Personal Statement for English Literature

Huxley's Brave New World speaks to me of the necessity of the imagination, with its clinical eradication of individuality and the discontent that it breeds, through John Savage's understanding that hope lies in literature. It is the power of the imagination to transform this world that inspires me.My A-Level study of the vibrant female protagonists in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Duchess of Malfi triggered a curiosity regarding the preconceptions of women in society, leading me to read works that explore the physical and psychological oppression of women, for instance, The Handmaid's Tale, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and The Yellow Wallpaper. By attending a series of comparative literature lectures I learnt of new avenues of international literature, drawing me to fiction such as Lolita, and its disquieting juxtaposition of Humbert's endearing narrative with his obscene actions. The lectures also allowed me to revisit inspirational works, for instance A Doll's House, with a heightened appreciation for how the moral dilemmas that Ibsen discusses translate so powerfully across language and era, notably the ambiguity surrounding domestic abuse. Evaluating Donne's poetry has prompted an affection for his 'youthful love verses,' in particular, The Good Morrow; the manner in which Donne uses vertiginous oscillations of scale to portray both the intimate and exuberant facets of love create a recognisable contrast to other poets of his era, such as the speaker's guarded and shameful confessions in Herbert's Love. The theme of predestined male superiority, in many works of the patriarchal seventeenth century, can be detected in the lustful yet impersonal representations of the female figure in Randolph's On a Maide of Honour and Marvell's To His Coy Mistress.I have always found the fusion of psychology and literature an engaging topic: the examination of the possibility of artificially conditioning the human mind in A Clockwork Orange raises contentious questions about the ethics of restricting human agency; continuing the investigation into broader psychological concepts familiarised me with Waiting for Godot, The Collector and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; I understood the exploration of the manager's psychopathic personality in Bartlett's Contractions as an intriguing allusion to the intrinsic and inalterable differences in human nature, this interpretation inspired me to focus my EPQ dissertation upon the analysis of female psychopaths in fiction. I pursue a love of theatre, academically and practically, and I have undertaken roles in ten productions; this involvement has been invaluable to me in understanding the value of live theatre in comprehending a text, especially Shakespeare. Having seen three theatrical versions of A Midsummer's Night Dream, I still find myself captivated by Puck's protean character and how his fluctuating gender and sexuality establish him as a cipher for the zeitgeist of identity politics. In reading Shakespeare's plays, I've developed an enthusiasm for observing how different actors reshape notorious characters in their performances, attending productions including As You Like It, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello and King Lear. Beyond academia, my motivation and work ethic is exhibited through my leadership role as a senior prefect and my commitment to several sports, most notably, netball, hockey and athletics, the third in which I reached the County Finals for three consecutive years. I was honoured to manage my school's charity committee and continue to work at my local church, preparing dinners for local homeless people.To explore literature is to voyage through time, to immerse oneself in the lives and works of others and to understand them as if they were our own; Huxley's words, “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self," inspire me to both see through the eyes of others, and thus develop my own writing, voice and identity.