Great Works MW 5:40 Spring 2013

In Eliot’s – The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock he speaks of love and the various aspect one might experience when searching for love like self consciousness and female encounters (that are G rated). He highlights his insecurities that include aging and self-perception, “Though I have seen my head, (growing slightly bald)”. I would say in this song he captures his encounters with women and his personal battles to sweep them off of their feet. His experiences with woman are not described in detail and it is not as clear for me in the text. He informs us that he is familiar with the ladies, “Known them all- arms that are braceleted and white and bare”, and how he is entrapped by the perfume scents from a dress. He describes a perfect evening spent with a special someone drinking tea and having some marmalade, in his attempt in setting the mood. His discrete sexual undertones come from “After sunsets, after the skirts that trail along the floor- and this and so much more?” and “ It is impossible to say just what I mean”.

Eliot wrote this from an older mans perspective and shares the many nights in which he experiences love. He describes the evening “like a patient etherized upon a table”, as if the evening went along at a sluggish pace; in a good way and slept in a cheap hotel. Where a restaurant that serves oysters a much known aphrodisiac to accompany there restless night. I also think that oysters are more of a sophisticated delicacy that mostly geared to an older crowd.  In the text he implies that they go and “make a visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.” This is emphasized in multiple parts of the text and it is hard for me not to envision the women in a brothel. That are seen walking in and out of room speaking of this well-known artist, and the perfect sculpturing of the naked body of which these women must have admired.

In multiple sections throughout the poem Eliot touches upon mans insecurities. It almost seems as if he is unsure of how to approach a women because fear of rejection. He becomes his harshest critique and is so self-conscious of his appearance. It seems like his references to Michelangelo are more out of his very own admiration towards the perfect male figure. In the text he speaks of “the bald spot in the middle of my hair”, and worries of what others might say. He also criticizes his thin arms and legs and worries about how to comb his hair. Near the end he is at the beach and witnesses sea-girls singing, and believes they will not sing to him. As he himself believes he is not worthy of the mermaid’s attention.

This poem is a bit difficult to follow, as some things do not seem to make sense. It was not clear where he is located throughout the poem, or were his thoughts just his imagination/dream? It appears to take place in a dreary environment as he uses “yellow fog” to describes an October night as he walked through streets. He then concludes with, “til human voices wake us”. Being that he witnesses mermaids and things that are real it could be that he is between a daydream and his conscious thoughts.

Joel De La Cruz

Spoiler Alert!

What is Hedda Gabler like? Well, like Hedda Gabler. Ibsen makes a great decision by naming the play Hedda Gabler instead of Hedda Tesman. Hedda Gabler can never be the ideal wife or mother or take on any of the permanent and habitual routines that come with marriage. She cannot be called by any other name because she stands in a league of her own. It’s almost as if she cannot be described if only by her name. One can argue that she represents an empowered woman that went against the conventions of her time. It was not customary of a wife to down talk her husband or to play with pistols. She is not much of a hostess as she is more focused on entertaining herself by manipulating her guests. Evidence in the play can support this idea. But my argument is simply that she is insane. She is psychologically unstable because of her constant need to be in control.

Because we do not know what Hedda is thinking we must make assumptions based on her actions. The first sign of her insanity is when she shoots at Brack. She is clearly beyond her senses. Then she goes on to have a conversation with Brack and this is the first time we hear Hedda express how she really feels. She is bored with her life beside Tesman and does not love him. She married him only because she felt it was time to settle down. This is clear when Brack asks her why she accepted Tesman and she replies, “I had positively danced myself tired, my dear Judge. My day was done.” She must have lived a life filled with excitement that she would never have beside a “specialist” such as Tesman. She gave up a life where she may have been independent and free, to be a wife or property. She gave up control. In a mad effort to regain it, she manipulates and instigates trouble with people she encounters. Her actions seem random and not geared toward a specific goal other than her own amusement- to simply marvel at how much power she can have over people.

