Please comment below with a thesis and some observations you made during the zoom today (commentary, links, etc…)
English and History Class Blog
Please comment below with a thesis and some observations you made during the zoom today (commentary, links, etc…)
Rebecca, Madeleine, Charles, Daniela:
Our thesis:
In this extract Shakespeare uses a romantic and a dehumanising tone to show the unequal gender role in this society, and the objectification of women in this admirational* and obsessive love.
We have three parts:
1st part (lines 19-34): This part shows how they romantinise this normal work, which is carriyng logs, because of this love fever they suffer. Even thought, they met some minutes* ago they are already “infected” of love. This love is shown by the lyrical structure and hyperboles. There is also a feminist statement, which is that there is no difference between her or him carrying the logs. Miranda even says that I will be easier for her “I should do it with much more ease”. This shows that in her situation where the society’s gender roles are not strictly present there is shown the reality which is that in value or superiority women and men are equal.
Nevertheless, this ideal of women being inferior or not even considered human is still present and this is shown by the dehumanising terms such as “precious creature” and “poor worm”. Link to the Handmaid’s Tale (dehumanising women) and Love in the time of Cholera (Love =infection).
2nd part (lines 35-39): They finally present each other. Miranda by telling her name defies her father. Link to LTC (Miranda and Fermina defy many times their fathers).
3rd part (lines 40-49): Shakespeare makes Ferdinand profess his passionate and obsessive love to Miranda with his romantic hyperboles, metaphors, polyptoton, and dehumanising description “created of every creature’s best.” We also can see how the value given, for a woman, to purity/innocence/virginity and beauty is bigger than intelligence which is the romantic language that the women used to lure or seduce Ferdinand. This shows the expectations of women in this society and how unhealthy is this love Ferdinand and Miranda have for each other.
In addition, Shakespeare uses three devices to illustrate women in his society as well as Ferdinand and Miranda’s love for each other. He uses polyptoton to show how much Ferdinand admires Miranda, is in awe of her. The hyperboles he uses are there to point out how Ferdinand’s love and admiration for Miranda has started to form into obsession and a certain sense of desperation to have her, to prove to Prospero that she is his. And finally, the play write uses lyrical structure to form this whole scene into something romantic. This extract is about Ferdinand and Miranda’s obsessive love and admiration for one another – with a feminist undertone from Miranda, which is brought done each time by a dehumanising tone from the men.
Ornella, Adriana, Debora : Links
Love in the Time of Cholera – excessive and passionate love, patriarchal society (women are expected to marry, breed and take care of the home — here Miranda is considered too fragile to work and in LITTOC Fermina can’t work either because she is a woman), “thou art infected” = similar to the moment when Florentino feels the symptoms of cholera when he falls in love
The Handmaid’s Tale – patriarchal society (same, women can’t work), Prospero is either like an Eye (because he’s always watching) or an Aunt (because he manipulates everyone), Miranda says her name as an intimate confession just like Offred tells Nick her real name to create more intimacy and feel like having an identity
Sweet Bird of Youth – Boss Finley controls his daughter Heavenly’s marriage just like Prospero does with Miranda
The Picture of Dorian Gray – passionate love, love at the first sight, Miranda and Sybil Vane (both of them are pure, virgins and delicate, which is why they are admired), Prospero is manipulating characters of his own play (and Sybil Vane is an actress)
“I’m Wife — I’ve finished that” and “Snapshots of a Daughter in Law” – Miranda is an innocent girl, but once she will be married to Ferdinand she will become a woman and be dependent of him, but at the same time emancipate from her father Prospero
Jhumpa Lahiri – arranged marriage in Indian culture
Intimate Apparel – Esther wants to marry because it is what is expected from her in society, and Miranda marries also for the same reason because as a woman, she keeps her virginity as her most valuable possession in order to sell it to her future husband (because clearly it’s a merchandise), as it is what’s expected for a woman.