King Lear, Act 3

For this act, you should respond to ONE of the reader-response questions. Your answer should be 300+ words.

Your responses must be posted no later than Wednesday, April 15, at the beginning of our class period.

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.

2. Write about the scene in which Gloucester’s eyes are plucked out. Obviously, it serves the symbolic purpose of allowing Gloucester to “see” [the truth] better after he has been blinded. But the scene is also graphically violent. Even when Oedipus gouges out his eyes at the end of Sophocles’ play, it occurs off-stage. Consider the place of graphic violence in art. What purpose does this particular incident serve? Is it gratuitous, or is it necessary for the meaning of the play? What about slasher films? What about Grand Theft Auto? When is there a place for graphic violence? When is there not?

3. Write the back story of the first servant—the one who attempts to defend Gloucester and is killed for it. Why does he do this? Imagine motivation that would be strong enough. Does it come from his past, or simply from loyalty to the king? We’ve had trouble getting our heads around this selfless and single-minded loyalty. Is Kent a stooge or a hero? In this response try, if it has been hard for you, to envision the loyalty of the servant as a noble characteristic. Try to put yourself in his place and perhaps see the beauty of loyalty.

4. The storm is an example of the pathetic fallacy (fancy term for personification). It represents Lear’s madness. Below, read the poem “Storm Warnings” by Adrienne Rich. It does a similar thing. Write a short piece—a scene of a short story, for instance, or a poem--in which you use some aspect of nature to represent or to mirror a human emotional event. If you’re not feeling creative, a personal reflection will also work nicely.

Storm Warnings
Adrienne Rich

The glass has been falling all the afternoon,
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of gray unrest is moving across the land,
I leave the book upon a pillowed chair (5)
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky

And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting,
How with a single purpose time has traveled (10)
By secret currents of the undiscerned
Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.

Between foreseeing and averting change (15)
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise, (20)
We can only close the shutters.

I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture. (25)
This is our sole defense against the season;
These are the things that we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.

King Lear, Act 2

For each act, you should respond to TWO of the reader-response questions. Your answers should be 300+ words apiece.

These blogs are due Tuesday, April 7 at the beginning of the class period.

1. In the study guide, I mentioned that Edgar seemed a bit “too gullible” to be the hero of this play. However, the original title page of King Lear read, “M William Shak-speare: His Ture Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King Lear and his three Daughters. With the unfortunate life of Edgar, sonne and heire to the Earle of Gloster, and his sullen and assumed humor of Tom of Bedlam.”

While the bolding is mine, note that fully half of the original title has to do with Edgar. Shakespeare obviously valued his loyalty and places him squarely in the corner of the “good” characters. Imagine a backstory for Edgar that allows you to see him as fully noble, not as the slower-witted older brother of the diabolical Edmund. You might choose to render a scene from the brothers’ boyhood that reveals Edgar’s honorable qualities (whatever they may be). You might allow another character (perhaps one of the boys’ mothers?) to comment on them. Whatever option you choose, use it to allow you to see Edgar’s fundamental goodness, and to help you imagine him more fully as you read.

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?

3. If you chose to do question 1 (or even if you didn’t), it is interesting to 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.

4. Cordelia has disappeared from the play. What’s she doing? You might write a dialogue between her and her new husband France—have they heard word of the goings-on in Lear’s kingdom? Is she still concerned about her father? Whatever you want to say here, but they should probably not be discussing whether or not to have roast lamb for dinner. Alternatively, you could have Cordelia write a letter to her father or sisters. What would she say?

King Lear, Act 1

Due March 24.

For this act, you should respond to TWO of the reader-response questions. Your answers should be 300+ words apiece.

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?

2. Consider the character of Goneril or Regan in this first act. Yes, they are monstrous, but what does that monstrosity look like from the inside? What drives them? What does the world inside their heads look like?
To put it in another way…. Jealousy and power-grabbing seem to be as much a part of families as they are of politics and business. Can you relate to either of these two sisters? Have you ever seen a situation similar to the one in the first act of this play? In your opinion, what drives this kind of behavior?

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?

4. Leo Tolstoy tells us in the first line of his great novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Lear’s is obviously an unhappy family, as is Gloucester’s. Explore the source of the unhappiness in both of the families. What is it that has torn each one apart? Some sin of the fathers? Or of the children? Human nature? What is wrong here? Are there any similarities between the two, or are they indeed “both unhappy in their own way?”