Hedda acts out of impulse. She offends Aunt Juliana, comes between Mrs. Elvstead and Lovborg, destroys Lovborg’s manuscript and encourages him to commit suicide. None of these acts were committed out of love or hate. There is no passion behind them. Hedda’s only drive is an insane and neurotic need to be in control- to use the people around her as pawns. Her actions are desperate and follow no plot or conspiracy. Her mind is a mixed up as we are when trying to understand her motives. She is compulsively obsessed with controlling what unravels before her.

In the end when she believes Lovborg committed suicide she commends him and describes his act as beautiful because he finally took control of his life. But when Brack reveals to Hedda that Lovborg was killed involuntarily and that her fate rested in Brack’s hands, she reaches the climax of her insanity. Hedda takes a gun to her temple and kills herself. This scene is very intense because some people commit suicide in an extreme effort to take control of their lives. They decide where they die, when they die and most importantly how they die. Hedda did just that. She committed the ultimate act of control and decided her own fate. She would rather die than cede control of her life to another man once again.

Hedda Gabler will never be Hedda Tesman or “mommy” or anything else that she cannot control herself. It is almost as if her marrying Tesman triggered the walls to slowly cave in on her and in desperation she did whatever was in her power at the moment to stop her life from slipping from her hands. In the most extreme act of desperation she killed herself because knowing she would be a slave to a loveless marriage and Brack was the final straw for her. Her death represents regaining full control. She freed herself without any forewarning to anyone. She died not the way Mrs. Tesman would or the way a General’s daughter would, but the only way poor Hedda Gabler knew how.

Hedda Gabler is one of plays by Henrik Ibsen about desperate wife of Victorian Era (1837-1901.) Hedda is a very intelligent and manipulative woman, who got married for a man, she does not love. She is not very pleasant; we can see it with Aunt Juliana and maid Berta, when Hedda complains that Berta leaves her old bonnet around the house, however it is aunt’s new hat. Hedda is very pragmatic in terms of her relationship with others. For instance, she gets married with a man that soon buys a mention for her; she becomes a friend with Mrs. Elvstead, because she shares information that Hedda needs. Very interesting friendship triangle occurs between Hadda, Judge Brack and supposedly George Tesman, who does not know about it. “All I require is a pleasant and intimate interior, where I … as a trusted friend … of the mistress first of all,” states Judge in Second act. In addition, she has a long story of relationship with Eilert Lovborg, who used to be “thoroughly intimate” friend. Hedda appears as a “woman’s shadow” between Mrs. Elvstead and Lovborg.  It is obvious, Hedda to has complicate relationships with each character of the play.

Very important elements of the play are the spirit and customs of Victorian Era. We can see it in language, manners and everyday life. For example, it is inappropriate to call a woman only by name. “If you continue to say me du to me, I won’t talk to you,” says Hedda to Lovborg.  Tesman’s family has maid Berta, which is appropriate for middle and upper class. Another feature is that women are not suppose to go somewhere by themselves, they have to be accompanied by someone.  Wealth, particularly in our case – Tesman’s mansion, is an important tribute of the status to prove their prosperity. As owners of a such large house, Tesman’s will attract more visitors, which is essential for class and is trendy during those days. Hedda, as a representative of Victorian Era, does not fit into the type. She is strong, smart, independent personality, but she suppose to be complete opposite. She is able to manipulate with each person, however it does not make her happy anyway. Mrs. Elvstead is somewhat similar to Hedda, but she is not that much intelligent. Nevertheless, she has courage to abandon her old wealthy husband-Sheriff, because sheriff sees her as inexpensive property, does not care about her and does not love her, besides that Thea is in love with Eilert.

The story of Henrik Ibsen has narrative tone with not brightly exposed elements of action. The language and tone is mostly calm with few peaks, such as shootings. The play shows us conflict of time between passion and time, shows its sins. The whole story reminds a detective, which has unexpected finish. Only after the reading of the whole play we get the complete picture that author is trying to show us.

