Final Essay: Working with poetry considering the reader centerd approach

According to what I have learnt in English Literature during this semester, I believe that the most impresive, interesting, full of feelings and emotions type of literature is poetry. That is why, the purpose of my essay will be; how to work with poetry in the classroom considering the reader centered approach. For that, I will present one poem, What would you fight for? by D.H Lawrence, in which I’ve found several and interesting topics to present to my students. Moreover, I will explain and relate the poem to an EFL lesson considering students’ interests and needs. Apart form that, I will explain how teachers can create a comfortable and enriching athmosphere by having different activities centered in poetry.

There are several definitions for the concept poetry, but in my opinion poetry is the way the writer expresses what he feels according to his own point of view about things. The writer tries to express a vision he percieves about the world, a vision that is full of emotions and feelings. It is also important to bare in mind that poetry is more than words that have an armonic sound, they are words specifically selected for a purpose, the reader response. The writer chooses the words to create a message, not to make them look beautiful in a piece of paper.

Poems have the capacity of moving us deeply in an unknown world. They can transport the reader back in the past, here in the present and beyond in the future. But, obviously there is an individual who utilizes all his thoughts, emotions and imagination to create this amazing works named poems. That is to say, everything written in the poem comes from the author’s background. For example there a lot of poems that talk about the Wars or desasters that happened in the world. There are other authors who enjoys talking about death, nature or mithological concepts. On the other hand, there are poets that write about human relationships, class issues and the natural wordl, that is the case of the fantastic D.H Lawrence.

David Herbert Lawrence is an English writer who was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England 1885. His father was a miner and his mother a house-wife. Lawrence went to the Nothingham’s university and he succesfuly graduated. Years later he graduated as a schoolmaster in London. His poetry was first published in 1909. The writer got married with Frida Von Richthofen. During that time, the World War I forced them to stayed in England. For that reason Lawrence started to write several works against the war. He was always moving between England, the USA, Mexico, Australia. The travelling experiences gave him the possibility to learn more about different cultures and languages, which, obviously, had a big influence on his wrting style. Lawrence’s style always expressed passion and love. I realized about it, because I have been reading several poems written by him. He didicated his writing to controvertial social and human issues, for example middle and low class problems and how people deal with the different penomenas the world has.

The following poem is the one I chose to be presented in an EFL lesson with High School students. Basically, I decided to work with it because I think that pupils who are in 9th,10th, 11th or 12th grade, have to be thinking about what to do in their future. They will be leave school sooner than they think so, I believe it is essential they will know what to do and what to persue when they finish school.


What would you fight for?
I am not sure I would always fight for my life.
Life might not be worth fighting for.

I am not sure I would always fight for my wife.
A wife isn't always worth fighting for.

Nor my children, nor my country, nor my fellow-men.
It all depends whether I found them worth fighting for.

The only thing men invariably fight for
Is their money. But I doubt if I'd fight for mine, anyhow
not to shed a lot of blood over it.

Yet one thing I do fight for, tooth and nail, all the time.
And that is my bit of inward peace, where I am at one
with myself.

And I must say, I am often worsted.


D.H Lawrence

Giving a brief explanation about the poem, I believe that Lawrence is stablishing that we should always have a purpose in life. It is not worth to fight for something that we do not know or it just does not make any sense for us. Every situation we live through our life has a purpose, has a final meaning, but we have to make an effort to discover what the meaning is. The only way to do that is by realizing if that specific situation could have an impact in our lives. We have to analyze and think what pros and cons the action could bring. Moreover, by considering the word money, the poet wants to express that people are fighting for materialistic things, and people do not even essitate when money appears. That is to say, that some of them could die or even kill for money. But, after some negative and ironic concepts, the author expresses that he would fight for his own personal inward peace. That is our safe place, our secret moment when we can think and analyze our life, acts and experiences.

After presenting the poem, and according to the reader-centered approach, it is important that we leave our students to construct their own knowledge. We, teachers, have to encourage them to exchange their view points with others, but also respecting the different opinions may appear. Clearly, the poem represents aspects students will find in their lives, that is why I think is interesting to work with it. As I have learned, literature must be discussed in the classroom. It is important that we can hear several points of view and help our students to construct their own ideas about, poems.
According to the activities we can use in an EFL lesson, it will be very interesting to work with Journals, in which readers will freely express their feelings and thoughts about what they read. We can also ask them to write a report about the poem, for example rewrite the poem from a different point of view, write a story about the poem, etc. Moreover, they can create their own poem, maybe talking about their experiences of fighting for an specific situation.

As a conclusion, I took poetry as an enriching and thoughtful experience to be used in class by sharing new ideas and feelings with my students. Moreover, it is important that teachers consider how to present it, so that students do not feel afraid of knowing poetry. Furthermore, it is also important that we could give students previous knowledge about authors and types of wrtiting, that way they will feel more familiarized with the topic. Besides, we have to bear in mind that by the analysis of a poem students are going to comprehend, feel and live the authors’ thoughts. During this process, we have to encourage students to have their own ideas about what they read; no matter if they want to do it aloud or in a piece of paper, but the idea is that they can express what they feel. By poetry, students should be living intense, rich and deep feelings and experiences because poetry is a gift to open students’ minds.


Bibliography


• Elliot, Joan. Dupuis, Mary. Young Adult Literature in the Classroom. Newark, Delaware : International Reading Association , 2002.

• Lawrence, D.H. Estudios Sobre Literatura Clásica. Emece, Buenos Aires. 1948.


Links


• http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Lawrence.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence

• http://www.lawrenceseastwood.co.uk/

Outline

-Introduction

- Importance of Poetry

-D.H lawrence

-Poem

Analysis

-EfL reader centerd approach

-Conclusion

September 1, 1939 (W.H Auden)

After reading this poem I've realized how World War II had an extraordinary impact in people's lives. Moreover, the author utilized the correct words to express exactly the depression's feelings society had. He described the damage that the war causes, not only physical, but in a psychological aspect. Auden had no problem to represent how people were feeling, due to in a way, he was part of the system, the war system.

I believe that this half part of the first stanza represents exactly how people felt;

Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Here, it is clearly represented how society felt; anger and fear because of this unfair war. Even though they were in calm and not doing any damage to the contrary side (Germany and allied), the darkness of their acts had negative consequences in innocent people. Individuals tried to live their lives normally during the day, going to work, sharing with others, being with their families, but in the night, when they had to go to their houses, was the moment when the bad aspects like fears, desperation, death and weepings raised. They could not scape from the war, because it was in people's mind, dreams and life.

As a sum of all the aspects, I believe Auden tried to imprint all his feelings in this poems. Maybe, he never thought that this enriching piece of work could bring so many controversial issues to nowadays' life. I really enjoyed reading and understanding it. There is no doubt I will use it in an EFL lesson.

Carolina's entry

To be honest I have to say that Carolina's entry fits completely with what I felt and thought about Virginia Woolf. Maybe, this situation happened because we almost share the same feelings and ideas about women's role in the world.

Virginia Woolf was an excellent writer who knew how to express herself and, the most important point, she could gain a place in the world by the publication of her works. Even though V. Woolf lived in a very controversial time, she had the possibility to communicate her thoughts and ideas through writing. Furthermore, she had their own place to write and the money to do so. I believe that the most important characteristic Virginia had was that she pursued and fought with all the stigmatisation society had against women. That is why, she decided to wrote about female roles and, in a way, compare them with men, so that people could realize that we are more than pretty faces who can stay at home taking care of our children.

I really liked the way Carolina connected Jane Austen with Virginia Woolf and how that connection made her reflect about female's situtation in previous years. I know that Carolina is a big fan of J. Austen and she admires and enjoys reading her works, so having thought about a close relation between these two amazing writers gave Carolina a more meaningful idea of females' writing. Carolina is always looking for interesting ideas and topics to write about. I have read all her entries and I believe she really has a gift to clearly express what she feels.

