Wrap Up

This class has taught me a lot about reading, writing, and analyzing different types of literature. I especially enjoyed analyzing film such as Rear Window and all those film scenes that we watched. My favorite piece of literature that we read in this class was Death of a Salesman because looking at the slow demise of Willy Loman was both sad and interesting. I also really liked the Gwendolyn Brooks poem "We Real Cool" because it was short but also contained lots of meaning in only a few lines. My least favorite piece of literature that we read this semester was "The Red Wheelbarrow" because I did not understand the significance of it. Overall I enjoyed this class and it has helped me to expand my knowledge and understanding of literature.

Death in Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death"

Emily Dickinson's poem, "Because I could not stop for Death" portrays a very interesting image of death because it's as if death is a person. The narrator of the poem starts with the line, "Because I could not stop for death/ He kindly stopped for me," which suggests that the narrator welcomes death and is not afraid of it. Death even drives a carriage where the narrator gets into and rides around in. The driving of the carriage might signify the passage of time and how they passed the school with children playing at recess and then the setting sun. The narrator notes, "We passed the setting sun/ Or rather- he passed us," which is interesting because the setting sun is seen as the opposite of death where death stopped for the narrator but the setting sun did not. This further implies the passage of time as the sun sets but the narrator continues to travel with death. By the end of the poem the narrator knows that it has been centuries since death stopped but it feels as if it has been shorter than a day and that an eternity of death would further await her arrival.

The Meaning of Philip Larkin's "Church Going"

"Church Going" by Philip Larkin is an intriguing poem about a narrator who explores the church and spirituality in an increasingly secularized world. The poem is broken up into seven stanzas and the first two stanzas are drastically different than the last five stanzas. In the first two stanzas the narrator makes fun of the church and describes it as ordinary he observes, "Another church: matting, seats, and stone..." which signifies that the church has no meaning to the narrator it's just a building like any other. The narrator also makes fun of the church by removing his cycle-clips as a sign of respect instead of a hat and donating an Irish sixpence which would be worthless in England. The last line of the second stanza the narrator, "Reflect the place was not worth stopping for," which means that at this point he still does not recognize the meaning of spirituality within the church. However, in the first line of the third stanza the narrator flips his opinion by saying, "Yet stop I did: in fact I often do," meaning that the narrator is fascinated by spirituality and churches in general and he admits he often dwells on the subject of religion. After the third stanza the entire tone of the poem changes as it goes from being satirical to serious. In the last five stanzas the narrator questions the meaning of the church as he questions belief, then superstition, and then disbelief. He moves through the stanzas by imagining what the church would be like without any believers and who the last person to seek the church for what it was, a place of spirituality, would be. By the end of the poem the narrator concludes that spirituality will never die out because someone will always seek it out and that the church will always be a place for church seekers, like himself, to go to.

Feminist Reading of Ophelia in Hamlet

The character of Ophelia in Hamlet is very complex as she is one of the only two female characters in the play. Ophelia's role in Hamlet is to be Hamlet's love interest so her role is completely dependent upon him. As long as Hamlet still expresses interest in Ophelia then she is still in the play. However, once Hamlet expresses disinterest than Ophelia is immediately killed off as her role in the play is no longer necessary. This emphasizes Ophelia's oppression within Hamlet as she is defined by her male counterparts. At the beginning of the play, Ophelia does not do anything without the direction of Polonius or Laertes. Suspicious of Hamlet's strange behavior, Polonius concludes that Hamlet must be madly in love with Ophelia and he uses her as bait to get Hamlet to spill his secrets. At the same time, Laertes is telling Ophelia that she must stay away from Hamlet because she is not good enough for the prince and that she must protect her chastity. Ophelia is receiving two very different signals as she is used by both Polonius, who only needs her to reach his true desires which is the prince, and Laertes, who wants her to remain chaste as that is the way women of her status should be. Ophelia is used as a means to an end by both her father and brother. She has no way out of her situation because she is a lady of the court and cannot rise or fall in status without a male's assistance. Ophelia becomes useless to Polonius once Hamlet rejects his love for her and she is accused of going mad. Whether Ophelia actually is mad or not remains unknown, however, she does drown herself in the brook. She may have fled the oppression she always felt, knowing she would never rise in the court, or she may have went mad because she lost direction from her father and brother once they deemed her useless and she killed herself not knowing what else to do. Ophelia is a character that can either be viewed as having a tragic end, as she kills herself, or a liberating end of being freed from oppression.

Female Melancholia Portrayed in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

It is very clear that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" suffers from the mental health disorder of depression, or what was referred to as female "melancholia" or "hysteria" in the late 19th century. Throughout history, hysteria was thought to only effect females because of the uterus. It was thought that females suffered from hysteria because the womb was out of place due to the absence of male penetration. Often, females diagnosed with hysteria were not allowed to do any creatively stimulating activities such as writing, painting, or drawing. This is seen in "The Yellow Wallpaper" as the narrator says, "So I take phosphates and phosphites - whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to 'work' until I am well again"(Gilman 526). Creative activity was thought to exhaust the patient diagnosed with hysteria so it was prohibited. This had an overall negative affect on the patient because they were restricted from any creative outlet. This led them into a deeper depression and eventual insanity like the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper." Cures to female hysteria included sexual intercourse, childbirth, and the rest cure. Childbirth and the rest cure are both seen within Gilman's short story, as the narrator is prescribed the rest cure by her husband, John, and it is known that the narrator and John recently had a child. It is also worth noting that to cure the absence of male penetration in females was to bare children, more specifically males. Having a male child in the womb was replacing the male penetration and thought to fix hysteria. This can also be seen in "The Yellow Wallpaper" as the narrator says, "It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous"(Gilman 528). The narrator most likely had a baby to cure her hysteria and when that did not work she was prescribed the rest cure. It is proven that neither of these methods are affective and it does not cure depression but instead worsens it as that patient slide deeper into it. By the end of the story the narrator is crazed because she is denied any physical or mental activity and she has a baby that she probably did not want and cannot see. All of these factors contribute to her mental breakdown at the end of the story as she rips all the wallpaper from her room causing her husband, the reason of her oppression, to faint.

Success According to Willy in "Death of a Salesman"

The Controlling Gaze in Hitchcock's "Rear Window"

Throughout the entire film Jeff is seen as having the controlling gaze into Thorwald's apartment. He sits next to his window confined to his wheelchair in the safety of his apartment while he observes all his neighbors from across the courtyard. Jeff makes up his own narratives for his neighbors even though in reality he has no idea what is actually going on in their lives. He accuses Thorwald of murdering his wife even though he has no idea whether or not he actually did it. Jeff's controlling gaze into Thorwald's apartment controls most of the films narrative as the viewer gets more and more suspicious of Thorwald based on Jeff's perception of him. The viewers can only see what Jeff see's as the movie is told exclusively from his point-of-view. Jeff's gaze controls the viewers perception of Thorwald as well as well as the story occurring within Thorwald's apartment. Jeff's controlling gaze reaches its breaking point when Lisa enters Thorwald's apartment. At this point Jeff loses control as he cannot tell Lisa what to do once she enters Thorwald's apartment. Once Thorwald discovers Lisa in his apartment Thorwald returns Jeff's gaze by looking into Jeff's apartment. The controlling gaze is no longer Jeff's as Thorwald takes that position over by wondering what Jeff's motive is for spying on him. A barrier is broken when Thorwald enters Jeff's apartment to confront him about his spying and Lisa's intrusion. This is a surreal moment for the viewer as Thorwald enters Jeff's safety zone and the point-of-view shifts to Thorwald. Two narratives that were kept separate collide at this moment as the controlling gaze reaches the climax and Thorwald throws Jeff out the window. This brings the story to an abrupt end as Jeff is thrown out of his safety zone and the narrative that he has constructed.