Romeo and Juliet

Terri Thampan                                                                                                M.S.51 804                                                                                        English Language Arts

                                                            

                                           The Dangers of Love

   

    Love is usually portrayed as a good thing. It’s made out to be something that is needed in order to survive. But, not always is it portrayed in this positive view. In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, he portrays love as something that leads to depression and/or self-destruction. Shakespeare shows that platonic love, as well as romantic love, leads to tragedy.

   Shakespeare uses the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet to show love in a negative light. Romeo and Juliet’s love is the main plot of the story, but it is also the cause for them to face much grief. When Romeo is exiled from Verona, both are heartbroken and depressed by the news, thinking that they will never see each other again. Juliet voices her grief by saying, “O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. / Either my eyesight fails of thou lookest pale.” (Romeo and Juliet 3.5.54-57) and, “Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be/ spent, / when theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.” (Romeo and Juliet 3.2.141-143) Romeo also talks of his pain by saying, “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel. / Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, / An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, / Doting like me, and like me banished, / the mightiest thou tear thy/ hair/ and fall upon the ground as I do now.” (Romeo and Juliet 3.3.67-73) They are both very much affected negatively by the forced separation. This love for each other causes them to feel depressed, possibly mad (in Romeo’s case), and full of grief over the thought of never seeing each other again. The burden of knowing that she will never see her love again (and that she will be forced to marry another man) causes Juliet to desire for death. Friar Lawrence prevents Juliet from committing suicide by devising a plan to reunite the two lovers. This plan involves Juliet staging her own death and then having Romeo come and whisk her away from the tomb (as she is still alive and only pretending to be dead) so they can live a fulfilling life full of love and each other far from Verona. Unfortunately, the perpetration of this plan went disastrously, and ends with the untimely demise of both young lovers.

       Shakespeare also uses the one sided romantic love Romeo had for Rosaline to show how love can attribute to causing unhappiness, and one’s path in destroying themselves. Before Romeo had met his beloved Juliet, he was infatuated with a woman named Rosaline. Rosaline had dedicated her life to celibacy (which causes speculation on her becoming a nun), which meant she was not swayed by Romeo’s advances. Seeing that his love was not reciprocated caused Romeo to fall into a depression in which he would stay locked in his room in the dark and only goes outside to wander around idly. He tells his friend Benvolio, “In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.” (Romeo and Juliet 1.1.212) and "She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow / Do I live dead that live to tell it now" (Romeo and Juliet 1.1.223-224) This negative change in demeanor causes Romeo’s friends to worry for him, and so they try to make him forget about Rosaline. “By giving liberty unto thin eyes. / Examine other beauties.” (Romeo and Juliet 1.1.235-236) says Benvolio. Benvolio tells Romeo to go to the feast where he will see someone far better than Rosaline, “But in that crystal scales let there be weighed/ Your lady’s love against some other maid/ That I will show you shining at the feast, / And she shall scant show well that now seems best.” (Romeo and Juliet 1.3.103-105) Romeo’s friends take him to Capulet ball where he falls for Juliet. Romeo’s failing love leads him not only to depression, but to the love that ends his life.

   Shakespeare also shows the sadness caused by platonic love through the mediums of Mercutio and Lady Montague. In the play, Mercutio is believed to be one of Romeo’s dearest friends. When Romeo’s honor is insulted, he gets into a brawl with Tybalt.  But I’ll be hanged, sir, if he wear your livery. / Marry, go before to field, he’ll be your follower. / Your worship in that sense may call him “man.” (Romeo and Juliet 3.1.58-60) His love for his friend caused him (Mercutio) to be slain. Lady Monatgue, the mother of Romeo, dies as well from love. In the play, she is said to have died from grief over the exile of her son. “Alas, my leige, my wife is dead tonight. / Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath” (Romeo and Juliet 5.3.218-219) The platonic love both held for Romeo ended up being the reason for their demise.

   Romeo and Juliet is a story that shows the dangers of love. Love, which is often shown as something good, is instead portrayed as something destructive and harmful. But as human beings, we all crave for love at one point in our lives. Despite the devastating endings it causes, it’s a beautiful thing while it lasts. It might just be in our nature, the ability to love and to be loved might just be what makes us human. Love is important in all lives, no matter how positively or negatively it affects us.

The Vampire Lestat

The Vampire Lestat
By: Anne Rice

 So I finished the second book in the Vampire Chronicles. I absolutely loved it. It's a very nicely paced book with some dragging bits, but even then that was just my impatience to get back to the main story line and the dragging bits were still interesting enough to read.
  This book really expanded on much of what was given in the last book. It expanded not only on the world it takes place in, but also upon the character Lestat. For some weird reason, I liked him in the first book. And as I read on, I started liking him even more. He's not a heartless, cruel character as Louis first perceives, in fact, he's a very rash and outgoing kind of guy, a very Gryffindor kind of guy who has this "King of the World" sort of attitude.
   What I really enjoyed about this book was that you did learn more about the Vampire World. Louis, he's simply trying to find a purpose for existence, proof of our meaning, and of vampire meaning. He actually doesn't find many answers. Lestat, now he's the guy bumbling around having fun. We learn of how he meets Armand, his relationship with Gabrielle, and his later search for the Ancient Vampire Marius.
    What I think I liked the most though was the relationship between Lestat and Gabrielle. Gabrielle is Lestat's mother, and he has always had a deep connection with her. He was the only one Gabrielle could relate to and love in a family full of a husband and children whom she couldn't connect with. She actually tells her son (Lestat) that she likes to think of him as her man self. I really love how Gabrielle and Lestat's relationship is strong not only because they are mother and son, but because they had only each other as like minded individuals when they were with their family. They ended up supporting each other and helping each other survive in a place they didn't belong. And when Lestat makes a decision that I won't reveal due to spoilers, their relationship only becomes stronger; and I feel it's a very beautiful portrayal of a Mother and Son as even though they drift apart, they still held each other strong before and they still love and care for one another.
  Gabrielle also shows the weakness that women were given in those time periods. They weren't considered strong, or independent. They were weak things to be ordered around. I hated to read about when Gabrielle would dress as a man and travel because I felt it was so anti-feminist. But then again, she was raised in such an anti-feminist culture, and so having the persona of a man can finally free her of her inhibitions.
    Though these books sort of make me wonder. Wasn't being gay just recently accepted? From the way most women are portrayed in this book (except for the few we see, they aren't strong or they're boring and predictable), it's easy to see that guys would most likely be attracted to another guy for an intellectual level, especially if women don't have any personality. Anyways, if being gay wasn't really accepted back then, wouldn't people be a bit more... disgusted towards the actions some of the guys do in public? Or was it just a common occurrence? Maybe they didn't think guys could be gay. Maybe they were all secretly gay... I don't know. Ah well. It will forever be one of the mysteries of life.

IWTV: LAST POST *most likely will contain SPOILERS*

Interview With the Vampire

by: Anne Rice

Terri Thampan 804

  I have finally finished Interview With the Vampire, and BOY, am I happy! It's kind of a depressing ending, but since I'm reading the second book in the series I don't care as much! So like, I know before I didn't really go into depth with the whole Lestat/Louis thing that I was TOTALLY shipping before, and maybe I'll go into it now.

  Well, anyways, Louis makes a new vampire who will be like Claudia's surrogate mother as she's totally obsessed with Claudia, cause he own kid who looked like Claudia died as a child, all because Claudia wanted someone to stay with her because she knew Louis would leave her for Armand (ugh). So then, they live together for a little while, and don't truly meet up with the coven of vampires "lead" by Armand, and so that coven gets all angry 'cause they never met Madeline or however you spell her name (same pronunciation), and they feel a bit threatened. This causes them to break into the shared hotel suit that the three live in and kidnap them. They end up killing Maddie and Claudia by trapping them outside in the sun. Lestat was there at some point, and though his part wasn't truly THAT important, it was nice to know he still loved Claudia as a daughter and didn't really want her dead (though she tried to murder him multiple times...). Louis loses his humanity through this and like he talks to Lestat who cries a lot. As in A LOT! And so, Lestat is suffering from old age in the mind, and Louis goes off with Armand in the sunset, only to soon find out things aren't truly roses and rainbow unicorn poop with Armand. He pretty much ends his little tale there and drinks the blood of the kid he's telling the story to, though not exactly killing him.

  WOW! Long summary there, sorry! But as I was reading the ending of this book and started reading the next book, my feelings for Louis started to change. I sort of found him a bit of a jerk, in some sense. Though I can't really explain it, I feel that as wise as he is, and how experienced, he doesn't truly try to understand the people he's labelled as good and bad, he's not really... a strong character. As I think of him, I feel like he's kind of weak, and as I read through the second book I, who was weirdly enough fond of Lestat despite the horrible things Louis described him as, I just started loving Lestat's character more and more. I feel like, once you start a different character's account of things, you just truly hear the story again in a new way, and the story doesn't seem like the same story. I mean, it shouldn't, but as a person who can't reread books that much, unless I truly enjoyed them, to reread someone's version of a tale I already heard means they have to be "fresh" with it. And as time goes on, I probably will like Lestat the most, even though people try to make themselves to be the best people ever, when you write a true account, you end up writing your true character, because if you still believe something is right, it doesn't matter what others might think, you think it's the right way to go, and people who disagree learn more about your flaws.

   Okay, enough about the next book which I love so much! The whole Louis/Lestat thing. I liked it because when you first see these characters, it's Lestat clearly having an interest with Louis. And Louis in turn is also interested in Lestat enough that he ended up becoming a vampire. But it's not just that, I feel like to Lestat, they were playing Husband and Wife, or living it that way. Louis, he was just bitter about everything, but to Lestat, he wanted Louis to be happy. Though Louis felt Lestat was only trying to use him to earn money, so that may be as to why he never truly seemed to realize Lestat wanted him happy. The whole turning Claudia scene, Louis felt like Lestat was mocking him, to me, it was Lestat trying to give Louis something he though Louis wanted. I feel like he thought Louis was lonely and wanted a child, which again made me think of the whole husband and wife thing as Lestat, "Husband", wants Louis, "The Wife", to be happy, with children. ;p 

   Then they freaking raise a child together! LOUIS/LESTAT is being screamed out! Husband and Wife have been turned to Father and Mother or Daddy and Daddy! They have this whole little family and it's so cute! I just sort of agree with Lestat that Claudia is a bit spoiled, and I loved how Lestat was saying she needed a brother... heheheheheheheehehehehe. Anyways, I really thought it was cute how whenever Lestat was happy, he would force Louis to go with him to see shows and go to dinners. It's like the husband taking the wife out for a nice treat... though Louis wasn't really appreciative. I guess I can also understand why Lestat was fascinated by the musician because of book two, but I'll say that in my next blog post. Anyways, I really do like the whole Lestat/Louis shipping, even if it appears to be onesided. :<

IWTV: Shippings Y'all *Spoilers*

Interview With the Vampire
By: Anne Rice
Terri Thampan 804

  So, recently a lot of stuff happened in my book. Like the attempted Murders of Lestat! We still don't know if he's survived the last murder "attempt" as in he hasn't made another appearance yet to say that he's still alive. Claudia and Louis go around looking for other vampires; find some that are absolutely barbaric (as in they just attack and kill and don't even seem to be capable of thought); go back to France, this time Paris, and meet some vampires that can actually think!
   So as I read on, I started to realize that my suspicions about the book were slowly being answered. This book is about gay vampires. I thought so. I was sort of rooting for Lestat and Louis as like they had a kid together (A.k.a Claudia)! Also, Louis is starting to take back his harsh judgments about Lestat. Then, the whole Armand (the oldest vampire in the vampire group that can think) is in love with Louis made me think one thing; Louis is a player. He is capturing hearts left and right! And he's not even trying! Plus, he actually is a very thoughtful character, as he is a very human vampire.
  What I really wanted to talk about was Claudia. Claudia was turned at a very young age. She will forever remain a child because of that. And though her body stays the same, her mind is starting to grow. She grows enough to try and kill one of her father figures, and that's when we first find out that Claudia isn't truly a little girl. She's intelligent and is on a quest for knowledge about her kind. And then, when her hopes are crushed by the barbarians she finds in Europe, and the mindless socialites (mindless in the sense as they don't truly think deeply, they aren't that intelligent, they're just like nobles who think themselves better than everyone else) apart from Armand who apparently just wants her dead, and that causes her to grow too in a sense. She starts acting different, and she starts displaying maturity in a different way.
  I find it a saddening thing, what has happened to Claudia. It would come eventually, but she soon becomes a woman. And the sad thing is, she is a woman in a child's body. She has never experienced life, for she was dead before she could truly live. She is stuck as a child, and longs for what she cannot have. What she sees are women who are much younger than her (She's been a vampire for quite a while) who have bodies that she herself wants and longs for. She wants to look like an adult so that people stop treating her as a child. It's really easy to relate to her, as in most kids want to be treated equally with adults, especially teenagers. This is a woman who is older than most adults alive, but because she is in the body of a child, she is treated as a child, and no one truly takes her seriously. I myself feel for Claudia because she finds that her state is fragile and needs to be protected and somewhat useless as it can't truly fight, for she has such tiny appendages (I think she was turned at the age around 6 years). This longing for a better, more mature body is what drives her to hate Louis as much as she loves him. It's a very sad thing, and a very unhappy ending. I guess for vampires, long lives can make one unhappy, and then unhappy endings arise from an ever growing and maturing mind.

Interview with the Vampire AGAIN

Interview with the Vampire
By: Anne Rice
Terri Thampan 804

 So like, I'm back to reading this book! Yay me! Now that I've begun rereading it (I've started off a bit before the part where I left off before so I could get back into the book)I started to realize things I didn't realize before. During my many adventures on youtube, I learned that the very idea of what a vampire does is considered sexual and dark. Apparently one of the first vampires pretty much turned away from God and the church because his wife committed suicide and they couldn't bury her there because she died by suicide or something like that. The person also explained about how sexual the very concept of elongating fangs piercing flesh and bodily liquids being swapped was a very sexual thing. The person also recommended the Anne Rice series and so, knowing that I had enjoyed it before (before the gore-ishness got to me, I can probably cope now) I decided to read it again. Well, I wasn't so naive as I was before.
   As I started reading the book, I suddenly got a taste of how erotic, as the back cover would say, the book is. After reading "Pride and Prejudice" I found the book much easier to read and more fun to enjoy, as it had a very beautiful writing style that I hope one day to also obtain. Though, reading this one line made me want to burst out laughing, as it was describing Lestat drinking the blood from a human boy. Now, it's not that the scene is funny, but it was written in such an erotic way, I being a teenager was helpless from the giggles. Showing the line to my fellows/classmates, I got pretty, let's say "Loud", responses. Most of them took the whole sentence the wrong way and completely thought I was reading... porn.
  Well, despite my embarrassment, it really brings up a valid point. Anne Rice had a very good reason to write the drinking of blood in such an erotic way. It was to show how intimate it was to take the blood of another. It brought up how intimate vampires as creatures are. They live off the very liquid life essence of a human. In taking the human's blood, or even an animal's blood, they sort of become one with that creature, they take that creature into themselves, and it's as if that creature becomes a part of them. It reminds me of the anime/manga Bleach where when a hollow tries to become stronger, it has to eat other souls and hollows to survive, to take that Hollow's power and make it their own by eating it and making it become a part of itself.
   Though with a hollow, all they have to do in their time is kill or be killed. They can't really do anything besides that for entertainment and it makes me wonder what would happen if a hollow finally killed and absorbed the last remaining hollow by itself. What would it do then? There would be nothing left to fight, and then would it die without a reason for existence? Though, it probably wouldn't happen, as hollows are made from spirits of humans who stay too long in the human world or something like that, Bleach got very confusing after a while and wasn't truly planned out, making many of the points made earlier in the show not make sense as new info keeps popping up. But the same sort of applies to vampires. They live off seducing, as most of the time they do seduce their victims, humans, and getting intimate with them before stealing the life out of the human. One there are no more humans or things with blood, what will they do next? They do live eternally... according to Lestat. The same question could be asked to humans, what are we going to do when we run out of food, but we humans also die pretty easily, and then there aren't as many people eating... unlike with vampires who can't really die.
    I feel like something that's brought up a lot in the book is also another reason why the very act of drinking blood is so intimate. Vampires are supposed to be solitary creatures yet, Lestat was apparently lonely. Lestat, Claudia, and Louis, they needed company. I feel like this really goes into the human nature, we humans are social creatures. Though Vampires are given new natures, they can't really always shake off their human nature, even when they are turned at a young age with no human nature to experience. They want companionship. This longing for companionship might be why vampires have to drink blood. Somewhere deep inside them, though they think they're happy, they want to become a human again. So they drink blood, because it is such an intimate act, especially with a human. They know everything about a human when they drink that human's blood. They aren't as alone as they were a minute ago. It's a temporary fix for what they truly long for.

Post Mortem

Post Mortem
by: Patricia Cornwell
Terri Thampan 804

   So, I'm currently reading a new book! I don't usually like posting a post without finishing a book, but ah well. This book is told from the perspective of a- I think it's a medical forensic examiner (I'm not really good at telling which job is whose when the book has a ton of different people and jobs) named Kay Scarpetta. The grounds of Richmond, Virginia are suddenly not as safe as they used to be. Women are getting brutally raped and murdered inside their very own homes! It's up to the police to find the serial rapist murderer and stop the crimes.
   Now, what I really like is that this book is written by a woman who was in the police force, well something to do with crime investigation and stuff. She knows what she's talking about- hopefully- or at least I think she does. Because she's lived the life of a policewoman, or something  like that, she knows how it would typically be, and all those little details are what makes it important. I like Kay's character as it's a character that's not very sun-shine-y, but very passionate in her views, but smart enough not to act out on her feelings or views in bad situations. That is a real character to me. If someone was truly in such a dreary job such as this one of course they might be a little bit wiser, death is a very solemn thing after all, or at least not so happy-go-lucky. If anything they would be kinda quirky, sarcastic, have a dry sense of humor or something, but I may just be stereotyping. Truth is, having such a depressing job like that really changes people, and it sort of makes you want to appreciate the people who are really out there doing those jobs.
    I like how there's a variety of people. And in the case or a serial rapist murderer, a variety of people is exactly what needs to be brought up. There are a variety of people in this world, and many people we don't know who live in our very own city or neighborhood. When we go through this kind of mass affecting crime, it really puts into perspective how many people there are in the world and that anyone could be a victim, anyone could get attacked, and it's happening all around the world. It's actually very scary...
Anyways, I really like how the case is developed.
    Mostly, at the moment there is but one suspect, and he's pretty much having all this evidence pinned against him. Kay doesn't really think it's him though. What makes this case so special is that the rapist doesn't have to worry about getting caught by leaving- uhh... seminal fluid/sperm. He's a non-secreter which means the DNA in his sperm doesn't match with the DNA within his other bodily fluids... or something like that. That makes it really hard to tell who the rapist is. Non-secreters can be either gender- I think, most likely.
   But what really sort of goes through my head is how do we truly know who's the criminal. The book talks about how many read the stories in the news and then think they did the crime though they did nothing. It can be psychological  and mostly is. Someone who did the crime is "different" in the head, and then there are people who may not have done the crime but take the blame because they think they did the crime. It makes you wonder. Sometimes crime doers don't get caught unless there's a stroke of luck evidence. It makes you wonder what kind of criminals are still loose because the evidence pointed towards an innocent. It's quite a scary thought. But the story also has a lot to do with back stories. Everyone has them, it's what makes us humans. And mostly, what causes a criminal to be "messed up" in the head is because of back stories. Abused children are most likely to become child abuses, it's all psychological, and it's all kind of scary. Humans interact with other humans, we help form the other, and form ourselves. Who we are, what we become, it is all because of others and our interactions with them.

Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic
By: V.C Andrews
Terri Thampan 804

   I have recently read, "Flowers in the Attic". Now, I went into the book with fairly lukewarm expectations and the knowledge that the book contained incest. Incest, for those who don't know, is when family members love each other, but not in a family way. As in, the want to date their brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, maybe even their mother or father, you get my point. Now kiddies, incest is kind of frowned upon in some places, but there are also places that think it is in the right to marry your own cousin (as in, social standing and stuff).
    The book's basically about these four kids: Christopher, Catherine, Cory, and Carrie, the last two are twins (Chris 14, Cathy 12, Cory and Carrie, 5). Now, there daddy died, and that's when their whole live goes to heck. The mom has too much debt piled up, so she is forced to ask for help from her parents, which means returning back from the exile she was given when she was pretty much "Disinherited" for doing something B-A-D. To get back into her Father's good graces (she was his favorite, and he had a fortune) she had to hide her kids up in the attic room until he died and gave her and her kids the money.  
    The book isn't so bad. If anything, it just has some boring parts in the beginning where I just don't care. I didn't get to reading the second book because I was content with the first one, and the second one, in my opinion, was pretty much over doing it a bit; plus it was kind of boring.
     In my opinion, the only reason why I didn't truly dislike the main character was that she grows up. She grows up from being a bit obnoxious and spoiled into a more mothering type of person. If anything, the only reason I didn't hate her in the beginning is because she was such a cynical character. She was so suspicious and always thought of the worst case scenarios. That's what I liked about her, as messed up as it sounds.
     As the story goes on, you can't help but get impatient with the mother, and then just go on to hating her. I feel like she was sort of too in love with the Dad to really let her true colors show, as she wanted to always make him happy (which doesn't sound like real love if she can't act like herself). But then, when he dies, it's revealed: she's never truly grow up. She had such a childish reaction when her kids asked her when they were going to get out, and stared at her with anything less than love. She freaking buried her self into the bed, and started bawling her eyes out while saying how her kids were so mean to her and she flailed her arms around pounding the bed. That was the most annoying thing to read. She's a grown woman, and needs to act like one, not some spoiled little baby. But it was like she was freaking decreasing in age, and getting more self-centered. That really annoyed me, because I would prefer a story where the mother's love would keep them going on, because in the beginning she at least had some motherly instincts. I don't thing hanging out with your dad (the mom's dad not the Daddy who died /kids' dad) will make you stop having those instincts.
     Now the grandmother is a more likable character if anything. I think the author was trying to make it show from how the kids see it, but inadvertently made the mother into someone who doesn't seem like a true character; but this doesn't seem the case with the grandmother. The grandmother is strict and seems to look down on males. If I were to guess, she probably got forced into the marriage with the Grandfather (mother's dad) and most likely just wanted to be a nun- albeit a man hating nun. It makes me wonder what happened to make this woman into such a man hater. I mean, it says her favorite kids were her boys, but she pretty much disses all men and seems to hate the Grandfather. I wonder if she got raped or something, if it was a man who caused her great trauma. More likely, a guy caused her great trauma to make her hate them so. Is it weird to say that I want to know more about the Grandmother's story. I actually think that would be an interesting concept, hearing the tale of an old person with much life experience, as they live life. Anyways, I'm getting off topic, the book overall is pretty good. It got interesting near the end. It's a good read, but not quite up to Room's standard though. ;D