Khattum-Shud

“Haroun and the Sea of Stories” covers many of the things we have studied in class. It is a hero’s journey, complete with spiritual guides and mystic weapons. Haroun’s quest helps him find happiness and heal those around him. “Haroun” contains an anti-hero in the form of Mudra. When Haroun first comes upon Mudra, Mudra seems like a foe, someone that Haroun will go up against. He is scary in appearance, with his reverted eyes, and he is first shown fighting his shadow, something that seems wrong and terrifying. Mudra seems like he should be a villain but he turns out to be an ally for the land of Gup. In this way, he is an anti-hero. We expect him to be a villain but he is a good guy. The book also features a lot of magic, an element often found in traditional hero stories. “Beowulf” contains mystical creatures like Grendel, and Beowulf fights with an ancient, magical sword. “Haroun” is set in an otherworldly place known as Kahani, a moon. Here, there a talking fish and floating gardeners and ships made of shadows. Haroun uses some Wish Water and a Bite-a-Lite to accomplish his odyssey. The book contains a female hero, something that we have not really looked at. Blabbermouth is a strong woman. Men do not daunt her. When she and Haroun have an argument, she holds her own and wins. Because “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” is a hero cycle and features properties from all of our units, it is a good story to end the semester on.

You think it's easy for a girl to get a job like this?

There are indeed contemporary female heroes. There’s Wonder Woman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and, my personal favorite, Sydney Bristow from “Alias.” There’s also Neytiri from “Avatar,” Trinity from “The Matrix,” and Lyra Belacqua from “His Dark Materials.” Women can certainly be heroes, but they’re not always valued for being women. Sometimes, women are encouraged to act like men if they want to succeed. Mulan in the Disney film “Mulan” is forced to dress as a man in order to join the army and fight for her country. Without her disguise, her adventure would have never taken place. Other times, women are congratulated and recognized for having talents commonly associated with men. Medea in Euripides’s play “Medea” is praised for “thinking like man.” “Wow,” some of the men of the play exclaim when she talks to them. “You use logic when you argue. You think like man. Remarkable!” The assumption that traits like strength and intelligence are inherently masculine is degrading and rude. Too many times, heroines are admired just for their looks and sexuality. Just type in “female comic book heroes” into Google Images, and you’ll see what I mean. Heroines in comic books have ridiculous proportions and wear outfits that I really don’t think could handle much crime fighting. If female heroes are valued for their femininity, it’s more for what their sex entails than for what they can do to help raise the female population.

Where Am I to Get a Second? I Have No Friends.

In Part One, the underground man explains that he is a man of acute consciousness. He overthinks and overplans and usually ends up just making people angry because the decisions he ultimately chooses are poor ones. He decides to go to the dinner party where no one likes him and ends up insulted and low. After the dinner party, he is consumed by thoughts of revenge and plans out a whole encounter in his head. “I’ll pull Olympia’s hair, pull Zverkov’s ears!” the underground man declares. Such feelings mirror what he felt after his encounter with the officer. Just like with the officer, the underground man lets the dinner party eat at him and depress him. However, because of his acute consciousness, nothing really can be done. He stews and envisions violence but cannot act on his thoughts because he is not a man of action. Instead of facing Zverkov and his friends, the underground man visits a brothel and has an odd conversation about love, marriage, and children with a prostitute. The underground man thinks that one can be happy in marriage, especially if the marriage is born from love. He also states that he would be jealous of any man a daughter of his married. “I should be jealous, I really should. To think that she should kiss anyone else!” His thoughts on marriage surprise me; the note about daughters does not. From what he had written about in Part One, I would not have thought that the underground man was one who believed in happiness from love. He seems to only believe in pain. Because of his vanity, though, it would make sense that he would be jealous of his daughters’ husbands. He wants to think that someone can only love him, and no one else.

Every Sort of Consciousness, in Fact, is a Disease.

