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.