Friday, May 22, 2020

King Lear Act 4, Scene 6 Analysis

The plot really heats up in the final scenes of  Act 4, Scenes 6 and 7. This  study guide  delves into the breathtaking drama that concludes Act 4. Analysis: King Lear, Act 4, Scene 6 Edgar takes Gloucester to Dover. Edgar pretends to take Gloucester up a cliff and believes he can cure him of his wish to commit suicide. Gloucester announces to the gods that he intends to commit suicide. He feels dreadful about his treatment of his son and thankful to his beggar companion for helping him. He then throws himself off the imaginary cliff and pitifully falls on the ground. Gloucester is still suicidal when he revives and Edgar, now pretending to be a passerby tries to convince him that he has been saved by a miracle and that the devil had pushed him to jump. He says that the kind gods have saved him. This changes Gloucester’s mood and he now resolves to wait until life gives up on him. King Lear enters wearing his crown of flowers and weeds. Edgar is shocked to see that Lear is still mad. Lear is railing about money, justice, and archery. He uses fighting talk saying he is prepared to defend himself against anyone. Gloucester recognizes Lear’s voice but Lear mistakes him for Goneril. Then Lear appears to mock Gloucester’s blindness. Gloucester responds to Lear with pity and begs to kiss his hand. Obsessed with social and moral justice Lear reaches the radical conclusion that he wants to defend the poor and give them power. Lear tells Gloucester that it is man’s lot to suffer and endure. Cordelia’s attendants arrive and Lear runs off fearing them to be the enemy. The attendants run after him. Edgar asks for news of the impending battle between the British and the French. Gloucester appears to have rallied following his encounter with Lear; he seems to realize that his own suffering is not so unendurable in comparison with what Lear is going through. Edgar says he will lead Gloucester to a safe place. Oswald is pleased to find Gloucester and Edgar in order that he can claim Regan’s reward for Gloucester’s life. Gloucester welcomes Oswald’s sword but Edgar poses as a country bumpkin and challenges Oswald to a fight. Oswald is fatally wounded and asks Edgar to deliver his letters to Edmund. He reads the letters and discovers Goneril’s plot against Albany’s life. He decides to tell Albany about this plot when the time is right. Gloucester is concerned about Lear’s state of mind but wishes he could be mad to distract him from his guilt. Gloucester finds it difficult to be cheerful. Edgar goes to escort his father to the French camp. A drum roll signifies imminent battle. Analysis: King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7 Lear has arrived at the French camp but is sleeping. Cordelia tries to encourage Kent to reveal his true identity to Lear but he says he still needs to maintain his disguise. The King is carried in on a chair as the Doctor says it is time to wake him. All the characters on stage prostrate themselves before the king. Cordelia kneels by her father’s chair hoping that her kiss will make up for some of the wrongs done to him by her sisters. Lear wakes and is bewildered. He does not seem to recognize Cordelia who asks for his blessing. Lear falls to his knees before his daughter full of regret. Cordelia says she does not feel bitter towards him and asks him to walk with her, they leave the stage together. Kent and the Gentleman remain to discuss the battle. Edmund has been put in charge of Cornwall’s men. A bloody battle is expected.

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Midterm Answer. Chen Xuanhong. Cine 121 - 01. . 1-Escapist

Midterm Answer Chen Xuanhong CINE 121 - 01 1- Escapist entertainment and social commentary 2 to 2 ½ pages max. (170 Points) While Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) is representative of Classical Hollywood cinema providing its audience with escapist entertainment, it also develops an â€Å"acute social observation† of life during America’s westward expansion and it challenges elements of the myth constructed around this history (Bernstein 316). a) What makes Stagecoach an example of Classical Hollywood cinema? Identify and explain the main characteristics, features, and conventions of this cinema that are present in the film. b) What makes this film different from other Classical Hollywood westerns? ââ€"  Explain Bernstein’s main argument in†¦show more content†¦b) â€Å"Stagecoach was the most critically acclaimed of several major studios 1939 Westerns that historians credit with raising the genre into big-budget production from the rut of B-studio, B-movie status† (Bernstein 300). Unlike the other classical Hollywood cinema, Ford chose western frontier as the open landscape for shooting. What’s more, Ford tried to cut dialogues to the minimum and focused on actions, showing how actors react to one another. Certainly, as a classical Hollywood film, Stagecoach reflects Ford’s appreciation of America’s westward expansion by showing chances for democratic life on the frontier. With the aim of specification contradictory beliefs, Ford made fully use of mise-en-scà ¨ne and cinematography, such as setting and composition. Setting The epic, mythicized, and vast landscape of Monument Valley offers the basis for Western’s fundamental conflict. It includes grassland, desert, cactus, buffalo, horses, and the owner of this land, Indian tribes. In the visual environment, another typical group of â€Å"civilization are brought by the invasion of towns, rails, churches, posts, etc. So, the setting itself contains conflicts of the natural environment and modern civilization. The conflict between the backward productivity and advanced productivity, the conflict between violence and law, the conflict between

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Huck Finn Literary Criticism Free Essays

