The Difference Between Reading and Viewing

I always find it so different to read a play and then see it preformed. As hard as I try, I have a hard time visualizing plays when I read them. I often forget who the characters are, or which ones are speaking. I had the same problem while reading King Lear. I understood the scenes after we discussed them In class, but when I was reading on my own I ran into problems.

Watching clips from King Lear being preformed was a great experience for me, because I finally understood the scenes more clearly. Film has a way of engaging a  person, and keeping their attention from wondering. I likes that in the film they focused on a character’s face when they were being talked to, it made it easier for me to tell which character it was.

My favorite scene that we watched was the ending scene on the battlefield. Watching it was much more heartbreaking than simply reading about it. The actors in the film where able to convey their given emotions perfectly, and emote a feeling of somberness. The costume choice for this film was interesting because the King and all of his daughters where wearing white when they died. As if the white represented innocence and purity. Their costumes stood out against the dark skies of the battlefield, which made my eyes immediately focus on the family. Overall I was happy that we had the opportunity to see the play put to life, it changed by viewpoint on the scenes in the play, and made me understand Shakespeare’s words more lucidly.

King Lear

Having just finished reading King Lear by William Shakespeare I can’t help but feel bad for the character Cordelia. In my mind, she was the nicest and most honest character throughout the play. In the beginning of the play she is out casted from her father and sisters because she won’t lavishly praise him. King Lear seems like an egotistical person who loves to hear people tell him what a great man he is. He gets power from this. If I were in Cordelia’s position my answer to his question probably would have paralleled hers. I can only imagine what it would have been like growing up in a household with an absent mother, having to be constantly surrounded by her pompous father, and harassed by her conniving sisters. When Cordelia refuses to give in to her father’s wishes she is finally standing up to him. She doesn’t answer his question how he wanted her to, but she still answers him truthfully. By saying that she has “nothing” more to say I believe she means that she has nothing more to offer, that she does indeed love her father as a daughter should, but she doesn’t go outside of her way to love all of his qualities.

At the end of the play Cordelia’s true loyalty is acted out. Even after being exiled from her father she still finds herself caring for his well-being.  She rushes to his side when he is weak and speaks to him in a loving way. Unlike her sisters, whose love for him is materialized and altered, Cordelia’s honest, daughterly love for him is what eventually brings him out of his spell of insanity.

I was saddened to learn that Cordeilia was murdered, even after all of the nice things she does for other people. I think Shakespeare wrote Cordelia in a way that makes the reader want to sympathize for her and morn her death.  She comes across as a gentle character whose only downfall in life is her family, which is tragic, because one cannot chose the surroundings that they are born into and the caregivers that will raise them. I found it admiring that although she grows up with a role model who is not the best, she still manages to find her own identity and voice. After her death her father is distraught by her passing, for thins is the first time that he realizes that in the end, having someone praise you through words, is different than having someone endear you through actions. 

Map Making

I felt that the group work that we did in class on Monday dealing with Servants of the Map was enlightening. My group was assigned to analyze how botany and maps were present in the short story. Out of the several passages that we got botany and mapping played a role in all. The one I remember most was when Max was told that maps shouldn’t be made for someone else to decipher, they should only be made for the maker. I thought this passage was interesting because I always figured that most maps were made for everyone to use. The maps I see in textbooks are certainly used for the reader to gain knowledge, and the maps that I have hanging in my basement are used to represent the different contents of the world.

           

When I think more deeply about it I do remember that as a child I used to make maps of my house and of my yard. I pretended the maps lead to hidden places and treasures that if I followed I would stumble upon. The maps that I created were made for my personal use and for no one else. They displayed my imaginative thoughts that I had growing up. If I were to analyze my own map making and explain how it pertained to who I was at that time, I believe that it would show the sense of adventure that I once had. It would also display my playfulness and my hobby of drawing. I didn’t share these maps with anyone because they were for my eyes only, I didn’t want the prying of eyes of my sister to find them, for fear that she would tease me. In a sense, the maps held a piece of my past personality.

I now understand what the passage meant by saying that some maps are for the makers use only. I believe that Max got personal enjoyment out of making his own maps, and that by writing places and mountain ranges down the maps no longer contained just geographic places, but memories and personal connections of his as well.

Servants of the Map

After reading “Servants of the Map” I’m not sure of how I feel of Max as a character. At the beginning of the story he seemed like a likable man who was devoted to his wife. He was introverted and shy when in the presence of others, which made him likeable to me because he seemed like a decent person.

As his time spent in the mountains continued I could tell that he was beginning to break. I feel like the act of reading a letter from a loved one when you are so far away would make you miss them more. I have no idea how he was capable of reading so many from his wife, knowing that she may not receive the ones he was sending back to her. His experience in the mountains sounded awful. I would never want to be stuck in a cold environment with people I don’t know and with my family thousands of miles away.

My fondness of Max started fading when he met Dima. I understand that he was starved of affection and that he missed his wife terribly, but having an affair doesn’t solve that problem. If Max really missed his wife as much as he said he did then I don’t understand why he would run to the first woman that he sees that pays interest to him. It bothered me that he told his wife that the reason he stopped writing her was because he was “sick.” Lying about what he did isn’t going to help him out at all. Overall I wish I could see how the rest of Max’s life plays out. Does he ever return home? How would his relationship with his wife change? I can only guess that if he did ever return home the guilt of what he had done would eat away at him. He seems like a person who would confess their wrongdoings after an elapsed amount of time.