Quiet or Unquiet?

This week in class we have been focusing on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. In the book, the readers found out about two different types of Women during the Renaissance period. Mrs. Whitley gave the class characteristics of a quiet woman and a unquiet woman. A quiet woman,“her Patience is a Vertue that winnes the heart of loue, and her wisedome makes her will well worthy regarde: She feares God, and flyeth finne” A quiet woman is seen as patient, worthy, loving, a good wife, submission to her husband, and fears God. However, a unquiet woman is “the grief of nature, a word, but not of Grace, a creature but not of wisedome, and a feruant, but not of God.” An unquiet woman is compared to the lowly of the lowest, a creature. An unquiet woman is not of God and deserves not to marry. Her straightforwardness is a shame to womanhood.

Reading Much Ado About Nothing, the audience come across a quiet and an unquiet woman in Act I alone. It can be assumed that Hero is an quiet woman. She allows her beauty to speak for itself, she never interrupts, and allow men to speak, which contributes to the reason why Claudio acknowledges her beauty and desires to marry her. Beatrice can be considered an unquiet women. Someone who will speak up to a male and is willing to make jokes and state the obvious. Some males and quiet women might look down on her because she does not allow her beauty to speak - it is all her mouth.

Which women are you? I think I am an unquiet women because I love to state my opinion, and I'm very outspoken around everyone. However, I do not agree with the Renaissance definition of what women should be. I believe more unquiet women should come out the closet, and stand up to everyone and be fearless, outspoken, and powerful! To whom do you belong - quiet or unquiet?

Something's Fishy

This week in English class, we have been discussing one of Shakespeare's works Hamlet. As I am sitting in class learning about the death of Hamlet's father, something stood out to me that seemed a little weird. Claudius, the new king of Denmark and the brother of the former king, is going to marry his brother's widow Gertrude. Mind you that it has only been a month since Gertrude's former husband passed away, and she seems fine with the fact of marrying Claudius and showing no sign of mourning for her late husband. Now does this seem fishy to anyone else or is it just me? How could Gertrude not mourn for her own late husband and then decide to remarry?! It is not only wrong that Claudius is marrying Gertrude, but it is seen as a sin back in Shakespeare's time.This is considered incest, which is a pretty big deal back in that time and in our time period now.   **Note from Ms. Whitley.  It is only seen as a sin or as incest by Hamlet.  This would actually have been perfectly acceptable at this time.  In fact, in Deuteronomy 29:9, the bible directs a man to marry his brother's wife is she becomes a widow.  

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3158/2743153679_d1bd46a870.jpg

"Something Smells Fishy"

Hamlet, however, shows that he is mourning for the loss of his father and cannot believe how Claudius and his mother are reacting. Gertrude tells Hamlet to cut out his moody behavior and to ditch his black attire for clothing that shows to be more cheerful. She tells Hamlet that everyone dies and we have to get over it. Well I do not know about anyone else, but if a family member of mine had passed away, I would be in the same mourning stage as Hamlet. I do not know anyone who could not feel a bit of sadness for a death that has occurred, let alone the death of one's parents. 

TRUE LOVE

While reading "Federigo's Falcon,"some of our fellow classmates got upset because they did not agree with the fact that Federigo gave up everything he had for this one lady who did not even show any type of affection towards him. Some thought he was stupid. I don't think he was stupid, I just think he was blind. Our classmates said they would have never done what Federigo did for the lady, but have you ever been in love? When you are in love, you are blind and living in this fantasy in which only you and your lover exist. When you are deeply in love like Federigo was, the well being of your lover comes first. You would do anything for that person because you are madly in love. Love is a powerful feeling that can make you do stupid things at times. Federigo's character gives you a taste of how a person is when he or she is in love. I would have probably done the same if I was madly in love, I wouldn't have given up my falcon though. Would you have done the same? Do you understand why Federigo acted that way? Do you believe in true love?

Wait a minute...

While reading the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, we learned and examined about a character's physiognomy which is defined as a person's facial features or expression, esp. when regarded as indicative of character or ethnic origin. While listening to other people present their projects and while I examined my own character, I thought "isn't this what we're taught NOT to do?" because I know everybody has gotten the "Don't judge a book by it's cover" cliche thrown at them more than once, but this is what Chaucer is doing! He is telling us about each pilgrim and telling what they are or what he thinks they are and the type of person they are based on their outward appearance! I'm not criticizing Chaucer because he's using this sort of "judging" as a literary device to depict what's wrong with society in some cases, but it's funny that he gets credited for something most of us were taught not to do! :)

We, the Wife of Bath

So, I was trying to figure out how I could connect the wife of bath's story to modern day life. I couldn't think of anything but then I realized, we are no different than she is (well there are some obvious differences but you know what I mean). Sometimes, we want to be in control. It may not be all the time but it never hurts, right? Sometimes, we want to be the one wearing the pants(a lot of women wear pants). Now, looking at this through a man's point of view, this would be completely out of the question. Blasphemous! However, if you think about it, a lot of men are submissive to women nowadays. Mainly because they just want you to "shutup", or their just into that.  It never hurts to be independent or to go against the status quo.  Let others think what they want about how you live your life. Alison, that's the Wife of Bath's name, certainly did and she couldn't be any happier.

The Knight vs. Macbeth

In English 12N, our class just wrapped up the prologue of The Canterbury Tales. For a class assignment, Ms. Whitley put us into groups, assigned us two characters and told us to make an analysis of their personality, their physical appearance and what Geoffrey Chaucer was trying to explain through the use of satire. One of the characters that I had to explain was the Knight.

The Knight, along with the Parson, is a character that Chaucer used to be an example of what someone should be like, in terms of personality and physicality. We all know how much most of the characters in The Canterbury Tales need some kind of spiritual guidance because many of them are the complete antithesis of what they should be. The Knight is a chivalrous man who has traveled the world, to and fro, to fight battles in war. He is highly respected for his bravery and his modest personality. The Knight can be considered modest because of his clothing. He wore a plain tunic with stains on them because he had just come back from a battle. I don't know about you, but if I were a highly respected knight, I'd flaunt in the best clothing with the finest jewelry on the highest horse that was offered to me.

Since my class is also in the midst of the term paper process, the Knight reminded me of Macbeth, a character in my own term paper. I know you're probably wondering how the brave and modest Knight can compare to someone so selfish and murderous like Macbeth, but before Macbeth made a complete 180 degree turn for the worst, he was actually a good man. Before Macbeth murdered King Duncan, Duncan had nothing but praises for him. In the beginning of Macbeth, the captain tells Duncan that Macbeth killed the evil Macdonwald and saved all the lives of the men who were on his side. Macbeth could have easily been the Knight in Chaucer’s story because of all the battles they've fought and the honor that has been put upon them from others.

The Wife of Bath: Woman Power

link to picture

Last week in English class, we discussed The Wife of Bath's tale. We learned that women back then belonged to the men in their lives and that they had to be obedient. The Wife of Bath was anything but a normal woman. She is strongly for the equal political, economic, and social rights for women as you can see in the text. 
You see women standing for gender equality to this day! The well known artist, Beyonce, recently released an self-titled album that would be deemed too "sexy" for most listeners. She's a woman of power, money, and success all within a male dominated industry. Majority of her songs challenges the social norm! (ex: "Who Runs The World" and to be honest, the whole self titled album). She openly talks about her sex life with her husband through her music and I honestly see nothing wrong with that. If men could rap about having sexual intercourse with multiple women in one night, why can't she sing about her love life? Beyonce recently told CNN: 

"But I guess I am a modern-day feminist. I do believe in equality. Why do you have to choose what type of woman you are? Why do you have to label yourself anything? I'm just a woman and I love being a woman." (CNN) 

This reminded me of the Wife of Bath and her arguments as to why she should be able to marry multiple times and to be able have sex with her husband(s). It's not like she's having sex out of wedlock so it should not be frowned upon. At least she's going about it the "right way" (aka through marriage).

Wife of Bath, you better do what you do and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! 

 

wob

Eye Opener

This week or rather last week in class we began to present our interpretations of the pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales. I can honestly admit the interpretations were a real eye opener. I hadn't looked at half of those pilgrims the way they were meant to be interpreted. For Example, The Cook, when I read his section the first time I didn't catch how repulsive he was until Nana broke it down and focused on the details of the discription. The array of pictures kept me focused and provided a nice visual to go along with the text. I feel as if the project (or assignment...whatever) was a solid, beneficial way to learn about the folks of The Canterbury Tales while short on time. It was cool.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/stallio/301493434/

This was not the plan..

Today as we discussed the Knight and Squire in class I realized that their characters are actually seen in the modern world. Some parents when they plan to have a child they have a list of characteristics they want their child to acquire. For example, if they are having a girl they want her to like the color pink and be a ballerina; if they are having a boy they want him to be strong and play baseball. Parents have certain expectations of what they want their child to be long before they are born. However, the expectations they might of had may not be. The girl might want to be a softball player and the boy a professional dancer. It is just like the Squire. The knight had certain expectations from his son. He wanted his son to be a modest war hero just like him. Rather, the Squire wore pretty flowers, was artistic and chased after girls, nothing which his dad expected from him. This brings me to the fact that, sometimes, no matter how much we plan something or how high our expectations are we just might not have it how we wanted it to be.  

Living by the Word ..... Or Naw ?

This week in English class, Mrs. Whitley had put everyone in groups of two and we had to discuss about two characters in the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales . My partner was Unique and I starting working on the Priest character. As I was reading I've noticed that the Priest is flawed tremendously.  **Note from Ms. Whitley: There are several "priest" characters. Shambria seems to be referring to the Friar.  

The Priest would give his money to only pretty females and he would beg for money. I connected this to the show Preachers of L.A. 

One minister I would like to connect to the Priest is Deitrick Haddon. Some of you may not know who he is. He is a minister who is recently married. He's a gospel music artist and obviously he is a minister. One thing you may not know is that he had a child out of wedlock with his newly wife Dominique. 

I thought it was funny how he preaches the God's Word and he's out "shacking" up with Dominique before they were married. How can he preach the word but he's not living by God's Word himself. Deitrick was hiding ,his then girlfriend, Dominique from people and he had to lie about his second child. Dominique was pregnant with their second child during their wedding. I am not talking 2 months pregnant, more like 4/5 months pregnant.

I understand that he's human but he's a public figure and people looks up to him just like how people looks up to the Priest in the Canterbury Tales. 

Here's a mini clip of Deitrick and Dominique. Enjoy ! 


http://www.hulu.com/watch/544601

Tell me what you think :)

***** No hard feelings. BTW
***** I love you all lol