Author Archives: SUMI PAUL

   Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, is about a man who spends his whole life trying to get higher and higher in his career path. However, it is only when he is in his deathbed that he realizes the mistake he made throughout his life. Instead of focusing on the things that matter, such as building a connection with family, he spent his whole life trying to make money and showing everyone around him that he has a wealthy status. He works on decorating his house to send a message to his neighbors and colleagues that he has a high status. To him his status was the most important thing. However, the more closer he comes to death, he comes to realize how he lived his life all wrong. He realizes how alone he felt. His loneliness becomes more severe because his family neglects the fact that he is dying. They thought everything was fine with him and that he would eventually get better. Throughout the story, Ivan continuously believed that he lived a good life, which is what prevented him from getting into that black sack. Finally at the end, he reaches an epiphany, and realizes that he lived his life all wrong. He realizes that he gave importance to the wrong things and he should have focused more time on building a relationship with his family. At the end of the story, he realizes that his wife and children will live the same life like he did and he feels sorry for them. He comes to the realization that all the things he put his focus on throughout his life were just artificial things and they do not come with him while he is dying. 

    This text can connect to how people are feeling being quarantined during the Covis-19 pandemic. People are given a second chance to reevaluate the things that are important to them and take a step back from those artificial pleasures in life. People, like me, are realizing that we took advantage of what we had at the moment. We took advantage of enjoying being out with family and friends. We did not cherish those moments like we should have, and now that it is gone, we can only look back at what we had. We focused so much of our time trying to build a career, that we lost sense of what is really important. We forgot to enjoy the moments while we were there. Like Ivan, we came to this realization when life and death was on the line. Due to this pandemic and the fear that death can come knocking any day, we reflect on our lives and realize how we should have enjoyed the time we had when we were able to be outside. This quarantine, however, does allow us to have a second chance to do things right. It allows us to build a relationship with family and allows us to have time to reflect on what we should give more importance to. It allows us to have a chance to fix our mistakes. It gives us a realization to enjoy the moments while they are still there because at any moment it could all be gone. This story brings to light that money and wealth means nothing when you are dying. It is the memories that you make throughout your life that you can take with you.  

The film and the written versions of the play are very similar. The written version however does include more details about Hedda Gabler and her intentions. The written version explains more thoroughly by having the notes of what the character is doing. The film version cuts a few scenes that could be helpful in understanding the characters better. For example, when Aunt Julie was there and she was speaking to Mr. Tesman, they did not have the full conversation as it was written. Without this part, it does not allow the audience to learn that Mr. Tesman had taken Hedda to this trip with him because she wanted to go. It shows that he would do anything for Hedda no matter the cost. He even brought the house that she said she always wanted just for her to be happy. The film had skipped the conversation where Aunt Julie was telling him how expensive it must have been to go on that trip. Her concerns for the expenses shows that Mr. Tesman does not mind the expenses cause he just wants to make sure that Hedda is happy with the marriage. The film however does help to give a visual representation of how manipulative Hedda is. I actually felt as though reading the play has given me a better representation of the play because it was more detailed. While reading I was able to create an image in my head. The written version gave clear details of the settings and the actions of the characters, which helped create a movie in my head. The film however did help give a general sense of what the play is about. The film was also able to allow me to realize how Hedda’s intentions for marrying Mr. Tesman was not pure just by how she treated his Aunt Julie. The film was able to portray her attitude and snobby remarks about the hat towards Aunt Julie. Overall, I felt as though both the film and written versions of this play had their own unique qualities that were able to bring the characters to life. 

“This they would sing, as a chorus, to words which to many would seem unmeaning jargon, but which, nevertheless, were full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.”

In the narrative, Frederick Douglass explains to his readers the true meaning of the songs that the slaves would sing on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. The slaves would sing these songs to express their sorrow and misery. They would plead to god to help them end their misfortune. He says that their words may seem as nonsense but they actually have meaning to them. Through this paragraph, Douglass expresses that these heartfelt songs evoke emotions to those that hear it. The purpose of the slaves singing these songs were to help them release their sorrows and help them get through their days of work. It makes me wonder whether the slave owners heard their slave’s misery through those songs. From the narrative, it seems as though slave owners did not care since they would get abused for little offenses and they would gain pleasure from abusing slaves. Douglass had hoped these songs would get through to people and help them understand the cruelty of slavery. He explains how they would sing these songs “loud, long, and deep” so that they could be heard. These songs expressed how slavery was for African Americans and their plea to end it. The songs explain how inhumane slavery is. Douglass writes about the songs to explain to his readers the truth about these songs. The song that he included in his narrative, does not have words that express the truth about slavery, it seems as though these songs were happy songs, but Douglass explains that these songs have a deeper meaning to them. He says that when hearing these songs by the slaves, it will evoke emotion to anyone who hears it. By saying this, he shows that the slave owners and overseers, although they heard them sing these songs, were cold hearted which is why they did not feel the heartfelt sorrows and misery that they slaves had felt and expressed.