Conflicting perspectives help please!! (1 Viewer)

[iMwah]

Hey guys! I have an essay to write and I'm really stuck on what I could focus on. The question asks me to explain how I've used the medium of poetry to represent conflicting perspectives about events, personalities and situations. In my explanation I have to focus on at least 2 of the poems from "Birthday Letters" by Ted Hughes.

I was thinking, maybe I could focus on Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plaths' relationship as the conflicting perspective, and then bring in events, personalities and situations?
Events being the place they're situated in, personalities being her father or Sylvia. and situations being the relationship, or maybe Sylvia as a mother figure?

I'm not sure, I'm just really unsure about what to write, and how to begin my introduction. The rest I'm fine with.

 

[lifeinmydalek]

I wouldn't refer to Plath, she's become to cliché for this module

 

[Streetboy]

Lol, focus on Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plaths' relationship as the conflicting perspective

 

[kalifridge]

These are notes from the Marking Centre. So as you can see focusing too much on their relationship will make it a weaker response, possibly band 3/4. However if you refer to their relationship through events, personalities, attitudes, behaviours, situations and use those as the base of the argument you will mark higher. Although, it also depends on the question but you should always use the topics (events, personalities, etc.) to refer for each paragraph, Their relationship will probably be one paragraph or 2 depending if you combine both poems into one paragraph or not. One easy rule to remember is One theme, Two Quotes and Three techniques, 1:2:3, for each paragraph.

"In better responses, candidates demonstrated an understanding of divergent viewpoints in the
texts and how they influence our understanding about the complexity of human attitudes and
behaviour. In these responses, candidates used a personal voice to articulate their own increased
awareness of humanity. They also identified how Hughes positioned the reader through his
choice of poetry as his medium for writing. In these responses, candidates skilfully integrated an
evaluation of language, forms and features of the poetry and of the texts of their own choosing,
with a skilful and controlled use of language.
In weaker responses, candidates focused on the Hughes/Plath relationship and treated the topic as
a superficial comparative study. They either ignored the complexities of humanity or treated this
idea superficially. They presented a description of Hughes’s guilt and sought to apportion blame
to either Plath or Hughes. The use of all the set poems tended to limit the depth of discussion"