Christmas Holiday Work

First wave feminism

late 19^th and early 20^th century

influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’

Came from the industrial, liberal and socialist politics of the time

The main goal was to give women more opportunities

Focused on the right to vote

Included the abolitionist movement and to some extent have black women a voice – e.g. Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ speech

Women acted in very ‘unladylike’ ways – e.g. demonstrating, protesting, and going to prison

Accepted that men and women are biologically different, but argued that they should still be treated as equals

Focused on legal inequalities

In the UK it resulted in the 1918 Representation of the People Act which allowed women over the age of 30 to vote

This was later extended in 1928 to all women over the age of 18

Second wave feminism

Began in the 1960s and continued to the 1990s

Created amongst other protests – e.g. anti Vietnam, civil rights movement

People becoming more aware of minorities

More radical movement

Sexuality and reproductive rights major issues

Saw typically ‘feminine’ things such as make up as oppressive

Began to become more theoretical – including Marxist and psycho-analytical theories

Associated women’s subjugation with patriarchy, capitalism, normative heterosexuality and the traditional role of women

Highlighted the difference between sex and gender – sex being biological and gender being a social construct

Included women of every class and race, rather than simply the middle class as before

Highlighted the impact of patriarchy on every aspect of women’s lives

Took into account the need for feminism for men as well as women – broke down the traditional stereotypes, for example the fact that men are expected to be stoic

Tackled the social and cultural inequalities that women faced

Also aimed to improve existing laws, for example making marital rape illegal

Third/Fourth wave feminism

Began in the mid 1990s

Embraced things such as make up and revealing clothes as empowering

Some feminists feel that we are beginning to see a fourth wave of feminism

Includes transsexual women and those who do not conform to traditional binary genders – e.g. gender fluid people

Focuses on the individual and their own definition of feminism

Revolves around ‘calling out’ sexism and challenging it

Utilises social media and the internet to gain more support

The ideologies and aims tend to differ between groups, with some taking a similar view to the second wave, and others taking a different, less confrontational approach

Combine with other movements, such as racial movements or the transgender movement

http://womenshistory.answers.com/feminism/what-are-the-three-waves-of-feminism

http://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/feminism-fourth-wave  

http://www.pacificu.edu/about-us/news-events/three-waves-feminism

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Feminism

Marxism

Heavily influenced the politics of the 20^th century

Based on the philosophy of Karl Marx

Formed the basis of Communism and socialism

Influenced people from Einstein to Picasso

Had a global influence on politics, not just in Europe, e.g. Nelson Mandela

Also influenced more negative politics, such as Stalin, Lenin and Pol Pot

Influenced satirical writers such as Jan Kott

The movement split after the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, with one half becoming more radical

Created tension between rival political groups, such as the Nazi Party during the Second World War

The fear of communism and/or Marxist theories led to the Cold War between America and the USSR

Marxism argues that Capitalism is used to maintain the social standing of everyone – i.e. to ensure that the poor remain poor

Every aspect of society, from school to marriage, is used to

https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/slaughte.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/367344/Marxism

http://www.wolfgangfritzhaug.inkrit.de/documents/XXCenturyMarxism.pdf

The Loves of Lady Purple

The tale appears in Carter’s collection of short stories Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces. The story focuses on a professor who travels across Europe, performing a puppet show. In the show he tells the story of Lady Purple: an orphan who murdered her foster parents and became a prostitute. As she grew older, she became less and less popular and in the end was turned into wood and made into the puppet used in the show. Over time, the professor becomes weaker and weaker and the marionette becomes stronger and her movements more fluid. One day she comes to life and drinks the professor’s blood before burning the body. The marionette then leaves to find a brothel, as that is what she was created to do.

Top news stories

1976
- Pol Pot becomes leader of Cambodia
- Jimmy Carter becomes president of the US
- civil war in Lebanon ends

1977
- Star Wars is in theatres for the first time
- Elvis Presley dies
- the neutron bomb is developed

1978
- Followers of Jim Jones commit mass suicide
- the Walkman is introduced by Sony
- the first ‘test tube baby’ is born

1979
- Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister
- Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
- collapse of the Pol Pot regime

1981
- Ronald Reagan becomes president
- AIDS is first identified
- MTV goes on air for the first time

1981
- Britain wins the Falklands war
- Israel invades Lebanon
- a permanent artificial heart is put into a human for the first time

