Hoping that it's okay to use the word "pimp" twice within a matter of 3 sentences

Just want to pay special tribute to Mistress Hibbins and her #pimpin outfit in Chapter 22

"It was Mistress Hibbins, who, arrayed in great magnificence, with a triple ruff, a broidered stomacher, a gown of rich velvet, and a gold-headed cane, had come forth to see the procession"

The triple ruffs, the gold pimp canes, the witch headdresses, asking to escort Dimmesdale to the woods...

Werk.

The Magical, Mystical Forest

                         

                                  (ooooh creepy)

When Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne ventured into the woods, I imagined a foggy forest with branches masking their conversation. But course in The Scarlet Letter, the forest isn’t just an ordinary forest No, I think the forest has the power to change people and distort perceptions.

            Before Reverend Dimmesdale crossed into the metaphorical alternate universe, he was upset. He was emaciated. He had no hope. But in the forest, something happened. Hester courageously spoke of her undying love for him, and surprisingly he also yearned to run away with her. His eyes twinkled again, and the sun peaked. When Dimmesdale emerged from the forest, he was a new man. He felt liberated and alive again. He exclaims:

“I am not the man for whom you take me! I left him yonder in the forest, withdrawn into a secret dell, by a mossy tree-trunk, and near a melancholy brook! Go seek your minister, and see if his emaciated figure, his think check, his white, heavy, pain-wrinkled brow, be not flung down there, like a cast-off garment!” (195)

He felt as if old Dimmesdale was shed off physically. But with his happiness came a great cost. He suddenly had malicious intentions for others. He scoffs off a new church member and wants to be cruel towards the kids – a total 360.

            Hester Prynne entered the woods as a confident, strong woman. But as time elapsed in the eldritch woods, she became less sure of herself. Immediately after she threw her Scarlet A away and let her hair cascade over her freely in a dramatic fashion, Pearl appeared. Pearl acted as if she did not recognize her own mother without the embroidery on her chest. Pearl had a fitful scene until Hester pinned the letter back onto her clothing and tied her hair back. Hester is characterized as dreary now. As she left the woods, Hester Prynne was no longer spirited and a conformist to society – a total 360.

How would the magical forest flip your personality??

love,

Courtney

Dimmesdale: Not Quite the Character I Thought

Okay unless these woods harness some crazy magical power to totally change a person, Dimmesdale is just not the man I had previously presumed him to be.  Maybe we hadn't received the deep workings of Dimmesdale's mind from the narrator, maybe the woods really did change him into a totally new man, but what I am thinking is that we had Dimmesdale all wrong.  Here's the thing: a person doesn't go from a holy, tortured man to some id controlled man merely by taking a walk into a forest (even if it is magical).  So what exactly is happening here?  Did Dimmesdale always have this strange id inside of him?  Was he just confining it as our old friend Dr.  Jeykll?  Did the woods bring out Dimmesdale's Hyde?  It seems as if the thought of running away with Hester is completely changing this very tactful and self-controlled man.  He is becoming reckless and care free.  During these chapters Dimmesdale is much more of a man than a minister.  Think about his moment with the elderly sorrowing woman.  He doesn't even remember what he said to her, what kind of minister is he?  This kind old woman is in deep sorrow over her loss and he has no care.  I guess he is caught up in his mind and dreams of crossing the ocean with Hester by his side.  The odd thing was that the old woman was still incredibly touched and affected by his completely meaningless words.  Is he still able to comfort others with his enlightening, sanctified words without even trying or are the people simply comforted by the thought of him?  And the scene with the young, pretty girl!  Wow.  Personally I did not see this one coming. I just find it strange that he is so enticed by this youthful girl, when he was just talking to Hester about their future together.  I mean maybe the girl meant nothing to him, maybe it was all just in the moment, but still the fact that he was so enthralled by her I feel is strange.  Some serious id is going on right there.  Personally I am seeing a glimpse of the man who tarnished Hester.  What is the difference between Hester and this young girl?  They were both unsullied, alluring girls (prior to Dimmesdale getting a hold of Hester).  Is this a pattern for Dimmesdale?  Maybe Dimmesdale has more of the Black Man traits than we have so far been presented with by the narrator.  After thinking more of this Black Man , I am thinking that the Black Man is not a person.  I think that the Black Man is inside of everyone-it is the id.  It is the wild.  The uncontrollable.  The evil when unrestrained.  The enemy of the Puritans.

All I know is that his Election sermon is going to be quite interesting.  Dimmesdale is clearly writing with some intense fervor and new-found inspiration.  I am wondering whether he will accidentally reveal one of his many secrets that seem as they will bubble over at any second.  Honestly even if he does reveal his tarnished traits, the people might be too hypnotized by his "angelic" voice and presence that they don't even notice.

Sorry Sara I just totally trashed your man Dimmesdale :(
Don't take it personally...I just don't think we have been shown what has truly been going on within this "holy" man's mind.

