A Modern Woman's Take on Swift's A Lady's Dressing Room

The view on women based on Jonathon Swift’s The Lady’s Dressing Room and a reaction for a modern woman: Me:

                Jonathon Swift proves how disgusting a woman’s dressing room can be even though she is basically raisen from dung and turns into a beautiful flower. I can see how one might see women as gross when they delve too far into the grooming time. I could see a man taking my makeup brush that has never been washed because I like how fluffy it is (although, I just got a new one). I could see him or anyone thinking that excrement is gross; it is. So don’t go sticking your hand into an unflushed toilet Strephan! Also, I could see anyone thinking dirty laundry is disgusting and smells bad. Well, back when Jonathon Swift was writing, some clothes weren’t washed or there were so many layers, one sweated through them all. I know I’m not crazy about smelling my dirty laundry after I take it off and throw it into the bin to be washed. As for the makeup…Puppy insides, bird poo, and puppy water…yuck. I’m glad makeup standards have changed and most of my makeup is all natural or completely vegan. It’s just powder now so don’t spring a leak. I get that the makeup back when Strephan was disrupting the force in a woman’s private space. Just let me make clear, if you think it’ll be yucky, don’t touch it, look at it, sniff it, or feel it. Basically, keep in mind that women come out looking and smelling like a tulip.

                Men, I won’t intrude on your Axe body spray, hair-clogged razor, and never cleaned with the seat up toilet, if you keep your paws off and out of my closet and makeup bag. Because you come out smelling like a wanna be Jersey Shore Guido with too much jel and a condom stuck to the bottom of your foot…nowadays. When Strephan was pawing through Celia’s stuff, he didn’t know that she could be pawing through his. Hmmm…didn’t men wear makeup too back then? Did you, Strephan, turn poor Tripsy’s brother Tipsy into makeup or shaving cream. Did you forget to flush the toilet once and a while and most off all, you wore high heels…leave it to the women, pal.

                Moral of the story, Jonathon Swift, stay out of Lady’s Dressing Rooms; Strephon, don’t go through Celia’s stuff—and yes, she shits!—and Celia, if you ever go through Strephon’s things, write a poem about it for pay back and tell it to all your friends then laugh about it but never let him find out. As for the modern day people, No snooping in your significant other’s closet or makeup and please, if you do, don’t write a poem about it. Everybody shits.

Sonnets

Sonnets!!

 I love the sonnets we’ve been reading in class. I have yet to write a successful one. My favorite has to be Sir Phillip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella. Sidney uses the normal sonnet conventions of love and emotion to exemplify the love between the star lover and his star.

The sonnet was once the most common poetic form written in 18 lines and usually in iambic pentameter. There’s usually a problem or question (octave) and an answer or solution (sestet). There are many types of sonnets the most important ones are Petrarch or Italian, and Shakespearean Sonnets.

The Petrarch Sonnet usually follows one of these forms:

            a-b-b-a a-b-b-a c-d-e-c-d-e

a-b-b-a a-b-b-a c-d-c-c-d-c

This sonnet was invented in the 13^th Century in Italy and was developed by Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374).

The Shakespearean Sonnet, I believe, is the most popular and widely used now. The form of these sonnets is usually:

            a-b-a-b c-d-c-d  e-f-e-f  g-g

Shakespeare was the best and no one could out do him so that made the sonnets big. He was one of the best playwrights and sonnet poets. Shakespeare’s sonnet collection includes 154 sonnets. Shakespeare also does not follow conventions as closely as a lot of other poets. He never clearly follows one pattern to a tee. Shakespeare also turns convention on its head when the focus of his sonnets is sometimes a young man.

One of my favorite sonnets is Shakespeare’s Sonnet 1:

From fairest creatures we desire increase,

 That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

 But as the riper should by time decease,

 His tender heir might bear his memory:

 But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,

 Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,

 Making a famine where abundance lies,

 Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:

 Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,

 And only herald to the gaudy spring,

 Within thine own bud buriest thy content,

 And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:

 Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

 To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

            In this sonnet he speaks about that you create your own hell even when there should not be one. He follows conventions here and form but it isn’t clearly about love. One could argue it could be about a lot of people who are making their own life harder.

Hamlet: Women in Thought

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, there are many mixed and contrasting views of women. Hamlet sees Ophelia as a temptress he cannot trust and sees Gertrude, as the root of his feelings toward all women, as not loyal and only interested in power. His views begin with Gertrude and while his father was still alive, he envied her marriage with him. The mother is always the person that a man's feelings toward all women root from. If the mother is loyal and sweet and proves she's a respectable woman, then the man shall view all women that way and treat them as he treats his mother. That's why people always say that you should watch how a man treats his mother because that’s how he will treat you. After the tragic death of his father, Hamlet witnesses Gertrude remarrying before the grave was even cold. That really messed up how he saw his mother. Those feelings deepened when Claudius and Gertrude tried to make him call Claudius "father". Those feelings stemmed out to how he viewed his love, Ophelia. After Gertrude remarried, Hamlet's faith in women depleted. He saw Ophelia as only doing her father's bidding by trying to marry him for the attention. He quickly separated himself from her by telling her he'd gone mad. One of the big questions in Hamlet is "Was Hamlet ever in love with Ophelia or was he just using her?" In my opinion--because a lot of Hamlet is left up to interpretation--is that he was in love with her but due to the acts of Gertrude and then his changing opinion about women, he lost that love. In truth, I believe that Hamlet truly respected women and loved his mother and Ophelia. It all roots back to Gertrude and her acts of deceit toward Hamlet's dead father. Also, the fact that the ghost of the King telling Hamlet that Claudius killed him was not a fact to win him over to the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude because that meant Gertrude married the very man that killed her beloved husband and his father. I think that after Gertrude remarried, Hamlet's views of the sanctity of marriage were blurred. He viewed their marriage as amazing and the ideal but then again after the marriage to his uncle, he probably thought Ophelia would do the same to him. Everything roots back to his mother and how he looks at her for his thought of women.

Utopia.

Would you move to Utopia given the chance? I wouldn't. This is my reaction to Utopia in terms of moving or not...continuation of discussion in class.

I would not move to Utopia. More speaks of being equal but for some, equality is not deserved. If I worked to reach the status I held and worked for what I got, I would not want someone who didn’t work to be the same as me. I’d like to keep the status I earned through hard work, preservation, and determination.

I would not want to leave all of my belongings behind. I’ve accumulated things that make me Kate as materialistic as that sounds. It’s a way I express my individuality. Also, I’d have to give up my laptop that holds my poetry, essays, stories, and novels that are so very important to me.

I endure that self-expression in Utopia is lost. I would not want to wear the same clothes as every other single or married woman. Not everything looks good on everyone. I love my clothes and appearance. Maybe it was different back in Henry VIII’s England but now I would not move to Utopia. I thoroughly think I’d stay even if I lived in Henry VIII’s England as well.

In regards to moving every couple years, I am convinced I hate moving. I’ve done it so many times that people may think I enjoy it but I don’t. When I find somewhere I like, I’d want to stay for as long as I thought proper. I don’t remember if I read this or not but isn’t it that people could just go into your house in Utopia? I wouldn’t want that either. More must have been on something or very open.

Along the lines of war and invasion, Utopia seems very protected but I don’t doubt some of the things like equality for all would go over well and that could very well cause a civil war.

In terms of religion, I do not think Utopia is very religiously diverse place where you could be something other than Christian. I, personally, take a lot of theological teachings and combine them. For example, I follow the teachings or Buddha but the religion of Christ.
Having to share all of everything would be hard. I wouldn’t want someone who didn’t work for their food to just take the food I grew, made, and cooked.

On the other hand, some of the things I like are that it would be a fresh start and you’d always have someone there for help. I like that there would be no poor and no rich. I only care about effort.

All in all, I know I wouldn’t go to Utopia no matter if I was living now or in Henry VII’s England.

Poetics and literary devices in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Literary devices in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

Allusions are used in The Canterbury Tales when, as the most famous example, he speaks of the Wife of Bath and her appearance. He relates her appearance to the fact that she has been married five times and craves sex. The allusion is that she is gap toothed and that is a sign of being over sexed or craving sex.

Chaucer uses alliteration sparingly but it is still present. He uses it a whole lot less than the Gawain poet. In the General Prologue

Chaucer uses rhyming lines in verse in the original middle English text. A good example of this is on line 11- 14,

 So priketh hem Nature in hir corages;

            Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

            And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes

            To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;

Chaucer uses a lot of alliteration to create a flow and aide in his descriptions in the General Prologue.

Chaucer writes in Iambic Pentameter sometimes as well. Opening lines:

            Whan that aprill with his shoures soote

I cannot tell or figure out if Chaucer is completely written in Iambic Pentameter. It is supposedly translated this way according to this site.

 Something I also found interesting was that Chaucer wrote this in English rather than French. This shows that he has a good understanding of languages.

This poem was an estate satire and poked fun at the 3 classes. Also, in this context, Chaucer’s writing does not condemn him to be set in any class. The way he writes and describes without class bias and only bias about the people themselves, shows that his thoughts outreach the three classes. He mocks the cultural patterns exhibited in that time period. Like with the Wife of Bath marrying more than once and not staying a window. She isn’t a typical woman because she’s actually made a wealthy life for herself.

Also, Chaucer’s subjects are real people. Some of them don’t fit into the stereotypes of the time. He speaks of the clergy being corrupt and the fact that the doctor takes people’s money and gives them sort of false treatments. “For each put money in the other’s pocket” (line 429).

There is no magic and fantasy just people. In this way, he is able to show a cross section of Medieval society.   

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the story has many connections to earlier Arthurian literature like the Green Man as discussed in class. But also its alliteration and use to the Bob and wheel end rhyme at the conclusion of each paragraph is what drew me in. I love the repetition with the same first letter in each line but it doesn't make it sound like some Doctor Seuss made up, mixed up meaning poem. This poem exhibits the tradition of honor and chivalry because of Sir Gawain taking the challenge so his young king did not have to. Now, what reasons that may be were argued about in class: the king's honor, the reputation of the king if he were to lose, and many others. I think that Sir Gawain was being very honorable by taking up the challenge when no one else would. When the Green Knight gives Gawain his challenge he also says that the blow will be returned in a year and a day. This later became known as the "beheading game". Once Sir Gawain beheads the green knight, the green man gets to his feet, picks up his head, and reminds Gawain of the appointed day that Gawain must come and seek him out so the green knight may return the favor. Sir Gawain inquires about his name and place of residence but is barely given anything in that respect.

As for the manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it was written by a poet nicknamed the “Pearl Poet”. The Poet also wrote Pearl, Patience, and Purity.

And the verse of the poem is written in what is called "Alliterative Revival" style that was very common in the 14th century. It has also been called the Bob and Wheel. The alliterative form in this poem of this period usually relied on the similarity of stressed syllables at the beginning and end of the line. This type of style is called a Bob and Wheel because "bob" is a very short line, very regularly only two syllables in length, then followed by the "wheel," longer lines with rhyme internally and alliteration and repetition.

My thoughts on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are that I love this poem! It is defiantly what I am interested in reading. It has a lot of literary background and stuffing in the poem. I love the Arthurian legends and really want to read more of them.