Lights, Camera, Action

If I were to direct a scene from act V it would be the arrival of Florizel and Perdita. I find this scene significant because it provides a good setup for the reunion of the 2 Kings. This scene really shows how sorrowful king Leontes is because he takes his former best friend’s son and wife and treats them with very good hospitality. What I found interesting was that despite the fact that king Leontes found out that Florizel was lyinig about why he was in Sicilia, he still treated him with respect and dignity. He acted like a noble king by reassuring Florizel that things would be ok and immediately pursuing king Polixenes despite having not talked to him in over 15 years. That being said if I were to direct this scene I would probably want the actor and actress that played Florizel and Peridta to show a lot of emotion and urgency because they were running away from Polixenes. I would also show King Leontes, looking at Florizel and seeing his best friend, which would explain his compassion. The scene would be a very important part of the play, and although it wouldn’t be the climax I would direct it so that it showed the true side of Leontes, and his loyalty to his long lost friend Polixenes.

King Leontes Realization

For this post I decided to talk about King Leontes'passage during the trial of the Queen Hermionie. I found thie Kings speech significant because it was a complete change of heart on his feelings of the Queen, his son, and Polixenes. Before the oracle delivered the message Leontes was stubborn, and felt completely sure that Hermionie had comitted adultery, however after he heard news of his son dying, and the queen later dying, King Leontes finally comes to realization. It is also significant because the conflict in the play seems to be over now, since the trial is over and the King has acknowledged his faults. It will be very interesting to See where Shakespeare will take us now since 2 of the main characters have died and the King now sees the truth

A Room With A View

After finishing A Room With a view, I’m still deciding what I should write about in my paper. I’m considering writing about Lucy because she is the protagonist in the novel and Lucy has some interesting characteristics. For one, she is perceived as an innocent, young girl, which seems to be true. She is consistently sheltered either by her cousin Charlotte, or by the different superior class figures in society (like Mr. Beebe). It is not until the end of the book, does Lucy start making her own decisions, which result in her happiness. I think that I could compare and contrast how social status can serve as protection, and also as a barrier that separates the rich, or “educated” from the poor. I also am considering writing about how social class comes into effect in this novel. It seems that the people of the upper class are quick to judge those in the lower class. (The Miss Alans). In the early 1900s social mobility was very difficult, so most of the time you were born into a certain job. This book does a good job of displaying reoccurring themes like trust, love and social class . It will be hard for me to decide but I think I will have more to write about in regards to Lucy than I will compared to the social customs of the time.

A Room With A View

The passage that I focused on was the passage on the carriage when everyone is traveling to Fiesole. One of the themes that we talked about in class was social hierarchy and I felt that this passage established a clear division in classes. The way that Mr. Emerson defended the driver of the carriage, and his lover showed his boldness, and impulsiveness. However I found it surprising that Miss Lavish, despite feeling the same way about the situation on the carriage, made sure not to team up with Mr. Emerson. The passage reads "...Mr. Emerson whom the shock of stopping had awoke, declared that the lovers on no account be separated...And Miss Lavish, though unwilling to ally him, felt bound to support the cause of Bohemianism." I interpreted this as a person of one social class deciding not to acknowledge the ideas of a man from another lower class. This passage also showed me a lot about the older Emerson. Not only does he stand for what he believes is right, he is very strong willed and will not back down. The third person narrative helped me understand what was going on in the story mainly because there are a lot of characters in this book already, so first person would have limited my perspective, as I wouldn't be able to understand what was going on in each character's minds. This passage is symbolic of the customs of society in Italy during this time period.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties

How to talk to Girls at Parties is a short story written by Neil Gaiman, that takes place in London, England around the early 1970s. The story is told through first person, coming from one of the boys, Enns’s perspective. The narrator seems to be a bit omniscient, but overall unreliable when telling the story, for a couple of reasons. I consider Enn omniscient because it is a memory of his, therefore he could have altered the story in any way that he desired, and we all would be forced to believe him. However I consider Enn unreliable because his story has a couple of contradictory points, and he himself lets us know that he is recalling a memory over 30 years ago. For example on page 94, Enn is reflecting on how good looking the girls are and says “…all the girls at that party were lovely; they all had perfect faces” which is not exactly the most accurate description when talking about someone. But before making this observation about he girls at the party on page 93, he talks about a girl with a “gap between her two front teeth.” This isn’t the only imperfection that he noted when making observations of other girls at the party, which clearly shows his unreliability. However the first person narrative is what allows us to understand what is going on in the novel. Without hearing the story from Enn’s perspective we wouldn’t be able to understand his thought process. The downfall of hearing the story from Een is that we have to guess what we think is wrong with Stella, and the other girls, leading to Vic his friend leaving the party frantically.

