Review on James Sherry's "Pride and Prejudice: The Limits of Society"

James Sherry’s article “Pride and Prejudice: The Limits of Society” raises interesting points ranging from the differences between society and companionship to the differences between detachment and extreme dependence on society. I enjoyed his opinion on Mr. Darcy’s letter in which his personal form of pride and reserve from society could very well be mistaken for snobbishness; however I’m not sure I agree with his views on the misunderstanding between “society” and “companionship.”

            Sherry defends his theory on Jane Austen’s definition of “society” as nothing to do with laws or traditions but rather as companionship. His examples do fit his definition of companionship, but they also agree with the widely-accepted definition of tradition and law. The first quote stating that younger sisters should have their share of society and amusement could very well mean that they should have experience in learning the rules of life. The next quote states that “Society has claims on us all,” but this could clearly mean that the rules of the community soon take their toll on the people, whether it be through stress or obsession with tradition. Although Sherry’s idea sounds logical within these examples, the common definition of society as “traditional laws” also agrees with the context of the sentences; therefore, Sherry should no be so quick as to disregard more common ideas.

            Sherry does, however, make a very interesting point as to why Elizabeth despises the prideful in the novel. As seen in the first ball, Elizabeth did not think anything of Mr. Darcy’s pride and arrogance, rather she laughed at his indecency. Once she begins to listen to outside voices, such as her mother or Wickham, she rapidly transforms her laughter into dislike for Mr. Darcy. Sherry states that Elizabeth dislikes the upper class not for their detachment from society, but rather for their dependence on society’s unwritten laws and traditions. This can easily be found in her heated conversation with Lady Catherine, when Elizabeth directly and logically attacks the upper-class views on society and marriage.

            Lastly, Sherry defends Mr. Darcy’s personality by stating “there may be a form of pride and reserve which differs from that of mere snobbishness.” This idea was sparked by Mr. Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth explaining his initial actions at the first ball. I found this very interesting because Sherry is indeed correct. There is a difference in Mr. Darcy’s behavior and the behaviors of Ms. Bingley and Lady Catharine. Mr. Darcy may have pride, but his personality in his first appearance was due to his quietness and the fact that he knew no one at the ball. Ms. Bingley and Lady Catharine, on the other hand, had pride as well as cruelty towards the lower classes. Clearly, there is more than one form of pride.

What's Love Got To Do With It?

            I chose to research the word "love" for many reasons. For one thing, I rarely see "true" love today anymore. Instead I see sexual attractions based on physical appearance rather than internal beauty. I believe that love is not only a strong desire for another (physical, mental, and internal) but also a desire that will last forever. Love is not something that will change every day, month, or year.
            Examples of love and day-to-day, physical attractions can be found in literature as well. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, we see "love affairs," but is it correct to call it a form of love? There was no sense of desire or emotional passion for the other in the novel; Lady Bertilak instead tried to use physical appearance for a one-night-rodeo. In Beowulf, we also see a form of love, but not for another person: it was a love for action, war, and Beowulf himself. I believe that Beowulf's love was true because he was obsessed with his passion for fighting monsters.
            However, if you look at modern day, you see people saying "I love this movie," "I love that song," and "I love that guy" left and right. I've been thinking about this for a long time; do people really "love" these things, or do they "really like" them. I admit, I've said, "I love this movie" and "I love that song," and it turned out that I forgot about them after a month or so. I never "loved" them, I just "liked" them at the moment. I am interested in researching the word "love" to understand why people overuse this word and if it will ever regain its meaning. Many people say, "Wow, hate is a strong word." Well, the word "love" is just as strong, perhaps stronger, and it should be given respect.

