Earnest

The symbolism of moving from one place to another is significant in the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde because there are the "people", Bunberry and Ernest, who are fictional characters which the real characters, Algernon and Jack, use to leave the city. The whole point of the movement is that the two real characters are not socially acceptable because they value other things besides the "norm". Using the pseudonyms allows Jack and Algernon to escape the strict lifestyles they are living and just be themselves. However, during the one movement from place to place the play actually takes us through, which is to Cecily's house, the characters meet face to face as the other person's aliases, therefore causing a big mess. The assumed names and the transport is important to the play because before, Bunberry and Ernest were secrets that no one but them knew about; then suddenly everyone in the story figures out the names they thought were real were all false. There really was no Bunberry or Ernest ever. The journey from place to place ties into the meaning of the work as a whole because the only way Jack and Algernon can escape their oppressive lives is to become someone else. Their manners, their attitudes, and what they value do not correspond to what society at the time thinks is correct.

Poem analysis

280. The Beating page 333
In the poem The Beating by Ann Stanford, there is very powerful imagery. The details given about the different strikes against the narrator provide a grueling image. It is interesting because the unnamed assailant seems to beat up the narrator until the narrator dies. The images of the beating contrasts sharply with the image of the narrator inside his/her coffin. The poem goes from darkness and "no more lights" to a "white room [that] tortures my eyes". The details in the poem also point out that this beating was not a small thing; the narrator died because he/she was injured so severely.


The stanzas in this poem end their sentences on the next line with one word. For example, in the first stanza, the first line is "The first blow caught me sideways, my jaw/Shifted." Instead of ending the sentence with the rest of it, the poet drops the last word to the next line. This gives the poem more of an emphasis on what the narrator is saying and what happened. There is also a shift between stanzas four and five. The tense changes from past to present, giving the impression that the narrator is reflecting on what ended his/her life and his/her experience through it.


I quite liked this poem and I found it very interesting. The attention to detail of the violent act makes it seem realistic as if I am watching this scene play out in front of me. It is odd reading the cut off lines, but it gives the poem a feeling of defeat, as if the narrator couldn't stop his/her assailant. I especially like the way the shift appears. It goes from the victim being very bloody and dying, to being dead and inside the open casket at the viewing, to the closed casket in the ground. I like the transition of thought as well.


286. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night page 336
The poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas is a villanelle and, therefore, the refrains are some of the most important parts. The two refrains that are repeated are "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light". They are important because they bring in the aspect of people not wanting to die and their struggle against their impending death. "Do not go gentle into that good night" refers to the narrator telling the old men to not give in and to keep fighting for life. The night is presented as good because death is an escape and is somewhat peaceful, so the elders are searching for that. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" refers to the narrator forcibly speaking to the old men to not let death consume them and burn away all their life. The usage of the word 'rage' is key because it sends a clear message gives the refrain a more frantic and pleading tone.


Speaking of tone, it also plays a very important role in this poem. The aggressive diction provides an urgent and rushed tone. The speaker seems to want to keep the old men, and his/her father from dying. He/she is adamant that they survive. That brings in the question of urgency and how badly he/she wants the people to live. The mention of his/her father at the conclusion of the poem ties into the tone really well because the conclusion is the last chance the narrator has of convincing his/her father and the other old men to keep breathing.


Personally, my interpretation of this poem is that the narrator is speaking to all elderly people and telling them to fight on and continue to try and survive so that death does not take them. The narrator says that no matter if they thought what they did was small and insignificant, as in the line "Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright/Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay", it was not in vain and that they should stay alive. I really enjoyed this poem, and it was actually the first villanelle I ever read, as it is the most famous one.

Response One of The Handmaid's Tale

In the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood, a controversy the main character, Offred, recalls is the situations in which her mother is present. Offred remembers how her mother used to bring her to the burning of the pornography magazines. At the time, the mother thought nothing of it, except she didn't let Offred read the magazines. Offred's mother was an alcoholic, a very nasty one at that. When she would visit Luke and Offred in their home, her mother would make remarks about how awful her life was or how awful Offred and Luke's life was. She would say how the people in her society thought that having a baby sometime after thirty-five would cause defects with the baby and all sorts of problems. Offred's mother didn't head their "bothersome" warnings and claimed she could "run rings around you [them] any day. I could have triplets and walk out of here while you were still trying to get up off the bed" (Atwood 120). In essence, Offred's mother was a hard pill to swallow. She didn't take anything too seriously and was a very tough woman. It is ironic that Offred remembers her times with her mother when Offred is having difficulty dealing with the Gilead society and what she is used for. Her mother would have stood up and protested the use of woman for their bodies, as she had done about the pornography. Since Offred's mother was such a no-nonsense type of person, one would think that Offred would at least have some of her personality. Quite the opposite. Offred even said "No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well" (181). Offred is nothing like her mother and that's what makes her independent in a place where rights are squashed. Her mother is the hell-raiser, her mother is the tough one, her mother is the fighter. Not Offred. If Offred's mother were still alive, it would bother her quite a bit that Offred had not tried to escape Gilead.

My favorite line in the novel is "If your dog dies, get another" (187) probably because it sums up the whole book nicely. It is emotionless, just like the Gilead society is. They have stripped away any sort of feeling out of everything: prayers, intercourse, and even human communication. The simple line itself depicts the lives of the handmaids. If one of them does not produce a child, then she is shunned and shipped away to the Colonies. Then a new handmaid would take her place, acquire her name. If a handmaid commits suicide, the Commander would get another one. The short, blunt comment is almost scary. It's scary to think such a thing of a human being. Of course, the dog is a metaphor for the handmaid in this novel that killed herself before Offred was assigned to that Commander.

I actually really liked the novel. Even though it was frustrating with all of the feminist details, it was interesting because the ideas that Margret Atwood criticized are a part of our society today. She wasn't very far off in her mockery and I think that that's what made it interesting. It was different seeing our society projected in a cruel way and we were allowed a reason to disagree with many aspects of it. It made us like ours better and made us think about all of the wrong things we were, or currently are, doing.