Author Archives: chanah.schnoll

https://www.pinterest.com/hannarocker/tale-of-genji/

In the Duchess of Malfi there are many instances of extreme violence, which is a signature theme of Jacobean style plays. Violence ensues when the conventional systems of social order are neglected: when the laws and rules are broken, and when there is intermingling between the rich and poor individuals in society.

This style of violence and lack of social order reminds me of the movie, The Purge: Anarchy. The idea behind the Annual Purge stems from the new founding fathers desire to end the rampant crime and violence in America. The solution the fathers foresaw was to make all malicious crimes legal once a year for 12 hours, nothing is off-limits. From the moment of Purge commencement murder, robbery, rape, and kidnapping are all legal, and all policing authorities and hospitals are suspended. The only thing forbidden is to commit crimes against high-level government officials. The idea behind the Purge is to get the crime out of your system, and during the rest of the year crime is at an all time low. What ultimately happens is utter chaos and violence, and an extreme lack of social order that comes with a lack of rules and authority.

Some of the citizens take this annul Purge to extreme violence. Some of them go out and avenge those that have wronged them, but some citizen stock pile weapons and go out to Purge for sport. The movie displays images of violence, bloodshed, and dead bodies hanging in the street. Men, women and children are ripped from their homes and brutally murdered there is no way to protect your self from the Purge.

Additionally, sometimes you’ll find that the people closest to you are the one’s that will turn on you. For instance, there were these two sisters and one suspected her sister of having sex with her husband, and she shot her in the head. This society of the new founding fathers much like the duchess which lacks strict social order, proves to the degree in which violence will ensue.

Not only that, but the Purge gives the wealthy class an advantage over the poor because they can afford better security systems and weapons to protect themselves. There are even conspiracies that the government have allowed for the Purge as a method for population control and as a weeding out process. These class distinctions even allow the wealthy to purchase poorer individuals so that they can participate in the Purge from the safety of their own homes. The idea that these wealthy elitists are cleansing themselves by killing the poor is unfair and extremely gruesome.

I have chosen to compare the song Howl at the Moon by the Script to Drinking  Alone with the Moon by the Chinese Tang Poet Li Bo, translated by Stephen Owen. In both the Poem and the song there is a strong relationship between the author and artist in the way they relate to the moon. The moon as a celestial object takes on a human role to converse with both the poet and the artist respectively in their own unique ways. Not only that but, both the poem and the artist were each looking for companionship and answers from the moon as well. I also see a connection between the moon and the heavens, almost in a way that they weren’t ask the moon, but looking up to heaven and trying to converse with god himself.

In the Poem, Drinking Alone with the Moon, Li Bo describes his relationship with the moon as his sole friend and only companion besides himself and his shadow.

He says:

“I drink alone, no friend with me

I raise my cup to invite the moon

He and my shadow make three”

He is alone and happy to be so, but  he confides in the moon his one true confidant. With the moon he feels safe to express his true self. Bo is comfortable dancing in the moons presence, and truly embracing himself and his shadow, when he is his true sober self. But when he no longer feels connected to the earth when he is drunk, that is when his relationship with the moon gets rocky. He no longer can maintain the connection to this world, and that is why he chooses to severe his connection with the moon and reality. But when he comes out of his drunkenness he want nothing more to pick up where he left off. Just himself and the moon to conquer all, an unlikely friendship.

“I sing the moves moon moves to and fro

I dance my shadow leaps and sways

Still sober, we exchange our joys

Drunk and we’ll go our separate ways

Let’s pledge-beyong human ties to be friends

And meet where the Silver River ends”

Meanwhile in the song, “Howl at the Moon“, The Script converses with the moon when he is trying to figure out what he wishes to become. He looks at the sky:

“Lying in my backyard

Head is facing skyward

I’d imagine all the things that I could be

A pilot or a fighter

An astronaut or writer

Anything except just being me

The artist is uncomfortable with who he is, and is trying to discovers who he should be!”

He wonders and converses with the moon just like Bo:

“With the moon as the spotlight

That shines on me

And the stars were the lighters in the air

And the wind screaming loud sounded just like a crowd

And I swore I was already there

I’d howl at the moon

I’d howl at the moon”

He asks the moon and the stars which shine down on him, and the wind which sounds like a large crowd of people to answer him. To guide him, and show him the correct path. The artist keeps howling at the moon hoping for an answer from this animate object, who cannot answer him. He is looking for a friend and a companion in the moon. The longer he howls at the moon, the louder the sounds become. He hopes much like Bo to gain  a greater understanding of himself with these interaction with the moon. But I think that it goes much deeper than that in the way in which he connects the moon to a godly figure. Perhaps the moon is just a metaphor for connecting with God himslef!

Drinking Alone with the Moon: Li Bo

“A Pot of wine among the flowers

I drink alone, no friend with me

I raise my cup to invite the moon

He and my shadow make three

The moon does not know how to drink;

My shadow mines capering;

But i’ll make merry with them both

And soon enough it will be spring

I sing the moves moon moves to and fro

I dance my shadow leaps and sways

Still sober, we exchange our joys

Drunk and we’ll go our separate ways

Let’s pledge-beyong human ties to be friends

And meet where the Silver River ends”