Oroonoko and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

           Oroonoko starts out with a disclaimer of sorts with the writer explaining that she isn't going to pretend to entertain the reader “…with the adventures of a feigned hero” and that most of what is said, she has witnessed herself. I think the writer does this to lend more credibility to her story although I’m not exactly sure why she needs it since it’s a work of fiction in the first place. Also, I’m not sure whether the narrator is Behn herself or if it’s a completely different person.

          When Oroonoko meets Imoinda, it is love at first sight. They decide to get married and are happily in love. That is until Oroonoko’s creepy King Grandpa sets his eyes on her and turns her into one of his concubines. What kind of grandpa does that to his own grandson? Then when Oroonoko sneaks in to meet Imoinda, the King finds out and sells her into slavery! Whoever said that with age comes wisdom was wrong because that clearly doesn’t apply to everyone. Instead of just being a man and telling Oroonoko what he did, the King decides to lie and say that he killed Imoinda. I feel so bad for Oroonoko, first he meets the love of his life and then his grandpa steals her away and “kills” her. He must have felt horrible that he couldn't do anything to stop the King from taking her away from him and that he couldn't protect her. It can’t get any worse for Oroonoko right? Wrong! Then he gets kidnapped into slavery after being nothing but hospitable to this English captain. Poor Oroonoko…

Locked out of Heaven

This book revolves around the Devil's fall from heaven and the aftermath that follows due to how the Devil feels. 

One part that I found particularly important was the juxtaposition of the Devil's life when he was in heaven and then how it was when he fell into hell. One line I thought really described this well saying how he once had the view of an angel but now all he sees is this dismal dungeon, where there is constant fire and he is trapped here for an eternity. This reminds me of a rags to riches story but in this case it would be riches to rags. The devil had everything he could possibly need in heaven but due to his own actions, he fell from heaven and ended up in hell. The problem here lies in that the devil didn't think it was his own fault that he ended up in hell and blames it all on God. Imagine losing everything you have and believing that it was caused by someone else's doing. You would be pretty upset too.

How did the Devil end up in hell you may ask? Well, he wanted to be just as powerful as God was and take his place. The Devil talks about how he will never bow down to God as it is better to reign in hell than it is to serve in heaven. Basically the devil would rather be his own ruler in misery than a servant in happiness. He viewed God as a tyrant over heaven who needed to be dethroned so that he could be God and rule over the universe. This reminded me of people during this time seeing their rulers as tyrants and not wanting to follow them too. I think more important than the devil viewing God as a tyrant, is the fact that the devil would not have been happy serving in heaven no matter who was in charge as he isn't happy serving anyone but himself. 

When the Devil and his followers were cast out of heaven, it enraged the Devil. It then became his sole mission to ruin any good plans that God had for the world. He talks about how doing ill towards others will be their sole delight and how they will think up things that will offend God the most. I wonder if the Devil had actually managed to dethrone God, if his plans for the world would have been good. I'm not sure if the devil was inherently evil or if being kicked out of heaven made him evil in order to spite God.

So These Three Witches Came up to Me...

       One day Macbeth and Banquo are just walking along when BAM, these witches appear out of nowhere and proclaim to them that they are going to be kings. Now if I were them, I would be really freaked out and probably run in the opposite direction. The news that they would be kings probably helped them not to run away though. Banquo was definitely more suspicious of the witches than Macbeth but I think this could be because Macbeth wanted to be king more than Banquo. I wonder why the witches told them this information in the first place? Banquo mentioned how they might have told them because it would lead to their demise which I think is a real possibility but maybe there could be an alternative reason.

       Once Macbeth hears the prophecy, it seems to be all he can focus on. When King Duncan tells how the Prince of Cumberland has been named heir to the throne, Macbeth realizes that he stands in his way of the prophecy coming true. I don't know what his plans were for the prince but I can't help to think that Macbeth would not consider such a plan had the witches not told him that he would be king in the first place.

       I find Lady Macbeth to be very power hungry and scary. As soon as Macbeth tells her of the prophecy, she automatically starts to plan King Duncan's murder. Why get rid of the prince when you can just go all the way and kill the king, right? It sounds really messed up when she tells Macbeth of her plan to kill him and just tells Macbeth to act natural and like a little flower when he comes over to their home.

How Macbeth is supposed to act before the murder

       Upon thinking over his wife's plan, Macbeth realizes that the act of murder doesn't just end when the person is dead but comes with lasting consequences. He realizes how messed up it would be to kill Duncan considering how much Duncan trusts him and how he has never wronged him. When Macbeth tells his wife that he changed his mind and didn't want to kill him anymore, Lady Macbeth became really mean. First, she calls him a scared little kitty. Then she says how she would bash out her own child's brain while it was breastfeeding from her looking up and smiling, if that is the promise she made to him so he shouldn't go back on his word to her. I think after being chewed out, Macbeth acquiesced to her plan because he was afraid of her and kind of still was thinking about how great it would be to be king. After what she said, I would be afraid of her too.

Lady Macbeth

Macbeth

Sheep Hater

          For a work of fiction, Moore seems greatly concerned that it be factual in nature. It seems strange to me though since Utopia doesn't really exist why he needs to add information such as where it exists on a map to the story. I'm also a bit confused on why the theologian says he wants to go to Utopia. Does he not know that it isn't real? 

          I find it interesting how when talking about Raphael's travels, he mentions how Raphael didn't talk about the mundane things that were everyday occurrences but how he talked about "...well and wisely trained citizens..." who were "...not to be found everywhere." The use of the word trained makes it sound to me that Moore thinks citizens and civilization should be robotic, like a well oiled machine. This is concerning to me because people are not robots and never will be. Is this the kind of society he envisions for Utopia? 

          When Raphael was discussing England's problem with thieves, he brings up a couple of interesting points. One is that due to sheep farming, people are being run off of their land and have no choice but to beg, as their services as farmers aren't needed once they are off the farmland and have no other skills to offer. It seems to me that Raphael has a real problem with capitalism in the sense of the big guy squashing the little guy. I don't know if this means he believes in a society similar to socialism. Another point he brings up is that since all of the land is being taken over for pasture, whole towns are destroyed, "...leaving only a church for a barn." I see this as Raphael finds it important to have spaces within towns for citizens to better themselves such as a library or a park. I find it interesting that he starts off the passage not by attacking the sheep farmers but by saying how terrible the sheep themselves are, those greedy little man eaters. What does he have against sheep?

How Raphael imagines the sheep.

She's a Man Eater

The Wife of Bath (Alisoun) strikes me as a very headstrong independent woman. She knows what she wants and doesn't let anyone or anything get in her way. 

During this time period, I feel that Alisoun acts in direct contrast to what is normally expected from a woman. For one, she feels that women need to be in control in their relationship with their husbands. She talks about how she basically had her husbands wrapped around her finger to get what she wanted out of them. She has a deeply rooted need for this control which I'm not entirely sure from where it stems from but it could have something to do with her mom. She mentions in line 576 that she convinced Jankin that he had enchanted her saying that her mom had taught her that trick. Maybe her mom had the same mindset because her mom taught it to her or perhaps something happened to cause her to be this way. Will we ever find out? I don't know but it is interesting to think about. I'm also a bit confused on why Alisoun had to fake that she was enchanted by Jankin but mentioned that he was the only one that she actually married for love. If she actually loved him, shouldn't she have been head over heels for him? 

She also has a very strong sexual appetite which I feel was frowned upon for women during this time. There has a been a lot of mention about Christianity in CT and Alisoun seems to use it to fit her own personal agenda of what she thinks is right (not to say that others haven't done the same thing). Alisoun doesn't seem share the same interpretation that others had during her time on the topic of sexuality. While it's clear that she believes in God, she questions where others got the idea that they were commanded to be virgins as it doesn't really mesh with the idea of marriage. She also uses the Biblical tales of Abraham and Jacob to defend her choice in having multiple husbands, basically saying if they could have a bunch of wives, why can't I have a bunch of husbands. Again, I think this goes back to Alisoun being a free spirited person. Not in the "make love, not war" sense but more in the sense of "take what I want when I want it."

Visual representation of Allison sizing up her next prey- I mean husband

I was not completely surprised at the fight she had with Jankin that happened towards the end of the prologue simply due to Alisoun's personality. I believe the book that Jankin would read came off to Alisoun as a personal attack because all it did was blame women for everything bad that happened to their husbands which directly contradicts everything she stood for in that women were to basically be worshipped and rule over their husbands.

Beowulf Wins! Then Dies...

First I want to address this dragon. When it was talking about how the dragon was setting fire to the town, it reminded me of the dragons in Game of Thrones only instead of protecting their mother, this dragon was protecting itself from thieves. I kind of feel bad for the dragon because he was just trying to protect his treasures but he kind of went off the deep end and started burning the town down which Beowulf could just not let happen. I'm really interested to know where all of these non-human/supernatural foes keep coming from? Is there a set amount in the world that they live in or do they spawn from some foreign world? If it's the latter, they will be fighting these monsters long after Beowulf's death.  

Beowulf really should have heeded that warning not to let all of his successes go to his head, because maybe he would still be alive. When he was preparing to fight the dragon, the narrator talked about how he was not afraid of this fight because he had already "...crushed Grendel and his kin in combat,..." (Line 2353). I know how facing your fears/enemies head on is seen as a good thing in this society (which in some cases I agree) but Beowulf's fight with Grendel was not easily won. He especially did not "crush" the fight with Grendel's mom where he almost died. In this instance, choosing to quit while he was ahead would have been a much better option. 

I'd also like to address Beowulf's terrible soldiers who just abandoned him when he needed them the most. I understand not wanting to fight against a huge dragon because you don't want to get eaten by it, but the job they signed up for of fighting with and for Beowulf literally could have been that same situation everyday. At least there was Wiglaf who stood by Beowulf's side even though he could only offer "...a little life-protection..." to him (Line 2877). I completely agree that the ten traitorous soldiers shouldn't receive any treasure and be stripped of land rights but I think it's a little extreme to punish everyone in their tribe. It kind of reminds me of the three generations of punishment that North Korea imposes on those who they feel have betrayed the government. The only ones who should be punished are the soldiers.