Personal statements - English

Choosing to study English is, for me, the natural continuation of the compulsive reading that grew out of my childhood love of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice', first read when I was nine. This novel proved to be pivotal to my early development. I have since found Elizabeth Bennet to be an inspirational character, not only for her burgeoning feminism, but also as someone who withstands the pressures of the establishment to emerge triumphant at the top of the social hierarchy. The seeds of my future interest in Russian literature were sown at the same time by beginning Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina'. This lead in turn to 'War and Peace.' I think it is fascinating to see how Tolstoy's attitudes to women were influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church.

My literary knowledge was further enriched through school English lessons, highlights of which included Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', 'A Modest Proposal' by Jonathon Swift, 'Beowulf', and 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by T.S. Eliot. This year I have particularly liked studying Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale'. Not only did I enjoy being able to explore a form of English with fewer Latin and more Germanic words, but I was also interested to see how, in spite of the oppressive morality of the Medieval Church, Chaucer is still able to subvert not only its values, but also those of the courtly love tradition, which has equal cultural gravitas. Starting to prepare for the Advanced Extension Award, with the demands of its searching linguistic analysis and the challenge of writing an essay on previously unseen material finally convinced me that English was the only subject I should consider applying for at university.

In 2002, I was one of two people chosen to do a cultural exchange with Somerset College, Capetown. My glimpse of the poverty and desperation of many South Africans profoundly affected my interpretation of such texts as Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'. At college, further insight into the post- apartheid situation was provided through studying 'The Island' by Athol Fugard and 'Cry, the Beloved Country', by Allen Paton. Paton's lyrical prose perfectly described the hopeless poverty, hunger and destruction caused by the breaking of the tribe. My free time was spent, not only writing long e-mails and my own short stories, but also reading, in particular, 'Eugene Onegin'. I thought it was intriguing to witness the way that Tatyana and Onegin, as the archetypal Russian man and woman, are drawn upon in later literature.

I have Grade 8 in piano, Grade 6 in flute and am of a similar standard in harp. I am also a member of both the school and Cornwall Youth Orchestra. I participated in the bronze, silver and gold Duke of Edinburgh's award schemes. I have been chosen as joint editor of the Sixth Form English magazine, which has proved to be beneficial not only to my time management, but also to my IT skills. I am a member of the school debating team and have enjoyed not only the meticulous research required, but also the challenge of producing a rhetorically persuasive speech in a very short time. I spend several hours a week life drawing. Maintaining the intense concentration needed to analytically study the body has been of particular importance to my other A Level work. I hope to spend several months of my gap year teaching English as a foreign language in Russia. I will then use the remainder to participate in BUNAC's Work France programme in Paris.