Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a wonderful story about life, struggles, faith and love. 
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story full of metaphors. One has to dig deeper in order to understand what the story presents. This story is influenced by Puritan religion. The forest symbolizes man’s journey into his inner self.  

At the start of the story we find Young Goodman Brown being asked by his wife not to go on his ‘errand’.  Goodman Brown is torn between leaving and staying. In the end, he chose to leave because this is the last time he would part with his wife.  After this errand, he would ‘cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven’. He feels justified for leaving his wife one last time.  This could also mean that he is referring not only to leaving ‘Faith’ his wife but also ‘faith in God’.  

Through the covenant Goodman has made with the Devil, he has agreed to leave his wife, Faith, and walk through the forest with the Devil for one night as the Devil attempts to convert Goodman from Christianity. Goodman enters into this with great resolve that his survival and test of faith will not change.

When Goodman finally sees the devil he told him ‘Faith kept me back awhile.’ Again, this could mean literally his wife ‘Faith’ or figuratively ‘his faith in God’.

Goodman Brown and the devil met Goody Cloyse walking alone in the forest. In a way, Goody Cloyse who ‘taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser’ harms his faith as he learns that even Goody Cloyse is a member of the devil’s growing clan. And she committed sins which she hides under her pretensions to be holy.

He blames the Goody Cloyse for befriending the devil. What Goodman Brown does not realize though is that he is guilty of the same crime he charges Goody Cloyse with.  

Brown again told the devil that he would not continue with his errand.  He told the devil that even though his teacher, Goody Cloyse, is not going to heaven that is not reason enough for him to quit on his dear Faith and pursue her.  After he said this the devil gave Goodman Brown his staff to guide him out of the forest and left.

Goodman Brown applauded his efforts for resisting the devil. He is looking forward to go home. He is filled with joy knowing he overcomes the devil and he would be seeing Faith again. But he hears the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin talking about ‘a goodly young woman to be taken in to communion’ that night during the meeting. Brown wonders if they are referring to his beloved Faith.

Brown suddenly weakens.  His faith begins to waiver at the thought that he could be losing Faith to the devil. Goodman Brown falls to the ground and he wondered aloud ‘whether there really was a Heaven above him’.  Despite his struggles in his faith, he said that "With Heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!" Brown promises to keep his faith even though he knows that he could be losing his wife to the devil.

Goodman hears voices. Then he hears Faith’s voice.  A pink ribbon similar to what Faith was wearing before he left flies past Goodman and he grabs it.  At this point, he is losing his faith in the world and said that he could find no good on earth.

Brown comes to the ceremony and sees the devil worshippers.  He sees a number of people whom he thought to be pious and God-fearing in the congregation.  He recognizes them.  He does not see Faith though and it brings some hope in his heart.

This part is a turning point for Goodman Brown because he hopes not to live alone in the community of unbelievers. With Faith by his side, he could surmount this obstacle.  Although what Goodman Brown fails to realize is that he is already a part of this community he doesn’t like.  If Faith was not there, then he need not be alone in his faith. Hope can be looked at as a part of what is known as the  "the Christian triptych".

The Christian triptych is made up of faith, hope and love. The third part of the triptych which is absent in the entire story is love. If Brown only had "love" in his heart, then he would have found a way to tackle his problem. Love is the medicine that would have enable him to survive without deep sadness due to what he knows when he returned to Salem.

The ceremony started and the converts are brought forward.  Goodman Brown steps forward with them.  Goodman Brown seems to have no will of his own as he joins the service of converts.  The leader said that the members of the congregation are believed to be righteous, honest and incorruptible.  Yet they commit secret evil deeds.  

Goodman Brown finds himself facing Faith.  Then the leader said that evil is man’s natural state. He welcomes the convert. Then dips his hand in the rock and draw liquid and put it on the convert’s forehead to baptize them.  Brown is able to come back to his senses just in time and shouts "Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven and resist the wicked one!" The ceremony ends and sees that he is alone. So he presumes that his wife joined the community of non-believers. This means he is the only one left in his faith.

The depth of his faith is though fairly easily uprooted. Goodman’s faith begins to crumble because his Achilles heel was the pride he had in believing he was a pious man. His faith was never based on an internal relationship with God; instead, his faith was mirrored and reflected by the community he revered. As those around him showed their true following, Goodman lost all faith, and became empty.

At the end of the story, Goodman Brown returns to Salem. But he is not the same man. After witnessing the ceremony, he feels like an outsider.  His sense of self-righteousness is so strong that he takes a child away from Goody Cloyse as she blesses the child. And when he sees Faith he just ignores her even though she is very excited upon seeing him. Despite the fact that he himself attended the devil’s service, still he believes himself better than everyone.

Goodman Brown ends up a broken man. He was never able to relate well to the community again after what happened. And he spends the rest of his life in misery.

He did not actually convert to a non-believer as others had done. But still, he chooses an equally dangerous path. By losing his faith in everything even in his loved ones, Goodman merely exists and not lives. He believes that faith has failed him and he turns his anger to the world. He sees everything as evil and not worthy of his trust even his new bride.

