What a woman!

As many other plays and novels, William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice became a movie under the eyes of director Michael Radford. The movie depicts the fine characters and points out all the complex relationships between characters Antonio, the Merchant of Venice, Bassanio, a gentleman, Shylock, a Jew, and Portia, a fair heiress.
In Venice, Jews were being extremely discriminated against. Shylock was a usurer Jew and incredibly offended by Antonio a Christian. Being Bassanio’s friend, Antonio had to put his Christian pride aside and ask Shylock for money so that Bassanio could go to Belmont and have an opportunity with fair Portia who was a beautiful heiress. She could not choose his husband because his father stated in his will that Portia should marry the man who chose the right casket among the gold, the silver and the lead ones. Shylock lent Antonio 3000 ducats for three months without interest and the bond was that if in the 3 months Antonio did not pay the money, the Jew would take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. Jessica, the usurer’s daughter, was in love with a Christian and she eloped with him, in the ship with Bassanio, taking some of Shylock’s money and leaving him hateful.
While Bassanio succeeded choosing the right casket, Antonio’s time has come. Losing his ships at sea, he did not have the money so as to pay Shylock; therefore Shylock asked for a trial in which he would be able to take Antonio’s pound of flesh. After hearing what happened, Bassanio told his future wife how great his friend was and what he did for him. Portia gave Bassanio 6000 ducats to save his beloved friend and asked him to marry before leaving. After his departure, Portia left to his uncle’s house where she asked for advice to defend Antonio. At the end, Bassanio asked Shylock to accept 6000 ducats but his revengeful spirit did not allow that. Antonio was judged by Portia dressed as a young lawyer and sentenced to pay his bound. When Shylock was about to cut Antonio’s chest, wise Portia stated that he could take nothing but an exact pound of flesh without any drop of blood. Shylock lost all his possessions except his religion even though Antonio demanded Shylock to become Christian his Jewish faith was greater than anything else. What must be pointed out about this film is the high quality cast. Actors Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and actress Lynn Collins were able to depict and perfectly portray Shakespeare’s characters. Al Pacino performed Shylock outstandingly and his speech will certainly be remembered. Lynn Collins introduced a very strong and intelligent Portia, and also made her quite witty. Irons highlighted Antonio’s pride and Fiennes depicted Bassanio’s passion. As a whole, the cast was extraordinarily well chosen. Through their performances we were able to feel what the characters felt in every minute of the movie. The movie, as well as the actual play, gives you plenty of things to think and discuss about. The repeated questions Is it a tragedy or comedy? Who wins at the end? Certainly do not have a finite answer as they might be seen from various perspectives. Therefore, the movie is good in the sense that does not give you those answers.

Portia’s character; however, was, in my opinion, underappreciated in both the movie and the play. If we think about it, it was her who using her wit and intelligence could save Antonio’s life. Bassanio was not able to do anything and probably, without Portia’s existence, would have seen his most beloved and dearest friend die. Although I would like to encourage everybody to read books and Shakespeare’s plays, masterpieces like this movie make me agree that if you lack time you can watch a movie instead of reading. The merchant of Venice by director Michael Radford is 100% recommendable.

What a woman!

This is my outline for the film review

1. Introduction
2. Summary
3. Opinion
4. Portia
5. Conclusion

Why the Faerie Queene

Having discussed in class all these questions, my mind is clearer about the different aspects of this letter. Before the class I felt really confused and I did not understand many of the questions.
Firstly, we have that the Faerie Queene is an allegory because it is a story with a moral and a hidden truth. It is to implicitly state an opinion.

This allegory was based to celebrate the Tudor dynasty and the Faerie Queene suggests that King Arthur is related to the Tudor lineage. In addition, he wanted to have a character embodying all the 12 virtues and for that he chose Prince Arthur.

Spenser is trying to emphasize the 12 virtues; however, he only discussed Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy and in six books. Magnificence (represented by Arthur) and Truth (represented by Una) were other virtues he wanted to show in the Faerie Queene. These were the main characteristics he tried to emphasize using characters such as the Red Cross knight, Britomartis, Gloriana, Prince Arthur, Una, Arthegall, Calidore and Sir Guyon.

Duessa represents evil in the story especially when she, an ugly witch, was trying to separate Red Cross from Una. She is also representing Mary Queen of Scots and the Roman Catholic Church.

He mainly wrote the letter because he needed protection in case something was misunderstood by Elizabeth I. Sir Walter Raleigh was really powerful and respected which made him the perfect candidate to have protection from.

Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene

Independence?

According to Chaucer, women want to do whatever they want. In other words, they want to have control over other people. Although I do want to do what I please and have control over other people, I disagree with him because I want something else. Definitely, I cannot generalize about every woman because we are quite unique and our requests may differ; therefore there is not a universal truth for all of us. Thus, I can only express my desires. During my whole life I have thought of myself as being very independent, but what I want the most is protection. I want someone to be there for me every time I need; I want someone I can rely on. And that is what I have been looking for in my entire life. I simply want to depend on somebody.

Are we being truthful?

Honestly, I do not really enjoy reading poetry. This might be a consequence of my lack of connection with my inner emotions. Anyway, I have to understand that I cannot prejudge poems. I might find some of them completely interesting.

Chaucer, in my opinion, is proclaiming truth as a way of living. He is stating that if you are honest, you should have no fear. He is advising people to be honest to each other apart from other things such as “be satisfied with what you have” and “Restrain yourself from controlling other’s deeds” (Truth, Chaucer).


Nowadays, we can observe that envy plays a fundamental role in our societies. Therefore, we can very well apply this phrase: "for greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty”. It is very interesting to notice that religious is present in this poem. He definitely sounds like a priest. It does make sense in my life because I highly appreciate truth as an incredibly relevant value in my life.


This poem was written a long time ago, but we can still recognize some key elements present in our society. Should we follow Chaucer’s advice?

Epic Poem

When we talk about an epic poem, I immediately think about “El Cantar del Mio Cid”. Epic poem is the type of poem which consists of different heroes and antiheroes. However, in English, the best example of an epic poem is Beowulf. After reading this poem I can present some features that define an epic poem. Firstly, it is supposedly to be part of history; although, that cannot be proved. It also shows a story with heroic characters. Usually, it talks about kingdoms and wars.

Literature: What is it?

Always wanting to study Literature, I never really asked myself waht it was. Discussing about it, I have realized that I do not have an explicit meaning; however, I am sure nobody really does. Literature is everything that makes you react. The following quote by Thodorov called my attention because it supports my definition:

“The texts that I was reading- personal narratives, memoirs, historical works, testimonies, reflections, letters, anonymous texts from folklore- did not have, like literary works, the status of fiction, because they directly described lived experience. However, like literary works, they let me discover unknown dimensions of the world, they moved me profoundly, and they made me think” (page 16 and 17)

Literature is everything that after reading and even hearing makes you react, feel, disagree, and many more. It causes an impact and that is the only reason of its existance. Literature only exists when you make it yours!