King Lear: Act 3 Q. 1

Act 3
Question 1:
Read Gloucester’s lines beginning with line 171 in Act III, scene 4. It starts “Canst thou blame him?” It then continues to express Gloucester’s terrible hurt at the thought that Edgar, his beloved son, has betrayed him. Of course, the dramatic irony is palpable because Edgar is standing right there, but that is an analytical discussion for another time.
Here, I would like you to consider the human emotional response to rejection and betrayal—especially by those you love. It is perhaps the most painful of experiences. Only grief after a death competes with it. What is it like? What does it do to a person? Consider deeply what Gloucester (and Lear, and Edgar, and Cordelia, and Kent) is experiencing. Consider the pain that they are living with.

Rejection and betrayal genuinely suck. They hurt. A lot. And it’s really hard to move on from.

With rejection, it’s like that sinking feeling in your heart when your dignitary is stripped away. The rejecter takes any self-confidence you might have had and there isn’t much you can do but sulk in self-pity afterwards. It is in fact the most painful of experience next to the death of a loved one.

Betrayal, on the other hand, is like a stab in the back. It’s sharp and rather than wallowing in self-pity, betrayal evokes anger. Well, at least for me personally. It’s also like a punch in the stomach: it takes a while to register what that person did; you are in disbelief and shocked that a person could do such a thing.

Gloucester and the other characters in King Lear experience pain because of betrayal and rejection. Specifically in Gloucester’s case, after calling out for Edmund to help him, Regan blatantly reveals Edmund is the traitor who put him in this situation. Gloucester is completely rejected of getting any help what-so-ever in his moment of need. And as if that rejection doesn’t hurt enough, Gloucester realizes Edgar has betrayed him. It’s like a slapped in the face, so-to-speak, as he grasps that he was very wrong about his sons. He experiences this all alone, which makes it all the more painful for him. Gloucester doesn’t have anyone to talk to about his grief.

Adding more to his painful epiphany, Gloucester gets brutally beaten. It becomes a very metaphorical scene: when he has the revelation before, he literally and figuratively is able to see. However when Cornwall gouges his eyesight, Gloucester is unable to see. He literally becomes blind and figuratively cannot see past the anguish and betrayal he feels.

King Lear: Act 2 Q. 2

Act 2
Question 2:
What is it—what could it conceivably be—that would make children turn against their parent as completely as Goneril and Regan have turned against Lear? They’ve gone beyond irritation and its consequent neglect to outright cruelty. You may consider this question either specifically in reference to the two women (imagine their backstory the way you did Edgar’s) or consider it in general. Where do the terrible resentments of children for their parents come from? What is so very powerful about that relationship?

Goneril and Regan turn against Lear in the fourth scene of Act 2. It’s not too difficult to see the reasoning behind their actions. Lear handed the kingdom over to them, and still wants to have all the perks of being king. This creates a huge amount of conflict between his daughters and him; he expects to be respected and have authority over something he handed off. I think this is where all the resentment stems from. It would be like giving a 16 year old a brand new car, and then wanting to drive it everywhere. Lear needs to realize that it’s not his kingdom to run anymore. These sisters are incredibly selfish and are motivated to show their father who is boss. They want to live independently and have a feeling of control and power. This drives them to overturn their father.

When Regan and Gonerial act out Lear becomes very angry, which is what they want. The first instance we see this is when Regan refuses to see her father when he arrives at the castle. Her reason is because she is exhausted from traveling. It’s a huge slap in the face to Lear and shows her lack of respect. More so when they eventually come down, Lear questions why Kent is in stocks; by putting Kent in the stocks Regan clearly indicates the extent of lack of respect she has for her father.

Lear then makes a huge fool of himself and beings talking about hating Gonerial and says he wishes she were never born. Regan pushes her father over the edge and tells him to get over himself and to stay with Gonerial. After she does this, Gonerial enters and holds Regan’s hand. This shows they are united and Lear is on his own. Regan is clearly undercutting his authority even more.