The narrator in “Notes from Underground” is spiteful, odd, and tedious. He talks for a while about his past as a “spiteful officer” who “was rude and took pleasure in being so,” only to later retract his statement as a lie. “I was lying from spite,” he explains. Such switches of truth and untruth grow tedious to the reader. He goes on to say that he was a weak officer, tormented to the point of retreating from society, and now he lives out his days underground. He seems to hate the world, for “it is only the fool who becomes anything,” and he is not a fool. Despite his spite and the odd handling of his problems, he claims to be a decent man and assures the reader that if they “bring him a doll to play with… maybe he should be appeased.” However, the narrator takes pleasure in his pain and seems quite beyond appeasement. He wallows in self-pity and enjoys each moment of painful movement. He let the poor condition of his life eat at him until “at last the bitterness turned into a sort of shameful accursed sweetness, and at last— into positive real enjoyment!” His pain and eventual enjoyment is caused by all that is “sublime and beautiful,” so it seems our narrator will never be content. He also appears to believe that change cannot happen, and so one is not to blame if one is a bad person. One cannot stop or alter one’s bad thoughts and so must be forgiven for being bad. “One was not only unable to change but could do absolutely nothing. Thus it would follow, as the result of acute consciousness, that one is not to blame in being a scoundrel.” Earlier he states, “I did not know how to become anything,” so his philosophy on change seems to only be an accommodation for himself and his own inability to grow and change.

Oh, I am spoiled, undone by villains!

“Othello” ends with an outpouring of death and sadness. The characters that died did not deserve their fate, but I do not have great amounts of sympathy for them. Othello’s death is tragic, but he was a fool to blindly accept all that Iago told him, even if Iago seemed trustworthy. Right after Iago told Othello of Iago’s “suspicions,” Othello should have gone to Desdemona and asked her for her story. If he loved her as much as he claimed, he would have waited for her reply and considered her word the truth and forgotten Iago’s falsities. If Othello had chosen to actually communicate with Desdemona, his death and the deaths of others would have been circumvented.

Like Othello, Emilia acted unwisely throughout the play, especially when she gave Iago Desdemona’s handkerchief. She knew of her husband’s slipperiness and yet blindly aided in his plan. She should have asked him what he wanted the handkerchief for before allowing him to snatch it. Roderigo showed signs of doubt in Iago’s plan and yet continued following him. Despite their lapses in judgment, Emilia and Roderigo died unjustly. Desdemona is the only character completely free of sin and fault in “Othello.” Her death is wholly and thoroughly wrong. She loved Othello with great fervor, and I felt awful when Othello strangled her because she deserved light and happiness, not terror and murder. Iago, however, deserves nothing but murder. He is quite one-dimensional as a character, focused entirely on himself and his own gains. He is cruel and manipulative and semi-psychopathic in how he feels no remorse for his victims. I can only hope he gets the torture the governor alludes to at the end of the play. I never really connected with Cassio, and so I feel neither pity nor sorrow nor joy for him. He survives the bloodbath and is named commander of Cyprus, and I think he deserves this new role. He seems to be a good man and will make a strong ruler.

Nothing in my life is like “Othello.” Iago and his plan spur on “Othello," and I do not know anyone evil or jealous enough to concoct and carry out such a scheme. Jealousy is a major theme in “Othello,” and jealousy plays some role in everyday life, but not to the extreme it does in the play. Sometimes I say things to people that are born from jealousy, but I’ve learned to evade the green-eyed monster, and mostly the serpent forgets me. The jealousy that is felt by Iago, Othello, and Roderigo is exaggerated and unlike anything ever seen or experienced by me.

Birdlime

At the end of Act I, Iago explains that he will tell Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Othello believes Iago to be a good man and so will believe what Iago tells him. Othello will be crushed by Desdemona’s apparent unfaithfulness, and Cassio will be discredited. With Cassio and Othello in the throes of scandal, Iago hopes to be nominated lieutenant, and Roderigo hopes to get with Desdemona.
After the first two scenes of Act II, Iago’s plan seems to be coming together. When Desdemona arrives in Cyprus, Cassio greets her by taking her hand and kissing his own fingers, considered a sign of politeness. These gestures of courtesy seem very innocent, but if looked upon in hindsight through a lens searching for infidelity, Cassio’s greeting will appear telling. Cassio also leans his head forward to whisper something to Desdemona, which could appear suspicious. Iago believes that Cassio has some amount of affection for Desdemona, which only makes Iago’s plan more possible. Iago is intelligent and quite manipulative, able to make people think he’s an honest person when the opposite is true, and his plan will likely work.

