As I ended my reading, I asked myself the question why where the people in those dark homes not really living?
This short story is truly short. In these short two pages a vivid story was told. Many times when I read short stories they don't feel as complete as this story did but there is a complete story arc. The author uses a lot of imagery to share the feeling of the story. This story is not a character story, a big event story nor trying to solve a problem. It is all about the setting. I don't find many stories that are milieu stories however in this story the protagonist enters and explains the surroundings wonderfully.
As I ended my reading, I asked myself the question why where the people in those dark homes not really living?
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Reading the Henry IV part 1 and 2 plays so close to Henry V play changes what things stand out in the play. The famous speech of St. Crispin's Day can be seen as a very motivating speech. Placing all the plays together shows new insights that I had not seen as clearly. Richard II is shown as a weak king and is overthrown by Henry IV with some help. We then see that Henry IV is still seeking to increase his power and glory but must deal with rebellion. He has not earned and kept the loyalty of those who helped him come to power leading to more civil war and strife in England. Prince Hal or Henry V is not busy playing practical jokes and hanging out with a shady group of friends. When he becomes king, he throws off his friends and decides he needs to behave differently now that he is king. Has he really changed or is he just pretending to change to get what he wants? My personal opinion is that he has not really changed. He uses the church to support his desire to increase his power by starting a war in France. Then as part of the peace settlement requires Princess Katherine's hand in marriage. There is quite a scene in the play of Henry V wooing Katherine, but I don't think it is real myself. I think it is just Henry pretending.
To me there is evidence that Henry V is playing a part hidden within the play. Here are a couple of spots I see: 1. Act 1 Scene II: Henry V gets the church to approve of his move to attack France and to take responsibility for the decision to go to war. 2. He does cast aside his old 'friends' because it will not look good on him to keep them. Some of his new friends are conspirators and are quickly eliminated. 3. Act II Scene IV: Henry seems willing to do whatever it takes to win include being very cruel to civilians. 4. Act III: His war speech asks the nobles to lay aside their virtues and become animals as they war with France. Then appeals to their manhood, ancestry, and love of England. We see that his old friends don't buy into Henry's 'noble cause' as some of the other leaders. He pushes his army until they are sick and cold yet expects them to fight cheerfully. 5. Act V Scene II: "She is our capital demand..." not a request but a demand. He also states in the scene in which is is trying to convince her that he loves here that if they don't marry the war will continue. 6. Act V Scene II: "O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great king". Tradition and virtue really don't seem to mean much to Henry here. Overall, to me it looks like Henry V is 'playing the system' to get what he wants. If this is Shakespeare's ideal king, I think there is a problem. But as Lord Action says, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For me these plays have grown in their importance, showing how important it is for us to look at the words and the actions of the leaders to determine what they really believe and want. Do their words ALWAYS match their actions? Do they pick their friends well and treat them well? Do they do the right thing for the right reason or try to justify that they have the right reason? Before I re-read Henry V, I decided I needed to visit the Henry IV plays. I had only read part 1 in the past. Let's see if this time I can get through all the Henry IV plays.
I can see how this play is relevant for our day as it shows that those that are rebelling against the king tend to be just as dishonest within their group. Near the end of the play one of the leaders withhold correct information because they don't want peace. This leads me to wonder why they didn't want peace. In this case it was because they (the older leaders) would have a short life if peace were made and were determined that the king would find a way to dispose of them. Since Henry IV disposed of his brother Richard II that seems to be a reasonable assumption. This play also shares a lot of information on Prince Hal (Henry V). He, like is father, seems to treat people poorly. He plays practical jokes on Flagstaff leaving him in trouble with the law and sees no problem with it. Prince Hal says much of his behavior is just an act but is it really? Are King Henry and Prince Hal similar in the idea that they treat people badly? I believe so. Part of the reason that some of his leaders were rebelling was because of their treatment by the King. I feel that this play is a good example of how we can pretend to be good people but in the end something this shows alerting others to the truth of who we are. How we treat people is critical in establishing our character and our leadership. Pretending may work for a short time but then the truth always slips in. Hopefully we can learn this lesson without needing personal experience, but I am afraid that is not the case for many. We don't know how to determine if our leaders are good people because they are so far away so they can trick us into thinking they are good leaders. Shakespeare provides us a platform to discuss what a good leader should look like if we take the time to learn his language and discuss his work. I have read the Dover translation (Baker & Miller) and listened to the Richard Wilbur translation. I like the Wilbur translation much better.
