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

1. In Franz Kafkas’ The Metamorphosis, Gregors unconditional love from his family is tested as he goes through this transformation that has not only changed him physically but mentally as well.
2. Metamorphosis is the profound change of the nature of a person into one completely different, and we saw this in Gregor as he changed into a cockroach as well as this human spirit that he have come to love.
3. The more aware and accepting you are with your situation, the more at ease one will feel. Gregors acceptance of change is the change that he always needed.

In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregors dad started crying when he saw his son as a cockroach as appose to the chief clerk who was in utter shock. The chief clerk and Gregors mother initial reaction was to get away to safety. All three were repulsed but the fathers reaction was particularly different because he “covered his eyes with his hands and cried”(217) but didn’t seem surprised that this happened. The clerk gasping oh and the mom running away are both signs that they were surprised but the dad was not at all bewildered. This makes me think that he has seen this before or knows about the transformation and why it happened. Also supporting this detail was when Gregors dad was leading Gregor back to his room “not obstructing him but even directed the turning manoeuvre from a distance with gestures from his can”(220). The dad “to that point has remained relatively calm”(219) which can mean he is familiar with this issue or he remains collective for his son and family sake.

In Moliere’s Tartuffe, religious and political characters are viewed in a negative aspect to further elaborate just how corrupt the archbishop and the religious system is.

In Tartuffe, Moliere creates characters the embodies high power in a religious system which is full of deceit and corruption .

In Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler we are introduced to Hedda, a wealthy daughter of a general who marries into a lower middle class family. Hedda is a mischievous and cynical girl who is motivated by greed and we see that through out the play. She is not content with her lifestyle and the family she married into. She was always trying to get things done her way, and for the most part did. Since she was royalty, she as used to having the best and Mr. Tesman made sure of that even though he couldn’t afford her lifestyle. Hedda did many things at the stake of others just for her own entertainment. She tries to pull the strings and manipulate everyone for her own entertainment. She doesn’t care about things until it is gone such as the love Loveborg had for her and the attention/pampering her husband gave her. She ask if its wrong that “she wants a glimpse of a world that is not permitted to her”(812).  Even though she does not love, Hedda cant bare the fact of somebody else having something that she cant. This ultimately lead to her killing herself, which is ironic because she caused the death of her first love.

Even though the narrator from Life of a Sensuous Woman by Ihara Saikaku and Du Tenth from Feng Menglong’s “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger ” are both prostitutes, their similarities end there. It is refreshing to see  woman with common profession and corresponding time period  have such polar perspectives on Love. In Life of a Sensuous Woman, the narrator was on a journey looking for the “right one” and essentially what is love. She has a hard time differentiating Love and Lust. Du Tenth on the other hand  thought she found eternal love and was  ultimately crush when li Jia sold her off like a possession at his disposal. Unlike the narrators’ passive demeanor, Du tenth was mortified stating Li has ” abandoned me and betrayed my earnest heart” and therefore threw away the jewelry bow. Even though it can be argued that it was irrational, she was deep with emotion and was a way to cope. Du tenth all though a prostitute, is affectionate and wears her emotions on her sleeve for everyone to see. She is the opposite of sensuous and died with a broken heart giving her life away saying “neither of us understands the way of sensuous love deeply enough yet” (Saikaku 594).