Jane Austen

For a long time, I have been a fan of Jane Austen’s novels. I have read almost all of them, and I really admire her for everything she accomplished. Virginia Woolf made me appreciate Jane Austen much more than I did. Woolf was the author I needed to support me in my enjoyment of Austen.

Jane Austen lived in a time where women could be nothing but daughters and housewives. She was a writer in a time where nothing could be expected out of a woman. However, she wrote 6 of the most beautiful novels in English although she had no money and no room. She is world-wide recognized and dearly loved. Woolf states in many parts of her essay that Jane Austen proved the world, and men, that women could perfectly write as good as men. In some extent, Woolf compares Austen to Mozart in the following quote: “For while Jane Austen breaks from melody to melody as Mozart from song to song...” Therefore her genius is as Mozart’s or Shakespeare’s, to whom she also compares Jane Austen.

“Here was a woman (Jane Austen) about the year 18oo writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching.” Thus, Jane Austen could write as the best of men and none of her conditions such as having no room, being poor, being interrupted and being a woman interfered in the complexity and richness of her writing.

The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

Honestly, it was very difficult for me to understand this poem. It has too much narrators and, sometimes, talks about things that, I know, I will never understand. Event though, there were some stanzas and parts that I understood and could get an image from them. What I got from this poem is that the main issue here was the period after the First World War and how its consequences and modernity were affecting peoples’ lives.

I found several elements and feelings inside the poem, such as sadness, nothingness, hopeless, fear which are very related with people’s mood in that time. In one hand, individuals felt so disappointed and full of doubts that nothing was clear, but unknown. This waste land was falling down in little pieces day by day, that’s why people felt so unprotected frustrated and doubtful about their future.

In my opinion I could say that Eliot represented and expressed himself so deeply in this poem that, in a way, I could imagine how people felt after the war. How could they create a sort of positive feeling if they only perceived pain and discourage to continue living their lives? I think we will never know until we live it.

The rocking-horse winner by D.H Lawrence

After reading this poem I could realize how important could be a mother to her child. In this case Paul was so concerned about the money problems his mother had that the only thing he wanted was helping her. Suddenly, he discovered that he could get some money with lucky so rides his little rocking-horse and figured out that it gave him the name of the winner horse in the races. He was so preoccupied about getting more and more money that he forgot about everything in his life and started riding the horse so fast and constantly that he got very ill and dies.

I believe that he wanted to help her mother so badly and replace the lack of a paternal image that he believe he was the provider of the family. I really don’t understand how a mother can permit a situation like this. It is supposed that a mother must provide and pay attention to every single need the child could have, but in these case was the other way around. The only consequence this situation causes was the child death, the mother changes money for the life of her own son.

I enjoyed reading this short story, but it has a lot of negative aspects of life. I think it is good to learn about your mistake and thinks that money is not everything in life. Money can help you to be happy but you can't buy happiness with it.

A room of one’s own by Virginia Woolf

Trough the pass of time, women had built and gain their own space in the world. During the time V. Woolf lived there was no space for women to express themselves.

A room of one’s own states that women had the same capacities that men had, they were able to write and think as men do. The problem was that they did not have the space to express themselves because, in a way, opportunities were close for them. Women did not have the chance to say what the really wanted to communicate. That is why, Virginia referred to several female authors that did not have too much impact in those times, due to the fact they were women. Male authors had lots of opportunities and were, in some point, more important and credible than women authors. Men had their own space, a place that was settled inside of the society. But, what happened with women? Their image and role was to take care of children, stay at home cooking, doing the cleaning but society never thought that they could develop other abilities like writing or belonging to a political party.

I believe that this essay, even though it was very controversial, changed people’s mind. It was very useful for me to know a little bit more about women in those times and the need to have their own place. I choose a quote from the poem that I think represents my post; "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Oliver Twist

What caused me a huge impact when I watched “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens, was the treatment children received. Having Oliver as the main character of the story, was a good representation to give me a better understanding of how those times where seen by kids.

In the first place, Victorian age was an economic expansion time, which was full of transformation in terms of power. The industralization era started to stay for a long time. One of the consecuences of this process was the needed of more work force. But, as workers felt they were over exploited, the only possibility was using children to work. In the movie, this situation can be seen in the orphanate where hundreds of boys and girls were forced to work under deplorable conditions. In addition to that, adults took advantage of children's weaknesses and lack of education, that ,certaintly, allowed them to save money due to in a way they were cheap instruments to use. According to my research about this topic, I could realize that there wasn't any supervision or control from the police or the governement to stop this kind of treatments. Now, and following with Oliver experience, I think that he never saw this issue as a job but as an adventure. He was so innocent to understand something like this, that the only situation which concerned him was to felt loved by others.

I have to say that I really enjoyed watching the movie. As I said before, what causes me huge impact was how children were badly exposed in terms of working condition. But, what I like the most was how the director played with "chiaroscuro" through the movie. That is to say, he trayed to make a contrast by representing freedom, happiness and love with light and violent and difficult moments with shadows. For example, the house of Mr. Brownlow and Fagin. I wish Oliver would have lighter than darker moments. He was so pure and full of hopes that he didn't deserve all the bad experiences he lived.

Is death announced?

Honestly, when I read The Signal-man by Dickens, I couldn’t get the whole point of the story. It was very difficult to analyse situations, characters and some symbols. For example, what does the train mean? What’s the meaning of the signal man? What about the ghost?

After being thinking a lot about this, I realized that every single object of the short story has to do with death. That is to say, not the act of dying but death as a warning. Inside the story, the ghost is in charge of giving clues and warnings of death to the signal man, but he realized later that this was a warning. Now I wonder, when the time comes, will death give us a warning? As far as I know, yes. I’m saying this because, and thanks to my experience, after someone dies the family or closest friends start remembering what was the last thing that person did. Most of the time they say; He called me last night and said take care, I love, I will never forget you. Or that the person was acting very strange, he started doing weird things.. I remember once that I was talking to a friend of mine and she told me that she dreamed about her mother’s death and some times when her mother wasn’t at home she felt as if she was there. Three months later her mother died in a car crush.

I strongly believe that death is announced, the problem is that we, human, don’t know how to decipher that signals. That is why we need to keep our five senses open, because we never know when death can arrive.

Franky Rules!

Reading Frankestein by Mary Shelley was a full of emotions experience. Every single page was a new demonstration of love, hate, discrimination, morality, acceptance, frustration, etc. Indeed, I believe that all these words are conected with the most importan one, senses.

Our body has several functions, but the most important one is the way we can percieve things. This process can be concluded through five and amazing ways, which are touching, seeing, tasting, smeeling and hearing. Now, relating this topic to Frankestein, there is a chapter where Franky met this blind man, who is not afraid of him because he can not see, he just listens to Franky. This situation causes a huge impact in Franky’s life because it is the first time he doesn’t feel rejected or discriminated by other. This situation made me reflect a lot about all those people who have scars or a stetical problem in their faces which make them look different from others. It is imposible to denay discrimination in those cases, plus if our society has narrow minded attitudes among them. How would it be if we wouldn’t have eyes? Probably, there wouldn’t be any differences, no color, no shape, no discrimination at all.

I really enjoyed reading the novel. It is incredible how M. Shelley could deal and includ difficult topics such as, loneliness, family, beliefs, marginalization, identity in one piece of writing . I felt that she played with us through them, through our senses. Moreover, the novel has a close relationship with nowadays society, eventhough it is an old master piece, we are living between lots of Victors and Frankestains.

Daffodils' Meadows

When I read I wondered lonely as a cloud by Wordsworth, the first thing that rised in my mind when I saw the title of the poem was; this is going to be so sad.

Infering meanings and creating fake images is easy to do. For example, the word lonely gave me a negative connotation and I built a wrong concept. Luckly, after listening to the poem, everything I have tought of was mistaken. Wordsworth poem is full of nature and deep thoughts. He related daffodils with his mind, with his memory, his time of reflection and relax. In a way, he included several components of nature in his poem, I could say that he felt a close relation with it.

I think that Wordsworth strongly enjoyed and admired nature and we could immediately see that in the title where he wrote a comparison between a cloud and a man. Sometimes, when I lived difficult or stressful moments I always imagine the country side, or a beautiful lake in the south of Chile. It is incredible how useful is that, it helps me to continue living and breathing. Maybe that was the real meaning of the daffodils. Why don’t we change Santiago’s side walks for a meadow of daffodils?

Are we going to be remembered?

After reading “When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be” by Keats, I could relate the poem to my experiences and to what I’ve been living. I have always though that we, human beings, have a mision in the world. No matter the place we born, the family we have, the social status, the culture we belong to, there is a hidden purpose we have to discover.

According to Keats, he was afraid of dying and never be remembered. Maybe, he thought that his life was not good enough until that time and his acts were not special or meaningful to be remembered by others, by the society. I can not even think about how regretful Keats feels now in heaven. I imagine that there is a lot of people who percieve the same as Keat, but they are so wrong. I would say I was one of them. Four years ago I thought that the meaning of my life was study, have a family, earn money, have a dog and meet my grandsons. Nowadays, and thanks to my career, I know, and I’m sure about it, I’m here to change the world. The purpose of my life is helping students to be in the top and be part of society in order to create a better world. Actually, I’m not worried about death and don’t be remembered, as Keat was, because I know that I’m going to have an effect on my students.

Concluding with my ideas, I honestly believe that every single person in this world is going to be remembered one way or another. Day by day we are building our own story, and that story will belongs to the history of time.

Coleridge and Quotation

1. “Poetry is an art…of representing, in words, external nature and human thoughts and affections, both relatively to human affections, by the production of as much immediate pleasure in parts, as is compatible with the largest sum of pleasure in the whole”.

Having discussed and analized Coleridge's Poem, it is easy to find certain elements which lead us to nature and human feelings of a fantastic world. The above quotation represents, in a way, what the poem "Kubla Khan" means. Nature is a present element from the beggining talking about rivers, caverns, the sea etc. In the other hand, we can also find human thoughts and feelings that give us a better idea of the meaning and intention of the writer. That is to say, that the possibility of knowing the author's feelings it is the closest opportunity we have to get to know the author's life and mind. I believe that the representation of pleasure has to do with everything prohibited to us. For example, when Coleridge writes about the city of pleasure reffering to the location where sin, death and all the worldly is present. The truth is I really enjoyed reading the poem, due to in a way, it was difficult to find and relate some elements to reality. I would love to have known and fantasize inside Coleridge`s world.

The Little Black Boy

Clearly, the black and white concepts are used as a metaphor. Tangible and intangible elements are represented in the poem, which give us a better meaning of the poem. What I interpreted from this poem is that eternity is something present in the little boy's life, and no matter what he experiences during his life, there is something beyond. The mother acts like a guide who advices and teaches him the beauty of life trough protection and love.
I have chosen the master piece Baby's Bath by Tolliver, because this situation represents the strong relationship between a mother and a child. Generally, when a mother takes his son to take a bath, she explains him what is going to happen. For example, the water is your friend or that they are going to swim in the sea, etc, always preparing him to live a good experience. The mother protects and guides her son to take a bath.The same that Blake wanted us to see in his poem.

Final Essay

Outline

• Introduction
a.Brief explanation of the topic
b.Why the topic?

• Body
1.Shakespeare’s life

2.Sexuality
a.Plays
b.Sonnets

• Conclusion
a.Summary
b.Personal Opinion.

Sexuality in Shakespeare’s Life and Works

To begin with, it will be very useful to consider that William Shakespeare’s sexuality has been an issue and a mistery during the time. That is to say, there are several myths about his sexual condition seeing that he showed significant relationships between men and disguised women as men in his works. This situation causes certain doubts about his sexual life’s choice. The truth is that the sexuality of this important individual inside the the world of literature has been always a mistery. Now, considering sexuality as a controvertial and sometimes difficult topic, I decided to focus my essay on it having Shakespeare’s life and works as the main referent. Moreover, thinking that sexuality is an every day topic, I wondered how to connect it with my future English classes as a second language teacher. Certaintly, it would not be a simple task. But, taking in consideration all the meaningful things that literature could give you to enrich lessons and students’ minds, it becomes in an excellent tool to apply sexuality, or any similar topic, inside the classroom. Otherwise, if the teacher knows how to utilize it, literature will be connecting the objectives of the lesson and student’s real life situations.

William Shakespeare, who was and is a famous English writer and stands out for his 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 poems, was born in a small country town named Stratford in the United Kingdom. Eventhough, the date he was born is unknown, it is said that it was possibly on April 1.564. His parents were John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. According to some Shakespeare’s biographies it is said that he went to King Edward VI Grammar School in central Stratford, where he recived most of his latin grammar and literature education, but it is unknown if he had any studies or education in university. At the age of 18, during November 1.582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was three months pregnant. After that, they had 2 more children. At this point Shakespeares’ life and family seemed to be normal. Then in 1.585, Shakespeare started to live a succesful period in his life. He was a writer and actor, and he became one of the owners of a playing company. After that succesful period, Shakespeare left Stratford and died in 1616. In spite of his death, William Shakespeare was a well known and respected writer but, what is for sure, he was considerable questioned for his private life. After some researchs, he was believed to have a hidden side in his life.

There has been several speculations and doubts about Shakespeare’s sexuality. Eventhough he got married and had children, he was believed to have bisexual or homosexual leanings. Taking in consideration the book of Ann Thompson, “Shakespeare and Sexuality”, which says that Shakespeare showed his sexual, homosexual and bisexual side through what he wrote, “it is innevitable to see some erotic effect of his language and the use of sexual metaphors in some of his sonnet and plays” (25). That is how, Shakespeare demonstrate an outstanding and suspectful favoritsm for homosexual and homoerotic interpretations in four of his plays. For example, in “Twelfth Night” with the character of Viola disguised as Cesario, and in “As you like it” with Rossalind disguised as Ganymede. In the following two plays, it is very easy to percive homoeroticism, which refers to an intense platonic friendship, rather than sexual love. For instyance, “Romeo and Juliet” with the strong relationship between Romeo and Mercutio, and finally “The Merchant of Venice” with the inexplicable friends-lovers relationship between Antonio and Bassanio. These situations lead several beliefs about how Shakespeare wanted to show sexual desires and leanings through characters and their experiences. Apart from that, most of the theories are highly related, inferening from the analysis of his sonnets, a controvertial and credible proof for his possible bisexuality or homosexuality. William Shakespeare wrote 158 sonnets but 128 were about love and dedicated to a handsome young boy. These poetic forms are the principal evidence that he wrote about an erotic interest in men. For example, in sonnet 20 Shakespeare reffers to a master-mistress and a mother nature that felt in love with a woman, but to resolve the problem she added one thing that will give women pleasure, that could be interpreted as a pennis. Even in my own limited experience about analyzing sonnets I would say that maybe there is another explanation for that sexual approach. Maybe, Shakespeare’s sonnets are not autobiographical or about his life, but they are just fiction. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to imagine that Shakespeare did not wrote about him, because he uses the personal pronoun “I” in most of the sonnets. Taking in consideration the article found in Shakespeare-Online, it is important to say that many readers and reserchers consider Williams Shakespeare’s sonnets as the closest contact they can get to Shakespeare’s own voice.

Taking everything into account, Shakespeare’s sexuality will be always a mistery. Realising that he tried to demonstrate a normal married life with his wife and children he could not do it. Moreover, William Shakespeare showed and expressed his real and prohibited side through writing and literature, that now and analyzing it, we could understand. That is why, I deeply believe that analyzing certain literal factors can give us specific information about the author’s life. Moreover, studying an author’s life it would be a good way to keep student’s interest in reading. They will know that there is something hidden, an especial message the writer wants to communicate in his work, that, certaintly, will be an excellent tool for them. In a way, it will make personal connections, sometimes transporting them into a character’s life, problems, struggles and goals and then applying them to their real life. Besides, if you want to talk about sexuality it would be very useful to bring sonnet 20 to the classroom. This way students will give different responses making them create emotional connections to literature, for example, making sense of the autho’r words and today’s people. The most important thing is that student could be able to read, analyse, criticise and connect what they read.

Bibliography

Elliot, Joan. Dupuis, Mary. Young Adult Literature in the Classroom.

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_of_William_Shakespeare

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/merchant/

Schoenbaum, Sam. William Shakespeare: Una biografia documentada. Barcelona España. Argos 1985

Thompson, Anne. Shakespeare and Sexuality.

The good Bassanio (The Merchant of Venice)

Every time I watched or read a Shakespeare masterpiece, I had the notion of an immersion in a completely different world. It’s amazing how Shakespeare give us the opportunity to comprehend his stories and characters by feeling every single word he wrote, but is even more interesting when you can observe them plasmed in a screen.

The Merchant of Venice is a touching story that takes place in Venice during 1596, where a young boy named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes), sees in the necessity of going to his best friend support by asking for 3000 ducates. Bassanio explained to his beloved friend he was in love with an incomparable beautiful lady named Portia (Lynn Collins), that is not only wealthy in beauty but also was born rich. Bassanio feels really concerned, because in some way he needs to prove he is a virtuous man in every sense. Antonio (Jeremy Irons) sees a deep desire inside Antonio’s eyes and without any doubt he accepts helping him. However, Antonio doesn’t have any money, because he was a merchant and he has all his possession into the sea, he decides to ask for a loan, which was an illegal practice in the Christian’s world. The lending of the capital comes from an old Jewish named Shylock (Al Pacino), who was discriminated for belonging to another Church.
Shylock and Antonio never had a good relationship, due to the fact Antonio knew that he practices usury. Both have several reason to hate each other. Shylock accepts lending Antonio the 3000 ducates, but instead of asking for interests he wants a pound of fresh flesh from the merchant if he doesn’t pay on the date they agreed. Convinced and hopeful of his future earnings, Antonio accepts.

With the gold, Bassanio departs for his beloved future wife Portia. But, there is one test that Bassanio has to solve to have Portia’s love, which is the mystery of the three, caskets. If he chooses the casket with the picture of Portia inside he will gain her love.

Contrarily was the destiny of Antonio who loosed his ships, ending without no earnings. The day of the treat arrives and Antonio has to pay his debt.

Bassanio decides to come back to his town to help his beloved friend. But it was late, Antonio and Shylock were in court, and all was prepared. Would Shylock cut Antonio to have one pound of his flesh? Would Bassanio risks his life to safe Antonio? Don’t you dare missing this fantastic movie, which will take you into a world full of love, moral messages, vengeance and redemption. But remember, appearances can be mistaken.

Bassanio, who is characterized by Joseph Fiennes, represents a romantic, dreamer, instinctive, handsome young boy. He was a peculiar lover of those times, who could give up to everything to have the truly love of his ladylove. He had a good life but it was time to settle down and start living as a real aristocratic man. That’s the reason why he needed a wife. I believe Bassanio was very lucky, he got everything very easily. When he saw himself in troubles he went immediately to talk to Antonio. I think Bassanio and Antonio were in love, but in a hidden way. In fact, when Antonio accepted helping, he kissed him in his lips as a way of grateful him.
Moreover he showed his good fortune when he went to the caskets and chose the correct one and won Portia’s love. Finally, the ring. Bassanio thought he had lost the ring and Portia reprimanded him because of that situation. He felt guilty but at the end he recovered the ring and won, again. I think that Antonio has the good guy role in this movie, because he has love, friendship, money, happiness and so forth. Besides, as I see Shakespeare showed two sides of life, the happy one through Bassanio and his good experiences and the bad side through Shylock and his unlucky incidents.

The Merchant of Venice is a wonderful movie. I enojoyed watching it. In my opinion the director did an excellent job and I really felt that Shakespeare was working with him, because the story, settings and descriptions were very similars to the actual novel. I think this movie is kind of a commedy with a half of a tragedy, but also it has a part of an allegory because, it has a hidden message that Shakespeare wanted to communicate. For example we can find several issues inside the movie, like discrimination, inconsequence, the rol of woman, religion, trade, colonialism, homosexuality, etc. But they are not so simple to recognize. Honestly, I will keep this movie in my collection.

Outline "The Merchant of Venice"

Outline for my film review:

*Introduction
*Summary of the movie
*Bassanio's role
*Personal Opinion
*Conclusion

The Faery Queene

Honestly, I have to say that the letter wasn’t very easy to understand, but thanks to the discussion we had in our last class I could get the idea.

According to my understanding, Spenser wrote about King Arthur because, in a way he wanted to express and demonstrate that Arthur was a brave knight who had manifold virtues. That’s the reason why Spenser wrote an allegory named “The Faery Queene”. An allegory is a story that has a hidden message, which has a moral, religious or personal meaning behind. Actually, Spenser wrote this letter to Sr. Raleigh, where he, through 6 virtues; Courtesy, Holiness, Justice, Friendship, Chastity, and Temperance tried to clarify an internal matter. In the story, every virtue was represented by a character.


I believe that he wrote the letter to Sr. Raleigh to protect himself from every bad circumstance he could live or maybe a miscomprehension by Queen Elizabeth. Spencer knew that Sr. Raleigh was a powerful man with strong influences, this way through this “mismessage” he wanted to represent a good image for him.

G. Chaucer, Truth.

What I think Chaucer meant to say by naming his poem Truth, is representing it as part of our excistence, according to accept our life style and ways of living. When he refers to, "For greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty", Chaucer tried to explain that people was not pleased with what they had and always wanting more. Nowadays, we could see this situation through our wants and how materialistic we have turned. Consumerism has became in a popular trend, but what's worst is that we are not just consuming material goods, but our own lives.

We have to be always grateful for what we have, acting with humility, because at the end there's someone who will judged us for eveything we have done. I think that's what he refered when he talks about religion.

After reading this poem, I could see that truth is essential in our lives. I deeply believe that we have to act according to what we think, being honest and sincere with the people around us. This makes real sense to my life.

Literature

Personally, haVing a truly definition of literature is not simple. Most of people believe that literature is the art of writing or every written text, and it's good, but is that the real meaning of literature? I think our personal experience through literature is the only possibility to come out with a definition, due to is this situation that allows us to create our own interpretation.

Literature has a flexible perspective, it depends on the person, mood, and context. For instance, if we read a book at the age of 14, probably we gave it a specific meaning but if we read it now that meaning is going to change into a even more meaningul message. Literature is always changing and enriching us. According to what Thodorov says in his text, "literature expands our universe, prompts us to see other ways to conceive and organize it", I deeply believe that literature helps us to enrich our wisdom and provokes certain reactions that make us move forward the bubble that society established,but the most important is that literature gives us new knowledge and we have the possibility to transfer it.

My definition of an epic poem

What I can defined about an epic poem is that has complex old words. It is written in e very organized way and can tell unreal stories. Moreover, I believe that epic poems has to do with heroes, their lives, triumphs and unimaginable actions. Besides, every sentence no matter if it is finished or not, it starts capitalized. The most interesting issue here is that makes you feel a connection with an old and interesting world.