Last Blog!

I think the part of my writing that has improved since the beginning of the semester is that I am better able to come up with an arguement and argue my opinion better than I was at the beginning.  This improvement will help me throughout the rest of college.  I found the proposal and the gists to be helpful.  They were somewhat easy to write, yet they got your brain thinking and strategizing about what you final paper would be.  I believe the final paper was the easiest to complete once I got an actual arguement because it was easy to show how Mephistophilis was changing throughout Dr. Faustus.  I also understood this play better than any of the other pieces of literature we read all semester.  The lessons I found to be most beneficial were the grammar ones especially the commas, semicolons, and colons.  These made me better understand how and where they are to be used.  I do feel more prepared to write college-level papers because I believe my grammar has improved along with being able to come up with an arguement and defend it.

April 1st Poetry

I think the song "If I Were a Boy" and the Poem "Sexism" kind of relate to each other.  They talk about how opposite men and women are.  The song shows how if women were men for a day they would act differently because they know how they want to be treated.  Men have a little bit of an idea how women want to be treated, yet they don't know exactly because they have never had that experience.  In the poem it shows how even if a woman knows her husband is cheating, the best moments in her life are when he comes home to her because she is no longer alone, yet a man's best moments are when he leaves his mistresses house because he doesn't have the problems and stress that come along with being in a committed relationship or marriage.  He got his pleasure, yet he doesn't have to deal with the drama.

"The Flea"

My interpretation of this poem is that the flea represents a baby.  I believe that the first stanza is about the woman denying the the narrator sex, yet once the commit the sin of premarital sex they conceive a baby.  When it talks about the two bloods being mingled, I protrayed that as them having sexual intercourse and the baby being conceived through the combination of their "blood".  After they commit this sin, they do not feel any guilt or shame, they would rather celebrate.  From the second stanza, it seems as if the couple is unmarried and the parents do not agree with their relationship or with them having a baby.  Between the second and third stanzas, I find that the couple is contemplating committing suicide and taking the innocent child's life too.  Because of the sin, they feel like they will forever be ridden with the guilt of what they did and the child is just an obvious reminder of it.

Poetry

Poetry was not a big part of my English classes in high school, actually I don't remember ever doing poetry.  I do though remember having to write simple poems in elementary school.  I also believe that we learned about some of the different types of poems.  We also learned somewhat about the different parts that make up a poem, but it was a very simple lesson since we were in elementary school.  I don't really have a favorite poet or poem because I don't read poetry unless it is for a class.  A poem is a short work of literature that is highly artistic, they also sometimes rhyme or have some structure to them.

Magic

I found our discussion on how Faustus used his magic throughout the play interesting.  He never actually used it for his original purpose, instead he used it to play tricks on the characters throughout the play.  I believe he used his magic in this way because he was afraid of what the consequences would be if he actually brought back the people, but he also could not let his gift go to waste, so he used it to play jokes hoping that he would not have to deal with the consequences of using magic and if he did they would be less.  The magic also shows how childish and less human like Faustus is becoming throughout the play.  You would expect a child to use magic to play pranks, not a grown man.  Without the use of magic by Marlowe, I do not believe the point that Faustus was becoming childish and almost becoming the joke of the play would have come across as strong, or even at all.  Faustus's use of magic was the main thing that pointed out how he was becoming less of a person.

Comical Relief

The part from the play and from our class discussion that really stood out to me was the scene with Wagner and the Clown.  At first I was like most of the class and did not quite understand why this scene was in the play.  I was a little confused by it and just thought that it was a pointless scene just thrown into the play.  Through the class discussion, I realized why this scene is in the play.  This scene was put into the play not only to lighten the mood, but also to show the reader how ridiculous Faustus's requests really are.  Without our class discussion, I might not have ever realized why this scene is in the play.  This scene gives the reader a little break from the seriousness of the play, and it also helps the reader to gain insight into what is happening in the play.

Mephistophilis

The one part from the reading that really sticks out to me is the character Mephistophilis.  He sticks out to me because he is a complex character.  At times he seems like he is a good devil (if that is even possible), yet he is still a devil and servant to Lucifer.  Sometimes I wonder if he regrets his decision to go against God.  This character works to achieve this effect by being perceived one way, yet acting another.  The reader expects him to act like a normal devil and try to persuade Faustus to go against God and come to hell, yet it seems like he is doing the opposite and warning Faustus about what happens in hell and how even when you are not technically in hell, you are still in a hellish state.  It will be interesting to see how Mephistophilis changes throughout the play.  Will he keep warning Faustus about what hell is like or will he change his mind and encourage Faustus to come to hell?