5. Discuss the nature of loyalty. Kent’s loyalty to Lear is of such an extreme form that it may be hard to understand. There really aren’t servants in the modern day—at least, not servants like Kent, who will follow their king off into the moors after the king has treated them like garbage. Yet our present world is full of examples of unswerving loyalty. From the blind devotion of cult followers to the more benign allegiance football players to their coach, we have all seen it. Where does it come from in general? Is there some personality type that is more likely to be loyal? To inspire loyalty? Can you speak from personal experience or observation? Return to the play long enough to address what the presence of this type of loyalty tells us about Lear and about Kent.

Brave New World

Each of these blogs should be a minimum of 300 words apiece. They are due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, January 28. Each question should receive its own post, meaning that you will have posted four blogs by the 28th.

1) Obviously, none of Huxley’s predictions have come true exactly. For that matter, none of The Jetson’s or Back to the Future’s predictions have come true exactly. Predicting the future is a tricky business, whether done seriously or in jest. However, there are elements of truth in Huxley’s vision of the world. Discuss some of these. Which aspects of Brave New World’s society seemed most relevant in 2009? Which most far-fetched? Why?

2) Comment on the purpose of sex, games, and sayings like “ending is better than mending” in the book. How are all of these things used as a method of control?

3) In chapter 17, Mustapha Mond and John Savage discuss civilization. John says two startling things: “What you need is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here” and “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” Read this interchange carefully and then put Mond and Savage’s arguments into your own words.

4) One of the most difficult questions to answer about this book is why all of this is so very bad. Many people have described Huxley’s vision of the future as “horrifying.” However, the fact remains that everyone in the society is really happy, really content, really without war, or pain, or suffering. So what’s so bad about it, “really”? It’s often an easy answer to feel but a difficult one to verbalize. Respond to this issue. If you want to say it’s not so bad, and you really mean it, that is all right, too. Just be specific and thoughtful.

As You Read The Awakening

You will post a blog for each section of reading you do in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. You will also need to leave at least one comment for one of your classmates each week. Extra comments translate to extra credit. Your responses should discuss (but are not limited to) the topics below.

1. Discuss any bird imagery that you come across.

2. Discuss references to water, swimming and the ocean.

3. Discuss the female characters (major or minor) in the novel. Describe their character, their relationship to Edna, and their role, job, or place in society.

4. Similarly, discuss the male characters. Describe their relationship to Edna, their place in society, and the effects that they have on Edna.

To keep you on track, here is a schedule for your blogging:

Wednesday, October 29 - we will discuss Ch 1-4 in class
Friday, October 31 - we will discuss Ch 5-9 in class
3:00 on Friday - I will grade your blogs over Ch 1-4 and Ch 5-9 (and comments)

Monday, November 3- we will discuss Ch 10-14 in class
Tuesday, November 4 - we will discuss Ch 15-19 in class
Wednesday, November 5 - we will discuss Ch 20-24 in class
3:00 on Thursday - I will grade your blogs over Ch 10-14, Ch 15-19, and Ch 20-24 (and comments)

Monday, November 10 - we will discuss Ch 25-29 in class
Tuesday, November 11 - we will discuss Ch 30-34 in class
Wednesday, November 12 - we will discuss Ch 35-39 in class
3:00 on Thursday - I will grade your blogs over Ch 25-39, Ch 30-34, and Ch 35-39 (and comments)

Slackers!

Many of you have been major blog slackers this week.... no posts, no comments for your classmates. We're done with Heart of Darkness blogs for the time being, but please get yourselves organized before we begin The Awakening. If any of you post on HOD after this, please email me and let me know, as I won't know to give you credit otherwise.

Heart of Darkness

Throughout the reading of this text, there are many elements that I want you to notice. You've already received this list on the sheet entitled "As you read Heart of Darkness." Your blog for each night of reading should consist of a discussion of where you see some of these elements in your reading assignment. Rather than just listing the occurrences, though, you should detail your thoughts on what Conrad is saying. You don't need to write about every single item that you notice; limit yourself to those you find the most interesting.

1. Specific details that point to the futility of the European presence in Africa.

2. Every time there is a shift between the unnamed narrator and Marlow as narrator.

3. Examples where Conrad uses the symbolism of black and white, and whether he is using it in the "traditional" sense or if he is using white to symbolize evil and black to symbolize good.

4. References to people, places, or objects and how they SEEM to be. This is the conflict of illusion vs. reality.

5. References to work or labor.

6. Points either for or against the interpretation of this novel as a racist text.

7. Imagery--brightness, gloom, isolation, madness, disease, sterility, physical decomposition, diabolism, and violent death.