Romeo and Juliet Conflict

A specific conflict in the play Romeo and Juliet is that between the characters of Romeo and Tybalt. When Romeo comes to a party at the Capulet's house despite being a Montague, Tybalt expresses great anger at one of his enemies being present at an event held by his house. The conflict is, on a literal level, an interpersonal conflict, as it specifically concerns the two of them, but at a greater depth, it is also a multigenerational conflict, as the source of their disagreement is that of the strife between their respective house's. Major developments in the plot of the story come about from this altercation, including the death of both Tybalt and Mercutio, one of Romeo's friends, when the former challenges the lattermost to a duel. In fact, it could be argued that the eventual climax of the story is resultant of the conflict, as Tybalt's provocation causes Romeo to be banished from Verona, and thus introduces problems to the relationship of the characters Romeo and Juliet, later ending their lives. This being said, it is related to several central themes, including death because of love, as it is responsible for many instances of that throughout the play.

In our society, there are numerous cases of conflicts between pairs of individuals, whether because of a prior disagreement or a grudge. The reason could even be similar to that of the play, namely resulting from a difference in social group. Conflict generally ends with either compromise and a peaceful solution, or confrontation and violence. While in the play violence pervades the story and is how the tension between Romeo and Tybalt is broken, it is a much better choice to take the nonviolent approach in life. Many people in our society result to violence as a solution to their conflicts, and the consequence of this is nearly always harm or death. I take the philosophy that it is always important to harmonize and be positive, which helps to prevent conflict of the kinds found in Shakespeare's play.

Romeo and Juliet in Modern Culture

While the famous storyline of Romeo and Juliet makes appearances in much of modern culture, one particularly current similarity that I noticed is to the movie Avatar, by James Cameron.

A trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVdO-cx-McA

A movie poster

This movie is most directly related to Shakespeare's play in the love between the main characters, in the former case namely Jake and Neytiri, and in the latter, Romeo and Juliet. What strikes me as being additionally analogous between the two stories is the situation of conflict acting as a barrier to love. Just as how the fight between the houses of Montague and Capulet creates difficulty for the possibility of their children's love, the fight between the humans of Earth and the Na'vi of Pandora causes major problems for Jake and Neytiri's relationship.

I myself really felt strongly, in experiencing each story, the concept of love amidst a much larger hatred, and the pain and sadness that comes from the unfairness of such circumstance. It is a very deep theme, and so I understand greatly why it has lasted for so long, and why it will continue to.

Romeo and Juliet Connection

In reading the first scenes of the play, one personal connection that I can make to Romeo and Juliet is that concerning the concept of dreams. In his rant to Romeo, Mercutio shares his opinion about dreams, namely that they are nothing in worth and meaning, and that they can be misleading. In the past, I myself have had numerous experiences where dreams have caused me to think various things, whether positive or negative, until I woke up and realized the opposite. This is also similar to how Romeo was given a foreboding by one of his dreams. While I am in them, dreams often seem very real, not due to great verisimilitude, but because of my lack of consideration toward them. In the sense that dreams can cause me great psychological trouble when I am experiencing them, I find myself agreeing that Mercutio is somewhat correct about their detriment.

The task of reading the play is much less challenging than previously with Great Expectations. For one, the opportunity to read each section twice, both to myself and aloud with the class, helps me to understand both the immediate and more subtle meaning of the story. In addition, having the process of annotating coming in the second reading of the play makes the first reading much less cumbersome, as I do not have to continually stop and annotate while for the first time trying to decipher the text. Other than the notes and explanations on the side of each page in the book, I have not needed to use any other resources to help me in matters of understanding; reading has been going quite well.

