True Meaning of the "Rape of the Lock"

“The Rape of the Lock” is more of a epic mock because it is making fun of how they are taking something so little and making it into something as big as it was. One of the woman’s friends was trying to be the voice of reason and was like it's not that big of a deal, but everyone got upset with her and said it is a huge deal and got mad at the man. This is very true what the writer is talking about because it isn’t a big deal there are so many other things that are more important. There are many people who probably wish that there biggest concern was someone cutting a lock of their hair, but they have bigger things to think about. Once people realize that there is a bigger picture and how truly blessed they are to have their health and friends and family the better off they are. After the tragedy of what happened a few days ago it puts what they are so upset about almost a joke. There are a bunch of my friends that lost their homes because of the tornado and lost loved ones. So when something like this is as big as their making it out to be it makes people wonder how self absorbed they are that they only wonder about a lock of hair and how it is going to affect her virtue, which is her appearance. It puts things in perspective of how little things truly seem compared to the overall picture. I would give anything right now to be studying for exams with all my friends in the library today and to have my home and the home around me back and okay, but I had to evacuate and all my friends did too and things I saw when I helped out Thursday and Friday when I was there make something like the stealing of the lock of hair so silly compared to other things that could have happened to her.   

"The Rape of the Lock"

“The Rape of the Lock” is about a woman who over reacts because a creepy man cuts some of her hair as a keep sake for him. The important thing about the story is about how the women are outing make up on this woman. It was like she was wearing battle paint and getting suited up for battle. It shows in description how something simple as getting ready for a party was like getting ready for a battle. When the woman got to the party she started playing cards and that was like her battle and then when got her hair chopped off so that was like her being defeated. The title of the story is appropriate because it shows how she didn’t want anyone taking her curl and not only a curl her favorite curl. She felt like she had been robbed because back in the day the women were looked at by their beauty and their virtue. Once her curl was gone it was kinda like the man stealing her virtue. Her virtue was also something the spirits were to guard, but because they were not there, they fled when she was having improper thoughts about a man, she was vulnerable to the man to steal a piece of her hair and her virtue. This story is about how a man who is basically stalking this woman ends up stealing her hair and not only just her hair, but her virtue. She is so upset that she gets everyone upset and it really is like a battle because they are fighting for the woman’s lock of hair that was taken away from her and that is it is put as rape of the lock because it was taken not given.

"The Disappointment"

“The Disappointment” is the story through a woman’s prospected. This is an admirable story because women were ridiculed for saying stuff like this because it was a woman and she shouldn’t be writing about this sort of stuff. This shows how a man views it enjoyment and the woman views it as meaningful. This shows how the woman is confused and blames herself and the man, but the man only blames the woman. This is very typical of men because instead of taking the responsibility they blame it on others. Women actually take the responsibility and accept them, but men do not. This story is all about the difference in how men perceive sex and how women perceive sex. To women it is all about feeling and emotion that it is more than a hookup. For men it is all about the hook up and no emotion if it is just some girl they don’t care about. This story is more pro woman and how women can be like men sometimes too. Many women try to see if they can view any type of relationship like a man, but in actuality women have too much invested they have too much emotion to do that. Women are strong, but they have many feeling granted the woman that writes this is showing more f trying to approach this like a man than a woman, but still when it all comes down to it can you really do that without any feelings toward the other person. It is not something people can do with no emotion. If one cares about a person than one will not make it nothing they will make it something they actually care about.   

"The Imperfect Enjoyment"

“The Imperfect Enjoyment” is about a man who is kind of a womanizer. He goes around sleeping with these not so great women and when he does meet a great woman and sleeps with her he doesn’t enjoy it because it was too fast. He gets very frustrated and talks about his frustration because of this. This is basically showing how men can sometimes view sex. To some of the men it is nothing to them, but if they care for a woman it is everything to them. Like the man in the story with all the other women it meant nothing to him, but when he was with a woman that he actually liked and respected it meant everything to him. He beat himself up and wishing horrible stuff on himself just because he was so upset about how it went with the woman he liked. If it was any other woman he wouldn’t have cared less, but since it was a woman he cared about it was more meaningful to him. This shows how men can put on a front and say they don’t care that sex is just sex and that it really isn’t that meaningful to them, but this is proof that men who actually care and respect a woman care and want it to be perfect for that woman. Men are actually disappointed if everything is not perfect. Men are sometimes underestimated about not being sensitive and not caring about that stuff, but given a girl they care about they will do almost anything to make her happy even if that means being a caring and sensitive guy. They will just for that woman.

