Unseen Literature Passage:  Tips for the future

 

 

1.    If it’s not in the passage, you must explain.  (Example: Misogyny)

 

2.    Use “earlier” and “later in the play…”

 

3.    Background (B.G.):  Must include title, author, and brief summary of the events that lead to the passage.

 

4.    Incorporate and cite quotes  (Beginning, Middle, End)

 

a.       Haemon says “[s]uch is the darkling rumour that spreads in secret,” demonstrating that his understanding of the public opinion stems from the “dark” secrets that people are spreading through the town of Thebes (10).

 

b.      “Such is the darkling rumour” says Haemon to his disbelieving father “that spreads in secret [throughout the town of thebes]” (10).  This shows…

 

c.       “Such is the darkling rumour that spreads in secret” says Haemon, demonstrating that… (10).

 

5.    Break up larger quotes to be explained:

 

a.       “For dread of thy frown forbids the citizen to speak such words as would offend thine ear” says Haemon,  “but [I] can hear these murmers in the dark, these moanings of the city for this maiden” (4-6).  Haemon is privy to the city’s “murmers” and “moanings,” and he knows that the people feel “no woman… ever merited her doom less” (6).  He asks his father “deserves not she the meed of golden honour?” (9), but only after he lets Creon know that the question is not altogether his own, but is inspired by his understanding of the city’s secret feelings.

 

6.    Don’t begin paragraphs with quotes (use topic sentences)

 

7.    Tone = Character’s or Authors?  (In this passage, Haemon’s tone is important)

 

a.       Haemon’s tone throughout this passage is calm and he uses rhetorical questions to prod Creon’s thinking; without actually asserting his beliefs, he pleads with Creon to listen to reason.

 

8.    Say “It seems…” NEVER “I think…”

 

9. You quote, so never say “In this quote…”  Instead say “Here Haemon is implying…” or “These lines show…” or “This question means…” etc.