King Lear: Act 2 Q. 3

Act 2
Question 3:
Consider Edgar’s state of mind when he takes on the persona of Tom O’Bedlam. Certainly, he is trying to disguise himself, but this is an extreme disguise indeed. Consider why he chose this particular disguise. What would drive him to this? Again, you can do this as a mini-essay, but it might be more interesting and more informative to write from Edgar’s perspective. Do whatever comes most naturally to you, but don’t write to fill space—be thoughtful.

Edger decides to change his appearance to look like Tom O’Bedlam because he is still loyal to his father. When Edger returns to Gloucester’s castle and see’s Lear’s servant, Kent in the stocks, Edger realizes something is still very wrong. Edger recognizes Edmund is still out to get revenge and understands he is out to get his dad. His motivation to dress like Tom is his want to remain loyal to his dad. However, he doesn’t fully understand what Edmund is doing which is why he can’t simply march back into the castle.

Also because Edger has been kicked out, he realizes no one, particularly Lear and Gloucester, is going to be willing to listen to him. If he goes into Gloucester’s castle, he is likely to be attacked because of Edmund’s accusations. They aren’t going to wait for an explanation of what was going on.

Edger instead opts to rub mud over himself to make him look like Tom O’Bedlam. This choice of disguise is significant for a couple of reasons. For one, Bedlam is a reference to describe a confused, chaotic situation. But more importantly, Bedlam was the title of an insane asylum in England. Edger chooses to disguise himself as this character because no one will question a crazy-looking person. It will also show his confused state of mind – no thanks to Edmund.

It’s very interesting to see the ‘good’ characters getting casted out of their homes. Edmund arguably hasn’t had much bad done to Edger however he still gets to stay. This is similar to Kent and even Cordelia, who is banished from England for telling her father the truth about her feelings. The theme of good versus evil becomes very prevalent throughout the novel.

King Lear: Q. 3

Act 1
Question 3:
How do you understand the relationship between Cordelia and Lear? He seems to love her, and she him, but how? Why is she unable to speak when her very survival depends on her speaking? Why is he unable to hear her truth?
To take the same concept from another angle…. While her sisters’ speeches are excellent examples of verbal manipulation, the one person (Cordelia) who goes in honestly with Lear’s best interests at heart is punished because she doesn’t want (or know how to) “play the game.” Have you seen situations like this? Have you used your powers of manipulation to get what you want? Have you been the loser in a game like this?

Lear has a skewed look on love to begin with, and that makes his relationship with all three of his daughters, particularly with Cordelia, who he favors, very odd. When Lear decides he doesn’t want to rule the kingdom anymore and is going to divide the land between them, he chooses to turn it into a competition of whoever loves him the most will inherit the best part of his kingdom. The daughters give a speech about why they love him; this is a problem because you cannot prove you love someone simply by saying nice things.

Cordelia has a hard time with the concept of verbal manipulation. I feel it has to do with Lear favoring Cordelia over the other sisters, and she is unable to measure up to his expectations. He wants a reason to give his favorite daughter the best part of his kingdom. She doesn’t play the game though, and is unable to put her love into words. She says she loves him like a daughter should love her father.

Afterwards, Cordelia says because her sisters are married they clearly cannot love him as much as they say they do. Lear does not want to hear this and gets really angry. He essentially disinherits her because she will not be overwhelming in her feelings towards him. This just goes to show Lear is impulsive, and not necessarily with good ones at that.

In terms of myself being in situations like Cordelia’s, I feel that I have been – and I have played the game like the other sisters to get my way. I had to learn overtime how to play it though; when I was younger, I use to scream and pout when I didn’t get my way. This caused me to lose the game quite often. I learned mostly from my brother that in order to win, it’s mostly about tone of voice or how a questioned is phrased. Making an effort to show – or sound – like you care also makes a huge difference in getting what you want.

King Lear: Q. 1

Act 1
Question 1:
Identify with Edmund. What do you know about family dynamics and parents’ treatment of children that might make him act the way he does? What is there to respect about him? Why do you think Gloucester treats him the way he does? Is there any modern day equivalent to this?

Edmund is an interesting character in King Lear. He is apart of the Gloucester family, who is going through an internal conflict of what it means to love and trust your family. Part of the family’s dynamic that greatly affects Edmund being a bastard son while his older sibling Edger is legitimate.

Depending on how the first scene is interpreted - or rather, staged – the audience identifies with Edmund differently by how his relationship with his father is portrayed. For example in a conversation about Edmund, Gloucester reveals to Kent that while his relationship with Edmund’s mother was very enjoyable, he is embarrassed of Edmund. Edmund either hears this and most likely won’t like his father, or he is called over half way between and his relationship with his father is clearly different.

In the second scene, Edmund’s true character is revealed by his actions. He has a bit of an obsession with being the illegitimate son and knows when Gloucester dies, Edger is going to inherit all of his father’s land. In order to prevent this and for Edmund to get anything, Edger has to die.

I don’t view Edmund as a respectable character. He tries to play the ‘good’ son and that isn’t who he really is. He composes a letter supposedly from his brother Edger that says he wants to kill Gloucester in order to take over the Kingdom. It also says if Edmund helps he will be rewarded. Gloucester now trusts Edmund and thinks Edger is the ‘bad’ guy, which is what Edmund wants.

The reality is just the opposite though. Edmund tells Gloucester not to question Edger and says Edger wrote it to test Edmund. He makes it look like he is defending Edger, when in reality he is trying to destroy him. Edmund tells Gloucester he’ll talk to Edger and Gloucester can ease drop. This creates a large rift between the family.

BNW Response #4

After responding to question three, the answer is quite clear for me: I feel the society presented in Brave New World is bad. I don’t think I could live in a world full of false happiness and brainwashed people. There is no freedom of expression, which makes Huxley’s view of the future horrifying.

In thinking about a Utopia makes me think of the movie, Pleasantville. We watched it on this year’s Diversity Day. It’s about a teenage boy and girl who are completely opposites, and they gets ‘sucked’ into the television and placed into what seems to be an I Love Lucy sitcom. Everything is perfect in this society and needless to say, it’s colorless. The citizens aren’t allowed - or rather they just don’t know - about individuality, emotions, pain, war…really anything outside their perfect world. So to imagine that kind of world and actually live in it seems terrible.

Also, to not be able to feel emotions and to just sleep around with everyone with no consequences is very disturbing to me. It desensitizes the meaning of life.

BNW Response #3

In the discussion between Mustapha Mond and John Savage about civilization in chapter 17, it’s very apparent of their opposite mind sets. Mond’s argument boils down to him thinking society is perfectly fine the way it is. He feels it’s okay to let the leaders in society control people’s emotions and minds, and explains to John why society has no need for God, as the citizens don’t fear death. Mond goes on saying everything negative and bad have been taken out of society. There is no need to leave or question the State because everyone is happy.

John’s argument focuses on being an individual and having the ability to make decisions where they are good or bad. John wants to learn and feel emotion! He feels people should be able to learn from their mistakes and not take soma to make them feel better. When he says, “What you need is something with tears for a change,” John’s argument is clear: feelings are necessary to have a compatible, free society. “Nothing costs enough here,” also hints that when everything is free, only materialistic things are gained; nothing is learned because nothing is given up. John wants individuality and intelligence to have value, and it has to come with a price.

BNW Response #2

Sex, games, and sayings like “ending is better than mending” are used to limit the search for truth, a threat the State’s control. They maintain stability and show everyone is equal by everyone having sex with one another in their respective social class. Additionally, the government encourages no commitment sex to eliminate humans from attaching to each other – thus, building on the idea that everyone is equal to the State, happy and won’t revolt.

This applies to games too; no one wants to be the odd man out, like Bernard for example, and so they stick together as a community. Moreover, games are also used to condition children against questioning. They become accustomed to playing and believe it’s nothing more than fun. It consumes their time and allows the government to have more control.

And lastly, saying like “ending is better than mending” are used to avoid reality. The State is able to maintain control and stability with hypnopaedic sayings by changing what people want; they are used to suppress people and lead them to believe what they are being told. The fact that the saying, “ending is better than mending” translates into it being easier to end something than to fix it, allows the government to control and enforce things like the drug soma. It takes away their ability to challenge anything because they never know better.

