Catullus, Ralph Monfort

Catullus' poems are interesting reads. There is a similarity to Sappho's writing however Catullus is more direct and straightforward. Catullus' poems have a different theme than Sappho's. Catullus' written his poems to his friends, his love. His word use is more on the vulgar side opposed to the word choice of Sappho. I much rather read poems by Catullus than poems by Sappho.

Peotry of Catullus

Unlike Sappho's poetry, Catullus' peoms were much easierly written and much simpler.
Some of his peoms are about his friend or to his friends, erotic poems indicating homosexual and lesbianism (probably inspired or influenced by Sappho's Lesbos), and about nature. And yet, some poems are way too simple to even understand the intension of Catullus's purpose of writing the peom unlike very descriptive peoms written by Sappho's. It's very interesting that back in the time, sexual things were very sensitive subjects and both Sappho and Catullus both mention in depth riskying themselves in public. I think poetry is really fascinating genre of literature since it have tell many things with short passages.

Catallus

Catallus's poetry was definitely a contrast from Sappho's poetry. It was more direct and to the point. Modern poetry also has these contrasts and there is no specific style that is common in today's poetry, just like ancient poetry apparently. Catallus has a direct style where you know exactly what he means, something I appreciate in literature. Whats the point in taking the time to make a point if you can't get the point across to your readers? However its hard to compare the two poets because most of Sappo's poems were in fragments. I think that he is making fun of sappho when he takes her poems word for word, and criticizing her indirect confusing style.

Catullus' Poetry

We recently covered Catullus' poetry in class and it was quite different from Sappho's. First off, it was easier to read because it is very straightforward but it does not have a lot of details like Sappho's poetry. Not only that, it’s a different theme from Sappho's poetry because it's usually directed at his own friends, his love, or Sappho herself. There is one poem imitating her with the massive details and the reference to the Gods and beyond. Not only that, I also noticed that both of them mentioned sparrows in each of their own works but described in different ways. In Sappho's poetry, the sparrows are mentioned as Sappho is describing Aphrodite’s chariot flying into the sky while the sparrows in Catullus' poetry are described as merely a pet.

- Lillian Lai

Sappho

After reading several of Sappho's poems, it can be inferred that she uses a lot of imagery and details. An example is "stars around the beautiful moon... hiding their glittering forms". Not only does she stress on scenery, she also uses nature to conjure of how powerful love can move her heart. Another example is "Love shook my heart...like the wind on the mountain". It can be inferred that she tries to use things such as nature and the sky which are familiar to the readers to describe how she is feeling. When she is mentioning her Muses in the poems, it can be inferred that she is attracted to woman because of the way she describes them.

- Lillian Lai

William Chiu

The poems of Catullus are very different from the content we have studied in the openness and informality of the content and language. He writes as he wishes which at the time in roman society was completely out of the normal. one poem which I found his openness particularly surprising would be poem number 21. In this crude poem he makes an attempt to dissuade Aurelius from trying to have sex with all of his friends and directs him to particularly avoid one male whom Catullus appears to favor. His blunt words are furthered by a threat towards Aurelius that he will sodomize him if he does not refrain from his lustful acts. i was quite taken aback from the language and content here. Despite the uncomfortable content of a few poems. i admire the audacity of this author. He writes about the subjects and topic which concern his life whether it be his lust, anger or friendships.

Catallus' Poetry

Reading Catallus' poetry was a very unique experience. It wasn't what I was expecting after having just read Sappho's poetry, which tended to be more subtle and open to interpretation. It was definitely much easier to read, since Catallus had no problem with saying exactly what he meant in no uncertain terms. I was rather surprised when I read the first couple at the kind of language he used, but it fits his style. A lot of his insulting poems about his friends are quite funny, and I found that his poem which copies Sappho's almost word-for-word was more a tribute to Sappho than an insult. He takes her words and gives the poem an entirely different feel by adding the second part on where Lesbia berates him for lazing around and writing the first part. Catallus was also easier to read in general because the poems were available in their entirety as opposed to a fragment here and a fragment there like Sappho's poems, with the added difficulty of having to infer what she may have meant in the missing spots.

Catullus

The poems by Catallus were interesting to read. It was easy to see similarities between Caullus and Sappho, especially since Catallus' poetry was embued with much passion. However, I did not find the basic nature of each poet to be the same, since I found the poetry of Catullus to be more shocking at times. It was easy to find humor in some of the poetry of Catullus and the goals of the poetry seemed to be clearer. I’m wondering, though, if there was some influence going on here, due to the very obvious similarities between the two poets.

John Torres "Catullus Poetry"

The poems were very strong filled with emotion. This is very similar to that of the Sappho poetry. The language was much more vulgar and straight forward. Many of the poems talk use sex as a metaphor. It is often referred to in a negative connotation and not brought up in a pleasurable way. The poems are mostly straight forward. The intentions are clearly brought up and explained. It is still interesting to see how gods are still used in the different context and are still vital parts of this literature. #48 is very interesting because it deals with kissing as opposed to sex and refers to the passion involved in making love.

Catullus Poetry

This week in class we read Catullus’ poetry. His poetry is full of both strong and outrageous emotions, but is full of humor as well. We read a lot of poems that were regarding Lesbia, Catullus’ love, but all of his poetry is not about her. His poetry lyrics are about both love and desire, which makes it similar to Sappho poetry, but I found more Catullus poetry to be obscene, and have some anger in it, whereas I found much of Sappho poetry somewhat perverted. Much of his poetry is critical, and its interesting that he likes to makes fun of people and embarrass them. The poetry of Catullus, (and Sappho) is different from most poetry I’ve read before. It was interesting to read a bunch of poems that were all somewhat related because the connections made it like a story.

Felicia Ooi; Catullus Poetry

Catullus' poems seem quite similar to Sappho's poems in that they are both very passionate, and more often than not, are about love and/or sexual relationships. The poems that we read about were all those dedicated to Lesbia. Catullus appears very devoted to Lesbia, she is his girl whom he loves deeply and he would do anything to make her happy. In fact, a great majority of the poems are titled "..: to Lesbia", and to me that signifies that Lesbia is a very important person in Catullus' life. An interesting thing is that Catullus makes use of his poems to insult others and he is very blunt with his words, yet his words cut deep.

Courtney Lum

I felt as though Catullus poetry is much different than other poetry of its time and even modern time. For one, I feel as though Catullus poetry is much more blatant and almost vulgar in approach than other poetry I have ever seen. Even though Catullus poetry is no different than other poetry in means of describing sexual feelings, intentions and desires, overall the approach of Catullus is much blunter and at times obscene. However, his rude remarks and obscene comments are what he is known for, there is no censorship in his poetry and therefore gives it a sense of being more real, more truthful, rather than just pretty words fixed up in pretty ways.

Catullus Poems

This week we were instructed to read the poems of Catullus, specifically the ones dedicated to Lesbia. Catullus was inspired by the works of Sappho, so its only natural that his poems had strong emotional tendencies. After reading a couple of the poems I found them to be quite expressive of a range of emotions such as the love for lesbia, friendship, and sexual desires. His work is similar to Sapphos with respect to the incessant discussion about love and feelings. I really don't like poetry, and I feel bad saying that I don't enjoy reading any of this because it sounds like I hate reading even though i don't. It's just most of the time when I'm reading it I cant help but think to myself, " i don't care about any of this." When people think the poets were brilliant I really just don't see it. Overall, I thought the poems were okay, they were easy to read and they could be a little comical at times, which I enjoyed. But i wouldn't want to read them again.

Catullus, Yeonsoo Kim

I felt somehow familiar with the poem, Catullus. As I keep thinking about it, I realized that the poem of Catullus is kind of similar to the previous poem that we read; Sappho. Maybe the reason I felt like that is the main topic and the mood of the poem was similar. They expressed their emotions very passionately, especially for romantic feeling. With emphasizing that mood too much, both poems contain sexual presentations throughout their literary work. But they also have some dark contents, like death and depression. I think as much as the poet is stressing out the extreme emotions, the poem seems more dynamic. It brings reader interest for poem, however if too much, it might cause adverse reaction for the readers.

