A Doll House and Age of Innocence

There are many similarities between Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House and Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence. One of these similarities is the gender which holds the power in the relationships. In that society and time period men were generally known to hold more power, but in both works the authors depict women who subversively hold control. Both Nora and Ellen manipulated the men in their lives who unknowingly thought they were deciding their own fates.

In Wharton’s Age of Innocence May had “clear” eyes throughout the whole novel. While Archer always thought she was a young girl who needed to be enlightened and read to, she always understood and this led her to control her relationship without Archer knowing. The affair between Ellen and Archer was never a surprise to her and she manipulated the situation to fit her mold for a picture-perfect family. Ellen went away and May was left with a faithful husband and guiding father for her children. Her eyes “shone with victory” when she told Archer the news that she was pregnant because she knew that this would be the anchor to keep him from pursuing Ellen, which is what she always wanted. If she had approached her husband from the beginning, then he might have resented her, but instead she waited for an opportunity to arise that would make it seem like it was Archer’s decision to stay- even if he did not really have a choice.

Similarly, in Ibsen’s A Doll House, Nora manipulates Torvald into doing her will while he unknowingly plays along. She holds the control, and even his life, in her hands, yet she leads Torvald to believe that she is a helpless “little bird”. This playful façade led them both to be satisfied with their marriage, both Nora and Torvald thinking they were in control; however, as soon as Torvald proved to Nora that she was not in control and that he would not support her, she realized that the marriage was not what she thought it was. She lost the power struggle and this led her to realize that she needed to escape that “doll house” and regain control of her own life.

Both these works demonstrate women who control the men in their lives by means of manipulation and smug secrecy, yet the endings are very different. In A Doll House Nora leaves her husband and family in order to find herself and live a genuine life, while in Age of Innocence May and Archer live out the rest of their lives in this socially acceptable “doll house”. While Ibsen’s play finishes with a hopeful tone, Wharton ends the novel with a disappointing conclusion as Archer never finds true fulfillment in his life. The different endings depict the two options that the characters in the works had- they could either ignore reality, continuing to live seeking society’s acceptance, as May and Archer did, or they could rebel and search for true fulfillment in their lives like Nora.

Wine Pressing

But in the Wine-presses the Human Grapes Sing not nor Dance

William Blake

But in the Wine-presses the human grapes sing not nor dance:
They howl and writhe in shoals of torment, in fierce flames consuming,
In chains of iron and in dungeons circled with ceaseless fires,
In pits and dens and shades of death, in shapes of torment and woe:
The plates and screws and racks and saws and cords and fires and cisterns
The cruel joys of Luvah's Daughters, lacerating with knives
And whips their victims, and the deadly sport of Luvah's Sons.

They dance around the dying and they drink the howl and groan,
They catch the shrieks in cups of gold, they hand them to one another:
These are the sports of love, and these the sweet delights of amorous play,
Tears of the grape, the death sweat of the cluster, the last sigh
Of the mild youth who listens to the luring songs of Luvah.----

 

William Blake is known to write poems and create artwork contrasting innocence and experience using many biblical allusions and symbolism. In his poem “But in the Wine-presses the Human Grapes Sing not nor Dance” Blake juxtaposes love and torture to show the torment of experience.

His first line sets up the poem in a wine press, where grapes are squeezed in order to make wine. In order for the grapes to turn into the fine drink, they must first be pressed and aged, transforming from one state to another. This is symbolic of the transition from innocence to experience, and Blake illustrates this process by personifying the grapes which “howl and writhe in shoals of torment”. The transition could be described as painful because the effect of eating this “fruit of knowledge” (in this case a grape), is losing the ignorance and bliss associated with innocence. The grapes “no longer sing nor dance” because they have been weighed down by age and experience. Blake continues describing the almost torturous process by repeatedly using fire imagery. This could be an allusion to the fires of Hell, in which the grapes are being scorched. The allusion to Hell with “fierce flames consuming” and “chains…circled with ceaseless fires” describes experience as a sinful experience, contrary to the pure and innocence found in heaven.  Blake goes on to describe Luvah’s sadistic daughters and sons. He juxtaposes “cruel joys” and “deadly sport” when speaking of lacerating and whipping victims. Luvah, which Blake created, is symbolic of love and the fact that his offspring enjoy torture depicts an ironic scene demonstrating both the good and bad aspects of experience. These “sweet delights of amorous play” show that experience can be painful yet beneficial. Love is often seen with positive connotation, and when posed with violence it captures the dual emotions associated with the fruit of knowledge.  William Blake uses these descriptions to demonstrate his view that neither innocence nor experience is superior to the other. Both have their advantages and their drawbacks and he compares them in his poem about enlightened yet pained grapes as they transition to wine.

