Rachel Marticio

The Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allan Poe

            The story of The Cask of Amontillado of Edgar Allan Poe is about the revenge of Montressor to Fortunato’s insult. It started when Fortunato told Montressor that Luchesi is a good connoisseur of wine than him. When Montressor heard about it, he felt insulted and planned something against Fortunato.

            The inclusion of the wine in the story is related to the favorite hobby of Poe. He is an alcoholic person and this is the reason why his big love for wine played a big part in the story,similar to Montressor’s and Fotunato’s expertise  in wine. The story is full of suspense, especially during the last part , when Montressor and Fortunato went to Montressor’s catacomb to check the Amontillado. It is in suspense because Montressor is trying to abandon Fortunato in that catacomb and let him die in such place. Edgar Allan Poe is a type of author that is fond of injecting suspense in his own literary work, which made him called as the “Master of Suspense”.

            The story of The Cask of Amontillado is similar to the story of the two individuals named, Lt. Robert Massie and Captain Green. The two personalities became the inspiration of Edgar Allan Poe in writing the full version of the story. The insult that Montressor felt was somehow related to the insult that Captain Green also felt during the time when he was defeated by Lt. Massie, and this caused Captain Green to despise him. From this event, Montressor in the story of The Cask of Amontillado can be the personified version of Captain Green during the time when he felt insulted by Fortunato, as well as, the officer who took revenge for Lt. Massie. Montressor as Captain Green, because they both felt the same feeling when they was insulted;and Montressor as the officers, because both of them planned against someone. Lt. Massie can also be associated to Fortunato because both of them were the victims due to their unintentional actions.

MOONLIGHT

Guy de Maupassant

            In the story of Maupassant’s Moonlight, it focuses on the transformation of a tall thin priest, Abbe Marignan, who enjoys his life in God’s grace. He sometimes question God’s intentions and hates women. He totally despised them and for him, women existed to tempt men because of their devilish body. By means of moonlight, Abbe Marignan realized the true beauty of life.

            When Abbe Marignan heard the news about his niece, he felt terrible. He wante his niece to be a part of a Sister of Charity of their church, unfortunately, his niece had someone whom she can express her deep love . This incident caused him to be in a great rage and questioned God. While in his own garden, he saw the beauty of the moonlight. By there, he felt relaxed and calmed. By watching the moonlight, he started to realize the purpose of God’s creation. Through the majestic beauty of moonlight, he was able to see the reality that God created the time of moonlight to be able to give a perfect moment to the couple who truly loved each other.

            “Why had God done this?” “Why should it come to make the shadows so transparent?”  “Why this display of delights those men never see?” “For whom was it intended to sublime spectacle, this flood of poetry poured from the sky over the earth?” , these  are the questions of Abbe  Marignan asked to God  about the beauty of moonlight, but he found no answer. He was in exasperation when he heard the news about his niece. However, when he saw the attractive moonlit night, he had his own peace of mind to understand certain things. The appearance of the two shadows of lovers served an eye- opener to Abbe Marignan to conclude that, “God has made such things to veil the loves of men with ideal beauty.”

            The focus of moonlight in the story is to let Abbe Marignan become open-minded from the negative things. From the discrimination against women and being skeptic, the attitude of Abbe Marignan regarding that matter is also prevalent to the people. We sometimes pre judge others without even knowing them, we don’t also trust others because there is always doubt. Sometimes, we need to be hurt and experience things in which we will see our own mistakes. Just like in the story, moonlight paved the way to make Abbe Marignan realize God’s intentions and purposes of His creations.

Ku Turion si Kulakog

Jose Jason Chancoco

The story of Jose Jason Chancoco’s Ku Turion si Kulakog centers around the circumcision of a young boy named, Bornok. In the story it was stated that Bornok that is an incoming Grade 4 pupil. Trying to analyze the story, Bornok is within the age bracket of 7-10 years old. This particular state of Bornok is related to Sigmund Freud’s Psychology of Child Development. In his own case, he is within the phallic stage because aside from the fact that circumcision happens usually around this stage, but also, Bornok is starting to become aware of his own genitalia. According to Sigmund Freud, around the phallic stage, the boy’s interest in the genitals attains a dominant significance. On the other hand, the fear of Bornok to undergo circumcision has something to do in relation to psychology. The possible reason why Bornok felt that way because he experienced what is so – called, castration anxiety. This is a fear of a child that might something happen to his prized organ. Maybe Bornok was afraid at first to undergo the process because he thought of something that may result to damage of his body.

The story also focuses on the perception of becoming a real man. This is evident in the story when Bornok was insisted to be circumcised by Tsong Iyat. As part of the Filipino’s tradition, his friends convinced hi to do his circumcision in their place because of the Bicolano’s perception of becoming an “oragon”, if it is being done in a customary way; in contrast, circumcision that is being done in hospital connotes weakness. In Bornok’s stage, there are many apprehensions that he thought of. He also thinks of accepting the advice of his friends and refuses his parent’s idea to be circumcised in the hospital because of the reason that he wants to prove himself­­- that he is also brave. This is just normal on the part of the children under this stage, they tend to follow what their peer- group follow, since they do not know yet how to decide for themselves.

The Other Two

Edith Whartorn

The story of The Other Two by Edith Wharton, is applicable in feminist approach particularly in psychoanalytic feminism. The story revolves around the psycho-sexual development of individual and in the social system as well. It also showed that woman can be as strong as man and man can be as weak as woman.

The genre doesn’t show the traditional perception of how being a male or a female. In this particular story, woman (Alice) played dominant role because of having similar features of masculinity. While man (Waythorn) portrayed his weakest part that can be associated to the real nature of women. The work was actually sympathetic to the female character, Alice because she proved that women can perform the tasks of the men. She can be able to balance and adjust easily to uncertainties, especially when it comes to her former husbands. Edith Whartorn used language in different way particularly, in describing the opposite sexes. Alice was described as what true man possesses, similarly to Waythorn, which possesses the kind of woman think and act. When Alice was described as “She had the perfectly balanced nerves.” “Her composure was restful to him; it acted as ballast to his somewhat unstable sensibilities,” this is an indication how courageous Alice is in spite of the discrimination that she had faced. Alice is also associated to the so- called “sex parasites” because of being perfectly good in performing sex. Waythorn had a firm belief that it would be better to marry a person like, Alice, though she is no longer virgin still, he can make man even happy. The story gives dominance to femininity because of the versatility of the women to perform and manage to be men.

A Poison Tree

William Blake

            The poem is about the hidden and growing anger of persona to his foe. It is a kind of a poem that contains paradox. Starting from the title itself, it is already ironic. A poison can be associated to something perilous that can harm while tree may connote growth and life.

            In the poem, it is composed of binary oppositions which are present in some of the stanzas such as friend and foe, I told my wrath and I told it not, I watered and I sunned, with tears and with soft deceitful wiles. This shows the contradicting part of the poem that starts from a positive one and ends up with a negative one. For instance, “I watered it in fears” that implies that the persona hid his fears and tears which result to make his anger continually grows. The line “I sunned it with smiles” represents deception. This is because of the hidden and growing anger, the persona just make a fake smile that may deceive his foe about his true feelings for him. On the other hand, the last stanza is the part of the poem that implies the death of the foe. The death of the foe is the worst outcome that happened because of the anger felt by the persona.

            This poem comprises an aa,  bb , cc , dd  ,ee , ff , gg , hh rhyme scheme. Its rhyme scheme is proportioned and continuous. The rhyme scheme is a simple representation that the anger of the persona to his foe is getting worst and growing.

            A poison tree showed the harmful effects of wrath to life. If one will let his anger prevail, it may result to a disastrous outcome. Once we live with anger and lack of self- control, it may ruin our plans and even our dreams. We should learn to manage our anger to be able to avoid hurting others and also be able to achieve a peaceful and joyful life.

Daffodils

William Wordsworth

            William Wordsworth’s Daffodils, speaks about the appreciation of nature. This is a poem that represents the true feelings of the persona that at first, he was lonely and monotonous, but because of the lively Golden Daffodils, the persona started to see the essence of life. The daffodils served as his inspiration to mind the simple things that we often taken for granted.

            Figurative, descriptions, and comparison of the daffodils were included in the structure of the poem. The poem contains words that personify how beautiful daffodils are. The word      “crowd” is a symbol for daffodils that is beside the lake, beneath the trees which are fluttering and dancing in the breeze. It is being compared to “twinkling milky way” which brings out the colorful beauty of it. Personification and simile are being used in the first line, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. The cloud personifies the persona and being compared to it a well.

            This is a poem that collects human emotions which is inspired by nature.  Similar to our life, we are used to ignore simple things and find it not useful and because of this impression, we tend to neglect and take it for granted. We just get into realization that every simple thing has an essence if we encounter uncertainties which regards to it. In this poem, William Wordsworth learned to appreciate the beauty of nature when he first glance the peaceful and majestic beauty of the golden daffodils.