Module C: Representation and text - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Module C: Representation and text

Representing people and politics

W H Auden.Slide2

Rubric – key changes

Representation

This term has now become a part of the elective title as students were not engaging with this in their responses. This should be at the core of everything they do in this module. This term should be utilised in all thesis statements and every paragraph should begin with the idea of representation and the ways ideas are portrayed in texts

Evaluate

is also another key term – must be utilised in response. Students must illustrate they are evaluating the cause/effect of these political representations

Individual, shared or competing political ideals

Students need to address all these perspectives and representations in the texts. Need to engage with the impact of political acts as well as the representations of their motivations and their actionsSlide3

Context

Students should be familiar with the context of the poet and the world which Auden represents. Students should be aware of the chronological order of the construction of these poems so they are aware of where he is living and which political system and ideology he is commenting on.

Students should be familiar with his original home and the importance of his move to New York in 1939. Also the importance of the date September 1

st

, 1939Look into what is happening in Europe throughout the construction of these poemsStudents should also have a strong contextual knowledge of Modernism and the impact it had on style, voice, techniques and language choices. Wrote Avant

Garde plays, left wing literary groups, totalitarianism/facism of the 20/30s (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin), surrealism, ambiguity, Irony, sophisticated intellectual wit. Auden a strong symbol of Berlin during this period.

Auden's personal context – homosexuality – noteworthy but not overly crucial – more important is his engagement with Freud's dream theory and Karl Marx's ideology. More important his literary influences- Elliott, Yeats, Woolf

Onset of WW2 and Post War literary scene. Auden leaves left wing for

pacificism

Better students should engage with Cambridge Companion to WH Auden and John Fuller’s WH Auden: A commentary.Slide4

Auden and Representation

Representation is a matter of poetic style and poetic voice

The mode of poetry itself is a representation

Considered a public intellectual – strong influence from TS Elliot

Considered himself a commentator on modernity – a wastelandHis own political ideals are represented through his poetry but as are the surrounding worlds politics and historical politicsHis socialist idealism is influenced by MarxEngages with politics as beliefs and ideas and contrasts these to the politics of action.He is a poet with an interest in rhetoric (voice of poet) and sophisticated wit

Extremes – ambiguity, cleverness, intellectualism, literary borrowing or literary pastiche, doubleness, irony, self contradiction and at times sillinessPoems are often a complex reflection of himself – doubt and contradiction

Poems often can be comic or involve comic irony in serious poetry

Concerned with war and morality

Reflects major developments in history but interested in his own voice (individual and shared)– eloquence of this.Slide5

‘O what is that sound that so thrills the ear’

Auden 25 years old when writing and 27 when published. Focus on early twentieth century as a period of people, political conflict and war

Border Ballad (ballads –songs that tell a story, written on the border of Scotland/England during the 1200-1500s became fashionable with the English during the 1700s. Plays on historical tricks of perspectives. Read ‘Charlie is my darling’ as a comparison to traditional/authentic border ballad. Traditional Form – quatrains alternating between 4 stresses and 3 stressed lines. Auden's ballad seems authentic

Contextual knowledge of the “scarlet soldiers” – the red coats of the 18-19

th centuries. These links and the form suggest he is referring to the 18

th century. This period is linked with the Jacobite rising of 1745 where the Scots clans joined with Charles Edward Stuart in a rebellion against the English (represented through image of Battle of Culloden the climax of this rebellion). This terminology ‘scarlet soldier’ illustrates a lack of empathy with the “Redcoats” and that perhaps he is not on the side – a dissident. Context further built through setting – hillside looking down into a valley – traditional social world – doctor, parson, farm, soldiers on horses. A poem that represents a composite world – part past, part modern

Poem as a clever imitation of a folk ballad- clever modern pastiche – virtuoso. Sweet and pretty ballad effects that end partly being a parody, a faux contemporary literary game that is a comment on war, politics and morality.

Look at Modern style influences – ‘St Patricks Bend’ and the ‘Battle of Culloden’ (painting). Modern pastiche – language and phrasing stylishly sophisticated and in a way that outreaches traditional ballad writing “so thrills the ear”, ‘the light I see flashing so clear’, ‘the usual manoeuvres’, ‘its broken’, ‘it’s the gate’ which is colloquial and potentially Scottish combines with the modern cinematic realism of the broken lock and splintered door, the noise of their feet and the sophisticated poetic horror that ‘their eyes are burning’. Modern contextual links – Ireland v England 1916 Uprising, Nazi persecution at time of publication, WW1, Russian revolution

Female perspective metaphorical for the national perspective. Sense of deceit and abandonment. Narrative ambiguity. Who are the speakers? Ends with a love story- this relationship raises more questions than it answers.

Auden as the master of versification – strong

abab

(common measure) rhyme scheme strong rhythm in the metre includes insistent anapaests in “is that sound” “which so thrills” and the interplay of trochaic and iambic

Marxism – his interest throughout the 30s – distrust of authority of old order that brought WW1. Lucas ‘Yet no poem more fully captures that feeling so prevalent in the decade of the abandonment of their responsibilities by Western Liberal governments, of their betrayals’. Christianity Matthew 26:36-46 – disciples sleep instead of guard Jesus and Judas arrives and captures him – the first speaker becomes a Christ like figure ‘ for the disciples who ran away I substituted a single figure , whom the dreamer loves and trusts –

ie

the reader can choose whatever image suits him or her – but who in the end deserts the dreamer leaving him to face the terror alone’ Auden at Freud lecture 1971. Freudian links politics and identity/gender/sexuality – reflection of Auden's own identity as a homosexual at a time in which this was a crime. Fuller “the poem successfully works at many levels: the archetypal dream of desertion, the icon of Christian betrayal, the pastiche Jacobite ballad, the contemporary of Nazi gun butts on the door with its attendant political dilemma’Slide6

INFLUENCES

Traditional Scottish Border ballad

Modern Influences

Sir Patrick

Bens http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/poems/the_ballad_of_sir_patrick_spens.htmlBattle of the Culloden (painting)

Charlie is My Darling

Chorus

O Charlie is my darling,

   My darling, my darling;

O Charlie is my darling,

   The young Chevalier!

When first his standard caught the eye,

   His

pibroch

met the ear,

Our hearts were light, our hopes were high    For the young Chevalier. Chorus The plaided chiefs cam frae afar,    Nae doubts their bosoms steir; They nobly drew the sword for war    And the young Chevalier! Chorus But he wha trusts to fortune's smile    Has meikle cause to fear; She blinket blithe but to beguile    The young Chevalier! Chorus O dark Culloden - fatal field!    Fell source o' mony a tear; There Albyn tint her sword and shield,    And the young Chevalier! Chorus Now Scotland's "flowers are wede away;"    Her forest trees are sere; Her Royal Oak is gane for aye,    The young Chevalier! Chorus Meaning of unusual words: pibroch = Highland bagpipe steir = stirred meikle = great Albyn = Alba, Scotland tint = lost wede = faded, removed by death gane for aye = gone for ever Slide7

Continued

2 personas in the poem – he is knowing and she is coming to the realisation. He seems to be a political dissident but this is

ambigious

. This narrative ambiguity supports the political motivations

Foreshadows later horrors of Hitler. Uses a particular event to represent later events or even events that have preceded this eventEmphasis on war horrors and the idea of betrayal – what happens to herChristian allusion – betrayal, suffering and agony in the garden (L. Greco – Christ in the Garden, Matthew 26:46 – intertextuality). First speaker god like figure- other is disciples left to face the terror alone. Representation of armed forces – blindly obedient to tyrant

Freudian reading – dream text/surrealism, sense of identityComplex meditation of beliefs, morality of warSlide8

Spain context

Written in 1937

Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936-8. Right wing

Nationalists

led by Franco vs left wing republicans. Volunteers from Europe supported this. Young pro Marxist English writers where amongst this group. Political ideology clash of Marxist sympathisers aligned with communist Russia against more liberal socialists. This war defined war as a twentieth century political event- political historyAuden served in this war with Orwell, although Auden did not fight but volunteered as an ambulance driver and was eventually a broadcaster from January to march in 1937. He wrote ‘the poet must have direct knowledge of the major political events’. This poem was a direct response to those experiences. Therefore this is one of Auden's most politically overt poems ad also it takes both sides of political debate. Overtly left wing statement about solidarity. Becomes a call to political action in support of Republicans. He uses his voice as a poet in reality.

Again Auden uses this war as a representation of history. Combines ‘the people’ with a tragic political battle.

