Language in Shakespeare

Helena (1.1 ln. 181-193)
Call you me "fair"? That "fair" again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue's sweet air
More tunable tan lark to shepherd's ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. Oh, were favor so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go.
My ear should catch your voice. My eye, your eye.
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
Oh, teach me how you look and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.

Apart from the first line, this entire soliloquy is in rhymed couplets. According to Debora Schwartz, this signifies that this particular soliloquy is meant to construe a moral or give advice. However, the passage appears to be an expression of yearning, with Helena verbalizing all that makes Hermia the epitome of perfection. She makes it apparent that she desires to possess all of the same traits as Hermia, so as to ensure that Demetrius falls for her.

War Is Kind

Stephen Crane's poem, 'War Is Kind,' portrays an optimistic attitude towards war--an attitude that is often absent in poems of this subject. Even though the poem is meant to express the good things that come from war, the individual words and sentences that make up the poem draw images that are anything but positive.

To be continued...

Scholarly Research: Quotes

"When translated into implications for society at large, nearly 50 percent agree that homosexuality, as a corruption of society, can cause a civilization's downfall" (Klassen/Levitt 32).
Since this article was published in 1970, the information within it preserves the attitude that existed at the time towards homosexuality. If this same question were to be proposed to today's American society, it is likely that a much smaller percentage of people would see homosexuality as potentially causing a civilization's downfall.

"Substantial majorities agree that homosexual men should be allowed to work in the arts and in artistic occupations, but almost equally large majorities believe that they should not be permitted to engage in professions of influence and authority" (Klassen/Levitt 32).
The use of these outdated statistics supports my thesis because I'm arguing that progress has been made in the societal acceptance of homosexuality. The mindset that gay men are only suitable for a very limited number of occupations is likely a thing of the past; today, the controversy surrounding homosexuality seems to be centered around whether or not they should be allowed to marry, not which jobs they should be allowed to hold.

"The traditional view based on the study of homosexual patients is that homosexuality is a neurotic disorder" (Barr/Catts 213).
More recent articles will show that homosexuality is no longer thought of as a neurotic disorder. I think that my paper will benefit from elaborating upon the events that took place in order to dismiss homosexuality as a neurotic disorder. This event is important because it shows that the public is able to accept homosexuals as "sane" people; they function the same as heterosexuals in nearly every way aside from their attraction to the same sex.

"The psychological adjustment of homosexuals and their psychiatric treatment are made unduly difficult by existing community attitudes. The acceptance of homosexuals by society is slowly increasing, but could and should be facilitated by reform of existing laws against homosexual acts between consenting adults in private" (Barr/Catts 214).
Society's former views of homosexuality have been difficult to alter because they are seemingly solidified within the culture. This may be why acceptance is becoming more commonplace from generation to generation; each new generation is able to establish their own standards for what is culturally acceptable.

"Characterizing hostility toward homosexual persons in terms of a phobia implies that those attitudes are based upon an irrational fear" (Herek 2).
Never before had I noticed the heavy connotation that the word "phobia" holds. The implication that homosexuals are something to be feared is almost incomprehensible to me, as I'm sure it is to many others of my generation. The likening of homophobia to an irrational fear seems absolutely inane.

"Lesbians, gay men, and their supporters eventually pressured the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as a form of mental illness" (Herek 2).
This article is more recent than the article that addressed the traditional view of homosexuality as being a neurotic disorder. I intend to figure out what happened between the date that the other article was published (1976) and the time when this article was published (1984), as this event was powerful enough to cause the American Psychiatric Association to change their classification of homosexuality.

Multigenre Research Paper: Thesis

Society’s perception of homosexuality has undergone tremendous changes throughout the past century. What was once considered entirely repulsive and blasphemous has recently become much more acceptable. If we as a society continue on this path of acceptance, it is likely that discrimination against homosexuals will become a thing of the past.

Mouse, Mice, Maus

In my response paper, I proposed this question: Why did the author decide to portray his characters as animals? Is the story anymore enhanced because we see animals instead of people? Even though there is not a clear, distinct answer to this question, it isn't difficult to speculate an answer as to why. When reading a graphic novel, the reader is constantly aware of the appearance/demeanor of the characters because of the fact that they are illustrated on the page; they don't have to be concocted in our minds. On pages 100-103, the panels take on a different artistic style and, instead of the main characters being portrayed as mice, they are portrayed as humans. These panels are much more intense and darker than the rest of the graphic novel. When the mice are replaced by humans, the effect of the story is heightened. The reader cannot help but to feel more sympathetic and affected because they see themselves in the characters. When the characters are mice, it's much easier to separate oneself from the story entirely.
Pages 100-103 showcase the comic that Artie drew about his mother's suicide. It is immediately clear that the mood that is to be derived from these panels differs greatly from the rest of the novel. The background of these pages is black instead of white and the illustrations are much more detailed. After seeing animalized characters for 100 pages, the emotion seen on the characters' faces when they are human is almost startling. Even though this comic-within-a-comic is only three pages long, it seems considerably substantial to the rest of the novel. Also, seeing the characters as humans opens up a whole new world of questions. Are the characters that we've grown to know so well actually human? Why would Artie choose to illustrate this short comic in a way that differs greatly from the rest of the novel?
Perhaps these are questions that are to be left unanswered, but one thing is for sure: the use of animalized characters is deliberate and an important factor in determining how we interpret the story.