Hey !
Guess who has a tumblr ? Yep, I do !
It's here : http://kalimera030.tumblr.com/ and it basically looks like the inside of my head. Lots of series, Shakespeare, cities and shiny things.
I'm reading A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I am not having a good time. I just keep wondering "why x ? Why y ? But... WHY ?"
My dad got me Lewis Carroll's complete works, and I'm pretty excited. We've seen in class that Alice in Wonderland was a criticism of education in the Victorian times, and I've been wanting to read it whole since then.
What about you ? What's new ?
lundi 7 juillet 2014
mardi 17 juin 2014
Nurseries and Small Details
Last for the moment (but not least !)
I'm not planning to have a baby in the next 10 years, but some styles caught my eye.
The violet-grey-white trio. I like the pompoms !
Silver-grey-cream. I love the stars on the wall and the little moon on the seat. Plus, it works for a boy and for a girl !
Greyish brown-White-Dark Red. I love the wall art, especially the map !
Small details are what make a house unique.
It can be a very colorful entrance...
...A very welcoming door...
... A distinguishing feature...
...A strange bookshelf...
... Intriguing railings...
... A cosy reading nook...
... Or an imposing staircase !
What about you ? What do you like in a house ?
I'm not planning to have a baby in the next 10 years, but some styles caught my eye.
Small details are what make a house unique.
...A strange bookshelf...
... A cosy reading nook...
What about you ? What do you like in a house ?
Bathrooms, Bedrooms and Offices
I'm launched, so why stop ?
Bathrooms :
This must be my favorite one. All those colors... They pop, but don't attack the eye. Well done.
The doorless shower. No door to take care of on cleaning day !
The all-in-one. On cleaning day, I would be like : "Give me the high-pressure washer, I'm a Jedi !"
Bedrooms. I love bedrooms, most likely because I spend much of my time in mine.
Dark grey, white and violet. It works for me !
Dark blue, cream and gold. Love the round mirror !
Baby blue, grey, white and black. I really like the cushions.
I love the leaves, the stars, the colors... Even if I suspect it's not easy to clean.
Offices now. Or just desks.
Very simple. I like the rainbow-droplets, the flowers and the posters.
I love the big desk, the mint green color and the cute picture.
Not much space, but whoever did this managed to fit everything. I'ts really cool.
The last article will very quickly follow. It will be about nurseries and small details !
Bathrooms :
Bedrooms. I love bedrooms, most likely because I spend much of my time in mine.
Offices now. Or just desks.
The last article will very quickly follow. It will be about nurseries and small details !
Living Room, Kitchen and Sun Rooms
To follow the previoud post, here is what I found roaming around the Internet.
Living Rooms (prepare yourselves, the colors are coming).
I love the wood, the brick wall, the white... It's great.
I'll put that here. If you're looking for me, I'm over there in the corner, hugging my knees and crying. (Seriously. Books and wood. I love it.)
I like the cream walls and the brownish-grey carpet. The green accents are a nice plus (look at that branch !)
The kitchen is not a place I find important. However, a few caught my attention.
On this one, I fell in love with the brick wall and the lights.
For this one, it was the lights again and the breakfast bar. Shiny !
Finally, this one got me with the dark blue cabinets and the yellow pear. It's unusual and I like it.
Now for sun rooms. I discovered I love sun rooms, so It will be hard to pick my favorite finds.
This one must be my favorite. I love the setting, the lights, I love the colors...
Can you picture yourself on a couch in a room like this one, watching the rain fall and the thunder strike ? I definitely can.
This one is very green. With the cream chairs and table, I think it's a good place to have breakfast or brunch on a Sunday.
What do you think ? Are there any of the rooms here you love, too ?
Living Rooms (prepare yourselves, the colors are coming).
The kitchen is not a place I find important. However, a few caught my attention.
Now for sun rooms. I discovered I love sun rooms, so It will be hard to pick my favorite finds.
What do you think ? Are there any of the rooms here you love, too ?
Dream home, Color schemes and Clever ideas
Lately, I found myself very interested in decorating (vacations, internet... Ahem). This post is all about dream homes, color schemes and clever ideas. (Every image comes from my Pinterest account, because I'm that lazy)
So, this is my dream home :
I love the sun room, the glass, the general aspect... *sigh*
I could love something a little "woodsier", like this :
As for color patterns, I found myself really liking a color I normally don't like too much, yellow.
Here, in small touches with grey and blue, it's fantastic.
Blues and browns also work great together.
I find it soothing.
I also like this one :
There are many colors and I don't know if I would make it work (says the girl who has a golden wall in her room), but I still like it.
Clever ideas, now.
This is what I'll do once I get a studio away from home :
I'll just put the bookcase at the foot of the bed and the curtains on the side, if I have enough space. Why ? Because I am the queen of rolloing over and hitting things with my head.
String lights over the bed.
How didn't I do that before ? *insert pout*
What about you ? Are there any makeover you'd give your home ?
So, this is my dream home :
I could love something a little "woodsier", like this :
As for color patterns, I found myself really liking a color I normally don't like too much, yellow.
Blues and browns also work great together.
I also like this one :
Clever ideas, now.
This is what I'll do once I get a studio away from home :
String lights over the bed.
What about you ? Are there any makeover you'd give your home ?
mercredi 11 juin 2014
A Quick Update
What have I been up to ?
-Waiting on books. Two important releases : Magic Breaks, on July 29 and Blood Games onthe 5th of August.
-Watching TV. Mythbusters, Whale Wars, and Penny Dreadful are on my list. (If you don't watch it, you should.)
-Getting ahead on College work. This includes reading and analyzing "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
-Adding projects to my "To-Do" list.
-Listening to music.
What about you ?
-Waiting on books. Two important releases : Magic Breaks, on July 29 and Blood Games onthe 5th of August.
-Watching TV. Mythbusters, Whale Wars, and Penny Dreadful are on my list. (If you don't watch it, you should.)
-Getting ahead on College work. This includes reading and analyzing "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
-Adding projects to my "To-Do" list.
-Listening to music.
What about you ?
mardi 3 juin 2014
Poems I like
Wow, so much for publishing more.
Here are three of my favorite poems ever. I hope you'll like them as much as I do.
"Sigh No More, Ladies", William Shakespeare (from Much Ado About Nothing. I know you're not surprised.)
Here are three of my favorite poems ever. I hope you'll like them as much as I do.
"Sigh No More, Ladies", William Shakespeare (from Much Ado About Nothing. I know you're not surprised.)
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey, nonny, nonny.
The second one is untitled (I think) and rumored to be either by Blake or by Henry Van Dyke.
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone"
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"
And that is dying...
Death comes in its own time, in its own way.
Death is as unique as the individual experiencing it.
spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone"
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,
hull and spar as she was when she left my side.
And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.
And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"
there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"
And that is dying...
Death comes in its own time, in its own way.
Death is as unique as the individual experiencing it.
The third is John Keats' "Ode on Melancholy".
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.
But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.
She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
What about you ? What are your favorite poems ?
Je reprends du service pour vous proposer trois de mes poèmes préférés.
Le premier est de Shakespeare, de la pièce "Beaucoup de bruit pour rien" (Surprises, surprises...)
"Plus ne soupirez, mes belles,
Plus ne soupirez,
Les hommes furent toujours volages
Un pied à la mer,
L’autre sur le rivage
À une chose fidèles, jamais.
Plus de soupirs,
Tournez-leur le dos,
Faites sourires et entrechats,
Et changez tous ces tristes mots
En tradéridéra !
Non, plus de dépits,
Ne chantez plus
Ces airs moroses et attristés,
Les hommes mentent
Depuis toujours,
Depuis la première feuille de l’été.
Les hommes furent toujours volages
Un pied à la mer,
L’autre sur le rivage
À une chose fidèles, jamais.
Plus de soupirs,
Tournez-leur le dos,
Faites sourires et entrechats,
Et changez tous ces tristes mots
En tradéridéra !
Non, plus de dépits,
Ne chantez plus
Ces airs moroses et attristés,
Les hommes mentent
Depuis toujours,
Depuis la première feuille de l’été.
Plus de soupirs,
Tournez-leur le dos,
Faites sourires et entrechats,
Et changez tous ces tristes mots
En tradéridéra !"
Tournez-leur le dos,
Faites sourires et entrechats,
Et changez tous ces tristes mots
En tradéridéra !"
Le second n'a pas de titre, et il est souvent attribué à Blake ou à Henry Van Dyke.
Je suis debout au bord de la plage
Un voilier passe dans la brise du matin et part vers l'océan.
Il est la beauté, il est la vie.
Je le regarde jusqu'à ce qu'il disparaisse à l'horizon.
Quelqu'un à mon côté dit : "Il est parti !"
Parti ? Vers où ? Parti de mon regard. C'est tout...
Son mât est toujours aussi haut,
Sa coque a toujours la force de porter sa charge humaine.
Sa disparition totale de ma vue est en moi,
Pas en lui.
Et juste au moment où quelqu'un près de moi dit : "il est parti !"
Il en est d'autres qui, le voyant poindre à l'horizon et venir vers eux,
S'exclament avec joie : "Le voilà !"...
C'est cela la mort.
Un voilier passe dans la brise du matin et part vers l'océan.
Il est la beauté, il est la vie.
Je le regarde jusqu'à ce qu'il disparaisse à l'horizon.
Quelqu'un à mon côté dit : "Il est parti !"
Parti ? Vers où ? Parti de mon regard. C'est tout...
