Tempest Act I Reflection

Power and authority, while they may seem to go hand in hand, do not go together as one would think they would. Continuing all through Act I of The Tempest, the definition of power and authority becomes more defined. The line becomes more clearly defined as we learn that anyone can get power.

Master of puppets and pulling the strings! Notice the doomy hands looming over the land in the sky.

Power - The possession of control or command over others.
Authority - The right to control, command, or determine. 

I think that of all the characters in The Tempest, Prospero undeniably has the most power. His authority, however, is almost nonexistent to most except perhaps Caliban. He has become deposed of his authority by Antonio, but Antonio doesn't exactly have the most power in the play. Antonio may still inhabit Prospero's old throne and he may command an entire kingdom, but he does not have the powers of control others indefinitely. He can command someone to do something, but he is not in full control of their actions, no matter how much he tries to do so. Prospero, however, has found the power to fully control one's actions through his wizadry but he does not necessarily have the right to do so. This leads me to question: Are power and authority the same thing?
 
If power can be obtained by any one, no matter what right they have to use it, and authority can be obtained by a select few, I think that power and authority are different things. Propsero does not need to be the duke of Milan in order to possess the skills he has in wizadry. He could have gone to one of the lowest of the hierarchial pyramid of social class and still have obtained the powers he has. Antonio had to fight his way to the top of the hierarchial pyramid in order to obtain the power he has, but his powers are limited to what he can do by himself. He may maintain authority over every one else in the land, but his powers are limited to what he possesses in his arsenal. If he does not have any powers beyond his legal powers, then he is powerless against someone as powerful as Prospero. Therefore, what does it mean to have authority?

Having authority means that you are allowed to use your power in politcal terms. For example, even if a terrorist such as Kony has a powerful army that he can use to make others do what he wants, he still does not have a politically given power to do so. Does he need the authority to do so? Not at all, as he can still possess whatever he pleases with his menacing and sinister army. If he did have authority by being a president of a country, he wouldn't need to do most of his actions by force as much because people would recognize that he has a politically given right to command others. However, people can still protest and disobey his commands, so, authority does not exactly come with an equal amount of power.

So, what is the role of power in the first act of The Tempest? Propsero uses his power for his own benefits. He is a selfish person and he plans a grand scheme in order to benefit himself. He couldn't do most of his scheme without a great amount of power, though. So, he uses his warlock powers to force his plan to work. He has so much power that he could even control Antonio and regain his powers in an instant. However, he uses his powers with a considerable amount of reserve and saves it for when he thinks that he needs it. Without the powers that he has, he would be unable to make his scheme go exactly according to plan and his plot would most likely fail, as would the rest of the story's plot. This suggests that Prospero is indeed a control freak.

In conlcusion, I think that power is greater than authority. Antonio could be the king of the world but still not be the king of power, as Propsero is. 

Reflection_1.3: Reflection On Chap.24 - End

I think that the ending of the book makes us wonder if Frankenstein was ever truly redeemed. After committing great acts of hubris, he was punished severely and sought redemption in order to be saved from his punishments. Hmm... that sounds a lot like- (see picture)

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER!

Okay, so let's look at Frankenstein from a "Rime of The Ancient Mariner" perspective. The creation of the monster resembles the sailor shooting the albatross. Frankenstein committed this act of hubris more knowingly, and thus, it was destined to have grave consequences. The monster eventually began punishing Frankenstein for his actions and Victor ultimately was left alone without any family or friends. Here is where "Frankenstein" and "Rime of The Ancient Mariner" split paths. The mariner eventually is redeemed for his actions as he is brought to his knees begging for it to end and shows true remorse for his past actions. However, in "Frankenstein", Victor is never truly redeemed, at least in my opinion. He never really shows remorse for some of his actions like embarking on a quest for scientific knowledge in the name of self-glory. Even as he is about to lie on his own deathbed in Walton's ship, he still exhibits some of the qualities that led him into the mess that he got into to begin with.

What is it that separates Victor's fate from the mariner's fate? Tragedy! The ancient mariner's ordeal is very tragic as he watches his own crew die before his own eyes, in a manner that put the blame on him. However, the tragedy ends as soon as the gods help him out and he is able to live life with his family (We assume). However, Victor's tragedy is persistent until the day he finally dies. Because of this, I think it is safe to say that "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is not a tragedy because the main character eventually finds redemption. "Frankenstein" is a tragedy because Victor dies unredeemed with the loss of all of his family and friends.

I think the main reason why Victor wasn't redeemed was because his thoughts betrayed his actions. He told a great tale about how science should not be pursued with motivations induced by hubris, yet he said to Walton later that "Hey man, if you're going to do this quest for glory and honor, I think it's worth it." This emphasizes the fact that Victor hasn't changed much at all and that he doesn't truly deserve redemption. Redemption comes to those who deserve it because they have shown a change of heart. At the end of the book, we still see that Victor hasn't really changed his heart 100%. Therefore, he is left unredeemed as he dies at the end of the book. He never truly dropped the albatross into the redeeming sea.

College Admission Essay

            A basketball covered with teen sweat lands into my hands. It is the last minute of the middle-school basketball championship game and I am the kid that has the opportunity for the last shot of this game. I quickly assess my situation and see my options: play it safe and pass the ball to another teammate or take a risk to make a basket.

            I have not made a single basket in any of my games because I was never an athletic person and I don't like sports as much as my peers do. When I started playing basketball at the beginning of the season, I could barely dribble and the rules of the game were brand new. My parents didn't play or watch sports at all and I had nobody to teach me how to practice but myself. Even my body was not athletic by any sport's standards and my arms were fit more for playing piano than they were for dribbling the ball.

            The odds were against me but I did not let that stop me. I told myself that with enough practice and sheer will I could accomplish more than I ever thought possible at the beginning of the championship. So every night afterschool I practiced my shots in my neighbor's yard.

            Now, at the championship game, I finally have my chance. I focus on the basketball hoop and throw the ball towards it with every bit of strength in me. Then, as the ball is in midflight, the referee blows his whistle and shouts "Travel!" I take my eyes off the ball to look at him and incredulously exclaim, "What?"

            As I complain to the referee, I hear a tremendous sound of applause and cheers coming from the bleachers. I look over there to see my family, friends, and people who knew that I couldn't play well dancing up and down with joy. Some are hugging each other and some are twirling their shirts in the air round and round. At that moment I realize that the ball went through the basket. It was my first basket in the whole season and it doesn't matter that the referee didn't count it. What matters is that the boy who never made a basket showed that with determination he could conquer anything in life.  

            I have determination in everything I do in my life. In my music, there were also things that I had to overcome. For example, I was classically trained on piano since I was five, and knew nothing about playing guitar or drums. But I set out to learn them on my own, and today, I can play both with great skill. In college, I am confident that my determination will stay with me as I embark on a quest for knowledge and improvement.

Reflection_1.1: Reflection on Chap.21-23 + Anagnorisis & Catastrophe

Thinking in retrospect, this painting makes a lot more sense, having read the chapter more thoroughly. Now I finally know what that horse means! However, the goblin and the woman are much more closely related to Frankenstein than the horse.
 

Wow. I would have never guessed that this poem was likely a projection of the painter's unrequited sexual feelings towards a woman that he liked.

 Catastrophe and anagnorisis plague these chapter as Elizabeth and Henry have their lives taken away by the monster. When Victor discovers that the monster has robbed Henry of his life, he becomes overwhelmed by the emotions of grief and despair. These feelings quickly transform into hate as soon as he realizes that the monster did this only to make him feel his suffering. This shows us that the monster most likely did this in order to bring Victor down to his level. The monster felt like he was a creation born to be aborted and shunned. Living like a pariah, he could never achieve the same happiness that Victor appeared to experience. To the monster, Henry seemed to infuse Victor with hope and happiness. So, the monster thought that if he brought Victor to face the same despair that he was living in, then he would begin to truly know what he was feeling. However, this is still not enough for the monster. He wants to bring something worse than this catastrophe to Victor.

With a looming threat from the monster that he will visit Victor on wedding night, Victor is extremely nervous. The monster's threat suggests that the monster wanted Victor to feel like this so that he could torture his emotions. It's simply more pleasure for the monster as he watches all of the events unfold. Part of our desires when we are experiencing grief is that we wish that someone else could feel what we're going through. Some people can be so sadistic and cruel that they will go so far as to bring harm to them in order to make them feel their suffering first-hand. The monster shows us that he is one of these sadistic and cruel beings by treatening Victor (and ultimately carrying out the threat).

Upon wedding night, Victor is with his wife in their honeymoon cabin. Victor is so consumed with dread and fear that he asks Elizabeth to leave the cabin for a little bit so that he can face the monster alone. Then a moment of great anagnorisis occurs and Victor realizes that it was his wife that the monster was going to confront. He realizes that the monster didn't want to kill him because (in the words of Bane) his punishment must be more severe. Thus, Victor is completely stunned and shocked at the horror that he witnesses when he sees his wife dead. Mary Shelley slyly referenced Fuseli's Nightmare when she was describing how Elizabeth laid on the bed. "She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair." (Chap.23) Another inference about the painting's relationship to Frankenstein is that the goblin resembles the monster in that it carries an expression on its face that seems to tell me that it killed the woman and subsequently felt no remorse. Upon discovering the death of his only beloved, Victor is overtaken by emotions of grief, despair, and anger. Even yet, his tragedy goes even further as his father dies of shock when he hears of this grave news. Victor's pain is so severe because he is unable to tell anyone, so he finally decides to reveal to the world of the monster's existence. Adding to his angst, nobody believes him and they scoff at him. This is the salt in the wound. It truly makes us sorry that nobody will believe in the monster's existence besides Victor, the monster, and the readers. When someone denies the existence of your own problems, it brings you an emotion that is reserved for those in the most extreme anguish. What could be more agonizing than the fact that no one will believe in you, and therefore cannot even sympathize with you?

