Response to Course Material 4

So...  What have we done recently...?

Well, we finished up our discussion on Death of a Salesman.  In fact, I think the last time I wrote this, we hadn't even started discussing it yet.  At any rate, I liked seeing why we had to learn so much about Oedipus; while the whole story doesn't apply to Salesman, one of the articles we read (something about A Commodity Roosts or something like that) really brought out some points that made other aspects of it seem quite parts of the Oedipus story.  Biff's love for his father, the way it's manifested, and his reaction to Willy's betrayal all really brought out the fact that their relationship was definitely more than simply that of a father and son.  I also like the link it provides to Hamlet, which is also about father/son relationships, only in a much more complicated manner (Claudius is his step-father and his uncle).  Then there was the talk about The American Dream which links back to the play of the same title.  Both are about the focus of money in society and both seem to illustrate the problems, though one was a dramatic tragedy and the other a comedy (that was kind of really creepy).  It sort of reminded me of The Great Gatsby as well, because that book is also about how a focus on money can kill people, though it was more on the differences between old money and new money than obtaining money.  Still, it was about struggling against society (and the protagonist dies in both novels).

Then we moved on to Hamlet.  I enjoy reading plays in class; for me, it's more entertaining and easier to remember than watching a movie.  Granted, that could also be because I had missed part of the movie because of the Stratford trip.  But anyway, I both like and dislike the need to have to stop in the middle of reading.  While I understand that it is to go over certain aspects of the text that may be difficult to understand because of a lack of understanding in the society or language of the time, it also takes away from the overall picture of the text.  On the other hand, I came to enjoy Macbeth a lot when we went through analyzing it, so maybe I'll enjoy this as well.  I love seeing how clever Shakespeare is though, with his usage of parallels between Claudius' marriage to Gertrude and Henry's marriage to Catherine.  He's brilliant.

And... that's all I really have to say.  I look forward to reading more of Hamlet.