Paradise Lost: Casting out of Eden

In Paradise Lost there was two sides of the story one side shows them leaving the garden through the book and the other side there is a picture of Adam and Eve leaving the garden. In the book it says that Michael told Adam the future plans on what would happen and Adam felt better about leaving and then Michael the angel had to show them out of the garden. In the picture however it shows a different few of them getting cast out of the garden. It shows Eve crying and covering herself and Adam looks as if he is blaming himself and ashamed and the guardian angel of the garden looks mad and willing to fight if anyone tried to get in. There are two different sides of the story one is of Adam and Eve being okay with leaving, but still they are worried about what they are going to do and how they will survive and the next story is of Adam and Eve crying out in despair because they getting cast out of the garden. They way the first story shows it, it is more of a happier story than the second story because the second story is all about sadness and shamefulness and the angel looked like he wanted was really mad and could hurt, but the angel Michael in the story seemed sincere and helping Adam and Eve get through the casting not being mean at all unlike the second had done.

Paradise Lost: Eve's Temptation

In Paradise Lost Milton depicts Eve as a weaker being he shows how Eve was tempted by Satan. Milton shows Eve as a weaker being, but also a jealous being because after Eve ate from the tree of knowledge she first thought that she wanted to keep the fruit to herself, but she then realized if she kept this to herself God will find out and banish her from the garden and make a new wife for Adam. As much as she wanted to keep this from Adam knowing how upset he would be she ran to him and told him to eat it too so they would be in it together. Before Eve ran to Adam, Adam was making a flowered crown like thing and when she told him what she did he dropped it from his hand. This is kind of Milton’s way of saying Adam- man had Eve –woman up on a peddle stool in his head she was perfect, but once she did all of that she became imperfect in his eyes. When they met God as a punishment woman must be submissive to their husbands and I think woman are shown as the weaker being because of Eve’s temptation because she was tempted and she fell for it she became weak and because of her fall women were shown as being weak. Woman are suppose to be seen as the vulnerable ones and the ones that couldn’t handle anything and the one’s that need to be protected that may be true, but women are also very brave and can defend for themselves.

Paradise Lost book 4

     In Paradise Lost book 4 it is coming from satan and how satan is praying to God telling Him how much he hates Him. It also shows how satan was thrown out heaven because of his pride and his ambition. Satan goes on about how God didn’t deserve his rebellion because he is a just God and didn’t make things impossible all God asked of satan was to worship God and praise him, which satan said he could do because God rightfully deserved it. Even though God deserved it satan felt it was too much and that since he was such a high angel that is why he rebelled, but if were a smaller angel and not as important than he wouldn’t have fallen. Then it goes on to say how satan has gave up trying to take over heaven. In my personal opinion I think that this shows a view of Milton’s viewpoint on freedom of choice, but I still don’t think satan needs to be pitied because he understands what was wrong, but still did it. I think Milton shows the freedom of choice, but also shows the action that can happen from that choice good or bad. This story made me have mixed feelings because I liked the fact that it has freedom of choice in a religious perspective, but the part I didn’t like was the fact that it made satan look like he needed to be pitied, which I don’t agree with at all. Overall I agree with Milton’s view on freedom of choice and I think his view is very loud in his work.

Paradise Lost Book 3

     In Paradise Lost book 3 it talks about the freedom of choice and I know this is big wit Milton, but the part I don’t like about this story is why make Satan out to be pitied upon. In my own opinion Satan had the choice to follow Christ, but he decided not to and rebelled so I don’t think anyone should ever feel sorry for him. In Book three the main thing that is asked about is free will and the question you ask when you read it is why do we even have free will? I mean everyone has free will, but why did God give us free will when it is so easy to tell us what to do, but if God didn’t give us free will and just told us to praise Him then praising him would not be sincere. God wants our praise to be genuine and come from the heart that is why he game us our free will and the right to choose what we want to do. There is never real devotion if we were told what to do all the time I mean every day we have a choice right or wrong it is our choice and to me I like having a choice and knowing that I have the free will to praise God and go to church and that is my choice I don’t have to do it, but I want to and I choose to and ultimately in the end it is that persons decision to make and I think that’s what Milton was trying to say.

