The Blind Assassin Blog 1

For this week’s AP lit blog assignment I wanted to look at the complex themes and structure of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Blind Assassin. The novel is basically an autobiography of Iris Chase, it follows her dysfunctional childhood and goes through the hardship and trauma that Iris and her sister, Laura, had through after their mother passed away. While trailing into Iris’s strange past, a novel within a novel is intertwined within the plot, The Blind Assassin is a novel that Iris had published but gave her sister credit for writing it, it is about two unnamed lovers who meet in secret and come up with a science fiction tale that describes the life and events on a distant planet where the people engage unusual acts. As the novel progresses there is a growth within Iris as she finishes up her life story, she starts writing about her life with unanswered questions and as she comes to her death many of those answers are answered, but one thing that stuck in my mind was what made Iris different from all the other characters?  I was also curious to if Iris is such a strong character why is she consumed into everybody else’s problems and why does she let herself be sucked into so much corruption?

Following in the archetypal themes of the past few weeks Iris is most characterized as the cow boy archetype.  She is only interested in her duty: but there are sooo many duties that she takes into account when she looks back on her life. She is forced for fulfill gender duties, social duties, and marital duties but never really acknowledges her own individual duties that she owes to herself. The cause she is fighting for is to keep her sister safe; after her mother dies Iris becomes the mother figure for Laura. Many of the social and cultural aspects of this time lead Iris to astray from her real duty to her sister. As a stronger character in the novel I think the Iris shows strength when fulfilling each duty but each of the strengths that she shows leads to her ultimate weakness which causes her to lose most of what she wants. This also supports that she is the cow boy archetype.

I also wanted to take a look at Laura who is also a very strong character in the novel, but unfortunately I think she ends up being a product of her time period. Laura never truly evolves from being a child, a lot like Iris she is searching for explanations to her questions, but she never really gets them. One of Laura’s most memorial events in my mind is when she throws herself into the frozen river, and once Iris rescues her she tells Iris that she was sacrificing herself to bring back her mother and Iris tells her that life doesn’t work like that. This event alludes to Laura’s death being a suicide, but it also shows kind of a devotion to make her family happy. She knows that she is burden on Iris but what is her main goal in the novel?

Hamlet Act II

This past week in AP Lit class we analyzed the second Act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Act II begins with Polonius telling his man Reynaldo to go spy on Laertes in Paris, but he Polonius tells Reynaldo not to the typical spy thing, he says to go around and make statements about Laertes and see if the statements are true. Scene I in Act II is the first time the themes of spying and seeming join together as a basis of characterization. At the end of scene I Ophelia comes running onto set frightened and confused because, Hamlet has just come to her into a state of madness. She claims that he came to her and held her tightly and then resistibly left her. To Polonius this poses and opportunity to use Ophelia to get money. Scene ii begins with the king and queen acting royal in their court, they hire two of Hamlet’s “good” friends to come and spy on him and find out why he has been acting “peculiar.” Afterwards Polonius comes into the palace to tell Claudius and Gertrude that the reason that Hamlet has been acting “mad” is because he is madly in love Ophelia and has been upset that she hasn’t been returning her affections to him after her talk with her father. So Polonius and the royal family plan to use Ophelia as bate to see what is truly wrong with Hamlet, so in other words they are using Ophelia to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet walks into the room and then Polonius bombards Hamlet with questions and tries to make conversation, but Hamlet completely outsmarts him and makes witty remarks. Afterward Guildenstern and Rosencrantz come back onto set and Hamlet makes it known that he knows that his parents are spying.

This Act is all about deception and spying. Polonius is the major instigator that starts the whole spying fad in the play. Polonius has no limits he is ultimately willing to engage in anything to find the truth. As seen in scene I Polonius is willing to spread false rumors about his family in order to find out the truth. One of the key lines in this Act is “With windlasses and with assays of bias” this also brings about the fact the Polonius plays games to manipulate the situation to what fits himself best. In Shakespeare’s mind Polonius is a representative of people they are self-interested and some of them aren’t very bright to realize that other people are also self-interested.  It seems that Shakespeare is blurring the lines between theatricality and reality. He insists that we see his play as occurring at the same time in the fantasy of Hamlet’s kingdom and the actual world. There is a distinct difference in each characters vision of the world even though Hamlet is “crazy” he as more touch with what is happening outside in the world than any of the other characters. He sees the difference between reality and fantasy we can see this in how Shakespeare changes his dialogue from prose to verse and the way he talks with his friends.

Hamlet Blog #2

This week in AP Lit we completed Act I in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and analyzed some of the major themes that were consistent throughout the scenes. In Act I we are introduced to the ghost in the very first scene, which already sets the play in uncertainty and negativity. Along with the ghost representing a bad omen in Denmark, it is also revealed that Denmark is under political turmoil; Norway is threating to invade Denmark and the king of Denmark, King Hamlet, has just died and in the beginning of Scene two we are introduced to his successor, his brother Claudius, not his son Hamlet. In scene II it is revealed that Claudius has married his late brother’s wife Gertrude, which back in Elizabethan age is a huge no no.  In Scene II we finally meet the main character of the story, Hamlet and he is not happy about his mother’s marriage and the fact that she hasn’t mourned her husband’s death as long as she should have. In Scene III we meet Laertes, Ophelia, and Polonius and we find out that Hamlet has a romantic interest in Ophelia, but Polonius warns Ophelia not to get involved with Hamlet because the relationship won’t lead to marriage. In Scene 4 Horatio takes Hamlet to see the ghost of King Hamlet, but when the ghost appears Hamlet runs after it, ignoring the warning that Horatio gives him about losing his mind. When Hamlet talks to the Ghost, it is revealed that Claudius murdered King Hamlet. Scene 5 is about Hamlet making the decision to avenge his father’s death by murdering Claudius.
Throughout Act I one of the consistent themes is seem vs. is. Many of the characters introduced in Act 1 have two sides to them, there is a reoccurring question are they who they seem they are? Letts take the queen, is she really in love with Claudius and has she really gotten over her husband’s death? There are different views that there can be on Gertrude, one being that she and Claudius had an affair before her husband died or another being that Claudius forced her into his bed after her husband died. There are many elements that dictate the answer to this question, one of them being is we don’t have information to really know who Gertrude is. The openness of the characters, allows a director to portray them as he/she wants which should help answer some questions.
Act I we also need to take longer look into what the ghost represents. Obviously he is supposed to be Hamlet’s father, but is he really there to avenge his death. When we take a closer look into Hamlet’s first soliloquy, Hamlet obviously had a great admiration toward him, he even compares him to the sun god. If he is this great guy then why has he not gone to heaven? One of the biggest questions is what kind of ghost is he? Is he a ghost that is sent to help Hamlet take his righteous thrown or is he there to send Hamlet over the crazy cliff and force him into temptation?