What happened in his journey changed his outlook for the worst. Also, he chose to judge people instead of love them faults and all. The Bible tells us that it isn’t enough to have faith to be able to live life. Hope and love are necessary ingredients in a fulfilled, happy life. Goodman Brown lives on faith alone. And his lack of faith quashed what little hope he has. His biggest loss is his inability to love. Because he distances himself from others and judge them, he fails to see them as individuals worthy of his love. Love the sinner, hate their sins. That is the core of Christian religion.  


And because Goodman Brown fails to grasp the importance of love above all, he fails to live meaningfully. He ends up a failure. He dies alone and lonely. Goodman Brown was buried with "no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom."

Doe Season by Kaplan: A Review

Kaplan’s ”Doe Season” is about self-discovery and acceptance.

Doe Season’s protagonist is a nine-year old girl named Andrea. ‘Doe Season’ is a story of Andrea who does want to be a woman. She believes the man’s world is more wonderful. She dreads the changes she needs to go through to become a woman. Her father supports her desire by calling her Andy and encourages her to do manly things. Andy desires to be a part of man’s world but somehow in the end, she realizes she cannot escape reality that she is a female and she should not try to be someone she is not.

In “Doe Season”, Andrea wants to become accepted in the all-male group she hangs out with. Yet, she feels alienated and lonely because she seems to be the odd one out in the group. This alienation is noticeable at the start of the story when she expresses her dislike for Mac. Mac teases and pulls pranks on her. She believes Mac is stupid. This shows Andrea’s feminine side which she tries hard to conceal.

Another instance in “Doe Season” when Andrea feels alienated was the men are talking about deer. She comments that she sees a deer behind their house. Charlie Spoon reasons it is because deer instinctively know when the hunting season is. Then they all laugh about which makes Andrea confused. The whole conversation about deer makes her feel out of place.

The primary concept of the story revolves around Andrea’s relationship with his father. Andy wants to please her father. Her father takes her to a hunting trip to test if she can be a part of the man’s world. Her father asks her to shoot a deer and then made her watch as he and Charlie Spoon gut the deer. At the cost of displeasing her father, Andy could not deny the fact that she has to remain true to her identity. She chooses to be true to herself in the end as symbolized by running away from the assembly of men gutting the deer.

In “Doe Season”, there are a number of symbolisms such as the sea and the forest. When Andy talks of the sea and how it reminds her of mother’s love for it, she admits hating it which is one clue that she does not want to be associated with femininity of any kind. The sea symbolizes womanhood and the forest symbolizes manhood. Andy expresses extreme dislike for the sea and an interest of the woods. She never really likes the woods per se but is fascinated by it.

To show the contrast of how she feels about the sea and the forest, she sees the forest as deep and immense, while she refers to the sea as huge and empty. This implies that Andy sees the man’s world as a impressive and fascinating while that of a woman’s is meaningless and empty.

Doe Season ends with Andy watching “her father’s knife sliced thickly from chest to bell to crotch” (354). When Andy’s father begins to gut the deer, Andy has an epiphany. She realizes that, no matter how much she tries, she cannot become part of the male society. She then runs away from everyone. This gesture of turning her back and fleeing from her male companions shows that she finally accepts the fact that she is different from men. Unbeknownst to her, the transformation within her is already complete. Then she listens to the sound of the wind which aptly reminds her of the “terrible, now inevitable sea” (354). The sea now becomes inevitable, owing to the fact the she recognizes she can no longer deny her true identity. She turns from the woods which suddenly became strange to her, to the calling ocean, heeding her real destiny- that of becoming a woman.

Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Depiction of Hell.

The Inferno is an allegory to Dante’s journey through life towards salvation. In the story, Dante journeys through the different levels of hell and encounters all forms of chaos in each.

Dante’s depiction of hell complements the teachings of the Bible. One of the most oft-discussed themes in the story is the eternal justice of God. The sinner reaps what he sows during his lifetime. His punishment is intended to fit the gravity of his crime.

A vivid example of this principle is shown in the border of the 8th and 9th circles of Hell. A Count sits on his friend whose brains he rips using his teeth. It was the fault of his friend that he starved to death and was forced to eat his children to survive.

Life, as Dante sees it, is a continuous test or struggle between right and wrong. If you commit sin and falls short of heaven, you reap eternal punishment. Dante believes that to be able to go to heaven, one need to experience hell first. Dante may not mean this in a literal way. Figuratively this means that in order to be purified or to receive salvation, a person needs to undergo sufferings first. This is the moral of the story.

Dante’s depiction of Hell is an allegory of life, the role of religion in our lives and the need to choose right over wrong. It does not stop at depicting the fall of man but rather it help shows the way to salvation and happiness. To be able to reach the summit, you need to start at the bottom. That is the essence of Dante’s depiction of Hell.

At some point in our lives, we all face difficulties, problems, temptations. These drive us to the point of desperation and commit sins. At the lowest ebb of our lives, we are often forced to look back and ask ourselves where we have gone wrong.

