It's the End of the Class as I Know It (and I feel fine)

Edit: I just realized that I did not post this until today! Sorry!
Welcome to the end. I made it! I survived! A pat on the back for me!
The best thing I read in this class was Frankenstein. That novel was so much fun! I want to find a really accurate movie version of the book now. As one quest ends, a new one begins!
I kind of need to blog more. Blogging is an interesting experience when someone has time for it. The poetry for this section also did not bore the crap out of me, which is an impressive feat! Goodbye!

The Link between Septimus and Clarissa

Note: I will not be putting any GIFs on this post because I felt like it took away from the words I was trying to say instead of adding to it. Sorry for the comparatively dull looking post. I felt it was most appropriate.
Mrs. Dalloway is about way more than Mrs. Dalloway. The novel is also focused on Septimus Smith, who is never connected with Clarissa personally but has interactions with everyone else in Clarissa's life.
Both Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus Smith are intense and sensitive. Clarissa's composure is veneered in a lie of vapidness. She wants to keep her most serious musings to herself; according to her, no one else would understand them. She is wife, mother, and hostess, but she is never completely relaxed and open with anyone. No one is allowed to see the depths of Mrs. Dalloway's soul. And when Clarissa uses dark to describe her soul, she does not mean dark to connote something necessarily evil. Clarissa finds her soul to be a place of retreat. Perhaps this is not the healthiest attitude to take towards oneself, but Mrs. Dalloway is considered sane.
Septimus Smith is deemed insane. He has almost wholly retreated into his private world. Notice, for example, how his reaction to the noise of a car backfiring echoes and amplifies, but differs from Clarissa's reaction. Clarissa immediately thinks that she has heard a gun shot. World War 1 is just over. An era of terrifying death and violence has officially ended. Yet the fearful sounds of war remain. England is still in fear for what just ended.
Even though Septimus is a WW1 veteran that is struggling with "shell-shock," he does not hear gun shots when the car backfires. Instead, the noise is the sound of a whip cracking ("The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?"). Everyone else is startled, but Septimus is terrified. We have officially seen two confused and frightened people within the crowd of London.
Two different perspectives of the same moment were shown from two different people that live very different lives. Which one is the most real? The truth is that neither of them are more or less real then the other. Clarissa will learn this through the suicide of Septimus, but will never have any ability to change that reality.

A 'Nice Guy' in Victorian England

T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is literally about a man in a "prude frock" (how did I not notice this at first? oh well).


via GIPHY
 He tells us to follow him through "certain half-deserted streets,/The muttering retreats/ Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels /And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" (4-8) that are presumably in London. He describes the yellow fog and keeps on insisting that there will be a lot of time to do things socially.

via GIPHY
But then Prufrock seems to agonize over his social actions, worrying how other people would see him if he does something wrong socially. We learn that he is a middle aged man at this point "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—/(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)" (40-41). He is constantly worrying about women which means that he has never talked to them. He walks and watches, but never actually speaks. He even admits that he is afraid of social interactions!


via GIPHY
He then ponders if any form of reaction with a woman would be worthwhile if rejection is possible. He ponders dressing like a young man and hearing mermaids singing. But he knows that the mermaids will not sing to him. So he will sit there, grow old, and die without ever knowing the truth about life or love because he never does anything. The way that he describes himself reminds me of this guy:


via GIPHY
Have fun sitting there because you never even tried, dude! Human interaction will not come to you, J. Alfred Prufrock! You must come to it! Women will never fall in love with you (or you with them) if you lock yourself up in a tower and complain


via GIPHY
Let people know how nice you are by being, you know... nice! Stop being a child and just treat people the way that you would want to be treated. That is literally the secret to being a good friend and keeping good relationships.

'In an Artist's Studio' Filled with Ignorance

How relevant can an English AND Victorian poem be for 21st century America? 'In an Artist's Studio,' penned by Christina Rossetti, tells us of... well.... an artists studio.
via GIPHY
There, the artist has canvases filled with women that look exactly the same. Whether or not this is because this is only one model or not is to still be questioned. But the point still stands.  Every female painting looks the same within the artists studio. Even when they are dressed as a "queen in opal or in ruby dress, /A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens, /A saint, an angel.." (5-7), they all have the same face.

via GIPHY
Wow! Doesn't that representation of everyone that is not considered to be the "standard" of humanity ring a bell? This message is way bigger than (possibly) one model, this is a representation of any under-served group in the United States. Most of us are represented as how the media and a small portion of the population represent us. Not by how we really are.


via GIPHY
A pretty young woman must always be the damsel or the black widow. An Asian man must always be a warrior in Imperial China (even if they aren't Chinese), gas station worker, or a nerd. A black man must always be loud and rambunctious. Often, they are also portrayed as thieves and miscreants. Older women must be an old crone or a witch. Hispanic? Then you are probably an illegal immigrant that must "go back to your country where you belong." Let's not even mention the fact that most people in this country have an immigrant background, yet the Native American population is seen as this:

via GIPHY
I guess that is why a musical like Hamilton is receiving so much praise in a world of stereotypes and cultural appropriation.

via GIPHY
Nothing really seems to change at the end of the day. But at least we are more aware of the worlds errors. 

"Say Over Again," Because it Does Not Take Much to Do So

You know when you call your parents and say "I Love You" at the end of the call? Or how they say "I Love You" and you are like:
 
via GIPHY
Well, Elizabeth Browning knows all about being on the other side of that call. Elizabeth just wants her main man (who I think is her husband Robert Browning) to tell her that he loves her. Not only that, but she wants him to mean it. When she says to her lover "Though the word repeated/ Should seem a "cuckoo song," as dost treat it" (3-4), she is saying that her lover is using the word in the same way that a person might say "Hello" or "Goodbye."
via GIPHY
Someone causally saying that word can be just as destructive as it is validating. When a person starts to feel doubt about if they are loved or not, this can be especially destructive. Browning says, "... amid the darkness greeted/ By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt's pain/ Cry, "Speak once more--thou lovest!"" (8-10). That doubt is perfectly human and encapsulates thoughts that we all have every once in a while.
 
via GIPHY
Truly loving someone "... in silence with thy soul" (15) is a perfectly reasonable thing to want from anyone you say you love. If you don't really love someone that you say you love, then why would you say it then? wouldn't that just lessen the meaning of love? I like to think that anyone you love and will be loved by will resonate with you. Obviously Browning feels this type of love, but because she will never know the mind of her lover, she will never know what he is thinking. Even though the type of love is different, I would love (Ha!) to leave you with a final quote which says:


via GIPHY

Frankenstein: Physical Deformity vs. Monstrosity

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there seems to be an unfair treatment of Frankenstein's creature because of his physical deformity. Since the creature looks scary, then he must be evil.
via GIPHY
Lets consider Victor Frankenstein. Victor is from a well-to-do family and has a beautiful lover in the form of Elizabeth. Victors best friend is Henry Clerval, which is told to be an honorable and decent fellow.  Victors outward appearance to the world seems to be good and healthy. But when Victor goes away to school, he becomes obsessed with the teachings of professor Waldman (even though the other professors warn Victor to not do so). This leaves Victor to ponder morally unethical questions that would better be left to a God.


via GIPHY
While Victor believes that creating this race would help mankind, he loses sight of his attempt to play God. His ego drives him to create a creature which he then denies because of its outward appearance rather than its inward substance. Seeing for the first time what he has done, Victor decides to leave the unfortunate creature and abandon it.
via GIPHY
When the creature finds comfort in the DeLacey home's shed, he still had to deal with the shock of his natural deformities. Because the creature knew he scared people, he quietly learned how to read, write, speak, and love others secretly. But when the family sees the creature for the first time, they are in horror because of his appearance. The only one that does not react negatively is old man DeLacey, who is blind.

via GIPHY
When the creature saves a girl from drowning later on in the novel, her fathers appreciation for the creature shows when he gets shot at. All because of his appearance. Doesn't this sound a little TOO familiar?

via GIPHY
The funny thing is that the monster seems to have a gentle heart underneath his wretched exterior. If he could find someone to love, then he will never harm another creature again. The fact that Victor stopped creating the "bride of Frankenstein" because it might create more ugly creatures shows Victors' lack of sympathy for things that he does not deem worthy.

Romanticism- Not So Romantic?

Byron, Shelley, and Keats are all considered to be masters of the Romatic form. Yet, it seems like all of these authors were incredibly depressed about their position in life.
via GIPHY
Lord Byrons poem about his failed relationship shows no hope for a perfect one. Instead, he talks about how this relationship hurt him from any form of romantic happiness. This seems like not only an unhealthy way of thinking, but also one that does not help him strive for a more medieval form of love.


via GIPHY
Percy Shelley also shows a depressing version of reality. He finds that "Intellectual Beauty," which is a spiritual being of intangible good feeling, is missing from the world. He says that his life purpose is to search for intellectual beauty. I say that without "Intellectual Beauty" being around him, he would have not been able to write "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty." I say that he feels this torment because he isn't looking at things with the Romantic light that he claims to be doing. Percy Shelley sounds entitled.



via GIPHY
Even thoughts all have felt that we weren't fully appreciated for our talents, Keats still sounds like the type of person that complains about their privileged, first world existence. Keats wants to get closer to the nightingale in order to get away from the worry of his own life. He laments about how he wishes he could be like the nightingale because their song is eternal. But the fact that he focuses on not being appreciated enough instead of focusing on the fact that he obtained a good education and decided on this literary life. The fact that he whines about it just makes me mad. First-World problems much?

via GIPHY
Every single one of these gentlemen seems like they have no serious issues. They are all well-educated, healthy, and come from good familial backgrounds. No one forced them to be cynical or make decisions that they ultimately regret or feel unappreciated for. Every bad decision was their own. I totally get why the Realists hated this movement. The life of someone who struggles was heavily romanticized.

via GIPHY