Friday February 26, 2010

IMPORTANT: the blog for Monday March 1 may be out of order. Please access through the list on the side. Thank you.

Savage Chickens by Doug Savage

First Hamlet vocabulary quiz today!

Act III. scene i notes:
Queen Gertrude and King Claudius inquire of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern how their meeting with Hamlet went. They reply he was "most like a gentleman", didn't ask many questions but answered any they had.

Polonius then puts into play his plan for his daughter Ophelia to speak to Hamlet, whilst he and the king listen in, this being to ascertain if Hamlet's madness is really caused by his love for Ophelia.

Hamlet enters and we have his famous to be or not to be speech. Should he kill himself? What are the arguments for and against suicide?

Hamlet and Ophelia converse. She returns his "perfume-lost" love letters. Hamlet plays word games with her, questioning her honesty and telling her to "get thee to a nunnery" for he is "indifferent honest" and an "arrant knave." As he speaks harshly to Ophelia, but perhaps the words are really meant for his mother. He then says, That those that are married already / all but one, shall live"(III.i.160). On that note, he leaves.
Ophelia's very distraught over this noble mind o'er throwned. But the King realizes that love is not the root of Hamlet's madness."His affections do not tend that way." He determines to send the Prince to England., as "Madness in great ones must not unwatced go." Polonous still thinks Ophelia is the cause, but asks King Claudius to let the Queen privately speak with her son aabout her grief, before he is sent away.
Act III.ii.
Hamlet practices with players / actors and gives them new lines to insert into the play. Shakespeare has him give good advice to being a successful performer. These words hold true today. As well, he tells Horatio of his plans, that he is to "rivit" to the [King's] face." Horatio agrees to watch carefully.
The play: Hamlet makes bawdy allusions with Ophelia, and she notes that he is "merry".
In the play within the play: note that Hamlet tells the King the play is entitled "The Mousetrap." In"The Murder of Gonzago" the former king's death, Hamlet's father's murder, is reenacted. Claudius has a fit and the play is brought to a premature end.
Horatio too has noted the king's behavior and Guildenstern informs him of the king's choler (anger) and that the Queen wishes to speak with him. With both Guildenstern and Polonius, Hamlet plays more word games, augmenting the belief that he is truly mad. The scene ends with the "witching time of night" when Hamlet knows he is capable of action. But to his mother, he must "be cruel, not unnatual"; "speak daggers, but use none."

Act III.iii
The King tells Rosencrantz and Guidenstern to take Hamlet to England.
Polonius informs the King that Hamlet is with his mother. King Claudius' reflects on his actions. Hamlet observes him "a-praying" and so decides not to kill him, because that would mean the King would be forgiven in God's eyes. Remember his father is in Purgatory; how ironic if his murderer goes to heaven.
Act III.iv
Polonius hides behind the arras (curtain), whilst Hamlet converses with his mother. Hamlet kills Polonius, This is an intense scene. What do you think is the nature of the relationship between Hamlet and his mother? He is violent towards her, makes vivid comparisons between his father and her new husband, and overt sexual references. His father's ghost appears- or does it, as only Hamlet sees him- and chides him: "Do not forget. This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose"(III.iv.126-7). In the meantime, Gertrude thinks he is crazy and asks him to "sprinkle cool patience". When the ghost leaves, Hamlet explains he "must be cruel to be kind." She should not "go to my uncle's bed"...for "a pair of reechy kisses." The scene concludes with her acquiesing to Hamlet's demands and Hamlet telling her that he is to England with "two school fellows / Whom [he] will trust as adders fanged". (Note that he refers to the "letters sealed" his friends carry. These are a mandate from Claudius to kill the Prince, but Hamlet is aware and relishes the idea "when in one line two crafts directly meet". First though he'll "lug the guts (that's Polonius) into the neighbor room."

Friday addendum: this was a snow day. Vocabulary quiz Monday, as well as quiz on Acts III and IV.
Friday's blog posting for Monday is Act IV.

Thursday February 25, 2010

Ophelia by John William Waterhouse

VOCABULARY QUIZ TOMORROW.
Notes for ActII scenes i and ii

Polonous sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes, the councillor's son, telling the spy to say semi bad things about his son, so that he may ascertain the truth about Laertes' behavior. Shakespeare makes an observation on youth: "wanton, wild, and unusual slips / As are companions most noted and most known / To youth and liberty" ((II.i.23-5).
Now Polonius has a conversation with his daughter Ophelia, who relates to him how a half-dressed Hamlet came to visit her: "his doublets all unbraced"; "his stockings fouled", "pale as his shirt, his knees knocking"
Polonous believes Hamlet is "mad for [Ohpheiia's] love" and so right away wants to tell Gertrude and King Claudius.

Act II.ii. Gertrude and King Claudius have called two friends of Hamlet's, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to the court to cheer Hamlet up. They agree, and, afterwhich, Polonius pops on the scene to say, " I have found / The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy"(51-2). Note how the councillor talks endlessly, and we have his ironic statement "brevity is the soul of wit." Polonius is both a laughable and sympathetic character. Polonius admits that he has told Ophelia that "Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star"; hence with Ophelia's spurning him, he has lost his reason.
So they devise a plan to check out the validity of this thought: "He'll loose [his] daughtet to [Hamlet / ..and " behind an arras then / Mark the encounter" (176-8).

Polonius meets Hamlet and the prince calls the old man a "fishmonger", a slang term for a pimp. Essentially, Hamlet plays word games with Polonius, but Ophelia's father is no putz and observes 'Though this be madness, yet there is / method in 't"(II.ii.223-4).
Comic and serious note: When Polonius tells Hamlet he must take leave, the prince retorts: You cannot take from me anything that I / will more willingly part withal- except my life.

Hamlet catches up with his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; he extracts from them the truth that they have been summoned by the king and queen. Important line: ..."but there is /nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it / so"(I.ii.268-9),
Hamlet on life: "I could be bounded in a nutshell and / count myself a king of infinite space, were it not / that I have bad dreams"(II.ii.273-5).
Guidenstern on dreams: ambition... is merely the shadow of a dream.
Hamlet reveals his mental state to his friends in II.ii 3-6-334. These lines as well celebrate the majesty of being human. PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY.
His friends reveal that there are players coming to the castle. They show up and Hamlet interacts with them, recolecting a particular play. Polonious is on the scene and he is bored. Hamlet wants him to use the players, but not necessarily to their "just desserts", for according to the Prince, "Use everyman affter his just dessertand who shall 'scape / whipping? (II.ii.556-7).
Act II.ii ends with a soliloquy. Hamlet is in the throws of angst: O what a rogue and peasant slave am I... He devises a plan, concluding "The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King"(633-4).

Wednesday February 24, 2010

Keep the vocabulary list in mine. Quiz Friday.
You have until class time to post on the blog. Thank you.

Parker notes for Act I scenes 3-5
Act I.iii
Laertes is saying goodbye to his sister Ophelia, as he heads back to school. He gives her brotherly advice: "For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, / Hold [you] a fashion and a toy in blood,/...not lasting,/ The perfume and the suppliance of a minute, / No more"(I.iii.6-10), essentially, he's does not look on you as marriage material, and never "lose your heart or your chaste treasure open"(I.iii.35. Keep in mind that a woman's virginity at this time is a bargaining chip (The Elizabethans would have been familiar with this concept in terms of the Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn, Queen Elizabeth's mother, who held out for the throne, but nevertheless lost her head on the chopping block.

Ophelia says she'll listen to her brother, but tells him as well to behave. Shakespeare has her make a dig at hypocritical pastors, who "the primrose path of dalliance treads," while they show their flock "the steep and thorny way to heaven."

Ophelia's father gives advice to his son. His words are good truisms for life:
1. don't be overly familiar with people
2. don't be vulgar
3. don't provoke quarrels, but if attacked fight
4. don't spend money you don't have
5. don't borrow or lend money

Then Polonius expands on Laertes' advice to Ophelia concerning Hamlet.
Note the three meaning of tenders:
"Do you believe his "tenders", as you call them?
Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby
That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay.
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
Or (not to crack the wind of a poor phrase,
Running it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

Act I scene 4 notes
Hamlet remarks how King Claudius "keeps wassail"; that is, he is drunk. And while it is a custom to entertain guests it is "more honored in the brach that the observance"(I.iv.18). The king is vulgar, but has a "viscious mole of nature."

Horatio and Hamlet head up to the ramparts to see the ghost, who comes from "heaven or blasts from hell." Is he good or evil? The ghose bids Hamlet follow him. Horatio worries that the poltergeist might lead him over the walls to the sea below. Or "deprive [Hamlet] of sovereignty of reason / And draw [him] into madness":(I.iv.78-82). Note this as a bit of foreshadowing.
Finally, in this scene we have Marcellus' famous words: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"(I.iv.180). These words are applicable, of course, to the play, but they have taken on a metaphorical meaning, indicating that there is a serious problem.

Act I scene 5 notes
Hamlet has gone off to have a private conversation with the ghost, who says, "I am thy father's spirit." Dad continues to explain that he is "forbid / To tell the secrets of his prison house" (I.v.18-9). (The audience would have loved this spooky stuff.) From the description, we know his father is in Purgatory. And this poltergeist reveals that Hamlet should "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (I.v.31). Now this is news to Hamlet, who thought his father's demise natural.
How did his father die? Well, a serpent did not sting him, well, actually one did and he now wears the crown. If you have forgotton, that is King Claudius, "that incestuous, adulterate beast." Ok, Hamlet, Sr. wants revenge on his brother, but tells his son to "let thy soul contrive against thy mother naught." Dad's last words are "remember me."

And so Hamlet promises thus. And here's another famous line: "One may smile and smile and be a villain"
Act I ends with Hamlet playing word games with Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo, who are quite curious to know what has passed between the ghost and Hamlet. Hamlet does not tell and has them swear to secrecy- the ghost gets his last words in as well. No one quite understands what has passed. Is the ghost evil? Anyway, he is "wondrous strange", and Hamlet remarks that "'There are more things in heaven and earth.../ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"(I.v.187-8).
At this point Hamlet has taken on the responsibility of revenging his father. 'The time is out of joint, O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right"(I.v.210-1).

Monday March 1, 2010

Vocabualary quiz 1 today, as well as a short quiz on Acts III and IV.

Notes for Act IV

Scene I: Gertrude relates to King Claudius that Hamlet has killed Polonius, and that her son is "mad as the sea and wind when both contend / Which is the mightier" (IV.i.7-8). It's even more important now to get the kid out of the kingdom.

Scene ii: Rosencratz and Guidenstern ask Hamlet where Polonius' body is. Hamlet calls out their syncophancy, the way they suck up to the king: they are sponges, who "soak[ ] up the King's countenance, / his rewards, his authorities...When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again" (IV.ii.15-21).

Scene iii: Hamlet finally relents and tells the king where Polonius might be found"
Hamlet eventually tells the King "but if, indeed, you find him not / within this month, you shall nose him as you go up / the stairs into the lobby" (IV.ii.38-41). After Hamlet departs for England, the King's soliloquy reveals that "by letters congruing to that effect / The present death of Hamlet"(IV.iii.73-4).

Scene iv.: Hamlet encounters Fortinbras and his army, who are on their way to attack Poland. Through the conversation between Hamlet and the Captain we gain some insight into the purposelessness of war. Captain: "Truly to speak, and with no addition, / We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name"(IV.iv.19-21). Hamlet observes that the war is being fought simply because of "much wealth and peace." This scene closes with another soliloquy, where he compares his own inaction to how Fortinbras "makes mouths at the invisible event / Exposing what s mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, / Even for an eggshell" (Iv.iv.53-5). In other words, for "honor's sake", Norway will attack a tiny, useless piece of Poland, and Poland will not yield it, because this would not be honorable. Yet, Hamlet "that have a father killed, a mother stained" has yet to seek his father's revenge. The soliloquy concludes with his "thoughts be[ing] bloody, or be[ing] nothing at all."

Scene v. Ophelia "speaks much of her father;...speaks things in doubt / That carry but half sense" and people are listening. Horatio convinces Queen Gertude to have a conversation with her. The King wants her watched closely and observes, "when sorrows come, they come not single spies, / But in battalions"(IV.v.84-5). Note how he summarizes the play to this point.

And if that is not enough, in comes "young Laertes, in a riotous head" and assumes Claudius is the killer. The king assures him that he is "guiltless of [his] father's death / And am most sensibly in grief for it"(IV.v.171-2). Then Ophelia comes along, strewing flowers: rosemary for remembrance, pansies for thoughts, rue and daisies. The king takes advantage of the situation- Laertes grief and anger over his father's death, who incidentally had an "obscure funeral" and "no noble rite nor formal ostentation", and his sister's mental breakdown, to take the time to calm him down.
Act IV. scene vi.: Horatio gets a letter from Hamlet, who relate how he switched the message sent from Claudius to England that said the Prince was to be killed. In his stead now, his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be murdered.

Act IV. scene vii. Laertes wants to know why Claudius hasn't done anything about his father Polonius' death. Claudius' excuse is that "the Queen his mother / Lives almost by his looks (IV.vii.13-4) and the public has a "great love" for him. then what news should be imparted: Hamlet's back, but the has an idea. Laertes will "be ruled / The rather if you could devise it so / That I might be the organ" (IV.vii.77-9). That is Laertes wants to be the one to carry out Claudius' plan. Claudius flatters Laertes that he is known for his "rapier most especial", sword fighting. The king then goads him by questioning his love for his father: "was your father dear to you? / Or are you like a painting of a sorrow / A face without a heart?(IV.viii.122-4). Claudius will arrange a friendly sword competition between Hamlet and Laertes, but Hamlet, "being remiss, / Most generous, and free from all contriving, / Will not peruse the foils" (IVLaertes sword will have a poison tip. These lines should give you insight into Hamlet's character.

And still to come in scene vii: Ophelia's death by drowning. But Laertes refuses to cry for "too much of water hast" she.




Bonus 25: Which composer wrote an opera based on Hamlet. Leave response next to the computer under the hole punch, as usual.






Hamlet vocabulary 2 As with the previous, the assessment will be you will simply be defining the word. Quiz Friday.

1.To glean - to gather; to collect

2. sovereign (adj)- absolute; totally undisputed / n- king or monarch

3. satirical (adj) – sarcastic, biting, mocking

4. promontory- (noun)- a cliff high above water

5. rogue (noun)- a villain, fiend, scoundrel

6. firmament (noun) – the sky

7. pestilent – (adj)- deadly, likely to cause an epidemic

8. paragon –(noun)- perfect example, model, standard

9. quintessence –(noun)- ideal, essence, perfect model

10. to cleave (verb)- to split, also to adhere

11. malefactions (noun)- evil deeds

12. consummation (noun) completion; achievement

13. calamity (noun)- disaster, cause of great distress

14. contumely (noun)- insulting treatment

15. wantonness (noun)- immorality, extravagance

16. dejected –(adj)- depressed, disheartened

17. abominably –(adverb)- detestably; with hatred

18. to buffet (verb)- to hit or strike

19. clemency (noun)- leniency, mercy

20. to beguile (verb)- to deceive, to cheat

21. contagion (noun)- the cause of a disease

22. fetters (noun)- chains or shackles attached to the ankles

23. to compel- to force


The following is a link to Hamlet's soliloquy at the close of Act II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyB4ktn7AIE Rogue and peasant slave am I

The following is a link to Hamlet's soliloquy in Act III.i. To be or not to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JD6gOrARk4

Tuesday February 23, 2010

This image is from Edward Topsell's The History of Serpents (1608) During Shakespeare's time, a sailor might fully expect to encounter such a creature.

It is suggested that you review the vocabulary each day.
Finish the rest of Act I tonight. The counselors are coming in tomorrow to speak with the class for about twenty minutes.







Parker's notes on Hamlet, so far

Act I.i. For two nights Bernardo and Marcellus have watched guard on the ramparts, for it is feared that Fortinbras the Younger, whose father had been killed in battle and also lost some land to the Danes, will seek to recapture this lost acreage. Whilst on guard they have seen a ghost that seems in the visage much like the old King Hamlet, whose demise was but three months ago.

These two have informed Horation, Hamlet's buddy and a member of a higher social class; hence what he says carries more weight. That there has been a ghose "bodes some strange eruption to our state" (I.i.80), notes Horatio. As well, when the world has been out of kilter, such as when "the mightiest Julius fell / The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead / Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; / As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,/ Disaster of the sun"(I.i.125-30), both entertains and entices the audience. In short Shakespeare is establishing a connection between Hamlet's father's death and other great historical events. In addition, he establishes a tie between the events of mankind and nature.


The ghost comes in, but disappears when the cock crows, or when "the morn in russet mantle clad / Walks o'er the dew of youn high eastern hill" (I.i.180-1).

Act I.ii. King Claudius has announced his marriage to "our sometime sister, now our queen, / Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state"(I.ii.8-9). So much for his "valiant brother;" on to the business of state.

We have met Laertes, the son of King Claudius' councillor Polonius. This ertwhile friend of Hamlet's has asked the king for permission to head back the school. It is given
King Claudius then importunes Hamlet to no more "persever / In obstinate condolement" (I.ii.96-7), for "'Tis unmanly grief / ...shows a will most incorrect to heaven"(I.ii.99-100). In other words, Hamlet needs to man up and accept his father's dying a natural process and that even God would be offended by his "impatient mind." Besides, now King Claudius is his father.

Note Hamlet's solioquy I.ii.(134-164) He contemplates suicide here and notes "fraility thy name is woman." It seems he has a problem with his mum- and maybe that explains his actions towards Ophelia, Polonius's daughter, Laertes' sister.

Hamlet and Horatio catch up. Hamlet isn't stupid; he knows that Horatio came for both the funeral and the wedding: "The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" (I.ii.187-8). Also note that Hamlet accepts his father's faults: "He was a man. Take him for all in all" (I.ii.195); still he acknowledges his father was special: "I shall not look upon his like again" (I.ii.196). So Horatio and Hamlet agree to meet upon the ramparts to talk to the ghost. Hamlet is concerned that his father's spirit is "in arms." Nothing can stop the truth from being revealed: "Foul deeds will rise,/ Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's / eyes (I.ii.279-81).

Monday February 22, 2010

Reminder: vocabulary 9 is due today.
You will find a copy below, if you lost yours.





Please scroll beyond the vocabulary for today's information.
Vocabulary 9
1. acclamation (noun) – a shout of welcome; an overwhelming verbal vote of approval; ovation, cheering,
plaudits
2. bucolic (adj) – characteristic of the countryside, rural, relating to shepherds and cowherds, pastoral; rustic
3. calumniate (verb)- to slander; to accuse falsely and maliciously; defame, libel
4. chary (adj) – extremely cautious, hesitant or slow; reserved, diffident; wary, skittish
5. collusion (noun) – secret agreement or cooperation; conspiracy, plot, connivance, cahoots
6. dilettante (noun) – a dabbler in the arts; one who engages in an activity in an amateurish, trifling way;
superficial; amateur, trifle
7. imperturbable (adj)- not easily excited; emotionally steady; unflappable, unexcitable, serene, unruffled
8. increment (noun) – an enlargement, increase, addition; accretion, gain
9. mandate (noun)- an authoritative command, formal order, authorization; directive
(verb) – to issue such an order
10. paltry (adj) – trifling, insignificant; mean; despicable; inferior, trashy; measly, meager, piddling, trivial
11. paroxysm (noun) – a sudden outburst; a spasm, a convulsion; fit, seizure
12. pedantry (noun) – a pretentious display of knowledge; overly rigid attention to rules and details; nit-picking, hairsplitting, pettifoggery
13. peregrination (noun) – the act of traveling; an excursion, especially on foot or to a foreign country; journey, wandering, odyssey
14. redolent (adj) fragrant, smelling strongly; tending to arouse memories or create an aura; evocative,
reminiscent, aromatic
15. refulgent (adj) – shining, radiant, resplendent; luminous, splendid
16. unremitting (adj) – not stopping, maintained steadily, never letting up, relentless, constant, incessant
17. tyro (noun) – beginner, novice, one with little or no background or skill, neophyte
18. shibboleth (noun)- a word, expression or custom that distinguishes a particular group of persons from all others; a commonplace saying or truism
19. vacillate (verb)- to swing indecisively from one idea or course of action to another; to waver weakly in mind or will
20. vituperate (adj)- harshly abusive, severely scolding, abusive, scurrilous, insulting

Vocabulary 9, exercise 1 Use the correct form.

1. It is very rare for a presidential candidate to be nominated by _________________________ from the convention floor.
2. Since so many funds had been spent with so few results, they were _________________________ about appropriating more money.
3. After returning from my ________________________________ throughout South America, I began writing a book about my experiences.
4. The billionaire was so greedy that he contributed only a _______________________ sum of money to charity each year.
5. My grandmother’s kitchen was always _____________________________ with the smells of baking.
6. Someone who __________________________________ in a crisis should not be in a position of leadership.
7. Many people dismissed the poster artists of the 1960’s as mere _____________________________ with nothing serious to say about life or art.
8. The fussy music professor was distinguished more for her __________________________ that her true scholarship.
9. You cannot expect a mere ________________________ to perform like a veteran in his first season of major league play.
10. By the time Election Day finally rolls around, most voters are tired of hearing the same old slogans and ________________________________________.
11. The Elizabethans who wrote of shepherds in ideal country settings were imitating the Greek __________________________ poets.
12. The children greeted the clown with a ________________________ of laughter when he began making his funny faces.
13. The peacekeepers were sent into the war-torn country under a UN _____________________________ to protect minority populations.
14. The social laws in Edith Wharton’s novels are _______________________; they are interminable.
15. The swift-flowing stream beside our house was _______________________ in the morning light.
16. The _____________________________ speech in which she blamed others for her own mistakes may have cost her the election.
17. Employees were added to the work force in ____________________________ of five to save money on training costs.
18. The witness remained _______________________________ throughout the grueling cross-examination.
19. Years later, it was discovered that senior members of the company had been in _______________________ with the enemy.
20. Not only did the artist’s enemy seek to discredit her while she was alive but tried to ________________________ her memory as well.


Vocabulary 9, exercise 2

1. As we waited through the long night for the arrival of the rescue party, we _________________________
between hope and despair.
2. However long and hard the struggle, we must be ____________________________ in our efforts to wipe
out racism in this country.
3. She may have great musical talents, but she will get nowhere so long as she has the casual attitude of the
_____________________________________.
4. The painting shows a restfully _____________________________ scene, with some cows grazing placidly
in a meadow as their shepherd dozes under a bush.
5. I had expected a decent tip from the party of six that I waited on early that evening, but all I got was a(n) _______________________________ two bucks.
6. The scene may seem ordinary to you, but I find it _________________________ with memories of happy
summers spent in these woods.
7. Since Lincoln is now considered a great national hero, it is hard to believe that he was bitterly
_______________________________ when he was President.
8. The contractor was suspected of having acted in __________________________ with a state official to fix
the bids on certain public works contracts.
9. “The overwhelming victory I have won at the polls,” the governor-elect said, “has given me a clear
__________________________________ to carry out my program.”
10. As a(n) _____________________________ summer sun sank slowly in the west, the skies were ablaze
with color.
11. In a series of searing orations, filled with the most _____________________________ language, Cicero
launched the full battery of political invective against the hapless Mark Antony.
12. Every time I sign a new lease on my apartment, my rent goes up, though the
__________________________ are not usually large.
13. I thought I was unexcitable, but she is as _______________________________as the granite icons in
front of the public library.
14. Even the merest _______________________ in the use of firearms knows that a gun should never be
pointed at another person.
15. Since Lucy had expected no more than polite applause, she was delighted by the ________________________________ she received from the audience.
16. The Pledge of Allegiance is no mere _________________________ to be recited mechanically and
without understanding like some advertising jingle.
17. In my various _______________________________ through that vast metropolis, I ran across many
curious old buildings that the ordinary tourist never sees.
18.I have learned from long experience to be extremely _____________________________ about offering
advice when it has not been requested.
19. Seized by a(n) _______________________________ of rage, he began to beat the bars of his cell with his
bare hands.
20.It is sheer _____________________________ to insist upon applying the rules of formal literary
composition to everyday speech and writing.

Vocabulary 9, exercise 3
Synonyms

1. evocative of old memories _______________________________
2. in cahoots with the competition _______________________________
3. kept up the constant pressure to surrender _______________________________
4. greeted with an overwhelming ovation _______________________________
5. bored us with his hairsplitting _______________________________
6. overcome by a fit of anger _______________________________
7. reluctantly ended her journeys ______________________________
8. seesawed in their commitments ______________________________
9. keeps repeating the tired old catchphrases ______________________________
10. slandered his rivals at every opportunity _______________________________
11. labeled a mere trifler by the experts _______________________________
12. an urgent directive from the President _______________________________
13. a scurrilous response to the question ________________________________
14. wary of flattery and favor-seekers ________________________________
15. painted a charming rustic scene _______________________________

Antonyms
16. is excitable when challenged __________________________________
17. a colossal amount of unpaid debts _________________________________
18. reported a steady loss in annual sales _________________________________
19. looked up at the murky dawn sky __________________________________
20. an expert in the art of fencing __________________________________

Vocabulary 9, exercise 4
1. Not satisfied with the slow (increment / peregrination) of his savings in a bank account, he turned to speculation in the stock market.
2. Are we to try to make a realistic analysis of our alternatives or let ourselves be distracted by slogans and (tyros / shibboleths)?
3. Perhaps he would be less lyrical about the delights of the (bucolic / redolent) life if, like me, he had grown up on a farm in Kansas.
4. It has long been known that some twisted and unhappy people derive a kind of satisfaction from (calumniating / colluding) others.
5. Once the senator’s nomination became a certainty, all opposition to him evaporated, and he was named by (vituperation / acclamation).
6. During the course of my (peregrinations / paroxysms) through the world of books, I have picked up all kinds of useful information.
7. The phrase “We the people” in the Constitution indicates that the ultimate (mandate / vacillation) of our government comes from the popular will.
8. Since she comes from a rural area, she expresses herself in language that is (redolent / paltry) of the farm and of country life in general.
9. It is easy to criticize him, but how can we overlook the fact that for 20 years he has worked (unremittingly / charily) to help the homeless.
10. Although he has been in this business for 20 years, he still has the sublime innocence of the most helpless (tyro / shibboleth).
11. A (paroxysm / pedantry) of indignation flashed through the community, and the streets filled with angry people ready to protest the proposal.
12. Clad in the (refulgent / dilettante) armor of moral rectitude, he sallied forth to do battle with the forces of evil.
13. How do you have the nerve to offer such a(n) (paltry / unremitting) sum for this magnificent “antique” car?
14. Isn’t it sheer (pedantry / refulgence) on his part to use terms like Proustian and Kafkaesque, when he knows they mean nothing to his audience?
15. The same difficulties that serve as a challenge to the true professional will be a crushing discouragement to the typical (mandate / dilettante).
16. If we (vacillate / increment) now at adopting a tough energy policy, we may find ourselves in a desperate situation in the future.
17. I’m not sure if Tom’s (imperturbable / collusive) spirit is due to toughness or to an inability to understand the dangers of the situation.
18. I am perfectly willing to listen to a reasonable complaint, but I will not put up with that kind of (bucolic / vituperative) backbiting.
19. The gambler’s predictions of the game scores were so incredible accurate that we suspected some form of (acclimation / collusion).
20. Because my teacher is usually so (chary / imperturbable) of giving compliments, I fest especially good when she spoke well of my essay.

Over the next two weeks, we'll be reading William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Please note the Reading Schedule for Hamlet by William Shakespeare

It is strongly recommended that you read the material aloud- at least so in your mind. You are to keep a running list of questions, thoughts and reflections, which will serve both as your homework and participation grade, for we’ll use these in class. Please post them on the blog each day. Each student should have ten entries, one for each day. They are worth ten points each; so, in theory, everyone should have a 100 for their participation and homework grades. If you are absent, and cannot post, there will be short written assignments as make-up.

Monday February 22- collect play from library; how an actor interprets the text; homework: read Act I, scenes i and ii; Hamlet vocabulary sheet- quiz Friday
Tuesday February 23: in class reading of the rest of Act I; make sure you post your comment / question / reflection / thought for both Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Wednesday February 24-counsellors are coming in to talk with the class. Homework: read Act II, scenes i and ii.
Thursday February 25- in class finish Act II. Homework: Act III.i; vocabulary quiz tomorrow
Friday February 26- First Hamlet vocabulary quiz; in class Act III as far as we can get. Homework: finish Act III and read Act IV; Quiz Monday-read carefully!
Monday March 1- Quiz on Acts III and IV; review of Act IV; Homework: Act IV.i.
Tuesday March 2-in class, the rest of Act V
Wednesday March 3- review, focus on literary elements; significant lines; tangential material
Thursday March 4-film
Friday March 5-film
edule.

Hamlet, Shakespeare's most well-known and most frequently performed play, is a tragedy of revenge, betrayal, and inner conflict. The Danish prince Hamlet is outraged by the hasty marriage of his uncle, Claudius, to his mother after the death of his father. When he is told in a terrifying encounter with his father's ghost that Claudius had in fact poisoned the king, Hamlet agrees to avenge the murder. Throughout the play, however, he faces a struggle between his desire to act and the uncertainties, fears, and obstacles that prevent him from doing so. In the midst of his anguish and ambivalence, he feigns madness, spurns the woman he had loved, and leaves a trail of death and destruction before finally killing Claudius and dying himself.

Today we are exploring the role of the actor in interpreting the text.
Plan on being very creative!

Twenty-five point bonus: Which of the following film adaptations tells the story of Hamlet? (submit answer before class under hole punch, as usual)

1. Roxanne 2. West Side Story 3. Ten Things I Hate About You 4. Lion King

The following is a copy of the first Hamlet vocabulary list. Quiz this Friday.

Hamlet vocabulary list number 1 The assessment will involve simply defining the word. It is suggested that you create flash cards.
1 .to entreat - to beg; to ask
2 .to assail .- to attack
3. fortified- shielded; secured; protected
4. to illume - to brighten; to lighten
5. to usurp - to seize; to confiscate
6. to avouch - to certify; to confirm; to guarantee
7.to esteem- to honor; to respect; to prize; to treasure
8. to ratify- approved; confirmed; legalized
9. mettle- endurance; bravery
10. resolute- brave; fearless; relentless people
11. portentous- foreboding; threatening; sinister
12. privy - adj.- made participant in a secret
13. discretion - permission to make decisions with own judgment
14. auspicious- adj.- delightful; joyous; happy; lucky; favorable
15. dirge- funeral song; death march
16. dole - sadness (think doldrums from Coleridge)
17. visage - the face or facial expression of a person
18. denote - to indicate; to mark; to signal; to mean
19. countenance - n.- appearance; facial expression / v.- to condone
20. calumnious - adj.- slanderous; attacking one's character
22. precept-- rule; principle
23. perilous.- dangerous
24. to importune- to insistently beg
25. to traduce- to slander

Wednesday February 10, 2010

At the Opera by Mary Cassatt
quick summary: vocabulary 7 was due this past Monday; unless you have a legally excused absence- being in a theatre production is not legal- your work is now two days late; that means 20 points off for each exercise. (same ole, same ole). Both the revising the passive form worksheet and the reflection questions from the Mark Twain work should have been turned in.
NOTE: no late work will be accepted after Thursday.

In class work:
On Wednesday we read the short story A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather, as an example of Regionalism. What has been introduced is that in terms of point of view there is a limited third person narrator. The speaker proceeds in giving us a portrait of his Aunt Georgiana, who has come to Boston to settle an inheritance. However, as he develops the story, it is obvious that these are subjective recollections and therefore not necessary accurate. What we know of this women is only his version. The reader must look beyond the text to actually have a deeper understanding of the lady.

In class assignment: due Thursday. This is an extension of the above story.
Ralph Waldo Emerson has written, [Music] takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle us to wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereth." Discuss the meaning of these words. Think about the powerful effect music often has on people's memories and emotions. Recall a piece of music--preferably one with no lyrics--that can produce a strong effect on your memories and emotions.

Tuesday February 9, 2010

The above images are of the Regionalist writer Willa Cather and a map Nebraska, where the short story A Wagner Matinee takes place. Note the location and proximity to major metropolitan areas. Geography? Weather?

As you read the story, note her use of the limited third person point of view. When she limits the point of view to one character, you learn abut all the characters primarily through the thoughts of the narrator.

Cather's tombstone is carved with the following: ...that is happiness, to be disolved into something complete and great. Keep that in mind as you read.

Here is the story below, if you are absent from class.

A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather

I received one morning a letter, written in pale ink on glassy, blue-lined notepaper, and bearing the postmark of a little Nebraska village. This communication, worn and rubbed, looking as though it had been carried for some days in a coat pocket that was none too clean, was from my Uncle Howard and informed me that his wife had been left a small legacy by a bachelor relative who had recently died, and that it would be necessary for her to go to Boston to attend to the settling of the estate. He requested me to meet her at the station and render her whatever services might be necessary. On examining the date indicated as that of her arrival I found it no later than tomorrow. He had characteristically delayed writing until, had I been away from home for a day, I must have missed the good woman altogether.

The name of my Aunt Georgiana called up not alone her own figure, at once pathetic and grotesque, but opened before my feet a gulf of recollection so wide and deep that, as the letter dropped from my hand, I felt suddenly a stranger to all the present conditions of my existence, wholly ill at ease and out of place amid the familiar surroundings of my study. I became, in short, the gangling farm boy my aunt had known, scourged with chilblains and bashfulness, my hands cracked and sore from the corn husking. I felt the knuckles of my thumb tentatively, as though they were raw again. I sat again before her parlor organ, fumbling the scales with my stiff, red hands, while she, beside me, made canvas mittens for the huskers.

The next morning, after preparing my landlady somewhat, I set out for the station. When the train arrived I had some difficulty in finding my aunt. She was the last of the passengers to alight, and it was not until I got her into the carriage that she seemed really to recognize me. She had come all the way in a day coach; her linen duster had become black with soot, and her black bonnet gray with dust, during the journey. When we arrived at my boardinghouse the landlady put her to bed at once and I did not see her again until the next morning.

Whatever shock Mrs. Springer experienced at my aunt's appearance she considerately concealed. As for myself, I saw my aunt's misshapen figure with that feeling of awe and respect with which we behold explorers who have left their ears and fingers north of Franz Josef Land, or their health somewhere along the Upper Congo. My Aunt Georgiana had been a music teacher at the Boston Conservatory, somewhere back in the latter sixties. One summer, while visiting in the little village among the Green Mountains where her ancestors had dwelt for generations, she had kindled the callow fancy of the most idle and shiftless of all the village lads, and had conceived for this Howard Carpenter one of those extravagant passions which a handsome country boy of twenty-one sometimes inspires in an angular, spectacled woman of thirty. When she returned to her duties in Boston, Howard followed her, and the upshot of this inexplicable infatuation was that she eloped with him, eluding the reproaches of her family and the criticisms of her friends by going with him to the Nebraska frontier. Carpenter, who, of course, had no money, had taken a homestead in Red Willow County, fifty miles from the railroad. There they had measured off their quarter section themselves by driving across the prairie in a wagon, to the wheel of which they had tied a red cotton handkerchief, and counting off its revolutions. They built a dugout in the red hillside, one of those cave dwellings whose inmates so often reverted to primitive conditions. Their water they got from the lagoons where the buffalo drank, and their slender stock of provisions was always at the mercy of bands of roving Indians. For thirty years my aunt had not been further than fifty miles from the homestead.

But Mrs. Springer knew nothing of all this, and must have been considerably shocked at what was left of my kinswoman. Beneath the soiled linen duster which, on her arrival, was the most conspicuous feature of her costume, she wore a black stuff dress, whose ornamentation showed that she had surrendered herself unquestioningly into the hands of a country dressmaker. My poor aunt's figure, however, would have presented astonishing difficulties to any dressmaker. Originally stooped, her shoulders were now almost bent together over her sunken chest. She wore no stays, and her gown, which trailed unevenly behind, rose in a sort of peak over her abdomen. She wore ill-fitting false teeth, and her skin was as yellow as a Mongolian's from constant exposure to a pitiless wind and to the alkaline water which hardens the most transparent cuticle into a sort of flexible leather.

I owed to this woman most of the good that ever came my way in my boyhood, and had a reverential affection for her. During the years when I was riding herd for my uncle, my aunt, after cooking the three meals--the first of which was ready at six o'clock in the morning-and putting the six children to bed, would often stand until midnight at her ironing board, with me at the kitchen table beside her, hearing me recite Latin declensions and conjugations, gently shaking me when my drowsy head sank down over a page of irregular verbs. It was to her, at her ironing or mending, that I read my first Shakespeare', and her old textbook on mythology was the first that ever came into my empty hands. She taught me my scales and exercises, too--on the little parlor organ, which her husband had bought her after fifteen years, during which she had not so much as seen any instrument, but an accordion that belonged to one of the Norwegian farmhands. She would sit beside me by the hour, darning and counting while I struggled with the "Joyous Farmer," but she seldom talked to me about music, and I understood why. She was a pious woman; she had the consolations of religion and, to her at least, her martyrdom was not wholly sordid. Once when I had been doggedly beating out some easy passages from an old score of Euryanthe I had found among her music books, she came up to me and, putting her hands over my eyes, gently drew my head back upon her shoulder, saying tremulously, "Don't love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh, dear boy, pray that whatever your sacrifice may be, it be not that."

When my aunt appeared on the morning after her arrival she was still in a semi-somnambulant state. She seemed not to realize that she was in the city where she had spent her youth, the place longed for hungrily half a lifetime. She had been so wretchedly train-sick throughout the journey that she bad no recollection of anything but her discomfort, and, to all intents and purposes, there were but a few hours of nightmare between the farm in Red Willow County and my study on Newbury Street. I had planned a little pleasure for her that afternoon, to repay her for some of the glorious moments she had given me when we used to milk together in the straw-thatched cowshed and she, because I was more than usually tired, or because her husband had spoken sharply to me, would tell me of the splendid performance of the Huguenots she had seen in Paris, in her youth. At two o'clock the Symphony Orchestra was to give a Wagner program, and I intended to take my aunt; though, as I conversed with her I grew doubtful about her enjoyment of it. Indeed, for her own sake, I could only wish her taste for such things quite dead, and the long struggle mercifully ended at last. I suggested our visiting the Conservatory and the Common before lunch, but she seemed altogether too timid to wish to venture out. She questioned me absently about various changes in the city, but she was chiefly concerned that she had forgotten to leave instructions about feeding half-skimmed milk to a certain weakling calf, "old Maggie's calf, you know, Clark," she explained, evidently having forgotten how long I had been away. She was further troubled because she had neglected to tell her daughter about the freshly opened kit of mackerel in the cellar, which would spoil if it were not used directly.

I asked her whether she had ever heard any of the Wagnerian operas and found that she had not, though she was perfectly familiar with their respective situations, and had once possessed the piano score of The Flying Dutchman. I began to think it would have been best to get her back to Red Willow County without waking her, and regretted having suggested the concert.

From the time we entered the concert hall, however, she was a trifle less passive and inert, and for the first time seemed to perceive her surroundings. I had felt some trepidation lest she might become aware of the absurdities of her attire, or might experience some painful embarrassment at stepping suddenly into the world to which she had been dead for a quarter of a century. But, again, I found how superficially I had judged her. She sat looking about her with eyes as impersonal, almost as stony, as those with which the granite Rameses in a museum watches the froth and fret that ebbs and flows about his pedestal-separated from it by the lonely stretch of centuries. I have seen this same aloofness in old miners who drift into the Brown Hotel at Denver, their pockets full of bullion, their linen soiled, their haggard faces unshaven; standing in the thronged corridors as solitary as though they were still in a frozen camp on the Yukon, conscious that certain experiences have isolated them from their fellows by a gulf no haberdasher could bridge.

We sat at the extreme left of the first balcony, facing the arc of our own and the balcony above us, veritable hanging gardens, brilliant as tulip beds. The matinee audience was made up chiefly of women. One lost the contour of faces and figures-- indeed, any effect of line whatever-and there was only the color of bodices past counting, the shimmer of fabrics soft and firm, silky and sheer: red, mauve, pink, blue, lilac, purple, ecru, rose, yellow, cream, and white, all the colors that an impressionist finds in a sunlit landscape, with here and there the dead shadow of a frock coat. My Aunt Georgiana regarded them as though they had been so many daubs of tube-paint on a palette.

When the musicians came out and took their places, she gave a little stir of anticipation and looked with quickening interest down over the rail at that invariable grouping, perhaps the first wholly familiar thing that had greeted her eye since she had left old Maggie and her weakling calf. I could feel how all those details sank into her soul, for I had not forgotten how they had sunk into mine when. I came fresh from plowing forever and forever between green aisles of corn, where, as in a treadmill, one might walk from daybreak to dusk without perceiving a shadow of change. The clean profiles of the musicians, the gloss of their linen, the dull black of their coats, the beloved shapes of the instruments, the patches of yellow light thrown by the green- shaded lamps on the smooth, varnished bellies of the cellos and the bass viols in the rear, the restless, wind-tossed forest of fiddle necks and bows-I recalled how, in the first orchestra I had ever heard, those long bow strokes seemed to draw the heart out of me, as a conjurer's stick reels out yards of paper ribbon from a hat.

The first number was the Tannhauser overture. When the horns drew out the first strain of the Pilgrim's chorus my Aunt Georgiana clutched my coat sleeve. Then it was I first realized that for her this broke a silence of thirty years; the inconceivable silence of the plains. With the battle between the two motives, with the frenzy of the Venusberg theme and its ripping of strings, there came to me an overwhelming sense of the waste and wear we are so powerless to combat; and I saw again the tall, naked house on the prairie, black and grim as a wooden fortress; the black pond where I had learned to swim, its margin pitted with sun-dried cattle tracks; the rain-gullied clay banks about the naked house, the four dwarf ash seedlings where the dishcloths were always hung to dry before the kitchen door. The world there was the flat world of the ancients; to the east, a cornfield that stretched to daybreak; to the west, a corral that reached to sunset; between, the conquests of peace, dearer bought than those of war.

The overture closed; my aunt released my coat sleeve, but she said nothing. She sat staring at the orchestra through a dullness of thirty years, through the films made little by little by each of the three hundred and sixty-five days in every one of them. What, I wondered, did she get from it? She had been a good pianist in her day I knew, and her musical education had been broader than that of most music teachers of a quarter of a century ago. She had often told me of Mozart's operas and Meyerbeer's, and I could remember hearing her sing, years ago, certain melodies of Verdi's. When I had fallen ill with a fever in her house she used to sit by my cot in the evening--when the cool, night wind blew in through the faded mosquito netting tacked over the window, and I lay watching a certain bright star that burned red above the cornfield--and sing "Home to our mountains, O, let us return!" in a way fit to break the heart of a Vermont boy near dead of homesickness already.

I watched her closely through the prelude to Tristan and Isolde, trying vainly to conjecture what that seething turmoil of strings and winds might mean to her, but she sat mutely staring at the violin bows that drove obliquely downward, like the pelting streaks of rain in a summer shower. Had this music any message for her? Had she enough left to at all comprehend this power which had kindled the world since she had left it? I was in a fever of curiosity, but Aunt Georgiana sat silent upon her peak in Darien. She preserved this utter immobility throughout the number from The Flying Dutchman, though her fingers worked mechanically upon her black dress, as though, of themselves, they were recalling the piano score they had once played. Poor old hands! They had been stretched and twisted into mere tentacles to hold and lift and knead with; the palms unduly swollen, the fingers bent and knotted--on one of them a thin, worn band that had once been a wedding ring. As I pressed and gently quieted one of those groping hands I remembered with quivering eyelids their services for me in other days.

Soon after the tenor began the "Prize Song," I heard a quick drawn breath and turned to my aunt. Her eyes were closed, but the tears were glistening on her cheeks, and I think, in a moment more, they were in my eyes as well. It never really died, then-- the soul that can suffer so excruciatingly and so interminably; it withers to the outward eye only; like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again. She wept so throughout the development and elaboration of the melody.

During the intermission before the second half of the concert, I questioned my aunt and found that the "Prize Song" was not new to her. Some years before there had drifted to the farm in Red Willow County a young German, a tramp cowpuncher, who had sung the chorus at Bayreuth, when he was a boy, along with the other peasant boys and girls. Of a Sunday morning he used to sit on his gingham-sheeted bed in the hands' bedroom which opened off the kitchen, cleaning the leather of his boots and saddle, singing the "Prize Song," while my aunt went about her work in the kitchen. She had hovered about him until she had prevailed upon him to join the country church, though his sole fitness for this step, insofar as I could gather, lay in his boyish face and his possession of this divine melody. Shortly afterward he had gone to town on the Fourth of July, been drunk for several days, lost his money at a faro table, ridden a saddled Texan steer on a bet, and disappeared with a fractured collarbone. All this my aunt told me huskily, wanderingly, as though she were talking in the weak lapses of illness.

"Well, we have come to better things than the old Trovatore at any rate, Aunt Georgie?" I queried, with a well-meant effort at jocularity.

Her lip quivered and she hastily put her handkerchief up to her mouth. From behind it she murmured, "And you have been hearing this ever since you left me, Clark?" Her question was the gentlest and saddest of reproaches.

The second half of the program consisted of four numbers from the Ring, and closed with Siegfried's funeral march. My aunt wept quietly, but almost continuously, as a shallow vessel overflows in a rainstorm. From time to time her dim eyes looked up at the lights which studded the ceiling, burning softly under their dull glass globes; doubtless they were stars in truth to her. I was still perplexed as to what measure of musical comprehension was left to her, she who had heard nothing but the singing of gospel hymns at Methodist services in the square frame schoolhouse on Section Thirteen for so many years. I was wholly unable to gauge how much of it had been dissolved in soapsuds, or worked into bread, or milked into the bottom of a pail.

The deluge of sound poured on and on; I never knew what she found in the shining current of it; I never knew how far it bore her, or past what happy islands. From the trembling of her face I could well believe that before the last numbers she had been carried out where the myriad graves are, into the gray, nameless burying grounds of the sea; or into some world of death vaster yet, where, from the beginning of the world, hope has lain down with hope and dream with dream and, renouncing, slept.

The concert was over; the people filed out of the hall chattering and laughing, glad to relax and find the living level again, but my kinswoman made no effort to rise. The harpist slipped its green felt cover over his instrument; the flute players shook the water from their mouthpieces; the men of the orchestra went out one by one, leaving the stage to the chairs and music stands, empty as a winter cornfield.

I spoke to my aunt. She burst into tears and sobbed pleadingly. "I don't want to go, Clark, I don't want to go!"

I understood. For her, just outside the door of the concert hall, lay the black pond with the cattle-tracked bluffs; the tall, unpainted house, with weather-curled boards; naked as a tower, the crook-backed ash seedlings where the dishcloths hung to dry; the gaunt, molting turkeys picking up refuse about the kitchen door.

Monday February 8, 2010

This is a crazy week in that there are many pullouts for the various plays, field trips and early vacations. Make sure you check the blog and keep abreast with the work.

In class work: completion of the responses to Mark Twain's The Boys' Ambition, an excerpt from Life on the Mississippi. This was handed out last Friday and there is a copy on the blog.

We are reviewing passive voice today, as an extension of Chopin's development of characterization in her short story The Story of an Hour.

You have a the following handout. If you are absent, please just complete the following.

Directions: Rewrite the following, so that passive constructions have been changed to active verbs. WARNING! Some of these sentences do not use passive verbs or are better off left in the passive, so this exercise will also engage your attention in recognizing passive constructions and in using them when appropriate.
1. Before the semester was over, the new nursing program had been approved by the Curriculum Committee and the Board of Trustees.
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2. With five seconds left in the game, an illegal time-out was called by one of the players.
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3. Later in the day, the employees were informed of their loss of benefits by the boss herself.
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4. The major points of the lesson were quickly learned by the class, but they were also quickly forgotten by them.
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5. For several years, Chauncey was raised by his elderly grandmother.
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6. An unexpected tornado smashed several homes and uprooted trees in a suburb of Knoxville.
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7. I was surprised by the teacher’s lack of sympathy.

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8. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
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9. Participants in the survey were asked about their changes in political affiliation.

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10. Tall buildings and mountain roads were avoided by Raoul because he had such a fear of heights.
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Friday February 5, 2010

REMINDER: vocabulary 7 is due Monday. There is no other assignment.
The following is a copy of Friday's class handout.
Please note the introductory paragraph.

In terms of the 2nd half of the 19th century, we have looked at Realism, which is essentially a slice of life without the rose tinted lens of Romanticism. The illusions have dissipated, and people of various social and economic and ethnic classes, who had previously not been acknowledged, as well as institutions, such as marriage in the case of The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, are explored with a more scientific eye. The short story, albeit we viewed the film, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, employed imagination, much like Romanticism, in that the protagonist vividly projects his escape from his imminent death by hanging, but his tale is not simply one of hurry up and get away, but takes on a tone of detached scientific observation. As to Naturalism, we have read Stephen Crane’s Maggie, Girl of the Streets and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, both of which have characters, whose lives are thwarted by economic and social circumstances and biological drives. The last movement we are looking at is Regionalism, where Realism and Romanticism are blended. The emphasis is on locale, or place, and the elements that create the local color- customs, speech, dress and other local differences.


The following is an example of Regionalism.
Chapter 4. The Boys' Ambition an excerpt from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi
When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village [1. Hannibal, Missouri] on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient. When a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; the first negro minstrel show that came to our section left us all suffering to try that kind of life; now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained.

Once a day a cheap, gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis, and another downward from Keokuk. Before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy; after them, the day was a dead and empty thing. Not only the boys, but the whole village, felt this. After all these years I can picture that old time to myself now, just as it was then: the white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer's morning; the streets empty, or pretty nearly so; one or two clerks sitting in front of the Water Street stores, with their splint-bottomed chairs tilted back against the wall, chins on breasts, hats slouched over their faces, asleep-- with shingle-shavings enough around to show what broke them down; a sow and a litter of pigs loafing along the sidewalk, doing a good business in watermelon rinds and seeds; two or three lonely little freight piles scattered about the 'levee;' a pile of 'skids' on the slope of the stone-paved wharf, and the fragrant town drunkard asleep in the shadow of them; two or three wood flats at the head of the wharf, but nobody to listen to the peaceful lapping of the wavelets against them; the great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide along, shining in the sun; the dense forest away on the other side; the 'point' above the town, and the 'point' below, bounding the river-glimpse and turning it into a sort of sea, and withal a very still and brilliant and lonely one. Presently a film of dark smoke appears above one of those remote 'points;' instantly a negro drayman, famous for his quick eye and prodigious voice, lifts up the cry, 'S-t-e-a-m-boat a-comin'!' and the scene changes! The town drunkard stirs, the clerks wake up, a furious clatter of drays follows, every house and store pours out a human contribution, and all in a twinkling the dead town is alive and moving. Drays, carts, men, boys, all go hurrying from many quarters to a common center, the wharf. Assembled there, the people fasten their eyes upon the coming boat as upon a wonder they are seeing for the first time. And the boat is rather a handsome sight, too. She is long and sharp and trim and pretty; she has two tall, fancy-topped chimneys, with a gilded device of some kind swung between them; a fanciful pilot-house, a glass and 'gingerbread', perched on top of the 'texas' deck behind them; the paddle-boxes are gorgeous with a picture or with gilded rays above the boat's name; the boiler deck, the hurricane deck, and the texas deck are fenced and ornamented with clean white railings; there is a flag gallantly flying from the jack-staff; the furnace doors are open and the fires glaring bravely; the upper decks are black with passengers; the captain stands by the big bell, calm, imposing, the envy of all; great volumes of the blackest smoke are rolling and tumbling out of the chimneys-- a husbanded grandeur created with a bit of pitch pine just before arriving at a town; the crew are grouped on the forecastle; the broad stage is run far out over the port bow, and an envied deckhand stands picturesquely on the end of it with a coil of rope in his hand; the pent steam is screaming through the gauge-cocks, the captain lifts his hand, a bell rings, the wheels stop; then they turn back, churning the water to foam, and the steamer is at rest. Then such a scramble as there is to get aboard, and to get ashore, and to take in freight and to discharge freight, all at one and the same time; and such a yelling and cursing as the mates facilitate it all with! Ten minutes later the steamer is under way again, with no flag on the jack-staff and no black smoke issuing from the chimneys. After ten more minutes the town is dead again, and the town drunkard asleep by the skids once more.

