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Last Updated: Aug 27th, 2006 - 19:07:45
How Literature Affects Our Lives - The Hours
By Cynthia Kirkeby
Aug 24, 2006, 05:51 PST
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The Hours – How Literature Affects Our Lives?
Grade Level: 9-12, college
Subject: Literature
Keywords: Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf, suicide, Lesson Plan, Movies in the Classroom,
Author: Cynthia Kirkeby
Affiliation: ClassBrain, Inc.
Date: 13 March, 2003
Duration: 2 class periods
Film: The Hours
MPAA Rating: PG-13 - for mature thematic elements, some disturbing images and brief language
Background:
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| � Paramount 2002 |
Virginia Woolf wrote a story called Mrs. Dalloway in the 1920’s. This book was an exploration of thoughts and feelings, instead of action and adventure. Mrs. Dalloway, echoed Virginia’s own life in many ways. The author was plagued by mental illness for most of her life, and her story shows the character’s personalities unraveling, much as her own life came apart at the seams. Suicide is explored numerous times, as it was in her own life. Virginia seemed to be of the mind that people didn’t value life enough, and that someone needed to die, at least in her stories, to have those who were left value the lives that remained.
The three characters in this movie are intertwined, even though they are from various time periods. Sometimes the thread that connects them is the book, Mrs. Dalloway. At other times, the common thread is the issue of unrequited love, longing, and despair. All of these issues are explored in this well-crafted look at life and despair.
Objective:
In the Hours, all of the characters are effected by the same story: one by writing it, one by reading it, and one by the aftermath of another’s revelation. Explore your feelings towards literature and how it can affect the lives of people that read it.
Project 1:
Which book or story has had an effect on you that was profound enough to change the way you behaved, or impelled you to do something different in your life? Writing an essay on the book or story, and how it affected your life.
Project 2:
Read Mrs. Dalloway and write a five paragraph essay how the story relates to the events of the three women depicted in the film, The Hours.
Learning Links - Virginia Woolf and The Hours
The Hours
The official movie web site.
A Biography of Virginia Woolf
A well-written biography of this feminist writer with quotes intermixed with descriptions of her. Includes a list of selected works.
Virginia Woof’s Home
Find out where Virginia lived and worked on her writing.
Beneath a Rougher Sea
Review Virginia Woolf’s psychiatric history
Virginia-Woolfe.com
Critical essays on the stories of Virginia Woolf.
Mrs. Dalloway
This site explores the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s story Mrs. Dalloway.
Sparknote for Mrs. Dalloway
Good literature study guide for Virginia Woolf’s story.
(Note: annoying pop ups)
Classic Note on Mrs. Dalloway
(pop up but not as many as Sparknotes)
© Copyright 2006 by Classbrain.com
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