Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

Setting: Various estates in England

Plot:
Bingley, a wealthy single man, has just moved in to a nearby estate to the Bennet household, and Mrs. Bennet is determined that one of her daughters marry him. A ball is held, and Bingley is appraised to be friendly and desirable, while his even wealthier friend Darcy is seen as arrogant and unlikable. Jane and Bingley hit it off, and Darcy finds that despite his wishes he is falling for Elizabeth. Mr. Collins, a somewhat wealthy but utterly idiotic suitor, comes to call on the Bennets an is eventually and begrudgingly snapped up by Charlotte, a friend of Lizzie's. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and she refuses. Wickham, a handsome and friendly man, meets the girls and tells them that his inheritance was stolen by Darcy. This turns out to be false, and Darcy turns out to be a good guy while Wickham was lying and runs off with Lydia. Darcy and Lizzie marry, and Bingley and Jane marry.

Main Characters:

Elizabeth - She is independent and witty, but somewhat judgmental. It is only by overcoming her prejudice against Darcy that she can find happiness.

Jane - The most beautiful of the daughters, but one who hesitates to see faults in others. She ends up with Bingley.


Lydia - The rebel of the group, she selfishly runs off with Wickham after he tricks her into liking him.


Mrs. Bennet - Her sole  purpose is to marry her daughters. She doesn't understand her husband and is very one-dimensional, but acts out of love for her children.


Mr. Bennet - Sarcastic and witty, he sometimes neglects his parental duties on the notion that it's all just too silly for him. Initially refreshingly sensible, but in the end he fails to take sufficient interest in his children.


Darcy - Initially looked down upon for being aloof, his greatest fault is his pride. Once he lets go of it to marry Liz, he is seen to be the truly well-intentioned man that he is.


Bingley - A kind-hearted wealthy gentleman who moves into the new estate. Friends with Darcy, but kiner and more persuasive, he is also easily influenced.


Charlotte - She is the one who settles. Seeing marriage as a great crap shoot, she cuts her losses and marries Mr. Collins before becoming "unmarriageable".

Point of View: Third person, primarily from Elizabeth's perspective.

Tone: The entire novel is told rather light-heartedly, lingering on mannerisms and images. The childlike nature of most of the characters is revealed as their petty intentions are easily discerned. 

Imagery: The setting is described in great detail. Austen creates vivid images to capture the various estates and locations in the book. New characters are also thoroughly depicted.

Symbolism:


Most of the truly revealing and enlightening moments take place in nature; Darcy's initial proposal and exchange with Lizzie, and the expedition through the rain to reach Netherfield.

Quotes:

"It is a truth universal acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

This broad generalization embodies the fixation of the novel's society upon marriage. It is quite prejudice to assume that all wealthy men need wives and proud to assume that this is a universal truth. This sarcastic opening sets the tone of the novel.

"They are young in the ways of the world, and not yet open to the mortifying conviction that handsome men must have something to live on, as well as the plain." -Mrs. Gardiner


Here she shatters the illusion that marriage is perfect; she acknowledges that in fact it will not always work out, but that one must nonetheless embrace the institution of marriage.

Theme: 

Only by letting go of pride and prejudice can happiness be found.


This is evident in Darcy and Liz's relationship, but also in many others; Charlotte bottles up her prejudice and rejects her pride rather than dealing with either in settling for Collins. Jane and Bingley are threatened by Darcy's pride as he tries initially to break them up. Even Mr. Bennet's pride keeps him from being as good a father as he could be, and Lydia is blinded by prejudice against anyone who tries to break her perfect vision of Wickham.

Hamlet

Author: William Shakespeare

Setting: Denmark

Plot:

Hamlet, the son of the late King Hamlet, is visited by his father's ghost who tells him that he was murdered by Claudius, his brother, and that Hamlet must kill Claudius, now king, to avenge his death.  Hamlet grapples with the idea and seems to descend into madness in his contemplation, but not action, of this act. This descent costs him his girlfriend, Ophelia, as her father Polonious is distrustful of the restitution of his intentions in the face of his potential responsibilities as King. Meanwhile Laertes, Ophelia's brother, wishes to go to France and asks leave of the king, which is granted. As Claudius grows suspicious of Hamlet's madness, he resolves to send him to England to be killed. However, his plans are foiled when pirates attack Hamlet's ship and he escapes, leaving his escorts Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to be killed in his place. Upon his return, Claudius and Laertes, angered by Hamlet's driving Ophelia to suicide, plan to kill him in a duel by poisoning Laertes' blade. In the fight, Hamlet is stabbed by the poisoned blade, after which he obtains it and stabs both Laertes and the king. Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, drinks the "backup plan": a poisoned wine goblet. As everybody dies, Hamlet proclaims that the throne of Denmark should go to Fortinbras of Norway, a seemingly bold and competent leader. 