BNW Response #1

There are some aspects of Brave New World’s society that are relevant to the present day and some that are far-fetched. Stability, for example, is a word that is very important in most countries today. Leaders and their parties want stability and try to achieve it through different ways. The far-fetched about this idea in Brave New World is the government controlling people in order to preserve its own power. The people are so superficially fulfilled that they don’t care about their personal freedom.

Another example of Brave New World’s society that’s relatable to todays is the idea of class rankings. In the novel, five class systems made up society: Alphas, Betas, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. While there is not a traditional class system anymore, as there have been in previous years, most societies are still divided into classes based on wealth – that is, upper-class, middle-class, and lower class.

An idea that is somewhat stretched in relation in today is the idea of human cloning and manipulating genetics. In Brave New World, babies are developed in test tubes in a lab and are chosen based upon their abilities and appearance. Conditioning is fixed genetically, physically, and psychologically for the social destiny they belong to. During the last few years this idea has come about; couples, for example, pick sperm donors by their appearance or family/genetic history.

I think Huxley’s vision of Utopia world is nowhere near where we are today and I think there is a strong contrast between the two worlds. The birth of a child and being a parent, for example, are some of the most memorable events for a woman (and man). In Huxley’s Utopia, however, the words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ are unheard of and if one is caught having a child, they will be punished and exiled.

Poetry Response #7

The Coming of Wisdom with Time
William Butler Yeats
(1865 – 1939)

Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.


“The Coming of Wisdom with Time” by William Butler Yeats is about a person gaining knowledge as time progresses. The poem itself is like the cycle of life; it begins talking about life and ending it in death. It also has an array of emotions from happiness, to sadness, and grief.

In the first line of the poem Yeats states, “Through leaves are many, the root is one”. A tree is a metaphor for life; it has the ability to live for hundreds of years, surviving on its roots for water and nutrients. As time passes, a tree grows leaves that fall off the limbs in the fall and ultimately wither away in the winter.

The second and third lines of the poem, “Through all the lying days of my youth/ I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun,” relate to a person’s youth. Children do not give much of a care in the world and do as they please; they are set on having fun and don’t figure out (well the majority of children don’t figure out) what death is until they grow older. When Yeats says, “Lying days of my youth” it illustrates knowledge. We know now what we believed in when we were younger was fabricated and realize we were basically lying to ourselves/being lied to.

I enjoyed reading this poem because it was simple and very true. As the years go on a person gets older, their knowledge grows with them. They aren’t seeing the pretend world they saw when they were younger; they are seeing the world for what is really is and that can wither away a person.

Poetry Response #6

For the Sleepwalkers

Edward Hirsch
(b. 1950)

Tonight I want to say something wonderful
for the sleepwalkers who have so much faith
in their legs, so much faith in the invisible

arrow carved into the carpet, the worn path
that leads to the stairs instead of the window,
the gaping doorway instead of the seamless mirror.

I love the way that sleepwalkers are willing
to step out of their bodies into the night,
to raise their arms and welcome the darkness,

palming the blank spaces, touching everything.
Always they return home safely, like blind men
who know it is morning by feeling shadows.

And always they wake up as themselves again.
That’s why I want to say something astonishing
like: Our hearts are leaving our bodies.

Our hearts are thirsty black handkerchiefs
flying through the trees at night, soaking up
the darkest beams of moonlight, the music

of owls, the motion of wind-torn branches.
And now our hearts are thick black fists
flying back to the glove of our chests.

We have to learn to trust our hearts like that.
We have to learn the desperate faith of sleep-
walkers who rise out of their calm beds

and walk through the skin of another life.
We have to drink the stupefying cup of darkness
and wake up to ourselves, nourished and surprised.


“For the Sleepwalkers” by Edward Hirsh is a poem about when people are sleepwalking, their hearts are leaving their bodies to go on some adventure. It describes how amazing it is your heart and body can leave your mind in it’s unconscious state, and always come back.

