English 123 Notes 7/30/2008

"I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of Being Earnest."

• Consciousness is only a small part of our total psychology, the main parts include dreams, fairy tales, myths, and fantasies. Dreams come from your personal conscience.
  
• For example, Steve had a dream that he was forced to go back to the 3rd grade in order to graduate from college and Luke interpreted that dream to mean that Steve felt a sense of inability be successful in college.

"When we are born we cry that we have come to this stage of fools" -Shakespeare

ARCHETYPE- PRIMARY IMAGES
RECOGNITION- "ANAGNORSIS" means recognition in Greek. IT WOULD BE SMART TO THINK ABOUT THIS WORD FOR BOTH OEDIPUS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST FOR THE FINAL!!! just a thought

The Importance of Being Earnest

• Luke found a copy of the book, Political Economy, that Cecily was reading when we were first introduced to her. That is a coincidence!
  
• A topic to think about is the Ernest vs. Earnest

COMEDY VS. TRAGEDY

1. Comedy is abut people who are worse than we are -Aristotle
1. comedy is also about the affirmation of life
   
2. Tragedy is abut people who are better than we are- Aristotle
3. Aristotle also said that all works of literature are somehow woven together.

OEDIPUS

1. Oedipus is the original detective story....psychoanalysis
2. Tyresias is blind because he pulled two snakes apart with his stick and Harrah, Zeus' wife, punished him by making him spend 5 years as a woman making love and 5 years as a man making love and once those 10 years were done he was to tell her which sex enjoyed getting to know each other in the biblical sense more. He answered without a doubt, women. She then made him blind.
   
1. So Zeus came down, unable to undo what had already been done, and gave Tyresias the ability to see the future and be a soothsayer. That way since he could not physically see what was around him, he could see what was going to be.
3. In that day, being ignorant was far worse than any kind of sin.
4. Creon is also questioned about his motives by Oedipus, and Creon is Jocasta's brother therefore Oedipus' brother-in-law and uncle at the same time.
   

I CANNOT REMEMBER WHAT BOOK HE SAID TO GOOGLE, BUT I THOUGHT IT BEGAN WITH GILES....HMM SO IF ANYONE KNOWS PLEASE LET ME KNOW! THANKS! :)

English 123 Blog 17

Today we mentioned the last line of the classic novel The Importance of Being Earnest. The line states, " I now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of Being Earnest." This quote is a play on the word Earnest. The main character's name in the book is Jack and he pretends to be a man named Earnest when he is in London. However, at the end of the novel we realize that his true name is actually Ernest, the name of his late father. The last line of the novel uses the word "Earnest" not "Ernest". The first word means showing depth and sincerity of feeling. The word is very relevant to the story and to life. If a person shows depth and shows sincere feelings then they will not only be better person in life, but a better person that they themselves will appreciate. The importance of Jacks feelings for Gwendolen is that they were sincere, where as her feelings were more towards his name; she thought his name was Ernest. The two characters end up getting married but for entirely different ways, in my opinion. The same goes for Algernon and Cecily. Algernon seems to have earnest, sincere feelings for Cecily, but on the other hand Cecily is entranced by the name Ernest. That leads me to the question what is in a name?

Is a name that important? Does a good name put you ahead of everyone else? In my experience with my name, which I have never heard before, I love the idea of having a unique name. I feel it gives me an edge over other people with more common names because when most people hear my name the question that always follows is, "How did you get to be named Medina?" That question allows me to establish a more personal relationship with the person and they will have a better chance of remembering me, even if they don't remember my name exactly. However, if I were to have a name such as Sara or John Smith people would not be so caught off guard when I introduced myself; they have heard that name countless times before. Therefore, I can semi understand Cecily and Gwendolen's fascination with the name Ernest; it is unique and carries a positive connotation. However, I am not sure I agree with marrying someone because they have a wonderful and exciting name...I am not so sure how long the marriage would last!

English 123: Blog 16

One of my favorite lines from literature is "Everyone called him Popeye"
I like this line because it makes the reader wonder who is "Pop Eye" and what is his real name, the line gives a sense of identity and empowerment of the use of language. And I also liked the Pop Eye the Sailor Man television show so that the fact that Pop Eye is used in the quote also adds to my reason for liking it :)

English 123 Notes 7/28/2008

FOR BLOG

1. Consider what are the common elements that exist in both plays, Oedipus and The Importance of Being Earnest, tragedy vs. comedy.
2. Put what you think is the most endearing line in literature in your blog and try to resist lines with meaning and ideology.

MISTER PIP PASSAGES

1. page 209- The importance of writing things down, forgetting and remembering
2. page 153- moving forward

Every act of reading is an act of re-reading and revision.

"A work of art that is serious or has a large magnitude"- Aristotle's definition of a tragedy

ANAMNESIS- You don't learn anything, anything you learn is a remembering of something else- Plato

• We need to remember and we need to forget, you learn from what you remember
• Whenever you encounter authentic information, your shoulder blades will begin to itch because your wings are growing back
• "HOME" is one of the greatest weighted words in our language, "NOSTOS" means home in Greek. The world nostalgia comes from nostos.
• The artisits and their works are the greatest forms of reconciliation.

TERM PAPER IDEAS...the more specific the better the paper

1. survival guide
2. Matilda has opportunity to re-create herself; inventing a self creating, clash between logos and mythos, and Mr. Watts and Matilda's mother
3. the power of friendship, Matilda's story is Great Expectations
4. imagination vs. reality
5. entertainment and instruction; god is in the details
6. gaining and losing
7. methamorphosis from reality to fiction
8. see the wyas in which provate biography is changed through Mister Pip
9. dreams vs. reality and how they are so entwined
10. relationships, stories can be more realisitic

• Will have to give a 4-5 minute presentation on your paper, do not tell ABOUT the paper!
• "The task of the poet is to help people live their lives" -Wallace Stevens

Oedipus Rex- Sophocles

• our lives have been scripted, the 3 wome(Fraubauman, Frausmitz, and Frauschwartz) spin our fates and snip the thread when they believe it is long enough, you can do nothing to control that.
• The story of Oedipus fulfills the classic requirements of a hero with 1000 faces story. He covers many of the 22 points that occur in all stories of heroes.
• Oedipus means "lame foot" or "club foot", play begins with Oedipus talking to the priest and limps out on stage from the holes drilled into his ankles when he was an infant.
• Oedipus becomes the King of Thebes after he gets past the Sphinx and kills the current king who happens to be his father.
• The sphinx is a half lion, half woman with wings who talks in riddles and any man wishing to pass must answer the riddle correctly and kill the sphinx. The answer was men because at birth men crawl on 4 legs, at adulthood they walk on 2 legs, and at old age they use their legs plus a cane to use 3 tools to walk.
• He specifically murdered the king at a crossroads, a place where 3 roads meet.
• Things are not good in Thebes when he arrives it has become a wasteland.
• Oedipus is smart and powerful and rids the city of its issues, he then marries Jocasta (his mother) and has 4 children with her, one being named Antigony.
• Another plague comes over the city and the only way to rid it is to kill the person who killed the former king, no one knows it was actually Oedipus who did it.
• Oedipus interegates Tyresius, the blind soothsayer who only speaks the truth.

OSCAR WILDE QUOTE WEBSITE

• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/o/oscar_wilde.html

English 123: Blog 15

The question was brought up involving what similiarities do the novels Oedipus and The Importance of Being Earnest have in common? Well at first I was baffled by the question, but when I actually began to think about it over a cup of hot chocolate I realized several key elements present in both novels. The concept of idenity is very important throughout both novels as well as the idea that both of the main characters were orhpans.

Oedipus is constantly trying to find his identity throughout the book. He thinks he knows his identity when he marries Jocasta and becomes the King of Thebes. However, as we already know his identity is mistaken. He thinks he is a king when really he is the prince and all of the children he has with Jocast are actually his siblings. When he realizes that the delphic oracle has come true he gauges out his eyes in order to prevent himself from seeing what he has become and has made of his fate. Like I blogged about earlier, fate is pre-determined, you have no control. In The Importance of Being Earnest, the identity of Jack is mistaken to be Earnest, that is everyone in London believes him to be Earnest and everyone in the city knows him to be Jack. The same goes with his friend/brother Algernon. Both men pretend to have brothers and friends that they go visit, but they actually escape to another world and an entirely different person. It is ironic how the name Earnest plays such a huge role in the women deciding if they want to marry. Both Oedipus and Jack have issues with their identities causing them to either run away or make up a character in order to try and realize who they truly are.

Since both Oedipus and Jack were orphans, their identity is lost. Jocasta tries to kill Oedipus when she hears of the oracle that he will kill his fater and have sexual realtions with her and ironically, Oedipus is saved by the herdsmen and raised by a family he believes is his true family. When he visits the oracle and hears of his prophecy he runs away trying to prevent the killing of the man he perceieves to be his father, and in turn ends up killing his real father on the journey. Jack realizes at the end of the play that he is Lady Bracknell's poor sisters son and is actually Algernon's older brother. Ironically he realizes that the name of his father is actually Earnest making Jacks true name Earnest therefore he realizes his true identity was the one he had been making up.

Both plays have a completely opposite connotation. Oedipus is a tragedy, while The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy. Yet, both novels contain specific elements that relate to one another and help to understand the overall meaning and theme of each play.

English 123: Blog 14

After finishing reading Oedipus Rex, many thoughts overcame me. The most prominent being the idea that your fate is already pre-determined for you, and no matter what you do to try and prevent fate from coming true, what and who you are destined to be will always be who you turn out to be. You can work to be the best person that you can be, but you can never outwit fate.

Oedipus and his mother tried to break the prophecy from the oracle that said he would kill his father and marry his mother. However, Oedipus did not die and instead was taken care of by a family. The prophecy ended up coming true despite the efforts of Oedipus' mother. That just proves the point that no matter what you try and do, who you are destined to be is who you are destined to be.

Since your fate is determined for you by the person who created you, the idea that the outcome of your life is already decided should make a person work harder to create a better journey to that endpoint. People should try and make the time that they can control the best and most exciting times of their lives because the end result is already determined; there is no changing that. God has a plan for everyone and it is through his plan that people achieve what they are destined to be. However, no matter what you are destined to be you should always try and live your life to the fullest and be the best person you can be; live your life with no rules and and enjoy the time you can control.

English 123 Blog 13

Mister Pip is filled with amazing and attention grabbing themes that we as people deal with on an everyday basis. Another passage, of the many that I thought were interesting, is on page 178. It is one line and this line delivers an important message. "THE IDEA THAT YOUR LIFE COULD CHANGE WITHOUT WARNING WAS VERY APPEALING" Life changes day to day, heck even minute to minute and it is the ability for us to accept the change with open arms and learn to deal with the curve balls that makes the journey of life more interesting. The other quote that I liked that goes well with the one on page 178 is on page 245 and it says "YOUR SHIP COULD COME IN AT ANY TIME , AND THAT SHIP COULD TAKE MANY FORMS." This quote deals with the other one because they are both talking about change. In Mister Pip there are many times with the characters must deal with change. When the redskins come in and blockade their island, burn their posessions, and finally burn their houses the people on the island learn to deal with that change because they have no other choice. They realize that so their possessions may be taken away, they still have fresh air, the ocean, the fish, and fruit and they can build huts that will work. This thinking is what helped those people survive as long as they did. Without this positive outlook on life there would be nothing but conflict and hate and bitterness surrounding the environment. I found it very admirable when these people on the island learned to accept the drastic changes in their life, and the majority seemed to do it with a smile and a positive outlook.
Matilda also deals with an extreme amount of change. She meets Mr. Watts and then he is shot because of his outrageous lifestyle, her father has been gone for 4 or 5 years, and her mother gets raped and then cut up in order to save Matilda. Not to mention to flies to Australia by herself after she has escaped the island with the help of Jaggers and a few others. Yet, even with the tremendous amount of change being experienced she is able to deal with it with the help of Pip. Pip gives her an escape from reality that all of us need at some point of another. When life gets tough, it is nice to have someone or something to escape to and leave our world and enter another. People need to learn how to balance reality vs. dreams and learn that both are necessary in achieving the overall balance in your life.