Son mât est toujours aussi haut,
Sa coque a toujours la force de porter sa charge humaine.
Sa disparition totale de ma vue est en moi,
Pas en lui.
Et juste au moment où quelqu'un près de moi dit : "il est parti !"
Il en est d'autres qui, le voyant poindre à l'horizon et venir vers eux,
S'exclament avec joie : "Le voilà !"...
C'est cela la mort.
Le troisième est l'Ode à la Mélancolie de John Keats.
Non, non ! ne va point au Léthé, ni consommer
Le vin vénéneux de l'aconit aux fortes racines ;
Ne souffre pas non plus à ton front pâle le baiser
De la belladone, raisin vermeil de Proserpine ;
Ne te fais pas un chapelet des baies de l'if ;
Que ni le carabe ni le sphinx tête de mort
Ne soient ta lugubre Psyché, ni l'effraie duvetée
Une compagne à tes mystères douloureux ;
Ou l'ombre s'unira à l'ombre sommeilleuse
Pour noyer en ton âme l'angoisse qui veillait.
Mais quand du haut des cieux l'accès de mélancolie
Soudain s'abattra comme une nuée de larmes,
Redonnant vigueur aux fleurs qui ployaient,
Couvrant le vert coteau d'un suaire d'Avril,
Qu'une rose du matin rassasie ton chagrin,
Ou l'arc-en-ciel naissant de la vague et du sable,
Ou la profusion des globes de pivoines ;
Que si quelque courroux embellit ta maîtresse,
Tiens serrée sa main douce et permets son délire,
Buvant profond, profond dans ses yeux sans pareils.
Elle demeure en la Beauté - Beauté qui doit périr ;
Et en la Joie, dont la main à ses lèvres à lui
Pour toujours dit adieu ; auprès du douloureux Plaisir,
Un poison que sa bouche, comme une abeille, aspire ;
Oui, c'est dans le temple même des Délices
Que se cache l'autel de la Mélancolie :
Seul le voit celui qui d'une langue énergique
A son palais délicat fait éclater les raisins de la Joie :
Son âme goûtera de Mélancolie le triste pouvoir,
Appendue parmi ses nuageux trophées.
Le vin vénéneux de l'aconit aux fortes racines ;
Ne souffre pas non plus à ton front pâle le baiser
De la belladone, raisin vermeil de Proserpine ;
Ne te fais pas un chapelet des baies de l'if ;
Que ni le carabe ni le sphinx tête de mort
Ne soient ta lugubre Psyché, ni l'effraie duvetée
Une compagne à tes mystères douloureux ;
Ou l'ombre s'unira à l'ombre sommeilleuse
Pour noyer en ton âme l'angoisse qui veillait.
Mais quand du haut des cieux l'accès de mélancolie
Soudain s'abattra comme une nuée de larmes,
Redonnant vigueur aux fleurs qui ployaient,
Couvrant le vert coteau d'un suaire d'Avril,
Qu'une rose du matin rassasie ton chagrin,
Ou l'arc-en-ciel naissant de la vague et du sable,
Ou la profusion des globes de pivoines ;
Que si quelque courroux embellit ta maîtresse,
Tiens serrée sa main douce et permets son délire,
Buvant profond, profond dans ses yeux sans pareils.
Elle demeure en la Beauté - Beauté qui doit périr ;
Et en la Joie, dont la main à ses lèvres à lui
Pour toujours dit adieu ; auprès du douloureux Plaisir,
Un poison que sa bouche, comme une abeille, aspire ;
Oui, c'est dans le temple même des Délices
Que se cache l'autel de la Mélancolie :
Seul le voit celui qui d'une langue énergique
A son palais délicat fait éclater les raisins de la Joie :
Son âme goûtera de Mélancolie le triste pouvoir,
Appendue parmi ses nuageux trophées.
Et vous, quels sont vos poèmes préférés ?
dimanche 18 mai 2014
Need to laugh ?
You need to laugh ? Well, try these (Links are in black) :
Disney ladies from last night and Disney gents from last night, because nothing will make you laugh more than screencaps from Disney movies and drunk texting.
Want to dress like a Disney character ? Welcome to DisneyBound.
An author AND sarcasm ? Boom.
Harry Potter humor ? Have some !
Love cats ? Yep, click there.
You're into superheroes ? Yes, I know.
Ever had regrets on your drunk texting ? I bet they do.
Disney ladies from last night and Disney gents from last night, because nothing will make you laugh more than screencaps from Disney movies and drunk texting.
Want to dress like a Disney character ? Welcome to DisneyBound.
An author AND sarcasm ? Boom.
Harry Potter humor ? Have some !
Love cats ? Yep, click there.
You're into superheroes ? Yes, I know.
Ever had regrets on your drunk texting ? I bet they do.
The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe (1/2)
Since I have things to share from the classes I had this year, I decided to keep going with the "studies" material.
I just seemed to me that it could be interesting to share that kind of things, so I told myself "why not ?".
This is the first part of my course on The Fall of the House of Usher. I hope you'll learn things and that you'll want more.
I have other things, from stuff on the British Government to James Joyce and Hopper, so I'll try to keep it interesting.
All the errors (typos, grammatical, vocabulary) are mine.
From the beginning, the narrator seems afraid : the sense of « gloom » (synonym of dejection, despondency, depression, melancholy).
He's surrounded by darkness and shades and finds himself in view of the house of Usher. It makes him uneasy because it has « eyes », like a monster. He is « unnerved », paralized, under the power of the house. It is not the house that frightens him, but he is afraid of what it represents, of its image.
The power of images on the narrator-character is confirmed later, at the end of the paragraph :
« It was possible, (...) and the vacant and eye-like windows. »
==> He's more afraid by what he sees in the tarn around the house. The seese of gloom and melancholy is what is really frightening here.
First introduction of the ghost : « ghastly »
Idea of vacancy keeps up the image of the ghost : in the beginning it is nothing more than an image, a fantasy, born from the reflection of the house on the tarn.
The landscape is not terrible, it becomes terrible because of the ideas we project on it.
« I found myself » : he can't remember how he got here, he's in an unknown place, he's lost, he can't come back home, where he received the letter. He is afraid because he is lost. This is why he is so affected by images.
==> For the moment, nothing is monstruous.
« I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. »
==> the sense of gloom could have been nulled by feeling poetic sentiments (according to Poe, poetic sentiment is « what is forged in the crucible of imagination »)
The creative power of imagination is reminiscent of the creative power of the Divine. In that sense, the poetic sentiment is what goes beyond the appearance of things to touch their substance, their essence.
This is connected with imagination. He tells us what he feels : compares it with what an opium eater when the effects of the product has venished : the analogy implies hallucination. His fear, his melancholy, is not founded, is not consistent.
« A thing is consistent in the ratio of it's truth, true in the ratio of it's consistency » (Poe)
What the character feels has no consistence, therefore it can't be true. The goading of imagination can change anything into something Sublime / Divine.
So the narrator is afraid, but gives us keys to understand that the story is nothing but a story of images and point of view :
« a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression »
==> It is only his point of view, it is personnal, it can be changed. He tells us a shift in the point of view might have provided another arrangement in the elements of the scene.
Scene : dramatic sense of the word, he talks about a representation, a painting (« the details of the picture »). How could you be afraid of a picture ? He is afraid by style, aesthetics, form, manner, composition, not by facts.
The text begins with an opressed narrator, and the idea is pursued and reinforced by the fact that he feels an utter depression of the soul.
But his fancies are said to be shades, shadows, and are, by defnition, images. There is nothing but an appearance, a ghostly and ghastly one : the viewing of a ghost.
From the first paragraph, Poe gives us the keys not to be trapped in what seems to be a Gothic, frightening story.
« The melancholic house » : the melancholic character is the one that has turned it's back on the Divine, on what is supposed to be Truth, Eternal, Sublime, by believing that he could reach sublimity without the Divine.
-> John Keats, « Ode to Melancholy » :
« It dwells with beauty, beauty that must die
And joy, whose hands is ever at his lips.
(...)
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.»
3 figures of speech :
-an Antanaclasis : rhetorcal figure. Repetition of the same word with 2 diff. Meanings. HERE : Reflected. (« I reflected, that a mere different arrangement »)
Reflected : « I thought » + reflection of a mirror. Reflection is frightening.
Since this story bathes withs a specular atmosphere : « I reflected » may also imply that his reflections are nothing but the effect of the landscape on him. We understand his reflections have been infected by the effect of teh reflection on himself.
From the beginning, the landscape has a power on him. This power is shown by the sencond figure of speech.
-A Paragmenon : the repetition of words which derive from the same root.
« oppressed, depressed, impressed » : a process of submission. « Opressed » by the clouds. The idea of a weight on his shoulders. « Depressed » : a depression of the soul, ethymologically « to press down ». What is pressed down ? The soul of the narrator is pressed down by the reflections, the landscape, the shadows.
A sorrowful « impression » : what's pressing so strong on you, it gets into you. It « pervedes » , invades the narrator. It leads us to the idea that the narrator is possessed by these feelings, all the more possessed that his fancies « unnerved » him. (deprived him of his energy)
Before having met Usher, he is already infected by his malady, his melancholy. (« It dwells with Beauty » : a human beauty, far away from the one of God)
-An Anaphora : The same word repeated at the beginning of a line / repetition of the same word.
==> The sense of the passage : its procedure
==> The status of the narrator.
An angel seated, looking in front of him, with empty eyes. He is surrounded by scattered objects, with a dog ? These objects are objects of Human knowledge, referring to the passing of time. They have been thrown because they are useless.