By going through Dante’s Inferno we realize the need to ponder on our every step and choose the best way before we hit rock bottom. Dante’s journey begins as he got lost in the wood. As he tries to find his way by following the light in the mountain three beasts block his way. Dante is forced to go back to the forest as Virgil appears in his way and brings him to hell so he can enter paradise. Dante agrees and goes through the gate of hell.

The damned souls in Dante’s The Inferno are grouped according to the degree of malice with which they committed sin. The symbolisms help Dante’s “The Inferno” presents his ideas on the startling reality in a creative way:

Charon the Ferryman of the Dead from Canto 3 (lines 81-4, bottom of page 977). “‘Woe to you depraved souls! Bury/here and forever all hope of Paradise:/I come to lead you to the other shore,/into eternal dark, into fire and ice.’” This symbolism refers to the nature of sin itself and not to any specific sins. Sin separates us from other people. Fire and ice are the effects of sin which could cause anger or being ostracized.

About line 127: “most of the souls of the damned in twilight”. “Souls of the damned in twilight” means that though they exist their souls are really empty. Being punished and doing the same thing over and over again.

The lines about the Gluttons – page 988, about lines 35-8: “We made our way across the sodden mess / of souls the rain beat down, and when our steps / fell on a body, they sank through emptiness. / All those illusions of being seemed to lie / drowned in the slush.” These lines pertain to the facts that people who are the “fattest” are the least substantial which means appearances can be deceiving. Substance is found within the person not on the appearance.

Canto 11, page 998: Virgil explains how one sin can be called by many different names according to what caused the sinner to sin. This is in consonance with his view of the main problem with sin. All sins corrupt the will and mind of the sinner and leads to other sins. When Dante says, “Malice is the sin most hated by God” (about line 23), he is referring not just to the souls found in this place, but to any sin at or below this level. In short, malice is the cause for violence and fraud.

Tyrants and Murderers of Canto 12 as Dante depicts them are a washed in a river of boiling blood guarded by the mythical creatures Centaurs. The souls in this place commit murder due to malice, not because of a desire for personal gain. Or, in another way, it can be said that all desire for personal gain is malice toward others.

The Harpies lines 13-15 of Canto 13 are the perfect creatures to guard and torture the suicides in the Wood of Suicides. This is because the Harpies represent the attitude that causes people to commit suicide. The physical traits of the Harpies symbolize his attitude. “Wide wings” symbolize an overpowering sense of sadness. “Clawed feet” suggest danger or a fearful grip. “Huge bellies” suggest laziness or the lack of will to do things.

The creatures of Cantos 13 & 14 -Suicides, Blasphemers, Sodomites, and Usurers-are not people condemned at all in modern society, but Dante finds them loathsome as attested by the place he assigns them.

The most famous people in Cocytus are Count Ugolino and Archbishop Ruggieri, whose gruesome story makes up Canto 33. Historical accounts inform us that Ugolino was captured and put to death by Ruggieri. The manner with which he perished was so cruel that Dante deemed it best to tell the world the tragic story.

Ugolino was imprisoned for several months with his four young sons. One day, the doors of the tower were nailed shut. And all four of his sons died due to extreme hunger. In hell, Ugolino is eating and gnawing at Ruggeri’s flesh. This punishment is in consonance with “little Anselmo’s” request to his father: “Thou didst clothe us with this wretched flesh, and it would be less painful if you eat of us.” Ugolino cannot abide by his son’s request and eat their flesh. As he sees each child die one by one he was quoted to have said, “Starvation did what grieving could not do.” Ugolino died. In Hell, he was punished by savagely feasting on Ruggieri’s flesh for eternity.

Ugolino when he was alive betrayed his own party to Ruggieri. Hence, the punishment meted to him in hell. In hell, Ugolino was presented as the victim of Ruggieri. He is both the target of divine justice and the instrument of it, when he punishes Ruggieri.

In Canto 34, the souls of those who betrayed their masters at the bottom of hell – Judas, Brutus, Cassius are seen. They are they frozen in twisted postures to represent the sins they committed which is the ultimate sin of malice.

The image of Satan is quite a surprise. He is depicted to have three faces, which symbolizes the distortion of the Holy Trinity. Dante says that Satan looks ugly despite the fact the he was once an angel, beautiful to look at. Satan seems less powerful than the usual ideas woven about him. He is depicted as dumb and roaring, trapped in the ice, punished just like the other sinners.

Dante’s Inferno is a fascinating tale of sin and redemption. It depicts the need to attain deeper spirituality in an abstract way. Hell represents not just a place for sinners but also a state of a sinner’s soul. To be in hell is to be in utter agony and to be in a state far from God. This story shows us the way to heaven or eternal happiness by keeping the faith and doing what is right. It offers us a chance to re-examine our lives and change for the better.

Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried"

There is a thin line between fact and fiction. This is particularly true in Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. Tim O'Brien expertly dealt with words as he described the atrocities of war in this book.

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" goes beyond the usual fare of war fiction. As a matter of fact it goes beyond fiction despite the fact that the author labeled it as "a work of fiction" on the title page. The book is an amalgamation of several genres - a memoir, a novel, and a collection of short stories.