A long poem measured through shifts in temporality that unite various stanzasSlide9

Spain

Section One –Stanza 1-6 - Past

Surveys the past through the refrain that works as a philosophical statement – a war slogan for Republicans. Parallel effect that it echoes popular Marxist revolutionary slogans “But today the struggle”

Section two – Stanza 7-14 World

Surveys the reaction of the world to the war with Spain through the response of the poet, scientist, poor, nations and the life of the contemporary world. Reveals this view to be confused and superficial and it seems that this is what has led to this war. Spain is presented as an iconic event of modernity and its confusion ‘I am Spain’Slide10

Spain

Section three – stanza 15-19 volunteers

Point of view shifts to an account of the volunteers. 15-16 explore the migration of people across Europe to climax ‘all presented their lives’ ready to die for political cause. 17 describes Spain – geographical and cultural definition ‘that fragment..’ 18-19 the transformation of the people from the contemporary world ‘medicine ad’ to ‘invading battalions’ and explores the conditions of the war and ends with the socialist phrase ‘a peoples army’

Section four- 20-23 Future

The future account that balances the opening focus on the past. Builds the refrain ‘Tomorrow, perhaps the future..’ Possibilities of the future as a nostalgic celebration of the contemporary world with its trivial and cultural pleasures. Shifts to a sophisticated account of Europe – a reminder of the best possibilities of human life that are being subverted by Spain. Becomes a lament for life that is lost by those who go to war. Double point of view that is underlined by the return to a refrain ‘But today the struggle’Slide11

Section 5-stanza 24-26 The men fighting

Temporal Shift to an account of today – present conditions of fighting in Spain – implied through the view of the volunteers. Dramatic inference that Auden is the voice of them and one of them. He speaks for those that are alone with the horror of war ‘we are left alone with our day and the time is short

Look at how the poem

intertexualises

political slogans and anthems‘But today the struggle’All presented their lives

Our hours of friendship into a peoples armyRead “The International”Slide12

Notes on Spain

Direct statement about people and politics – illustrated through political slogans through the refrain ‘But today the struggle’ and political anthems ‘all presented their lives’, ‘ Our hours of friendship into a peoples army’

The Internationale –

left wing anthem, symbolic of socialist movement 19

th C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suVB3YGIUk0. First section echoes Marxist slogans

Ends with a complex call to arms and tragic lament. ‘The stars are dead and the animals will not look’ is poetic tragedy antithesis's to the heroic statement that combatants must face their day emphasises the need for action with a warning that adds ambiguity. Dramatic challenge of victory and defeat but its not clear who is who. The openness is a part of tragedy, whoever wins history will lament the horror of war but the future cannot help but pardon the facts of war. On the other hand the political commitment of the rest of the poem suggests that the lines read as faith that the Nationalists will lose and they will never be pardoned. In that case there is a historical irony that the Nationalists won.

The ending becomes a graphic dramatic account of men at war – almost documentary. Stanza 25 is persuasively authentic as an account of the ‘makeshift consolations’ of men at war- ‘the shared cigarette..’ It also has the advantage of encapsulating one of Auden's key characteristics of his rhetoric – an attention to words and descriptive detail with an edge of sophistication and cleverness that goes beyond conventional war poetry; ‘makeshift consolations’, ‘scraping concerts’, ‘fumbled and unsatisfactory embrace before hurting’.

Auden's definition of men at war is also confrontational and controversial. The morality of war ‘the conscious acceptance of guilt in the necessary murder’. This moral reflection is not part of traditional, national celebrations of war and its heroes. Auden raises for discussion when is a war just, when is it murder’. Responses criticised Auden's the nature of his involvement in the war and Orwell was scathing in his response to this as he believed it was a ‘just war’ and even attacked Auden's lines and sexuality; ‘ utterly irresponsible intelligentsia, the alliance of ‘the gangster and the pansy’. These classic lines become a challenge to morality of all politics and war – even contemporary – Iraq/Syria – call to arms/radicalisation of youth. Hemmingway also served in this war –actively.Slide13

Spain

Poem is a paradox – non

conventional war poetry indicated by sophisticated rhetoric that follows Yeats/Eliot and the Avant

Garde

Modernism of the 1930s illustrated through; 1. the ornate structure – grand poetic design, seems symphonic through the length of the first section. 2. the grand vistas of history in the past and present presented through a shifting voice from conversational to formal, becomes a poem based in intellectual identity that makes a performance of learning and philosophical understanding and wit. Iconic representation of modernity in its confusion/superficiality. Look at the detail of the first survey of the past. Nationalist celebrations of war don’t celebrate murders. Auden raises this being edgy/confrontational. Post romantic views of the poet – public intellectual, visionary commentator,

avant garde, sublime. Surrealistic detail in stanza 23 – ‘poets exploding like bombs’

