The Long Queen

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  • Created by: chloe2702
  • Created on: 21-09-17 18:11
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  • The Long Queen
    • Context
      • Queen Elizabeth I
        • Elizabethan era
          • Women had little power
          • Patriarchal society
          • Womens' lives were focused round baring children
          • if you were infertile, you were an outcast and werent seen as a real woman
        • Reigned for 44 years
        • The virgin queen
    • Stanza 4
      • "What were her laws? Childhood"
        • Childhood is natural
          • Everyone should experience a childhood?
            • Remain innocent for as long as possible
              • Childhood is the first stage in becoming a woman
        • Childhood is important to her
      • "third" and "fourth"
        • No one is forgotten
          • She counts every single girl
      • "the bad dream of the worst"
        • Loosing their purity
      • "swooned"
        • Extreme emotions
          • hormones
            • Falling in love for the first time
      • "apple of the Long Queen's eye"
        • Emphasises how much she cherishes the women
    • Stanza 3
      • Repetition
        • "some said"
          • mythical and fairy tale connotations
          • no one knows for sure
            • Enigmatic
          • Shes talked about a lot
      • Semantic field of iscolation
        • "tower", "castle" and "wood"
          • Shes disconnected form society
            • Perhaps due to her higher status than the other women
      • "disguised, sorting the bad from the good"
        • She has to be in diguise because she is so well known
          • She doesn't want to take credit for the work she does
        • shes not supposed to interfer
      • "creaking ships"
        • Elizabethan times
        • She wanted to expand her nation
          • Wanted to influence and give hope to more women
    • stanza 7
      • "high window she watched from"
        • "watched"
          • links back to the idea of iscolation
            • She can only observe, not intervene
        • Symbolises her power and high status
      • "light music", "drums" and "faint strings"
        • "drums of women"
          • Women have the most power out of the other females because they are fertlie
        • The young and old are quiet
          • they are unimportant
            • cant bare children
      • "possessions"
        • Ownership
      • "moment"
        • it only seems like a moment compared to how long she has lived
        • Refelcts the brief years women are seen as important
        • She gave the women everything she had to offer but only for a short time
    • Stanza 5
      • "Blood"
        • Menstruation
          • once a girl'bled' she was no longer a child
            • Societies expectations would change
            • It proved she culd perform her role in society
          • Proof she was a real woman
          • Natural part of becoming a woman
            • The only power women had in the patriarchal society
        • Proof of royalty
      • "tears"
        • in the same stanza as blood
          • Could represent the pain and heartbreak if a woman was infertile
            • "sorrow"
              • infertile women felt they had failed as a woman
              • They couldn't change their position, no suh thing as IVF
      • "insignificant"
        • It is only significant when the girl is ready to have chidren
      • "pearls" and "jewels"
        • Precious and materialistic
          • used to fll emptiness perhaps
      • "til middle age when the laws would change"
        • Menapause
          • Women would again be unimportant
          • No longer fertile
            • Loose thier only power
      • "moon"
        • Feminine symbol
        • only seen at night
    • Stanza 6
      • "childbirth"
        • "most"
          • not were fortunate enough to be fertile
        • "to swear the pain was worth it"
          • they had fulfilled thier role in society
            • Peak of their life
          • the love and joy of having a child
          • They know theyve pleased the queen
        • Personification and sibilance
          • "the room screamed scarlet"
            • "red"
              • connoted blood
                • Many women died during childbirth
              • Anger
                • Not producing a male heir
      • Juxtaposition
        • "sore flowers"
          • The beauty which is after pain
      • "to honour the queen"
        • they do it for her
        • childbirth is important to her
    • Stanza 2
      • Asyndetic listing
        • "Women, girls, spinsters, and hags, matrons..."
          • Inclusive of all women
            • Contrasts with society
            • Society only cares about fertile women
          • She understands all women
            • Doesn't exclude the women who would be seen as outcasts in society
      • "in their bones"
        • Her laws were part of their identity
        • Her laws were permanently inside of all women
          • Imbedded
          • Women didn't just see her as a queen but a representative for all women
            • They looked up to her
      • "Wild kicks of their dancing"
        • Celebratory and joyous tone
          • Celebrating having someone who is looking out for them
            • Previously, women had no one
              • They now have a leader and a powerful women to look up to
      • "No girl born who wasn't the Long Queen's always child"
        • Possessive and protective of all her children
          • "always"
            • No matter what, every child will be hers
            • Her feelings will remain the same
    • Stanza 1
      • "couldn't die"
        • immortal
          • in humane, God-like
          • She isnt a literal queen but more of a feeling within women
        • She has no choice
          • She is the only hope for women
          • Women rely on her too much for her to die
        • To emphasise how long she has reigned
      • Asyndetic listing
        • "second son of the Earl, the foreign prince, the heir to the duke, the lord, the baronet, the count"
          • the only type of men she is allowed to love and be in a relationship whith due to her status
          • Emphasises the long list of past suitors
          • reflects the tiring task of finding a lover
      • Personification
        • Take Time for a husband"
          • As queen, it is her duty to find a husband
          • represents her lack of power even though she is of high status
            • Still has to dedicate her precious time to a man
          • "for" shows her lack of power
            • Even the queen has to do things for her husband
            • no escaping the patriarchal society
              • And expectations of a woman
          • She has to produce an heir to the throne in order to live on
            • Trapped in the rules and expectations which come with being queen
      • "the cold weight of the crown"
        • "cold"
          • Unworn, uncomfortable
            • She was going to have to adjust to her position
        • "weight"
          • Pressure, heaviness
            • The pressure she was going to feel being the queen

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