1982
- Sally K. Ride is the first woman in space
- CDs are introduced
- the El Niño phenomenon

Negative criticisms

Jago Morrison 'an archaeological investigation of gender representation’

Lucie Armitt ‘ ‘one of the major problems facing the reader of these ten stories is that they always seem to be dissolving into each other’

Susanne Kappeler ‘Carter's use of Sade's misogynist works did little other than reinforce degrading patriarchal representations of women’

Robert Clark (Company of Wolves) when the girl strips in front of the werewolf, ‘the point of view is that of the male voyeur, the implication may be that the girl has her own sexual power, but his meaning lies perilously close to the idea that all women want it really, and only need forcing to overcome their scruples’

Jenny Fabian ‘Whatever masquerades and metamorphoses take place within Carter’s fictional world, there is no escape from the notion that language is a male construct of control’

Positive criticisms

Marina Warner ‘Angela Carter made an inspired, marvellous move, for which so many other writers as well as readers will always be indebted to her: she refused to join in rejecting or denouncing fairy tales, but instead embraced the whole stigmatised genre

Helen Simpson ‘The stories in The Bloody Chamberare fired by the conviction that human nature is not immutable, that human beings are capable of change. Some of their most brilliant passages are accounts of metamorphoses’

Michele Roberts ‘able to imagine women as flawed and imperfect, necessarily so given the misogynistic world in which they lived. She did not see women in any simplistic sense as victims’

Amy Weldon ‘Feminist, fabulist, and provocateur, Angela Carter nudges readers — especially women — to look upon the world, however fantastical or frightening it may be, and let it teach us courage, and common sense’

Jack Zipes ‘Her writing is also exquisite. She has a great command of metaphor, and the writing is very sensuous without being mannered’

Problems with Marxism: does not really offer any solutions to the problems it outlines, simply states that the problems exist, suggests that there is nothing we can do to change our situation, only really applies to western cultures, could be considered to be outdated, Marx developed it in the 19^th century, it has not really evolved with changes in society as feminism has, talks about history in a generalised way rather than talking about specific events, mostly ignores women

Problems with feminism: it tends to focus solely on the struggle of white women in western cultures, ignoring women of colour or transgender women, often perpetuates the differences between men and women, sometimes hindered by the huge range in viewpoints and types of feminism

Feminist news story: Suicide of Leelah Alcorn

Leelah Alcorn (originally born Joshua) aged 17 committed suicide, blaming her highly religious parents for not accepting her identity. When she was 14, Leelah told her parents that she identified as female. They refused to accept this and sent her to Christian conversion therapy sessions, which often involved the therapist telling her that she was being ‘selfish’ for refusing to accept the gender she was born with, and that ‘God doesn’t make mistakes’. Her parents then took away her phone and other electrical devices and blocked her access to social media, claiming that she had been corrupted by it. She killed herself on the 28^th December, 2014, leaving a suicide note on Tumblr blaming her parents for her actions.

Marxist news story: City Link

The delivery service, City Link, has had to cut a further 230 jobs due to the financial pressure it is under. Overall they have cut 2,586 jobs after going into administration since Christmas Eve. The company has been in financial difficulty since last year, with many employees not being told about possible redundancies or even the extent to which the company was in trouble.

‘In the original Gothic, women were often presented as trembling victims pursued by predatory males.’ How far is this true of the first narrative in Angela Carter’s collection, ‘The Bloody Chamber’?

To some extent the women in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ fit the traditional role of ‘trembling victims’ in the Gothic, for example through the mostly passive role the narrator takes in the story; similar to the passive role of Isabella in Horace Walpole’s ‘The Castle of Otranto’. However, as a feminist, Carter also challenges this role and makes the women in her story stronger; even able to overpower the male characters. This is most noticeable in the character of the mother. In addition to this, Carter also explores the role of men in the gothic. The Marquis takes the archetypal role of the predatory male villain of a gothic novel; comparable to Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula in his brutality. Despite this, the role of the gothic male is also challenged, mainly through the character of Jean-Yves who offers a more comforting, vulnerable male character who is almost the complete opposite of the Marquis. 

