1. "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" Comment on this interpretation, using details from the poem to support or refute her point.
Critic Annemarie Muth makes quite a good point. As one begins to read the poem it can be found apparent that Shakespeare does not seem to believe what love is conveyed of being. He is doubtful upon love because it “alters when it alteration finds.” Shakespeare seems to be asking how is it that love is love when it can easily be changed for example breaking up with someone and then later on falling in love with someone else. At the same time, as he is stating his insecurity towards love, he backs up and questions once more, ‘wait, but love can be strong and powerful.’ In a sense taking back what he has thought. An example of this is “love alters but with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” As stated before, love can change but it is not something that is done so quickly or in a specific time frame, it takes time and before it can be altered it fights for what it has to try and make it work. In the end, Shakespeare comes to terms with his feelings and accepts that love is strong and in a sense real by stating how love is fought for and if he is mistaken he has never written or man has never loved.
8. “The Things They Carried”: What “things” do the men carry, and how do these concrete items symbolize something greater that each of the men “carry” in their heart?
In Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried,” the men carry different types of objects like weapons and letters, but beyond and greater than just their weapons or objects they carry are emotions. These burden emotions could be the ‘things’ the title refers to in the story. These men are in a situation were they may have never imagined, experiencing major acts of war that they have never seen before. They feel terror and grief about what is happening and could potentially happen. As they walk and see the soldiers on the ground strikes a fear with in them. These soldiers symbolize the acts of war. The men going through acts of war and along the way encounter they are killing other men. This act is not a simple one to prosper and get over as easily. This could cause guilt within them. Fear and guilt counter each other because it could have easily been switched around and have them on the ground instead of the Vietnamese soldiers.
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Hello Marlyn,
ReplyDeleteHow are you doing? I hope that you are well, and that you had a good week. I am going to comment on question number eight. Thanks!
Question number eight:
You are very correct about the soliders carrying their emotions through the war with them. In fact, I think emotions can be heavier burdens than actual equipment. For example, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had to carry his love for Martha around for most of the story: "To carry something was to "hump" it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swarms" (qtd. in Schlib and Clifford 800). Furthermore, another solider named Ted Lavender was always scared, and carried quite a bit with him, until he was shot and killed in the line of duty: "But Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried twenty-four rounds when he was shot and killed outside of Than Khe, and he went down under an exceptional burden, more than twenty pounds of ammunition, plus the flak jacket and helmet and rations and water and toilet paper and tranquilizers and all the rest, plus the unweighted fear" (qtd. in Schlib and Clifford 801). Ted Lavender was filled with fear the entire time that he was in this war. This fear burdened him everyday that he was on the battlefield. It was probably his fear that distracted him for a moment or two that resulted in his death. It is horribly sad to see, but it is also amazing to see how emotions can be heavily embedded into these soliders and more distracting than personal items and heavy equipment, especially for soliders far from home. This goes the same for our soliders away from us that are in Iraq right now. We have to keep them in our prayers so what happened to the soliders in the story will hopefully not happen to too many soliders in Iraq.
Thanks for the read, and good post. :-)
Have a blessed week!!
Sincerely,
Jillian
I really agree with your post about the Shakespeare poem, and I believe that it's maybe just doubt. He's afraid of failing, just like we all are, and he's showing his humanness. Everyone in a relationship is afraid of their flaws being pointed out, and isn't that why most people fight in relationships anyways?
ReplyDeleteGood job :D