Reflection

    “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an excellent example of literature that meets the criteria described by the Norton text. It takes the time to interpret the human condition in ways related to the human psyche as well as the role of the woman in society in the time in which it was written. It explores mental illness specifically related to post-partum depression and the woman’s role on the small scale of the household as submissive to the husband. Through interpretation, the piece gives pleasure to the reader by weaving a complicated web that surrounds a mentally compromised protagonist. Also through the interpretation of the human condition, “The Yellow Wallpaper” attempts to instruct readers on the dangers of ignoring issues of mental health as well as attempting to correct the behaviors that surround a mentality of “man knows best.”

    I would agree with the text that the functions of literature are to interpret some aspect of the human condition and to give pleasure to the reader. I do not, however, agree that literature must somehow instruct or correct human behavior. Every piece of literature has a message, but it doesn’t have a moral, which to me, is what constitutes instruction or potential correction. Of all three functions the text lists, the most important is to give pleasure to the reader. This is the most important to me because I firmly believe that a piece of literature would not be nearly as successful in fulfilling the other two functions of interpreting the human condition and instructing or correcting human behavior if it was not enjoyable for the reader. The reader may never complete reading the piece if they find no pleasure in it. This makes reader pleasure the most important aspect because it opens the door for the other functions to be fulfilled.

Apprehension Over Comprehension

    In listening to Shakespeare purely to enjoy it rather than to understand it, I noticed that it was easier for me to keep the characters straight as well as the prevalence of the iambic rhythm of the lines. I could not see the lines of the play, yet the natural rhythm of the words was far more apparent. This made the experience more soothing. Just as Stephen Brown said in the TED Talk, I did not care so much about the exact meaning behind the words themselves but about the way the words were said and how. I “saw” far more in my mind from hearing the words than I ever have with simply reading them.

    I was also more able to organize the characters by voice and had a good understanding of who was saying what. I have found that I have a hard time keeping characters separate when I am reading plays, whether it is because of the layout or some other reason, and I don’t know why. However, it is easy for me to recognize the voices, and, even if I do not remember their names, I am able to better understand the relationships and actions between the characters.

    I am not totally sure of when the play is set, but I picture the actors in traditional Greek robes and on the streets of ancient Athens on a somewhat dark day. I am not, however, experienced in theatre, and I don’t feel that I have a grasp on the aspects of staging. I would probably put the characters who are interacting and speaking front and center in the stage, at least in the beginning. I would have the characters exit in the directions that felt most natural, depending on where there were doorways or alleys etc. There would also be a few inconsequential characters interacting in the backgrounds of the set. 

My Last Duchess

    The Duke of Ferrara has some connection that he wants to preserve with his duchess to commission a painting of her by Fra Pandolf. It can be inferred by the language of the poem that he, like many men of the time, views women as possessions to be coveted and believes that he has found a great treasure in her beauty and the dowry he was paid. It can also be inferred that he holds very high expectations of women and their duties. The duchess is presented by the speaker as a woman who is well-versed in society and quite comfortable and joyous in her role within it. It can be inferred by the line “… This grew; I gave commands / Then all smiles stopped together…” that the duchess, as time went on, lost the spark and apparent respect she once held for the Duke Ferrara (1104). She no longer even grants him the slight pleasantry of the type of smile a stranger may offer in passing.

   
    The footnote of the text states that the Duke had two wives, or duchesses, the last being the niece of an Austrian count. I would infer that the poem is about how their relationship degrades over time, possibly when she begins to uncover more about the circumstances of his first wife’s death. He begins to think that she is ungrateful of the attention and status he gives to her with the lines “… as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift…” (1103). This is saying that she doesn’t respect all that he gives her by giving her his name.

    What effect does the continual enjambment have on pacing and the meanings of the images the speaker presents? Does the arrangement of the lines by rhyming couplets rather than independent clauses have a positive or negative effect on the meaning of the poem? What is the significance of the Duke commissioning a painting of his duchess, and which duchess is it?

Windows

I sat before the windows and watched
the seasons change from cold to warm to cold,
and the view from the windows time has snatched,
eyes, with blindness set, have only grown old.
And with me did her sympathies so lie,
regardless of two lives kept separate.
If I could only gaze into those eyes,
see the secrets hidden in emerald depths.
Mem'ries of times long since left to the past,
of golden locks and skin white as snow.
Could her post at my bedside ever last?
Many years wasted waiting at windows.
    I was too busy for joys of this life.
    Now it is too late to make her my wife.

I have written in a strict poetic form before, but I have never actually written a sonnet. I found the most challenging aspect of the form to be iambic pentameter because I had to rearrange my wording and exchange one word for another to ensure the proper number of syllables in every line. I did not, however, struggle with the rhyme scheme which was surprising because I thought that would be the hardest part. The strict structure helped me to get my point across in fewer lines than I probably would've if it were free verse on the same subject, and I thought more carefully about the specific words I was using -- their length, sound, connotation, etc. Knowing that sonnets are typically about love made it easier for me to decide on a topic and stick to it when writing, even when it was challenging.

The Distance Between Us

Reyna Grande’s The Distance Between Us gave me a unique perspective on the millions of families that are separated by the borders of countries. Usually, I am not a fan of memoir, but this work read like a novel. I used it to wind down after a twelve-hour day of caring for patients and get inside someone else’s world. I found that I related strongly to Grande’s older sister Mago as she struggled between balancing her role as “little mother” and succumbing to the emotions brought on by their parent’s absence.

As a young child, I did not experience any prolonged separation from my own parents, but I did often find myself in the role of “little mother” for the younger members of my family. Through reading this novel, I was reminded quite often of the times that I spent battling my emotions in the pursuit of being a good role model for my younger cousins.

As a result of the experience gained from reading The Distance Between Us, I was able to gain a new perspective on what it means to be a role model. Being the oldest of the generation, I never had anyone to look up to for an example. I tried very hard to do the best I could for the younger kids, but I never understood how important my actions were to them.

It is quite obvious that Reyna held Mago very highly. Through this, I was able to come to the revelation that my younger cousins held me in the same light. I spent a lot of time reflecting on the events that transpired between the sisters after I had closed the book for the evening and wondering how I might have reacted if placed in some of the situations they faced. The Distance Between Us was not simply a good read; it was a thought provoking, introspective experience.

Symbolism, Figurative Language, & The Thing in the Forest

As a child, I spent a lot of time in the forest. To me, the forest was a magical place where all the things of my wild imagination could come to life without being so wild anymore. For hundreds of years, the forest has been used by authors as a kind of wild place – a place where anything can happen. One such example of this is William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The forest is a place with endless possibilities as it does not function within the constraints of social order. In the short story The Thing in the Forest, the forest is a wild place where Primrose and Penny could imagine a monster just as gruesome as the events that surrounded their lives as children. Because so many stories depict the forest as a place both good and bad, readers generally associate a forest with a place that has endless possibilities outside of reality.

“She smelled rottenness, but it was normal rottenness, leaves and stems mulching back into earth. She heard sounds. Not birdsong, for it was too late in the day, but the odd raucous warning croak. She heard her own heartbeat in the thickening brown air” (363). Given this description, Byatt intends for readers to feel that the forest is nothing more than an ordinary forest while simultaneously awaiting a reveal due to the tension she has built surrounding the moment that each woman returns to the forest. The rather unemotional response that the description brings to the reader is the same that Penny has in realizing that the forest is not as dark and scary as she remembered it to be with the absence of the Thing. I believe the forest in this story symbolizes the wild unknown that the girls were faced with during the war and the realization that they cannot forget or escape the reality they faced as children in their adult lives.