Emily's Super Cool Blogs (try to enjoy!)

Write about anything having to do with The Merchant of Venice that you did not already write about that interests you.      In The Merchant of Venice something that interested me was that when Jessica and Lorenzo decided to elope. I think that this was something that was very uncommon thing to do in the 16th century.  I feel as though Jessica would have been judged by a lot of women and obviously her dad. Women usually had big eventful weddings in the 16th century and what Jessica and Lorenzo did was very strange. When they eloped I would have liked to see other characters reactions. I thought this was interesting because there weren't many reactions to the elopement. People in the 16th century defiantly didn't elope and they didn't want to on a norm.

Q: At the end of the play, social order should be restored. One facet of this in the 16th century is men having dominance over women. Is this true in this play? Who has the upper-hand, and why? Provide textual evidence. Out of all 20 characters there are only 3 women. These women were Portia, Nerissa, and Jessica.  The women in The Merchant of Venice had a big role in the play and were not like the women in the 16th century. They are more like the women in our community today. The women in the play were strong, independent, and modern.  These characteristics would be thought of as proper to women during the 16th century.  It is true that men in the 16th century were dominant over women but in this play I believe that they were quite even in social status. They help their husbands like a women in the 16th century old but they didn't just do housework or come to events with them. The women chose to help their husbands and fight with them. Portia and Nerissa tricked their ...

Q: Who owns the narrative in the play? In other words, is this play more about Antonio (the merchant of Venice) or Shylock? Discuss who the protagonist and antagonist are and why.       I think that the narrative in the play is Antonio because he is the Merchant of Venice, but I also think that Shylock has a really big part in the play.  This is because he is the antagonist and without an antagonist the play wouldn't be very interesting. Shylock is a kind of stereotype which is a bit overemphasized.  Shylock also wants to kill his daughter which is pretty bad.  Antonio is very innocent and is just going through life without giving people a hard time and he is accomplishing things.  I think that Antonio is the protagonist.  I think that there are a lot of protagonists in this story and mainly one antagonist.   

Emily Routbort Dr. Quillin ELA 01 February 2017 Blog post #14  Q: In Act 1, we are introduced to the major characters in the play. Which one do you find most interesting and why?           In act 1, scene 2 I found that the most interesting character was Portia.  This is because she was so picky about the person who she was going to marry.  Any girl would be picky about who they were going to marry but she had some interesting reasons as to why she wouldn't marry any of the suitors. Examples are; one of them was too fond of their horse and another was too serious. She also had a weird way of how she was going to choose her husband. That was if they chose the right box. I think that was kind of bizarre because in most old stories women chose their husband by seeing who was the most athletic or stunning. The punishment for not choosing the right box was that the suitors could not marry anyone. I think that Portia was very interesting in...

Write about something that you have not talked about in the Odyssey. In the book, The Odyssey, I thought it was very strange how the story gave so much detail of how Odysseus killed the suitors. I believe that this made Odysseus look very gruesome and not at all king like. In my opinion I don't believe that a king should act like how he did.  Not to mention the killing of the women was also very gruesome.  This might have been because it was so long ago (Not that it actually happened) and that we aren’t really supposed to put logic into our thoughts when reading this book.  I would have liked to see what happened to Odysseus if the fathers of the suitors didn’t have a spell of forgetness casted over them.

In Book 19, why do you think Odysseus is so harsh on Eurycleia after she recognized him? Eurycleia is Odysseus's old maid or caregiver. She knew him from his the beginning of his life. In book 19 I too had the question of why Odysseus was so harsh on her.  I believed that he was harsh on her because Penelope was in the room when the maid was washing Odysseus.  Odysseus didn’t want Penelope to figure out that he was himself rather than a swineherd. I don’t understand why he took her by the throat when she has been nothing but kind to him. Odysseus didn’t know that Penelope was shielded from knowing who he was by the gods, which might have been the cause of his abruption towards Eurycleia.

Find three examples of formulaic language (include them here) and explain how you think these might have been helpful when singing or speaking the Odyssey in the oral tradition. Throughout the book, Odyssey, there are many examples of formulaic language. Three examples that I saw were; godlike Odysseus, Athena the Grey-eyed One, and red-haired Menelaus.  The reason for formulaic language in this book is to remind the reader who the character is. In the Odyssey, there are so many characters and the formulaic language helps people remember who that character is. Formulaic language gives imagery as well. I think that formulaic language can help people when singing the Odyssey because of how long it is and would be to sing it. It emphasizes the character's role and in general, who the are.