The Angel has lost the harmony and the order of God. (The bat flies, not the Angel). This knowledge has abandonned and been abandonned by God. It is not going to give the truth, the Beauty, the Hamony, the knowledge of existence / life.
The Angel is a fallen Angel.
The Melancholy is emerging from Usher himself. (« I can't alleviate the melancholy of my friend ») What is applied to the mansion originates from its master. The mansion and the master are characterized in the same way because they are the same.
The melancholy is what depresses, opresses and impresses the narrator. It's a downward movement. This is coherent with the physical moment of the narrator, who's riding down at the bottom of the valley to join the House.
The narrator is presented as the phenomenological subject of the narrative.
Upon : synonym of Under. The narrator will not be dominating, but dominated, influenced by the landscape, and therefore won't be an object, but a subject. The common life is falling.
The problem of Usher is a problem of God (Consenguinity : « a single line of descent »)
I hope you liked that first part, and that it's not too confusing. Second part to come soon !
I just seemed to me that it could be interesting to share that kind of things, so I told myself "why not ?".
This is the first part of my course on The Fall of the House of Usher. I hope you'll learn things and that you'll want more.
I have other things, from stuff on the British Government to James Joyce and Hopper, so I'll try to keep it interesting.
All the errors (typos, grammatical, vocabulary) are mine.
From the beginning, the narrator seems afraid : the sense of « gloom » (synonym of dejection, despondency, depression, melancholy).
He's surrounded by darkness and shades and finds himself in view of the house of Usher. It makes him uneasy because it has « eyes », like a monster. He is « unnerved », paralized, under the power of the house. It is not the house that frightens him, but he is afraid of what it represents, of its image.
The power of images on the narrator-character is confirmed later, at the end of the paragraph :
« It was possible, (...) and the vacant and eye-like windows. »
==> He's more afraid by what he sees in the tarn around the house. The seese of gloom and melancholy is what is really frightening here.
First introduction of the ghost : « ghastly »
Idea of vacancy keeps up the image of the ghost : in the beginning it is nothing more than an image, a fantasy, born from the reflection of the house on the tarn.
The landscape is not terrible, it becomes terrible because of the ideas we project on it.
« I found myself » : he can't remember how he got here, he's in an unknown place, he's lost, he can't come back home, where he received the letter. He is afraid because he is lost. This is why he is so affected by images.
==> For the moment, nothing is monstruous.
« I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. »
==> the sense of gloom could have been nulled by feeling poetic sentiments (according to Poe, poetic sentiment is « what is forged in the crucible of imagination »)
The creative power of imagination is reminiscent of the creative power of the Divine. In that sense, the poetic sentiment is what goes beyond the appearance of things to touch their substance, their essence.
This is connected with imagination. He tells us what he feels : compares it with what an opium eater when the effects of the product has venished : the analogy implies hallucination. His fear, his melancholy, is not founded, is not consistent.
« A thing is consistent in the ratio of it's truth, true in the ratio of it's consistency » (Poe)
What the character feels has no consistence, therefore it can't be true. The goading of imagination can change anything into something Sublime / Divine.
So the narrator is afraid, but gives us keys to understand that the story is nothing but a story of images and point of view :
« a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression »
==> It is only his point of view, it is personnal, it can be changed. He tells us a shift in the point of view might have provided another arrangement in the elements of the scene.
Scene : dramatic sense of the word, he talks about a representation, a painting (« the details of the picture »). How could you be afraid of a picture ? He is afraid by style, aesthetics, form, manner, composition, not by facts.
The text begins with an opressed narrator, and the idea is pursued and reinforced by the fact that he feels an utter depression of the soul.
But his fancies are said to be shades, shadows, and are, by defnition, images. There is nothing but an appearance, a ghostly and ghastly one : the viewing of a ghost.
From the first paragraph, Poe gives us the keys not to be trapped in what seems to be a Gothic, frightening story.
« The melancholic house » : the melancholic character is the one that has turned it's back on the Divine, on what is supposed to be Truth, Eternal, Sublime, by believing that he could reach sublimity without the Divine.
-> John Keats, « Ode to Melancholy » :
« It dwells with beauty, beauty that must die
And joy, whose hands is ever at his lips.
(...)
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.»
3 figures of speech :
-an Antanaclasis : rhetorcal figure. Repetition of the same word with 2 diff. Meanings. HERE : Reflected. (« I reflected, that a mere different arrangement »)
Reflected : « I thought » + reflection of a mirror. Reflection is frightening.
Since this story bathes withs a specular atmosphere : « I reflected » may also imply that his reflections are nothing but the effect of the landscape on him. We understand his reflections have been infected by the effect of teh reflection on himself.
From the beginning, the landscape has a power on him. This power is shown by the sencond figure of speech.
-A Paragmenon : the repetition of words which derive from the same root.
« oppressed, depressed, impressed » : a process of submission. « Opressed » by the clouds. The idea of a weight on his shoulders. « Depressed » : a depression of the soul, ethymologically « to press down ». What is pressed down ? The soul of the narrator is pressed down by the reflections, the landscape, the shadows.
A sorrowful « impression » : what's pressing so strong on you, it gets into you. It « pervedes » , invades the narrator. It leads us to the idea that the narrator is possessed by these feelings, all the more possessed that his fancies « unnerved » him. (deprived him of his energy)
Before having met Usher, he is already infected by his malady, his melancholy. (« It dwells with Beauty » : a human beauty, far away from the one of God)
-An Anaphora : The same word repeated at the beginning of a line / repetition of the same word.
==> The sense of the passage : its procedure
==> The status of the narrator.
Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia.
An angel seated, looking in front of him, with empty eyes. He is surrounded by scattered objects, with a dog ? These objects are objects of Human knowledge, referring to the passing of time. They have been thrown because they are useless.
The Angel has lost the harmony and the order of God. (The bat flies, not the Angel). This knowledge has abandonned and been abandonned by God. It is not going to give the truth, the Beauty, the Hamony, the knowledge of existence / life.
The Angel is a fallen Angel.
The Melancholy is emerging from Usher himself. (« I can't alleviate the melancholy of my friend ») What is applied to the mansion originates from its master. The mansion and the master are characterized in the same way because they are the same.
The melancholy is what depresses, opresses and impresses the narrator. It's a downward movement. This is coherent with the physical moment of the narrator, who's riding down at the bottom of the valley to join the House.
The narrator is presented as the phenomenological subject of the narrative.
Upon : synonym of Under. The narrator will not be dominating, but dominated, influenced by the landscape, and therefore won't be an object, but a subject. The common life is falling.
The problem of Usher is a problem of God (Consenguinity : « a single line of descent »)
I hope you liked that first part, and that it's not too confusing. Second part to come soon !
jeudi 15 mai 2014
My essay on Shakespeare
Now that I have handed it, I can share my essay on Shakespeare's Much Ado without any problems (I think.)
This also means I'm on vacations, so I'll try to post more often.
Warning : this is a first year of college essay. It's not perfect, and there will be errors (grammatical ones, vocabular ones...) and typos. Anyway, I hope it will bring something to the ones who will read it.
“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” Says Beatrice to Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing’s first scene of the fourth act. It shows how deep her feelings for him are and how strong their future relationship will be.
The title of «Much Ado About Nothing» draws attention to the so called unseriousness of the play. It’s subjective, much like love, and shows the struggle it engenders to get to marriage. This title also implies comedy, and in a way, some fun made of current life situations and encourages some sort of reconciliation with nature and with ourselves.
Through the different struggles the two couples we are going to study go through, we also understand that the title highlights the efforts that are to be made and the fragility that comes from them.
We are going to study the two couples formed by Benedick and Beatrice and Claudio and Hero through three scenes that seem to most show their differences. It will allow us to show the differences between those two couples.
In the first part, we are going to see the first scene of the first act, with onomastics and the most basic difference between our two couples. In the second part, we’ll study the first scene of the fourth act and the themes of illusion, reality and gender issues. In the third and last part, we are going to look more into the first scene of the fifth act, the true faces of the characters and the theme of jealousy and honor.
In the first scene, we discover two very different pairs of lovers-to-be.
Benedick's name means « he who is to be blessed », while Beatrice's means « she who blesses ». That could indicate that they are meant for each other. Their love is what we could define by «built love». They knew each other before the beginning of the play, and it is hinted that they already tried to have a romantic relationship.
Benedick has an ironic sense of himself. His openness about himself and his self dramatisation show that he is insecure about who he is and makes him accessible.
He is the prototype of the man who scorns love and that courts ladies.
Benedick 's dislike seems to be not of women, but of their treat to the male freedom, privilege and honour. Although he complains of the agitation that Beatrice causes, it is evident that there is some affinity between them, and this is understandable, because she has herself a man's wit and cures his fear of stagnation by challenging him.
When asked by Claudio what he thinks about Hero, he answers « Do you question me as an honest man (…) or as a professed tyrant of their sex ? ». It can be a proof that his disdain for love and women is a pose to protect himself and amuse his friends. Therefore, his falling for Beatrice is no surprise.
After Hero's rejection at the altar, he goes to Beatrice and asks her « Have you wept all this while ? » (IV.1). He shows her respect and sympathy and proves that love has softened his heart. The way he confesses his feelings to Beatrice (« I do love nothing in the world so well as you – is it not strange ? » IV.1) shows a hidden dignity, wonder and makes him almost look like a child.
