Mr_Shank

I felt that in honor of our last blog, I would put the last spoken words of our last play. Here is the passage:

Puck:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

My questions are as follows:

1. Why did Shakespeare have Puck say these lines?

2. What does Puck mean by it?

3. How does this passage help complete the play?

4. Why did Shakespeare use this passage as the last words of the play?

5. Finally, what type of poem are these last lines? How are they a poem?

There is my final blog for you this year!!

-Jenni Kantor

Fin

Alright, this week we read Act III. The passage that I found was actually quite interesting Please read it and answer the questions that follow:

Titania:

Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! And Mustardseed!

 [Enter Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, andMustardseed]

Peaseblossom:

Ready.

Cobweb:

And I.

Moth:

And I.

Mustardseed:

And I.

All:

Where shall we go?

Titania:

Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
And light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,
To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.

Peaseblossom:

Hail, mortal!

Cobweb:

Hail!

Moth:

Hail!

Mustardseed:

Hail!

Bottom:

I cry your worship’s mercy, heartily: I beseech your
worship’s name.

Cobweb:

Cobweb.

Bottom:

I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with
you. Your name, honest gentleman?

Peaseblossom:

Peaseblossom.

Bottom:

I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your
mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good
Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more
acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?

Mustardseed:

Mustardseed.

Bottom:

Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:
that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath
devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise
you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I
desire your more acquaintance, good Master
Mustardseed.

1. How did Bottom use each fairy’s name to help plant them into his memory? (How did he make fun of their names in a matter of speaking?)

2. Where do the fairy names come from? (You may have to look this up.)

3. Do you think that Bottom will try to escape? Why?

That is all I have for you!

-Jenni Kantor

Here is a passage from the very beginning of the story:

The questions for you are as follows:

1.  Do you feel that the above conversation is an appropriate start for a comedy? Explain your reasoning please.

2.  Why do you think Shakespeare started out with this conversation?

3.  Can you relate this situation with any of the books that we have read in Mr. Shank’s class? Are there any connections that you found to Romeo and Juliet?

Okay, so as you all know, this is the last Dracula blog. All I have to say is even though it had its tedious times, Dracula was a book worth the read!

Now my passage for the last blog comes from the chapter twenty-three from paragraph four. It is words of a conversation between Harker and Van Helsing (also known as “The Professor”…). With Harker starting, here it goes:

Harker groaned and said, “And this is all arrayed against my darling! But how is he experimenting? The knowledge may help us to defeat him!”

“He has all along, since his coming, been trying his power, slowly but surely; that big child-brain of his is working. Well for us, it is, as yet, a child-brain; for had he dared, at the first, to attempt certain things he would long ago have been beyond our power. However, he means to succeed, and a man who has centuries before him can afford to wait and go slow. Festina lente may well be his motto.”

My first question for you is: how does this paragraph turn Dracula from a powerful monster to a simple id? Why?

The second is: Why do you think that the author, Bram Stoker, sought to insert this information into the readers’ (our) minds? Does he have a motive or just trying to add interest to the story?

My final question is: What does the phrase Festina lente mean and why is it a good motto for Dracula?

There is my LAST Dracula blog for you!

-Jenni Kantor

Okay, I have a very odd set of questions this time around, so do not yell at me! This first passage of the story is from the fifteenth chapter from Dr. Seward’s Diary on September 27:

I answered: “Do not press me too hard at once. I am willing to accept. How will you do this bloody work?”

“I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body.” It made me shudder to think of so mutilating the body of the woman whom I had loved.

The next passage is also from chapter fifteen but from September 29:

“Agreed!” said Arthur; “that is only fair. And now that the pournarlers are over, may I ask what it is we are to do?”

“I want you to come with me, and to come in secret, to the churchyard at Kingstead.”

Arthur’s face fell as he said in an amazed sort of way:-

“Where poor Lucy is buried?” The Professor bowed. Arthur went on: “And when there?”

“To enter the tomb!” Arthur stood up.

“Professor, are you in earnest; or it is some monstrous joke? Pardon me, I see that you are in earnest.” He sat down again, but i could see that he sat firmly and proudly, as one who is on his dignity. There was a silence until he asked again:-

“And when in the tomb?”

“To open the coffin.”

“This is too much!” he said, angrily rising again. “I am willing to be patient in all things that are reasonable; but in this-this desecration of the grave-of one who—” He fairly choked with indignation.