One way in which the women in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ are traditional stereotypes of gothic females is through the way in which they are passive within the story. The narrator herself is a passive character throughout much of the story, following what the Marquis wants her to do, for example pretending to be surprised just to please him, ‘I was forced always to mimic surprise’, which shows how she tries to please him. Furthermore, the extent of his control over her, symbolised by the ‘ruby choker’, also emphasises her passivity within the story. This motif is echoed later on within the book in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’, with the dog wearing chokers as collars. This control echoes the control men hold over women and their passive nature within the traditional gothic. Another way in which the women follow the traditional role of gothic females is in how they are objects of desire for the male characters. The narrator describes the Marquis having ‘the assessing eye of a connoisseur inspecting horseflesh’ whilst he looks at her; showing how she is an object of his desire. The word ‘horseflesh’ objectifies the narrator and makes her seem like a commodity. In addition to this, the narrator also objectifies herself through the parts of herself that she describes, such as ‘breasts’ and ‘thighs’. In doing this, she is almost becoming masculine in her description, as she is focusing on aspects of herself that men tend to focus on. This in turn shows her passivity and complacency in the role that she is set in as a weak female, and emphasises her lack of action. The women in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ are also shown to be typical of the traditional Gothic through their emotional responses. The narrator is portrayed as being somewhat petty towards her nurse when she says that ‘opals are unlucky’; and turns away ‘pettishly’. In addition to this, the narrator also follows the typical pattern of feeling sympathy for the monster, similar to that of Mina in Dracula, as she talks about the ‘atrocious loneliness of that monster’. This sympathy is typical of Victorian Gothic women; reflecting the compassionate and caring nature a Victorian woman was expected to have.

Despite this, Carter also challenges these stereotypes created by the traditional gothic. The main character within this story that challenges this is the narrator’s mother, who is described as having ‘shot a man-eating tiger’ when she was younger. By doing this, she is showing her strength and bravery as a character. Furthermore, her strength is shown through the fact that she is the one who saves the narrator. In the original story, the heroine is saved by her brothers. By changing this, Carter is showing the reader that women can also take on positions of power. However, the mother has to take on a phallic symbol, the gun, in order to have power, which suggests that women have to take on masculine aspects in order to be powerful. In addition, despite being passive for a majority of the tale, the narrator becomes an active agent by the end. This can be seen through how she ‘runs to the assistance’ of Jean-Yves and helps him to let her mother in. Furthermore, it could also be argued that through opening and embracing the bloody chamber she is being active. This embracing of the bloody chamber is the narrator embracing and accepting the dark desires that Carter argues are within all of us, as shown by the way in which she touches the body of the opera singer. Another way in which the women differ from the traditional gothic is the way in which they take away power from the men within the novel, without being the stereotypical femme fatale. The narrator does this by controlling Jean-Yves. She physically does this when she ‘leads’ him down to the courtyard. Furthermore, her control extends to after the Marquis is dead, as she defies social convention and takes control of the money she inherits. Women also take power away from men through the fact that the mother kills the Marquis. Through taking power away from the male characters, Carter is criticising the usual fairy tale, as well as the traditional gothic, for the lack of female strength and independence. It could also be interpreted that, by giving her female characters more power, she is also giving them more of a voice within fairytales, rather than making them passive characters. This is emphasised throughout the collection, which acts as one entire story.

The male characters within ‘The Bloody Chamber’, particularly the Marquis, could be argued to be predatory for the way in which he ‘hunts’ for women. The narrator says that he ‘had been married before, more than once’ at the beginning of the story, which hints to the reader at his predatory nature. Furthermore, the range in type of woman he goes after, Romanian Countess, opera singer and model, hints at how he enjoys wooing and trapping them. His predatory nature can also be seen through how thought out and planned each murder is, for example he ‘strangles’ the opera singer and as a result takes away her voice; the thing that presumably drew him to her in the first place. This action could be interpreted as him trying to control them by taking possession of their best attributes or the things they enjoy the most. He also controls his wives through the jewellery he forces them to wear, in the ‘opal ring’ and ‘ruby choker’. The narrator says about the ring that ‘every bride who came to the castle wore it’, hinting not only at the Marquis’ need for control, but also at an ancestral need for control, which is further hinted at with the story Jean-Yves tells the narrator about an old Marquis who used to ‘hunt young girls’. The ruby choker, specific to the narrator, foreshadows the death that he plans out for her, as well as acting like a collar similar to that in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’. Carter explores a need for control in her male characters later within the collection in ‘The Erl-King’ through his actions of turning women into birds. The Marquis is also predatory simply in his physical description. Carter uses leonine imagery, similar to that in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’, for example his hair is described as a ‘curling mane’. Carter does this to evoke connotations of a predator, adding to his predatory nature, as well as making the narrator appear more innocent. 