Sonnet "20"

In sonnet “20” you think Shakespeare is talking about how a woman is beautiful. He is actually talking about a man having a naturally more beautiful face than a woman because a woman puts on makeup and a man has none. I think Shakespeare is talking about a particular man in this story because he specifically says that the man has a brighter eye than a woman. It shows that he is praising a certain man. He is talking about his beauty and gentle heart. Shakespeare is comparing the man to a woman. He says that a man captivates a man’s eye and a woman’s soul, which shows how the man might be in a relationship with a woman, but secretly was in love with a man. It also shows just how beautiful this man is that he is stealing glances from men even not just women. It also shows in this sonnet how the people use to think that women were suppose to be men, but they didn’t form all the way in the womb so they ended up being women. This is shown when Shakespeare says that he was in the womb and was suppose to be a woman, but he got so much heat that he is a man. Shakespeare is basically just singing praises to this man’s beauty.  At the end of the sonnet Shakespeare said that since he is used for women’s pleasure let them have that, but all Shakespeare wants is his love. This shows how things were back then if you were a homosexual you had to pretend that you were straight in front of everyone, but secretly you can be gay. I think that this view point isn’t right and people should be who they are, but that is how they thought back then and I am glad it has changed since then.    

The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

The story about “The Wife of Bath” is argued to be about feminism. Some people say it is a feminist story others say it isn’t. I think it is a mixture of both feminism and non feminism. The story has parts where the woman shows her independence like when she says she married five different men an manipulated and cheated on them. Her first three marriages it was forced for her to be married and then her last two that was by her own choice. She says that her last marriage was to a guy that out of everyone she married she only loved him, which is very weird in my opinion since he beat her. In the story it shows how she wants to be portrayed as this powerful woman that wants to be independent and not live dependently on a man, but when she marries her last husband she seems far from the independent woman she wants to be. She seems dependent on her last husband who beats her and she still loves him. An independent woman wouldn’t put up with anything like that they would stand up for themselves and not a man beat and hit them. To me a feminist woman is someone who would never settle for cooking or cleaning for a man. What I think a feminist woman is the type of woman that would want to be treated equal or in extreme measures wanted to be treated higher than a man. The women in that time were considered irrelevant, but in some ways as best as she could the “The Wife of Bath” tried to an independent woman.    

The Poem on Marie de France's Lanval

One of my favorite texts we read this week was Marie de France’s poem “Lanval”. The reason I think I loved it so much was the fact it kept you entertained the whole time. “Lanval” is a love story and as a reader I love that because it takes you out of reality when you’re reading it. In a love story or a fairy tale story the knight always comes and saves the woman in trouble, but in this story Sir Lanval gets saved by his amie. It shows a twist to the traditional way of the woman being saved and instead the man had to be saved. This poem shows the female role as a more powerful figure instead of a weak and defenseless figure. At the end of the poem it say, “Swiftly he sprang the horse to straddle, And sat behind her on the saddle.” To me it shows how Lanval’s amie has the power because after she saved him and was leaving he jumped on the horses back even though she didn’t ask him to and she was the one in front and in charge not Lanval. She portrays a powerful, wise, and confident woman. This poem shows Lanval admiring her beauty and he wisdom. Lanval also shows his dedication to his amie when King Arthur’s wife tries to seduce him and he rejects her because of his love for his amie. I think this poem is a classic fairytale. The princess gets saved by her knight and they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. This poem however has a twist because instead of a woman getting saved by a knight it was a knight being saved by a woman. Overall I personally loved the poem because it showed a woman being powerful and having the control instead of the man. I also like it because I love fairytales and this was definitely something that got you out of reality and put you in a fairytale.