Mass culture – modernity stanza 22

Representation of Spain – Spanish history, what shapes the individual, cultural identity, national identity as representation

Stanza 1 – language of size – formal educated. Counting frame – origin of maths and measurement – use of wit to represent the spread of knowledge though measurement metaphor. Links between maths and religion through Cromlech (as representations) as temples that combine and reflect these elements. Purposefully surrealistic and disorienting to represent the

avant

garde

Emphasis on the voice of poet – stanza 7 ‘whispers, startled among the pines’ which seems to refer back to early pastoral (Theocritus) and then to a more romantic poet modern wasteland in ‘upright/On the crag by the leaning tower’ which is both a definitive piece of the Romantic sublime a characteristic echo of TS Eliot. Stanza 23 returns to a future surrealistic image ‘exploding like bombs’ which seems to be in part Auden's aim in the poem as a poetic gesture of war. This jars with later problems about war , terrorism and anarchism. Anarchist revolutionary exploding poets are dramatic and even glamorous in this context but how does this image fit with current problems?

Interplay of different identities that includes sophisticated satire. He creates an identity that is in part sophisticated clever, complicated and even outrageous. In particular stanza 13-14 where he channels the sophisticated relativism, decadence and disillusion o the period as ‘the bar companion, the easily duped…the suicide pact’ and stanza 18 creates the war heroes out of a world of a wasteland of consumerism and greed ‘our faces, the institute face the chain store, the ruin’

What is the effect of stanza 22 and the account of tomorrow and today as ‘the exchanging of tips on the breeding of terriers’? Fashionable clever wit as an essential part of his voice- droll and clever to the point of queer outrageousness? Is the queer a further dimension to the wit. The poem in itself acts as a representation in an extreme way – the awareness of the poet and his rhetoric as a mode of sophisticated poetic pastiche. How effective is the balance between politics and the

avant

garde of Modernism? Challenging and different – Look at other modernist and surrealistic responses to this war – Picasso’s GuernicaSlide14

Epitaph on a Tyrant- context

Last poem written in England by Auden. At this point he is considered a leader of young radical poets and uses this hi poetry to voice political ideals. Contrasting to Spain, in this poem he becomes more focused on opposing direct political action whereas previously he was concerned with the necessity of that action. This combined with his choice to leave England impacted on his reputation.

End of

Spainish

civil war, rise of totalitarian dictatorships across Europe – Hitler, Mussolini, StalinSlide15

The Memory of W.B. Yeats - Context

First poem he wrote in America.

Considered one of the major poems of the 20

th

century.A poem from a poet at the peak of his career about the death of another influential poet.Yeats – engaged with politics of the Irish rebellion for independence. Easter 1916 uses the refrain ‘A terrible beauty is born’ to be immoratlised as one of the most important poems of its time. He was also a poet concerned with his poetic identity and voice (notably also a very eccentric and tortured one)

Three sections of the poem (triptych structure- although it seems inverted)

The form of an epitaph merges into a funeral eulogy and the traditional poetic form of the elegy- although this is radicalised.

The poem reflects

Audens

new sense of identity in America with emphasis that politics is personal, that poetry is removed from direct political action and that the political role of the poet is about vision within the ruined and horrific context of the contemporary world.Slide16

Part 1

Describes Yeats’s death in a way that is similar to the view of the ‘present’ in

Spain.

Traditional lament that is stated with the description of the ‘dead of winter’ of his death and the refrain ‘the day of his death was a dark cold day’

Stanzas 1 & 2 – grand poetic global view of a world that seems at once contemporary and a timeless epic world – airports, wolves in evergreen forests.The poem itself calls attention to itself as a grand, clever and sophisticated performance of poetic wit and rhetoric- consider ‘the death of the poet was kept from his poems’.

Note the elaborate versification of the first stanza with the elaborate plosive alliteration of the ‘d’ –echoes of Thomas and Whitman in the long lines. Do you think this versification reflects the new identity of the poet. The landscape is a further announcement of

Audens

sense of freedom for himself and his poetrySlide17

Stanza 3-4 Part 1

The physical facts of death are conflated with the political image about rebellion – acts as a reminder about Yeats involvement with the Irish rebellion – repression and revolution of the 20

th

C.

