Test 2

I did not have a strong emotional reaction to William Blake’s poem, “The Human Ab-stract”, but I did find it intriguing. It reminds me of my own musings about the difference between a hero and a villain. The first stanza, “Pity would be no more, / If we did not make somebody Poor; / And Mercy no more could be, / If all were as happy as we;” (1-4) reminds me that we make our own villains. In echo, there would be no villains if every-one thought the same. Furthermore, most of the people we label as villains are the ones trying to correct this imbalance forcibly. Communism, while flawed, reflects this thought politically. The reason they are mostly labeled as “evil” or “bad” in America is because people naturally want to feel different and individual. In Japan this is not as much of an issue because they focus on the community more than the individual. That is not to say, however, that they do not experience pity or mercy because true equality is, currently at least, impossible and unfathomable.

Continuing this thought is the next stanza: “And mutual fear brings peace, / Till the self-ish loves increase; / Then Cruelty knits a snare, / And spreads his baits with care.” (5-8), the first line reflects the theories of Hobbes and Locke, in which governments exists to bring peace between individuals. Consequently, when the love of something superintends the fear created by the government, there is the possibility of war. This war could be something as small as a fan-war between movie fans or as large as World War II. The last two lines refers to how said wars blind the participants of the trap they have ensnared themselves in. People who have known each other for decades turn on each other and in-dulge in acts of cruelty. It doesn’t matter than neither side is good or evil, they are just “wrong” in the others eyes.

In the third stanza: “He sits down with holy fears, / And waters the ground with tears; / Then Humility takes its root / Underneath his foot” (9-12) the speaker is referring to Cru-elty and how the tears he causes to fall causes people to belittle themselves and hate the other side for their cruelty. However, this blinds them to the cruelty they cause to their “enemy” so it is a hypocritical humility (as mentioned in footnote 1 on page 1423 of Vol-ume B). This brings to mind that wars spread seeds of unfounded hate between individu-als that sour their view of others. For example, there is much strife between blacks and whites for the actions of their ancestors to this day.

Next, Blake writes: “Soon spreads the dismal shade / Of Mystery over his head; / And the Catterpiller and Fly / Feed on Mystery” (13-16). In my mind, this refers to how, once the war is started, the participants forget who started it or even why it started. I believe the fly represents corruption or disease, which grows as it feeds on the forgetfulness of peo-ple. As for the catterpiller, it represents human greed for disasters and distress of others. This is followed by: “And it bears the fruit of Deceit, / Ruddy and sweet to eat; / And the Raven his nest has made / In its thickest shade.” (17-20). This refers to the tendency of people to believe whatever they hear. They continue believing that the “other” people are bad because everyone else thinks so.

Finally, the poem ends with: “The Gods of earth and sea, / Sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree, / But their search was all in vain: / There grows one in the Human Brain.” (21-24). These last four lines refer to how only humanity has the capacity to so delude them-selves into fighting each other for nothing. Now I come back to the thought of how hero and villain is perceptive and not “real.” In my opinion, heros are criminals that get away with murder. We call them heros because the majority supports his or her ideals.

Gothic

I found a couple of the things that Shelly said about lighting intriguing. For instance, “Lightning is the fundamental force of the universe: The ether; the spirit.” brought to mind how lightning brings fire, light, and is usually a part of water-bearing storms. Later, the conversation between Shelly and the Lord Baron was also quite illuminating:

SHELLY. Lightning has power beyond our imaginations.
LORD BARON. But aren’t imaginations greater?

I believe that both are right as lightning has an enormous destructive force and the power to generate enough power to overload our “docile” electricity. However, our imagination is “greater” because we create many ideas that better the world as well as destroy it. Lightning may be powerful, but it is part of nature and is renewing in its destruction. Human ideas, however, can be very damaging to both the environment and its own creator.

Reflection 8

The ideal that imagination, emotion and freedom are the focal points of romanticism is, in my opinion, quite true. Take Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, for example. The monster sprouted from the emotion and imagination of the author during a single night, as told in the movie Gothic. There is not much reason to such tales of supernatural creatures and impossible creations. Sure, you could accept the concept that lightning can jumpstart the life of a human being, but logically it is quite impossible to create life from nothing. Thus zombies, another common theme of romantic stories, have a much more emotional than logical basis. Also in this period are women writers who express the need to be free from their male oppressors. They question the misconceptions and stereotypes they are forced to conform to. Thus the focus of the romantic era is also the focus of romanticism in general.

Reflection 7

In stanza one of “The Pains of Sleep” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the speaker lies down to sleep, praying humbly and silently as he does so. He also expresses that he embodies a juxtaposition of weakness and strength from within and without. In the second stanza, he looks back upon the night before when he had prayed loudly because of physical pain. The reason for his pain is a crowd of powerful shapes and thoughts that he had previously scorned. Powerless, he wished for revenge while still quite confused. He focuses this loathing on certain objects, which remain unknown to the reader. These feelings he has inspires fear and shame in both himself and perceived from “others”, although I’m not sure who these others are. Perhaps they are imaginations.

In the final stanza he jumps to the day after the second night in which the same nightmares plagued him. He believes that his hellish nightmares are the worst thing he has ever or will ever experience. He then recalls the third night in which he actually screamed aloud and wept after he had woken. He then believes that his woes were due to a sin he had committed. A sin that he loathed for doing, yet still desired. The last two lines describe his want to be loved and proclaiming those that chose to love him would be loved vigorously in return.