Closing remarks

To the best of my knowledge, I have finished commenting on the work you have done during the year. Please, let me know if I am mistaken.

The blog will remain open for as long as Blogger decides to keep it. Do come back as often as you want, particularly when revising for the final exam. If you read other people's work, leave a comment, but remember not everyone gets a warning so you could let us know you have done so by other means, for example by tweeting #lit1ros.

Two recurrent language issues:

1- "I haven't thought about it" is incorrect because when you write it you have already considered the issue: It should be "I hadn't thought about it (before you brought it up)"

2- "If I have the chance to ask the author a question, I would..." is incorrect because even if the author is alive (which in most cases they are not), your chances of interviewing them are pretty slim. It should be "If I had the chance..."

I hope you have found the experience of keeping reading journals and using Web 2.0 tools for creative activities enriching, and that you profit from it in the future.

See you soon!

Mariel

http://openclipart.org/detail/30217/tango-face-smile-by-warszawianka 

Post 3: After reading the whole play

I consider honour is the central theme in this play, not honour form a broad perspective but particularly in connection with virginity. Related to this, Leonato says:

“O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!

Death is the fairest cover for her shame

That may be wished for.”

Clearly he is wishing for his daughter’s death immediately after he is told she is not a virgin, which brings shame not only on Hero but also on the whole family, ruining their reputation.

As regards the title, I want to consider 2 different interpretations of it. The first and more literal one is the one explained by Mariel (Loreto) which refers to a phrase used to describe a situation in which there has been a lot of excitement about something that is not really important. In this case, there is a frustrated marriage and a lot of suffering around a fictitious situation, i.e. Hero’s unfaithfulness to Claudio.

The second interpretation I want to mention is that, by the time this play was written, the word “nothing” was pronounced in the same way as “noting”. This meaning of the title refers to the fact that the characters spend the whole play noting what the others do and that leads to the development of the main events. Consequently, at that time there probably was a more evident wordplay.

What surprised me most about the play and made me think a lot about it is the way in which love is presented. As we discussed in class, Hero and Claudio almost don’t know each other but they agree on getting married. On the other hand, although Beatrice and Benedick apparently have had a sort of relationship in the past, they are (at first) too proud to admit their love for each other. In both cases...are we really talking about true love???

If I had the chance to ask William Shakespeare one question I would ask him what he really thinks about the central themes of their plays: marriage, love, the role of women, among others. I am interested in knowing if he considers these issues as he portrays them in his plays or if it is a sort of criticism intending people reflect on them.

Post 3: After reading the whole play

 The themes or important ideas are the necessity to marry for social benefits, the importance of virginity and the deception that these can bring to a relation: loss of honor and shame.

The lines of Leonato, Hero’s father in the Church: 

“Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes:

For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,

Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,

Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,

Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?

I might have said “No part of it is mine;

This shame derives itself from unknown loins”?”

I believe that the title is as unusual and amusing as the play must have been in the 16th Century. At the same time it already suggests what is going to happen; we should not care too much about things that others consider we should care a lot about.

I would ask Shakespeare, why he decided to deal with sensible themes from a humorous point of view?

Poetry Anthology

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

1. Lets read together!




b) Or alternately, you can read it at your in pace (be ready to press the forward arrow repeatedly):

Sonnet 116 on Prezi

Analysis: 

Poetry Anthology on Prezi

Extract from "The Wife of Bath"

Extract from "The Wife of Bath" on Prezi

Leonard Cohen: A thousand kisses deep 

 

Don’t matter if the road is long
Don’t matter if it’s steep
Don’t matter if the moon is gone
And the darkness is complete
Don’t matter if we lose our way
It’s written that we’ll meet
At least, that’s what I heard you say
A thousand kisses deep

I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat
You see, I’m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second hand physique
With all he is and all he was
A thousand kisses deep

I know you had to lie to me
I know you had to cheat
You learned it on your father’s knee
And at your mother’s feet
But did you have to fight your way
Across the burning street
When all our vital interests lay
A thousand kisses deep

I’m turning tricks
I’m getting fixed
I’m back on boogie street
I’d like to quit the business
But I’m in it, so to speak
The thought of you is peaceful
And the file on you complete
Except what I forgot to do
A thousand kisses deep

