This blog will follow my adventures in reading the novels of Backgrounds for English studies. I will include creative journal entries on the novels as well as post my own questions and ideas about the books that we read.
After reading Dante’s Inferno, Petrarch and Goethe I have to admit that I am tired oflove. Well love is fine, but it is the tragic love idolization of love from a male perspective that I am tired of. The theme of lost love has been in all three of the past books that we have read. Dante is lead by his lost love, Beatrice. Not much is know about their relationship or discussed in his work of The Inferno, but it is part of the foundation for the story. Petrarch’s work, Selections for the Carzonere is internally based off of his love affair and obsession with Laura. All of his sonnets are based off of his love for her. He expresses the double-edged sword of love, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow. When Laura dies, his poems reflect his loss of her love and the emptiness he fells.
Goethe portrays almost the same story in his work, Sorrows of the Young Werther. The woman who Werther is infatuated with is named Lotte and is married to a man named Albert. Werther taken his obsession with love to the next step when he kills himself after Lotte denies him. His love is meaningless and empty without her and sees no point in living.
Why are these men, falling in love with women who they cant have, who are married or taken? Why is suicide the answer to love lost? These are the questions that I have asked by self as I have read these works, which have been so influential in literature. Are these men so self absorbed that they cannot see past their own needs or the limitation of life? Or are they so romantic that they would rather die than not be with their one true love? I personal look forward to hearing a female’s perspective on love and relationships. I have learned that denial is a part of life, but it seems as if these men cannot learn this important life lesson.
Last week I was watching E! True Hollywood Stories, Celebrity Divorces and began to think about why celebrities have such a high record for divorce. Is it their wealth that divides couples or does fame ruin a marriage? In Dante’s Inferno one of the themes is the idea of Lust and those that committed sins of the flesh and public love. Dante meets Francesca in the Second Circle of Hell and she tells him her story of how her love leads to her eternity in hell. She was married to a man but fell in love with Paolo de Rimini. They read the love story of Lancelot and Guinevere, which is another tale of public life. Francesca’s husband found out about their affair and had both of them killed. In the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere. Guinevere was King Arthur wife and Lancelot was a King Arthur’s noblest knight. Guinevere and Lancelot had a secret love but it was revealed when Lancelot heisted in saving her because it did not want to show favoritism.
The negative effects of public love were also shown in Virgil’s Aeneid between Dido and Aeneas. After they fell in love, Dido revealed her love for Aneneas to the city but it isn’t long before their love is broken and Dido killed herself. She could have been so ashamed that she ended her life. Public love puts pressure on the couple, especially when they are in position of authority or fame. In the Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus, he writes, “when made public love rarely endures”.
This quote makes me think of the modern example of Jon and Kate Gosselin. I have to admit that I was a fan of the show since the beginning but have stopped watching after all the drama about their divorce. If any one has seen the early shows, Jon and Kate seem like a happy and loving couple that is lucky enough to have twins and sextuples. After they are given a television show, their lives become public and before you know it, they are no longer a happy family, but anther broken story of divorce. I blame it on the fame and fortune; it is not natural to have your life broadcasted around the world. The love of their family and marriage made public ruined what they once had. I think it is a shame, but I don’t know if it is entirely sinful or would qualify for Jon and Kate plus to eight to be sent to the Second Circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.
Lions, Leopards and a she-wolf, oh my! I was first drawn to see the connection between Dante’s Inferno and The Wizard of Oz when I though about the three animals that threaten Dante when he is lost in the dark wood, a lion, leopard and a she-wolf. Dorothy and her gang of the scarecrow, cowardly lion and Tin man are afraid of lions, tigers and bears when they are walking long the yellow brick road on their way to Emerald City.
Although these two works seem very different, they do have many similarities including the way in which the Dante finds himself in the underworld and Dorothy in the Land of Oz. Both lost souls seem to reach these new places in somewhat of a trippy way. Dante is lost in the woods and happens to meet the dead poet, Virgil and he becomes Dante’s guide through the levels of hell. He has now taken on the responsibility to share with humanity his experiences in hell so they will be warned of the torture that awaits them in the after life if they choose to continue to live in sin. Dante has his own person journey through his travels in hell; he wishes to understand his life and meaning.
As a Kansas country girl, Dorothy is caught in a tornado and wakes up in the land of the Munchkins in the Land of Oz. her arrival has killed the wicked witch of the east and has to travel to the Emerald city in order to ask the Wizard of Oz how to get home. She desperately wants to return home to her family. Dorothy and her friends experiences personal change and growth through they journey. Although the Wizard of Oz proves to only be a man behind green curtain, they learn that what they desire has been inside of them all along. The Scarecrow has a brain, the Cowardly Lion has courage and the Tin man always had a heart. When Dorothy finally returns home to her family she is so happy to be back and now has a new outlook on life. This is the same for Dante, after his experiences he now thinks differently about his purpose in life and how we will pay for our sins.
Love is one of the diving forces behind the actions and emotions of almost any human being because it is so powerful. Love’s intensity is shown in the Aeneid through the relationship between Dido and Aeneas and the tragic events that follow their disconnect. I call it a disconnect because they are not equal in their love for one another and commitment to the relationship. Dido sacrifices herself to Aeneas and puts all of her happiness in him. Nothing good can ever come from this kind of pressure that Dido puts on Aeneas. In a way she is making him an Idol because he is the most important thing in her life and believes that he alone will bring her happiness. Aeneas is also torn between in love for Dido and his obligation to fulfill his destiny. Life and love are full of choices and they can bring good and bad on those involved. Although I feel for Dido and her tragedy I am left to wonder why love become an idol to her. It is sad and pitiful to know that for her not having Aeneas means not living.
I think that this depicts women in a negative light because Aeneas has a future of worth outside of Dido and has bigger and better things to conquer. But Dido is seen as only having her love for Aeneas and being worthless without it. It is sending the message that men are expected to follow their duties rather than their hearts. A relationship is the most important thing to a women’s life but men have responsibilities that go beyond love. Today we see the idolatry of love when a relationship is made to define our happiness and worth of our lives. The question is, is love worth dying for? I think that the pain of a love gone wrong will heal in time but death is eternal and Virgil paints this picture when Aeneas revisits and speaks to Dido in the underworld. Love is a beautiful and powerful emotion but when it becomes an idol in our lives it can only leads to heartbreak and disappointment.
Revenge is a messy game that makes for an action packed story filled with bloody violence. The trilogy of The Orestia is based around the acts that happen before and after Clytemnestra seeks revenge on her husband King Agamemnon for killing her daughter. Her avenges is part of a chain reactions of violence’s and leads to her son avenging his father. Clytemnestra is a vindictive character and reminds me of the role Uma Thurman plays in the movie Kill Bill.
Uma is first shown getting married in a small chapel in Texas, she is pregnant and has decided to give up her life as an assassin to be a wife and mother. In the middle of the ceremony, Bill her ex boss and lover and the father of the baby enters the chapel along with four other assassins. They are sent to kill her, her husband and her baby. Bill shoots her in the side of the head. After waking up out of a four year coma and discovering that she is no longer pregnant and now is dedicated to killing the five people who destroyed her life and killed her baby.
Clytemnestra and Uma are both mothers who seek revenge on their daughter’s lives by killing the father of their children who resulted in their death. Clytemnestra was also cheating on her husband with his cousin Aegisthus and Uma left Bill to be with another man while she was pregnant with his baby. Clytemnestra motives for killing Agamemnon were to avenge her daughter and to gain power in the kingdom. If Clytemnestra did not succeed in completely killing Agamemnon would he have returned to seek full vengeance on her just like Uma does on the man who attempted to kill her? Both of these example prove the messy and twisted game of revenge, how it seems that it is almost never ending. Although it may be self-serving and provide closure for some, it never full resolves the problem only causes more violence and bloodshed.
I have yet to meet a person, young or old, man or women, Clown fish or shark who doesn’t love the movie Finding Nemo. It is a great tale about a father looking for his son and when I was thinking about this week’s reading and how Odysseus and Telemachus are finally reunited in Book 16. I was reminded of the moment in Finding Nemo when Marlin and Nemo finally find each other. Telemachus and Nemo are both the only children of their fathers. Both sets of father and son experiences adventures and challenges while searching for there loved one. There is also growth and change for Odysseys and Telemachus as well as Nemo and Marlin. Odysseus is able to resist stronger and harder temptations throughout his journey. Telemachus is also on a journey of manhood. He proves his self a strong fighter and loving son. Sheltered by his father, Nemo, is scared by knows he cannot give up his search for his father. By the end of the movie he is more confident because of the challenged he has over come. Marlin has also lost his sense of fear and the uncertainty of the wide ocean. He is willing to sacrifice any thing to find his son.
