The Importance of Being Earnest Writeup

     In many works of literature, a physical journey from one place to another will often serve a role central to the development of the story and the work as a whole. Usually this is achieved by developing a character (or characters) over the course of this journey through overcoming obstacles, achieving goals, or other similar experiences that by the end of a work have caused a total transformation of the main characters. In The Importance of Being Ernest a physical journey is clearly evident, as are the achievement of goals and overcoming of obstacles; so it is expected that the development of the main characters would be equally evident. This development however, doesn't really exist, and the unbelievable lack of change in the main characters after such a journey serves, in conjunction with the evident satire and irony, to highlight the pettiness of the Victorian era.
     The first act of The Importance of Being Ernest takes place at Algernon's flat in town. This segment of the play establishes that just about every character is extremely shallow and flawed in their ability to be serious. Algernon thinks little of bunburying, the topic of marriage (generally a very serious and exciting subject) is mentioned occasionally but pushed to the side by Jack in favor of cucumber sandwiches, and both Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen appear to be cookie-cutter representations of characters. The only quality about them that seems to be well developed is their ability to be polite. Naturally these huge gaps in character allow potential for immense personal growth in the coming acts, Gwendolen herself even suggests this, saying: "Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions."
     Act two moves the setting to Jack's garden at the manor house in the country. With the shallowness of the characters established and the main conflict brought to light in the first act, this change of setting in the journey is where most of the development of the characters would normally take place; except it doesn't. Algernon goes bunburying as Ernest and tries to seduce Cecily, and becomes involved in a conflict with Jack as Cecily becomes involved in conflict with Gwendolen. These conflicts would ordinarily be very serious, and in many other mediums this situation would allow the characters to recognize certain aspects of their personality and behavior and change them, but in The Importance of Being Ernest the growth of character that would normally occur as a result of these conflicts is stunted by the focus on trivial matters such as the proper way to eat muffins, and the hereditary nature of severe chills.
     Act three takes place in the manor house morning room, and serves as the conclusion to the play, as well as a conclusion to the journey. At this point in the journey, the goal should be in sight and the character (or characters) should have a better understanding of themselves and the world around them; a visible change and improvement in character should be seen from where they were in the beginning of the journey. Here, in this last act, it is easy to see that no such change has taken place, and that each character is just as petty and undeveloped as they were in the beginning of the play. Algernon and Jack have almost completely forgotten about their differences and are just as lighthearted and laid-back as they were at the beginning of the play; every character continues to utilize pithy, almost meaningless aphorisms; and no character has recognized the silly pointless nature of their conflicts. This conclusion is the complete opposite of what the conclusion of a journey usually signifies, and it serves to emphasize how shallow the people of the Victorian era and their manners were, as well as how unaware of it they seemed.
     Where a physical journey usually results in a significant change in the attitudes and behaviors of the main characters, the distinct absence of development or personal growth in the characters of The Importance of Being Earnest at the conclusion of a physical journey serves to emphasize how appallingly shallow and not-at-all-earnest the people of the Victorian era behaved.

Poetry Writeup

     "The Tiger" by William Blake (pg. 346) is a poem composed, for the most part, in trochaic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of aabb. Throughout the poem a tiger is described similarly to a machine, crafted with fire and hammer and anvil, the rigid rhyme and meter contributing to its mechanical nature. The intense imagery displaying the "fire" in the beast's eyes and the sinew of its heart, and the alliteration in lines 1, 4, 5, 11, and 16 emphasize the power and primal ferocity of this creature. In addition to this, the poem repeatedly asks what being would dare to create this terrifying beast, eventually questioning whether this was the same god that could create something as gentle and harmless as a lamb, leaving the implications of that unmentioned. I found this poem to be similar in nature to "Design" by Emily Dickinson, in questioning the nature of a creator figure, though that's just the impression I received, and I'm sure there are several others.
     "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman (pg. 418) is a poem of a different fiber. The anaphora in the first four lines is used to intensify the speakers boredom. This, combined with the lack of varied diction, is contrasted heavily in the latter half of the poem which utilizes powerful imagery to describe the speaker wandering out of the meeting to stare in solitude at the night sky. The lack of implied explanation contributes to the beauty of a moment which cannot be explained with proofs and figures and chart and diagrams, or one that may have something removed if it were to be explained in such a manner. What I took from this, is that there is something awesome and enthralling in the unknown, and that if you seek to explain it, you may lose some degree of appreciation for it.

We Writeup

     Recently, I was required to read Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, which blatantly criticizes the communist regime that the Bolshevik revolution inevitably became; aside from this however, I found myself drawing certain parallels between One State and a certain religious institution that I feel should not be ignored in light of Zamyatin's background. Scattered throughout the novel I found passages that bore an uncanny resemblance to certain Christian and biblical concepts. take for instance, the Benefactor, to whom the citizens of One State exalt and sing hymns of praise as practically every given opportunity, doesn't it seem a little reminiscent of  the God depicted in the bible and worshiped in the christian faith? this Benefactor character also gives the citizens of One State the "Table of Hours," a series of codes by which the citizens of One State must live their lives, almost like... the Ten Commandments! Furthermore, One State plans to use the Integral to "Go out and tell the good news!" a message that seems inseparably linked with Christianity. Add to this the resemblance the Guardian's Bureau bears to a clergical body, and the disturbing similarity that D-503's confessions to S in the second to last chapter bear to a scene in a confessional. Take all of that and put it in a blender with the pre-existing negative nature of the book and a metric ton of liberal interpretation and I think that you have a case for criticism of organized religion as an underlying theme. Organised religion was something that the Bolsheviks (a group Zamyatin strongly supported initially) especially disliked, so it makes some sense that Zamyatin would criticize it to some extent, even if potentially unintentionally. It is also a distinct possibility that Zamyatin drew these parallels to highlight the religious nature of government that Communism had taken on, and to further demonstrate how far the party had strayed from its Bolshevik roots.

     One of my favorite lines from We was one that i ran into fairly early on-

"The State (humaneness) forbade the killing to death any one person but didn't forbid the half-killing of millions."

This line, I found particularly humorous and ironic, because in attempting eliminate certain essential aspects of humanity from its citizens, such as emotion, One State is effectively half-killing millions of people.

Overall I personally really enjoyed We, although I don't think i could accurately place exactly why. It may have been the broad spectrum of possible interpretations, as it could have been seen as either political commentary, religious criticism, a book about a guy with woman troubles, a retelling of the fall of man, or what have you; it may have also been the ceaseless references to a whole manner of things mathematical or otherwise. Over all of these however, I think I enjoyed having an unreliable narrator the most; I thoroughly enjoyed getting D-503's perspective on this society, actually NOT having all the facts that an omniscient narrator would, and I found D-503's descent into madness highly interesting.