Insightful Class Discussions

I thought the group discussions we had during our class on Wednesday regarding the first book of Paradise Lost were quite informative. Usually when you are grouped in a class the majority of the group either hasn't read or doesn't care enough about the class to contribute to the conversation. With our class, I found it to be refreshingly quite the opposite. Everyone was really involved with their respective topic. I was in the group that got to focus on the loveliness that is Satan. Each group really got into the assigned topic and it showed when we had to share our findings with the class. Which, I found to be really helpful when I continued my reading of Paradise Lost on Monday.

I’m not even going to lie, the minute the group I was in got assigned Satan, I sort of figured the conversation was going to end with the group being divided based on how we felt towards Satan as a whole and not necessarily the character that Milton presents. Man was I wrong! The entire group agreed on our opinion of Satan and the choices he makes. We all felt that he didn't care where it ended up as long as two things remained the same, he wasn't in Heaven being forced to follow God's way and that he was the ruler of where ever he was. 

Rather than focusing on every passage that we were assigned, we focused on one line, line 263 "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven!". Dr. Mitchell-Buck came around she asked a question that I found quite interesting. She asked whether or not the line would be taken the same way if it was not said by Satan. If this line was said by anyone other than Satan, it would be absolutely be taken in a different manner! I mean lets face it, most of what (if not everything) we are taught growing up shows Satan in a light that is anything but positive. If this line were to be said by any other character in Paradise Lost, the meaning would change drastically. I find it quite interesting that Milton put in a character as complex as Satan. He not only gives us great detail about who is he was in Heaven, but also what his intentions are in hell. But the back story alone is a book in and of itself. It is packed with information that without the reader would be completely lost.Perhaps the reason for the back story is to put a picture, like the one below, into the readers mind. You have the Jesus arm wrestling with the Satan for control. I think we all know how that ended. 

http://onlyhdwallpapers.com/high-definition-wallpaper/god-devil-jesus-christ-satan-good-vs-evil-lucifer-statan-arm-wrestle-desktop-hd-wallpaper-258224/

How Milton composed Satan's back story by only speaking it is beyond me!

Wife of Bath, Smart Lady or Mafia Boss?

I really liked today's discussion on "The Wife of Bath Prologue". It was interesting to see how the majority of the class seemed to agree when it came to liking the story. Everyone seemed to have their distinct views on the wife and how she lived her life. One thing that I liked in particular was Jordan’s point about as a woman; the wife shouldn't feel the need to use her sexuality to get what she wants. There are other ways to achieve this. When I read the prologue I was thinking the same thing, it appears that throughout The Canterbury Tales, the woman will use their bodies in ways that today we would see as characteristics of a whore. In some way and maybe this is just me, but the Wife of Bath slightly reminds me of a Mafia boss. Similar to a Mafia boss, the wife knows her way with words so as to make people think what she has to say is correct. Which can be seen when she and her fourth husband, Jankin, settle on the agreement that she may do what she like with her money and land so long as she doesn't forget about him. Like we said in class, she knows how to play the game and by doing so she has benefited herself. Aside from her multiple marriages, she has possessions of money and land as well as being a skilled cloth maker. Perhaps this is Chaucer’s way of showing us that we don’t give medieval women enough credit.  I actually like the story much more than I thought I would, I guess Middle English and I get along better than I thought.