Dec 10 2009
Dec 10 2009
The Importance Of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest is a play wrote by Oscar Wilde. It illustrates the way of life of the upper class in Victorian society. However, this description is surrounded by irony and criticism to the frivolous aspects that are considered important for this group of people. In general, these assumptions reflect the conventional preoccupations of Victorian respectability, social position, income, and character. It suggests a strict code of morals that exist in Victorian society.
In Victorian society, young ladies are governed by the gender rules which involve not only being innocent, pure, elegant but mainly submissive to the values and decisions imposed by their family. Gwendolen shows this idea to Jack by expressing the reasons why she is afraid of not marring him, in act 01:
“Few parents now-a-days pay any regard to what their children say to them. The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast fading out. Whatever influence I ever had over mamma, I lost at the age of three.” Act 1, page 17
Parents never permitted their children to make a decision. When Gwendolen expresses this idea, she is also expressing her insatisfaction by not taking into account her own rule in “Society”. She was supposed to respect the decision imposed by her mother.
Gwendolen suggests the qualities of conventional Victorian womanhood more than any other female character in the play. She is very artificial and pretentious. Gwendolen is in love with Jack and her main preoccupation is to marry to someone “earnest”, like Jack is known by her. This preoccupation of marriage with a person who have virtue and honor is crucial in Victorian middle and upper-middle classes.
Another character who breaks the rule of gender is Cecily.Cecily is a girl of nature. She is ingenuous and unspoiled. However, her ingenuity is covered by fantasy. She is obsessed with the name Earnest just as Gwendolen is, and she falls in love with “Uncle Jack’s brother” who invented that his name is also “Earnest”.
One of these rules is that the man has to propose the marriage for the woman and he has to prove that he can support his new bride in the lifestyle she was accustomed to. In the play “The importance of Being Earnest” the things change place. The women, Gwendolen and Cecily are the providers of their marriage. They are not Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff the protagonists of all the marriage arrangements but Gwendolen and Cecily are. They practically lead the men to propose marriages to them, despite the men are also interesting in it. Let’s observe how the Gwendolen’s marriage proposal happens:
“Gwendolen: I adore you. But you haven’t proposed to me yet. Nothing has been said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on. Jack: Well… may I propose to you now?” (Act I)In the play, we can affirm that Gwendolen and Cecily break gender roles as the marriage is concerned. They take charge of their own romantic lives, while the men stand by watching in a relatively passive role. And in the Victorian age their role must be assumed by the men.
Both characters represent the hypocrisy of a society that spread the ideal of respectability and moral that anyone really lives or follows. In fact, Wilde makes fun of the whole Victorian idea of morality as a rigid body of rules about what people should and shouldn’t do.
Oct 22 2009
The Glass Menegerie by Tennesse Willians is an interesting play. The play context is the big crash. It was a Decade of The Great Depression before the Second World War. The play is an example of how Americans were dealing with the problem. Amanda, Laura and Tom Wingfield are the characters in the play who show us these problems. They live the hard reality of USA of the 30’s.
We are introduced to the three main characters, who have their own characteristics, but with one in common, the desire of escape from reality. Amanda still living in a world of fantasy and her son Tom is also a refugee who want to escape of his frustrated life. By living the excitement provided by the Hollywood movies. And Laura cannot handle stressful situations.
Laura is a sweet, sad, shy and a fragile lady. And she has an inferiority complex because of her physical problem. She likes Jim, who is described as popular and a high school hero. He is the person who gave her, a nickname “blue roses”. And it came up when she told her mother about him (Jim) whom she had a crush in her school days. How you can see in this quote on scene 2 :
Laura : when I had that attack of pleurosis –he asked me what ‘Hello, was the matter when I came back [school]. I said pleurosis-he thought that I said Blue Roses! So that’s what he always called me after that. Whenever he saw me, he’d holler, “Hello, Blue Roses!”
Blue Roses is a nickname that brings the idea of mythical significance, because in real life blue roses are not found in nature. And Blue has different meanings throughout literature and depending on the region, social context and the author, blue can represent happiness and liveliness. For Americans point of view this color is the representation of sadness and sorrow. And we can associate with Jim when he says when he beauty, he’s referring to Roses. In many cultures, hope for unattainable love.
Laura’s high school nickname symbolizes her outcast status, delicate and beautiful as a rose, but of an impossible, no-existent form. Laura like a blue rose, is especial, unique even, but she is also cut off from real life.
Sep 17 2009
“Is Lady Macbeth as guilty as Macbeth in the murder of the King? Comment and explain your answer”.
It is a little bit difficult to define which one is guiltier than another. Because both of them are guilty , they both are involved in the murder of the king.
In my point of view, Lady Macbeth is as guilty as Macbeth .And it is something dificult to say.Because, it depends of how you ( the reader )see the immoral roots of your own thoughts,how you see the world and need taboo. The idea that human has the capacity for devil things . Thus, Lady MacBeth and MacBeth start to show how ambitious they were ,whem the witches said to him:
1. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
2. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
3. Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King here after!
Act1, Scene 3, Lines 50-55.
