Act 3
Scene 1:
1. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern report to Polonius?
Rosencrantz tells the king Hamlet confessed to feeling distracted, but that he wouldn't get in to it with them.
2. How does Claudius react when Polonius says, "…with devotion's visage, And pious action we do sugar o'er/ The devil himself"?
He confirms the truth about the ghost's accusation. "The harolt's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art..." -His deed is covered with his painted word.
3. What plan do Polonius, Claudius and Ophelia now put into action?
They use Ophelia to spy on Hamlet. This is when she tries to give him his love letters back.
4. What is the nature of Hamlet's soliloquy, lines 57-91?
He talks about taking action, suicide, and the afterlife. He is upset about his mother marrying his uncle, and he is upset about Ophelia not loving him as he knows she does.
5. What is Hamlet's main argument against suicide?
"But in that sleep of death what dreams may come...But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus consciuence does make cowards of us all..."
His argument is that we don't know what comes after death. There is really only one way to find out, but you couldn't tell anyone about it. It's a secret.
6. Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia as cruelly as he does? What has changed him?
He knew Polonious was there when she tried to give his letters back and they talked. He didn't want her too close to her because of what he was planning on doing to the King, so he is mean to her. Now he's mad at her because she has betrayed him. She chose to listen to her family, rather than herself in the decision of love. Inversely comparable to Juliet.
7. What thinly veiled threat to Claudius does Hamlet voice, after he becomes of his hidden presence? (lines 148-150)
He hints that somebody is gon' die! It's suggested that Hamlet is to do it because he is the one that is mad.
8. At the end of this scene, what does the King decide to do with Hamlet?
He wants to banish him to England.
Scene 2:
9. What qualities in Horatio cause Hamlet to enlist his assistance?
Horatio gets what Hamlet is doing. Hamlet trusts Horatio, and pretty much nobody else.
10. What does Hamlet ask Horatio to do?
He asks him to watch King Claudius and pay attention to his reaction, so that he knows whether or not to kill him.
11. Summarize what happens in the play-within-a-play.
Before the play, the King is killed by poison in the ear...kinda like how this play started...Once the big play starts, it is parallel to the world around Hamlet. The King and Queen show their love for each other, and the King's nephew kills the King. The whole reason behind doing this play was to get King Claudius to admit to killing Old Hamlet.
12. Why, in line 233, does Hamlet refer to the play-within-a-play as "The Mouse-trap"?
Because a mouse-trap has many parts, and is a thought out plan. It mirrors his plan to kill King Claudius.
13. What is the King's reaction to the play?
He gets up and leaves. It makes him confess, at least to himself, or God because he is praying, to killing Old Hamlet.
14. In lines 354-363, to what object does Hamlet compare himself? Why?
He compares himself to a flute, or some stringed instrument with "frets" because he feels that he is being "played." And he will have none of that!
15. As Hamlet goes to his mother at the end of this scene, what does he admonish himself to do?
He pretty much has lost all faith in her at this point. It's not that he wants to kill her, it's just that he wants her not to be alive anymore.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Act II Scene II
Part i
The King sends Rozencrats and Guildenstern to find out why Hamlet is acting so sad. Polonius thinks he knows why Hamlet is so down and on his way to tell the King we find out that the King of Norway wants to invade Denmark. Norway grants Fortinbras permission to levy war against the Polish. Finally, the ambassadors report that Norway needs Claudius’ permission to allow Fortinbras to pass through Denmark to attack Polland, and he agrees. Polonius then gets to tell why he thinks Hamlet is sad, and he says it is because Ophelia left him heart-broken. They then plan to make Ophelia talk to Hamlet so they can spy on him.
Part ii
Polonius tries to talk to Hamlet, but Hamlet plays him and makes a totally fool out of him, avoiding all his questions with clever and witty remarks. Polonius just blames it on his broken heart and leaves so Ophelia can drop by. Before she comes, his two friends come, Rozencrats and Guildenstern. Hamlet asks why they have come to him and gets them to admit they were sent as spies. He then sinks into his deppressed self again and talks about death and taking action. Then Polonius comes back to tell Hamlet the players are coming, and Hamlet just makes fun of him again.
Part iii
Hamlet wants to hear the speech from Virgil’s Aeneid, as related by Aeneas to Dido, telling the death of Priam during the fall of Troy. Hamlet begins the speech and then gives the floor to one of the players, who recites a long description of Priam’s death by the hand of Pyrrhus. The player goes on to speak of the grief of Hecuba, Priam’s wife, after her husband has been killed. While speaking of her agony, the player begins to weep and shake. Polonius finally cuts him off and Hamlet agrees. Before Hamlet is done with the players he asks them if they know “The Murder of Gonzago" because he wants them to recite it with some of his own speeches intertwined. Finally, Hamlet is left alone on stage and he talks about his situatoin, and what he can do about it. He plans to do this play for the reaction of Claudius, determing weather or not he should follow the instructions set fourth by the ghost to kill him.
-Gradesaver.com
The King sends Rozencrats and Guildenstern to find out why Hamlet is acting so sad. Polonius thinks he knows why Hamlet is so down and on his way to tell the King we find out that the King of Norway wants to invade Denmark. Norway grants Fortinbras permission to levy war against the Polish. Finally, the ambassadors report that Norway needs Claudius’ permission to allow Fortinbras to pass through Denmark to attack Polland, and he agrees. Polonius then gets to tell why he thinks Hamlet is sad, and he says it is because Ophelia left him heart-broken. They then plan to make Ophelia talk to Hamlet so they can spy on him.
Part ii
Polonius tries to talk to Hamlet, but Hamlet plays him and makes a totally fool out of him, avoiding all his questions with clever and witty remarks. Polonius just blames it on his broken heart and leaves so Ophelia can drop by. Before she comes, his two friends come, Rozencrats and Guildenstern. Hamlet asks why they have come to him and gets them to admit they were sent as spies. He then sinks into his deppressed self again and talks about death and taking action. Then Polonius comes back to tell Hamlet the players are coming, and Hamlet just makes fun of him again.
