Chen,+David

**Gareth Hind**
I think Gareth Hind was a very passionate individual. Something that excited me about this entire presentation was the fact that when a writer or artist conduct their work they must also include different elements in the text or from history into their work. For example, Grendel lives in the marsh so it would be very inappropriate to illustrate him as like a creature that roams in the woods like a giant "Grizzly Bear" with brown fur. Although, both are probably very similar in sizes but illustrations that interconnects with the text would be key.


 * Beowulf's Death**

I believe Beowulf's death was a great thing for him. That was the case, because from the beginning of the text and throughout the developments of the story I could only see one attribute about Beowulf. He was a heroic individual that aspire to rid the world of all evil monsters, and he would go out of his way in doing so. For example, he traveled all the way from his homeland to meet with Grendel and killed him and his mother. Although, it might be very appealing to hear how Beowulf could enjoy the worships of all his people as the ultimate ruler and hero of Geat, but however a hero would also one day grow old and die. Similar, to Hrothgar he was probably a very powerful being "in the past," but after he aged he was unable to stop Grendel from disturbing his court. When you were once a hero, and unable to continue to keep up that status you are often in humiliation, and people would question your true ability. As for Beowulf, he had the potential to one day grow old as well and possibly die under the hands of another in a very degrading way. Instead he died in a heroic way from slaying the dragon. He died as a hero, and would be remember as hero. In the future, if people ask about the death of Beowulf it would be better on Beowulf's case to hear that "he died after he slayed a dragon," then rather he died on his deathbed at the age of 101 and lived a very happy life." Those two different endings have great meaning because the first one could guarantee you a spot in heaven while the other you would be view as just an ordinary figure and your past deeds could be forgotten.


 * Courtly Love,**

The list of rules or norms in "Courtly Love" does not surprise me at all except for the line that said one must be widowed for two years until he or she can remarried. Well in my opinion, if you love someone for that long and that special one passes on it will take a long enough time to get over it. Overall, I feel like the list of rules were just norms or laws of love one must follow to consider a "faithful lover."

Another one that jumped out to me was "
 * 1) It is not proper to love any woman whom one should be ashamed to seek to marry.

Well when you love someone I guess background does not play a role. This immediately shows me that there was no freedom of love in the past. You must love someone that you are not ashamed to marry so i assume her or she must be in the same social class. This left me to believe that love was very restricted back then since you could not love anyone lower or higher in society than you. Also from this belief maybe this did not stop the love between Queen Guinevere and Lancelot, due to the rules of courtly love.

Personally, I feel like everything in life comes with consequences. Courtly love in my opinion brings jealousy and other things as it seems to show love altogether was the most important thing of all. Keep in mind, is love between a "woman and a man," I don't agree with the thought of love when it will result in destruction and people being hurt for example in Troy. Paris could've avoided taking Helen, but instead he took her away and it resulted in his entire family and people being slaughtered. I feel like Paris's actions in not caring about the safety of his people and put his personal love affair above all was unjustify and he did not fit the role of a prince who as an elite had the right to protect Troy.


 * Undressing Lady Bertilak**

In this article, I think Sir Gawain is mad, because he got manipulated to show his weakness during a time of challenge and controversy by Lady Bertilak, because he was in a bedroom setting and he somehow made a bargain to wear the girdle, but that showed his fear. Ultimately, Gawain's anti-feminine ways and plus the Virgin Mary purity without sex beliefs made Sir Gawain blame everything he suffered on Lady Bertilak.


 * Analyzing Fitt 3**


 * The most important quote in Fitt 3 was when Lady Bertilak was giving the girdle to Sir Gawain, which she said that "no man could destroy him as long as he fasten that girdle on his body." This was an important development in Fitt 3, because as a knight Gawain wasn't suppose to do anything to violate his belief, and when he did which was showing fear in the times of emergency people start to question his overall bravery, and that would be something that haunts him for the rest of his life. As a result, as a reader I didn't think Sir Gawain was all invincible and righteous after all as he showed some flaws. Unlike Beowulf, Gawain seemed like a coward as he fears death while Beowulf just "kept on fighting monsters despite risking his life." **


 * Sir Orfeo**

Reading Sir Orfeo reminded me of the Greek mythology Orpheus of a man grief by the loss of his love ventured into the Underworld to save her. From reading Sir Orfeo, I find it very similar to Orpheus as both male characters went mad when their love ones were taken away. However, Orpheus's journey was supported by everyone and everywhere he went supposedly wept after hearing his tunes. Sir Orfeo on the other hand seem like to be critcized for his carelessness of his kingdom for the sake of a woman, because whatever happens to King Orfeo would also happen to the people. I thought reading Sir Orfeo was great, because I also enjoyed reading Greek mythology so there was a natural way of comparing and contrasting of both stories. From reading Sir Orfeo, I can tell that because he was in a leadership position he would be criticized for his absences and if his kingdom was to be invaded because of his absence he would be deem as someone as guilty as Paris for bringing down their own kingdom due to the presence of a woman. Orpheus on the other hand, because he held no leadership position and was written as a "Romantic Lover," his story drew praises from everyone alike even "Hades" who was the cold hearted king of the Underworld.


