Ancient Literature in our Modern World

For this week’s online assignment you’ll need to know what Jacobean drama is (consult the course assignment page for further info). We’ll be discussing Jacobean drama in class, but here is a helpful link. Remember – The Duchess of Malfi is a quintessentially Jacobean drama — so over-the-top violence, incest, jealousy, revenge! Those are the kinds of characteristics typical of Jacobean plays.

Here’s an article from The Guardian that provides some helpful background:

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/jan/20/jacobean-tragedies-changeling-duchess-malfi

“On the face of it, few things seem more remote to 21st-century Britain than the world of Jacobean tragedy: a shadowy universe in which sexual and political betrayal combine with incest, insanity, forced marriage and ferocious honour codes that would not disgrace the 19th-century mafia (many are, indeed, set in Italy). Their cast-lists are often an alphabet soup of semi-southern European names; their belief systems seem impossibly remote. And that’s to reckon without the bizarre plotting. The Duchess of Malfi is tortured by her brothers for having remarried, then strangled along with two of her children; one brother runs mad. In The Changeling, the heroine loses her virginity to her disfigured servant – the ironically named De Flores – then is forced to pimp out her maid to the man she herself is in love with (the maid dies in a fire). In ‘Tis Pity, a sister becomes guiltily pregnant by her brother, only for her heart to be cut out and skewered on a dagger. Women Beware Women culminates in a killing spree administered by poisoned incense.”

One thing in The Duchess of Malfi that astounds me is the fact that Ferdinand and the Cardinal wont allow the Duchess to remarry. The Duchess is a grown women and i believe she can make decisions on her own and doesn’t need the approval of her brothers to do so. On page 70 Line 136 the Duchess says “Why should only I of all the other princes of the world be cased up like a holy relic? I have youth, and a little beauty.” For some reason the Cardinal and Ferdinand are completely against the idea of her having a second husband. Ferdinand even brings up the case that the Duchess has lost her Reputation. “You have shook hands with Reputation and made him invisible (Lines 134-135).”

My questions are:

1) Why are Ferdinand and the Cardinal against the Duchess remarrying?

2) Why is the Duchess allowing her brothers to control her life, causing her to be secretly married?

3) Do you agree with the fact that the Duchess is essentially a “holy relic”?

Here are some useful links to help you navigate this complicated play! And help you answer your questions due this week:

Some background on Acts 1 and 2

What is a malcontent?

A really nice PDF that provides helpful notes for some key parts of the play

I felt that both On&on by Joey badass was a connection to the poem Drinking Alone by Li Bo. The first time i read this poem there was a very unnerving vibe about it, i think everyone has a moment where they feel the need to drink alone but when he uses the moon and his own shadow to substitute them for friends or just people they meet it made me think of this song. In joey’s song, On&on it relates to being alone and that not everyone can be trusted and sometimes you need to be alone to recollect your thoughts and goals on life. One of the lines in his poem that goes,

(” We share life’s joys when sober. Drunk, each goes separate way.”)

You can compare this to a line in joeys song that goes,

(“Happiness is temporary, always has been. I just lost one but sometimes i win.”)

i feel that you can compare the feeling of loss with being drunk and that when you drink you are essentially wanting to forget all the negative things in life. In both the song and poem you can relate to the feeling of being isolated and that only a few friends will actually stand up for you, or in Li Bo’s case the moon and his own shadow. There was another line in this poem that stood out to me and it goes

(“Constant friends, although we wander, we’ll meet again in the milky way.”)

you can compare this line to a line in joey’s song that goes,

(“Whenever you need me just take a plane to the astral zone.”)

I think both these lines can be interpreted to the people that they won’t meet again during their lifetimes but they were close friends or whatnot and they will meet again in their afterlives. Both of these artists has a really unique way of expressing their forms of being alone and it caught my eye because sometimes i cant help but feel the same way.