Beatrice attracts Benedick's attention with a « nobody marks you » (I.1). Nobody does, except her. She resents Benedick's inconsistancy : he had « lent » his heart to her and « won » hers with « false dice » (II.1). That shows they already tried to be a couple.
In the third act (III.2), an iambic pentameter foretells Beatrice's and Benedick's future relationship. She says « Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much ? (…) Taming my wild heart in thy loving hand ». It shows she is willing to let her love for Benedick soften her.
Beatrice, after her cousin's rejection, is torn between her grief to Hero's situation and her joy from Benedick's love. She then asks him to avenge her cousin : it is to have a proof that Benedick's love is true and that he is worthy of her love. To her, love is not playing roles (as it seems to be for Claudio), it is about companionship ans commitment. She keeps him from kissing her until she is sure he has challenged Claudio : they seem to be already married. They are « too wise to woo peacefully », and their antagonism helps them keep in touch with their feelings.
Beatrice and Benedick hurt themselves in their war of wit because it contradicted their true feelings. In a way, their love surpasses Claudio's and Hero's in its wit, openness and emotional and intellectual vitality. The play ends with them instead of Hero and Claudio, because their honesty about themselves and their feelings assure us that their love will constantly be reaffirmed.
In contrary to Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio’s love could be qualified as «instant». They don’t know each other and get engaged before Hero has even one talk with her husband-to-be. Unlike Beatrice and Benedick, their names show no compatibility : Claudio's name comes from the Latin « Claudius » that means « lame, crippled ». In Greek mythology, Hero is a priestess of Aphrodite loved by a man named Leander. Elizabethan audiences were accustomed to Hero as a female character because of that story. Shakespeare plays on the name as a male ideal of virtue and strengh, and invites us to see Claudio’s love for Hero as a narcissic projection of his own ideal. This is why, for her sake and Claudio’s, she had to die. By losing the illusion he projected upon her, she gains her reality.
Hero and Claudio's relationship shows extreme shyness and reticence and is lanced with extreme conventionality. Hero's beauty strikes Claudio and leaves him speechless until he is alone with Benedick.
Claudio wants to succeed. He dreams of glory and heroism, and in peace, Hero is a trophy worthy of what he hopes will be his destiny. He idealized himself, which denies him self-knowledge, and idealising Hero may mask his fear and heatred of women.
The fact that Don Pedro charms Hero into her marriage with Claudio says much about his fear, his emotional insecurity and his social ambition.
After Don John told Claudio Hero was disloyal to him, the young man declares « ...there I will shame her » (III.2). His denunciation seems to come from a personal insecurity that causes him to think honour is the most important thing and suggests that he already conviced Hero as guilty before even facing her.
He takes control of the marriage ceremony and is arrongant and hurtful towards Hero and Leonato, telling the old man to « Give not this rotten orange to your old friend » (IV.1)
The fact that Claudion compares Hero, first to Diana and then to Venus, two very different Goddesses, shows that he can't face her imperfection.
The bad opinion we have of Claudio is reinforced by his actions after Hero has been declared dead. He jokes « We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth » (V.1), and then tried to have Benedick into a banter, who insults him in response.
Claudio's only redemption is possible because of his youth and repentance. He is still blinded by Hero's outward beauty and reputation, but his apology to Leonato seems sincere (« Yet sinned I not / But in mistaking »). His amazement at the reapparition of Hero seem genuine (« Antoher Hero ? »)
Hero's reticence to her marriage with Claudio is a sign both of innocence and of her wealth and social position.
Among her female friends, she shows quite a flexible wit. Her part in the plan to get Beatrice and Benedick together give her character a new depth. Immediately before her wedding, she plays with her dress to keep her mind out of her anxiety.
She seems very conventionnal and deserving of sympathy. She is defenceless against Claudio's accusations, and stays dign until she faints. She is even more elevated by Beatrice and the Friar taking her defence, as well as by the hard time she has understanding what she is accused of.
The fact that she is still willing to marry Claudio after he has treated her so poorly is strange, but it sticks to her character of a conventionnal heroine.
Our study of the two couples show that they are complementaries. We could say that Beatrice and Benedick's story rises from it and complements it. Beatrice and Benedick bring wit and repartee, while Claudio lacks wit and behaves conventionnally and Hero is obedient and hardly speaks.
We are now going to see more of the differences between our couples, and the themes of Illusion, reality, reputation and gender issues, mainly through the first scene of the fourth act.
Claudio's rejection of Hero and the reaction of her father in the first scene of the fourth act point some gender-related issues in the play. It also highlights the theme of illusion and reality, which is very present through the play.
The gender and reputation related issues appear through all the play, but are made easily seen by Claudio’s reaction to Hero’s so called disloyalty. He announces «If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her / to-morrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I shame her.» (III.2) This is particularly nasty of him. Rather than just canceling the wedding if Hero is disloyal, he’s determined on disgracing her in front of the whole assembly. His plan is more about vengefully ruining her reputation than it is about escaping a loveless, dishonest marriage. Then, at the altar, he rejects Hero using mean and hurtful words, calling her sarcasticly an « rich and precious gift » (IV.1), and telling Leonato to « Give not this rotten orange to your friend / She's but the sign and semblance of her honour». He accompanies his words by giving Hero's hand back to her father and throwing her to the floor, before playing on the words « Oh, Hero ! What a hero hadst thoust been (…) and counsels of thy heart ?». It shows that his vision of her dishonour is as illusory as his love.
Claudio then uses Leonato to make his point. He asks the older man to make Hero tell the truth, and Leonato complies. We then understand that no one will stand for Hero, and that what is happening is a matter of pride and reputation («Claudio : Let me but move one question to your daughter, / And by that fatherly and kindly power / That you have in her, bid her answer truly. / Leonato : I charge thee do so, as thou art my child. / Hero : O, God defend me! How am I beset! / What kind of catechising call you this? (IV.1)») This is a difficult passage to read, as it’s the first instance where Leonato chooses Claudio’s word over his daughter’s. He demands that Hero answer Claudio’s question, indicating that he’s already trusting Claudio instead of defending his daughter. Ultimately, this episode is sickening because of our intuition that Leonato’s role – because he knows his daughter and her honor– is to stand up for her, not to indulge Claudio in this public spectacle. Hero’s reputation is on the line, and in the end, as a woman, her word isn’t worth much against a man’s. This episode reminds us of the constant cuckoldry jests in the play. Though they were jokes, they seriously refer to the distrust men had for their wives, and we could bet it also makes them hesitate to stand up for their daughters.
Leonato’s reaction is not long-waited for. As he believes everything Claudio says, and instead of standing for his daughter, he sides with Claudio, adding that he regrets she is his daughter («I might have said, 'No part of it is mine; / This shame derives itself from unknown loins'? / (...) / And salt too little which may season give / To her foul tainted flesh! (IV.1)»)
Leonato does not grieve for the apparent death of his only child; rather, he rejoices over it as the best way to hide her shame (and therefore his shame). This leads him to reveal that his wounded pride is what he’s really worried about. He wishes she was not his flesh and blood, but some adopted child, so he could say, "No part of this scandal is mine," and renounce the girl without any grief. It’s clear from Leonato’s words that he is more concerned about his own hurt pride than Hero’s dishonor.
But when it is made clear that they were mislead by Don John, Claudio hurries to preach his love for the vertuous Hero. («Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear / In the rare semblance that I lov'd it first. (V.1)»)
He declares his love for Hero again as soon as he hears of her innocence. His sudden renewed love of Hero makes us feel as though his love is not actually as deep as we’d want it to be; his love was destroyed by outside circumstance and is resolved by outside circumstance too. We wonder whether Claudio will be able to bear other miscommunications when the pair is married – or if he will be as quick to judge as he is currently, even if he’s wrong.
In this scene, no one could differ more from Claudio than Benedick. When Claudio’s love for Hero collapses and turns to dust while facing adversity, Benedick’s love for Beatrice gets stronger and helps him grow into the man he thinks is right for Beatrice.
He first enquires about Hero, asking the Friar and Beatrice «How doth the lady?» (IV.1).
This is a monumental transformation for him. As Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio storm out, Benedick surprisingly stays behind. While this is an obvious indication that Benedick’s allegiances may have changed, it seems there is some deeper transformation at work (perhaps regarding his love for Beatrice, but perhaps also his sense of justice).
He then comforts Beatrice and pledges his love for her. Their relationship is cemented by Hero's suffering. He goes to Beatrice and asks her « ...have you wept all this while ?» before telling her that he « do love nothing in the world so well as (her) ». It distances him with Claudio : while one of the men hurts the woman he is supposed to love, the other comforts her and assures her of his love. Asking Beatrice to « Come bid me do anything for (her)», Benedick takes the place of the conventionnal lover, and her answer to « Kill Claudio », she makes him commit himself to his feelings rather than the male code that made all the other men selfish, unfeeling and hypocritcal.
Left alone with no other witness than Benedick, Beatrice storms about not being able to avenge her cousin because she is not a man («O that I were a man for his sake ! or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake!» IV.1). Beatrice berates all men for being wimps. If Benedick didn’t understand before, he does now: Beatrice needs a manly man. She rails against what manliness has come to in these days of courtly pomp, and it’s not a flattering picture. It’s interesting that Benedick has spent all this time up to now indulging in similar rantings against all the courtly niceties of love (using Claudio as a prime example). Now that Benedick has fallen in love, he’s provided a chance to prove that he’s different from other lovers who were transformed by love into sighing idiots (like Claudio). Especially now that Claudio has turned out to be faithless and cruel, Benedick can show that there are different ways to love than the stupid courtly formalities, which he’s not good at anyway. This could be Benedick’s big chance to win Beatrice’s heart.