My father was a justice of the peace, and I supposed he possessed the power of life and death over all men and could hang anybody that offended him. This was distinction enough for me as a general thing; but the desire to be a steamboatman kept intruding, nevertheless. I first wanted to be a cabin-boy, so that I could come out with a white apron on and shake a tablecloth over the side, where all my old comrades could see me; later I thought I would rather be the deckhand who stood on the end of the stage-plank with the coil of rope in his hand, because he was particularly conspicuous. But these were only day-dreams,-- they were too heavenly to be contemplated as real possibilities. By and by one of our boys went away. He was not heard of for a long time. At last he turned up as apprentice engineer or 'striker' on a steamboat. This thing shook the bottom out of all my Sunday-school teachings. That boy had been notoriously worldly, and I just the reverse; yet he was exalted to this eminence, and I left in obscurity and misery. There was nothing generous about this fellow in his greatness. He would always manage to have a rusty bolt to scrub while his boat tarried at our town, and he would sit on the inside guard and scrub it, where we could all see him and envy him and loathe him. And whenever his boat was laid up he would come home and swell around the town in his blackest and greasiest clothes, so that nobody could help remembering that he was a steamboatman; and he used all sorts of steamboat technicalities in his talk, as if he were so used to them that he forgot common people could not understand them. He would speak of the 'labboard' side of a horse in an easy, natural way that would make one wish he was dead. And he was always talking about 'St. Looy' like an old citizen; he would refer casually to occasions when he 'was coming down Fourth Street,' or when he was 'passing by the Planter's House,' or when there was a fire and he took a turn on the brakes of 'the old Big Missouri;' and then he would go on and lie about how many towns the size of ours were burned down there that day. Two or three of the boys had long been persons of consideration among us because they had been to St. Louis once and had a vague general knowledge of its wonders, but the day of their glory was over now. They lapsed into a humble silence, and learned to disappear when the ruthless 'cub'-engineer approached. This fellow had money, too, and hair oil. Also an ignorant silver watch and a showy brass watch chain. He wore a leather belt and used no suspenders. If ever a youth was cordially admired and hated by his comrades, this one was. No girl could withstand his charms. He 'cut out' every boy in the village. When his boat blew up at last, it diffused a tranquil contentment among us such as we had not known for months. But when he came home the next week, alive, renowned, and appeared in church all battered up and bandaged, a shining hero, stared at and wondered over by everybody, it seemed to us that the partiality of Providence for an undeserving reptile had reached a point where it was open to criticism.

This creature's career could produce but one result, and it speedily followed. Boy after boy managed to get on the river. The minister's son became an engineer. The doctor's and the post-master's sons became 'mud clerks;' the wholesale liquor dealer's son became a barkeeper on a boat; four sons of the chief merchant, and two sons of the county judge, became pilots. Pilot was the grandest position of all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary--from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay. Two months of his wages would pay a preacher's salary for a year. Now some of us were left disconsolate. We could not get on the river-- at least our parents would not let us.

So by and by I ran away. I said I never would come home again till I was a pilot and could come in glory. But somehow I could not manage it. I went meekly aboard a few of the boats that lay packed together like sardines at the long St. Louis wharf, and very humbly inquired for the pilots, but got only a cold shoulder and short words from mates and clerks. I had to make the best of this sort of treatment for the time being, but I had comforting daydreams of a future when I should be a great and honored pilot, with plenty of money, and could kill some of these mates and clerks and pay for them.

Thinking About The Boy’s Ambition, an excerpt from Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi.
Recalling: please use specific textual evidence
1. What is the one permanent ambition of Twain and his boyhood friends?

2. How do the people of Hannibal respond to the daily arrival of the steamboat?

3. (a) How do Twain the other boys react when one of their friends becomes an apprentice engineer on a steamboat? (b) What does the apprentice do to make sure the other boys do not forget that he is a steamboatman?


4. (a) What happens to the young apprentice’s boat? (b) How do the other boy’s respond?


5. (a) Why does Twain run away from home? (b) What does he discover after he leaves?

Interpreting:
6. What impression of the town of Hannibal, Missouri is conveyed through Twain’s description of the town and its response to the steamboat’s arrival?

7. How does Twain’s description of the steamboat reflect his boyhood desire to be a steamboatman?



8. (a) How would you describe the attitude of the boys toward the young apprentice engineer?

9. What seems to be Twain’s attitude toward himself as a boy? (Be specific as to the details that convey his attitude.)


Applying:
10. Although Twain never earned fame as a steamboat pilot, he did become a famous writer. How do you think Twain’s love for the Mississippi River and riverboats contributed to his success as a writer?

Thursday February 4, 2010

Class study notes for Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

How might heart trouble be more than a physical ailment?
Note that this is the first thing we are
told about her and how other people respond to her.
Evidently this is--at least for those around her--an
important part of who she is. Who took care? Why is
this written in the passive voice, with a "hidden" subject?
What does this construction suggest about Mrs.
Mallard's customary environment?

Why is she tantalizing her with hints?
Is this alerting us that there may be other
"veiled hints" in the story? What does this
suggest about how the family views Mrs. M.?

What does this paragraph suggest
about Richards' feelings for Mrs. M?
Why is he in such a hurry? Is the code
of the "southern gentleman" at work here,
or could there be more to his concern than that?

Why are we first told how she does NOT
hear the news? What does this reaction suggest about her?
about how "ladies" were expected to react?
Look for repeated uses of the negatives and positives
in the story and consider why they might be used.

What does this passionate response tell us
about her? This is our first real clue as to what
sort of person she is--aside from her reported state of health.

Note the contrast of motion and stillness
Why is the time of year so important?

Delicious ordinarily refers to taste.
Who is "tasting" here? Why is the word used?

She too has been "crying." What does this detail, as well as the other sensory images, tell you about what she is experiencing?

How does this picture represent symbolically what she sees about her situation?

Why is she compared to a dreaming child?

Does her age surprise you? What does her face tell you about her life?

What sort of emotional state is she in? Again, why is the negative statement here?

In your first reading, what do you guess that "something" might be? Does that interpretation change with a second reading? Why is this "message" arriving externally?

"Now" indicates a change--of what kind?
Here she is both passive and active. Where is "it" truly coming from? Why is her will ineffective to stop it? Could this BE her will?
What does this description of her hands suggest?
What is happening to her? Why does she repeat "free?
Note how the sensuality of what she sees has been transferred to her body. Is this possibly sexual ecstasy? Why might she react this way?

What cherished domestic and 19th century myth does Chopin challenge here?
Here Chopin--or is it Mrs. Mallard?-- is making a very general statement about relationships, particularly between men and women. How does it apply to this case? What might make it a "crime"? Do you agree?

Again, body and soul are connected. How does this anticipate the end?
What does Josephine's plea say about the expectations of those around Louise (now given a name)?

What has she conquered that would make her seem victorious? Note the physical position of each person as she "descends.

elixir (from Middle English, a substance of transmutative properties) 1. a sweetened aromatic solution of alcohol and water, used as a vehicle for medicine. 2. a medicine regarded as a cure for all ills. 3. the philosophers' stone. 4. the quintessence or underlying principle. How do these different definitions shed light on her revelation?

Just what is coming through an "open window"?

Why "running riot"? Note the repetition of the idea of time. Look back to the title and consider the role of time in this story.

Why is he stained by travel if he was not on the train? This is our major description of him; does it go beyond the condition of his clothing?

It is a "grip-sack," not a "briefcase" or "suitcase"; what does this word suggest (again, given that we have been told almost nothing else about him)? Does his distance echo, in figurative terms, the nature of their marriage?

Whose interests does this diagnosis serve? How is it reflective of Chopin's implied view of marriage?

Wednesday February 3, 2010

Final assessment on Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Please blog your response. You do not need a formal heading; just put your name at the top. This is due at the close of class.

Does the tragedy of Ethan Frome result from circumstances, over which the characters have no control or from avoidable errors in judgment? Please take into account the three aspects of naturalism that we discussed in the class (economic circumstances, physical drives and environmental circumstances)and what affect they have on the character, plot or theme? You must have a detailed examples that clearly demonstrates you have read the book.

Tuesday February 2, 2010

We are reviewing the environmenatal forces, physical drives and economic circumstances that impacted the characters in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. Use the graphic organizer that was passed out last week as a reference tool.

Short in class writing response to the following:

In order to fulfill your own happiness you have to hurt or gravely disappoint a family member or a friend. What would you do, and why? Is hurting another person ever justified? What price are you willing to pay for personal happiness?

REMEMBER that we are in the 3rd floor lab tomorrow, writing on the following:
Does the tragedy of Ethan Frome result from circumstances which the characters have no control over or from avoidable errors in judgment ? (please take into account the three aspects of naturalism: economic circumstances, physical drives and environmental circumstances) You must have a detailed example of each that clearly demonstrates you have read the book. The assignment will be blogged.