Don’t matter if you’re rich and strong
Don’t matter if you’re weak
Don’t matter if you write a song
The nightingales repeat
Don’t matter if it’s nine to five
Or timeless and unique
You ditch your life to stay alive
A thousand kisses deep

The ponies run
The girls are young
The odds are there to beat
You win a while, and then it’s done
Your little winning streak
And summon now to deal with your invincible defeat
You live your life as if it’s real
A thousand kisses deep

I hear their voices in the wine
That sometimes did me seek
The band is playing Auld Lang Syne
But the heart will not retreat
There’s no forsaking what you love
No existential leap
As witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep

 For the last poem, I decided to include one by a contemporary author. This Poem from Leonard Cohen is about lost love. A sense of malencholy pervades all the poem. The fictional interlocutor finds it difficult to forget the woman he loves, even thought she cheated on him. He still harbours  hope of seeing her again. The poem illustrates a true about love: Love hurts!

I hope you like this compilation, Bye.

Post 3: After reading the whole play.

I have finished reading the play and I really liked it! The most important theme in this play is marriage but the ideas of honour and public shaming are very important too.
 I’ve chosen these lines as these shows how Claudio denounces Hero publicly as he thinks he has been betrayed and he is damaging Hero’s reputation.
 O Hero,what a Hero hadst thou been, If half thy outward graces had been placed, About thy thoughts and councels of thy heart! But fare three well, most foul, most fair; farewell Thou pure impiety, and impious purity! For three I’ll lock up all the gates of love And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, And never shall it more be gracious.
 (Act Four, Scene Three)
 As I said before, here Claudio is telling everyone that Hero has been unfaithful to him and by doing this Claudio is publicly asserting that Hero is not a woman to be trusted and this is a shame not only to Hero but also to her family.
 The word “ado” means fuss or trouble. So it can be said that this title is suitable as the play is about a lot of fuss over nothing. As the Longman Dictionary explained, people sometimes use the expression “ Much Ado About Nothing” as a phrase to describe a situation in which there has been a lot of excitement about something that is not really important.
 What surprised me most were Beatrice’s attitudes. I really like the fact that a woman speaks her mind and Beatrice is also very intelligent to mock other people and play with words almost all the time.
 The play made me think about how misunderstanding and impulsiveness can make people believe and assure that something happened so easily and sometimes without proof.
 If I got the chance I would like to ask Shakespeare if any of his life experiences affect his work, as I’ve seen ”Shakespeare in love” I have that doubt

Post 3: After reading the whole play.

Well, I have finally finished reading the play. One of the most important themes in it is marriage, which is central in the plot. Hero and Claudio are quick to fall in love and marry, whereas Beatrice and Benedick scoff at the idea. But they are prepared to reconsider their position, as Benedick says:

I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter? […] No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

Another important theme is subterfuge, the use of lies and tricks as a means to an end. Don Pedro wooing Hero in the name of Claudio and the convoluted plan to pair Beatrice off with Benedick are examples of deceit used as a force for good. On the other hand, the slander against Hero which severely damaged her reputation is the villains's main crime in the play, as Dogberry repeatedly states:

DOGBERRY: Marry, sir, they have committed false report, moreover they have spoken untruths, secondarily, they are slanders, sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady, thirdly they have verified unjust things, and to conclude, they are lying knaves.

Finally, the importance of honour, which for a woman was based upon her chastity, is also significant in the play. It was the accusations of immoral behaviour that almost killed Hero, and brought shame on her family. Claudio publicly humiliates her by saying:

You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown:
But you are more intemperate in your blood,
Than Venus, or those pampered animals,
That rage in savage sensuality.

Hero fainting at the church, Engraving, 1798

Regarding the title of the play, I feel is quite apt. The characters make a big fuss about very little. If it weren´t for the impulsiveness and gullibility of certain characters, the villains’ plans would not have been successful.

I found it surprising how cruel Claudio could be, and how he went to great lengths to hurt Hero after learning about her alleged libertine behaviour. It made me think how easily love can end up becoming hate, and how slander and rumour can injure someone's reputation. We need to understand how serious an accusation of unchastity was in those times.

If I could ask Shakespeare a question, it would be a simple one: Who are you? There has been heated debated about the real identity of the playwright, and it would be a relief to have the matter finally settled.

Post 1 - Much ado about nothing

       What is the most relevant information provided, in your view? What is the most surprising?

In my view, the most relevant information is that the theater was located the seedy part of town frequented by morally rejected people. Probably, they must have been incapable of understanding anything Shakespeare’s plays, but because they might have been attracted by the glamour that a play could offer, this could have been  positive if they attended regularly to the performances at the Globe Theater. The things that surprised me were that the actors could appear from different places: the ceiling, a trap door; the theater could house a large number of spectators who did not care if they had “to stand through a performance under a hot sun or threatening clouds”; what’s more, there was not curtain that opened or closed the beginning or end of the plays, this last feature of this theater together with the images showed in the video reminded me of the Coliseum in Rome.

      How do you think the acting conditions will affect the development of the plot?

Absolutely! I suppose that the size of the theater and the number of people (booing and hissing the actors) required a strong, clear, loud voice. Actors playing supernatural characters may have had certain strength to be able to “descend to earth from heaven”.

How do these two versions compare? Why? Who do you expect the protagonists will be? What do they seem to be like?

Taking into account the setting, in the first version it looks like a recreation of the furniture and painted background of a theatre stage. However, the trailer of the second film shows more real places. Probably it is due to technology advances or remaining loyal to what it may have been a performance played in the actual theater.

 I believe the protagonists will be Claudio and Beatrice. Claudio seems to be a young man and very naïve. Beatrice is very different, very outspoken and sarcastic. 

Post II: After reading Act III

Mi first impression about Benedick and Beatrice was that they would be a sort of enemies throughout the whole play. Obviously, this prediction was immediately contradicted as they, with a little help of their friends, fall in love with each other.
I really like Beatrice as she has a strong character, she shows herself as being a clever woman, very talkative, who always says what she really thinks without caring about other people's opinions and usually making use of a mocking tone. She is a confirmed bachelorette who refuses to marry anybody and what's more striking is that she seems to be happy about it!

Later in the play, we learn that her decision about marriage is not so irrevocable as she falls in love with Benedick and I imagine she will reconsider it. As Walter mentioned before, another noticeable change in the play occurs at the level of the tone, as it starts as a happy comedy but, by the end of the 3erd Act, it becomes dark and almost tragic, as it involves a lot of suffering on the part of Claudio and Hero who are about to get married but are tricked by Don John and his men who convince Claudio that Hero is unfaithful to him.

Humour is achieved mainly by 3 characters. First, Beatrice is in charge of it as she constantly mocks Benedick, but then, 2 funny characters appear on scene: Dogberry and Verges who are 2 watchmen who bring about a series of innocent misunderstandings that prevent Hero and Claudio from having a happy wedding.

Quotation:
Beatrice: " What should I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him. Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bearherd, and lead his apes into hell." (Act 2. Scene 1)

I chose this quotation because I think this is a very witty remark that clearly portrays Beatrice as she really is. While reading it I thought she may adopt this posture towards love to protect herself from her own vulnerability and to avoid being damaged by men. I imagine she had bad experiences with men before or maybe she has not found the correct one...yet.

Post 1: Before reading

Much Ado About Nothing
I found really interesting the description of the theatre and how the audience was distributed. The distribution is different from the one we have now as the nearer to the stage you are the more expensive the tickets are.What's more you have to be in the open air even though you pay more to see the show and as it is shown in the video, people who pay only one penny was closer to the stage and in the open air. I did not like to learn the fact that people enjoyed going to see how a bear was attacked by dogs and that this was a way of entertainment. Much Ado About Nothing-Film-Tv play After watching both versions of the play I think that the trailer shows that the language used is not exactly the one used in the book, while the Tv play used the same words as the original play. May be as the movie is more recent than the tv play the language was needed to be changed as some expressions were really difficult. I think the protagonists will be Beatrice and Benedick.Tough they seem to hate each other (after wathcing the trailer my opinion changed) they will love each other at the end.

Post 2: After reading Act III

So far, my predictions about the characters have been spot on. Benedick and Beatrice are two confirmed bachelors, who are in a kind of merry war betwixt them. They scorn love, and swear they will never marry. Evidently they are in love with each other; they just don’t know it yet. At least that is what their friends think, for Don Pedro, Hero, Claudio and Leonato decide to resort to a ploy and try to convince Benedick that Beatrice is in love with him, and vice versa.

The other characters I like best so far are Dogberry and Verges. They are two watchmen who provide comic relief. They bring humour to the play by their misuse of words, often by confusing two words of similar sound.

The play starts as a happy comedy, one in which misunderstandings and eavesdropping set the plot in motion. But at the end of Act 3, the villain is about to be successful, having led Claudio and Don Pedro to believe that Hero is not chaste. Therefore, the atmosphere of the play grows dark, as Claudio and Don Pedro intend to shame Hero publicly, exposing her as a slut.

Humour is achieved through the use of witty ditties, puns, and extended metaphors which amount to analogies. There are also malapropisms (incorrect uses of words) via Dogberry. As regards the use of verse and prose, we can observe that prose is predominant in the play, with verse restricted to serious matters, and only spoken by aristocratic characters.

BENEDICK Ha, against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner:
there's a double meaning in that: I took no more pains for those
thanks than you took pains to thank me: that's as much as to say, any
pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks: if I do not take pity of
her I am a villain, if I do not love her I am a Jew, I will go get her
picture.

I choose this quotation because it is simply hilarious. After having been tricked into believing that Beatrice is madly in love with him, Benedick sees second meanings where there are none. 

Much Ado About Nothing: Reading Journal

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre was reconstructed in London in 1997

The first video describes the Globe Theatre. It was built west of London Bridge on the South bank of the river Thames in an area known as Bankside. The original Globe Theatre was just a wood frame building. The interior resembled a modern opera house with three galleries protected from rain and sunlight by a roof. Between two thousand and three thousand playgoers would pay two or more pennies to sit in these galleries. The stage was raised four to six feet from ground level and had a roof supported by pillars. In front of the stage there was a roofless yard for up to one thousand groundlings that paid a penny to stand through the performance under the hot sun or rain. At the rear of the stage was an inner stage separated from the front by a draw-curtain. The dressing rooms of the actors were collectively known as the “Tiring House”. Props and backdrops were few, as the exact locality for a scene wasn´t usually important and when it was necessary the playwright showed it in the dialogue. The actors weren´t separated from the audience, so a common experience was possible. The action was continuous, as there wasn´t a main curtain. The lack of artificial light meant that the plays had to be performed during the afternoons.
It struck me as odd that the Globe theatre was located in the seedy section of town, an area frequented by prostitutes, pickpockets and other unsavoury people. So definitely the theatre and Shakespeare himself weren`t as glamorous as one may think.

Much Ado About Nothing

This two versions of Much Ado About Nothing are quite different. The first one resembles a theatre play, and it seems to be more faithful to the original. The second one appears to be a big-budget Hollywood movie, starring well-known actors and actresses such as Emma Thompson, Kate Beckinsale, Keanu Reeve, etc. The movie seems to be more lively and goofier than the TV series.
The main protagonists mentioned in the two videos are: Don Pedro from Aragon, Claudio, Sir Benedict, Hero, and Beatrice. They belong to the nobility or gentry. Two of the characters. Benedict and Beatrice, are portrayed as sparring partners who eventually fall on love with each other.

Assignment No. 1 Part 2 - María Celeste Muttis and Gabriela Andreoni

PLEASE, RIGHT AFTER YOU CLICK ON THE LINK BE READY TO CLICK ON  "MORE" AND "AUTOPLAY" TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY THE MUSIC TOGETHER WITH THE IMAGES.

http://prezi.com/hrsdwjt5a3kz/eveline-trailer/

Eveline Trailer on Prezi

Assignment 1 Part II: Loreto - Simoncelli

http://www.classtools.net/fb/60/9SFHQH

View Fullscreen | Create your own

Assignment No. 1 - part two

View Fullscreen | Create your own

POST 3- Valentina Zanor

I think the most striking moments happen in chapter VII.While I was reading that 

chapter, I had the feeling that nothing had happened in the previous ones. I was 

puzzled twice:

• First, when I realised it was Gatsby's car that hit Myrtle
• and then, when we're told through Gatsby that Daisy was driving

In that moment I started drawing conclusions, and I felt It had been worth reading all 

the other chapters.

When I finished reading the novel, the first thing I thought about was obsessions. 

Sometimes we get so obsessed with something or somebody that we can lose 

everything, because we have no limits. We should be able to manage our feelings and 

not to be so 

easily blinded.

If I could ask the author a question I would ask him why did he chose not to engage 

Nick in any kind of relationship? I expected the novel to end up with love in Nick's 

life.

POST 3 - Andreoni Gabriela

It called my attention how much Gastby was in love with Daisy, and all the things and risks that he was completely willing to take for her. His strong desire to be together once more, as they did years ago. He is not capable of realising or admitting that everything was in vain, and that he cannot keep that dream alive.

As I read I couldn´t stop thinking what Nick could have done to make Gatsby realize that she is not going to leave Tom, and that she doesn´t really love him.

It made me think that we many times idealize others. We choose to see people in the way we would like them to be. And all those characteristics that we find in them, no matter how few they are, they can have a big impact on as.

I would ask Fitzgerald, "Why did not Nick try to be honest and tell Gastby and Daisy what he thought about their situation, and his impression on them?". I would ask this because Nick cared about a Gatsby, and if he was to be a good friend he should have been more honest and stopped him. I think he encouraged Gatsby´s obsession with Daisy, for example by meeting them again, knowing that she was married and did not care for him.

POST 2- Valentina Zanor

My predictions have been confirmed in terms of setting and the way in which people lived those days.In fact, I chose a quotation that can be related with the lifestyle Americans aspired to have:

"They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such--such beautiful shirts before."

This quotation shows us two different aspects of Daisy:

• She is extremely materialistic. I think that this characteristic could have been easily applied to most women in those days. Money occupied a crucial place when deciding to accept or reject a marriage proposal. Daisy's reaction and her tears in a way symbolize an understanding of what she has given up by choosing to marry Tom over Gatsby. 
• At the same time, we can infer that it is in that moment in which she realizes who she really wanted to spend her life with. She is probably hiding her true feelings, by showing a reaction typical of a shallow person.

The changes I noticed:

• I started seeing Gatsby more as a person. During the first chapters the things we knew about him were just rumors. In the following ones, we discover his feelings and his past.
• The advise that Nick's father gave him, is no longer followed by the charecter. He started criticising most of the other characters. He even praise himself: "Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

I don't know what will happen next but, I think that the hide business Gatsby carries out must be figured out by Nick.

Post 3 - Walter Rivas

After finishing reading the novel, I was left with a feeling of melancholy. The first time I read it I couldn't understand the Gatsby´s ordeal. You need to have lost a dream to merely begin to fathom Gatsby obsession with Daisy.

Yet, there was something sinister about him. He was a gangster after all. At the last chapters of the novel we learnt about Gatsby ventures with Wolfsheim. They set up a chain of drugstores, where they would sell grain alcohol over the counter in direct violation of Prohibition. But as Tom informs us, "that drug-store business was just small change". Gatsby was also peddling stolen bonds, a far more lucrative venture.

However, Nick states that "Gatsby turned out all right at the end". He considers that although his means were dubious, Gatsby's goal was noble. All he did was for love, and for love he died. He was made a scapegoat for Daisy's accident. Just as Owl-eyes was held responsible for an accident in Chapter 3!

I would like to ask to the author why he chose "the hottest day of the year" as the setting for the tragic climax. Maybe it was a homage to "Romeo and Juliet", I remember that Mercutio also died in a hot day.

Post 2 - Walter Rivas

I chose this quotation because it reflects Gatsby's extraordinary gift for hope. He hoped to re-create 1917 in his affair with Daisy. But this proved to be futile, as we learn later in the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, Nick boasts of his tolerance. However, as the novel progresses he grows more and more cynical. He is prejudiced, making comments like: "Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply". We also observe some "casual racism": the way Nick describes Wolfsheim, as a stereotypical jew; and his reaction to the modish negroes would be considered politically incorrect at the least nowadays. At the end, Nick recognizes his own shortcomings: "I'm thirty. I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour".

Post 3 by Mariel

The moments in the novel that I found more striking were two. The first one was when Daisy had the car accident and killed Myrtle and Gatsby was accused of the incident. The second one was the moment when  Daisy stayed with Tom. She did not even think about Gatsby and she did not followed him or helped him. This really disappointed me beacuse as I was reading the novel I thought that Daisy and Gatsby would end up together.
This novel made me think about how powerful money is and how weak love can be.
If I had the chance to ask the writer one question I would ask him why did he decided to kill Gatsby.