Beowulf Part I

So far, Beowulf has been a very interesting read. For a second it reminded me of The Epic of Gilgamesh because of the typical “a hero is here to kill the monster” type of thing.

I admire Beowulf’s bravery and courage to come over seas and be so sure of himself, his strengths and his warriors that came with him. However, one of my favorite parts was when he stood up to Unferth when he called him out about the battle he lost in the seas. His answer was so quick and sharp, and it showed how confident he is. Instead of admitting he lost, he found another glorious thing to mention in order to show why even thought he lost, he is still a hero. When he said that he killed nine sea monsters and he has never heard of any man do that, he was kind of bragging but I liked it because it showed that he knew that he was the best.  I wish that when I lost in something I could find another great thing to use as an example for why I am still a winner!  Instead I call myself a sore loser!! Great lesson learned from you Beowulf!!
I also thought it was interesting how Beowulf mentioned fate a couple of times, which makes me wonder if fate will play a part in this story the way it did in Oedipus.  In the story Hrothgar seems very pleased to see Beowulf and his brave warriors, and fully trusts Beowulf with his people’s lives in his hands. However, I am just wondering if Hrothgar really believed in and trusted Beowulf’s courage, or did he just accept his help because he had no other choice and he wouldn’t lose anything if Beowulf tried to kill the monster? I am not saying this is the case, but it’s just a thought.

I admire Beowulf’s courage to fight Grendel without any weapons. I guess you can say that it was fair, but if I knew that my opponent had no weapons and my weapons could assist me in defeating him, you best believe that I would bring my weapons and not even think about being “fair”. But I guess that’s what separates me from a true hero! I find it funny how all heroes have to save something from the battle to show that they defeated the enemy. In Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Gilgamesh brought back the head of one of the monsters, and Beowulf proved his victory by hanging Grendel’s arm on the wall. I guess it’s just like athletes keep and show off their trophies as proof of their win, our heroes keep body parts as a proof of awesome battles and victories! Way to go Beowulf!!

The Wife of Bath

I must start off by saying that the Wife of Bath is awesome! Not that I support everything she has done to her husbands, but not many women can do the same and get away with it. She is definitely a man-eater!! I know there was a movie that reminded me of this story, where a woman bribes and manipulates older men into marrying her, and then tries to murder them in order to get their money ( I just can’t remember what it’s called).

I love how she explains that in order for virgins to exist there must be someone out there who is creating these virgins and that we should leave virginity to those who strive for perfection and indulge in our sexual powers. What I like about this is that she is going against everything people believed back then and isn’t afraid to be rebellious. I can see her as one of those people that you would see in a movie, grey and old, sitting in a rocking chair and talked about her wild young years and crazy experiences, while her grandchildren listen (only in this case she had neither children nor grandchildren).

I love the irony in the fact that she married all of her husbands for money, and the one and only time she falls in real love with a man, is the one that treats her like crap. As we already mentioned in class, the fifth husband’s name is the only name mentioned out of all the husbands she had, which shows how significant he is and that she really did love him. She explains that women always desire what is forbidden to them, which makes total sense to me.  All girls want attention, but too much attention is never too good because it becomes annoying after a while. As guys like a challenge so do we, therefore I agree that forbidden is not necessarily what we desire but what we always imagine and think about. This also makes me think about the saying “women like bad boys “or “players”.  We always say we want a guy who treats us like a princess, but then many times we see women in relationships that are bad for them, but they don’t want to leave because they are in love with the jerk that never turned out to be the prince charming she thought he was or “wanted” him to be.  This also ties in with the fact that was mentioned in class about us not knowing what we want from men, which I completely agree with. We like to pretend that we have a set of standards for a perfect guy, but most of the time we settle for something that is nowhere near our standards and then we wonder why we are in love when “he” is everything we did not want in a man. We are very confusing beings and I will proudly admit that!

I couldn’t help but think of how cruel and selfish the Wife of Bath is, when she wasn’t even worried about her fourth husband dying, because she already had another one lined up. She is heartless and maybe her unlucky fifth marriage was a punishment for all the marriages she ruined by being cruel and manipulating. This reminds me of a random thing that I am about to mention. One of my very good friends dated three girls at the same time.  It turned out, that he fell in love with one of them just when all three found out that they have been played all along. It also turned out that all three girls were willing to forgive him and stay with him (if he left the other ones of course) except the one he fell in love with, who was disgusted and never talked to him again. This is somewhat relevant to Wife of Bath’s situation, because it was almost like karma that the first man she fell in love with treated her like crap.

Oedipus Part II

First of all, I must say that I love the irony in the fact that Oedipus becomes blind at the end, after ridiculing the prophet for the same thing. As far as fate goes, I honestly believe that  Oedipus nor his parents could change his fate.  I think that he was doomed from the beginning and fate wasn’t the question in the story, but when the fate would play out. Even if parents did not abandon him and raised him and taught him who his parents are and that it is wrong to kill your father and sleep with your mother, it would have happened eventually. Maybe it wouldn’t play out the same way it did in the play, but it would have definitely happened one way or another, because that was simply his fate.  On his way of avoiding his tragic fate, he killed the man who later turned out to be his father, which proves that even though he tried to avoid what was meant to happen, he made it happen even faster than it should have maybe. I wonder what would have happened if he was never found on the hill or if he let the king go and did not kill him?

I love the little twist within the play, when Oedipus freaks out about killing a man on the street and then finds out that his father actually died from natural causes. That’s when he relaxes and realizes that he did not kill his father. However, only a few seconds later he also finds out that the man he thought was his father is NOT his real father, and his minute of happiness is gone. Could you imagine finding everything out about your life and your family in just a matter of minutes or hours and finding out that what you thought was your life and who you thought your family was if far from the actual truth? Wow!! It really sucks to be Oedipus!

As far as Oedipus’ tragic flaws go, I think his tragic flaws were his curiosity. If he wasn’t as hungry for knowledge as he was, maybe he would have let go of finding out the truth and even though it would bother him that he doesn’t know, at least he would have been saved of the awful truth and poking out his eyes. However, how many people would actually not want to find out something when they are told that they shouldn’t know the truth. It’s like telling someone you can go everywhere in this house but the room upstairs, you don’t want to know what in there.  Would you actually take that advice or would it bug you that you are forbidden to enter the mysterious room? I would like to say that I would take the advice, but most likely human nature would make me go into the room to see what is going on. The same goes for Oedipus. Even though he was told not to fish for the truth, I think that is what sparked his curiosity even more which lead him to an even bigger disaster.

Oedipus the King

I must say that Oedipus is officially one of my favorite readings we have had this far ( even though I already read it in high school), not only because it wasn’t hard to read and understand, but also because it is nothing like we have read in this class.

The first part of Oedipus went by extremely fast and jumped straight to the point which I liked because too much detailing in our other readings bored me to death.  One thing we were told to pay attention to in this story is fate and how it plays out throughout the text. We were told to pay attention to fate and how it plays out in this story.  The question we all want to know the answer to is can you change your fate or destiny? First of all I do not understand the difference between the two and I always used the two interchangeably. As far as the question about destiny goes, I am not sure if you can change your fate. I love people who say “ only you can control your life and only you choose the path you want to take, “ but what if the path you choose is the one that was already chosen for you anyways? I guess the question is, is there a path already chosen for you before you were born and no matter what you try to do or what path you would like to, you will still somehow end up going down the path.

 I always wanted to go to a physic before because I always wondered about my future. However, the thing that freaks me out is what if I am told what my future will be and I try to change is and just because I tried to change it I will end up with the future the physic told me I will have. I guess this proves that I am not too sure if you can change fate. I believe that our path is already chosen for us and we can write out our own life and choose our own path, but I think that our decisions are guided by the way our original fate was written and that at the end of the day we will still end up at the place we were meant to be from the beginning.

Since I already read this play in high school, I know what will happen and that’s why I am ALMOST convinced that we cannot change our fate and that what was meant to be will happen one way or another, no matter how hard we try to stop it.

The Matrix

After  we were done watching the Matrix, it reminded me exactly why I did not want to watch it in a first place when it first came out, due to the many deep layers of symbolism, meanings and confusion.  I know we were supposed to “read” the movie and not just watch it, but as I was watching it and listening to Morpheus speak about The Matrix, what it is and how it works, all I could think about was “Daoism, Daoism, Daoism”. Everything he said sounded like exactly something from one of the Daoism readings we had. Although I did not understand Daoism that much, I still found some connections between The Matrix and Daoism, beginning with the idea of “how do you define real”. I loved the scene when Neo went to visit the oracle and when the little kid told him that the spoon isn’t actually bending because there is no spoon. If this is also something that Daoism reflects, I don’t believe in it one bit. I mean it would be great if I could look at things and bend them how I want to and move objects around the room however I wanted to, but so far that’s been impossible because I actually think that the spoon I eat with exists. If the spoon doesn’t exist yet it is there and we can see it and feel it and use it, does that mean that we as people do not exist either? We can be touched, smelled and seen, yet if we are just like that spoon that doesn’t exist, we as people aren’t any more real than that spoon. I guess what I am trying to say is that the question “how do you define real” is fair, but a better question is how do you differentiate between “real and unreal”?  What makes certain things real and certain things unreal?

One thing I remember from the movie is when Morpheus explained that even though Neo knows something, he can’t explain it and that he can only show him the door and Neo has to walk through it alone. This reminded me of Daoism because we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Daoism really is, and then we came to the conclusion that Daoism goes with the flow and that it can’t really be explained in just one way. The movie is all about things being real and un- real, which reflects many themes in Daoism.

I enjoyed watching this movie and never knew that it reflected many parts of Daoism and it would be really creepy if the world really became an artificial reality called The Matrix in the next century or two.