Goblin Market primarily illustrates two sisters named Lizzie and Laura how they react in facing the goblin men who are demonstrated as wicked fruit merchant men. Lizzie is a strong, tough and straightforward minded one while Laura is very easily distracted by the temptation of getting the fruits. Lizzie tries to stop Laura from getting close to the goblin men but “its last restraint is gone” Laura can’t resist anymore and wants to buy them. Nonetheless, she has no money to buy but to take the offer from the goblin men-“You have much Gold upon your head” which I assume using her blonde hair or something precious in gold on her head in exchange with the tasty fruits. She got poisoned by the “temptation”. Lizzie is so worried about her sister so she turned away and goes to face with the goblin men to find out what exactly happened with her sister. Lizzie has one coin and she resists in giving to the goblin men. They attempt violently to force Lizzie to taste the “evil” taste. Luckily, Lizzie resists and is reluctant to open her mouth; however, the juice is all over her body. After that she went back home to see how Laura is doing. Laura fainted and has poisons all over her body. She tries to suck the juice from Lizzie’s body and fortunately, “Life out of death”  Laura feels better after that and eventually realizes goblin men are the evil ones. Lizzie told Laura not to get tempted by them again. They both hug each other and are pleasant and this feeling has never been this clear. Lizzie says when they have kids in the future, they have to tell the “little ones” that do not fall into the trap by the goblin men and they should stay far away from the evil offer. 

                Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti provides us with a tale of a pair of sisters with full of love and we can see from the story that Lizzie loves her sister so much that she can embrace herself to protect Laura. Love is the prime message shown in this story with no doubts. I found out that this sentence-“Men sell not such in any town” has been shown at the beginning and in the end. I think it is because the only men in the story are the goblin men which they are considered as the evil ones. It emphasizes the evilness of the goblin men and the “fruit forbidden”. To conclude, Lizzie shows her tough personality to the evilness. We can once again see it from “And heard her penny jingle, its bounce was music to her ear” which plays an important role in the whole story. She shows that she can resist the temptation and save her sister, Laura from the evilness. She loves her sister so much that she believes that she can bring Laura back from the bad and they can live happily in the future. There is one question-“Is it death or is it life” and it answers at the beginning of the next stanza provides us a clear answer-“Yes”. Laura is alive. ”Ah! Fool” proves that the way Laura is doing before is not appropriate. She at the end clears her mind and feels the great love from her Lizzie. She appreciates how Lizzie has done for her even she has to encounter the evilness. Love has pulled Lizzie and Laura back together and they now can face themselves without any hesitation.

“Goblin Market” is a poem written by Christina Rossetti and it was published in 1862. The poem is about two sister Laura and Lizzie. They hear the sounds of the goblin fruit market from their house. At the beginning they try to ignore tempting calls of the goblin men, but later on Laura gives in and goes to the market to see what is going on. Lizzie tells her not to but Laura doesn’t listen to her, so she goes to the market and goblin men offer her fruit. Laura wants to take delicious fruit but tells the goblin men that she doesn’t have the money. But the goblin men say that she can pay for the fruit with a piece of her golden curl. Laura clips a precious golden lock and eats the tasty fruit and goes home. Soon after Laura started feeling differently, she wasn’t herself anymore, she was slowly dying. Her sister Lizzie began to worry about her because her friend Jenny died after eating the same fruit. So Lizzie puts a silver penny in her purse and goes to the market to meet the goblin men. She tries to buy the fruits “Give me much and many—Held out her apron, Tossed them her penny” But Goblins tell her to sit down, to honor and eat with them. Lizzie thanks them and says that she has to go home because someone waiting for her at home alone and she ask for silver her penny back. After that goblins turned mean, they were not nice anymore they started calling her names and turned evil. They grabbed her and squeezed their fruits against her mouth to make her eat. But Lizzie stood still she kept her mouth closed and only got the juice all over her face and neck “One may lead a horse to water, Twenty cannot make him drink” Eventually, goblins were tired of her resistance they threw her silver penny at her and kicked her out. Lizzie ran back home to Laura. She told her sister not to mind her bruises and asked her, kiss her, and suck her juices squeezed from goblin fruits for her “Eat me, drink me, love me”. Laura licked the juices of Lizzie and miraculously healed. Years later, after they both were wives with children of their own, Laura would call her kids and tell them that story and the importance of sister love.

I think there are many ways to interpret this poem. But I would like to focus on one that  “Goblin Market” has a religious approach. I see goblins fruit as forbidden fruit because from the beginning Rossetti describes how morning and evening maids heard the goblins cry; “ Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy” then she describes how delicious the fruits are. She makes it sound very tempting. Laura says “ We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits” to me it sounds like they are so tempted to try the fruits that they are trying to calm themselves down “No”, said Lizzie, no, no, no; Their offers should not charm us. Their evil gifts would harm us.” And yet Laura couldn’t resist the forbidden fruit, she ate the fruit which as she describes to be “Sweeter than honey from the rock, Stronger than man-rejoicing wine, Clearer than water flowed that juice; She never tasted such before.” After she ate the fruit she begins to waste away. Lizzie I see as a Christ figure, she is Lauras savior. Lizzie seems to be the mature one from the beginning  “Oh,” cried Lizzie, “Laura, Laura, You should not peep at goblin men.”  She is the stronger one and she could resist the temptation. After Laura fell into trap and started slowly dying Lizzie had to go to the goblin man and endure all the pain and humiliation in order to save her sister from death. Lizzie ends up saving Laura from certain death and they live happily ever after.

Frederick Douglass illustrates the horrors of slavery in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. There is so much evil occurring in inherent in Douglass’ story that it is difficult to comprehend how such a barbaric thing can happen in the not too distant past. Douglass does a superb job of illustrating how dehumanization of black slaves by the white ruling class played a significant role in the continued proliferation of slavery and the brutal practices that came along with it. Without dehumanizing the black slaves, society would be unable to perpetuate the culture of violence necessary to keep a slave based economy intact.

The first instance of dehumanization Douglass illustrates to the reader is the separation of children from their mother at a very young age. He writes: “Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result” (Douglass 2). Just as people often separate animals from their parents at certain ages, the slave owners of the Pre-Civil War Era South separated small children from their parents, without putting much more thought into it than when separating cattle from their mothers.

Another instance that Douglass uses to display the dehumanization of slaves is when describing how slaves were fed. He writes: “It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied (Douglass 12). Douglass uses the word “pigs,” because slave owners did not deem it necessary to provide their slaves with proper eating utensils, because they simply did not view slaves as their equal human counterparts. Since slave owners viewed their slaves as more like pigs than actual human beings, it became quite easy for them to justify the culture of violence that made slavery possible. Slave owners wanted to feed their slaves the smallest amount possible to still be proficient at their jobs, because in the slave owner’s context, food for slaves is considered a business expense and it is a business owner’s job to keep expenses to a minimum.

Perhaps the best illustration of the dehumanization of slaves is when Douglass describes what happens in jail after his plot to escape has been foiled. Douglass writes: “We had been in jail scarcely twenty minutes, when a swarm of slave traders, and agents for slave traders, flocked into jail to look at us, and to ascertain if we were for sale… And after taunting us in various ways, they one by one went into an examination of us, with intent to ascertain our value” (Douglass 38). Douglass portrays the slave traders and agents for slave traders as men auctioning for cattle instead of human beings. The slave traders and agents for slave traders at no point stop to think what they are doing is wrong, instead it is business as usual and they are eager to acquire misbehaved slaves at steep discounts, much the same as farmers will bid pennies on the dollar for underweight farm animals. The most important aspect of this quotation in terms of the dehumanization of slaves, that it is a cogent example of how slaves were regarded as a commodity that can always be bought and sold at the right price, rather than human beings that have the same thoughts, feelings and emotions as everyone else.

Douglass’ first encounters with Mrs. Auld and her kindness is a testament to the dehumanizing nature of slavery. Douglass writes: “She had never had a slave under her control previously to myself, and prior to her marriage she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living. She was by trade a weaver; and by constant application to her business, she had been in a good degree preserved from the blighting and dehumanizing effects of slavery (Douglass 14). Mrs. Auld had never been exposed to the horrors of slavery before her encounter with Frederick Douglass and as such, she was able to accept Frederick as a human being, rather than as simply a slave. Mrs. Auld even went on to teach Frederick Douglass how to read, and to a certain degree, was almost like a mother and less of a master. However, as time went on, all of this changed and Mr. Auld put a swift end to Mrs. Auld teaching Frederick Douglass how to read. Fortunately, for Douglass, the ability to read three and four letter words was the only spark he needed to follow up his learning with more learning and eventually came to realize his own discontent with the concept of slavery.

Slavery cannot exist without the dehumanization of slaves by the rest of society. It is only when the society views the object of oppression as non-human can such evil as slavery occur. Douglass does an excellent job of giving the reader examples to demonstrate exactly how this process took place in the Pre-Civil War Era South. His depictions are graphic in nature but are necessary to get his point across to his target audience. The examples Douglass uses of dehumanization not only serve the purpose helping the reader understand sociocultural dynamics at work in that society, but also serve the purpose of perhaps shocking the already sympathetic North into action against slavery.

EJ Krumholz

The first poem I would like to analyze is “because I could not stop for Death”. The first thing that stuck out to me while reading this poem was the words that she chose to capitalize.  As you read the poem you may notice that words like Death, Civility, Immortality and Eternity are capitalized. I found this choice very interesting and began to focus my analysis immediately onto these words.

When reading the first line of this poem I felt the entire poem was going to be about death. Although within a minutes notice my mind began to change. It seems this poem is not about death, but about life. To me this poem feels as though it was someone cheating death, or an individual who feels that they should have passed away instead of a friend or family member that did. Dickenson personifies death and acts as though this individual is taking her on a tour to show her the wonderful reasons why she will remain in her life. It seems that this individual otherwise known as “death” slows down her life to make her notice things she once had not such as children at school or the setting sun.

I found her use of time to be quite interesting throughout this piece. The words “slowly” “paused”, “shorter”, and “eternity” were used throughout the piece. These words are not those that I would put together with death as death would speed up time but she is slowing it down. My first instinct was that death was in her life or those around her and made her reevaluate her life and slows down the precious time that she has.

The next poem I decided to analyze is “The Brain- is wider than the sky-”.  I found this poem extremely interesting as I knew what she was trying to express but the way she expressed it was magnificent. The brain is a very complex thing, one that is hard to express in words. I found her comparisons of the brain to the sky and to the sea truly thought provoking. When stating “the one the other will contain” Dickenson is stating than the brain can think about the sky but the sky cannot think about the brain. She analyzes the idea that the brain has an imagination and can soar into thoughts that nothing else can.  I found the line “with ease- and You- beside- to be confusing in itself.  I understand that Dickenson is stating that the brain will think about the sky with ease but adding “and You- beside” confused me. I felt as though she was trying to make – and You- stand out to readers but I could not figure out why.

In the next stanza Dickenson goes on to state “the one the other will absorb” when speaking about the sea. She compares the brain to a sponge and a bucket, describing the amount of information it is able to take in and grasp that no other object or body part can do. One part of this stanza that I did not understand was her comparison of the sea and the brain as both being blue. I was unsure if Dickenson was speaking about the brain in an emotional sense or as an object which is not in fact blue.

Lastly, and the stanza I found the most interesting, was when Dickenson compared the brain to God. I was unsure of where she was going with this stanza but did get the feeling that she was both comparing and contrasting the brain and her idea of god. When stating they are “as syllable from sound” she is contrasting the two and showing that there is a difference in her views. Although, when reading the stanza I also got the feeling that Dickenson found a similarity between the two. She stated, “the brain is just the weight of god”. I was unsure of what this meant when reading it but after further evaluating it I wonder if she compares the way peoples choices are made. For those who are extremely religious, god and their views make their decisions for them. Therefore, a person’s brain and god decide what is their destiny.