O'Brien's genius lies in the fact that he turns fiction into something real so much so that the demarcation of fiction and fact in this story is hardly noticeable. You can never tell when the fact ended and the imagination begins. The war fiction is not about the usual war story where gory tales of hatcheted bodies and non-stop killings abound. Instead, one finds a certain attachment to the characters as O'Brien skillfully narrates the emotional and psychological impact of war on them.

Tim contemplated on how he was indecisive about being drafted for the war. The character Tim O'Brien reacts to his draft notice by going to the Canadian border and spends six days in a isolated lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he debates on whether he should evade the draft or accept it. In the end, he decided to go to war not so much he believes in it but more so because he does not want to put his family to shame.

O'Brien explores "the things they carried" both figuratively and literally through the intermittent narration of the lives, even death, of the soldiers comprising the Alpha Company. O'Brien masterfully recounts the emotions going through a soldier during unforgettable moments of his life: his feelings when drafted, his guilt when forced to kill an enemy, his shock at seeing friends or fellow soldiers killed in action and the gnawing feeling of homesickness.

The plot is simple but told several times through different character's point of view, making it appear more complex than it seems. Love is one of the motivating factor for Tim's need to tell the story. Tim O'Brien, the character professes his love for a girl when they were little.

In the end, Tim admitted that his penchant for telling stories and why he needs to do it as he relates his life to the soldiers. He knows it can bring the dead loved ones back to life, as if they are still with us. The soldiers do this to shield them from painful memories of losing a friend or killing a person. Tim, the character, tells stories since he was a child, when he lost the first girl he ever loved to brain tumor. The stories may change -characters, places, and events - but the storyteller keeps the memories alive.

Dinosaur Heresies: A Review

Errors in the scientific understanding of dinosaurs.

One does not need to be addicted to dinosaurs to be able to appreciate from Bakker’s Dinosaur Heresies. Anyone can enjoy this book and gain something from reading it. This book shows why Bakker is one of the top paleontologist of his time and also explained why some of his colleagues are irritated by his theories. The observations he lays on this book will challenge some views held by either his colleagues or the rest of us.

Dinosaur Heresies basically talks about the errors in scientific understanding of dinosaurs. His thesis in The Dinosaur Heresies is that the generally accepted view of dinosaurs is that they are cold blooded, reptilian dullards and an evolutionary dead end. Bakker pointed out that this concept is wrong. As a matter of fact, dinosaurs were one of the most successful groups of land animals in history. The same way that mammals are warmblooded and active today.

To many, this seemed a new, radical idea. But Bakker quickly states that this is not a new idea at all. As a matter of fact, it was the most accepted view from the time the dinosaurs were first discovered until the 1920’s. This correct view however was replaced in the succeeding years particularly around 1920’s to the 1960’s by the foolish view that the dinosaurs were somewhat of a failure. Bakker did not try to explain how this erroneous idea evolved through the years. His focus on this book is primarily centered on the case for his theory of warmblooded dinosaurs rather than discuss the history of dinosaur paleontology.

In the book, Bakker presents his ideas in a clear, methodological method. He first examines the generally accepted theories and concepts to be able to show where its deficiencies are, and to show some evidence against the theory. Bakker does this by not just pointing out the characteristics in the dinosaurs themselves, but also looking at reptiles that are alive today. He compared the dinosaurs to the present-day reptiles and show us where they differe to each other.

After he showed us that the old theories about dinosaurs have serious flaws, he then proceed to show where dinosaurs lived in the past and what they lived on. This is again to show, in great details, the mistakes in the cold blooded theory and the idea that plant eaters like Brontosaurus ate mushy waterplants to be alive. The fact that dinosaurs ate in order to live that proves that if dinosaurs were coldblooded, they would not have needed food as much as warmblooded animals do; Bakker shows that dinosaurs could eat and probably did eat as much as mammals similar to their size do.

He then goes on to explain how the dinosaurs moved and lived. He also examined the relationship between plant eaters and predators. He also pointed out how an arms race erupted a number of times in dinosaur history between armored plant eaters and the very nasty predators. The plant eaters depended heavily on an active, warmblood style of defense instead of the coldblooded “wait it out” defense. In this part of the book Bakker made a controversial claim that there is a possibility that one kind of dinosaurs never died out.

Bakker also looks at the direct evidence for warmbloodedness in dinosaurs by looking at their sex lives, also by their fast rates of growth from hatchling or newborn dinobaby to adult size and the ratio of predators to prey, all of these shows that dinosaurs were indeed warmblooded.

Finally, Bakker puts dinosaurs into their new context, quickly sketching their rise and fall, with the interesting thing being that he does not believe in the idea that the dinosaurs died out due to a meteor impact, an idea that has been largely confirmed since then. He ends the book by argueing that dinosaurs deserve to be taken out of the class Reptilia and there should be a new class created just for them, Dinosauria, with birds as one branch of it, which are the sole surviving dinosaurs.

What The Dinosaur Heresies expounds in the book has now become the new orthodox view of dinosaurs and newer, more up to date books are pushing this view similar to Bakker’s. This book laid the foundation for this revolution in concepts of dinosaur paleontology. Most of the views it holds is still largely correct and it is highly readable and clear. You feel smarter for having read it. And the illustrations, all done by Bakker himself, both proper drawings and sketches showed some incredibly cute looking dinosaurs are very appropriate for the book.