Macbeth started being curious about the predictions and start thinking about the possibilities and like. Then, when he received the title of Cawdor, he really like to have power and honor. So, when his wife noticed about the facts she feels anxious and decides not to wait the moment he would become king,she shows her ambitious like her husband.
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature.
It is too full o’l the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;
Act1, Scene 5, Lines 14-17.
Their ambition results the murder of the king.MacBeth has the idea how evil the things he did.And Lady MacBeth is so naive and she has not the idea how she opens the dark evil.
This fragment shows when he sees himself killing the king:
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature?(…)
Act1, Scene 3, Lines 149-151.
He knows what he had done was not right according to human believes. In spite of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth has notion of his actions and thoughts:
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires!
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
Act1, Scene 5, Lines 57-59.
Lady MacBeth differently of MacBeth does not have the idea of the consequences but when she notice that, she shows her evil deep.And start making things totaly crazy because of her evil thoughts never gives her peace .Because they stay in everywhere she goes.Many people do wrong things without knowing about the consequence of theirs acts.Nobody will pay for you the wrong things you done.
They both paid for what they had done and they both are guilty.
Sep 15 2009
Lady Macbeth
FOR ME LADY MACBETH AND MACBETH HAVE THE SAME LEVEL OF EVIL. BUT SHE STIMULATES HIM IN COMMINT A MURDERER. MACBETH REFLECTS ABOUT THE POSSIBLES CONSEQUENCES OF THIS ACT BUT HIS WIFE NOT THINK ABOUT IT. SHE DISCUSSES WITH ABOUT THE SUCESS OF THE PLAN AND “GOOD RESULT” THAT THEY WILL HAVE AND SHE FORGOT OF THE CONSEQUENCES.
Dec 02 2008
poem’s analysis
The poem by Avison To Counter Malthus is a poem that goes against the ideas of Malthus she worries about the situation of populations worldwide. The words in the poem makes clear the indignation with what Malthus said. You may also notice that with the scores used in the poem.
In the first Stanza, it gives his view that there is no manual on how to live in a world so punished, even the most sóbios finds it difficult to live well in this world. So, respect must be very respecting differences, which is very difficult in that humanity, because living a simple life, there are few that target.
In the second Stanza the word presence is Jesus Christ, soon after a comma be indicating a beginning, a vocative. And he must be present in each new day with little sign of their exist? And renewed strength to continue living despite the great adversity.
In the third Stanza speech talks about how the world is so big and we do not have the knowledge of the qu? The great he is, because there are people living in more remote places on the planet, which may be different or is equal to us.
And that people who live in places t? The distant and different to be seen and recognized by everyone not to live alone.
On forty Stanza says the importance of knowing the next. Banging their needs and difficulties. Well, we live among so many, but the concern is whether we really recognize us and come in others. What is confirmed at the end of the Stanza where the dots emphasize the desire to live among so many and not recognize them.
On firty Stanza come to the conclusion that men are hungry when desperate are capable of the greatest atrocities and that is a threat that is strengthen by the day, but this is the man. But with the presence you become what it is easier to control with the word quantity which makes the presence untouchable, so few. But it should be for everyone. The search for that presence has come from the heart so that it touches the heart and become more human. The poem by Avison To Counter Malthus is a poem that goes against the ideas of Malthus she worries about the situation of populations worldwide. His words in the poem makes clear its indignation at what Malthus said. You may also notice that with the scores used in the poem.
In the first Stanza, it gives his view that there is no manual on how to live in a world so punished, even the most sóbios finds it difficult to live well in this world. So, respect must be very respecting differences, which is very difficult in that humanity, because living a simple life, there are few that target.
In the second Stanza the word presence is Jesus Christ, soon after a comma be indicating a beginning, a vocative. And he must be present in each new day with little sign of their exist? And renewed strength to continue living despite the great adversity.
In the third Stanza speech talks about how the world is so big and we do not have the knowledge of the qu? The great he is, because there are people living in more remote places on the planet, which may be different or is equal to us.
And that people who live in places t? The distant and different to be seen and recognized by everyone not to live alone.
On forty Stanza says the importance of knowing the next. Banging their needs and difficulties. Well, we live among so many, but the concern is whether we really recognize us and come in others. What is confirmed at the end of the Stanza where the dots emphasize the desire to live among so many and not recognize them.
On firty Stanza come to the conclusion that men are hungry when desperate are capable of the greatest atrocities and that is a threat that is strengthen by the day, but this is the man. But with the presence you become what it is easier to control with the word quantity which makes the presence untouchable, so few. But it should be for everyone. The search for that presence has come from the heart so that it touches the heart and become more human. The poem by Avison To Counter Malthus is a poem that goes against the ideas of Malthus she worries about the situation of populations worldwide. His words in the poem makes clear its indignation at what Malthus said. You may also notice that with the scores used in the poem.
Nov 25 2008
Margaret Avison – ‘She was kindliness itself’.
Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766-1834.
