Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Macbeth, V.5

Macbeth, line 17:
"She should have died hereafter:
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing."

Molly Foltyn
A Winter's Tale
Polixenes. Say, there be: Yet nature is made better by no mean,
But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art
Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock;
And make conceive a bark of baser kind
By bud of nobler race. This is an art
Which does mend nature, change it rather: but
The art itself is nature.
(4.3.88)
-Talking about flowers becuase she's been giving flowers to different people
--It is the art that nature makes. Wild+Gentle mate: art and nature.
Goes on to talk about the art of the gardener. wild and unfruly nature=way for humanity to perfect things foudn in nature. The human hand refines.
-Art=agent of nature.
--Birthing, having children, breeding.
-Pure breeds are more desirable.
*play challenges superiority of aristocratic blood.
Nature+art= important for his purposes.

-Komel Soin

Macbeth 1.vii.48-59

Lady Macbeth:
What beast was't then
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me;
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had i so sworn as you
Have done to this.

-Destabilizing of Macbeth's manhood/humanization
-Domestic to Monstrous images of Lady M.

Jason Lee
Discussion 1D

The Tempest 5.1.266-276

Propero:
Mark but the badges of these men, my lords,
Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave,
His mother was a witch, and one so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs,
And deal in her command without her power.
These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil—
For he's a bastard one—had plotted with them
To take my life. Two of these fellows you
Must know and own; this thing of darkness!
Acknowledge mine.

Tim Dawson, Section 1D

The Tempest 2.1, 149-157

Gonzalo:
I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries,
Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn or win, or oil;
No occupation, all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty-

-Reverse of the normal ways of doing things
-The possibility of utopia on a new island
-Dystopia: characters are always haunted by the reality of dystpia since utopia is unattainable.
-No need for a ruler because humanity is inherently good
-Superiority of nature

Christopher Gee
Discussion 1D

Monday, June 9, 2008

The Tempest (Act 1.2.1-17)

Miranda:
If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel
(Who had no doubt some noble creature in her)
Dashed all to pieces! O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished!
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.
Prospero:
Be collected.
No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart
There's no harm done.
Miranda: O, woe the day!
Prospero: No harm.

Points to focus on:
-passage establishes Miranda as emotional, empathetic
-repetition of "no harm" suggests that everything will work out in the end
-shows Prospero as a figure of power and authority
-ingenue- stereotypical beauty, innocence
(Miranda)

Posted by: Tina Ta, Dis 1H

Sunday, June 8, 2008

The Winter's Tale: Act VI. 1. Enter Time and Chorus. Passage to study for final exam.

Time.

I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror
Of good and bad, that make and unfold error,
Now take upon me, in the name of Time,
To use my wings. Impute it not a crime
To me or my swift passage, that I slide
O’er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried
Of that wide gap; since it is in my power
To o’erthrow law, and in one self-born hour
To plant and o’erwhelm custom. Let me pass
The same I am, ere ancient’st order was
Or what is now receiv’d: I witness to
The times that brought them in; so shall I do
To the freshest things now reigning, and make stale
The glistering of this present, as my tale
Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing,
I turn my glass and give my scene such growing
As you had slept between. Leontes leaving,—
The effects of his fond jealousies so grieving,
That he shuts up himself,—imagine me,
Gentle spectators, that I now may be
In fair Bohemia; and remember well,
I mention’d a son o’ the king’s, which Florizel
I now name to you; and with speed so pace
To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace
Equal with wondering: what of her ensues
I list not prophesy; but let Time’s news
Be known when ’tis brought forth. A shepherd’s daughter,
And what to her adheres, which follows after,
Is th’ argument of Time. Of this allow,
If ever you have spent time worse ere now:
If never, yet that Time himself doth say
He wishes earnestly you never may.


Themes and Linguistical Tidbits to remember:
Multiple paradoxes.
Importance of the word custom in line 9 and the courtly address at the end of the passage (issue of law and custom).
Hour glass allusion.
Metadramatic idea that in a play temporality is maleable, and how this is in opposition to idea of the three unities.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Final Review: "Macbeth" Passage (1.7.1-26) by Britta Grayman

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly. If th' assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all--here,
But here upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague th' inventor. This evenhanded justice
Commends th' ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strop both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
And pity, like a naked newborn babe
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on th' other--"

The repetition of "done" signifies the need to complete this deed, yet all the consequences leave the killing of Duncan reveal the deed is not really done. "Success" refers to the motif of "succession." Macbeth imagines the consequences because he is a moral character; he puts opinions on just as he puts on borrowed clothing. This passage also articulates the relationship between act and desire. Macbeth struggles to define masculinity as Lady Macbeth attempts to deconstruct it, for she defines manhood as seizing power. This passage also illustrates the rhetoric device known as polyptoton, that is, the repetition of words that derive from the same root, ie.) "make" and "unmake."

Posted by: Britta Grayman (Discussion 1H)