great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Krystal, Moria, and Simona

In the novella “Aura” by Carlos Fuentes the second person is used throughout the play. One interpretation is that the second person narrative brings the reader to a present state of mystery, while taking the reader on a journey through Felipes stream of consciousness. When Felipe meets Aura for the first time the narrator says, “Finally you can see that those eyes are sea green and that they surge, break to foam, grow calm again, then surge again like a wave. You look into them and tell yourself it isn’t true, because they’re beautiful green eyes just like all the beautiful green eyes you’ve ever known” (835-836). Here we see that the narrator uses mystery, which pulls in the reader the same way it pulls in Felipe to her eyes. We can suggest from this, that Felipe may be in a dream like state throughout the entire story. The narrator adds many details to the story as it develops which creates a mystery for the reader while there is a mystery for Felipe to solve as well. Thus, this brings us to the unsolved quest, for the ‘You’ in Aura is a mystery.

Another interpretation that second person narrative brings is that it helps the reader actually feel like they are the main character. From the moment that the story starts there is a sense that the reader is the one who is actually going through all the actions that are written. Almost, like being in a dream state, where there is no observer to tell you the story, except for you experiencing it. You can say that Aura is the ‘dream’ that the character is thinking about. As the story progresses he falls more and more for her as mentioned, “thinking only about the beauty of Aura” (842). The reader is able to experience this type of dream love through the technique that the author is using. They get a closer connection as if it is them who are falling in love with Aura. As the story continues, with every detail that is give, it brings the reader closer to the dream. With, every “You” the author mentions the more he pulls the reader into the story, into thinking they are the ones going through the plot. It’s almost like the plot and the reader become one.

References to Aura are discovered by Felipe in the General’s journal. This is strange because those manuscripts were written a half of a century earlier. It becomes difficult to distinguish past from present with the second person narration, there is a continuous mystery of who is Aura, is she real? When the light from the moon shined on Aura at the end of the story, the narrator says, “You stop kissing those flesh less lips, those toothless gums: the ray of moonlight shows you the naked body of the old lady, of Senora Consuelo, limp, spent, tiny, ancient, trembling because you touch her. You love her, you too have come back” (Fuentes 852). It becomes evident that Senora has been Aura this whole time. We can also see this more clearly when Felipe discovers that he looks exactly like General Llorente. These two may have been past lovers. This could give the notion that love goes on forever that is why people feel like home, it is because their Aura’s give off an energy that is undeniable and oddly familiar.

One day Gregor Samsa woke up feeling different, he woke up as a “monstrous cockroach”. He was not prepared was the reaction that he was going to get when he exposed himself to his family and the surprise appearance of the Chief Clerk at his house. The reaction is quite different between the father and the clerk. The father came to be less understand and more aggressive towards the situation. As it was mentioned, “His father cliched his fist with a pugnacious expressions as if ready to push Gregor back into his room..” (217). The father is reacting to this with much anger towards what happened to his son, such as “clinching his fist”, not believing his eyes. He seems like the person that would need to solve the problem no matter what the cost is, even if that means to have to put some force into it. On the other hand the clerk seemed more in shock than anger with everything he is seeing. The clerk’s reaction was described as, “his hand pressed against his open mouth, and slowly retreating, as if being pushed by an invisible buy irresistible force” (217). Unlike Gregor’s father, the clerk seems to be scared of what is happening, and in shock of the whole situation. He wants to leave the place as fast as possible with the description of “retreating” from Gregor. He understands that this is weird and that the only possible scenario for him is to run away from the craziness that is happening.

Punishment by Tagore explores the ethical problems of how much a man’s life is worth compare to a woman. Chidam, is one of the brothers and is put in a position where he does not know what to value more. He says, “Thakur, if I lose my wife I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how can I replace him?” (895). Just from the words “I can get another” shows the problem of how much that culture during that time, valued their women compare to men. It is as if she is just a piece of object that can be easily replaced because she is a woman, while his brother who is a man cannot be replaced at all. There is a sense of an unequal balance of value of the two genders. The author clearly shows that when it comes to choice between what is more important to save, a man’s life will be valued more. It’s an ethical problem that is explored throughout the story with the character not knowing if he should fully commit to saving his wife, which at the end he does not manage to do. If he actually truly appreciated his wife, and loved her maybe he would have been able to save her. Maybe, if a woman’s life was more important to that culture at the time his wife could have been saved from hanging. Since, she already said she committed the crime there was no way of taking it back, but if her husband would have told the truth in the first place, his word would have been taken seriously. The ending could have been different if a woman’s life would have been valued more during that time

Thesis 1:

In Moliere’s Tartuffe, satire on religion plays a big role, through the character of Orgon and his interaction with his family members towards Tartuffe, that blindsides him to a betrayal that is his future.

Thesis 2:

The narrator in Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman, is able to share her story about her life as a woman during this time in Japan and what she had to do in order to survive, giving an inside look at how women were looked upon.

In the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, the main protagonist Hedda Tesman posses the trait of manipulation. This gives her a desire to control and have power over people. Hedda does not like the idea of people trying to control her and it is evident from the moment she steps into the room, where everything has to be perfect for her. Through out the play there is sense that she does not really see people for people. It almost seems like the characters in the play are pawns for her life. She is a great manipulator and is able to make people think she is friends with them and make them comfortable enough that they will give her all the information she desires. This is evident in many instances such as in act one when she talks to Mrs. Elevsted and was able to get her secrets about her life. While in act two, Eliert Lovborg says “Ah, Hedda — what kind of power was in you that drew these confessions out of me?” (812). He is one of Hedda’s former lovers who was almost shot by her. He does not even understand how he fell under this spell of hers, but she is a powerful woman who has everyone wrapped around her finger. It seems that when she gets bored with her life she uses her “pawns” to entertain her. This is where her manipulator skills come in handy. Just like this quote mentions that she has this “power” over people and she likes it. What ever she wants from people, she will make sure she gets it out of them. This is just one of the moments that her manipulator trait comes to light. From getting someone’s secrets to hiding her emotions towards someone. She is in control of the game and it is always the one that manipulates the game knows how its going to play out and how it will end.

             These two narrations shared the same profession in life but their experience and the way they dealt with it came to be different. Du Tenth is the main character in Feng Menglong’s, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” was a able to experience what it was like to love someone, unlike Saikaku’s character in “Life of a Sensous Woman”.Even though Du Tenth was a prostitute and slept with many men she was still able to fall in love. As it was described, “Nonetheless, the two grew ever more devoted to one another, and happily spent both day and night in each other’s company, just like a married couple” (501). Du Tenth, loved Master Li unlike Saikaku who just got used to the situation when she was stuck with the monk. Saikaku would describe that at first she hated being with the monk and it was a terrible situation, however as time went by it was as if she started to miss him. It was not her falling in love with him, it was almost her just accepting the situation that she was in and getting used to the fact that this was going to be her life. While reading Du Tenth’s story it felt like she cared more about the person she was with unlike Saikaku. Saikaku just went from man to man without having any connection with anyone, she never experienced betrayal. Du Tenth couldn’t believe she did get betrayed as she said, “You have abandoned me at mid journey and betrayed my earnest heart” (516). There is a sense of feeling bad for the character even though she is a prostitute where as when Saikaku was telling her story the reader might not have felt such a remorse towards the character.