As I said, I have not finished reading the book, but at this point, I think that I'm going to talk about Catherine and Heathcliff's love and its impact on other characters in the novel, especially on themselves and their spouses. If it turns out that the topic is too broad, then I'll most likely focus on the thematic relationship between the two families (besides the obvious connection...).
Monday, April 13, 2009
Don't Look!: Falling into Wuthering Heights
After reading a number of different books and much deliberation, I have decided to write my final paper on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I haven't finished it yet--I'm about a third of the way through--, but I find the novel and its themes incredibly fascinating. Superficially, it seems like such a basic and frankly boring story. However, Catherine's passion and Heathcliff's anger/resentment seem supernatural. Their moments together create so much tension and electricity, you almost expect a spark to go off or an explosion of some sort. At this point, my favorite moment from the book is when Catherine is talking to Nelly about her feelings for Heathcliff. She says, "If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be, and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.... Nelly, I am Heathcliff!"
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
A Lesson in Loss
Contrary to its initial appearance, Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" is a multifaceted poem layered with complex and heavy themes of loss, love, and self-awareness. Bishop uses the French-originated villanelle to emphasize the speaker's emotions, yet she uses light, conversational tones to avoid infusing the readers with deep sadness or pain. In effect, the poem is rich with intricate and poignant meanings that, to fully comprehend, require an understanding of the villanelle form and Bishop's past.
The villanelle has a very interesting past that has led to its current, highly-structured style. When it first appeared during the Renaissance, the villanella was not a fixed form but an Italian and Spanish dance-song. French poets who called their poems "villanelles" did not adhere to any particular style. Rather, like the dance-songs, these poems portrayed pastoral themes. It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that the villanelle became a structured form under the auspices of Théodore de Banville. After Banville, the form grew increasingly popular among English-writing poets. Famous poets who have written villanelles include Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Oscar Wilde, and Sylvia Plath. As we know it presently, the villanelle is a nineteen-line poem in the form of five tercets and a final quatrain. The poem contains two repeating rhymes (a, b) and two refrains (A1, A2). The first and third lines of the opening tercet serve as the refrains and are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrains serve as the poem's two concluding lines. The form appears as followed: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.
Bishop takes full advantage of this poetry style. At the beginning of her poem, the refrains sound like the speaker intends to impress the lesson onto his or her students. We learn about immaterial possessions that the speaker has lost: door keys, time, a watch, places, names, and destinations. As the poem continues, however, and as we learn more about what the speaker has lost, it appears that she is mostly trying to convince herself that she is not affected by these losses, particularly the loss of an unidentified loved one. She does not reference herself until the fourth stanza. Even in the fourth and fifth stanzas though, the speaker refuses to acknowledge her true feelings. She merely heightens the urgency to list all of her lost items, each item growing in size—from cities to realms to rivers to continents. The speaker finally reveals her struggling feelings in the parenthetical asides in the sixth stanza. In the final line, the phrase "Write it!" betrays the speaker as she resists confronting her hurt feelings.
In contrast to Sylvia Plath's “Lady Lazarus,” “One Art” was not meant to be a confessional poem. All throughout the poem, however, Bishop references her own experiences with loss to portray her conflicted feelings and to evoke the reader's empathy. When Bishop was only six years old, her mother was moved to an insane asylum and Bishop never saw her again. In the fourth stanza, the speaker says, “I lost my mother's watch.” If “watch” is a synecdoche for “time,” then the line literally says, “I lost my mother's time,” which is exactly what happened to Elizabeth Bishop—she lost her mother's time, or presence. After that brief glimmer of sadness, the speaker distracts us, saying, “And look!” Then she tells us about losing her “three loved houses,” houses that actually existed in Key West, Florida, and in Samambaia and Ouro Prêto in Brazil. Saying “houses” also reverts the poem to the previous impersonal tone and diction, even if she loved them. Suddenly, as if talking about her mother’s watch broke a massive dam, the speaker’s list grows larger, not only in number but also in size as we discover that she lost two cities, two rivers, and a continent—some realms. Bishop, who traveled a lot and lived for 17 years with her lover Lota de Macedo Soares in Brazil, finally left Brazil—a whole realm. She misses everything, but to her “it wasn’t a disaster.” The larger struggle seems to be the loss of the unidentified loved one. It is unclear who “you” is. Is it Bishop’s mother whom Bishop never saw since she was six years old? Is it Lota with whom Bishop had unfinished business? After all, Bishop left Brazil to move away from Lota after their relationship became bitter and difficult. When Lota followed Bishop to America and spent the night with her, Bishop awoke the next morning to find Lota had collapsed from a drug overdose. Lota died within the week. Bishop wrote “One Art” nine years later.