Blake uses the process of wine pressing to demonstrate the acquisition of knowledge in his poem. Luvah represents love and tortures his victims in the “sports of love”. The juxtaposition and violent imagery presented in the poem demonstrate the downsides of experience. Compared to innocence, it reveals knowledge and takes away the ignorance, but it is also reality- which can be devastating. William Blake finishes his poem describing “the last sigh of the mild youth who listens to the luring songs of Luvah”. This reveals that experience is tempting, yet the loss of innocence is something to be sighed over, a distressing experience.

Age of Innocence or Old New York?

A question from our lit circle on Monday has stuck with me: “Should the novel be named Age of Innocence or Old New York?”  This got me thinking about what each title would imply about the novel and while the Age of Innocence title captures overall William Blake-like theme of innocence versus experience, Old New York emphasizes the role of society within the novel. While reading the novel through the gender lens, one could argue that the given title is appropriate because of the contrast between experienced men and naïve pretty women. The Marxist lens, however, which focuses on the power struggle between classes, fits in better with the latter title.

The novel does demonstrate gender roles, such as after dinner when the women would go upstairs while the men would stay downstairs and smoke “discussing business”, but the end of the book leads me to believe that the more important theme was about the elite society. There is an emphasis on the change within the values of the society within the last chapter which notes the contrast between the past and the future. For example, in Archer’s youth importance was placed in the reputation of someone’s family, and they joked about Beaufort’s bastard children, which Newland’s son ironically marries. The old New York was more “old-fashioned”, like Archer describes himself to his son Dallas in front of Ellen’s apartment. (304). His reason for not going upstairs is because he is old fashioned, implying that there is a change within him. This implies that Newland has become someone interested in tradition, as society always urged him to be. His many years with May could have influenced this change within him, and she could have molded him into a perfectly acceptable husband. This kills the passion and drains the youth within him as he is left dull and old-aged. Archer seems to have become stagnant as he sits on the bench fantasizing about what is occurring within the apartment, too “old-fashioned” to enter. He barely travels- another interesting change within him. The young Archer had an interest in art and foreign countries, which contrasted with May, who was bored on their wedding tour and eager to get home to fulfill her wifely duty. He is content with his lifelessness as he walks away back to his hotel. The boundaries which constricted Archer before are now comforting to the prosaic old man, who is a representation of the “old New York”, which is being replaced by younger people and newer viewpoints.

Archer’s transformation within the novel shows the gradual acceptance of being a part of this elite New York society. At first he rebelled, but as time went on he fulfilled his role and even came to symbolize the old traditions which he came from. This contrasts strikingly with the youth, such as his son Dallas. For this reason, both titles are relevant to the novel but when looking at it from a societal point of view, the Old New York title is more fitting.

Blake and Grendel

William Blake, a man with little formal education who was thought mad by many, criticized the world and wrote genius ideas about society. His poems are works which display paradoxes and in "Introduction (Song of Innocence)" and "Introduction (Song of Experience)" he comments on the ignorance of the unenlightened and the despair of the enlightened. These contrasting poems still manage to work together, similar to how John Gardner uses the contrasting ideas of innocence versus experience in his novel Grendel. 

In “Song of Innocence”, Blake writes about a child telling a piper to “pipe song about a lamb” which symbolizes Jesus and purity. The piper is then instructed to drop his “happy pipe” and sing “songs of happy chear” then lastly write his songs in a “book that all may read”. These artistic forms of portraying the joyous song demonstrate the association that art and music has with innocence. This relates to Grendel in his early days of inexperience, before he was touched by the knowledge of the evil, pointless world. The Shaper’s song sounds much like the Piper’s song. The song about religion, people weeping with joy, it all sounds very familiar. However, Blake does state that a shortcoming of innocence is that it can be ignorance. This can be seen clearly within Grendel because the people were entranced by the Shaper’s words, ignorant to the truth, or lack of truth, behind his words.

The contrasting poem, “Song of Experience” would then demonstrate the Dragon’s perspective. The Bard “who Present, Past, & Future sees” sounds like the exact description of the Dragon, who is also all-knowing. The dragon’s “ears have heard The Holy Word” of the Shaper, but they have also experienced the darkened world that those who gain knowledge see. Grendel is engulfed into this world when he accepts the dragon’s perspective and is tortured by the darkened world, only seeing the experience side of life.

Blake himself never identified himself wholly with either view of innocence or experience, and he stood on the outside pointing out the fallacies in each. While the balance of both would be perfection, Grendel experienced such a tormented experience because of the imbalance he found in his life. He abandoned the Shaper’s ideals about innocence and inhaled the scent of the dragon, letting experience become his aura. This imbalance can be seen in Chapter 7, where he narrates his story in two parts, Cut A and Cut B- Cut A containing all of the content and Cut B being empty. This imbalance, Blake would likely claim, is what led to Grendel’s death. He was metaphorically torn, and eventually was physically torn, his cause of death.

In both introductory poems an idea of conflicting sides of humanity is expressed. These conflicting views are demonstrated in Gardner’s Grendel with the ideologies of the Shaper and the dragon. The lack of balance between the two states is what leads to Grendel’s end, and the fallacies of both perspectives are demonstrated in the poems and in the novel alike.

