Blog 3.1-3.2 Macbeth

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare there are a few symbols which i came across that can be applied to the picture above. Blood is used a lot in this play from the beginning the bleeding captain to his bleeding head in the end but I think the imagined blood has the biggest impact as a symbol.

For example when he considers murdering Duncan he sees a floating dagger that points him in the direction of the king’s bedroom, and while this happens the dagger becomes covered in blood in his imagination which connects with the bloody hands in this picture which also represents reality if he were to use the dagger. This comes to symbolize guilt for Macbeth just like the hand show in this picture and even after he starts believing that there is nothing that could wash away his guilt not even The Great Neptune Ocean as it is said on the play. The water and the blood in the picture connect with the play when Lady Macbeth tells him to go and get some water to wash his filth of the hands.

The idea of the water could be the only way to get their blood of the hands even though lady Macbeth curses the imaginary spot of blood she can’t get of her hands. After he kills Banquo who then returns as a ghost Macbeth announces that blood will beget blood and the image of the blood spilling in the water sums it up as once you killed someone you might as well keep doing it till you've accomplished you goal which he does. You see how the blood is spreading around in the clean, pure water which could represent Macbeth’s good and noble side before the witches and then his wife fill his heads with ideas and bring the worse of him.

Also the ripples created by the blood falling in the water can apply to the storm and the battle that’s being waged between the king’s forces and the rebels.

102 Supernatural: Innocence Archetype

102 Supernatural: Innocence Archetype: "When we call others angels we see them as loving, kind, thoughtful, innocent and virtuous. Personally I believe I have most of the qualitie..."

sandra: Blog Entry 2.2 Innocence Archetype

sandra: Blog Entry 2.2 Innocence Archetype: " This image of the sun shining through the snow represents the archetype of innocence. When I look at this image it speaks to me about ..."

Innocence Archetype

When we call others angels we see them as loving, kind, thoughtful, innocent and virtuous. Personally I believe I have most of the qualities to place me in those criteria. I’m always helping other, always happy and joy full and I try to retain my innocence and try not to become cynical and bitter. I tend to respect every living thing as it were me in their position from the biggest to the smallest. My beliefs as a child have always been to give others the benefit of a doubt because no matter how bad they might be there is still good in them. I’ve always been the type that avoids confrontation and tries to make other see sense that violence is not the answer to resolve things and make them believe that life is not as bad as it might look right now cause there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you believe in it and things will get better. I’m not the type that waits for things to come to me I chase my goals and try and achieve to the best of my abilities, Whether it’s to make work a better environment or to help others when in need I’m always there. I’m not a charity were I’m giving stuff which I can’t afford away but what I do give is my help into making others life’s better in any way I can.

On the same note there is a movie called Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey which I love. It’s not that the movie was great it’s the idea behind it that has believing in humanity like I have for all my life which is part of my archetype were if you help others good things will come to you. You might argue that in this movie the boy gets killed but his image and what he stood for lives on. I’d rather die or spend my life along those lines than be scared of it. There is a raw power, a truth that rings clear in Pay It Forward.  It is entertaining, it is superbly acted, and it is the one true film, the one true idea that really could help make a positive and tangible difference in our society and our world. I’m not saying that only an innocent archetype or an angel can make a difference, all types of archetype can do well in their own way like a warrior risking everything to do what they believe is right even though they might be out powered and outmatched. I believe the innocent also have a larger ability to forgive rather than keep the hatred building up and ready to explode. So pay it forward when you can because it will get back to you when it’s your time for someone to pay it forward.

Goblin market - 2.1

Christina Georgina Rossetti, one of the most important women poets writing in nineteenth-century England, was born in London December 5, 1830.Rossetti was one of four children of Italian parents. Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti, her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti a painter, and she also had an older sister who was an Anglican nun.Although her fundamentally religious temperament was closer to her mother's, this youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics inherited many of her artistic tendencies from her father.

This poem is about two sisters the goblin men and Jeanie. They lived together and were used to getting water from the every evening from the stream were the goblin merchants would offer to sell them all types of fruit. As the poem cities one night Laura waited for her sister to leave and went to buy some fruits having no money with her, instead she offered a lock of her hair and a tear. She eats the fruit and one of the seeds then returns home. Lizzie the wiser sister remind her about what happened to Jeanie another girl who eaten the fruits from the goblins.  Things were different for Laura tonight. Instead of hearing the goblins happy and offering delicious fruits they were crying and chanting and to her horror she realizes that Lizzie can still hear them like she did the day before, welcoming charming and inviting. Unable to buy the fruits she starts showing the same symptoms that Jeanie did after she eaten the fruit. She stopped doing the household works, was depressed and deteriorating. She remembered the seed that she saved and went to plant it but it bared nothing. After some time Lizzie realizes that her sister is in the verge of death. As a good, caring and always cautions Lizzie goes to get some fruits from the goblin with money. At first they greet her like they do with every first times but then they turn malicious when she offers them money for the fruits and to take them home with her.

The goblins try and force her to eat the fruits, they drench in juice so she could get a taste of them. Like a good sister she runs home hoping that Laura can drink some of her juice from her body. She does so and she undergoes a violent transformation but as the story tells she returns to her usual self the next day and they live happily ever after. Wary of the danger they face from the goblin men and their irresistible fruits they have to offer. 

In the first line we have two symbols Morning which means new, fresh, untainted, and Evening which could be interpreted as darkness, mystery, evil or danger.

On the second line we have Maids in this case submissive, inferior, pure, and innocent.
In the third line you hear the goblin calling come buy our orchid fruits, come buy. Here we have fruits which can be associated with forbidden, the birth of evil, nourishing, sweet and orchid which could represent love, luxury, beauty and strength which leads to peoples temptations to have them like Laura when she buys the fruit.

In line sixteen the symbol of summer is shown which could mean bright, full of sun and light, warm, freedom, swimming, greenery just another way to disguise the reality of things to come if you buy fruits from the goblins.

Thirty-three the symbol Brookside is used which is the beginning of life. Water was present before the formation of Heaven & Earth, and water is the birth of life, necessary for survival and formation which could mean that the goblins were trying to interrupt that by plotting to kill the sisters like they did with the other girl.

Sixty-six has the symbol of Evil gifts which could be understood as forbidden pleasures, unwanted pleasures that we know are bad for us but we still want to try out. In this case it was the fruits which the goblins were offering which can be associated with the forbidden tree in Adam and Eve as I explained below.

Line eighty-two has Swan as a symbol which here could mean, Curiosity. Here the author is showing us how curios and tempted Laura was from all the fruits the goblins were offering.

Line eighty-eight Goblins could be symbolized as a grotesque sprite or elf that is mischievous or malicious or deceiving as it shows on the poem.  

Eighty-nine the symbol cry is used which could be mournful, depressing, the loss of water or it can also be a way into trick the others to feel bad about you and buy the fruits or the goblins are offering.

Tear is another symbol used and can be related to something of value a pearl. It’s like she’s selling her body for the forbidden fruits (one hundred twenty-seven).

The archetypes in the Goblin Market are Laura, Lizzie, the children and goblin men. Laura can be identified as the one who's easy to deceive one who trades her body for her desires like mentioned above this could have something to do with the writer working in whore house and also with eve and the forbidden fruits. Lizzie is the one who's always on the lookout and wary of the situation and also insisting toward her sister to not get fooled by the goblins. She could be associated with Jesus like being the savior or the man of the house since she was the responsible one and had no parents to look out for them but she was also kind and forgiving and had a lot of love for her sister to the extent were she was risking her own life to save another. The goblins can be associated with many things like the snake at the forbidden tree or the devil trying to control the weak people mind by offering them health and prosperity for their souls like when they did not take money but wanted something more personal like hair or parts of their soul etc. In the ends good prevails through the birth of their kids and wary of the risks of the goblin they tell their kids their stories. Family is such a strong bond that most of us would anything to save each other and that’s my understanding here so far. Jesus sacrificed himself to save us and we would have no boundaries to what we do when a family member is in peril.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti

http://dictionary.reference.com/

 

.

Pink Floyd Echoes

Pink Floyd Echoes

For me this is the greatest songs of all time from the Master of space rock. It's like telling a story that no one can comprehend, but at the same time telling a strange tale of human contact through the mind and soul. Pink Floyd are an English rock band who formed in the in the 1960 and achieved international success in for their psychedelic rock and later on went on to progressive rock.  They sold over 200 million albums worldwide including 74.5 million in the US which made them one of the best selling artists of all time. Initially there was five members in the band but as time progressed what became the real pink Floyd, the out of this world music that all pink Floyd fans  love was made by David Gilmour(lead guitar, vocalist, writer), Richard Wright(accord, vocalist, writer) and Nick Mason(drummer).   

In the first verse of this song I think they are trying to explain how life before it evolved had nothing to leave but echoes in their fight to survive.

Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
and deep beneath the rolling waves
in labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant tide
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine.

In this verse they sound like they describe something where people or the world they lived upon was totally free and there is no oppression by others. You are woken only by the rising sun and are not bound to anyone or anything. No one lies or tries to deceive you, or hide anything from you. And the fact that this song is called Echoes tells me that this land does not actually exist anymore, i.e. there remain only echoes of it.
And no-one called us to the land
And no-one knows the where’s or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light

The third verse in this song is difficult to interpret, unless taken literally, in which case the song is just describing a scene, with catchy and smooth lyrics. The "Strangers passing in the Street by chance...." line probably sums up what most of this song is about. It’s about understanding humanity with empathy, not antipathy (Roger Walters). In this sense, I can further expand and argue that the rest of this song, including the first verse, has to do with appreciating the very simple things in life which we so often forget to even acknowledge how they enrich our lives. Whether such thing can be an ocean and coral caves, or simply appreciating and acknowledging the fact that other people in this world are alive and imagining ourselves in their shoes, taking the time to even think about it makes Echoes an amazing song.

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can

And no-one calls us to move on
And no-one forces down our eyes
And no-one speaks and no-one tries
And no-one flies around the sun

On the final two verses I believe it’s a sign of how every day God calls us to rise through the sun light and no one is there to help us in our struggles. The end I believe is really   thoughtful too in a sense where there is always help when praying to god and giving up is not the answer but trying to make it in life even though when we are in our darkest moments there is still good in us that wants to come out and reach to others to help them stand up to sing them lullabies and make them believe that life is not worthless but is a precious gift given to us. Personally this song got me through a lot when I needed a place to escape from all the troubles we face but then again there was others inviting and inciting me to rise, like family, friends and more importantly having the will and believing in god that there will be better days ahead were cloudless skies and sunlight comes falling upon my waking eyes.

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

Watch the video and you’ll know what I’m talking about….

Sources used

http://classicrock.about.com/od/bandsandartists/p/pink_floyd.htm

http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/echoes-meddle-lyrics.html

http://www.lyricinterpretations.com/Pink-Floyd/Echoes