Scene 7

"Blue Roses!- My gosh, yes- Blue Roses!"  Jim said this when he was  remembering how he and Laura went to high school together.  Laura reminded him that he called her Blue Roses.  One thing I noticed about Amanda during this scene was that she acted much different around company, especially Jim.  When Tom says that he did not pay the electric bill, she did not act very angry.  Besides this, Jim tells Laura that the girl he was supposedly engaged to, they were actually never really engaged.  The girl just said it out of wishful thinking.  The unicorn in this play actually plays a big part!  I think it was supposed to symbolize Laura, how she is different, but she is still greatly loved.  However, the ending to this play was very upsetting.  I feel that Amanda drove Tom away by always asking him questions and telling him what to do.  This is one of the main reasons why he left! 

The Glass Menagerie Scenes/ Simile

"...fingers that soothe and caress like strains of music, bodies as powerful as Etruscan sculpture."  This is an example of a simile said by Tom in "The Glass Menagerie."  Tom was comparing bodies to Etruscan sculpture.  In this story, Tom and his mother, Amanda, do not exactly get along.  I think this is for many reasons.  However, when Tom was younger, his father left him, his sister, and his mother.  I think this has much to do with how they all act toward each other.  Amanda is so worried that Tom is going to become like his father, an alcoholic, and just leave their family.  Tom hates how his mother bosses him around all the time and always tries to tell him what to do.  I also think that Laura is very affected by their fighting.  A couple times in the story, she is referred to as a "cripple."  However, I think this has nothing to do with how quite and socially awkward she is.  I think the fighting really gets to Laura, and so she basically has become a mute and is scared of getting hurt.

The Glass Menagerie/ Allusion

"Animals have sections in their stomachs which enable them to digest food without mastication, but human beings are supposed to chew their food before they swallow it down."  This is an example of an allusion.  Amanda is referring to animals in order to explain her point even more.  "The Glass Menagerie" is actually a very interesting play!  I really enjoy it much more than the Shakespeare plays.  First off, this play is much more easier diction, unlike Shakespeare.  Shakespeare was in a type of diction where most people did not understand.  If you tried to comprehend his plays, it took much focus.  "The Glass Menagerie" is very more modern, and I am very interested in what is going to happen! 

William/ Act 5

"Five and twenty, sir."  This quote was said by William when Touchstone asked him how old he was.  In this scene, Touchstone threatened William that if he stayed around Audrey, he would kill him.  Because of this, William left and was never in the play again.  In my opinion, I truly do not know what the point of William being in the play was.  He was in there for a very short time, and then he never returned.  The point may have been to make Touchstone look very intimidating, but I am not sure.  Frankly, this story was a little strange to me.  There were some comical parts, but I just did not get the point of it.  However, unlike in usual Shakespeare stories, this one has a happy ending.  That was the best and most noticeable part to the play.     

Irony/ Act 3 and 4

"Sweet youth, I pray you, chide a year together: I had rather hear you chide than this man woo."  This line shows irony for certain reasons.  Well, what is ironic is about this is that Ganymede is actually Rosalind.  The funny thing is is that Phebe has fallen in love with Ganymede, but she thinks it is a boy.  One can tell that Phoebe has fallen in love with Ganymede because of what she says here.  This means that she would rather him scold her rather then a man try to woo her.  In Act 4, Oliver and Orlando have reunited and renewed their relationship.  Orlando saved Oliver when a lioness was trying to attack him.  In addition to saving Oliver's life, Orlando had a wound on his arm from the lioness.  Now, I will see if in Act 5, Duke Senior and Duke Frederick renew their relationship. 

Dialogue/ Act 1 and Act 2

"O, no; for the Duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her, being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her."  This is a quote from "As You Like It", and it is displaying dialogue from the story.  The dialogue is words and sentences said in the way they would have been said during Shakespeare's time.  This line also talks about the love of the two cousins, Celia and Rosalind.  I personally thought that their relationship was a little strange.  They always talked about how much they loved each other, and how they would die if the other one left.  In Act 1, Duke Frederick even wanted to exile his own niece, Celia because Rosalind would have been depressed.  There are also two pair of brothers in the story who do not get along.  They are Oliver and Orlando and Duke Frederick and Duke Senior.  Their relationship within the story is so much different than Celia and Rosalind. 

Othello Essay

Relations to Othello

Othello was a very interesting story, which was very intense and dramatic.  Much of the story involved a man named Othello.  He was hearing rumors that his wife, Desdemona had been cheating on him.  This made him very angry, and he craved revenge.  In order to get his revenge and to teach Desdemona a lesson, he killed Desdemona through suffocation.  There are many stories, news, and music in today’s world that relate to Othello.  One song that really comes to mind when reading this story is “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood.  Also, in current news, there was a story about a man, Josh Powell who killed his family in order to hide his secrets.  He possibly also killed his wife two years earlier.  All these stories are very tragic; however, they all relate to the character Othello in the story.

“Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood is a song that relates tremendously to this topic.  It is about a boy who cheated on his girlfriend, and she now wants to get revenge.  She does many damaging things in order to get the revenge she wants.  As the song states, “I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up 4 wheel drive; carved my name into his leather seat.  I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights; slashed a hole in all 4 tires.  And maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.”  These are some of the lyrics to the comical song, “Before He Cheats.”  It shows how she destroyed his car, and wrote her name in order to give him a reminder of what he did to her.  There is also a line in the song that states, “I might've saved a little trouble for the next girl. 'Cause the next time that he cheats, oh, you know it won't be on me” (“Before He Cheats”).  In addition to getting revenge, this line shows that she did that damage to his car and his life because she wanted to teach him a lesson to not hurt anyone like that again.  “Before He Cheats” reminded me much of Othello in Othello because when he thought that Desdemona cheated on him, he got his revenge by killing her.  He states, “It is the very error of the moon.  She comes more nearer earth than she was wont and makes men mad” (Othello).  In this line, Othello is basically blaming Desdemona for her own death, and that she had drove him to this point of killing her.  He also said that he wanted to teach her a lesson because he did not want her to hurt anyone else like she hurt him.  This song talks about her revenge and anger the entire time.  It also speaks about how she does not want him to hurt anyone else, so she is going to prevent that. 

In current events, there was a man named Josh Powell, who had two young boys and a wife who disappeared mysteriously two years ago.  He actually was a suspect of his wife’s murder, but the police and attorneys did not have enough evidence to prove it.  Powell said that he and his kids went on a camping trip at midnight in the freezing cold the night his wife disappeared.  Police found this statement very suspicious, and it made Powell look even guiltier.  The day he finally regained custody of his kids, he set his house on fire, and killed them all.  In the article it states that Powell told his two boys that “he had a big surprise” (Josh Powell).  It was said that a possibility of his reasoning was that Powell was thinking that his kids were beginning to remember too much about their mother’s death (Josh Powell).  This terrifying and horrific story reminded me of Othello because he also killed his wife.  Othello says in the story, “She’s like a liar gone to burning Hell.  ‘Twas I that killed her” (Othello).  This line is significant because it proves that Othello did kill his wife, and at that moment, he did not regret it.  No one is positive if Josh Powell killed his wife, but it is beginning to look like he murdered his wife (Josh Powell).  If he did kill his wife, in his mind the reasons were correct and were probably the same reasons of Othello.  The way this story also relates to Othello is that it was said that Josh Powell most likely killed his two sons because they knew too much about their mother’s death.  In Othello, Cassio would have killed anyone who figured out his devious plan.  This terribly depressing and frightening story related very much to Othello through the violence and reasoning. 

Othello involves much violence, and people acting very devious and sneaky.  “Before He Cheats” and the story about Josh Powell relates much to Othello.  They all speak of revenge or violence in their stories.  Even though all of these instances talk about revenge, it is not the answer.  As tempting as it may be, getting back at someone for something they did never helps a situation.  It is always best to be the bigger person and just figure out a better situation to the problem.

Bibliography

Josh Powell to Boys: "I've Got a Big Surprise" - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. CBS News, 10 Feb. 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.  <http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57374542/josh-powell-to-boys-ive-got-a-big     surprise/>.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. New York: Harcourt, 1623. Print.

Underwood, Carrie. "Before He Cheats." Play On. Max Martin, 2008. CD.

 

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57374542/josh-powell-to-boys-ive-got-a-big-surprise/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSy8yy-mr8&ob=av2e= video of "Before He Cheats"