“The Tyger”

I vividly recall going to the zoo as a child and being amazed at the tiger exhibit, excitement that seems to be shared by all the other young visitors present. Perhaps it is their ferocious roar or their fur’s unique appearance, but there was always an enormous crowd gathered around this exotic creatures exhibit.   William Blake captures much of the danger and fear associated with this animal in his poem entitled “The Tyger”, along with which he depicts a detailed image of how he imagines it within its elements. While the famed author paints the picture of a deadly beast in his written work, as seen with the words, “Dare its deadly terrors clasp,” and “Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night,” the visual representation is much less intimidating. Having read the poem first, I was expecting his tiger  image to be more menacing and frightening than the one before my eyes. I found the tiger I saw depicted to be endearing and peaceful, unsure of what is going on around it in the forest. We only see one of his eyes, but it seems to indicate that he is skeptical and wary of his surroundings. It is not killing another animal, getting ready to attack prey, or preparing to let out a loud roar. Instead, the tiger is wallowing around and keeping to itself in the natural environment without a care in the world. I was surprised to see the tranquility of Blake’s painting considering the otherwise fear-inducing persona he ascribes to tigers throughout the length of his poem.

My understanding to Oedipus the King by Sophocles

    Oedipus accidently killed his father and again accidentally married his mother.  His actions committed both crime and sin at the worst level.  However, we cannot claim he is guilty or he is evil.  On the contrary, he is such an innocent and honest man with a pure kind heart.

Once he learned his future from the God Apollo, Oedipus tries so hard to avoid his life as a tragedy, but all he had done are the steps leading to his fate.  Fate has been a forever philosophy topic flows down from generations to generations.  Is our life destined? If so, why do we even do it?  Then no one has free will at all.  If not, then why Oedipus cannot avoid his fate? Are people only a toy to Gods?

The last words in the play by Chorus, “no one can call himself    Gods’ friend until he passed his entire life peacefully” (cannot remember the exact words).  True, man cannot predict life, no one knows if life is towards a good end or bad end.  According to Oedipus’ life as a whole before he find the truth, he is seen as a hero with successful achievements and Gods’ blesses.  However, until the truth appeared, his life suddenly shifts to the opposite, and became the man with most tragedy of life.

A tragedy is not just a combination of death and tears in the end.  The real tragedy is hopeless.  The real sad thing is, you just look at it but cannot do anything to stop it.  Then, this is what hopeless does, it cause more suffer and more pain beyond death.

My reaction to the performance is not too much.  First of all, the performance is too plain with no stage setting and dressing.  And that made me cannot really get into what I was expecting.  Secondly, listening is tough.  I had a language difficulty to understand the Greek background play, with all the gods and the way of conversation.  Although I studied the play prior, I still feel lost in the here and there.  The actors did wonderful job on the stage.  They are loud and clear, moving around tried a lot to put some color on the paper.  Even with a script in hands still I can see they put a lot efforts into it to make the play as smooth as possible.

In addition to being a poet, William Blake was a fine artist and published illustrated editions of his own work, using a special engraving technique to create amazing prints that accompanied the two volumes of poetry that we are reading selections from: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Choose an image that accompanies one of the poems we are reading, and provide a brief (250-300 word) analysis that explains how the image and the poem work together. What do you see in the image you’ve selected that helps you understand the poem more fully? How do the poem and the engraving offer different perspectives on a single subject? Be sure to include details from both the poem and the image in your discussion.

Your image and analysis must be posted by 9 a.m. on Wednesday, October 5th.

This picture described the women who hold an umbrella under the rain. And it reminds me when Toyo-o first time meets Manago. Toyo-o meets Manago in a shabby house, he is surprised by her beauty. He thinks Manago must be a woman from Kyoto, and come with the high station.  “Toyo-o saw her off as she spread the umbrella and left, watching until she vanished from his sight.” Toyo-O borrows an umbrella to Manago and this umbrella make a chance for Toyo-o to meet with Manago again. When he back to home, he is dreams of their second meeting, and he can’t sleep. After that, Toyo-o goes to find Manago, because he wants to see her and he pretends come for the umbrella. The rain and the umbrella  make this story begin, and people are always involved in something especially under this condition.  The title of the story is “bewitched”, people are hard to discover the real face when they bewitched by someone. When Toyo-o first time meets Manago, he thinks she is a beautiful girl who gets wet, and he has to help her. So this makes the story more interesting and reasonable.

1. Attend a staged reading of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.
Choose one of the 8 performances listed below. Performances will last approximately one hour and will include a question and answer session with the director.

Mon, Sept. 26, 2016 @ 10:00am & 12:30pm *(these performances will be at Engleman Recital Hall – VC B2 )

Tue, Sept. 27, 2016 @ 2:45pm & 6:05pm *(these performances will be at Engleman Recital Hall – VC B2 )

Wed, Sept. 28, 2016 @ 10:45am & 3:00pm *(these performances will be at Engleman Recital Hall – VC B2)

Thurs, Sept. 29, 2016 @ 10:00am & 12:45pm **(these performances will be at Mason Hall – 17 Lex)

2. No later than 5pm on Monday, October 3rd, post a review of the performance to the blog. Your review should be approx. 350 words and should discuss both your understanding of Sophocles’ play AND your reaction to the performance you saw.

The reason I chose this image was because I felt like it really embodied Manago’s character in “Bewitched.” In the story, Manago came across as this beautiful, innocent women, yet on the inside she was deadly and deceptive, a (literal) serpent. She was able to hide behind this mirage of refinement and grace, never showing her true face. She knew people’s desires, their vulnerabilities and she used them to her advantage, altering herself to reflect what they wanted to see.

When Toyo-o first met Manago, he was captivated by her beauty. Manago portrayed this perfect image of modesty and refinement, her face “lighting up” and “blushing modestly” when she first met him. Though they only met briefly, Toyo-o had already begun to be deceived by this perfect mirage. That night, before Toyo-o even visited Manago’s house, he found himself vividly dreaming about its “huge structure” with its “shutters and the bamboo blinds.” He dreamt of a feast with “wine and all kinds of fruit.” When he finally awoke and made his way over to her house, he was struck by how similar the house was to what he had imagined – “the front gate and the house were huge indeed. The shutters and bamboo blinds were just as impressive as he had imagined in his dream.” Even Toyo-o thought it was strange, questioning whether or not this was still a dream as he was fed a familiar feast with food and wine. It wasn’t until Manago was exposed and Toyo-o was taken back to the house by samurai that the mirage was shattered, and he saw the house for what it actually was – broken down, overgrown, and “sagging with rot.”

Later on in the story, when Manago was able to track down Toyo-o at his sisters store in Nara, she was able to transform once again. Playing off of Toyo-o’s sister’s and husbands emotions, she reflected a desperate widow, tearful and apologetic and desperately in love.  They were “so moved” by Manago’s pleadings that they “had no doubt whatever that she had spoken the truth.” As a result, they invited her into their home, and eventually succeeded in talking Toyo-o into marrying her.

A final example was when Manago took on the appearance of Tomiko, the daughter of Shoji and a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. This was perhaps the most literal example of how Manago was able to change her reflection, by actually taking over the body of Tomiko. Toyo-o only saw Tomiko, with the “glamourous quality in her appearance” and her “pretty eyes.” Manago was even able to perfectly reflect Tomiko’s traits, attracting Toyo-o with her alertness, perceptiveness, and diligence. Once again, Toyo-o found himself married to another perfect mirage.

 “Bewitched” by Ueda Akinari is the epitome of the saying ‘looks can be deceiving.’ It’s a critical reminder that what you see isn’t always what you get. Sometimes you need to look further than just the reflection in the mirror.  

The ukiyo-e genre of painting was vastly popular in Japan during the times of Akinari. The common subject of the paintings was the beauty and seduction of Japanese women at the time. I find this to be similar to Bewitched when it comes to the ways of Manago. Her ability to use kind and polite words to win over men is similar to the themes of the ukiyo-e genre and this specific painting. In this painting we may not know the words of these women, but what we do know is that they use kindness, seduction, and entertainment to win over men. In the ukiyo-e genre, men are rarely involved in the paintings. When they are involved they are almost always falling for the beautiful woman or women in the painting. When a women uses the language, “I shall dry my clothes with the warmth of your kindness” it is almost always enough to lead you to a man’s heart. The two do not directly correspond, but the parallel is unmistakable to me. Words of kindness and seduction to win over a man in Akinari’s writing; and the beautiful, seductive nature of the women and their entertainment in Japanese ukiyo-e paintings to gain access to the man’s heart. If you are looking at it from the woman’s perspective, I believe these variable means to a similar end may have been a motif of Japanese culture at the time.

The image chosen corresponds with “Bewitched,” as this is a story of a serpent devil who took the form of a young, beautiful woman and seduced a handsome young man, Toyo-o, into falling in love and marrying the devil. Manago is the serpent, who has the ability to control people through charm and seduction in the form of a beautiful woman. Toyo-o becomes attached to Manago through her illusions and allures, which turns into trouble for Toyo-o, with the authorities and his family both.

This image shows the devil whispering into the young woman’s ear and it appears as If the devil is entering her body in one way or another and is going to influence these behaviors. This corresponds to the story, as the serpent devil, known as Manago, took over the body of Tomiko, who married Toyo-o. Tomiko and Toyo-o had gotten married in order to avoid the serpent Manago, but it failed. “Though her appearance was different, her words were spoken precisely as Manago, the devil, would have spoken them. It was her voice!” This quotation shows how Toyo-o was not able to escape Manago at first, but she kept coming after him. This image depicts the control that the devil can have over a specific person, just as Manago had over Tomiko.

In Akinari’s “Bewitched”, the main character and son of a prosperous fisherman Toyo-o is deceived by a woman named Manago. When he first meets Manago after taking shelter from a storm, he is drawn to her beauty and wishes to pursue her. When Toyo-o visits Manago at her house, she tells him how she wishes to marry him, and presents him with a sword. Manago tells him that the sword is that of her late husband, who was once a government official. When Toyo-o returns home, his family does not believe his story of Manago and accuses him of stealing the sword from the Kumano Gongen Shrine. Toyo-o is confused and tries to explain to the chief priest and samurai’s the story of Manago and how she gifted him the sword. After the men seek Manago, she disappears when thunder roars, and we later find out that she is deceiving Toyo-o in hopes that he will marry her and be under her spell.

Manago takes on the role of a woman, but is really the devil in serpent form. The sword was stolen by Manago, along with all other types of riches from the shrine depository. Manago lies by saying that her late husband’s spirit must have committed the crime. Her deceitfulness is later confirmed when a man spots her near the river and says “You devils! Again you are bewitching and deceiving human beings. How can you dare assume that shape and form before my very eyes!” (Akinari, 643) The image below is that of a Greek mythological female serpent named Lamia. Quite obviously, this directly relates to the story by depicting an image similar to what Manago might look like. Lamia is described as an evil murderer and thief, who like Manago, uses deception in her plot against humanity. Along with holding some kind of weapon, Lamia’s deep red eyes and other features portray villainous characteristics that correspond with those of Manago.

The image shown consists of masks that were worn during Japanese traditional theater performances. The names of each of these female masks are Ko-omote, Namanari, and Hannya. I chose this image because it reminded me of how I perceived the antagonist, Manago. She was first described as a beautiful woman who was “bewitchingly voluptuous” (Bewitched 633), relating to the first mask shown. It shows that she is a only a mere “human”, using her beauty and persuasive words to anyone that would listen and fall prey to her, like Toyo-o easily did when he first met her. The middle mask is the next in line in showing Manago’s true self. She has definitely lost part her beauty but is not full demon. I would relate this mask to when Manago inhabited Tomiko’s body and was soon found out by Toyo-o. “Though her appearance was different, her words were spoken precisely as Manago, the devil, would have spoken them. It was her voice!” (Bewitched 645).  While she was not exactly in her demon form, part of her demoness was showing because she was growing delirious by Toyo-o’s attempted escapes from her. He could now see that, while she was still the alluring young woman he was first attracted to, she was truly a demon. The last mask corresponds to the event when the priest attempts to catch the devil with his mere magic potion. In an attempt to protect herself, Manago, as a serpent, attacks the priest, thus showing her true horrifying colors. It can no longer be said that Manago is a harmless female when she has finally shown her demonic mask.