William Chiu

From reading the first few poems of Sappho, I could clearly see the difference between her writing style in comparison to that of the male writers we have studied in the past. Throughout the reading of the poems I felt as if I was in a dream state in which I felt at ease and time was at a slow pace with everything happening in the softest of ways. It was almost a breath of fresh air to read literature dealing with love and and emotions as opposed to war and trickery. Most apparent of this mood is when she writes about the marriage Hektor and Andromakhe and says, "the sound of the cymbals, and then the maidens sang in clear tones a sacred song and a divinely-sweet echo reached the sky..." Upon reading this, I imagined I was sitting in the back of a wedding ceremony where the setting is dimmed to a romantic lighting with music sung softly to the hearts most most sensual desires. The feeling of sensuality is further felt when she describes the rush of sensation her body experiences from the close proximity of being close woman she desires. She describes her lust as by having "instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my [her] skin." The language of the poetry also appear to have a direct meaning without much confusion as to the meaning of the connection of words.

Catullus Poetry

In his poetry "Let’s Live and Love: to Lesbia" and many others, Catullus deliveries an idea that we need to seize the current lives. Catullus expresses his thronotope in the poetry "Let's Live and Love: to Lesbia", which including the inconstancy and shortage of the life, the limitation of the brightness and the endless of the darkness. Therefore, he states that we need to enjoy the current life and love even though they are limit. I do not think that the idea of Carpe diem is the passive way we treat to our lives, instead, it is the positive philosophy. The meaning of the life should not to be judged by the sucularism. I have no idea that if we have metempsychosis in the future in another space or not. So, just follow Catullus's idea, let's live, let's love and let's enjoy our current lives.

Catullus Poems

The Catullus poems we read in class are basically about his love, desire, and passion for Lesbia. He thinks of Lesbia as the most beautiful woman alive and would do pretty much anything to get her. He is similar to Sappho in writing because they both write about love. They both openly talk about sexuality even though Catullus may tend to sound perverted sometimes. This might be due to the fact that he respected Sappho and admired her work. He also tended to sound homosexual in some of the poems.
Although he loves Lesbia, his feelings for her changes through out the poems from tender love poems to sadness, dissapiontment and bitter sarcasm.
I loved reading both Catullus and Sappho because they are both different from other literary pieces i have read.

Willie Ho

After reading some of Catullus poetry, I feel that his poetry is very clever and somewhat satirical. He likes to poke fun and harass people for their misdoings, whether it be great or small. This is much like the work of talk show hosts, bloggers, and comedians today. It can definitely be comparable to these people because he names out well-known, or rather people who were well-known by his readers at the time he issued his work.

He criticizes, embarrasses, and makes fun of many things concerning these "celebrities" such as their habits or hobbies. Catullus must have had many enemies during his time and many readers/fans as well. If he is supplying people with this sort of amusement to read, then he is likely to have an equal amount of people who hate him as well.

Catullus Poetry

I find Catullus amusing because just by devoting himself entirely to poetry, he was rebelling against what was expected of him in upper-class Roman society. He uses colloquial language in his work and was thus acknowledged as one of the Poetae Novi, or “Neoteric Poets.” He is truly revolutionary as a poet, for he ignores the public audience and writes passionately about his personal experience for an audience of fellow-poets only. Many of his poems examine his affection for his two great loves, Clodia and Juventius.

Because Catullus was an admirer of Sappho, and he is considered to have used a meter that Sappho developed, called the Sapphic strophe, which is an Aeolic verse form spanning four or three lines.

Catallus

Similar to Sappho, Catallus’ poems speak openly about sexuality. Some of his lyrics come across as very perverted and appalling almost when you figure out what he is trying to convey. He tends to include the names of individuals in his poems; whether they are enemies or good friends. The poems we’ve discussed in class seem to either praise his friends or highly humiliate his enemies.

Sappho

Before this class I was not familiar with the work of Sappho. Her form of writing is completely different than the works we’ve discussed in the past. The language is more blunt and straight forward; displayed by her willingness to openly talk about sexuality as she does. Her poems are a little hard to interpret because they tend to send off mixed messages. Some unique characteristics of Sappho’s poems include the author’s name in her own work, and the ambiguity as to whether she is referring to a man or a woman. Sappho speaks of love between all genders. The word lesbian derived from Sappho.

Sappho

The poet Sappho is very interesting person to study. Firstly, the word Lesbian derived from the island that she was born and the word, Sapphic came from herself. Not many people back then were freely talking about the sexuality. Moreover, Sappho was a woman herself. Her poetry talks about love and passion toward both genders to genders. I believe it is very shocking idea while the poem is written. I don’t personally enjoy reading poetry since it is usually harder to understand the hidden symbols or meaning. However, her poem was catchy and impressive to go and find out the meaning of each passages.

Sappho, Ralph Monfort

Sappho is a poet who wrote detailed poems from the woman's perspective. She is a major impact lesbian interaction. Her poems has a erotic theme to it. For one instance, she describes the way her body feels when her love (a woman) is nearby.

Sappho

Before coming to class I had learned the history behind the word "lesbian". Now, after reading the poems I have an even clear understanding. While I was reading there were a few times where I would stop and read over the same line a few times because I thought there were some quotes worthy of more attention. Some quotes I found to be very beautiful and others I found inspiring. For example, "If anything happens to one who desires it, and wishes and never expects it, it’s a special delight to the mind." I particularly like this quote because it think it describes all aspects of spontaneity in just a simple, short sentence.

Othello

All of the characters are introduced that will appear throughout the play, each with their own story to tell. Throughout the whole play I easily became frustrate with Iago's behavior. His deceitfulness and lies could have been easily disproved by Othello. I wonder how the story would have played out if Othello wasn't so easily persuasive and gullible. Since Othello and Desdemona's marriage was so perfect in the beginning, it was obvious to me that it would be ruined by the end of the tragic play.

I also mentioned in class how I never understood who Emilia was faithful to, Iago or Desdemona. Shakespeare never makes it clear enough for the reader to understand. This also bothered me as I read the story.

Oedipus Rex

The taboo that takes place in Oedipus Rex is that he is suppose to be killed as an infant but because he was passed on from person to person, he ends up not being killed at all. His pre-destined fate is unavoidable since in the end the G-ds are the deciders of what Oedipus' fate will be. His hatred towards the G-ds and his pride in himself both contribute to his fall. He is unwilling to admit that he will kill his true father and marry his mother. Because he is unable to accept his dome at first, it makes his fall from grace that much more tragic. As he soon realizes what is unavoidable, he begins to slip into paranoia killing people around his, proving his fate true.

Medea

Despite the many aspects touched upon in the story of Medea, is hard to relate to. Since I do not have a husband or kids, it is hard for me to understand her deep hatred towards her Jason. I can only imagine how annoyed she was. I do find it interesting how she blames most of Jason's betrayal on him, not his mistress. Sometimes, girls tend to blame infidelity or cheating on the girl with whom their husband or boyfriend is cheating on them with. I think this falls into an overall message throughout the play of how Medea and the author empower women. Medea is portrayed as a very intelligent and clever women. She was able to trick Jason and others around her into letting her stay for longer in the town to say goodbye. Also, the chorus is made of all Corithian wome, who add their opinions to the story.

Sappho

I think there is evidence that the poems of Sappho are written from her perspective because she puts her own name into the poem. This would suggest that she is the one feeling all of these emotions that she puts in her poems. However, it is possible that because men were dominating the arts world at the time that she wanted to make her poems fit in more and was writing from the perspective of a man. She might have been trying to find out how a man feels about a woman and that was the inspiration to her poetry. She is a really interesting poet because she is not afraid to say what she thinks even if it might make other people uncomfortable.

Sapho, John Torres

These were very interesting poems. Mostly because it was interesting to see poetry from a woman's perspective. Most literature from this period and this area was completely different. This poetry opened up a different side of culture and shows that like today there were people who had different view points. The development of the theme in the poems was also interesting to see. From beginning to end it was interesting to see how the poems developed.

Sappho

The more interesting qualities of Sappho's writing is her own personal involvement in the narrative. Until this point, the audience has been a passive observer, one which is meant to take objective lessons from the work itself. In Sappho's poetry, however, she speaks in the first person which allows for a much more involved audience -- in this instance allowing for the author's emotions to be transferred to the viewer.

Another interesting aspect is the lesbianism present in the play. To this day, Sappho has had a major impact on woman to woman relationships, with Sapphic and her native island, Lesbos, as the two strongest and most familiar terms relating to lesbianism. This adds an interesting element to the stories, especially considering how she was supposedly married and had a child by the time she was writing her works. It is a shame that so many of her poems are lost to time.

Sappho Poetry

Sappho's poetry is intriguing. Most of the poems you would read and not know a woman was writing. There are very few lines that hint at a female author, especially in the third poem, where she describes the jealousy she feels for the man who gets to sit near her love and the physical effect the woman has on her. She describes the way her body reacts when her love is near as not being able to see, getting hot, shivering, etc. I can see how her writing is viewed as incredibly erotic in this case, since it sounds like she is pretty much having an orgasm in this poem just at the mere presence of the woman she loves. I found her other poems and poem fragments to be more subtle with the eroticism than this poem, but definitely still there, as in her poem where she compares a woman to a ripe red apple that no one else can reach. This could definitely be an analogy for the woman's virginity, or love/passion in general. This poem seems to convey that although everyone else has forgotten about it, the author herself remembers and desires it.

Sappho

I really enjoyed these for many reasons. One reason is that at first glance the poems seemed to be harmless and G rated. This all changes though when you start to understand what is being written about and the suggestive language and metaphors that are being used. Many of these metaphors are pornographic in nature and kind of hard to understand but do a great job of portraying emotion.

Sappho, Yeonsoo Kim

I really liked the poems of Sappho. Not only the soft tone of writing but somewhat dreaming and phantasmic mood throughout the poem. I wish I could read and understand Greek language so that I would be able to read the original version of her poem. Because language and translation might have had affected on the tones and the moods of the poem. When I searched more about the writer herself, I found the very interesting characteristics of her. First thing is that she was as pretty as Aphrodite, the goddess, and the Second one was that she was a lesbian. I think both points kind of made her poem to be more attractive rather than degrading her work. As I read her poem, it made me feel like I want to read more of a poem that contains love and humanity .

Santigui Tounkara,Medea

Medea was a very interesting play.It clearly showed how love can make a person do horrible things.Actually, I've heard a lot of true stories similar to Medea but with the exception that the Husband would kill his wife and kids after his wife would decide to leave him. In this particular play, Jason decided to leave Medea to marry Glause, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth.Furious by the news, Media kills her own children.At that point, I was really schocked by the action taken by Medea.After thinking about it, I realized how love can be a dangerous emotion if it makes you do nasty things such as killing someone.

Othello/Sappho

The conclusion of Othello was quite intriguing. It's nice how everything is exposed in the end and everyone learns what has truly happened. The character of Emilia is especially intriguing, due to her ambiguous role in the events that are driven by Iago.

The poetry of Sappho was very very interesting to read and I enjoyed the emotional elements of it. The passion in the words was so obvious that it made the reading a different sort of experience. I like that we've gone back to this time period, since I enjoy reading things that discuss the Greek Gods.

Felicia Ooi; Poems of Sappho

Sappho's poetry is very emotional, and very heart-felt. When I read the stanzas, I could feel the passion emanating from the words. The phrases used are also very graphic and descriptive, and if you just exercise your imagination a little, you can almost envision the scenes that you are reading about. Aphrodite is mentioned several times, and Sappho appears to be praying/talking to the goddess. One thing though, it was a bit difficult to grasp the overall meaning of the poem as the poem was rather disjointed, and there were missing parts.

Felicia Ooi; Othello

Overall, Othello was a story that I felt played entirely on major human weaknesses, like jealousy, greed, and pride. The main character, Othello, was portrayed initially as a noble character, who despite being a Moor, was a man of relative power and position. However, he eventually fell for Iago's vindictive lies, deceptions and falsehoods, and because of his own pride, he ended up murdering Desdemona, and then committing suicide. Iago was indeed a character who is to be both despised, yet admired. In a perverse manner, Iago emerges victorious from the whole tragic fiasco, and he is the only one who accomplished his goal of making Othello suffer. He is to be admired in the fact that despite his conniving and vicious lies, he is never caught red-handed as being the one to blame for everything because he thinks carefully before taking action. Nevertheless, to me, when compared to Shakespearean Tragedy, Greek Tragedy is a lot more dramatic and "tragic" in the most literal sense of the word.

Sappho poetry

This is my feeling about Sappho when I read her poetries: She just simply expresses her feelings without any further purpose. Gilbert once criticized Sappho poetry in the "History of Ancient Greek literature", which said that Sappho did not need to use gorgeous word to decorate her poetries because the poetries are simply about love. They expressed the feeling of love so strongly. Gilbert also disagreed on the comparison of Sappho and Homer. However, if we regard our inner world as vast as the outside environment, we can not deny that Sappho may become another Homer, which is also the reason why Horace praised her masculine. Sappho reveals the most subtle and mysterious inner world of human. She is the pioneer who influences many femal poets later.

othello

"Othello" is a tragic flaw. A flaw in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy that brings the protagonist to ruin or sorrow. First of all, Othello feels himself inferior because he is a blackamoor. He thinks that there exits a gap between he and his white wife, Desdemona. He feels that he does not deserve Desdemona because of his color. So, when Iago provocates, the inferiority complex makes Othello believe Iago's story and thus drags out the tragedy. Othello also relies on others too much. His previous success and happy marriage blinds him. All he saw before was the bright part of the world. He never thought that the world also has half dark part and exits hellions such like Iago. Othello is also a represetation of androcentrism. He can not bear with the betrayal of his wife. Moreover, Othello's impulse ridden personality is good for him as a warrior in the war but not a thoughtless husband. Therefore, the tragedy is predetermined by Othello's flawed humanity.

Sappho

Sappho was a woman who was said to have killed herself (gone over a cliff) because her husband did not return from war. From this it can be said that she is a very emotional person who would do a lot for love. In the first lines of this poem she calls on Aphrodite (who is the goddess of love) to help her with her broken heart. She believes in the power of Aphrodite and thinks she can solve all problems.
Sappho is unlike the other literary pieces we have read in this class. It is very emotional and passionate. She is in love with love and it is seen in every line of the poem. To Sappho, life without love is no life at all.

Othello, Sappho

This week in class we read the end of Othello and began to read over Sappho poetry. The ending of Othello was very interesting. I enjoyed seeing the events unfold leading to Othello’s’ murder of Desdemona. To kill her, Othello at first decides to poison her, but Iago persuades him to strangle her instead. I think it is stupid how easily Othello was manipulated by Iago, but I understand that Othello deeply trusted Iago, making it hard to believe he was being lied to.
We also read some poetry by Sappho this week. I found the poetry to be a bit confusing to understand, but one thing I noticed was that a lot of passion was put into her poetry. It’s disappointing that much of her work is lost and only fragments remain from most of her work, as it’d be interesting to clarify a lot of ambiguous meanings to a lot of the poems.

Courtney Lum

Reading Sappho poetry is quite unique from anything else we have read in class. What is so fascinating is the desire and emotion felt by herself for the other person. It is also most intriguing that it is so enigmatic as to what her sexual orientation is which would depict whether she is desiring or merely admiring the subject in question. Also the fact that there is such little known about her and her personal life makes her poetry all the more fascinating and personal. These poems are really the only pieces of information about her and seeing that they are so cryptic yet simple at the same time truly expresses her as a complex woman we may never understand.

Willie Ho

This being the first time experiencing reading Sappho poetry, I had a mixed number of opinions towards it. It is written in a manner that can be viewed in many ways. It almost seems as if she tried to confuse the readers. Also it does not help that the translations vary in accuracy.

When I read the poems, I did not think of it to be anything perverted. It seems more like a state of admiration. However, upon being notified that the subject of matter was perverse, it seemed to be more convincing than the conclusions that I had previously made. After discovering this, I read each and every other poem with this mindset and made out the "truth" behind the texts. This matter is still subjective though, because we will never truly know if the texts were surely meant to be viewed in this aspect.

All in all, the agenda she took in writing these poems are unknown but I am convinced she is a lesbian and she did not take on any male persona. I think people just make up the ideas of "taking on another persona" dogmatically. They just want to prove others wrong for the sake of doing so.