Some of the science in it is subject to debate; but the enthusiasm with which the book is written is infectious. Bakker clearly love discussing all things pertaining to dinosaurs. It jumps around cheerfully from subject to subject, talking about subjects pertaining to dinosaurs such as anatomy, physiology, extinction and much more. The prose is easy to read and very interesting, and Bakker’s own beautiful black-and-white illustrations make it all the more understandable which capture his vision of fast, powerful, active dinosaurs.

Bakker knows that challenging generally accepted ideas requires innovative thinking backed by solid evidence. It’s probably the same problem that Darwin faced when introducing evolution through natural selection. The evidence is there, it simply takes a perceptive eye and logical thinking to point it out clearly.

Bakker is able to do just that in this book. He is also good in writing and presenting his ideas and conclusions. Much of the fossil data has an extensive history. He has a very good ability to make field research understood by a wide spectrum of readers. The evidence and conclusions he presented are clear and unambiguous.

The nice thing about The Dinosaur Heresies is that Bakker provides his reasoning for his thoughts on the dinosaurs in a clear, accessible manner especially for those who are not dinosaur buffs. He discusses lizards and their niches and how this might or might not apply to dinosaurs, moas and how their digestive systems may have mirrored that of Brontosaurus. It helps that Bakker is also a decent artist and can illustrate his ideas well.

There is, for example, a clean and informative drawing of a crane, a stegosaur, and an African elephant, showing leverage points and bracing that lead him to the conclusion that if an elephant can stand on it’s rear legs, then a stegosaur most certainly could; much better ligament bracing down it’s spine, and twice the leverage between spine and hip.

Bakker is also smart enough to admit that his theories are not new. Throughout the book he gives credit to papers published in the last century way before his book came out. He is more concerned about getting the idea right rather than credit.

The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture by Rene Pache: A Review

Where does the bible come from? How can a fallible man have penned an infallible bible?

The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture by Rene Pache scrutinizes and presents facts regarding the inerrancy of the scripture. It addresses such baffling question as how can a fallible man produce an infallible Bible? Then it examines the Bible closely with regards to its views on revelation and its inspiration. It delves on the testimony on the Bible given by Christ and the church centuries ago. Pache then sums up theories brought up regarding the Scripture and finally discusses the supernatural qualities which provide evidence to the divine origin of the Scripture and which back up its authority on the word of God.

The first chapter of the book tackles the Revelation from God. It posed some really important, thought-provoking questions to the readers. “Man on earth is placed in a paradoxical situation. Endowed with intelligence and logic, he seems intended to know the reason for his existence and the meaning of it, as well as the origin of the universe and the person of his Creator. Actually, however, he finds himself surrounded by mysteries. Left to his own devices, he is incapable of answering the questions which press in on him so closely.”

Among these questions that baffles mankind is the infallibility of the Bible. Some people accept the idea that the Bible is the inspired Word of God to some extent. To what degree is the Bible an inspiration of God’s Word? Does it extend to every word?

To this question, Pache has an answer. “The doctrine of plenary inspiration holds that the original documents of the Bible were written by men, who, though permitted to exercise of their own personalities and literary talents, yet wrote Linder the control and guidance of the Spirit of God, the result being in every word of the original documents a perfect and errorless recording of the exact message which God desired to give to man.” (The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, p. 173).

Sometimes biblical writers use a specific phrase or quote or even a single word to prove their point that the Bible is completely God inspired. For instance in Galatians 3:16 the apostle Paul cites Genesis 13:15 and 17:8 when God said to Abraham, “Unto your seed (descendant) will I give this land”. Paul’s whole argument is due to the fact that in this particular line, God uses singular descendant rather its plural noun. Rene Pache, in The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture (p. 77), gives an explanation to this idea. He said that “very often the meaning of a whole passage rests entirely on one word, a singular or a plural number, the tense of a verb, the details of a prophecy, the precision of a promise and the silence of the text on a certain point.”

The inspiration and authority of the Bible are one of the important considerations in learning the truths about God, Christ and salvation. That is why knowing the scope of inspiration in every book and every word of the Scripture is of massive. The way to getting to the heart of the matter however is contained in the pages of the document in question itself, the Bible.

The authority of the Bible then stems from the fact that the Bible is an inspired revelation from God. Pache delves on the questions of revelation and inspiration with regard to the Bible. And by doing so, as he manages to address those questions and establish the source of inspiration, then it necessarily addresses the issue of authority also. In short, by proving its inspiration, the question of authority has been settled. How one looks at the issues on revelation and inspiration will determine how he perceive the Bible’s authority.

Since the written revelation contained in the Bible comes from God and has been recorded under the Spirit’s guidance which makes them “the very breath of God,” it naturally follows that what they contain are therefore authoritative. They gain authority by virtue of the fact that they come from the One Authority on the topic. In essence, this would lead us to conclude and give us the necessary assurance that when thumbed the pages of the Bible, we see and read the inspired Word of God.

