Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie was a good read, I could relate to some of the character's in the story as well as some of the events described in the story. I think it is eerie how his sister's spirit haunts Tom after he leaves his Mother and Sister behind in the apartment. It makes you wonder if his Father feels any remorse from abandoning his family. I doubt Tom will find the relief he seeks out to find, and only sense of adventure he will experience will be from writing about how he didn't do right by his Mother and find his Sister a husband. Without Tom's help Laura is sure to remain unmarried and lonesome for the rest of her life. In a way Tom follows after his Father's foot steps, which is in my opinion exactly what he should of inspired not to do. How could he have been so selfish? "Overcome selfishness! Self, self, self, is all that you ever think of!" Tom could of been a success had he over come this characteristic which defined him to his Mother. Their Family was having so much trouble getting through the troubled times they were experiencing, with his departure as well as his Father's there would be no one to provide for the family. Laura was terribly shy and his mother was reaching an elderly age where work would not be readily available and offered to her, especially at a time were the economy was suffering. With that said this play is a tragedy, and in that sense it greatly succeeds. An attempt to find Laura a male suitor was a complete failure, and can be summarized best with the dialogue of Amanda when she says, "That's right, now that you've had us make such fools of ourselves. The effort, the preparations, all the expense!...All for what? To entertain some other girl's fiance! Go to the movies, go! Don't think about us, a mother deserted, an unmarried sister who's crippled and has no job! Don't let anything interfere with your selfish pleasure! Just go, go, go--to the movies!" (95). I think the use of "the movies" was used to be comedic and I found there to be some comedy throughout the play. The movies are Tom's escape from his life at home which can sometimes be seen as a prison or as Tom puts it a nailed coffin. Tom finally got tired of looking at people live their lives on the movie screen, and decided he had to do some living of his own. Tom's adventure was his escape from his coffin however, like Houdini. Tom does not live to enjoy the triumphs of his escape however, wallows in the light of his remorse, (like the glass unicorn) Tom is crippled.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Rough-Rough Draft
Kevin Gonzalez
Instructor Stacey Knapp
English 1B
May 4, 2011
Rough-Rough Draft
I am interested in taking the formalist critical perspective in my research paper. I plan on writing about the symbols that are used in the novel and how they affect the meaning of what is implied. What the letter A stands for, and how the meaning of this symbol change throughout the novel. I want to have particular focus on the concluding passage of the novel. I plan on researching how the structure of the novel adds to the tension and ambiguity of the text. I also plan on looking for paradox, and irony. Overall I plan on focusing on close reading of the text, the structure of the text, and the context in which it was written. This first rough draft is going to serve as a compilation of my ideas and interests towards the novel, and will hopefully be a good base and give birth to my further research and focus.
Roger Chillingworth is a pseudonym made up by Roger Prynne, husband to Hester Prynne, so that he may save his good name from being tarnished by the act that Hester and her lover Dimmesdale were involved in. Chillingworth is the character that suffers the most in the novel. Although Hester wears the consequences of her infidelity on her chest, and the reverend possesses his anguish internally, Roger is the character that is tormented the most by the occurrences. This tormented soul’s anguish remains ambiguous in the novel.
Chillingworth after entering the jailhouse, beseeches to Hester by offering medicine for her baby by saying, “Here, woman! The child is yours,--she is none of mine, neither will she recognize my voice or aspect as a father’s” (51). This sentence is a part of the first cluster of words that Roger says to Hester after their two years time spent apart. This sentence shows that Chillingworth is showing remorse maybe that the child isn’t his, and wouldn’t therefore not recognize him as a father and show affection or trust towards him.
Ambiguity is something Hawthorne uses a lot to bring interest to the text, and also meaning. This ambiguity brings about further questions for the questions you may already have, thus answering a question with a question and creating a paradox. His ambiguity also gives many possible solutions to the questions a reader may ask, which may bring about frustration and may also bring about possession of the reader’s attention or curiosity of the truth. Some of these chases of knowledge end up at a dead end, perhaps purposefully created by the author as a form of ultimate ambiguity.
The symbol of the letter A in the novel has many meanings that can be interpreted in different ways. With the line at the end of the novel “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES” (166) offering the most room for interpretation. This line translates to “On a black background, the letter A in red” (166), and is engraved on a tombstone which is mysteriously shared between buried corpses. “It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both (166).
The answer as to whose body is buried next to Hester’s is deliberately ambiguous. We are not informed if it’s the Reverend Dimmesdale’s, Hester’s sinful lover, or if it is Hester’s husband’s body. It could be that the body is Dimmesdale’s body because the narrator notes that the space between them serves the purpose of illustrating that “the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle.” Hester was married to Roger Prynne and therefore had no right to mingle with Reverend Dimmesdale, like she did, who was certainly not her husband! The space between Dimmesdale and Hester’s body could symbolize the laws of the land and give the quote a meaning that the letter A symbolizes law which prevented the love birds from being able to fly away together, leaving behind American soil. Their bodies are buried in America and remain in America because it is the American law that was established that forbid adultery.
The other possibility as to whose body is buried next to Hester’s could be that none other than her husband’s Roger Prynne. Bethany Reid notes that, “wouldn’t Puritan Boston more likely bury Hester beside the man who—in endowing her daughter—has named himself ‘husband,’ and named himself ‘Roger Prynne’?” (575). She also notes that, “Although generations of readers have assumed that she shares the A with Dimmesdale, should we assume that Puritan Boston would lay to rest even their able, angelic adulteress beside their late, beloved pastor?” (575). No doubt Puritan Boston would have had a problem laying the two sinners bodies together. The townspeople refused to believe that their beloved pastor committed the act, even after hearing his confession! Thus they showed how much influence their religious leaders had on them, and how they were so eager to blindly follow their religion to the point of condemning someone who could not have physically been able to pull off such an act as giving birth without an earthly father. They would surely be more likely to give credit to the Black Man as being the father of Pearl before their beloved Dimmesdale.
Besides this point, it would be more natural for a husband and wife to be buried next to each other. The Prynnes must have shared the tombstone right? This way, the space between them which symbolized the statement that “the two sleepers had no right to mingle” could be stating that Hester and Roger had no right to have been in a relationship together; that their marriage shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. Hester was definitely unhappily married, and Roger didn’t pull through on his promise to be loving to his wife. Thus they were not a good couple and some force must have propelled the two souls to marry if not for love. Hester may have been promised happiness from Roger before marrying, and we all know that an intellectual man with a “considerable amount of property” could have been appealing to young Hester who could have needed or yearned for stability in her life. Hester could have also been an appealing life partner for Roger Prynne, him being regretful of the time he spent as a book worm that never experienced the joy of being with a woman. Both were wrong in going into the marriage because their reasons were not for love. Thus the space between them could be seen as the lack of love one another shared.
A third possibility, greatly contributed by my imagination, is that all three bodies were buried in the burial-ground. The space between them actually being a third body whose existence was ambiguously left out. Could Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Prynne have been buried next to one another to signify how, “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES?” All three had their own part in the party. The answer might be who knows… all I know is that I yearn for the truth to be revealed, which might serve as applause for Nathaniel and his use of ambiguity in his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter.
Instructor Stacey Knapp
English 1B
May 4, 2011
Rough-Rough Draft
I am interested in taking the formalist critical perspective in my research paper. I plan on writing about the symbols that are used in the novel and how they affect the meaning of what is implied. What the letter A stands for, and how the meaning of this symbol change throughout the novel. I want to have particular focus on the concluding passage of the novel. I plan on researching how the structure of the novel adds to the tension and ambiguity of the text. I also plan on looking for paradox, and irony. Overall I plan on focusing on close reading of the text, the structure of the text, and the context in which it was written. This first rough draft is going to serve as a compilation of my ideas and interests towards the novel, and will hopefully be a good base and give birth to my further research and focus.