The assignment due Tuesday has been posted under course assignments as a Word Doc. Here is the link to The Duchess of Malfi available at the Baruch bookstore:

http://www.amazon.com/Duchess-Malfi-Other-Plays-Law-Case/dp/0199539286/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424359206&sr=1-4&keywords=The+Duchess+of+Malfi

And here’s the version I originally ordered, also acceptable for class:

http://www.amazon.com/Duchess-Malfi-New-Mermaids/dp/1472520653/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424359206&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Duchess+of+Malfi

Clytemnestra wasn’t the first to bring so much violence into the House of Atreus!

Here’s the story of their violent family lineage

And a simplified family tree

Hi everyone,

Under “course assignments” you will find details for your online assignment due Feb 17. We’re taking a break from the blog to use Google Docs this week, so make sure you’re familiar and comfortable with the platform!!

Here are some helpful links:

Set up a Google Account (you can use whatever account name you want — all that matters is that your name and your partner’s name are at the top of the doc you share with me). Please note: only one of you needs to share the Doc with me. 

Link to Google Docs

How to use Google Docs and how to chat on Google Docs

How to share your Google Doc (you must share it with me at [email protected] to submit it)

The poem that stood out to me the most was Du Fu’s “Moonlight Night”. The poem relates in many ways to a song by Shedaisy, called “Come Home Soon”. Both, the poem and the song are based on the concept of missing someone. In Du Fu’s “Moonlight Night” he is writing about his wife and how she missed him while he was being held captive in the capital of Chang’an during the An Lushan Rebellion, while Shedaisy’s, “ Come Home Soon”, is also about a woman missing her husband, only he is out at war. Although one was written from a male perspective and the other one from a female perspective, they have many similarities. One similarity for instance, is the language being used. Another similarity would be the way both the poem and the song has a change in mood from beginning to end. In the beginning, the subjects seem full of loneliness, anguish and worry. Contrary to the end of both the poem and the song, where they had more of an optimistic outlook.

In the beginning of “Moonlight Night”, Do Fu says:

From her room in Fuzhu tonight
All alone she watches the moon

Far away, I grieve that her children
cant understand why she thinks of Chang’an.

As you can see, Do Fu uses words such as alone and grieve to express his wife’s emotions of loneliness, anguish and worry. With words as such being used the poem speaks directly to the audience.

The same was done in the song. In “Come Home Soon”, Shedaisy says:

And I sleep alone
I cry alone
And it’s so hard livin’ here on my own
So please, come home soon

Shedaisy also uses words that speak directly to the audience. Words such as alone, hard and cry lead me to believe that she was also full of loneliness, anguish and worry as Do Fu’s wife was.

The end of both pieces depict a different outlook. Total opposite, in my opinion. Instead of depicting a negative outlook throughout the entire pieces, the authors switched up and ended both on more of a positive one.

“Moonlight Night” ended with:

When will we lean by chamber curtains
And let it light the two of us, our tear stains dried?

These two lines represent the change in mood from negative to positive. It leads me to believe that their is hope after the storm. He believes that he and his wife will meet again. By him asking when, he is being optimistic. He is hoping for the best.

Just as in “Moonlight Night”, Shedaisy depicts the same positive outlook toward the end of the song.

I still imagine your touch
Its beautiful missing somebody that much
But sometimes love needs a fighting chance
So I’ll wait my turn until its our turn to dance

These lyrics depict a positive outlook. Yes, she is lonely and missing her husband, but to her the “love” is worth it. Which is why she is willing to wait as long as need be until the day its they’re turn to dance.

As I menntioned before, although we are dealing with two totally different pieces, there are many similarities between them. Starting with the language and ending with the mood.

When I read “Thoughts While Travelling at Night” by Du Fu, I am instantly reminded by the song “If I Lose Myself Tonight.” Originally by OneRepublic, I think of this cover of the song by Madilyn Bailey and Corey Gray. The original song is a little bit more upbeat with the EDM remix even moreso. This rendition of the song sets a somber mood, very similar to the mood of the poem.

I stared up at the sun
Thought of all the people, places and things I’ve loved
I stared up just to see
Of all the faces,
You are the one next to me

You can feel the light start to tremble
Washing what you know out to sea
You can see your life out of the window, tonight

Light breeze on the fine grass.

I stand alone at the mast.

Stars leap on the vast wild plain.

Moon bobs in the Great River’s spate.