AP Lit Blog - Anastasia Kishiniovski

Gender Roles in Emma

Jane Austen uses the theme of gender roles in the novel Emma to characterize the protagonist as vastly different form the usual depiction of a woman of that era. Women are usually subordinate to men in many works of literature, especially those that date back to Jane Austen's time. But the women in Emma, particularly Emma herself, seem to be much more dominant than the men are in the story. Emma can be viewed as an empowered woman who does well on her own and does not rely on others but rather proudly supports herself. She is well aware of her financial stability and declares that because of it, she does not need to rely on marriage. Many women seemed to be trapped into an "old maid" description if they put off marriage for too long. Although it can be quite common for men to be independent, it is expected of women to be dependent and needy. Emma, however, does not live up to these demands of society but seems to posses more headstrong qualities than the average dainty lady of her time. And the fact that she is not affected by what others think of her ideals makes her an even stronger figure of female empowerment. Women, in general, are given greater credit in this novel than usual. Ms. Weston, for example, maintained order at Emma's home and her departure put Emma's father in a frazzle. Instead of his assumption of the "head of household role" that is so fittingly given to the man of the house, Emma assumes Ms. Weston's responsibilities and is more of a caregiver to her father than he is to her in many ways. Emma's manipulation of those around her, although immoral, is also empowering in a way because she has control of her environment. Although Emma is a self-proclaimed matchmaker, she is often matching people out of her own selfish desires and not for the good of her friends. But her involvement in their lives gives her the power of influence that is rarely observed in young ladies. Most are expected to become proper and polished and to bend to the wishes of society. Emma, on the other hand, does not bend herself to meet the needs or expectations of society, but rather acts as a result of her own wishes. This sense of "freedom" that she has was very rare among women, who often felt trapped in the role of trophy wife/mother. Her resolve to be single has relieved her of the pressure of being mindful of her actions so that she would be perceived well by possible suitors. Jane Austen has turned the tables in this novel in terms of gender roles and has created female characters that rival her male characters in both intellectual capacity and self-reliance. Austen's character Emma has proven that women can be responsible for their own paths in life and that those women who are not willing to bend to the expectations of society will overcome these expectations and will live nearly in equity to men.

AP Lit - Anastasia Kishiniovski

Emma vs. Jane

After reading several chapters into the assigned reading, I have learned more and more about Jane's character. Jane Fairfax was originally introduced to us as someone Emma has great disdain for but the reasons for Emma's dislike for Jane were not made clear. It was suggested in class that Emma and Jane may be foils for each other. The two are revealed to be very similar to one another and even Emma admits that Jane is beautiful and possesses some of the same qualities as she does. But the one thing that discerns the two from another is money or status. Jane was not born as lucky as Emma and therefore does not have a grand fortune that she can depend on. Jane is also much less outgoing and outspoken than Emma is. The reason for this may be that Emma doesn't feel the need to impress anyone since she is not "in need" of a husband while Jane would benefit from a husband who was of higher rank and more financially secure than she was. But this still does not explain why there is such tension between the two. Although Emma is shallow when it comes to social standing and money, she still associates with Harriet and goes out of her way to keep her as company even when she chooses a love interest that Emma does not consider to be "gentleman enough" for her. Since Emma and Jane are so similar, it seems unusual that they do not become quick friends. Jane, after all, could easily be another "Harriet-type" because she was also orphaned and was taken under the wing by the Campbell's, who educated her like Emma attempted to "educate" Harriet. Mr. Knightly suggested that Emma may perhaps be jealous of Jane, which would also be strange since Emma thinks so highly of herself it is hard to imagine that she would be jealous of someone, especially of someone who is worth much less than her. If she were to be jealous of Jane it would be of her character in general which would mean Emma may wish that she were more reserved and delicate herself at times. Her strong personality overpowers Jane's so Emma does not find their interactions exciting. The contrast between these two characters could prove to be interesting in the chapters to come. Emma appears to be threatened by Jane so there may be some sort of competition between the two that could emerge. Although Jane's character has only been briefly introduced, I have questions of where her involvement could take the story line. Is Jane one of those characters, like Mr. Knightly, who reveal Emma to be who she truly is? What was the root of the tension between Emma and Jane? (since this is not the first time they have met) And how does Austen use Jane's situation to reveal her feelings toward society? Hopefully Austen will go into greater detail as we learn more and more about Jane Fairfax and my questions will be answered.

