The Stranger - The Stranger 3 - Meursault's Detachment

In this section of The Stranger, Meursault continues to show his detachment from the world. When Meursault kills the Arab, instead of the text saying outright that Meursault shot him, it is written that "The trigger gave" (59). This description of the murder implies that Meursault did not feel like a conscious part of the action. Another showing of indifference is when Meursault tells how he "Then fired four more times at the motionless body where the bullets lodged without leaving a trace" (59). Shooting someone when they are already dead is simply overkill and is a peculiar action. This peculiarity is addressed when the magistrate asks Meursault "Why did you pause between the first and second shot?" and  "Why did you shoot a body that was on the ground?" and Meursault simply cannot answer these questions (67-68). Meursault is also detached from reality by not realizing the severity of what he has done. Meursault considers his case to be "pretty simple" (63). Not realizing the complexity of killing a man is a very unusual thing. Meursault doesn't even have it on his mind most of the time for he was about to shake the magistrates hand when he "remembered that [he] had killed a man", as if it were a complete afterthought (64). He states that the idea of being viewed as a criminal "[is] an idea [he] [can't] get used to" (70). Another detachment is in the form of how the narration goes from the scene of the murder to the magistrate without speaking at all about what happens in between. What happened with the party? Are Meursault and Marie still together? These facts must not seem to be important to Meursault as he tells this story, for they have been left out.

Body Paragraph - Chapter 11 - "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

In "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost, musical devices are used to convey the nostalgic tone of watching seasons pass by in nature. Nature is personified as a female due to nature being referred to as "Her" several times (2). Gold is spoken of as "Her hardest hue to hold" (2). This alliteration is easy to read and flows off the tongue just like how the gold hue is hard to hold onto and slips away. The poem is made up of four rhyming couplets. The rhyming ties the two lines together no matter what punctuation separates them. Repetition of the word leaf in "leaf subsides to leaf" demonstrates the way that the cycle repeats itself over and over (5). There is allusion to the garden of Eden: "So Eden sank to grief, / So dawn goes down to day" (6-7). This allusion predicts that the gold will always leave, yet the idea that "dawn goes down to day" confirms that the gold will return just as day returns after night.

The Stranger - The Stranger 2 - Meursault's Indifference

Throughout the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault is a detached and indifferent narrator. The writing style indicates this through it's choppy syntax, making sentences seem quick and straightforward. Meursault explains his life in this same straightforward manner: "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know" (3). While Meursault seems indifferent about the world, however, he cares about how others view him: "For a second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me" (10). Meursault acknowledges that his "feeling" is "ridiculous", which is the one of the first times that he mentions his own feelings at all. He knows that people aren't actually judging him, or so he thinks. The idea of people judging Meursault seems to make him feel the need to tell others things such as "It's not my fault" though he later admits that it "[doesn't] mean anything" to say that (3-20). Mersault stays neutral on almost  all ideas posed to him, only rating them on if they are interesting or not. This causes people around his to see him as being a bit strange.

Body Paragraph - Chapter 10 - "My mistress' eyes" by William Shakespeare

In the sonnet "My mistress' eyes" by William Shakespeare, the tone of the speaker is playfully faulting for the first twelve lines and then changes to be truthfully honest and loving during the rhyming couplet. This shift in tone fits with the form of a sonnet for the first twelve lines are the perceived problem while the rhyming couplet at the end is a kind of solution to the problem presented. For the first twelve lines, the speaker tells of how his mistress does not posses hyperbolic qualities that are spoken about in many cliched love poems. He tells of how her "eyes are nothing like the sun" and how "coral is far more red than her lip's red" (1-2). This explains the "problem" that she is not like these cliches, but the truth is that no women are like this, for the standards of beauty set by love poems of the day are simply hyperbole. The comparisons of the speaker's mistress' beauty may seem as if they could be hurtful and faulting, yet they are really poking fun at the cliches and telling his mistress that she is not faulted at all to him. He admits that he does not view her as if she were a goddess, but as a human woman: "I grant I never saw a goddess go,- / My mistress when she walks treads on the ground" (11-12). This points to how he expects her to not be all of the exaggerated ideas that she was presented in contrast with. The couplet also points to this idea of truthful, honest love: "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare" (13-14). The speaker tells that he only says what he says in the poem because he does not want to lie to the one he loves and wants to always be truthful with her.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #7 - The Orchids of Dorian Gray

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, flowers are used frequently as symbolism. One flower that is most commonly used is the orchid. Lord Henry describes an orchid as "a marvelous spotted thing, as effective as the seven deadly sins" (142). This associates orchids with sin, causing the purity and perfection that they represent to become tainted. Orchids also represent luxury and rare, delicate beauty. They are associated with ancient Greek culture, which also plays a part in Dorian Gray. The spots on an orchid are said to represent the blood of Christ in Christian theology, which ties in with the religious diction about the "seven deadly sins". Saying that orchids are "as effective as the seven deadly sins" insinuates that perfection and beauty lead to sinful nature, which has been Dorain's case. Orchids, like all flowers, must eventually whither and die when cut from the ground. Orchids symbolize how beauty dissolves overtime and how perfection can become skewed. This will happen to Dorian eventually, for it is just a matter of time before he is somehow cut off from the portrait's power and changed to be his true self again.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #6 - Distancing from the Murder

In Chapter 13 of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray murders Basil Hallward, the painter who painted the portrait of Dorian that collects Dorian's sins. The murder takes place in the room upstairs where Dorian keeps the cursed portrait. It is explained that "an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward" took over Dorian "as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas" (115). The painting influences Dorian to do bad things, since Dorian himself understands that he will never take on any of the repercussions in his own looks. Dorian feels loathing for Basil, an intense dislike of him, described as "the mad passions of a hunted animal" (115). Calling Dorian "a hunted animal" beings to light his fears of being sought out for doing the horrible things that he has done.

While committing the murder, Dorian tries to distance himself from what he is doing. During the struggle there is "the horrible sound of someone choking with blood" (116). Using the pronoun "someone" distances Dorian from the fact that it is Basil making this sound, and that he is killing his friend. The painter's "outstretched arms" and "grotesque stiff-fingered hands" are focused on during the murder, bringing to light how Dorian is not viewing the person being killed as an entire being, let alone a friend (116).

After the murder, Dorian admits that he is distancing himself from the murder when he states that "he felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation" (116). The corpse of Basil Hallward is never referred to as being his, but is instead labeled as "the thing", "the murdered man", and "it" (116-117). Dorian views the body as peaceful, stating that if not for the wound and the blood, "one would have said that the man was simply asleep" (116). The idea that the body looks like it is sleeping conveys how Dorian is still trying to process that he killed Basil and yet is avoiding associating death with the body. He remarks to himself that Basil has simply "gone out of his life," also referring to a sense of leaving that is not death (116). Both sleep and leaving are not permanent and can therefore be reversed, while death cannot be. The body of Basil Hallward is also described as looking "like a dreadful wax image," which reduces the reality of the body being flesh and blood (117). Wax, like a dead body, is a substance that is first warm, but then cools and holds it's shape until heated again.

Poem Comparison - Chapter 9 - "The Lamb" and "The Tiger" by William Blake

"The Lamb" and "The Tiger" are two poems by William Blake that are able to be compared and contracted against each other. At first glance, the name ties them together, with them both being named "The" and then an animal; yet these two animals are quite different from each other. In the first poem, "The Lamb", the speaker is talking to a "Little Lamb" and asking it many questions (1). Since lamb is capitalized, the speaker is telling that he is not actually speaking to a lamb, but a person being called a Lamb. Calling the Lamb "little" emphasizes that the Lamb is innocent because it is so small. This innocence is also supported by the line "softest clothing wooly bright" to describe the softness and brightness of the person and how they are pure and innocent (6). Lambs often have white wool, so this white color adds to the purity and innocence of the person being spoken to. There Lamb is then compared to another person who "is called by thy name, / For he calls himself a Lamb" (14). This person is Jesus. At the end of the poem we learn that God is the one who made the lamb, for God blesses the lamb. By the end, one can see that this poem is a metaphor about Christianity and the lamb is a Christian who is good.

"The Tiger" is a sister-poem to "The Lamb". These two poems play off of the theme of good vs. evil. This poem also calls a person by the name of an animal, in this case "Tiger" (1). This Tiger is not a good person like the Lamb, but a person who is viewed evil. The Tiger is said to be "burning bright" like a fire with a brain forged in a "furnace" (1) (14). This association with fire reveals how a tiger is the embodiment of powerful destructive force. This could also be an association with hell. The diction in "The Tiger" is harsh, repeating words such as "dread" and speaking of "deadly terrors" (12) (16). This is quite different than the lilting sweetness of "The Lamb" who is "meek and mild" (15). With all of those evil traits and harsh words, the speaker wonders if "he who made the Lamb" made the Tiger (20). He wonders whether God made this evil person just as if he had made the good and pure person.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #5 - Reality vs. The Portrait

"If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression, as Harry says, that gives reality to things" (79).

Dorian Gray uses this line as a response to Basil Hallward as he brings up Sibyl Vane's death. Dorian claims that the idea is told "as Harry says" it, which expresses how Lord Henry still has influence over the naive Dorian's ideas. Dorian's statement that "if one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened" goes against the fact that, in the book, whatever Dorian does is marked on the portrait. While unseen by all but Dorian, the reality of Dorian's sins is as plain as day on the portrait, revealing that they did happen, that they were all real.  The idea that "it is simply expression [...] that gives reality to things" is a viewpoint that is flawed, for events always leave some sort of a mark on the lives of those around them. Even while some events can be swept under the rug of life's conversations, the events of Dorian's life cannot be concealed forever, for even Sibyl Vane's death caused the first change in the painting.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #3 - Mrs. Vane's Acting

Mrs. Vane treats the world around her as if she is an actress in a play about her own life. This is expressed through the usage of theatrical diction. Mrs. Vane is quite distant from her children. She puts on facades of love and kindness but does not actually remember how to feel them: "Mrs. Vane glanced at her, and with one of those false theatrical gestures that so often become a mode of second nature to a stage-player, clasped her in her arms" (45). The action of hugging her child is described as a "false theatrical gesture", revealing that Mrs. Vane is simply acting out the part of a loving mother and feigning the actions that she feels are needed. She has to "mentally [elevate] her son to the dignity of the audience", meaning that she views the audience of one of her plays with more respect than her own son (45). She even views her life as an ever-changing tableau, passing by like scenes in a play (45). While Sibyl does not seem to have figured out her mother's distorted views on life, her brother James is able to see through his mother's act and "[hates] his mother's affectations" (47). "Affectations" means false actions that are supposed to impress others, which is exactly what his mother does. "Affectations" also sounds like affections, only having a one syllable difference, and is most likely used as a play on the two words.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #2 - Influence in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Influence is a common theme in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The main instance where influence is taking place is between Lord Henry and Dorian Gray. Lord Henry treats his influence on Dorian like a fun study in what kind of power he has over people. Lord Henry even goes as far as to say that "there [is] something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence" which expresses how much he likes to try and influence people around him with his ideas (26). Lord Henry's influence does get through to some people, which can be understood by how his wife mentions that she "always [hears] Harry's views from his friends" (33). The fact that Lord Henry's friends speak of his views is an example of how his influence has manifested itself in others; yet the prime example of his influence rests in Dorian Gray. Dorian freely admits that Lord Henry has "curious influence over" him (38). Dorian sees this influence, but does not try to stop it, allowing Lord Henry to continue. Dorian also tells that he is putting into practice everything that Lord Henry says (34). Dorian does not see this as a bad thing at all and admits it freely, which can lead to the understanding that, while he can see the influence taking place, he does not fully see how he himself is changing. It is either that, or that Dorian doesn't care that he is changing, for he feels that Lord Henry is telling him things that he should already understand about the world.

Poem Outline - Chapter 8 - "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood

In "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood, a siren speaks in first person to a passing man, asking if he wishes to learn her song and therefore killing him in the end.


The use of a siren from Greek mythology calls to mind how a woman can lure a man to her using a seemingly helpless facade and by making him feel that he can help her.

• "I don't enjoy it here / squatting on this island" (13-14)

The siren calls out to the man saying that she does not like her island. The idea of "squatting" sounds uncomfortable, extending her dislike of the island into a physical discomfort as well as a mental one. This image can allude to how a woman may try to make a man feel as if she is uncomfortable in her current situation and that she wants a change in her life.

• "This song / is a cry for help: Help me! / Only you, only you can, / you are unique / at last" (21-25)

The siren explains to the man that she sings so that she can be helped to escape. The use for the command "Help me!" emphasizes how serious she is about this endeavor. She instructs the man to help her and then continues to make him feel that he is needed by saying that he is the only one who can save her. When the siren tells the man "you are unique" it is in response to him learning the song and telling him he is the only one who knows it and also that he is the only one who can save her. Adding "at last" makes it seem as if the man was trying to become unique and finally succeeded on his quest.


The diction in the poem points to how sirens are portrayed in mythology.

• "looking picturesque and mythical" (15)

The siren describes herself as "looking picturesque and mythical". Picturesque relates to her beauty, for sirens are described as beautiful young maidens who sing to lure in men. The idea that she describes herself as "mythical" points to the idea that she knows that she is partially fictitious and lives in the mind of those who see her.

• "fatal and valuable" (18)

The trio of sirens is described as "fatal and valuable". The part about them being fatal exposes their dark side: the fact that they kill those who are lured in by their song. It should be noted that "anyone who has heard [the song] is dead" (9). This ties in with the mention of  men leaping "overboard [...] even though they see beached skulls", for the men cannot control themselves around the song of the siren (5-6). This is shown in The Odyssey and many other Greek stories. Describing her and the other two sirens as valuable places importance on them all. It gives them the quality of needing respect.

The poem itself can be interpreted as the song that the siren sings to the man.

• "This is the one song everyone / would like to learn" (1-2)

The siren starts the poem saying this line. There are two explanations to this. The "this" could be referring to the title, as if the siren knows that the poem is titled "Siren Song" and points to this as a base for the poem. "This" could also be referring directly to the poem as if to say that the poem that she is telling to the reader is the song of the siren. This can be explained by the end of the poem.

• "Alas / it is a boring song / but it works every time" (25-27)

This ending seems to support the idea that the poem itself is the titular "Siren Song". The siren says "but it works every time", suggesting that the man who she was just speaking to was killed by her and the two other sirens just like the others. She seems genuinely full of pity towards the man she kills and those she has killed before, expressed through her use of "alas" at the start of the sentence. She finds the song "boring" because she has sung it so many times and repeated it to so many man over the years.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #1 - The Real Dorian Gray

At the end of the second chapter of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, there is proposed idea concerning who is the real Dorian Gray: the man or the painting. After Basil asks Lord Henry to not say something in front of Dorian, Lord Henry responds with the question: "Before which Dorian? The one who is pouring out tea for us, or the one in the picture?" (21). This inquiry implies that the living, breathing Dorian and the painted Dorian are now two separate entities and should be thought of as such. This duality may have been caused by Lord Henry's talk with Dorian about fading beauty, which changed how Dorian saw himself and the world around him. Basil, when asked whether he will join Lord Henry and Dorian for a night out, walks over to his painting of Dorian and replies "sadly" that "[he] shall stay with the real Dorian" (21). Basil sees that Dorian has changed already after knowing Lord Henry for only a small amount of time. This saddens Basil because he never wanted Dorian to be tarnished in any way. Basil feels that the painting captures the Dorian he knew before Lord Henry spoke to him and therefore feels that that Dorian is the most "real" to him.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Preface - Aestheticism and Wilde's View on his Audience

The preface of A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde deals with aestheticism and Wilde's attitude towards his audience. Aestheticism was a movement in British and American art that sought the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard. Oscar Wilde was a firm supporter of aestheticism and tries to explain it to his readers in the preface. He tells of the difference between being corrupt and cultivated,  the lacking of ethical sympathies in artists, and other ideas of aestheticism. Wilde uses two metaphors in the preface, the first being: "the nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass" (vii). This metaphor utilizes the character Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest, a savage human, to symbolize society. This metaphor explains that society doesn't like Realism because it brings out the ugly truth in the world. The second metaphor is: "the nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass" (vii). This metaphor explains that society does not like Romanticism because it is too unlike society, too fanciful and unbelievable. In the end, many members of society may never be fully happy with art until they just try to appreciate it for what it is and not what they want it to be.

Wilde's attitude towards his audience is one of acceptance with minimal disagreement and disappointment. Wilde, having heard and read that there are diverse opinions about his book, explains that such varying opinions are normal. He says that these diverse opinions "[show] that the work is new, complex, and vital," turning a possible negative into a positive and accepting that there will be critics (viii). Wilde disagrees with what some of the opinions are claiming stating that "there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book" (vii). This statement relates to Wilde's views of aestheticism where morality does not play a role. He is telling his readers that he is writing the book with the ideas of aestheticism in mind and that he wants the readers to try and think this way as well. He is writing the book because he wants to send out a message and wishes for his readers to try to understand the message along with how the book is written.

Poem Outline - Chapter 7 - "Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie

In "Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie, a woman is folding laundry while thinking about her relationship, using each piece to talk about another aspect of the relationship.


The metaphors and similes in the poem express the relationship of the speaker and her partner and the uncertainty starts to build.

• "Folding clothes, / I think of folding you / into my life" (1-3)

The speaker compares folding clothes with starting a relationship. Folding means not only folding on top of one another like with clothes but it also means to mix gently with another ingredient. When she says "folding you / into my life" the you is her partner, and she is speaking about having to learn to mix her life with her partners.

• "Our king-sized sheets / like tablecloths / for the banquets of giants" (4-5)

The idea that the sheets are "king-sized" represents the fact that a relationship is something bigger than just one person, it needs two people. In this simile, if the sheets are tablecloths, the bed would be the table. The giants would be looking down at them, which could represent judgement. This starts a motif of using the bed as a symbol.

• "Myriad uncoupled socks / which went paired into the foam / like those creatures from the ark" (22-24)

The idea that the socks "went paired into the foam" but came out "uncoupled" represents how relationships break up when there are tough times. "Myriad" emphasizes just how many relationships have this outcome. Comparing the socks to "creatures from the ark" seems contradictory since the animals were able to stay together, but the socks became separated.



The symbolism digs into the deeper feelings of the relationship.

• "Pillowcases, despite so many / washings, seams still / holding our dreams" (7-9)

The pillowcases represent the hardiness of the relationship. They hold up "despite so many / washings" and the seams have not broken. The pillows hold "dreams", which relates to the act of dreaming and the goals of a relationship. This is another example of the bed motif.

• "Well-washed dollars, legal tender / for all debts public and private, / intact despite agitation" (34-36)

The dollars represent relationships in general. The idea that they are "legal tender" explains that they are all viable for success. Relationships are both "public and private" like money is. The idea that the money is still "intact despite agitation" even after being "well-washed" displays that relationships can get through rough patches sometimes and even after many instances of rough patches they can still be strong.

• "The strangely tailored shirt / left by a former lover" (41-42)

The shirt represents the unsure feelings that the speaker holds towards her partner. She isn't sure exactly where the shirt came from, which is unsettling. The fact that the shirt is "strangely tailored" also adds to its obscurity in the speaker's eyes.




The overstatement at the end of the poem wraps up the idea of how devastated the speaker would be if she was left by her partner.

• "If you were to leave me [...] / a mountain of unsorted wash / could not fill / the empty side of the bed" (43-51)

The poem's length, which is quite long, supports this overstatement. The speaker seems to be folding many pieces of clothing, many of them belonging to her partner, so if those were gone there would not be enough clothes. The "empty side of the bed" is not only the literal bedside being empty, but it also acts as the empty space that her partner leaving would cause in her life.

1984 #9 - "War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength" Notes

• World is only three superpowers now – Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia (185); “Eurasia comprises […] and Tibet” (185); Layout of the current world; “have no material cause for fighting, and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference” (186); Brought up again on pages 186 and 187
• “In the centers of civilization […]  War has in fact changed its character” (186)
• “In spite of the regrouping which occurs every few years, it is always the same war” (186); “None of the three superstates could be definitely conquered even by the other two in combination” (186); “Eurasia is protected by its vast land spaces, Oceania by the width of the Atlantic and the Pacific, Eastasia by the fecundity and industriousness of its inhabitants” (186)
• “It is a war for labor power” (187); The “quadrilateral” that is fought over “with its corners at Tangier, Brazzaville, Darwin, and Hong Kong, containing within it about a fifth of the population of the earth” (187); “All of the disputed territories contain valuable minerals, and some of them yield important vegetable products such as rubber” (187)
• Wavering frontiers, never really much change, just places being “captured and recaptured” , “the balance of power always remains roughly even” (188)
• “Moreover, […] different” (188); Nothing would ever change, always a power struggle, eternal wartime even without slave product production; “The primary aim of modern warfare […] is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living” (188)
• “The world today […] looked forward” (188); Proof that the current world is worse than the past and is also much worse than the projected future; “The world is more primitive today than it was fifty years ago” (189)
• “the machine” (189); The idea that invention would better the future, held in high regard
• “All-around increase in wealth threatened the destruction – indeed, in some sense it was the destruction – of a hierarchical society” (189); “If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction” (190)
• “For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike […] poverty and ignorance” (190); Ignorance is Strength, if proles were given money, they would become conscious of Party’s wrongdoing
• “The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced, but they need not be distributed. And in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare” (190-191); War is Peace: constantly being at war stops money and goods from getting to the people, keeping them ignorant and thus keeping them from uprising, therefore keeping the society peaceful; “War is a way […] too intelligent” (191)
• Weapons are made to expend labor power that can’t be consumed (191); “In principle […] another” (191); Keeps class distinctions cleanly separated
•  “And at the same time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste system seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival” (192)
• “War, it will be seen, not only accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way” (192); “It does not matter […] exist” (192)
• “In his capacity as an administrator […] world” (192-193); Inner Party knows the lie, yet believes it
• “In Oceania at […] Ingsoc” (193); “The fields are cultivated with horse plows while books are written by machinery” (193); Juxtaposition, contrast
• “The two aims of the Part are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought” (193)
• Scientists either “psychologist and inquisitor” or chemist, physicist, or biologist” (193-194); For learning what people think and killing lots of people without warning
• “But none of these projects ever comes anywhere near realization, and none of the three superstates ever gains a significant lead on the others” (194)
• “None of the three superstates ever attempts any maneuver which involves the risk of serious defeat” (195); surprise attacks, backstabs to truces; one true plan is “impossible of realization” (195)
• “The average citizen […] evaporate” (196); keeping people ignorant about other cultures; “The conditions of life in all three superstates are very much the same” (196); Oceania = Ingsoc, Eurasia = Neo-Bolshevism, Eastasia = Death-worship/Obliteration of Self; “The three philosophies are barely distinguishable, and the social systems which they support are not distinguishable at all” (197)
• “It follows that […] without victory” (197); they all know exactly what they are doing
• “War was one of the main instruments by which human societies were kept in touch with physical reality”, “Physical facts could not be ignored. In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an airplane they had to make four” (197); they can say whatever they want but just by building things they are going against it
• “Efficiency, even military efficiency, is no longer needed” (198)
• “Cut off from […] which is down” (198)
• “They are obliged […] they choose” (198-199); omnipotent, but want to be omniscient, can force omniscience if they only teach people certain things
• “It is like battles […] one another” (199); animalistic, pointless, inefficient
• “The war is waged […] exist” (199)
• “A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war” (199)
• “Even after […] the other” (201)
• “The aim of the High […] equal” (201)
• “Of the three groups, only the Low are never even temporarily successful in achieving their aims”, “From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters” (202)
• “Now, however, […] long” (203)
• “The new movements […] had the conscious aim of perpetuating unfreedom and inequality”, “But the purpose of all of them was to arrest progress and freeze history at a chosen moment”, “As usual […] permanently” (203)
• “Even if it […] averted” (204); Equality is a threat
• “And in the general hardening […] progressive” (204-205); Regression to old, inhumane tactics and practices
• “As compared with […] opposition” “By comparison with that existing today, all the tyrannies of the past were half-hearted and inefficient” (205)
• “The invention of print […] private life came to an end” (205-206); Information now able to be given to the masses; People able to be viewed at all times; Want to enforce “complete obedience to the will of the State” and spread ideas for “complete uniformity of opinion on all subjects” (206)
• “Collectively, the Party owns everything in Oceania, because it controls everything and disposes of the products it thinks fit”; “no longer private property”  = “private property” (206)
• Four ways a ruling group can fall from power: 1) “conquered from without”; 2) governs inefficiently, stirring the masses to revolt; 3) “allows a strong and disconnected Middle Group to come into being”; 4) looses self-confidence and will to govern (207); All four come into play; “Ultimately the determining factor is the mental attitude of the ruling class itself” (207)
• “The masses […] articulate” (207); Basically the idea posed that the proles will not revolt until conscious and they will only become conscious by revolting; “The consciousness of the masses needs only to be influenced in a negative way” (208)
• “Big Brother is the guise […] organization” (208); trying to seem relatable
• Big Brother = overall ruler, Inner Party = brains, Outer Party = hands, Proles = dumb masses, “not a permanent or necessary part of the structure” (208)
• “In no part of […] knows” (209)
• “Proletarians, in practice, […] eliminated” (209); never allowed to be intelligent because already allowed to feel, so cannot move up because know both intelligence and emotion
• “The essence of oligarchical […] the living”, “The Party is not […] the same” (210); never-ending cycle of those in power are chosen to be that way to carry on ideas
• “They can be granted intellectual […] be tolerated” (210); major difference between the proles and Party; thinking not allowed by those who can
• “A Party member lives […] alone.” (210)
• “Many of the […] any subject whatever” (211); able to think, but not as well as they could be able to if not fed Ingsoc’s ideas in childhood
• Crimestop – stopping yourself from “dangerous thought”; “Protective stupidity” (212)
• “Oceanic society rests ultimately on the belief that Big Brother is omnipotent and that the Party is infallible. But since […] treatment of facts” (212)
• Blackwhite – “Applied to an opponent […] this”; ties in with doublethink (212)
• Alteration of past: 1) to stop all standards of comparison; 2) “safeguard the infallibility of the Party” (212-213); “To change one’s mind, or even one’s policy, is a confession of weakness”; “The mutability of the past is the central tenet of Ingsoc”; “Past events […] have no objective existence” that can’t be changed or swayed to believe (213)
• Doublethink – “reality control”; contradicting ideas known and accepted at once; “lie always one leap ahead of the truth” (214)
• “The secret of rulership […] past mistakes” (215)
• “The greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the less sane” (215); shown by Wilson’s confusion and him thinking he might be a lunatic
• “peculiar linking-together of opposites – knowledge with ignorance, cynicism with fanaticism” “official ideology abounds with contradictions even when there is no practical reason for them”, “Even the names […] doublethink” (216)
• “Being in a minority, even a minority of one, does not make you mad” “if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad” (217); “Sanity is not statistical” (218)

1984 #8 - The Wine of 1984

In George Orwell's novel 1984, wine represents the past and the dream of a future that is like the past. Wine is said to have "belonged to the vanished, romantic past" meaning it is no longer viewed as a needed item in Winston's society, but it was nice while it was around (173). Winston has "read and dreamed about" wine just as he has read and dreamed about the past (173). Just like he believed that wine would have "an intensely sweet taste [...] and an immediate intoxicating effect", Winston believes that the past was probably better than the present and had easier living (173). This thought connects with the fact that Winston may believe the future will be bright and an intense change, but then it will easy to live in. However, wine turns out to be "distinctly disappointing", which could be foreshadowing that either the plan for the future fails or that it turns out to not be what anyone expected (173). The idea that "after years of gin drinking" Winston "could barely taste" the wine relates to the fact that, after living in an oppressive, emotion-stripping society (the gin), the new society could be hard to adjust to (the wine) (173). The "sour-sweet smell" alludes that the plan to make the future happen is both good and bad: bad things must be done for a good cause (173).

1984 #3 and #4 - The Bells of 1984

It comes up in this part of George Orwell's novel 1984 that the main character, Winston, has "never in real life heard church bells ringing" (99). The main reason that this is true is because under Big Brother there is no religion, therefore there are no churches; However, bells are used here as a symbol. Bells symbolize many things: celebration, awakening, victory. In this case, none of these have occurred in Winston's lifetime. There is no celebration, at least, not for long, and never genuine. It is always in praise of a new lie told by the Party that everyone swallows up and believes. There is no awakening, because "orthodoxy means not thinking - not needing to think. Orthodoxy means unconsciousness"; everyone is lulled into a hypnotic state of living and believing in whatever they are told to believe in and nothing else (53). They can't even try to think of anything different, because that would be thought-crime and punishable. There is also no victory, at least not true victory. The country of Oceania is always at war with someone, and while there are battles won, nothing is ever fully settled. These are reasons why Winston is only able to have "the illusion of actually hearing the bells, the bells of a lost London that still existed somewhere or other, disguised and forgotten" (99). Winston hears these bells in his mind; waking up to the fact that somehow and somewhere there is still hope for a future that is unlike the present. Also in the theme of bells, at the end of book one, the slogans of the Party are described as being "like a leaden knell" (104). They are echoing phrases that are heavy and solemn, not at all like the clear, beautiful sounds of church bells.

1984 #2 - The Children of 1984

In the society of George Orwell's novel 1984, children have been turned into feared beings. No longer innocent, children have been tamed by the Party to be violent yet obedient at young ages. This fraction of the dystopian society is expressed in the children of Winston's neighbors, the Parsons, whose two young children assault Winston with fake weapons. Children are made to join groups such as "the Spies" where children "[turn] into ungovernable little savages, and yet [...] this [produces] in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party" (24). They are lulled into "[adoring] the Party and everything connected to it" (24). They are desensitized to violence and praised for relaying information to the Party about possibly traitorous persons, even if these people are their own parents.

Children view the whole idea of the Party as a game, which is what allows the Party to plant their ideas inside the malleable minds of the children, allowing the next generation to be even more obedient towards the Party as the one before. This relates to the third slogan of the Party: "Ignorance is strength" (4). Since this new generation of children is the first to grow up fully under Party rule, they do not know of any other life. This means that they are able to be brainwashed from birth and are fully under the Party's control even at only the age of seven. Children learn and grow by copying what they see around them, and with all the propaganda around them, it is only natural that they would start to feel that that is what they should follow. In fact, "it [is] almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children", because those who are over thirty still faintly remember what it was like to grow up without the Party's rule and some still see that the Party is wrong (24). Parents are unable to stop their children from becoming enamored with the Party, however, for they are unable to tell their kids what they think and feel. While the children are young, parents cannot express their ideas due to the telescreens. Once the children are older, trying to tell them that the Party may not be fully correct would result in the children telling on their parents. There is no way to break the cycle.

Body Paragraph - Chapter 6 - "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

In the poem "Fire and Ice", Robert Frost tells of two ways that the world may end. The first of the two ways it may end is by fire. The speaker tells: "from what I've tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire" (3-4). The speaker compares desire and fire, ultimately saying that they are similar. The fact that desire, an extreme feeling, is related to fire emphasizes that desire is like fire itself. Those who desire for something want it with a fiery, burning passion. The speaker's words that they've "tasted of desire" mean that they have felt it and understand it's complexity and the power that it has. If too many people desire too many things, their greed could be the end of the world.

The speaker then tells: "I think I know enough of hate / To say that for destruction ice / Is also great" (6-8). This time, hate and ice are compared to each other. Hate is also an extreme feeling like desire, yet it is an emotion that turns people against others; It is cold and unfeeling. The speaker's personal knowledge of hate is less than that of desire, for they say "I think I know enough of hate". This means that, while they have felt hate and witnessed it before, they still show doubt as to if they understand it fully. In the end, the speaker makes the point that, while fire is probably the better of the two, ice "would suffice" (9)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 4

The last part of Heart of Darkness takes place back in England when Marlow goes to see Kurtz's intended. Though it has been more than a year, she is still in mourning over her beloved Kurtz's death. Marlow narrates his encounter as it progresses and darkness sets in: "But with every word spoken the room was growing darker, and only her forehead, smooth and white, remained illuminated by the inextinguishable light of belief and love" (154).

As Kurtz's intended speaks about how great Kurtz was, the room begins to grow darker and darker around her and Marlow. The room is being plagued with talk of Kurtz, for he became a dark, corrupt, and hollow man as he lived in Africa. The darkness encloses around both Marlow and Kurtz's intended, yet the forehead of Kurtz's intended is still brightly "illuminated by the inextinguishable light of belief and love". The forehead is a sign of knowledge and belief, for it is where the brain is, which controls a person. The fact that her forehead is still illuminated even in encroaching darkness visually expresses how Kurtz's intended feels that she was enlightened by Kurtz and that she believed in him and loved him dearly. The fact that the light it "inextinguishable" conveys how Marlow sees that Kurtz's intended still has a passion for what she feels she learned from him.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 3

A new character that is introduced in this part of Heart of Darkness is a young man who is simply referred to as "the Russian" (132). He is first spotted on the bank in front of the station, where Marlow tells that "he looked like a harlequin" because of his brightly patched clothing (126). This association that is made between the Russian and a clownish, comedic figure sets up an air of innocence around him. This air of innocence is emphasized by the way Marlow describes him as the steamship pulls closer to the shore: "A beardless, boyish face, very fair" (126). The fact that the Russian is "beardless" and has a "boyish face" suggests that he is young, but not young enough to actually be a boy anymore. The observation that the Russian has "very fair" complexion conveys that he has not been in the sun much, presumably covered in the jungle for a long time. This also gives off an air of innocence, for the Russian looks as though he is not weathered and has not traveled much, but later he is told to have been lonely and traveling for quite some time. The knowledge that the Russian has done so much traveling and been so alone makes it strange but intriguing how a man like him can stay so youthful and innocent.

The Russian is also said to have had "smiles and frowns chasing each other over that open countenance like sunshine and shadow" (126).  The verb choice of "chasing" gives off a feeling of playfulness and joy as if the Russian's emotions are a game. The Russian's mood shifts back and forth from happy to sad quite often, as if running after itself one after another. The Russian is at times "like sunshine" - light and happy - and at times "like [...] shadow" - dark and morose; however, he is never both at once. His "open countenance" tells that his emotions can be easily read on his face; he is an open book.

Marlow also tells that the Russian has "no features to speak of" (126). He says this while describing the Russian outright, clearly pointing out features that he notices about the Russian, so saying that the Russian has "no features to speak of" is a strange statement; However, this may go along with the point that the Russian is never given a name, though he is quite important to the plot of the story. Giving this man a name would make him less of a mystery, for Marlow doubts "whether [he] had ever really seen him - whether it was possible to meet such a phenomenon" (140).

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 2

"He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on it's hind legs" (Conrad 106).

In this quote, Marlow is describing an African man who was brought along to help run the steamship. Using one of his classic similes, Marlow compares the benefit of seeing the African man working to a "dog... walking on it's hind legs". This is an unnatural occurrence, for dogs are not meant to walk on two legs like people. Therefore, Marlow does not view this working African man as a natural occurrence. The dog in the "breeches and a feather hat" is parodying a person; However, dressing a dog in fancy clothes and standing him on two feet does not make a dog a person, just a humorous spectacle. This can be compared to Marlow's feeling that teaching an African how to work a steamship does not make him a European. This exposes Marlow's racism and his view that the African people are inferior to the Europeans, but are being made to act like they belong among them. In fact, Marlow later states that the African man "ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank" (106). Marlow feels that the African man does not belong, and instead should be acting like the other Africans that the steamship passes. Also, while the African man is physically "below" Marlow on the steamship, he is also metaphorically below Marlow because he is seen as inferior to Europeans.

Body Paragraph - Chapter 5 - "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet

The author of the poem uses personification to emphasize that speaker's book is like her child, for she brought it into the world . The first indication of this is the words used to describe the book throughout the poem. The speaker refers to her book as "offspring", which can mean both child and also the product of something, in this case, her writing (1). The use of this word starts the idea of the book being her child and the idea is carried on throughout the poem. The word "birth" is used to describe when the book came into being after it was written by the speaker, which makes the book seem as if it were a baby being brought into the world (2).

The speaker does not like her book, for she calls it "ill-formed" and created from her "feeble brain", showing how she feels inadequate as a writer and that this book of hers is not what she wanted it to be (1). The speaker constantly sees flaws in her work, which she is constantly trying to change: "I washed thy face, but more defects I saw, / And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw" (13-14). The personification in giving the book a "face" gives the imagery of a mother trying to clean off her child to make them look proper; Yet the speaker sees herself in her book: "Thy visage was so irksome in my sight; / Yet being mine own, at length affection would / Thy blemishes amend, if I so could" (10-12). She tells herself that overtime she will try to oversee what she feels is wrong with her creation and learn to love it, since it is really a reflection of herself. The use of the word "visage" underscores the personification of the book, for the word visage is even more descriptive than the word "face", for it refers to the features and emotions on a face.

The last two lines give the poem a sad undertone: "And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, / Which caused her thus to send thee out of door" (23-24). She refers to herself as the "Mother" of the book, her child. She seems to be explaining to this child that, since their mother is poor, she needs to send them out into the real world. Since her child is her book, she's referring to having to sell her writing, her book, to get money.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Blog Post 1

"Lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower" (Conrad 69).

Marlow is described to have "the pose of a Buddha" while he begins to recount his story to the other crew members of the ship. Though he has not yet told his story, there is a sense that he is full of knowledge and that he is trying to pass it on to those around him.

Marlow is in the same pose as Buddha, with the "palm of his hand outwards" and "his legs folded before him". The palm of his hand facing outwards represents how he is trying to open up about his experiences, however he is also crossing his legs, which can be viewed as him not wanting to open up or being anxious about doing so. Buddha is a religious figure of Buddhism. The word Buddha means "enlightened" or "awakened", and Marlow seems to have become enlightened and awakened after seeing and becoming a part of the horrors of imperialism.

It is also pointed out that Marlow is "Buddha preaching in European clothes". The European feel of Marlow is a contrast to the idea of him looking like and being like the Buddha in this moment. The idea of preaching brings to mind a church, a European concept, while the clothes are stated outright to be European. There seems to be a sharp juxtaposition of Eastern and Western culture that throws off the idea of Marlow being like the Buddha., due to the drastic differences between the East and West at the time this book was written

Marlow is said to be the "Buddha... without a lotus-flower". The lotus flower is a beautiful flower that grows in muddy water, but rises above it to bloom. When a lotus has bloomed, it is said to have reached enlightenment, for it has risen above the darkness and murkiness.  A large part of Buddhism is the idea of becoming enlightened and pure, even when there is surrounding trouble. The "lotus-flower" has two symbolic meanings in Buddhism: fortune and purification. First, Marlow never started his journey for the sake of money, but for the intrigue of adventure. Therefore, he would not have the flower because he lacked the motivation of fortune. Second, Marlow is not pure of heart, mind, and spirit because of the destruction and harm that he caused in the past. He committed actions that he can never undo, and therefore can never be pure again.

Poem Outline - Chapter 3 - "Pathedy of Manners" by Ellen Kay

In "Pathedy of Manners" by Ellen Kay, a woman is viewed by the narrator as this woman's her life goes by, telling of the choices that she makes and how her life turns out because of them.

The word choice in the poem tries to be something it isn't, like the woman in the story, and therefore seems unfitting or unsettling in their contexts.

• "She learned the cultured jargon" (5)

"Cultured jargon" is a set of words with two possible meanings. Cultured is an adjective that means refined, but it can also refer to something with an artificial nature. Jargon is a term that means the language of a group, - in this case the upper class - but it can also mean unintelligible, meaningless talk. Therefore, "cultured jargon" can either mean "enlightened and refined speech" or "artificial and unintelligent speech". The first definition of this set of words refers to how most people view the upper class and the way they talk about life, growing up in comfortable homes without poverty. The second definition of this set of words refers to how the woman, who is intelligent, has to dumb herself down to fit in with those who speak the language of the rich.

• "They had an ideal marriage, and ideal / But lonely children in an ideal house" (15-16)

The use of the word "ideal" reveals that the woman's situation seems like it would be just that, "ideal", but in her eyes it is not. The repetition of the word "ideal" makes the word become dull and meaningless after so many uses, when other adjectives could have done the same or even a better job of describing the elements in her life. This sentence seems almost like the chatter of those who are watching her life and wanting to be her, talking to each other about this woman and her "ideal marriage" and her "ideal / ... children" and her "ideal house". The one unhappy word here is "lonely", which is slipped in as an almost afterthought in the list before talking about her "children". The use of the word lonely shows isolation and sadness, breaking the vision of an "ideal" life.

There are words in the poem that appear more than once and bear significance to different parts of the poem.

• "At twenty she was brilliant and adored... sought for every dance" (1-2). "A hundred people call, though not one friend, / ... She will walk / Alone in brilliant circles to the end" (25-28).

The word "brilliant" is used only two times in the whole poem: once at the beginning and once at the end. Both lines happen to start with the letter "a" as well. However, these two sentences show the change between the woman at twenty years old and the woman at forty-three years old. Brilliant is first used to describe the woman herself. She was "adored", regarded highly and admired by many, and people wanted to be around her. They all wanted her so badly, they even "sought" her out specifically. Brilliant is later used to describe the metaphorical circles that the woman will walk "to the end", or until she dies. She is no longer adored like she was twenty-three years ago, for she is now alone with "not one friend". She has gone from being on top in school to being on top in real life, but with the change of how people saw her. The circles are the memories of her hopes and dreams, what she wanted to accomplish, that which she feels she no longer can.

• "Those bred / To antique crystal and authentic pearls" (5-6). "A bright young man whose pearl cufflinks were real" (14).

Pearls are mentioned in the poem as a symbol of the upper class and their lineage. Both times, the credibility of the pearls are stated outright, for they are told to be "authentic pearls" and then the woman's husband was a "man whose pearl cufflinks were real". Validating the pearls emphasizes that they are of real value, and the fact that the woman's husband has real pearls has come to be seen as a symbol of the fact that he is part of the upper class and has wealth.

The woman's life started to take a turn for the worse as she let others interfere, and word-choice is also able to expose this.

• "And when she might have thought, conversed instead" (8).

Instead of using her mind and thinking about life, the woman started to slip into the world of socialites. She begins to spend her time learning rituals of the upper class, no longer leaving time to engage her mind in thought.

• "She shuns conviction, choosing to infer / Tenets of every mind except her own" (23-24).

This woman who once had such a wonderful mind full of intelligence now doesn't trust herself enough to use it anymore. Instead of taking in a fixed structure of an idea, a "conviction", the woman would rather have an inference from someone else. She trusts others more than her own mind. "Tenets" is a word that means an opinion, especially one held as true to members of a group. Saying that the woman would rather get the opinions, of other members of the upper class shows that she wants to assimilate to be like them, and no longer wishes to have her own opinions. The woman had changed the way she spoke earlier on when she "learned the cultured jargon" but now she has changed the way she thinks to no longer reflect her own opinions (5). Both the words "jargon" and "tenet" refer in their definitions to being something for a specific group, such as the upper class. The fact that these types of words keep being used show how the woman is blending into the group and not watching the world around her, only focusing on becoming like those she sees around her most.

Poem Outline - Chapter 2 - "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath

In "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath, the personification of reflective surfaces gives an original look at  places and people through the perspective of mirrors that see the world around them and how they affect people overtime.

The use of a mirror as the narrator of the poem allows for a non-judgmental viewpoint.

• "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions" (1).

A mirrors surface is silver and reflective, showing whatever is put in front of it exactly as it is. A mirror cannot change these things that it sees, it just shows them as they are. Mirrors cannot judge, they cannot be prejudiced towards what it sees.

• "Whatever I see I swallow immediately / Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. / I am not cruel, only truthful" (2-4).  

Mirrors "swallow" the images around them to reflect their surroundings. They do so because that's what they were made to do, so they cannot choose what to see based on "love or dislike". They cannot be mean because of this, and they can only reflect what is actually there, the truth.

The diction in the poem is dark and morbid.

• "She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands" (14).

The line is telling of how, when the woman stares into the lake, she starts to cry and bats away the image on the water's surface.  The juxtaposition of "rewards" and "tears" is unusual and unsettling, for rewards are supposed to be happy and given to someone when they have done well. The woman is unhappy with what she sees, but the lake sees her "tears" and "agitation of hands" as a reward to the lake for showing her the truth.

• "In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish" (17-18).

The lake has seen this woman age over time, for she was once a "young girl". Over time, the girl has grown into a woman and her young self is "drowned", for she will never be that young again. "Day after day" sounds monotonous due to it's alliteration and emphasizes the fact that the woman comes by each day to see her reflection, yet never gets desired results. To the woman, her reflection is like that of a "terrible fish", for as she cranes her head over the water, the reflection looks as if it is not bowing towards the water, but rising up to stare back at her.

The syntax and diction of the poem make it seem slow and calming, yet also deep and dark.

• There are many periods in the poem, more than there are commas. Many of the lines stop at the ends.

The periods seem to leave the ends of sentences hanging, even though they are supposed to stop them. They are like cliffhangers at the ends of sentences, because the sentence that came before them seem to need more support to make total sense.

• The lines are long and, even with stops, draw themselves out with their words.

"Over and over" in line 9 and "day after day" in line 18 drag out the poem. The use of "each morning" makes the poem feel like it takes place over many days.

Poem Outline - Chapter 1 - "The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"The Eagle" is a majestic and dynamic poem that describes the life and flight of an eagle in an outlook that is fresh and intense.

Alliteration is used the most in the first stanza of the poem.

• "He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" (1).

The alliteration of the words "clasps" "crag" and "crooked" all have a hard "c" sound, which feels edgy and points to the hard, tough life of the eagle.

• "lonely lands" (2). 

The use of the "l" sound ties the words together to create a greater sense of how alone the eagle in in his solitary life.

The structure and rhyme used in the poem both bring the stanzas of the poem together and yet separate it into two parts as well.

• "hands" (1), "lands" (2), "stands" (3); "crawls" (4), "walls" (5), "falls" (6)

The rhyme scheme makes each stanza stick out and seem separate. The first three lines are meant to be together and so are the second three. Yet, the first and second stanza are connected by way of talking about the "azure world", the water around the eagle, and then "the wrinkled sea", also the water around the eagle.

• " He clasps the crag with crooked hands;" (1), "The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;" (4)

The first line of each stanza ends with a semicolon. This semicolon separates this sentence from the rest of the stanza, for the other two lines end in a comma and then a period. However, the sentences with semicolons set up the idea of each stanza. The first line is centered around the eagle and how he is standing and the fourth line is talking about his surroundings.

The imagery used in the poem makes the poem lively and unique.

• "close to the sun lonely lands" (2), "azure world" (3), "wrinkled sea" (4)

The descriptive words used in these quotes help to describe the world that the eagle lives in. A lonely place, desolate, and dry, due to the closeness of the sun. Yet there is the sea surrounding him, with a rich color of blue and waves like wrinkles.

• "and like a thunderbolt he falls" (6)

Just like a thunderbolt, a flying eagle is agile, quick, and sharp; it plummets towards the ground at great speeds. However, the word "fall" seems graceful and elegant, juxtaposing with the idea of a flashy, jolting thunderbolt.

The Tempest - Analyzing Prospero's Character in Act 5, Scene 1, Lines 1-97

In Act 5, Scene 1, Lines 1-97 of The Tempest, Prospero's plan has began to reach its conclusion. He is having a good day and everything is working in his favor, for Prospero is someone who plans ahead. He has had his whole idea of revenge outlined in his mind since the very beginning of the play and probably even years before the play begins. Prospero also has Ariel by his side to makes sure that everything runs smoothly, however, if anything does not go as planned, Ariel can help Prospero get everything back on the right track.

An aspect of Prospero's character that helps him in his plans is his commanding presence. Prospero has a commanding presence because he is able to control spirits and the magical arts. Prospero uses this power along with his strategically-thinking brain to get the upper hand in most situations. This upper hand starts at the beginning of the play with the tempest. Though Prospero relies on his magic to help get him this upper hand, he acknowledges in lines 50-57 that he will get rid of his magic when he no longer needs it. This time comes in lines 83-86 when he is ready to step back into his position as the Duke of Milan.

Prospero cares about the people who he got caught in the tempest. In lines 25-27, Prospero tells that though he remembers the wrongdoings of the people he shipwrecked, he will no longer be angry at them. Prospero is forgiving, but he does call out those who have done him wrong because he wants them to remember exactly what they did to him. This helps define that Prospero still has his emotions and his feelings. He is still human. Ariel points this out when he tells Prospero that, if Prospero saw the shipwrecked group that he was holding, his "affections / would become tender" (5.1.18-19). Prospero is someone who understands and keeps his promises and contracts. In the end, Ariel is set free after his allotted time of servitude and those who were shipwrecked are allowed to go back to Italy. Throughout the play, those who were shipwrecked remain physically unharmed, just like Prospero wanted.

How The Tempest Relates to the Standard Structure of Shakespearean Comedy

In The Tempest, the character Prospero fits the role of a Shakespearean "Comic Individual". In Act 1, Scene 2, Prospero explains the story of his downfall to his daughter, Miranda. Prospero was once the Duke of Milan, but began to study books about magic and other areas that he believed would better his mind. Studying these books soon became Prospero's obsession and he secluded himself and ignored his people and his duties as the Duke. Ignoring his duties caused his brother, Antonio, to be allowed to take over Prospero's position as Duke of Milan, while Prospero and Miranda were exiled to go live on a deserted island. Prospero is a Comic Individual, for his actions caused his negative situation to occur and there is no one at fault but Prospero. Also, like a Comic Individual, Prospero never loses his rationality. While he does create a tempest that capsizes the ship of those who exiled him, he makes sure that no one dies or gets hurt in any way at all. Prospero only wants the people on the ship to feel the emotional pain and suffering that he did when he was exiled, and does not wish death or harm upon any of them.

The ending of The Tempest is that of a Shakespearean "Comic Solution". The ending is a happy ending, for Prospero is allowed to once again take his place as the Duke of Milan. However, Prospero must remember and become the Duke he was before his obsession made him turn a blind eye to his people and his duties. In Act 5, Scene 1, Prospero vows that he will break his staff and bury it and that he will also throw his book into the sea where he can never find it again. He also frees his servant spirit, Ariel, as his last words before the Epilogue, sending the spirit off unburdened and no longer under his command. These actions make sure that Prospero never falls back into his old ways and that his obsession will never relapse. With those distractions gone, Prospero is able to take back into his rightful place as Duke of Milan and serve as the leader he should be.