However, as a feminist writer, Carter also challenges the gothic stereotype of a predatory male in order to make the characters more equal. The male character that most challenges this is the piano tuner Jean-Yves. As he is blind, he is unable to control the narrator through his male gaze, and therefore is less powerful than she is. Jean-Yves also offers comfort to the narrator, ‘I can be of some comfort to you’, in direct contrast to the threatening nature of the Marquis. It could also be argued that the Marquis somewhat challenges the gothic norm, as it could be considered that he cannot help but kill, or is reluctant to, much like the countess in ‘The Lady of the House of Love’. This is shown when the narrator says ‘it seemed to me he was in despair’, suggesting that he is stuck in his condition and, possibly, genuinely loved the narrator.

Overall, Carter uses a combination of modern and traditional gothic elements to create her characters. However, they mostly adhere to the stereotypes within the traditional Victorian gothic in order to lead the reader into the book, rather than simply starting with her more controversial ideologies. 

Lady of the House of Love Questions

Pages 11-112
How is the young man presented?
* innocent, somewhat naive “laughing, he sets out on his adventure”
* a virgin “has the special quality of virginity”
* rational “chosen the most rational mode of transport in the world”
* hope “Les Amoureaux”
* doomed “the trenches of France”

What is the significance of the bicycle?
* Carter uses it to represent “rationality”
* represents the modern world, whereas the Lady represents the old world
* phallic symbol- suggests that men will be the Lady’s downfall

Page 113
what might the significance of ‘he gratefully washed his feet and hands’ in the village fountain be?
*cleansing
*almost religious
*shows how innocent he is, and how oblivious he is to the evil in the village

Page 114
‘curiouser and curiouser’ what does this suggest about the young man? Which other character/s are you reminded of?
*suggests he is inquisitive, further shows his rationality
*Intertextual reference to Alice in Wonderland
*like the father in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ – lured into the house through food and drink

Page 116
the crone is described as bringing the young man to ‘Juliet’s tomb’. What is the significance of this Intertextual reference?
* ‘Juliet’s tomb’ suggests that they are both doomed
* element of fate – similar to the tarot cards, suggests that they were doomed from the start and can do nothing to stop it
* crone – keeping the Lady stuck in the cycle she is in

Page 117
‘What a grisly picture of a capering skeleton! He covered it up with a happier one – of two young lovers, smiling at one another ...’ how is the young man presented here? What might Carter’s purposes be?
*presented as innocent ‘what a grisly picture’
* rational – clearly doesn’t believe the tarot cards work
* two of the same cards that the Lady picks out – fate that he arrives
* Carter uses it to suggest that he will suffer the same fate as she will

Page 119
‘Can a bird sing only the song it knows, or can it learn a new song?’ ‘one kiss, however, and only one, woke up the Sleeping Beauty’ Carter makes significant use of repetition in this story. Why might this be? What is the significance of the examples above, both of which are repeated in the course of the narrative?
*repetition shows how the Lady is stuck in a constant cycle
* haunted by the past
*also shows that she doesn’t want to be the way she is, ‘can it learn a new song?’

Page 123
‘and so he puts his mouth to the wound. He will kiss it better for her, as her mother, had she lived, would have done’ what is the significance of this quotation?
*’he puts his mouth to the wound’ – makes him seem like the vampire, reversing their roles
* ‘as her mother . . .would have done’ – he wants to care for her

Page125
‘when he returned from the mess that evening, the heavy fragrance of Count Nosferatu’s roses drifted down the stone corridor of the barracks to greet him, and his Spartan quarters brimmed with the reeling odour of a glowing, velvet, monstrous flower whose petals had regained all their former bloom and elasticity, their corrupt, brilliant, baleful splendour. Next day, his regiment embarked for France’ how might we interpret this ending?
*the ending suggests that the soldier will die during the war
*revival of the rose – could be the Lady’s ‘spirit’ inhabiting the rose, the curse of Nosferatu will continue
*’monstrous flower’ still cursed to some extent