AP Lit - Anastasia Kishiniovski

Emma Woodhouse's Matchmaking

The plot of the novel so far has revolved around Emma's attempts to match Harriet Smith with Mr. Elton. Emma assumes the role of not only a matchmaker, but also a mentor for Harriet, who she assumes needs a guide to make choices for her. Emma continuously pushes Harriet towards liking Mr. Elton, although she clearly has feelings for Mr. Martin. But Emma does not see Mr. Martin as a suitable match for Harriet because he is a farmer and she is the daughter of a gentleman. Emma judges Mr. Martin so quickly and harshly just based on his job title and even suggests that she would never associate with that type of people and that if Harriet married him, they would no longer be friends. This, again, reveals the importance of social standing in this English society where marrying outside one's class was unusual and people wanted to marry someone with either equal social standing or greater. This puts a greater emphasis on the shallow aspects of life rather than the genuine emotions that relationships should be based on. Harriet and Mr. Martin have mutual feelings for each other but Emma quickly dismisses these because it would seem like Harriet was settling. So she convinces Harriet to drop her feelings for Mr. Martin, who is quite disheartened, and to focus on developing a relationship with Mr. Elton. Although Emma has the best of intentions with this arrangement, she gives Harriet false hope that her affections would be returned with Mr. Elton while, in reality, Mr. Elton prefers Emma. It becomes apparent quickly that Mr. Elton has feelings for Emma, but she seems to be oblivious to them because of her focus on being single and assisting others instead. When Mr. Elton reveals his emotions to her, she becomes angry and does not even consider a relationship with him. Her anger may be due to the fact that she did not see this coming and that things slipped out of her control. Emma comes across as a bit manipulative in this sense as she needs everything to fall into place the way she wants it. This need for order and control may be due to the fact that she had to grow up most of her life independently and has had to take up responsibilities in caring for her father. Mrs. Weston's leaving may have also caused this need for control in her life, along with a need for companionship. Although she does not want to marry because she is financially stable (as she view marriage as merely a tool for one's financial/social betterment ), I believe she is in need of someone who could balance her out emotionally. The character who could fill this role would be Mr. Knightly as he seems to truly care about her but is unwilling to feed her ego because he feels that it would be unhealthy for her. Having seen Clueless, I can see parallels between his character and Josh, so I can only assume....

AP Lit - Anastasia Kishimiovski

First Impressions of Emma

Jane Austen's Emma began with a description of the protagonist, Emma Woodhouse, and set up what had happened in her life so far. One of our focuses for annotating is anything that characterizes Emma (either directly or indirectly). The narrator appears to be especially fond of Emma in her descriptions of her as she paints her to be selfless and classy, despite how pampered she is. Emma is a sort of caretaker to her father, both in the physical and emotional sense. Her father was so upset about Miss Taylor's departure so "Emma smiled and chatted as cheerfully as she could, to keep him from such thoughts". Emma reassures her father and looks out for his best interests, taking the place of his wife. These actions give her character a sense of maturity and responsibility. Her father, in fact, speaks very highly of her and considers her to be perfect. "Emma never thinks of herself, if she can do good to others", he would say in her defense. In contrast, Mr. Knightly picks apart each flaw of Emma's and considers her "matchmaking" to be trivial. "Where is your merit? What are you proud of? You made a lucky guess; and that is all that can be said.", he retorted at her claim to have set Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston up together. So we have two conflicting attitudes towards Emma: her father's unrelenting love and Mr. Knightly's condescending remarks. Her father may be biased because he is, after all, her father. But I feel that Mr. Knightly's comments may be more playful and hurtful, he seems to be teasing her as if he had a crush on her. (possible relationship later on in the book?) But overall, Emma has been characterized as confident, witty, and mature. Another focus we have for our annotations is the satirizing of society. All I have noticed so far about the society that Emma lives in is that marriage is extremely important and is viewed as more of necessity for one's well being rather than a product of love. Miss Taylor's husband is repeatedly mentioned as being "a man of unexceptionable character, easy fortune, suitable age, and pleasant manners" and that "the marriage is to Miss Taylor's advantage; she knows how very acceptable it must be, at Miss Taylor's time of life, to be settled in a home of her own, and how important to her to be secure of a comfortable provision". They barely even hint at the attraction between the two as if it is not a priority. Mr. Weston's troubling past is also spoken of and his lack of a wife after his previous wife died was an oddity to many and people in the town began to speculate what was wrong with him and why he did not already have a new wife. Marriage comes off as a "convenience" in this society and I believe that this will be satirized repeatedly throughout the novel as Emma assumes the role of a matchmaker who lacks her own match. (which seems to be a frequent story line in books lately)

