UCLR Final Exam
A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; [5] She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees. -title -poet -From what -meaning
-"A slumber did my spirit seal" -William Wordsworth -From the Lucy Poems -A slumber did my spirit seal" is one of Wordsworth's "Lucy Poems," which focus primarily on the death of a young woman named Lucy (though she remains unnamed in this poem). Many scholars and literary historians have offered theories as to who Lucy was, but her true identity remains a mystery. The poem is comprised of only two four-line stanzas, and yet a great deal happens in this narrow space. We see the speaker's realization not only that this young woman has died, but also that bad things can happen in a beautiful world. In the first stanza the speaker is innocently unaware that age can touch the woman, but he is quickly taught a harsh lesson when she dies between stanzas one and two. The choice to hide the death between the stanzas is interesting, as it seems to imply that the speaker is unable to verbalize the pain that goes along with the sudden loss. On the other hand, the poem may be less about the speaker's innocence than about his belief in the young woman's power. Indeed, he seems to have built her up in his mind into a goddess, untouched by age and mortality. This desire to keep her perpetually young is a testament to the speaker's feelings for the young woman. In the second stanza Wordsworth offers an eerie description of the woman's current situation. She is blind and deaf--wholly incapable of taking in the world around her. This is a particularly painful idea in a Wordsworth poem, because he is generally so focused on experiencing the senses. The speaker also mentions that she is now without motion or force. This, of course, is true of all dead people, but by stating the obvious the speaker helps the reader to imagine the way the young woman once was: full of life and vigor. In the last two lines the speaker describes the young woman trapped beneath the surface of the earth. In fact, she has become a part of the earth, rolling with it as it turns day to day. The very last line of the poem is especially interesting, because the speaker lists both rocks and stones, which are essentially the same. It may be that he intends to reference both gravestones and common rocks. Alternatively, the speaker may intend to emphasize the "dead" things of the earth over living things like trees (which are mentioned only once).
She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise, And very few to love. A Violet by a mossy stone [5] Half-hidden from the eye! —Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; [10] But she is in her Grave, and, oh, The difference to me! -title -by whom -from what -meaning
-"She dwelt among the untrodden ways" -William Wordsworth -from the Lucy Poems -For the critic Geoffrey Durrant, the three stanzas of 'She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways' represent 'Lucy's growth, perfection, and death'. The first stanza talks of 'springs' and Lucy as a 'Maid', implying youth ('springs' suggest not only small rivers and pools but also the idea of something springing into life), while the second stanza raises her beauty to the heights of a star in the night sky; the third stanza then reveals that Lucy has died. Of course, 'Maid' doesn't just mean 'young woman' but 'unmarried woman', which is also relevant in relation to Lucy's life. ('Dove' refers to the River Dove, after which Wordsworth's Lake District home, Dove Cottage, was named.) Wordsworth praises the 'Maid' Lucy for being 'fair' or beautiful, but observes that she lived in an obscure part of England where there were few people to admire her beauty. This is a bit like Thomas Gray's 'flower born to blush unseen / And waste its sweetness on the desert air': Lucy lived out her life in obscurity, so her beauty, which would have been feted in a big city or town, was unnoticed. But Wordsworth noticed it. Violets are often found in places where nobody goes, so it makes sense that Lucy should be compared to a violet in the poem's middle stanza: she who 'dwelt among the untrodden ways' where there were none to admire her. Yet the comparison between Lucy and the 'star' is harder to fit into such an analysis. Stars are pretty visible, especially if a particular star is the only one that can be seen in the night sky - hardly the same as the violet blooming where nobody can see it. Wordsworth's intention may have been to uncover the latent pun on light (stars are bright, and Lucy means 'light', from the Latin lux), but nevertheless, the simile doesn't seem to work. What are we missing? If there is only one star shining in the sky, then this implies not a star at all but the planet Venus, which has poetically been known as 'Morning Star' and 'Evening Star' for centuries. It shines brighter than other stars in the night sky and so, even when bona fide stars aren't visible, Venus will be. Venus, of course, is named in honour of the Roman goddess of love - making the comparison doubly valid, since the implication in 'She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways' is that the poet is in love with Lucy. (The other reason for its validity is the light-connection mentioned above.) But this still doesn't solve the central issue - that Venus is a public and highly visible 'star' in the night sky, yet Lucy is apparently unvalued because she dwells 'among the untrodden ways'. But this is a minor blemish in an otherwise tender poem, which serves as a celebration of Lucy's beauty but also a quiet lament for her death.
Strange fits of passion I have known: And I will dare to tell, But in the Lover's ear alone, What once to me befel. When she I loved was strong and gay, [5] And like a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath the evening Moon. Upon the Moon I fixed my eye, All over the wide lea: [10] My Horse trudged on—and we drew nigh Those paths so dear to me. And now we reached the orchard plot; And, as we climbed the hill, Towards the roof of Lucy's cot [15] The Moon descended still. In one of those sweet dreams I slept, Kind Nature's gentlest boon! And, all the while, my eyes I kept On the descending Moon. [20] My Horse moved on; hoof after hoof He raised, and never stopp'd: When down behind the cottage roof At once the bright Moon dropp'd. What fond and wayward thoughts will slide [25] Into a Lover's head— "O mercy!" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead!" -title -by who -From what -meaning of fits -strange -Fytte -"And I will dare to tell, But in the Lover's ear alone, What once to me befel" -"When she I loved was strong and gay, [5] And like a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath the evening Moon" -thesis of poem -"Upon the Moon I fixed my eye, All over the wide lea: [10] My Horse trudged on—and we drew nigh Those paths so dear to me." -"What fond and wayward thoughts will slide [25] Into a Lover's head— "O mercy!" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead!""
-"Strange fits of passion" -William Wordsworth -from the Lucy Poems -fits are disruptive and a inconsistent state of being. They're momentary seizures. A theory of affect, what it means to have feelings. Feelings have fits, they are disruptive. -alien, disruptive, and that itself is the object of analysis and study. A theory of knowledge organized around disruptions. Knowing the things that cannot be known. -The old English word for stanza. Signaling total breakdown of structure and order but also the order of poems. What if we made poetry that thinks about things that can't be thought about? -Wordsworth denies participation in mass culture. Authenticity by denying that you are participating in what you are actually participating in. He is saying that this is intimacy, not poems for mass consumption but thats not true because he is appealing to mass audiences. The invention of literature's place in capitalism. -She's dead now. A rose in June may be the high point of a rose but what about other months? We are already introduced to Lucy under the sign of her absence. -is what we see here lunacy or prophecy. Is my girlfriend dead or does he have a glimpse of future he cant change. - He's tracing the moon through the sky. The crisis is when the moon disappears. Planet means wanderer in Greek. All the stars remain fixed but the plants move. The moon is the most intense wanderer. He's comparing himself to the moon. He wanders affectively. His feelings are unstable. The first thing that happens when he realizes he loves someone is that he is scared of losing them. He is not present but focused on things that aren't fixed. A poem about lunacy. Panics that strike you even when you know better. Talking about an emotionally unstable person whose feelings come out of nowhere and are unpredictable. Wordsworth thinking about menstrual cycles. A poem about hysteria. Male hysteria. What does it mean for a man to think like a woman. thesis= to love women is to seem like women. Lucy comes from the word lux=light in latin. Her name means moonlight When the moonlight disappears she is gone But the poem focuses on how the man feels. Interested in men becoming women by loving women. Lucy is not dangerous, but this is just what happens when you love someone. You know you actually care about someone when you're scared about losing someone You recognize love by loss -fond=foolish or silly Poem about the fondness of fondness The foolishness of caring about someone/affection slide= a word that theorizes how thoughts can work in the mind without thinking about it (unconscious)->that word has not been invented yet. Wordsworth is trying to generate a language for the unconscious before the unconscious has even become as unthinkable thing The self is not in control of the thought Arise from somewhere that doesn't seem like a part of us Vulnerability Not a violent thought but sneaky Generates vocab before psychologists
"What did she say?-Just what she ought, of course. A lady always does."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Emma answering knightleys proposal - Women are stamped out Emma's words disappear The novel is called emma Emma said exactly what she ought Emma becomes a role and an obligation, a conventional mode of behavior On the other hand: Emma wants intimacy & privacy Domestic relationship built on intimacy If the thesis of the novel is the best form of a relationship is an intimacy that does not include guests Their intimacy is off limits to us
"Emma's eyes were instantly withdrawn; ans she sat silently meditating in a fixed attitude, for a few minutes. A few minutes were sufficient for making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like hers, once opening to suspicion, made rapid progress. She touched-she admired-she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley than with Frank Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet's having some hope of return? It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself!"
-Emma -Jane Austen -Emma first comes to terms with her love for him through preventing mr knightley from marrying others -"Darted through her with the speed of an arrow" Cupid's arrow hitting Emma The moment enters the convention of heterosexuality we watch her language become cliche The language deliberately shows how her idiosyncrasies have been worn away Its very benine Emma is normally so witty and different and the fact that revelation of love is the most benine and cliche metaphor is very saying of the structure of heterosexuality
"Of the lady, individually, Emma thought very little. She was good enough for Mr. Elton, no doubt; accomplished enough for Highbury-handsome enough- to look plain, probably, by Harriet's side. As to connection, there Emma was perfectly easy; persuaded, that after all his own vaunted claims and disdain of Harriet, he had done nothing....She brought no name, no blood, no alliance. Miss Hawkins was the oungest of the two daughters of a Bristol-merchant, of course, he must be called..."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Emma is talking about Mr. Elton's new wife and how she is far from Harriet's superior. Woman so far beneath her she is not even at harriets level She was from bristol and her father was a merchant He's just a shopkeeper who thinks hes something when in reality hes just a merchant Bristol biggest seaport in england on the west coast Headquarter of slave trading Slave trade has been outlawed for 9 years No one was a merchant in bristol making a fortune without being involved in the slave trade Emma is saying his money is blood money The priest's wife has money from slave trade Most wealth in novel is from aggression and violent that then is made polite
"She knew she had no reason to complain, and was amused enough; quite enough to stand at the door. A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Emma went with Harriet to town just in case Harriet ran into Mr. Martin. While Harriet was doing something, Emma was looking out the window. She expected to see lots of men out and about doing their business. Her field of anticipation will be male. She actually only sees a butcher, and old woman, two dogs, and kids. These things are everyday objects and not as impressive. To imagine a plot for emma is to be disappointed. You always get less than you thought you would get. When Emma imagines plot she is instead disappointed. This is a plot of disappointment. She was waiting to be amused by the outside world and was "amused enough" "still"=to keep doing it but also stand stock still and not move Amused enough to not act herself and do nothing Just enough activity where emma stays in her place Empty for female entertainment during this time What does it mean to be a woman in the 1860s What would it mean to write about women during this time Women cant be educated, cant have jobs, no self actualization Meaningful inaction Complaint is the only thing you can see from emma and yet she says she has no reason to complain Austens claim "A mind lively and at ease"=emma is smart Austen putting pressure on verb To do= to make due/endure. We watch the verb of action be shrunk to passive acquiescence Emma can make do with nothing If mens stories have been narratives of actions, austens point is that a woman's body comes with certain burdens and actions are limited "And can see nothing that does not answer" All things she sees, even nothing, answers to her purpose A mind lively and at ease can find something interesting or useful for attention even with nothing Job of these authors is to make nothing into answers Talk (answer) is the only thing that happens in this novel No such thing as privacy in the novel, everyone is sociable Austen going at "nothing can come from nothing" Lear's male grievance Women must make nothing answer/must make nothing full and women do not complain when they encounter the nothingness of their narrative forms Action is a privilege Relies on male behavior and lives Novel is already ahead on you on the critique by saying the novel is boring
"This sensation of listlessness, weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, this feeling of every thing's being full and insipid about the house!-I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I were not-for a few weeks at least."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Emma works backward from male attention. Frank likes me so I should naturally feel the same way. Normally we think life boring until frank comes into her life but that's not what shes saying Boredom is love for emma To be unable to do anything is love for emma She's changing the way she reads her perpetual condition of boredom. She's trying out the idea of that this must be what love is What woman wouldnt want frank churchill? Otherwise i would be off No words for queerness during this time Emmas oddness is close to queer I must be odd if i dont love frank churchill Emma thinks heterosexuality is structural rather than something you feel It is a set of expectations that insist on certain feelings
"Harriet slept at Hartfield that night"
-Emma -Jane Austen -Harriet getting into Emma's metaphorical bed. Further proves how Emma is queer
"Mr. John Knightley was a tall, gentleman-like and very clever man; rising in his profession, domestic, and respectable in his private character; but with reserved manners which prevented his being generally pleasing..."
