Woman (or Madonnas and Whores) in Chapter 8

I genuinely think Freud was just a massive pleb.

And I don't understand many of the words on the sheet because they're really big words, but I guess Mina would be seen as the 'Madonna', as she is very vulnerable and girly and is scared people will see her feet and motherlike in the way that she takes care of Lucy. But then what would Lucy be classed as? She can't be a whore because she didn't choose to do whatever she did with the big D, but she's not really the Madonna type either... awks.
PERHAPS Mina is secretly jel that she didn't get raped by the big D? ooooooh

Ronnie is iliterate (not sure how you spell that)

The Form of Dracula

The use of letters and journals creates a sense of versimilitude for the reader. It makes events seem more real - as if they have actually happened. It also allows the reader to hear characters' views on certain events. For example, when Harker says 'Then the horror came over me,' there is a suspension of disbelief as we are told what he feels about particular events and there is no need to distrust it; as there is an appearance of trust.

It also allows us to discover the true emotions of characters. For example in a diary, a character may talk to themselves and write things that they wouldn't publicly say. As letters and diaries are very private and intimate things,the use of letters and journals  allow the reader to invade. Therefore the reader gets the full goss, details and info - nothing is hidden from us, which is valuable to understand the full plot.

Finally, different views expressed by different characters allow us to make up our own un-biased mind on situations in the novel.

xoxo, Mim

The awkward moment when you're trying to blog about this vulgar Freud stuff and your mother's eagerly watching over your shoulder -__-

Dear Blog,

Soooo, the one thing that sprang to mind after reading chapter 3 and the words 'blog on sex in dreams - chapter 3' in my planner, was the whole scene with the lady-vampires - IF you can call them ladies. Pft.
Well it occured in a castle - which represents female genitalia. Great.
Dread to think what the baby represents.

There's one part where Harker rushes 'up and down the stairs' and I'm pretty sure that represents sexual intercourse.
The bit where Dracula climbs down the wall hahahahahaha. Genuinely lolling. Hahahaha, creep. In a 'lizard fashion' ahahahahaha.
Writing letters... with a penIS.
Locked doors in the castle - locked vaginas? Higlighting the fact that he is not with Mina?
'Jagged mountains' - you get it.

Urghhhh had enough of this, bizzle.

Faustus - Tragic, Gothic or other?

TRAGIC:

'Aristotle established his view of what makes a tragic hero in his Book Poetics. Aristotle suggests that a hero of a tragedy must evoke in the audience a sense of pity or fear, [a renaissaince audience would arguably feel a sense of fear at Faustus selling his soul to the devil, and if not it would certainly shock them.] saying, “the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity."^[1] He establishes the concept that the emotion of pity stems not from a person becoming better but when a person receives undeserved misfortune and fear comes when the misfortune befalls a man like us. This is why Aristotle points out the simple fact that, “The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.” [defo the case for Dr.F]Aristotle also establishes that the hero has to be “virtuous” that is to say he has to be ‘a morally blameless man” (article 82).
Aristotle contests that the tragic hero has to be a man “who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.”[HUBRIS!] He is not making the hero entirely good in which he can do no wrong but rather has the hero committing an injury or a great wrong leading to his misfortune. Aristotle is not contradicting himself saying that the hero has to be virtuous and yet not eminently good. Being eminently good is a moral specification to the fact that he is virtuous.^[2] He still has to be to some degree good. [intelligence? He is arguably still 'good' as in Act 5 he obviously knows what he has done is wrong, but simply thinks it is too late to repent.] Aristotle adds another qualification to that of being virtuous but not entirely good when he says, “He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous.”[Faustus is high status] He goes on to give examples such as Oedipus and Thyestes.”'

Therefore to some extent Faustus is a tragic hero, as, in short, his excessive pride or hubris leads to his epic downfall.


GOTHIC: (didn't know if we were talking about just the character of Faustus or the novel in general... so i'll just talk about Faustus himself)

NOT GOTHIC:
-doesn't live in a castle
-doesn't wear black all the time (that we know of)
-no ancient prophecy or anything like that, just religion and devils
-no crazy lady in distress
-'Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male.' nope.

if there's no stereotypical stock characters how can it be Gothic?

-is German? but that means nothing as the book wasn't writter in the Gothic era
-he is of high status
-an atmosphere of mystery and suspense
-supernatural events? strong connotations to [corrupt] religion and devils
-'high emotion'

Slightly gothic but then again not written to be gothic? It just happens to be slightly...