“In this famous work, Malthus posited his hypothesis that (unchecked) population growth always exceeds the growth of means of subsistence. Actual (checked) population growth is kept in line with food supply growth by “positive checks” (starvation, disease and the like, elevating the death rate) and “preventive checks” (i.e. postponement of marriage, etc. that keep down the birthrate), both of which are characterized by “misery and vice”. Malthus’s hypothesis implied that actual population always has a tendency to push above the food supply. Because of this tendency, any attempt to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes by increasing their incomes or improving agricultural productivity would be fruitless, as the extra means of subsistence would be completely absorbed by an induced boost in population. As long as this tendency remains, Malthus argued, the “perfectibility” of society will always be out of reach”.
Source:http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/malthus.htm
I have given this introduction to help you understand the following poem by Avison that your are to analyze, paying attention to punctuation, and how the poem is ‘countering’, that is arguing against, Malthus’ ideas. Remember we now live in a time of great population growth, but diminishing food and water supplies.
To Counter Malthus
None us in this so
burdened earth has known
how to live, let alone
who is too many.
Presence, each day
afresh, you give a
purifying signal to
sting us alive.
Vast territories and seashores
still bear these thronging
strangers. May none die
without somebody caring.
To know even one other is
costly. And being known.
Alive, among so many
more now? a concern…
Hunger makes men desperate, threatens
to congeal the quandary. Yet
Presence abides untouched
in the churn of Quantity.
Nov 04 2008
A Thunderstorm
A Thunderstorm
A moment the wild swallows like a flight
Of withered gust-caught leaves, serenely high,
Toss in the windrack up the muttering sky.
The leaves hang still. Above the weird twilight,
The hurrying centres of the storm unite
And spreading with huge trunk and rolling fringe,
Each wheeled upon its own tremendous hinge,
Tower darkening on. And now from heaven’s height,
With the long roar of elm-trees swept and swayed,
And pelted waters, on the vanished plain
Plunges the blast. Behind the wild white flash
That splits abroad the pealing thunder-crash,
Over bleared fields and gardens disarrayed,
Column on column comes the drenching rain.
Nov 03 2008
A Thunderstorm- Analysis
This poem was write from the poet Archibald Lampman. He was a poet from the 19th Century. He was a member from the Confederation Poet, they were a group of poets who wrote about Canada as Canadians ,they wrote about the beautiful things of Canada. His poem has a lot of characteristics from the impressionism it is why this Canadian poet is considered the impressionistic poetic. When we read his poems we can notice and imagine so many beautiful images with a lot of colors of what is being described. They have a great sense of movement and light. The poem Thunderstorm is a sonnet, has 14 rhyming lines with a regular alternation of unstressed and stressed syllables. It is called iambic pentamer as you can see in scansion of the first three lines:
- / - / - / - / - /
A moment the wild swallows like a flight
- / - / - / - / - /
Of withered gust-caught leaves, serenely high,
- / - / - / - / - /
Toss in the windrack up the muttering sky.
The rhyme scheme of the poem is: abbacddcefggef
A moment the wild swallows like a flight
Of withered gust-caught leaves, serenely high
Toss in the windrack up the muterring sky
The poem starts with a description of a thunderstorm is coming. The sense here in this lines are vision (A moment the wild swallows)and (serenely high) ,the sense of hearing (muterring sky).The movement that occur is the movement of the wind when is starting a storm.(gust- caught leaves) the wind lifted the leaves which starts blowing indicates a thunderstorm coming soon.You can create a image of a storm coming with shades of dark covering the sky.
The leaves hang still. Above the weird twilight,
The hurrying centres of the storm unite
And spreading with huge trunk and rolling fringe,
Each wheeled upon its own tremendous hinge,
Tower darkening on.
On this lines the storm has begin just after the sunset, how we can see on the words (weird twilight).In this moment the colors of the sky was a mix with the dark and the colors of the sunset red and purple. In lines 6 and 7 the movement of the rain by the use of the expression(trunk and rolling fringe) the waters was falling not sweet but strongly we in this lines have the sound of storm beginning to be more intense and the calm of the sunset was going out it is another wonderful image.
And now from heaven’s height
With the long roar of elm-trees swept an swayed,
And pelted waters, on the vanished plain
Plunges the blast.
On these lines describe the thunderstorm how furious, dangerous and beautiful it can be. The wind here is more strong is another movement we can see in these words(long roar of elm-trees swept and swayed) and (pelted waters) is a movement of the water falls it is so furious that vanished the plain how the word(blast)shows it. Hearing the sounds of the rain and the wind is a real moment of the thunder the explosion the loud sound and the light flash of the thunder. The sense here are hearing and sight.
Behind the wild white flash
That splits abroad the pealing thunder-crash,
Over bleared fields and gardens disarrayed,
Column on column comes the drenching rain
In these lines still saying about the thunderstorm how powerful it is the rain the wind and the thunder .The colors are so wonderful dark on the sky white flash of the thunder .The sense of sight and hearing (thunder-crash) it is another wonderful image to describe how the thunderstorm starts and how it finishes.
With this poem all parts stimulates our senses of vision, hearing and touch by the wind and the rain as if you could be in a place waiting for look the storm coming.
