January 31, 2006
The Name Game
First thing I noticed about this play was that the 2 active female characters don't have their own names - they are only "Mrs. Hale" and "Mrs. Peters". Many years ago, I got a birthday card from my father-in-law addressed to "Mrs. Richard Christeleit", and was less than pleased. Let's just say that it never happened again! LOL. The wives assume their husbands names as well as their husbands identities (Mrs. Peters justifying her husband's investigation techniques more than once to Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters "Married to the law"). Mrs. Wright may have been able to abide by her loss of identity as Minnie Foster, but she could not let the murder of her precious canary go unavenged, because it was the only remaining link to her previous identity. How sad that she was a talented singer who because of her choices, had nothing left of her own identity. How sad that the husbands dismiss their wives and their wives concerns as trivial.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 8:11 AM | Comments (1)
January 26, 2006
Be careful what you wish for
..."That lacked the details the ornament the character"...
By stringing these words together without any break, I get the feeling of the endless prattling of the oh sooooooo cosmopolitan, self-righteous, judgemental, and untouchable New Yorker. Lehman subtly criticizes the herd mentality, and admits that once his comfort zone was physically threatened, he saw things differently.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)
Hey Jude! Take a sad song and make it better!
"Where the speaker tries so hard to show strength the lines end weakly: they are the only feminine rhymes in the poem; the three rhyming lines of the last stanza all have an added, unstressed eleventh syllable: /ez/. The effect in lines 13 and 14 is to undercut the tone of confidence".
What is a feminine line and why are they considered weak? I'm no raving feminist, but perhaps a different descriptive term is in order. These lines are the strongest, least passive and most revealing in the whole poem. Isn't it interesting that they are "the only feminine lines" in the poem?
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 8:46 AM | Comments (1)
January 25, 2006
After Apple Picking
"I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break".
This imagery sets the stage for the rest of the poem, and things get less clear from here.
Posted by BrendaChristeleit at 8:30 PM | Comments (0)