Part iii
Hamlet wants to hear the speech from Virgil’s Aeneid, as related by Aeneas to Dido, telling the death of Priam during the fall of Troy. Hamlet begins the speech and then gives the floor to one of the players, who recites a long description of Priam’s death by the hand of Pyrrhus. The player goes on to speak of the grief of Hecuba, Priam’s wife, after her husband has been killed. While speaking of her agony, the player begins to weep and shake. Polonius finally cuts him off and Hamlet agrees. Before Hamlet is done with the players he asks them if they know “The Murder of Gonzago" because he wants them to recite it with some of his own speeches intertwined. Finally, Hamlet is left alone on stage and he talks about his situatoin, and what he can do about it. He plans to do this play for the reaction of Claudius, determing weather or not he should follow the instructions set fourth by the ghost to kill him.
-Gradesaver.com
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Act 2 scene 2
ACT II
1) What is does Polonius tell Reynaldo in the opening of Act II? How does he plan to trap his son?
He wants him to spy on his son and make up rumors about him to see if they are true.
2) What does this say about Polonius?
It says that he isn't a very trustworthy person. He will only do something if it directly benefits him. He reinforces a motif of lying/spying.
3) What particularly in Act II scene 1 has disturbed Ophelia?
She is mad because Hamlet was putting the moves on her but she turned him down. She could be mad that Hamlet had gotten so frisky. In the mind of a teenage boy, one would see Hamlet pulling, "The Naked Man." In which case, the man surprises the woman with nothing more than his birthday suit. Said woman then begins to make woopy with the filthies, and maybe I should stop there. Anyways, she didn't like it! Now I wonder if she really wanted to turn him down. Maybe that was what upset her.
4) Why have Rosencrantez and Guildenstern been sent to Denmark?
They are supposed to spy on Hamlet and find out what's making him so sad.
5) What does Hamlet ask the players to recite? How does the allusion mimic Hamlet’s position?
Hamlet asks him to recite a play about Dido. It was about getting revenge for their father, that is why it mimics him.
Identify the following speaker of the following lines and discuss to whom the lines are being delivered, and what do the lines mean?
6) “No, my lord, but as you did command/ I did repel his letter, and denied his access to me”
Ophelia is telling Polonius that Hamlet was coming on to her and she did what he told her to do.
7) “More matter less art”
This means get to the point, and the Queen thinks Polonius is stupid because he goes on and on just talking bullshit.
8) “That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,
He is planning his attack on Claudius, whilst questioning his own life and the legitimacy of the ghost being his father all at the same time. He then plans that to kill the King, first he would do this play to see his reaction, ultimately making the decision off of that.
9) “Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth/ And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,/ with windlasses and with assays of bias,/ By directions find directions out.”
This is what Polonius says to Reynaldo when he tells him to make rumors about Laretes to see if they are true.
10) “For if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion-Have you a daughter?”
This is one of Hamlet's moments. Moments where he is acting like a psychopath for his own comic relief possibly. Anyways he is saying that the sun can bring out good things, just as it can bring out bad things. Hamlet is the sun, and Ophelia is the dog.
11) List three metaphors (1 direct, 1 implied, 1 extended) from the play.
D: for denmark. Denmark is a prison to Hamlet.
I: is the second one, so I is for the second letter in pImp! Which is what a fishmonger is!
E: Hamlet is the sun?
12) What proof does Polonius have that he believe indicates Hamlet’s love for Ophelia?
He pulled "The Naked Man"
13) Explain the quote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” How does this relate to Hamlet.
This is when Hamlet's friends Guildenster and Rosencrats try to find out why he is so sad. He says Denmark is like a prison. What this quote does is bring up the idea of who is to say what is good or bad? Is bad really bad? Because it a 'bad' thing might be good for somebody else. It's just all about how you look at it.
14) What is a fishmonger?
Muthha Phukkin P.I.M.P!
15) Who was Jephthah?
Hamlet compared Polonius to him. Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute.
- http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+11&version=NIV
1) What is does Polonius tell Reynaldo in the opening of Act II? How does he plan to trap his son?
He wants him to spy on his son and make up rumors about him to see if they are true.
2) What does this say about Polonius?
It says that he isn't a very trustworthy person. He will only do something if it directly benefits him. He reinforces a motif of lying/spying.
3) What particularly in Act II scene 1 has disturbed Ophelia?
She is mad because Hamlet was putting the moves on her but she turned him down. She could be mad that Hamlet had gotten so frisky. In the mind of a teenage boy, one would see Hamlet pulling, "The Naked Man." In which case, the man surprises the woman with nothing more than his birthday suit. Said woman then begins to make woopy with the filthies, and maybe I should stop there. Anyways, she didn't like it! Now I wonder if she really wanted to turn him down. Maybe that was what upset her.
4) Why have Rosencrantez and Guildenstern been sent to Denmark?
They are supposed to spy on Hamlet and find out what's making him so sad.
5) What does Hamlet ask the players to recite? How does the allusion mimic Hamlet’s position?
Hamlet asks him to recite a play about Dido. It was about getting revenge for their father, that is why it mimics him.
Identify the following speaker of the following lines and discuss to whom the lines are being delivered, and what do the lines mean?
6) “No, my lord, but as you did command/ I did repel his letter, and denied his access to me”
Ophelia is telling Polonius that Hamlet was coming on to her and she did what he told her to do.
7) “More matter less art”
This means get to the point, and the Queen thinks Polonius is stupid because he goes on and on just talking bullshit.
8) “That I, the son of a dear father murdered,/ Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell/ Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,
He is planning his attack on Claudius, whilst questioning his own life and the legitimacy of the ghost being his father all at the same time. He then plans that to kill the King, first he would do this play to see his reaction, ultimately making the decision off of that.
