Fool

Good nature is stupid. Nature is mean, don't let her fool you. Being merry is another story altogether. We all grew up in the forest, it was beautiful. Our adolescence was where they began to take hold of our innocents. They were very influential. We knew they outnumbered us so we just gave in!!! 

All Good Artists Seem the Same

Through the narrative technics of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, we are introduced to Jane and Emma, two nineteenth century God-fearing girls, maturing into ambitious, knowledgeable and productive women of the future. By thrusting strong hearted, risk taking, fierce female characters into the position of the protagonist in their novels, both authors helped push together the lines of inequality between men, women, the rich and the poor. Their intent to develop and reinforce the audience’s sense of class and distinction strengthened their relevance in the world of arts and education then and now.  Embarking on a mission to inform their 19^th century patronage of their well read, educated, and informed ideas allowed future contributors to flourish, in turn opening and inspiring minds of generations of readers to come.  While Austen uses courtship and Bronte turns to the imagination, both writers call upon their intended demographic to internalize their fiction and from it grow.

            Whether manufacturing herself useful towards a Harriet, or advertising in the “shire Herald” the heroin of the twentieth century novel in surging with a longing to overcome boredom. Emma lives to play matchmaker, a position that gives the author room to develop a series of interpersonal connections that expand our landscape of her world. Jane Eyre decides to reach out beyond her horizon and risks everything to unravel the mysteries of life inside the mind of Charlotte Bronte. Emma never ceases to amaze with opinions on social etiquette and class, “Dear Harriet, I give myself joy of this. It would have grieved me to lose your acquaintance, which must have been the consequence of your marrying Mr. Martin.” (52.Austen) Her deluded sense of entitlement is seen here doing a good job notifying readers of that naiveté; spoiled little girls try to enrich themselves through a vanity, that can be defined, conceived in much the same manner throughout time.  Miss. Eyre isn’t found in the same aristocratic position as Austen’s hero. Bronte cleverly attributes the growth of her character to her thinking process, which she makes clear in the narrative.

I desired liberty: for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication. For change, stimulus. That petition, too, seemed swept off into vague space. ‘Then,’ I cried, half desperate, ‘grant me at, least a new servitude!’ (102Brontee)

Both characters are young and energetic, alive with the passions of life, a mix of characteristics that are bound to alleviate boredom and expose them to the real world, the one without boarders.

            Influenced by a hierarchical environment both authors were forced to introduce ways in which their protagonist were to actualize themselves in a respectable manner. Austen’s Emma comes from money, she’s had everything she’s ever wanted handed to her on a silver platter, leaving her vulnerable to become full of herself. Fortunately for women of her day there were Mrs. Elton’s. Emma considers manners above other things,

’Insufferable woman!” … “Worse then I had supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightly!—I could not have believed it. Knightley!—never seen him in her life before, and call him knightley!—and discover that he is a gentlemen.(259Austen)

Mr. Elton’s wife paints us a beautiful picture of what it means to have money without class. Emma is inherently aware of how to behave and she is being scrutinized as closely as Mrs. Elton. Austen entrust the reader to realize that what makes a character great is their ability to integrate all the good virtues of humanity without manifesting any degradation to those around them. Jane Eyre is a governess materially owning next to nothing. Using her wit alone she hooks the heart of the Master of Thornfield. Yet Miss. Eyre chooses to peruse a relationship with Rochester even after she hears

’And Miss Eyre, so much was I flattered by this preference of the Gallic sylph for her British gnome, that I installed her in an hotel; and gave her a complete establishment of servants, a carriage cashmeres, diamonds, dentelles, etc. In short, I began the process of ruining myself in the received style, like any other spoony. (165Bronte)

Jane’s keen sense of her own individuality allows her to look past her boss’s predispositions to do evil, and still relate to the Noble man he is inside. Acting above the status quo is the matter in which the female protagonists raise themselves above the pre-conceived notions of their society. Allowing the reader glimpses of a bird’s eye view of the true character of the hero.

            A portrait of truth that accurately defines the nineteenth century world can be directly associated within the narrative landscape of Jane Eyre and the vocalized opinions of Emma. Austen is as relevant today as she was a hundred years ago because she was very capable of depicting the irony between reality and the way we think we know it. Austen cunningly allows us into the mind of Emma.

