear and awe, and perhaps some envy. P. 39  I think that in her heart Aphra had never ceased to pine for the kind of power a woman like Anys might wield. P. 40  My father is a rouging knave, even sober. But with the drink in him he becomes dangerous. P. 133  Don’t you worry about me, girl. I have my own ways of bridling that mule. P. 198  I told her then what I had learned of what lay behind his depravities, the same terrible stories he had poured into the unwilling ears of a frightened child. P. 209

Key Passages: p. 39-40, p. 77, p. 132-34, p. 164, p. 190-92, p. 197, p. 204-205, p. 209-10, p. 206, p. 247

 Aphra’s practice of witchcraft is a sad attempt to have independence as a woman.  Despite his childhood, Jos Bont is presented as an entirely unsympathetic character.

The Gowdies:

Anys Gowdie is the orphaned niece of Mem. She comes to live with Mem after her mother dies. Mem is the resident healing woman of Eyam. Because she is a widow, and understands the healing properties of plants, the villagers regard her as a witch. Anys is also regarded as a witch because she chooses to stay single. Women are envious of her because of her independence, beauty and cleverness. In reality, neither Anys of Mem practice witchcraft. However, both cultivate a respect of the knowledge of generations of healing women in the past, and their prayers to these women raises the suspicion that they are witches.

Key Quotes:

 And so I suppose you need to know whether I lay with George…Of course I did. He was too young and handsome. P. 53  I’m not made to be a man’s chattel. P. 54  I thought that she could teach me much about how to manage alone as a woman in the world, how to embrace my state and even exalt in it, as she seemed to. P. 73  As she and her aunt always did when they brought their remedies, she laid her hands gently on Jamie before she gave him the draught and murmured softly, ‘May the seven directions guide this work. May it be pleasing to my grandmothers, the ancient ones.’ P. 84

Key Passages: p. 38,-39, p. 48, p. 51-54, pp. 73-74, pp.90-95

 The Gowdies were too independent to be able to survive in a conservative village like Eyam.  The Gowdies are moden women in a medieval world.

Character Activities

 Empathy scale:

The actions and beliefs of characters elicit a response from us as readers. We empathise (understand them, relate to them, sympathise with them) with them to greater or lesser degrees. Draw a line on a page from end to the other with the words ‘most empathise with’ up one end, and ‘least empathise with’ up the other end. Arrange the following characters along the chart according to how much you empathise with them. Be prepared to justify your answer.

 Character Attributes: Using the table below, identify and list characters who show positive character traits and negative character traits. Characters might show both positive and negative character traits.

Positive Character Traits Negative Character Traits Selfless Selfish Resilient Gives us Finds humour Doesn’t laugh Flexible Inflexible Logical Illogical Team Oriented Works alone Curious Not Curious Reasonable Irrational Calm Impulsive Caring Uncaring Takes responsible risks Irresponsible Effective Communicator Ineffective communicator Listens Doesn’t listen Innovative Not innovative

 Character Attributes 2:

Make a separate list of male and female characters. What character attributes do the males show, what do the females show?

 Character Map:

In the centre of a large piece of poster paper put the three words – Fear, Loneliness and Grief. These three states are responsible for most of the negative actions which happen in the novel. Around the perimeter of the page list 15 characters. Link the characters to the words in the centre of the page and to each other. Along each line give an example of what characters do to each other and what negative character traits they show that promote Fear, Loneliness and Grief. Highlight these examples in one colour. Now annotate each line with what characters do to positively prevent or overcome fear, loneliness and grief. Highlight these annotations in another colour.

 Understanding characters through their actions:

Actions or inactions can speak louder than words. List the seven most important characters in the novel. Next to each character write which of the following most defines them in the novel and give an important example –

1. Something they do 2. Something they should have done differently 3. Something they didn’t do

 Understanding characters through their actions 2: Actions or inactions can speak louder than words. List the seven most important characters in the novel. Next to each character write each of the following and give an important example of each –

1. Something they do 2. Something they should have done differently 3. Something they didn’t do

Teaching the Themes and Ideas

Activity: Below is a list of themes as well as important quotes. Look through the list and do the following two things: 1. Come up with an alternative title or name for each theme 2. For each theme, list at least two examples of important incidents and events in the novel. 3. List important characters that are used to demonstrate each theme. What do they do, not do, think or feel to show this theme?

Knowledge, ignorance and isolation -

Sam’s world was a dark, damp maze of rakes and scrins thirty feet under the ground…His whole life was confined by these things. P. 26 Like most in this village, I had no occasion to travel father than the market town seven miles distant. P. 25

I…wished to know how things stood in the world. P. 27

When she discovered that I hungered to learn, she commenced to shovel knowledge my way…p. 36

Dear friends here we are, and here we must stay. Let the boundaries of this village become our whole world…p.104

Ignorant wretches! Anys Gowdie fought you with the only weapon she had to hand – your own ugly thoughts and evil doubting of one another! P. 95

It may seem odd that one like me, who grew up in the shadow of such large matters as the execution of one king and the exile and return of another, had stayed so ignorant of her own times. But our village was far from any important road…p.100

Incidents and events:

The status of women –

Before I blamed, I would like to know the extent of her choices in the hard world that you have described to me. P. 28

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. P. 19

I knew how easy it was for widow to be turned witch in the common mind…p. 38

I think that in her heart Aphra had never ceased to pine for the kind of power a woman like Anys might wield. P. 40

I think you like to come and go without a man’s say so. P. 54 I’m not made to be a man’s chattel. P. 54

I saw them that afternoon through Anys’s eyes: shackled to their menfolk as surely as the plough-horse to the shares. P. 55

I thought that she could teach me much about how to manage alone as a woman in the world, how to embrace my state and even exalt in it, as she seemed to. P. 73

I breathed deeply and thought instead how thankful I’d been for the touch of women’s hands in my own birthing room. P. 122

I remembered that thatcher’s hook…Anys was beside me…,”that man was a ship’s barber…He knew nothing of women’s bodies. But you do know…” p. 123

Grief:

Somehow the telling of all this rinsed my mind clean and left me able to think clearly once more. P. 210

It was as if he commenced on a journey at the moment of Elinor’s death, and every day he moved farther and farther away…p. 264

Attending Mr Mompellion’s grief, at least, gave me a way of managing my own. P. 264

I think grief has undone him. P. 267

I had stood with him that day – afraid to let him out of my sight…but also…afraid to be alone with my own grief. P. 271 Incidents and events:

Religion, Faith vs. Nature & Science:

For hundreds of years, the people of this village pushed nature back from its precints. It has taken less than a year to begin to reclaim its place. In the very middle of the street, a walnut shell lies broken, and from it, already, sprouts a sapling that wants to grow up to block our way entire. P. 11

Dark and light…that was how I had been taught to view the world. P. 55

Give me a man who sees and experiences these things for the first time…he is amazed and overwhelmed at these things…p. 70

Perhaps the Plague was neither of God nor the Devil, but simply a thing in Nature… p. 215 For if we could be allowed to see the Plague as thing in Nature merely, we did not have to trouble about some grand celestial design…p. 215

‘On your knees sinner!’ He took a step towards us, a looming black figure. P. 222

She has taken the pure vessel of her body and filled it with corruption. P. 222

It is for Him to decide who shall suffer; He, and the vicars he appoints to give you penances. P. 227

Yet we were, all of us, weary of words. P. 240

At first one of us marked it. Then, when we began to do so, we none of us spoke of it. Superstition, hope, disbelief – all these made pact with our old friend, fear, and prevented us from doing so. P. 253

The more I could make her love me, the more the penance might weigh in the balance equal to her sin. P. 281

As for Jane Martin, had I cared for her…I never would have relented, but punished her…p. 281

We have spoken much since then about faith: the adamantine one by which the doctor measures every moment of his day, and that flimsy, tattered thing that is the remnant of my own belief. P. 301

Understanding the point of the themes:

Activity: In a novel, a theme does not explore an idea solely from one perspective. Characters have different beliefs, they manage themselves and situations differently. This inevitably brings conflict or opposing views on an issue. At the end of a novel some of these conflicts are resolved, but not always all of them.

Your task is to identify the conflicts occurring in each theme, give examples, discuss whether the conflict is resolved or not, and give an interpretation as to what point Geraldine Brooks is trying to make. Follow the formula below – you need to identify and analyse as many conflicts for each theme as you can.

The conflict: In the novel (this character or group) want to (do this action) or believe (in this idea)…but (come into conflict with this opposing idea, person, group or action)

Examples of this are:

The resolution:

This is/isn’t resolved because…

The point:

An important idea Brooks would like the reader to take from this is…

Teaching the techniques

Characterisation:

Activity: The meaning of the character’s names –

The names of the main characters have been chosen very deliberately by Brooks to reflect their characteristics. Look at the meaning of the character’s names below and brainstorm three ways for each character that their name reflects their nature:

Anna: This name means grain. It is also an palindrome (the same backwards as forwards) Michael: When God cast Lucifer out of heaven and into hell the archangel Michael was the one God used to do it. He is the soldier of God.

Elinor: This is an unusual spelling of the name Elinor (Eleanor is more common). Elinor means light.