Image shifts from the fame and appropriation of his poetry in the future to the harsh bitterness about the contemporary political world – ‘the words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living’ – challenges conventional decorum. Becomes a lament not only for Yeats but for wider contemporary world

Stanza 5 and refrainThe view of the future recalls the account of the future in ‘Spain’ but here is even darker. The hope of revolutionary change is reversed. The poor stay poor, the most to expect is to almost be convinced about freedom. Yeats death is remembered as doing something ‘slightly unusual’ – a tragic understatement and hugely ironic as nothing will be achieved in spite of the awareness of only ‘a few thousand’.

Chances of modern poet being a modern political hero seem limited. Reversal of conventional expectation in tone and praise are a major part of the representation of Yeats death and its significance to poetry and politicsSlide18

Part Two

The change in focus is extreme. ‘You were silly like us’ confrontational contrast to a conventional eulogy. This change reflects the change of the poet himself

Move towards a dark view that furthers the darkness of the first section except this is focused around the silliness of the contemporary world – personal weakness, imperfection and failure merge with national and historical failure ‘Mad Ireland’. This silliness is reflected through the life of Yeats as well as silliness of modernity – his identity merges with the general identity, poets identity. This is

Audens

purposeful choice to be outrageous (Irish would not appreciate being called ‘Mad’. Does this impact on effectiveness of poem?

Statement of despair that rings throughout the whole poem – ‘for poetry makes nothing happen – poetry is represented as a separate country of ‘isolation.. Griefs’, beliefs and death and yet the paradox here is that it survives ‘a way of happening, a mouth’. He means to be elusive here – poetry is a way of living but only a way of speaking and without effect. It is offered as a nihilistic, empty and heroic at the same time. In essence it rejects the political

activisim

of

Spain

. There is an outrageous sophistication here that pervades the traditional elegy

Implies that Auden’s relocation to ‘the ranches of isolation’ and ‘raw towns’ that suggests America as the place of the poet.

It uses obscure intertextuality – reverses Yeats worry in

The man and the echo

which questioned wether his poem had interfered with history – the consequences of his poetry

THINK: Does Auden overstate things for dramatic and rhetorical effect? Does he lose moral and political authority at such points? To say that poetry doesn’t make things happen is interesting but does it make sense? Hyperbole can be fun but can it be pointless? Surely poetry can make things happen

orbe a part of political process. Ideas, action? National anthems, political anthems, hymns, love songs..Yeats poem Easter 1916 as a direct contribution to political thought and action in a way that Auden's poem is not – but Auden questions this which is more complicated. We see Auden's sense of powerlessness, pessimism, disillusionment in contributing to public political action.Slide19

Part Three

Consummate burial song. Illustrates Auden’s brilliant versification – rhyming couplets in incomplete trochaic tetrameters and provide an accented syllable for the rhyming word that creates a burial chant

.

First section forgives the poet for their silliness and eloquence (paradoxical) – art over meaning. Dark world focused on mortality –brave, innocent, beautiful die.

Poets guilty of political crimes – Kipling (narrow colonialism) and Claudel (conservative Catholicism)

Final section laments the condition of Europe ‘in the nightmare of the dark’ – moral implications of politics. Ends with an address to the ‘poet’- past and present and their duty to speak about the personal condition of modernity as affirmation in a state of apocalyptic suffering ‘in a rapture of distress’. Poem becomes about poetic vision a modern renewal of Romantic ideals of poet being a visionary teacher (almost preacher). Auden has moved from the poet being a political agent to a visionary although his view is pessimistic. Contrasts to SpainSlide20

