Act 1 Scene iii Hamlet

Laertes: Farewell. Pherhaphs loves you know but you must fear.

Polonius: What is't Ophelia he hath said to you.

Ophelia: He hath made tenderous affection to me.

A Reflection of the Past

Usually, as people get older, people start to reflect about their pasts and they begin to think on all the mistakes they made in their lives. For example, in my sixteenth birthday (even though it's a pretty young age), I started to think on all the wrong decisions I made in my life. I thought on all the could-have-beens and the what-ifs, and it began to torment me. Reflecting on all the things I could have done, but I didn't, really started to pervade in my mind. As I watched and read the

the play of Krapp's Last Tape, I noticed that Krapp, as he listened to the tapes of his past birthdays, he started to reflect and regret several things he did and things he didn't do.

On his sixty-ninth birthday, after he listened to several of his tapes he said: "Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took myself for thirty years ago, hard to beleive I was ever as bad as that." Krapp's reflection of the past, shows how strongly he regreted all the mistakes he made in his life. For example, when he mentions the women he lost, he says: "I think I was still living on and off with Bianca in Kedar Street. Well out of that, Jesus yes! Hopeless business." His tone of voice indicates that he regrets not taking advantage of his "golden years" and losing several people he could have been with. In Krapp's Last Tape, reflecting on the past signifies looking back at all the wrong decisions and tormenting yourself with these thoughts.

After my birthday, I began to realize that it is useless to torture yourself with mistakes from your past. No matter what you do, you can't take them back. And that all of the decisions you made, regardless if they were right or wrong, shaped who you are and it is important to learn to accept them. Just as Krapps's last realization: "Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back."

The Carriers of Fire

Throughout the novel, there was something that strongly caught my eye. I realized that several times in the book, the symbol of fire was oftenly repeated. At first, I didn't pay much attention to it but after I saw it so many times, I began to notice it more. Through the book, the father is always describing the world as a gray and dark place. This description, reveals that in The Road's world, the Earth has become hopeless and depressing. Everytime they see something that is supposed to be beautiful, such as the ocean and the horizon, they depict it as: "Out there was the gray beach...Beyond that the ocean vast and cold...and then the gray squall line of ash" (McCarthy 215). They portray the sea as "Cold. Desolate. Birdless" (McCarthy 215). All of these descriptions of things that are usually seen as beautiful and colorful, show that in the novel's world, things have become completely different.

Because of the darkness of the book, whenever I saw light or fire, I began to associate it with hope. The first time I gave importance to fire in the novel was in a converstaion between the father and son: "We are going to be okay, aren't we Papa?/ Yes. We are. / And nothing bad is going to happen to us./ That's right./ Because we're carrying the fire./ Yes. Because we're carrying the fire" (McCarthy 83). According to this section, the father and son portray the fire as something very important. In the dark world they live in, they use the fire to show that there is still hope for humans in their world.

At the end of the novel, when the father is saying his last words to his son, he says to him: "You have to carry the fire./ I don't know how to./ Yes you do./ Is it real? The fire?/ Yes it is./ Where is it? I don't know where it is./ Yes you do. It's inside you. It was always there" (McCarthy 279). This last conversation between them depicts that the fire is being used to symbolize hope. For the father, his son represents the last hope for human kind. That's why he tells him that in a world were darkness pervades, it is his responsibility to show hope through the light of fire.

The Celebrity's Tale

Yesterday I found myself in a dream,

Surrounded by fake people in a scheme

Suddenly I woke up and figured out

It was reality, I have no doubt.

I wasted my life pursuing glory,

I looked for fame and that's my story

Superficial is the world I live in,

A long journey this stupid world has been.

My wife divorced me and she was my life

Well, I was with her and with other five.

The children don't speak to me anymore

Since I abandoned them to be with whores.

I realize that my life has no meaning

Since I spent my days gambling and drinking.

Now I am here standing sick with cancer

Waiting for God to give me an answer.

I feel that death is coming to get me

And there is nothing else that I can see.

Now I am dying with my soul in debt

And I'm descending to hell with regret.

Father And Son

One of the most important themes in The Road is the importance of the relationship between a father and his son. Throughout the story, the father and his child are traveling by themselves in a dangerous world. They have no other friends and the only thing they can depend on is on each other. The father in the novel has a strong feeling of protection towards his son. He believes that the child is his only reason to live for. An example of their close bond is when the narrator says: "That the boy was all that stood between him and death" (McCarthy 29). The fact that the father only lives for his son, portrays the strenght of the bond between them.

Another interesting aspect of their relationship is that even though the father is usually the one who takes care of his kid, in the novel the child also looks after his father. For example, in a section, the father gave all of the last hot cocoa to his son, but the kid, watching after his dad made him divide the hot cocoa for the two of them, stating: "I have to watch you all the time" (McCarthy 34). The son worrying for his father illustrates the fondness they each have for the other one. Since usually only the dad takes care of his son, the fact that they boy takes care of his father is very interesting. Because they only have each other, they both understand that it is vital for their survival for both of them to take care of the other.

