The Woman of Bath

https://www.montville.net/Page/5093

"The Woman of Bath" was a bout a knight that wasn't so brave. The knight rapes a woman, for his own selfish reasons, and ends up getting in trouble by the queen. The queen tells the knight he has a year and one day to find out what women desire most. If he didn't find out, he would be sentenced to death. He was getting different answers from many different women and couldn't figure out what it is that women desire most. On his final day, he still hadn't found his answer. Riding by the forest, he came upon this hideous looking lady. She told him if he would do anything she wanted, she would tell him what women desire most. The knight when back to the queen, sure of his answer. He told the queen what women desired most was equality among them and their husband. the queen loved his answer. Unfortunately  now he had to marry the ugly woman that gave him the answer. After their wedding day the ugly woman asked him why he was upset. The knight gave her a cold, cruel answer about how she was old and ugly and he didn't want to be in this marriage. She gave him 2 options. She could turn beautiful, but be unfaithful and not a good wife, or she would stay ugly and old, but be the most faithful and amazing wife there ever was. The knight was smart, though. He told her that the option was up to her and he'd except what she wanted. The old woman was so happy with this answer because he was showing her equality. Because of his perfect answer, she turned into a beautiful woman, but was still going to be faithful and the best wife ever.

This story is a lot like marriages today in the way of equality. Women and men today are a lot more equal in their marriages. Still today though, some marriages deal with lying and unfaithful partners like what the ugly woman could be like in the story. This story also shows that marriages have their complications, but they can compromise to make their marriage better. Obviously, you can magically turn into the person you want to be, but with compromise and understanding, as well as equality, a marriage can solve many problems.

This website gives the full story of "The Woman of Bath", if anyone is interested in reading it. It was a very good story and worth reading!

Are women portrayed in a positive manner?

http://geopolicraticus.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/dido-and-aeneas-in-portland/

Women in the Iliad and the Aeneid are not portrayed in a positive way, to me. There are 3 women mentioned in these books: Helen (Paris's wife), Andromache (Hektor's wife), and Dido. All of these epics show women as being the second choice or have no
freedom to do as they please. They have to do whatever they are told by men. These three women portray these things in these epics.
To me, women are all weak and give into men in these epics. Whatever men say, goes. There's no if's and's or but's about it. Andromache doesn't want her husband Hektor to fight in Troy because she's scared he'll die. He decides to anyway obviously not putting her or her son first. Hektor ends up dying by Achilles. Andromache is taken by the people of Greece and ends up marrying Achilles's brother. She didn't have a choice whether she wanted to or not. Andromache and Hektor's son was thrown over the wall of Troy and killed.
Helen was abducted by Paris from her other husband. She was married before Paris and let Paris take her away. Was it for love, or was it because she was forced?  Helen ends up being taken back by her old husband when Troy was taken over by Greece. She went back and forth from guy to guy. She just had to go with whatever men wanted.
Dido ends up getting shot by the love arrow from cupid. She falls in love with Aeneas. The question is did she really love him, or was it the arrow that caused her love? Either way she was going to get hat she wanted. In return, Aeneas leaves her to be able to find Italy. Dido ends up killing herself. This portrays women to be weak and vulnerable. She kills herself because she can't live without a guy. This gives a negative view on her.
As you can see, women are not portrayed in a positive way in these epics. They are shown as dependent upon men. Also, the men show that they aren't dependent upon women. Women are almost shown as a second choice or even an option in their lives.
The artwork to the right of my blog is showing Dido meeting Aeneas for the first time. This artwork portrays the story and shows how this epic influenced artwork.This website gives some examples of artwork and information about how art and the Iliad go together. The epics were a major influence for the artwork used back then. I learned that they used the artwork for marriages and everything. That's how big of an effect the epic had on artwork. Although, it's not as important now, it was a big deal then.

blog 10

http://www.amazon.com/Awakening-Norton-Critical-Editions/dp/0393960579

So far in the book, The Awakening, Mrs. is saying good bye to her husband because he's going off to work. She asks if he'll be home for dinner even though she knows Pontellier he won't. That's exactly the answer she gets too. He ends up coming home late at night. He eventually has to go away on a business trip for awhile, leaving her to take care of the kids by herself. That's what she's used to, though. He mails her and the children gifts from where he's at to show he's thinking of them. Mrs. Pontellier doesn't seem very happy i  her marriage to me. She almost seems like she's trapped in misery with her marriage. I get the feeling that she feels alone even with the children at her house with her. She still acts like everything is okay when really everything is falling apart. I wonder where the story is going to go from here. Is she going to stay in the marriage? is she going to leave her husband? I can't wait to read more and find out. This link gives a little more information about the characters, settings, ect. about Kate Chopin's book, The Awakening. 

Blog 9

http://antigonemythology.wikispaces.com/The+Oedipus+Cycle

I didn't really care for the actual play. The masks and everything was really cool, but they way the drug out words and moved around kind of made me laugh. I felt really bad because when Oedipus found out he had killed his father and married his mother, I was laughing. I wasn't laughing because of what happened, but because of how they were acting it out. It just didn't seem very realistic to me. No one would dance around and hold out words in real life like they did.  I think that's just how Greek tragedy is, though. Their drama is less ordinary and realistic than how we think of drama today. When we see drama it's tragedies, but nothing compared to this story. Another thing I didn't like was how fast they talked. When an actor or actress had a long speech to say they talked so fast I couldn't make out what they were saying. I had to kind of guess or figure out what was going on from what happens after their speech. I enjoying the play though because I could actually get a visual of what the play was like. Instead of just reading it in my textbook I got a visual idea. The masks were a really cool touch too because you're not focused as much on what the character looks like. You're more focused on the actual play and the plot of the play. Here is a link I found that gives a little sneak preview of Oedipus Rex. This is a little piece of the play I watched and how they looked with the masks. In my picture above, you can also get a visual of how the characters looked in the movie play. 

For my independent reading book I decided to read The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I decided to try this book because one of my friends told me she read it and she liked it. I decided to give it a try. I haven't started the book yet, but I plan to soon. I'll keep you updated!

Blog #8

http://gakuranman.com/aristotles-moral-philosophy/

Aristotle is a Greek critic that came up with the poetics of how a play should be. He came up with what the elements of tragedy should be to be a good tragedy. His good elements to tragedy are if the play is about important people, there has to have a fall, there has to be a tragic flaw to each main character, and god's are crushing the human. This website explains Aristotle's moral philosophy. This website gives a whole bunch of information about him and many other things. The significance of Oedipus the King is what Aristotle thought of the play. He thought his play met all the requirements for the elements of tragedy. Everything in this play has the elements of tragedy and that's why the play is so interesting to me.


I haven't found an independent reading book, yet. I want to find one that is the complete opposite from the horror story of A Clockwork Orange. I plan on finding the book I want to read sometime soon so I can blog about it.

Blog 7- Oedipus the King and Podcast

http://allthingsd.com/20120615/apple-gives-podcasts-a-gentle-push-out-of-itunes/

Right now in World Literature, we are reading Oedipus the King. I am actually enjoying this play. Usually if I read ancient pieces of literature like this I don't like it and don't understand what's going on until the teacher explains it. But, I actually understand and it's a really suspenseful play. It's keeping me on the edge of my seat the whole time. In order to read this play you first have to read and understand Oedipus Myth. This is what we had to read in class before reading Oedipus the King. I am so excited to see what else happens at the end of the play! From what I can see, the ending won't be pretty for Oedipus.



I finished my independent reading book A Clockwork Orange. It wasn't exactly what I expected it would be, but I'm happy I got the chance to read it. Right below this paragraph is a link for my podcast. This podcast is information about my independent reading book, a rating for the book, and other criticisms I gave. Hope you enjoy it!! :)

Podcast Link:

Catchy Quote: "A Clockwork Orange"

http://www.lacrosselibrary.org/information/books_lit.asp

"Then I looked at its top sheet, and there was the name- A CLOCKWORK ORANGE- and I said: 'That's a fair gloopy title. Who ever heard of a clockwork orange?' Then I read the malenky a bit out loud in a sort of very high type preaching goloss:'- The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my sword-pen-' Dim made the old lip-music at that and I had to smeck myself."

I picked these few sentences for my favorite quote. I picked it because it has the title of the book into the book itself. It kind of explains what is in the book this man is writing and what it's about. A lot of people like to write books in their free time. If you want to write a fiction book there are some rules you can follow to make it interesting. Here are top ten rules when writing fiction. So if you're interested in writing fiction take a look at these rules.