Related Material

Suggested other related texts

Film

Gladiator

, Henry V, Invictus, Gandhi, Robin Hood, Crash

, Inception, Charlie Chaplin: Modern Times

and

The Great

Dictator

,

Charlie

Wilson’s

War

,

Gallipoli

,

The Last King of Scotland, A Few Good Men, The Battleship Potemkin, Erin Brokovich, Whale Rider, The Queen, Gattaca, The Hunger Games, Divergent, See also “The Fifteen Best Political Films” at http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/05/the-15-best-political-films-of-all-time-the-votes-are-in/#slide/downfall/?&_suid=1398820794517010341032416064083DramaSaint Joan George Bernard Shaw, Murder in the Cathedral T.S. Eliot, A Man For All Seasons Robert Bolt, The Club David Williamson, ‘Master Harold’ . . .and the boys Athol Fugard , Shakespeare (Drama scripts and film adaptations), Macbeth; King Lear; RAN; Henry VTV seriesThe West Wing, House of Cards, The Tudors, Game of Thrones,Yes, Minister; Yes, Prime Minister, The Dismissal Prose Fiction The Wave , A Handmaid’s Tale , Animal Farm, Utopia, Catch 22, The Kite Runner, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Scarlet Pimpernel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , The Hunger Games; Divergent and other similar dystopian textsGraphic novels & picture books: Persepolis (or film version), Maus , The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman , The Rabbits, When the wind blowsNon-fiction/multimediaGeorge Orwell – Essays: Notes on Nationalism; Looking Back on the Spanish War, Mike Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Nelson Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom (and other writing, speeches), Gandhi - The Story of My Experiments with Truth (and other writing, speeches), Whitlam – The Power and the Passion, Leni Riefenstahl - Triumph of the Will - Nazi documentary/ propaganda film, Geoffrey Robertson The Justice Game, Selected speeches and TED talksPoemsFor a range of political poems see the website http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/244532 For example, see Miller Williams poem, ‘Of History and Hope, requested by Clinton to be read at his inauguration.Slide21
Slide22

Liberty Leading the People

(1830) is a painting by

Eugène

Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France.Slide23

Picasso’s

Guernica

from Wikipedia:

Guernica

is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country village in northern Spain, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

Guernica

shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians

.

Discuss Divine Comedy with Dante

This masterpiece was created by three famous Chinese painters

Dai

Dudu

, Zhang

Anjun

and Litie Zi. The painting, 6 meters long x 2.6 meters high, depicts one hundred world famous people and some cultural icons such as The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, Stonehenge etc.[Sourced from: http://www.daydaypaint.com/blog/tag/buy-paintings-online/page/2 - go to site for more detailed identification of the figures and the painting.]Slide24

Gladiator

leadership and power (from the dying Caesar) but has a clear understanding of his role, how to wield his influence, rule. His purpose = to achieve a Republic but not for personal power.

Maximus expresses to Senator Gaius his willingness to ‘give up’ Rome once he has done what he has to do



acknowledges he will relinquish his power back to the senate, the people

In contrast, is the autocratic ruler, Commodus, who is ruled by his need for power, to be the most powerful  autocratic, manipulative, corrupt – does anything and everything to maintain HIS power and position and control. Feeds off his own power.

It is Maximus’ concern for the welfare of others, his loyalty, sense of duty

etc

that gives him power and the image of a true, noble Roman leader – he gains the respect and loyalty of others who support him no matter what - as opposed to Commodus who is forced to take power through fear, cruelty, corruption, deceit (

eg

murders his father for the throne/to become Emperor)

You could also look at the gender roles in the film and gender politics: how the patriarchal world of Ancient Rome is represented. Questions are raised about who is best to lead, have the power; who is to succeed



male heirs to the throne at the time yet Caesar says to his daughter

Lucilla

- “if only you had been born a man what a Caesar you would have made”; he knows she would be strong (but questions whether she would be just!) He acknowledges her capabilities but he is powerless to make her ruler – a fact of the patriarchal society - she would be a more worthwhile leader than her brother. The representation of a patriarchal society where all power (political, economic, religious

etc ) in reality still remains in the hands of men raises discussion about how this is still evident in much of the world today.  Another political issue here is represented later in the film when we see Lucilla, who has proven her strength with her tactics for ‘survival’, held virtually a prisoner to Commodus’ will by his threats to her son. She ends up powerless against her Emperor brother because of her love for Maximus and her son Lucius. Lucilla is interesting to look at in terms of degrees of political power and leadership qualities. She definitely has some political clout as Caesar’s daughter – she intervenes in the Senate when her brother is being temperamental etc, and the Senators accept her help; she acts as her brother’s intermediary and is able to use her position to get into the prison and set up a possible political coup with the Senator against her brother. She is heavily involved in the politics and her qualities are evident to others but inevitably she loses her position of power because of her mother’s love for Lucius and Commodus plays on this to get his own way. Representation of Rome, the Empire, army and its people.What is Rome? What is a noble Roman? Note the use of visual iconography and symbolism to represent the political leaders, the power of Rome and its people. Slide25

Gladiator

For example, such iconography in the film as the figures/statues/busts of Caesar and other leaders as well as other symbols of position and power



the trappings of power



dress, costumes, robes, gold adornments, plus the size

etc

of buildings in the shots of Rome, sense of space, size of the city = its power as the capital and what it represents about the Roman Empire at its zenith/height.