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain portrays his main character and the novel’s namesake, a deeply complex individual, even as a child. He has obvious abandonment issues and continues to struggle with finding his place in society. Huck starts by trying to fit in with Tom and a band of young boys, but eventually finds true companionship in a slave named Jim. We will write a custom essay sample on Huck Finn Literary Criticism or any similar topic only for you Order Now Huck continues in his struggles as his moral beliefs conflict with the moral beliefs of the society of his time. This conflict comes from Huck being so immersed in a society that he does not seem to belong in, all while still trying to find a place that he does belong. According to Harold Bloom and Leslie A. Fiedler, â€Å"The moral crisis of the book is created by the constant disjunction in the mind of Huckleberry Finn between what he thinks he ought to do, and what he is aware that he must do† (Bloom and Fiedler 25-39). This is seen throughout the novel, as Huck struggles with following society or following his heart. Another critic, Gemma Marshall, makes a point very similar to Bloom and Fiedler, saying, â€Å"Through the character of Huck and his internal debates, we see the conflict between what is morally right and what is legally enforced† (Marshall). At one point in the novel, Huck, himself, says: [The Widow Douglas] told me what she meant–I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself†¦. I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn’t see no advantage in it–except for the other people; so that at last I reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it any more, but just let it go. (Twain) This statement, which completely supports the views of both critics, does not come from Huck being a selfish individual. Rather, it comes from him struggling to survive. Once Huck meets Jim, it is seen that he does put Jim first in many occasions, because at that point, he can afford to. Earlier in the novel, he could not let his blooming moral compass get in his way of survival. This moral conflict also contributes to Huck’s disregard for the law and his reasons why he does so throughout the novel. Earlier on in the novel, Huck is seen trying to fit in by joining Tom’s gang even if that meant killing people. At that point in the novel, one might say that Huck agreeing to this was just out of loneliness and wanting to belong. As the novel progresses, however, Tom’s actions seem to become more and more aggressive. As Bloom says, â€Å"Tom’s scheme for stealing way a Negro whom he knows to be free is not only sadistic but thoroughly immoral. † Though to readers Tom’s actions might seem immoral, he is simply acting as a product of his society. Just as Huck was trying to fit in with Tom by agreeing to join his gang, Tom is trying to fit into his society by following the normalcies that have been exposed to him. Based on this poin t, Bloom goes on to say that there â€Å"is nothing any more ridiculous about what Tom does than there is about what society inflicts on them every day† (Bloom 25-39). Readers, therefore, cannot judge the moral level of the characters based on today’s moral code, but rather of the moral code of the society that these characters were placed in. As the novel progresses, however, Huck begins to become aware of the morals in society, but chooses to go against them anyway. Bloom argues: It never enters his head for a moment that protecting Jim against recapture is anything but wrong; for he has no abolitionist ideas and questions the justice of slavery no more than did Aristotle. He considers, however, that as an outcast he has little to lose. (Bloom 25-39) If Huck is becoming aware of the morals of his society, yet is still choosing to go against them, this can mean that Huck is subconsciously forming his own moral code. Even though he knew that helping Jim was wrong, he must have felt, some place down in his heart, that it was right. Otherwise, why would he risk his own life to do so in the first place? In a society full of moral confusion, the one character â€Å"is presented as intelligent, analytical, [and] highly moral† is Jim (Marshall). Does Jim not make for a far more suitable role model than the drunkard Pap? † Marshall asks. He does, in fact, as he goes as far to create a home for Huck, that Pap never did. As unconventional as it may be, Jim and Huck become a family, with the river as their home. As they travel up the rive â€Å"it gradually becomes clear that the two characters leave the constraints of society behind them and create their own world on the water- it is within this world that the influence of societal values are suppressed in favour of a more logical, practical system of values† (Marshall). It is along this journey that Jim teaches Huck what values are really important in an individual, regardless of what society says is correct. He teaches Huck what it means to value another person’s life as much as one value’s his own. It is easy to see the moral complexities in this novel reading it through a modern lens, especially in the case of Huck. Readers are constantly struggling with whether nature or nurture will come out victorious: will Huck rise above his society because he was born with the ability to think beyond what he sees in it or will society’s pressures cause Huck to break? Contemporary reviews of the novel were also asking this question. On February 20, 1885, a review was published in The Hartford Courant. It’s author asked, â€Å"What, for instance, in the case of Huck, the son of the town drunkard, perverted from the time of his birth, is conscience, and how does it work? † This show how contemporaries of Mark Twain were able to see and appreciate the moral complexities of his novels and his characters just as easily as readers can today. The whole study of Huck’s moral nature is as serious as it is amusing, his confusion of wrong as right and his abnormal mendacity, traceable to his training from infancy, is a singular contribution to the investigation of human nature,† the author of the review goes on to say. The fact that the author uses the term â€Å"confused† by the author of that review is an interesting one. It implies that while Huck may think of his actions as wrong, as determined by his society, his action s actually prove Huck’s ability to think in morally superior terms of his society. Had a Southerner written this review, it may not have had the same implications. As a Northerner, who likely had much stronger anti-slavery views than a Southerner, wrote this review it makes it easier for him to appreciate the development of Huck’s moral code, despite what society was telling him. All three sources of criticism are in agreement about the moral difficulties faced by Huck throughout the novel. They also all agree that Huck is put at odds with his society because of his moral character, whether he views himself as moral or not. Since the two pieces of literary criticism are quite modern, it is not surprising that the critics are able to look at the novel and pinpoint all of the complexities that are entangled in this novel and in the life of Huck. Since a Northerner wrote the contemporary review, and Northerners were obviously more progressive in the ideas of abolition and anti-slavery than Southerners of the time, that could explain the level of forward thinking presented in the review. All three reviews also agree that Huck’s main conflict throughout the novel is that between himself and society. This is what causes him to set forth North in search of a place where he may belong. Luckily, however, throughout this journey he was able to find his sense of belonging right there with Jim. At the very end Huck reconciles with the fact that without Jim, Huck has nothing, as he does not belong to this society. He finds harmony by deciding to head west. Works Cited Bloom, Harold, and Leslie A. Fiedler. â€Å"Huckleberry Finn: Faust in the Eden of Childhood.. †Ã‚  Bloom’s Major Literary Characters  (2004): 25-39. EBSCOHost. Web. 17 Feb 2013. Hartford Courant 20 Feb 1885, Page 2. Web. 18 Feb 2013. www. etext. lib. virginia. edu/twain/harcour2 Marshall, Gemma. â€Å"Literary analysis: Controversial themes in Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. †Ã‚  Helium: Where Knowledge Rules. 05 Dec 2008. Web. 18 Feb 2013. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. Guy Cardell. New York: Penguin Classics, 2002. Print. How to cite Huck Finn Literary Criticism, Essay examples