9) “Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth/ And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,/ with windlasses and with assays of bias,/ By directions find directions out.”
This is what Polonius says to Reynaldo when he tells him to make rumors about Laretes to see if they are true.
10) “For if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion-Have you a daughter?”
This is one of Hamlet's moments. Moments where he is acting like a psychopath for his own comic relief possibly. Anyways he is saying that the sun can bring out good things, just as it can bring out bad things. Hamlet is the sun, and Ophelia is the dog.
11) List three metaphors (1 direct, 1 implied, 1 extended) from the play.
D: for denmark. Denmark is a prison to Hamlet.
I: is the second one, so I is for the second letter in pImp! Which is what a fishmonger is!
E: Hamlet is the sun?
12) What proof does Polonius have that he believe indicates Hamlet’s love for Ophelia?
He pulled "The Naked Man"
13) Explain the quote, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” How does this relate to Hamlet.
This is when Hamlet's friends Guildenster and Rosencrats try to find out why he is so sad. He says Denmark is like a prison. What this quote does is bring up the idea of who is to say what is good or bad? Is bad really bad? Because it a 'bad' thing might be good for somebody else. It's just all about how you look at it.
14) What is a fishmonger?
Muthha Phukkin P.I.M.P!
15) Who was Jephthah?
Hamlet compared Polonius to him. Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute.
- http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+11&version=NIV
Monday, February 6, 2012
Hamlet 1.2-4
1.
He feels awkward because his father just died, and his mother remarried too soon...to his uncle!
2.
One, he is marrying his brother's woman. Two, he needs to take power of his brother's throne.
3.
He says he has done his duty to the Dane, and his thoughts and wishes bend again toward France.
4.
A little more than kin; Hamlet feels he and Claudius are more like cousins now. And less than kind; Hamlet thinks that Claudius doesn't love his mother, and disagrees with the marriage all together.
5.
He is saying that he is getting too much attention, being the Prince of Denmark.
6.
He is mad at his mother. She married her brother in law! And she didn't even mourn her husband's death! Hamlet is troubled because he feels that nobody cared about his father, he even considers suicide.
"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt.
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His cannon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!"
7.
Hamlet is talking to his mother and he is upset with her. He is wearing all black, mourning his father's death, and he just doesn't want to see her right now. He is going into an "emo" phase: feeling dissasociative, and indifferent...and wearing black, or possibly worshiping the devil...So he kind of starts to act differently, this leading to his high interest in the world of Drama.
8.
He says the ones at the wedding are the still warm leftovers from the funeral. It is relevent because it recognizes the time it took her mother to get over her husband's death. He is just talking behind her back here.
9.
They tell him that they have seen his father's ghost. Hamlet wants to see for himself. See he totally worships the devil, he probably made a "demon portal" or a pentagram.
1) What is Laertes advice to Ophelia?
Laertes doesn't want Ophelia to love Hamlet. He thinks Hamlet is going mad and he doesn't want his sister around him. He doesn't think they will last as a couple.
2) How does “The canker galls the infants of the spring/ too oft before their buttons be disclos’d” fit into the ideology of the decaying garden?
It is all about Ophelia's relationship with Hamlet. She is the Garden and he is a worm that will destroy it.
3) What analogy does Ophelia give to her brother as an answer to his advice? What does she mean?
She tells him not to be so hypocritical when he talks about love.
4) List five of the “few precepts” that Polonius gives to Laertes.
Don't speak your thoughts or be quick to action them
Don't be vulgure
Don't dress to fancy
Be nice to people but not too nice
Once you find friends you trust hold on to them
Listen to people but don't talk
5) In lines 105-109, what is the metaphor that Polonius uses to describe Hamlet’s words of love?
"taken these tenders for true pay which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly..." He is saying that she has treated herself to pay, or rewards, by tenders, or deeds, that are not sterling, or perfect. So what he means is that she needs to spend her time on better things because they will give her a better reward. Don't do Hamlet because Hamlet will not do you well. This could match the theme of prostitution.
6) List and explain one metaphor found in the lines 115-135.
"...I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
Even in their promise as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire..."
Hamlet is fire; Hamlet is the Sun. Polonius basically says to Ophelia, "Don't trust Hamlet."
7) What is Polonius’ command to Ophelia?
She is forbidden to see him.
8) In scene 4, what is Hamlet talking about in lines 13-38?
He thinks that the king throws too big of parties and that makes his country look weak. The king is celebrating and he does so with cannons and loud music, and Hamlet is just depressed and can't help but bring the mood down.
9) Why doesn’t Horatio want Hamlet to follow the ghost?
He thinks it will make him go mad
10) What is Hamlet’s command to the three guards?
They must swear not to tell anybody what they have seen on the ghost dressed in armor
He feels awkward because his father just died, and his mother remarried too soon...to his uncle!
2.
One, he is marrying his brother's woman. Two, he needs to take power of his brother's throne.
3.
He says he has done his duty to the Dane, and his thoughts and wishes bend again toward France.
4.
A little more than kin; Hamlet feels he and Claudius are more like cousins now. And less than kind; Hamlet thinks that Claudius doesn't love his mother, and disagrees with the marriage all together.
5.
He is saying that he is getting too much attention, being the Prince of Denmark.
6.
He is mad at his mother. She married her brother in law! And she didn't even mourn her husband's death! Hamlet is troubled because he feels that nobody cared about his father, he even considers suicide.
"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt.
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His cannon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!"
7.
Hamlet is talking to his mother and he is upset with her. He is wearing all black, mourning his father's death, and he just doesn't want to see her right now. He is going into an "emo" phase: feeling dissasociative, and indifferent...and wearing black, or possibly worshiping the devil...So he kind of starts to act differently, this leading to his high interest in the world of Drama.
8.
He says the ones at the wedding are the still warm leftovers from the funeral. It is relevent because it recognizes the time it took her mother to get over her husband's death. He is just talking behind her back here.
9.
They tell him that they have seen his father's ghost. Hamlet wants to see for himself. See he totally worships the devil, he probably made a "demon portal" or a pentagram.
1) What is Laertes advice to Ophelia?
Laertes doesn't want Ophelia to love Hamlet. He thinks Hamlet is going mad and he doesn't want his sister around him. He doesn't think they will last as a couple.
2) How does “The canker galls the infants of the spring/ too oft before their buttons be disclos’d” fit into the ideology of the decaying garden?
It is all about Ophelia's relationship with Hamlet. She is the Garden and he is a worm that will destroy it.
3) What analogy does Ophelia give to her brother as an answer to his advice? What does she mean?
She tells him not to be so hypocritical when he talks about love.
4) List five of the “few precepts” that Polonius gives to Laertes.
Don't speak your thoughts or be quick to action them
Don't be vulgure
Don't dress to fancy
Be nice to people but not too nice
Once you find friends you trust hold on to them
Listen to people but don't talk
5) In lines 105-109, what is the metaphor that Polonius uses to describe Hamlet’s words of love?
"taken these tenders for true pay which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly..." He is saying that she has treated herself to pay, or rewards, by tenders, or deeds, that are not sterling, or perfect. So what he means is that she needs to spend her time on better things because they will give her a better reward. Don't do Hamlet because Hamlet will not do you well. This could match the theme of prostitution.
6) List and explain one metaphor found in the lines 115-135.
"...I do know,
When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
Even in their promise as it is a-making,
You must not take for fire..."
Hamlet is fire; Hamlet is the Sun. Polonius basically says to Ophelia, "Don't trust Hamlet."
7) What is Polonius’ command to Ophelia?
She is forbidden to see him.
8) In scene 4, what is Hamlet talking about in lines 13-38?
He thinks that the king throws too big of parties and that makes his country look weak. The king is celebrating and he does so with cannons and loud music, and Hamlet is just depressed and can't help but bring the mood down.
9) Why doesn’t Horatio want Hamlet to follow the ghost?
He thinks it will make him go mad
10) What is Hamlet’s command to the three guards?
They must swear not to tell anybody what they have seen on the ghost dressed in armor
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Questions for ACT 1 SCENE 1
1) How is interest created in the opening scene?
The setting is interesting to me. It is a midnight in winter, outside a castle. The mood is set dark, like death and they are even preparing for war.
2) What information are we given to help us understand the situation?
Horatio's speech
The ghost comes back and then vanishes as the cock crows
4) What is the mood of the scene?
Dark/mysterious
5) Why are the sentries apprehensive (there are two reasons)?
Sentries?
6) What reasons are suggested by Horatio for the appearance of the late King’s ghost?
The setting is interesting to me. It is a midnight in winter, outside a castle. The mood is set dark, like death and they are even preparing for war.
2) What information are we given to help us understand the situation?
Horatio's speech
- Fortinbras vs. Hamlet
- There is a ghost of King Fortinbras who is dressed in armor.
- Leaders show up in times of danger
The ghost comes back and then vanishes as the cock crows
4) What is the mood of the scene?
Dark/mysterious
5) Why are the sentries apprehensive (there are two reasons)?
Sentries?
6) What reasons are suggested by Horatio for the appearance of the late King’s ghost?
- Getting revenge on hamlet
- Great leaders are there in times of danger for the People
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
1, 2, 3, Eyes On Me!
1)
The beginning of Chapter 12 is a long paragraph of judgement towards Janie doing things with Tea Cake. This, at first, made me think there might be another end of relationship, but instead she moved away from all the judgement and in with Tea Cake. She 'turned in to the skid' good for her =D
The difference between the judgement here, and in the beginning with Joe, is love. Janie loves Tea Cake at this point. She moves with him to the Everglades, "down in the muck." Kinda like being 'fat and happy.'
2)
(But Tea Cake never let go. They wrestled on until they were doped with their own fumes and emanations; till their clothes had been torn away; till he hurled her to the floor and held her there melting her resistance with the heat of his body, doing things with their bodies to express the inexpressible; kissed her until she arched her body to meet him and they fell asleep in sweet exhaustion.)
Or in other words...ERR-E...ERR-E..ERR-E..ERR-E ERR-E ERR-E ERRRREEE!...ERR-E...
This is my statement: sex is always the answer. In this chapter, Janie is furious that Tea Cake is flirting with a girl named Nunkie. She caught them 'wrestling' and when they got home, she wanted to throw down, and she did. She wanted to destroy Tea Cake! But what she didn't realize is that Tea Cake is probably familiar with hoes who have a pimp to answer to. He knows the answer. Sex is always the answer, and there is a reason Tea Cake has this name; He 'takes the cake' on this matter! He is the man at giving women the answer.
So he gave her the answer, and she accepted it with "sweet exhaustion." And the next morning, they joke about Nunkie. They pretty much forget it ever happened. Sex is ALWAYS the answer.
If you're not convinced, try out one of these songs
"S.E.X." -Nickleback
"What's Your Fantasy" -Ludacris
"Every Time We Touch" -Cascada
"Smiley Face (It's All Good)" -Bowling For Soup
3)
The beginning of Chapter 12 is a long paragraph of judgement towards Janie doing things with Tea Cake. This, at first, made me think there might be another end of relationship, but instead she moved away from all the judgement and in with Tea Cake. She 'turned in to the skid' good for her =D
The difference between the judgement here, and in the beginning with Joe, is love. Janie loves Tea Cake at this point. She moves with him to the Everglades, "down in the muck." Kinda like being 'fat and happy.'
2)
(But Tea Cake never let go. They wrestled on until they were doped with their own fumes and emanations; till their clothes had been torn away; till he hurled her to the floor and held her there melting her resistance with the heat of his body, doing things with their bodies to express the inexpressible; kissed her until she arched her body to meet him and they fell asleep in sweet exhaustion.)
Or in other words...ERR-E...ERR-E..ERR-E..ERR-E ERR-E ERR-E ERRRREEE!...ERR-E...
