8/23
I think it is interesting to see how the portrayal of [[#|the medieval period]] depicted in the readings and in class is completely different from what we see in modern day culture. The majority of films in the last twenty years depict scenes of knightly honor and kings or queens reigning over subjects. These thoughts aren’t too far from some of the readings, especially those that talk of the Crusades, feudalism, and serfdom, but films often stray far from actual history. Often times, the arts are left out of what I think of as [[#|the medieval period]], so I don’t see how much good came from it. However, Khan Academy describes the medieval times as a sort of bridge between two worlds: the intellect of the Ancient Greeks and the Renaissance. It also describes good qualities that came from this time period. Two that caught my eye were different forms of literature and different styles of art. The Canterbury Tales, The Divine Comedy, and The Song of Roland are only but a few. The Canterbury Tales has even strayed into the Holly [[#|Wood]] scenario, A Knight’s Tale. But like the majority of movies based on [[#|books]], it wasn’t depicted in its entirety. A was surprised to find out during class that linear perspective was originally thought of in [[#|the medieval period]]. I had always thought of it as more of a Renaissance idea and because of my impressions of [[#|the medieval period]] from [[#|film]], I don’t see it as an art producing time.
It was also to see such a religious ferocity during that period. All of the artwork we had examined in class had some form of religious meaning. The main ones I can think of were comparing the two different deaths of [[#|Christ]] and The Last Supper. It was interesting to see a the difference portrayals of [[#|Christ]]’s death between the two paintings. I also liked how Di Vinci showed a mastery of linear perspective in The Last Supper. I noticed that, no matter where you looked in these three paintings, you were always taken back to [[#|Christ]]. I think this shows how important religion was during this time period.
8/30
Out of the three different readings we were assigned this week, I liked St. Augustine’s Confessions the least. I felt like his recollections were pointless in some ways. He constantly criticized himself about the smallest things and he continually restated what he had already said. My point is directly illustrated in Adolescence where he talks about stealing pears in his youth. He recounts his past to the audience, talks with and about God and his decisions concerning converting, retells how bad he felt about the past, talks about God again, and then retells it all again. Augustine followed this basic pattern throughout his entire written work and I thought it a somewhat pointless narrative. I think it could have easily been cut down in length.
I liked The Consolation of Philosophy because it had a story behind it that wasn’t repetitive like Confessions. The way Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy sounded as if he believed in mythological figures such as Lady Philosophy, Lady Fortune, muses of Poetry, and Sirius, a constellation. I think these were just humanized versions of what was going on in Boethius’ mind and is what I favored about the writing.
The Qur’an was an interesting assignment to read because I am not very educated when it comes to other religions besides Christianity. I had always thought Islam and Christianity were completely different religions but I found several similarities when reading the few Suras of the Qur’an. I thought Suras 2, 4 and 5 were very similar to Leviticus in the [[#|Bible]]. Much like Leviticus and the laws of the Old Testament, these three Suras are mostly about laws that followers of Islam are supposed to follow. I also found it odd that Islam believes in the same one God that Christians believe in. The only major difference I thought of between Christianity and Islam is followers of Islam do not believe Jesus Christ as divine, but they do believe he came to the Earth.
9/13
When we were first assigned to read Dante’s Inferno, I can honestly say I was not looking forward to it at all and was planning on looking for Spark Notes so I wouldn’t have to worry about difficult wording or long confusing sentences. I was worried that I would have no idea what was going on and would hate this section of the class. I have since realized that Dante’s Inferno is actually a pretty good read. I like the mythology interwoven within the pages, most of which I can identify or recollect from past readings. I think it is interesting to read this as if it’s actually happening. It is easy to lose yourself in the story and forget this is a dream Dante is having over Good Friday and into Easter. I also enjoy how the writer Dante mixes in the stories from both history and mythology into what I interpret as a journey of Christianity. This is somewhat an oxymoron because of the mythological aspect of several gods and the journey to find the one true God.
I am glad Dante writes as he does. Better yet, I am glad the version we are reading is translated the way it is. If the translated version had the rhyming sequence intended, it would have a more poetic feel and I don’t think I would make it through all of the pages. I story mode, it is easier to handle.