 * Chaucer**

I feel like the Canterbury Tales is very hard to read like it is in a different language. I had to read over and over many times in order to fully capture what the text was telling me, because of the different spelling of words. At the same time, the structure was also very different, so many different interpretations came up when I was reading the Canterbury tales. As a political science student, I'm force to read many things "I don't even understand" with very advanced vocabularies however the Canterbury Tales was equivalent or harder. The political science readings even though seem hard to interpret they generally mean similar things, but anyone can have at least fifty million (random number) different interpretations or meaning of the lines of the Miller's Tale so that made it very hard for me.


 * Favorite Pilgrim**

My favorite Pilgrim in the Miller's tale would be the knight. I think he was a very honorable character that tried to uphold justice during a time of controversial. Many of the pilgrims including the monk and women of the bath were honest in their mistakes. I think Miller kind of use the knight and the monk and other characters to show that the knight could probably be a very horrible person, but because he was entitled to his "code" he was not willing to reveal it.

Regardless, of the true character of the knight I believe the knight presented a very good story of how courtly love or "woman" in general can ruin even the best friendships. The friends indicated in his story were very good friends, but after they fell in love with the same lady this all start to change as they had to fight to the death for the hand of a woman. I think its very hard to find a friend that treats you the same as you treat them, and when something like this happen it is probably one of the worst thing to overcome. I think the knight want to point out the value of friendship and the destruction women can cause.


 * Paper Due on March 21**

My paper on March 21 will be about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I enjoy reading this passage, because I feel like Sir Gawain was a morally upright character that would do everything to protect his king for example when he took Arthur's place in swinging the axe at the Green Knight. This was significant, because as a knight I believe you should serve your king and protect him. Putting King Arthur in the potential spot to be harm by the Green Knight was not right for a subject. At the same time, when Gawain kept his words and searched for the Green Knight that was something I admire, a man of words followed by his actions. I believe Sir Gawain's character would be something I need to look at and hopefully integrate into my character. However, Sir Gawain violated an important principle of his when he accepted the girdle from lady Bertilak. I thought this was important, because it showed that during a time of challenge and controversy even a highly moral man could do something unjustly.


 * Miller's Tale A Fabilaux/Farce**

Overall, I thought the Miller's Tale was kind of like a story about the experiences of three men who coincidentally love the same woman. The story seems to be a fabilaux because there seems to be no moral lessons learn in here, but it shows that courtly love could arouse jealousy and it resulted in the pains of the three men. However, the whole story centers on love and jealousy but it didn't have scenarios where a character is in a dilemma to make decisions that could violate their morals like Sir Gawain in the Green Knight, who could choose to not go on his quest to find the Green Knight once he realized the Green Knight had supernatural powers.


 * Character of Mak**

Mak could only be describe as a thief with no morals that did some very lowly selfish things. I think that is enough to say about him.


 * Changes From the Middle Ages to Renaissance**

Looking at this part of history was very amusing for me, because I'm always fascinated with British culture and mostly notably the wars. During this period, there were many changes for example better technology, religion was more important, new literature erupted from the rise of other cities such as Venice, and all these things gave literature more ideas. For example, many literature were base on religion during this time span.

However, during the Renassiance I also see that monarchs and high officials of the court were very corrupt. For example, Henry VIII married and divorced his wives so many times that were contradictory to Christian beliefs. At the same time, monarchs could somehow manipulate the ideas of the church, and sometimes even break away from the church if they find their beliefs to be different. Overall, I feel like the corruption of the church made religion a very debatable topic, because the people did not know if everything they're doing were what "God" really wants or they're just pawns of the corrupted high officials in the church.


 * Ruminate the speech of Tillbury Troops**

I thought the speech to the Troops at Tillbury was very heartfelt and inspiring. Queen Elizabeth, was talking in the manner of a king, and not a feeble woman. At the same time, her tone tells me as a reader a couple hundreds of years later that she was a very confident and strong individual who would not back down when her country faces a crisis. It was evident in her speech when she said, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field." From looking at this part, myself was very inspiring and thought she was very heroic.

Ironically, Queen Elizabeth reminded me of the likes of King Leonidas of Sparta in the movie "300," and King George VI in the King's Speech. Both men were very similiar, because they arose when their nation needs them in a time of need. When the enemies are close on your borders and as a monarch you could either surrender or leave the fate of your kingdom in the hands of your generals. However, those two men and the Queen Elizabeth rallied their men into victory and from that point on the entire nation was united and work together to fight against the enemy. It's very hard to develop a relation of trust with the people, and especially when Queen Elizabeth was a woman who she even said she was "feeble." I strongly believe Queen Elizabeth was an amazing leader, and if she was a man she could possibly garner more support, and possibly be comparable to Napoleon the one that dominated Europe for a time being.


 * Kelly Morgan**

I was not in class for Kelly Morgan's presentation because I was very sick. However, I hear that he talked about the issues between God and Satan. Well in that case, I do have something to debate about it. I feel like God somehow is a sign of good, but if Satan isn't there in the stories then there would be nobody to compare to. For example, all the sufferings that humans endure may be part of the devil. One thing that people always ask would be that, if a person faces a time of challenge and controversy would they keep on going (God likes that) or they would just fall for the easy way out and give up their beliefs because it was easier. (Devil Loves that)

I feel like that's the distinction between God and Satan, because there are always an easy way out in life, but the ones who preserve are ultimately the ones who follow God's beliefs and the overall victor. For example, in this current class I can probably not try too hard and possibly go for the easy way out and end with a D, which is a passing grade so I can enjoy my life as a college student. Or I can "attempt" to bribe either Courtney or Rob in doing the work for me so I can live an even happier life without work and getting an A. Of course, that is only an EXAMPLE, please keep in mind its only an example that somehow things could be achieved immorally but easier while doing the correct and harder way. As for me, instead of taking those two options I decided to work hard and read to prepare for the papers and finals to get the most out of this class.


 * Analyze A Poem**

I think "The Lie," was structured to act as like a complaint against the upper class. It talk about how the court and the church were run by the same people the upper class, and how it was very unfair to the rest of the people since their lives were being control by these aristocrats. At the same time, these elites do not always tell the truth, and could swindle and cheat the people at will.

Say to the court, it glows And shines like rotten wood; Say to the church, it shows What's good, and doth no good: If church and court reply, Then give them both the lie.

These lines in this poem caught my attention at first, and then from judging the life of Walter Raleigh who had broken the law a few times. For example, his first time with the law was when he secretly married the Queen's Maid in honor without notifying the queen. And another incident was when he was arrested then executed when he was involved in the Main Plot against James I as the King of England. From looking at Raleigh's life and the poem it shows that he wanted to do something but the court and the church kept going against him. In the first instance would be his marriage with his wife whom the court despised. Considering the services he contributed to his nation, and the way he was treated I figure Walter was very upset during this period.


 * My Sources for Thematic Essay**

Arkin, Lili “The Role of Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” May 4, 1995. Accessed on May 11 2011. http://www.shss.montclair.edu/english/furr/arkin.html

Rothschild, Judith Rice “A Rapprochement Between Bisclavret And Lanval” Medieval Academy of America. Accessed May 11 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2856271.

The Broadway Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume A. Broadview Press. 2007 Print.

"ANN/Groong TLG -- Sir Orfeo - Translated by Sos Bagramyan." Armenia - Armenian News Network / Groong. Web. 11 May 2011. .

Shoaf, Judith P. “Bisclaveret” Marie De France, 1996 Accessed May 11 2011


 * Final Project**

In my final project, I will write about "How Women's Role can influence the ending of the texts from linking historical perspectives into it." For example, Cleopatra was an important character who was able to use agency to manipulate both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony to protect her claim to the throne, and Mark Anthony because he was devoted to Cleopatra supported her son with Caesar to the Roman throne. Mark Anthony was treasonous for this, because Caesar had already named his grand-nephew Octavian as his successor as a result a war broke out and Anthony dies. However, this story shows the importance of courtly love, because Mark Anthony started a civil war with Octavian that nearly brought the destruction of Rome due to his devotion to Cleopatra.


 * Difference in Biblical Readings.**

There are a couple few different wordings and gradually a little switch of themes but not too much differ. For example, all the bibles talk about God as the almighty and how it created everything in order to facilitate the lives of the people.