Macbeth!!!!

Do you feel sorry for Lady Macbeth?

I feel pity and a bit of compassion towards Lady Macbeth. She got what she deserved but I think that it is a harsh punishment and the position that she is in is so heart-wrenching that I can’t help but feel compassionate towards her. She was a good person before greed consumed her and she committed the dark deeds. I would want to tell her that she can forgive herself, and that it’s not worth taking her life. Anyone in her position is due some compassion because even though they may have deserved the punishment, it is still a very heavy burden.

What do you think about the character of Macbeth? Was he a good guy before he met the witches, or was he always capable of dark deeds? Is he to blame for his actions or are the witches really to blame?

Put in the same situation as Macbeth, I think nearly everyone is capable of a deed as horrible as his. I don’t want to label Macbeth as good or bad because I think that every person is capable of horrible deeds, but some people have the strength to resist the temptations and that is what makes a person good or bad. Macbeth is to blame for his actions because he lost the moral battle within him and gave into the temptations that the witches put before him. However, if both of them were to be charged in a modern day trial I think both of them would be convicted; Macbeth for committing first degree murder, and the witches for insinuating it. Hence think they are both to blame. Macbeth wouldn’t have had a problem if the witches had not taken advantage of his weak spot and tempted him. Because the witches deliberately caused the situation, they deserve equal blame as Macbeth.

Is there a personal incident in your life you wish you could erase? Imagine Lady Macbeth ringing her hands, unable to get the imaginary blood off them. She is haunted by her participation in the grisly deed. Do you think her response is plausible? Do you think you would be consumed by guilt yourself you found yourself wrapped in such a heinous crime?

I can’t think of a personal incident in my life that I wish I could erase. I’ve made plenty of mistakes but I think they’re important because I’ve learned from them. The only reason why I would ever want to erase an incident would be if I was still consumed by the thoughts of it and hadn’t come to terms with it, or if I had emotionally hurt someone so badly that it would be better for them to erase that deed.

Lady Macbeth’s response is certainly plausible and I would be consumed by guilt just as much as she was. I feel guilty very easily and if I was ever involved in such a heinous crime, it would take a lot for me to be able to forgive myself for it.

Have you ever experienced a predicted dream? Has anyone ever suggested something about your future that has actually come true? Did their comments influence your actions and the results that followed?

I’ve never experienced a predicted dream before. People have suggested things about my future but I don’t think I’ve ever taken them very seriously. But my mom says she can predict the gender of a baby before it’s born…that’s the only comment I can think of for predicted dreams. 

Poetry Response!

Which author are you most similar to?

I think I’m most similar to Emily Dickinson because we overlap, to some extent, in our personalities and interests. I read that the most important things in Dickinson’s life that surfaced in her poetry were religion, individuality, nature and death. I would also consider religion and individuality to be very important to me, which I think is one of the reasons that I love Dickinson’s poems so much. However I find other people very intriguing so if I was to spend my life writing poetry I think I would contemplate humanity more than nature, and focus more on the experiences in life than the experience of death.

 Dickinson was reclusive, very intelligent, and she was very radical in that she went against society’s norms and didn’t go to church, which at that time was very rare. I also tend to be reclusive like Dickinson, though not to the same extreme. However I don’t think I’m anywhere near as intelligent as her, nor as radically set apart from society as she was. Although I try to go against society because I know much of it does not uphold good morals, I often find myself struggling with it not especially succeeding so I don’t think I could be as radical as Dickinson in that respect.  

TPCASTT a poem, what do you see in it?

I decided to TPCASTT “The wind tapped like a tired man” by Emily Dickinson because I love Dickinson’s poetry so much. I think this poem expresses Dickinson’s fascination with nature as it celebrates the beauty of the wind. The poem personifies the wind as a man that visits the speaker’s house. The three middle stanzas paint an image of the different aspects that the wind has as a man. Sometimes the wind is like a “rapid, footless guest” or it sounds like “numerous humming-bird at once” or “music, as of tunes blown tremulous in glass”. Once the wind left “I became alone” which implies that nature keeps us company, and I love this idea of seeing nature as a friend. Overall, I think the poems message is to celebrate and enjoy nature’s company and beauty.

Contemplate hamartia as it relates to one of the poems. 

