Friday, May 8, 2009
Part 3
Part 2
The Odyssey Part 1
Jane Eyre
Part2
Walcott's The Odyssey Part 1
Wide Sargasso Sea
Dracula
There will always be a nostalgia with this novel for me, because I’ve probably seen the movie like ten times since I was nine. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is such a power house. There’s so many strange mysteries in this novel. For one why is Dracula so determined to have John Harker? And why does he need him to teach him English? It seemed more like Dracula had Johnathan there so that he could observe him. The scene with the three vampire women and the mysterious love that Dracula once had goes unexplained or developed. Strangely Harker doesn't display guilt or shame of his desire for the women, or for them to bite him, like how Mina does after Dracula forces her to drink from him. Mina and Lucy are essentially polar opposites. Lucy all womanly wiles and lolita like playfulness. Mina is complimented for having a manlike efficiency and intelligence. They're both symbols for lust though, Lucy the whore and Mina the Mary. It's sort of hard to believe that they're friends, but I guess maybe they admire the qualities the other has that they lack. Also the fact that the novel is all first hand accounts from multiple characters from their diaries or letters was an unexpected twist. It's really nice that it maintains the same time frame the entire novel, because sometimes authors like to jump around from time or location and Stoker doesn't do that. Usually who ever's speaking is the most important voice at that moment. I appreciate that, sometimes when contemporary authors do that it feels like they're waiting for their movie deal.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Mother Courage and Her Children
The focus for this play was the idea of profiting from war. Or better profiting from death. Mother Courage is that sort of swindler business woman. The kind of woman who could sell you your own shoe. Her voice is so distinct in the play. The way that she talks is aggressive, she’s constantly asserting her presence. It’s possible that her greatest flaw is her inability to be invisible. She’s just too visible. Mother Courage fights against the idea that women become invisible or second to men in times of war. She has a certain shamelessness At times this comes across as fearlessness, and others a crude character trait. Her daughter contrasts her in two ways, one that she is silent and two that she is compassionate. The scene where she saves the children at the cost of her own life both gives her importance in the play as a hero but also that she highlights all of the things that Mother Courage isn’t. The sons ultimately acts as lessons for Mother Courage. They prove that she is neither immune or above the cost of war. Though she profits from it, she also has to feel the cost of it’s occurrence. She’s a very ugly character that Brecht never tries to redeem. He let’s her tireless pursuit of money be her folly.