Frankenstein and a Critique of Imperialism: by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

• Creates an image of a “Third World”

• Feminism: Frankenstein competes against woman as the maker of children and maker of a new Eve.
• Father is unable to produce a daughter- roles of males and females have been switched? Man tries to overrule woman in her roles of society
• Henry Clerval (associated with practical reason in the novel) states he will visit India for entrepreneurial rather than missionary reasons. Shows European interest for the east and their desire for business and not moral purposes.
• Ariel Safie: the Christianized “Arabian.” Father is victim of bad Christian religious prejudice- therefore is wily and ungrateful. Mother is good Christian who is morally refined. Everyone is victim of human cruelty, even foreigners. Imperialism encourages this cruelty, stereotyping, and racism.
• Frankenstein tries to tame monster by humanizing him and bringing him within circuit of Law. “This is the being whom I accuse and for whose seizure and punishment I call upon you to exert your whole power. It is your duty as a magistrate.” By this time, we have grown to pity the monster for his hardships. We know that the monster has properties which will not be contained by proper measures (the authorities / man). When we hear that the law / man will be suppressing the monster again from this freedom, the reader is angered that man continues his cruelty against the monster.

A Tale of Two Knights: Sir Gawain and the Dark Knight

             The Olde English tale of Sir Gawain and the Greek Knight set the bar for classic stories of chivalrous knights, and this standard can still be seen in modern-day superheroes. Batman, or the Dark Knight, shows courage, strength, and justice, but not by superpowers. Instead, he uses intelligence, muscle, and his wealthy background to save the world. Due to this natural ability to save the world, to break, and to sometimes succumb to evil-minded women, Batman is similar to Sir Gawain himself.

            Both heroes have the ability to save the world due to strength and intelligence, and respond to challenges on behalf of others. Batman fights to serve for the people of Gotham City and to fulfill his vow of revenge upon evil. Sir Gawain fights to serve his lord, King Arthur. What makes Sir Gawain and Batman stand out is the fact that they are the only people to stand up against evil fearlessly. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight asked for a battle against one of Arthur’s men, but “the court kept its counsel.” Sir Gawain was the only knight to stand up bravely and fight in the name of his king. Similarly, Batman is surrounded by a world of crime from a very early age. When his parents are murdered by such crime, he vows to save Gotham city from evil; however, he alone stands up against the many villains, which emphasizes his valor.

            Sir Gawain and Batman also share the usage of weapons, gadgets, and symbols, rather than natural superpowers. In order to destroy the Green Knight, Sir Gawain

Grips to his ax and gathers it aloft—

The left foot on the floor before him he set—

Brought it down deftly upon the bare neck,

…That the blade of bright steel bit into the ground.

Gawain also uses a shield throughout his journey to the Green Chapel. A five-pointed star is depicted on the shield, which symbolizes the five senses, the five fingers, and the five wounds of Christ on the cross. Batman doesn’t use an axe or any weapon that is deadly, which makes him more noble when capturing criminals, but he does have and use his Batsuit, Batmobile, and Bat-utility belt. The Batsuit as well as the Batmobile are used as armor and act like shields for defense. The Bat-utility belt is Batman’s weapon of choice, where he can choose from a wide variety of gadgets, such as Batarangs (a boomerang-like weapon), a Grapple gun (used to fire a bat-shaped hook attached to a wire), and Bat smoke grenades. None of the weapons can cause fatal damage, but they are effective in his fight against crime. Similar to Gawain’s five-star symbol, Batman also has an iconic image: the Bat symbol. The symbol has changed over many years, but every version contained either three or five major points, which is relatable to the mystical numbers, 3 or 5, in Medieval Romance. Not only are these heroes mainly victorious in their battles, they also fail in some of their challenges.

            Gawain and Batman are mainly known due to their victories, whether it be beheading the Green Knight or putting villains like the Joker behind bars; however, few remember their losses. When Gawain finally reaches the Green Chapel, he allows the Green Knight to hit him, but he flinches, stopping the Green Knight’s strong blow. The author described, “Had the blow he bestowed been as big as he threatened,/ A good knight and gallant had gone to his grave.” This scene reassures the reader that Gawain is still mortal, unlike the Green Knight, and it shows that there is a possibility of Gawain’s death. Although Gawain has the special, green girdle from Lady Bertilak that grants him safety from death, he returns it to the rightful owner, the Green Knight; therefore, Gawain never fully obtains immortality. Batman is also mortal and can be killed at any moment by the many villains he faces. One villain succeeds in destroying Batman. In the comic book story, “Knightfall,” Bane, the strongest and wisest villain Batman ever faced, broke Batman’s back, ending Bruce Wayne’s superhero career. Despite Batman’s armored suit, he is defeated by a greater, stronger force, similar to Sir Gawain almost being killed by the Green Knight. Batman, however, is destroyed by strength, and Gawain blames his misfortune, or so he proclaims, on female wickedness.

            Once Sir Gawain realizes that the Green Knight was the Lord of the hospitable house that once gave him shelter, he quickly blames the wife, who was doing her husband’s bidding. Gawain cries to the Green Knight:

And commend me to that comely one, your courteous wife,

Both herself and that other, my honoured ladies,

That have trapped their true knight in their trammels so quaint.

But if a dullard should dote, deem it no wonder,

And through the wiles of a woman be wooed into sorrow,

For so was Adam by one, when the world began,

And Solomon by many more, and Samson the mighty—

Delilah was his doom, and David thereafter

Was beguiled by Bathsheba, and bore such distress

Women are clearly seen as wicked and evil in this medieval story, and it is proven so through biblical references. Although Batman’s major enemies are male, there are a few women portrayed as seductresses. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Circe are all supervillains to Batman and their costumes suggest sexual temptations. Catwoman has even had relationships with Batman although she is mainly a villain, and Poison Ivy seduces Robin, Batman’s sidekick, into her evil plot in the 1997 film, Batman and Robin. Although men have evolved into the major supervillains, women are still present in the evil world, usually in a sexually tempting way.

            Sir Gawain, the classical knight, and Batman, the modern Dark Knight, have both set their similar marks on the world. Both use strength, intelligence, and courageousness in battle, and both seem to be tempted by wicked women. As time went on, however, superheroes became savers, not killers like Sir Gawain. Batman  can be seen a modern Sir Gawain with few changes, showing the evolution of the superhero.

Saint Caedmon

† Saint Cædmon †

• First known English poet
• Of British origin: name is Anglicisation of Welsh, Cadfan
• Story is told by Saint Bede the Venerable in Book IV, Chapter 24 of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People in Latin
• Cowherd. One night, he watched over the cattle and as he slept, a voice sang to him, and he sang back.
• He repeated the narrative as a harmonious verse to his masters. He sang the Creation of the World, the Origin of Man, and all the history of Genesis
• Became monk at Whitby
• None of Cædmon’s poems have survived, except the nine lines in Latin recorded by Bede and in the vernacular in an early version of the Ecclesiastical History:

“Praise we the Fashioner now of Heaven’s fabric,

The majesty of his might and his mind’s wisdom,

Work of the world-warden, worker of all wonders,

How he the Lord of Glory everlasting,

Wrought first for the race of men Heaven as a rooftree,

Then made he Middle Earth to be their mansion.”

• Importance: Latin was considered the only language of learning and culture, yet Bede found Cædmon’s English poetry as the “finest verse” and “sweetest song,” commenting that his Latin translation is unable to do justice to its “beauty and dignity.” Cædmon shows English’s beauty and importance.

Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time": Creating Justice for the Rejected

Over the summer, I wanted to read Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because I don’t usually read mysteries, making this a new genre. I normally read books in print format, but this year, I decided to do something different. This year, I listened to the audiobook to see if listening to a story orally makes a reader feel different from reading an actual book. After all, stories were originally created and passed down from generation to generation orally before they were written languages, and I wanted to see how society has changed from listening to stories, to reading words on paper. What I discovered was very interesting.

