Back to the Previous Themes!!!

      A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen was a play with a familiar theme that we have encountered before in previous stories such as "A Rose For Emily", "Chrysanthemums", and "The Yellow Wallpaper", where the men had a very dominating personality and had control over women. "A Doll's House" was refreshing because the wife Nora didn't end up going crazy, or killed her husband she just realized that she couldn't live with her controlling husband anymore and left him to start a new life. I really liked the ending of this story more than the others because Nora didn't allow something like that break her down she simply changed what was making her unhappy or disappointed her(her husband). This story seems to empower women more than the other stories giving women of that time a voice that they don't have to stay in a situation where they feel stuck or unappreciated. Nora's husband never really abused her or was mean to her he just seemed to always worry more about himself even when he claimed that he would do anything for her or put her first above all else. He seemed to be very similar to the husband in the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" where they love their wives but in a way don't really acknowledge them or treat them like their wives more like children. "A Doll's House" put the women in more power than the men even though the man thought he had more power but it is evident that Nora was more in charge throughout the story when she forges her husbands signature to get the loan and tries really hard to keep everything in control. Even the title "A Doll's House" sounds like it is stating that women run the house and it belongs to her with the way that the title is worded because doll was a common term to call women back in the day.
        I feel like this theme works better in longer stories or plays because you see the full development of the wife character and how slowly through many situations she comes to her final conclusion rather than just one main situation all of a sudden driving the women to the edge. It really expresses the strength in the character to be able to try to make the best of things that might bother them until finally they have had enough. In the short stories it was usually only one situation that broke the characters for instance in "Chrysanthemums" when the sneaky tinker finally got business from Elisa she felt dirty and horrible about herself and it was only that scenario that broke her spirit. In "A Rose For Emily" the audience only got to hear that Emily's father never let her have a boyfriend, they story never gives any other examples on how controlling he was. And in "A Doll's House" the audience is able to follow the lives of the characters, see how everything develops, understands the scenarios and goes through them with the characters so when Nora said that she finally had enough the audience understands and agrees with her.

OOH.... What a World!!!

        I support the idea that Oedipus is a tragic figure because he is a fallen hero. Oedipus was a very smart and courageous man that became a king of Thebes, a position that seemed to be well deserved. The worst part of the story is that all his suffering was caused because of the decisions that his parents made and he had no control over it. I believe that is what makes the story very tragic. Oedipus seemed to be a very good man and ruler, it was evident that he cared about the people in his kingdom and tried to do the best he could for them. He even ran away from his home trying to prevent the prophecy(that he would kill his father and marry his mother) from coming true, thinking that it would happen with his adoptive parents whom which he didn't know they were his adoptive parents. Oedipus was a man who made his decisions with the best intentions but sadly they lead him to his doom. One downfall that Oedipus had that would also seem like a good quality would be his stubbornness and his need to know everything. It was because of these to qualities that Oedipus led himself to his very dreadful fate.
             When he had finally solved the mystery of King Laius(Oedipus's biological father) death and that the prophecy had actually come true keeping to his word he had himself exiled from the land just like he had promised to his people. He also felt it necessary to punish himself in the worst manner that he could think of, so he blinded himself by stabbing himself in the eyes because he felt that he could never see the joy in anything anymore. Out of despair or feelings that are unimaginable he stabbed his eyes but even an act like that behind whatever feelings were driving them it took a lot of strength to accomplish such a painful task and not everyone would be able to do it. Oedipus was a victim of a tragic fate but he did have a lot of heroic qualities that would make someone question how could something so horrible happen to him.
        My teacher discussed with us what the definition of a tragedy is and she told us that it was when something very bad happened to someone with position in society for example like a queen or king, even prince or princess because at that time nobody cared what happened to the commoners. Even though Oedipus didn't know he was of royal blood in the beginning until he finds out the truth; I think that it's reasonable to think when someone with such a strong character like Oedipus falls it would be tragic therefore, making him a tragic figure. 

Drama, Drama, Drama... We all Learn Lessons!!

        Writing plays has always proved to be a difficult process because you have to make sure that you have a good story that people will get hooked into while watching and stay entertained throughout. In class we were given an assignment to write a short play with a student having to decide to study and do well on a final project or give in to temptation and not do the work. To be honest I wasn't really excited about the small project. When we got together in my group to write our short drama skit,we were having so much fun writing our skit that we got carried away and started to add animals in to the story meanwhile trying to come up with the main problem. The hard part of the skit writing was trying to create a story that would be different from all the others and also coming up with dialog for the characters was also a little bit difficult. What I felt to be the hardest part of the whole process is deciding how to make the moral issue play out and how long the dilemma is going to last and how will it be resolved because there are so many possibilities. We did take to long brainstorming our story that we ran out of time and the last details we put together in a rush. For example, trying to decide who was going to be what and trying to learn some of the lines. This process would be more effective than a lecture because instead of just talking about all the elements that compose a drama, during this exercise you get to experience all the elements. Plus, it is much more fun than sitting in an lecture! It was also a lot fun to watch all the other groups perform their skits and see what they had come up with as their story. Another good thing about this activity is that it was very interactive and that helps people to remember things better than just listening to information. It was very enjoyable and a nice intro into starting our new topic of reading plays or dramas. The theme of having a moral issue in our dramatic skits worked really well because it was neither funny nor a tragedy and that is what drama is.

Daddy can you read me a poem....

I decided to do my second essay on the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath and when I first read the poem I didn't understand much of it. The main thing that popped out to me when I first read the poem is that it had a an angry tone to it and that the main setting of the poem was World War II, which I found odd. After reading the authors biography it was eerie that the poem was very closely related to events in her life, except the part where her dad was a Nazi. I started to understand some of the imagery and metaphors that the author had in her poem but I hadn't really tried looking into the significance behind it. I have to admit, that was the best part of the whole essay was trying to decipher the meaning behind the words and not having any restrictions as to what I thought it could mean. Discussing the meaning of the poem with my teacher taught me that everyone has their own interpretation of what they think that poems mean and that just made the whole process even more interesting. My view about poems changed a lot, in the beginning I didn't appreciate the figurative language used in poems and I am sure the reason is because the poems were always discussed in class, which is a very good thing, but I really didn't have to put much effort in understanding them on my own. This essay really made me enthusiastic about reading poems and trying to figure out all the little details and hidden meanings behind allusions or specific wording. I even learned that the title of a poem is also very important and has a significant meaning that effects the poem. In general, the most important lesson that I think I learned was not to just read a poem but to really read it and appreciate all the time and effort that must have gone into writing it to make it entertaining for the reader. I have to admit that sometimes it does get frustrating having to read a poem that has a lot of descriptive language or that makes a lot of allusions to things that I would have known unless someone told me but I can say  that I do enjoy reading poems a lot more than I used to.

Flea= love..... Grimm Cinderella... Poems!

      The poem that I found the most difficult was "The Flea", that poem was very confusing for me because I didn't know why he used the flea as a symbol of there love. My major question about the poem is: why did he use a flea to represent his love or their relationship? Because, fleas are very gross and people don't like them, its strange that he would pick a flea to represent something that is suppose to be special. When I first read the poem I thought that someone had died because of the flea almost like the black death but it turns out that the woman in the poem killed the flea. It is kind of funny that I was so off the meaning. After discussing the poem with my class it seemed to make a lot of sense as to why he pick the flea as a symbol because the author John Donne does a really good job with the flea representing their union. Once you understand the basic meaning of the poem it becomes really nice and a bit humorous because the man in the poem is trying so hard to get his lover to sleep with him.  

       The poem that I really liked so far is Cinderella, I thought that it was a really cool version of the story because I never really liked the Disney version which is how all the other versions of Cinderella are based on. It made me want to read the actual story written by the Brother's Grimm, which is where the author got the piece of the story from. Anne Sexton was really trying to make a point in her poem Cinderella that people that go after the things that they want are considered the ugly stepsisters and people that just wait around like Cinderella enjoy all life's rewards. That is what Anne Sexton seemed to be against in her poem because it sounded like she was making fun of the story. I really liked this poem because I really understood the authors point of view and what she was trying to portray with the mini stories in the beginning and the piece of Cinderella from the Brother's Grimm.

Reading into Words

My understanding of the short stories that we read, changed significantly. When I first read the stories "Chrysanthemums", "The Yellow Wallpaper", and "A Rose for Emily", my first thought was that they were strange but entertaining stories. As we started to really discuss them as a class I learn that the setting of story has a significant meaning, which of course is something you already know, however I had never realized exactly how important it is. So, writing the first draft of the paper I had a basic idea of how to analyze and not summarize the short stories. Breaking into little groups helped me out a lot because I heard people's ideas, comments and I learned things I had never really thought of before and it helped me really take my paper into many different directions. I am not a huge fan of reading random stories but when you break them down and really analyze the story it actually makes them more interesting. It made me appreciate the stories more because I understand how much detail and time it must have taken to write an individual story, especially when they write scene that express a lot of imagery.