1. They are all places, locations of battles.
2. Well, it must be understood that people died at these places, often in very tragic ways.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
"My Last Duchess" - Robert Browning
1. It sounds like he is talking to the servant of a Count, and that the Duke is negotiating a marraige with one of the Count's daughters, since his former wife has passed away.
2. He portrays her as a flirt, someone too friendly with other gentlemen, and even perhaps stubborn, or going against his will. I think that we however, can see that he was just incredibly suspicious, and that she was probably just a kind, generous lady who sought to make those around her feel appreciated.
3. "Who'd stoop to blame/ This sort of trifling? Even if you had skill/ In speech - which I have not - to make your will/Quite clear to such an one, and say 'Just this/ Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss/ Or there exceed the mark" - and if she let/ Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set/ Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse -/ E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose/ Never to stoop.
It sounds like he didn't feel comfortable bringing it up. Or that perhaps, he felt that she would just accuse him of being jealous, and make other such excuses for his opinions. He also seems very haughty, and unwilling to share with her that her behavior makes him feel less a man.
4. It seems as if she died. But maybe it could be that he just sent her away or something. It might - it might give us a better understanding of what involvement the Duke had in her death, or in her leaving his presence. Did his over-bearing suspicions of her cause her death? Were his commands perhaps too much for her to take?
5. Maybe I'm reading into this too much. . . but it's almost as if the Duke likes his wife to be on the wall. . . there, he can be the only one she smiles at, and she doesn't oppose him in any way, doesn't 'cause him jealousy. As they move on to the Duke's next piece of art, Neptune taming a sea horse, he says that this is a rarity, cast in bronze. Something about that struck me - as if the Duke feels the only way he can capture or control things is through still art. Like I said. . . this is reaching. A lot. But it's poetry, so hey!
2. He portrays her as a flirt, someone too friendly with other gentlemen, and even perhaps stubborn, or going against his will. I think that we however, can see that he was just incredibly suspicious, and that she was probably just a kind, generous lady who sought to make those around her feel appreciated.
3. "Who'd stoop to blame/ This sort of trifling? Even if you had skill/ In speech - which I have not - to make your will/Quite clear to such an one, and say 'Just this/ Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss/ Or there exceed the mark" - and if she let/ Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set/ Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse -/ E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose/ Never to stoop.
It sounds like he didn't feel comfortable bringing it up. Or that perhaps, he felt that she would just accuse him of being jealous, and make other such excuses for his opinions. He also seems very haughty, and unwilling to share with her that her behavior makes him feel less a man.
4. It seems as if she died. But maybe it could be that he just sent her away or something. It might - it might give us a better understanding of what involvement the Duke had in her death, or in her leaving his presence. Did his over-bearing suspicions of her cause her death? Were his commands perhaps too much for her to take?
5. Maybe I'm reading into this too much. . . but it's almost as if the Duke likes his wife to be on the wall. . . there, he can be the only one she smiles at, and she doesn't oppose him in any way, doesn't 'cause him jealousy. As they move on to the Duke's next piece of art, Neptune taming a sea horse, he says that this is a rarity, cast in bronze. Something about that struck me - as if the Duke feels the only way he can capture or control things is through still art. Like I said. . . this is reaching. A lot. But it's poetry, so hey!
"Out, Out --" - Robert Frost
1. Sinister: snarled, rattled, leaped out at the boy's hand
Friend: it helped the boy with his work
2. Other workers, possibly adults, maybe his family if it is a family-run operation. They seem somewhat indifferent - perhaps selfish. The poet does not tell us anything about them feeling compassion. The boy is almost seen as simply a business investment, a child who can do an adult-share of work.
3. Just the idea of the boy dying at the end. Theme: To have children doing the work of adults can often result in tragedy, and even if it does not, can cause a child to grow up too fast.
4. Well, it tells a story, and both go chronologically. Frost's is definitely more interesting, easier to follow. It also seems to give a bit more commentary, and opinion of the author. The Sir Spencer poem was organized differently, broken up into smaller verses, which helped us follow it, even though the words weren't the English we're used to.
Friend: it helped the boy with his work
2. Other workers, possibly adults, maybe his family if it is a family-run operation. They seem somewhat indifferent - perhaps selfish. The poet does not tell us anything about them feeling compassion. The boy is almost seen as simply a business investment, a child who can do an adult-share of work.
3. Just the idea of the boy dying at the end. Theme: To have children doing the work of adults can often result in tragedy, and even if it does not, can cause a child to grow up too fast.
4. Well, it tells a story, and both go chronologically. Frost's is definitely more interesting, easier to follow. It also seems to give a bit more commentary, and opinion of the author. The Sir Spencer poem was organized differently, broken up into smaller verses, which helped us follow it, even though the words weren't the English we're used to.
"Sir Patrick Spence" - traditional Scottish ballad
1. Just good descriptive phrase, but it might foreshadow death, etc.
2. Wow, I have no idea. I don't think the poem gives us enough information about the king for us to determine his motives. It's not long enough, and the focus quickly shifts to Sir Patrick. Unless I missd something, we can't really tell.
3. We feel compassion because of the way the poet reveals their death - first, their apprehension about going in the first place. Then, describing the wome who will wait forever before they see their husbands and Sir Patrick return. While my passion for prose and a good story makes me curious about the shipwreck, I can see that, if the author were to detail it, the entire poem would lose it's mystic poetical charm, and become too realistic and physical.
4. Um, I have no idea. Do the moons tell us something about storms or something? I mean, the phrase is beautiful and adds to the expectation of coming disaster. Things are so peaceful, the moons and such, but we can see that trouble is coming.
2. Wow, I have no idea. I don't think the poem gives us enough information about the king for us to determine his motives. It's not long enough, and the focus quickly shifts to Sir Patrick. Unless I missd something, we can't really tell.
3. We feel compassion because of the way the poet reveals their death - first, their apprehension about going in the first place. Then, describing the wome who will wait forever before they see their husbands and Sir Patrick return. While my passion for prose and a good story makes me curious about the shipwreck, I can see that, if the author were to detail it, the entire poem would lose it's mystic poetical charm, and become too realistic and physical.
4. Um, I have no idea. Do the moons tell us something about storms or something? I mean, the phrase is beautiful and adds to the expectation of coming disaster. Things are so peaceful, the moons and such, but we can see that trouble is coming.
"Piano" - D.H. Lawrence
2. Mostly nostalgic, remembering his past and missing it. Also, the feeling that he must let go of being an adult to allow himself to remember. He doesn't really want to get lost in his memories, but they are powerful, and enticing.
3. "in the dusk," "boom of the tingling strings," "tinkling piano," etc.
4. Subject is something along the lines of: "Childhood memories of music"
Theme, something like: "Music makes me remember being a child, and also makes me miss it tremendously."
3. "in the dusk," "boom of the tingling strings," "tinkling piano," etc.
4. Subject is something along the lines of: "Childhood memories of music"
Theme, something like: "Music makes me remember being a child, and also makes me miss it tremendously."
Friday, April 24, 2009
Class Thoughts VII
So on Thursday, we handed in our essays and then were introduced to what we're going to be doing with poetry the next few weeks. We also got to listen to a short story that was amazing. I normally don't like listening to things, preferring to read them myself. However, in this case it was really neat! I'm not looking forward to poetry at all. I am so in love with prose, I guess I just don't have room in my heart for it. :) However, I shall strive to learn and get somethign out of it anyways.
On to reading some poetry then. . .
On to reading some poetry then. . .
Paper Two - Final Draft
Escaping from The Glass Menagerie
When in a tight situation, the instinct is to immediately think escape. Sometimes, permanent escape is the goal. This is what prisoners who launch a jail break, or leaders of a revolution desire – they wish to leave behind forever that which is containing them. Often times, their efforts are successful and they are permanently freed from that particular danger. However, there are many situations in everyday life from which ordinary people which to escape, even if just for a little while. Drug use is a prime example of this – although the “high” of being on a drug may cause one to forget their troubles, this escape is only temporary. Another way some people escape is by writing plays or fiction, and living through the emotions and lives of their characters. Others act on stage or in films, leaving reality behind for a short time by allowing themselves to become engrossed in their make-believe role. Many people go through life in denial, choosing not to think about the things that bind them and, in some cases, pretending they don't even exist. In The Glass Menagerie, the Wingfields are in a somewhat hopeless situation, and they each find different ways to escape from it. Amanda escapes by reliving her past. Laura escapes in the present, to a world apart from others. Tom escapes into dreaming about the future. Each of them meets with varying results and satisfaction, but all use time as their temporary escape. For, as Tom states, “. . .time is the longest distance between two places” (Williams 1025).
Amanda is a typical example of someone who lives in the past. She constantly relives her formative years in the South, and frequently relates to those around her what her courting days in “Blue Mountain,” were like. Tom and Laura's reactions to her make it is obvious that these stories are not new, nor is it unusual for them to be subjected to listening about her many gentlemen callers. It is noted by Williams that there is an image on the screen of “Amanda as a girl on a porch greeting callers” and the stage directions say, “She (Amanda) flounces girlishly toward the kitchenette” – both of these things show that, in her own mind and manner, she is still that attractive young lady from Blue Mountain (974-5). Amanda also has fooled herself into believing that Laura to will experience an onslaught of gentlemen callers, something that is obviously not the case. When she hears that Laura has not been attending business college as she thought, Amanda becomes even more intent upon finding Laura a suitor, reliving her past by trying to replicate the settings of her own courting days. This obsession grows within Amanda, and reaches its climax with the arrival of Jim, the gentleman caller. While he is on the scene, Amanda lives in a strange mix of the past and the present. While she still acts as though she is the young, southern belle that she used to be, even shocking Jim and Tom with her appearance and words, she also firmly believes that Jim is the real answer to their present and future situation. When it is revealed that Jim is not the savior Amanda had been waiting for, she seems to lose all pretense of southern charm. The final remarks she makes to Tom as he storms out of the house are somewhat ironic: “You don't know things anywhere! You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions!” (1024). To say such, when she herself has lived the entire play in the dream and illusion of the past, shows how truly disillusioned she is.
But it is also this incident with the gentleman caller that serves to open Amanda's eyes to the reality of the here and now. As she comforts Laura at the end of the play, the final stage directions tell us that “her silliness is gone, and she has a dignity and tragic beauty” (1024). Rather than closing her eyes the truth she before her, she has learned to accept the fact that Laura is a much different person than she was at that age. She is now ready to stop escaping to the past, and start living in the present and for the future. Although she and Laura live out their lives without Tom, and perhaps without anymore gentlemen callers, they do find that they can cling to each other.
While Amanda spends her time reliving the past, Laura, her daughter, has nothing in the past that is worth reliving. As Tom tells Amanda, she is painfully shy, and has never gotten along with the other young people they know. Laura reminds Jim that she was never noticed, or had many friends when in high school, and admits that hasn't changed much since high school. Now, after dropping out of business college, she has very little hope for her own future. Her simple words “I'm – crippled!” indicate how uncertain she is in herself, and in the prospect of having gentleman callers (980). Although Laura does not escape the bleakness of her life by reliving the past or dreaming of her future, neither does she live in the present as most people do. Rather, she spends her days in a different reality, as she plays her phonograph and takes long walks in the city of St. Louis. There, she frequents the animals at the zoo, and the glass walls of the Jewel Box – however, the bulk of her time is spent at home, where she is occupied by her glass animals, a mere shadow of those real places. When visiting with Jim, her affection and personification of these trinkets is clearly seen. She tells him, “He (the unicorn) stays on a shelf with some horses that don't have horns and all of them seem to get along nicely together” and “I haven't heard any arguments among them!” and “They all like a change of scenery once in a while!” (1017). Her figurines symbolize this world she has created, and they have become her way of hiding from the reality she would otherwise have to live in.
As Williams tells us in the introduction of characters, “. . . Laura's separation increases until she is like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf” (970). Laura learns to escape by continually retreating into this world – but, as with her glass ornaments, Laura's world is fragile, and easily broken. She seems to return to reality for a moment when she is talking with Jim. As she begins to step out of her insecurities and fears, she starts to hope that Jim may be a real way to escape from her hopeless future. These hopes however, are dashed when Jim tells her of his fiance, and makes it clear that he cannot be a part of Laura's life. When she gives the broken unicorn to Jim as a “souvenir,” she takes a step toward letting go of her world, rather than retreating back into it. And as she blows the candles out in the closing scene, Tom says “. . .anything that can blow your candles out! - for nowadays, the world is lit by lightning!” (1025). She has extinguished her old life and the imagined world she created, and has chosen to face the future, along with the lightning that illuminates it.
In contrast, Tom has always lived for the lightning of the future. He would be more than happy to leave his past behind forever, although the memory of his father casts a shadow on him, much as the painting of his father seems to loom over the entire family. Tom's daily life is also something he wishes to escape from. Working at a shoe factory, he longs for the adventure and freedom he would have if he left his family and responsibilities behind. He tells Amanda that, “For sixty-five dollars a month, I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever!” (983). It is quite evident that he does not wish his future to lie at the warehouse, or with his family. Therefore, he escapes by dreaming about what his future could be. He goes to the movies to watch the adventure of the actors on the screen, for this is the only adventure he gets to experience. He writes poetry and reads books, both of which serve to make him feel temporarily removed from his present situation. And, while Tom does escape into his imagined future in this way, he is also the only character who literally escapes. When he shows Jim his membership in the Merchant Marines, and admits that he failed to pay the light bill this month, his plans for escape are firmly set in motion. As he leaves the house in the very last scene, these words shouted to Amanda tell it all: “All right, I will! The more you shout about my selfishness to me the quicker I'll go, and I won't go to the movies!” (1024). He makes his final escape, through the fire-escape, and in his last monologue, he shares that he never returned to his family. Although it seems that Tom has made a permanent escape from the dreariness of his situation, the opposite is true. For while he has put time and space between himself and his former life, the things of his past remain with him. He did not succeed in truly escaping, and his memories will be there, peering over his shoulder, for the rest of his life.
Whether it be a literal constraint, a physical place, or an emotional or social situation, every person at some time in their life will come to the point of desiring an escape. Escaping to the past will result in lack of forsight, and escaping to a different reality may mean they will never get an opportunity to learn from their past, or to dream about their future. While escaping into dreams about the future or running away from the problem may seem like a permanent solution, they may miss out on chances to solve their problems right now. Rather than escape, that person would be better off facing their challenges head on. They should not run from their problems, as Tom did, but learn to deal with reality as it comes, just as Amanda and Laura finally chose to do. For it is only by taking on the situations of the present that one is able to have hope for a new and different future.
Works Cited
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. Backpack Literature. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.
"The Glass Menagerie" - Tennessee Williams (Scene 7 and Wrap Up)
28. Symbolizes Tom's letting go of the family, embarrasses Amanda and ruins her "perfect" evening, makes everything a little more intimate in the candlelight
29. He seems so polite and kind, and is very engaging and interested in Laura. He's focused on Laura's comfort and in actually getting to know her.
32. I felt sorry for him - after all, he was so set up. He seemed to be genuinely sorry that he couldn't pursue a relationship with Laura, and it was almost as though he was trying to convince himself that he did love Betty, and was happy with her. When he realized the expectations Amanda had, he did the right thing by making it clear to Laura that he couldn't meet them.
33. Symbolizes Laura herself and the fact that she felt as though she didn't fit in.
36. The Movies: Adventure, Tom's desire to escape into something that was exciting and different from the boring realities of life and hard work
The Paradise Music Hall: A way other people in the society escaped from their troubles, through drinking and sex. Different approaches than any of the Wingfields, but it shows us that really every of that time was looking for escape.
The fire escape: The idea of it being the way out, the escape from the little world inside their apartment. In the play, Tom spends the most time out there, and I can't think of once that Laura is out there.
Laura's leg brace: The handicaps or insecurities that hinder us all. In her case, she allowed it to dominate who she was.
37. When Jim kisses Laura, and we go from hopefulness to total disappointment.
38. I did sympathize with Amanda. She hasn't had the easiest of lives, and hasn't been able to be a mother and father to her children. While she is annoying, suspicious, and nagging towards Tom, we can sense that she truly does value him, beyond the paycheck he brings home. With Laura, especially at the end, we see that she beings to act more as a mother should, and is very comforting toward Laura. Tom is definitely both wrong and right. While almost anyone can sympathize with that feeling of wanting adventure, and to be out on their own, it's also not right to leave those you love alone and uncared for. I wish he could have found a balance, but I suppose that just goes further to indicating the entire hopelessness of society at that time. Laura was also wrong and right - while she never should have allowed her handicap and shyness to overtake her life, and never should have retreated into separation from society, we can definitely understand why she did. Sometimes, being different is too much to bear. I pity her that her circumstances weren't more conducive to becoming a well-rounded, socially adept young lady. But, while circumstances may be the reason for something, they are never an excuse. We can only hope that, after Tom left, she truly did move into reality and begin living as a more normal human being.
29. He seems so polite and kind, and is very engaging and interested in Laura. He's focused on Laura's comfort and in actually getting to know her.
32. I felt sorry for him - after all, he was so set up. He seemed to be genuinely sorry that he couldn't pursue a relationship with Laura, and it was almost as though he was trying to convince himself that he did love Betty, and was happy with her. When he realized the expectations Amanda had, he did the right thing by making it clear to Laura that he couldn't meet them.
33. Symbolizes Laura herself and the fact that she felt as though she didn't fit in.
36. The Movies: Adventure, Tom's desire to escape into something that was exciting and different from the boring realities of life and hard work
The Paradise Music Hall: A way other people in the society escaped from their troubles, through drinking and sex. Different approaches than any of the Wingfields, but it shows us that really every of that time was looking for escape.
The fire escape: The idea of it being the way out, the escape from the little world inside their apartment. In the play, Tom spends the most time out there, and I can't think of once that Laura is out there.
Laura's leg brace: The handicaps or insecurities that hinder us all. In her case, she allowed it to dominate who she was.
37. When Jim kisses Laura, and we go from hopefulness to total disappointment.
38. I did sympathize with Amanda. She hasn't had the easiest of lives, and hasn't been able to be a mother and father to her children. While she is annoying, suspicious, and nagging towards Tom, we can sense that she truly does value him, beyond the paycheck he brings home. With Laura, especially at the end, we see that she beings to act more as a mother should, and is very comforting toward Laura. Tom is definitely both wrong and right. While almost anyone can sympathize with that feeling of wanting adventure, and to be out on their own, it's also not right to leave those you love alone and uncared for. I wish he could have found a balance, but I suppose that just goes further to indicating the entire hopelessness of society at that time. Laura was also wrong and right - while she never should have allowed her handicap and shyness to overtake her life, and never should have retreated into separation from society, we can definitely understand why she did. Sometimes, being different is too much to bear. I pity her that her circumstances weren't more conducive to becoming a well-rounded, socially adept young lady. But, while circumstances may be the reason for something, they are never an excuse. We can only hope that, after Tom left, she truly did move into reality and begin living as a more normal human being.
"The Glass Menagerie" - Tennessee Williams (Scenes 5 & 6)
20. The first is that Jim doesn't know anything about Laura, doesn't know that he's being set up. The second is that Laura is shy, and that they, her family, have gotten used to it and no longer realize that she really is peculiar.
21. She fully reverts to that childhood girlish self, and she is very excited and anticipative (is that a word?) of their caller, while Laura is scared out of her wits.
22. When she learns who it is, she is even more nervous and scared. Amanda fails to see the significance, and brushes off Laura's shyess.
25. Tom talking about gentlemen callers, Laura mentioning Jim to Amanda in the beginning (foreshadowing), the building toward what could have been a happy ending.
27. I think the gentleman caller seems like a polite, nice guy. In class, Ms. Kolb and the more talkative students all expressed that he was kind of a jerk, really full of himself and such. I guess I didn't get that impression when reading the play. At this point, he just seems to be a nice guy who has been disappointed perhaps by his future, and likes to remember when life was better, and when he was popular and "successful" in highschool. I feel that Tom has become very indifferent and somewhat uncaring about his family.
21. She fully reverts to that childhood girlish self, and she is very excited and anticipative (is that a word?) of their caller, while Laura is scared out of her wits.
22. When she learns who it is, she is even more nervous and scared. Amanda fails to see the significance, and brushes off Laura's shyess.
25. Tom talking about gentlemen callers, Laura mentioning Jim to Amanda in the beginning (foreshadowing), the building toward what could have been a happy ending.
27. I think the gentleman caller seems like a polite, nice guy. In class, Ms. Kolb and the more talkative students all expressed that he was kind of a jerk, really full of himself and such. I guess I didn't get that impression when reading the play. At this point, he just seems to be a nice guy who has been disappointed perhaps by his future, and likes to remember when life was better, and when he was popular and "successful" in highschool. I feel that Tom has become very indifferent and somewhat uncaring about his family.
"The Glass Menagerie" - Tennessee Williams (Scenes 3 & 4)
10. Amanda and Tom start the conflict because of Tom's book, that Amanda has taken away. We get the sense that she has never understood his reading or writing, and that he is pretty bitter about that.
11. See my paper. :)
12. Peacemaker, middleman. She hates having their little world disrupted by argument.
13. To find a gentleman caller for Laura, since Laura literally knows no boys herself.
14. I start to feel more sympathy for Amanda, at least in the reading of the play. Tom comes across as very selfish, and we catch a glimpse of the fact that Amanda truly cares more for Laura's future than for her own. But the movie Amanda was just annoying and made me feel no sympathy for her at all at this point.
15. More calm and peaceful, more openly loving.
16. To Amanda - what could/should have been the life she was in. To Tom - he is resentful, and yet wishes he could also leave the family. It's a threat because it constantly reminds them that Tom too could walk out at any time, leaving them even more empty.
17. Mostly through Tom's monologues.
11. See my paper. :)
12. Peacemaker, middleman. She hates having their little world disrupted by argument.
13. To find a gentleman caller for Laura, since Laura literally knows no boys herself.
14. I start to feel more sympathy for Amanda, at least in the reading of the play. Tom comes across as very selfish, and we catch a glimpse of the fact that Amanda truly cares more for Laura's future than for her own. But the movie Amanda was just annoying and made me feel no sympathy for her at all at this point.
15. More calm and peaceful, more openly loving.
16. To Amanda - what could/should have been the life she was in. To Tom - he is resentful, and yet wishes he could also leave the family. It's a threat because it constantly reminds them that Tom too could walk out at any time, leaving them even more empty.
17. Mostly through Tom's monologues.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
"The Glass Menagerie" - Tennessee Williams (Scenes 1 & 2)
When I first read this play through, I had a hard time imagining what we'd discuss in class. At face value, it seems to be just a story about the every-day life of a family - nothing extraordinary happens. However, it is in the daily happenings of this family that Williams weaves a story which compels us to keep reading, (or watching). We see that, in these seemingly normal family relationships and happenings, there are multiple things we can learn - about ourselves, and about how we can allow our circumstances to shape our lives.
1. His opening speech gives us the social setting, and an impression of the bleak hopelessness that the people of that time were thinking. We also get the idea that the enter play will be very unrealistic and dream-like, and he describes the gentleman caller as the "reality" or normal one in the play.
2. Tension seems to be caused by Amanda's constant nagging, and Tom's need to defend himself.
3. Amanda finds out that Laura dropped out of school, and this launches her on a campaign to find Laura another means of supporting herself, namely a husband.
4. She declares herself to be crippled, although the stage directions tell us that her handicap should be hardly noticeable. We also hear of her intense shyness, her inability to attend school, and her frequent visits to various places in St. Louis, for hours and hours on end.
5. They indicate the nickname from highschool that Jim, the guy she had a crush on, gave her.
6. I think that she tries to come across as strong, and we do see that she has kept the family together since their father left. Her domination of the lives of her children however, makes us think that she is actually weak, but tries to exert power over them so that she can feel strong.
7. Because we are reading the play, the only thing that shows us his importance to Laura is the fact that she said she liked him in highschool, and that he had a nickname for her. Amanda isn't interested because Jim seems to be in the past - he was engaged, and Laura says that she suspects he's probably married by now. Amanda doesn't care for Laura to dwell on someone who isn't a "prospect," although she herself constantly lives in the past.
8. I honestly didn't really understand the use of transparencies and images, etc. I suppose that might be the type of thing you'd have to actually see to visualize properly. However, I did find that reading a play, with the stage directions and various descriptions of the set, costuming, etc., makes things really interesting, and helps the reader to visualize almost better than if they were watching the play. It's as if reading the words forces you to actually think about the implications and reasons behind things.
9. Yes - although Laura's handicap may be unique, the results of it are not. Everyone has some insecurity that they hide behind, whether it is visible (as was Laura's limp) or not.
1. His opening speech gives us the social setting, and an impression of the bleak hopelessness that the people of that time were thinking. We also get the idea that the enter play will be very unrealistic and dream-like, and he describes the gentleman caller as the "reality" or normal one in the play.
2. Tension seems to be caused by Amanda's constant nagging, and Tom's need to defend himself.
3. Amanda finds out that Laura dropped out of school, and this launches her on a campaign to find Laura another means of supporting herself, namely a husband.
4. She declares herself to be crippled, although the stage directions tell us that her handicap should be hardly noticeable. We also hear of her intense shyness, her inability to attend school, and her frequent visits to various places in St. Louis, for hours and hours on end.
5. They indicate the nickname from highschool that Jim, the guy she had a crush on, gave her.
6. I think that she tries to come across as strong, and we do see that she has kept the family together since their father left. Her domination of the lives of her children however, makes us think that she is actually weak, but tries to exert power over them so that she can feel strong.
7. Because we are reading the play, the only thing that shows us his importance to Laura is the fact that she said she liked him in highschool, and that he had a nickname for her. Amanda isn't interested because Jim seems to be in the past - he was engaged, and Laura says that she suspects he's probably married by now. Amanda doesn't care for Laura to dwell on someone who isn't a "prospect," although she herself constantly lives in the past.
8. I honestly didn't really understand the use of transparencies and images, etc. I suppose that might be the type of thing you'd have to actually see to visualize properly. However, I did find that reading a play, with the stage directions and various descriptions of the set, costuming, etc., makes things really interesting, and helps the reader to visualize almost better than if they were watching the play. It's as if reading the words forces you to actually think about the implications and reasons behind things.
9. Yes - although Laura's handicap may be unique, the results of it are not. Everyone has some insecurity that they hide behind, whether it is visible (as was Laura's limp) or not.
Class Thoughts VII
I have been sorely negligent with this journal/blog recently. Unfortunately, not being a "full time" college student has meant that my primary focus is not on school, homework, or anything remotely related to college. However, I would like to force myself to do this, so that I am able to have a little more focus on my remaining 2 literary analysis papers, and 1 research paper. None of which I have started, of course. After all, the primary distinction of college years is procrastination, right?
Class has been good lately. We finished discussing Othello, and wrote our in-class essay. The in-class essay went really well - I wrote like crazy, and finished just before she said "time to wrap it up." After Othello, we moved onto reading and talking about "The Glass Menagerie," a play by Tenessee Williams. I think we spent 2 or 3 classes, breaking into small groups and going over the questions Ms. Kolb gave us.
Then, our past 3 classes have been occupied by watching a film version of the play. Normally, I am not a fan of books being made into movies. However, because a play is truly meant to be visual, I've enjoyed watching this one. The actors did a pretty great job, although their "interpretation" of the characters was a little different from what I had imagined.
During class discussion, Ms. Kolb kept trying to suggest that sympathy for Amanda might be well placed. When we were just discussing and reading it, I definitely found some sympathy in my heart for her. However, the actress in the movie made most of that sympathy disappear. It's okay though - I think I have enough sympathy for the other characters to make up for it.
Next, we are wrapping up "The Glass Menagerie" by writing a literary analysis on it, and then we will be moving onto poetry. I'm not excited about poetry. Ms. Kolb is going to have to make it mighty interesting for me to enjoy it. But that's okay, because school isn't all about enjoyment, right?
Class has been good lately. We finished discussing Othello, and wrote our in-class essay. The in-class essay went really well - I wrote like crazy, and finished just before she said "time to wrap it up." After Othello, we moved onto reading and talking about "The Glass Menagerie," a play by Tenessee Williams. I think we spent 2 or 3 classes, breaking into small groups and going over the questions Ms. Kolb gave us.
Then, our past 3 classes have been occupied by watching a film version of the play. Normally, I am not a fan of books being made into movies. However, because a play is truly meant to be visual, I've enjoyed watching this one. The actors did a pretty great job, although their "interpretation" of the characters was a little different from what I had imagined.
During class discussion, Ms. Kolb kept trying to suggest that sympathy for Amanda might be well placed. When we were just discussing and reading it, I definitely found some sympathy in my heart for her. However, the actress in the movie made most of that sympathy disappear. It's okay though - I think I have enough sympathy for the other characters to make up for it.
Next, we are wrapping up "The Glass Menagerie" by writing a literary analysis on it, and then we will be moving onto poetry. I'm not excited about poetry. Ms. Kolb is going to have to make it mighty interesting for me to enjoy it. But that's okay, because school isn't all about enjoyment, right?
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