This poem grabbed my attention immediately as I felt I could relate to the Hirsh’s first line in the stanza. He wants to say something astonishing and wonderful for the sleepwalkers about the invisible faith they have in their legs is. I myself have wanted to say something “profound” and have not been able to grasp the right words. Hirsh does a great job writing the poem.

A reason I also liked this poem was how it utilized the use of imagery. It was used to describe how the sleepwalkers are walking around, and how they are not entirely certain where they are going to end up. In the first stanza Hirsh states, “…For the sleepwalkers who have…/so much faith in the invisible/arrow carved into the carpet…” (Lines 4 and 5). He does this to show that even though they are not awake, the sleepwalker still seems to trust where their bodies take them. Hirsh also uses sensory images in a variety of stanzas to create a vivid picture of the night and what it sounds and feels like for the reader.

“For the Sleepwalkers” by Edward Hirsh has a theme of the body and heart leaving the mind on its own. It’s an engaging theme, one that I don’t seem to find too often. It causes the reader to keep on reading until the end when they find out what really happens, when the sleepwalker returns back to bed. All together, the sensory images, the theme, the diction, and word play are utilized in a great way to ‘walk the reader’ through what’s going on in the poem; I really liked it because of that.

The Awakening, Ch. 35-39

Oh Edna. You exhaust me.

Seriously reading this book was exasperating. I wanted to shake Edna most of the time and get her to 1) wake up and 2) stop being so confused and make a damn decision! While I’ll admit I did enjoy this book most of the time, however her views on what she thinks is freedom, her children, marriage, the three men she became involved with, and the sea just became too much. It was a nebulous book of her whole life.

To talk about the last couple chapters, Edna basically drowns herself in the ocean and that is that. There are many instances of the sea and the word “awakened” is heavily repeated. Edna is so selfish and does whatever she wants, when she wants to. I mean, she is completely not admirable. She see’s her children when she wants, she throws a party when she wants, and hell, she even dies when she wants. Edna really just needed to get help because she has no structure to fall on other than the Creole society that was imposed upon her. She became the opposite of what she was supposed to be and broke all the rules.

This entire book was about feminism and not conforming to what society wants you to be. Edna did not represent feminism very well as she got gratification from breaking the rules. It’s not that she did anything better after she moved out: she hooked up with other men and became very ignorant to herself. When she doesn’t get the reactions she wants, Edna can’t take it and thus, dies of her own fault. And that was The Awakening.

The Awakening, Ch. 30-34

The next chapters of The Awakening, Edna hosts a farewell party before she moves into the “pigeon house”. Edna wears an elaborate yellow dress and a diamond tiara, given by her husband for her birthday. Leonce showers Edna in gifts and pays for the party, however he does not come. Without her materialist husband around, Edna’s mind wonders and she gets bored. Her emotions get stirred soon in when Victor, a young adult, starts singing Edna’s and Robert’s song. She gets very upset and the party ends.

Edna closes out the large house and moves into the smaller, “pigeon house”. This scene holds significance as it leads to an actual affair at the new home. Edna holds a sense of hopelessness and feels it’s something outside of her. She doesn’t really know what to do with her and the three men she is messing around with. Edna continues to be a very unstable character, and I have a strong feeling Edna won’t make it through the rest of the novel.

The Awakening, Ch. 25-29

In the next few chapters, Edna has an affair. And the affair, while wrong, it represents the extent of Edna being trapped in a life she doesn’t want. We can pull from the last few sections, when Edna became awakened by the feelings she gets from Robert. Now, Edna isn’t able to figure out what exactly she wants and is in a plateau, confused state of mind.

Edna just wants to have this “freedom” to be independent and do the things she wants, like painting, but she doesn’t know how to have freedom without having everything she wants. She does have all the jewelry and luxuries she could ever want, but she doesn’t able the freedom of her own mind. Edna isn’t able to live with just physical freedoms.

One example of Edna not knowing how to balance her life is when she learns Robert is coming back home she still kisses the other guy. Her actions do not align with what she wants. Edna wants to move to her own little house and be independent, yet before she leaves she goes and has a dinner party, and furthermore bills the cost to her husband. Also when she has thoughts of moving, she wants to take the maids with her. She is back and forth, and cannot make up her mind.