Sappho

I have never read or even heard of the poems by Sappho until now, which is why I thought they would be like every other poem I have been uninterested in reading. After reading many of her poems, it is clear that she is writing with a lot of emotion. I feel as though her poems are concerned mainly with love, whether it be the passion of love or the sorrow associated with the absence of love. I also feel that she chose her words carefully to effectively convey some emotions. For example, she uses the phrases, "...my frenzied heart", and "..Come to me now once again and release me from grueling anxiety." I found that analyzing the poems is quite difficult since there is little known about Sappho other than the assumptions made about her and the context in which she wrote the poems. Also I typically come to the wrong conclusions about poems, since I usually have no idea what it is talking about. Overall though, I didn't feel as bored reading these poems as I have felt when reading others. I found this interesting.

Sappho Poetry

I’ve never read Sappho poetry before, so it is rather interesting to me. The poems are full of emotion, passion, and desire. I stress that it is not possible to draw certain conclusions as to whether Sappho’s poetry is a reflection of her own sexual orientation or situation, because we know so little about her as it is. I would like to think it is her own portrayal of her feelings, because her positive presentation of Helen is expressed with a tone that would render her words meaningless if they were not her personal sentiments.

Sappho’s poetry has such clarity and simplicity. Her images are very sharp, such as the sparrows that draw Aphrodite’s chariot and the solitary red apple at the tree-top. I think it is very effective that she quotes the direct words of conversations, real or imaginary, to have immediacy.

Jenelle Fiori; Sappho and Catullus

First of all, I'd like to point out that I am extremely confused as this blog and what we should be posting so I'm just going to go with Sappho and Catullus.

The Poem of Sappho is very graphic about the emotions of hate, love and desire. It, as I think it does, describes a woman's hate for her husband who either died or cheated on her. She yearns for love because she feels that relationship lacked it. She personifies her virginity as if it had run away or was taken away from her. She is very hateful in saying that no one will remember her husband and that only cowards such as gods and men could call death evil- which is what she diminishes both to.

Catullus also talks about a lost love in whom the daughter had lost when he cheated on her. In this poem, man is also compared to the gods in a negative way. The poem also mentions Lesboa, who is the most beautiful woman (or maybe its a city?) the speaker has ever seen and who the speaker has fallen in love with. The description of Lesboa is bright and radiant while the description of the man is dark.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Othello 2

The ending of Othello was very interesting. I found it very frustrating how easily Othello turned on his wife and how easily he was tricked becouse his wife was nothing but good to him. I also found it very strange how someone as smart as Othello was so easily tricked. I thought the scene were he killed his wife was very sad becouse she was very submissive and just let him kill her and then she didnt even put any blame on Othello for killing her.

Othello, Ralph Monfort

Iago fueled with hatred for Othello, convinced Othello that Desdemona is cheating. Othello without a doubt in his mind believing in the words of Iago and murders his beloved Desdemona. Also, through Iago's deception, he has Cassio murdered. After Othello took the life of his beloved with his bare hands, he commits suicide. Thus ends the tale of Othello, the Moor of Venice. He has the amazing capability to be a great general however, he lacks the mental capability to see who the lies of Iago.

Othello

Even if Iago was the Antagonist in the play of Othello, it is very hard to deny that Iago is fascinating character in the play. I did bit of background research about the story.Although Othello was the character who goes through tramendous misery, Aigo could have been the main character since his role is interesting enough to the reader. Apprent from Shakespeare's other writings, none of the evil characters were protagonists. Intriguingly at his era, most of writings were written in perspective of good people.Thus, i reread the story in Aigo's point of view as if he is the main character. The story is much more convincing to read in clever, and evil main character other than Naive, and weak personal character.

Lillian Lai - Othello Acts 3-5

After reading the rest of the acts of Othello, it can inferred that the play is full of misunderstandings which lead to many innocent deaths. Not only that, the relationship between Othello and Desdemona is completely opposite from Iago's marriage. As much as Othello loved Desdemona, he still started to mistrust her because he was warped in Iago's lies. This shows that Othello rather believed his friend than his own wife. But on the other hand, Iago treats Emilia like a slave or someone he can use as seen in the play when he uses Emilia to get Desdemona's handkerchief for his own evil plans. These examples show that the role of women in society is inferior and weak.

Othello

So this week I finished Othello. I had never read it before, I really enjoyed it. My favorite thing about shakespeare is his ability to have complex character development and struggle, while also having entertaining comical scenes. He hides a lot of jokes in his script. The character Iago seems ridiculous because he ruins peoples lives completely simply because he didn't get a job promotion. He used his friends and caused the death of Roderigo and Desdamona. I feel the worst for the women of this play because they have no authority. No matter how many times Desdamona tells Othello she hasn't cheated on him, he never believes her and will only believe what Iago tells him. Even at the end when Iago's wife Emilia is trying to say what has really happened, she has to struggle to get people to take her seriously.

William Chiu

This week, I completed the reading of Othello. Throughout the story, one cannot help but feel sorry for Othello who cannot see past the schemes of Iago. It is clear that Othello is a good leader, but he appears to thinkbonly with his heart without his brain. It comes a shock that Iago is able to carry out his web if lies to the end of the story. Othello's lacking in the ability to take command and make proper decisions becomes apparent in these final scenes. From Iago's words alone, Othello goes into a mad rage without proof. He disregards whatever pleas his wife Desdemona makes forcing him to first kill the innocent man Cassio. From this alone is is clear that Iago has Othello's mind completely shut off from the opinions of the real world. He is under the spell of anger which will lead to aggression towards his general Cassio. However, Cassio's death at the hands of Othello is only the first of much death and downfall to come. Iago's tricky words leads Othello to even kill his very wife. After which he decides to sadly take his own life. The protagonist and antagonist of this story is Iago and Othello respectively, however from the looks of the story,it seems the roles have switched. Othello is a good warrior and leader but he simply does not posses the mental capacity to outwit Iago.

Othello

Othello is a really interesting play. I can definitely see how Shakespeare delves into the human psyche with this play; it deals with love, jealousy, and hate among other emotions. It's amazing to see just how manipulative Iago is. In the beginning of the play he says outright to Roderigo that he is not what he seems. You would think that Roderigo would hear that and begin to think twice about what Iago says and does later on, but he continues to take him at his word. Not only does he believe what Iago is saying, he becomes Iago's lackey. It seems that all the characters throughout the play do not suspect Iago of being anything but honest and caring. Othello himself is convinced Iago loves him and looks out for him even though Iago is secretly plotting his downfall. In this sense, even though the reader of the play can't see Iago, I would imagine it would take an incredibly good actor to be able to play a character that seems so genuine to everyone else. The play may be titled after the character Othello, but it is Iago that is the focal point to me. Even though he is the “evil” character, you must have some grudging respect for how well he manipulates everyone. I don't believe he is even truly evil, since he doesn't just cause hate and violence for the mere fun of it, he has a motive for the way he acts. Granted, he completely overreacts in this situation, but it is a good example of a specific kind of person that is found in every society.

Othello

The Shakespearean play "Othello" is a fascinating tale, and especially becomes intriguing in the latter sections of the play. Iago, clearly an evil schemer, manipulates Othello in order to achieve his own wicked purposes. The failing of Othello is intriguing in this respect, since as a soldier he appears to be very in charge of his own life and the lives of those around him. His failing in this sense is not pride or hubris, as illustrated in many Greek plays, but instead in being a trusting individual. It appears that Shakespeare is warning those who take too much faith in the words and suggestions of others will fall prey to evil intentions that others may have. Iago uses underlying insecurities to pull Othello around as he sees fit, eventually convincing him to kill his own wife. After Desdemona is killed, Othello finally becomes aware of Iago's scheming and villainy, but cannot come to terms with the actions he has taken, and kills himself. This play resolves itself in a very curious manner, since the characters we have been identifying with have all revealed great flaws in character and actions; the hero at the end of the play is named Graziano, with whom we have not spent nearly as much time as say Othello or Iago. It is an interesting change to the established winnings of the hero and the typical villainous evildoer.