Main Characters:

Hamlet - Plagued by inaction and long soliloquies, one of his major faults is an inability to act upon his feelings.

Claudius - Motivated by fear and lust for power and possibly love for Gertrude, this antagonist holds the throne of Denmark 

after killing his brother the king.

Laertes - A foil to Hamlet; he acts, but often doesn't think. He is impulsive and vengeful after hearing of the death of his sister, though his relationship with her is seen to be good and pure.

Ophelia - Hamlet's lover at the start of the play; Hamlet's supposed madness and the pressure put upon her by her father drive her drown herself in the river after going mad.

Gertrude - Seems to possess a genuine love for Hamlet, and has some affection for Claudius; whether she is attracted to his person or his power is unclear. Hamlet confides in her his plot to kill Claudius, and Gertrude keeps this secret. 

Polonius - The father of Ophelia and Laertes, he wants what he thinks is best for his children and for himself. He forbids Ophelia from seeing Hamlet.

Point of View: It's a play.

Tone: Shakespeare was always good about getting us to feel how he wants us to about his characters. We never really come to trust Hamlet since we don't know if he's crazy or not, and he doesn't do a whole lot. We don't like Claudius; he doesn't care for his son and killed his brother. On the whole the play has a very tense tone as everyone is on edge and suspicious of everyone else.

Imagery: Hamlet and Ophelia are the primary culprits here. Hamlet is always constructing vivid images depicting his own uncertainty, frustration, and fear. Ophelia shows us images as she goes mad: She paints her sorrow with flowers and nature in a truly moving way, causing us to mourn her all the more.

Symbolism:

Ophilia's flowers are explicable given characteristics, though interestingly who she gives them to isn't specified in the text. 

Hamlet explores the meaning of words, which seem to represent inaction and contemplation, particularly in a scene where he talks with Polonious about a book he's reading, and the words within. He sure says a lot of them.

Quotes:

"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!"

-Hamlet

Hamlet here realizes that all he is is a man driven by base instincts. He is "rogue and peasant" in that he is base and savage, subject to fancy and fate. That he acknowledges that he is a "slave" is an early manifestation of his eventual realization that fate is the true master of man, not man himself. This quote marks the beginning of his acceptance of his fate, whatever it is, and his eventual action which, to some tragic extent, saves Denmark.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"

-Marcellus

This sets the scene for the whole show. Though there is personal conflict, growth, and death, this is to some extent a story of the purification of Denmark. Rotten is a good word indeed - Greed and fear have festered and spread till the kingdom is nearly paralyzed by it.

Theme: 

Neither action without thought nor thought without action can restore a broken world; one must accept that, do what we will, we can't control everything.

Hamlet takes his sweet time in doing anything, and as a result most everyone dies. Laertes, however, brashly acts instinctively and nearly throws the kingdom into even more turmoil. It is only the acceptance that we aren't in utter control of our destiny that we can act thoughtfully for the betterment of the world.

Ceremony

Ceremony

According to Silko’s Ceremony, both old and new must be used to heal the world.

The book is set on a Native American reserve, but flashes back to various parts of Tayo’s life in a non-
linear fashion, breaking barriers between past and present. It is by incorporating revelations from these
various times that Tayo is able to compete the ceremony (Book title!) required to heal not only himself
but the reservation.

Tayo is the main character of the novel, at the start of which he is broken. He has returned from war
unable to distinguish past and present, and begins “becoming white smoke.” This image demonstrates
many ideas: He’s smoke, so he has no form, and is subject to the slightest breeze. Smoke also, however,
fills the space of its container, expanding and drifting to occupy each crevice. Tayo, in his amorphous
state, has a breadth of being that few possess, and this allows him to see what others can’t: Old,
new good, and bad. The white bit is interesting as well. On one level, white is associated with purity.
However, white people are on the whole the protagonists of the story, causing pain with their greed and
ignorance. Silko, however, makes it clear that there are no absolutes: There are good white people, and
there are evil Pueblo people. These inconsistencies with the color white help us see how lost Tayo is, but also how even here he has potential to heal.

"It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different."

Grandma says this at the end of the novel, and here Silko is poking a bit of fun at herself – she
understands that there is only one story, and hers is merely a retelling. This concept is prominent
throughout the novel as the cyclical, all-encompassing nature of life and literature is reinforced in
various ways: The juxtaposition of scenes separated by years but parallel in theme, such as Tayo’s curse
upon the rainforest and the draught on the reservation; Betonie’s explanations of the ceremony to Tayo,
in which he emphasizes both the new and old; and the very fact that Tayo himself is a “half-breed”.

The American Dream

Albee's The American Dream tells us that the consumerism and dependence of the American citizen will yield pain rather than progress. It is set in the home of Mommy, a demanding and forgetful woman who needs validation in everything she does, and Daddy, an indecisive and emasculate individual who is at the beck and call of Mommy. Also in the house resides Grandma, the only voice of reason in the play. She sees through Mommy and Daddy's obsession with consumerism and is trying to find a way out.

The American Dream himself joins the scene near the end of the play, wowing everyone with his looks and charm, but admitting:

"It's just that I have no talents at all, except what you see... my person, my body, my face. In every other way I am incomplete, and I must therefore... Compensate."

This speaks to the shining, yet hollow face of consumerism. The system claims to give everyone what they want but really it just takes and provides only false satisfaction. It ties to the theme and offers both a view of the American dream and a reason for why it behaves the way it does.


"You don't have any feelings, that's what's wrong with you."

Grandma here gets to the heart of what's wrong with America. It's lost its sense of romance, its sense of work, its sense of dignity. It's become this superficial, almost robotic entity of buying and selling and reputations and appearances.

Open Prompt Revision #4

In many works of literature, a physical journey - the literal movement from one place to another - plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

                To journey is to go from one place to another. And separating these two places, nearly invariably, there are doors. Doors are barriers; gateways between rooms or even worlds. However, the significance of these barriers and by extension the journey is much less objective. In Noises Off, Michael Frayn argues that no matter how many doors one journeys through, one cannot truly get anywhere or find meaning, and any attempts to do so are a waste of time.
                Throughout the entire play, the stage is pandemonium as everyone seems to be trying to get everywhere all at once, but in the end nobody gets anywhere. Doors are constantly slamming and actors traipse across the stage, bumping into each other and passing by one another in a frenzy to get to yet another door. Everyone is fixated upon the singular task of going through doors in a symbolic attempt to GET somewhere. In the words of the director, "That's what it's all about: Doors and sardines." Sardines are obviously superfluous and of no importance, and the pointlessness of these doors is emphasized in this line by juxtaposing the two.  Despite everyone's fixation on doors,  nobody gets anywhere; every actor remains confused throughout the show and by the end hasn't learned anything or grown as a character.
                Every attempt to find meaning in the play is fruitless. Freddy, one of the actors, frequently stops rehearsal to inquire as to the meaning behind his character's actions. The god-like, seemingly omniscient director of the play, though, doesn't have answers, and even goes so far as to fabricate truth merely to placate the questioning spirit. It's easier to pretend to know the truth and go through the motions than to face the cold reality of utter ignorance that Frayne is convinced we're all amidst. There is one rather confusing scene in which a Sheik inexplicably resembles another character in the show. Nearly everyone is confused by this, and some brave sole dares to raise the question to the group: "Why does the Sheik look like Phillip?" This question of resemblance and relation clearly represents the deeper question of "What does it all mean?" as it is consistently brought up in times of uncertainty, even when the Sheik is nowhere present. Anytime someone asks this question, rehearsal is brought to a halt as everyone shares their opinion and nobody is convinced of anything in the end. Any attempts to find meaning are not only without success but hinder the troupe in their outward goal of putting on a show and their deeper goal of making sense of the world and finding truth.
                Hidden behind, and even within, the slapstick and scandal of a sex farce lies a post-modernistic view of the world which borders on nihilism. Frayn shows us a pointless struggle as the actors make journey after journey through countless doors but arrive nowhere, denying the existence of truth. Next time you go through a door, ask yourself: Where are you really going?

Open Prompt Revision #3

In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel or the opening scene of a drama introduces some of the major themes of the work. Write an essay about the opening scene of a drama or the first chapter of a novel in which you explain how it functions in this way.

While one often thinks of the opening of a novel or a play to simply serve as an introduction to characters or a peaceful spot to enter the action, often it can foreshadow a great deal about the themes and messages of the work as a whole.The opening scene of The American Dream expresses the messages about the futility of seeking satisfaction, the flaws of consumerism, and the incapability of the general public that exist within the play as a whole.