Truth

             What is this truth that we keep reading about? That every character within every book we read seems to be searching for? Does it even exist? Is the fact that a truth doesn’t exist- the truth itself? Seen prominently as a motif within Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, this idea is also demonstrated in John Gardner’s novel Grendel, where the melodramatic protagonist is torn between two concepts and confused as to which one is the ultimate truth. Even in Shelley’s romantic novel Frankenstein, we pondered upon the truth behind creation. So what is it?

Each novel we read contains allusions to the Bible’s creation story. In the story a truth is presented in the Garden of Eden. This truth, this knowledge, is seen as the fruit in the tree. The twisted apples in Winesburg, or the shiny apples that Grendel threw at poor, miserable Unferth.  The search for truth can also be seen in the Greek myth concerning the contents of Pandora’s Box and in many more stories across cultures. The opening of the box, or discovery of the truth, leads to disasters of massive proportions. Adam and Eve lose their connection with God and are kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and Pandora’s Box releases miseries of all kinds. In Winesburg, each person was destroyed, turned grotesque by the truth. In Frankenstein once Victor was exposed to the truth about creation, misery found him at every turn. After Grendel finds the truth, whether he believed it to be the shaper’s words or the dragon’s, he lives miserably and ultimately dies. He falls off a cliff. Let’s not pretend he didn’t jump joyously into death. These truths, whatever they may be, do not seem to bring any positive outcomes. No one is elevated to a god-like level; in fact, they all seem to be cast down- like Satan after his attempt to overreach the boundary between angel and God. The characters, like Lucifer, are all cast into a pit of self-pity and misery and chained to their despair. They are doomed to live a wretched, unsatisfied, and isolated life.

Perhaps no one will ever quite know what the ultimate truth is, and these books are only creative, well written attempts by authors who are just trying to figure it out themselves. And maybe, just maybe, we’re best left not knowing, seeing as to how all the stories end.

 

Grendel Vs. Beowulf

Grendel meets Beowulf. The scene we’ve all been waiting for.  We’ve either dreaded or awaited it eagerly, depending on how much we enjoyed reading the novel… Personally, I feel as if I was ready for Grendel to die, and I do not think he minded it much himself, yet a little part of me did feel sad to see baby Grendel go. Beowulf, his undoing, is seen with such a heroic and arrogant light in the epic from Anglo Saxon times, yet John Gardner’s Grendel tells a completely different story.

 Meeting Beowulf is quite the scene. The amount of foreshadowing and irony presented in chapter 11 is incredible and Gardner portrays the hero, or perhaps villain, in a new “twisted” light. Let’s just take a minute and address the admiration with which Grendel looks at Beowulf and the almost infatuated state of mind he was in. He was entranced with his body… stating that he could “drop into a trance just looking at those shoulders” (Gardner 155). The glorification of Beowulf’s body is extremely ironic since it is these beautiful shoulders that will be tearing his shoulder from its socket, leading to his demise. With his “cold eyes” and his dramatic arrival as “gray wind teased lifeless trees”, Beowulf does not seem the least bit heroic or even “good” (Gardner 152). His lifeless stares and boasts that hinder others are evil, and Gardner illustrates the tone towards him very clearly using diction. Everything in the chapter is “gray”, “dark”, and Beowulf is described as “grotesque” more than once, a word which brings back memories of a small miserable town in Ohio. The connotations of the words used to describe the scene are not very favorable, connoting horrible evilness. As Beowulf physically tortures Grendel he decides it is not enough and decides to psychologically infest Grendel’s mind to prove a point. What point? What was Beowulf trying to say? Also noteworthy and similar to Winesburg, Ohio are the allusions to the Garden of Eden. All throughout the chapter Gardner describes objects as twisted, and as Grendel stares at his enemy he gets a glimpse of a memory of “twisted roots, an abyss…” (Gardner 164). This could connect to the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, as a truth is also mentioned throughout the chapter. “They were like trees, those strangers”, just like Hrothgar in the ruling of his kingdom, yet the roots are twisted because of the injustice found in the base of the society. The evil that is the foundation of it all. However, if the Anglo-Saxon society were the true evil and Beowulf/Hrothgar were antagonists within the story, it would make Grendel the true hero of the novel, which would make sense since he is our protagonist.

When looking at Chapter 11 we can see that Gardner truly emphasizes the gray, antagonistic qualities within Beowulf, a very different perspective from that of the much older epic- yet it all makes sense, because all along we’ve wanted to know that Grendel was truly “good”, a protagonist, and a fulfillment of our expectations of what a main character should be like.