It was interesting to learn about the stained glass in the Sainte-Chapelle. I thought it was cool that they could tell some were put in at different times because some contained green glass which was put into history later. I was impressed by the new spire and their ability to try to match what the older version looked like without seeing it.
9/20
Circle 9- Treachery/Betrayal
Against others
Against country
Against guests
Against masters
The ninth circle really through me through a loop. I’m not sure why, but whenever I think of Hell I the idea or place with fire. I think of fire and brimstone, just fiery intense heat that is unbearable. I also picture Satan as the torturer and dealer of punishments. Basically, my picture of Hell is a red man with horns and tail walking around inside a stabbing people with a trident. I think this is why Dante’s interpretation of both Hell, specifically circle 9, and Satan are so intriguing.
It is hard for me to grasp the symbolism of the ice throughout circle 9 because it’s the [[#|]] opposite of what I would expect Hell to be like. The only reason I can think of is what I mentioned in class; betrayers turned their backs someone, giving them the cold shoulder, so in Hell, they are cold forever. The idea seems pretty far out there and I’m not even sure if the cold shoulder existed when Dante wrote the Inferno. I think the interpretation of Satan is also very odd. The fact that he is frozen and impaired is also the opposite of what I would think of Satan. I think it makes sense though because Satan ultimately betrayed God. I think because God is the highest, there can be no greater betrayal which is why Satan is at the deepest part of Hell. He also suffers from the same punishment as the other sinners in the ninth circle, being encased in ice.
I’m also trying to get a grasp of what it would be like for Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. It must really suck to constantly be chewed on and have your flesh torn from your body. I find it interesting that Brutus and Cassius are even on the same level as Judas. I realize they betrayed and killed Julius Caesar, which was a pretty big . It just seems like Caesar isn’t even close to the level of Jesus, and I would think this would be highly controversial to write about.
9/27
Similarly to Dante’s Inferno, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn’t despise reading the Wife of Bath. On the contrary, I enjoyed reading it very much. After reading the prologue, I was sort of expecting a story from a harlot’s point of view. Because the wife/widow had had five husbands, I half expected a story about quick marriages, gaining and property, hitting it and quitting it, and leaving for the next hopeless victim. I didn’t think the story described the wife/widow at all and I’m not sure if it was supposed to. I think the purpose of her tale was to highlight the one desire all women have: the need for sovereignty and love. The first thing I thought about was the knight taking the maiden. I wasn’t sure if he just kidnapped her or raped her but the king was going to put him to death so it must have been bad. I didn’t think this represented knightly behavior at all, especially the Knight in prologue who lived an honorable life. The tale itself was a good story. I liked how he was helped in the middle and was given the correct answer to the question the queen asked. I thought the old woman’s request was ironic because the knight was about to be put to death for doing something to the maiden on the road, I assume raping. However, the knight honored his promise in the end and was rewarded for it. I thought the tale was somewhat similar to the story of Beauty and the Beast similarity I found was the old woman turning into a beautiful woman. The knight and prince both turned her down while she was an old woman. The difference came when the knight was honorable and stayed with the old woman, thus receiving the blessing of a [[#|youthful]] woman, but the prince turned her away and regretted it as he was turned into a beast while the old woman turned beautiful.
10/4
Thomas Moore is so full of crap when he wrote Utopia. A fictional world made of what Raphael describes as perfection is never going to happen. The world has problems and big ones at that. I don’t see any way the world can avoid problems. Greed and pride are human nature; therefore, to remove them means to remove humans. That’s where a perfect society comes in. The negation of humans is the key to a perfect society because humans cause problems for everything and everyone else. Throughout history you see people like Hitler causing problems for what he thought to be a lesser group of people. War is a human creation. Animals don’t have war. There is only survival, which may seem like war but is a completely different natural process. War stems from human greed. This goes back to Utopia. How can there be no war between cities when the human nature wants more than what we have? I don’t think lacking a monetary unit or system would sustain a nation as well. There has to be a payment system of some type. This once again goes back to human nature. It is unlikely that someone is going to give something away for free and demand nothing in return. I think everything goes back to greed. Even though now, many people do volunteering or go overseas, I think there is a deeply rooted [[#|desire]] of greed and pride at the base of it. They want to have an inner satisfaction of personal glory and pride that they feel they must help others to achieve.
