Blog Entry #8

Shakespeare makes many references to mythological figures in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He makes references to characters that would have been familiar to many of the audience members, but are unfamiliar to us. Many of the characters he mentions come from Celtic folklore that many of the uneducated audience members watching from the pit would have heard in the form of folktales. For the educated audience, references to classical Roman and Greek mythology are abundant and would be familiar to those people who had the privilege of attending school.

Your task is to access the online text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by following the link provided on plone. Begin reading the text by choosing an Act, and click on an interesting reference to a mythological character you would like to learn more about. Once you have click on a character, you will be taken to a list of mythological characters found in the play. Locate the character you would like to learn about and click on the name to learn more.

For your blog assignment, you must choose 4 mythological characters that are referenced in the play and for each one provide some information regarding the meaning of the reference and the significance and history of the character. You must write 50-100 words on each character you choose, so you may have to do some additional research.

Neptune:

Neptune is the God of the oceans and of water. He is the brother of Jupiter, Pluto and Juno. In the sentence,"Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams", Neptune's name is a representation of the ocean. By reading the sentence before this one ("Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red...") we can tell that it is a description of the sunrise over the ocean. By using the metaphor of Neptune to represent the ocean, Shakespeare makes something ordinary seems extraordinary.

Venus:

She is known as the goddess of love and beauty. She is thought to be the daughter of Uranus and Gaia (the heaven and the sky) or of Zeus. Her son is Cupid. She is the evening star. She represents the feminine side of everyone as well as fertility. In other mythology she is know as Aphrodite, and Isis. Shakespeare used references to her throughout A Midsummer Night's Dream. The theme of the play revolved around love and beauty.

Apollo:

Apollo is the god of the sun. He is associated with art, philosophy and law. Artemis is Apollos twin sisters. He is the ideal of manly beauty. He is also the God of poetry, music, prophecy and healing. He is one of the most important Greek/Roman Gods. In A Midsummer Night's Dream Apollo is referred to by Helena. She claims that Demetrius is chasing her like Apollo chased Daphne. In mythology Apollo chased Daphne through the woods in order to rape her. Helena accuses Demetrius of this.

Hercules:

Hercules is the symbol for valor and extreme strength. He was first a mortal but was accepted by the gods after he concurred many monsters. He is referred to by Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night's dream. This suggests that she is partly mythical and is part of a less civilized world than the one Theseus lives in.

Blog Entry #7

William Shakespeare’s influence on the English language is tremendous. It is estimated that he is responsible for coining hundreds of new words and phrases that have survived the test of time and remain a part of our speech today. Although it can not be said with absolute certainty whether or not Shakespeare invented these words and phrases himself, there is a long list of words that appear for the first time in his plays. You might be surprised to discover that some of the phrases and words that you hear everyday were first written 400 years ago by William Shakespeare.

Your task is to research words and phrases that Shakespeare has been attributed with inventing. Choose 10 words or phrases that were introduced by Shakespeare that you use or have heard used. Give a definition of each word or phrase and tell me which of Shakespeare’s plays each one of your selections comes from.

Swift as a shadow (A Midsummer Nights Dream)-As sneaky and quick

In my minds eye (Hamlet)- Imagination and thoughts; the way you see things in your mind.

In a pickle (The Tempest)-In trouble

In my heart of hearts (Hamlet)-Deepest wishes.

Love is blind (Merchant of Venice)- Love is not shallow. It is sometimes irrational because our heart does not use all of our senses to determine how it feels.

Not slept one wink (Cymbeline)-Did not sleep at all.

Out of the jaws of death (Twelfth Night)-Near death experience.

A sorry sight (Macbeth)- A common expression for someone or something that is sad to see or in bad condition.

Knock knock! Who's there? (Macbeth)-A common phrase used in jokes.

What's done is done (Macbeth)- Cannot go back.

Blog Entry #6

Your assignment for today’s blog entry is to explore London’s Globe Theatre. Take the virtual tours and allow yourself to imagine the theatre experience during Shakespeare’s time. Write a short blog entry (minimum of 250 words), describing your impression of the theatre. Do you think you would enjoy seeing a play at the Globe? Where would you like to sit? Why? What is the most interesting thing you have learned about the Globe?

I love European historical sites and I love English literature. I think that Shakespeare's writing is so advanced for their time. He used irony and exaggeration in a way that is still used today. I would love seeing a play at the Globe because his plays are timeless and have a really amazing way of connecting incredible events to anyone's life. Being able to witness the plays that changed the English language would be really inspiring. I think that something like that would seem very surreal. Since the plays were made to be performed on the stage of the Globe theatre, the plays would be even more incredible if we could see them on the proper stage. They could then be seen at their best and it would be really amazing to be able to fully understand how Shakespeare envisioned them.

I would want to sit in the galleries so that I would not be in the midst of all the pickpockets and questionable people. It would be easier to concentrate on the play from somewhere where you could be seated.

The most interesting thing I learned about the Globe was how many times it was destroyed. It was burnt down and still Shakespeare never gave up. They were not discouraged and the dedicated their lives to entertaining people and writing plays that have no equals.

Blog Entry #5

Reflect on your experience with the novel October Sky. How effective do you think the activities and schedule were for this unit? How does it compare with other novel studies you have done? Do you think you gained more from this type of study? Why or why not?


October Sky was an amazing book. I think that it was a great novel for us to read. It had a lot of content that connected Sonny's life with ours. I liked the morals and perspectives it contained. I learned a lot while reading it and I felt like it reminded me to be determined and dedicated. I learned that though it might take a lot of work to get somewhere it is always worthwhile to follow our dreams. We can't hope that something amazing will happen to us- we have to pursue it.

I think that the schedule and activities we had for this unit was a bit to hectic. We were always busy working on two or more projects. It made things harder to remember and we couldn't do work to the best of our abilities. I also think that the final project would be better if we could have done individual work. Group projects have their advantages but occasionally groups do not work well together and don't share the work load evenly. I think that it didn't work as well having a group final project because the assignment is worth so much.

I liked this novel study because of the way we used blogs. We got to express our own thoughts. I believe that people learn a lot more when they are passionate about something and since we got to share our own thoughts, we could write about what we loved. When I read The Giver or The Outsiders in class, we had to answer a lot of questions and that wasn't nearly as interesting as this style of expression. One thing that was better though is that we had to present some assignments in front of the class. This helped because I think students put more effort into things that they have to show to their peers.

I do think in a way I gained more from this form of study. I was able to apply it to my life in a way that I would not have been able to without writing blogs. The final project was a good review to affirm everything I have learned so far and the journal responses were a good record of the unit. I would love to be able to study every book in this way because I remember more of the details. I think I am also beginning to understand how important support, friendship and love is. So much can be done with it and so little without it. I am glad that I live somewhere where I have so many good things around to help me get to where I want to be in the future. I have amazing classes, teachers, friends and family. We take a lot of things for granted but I feel like October Sky helped me see how amazing the things I have are.