Month: December 2018

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

I chose this video because I found the plot of the Frankenstein a little bit confusing. Therefore; the video clears up many things. Also, I could better imagine the story because of cartoon like scenes.

I will focus on the beginning part of the video which explains how Frankenstein came to create that monster like creature. And how the desire for the knowledge is not always right thing. In fact, we always consider knowledge as something good but is the desire for knowledge always good ? I guess the answer lies in the what kind of knowledge we look for.

I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.

As a 17-year old teenage boy Victor went to Geneva to study at the university. After he attends a lecture in chemistry by a professor Waldman. This lecture, along with a subsequent meeting with the professor, convinces Victor to pursue his studies in the sciences.

Victor started his studies with enthusiasm and, ignoring his social. Fascinated by the mystery of the creation of life, he begins to study how the human body is built and how it falls apart. After several years of tireless work, he masters all that his professors have to teach him, and he goes one step further: discovering the secret of life.

He decides to begin the construction of a creature, envisioning the creation of a new race of wonderful beings.  Victor completes his creation. But when he brings it to life, its awful appearance horrifies him.

Those 3,4 and 5 chapters represents a theme of dangeours knowledge. As in this case, willingness to discover something such as creation of human life or life in general that lies beside the scope of the human abilities. As we all know human creature is not something we can built from parts. Therefore, the symbolic act of pursuing knowledge. Not only Frankenstein symbolized that.

Also, Robert Walton attempts to excel previous human explorations by trying to reach the North Pole.

We can see how their thirst for knowledge can bring them to places they were looking. But their desires end up as dangerous and unwanted. The strive for such knowledge drives one to his grave, and brings the other to realization of what could happen if he does not stop.

I believe there is kind of forbidden knowledge that if we pursuit it it is not going to end well for us.

“Where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity.”

Aphra Behn wrote the novel Oroonoko in 1688 and based it on her trip to what many researchers believe is Surinam.

Behn makes it clear in the beginning of the novel that she is “an eye-witness,”. She states that she is writing about true events and throughout the novel, she gives many details.

 

I chose this video because it contains not only summary of the plot but also, talks about the author and details on each character from the story in very understanding way. By not only talking but also presenting photos that help me better understand the plot.

 

In sum, Oroonoko is the story about a man who falls in love with an exceptional woman, Imoinda. However, their happiness does not last long. Mainly, because Oroonoko’s grandfather, the king, desires Imoinda for himself. Despite the fact that Oroonoko and Imoinda are married, the King forces her to become part of his Otan. Imoinda refuses to submit to his desires. King pretends to put Imoinda to death, when he has actually sold her into slavery.

Tricked into slavry by English sea captain, Oroonoko went to Surinam. There, his true identity is discovered and he is promised his freedom. He discovers Imoinda, now named Clemene and the reunited lovers finally live as husband and wife.

Soon after Imoinda conceives a child, Oroonoko begins to suspect further treachery on the part of the English . The uprising does not succeed and Oroonoko is betrayed by the Deputy Governor Byam.

Burning with a desire for revenge, Oroonoko decides to kill Imoinda and their unborn child, before killing Byam and then himself. Once again, his plan fails and having killed his beloved wife, his strength leaves him. At the end, he is brutally killed by Byam’s associate.

 

I would like to focus on the very last part of the novel which is Revolt in Surinam and mainly the act of killing his loved one. For me very tragic moment for both lovers when they realized that their life as a slaved with baby coming will be more difficult to get freedom.

He makes a plan to kill her first, take his revenge on Byam, and then kill himself. Taking Imoinda with him into the woods, he tells her “of the necessity of dying,” explains the impossibility of escape, and then reveals his plan. Being a dutiful, loving wife, she falls at his feet in gratitude for arranging such an honorable way for her spirit to return home. He draws his knife while

“tears trickle down his cheeks,” and he gives to her the “fatal stroke, first cutting her throat, and then severing her smiling face from that delicate body” (72).

I can understand the difficulty of being enslaved however; killing someone actually two people do not justify that decision. Of course, that plan was not the first option but came out after trying other options. But again, it does not justify killing .

Of course, I look at this piece from Christian perspective also, not being of course a slave therefore; it is harder to understand. For me there is no justification of taking someone else’s life.

 

Lu Xun the author of the “New Year Sacrifice “is regarded as one of the modern China’s most prominent and influential writers. His work promoted radical change through criticism of old-fashioned cultural values and repressive social customs.

Lu Xun’s “The New Year Sacrifice” touches the topic of feudal oppression that women suffered in the dark societal reality of China after the establishment of the new republic in 1911.

XiangLin’s Wife is a typical traditional Chinese woman. She is hardworking, kind, and strong, but feudal standards and traditional gender discrimination oppress and destroy her with a series of tragedies. These tragedies come from the moral control of feudalism towards women and finally lead to XiangLin’s Wife’s death. As the narrator says

“…none had changed so much as she had. Her hair, streaked with grey five years before, was now completely white, making her appear much older than one around forty. Her sallow, dark tinged face that looked as if it had carved out of wood was fearfully wasted and had lost the grief-stricken expression it had borne before.” P.170

She fits strongly into the category of traditional women she works from the early morning until the late night not really talking to much. We can see that from reading this

“…she worked from morning till night as if she found resting irksome, and proved strong enough to do the work of a man.”p.155

 

While I was reading it, I was thinking that this is not right. How people can treat someone that bad. In fact only because as in this case she was a window. Mainly, how she was treated and different attitudes toward her. The narrator says

“ my uncle frowned at this, and my aunt knew that he disapproved of taking on a widow.” P175.

For me, it seems so surreal because how thing such as being a widow is the reason to be rejected from work. According to me, people that should be ashamed are those like uncle from the novel.

 

Secondly, the story shows that women were unimportant in Chinese society not even called by their real names but rather as the character from the book she was called but her husband’s name.

“ Everybody called her Xianglin’s Wife and no one asked her own name, but since she had been introduced by someone from Wei Village as a neighbour, her surname was presumably also Wei.” P.175

 

What shocked me the most is that after all, the feudalistic society disregard the mother-in-law to sell Xiang Lin Sao and force her to remarry. And yet the same feudalistic ethics criticizes her remarriage. That is so absurd for me.