As I was discussing this book one of the things that I started to wonder about was who was the hypocrite: Orgon or Tartuffe? I looked up the words imposter, deceiver, and hypocrite to help me decided. It was interesting. I think Orgon was a hypocritical father and Tartuffe was a deceiver. We learn of Orgon's hypocrisy because he chose to listen to Tartuffe over his family. The story ends with Orgon being rescued from his poor decisions in what appears to be a "happy ending" but if you were one of his children what would you do? What would Orgon need to do to repair the damage he did to his family? This is one of those books that I just don't connect with. There are several books that I have seen on classic lists that I just wonder and wonder about. This is one of them for me (along with Robinson Crusoe). I have read both of them a couple of times and still don't connect. But I have learned a couple of more things from the rereading of this book. I do have to say that I need Mentoring the Classics (TJEd.org) to help me through seeing this better. I don't know that I understand the author's point. However, I looked up several of the poems to find what they were referring to and took more notes. Maybe there is more to this then I think. Maybe because I am not from the culture it was written in I am missing out on the clues that I need to figure it out.
I still have not watched the movie, so maybe I will have more to say afterward. Molly was introduced to several family cultures:
1. Her father's home 2. The Cumnor Family / The Towers 3. Hamley Hall 4. Her home after the marriage to Claire Kirkpatrick 5. The Miss Brownings She manages to make friends with them and and live peaceably with them all yet is the most influenced by Mrs. Hamley and Roger. These 2 invited her into their lives and helped her through her challenges. Here she was invited to grow and develop her mind and heart. This is a very different experience from her step-sister Cynthia who is sent away to school at a young age and is not invited into any family culture until Mr. Gibson marries her mother. Imagine how things would have been different for Cynthia if she had been invited into a home and encouraged to develop her mind and heart the way that Molly had. No wonder Cynthia had so many struggles and yet look at all the good things about Cynthia's character! We know nothing about her time away but I wonder if there was a mentor or two in her past. Hopefully, the school she was sent to was not like the school that Jane Eyre was sent to but I think there must have been a mentor or two there to help Cynthia. Yet how sad that Cynthia did not have a family culture that would help her as she struggled through growing up. Molly and Cynthia both have the opportunity to take these experiences they have had to build their own family cultures. I wonder what they will choose to include. This book as been on my "someday" list for a long time and now I can say I have read the book.
Spent a lot of time with the internet regarding translations and decided to go for the Anthony Briggs translation for two reasons: 1. All in English 2. The names of the characters are consistent through the book. There are a lot of resources out there to help support your reading of this book. But to me the most important resources is one that helps me see why the book is important and should be kept and read. I am going to post one of them because I think it has helped be see more of why it is a great book. The CodeX Cantina Summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh5kUrqGWlI Continued thoughts Overall when I closed the book my first thoughts were that these characters seemed either spoiled or innocent with no real mentoring involved. They were left to themselves to figure out life. Hmmm kind of applies to today. As I ponder War & Peace one of my thoughts is that I don't want to identify with Pierre. I don't want to feel as lost and confused as he seems to be. In all his attempts to find peace, he could not find it until the epilogue. Yet that is probably what did happen and does happen with many of us. We have many experiences that knock us around and reject us when all we want to do is be accepted and do something with our lives. How different Pierre would be if there was a mentor who could help save him from himself. A mentor who could have helped him process his wants and weaknesses directing him toward peace and solving the war within him. As much as I don't want to identify with Pierre, I have walked that same path for quite a bit of my life. I do believe classics can be that mentor in some ways but know that classics alone is the long hard way. I have had to re-read and re-read some books to figure out what they were saying to me. Some I have been re-reading since my teen years and it took discussion with others that have read that book to get what I needed out of it. Reading is a great start but reading alone may not help many of us. After all, Pierre had a Western education yet it did not help him find the peace he was looking for. I know people who have read a lot of books but they did not know how to let the books change them and didn't have people around them that helped them through the process. When I first started trying to get a leadership education my finances were very tight and I was not in or near a TJEd community. I had to really dig to begin to understand what a classic could offer me. Many times I didn't gain as much as I hoped (or expected). Things started changing when I worked to form a community where I could discuss ideas and make commitments to others. I don't have an in-person community but luckily technology helped and allows me to connect with others that are willing to commit time and energy to understanding classics. My finances are still limited but I know that it's critical for me to be in a community (or 2) to keep myself growing and understanding. I know that all things come at the right time in the right way but how I wish there were more options available to help my growth when I was attempting to do a leadership education in my home. Hopefully, at least I provided a better starting place for my family because of what I did attempt. My children will be hopefully picking up at around the same level as Pierre and Natasha's children are instead of where Pierre and Natasha started or their parents. However, in our world, there seems to be is a lack of people who have a 'basic understanding of natural law and the mores of principled behavior'. We have a lot of people who are just looking to attend the next soiree just like in the story. Or looking for the next war so that they can feel alive and able to achieve honor and glory. More than ever we need to be able to understand what education is truly about and understand how to find our place in the world in a what that makes the world a better place. Montaigne has a lot to say especially about customs. He starts this essay by stating that "custom is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress". He continues on using words like tyrannic and furious. Then states "We see her, at every turn, forcing and violating the rules of nature: 'Custom is the best master of all things' (Pliny). In the next paragraph he states that "custom stupefies our senses".
That is a very strong opinion. Do you agree? disagree? Why? I have to believe that customs have good and bad teachings within them. We can unfortunately make many decisions based on our customs instead of stepping back and asking is the idea right or wrong, is the idea true or false. We make judgements all day long just based on our custom or traditions. For example, I recently went to Italy. A fabulous experience. And I experienced how I was making judgements based on my traditions, in particular my eating traditions. Italy enjoys seafood (raw and cooked) way more then I am accustomed to. I found that because I don't eat seafood often, when I went to restaurants I didn't choose seafood options. All based on my customs and expectations. Such a small thing yet I limited my choices each time because of my customs. This experience made me wonder what judgments I have made that are wrong but based on customs or traditions in my life. I wondered about how I was not able to see options because of my customs or see things incorrectly for the same reason. Am I just obeying ideas without understanding or questioning ideas? So many things to think about. I am so happy that I have continued to pursue a leadership-style education just because it challenges my traditions and customs and expands my thinking. In another essay Montaigne wrote "Human understanding is marvelously enlightened by daily conversations with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses." I agree with this statement. Discussion has been a huge part of my learning. I really hope that my sight is not so limited that it does not extend past the end of my nose. I have had this on my list to read for a while. I find it different then what I expected. As a good friend recommended it is a book that you need to read in short segments hunting for the gold nuggets. Here is one that caused me to ponder and think about.
Book 8:28: Either pain affects the body (which is the body's problem) or it affects the soul. But the soul can choose not to be affected, preserving its own serenity, its own tranquility. All our decisions, urges, desires, aversions lie within. No evil can touch them. I have been pondering what pain (emotional, mental, physical) have I allowed to touch my soul? There are many books that are similar to this book (The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life by B. Varty). I can think of the Alchemist, The Dream Giver, Grandfather (Brown) and A Hero of A Thousand Faces. Louis L' Amour books and many Science Fiction books follow some of these themes. All are really sharing ideas about how to live life by finding your unique path and working through all the challenges that are along the path.
This story is unique in that it is told as the narrator looks to track a lion and shares the lessons he has learned from his mentors but you can see many of the ideas from each of the other books in his storytelling. Overall big idea: Along our journey we have many experiences that can change our lives if we are willing to take the risks necessary to take the journey. |
AuthorAbigail Adams Academy is created by moms for those seeking their own education. Archives
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