Reflection_1.0: Outside-Of-Class Reflection

I have recently realized the true genius of the director Christopher Nolan. I have realized such because I have been recently seeking a director whose movies were purely signature and genius and I have finally ended that quest. In each of his movies, the complex, intertwining storyline captivates me along with brilliant actors and memorable scenes and quotes. I could write about each one of his films right now, but I shall instead choose to focus on one film in particular: Insomnia.

"A tough cop. A brilliant killer. An unspeakable crime."

WARNING: 

You are entering a zone where they may be some spoilers. Enter at your own spoiler risk!

Anyways...
Insomnia is a crime movie in which a detective played by the great Al Pacino is solving the murder case of a young 17 year old girl. Its setting was wisely chosen to be a small town in Alaska where the sun doesn't set for several months straight, causing "white nights". For me, the real story doesn't really begin until Al Pacino and the cops have the killer come to an isolated cabin in an area in the woods. They accidentally turn on their megaphone, which alerts the killer and prompts him to start running away. The cops chase after him in a very dense fog, making it hard to see who really is the killer. Al Pacino thinks he has the killer and shoots him. Unfortunately, he accidentally shot his colleague, who he recently had a fight with regarding the result of a trial case, and his colleague has enough reason to believe he did this on purpose. This leaves Al Pacino with only one option should he choose to keep his reputation clean: Lie and say that it was the killer's gun who shot him.

The real storyline begins here as Al Pacino is filled with guilt inside and he desperately tries to cover up any possible evidence that could link this accidental killing to him. This demonstrates that his possible consequences only multiply with time as he creates more and more lies just to cover up his mistake. If the truth and his actions were discovered, it would look like predetermined murder to the court and his reputation would be shattered into a million pieces. In order to avoid this situation, he is willing to do anything it takes to keep his reputation.

'Anything' means making a deal with the killer (Played by one amazing Robin Williams) himself. Eventually, Al Pacino picks up a good clue as to who the killer could be and goes to the killer's house alone. This leads to a chase scene, and he fails at catching him. However, the killer allows him to meet him in person on a ferry. Al Pacino does and the killer tells him that they both killed somebody and didn't mean to do it. The killer tells Al Pacino that he can help him cover up his murder if Al Pacino will help him cover up his own murder. This suggests a deal with the devil, who traditionally offers a deal that seems to satisfy our wants, but with a catch. In this situation, Al Pacino's looming guilt is the catch. The archetypal meeting with the devil only brings Al Pacino more suffering as he is forced to have to put the (mostly) innocent boyfriend of the murdered girl in jail.

This act consumes Al Pacino's conscience and his guilt increases so much that he needs to fix his situation. He goes to the killer's house to rescue a clueless police officer who accidentally steps into the killer's trap. After an intense fight scene, Al Pacino finally catches the killer and shoots him. However, the killer had a "wild card" and shoots Al Pacino as well. The killer is finally dead but at a price. His actions have been redeemed and his career has finally been laid to rest. However, he had to also pay for his actions, as his death suggests. Another interpretation could be that once someone makes a deal with a metaphorical devil, their life will eventually be claimed by the devil. Most often, these deals with the devil end with the death of something, be it the person themselves or someone they love. 

I think the movie's title was pretty fitting for the movie and its theme. Throughout the movie, Al Pacino is kept awake by the permanent daylight and his guilt-ridden consciousness. His insomnia emphasizes his dark path and his bad choices. It runs parallel to the storyline and Pacino's lies multiply as his insomnia worsens. The pinnacle of his insomnia is when the killer tells him that his record was 5 nights of insomnia and that Pacino has beat it by one night. This suggests that Al Pacino's madness is becoming more apparent and out of control as he is turning into something very similar to the killer. This is why I think that the title was so cleverly chosen and why I think the movie's setting contributed so greatly to its meaning.

This was hopefully a good start on my blogging for Mr. Lindsey's english class assignment. Most likely, not all of my blogs will be this lengthy. I made an impressively long blog entry to compensate for my procrastination and I hope that I will not be as procrastinating in the future. Thank you for reading!