Blog Entry 3.2: Macbeth Video

          This short clip is from a 30 minutes animated version of Macbeth commissioned by BBC in the early 1990s. Although this animation may look like a "cartoon", it follows the original play and it includes the Shakespearean language and tragedy. There are many scenes in this version that could be scary for younger viewers. Animation is a relatively new medium and it is used in a very impressive way here to portray the archetypes and personalities of the characters.
           The video begins with the brief appearance of three witches and then moves to a military camp, where the Scottish King Duncan hears the news that his generals, Macbeth and Banquo, have defeated two separate invading armies, one from Ireland and one from Norway. After their victorious battle with these enemy forces, Macbeth and Banquo have an encounter with the witches. The witches tell Macbeth that he will be made thane (a rank of Scottish nobility) of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. They also predict that Banquo's sons will become Scottish kings, although Banquo will never be king himself. The witches vanish, and Macbeth and Banquo are skeptical and joke about their prophecies. Then some of King Duncan’s men come to thank the two generals for their victories in battle and to tell Macbeth that he has been named thane of Cawdor. The previous thane betrayed Scotland by fighting for the Norwegians and Duncan has condemned him to death. Macbeth is intrigued by the possibility that he will be crowned king, but he is uncertain what to expect. He visits King Duncan, and they plan to dine together at Inverness, Macbeth’s castle, that night. Macbeth writes ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her about everything, including the witches. Lady Macbeth is not sa uncertain as he is. She wants him to become king and to murder Duncan in order to obtain it. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she convinces him to kill the king. The video ends with Macbeth's vision of a bloody dagger.
            The animation style and scary background music help emphasize the overall eerie, dark atmosphere of the play. The witches are depicted very distorted and they keep transforming, symbolizing supernatural force; this visual, continuous transformation of the witches is something that could not be achieved with the same effect on a stage, in a theater. They are forming a circle when they are dancing and casting the spells. The circle is a clear symbol of infinity, in this case, continuity for their spells. Macbeth's eyes are very dark in this animation. The eyes are considered in many cultures as the windows to the soul, therefore his soul is very dark and evil. He is like a soulless ghoul, driven by desire for power. Macbeth is influenced by his ambitious wife and the prophecy of the witches and becomes a ruthless killer, rather than the hero he is in the beginning of the play. Lady Macbeth's features are also very exaggerated and drawn out of proportion, showing that she is evil and dark herself. All of the scenes where Macbeth, his wife and the weird sisters appear, are visually very dark and scary. 

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC9G_CZVAL8

Blog Entry 3.1: Macbeth

        Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's darkest play."The Scottish Play" is filled with brutality and savagery. And this still image evokes just that. This is a photograph from a modern adaptation by Rupert Goold, in which the actors are wearing soviet-style uniforms and machine guns to establish a 1950s Stalin-era mood as Macbeth tries to eliminate his rivals to the throne.  The main reason for choosing this photograph, aside from being a fan of the amazing Patrick Stewart, is that it is such a brilliant narrative photograph. It is just the perfect example to show that a photograph is indeed worth one thousand words. This image shows the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, which is obsession; obsession for power and beauty, for everything. Macbeth has completely sold his soul to her, in all of its evil.
       Macbeth and his wife are standing in a strange basement setting with a cold, metal table and white brick walls in the dark background and a sink in the foreground; all of these elements of the setting serve to provide a dark feeling to the play. Both of them get blood on their hands in order to become rulers. The red color of the blood is a significant element in this image, but just as important are the the looks in the actors' eyes and their postures. Lady Macbeth is looking at her hands and looks horrified and regretful and is standing in front of the sink, like she is about to get the blood of her hands. At the same time, Macbeth is not as close as her to the camera lens and seems to be looking at her and realize that she was the one who pushed him to murder. But is he really doing that? His gaze is mysterious, almost magical.
       In "Macbeth", symbolism is used abundantly to exemplify the overall theme of murder. There are several obvious forms of this throughout the play. The contrast of light and dark represents good and evil. Blood symbolizes murder and  their guilt and shame about the horrific crime.The archetypes of the ruler and warrior, which are present throughout the play for Macbeth, are not evident in this image. Lady Macbeth here seems the archetypal negative mother influencing him in a destructive way. From Macbeth, we can learn that there is a spiritual battle between good and evil inside everybody.


 Works cited:  "Patrick Stewart gives Macbeth new life." UK Reuters. Web.26 Oct. 2010. <http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0124949720071001>.
  Image link: http://novaclutch.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/30/mac2650.jpg

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Blog Entry 2.2: Magician Wanderer

                        Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
       
           The two most predominant archetypes for me are Magician and Wanderer. I am writing this now and thinking:"Really, wanderer?!". I could not agree more with it. Just like the "About Me" post of this blog mentions, I left my country when I was 20 years old. I am still wandering and honestly I still don't feel like I have found my place, where I could feel at home. I just know I want to visit and live in different parts of the world. I have been traveling a lot for the past few years, not only inside of United States, but also to other countries.
           My second archetype is Magician. Magic is all around us. Sometimes we have the eyes to see it; sometimes we do not. A magician is, of course, a person who does "magic" and who can make things happen that wouldn't happen under the normal or familiar laws of nature. Life for me is sometimes like that.

Blog entry 2.1: The Goblin Market

The youngest of four children in a family of poets, artists, and philosophers, Christina Georgina Rossetti was born in 1830. Rossetti was a devout High Anglican, influenced by a religious movement known as Tractarianism. She spent most of her adulthood living in seclusion in London, where she cared for invalid relatives, did charity work, and pursued her writing. While she also wrote prose, she specialized in poetry, writing over 900 poems in English and 60 in Italian.

Like her brothers, Christina was also closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. She wrote occasional poems and essays for the Pre-Raphaelite journal, The Germ. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of painters, poets, and critics who wanted both visual art and poetry to return to the intense colors and vivid detail typical of artists in the early Italian Renaissance. Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets depicted even the most banal objects with great detail.

Christina Rossetti 's "Goblin Market," like most art by members of the Pre-Raphaelite group, contains a lot of symbolism. "Goblin Market" is about two sisters, one of whom gets sick after eating bad goblin fruit, and is healed because of her sister's courage. Laura and Lizzie hear the sounds of the goblin fruit market from their house. At first they try to ignore the calls of the goblin men, but eventually Laura decides to go out and see what's happening. Lizzie warns her not to go, but Laura is too curious. The goblin men offer her their fruit, and Laura thinks it looks tasty. She doesn't have any money, but the goblins offer to take a piece of her golden hair instead. So Laura gives up some of her hair, eats the fruit and heads home to her sister. But after eating all that goblin fruit, Laura starts to waste away. Lizzie gets worried and decides to go down to the market. The goblin men try to tempt her the way they tempted her sister, but Lizzie stands firm. The goblin men turn violent and try to stuff fruit in Lizzie's mouth, but she squeezes her mouth shut, so they just end up getting juice all over her. Lizzie runs back to their house all covered in goblin fruit juice. Laura kisses the juice off her sister's cheeks and is healed.
The main symbols found in this poem are fruits, flowers, the moon, money and the water. The poem is about eating fruit and then wanting more. In the beginning of the poem, the author lists 29 different kinds of fruit. Flowers in "Goblin Market" tend to be associated with delicate, fragile purity, as opposed to the luscious, decadent, and sensual goblin fruit. Flowers, though, can be "plucked," which often represented a loss of purity (line 151). The moon is often symbolically connected to women in poetry. But, it can also have to do with cycles and changes, since the moon changes shape throughout the month. The moon, in "Goblin Market", seems to be connected with addiction to the goblin fruit. Even though the market is central to the basic plot of the poem, money only changes hands twice. And the first time is not even real money. Laura makes her metaphor relating gold coins to golden hair literal when she actually snips off a "golden curl" to use as money (line 126). And finally, a lot of the action of "Goblin Market" takes place down by the stream where Laura and Lizzie gather water.            
The poem is highly symbolic, and considered by many as an interpretation of the original sin story of Adam and Eve. Several archetypes are used by the author in her poem. The three main archetypes are the virgin or innocent represented by Laura, the hero - Lizzie. The third archetype is the one of devil or evildoers, represented here by the goblins.

I think Christina Rossetti wrote a very powerful poem and showed great detail in her words. She was a very religious person, and  in this poem, she portrays Lizzie as a Christ figure, and Laura as Eve, whom it was thought to be the reason for sin in the world. The author's message is that females have strong appetites but must learn to not give into temptation.

         

Works cited: 

"Goblin Market." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_Market)>.
               

Humphries, Simon. "The Uncertainty of Goblin Market." Victorian Poetry 45.4 (2007): 391-413. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.

Blog Entry 1.3: Street Spirit by Radiohead

Street Spirit
by Radiohead
  

Rows of houses all bearing down on me

I can feel their blue hands touching me

All these things into position

All these things will want this world

And fade out again 

And fade out

This machine will, will not communicate

These thoughts and the strain I am under

Be a world child, form a circle

Before we all go under

And fade out again

And fade out again

Cracked eggs, dead birds

Scream as they fight for life

I can feel death, can see it’s beady eyes

Hold these things into position

 All these things we'll one day swallow whole

And fade out again

And fade out again

Immerse your soul in love

Immerse your soul in love

   

       Radiohead have proven to be an exceptional band in many ways. They manage to reinvent themselves with every new album released by being unconventional and experimental. "Street Spirit" is featured on the band's second album The Bends, which was released in 1995. It was noted by singer-songwriter and guitarist Thom Yorke as "one of [the band's] saddest songs".

     This song has a lot of symbols and represents symbolism. Symbols are words that an author may use in his poem or song to represent meanings other than the original. Therefore, the interpretation of this song varies, all based on the use of symbolism. Some of the symbols used here are rows of houses, the blue hands, machine, world child, circle, cracked eggs and dead birds. This song's basic theme suggests that the nature of our existence is tragic because we will just fade into the nothingness that we came from.

     The first verse is about the paranoia of our own things sneaking up on us and one day taking control. The 'blue hands' are the hands of death. The "rows of houses" are supposed to represent the molds or skins we are supposed to fit into. We are supposed to "fit in" and yet some of us just can't help but be very different from others. So these lines could be about the idea that being forced to "fit in" is actually destroying our souls. the lines about "all these things into position, all these things will want this world" could be about the faith that is ahead of us or the faith of humanity is already written.

       The second verse speaks of a "machine..." that "...will not communicate these thoughts". In the song, the author expresses his belief that computers are soulless and finds it hard expressing his thoughts and feelings by using them. Another meaning for the "machine" can be that it represents the machine of language or music; hence the lyrics are about the failure of words or music to express how he really feels. Then he calls on others to come "form in a circle" before they all disappear in the machine. Being a “world child” is more ambiguous. It may be advice to travel the world and learn and experience as much as possible, or it may be advice to appreciate everyone and everything in the world equally. "Form a circle" may be a continuation of the idea of acceptance (a circle of people holding hands), but a circle is also a symbol of eternity (a line without beginning or end) and so perhaps “forming a circle” means that we are to forget about such things as conclusions, ends, and death.  We should avoid the disturbing knowledge of our certain death by deluding ourselves with notions of forever and eternity.

       The cracked eggs represent the people who didn't even get a chance because this song envisions the day when everything collapses and there is no turning back. The 'dead birds' are people after everything is coming to an end. 

       The song is about the inevitability of death and the (inexpressible) feeling that the knowledge of this produces. However, rather than wallowing in the fact that life is hopeless and ultimately meaningless (something it does not deny), it seems to advise to do three things with life: be a "world child", "form a circle" and "immerse your soul in love". To "immerse your soul in love" is the most obvious of the three. Love is one of the most pleasurable and desirable experiences available and so immersion in it distracts one from the knowledge of certain death. Thom Yorke said it was about "fighting with the devil and losing every time"

Works Cited:

"Street Spirit (Fade Out)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Spirit_(Fade_Out)>.

 Radiohead / DEAD AIR SPACE. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. <http://radiohead.com/deadairspace/>.