Great Expectations Overall Theme

After reading Great Expectation, I feel that the overall message that Dickens wanted to send to readers is that it is important to think about the consequences and future effects of acting upon our immediate wants and desires. When people focus only on what they dearly want at the present, and try to achieve these wants mindlessly, they aren't thinking ahead, and don't consider what could happen as a result of what they are doing. In some cases of desires, the consequences of lacking forethought can be devastating. However, many people only realize the truth of the message after experiencing the negative effects of their rash actions, as happened with Pip for his love of Estella in the book (my limited reference to the characters). Once properly considered, the original desires that are the cause of rash actions often can be realized to be foolish themselves. In life, it can be difficult to look beyond the things that we have strong wants for. While they are not always bad, the vital point is to be able to analyze them with an objective mind, and thus determine if they are sensible or not before acting to achieve or reach them. This is the key to using forethought in regard to our desires, and in regard to many other things as well.

Great Expectations: Thoughts on Reading

Great Expectations is the second unabridged novel of Charles Dickens's that I have read, following my reading of A Tale of Two Cities two years ago. From my experience with each of these books, I can say that while I do not always appreciate Dickens's style of writing and diction, I have great respect for his ability to write stories with engaging plot. I found this to be especially so in the former, but not quite as much so in the latter; I thought that the Pip's adventures were much less well-defined in terms of a plot-line, and thus less enthralling. This and the diction were my main problems with the novel, along with the fact that neither of the endings to the story satisfied me as good closure. On the positive side, I felt that the book had an excellent range of characters and corresponding character development. My favorite character was Mr. Jaggers, with Magwith, Mr. Wemmick, and Biddy following close behind. I had a good deal less sympathy for Pip, mainly due to his actions and thoughts in the center of the novel.

With Dickens's literature, I find that to fully understand what I am reading, I need to concentrate intently and be constantly deciphering what is on the page. In other books, I can take in the story with my attention partially elsewhere, but with Dickens, if my mind is drifting, so will my comprehension. This being said, I at first found it rather difficult to fit the reading assignments into my schedule, especially with the soccer season taking up 2 new hours of my time every day. On one day, I was so busy that I fell slightly behind, but luckily the weekend allowed me to catch up relatively easily. Realizing this, I soon began to read a bit ahead during the weekends, so that I could afford to take a day off on a busy day during the week and still be on track. When the story progressed to the point that a great amount of action was occurring and a great number of mysteries were being resolved, about a week before the deadline, I decided to come back for annotating later and read the book all the way through, as I would for a book that I was reading for pleasure. I confined myself to my room and spent a morning reading the final 10 chapters. I am now very glad that I made this choice, as I was able to read without interruption or sudden stops. This most definitely helped me to better both understand and enjoy the story.

Great Expectations Photo Connection

Janus, the Roman God of Doors

Throughout Great Expectations, and so in both of the first two stages, there are a multitude of comparisons, contrasts, and association in doubles. These are a greatly important part of the book, as they concern and enhance many of its other literary elements, including characterization, plot, and setting. A great number of characters can be compared or contrasted with others, such as Pip and Herbert, Magwitch and Compeyson, Jaggers and Wemmick, and Estella and Biddy. In addition, other concepts can be compared to one another, such as the settings of Satis House and Walworth, and the relationship between Pip and Estella and between Herbert and Clara.

 In Roman mythology, the deity Janus is the god of beginnings, endings, changes, doors, and gates, depicted as having two faces. The photo depicting him serves well to give connection to the motif of doubles in Great Expectations. Janus strongly symbolizes, in his appearance, all of the twos that occur in the book, especially in the relationships between the characters. An added layer to this symbolism is that of the character Wemmick. Just as Janus has two literal faces, Wemmick has two figurative faces, namely two lives. 

Great Expectations: Connection to Another Story

One work of literature that I can relate to Great Expectations is the series The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathon Stroud. Though the latter is of the fantasy genre, with plot, conflict, and other literary elements being drastically different, one of the major underlying themes is shared by both. In the first book of the series, the main character, the apprentice magician Nathaniel, is apparent as young, childish, and inexperienced as to how to act in the world that he lives in. As the trilogy progresses, he becomes of an increasingly high status, both in class and in government, adopting a new name, John Mandrake, as custom to the magician world. However, he also becomes increasingly mean, and as a result, I experienced while reading the books a progressive loss of my liking and sympathy for him, these things moving to the supporting characters. At the climax of the series, he reverts back, metaphorically, from Mandrake to Nathaniel, to his old self and personality.

I have not yet reached the climax of Great Expectations, but I can still see in Pip much of what I saw in Nathaniel. What is most prominent is the path of character development that steers them both in their respective stories. Both have the opportunity to further their societal statuses, and each, most likely unintentionally, are changed themselves by this. My lack of affection and admiration for each occurred at identical times, and for the same reason. Another part of this is the connection with names. Pip becomes Handel as he becomes a gentleman, just as Nathaniel does in becoming Mandrake in his transition to being a magician of the government. Because of this, I am convinced that by the end of his book, Pip will return to his old name as well as to his old self.

While other connections can be made, such as the personalities of certain supporting characters and their roles in the story, the twin nature of Pip and Nathaniel is by far the most striking and distinct in my mind. It feels very inspiring to see this journey of The Bartimaeus Trilogy relived in Pip. I have faith in him to repair the damage of his actions and thoughts and to justify himself in my eyes, just as Nathaniel did.

Great Expectations: Second Stage

In the second stage, specifically chapter 21, Pip comes once again comes across the pale young gentleman that he met in the first stage, now named Herbert. As well as being an extraordinary coincidence, their exchange over dinner that night leads to Pip learning of Miss Havisham's past, specifically the history of how she was abandoned by her fiance. He also, by way of Herbert, comes to knowledge of much other interesting information, including the occupation of the latter, insight that Miss Havisham's purpose for Estella is to break the hearts of men, and details on how to become a gentleman, namely holding spoons, glasses, and napkins correctly.

The exchange between Pip and Herbert relates to several major motifs in the book. For one, there is an existing contrast between the two, as both are similar in age and size, and both are gentleman, or in the former's case, at least developing into one. This relates to the motif of "becoming a gentleman," as well as when Herbert helps Pip to become this by way of table manners. In addition, elements of Herbert's tale of Miss Havisham have some literary significance. Her delusion that her cousin had been jealous of her prior to her marriage is very similar to how Pip was deluded in to thinking that Biddy was jealous of him prior to him becoming a gentleman, providing an important "double."

Great Expectations Passage

In the passage, Pip is reflecting upon his experience at Miss Havisham's house that day. Previously, he had not been aware of the possibility that there could be much more to his contentedness than working with Joe in the forge and had not given thought to the fact that others would look down on him due to his class. In addition, he had most likely not met a person before, namely Estella, for whom he had romantic feelings. When Pip tells the reader to think of, "the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day," he is speaking metaphorically of the fact that his life from then on would feel altered completely, only as a result of that one day. After meeting Estella, his thoughts are mainly occupied with the desire to become a gentleman, something that he had never done before. Also, he begins to consider Joe, one of his greatest friends, as common, a most definitely negative change. As a whole, after first going to Miss Havisham's house, Pip becomes much less satisfied and content with his life, quite irrationally.

In my life, I find it difficult to think of a single day that I can compare to Pip's, as the many changes in my life were started by more gradual intervals of time. However, one experience that could be similar is the day that I started middle school at NOVA. The school had a greatly different community than I had experienced in the past, and over the time I spent there, I learned a lot about myself, especially in how my role as a student changed from year to year. In this way, the transition for Pip between his prior life and his exposure to new ideas is similar to my transition between a public elementary school and a private middle school. I think that the change for me was more positive than for Pip, as it was enjoyable, whereas Pip's made him in ways miserable. I think for sure that since that day, I have become more open and thoughtful, in terms of both personality and idea.

Great Expectations: Question

One section in particular that I was not able to understand as well as the others was in chapter 4, concerning the scene with Mr. Wopsle, Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and Mr. Pumblechook. At first, Pip says that, "[m]y sister having so much to do, was going to church vicariously; that is to say, Joe and I were going." (21). However, later, the narration implied that the setting was in fact Pip and his guardians' house. Were they actually dining in the church, or did I misunderstand the passage about Joe and Pip going there?