This is my statement: sex is always the answer. In this chapter, Janie is furious that Tea Cake is flirting with a girl named Nunkie. She caught them 'wrestling' and when they got home, she wanted to throw down, and she did. She wanted to destroy Tea Cake! But what she didn't realize is that Tea Cake is probably familiar with hoes who have a pimp to answer to. He knows the answer. Sex is always the answer, and there is a reason Tea Cake has this name; He 'takes the cake' on this matter! He is the man at giving women the answer.
So he gave her the answer, and she accepted it with "sweet exhaustion." And the next morning, they joke about Nunkie. They pretty much forget it ever happened. Sex is ALWAYS the answer.
If you're not convinced, try out one of these songs
"S.E.X." -Nickleback
"What's Your Fantasy" -Ludacris
"Every Time We Touch" -Cascada
"Smiley Face (It's All Good)" -Bowling For Soup
3)
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
All eyez on me (PG 60-140)
1)
(As soon as the cowd was out of sight they closed in circles. The near ones got nearer and the far ones got near. A circle, a swoop and a hop with spread-out wings. Close in, close in till some of the more hungry or daring perched on the carcass. They wanted to begin, but the Parson wasn't there, so a messenger was sent to the ruler in a tree where he sat.)
Page 61 is full of birds. Hurston does a good job showing the vultures in society that circle around the dead hog. There is a motif that is tied in with the birds; circles are very present here. Circles represent order usually, however, here it seems more to symbolize repetition, or a never ending cycle. Janie's relationships have been repeated, well the freedom she has in them has been. With her Nanny, she was controled. She was very sheltered, and got in trouble for kissing a boy over a fence. Then she was forced to marry. In her first marriage she was controled too. She was taken total care of for a while, but then Logan Killacks got tired of 'kissing foot' and started trying to get her to work. Same as Joe Starks, who always told Jaine to get to work in the store.
2)
"The feds is watchin', niggas plottin' to get me
will I survive, will I die, come on lets picture the possibilities
Giving me charges, lawyers making a grip
I told the judge I was raised wrong and thats why I blaze shit
Was hyper as a kid, alone, as a teenager, on the mobile
calling big shots on the scene major
Packing hundreds in my drawers, Fuck the law
Bitches I fuck with a passion, livin' rough and raw
Catchin' cases at a fast rate, balllin' in the fast lane
Hustle 'til the morning, never stopped until the cash came
I live my life as a Thug nigga
untill the day I die
Live my life as a Boss playa
cuz we be getting high"
-All Eyez On Me
Tupac Shakur
The vultures are to the mule what the society is to Janie. They circle around her, peck at her head and eat away at her dieing body until not even the maggots can take any more, and puss pops, and the stench grows and grows building a perimiter around the lifeless being. At least, this is how Janie feels. She has a reputation to uphold, being married to the man in charge. She has to present herself the way other's want to see her, and it kills her inside. She has everybody watching her. Just like in Tupac's song "All Eyez On Me" Janie feels trapped, like she has no freedom. It tears at her core, and it's a constant thing too. She was "alone as a teenager" because it happened then too, and she was the only black kid; she felt different. So now, she knows she doesn't like the society because the society doesn't like her. Or, at least it doesn't like what she wants to be.
Janie talks about this Pear Tree constantly. It is a dream she has on how she wants to live her life/relationship. She wants to just sit and chill in the sun, with nature. There, things would be easy, and free. The society is getting more in touch with the rest of the world with all that Joe has done in the town of Eatonville, so they must be a little more structured. Janie doesn't like the structure. Like Makaveli, she packin' hundreds in her draws, and says fuck the law! She livin rough and raw, and that's okay!
3)
(What is it dat keeps uh man from gettin' burnt on uh red-hot stove-caution or nature?)
What would you say? Is it caution, or nature? Do men naturally keep away from the red-hot stove, or do they have to take caution when near one? I think they naturally keep cautious of it. If a red-hot stove can burn you, you might have to go check it out for yourself. When I was about four years old, I was camping and I got a little curious and touched the cut out of a burn barrel that was our fire pit. Needless to say, I got burnt. But now I know better: you don't go and straight up touch it, you hover your hand over it and if it's good, you can touch it really fast and it won't hurt!
See men for some reason like to know how things work, so with anything, a man is gonna check it out. When it's something like a red-hot stove, or something where you can get burnt, it's in our nature to find out how it reacts. Depending on if the man has any knowledge on the matter, he will be cautious. But the very first time, he may just jump right into it, he might just try to grab the fire and hold on to it for a while.
4)
(Aw naw they don't. They just think they's thinkin'. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don't understand one.)
This is in a fight scene with Janie and Joe. Janie is trying to stand up for herself and women alike, as Joe puts women down. Joe is just mad because he has done so much to make a name for himself, and Janie can't handle it. He wants her to feel like the queen and act like her too. Janie doesn't want all this power and responsibility. She makes constant note that she doesn't want to be a woman, she wants to stay young, and innocent, and irrisponsible because doing things is hard. It's hard to be busy all the time, and her life has been hard all her life. She just wants something to be easy and smooth, for once in her life.
She has been trained to think that marrying is the way to do it; marriage is the way to find true love and happiness. However, that is not the case. Marriage, especially these quickly sprung marriages of Janie's, are hard. Janie has married two men, and didn't love either one. When that happens, it's like getting stuck in a ditch, and digging straight down, thinking it's going to get you out, and that everything is going to be okay. You just keep digging, and digging, and digging, and digging. Then you realize you haven't eaten for days because you've just been working so hard to make things good, when you finally look up, you see you're going the wrong way.
5)
(She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she know how not to mix them.)
Oh god, she's got the powa! Everybody run!
