Fallen Angels : force-feeding scene

• Study of the force-feeding scene in the movie "Iron-jawed Angels".

Description of events ( women in jail / arrested because they are suffragettes / hunger strike... solidarity / to stand by someone / to stick together)  

Talking about emotional reactions  (I'm horrified / disgusted / shocked... admirative of these women)

• Comprehension of background song :

I was standing by my window,
On one cold and cloudy day
When I saw that hearse come rolling
For to carry my mother away

CHORUS :

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, Lord, by and by
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky

I said to that undertaker
Undertaker please drive slow
For this lady you are carrying
Lord, I hate to see here go

CHORUS

Oh, I followed close behind her
Tried to hold up and be brave
But I could not hide my sorrow
When they laid her in the grave

CHORUS

07/03

Women in jail :

Alice Hawkins prison notes (audio)

http://www.alicesuffragette.co.uk/audio.php#prisonnotes

12/03

To my surprise, it was harder facing Maude than Richard.
Richard' s response was predictable -- a rage he contained in front of the police but unleashed in the cab home. He shouted about the family name, about the disgrace to his mother, about the uselessness of the cause. All of this I had known to expect, from hearing of the reactions of other women' s husbands. Indeed, I have been lucky to go this long without Richard complaining. He has thought my activities with the WSPU a harmless hobby, to be dabbled in between tea parties. It is only now he truly understands that I too am a suffragette.
One thing he said in the cab did surprise me. 'What about your daughter?' he shouted. 'Now that she's firmly on the road to womanhood, she needs a better example than you are setting.'
I frowned -- the phrase he used was so awkward it must be masking something. 'What do you mean?'
Richard stared at me, both incredulous and embarrassed.
She hasn't told you?'

'Told me what?'
That she's begun her . . . her . . .' He waved his hand vaguely at my skirt.

'She has?' I cried. 'When?'
'Months ago.'
'How can you know when I don't?'
'I was with her at the time, that's why! And a humiliating moment it was, for both of us. She had to go to Jenny in the end - you weren't home. I should have guessed then how deeply you were into this ridiculous nonsense.'
Richard could have said more, but must have sensed he didn't need to. I was remembering when my own courses began - how I had run to my mother, crying, and how she had comforted me.
We were silent the rest of the way back. When we got home I took a candle from the hall table and went directly up to Maude's room. I sat on her bed and looked at her in the dim light, wondering what other secrets she was keeping from me, and how to tell her what I must tell her.
She opened her eyes and sat up before I had said anything. 'What is it, Mummy?' she asked so clearly that I am not sure she had been asleep.
It was best to be honest and direct. 'Do you know where I was today while you were at school?'
'At the WSPU headquarters?'
'I was at Caxton Hall for the Women' s Parliament. But then I went to Parliament Square with some others to try to get into the House of Commons.'

'And - did you?'
'No. I was arrested. I've just come back from Cannon Row Police Station with your father. Who is furious, of course.
'But why were you arrested? What did you do?'
'I didn't do anything. We were simply pushing through the crowd when policemen grabbed us and threw us to the ground. When we got up, they threw us down again and again. The bruises on my shoulders and ribs are quite spectacular. We've all got them.'
I did not add that many of those bruises came from the ride in the Black Maria - how the driver took corners so sharply I was thrown about, or how the cubicles in the van were so small that I felt I had been shut in a coffin standing up, or how it smelled of urine, which I was sure the police had done themselves to punish us further.
'Was Caroline Black arrested too?' Maude asked.
'No. She had fallen back to speak to someone she knew, and by the time she caught up the police had already got us. She was terribly upset not to be taken. She even came down to Cannon Row on her own and sat with us.'
Maude was silent. I wanted to ask her about what Richard had told me in the cab ride home, but found I couldn't. It was easier to talk about what had happened to me.
'I'll be in court early tomorrow,' I continued. 'They may send me straight to Holloway. I wanted to say goodbye now.'
'But - how long would you be in - in prison?'
'I don't know. Possibly up to three months.'

Falling Angels, Tracy Chevalier

• Identification of the narrator, the characters, places and references to time.
• Description of the situation
• Focus on relationships (father / mother - mother / daughter)

 19/03

Writing a personal letter

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Friendly-Missing-You-Letter

21/03

Entraînement à l'écriture d'une lettre.

Sujet :

A week after her mother has been taken to Holloway, Maud writes her a letter.

Example of production:

Dear mother,

I hope your days are not too dull and lonely and that you are well. I wonder what you do in jail all day...

I look forward to seeing you again. I'm proud that you are a Suffragette and that you are fighting for women's rights and although you can't be here for me now, I understand that it is a just cause worth fighting for.  I just think it is unfair that they arrested you for demonstrating.

Don't worry about me.  Father is there for me and I go to school everyday and take each day as it comes.

I got really worried about you yesterday when we read an article about force-feeding in the newspaper. I do hope they don't do this to you.

I really look forward to spending time with you again and hope I will be able to visit you at the prison.  At least I hope you will be able to write back.

Father was angry when you left and he really doesn't believe in the cause but I can see he misses you too.

My dearest mother, please write back soon if you can,

With all my love and affection,

Your loving daughter,

Maud