maybe it is important to be Earnest

This past week in AP literature we have been reading and analyzing Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. This play is absolutely hilarious, Oscar Wilde’s puns and word play is phenomenal. The play begins in Algernon’s English flat; Algernon anticipates the arrival of his friend Ernest. Once Ernest arrives, it is revealed that Ernest is attracted to Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolyn and intends to propose when her and her mother, Lady Bracknell come to Algernon’s place to ask Algernon if he would like to join them for dinner. Algernon mocks Ernest’s beliefs about marriage, Algernon believes that marriage is death of all freedom and that true love doesn’t really exist. After some more banter about marriage, Ernest asks about a cigarette case that he had left at an earlier visit, Algernon recalls the case but then notices that Ernest’s name is not on the case, the case has a message saying “to my favorite uncle jack,” so Algernon pushes the matter and it is revealed that Ernest has been living a double life. In the city Ernest is known as Ernest, in the city he can live a reckless life, where as in the country he is known as Jack who has be a responsible guardian for his niece, Cecily. Algy takes interest in this double life and claims that he too lives a double life, whenever he doesn’t want to  dine with Lady Bracknell he merely tells her the is friend “Bunburry” is ill and he has to go take care of him. Eventually Lady Bracknell and Gwendolyn arrive and Algernon separates him and his aunt from Gwendolyn and Ernest, in order for Ernest to propose, this is where Gwendolyn states that she is in love with his name and that she always knew that she would marry someone named Ernest. Lady Bracknell enter the room in a rage to see the proposal and separates Gwendolyn from Ernest and sits down to have a talk about Ernest’s past and to determine whether or not Ernest is a suitable match for her daughter.

In this play Oscar Wilde make two blatant criticisms about the Victorian era, one being the criticism of marriage and the other is gender roles within society. Obviously Algernon is Oscar’s voice when it comes to the negative ideas about marriage, he believes that marriage is merely a constricting force. Algernon believes that all of the fun in life is taken away when one embark in marriage. Wilde also flips the gender roles, with the characterization of Lady Bracknell Wilde makes the female character strong and influential. Gwendolyn asserts herself with the proposal, she tells Ernest that he is going to propose an she is going to say yes, Ernest had almost ask permission before he asked her. Lady Bracknell just purely represents power, she has a voice and controls all of the men around her, and example being her husband she actually takes away her husbands voice, when at this time it was the other way around.  

Timed Writing Debrief

This week in AP literature we were all about Emma, we had a two day seminar were we split into different groups and each group hosted a twenty minute session of where the other students discussed different perspectives of how to read this book. Some of the topics we discussed were: looking at Mr. Woodhouse as the antagonist of the book, the gender roles throughout the novel, Emma’s relationships, and the controversy of the ending. I actually used the stuff that we talked about with Emma’s relationships in my timed writing today, I discussed how her relationships keep her from developing as a strong character, but once she realizes that her relationship with Mr. Knightly is what will lead her to grow into a women, because he knows what is best for Emma were as with the other relationships Emma is vulnerable to conform into something that is destructive to her growth as a person.  So mainly my blog today is a debriefing of our Emma open question timed writing.

                Our timed writing today consisted of three choices, so I decided to write about the option which discusses how awakens within the novel lead the development of the novel and defines the author’s main purpose or idea of this novel. So to tackle this question the most logical thing that I could come up with to support Emma’s growth throughout the novel would be her relationships. The major realization of that Emma has is when she realizes that she needs Mr. Knightly as a companion, which leads her to give up her want to be socially involved into her becoming more engaged with growing herself as a person rather than a social dictator. Throughout the whole novel Emma rebels against Mr. Knightly’s advice and mentoring, by engaging in these inappropriate relationships with Harriet and Mr. Churchill, this is where her downfall starts when she meets Harriet. Emma begins the novel as a naïve young girl who is a blank slate, she is untouched to the outside world, but she is somewhat molded by the influence of her father. Emma has her first interaction with the lower classes when she takes on reforming Harriet, she begins become obsessed with finding some project or relationship to keep her busy, but they are very wrong for her because she is developing other characters  when she needs to grow herself.

                Over all this timed writing I feel like went okay, I feel like because I didn’t have to stay specific to certain quotes I had more freedom to elaborate more on the analysis. This timed writing I wrote more than I have ever written in any of my time writings. After this I feel like the open question timed writings are my strong suit because I have more freedom to discuss a whole lot more of analysis and development of certain pieces of literature. I felt this way after the practice exam as well, one the practice exam I wrote about Grendel and felt I could defend my beliefs with the text.

Emma Post

Unfortunately last week we didn’t have to blog, but now I am very ready to catch up on blogs about Emma. For the past few weeks it has been all about Emma and her silliness. Our focus for the past two weeks has been volume the third, so we are wrapping things up. Volume the third is primarily the conclusion and final events that happen to Emma and her collogues. Some very important events occur, such as the ball and Harriet’s experience with the gypsies, but the most important interaction that highlights Jane Austen’s ideas about society would be the relationship between Mrs. Elton and Emma. This volume is when the reader truly begins to see Mrs. Elton as Emma’s foil instead of Jane. An example would be at the ball; Mrs. Elton is a more mature(ish) Emma who knows how to use her wealth to get what she wants. I am not saying that Emma doesn’t do that, but Mrs. Elton is more out in open about it, where as Emma does it discretely, but Emma also knows how to control herself in a manner that is polite and she seems genuinely nicer and caring towards her friends of a lower class. This is where the book is completely pulled together.

In preparation of our seminar on Emma, I would like to talk about how Jane Austen completely flip flops the gender roles within the novel. Throughout the entire novel the men other than Mr. Knightly (obviously) are very feminine, Mr. Elton to be an example; he engages in some of the most womanly actions, even his personality screams out girly. Elton is very involved with finding status through marriage, as seen when he proposes to Emma, he also engages in some of the most deceitful/disrespectful acts that women would do, such as gossip and he even rejects a dance with Harriet which is extremely rude. Enough about Elton, Austen also uses women as the more masculine and dominant figures throughout the novel as well, all of the women have some sort of influence, especially Emma and Mrs. Elton. By creating these strong female characters, Austen is trying to comment on the way that society works within that time period, both of those characters are activist of their time, and completely contradict with the roles expected of that time. Although with some of the other characters are used to confirm the stereotypical woman, such as Harriet and Jane, they are the weak characters who lives get taken over by the socialites of Highbury. This is how Austen makes commentary on the social structure and the feminine versus the masculine roles of the men and women throughout the novel.

This part of my blog I would like to discuss our Tea party, because I didn’t get to finish writing my response in class. The tea part was definitely a unique experience, I was lady Deburgh and I had quite a high title which gave some freedom to do what I wanted to do. It was really fun to experience what it would have been like in that time period. It was definitely very different from today, but I felt very constricted and limited in my actions.