Beowulf and Luke Skywalker-Two Blokes Fighting for the Cause

Despite living ages and galaxies apart, Luke Skywalker and Beowulf have a lot in common. They are both fierce warriors who fight for a cause they believe in. Luke fights to destroy the evil Galactic Empire, and Beowulf fights to relieve the Danish population from Grendel’s reign of terror. They are courageous men who take on tasks that would daunt and destroy lesser men. Slaying a dragon and obliterating a battle station the size of a small moon would take indescribable amounts of courage, and Beowulf and Luke master these tasks. Both men have a strong sense of faith. Beowulf believes in God, and Luke has faith in the Force, a magnetic field that surrounds everything and can be manipulated. Beowulf’s faith in God pushes him through his battles, and Luke’s trust in the Force guides him through his trials. It is ultimately with the Force that Luke is able to destroy the Death Star.

Beowulf, however, is always a willing hero. He willingly leaves his home of Geatland to travel to Denmark to fight Grendel. Beowulf heard the story of the Danes and wanted to help rid them of their monsters. Luke is at first an unwilling hero. He doesn’t want to partake in the quest presented to him by Obi-Wan Kenobi. After the murder of his uncle and aunt by Stormtroopers, though, he joins the quest to seek revenge for their deaths. Beowulf goes on his journey to help innocent people. Luke starts his journey with hate. Soon, though, Luke comes to know the cause of the Rebel Alliance and joins it. Beowulf, by the end of his journey, is a master of two worlds. He has freed Denmark and comes to rule Geatland. Luke isn’t master of two worlds by the end of “A New Hope.” He is a man just beginning his journey. Beowulf completes his journey by the end of “Beowulf.” Both men are heroic because they fight for hope and freedom and accomplish these tasks.

Wiglaf

Wiglaf is much like Beowulf. He shows “inborn bravery and strength” and is extremely honorable and respectable. Wiglaf is also remarkably loyal and kind. As Beowulf lies dying after the dragon’s defeat, Wiglaf cleans his wounds and tends to him. When Beowulf dies, Wiglaf goes through with Beowulf’s wishes and has a funeral pyre built, adorned with “helmets, heavy war-shields, and shining armour, just as [Beowulf] had ordered.” Wiglaf’s reputation as a good man remains untarnished even after he chastises Beowulf’s men for abandoning Beowulf in his time of need. The men wholly deserve the lecture, and the reader is glad Wiglaf uses such blunt language. Like Beowulf, Wiglaf is honorable and heroic but shows an additional sense of softness that seems to only magnify his strength. He concedes that Beowulf dealt the killing blow to the dragon, which frames Beowulf as the greater man. Wiglaf did not have to admit this and could have claimed the kill as his own. Instead, he speaks the truth and shows honor and loyalty to Beowulf. His kindness comes through when he cares for a dying Beowulf and fulfills his wishes.

Unferth's Story

Unferth, a minstrel in Hrothgar’s court, insults Beowulf because he’s jealous of Beowulf. Unferth “could not brook or abide the fact that anyone else alive under heaven might enjoy greater regard than he did.” Beowulf is a revered warrior, and Unferth is an entertainer. This divide bothers Unferth greatly, and so he discusses Beowulf’s swimming match with Breca in an attempt to degrade him. After Unferth finishes his story, however, Beowulf insults Unferth, by insinuating that he’s a sot, and retells the story, turning Unferth’s tale of failure into an account of bravery. Beowulf begins his retelling by stating, “Well, friend Unferth, you have had your say about Breca and me. But it was mostly beer that was doing the talking.” Beowulf goes on to say that Breca and Beowulf did indeed have a little competition amongst the waves, but it soon turned into an epic battle for survival. Beowulf was routinely attacked by sea monsters during the competition and ended up killing nine monsters. Eventually, the competition was forgotten, and although Beowulf neither won nor lost the contest, he became a stronger man because of it. Beowulf finishes his account by declaring, “Now I cannot recall any fight you entered, Unferth, that bears comparison. I don’t boast much when I say that neither you nor Breca were ever much celebrated for swordsmanship or for facing danger on the field of battle… The fact is, Unferth, if you were truly as keen or courageous as you claim to be, Grendel would never have got away with such unchecked atrocity… [Grendel] knows he can trample down you Danes to his heart’s content… but he will find me different. I will show him how Geats shape to kill in the heat of battle.” Beowulf, by insulting Unferth and turning Unferth’s degrading words into words of praise, proves himself to be a better, stronger man than Unferth. Beowulf comes off as intelligent and manly when he puts Unferth back into his place, and so the whole episode with Unferth acts only to further bolster Beowulf’s status as a hero.