-Emma -Jane Austen -His status as a professional is related to his domestic life -He is a lawyer
"His estate...country"
-Emma -Jane Austen -Miss Bates to Emma -She doesn't know what to call the country he lives in Irish revolution and english ethnically cleanse ireland and eliminate all irish self government and fold into english system Mr. Dixons estate built off of that english cleansing of ireland Planted barley over mass graves eventually Thats the mr. dixon who sent a piano
"You are an odd creature!" she cried
-Emma -Jane Austen -Mrs. Elton to Mr. Knightley -Mrs. elton inviting people to someone elses house Mr knightley doesnt want to throw a party at his house Mr knightleys future wife is the only person allowed to invite people to their house Mr knightley's house is for private bonds with my wife No one yells at Mrs. Elton Mr knightley sets boundaries and disciplines her Mr Knightley manages problematic women: emma, miss bates, mrs elton Emma says before she is the oddest creature Emma and Knightley are both odd creatures No woman expresses sexual interest in knightley, meanwhile they find frank attractive Knightley older than most men interested in marriage Long past age he should have gotten married Mr knightley handsome, rich, 40 yrs old, he could have had any woman he wants but has not asked His queerness
"She always declares that she will never marry, which, of course, means just nothing at all. But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for. it would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good. But there is nobody hereabouts to attach her; and she goes so seldom from home"
-Emma -Jane Austen -My Knightley says this to Mrs. Weston about Emma. Knightley is saying that it is impossible for a woman to say no to marriage. He says it would be good for Emma to be in love. "And in some doubt of a return it would do some good."= he wants her to be in love and not be loved back. Knightley thinks a heterosexual relationship will do her good, he thinks being in a heterosexual relationship will hurt her and manage her. What does it mean for Emma to stand outside the heterosexual plot and then be brought back in?
"Emma continued to entertain no doubt of her being in love...as she sat drawing or working, forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close of their attatchment, fancying interesting dialogues, and inventing elegant letters; the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his side was that she refued him."
-Emma -Jane Austen -She is imagining the structural forms of courtship Emma imagines scenes of courtship only to say no Emma is indulged in the fiction of being herself a novelist Her pleasure in the metastructures Emma is not itnerested in the outcome, sex, man but the language the proceeds it Emma a stand in for jane austen Emma imagines she exists in a system that compels her to be in love
"He never goes past his shrubberies"
-Emma -Jane Austen -She is talking about Emma's father Mr. Woodhouse. Her father is feminized. He acts like an old lady. This quote is a description of the world available for women, women are very limited.
"The marrage of Lieut. Fairfax of the ------regiment of infantry, and Miss Jane Bates, had had its day of fame and pleasure, hope and interest, but nothing now remained of it, save the melancholy remembrance of him dying in action abroad- of his widow sinking under consumption and grief soon afterwards-and this girl."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Talking about Jane Fairfax's life. Well situated people, people gossiped about them He dies abroad England goes to war against France Lieutenant fairfax killed in start of wars Wars have gone on so long that jane is now an adult Her body=history of how long england at war Shes adopted by the cambells Scottish English cleared the highlands, depopulated More people living in scottish highlands back then then now
"How very pleasing and proper of him!" cried the good-hearted Mrs. John Knightley. 'I have no doubt of his being a most amiable young man. But how sad it is that he should not live at home with his father! There is something so shocking in a child's being taken away from his parents and natural home! I never can comprehend how Mr. Weston could part with him. To give up one's child! I really never could think well of any body who proposed such a think to anybody else." "Nobody ever did think well of the Churchills, I fancy,' observed Mr. John Knightley coolly. 'But you need not imagine Mr. WEston to have felt what you would feel in giving up Henry or John. Mr. Weston is rather an easy, cheerful tempered man, than a man of strong feelings; he takes things as he finds them, and makes enjoyment of them somehow or other, depending, I suspect, much more upon what is called society for his comforts, that is, upon the power of eating and drinking and playing whilst with his neighbors five times a week, than upon family affection, or any thing that home affords."
-Emma -Jane Austen -This is Mrs. and Mr. Knightley talking about how they can't believe that Mr. Weston doesn't love his kinds and wold rather party instead of spending time with them. Essential to understand what's at stake in Emma. Emma's a stationary novel. Emma has no interest in expanding her horizons to outside of her village. Mr. Weston is easy which means someone who thrives in a party and makes everyone comfortable but John Knightley does not think thats a good thing. His strongest opinion is not only that parents should love their children, no one that's a decent father could do what he did, fathers should take pleasure in being around children. The Domestic space is being reorganized. New idea: husband and wife are together and in love and love their children. Mr. Woodhouse is an early model of domestic living. The home is public sociality, there are always people there, always conversation. John and Isabella Knightley have a model of domestic privacy and intimacy. This is a new model of family during this time. They have an intimate family relationship. -""John doesn't want to not see his children after dinner"= he resents the fact that it's an adults only party. John Knightley is a new version of a man and his family is a new version of a family.
"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her"
-Emma -Jane Austen -This is the opening line of the novel. Emma is exempt from marriage. She does not need a marriage because she is so rich. Emma's life has been so smooth that there is nothing novelic here. Maybe Emma is the problem. What story is there for a woman that goes against basic gender roles? What if a woman stands alienated from heterosexuality? What if a woman is more than just a wife?
"I could not have visited Mrs. Robert Martin, of Abbey-Mill Farm. Now I am secure of you for ever."
-Emma -Jane Austen -This is when Harriet tells Emma of her decision to refuse Mr. Martin's proposal. Emma practically made her refuse him. Emma wants Harriet to stay with her so she impossibly tries to set her up with Mr. Elton
"Jane's curiosity did not appear of that absorbing nature as wholly to occupy her."
-Emma -Jane Austen -This is when Miss Bates is talking about Mr. Elton -Jane fairfax doesnt care in the trivial goings on in this tiny village She isn't interested in a jane austen novel Uninterested in binalities of this world This world isnt inevitable dull but maybe made dull
"There was no occasion to press the matter farther. The conviction seemed real; he looked as if he felt it. She said no more, other subjects took their turn; and the rest of the dinner passed away; the dessert secceeded, the children came in, and we talked to and admired amid rhe usual rate of conversation; a few clever things said, and a few downright silly, but by much the larger proportion neither the one nor the other--nothing worse than every day remarks, dull repetitions, old news, and heavy jokes"
-Emma -Jane Austen -This was during a party where people were very interested in who bought Jane Fairfax the piano. this is the world the novel exists in. Sometimes interesting, sometimes benial. What does it mean to talk about boring or exciting things. What creates boring vs. exciting. Novel suggests that these are stories set in rooms where very little happens but you need not be enticed by this.
"Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody. Somebody had placed her, several years back, at Mrs. Goddard's school, and somebody had lately raised her from the condition of scholar to that of parlour-boarder. This was all that was generally known of her history. She had no visible friends but what had been acquired at Highbury, and was now just returned from a long visit in the country to some young ladies who had been at school there with her. She was a very pretty girl, and her beauty happened to be of a sort which Emma particularly admired. She was short, plump, and fair, with a fine bloom, blue eyes, light hair, regular features, and a look of great sweetness; and before the end of the evening, Emma was as much pleased with her manners as her person, and quite determined to continue the acquaintance."
-Emma -Jane Austen -This was when Emma realized that after Miss Taylor left she'll be stuck with her dad and his stupid female friends. She is very thankful for Harriet because she will be somebody for Emma to talk to. We have received no description of Emma's appearance yet but we have a full description of Harriet's body. We learn what kind of bodies Emma likes before we learn about Emma's body. Emma produces erotic gazes. We are learning Emma's desires. Emma likes pretty girls. Emma is interested in women more than she is interested in men. Emma's sexuality is eccentric to heterosexuality.
"'Yes,' said he, smiling. 'You are better placed here; very fit for a wife, but not at all for a governess. But you were preparing yourself to be an excellent wife at all the time you were at Hartfield. You might not give Emma such a complete education as your powers would seem to promise; but you were receiving a very good education from her, on the very material matrimonial point of submitting your own will, and doing as you were bid; and if Weston had asked me to recommend him a wife, I should certainly have named Miss Taylor.' 'Thank you. There will be very little merit in making a good wife to such a man as Mr. Weston.'
-Emma -Jane Austen -Tongue and cheek saying that Emma was teaching Taylor how to be a good wife Emma makes women into wives Emma makes wives for herself For instance, Emma doesn't want Harriet to marry Mr. Martin which is possible but she instead wants her to marry Mr. Elton which she knows in the back of her head is impossible. She wants to keep Harriet all to herself.
"She could not think that Harriets solace or her own sins required more; and she was therefore industriously getting rid of the subject as they returned;-but it burst out again when she thought she had succeeses and after speaking some time of what the poor must suffer in winter; and receiving no toher answer than a very plaintive-'Mr. Elton is so good to the poor!' She found something else must be done."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Two musts in last sentence When it's cold outside the poor must suffer Something else must be done= disregarding the poor so she can intervene with harriet and elton She must stop harriet from talking about elton Poor in village can be easily helped by emma Something must be done=not for the poor but for harriet to stop talking about mr elton Real world happening outside drawing room=emma alert to it but also choosing to ignore it Managing harriet more important than social justice Novel is called emma but critical of emma's viewpoint/world Novel incredibly aware of the broader political economy that supports this privilege
"A new neighbor for all of us, Miss Woodhouse!' said Miss Bates, joyfully, 'my mother is so pleased!-she says she cannot bear to have the poor old Vicarage without a mistress. This is great news, indeed. Jane, you have never seen Mr. Elton!-no wonder that you have such a curiosity to see him!"
-Emma -Jane Austen -Why care so much about lady in vicarage house?= Why do powerful and wealthy people pay attention to them? Mrs bates used to be married to ... and they tumbled down the social ladder when husband dies but all the powerful people remember when u visited them as equals Show how delicate the comforts of this amount of wealth and privledge can be Women dependent on men so when he did they were poor
"Emma felt all the honest pride and complacency which her alliance with the present and future proprietor could fairly warrant, as she viewed the respectable size and style of the building, its suitable, becoming, characteristic situation, low and sheltered-its ample gardens stretching down to meadows washed by a stream, of which the Abbey, with all the old neglect of prospect, had scarcely a sight....it was just what it ought to be, and it looked what it was..."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Emma is talking about Knightleys Abbey -The knightleys wealth is invisible He does not deform landscape His house is so old it is the architecture of english history Meanwhile emma calls it respectable Display of wealth and privilege The house is mr knightley "it looked like it ought to be" Mr knightley is transparent Suitable, acceptable, unexceptionable The highest praise emma can give: no complaint, placed complacency
"For till she married, last October, she was never away from them so much as a week, which must make it very strange to be in different kingdoms. I was going to say, but however different countries, and so she wrote a very urgent letter to her mother-or her father. I declare I do not know which it was, but we shall see presently in Jane's letter-wrote in Mr. Dixon's name as well as her own, to press their coming over directly, and they would give them the meaning in Dublin, and take them back to their country-seat, Balycraig, a beautiful place, I fancy."
-Emma -Jane Austen -Miss Bates is talking to Emma -Mr dixon lives in ireland has a country estate called.. Dixon is a scottish name Scottish is protestant Replace the local ruling class with scottish protestants Root of violence scotland
"I do so wonder, Miss Woodhouse, that you should not be married, or going to be married so charming as you are!?" Emma laughed and replied "My being charming, Harriet, is not quite enough to induce me to marry; I must find other people charming-one other person at least. And I am not only, not going to be married, at present, but have very little intention of every marrying at all.'
-Emma -Jane Austen -Harriet believes that women exist to be pleasing. Emma is saying that desire is not just attraction. Sexuality is inseparable from class. Emma already has her own house and fortune and it she got married she would lose that because she would have to give it to a man. Emma is already married and married women only have pseudo-independence. Emma is a novel trying to theorize new and emergent ways men and women can be/their identities and the identities their family they produce can have.
"We should all choose independence"
-Emma doesn't need a husband to be independent she has already achieved the mastery of a domestic space that most women would get in marriage
An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King; Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring; Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leechlike to their fainting country cling [5] Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow. A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field; An army, whom liberticide and prey Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield; Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; [10] Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed; A senate, Time's worst statute, unrepealed— Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. -title -by whom -"An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;" -"Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring;" -"Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leechlike to their fainting country cling [5] Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow." -"Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day."
-England in 1819 -Percy Shelley -George III Treason= imagining the death of the king at this time Very close to treason -The irony of monarchy is that when the king dies another one comes (princes) The prince regent was running the country at this time cause George was insane Prince was despised during this time dregs=stuff at the bottom of a drink, what nobody wants Princes are the garbage at the bottom Princes are open sewers of british corruption -Kings, princes, etc. are leeches clinging to their country, they can only suck and take so much, eventually theyll have to drop because they can only take so much -Imagining a possible future He is imagining resurrection Phantom: a transfigured possible way of thinking Phantom is not an admirable thing It's not a tangible hope Ineffectual person with outward appearance of power Wants revolution but pressure on revolution All 14 lines drive towards that burst Comma after Burst, no sooner does the grave get burst then poem says no it doesnt Bursting that is not Or potentially not because it may be an actually illumination or something that doesn't really show
The Wife of Asdrubal: -The sun sets brightly - but a ruddier glow O'er Afric's heaven the flames of Carthage throw; Her walls have sunk, and pyramids of fire In lurid splendour from her domes aspire; Swayed by the wind, they wave - while glares the sky [5] As when the desert's red simoom is nigh; The sculptured altar and the pillared hall Shine out in dreadful brightness ere they fall;" -"The sculptured altar and the pillared hall Shine out in dreadful brightness ere they fall;" -Thesis of poem -"But mark! from yon fair temple's loftiest height [15] What towering form bursts wildly on the sight, All regal in magnificent attire, And sternly beauteous in terrific ire?" -"She might be deemed a Pythia in the hour Of dread communion and delirious power;" -"being more than earthly" -"There dwells a strange and fierce ascendancy. The flames are gathering round - intensely bright, Full on her features glares their meteor-light; But a wild courage sits triumphant there, [25] The stormy grandeur of a proud despair; A daring spirit, in its woes elate, Mightier than death, untameable by fate." -"the dark profusion of her locks unbound, Waves like a warrior's floating plumage round" -'Are those her infants, that with suppliant cry Cling round her, shrinking as the flame draws nigh, Clasp with their feeble hands her gorgeous vest, [35] And fain would rush for shelter to her breast? Is that a mother's glance, where stern disdain, And passion, awfully vindictive, reign?" -"E'en now my sons shall die - and thou, their sire, In bondage safe, shalt yet in them expire. Think'st thou I love them not? - 'Twas thine to fly - 'Tis mine with these to suffer and to die. [60] Behold their fate! - the arms that cannot save Have been their cradle, and shall be their grave.' -Bright in her hand the lifted dagger gleams, Swift from her children's hearts the life-blood streams; With frantic laugh she clasps them to the breast [65] Whose woes and passions soon shall be at rest; Lifts one appealing, frenzied glance on high, Then deep 'midst rolling flames is lost to mortal eye.
-First start to think you're reading a poem about a sunset and you gradually realize that it is a city on fire -A poem where a woman speaks ferociously How would you understand her speech from the building she inhabits She shines brightly and screams in a way everyone hears We start poem with an understanding that women's speech must be also deeply self destructive If a woman speaks she must also agree to disappear Catastrophically protests against a failed patriarchy Murder children so husband cannot have heirs -she wants to erase his name from history. But her name was actually erased Most viciously performed divorce She goes down as nameless and wifely -Deus ex machina: someone random will come fix all problems God in a machine who will come to solve the play or meet out justice She is assuming that role It is a greek tragedy Power seems to be sexed as male "towering form bursts wildly on the sight" We dont know its a woman until "beauteously" But even that's complicated by sternly A figure that is male that is revealed to be female Important the the poem doesnt say How do we situate a woman who acts like this What it means to be a woman and what it means to be this woman -Pythia: women who would take drugs that their consciousness would be so altered they would speak nonsense And priest would write down what they said A woman who speaks with the gods but at the same time she doesnt Men transcribe everything she says Misrecognized patriarchichal authority Can a woman ever resist the men who want to take everything -She speaks with god but there is no space on earth for this sort of woman -How milton describe satan How this world imagines anti heros What happens if a woman looks like satan What happens if a woman starts talking like lord byron Male representational, anger Anger is a privilege -plumage=feather on top of wifes helmet She doesnt have slutty hair, her hair is armor, her body is resistant to male attention and attraction -The poem doesnt even know how to read her Asks rhetorical questions about her Babies try to cling to breast, resists children and expectations that children have -She kills her kids and says that his will break her heart because she loves them She says this is not easy for me -He does not care about his family so what is her resource? She holds them in a last sort of maternal love She loves her kids in a way he does not She's killing something he already doesn't care about What happens when women do want to get angry at patriarchy? She only hurts herself The only person who cares about her children is her She is lost to mortal eye It is she not her husband who disappears from history It is she not her husband who can no longer be seen A woman's capacity for violence, determination only ends up hurting themselves in the end.
"He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after the internment of his friend, he conducted her to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation. Two years after this even Caroline became his wife."
-Frankenstain -Mary Shelley -Talking about how Victor Frankenstien's parents came together -Caroline (his mother)'s father got sick and died -his father was friend with her father and he married her and protected her -He comes in as a protective father for her and then there is not courtship, simply daughters are transformed into wives Insensuous relationship None of the characters want you to forget this insensuous opening Elizabeth takes Caroline's place Become the mother to my sons and also marry one of them We can understand why he goes to extreme limits to create offspring All relationships are insensuous He works hard to avoid sex
"This aroused the stranger's attention; and he asked a multitude of questions concerning the route which the demon, as he calls him, has pursued"
-Frankenstain -Mary Shelley What we call the creature matters Motivation of language Victor frankenstein supernaturalism her relationship with the creature Most people just think it was a man, but victor calls his demon He wants to talk about him like a christian struggling with satan Taking anti-modern forms of knowledge rather than new science He is rooted in ancient systems of knowledge
"I am by birth a Gevenese; and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic.....
-Frankenstein -Mary Shelley -He is entitled because his family is rich That's not his most eager entitlement His primary privilege he is most proud of being born. "I am by birth" He is a product of human reproduction The creature will never be able to lay claim to that
"Among these here was one which attracted my mother far above all the rest. She appeared of a different stock. The four others were dark eyed, hardy little vagrants; this child was thin, and very fair. Her hair was the brightest living gold, and, despite the poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head. Her brow was clear and ample, her blue eyes cloudless.....a being heaven sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features."
-Frankenstein -Mary Shelley -Mary Shelley thinks this is essential because it was added later Picks the whitest baby Elizabeth is blonde, blondeness means Her body is her worth Her virtues and righteousness come from how she looks How all characters in the novel think about bodied Bodies are morality Your body's shape and appearance is your moral condition The creatures constant protest is do not look at me, listen to me
"I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness; but there are moments when, if any one performs an act of kindness towards him, or does him any the most trifiling service, his whole countenance is lightened up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equaled"
-Frankenstein -Mary Shelley -This is Walton talking about Victor in one of his letters -Walton falls in love with him immediately. -benevolence=being active, public and sociable. A goodness that does good in the world Frankenstein is called benevolent when people do things for him Victor craves human effort and service to him Victor will rewrite his story to make himself seem like a hero Victor Frankenstein wants people to work for him
Be near me when my light is low, When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick And tingle; and the heart is sick, And all the wheels of Being slow. Be near me when the sensuous frame Is rack'd with pangs that conquer trust; And Time, a maniac scattering dust, And Life, a Fury slinging flame. Be near me when my faith is dry, And men the flies of latter spring, [10] That lay their eggs, and sting and sing And weave their petty cells and die. Be near me when I fade away, To point the term of human strife, And on the low dark verge of life The twilight of eternal day. 54 Oh, yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood; That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroy'd, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete; That not a worm is cloven in vain; That not a moth with vain desire [10] Is shrivell'd in a fruitless fire, Or but subserves another's gain. Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last — far off — at last, to all, And every winter change to spring. So runs my dream: but what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light: And with no language but a cry. [20] 55 The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul? Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life; That I, considering everywhere Her secret meaning in her deeds, [10] And finding that of fifty seeds She often brings but one to bear, I falter where I firmly trod, And falling with my weight of cares Upon the great world's altar-stairs That slope thro' darkness up to God, I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope. [20] 56 "So careful of the type?" but no. From scarped cliff and quarried stone She cries, "A thousand types are gone: I care for nothing, all shall go. "Thou makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death: The spirit does but mean the breath: I know no more." And he, shall he, Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, Such splendid purpose in his eyes, [10] Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies, Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer, Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation's final law — Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek'd against his creed — Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, Who battled for the True, the Just, Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal'd within the iron hills? [20] No more? A monster then, a dream, A discord. Dragons of the prime, That tare each other in their slime, Were mellow music match'd with him. O life as futile, then, as frail! O for thy voice to soothe and bless! What hope of answer, or redress? Behind the veil, behind the veil. -title -by whom
-From In Memoriam AHH -Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Emma says the problem is that you can only say 3 boring things because miss bates could say more and miss bates is sad -knightleys reaction
-Knightley tells emma she embarrassed herself He disciplines her emma=problematic women Knightley manages difficult things
[Coleridge's headnote:] The following fragment is here published at the request of a poet of great and deserved celebrity, and, as far as the author's own opinions are concerned, rather as a psychological curiosity, than on the grounds of any supposed poetic merits. In the summer of the year 1797, the author, then in ill health, had retired to a lonely farmhouse between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in Purchas's Pilgrimage: "Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall." The author continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he has the most vivid confidence that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines; if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awaking he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of the latter! Then all the charm Is broken — all that phantom world so fair Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread, And each misshape[s] the other. Stay awhile, Poor youth! who scarcely dar'st lift up thine eyes — The stream will soon renew its smoothness, soon The visions will return! And lo, he stays, And soon the fragments dim of lovely forms Come trembling back, unite, and now once more The pool becomes a mirror. Yet from the still surviving recollections in his mind, the author has frequently purposed to finish for himself what had been originally, as were, given to him. I shall sing a sweeter song today: but the tomorrow is yet to come. As a contrast to this vision, I have annexed a fragment of a very different character, describing with equal fidelity the dream of pain and disease. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, [10] Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst [20] Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And `mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And `mid this tumult KubIa heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war! [30] The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, [40] Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight `twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! [50] Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honeydew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. -title -by who
-Kubla Khan -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, [5] So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done. I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever-dew, [10] And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too. I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful—a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, [15] And her eyes were wild. I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery's song. [20] I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She looked at me as she did love, And made sweet moan She found me roots of relish sweet, [25] And honey wild, and manna-dew, And sure in language strange she said— 'I love thee true'. She took me to her Elfin grot, And there she wept and sighed full sore, [30] And there I shut her wild wild eyes With kisses four. And there she lullèd me asleep, And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!— The latest dream I ever dreamt [35] On the cold hill side. I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci Thee hath in thrall!' [40] I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gapèd wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill's side. And this is why I sojourn here, [45] Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is withered from the lake, And no birds sing. -title -by who
-La Belle Dame Sans Merci -John Keats
-Frankenstein written by whom -background -behind the name Mr.s Saville
-Mary Shelley -Only 500 copies of novel at first Presumption was the play adaptation. It was very popular as a play For most of 19th century it was not printed so people only really knew it through the play New version of Frankenstein sells more copies Frankenstein's story was always one where other people were intervening upon it The creature is always imagined through words and expectations that are not his She published it anonymously In 1881 she added her name His sister is a woman who never speaks Men's intense relationship with other men Man who tries to reproduce without a woman Men displace and disappear women and women are left to pick up the pieces -Margaret is the name of his sister Mrs. Saville Saville=civil Women stay at home and are civil while men do the exploring Her name would be margaret walton Saville M.W.S. same initials as writer Fundamentally a story written by a woman that critiques toxic men This novel explores how men relate to other men and how this makes women disappear
"Emma perceived that her taste was not the only taste on which Mr. Weston depended, and felt, that to be the favorite and intimate of a man who had so many intimates and confidantes, was not the very distinction in the scale of vanity. She liked his open manners, but a little less of open-heartedness would have made him higher character.-General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be-she could fancy such a man."
-Mr weston invites emma to come over because she thinks he wants her to talk to frank Other people were invited Wasn't a special invitation to emma -Mr. weston doesnt mind Mrs. Elton, she invites her to a party they didnt invite her to "she is afterall a good natured person" emma agreed to "it all in public and none in private" No depth with Mr. Weston First time emma finds someone attractive Benevolence vs. friendship She wants a man who is not generally friendly to everyone but still benevolent Benevolence is a thing you do, friendship is a thing you feel Knightley is always managing people
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told [5] That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; [10] Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien. -title -by who -what this is about -First looking into -"Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold" -""Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into his ken;" -"Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
-On First Looking into Chapman's Homer -John Keats -He is reading Chapman's Homer. He isn't reading the original Greek version but instead someone's translation of it. During this time period, education consisted of nothing other than learning latin and greek, but Keats did not learn either because he did not receive the best education. He is performing his own inadequacy in this poem. He is not an idiot, but just poor. He says that he finds Chapman to be just as moving as Homer. It would have been embarrassing to be an adult man and confess they just read Homer for the first time. His masculinity is in crisis. Girls back then did not go to school so this would have been a translation for women to read. He is aware that he is not part of the other men. -Saying you only glanced over it. He is not even claiming ownership or mastery of the text because this is his first acquaintance with it. Just because it is his first time reading it does not mean that it is not profound or transformative. -He never claims to read it. He is saying the Chapman speaks so he transforms Homer into conversation. This is because he cant read Greek. -Simile. It's amazing to discover a new plant like it was amazing for him to discover this text. A new planet is something already there but he didn't have access to. He is not making a discovery, but it is still amazing -Reading Chapman's Homer is like Cortez seeing the Pacific Ocean. Cortex did not discover the Pacific, Balboa did. Some people read this line as Keats' deficient education. This is actually not accurate. Keats meant to say that. Cortez was not the first european to discover the pacific, but it was still amazing to him. Much like Keats was not the first to discover Homer but it is still amazing to him. A belated arrival to cultural awareness doesn't mean these things aren't just as meaningful. The poem is about being ignorant and then coming to awareness. It is not pretentious at all.
O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute! Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away! Leave melodizing on this wintry day, Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute: Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute, [5] Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme, [10] When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream, But when I am consumed in the fire, Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire. -title -by whom -significance of sitting down -What if culture starts at english speaking things instead of greek -What version of King Lear is he reading -"O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute! Fair plumed Syren! Queen of far away! Leave melodizing on this wintry day, Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute:" -"Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute, [5] Betwixt damnation and impassion'd clay Must I burn through" -"once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian fruit. Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion, Begetters of our deep eternal theme" -"When through the old oak forest I am gone, Let me not wander in a barren dream, But when I am consumed in the fire, Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire."
-On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again -John Keats -He is actually deeply reading it, not just looking at it. Also when you get bad news you sit down. This makes sense because King Lear is a tragedy. You don't just read it once, you read it over and over again. -English is sufficient to its own meanings. English seen as barbaric so had to import latin and greek rules into English. Keats is saying what if we ignore latin and greek and just start with english. -The play was banned and even if it was performed it would be the fake version that would not make the monarchy look bad. Keats is reading the real king lear because the play was illegal. The only way he can have access to the book is by reading it by himself. -He does not want to read the typical things he has always read like fantasy. Syren is a female monster who sings beautiful songs to lead sailors to their deaths. There is something seductive about sweet happy poems or songs where everything works out in the end. -Thesis for what Lear is. Lear defines what reality really is. If there is an argument you would expect it to be between damnation and salvation. Adam means clay. God forms Adam and breathes life into him to make man. Impassioned=no spirit but human emotions. No supernatural signification. Antithesis: on one hand damnation and on the other all the raw feeling that comes with the accommodated man. No afterlife. -Keats is trying to imagine a history that starts with english texts. What if history starts with Shakespeare. -old oak forest= the oak is the emblem of celtic prechristian england-> where christianity is set. When i'm wandering through King Lear, lit it not be devoid of meaning. Lets set all bad books on fire. If you are really paying attention to king lear, it burns you. Let King Lear set me on fire like the Phoenix, so rise out of the ashes of King Lear so I will write like Shakespeare. Write like King Lear. Let king lear purge me and make me clean so I can finally see what I should be doing.
From In Memoriam AHH: -"Be near me when my light is low, When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick And tingle; and the heart is sick, And all the wheels of Being slow." -"Be near me when my faith is dry, And men the flies of latter spring, [10] That lay their eggs, and sting and sing And weave their petty cells and die." -"Be near me when I fade away, To point the term of human strife, And on the low dark verge of life The twilight of eternal day." -"Oh, yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;" -"That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not one life shall be destroy'd, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete; That not a worm is cloven in vain; That not a moth with vain desire [10] Is shrivell'd in a fruitless fire, Or but subserves another's gain." - That not a moth with vain desire [10] Is shrivell'd in a fruitless fire, Or but subserves another's gain." -Behold, we know not anything; - "I can but trust that good shall fall At last — far off — at last, to all, And every winter change to spring." -So runs my dream: but what am I? An infant crying in the night: An infant crying for the light: And with no language but a cry. -The wish, that of the living whole No life may fail beyond the grave, Derives it not from what we have The likest God within the soul? -Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life; That I, considering everywhere Her secret meaning in her deeds, [10] And finding that of fifty seeds She often brings but one to bear, -"So careful of the type?" - From scarped cliff and quarried stone She cries, "A thousand types are gone: I care for nothing, all shall go. -"Thou makest thine appeal to me: I bring to life, I bring to death: The spirit does but mean the breath: I know no more." And he, shall he, -Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, Such splendid purpose in his eyes, [10] Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies, Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer, -Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation's final law — Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek'd against his creed — -Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, Who battled for the True, the Just, Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal'd within the iron hills? [20] -No more? A monster then, a dream, A discord. Dragons of the prime, That tare each other in their slime, Were mellow music match'd with him. -O life as futile, then, as frail! O for thy voice to soothe and bless! What hope of answer, or redress? Behind the veil, behind the veil.
-Opening stanza wants to think through problem of materiality How do we think through our own matter? Our bodies are like atoms like any other The fact that we are matter is the moral crisis because we know what happens to matter -A model of what humans are What if we just think of men as fruit flies What if all of this apparent meaning goes nowhere and does nothing Geological time: Human history is a tiny fraction of fossil record -Life and strife Ecosystems work by murder Life is not flourishing but suffering, mystery, competition, scarcity -I would like to believe in providence Chain of events is over seen my a talented actor (god) I can observe bad things happening in the world Christian wants to make bad things seem good so better things can happen later down the road -Putting humans on the same level of all other things God loves his creations They're equal pile=building God made the building complete Is god is omniscient therefore all things must be accounted for, there can be no losses anywhere -There must never be an extraneous death of any living thing These are things that cannot happen if this world was created by a perfect god (work drowning, bugs dying) A world created by providential good could not have so much extraneous death The poem narrates to you the things you know happens and then says theology requires that these dont happen -Doubts all forms of knowledge now -Maybe god has a plan sometime in the far future Gets more desperate -He has no idea what's going on in the world Hes ignorant like a baby and can never know anything -Were amazing Our consciousness and souls feels different from everything else in the world That is the spirit of god inside of us We seem to have a spirit that is ourselves There must be something caring for our uniqueness and souls The fact that were so inexplicable shows that there is a god -I know i have a god inside of me type =species Careful of the species, careful of the individual life The natural selection of species is a disproof of god All of the care of this world is designed not for the flourishing of individual lives, but of the whole species Nature does not recognize that there is a thing as the individual The soul and the spirit and meaningless -Natural selection? -Doesn't even care about species because species can go extinct People back then though creation was static Cliff and quarried stone=fossil Entire species that just vanished No purpose If you insist world is goverent by something that cares about it here are fossils that disappeared without a care -Nature talking Breath is not spirit It is just respiration I know no more= Nature does not care about right and wrong Nature has no idea that there is moral consequences and intelligences -Humans did so many things Built curtures Built structures -Ethical law of nature Natural selection is obviously amoral Strong preying upon the weak If you think god is omniscience he would create a world of love but this is a world of meaningless death -Humans can live lives that seem ethically meaningful Imagining something unimaginable Imagining a post human world/ecology The real story is that we change the ending It is a moral certainty that the earth will exist for years after we are gone That shows there can be no creator We could not be the object of this creators world -Is something else going to look at our fossils and think we were as crazy as dinosaurs -To know answers would be to kill you How do you think through the loss of a loved one?
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, [5] Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; [10] Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." -title -by who -how it starts -who told the story -Argument of the poem -"antique" -the form of religious domination this poem represents -how these governments of evil can what -"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command" -Greek name for ramses II: ozymandias. -"Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things" -"The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed" -"And on the pedestal, these words appear" -"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; [10] Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away."
-Ozymandias -Percy Shelley -it suddenly starts -impossible to tell who told the story. We know nothing of the traveler or the speaker. -discourse is not easily managed. Language and representation are reservoirs of inalienable weirdness that will not be governed in the same way social norms are governed. Free speech. This poem comes from nowhere and can't be stopped -may mean ancient and decrepit -The form of religious domination this poem represents is old and broke and fragile and "antique" -how these governments of evil can collapse and fall -Just a desert, two legs standing, half sunken face laying in the sand Statue showing how terrible they are Lies suggests the essential dishonesty and untrustworthiness -Biblical tyrannical dominance -The sculpture saw his true nature "Which yet survive" not just talking about ozymandias, these feeling still exist Urgently current problem On the rock, the rock looks alive in its own evil, these feelings make people dead, those politicians are lifeless things -"Mock" imaginary/pretend Mock in ancient tense is to shape creatively with your hands Creativity is inevitable critical -Ozymandias writes his own tombstone He can't given the words of his own epitaph -Statue used to be so large Everything you could see was owned by him A theory of what human nature is You should look at everything i have and weep because you don't have it Looking at work other tyrants have done and weeping because you cant achieve it I did not build things to make you admire or love but to dwell in horror at my overpowering dominance -Look around i did all of this but now theres nothing there Not just two legs standing in the middle of nowhere Nothing else remains All he built was a desert The will of why we do things is so negative Percy shelley has no interest in how this collapse cam to be Percy Shelley's idea of revolution brings its own demise Ozymandias doesn't know he's bringing his own demise
My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o'ergrown With white-flowered Jasmin, and the broad-leaved Myrtle, (Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!) And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light, Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve Serenely brilliant (such would Wisdom be) Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents Snatched from yon bean-field! and the world so hushed! [10] The stilly murmur of the distant Sea Tells us of silence. And that simplest Lute, Placed length-ways in the clasping casement, hark! How by the desultory breeze caressed, Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover, It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs Tempt to repeat the wrong! And now, its strings Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes Over delicious surges sink and rise, Such a soft floating witchery of sound [20] As twilight Elfins make, when they at eve Voyage on gentle gales from Fairy-Land, Where Melodies round honey-dropping flowers, Footless and wild, like birds of Paradise, Nor pause, nor perch, hovering on untamed wing! O! the one Life within us and abroad, Which meets all motion and becomes its soul, A light in sound, a sound-like power in light, Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere— Methinks, it should have been impossible [30] Not to love all things in a world so filled; Where the breeze warbles, and the mute still air Is Music slumbering on her instrument. And thus, my Love! as on the midway slope Of yonder hill I stretch my limbs at noon, Whilst through my half-closed eyelids I behold The sunbeams dance, like diamonds, on the main, And tranquil muse upon tranquility: Full many a thought uncalled and undetained, And many idle flitting phantasies, [40] Traverse my indolent and passive brain, As wild and various as the random gales That swell and flutter on this subject Lute! And what if all of animated nature Be but organic Harps diversely framed, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of all? But thy more serious eye a mild reproof Darts, O beloved Woman! nor such thoughts [50] Dim and unhallowed dost thou not reject, And biddest me walk humbly with my God. Meek Daughter in the family of Christ! Well hast thou said and holily dispraised These shapings of the unregenerate mind; Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break On vain Philosophy's aye-babbling spring. For never guiltless may I speak of him, The Incomprehensible! save when with awe I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels; [60] Who with his saving mercies healèd me, A sinful and most miserable man, Wildered and dark, and gave me to possess Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart-honored Maid! -title -by whom -speculative poem -thesis -history with his wife Sarah -"My pensive Sara!" -'thy soft cheek reclined Thus on mine arm -"To sit beside our Cot" -"Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!" -"Tells us of silence." -"And that simplest Lute, " -"How by the desultory breeze caressed, Like some coy maid half yielding to her lover, It pours such sweet upbraiding, as must needs Tempt to repeat the wrong!" -"And what if all of animated nature Be but organic Harps diversely framed, That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of all? " -His final point of the poem -"Methinks, it should have been impossible [30] Not to love all things in a world so filled" -"But thy more serious eye a mild reproof/Darts, O beloved Woman" -"nor such thoughts [50] Dim and unhallowed dost thou not reject," -"Meek Daughter in the family of Christ!" -"Well hast thou said and holily dispraised These shapings of the unregenerate mind; Bubbles that glitter as they rise and break On vain Philosophy's aye-babbling spring." -Well hast thou said and holily dispraised -thesis in his opinion
-The Eolian Harp -Samuel Taylor Coleridge -avant-garde theories about the universe, sexuality, etc and none of them make sense -what if we're all harps, god is the breeze that blows across us, were all harps vibrating in the winds of god -He promised that he would marry Sarah but then runs away to enlist in the cavalry. During this time, he overhears people talking in Greek and corrects them. They ask who he is and he is caught. His friend Robert Suthy drags him back and forces him to marry Sarah. -Sarah has psychic turmoil going on. Pensive does not seem like something a bride would feel like on her honeymoon. my=she belongs to him -physically close, emotionally distant. He is writing and she is leaning on arm that he is writing with. She's restraining what he actually wants to be doing (writing). Shackle to the arm that writes. She's physically intimate with him and he's not. He would rather write about eroticism than actually have sex with his wife -cot=cottage. our=we own things together -This poem wants to be anywhere else Out of material and into the symbolic Does not want to exist in the material world where we have bodies and bodily things that we have to do I want to talk about the things around me than actually doing things -Poem should have stopped but it is restless and starts again in next stanza -Lute=eolian harp The wind plays it Box with strings, by window, wind vibrates strings Youre hearing music generated by natural principles What if that harp is a metaphor for human consciousness or identity -How consent works In this women have no vocab for yes, affirmative consent No is resigned as yes No is refigured as yes Cant say yes and cant say no Coleridge wants to theorize sexual arousal than actually do it -What if we're all harps By a gropey god The self is passive Thoughts are uncalled and undetained -What if were all just harps Harps are like something else=harps are like coy maids having sex for the first time, whole universe organized around womens sexual identity What would it be like if were all like harps and if were all like harps were all girls on their honeymoon about to have sex for the first time Transgendering of all humans Wondering what it's like to be his wife than actually interacting with her -Sara just asked if he loved her He says we all love each other He does not actually love her -She says stop talking about this -Deliberate double negative We cant understand double negatives in english language She rejects his stupid thoughts He makes it hard to seem like she is actually capable of meaningful thought -He calls her this -My thoughts are stupid like bubbles that pop and go away and dont mean anything -She just looks at him Hes not interested in what she has to say Even when hes interacting with her hes withdrawing Agreeing with himself when it seems like hes agreeing with her -women prevent men from philosophizing and poeticizing He's misoginistic
The sun sets brightly - but a ruddier glow O'er Afric's heaven the flames of Carthage throw; Her walls have sunk, and pyramids of fire In lurid splendour from her domes aspire; Swayed by the wind, they wave - while glares the sky [5] As when the desert's red simoom is nigh; The sculptured altar and the pillared hall Shine out in dreadful brightness ere they fall; Far o'er the seas the light of ruin streams, Rock, wave, and isle are crimsoned by its beams; [10] While captive thousands, bound in Roman chains, Gaze in mute horror on their burning fanes; And shouts in triumph, echoing far around, Swell from the victors' tents with ivy crowned. But mark! from yon fair temple's loftiest height [15] What towering form bursts wildly on the sight, All regal in magnificent attire, And sternly beauteous in terrific ire? She might be deemed a Pythia in the hour Of dread communion and delirious power; [20] A being more than earthly, in whose eye There dwells a strange and fierce ascendancy. The flames are gathering round - intensely bright, Full on her features glares their meteor-light; But a wild courage sits triumphant there, [25] The stormy grandeur of a proud despair; A daring spirit, in its woes elate, Mightier than death, untameable by fate. The dark profusion of her locks unbound, Waves like a warrior's floating plumage round; [30] Flushed in her cheek, inspired her haughty mien, She seems the avenging goddess of the scene. Are those her infants, that with suppliant cry Cling round her, shrinking as the flame draws nigh, Clasp with their feeble hands her gorgeous vest, [35] And fain would rush for shelter to her breast? Is that a mother's glance, where stern disdain, And passion, awfully vindictive, reign? Fixed is her eye on Asdrubal, who stands Ignobly safe amidst the conquering bands; [40] On him who left her to that burning tomb, Alone to share her children's martyrdom; Who, when his country perished, fled the strife, And knelt to win the worthless boon of life. 'Live, traitor, live!' she cries, 'since dear to thee, [45] E'en in thy fetters, can existence be! Scorned and dishonoured live! - with blasted name, The Romans triumph not to grace, but shame. O slave in spirit! bitter be thy chain With tenfold anguish to avenge my pain! [50] Still may the manes of thy children rise To chase calm slumber from thy wearied eyes; Still may their voices on the haunted air In fearful whispers tell thee to despair, Till vain remorse thy withered heart consume, [55] Scourged by relentless shadows of the tomb! E'en now my sons shall die - and thou, their sire, In bondage safe, shalt yet in them expire. Think'st thou I love them not? - 'Twas thine to fly - 'Tis mine with these to suffer and to die. [60] Behold their fate! - the arms that cannot save Have been their cradle, and shall be their grave.' Bright in her hand the lifted dagger gleams, Swift from her children's hearts the life-blood streams; With frantic laugh she clasps them to the breast [65] Whose woes and passions soon shall be at rest; Lifts one appealing, frenzied glance on high, Then deep 'midst rolling flames is lost to mortal eye.
-The Wife of Asdrubal -Felicia Hemans
Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know That things depart which never may return: Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow, Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. These common woes I feel. One loss is mine [5] Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore. Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar: Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood Above the blind and battling multitude: [10] In honoured poverty thy voice did weave Songs consecrate to truth and liberty,— Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve, Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be. -title -by whom -meaning
-To Wordsworth -Percy Shelley -Directed toward the poet and man William Wordsworth had become by 1814 with the publication of The Excursion, Shelley commences an ironically calculated quatrain that slyly touches upon many of the great themes associated most closely with William Wordsworth: nature, death and loss, nostalgia for the lost innocence of childhood and youth, the bonds of friendship and the excitement of falling in love before bringing down the blade that cuts by asserting that Wordsworth's contemporary work is absent all these things, leaving the aging poet to become someone who now only mourns the loss of these concerns. And then another slicing cut when Shelley suggests that not just that he feels all the things so described but that in reality they common. The implicit undertone here being one to question Wordsworth's originality. Then he draws back the sword of irony and performs the final cut after asserting that he feels a loss too—which Wordsworth surely shares—but which he alone deplores. This loss will form the basis for the remainder of the poem and essentially teak the form of eulogy for Wordsworth's greatest work and best days which are now forever behind him. The eulogy cuts two ways with Shelley on the one hand describing Wordsworth as a lone star only to immediately undermine that metaphor with imagery of the light from his star shining upon bare tree in the middle of the night during winter. Wordsworth is then compared to the sturdiness of a refuge carved into rock only for that refuge to be perched above the blind multitudes below. This image sets the stage for Shelley to move his attack on Wordsworth from the literary to the political as he references the poems the young Wordsworth wrote honoring the radical liberalism of the underclass fighting for truth and liberty. The poem ends on the image of Wordsworth having deserted these ideals as he aged into political conservatism. It is the loss of this Wordsworth that Shelley deplores while Wordsworth merely feels the loss of his younger self.
I perceived in the gloom a figure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me....I could not be mistaken. A flash of lightening illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy demon whom I had given life."
-Victor says that deformation is information Bodily type is moral type No one in human shape could have killed him Like "no white person could have done that crime" If he thinks the creature is inherently evil he has no moral responsibility over it He wants the creature to be plain evil so he doesnt feel so bad Victors only evidence is that Victor has the idea that the creature murdered william The fact that i thought that is proof that it's true Ontological proof of god=to be capable of thinking of this, proves that that thing has the possibility of existing Because god is able to be thought of, therefore he is real You can only have ideas about things exist Unicorns, dragons, magic????? Victor frankenstein thinking like an outdated theologian Victor frankenstein not a scientist but a spoiled religious enthusiast Irrational principles of faith His lunacy is recognizable as vulgar religious errors
"Lucy Poems": -by who -titles in original version -Girl names Lucy -What is consistent -more interested in what -Lucy becomes technology for what
-William Wordsworth -These poems did not have titles to separate them in original version. They're so similar that they don't really need to be separate. -Another poem about a 10 year old girl named Lucy who dies and then a young girl who died at 16 named Lucy. She's not consistent across the poems. Lucy is shifting and hard to specify. She produces a meditation on loss because she's dead in all the poems. -the male speakers reacting to Lucy -More interest in the psychohistory of the man thinking of Lucy that Lucy herself -Lucy becomes a technology for Wordsworth thinking through his own masculinity
"by degrees I made a discovery of still greater moment. I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds. I perceived that the words they spike sometimes, produced pleasure or pain, smiled or sadness, in the minds and countenance of the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it."
-creature talking about how he watched the delaceys to learn language -This is what the novel called "God like science", not a chemist in his lab resurrecting the dead Language is a god like science Language is not quisensientially human, its godlike "I ought not to make the attempt..deformity of my figure" Language can make you see something other than what they see Knowledge and meanings not entirely determined by sense perception This is important to the creature because he wants people to actually listen to him rather than judging based off of how he looks
Kubla Khan (Coleridge): -information in the prose -Its basic premise -information in headnote -psychologically what -Something passive about cultural production -"with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort." -"On awaking he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of the latter!" -inspiration -Coleridge believes what about the bible -And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! [50] Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honeydew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. -The poems thesis -"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea." -incompleteness -"Down to a sunless sea." -But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst [20] Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And `mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And `mid this tumult KubIa heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
-false. Everything in this poem is fabricated The prose is as unreliable as the poem -Its basic premise is what do we do when we do imaginative work, what does it mean to produce imaginatively? -Lord Byron asks his publisher to publish it Info in headnote. He said he's publishing it because lord byron said it was good -Psychologically interesting instead of actually poetically good -Argument rest of prose is that the write has very little control over their writing -Comes to him with no effort at all What does it mean to generate work when we put price tag on our work and sell them in the marketplace -A business man comes to visit him. He forgets his images because of the businessman. Composition is not when you publish or write but the first and earliest appearance of the ideas in the mind. Once things hit marketability all imagination dies. This is against market economy. Poems cannot survive concerns for its own marketability. First branding for this was saying that they can't be branded. By saying the market hurts the soul you're making your own things marketable. -breath of god in you. Poets are inspired like the prophets are. Revelation. Humans can't understand. -The stories come together from editorial intervention. We never think about the editors who put the biblical texts back together. This poem is meant to be the text of inspiration like the bible. This poem was stitched randomly together like the Bible was. Performance of what the word of God looks like. Babbling and editorial intervention. Coleridge is not blasphemous because he still believes in God. -Once you read this poem you'll see Coleridge in this way. Milk of paradise=opium is milk of the poppy. He has gotten super high and seen things he was not meant to see. When people see him with his hair on edge and eyes glowing people will react by ignoring him. This final act of revelation can't be communicated. Strange artifact that does not speak to you. -imaginative work is a weird alienness that's not capable of being assembled -Genghis Khan's grandson. Decree: monarch announces law by simply stating. River Alph: not a real river but the river of the first word. A space where language is reality and shapes reality. What it means to be in a space where language is things or words are act. Natural landscape=language. -The best art was usually the most complete art but Coleridge proposing something radically different= more impressive things are not complete. The fragmentation cause imaginativeness. More provocative. Talking about forms of existence that exceed our ability to know them. Best art is one that makes you think. What if we deliberately don't finish things? -You can't see everything. Alien. What lives under the water? Liked to what I said above. -What do we do when we do artwork Birth of the river Blockage of itself Metaphor for ejaculation Coleridge suggesting that men get to produce Male privilege Only poem worth creating is the male physiological response People selling the best were women during this time This made men writing very anxious Poem representation of male anxiety Because he knows its not true Marketplace by female commercial power->a reason he doesn't like marketplace Coleridge is saying that art is something women can't understand
La Belle Dame Sans Merci: -time period Keats was interested in -basic reading of the poem -The poem was published twice (differences in Merci) -Beautiful woman without mercy/pity -the beautiful woman without thanks -A woman who is not shown mercy or pity -1819 version what was different in the opening line ""O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, -"O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, [5] So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel's granary is full, And the harvest's done." -"I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever-dew, [10] And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too." -"I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful—a faery's child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, [15] And her eyes were wild." -"I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faery's song." -this poem is aware of how men what -""I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone" -"She looked at me as she did love, And made sweet moan" -She found me roots of relish sweet, [25] And honey wild, and manna-dew, -And sure in language strange she said— 'I love thee true'. -two versions of the poem -"She took me to her Elfin grot, And there she wept and sighed full sore, [30] And there I shut her wild wild eyes With kisses four." -I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—'La Belle Dame sans Merci Thee hath in thrall!' I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gapèd wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill's side. -poem is critical of what
-interested in themes from the 14th century. Keats focused on medieval past. Lots of his poems were painted. -a woman uses her sexuality to control a man. She sucks the man dry and casts him aside. She's a femme fatale. This is not the poem's entire argument though. -In both versions its la belle dame sans merci, one meaning mercy and one meaning merci (thanks). - beautiful woman who is merciless, without pity of a man. Women are expected to give sexual pleasure to men. Pity is a euphemism for sex. If women do not give pity to the man (sex) she will be called cold and nasty -She's seen as ungrateful for the gift of male attraction and does not respond with sexual gratitude. merces means an economic transaction. Expectations and ideological pressures for women. -If she does not give him what he wants (sex) he will hurt her -it was wretched white instead of knight. white= ancient anglo saxon word, means something that is alive. In the 1819 version you don't know that it's a man. They're stripped of so much that he is unrecognizable. The poem would take on a much different meaning because it could instead be about encountering someone who survived that painting and then is talking about it. We may only be encountering the woman who is so shattered y what just happened that she narrates from different perspectives. -there's no reason for anyone to be here -rosy cheeks=healthy, but a sick body. Flowers are not very masculine so the poem is feminizing the knight. This ailing has gotten so bad that he's talking about in feminized terms. He is weaker now because of the woman or if it is not a knight, it might actually be a woman's body that is ill and dying, but the poem is not committed to whether we are describing a man's or woman's body. -The first three lines are conventional descriptions of a woman. But her eyes were wild=shes sick from trauma. Keats was a fan of Wordsworth and wordsworth had a poem called her eyes were wild which was about a woman who was sexually assaulted. This is a hint towards sexual trauma. If this poem is actually about a woman, this could be a woman describing a lost version of herself. -may be simply what it says or could be a man kidnapping her. "For sidelong would she bend, and sing"=she's trying to get off. A faery's song= she's calling out for help, but we can't tell what she's saying. Her native language might not be his native language. -this poem is aware of how men transform their own violence into self pitying justifications. Men tend to rework their own aggression into a myth of their victimization. -This might be a suggestion that he is binding her or that mens gifts come with expectations for repayments -she doesn't actually love me, she is pretending. This is not a moan of pleasure but a moan of pain. He enjoys her pain. His pleasure comes from her protesting. -She's taking care of him and finding him food. He thinks that she is a perfect woman because she is making him food. They're exchanging commodities so she makes him food. -He is imposing his own thoughts onto her. Sure is language strange= could mean that she said this in a heavy accent so he can't really hear what she's saying so he assumes that she says I love you. Sure modifies strange: either sure of the meaning of the sentence or sure of the strangeness of the language. So either she consents or she says please let me go in French so he imposes what he wants her to say on her -a woman who takes advantage of a man who leaves him broken vs man who taken advantage of a woman and leaves her broken -A woman who knows an inevitable sexual assault is about to happen -On one hand, knight is encountering other men she has also done this to, on the other hand from the womans perspective, her horrow is that he may do this again (sexual assault) and other men might do it again as well. It is either a man living our purgatory or a woman's nightmare/hell of perpetual sexual assault. -poem is critical of male privilege
John Keats: -what type of family -university -medical school -parents die -early poetry -reviews -His 18 yr old brother comes down with tuberculosis and keats takes care of him -Keats gets tuberculosis himself at age of 24 -These sonnets are formulaic
-lower middle class -couldn't go to university. Many careers were off limits to him. He didn't get the same education everyone else on our syllabus had. -He was sent to medical school. Most doctors believed in the four humors. Read liquids from the body as metaphors. Doctors didn't actually touch bodies but read the symbols of the body. New science came with surgery. Surgeons were poorly compensated because it was such a dirty and gross profession. Keats went to surgical school -when his parents died he got the family inheritance so he leaves school to go try to be a writes -his early poetry is extremely bad. He approaches poetry like a scientist would. He thought, like a surgeon, he would get better with practice. One of his earliest poems was his longest because he was trying to become a better writer by writing. -he receives extremely negative reviews. Reviews said that he is not only bad but he is a classless poet, He doesn't understand poetry since he never went to school, they make it about class Keats keeps working hard -His poetry undergoes a transformation, a light bulb switches on -His poems becomes tense and dark, race against the clock to get poetry out before he dies Dead within 15 months He dies before he can get the reviews Keat dies in house in rome He was so convinced he failed so he has here was one whose name is writ in water written on tombstone because he thought he made no impact on the literary world He is now very famous -Encountering of cultural history A young man coming to literary tradition he thinks he doesn't live up to
The Wife of Asdrubal historical background
Absolute close of punic war: rome and carnage As rome expanded into the mediterranean it came up against other powers The biggest player was an african colony Carthage was a bigger player than rome, rome went to war with them over generations War with carthage was essential Hannibal crosses the alps The romans wouldnt be looking for elephants The carthaginians ransacked italian peninsula Rome does not simply defeat carthage but burns it completely down, kills men, takes women Dont know if it actually happened or not: the romans sewed the field with salt there so nothing would ever grow Ethnic cleansing This woman's husband is the man who surrendered the city to rome Her husband doesnt even get to live Roman triumph=you get to march through rome with a parade where everyone you beat would walk in the parade where they would be strangled and thrown off the cliff You don't survive a triumph British at this time saw themselves as a new version of the roman empire Author is british What would happen to world history if carthegenians won The name asdrubal is unrecognizable because carthegenians language is so different, didnt pass on
"While I improved in speech I also learned the science of letters, as it was taight to the stanger; and this opened before me a wide field of wonder and delight"
Creatures increased socialization. Once he has language, he can have socialization Book banned after the french revolution. Types of books percy shelley read. The delaceys are far left "Virtuous romans.... He is discovering racial difference. The first thing he learns
"One night, during my accustomed visit to the neighbouring wood, where I collected my own food, and brought home firing for my protectors, I found on the ground a leather portmanteau, containing several articles of dress and some books. I eagerly seized the prize, and returned with it to my hovel. Fortunately the books were written in the language, the elements of which I had acquired in the cottage; they consisted of "Paradise lost" and a colume of "Plutarch;s Lives" and the "sorrows of Werter." The possession of these treasures gave me extreme delight; I now continually studied and excercised my minf upon these histories whilst my friends were employed in their ordinary occupations.
Discovers in the middle of the woods a suitcase with books They're in germany, delaceys are french Books are written in French None of those books were originally written in french, they were translated into French All of these books are notoriously different languages, but they were translated in French Suggestion there is nothing outside of social construction Books in the forest No inside and outside of constructiveness Creature wants people not to judge him but it's actually just stories inside stories inside stories The creatures idea is that these stories can allow him to be able to relate socially to people Which of these models of human identity he will adopt
"I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam; But I am rather th fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.'
Do your duty towards me, recognize that i have the same political rights as other people Theory of social justice Satan wasn't driven from no misdeed Make me happy and i shall be virtuous Social and political disadvantage create crime Back then people did crime because they were evil Shelley's father was the first person to say that people do bad things because of political oppression Cutting edge idea of enlightenment Creature is enlightenment incarnate Creature is savvy to how societies work
Knightley characteristics
Donewell abbey: he does things well, he is morality incarnate At the same time he corrects and disciplines Emma Knightley says that Emma is intelligent and lazy, he's watching her since she was a tiny girl, observing her What does it mean that women must be developed in the context of men in an asymmetrical way Knightley is benevolent patriarchy in carnate. He always says she's bad.
-"You are no friend to Harriet Smith" -"She is not a clever girl, but she has better sense than you are aware of, and she does not deserve to have her understanding spoken of so slightingly. Waving that point, however, and supposing her to be, as you describe her, only pretty and good natured, let me tell you, that in the degree she possessed them, they are not trivial recommendations to the world in general, for she is, in fact, a beautiful girl, and must be thought so by ninety-nine people out of an hundred; and till it appears that men are much more philosophic on the subject of beauty than they are generally supposed; till they do fall in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome faces, a girl, with such loveliness as Harreit, has a certainty of being admired and sought after, of having the power of good-nature, too, is not so very slight a claim, comprehending, as it does, real, thorough sweetness of temper and manner, a very humble opinion of herself, and a great readiness to be pleased with other people. I am very much mistaken if your sex in general would not think such beauty, and such temper, the highest claims a woman could possess." -"Upon my word, Emma, to hear tou abusing the reason you have, is almost enough to make me think so too. Better to be without sense, than misapply it as you do."
Emma Jane Austen -Knightley says this to Emma because he is mad at her for influencing Harriet's response to Mr. Martin's proposal. Knightley says that Harriet has no value and she needs Mr. Martin because no other man will take her. -Emma's reply to Mr. Knightley. Emma defends harriet Emma is saying we all know men are after attractive women who never challenge them, you and i both know men don't marry intelligent women What it means to be married: a smart man (emma) and stupid woman (harriet) She says men don't want philosophical women -Knightley's reply. Emma performs the mental strength that men don't want. Knightley is realizing that maybe he doesn't want a smart woman after all
Why is Emma constantly creating stories and mysteries?
Emma constantly creating stories and mysteries because she has nothing else to do The field for women's activities are so limited that they create mystery plots Emma shows her intelligence not by doing math but by reading other people and contemplating their lives and creating mysteries about them Austen understands that this can feel like a vacant and sterile world The limits of the novels are not limits that austen endorses, but historical events that Austen is bringing to awareness and critiquing. Novel is much more aware of complexities of historical aspects
Jane Fairfax cannot be ignorant and economic inequalities
Emma is jealous of jane Jane fairfax has to be good at these things because she will be a governness and will starve if she isnt because she has to teach these girls how to do this Jane fairfax aware of ironies of these tea parties Is not interested mr conversations that revolve around mr elton Jane fairfax will be the laborer and no longer marriageable Miss Taylor won the lottery to be able to get married Once 3 months up in this town she is done if she cant find someone to marry Emma unable to sympathize
Emma and Knightley's relationship
Emma now speaks only structure, we see emma disappear but at the same time this is the promise of a privacy that is so loving that the other characters don't know how to read it This is a suggestion of how real genuine affection looks, we don't talk about it
Feminism POV of Victor's attitudes towards the creature
Feminism POV: As soon as he performs his pseudo activity of creating life, we doesn't want any part in it, typical man
"They were unfortunate in look and not in work"
Gypsies were scary because their racial difference Threat of the foreign Churchill "rescues" her Frank churchill terrorizes old lady and child and takes harriet back to his place and leaves Its mr knightley who solves the actual problems, frank churchill solves illusionary problems that exist in fictional romance
"John Knightley was in astonishment-That a man who might have spent his evening quietly at home after a day of business in London, should set off again, adn walk half a mile to another mans house, for the sake of being in mixed company till bed-time, of finishing his day in the efforts of civility and the noise of numbers, was a circumstance to strike him deeply. A man who had been in motion since eight o'clock in the morning, and might now have been still, who had been long talking, and might have been silent, who had been in more than one crowd and might have been alone!....John Knightley looked in amazement, then shrugged his shoulders, and said "I could not have believed it even of him."
He cant believe how stupid mr weston is in friendliness when he could just be relaxing but he instead comes back out Many characters the novel finds sympathetic don't want to be in the novel John knightley wants to be with his family and not these other people George knightley wants to be with family Emma wants to be something she cannot be
"Here i thought of one of those women...hers be the punishment"
He frames justine I can't have a women Therefore i will punish them He finds justine attractive and justine will not find him attractive Let me try bigotry and prejudice If everyone is going to hate me then i can hate women See if he can make his own meaning by being prejudice Discovers misogyny Make me a woman i can own and control and dominate Discovers himself in male aggression
Mr. John Knightley
He is the anti type of all characters and jane austen herself. all people do in jane austen novels is stand around and talk and he says he hates that. but this novel loves john knightley, as he critiques jane austen, jane austen supports his critique of her and the world she lives in.
"The appearance of Justine was calm.... when she entered the court, she threw her eyes round it, and quickly discovered where we were seated. A tear seemed to dim her eye when she saw us; but she quickly recovered herself, and a look of sorrowful affection seemed to attest to her utter guiltlessness"
How geneva theorizes guilt and innocence Not the fact that she had the picture of the locket on her that she is condemned When she sees the dead brother she does not seem in command of herself She seems distracted Justine is on trial for her appearances How she looks attests her guilt or guiltlessness An entire society that reads body language as the only language that signifies Victor frankenstein will read bodies as truths Physiology is who and what you are If they are willing to put to death a 20 year old girl for only appearing upset about her "brother" dying, how will the creature possible survive?
Humans categorize identity through what
Humans categorize identity through differentials, differences with other people How humans imagine identity is through differences
How is The Wife of Asdrubal written
Iambic pentameter lines that go aabbcc........forever How high poetry was always written during that time Part of hemmings thesis is what happens if we do a woman misbehaving in the most fantastic way but make it smooth and adhering to norms The first section is a sonnet Poem is aware how its formal confidence plays against weird subversions it contains Mother who kills her own kids
"I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers-their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how was I terrified when i viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first i started back, unable to believe that it was indeed i who was reflected in the mirror; and when i became fully convinced that i was in reality the monster that i am, i was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! i did not yet entirely knoe the fatal effects of this miserable deformity.
In manuscript: Carried away but also born away, Never able to be born, Death is the birth he was denied Eve falls in love with her own image God then comes in in paradise lost and tells her to stop being a narcissist and tells her to come look at Adam. I started back and it started back Parallel to eve discovering herself in paradise lost Different: creature noticed ugliness rather than Eve noticed beauty Creature self discovers like a woman Creatures body is different because it might be sexed female His cultural disabilities are similar of womens His body is wrong like women's bodies have been historically imagined to be wrong
What does Knightley say about Harriet and what is Emma's response?
Knightley says that Harriet is nothing because she's uneducated Emma replies that harriet is attractive which is really what all men want
Emma says she will repress her imagination for the rest of time after telling Harriet how Mr. Elton professed love to her
Kubla Kahn published in same year and with same publisher Kubla about what happens when men imagine Emma talks about matchmaking with same word, imagination What if this is the scope for women's mental activity (erotic plotting) Emma imagined herself to be the novelist, Emma realized that she is a character in her world/erotic novel, she is participating against her will
"I heard of the difference of sexes....
Learning gender and sexual differences
"I heard of the divisions of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty; of rank, descent and noble blood"
Learns class difference
From In Memoriam AHH -meaning and background
Many intellectuals thought christianity would disappear because of science Coming to terms with his loss His best friend, his brother in law, probably lover, died at a young age of a stroke Grieve his loss and attempt to theorize what grief is If we think grief can be solved by promises of resurrection, what is left if there is not promise of resurrection We can no longer pretend there is a conversation between faith and reason No one was familiar with these issues during this time Tennyson was educated at Cambridge Poem is more about geological sciences and lessons that we might infer from geology Thought there were two ways you could know god Miracle (revealed religion) Was killed. Showed how it was impossible how a miracle can be. You didn't see a miracle. Just a story. Studying the world (natural religion) We can ground god through laws of physics
Austen suggesting that all novels during this time are marriage novels
Meeting of estates (opening of pride and prejudice) Women need husbands in order to be people and rich husbands in order to be stable
Novel of Emma ends in a comic and pathetic way
Mrs weston has some chickens stolen which mr woodhouse is scared about Mr woodhouse wants knightley in their house for protection so they get married Marriage only works because masculinity is unsuccessful
Emma's governess and Emma's role in the house
Mrs. Weston, formerly Miss Taylor. She left to get married and married well. Her father always says poor Mrs. Weston. Emma has always run the house even when she had a governess. Emma's role in the domestic space is extraordinary and unexpected, she's not what a woman should be. Emma is immune to male pressures. She is in charge of her house.
"My workshop of filthy creation"
Percy Shelley told her to call it a laboratory but mary said no workshop=blue collared labor Central irony=a man who seem to incarnate privilege, his privileges are more embarrassing than he thinks. He often looks like a deranged religious lunatic meanwhile he thinks he's so smart. He is an embarrassment of privilege. Parody of big men writing big things on important ideas. Percy Shelley's first and worst volume of poetry he published under Victor. She is talking about her husband's privilege
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Shelley was born rich, born to a life of unproblematic privilege Never grows out of teenage rebellion Got kicked out of oxford by writing an article on the necessity of atheism and send it to all the administrators Pushing for transformations of world around him and is shocked when people don't like that Tour around irish and push for birth control Irish catholics not happy Settles down to bohemian glamour Does not need money to live so he doesn't fully publish them He abandons wife for Mary Wollstonecraft Mary dies after giving birth to someone Falls in love with 16 year old girl Percy shelley's actual wife commits suicide Percy shelley loses children in custody battle because he is an atheist Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein when she was 18 Percy Shelley drowns Identified by text of Keats that is on his body Body can't be claimed for burial They burn him on the seaside Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley were married
The rain set early in to-night, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, And did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break. [5] When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; Which done, she rose, and from her form [10] Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl, And laid her soiled gloves by, untied Her hat and let the damp hair fall, And, last, she sat down by my side And called me. When no voice replied, [15] She put my arm about her waist, And made her smooth white shoulder bare, And all her yellow hair displaced, And, stooping, made my cheek lie there, And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair, [20] Murmuring how she loved me — she Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour, To set its struggling passion free From pride, and vainer ties dissever, [25] And give herself to me for ever. But passion sometimes would prevail, Nor could to-night's gay feast restrain A sudden thought of one so pale For love of her, and all in vain: So, she was come through wind and rain. [30] Be sure I looked up at her eyes Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me; surprise Made my heart swell, and still it grew While I debated what to do. [35] That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: I found A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, [40] And strangled her. No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain. As a shut bud that holds a bee, I warily oped her lids: again Laughed the blue eyes without a stain. [45] And I untightened next the tress About her neck; her cheek once more Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss: I propped her head up as before, Only, this time my shoulder bore [50] Her head, which droops upon it still: The smiling rosy little head, So glad it has its utmost will, That all it scorned at once is fled, And I, its love, am gained instead! [55] Porphyria's love: she guessed not how Her darling one wish would be heard. And thus we sit together now, And all night long we have not stirred, And yet God has not said a word! [60]
Porphyria's Lover Robert Browning
Emma spends all her time matchmaking
She herself is removed from erotic plotlines she puts that towards other people's plotlines Is a woman is emancipated to do anything she wishes, she spends all her time doing marriage and courtship for everyone else Not Emancipated from heterosexual dynamics that she seems to be She concerns herself only with marriage when she's the only woman in this area that doesn't have to Is Emma genuinely detached from the structures that bind ever other woman?
"This was the conclusion of the first series of reflection. This was the knowledge of herself, on the first question of inquiry, which she reached; and without being long in reaching it.-she was most sorrowfully indignant; ashamed of every sensation but the one revealed to her-her affection for Mr. Knightley-Every other part of her mind was disgusting."
She immediately regrets everything she did when she realizes she's in love with knightley Emma dislikes herself when she loves a man. She immediately turns to self-reproach and self-discipline She says only knightley is the good thing in her. Everything else is disgusting Mr. knightley's idea of affection of love is managing and disciplining Emma absorbs and endorses the patriarchal structures that knightley endorses Mrs. Elton talks about how she used to play piano, read, etc but now brags about how busy she is now housekeeping All female characters acquire accomplishments to attract men These attributes exist only to secure the interest of a man and once you get this you can discard them Emma is both horrified by this but mrs elton is so enthusiastically on board Emma adopts Knightley's critiques and makes them her own
About Felicia Hemans
She was one of the best selling poets and then disappeared She was disappeared from the canon until at least 10-15 years ago, even though she outsold all other poets during her time
Mrs. Elton's sister married better They Live at a place called Maple Grove
Suggests that blood has now become maple syrup Badness of slave trade made sweet Novel is saying people sitting here are benefiting off violence of others
Miss Bates talking about pork
The bates cant afford to feed themselves. They wouldn't have had meat on the table without emma Close to abject poverty so thats why they make a fuss about it Novel telling us how to read characters and worlds without telling us
"It is with considerable difficulty that I remeber the origical era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and smelt, at the same time; and it was, indeed, a long time before I learned to distinguish between the operations of my various senses. By degrees, I remember, a stronger light pressed upon my nerves, so that I was obliged to shut my eyes."
The creature describes a theory of knowledge of how people come to know the things they know He saw with his eyes We learn through sensory perceptions Creature starts with distinguishing perceptions and then puts sensory into knowledge How john locke said how human beings learn The creature is the perfect model citizen of the english enlightenment How the enlightenment imagined how people build up an identity Gradual sophistications as he moves up the state of being
"At this time a slight sleep relieved by from the pain of reflection, which was disturbed by the approach of a beautiful child, who came runing into the recess I had chosen, with all the sportiveness of infancy. Suddenly, as I gazed on him an idea seized me, that this little creature is unprejudiced, and had lived too short of a time to have imbibled a horror of deformity. If therefore I could seize him and educate him as my companion and friend, I should not be so desolate in this peopled earth....let me go he cried. "monster!" ugly wretch!...My papa is a Syndic-he is M. Frankenstein-he will punish you. You dare not keep me
The creature kills him Songs of innocence moment There is no such thing as innocence The creature thought this kid would be a blank slate He realizes that there is no such thing as a blank slate My father is a syndic Do you know who my dad is, get away from me peasant He realizes he's a frankenstein, he also realizes that there is no possibility of a life outside of prejudice
""His countenance bespoke bitter anguish"
The creature's body speaks Before the creature can use the words the creature realizes he has been speaking through his body He always says please listen to my words, i am different and more than my body
"i expected this reception" said the demon"
The first thing he calls the creature is devil A creature has a creator. Important to call it creature The creature is a pretty good citizen of the enlightenment The creature seems more civil Victor wants to physicalize the relationship with someone he could never beat "'I expected this reception', said the demon" Creatures capacity for self-reflection He is socially and politically aware Distracts us from the fact that the creature can speak Creature is ornately educated "Said the demon" We watch him be reinturgulated back into these systems His idea doesn't even survive the sentence it lives in
"Another circumstance strengthened and confirmed these feelings. Soon after my arrival in the hovel, I discovered some papers in the picket of the dress which I had taken rom your labratory. At first I had neglected them; but now that I was able to decipher the characters in which they were written, I began to study them with diligence... in language which painted your own horrors and rendered mine indelible...god in puty made man beautiful and alluring after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorrent."
The last books he finds are the ones he always had with them The creature had always already had language Language is not emancipatory for the creature The creature is fixed, he cant change in the mind of others The tragedy of the creature is to shrink into someone else's expectation of him There is no time or space before prejudice Not ideas that are before us, other people We come into world we cannot make Narratives that predate us
"And what was I? of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure of hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature of man."
To know humans identity the creature knows he must know differences These differences teach him that he is not human Not any identifiable race Humans define people by their race The creature has no mother, no father If humans are identified by differences and inequalities, the creature realizes he is different from differences itself The creatures abjection is that there is no difference to be located, he is different from different With language he hopes he can build a new reality where he can be accomodated to humanity and human forms He thinks once he acquires social skills he can build a new reality
Victor acting like a woman
Victor Frankenstein is hysterical in ways that suggest that his body is confused about what it is after taking over women's prerogative of creating life he gets sexed as female
"Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed."
Victor's last words are that maybe it is okay if someone else raises the dead He is a narcissist, he thinks he is a hero and righteous Meanwhile, the creature feels guilt for what he has done
"She was everything harriet was nothing"
When emma realized knightley loved her Emma's interest in harriet was detrimental Novels should not be interested in harriets Rebuke of interests of people like william blake Saying that art shouldnt be interested in lower class people
"While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific, I wandered on with a hasty step. This noble war in the sky elevated my spirits; I clasped my hands, and exclaimed aloud, "William, dear angel! this is thy funeral, this is thy dirge!' As I said these words, I perceived in the gloom a figure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me..."
Whenever frankenstein talks about poetry that is when the creature appears The creature is the embarrassment of privilege
Emma is what type of novel
an anti novel Its heroine is a woman who shouldn't be the heroine She is not really very likable