Activity: Each character in the novel is described in particular ways and uses a particular vocabulary. This process of characterisation gives the reader a deeper insight into the character. There are two characters who are particularly overtly characterised. Look through the quotes on Michael and Elinor Mompellion below. After this, list key words to describe the different ways each character is characterised.

Michael Mompellion:

(Mompellion on his horse Anteros): Then he reared up on his muscled haunches and punched the air…p. 5

Meaning of the name Anteros: visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anteros to see what Anteros means and how it might reflect upon the character of Mompellion. Think about how Anteros the horse is described and how this is an extension of Michael’s character.

The rector was standing half a flight of stairs above her, so that she had to gaze up at him like a supplicant p. 16

I remember being struck by how much larger the rector’s hand was – the hard hand of a labouring man rather than the limp, white paw of a priest. P. 45

It was a voice full of light and dark. P. 45

Michael Mompellion’s voice, when it came thundering down the clough, was louder and fiercer even than the wind. P. 94

The voice was a roar…’On your knees, sinner!’ He took a step towards us, a looming black figure. P. 222

Elinor Mompellion:

She was all pale and pearly, her hair a fine, fair nimbus…Even her eyes were pale, a white washed blue like a winter sky…she reminded me of the blow ball of a dandelion. P. 35

Elinor Momepellion was at my side from the first, and her gentle voice is what I remember best…p. 81

She nodded, her fine hair lit like a halo in the firelight. P. 149 She read the shock in my face, and her soft fingers…sought mine…she laced her slender fingers into my chapped and callused ones…p.150

He hair, so fine, clung damply to her forehead like silvery lace p. 234

Michael Mompellion Elinor Mompellion

What does this characterisation tell What does this characterisation tell us about Michael’s character? us about Elinor’s character?

Imagery:

Apart from what characters say and do, Geraldine Brooks also explores the ideas within each theme through the use of imagery. Imagery is when an author does not directly bring up ideas through the conversations and thoughts of characters, but draws a picture of something else – such as things that occur in nature – that help us reflect upon the ideas of a theme.

Nature & Animal Imagery p. 215 – read through this whole page. What do you notice about how nature is referred to? Then she took off, swooping down upon a passing wasp. Her legs had seemed flimsy as threads, but they snapped around the wasp like an iron trap. Still in flight, her powerful jaws closed on the insect and devoured it. So it goes, I thought idly. A birth and a death, each unlooked for. P. 68

I said yes, sitting him down in front of me with the ewe’s rear open before us like a big, glistening blossom. P. 66

I see it yet: the pale, folded flesh, the tiny, perfect fingers open like a little flower…p. 120

Viccars lay with his head pushed to one side by a lump the size of a newborn piglet p. 42

All along Jamie kept darting off like a swallow…p. 71

I thought as I lay there in my dull pain, that this how an owl must look to a mouse…p. 94

I learned that he begged in vain for mercy and howled like a trapped animal. P. 204

She gave a great, animal like wail and dropped to the floor. P. 206

…she was wild under our hands as a weasal…p. 206

Shepherd

Anna refers to the shepherding of her sheep throughout the novel. A shepherd is someone who takes care of a flock of sheep, keeping them fed and safe. Interestingly, Christian’s often refer to themselves as a flock and their leaders – in particular Jesus – as a shepherd. Look through the following pages with this in mind. p. 66, p. 88, p. 97 p. 216

Quotes

I’d forgotten what his eyes could do – what they could make us do – when he stared down from his pulpit and held us, one by one, in his gaze. P. 4

Then he reared up on his muscled haunches and punched the air…p. 5

The Puritans, who are few amongst us now, and sorely pressed, had the running of the village then. It was their sermons we grew up listening to in a church bare of adornment, their notion of what was heathenish that hushed the Sabbath and quieted the church bells…p. 7 Down in the mine at daybreak, out again after sundown. A life in the dark. And a death there, too. P. 9

And now it is Elinor Mompellion’s Michael who sits all day in the dark… p. 9

For the hour in which I can lose myself in someone else’s thoughts is the greatest relief I can find from the burden of my own memories. P. 9

We live all aslant here, on the steep flank of the great White Peak. We are always tilting forwards to toil uphill…p. 11

For hundreds of years, the people of this village pushed nature back from its precints. It has taken less than a year to begin to reclaim its place. In the very middle of the street, a walnut shell lies broken, and from it, already, sprouts a sapling that wants to grow up to block our way entire. P. 11

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. P. 19

Like most in this village, I had no occasion to travel father than the market town seven miles distant. P. 25

These were the kind of evening I had never had with Sam, who looked to me for all his information of the tiny world for which he cared. P. 25

Sam’s world was a dark, damp maze of rakes and scrins thirty feet under the ground…His whole life was confined by these things. P. 26

I…wished to know how things stood in the world. P. 27

Before I blamed, I would like to know the extent of her choices in the hard world that you have described to me. P. 28

