Sunday, 27 October 2013

Romeo & Juliet: Healthy&Unhealthy Relationships

Healthy:
 Juliet and the nurse. 

  Their relationship is like mother and daughter, the nurse has and will always be there for Juliet and  Juliet will always seek approval and support from the nurse throughout her life. The nurse cares about Juliet more than Juliet's mother and father, she cares about Juliet's happiness as well, which doesn't include marrying Paris and she will always love Juliet as if it was her own child. 
Juliet always goes to the nurse for advice and looks at her as the motherly figure she has always wanted, but never had. In act 3 scene 2 after Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished, the nurse was still supportive of Romeo and Juliet's love, so she agrees to go find Romeo to comfort Juliet. 
"Hie to your chamber. I'll find Romeo to comfort you: I wot well where he is. Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night: I'll to him; he is his at Laurence' cell." 

Unhealthy:
 Capulet and Juliet. 
 
 Their relationship is not at all what a functional father daughter relationship is supposed to be like. The father is supposed to support his daughter in her decisions, but guide her at the same time. Capulet made no effort in accepting Juliet for the way she is and what she wants for herself. Juliet didn't care about Paris wether he had money or not and Capulet shouldn't have gotten angry with her when she didn't accept his hand in marriage. 

  Yes, Capulet did tell Paris that Juliet is a little bit young to be getting married and told Paris to try and get Juliet to actually like him before they got married, but still that's not being considerate of her feelings that's making sure he doesn't have to listen to her whine about how she doesn't want to marry Paris anymore. He doesn't want to be a father to her, he wants to control her and the future of his family line and to do that,  he will do whatever it takes. 

  After Tybalt's death Capulet and Paris discussed what day Paris and Juliet will be married and decided to do it on the Thursday, so Capulet told Lady Capulet to tell Juliet when her wedding is. After Lady Capulet told Juliet, Capulet asked about what she said and Lady Capulet told him that Juliet didn't want to get married to him and his response was,
 "Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday, Or never after look me in the face: Speak not, reply not, do not answer me; My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest That God had lent us but this only child; But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a curse in having her: Out on her, hilding!" 

  Basically he is saying that he wishes she wasn't born because she is disobedient and disappointing because she won't marry Paris as he wants her to so he can make his family line better off and she is the only thing stopping him.

  To Shakespeare, the type of relationship that the nurse and Juliet had was probably the most common because back in that day in age every higher end family would hire a nurse or a nanny to take care of the children and to pretty much raise them while the parents continued on with normal lives and hosted a lot of parties. Even though Shakespeare wasn't on the highest level of social standing, he probably still thought that it was a normal thing to see a nurse act as a mother to the children from birth, especially when, as a lower class person, you tend to notice or pay more attention to how people higher than you in social class are living their lives and doing things. 

Friday, 18 October 2013

Romeo's Thoughts on Love

Love... I used to think it was painful. Love was "Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears." But at the same time it was "A choking gall, and a preserving sweet." I loved Rosaline but, "She'll not be hit by Cupid's arrow," by me at least. Every night I went to sleep wanting to cry because "She will not stay the siege of loving terms." I couldn't go on like this, but after I went to that party I forgot about that b***h because I met Juliet and she's so hot, like "a snowy dove trooping with crows." Now I think love is wonderful and there's nothing like it! Even though now I know Juliet is a Capulet, I don't care. I got her to kiss me and now she's duped, so am I. 

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Interim Report

  So far, English 10 has been good. My effort in this class has been pretty good. I have completed all assignments on time, but my contributions to this class haven't been as good as I would have hoped. I don't comment on a lot of posts and I don't link anything to the wiki more than necessary. I complete every assignment with great thought and effort to the best of my abilities. One of my assignments that I am most proud of is the opening paragraph to my essay on the "Poems and Being a Teenager Connections."  When working with the time given in class, I get all work completed within that time frame. I am always here on time, or at least before Mr.Neuf ;p I have missed a few classes, but those were excused due to appointments. Overall, I am a good student with good attendance and good work ethic, but I could improve in contributing to the class by commenting more.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Poems & Being a Teenager (the connections)

  In English many people learn about relationships, but most of the time, they only learn about one type, love. Not every poem or story has to be about love and many of the ones I have read aren't about love at all, at least not the storybook ending kind.  

  Being a teenager has to do with struggle, love that doesn't always work out and "how well you walk through the fire." When it comes to school, relationships and growing up there's always struggle, wether you passed that science test, when you get in a fight with a family member because they say you need an attitude adjustment or just struggling to find out where you fit in or what you want to be when your older. 

  Relationships are a huge part of being a teenager and a huge part in life. Some last a month and some last a life time. There are many different types of relationships when you are a teenager. There are boyfriends, best friends, just friends and family. Not all of them can last forever and I think that's where many people get the wrong idea about poetry. 

  Poetry isn't always about love, happiness and how great life is. Most of the time it's about pain, sorrow and how most of the time, things don't work out as well as you had hoped for. That's where the first poem came in, " How is Your Heart?" It was about how he has struggled in his life. My favorite line in that poem was, " It's about how well you walk through the fire."  I can connect to this because  life and being a teenager are all about how well you can cope and deal with the pressure.

  All three of the poems we read are about the not so happy parts of the writers' lives. The first one was about his struggle and hard times, but he was, in a way, accepting of the fact that he's ugly, can't get girls and just has a tough life. The second poem was about the writers bisexualtity,  how he was in the minority and how the only relationship he could have with a man or a woman, depends, was the perfect one he imagined in his mind. The third one had to do with the land she grew up on, which was most likely native land, and how the land may not have belonged to only her, but she still felt like it did in the sense that it felt like her home. 

  The second poem we read, "To a Stranger," can connect the best to every teenager because everyone has a picture of the perfect life and relationship in their mind that they can only dream of. There's always that one person who you can't get out of your mind and with hormones going crazy at our age, that story that is being told in that poem perfectly protreys every teens thoughts about that "one person." 

  Being a teenager is a lot like a poem, heartache, struggle, pain, sorrow, love and overall it's a lesson to be learned.