Hallows Eve

Spirits of the Dead

Edgar Allen Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

 

II

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

 

III

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

 

IV

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

V

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

Halloween is nearing. It's the time for costumes and candy and pumpkin themed bake sales. But not only that- it's the time for the spooky, the creepy, and every imaginable crawly. This time of the year can be anticipated or dreaded- especially for those who are allergic to all things frightful. Thankfully for us AP Lit students, we are immersed in Grendel, a book seeping with dreadful ideas. It really is perfect timing for such a literary work; however, I was left craving something scarier to read- something that would make the hair on my arms stand on edge and make me wish I was seated with my back to the wall. So I searched in the romantic works of the classic Poe. And I can’t say I was disappointed.

Edgar Allen Poe’s Poem “Spirits of the Dead” explores the connection between life and death, describing the afterworld in a scene that chills our bones. He depicts a lone living soul amidst a crowd of spirits of the dead, and in the first stanza he describes the dark state the soul is in.

 

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

                Poe uses words such as “dark” and “grey” to demonstrate the sad and gloomy thoughts that the person has as they think about death. By depicting the person alone at a tombstone he begins his poem in a morbid place, setting us up for the rest of the poem.

Poe then writes about the how the spirits are in an elevated state and are among the presence of the living.

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

 

In the second stanza, the person is surrounded by the “spirits of the dead” whose will “shall overshadow” his. The fact that the will of the spirits will overcome his demonstrates the power they hold. This informs us of their superiority.

Towards the end of the poem Poe personifies nature to create a sense of intensity that displays the discomfort that the living must face in life. The frowning light and the stars that “shall seem as a burning and a fever” seem very hostile. This demonstrates the hostility of everyday life and how it can weigh down on an individual. The fever which would “cling to thee forever” and the thoughts that will “not banish” are everlasting pains. Since human life is so ephemeral, every discomfort can seem like an eternity.

 

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

 

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

 

In the last stanza Poe uses mist to show the veil between this world and the next and how as long as the veil exists, the next world will be a mystery to the living.

 

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

 The troubles of this life can not compare with the stillness present in the next. As the soul sits next to that tombstone, surrounded by the crowd of spirits and tortured by the discomfort of life, it sees the most as a promise of the clarity and peace that must surely exist in the afterlife. 

 

Although this poem was deep and thoughtful rather than chilling, it still had that edge of gloom and darkness that Poe never seems to fail to bring. 

Grendel Chapter 5

My initial thoughts about chapter 5 in John Gardner's novel Grendel- when he goes on his trip to meet the dragon. I had to put down my tea and set aside my shortbread cookies while reading this one. 

 

First off, Grendel is woken from his slumber by some sort of mysterious presence, sort of like a call to adventure in a hero's journey, and he comes upon a fright-inducing, seemingly insane dragon. The fierce description, including "eyes not firey but cold as the memory of family deaths" , would make anyone tremble- and the self- pitying, despair bringing beast Grendel is no exception (57 Gardner). He stands frightened with his hands in front of him like a rabbit, forced to listen to the dragon's malicious laughter and what seems to be a madman's ramblings. 

 

This chapter can be very confusing and I spent a long while trying to figure out what the dragon was saying to Grendel in his long wordy paragraphs- but then the thought occurred to me: "what if we're not supposed to understand?" I stopped and pondered. Isn't that the whole point then- That the dragon's understanding surpasses our own; therefore, our minds are not fully able to grasp the concepts which it is spurting out? 

This allows a connection to be made between the dragon and some sort of all-seeing all-knowing deity. This could be an allusion to the Bible, which says in Revelation 1:8, "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty'". And then the concept of free will is brought up- in which the dragon seems frustrated by others' inability to grasp the concept that he does not interfere. He states that his "knowledge of the future does not cause the future. It merely sees it, exactly as creatures at your low level recall things past" (63). It seems a lot like an omnipotent god- yet the dragon's nature and demeaning attitude is very dark. So is the dragon the god? Or is it evil? And if it is evil, then why would it call out to Grendel, give him some long speech and get frustrated by his lack of understanding (even though he can see the future and knew that would happen), and later let Grendel go free, more confused than ever?

 

This chapter was brain twisting and thought inducing, but the one thing it was not is boring. Meeting the dragon, who had a superior and haughty attitude similar to Grendel and Beowulf, was quite the experience. He was terrifying and more than slightly crazy, like a clichéd mad scientist, yet I still kind of like it- it didn't seem to be completely detestable.  I don't fully understand what it all means, and am still perplexed about the overall role of the dragon, but I do not think it is something to worry about, since our minds are not capable of really grasping all that the dragon had to say. But then again... What if they are?

