Richard III

Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this son of York;

And all the clouds that loured upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,

Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,

Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,

He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

Why, I in this weak piping time of peace

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to spy my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity.

And therefore since I cannot prove a lover

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

(Act 1, scene 1)

This passage, being the first lines of the novel, sets up what is to come. Here the reader sees Richard's plans to conquer the throne by any means he sees fit. A first look at Richard's selfishness is seen here along with his evilness. He need for power is also apparent here along with the reader being told about his deformity. He uses his deformity as an excuse as to why he has no need to be peaceful being that he can never have a lover. Instead of giving sympathy to Richard, it makes him seem more monstrous, because he can so happily toss aside all of the things that the rest of society cherishes such as the peacefulness. At the same time, Richard’s speech makes his true motivations seem all the more mysterious and dark. Thinking back on the play, throughout me reading it, I do not ever remember thinking about Richard's deformity. I completely forgot about it until I chose my passage for the blog. I find it odd that typically a deformity takes away some evil aspect of a person and gives them a little bit of sympathetic light. In the play however, Richard is so extremely evil, that not once did I ever give him and sympathy nor did I ever think of his deformity. It really did truly make him a more ugly person both on the inside and the outside being that he used his deformity as an excuse to be evil and not care about other people.

While reading the play, I never thought of it as a history but rather as a story. Which is good for Shakespeare and shows his great writing talents being that I learned something and did not even realize it. I also give props to Shakespeare being that he made a commentary on the time period in which he lived in. Back in the day, what Richard did was a common thing. Power was what mostly all people wanted. In the end, Shakespeare used histories as a comment on his society; especially the political aspect of society. His histories are also very blunt unlike the comedies. The hero's are clearly hero's while the villain's are the epitome of villain's. He leaves the reader at the end of the novel with a moral story of history being able to repeat itself if one becomes blind to certain things. This blindness is exactly what the character in the play were. They knew how evil Richard was, however whenever they gave him the chance to talk they forgot all about it.

I did not enjoy this play as much as the others. This is only because it is more of a visual play then one you should read. It was hard to grasp everything that was going on without seeing it visually on a stage. An example of this was when you (Mr. Klimas) had me stage the scene where all the people Richard killed came back and haunted him. It was easier to grasp the overwhelmingness of the whole scene versus reading it on paper and making up your own image in your head. History is also not exactly my favorite genre. Comedy and tragedy, I find to me more enjoyable reads.

Macbeth

"Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (Act IV, scene 1)

This scene is spoken by Lady Macbeth after the murder of Duncan. Earlier in the play Macbeth, her husband, believed that his hands were permanently blood stained. She rebutted this by saying that water will clean it off. Now, in the scene, she too sees blood on her hands and goes into madness from the guilt. It was also earlier where her inability to sleep was foreshadowed by the voice her husband heard while killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth's delusion of blood on her hands further the use of blood within the novel as a symbol of guilt. Her words are completely hollow at this point. Blood represents a permanent stain that symbolizes the guilt with both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's conscious that will be with them till death.

This is your typical, perfectly labeled, tragic story. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth die. They both greatly suffer before their death from the guilt. They both are different people when in front of someone versus just talking among themselves. And they are both not truly happy. All of these components are what make up the label for the novel to be tragic. It is very hard for the reader to miss all the tragedy being that Shakespeare writes it on the pages. Unlike his comedy, which is underlying, tragedy forces the reader to stop and think about what is being said.

Even though I find Shakespeare's comedies more enjoyable, the novel of Macbeth was not a bad one. I had read it in fifth grade, along with seeing parts of the movie. It was nice to see what I failed to understand as a fifth grader to come to life as a senior in high school. An example of this for me was the "out spot" scene. That one always baffled me when I was younger. I just couldn't grasp the concept of why this woman was yelling at her hands for a spot to come out that wasn't even there. I never really put thought into any of this again until this year when we read the play. And now with a complete understanding in the play and its symbolism's, I can enjoy it more than I did back in the day.

The Taming of the Shrew

Petruccio: Come, come, you wasp, i’faith you are too angry.

Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Petruccio: My remedy is then to pluck it out.

Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.

Petruccio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.

Katherine: In his tongue.

Petruccio: Whose tongue?

Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.

Petruccio: What, with my tongue in your tail?

This passage, from the novel The Taming of the Shrew by Skakespeare, is a conversation between Petruccio and Kate when they meet each other for the very first time. Petruccio, knowing of Kate's shrewness, sets out using his verbal wit to undermine Kate. Petruccio has heard of the stories of Kate and how the other characters compare her to a wild animal. In this passage, he refers to her as a wasp. Kate having a fast tongue attempts to put him back in his place with her smart remarks such as "if i be waspish, you best beware of my sting." He then continues throwing back sexual comments to whatever Kate says. He even mentions his intent to tame her. This whole passage, filled with its sexual innuendos and references embodies the conflict between Kate and Petruccio along with the underlying sexual attraction. This passage also contributes to the motif, domestication. Domestication in the novel, begins with the title (the taming of the shrew). Petruccio's ultimate goal to "tame" Kate also adds to the motif.



Shakespeare's use of comedy as his genre for his novel is not the type of comedy are society is used to. When our class went around in a circle and stated what each person found comedic, there was a wide variety of things. Some people found simple things comedic while others found outrageous things funny. Our society also finds humor in when it's obvious. Shakespeare liked to make the humor less obvious but rather leave it up to the reader (or in the play's case, the watcher) to find the comedy. Shakespeare keeps things somewhat clean (however this statement is contradicted my passage I chose above) and very witty. He utilized sarcasm and simply irony. Comedy is seen in The Taming of the Shrew through the character's use of verbal wit and ridiculous circumstances they get themselves into. In Midsummer Night's Dream, the story line was less realistic and more fantasy. The humor came out of the picture created along with the character's that Shakespeare developes such as Bottom. While today's humor can be offensive to some and not always be funny, Shakespeare's use of humor was good natured and simply to make his audience laugh while working their minds. In the end, I enjoyed this play. However, if I had to choose between this and Midsummer, I would probably choose Midsummer. That one had more apparent comedy and was easier to visualize without actually seeing the play. And I did actually get a chance to see an excerpt of it performed and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Victims by Sharon Olds

In this poem, the main message is a commentary on our society where divorce is prevalent and how difficult it is for the people affected by the divorce to deal with it. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker appears to be a young child telling his/her experience with the divorce. The speaker is angry towards the father, "when mother divorced you, we were glad" (1). The "we" represents the family members who endured the same hardships the speaker did. The line "she took it and/ took it, in silence, all those years" (1-2) references to an act of abuse whether it be physical or verbal or even total silence. The poem later comments on the father's job which leaves the reader to believe that the father was possibly a workaholic and was never home to spend time with his family. The family is so bitter towards the father that when he was fired, "we grinned inside" (4-5). When the father was fired, Olds uses a simile to Nixon. Nixon, the father of the country at the time, and the father of the poem, both head of a nation and head of a household both had to leave due to the failure of fulfilling their duties. Another aspect that contributed to the father being a workaholic is the mention of his suits in line 11. The speaker only remembers her father's identity as being tied into the suits. It also means that it would be end to the years of silence. The mother of the family is basically out to destroy the father's image. She turns the children against him, "She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it until we pricked with her for your annihilation" (15-17). There is also a shift from past tense to present tense in the poem. In the present tense the speaker compares her father to the bums on the street as the bums are nothing and no one cares for them. The bums are also a metaphor that the father lost "everything". The line "ships gone down" (22) also is a reference to the father. The poem begins with the speaker giving off the sense that he/she is extremely hurt by the father's actions or lack of. The poem however takes a twist and ends with the speaker wondering who really was the victim. I felt sympathy towards the father by the end of the poem, because his life is completely ruined. The bums, I believe are what instilled that feeling of sympathy towards him in me. I myself believe in second chance and I feel that here in this situation he deserves one. I also feel sympathy towards the children or are being raised by the mother. The mother is acting childish in this situation and brainwashing the children into hating their father.
I chose this poem, through the process of once again flipping to a random page and choosing from the poems presented to me on that page. Adieu, Farewell, Earth's Bliss was ruled out for it was too long. What gramma said about her grandpa was a cute poem but not very fun to analyze. That left me with The Victims. I actually liked this poem and how well it related to society today. In a divorce, everyone is a victim. It also comments how the divorce affects everyone for the rest of their lives. I liked how Old's, through her writing, got the reader to feel sympathetic not only towards the speaker but also towards the father whom the mother tries so hard to destroy his image.

To an Athlete Dying Young by A. E. Housman

The speaker of this poem is a resident of the town in which the athlete resided. The message of the story is that the only way a person can capture glory and make it last is to die young. It has an even greater affect on people if the person achieves greatness before they die young. This allows the person to live forever in the minds of the people remembering him. They remember him at his highest level of standing. He also receives more sympathy over the fact that he died when he was young and never got to experience everything in life. Housman suggests to the reader that the later years of life are boring and wearisome. In the line "Smart lad, to slip betimes away/ From fields where glory does not stay" (9-10) he praises the young athlete for dying before his glory faded. Eternal life in people's minds seems to be given to those that die at a relatively young age. Housman uses rhyme in his poem to make the poem more likeable to the reader. Many of the lines in the poem appear to be in some form of iambic pentameter as well. This is seen in the first stanza. Alliteration is seen in line one "the time you won your town the race", "road all runners" (5), "townsman of a stiller town" (8), "silence sounds" (15), "runners whom renown outran" (19), and "fleet foot" (22). "Silence sounds" is also an oxymoron. Finally, synecdoche is seen in the line "Fleet foot on the sill of shade" where the foot represents the entire body.
In the process of choosing a poem to write about, I decided to just flip to a page. This round of flipping, I had the choice of either To an Athlete Dying Young or Bredon Hill also by A. E. Housman. I chose the athlete one because I liked the rhyming pattern better then the other poem's. It was more pleasing to the ear along with being more pleasing to the eye. I also like how the poem's message pointed out a true statement about society. It is genuinely true that people who die young receive more praise and attention after their death then those who die old.

On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D. C. Berry

With this poem, the readers discovers so much before the poem itself it is even read just by simply knowing the title. The title here sets a foundation to what the reader should expect when reading the poem. One knows that the speaker is an outsider who coming to speak to the senior class and has no connection with the school. The reader also knows that the speaker is well-known for his speaking and very practiced in what he does based off the fact that he/she was invited to come. One also gets the sense that the speaker is not looking forward to speaking to the Senior class and feels that he/she is too mature for them. All of this is confirmed in the first stanza. He starts off with the line "Before/ I opened my mouth" (1-2) where he seems to have prepared himself for the stereotypical bored and indifferent faces of the seniors. He also refers to them as "frozen fish" highlighting the students unhappiness of being there. The third stanza of the poem, which is also the largest stanza hides the primary irony of the poem. In the line "and then I heard the sounds/ of fish in an aquarium" (10-11) it appears that the speaker is attempting to eliminate the students which comments on the fact that he is insecure reading in front of them. He feels that by having anything to do with the class, he feels he will be held back. He attempts to find delight in the poems he is reading to ignore this "tried to drown them with my words" (13-14). Unexpectedly however, the class "opened up" to what he was saying. The students simply want to be at the same place he is at while reading the poem. But because of the speaker's attitude towards them he does not see it that way. He feels that they are only doing this out of force, not because they want to. A transition occurs within the poem in stanza four, where the speaker and the students unite into a "we". They go through the experience of the poems together. Alliteration is seen here with the words "thirty tails" and "whacking words". The speaker shed his views of the students and because of this, he ventures into their world. He learned something in the art in which he supposedly mastered from people who he originally thought were ignorant. Even after the bell rang, and the students returned to their classes, he was left in awe and continued to be affected by the experience. This poem began with a terribly pessimistic outlook that ironically evolved into something completely unexpected.
I chose this poem because I liked the change in attitudes the author incorporated into it. The poem basically started out with a very experienced speaker called to read poems to his notion of ignorant high school students turns into a lesson where he learns that there is still room for him to learn things and this knowledge comes in many forms. I also liked how he used the title to set the foundation of the poem. His creative usage of other things, such as the fish reference instead of the students, also impressed me.

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

A theme that was apparent within the novel was the theme of flight. I discovered through some research on this novel that Stephen Dedalus's very name involves the idea of flight. A figure from Greek Mythology was named Daedalus. Daedalus was known for the designing of the Labyrinth of Crete for King Minos. Daedalus was imprisoned along with his son Icarus by Minos, however Daedalus created wings out of feathers, twine, and wax for means of escape. Daedalus escapes successfully, but his son dies from flying too close to the sun. In the novel, Stephen can be seen in both Daedulus and Icarus. Throughout the novel, the theme of balance is also apparent. Stephen learns that he must balance his desire to escape Ireland's political and religious restrictions while staying true to himself. He endures many ups and downs trying to find this balance. He starts out at following his family's opinion of religion and politics. He then goes to one extreme where he commits sin knowing that it is against the church. He soon follows with the other extreme of pure dedication to the church. He soon sees that both ways of living are unhealthy. After spending sometime at the University he realizes that it is his time to leave and go into exile to develop his ideas of being an artist. The birds that appear to Stephen in the third section of Chapter five signal that it is finally time for him, now a fully developed artist, to take flight himself.



I actually enjoyed this novel in the beginning. However as the novel progressed and the words continued to get more and more wordier, that enjoyment slowly disappeared. I liked the beginning because I enjoy reading stream of consciousness type writing when it is in simple terms. An example of this is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It is a whole lot easier to just let go and read the novel. Once the words lose their simpleness, which in this case was as he matured and discovered listening to his individual thoughts, it really just became a different, complicated novel. When reading, it took me forever to get past one page because I would have to keep re reading and re reading everything to understand what Stephen was saying. I also did not like the mature, grown up Stephen's character. He was seemed to be thinking only about himself and appeared to be a little obnoxious with his opinions on religion and Ireland as a whole. All in all I would rate this book a six. The beginning was great; the end and the character of Stephen Deadalus, not so much.

"26 April: I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
27 April: Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead"

The quote above if from the very end of the novel where Stephen decides to become an artist for the rest of his life. He strives to be an artist whose individual consciousness will be the foundation of all of his work. He wants to create a voice for his community. Stephen's mission is reinforced by the words "old father" and which represents Ireland's past. His role in art is emphasized with the words "old artificer". Stephen hopes that through his art, he will be able to benefit himself along with his community whom is now getting a voice. I chose this quote because I really liked the language James Joyce incorporated. There are so many other words he could have used to write this, but they would not sound as "nice" or flow as smoothly as the words he chose here. I also liked the vast contrast between this page versus the first page of the novel. It made me laugh to think about how the novel started off with "moo cows" and bed wetting and then ended with such deep thoughts.