LLCE – Advanced English / Methodology, Oct.

2020

SYNTHESIS ESSAY
Durée : 2h00
Ecrire au moins 400 mots (= 40 lignes) en anglais.
1. Au brouillon, surligne tout ce que tu comprends de chaque document et fais-en une analyse détaillée sous
forme de notes (pbm évoqué, à quelle époque, avec quels procédés stylistiques, l’intention de l’auteur).
2. Ensuite, fais une courte liste de leurs points communs et de leurs différences (tu peux utiliser un tableau à
deux colonnes (similarities vs. differences) ou un diagramme de Venn :

Similarities Differences
Doc. A
Doc. B
Doc. C

3. Essaie maintenant de trouver une question / problématique à laquelle ces trois documents semblent apporter
une réponse. Ici, il faudrait trouver une question qui lie la littérature victorienne (fiction) et la société victorienne
(réalité) : en quoi ces documents… / quelle image de… / quel rôle… ? etc.
4. Quelle idée principale va être contenue dans chacune des deux ou trois parties dont ton développement va
être constitué ? Tu ne dois pas répéter deux fois la même idée dans ton développement.

Par ex. en 1ère partie, montrer le lien entre les docs 1 et 2, et en 2ème partie montrer l’éclairage
supplémentaire et différent que le doc. 3 apporte par rapport aux docs 1 et 2.

5. Comment vas-tu structurer ton introduction (8-10 lignes max.) ? Inclure une présentation succincte des
documents et écrire la problématique ou question-clé. Inutile de perdre du temps à annoncer le plan, qui, si tes
idées s’enchaînent de façon progressive et logique, s’imposera à ton lecteur au fur et à mesure.
6. Tu peux maintenant te lancer dans la rédaction de ta synthèse (au moins 15 lignes par partie), en n’oubliant
pas d’illustrer tes idées ou arguments de qq. citations précises tirées des textes.

7. Comment vas-tu rendre ta conclusion pertinente (5 lignes environ) ? Il serait bien de raccrocher ces
documents aux axes du programme (en l’occurrence : art et contestation = protest art) et de mettre en évidence
le lien fiction-réalité (évoquer par ex. le procès d’Oscar Wilde, ou le fait que l’œuvre, aujourd’hui, inspire d’autres
formes d’art engagé).

REMARQUE: seule la rédaction complète de l’introduction et de la première partie est obligatoire.

Présente le reste sous forme de plan si tu manques de temps.

Critères de notation :
Structure : /5 Contenu, idées : /5 Qualité de la langue : /10
 Using the following texts and the situations they highlight, write a 400-word essay
showing that 19th-century literature proved to be a powerful way of portraying
the contradictions of the Victorian age.

REMINDER:

The Victorian period of history (1837-1901) is generally characterized by rapid change in technology,
geopolitics, and socioeconomics. Significant advances were made in medicine, technology, scientific
discovery, and there was an enormous growth in population. Cities began to attract people from the
countryside in search of work and, hopefully, fortune. In Britain, it is generally seen as a period of the
rapid rise in power and influence of the British Empire around the world.

Document A:

1 The result of a three-year investigation into working conditions in mines and factories in
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Report of the Children’s Employment
Commission is one of the most important documents in British industrial history.
Comprising thousands of pages of oral testimony (sometimes from children as young as
5 five), the report’s findings shocked society and swiftly led to legislation to secure
minimum safety standards in mines and factories, as well as general controls on the
employment of children.

Britain had a long tradition of agricultural child labour, in which children were most often
employed to scare crows or lead animals to pasture. With the rise of industrialisation,
10 and particularly the development of coalmining, more children began entering the
workforce at an earlier age. Children were on average five times cheaper to employ than
adults, and were expected to work the same hours – which, in mining communities, could
mean a 14-hour day. The Commission also uncovered many cases in which children
had been used to climb into the workings of industrial machinery to clear a jam,
15 sometimes with fatal consequences.

The Commission was established by Anthony Ashley Copper, the 7th Earl of
Shaftesbury, with the report compiled by Richard Henry Horne, a friend of Charles
Dickens’s and sometime contributor to Dickens’s Daily News. The report inspired protest
literature from the likes of Benjamin Disraeli, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth Browning and
20 Dickens himself – most notably in A Christmas Carol.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/report-on-child-labour-1842
Document B:

The scene is set in a workhouse = a building where very poor people in Britain
used to work, in the past, in exchange for food and shelter.

1 The room in which the boys were fed, was a large stone hall, with a copper1 at one end: out of which
the master, dressed in an apron2 for the purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the
gruel3 at mealtimes. Of this festive composition each boy had one porringer, and no more – except
on occasions of great public rejoicing, when he had two ounces and a quarter of bread besides. […]

5 Boys have generally excellent appetites. Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures of
slow starvation for three months: at last they got so voracious and wild with hunger, that one boy,
who was tall for his age, and hadn't been used to that sort of thing (for his father had kept a small
cook-shop), hinted darkly to his companions, that unless he had another basin of gruel per diem4,
he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him, who happened to be
10 a weakly youth of tender age. He had a wild, hungry eye; and they implicitly believed him. A council
was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening, and ask for
more; and it fell to Oliver Twist.

The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook's uniform, stationed himself
at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a
15 long grace was said over the short commons5. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered each
other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was
desperate with hunger, and reckless6 with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the
master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity:

'Please, sir, I want some more.'

20 The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupified astonishment on
the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were
paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.

'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice.

'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.'

25 The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle; pinioned7 him in his arm; and shrieked
aloud for the beadle.

Charles DICKENS, Oliver Twist, 1838.

1
chaudron
2
tablier
3
bouillie de céréales
4
per day
5
maigres rations
6
irréfléchi, imprudent
7
immobiliser
Document C: