Monthly Archives: September 2015

Medea

Student blog posts

In the beginning of “Medea”, Medea is depicted as a weak woman who is mourning over Jason, her husband, leaving her and her children behind. Toward the middle of the passage, she grows into a strong character who is plotting revenge for what Jason did to her. I agree that Medea deserves revenge for what has occurred, but the fact that it involves the death of her kids seems like it crossed the line. Although Medea feels guilty for plotting to kill her kids when she says, “Once that’s done, the next thing I must do/ chokes me with sorrow. I will kill the children-/my children” (lines 811-813). This shows that Medea feels guilty for plotting to kill her kids, but her hatred toward Jason overpowers the guilt.

As the plan proceeds, Medea makes Jason an accomplice, without him knowing it. Since Jason is asking his wife to persuade Creon to let the kids stay, he is helping expedite Medea’s plan. As a result, this would make Jason feel even guiltier after the wife and kids die, since he was a part of it. This will leave Jason with a lot of regrets, knowing that he could’ve prevented all of this from happening. This trickery shows Medea’s deviousness, since she says “And ask your wife to ask her father: please” (line 968). Knowing that Creon wouldn’t let the kids stay, Medea told Jason to ask his wife in order to persuade Creon.

After the plan was executed and the wife, Creon, and the kids are all destroyed, I feel like Medea doesn’t feel guilty for killing her kids, which contradicts what she stated earlier in the passage. As Jason confronts her, Medea says, “The pain is good, as long as you’re not laughing.” (line 1411). This proves that as long as Jason was hurt, the death of her kids was justifiable. She also blames Jason for their death when she says “Your outrage, and your newfound bride, destroyed them.” (line 1415). Medea is trying to convince herself and Jason that she had no part in the death of her kids, in an attempt to make Jason feel guiltier about his losses.

Medea, lines 681-end

Student blog posts

During this part of the play Medea shows just how clever and cunning she is by the way she exacts her revenge on Jason. She begs Jason to broker peace and to stop the exile of her sons. Jason agrees and, even though it might seem as though all is well for all the characters in the story, unbeknownst to him he carries out Medea’s plan to kill the bride and king. Using her sons as pawns, Medea manages to poison both the bride and the king; effectively killing them and fulfilling part of her plan. By the end, though she struggled with the idea, she fulfills the last part of the plan and also kills her sons—with the excuse that they would suffer a worst fate due to her own actions. Her revenge complete, she admits to Jason—who catches a glimpse of the dead children before she flies off in a winged-chariot—that she is in pain because of what she has done but that, in a sense, making him suffer was worth it.

I think this half of the story is even more interesting than the first half because we don’t just see Medea planning her revenge but also exacting it. It’s also interesting because the themes of the play, such as revenge and betrayal, are slightly more explored and we are shown how they can only lead to tragedy. For one, by the end of the story we get the sense that Medea will never be happy because she pursued revenge. She had already betrayed her family back in her homeland and now, because of her scheming and plotting, she killed the only family she had left: her children. On another note, the consequences of betrayal also affected Jason; who in the end is left with neither his children, the bride or the possibility of becoming king. In a way, Medea and Jason encompass the themes of revenge and betrayal, respectively, and they were both at fault so the fact that the story ends as it does with neither of them completely happy feels slightly justified.

However, something that really intrigued me about this part of the play was the ending—the last lines of the chorus—which seems to allude that the Gods helped make the events transpire (Medea’s revenge and escape) or maybe even approved of them. In a way, this would be really twisted and weird because, by the end of story, Medea has committed far more horrible acts than Jason. So, had the Gods sided with Medea all along? Some type of divine retribution against Jason?

Medea

Student blog posts

In Euripides’ play, “Medea,” the main protagonist and tragic hero is the foreigner Medea. In the early sequences of the play we see Medea as a scorned woman who has no fight left in her, as she seeks not only for her own death but the death of her children. As the play progresses, Medea adapts and changes her character many times and overall we see the evolution of her character to an almost goddess level.

In the beginning scenes of the play, Medea’s identity as a weak woman is emphasized through her reluctant use of action to correct her misfortunes.While Medea’s husband has remarried and abandoned his family in exchange for a better life among royalty, Medea cowers in her home moaning of her loss.  The nurse that begins the play says, “She wont touch food; surrendering to pain, she melts away her days in tears” (Page 787 Lines 29-31). We not only learn that she is portrayed as a weak woman but we also learn that it is of no fault of her own. As the play moves on and more characters are thrown into the mix, we see the transformation of Medea’s character into a powerful woman. The various levels of power that we see Medea at is very important because it is a unique topic that Euripides challenges in his time. In Greek culture around this time, society had a view of woman that portrayed them as weak and unable to be equal to men. Yet in this case, Euripides tackles society view of woman and in return creates a woman in this play that not only is wronged by a man but rises to the occasion and creates justice for herself. Medea in this play serves as the character that challenges society views on woman and misogyny.

Throughout the first 680 lines of Medea we get a large sense of inequality that exists within Greek society. Not only does it exist but it is acknowledged by woman themselves. Medea says, Of all living creatures with a soul and mind, we woman are the most pathetic” (Page 792 Lines 231-232). Medea takes a big leap with statement as she is left with choices to make to correct her own misfortune and overcome the hegemony set up by Greek society. This leaves us with many questions :

1.) Does Medea’s love for her children outweigh the hatred she has for her husband?
2.) How does Medea’s actions benefit the cause for woman equality or hurt it?
3.) Does Medea have just cause for her plan to murder?

Medea v. Jason

Student blog posts

The tale of “Medea” begins directly after Jason leaves Medea for the Corinth princess. It starts off with the Nurse summarizing what has happened in Medea’s life after she had met Jason. According to the nurse, Medea has lost everything because of her love for Jason only to be betrayed by him (lines 11-19).

From the very beginning of the epic, it seems as if Medea is the victim of the story since she’s the one who lost everything. However, one might even say that the victim is actually Jason rather than Medea. Although a frequently asked question, who exactly is the victim in the epic?

In Medea’s case, she saved Jason life, aided him in the numerous impossible tasks that he had to complete, helped him steal the Golden Fleece, killed his uncle for him, and even killed her own brother because of him (481-494). It seems as if she made the ultimate sacrifice. It makes one wonder if Jason truly loved Medea or just used her to succeed in his tasks.

On the contrary, Jason seems to be in a difficult position as well. He claims that betraying her and marrying the Corinth princess was for the sake of the family (365-374). He states “my motive was for the best; so we’d live well and not be poor” (375-376). However, if he really did it for the family, why didn’t he discuss it with Medea first, before going about the plan? It seems like an excuse that he thought of in hopes to make peace with Medea.

This epic can easily be related to modern day marriages and relationships. A couple face obstacles that they aren’t able to overcome together which leads to disagreements and arguments. When one party has had enough of each other, he/she decides to leave the other. In many cases, both parties are at fault and both have places where they could’ve acted differently. Medea and Jason are no different. They both are fault for what has happened. Jason doesn’t love Medea enough, but Medea herself is too aggressive and violent. Things could’ve went down a different path had they both tried a little more. But like present day, when situations get to a certain point, neither party wants to any anymore.

 

Quoting guidelines: introducing quotes and using punctuation with quotes

Writing guidelines and resources

Quotation Punctuation Rules: 

When you introduce a quotation:

  1. Make it a part of the sentence:
    1. Both sides claimed to act “in strict accordance with the will of God” ( ).
  2. Use a comma for short introductions that identify who said/wrote the quotation:
    1. According to Stifler, “The great Lincoln was nurtured on the Bible as few men ever have been” ( ).
  3. Use a colon for longer introductions that give an interpretation of the quotation:
    1. Lincoln’s actions on slavery, as on all important issues, were governed by his creed: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” ().
  4. Use a comma to interrupt quotations:
    1. “Take away the Bible,” William Lloyd Garrison said, “and our war-fare with oppression…is removed” ( ).
  5. Use a comma to identify who said the quotation at the end
    1. The prophets were particularly outspoken on the subject. “Woe unto him…who useth his neighbor’s services without wages,” Jeremiah wrote.

As for quoting in literature….

WAYS TO INTRODUCE QUOTATIONS INTO YOUR TEXT: Make sure, if you quote from a text, that you have an introduction tag that connects your own writing to the quote. Here are a few examples:

1. Subject + verb: “She states” “He remarks” (subjects: he and she; verbs: states and remarks)

Aeneas states, “I who had never flinched at the hurtling spears or swarming Greek assaults–now every stir of wind, every whisper of sound alarms me, anxious both for the child beside me and the burden on my back” (Book 2, lines 902-906).

When Kreon claims, “The brave deserve better than the vile ,“ Antigone responds, “Who knows what matters to the dead?” (lines 564-565).

  • Note that, with dialogue, this is the form you should use: simply listing lines on the page often takes up too much room in the paper and then does not give you enough room, as a writer, to develop your analysis.

When called before Kreon, Antigone declares, “It wasn’t Zeus who issued me/This order“ (lines lines 487-488). She further claims, “Justice–who lives below–/was not involved. They’d never condone it!” (488-489).

As Arjuna prepares to enter battle against his family members, he questions, “O Krishna, what good is kingship?/What good even life and pleasure?” (Chapter 1, verse 32).

According to Enkidu, his introduction to the city and civilization ruins him. He tells Shamhat, ”May your purple finery be expropriated…Because you diminished me, an innocent,/ Yes me, an innocent, you wronged me in my steppe” (lines 83, 85-6).

2. According to….

According to The Hymn to Aten, “When [the sun sets] in western lightland/Earth is in darkness as if in death” (lines 13-14).

According to Enkidu, “he who falls quickly in battle dies glorious” (Tablet VII, line 171).

3. Full sentence + quote

Although Aeneas’ actions towards Dido appear cold and cruel, he demonstrates his love and his duty to his son, Ascanius: “My son Ascanius…I feel the wrong I do/to one so dear, robbing him of his kingdom…his fields decreed by fate” (Book IV, lines 442-444).

Gilgamesh’s repetition of his friend Enkidu’s name and titles after Enkidu dies highlights and emphasizes his grief: “How can I be silent? How can I hold my peace? My friend whom I loved is turned into clay,/Enkidu, my friend whom I loved, is turned into clay!” (Tablet X, lines 58-60).

Krsna, as he defends the justness of the war Arjuna is about to partake in, affirms the importance of acting without being attached, or affected by, the consequences: “He whose mind controls his senses/ who undertakes the discipline/ of action by the action-organs/ without attachment, is renowned” (Chapter 3, verse 7)

Dido’s overwhelming love for Aeneas undermines her ability to properly rule her city: “The towers of Carthage, half built, rise no more,/and the young men quit their combat drills in arms” (Book 4, lines 107-108)

Short paper no. 3: Evidence and interpretation/analysis (9/30, 10/5, or 10/7)

Writing assignments

Assignment: So far, you’ve had to write a paper that posed questions about an ambiguous moment or moments in a text we’ve read, and a paper that tried to pose an argument based on addressing one of those questions. For this assignment, we’ll be zooming even more into textual evidence and interpretation. Write a 1-2 page paper about either Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection or Medea, focusing on a few lines of the text (again, try to use lines that you find ambiguous/are open to multiple ways of reading; you should quote these lines in your paper), and giving your interpretation of what they mean and why they are important. Pay attention to details (specific word choices, imagery, etc) in your interpretation. At the end of this interpretation, pose an argument that you think your interpretation of these lines could support.   Please do some close reading (of no more than 4–5 lines if possible; however, you may refer back to other lines/phrases in the text in your interpretation), and annotate those lines–again, provide evidence of your annotation in the form of a photocopy or photograph or show it to me in class (and the annotation should not just be you highlighting the lines–make some marginal notes, underline certain words that are important).

(If you want more specific questions to address about either of the plays in order to fulfill the goals of this assignment, click here: More specific questions about Medea and Sakuntala. You will still need to find a passage and interpret it, but these questions might help you to focus your ideas.)

Purpose: Fundamental to making an argument convincing is the use of  evidence to support it. In the case of literary analysis this means quoting the text. However,  for the use of textual evidence to be meaningful in terms of making an argument, you need to explain how the evidence does what you claim it does. That is, you see the language (or  structure or character, etc.) as ambiguous in some sense and in need of analysis to fully explain how to understand what the text is conveying.

Yet it is important to remember that there are multiple possible interpretations for any moment of ambiguity and you are making a case for one of those. Therefore, it is necessary to show what the ambiguity is and then show evidence from the text that supports your interpretation (disambiguation) of that ambiguity. You need to explain how it does what you claim because your audience does not necessarily read the same way you do. Your interpretation is immediately clear to you because you have made the connections in your head, but you need to make them clear to someone else.

The Book of Genesis

Uncategorized

The Genesis stood out to me the most from the creation stories. Specifically from chapter one to four. These stories stood out because in western culture and religion the Genesis is the most popular belief. In the first chapter it describes and accounts the act of  God creating the world and everything that exists  throughout seven days. Over the seven days God creates the various creatures and plants that exist on earth and the earth itself. After everything had been created God created a human. In this culture there is a belief in only one god rather then many as some of the other creations stories. This God controls and creates all life  rather then having various gods that each serve a different purpose. After god creates a human he keeps in constant contact and closely watches over for him. The human is provided for and God creates a garden for him to live in with everything he could need. Shortly after a woman is created and this leads to the downfall of the human. From this it could be taken that this society did not have a high view of woman and blamed them for societies issues. The downfall comes when the woman is tempted by a serpent, who is thought to be the most cunning of all beasts created by God. In the garden God had created for both the man and woman there was one tree which the were forbidden to eat fruit from. The serpent tempts the woman to eat from this tree regardless of God’s warning. After this moment comes a turning point in the Genesis. Before this God had been very nurturing but after eating from the tree he turns away from them. They are both cast out of the garden he had created to provide for them and curses them to “dust” which can be inferred as mortality. Through this story of creation some questions arise. One question is, why if god created and controls all does he not know they will be tempted to eat from the tree? If god created all then the serpent would have been created by him leading to the temptation of eating from the tree? Why even have the tree in the garden in the first place if it was forbidden? Shouldn’t God have known they would be tempted to the tree if he had created them? In parts 1-4 these questions do not have clear answers but it is clear that after this incident God seems to turn away from nurturing the humans and allow them to fend for themselves. The last question left is, why did God take the time to create any of this? What purpose does it all serve?

 

The Great Hymn of Aten

Uncategorized

While reading “The Great Hymn to Aten,” one of the first things I noticed is the remarkable number of similarities between Christianity and what Akhenaten has to say about Aten. At one point in the hymn, Akhenaten states, “O Sole God beside whom there is none!”(page 33, Line65) This quote lays out plain and simple that Akhenaten believes there is only one God and there are no others. This is the same idea as Christianity, where there is only one God. The hymn goes on to describe another aspect of Aten that is called the, “form of living Aten,” which seems to point to there being another side of Aten that takes a different shape, much the same as Christianity has the Holy Spirit as an extension of God. Just like Jesus is the “Son of God” in Christianity, Aten has a son as well. Aten’s son is described as “Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re”(page 33, Line 121), Whom you have taught your ways and your might.” When all of these aspects of Aten are combined, it forms a more complete image that resembles the model of the Trinity, just like in Christianity. I find this very interesting to see in a religion that predates Christianity. This observation allows me to see how past cultures and ideas can influence one another.

It is also quite interesting for me to see how Ancient Egyptians view Aten. To them he is a loving, caring, nurturing God, much different than the gods of Ancient Mesopotamia. Akhenaten talks about Aten as the God “Who feeds the son in his mother’s womb, Who soothes him to still his tears, (page 31, Lines 47 &48). “You open wide his mouth,/ You supply his needs.”(page 31 Line 54 & 55). The God that Akhenaten, as well as all of the other Ancient Egyptians, has is there to nurture and support the creations he has made and to ensure that they have all that they need to thrive. To the Ancient Egyptians, Aten is everything. Without him, “Earth is in darkness as if in death, Darkness hovers, earth is silent.”(page 30, Lines 14 &22). It seems as if, without Aten, the world wouldn’t be able to function, and everyone would live in constant fear. This helps to reveal just why Aten is important enough to be chosen as the one God to worship in place of the many other gods. He is the God that protects and cares for his people when he is around. Akhenaton describes how “You made the far sky to shine therein,/ to behold all that you made”(page 32, Lines 99 &100), showing that Aten is pleased with all of his creations and wants to watch over them.

It seems to me that it may have been Akhenaten’s goal to win the favor of Aten by creating this hymn for him. Perhaps he was hoping to have a happier and more prosperous life. He could have also written this hymn in response to a particularly prosperous year for agriculture, or in hopes that the next year would yield better crops than the year the hymn was written. He could have even written this hymn to Aten thinking that it would improve his chances of obtaining a magnificent afterlife. Akhenaten’s view of Aten as the singular God deserving worship is most definitely subjective. It is evident that not everyone so wholeheartedly loved Aten, as Ancient Egyptians returned to polytheism after the death of Akhenaten.