Surrendering to Desire

Desires are the driving force of life. For Blanche DuBois, her desires for companionship and stability in a man drives her into a life of unrealistic expectations which eventually leads her to her downfall. Blanche’s life is filled with tragedy from the time her husband committed suicide to the loss of Belle Reve, which signifies her aristocrat status and high position in society. This leaves her to become insecure and “needy” of male companionship that eventually drives her to New Orleans. As reveal in the play, Stella’s home is the last place that Blanche can go to in order to escape her past and enables her to continue to fulfill her desires without being ridicule and expose by the society of Laurel. For the meantime, Stella’s home offers Blanche a shield from the harsh reality that she desperately desire to escape. At this new place with people who does not know her past, Blanche was able to convince not only others but also herself that she is still a woman of high status and attractiveness. With these self deceiving thoughts, Blanche is convinced that she was able to attract Mitch in order to marry him and escape from poverty and her past. In the same manner, Mitch is attracted to Blanche because of his desire for companionship and also a desire to fulfill his sexual needs. Unlike Stanley, it is because of these desires that easily drive Mitch into the web of lies that Blanche has carefully woven. As one can see both Mitch and Blanche comes from a completely different background and their upbringing is evidently different from each other. However, their desires for the same thing ties their relationship together until the truth about Blanche’s sexual misconducts are revealed. Here we clearly sees that Mitch desire for Blanche’s companionship drives him to fall in love and cherish every aspects of Blanche but when he learns of the truth, he still desires for her sexually. However, he remains a gentleman when Blanche rejects him.

A Child At Heart??

Although both the film and the play define Stanley Kowalski as masculine and domineering, certain parts of the scenes in the play also allows an alternative understanding of him. From parts of the readings of scenes three and four, the readers are able to see that the alternative characteristic of Stanley is that of a child. Throughout the play, we see that Stanley and Stella’s relationship illustrates the male dominating dynamics of society at the time. However, at certain parts of the play, we can also see that Stanley plays a child like role while Stella plays the mother like role. For example, in scene three Stanley remorseful calls out to “Stell-lahhhh!” (1562) after he realizes that he has abused her. Before this, the events of the violence against Stella when he was drunk once again show readers the dominating image of Stanley exercising his masculinity. However, during this scene where he runs outside and calls for his wife, Stanley can be seen as a boy who just realizes that he has done something bad and it has cause his mother like figure to abandon him. Stanley character can be interpret as a boy who tends to behave badly but when his behavior drives his care taker away, he feels lost and hopeless as he looks for her. Furthermore, his child like characteristics can be seen more when Blanche arrives and tries to persuade Stella to leave Stanley in scene four after Blanche witness Stanley striking Stella. As Blanche eagerly convinces Stella to leave Stanley, he comes back and overhears their conversation. However, at the end of the scene, “Stella has embraced him with both arms, fiercely, and full in the view of Blanche. He laughed and clasps her head to him. Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche” (1568). Stanley’s taunting acts toward Blanch further illustrates a childish character because it illustrates how Stanley feels satisfy that Stella still embraces him even after Blanche’s entire attempt to persuade her to leave him. As he laughs at Blanche in the end, Stanley illustrates his child like nature of winning the attention and adoration of the mother like figure, which in this case is Stella. Thus, these parts of the scenes in the play enables readers to find an alternative reading of Stanley’s character instead of the domineering brute that is clearly depicted throughout the play.

Paralysis and Epiphany in “Araby” and “Eveline” by James Joyce

The story “Araby” illustrates the love and affection that the narrator, a young boy, has for his friend’s sister. The story is set in North Dublin Street, in which the narrator describes to be blind, dark, cold, quiet and many other descriptions that imply the environment of a solemn and depressed street. The young boy, narrator, is reminded of a former priest that once lived in the neighborhood, at the blind end of the street. The boy informs the reader that the priest has died, symbolizing the death of faith, community and hope. Faith and community is also described to be lost as the boy describes the street to be quiet, dark and blind, and he also describes the neighbors to have brown vacant faces. The boy describes his friends, family, neighborhood and school to be blunt, boring, and unimportant. Basically, he is unhappy with his life as he sees everything around him to be annoying. There is however one significant person in his life as he sees her to be different from the world. The narrator illustrates love and affection towards Mangan’s Sister, as he calls her, during the first moment she is introduced. Up to this point, the entire setting has been described using dark, shadow, muddy and other dull descriptions, but the moment that Mangan’s sister is introduced, the narrator uses the word light. It appears as though he idolizes her, or sees her as a goddess as he describes her to be soft and her body figure to be outlined by light. It is evident that Mangan’s sister is very important to the boy because she is the only person to be described in a positive, loving, significant manner, which gives the impression that the boy has love and affection for her. The boy struggles as he battles with himself whether he should talk to her or not, but always come to conclusion that he’ll never be able to talk to her. The boy would then return to the priest’s house, believing that his problems and struggles could be resolved in the house of a divined person. The priest’s house symbolizes the boy’s last remaining hope for courage and strength to talk to Mangan’s sister. On one unexpected morning, Mangan’s sister asks the boy if he is planning to go to Araby, a Dublin bazaar. The boy, shocked, offers to buy her a gift from the bazaar because she is unable to go due to a previous commitment to her school’s retreat. The boy then becomes impatient and irritated as he waits for Saturday, a day set for his uncle to give him money. The days become tedious and frustrating as what he once saw as dull now becomes a nuisance, only there to make the wait for Saturday more unbearable. The always late uncle, to no surprise, arrived late and angered the boy for having him wait. The boy arrived at the bazaar ten minutes before closing, and lingered around the shop. The boy was not sure what to buy. He walks in the middle of the bazaar as the lights go out; there he reaches a state of paralysis. He begins to feel a sense of loneliness, uselessness and hopelessness as he eventually reaches an epiphany. He once idolized the Mangan’s sister because she represented change, hope and a new life, away from the depressing, existing lifestyle. Sadly, when the lights go out, the boy realizes that Mangan’s sister will most likely fail to add meaning to his life, as his desire for her was only a desire for change. The boy’s epiphany helps him realize that he will never be able to escape his life of solitude, boredom and depression. The boy’s realization of hopelessness refers back to the priest’s house, the death of faith and hope which he ignored by using his false affection for Mangan’s sister to revive the all lost hope for change. The neighborhood that the boy lived in is reassured and proven to be inevitably forever in his life the instant the lights go out in the bazaar, triggering his realization of never being able to escape his imprisoned fate of solitude and depression.

Similarly is the story of a girl trying to escape her life of servitude and depression in “Eveline.” The girl, Eveline, lives a depressed life of serving her abusive father. She faces a tough decision of whether to stay with her father, living a sad life of solitude or leave her hometown, Dublin. When she hears the sound of the street organ, she is reminded of her deceased mother, to whom she promised to maintain the household. The girl is then approached by a sailor who offers to take her away, to live a happy life in the islands of Buenos Aires. The girl then begins to consider leaving, and so reaches a decision to follow trough with her plan, and agrees to leave with the sailor. She then writes letters of farewell to both her brother and father and remembers fond memories of when the family was whole. When the day had come to finally embark, she began to have second thoughts as she appeared detached and worried; praying for God for direction she struggled on a final decision. The boat’s whistle blows and she reaches a state of fear and paralysis. She finally reaches a decision and sadly decides not to go, as she struggles to break free and clutched the iron railings, before reaching the boat. The sailor is swept by the massive crowd as he calls to her. The girl reaches an epiphany that she cannot escape her life of servitude, her life of maintain the household; a promise that she made to her mother. As she realizes this, she feels lonely and depressed because she knows that her life will for ever be the life of maintaining her house. Similar to Araby’s death of the priest and withering of his house represents the loss and absence of hope, Eveline’s death of the mother symbolizes the loss of hope. Also Mangan’s sister in Araby, and Frank the sailor in Eveline, both represented a false hope for change and a happy life; both were believed to represent change and hope because the characters wished for change and therefore blinded by the truth. It wasn’t until they reached an epiphany that they realized that these people were false hope and that they will forever live their life of solitude and depression. As both of them experienced an epiphany, Joyce describes them in non-human expressions. The boy in Araby is described as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and the girl in Eveline as a helpless animal; ending both stories with different emotions told in their eyes.

Melanie's Voice

My story begins with a man. One afternoon, while passing by the college garden at Cape Technical University I hear someone greeting me from behind. As I turn around, there he is, standing before me with a friendly smile. I return the gesture with my own courteous smile to a friendly stranger. I wonder for a brief moment before I recognize this old man as David Lurie, the professor of my Romanticism class. He continues with the conversation with questions about the weather and my whereabouts and I answer casually each question. However, I am shock to hear Professor Lurie inviting me to his house for a drink. What can I say to this awkward situation? Does he know his invitation has broken the rules and social norms that society has set up for the relationship between a student and a professor? What are his intentions? Well what can his intentions be anyway? I’m just being foolish; he is my professor after all. Maybe he is just being kind and wants to invite me over to meet his family and discuss more about class. I will just be extra cautious about this interaction. I just hope no one recognize that I am spending time with a professor or else it will be very embarrassing and awkward. Bewilder, I finally convince myself to answer “OK. But I have to be back by seven-thirty” (Coetzee12).

Professor Lurie’s home is nothing compares to what I imagine and expect it to be and I am becoming very aware of the fact that we are all alone. Brushing off my nerves, I begin to direct my attention to his bookshelves once he head to the kitchen. I cannot help but think how boring his life must be as I tilt my head and read the titles of the books on the shelves. There is no doubt about this man’s interests in Romanticism. Well at least this count for something that I would expect from his home. When music reaches my ears, I was drawn from my thoughts to the old man who has just come back with some drinks and a plate of biscuits and cheese. As I take a seat on the couch beside him, I hear him asking “Are you enjoying the course” (Coetzee12)? At once I feel more relief as we seem to be discussing more about academia, which are the topics that professors and students should only discuss about. I answer cautiously, “I liked Blake. I liked the Wonderhorn stuff” (Coetzee12). “Wunderhorn” (Coetzee13) I hear him correcting me. I thought to myself Wonderhorn, Wunderhorn, whatever, I don’t really care. I do not find Romanticism to be interesting anyway. I choose to take Romanticism because it was between this class and learning about Shakespeare again. So it was a matter of which one is worse. I ponder on my thoughts as Professor Lurie continues to talk about poetry and literature. I want to die as he drags on and on. I find it very tiring to continue pretending that I am interested in what he has to say. Suddenly, everything changes as he asks me to stay for supper. What does this man want? Is my acting that good that he is really convinced that I am interested in what he have to say? A little guilt tugged on my heart as he continues to insist with more hope that I will agree. Finally, I agree but I need to make a phone call to tell my flat mate that I will not be back for supper. The phone call takes longer than I expect as she was concern about my well-being. However, I insist her that I am having a discussion with my professor over supper and I will return right after.

I come back into the living and take a seat next to Professor Lurie on the couch. He then asks me the reason I am taking a course in Romantic poetry and I reply truthfully that “I didn’t want to take Shakespeare again. I took Shakespeare last year” (Coetzee14). Afterward, I help Professor Lurie cook supper and we share the meal joyously with a little conversation now and then. After supper, I feel very uncomfortable as he takes my hand and we both head to the sofa. We sit side by side and watch a boring film about a man named Norman McLaren. Boy this is boring. I decided to take the chance and go home right when the movie ends. However, he begins to talk about his fascination and work on Byron, a Romantic poet I presume. Given another opportunity, I begin to excuse myself but was cut off when he shockingly request that “I’m going to invite you to do something reckless. […] Stay. Spend the night with me” (Coeztee16). I was not as shock as I thought I should be. Somehow and somewhere in my subconscious I already knew that the moment he asks me to join him at his home will lead to this. The thing that puzzles me most though is why I agreed to come if I have some kind of bad intuition about this. Also, why is he risking everything to ask me this? As he sits there waiting for an answer, I quickly reply out of curiosity “Why” (Coetzee16). His answer is laughable but I prevent the sound from escaping my mouth as I shut them tightly. As he graze his hand against my cheek, I teasingly reply to his answer with a question of my own “And what if I already share it” (Coetzee16). He seems to be captivating me in a moment of shock and utter surprise. It is as if at this moment, I am not considering the reality of his age and position and the eyes of society. I am just a girl who has caught the eye of a suitor and he is courting me with praises and sweet talk. However, as he quotes Shakespeare, my mind loses all interests and curiosity that is keeping me here. I stand up and take me leave whether he is finish or not because I am finish listening to him.

Due to the limited information that we receive from David Lurie, it is hard to give Melanie Isaac a voice. Her character is mostly open for interpretations. As the novel progresses to the second, third and fourth encounters with David, Melanie’s character becomes complicated because it is hard to find concrete evidence from the novel to support our interpretation as to why she allow David to violate her and then why she file the complaint. There are simply too much events that is revolving around Melanie after her first encounter with David. Yet, the novel leaves our countless questions about Melanie unanswered as her voice is denied time after time. Thus, I choose to give her a voice in her very first encounter with David Lurie as we see more of Melanie’s expressions and attitude towards David. In addition, here we see that David and Melanie spend the most time interacting with each other through conversations and we have the advantage of defining Melanie's character not through David's observations and presumptions.

Melanie never stated why she accepted David’s invitation to go to his home. Clearly, she was aware of the fact that society is not very tolerable with the idea of a student and a professor meeting outside of school. Thus, using the text, I establish Melanie’s reason to be simply because she cannot refuse his offer. After all, he is her professor and she was probably being polite. In addition, the notion of trusting an authority figure is inevitable. I did illustrate that she was shock and that she kind of have an internal battle with herself. Good judgments tell her to refuse the offer but then again, seeing him as her professor can dismiss some of her concerns and anxiety. In many ways, Melanie appears to be finding excuses like thinking she is just being too cautious to not rationalize the negative thoughts and feelings she have. I ended her encounter with David in the garden with a more student like behavior and concern. That is, in the end, Melanie is naively worrying about how embarrassing she will look if she is spotted with a professor while dismissing her concern and anxiety.

Clearly, she listens to her better judgments at the events of the drink, supper and movie pass by. Besides expressing her boredom and how uncomfortable she is becoming, Melanie still tries to be polite. However, she shows that she shares no interests in Romantic poetry with David as she states that “I didn’t want to take Shakespeare again. I took Shakespeare last year” (Coetzee14). So far, I have established Melanie’s character to be a normal student who was just trying to be polite and goes to her professor home with the thought that nothing bad can come of it. In a sense, I was directing Melanie towards a naïve characteristic that will be easily manipulated by David. However, our perspective of Melanie’s innocent character is subjected to change as it becomes evident in her response to David’s request that she sleeps with him. Her reply was “Why […] And what if I already share it” (Coetzee16). Normally, given the situation, a student would excuse herself from the situation immediately. However, Melanie stays and appears to tease David with her witty remark. Furthermore, the reason she seems to leave David and his request at the end of the encounter was not because she finds it unethical. Rather it was because he ruins her mood by quoting Shakespeare. At this moment we see a shift in Melanie’s character from young and naïve to almost mischievous and promiscuous.

David Lurie's Progression

As a white male living in Africa, David Lurie lives a more privileged life than other colored people. Although he is a professor and holds a respectable position in society, his actions make him a disagreeable character. Readers find his character to be stubborn and egoistic. His view and attitude towards women is very disrespectful. As illustrates in the opening sentence of the novel, “FOR A MAN of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well” (Coetzee1) David Coetzee can be seen as a sexual predator. He is very manipulative towards other, and mainly women. His character is clearly defines through his relationships with countless women. David has a control issue when it comes to respecting women and understanding the boundaries he should keep, but it is evident that he would rather please his sexual desire than to respect women. For example, he would attempt to please his sexual desire by turning to a prostitute, Soraya, and sleeping with his colleagues’ wife. Most significantly was when Soraya was unavailable, he targets his student, Melanie. He abuses his power, as an authority figure, and completely crosses the boundaries between a student and a professor. What further makes his character distasteful is that he is fully aware of his unethical actions yet he continues to do so time after time. He appears to be aware of his actions but he justifies them using a Romantics mindset.

Furthermore, the punishment that the University Committee presents during David’s trial is minimal. At this hearing, readers witness the privileges that David Lurie have as a white male. You can plead guilty but does not admit that you are wrong. David quickly pleaded guilty to the charges that the University Committee presents during the hearing. However, he claims to plead guilty to get everything over with and not because he feels like he have done anything wrong. He demonstrates his extreme stubbornness as he refuses to admit that his affair was illicit and unethical. He continues to use the defense that “I was not myself. I was no longer a fifty-year-old divorce at loose end. I became a servant of Eros” (Coetzee 51-52). His mindset still does not change. The Committee wants a sincere acknowledgment of his wrong doings to find an excuse to help lessen his punishment but David feels he cannot comply. Here we see that David Lurie is probably sorry for his affair being publicized but definitely not sorry for conducting the affair in the first place.

David keeps a close relationship with Lucy so when he was ridicule by society; he seeks refuge at her home in the countryside. Before the revelation of David and Lucy’s relationship, we think that David does not seem to be able to keep a close and respectable relationship with women. Thus, this can show a different side of David Lurie. Furthermore, as David tries to adapt to the changing environment and living condition in Southern Africa, we see that his character changes a little. This is evident in the fact that when he arrives at Lucy’s home, Lucy offers David consolation and comfort. She was more nurturing and sympathetic rather than critical and judgmental towards David’s conviction at the University. However, when tragedy hits them, David begins to take on the protective and fatherly figure. In addition, by living in the countryside, David Lurie is force to face the changing society in Africa as a shift in power takes place after the apartheid.

facebook

Information
Name: Miss Emily Grierson
Sex: female
Relationship status: In a loving and committing relationship
Network: Yoknapatawpha County
Applications: China painting and teaching girls the art of it
Interests: China painting
About Me:
Privacy Setting: Friends only

Friends:
Father
Homer Barron
Colonel Sartoris

Wall Posts:
Miss Emily Grierson at 1:00 am I cannot lose this man. My sanity relies on him.
Father at 1:05 am NO! He is not good enough for you. You don't need him. Let him go!
Miss Emily Grierson at 3:00 am You're wrong! He's my last hope. The only person I want to be around with. I'm not letting him go. He'll stay and be with me forever like you. We'll all stay here and live happily ever after.

You must be friends with Miss Emily Grierson to see her full profile.

Cleary we see that Miss Emily Grierson has an introverted personality. The information on her facebook page is as plain as it can be for the public's view. She would not be the one to add any other friends besides the ones listed. Miss Emily proves that she is still able to lead a life with minimal social contact as possible. Thus, I mirrored her facebook page to her life as it appears in the story. Even though I created a facebook page for Miss Emily, but her sole character defeats the purpose of facebook. She is not here to meet new people and share her personal life with the public. On the contrary, I made her facebook page into a place where she can imagine that she is talking to the dead men in her life because she seems to refuse to acknowledge that they are dead.
The basic informations that she put on her facebook page would be informations that the public already knows about her. However, by writing that she is in a loving and committing relationship and that her friends are her deceased Father, Homer Barron and Colonel Sartoris, I am trying to show what Miss Emily is thinking as she live in a life full of self-deception. As we know, these men are important figures in Miss Emily's life. Unfortunately, they are all dead. Thus, by listing them as her friends, I am trying to illustrates Miss Emily's insanity because clearly, she is defying the existence of time and reality. First off is her choice of ignoring the tax office because she refuse to acknowledge the death of Colonel Sartoris. Then when her father died she refused to admit he was dead.

Her profile picture suppose to show the image that she has of herself and her Father before the changes that suppose to occur after his death. Miss Emily's Father was a very domineering man who appears to be in charge of every aspects of her life such as her marriage. When he died she refused to accept the reality and kept his body for three days before the town finally buried his body.

In Homer Barron's case, the townspeople find that he have many characteristics that resembles Miss Emily's Father. Which gives her more reasons to try and keep him with her and we know that in the ultimate attempt to make him stay with her, Miss Emily poison him and keeps his body in her house for years until she dies.

So we can see that Miss Emily does not lead a life that society would consider normal after her father's death. And the most important element that I wanted to incorporate in her facebook page is how she is defying the existence of time. After her Father's death, Miss Emily barricade herself in her home from society because letting the outside world into her life means she has to accept the passing of time and reality. I further illustrates Miss Emily's introverted life using a conversation between her and her Father. Of course we all know that this is very unrealistic because her Father is dead. Thus, if she have a facebook page, I would assume that she does not want to have any other social contact with anyone else besides the three men that she remembers most. Facebook is just a way for her to write down her thoughts. It is a place for her to create the world the way she wants it to be.

Character of Time

http://www.panthalassa3d.net/wallpapers/ozymandias.jpg

"Ozymandias"
-by Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert...Near them, one the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,"

Taken from Shelley’s words, we are able to see the image of the head and legs of the statue of Ozymandias half buried in sand. In this specific part of the poem that I chose, Shelley is using descriptive language to portray the characteristics of the ancient king, Ozymandias. Words such as trunkless, shattered, frown, wrinkled, sneer, and cold, give us a further descriptive image of Ozymandias. This is the more concrete image of the idea that Ozymandias was a cold and domineering king. Meanwhile, the more abstract idea presented in this poem is the idea about time and history. At first we are able to see the image of Ozymandias and his personality through the physical description of his statue. However, the more abstract idea of time lies with the description of the statue half buried in sand. This allows the interpretation that time can make anything fade away. Judging from the fact that his statue was not well kept and polished through time, Ozymandias’ people probably did not consider him a justly king to honor. The image of Ozymandias statue half buried in sand shows that what is left of Ozymandias’ legacy is only preserved by the sculptor’s work. This gives the idea that art are more likely to last longer through time than humans. Thus, we should acknowledge the importance of the role of the sculptor in this poem. The sculptor himself is actually the one who is portraying the characteristics of Ozymandias along with his biases and in his own perspective of who the king was. He holds the power of time preservation because his art will last through time and people will tell the story of king Ozymandias using the statue that the sculptor created. Thus, we see that history is preserved through arts and literature and these are very powerful tools that are often overlooked by people. Reading his poem, I believe that Shelley was very effective in communicating both his concrete and abstract idea using his descriptive image of the statue and the erosion of sand through time. The image of the statue buried in sand is the ultimate image given to reader that enhances our understanding of Shelley’s ideas.