T.S Eliot and Winesburg, Ohio

The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a t. S. Eliot poem filled with juxtaposition which highlights the speaker's insecurity that comes with old age. The poem has a variety of parallels with Sherwood Anderson's novel Winesburg, Ohio, such as the whole idea of a story teller and a listener. Throughout the poem, the speaker addresses the reader directly, inviting us to come along with him in the evening and advising, "Do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit". This idea of a listener is seen in Winesburg, where a young boy named George Willard seems to know all the town secrets. He knows of the hidden pasts of others, the inner thoughts of their hearts, similar to how J. Prufrock pours out his insecurities and wonderings to his listener.
Also present within the poem is the idea of a timid man trapped within society. There is a significant amount of imagery that suggests a feeling of entrapment, similar to Anderson's novel. Passage two of Eliot's poem says

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening

This passage seems to create an image of a cat, a lonely animal, which depicts an isolated stage. Cats are known to keep to themselves, symbolizing loneliness- one of the most prominent themes within the novel Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson depicts a town many of the individuals suffer from isolation, wishing that they would find somebody that understands them. Enoch, an artist that lived within the city, is the main character within the short story "Loneliness" in which he fills his void for an understanding companion with imaginary friends. In the poem, the yellow fog is clouding up the windows, representing the concealed speaker. Within Winesburg, windows are a reoccurring motif within the novel, since the majority of the characters are trapped in their pasts, left stagnant. There is an emphasis on the young, like George Willard, and old, like his mother Elizabeth. The  idea of the passage of time comes up as J. Alfred Prufrock remarks upon the troubles of old age. He is insecure about getting old, fearful of others seeing his balding head as he walks down the stairs. There is also an allusion to the Bible with the passage that parallels Ecclesiastes 3 "there will be a time for" this and "a time for" that. Eliot displays how quickly life can pass us by, pondering if it "would have been worth it" to do all the things he could have done. Overall, the Love Story of J. Alfred Prufrock and Winesburg, Ohio are very similar in the characters portrayed and in the effects of time on a human in our society.

In what is supposed to be a love song, J. Alfred Prufrock depicts his isolation and insecurity caused by society in a gloomy and almost morbid way, with "voices dying" and a "dying fall". This juxtaposition of our expectations and the reality within the poem is similar to life- our expectations of youth are cut short by the reality of aging and a broken society.

"The Broken Heart"

"THE BROKEN HEART"
by John Donne

This poem describes the heart’s relationship with the personified love by using a variety of comparisons. Each stanza examines a different view of this love. In “The Broken Heart” John Donne uses violent imagery and personification to reveal the severe impact that love and heartbreak can have on a person’s life.

He is stark mad, whoever says,
    That he hath been in love an hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
    But that it can ten in less space devour ;
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
    Who would not laugh at me, if I should say
    I saw a flash of powder burn a day?

 

Donne starts off by demonstrating the connection with time. The first stanza is focused on how others perceive love to be short lived, while he has been in love for a year. He describes how others might mock him if he revealed the dramatic effect that a simple “flash of powder” produced. The speaker uses negative words to describe love throughout the poem. In the first stanza he describes it as “decaying”, “devour” and “plague”. These words have connotations of illness and death, creating juxtaposition with the supposed love he is feeling. They also add a layer of intensity to his words, creating the sense seriousness that comes with life and death. Describing love as a force that seems to be killing him lets us see that the broken heart he describes in the title will not recover.

 

Ah, what a trifle is a heart,
    If once into love's hands it come!
All other griefs allow a part
    To other griefs, and ask themselves but some;
They come to us, but us love draws ;
He swallows us and never chaws ;
    By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die ;
    He is the tyrant pike, our hearts the fry.

 

The next stanza comments on the nature of a trifle heart when it falls in love. Eating imagery is used when describing how love draws us in. It seems almost as if we are prey to love, who is a hungry predator, so hungry for victims that “he swallows us and never chaws”. This predatory and violent view is also seen when love is described as a tyrant. A tyrant is a “cruel and oppressive ruler”. Love rules over all else, compelling and forcing its prey to suffer grief and die. When speaking of love, the description is ironic; however, the description fits in perfectly with a broken heart.

 

If 'twere not so, what did become
    Of my heart when I first saw thee?
I brought a heart into the room,
    But from the room I carried none with me.
If it had gone to thee, I know
Mine would have taught thine heart to show
    More pity unto me; but Love, alas!
    At one first blow did shiver it as glass.

                The speaker wallows in self- pity and sadness of losing his heart by falling his love. Personifying love allows us to feel that close connection and the loss that he feels from not carrying out his heart with him. He suffers because his beloved did not show affections towards him, as she would have if she felt the same way towards him. He remarks that “at one first blow did shiver it as glass”, adding fragility to his state of being.

Yet nothing can to nothing fall,
    Nor any place be empty quite ;
Therefore I think my breast hath all
    Those pieces still, though they be not unite ;
And now, as broken glasses show
A hundred lesser faces, so
    My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,
    But after one such love, can love no more.

 

                Lastly, the speaker corrects his first assumption that his heart left him. He remarks that it cannot be gone since it has nowhere to go, explaining that the object of his affections did not accept his love, returning it back to him in pieces. This last stanza describes a physically broken heart, made of pieces of glass, a material that is fragile when whole and sharp and stabbing when broken. He goes on to say that he will never be able to fully recover and love another, even though he is able to “like, wish, and adore”.  This says that once a heart is broken, it can never recover, and that love is an all-consuming intensity that has the power to destroy.

 

 

 

Alice Hindman and Alice in Wonderland

Adventure: an exciting or very unusual experience/participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises/a bold or risky undertaking/to risk, to dare, to venture.

 

Alice Hindman, a quiet girl with a large head and a slight body, is the main character within Sherwood Anderson’s short story “Adventure” in Winesburg, Ohio. The name Alice brings us memories of grinning Cheshire cats and long, winding rabbit holes that lead to a wonderland of disproportion and riddles. Anderson’s “Adventure” compares with Lewis Carroll’s originally named Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to reveal the skewed self images that women hold.

Alice Liddell, a play on the word “little”, holds a confused sense of self. She constantly shifts sizes, from being too small to too large, representing her wavering ideas of whom she is. Similarly, Alice Hindman is described as having a large head that “overshadowed her body” (93). These disproportional bodies reveal the lopsided views that these women have of themselves. Alice H.’s head is way too large, suggesting self-consumption, while Alice L’s wavering body size, which at one point reaches up to one mile high, hints at insecurity. Any appearance that is not considered average draws attention from others, oftentimes leading to a lack of confidence. Alice’s fluctuating height is simply a representation of her already present insecurity that caused her to dream up a fantasy world as an escape.

Anderson displays how one who is lacking fulfillment in life will search out an outlet for that empty feeling. Alice Hindman is “betrayed by her desire to have something beautiful come into her rather narrow life”, similar to how Alice Liddell is sucked down out of her dull and mediocre life into the world of impossibilities and adventures. This wonderland is what Alice H. experiences in her relationship with Ned Currie, the young man that grows to symbolize the concept of adventure for Alice. Their relationship was young, passionate, and dangerous. “A risky undertaking”, if I do say so myself. After he leaves, that loss that she feels is not heartbreak towards the city-bound man, but despair over losing what made her feel alive. She essentially “dies” when he leaves; losing the part of her that was awakened during their affair under the moon. This could be taken in both the sexual and the emotional sense. When Ned and Alice are intimate they spiritually become one, and her feelings of never being able to give herself to another man imply that she feels impure. Several religious allusions within this story demonstrate her attempts to find fulfillment. Wildly running naked through the rain is symbolic of the baptism that she desperately undergoes to seek renewal. However, no matter how many baptisms and “new beginnings” Alice Hindman goes through, she remains empty, still lacking the wonderland that she saw in the love of another.

Anderson’s “Adventure” and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland describe the empty void that humans feel and the ways in which we seek to fill them. Both Alice’s enter their wonderlands and experience an inexplicable loss when they “wake up”. Their adventures reveal the part of themselves that was dormant and gave them ephemeral fulfillment.

Christ in Winesburg, Ohio

Rusty nails driven through thick bone and delicate flesh. Blood streaming out of gaping holes, like an aged Merlot, slowly poured. This gruesome and torturous experience was common practice for punishment two millennia ago. Crucifixion, defined as “severe and unjust punishment or suffering” is a reoccurring phenomena that symbolically occurs within Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.  Many stories have allusions to personal suffering and as Christ-like figures are upon the discoveries of truth, or light. 

Dr. Percival instructs George of a truth that he entrusts him to write in a book in case anything were to happen to him. The simple idea is “that everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified” (Anderson 39). This truth seems quite startling at first, and one instinctually begins writing him off as a poor, misunderstood lunatic, but there is in fact validity to what he says. A vast amount of grotesque characters within the book have a number of comparisons to Christ, and the number of biblical allusions is endless. The very first story, “The Book of the Grotesque”, which I might point out is singular, implying that there is only one, is about an old carpenter, who knows about the beautiful truths that people snatched up and led them to become grotesques. This old man, seemingly the author of the rest of the stories within the novel, could very well be George Willard. The common thread between all the stories and the young boy who eventually goes off into the city, George as the old man seems plausible because he is mentioned continuously. Many of the characters, like Dr. Percival and Kate Swift, confess their dreary lives to him, similar to how Christ hears all confessions of sin. Secondly, the fact that he is a carpenter, like Jesus, is a considerably significant sign. George as the omnipresent Christ figure within the novel appears in stories such as “Hands” and “Teacher”, which also include characters who are crucified.

Wing Biddlebaum, a confused old man who is described with overwhelming bird imagery, is trapped within his own body. His trembling hands flutter out to young boys to help them “dream”, and he is cast out of his town after one of his former students accuses him of inappropriate behavior. The poor man is ashamed, although he probably is not fully aware of what happened. He was a teacher (like Jesus), twelve men drove him out of the town that night (the number of disciples Jesus had), he is betrayed by one of his students (Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas), and he suffers for an act that he did not commit (self-explanatory).

Although he is one of the most intriguing, Wing is not the only Christ figure within the book. Kate Swift, another teacher, has some similarities also. She was an inspiration to a priest and she holds a truth within her that she desperately tries to tell George of. Kate, like many others within the novel, seems to be subject to severe punishment, crucifixion in itself.

There seem to be many connections between the characters within Winesburg, Ohio who are all similar in an innumerable amount of ways. They all hold their truths and all become grotesques- Christ figures written in this book by George Willard, a favor to the old Dr. Percival.

Tintern Abbey and Frankenstein

William Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey”, less commonly known as “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798”, makes an appearance in Mary Shelley’s Novel Frankenstein, first published 20 years later in 1818.

Wordsworth’s poem flows through various descriptions of the nature that surrounds him. First from an external standpoint, and later from an internal reflection, he then goes into an analysis of different eras of his life. The third section of “Tintern Abbey” delves into the connection between external and internal. The nostalgic feel of the comparison between his past and present is overflowing with descriptive oxymorons. He describes his older and more mature attitude towards life as an “aching joy” and as hearing the “still sad music of humanity”. These elevated thoughts are no longer taking place in the abbey, and he is encroaching upon a universal truth of the struggle that exists between past and present, childhood and adulthood, thoughtless naivety and disturbing joy.

Mary Shelley’s novel encompasses a variety of themes, and on pages 138-139 Victor Frankenstein is describing the contrasting views that his deceased best friend held of the world and of the awe-inspiring nature which surrounded them. She includes the lines,

 

“The sounding cataract

Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to him

An appetite; a feeling, and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm.

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrow’d from the eye”.

 

Frankenstein describes his dear friend using this poem because it emphasizes the ardor with which Clerval truly loved nature. Furthermore, it draws a parallel between Henry Clerval and the younger self that Wordsworth is describing. This comparison brings with it an undertone of innocence and youth. Shelley writes that Clerval’s “wild and enthusiastic imagination was chastened by the sensibility of his heart…The scenery of external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour” (Shelley 139).  The word chastened also makes an appearance in Wordsworth’s poem when he describes the “still, sad music of humanity” which has the “ample power to chasten and subdue”. This comparison between the gifted poet Wordsworth and Victor’s beloved friend Henry allows us to truly grasp with what depth Clerval relates to nature and the world which surrounds him. Wordsworth’s descriptions begin to include a “deeper zeal of holier love”, idolizing the nature that he personifies.

 

Henry Clerval, a “worshiper of Nature” is used in Shelley’s novel to bring us to the realization that Frankenstein is no longer able to experience life as his companion does. Lacking the innocence that he loses when he betrays God with the sin of rebellion, he is left a shell of his former being, no longer able to see nature with the divinity that it holds, or life with an eye of joy. The contrast between Clerval and Frankenstein is saddening because we long for our protagonist to experience the joy of life, although we know that he will be mourning the choices he made for the rest of his existence.

 

The wonders of Frost

Robert Frost

Fire and Ice (1923)

Some say the world will end in fire

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice

Robert Frost, one of the most influential poets of all time, displays an interesting view of the apocalypse in his poem “Fire and Ice”. Seeming to favor twos, Frost writes various works about pairs of contrasting situations.  One of his most well-known poems, “The Road Not Taken” also demonstrates two opposing circumstances, in this case two paths in the midst of autumn that “both that morning equally lay”. Two paths, two ways to perish, two choices. Frost, a man from the early 1900’s often uses the beauty or fierceness of nature (perhaps because of his last name) along with the power of the choices men make to write brilliant poetry.

                In “Fire and Ice” Frost is not only speaking of the end of the world, but also of the deeper cause behind its destruction. The dichotomy of fire and ice causes us to ponder what the elements represent. Commonly used to symbolize hell, fire can also stand for passion, violence, love, and life, while ice can represent emptiness, fierceness, vastness, and death. Symbols can have a multitude of meanings, depending on each person and their experiences; therefore, while the meaning of the elements in relationship to this poem is particular to each individual reader, I see fire as the embodiment of passion and ice as the lack of it. Frost writes in the third line of his poem,

“From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire”.

This creates the connection between fire and desire, also known as passion. When we think of passion, we think of a passionate love or a person passionate about their views. These are not necessarily “evil”, but they can be-as affairs are the result of passion, and violence the result of passionate views.  Later, Frost also draws a comparison between hatred and ice when he says,

“I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice”.

 

                Frost’s last four lines are significant in the theme he is trying to convey. The tone with which these words come across as is dismal and depressing. The word great is not interchangeable with good in this case, but rather large and formidable. I do not believe Frost is shrugging off the ice’s destruction, but lamenting it. He is saddened by the hate that has plagued the world and the ruin that he has already begun to see taking place.

                “Fire and Ice” speaks of the devastation of the world in two ways that might be the cause of our end, making them symbols of aspects which Frost is criticizing. Desire and hatred, two equally powerful emotions, will be the fuel behind our destruction.

 

 

Utopias and Dystopias

What would we do to attain utopia? The perfect world. Paradise. The Garden of Eden. Throughout time, humans have been constantly motivated by the notion that perfection can be achieved. Without something to work for, an ultimate goal, we would be a helpless species, victim to a despairing and futile life. A vast majority of people in society are working towards a personal and common goal. This common goal for most people is to reach a personal utopia, or one’s opinion of what an ideal society would be.  Sir Thomas Moore, in the early 1500s, displayed this image of the perfect society with his book Utopia, coining the term which we still use today. We are continually working at bettering ourselves and the world we live in, striving to “do better” each day. Is this not brought on by a subconscious desire to attain perfection, impossibility in itself?

 Now, we must also ask ourselves what we would do to survive dystopia. The opposite of utopia, this concept of an utterly ruined society is fascinating. We are drawn in by suffering, and authors commonly use this to their advantage. Literary works use dystopias to highlight the criticisms they wish to make about society. It can be said that modern day society is more representative of a dystopia than a utopia because of its destroyed state. Poverty, corruption, and war plague all corners of the world, and few places remain untouched by the misery that contrasts so well with our images of perfection.

Authors commonly use these portrayals of societies to create themes within their works. If a novel displays features from a utopian viewpoint, the disparity with our society is shockingly strong; on the other hand, when writers illustrate a dystopian setting, we see haunting similarities with our own surroundings. From Brave New World to the Hunger Games, these portrayals of society are used to make a point. The novel Frankenstein compares with a dystopia, at least in the case of Victor Frankenstein. His whole world is enveloped in tragedy and darkness, and we see shockingly unnatural occurrences, an unjust society, and selfish men. Shelley demonstrates a wide variety of themes within her work, and they are made clear by suffering and wretchedness, dystopian characteristics.  These portrayals of society are extremely interesting to read, and many successful literary writers have used these topics in their works to display a variety of themes.

Utopias and dystopias, two paradoxes, represent the split inner being within mankind. Yin and Yang. Man and Woman. Good and Evil. Balance between the two is essential for the development of our souls. Although most favor utopia to dystopia, factors from both are necessary in this world so that each individual can make the choices that shape their character. Without two opposing alternatives, and the free will to choose between them, we would be lost, forced to a predetermined life of either good or evil. What would be the point? What would we have to live for?? 

Science of Creation and Science of the Mind

Obsession, murder, revenge. We are repulsed by the actions undertaken by both Victor Frankenstein and his nameless creation, but is Shelley not hinting that within us exists the same evil?

This is not a new concept and it has even come up in the unrelated realm of psychology. During the summer, while I was trying to juggle all the summer work I had to complete, the two subject’s paths unexpectedly intertwined. I noticed the similarity when I switched out my novel Frankenstein for Roger Hock’s 40 Studies that Changed Psychology. Previously pondering the roles of Frankenstein and the creature as doubles I flipped straight to a study called “The ego and the mechanisms of defense”  by Anna Freud which read, “Freud believed that dark, antisocial, and dangerous instinctual urges (especially sexual ones) are present in everyone’s id and that these constantly seek expression… if you were lacking the other parts of your personality and only had an id, Freud would expect your behavior to be amoral, shockingly deviant, and even fatal to you and others” (Hock 237). This description is especially fitting to the behavior of the creation, who Freud would argue was acting on his id, the principle within us that only seeks to gratify our desires. After reading this, I was inspired to flip back through my psychology book in search of other parallels. I was not disappointed with what I found.

“Most psychologists agree that your experiences as an infant with closeness, touching, and attachment to your mother (or other primary caregiver) have an important influence on your abilities to love and be close to others later in life” (Hock 127). This quote explains the creation’s lack of ability to love others because of his miserable past full of abandonment. Similarly, Victor’s actions towards the end of the book are described in a study about control where it states that “…if someone tells you that you have to do something, you may respond by either refusing or by doing exactly the opposite. Or, conversely, try to forbid someone from doing something and they will find that activity more attractive… This tendency to resist any attempt to limit our freedom is called reactance” (Hock 151). Victor clearly exhibits reactance when he is on the verge of finishing a mate for his creation then dramatically tears it apart, ruining any hope of peace that existed within the two beings. Lastly, the theme of rebellion and isolation is apparent in many characters throughout the novel. Hock summarizes a societal study by stating that  “…rebellion (within certain socially acceptable limits) and an independent streak in individualistic cultures are seen as personality assets, whereas in collectivist societies they are seen as liabilities. The messages from the culture to the children, via the parents, about these assets or liabilities are loud and clear and exert a potent influence upon the kids’ development into adulthood” (Hock 225). This quote caused me to look back within the culture Shelley lived in and question whether she would consider rebellion a liability or an asset. By the consequences seen in her novel that were a result of rebellion, I concluded that she considered it a transgression, an act that led to isolation.

There are a vast amount of similarities between Frankenstein and Forty Studies that Changed Psychology and it was interesting to see how concepts that are widely accepted across the psychological world are present within Mary Shelley’s novel written more than a century before. Extraordinary, really.