Reflections on the Class

I thought I might follow Bethany's examples and post my reflections on the class as a final post. I agree that this class has covered a lot. I was prepared for a Doug-class but I don't think I was prepared for a Doug-survey class. I wish I had had more time to dedicate to this class because I think I could have gotten more out of it. There are so many demands on my time, and so often I wouldn't be able to finish the reading because my eyes wouldn't stay open. I felt like we focused a lot on Renaissance and not as much on the Restoration. I wish we could have had more time to devote to the changes that happened between early modern and Restoration because that is a big theme for our final, and I don't think we covered it as clearly as we could have. I would have liked less time in Anglo-Saxon and medieval time because there is so much more that happens during the Renaissance. While A-S works are important as a nationalistic foundation for English writing, Renaissance and Restoration literature, when not focusing on the many societal issues of the time, develops classical ideals which weren't covered in this class. I feel ready for the final in the sense that I have a fairly stable grasp on the authors, terms, movements, and works. I don't feel ready in that I will not have enough time to take this final. I wish this wasn't true, but I know I am going to be hurting for time by the time this experience is over.
Lauren Sandelius

EL 207

Now that Brit Lit is near its end, I am going mad bonkers because my head is spinning around all the terms, dates, authors, and movements I need to know for the final. I feel the EL 207 was a class that however stressful was overall enlightening. Prior to this class I regarded British Literature as being limited to Shakespeare, Donne, Pope, Marlowe, and Gray (obviously limited in my exposure). <span style="font-style: italic;">Beowulf</span> was always the name of a movie, never a literary work, and Queen Elizabeth was all her name said- Queen Elizabeth. I never expected this course to test me as much as it did not only in my comprehension of the works but how I wrote about them. Writing papers has never been a strong suit for me, and I sure as heck didn't know what an 'enthymeme' is; for goodness sakes I can barely say it. But now that I can use it for the most part, I feel more confident both in my writing and my literary analysis and being able to draw conclusions instead of taking the text for its literal meaning. I love being and English major because I am exposed to so many works that I otherwise would never have given a chance or even heard of. But now my ever expanding library just collected a few more great works of art and now I can brag that I have not only read them, but I even understand them! :)

Country living

Gray’s Elegy is a quite low class poem. It focuses on nature, as many other poems have in the past but more on the quaint countryside. He focuses on the country folk and his life and take on his surroundings. The death of the common people, as well as his own is what he focuses on as well. He compares rural life with urban life and seems to support the hard working country folk and look down on those that don’t work. He lifted up the simple people living in the country over the rough, money seeking city dwellers. How he analyzes the lives of the different people and how they live allow him to take a deeper look at how he wants to live out his life and his face his eventual death.

Not so epic after all

The Rape of the Lock is a mock epic for sure. It takes trivial actions and makes them into epic events, similar to City Shower. In this poem, instead of wars being waged it is ladies and gentlemen that are the heroes and heroines, exchanging banter and in their salons. Sylphs and gnomes interfere instead of the gods and goddesses and the usual journey to the underworld is represented by a trip to the Cave of Spleen. The exaggeration of the everyday events makes them seem even more inferior and meaningless. The whole “epic poem” is set around beautiful backgrounds and objects, decorations and dainty little utensils. The poem highlights and makes fun of the vanity of that society and the little, worn out values they have.

Enslaving a Prince

In Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko she doesn’t outright speak out against slavery but it is quite apparent that she disagrees the enslavement of ‘natural kings.’ Oroonoko is described as “ceasar-like” and compared to other great European leaders, he is even given the name Ceasar. He is seen as being more civilized and still a leader even though he was in shackles. Behn showed what the men were doing to these apparent “savages.” The Europeans were taking strong, “roman” like men and tricking and dehumanizing them. Oroonoko shows his worth by starting a slave revolt and his princelike nature is shown when they surrender and their captors, instead of giving them the amnesty they promised, whip them and punish them. Oroonoko and Inoinda decide that he will kill her to keep her safe after he kills Bynam but he ends up getting executed. Instead of crying out like any normal man would at being dismembered, he calmly and very prince-like takes the pain. Behn makes it very clear that, even if she isn’t against slavery as a whole, she does not support true rulers being removed from their position and being enslaved,  

Cat praising God?

Jubilate Agno is comical to say the least. Smart's reflection on his cat’s actions are ridiculous. Up till now poems using this type of language and referencing God has been in glorification of God or a king or other noble. This poem is about how every action his cat Jeoffry does is in honor to God. Normal, every day actions are transformed into having holy and calculated meanings, at the “first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his Way…wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness… leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.” It’s ridiculous to compare a cats simple actions to ones of praise to God. The cat doesn’t care about any of this. This most definitely could be compared to the actions of the nobles and others who attempt to look good by going through their religious practices. That they really aren’t thinking about what they are doing, like the cat, but are just going through their day to day motions. It’s not meaningful to them; it’s just what they have always done. Just like Jeoffry, they “praise” God every day with their actions.

The City's Corruption

The Deserted Village addresses how the lure of the city corrupts even the most innocent of people. The virgin country girl is lured in by the city and the promise of success and wealth, but she ends up facing homelessness. She is forced to beg and loses her virginity, her purity. The city strips away everything good about her. Goldsmith draws the metaphor of the girl standing for the village, Auburn, itself. The goodness and innocence of the village has been destroyed by the city, just like the girl. All the friends, nature, purity has disappeared due to urbanization. In Beggar’s Opera the vulgarity of the city characters show the corruption of the city in comparison to the country. Polly’s parents are wishing for MacHeath’s death who is a thief, both showing the evils of the city whereas the country in The Deserted Village was at one time bright and beautiful but the aristocrats and nobles destroyed it grasping for more money. Goldsmith definitely highlights the evils of the high class and the city as opposed to the hard working low class and innocent nature.ntex