Willie Ho

As I continued reading Othello, I realized how much hate I had for the character Iago! He is so evil and clever and it is so unfair! All he does is plot and plot about how he will do this and that. He took the simple gesture of Cassio taking Desdemona's hand as a reason to try and rid Cassio of his lieutenant status. As if that were not bad enough, he started the whole commotion with Montano, Roderigo, and Cassio ending with a wound to Montano. Then he ruins Othello's image of Desdemona when he convinced him that Desdemona is in some sort of relationship with Cassio.

Iago is like a snake. He is very stealthy and he knows what he is doing. This makes him very dangerous- much like a snake. He knows how to manipulate people's words and abuse the weaknesses that people have. I would like to see Iago perish sometime in this play.

Othello

This past week we read the 2nd and 3rd acts of Othello. I find the character of Iago to be very interesting, due to his relentless scheming and overall evilness. It's interesting how Othello manages to trust Iago, though, even over his own wife. Othello has a very trusting nature, but when it comes time to trust the one person he should, over everyone else, he fails to and i think it is this that proves to be his downfall. I also feel that Othello is quick to action in some cases, like the punishment of Cassio, and it is also this that helps his downfall.

Othello, Yeonsoo Kim

I think Act 3 to 5 of Othello deals with the most dramatic point of climax throughout the story. As Shakespeare described the characters’ thought process so well and he followed each of them progressing their path in the story.
Also I wondered how Iago could be so evil when he spoke out this sentence, “I am your own forever” at the end of the Act 3. I don’t how can a person be so vicious and not mindful at all to other’s pain. Maybe the case is rare in the real world, but it still can emphasize the side of tragic flow in the story line very effectively.

John Torres "Othello Acts 3-5"

It was very interesting to see how Othello concluded to see if Iago's plans were going to follow through. He was somewhat successful because he had ruined the lives of the people he wanted to bring vengeance on but he failed because Emilia revealed him to be a liar and the mastermind behind all the unfortunate events. Despite him being caught was he successful? He managed to kill Othello and ruin his life. He did the same to Casio and Roderigo. Iago sets out to ruin the live of Othello but did he just bring out the faults in Othello? Othello is portrayed as the good guy in the story who is being almost attacked by Iago but Othello does not have enough faith in his wife and this leads to him taking her life and his own. Had he had more faith in her and believed her then he would've been able to tell that Iago was indeed the villain.

Courtney Lum

In the play Othello, I was surprised at how rash and irrational Othello was as a character. He was so trusting in Iago, yet wouldn’t even give Desdemona the time to explain herself, let alone listen to her. I feel as if Othello’s downfall was his trusting nature towards to Iago and quick to judge tendency towards his own wife. Perhaps the idea of sexism played a part of such actions, for during Shakespeare’s time there was a great deal of discrimination of women and perhaps that translated into his play Othello. And only in the end does Othello realize his misfortunes and decides to commit suicide making him the tragic hero of his own demise.

Othello Acts 3-5

From Act III, Iago begins to poison the mind of Othello against Desdemona. He tells him that Desdemona gave the handkerchief he gave her as a gift to Cassio. He also makes a dialogue with Cassio, where Cassio is talking about his mistress, Bianca, but Othello thinks he is talking about having sex with Desdemona. These revelations make Othello go mad with rage and he lets his jealousy take the better part of him. He doesn't consult with anybody else or even talk to his wife to hear her own side of the story. He is rational and full of anger that in the end he kills his wife for no reason.
This is a dent on Othello's character because in the beginning of the play he is seen as a noble and worthy soldier, however after falling prey to Iago's plan, he can be seen as weak, rational, and a worthless husband.
In summary, i loved reading this play and though Shakespeare is one of the best writers ever, i do not understand why in his tragedies he always has a family member kill the other when in the victorian times (his time), church/God was a very important thing and killing a person goes against the commandment of God.

Othello A 3-4

This week in class we read Act 3 and Act 4 of Othello. After reading these acts, we find out that Othello is planning to kill his wife, Desdemona, because he believes that she has been unfaithful. This is because Desdemona is unable to show Othello his mother’s handkerchief, which he gave to her, and she has lost. This is symbolic to Othello in many ways because it was given to Desdemona by Othello as the first token of his affections to her. The idea that Desdemona has lost it symbolizes the lack of trust between Othello and Desdemona and is also the symbol of the sensuality of her affair. Iago, being his manipulative self, begins to convince Othello that his wife is being unfaithful once Othello tells him he is suspicious. This infuriates Othello, and he decides that it’s necessary to kill Desdemona for her betrayal.

Othello act 4

This week in class we discussed the end of Act III and Act IV. Towards the end of Act III we begin to see Othello's suspicion of Desdemona's purported infidelity rise when she is unable to procure his mothers handkerchief. He then goes on the describe the story behind and the handkerchief and what it symbolizes. In the next Act we see the extent of Iago's manipulation with his persistent insinuations of Desdemona's unfaithfulness; this brings Othello over the edge and later decides he wants to murder Cassio. AS the story progresses Othello finally accuses Desdemona of her adultery even though she is adamantly denying all accusations. Later, Desdemona seems to be aware of her fate and accepts her death at the hands of her husband. I did not finish the play and I am not enjoying it. I don't really like the language and the whole story seems ridiculous to me. The idea that she will simply accept her death is just weird.

Jenelle Fiori; Othello Act 5

First of all, I would like to point out that the blog I am currently typing up is actually due on Monday the 23rd. I wanted to get ahead of myself before next weekend because I will be extremely busy that weekend... as I am sure everyone else is.

And now to talk about Othello...

In the final act of Othello, all hell breaks loose. First, Cassio and Roderigo fight each other-which was began by Roderigo who still loved Desdemona, resulting in Roderigo being murdered and Cassio injured. Then, Othello successfully suffocates Desdemona while she slept. Her last dying breath is heard by Emilia who confronts Othello and calls for help. It is then revealed in front of Desdemona's Uncle- who is of royalty in Cyprus- of everything that has happened. Iago confesses to his manipulation and is arrested. Othello, now knowing the truth about his innocent wife and finally seeing himself as an outsider, kills himself.

Though it is though to understand the language of Shakespeare, I find his plots to be very interesting. In this particular play, he shows how a man's jealousy (that beginning with Iago's jealousy and hate for Othello) can turn into something more evil if his motivations were high enough and his manipulations were convincing enough.

Jenelle Fiori; Othello Act 4

At this point of the play, Othello has decided that he will kill Desdemona. He tells Iago of this, who fuels the fire by asking him questions about how he thinks that Cassio and Desdemona had their affair. Iago even manages to tell Othello to kill Desdemona by strangling her, rather than poisoning her. This, I believe, is because Iago wants everyone to know who killed Desdemona and therefore portray Othello as a ruthless savage who kills his wife. Othello strikes Desdemona when he first confronts her and calls her a whore- which was in front of her cousin, the Duke of Cyprus. Desdemona's cousin realizes makes a comment about Othello seemed so noble in his description, but in reality Othello is uncivilized... which is portrayed throughout the play when the characters move from the city of Venice to the island of Cyprus. Along with this, Desdemona's reaction at first is that she takes blame for the thing that he is accusing her of. She knows she is innocent but realizes that she will die and accepts her fate. Clearly, she is a very loyal wife, despite rumors, and will do anything for her husband- even if that is giving up herself to be killed.

Lillian Lai - Othello

After reading Othello, I feel like there is much prejudice and hatred toward the protagonist, Othello. The play begins with Iago trying to get Roderigo to plot revenge on Othello. Being heartbroken after hearing that Desdemona married Othello, Roderigo join forces with Iago. They decide to tell Desdemona's father, Brabantio that his daughter married a Moor. Brabantio becomes furious and believes that the reason for this sudden marriage is because Desdemona is under a spell. Gradually, it can be inferred that the main reason of this hatred is because he is dark-skinned. At first, I did not know that Othello was dark-skinned but there are many references to his appearance such as having thick lips or being like a Barbary horse. As the play progresses, the readers start to feel sympathy towards the protagonist because he is oblivious to all his enemies around him.

Margaret Yoon; Othello

After finishing Othello, I was more convinced of Othello’s foolishness. He bases his accusations on Desdemona and Cassio solely through his trust in Iago, falling prey to the grand scheme Iago prepares for all of them, but this also emphasizes the great level of Iago’s cunning. I thought the scene towards the end of the play where Roderigo and Cassio are injured and the others are gathering to try to discern what has happened is executed with great rapidity. I felt the action was very crammed and out of control, which is perhaps a technique Shakespeare utilizes to create an atmosphere where one can really feel Iago’s plan come to realization.

