1L1 Andy

LELE <= This is my powerpoint of "Jekyll and Hyde"

Picture One : The first picture I chose is a poster. We can see that it contains a scary atmosphere. Indeed, this poster is in black and white wich creates a  stark contrast woking suspens and mystery. Actually, only lamps light up the scene. On the third plan, we can see the silhouette of a man. It adds mysteriousness to the scene, also we only see the man turning his back to us. His face remains unseen. In conclusion, this first picture reminds of me th aesthetics of the Gothic that we already studied in class.

Picture Two : In this second picture of Jekyll and Hyde, we can see that the picture is separated by a tear. So, we can understand that it is representing two opposite people. The left side of the picture represents Jekyll, the moral and nice side represented by the white good face. White may connote innoncence.

The right side is the evil side : Hyde. We can see on his face that he is evil : he has long hair, a hat, evil stare and expressions. Also, the red colour consolidates the idea of an evil being. Red may connote blood, hell and fear. "Hyde" name is written in larger characters than the name "Jekyll". We can suppose that's meant to create the idea of Hyde replacing gradually Jekyll, and also the idea of the loss of control. So, in this picture we certainly see the tense duality between Jekyll and Hyde.

Picture Three : I chose this picture because we can see that it's the same form of picture as the precedent, it's certainly their intention : to cretae a "remake" of the story of Jekyll and Hyde. So, "Me, Myself and Irene" is a comedy with Jim Carrey. The main character Charlie suffers from psychotic breakdown resulting in a second personality : Hank. The poster of this movie represent the same duality as the precedent. It's also the idea of a split personality and the tear between the two faces highlights the transformation of the character.

Picture Four :This picture is a cover of a book "Sunny Ella" published in 2011 by Sally Zybert. Ella is the main character. This is a classic fairy tale at the begining but Ella loses her sanity after years of abuse from her stepmother. She becomes schizophrenic and develops an evil and despicable double : Mona. I chose this picture because I thought it was original to create a creepy version of Cinderella 's story. Moreover, the author was inspired by jekyll and Hyde's story.

The Nightmare was painting in 1781 by Henri Fuseli. You can find it in Detroit Institute of Arts (USA).

Why is it a Gothic painting ?

We certainly can say that is a gothic painting. Indeed, thanks to what we have studied we can see in the center, a contrast with the woman lying on the bed and the two dark monster at the third plan. The woman, dressed with a white dress acctract our eyes, thanks to her exposed throat wich symbolizied at the time the vulnerability, the passion and the desire of the woman ( the vampire legend) and her not covered wrist. We can see by her position that she's in a deep sleep. Maybe she took a sleeping liquid , indeed we see an empty flask on the table wich is on the left corner of the paint.

Then, in the middle of the painting, we can see a creature glaring at us : an incubus. He sits on the chest of the woman, indeed in the mythologic legend the incubus is a demon in male form who lies upon sleepers to have sexual intercourse with women generally. It's a grotesque creature and it seems like we have disturbing him doing something, the spectator is immediatly immersed into the action. He's really unhappy and can be scary for the viewer.

In the left part of the painting, we see the head of a horse watching the incubus and the woman with bold and featureless eyes. We can suppose that Fuseli added the horse to create a game of word with the word "nightmare"; "mare" meaning the femal of the horse. The etymology of the word "nightmare", however, does not relate to horses.

The incubus and the horse's head refer to contemporary belief and folklore about nightmares .

The room is hung with red velvet curtains which drape behind the bed, and red sheet which emerges from the bed. Red connotes the passion but also the blood and the death. It creates a contrast with the woman in white which connotes innoncence and vulnerability. All this contrast make us think of famous gothic codes that we studied in class like the opposites ( here the beauty of the woman and the grotesque creatures), the scary atmosphere (nightmares) and a scene which opposites a vilain ( the creatures) and a victim ( the woman asleep).

Here is a little video which explaining the meaning of this painting to better understand. Enjoy !

Following Stephen Fry's text "A significant event" and Gary Soto's poem "Oranges" wich we studied in class with themes of autobiographic childhood, we went on to"My Crazy Beautiful World" , a short story written by Jacqueline Woodson, similarly dealing with the theme of childhood. It's the first short story that we have studied in class for a while now. Her story broaches themes like freedom, insecurity, origins and obviously autobiographic childhood.

Indeed, Jacqueline make us discover the story of Angela, a 16 year-old girl writing when she was 12 years old, before she forgets all her precious memories. She's an African-American teenager who faces with a vast world that she just doesn't understand yet, and who experiences insecurity issues because of her sister who is more intelligent than her and also her bestfriend, Maria, who is prettier than her. Or at least, that's what Angela thinks about all thos relatives that she lives with. Also we can discover an intimate relationship with her Grandmother. Indeed, we can feel the strong affection that she has for her grandmother when she lectures her or combes her hair, all those little things gestures create an intimate bond between them.

All along the narrative, she's asking herself about freedom, because at her age, you still obey to your mum's rules so she's limited in her choices. But a wild coast may emerge of Angela, because she's looking for of this freedom she doesn't have. For example, when she wants to play to a boy's game on the street or when she wants to watch a fight. Obviously, she longs for freedom on the sense of belonging to the world. She's feeling different from the other children at school (because she's being teased by her classmates) and in the street because of her religion. Indeed, she's a Jehovah Witness . We can see here the important place that takes her grandmother as a mother figure, she's the one who takes Angela 's family to the temple because her mother doesn't believe in this religion. So, her faith is just another element that defines her personality. Jacqueline Woodson tells us a part of African-American culture in this book. Especialy when she speaks about Jehovah Witness, the grandmother or street games.

I think every girl can identify herself to Angela which makes the story of Jacqueline Woodson more exciting ! Indeed, Who never felt apart from the others at least once ? Who has never been teased ? Who never had insecurity problems ? and who has never asked oneself about life's purpose, freedom and religion? It has happened to us at least once in our lives, especially at Angela's age !

So, this book is really good, I recommend it to every teenager who feels the same way as Angela. Jacqueline Woodson is also a great author, it's so easy to read her book and there is a lot of beautiful messages convoyed in it ! I loving reading some passages of this book and I loved discovering her touching story !

Hope you will like my article.

Best regards, Andrea.