We need to keep in mind that the authority of Scripture could not possibly be separated from the authority of God. What the Bible affirms, it follows that God affirms too. And what the Bible affirms (or denies), the affirmation (or denial) is clothe with the authority of God. Theologian Rene Pache states this in his book, as he observes that “if God entirely inspired Scripture (as we have seen that He did), then Scripture is vested with His authority.”

Daddy, Poppies in October, and Lady Lazarus, by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath’s poem is very popular among scholars and general readers.

Plath’s devotion to her craft is apparent in her works. She commands an insightful voice on her works by being steadfast, honest and direct and not being afraid to openly contemplate our deepest anxieties, complexities, joys, and fears.

“Daddy” fuses Sylvia’s thoughts or raw emotions about her husband and her father. The end of “Daddy,” I can’t help but read “They always knew it was you” as Sylvia saying directly, “I always knew it was you” or “I always knew it was true,” in regard to her husband’s infidelity which he always deny.

“Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through” could mean she had either given up on her marriage or more seriously, her life. That she was at her wit’s end. That she can’t go on anymore. The word “through” portrays both resolve and despair.

In Poppies in October, the setting can be interpreted in many ways: a woman tending to a patient, or a woman fighting for her life. There is a strong reference to woman in the poem. Nature, being one of them. A love gift is another. “By a sky, palely and flamily, Igniting its carbon monoxides,”. This part holds the key to the unraveling of the poem.

Carbon monoxide is pollution caused by automobiles. Plath’s mention of carbon monoxide could mean she was referring to the poisons or toxins in either her life or society. That she was in the midst of some form of negativity.

”Lady Lazarus” is about death, and her love-hate relationship with it. The narrator seemed to grow stronger towards the end of the poem. When Plath called Lazarus a crowned “Lady” could mean an association with female power.

Lazarus was a tale from the Bible. He is the man raised by God from the dead. Plath could be referring to a sense of empowerment she felt as she wrote has risen on her own “out of the ash”, from the dead, without help from God or the doctor, like a pheonix with her “red hair”. She coined “eat men like air” to refer to the women’s growing wield of influence as supported by the fact that she named the poem “Lady Lazarus”.

The Holocaust interpretation could be a powerful theme of this poem. Since she was German, this poem could be a tribute to the helplessness and powerless of the Holocaust victims. It is Plath’s attempt to overcome the horror of human trauma.

The most frequent color in her poems is red. Love and heart are often associated with red. Reds of lighter tones often represents feelings of lust, anger and rage. Deeper reds, on the other hand, could mean love, passion and heat.

Emotions such as distress and sadness are important to the Plath’s poem. Most of her poems revolved around these emotions which everybody can relate to. Hence, the popular appeal it holds to both scholars and general readers alike. Plath seemed to extol the virtues of distress. And instead of repelling it as we wont to do, she enjoins to enjoy the fleeting moment when you are in distress.

Sylvia Plath’s abilities as a writer enable her to amalgamate so many elements: intellectual aspect of learning, personal emotional experiences and general human experiences. All these she imbibed in her poetry. To be able to entwine these disparate elements to her poetry is a testament to her abilities as a poet which intrigue and fuel the imagination of scholars and general readers alike.

Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen: A Review

Hedda Gabler is one of Henrik Ibsen’s important “problem plays”. The play depicts conflict in Hedda’s life as she tries to fit into her new life as a married person.

She used to belong to an aristocratic family but is delegated to a bourgeois life as she married Tesman. Hedda Gabler is an apt title to this play because what Ibsen attempted to depict is that Hedda is to be regarded as the father’s daughter rather than her husband’s wife. Her personality being that of an aristocrat identifies her more of her previous life with her family rather than her present role as a wife of a bourgeois.

Hedda subjects herself to societal norms even at the risk of losing the one she adores in order to conform to society. In her need to stick to conventions, she marries Dr. Tesman whose status in life promises stability and respectability for her instead of marrying a poor rake like Ejlert Lövborg whom she finds fascinating.

The life she seeks through Tesman leads her to boredom and uselessness though. She shows disregard for Aunt Julia who raises her husband and provides for them financially. She is mean to Mrs. Elvsted who is a former classmate of Hedda.

Hedda Gabler is the epitome of a worldly woman. She is sophisticated, well-bred and pretty. She feels trapped as she assumed the inevitable role of a middle class courtesy of her marrying one. This results to feelings of boredom which brings dire consequences at the end.

Another condition that leads to her feelings of boredom is her pregnancy. Being selfish, she finds her predicament unsettling and unbearable. Her selfishness and inability to find better use of her time drives her to commit ghastly acts. She flirts with her former lover Ejlert and develops alliance with Judge Brack, despite her being very much married and pregnant. She hides Ejlert’s manuscript and encourages him to commit suicide even hands him one of her pistol. And in the ultimate act of selfishness, she commits suicide at the end.

The other male characters seem in love with Hedda. It could be due to her sense of beauty in a decadent way. Brack wants to start a relationship with her and Ejlert hopes that she shares his “passion for life.” She finds these ideas quite ridiculous. She rejects Ejlert’s views and teases Brack by referring to him as “the cock of the walk.” Even Mrs. Elvsted does not feel uncomfortable around Hedda because she had bad experience with her in the past when they were classmates.

Despite Hedda’s apparent faults, she portrays the most influential character. She manipulates other people because she has no peace or happiness in her life. Hedda’s power is so broad that her self-destruction tendencies lead to the ruin of the lives of other characters. The rest of the characters only serve to show what Hedda does and does not have.

Her lack of sympathy is apparent when she burns Ejlert manuscript, encourages him to commit suicide and begging him to do it beautifully. Her questionable morals are revealed when she associates with Judge Brack. Her meanness shows when she deals with Aunt Julia and Mrs. Elvsted. The way Hedda relates to the people surrounding her shows callousness and utter disregard.

When Hedda perceived that Ejlert has failed her by not shooting himself at the temple but is killed accidentally in a scuffle, disillusionment sets in. Her burden is further compounded when she learns that a scandal might occur for her. Her strong need to conform being threatened, Hedda sees no way out but to shoot herself.

A number of reasons come into play that eventually paves the way for Hedda’s

suicide. Her spiritual poverty prevents her to appreciate what she has. Hedda manipulates everyone around her. She is strong but in an unguided and coarse way. She is also cruel and insolent. She does not hesitate to hurt other people just for the pleasure it provides.

The life of ease as defined by an aristocracy enables Hedda to appreciate the good life. The good life being in the midst of wealth and beauty. She forms a certain standard in mind which she desires to come up to. She never worries a day in her life being in the upper class. She is amused by how much Tesman worries about making a living.

Being the wife of a middle class however wakes her up to the painful reality of having to work to earn a living. Hedda’s appreciation for the good life even reveals in suicide. She even wishes Ejlert a “beautiful” suicide when he expresses his need to commit suicide and she hands him one of her pistol. To Hedda, life ought to be beautiful even in bleak times such as suicide.

Hedda’s morals leave much to be desired. She does not hesitate on flirting with other guys while her husband is not around even encourages their attention. Her values are based on aesthetic standards not on moral standards. To her, what is beautiful matters more even if at the expense of morality or values.

Her natural predisposition to aristocratic ways prevents her to sympathize with her husband, Tesman’s plight. She is shallow. It is easy to see that whatever burdens she feel is due to her character or the apparent absence of it.

Due to her shortcomings, it is difficult for her to see another person’s point of view. Her false standards of happiness prevent her from looking beyond what is obvious. She is like an empty jar – beautiful to look at but nothing inside.

Character Analysis of Medea

Analysis of Medea’s character in the play of same title.

In the play Medea by Euripides, the major character of same name is the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, and the granddaughter of the sun god, Helios. Medea is a powerful sorceress. King Aeetes most prized possession is the golden ram’s fleece.

Jason is a Greek hero and leader of the Argonauts. He arrives at Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece. Aeetes of course would not part with his Golden Fleece. To settle the matter, Aeetes made Jason undergo several tasks which made the Golden Fleece impossible to obtain.

Medea falls madly in love with Jason. She helps him secure the Golden Fleece after Jason promises to marry her. Jason flees with Medea and her younger brother Absyrtis after getting the Golden Fleece. To buy time from their pursuers, Medea cold-bloodedly kills her own brother, scatters his body parts all over so that those pursuing them have to stop to collect the pieces one by one to be able to bury them.

Jason and Medea settle in Iolcus. Medea uses sorcery to restore youthfulness to Jason’s father, Aeson by cutting his throat and putting magical potion inside. She offers to do the same for Pelias, Jason’s uncle, who assumes Aeson’s without authority. Pelias’ daughters cut his throat. Medea did not restore him. Medea is hoping that Jason would assume the throne after Pelias dies but her hopes are dashed as they are meted the punishment of exile.

Jason and Medea eventually settle in Corinth. Medea bears Jason two children. Things take a turn for the worse when Jason abandons her to be able to marry Creon’s, the king of Corinth, daughter.

Medea, scorched by love, could not accept Jason’s betrayal. She moves to avenge her broken heart. First, she kills Jason’s new bride by poisoning her robe and crown. King Creon, seeing her daughter wreathe in pain, embraces her. He too dies. Then she murders her two children in her bid to cause Jason more pain. She flees Corinth and brings with her the bodies of her two children.

 

Character Analysis of Medea

To say that Medea commits evil acts is probably a major understatement. Medea’s actions go beyond monstrosity. They are manifestations of pure evil, one who does not have conscience or even the slightest hint of capacity for remorse. Medea, in utter barbarism, is incapable of being a vulnerable human.

Medea’s love for Jason knows no bounds – well, literally. She is willing to annihilate anyone who gets in the way. Medea’s extreme nature is evident right from the start. It is probably Medea’s interpretation of the line “she is madly in love”. Her love goes beyond normal and rational bounds. Indeed her madness is beyond comprehension.

The object of her love, or probably obsession, Jason bears the brunt of facing her scary temper. Although, she commits everything to please Jason at first. She commits treachery by stealing from her own father to be able to please the man she loves. Then she kills her own brother to help Jason escape. And she commits treason of the highest order when she kills her own flesh and blood, the fruits of her womb, her own precious children to extract revenge on Jason.

