The Great Gatsby Ch 1 Summary

The narrator of The Great Gatsby is a young man named Nick Carraway. He starts off the story by talking about himself, stating that he learned from his father to reserve judgment about other people, because if he holds them up to his own moral standards, he will misunderstand them. He sees himself as a highly moral and highly tolerant individual. He briefly mentions the hero of his story, Gatsby, saying that Gatsby represented everything he scorns, but that he exempts Gatsby completely from his usual judgments. Gatsby’s personality was nothing short of “gorgeous.”

Nick arrives in New York in 1922, where he moved to work in the bond business,like most of his generation and rented a house on a part of Long Island called West Egg. Unlike the old-fashioned, aristocratic East Egg, West Egg is home to the “new money,” those who, have recently built their fortunes and have neither social connections or the refinement to move among the East Egg set. West Egg is characterized by lavish displays of wealth and garish poor taste, the “old money”. Nick’s comparatively modest West Egg house is next door to Gatsby’s mansion, a sprawling Gothic monstrosity.
Nick is unlike his fellow West Egg neighbours; whereas they lack the social connections he has, Nick graduated from Yale and has many connections on East Egg. One night, he drives out to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, someone. Tom, a burly man, greets Nick on the porch. Inside, Daisy lounges and chats on the couch with her friend Jordan Baker, a golfer, who seems to be perpetually bored when met by Nick.
Tom tries to get everyone interested in a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires by a man named Goddard. The book espouses racist, white-supremacist attitudes that Tom seems to find convincing. Daisy teases Tom about the book but is interrupted when Tom leaves the room to take a phone call. Daisy follows him, and Jordan informs Nick that the call is from Tom’s mistress in New York.
After they have dinner, everyone goes they're seperate ways. Jordan wants to go to bed because she has a golf tournament the next day. As Nick leaves, Tom and Daisy tease that they would like for him to take pursue a relationship withh Jordan.
When Nick arrives home, he sees Gatsby for the first time, an enigmatic young man standing on his lawn with his arms reaching out toward the dark water. Nick looks out at the water, but all he can see is a distant green light that might mark the end of a dock.

The Great Gatsby Ch 2 Summary

There is a place that lies halfway between West Egg and New York City, a desolate plain, a gray valley where New York’s ashes are dumped. The men who live here are seen shoveling up the ashes. Overhead, two huge, blue, glasses-clad eyes, an old advertising gimmick by an eye doctor, glare from the old sign. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, watch over everything that happens in the area know as the valley of ashes.One day, as Nick and Tom are riding the train into the city.

Tom forces Nick to accompany him to 'meet his girl'. Tom leads Nick to George Wilson’s auto-shop, which is on the edge of the valley of ashes. Tom’s mistress, Myrtle, is Wilson’s wife. Wilson is a dull and drab, yet handsome man, skin colored gray by the ashes in the air. In contrast, Myrtle has a kind of desperate vitality; Nick observes her, and see her as a sensuous woman despite her stout figure. Tom bullies Wilson for awhile, then asks Myrtle to follow him to the train. Tom takes Nick and Myrtle to New York City, to the Morningside Heights apartment he keeps for his affair, not  before buying Myrtle a puppy as a gift.

This is where ecounters the strange couple of Catherine, Myrtle's sister and the Mckee couple.

Catherine engages Nick in conversation, telling him of a rumor she heard, that Jay Gatsby is related to Kaiser Wilhelm. They have a party oof sorts, exchanging drinks, with Nick commenting that it was the second time he ever got drunk. Nick tries to leave on several times due to the repulsive conversations taking place around him, but is prevented from doing such.

As the evening goes on and everyone becomes exceedingly more drunk, Myrtle brings up conversation about Daisy. Tom crisply tells her to not talk about his wife, Daisy being drunk and irrational, states she will 'talk about whatever she wants' which leads to her childishly chanting Daisy's name, this gets her a bloody broken nose courtesy of Tom. Nick makes his exit, drunk and catches the 4:00 A.M. train back to Long Island.

First tuorial

Act 4, Scene 4:
1. Margaret stays hidden in the shadows throughout most of the action.
2. Margaret plans to go to France.
3. For Richard to die.
4. She asks her to teach her how to curse.
5. She tells her not to sleep or eat and to remember her suffering.
6. The Duchess of York, his mother.
Act 4, Scene 5:
1. Stanley’s son George is being held hostage by Richard.
2. Stanley tells Richmond of the hostage situation.
3. She agrees to let her daughter marry Richmond.
4. Richmond is in Wales.
5. A renowned soldier.
6. Richmond and his followers plan to go to London.
Act 5, Scene 1:
1. Buckingham is executed in the tower.
2. Buckingham is executed on All Souls’ Day.
3. Buckingham calls Margaret a prophetess.
4. Buckingham wants to talk to Richard.
5. Buckingham talks to the sheriff.
6. He believes he is getting what he deserves for allying with Richard.
Act 5, Scene 2:
1. Act 5 takes place near Leicester.
2. Richmond seeks the throne to make peace.
3. Richmond says Richard’s supporter’s support him because Richard oppresses them as well.
4. Richmond is a day away from Richard.
5. He characterizes Richard’s reign as tyrannical.
6. Richmond states that true hope is swift, and turns Kings into Gods and men of lower class into Kings.
Act 5, Scene 3

1. Richard asks his tent to be set up in Bosworth Field.
2. Richard claims that his army is three times larger than Richmond’s.
3. Stanley camps out away from both Richard and Richmond.
4. Richard orders Stanley to be awakened at 9 o’clock.
5. The first ghost to appear was Prince Edward.
6. The sun should be shining according to Richard’s almanac.

Comparison of Richard in Act 1 and Act 4

When first introduced Richard III is portrayed as a sinister and immoral man who did what he needed to do to attain power. Although with all these faults you couldn't help but be in awe at the man's skills as a tactician and a manipulator. Some level of sympathy is felt towards Richard as it is seen that his bitterness and thirst for power spawned from the fact that he was an underdog for his entire life, born deformed and disliked by many he grew into a cunning manipulative and more than a bit sadistic man, but he was also amazingly intelligent. 

In Act 1 when get a good dose of Richard's skills as a manipulator as we read how he smoothly strings together a web of lies in front of his own brother Clarence,convincing him they are on the same side and seek a common goal, promising Clarence his freedom and effortlessly moving blame away from himself and onto the Queen. In scene 2 we read, dumbfounded as he effortlessly sways the heart of woman who not but a scant few moments earlier, Lady Anne, was cursing his very existence and attains her hand in marriage, he is quite the sweet talker, using heavy flattery to swiftly gain her favor. This is a wonderful example of how intricately Richard understand human psychology. 

In Act 4 though Richard is a completely different man. Gone is the sharp-minded, cunning tactician, in his place is a paranoid sycophant. Richard loses whatever little appeal he had towards the reader as he loses his suaveness, he destroys any little thing he sees as a threat now, not like before where he uses cold calculation to be rid of enemies, he now attacks them like a rabid dog.

In Act  scene 2 the now crowned King Richard III gloats of his success openly, the first of contrasts from Act 1 where Richard always gloated silently to himself and relishes his victories in private. His first deed as King to assure his secured throne was to send his right-hand man Buckingham to assassinate his two nephews, sons of the former king and rightful heirs to the throne. Buckingham is hesitant and asks for some time to think it over. Richard seeing this sees it as a weakness and threat to his power and plans to cut ties with Buckingham, which he does later on in Act 4. Richard also is noted pondering a marriage between him and his niece, the young daughter of Elizabeth, this implies that he plans to kill his current wife, Lady Anne.

In Act 4 scene 4 we see the Duchess of York, Richard's own mother cursing him condemning him to a bloody and painful death, this is a precursor to his downfall. As enemy forces invade Britain and Richard's supporters slowly abandon him we see the beginning of the fall of King Richard III. 

Queen Elizabeth accompanied by Lords Grey and Rivers were holding a discussion on the health of her Husband King Edward IV, Elizabeth realizes if her husband were to die that her son would be under the protection of Richard, she is very unsettled about this due to the fact that Richard is not a fan of her. They are soon joined by Buckingham and the Earl of Derby, who bring good news of the King's health.
The Duke of Gloucester arrives incensed, and shouting accusations at Elizabeth and her companions, claiming that they are slandering him and he states that it is because he is ugly and not charming. He launches into another string of accusations at Elizabeth, claiming that she was the one responsible for him and his brother Clarence's misfortune, and that she is using her sway over the King to manipulate his decisions.
Elizabeth greatly annoyed by Richard's ignorance and putting up with it for to long and states she will complain to her husband, which greatly angers Richard. This is when the former Queen Margaret Tudor enters the conversation, who was listening in to their conversation. Upon laying eyes on Richard she immediately begins spitting insults at him like a cobra spits venom, listing off all his wrong-doings, calling him the devil.
Richard naturally does not take this lying down and fires back his own insults, making liberal use of the word witch to describe her, he calls her out on her own evil deeds, in which she shows no care. Margaret, being generally disliked by all is not given any support by the others and swiftly loses ground in her argument with Richard, she retreats with parting shots to all gathered and then leaves.

Features of Drama

Dialogue - Conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie.

Soliloquy - An act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.

Aside – A remark by a character in a play intended to be heard by the audience but not by the other characters.

Set -Tthe scenery, furniture etc used on a stage in a play or in the place where a film or television show is being made.

