Therefore the logic behind Possession merely reflecting a Victorian romance, one where contemporary characters are forced to follow the steps of their predecessors as Byatt is also compelled to do.
The film Moulin Rouge directed by Baz Lurhmann also adopts self-reflective techniques by the premeditated use of anachronism, to de legitimise the text as being nothing more than fictitious, allowing the responder to be all too aware that it is not reality, merely a musical and theatrical montage of appropriated contexts. Moulin Rouge uses self-reflexivity by including frames in a film regarding the making a stage play. The remarks mad by the Duke, "At the end should someone die?" Also acknowledges the "rules" of a text and acknowledges itself as an integral part of these conventions. .
Correspondingly Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, composed by Tom Stoppard, is also highly self-reflective. Stoppard gives two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet major roles. Both characters are knowingly aware of their position within the text as they discover their purpose. The outcome is predetermined through the title, however questions for a conclusive narrative are never met, and the responder is left to construe meaning. .
Simulacra is another technique employed by Byatt that reflects "post-modernism". Simulacra is defined by Jean Baudillard as, "the present unable to progress and must continue to parallel and build upon the past." Therefore history has ended and may only evolve by repeating itself. The concept of simulacra is implored by Maud, Roland and Val. Involved in a contemporary love triangle their lives mirror that of their Victorian counterparts Christabel, Ash and Ellen. The actions and lives of Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte become so integral that without their relationship Maud and Roland's could not exist. "Roland thought that he and Maud were being driven by a plot or fate not their own fate or plot but that of those other"p421.
I will now look at seven instances where Yeats" works have informed and contributed to A.S. Byatt's "Possession". First, let's look at the mention of Yeats in Possession. ... Likewise, in Possession, Maud says, "When I feel - anything - I go cold all over. ... Similarly, Byatt highlights Christabel's green boots and "emerald eyes". ...