I mean really, Edna has no idea what she wants; all she knows is that she doesn’t want what she currently has. It causes her to be in a very confused state of mind in these sections. She wants to be rich and well respected, while doing what she wants. And she wants her kids to adore her, while she doesn’t pay attention to them.

Edna is doing all right now, but we can foreshadow it won’t last long.

The Awakening, Ch. 20-24

In the next couple chapters of The Awakening, Edna becomes obsessed with Robert and her husband, Leonce, expresses his concern about Edna to their family doctor, Dr. Mandelet. Edna is continuing to mope around the house and has lots of mood swings. Leonce confides they are not sleeping together anymore to Dr. Mandelet.

It’s kind of bizarre actually, because Leonce says one of her symptoms is an interest in internal rights of women. They then have a good laugh about it; they don’t take it seriously. The doctor is very interesting character. He does grasp what’s wrong with Edna, but at the same time he doesn’t take it very seriously. He even goes as far to ask if there is a history of insanity.

Another thing that occurs is Edna’s father, a former colonel, comes to visit in New Orleans. He comes to shop for a wedding dress and ring for Edna’s sister, Janet. The relationship between Edna and her father have is a bit distant, however they are companionable and enjoy each other’s company. In the beginning of The Awakening, Edna was very excited about the wedding and now, she does not want to attend it at all. She doesn’t want to go because she feels marriage is a ridiculous thing, and tells Leonce their marriage is failing apart.

What do you even say to that? Edna is changing, awakening, and quite possibly is going crazy.

The Awakening, Ch. 15-19

In this section of The Awakening, Edna is starting to go through the process of change more and more. Robert leaves for Mexico and doesn’t care to tell Edna. This upsets her, particularly when he wrote to his mother and not her.

Back at their home in New Orleans Edna doesn’t do very much, she just draws and paints and sings all day long. She isn’t doing her duties as a wife and is trying to show her husband he doesn’t control her. His opinion of this is he feels she isn’t acting like her self, but what she is really doing is discovering her real self. Edna is tired of her life and is trying to make a new one. Edna is at her breaking point.

I don’t see this as Edna being crazy, she is just trying to get away from life. Edna doesn’t really know where she is going or a plan; she is just aware that is tired of what she has. Edna is still in the process of awakening compared to where she was before.

Also in this section, Edna discuses the relationship she holds with her children. She talks to Adele about never scarifying herself for her children. Edna states she would give up the “unessential’s” for her children, like money or her life, but not her self. This is really interesting to read as it signifies Edna awakening. I mean, before she had children she never had to give up her passions, such as the act of painting.

Edna now realizes that it’s wrong she changed herself and stopped painting after having kids. She is making realizations about her life and she wants to pass on things that make her, her. This shows a great progression of Edna and she is finally able to come to terms with who she is.

The Awakening, Ch. 10-14

In the next four chapters of The Awakening, we see how Edna becomes “awakened”, although no fully. She begins to rebel against her husband and become independent. Edna is not sure what direction she is moving toward, but she knows she’s going somewhere. She is also looking at things in a different way, although she doesn’t understand why things have changed. For example, Edna is unable to relate to her former self submitting to her husband. She also has a vision of death in the ocean and is unable to sleep at night.

Robert triggers Edna beginning to become awaken. She begins to fall for him and enjoys the attention he gives her. Because of her previous romantic history of people not being interested in her who she likes, this mutual attraction is very new to her. She now feels Robert is interested in her – and this is totally unlike her husband. What I mean by that is while her husband does give her gifts and care for her, he is not really interested in spending time with Edna. (Neither of them are at fault, though, as they simply don’t have that kind of relationship.) And so, because of the chemistry Edna and Robert have together he entrances her.

Poetry Response #5

Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle

The celebrated windows flamed with light
directly pouring north across the Seine;
we rustled into place. Then violins
vaunting Vivaldi’s strident strength, then Brahms,
seemed to suck with their passionate sweetness,
bit by bit, the vigor from the red,
the blazing blue, so that the listening eye
saw suddenly the thick black lines, in shapes
of shield and cross and strut and brace, that held
the holy glowing fantasy together.
The music surged; the glow became a milk,
a whisper to the eye, a glimmer ebbed
until our beating hearts, our violins
were cased in thin but solid sheets of lead.