AP Lit - Anastasia Kishiniovski

My Opinion of the "Nunnery Scene"

I enjoyed spending the week speculating about whether Hamlet knew he was being watched or not and directing our scenes while taking that into consideration. I found this to be one of the most emotionally charged scenes of the play so far so I'm sure Hamlet was emotionally invested in his conversation with Ophelia even though he probably knew Claudius and Polonius were watching from the sidelines. Hamlet may have been testing Ophelia to see if she could just blatantly lie to his face and betray his trust. When her response to his question about the location of her father was unfavorable to Hamlet, he became angry at the fact that Ophelia could be manipulated in such a way and is just being used to observe him. (Assuming he knew he was being watched) This is when he may have started playing the role of "mad Hamlet" again but Claudius saw right threw it. But his sudden madness may not have been entirely fabricated. He was already frustrated with the fact that he couldn't trust the people around him and the one person he felt that he could confide in was also being used to monitor him. This prompts his tirade against women when he basically implies that women are the source of all sins and evils and that only a fool could not see this. He comments on Ophelia's beauty and asks how she can be considered honest if she is so beautiful and he concludes that a woman's beauty is merely a tool of manipulation and is a sign of her dishonesty. He also asks her to stay pure and to not marry. It is not apparent whether he says this because he wants her to wait for him or whether he is being cruel by telling her that a man's marriage to her would bring him no good. His sentiments towards women were caused by his mother's sudden marriage to Claudius, which Hamlet felt was a betrayal to his father. These sentiments were only escalated by this conversation with Ophelia when he realizes that the women in his life cannot be trusted. This may have very well made him slightly crazy. Claudius and Polonius know that there is something very wrong with Hamlet but Claudius doesn't believe it has anything to do with his "love" for Ophelia. Polonius still believes that Hamlet has an unrequited love for Ophelia despite what he has just seen, which makes one question his judgement, and he suggests that the queen could talk to Hamlet before Claudius hastily sends him off to England to cure his sadness. Despite the emotional exchange that occurred between Hamlet and Ophelia, Ophelia is still very much in love with Hamlet even though he claimed their love was never real. After Hamlet exits, Ophelia laments on Hamlet's gradual decline as a person and she genuinely hopes that he gets better for his own good. But Ophelia's role in this story so far is not favorable to her and Hamlet simply tosses her aside while he deals with his other problems. Their relationship has only been characterized by a few scenes so far but they have all been conflicted in some way.

