1. HWK: Reread chapters 20-25
Select a quote for each theme, annotate it and post it on
the blog:
Possession
Gender roles
Science/religion
Fairytales/myth
Freedom vs restiction/safety
Resurrection and death
Must be posted on the blog before the lesson after
Christmas
2. What is the most tense moment in
the section we have just read?
How has the tension been created?
3. HWK: Reread chapters 17, 18
and 19.
Select a quote for each theme, annotate it and post it on
the blog:
Possession
Gender roles
Science/religion
Fairytales/myth
Freedom vs restiction/safety
Resurrection and death
Must be posted on the blog before Tuesday’s lesson
4. How is ‘Possession’ influenced by this literary form? How does Chapter 17 reflect this?
In classical literature the quest begins with an initiator who is in need of
something or someone import. This object requires a substantial effort to
obtain. A long and substantial journey follows […]The quester usually
faces some difficulty during the course of the journey either before the
destination is reached or after the object is obtained. The quester may or
may not face some sort of test and/or challenge before obtaining the
object. The quest is usually complete when the quester returns with or
without the object of the quest.
Paul Barette, http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/ach-allc.99/proceedings/barrette.html
5. Ch 18
Gloves lie together
Limp and calm
Finger to finger
Palm to palm
With whitest tissue
To embalm
In these quiet cases
With hands creep
With supple stretchings
Out of sleep
Fingers clasp fingers
Troth to keep
How does Byatt use the epigraph to introduce the ideas/events in the following
chapter?
How does the poem reflect the theme of possession?
6. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and
millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody
knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions
ferment in the masses of life which people earth.
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but
women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for
their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as
their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint,
too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would
suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged
fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine
themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings,
to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.
Later on, (p.336) Jane Eyre is referenced explicitly.
7. Chapter 19
1. How are men and women presented in the epigraph? How do they contradict
Victorian society’s expectations?
2. How does this compare to the way Sabine writes about women’s roles on p.340
and 343?
3. On p354 Sabine’s father discusses the meaning of the myth of Merlin and Vivian.
How do his ideas relate to the idea of possession and male female relations?
How does this link to other ideas in the novel?
4. Look at Gode’s story (p.358). How does it reflect the themes of the novel and
Christabel’s situation? How is it similar to the tale of the little mermaid and to
the story of Christabel and Ash?
5. On p369 Sabine is unable to explicitly write what Christabel “had concealed” and
then on p.372 her father tells her that Christabel “is somehow fatally split in two,
and that she has not let her conscience and public self know what is to happen
to her”. On 378 she refers to C’s “prohibition”.
What do these quotes tell us about : a) Victorian society and b) religion? How do they
remind you of Melusine or the features of fairytales?