My first question is not a question as so much a statment (Actually it seems to be more like instructions or a request). Both Arthur and Dr. Seward have strong feelings for Lucy. Compare and contrast their opinions on opening Lucy’s grave. Look back in the story for more details.

My second question is why do both men act the way they do? If you were this type of situation, how would you react and why. Give me opinions with your thoughts and with facts from the story, please.

There’s my blog for you!

-Jenni Kantor

Well, I have two paragraphs/passages for you, my lovely group. The first one is as follows:

The room was dark, so I could not see Lucy’s bed; I stole across and felt for her. The bed was empty. I lit a match an found that she was not in the room. The door was shut, but not locked, as I had left it. I feared to wake her mother, who has been more than usually ill lately, so I threw on some clothes and got ready to look for her.

This passage was in the very beginning of the chapter but it made me wonder early on and I could not get it out of my head. My question for you is what do you think that Mina thought when she discovered that her best and closest friend was missing from her bed? Do you think that she had a reason for thinking this? Explain your thoughts.

If you read the rest of that paragraph, there is an interesting situation. Mina finds Lucy passed out. What do you think that she was thinking at this point? Explain your reasoning please. By the way: Please excuse me from refraining to write the entire paragraph. It is in the eighth chapter and the first paragraph in the second entry. Look it up before answering! 

There’s my blog for you.

-Jenni Kantor

            First off, I want to say that I had my doubts (and still do, to an extent) about reading the book Dracula. I will stop complaining to you Brandon, at least refraining from complaining about this book. Other matters…I make no promises…

            Well, Bram Stoker is a very proficient writer, making well rounded characters and going into detail about the settings and other such things. I, as was written, am the illuminator for this little “excursion” of Dracula’s meanings. I found a passage on pages thirteen and fourteen, a very interesting paragraph. It reads as follows:

All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some particular effect on them. the horses jumped about and reared, and looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see; but the living ring of terror encompassed them on every side; and they had the perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman to come, for it seemed to me that our only chance was to try to break out through the ring and to aid his approach. I shouted and beat the side of the calèche, hoping by the noise to scare the wolves from that side, so as the give him a chance of reaching the trap. How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw his stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back farther still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again in darkness.

            I found this passage important because it is foreshadowing the coachman’s master, Dracula. It is relating him to the wolves and darkness, also managing to intertwine them to all of the superstition that Jonathan Harker has heard of. Why do you think that the coachman has power over the wolves? Do you think that Harker really did dream this? If the wolves are under Dracula’s power, why did he send them/ allow them to go after his guest and coach?

There’s my blog!

-Jenni Kantor

“Esperanza tried to kill herself. Estevan came to the back door and told me in a quiet voice that she had taken a bottle of baby aspirin.” Page 176 I find this quote very interesting because it comes at the very beginning of the chapter. This is how it starts out; the author gets right into it. It was a good way to open the chapter, if the author would want to grab the reader’s attention. What do you think about Esperanza trying to commit suicide? How did her actions affect the people around her, and the rest of the story?

“Will you look at that. It was another miracle. The flower trees were turning into bean trees.” Page 194 I thought this was important to the story because it involved the title again. Taylor is surprised that Turtle notices this and the tree actually changes. Why do you think that Taylor is amazed by what Turtle does? Also, what is the importance of the bean trees to the story, other than the title? Do they have a symbolic meaning?

-Dan

The passage that I chose for this week is a very interesting one, managing to be funny and serious at the same time. I found it on page 114, half way down. It reads:

“Lou Ann, I moved here because I knew we’d get along. It’s nice of you to make dinner for us and all, and to take care of Turtle sometimes, and I know you mean well. But we’re acting like Blondie and Dagwood here. All we need is some ignorant little dog named Spot to fetch me my slippers. It’s not like we’re a family, for Christ’s sake. You’ve got your own life to live and I’ve got mine. You don’t have to do this stuff for me.”

 ”But I want to.”

“But I don’t want you to.”

This passage is an important part of the story because it shows how much that Lou Ann is depending on Taylor and how much she had depended on Angel. Taylor treats this realization as you would expect a mother would react. Where do you believe this characteristic came from? Why do think her reaction was this instead of leaving Lou Ann to deal with it herself? What do you think would have happened if Tay;or never said anything? Do you think this confrontation will effect Lou Ann’s and Taylor’s relationship? Why?

There’s my blog for this week!

-Jenni Kantor