Now that we have studied the proeminent themes of the first scene of the fourth act, we are going to see that the first scene of the following act brings up the true face of the characters, as well as the themes of jealousy, honour and noting.
In the first scene of the fifth act, Leonato begins to think that his daughter was framed. When Claudio and Don Pedro enter the scene, he loses his temper and accuses them to have wasted and challenges him to a duel. Claudio disdainfully refuses and jokes as the old men leave. Benedick enters, refuses Claudio's companionship and challenges him.
While Claudio and Don Pedro keep their composure facing the old men, they seem ridiculous. As Benedick enters, Claudio's joke : « We had like to have our noses snapped off by two old men without teeth » (V.1) ( To Leonato’s face, Claudio makes a big show of respecting his age, but it’s clear from this comment that Claudio is not exactly Mr. Reverence. Age doesn’t seem to command respect for Claudio; he approaches it more as a weakness than a reason for reverence, which is pretty immature of him. It’s another strike against Claudio’s character.)
, and Don Pedro's answer « I doubt we should have been too young for them », show how arrogant and mean they are. Their disdain towards Hero's fate and Leonato's pain, even if he's supposed to be their friend,
As Benedick enters, the sympathy we could have felt for his friends vanishes with their prompt way to insult Leonato and Antonio so soon after Hero’s death. It takes a long moment for Claudio and Don Pedro to realize something is wrong with Benedick - whose transformation to Beatrice’s champion helped grow and changed. He keeps his promise to her, challenging Claudio and choosing to part from his friends («Benedick : My lord, for your many / courtesies I thank you. I must discontinue your company.» (V.1))
This is a decisive move for Benedick; as it is the moment when he explicitly breaks company with Don Pedro shows a public transformation in his allegiance.
He leaves on a «I will leave you to your gossip-like humour» (V.1) both shows his moral growth and distances him even further from his friends.
Don Pedro and Claudio remain arrogant and insensitive until the end. In his words «I know not how to pray your patience; / Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself; / Impose me to what penance your invention / Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinn'd I not / But in mistaking.(V.1)», Claudio is saying something unacceptable. He has just found out he wrongfully accused Hero and he thinks he caused her death. Instead of just hanging his head in shame and being sorry, he feels the need to point out that he was misled, so none of this was really his fault. It seems Claudio is more concerned with protecting his pride than mourning over his part in Hero’s death. Even that he’s willing to submit himself to punishment seems more about the appropriate formalities of dealing with his wrong than any actual regret or repentance he has. Claudio then takes pride and flatters himself in marrying an heiress he has never seen and whose only quality is her wealth, saying «I’ll hold my mind were she an Ethiop» (V.4), meaning that he'll stick to his promise, no matter what his new bride looks likes. "Ethiope" was a term for any black person, and black was considered to the opposite of beautiful. It strenghtens the argument that he is nothing more than a materialist, even after the act of penance he had to do to regain Leonato’s trust.
Honour is important in the play. It hinges on it, because of Hero’s disgrace and redemption. A woman’s honour is based upon virginity before marriage (which is why the reactions to Hero’s so called treason are so violent), while a man’s honour is based on his valour in a fight.
However, it seems like Beatrice is the one that has the more honour. In friendship and love, it demands loyalty, and this is why she asks Benedick to avenge Hero’s dishonour as if it were her own. She exposes the gap between the illusions we have of honour and the reality, and her attack upon Claudio’s behavior exposes his heartlessness and hypocrisy. She then goes on to Benedick’s unwillingness to grant her her request to challenge Claudio («You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy» IV.1). She argues against the male solidarity, which is central to their code of honour, and shows Benedick he should be putting mutual feelings before standards of conduct. And by taking up her challenge, he follows his conscience instead of a code, which helps him grow in moral stature.
The major complication in the play comes from Claudio’s denunciation of Hero, which is itself based on a misconception, a trick, which is virtually nothing. The minor one is a lie that unites Beatrice and Benedick. While one separates Hero and Claudio, the other is quickly forgotten : Beatrice and Benedick are aware of their love for each other, and it doesn’t matter to them that a lie made them act on their feelings.
Spying and eavesdropping are important in the play. If Claudio and Don Pedro had not spied on who the mistook for Hero, the wedding would have happened, and if Beatrice and Benedick had not eavesdropped, they wouldn’t have faced their love for each other. In the first scene of the play, Claudio asks Benedick he he has «noted the daughter of Signor Leonato», to which he replies «I noted her not, but I looked on her». He points out that perception is subjective. If beauty is an illusion, the lover’s feelings will change even if the object of his feelings stay the same.
Beatrice and Benedick discover their feelings away from the others, and when Benedick commits himself to Beatrice, he breaks through the illusion, leading to his discovery of himself and his ability to change. Their love began in an illusory antagonism and was sealed in violence with Beatrice’s demand of Claudio’s death, but it connects them to what is more permanent than the situation they find themselves in. The openness of their relationship, and the realism they add to it get it rid of any form of jealousy.
Claudio’s idealized love for Hero masked fear and violence, which erupted during the first wedding ceremony. His jealousy reminds of Othello, a fearless and resourceful man in battle, but easily undone by love, and he puts Hero on such a high pedestal he’s incapable to woo her himself
He is incapable to love correctly until his idealisations were shattered. His song and epitaph for Hero show a process of remorse. He learns that love is unchanging, as well as the meaning of true love, and is finally fit to have Hero coming back to him.
To conclude, we could say that two quotes perfectly sum up the two couples we have studied. The first is from the first scene of the second act, where Claudio says : «Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for / you and dote upon the exchange.»
Claudio’s declaration to Hero could show, in his choice of words, how little love truly means to him. «Mine» and «yours» implie possession, while «give away myself» means that he feels he has more value than she does. «To dote» means showing love for something or someone and look past its flaws, which he won’t do for Hero, and «exchange» is not the kind of word that is likely to be heard in a love declaration, because of it’s commercial connotations (which could mean that he sees Hero only as a mean to rise to a higher social status).
In comparison, the second quote (Benedick’s «I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange?») from the frist scene of act four, and which is prompted by Beatrice’s need of a man to challenge Claudio, shows that he offers his love as proof that he’d do any task for her. They then compromise not to «woo peacefully», which show the future balance their relationship will reach, and prove that it is the image of what true love should be.
Sources :
-Movies : Much Ado About Nothing (both BBC’s 1984 and Kenneth Brannagh’s 1993 versions)
-Much Ado About Nothing (Oxford School edition)
-Much Ado About Nothing (York Notes Advanced)
This also means I'm on vacations, so I'll try to post more often.
Warning : this is a first year of college essay. It's not perfect, and there will be errors (grammatical ones, vocabular ones...) and typos. Anyway, I hope it will bring something to the ones who will read it.
“I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” Says Beatrice to Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing’s first scene of the fourth act. It shows how deep her feelings for him are and how strong their future relationship will be.
The title of «Much Ado About Nothing» draws attention to the so called unseriousness of the play. It’s subjective, much like love, and shows the struggle it engenders to get to marriage. This title also implies comedy, and in a way, some fun made of current life situations and encourages some sort of reconciliation with nature and with ourselves.
Through the different struggles the two couples we are going to study go through, we also understand that the title highlights the efforts that are to be made and the fragility that comes from them.
We are going to study the two couples formed by Benedick and Beatrice and Claudio and Hero through three scenes that seem to most show their differences. It will allow us to show the differences between those two couples.
In the first part, we are going to see the first scene of the first act, with onomastics and the most basic difference between our two couples. In the second part, we’ll study the first scene of the fourth act and the themes of illusion, reality and gender issues. In the third and last part, we are going to look more into the first scene of the fifth act, the true faces of the characters and the theme of jealousy and honor.
In the first scene, we discover two very different pairs of lovers-to-be.
Benedick's name means « he who is to be blessed », while Beatrice's means « she who blesses ». That could indicate that they are meant for each other. Their love is what we could define by «built love». They knew each other before the beginning of the play, and it is hinted that they already tried to have a romantic relationship.
Benedick has an ironic sense of himself. His openness about himself and his self dramatisation show that he is insecure about who he is and makes him accessible.
He is the prototype of the man who scorns love and that courts ladies.
Benedick 's dislike seems to be not of women, but of their treat to the male freedom, privilege and honour. Although he complains of the agitation that Beatrice causes, it is evident that there is some affinity between them, and this is understandable, because she has herself a man's wit and cures his fear of stagnation by challenging him.
When asked by Claudio what he thinks about Hero, he answers « Do you question me as an honest man (…) or as a professed tyrant of their sex ? ». It can be a proof that his disdain for love and women is a pose to protect himself and amuse his friends. Therefore, his falling for Beatrice is no surprise.
After Hero's rejection at the altar, he goes to Beatrice and asks her « Have you wept all this while ? » (IV.1). He shows her respect and sympathy and proves that love has softened his heart. The way he confesses his feelings to Beatrice (« I do love nothing in the world so well as you – is it not strange ? » IV.1) shows a hidden dignity, wonder and makes him almost look like a child.
Beatrice attracts Benedick's attention with a « nobody marks you » (I.1). Nobody does, except her. She resents Benedick's inconsistancy : he had « lent » his heart to her and « won » hers with « false dice » (II.1). That shows they already tried to be a couple.