—John Updike


I really enjoyed “Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” by John Updike. The poem had nice very, smooth flow that helped convey its meaning. The imagery allowed me to feel as though I was actually in France listening to this classical concert, watching the intensity of the artists’ performance.

On line 10, Updike described the artists’ performance as a, “…holy glowing fantasy together”. Violins struck furiously together with immense passion; their hearts’ beat rapidly, keeping up with the pace of the music. Updike also chose really strong diction to portray the rapid movements, such as “strident strength” and “blazing blue” on lines 4 and 7. The stalwart diction parallels with the overall feelings and emotions this poem produced.

The ending stanza slowed down the pace of the poem and created an interesting affect on me, the audience. After the swift performance, “the music surged” and the people listening to the music became overcome with emotion. The violins also turned into a glimmer ebbed into their audience’s hearts. I loved the last four lines of the poem because I found it be quite clever. Updike related the passion of the artists with the violins becoming beating hearts. Emotion and passion comes from the heart, and I really liked how he tied the poem all together at the end.

In conclusion, “Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” by John Updike was a poem I had never come across before but greatly enjoyed. The emotions and feelings of the artists’ performance jumped off the page; the smooth flow made me feel as though I were in France watching this scene occur.

I am interested to see what else Updike has written...

The Awakening, Ch. 5-9

I really like The Awakening so far. It’s a real story with a plot line and is easier to comprehend than The Darkness, for example. It’s also not just intense imagery with every word meaning something else. So for that, I think it’s a good novel.

One of the interesting parts of The Awakening is a symbol not being represented by something skewed, but rather the symbols are the people. For example, women like Madame Ratignolle and her beauty represent the feminism ideal. That is also the focus of chapters 5-9; it concentrates on two opposite figures, Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier.

Madame Ratignolle is characterized a mother-women who is fully devoted to her children; her identity is them. She is this loving mother that will inconvenience or possibly endanger herself for her kids. For example, Madame Ratignolle is not supposed to lift her children, as she is pregnant, and everyone knows it. It is because she constantly talks about her “condition”, her pregnancy that everyone is aware of what her doctor not to do. Her children and husband tie up her whole world. She wants to be close to her child, in spite that it could put her unborn baby in danger.

Contrasting to Madame Ratignolle is Edna. Edna is the type of women that is constantly trying to put on a good show for the Creole culture. For example, in the previous chapters we saw Madame Ratignolle making clothes for her children, and Edna picked up a piece of cloth and follow suit. She does this because she doesn’t want to get a rise out of the other women; she is the one conforming.

Perhaps the most significant difference between the two women is Madame Ratignolle being a Creole and Edna isn’t. They have been raised in two different cultures. Madame Ratignolle knows how to act within that culture and the so-called “rules” of being mother-women. Edna on the other hand is an outsider, and is still trying to figure out who she is.

The Awakening, Ch. 1-4

The first four chapters of The Awakening were very interesting. I’m glad we looked up information about the Creole society; the information we found applied to the novel. Mr. Pontellier is one of the main characters. He is a man in his 40’s, married to Edna Pontellier, and has two sons named Robert and Raoul. He comes off as a selfish man in a world of his own, and he doesn’t seem to care about his family or how he treats them.

In the research I found, the father is the dominant figure in a Creole household. He does not have to be faithful spouse, but is an indulgent parent. I found this to be apparent in The Awakening. For example in chapter three, Mr. Pontellier had been gone at a men’s club called Klein’s all day and when returned home, everyone was sleeping except for one of his sons. He found his son, Raoul, kicking and talking about crabs. Mr. Pontellier took this as Raoul being sick. “Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needing looking after. He then lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it” (p. 8).

When Mrs. Pontellier denied Raoul being sick, as she had been with him throughout the day and did not see any symptoms, Mr. Pontellier said she was neglect of her children. This made her sob the entire night, as he went off to bed.

Rude.