Reflection 12N What is good and What is bad in society

Reflection 

       So far in the play Much Ado About Nothing we have picked up how the characters, Beatrice and Benedick, are foils (character that act the total opposite from other characters such as the protagonist/main character(s))  of Hero and Claudio.  People would have noticed how Beatrice and Hero are foils by the definition of a good women in society from their time period.  "A good women does not speak, she is silent." Hero fits perfectly in the category of a good women because(I.i) she has only said ONE line during the whole conversation with the messenger.  After the class read the whole scene, Mrs.Whitley asked us who were the people in scene one, we named Leonato, the prince, Benedick, Claudio, and Beatrice. All of 12N forgot all about Hero being in the scene.  In the play later on, Claudio was one of the many people to notice her "in" the conversation, but Hero through her silence(I.i). Claudio has even said"Silence is the perfectest herald of joy." (I.i), proving my point of a "good women" in their time.  At first Claudio is COMPLETELY certain he had found his wife, but once Don John started putting stuff in Claudio's head making Hero seem promiscuous and unfaithful he says "Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love. Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent, for beauty is a witch. . .(II.i)" I thought about what he had said and it seems as though he would choose his friendship over someone he "loves". Claudio uses the "Bro code" which is "Bros before ___". Also, "beauty is a witch" I took that as "Beauty is the Beast".  Beatrice would represent Hero's foil quite well for mainly speaking without "permission". In Elizabethan/ Shakespearean time what society viewed as a "bad women" was someone who spoke without permission and they were considered monsters."By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue."- Leonato (II.i), her own uncle even tells her that she won't be suitable to get a husband because she is so talkative and her words are harsh.

        Now with Claudio and Benedick what makes them a foil will have to be their views/opinions on marriage.  Benedick doesn't want to get married because he doesn't trust women at all.Men are shamed by their women being promiscuous. Once a women cheats on her man, then he would "become" a cuckold due to her committing adultery/ being unfaithful.  It's funny how to reason's for two people to become a couple is related to tricking each of them. Don john tricks Claudio in to thinking Hero is sleeping around when she is not. The prince and Balthazar just to stick it to Benedick's pride by saying that he couldn't compare with Beatrice.  In the process of he FINALLY realizes he actually loves her.

Reflection 12S

On Wednesday March 5th, Ms. Whitley gave us a class project. it was based off of Hamlet's meeting with the ghost and telling Horatio that he is going to put on an "Antic Disposition" We had to listen to two songs, "Madness" by Muse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq9zhpBweDk) and "Time Keeper" by Grace Potter & the Nocturnal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am6NS05pZH0) and compare it to Hamlet's character. She asked us some very excellent questions at the bottom of the lyrics sheet that gave us a chance to experience how Hamlet may be feeling. 
I personally feel that the comparison between Shakespeare's era and modern times through music helped me comprehend the text a lot better. If you feel the same way, leave a little reply.


So I ask the question now? As Ms. Whitley put it.

In "Madness", the lines "And I, I tried so hard to let you go,
But some kind of madness is swallowing me whole, yeah
(Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma...)" really related to Hamlet's position about King Claudius's and Gertrude's hasty marriage. To me it represents how he just could not get over that, and how he used it as a jab at them every time.
In "Time Keeper", the lines "Time Keeper, I thought I'd have it right by now,  Time Keeper, Everything's still spinning out,  I'm undone" really relates to Hamlet's indecisive nature towards killing King Claudius. He wishes he would have done it before, yet he makes up all kinds of excuses to actually do it.
In this nature Hamlet really reminds me of Mordecai from Regular Show. He kept trying to make Margaret his girlfriend but never had to courage to. he kept making up excuses as to why he never kissed her.
So now I ask you two questions: 1) Can bringing a shocking truth to light impact a person's mental state? 

2) If you're prisoner to your feelings, can it keep you from taking action?

P.S. G-Dragon (K-Pop Idol) has a song, CROOKED, that also reminds me of Hamlet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAHy8r5-kpc

Scandal and Shakespeare?

At the beginning and end of the week in English this week, we discussed Hamlet Act 1 scene 3 , more specifically Polonius' advice to his daughter Ophelia. In our discussion, it was revealed that Polonius is not truly the "loving" father that he initially seemed to be. Instead, he is a conniving, reputation obsessed older man who is using his children as a means to gain fame and respect. He does not show the genuine affection fathers are known for to either of his children, but instead uses them as pawns for achieving success. His lack of affection and obsession with improving his status is evident in Act 2 scene 1, when Ophelia tells him about Hamlet's erratic behavior during their last meeting. Instead of consoling his daughter, Polonius blames his daughter for Hamlet's bizarre behavior "What, have you given him any hard words of late? (pg 81 l.119). Before he checks to see if his daughter is alright, he decides to run excitedly to tell King Claudius of Hamlet's strange behavior: "Come, go we to the King. This must be known.." (pg. 81 l. 130-131) His daughter Ophelia, however, fails to recognize her father's reputation obsessed nature and chooses to follow his every command.

http://ionetheurbandaily.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/rowan-olivia-scandal.gif

The relationship between Polonius and Ophelia reminded me of Olivia Pope and her father Rowan Pope on Scandal. Both fathers, Polonius and Rowan attempt to keep their daughters out of a relationship with a man they do not approve of. However, in Rowan's case his daughter is in a relationship with the President of the United States. Both fathers are also very powerful: Polonius with his job as an advisor to King Claudius and Rowan as the now former head of B613 a covert government agency. Another parallel is "the lack of true love" or affection in both relationships. Rowan just like Polonius fails to show his daughter any genuine signs of affection and uses typical father-daughter bonding moments, like going to Sunday dinner as a place to warn her about her affair and the corruption of the government. Neither men ever tell their daughters that they love them and fail to show their daughters the love that they truly desire. For Ophelia, it causes her to go out of her way to try to please her father and win his love, while Olivia puts up a wall between herself and her father. One interesting parallel between Ophelia and Olivia are their names, though it may be a bit of a stretch; their names begin with the same letter and have a very similar flow! I wonder if the creator of Scandal, thought about Ophelia as she created Olivia Pope. What do you think about the connection between Scandal and Hamlet? Have you noticed any more connections between Hamlet and some modern television shows or movies?

Perception Verses Reality

As we currently read Hamlet by Shakespeare, the theme of perception came to mind. In Act one, Scene two, Hamlet and his mother are speaking to each other about his emotional state. She says, "If it be, why seems it so particular with thee?" (I.ii.25). Hamlet's response to her is, "'Seems,' madam? Nay, it is. I know not 'seems'" (I.ii.25). Hamlet's mother downplays his appearance of grief and pain, which caused Hamlet to go on a little rant about how seems isn't enough, but he truly feels like he's hurting. This is where my idea of perception came to mind. The Queen clearly does not understand Hamlet's emotions fully which is why she uses the word "seems".
An artist's work that I'm currently looking at is Kenyatta A C Hinkle. I don't know much about her background but I do know that she is very educated in African/African-American culture, which brings me to my main topic.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenyatta-ac-hinkle/kenyatta-ac-hinkle-on-the_1_b_3462131.html

Hinkle's artwork is based off of the perception of African women during the colonization of Africa by the French. These women were most often looked at as sexual objects and not as humans. They were used for hard labor and other means of cruelty. The photo above was originally a postcard of the woman without any ink on top of it. Hinkle took the original image and drew on top of it to symbolize the effects of colonization. She is saying that colonization is a disease that spreads like a virus. My connection to Hamlet is that these women were perceived as sexual objects because of their lack of clothing, but in reality they were without clothes because that is their culture. These women were not mean to be sexually appealing to these colonist, but they were. The colonist perception of African women was that they were exotic creatures, hence the ink coming out of the breast of the women. So I leave you with this question, how does perception effect you? 

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.