The nurse narrates that Medea had committed questionable acts in the name of love only to be gone through the entire adventure to retrieve the Golden Fleece and defied her household only to be abandoned by Jason and left “slighted, and [crying] aloud on the Vows they had made to each other, [...] [calling] upon the gods to witness what sort of return Jason has made to her love” (20 -24).

Love conquers all, so they say. But in this instance, it is hard to decide if it was extreme love or extreme hate that overcomes. Medea is capable of both. Her extreme nature is revealed right at the very start of the story when she helps Jason secure the Golden Fleece. She is capable of destroying anybody who comes between her and Jason. Medea could not be stopped.

Medea’s infamous acts are so chilling. What makes them doubly abhorring is the fact that she committed those acts against the very people she is supposed to give love. I believe this is the reason why it makes Medea a traitor through and through. These very people love her and give love to her. They may not expect to be loved in return but at least, some degree of respect would have sufficed. They are the people who would least expect Medea to harm them. Alas, they don’t know how Medea’s mind works at all. Medea does not only break their trust, she commits the most despicable act of all by murdering them.

It is hard to fathom the degree of insanity behind Medea’s actions. A daughter who steals from her own father. A sister who kills her own brother. A mother who murders her own children. “O your heart must have been made of rock or steel, you who can kill with your own hand the fruit of your own womb” (1253-1255). With the murder of her children, Medea has reached the apex of her villainy.

Probably the greatest irony of all is that Medea’s greatest failure is also a manifestation of her greatest redeeming quality. Medea’s extreme acts leave no doubt of her capacity for extreme love for Jason. Of course, this love goes beyond normal and logical bounds. If we take the murder out of it, we could see a vulnerable woman deeply in love and got scorched in the process. The only motive behind her chilling acts is her deep love for Jason.

It is easy to matter problems that require definite solution. For instance, if you cannot afford to buy food then do something to secure money – be it borrowing, working or asking for money. But problems concerning the heart defy objectivity. That is why, in the heat of passionate outbursts, crimes are sometimes committed.

We see a husband killing his beloved wife caught in the act of adultery. These crimes of passion happen every now and then. These are not isolated cases. So it is not hard to understand what Medea must have gone through upon discovering Jason’s betrayal of her extreme trust and love.

Jason’s actions pushed her over the edge, making her act in ways not comprehensible by logic and reason although, it is hard to discern if what occurred is the result of momentary madness or extreme cold-heartedness.

Medea is both a victim and master of fate. Separation is the most difficult problem to face. What probably happened is that Medea could not face her fears of separation. She could not imagine life without Jason. Apart from Jason is equal to no life at all. That could be Medea’s mind frame at the time of those ghastly acts. This is reason enough for her to commit murder against the very people who trust and love her.

After a monologue, she reveals her plan which, at first, the chorus supports “Flow backward to your sources, sacred river, and let the world’s great order be reversed [...] women are paid their due. No more shall evil-sounding fate be theirs” (407-413).

Here,  Medea is seen as a heroine willing to avenge the wrongs done to women, which is a rarity during her time. Her proneness to violence and ruthlessness however is evident at the start of the play when the nurse is prompted to predict “may even kill the king and the new-wedded groom” (42) and Creon’s fear that she is “a clever woman, versed in evil arts” (283), who “may injure [his] daughter mortally” (281).

This declaration confirms the fact that Medea is seen as strong and determined woman willing to do extreme measures to get what she wants particularly extract vengeance. And the nurse does read her character well as shown by the succeeding turn of events.

Medea’s half-baked values are brought to sudden and extreme test with Jason’s sudden alienation.

She is not exactly the model of virtue right from the very start. She is intensely proud. She could not bear to allow her enemies to gain any form of victory against her. This could, in part, be the reason for murdering her children. She does not want to see her children harmed by an enemy.

She is very intelligent. She can also be cunning and a cold manipulator. She is able to see behind the hypocrisies of her enemies and use these weaknesses against them. Her revenge is total. She holds no prisoners. The only thing going against her is that she is willing to pay the price at whatever costs, even the lives of those she holds dear.

When Jason turns against her, she sees him as an enemy she needs to conquer at all costs. With her emotions in all-time high, it is hard for her to respond rationally, to see things in an objective way. She acted out of instinct. Her worst self come to the fore.

Even though I condemn her acts, it was not difficult to imagine her position. Of course, that does not clear her of her sins but it does make her a bit human. We can relate to her after all, at least, to a very small degree.

All her acts are avoidable had she tried to think before acting. In this instance, it is important to note that Medea’s distinctive quality is her capacity to act on instinct and have no hesitations about it. So actually, these monstrous acts are in consonance with her innate nature and character.

Medea might have been wrong in committing those acts but her premise that those very acts are what would hurt Jason the most is right. Jason’s pain and loss would probably be insurmountable after what happened. In a way, Medea achieves the very end she strives for. Famously, the pleasure of seeing Jason suffer the loss of his children outweighed her own remorse at killing them.