Modelling Essay Writing

Earlier this year I had the pleasure to write a student resource textbook on The Merchant of Venice for the HSC 'Texts and Human Experiences' Common Module. I wrote this at the invitation of Into English (the book can be found here [digital e-book] and here [print edition]). It was something I did separately to my teaching as I actually taught my 2019 Year 12 class Nineteen Eighty-Four for the Common Module, and this means that I haven't had much of a chance to reflect on the module from a Merchant of Venice standpoint. Anyway, long story short, I've received some questions over the last few months about essay writing for The Merchant of Venice and this prompted me to write a sample paragraph. 

This paragraph can be viewed as supplementary material in support of one of the sample questions in the Into English book. The question itself isn't too important as the piece is predominantly designed to just demonstrate the components of a paragraph addressing human experiences, and can hopefully be used as a model for students to look at.

Here's the paragraph in question:

Sample Paragraph

The Merchant of Venice, through its exploration of the way in which people respond to appearances, reveals particular inconsistencies inherent in the human condition. This is perhaps best exemplified by the Prince of Morocco's observation that "All that glisters is not gold", an aphorism in which the deceptiveness of appearances is rendered concisely on multiple levels. Primarily, this remark is made in response to the false selection of a gold casket in the test for Portia's hand in marriage. It also doubles, however, as a metaphor for one of the play's key themes, wherein society often projects a shiny veneer that covers uglier truths. The antipathy that exists between Antonio and Shylock similarly conveys this context, with Antonio using the simile "like a villain with a smiling cheek" to describe Shylock's offer to loan him money, highlighting the apparent act of kindness as being inherently deceptive and evil. The inability of Christians and Jews within Renaissance-era Europe to see each other's true nature is further reinforced by Shylock's rhetorical identification of Antonio's hypocrisy, exemplified by the line "You called me 'dog' - and for these courtesies I'll lend you thus much money?" From a 21st century context, the audience is positioned to give equal weight to both the Christian and Jewish standpoint, and Shakespeare's depth of understanding becomes clearer from this more enlightened vantage point. In his examination of deceptive appearances, Shakespeare utilises these discussions to bring to the surface a range of inconsistencies in human behaviours and attitudes in order to demonstrate how conflict originates in such duplicity.

Annotated Paragraph

To assist with breaking up the above paragraph into its constituent parts, I have also attached an annotated version below.

Here it is: The Merchant of Venice and Human Experiences

I wanted to put the annotations up here directly but I couldn't figure out how to do it within a blog. I mean, to be honest, it's the end of the year and I'm feeling pretty exhausted so I didn't really invest too much time in trying to figure out how to convey annotations in the blogging format. 

Okay, look, if I'm really honest I didn't invest any time in figuring out how to convey annotations here. It's been a long year.

I would like to add that I wish you all the best over the upcoming holiday break!

Texts and Human Experiences: The Merchant of Venice

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to present some material relating to The Merchant of Venice within the context of the HSC Texts and Human Experiences Common Module. These resources are a small part of the textbook The Merchant of Venice, which I wrote for Into English at the beginning of this year.

With kind permission from the publisher, I have uploaded these presentation materials here for anyone potentially considering The Merchant of Venice as their Common Module text when teaching Year 12 English next term. This was initially presented in 2019 at the ETA NSW Conference. The version below is an updated/adjusted version that was presented to Aurora College for their HSC Seminar Day in 2022.

• Texts and Human Experiences: The Merchant of Venice - PowerPoint Presentation
• The Merchant of Venice - Resources
  

The textbook can be purchased digitally or in material form from the following places:

• Into English 
• Australian Curriculum Supplies 

The play itself is, as expected, an incredibly rich and layered text and is actually perfectly crafted as expression of human experiences.

Fruit and Shakespeare: Things I Learned in Bundanoon

Bundanoon Makers' Markets

Bundanoon is a nice little town in the Southern Highlands. They made headlines in 2008 and 2009 for becoming the first place in the world to ban the sale of bottled water, and it's a township that is also well-known for hosting Brigadoon, the 'largest highlander gathering in the southern hemisphere' (not an actual quote, but this is the sort of thing said about it. It basically means lots of people put kilts on and strut about on the heath). 

My wife and I have a special place in our hearts for the Southern Highlands. It's only an hour and a half south of Sydney yet still feels like a whole world away. It's also where we got married, and we travel back down there several times a year. 

Gosh, that makes me feel so old. I used to spend my weekends going to pubs and watching punk bands, now I go on bush walks and visit craft shops in Moss Vale. 

This was one of three lyrebirds we saw in the highlands; the other two were feathered and moving but, alas, this was the only one I managed to photograph.

Anyway, the point of this post is that while gadding about in the highlands last weekend, the Duck and I happened across the Bundanoon Makers' Market and met one Rachel Russell, a maker and purveyor of home-harvested jams, preserves and spreads. Here she is, pictured below after I awkwardly asked if I could take a photo of her stand:

Rachel Russell and her home made wares

Ms. Russell introduced me to the wonders of the medlar, a fruit the likes of which I have never heard. As it turns out, this humble-looking fruit has a certain historical and literary significance. The medlar is an ancient winter fruit referenced in many Shakespeare plays (and throughout the Jacobean and Elizabethan eras in general), and its quirky look lends it a variety of euphemistic nicknames that allude to 'open bottoms' and the like. 

Note this quote from Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, in which he bawdily references the medlar in relation to Romeo wanting to 'get some':

Now he will sit under a medlar tree,

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit

As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.

O Romeo, that she were, O that she were

An open-arse and thou a pop'rin pear!

I also learned from Ms. Russell about something called bletting, whereby fruit is softened beyond ripening through a process (in this case frostbite) and the toxins are broken down to allow it to become more edible. 

Bletting lends itself to the idiom, "Time and straw make the medlars ripe" (referenced in Don Quixote), and there are a whole host of other allusions related to the innocuous looking little fruit. Elizabethan playwright Thomas Dekker bleakly says in reference to the poor medlar (and bletting), "Women are like medlars - no sooner ripe but rotten".

What a charmer.

Meanwhile, the Edwardian novelist D. H. Lawrence said medlars were "wineskins of brown morbidity", proving that he too had a fatalistic view of innocuous foodstuffs.

Yum!

Anyway, the Duck purchased some chardemedlar from Ms. Russell; an Elizabethan-styled medlar paste for use with cheese or crackers. I tasted some this afternoon on a teaspoon. It tasted like a deep, dark apple stew that had been squeezed out of a dusty medieval Christmas dessert feast. I liked it.