Desdemona reminds me of Sita in The Ramayana because they both embody faithful wives. However, Sita becomes outraged when Ram questions her chastity after he brings her back, whereas Desdemona continues to profess her love for her husband, even after he has accused her of being with Cassio.

Contrasting from the other malicious characters in the Greek plays we have read, Iago seems to go unpunished. What is Shakespeare’s purpose in creating a world where evil is not necessarily penalized?

Willie Ho

When first reading Othello, all I knew was that he was not light skinned. This affected my depiction of the play. The play may be in fact speaking of something more than a story between the love of Othello and Desdemona so far. It could be a reflection of the slavery and the relations between slaves and their masters during Shakespeare's time. When Othello and Desdemona claim to love each other they cannot have a regular marriage. They are summoned by the Duke due to Brabanzio because they suspect Othello of using some magic to woo Desdemona. That isn't the case but the Duke and Brabanzio believe so because they are unwilling to accept the fact that there can be a love between two races. Shakespeare is trying to send out a message to the society in which this play was released to.

Othello, Ralph Monfort

Othello is a play written by William Shakespeare. One of the difference between Shakespearean Tragedy and the Greek tragedy is that span of time in which the play takes place. Greek tragedies the story takes place in a span of one day. In Shakespearean tragedies the story can take place in different days. Othello the play focuses on the elope marriage of Othello and Desdemona. Due to the fact that Othello choose Cassio to be his lieutenant. He angers his long time friend, Iago. Iago decides to seek revenge upon Othello.

Othello

Othello was a very difficult read compared to the other reads in this class. /the thing that made it difficult was the language that was used. What i could understand from the reading was Othello was a moor witch made him a second class citizen where he lived. It also was a crime for him to marry non moors which he did. The lady who he married was the dukes daughter and becouse he did this he got arrested and had to stand trial. The story takes place in Venice Italy and it takes place during a war with the Ottomans.

William Chiu

The Shakespearean play Othello was a slight nuisance to read because of the language used to tell the story. However despite the time needed to comprehend the plot, I found the story to be interesting because of the cunning antagonist Iago. Although he clearly establishes a resentful relationship with the reader from his trickery, I found his actions and thought process almost inspiring. Instead of using his skillful comprehension of communication and observation to create conflict within Othello's community he could have served a much better purpose and perhaps even rise in the ranks to be lieutenant without deceitfulness to overthrow Cassio. I was drawn into the story because i was fascinated by the manipulative abilities that one man could utilize. He was able to spin a web of lies under the scope of all those around him while remaining trustful in the eyes of Othello, the object of his actions. Although Othello is the protagonist of this story and the reader should feel the need to take Othello's side based on mood created by the author. I found that Othello should have been aware of the trickery occurring. Othello described as a great and noble warrior however he cannot see the situation created by one man.

Othello act 1 and 2

Among many Shakespearian tragedy, Othello was the only unfamiliar story to me. I only knew the major stream of story and never bother to read this unlike his other writings. Othello was written differently compare to other Shakespearian tragedy that Othello's tragic life has nothing to do with family,nor kingdom. Othello tells story of a man who were happy but yet he has sense of inferiority toward others. He was a black man and married to beautiful white woman named Desdemona. When Aigo was rejected for his promotion from Othello, he seeks for vengeance. Othello was set up by Aigo to mistrust his own wife Desdemona that she was cheating on him with handsome white man named Cassio. Othello ended up killing Desdemona with his own hand. Later he finds out that it was all Aigo's plan. His heartbreak led to his suicide. This is a story of a man who doubt himself and shallow up by his inferiority.

Othello, Yeonsoo Kim

I was around 10 years old when I first read the story of Othello.
The book I read had all four tragedies written by Shakespeare and the Othello was one of them. Since I was young, I couldn’t find and understand the full meaning from the story but Othello was definitely the one which gave me strong impression out of four tragedies. I think what I realized from Othello is how jealousy can cause such chaotic ending for people’s life. Because the starting point was Iago’s raging jealousy and it ended up passing to Othello. When we get blind from jealousy or anger, we lose rationality and do not think why we are in that situation. People would have thought twice if we were not in emotional mood. But I think the reason Othello reacted so viciously is that he loved Desdemona and gave her trust that he couldn’t accept her betrayal.

othello act I

The play Othello takes place in the city of Venice. It begins with a discussion between Roderigo and Iago. Iago is bitter as being passed up as Othello's lieutenant in favor of the Venetian gentleman Cassio. Iago says that he only serves Othello to further himself; he is playing false, and admits that his nature is not at all what it seems. Iago is aware that Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, a Venetian nobleman of some stature, has run off with Othello, the black warrior of the Moors. Brabantio and many others know nothing of this coupling; Iago decides to enlist Roderigo, who lusts after Desdemona, and awaken Brabantio with screams that his daughter is gone.

Othello Acts I and II

As I read Othello, I found it to be one of those plays that I just wanted to intervene and set everything straight. First off, the character Iago (obviously the antagonist), is so deceptive and conniving; he just uses the characters to make situations play out in his favor. He would pretend to be one type of person with one character and completely switch his words and personality with another character; playing each and every one of them for fools. He seems to be trying to bring Othello down, but Othello is oblivious to this plan. Secondly, Othello is portrayed as this naïve character that seems to trust Iago. So far, the play follows the characters through this conflict and Iago’s plot of Othello’s demise.

Medea

Medea was a very interesting play to read. We came across this woman who deceived her family and killed her own brother for the man that she loved. Ultimately her love was so unconditional and deep for this man, that his deception drove her to a point where she was willing to hurt her own children. This play emphasizes a woman’s strength and displays the capabilities of a woman who has a plan; a woman who feels double crossed by her lover. I was surprised she actually killed her sons, but it made for a dramatic ending and left me speechless. It makes you wonder how love can drive individuals to certain actions and the extents to which people can be provoked.

Othello, John Torres

Othello is one of my favorite works by Shakespeare. Iago is a very interesting character. He plays every other character like a fiddle to get what he wants out of them. He turns characters against each other by reading their emotions and playing off them. Hes committed to what he wants to do and achieving his goals of bringing Othello down. He is jealous of the fact that Othello is with Desdemona and Othello got the higher position in the army. Iago has the motto of keeping friends close and enemies closer. He befriends Othello say he can get close to him in an effort to bring him down.

Courtney Lum

In many ways I feel as though Shakespeare had created his characters to be very one dimensional. Othello is characterized a good natured man, who’s naivety and trust will ultimately be his demise, meanwhile Iago is pure evil who’s only characteristics support that by him being manipulative, untrustworthy, and deceitful. Since the characters are given such simple personalities it is extremely easy to distinguish the protagonist/ tragic hero (which in this play would be Othello) and the antagonist who will most likely cause his demise (which would be Iago). Yet given such simple characteristics, the plot is seemingly complex, for it an intricate love conflict in which Othello has married the woman Roderigo lusts for, so Iago, who has been helping Roderigo in his pursuit of the lady and also hates Othello for his own reasons, plots against him.

Othello

This week in class we began reading the Shakespearean tragedy, Othello. I never really enjoyed reading Shakespeare in the past mainly because of the difficulty I have reading his strange use of the English language. His wording takes time to get accustom to and sometimes I’ll have to read lines many times to understand what he’s trying to say. However, the plot of Othello is intriguing because of the varying themes of love, jealousy and deception. Iago is considered the antagonist of the play, although it’s not obviously seen in the reading. Iago is annoyed that Othello did not choose him for promotion in the Venetian army and even though he is Othello’s trusted “friend”, he is simultaneously plotting his demise. It will be interesting to see how Othello’s trust in Iago will ultimately lead to his downfall, which is what I assume will happen.