In the third act (III.2), an iambic pentameter foretells Beatrice's and Benedick's future relationship. She says « Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much ? (…) Taming my wild heart in thy loving hand ». It shows she is willing to let her love for Benedick soften her.
Beatrice, after her cousin's rejection, is torn between her grief to Hero's situation and her joy from Benedick's love. She then asks him to avenge her cousin : it is to have a proof that Benedick's love is true and that he is worthy of her love. To her, love is not playing roles (as it seems to be for Claudio), it is about companionship ans commitment. She keeps him from kissing her until she is sure he has challenged Claudio : they seem to be already married. They are « too wise to woo peacefully », and their antagonism helps them keep in touch with their feelings.
Beatrice and Benedick hurt themselves in their war of wit because it contradicted their true feelings. In a way, their love surpasses Claudio's and Hero's in its wit, openness and emotional and intellectual vitality. The play ends with them instead of Hero and Claudio, because their honesty about themselves and their feelings assure us that their love will constantly be reaffirmed.
In contrary to Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio’s love could be qualified as «instant». They don’t know each other and get engaged before Hero has even one talk with her husband-to-be. Unlike Beatrice and Benedick, their names show no compatibility : Claudio's name comes from the Latin « Claudius » that means « lame, crippled ». In Greek mythology, Hero is a priestess of Aphrodite loved by a man named Leander. Elizabethan audiences were accustomed to Hero as a female character because of that story. Shakespeare plays on the name as a male ideal of virtue and strengh, and invites us to see Claudio’s love for Hero as a narcissic projection of his own ideal. This is why, for her sake and Claudio’s, she had to die. By losing the illusion he projected upon her, she gains her reality.
Hero and Claudio's relationship shows extreme shyness and reticence and is lanced with extreme conventionality. Hero's beauty strikes Claudio and leaves him speechless until he is alone with Benedick.
Claudio wants to succeed. He dreams of glory and heroism, and in peace, Hero is a trophy worthy of what he hopes will be his destiny. He idealized himself, which denies him self-knowledge, and idealising Hero may mask his fear and heatred of women.
The fact that Don Pedro charms Hero into her marriage with Claudio says much about his fear, his emotional insecurity and his social ambition.
After Don John told Claudio Hero was disloyal to him, the young man declares « ...there I will shame her » (III.2). His denunciation seems to come from a personal insecurity that causes him to think honour is the most important thing and suggests that he already conviced Hero as guilty before even facing her.
He takes control of the marriage ceremony and is arrongant and hurtful towards Hero and Leonato, telling the old man to « Give not this rotten orange to your old friend » (IV.1)
The fact that Claudion compares Hero, first to Diana and then to Venus, two very different Goddesses, shows that he can't face her imperfection.
The bad opinion we have of Claudio is reinforced by his actions after Hero has been declared dead. He jokes « We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth » (V.1), and then tried to have Benedick into a banter, who insults him in response.
Claudio's only redemption is possible because of his youth and repentance. He is still blinded by Hero's outward beauty and reputation, but his apology to Leonato seems sincere (« Yet sinned I not / But in mistaking »). His amazement at the reapparition of Hero seem genuine (« Antoher Hero ? »)
Hero's reticence to her marriage with Claudio is a sign both of innocence and of her wealth and social position.
Among her female friends, she shows quite a flexible wit. Her part in the plan to get Beatrice and Benedick together give her character a new depth. Immediately before her wedding, she plays with her dress to keep her mind out of her anxiety.
She seems very conventionnal and deserving of sympathy. She is defenceless against Claudio's accusations, and stays dign until she faints. She is even more elevated by Beatrice and the Friar taking her defence, as well as by the hard time she has understanding what she is accused of.
The fact that she is still willing to marry Claudio after he has treated her so poorly is strange, but it sticks to her character of a conventionnal heroine.
Our study of the two couples show that they are complementaries. We could say that Beatrice and Benedick's story rises from it and complements it. Beatrice and Benedick bring wit and repartee, while Claudio lacks wit and behaves conventionnally and Hero is obedient and hardly speaks.
We are now going to see more of the differences between our couples, and the themes of Illusion, reality, reputation and gender issues, mainly through the first scene of the fourth act.
Claudio's rejection of Hero and the reaction of her father in the first scene of the fourth act point some gender-related issues in the play. It also highlights the theme of illusion and reality, which is very present through the play.
The gender and reputation related issues appear through all the play, but are made easily seen by Claudio’s reaction to Hero’s so called disloyalty. He announces «If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her / to-morrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I shame her.» (III.2) This is particularly nasty of him. Rather than just canceling the wedding if Hero is disloyal, he’s determined on disgracing her in front of the whole assembly. His plan is more about vengefully ruining her reputation than it is about escaping a loveless, dishonest marriage. Then, at the altar, he rejects Hero using mean and hurtful words, calling her sarcasticly an « rich and precious gift » (IV.1), and telling Leonato to « Give not this rotten orange to your friend / She's but the sign and semblance of her honour». He accompanies his words by giving Hero's hand back to her father and throwing her to the floor, before playing on the words « Oh, Hero ! What a hero hadst thoust been (…) and counsels of thy heart ?». It shows that his vision of her dishonour is as illusory as his love.
Claudio then uses Leonato to make his point. He asks the older man to make Hero tell the truth, and Leonato complies. We then understand that no one will stand for Hero, and that what is happening is a matter of pride and reputation («Claudio : Let me but move one question to your daughter, / And by that fatherly and kindly power / That you have in her, bid her answer truly. / Leonato : I charge thee do so, as thou art my child. / Hero : O, God defend me! How am I beset! / What kind of catechising call you this? (IV.1)») This is a difficult passage to read, as it’s the first instance where Leonato chooses Claudio’s word over his daughter’s. He demands that Hero answer Claudio’s question, indicating that he’s already trusting Claudio instead of defending his daughter. Ultimately, this episode is sickening because of our intuition that Leonato’s role – because he knows his daughter and her honor– is to stand up for her, not to indulge Claudio in this public spectacle. Hero’s reputation is on the line, and in the end, as a woman, her word isn’t worth much against a man’s. This episode reminds us of the constant cuckoldry jests in the play. Though they were jokes, they seriously refer to the distrust men had for their wives, and we could bet it also makes them hesitate to stand up for their daughters.
Leonato’s reaction is not long-waited for. As he believes everything Claudio says, and instead of standing for his daughter, he sides with Claudio, adding that he regrets she is his daughter («I might have said, 'No part of it is mine; / This shame derives itself from unknown loins'? / (...) / And salt too little which may season give / To her foul tainted flesh! (IV.1)»)
Leonato does not grieve for the apparent death of his only child; rather, he rejoices over it as the best way to hide her shame (and therefore his shame). This leads him to reveal that his wounded pride is what he’s really worried about. He wishes she was not his flesh and blood, but some adopted child, so he could say, "No part of this scandal is mine," and renounce the girl without any grief. It’s clear from Leonato’s words that he is more concerned about his own hurt pride than Hero’s dishonor.
But when it is made clear that they were mislead by Don John, Claudio hurries to preach his love for the vertuous Hero. («Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear / In the rare semblance that I lov'd it first. (V.1)»)
He declares his love for Hero again as soon as he hears of her innocence. His sudden renewed love of Hero makes us feel as though his love is not actually as deep as we’d want it to be; his love was destroyed by outside circumstance and is resolved by outside circumstance too. We wonder whether Claudio will be able to bear other miscommunications when the pair is married – or if he will be as quick to judge as he is currently, even if he’s wrong.
In this scene, no one could differ more from Claudio than Benedick. When Claudio’s love for Hero collapses and turns to dust while facing adversity, Benedick’s love for Beatrice gets stronger and helps him grow into the man he thinks is right for Beatrice.
He first enquires about Hero, asking the Friar and Beatrice «How doth the lady?» (IV.1).
This is a monumental transformation for him. As Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio storm out, Benedick surprisingly stays behind. While this is an obvious indication that Benedick’s allegiances may have changed, it seems there is some deeper transformation at work (perhaps regarding his love for Beatrice, but perhaps also his sense of justice).
He then comforts Beatrice and pledges his love for her. Their relationship is cemented by Hero's suffering. He goes to Beatrice and asks her « ...have you wept all this while ?» before telling her that he « do love nothing in the world so well as (her) ». It distances him with Claudio : while one of the men hurts the woman he is supposed to love, the other comforts her and assures her of his love. Asking Beatrice to « Come bid me do anything for (her)», Benedick takes the place of the conventionnal lover, and her answer to « Kill Claudio », she makes him commit himself to his feelings rather than the male code that made all the other men selfish, unfeeling and hypocritcal.
Left alone with no other witness than Benedick, Beatrice storms about not being able to avenge her cousin because she is not a man («O that I were a man for his sake ! or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake!» IV.1). Beatrice berates all men for being wimps. If Benedick didn’t understand before, he does now: Beatrice needs a manly man. She rails against what manliness has come to in these days of courtly pomp, and it’s not a flattering picture. It’s interesting that Benedick has spent all this time up to now indulging in similar rantings against all the courtly niceties of love (using Claudio as a prime example). Now that Benedick has fallen in love, he’s provided a chance to prove that he’s different from other lovers who were transformed by love into sighing idiots (like Claudio). Especially now that Claudio has turned out to be faithless and cruel, Benedick can show that there are different ways to love than the stupid courtly formalities, which he’s not good at anyway. This could be Benedick’s big chance to win Beatrice’s heart.