Scarlet Letter Rambles

I'm a very visual person, and whenever I read a book, I have very vivid images in my mind of what the characters are doing and what the settings look like. So here's a little peek into what was going on in my mind during chapters 18-20 (featuring gifs, because gifs make everything better).
When Hester lets her hair down:  

When Pearl wanders off into the forest:              
"The truth seems to be, however, that the mother-forest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognized a kindred wilderness in the human child"










Pearl's little temper tantrum after she realizes the scarlet letter is gone: 













Good ole Dimmesdale walking back into town after his..."transformation":

So there you have it folks. My mind is somehow able to plausibly connect the Scarlet Letter to Disney movies...okay. 
But in all seriousness, there was a big shift in these chapters. Our lovers, who hadn't spoken to one another for 7 years, are now going to run off to Europe together. Dimmesdale is so different from his own self that he might as well have multiple personality disorder. Hester has a glorious moment of freedom, ripping her hair out of its bun and throwing that scarlet letter away (although sadly it made it's way back to her bosom {read: boss-um}) 
And then there's Pearl. So I think it's safe to say that I generally have an unpopular opinion. First, I said that Isabella shouldn't be so quick to save her brother and was quickly shot down by everyone (except Anne...thanks Anne). THEN, I said I'd rather live in Puritan New England than corrupt Vienna, which apparently was not a sound opinion to have. To come back to my point, I think I might be more like a Puritan than one should care to admit. If I lived in the city, I would think Pearl was a devil child too. Oh look, Jack Jack does that too:

She is so obsessed with that darn scarlet letter, she won't come near Dimmesdale, has some strange connection with the forest, and seems have the intuition and brain capacity of a 30-year-old man. I don't know but she is a fishy character. 


Looking forward, I am interested to see what's going to go down between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, because there is just no way Hester and Dimmesdale are going to make it out of town without Chillingworth first making a scene. We shall see. 

Little Sparrow

Stop Blaming Hester

Poor Hester. For the past 7 years she has had lacked any substantial support. More than that, Hester is attached to so many secrets which she must keep (for the benefit of others) and are surely tearing her apart.

1.      Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father

2.      Chillingworth was her husband

3.      She won’t reveal to Pearl the true meaning of the “A”

Chillingworth and Dimmesdale appear to be hiding behind a façade, and basically Hester must deal with the real, emotional sides of the boys since she is still the only one in the circle of trust.

In Chapter 14, we see a conversation or argument between Chillingworth and Hester. I would just like to reiterate how creepy Chillingworth is, especially in Hester’s description:

“You tread behind his every footstep. You are beside him, sleeping and walking. You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart! Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living death; and still he knows you not.”

(Chillingworth ^^)

First, how ironic is it that Chillingworth is a physician and he is ultimately “causing [Dimmesdale] to die a living death.” Other than that, this paragraph makes Chillingworth sound obsessed with Dimmesdale. 

In addition, Chillingworth says, “And what am I now?...I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?” Hester takes the blame for Chillingworth’s creepy new personality, just as she takes the blame for everything else.

For example, Dimmesdale often leaves Hester to clean up the mess, even if he was part of the destruction. Hester is the one with the ignominy. She must raise a child all on her own. She even has to console Dimmesdale. At the end of Chapter 17, Dimmesdale says, “I must die here! There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, difficult world, alone!” As if Dimmesdale is the one alone—he should try being Hester for a day.

And finally, a found poem

To Chillingworth:

I pity thee, Roger Chillingworth

With your ghastly emptiness

And no good mercy

You are a dismal maze

And good that has been wasted.

Thou hast been deeply wronged,

Yet there will never be peace

or faith, long forgotten, from you.

Forgive.

But you won’t.

We all suffer,

Still thy first step awry you planted the germ of evil

It was a dark necessity.

You are fiend-like. 

Pearl the Pearl

As Chillingworth makes another eerie appearance in chapter fourteen, Hester's confidence and poise is her weapon against him. I am a little creeped out by him as the narrator says, "This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over" (148).
This is Chillingworth:

His devil-like self appears seven years later after leaving Hester and then attempts to psychoanalyze Dimmsdale, reveal the secrets hiding in the town, and attempt to gain some power and have a voice. He attempts to convince Hester that the magistrates will let her rid of her "A", but she refuses. Her refusal was a defensive act, yet when she must explain to Pearl what her "A" stands for, she stutters. I think this picture below accurately depicts Pearl's inquiring of the letter "A" on her mom's clothing.


Hester used to find strength in this gold-embroidered "A", which gave her her most precious possession, Pearl. But regardless of her stance on her "A" and its meaning to her, she has certainly instilled important values within Pearl. Pearl's intuitiveness throughout these chapters simply mirrors that of her mom, Hester. She does not fear speaking up or expressing herself. Her imagination is quite large as seen when she creates an imaginary friend/mermaid; her imagination is likely induced by her seclusion from other kids and society, but does not seem to phase her. She reminds me of John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl in which the main man risks his whole life for a small pearl. Hester might be forced to wear an "A", but ultimately she cares about the wellbeing of her daughter, but something must go awry to follow the plot of Steinbeck's novel.


Pearl's character exemplifies the effects society can have on individuals and the impact of one's surroundings on her development. All Pearl knows is having a maternal figure who proudly sports a Scarlet "A". This can be similar to our lives and roles in society. We often perceive situations based on our surroundings, which then makes me question how much of our thoughts and opinions are authentic if they are influenced by society? Where is the line between authenticity and societal expectations drawn? I believe that we have the ability to follow our own path and not that of society, similar to Pearl who does not resemble a typical Puritan girl.

The Devil's Advocate or an Angel Sent from Above?

Well, first of all Robert Chillingworth low key gives me the chills. And not the good kind! In these recent chapters, there's been some eldritch stuff going on...

 From the moment his name was mentioned, I feel like we've been entirely left in the dark as for who Robert Chillingworth is and what his sketchy background entails.

"He resolved not to be pilloried beside her on her pedestal of shame. Unknown to all but Hester Prynne, and possessing the lock and key of her silence, he chose to withdraw his name from the roll of mankind, and, as regarded his former ties and interests, to vanish out of life as completely as if he indeed lay at the bottom of the ocean."

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN. I feel like that really just about sums up who R Chills is and also gives us a heads up on his dark intentions that are soon brought to the surface through his close friendship with Dimesdale a.k.a Chillingworth obsessively watching his every move and Dimesdale being completely oblivious to this fact the entire time!

So out of NO WHERE he pops up as a self-proclaimed doctor and immediately wins the respect of the whole town... enough respect to live with their most valued priest? Hm. Somehow he came off as a gift from heaven and won his way into using his skills for the worse.

 However, with this dark and evil side we see as he attempts to dig into the darker parts of Dimesdale's soul, he is somehow described as "calm in temperament, kindly, though not warm affections, but ever, and in all his relations with the world, a pure and upright man." So how on earth can someone act on two opposing extremities?

However, as much I don't want to stick up for Chillingworth, I see a part of him in myself and humans in general.

In one particular conversation between the two, Chillingworth and Dimesdale discuss whether it is better to bury their sins or to show them outwardly for all to see. After Robert uses  Hester as an example for her public announcement of her sin, Dimesdale eventually agrees that, "It must needs better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up in his heart."

This is how I see us in Chillingworth: We present a false image of ourselves to the word, hiding the truer parts of who we actually are. We all mess up, we all sin, and all the while we somehow think it's better to wear a "mask" all for the sake of our reputation.

And even though this doesn't exactly relate to what I'm talking about I thought of this:



Small digression, but the point is-- be yourself!

Finally, because this post is going on way too long and I need to wrap this up.... Chillingworth acts as the spawn of Satan yet wears a mask of good intentions. As we continue to read, it'll be interesting to see what unfolds.

-Caroline

p,s, Update on the spider bite: My spidey powers haven't shown up yet, but once they do I'll let you guys know.

Roger that, Chillingworth.

Hey D block. 

First off, confession time. Have you ever read a book and fell in love with a character? Honestly, I never expected to find love in my English Lit class but then I started reading The Scarlet Letter. Roger. Chillingworth. Everything he says and does just makes me love him even more. He is by far the most attractive character in this book. I mean, just take a look at him:

Look at that smolder. The long, luscious locks. That jawline(!!!)

I hope by now you've realized that I'm kidding or you might never look at me the same way again. Anyway let's get on with the blog post:


So, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Can Roger Chillingworth get any creepier? Every time I begin to grow accustomed to his, uh, charm, he just kicks it up a notch! This time, he decides to sneak into the room where Dimmsdale is trying to take a cat nap in and opens up his shirt. Excuse me, sir, but have you no concept of boundaries? While we are kept in the dark about what it is that he finds, it must be some sort of evidence because Chillingworth looks a little too happy. Honestly, I'd rather this guy just glower (Hey look, a vocab word. Extra credit? @Mrs.Lemon) all the time than do a happy dance. It's like that time Voldemort tried to hug Draco Malfoy, it's just uncomfortable for everyone.



Anyway, Chillingsworth is kind of the worst. Now that he's got his evidence, he's off to get his revenge. Look, I get that you're upset that you were cheated on but it's not like Hester or Dimmsdale haven't suffered enough. Does it look like they're rolling around in riches and running slow motion through a field of flowers?
 
I don't think so. Take a lap, Roger. It's time to move on.

In honor of Chillingworth's success in thoroughly creeping me out, here is an equally creepy found poem from that scene:


His spirit now withdrawn into itself
He stirred not
"I must search this matter to the bottom"
The physician advanced to his patient
What a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror!
Pious Master Dimmsdale
He hath done a wild thing
The physician turned away
No need to ask how Satan comports himself
When a precious human soul 
is lost to heaven
Wonder
In the physician's ecstasy
Soul and body
A strange sympathy

What is up with this Scarlet Letter?!

I'd like to point out that I do indeed understand that the book is called The Scarlet Letter and that I thus have no right to complain about the fact that it keeps showing up but SERIOUSLY. Everywhere Hester looked, that red letter just kept showing up. Now Dimmesdale is having the same problem. Chapter 12 ,  our friend Dimmesdale is climbing the scaffold (I don't know why but this word trips me up), and there's "a scarlet token on his naked breast", and he's yelling, and then there's that giant A that shows up in the sky "marked out in lines of dull red light".  

(I'm visualizing the bat signal here, except red, and shaped like an A, so I guess not really the bat signal)

Okay, I get seeing the A everywhere. Actually, this is something everyone should get. This is the Baaeder-Meinhof phenomenon: which is basically when you start seeing a random thing all over the place. It just pops out. For instance, say Richard Ladd has a crush on a girl named May Dillon (I just made these people up.) Richard might look at a calendar and see the month of May and think of this girl named May Dillon. Then he'll be watching an episode of Grey's anatomy and he'll keep hearing the word maybe. Then he'll be trying to put some condiments on a hamburger and see the Mayonnaise. I feel like that's what's happening here. People are seeing this A everywhere. Is it actually there? I doubt it. I don't think there people (other than Hester who legitimately has an A sewn into her clothing) have a scarlet letter on them. I don't think there's an actual A in the night sky (maybe it's a trippy arrangement of oddly colored stars, I don't know fam). At first I thought that A was for adulterer/adulteress/adultery. But then there was that line at the end of the chapter saying it stood for "Angel".

What. The. Heck.

Now people think it stands for angel?! What is with this crew? 

What does it stand for? Anger? Asphyxiation? Anxiety? Abomination? Aberration? Aggression? Anarchy? Does it stand for one of these things at all? All of them? I respect Mr. Hawthorne's creative license but in all honesty sometimes I just wish he'd say what he meant.

Everyone seems to be seeing this A, but it seems to have so many different meanings, or at least many possibilities of different meanings. I'm baffled. 

But it MUST mean something, or the symbol wouldn't be the title of the entire book right? 

Challenge accepted, Nathan H., challenge accepted. 

(look at that red lettering...)

Glad we don't live in Boston in the 1640s, 

Anne

Borne vs. Born

As I sat down to read tonight, a line on the very first page of chapter 5 caught my eye. A recycled line actually: "To-morrow would bring its own trial with it; so would the next day, and so would the next; each its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne" (66). This line can also be found on page 49: "The unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentred on her bosom. It was almost intolerable to be born." 

While the first time this line appeared the play on words made me chuckle, its reappearance made me think a little deeper. Hawthorne is really drawing attention to this pun. In the sense he is using the word "borne" literally, it means "endured" as in the pain Hester is experiencing is too much to be borne. However, could this word be used on purpose? If you substitute "born" as in the birthing of a baby as the meaning of this word, the sentence almost makes more sense    it is so unutterably grievous to be born.

In Puritan society, there is something called the Social Covenant. Essentially each Puritan has to creep on his neighbors and hold their fellow Puritans accountable for their sins. While this seems super caring and not at all obnoxious, of course people take it as an excuse to justify getting up in other peoples business. So in poor Hester's case, religiously it is the community's job to shame her for what she has done. And they certainly do that. 

All of chapter 5 and the majority of the other chapters are composed of Hester being upset how this ordeal has ruined her life because everyone judges and hates her now. She ruminates on how her reputation is ruined forever, and there's no fixing it. So with that in mind, maybe it is intolerable to be born. It's kind of a lose-lose situation to live both in a society where you are not permitted to make a single mistake and in a life where mistakes are inevitable. Maybe it's best to just not be born(e)?

Pearl

First off, I would like to say that so far, I am having trouble connecting with this book.  Personally, I feel like all it really has been so far is set up and description of scenes, and to be completely honest, it loses my attention.  I did, however, like the chapter about Pearl because although there is still judgement from others because of where Pearl comes from, I feel this is the most light-hearted chapter so far.  My favorite quote from this passage would definitely have to be:
           For so had Hester called her [Pearl]; not as a name expressive of her aspect, which had                        nothing of the calm, white unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated by the comparison.                But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price,--purchased with all she had,--her                  mother's only treasure! (81).
Okay, now let's break it down.  First, just to warn the readers what the name is not about, Hawthorne writes that is is not because of her physical and mental characteristics.  Alright so we got that...we now know what the name is not representative of.  Time for the part I really like, "But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price,--purchased with all she had,--her mother's only treasure!"  If it isn't already apparent, I really like this part.  Now we'll break it down even further.