[

See

stillframe

below and its representation of Rome and Commodus’ triumphal return 

note the composition,

mise

-en-scene and spatial hyperbole.]

Note how all the pomp and ceremony in Rome is a visual display and representation of Commodus’ power as Emperor; his holding of the games for so many days to win over the people (yet he has to sell Rome’s grain stores to pay for them.) Note also the aside in the film about Commodus’ return to Rome: “[he] enters Rome like a conquering hero. What has he conquered?” In his tent near the battlefields in Germania, Marcellus points to a map on his world “that is the world I have created” representing his power but also his ‘god-like status’. He wonders how the world will speak of his name in years to come “will I be the philosopher, the warrior, the tyrant? Or will I be the emperor who gave Rome back her true self”. It is this future vision of Rome that Maximus pursues on Caesar’s bequest. He wants Maximus to be the protector of Rome and give the power back to the people, and end the corruption that has crippled Rome. He comments on his own son Commodus, “he is not a moral man; he cannot, must not rule”. This raises issues about the status of the Emperor as a creator as well as a representative of their world and all Rome stands for. Later in the film Lucilla and Commodus discuss what the ‘greatness of Rome” is and suggest it is an idea and “greatness is a vision”. After the battle against the Germanians Maximus is praised and honoured by his troops and his discussion with his majesty, Marcellus Caesar, highlights the concern he has for Rome: “we must save Rome from the politicians”. Marcellus’ vision of Rome becomes significant in his nominating Maximus as his successor, he understands that Maximus has not been corrupted and will always serve Rome and ensure Slide26

Gladiator

his dying wish that Rome be a Republic again. Later in Rome Maximus is reminded by

Lucilla

that he is a man of principle who has served Rome well. When he agrees to lead the military coup he does so to fulfil the last wish of a dying man and will relinquish his position and power to the Senate once this has been achieved; he will not “trade one dictator for another”.

Representing leaders as political strategists; controlling the plebs; the army/ Pretorian guards In one of the early sequences in the film a Roman General comments on the enemy they are about to fight: “People should know when they are conquered” before shaking hands with Maximus on the army motto, “Strength and Honour”. Maximus is represented as a strong, respected leader with clear principles who is able to easily rouse his troops and inspire their loyalty. As he states, “What we do in life echoes in eternity”. It is his ‘nobleness and honour, as much as his military genius and strength, that others perceive and for which they respect him. (Note the significance of Maximus removing his SPOR tattoo, the symbol of his army and life as a general.)

The battle sequences early in the film, while showing their strength in numbers

etc

, also contrastingly shows the power of the intellect – it is the General Maximus and Roman army fighting strategies and tactics (thinking) that also makes them victorious. You can’t do it with ‘brawn’ (physical strength) alone, a successful leader needs tactics and strategies. Also shows you can’t underestimate your opponents. That’s why Maximus is a good and powerful leader – note how we are shown the respect given to him by his men as they acknowledge his principles as well as his capabilities. Notice the motto at beginning of the film for the Roman army “Strength and honour” – they are meant to go hand in hand; the generals literally shake hands on this before the battle, and the gladiators acknowledge this same principle later when they fight for their freedom.

Look also at those sequences in the film when Maximus (the natural leader) organises the gladiators in the ring to work together – this gives them a power over their enemies and represents the importance and power of collaboration, team work, unity etc.

Commodus also shows us this strategist skill in a different way. He has a whole army to command but realises he has to be mentally manipulative in order to sustain his power – he blackmails others, corrupts them, rules with fear etc. He understands the power of the mob but believes he can manipulate them, control them by distracting them with games and magic/illusion in the Colosseum: he sees them as fickle and easily swayed – even the Senators acknowledge that ‘fear and wonder are a powerful combination’. Leadership and politics is all about ‘winning the crowd’ – we see this when Maximus does exactly that with his courage

and skill in gladiatorial combat



and how the gladiator becomes more powerful than the emperor!

Maxiumus

’ owner comments “Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome”; he responds to Maximus’ cynicism by reminding him that the power to amuse a mob IS power, and the mob IS Rome; who controls them controls everything.