ENGL 2200: Final Blog

Today, for my final World Literature I blog, I would like to discuss my favorite and least favorite pieces of literature that we have gone over in this course. How about I begin with my least favorite so we can end on a positive note? My least favorite piece we have read through out this course is the Tale of Genji. This was my least favorite because it was not an extremely easy to follow/straight forward text. On top of that Genji was not the type of man I believe people should read about with an expectation of aristocratic nature and high opinions of him. Genji had multiple lovers, in general the text was just not agreeable with me. In contrast, my favorite piece of literature we have discussed is The Inferno. I have a notion to say my favorite is Antigone, because I really like several topics that the play discusses and the overall plot is very interesting to me, it kept my attention. However, for blog and world lit purposes I have decided to say The Inferno my favorite because I have previously read Antigone for a AP Literature high school course. I must say I do not necessarily prefer Antigone over The Inferno, honestly they are both excellent. One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed reading The Inferno was because as a Christian I was interested to see what one man's imagination of hell was like, how he decided to punish each sin was interesting. The most fitting circle of hell, I believe, was Circle 7; because of the punishment for suicide being to spend eternity as a tree with your body hung in your branches. I also really found it interesting that Satan was being held captive in the cold, it was a view I had not previously thought of.

There we have it, my final blog for World Literature I.

Thanks for reading!

ENGL 2200: King Lear

To begin my blog today I am going to look at the very last portion of act 5 first. In class we discussed the possibility of Cordelia being the fool and how it was highly improbable that that was the case. I still agree that this is probably not what Shakespeare intended, for Cordelia and the Fool to be one and the same, however, I did see, what I considered to be evidence of the proposition. After Cordelia has been hung he mentions that his Fool has died but in this line he is referring to his daughter, not his fool. Also I knew the play was a tragedy and the characters would die but I didn't expect Edgar and Kent to live just because of their important roles in the play. Although in this play what "comes around goes around" was a very accurate statement, all of the characters who died did things and confessed to doing things that were not necessarily in the best interest of others. Also when all was said and done at the end it was Albany who had the kingdom, even though his wife was about to get rid of him and in essence make Edmund the king. Along with that Goneril and Reagan fighting for Edmund in front of Albany was surprising, I did not think that she would fight for Edmund in front of her husband because he was her partner in control of the kingdom, but she also disclaimed this argument.

ENGL 2200: King Lear

There were several things that caught my eye while reading this portion of King Lear. The "fake" trail that King Lear put his daughters through. I'm still not exactly sure what happened, I've even read the No Fear Shakespeare. It seems to me that Lear was angry and his daughters because they were terrible and have no care for anything other than themselves so he wanted to put them to justice, in his imagination? He has quite an imagination when Regan runs out of the trial, I'm not sure why he thought that up. Also in the trail Edgar gets to be the judge, so does Kent but he doesn't take it nearly as seriously, I found this interesting because they get to pass judgment and rule whereas when they were not in discuise they could never do that, they were the ones being judged. Another thing I found interesting was when Edgar was almost saying "misery likes company." He says "When grief hath mates and bearing fellowship", I found that Edgan was not rejoycing in King Lear going mad but it made him feel better that he wasn't the only one in hard times; later in that speech you can see that Edgar wants the best for King Lear. One last thing really quick, I found a quote interesting: "As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods; The kill us for their sport." I just found that gloucester had done everything by the book, or so he thought for the most part, yet he couldn't do anything about having his eyes plucked out, the gods were just doing as they pleased, fate was set in stone.

ENGL 2200: King Lear

For this blog I want to discuss a few things that caught my eye, the first of which is when Regon and Cornwall decided to place Kent in the stocks. When they did this I'm not sure if it was really Kent that they were punishing, I believe it may have been a jab at the king. In Act 2 scene 2 Kent says "Call not your stocks for me. I serve the king, On whose employment I was sent to you. You shall do small respect, show too bold malice Against the grace and person of my master, Stocking his messenger." after which he adds that if he were the king's dog she wouldn't treat him so cruelly to which she responds that because he is the Kings servant she will. Seeing that she wouldn't be that mean to the king's dog but she would to his servant, a human being, makes me think that she is sending the king a message, like what Kent said, it would offend his master the king. I see this not a justice but as revenge for something.

Another thing I'd like to point out is how the act of justice is warped for the characters in the play, but it is only warped because of the spin of lies that everyone believes. When Gloucester wants justice to be served to Edgar because of his lie of a desire to kill him, and like wise for Edgar he believe his father is out to get him. In both instances justice/revenge in a sense is not accurate and the is subplot twisted further by it.

ENGL 2200: Sunjata

How is the work an epic? How does this work depart from other epics we've read?

The work Sunjata is an epic for several reasons, the first being that when he was a baby he was born before his brothers were, however, the other servants reached his father with the news of their birth first, due to this he was kind of cheated out of the thrown. He was helpful and just to the griots even though all they wanted to prove was that he was a failure. When the sorcerers encountered him on his way back from a hunting trip he was generous and gave them one of the elephants he killed also proving that by killing the elephant he was a mighty hunter, not only that but later in the epic we see that he killed a terrible beast. When the sorcerers told him he was in danger he wouldn't leave without his mother and sister, along with a couple other things but mostly his mother and sister, showing his virtue, a characteristic all epic heros must have. The sorcerers, who were originally supposed to harm Sunjata actually warned him about returning to the city shows that people liked him, like in all epics the hero is liked by the people. Sunjata had to leave the city that he was once enthroned to behind and travel somewhere that he would be safe. This meet the qualifications of a epic in that he is going on a journey. This epic differs from previous epics we have read because he was supposed to have the crown but something interfered like in the case of Rama, however Gilgamesh didn't have this problem. He was also sent away from his city because he wasn't welcome at home just as it was for Rama, again however Gilgamesh didn't face this he went on his own.

ENGL 2200: The Tale of Genji

For blog eight I would like to talk about Genji and what I think of him as a man. In the very beginning of the Tale of Genji my expectations were that he would be aristocratic, refined, and what chivalry means to us in today's culture, just because when you think of stories that is what you want to believe. Aristocratic was correct, but the others not so much. Refined, well, he sleeps with married women, yes in the society at the time this was fine but it is still unnerving to me. Along with chivalry its not the same as I had anticipated, none the less he is supposed to be an elevated individual of his time. He kindof does what is expected of him which is going and sleeping around with married women and partaking in this forbidden romance that everyone seems awestruck by. Genji loved his wife and only her, but as time progressed he became more of a player. I feel like Genji manipulated the system, he had multiple affairs, just jumping around from one woman to the next. I believe that he did experience love, but I think it may have been a warped view of it, because he didn't have the expectation of being with a woman forever, when he was tired of her and things didn't go perfectly their relationship didn't have to continue. Which makes it so there is no accountability on Genji's part and he can do what ever he wants. If the woman wanted to change anything about this they would more than likely be labeled as not having the ideal personality or haveing a giant flaw which would make it so she wouldn't have any suitors.

ENGL 2200: Margery Kempe

Today, I would like to discuss the relationship between Margery Kempe and her husband.

In the beginning of the book Margery believes she is a terrible person, she thinks that she is seeing visions and hearing the devil, which in class we through out the idea that she may have had postmortem depression. Because of her past she now wishes to devote herself physically and mentally to God. Due to this she denies her husband several things, the most notable being that she doesn't want to have sex with him, but she still obeys him in which I take it that if he tells her that they are having sex then she will but she won't be happy about it. The next is that Margery Kempe's husband wants her to commune with him on Fridays. Instead she fasts and communes with God, which is understandable, however she also needs to make time for her husband. It seems to me almost that they are in a marriage, and they play the roles of husband and wife, to the minuscule extent that they can get away with. Maybe they are together strictly because divorce and separation are frowned upon at this time, whatever the reason, it seems that their marriage is not one that they are happy in, if one is more happy than the other I would say that it is Margery, because she gets almost everything she wants even if she has to wait a bit. Where as her husband seems to be giving into Margery and trying to get something for himself out of the deal.