Lanscape with the Fall of Icarus

In William Carlos William's poem, he begins in the first stanza by referring to the great Renaissance painter Brughel, when he wrote " According to Brueghel when Icarus fell it was spring". Its clear that analepsis was used, which is a retrospection in order for the author to offer background information about the fall of Icarus. Williams is basing his poem on the fact that the reader has seen "Landscape with the fall of Icarus" by Brueghel in order to make his point. Some more analepsis is used in the second stanza when referring to the ploughing farmer. In facr Williams is educating the reader on the events that are occurring in the landscape until the second to last stanza. He uses the past tense in the first 5 stanzas, showing that he is not talking about the present. This literary device keeps readers on track by citing the source that Williams is basing his poem on. Many readers regularly would now know who Brueghel is and it ensures that they know who and what they are reading about. During the last stanza, Williams talks about Icarus drowning, and this is intersting because it is the first time that Williams speaks in the present progressive form saying "a splash quite unnoticed, this was icarus dowrning". This is the one and only transition that Williams makes bewtween the past, which is Icarus' acension into the skies, and the presence which is Icarus' slow, sad death.

Gwendolyn Brooks, "First Fight. Then Fiddle"

Gwendolyn Brook's sonnet "First Fight. Then Fiddle" is a Petrarchan sonnet, with an overall theme of music or "fiddling" compared to life. Brooks makes an argument about life and how it is necessary to fight in order to enjoy all the joys in life. In this sonnet fiddling is symbolic of enjoying life, as can be seen by her word choices in the first two lines. Brooks writes "...Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string with feathery sorcery." The tone of this writing in my opinion is positive, because she is talking about music which I identified as all the good things in life. Brook's imagery when talking about fiddling demonstrates her views. "Devote the bow to silks and honey." When thinking about silks and honey I apply a positive connotation to the words, because honey is usually considered sweet, and silk smooth and beautiful. This poem does take a turn between the 8th and 9th lines, and instead of talking about music and the joys of life, Brooks starts to talk about war and fighting. I knew that there was a turn in the sonnet because Brooks uses words with negative connotations like "blind, bloody, hate, and deaf." Brook's message after the shift in the sonnet is that we must fight, and go to war in order to clear space for us to enjoy life or, "civilize a space wherein to play your violin with grace." I enjoyed this sonnet because the it had 2 messages, one that had to do with music, and a main message dealing with the joys of life.

"Difference"

In this poem Mark Doty chooses to use an unrhyming tercet style, or a poem consisting of 3 lines per stanza. Doty does use alliteration, which he uses to emphasize words helping me to understand the poem. At first I didn't understand why he wrote a poem about jellyfish but after reading the poem again I noticed that he compared adjectives used to describe jellyfish to parts of speech specifically "like" and "as". Doty also makes a reference to a classic dancer Isadora Duncan. Doty also uses consonance mildly. The alliteration in the 10th stanza really helped meto understand what Doty was trying to say. When Doty writes "..forming itself into figures than refiguring" its easy to think initially that he is simply writing about jellyfish, but he is actually comparing the ability of a jellyfish to reconfigure, to the way that we can change words in different situations to mean different things, both positive and negative. Without the repetition its possible that I would have overlooked the whole idea of him comparing jellyfish to language. Doty also uses a Caesura before alluding to Isadora Duncan, which further emphasizes his point that jellyfish, and words can be changed. I really enjoyed this poem because it showed how affective repition can be, and it made a very strong point about the words that we choose to use.

Knowledge is Power

In this class I expect to become more knowledgable in the field of writing, and mainly analysis of literature. I was always taught that knowledge was embedded into the richest forms of literature and so I've always wanted to be an expert in famous literature. Literature to me, is the home of the most complex styles of writing. Currently I do not read alot of poetry and or fiction novels, but my favorite books to read are science fiction books. I feel that the critical thinking I will use to consistently write in this blog will help my writing develop. I decided to use this image because it is what I hope to gain on completion of this course. I have always wanted to read and become good at analyzing literature and language and thats what I'm hoping to get out of this class.