Presentation

This is my project on Olaudah Equiano: http://engl3204olaudah.webonsites.com/index.html. This is a free site I found that you can use to make a website www.webonsite.com. It is pretty easy to use and they don't put advertisements on your page. There are very few options of templates but for anyone like me who has never made a website before it was the easiest site I could find.

Amatory Fiction

So this week I have decided to write about Manley's "Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes From the New Atlantis, an Island in the Mediterranean" (could this title be any longer). I found it interesting that this story was put under amatory fiction. It is very possible that my "modern" perspective does not allow me to look at this from a romantic point of view but in many ways I found the story rather creepy (for lack of a better term). The simple fact that the Duke falls in love with the young women that he is preparing to be his son's wife is strange enough. His love for her seems quite pedophile like. He yearns for her but knows that he cannot have her but cannot stop himself from seeing her. While she is the one who allows herself to kiss him passionately he most certainly encourages the situation. But he also mentions things such as "his eyes [...] wandered over her snowy Bosom, and saw the young swelling Breasts just beginning to distinguish themselves". He is supposed to be a man who is advanced enough that he is a widower who has a child about her age and he is looking at her in a sexual manner when her breasts are only just beginning to show. He also shows her books that she should never see because she is much too young. It is similar to how a pedophile may show a child something sexual in nature to have them be more comfortable when they first approach them as well as making them feel guilty and therefore less likely to tell someone what is going on. Of course in the last few paragraphs the Duke becomes physical. He tells Charlot he is leaving when actually he stays and waits for her to undress and then comes out and surprises her and rapes her. Granted it does not seem that she is truly fighting him off but nonetheless she is a child and therefore it is most certainly rape. This story more than anything made me feel uncomfortable and awkward. If it was about a young man who was teaching her so that she could marry another man that would be different but this "love" story simply seemed wrong to me.

Life Writing

This week I have decided to focus on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and her letters to friends and family. I have to say that I truly loved her writing. She was very elegant in her speech and her letters interested me from beginning to end because her passion and her eagerness to gain knowledge shone through. Her letter to "the Lady X" was truly interesting to me. Her descriptions of the nuns and their home and wardrobe was so descriptive and in depth but also interesting and well thought out. It seemed to me through out her letters that she was writing in real time almost like she was making up a story rather than retelling an event because her descriptions were so vivid and detailed. It was obvious that she had a true love and interest in other women. I am not applying that this was sexual (we got enough of that last week) but I think that she really liked being around women and found them more interesting then men possibly because she could be more herself around women then men. She also had a very obvious love of new and different cultures, again this goes back to her love of gaining knowledge. Her writing causes you to wish you could be there with her in these fantastical worlds she is seeing and living in. Her letters to Alexander Pope surprised me because they were very different from her other letters. The beauty in her description and story telling were gone and it almost seemed that she was more careful with her letters to him. I wondered if this could have been because she regarded him so highly because of his great skills in writing or if it was because he is a man and therefore she was not as comfortable with him as she was with the others.

Poetry of the Restoration Period

Katherine Philips seems to be the "softest" writer of the week. Her poetry is soft and pretty and regards sex and love as the meeting of two people who respect and are committed to each other. The Virgin is a poem that concentrates on a women (presumably) whose focus is not on love and sex. Because she is a virgin her whole demeanour is pure and innocent. She enjoys the simple things in life, "beauty [...] Rather agreeable than great" (line 3-4). It seems as if the poet is giving a warning to women or a "heads up" about life and love for example she is "nor slave to Love" (line 20). It seems that Phillips is showing the world the positives to virginity or at least to committed relationships.

Behn in comparison to Philips seems harsh and bitter. Her feelings towards love do not seem to be positive, in fact it seems as if she has given up on love. "The Disappointment" is poem about two young lovers who end up not being able to consummate because the man is unable to perform. The message seems to be that love is not successful and leads to disappointment. in "An Ode to Love" Behn blames cupid for love spoiled and for basically not having done his job and allowing the two lovers to go unsatisfied.

Wilmot is obviously the most vulgar of our lovely trio. It seems that Wilmot does not view sex and love together. His poems are about sex without love and simply the human desire that all people have to be sexually involved with someone else. "The Imperfect Enjoyment" is about a man who is unable to perform (same as "The Disappointment") but in this poem the women is not simply giving in after being chased but rather she also has experience same as the man and has the human desire without the need for love or commitment. This could possibly be the biggest difference between Wilmot and the other poets, his women are all looking for (or thinking about) sex rather than relationships. The perfect example is "Signior Dildo" a poem about pretty much how all women want sex.

First Post

I am testing to see if my blog is working and how it works