Blood Wedding Journal #6

I found Mother to be clearly the most miserable character in the play, Blood Wedding. She ultimately has to suffer through the death of her son, the Bridegroom, at the end of the play, but also her father and and another one of her sons was killed. It was revealed that her father and one of her sons had been killed by knives in the first scene of the book so immediately the tone is dull and sullen. Throughout the entire play, Mother seems to be unhappy as she questions whether her son is making the right choice to marry the Bride. She expresses her feelings unhesitatingly as she appears to be somewhat overprotective of her son and is one of the most vocal characters in the play. She also gets easily upset when knives are brought up because of the bad connotations they bring, and she remembers the death of her two family members. I think Mother wants her son to obtain happiness as she risks her own to do this.

Blood Wedding #5

Some archetypes I found were characters were not given a specific name. Also, he shows how the society is, such as roles of women and the values that lead to a marriage. I believe the generic names are used to show the individualism of the characters. Even though most characters do not have a specific name, they still all have a distinct difference from each other. The only character with a specific name is Leonardo, and this name means lion which furthers his separation from other characters. Lorca is portraying that Leonardo has the strength to sway a woman into loving him again, which he emphasizes through giving the character the name, Leonardo. Thus, I believe Lorca sides with the fact that women are not the kind and loving person that society expects them to be. Lorca also shows that marriage can be detrimental if it is based off of one's social status, but rather marriage should be decided on whether you truly have affection and love for that person. Lorca shows this through the Bridegroom and the Bride's marriage falling apart.

Journal #4

Knives, are clearly prominent throughout the entire play. In the first scene and throughout the rest of the tragedy, the knives represent death. Mother is very afraid of them, as she thinks they are dangerous because the Bridegroom's brother and father were both killed my knives. Additionally, Lorca includes the knife many times in the first scene to foreshadow the deaths of the Bridegroom and the father, who were killed by a knife. The knife also serves as a divide between the community and also the separation between Mother and the Felix's family. The community is divided because Mother and the Bridegroom live on a farm that is a good distance from the farm that the Bride lives on. The second symbol that appeared in the first scene were the vineyards. I noticed that the knife was used to cut the grapes. Mother is scared of the vineyards because she does not want the Bridegroom to get hurt, but that she may be somewhat skeptical of the wealthy because the people that own the vineyards are typically wealthy. Also, Lorca himself said he did not like growing up into a priveleged family so I believe he put the vineyards in to show the difference between the rich and poor. Therefore, through the vineyards and knives, Lorca illuminates the divide between the wealthy and poor people.

Wild Duck #3

Ultimately, Gregers is the instigator for Hedvig shooting herself. Thus, he should take most of the blame. If Gregers had not mentioned that Gina had an affair to Hjalmar then Hedvig would still feel like Hjalmar still loved her and the suicide could have been prevented. So basically, Gregers thought he was helping, in reality, he was hurting the Ekdal family. I say Gregers is not completely at fault because if Gina had been open and told Hjalmar up front that she had an affair with Old Werle and that he might not be Hedvig's father then this situation could have been avoided. Therefore, Old Werle is part of the blame and should take more responsibility because he could have stayed loyal and not have had an affair with Gina. Lastly, Hedvig is at fault, too. I understand she felt like Hjalmar did not love her anymore and that saddened her, but she did not have to commit suicide. This problem could have been resolved, but she decided to be selfish and take her own life. Gregers, overall needed to take more of the blame and the fault because he was the main cause of the Ekdal's family problems. I believe that Henrik Ibsen reveals that hiding the truth, but telling the truth, too all the time is destructive as shown through the Ekdal family that got devastated.

Wild Duck #2

Motifs play a significant role in the development of the characters in the Wild Duck. The motifs of death, sickness and illness are caused from lies that are created. Death is portrayed through the recurrence of the pistol. The purpose of the pistol and how Hedvig talks about a book she read about death once, all contribute to the foreshadowing of Hedvig killing herself. Also, Ibsen mentioned the motif of decay in regard to alcohol and how Hedvig's eyes get worse, or decay. Hjalmar talks about retouching photographs when he talks about Hedvig. He wants to shelter her, and re-shape her life. Hedvig has the mindset that staying at home is the best scenario where she can "help Daddy and Mother" (163). I noticed Relling, a doctor, talks of disease in the play. He says that Gregers has "got a disease in his system" (177). Relling states that Gregers has a "moralistic fever", as well. Relling sees through Gregers and finds him to be sick because he is such a man of truth. Later, when Hjalmar is ill, Relling prescribes to him the "standard one. I try to keep up the life-lie in him" (202). Relling does not like Gregers because he believes in the exact opposite viewpoint. Ibsen says through Relling that the truth is not necessary all the time, and it can be destructive because of the way he portrays how the Ekdal family is torn apart by the truth.

