Poetry Analysis

“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is a poem about the world of imagination. The speaker describes a lonely knight who tries to escape reality by creating his own world. Keats shows the knight to be “haggard and woe-begone” in a place where no birds sing and the harvest is done. At this point, the speaker in the poem is an outside observer commenting on the wretched state the knight is in. After line 13, however, the knight assumes the speaker position and describes an imaginary world in which he escapes the lonely and sad conditions described in lines 1-12.  

In order to fill this void in his life, the knight imagines a world where all his dreams and desires can be fulfilled. He meets a beautiful woman who initially takes away all of his former depression. He now assumes a sense of power and belonging. The knight appears to be in control of the scene and is able to assert himself the way he would like to in reality: he “made a garland for her head” and “set her on [his] pacing stead;” the woman returns his gestures with love and finds for him roots of relish sweet, wild honey, and manna dew. This situation seems too perfect to actually exist and perhaps suggests that the knight may have been rejected by the love of his life at some point and is now using his dream to compensate that misfortune. The speaker makes it obvious that the world the knight is currently in is imaginary by describing the girl as “a faery’s child” who speaks a strange tongue (yet the knight can still understand her).

The knight’s position of control soon changes. As the mystic woman “lulls [him] to sleep,” she takes away all of the power and security his little world gave him. The knight dreams about kings and warriors that warn him about La Belle Dame, who has him “in thrall.” The kings appear to be lifeless and “death-pale,” suggesting that they were ruined by the woman as well. The dream is a revelation that La Belle Dame, who represents imagination, does not improve the situation. The knight thought that he could escape his loneliness by creating a new world, but when his own dreams fail him, he realizes that he cannot stay in this state forever. Despite the continued loneliness and gloom of the cold hill side, the knight continues to stay there and accept reality the way it is. The last four lines of the poem repeat the description of the depressing surroundings, but this time, the speaker is the knight rather than an outside observer.

Keat’s poem is a literary ballad whose title is based on a long French poem “La Bell Dame Sans Mercy” (written in 1424 by Alain Chartier). Merci is a French word that means pity or mercy (as a feminine noun) and thanks (as a masculine noun). A literary ballad imitates a folk ballad, a poem that tells a story with a popular or common theme. This type of poetry is typically sung aloud, but this particular poem is meant to be read. There are several interpretations on the meanings of this poem. The first is the tragedy of unrequited love. The knight, who probably had been rejected once before, relives this rejection through his dream. The emotional pains are accompanied by physical illness, as he can only sit lifeless and depressed on the hillside. Another interpretation is the situation of impossible love. In this case, the knight cannot be with the woman because one is human and the other, a fairy. Similarly, the code of chivalry usually involves a knight yearning for a woman who is above him in social ranking and can thus never be with him.  The third speculation on the poem has to do with the author himself. In 1818, Keats began showing signs of tuberculosis, a disease which eventually took his life. He could be using the knight as a conduit for his feelings of loneliness and feverishness, and the beautiful woman would represent the life that was slowly leaving him.

The Century Quilt

The Century Quilt serves to connect the speaker’s life to her diverse background. First of all, the quilt brings her back to her youthful days. The speaker describes her dreams of “wrapping [herself] at play with [the blanket’s] folds and [play] chieftains and princesses.” This quilt connects her to her past and thus to her family. She reminisces about her first blanket, which serves as a doorway to her past experiences and emotions. She wants a blanket to “have good dreams for a hundred years.” The speaker makes a connection with Meema, who “dreams of her yellow sisters” and “about Mama.” She recalls her father coming home from his store and the family cranking up the pianola. The speaker expresses an appreciation of these experiences and a fondness of her family members.

The tone is gentle and reminiscent. She refers to the blanket as one she’d like to “die under.” Although this line may seem morbid, the composed flow of relaxed and peaceful segments of the poem indicates that the line represents a calm acceptance of fate, because as long as she has her quilt, she is surrounded with the warm memories of her family and her youth. The blanket serves as a window not only to the past but also into the future. The speaker describes it as inducing a dream of meeting his future son and relates this experience to the experience he has had with his parents: “his father’s burnt umber pride” and his “mother’s ochre gentleness.”

Waiting for the Barbarians Analysis

The Magistrate uses the girl to attempt to learn about his mind-state.—“All this erotic behavior of mine is indirect: I prowl about her, touching her face, caressing her body, without entering her or finding the urge to do so……But with this woman there is no interior, only surface across which I hunt back and forth seeking entry. Is this how her torturers felt hunting their secret, whatever they thought it was?”-pg 43. Both the Magistrate and Joll see her as a key to something and try to unlock it. They both use the girl for their own purposes without any regard to her as a person, although Joll’s actions can be seen as much worse. The Magistrate never tries to get to know her beyond the surface or try to understand her (which is why he cannot understand the pain Joll has put her through). It is only on the trip to take her home that he sees that there is much more to her than he thought and regrets not getting to know her as a person and learning her language.

*Recall Heart of Darkness—The power of Marlow’s story was altered by experiencing it second- or third-hand rather than seeing it for oneself.

                The Magistrate learns about the fallibility and false notions behind the concept of Empire. His experiences with the brutal torture and inhumane treatment allow him to realize that the barbarians are not the true enemy (they will forfeit their innocence and dignity in the face of the oppressor) but Col. Joll and the corrupt Empire regime (he even points and calls Joll the true enemy to his face). The Empire does not uphold the sanctity of their own law and use any tactic they please to get what they want. (“They will use the law as far as it serves them, then they will turn to other methods. That is the Bureau’s way. To people who do not operate under the statute, legal process is simply one instrument among many. “ (82)

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow gains an understanding of the duality of man—he uses Kurtz as a mirror into his own understanding of humanity and is thus able to save his humanity from the psychological degredation that has ruined Kurtz. The Magistrate, on the other hand, has a harder time understanding this (“There is something staring at me in the face, and still I do not see it”). He, having been prisoner and scapegoat to his empire, struggles to assign meaning to all of his pain and suffering. His recognition of the humanity of the barbarians represents the first step in overcoming the prison of identity assigned by the state.

South African Laws- 1960 to 1970

The implementation of apartheid, often called “separate development” since the 1960s, was made possible through the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), or white. A fourth category—Asian (Indian and Pakistani)—was later added.


Apartheid legislation authorized the "reservation" of many skilled jobs and managerial positions for whites; qualified blacks were legally excluded from most senior-level jobs, but black education standards were so inferior to those for whites that few blacks were qualified for well-paid jobs. Even in equivalent job categories, blacks received lower wages than whites. Although white workers were divided in their racial attitudes throughout the apartheid era, they often opposed benefits for black workers that could threaten their own economic standing.

The industrial development of South Africa relied on a great deal of low-wage labor to ensure profits. But during the 1960s and 1970s, many industries increased their capital stock by investing in high tech machinery--the result is lower labor cost and increasing productivity. Unemployment increased and poverty soared. Consequently, black workers' organizations became politicized, expressing their grievances publicly. Other organizations used militance and strikes on the government, which actually proved to be more effective in changing government policies. Parliament later enacted the Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act of 1979, recognizing black unions and including them under the labor law protection for the first time. Black workers were now able to bargain w their employers and even go on strike.



Source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=rOcmamq2fikC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182&dq=south+african+law+1960s+and+1970s&source=bl&ots=EnTJ9LRIaY&sig=ni61XtAvawrpRjLqkuxG_wYtfCY&hl=en&ei=NPV0TYD3BIK78gb3ofzhDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=south%20african%20law%201960s%20and%201970s&f=false

http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/65.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/apartheid

Spring Essay; Pride and Prejudice

-Spring argues that Austen breaks down the characters of Pride and Prejudice into three categories: psuedo-gentry (also known as bougeouis, but the scholar finds this word inappropriate due to its urban connotations), gentry, and aristocracy.
-The aristocracy represented the wealthiest of landowners; the gentry also own land, but not as wealthy; the pseudogentry do not possess the same monetary assests as the gentry, but desperately seek them or to appear to have them (manners, schooling, etc)
-Spring believes that although Austen belonged to the third and bottom group of the three, she had a distinct preference for the gentry; she portrays the gentry as modest and prudent, whereas the aristocrats come off as ostentatious and unnecessarily extravagant. On the other hand, the lowest class appears ridiculous with their attempts to emulate the rich. He describes them to have virtues of "aggressiveness, an eye for money and chance, and courtship for monetary aspects."

-I agree with this point: people like Lady Catherine represent the aristocracy, who are steadfast in their snobbishness and extravagance. On the other hand, people on the other end of the spectrum--namely Mrs. Bennet-- desperately seek to marry into a higher class.

-The final point he makes in his essay is that Austen's novel celebrates the rise of both the pseudo-gentry and the gentry. In a way, he is correct because the book demonstrates how marriages began to be more commonly accepted for love and happiness as opposed to solely based on material advantages, but this monetary perspective still persists in people like Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine. On this point, Spring would have been more convincing if he used textual support for his claims.

Blog 8

Shakespeare describes that love is often the cause of suffering. All of the main characters—Orsino, Viola, Olivia—are shown to be in pain because of their unrequited love. In the beginning, Orsino depicts love as an “appetite” he cannot satisfy, so he hopes to drown himself in it in order to move on. He calls his desires “fell and cruel hounds.” Olivia directly describes love as a “plague” from which she suffers terribly. Viola expresses her melancholy: “my state is desperate for my master’s love.” Love had placed each of these three characters in misery throughout most of the play. Shakespeare also explains that love is exclusive: whereas some people achieve romantic happiness, others (like Malvolio or Antonio) are ultimately denied their object of desire. Another aspect of love that Shakespeare explores is the uncertainty of gender and how it affects love. Olivia claims to be in love with Caesario, and even though she thinks that Viola is a boy, she is attracted to the sensitive and feminine aspects that make up Caesario’s personality. Also, Orsino had subtly remarked several times upon Caesario’s beauty even before he knew that Caesario was a woman. Perhaps sometimes one gender may prefer certain characteristics or qualities of that same gender even though he/she is attracted to the opposite gender. Shakespeare appears to make fun of the traditions of romance, like the concept of writing secret love letters (mocked by Maria’s forged letter that caused Malvolio to foolishly chase after Olivia). Shakespeare deliberately presents Sir Andrew, who is supposed to be an honorable and romantic knight, as a pure idiot, as Olivia falls in love with a woman instead.

                In my opinion, love should not cause one suffering if one does not let it. Each person has the power to accept the reality of things, however painful, and move on. Throughout the entire play, Orsino was miserable because he was fawning over Olivia, who was simply not interested in him. The second he decided to stop chasing after her and settle for Viola, he became perfectly content. There is one point that Shakespeare makes that I tend to disagree with. Both Olivia and Orsino seem to change their minds almost instantly and “fall in love” with someone else in a heartbeat. In reality, love takes time to develop—time to get to know a person, etc—and although Orsino’s change of mind is somewhat believable (since he has gotten to know Viola and was attracted to the kind of person she was before he even knew she was not a man), Olivia’s is completely unfathomable. Sebastian merely shows up, and Olivia’s love for Viola has channeled itself to him. Maybe both of these characters needed a “rebound,” someone to fill the void, so they each took the first possible option. If that is the case, both of those relationships would probably not end well, but Shakespeare ended the play so we will never know. J

Canterbury Tales (Post 1)

The Friar

The friar is a particularly interesting character who adds a bit of flavor to the motley bunch. On the one hand, he is a jovial, fun-seeking man who lives off of begging. On the other, he seems to use his religious post to his advantage, giving out easy penance to those who are able to donate money while ignoring beggars and lepers because they can offer him nothing. Overall, he was described as a very jolly and social man, popular with all the innkeepers and flirting as wantonly “as if he were a small puppy.” He seemed to enjoy a very lavish lifestyle, obtaining more money through his job than what his proper income should allow. During the Middle Ages, priests and friars were known for taking advantage of pious individuals by charging them in excess to “free their souls from perdition.” Penance was one of the the fund-raising schemes of the Catholic Church—the clerics preyed on pilgrims’ fears of hell to benefit financially.

The friar falls in line with the Prioress and the Monk, both of which are deceptive and indulge in flamboyant lifestyles. The Prioress’s manners try to emulate those of the royal court, as she attempts to redefine her own role and present herself as one of royalty. The Monk, on the other hand, abandons his monastic duties and lives like a lord. These three ironic characters serve as a foil to the Knight, the Squire, and the Yemen, who embody the values of loyalty and honor.