Vision, Perception, and Belief in Act I, scenes i and ii of Hamlet

In the first Act, Shakespeare reveals some background information, which includes different character’s feelings and their relationship between each other. Hamlet’s father (King Hamlet) recently passed away and he represents his depression through black mourning attire. Apparently it is strange for Hamlet to still be mourning; as his uncle, now known as King Claudius, asks him why “the clouds still hang upon him.” I personally feel it is normal behavior for Hamlet to act this way because a lot is changing in his life; his father is deceased, his mother is now married to his uncle, and he will not be attending the Wittenberg school anymore.
Hamlet’s excessive mourning can also represent a strong, close relationship with his father. But it seems as if Claudius finds Hamlet’s behavior bizarre and “unmanly” of him. This is a little ridiculous seeing that it was Hamlet’s father and Claudius’s brother who died. The whole conversation between Claudius and Hamlet is kind of awkward and it represents hostility between the two, well at least for Hamlet towards his uncle.
I also find it ridiculous that Queen Gertrude only abides by Claudius’s feelings and she fails to give any sympathy for her son or even for herself. Gertrude’s husband, the man she was in love with, did pass away and she is not really showing any signs of sorrow. Gertrude is failing at her duties of being a mother because she is not giving her son any affection and she seems to be acting like nothing is wrong.
It also boggles my mind as to why King Claudius and Queen Gertrude do not want Hamlet to attend the school he had been going to before his father died. If anything this would help Hamlet get his mind off of things instead of sitting at home and mourning with his pitiless mother and uncle.
Hamlet expresses his feelings in is monologue towards the end of scene ii. Hamlet describes his desire to die and grieves over his father’s death. He also describes his hatred towards his mother and uncle’s quick marriage right after King Hamlet’s death. I feel deep sympathy for Hamlet and couldn’t agree with him anymore then I do.

Coleridge and Shelley - Imagination and Narrative Voice

"Kubla Khan" is a poem of mixed feelings. I believe it celebrates imagination and then takes a turn to caution against its indulgence. According to the background information (pg. 758) Coleridge was describing a dream until it was interrupted when he awoke. As the first stanza starts off Coleridge describes a "pleasure-dome" with a sacred river that runs "through caverns measureless to man." This by all means seems to be a creative possibilty of paradise. In the second stanza is where the poem ventures off in to an opposite (negative) direction as he says "then reached the caverns endless to man." "Prophesying war" leads me to believe his dream was interuppted and he awoke to a reality, "with caves of ice." The caution of indugence is revealed when Coleridge says "and all should cry, beware! beware!" Coleridge seems to be setting in a theme to draw the line between the imaginative mind and reality.

In the sonnet “Ozymandias,” there are 4 speakers: the narrator, the traveler, the sculptor, and King Ozymandias.” The narrator is obviously just narrating the story that he is discovering from the traveler. The traveler is like a messenger between the sculptor and the narrator. His main purpose is to describe the sculptor’s thoughts of the king’s personality which are hostility and arrogance (“cold sneer”). Under the sculpture is a quote from King Ozymandias that says “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" it reflects his conceded personality and the irony of that statement since the statue is surrounded by nothing and it just sunken in to the sand. This represents King Ozymandias’ pride and how it backfired on him.

"The Chimney Sweeper"

1. Yes, I do agree that Blake’s poetry had the power to enact social change by appealing to the imagination of the reader. Imagination can draw quicker conclusions by demonstrating to the public positivity and negativity from similar situations. In Blake’s first poem he represents optimism towards child labor law, which may enforce children to work harder. In Blake’s second poem he represents hopelessness towards child labor laws, which may cause people’s sympathy to emphasize change on the laws. Either way, imagination is encouraging the public for social change.

2. The editors might have included the Parliament transcript as a primary source document in order for the reader to refer to the historical background of child labor laws. The document can show the audience the facts and the reality of how harsh the laws actually were. This can also give readers greater dramatic effects when reading the poem because then they can only imagine that person’s feelings in that moment. Blake’s work affected my reading emotionally because I pictured myself in that position and made me feel great sympathy for those children who had to live through this situation.

Jonathan Swift Teacher Prep Work

Four Questions:
1) How did Gulliver get to Lilliput in the first place?
2) What are the motives of Lilliputians for capturing Gulliver? Were they threatened by him?
3) Why hasn’t Gulliver attempted to escape when it is incredibly easy for him to?
4) Is Gulliver’s lack of effort to leave trying to portray something about humans?

Significant Moments:
-On page 654, Gulliver describes the fact that he can easily free himself from the Lilliputians but he is unwilling to do so because they are continuously feeding him and comforting him. However, this boggles my mind because he is still a prisoner and is away from his home. I think this just shows how gullible humans can really be and can easily feed in to things. It also represents some human’s incapability of effort to force change and their laziness.
-Another significant moment is on page 656 when Gulliver learns the Lilliputians language. This proves that body language can be stronger then oral language because Gulliver only learned the language orally by using body language to express each others feelings. Learning the language is a big step to adapting to another persons culture which I think, Gulliver has adapted at this point.

Predictions:
I think students will find difficulties discovering the satire of the story. My group will help them better understand that by having them read the historical background inserted before the story. This will help them understand the concept of humans being gullible and how Gulliver represents this.

1984 assignment

The role that the doctrine O’Brien proclaims reveals the reasoning of the party’s behavior. He expresses that “submission is the price of sanity” and anything else is madness. O’Brien basically makes it clear that rebellion is not an option. Oceania’s system of Oligarchical Collectivism is based around three mantras which easily generate their control over the oblivious citizens. They are: war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. The party maintains these mantras by using certain tactics to manage the human’s obedience.
The government has gained such a strong amount of control on the people that they can tell them absolutely anything and the citizens will believe it. The party’s slogans are quite illogical but, the citizens willingly abide by it because they are completely brainwashed by the government. “War is peace” is one contribution to the government’s dictatorship because if the country remains at a constant war the people’s contact to other countries is cut off. Thus, war is one of the party’s tactics which keeps the citizens oblivious to reality and conveys peace within Oceania. The slogan “freedom is slavery” has the citizens believe independence is condemned to failure. This tactic allows the citizens not to desire thinking on their own; which causes fewer rebellions. “Ignorance is strength” represents the people’s failure to realize the truth which increases the government’s power for them to do whatever they please. Another tactic of the party is to induce the citizens with fear for them to have a less likely chance of rebellion. They do so by, placing telescreens in everyone’s home which observes the people very carefully to prevent them from acting up. Not only are the citizens observed by the telescreens, but they are also patrolled by “thought police” and “junior spies.” They are just more contributions to the governments surveillance of the people. The government also rewrites history as one of their tactics of control. The control of the past limits the future. If the past was idealized then people would want to re-enact it. But, since the past is believed as a time of misery they can only strive for limited goals because they are oblivious to anything higher. The party even erases people from history as if they never existed. The reason to this is if a person discovers the party’s secret the party would have them “disappear” to leave no traces of rebellion so others wouldn’t gain any ideas. Winston is one of the people who figures out the government’s system. But of course nothing gets past the party, thus, leads Winston to his fate of torture until he is rehabilitated to “sanity.” O’Brien proclaims that Winston “has failed humility, in self- discipline,” because Winston went against the government. O’Brien also expresses to Winston that reality is only within the party and nowhere else. He is telling Winston that there is no reality in the individual mind “except by looking through the party’s eyes.” Every individual must believe everything the Party says or else they must “relearn” just as Winston had to at the end of the book.