Now that we have studied the proeminent themes of the first scene of the fourth act, we are going to see that the first scene of the following act brings up the true face of the characters, as well as the themes of jealousy, honour and noting.
In the first scene of the fifth act, Leonato begins to think that his daughter was framed. When Claudio and Don Pedro enter the scene, he loses his temper and accuses them to have wasted and challenges him to a duel. Claudio disdainfully refuses and jokes as the old men leave. Benedick enters, refuses Claudio's companionship and challenges him.
While Claudio and Don Pedro keep their composure facing the old men, they seem ridiculous. As Benedick enters, Claudio's joke : « We had like to have our noses snapped off by two old men without teeth » (V.1) ( To Leonato’s face, Claudio makes a big show of respecting his age, but it’s clear from this comment that Claudio is not exactly Mr. Reverence. Age doesn’t seem to command respect for Claudio; he approaches it more as a weakness than a reason for reverence, which is pretty immature of him. It’s another strike against Claudio’s character.)
, and Don Pedro's answer « I doubt we should have been too young for them », show how arrogant and mean they are. Their disdain towards Hero's fate and Leonato's pain, even if he's supposed to be their friend,
As Benedick enters, the sympathy we could have felt for his friends vanishes with their prompt way to insult Leonato and Antonio so soon after Hero’s death. It takes a long moment for Claudio and Don Pedro to realize something is wrong with Benedick - whose transformation to Beatrice’s champion helped grow and changed. He keeps his promise to her, challenging Claudio and choosing to part from his friends («Benedick : My lord, for your many / courtesies I thank you. I must discontinue your company.» (V.1))
This is a decisive move for Benedick; as it is the moment when he explicitly breaks company with Don Pedro shows a public transformation in his allegiance.
He leaves on a «I will leave you to your gossip-like humour» (V.1) both shows his moral growth and distances him even further from his friends.
Don Pedro and Claudio remain arrogant and insensitive until the end. In his words «I know not how to pray your patience; / Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself; / Impose me to what penance your invention / Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinn'd I not / But in mistaking.(V.1)», Claudio is saying something unacceptable. He has just found out he wrongfully accused Hero and he thinks he caused her death. Instead of just hanging his head in shame and being sorry, he feels the need to point out that he was misled, so none of this was really his fault. It seems Claudio is more concerned with protecting his pride than mourning over his part in Hero’s death. Even that he’s willing to submit himself to punishment seems more about the appropriate formalities of dealing with his wrong than any actual regret or repentance he has. Claudio then takes pride and flatters himself in marrying an heiress he has never seen and whose only quality is her wealth, saying «I’ll hold my mind were she an Ethiop» (V.4), meaning that he'll stick to his promise, no matter what his new bride looks likes. "Ethiope" was a term for any black person, and black was considered to the opposite of beautiful. It strenghtens the argument that he is nothing more than a materialist, even after the act of penance he had to do to regain Leonato’s trust.
Honour is important in the play. It hinges on it, because of Hero’s disgrace and redemption. A woman’s honour is based upon virginity before marriage (which is why the reactions to Hero’s so called treason are so violent), while a man’s honour is based on his valour in a fight.
However, it seems like Beatrice is the one that has the more honour. In friendship and love, it demands loyalty, and this is why she asks Benedick to avenge Hero’s dishonour as if it were her own. She exposes the gap between the illusions we have of honour and the reality, and her attack upon Claudio’s behavior exposes his heartlessness and hypocrisy. She then goes on to Benedick’s unwillingness to grant her her request to challenge Claudio («You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy» IV.1). She argues against the male solidarity, which is central to their code of honour, and shows Benedick he should be putting mutual feelings before standards of conduct. And by taking up her challenge, he follows his conscience instead of a code, which helps him grow in moral stature.
The major complication in the play comes from Claudio’s denunciation of Hero, which is itself based on a misconception, a trick, which is virtually nothing. The minor one is a lie that unites Beatrice and Benedick. While one separates Hero and Claudio, the other is quickly forgotten : Beatrice and Benedick are aware of their love for each other, and it doesn’t matter to them that a lie made them act on their feelings.
Spying and eavesdropping are important in the play. If Claudio and Don Pedro had not spied on who the mistook for Hero, the wedding would have happened, and if Beatrice and Benedick had not eavesdropped, they wouldn’t have faced their love for each other. In the first scene of the play, Claudio asks Benedick he he has «noted the daughter of Signor Leonato», to which he replies «I noted her not, but I looked on her». He points out that perception is subjective. If beauty is an illusion, the lover’s feelings will change even if the object of his feelings stay the same.
Beatrice and Benedick discover their feelings away from the others, and when Benedick commits himself to Beatrice, he breaks through the illusion, leading to his discovery of himself and his ability to change. Their love began in an illusory antagonism and was sealed in violence with Beatrice’s demand of Claudio’s death, but it connects them to what is more permanent than the situation they find themselves in. The openness of their relationship, and the realism they add to it get it rid of any form of jealousy.
Claudio’s idealized love for Hero masked fear and violence, which erupted during the first wedding ceremony. His jealousy reminds of Othello, a fearless and resourceful man in battle, but easily undone by love, and he puts Hero on such a high pedestal he’s incapable to woo her himself
He is incapable to love correctly until his idealisations were shattered. His song and epitaph for Hero show a process of remorse. He learns that love is unchanging, as well as the meaning of true love, and is finally fit to have Hero coming back to him.
To conclude, we could say that two quotes perfectly sum up the two couples we have studied. The first is from the first scene of the second act, where Claudio says : «Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for / you and dote upon the exchange.»
Claudio’s declaration to Hero could show, in his choice of words, how little love truly means to him. «Mine» and «yours» implie possession, while «give away myself» means that he feels he has more value than she does. «To dote» means showing love for something or someone and look past its flaws, which he won’t do for Hero, and «exchange» is not the kind of word that is likely to be heard in a love declaration, because of it’s commercial connotations (which could mean that he sees Hero only as a mean to rise to a higher social status).
In comparison, the second quote (Benedick’s «I do love nothing in the world so well as you- is not that strange?») from the frist scene of act four, and which is prompted by Beatrice’s need of a man to challenge Claudio, shows that he offers his love as proof that he’d do any task for her. They then compromise not to «woo peacefully», which show the future balance their relationship will reach, and prove that it is the image of what true love should be.
Sources :
-Movies : Much Ado About Nothing (both BBC’s 1984 and Kenneth Brannagh’s 1993 versions)
-Much Ado About Nothing (Oxford School edition)
-Much Ado About Nothing (York Notes Advanced)
mercredi 23 avril 2014
Life Happens, TRP and Songs of the Day.
Hey guys !
Sorry I haven't been able to post anything. I entered my "end of year" exams and I'm so exhausted I coan't do anything besides work, eat and sleep. (Perfect example of what I want to say : I have an essay to write on Much Ado about Nothing for my British Litt. class. I began a month and a half ago. My first part is done, the second and third are half written, I have all the searches I need - York Notes Advanced is really great to work with - and I can't seem to find the time to finish it.)
Today I have a Spanish exam, tomorrow Listening Comprehension and Specialized Traduction, Friday Political Intitutions in America, French Litterature plus an oral presentation on Forster's The Machine Stops.
Then a week of vacations and more exams : American Litt (Poe. Hear me cry.), Poetry and Painting (Kerouac's haikus and japanese watercolors... Why ?), British Political Institutions (Yes, the Queen actually does something), British Litt (Shelley, Carroll, Blake ? Pick ! - Our professor is so cool. She wrote her thesis on Tolkien.), and Linguistics (Nicknamed "Mindf*ck 101" by the students.)
On a happier note, I should be in vacations at the beginning of May, so I'll have a lot of time to read and write. My newest purchases :
-A Keats Anthology (my friends' gift for my birthday)
-The Tempest, by Shakespeare
-A small anthology of British poetry
-Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey
-Between Friends, by Amos Oz
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
I can't wait to begin them.
I was also wondering while studying if it would interest anyone if I shared the notes I take in my classes. We've studied a little of everything from Joyce to Tennessee Williams to Blake to Shakespeare, so it could be interesting.
Songs of the day : Scotland by The Lumineers and Back to You, by Twin Forks !
Sorry I haven't been able to post anything. I entered my "end of year" exams and I'm so exhausted I coan't do anything besides work, eat and sleep. (Perfect example of what I want to say : I have an essay to write on Much Ado about Nothing for my British Litt. class. I began a month and a half ago. My first part is done, the second and third are half written, I have all the searches I need - York Notes Advanced is really great to work with - and I can't seem to find the time to finish it.)
Today I have a Spanish exam, tomorrow Listening Comprehension and Specialized Traduction, Friday Political Intitutions in America, French Litterature plus an oral presentation on Forster's The Machine Stops.
Then a week of vacations and more exams : American Litt (Poe. Hear me cry.), Poetry and Painting (Kerouac's haikus and japanese watercolors... Why ?), British Political Institutions (Yes, the Queen actually does something), British Litt (Shelley, Carroll, Blake ? Pick ! - Our professor is so cool. She wrote her thesis on Tolkien.), and Linguistics (Nicknamed "Mindf*ck 101" by the students.)
On a happier note, I should be in vacations at the beginning of May, so I'll have a lot of time to read and write. My newest purchases :
-A Keats Anthology (my friends' gift for my birthday)
-The Tempest, by Shakespeare
-A small anthology of British poetry
-Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey
-Between Friends, by Amos Oz
-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
I can't wait to begin them.