Overall, how would you explain Carter’s presentation of the lady and the soldier in this narrative?
* the lady is described as being predatory ‘takes them by the hand and leads them to her bedroom’, *‘her beauty is a symptom of her disorder, of her soulessness’ – her beauty is fake, means nothing
*’she likes to hear it announce how she cannot escape’ – like the Erl King, cruel, feels trapped as well
*’like reverberations in a cave’ – stuck in the past, echoing what has been said/done before
*he is the total opposite, innocent, virginal, rational
*he isn’t like the other men she meets ‘eyes that deny all erotic promise of her body’ – doesn’t want her in simply a sexual way
*not a typical Gothic hero, she isn’t a typical Gothic heroine
*roles are subverted – she is the experienced one, yet at the same time almost innocent and helpless in how she cannot break the cycle of destruction she is in. He is innocent, yet rational and brave

Consider the following quotation. How does it help you develop your own ideas about the narrative?
 ‘the heroines of these stories are struggling out of the straightjackets of history and ideology and biological essentialism. ‘there’s a story in The Bloody Chamber called ‘The Lady of the House of Love’,’ said Carter, ‘part of which derives from a movie version that I saw of a story by Dostoevsky. And in the movie ... the woman, who is a very passive person and is very much in distress, asks herself the question, ‘can a bird sing only the song it knows, or can it learn a new song?’ have we got the capacity at all of singing new songs? It’s very important that id we haven’t, we might as well stop now.’
*the Lady is struggling against the ‘straightjackets of history’ – she is stuck with the curse of the vampire from her ancestors – is she struggling all that much? She seems pretty complacent, just wants to change but does nothing about it
*is she even a heroine? She lures men to their deaths and tortures the lark
*does she even ‘sing a new song’ at the end? Not really – the man just interrupts the usual motions she goes through and she can’t cope with it ‘no room in her drama for improvisation’, but at the same time she doesn’t kill him as she usually does

Task 1

Define polarity – the possession or manifestation of two opposing tendencies, attributes or principles

Define postulated – suggest or assume the existence, fact or truth of something as a basis for reasoning, discussion or belief

Define androgyny – the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics

Define autonomy – freedom from external control or influence; independence

Define exigencies – an urgent need or demand

Define transposition – to cause two or more things to exchange places, transfer to a different place or context

Define bourgeois – belonging to or characteristics of the middle class, particularly perceived materialistic conventions

Task 2

·         Cater challenges social constructs of gender

·         Makes her characters both masculine and feminine

·         Suggests the deconstruction of femininity

·         Also suggests the deconstruction of masculinity

·         Argues that society forces these stereotypes upon us

§  Gender

§  Duality

§  Femininity

§  Masculinity

§  Stereotypes

Challenging gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles

Task 3

The article explains that Carter challenges the social stereotypes of masculine and feminine through the stories ‘The Tiger’s Bride’ and ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’. She does this through using the fairy tale genre, as this genre has been used for hundreds of years to install typical feminine values in women, for example the fear of men.  By taking these traditional tales and retelling them, Carter is exposing their flaws and is also creating a new set of androgynous, more realistic characters.

Bettelheim questions

11)      Bettelheim argues that fairy tales, such as Cinderella, teach children about morals and good vs. evil, through providing clear cut good characters, e.g. Cinderella herself, and bad characters, such as the evil stepmother. By doing this, children are able to learn that doing and feeling bad things, such as not liking a parent, is not a bad thing to do. Furthermore, they also allow children to come to these decisions themselves, rather than being forced into them.

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22)      Bettelheim describes the ‘duality’ of the fairy tale genre, which is also associated with the gothic. This idea of ‘duality’ explains why there are rarely purely good and purely bad characters in the gothic, as everyone is realistically a mix of both. The purpose of the gothic is similar to that of the fairy tale genre, i.e. to allow people to see the distinction between good and bad and to make their own decisions about it. However, the gothic does this in a more complex way than fairy tales.

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33)      Carter mixes the fairy tale and gothic genres in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ in order to show the reader the flaws within society, for example the way in which women are treated, and then to allow them to think about the wider implications of that issue and also to think about how to deal with it.

The Tiger's Bride - task 3

1. What are ‘the devil’s picture books’?

‘The devil’s picture books’ refer to the cards the Beast uses to beat the narrator’s father.

2. What type of language is Carter using when the narrator calls The Beast ‘Milord’?

Carter gives the word ‘Milord’ a sarcastic tone, therefore showing the narrator to be cynical and somewhat bitter towards her father and the situation he has put her in.