So, who could be the recipient of Bishop’s fraught love? Either way, it doesn’t matter because the poem is not entirely about Bishop’s admitting of her lingering feelings of love. Rather, the poem displays the poet or speaker’s self-exploration and –knowledge. The poem is initially a lesson for others, but that lesson for others results in a lesson for the speaker herself. She forces herself to look deep within, to ruminate over her losses and feelings. In the end, the path is for her alone. And no matter how difficult it becomes for the speaker to confront her emotions, she forbids resorting to maudlin and self-pitying tones and preserving human dignity. This is the “one art”: losing something and, whether valuable or not, maintaining poise and human strength. (931 words)
The villanelle has a very interesting past that has led to its current, highly-structured style. When it first appeared during the Renaissance, the villanella was not a fixed form but an Italian and Spanish dance-song. French poets who called their poems "villanelles" did not adhere to any particular style. Rather, like the dance-songs, these poems portrayed pastoral themes. It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that the villanelle became a structured form under the auspices of Théodore de Banville. After Banville, the form grew increasingly popular among English-writing poets. Famous poets who have written villanelles include Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Oscar Wilde, and Sylvia Plath. As we know it presently, the villanelle is a nineteen-line poem in the form of five tercets and a final quatrain. The poem contains two repeating rhymes (a, b) and two refrains (A1, A2). The first and third lines of the opening tercet serve as the refrains and are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrains serve as the poem's two concluding lines. The form appears as followed: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.
Bishop takes full advantage of this poetry style. At the beginning of her poem, the refrains sound like the speaker intends to impress the lesson onto his or her students. We learn about immaterial possessions that the speaker has lost: door keys, time, a watch, places, names, and destinations. As the poem continues, however, and as we learn more about what the speaker has lost, it appears that she is mostly trying to convince herself that she is not affected by these losses, particularly the loss of an unidentified loved one. She does not reference herself until the fourth stanza. Even in the fourth and fifth stanzas though, the speaker refuses to acknowledge her true feelings. She merely heightens the urgency to list all of her lost items, each item growing in size—from cities to realms to rivers to continents. The speaker finally reveals her struggling feelings in the parenthetical asides in the sixth stanza. In the final line, the phrase "Write it!" betrays the speaker as she resists confronting her hurt feelings.
In contrast to Sylvia Plath's “Lady Lazarus,” “One Art” was not meant to be a confessional poem. All throughout the poem, however, Bishop references her own experiences with loss to portray her conflicted feelings and to evoke the reader's empathy. When Bishop was only six years old, her mother was moved to an insane asylum and Bishop never saw her again. In the fourth stanza, the speaker says, “I lost my mother's watch.” If “watch” is a synecdoche for “time,” then the line literally says, “I lost my mother's time,” which is exactly what happened to Elizabeth Bishop—she lost her mother's time, or presence. After that brief glimmer of sadness, the speaker distracts us, saying, “And look!” Then she tells us about losing her “three loved houses,” houses that actually existed in Key West, Florida, and in Samambaia and Ouro Prêto in Brazil. Saying “houses” also reverts the poem to the previous impersonal tone and diction, even if she loved them. Suddenly, as if talking about her mother’s watch broke a massive dam, the speaker’s list grows larger, not only in number but also in size as we discover that she lost two cities, two rivers, and a continent—some realms. Bishop, who traveled a lot and lived for 17 years with her lover Lota de Macedo Soares in Brazil, finally left Brazil—a whole realm. She misses everything, but to her “it wasn’t a disaster.” The larger struggle seems to be the loss of the unidentified loved one. It is unclear who “you” is. Is it Bishop’s mother whom Bishop never saw since she was six years old? Is it Lota with whom Bishop had unfinished business? After all, Bishop left Brazil to move away from Lota after their relationship became bitter and difficult. When Lota followed Bishop to America and spent the night with her, Bishop awoke the next morning to find Lota had collapsed from a drug overdose. Lota died within the week. Bishop wrote “One Art” nine years later.
So, who could be the recipient of Bishop’s fraught love? Either way, it doesn’t matter because the poem is not entirely about Bishop’s admitting of her lingering feelings of love. Rather, the poem displays the poet or speaker’s self-exploration and –knowledge. The poem is initially a lesson for others, but that lesson for others results in a lesson for the speaker herself. She forces herself to look deep within, to ruminate over her losses and feelings. In the end, the path is for her alone. And no matter how difficult it becomes for the speaker to confront her emotions, she forbids resorting to maudlin and self-pitying tones and preserving human dignity. This is the “one art”: losing something and, whether valuable or not, maintaining poise and human strength. (931 words)
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