I firmly hoped not to see them in that rodent life, gnawing at rock…p. 34

The frail body was paired with a sinewy mind, capable of violent enthusiasms…p. 35

When she discovered that I hungered to learn, she commenced to shovel knowledge my way…p. 36

I knew how easy it was for widow to be turned witch in the common mind…p. 38

I think that in her heart Aphra had never ceased to pine for the kind of power a woman like Anys might wield. P. 40

I would study its delicate inlays and wonder about the faraway craftsman who had fashioned it, trying to imagine the manner of his life…p. 41 It was a voice full of light and dark. P. 45

I think you like to come and go without a man’s say so. P. 54

I’m not made to be a man’s chattel. P. 54

Dark and light…that was how I had been taught to view the world. P. 55

I saw them that afternoon through Anys’s eyes: shackled to their menfolk as surely as the plough-horse to the shares. P. 55

He never let pass an opportunity to disparage her connections or slight her understanding. P. 57

My rule has been to make mutton of any who proves an inept mother…p. 66

I loved to look at Jamie’s new self…always gazing curiously at some new wonder in his world. P. 67

Give me a man who sees and experiences these things for the first time…he is amazed and overwhelmed at these things…p. 70

Ignorant wretches! Anys Gowdie fought you with the only weapon she had to hand – your own ugly thoughts and evil doubting of one another! P. 95

It may seem odd that one like me, who grew up in the shadow of such large matters as the execution of one king and the exile and return of another, had stayed so ignorant of her own times. But our village was far from any important road…p.100

Dear friends here we are, and here we must stay. Let the boundaries of this village become our whole world…p.104

Loneliness, shunning and fear. Fear will be your only faithful companion. P. 105

They may as well have some comfort since they have no choice. P. 115

Men doffed their caps and women curtsied, just as we had always done simply because that is what we had always done. P. 116

I breathed deeply and thought instead how thankful I’d been for the touch of women’s hands in my own birthing room. P. 122

I remembered that thatcher’s hook…Anys was beside me…,”that man was a ship’s barber…He knew nothing of women’s bodies. But you do know…” p. 123

This plague will make heroes of us all, whether we will or no. p. 130 I had not gone but six steps when I dropped again into the dark place of our new reality. P. 140

These times, they do makes monsters of us all…p. 141

His body is strong, but I fear that the strength of his will far exceeds it. It can drive him to do what any normal man cannot do. P. 160

I didn’t move to warn him…all I could think of was the sting of his fist. P. 200

I could not speak for him. P. 203

Out of our negligence and her loneliness came much rage. P. 205

The trouble with weeping is that once begun, it became almost impossible to stop. P. 209

Somehow the telling of all this rinsed my mind clean and left me able to think clearly once more. P. 210

At the finish of it I felt free of him…p. 210

Perhaps the Plague was neither of God nor the Devil, but simply a thing in Nature…p. 215

For if we could be allowed to see the Plague as thing in Nature merely, we did not have to trouble about some grand celestial design…p. 215

‘On your knees sinner!’ He took a step towards us, a looming black figure. P. 222

She has taken the pure vessel of her body and filled it with corruption. P. 222

None of us is master of himself as we should be in these times. P. 223

It is for Him to decide who shall suffer; He, and the vicars he appoints to give you penances. P. 227

Because of her, I had known the warmth of a motherly concern…She never reminded me of my place…she was my friend. P. 234

I wonder if you know how you have changed. P. 235

Yet we were, all of us, weary of words. P. 240

…do not make these people wait forever. Not everyone is made as firm of purpose as you. P. 256 It was as if he commenced on a journey at the moment of Elinor’s death, and every day he moved farther and farther away…p. 264

Attending Mr Mompellion’s grief, at least, gave me a way of managing my own. P. 264

I think grief has undone him. P. 267

Many people in the village did not love him for what he had done here during the long months of the ordeal. P. 269

I had stood with him that day – afraid to let him out of my sight…but also…afraid to be alone with my own grief. P. 271

Let’s go and live since we have no choice in it. P. 273

We live, we live, we live…I was alive, and I was young, and I would go on until I found some reason for it. P. 273.

Where Michael Mompellion had been broken by our shared ordeal, in equal measure I had been tempered and made strong. P. 274

The more I could make her love me, the more the penance might weigh in the balance equal to her sin. P. 281

As for Jane Martin, had I cared for her…I never would have relented, but punished her…p. 281

…that delicacy masked a most unnatural coldness; that subtle thought had twisted itself into perversion. P. 284

I was meant to go on; away from death and towards life, from birth to birth, from seed to blossom…p. 287

For I was not Elinor, after all, but Anna. P. 299