Chronicle of a Death Foretold (3-24)

You cut right to the heart of Marquez’s novel this morning by likening it to a murder mystery and noticing the contradictory facts. On one level, Marquez parodies the murder mystery form. His narrator has come back to his hometown to uncover the truth surrounding the murder of Santiago Nasar. The irony, of course, is that everyone knows who killed him; indeed, everyone knew who was going to kill him before the crime took place.

The narrator also returns intent on weighing the events objectively and recreating in his mind the conditions of that day. From the get-go, though, something seems wrong. We’re told that Nasar passed many people on the way to his death that day, “and he remarked to all of them in a casual way that it was a very beautiful day” (4). Furthermore, “many people coincided in recalling that it was a radiant morning” (4). All seems well until the narrator tells us that most of the people he talks to “agreed the weather was funereal,” bleak and cloudy (4). Your insight into these contradictions is very good. Remember, too, that the narrator’s purpose is to piece together an accurate depiction of the events.

One hint for tonight’s reading: pay close attention to the description of Bayardo San Roman and think of literary archetypes that he might resemble.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Chapters 17-18

The blog is back.

There is a lot to talk about in Chapters 17-18 with Tea Cake beating Janie and the traumatic event of the hurricane. Tea Cake’s abuse of Janie, and the admiration he gains from his friends, makes Tea Cake a more complicated character than we thought. A number of you realized that, though Janie loves Tea Cake in a more mature and complete way than she did Joe Starks, there are disturbing parallels between Tea Cake and Jody. These parallels are worth looking at more closely to discover just how they are the same and, more importantly, how they are different.

You are also beginning to see the religious significance with which Janie understands her relationship with Tea Cake. Our discussion about the essay question revealed that Janie experiences the light of God in her relationship with Janie. This inner light also relates to the African creation myth she muses about. God’s love allows her love, her spark, to shine and find Tea Cake’s spark. Janie alludes to this revelation of light in Chapter 18 when she and Tea Cake shelter from the storm. She tells him that before she met him he “wuz fumblin’ round and God opened de door” to let the light in (157). Light in the transfiguration reveals God’s presence and God’s love through Jesus. By God showing Janie the light of love by opening the door to her relationship with Tea Cake, Janie discovers more than the love of her life. Tea Cake is an expression of African American culture steeped in a history of forced labor and the expression of the humans spirit through a rich tradition of community and music.

Interestingly, a number of you connected God’s illumination of Janie’s love to the purchase of the streetlamp earlier in the book. Joe buys the town and artificial light to avoid “scufflin’ over all dese stumps and roots in the dark” (44). You noted that Joe’s attempt to cast light reveals the god-like position he wants to claim in the town. You also noted that Joe’s light is artificial, not the natural (or supernatural) light of God. The knowledge that Joe’s light creates, therefore, is human knowledge and fallible.

You also noted that the obstacles Joe’s light reveals are human made obstacles: stumps, the remnants of trees after humans have cut them down. However, you didn’t note how Joe wants to illuminate the path not to show the way but to avoid the stumps (past human actions) and roots, symbolizing where the people came from. It is perhaps understandable that Joe would like to avoid his roots, as his ancestors were likely enslaved Africans. Avoiding the past allows him to adopt the trappings of success in white culture. However, by lighting the roots and teaching Janie to avoid tripping over them, Joe also avoids the strength of community and cultural expression of his roots.

Joe illuminates roots in order for Janie to avoid them; God opens the door to the light that leads Janie to her roots.

Romeo and Juliet, 5.3.1-165

I enjoyed your discussion of fate and free will today. So inspired, in fact, that I decided to ask you to write about the relationship between these two forces on your test on Friday.

Getting ready to commit suicide, Romeo announces that he is ready to “shake the yoke of inauspicious stars/From this world-wearied flesh” (5.3.111-2). You discovered that inauspicious means lacking in good fortune, and we talked about how a yoke directs beasts of burden in a field. Romeo clearly feels that fate, represented by the stars, has not treated him well (though if he just shut up and paid attention to Juliet, he’s see that she’s still alive). The stars have so far steered him to unhappiness, seemingly separated from Juliet forever. You reiterated the question, though, whether one may cast off the yoke of one’s fate.

By committing suicide, Romeo believes he has taken over control of his life from “he that hath the steerage of my course” in 1.4. Romeo metaphorically compares himself to a ship being steered by another force toward “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars” before he enters the party at which he meets Juliet (1.4.119, 114). He then revisits the metaphor in 5.3, calling himself the “desperate pilot” who “now at once ru on/The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark” (5.3.117-8). The bark, or ship, is Romeo’s life, and he is now steering, not fate or some other force, or so he believes. He decides to end his journey suddenly upon the rocks rather than wait for the ship to find calmer waters and for the seasickness to end.

Romeo and Juliet, 5.1 and 5.2

You began today contemplating Romeo’s line “I defy you stars!” (5.1.25). You noted that Romeo believes he will trick his fate by committing suicide. Romeo in this scene decides that the stars, his fate, intends for him and Juliet to be apart for eternity, so he takes matters into his own hand. Balthazar has just told him that Juliet’s “immortal part,” her soul, “with angels lives” (5.1.20). Believing that love he has for Juliet purifies his soul, Romeo decides to outwit fate and join his “immortal part” with hers. Romeo clearly does not consider his catechism, which teaches him that suicide is a mortal sin and will doom him.