In the first scene of the play, Mommy expresses dissatisfaction with the hat she purchased and recounts her failed struggle to gain satisfaction. The entire purpose of her visit, as she mentions, is to indirectly gain sexual satisfaction through commercial means. The fact that she must go to these bizarre lengths suggests a clear flaw in the process of attaining satisfaction. Even within this commercial enterprise, the hat Mommy purchases fails to meet her expectations, and she must knowingly delude herself as to its color to gain even a glimmer of false fulfillment from her purchase. Mommy is not even the only one being denied satisfaction in this venture, though. Since Mommy is seeking sexual rather than commercial pleasure, we can assume that he cannot grant her sexual satisfaction and thus cannot get any himself. Daddy, arguably by this very lack of masculinity, does not have the drive to seek satisfaction through other means as Mommy does. This denial of satisfaction is the premise for much of the play's meaning, from Mommy and Daddy's lack of satisfaction from their adoption of the child to Daddy's inability to gain satisfaction from his own masculinity.

Mommy's argument over the hat with Mrs. Barker suggests that consumerism is a flawed system. Mommy isn't directly satiating a need she has in her life, but rather is obtaining something she doesn't need, and wants only because of her own misconceptions. She buys the hat because she likes what she perceives it to be, but when she learns that others (Mrs. Barker) do not perceive her object the way she does, it loses its value. The entire exchange is empty; there is no intrinsic value to the hat, so it might as well not even exist; it's worth noting that the hat never actually shows up in the play. This exchange suggests that consumerism isn't a system which distributes what people need, but rather a system to create artificial need, and fulfill it with artificial satisfaction. Throughout the rest of the play, Mrs. Barker serves as an amorphous commercial figure to continue to propagate this message of broken commercialism.

Daddy's role during all of this is to pretend that he cares, taking his cues from Mommy to provide her the artificial satisfaction of a listener while he is incapable of expressing or even having his own opinion. He is repeatedly emasculated and ridiculed by Mommy, whether she's discussing how she is always on top or manipulating him into opening a door. He is passive and yielding throughout the beginning scene, expressing the passivity he will exhibit throughout the rest of the book to demonstrate the behavior a group of society that simply follows trends and does what it's told.

One can almost view the opening scene as a condensed version of the play, with Mommy's purchase of the hat representing her adoption of the child, Mrs. Barker representing herself, and Daddy as usual getting pushed around. The themes of dissatisfaction are apparent in Mommy, while Mrs. Barker demonstrates the scornful view of consumerism and Daddy expresses traits of incompetence and passivity that the author wishes to bring to light.

Open Prompt Revision #2

1976. The conflict created when the will of an individual opposes the will of the majority is the recurring theme of many novels, plays, and essays. Select the work of an essayist who is in opposition to his or her society; or from a work of recognized literary merit, select a fictional character who is in opposition to his or her society. In a critical essay, analyze the conflict and discuss the moral and ethical implications for both the individual and the society. Do not summarize the plot or action of the work you choose.

               

            Most people, when thrust into a new environment, will adapt and blend in, altering their behavior to match that of those around them. Our culture values those who "fit in" to an extent that often drives individuals to deny their true nature. However, this cannot be said for Oliver Twist of the Dickens novel by the same name. Although Oliver's surroundings teem with dishonesty and ill will, he steadfastly holds to his own moral code, illustrating the novel's messages that good is resilient, innocence is powerful, and redemption is possible.

                Oliver's innocence is a trait which time and again serves exclusively to benefit. When questioned by Mr. Brownlow, it is Oliver's genuine innocence which convinces him that the boy was not to blame for thievery, and even convinces the man to take Oliver in. His innocence serves not only himself but others as well, starting a chain of events which puts Fagin to justice and enriches the life of a lonely Mr. Brownlow. The quality of life of not only Oliver but those around him, or at least those who aren't entirely corrupt, improves because of Oliver's innocence.

                Oliver's strong moral sense is unchanged by his total immersion into a society that operates on acts of thievery and perpetuates violence, even when this society directly attempts to corrupt him. In the clash between Fagin and his gang's cruelty and Oliver's purity, Oliver repeatedly wins:  Nancy's resistance against Fagin's and Syke's attempts to beat Oliver represents her finally resisting the evil that's surrounded her, and she was inspired to do so by the good she found in Oliver, and after being surrounded by a society of murderers and thieves, Oliver still has the goodness to give Monks a second chance. These events serve as a testament to the power of unyielding kindness for both Oliver and society in general.
             Paradoxically, the fact that so much of Oliver's world is greedy and corrupt serves the novel's purpose of expressing hope. Dickens clearly acknowledges that society is far from perfect by choosing to allow the bad characters to outnumber the good. However, the few lights of goodness and purity he chooses to include have a profound effect on the story. Oliver turns many an eye inward, causing characters to reflect on their misdeeds. Nancy changes for the better, and even Fagin considers finding a new life at one point in the story. Though he doesn't go through with it, this is nonetheless a strong indicator that redemption can be attained by anyone, no matter how far gone they may seem.