I chose to contemplate the hamartia in “The Loneliness of the Military Historian” by Margaret Atwood. The poem’s message is definitely enhanced when I think about how it relates to the poem. The central question to the message of the poem is what flaw in society has caused the wars and atrocities that the historian has seen. I have a hard time finding the one reason for it all because the poem suggests too many. “Wars happen because the ones who start them think they can win,” this implies that it is man’s pride that leads to his downfall. Men think they are better than their opponent so time after time they march to battle and they are too thick-headed to realize that “rats and cholera have won many wars”. The outcome of the war is not up to them, and the valor that they promote as the victor is not the victor in the end. However, Atwood is a feminist and the speaker in the poem is a female historian who obviously knows what it is that has caused societies downfall but society is afraid of her and doesn’t listen to her. Society prefers that women sacrifice themselves for their children and mourn the dead instead of contemplating war. So Atwood could also be implying that the problem with society is the unfairness in the way that the opinions of men and woman are treated. Women have no say in war and this has led to nothing but disaster. 

In The Skin Of A Lion - Question Responses

What passage did you find the most beautiful in this novel and why?
The passage I found most beautiful is where Patrick walks into the woods at night and sees the loggers skating on ice holding cattails that are on fire. When Patrick stood on the edge of the lake and watched, it transfixed me as much as it did Patrick because his longing to be on the ice with the men transferred to me and it was such an image that I wanted to see it just as much. It looked like a scene out of a movie where “the ice shone with light” and they glowed through the deep dark forest around them as they danced. The description of the loggers as they exit his view and “go further past boundaries, speed! romance! one man waltzing with his fire….” caught my attention because it is the diction of the exclamation marks of the words speed and romance that gives emphasis to them. Part of the beauty is also the mystery of the scene that I felt the first time that I read the passage. Why are the loggers skating on ice with cattails on fire? Just for a game or a “druidic ritual”?
It states that Patrick is twelve years and he is on the brink of puberty, and that this scene is so different from his normal life that it changes him and gives him a picture of the real world. The setting serves to create a beautiful and surreal image that contrast his everyday life, and even the blue moth in the winter is an anomaly to him.

What character do you most identify with in this novel and why? Is pathos an element of your response to this character?
I identified with Alice because I felt the most pathos for her throughout the novel. The scene with the puppets at the waterworks when she was acting out a play of an immigrant worker evoked the most pathos from me. The first time I read it I was confused as to what and outraged at the play. After learning that it was Alice who played that part, and that the death of her husband enflamed her desire to be active about immigrant workers, I connected with her. The appalling immigrant situation described so vividly causes me to want to help them and Alice stands up for them because this is part of her identity that she has “compassion in [her] desire for truth,” (124) and she finds truth for herself by fighting against the powers of the rich for the power of the immigrant worker. I can connect with her passions because I am interest in those issues as well. Also compared to Clara, Alice is the calmer and more pallid person whose personality is not as outgoing that I can relate too. I love the quote by her; “I don’t think I’m big enough to put someone in a position where they will hurt another,” (160).

Is tragic flaw an issue in this novel? Choose one character and explore how their tragic flaw resulted in disaster.
Patrick’s tragic flaw, that he is very vulnerable to emotion, causes him to great grief and he falls into disaster. Clara “should have understood his breakable quality sooner” (99) because Patrick clings onto both Alice and Clara when he falls in love with them. When Clara leaves Patrick twice for Ambrose it shatters his world because he “himself was nothing but a prism that refracted their lives,” (135). After Clara leaves him for the first time he spends two years in anguish over her because he can’t let go of those emotions. Then Patrick finally meets Clara again and he opens himself up and becomes vulnerable through the act of letting Clara shave his face; however this only hurts him again when Clara leaves. Another example of Patrick being emotionally vulnerable is when he is watching the play about the immigrant worker, he is so overwhelmed by this that out of the entire crowd he goes up and saves Alice. Thus, he builds an even greater emotional connection with Alice and when she tragically dies in an explosion it brings Patrick to disaster because he is destroyed and he can’t fathom how to move on. This causes him to commit the act of terrorism at the Water Works which is the climax where he purges all of his emotions out and through that he gains a glimmer of hope.