Summary:
Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies
depicts the fall of Anne Boleyn from the perspective of Cromwell, the one who
wishes for her to be found guilty of both adultery and treason. To do this, he
allies with the papist aristocracy in an attempt to find those who will testify
against her. The Queen’s husband, King Henry VIII, was rather upset with her
incapability of producing a male heir. She didn’t realize that this was not
only a pity, but an endangerment to her own life. The king’s attention to Jane
Seymour, on of Anne’s ladies-in-waiting, allowed Cromwell to easily get the
Queen out of the picture. Though the evidence is scant, she is eventually found
guilty. Through the course of an entanglement between truth and lies, the
reader is left to find if Anne is truly guilty or not.
AP
Prompt: 1970. Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literacy
merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of a
fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character
is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely
summarize the plot.
Thesis:
Bring Up the Bodies is about the
physical and emotional fragmentation of Anne Boleyn dye to her surrounding and
the uptight standards of the society around her.
Explanation:
My physical representation of this is a painting. The wallpaper is painted in
order the depict the time period of the novel as well as the royalty Anne
Boleyn was a part of for much of the book through the color choices. Due to
this novel having a historical basis, I wished to convey this through the
painting. By showing the distressing of the wallpaper, I wished to portray the
fact that by the end of the novel, Anne is no longer of royalty; it has been
taken away from her and is now a thing of the past. The black, ‘burnt’ parts of
the wallpaper are seemingly reaching towards Anne. This is done to show that
she is, in fact, the one being negatively impacted by her surroundings.
Atop
the wallpaper, I show three figures; one of a woman, Anna, and two of men,
Cromwell and King Henry VIII. The king has his arms crossed, facing Anne, and
Cromwell is in the background between them, observing. The king and Cromwell
are painting in light grays because throughout the novel, they are seen by the
public as on the right side of events. Anne is painted in dark grays in order
to show that she, however, is on the wrong side. “She knows adultery is a sin
and a crime, but to be on the losing side is a greater fault than these”
(259). The king was unhappy with Anne’s
failure as queen, such as being unable to produce a male heir. This leads him
to become more so enchanted by one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. “She
has lost him to Jane Seymour, and no court of law will judge her more harshly
than she judges herself” (260). He and Cromwell took this as an opportunity.
Anne was weakened by her surroundings and the accusations against her. They
realized this and knew that they could get her out of the picture. “[King
Henry] says, ‘Anne is dead to herself. We shall have no trouble with her now”
(260).
This
brings us to the deeper theme; throughout the novel Anne Boleyn is depicted as
an adulterer, a criminal. This crime, in fact, is punishable by death. Even so,
the majority of historians believe that Anne and the men who said they slept
with her were innocent and were framed. Though Mantel never straight out says
that she is innocent, history seemingly proves otherwise. Even so, there is no
clar facts that point out Anne’s innocence; the reader is forced to choose what
to believe. “What is the nature of the border between truth and lies? It is
permeable and blurred because it is planted thick with rumor, confabulation,
misunderstandings and twisted tales” (143). The lies within this novel are
undeniable, after all, Anne and Cromwell, who cannot be speaking the truth.
Even the king gets brought into these lies. These events have greatly impacted
Anne Boleyn and even caused her death, however, they go on, Cromwell’s actions
and lack of morals don’t simply change after she passes; Mantel makes this
clear. “There are no endings. If you think so you are deceived by nature. They are
all beginnings. This is one” (345). That is the last line of the novel,
perfectly depicting that though Anne has met her end, Cromwell’s wrath and King
Henry’s discontent has not ended and the truth has yet to be proven.
My
project displays the essence of Bring Up
the Bodies by Hilary Mantel because a painting, like many things in the
world, has more than one meaning. It is all about interpretation. Within the
novel, I found myself questioning Anne Boleyn’s morality. Mantel makes it easy
for the reader to get caught between the truth and the lies, just like the
characters within them. The wallpaper depicted is used as a physical
representation of Anne Boleyn and her struggles; Cromwell and the king are
shown in order to show who has caused Anne’s life to unravel. The darkness
within the painting is not symmetrical, it cannot be explained simply and the
changes within it cannot be predicted. The painting as a whole shows no true
cause for Anne Boleyn’s death, it is simply used to portray the different
characters whose morality is questioned throughout the novel as well as the
final effects of Anne Boleyn’s surroundings upon her.
Works
Cited:
Mantel,
Hilary. Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel. New York: Henry Holt and, 2012. Print.
“The
Anne Boleyn Files.” The Anne Boleyn Files RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment