Looking Back Blog 31

Looking back on the first semester, I have to say that reading hamlet was my favorite part of English. While I despised the book and I still loath Shakespeare, seeing 5 hamlet movies, close to 20 times really drilled some funny lines in my head. I don’t think I will ever forget Branagh teleportation when he says “a little more the kin and less than kind” which have to be my new favorite lines of all time. Also, acting the scenes ourselves was pretty hilarious and nothing beats Benny’s performance. “I know not seems madam, all I know is that I’m a little more then kin and less than kind. Still laughing.

Prufrock blog 30

Prufrock uses language as a gateway into Eliot’s mind. It is clear how the lines of the poem symbolize a deeper meaning that T.S. Eliot has for the words in his poem: “To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” (27). While this clearly means that peoples internal feelings do not match those of the external, Eliot makes a point to emphasize how there will be time one day for all the strange quarks to be worn out and for there to be an almost perfect society. Eliot also makes many allusions to mythology and biblical stories like Lazarus. By using such high profile allusions, Eliot bolsters his image and forces the reader to read more deeply into the poem rather than simply skim the surface for some the superficial meaning of the poem.

Pg. 829, Words Blog 29

Choosing to focus on the end of the page, the choice of words stands out because it displays the amazement that an outsider would have walking into the room where hamlet, Claudius, Laertes, and the queen have all died. “O proud death, what feast is toward in thine eternal evil”(5.2.329-330). Obviously the seen is gruesome; however, proud implies that death can take the life of anyone, it does not segregate whether one is a king or a peasant death will always come. Furthermore, the use of feast shows how truly gruesome it is and how death has taken everyone’s life not just specific people. Later, Horatio explains how it is important to “give orders that these bodies high on a stage be placed to the view”(5.2.342-343). The fact that Horatio wants the bodies to be shown in “view” of the people exemplifies how Horatio wants people to know that even the “high” can still succumb to greed and murder. The most interesting word choice on the page however is when Horatio is summarizing the events in hamlet and says that they are “unnatural” this mimics the word choice that the ghost uses to explain how the queens betrayed Hamlet Sr. but the word unnatural may also reflect on hamlets Oedipus complex and how strange and unnatural Hamlets relationship is with his mother.

Master Manipulator Blog 28

From the moment that Laertes break into the throne room and the people are cheering for a revolt, Claudius uses Laertes as his puppet. Claudius begins his manipulation by using circular reasoning to confuse Laertes and then informs him that Claudius knows the real killer. After that, Laertes becomes Claudius pawn and Claudius uses him to enact his final plan to try and kill hamlet without any actual blood being spilled from his hands. Furthermore Ophelia’s untimely death actually helps Claudius because it enrages Laertes even more against Hamlet because his sister died because of Hamlets love. Worst of all, the king manipulates Laertes into thinking that he is Laertes friend when in reality he is only using Laertes to serve his diabolical scheme.

Mommy Issues Blog 27

Hamlets attack on his mother stems from something that seems like a deep Oedipus complex. Hamlet believes his mother has wronged him but seems to focus greatly on the fact that his mother is sleeping with his uncle; however, it seems that hamlet would be upset over anyone sleeping with his mother. Hamlets rant to his mother is the first time that hamlet is in the same room with his mother alone and he tells her his whole plan and tries to give her a mirror so she can see the wrong she has committed. While his intensions are not flawed, his obsession with his mother’s sex life is very awkward to say the least and his insulting her intimacy is strange. Hamlet also uses extremely harsh language to try and force his mother to see the wrong she has committed but overall while hamlet is very stern and angry with his mother, it is more of an awkward argument because of hamlets inner desires.

Sound blog 26

Sound in any piece of literature is important because it allows insight into the mind of the character being portrayed or it gives the literature a deeper feel into the piece of work itself. In Shakespeare’s hamlet, Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter which helps to set the mood for the play and allows for a more entertaining and not droning play; furthermore, Shakespeare is able to break iambic pentameter when he is trying to show how in this case hamlet has gone insane because he speech patterns reflect those of a normal conversation and not one in iambic pentameter. In “Out Out” the sounds in the poem are used to personify the buzz saw and actually make the reader feel the power of the saw as they are reading the play due to words like “snarl” and “rattle” the reader really feels the rumble in their voice, which reflects the sounds of the saw itself.

Hamlet Paragraph 3 Blog 25

While both Claudius and the ghost can be differentiated simply by their vocal patterns, the best way to see the difference between the two kings is through the other characters interaction with each of the kings. To Claudius, the people in his court simply do his bidding because he is king and see through his façade of a nice king who asks of his subject but does not demand. In their interaction with the ghost, Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo show how Hamlet Sr. was respected during his lifetime: “we do it wrong, being so majestically, to offer it the show of violence; for it is, as the air, invulnerable, and our vain blows malicious mockery” (1.1.142-145). On the surface it seems that the three men are afraid they have offended the ghost; however, they also realize that the ghost looks like their old king and by using words like offended and majestical, they show a respect for the deceased king that does not exist in Claudius court. Further more, Marcellus is offended by the disrespect of drawing his weapon at the ghost, which exemplifies the respect for the ghost. In Claudius court however, none of the subjects of the court seem to respect Claudius words and if they do they seem to be mere pawns in his game: “both your majesties might, by the sovereign power you have of us, put your dread pleasures more into command than in entreaty” (2.2.27-30).  While this may not seem to be a big deal, in reality, Rosencrantz’s is insulting the king by asking why is being humble when everyone knows him to be false and manipulative. Rosencrantz’s is essentially telling the king that he should save his words and instead simply command them because Guildenstern and Rosencrantz have no other choice then to obey the king; however, it seems as though Rosencrantz is trying to insult the king but hide it from the king himself which is opposite of how the other characters in the play interact with Hamlet Sr.

Symbolism Blog 24

Symbols are extremely important in all literature. They give the reader a depth in the writing whether it is through poetry or a novel symbolism can make or break a written text. In “Second Coming” Yeats uses symbolism in his title as a away to allude to the new testaments Book of Revelations. Further more Yeats uses symbolism to reflect some of the more complicated points in his poem like the how in the end of days only anarchy and chaos will be left and there will be no order and piece. What’s more interesting is Yeats’ decision to make Jesus not into the perfect human he is normally portrayed as but instead as a deformed and hideous creature that symbolizes how the end of days will not be beautiful event in which the good float to heaven and the rest parish in hell but instead will be a gruesome and sick journey where the world morphs and collapses into what people would describe as hell.

Secound Paragraph Blog 23

Both the ghost and Claudius seem to initially share the same pattern of speech; however, at closer inspection, the ghost speaks time were of the essence while Claudius speaks as if he has all the time in the world. There are many cases in which the ghost contrasts directly with the Claudius in both the message’s each try to convey and the speech patterns of each character. Claudius’s first lines in the play are to announce his brothers death and his new marriage: “Have we as ‘twere with the defeated joy, with an auspicious and a dropping eye, with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, in equal scale weighing delight and dole taken to wife” (1.2. 10-15). Only two weeks after Hamlet Sr.’s death, Claudius has married Hamlet Sr.’s widow and has become king by taking the power away from Hamlet.  Claudius seems to blend two speeches into one, the happy speech about his marriage and the sad speech about his brother’s death into one speech that mixes the sadness of the death with the happiness of the wedding. Furthermore, the intension of Claudius’s speech is to announce his marriage; however, it takes Claudius close to ten lines before he finally claims his point and when he finally announces his marriage, his words come out completely perverted due to his juggling of the two speech’s in his head. Unlike Claudius, the ghost speaks with many words but gets his point across much quicker than Claudius: “Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
with witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, -- o wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce!” (1.5.40-44). Unlike Claudius the ghost instantly makes his point through the use of strong imagery and language to attack his brother for murdering him and then marrying his widow. Furthermore, it is made obvious that Claudius has done something very wrong because the ghost uses such strong language in order to describe Claudius’s actions it is not a far leap to make to assume that the ghost will ask Hamlet to avenge his most unnatural murder.

Pg. 742 Figurative Language Blog 22

Pg. 742, line 41 to the end of the page.

Shakespeare’s use of figurative language helps to set the tone for the perspective scene. The language helps the reader get an image in their head and helps to relieve some tension from a heavy seen. When the ghost says, “O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there! From me, whose love was of that dignity that it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine” while the ghost is very long winded, his metaphor for his love for his wife gives a very intimate account of how his love was out of duty when it should have been for love. Further more, the ghost’s figurative speech help to make a simple point that he loved her for duty and she should not have married while his body was still warm into a more descriptive and entertaining speech and also matches Shakespeare in making his plays iambic pentameter.

Setting Blog 21

The setting of a story changes between a play and a novel. In novels like Pride and Prejudice, the setting helps to set the tone of the novel which include things like the tonal patterns of the characters and their financial circumstances and things that the audience cannot experience because they are not in the room with the characters. On the other hand, plays set the same guidelines with setting but they also outline how a room or location has to look. In Hamlet, the setting of each room is left up to the director because Shakespeare does not right in specific details about the room but still portray the room’s interior setting more thoroughly hen a novel might describe them. In Hamlet, the setting is also important to explain the overall mood of Denmark because it explains that the story takes place after the king’s death and with a new, illegitimate king upon the throne.

Hamlet Opening Paragraph Blog 20

Just like people, the characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet have very different speech patterns. Hamlets real father, the ghost, and hamlets adoptive father, Claudius, are complete foils of one another. Where the ghost specks directly and makes his point obvious, Claudius hides his messages in long winded sentences that sound pleasant to anyone who doesn’t get the true meaning behind them. Besides creating more depth for his characters, Shakespeare’s decision to give each character there own speech patterns allow any actor who tries to perform the role and easier way of “getting in the mind of the character” because each character is very different from one another. While Hamlet involves many different characters all with different patterns of speech, Hamlets two fathers show the contrast between the different reins in the kingdom, one that had happiness and truth to a dark and kin slaying society that Claudius has created.

Make Love not Wordcraft: Hamlets Two Fathers Blog 19

If I had to compare and contrast two characters speech patterns in hamlet, I would chose to write about the ghost (hamlets father) and Claudius Hamlets step father/ uncle. They each have there own specific ways of speaking, while Claudius shares a speech pattern with Hamlet, Claudius and the ghost are opposites. The ghost speaks in long sentences but is extremely forthcoming with his information “the serpent that did sting they fathers life now wears his crown” (742). The ghost out right tells hamlet who killed him and then tells hamlet how he should only seek revenge on his uncle and not his incestuous mother. One the other hand, Claudius is extremely lucrative in his speech, trying to almost never give away any information. Even when he commands hamlet that he cannot go back to Germany to attend school, he does not out right say “no” but instead he beats around the bush and when he does say that hamlet cannot go, he makes it sound like advice that hamlet should not go when really it is a royal decree.

Character Blog 18

Character is a term used to describe the players active in any form of art.  A character can range from an animal to a person and everything in between. In beauty and the beast, the candle is even a character.

In Hamlet, characters are introduced when they are given lines; for example, Benardo, the first main character introduced, simply is called his name and then he says his lines. Character development in hamlet follows the same pattern where there is no description of a character and the only information you gather about them you have to gather from what people say about that character or how that character speaks to others. In Pride and Prejudice however, characters are introduced with many physical or emotional qualities because there is a narrator to explain their character outright. The narrator, who is also a character, allows the reader to get into the minds of the other characters in the novel where as in many of Shakespeare plays, there are no narrators in the same sense and so everything the audience knows about characters in Shakespeare plays come from how others speak about them and how they speaks about others.

Claudius Vs. Hamlet Round One Blog 17

In Claudius’s speech to Hamlet, Claudius insults hamlet by implying he that Hamlet should not wear mourning cloths because the required time for mourning is finished; however, Hamlet responds by informing Claudius that in reality he is still mourning even though the required time is past. Claudius further insults hamlet by stating that Hamlet will inherit the kingdom after Claudius death even though by right the kingdom should already be hamlets. The last jab Claudius gives hamlet is that Claudius denies hamlets request to go back to school and claims he must stay in Denmark. Hamlet responds to his uncle by telling his uncle that his mourning is real and that he is still saddened and he can see that his uncle is simply trying to trick him.  

"Out Out" Vs. “To An Athlete dying young” Outline for Comparison Essay; Blog 16

If I had to compare Robert Frosts' “Out Out” with A. E. Houseman’s “To An Athlete dying young” I would use the point-by-point method of comparison. I would first discuss how each poet views the children in the poem. In “Out Out” the speaker is indifferent about the death and everyone’s lives continue on as if nothing happened. In “To An Athlete dying young” I would discuss how the child obviously has died before his time and how the speaker is saddened by it but is still removed maybe as a member of the town but not a parent to the child. The second paragraph would be about the tone of each poem which links the second paragraph to the first because I would go into more detail about how the tones reflect how the authors feel about each of the children’s death but work more with the poetic devices and actual tone and tonal shifts in each of the poems.  

Game Of Thrones & Great Gatsby plot blog 15 (SPOILER)

Game of Thrones is a perfect example of a story that follows the guidelines for plot with a twist. In Game of Thrones, the character exposition is somewhat different then in other books because each chapter of Game of Thrones is from the point of view of a separate character with nine alternating point of view characters. The story begins with a character Eddard Stark being offered the position of hand of the king. Once Eddard arrives in the capital city, the rising action starts as a series of events begin to unfold until the king dies, and Eddard is blamed. After an unexpected turn of events, the climax takes place when Eddard Stark is executed. After that, the falling action begins which sets up the story for the next book in the series in which Eddards son seeks revenge against the people who killed his father. There is no resolution since there is a sequel to the series so most of the questions are unanswered.

In the Great Gatsby, the exposition does not take place in the begging of the book but takes place little by little through out the novel. The rising action in The Great Gatsby is when Nick meets Gatsby for the first time and Gatsby convinces Nick to introduce him to daisy. After that the story goes back and forth in time explaining each of the characters relationships until the climax when daisy hits a woman with her car. After the hit and run, Gatsby takes the blame for killing the women and the husband of the victim hunts down Gatsby and assassinates him, and then kills him self. After the climax the falling action in the great Gatsby is the funeral and events leading up to the funeral until the resolution in which Gatsby’s father explains Gatsby’s’ life leading up to the height of his power.

Woodchucks Vs. Traveling through the Dark: blog 14

Both poems start with the same indifferent tone. The speaker of “Woodchucks” complains that his first attempt to kill the woodchucks did not work so he has to try again. The speaker of “Traveling though the Dark” discusses how when there is a dead dear on the road, the first person to come upon it must clear the path. However, The tonal shift in each poem is very different. In “Woodchucks” the speakers tone becomes more dreadful as he begins to enjoy killing off the woodchucks one by one until finally he claims, “If only they’d all consented to die unseen gassed underground the quit Nazi way”. As the last line of the poem, the speaker makes the reader want to go back and read it again because now the reader has a totally different view of how sick the speaker is. In “Travelling through the Dark” the tonal shift comes from his connecting to nature as soon as he touches the deer to find that its pregnant. However, once again, the poem ends on a more somber note as he pushes the dear into the river. While it is not as drastic as “Woodchucks” ending, it is a very sad realization the speaker cannot help the deer and must help any person who ends up driving the same road.

D.W. Harding blog 13

One thing I agree with D.W. Harding about is his claim that Austen exaggerates her characters and uses satire in an attempt to hide her true feelings about them. I agree that, in reality, Austen hates most of the characters she is writing; however, since she still wants to be accepted in society, she covers it up to the general public by making her hatred only implied and not stated. As an outsider we can look at her play and see the satire and the humor of the characters Austen writes about and how much content Austen has for them; however, I would argue that most people during Austen’s time would not be able to see the underlying message and simply take Pride And Prejudice at face value and call it a comedy. I disagree with D.W. Harding when he uses the intentional fallacy. While it may have been common to use the intentional fallacy during his time, it is not acceptable now, to assume what the author is thinking or why the author did something. As soon as he used the intentional fallacy all of his arguments went into the gutter.

Essay Changes, Blog 12

The biggest change that I will be making in my essay is to the thesis. In order to make the body paragraphs mesh together better, I need to change my thesis to a bolder claim that better links the paper together. As far as a new claim, I was thinking something along the lines of “If someone needs to harm others in order for the betterment of themselves it is acceptable as long as they do not physically harm someone.” This is something along the lines of what I think I will change my thesis to. Other then changing my thesis, the majority of the changes I need to make are grammatical spelling changes that can be fixed with some re-reading.

English Essay Paragraph 2 ruff draft blog 11

Elizabeth Bennett constantly fights against assimilating into society because she believes that her happiness is worth more then being well liked. When being introduced, Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Bennett are arguing about whether Mr. Bennett should go to meet this new “wealthy” man who has moved to town and try to marry one of their daughters to him; however Mr. Bennett is opposed to the idea because he does not know which child to chose: “I desire you will do no such thing. Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and I am sure she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good humored as Lydia. But you are always giving her the preference’” (Austin 2). From the beginning of the novel, Elizabeth stands out from the rest of her family. While she is not as handsome as Jane or good humored as Lydia, Mr. Bennett explains that she is more quickness then both of them put together. Simply by implying that she has a trait that is usually reserved as a trait for men, Elizabeth stands out from the pack as an outsider in society already. Further more, since her mother and sisters want to get married for the wealth because that is common practice, it is safe to assume that Elizabeth, or is different then her sister’s and her mother, would disagree with them and believe in self identity.

Pride and Prejudice Vs. The Power and The Glory Rankings! Blog 10

After reading all three of the essays written about first impressions of the characters in both Pride and Prejudice and The Power and The Glory, I would rank B as the best essay followed by C and then A. B is the highest ranking essay in my opinion because the author clearly understood the material presented, had a thought provoking argument, and thoroughly thought and executed a plan throughout the essay. Essay C was just as good as essay B except for a few minor proof reading errors and some repetition; however, essay A was definitely the worst. Essay A began very strong, from the start, essay A seems the strongest; however, once you get to the third paragraph, the essay begins to fall apart. The third paragraph is filled with countless errors and is completely repetitive, simply repeating what was stated in the first paragraph.

Society Essay Blog 9

As a social creature, humans have always struggled with keeping identities in an always evolving society, many writers have also struggles with the concept of the individual in society; one such author is Jane Austin who wrote the novel pride and prejudice. There are countless battles between whether to cast away ones identity away in order to fit in or whether to stay true to ones identity but become and outcast in society. In pride and prejudice, Elizabeth Bennett chooses the latter, to become an outcast in order to hold true to her identity; however, Elizabeth struggles as she watches her loved ones like Charlotte, give away her happiness in order to achieve some kind of economic safety. Jane Austin is not the only writer to struggle between whether or not to conform to society’s rules, Andrew Marvell’s’ to his coy mistress is another example of the struggle between whether to have love and happiness, or whether to simply agree to something because you have to. It is a question people struggle with every day, whether keeping true to ones identity is the right thing to do or whether to conform to society because it acts as a safety net and protects from becoming an outcast; overall, one should always way the pros and cons of a decision, but in the end, the final decision to be based on whether or not the person affected will be happy with the decision he or she has made.

To His Coy Mistress (Blog 7)

Author of To His Coy Mistress: Andrew Marvell

To His Coy Mistress is an argumentative poem in which the speaker is trying to seduce a woman who he is affectionate for. The argument is a three-piece argument, which starts with an appeal to emotion in which the speaker tells his love that “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime” (1-2). It is hard to miss the slight jab in which he is telling his love that her coyness is not acceptable; however his argument stands and he continues on to explain how they don’t have enough time and so his mistress must hurry until finally he attacks her by saying that because they don’t have enough time and she cant bring anything to her grave, she must be with him now.

My Free Read Book (blog 3)

After being told by all my friends that I needed to watch a new HBO series called Game of Thrones, I decided I would give it a try. By the third episode, I was hooked! I couldn't get enough of this series and so I decided to begin to read the books the series was based on. I am currently 400 pages into the third book of the series and I am in love. I love the Imagery and the fact that every chapter is written from a different characters perspective, I think that this unique writing technique has added a denser level of immersion when reading the book. I love how dense the story is and how no matter who they are, any character in the series is at risk as if they were a real person and not immortal just because they are considered the “main character”.

Billy Collins: Introduction To Poetry

I interpreted Billy Collins “Introduction To Poetry” as advice on how to write a poem and not how to analyze one. The idea of tying a poem down to a chair and trying to make it confess is how I imagine myself when I am assigned to write a poem, I feel that I cannot write a poem when it is assigned to me but instead I need to have it flow naturally; however, once on of my classmates explained it was about analyzing a poem it also made sense. I believe that it has been engrained into students that you have to find the deeper meaning a poem, and what I believe Collins is trying to express is that he does not want his students to go deep but instead understand the poem on its surface “I want them to water-ski across the surface of a poem” but after they understand what the poem means on the surface, that is when Collins wants his students to discover the deeper meaning of the poem.

About Me

Hello, my name is Rouben. Currently I am a senior in high school. As of right now, I am heavily invested in the book series A Song of Ice and Fire, which gave birth to the HBO series Game Of Thrones that I am also a huge fan of. I believe that I am funny and intuitive and I am excited to continue to update this blog. (The image to the right is the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones)