September 28, 2005
Masque of the red death
Prospero had an idea of greatness. However greed was obviously involveded. It can be argued that he was trying to save those who were closest to him and also most able to recreate the civilization after the plague ends. That does not however excuse him for living in luxory while his people were dying his outreach needed to be more, this caring needed to be more, and his ability to be normal meeded to be reached way more. The events that unfold are definately of that of a eccentric man but how far can that go on and be deemed acceptable? To answer my own question it is obvious to me that Poe in making his end a gruesome one was pointing out his wrongs
Posted by IanSayre at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
PORTFOLIO
Depth
Discussion
Timeliness
Xeno blogging
Posted by IanSayre at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
Bartleby
The one underlying point that bothers me about the story is that the narrorators office would have been out of business or at least in really bad shape. Its boss has no ability to repremand anyone he is not even suprised or even displeased with all the messing up going on around him. Alcoholism and insubodination are not a part of successful business. It is also humourous to think of the situation in reference to a dilbert cartoon. The place is full of wierdos and miscreants and the king of them all is to quiet and reserve to talk or care about it.
Posted by IanSayre at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Pretty holy after all, at least the confession
""People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, high, solemn, and majestic—yet had always a tremor through it, and sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse and woe—"ye, that have loved me!—ye, that have deemed me holy!—behold me here, the one sinner of the world!"
No beating around the bush, he comes right out and proclaims his sins in front of his "merciful God" and who knows maybe the big guy will appreciate the Confession. However, if he would have ran away like he had planned that would not have been acceptable at all. it would prove how weak he realyy was and if i were hester i just would not have done it period. that would have made a sappy romance lover happy however it would have pissed of those of us with morals and rationality (no offense).
Posted by IanSayre at 05:18 PM | Comments (2)
September 19, 2005
14-21 part 1
"In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office. This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself for seven years to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analysed and gloated over."
Anyone going through this kind of personal turmoil is going to be a villain. If he were a postal worker rather than a puritan, possibilities involving panic come to mind. He is just so evil he evaluates himself and looks right into the eyes of a man who is doing wrong and sticking with it. The other eary element of his description of his personal status is that he is without remorse. The lack of remorse in villains is something that typically amazes me. It is especially amazing to me for murderers to look into the faces of the families involved and not apoligize. That to me suggests that the person is definately mentally ill however becaus ethat is grounds for freeing an evil mind and that should not be done.
Posted by IanSayre at 01:22 PM | Comments (1)
September 14, 2005
"God" It would SUCK to be a puritan!!!!
Wow would that ever really hard to deal with the constant turmoil of struggling through life knowing that you and everyone around you is a sinner and you should probably as far as your religion is concerned. It would also make you constantly question the whole system. i am very suprised that the puritans didnt have more radicals trying to shake up the system. If i risked my neck on an unprecidented challenge to relocate to a new world and a right after civilization is set up i was being called a sinner i would freak out and try to get something going in the way of tolerance. Fear must have been amazing back then. otherwise i see the puritans being hostilly overthrown from the inside. the other less radical view is that these people were so steadfast in their beliefs that they were willing to die for their sins os they could be saved in the after life. That is a ton of faith unfortunately it is a lot more than i think i have at this point.
Posted by IanSayre at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
Dimmesdale's character screams for change in Religous views.
“It is inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him!”
I think this is testament to the fact that some of the people would have liked to do away with there rules altogether this can be seen several times. However with Mr. Dimmesdale I think it should be taken as more severe do to the fact that he is a clergyman. He is suppose to speak and teach the word not tear it to shreds, hide it and loathe himself. This proves there need for reform in their views, they are basically a society who has created laws that deems almost all of their own people. There is no way out for a lot of sins, so puritans were forced to lie and avoid there wrongs rather than put em on the table and ask forgiveness. This society would be in for a real shock if they had a puritan police force who was good at catching sinners. they have a jail full citezens waiting to be executed and the only trouble would be is that the last man standing would have to hang himself because there would be no one left to help him.
Posted by IanSayre at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
Life and times, Who are these people?
“In either case, there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the spectators; as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical, that the mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful.”
This statement deals with the amazing ability the puritans must have had to show no compassion for a person who committed any wrong. It also has a lot to say about the fact the their own religion does very much so promote the destruction of life in some ways. I would think that it must have been an incredible deterrent. However it sure doesn’t seem to be. Another issue that comes apparent is that the law and religion are so closely entangled and that these puritans plan to live as similar to both as possible unless there out committing adultery, or some other infraction of their strict interpretation of law. It seems to me that more people re actually living “deviant lives” than there are leading normal acceptable ones.
Posted by IanSayre at 08:19 PM | Comments (2)
Faith is Pink
In young Goodman brown it is clear to see that the message that Hawthorne portrays is not one of a dark and dreary untrusting ending where humans are inherently evil and bound to the devils command. He states that you must be able to live with, move past, and forgive wrongdoing. It is true that this story takes place in the time of the puritans and they in fact did not have any ability to forgive. In these times if u did wrong, you were permanently labeled evil and Hawthorne makes it clear that the happenings of the time called for more compassionate ways. It is a simple message explaining the complexity of faith.
This can easily be taken from the text in several passages, but to begin early Hawthorne describes Faith as “Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman brown”(1). In that he depicts faith as with “pink ribbons” to foreshadow early in the story that her white light and gleaming appearance might be tainted with a touch of red or something of an evil nature. Though this message is early on in the story it is very significant because even with Faith’s taint she is happy and prosperous. The fact that she is able to dwell without struggle in her life is part of the message Hawthorne portrays. He is pointing out that life has to exist beyond sin.
A further example of his claim is stated within the text when he points out the various people in brown’s life that live knowing that they have done wrong at one time, but as the story unfolds his inability to deal with the fact that humans are full of sin leaves him in a lull of sorrow and discontentment in his fellow man. It is this thought process that starts his miserable journey to the end.
The final blow that was ultimately to late for Goodman brown was seeing Faith in the midst of evil worship. He thought he had a real pearl of faith in his wife but he was unfortunately mistaken. However the point to be made is that even after Faith’s encounters with evil she still prospers and enjoys life. “He spied the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy”(9). This is testament to the direct message that faith is indeed pink. It proves that Hawthorne was saying that people need to accept the wrongs around them as things to try to avoid. He displayed in his text that if you ostracize all sinners and in that all those you love, you too like Goodman brown will have your dying hour be
Posted by IanSayre at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
Scarlet Letter Dirty Dimmesdale.
On Page 131 the reverand we get to look at Mr. Dimmesdale as he Delves into his own inner sorrow. He knows he has wronged and not only is he upset with himself he can never find anyway to forgive himself and move past this. So he spends his every day an inner mess. Once again he is very knowledgeable though not the most knowledgable about his belief system and he knows that he should be condmned and must believe he has directly wronged his god. This would be a terrible way to live. One that is unbearable. Howvever it does not excuse his actions. He has sinned very strongly and though he is regretful that doesnt mean he is innocent. He is also partly keeping hester stuck in an awful situation and that is wrong as well. The bottom line is if he does not do the right thing in the end, and by the right thing I mean spill his guts outs all of em, he would be an incredibly weak and undesirable character.
Posted by IanSayre at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
The Scarlet Letter 1-7
"From this intense consciousness of being the object of severe and universal observation, the wearer of the scarlet letter was at length relieved by discerning, on the outskirts of the crowd, a figure which irresistably took possession of her thoughts."
This is a great example of both how the puritans ostracized people from their good community while also pointing out how hard it would have been to be ostracized by absolutely every one. Bottom line is that it would have been real tuff to be a puritan sinner way to tuff In my oppinion. It is clear to see that hawthorne is setting up the question of puritan values and saying that something would not work out. There is a lot of sin as we will see in this fine village and a lot of souls that will never be forgiven on earth any way. So they better realize that sometime they will have to relax there ideals somewhat.
Posted by IanSayre at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)