Roger Chillingworth is a pseudonym made up by Roger Prynne, husband to Hester Prynne, so that he may save his good name from being tarnished by the act that Hester and her lover Dimmesdale were involved in. Chillingworth is the character that suffers the most in the novel. Although Hester wears the consequences of her infidelity on her chest, and the reverend possesses his anguish internally, Roger is the character that is tormented the most by the occurrences. This tormented soul’s anguish remains ambiguous in the novel.
Chillingworth after entering the jailhouse, beseeches to Hester by offering medicine for her baby by saying, “Here, woman! The child is yours,--she is none of mine, neither will she recognize my voice or aspect as a father’s” (51). This sentence is a part of the first cluster of words that Roger says to Hester after their two years time spent apart. This sentence shows that Chillingworth is showing remorse maybe that the child isn’t his, and wouldn’t therefore not recognize him as a father and show affection or trust towards him.
Ambiguity is something Hawthorne uses a lot to bring interest to the text, and also meaning. This ambiguity brings about further questions for the questions you may already have, thus answering a question with a question and creating a paradox. His ambiguity also gives many possible solutions to the questions a reader may ask, which may bring about frustration and may also bring about possession of the reader’s attention or curiosity of the truth. Some of these chases of knowledge end up at a dead end, perhaps purposefully created by the author as a form of ultimate ambiguity.
The symbol of the letter A in the novel has many meanings that can be interpreted in different ways. With the line at the end of the novel “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES” (166) offering the most room for interpretation. This line translates to “On a black background, the letter A in red” (166), and is engraved on a tombstone which is mysteriously shared between buried corpses. “It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both (166).
The answer as to whose body is buried next to Hester’s is deliberately ambiguous. We are not informed if it’s the Reverend Dimmesdale’s, Hester’s sinful lover, or if it is Hester’s husband’s body. It could be that the body is Dimmesdale’s body because the narrator notes that the space between them serves the purpose of illustrating that “the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle.” Hester was married to Roger Prynne and therefore had no right to mingle with Reverend Dimmesdale, like she did, who was certainly not her husband! The space between Dimmesdale and Hester’s body could symbolize the laws of the land and give the quote a meaning that the letter A symbolizes law which prevented the love birds from being able to fly away together, leaving behind American soil. Their bodies are buried in America and remain in America because it is the American law that was established that forbid adultery.
The other possibility as to whose body is buried next to Hester’s could be that none other than her husband’s Roger Prynne. Bethany Reid notes that, “wouldn’t Puritan Boston more likely bury Hester beside the man who—in endowing her daughter—has named himself ‘husband,’ and named himself ‘Roger Prynne’?” (575). She also notes that, “Although generations of readers have assumed that she shares the A with Dimmesdale, should we assume that Puritan Boston would lay to rest even their able, angelic adulteress beside their late, beloved pastor?” (575). No doubt Puritan Boston would have had a problem laying the two sinners bodies together. The townspeople refused to believe that their beloved pastor committed the act, even after hearing his confession! Thus they showed how much influence their religious leaders had on them, and how they were so eager to blindly follow their religion to the point of condemning someone who could not have physically been able to pull off such an act as giving birth without an earthly father. They would surely be more likely to give credit to the Black Man as being the father of Pearl before their beloved Dimmesdale.
Besides this point, it would be more natural for a husband and wife to be buried next to each other. The Prynnes must have shared the tombstone right? This way, the space between them which symbolized the statement that “the two sleepers had no right to mingle” could be stating that Hester and Roger had no right to have been in a relationship together; that their marriage shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. Hester was definitely unhappily married, and Roger didn’t pull through on his promise to be loving to his wife. Thus they were not a good couple and some force must have propelled the two souls to marry if not for love. Hester may have been promised happiness from Roger before marrying, and we all know that an intellectual man with a “considerable amount of property” could have been appealing to young Hester who could have needed or yearned for stability in her life. Hester could have also been an appealing life partner for Roger Prynne, him being regretful of the time he spent as a book worm that never experienced the joy of being with a woman. Both were wrong in going into the marriage because their reasons were not for love. Thus the space between them could be seen as the lack of love one another shared.
A third possibility, greatly contributed by my imagination, is that all three bodies were buried in the burial-ground. The space between them actually being a third body whose existence was ambiguously left out. Could Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Prynne have been buried next to one another to signify how, “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES?” All three had their own part in the party. The answer might be who knows… all I know is that I yearn for the truth to be revealed, which might serve as applause for Nathaniel and his use of ambiguity in his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Annotated Bibliography
Reid, Bethany. "Narrative of the Captivity and Redemption of Roger Prynne: Rereading
The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings: Authoritative
Texts, Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2005. 558-576.
Print.
-This essay has to do with Roger Prynne and his decision to remain silent or reticent about his uncordial marriage with Hester Prynne, and how he remains ambivalent towards Pearl and his wife. Bethany brings up Nathaniel's relationship with his father or lack thereof, and provides an explanation as to why the novel is ambiguous. There is interesting information as to why the ending scene in the Novel is ambiguous. It has to do with Chilingsworth struggle compared to the other characters in the book, and how Nathaniel's beliefs are intertwined.
"Via this refusal to name, Hawthorne inscribes not a father so much, or fathers, as his own inconquerable ambvialence toward them" (576).
"Although generations of readers have assumed that she shares the A with Dimmesdale, should we assume that Puritan Boston would lay to rest even their able, angelic adulteress beside their late, beloved pastor?" (575)
"But wouldn't Puritan Boston more likely burry Hester beside the man who--is endowing her daughter--has named himself 'husband,' and named himself 'Roger Prynne'? The A would then symbolize the importance of the letter of the law" (575).
"Chillingworth fails to understand the nature of his own tragedy" (570).
"Chillingworth, too, is loyal: he will remain by Hester's side until death parts them" (569).
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, and Leland S. Person. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings:
Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism. First ed. New York: W.W.
Norton &, 2005. Print. A Norton Critical Edition.
Bercovitch, Sacvan. "The A-Politics of Ambiguity in the Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings:Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism. First ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2005. 576-97. Print. A Norton Critical Edition.
The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings: Authoritative
Texts, Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2005. 558-576.
Print.
-This essay has to do with Roger Prynne and his decision to remain silent or reticent about his uncordial marriage with Hester Prynne, and how he remains ambivalent towards Pearl and his wife. Bethany brings up Nathaniel's relationship with his father or lack thereof, and provides an explanation as to why the novel is ambiguous. There is interesting information as to why the ending scene in the Novel is ambiguous. It has to do with Chilingsworth struggle compared to the other characters in the book, and how Nathaniel's beliefs are intertwined.
"Via this refusal to name, Hawthorne inscribes not a father so much, or fathers, as his own inconquerable ambvialence toward them" (576).
"Although generations of readers have assumed that she shares the A with Dimmesdale, should we assume that Puritan Boston would lay to rest even their able, angelic adulteress beside their late, beloved pastor?" (575)
"But wouldn't Puritan Boston more likely burry Hester beside the man who--is endowing her daughter--has named himself 'husband,' and named himself 'Roger Prynne'? The A would then symbolize the importance of the letter of the law" (575).
"Chillingworth fails to understand the nature of his own tragedy" (570).
"Chillingworth, too, is loyal: he will remain by Hester's side until death parts them" (569).
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, and Leland S. Person. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings:
Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism. First ed. New York: W.W.
Norton &, 2005. Print. A Norton Critical Edition.
Bercovitch, Sacvan. "The A-Politics of Ambiguity in the Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings:Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism. First ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2005. 576-97. Print. A Norton Critical Edition.
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