Much Ado

Do you think Shakespeare believed in the stereotypes he presented or do you feel he was attempting to teach his audience a lesson about misjudging others or about forcing people to conform to tradition?



Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing does deal with many stereotypes. For instance, Hero and Claudio are the young couple who are so innocent that they fall madly in love at the moment they see each other. I wish I could say that that happens in real life, but even a hopeless romantic like myself knows that it's a stereotype of people my age.

Dogberry is also a stereotypical character in the sense that he sounds uneducated and ignorant for a person of his class. Although Dogberry is the example that leads me to believe that Shakespeare didn't believe in these stereotypes himself. Dogberry and the watchmen, uneducated and low-class characters, are key roles in the story. The watchmen are the ones who overhear Borrachio's plan and apprehend him. Additionally, if Leonato had listened to Dogberry when he said that he had taken two into custody in a matter that might interest Leonato, he is ignored, which brings upon Hero's public slander.

I think by showing how even the most simple of people can help with important things, Shakespeare disproves the stereotypes made by his own play.

Lies lies lies!

Is lying ever ethically or morally justified?

I think so. It's such a broad topic that it's hard to say. If you're friend asks you if she looks alright, but she looks completely awful, wouldn't you tell a bit of a white lie to be less blunt? And what if you're trying to protect someone? If you're friend who your parents hate broke your mom's favorite vase, and you knew they wouldn't care if you had done it, would you lie for your friend? But then there are times when the lies can be harmful. In a criminal trial, it's completely wrong to lie about who killed whom, who shot someone, anything that could put an innocent person in jail and a convict back on the streets.

I lie. I'll admit that, but I don't lie about harmful things and I don't lie about anything that could harm my trust with other people. I may tell a friend she looks wonderful when it's maybe not her best day. I try to help my friends with fights by embellishing the details of their regret just slightly enough to make both sides realize it's completely dumb. I don't ever want my friends to have hurt feelings or low self esteem, so I tell the occasional white lie.

Benedick and Beatrice's relationship was fueled by lies to get them to admit their affection for each other, but there are many lies that could have hurt them, much like the lies about Hero that are fueled by Don John. I approve of the former, and must condemn the latter because it is not going to get you anywhere to bring down others. I think it is ethical to lie sometimes, but it all really depends on the situation.

Have a good break everyone! :)

Poetry Analysis

The Lion and the Lamb by Elinor Wylie

1.I saw a Tiger's golden flank,
2.I saw what food he ate,
3.By a desert spring he drank;
4.The Tiger's name was Hate.

5.Then I saw a placid Lamb
6.Lying fast asleep;
7.Like a river from its dam
8.Flashed the Tiger's leap.

9.I saw a lion tawny-red,
10.Terrible and brave;
11.The Tiger's leap overhead
12.Broke like a wave.

13.In sand below or sun above
14.He faded like a flame.
15.The Lamb said, "I am Love;
16.Lion, tell your name."

17.The Lion's voice thundering
18.Shook his vaulted breast,
19."I am Love. By this spring,
20.Brother, let us rest."

The poem "The Lion and the Lamb" by Elinor Wylie exemplifies the fact that love always triumphs over hatred. I personally like this poem because (this is going to sound dumb) I like lions and tigers (and bears. Oh my!) and I think that the comparison of them to love and hate is interesting. You can tell right away that this poem is going to be a happier one because of the diction used by Ms. Wylie. The tiger is said to have a "golden flank" (1) which instantly gives the poem a regal, sort of boisterous air (sort of like how one feels when walking into an ostentatious house).

After such an air is put on it is shown that the Lion, representing love (19), easily triumphs over the tiger, hatred. Wylie shows readers this through the lines,
I saw a lion tawny-red,
Terrible and brave;
The Tiger's leap overhead
Broke like a wave (9-12).
I think that the poem is beautifully written (it is the same author as Sea Lullaby) and it's message is very much that of a Jane Austen novel or a fairy tail. Wylie's diction and metaphors comparing Love and Hatred to Lions and Tigers helps prove her point that love will always triumph over haterd.

Quarter 1 Review

I really think that this quarter went well. I need to work on comming up with more original and less cliche topics. I like our class alot, and I really like all the writing time we get! I think I've already improved in my writing! I need to work harder on making sure that my writing is long enough, I'm not very good at writing long essays/papers/stories. Over all I like EE10 and I'm happy to take it!

The Once and Future King: Post 5, The Candle in the Wind

The main conflict in this last part of the book is Mordred's undying will to upend his father's kingdom and do unto Arthur what was done unto him. First, Agravaine and Mordred try to get Lancelot and Guenever killed by exposing their relationship. As Gareth explains it, "They hate you. Or Agravaine does. He is Jealous. Mordred hates Arthur most"(White 593). Agravaine and Mordred lure Lancelot and Guenever into a trap and then try to kill them both, but Agravaine ends up getting killed instead. Not too long after, Guenever is set to be burned to death, which overjoys Mordred. Arthur exclaims as Mordred goes to give the order to start Guenever's execution, "He might not have done it with a little more decency. He might have tried to show that he was not so pleased" (611). After Lancelot saves Guenever, mordred is furious that yet again his plans have been foiled. He decides that because of Arthur's incestuous relationship with Morgause, his only way to get back at Arthur is to marry Guenever. Mordred very bluntly puts this as, "Yes. My father committed incest with my mother. Don't you think it would be a pattern, Jenny, if I were to answer it by marrying my father's wife?" (625). THe book ends only twenty pages later and tells us that Arthur grew old and was a wise, fair king, Mordred was slain, and Lancelot and Guenever lived happily together until the ends of their lives.

The themes of loving more than one person remind me of ELIC, but the idea that there are grey areas between good and evil make me think of Terry Malloy from On the Waterfront.

I overall enjoyed the book and found it challenging, but a rewarding read.

The Once and Future King: Post 4, The Ill-Made Knight

Elaine (not the sister of Morgause, but a different Elaine) Is a girl who Lancelot rescues on a quest. She had been locked in a tower full of boiling water by Morgan Le Fay, and she fell in love with Lancelot when he rescued her. She tricked him into thinking she was Guenever and ended up having Lancelot's child. Elaine is certainly the damsel-in-distress type and she is said to be only eighteen, yet very beautiful.

Mordred is the illegitimate child of Arthur and Morgause, who joined Arthur's court. Mordred was, "a thin wisp of a fellow, so fair haired that he was almost an albino: and his bright eyes were so blue, so purely azure in their fadad depths, that you could not see into them" (White 453). Mordred has no problem killing his mother or her lover and is a dastardly character who has very low morals.

Lancelot, after going on many journeys to escape the situation with Arthur and Guenever, returns to the castle in england and ends up continuing his affair with Guenever. But conflict arises when Lancelot is tricked into thinking that a woman, Elaine is Guenever and having an affair with her. Lancelot chooses not to tell Guenever about his affair with Elaine, only about how he had saved her on one of his quests. When Guenever finds out that Elaine had a child and named him Galahad (Lancelot's first name) She breaks off all relations with him and, "She said to herself that Lancelot had betrayed her, that she was a victim of Elaine's cunning, that her lover was sure to betray her again. She tormented herself with a thousand words of the same sort" (406).

The situation deepens when Elaine arrives at Camelot with Galahad and once again tricks Lancelot into thinking that she is Guenever under the cover of night. Guenever finds out and her wrath is impenetrable, she yells at Lancelot, "Get out of my castle. Never show your face in it again. Your evil, ugly, beastlike face" (414). Lancelot goes mad and runs from the castle after jumping out a first-story window. Lancelot, after regaining his senses, calls himself the Chevalier Mal Fet (the Ill-Made Knight), because of his misfortunes with Elaine. Lancelot leaves elaine and returns to the court, picking up where he had left off with both Arthur and Guenever

The Once and Future King: Post 3, The Ill-Made Knight

Lancelot now comes into the story and so does Guenever. Lancelot is driven by his desire to become the best knight ever, and by Arthur's request he travels to england to become a knight of the round table. Lancelot does not tell his parents that he is leaving, only his uncle.

Guenever is a very self-independent girl, but I find her character hard to explain. T. H. White does describe her well though. He says, "There is a story that her hair was yellow, but it was not. It was so black that it was startling, and her blue eyes, deep and clear, had a sort of fearlessness which was startling, too" (White 345).

The other new character is Nimue. Merlyn loves Nimue and teaches her magic, even though he knows she's going to steal his secrets and seal him in a cave for a few centuries.

Arthur's biggest problem is that his best friend (and best knight), Lancelot, falls in love with his wife, Guenever. Arthur had known about this even before he knew Lancelot and Guenever. White reminds us of this by writing, "Arthur had been warned about this by Merlyn- who was now safely locked up in his cave by the fickle Nimue- and had been fearing it subconsciously. But he always hated knowing the future and had managed to dismiss it from his mind" (349). Arthur's immediate instinct is to separate the two. Lancelot and Arthur soon agree that they won't let Guenever come between them, but as T.H. White says only, "the first few years were safely past" (352). Although, T.H. White goes on to say "The first thing Lancelot knew after she had kissed the King, was that she was able to come between them after all" (354).

The Once and Future King: Post Two, The Queen of Air and Darkness

Starting in the second part of the book, Arthur is our most main character. As stated in my previous post Arthur is a very trusting and kind individual. After pulling the sword from the stone, Arthur goes right into becoming king, but he barely changes at all. T.H. White helps show that Arthur's transformation into king is not a self-transformation by saying, "He had fair hair and a stupid face, or at any rate there was a lack of cunning in it. It was an open face, with kind eyes and a reliable, or faithful expression" (White 224). Arthur's experiences with being an animal really drive him to be a true, kind ruler and to not be a tyrant.

Although a secondary character, Morgause, Aurthur's half-sister, has been playing a big role in the conflicts Arthur faces. Morgause is very bitter about the fact that Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, killed her father and raped her mother. Morgause is one of the Gaels along with her sisters, Morgan Le Fay and Elaine. It is because of the added conflict between the Gaels and the Normans that she rallies the country and helps start one of the Gaelic wars. Morgause's sons also play a larger role in the book. Gawaine, Agrivane, Gaharis and Gareth are Morgause's sons with Lot, her husband, and serve to tell the stories of Igraine(their grandmother) and Uther.

Arthur's biggest conflict right now is the Gaelic war that is backed by Morgause. Arthur has little knowledge of why the war exists, but Merlyn explains to him that there are multiple reasons (some being cultural tensions and others being Morgause's personal dislike for Uther and now Arthur. Merlyn explains it as, "I said the war happens for dozens of reasons, not for one. Another of the reasons for this particular war is because Queen Morgause wears the trousers" (234).

I find Arthur's view of war and life is similar to Oskar's from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. In the first part of the book, during Arthur's adventures as a goose, Lyo-Lyok tells him that there are only a few species of animals that wage wars, humans being one of them. Although originally Arthur thinks war is noble, his first experiences with war leave him wondering why wars exist and if there are better ways to solve problems.

My Photograph

(If you click it it gets bigger and clearer...)

Outside Reading

The Once and Future King, Part 1: The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

The characters in my book, thus far, are the Wart, Kay, Merlyn.
The Wart is actually (soon to be king) Arthur, although he is called such because, "The Wart was called the Wart because it more or less rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name. Kay had given him the nickname" (White 3). The Wart is an adventuresome boy who blindly admires Kay. He is being raised by Sir Ector, Kay's father and is much like a brother to Kay. (You can easily tell this by their squabbles.) The Wart is constantly asking Merlyn to turn him into different animals and has been turned into a pike, a merlin, an ant, an owl, a goose, and a badger. The Wart looks up to Kay and seems to be envious of him, partially because he is older and will be knighted before him.

Kay is the son of Sir Ector. He is incredibly short tempered and is envious of Wart because Merlyn will not turn him (Kay) into animals. Kay knows that he will be knighted before the Wart, and uses this to provoke the Wart and make Kay, himself, feel superior. Kay acts very brotherly towards Wart.

Merlyn is the tutor to both Kay and Wart. Merlyn teaches Kay normal schooling while Wart gets to learn about magic and animals and such. Merlyn seems to be teaching Wart about different governments and ways of treating situations by turning him into animals and I'm pretty sure this plays into how Wart acts and how Wart will rule when he becomes King.

This first part of the book has very little conflict in it and is used to set up the characters of Wart and Merlyn for later on in the novel. Don't get me wrong, though, the novel is fascinating and at times hilarious. Thus far, there are also few/no similarities, but it is a long book, so it should have some similarities later on.