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.