...Just kidding, Janie does sort of wield some strength with this. She does get some power. Now, she can be two people! She can put on her 'outside' when she want's to appear as the world wants her to, and she uses her 'inside' when she needs the world to see through her eyes. Everybody has an inside and and outside, it's just that some people don't know mix them at all. In fact very few people know how to mix them right. The power of word is comparable to the hammer of Thor, the beard of Zeus, and Great Oden's Raven combined, and Janie has found the translations. "Hot pot of coffee!" I shall say, after I spill a drop on me, of course meaning, "Thy occurring event hath stricken, and scortched at thyne eye! And I am to have no mercy in repay! Have at you!" Outside I say, "Hot pot of coffee!" but inside I say something else. There are two peronas there, and I am supposed to know which one to use at any given time. This is what Janie has learned.
6)
(Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was 'bout y'all turning out so smart after Him makin' yuh different; and how surprised y'all is goin' tuh be if you ever find out you don't know half as much 'bout us as you think you do. It's so easy to make yo'self out God Almighty when you ain't got nothin' tuh strain against but women and chickens.)
This is an important part in the development of the story, and to the expedition Janie is on to finding her own identity. Here Janie sticks up for herself, and for women as a whole. It reinforces the theme of strength of women and search for identity.
7)
(The more his back ached and his muscle dissolved into fat and the fat melted off his bones, the more fractious he became with Janie.)
There is a reason the man is Father Time and the woman is Mother Nature. Men's dreams are washed away by time. Hurston believes men make their dreams unaware there is a thing called time, and that it will catch up with them some time. Women hold life, and let it out into the world. They bring the Earth some fresh youth.
In this quote, Joe is getting old while Janie stays young and beautiful. Joe starts to get jealous of Janie because he starts to get fat and wrinkly. He is compared to Methusalem, the oldest person in the Bible. The oldest of the old. The Bible works with the Father Time reference because it splits time in two: Before Christ and After Christ.
8)
The Wingless Bird
The whole idea behind Janie being a wingless bird is being trapped, tied down and/or spiritually dying. A bird with no wings is like a truck with no transmission. It is trapped! It just sits there day after day, waiting for something to happen. Time doesn't even matter because there's nowhere it can go, nothing it can do. The bird and the truck are a beauty nothing can match, but their lives are empty. The bird's specialty is flight, and without wings, it's useless.
Janie feels like the bird. She has so much beauty and elegance to her, and she is being taken care of, but still she feels like she is trapped. She's just not in love with Joe. She was always told, "get married, then you'll be in love." That isn't exactly how it works though in real life.
9)
("'Tain't really no need of you dying, Jody, if you had of-de doctor-but it don't do no good bringin' dat up now. Dat's just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn't listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don't half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin' de works of yo' own hands, and cuffin' folks around in their minds till you didn't see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have-")
In this script, Janie stands up for herself...well that's what we're supposed to pick up from this. Joe, her husband, is dying and she comes over and kicks him while he's down. What a b*+@#! I mean, technically, I guess it's good she got all this off her chest, but she did it to a dying man, she can't be that proud of it. It's like if somebody that bullied you for a while suddenly got cancer and you went to the hospital and started telling them off. Oh yeah, you're just so cool and tough! People wish they could be you! Cevieche curva!
10)
(The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair...tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see...)
When somebody dies, Janie thinks about her hair. She looks in the mirror, collects herself and carries on. This ties into the beginning, where Hurston says women forget. This is Janie's proccess, her ritual. It is a step in moving forward for her. She must see into her own self and see what it looks like. She knows that how she presents herself is how the world will see her, so she puts on a show. She forms her face into how people want to see it. She is still controlled here then. This is a conflict between person vs. self and society here. She wins against herself if she wins against the society first.
11)
(She hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity.)
Janie has spent her whole life hiding from herself so far. She can't express what she's feeling most of the time. This is an idea that represents the strength of women in the novel, where Janie is overcoming this cloak of pity. She is excited to live, and laugh and love, but she cannot do so until she is really in love, and not being controlled.
Her first two marriages didn't work out so well. She wasn't in love with Logan or Joe, they both supported her, kissing foot, but they both controlled her. She can't live, laugh and be in love with someone who is so controlling. This is why she doesn't love her nanny either. There is more mislove than love in her life.
12)
(For no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you)
In the words of AC/DC, "It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock and roll." You can never reach the horizon. You may be able to reach the spot it was at when you first saw it, but when you get there it has moved just as far away. So no matter how far you go, you're never moving. This idea of being trapped represents Janie's failed relationships, and the idea behind men and their dreams on ships. In both cases, time is endless.
Janie so far has been searching for love and happiness. Each new husband brings a totally different lifestyle to her, and each guy is a new horizon. She makes this dream when she meets them, but when they get married and she is walking towards the horizon, it keeps moving farther away. She has been struck with the treadmill effect. She is stuck, trapped in a bad life.
All men have their dreams on ships, sailing at a distance. They drift either to or away from the men. Those who have enough time get their dreams to drift in with the tide. For others, their ships are sailing the wrong way, always on the horizon, but the men can never leave. They must wait for their ship to come in. They don't have anything else to wait for.
13)
Tea Cake
Janie meets this guy Tea Cake when everybody is at the ball game. He shows her how to play checkers and they play a lot. Checkers, as apposed to Chess, is a less sophisticated game. This idea of lower class is represented through Tea Cake.
14)
(He looked like the love thoughts ov women. He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with ever step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God.)
So Janie tries to get Tea Cake out of her head. She pretty much tries to hate him. But there is a lot of emotion she has for this guy, and it's hard to just let it go. She is a woman, she forgets what she doesn't want to remember. This is what she is trying to do here, but she remembers him all day long. She totally loves him.
15)
Janie doesn't really want to love Tea Cake yet. She is putting it off as best as she can, while inversely Tea Cake is trying as hard as he can to love her. Tea Cake comes and goes, from Janie to work for Janie. Or at least he claims that's what he's doing. (He did not return that nigh nor the next and so she plunged into the abyss and descended to the ninth darkness where light has never been.) This is extremely dark. WTF Janie? She's got a conection to Tea Cake like Gollam does to The Ring. When it's gone...there is nothing!
While Tea Cake tells how much he loves her...
(Janie, Ah hope God may kill me, if Ah'm lyin'. Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom)
(As soon as the cowd was out of sight they closed in circles. The near ones got nearer and the far ones got near. A circle, a swoop and a hop with spread-out wings. Close in, close in till some of the more hungry or daring perched on the carcass. They wanted to begin, but the Parson wasn't there, so a messenger was sent to the ruler in a tree where he sat.)
Page 61 is full of birds. Hurston does a good job showing the vultures in society that circle around the dead hog. There is a motif that is tied in with the birds; circles are very present here. Circles represent order usually, however, here it seems more to symbolize repetition, or a never ending cycle. Janie's relationships have been repeated, well the freedom she has in them has been. With her Nanny, she was controled. She was very sheltered, and got in trouble for kissing a boy over a fence. Then she was forced to marry. In her first marriage she was controled too. She was taken total care of for a while, but then Logan Killacks got tired of 'kissing foot' and started trying to get her to work. Same as Joe Starks, who always told Jaine to get to work in the store.
2)
"The feds is watchin', niggas plottin' to get me
will I survive, will I die, come on lets picture the possibilities
Giving me charges, lawyers making a grip
I told the judge I was raised wrong and thats why I blaze shit
Was hyper as a kid, alone, as a teenager, on the mobile
calling big shots on the scene major
Packing hundreds in my drawers, Fuck the law
Bitches I fuck with a passion, livin' rough and raw
Catchin' cases at a fast rate, balllin' in the fast lane
Hustle 'til the morning, never stopped until the cash came
I live my life as a Thug nigga
untill the day I die
Live my life as a Boss playa
cuz we be getting high"
-All Eyez On Me
Tupac Shakur
The vultures are to the mule what the society is to Janie. They circle around her, peck at her head and eat away at her dieing body until not even the maggots can take any more, and puss pops, and the stench grows and grows building a perimiter around the lifeless being. At least, this is how Janie feels. She has a reputation to uphold, being married to the man in charge. She has to present herself the way other's want to see her, and it kills her inside. She has everybody watching her. Just like in Tupac's song "All Eyez On Me" Janie feels trapped, like she has no freedom. It tears at her core, and it's a constant thing too. She was "alone as a teenager" because it happened then too, and she was the only black kid; she felt different. So now, she knows she doesn't like the society because the society doesn't like her. Or, at least it doesn't like what she wants to be.
Janie talks about this Pear Tree constantly. It is a dream she has on how she wants to live her life/relationship. She wants to just sit and chill in the sun, with nature. There, things would be easy, and free. The society is getting more in touch with the rest of the world with all that Joe has done in the town of Eatonville, so they must be a little more structured. Janie doesn't like the structure. Like Makaveli, she packin' hundreds in her draws, and says fuck the law! She livin rough and raw, and that's okay!
3)
(What is it dat keeps uh man from gettin' burnt on uh red-hot stove-caution or nature?)
What would you say? Is it caution, or nature? Do men naturally keep away from the red-hot stove, or do they have to take caution when near one? I think they naturally keep cautious of it. If a red-hot stove can burn you, you might have to go check it out for yourself. When I was about four years old, I was camping and I got a little curious and touched the cut out of a burn barrel that was our fire pit. Needless to say, I got burnt. But now I know better: you don't go and straight up touch it, you hover your hand over it and if it's good, you can touch it really fast and it won't hurt!
See men for some reason like to know how things work, so with anything, a man is gonna check it out. When it's something like a red-hot stove, or something where you can get burnt, it's in our nature to find out how it reacts. Depending on if the man has any knowledge on the matter, he will be cautious. But the very first time, he may just jump right into it, he might just try to grab the fire and hold on to it for a while.
4)
(Aw naw they don't. They just think they's thinkin'. When Ah see one thing Ah understands ten. You see ten things and don't understand one.)
This is in a fight scene with Janie and Joe. Janie is trying to stand up for herself and women alike, as Joe puts women down. Joe is just mad because he has done so much to make a name for himself, and Janie can't handle it. He wants her to feel like the queen and act like her too. Janie doesn't want all this power and responsibility. She makes constant note that she doesn't want to be a woman, she wants to stay young, and innocent, and irrisponsible because doing things is hard. It's hard to be busy all the time, and her life has been hard all her life. She just wants something to be easy and smooth, for once in her life.
She has been trained to think that marrying is the way to do it; marriage is the way to find true love and happiness. However, that is not the case. Marriage, especially these quickly sprung marriages of Janie's, are hard. Janie has married two men, and didn't love either one. When that happens, it's like getting stuck in a ditch, and digging straight down, thinking it's going to get you out, and that everything is going to be okay. You just keep digging, and digging, and digging, and digging. Then you realize you haven't eaten for days because you've just been working so hard to make things good, when you finally look up, you see you're going the wrong way.
5)
(She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she know how not to mix them.)
Oh god, she's got the powa! Everybody run!
...Just kidding, Janie does sort of wield some strength with this. She does get some power. Now, she can be two people! She can put on her 'outside' when she want's to appear as the world wants her to, and she uses her 'inside' when she needs the world to see through her eyes. Everybody has an inside and and outside, it's just that some people don't know mix them at all. In fact very few people know how to mix them right. The power of word is comparable to the hammer of Thor, the beard of Zeus, and Great Oden's Raven combined, and Janie has found the translations. "Hot pot of coffee!" I shall say, after I spill a drop on me, of course meaning, "Thy occurring event hath stricken, and scortched at thyne eye! And I am to have no mercy in repay! Have at you!" Outside I say, "Hot pot of coffee!" but inside I say something else. There are two peronas there, and I am supposed to know which one to use at any given time. This is what Janie has learned.