Stage Conventions- These are stage directions which are commonly used in plays. An example is the rising of the curtain at the beginning and the falling of the curtain at the end. These are done at most play performances.

Chorus – A group of people saying the same thing, for dramatic effect.

Dramatic Unities- these are a set of rules of drama set by Aristotle. 1. The unity of action: this states that a play should have one main plot and non or a few sub plots. 2. The unity of place: this states that a play should chose to cover on specific area rather than a large one. 3. The unity of time: this states that the performance of plays should not last more than a day.

Disguise – This is the altering of appearance and disguise.

Act 1 Scene 1 of Richard III (paraphrased)

Richard:

Now all of my family’s issues have ceased, thanks to my brother, King Edward IV. All the threats to the York family have disappeared and brought new hope. Now our heads are adorned the wreaths of victory. We’ve rid ourselves of our weapons and hung them up as they are of no use. Instead of hearing battle calls, we dance at lavish parties. Our faces are no longer grim due to strife. Instead of riding our horses to strike down enemies, we entertain our women in their bed chambers, to the sensual songs of the lute. But I’m not a ladies’ man, nor do I constantly please my eyes with my own visage in mirrors. I am deformed and don’t have the looks to charm lustful women. I’ve been robbed of any chance of a pleasing physique and face, or even normal body parts. I am misshapen, forced out from my mother’s womb to early and so ugly that dogs bark at me as I hobble by them. I’m left idle in this weak, peacetime, unless I want to look at my grotesque shadow in the sun and croon about that.

Since I can’t entertain myself by being a lover, I’ve decided to become a villain. I’ve set risky schemes into motion, using cunning, drunken prophecies, and made up stories about dreams to set my brothers against each other. If King Edward is as honest and impartial as I am devious and vicious, then Clarence is going to be locked away in prison today because of a prophecy that some non-existent entity named “G” will murder Edward’s children. Oh, time to keep quiet—here comes Clarence himself.

(Clarence enters surrounded by guards and Brakenbury)

Good afternoon brother, why are surrounded by armed guards?

Clarence:

His majesty is so worried for my well being, he has ordered them to ‘escort’ me to the Tower.

Richard:

He’s arresting you? Why?

Clarence:

Because my name is George.

Richard:

That’s not your fault! He should imprison who named you on that reasoning. Maybe the King is sending you to the Tower to have you renamed. But, really, what’s going on, Clarence? Can you at least tell me that?

Clarence:

I’ll tell you as soon as I actually know something, Richard, because at this point I have not even the foggiest. All I’ve been able to find out is that our brother the king has been heeding to the words of prophecies and visions. He picked out the letter “G” from the alphabet and said a wizard told him that “G” will steal his children’s throne. He thinks “G” is me. I’ve learned that because of this, along with other idiotic reasons like it, is why the king is sending me to prison.

Richard:

Well, this is what happens when men let themselves be governed by the whims of their women. The king isn’t the one responsible for sending you to the Tower, Clarence. It’s his wife, Lady Grey, who convinced him to do this. Remember how she and her brother, Anthony Woodeville, made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower? Hastings was just released. We’re not safe, Clarence, we’re not safe.

Clarence:

By God, I think the only people who are safe are the queen’s own family and the late-night runners the king uses to bring his mistress, Mistress Shore. Did you hear how Lord Hastings had to grovel before the queen to be freed?

Richard:

Hastings got his freedom by begging to that false idol. And I’ll tell you what. If we want to gain favour with the king, we’re going have to act like the mistress’s retainers. Ever since our brother made them gentlewomen, Mistress Shore and the queen have become mighty pests in our kingdom.

Brakenbury:

I beg your pardon, my lords, but the king gave me orders that no one, however high up in the hierarchy, should speak privately to Clarence.

Richard:

Alright. If you want to, Brakenbury, you can listen in on the conversation. We’re not plotting anything treasonous, man. We’re simply saying the king is wise and respectable, and his noble queen is getting old, appealing, and not jealous. And that Shore’s wife has nice feet, cherry lips, pretty eyes, and a very ‘pleasing’ way of expressing herself. And, finally, that the queen’s kin have all been elevated in social status. What do you think? Is there anything wrong with what we have to say?

Brakenbury:

I have nothing to do with what you’re speaking of, my lord.

Richard:

“Nothing to do” with Lady Shore! I’m telling you, sir, there’s only one man who gets to do “nothing,” with her and not be penalized for it. Everyone else had better keep their “nothings” to themselves.

Brakenbury:

Who would that be? My lord.

Richard:

Her husband, of course, you’re going to get me in trouble.

Brakenbury:

I request, your highness to pardon me, could you please stop talking to Clarence.

Clarence:

We know you’ve got work to do Brakenbury, we’ll be done now.

Richard:

We have to serve he queen don’t we? Goodbye brother. I will confront my brother and do what you wish, even call his wife “sister” to get you your freedom. Keep in my, I am quite enraged about how our own brother has treated you, more enraged than you can possibly comprehend.

Clarence:

It doesn’t make me happy either.

Richard:

Your imprisonment will be short-lived; I will either rick my brother into releasing you. Or replace you in that cell, be patient.

Clarence:

I don’t have a choice. Goodbye.

(Clarence, Brakenbury and the guards leave)

Richard:

Go walk the road that leads to no return. Foolish and trustworthy Clarence. I ‘love’ you so much that I’ll send your soul to heaven if heaven will accept anything that I give, that is. But who’s that?  The recently released Hastings?

(Hastings enters)

Hastings;

Good evening, my good lord!

Richard:

Likewise my lord! Welcome back to open air. How did you deal with prison?

Hastings:

With patience, noble lord, after all I was a prisoner. But I can show my gratitude to those who sent me.

Richard:

I’m sure, I’m sure. Clarence will to. You share common enemies and they have an advantage over you two.

Hastings;

It’s a shame that we the eagles are caged, while the vultures do whatever they see fit.

Richard:

Any new information from abroad?

Hastings;

No information as worse as what we have home. The king is ill, weak and depressed, the doctors fear for his life.

Richard:

Now, by George, that’s horrible news. The king has abused his body with bad habits for too long, and it’s finally taking its toll on him, how depressing. Where is he, bedridden?

 Hastings;

Yes.

Richard:

Go I will follow you.

(Hastings exits)

I hope the king dies. But he’d better not die till Clarence is sent to heaven. I’ll visit the king and, with some cunning on my part, have him hate Clarence even more than he already does. If my plan succeeds, Clarence dies today. Then God’s free to collect King Edward to, and leave me the world to run around in! I’ll marry the earl of Warwick’s youngest daughter, Lady Anne. Yes I did kill her husband and her father. Although the best way to make up for the girl’s losses is to become what she’s lost: a husband and a father. So I’ll take that place, not because I love her but because I’ll get something out of it. But I’m running ahead of myself. Clarence is still alive; Edward is not only alive, he’s king. Only when they’re dead and gone can I start to count my achievements.

Question 1) Have you ever been manipulated by someone. Explain.

Question 2) Have you ever manipulated someone? Explain.

Question 3) Name someone you know that has a deformity.

Question 4) Define deformity.

Question 5) Do deformities play on our emotions?

1. I have never been manipulated in my life. For me to be manipulated, that would require my will bending to another, this has never happened my will is my own.
2. Indeed I have in my more youthful days, used my 'cute' and cherub like face to enthral those older than me to my will. In most cases it was in want of treats.
3. My uncle, one of my father's brothers, has a physical deformity in one of his arms, it is under developed and has no fingers.
4. A deformity is when ones appearance has been spoilt or is misshapen.
5. Deformities will play on the emotions of bystanders, they may feel some levels of pity and even at times disgust for the deformed person.

Shakespeare’s War of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses is the story of the long, repetitive, and destructive civil war for the English crown by the members of two distinct factions in the English royal family called the Plantaganets, who had ruled for over two hundred years. Strictly speaking, the Wars of the Roses applies only to the bear conclusion of the civil war, but it is commonly used to describe the entire internal clash.

 

The war had its origins in a quarrel between Richard II and his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, as a result of which Richard II was murdered and Henry became Henry IV. Richard's murder brought about civil war, which continued until Henry IV's son was crowned Henry V and restored a short interval of glorious military victory in France and peace at home.

 

With Henry V meeting an early grave, the war to rule England resumed. Henry's son, Henry VI, who led the branch of the family called the Lancastrians, of the red rose was challenged by the Yorkist branch of the family, of the white rose. Dominance of the war changed for a number of years, until the Yorkists prevailed, and Edward IV came to be King Edward IV. Upon the death of Edward, due to his illness, his brother Richard became King Richard III.

 

The Lancastrian cause meanwhile was taken up by a distant relative of the royal family, Henry Tudor who claims to be of Lancastrian descent. He invaded England and defeated the Yorkist forces at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, thus ending the dynasty of the Plantaganets and initiating the Tudor royal family as King Henry VII. Henry VII was the father of Henry VIII and thus the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth.

 

Although the process may be vastly confusing, the Battle of Bosworth Field is often used as a convenient date to mark the start of the Renaissance in England, in as much as it initiates the first distinctly Renaissance royal family in England, the Tudors, who take over from the famous medieval royal family, the Plantaganets, who took the two symbols of the Lancaster and the York to create what is now known as the Tudor rose, the traditional floral heraldic symbol of England.