We Did It :)

We made it. Well I guess we can’t really say that until the final, but overall we actually did it!

When I signed up for this class I was not exactly sure what to expect. The last English class I’ve taken was in high school; it was my very first college level class. My senior year, our English class was solely about British Literature so I was somewhat prepared for what we were going to read. I was excited to see Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales on the list because I had already read them. However, I was a little weary about the other texts especially the tougher ones like Paradise Lost or Utopia. Nevertheless, I still went into it with an open mind and it seems to have to turn out for the better.

Beowulf has always been my favorite, mostly because this naked man takes on a man-eating monster with his bare hands. I learned to love it more and more though after doing close reading in class. In high school, we had the modern English version, so it wasn’t that hard to decipher what was being said. The same can be said about The Canterbury Tales; we definitely did not have the Middle English version. At first the language scared me and I could barely understand it but after awhile I actually started to get the hang of it. Many people fear Chaucer because of the Middle English, but personally, I love him way over Shakespeare. Unlike like Shakespeare, Chaucer says what he wants to say without making it so confusing. You still have to think about it, but it doesn’t take you forever to decipher what he is actually trying to say.

Talking about hard to read text, that was a good bit of the readings. For some reason I just couldn’t grasp Paradise Lost, more so Utopia. I didn’t give up hope though. After reading over and over again I slowly got it. It wasn’t until we discussed certain passages when I finally grasped it. Prose is definitely not my forte.

I said Beowulf was my favorite, but that was before this class. Now, at the end of the term, I would have to say my preference has swayed to something way darker. Honestly, I really liked Dr. Faustus because I felt like for me personally it was the most relatable. I must make it clear I’m not interested in selling my soul to the devil or in hopes of a demon prankster. I loved Dr. Faustus only because I can relate to his character. I completely understood his boredom, loneliness, curiosity, and even his pride to an extent. That is about it though, thankfully. You will not see me signing anything with my blood anytime soon.

I’m just glad that I made it through this semester. Like Dr. MB said, we did indeed read some tough material but it will totally make us sound so much smarter in a conversation; it’s definitely a great nerdy icebreaker.

Best of luck to everyone :)