I'm unclear about your question. If you are asking what is their relationship like, it would be one that reveals the power relationship between the Southern "lady: and "gentleman."He, as we see him in the tableau, represents the paternalistic, authoritative southern male, dominating his daughter, Emily, who, in the background, appears submissive. He holds a whip and wears boots, she wears white. Much of Emily can be explained through this original relationship with her father, which she does her best to break out of through Homer, whom her father would have hated, and then by killing Homer when he seemed to want to leave her.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Why / how does Penelope have more power over Odysseus than Athena?
Love is a powerful emotion, and love is the force that drives Odysseus to return to Ithaca and, more important, Penelope. No matter what obstacles are put in his way, he remains steadfast in his desire to go home to her. Those obstacles are created by Poseidon, whom Odysseus has offended, and they are removed by Athena, who is Odyssues's patron goddess. I'm not sure it is correct to say that Athena and Penelope compete for power over him; they are both interested in seeing him regain his throne. Also, Athena is the patron of the "womanly arts," which is what Penelope is doing when she weaves. Athena also encourages their son to cause as much trouble as possible with the men who are vying to marry Penelope, keeping her free until Odysseus returns. So you might say that Athena and Penelope share influence over Odysseus.
Between the movie in 1996 and the real play, which is more interesting and appropriate? Please defend your answer.
I cannot stand the Baz Luhrmann 1996 adaptation of
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. He should have called it
MTV's R + J. It's a music video, not a movie. And certainly not a
play.
First of all, Luhrmann modernizes the setting and
characters but retains the Elizabethan dialogue. Why? It's silly. Why would gang
bangers talk like this? Why do they say they have "swords" and wave around 9mmers?
Preposterous!
Recent adaptations of O
(Othello) and Hamlet (2000, starring Ethan
Hawke) have modernized both the setting and language, which makes much more
sense.
Secondly, the actors (except for Friar Lawrence and
the Nurse) have very little acting experience, let alone Shakespearean voice training.
Instead, they shout all their lines while music blares in the background.
Shakespearean plays are meant to be heard; their iambic pentameter is like a song. It
takes years of training and experience. The couple in Franco Zefirelli's 1968 version
were much better trained.
Why could it be suggested that Creon's edict in Antigone goes against the Greek values of life transitioning to death?
In Antigone, it is clear that
Sophocles, Antigone, and all of the Greek citizens of Thebes cide with burying
Polyneices as part of the gods' "unwritten law." The only one who doesn't is the
vengeful and stubborn Creon.
Respecting the dead is a Greek
tradition. In Book XI of The Odyssey, when Odysseus' visits Hades,
the dead spirit of Elpenor asks Odysseus to bury his body. Odysseus
says,
The
first ghost that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid
beneath the earth. We had left his body unwept for and
unburied in Circe's house, for we had had too much else to do. I was very
sorry for him,...
To which
Elpenor responds:
Do not go thence leaving me
unmourned and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven's anger upon
you; but burn me with whatever armor I have, build a barrow for me on the
sea shore, that may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and
plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my
messmates.’
Antigone echoes
these words when she tells her sister:
I will bury him: well for me to die in doing
that. I shall rest, a loved one with him whom I have loved, sinless in my
crime; for I owe a longer
allegiance to the dead than to the living: in that world I
shallabide for ever. But if thou wilt, be guilty of dishonouring
laws which the gods have stablished
in honour.
As
The Odyssey was written some 400 years before
Antigone, it is clear that the Greeks required burial rites for the
dead, even if he was a drunk who carelessly fell off a roof or fought against his own
state and brother in a civil war.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
What was Emily's relationship with her father?
Emily's relationship with her father can be vividly seen in what the narrator describes as "the tableau" they had constructed of her: Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung door." We see in this "tableau" his violence and dominance, and her youthful femininity. He was controlling, refusing her a life of her own or a husband, and he cared little, for in this picture (as the townspeople imagine them) he has his back to her. The image of the horsewhip is particularly disturbing, especially when we consider how violent she was in killing Homer to keep him. One suspects that her father might have, in a similar way, used that horsewhip on her to keep her.
Was Edgar Allan Poe a Christian? If you read "The Raven," it seems like he might be. Also, when it says the nights plutonian shore, he is referring...
It is a rather natural assumption after reading his
stories and poems that Edgar Allan Poe must have been an atheist. This idea is not
necessarily true. Poe's adopted father, John Allan, had young Edgar baptized in the
Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia in 1812. They later attended the newly built
Monumental Episcopal Church after 1814, and Edgar and his foster mother, Francis, were
apparently regulars. Poe was taught the catechisms while living in England, and studied
religion while in school there.
While at West Point,
Poe apparently attended church for a time, but he later refused to do so. There is some
indication that he attended church with a friend in 1848 in New York. Poe was presented
a Bible as a present in in 1846, but it has been lost (after once being owned by the
Bronx Historicial Society). According to one source, this note was written alongside The
Lord's Prayer in Poe's Bible: "I loath it."
Several of
Poe's writings show a pro-religious leaning.
Poe wrote a “Hymn [to the Virgin Mary]” (1833)
as part of “Morella.” Removed from later versions of the story, it was nevertheless
included as “Catholic Hymn” in The Raven and Other Poems (1845).
Another poem, “For Annie” (March 23, 1849) begins with “Thank Heaven!” and includes a
reference to “... she prayed to the angels... To the queen of the
angels...”
Poe is said to
have known his Bible well. However, nowhere in Poe's writings does he state his belief
or position on the subject; however, several men who knew him claimed him as "having no
religion."
What is the setting of "Lamb to the Slaughter"?
would suggest the setting is not England but Ireland - the names used Maloney, Noonan, Patrick all being Irish names but more importantly and very subtly "whiskey" is an Irish drink - the English drink "whisky" from Scotland.
An alternative which is probably as attractive is it being set in an Irish community in America.
The dating points towards the American setting being just as likely as Ireland if not more so.
The Maloneys had a home freezer - they were not introduced to the USA until 1940 and were much later becoming widespread in England or Ireland. They were not a rich family so clearly the use of home freezers had become quite widespread by the time the story was set. It was written in 1954 so probably set around then.
On balance I would plump for early 1950s in an Irish community in America.
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