I was also wondering while studying if it would interest anyone if I shared the notes I take in my classes. We've studied a little of everything from Joyce to Tennessee Williams to Blake to Shakespeare, so it could be interesting.
Songs of the day : Scotland by The Lumineers and Back to You, by Twin Forks !
lundi 24 mars 2014
Funny : the end of the world (or the worst dilemna EVER)
And I used Caps Lock in a title, so that tells you how serious I am.
What dilemna ? Poor innocent soul.
Kate Daniels # 7 (Magic Breaks) and The Chicagoland Vampires #10 (Blood Games) are to be released the SAME DAY.
First reaction :
Second reaction :
"Oh my God, how do I do ? HOW DO I DO ? I can't. I just."
Under the laughs of my best friends and family, who don't have hearts.
(BUT I checked again today and it looks like Magic Breaks' release was moved to July 29 , while Blood Games stayed on August 5. Crisis adverted. Time to breathe.)
What dilemna ? Poor innocent soul.
Kate Daniels # 7 (Magic Breaks) and The Chicagoland Vampires #10 (Blood Games) are to be released the SAME DAY.
First reaction :
Second reaction :
Under the laughs of my best friends and family, who don't have hearts.
(BUT I checked again today and it looks like Magic Breaks' release was moved to July 29 , while Blood Games stayed on August 5. Crisis adverted. Time to breathe.)
The Chicagoland Vampires, Chloe Neill (Part 1/3)
I should have posted it a week ago, but I had exams.
I was a grad student until Chicago vampires announced their existence to the world, and a rogue vampire attacked me, scared by the master of Cadogan House. To save me, Ethan Sullivan converted me. The Lord of the Hyde Park manor is tall, green-eyed, full of four centuries worth of charm. Suddenly I am handy with serious weaponry, and pursued by an unknown enemy.
I'll only post the first summary, since I try to avoid spoilers.
I remember when I picked up this series for the first time. I had seen it in my local bookstore a few times, and I though "oh no, another vampire series". *Insert facepalm here* But stupidity had an end : I went to a cruise to Greece with my parents and I bought the first two to have something to read.
I didn't regret it. Well, I did, in fact regret having read the first two in less than a day. I was soooo bored for the rest of the cruise, I re-read them quite a number of times and found things I missed at the other reads.
My first experience with Merit and her crew was memorable and awesome.
So, characters.
Merit is... The Jennifer Lawrence of vampires. You want to hug her and tell her "Be my best friend forever !"
She's smart, she's kind, she's witty and Sarcasm could be her second name.
Ethan is yummy. He can be an assh*le, but he's yummy. And the more you go in the book, the cuter he gets.
Joshua Merit (Merit's father, noobs.). Well, I'll let Olaf say it for me. (And I don't like him.)
So, to the acceptance part. Ethan saves Merit's life, but becoming a vamp was very, very far from what she would have wanted to be.
She resents him for a while, but accepts her old life is over. She discovers that she can be something else and she rocks.
Some quotes :
-“You have to call Darth Sullivan your 'Liege'?"
I grinned. "Only if I expect him to answer.”
-“Anyone wanna dance?"
"I could dance I need to change, but I can dance."
"Nice going, Gandalf. You'll rile her up, and I'll never get her tucked in. You wanna give her candy and caffeine while you're at it?”
-“Give me a break, I'm trying to Gratefully Condescend.”
I don't know what I can say to add to that... I know I am in no way praising the series like it should be, but I don't want to spoil anyone, so the best vould be to try the series. The first book just came out in paperback, if anyone wants to give it a shot.
Just know that the ChiVamps series is my #2, of all the books and series that I read. (If that tells you something)
Chloe's website is HERE and her forum is HERE. Take a look !
To apologize for the delay, here's a cute Frozen gif :
I was a grad student until Chicago vampires announced their existence to the world, and a rogue vampire attacked me, scared by the master of Cadogan House. To save me, Ethan Sullivan converted me. The Lord of the Hyde Park manor is tall, green-eyed, full of four centuries worth of charm. Suddenly I am handy with serious weaponry, and pursued by an unknown enemy.
I'll only post the first summary, since I try to avoid spoilers.
I remember when I picked up this series for the first time. I had seen it in my local bookstore a few times, and I though "oh no, another vampire series". *Insert facepalm here* But stupidity had an end : I went to a cruise to Greece with my parents and I bought the first two to have something to read.
I didn't regret it. Well, I did, in fact regret having read the first two in less than a day. I was soooo bored for the rest of the cruise, I re-read them quite a number of times and found things I missed at the other reads.
My first experience with Merit and her crew was memorable and awesome.
So, characters.
Merit is... The Jennifer Lawrence of vampires. You want to hug her and tell her "Be my best friend forever !"
She's smart, she's kind, she's witty and Sarcasm could be her second name.
Ethan is yummy. He can be an assh*le, but he's yummy. And the more you go in the book, the cuter he gets.
Joshua Merit (Merit's father, noobs.). Well, I'll let Olaf say it for me. (And I don't like him.)
So, to the acceptance part. Ethan saves Merit's life, but becoming a vamp was very, very far from what she would have wanted to be.
She resents him for a while, but accepts her old life is over. She discovers that she can be something else and she rocks.
Some quotes :
-“You have to call Darth Sullivan your 'Liege'?"
I grinned. "Only if I expect him to answer.”
-“Anyone wanna dance?"
"I could dance I need to change, but I can dance."
"Nice going, Gandalf. You'll rile her up, and I'll never get her tucked in. You wanna give her candy and caffeine while you're at it?”
-“Give me a break, I'm trying to Gratefully Condescend.”
I don't know what I can say to add to that... I know I am in no way praising the series like it should be, but I don't want to spoil anyone, so the best vould be to try the series. The first book just came out in paperback, if anyone wants to give it a shot.
Just know that the ChiVamps series is my #2, of all the books and series that I read. (If that tells you something)
Chloe's website is HERE and her forum is HERE. Take a look !
To apologize for the delay, here's a cute Frozen gif :
jeudi 13 mars 2014
The Chicagoland Vampire Series by Chloe Neill, and how I will review it
(Aha, fancy title, uh ?)
So, the next book reviews will be of another series of my top 3.
We will talk about Chloe Neill's awesome series The Chicagoland Vampires.
The only thing is, I am a lazy, lazy girl and there is 9 novels out so far.
But I am an English student, and I learned to outline things (like commentaries and essays), so here's what I'm going to do :
- A post for books 1, 2 and 3 (Some Girls Bite, Friday Night Bites and Twice Bitten, for those who don't know the series)
-Another for books 4, 5, 6 and 7 (Hard Bitten, Drink Deep, Biting Cold and House Rules)
-And a last one for books 8 and 9 (Biting Bad and Wild Things)
I tried to find an underlying theme common to the books I grouped together, from problem to resolution.See you later with the first post !
Hey les gens ! Les prochaines reviews seront à propos d'une autre série de mon top 3 : Les Vampires de Chicago, de Chloe Neill.
Je suis une grosse, grosse feignasse et 9 tomes ont déjà été publié (je parle en VO).
MAIS je suis étudiante en anglais, et tous les étudiants apprennent à faire des plans pour des trucs chiants (type commentaires et dissertations). Voilà ce que je vais faire :
-Un post pour les tomes 1, 2 et 3 (Certaines mettent les dents, Petites morsures entre amis et Mordre n'est pas jouer)
-Un post pour les 4, 5, 6 et 7 (Mordre vous va si bien, Morsures en eaux troubles, Morsure de sang froid et Permis de mordre)
-Et un dernier pour les 8 et 9 (On ne mord que deux fois, et Wild Things, pas encore traduit)
J'ai essayé de trouver un fil rouge pour regrouper les livres ensembles dans ces parties. On verra donc le pourquoi et la résolution.
A plus tard avec le premier post !
So, the next book reviews will be of another series of my top 3.
We will talk about Chloe Neill's awesome series The Chicagoland Vampires.
The only thing is, I am a lazy, lazy girl and there is 9 novels out so far.
But I am an English student, and I learned to outline things (like commentaries and essays), so here's what I'm going to do :
- A post for books 1, 2 and 3 (Some Girls Bite, Friday Night Bites and Twice Bitten, for those who don't know the series)
-Another for books 4, 5, 6 and 7 (Hard Bitten, Drink Deep, Biting Cold and House Rules)
-And a last one for books 8 and 9 (Biting Bad and Wild Things)
I tried to find an underlying theme common to the books I grouped together, from problem to resolution.See you later with the first post !
Hey les gens ! Les prochaines reviews seront à propos d'une autre série de mon top 3 : Les Vampires de Chicago, de Chloe Neill.
Je suis une grosse, grosse feignasse et 9 tomes ont déjà été publié (je parle en VO).
MAIS je suis étudiante en anglais, et tous les étudiants apprennent à faire des plans pour des trucs chiants (type commentaires et dissertations). Voilà ce que je vais faire :
-Un post pour les tomes 1, 2 et 3 (Certaines mettent les dents, Petites morsures entre amis et Mordre n'est pas jouer)
-Un post pour les 4, 5, 6 et 7 (Mordre vous va si bien, Morsures en eaux troubles, Morsure de sang froid et Permis de mordre)
-Et un dernier pour les 8 et 9 (On ne mord que deux fois, et Wild Things, pas encore traduit)
J'ai essayé de trouver un fil rouge pour regrouper les livres ensembles dans ces parties. On verra donc le pourquoi et la résolution.
A plus tard avec le premier post !
(Combien de temps ces embrassades sont supposées durer?
Parce que je dois y aller...)
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