"But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price..."  Hawthorne tells us that Pearl was named as such because she is worth so much--literally translated being of high value.  How beautiful! She's priceless to her mom.

Next, Hawthorne writes, "purchased with all she had..."  He is not wrong here.  In order for Pearl to come into existence, her mother committed not only a crime but a sin.  And to pay for it, she lost the respect of all those around her and gained their judgement instead.  That's a heavy burden to take on.

Finally, "her mother's only treasure!"  Due to the sin Hester took part in in order to have this child, she has lost everything, but she gained this child.  Pearl is literally the only good thing in Hester's life.  Hester has no friends, she is looked down-upon by nearly everyone (including the poor whom she helps by donating clothes to them), and she is alone.  Except for Pearl.  Pearl is the one person she will (hopefully) always have, and is the only person that loves her.  Therefore, she is truly "her mother's only treasure!"

-Olivia

the children of the bay

"Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the door-way, or laboring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward; and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off, with a strange, contagious fear" (56).

"[Hester] grew to have a dread of children; for they had imbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible in this dreary woman" (58).

These passages from chapter five are direct examples of how children learn to hate what they don't even understand from a very early age. In this Puritan city, none of the children are born hating adulteresses, but they are taught by their parents to be afraid and disgusted with them. Children copy their parents' actions which in turn results in them mirroring any of their discriminatory actions. Without even possessing a real understanding of what it means to commit adultery, the children look down on Hester Prynne nonetheless. Hawthorne is dissecting the American flaw of passing on hatred and intolerance to our children, which in turn causes a cycle of ignorance from generation to generation.

Does Hester = Eve?

"She would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,--at her, the child of honorable parents,--at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman,--at her, who had once been innocent,--as the figure, the body, the reality of sin. And over her grave, the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only monument."

As I was reading on this fine Friday morning, this quote stuck out at me. It struck me as very reminiscent of Eve from the Garden of Eden. Is Nathaniel Hawthorne insinuating that, in the colonists' eyes, Hester is now in the shoes of the most famous temptress in Biblical history? Is her carnal mistake on par with damning humanity to a life of innate sinfulness? Will she be as broadly infamous as Eve in the community because of the scarlet letter? In the same vein, is the baby's father the snake - or is the cross only Hester's to bear? I think that this is a case of Hawthorne's dark humor - he's pointing out the ridiculousness of the general overreaction. At least I hope he is...

xoxo Annie

Decisions,decisions, decisions

Well first off I am starting my writing for this blog post at exactly 11:11, so hopefully that symbolizes good luck…but anyway let’s talk about Measure for Measure.

So Measure for Measure…

As this work comes to an end, I am sure that we all have many thoughts flying through our heads.  Is the Duke crazy?  What is Isabella going to do?  Where the heck has Juliet been?  Alas Shakespeare loves to leave us asking questions, but isn’t that what every great work is supposed to do?  

To cause us to question, wonder, and rethink what we thought we had previously understood.  Thinking about the play and how it can relate to our own lives, I thought of the title of the play: Measure for Measure.  Isabella is forced to determine whether her morals and chastity or her brother is more important to her.  How do we measure the worth of things in our own lives?  How do we decide what is most important to us?  Currently I am taking economics and drawing economic principles into play, we learned about something called the cost benefit analysis.   Basically this model measures if the cost of something is worth the benefit.  We also learned that the average cost of a human life is about $10 million.  I hate this.  I really do. I hate how humans always feel the need to quantify and materialize everything.  How much is this?  How much is that?  Everything is apparently worth something, but that’s not how it works!  Some stuff is precious, but unfortunately in life sometimes we must choose what is most important to us.  How can you possibly choose between two priceless things?  How do you choose between the ocean and the sky?  I think these choices are what define us as people.  Summer or winter. Coke or Pepsi.  Cats or dogs.  Shakespeare provides characters to us who are forced to choose what is important to them.  Isabella must choose.  The Duke must choose.  But here’s the thing: what if you want both?  What if you like cats and dogs?  I guess life isn’t fair sometimes, but still I feel unsatisfied.  I personally think it has to do with our American upbringing.  As Americans we are raised to want it all.  We believe that we need it all-we need to have everything to be happy.  But is it possible to be happy with one simple? (I am going to use simple as a noun here because I think it would make a nice noun, but unfortunately dictionaries don’t agree with me)  I think what Shakespeare is trying to show us through Measure for Measure is that we can’t have it all.  Sometimes we have to choose and honestly that is so hard.  Even after Isabella is able to have her brother and her chastity, she is again forced to choose whether or not to marry the Duke.  Choosing what to write this blog post on was almost impossible for me (somehow still not sure how I ended up with this rambling rant).  Even something as simple as deciding which socks I want to wear somehow becomes the question of the century.  Choices, choices, choices.  Too many choices-but hey I guess we gotta have that free will.  

To finish I am going to end with something I heard somewhere which honestly disproves my case, but I think it is also important to remember:

Which wing is more important to a bird: the left or the right?

So to close, choices are hard and the options are many.  Sometimes we must choose and sometimes it is just honestly impossible.  Thinking ahead I think of all the choices we are going to have to make this year (college, majors, all that fun stuff, etc.) I hope that we can all find the balance to choose what will make us happy and choose what makes us us not what others want us to choose.  I think deep inside we all know what we want to choose, it is just accepting the choice for ourselves that is hard.  Good luck my friends.

Isabella's Farewell

This day falls much afar from what I feared,

or hoped. Yet Claudio lives, reconciled with his suff'ring beloved;

Mariana, sweet maid, presented with her foolish dream;

But Lucio, condemned be married, whipped, hanged?

The wench which he invaded shall want none.

Our lofty duke, removed from my esteem

By his despicable duplicity,

the guise of a good friar;

Believes that he is mighty as our Lord

Who days ago my life was promised to.

This misled Duke is meddling in decisions of life and death,

Purity, chastity, duplicity. Much I do regret

Allowing Mariana to perform the sin which should be mine,

Yet glad I am to have retained mine own purity.

Far gone has Vienna into the irrevocable corruption

From which the Angelo's reform has no power.

I must go. Farewell, my brother, your own life awaits,

Farewell, birthplace, hometown, sisters who expected me.

I'll go I know not where, to death in the wilderness,

To my God in some distant convent, to whatever awaits me

Far from this soiled town.

Inborn Injustice

And so forth Measure for Measure

As so Life for Life

But if all is unequivocally sincere

Why must I be thy wife?

Once forced into intimacy and now into an eternal extent of infelicity

I did no wrong- albeit my job

And now in adultered damnation

My young child must also be commit

To life with an unsung forgotten father

Alas only to him a begetter

For once he left I condemned his fatherhood to a certain demise

An execution that with I unknowingly replaced his judicial death

But why doom a child who has yet barely gasped even a breeze of life

He who has neither stains nor defilement unlike his pagan Madonna

To be constrained with a “father” as I with a spouse

Now once again, my job lays me down to a man I wish not

Prostitution my eternally hell from beginning to end

Now damn to my child the same rot of Vienna’s victory

Final Thoughts From Escalus

 To be not entangled in this matter
Heaven hath finally manifested its reasoning.
What of mine would have turned bitter
If I had been thrown the reins?
My past claims have been proved false:
“some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.”
The hour calls upon the sinners to repent,
And those who were wronged are rightfully reprieved
These affairs hath touched me the least
And of that chance
To whom do I owe my gratitude?
It cannot be determined, but to the Duke
I feel you have salvaged my past and future.
Upon addressing the Duke it storms in our skulls,
A query that all have fast learned regarding the wed of two.
And what the fates have aligned I cannot disclose

Epilogue: The Duke's Reasoning

Justice longs to find its place at the right side of its provider
while my dishonest twists of trickery hast not only emboldened thy power,
but dost save them all.
A pillar of lies hast stood and supported all the rest
and reason hast left our partings.
The breach on justice can only last until
the corruption within thus manifested without.
In my leaving, my duplicity hath enabled me
to see.
All their lives must come close to edge of the gorge
to realize thou's faults in deep treachery.
I have seen the folly buried in the law
alongside its laughable shortcomings.
But now only remains.
With my time,
I wish to instill the true virtue that
lies deep in dear Isabella.
In scope, my disguised absence was just as necessary
as the rising sun.
Only now can we continue with strength
having been cleansed by the pureness of truth.

If the Duke was help accountable

As I, Duke Vincentio, sit back in Vienna,
I am pleased with myself.
Nothing was achieved by my leaving,
except that I was able to propose to Isabella.
As long as impersonating a sacred religious figure is not a crime,
I have managed to save the day while abstaining from fault.
Angelo was a hypocrite;
Isabella lied to everyone about sleeping with him;
Claudio broke the rule of sex outside of marriage;
Lucio abandoned his prostitute wife and child
(though he was the only one to get punished for his misconduct).
My citizens continue to live lawlessly under my lenient rule,
but at least I am loved by my people.
I am not exactly sure what was gained by appointing Angelo in my stead,
because I ultimately undid his plans to enforce the law
with intricate plots that somehow succeeded.
Now, if only Isabella would see the good in me and become my wife . . .

Juliet's Reflection

What say I, besides that I am relieved
That my child shall be born to know his father
And I shall not be a widow before a mother
My dear Claudio shall be pardoned
And for Angelo, I do desire a worser fate
For the crime he committed
Puts mine of love to shame
Worse than an act of the heart
is an act of loveless desire
Fie! He hath disgraced our race.
Anon to my son's father shall I be wed
and I only pity those who will not know such bliss
I fain would endure a thousand more cells
If my cousin Isabella could share in my bliss
I prithee she accepts the Duke's request
and all shall be well ere my son is born.

Isabella's Sealed Fate

The Duke asks for my hand in marriage?

The nerve!

I confided in this man with my darkest secrets,

He knows I value my chastity even over my brother’s life.

How dare he strip me of my independence?

How dare he take away my future at the convent?

He thinks this is what I want,

That everything will be a happy ever after.

I have no choice,

None of these women have a choice.

But I owe the Duke my all,

He saved my brother from death’s claws,

He fooled the devil into taking another woman.

Therefore I am grateful.

I will be a humble wife,

A quiet wife,

Just like society broke me to be.

The Final Rose Handed by Escalus

Alas, justice is served.
Angelo pays his dues by wedding his lost dowry,
Mariana has been blessed by Friar Lodowick-
Duke Vincentio-
But have no fear,
Isabella and her chastity
shall serve her time
through marriage to her fellow mastermind.
Claudio lives to tell a tale of Angelo's reign
and the dire need to lead as a man of the people
like the Duke has done and so graciously returned
to be our savior.
One must pay for their misdeeds
Yet I question with the returning of Duke Vincentio
must we be expected to abide by his "law"
if our leaders tell false tales-
All in all, justice is justice
and I bid thee, reader, to accept my rose
for love and redemption

Duke VincentiOMG This Play

Before I begin, I would like to give a shout out to mis compadres de español, Anita y Sarita, for having amazing blog posts just before me, therefore setting the bar ultra high and adding pressure. Gracias. To give you an idea of my thoughts towards this play, refer to the imbedded picture of a sneering Isabella. After my initial ire towards Isabella upon beginning Measure for Measure, I figured that the general feelings of distaste/confusion/skepticism this play evokes in me would dissipate. However, with all due respect to The Bard, I find myself wondering what the heck Shakespeare was doing with this seemingly pointless novel. For me, it is the contradictory nature of the characters – the Duke and Isabella in particular – that makes this novel so…annoying. To streamline my thoughts, I will provide a list of discrepancies I encountered in the final act of Measure for Measure:

     1) Lucio accuses the friar of slamming the Duke when Lucio is the one that actually slams him

     2) The Duke tells Isabella exactly what to say when he is disguised as the friar, only to entirely discount her when he returns as the Duke and she carries out his plan

     3) The Duke decides to jail Isabella and execute Angelo and Pompey, only to turn around and pardon all three and then propose to Isabella

     4) At first Angelo wants mercy, but then he comes back and says “immediate sentence then, and sequent death, is all the mercy I beg"

     5) The Duke reinforces Isabella’s belief that Claudio is dead, knowing full well he’s alive – wasn’t his whole plan to save Claudio’s life anyway? Why would he drag out Isabella’s grief?

Keep in mind these are just from the last scene. I could go on all day with the entire play. But after all this emotional back-and-forth within the characters, I found myself ready to flail the play across the room, but figured it would be inappropriate as I read this on a stationary bike at the Y. Anyway. I’m still left with my big question: WHY? The Duke pretty much undoes everything he intended to do in the first place, so what is his motive in a) leaving, and b) coming back. Please share your bright and insightful ideas with me.

- Little sparrow  

Epilogue de Escalus

Although the Duke's message has appeareth in
A strange manifestation of justice,
The bell tolls clearly nonetheless.
Still... a wing of my breast doth have suspicion
O his method in the madness.
Audience, knoweth that I do not hereby
Question the legitimacy of my fair Duke --
I merely muse on the steps he took
In delivering justice to the cold streets of Vienna.
On another note, I find immense horror with
The unjust activities of Lord Angelo and
All others involved in lascivious behaviors.
But, to my despair, the Duke is the final
Untouched word of our dear Vienna.
So, with these words spoken, I toss out
My disagreements with the Duke,
And embrace a devout support for our Ruler.
Out the window old Vienna go,
And into a new realm of justice we follow.

If we gave Juliet a monologue (Bless her heart)

Greetings, I have returned from wherever I went

I am too marry Claudio the day after next

Angelo will legally marry Mariana on the same day

And while Isabella has not yet accepted

The meandering Duke's proposal

No doubt, she will be made to sooner rather than later.

Soon enough, my babe will be born

And will hopefully know none of the madness

That has recently graced this fair city.

With the duke having graced us again

(Despite his troublesome presence)

Life is as it once was here in Vienna.

Pompey and Madame Overdone

Are back in their trades.

Barnardine was released, and thus

It has come to pass, the provost has none to watch

And Abhorson has none to hang.

All is well that ends well

Thank god we lived to tell the tale. 

To Be Continued?... From Lucio

A happy ending begotten for all but I?
Forgiveness and mercy smiles on the faces
of these dull and foolish creatures!
And yet I, the only soul with half a wit,
able to see though the false visage of
our most noble and true highness,
am thus sentenced to wed a punk!
Wretched Claudio, deceitful Angelo,
slanderous Isabel, a whole coop of fools!
I did but speak the truth, unmask the false,
and my recompense for such a true deed
is eternal imprisonment   bound to a damned wench.
Shame and curses to all ye dim-witted fools,
happy in love, content in ignorance.
I go hence forth to my forlorn captivity,
but be not fooled, measure for measure,
while I waste thence away for my crimes,
these crimes shalt ne'er be forgotten til paid!

Isabella's Epilogue

A torment of emotions have I lately experienced

through the unending quest to save my brother’s life.

I put my trust in a friar I thought I knew,

Only to discover he is a far more powerful man.

My main abettor is a mystery to me, but now wants to be my groom.

I find these actions conflicting.

That he who would help me would also call me a storyteller.

He told me tales of my brother’s death

while my brother yet breathed air in the room next.

It seems to me that the man who became two,

May indeed be two in one.

From whence does this proposal stem?

The royal duke or the humble friar?

It seems to me that this strange figure,

who caused much ado only to undo his mischief,

is not one to be trusted with my body and mind.

Though much gratitude to this man I do owe

‘tis not enough to wed tomorrow. 

Go Forth and Remember So

Audience,
I pray you learned the lesson
Vienna experienced so painfully.
"Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure,
Measure still for measure"--
this, friends, is how the world works.
The world in which we abide
craves broken deals,
preying on vulnerabilities
and moral dilemmas.
However, such depravity comes around,
avenging measure for measure,
save for the occasional unpredictable grace.
Keep in mind Lord Angelo-
Go forth and remember so.

God be with ye.

Lessons Learned

Through this story, I hope a lesson hath been taught

One not of chastity nor of life

But that of truth, and that of betrayal,

And yet, even more that sin is always sin

While all is well that may end well

And as it seemed to for all but one

For all but poor Lucio

The Duke who misled all but Friar Peter,

And Isabella who lied to stay chaste,

Angelo who thought to have stolen that of a most precious item from Isabella,

And all others full of betrayal and deceit,

Suffered no true punishment

Unless you consider the judgement from Him in the life after now

But alas, poor Lucio

As lie upon lie rolled off his tongue

Supporting this and that, him and her

Being the only one with a tangible punishment

I love Mariana

Mariana by Valentine Prinsep

"There, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana" (Act III, Scene I)

Before even actually reading a single line spoken by Mariana, I knew that I related to her on a deep, emotional level. The opening line of the Cambridge University Press's text summary of Act IV reads, "The Duke visits Mariana, who is listening to sad music." Mariana is, in fact, a 13th century "#sadgurl." Although at first glance Mariana seems foolish to still pine after a man who left her because her dowry was lost at sea when her brother's ship sank (WHO does that - "oh.. so you won't be able to pay me for marriage?… yeaaah that's a deal breaker"), she is nevertheless relatable. In Act III, we are informed that Angelo's pigheadedness has not deterred her affection, but instead has seemingly enlarged it. "His unjust kindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath like an impediment in the current made it more violent and unruly." I found this line particularly relatable; it touches on the timeless, unexplainable phenomenon of liking someone who is, plainly stated, a jerk. For some peculiar reason, humans often find themselves in love with someone else whose personality they actually, in retrospect, detest. Shakespeare did a particularly accurate job of conveying the emotions of someone who has been dealt an unfortunate hand in the card game of love; this leads me to believe that Shakespeare himself probably went through a few heartbreaks before finding "the one."

Also, on another note, I'd like to say how convenient Mariana's existence is for everyone else in this play. Without her, Isabella may have been forced to compromise her virtues, and the Duke's horrendous plan to teach Vienna a lesson would have gone very south. Even more importantly, Claudio evades death. 

Upon Isabella and the Duke merely asking for her assistance, Mariana readily agreed to their scheme. Whether Mariana's alacrity stemmed from true kindness or simply an inner desire for Angelo, I like to think that she is in fact someone of virtue. Isabella and the Duke manipulate her into having sex with Angelo and make the dubious claim that it wasn't sinful because she and Angelo had had arrangements to get married beforehand. (Sounds a little fishy).

All in all, Mariana swoops into the plotline just in time for certain characters to rectify the turmoil they had come to find themselves in. Mariana is the key to this play being a comedy instead of a tragedy.

My hopes for Act 5 are that Angelo dies and Mariana finds a new bae who deserves her love. 

Also, in the ongoing blog post theme of late night snacks, I'm eating a mini packet of guacamole right now pondering all the rude men in the world. I'd like to think Mariana might have been doing the same at some point. 

Thank you.