Change of Views

So, In the beginning of the semester, we made an influence map where we found pictures to represent what we thought of when we thought of what it meant to be British. My images were probably pretty generic in what people would think of. I had a picture of the Royal Wedding, tea, the "Keep Calm and Carry on Sign", and images of Shakespeare, but now that the semester is over I feel like many of my ideas have evolved from where they began. This made me think about what I would change from our original assignment based on what I've learned over the semester.

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To begin with, I would still leave my image of Peter Pan flying across London. For whatever reason, when someone says England this is the first things I think of. I think partly because, at a young age, it showed a very physical place that was full of magic and fantasy. I think this representation has been a huge part of what we learned this semester. Magic in the world, for whatever reason, has been represented in the text we read like Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, The Wife of Bath's Tale, Doctor Faustus, and Gulliver's Travels. Each of these tales goes beyond the natural world and exposes the reader to a fantasy one. So yes, after I've rambled, Peter Pan, would stay.

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 The Canterbury Tales would be another image that would have to be added to my map. For one thing, beside reading the tales in this class, I also took the Chaucer class, and we pretty much read the whole thing, so it definitely has influenced my view of medieval and British culture. The Canterbury Tales is an interesting text because it examines, so many different issue like social differences, gender roles, and religious influence. There were some stories like "The Knight's Tale" that showed the nobility, and in a lot of ways, what we expect from British culture, but then there were surprises like "The Miller's Tale" and how they behaved. I also like the storytelling aspect of The Canterbury Tales, and how the tone and style of story changes with each character. The story is filled with different layers between the story of the pilgrimage to each travelers own stories. It has a complex style, but after working through that text all semester it has really influenced my ideas of medieval times.

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An image of an angel and devil would also be added to my map now as well. I had never thought about how mooch of British Literature focused on the characters of God, angels, demons, and the devil. We saw reoccurring ideas of sin and redemption. Multiple texts showed this idea where character went out in search of Hell or supported it's ideas, but questions in discussion were also raised about when is it too late to be redeemed? We saw the ideas of Hell and Sin, and the ideas of redemption in text like Doctor Faustus and Paradise Lost, but the idea of sin and redemption was not one that I had previously associated with the idea of "Britain".

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The last idea that I would add is the idea of the government, and how it has evolved. This was not an area the I thought about. I knew that the Royal family is face of the government, but that parliament was in charge more, but I never thought of the evolution of this system. When I thing of England, I think of Kings and Queens like King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. Many of our texts addressed the idea of government, but it also showed how the perception of government changed over time. In Rule Britania, there was an extreme pride in being British but then by the time we get to Gulliver's Travels the author is mocking the system with satire. Even in Measure for Measure the behavior of government officials in charge is assessed.

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Determining Civility

Determining who was savage and who was civilized in Oroonoko was a difficult task for the class. This was primarily because there seemed to be a struggle to figure out how to define a savage or civilized person. Our group questioned whether to classify someone as civilized based on the progressiveness or primitiveness of their culture, or the moral and behavioral traits the people use to treat themselves and members of society. It was interesting that, based on progressiveness, we thought that the English were the most civilized, and the Indians the most savage, but when evaluating moral behaviors, we thought the opposite. All of this has made me curious as to why we would even consider progressiveness as a mark of civility? How does progressiveness determine the civility or savageness of a group of people? Why do we not only judge civility and savageness based on moral behavior?

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The Art of Temptation

I wanted to start this blog by talking about the close reading we did in groups on Wednesday. I thought the activity was a great way to get different people’s perspective on Paradise Lost. While I have enjoyed the language of the poem, I have found “Book 1” to be rather hard to follow. The group activity was beneficial because it gave me a different and more thorough understanding of the text, than what I was able to do on my own.

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One of the discussion topics, we had as class, was about the description of Hell (lines 690-729). Hell is described in ways that almost make it sound beautiful, like the “golden architrave” (715) and the “organ” (708), as well as life in Hell like the army. These characteristics made Hell sound like a physically beautiful place that was organized, rather than ugly, depressing, and chaotic, which is what I expect when I think of Hell. From this discussion, the question of “why Hell come across the way Milton describes?” was presented.

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One possibility I thought about, in response to the question, was the idea of temptation, which is a theme that was presented in the beginning of “Book 1”, when describing Eve’s temptation in Eden (4) to the fall of Satan from Heaven  (31). The examples that Milton uses are of situations of temptation like knowledge or power. All of the ideas make me believe that the purpose of having Hell beautiful and structured is the temptation and attraction that these qualities have to people.

Most people do not want to make bad choices or follow the wrong path, but when they do, it is generally because there is some reward to that decision. That, to me, is the same reason to make Hell seem like a nice place. There would be no reward in going someplace that was miserable, but making Hell attractive causes people to not be as terrified of going there. This is another form of temptation that the Devil creates. He allows people to see goodness in Hell, and as a result they are able to make bad choices without seeing the true horrible consequences.

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Angelo Did Not Handle All This Well…..

I want to go back to Measure for Measure, to a discussion that has stuck with me about Angelo. A question was asked as to how could the people think that Angelo was a good person, and then when he took the place of the Duke, he behaved as he did? My thinking on this matter is that his position changes him or brought the worst out in him. I agree with everyone that Angelo is a terrible person, but I think that if he had stayed a “commoner” the likelihood that he would behave the way he did would be less likely. The reason I believe that Angelo would not behave in the way he does towards Isabella is because he would not have been in the position to behave in that way. As a commoner he is expectations and behaviors are different because he is a follower to his government, but when he becomes in charge, people become responsible to meet his expectations, which in his mind gives him the right to behave in anyway he wants. As cliché as this idea is, this image sums up my feelings of Angelo’s behavior…..

So, this idea of “with great power comes great responsibility” (thanks Stan Lee) screams Angelo to me because he was not able to use his position responsibly. He didn’t behave in the interest of the people, but rather in the interest of himself.

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Image: www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk