Blog 4: Love

Love is a confusing thing, in the real world and in the fictitious minds of most writers. What is love? many people perceive it differently, some do not even believe it truly exists. Anton Chekhov and D. H. Lawrence both depict love in their own ways in these two stories.

In "The Lady With the Dog," Dmitri Gurov is a older man is in Yalta where he spots this younger woman walking along the sea-front. So he decides to make her acquaintance, he ends up sitting next to her in the public gardens for dinner. He goes over to pet her dog, maybe as a way to strike up a conversation. He finds himself somewhat smitten with her though, even though he thinks of himself as above women and always has, ".. when they were talked about in his presence, used to call them 'the lower race'"(Chekhov). He is also married, but we learn that he is unhappy with this relationship, by how it is reveal he has had affairs. "He had begun being unfaithful to her long ago- had been unfaithful to her often.."(Chekhov). They begin to spend time together he learns that she too is married, but is also unhappy in her relationship.  "My husband may be a good, honest man man, but he is a flunkey!.... I was twenty when i married him. I have been tormented by curiosity; I wanted something better"(Chekhov).  You can tell as the story goes and they both begin to fall for one another, yet they question how the other thinks of them. Gunrov feels that she only likes him for someone he is not, and she feels he despises her for sleeping with him.  They went thee separate ways at one point but he came back for her. He confessed his love for her, she came to see him in Moscow and even though they have a guilty conscious and feel bad, they know in their hearts if they can get past the feeling an amazing life awaits them both.  I feel this shows that true love has no age limit, or restrictions, when you love someone deeply you will want only them. Gurov is just under forty with three kids but still chooses to leave them and his wife to pursue the one he loves, just as Anna left her husband because she knew she loved Dmitri.

In Lawrence's story "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," Mabel is a young women who is barely able to get by, especially since the death of her mother. Even though she does have siblings she feels disconnected from them. It seems like they control her more than anything else, they do not talk to her they talk at her.

"Does she ask you to go and stop there?' persisted Fred Henry.

"She says I can if I like."

"Well, then, you'd better. Tell her you'll come on Monday." (Lawrence)

The way they speak to her makes it seem like they see her as less than them. Mabel later goes to visit her mother's grave site, she cleans up the site. She got satisfaction from this, "It gave her sincere satisfaction to do this. She felt immediately with the world of her mother"(Lawrence). 

Mabel decides to try to commit suicide by drowning herself in the pond, but is saved by one of her brothers friends, Dr. Fergusson.  He jumps in and pulls her out, and is able to revive her, he takes her to the house and removes the wet clothes and wraps her in a blanket. She finally comes to to find him there, she questions him about what happened, why he saved her and if he was the one who undressed her.  She asks him if he loves her, then hugs his knees and kisses them. "You love me. I know you love me, I know"(Lawrence).  He was confused because he never saw her in that sense, she was his friends sister, he never really looked twice at her. She ask again, and he finally said yes. "The word cost him a painful effort. Not because it wasn't true. But because it was too newly true, the saying seemed to tear open again his newly-torn heart. And he hardly wanted it to be true even now"(Lawrence).  Even though it seems like he doesn't want to love her he feel almost obligated to it seems, like he gives in to the feeling. In the end she says "I feel awful. I feel awful. I feel I'm horrible to you"(Lawrence). To which he replies, "'No, I want you, I want you,' was all he answered blindly, with that terrible intonation which frightened her almost more than her horror lest he should not want her"(Lawrence).

It seems to me almost that Dr. Fergusson isn't one who loves, like the feeling is a whole new experience to him, because it seems like he does love her but regrets the feeling coming about. Also with Mabel being very independent the fact that he saved her almost immediately ignites the response that she loves him, and he loves her. It seems like Lawrence is showing that sometimes you do not know the way you feel about someone until something, or some event brings these feelings out of you.

Blog 3, Irony.

It Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," you can immediately tell that its not going to end well. From the get go you learn Mrs. Mallard has a heart condition, and her husband has just died, at least so we think. Throughout the story it is her grieving over the death of him. they tell her that she needs to come out of the room "-you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door"(p. 338). however through all this grieving, in the end the irony comes out. she must have been imagining that her husband had died. "Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered…"(p. 338). In the end her  husband is fine the was the one who inevitably passed away from her heart disease, although it almost seems like the shock alone from seeing her "dead" husband might have had a part in her dying. Another ironic thing about her death is that even though the author describes her as young, she still dies. The irony of her husband being alive kind of throws a twist in at the end of the story.

In "The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allan Poe uses irony a little bit. It seemed more difficult to follow than that of Chopin's story. But it seems the narrator is friends with Fortunato. The narrator talks of turning back because he is worried about the health of Fortunato, "we will go back; your health is precious,"(p. 526). This is showing almost that the narrator has compassion. But in the end he leaves Fortunato in the tomb to die. The narrator states "In pace requiescat!" (p. 529), this means may he rest in peace. So the irony is that even though it seems the narrator cares for fortunato,  he leaves him for dead. The last bit of irony Poe throws into the story is that Fortunato actually means "fortunate or lucky." 

Blog 2

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

In this story the author uses third person point of few, the dramatic or objective point of few to be more specific. She uses this point of view very well to bring mystery and make the reader ask a lot of questions. The story starts in a small village, all the citizens of that village are gathering at “the square.” In the first few paragraphs the author states some things that already bring up some questions, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example”(p. 140). It makes you wonder what is going on at this gathering that all the little boys gather up stones, or maybe they are just collecting them as little children sometimes do. As the story continues you begin to wonder what the lottery is about. The author tries to deter you and make you think it is a positive thing by the characters talking bad about other villages for stopping the lottery. In reply to one of the other villages giving up the lottery Old man Warner said,

Pack of crazy fools… Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore, live that way for a while…. There’s always been a lottery (p.143).

This kind of makes it difficult for the reader to decide if the lottery is a good thing or not.  At the end of the story it is revealed that the winner of the lottery is to be stoned. Stoned by family, friends, children, elders, everyone that is present at the lottery can take part. A huge twist and the end of this story shows how using a certain point of view and easily mislead a reader. Since using the objective point of view it causes more tension, and easier to mislead because the narrator only knows what is said and what happens, nothing more. As opposed to the omniscient point of view, in which the narrator knows EVERYTHING about EVERYONE, thus the narrator would know what the lottery is making the tension less, and making the twist and the end less dramatic.