Regardless of whether Romeo foolishly disregards the sinfulness of his act, he acts. Though you did not mention it, Romeo’s course raises the question of fate versus freewill that you discussed back in Act 3.

A few good bits from today: In Romeo’s opening line, “If I can believe the flattering truth of sleep,” contains an oxymoron. Flattery always has an element of untruth in it. So, “flattering truth” contradicts itself. Later, Romeo asserts that “love’s shadows are so hidden in joy” reviving the theme that darkness, shadow, gives cover to the joy of their love, reminding the reader that their love upsets the usual order of things. Lastly, Romeo echoes Friar Lawrence’s concern with the dual nature of all things as he talks about the “fatal cannon’ womb” (5.1.69). A womb brings fort life, and a cannon ends life.

Romeo and Juliet 3.5

Today was a bit chaotic but fun. The discussion digressed a bit, but I think the digression into the nature of fate, fortune, and free will was worthwhile. The controversy arose of out of your discussion of Juliet’s line, “O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle” (3.5.60). Besides personifying fortune, or fate, Juliet apostrophizes Fortune and reacts to her change in fortune by noting that all humans see Fortune as capricious. However, the question arose as to whether Fortune could be fickle ever. If a life is fated, the path of that life is determined before it begins. It cannot deviate from the path; or can it? We discussed fate for a bit, but never really looked into the role of free will in the play or in relation to fate. We will return to this discussion when we get to Act 5.

The other main point from today’s discussion is that Juliet is now without an ally in her household and relies, as Romeo does, on Friar Lawrence. By suggesting that Romeo is a “dishclout” in comparison to Paris, who is “An eagle,” the nurse advises Juliet to marry Paris and forget Romeo. In response, Juliet calls the Nurse, “Ancient damnation, O most wicked fiend,” and banishes the Nurse from her heart: “Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain” (3.5.348, 354).

Romeo and Juliet, 3.3-3.4

This must be quick. In general, I liked your discussion today very much. You focused more on the specific connotations of individual words to support your interpretations. This specificity bodes well for your essays due in Moodle on Monday.

You did well to parse Romeo’s self-centered and pitiful whining. The discussion about the passage in which he considers “carrion flies” more fortunate than he because they may “seize/on the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand” revealed how self-pitying he is (3.3.36-37). He sees himself worse off than flies that eat dead flesh. You also noted that his word “seize” suggests that Juliet is in danger of being seized without him.

Friar Lawrence chides Romeo as being like a clumsy soldier who burns himself by exploding the gunpowder outside the gun. He also calls him “womanish” in his tears and “beastly” in his behavior. Both, Friar Lawrence suggests, reveal how immature Romeo is.

Your discussion was far more detailed than I have time to reflect here. However, I do want to leave you with an example of good, detailed analysis. You quoted Friar Lawrence’s line that Romeo’s “noble shape is but a form of wax” (3.3.136). You focused on the word, wax. You remembered that in 1.3 Lady Capulet describes Paris as a man of wax and that Juliet was not impressed as wax is malleable and melts in the heat (of passion). Friar Lawrence here suggests that Romeo is not as noble as his name, clothes, and birth would suggest. His form is wax, or artificial, not real, and it is malleable, changeable, inconstant, and therefore ignoble and unmanly.

Romeo and Juliet, 3.2

Today’s discussion had its strengths and its weaknesses. Though I tried several times to get you to pay closer attention to particular words and to read the connotations of them, only a few of you took up the challenge. You are all very good at figuring out the way Shakespeare’s lines drive the plot or reveal character, but you still need practice deepening your analysis in support of your readings. However, you did well to understand the main action of the scene and to connect Juliet’s speeches to motifs in the play, particularly night and fate, which you deftly linked in the star imagery in the scene.

Juliet apostrophizes night and Romeo: “Come night, come Romeo, come though day in night” (3.2.17). This line evokes Romeo’s 1.1 attempt to make an artificial night in his room during the day. When he was in love with Rosaline, he could only enjoy his misery in darkness. Here, Juliet refers to night when her love can come out. Romeo, her “day in night” is a star; he burns brightly during the night, which except in church, is the only time she has seen him.

The depiction of Romeo as a star also ties into the theme of fate in the play. Sailors direct their sails, to paraphrase Romeo’s premonition in 1.4, and Juliet uses Romeo to guide her path. Stars are also a symbol for fate as we have seen with the epithet, “star-crossed lovers.” So, Juliet ties her fate to Romeo.

In your reading of Juliet’s line “I have bought the mansion of a love,” you began to read closely (3.2.28). Mansions are big, grand houses, purchased to hold rich possessions and big families. Also, they display the wealth of their owners, the way that Romeo’s beauty will display Juliet’s superficial wealth. Here, Juliet has paid for her love by exchanging wedding vows but has not consummated her ownership of the love in their wedding night. Interestingly, Shakespeare gives his young heroine sexual desire; she’s eager for the night to arrive so she can take possession of her love. She imagines herself an equal partner in this night, not merely one to be possessed.

Your discussion of the oxymoronic rant that Juliet gives forth after hearing that Tybalt died at Romeo’s hand was less satisfactory. When you write about an oxymoron over the weekend, I hope you will look closely at the rich imagery. After today’s class, I feel that I must defend young Juliet against your cynicism a bit. You saw the oxymorons as indicative of her capricious attitude toward Romeo and her fickle attitude toward love. Might they also indicate her deep and profound confusion?