Wild Duck Journal #1

Gregers Werle, is such a man of knowing the absolute truth that he crosses boundaries to attain this truth. He reveals to the Ekdal family the complete stories, some untold, of their life. He brings up to Hjalmar that Gina had an affair many years back. He leaves Hedvig wondering who her real father is, because she originally thinks that Hjalmar is her real father. Gregers says he only brings it up because he wants the truth, and only the truth. Thus, Gregers is truth seeking and an idealist. He has a false conception of himself because he thinks that it is his job to notify everyone of the absolute truth. In reality, though, he is hurting others. He is the instigator of Hedvig shooting herself. Also, Gregers faces an emotional boundary in regard to his relationship with his father. While Gregers is gone to Hoidal for work, communication between him and his father are brief and only occur through business letters. It is clear that their relationship suffered while they were away from each other because they get into an argument quickly over Gregers becoming a partner in his fathers business. Similarly, Hjalmar struggles with his relationship between him and his father, Old Ekdal. For example, when at the party Hjalmar intentionally turns away when his father walks in so he does not see him. Also, the Ekdal's may not be as well off as the Werle's because Old Ekdal works for the Werle's and they do not want them to stay in his house, which could be a social issue.

We Journal #3

The language experiences an apparent change for D-503 in the last entry of the novel. Up until this point D-503 is still struggling with his internal conflict. Although, in the last entry the sentences  becomes more straight forward. D-503's style of writing emulates that of the beginning, in the first entry. In the middle part of the book D-503 changes from his mechanical and clear writing to more jumbled and confusing sentences because of the conflict that he is experiencing inside of him. At the conclusion of the novel, D-503 returns to his old way of writing his thoughts, similarly to the first entries, "However, on the Fortieth cross-town avenue, we have succeeded in erecting a temporary barrier of high-voltage waves. And I hope that we shall conquer. More than that- I am certain we shall conquer. Because Reason must prevail" (232). I noticed that Zamyatin capitalizes "R" in reason, this could signify that reason represents a higher being and is the leader of the society of one-state.  This can infer that D-503 has accepted the benefactor and the controlling government. Thus, the short sentences illuminate that he has accepted and come to peace with the "unfreedom" that the government gives the people of one-state. Also, as throughout the entire book, Zamyatin uses figurative language frequently in the last third of the book.

I noticed a recurrence of the motif of the color blue towards the last section of the book. Additionally, blue still embodies the same thing for D-503, which is calmness, "The little blue flowers stir, bulge. What if I were made of glass, and he could see that in some three or four hours..." (152). In this quote I see D-503 associating flowers with the color blue, giving it a peaceful connotation. Another motif that was noted again was nature, specifically birds and insects. D-503 thinks to himself "Slowly, just overhead- a bird. I see: it is alive, like me. Like a man it turns its head right, left, and black, round eyes drill into me [...] A dark insect with tiny, transparent wings crawls along the back, and the back twitches to drive it off" (158). Since there are no animals in one-state, D-503 is becoming more aware of his surroundings outside of one-state. In the second half of the dystopian D-503 pays more attention to the weather and animals just outside of the green wall, this is before he goes on the integral.

The setting changes for a good amount of timr to being on the spaceship, the integral. The goal of the integral is to take over other planets through the use of the integral. I find the spaceship fascinating because at this period in time space travel was not very close to completion and nobody would accomplish this feat for another 50 years to come. The one-state is taking a leap of faith through the use of the integral. D-503 is aware of the possibility that this is a perhaps a dangerous mission and finds it very interesting as he says, "'Do you realize how wonderful it is to fly, not knowing where-to fly- no matter where... And soon it will be who knows what's to come?'" (200). D-503 seems to find it fun to not have a definite and planned out schedule. In contrast, the society of one-state is exactly the opposite of this where everything is organized and one's schedule is based off of the tables of hours. D-503 may be experiencing what it is like to not be completely restricted and controlled by the government.