The novel is told from the perspective of a 15-year old boy with a specific type of autism. With that in mind, Haddon used grammar fitting to that of an autistic boy. The entire book was filled with short and straight to the point statements surrounded by many conjunctions, and the narrator digressed profusely into facts on science or humanity. If this novel were a musical, it would be filled with a staccato style that seemed chaotic. However, the narrator is very clear and certain on his thoughts and facts, and if dissected sentence by sentence, the story would be considered quite orderly. For example, Christopher, the autistic boy, created a system for predicting good and bad days. He wrote:

“Mr. Jeavons, the psychologist at school, once asked me why 4 red cars in a row made it a Good Day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a Quite Good Day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a Super Good Day, and why 4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day…He said that I was clearly a very logical person, so he was surprised that I should think like this because it wasn’t very logical.

I said that I liked things to be in a nice order. And one way of things being in a nice order was to be logical. Especially if those things were numbers or an argument. But there were other ways of putting things in a nice order. And that was why I had Good Days and Black Days.”

This description seems simple when taken apart, but when put together, confusing and chaotic. I found the idea of a book filled with orderly pieces, yet being so chaotic, fascinating. It made me question the ideas of the enlightenment era: humans strive for order, but can too much order be chaotic? Haddon has proved this question true.

Another aspect of listening to this story brought up other fascinating points. I listened to this book out loud everywhere, including the car and a radio, so my family could listen to the story as well. What I found intriguing was when my father started getting a little annoyed at the boy when he used prime numbers for chapters, digressed into other topics, wrote in a staccato style, and described orderly subjects chaotically. My father’s annoyance made me realize, that this story is actually a mirror to the reader. It will force the reader to look at his or her actions when reading the novel, and the reader will realize that he or she is becoming annoyed over something that isn’t “normal”. Life is not normal due to human nature, for the order of being normal leads to chaos, as Haddon examined.

With the reader feeling unsatisfied with an “abnormal” story, the novel also shows the reader his or her rejection to humans with defects. My father was annoyed at the style in which the boy spoke: filled with straightforward statements and conjunctions, yet that was how the boy thought. Since he had autism, his mind did not function as a “normal” human’s would. This novel showed me that man has continued to deny the “abnormal” equality in society. I found this novel moving and eye-opening, and I hope that this novel will bring those looked down upon justice.

My list of favorite books and plays

Lonesome Dove- I absolutely everything to do with the American West, and that means western novels. I chose Lonesome Dove for my ID paper last year, and I fell in love with the story. I could always picture in my head what was happening because of McMurtry’s use of imagery. I also loved the fact that McMurtry did not give in the popular cowboy myths and kept the story realistic and believable.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- This book opened my eyes in analyzing literature. I loved the hidden meanings within the novel that really made me think. I also loved how it depicted society and how I could actually see similarities between the 19^th century modern-day societies.

The Catcher in the Rye- I loved this book because I could definitely relate to Holden Caulfield. I know I always wish I could go back to when I was younger, and enjoy a lifetime of an innocent childhood, but I cannot. I cannot be a catcher in the rye, so I must go on with life, and live it to the fullest. This novel makes me want to try new things, because I know I cannot change or return to the past.

The Shootist- I love this western because I truly believe it shows the death of the American West. In a sense, it reminded me a lot of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I always enjoy books that study society/ humanity

“Othello”- Since I love novels that study humanity, I love Shakespeare tragedies. I find it fascinating when a character slowly starts to destroy him- or herself. In “Othello”, I was interested in witnessing the struggle of a man, his journey, and his eventual downfall.

“Macbeth”- As I said, I love Shakespeare tragedies, and I found it fascinating to read the journey of a man whose actions lead to a guilt, which lead to insanity.

“On Golden Pond”- This play always makes me cry. It is similar to Catcher in the Rye in the sense that the protagonist does not want to get old and fears of death. I like the fact that at the end of the play, the protagonist stops worrying about death because he knows it will happen anyway. Instead, he starts to enjoy life and have no regrets.