Baptista's flatness...

Of the main characters in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Baptista’s role is small yet pivotal in moving the story forward. Baptista is the father of both Katherine and Bianca who are the two centers of this play. It is them that the two plots revolve around. Baptista is the one that says Bianca cannot marry before her elder, shrew-like sister Katherine. With this announcement, Bianca’s suitors employ Petruchio to wed Katherine and this furthers the story line. Also, Baptista is the one that agrees to Lucentio’s offer to marry Bianca (this is Tranio disguised as Lucentio). By doing this, the real Lucentio has more reason and comfort in stealing Bianca away and eloping. For as much “power” as Baptista has in the play, his character is rather flat. He does not evolve and mature and we only see one side of him; the side that is eager to marry off his daughters. Baptista is crucial to the flow of the play despite is flatness of character.

the Shakespearean stage

In Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, he uses language cues in order to inform the audience of what time of day it is and where the characters are in the grand scheme of things. In Act 4 Scene 5 Katherine and Petruchio are on their way to Baptista’s (Katherine’s father) house. In this instance, we not only get an example of Shakespeare’s use of language for setting but an example of Petruchio’s growing control over Katherine. Petruchio says “…how bright and goodly shines the moon!” Katherine replies “The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now.” Petruchio then goes on to say that it is in fact the night and Katherine must say it is so in order for them to continue on their journey to her sister’s wedding at her father’s house. With this exchange of words, we know that it is in fact the day time and that Petruchio’s control of Katherine is getting stronger. Also, when the true Vincentio (Lucentio’s father) enters the scene, Petruchio says “good morrow” which in indicative of the morning. Also, in Act 5 Scene 1, the true Vincentio approaches his son’s house and is confronted by the imposters. As the disagreement progresses Petruchio says to Katherine, “Prithee, Kate, let’s stand aside and see the end of this controversy.” With this statement, Petruchio and Katherine are forced to stand off to the side and observe the interactions of the other characters. The Shakespearean stage, with its lack of curtains, made it difficult for the audience to know what the actual setting was. However, with Shakespeare’s clever writing of dialogue, indicators of the setting made it possible to understand where and when the action took place.

a Joycean epiphany

In James Joyce’s Eveline, the protagonist, for whom the story is named, is a young girl who is planning on going away with her sweetheart Frank. She discusses her pained relationship with her father and how she is looking forward to going away to Buenos Aries with Frank. Eveline is very concerned with what others think of her. This is evident when she is concerned with what the women in her store will think when they find out that she has run away with Frank to an exotic land. She then imagines how life will be in Buenos Aries and how she will be treated with respect and love there because she would be married. Eveline writes two letters before she leaves to meet Frank at the dock; one to her brother that is still alive and one to her father. She writes them to explain where she has gone and why. As she is sitting with them in her lap we become aware that she had promised her mother that she would keep the family together and not leave. She promised that she would stay and be the center of the family and not allow anything bad to happen. With this memory, Eveline begins to second guess her decision to run away with Frank. While on the dock getting ready to embark on her journey to a new life with Frank, she suddenly becomes fearful and grasps the railing and as if paralyzed, does not move, and watches passively as Frank sails away.
I think that Eveline realized that this was not truly what she wanted and that she was fearful of what was awaiting her in the future. I think that with all of the loss, the death of her mother and her brother, and the abuse that her father put her through, Eveline was scared. She was scared to trust Frank to the extent needed in order for her to make this trip. She thinks “he would drown her” if she were to go. This means that she thinks she would lose herself and her present identity if she were to go away with him to his world and out of hers. Also, I think that she felt guilty. She made a promise to her dying mother that she would not let the family fall apart and if she was to go with Frank she would be letting her down. This epiphany that Eveline has is typical of the Joycean Epiphany: a character comes to a realization at the end of the story, however, it is usually a sad, cruel and disheartening one. As an audience, we want Eveline to get on the boat and start a new life where she will be respected and loved. When she stays behind we are left with a need for an explanation for her decision and yet, we never get one. Eveline’s epiphany is not one that we, as an audience, want her to have, but it is the one that she needed to have. She felt scared and realized that going away with Frank was not what she really needed nor what she wanted, for as he was sailing away, “her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.”

some sympathy for a bug.

In Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, I believe that Kafka wants us to sympathize with Gregor. Gregor is being portrayed as a bug of some sort and is, for the most part, despised by his family by the end of the story. By knowing that his family is increasingly neglecting him and their disgust for him is ever growing, we sympathize with Gregor. Also, there are times in which certain members of Gregor’s family will show him compassion and we are forced to see him more as a human and less as an insect. The first example of this would be when Grete, his sister, brings him food. At first she brings him milk, which was his favorite when he was not a bug and he does not eat it for his new bug taste buds cannot stand it. So she returns with a plethora of things that a cockroach-type bug would enjoy and Gregor is thankful. In this instance, we see compassion and love from Grete toward her brother. She is taking care of him in his time of need as Gregor took care of her and their parents when he was not an insect. Another example would be when Grete thinks that they should move Shis furniture to give him more space to crawl around. Grete has now become more disenchanted with her brother and is in a state in which she believes that she knows what is best for him, while not really wanting to have to be in the position in which she is in. Their mother, however, feels as if they should leave his room as it has always been. She says that she wants to keep it the same “so that when he comes back…he will find everything unchanged and be able all the more easily to forget what has happened in between (Kafka).” Gregor’s mother is hopeful that one day he will return to his normal self and be able to function in a normal manner as he once did. This glimmer of hope that we see in the mother allows us to have a bit of hope as well. At least for me, it made me think that maybe this was foreshadowing and that he was going to return to his normal state at the end of the story. With this piece of hope, comes sympathy; sympathy with the mother that her son might return to her and sympathy with Gregor that he may be able to become a functioning part of society again. Throughout the rest of the novella there are instances of Gregor’s mistreatment and my heart felt for him. Yes, I am aware that he is a giant bug and I will the first to admit how gross that is, but I still saw him as having a human-like quality. This made me think of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Frankenstein monster was just that, a monster, however, you feel for him and you sympathize with him by the end of the book. Gregor was a son and a brother that became a bug, and by the end he was a bug first, son and brother last.

a sister's struggle.

In Kafka's short story "Metamorphosis" Gregor discovered that…he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. As his physical needs and abilities shift from human to animal Grete, the sister, takes on a new importance. Grete has developed a queer self-assurance and has grown accustomed to consider herself an expert in Gregor’s affairs. It is she who feeds the beetle; she alone enters the beetle's lair and is the sole caregiver to her brother. The sister has become, frankly antagonistic towards her brother. She may have loved him once, but now she regards him with disgust and anger. Grete as a provider becomes disenchanted with Gregor's care, and begins kicking some food into him daily. However, his sister does not understand that Gregor has retained a human heart, human sensitivity, a human sense of decorum, of shame, of humility and pathetic pride. She disturbs him horribly by the noise and haste with which she opens the window to breathe some fresh air, and she does not bother to conceal her disgust at the awful smell in his den. Neither does she conceal her feelings when she actually sees him. Grete continuously views Gregor as more of a creature, until Gregor comes out of his room to hear his sister play the violin and scares away the three lodgers. Grete says, "I won't utter my brother's name in the presence of this creature" (394). She continues to refer to him as a creature by referring to Gregor as "it" and, finally, questions whether the insect really is Gregor.

Goodman's guide.

I think that Goodman’s guide said it all quite well when he asserts that “Evil is the nature of mankind.” And I also think that the story illustrates this statement very well. At the beginning of his journey, young Goodman Brown is slightly confused and apprehensive about following this “guide” into the forest. Brown says his apprehension stems from the fact that his father and grandfather never went on a journey such as this in their lifetime. The guide responds with, “I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake." By telling Brown this, he is informing him that his forefathers were not as saintly as he would like to believe. They traveled this road of evil just as young Goodman Brown is about to; this evil that Brown that is about to experience is within him, as it is within all of mankind. Man can fight it, and not be led into the forest, or they can fall into its inviting arms and be led into the forest, it is up to them.

a little paragraph.

original: Langston Hughes' poem Harlem is an expression of what he believes happens to a dream that goes unaccomplished, and yet by comprising the poem with questions, he is inviting the reader to use their imagination to decide for themselves what exactly "happens to a dream deferred." In the first line of the poem, Hughes’ poses the question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” He then answers said question by asking more questions. He allows the answer to be open to interpretation; however, the questions that he poses have a negative connotation. He does this in order to guide the reader into a mindset that he wants them to have. He depicts a dream deferred as a heavy load that sags, a festering sore and rotten meat. By doing this, he is informing the reader that a dream deferred is, essentially, worse than having no dreams at all.

revised: In the poem Harlem, Langston Hughes uses questions to invite the reader to use their imagination to decide for themselves “what happens to a dream deferred?” “What happens to a dream deferred?” is the first question that Hughes’ asks his readers. He allows the answer to be open to interpretation; however, the questions that he poses have a negative connotation. He does this in order to guide the reader into the mindset that he wants them to have. He depicts a dream deferred as a heavy load that sags, a festering sore and rotten meat. By doing this, he is informing the reader that a dream deferred is worse than having no dreams at all.

reasons for the change: As discussed in class, I revised my thesis sentence in order to make it more concise. My original sentence was a little too wordy and the paragraph went in a different direction than I intended it to. By rewording the thesis and a few of the other sentences, I feel that it is now a more concise paragraph.

miss emily is facebooking.

Name : Emily Grierson
Sex : female
Relationship status: complicated
Interested in: men

Activities: china painting and teaching young girls the art of china painting.

Interests: staying at home, visiting with my cousins, different poisons fascinate me.

Films: Nosferatu.
Books: Frankenstein, Dracula and anything by Edgar Allen Poe!

Favorite quotes: “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity”
-Edgar Allen Poe

About Me: I am quite a homebody. I don’t really much but stay at home with my servant. I
don’t have many friends, but might like a few more. I should mention that my
father died when I was younger and I have had a hard time with it, even into my
later years. Oh, and I had a fiancé, but he umm, well…he disappeared.

Wall Posts:
friend: let’s go shopping this afternoon! You never come out of the house…
Emily: well…I guess. I mean I have been meaning to go to the market and grab
some arsenic for all of those pesky rats….
friend: but I was over at your house the other day and there weren’t any rats…
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I thought that it would be fitting to put a lot of different gothic elements in Miss Emily’s facebook page. It gave the feel of the southern gothic genre that “A Rose for Emily” actually is. For her relationship status I put that it was complicated. Since she was never actually married and we know how she loved sleeping with the corpse, I decided that “complicated” summed it all up nicely. Also, for favorite films I put Nosferatu, which is a 1922 film depicting Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula is the epitome of gothic literature and the film versions do amazing jobs at interpreting that gothic element into visual art. Also, the conversation is a subtle way in which Emily is saying she needs arsenic to poison rats, however she is really using it for her ex-fiancé.

a thesis...

Langston Hughes' poem Harlem, is an expression of what he believes happens to a dream that goes unaccomplished, and yet by comprising the poem with questions, he is inviting the reader to use their imagination to decide for themselves what exactly "happens to a dream deferred."

a parody involving the mundane

Thought I’d let you know

I wore your shirt
today
the one that
you said I

could not
wear because it’s your
favorite
I promise

that I will
wash it and put it
back in
your closet

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In my parody of Williams’ poem, I chose to imitate his form, including number of syllables and lack of punctuation, and also the mundane subject matter. In “This is Just to Say” we get the impression that this is a note that the speaker left for a significant other or a roommate. The parody that I constructed is very much a note that I would leave my roommate, and likewise that she would leave me. We constantly borrow each other’s clothes and, at times, we borrow things that we are not supposed to. By leaving her this note I am, hopefully, avoiding the wrath of my roommate that will eventually occur. In Williams’ poem, the speaker asks for forgiveness for eating the plums, how sincere this apology is, is open to interpretation, but the words are there. In my poem I tell my roommate that I will wash it and put it back in closet. This is to hopefully gain some points and take away from the fact that I took her favorite shirt. I do not perceive my parody as mocking Williams’ poem, but hopefully, an imitation that was assembled in a flattering way.

basic instincts.