Othello

I have never read Othello, but I have seen the movie, O. I really enjoyed the movie, actually, most likely because, even though it’s based on Shakespeare’s play, they don’t in that way. To be honest I’m not really a big fan of Shakespeare. I tend to like the overall concept of the story better then I enjoy actually reading it. Othello hasn’t proven to be an exception to that as of yet. As I have only read act 1 so far I have only gotten into the beginnings of the story. Iago is evil, but also kind of clever, which is interesting. I also find Iago’s rage and pure passion for revenge to be interesting, especially since I know he’ll cause a lot of damage throughout the play.

Medea - Lillian Lai

After reading Medea, it can be inferred that love is a powerful force which can drive many people into killing one's brother or even killing your own children. Even though Medea is the first female protagonist that we have read, the play doesn't really portray her in a heroic way. In the play, she is described as an broken woman who comes up with a revenge plan when she founds out that her husband is remarrying. It is partially Aphrodite's fault because if Medea wasn't hit with love arrows, she would not do such drastic actions. It can also be inferred that fate can be cruel at times because Medea did not deserve this harsh fate.

Felicia Ooi; Othello Acts I & II

I found the plot of Shakespeare's Othello to be one full of deception and intrigue as well as a lot of political conflict. While Othello is the protagonist of the play, Iago definitely has to be the antagonist, albeit one who does not outwardly portray himself as an antagonist. In fact, Iago plays the role of Othello's supposedly faithful ancient (ensign bearer). What we do know though is that Iago is nursing a grudge against Othello for not choosing Iago to be his liutenant, overlooking him in favor of Michael Cassio. The first act itself shows Iago plotting with Roderigo against Othello in an attempt to overthrow Othello's from his current position in the military by convincing Brabantio that Othello had stolen Desdemona away. However, this plan failed as Othello managed to convince the Duke of his and Desdemona's mutual love for each other.

The second act showed us more of Iago's devious plots, even convincing Cassio to turn against Othello. Iago plays on the fact that both Roderigo and Cassio are in love with Desdemona and uses this to his advantage. Iago is certainly the epitome of a conniving and treacherous back-stabber. What puzzles me though is how Othello can be so oblivious to Iago's treacherous actions.

Othello Acts I and II

In the first Acts of this play, we are introduced to its main characters. Iago is evil, conniving and the antagonist of the play. He is basically "the sheep in wovles clothing." He pretends to like everyone while striking each of them in their backs. Othello so far is seen as a noble man who believes in justice. Desdemona is a very passive and submissive wife. She not only loves Othello but worships him as well. Roderigo and Cassio are two people who are secretly in love with Desdemona but cannot have her since she is already married to Othello.
Iago's main reason for not liking Othello is because he was passed over in postion of army and his position was given to Cassio. This is the main bone of contention in this play and it starts the ball rolling from the first scene. Due to this Iago decides to take revenge on Othello no what it takes and uses anybody (Roderigo, Cassio) to get to his goal.

Jenelle Fiori; Othello Act 2-3

In Othello Act 2-3, we see Iago’s manipulation begin to have a huge impact on the other character. First, he gets Cassio drunk and into a fight with Montano, which costs him is title. Then, Iago convinves Cassion to go to Desdemona for help to regain his title. Later, Iago somehow gets both Roderigo and Othello to believe that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair. To this, Othello’s jealous causes him to think irrationally. Especially in Act 3, Othello’s jealousy makes him become more and more barbaric in thought and action, which is different from when they were in the civilized city of Venice. But what is interesting to note is the fact that Iago never directly begins the actions to follow, he only manipulates by word of mouth. His only real contribution to the following plot would be setting the handkerchief on Cassio’s bed, which Cassio give to Bianca. And so, this foreshadows the terror to come.

Othello: Act I and II

This week we began to discuss the Shakespearean play, Othello. The plot centers around the deceit and trickery of Iago. As the story unfolds we learn that he suspects that Othello and Cassio each slept with Emelia and is jealous that Cassio was promoted in his ranks by Othello. Consequentially, he seeks revenge and wants to pit Othello against Cassio by convincing Othello that Desdemona has become unfaithful with Cassio. His motives are also spurred by his lust for Desdemona and his failure to woo her.

Iago is definitely an evil character, which is why we can empathize with Othello who is ignorant of Iago's intentions. His first attempt to hurt Othello's reputation failed when he tried to convince Brabantio that Othello put some sort of magic spell on his daughter that led them to marry. His next attempt occurred when he planned for Cassio to be drunk and make a scene. Othello then removes Cassio from his ranks and Iago's plan is set in motion. I remember reading this play in high school and I did not enjoy it. The plot was interesting but I can't get passed the way it was written. Some of the dialogue is confusing to read and I don't like having to reread it over and over to understand it.

Margaret Yoon: Othello Acts I and II

Reading Othello is proving to be quite an interesting experience because I have never encountered a character as deceptive as Iago in any Shakespeare play I have read. Even Medea, who was very persuasive in her words, is not as manipulative as Iago, because she does not feign her true intentions to the extent that Iago does. Because he uses deceit in nearly all of his actions, I feel a natural sympathy towards Othello, whereas I had a little contempt for Jason because he was unfaithful to Medea as a husband. But Othello is more innocent and virtuous, which is furthered by Othello’s entrance in the play, for he appears as a character with quiet calm instead of the passionate and violent persona Iago connotates with him, taking away any credibility the reader has for Iago.

I found Othello’s societal position particularly intriguing because he is welcomed but also remains a foreigner in Venetian society. For instance, his race, physical appearance, and life history distinguish him from other Venetians, which ignites Brabanzio’s fears that he has utilized withcraft on his daughter. At the same time, other characters, such as the duke, treat him as vital part of the state. This is underscored when Othello and the others enter and the duke immediately delves into business, telling Othello that they need him to war against the Ottoman Turks. It is after addressing Othello that the duke notices Brabanzio, and when Brabanzio asks for justice, the duke wants to hear more from Othello. Once Othello delivers his moving speech about winning Desdemona’s heart, the duke feels the matter is over and Othello is not at fault. Thus, Othello continues to overshadow and overpower Brabanzio physically and politically.

Discussion questions: How does Othello’s “flaws” contribute to Iago’s goal to destroy him?

How does isolation on the island of Cyprus allow many of the play’s effects to develop?

Blindness appears yet again as recurring theme in tragedy. Which characters are blind to the “truth” or “reason,” and what comparisons can be made to other plays and works we have read that emphasize blindness?

Willie Ho

When I first read Medea I thought, why would the Greeks promote an idea such as killing one's own brother to betray her father and help a man she doesn't know? It didn't seem logical at the time. But as the story progressed, the man who Medea helped, Jason, betrays her. Medea takes her own revenge on Jason for causing her to lose everything. She sacrificed everything she had for him and he only betrayed her so she kills his bride.

Then I realized it explained the dangers of a damaged love. If Medea was willing to kill her brother simply for her love for Jason, Jason should have thought twice before crossing lines with Medea. She was very powerful and her rage came rational decisions. She went all out because she had nothing to lose. She had already given everything up for Jason.

Frogs

I started reading Frogs, and actually found it really interesting. The translation seemed more modern and the style was more like stichomythia instead of long monologues. It also refrenced well known playwrights which was interesting, however it is not a traditional Greek Tragedy, but more like a comedy. I would be interested in reading other Greek comedy's after reading so many Greek Tragedy's and really understanding that Genre.

Medea

Intriguingly, as we can tell from the title, the protagonist of this story is female unlike the other readings. Usually, anger of a woman or revenge of woman portrayed as more severe and cruel than man's. Story of Medea develops from her anger and vengeance when Jason abandones Medea,the wife and the two children. Jason was offered remarriage with Glause, the daughter of Creon who is the king of Corinth. Unfortunately, Medea was emotionally broke when Jason left her and curses her and her children's existance. This story tells miserable and brutal fates of characters that clearly shows the tragic deaths. Tragedy has much bigger impact to the readers than other happy ending story. It made me think human nature of anger and rage. Depressing storyline but influential.

Medea, Ralph Monfort

Medea is a Greek tradegy that focus on the woman character rather than the male character. The main character, Medea is deeply in love with her husband, Jason. However, Jason leaves her for the daughter of the king of Corinth. This drives her absolutely crazy, until she decides to seek revenge. She went as far as killing who own two kids. This is similar to Clytemnestra in the play, Agamemnon, who seeks revenge on her spouse.