Marlin is an unlikely hero; he is nervous, shy and shelter. He is over protective of his only son and tries to prevent him from even going off to school. He warns his son of the dangers that are out there. So Marlin’s worst fears become a reality when divers abduct Nemo. He is not willing to lose his son and sets out on an epic journey. Along the way he receives help from an unlikely character named Dory. She is funny and loving but also suffers from short-term memory loss and a ditsy personal. Dory reminds me of Athena. Athena has the power as a god to control and manipulate. She is smart and cunning. Yet dory proves to be a great friend and exactly the fish that Marlin needs because she can read. Together they defeat sharks, Jelly Fish, seagulls as well as meet a 150-year-old sea turtle as well as ride on a huge current in the ocean.
I also found the interesting fact that the Latin word for Nemo means no-body or no one. This is so important because we learned that in the originally Greek form of the Odyssey, Athena and Odysseus were described as Métis, which means intrigue or intelligences. But the word Me-tis means nobody.
The theme of hospitality is also in finding Nemo, when Nemo is stuck in a fish take in a dentist office with a variety of other fishes. They are welcoming to the new fish and Nemo eventually helps them escape from the evil little girl who bangs on the tank. They also meet a pelican that saves Marlin and Dory from the seagulls. Marlin and Dory wake up on the back of a sea turtle that saved them from the jellyfish. The turtles are kind and welcoming to Marlin and Dory. The sea turtle Crush gives Marlin an important piece of advise about being a father when the little turtle falls off the current. Marlin wants to save the little turtle but the turtle father tells him that the baby turtle should try on his own. He also gives him advice about letting your children be independent. Marlin then tells all the little turtle his tale of how he lost his son just as I imaged Odysseus telling his tale to his son, wife or father.
I chose this clip of the movie because it shows the length to which Marlin is willing to go to find his son, just as Odysseus is willing to go to any length to return home to his family. The Turtle also gives Marlin valuable advice and Marlin shares his epic tale with the young turtles. In the end just like in The Odyssey, Nemo and Marlin are reunited and are able to return home together, but will be forever changed by the great adventure they had.
In book eight, Odysseus visits the Phaeacian King and Queen and they hold a celebration for him and host the games. When I was reading this in the novel and recognized the importance of the games and festival I was reminded of the movie “Made of Honor” staring Patrick Dempsey as Tom and Michelle Monagha as Hannah. Tom and Hannah have been best friends since college but they have never dated or had a romantic relationship. Tom dates many women while Hannah has yet to find the man of her dreams. When Hannah goes to Scotland for a month, Tom realizes that he does not want to date a multitude of women, but that Hannah is the love of his life. While in Scotland, Hannah meets a handsome and dashing man who is the heir to a whiskey fortune and is considered Scottish royalty. When Hannah returns to New York she plans to tell Tom of her quick marriage to Colin. Tom does not know of their marriage and plans to tell Hannah that he is really in love with her that same night. When Tom finds out about her marriage, he is heartbroken and unable to tell Hannah about his feelings for her.
As her best friend, Hannah asks Tom to be her made of honor for the wedding. Tom agrees, hoping that it will allow him to stay close to Hannah and eventually reveal his love for her and prevent her from marring Colin. When the travel to Scotland for the wedding, Colin’s family host an elaborate celebration that resembles the celebration that King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians hold. Colin sings a traditional Scottish song to Hannah about marriage and King Alcinous is so impressed with Odysseus he offers him his daughter’s hand in marriage. Colin’s family shows a great deal of hospitality towards Hannah and her family members just as the King and Queen of the Phaeacians show hospitality towards Odysseus. Both example lavish food and drinks are involved in the celebration as well as ceremonial clothing and traditional games. The games represent strength, power and glory. In Odysseus’s case he proves his strength over the younger men and the experiences he has from going to war and overcoming so many obstacles. In Tom’s case, his lack of experiences causes him to embarrass himself and allows Colin to win the games.
In the end Tom reveals his love for Hannah and she realizes that she does not really love Colin and Tom is her best friend and soul mate. They leave Scotland and return to New York City where they are marriage. Odysseus does not accept Alcinous’ offer to marry his daughter, instead he continues his journey home to his wife and family. Both examples share the theme of the strength of men and the honor and glory in showing and proving their strength in public. “Made of Honor” is an example of how the traditions and values that are represented in Homer’s work of The Odyssey can be transformed into modern films.