Mr. Knightley and Harriet!- It was an odd tete-a-tete; but she was glad to see it.—There had been a time when he would have scorned her as a companion, and turned from her with little ceremony. Now they seemed in pleasant conversation. There had been a time also when Emma would have been sorry to see Harriet in a spot so favorable for the Abbey-Mill Farm; but now she feared it not. (338Austen)

Harriet is nowhere neared to a favorable spot at the Farm then Robert Martin, but in Emma’s mind they’re going to be married almost within weeks. Of course she ends up Mrs. Knightley, and Harriet Mrs. Martin. On the other hand Bronte remains so powerful to a modern audience because she insisted on exposing her nineteenth century readership to the will of Jane Eyre,

But, then, a voice within me averred that I could do it, and foretold that I should do it. I wrestled with my own resolution: I wanted to be weak that I might avoid the awful passage of further suffering I saw laid out for me; and Conscience, turned tyrant, held Passion by the throat, told her tauntingly, she had yet but dipped her dainty foot in the slough, and swore that with that arm of iron he would thrust her down to unsounded depths of agony. (343Bronte)

She leaves Thornfield that night! Here drastic leap of faith proves to pay off of course. It’s as inspiring now as it would have been a couple hundred years ago. A still found to be totally an uncommon act, to have faith in one’s inner voice, and it works. Both authors establish a firm foundation of how the human mind makes its way into salvation. Through trial and error Jane and Emma produce outcomes to their lives that we can still all relate to in the 21^st century.

            Looking back at Jane Eyre, we get inspired to peruse our passions, and while scrutinizing the adolescent thought process of Emma we find that we are often no better at judging where we stand then a girl raised in the 19^th century British aristocracy. We all do it though, move forward in time, realizing the reasons things happen around us through experience.  Female authors like Austen and Bronte defined class through individual’s, and their abilities to grow with distinction, and separate the truth from fiction. Their perseverance and drive to create content within their own individualized form separates them form the rest. Then they stood out pushing their context into modern classrooms. We are still learning about courtship and we still honor our imaginations without really understanding either. Jane Eyre and Emma allow us to experience their growth. Push us to understand our tendencies to make rash decisions, naturally, and hopefully in a way that makes us happy in the end.

Work Cited

Austen, Jane "Emma". London:Penguin Classics, 1996. Print.

Bronte, Charlotte “Jane Eyre”. London:Penuine Classics, 1996. Print.

Just to chill!

I've been really hard done by, she broke me. I was fixed on seeing myself as her equal, but then we crashed. I had no idea she was in it to gain such big steps in life. We were working on this project together. I couldn't help but look at her feet. She was all over the place. We were a good match, at least I thought... at first.
"Where you going?" the questions started the moment we needed to leave. I was having high anxiety issues. People were starting to stare.
"Why don't we just stay here then honey?" He was never happy to see me act this way, especially in front of others."You know you can't stay here alone don't you?" He knew I was afraid to be alone, the sun was going down and the traffic lights were beginning to to hover over head with ambiance. "We're on the street." I looked around, helpless. He started to walk away.
"Where you going?" my voice echoing, the others clearing out, harassed by our shrill. The cool autumn air tightened our backs, he shivered. "Why can't we just stay here, it's not that cold yet." I didn't want to leave, mom and dad had been fighting again. He was cold. He wanted to watch T.V, we'd been watching it for a long time, I wanted things to change, he wanted them to stay the same. We had to leave. "I don't want to go!" He got on his bike and rode away. The sun was following him along the horizon, I was watching him gain momentum as his shadow fell forwarded. It made me laugh. Eventually I couldn't see him anymore.
Traffic kept up for the first little bit, the lights cooled me, their thought. I was waiting for someone to find me. "What are you doing here?" He asked me so quietly, he had a deep voice. He was wearing a thick coat. A white jacket.
"Waiting!" I surprised him. He jumped, he thought I was going to be scared but I figured my parents were right behind him. "How long you been here little one?" more questions I thought.
"I didn't want to go home! I've decided that I didn't want to watch anymore T.V like my brother." I remembered my brothers silhouette forcing it's self forward through the dusk. "He didn't want to go home, but he went back anyway" it came out as a laugh. He laughed too.
"They almost always go back when they don't want to." The wind picked up forcing his voice forward. I was sitting silently, watching the moon fancy herself finding herself on the incline. He watched me smile over the rising. The traffic made noise's. "I find the sound of the sirens soothing, like a calling out to me." An ambulance slowly blew in singing, the distance distorting it, it made us both laugh, we couldn't even see it hurling itself to some fate we couldn't fathom. "He's a goner!"
"You think?" My questing stunned him. He was alert, we were alone, I wasn't scarred of anything. He knew that, the creases over his brow bent sorrow over his eyes, the bright yellow leaves were the last flickers of highlight over shadowed by the night.
"The sun's gone! What we gonna do?" He was so soulful, young too.
"We're not here to play hopscotch!" I was right.
"How we gonna do this?" I could see he didn't know what we were suppose to do. His thick jacket was keeping him warm though, I was getting cold.
"Come closer!" The sense I got from it was welcoming but I hesitated, and he saw that.
"But you're cold!" we laughed, and I fell into his arms. The clouds sought significance form us. And my heart was still, we sat almost laying there until the morning fell. My brother came back with a bat.

He said she said!

Christopher Sly, a nomadic, audacious and intentional fellow found in a stat of unconsciousness, lying almost dead in the ditch outside of Marian Hacket's Wincote Tavern, only to be foreseen by Shakespeare to be pronounced as a tool of intervention between the rivaling classes of his day and age. Sly being subject to a vanquished social rank is given an opportunity to take a second look at himself through the eyes of our thoughtful yet roguish author. Through the viewing of The Taming of the Shrew Christopher Sly is meant to come to find his higher calling, much like Katharina finds herself the unselfish obliging wife. The story line is created to questions ones position in society and life, to take risks, harness the indecision's set forth and to take hold of the reigns that give us access to that luster and to shine like the gentry.  William Shakespeare settled in his ways of gentle persuasions leaves us wondering if it was all so unintentional.

Alone, a body lies carelessly thrown, lost and forgotten by the side of the Milcote road, only to be stumbled upon by the local aristocracy and given the right to be played a joke on by the jovial Nobility. This jest in practice takes our unfortunate hero out of misfortune and places him directly in the heart of pure wealth.  In giving the drunkard access to his Royal pleasures, his Honor, the Lord, must abandon the appearance of his social rank to help maintain the suspension of belief amongst his serfs. This unique vantage point lets the Lord maintain his position as an observer and jester. It also allows him close access to Sly, the Lord often enlisting himself to reflecting openly Sly’s true (false) calling. “Heaven cease this idle humor in Your Honor! Oh, that mighty man of such descent, of such possessions and so high esteem, Should be infused with so foul a spirit!” (Induction.2.13.18).  Allowing Christopher such a sly perspective point to reflect upon the play also gives him the opportunity to whiteness himself through the eyes of a member of the gentry.

While watching The Taming of the Shrew the audience can’t help but realize they are watching a play within a play, adding a heightened point of view of the event as a whole. It starts with Sly, but it ends with Katharina sharing her gained insight into womanhood. Her shrewish behaviors and feelings of resentment have changed and she wants to convince the other women to “Unknit that threatening, unkind brow And dart not scornful glances,” (5.2.140.42) Observing this scene would be Sly himself and the audience beyond that would be observing Sly. Shakespeare framed the plot around an open-ended illusion, gently nudging the gentry to uphold their position as keepers of people, by indoctrinating Katharina as being the voice of Gentile reason. Upon her final speech Katharina communicates the theme of the whole Meta story

for thy maintenance commits his body

To painful labor both by sea and land,

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,

Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;

 And craves no other tribute at thy hands

But love, fair looks and true obedience—

Too little payment for so great a dept.

Such duty as the subject owes the prince, (5.2.152.59)

Katharina’s final speech encompasses the entirety of Shakespeare’s project, her voice being the evocation of the Lord’s though to playing the jest on the drunkard.

            By creating “The Taming of the Shrew” in such an open-ended format the author crucifies anyone watching, from Sly to the actual audience. We the reader are subjected into believing that if Katharina can recreate her reality to cater to her true calling more appropriately, so can you, so can I, and in addition Shakespeare’s positioning of Sly in the beginning of the play is because he needs to use him as the antagonistic “good guy”. The author leaves himself vulnerable to his own devices as well, by making way to the possibilities that a bum can uphold himself in respect to the aristocratic tendencies.  To protect himself from possible outbursts of outrage from the audience, Shakespeare leaves the inductions open to discussion. He couldn’t have Sly leave the theater a merry old honorable Lord. The Gentry and the Aristocrats would go mad, he couldn’t have the beggar go through such a dynamic change only to go back a bum, because the bourgeois and trades people would not leave the theater conscious in the manner the author intended. Shakespeare’s intent was to have the audience become a participant in the suspension of belief. Shakespeare wasn’t thinking about just anyone, but everyone.   He wanted to infatuate his audience with the possibility of more, more for the homeless and weak, more for the rich and powerful. His plan was to afford the participants in the act of realizing the drama in their lives to overcome transparent obstacles and be the best they can be. This places each individual in a position where they must martyr themselves, much like Katharina does when she say’s “that seeming to be most which we indeed least are. Then veil your stomach, for it is no boot, And place your hands below your husband’s foot, in token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready; may it do ease.” (5.2.179.83). Her unorthodox approach to her new husband shocks everyone into believing they’re little charade, making it real, as well as winning Petruchio the bet. Shakespeare bet on the fact that the aristocracy wouldn’t realize he was sacrificing the bed of the Honored Lord to cater to the commoners.

After reading through The Tamming of the Shrew we find the author an intentionally sly audacious fellow. Shakespeare risking his reputation by thrusting a “mounstrous beast”(Induction.1.33.) into the life of a noble man does the world as a whole, justice. By focusing on the peoples he finds within his own community the author remains authentic to his beliefs. These beliefs revolved around the opportunity for equality and the chance to change. Sly as he may be Shakespeare was always found to be honest enough in his work, to reflect his understanding accurately. He believed in equality, and he produced it within his dramatic fiction.

Works cited.

Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew. The Necessary Shakespeare third Edition. David Bevington. Chicago: 2009.

God Of phuauk!

I had this idea that my dreams could come true.  That I could bring my will into material existence. That I could have the vision of the world I hold in my mind come into my life on the outside, into existence in this reality. The first thing I did while in pursuit of my dreams was get a girl pregnant. That grounded me, told me that my dreams weren't going to be achieved without consequence. The consequences of fulfilling what my mind desired were important steps toward understanding what it was I myself desired to accomplish during my existence in my body.
At that point I understood that I wanted to be a good father, that understanding overcame my desire to worship the God of Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll. I started making choices that would ensure my dreams of being a good father came true. I did everything in my power to create an environment that would welcome my son into this world in a positive way.  My dreams didn't have anything to do with the regular 9-5 job though. To have my environment running the way I wanted it to, I needed to make sure I felt good and positive about myself. I wanted my son to know that I was happy doing what I was doing. I didn't want my boy watching his father going out into the world doing dead end things he hated. So I went back to where I loved to be, I went back into the church of Sex Drugs and Sin and started pushing hack.  I was amazed at how I felt right on track driving people who were under the influence of sin and sex, drugs and alcohol home. The success I felt after every night I came back to my family happy to have done a job I loved made me feel like a King. That feeling also made me want to share my success with others.
I was working full time, but it never felt like it. It felt like I was making money doing what I loved. Sharing and communicating my dreams with people who paid me. I needed more, I needed  people to know how I felt, so I started to go online and write about my nights behind the wheel of an Edmonton taxi. The blog was such a success for me, in gratifying my minds existence. After I started writing it I no longer went to work for money, but to find content for my next great story. I published one every night for the next two years.
Going to work to write a blog that no one paid to see paid off. I learned how to make something from nothing, I learned that money is a by product of dreams, I learned that I was here to tell stories and live life to the fullest. Then the recession hit and I found that the circumstances around my success where forcing me to change, and I did. I needed to stay happy to be the best father I could be. So I went back to school.  I also used my student loans to buy a camera, I took a material risk, it was like having the baby, it paid off. The consequences of choosing to follow your dreams, to claim that you can be whatever you want to be are rough, but they also ground you, and inform you that there is hope, and that it's hard. But if you think about it, if you know it's hard, then you'll know that those seemingly scary obstacles along the way are actually road signs that tell you where to turn next.
Now I'm going to school, I used my time at school to learn to take photographs. I did it by catering to the institution itself. I came to Concordia because I felt I could talk about subjects outside of this reality. I felt I could talk about my dreams and where they come from. This has been making me happy. Happy because with every decision I make to move toward my goals I bring them closer to materializing. I know that it's not necessarily ever going to be exactly what I envisioned but that's because those dreams keep getting bigger and better, and I know all I have to do is pursue my ideas and that's how I'll bring my dreams into light.

A rich man poor man, drunk man found.

A rich nobleman found drunk, passed out, drooling in front of the bar, unwilling to pay his debt to his hostess! How does that even happen? It doesn't or dose it?  Shakespeare's know to be a little sly and cunning in his undertaking of the truth; he knew that portraying it accurately may make him look like a rogue. Christopher, a bright young Master, or Lord, lying in a ditch disgracing his honor. How did Shakespeare address the issue of alcoholism amongst the aristocracy? Well we find that drunken character sitting watching the unfolding of a play within a play, a counterfeit copy, a replication and revision of the ideal illusion set to a permissible standard, set to help someone wake, re access themselves and rehabilitate.