In class we discussed whether or not Andrew Hudgins’ poem “The Wild Swans Skip School” is mocking Yeats’ poem “The Wild Swans at Coole” or not. In Hudgins’ poem, he is challenging the common romantic view that people associate with swans. He does this by breaking down all of the “fluff” that Yeats has in his poem to the basic instincts of birds. The most recognizable line in which he does this is when he says “We have mate.” In Yeats’ poem, he says that the swans are “lovers” and each has their pair. By Hudgins calling the swans “mates” instead of “lovers” as Yeats does, he makes them more animal-like and less romanticized. The swans, which are the speakers in Hudgins’ poem, are telling the audience that they are not all that they want them to be. In the end, they are just birds with basic survival instincts to “beat wings” and “have mates” and even to “fly ‘way.”

a difficult thing to endure

I have chosen to examine a couplet from Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem.”

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

The first line in the poem states “what happens to a dream differed?” giving us a clear idea of what the poem is about (postponed dreams). As we read through the rest of the poem we know that the speaker has a negative connotation towards these postponed dreams. He uses multiple questions and similies in order to leave the answer to his dream deferred question open ended and open to interpretation. In lines nine and ten, Hughes does not pose a question like throughout the rest of the poem; he gives us a suggestion of what a deferred dream could be related to. He calls it a “heavy load” that “sags.” This gave me images of high school with my fifty pound backpack dragging me down as I hiked the one hundred or so stairs to get to homeroom every morning. My backpack was a “heavy load” and was burdensome and painful and most of all obnoxious. This got me to thinking about what Hughes was trying to convey through this couplet. To me, he is saying that delayed dreams will weigh on your mind for as long as they go unaccomplished. This eventually becomes tiring and discouraging to one’s morale. It is also referring to the little voice in the back of your head saying “what-if” and reminding you of what could have been. Deferred dreams are difficult to deal with especially when they “sag like a heavy load.” Hughes is attempting to encourage us to go after our dreams because if we do not, we will forever regret it.

the duchess and dorian

The entire time I was reading “My Last Duchess “I could not help but think of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The way in which the Duke concealed the portrait of his former wife was what first made think of Wilde’s novel. In Browning’s poem, the Duke is consumed with guilt with what he has done. He may not admit to this guilt, but it is unmistakably there. In the poem, the Duke is determined to have control. He wanted to control the conversation, just as he wanted to control his wife and when he failed to control her, he had her killed. It is the guilt of this action that causes him to hide the painting behind the curtain. We talked in class about how it is possible that the Duchess, even in her portrait form, might be controlling the Duke. I agree with this. The Duke rants on and on about her and her flirtatious ways, and in the midst of his rant he inadvertently admits to her murder. The Duchess is gone, and yet he cannot stop talking about her and what she did while she was alive. With regards to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Dorian hid the portrait of himself while he lived a life of debauchery. All of his aging and the sins he committed showed up on the face of the portrait and not on his physical being. He hid his guilt away in the painting and never looked upon it. Of course, it all caught up with him and (spoiler alert!) he eventually looks upon it, attempts to destroy it and it, in turn, destroys him. The portrait had control of Dorian as the portrait of the Duchess has control over the Duke. Also, the way in which Dorian attempts to hide his guilt by covering the painting, is the same as the way the Duke attempts to do the same thing by covering the portrait of the Duchess.

a loss of eloquence...

I have chosen to examine lines 43-46 of "My Last Duchess"

True text:
…Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands
Then all smiles stopped all together…

In prose:
…oh sir, she smiled all of the time
Whenever I passed her she smiled, but many passed her
And received the same smile. This became frequent. I ordered it
And all of her smiles stopped all together…

Translating a poem in prose can be difficult, but it is necessary to truly appreciate the beauty of true poetic form. In Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” his use of form is exquisite. The entire poem is comprised of rhyming heroic couplets and it is in iambic pentameter. When reading the true text of the poem there is passion and feeling behind it. You can tell that Browning was trying to convey, subtlety of course, the fact that that Duke was a jealous creature and had his wife killed because of her flirtatiousness. This is the art of poetry; the play with words and the clever use of grammar and the ability to convey strong emotions and situations with the fewest words as possible. While reading the prose, the same basic idea is achieved, however, the eloquence and true art of the poem is, quite literally, lost in translation. Writing in prose is a great tool to better understand what the poet is trying to say, but it is in no way as expressive and articulate as the true text of a poem.