Fiction Adaption (History on Charlotte Mews 2)

   While looking more into Charlotte Mews' life, I found some interesting information about her that could be relevant to her personal life influencing her poetry. Many people during that era commented that Charlotte dressed in masculine clothing, a style of clothing which what was referred to at the time as that of a 'dandy' (Picture at bottom shows what a dandy dressed like in Victorian London). Some people in the poetry community said that she dressed this way as she was chastely lesbian. It has never been proved that she was a lesbian, which would be due to the fact that in that time it would not be accepted as it is in modern day society. It has not been proved that she was a lesbian but many people commented on her being one, which heightens the possibility of it being true.
    If it is true that Mews was a lesbian, it would explain the sexual connotations that are within 'The Cenotaph'. She could have used her poetry as an outlet for her lesbian feelings, it could have been her safe place to express these feelings instead off bottling them up inside. I have looked at other poems of hers and they also have the same connotations in them such as 'In Nunhead Cemetery' where she talks about social alienation and criticises the Christian faith. And in other poems she spoke through the male characters perspective within her poems, which she does in 'The Farmers bride'.

Fiction Adaption (History on Charlotte Mews 1)

   I have looked at the history of the author of 'The Cenotaph', Charlotte Mews, previously but I felt that I had to write down some main points about her that relate to the poem. I have decided to do this because a lot of information about her life relates to the poem quite a lot.
   Mews grew up in Victorian London with her mother, father and siblings. When she was in her late twenties, her father, an architect who designed Hampstead town hall, passed away leaving her family without much income left to help the family live well. The majority of her brothers and sisters either died or had mental illnesses that had them omitted to mental institutions. At the end of her life Charlotte suffered from a deep depression caused by the death of one of her sisters by cancer, this later led to her death when she killed herself by drinking Lycol. It is clear that she had many troubles in her life which was very upsetting to read, but it is clear a lot of what happened in her life influenced her work. The fact her poem is mainly based on a cenotaph is tied in to how her father was an architect, which would be understandably be an influence as architecture would possibly remind her of her father. She describes the cenotaph as a grand monument with a sense of pride about it, which also changes the mood of the poem from sadness and loss to a 'rising from the ashes' feeling. Which could be related to the emotions she felt when reminicing about her memories about her father.

Fiction Adaption (Initial Idea 4)

   I have finally decided on what my film will be. I am going to go ahead and base my film in the concept of innocence lost by sexual intercourse. It is going to be a dark themed film with with adult themes but I believe that I should go with this idea as it will push me to do something I haven't done before which is also out of my comfort zone. The plot is going to be a young girl gets raped/taken advantage of by an older male which drives her to go out and kill other men like him who she meets on the internet. This will tie into the idea of 'The Cenotaph' poem by the cenotaph being a shrine to the people she meets and kills, made up from photographs she takes of the men she meets up with through the internet after she has killed them. I will also go ahead with the idea of creating a soundtrack with noises made in the film, for example I could use the noise of the camera going off and the noise of the keyboard typing.
   I have looked at other possibilities and film adaption ideas instead of this one but I feel more confident and certain on this idea. I am going to speak to my unit teacher about my idea to be 100% certain on if this is a good idea to go with and also just to be clear if the themes that will be present in the film are acceptable for the unit. These are adult themes and I will show them maturely and treat the planning of this in a mature manner, I am an adult now and this type of film may not be acceptable in school or college but I believe I can do this well.