Month: April 2020

Reason establishes several important patterns. She uses Christine’s questions as prompts to help her develop thematic elements that are also qualities shared by all virtuous and notable women. Reason and the two other Virtues subsequently provide a series of narrations as a growing body of evidence supporting the defense of women. Reason also cites examples from a variety of sources. She tells of women from the past as well as the present. By doing so, she draws parallels between past and present, suggesting a continuous and ongoing history of virtue on the part of women.

Montaigne has a good attitude toward life and death.  I like the approach that think of each day as the last day given to us. If we know how to live our lives and make our lives happy, we would know we would look like the moment we die. So we should able to make our own joy.  If we can make our own joy, we can pass through in any circumstance. It’s my philosophy toward my life.

The Book of the City of Ladies  by Christine de Pizan was written in medieval Europe, where the trend toward disrespect for women prevailed. The author of this work, Christine De Pijang, is the first female full-time writer to defend women’s authority and to try to escape men’s prejudices. When she was in the works, it was a difficult time for women not only for writing, but also for living by herself. Nevertheless, she continued to work with her beliefs.  She wanted to restore women’s self-esteem from the men’s criticism, and hope that women would fulfill their roles and responsibilities as members of society.

What I am confused by this book is the examples. Although it was aimed at the prejudice of men against women that prevailed at the time. But it seems that the examples have not been able to justify all women. Also, this book is mostly based on religious mythology, so its persuasion is weak. This is probably limited by the author’s educational background. This book is still limited by the trend of the times. In the end, it is still preaching to women, hoping that they will devote / tolerate.

Louise Labe’s Sonnets depicts her pleasure and pain from love.  The theme of the Sonnets is dark and depressed. Throughout the Sonnets, Labe expresses her passion and longing for love. “Of you I complain, of all these tongues of fire, that touch my heart so often, with desire, without one single spark scorching you” (Sonnet 2). Labe is putting herself through so much pain for love, while her loved one doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all, which makes her hurt even more.

Epics contain elements of war, love, death, the gods and heroism. In the epics of The Odyssey and the Aeneid, there is a central protagonist who is on a journey from Troy, and along the way experiences delays and tragedies. Odysseus in The Odyssey and Aeneas in the Aeneid, both experience life and death and they each prevail, through their heroic deeds. They are amazingly talented and heroic warriors and always defeat their foes in war, despite their human weaknesses. In each scene, there is a constant depiction and influence of the gods and the immortals on many of their actions. Lastly, they are both the objects of unrequited love, Odysseus loved by Calypso and Aeneas loved by Dido.

But they differ in the portrayal of their protagonists. Odysseus is a virtuous Greek determined to return home to his family after fighting a long and bloody war against the Trojans. Aeneas is a refugee of Troy fleeing the destruction caused by the Greeks and journeys to establish a new homeland because of a prophecy. Odysseus is portrayed like a demigod with very little relatability to mortals. Aeneas is more relatable to his readers because of his human fears, being unsure of his actions and isn’t seen as an invincible hero.  Both epics differ due to the fact that they were written in different eras during the reign of different empires. Virgil is writing over seven hundred years after the Odyssey was written. They also differ, because  Virgil wrote as a proud Roman who glorified Rome, while Homer wrote from the perspective of an ancient Greek who glorified war and the gods.

 

Augustine describes his past as being very lustful, having had many romantic partners. He places little value on eroticism except as being sinful and distracting from being a good Catholic. He compares reading fiction to sex in that it is distraction from being one with God.  However, there is some value to eroticism in his writing in that he is using the discussion of sex to reach out to young readers, who like him in his younger years, are caught up with the same temptations of the body. It is used as an appeal similar to the way he discusses the story of him stealing the fruits to appeal to everyone who has temptations for “forbidden fruit”

One of the ways that Shakespeare depicts the spread of corruption is through Claudius’s influence in his court. As he is the character who is the source of Hamlet’s agony and the ruler of all of Denmark, his influence is symbolic of the corruption in Denmark. To be sided with Claudius means to be an enemy of Hamlet. Not only is he able to control his chief counsellor, Polonius, who also controls his own family Laertes and Ophelia, he also manipulates Hamlet’s own childhood friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to literally escort Hamlet on his way to death. Even Hamlet’s mother does not believe that Claudius is a guilty of any crime, and that Hamlet has gone mad instead. As all the characters in the play are Claudius’s puppets, there is no one to question or counteract his evil intentions. In the end, Claudius’s corruption has spread throughout the entire court, and Hamlet is the only one who challenges him.

Hamlet soliloquies play an important role throughout the duration of the play. The soliloquies serve as an important piece of dialogue that is only shared with the readers, or audience that isn’t shared with other characters or the play. For example, Hamlet’s famous “To be, or not to be. That is the question…” piece informs the audience that Hamlet is suffering an internal conflict. His famous soliloquy informs readers that his pondering life and death, which shows a sign of mental issues. This example informs us why soliloquies serves as a major turning point throughout the play of Hamlet

Since the very first words in The Confessions, Augustine addresses God: “Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised…”, and he keeps doing so throughout the end of his work which certainly means that God is his central audience. Then, there’s a reader who might already be Christian, but there’s also a reader who might be not and that’s the audience Augustine seems to be quite interested in. Maybe he just wants to atone for his sins, but it’s more likely that he tries to be relatable when opening up about stealing or having a rather adventurous sexual life in the past. This is Augustine’s way of implying that even if you are a sinner who enjoys the lower pleasures of life like sex or drinking you can still convert and become catholic.