Basically, this entire summary boils down to a perfect Utopia is an unobtainable thing because of human nature. Humans are a species that reach for the forbidden fruit when told by God not to. Humans cannot and will not give up the instinct to want more than they have and to be better than the next guy.
Oct. 11 Nick, I like this idea, especially the way you set it up. It sounds like the wife of Bath is lost, as Dante is at the beginning of his journey. So, Dante has come to set her on the straight path? I think she could have an interesting discussion with Francesca. Dante doesn't encounter many women in hell, so I will be interested to see how the wife of Bath fits in. -MH
For my first essay, I am going to compare The Wife of Bath and Dante’s Inferno. My idea is to take the way Wife of Bath describes herself and place it into the Inferno. I think it’s going to mimic the Inferno in some ways. I’m going to have Dante, previously done with his journey, come back to escort the Wife of Bath through the Inferno. The Wife is going to be on a dreamed journey to Canterbury but she has lost her fellow companions. Dante is going to appear and guide her through the Inferno. As they pass different circles, the Wife is going to realize which ones she fits into. She is also going to stop to notice different people in different circles. I haven’t decided who the people will specifically be but they are going to be characters from the Canterbury Tales that would have been on the journey with the Wife. The basic concept I want to examine is the many sins the Wife describes of herself in the Prologue leading up to her actual tale. I want her to realize these different sins as Dante leads her through the Inferno. I also want her to see the companions she is travelling with suffering different punishments. I want to convey their sins and where they would be placed in the Inferno. I think this is a relevant idea because everyone should know what qualifies as sins. I realize both stories are fiction and not everyone agrees with the ideas throughout the stories. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the circles in Dante’s Inferno. However, I don’t want to change the stories as they are. I want the plot line of Dante’s Inferno to stay the same with the Wife of Bath just added. I really want the Wife of Bath to keep it’s plot line as well while still being injected into Dante’s Inferno.
10/25
Our presentation was over the History of the Indies. This was the account of Bartolomé de Las Casas observing the slaughter of Indians in Cuba by Spaniards. The Spaniards enter the town of Caonao and eat bread and fish. This portion of the story made me think of Jesus feeding thousands with five loaves of bread and two fish. The story with Jesus is a kinder tale compared to Las Casas story of the Indies. Jesus’ story is a sharing of resources and a spreading of peace. Las Casas tale is the slaughter of a group of people. The Indians were defenseless, and the Spaniards had no reason to kill them. Las Casas account says he observed the Spaniards eating fish and bread then a Spaniard drew his sword and it all went down-hill from there. There was also a portion of this story that reminded me of Dante’s Inferno. On page 1904, Las Casas describes and Indian exiting a house with his intestines spilled into his hands. This reminds me of the man in Bolgia nine of Circle 8. There is a man a laceration from his head to his butt and his intestines are pouring out of his body.
I just watched the Road to El Dorado recently. I realize the movie is animated and made up but I wonder how much is actually accurate regarding Hernán Cortéz and his conquest throughout Mexico. The movie regards Cortéz as an evil demon that is supposed to come in to El Dorado and cleanse the city by killing those that aren’t worthy. I think it is odd to see the correlation between the movie and the actual events that occurred between Cortéz and the Aztecs in Mexico. I think it’s funny so many Spanish conquistadors were so convinced of a city of but still never found it, even after discovering so many new worlds.
11/1
Tartuffe was a pretty interesting and easy read. I thought it was pretty easy to get through and understand. We had talked about Orgon and Tartuffe in class and which one was the actual villain. I think Tartuffe clearly played the role of the villain. The officer at the end of the story had even said the king recognized him from other crimes he had committed. Setting up a con such as he did also makes him a villain. Pretending to be a religious man to gain the trust of someone and then take everything they own after being let into their home is pretty low. Even though these things describe his role, villainous things are expected of the villain so it shouldn’t be a surprise when the villain does them. I think Orgon was the worst villain of the two because he wasn’t supposed to be a villain. Even though everyone else in the household didn’t fall for Tartuffe’s con, he was able to fool the master of the house, the only person he actually needed to fool. Orgon became a villain when so many people tried to convince him of Tartuffe’s treachery but wouldn’t listen and even became angry, threatening to slap the maid and even going far enough to have Mariane marry Tartuffe. He banished his own son because he thought he was slandering Tartuffe’s “good name” and signed over all of his assets to Tartuffe and made him his heir just to spite his family. I think Orgon is a worse villain than Tartuffe because he was such a terrible person to his family. His family still tried to be good sons and daughters even thought their father wasn’t being a proper father figure. I think Orgon corrupted his role as a father making him a worse villain than Tartuffe.
11/8
Candide is an interesting read for me because there is an interesting battle between several things that I like and several things that I dislike, mostly the contrasting size of the story. I think the story itself is good because of the adventure and newness of every chapter. I think Voltaire did a good fitting the world into Candide’s life. However so much world in so little space doesn’t work out well because it seems like the story is squished. The chapters aren’t even that long but there is so much happening, the story could easily be twice its size. Parts like the storm when Jacques gets thrown overboard and drowned passed by in a few sentences. El Dorado is visited and left within a page but Candide and Cacambo were there for a month.
There is also so much satyr going on its hard to tell what is actually meant and what isn’t. Characters like Cacambo describe eating people as natural law. “You intend to eat a Jesuit today; that is appropriate; nothing is more just than to treat one’s enemies in this way. , natural law teaches us to kill our neighbor, and that is how everyone behaves the whole world over.” This passage bothers me because Cacambo talks about eating people and killing people as if it’s the best thing to do to someone, and he isn’t bothered by it at all. He actually thinks it is right for the Oreillons to eat them. Martin also bothers me because everything about him is dark. He thinks God has abandoned the world because all he sees is evil. He sees the weak being trampled by the powerful and armies murdering in the name of honor. Specifically, he and Candide witness a ship being attacked and destroyed. Candide says the Captain should have died because he stole his gold but Martin argues the crew didn’t have to die, but God didn’t save them.
Nov. 15
For my second essay, I am going to try to convey what I think the contemporary relevance of Tartuffe, by Moliere, is today. I am going to try to bring to life five different points I think Tartuffe has to reflect about society today.
1. Specifically, I think the main villain, Tartuffe, describes how society is or can be.
a. I think his secret greed for is highlighted a lot in society today. In my global issues class, we have looked at several countries that have a family focus. I think in the United States, we have less of a family focus and more of a money focus. I think society often is focused on how much money someone can make in one life time. We also make rich people a central focus in our news and our views.
b. Tartuffe also keeps his real life a secret which I think is also a reflection of society. We often keep things a secret that we don’t think the rest of society will except.
2. Orgon has two different characters in this story.
a. He first is a gullible person by accepting a random stranger as a “brother”. I think this highlights society now because we have problems being alone for long periods of time.
b. He also becomes enraged at Tartuffe because he let himself be fooled. This is a huge problem in society. We often blame others for or problems or the problems we cause.
3. The last point I would like to highlight is factor of surprise. When problems occur in society, there is often a hand of hope extended to those in need. This doesn’t always occur but usually happens in times of need or hopeless situations. This is seen in Tartuffe at the end of the story when the king happens to arrest Tartuffe instead of Orgon.
Nick, this sounds like a good plan. How do you think a contemporary Tartuffe would operate? Who would he pose as to get the trust of someone like Orgon? Would he still use religion? -MH
Dec. 6
When comparing “Purple Haze” with the Mozart piece we listened to Monday, I didn’t really like either of them. “Purple Haze” sounded chaotic and random while Mozart was too similar throughout the entire piece. I have never analyzed the music I listen to like we analyzed Mozart in class on Wednesday and Friday so when I got to class, I had no clue what was being talked about half the time. Crescendo and decrescendo were way beyond what I knew. My input on Friday was similar to “the music got louder and quieter”. That being said, it was interesting to look at music in a different manner. Usually I just listen to the words or pay some attention to the music but breaking it down into sections, listening for repeating measures, finding the “B” section, and listening for the repeating/changed “A” section was a nice change. It was pretty cool looking at Rudolph and being able to match the “A, A, B, A” sequence with Mozart’s piece. They are such different pieces that it was neat to find the similarity.
I would guess it’s just not what I’m used to but I don’t understand how people could listen to Mozart back in the day. I think all of Mozart’s pieces I have listened to sound the same and the lack of lyrics keeps me uninterested. I think the same could be said about today’s music though. A lot of popular songs have the same beat and artists often have a certain part you can identify in all of their songs. I guess you had to be there to enjoy it or at least not be me. Even today, the same thing could probably be said. People like certain types of music and Mozart isn’t my cup of tea.
I think it is interesting to see how the portrayal of [[#|the medieval period]] depicted in the readings and in class is completely different from what we see in modern day culture. The majority of films in the last twenty years depict scenes of knightly honor and kings or queens reigning over subjects. These thoughts aren’t too far from some of the readings, especially those that talk of the Crusades, feudalism, and serfdom, but films often stray far from actual history. Often times, the arts are left out of what I think of as [[#|the medieval period]], so I don’t see how much good came from it. However, Khan Academy describes the medieval times as a sort of bridge between two worlds: the intellect of the Ancient Greeks and the Renaissance. It also describes good qualities that came from this time period. Two that caught my eye were different forms of literature and different styles of art. The Canterbury Tales, The Divine Comedy, and The Song of Roland are only but a few. The Canterbury Tales has even strayed into the Holly [[#|Wood]] scenario, A Knight’s Tale. But like the majority of movies based on [[#|books]], it wasn’t depicted in its entirety. A was surprised to find out during class that linear perspective was originally thought of in [[#|the medieval period]]. I had always thought of it as more of a Renaissance idea and because of my impressions of [[#|the medieval period]] from [[#|film]], I don’t see it as an art producing time.
It was also to see such a religious ferocity during that period. All of the artwork we had examined in class had some form of religious meaning. The main ones I can think of were comparing the two different deaths of [[#|Christ]] and The Last Supper. It was interesting to see a the difference portrayals of [[#|Christ]]’s death between the two paintings. I also liked how Di Vinci showed a mastery of linear perspective in The Last Supper. I noticed that, no matter where you looked in these three paintings, you were always taken back to [[#|Christ]]. I think this shows how important religion was during this time period.
8/30
Out of the three different readings we were assigned this week, I liked St. Augustine’s Confessions the least. I felt like his recollections were pointless in some ways. He constantly criticized himself about the smallest things and he continually restated what he had already said. My point is directly illustrated in Adolescence where he talks about stealing pears in his youth. He recounts his past to the audience, talks with and about God and his decisions concerning converting, retells how bad he felt about the past, talks about God again, and then retells it all again. Augustine followed this basic pattern throughout his entire written work and I thought it a somewhat pointless narrative. I think it could have easily been cut down in length.
I liked The Consolation of Philosophy because it had a story behind it that wasn’t repetitive like Confessions. The way Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy sounded as if he believed in mythological figures such as Lady Philosophy, Lady Fortune, muses of Poetry, and Sirius, a constellation. I think these were just humanized versions of what was going on in Boethius’ mind and is what I favored about the writing.
The Qur’an was an interesting assignment to read because I am not very educated when it comes to other religions besides Christianity. I had always thought Islam and Christianity were completely different religions but I found several similarities when reading the few Suras of the Qur’an. I thought Suras 2, 4 and 5 were very similar to Leviticus in the [[#|Bible]]. Much like Leviticus and the laws of the Old Testament, these three Suras are mostly about laws that followers of Islam are supposed to follow. I also found it odd that Islam believes in the same one God that Christians believe in. The only major difference I thought of between Christianity and Islam is followers of Islam do not believe Jesus Christ as divine, but they do believe he came to the Earth.
9/13
When we were first assigned to read Dante’s Inferno, I can honestly say I was not looking forward to it at all and was planning on looking for Spark Notes so I wouldn’t have to worry about difficult wording or long confusing sentences. I was worried that I would have no idea what was going on and would hate this section of the class. I have since realized that Dante’s Inferno is actually a pretty good read. I like the mythology interwoven within the pages, most of which I can identify or recollect from past readings. I think it is interesting to read this as if it’s actually happening. It is easy to lose yourself in the story and forget this is a dream Dante is having over Good Friday and into Easter. I also enjoy how the writer Dante mixes in the stories from both history and mythology into what I interpret as a journey of Christianity. This is somewhat an oxymoron because of the mythological aspect of several gods and the
I am glad Dante writes as he does. Better yet, I am glad the version we are reading is translated the way it is. If the translated version had the rhyming sequence intended, it would have a more poetic feel and I don’t think I would make it through all of the pages. I story mode, it is easier to handle.
It was interesting to learn about the stained glass
9/20
Circle 9- Treachery/Betrayal
- Against others
- Against country
- Against guests
- Against masters
The ninth circle really through me through a loop. I’m not sure why, but whenever I think of Hell IIt is hard for me to grasp the symbolism of the ice throughout circle 9 because it’s the [[#|
I’m also trying to get a grasp of what it would be like for Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. It must really suck to constantly be chewed on and have your flesh torn from your body. I find it interesting that Brutus and Cassius are even on the same level as Judas. I realize they betrayed and killed Julius Caesar, which was a pretty big
9/27
Similarly to Dante’s Inferno, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn’t despise reading the Wife of Bath. On the contrary, I enjoyed reading it very much. After reading the prologue, I was sort of expecting a story from a harlot’s point of view. Because the wife/widow had had five husbands, I half expected a story about quick marriages, gaining
10/4
Thomas Moore is so full of crap when he wrote Utopia. A fictional world made of what Raphael describes as perfection is never going to happen. The world has problems and big ones at that. I don’t see any way the world can avoid problems. Greed and pride are human nature; therefore, to remove them means to remove humans. That’s where a perfect society comes in. The negation of humans is the key to a perfect society because humans cause problems for everything and everyone else. Throughout history you see people like Hitler causing problems for what he thought to be a lesser group of people. War is a human creation. Animals don’t have war. There is only survival, which may seem like war but is a completely different natural process. War stems from human greed. This goes back to Utopia. How can there be no war between cities when the human nature wants more than what we have? I don’t think lacking a monetary unit or system would sustain a nation as well. There has to be a payment system of some type. This once again goes back to human nature. It is unlikely that someone is going to give something away for free and demand nothing in return. I think everything goes back to greed. Even though now, many people do volunteering or go overseas, I think there is a deeply rooted [[#|desire]] of greed and pride at the base of it. They want to have an inner satisfaction of personal glory and pride that they feel they must help others to achieve.
Basically, this entire summary boils down to a perfect Utopia is an unobtainable thing because of human nature. Humans are a species that reach for the forbidden fruit when told by God not to. Humans cannot and will not give up the instinct to want more than they have and to be better than the next guy.
Oct. 11
Nick, I like this idea, especially the way you set it up. It sounds like the wife of Bath is lost, as Dante is at the beginning of his journey. So, Dante has come to set her on the straight path? I think she could have an interesting discussion with Francesca. Dante doesn't encounter many women in hell, so I will be interested to see how the wife of Bath fits in. -MH
For my first essay, I am going to compare The Wife of Bath and Dante’s Inferno. My idea is to take the way Wife of Bath describes herself and place it into the Inferno. I think it’s going to mimic the Inferno in some ways. I’m going to have Dante, previously done with his journey, come back to escort the Wife of Bath through the Inferno. The Wife is going to be on a dreamed journey to Canterbury but she has lost her fellow companions. Dante is going to appear and guide her through the Inferno. As they pass different circles, the Wife is going to realize which ones she fits into. She is also going to stop to notice different people in different circles. I haven’t decided who the people will specifically be but they are going to be characters from the Canterbury Tales that would have been on the journey with the Wife. The basic concept I want to examine is the many sins the Wife describes of herself in the Prologue leading up to her actual tale. I want her to realize these different sins as Dante leads her through the Inferno. I also want her to see the companions she is travelling with suffering different punishments. I want to convey their sins and where they would be placed in the Inferno. I think this is a relevant idea because everyone should know what qualifies as sins. I realize both stories are fiction and not everyone agrees with the ideas throughout the stories. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the circles in Dante’s Inferno. However, I don’t want to change the stories as they are. I want the plot line of Dante’s Inferno to stay the same with the Wife of Bath just added. I really want the Wife of Bath to keep it’s plot line as well while still being injected into Dante’s Inferno.
10/25
Our
I just watched the Road to El Dorado recently. I realize the movie is animated and made up but I wonder how much is actually accurate regarding Hernán Cortéz and his conquest throughout Mexico. The movie regards Cortéz as an evil demon that is supposed to come in to El Dorado and cleanse the city by killing those that aren’t worthy. I think it is odd to see the correlation between the movie and the actual events that occurred between Cortéz and the Aztecs in Mexico. I think it’s funny so many Spanish conquistadors were so convinced of a city of
11/1
Tartuffe was a pretty interesting and easy read. I thought it was pretty easy to get through and understand. We had talked about Orgon and Tartuffe in class and which one was the actual villain. I think Tartuffe clearly played the role of the villain. The officer at the end of the story had even said the king recognized him from other crimes he had committed. Setting up a con such as he did also makes him a villain. Pretending to be a religious man to gain the trust of someone and then take everything they own after being let into their home is pretty low. Even though these things describe his role, villainous things are expected of the villain so it shouldn’t be a surprise when the villain does them. I think Orgon was the worst villain of the two because he wasn’t supposed to be a villain. Even though everyone else in the household didn’t fall for Tartuffe’s con, he was able to fool the master of the house, the only person he actually needed to fool. Orgon became a villain when so many people tried to convince him of Tartuffe’s treachery but wouldn’t listen and even became angry, threatening to slap the maid and even going far enough to have Mariane marry Tartuffe. He banished his own son because he thought he was slandering Tartuffe’s “good name” and signed over all of his assets to Tartuffe and made him his heir just to spite his family. I think Orgon is a worse villain than Tartuffe because he was such a terrible person to his family. His family still tried to be good sons and daughters even thought their father wasn’t being a proper father figure. I think Orgon corrupted his role as a father making him a worse villain than Tartuffe.
11/8
Candide is an interesting read for me because there is an interesting battle between several things that I like and several things that I dislike, mostly the contrasting size of the story. I think the story itself is good because of the adventure and newness of every chapter. I think Voltaire did a good
There is also so much satyr going on its hard to tell what is actually meant and what isn’t. Characters like Cacambo describe eating people as natural law. “You intend to eat a Jesuit today; that is appropriate; nothing is more just than to treat one’s enemies in this way.
Nov. 15
For my second essay, I am going to try to convey what I think the contemporary relevance of Tartuffe, by Moliere, is today. I am going to try to bring to life five different points I think Tartuffe has to reflect about society today.
1. Specifically, I think the main villain, Tartuffe, describes how society is or can be.
a. I think his secret greed for
b. Tartuffe also keeps his real life a secret which I think is also a reflection of society. We often keep things a secret that we don’t think the rest of society will except.
2. Orgon has two different characters in this story.
a. He first is a gullible person by accepting a random stranger as a “brother”. I think this highlights society now because we have problems being alone for long periods of time.
b. He also becomes enraged at Tartuffe because he let himself be fooled. This is a huge problem in society. We often blame others for or problems or the problems we cause.
3. The last point I would like to highlight is factor of surprise. When problems occur in society, there is often a hand of hope extended to those in need. This doesn’t always occur but usually happens in times of need or hopeless situations. This is seen in Tartuffe at the end of the story when the king happens to arrest Tartuffe instead of Orgon.
Nick, this sounds like a good plan. How do you think a contemporary Tartuffe would operate? Who would he pose as to get the trust of someone like Orgon? Would he still use religion? -MH
Dec. 6
When comparing “Purple Haze” with the Mozart piece we listened to Monday, I didn’t really like either of them. “Purple Haze” sounded chaotic and random while Mozart was too similar throughout the entire piece. I have never analyzed the music I listen to like we analyzed Mozart in class on Wednesday and Friday so when I got to class, I had no clue what was being talked about half the time. Crescendo and decrescendo were way beyond what I knew. My input on Friday was similar to “the music got louder and quieter”. That being said, it was interesting to look at music in a different manner. Usually I just listen to the words or pay some attention to the music but breaking it down into sections, listening for repeating measures, finding the “B” section, and listening for the repeating/changed “A” section was a nice change. It was pretty cool looking at Rudolph and being able to match the “A, A, B, A” sequence with Mozart’s piece. They are such different pieces that it was neat to find the similarity.
I would guess it’s just not what I’m used to but I don’t understand how people could listen to Mozart back in the day. I think all of Mozart’s pieces I have listened to sound the same and the lack of lyrics keeps me uninterested. I think the same could be said about today’s music though. A lot of popular songs have the same beat and artists often have a certain part you can identify in all of their songs. I guess you had to be there to enjoy it or at least not be me. Even today, the same thing could probably be said. People like certain types of music and Mozart isn’t my cup of tea.