William Chiu

This tragedy separates itself from the other tragedies of the book on many levels. The first of which would be the great emphasis placed on the strength of women. As shown through Medea, the reader can see how women are not mere objects but can be subjective as well. Medea does not sit idle while the male of the story Jason leaves her. Demonstrating a reversal of the roles of male/female, Medea takes actions into her own hands to achieve revenge. Her revenge was perhaps the most shocking of the revelations in the tragedy. She appears to have no motherhood instincts by killing her children. It was very hard to picture the thoughts in Medea's mind as she proceeded with such a disgusting act. Medea also separates from the other stories in the way it evokes many emotions from the reader. This tragedy was particularly interesting because of the outrageous events of murder by love. The story drew me in because it was able to target my emotions. Ihroughout reading of Medea I thought of who different my own mother is from Medea who is the protagonist of the tragedy yet can be perceived as a monstrous human being.

Medea

I honestly liked Medea a lot. Reading the play, it felt more realistic and it definitely felt more modern. It was a departure from the other Greek tragedies we've read in that the play is focused on a scorned woman who successfully gets her revenge. Also, the chorus is all female, which was not the norm for these types of plays. The chorus was really involved in this play. They kept taking Medea's side and didn't do anything when she was murdering her children. Normally the chorus is only a narrative voice, someone for the characters to talk to when they need to say something, and a descriptive voice for the scenes that take place off stage. The chorus didn't even provide the narrative voice for one of the most important scenes, in which Medea's poisoned dress and coronet kill the princess and her father. I actually like the chorus better in this play because they're not just standing around impassively.
Both the chorus and the central character, Medea, talk about what it means to be a woman and how it feels. This is different from all the other tragedies in that it seems they're bringing up social issues, whereas normally the tragedies only deal with actions and consequences and fate. I can see why this could be considered to have a feminist voice, since Medea does lament the fate of women in Greek society. Also, the fact that she is a woman who atypically does not have a maternal instinct strong enough to even try to save her childrens' lives is unusual. She murders her own children and gets away with it. The fact that she gets away with it flies in the face of every other tragedy of the time. One of the main reasons why the tragedies were written was to be didactic. Each play sent a message; in Oedipus, it was "don't try to avoid your fate", in Clytemnestra it was dealing with the consequences of your actions, specifically murder. The only role Medea seems to fill is to be cathartic. There are plenty of characters to feel pity for here, especially the children, who are completely innocent.

Medea

This week in class we read the Greek Tragedy Medea. I found this story to be a pretty interesting read and I enjoyed the characters of this play. Medea is a powerful character who is described as a barbarian throughout the story because she is from a foreign land. Jason is somewhat of the anti-hero of the play because his character is not seen as very commendable because of his lack of heart for Medea and his children. This story was different from the other tragedies we read, mainly because the protagonist in the play is female, whereas we are used to reading plays with male protagonists. I was somewhat disappointed with the ending of the tragedy, mostly because Medea never is justly punished by fate for what she has done. Being banished and losing your children by your own hand is hardly enough punishment for the murder of four people. But then again, maybe it is? Maybe having to live after having to kill your children might be punishment enough.

Oedipus,Santigui Tounkara

I found the reading really entertaining.It was funny to see that Oedipus ended up doing what his fate predicted, which is to kill is real father and marry his own Mom.I also found the story really interesting because it kind of acknowledge an important morale. The fact that the people you consider close to you might be the people that will hurt you the most in your life, just like how Jocasta lied to Oedipus even if she new the thruth.

Medea, Yeonsoo Kim

After I finished reading the Medea, I felt very gloomy. Not only the story of the Medea, but how I felt for her was bringing myself down. Because I could see a woman who got hurt by love and she did give everything to Jason whom was her lover. I imagined how much pain she got because of Jason’s betrayal that it drove her mad. It ended up with killing her own sons. Then what made her go crazy and what made her so evil? I think she was too innocent for love and she believed in Jason, so that when he ignored her, the whole world would had been meaning nothing to her. And her supernatural ability made people scared. That’s why the story of Medea seems more extreme.

Medea

I found the story of Medea to be very interesting for many reasons. One thing i really liked about it was the way characters were portrayed one example is the character of Jason who plays a noble hero in one story but in this story he plays a slime ball who doesn't even care for his wife and children. i also found the ending to be very interesting and found it very cruel of Medea to kill here own children as revenge. I also enjoy how it is like a spin off of another great Greek story.

Medea, John Torres

Medea was a very interesting tragedy. The main theme of the story was revenge. Medea's reasoning for killing her children was to get back at Jason. It was the only way that she felt she could justly get back at Jason. She didn't just want to destroy him but she wanted to destroy his children and his name. Medea's actions showed selfishness on her part because she took her anger out on her innocent children in an effort to get back at Jason.

Medea

Medea was an interesting story, because it's dealing with the topic matter of tragedy and sympathies was so radically different than what was the supposed norm. In most stories, the protagonist and the main person to rally behind is the male lead, but in Medea we instead focus on Jason's wife, Medea. This radically changes the perspective, and allows for a different mood to permeate throughout the work. Surprisingly enough, Jason is still portrayed as the rational actor throughout the tragedy, despite his being clearly at fault for abandoning his very supporting wife. Her plan at revenge is well thought out, although the motivation behind it can still classify the actual revenge as an act of "passion", due to a supposed failing of the mentality of women. Jason's use of logic as the reasons for his abandonment of his wife should endear the audience to his cause, but the idea of his ditching his life partner for such a trivial reason still lands the majority of the audience in favor of Medea.

Medea

Medea by Euripedes was one of the most interesting stories, in my opinion, that we have read so far this semester. Once I began reading this story it was very easy to sit there and finish. I found this story to be very passionate and the character of Medea was powerful and enthralling. The character of Jason mostly annoyed me because I found him to be a coward. He was a true smooth talker when he was talking to Medea and trying to win her favor back and sooth her anger. I have mixed feelings about the ending, mostly because it was so ambiguous. I also, felt that Medea let Jason get off too easily.

Courtney Lum

What is interesting about the tragic play of Medea is how the audience is compelled to sympathize with Medea instead of feeling emotions of hate and disgust. Even though she murders her own children, along with the king and the princess, the audience is still not compelled true disgust and dislike towards her character; instead we are lead to commiserate in her sadness, justifying her actions due to the neglect and betrayal of her husband, Jason. And even though we know that murdering her own children is distasteful and truly a terrible sin, we understand that her intentions were only to seek revenge on the husband that scorned her. Jason’s lack of remorse and complete betrayal and Medea’s complete and utter devastation from his actions shows the reader what compels Medea do perform such terrible deeds. Even so, Medea is also aware that her actions are terrible and blameworthy, yet deems it necessary to punish her unfaithful husband in every way that she can.

Medea

The tragedy Medea begins in a state of conflict. Jason and Medea have established their own family in Corinth when Jason decides too leave Medea and his two children to marry the daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth. It is her loyalties to her former husband that has made Jason's abandonment even more difficult for her to grasp; she is now intent on seeking revenge. As the play continues we discover Medea's own internal conflict. Her grief has drove her to madness and leads her to kill her own two children. I enjoyed reading the play and can sympathize with her when Jason left her, however, as the story progressed I began to feel that she was just a crazy woman. What kind of mother kills her children? I also liked this play because it wasn't as boring as I thought it would be.

Medea

Even though the play of Medea is centered around the tragedy of Medea, Euripides didn't show any sympathy to her like Aeshylus did to Clytemnestra in the tragedy of Agamemnon. Compare to Medea, her husband, Jason seems to play like a more righteous role even he betrays Medea ultimately. Jason is almost created as a hero on his way to Colchis because he has taken numerous adventures and succeed. In Jason's mind, he regards all of his successes to the gifts from gods. Based on this, he must overestimate his ability and neglect the help from others like Medea. Thus, when Jason gets a chance to choose between Medea and a princess later, he is surely to choose the princess because he wants to be rich. He must think that this opportunity is also predetermined by gods. On the contrary, Medea think that Jason's survival and successes should contribute to her. For helping Jason, Medea even killed her father and betrayed her country. She also overestimates her influence on Jason's life. In my opinion, the conflicts between these two different thoughts drag out the tragedy. So, sometimes human should be less selfish to earn a happier life.