3. When the Beast gives the girl a white rose. What do white roses symbolise in this collection and why are they used more than once (also in ‘The Courtship of Mr. Lyon’)?

In this collection of stories, a white rose symbolises purity and innocence, for example in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’, Beauty asks for a simple white rose as a show of her innocence and purity.

4. What might be significant about the verb choice ‘fleeced’?

The verb ‘fleeced’ has connotations of sheep, which links to the way in which Carter describes the characters as sheep, for example the narrator refers to herself as a ‘lamb’. Furthermore, the fact that the narrator and her father are described as sheep indicates that the Beast has power over them, as he is a tiger.

5. Which fairy tale does ‘gobble you up’ come from and why is it referred to?

‘Gobble you up’ is a reference to ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and the Big Bad Wolf. Carter refers to this to emphasise how much power the Beast has over the narrator.

6. What tells the reader that the inhabitants are not driven by appearances or luxuries?

Carter shows the reader that the inhabitants of the town are not driven by appearances or luxuries by describing the town as ‘cruel’ and ‘malign’, indicating that they do not care for appearances. The fact that they do not care for luxuries is indicated by Carter’s description of their diet as being ‘poor food’.

7. What is the significance of the fresco ‘where fruit and blossom grew on the bough together’?

The significance of this fresco is that it is unnatural, therefore hinting at the magical realism genre of the book. Furthermore, it also references the Garden of Eden, indicating the fact that the house could be a place of paradise for the narrator.

8. What is the description of the soubrette supposed to suggest to the reader?

The description of the mechanical soubrette suggests to the reader that the Beast likes to have control, as the fact that she is ‘mechanical’ means she can be controlled easily.

9. How does the girl compare herself to animals?

The narrator ‘lirruped and hurrumphed’ at the other horses, therefore comparing herself to them.  This indicates her desire to be free of the Beast. Furthermore, the Beast treats his horses with kindness, having given them his ‘dining room’ to live in. This could show that the narrator wants the Beast to treat her as an equal.

10. In light of the end of this story, analyse the phrase, ‘The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal’.

The phrase refers to the quote from Revelations, ‘and the lion will lie down with the lamb’, indicating that the Beast is unnatural in his feelings for the narrator, as Carter changes the lion to ‘tiger’. The fact that ‘he acknowledges no pact that is not reciprocal’ foreshadows the end of the story where the narrator turns into a tiger herself.

The Tiger’s Bride task 2 – definitions

•       obsequiousness – obedient or attentive to an excessive degree

•       ostler – someone who is employed to look after the horses of people staying at an inn

•       patina – 1) a green or brown film over oxidized metals, 2) a gloss or sheen over aged wooden furniture 3) an impression or appearance of something

•       preternatural – exceeding what is natural or irregular, existing outside of nature

•       Profligate – recklessly extravagant or wasteful, dissolute

•       settecento – a period of art and literature during the 18^th century

•       shagreen – sharkskin used as a decorative material or abrasive

•       simian simulacra – the imitation of the characteristics of an ape

•       soubrette – a minor female role in a comedy, usually a maidservant

•       spar – a stout pole used for masts, part of the framework of an airplane, to argue with someone in a friendly way, to fight as a form of training

•       spurious - false

•       tantivy – a rapid gallop or ride, a hunting cry

•       tintinnabulation – a ringing or tinkling sound

•       viscera – internal organs

•       assuage – make an unpleasant feeling less intense, to satisfy

•       awry – away from the usual or expected course, amiss

•       axiom – a statement or proposition which is regarded as being true, accepted or self evident

•       capisco (translate) – ‘I understand’

•       ciliate – a single celled animal

•       civet – a ring tailed cat

•       desnuda (translate) – ‘naked’

•       excoriating – damage or remove part of the skin, to criticize someone severely

•       expostulating – express strong disapproval or disagreement

•       eyrie – the large nest of a bird of prey, usually built high up

•       gavotte – a medium paced French dance that was popular in the 18^th century

•       gracile – slender or thin

•       megalomaniac  - a person who has an obsessive desire for power

•       metaphysical – trying to explain the fundamental nature of being

•       minuet – a slow ballroom dance for two in triple time, popular in the 18^th century

•       molto agitato (translate) – ‘very agitated’

•       Nascent – just coming into existence, beginning to display potential