OTHER:
Faustus is just an excessivley arrogant, intelligent fool.

How has Faustus fallen further? Act 3? Hopefully we weren't supposed to do Act 4 but I think we were? I did Act 3 anyways...

Think this is only referring to Act 4 but I would like to talk about Act 3.1 as that is what we did in class and I believe from this scene it is obvious Faustus has fallen considerably. For example:

• When Wagner says 'did mount himself to scale Olympus' top' - Faustus is being related to a God, as Zeus lived there, but the Greek gods would have been seen as fake for a christian, renaissance audience. FALLEN.
• He's seen a load of lovely, pretty places, such as the river Rhine(before he was talking about moving rivers... now he's merely visiting them), Trier, Maro's tomb(before he wanted to be a great Magician, now he's stood looking at a great Magician's tomb...), Venice, etc etc - but what has he actually done or gained? FALLEN.
• In general in this scene, when Mephistopheles tells Faustus what to do - he does it. This seems to be the opposite from what happened when the two characters first met and Faustus was ridiculously ambitious. FALLEN.
• He's belittling himself by playing silly tricks on the Pope, and even goes as far as to slap him LOL - 'and by their folly make us merriement.' FALLEN.
• His weird little rhyme, 'Bell, book, and candle, candle, book and bell...' illustrates silliness of the scene = lower-class: FALLEN.

Thursday's Lesson

Basically I feel like Mephy is slightly fickle. One moment he's like 'ahh Faustus don't damn your soul', the next he's all 'think'st thou heaven is such a glorious thing?' Kinda weird.
Either way, each time he's doing something you wouldn't expect.

And then he gets all cheeky and gives Faustus one word answers, such as 'Aye'. Proper badman.

I think he's a bizarre devil, as he's not devlish enough, and as JB pointed out he bobs off stage with arrogant Faustus, 'Come, Mephistopheles.' I sort of think he's a bit sycophantic, as he reminds me of whatever Ophelia's dad is called in Hamlet. It's as if he has some sneaky motive... like being a spy.

actually according to wikipedia they are 'improper'...

'The Gothic' and Mephistopheles.

I found those weird gothic pictures quite interesting because they're all so different, like the casual dress, then the freaky cross and the american couple, who are, according to Jenny father and daughter? Which is really weird 'cos she looked about 94. But yep, more clear on 'the gothic' in general now, although I still don't know what makes something specifically gothic.
To be honest I think gothic things seem more visually scary than, psychologically scary, for example. In fact I don't think the gothic stuff we're doing is even scary and I'm scared easily.

Anyhoooo, Mephistopheles. I'm not sure what Marlowe was trying to do when creating this character but hopefully it will soon become clear. He's not what I'd imagine a stereotypical devil to be. I found this on wiki 'However, Mephistophilis does warn Faustus of his regret for losing God and the joys of heaven. He wants Faustus’ soul but also may want to save him from the mistake he made. "Christianity speaks of hell for those who cast it aside. But, says he to Mephistopheles as he delivers to him the agreement to surrender his soul at the end of twenty-four years, 'I think hell’s a fable.' 'Ay,' says Mephistopheles, 'think so still, till experience change thy mind.', when trying to get a better understanding of what Marlowe was trying to do and it just made me more confusedLOL.

I was quite interested in what the hell Mephi looked like when Faustus told him he was too ugly, and apparently 'At first Mephistopheles appears in the form of a terrible dragon', although the same website about Mephi (http://www.donaldtyson.com/mephisto.html) had this picture ...... awkward.

The Character of Doctor Faustus

Still not too sure what we're supposed to be writing about, so I'll just talk about the character of Doctor Faustus.

Basically I think he's a bit of a weirdo. He's obviously very derranged, and he has a freaky moustache which makes his character, along with his overwhelming arrogance, vair unattractive.
I think mentally, he's not well - even if he is a nerd.

If he wasn't as weird looking as he is (in my mind he is just the dude on the cover of the book), he would probably remind me slightly of Dracula in the Keanu Reeves version. Just because of his extreme arrogance and creepiness, and also his high status and ambition...


That is all.
MIM

Tuesday's lesson

Not really sure what to put, but I enjoyed the stuff on the controversy of Christopher Marlowe's death so googled it.