Tyler’s blog

Edmund brings up a serious point in the second scene of the first act of King Lear.  Do bastard children have as much right to somebody’s lineage as those who are legitimate?  For royalty, it is hard to see because of the scandalous issues.  But what really makes a family is a parent and their child they raised.  If Edmund had not lived with or was not raised by Gloucester then he should have no right to any lineage unless
Gloucester says so.  It is a lot more complicated when you are actually raising the child and still denying him a legacy.  But it does not matter what he or she deserves, or what is by all means right.  We do not live in a society where everything is fair.  The only one who can make the decision is the person who has the ability to pass on this legacy, in this case, being
Gloucester.  And if
Gloucester wants to give his legacy to one son over the other, then they have to put up with it. There is no say in the matter.  Even if
Gloucester said both his children should not receive anything, then neither of them gets anything.  Blood and lineage does not matter.  Edmund’s schemes may prove him unworthy, but for earthly possessions, worthy is determined by the one giving it out, and no one else. 

Rape is the act of having sex with somebody by force without their consent and usually through violent action.  Rape has taken on that meaning in modern times, but rape used to also mean to take away.  With two meanings of rape, which one did Alexander Pope mean to use in his title The Rape of the Lock?  Can we see only one meaning for rape if we read the poem, or are both meanings relevant in describing the plot and action taking place?  For the lock of hair, it may be taking away or stealing it, but you can see that the Baron is stealing the lock for sexual pleasure because of the Baron’s admiration for Belinda’s beauty.  Sex and even rape itself can be seen throughout the poem.  Pope blatantly uses sexually allegories everywhere, even when describing the lapdog Shock.  Sex is a major theme in the poem, and even though it is supposed to be used in a humorous sense, it is hard to look past what the raping of Belinda’s lock could in fact mean the violent and appalling action that has taken over the meaning of rape in our society.  Whether or not you disagree with its meaning for the title, and even if Pope is trying to make fun of the situation, rape is stealing and that is truly apparent in the poem.

Believe it or not, it was the Adam Sandler film Little Nicky that first showed the devil to me in a different light then what I was used to.  The devil is supposed to be some great evil beast who feasted upon men’s souls, but in this portrayal the Devil was more of a dungeon keeper in charge or torturing the evil souls as if it was a job.  Other portrayals have shown Satan corrupting men for their souls, persuading people to do evil acts so that he would have them in hell.  Yet I still wondered if this “ultimate evil” may not in fact be “evil” in our sense of the word.  And I figured out that he is not.  Satan is more so a voice then anything else, telling us what to do, just as God is supposedly doing.  As
Milton portrays in Paradise Lost, Satan is an extremely complex character.  His rebellion from God’s will is seen more like a slave rebelling from their masters.  So could you compare Satan to an African American slave from the 1800s or a Hebrew slave from the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome?  Because Satan wants to be in charge, does that make him such a bad guy?  Is Satan actually looking for freedom, or does he in fact want to dominate?  I can bring up a million questions on reasons to both condemn and defend Satan, but whether he intends to corrupt mankind or not, he’s still doing his job, just as men do their 40-or-so an hour job per week.

Adonis is an ancient Greek god, so his garden in The Faerie Queen would be given pagan qualities.  Yet Adonis is not just some random Greek god.  This god was originally mortal and died only to be reborn as a god.  The similarities to the tale of Christ enable two conclusions.  Either Adonis is Christianized by Spenser because of their similar resurrections, or Christianity itself may in fact possess some pagan traits that Christians of Spenser’s age either did not realize or chose to ignore.  On the surface of the mythology, Adonis himself was supposed to be one of the most beautiful men and later gods in all of Greek mythology.  Thus the garden is given the name “theGarden of
Adonis” specifically for its beauty.  If we were to say that this garden was a replica of the Garden of Eden, then the

Superstition ruled
England well before Christianity took over as the major religion of the country.  Many of the pagan traditions and holidays integrated into the Christian religion, including the Winter Festival in Twelfth Night.  Uncanny behavior usually takes place during this time; such behavior that many die-hard Christians would consider work of the Devil.  This satanic behavior can be seen in Twelfth Night as trickery, deceit, and, of course, disguises are used by the characters in the play in order to get what they want.  Going back to the first stories of the Bible with Adam and Eve, the Devil disguised himself as a snake in order to trick the two innocent souls into disobeying God.  Stories of the Devil’s trickery with disguises continue to be seen, not just in the New Testament, but in the mass media as well.  During the festival in Twelfth Night, men and women both behave uncannily.  Women, like Viola, would disguise as men.  Romantic attractions occurred outside of one’s estate, like Malvolia’s attraction to Olivia. Also, homosexual attractions with both men and women occurred, like the attractions of Antonio and Sebastian, and the near-homosexual attraction between Olivia and Viola.  These strange things are “not what God wants.”  In the end, there must be order in the Tudor society.  People cannot be attracted to the same sex, people cannot marry outside their own estate, and, in order for things to work out, there must not be any sort of disguise or deceit going on.  Only something demonic can cause these extreme abnormalities, and the Tudors needed an ending like the one Shakespeare gave in Twelfth Night to allow them to feel at ease with the lives they live. Only the Devil would break the norms.   

Greed. Pride. Wrath. Envy.  Deadly sins of the Christian religion, these were damnable crimes against morality.  Yet for pagans and those who believe in other religions, beliefs and ideas, sin is not a word that they would know, nor would they even understand it.  The use of text for propaganda has been seen throughout history, and Beowulf is no exception.  You can clearly see Christian influence in the writing and you can also see their separation from brutish paganism and the noble Christianity.  Power corrupts.  Those who disobey the Lord and sin are damned.  Some of the Seven Deadly Sins are seen throughout Beowulf.  Grendel let himself become envious of the Danes revelry which lead to his wrath against the Danes and ultimately his doom at the hands of Beowulf.  Had Grendel not let his jealousy get to him, he may have lived peacefully.  He would still been alive period.  As for Beowulf, he let greed and pride kill him.  He was greedy for power, glory and the dragon’s riches.  He was prideful in his own abilities and for his kingdom that was being besieged by the dragon.  Such pagan thoughts and impulses ended these character’s life, and you can see Christian undertones in the writing to sway people such as the Danes and the Anglo-Saxons against their pagan ways or be doomed to face similar fates that both Grendel and Beowulf faced.