TERMINATOR

As I started reading The Road, there was something that strongly caught my eye. I started to ask myself: what happened to the world? In The Road, a man is traveling in the United States with his son. They are moving by foot, and they are consumed by a strong feeling of fear. And as they travel, the setting is depicted as gray and depressing. Everything is destroyed and there are bodies of dead people everywhere: "The long concrete sweeps of the interstate exchanges like the ruins of a vast funhouse against the distant murk...The mummied dead everywhere. The flesh cloven along the bones, the ligaments dried to tug and taut as wires" (McCarthy 24). This passage really caught my attention. It reminded me of the movie Terminator, where machines dominate the world and have as a mission to destroy the human kind. The few humans left hide as fugitives from the machines. They live in fear and they do anything they can to survive.

TERMINATOR VIDEO

I thought this was kind of similar to The Road. The father and the son are moving across a country where everything is destroyed. Just like the characters in Terminator they live in hiding and in fear in a dangerous world. I'm still not sure what happened in the world of The Road, but I'm pretty sure that it might be something similiar to Terminator. For example, the father had a flashback in which he was talking to his wife right before the world changed. And his wife said something that had an impact on me: "Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us" (McCarthy 56).

Maybe it's not machines what is destroying The Road's world, but whatever it is, it is something pretty horrible.

Couplets

Wife of Bath's Tale:

"And eek I preye Jesu shorte hir lyves

That wol nat be governed by hir wyves" (405-406)

The Knight's Tale:

"Allas, myn hertes quene, allas my wyf,

Myn hertes lady, endere of my liyf" (1917-1918)

The Miller's Tale:

"An housband shal nat been inquisitif

Of goddess privetee, nor of his wyf" (55-56)

The Pardoner's Tale:

"Adam our fraer, and his wyf also,

For parady's to labour and to wo" (177-178)

The four tales have different contexts in which wives are being descriped. In the Wife of Bath, a wife is powerful, in the Knight's Tale, the wife is described as a fairytale princess, in the Miller's Tale, the wife is depicted as secretive, and in the Pardoner's Tale, the wife is portrayed as sinful.

The Raven of Death

As the title displays it, it is pretty obvious that one of the main symbols in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is the raven.Throughout the poem, the raven represents the suffering of the narrator. In the poem, the narrator repeats oftenly the name Lenor: "From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore" (10-11). This repetition seems as if Lenor was a person who meant a lot for the narrator. The diction chosen to describe his feelings makes the reader believe that the narrator is mourning for the woman he loves.

Other aspects of the poem which makes me think that the narrator is mourning, is the fact that the raven oftenly repeats: "Nevermore." This repetition makes it seems as if the raven is trying to tell the narrator that he would never see Leonor again. Through this characterization, the raven symbolizes the suffering and pain that comes attached with death.

Feminism

One of the most surprising aspects of the "Wife of Bath," is the feminist beliefs of Alisoun. Back then, in the times when the "Canterbury Tales" was written, society was controlled by the will of men. Women usually didn't have a voice and they were always under the dominance of men. But the Wife of Bath is an exception. In a patriarchal society, the wife manages to express her true beliefs and acts accordingly to her thoughts about women in society. She believes that women have the right to get married more than once, just like she has been married five times. Also, she believes that women have the right to control their husbands, stating that she uses her sexual and verbal powers to manipulate her husbands. " A husband I will have -- I will not desist/ Who shall be both my debtor and my slave/...Upon his flesh, while I am his wife/I have the power during all my life/Over his own body, and not he" (154-159).

The Wife of Bath portrays her feminist beliefs as she tells her tale. Her tale is about a man who after he rapes a woman, is sentenced to death unless he figures out what is it that women want most in the world. After a long journey, the man meets a woman who tells him that "Women desire to have sovereignty/As well over her husband as her love/ And to be in mastery above him" (1038-1040). This answer of what women want most in the world fits completely with Alisoun's character. She controls her husband’s in every aspect of their lives and she has complete dominance over them. Her tale portrays her feminist beliefs, which are that women should have absolute power on their husbands.

Alison's beliefs on the power of women depict her feminist character. It was unusual for women in those times to dominate their husbands, but still she manages to make her husbands do anything she wants. As well, her tale is about what women want most in the world. And this is to control their husbands, just like she has done over her life.

Quite a Love Story

After the Knight told his wonderful fairytale love story, the Miller felt it was his duty to tell one of his own. But the Miller's story is a complete opposite of the Knight's tale. The Knight's tale was a romanticized story were true love triumphs at the end. His tale completely fits his honorable personality. The characters and their actions are portrayed as wonderful and perfect, representing the virtuosness of the Kinght.

But the Miller's story is pretty different, it's inmoral and vulgar. The tale's about a man named Nicholas who felt attracted to a woman named Alisoun, the young wife of an old carpenter. But the Miller's description of their love and of her is very unconventional. Hie describes Alisoun as: "Fair was this young wife, and moreover/ As any weasel was her body graceful and slender/A belt she wore, with decorative strips all of silk/ An apron as white as morning milk" (3233-3236). The Miller's description of Alisoun contrasts with the Knight's description of Emelye. The Knight portrays Emelye as a princess while the Miller describes Alisoun in a bizarre maner.

Also, the plot of the "Miller's Tale" is definetly not the one of a fairytale. It is a story about deceiving, unfaithfulness, and vulgarity. There's cheating, farting, and trickery. There's no honor or virtuosness, and the ending is very unconventional: " Thus screwed was this carpenter's wife/ In spite of all his guarding and his jealousy/ And Absolon has kissed her lower eye/ and Nicholas is scalded in the rump" (3850-3853). The Miller's story is stereotypical of his personality and of his social rank. While the Knight's story reveals his high status, the Miller's tale depicts his bawdy character.

Happily Ever After

When I finished reading Parts III and IV of "The Knight's Tale," I realized how that story is so romanticized. The story is just like a fairytale were an honorable knight fights for a princess who's the love of his life and he always ends up with her. Even though the style of "The Knight's Tale" is different from usual fairytales, the plot line is pretty the much the same. There's irony and sarcasm in the story, but the characters end up being just like the ones in fairytale.

For example, as I read I started to make comparisons between "The Knight's Tales" characters and characters from usual fairytales. Palomon would be the handsome wonderful knight who would do anything to be with the princess he loves. Emelye would be that princess who waits for the perfect man to be with her. Arcite is the villain who wants to keep the princess away from the honorable knight. And Thesus would be the king who makes the decision of who should stay with the princess. And at the end, the knight would fight with the villain and the honorable knight would win the princesses heart. Just like in "The Kinghts's Tale:" "For now is Palomon in complete happiness/ Living in bliss, in riches and in health/ And Emelye loves him so tenderly" (3101-3103).

Because of course, a fairy tale can't end without the perfect ending..."and they lived happily ever after."

Destructive Love

The power of love is so strong that it can even break the closest family bonds. This is the case in "The Knight's Tale." Arcite and Palomon are two cousins who have known each other their entire lives and have a very close relationship. Their loyalty belongs to each other and they stand together in any situation. When they are captured and imprisoned by Duke Thesus, they show their strong bond and true loyalty when Palomon says to Arcite: "To me, who am they cousin and thy brother/

Sworn very sincerely, and each of us to the other/

That never, though we had to die by torture/

Until death shall part us two/

Neither of us in love (is) to hinder the other" (1131-1135). This oath taken by both cousins depicts the closeness of their relationship, which seemed so strong that nothing could ever come between it.

In prison, Palomon and Arcite both watched the beautiful Emelye in the garden. Since the moment they each saw her, they both fell in love with her. The two of them truly desired her, in such a strong way that later, after Arcite was freed from prison and Palomon escaped, they both were wiling to die for her. After several years, the two cousins met and they both declared their love for Emelye. The relationship which seemed so strong between them immediately broke apart. The two cousins who once took an oath of loyalty were now desiring to kill each other. The end of their brother- like bond ended when one of them exclaimed: "Here comes my mortal enemy/ Without fail, he must be dead, or I/ For either I must slay him at the gap/ Or he must slay me, if I suffer misfortune" (1643-1646). The fact that one of them called the other "my mortal enemy" portrays the change their relationship went under. They used to call each other "brother," but love destroyed their close bond.

It is incredible how two people such as Palomon and Arcite who were once so close and so fond end up wanting to kill each other for love. Love is a powerful feeling, but is love worth the destruction of a brother-like bond?

The Journey of Literature

The poem "Migrations" by Dorian Merina talks about the ancient Manilla Galleon trade in the 16th and 17th centuries. Throughout his poem he portrays the inter-racial unions and the coming together of different cultures. When I listened to the poem all I could think about was they way Dorian Merina uses literature to describe a journey. Migration means moving from one place to another, but in his poem Merina gives it a much deeper meaning. The author uses his poem to describe the journey of the merging between cultures. For example, when he narrates the union of different people: "Blanco y India = Mestizo/Mestizo y Mestiza = Mulato..." (85-86), he succintly shows the evolution of different cultures and how they become one.

Another interesting aspect of Merina's poem is the way he manages to connect literature with movement. The words and the images of the poem help the reader visualize and feel the experience of migrations. In lines 16-18, the author says: "On the boats come the goods that cross the waters/ like veins and blood rushing/ the goods cross the waters." The choice of words of this section enables the reader to sense and illustrate the movement of the poem. As well, Merina's vivid description of the exchange goods allows the reader to understand better the motion of migrations.
Through his diction and images, the author manages to portray the journey and interactions of different cultures.