6)
(Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was 'bout y'all turning out so smart after Him makin' yuh different; and how surprised y'all is goin' tuh be if you ever find out you don't know half as much 'bout us as you think you do. It's so easy to make yo'self out God Almighty when you ain't got nothin' tuh strain against but women and chickens.)
This is an important part in the development of the story, and to the expedition Janie is on to finding her own identity. Here Janie sticks up for herself, and for women as a whole. It reinforces the theme of strength of women and search for identity.
7)
(The more his back ached and his muscle dissolved into fat and the fat melted off his bones, the more fractious he became with Janie.)
There is a reason the man is Father Time and the woman is Mother Nature. Men's dreams are washed away by time. Hurston believes men make their dreams unaware there is a thing called time, and that it will catch up with them some time. Women hold life, and let it out into the world. They bring the Earth some fresh youth.
In this quote, Joe is getting old while Janie stays young and beautiful. Joe starts to get jealous of Janie because he starts to get fat and wrinkly. He is compared to Methusalem, the oldest person in the Bible. The oldest of the old. The Bible works with the Father Time reference because it splits time in two: Before Christ and After Christ.
8)
The Wingless Bird
The whole idea behind Janie being a wingless bird is being trapped, tied down and/or spiritually dying. A bird with no wings is like a truck with no transmission. It is trapped! It just sits there day after day, waiting for something to happen. Time doesn't even matter because there's nowhere it can go, nothing it can do. The bird and the truck are a beauty nothing can match, but their lives are empty. The bird's specialty is flight, and without wings, it's useless.
Janie feels like the bird. She has so much beauty and elegance to her, and she is being taken care of, but still she feels like she is trapped. She's just not in love with Joe. She was always told, "get married, then you'll be in love." That isn't exactly how it works though in real life.
9)
("'Tain't really no need of you dying, Jody, if you had of-de doctor-but it don't do no good bringin' dat up now. Dat's just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn't listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don't half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin' de works of yo' own hands, and cuffin' folks around in their minds till you didn't see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have-")
In this script, Janie stands up for herself...well that's what we're supposed to pick up from this. Joe, her husband, is dying and she comes over and kicks him while he's down. What a b*+@#! I mean, technically, I guess it's good she got all this off her chest, but she did it to a dying man, she can't be that proud of it. It's like if somebody that bullied you for a while suddenly got cancer and you went to the hospital and started telling them off. Oh yeah, you're just so cool and tough! People wish they could be you! Cevieche curva!
10)
(The young girl was gone, but a handsome woman had taken her place. She tore off the kerchief from her head and let down her plentiful hair...tied it back up again. Then she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see...)
When somebody dies, Janie thinks about her hair. She looks in the mirror, collects herself and carries on. This ties into the beginning, where Hurston says women forget. This is Janie's proccess, her ritual. It is a step in moving forward for her. She must see into her own self and see what it looks like. She knows that how she presents herself is how the world will see her, so she puts on a show. She forms her face into how people want to see it. She is still controlled here then. This is a conflict between person vs. self and society here. She wins against herself if she wins against the society first.
11)
(She hated her grandmother and had hidden it from herself all these years under a cloak of pity.)
Janie has spent her whole life hiding from herself so far. She can't express what she's feeling most of the time. This is an idea that represents the strength of women in the novel, where Janie is overcoming this cloak of pity. She is excited to live, and laugh and love, but she cannot do so until she is really in love, and not being controlled.
Her first two marriages didn't work out so well. She wasn't in love with Logan or Joe, they both supported her, kissing foot, but they both controlled her. She can't live, laugh and be in love with someone who is so controlling. This is why she doesn't love her nanny either. There is more mislove than love in her life.
12)
(For no matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you)
In the words of AC/DC, "It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock and roll." You can never reach the horizon. You may be able to reach the spot it was at when you first saw it, but when you get there it has moved just as far away. So no matter how far you go, you're never moving. This idea of being trapped represents Janie's failed relationships, and the idea behind men and their dreams on ships. In both cases, time is endless.
Janie so far has been searching for love and happiness. Each new husband brings a totally different lifestyle to her, and each guy is a new horizon. She makes this dream when she meets them, but when they get married and she is walking towards the horizon, it keeps moving farther away. She has been struck with the treadmill effect. She is stuck, trapped in a bad life.
All men have their dreams on ships, sailing at a distance. They drift either to or away from the men. Those who have enough time get their dreams to drift in with the tide. For others, their ships are sailing the wrong way, always on the horizon, but the men can never leave. They must wait for their ship to come in. They don't have anything else to wait for.
13)
Tea Cake
Janie meets this guy Tea Cake when everybody is at the ball game. He shows her how to play checkers and they play a lot. Checkers, as apposed to Chess, is a less sophisticated game. This idea of lower class is represented through Tea Cake.
14)
(He looked like the love thoughts ov women. He could be a bee to a blossom-a pear tree blossom in the spring. He seemed to be crushing scent out of the world with his footsteps. Crushing aromatic herbs with ever step he took. Spices hung about him. He was a glance from God.)
So Janie tries to get Tea Cake out of her head. She pretty much tries to hate him. But there is a lot of emotion she has for this guy, and it's hard to just let it go. She is a woman, she forgets what she doesn't want to remember. This is what she is trying to do here, but she remembers him all day long. She totally loves him.
15)
Janie doesn't really want to love Tea Cake yet. She is putting it off as best as she can, while inversely Tea Cake is trying as hard as he can to love her. Tea Cake comes and goes, from Janie to work for Janie. Or at least he claims that's what he's doing. (He did not return that nigh nor the next and so she plunged into the abyss and descended to the ninth darkness where light has never been.) This is extremely dark. WTF Janie? She's got a conection to Tea Cake like Gollam does to The Ring. When it's gone...there is nothing!
While Tea Cake tells how much he loves her...
(Janie, Ah hope God may kill me, if Ah'm lyin'. Nobody else on earth kin hold uh candle tuh you, baby. You got de keys to de kingdom)
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