AP Lit - Anastasia Kishiniovski

Hamlet's Revenge Plan

Throughout Act II, it seems as if Hamlet has been stewing in anger over Claudius but hasn't taken any action. He had hardly mentioned his vengeance until his rant at the end of Act II Scene II. When the Players were introduced, something must have been sparked deep inside Hamlet. The act of playing a part was ironic to him because the feelings that the actors were expressing were made up while Hamlet's feelings were all too real. Hamlet pondered how well the actors would do if they could feel what Hamlet felt, contributing to the whole "play" theme. Hamlet finally reveals the first step of his plan to avenge his father in his tirade. He hopes to reveal Claudius' guilt by having the actors put on a play that resembles Claudius murdering Hamlet's father. This could partly be because Hamlet still doesn't want to believe that Claudius killed King Hamlet so he needs confirmation by seeing the guilt in his eyes once he watches the play. Hamlet talks about the power of plays and how they can affect people by leading them to "proclaim their malefactions". Although Hamlet hopes that Claudius will confess to his sins right on the spot, it is highly unlikely that this will happen. Hamlet's rant on how cowardly he is and how he should take responsibility for this suggests that he will have to kill Claudius himself. There is also foreshadowing in the beginning of the scene when Hamlet speaks to Polonius and all Hamlet can think about is his life and how it is the only thing he would be willing to give up. This suggests that Hamlet would go to such great lengths to avenge his father and kill Claudius that he would wind up dead himself. Polonius thinks that his strange behavior is due to the fact that Hamlet is in love with his daughter but even his mother isn't quite convinced. Claudius assumes that this is the reason but perhaps he knows more than he lets on about.. Claudius and Gertrude ask Rosencratz and Guildenstern to observe Hamlet to find out what is bothering him but this could just be a way for Claudius to keep a closer eye on Hamlet and to find out exactly how much he knows about his father's death and what his plans are. Gertrude may also be in on the scheme and that is why she doesn't believe Ophelia is the cause of his strange behavior. Hamlet's overall mood in this act is withdrawn and conflicted. He knows that he must take action, but he is hesitant to do anything before he knows whether what he has heard is really true or not. He becomes a bit eccentric at points but this is probably due to all of the emotional stress he is under. It's only when he is alone that he reveals his true feelings to the audience and that is when we found out what is really going on in his head. My predictions for the next act would be that Hamlet would carry out his plans in trapping Claudius and that perhaps he would start to plan Claudius' death or attempt to expose him in front of Gertrude.

AP Lit - Anastasia Kishiniovski

Battle Royale

I have made significant progress on my book of choice: Battle Royale by Koushon Takami. After just starting the book, I immediately noticed similarities between Battle Royale and Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This made me wonder why the idea of a battle death was so appealing to so many but it also made me realize that the underlying themes of the two novels are practically the same. Both of the books are set in a society where the government uses these battles or games as a tool to keep people in line. In both novels, there had been an attempt of a revolt and there had been a suppression in response by the government. This resulted in the BR Act in Battle Royale, which was largely kept under wraps. The whole plot in Battle Royale revolves around using the power of love to overcome the suppressing and malicious government of this alternate Japan. Similar to Hunger Games, Battle Royale has two characters who emerge as protagonists and end up romantically involved throughout the novel. These two characters, Shuya and Noriko, become very successful in their journey to survive the battle and are a couple of the few students that team up and do not betray one another. The government's task in this "program" is to turn the children against each other and to cause them to commit gruesome acts to the people that they would have previously considered their friends. The 42 students that were chosen all knew one another and considered each other peers. The tyrannical government, however, went out of their way to ensure that the school children fight for themselves and do not survive if they form alliances. This is the government's effort to devastate the children's hopes and faith. The fear that they generated was used as a weapon to prevent against any future uprisings from high school students in this cold society of a near-future Japan. The school children quickly became paranoid and distrusting of one another and this led to their ultimate downfall. They believed that surviving on one's own was a better strategy because the inconvenience of being responsible for another's life was too great to risk their own life. This, however, was not the case with Shuya and Noriko. These two characters proved that alliances in times of distress were beneficiary and that sticking together was a key component to maintaining one's sanity. Mitsuko, for example, enjoys killing her fellow classmates and trusts no one around her. She uses psychological warfare and manipulation to trap her victims and is the polar opposite of Noriko. It is already apparent that Shuya and Noriko will triumph over Mitsuko despite the fact that she is more cruel and violent than they are. Mitsuko was made a victim by the government that organized this program because she gave into her fears and killed everyone around her before they could kill her. Given the opportunity to form alliances, she preferred to work alone and depended entirely on herself.  This strategy, however, did not work for those who implemented it in Hunger Games and is unlikely to work for those in Battle Royale because they are being manipulated by the system rather than taking control of it in their own hands, which seems to be a major them in the novel.