Tragedy Journal #3

 I feel that there are a hand full of characters at fault for Hedvig's death, those being, Gina, Greggers, Hjalmar, and ultimately Hedvig. Gina is to blame because she is the one that brought Hedvig into this world. She is the one that, fueled the facade, at any point in time Gina could have told Hjalmar that she was already pregnant before they met, but she hadn't. I understand that in that time it is unheard of for a woman to have an illegitimate child, and be honest about it, but had she have been honest none of this would have happened, in fact her and Hjalmar may not have even married. I feel that Greggers takes a lot of responsibility as well because he is the character who metaphorically speaking, opens a pandora's box when he comes into town. Had Greggers have not intervened it is possible that the Ekdals could have continued their lives happily without any acknowledgement of the truth. Greggers also tells Hedvig how to kill the wild duck, which is how she actually kills herself, but he also calls her the wild duck so he is confusing her in her vulnerable state. Hjalmar is the next character to take responsibility for Hedvig's death because of his reaction. Hedvig is only thirteen years old and she is unable to fully grasp what is going on. Because of Hjalmars reaction Hedvig thought he hated her. However, I do feel that it is unfair to blame Hjalmar all that harshly for his reaction because I feel that if a person found of what he did, they have every right to explode. Lastly is Hedvig because she was the one who killed herself, I feel that she shouldn't have but she didn't know what else to do because she felt that her father hated her. In the end Greggers feels responsible I think because he thought she killed the wild duck, and when he sees she shot herself he doesn't understand it, so I don't think he foresaw she would do that, however he never blatantly admits his guilt or that he feels responsible.

Tragedy Journal #2

Topic: motif of decay, disease, illness.
I believe that Ibsen uses the motif of decay and illness to portray how secrets and lies can bring about ones downfall. Metaphorically speaking, secrets can eat people up inside, and often times, if the secret is big enough, lies and secrets can make a person physically sick. What comes from knowing secrets that are not your own, or finding out the truth after a long period of time can be destructive. Greggers for example, tells his father "You have soured my whole life. Oh, I'm not just thinking of what happened to my mother. But it's you I have to thank for the fact that I'm continually haunted by a guilty conscience" (209). Greggers shows that knowing about Gina and his father made his life "soured", and even impacted his conscience. Greggers feels that it is his obligation to solve this illness of the hurtful lies that soured his life which leads to his father telling him that his "conscience is queasy" (210). No one in the novel really understands where Greggers is coming from, but his is motivated in part to tell the truth because he whole-heartedly believes in it, but he also is driven to find the cure to the sickness of the lies and deceit that ruined his life. His mother probably knew before she died that she was being cheated on, or so it is alluded to in the play, and her suspicions most likely rubbed off on her son. Werle having affairs on Greggers dying mother had a reasonably negative impact on his life, therefore it is no wonder why he feels that others should have to bare the burden of this secret, or help him dissolve it. Other characters like Relling view Greggers as simple just being ill. This belief leads Relling to say, "He's suffering from a surfeit of self-righteousness" (212). At this point him, Gina, and Hedvig quickly establish that Greggers need fort he truth makes him ill, therefore rationalizing that the truth is unneeded and, and deciding that their lives are better without the truth. It is easier to deny things if they are found to be flawed, so by calling Greggers ill, it makes what he is trying to preach to them not seem like a necessity. However, shortly after Greggers reveals the truth to Hjalmar and everything then gets worse.

Tragedy Journal #1

Option 2:


I think it's clear in the play that Hjalmar is debatably the most mislead character. He has misconceptions of the most basic things such as his wife and daughter. The fact that he has this immense misconceptions and is eventually hindered by the truth the audience sympathizes with Hjalmars naivety. Hjalmar did not know that Werle was actually the one that got Gina pregnant, therefore making Hedvig Werle's own biological daugther. On top of that, it seems that most other characters have caught on or know about this secret, the most important being Gina. Gina clearly knows that Hedvig is not Hjalmars, why they have the photography job, and even get money from the Werles, although she may not let on that she knows these truths. The fact that she fools Hjalmar every day shows how she helps in creating this facade happy family for her and Hjalmar when she possibly may not even love him. This facade Gina and Werle have created leads to Greggers confronting the lies at hind and in turn revealing the truth to Hjalmar. Greggers is a character that believes he sees everyone and everything as they are simply because he believes in the evident power of the truth. Although Greggers may be able to reveal entities about other characters, he is truthfully very mislead about himself. Greggers sees himself in a very richeous light that the other characters and audience do not view him in. This contrast in how Greggers sees himself and how others view him fuels the conflict of the play, and even motivates Greggers- proving that he needs to reveal the truth to help others.

We Journal #3

Motifs: Colors: I have changed my mind again! Colors ARE a motif, but only select colors, however it goes beyond pink. One color being blue is associated with O. I think blue was chosen because the connotations of blue can be sad, and she's a very emotional person for their society. She loves D, she is pregnant, she is sad, as well as the two of them having a sort of family connection to each other. She is a character that feels things very deeply and D will always mention her "blue eyes" (190) or "blue emptiness" (192). I think it's very interesting how even a character who was apart of D's life before he changed, experienced deep emotions, so really emotions still exist within the society even though they should not. A second color that I've found reoccurs with the same context is yellow. Yellow is always mentioned when talking about either ancient people, or this concept of wild savagery. For instance, on page 93 and 94 in the first third of the novel, he mentions an animal of some sort o the other side of the wall with yellow eyes, then visits the ancient house and the old woman also has yellow eyes. As it turns out, the "animal" he saw, was a person living on the other side. Both these yellow are associated with yellow and it shows that they are connected by having to do with defying the One State. Bringing it back to the last third, after D-503 has attacked U, he says "With shaking hands... the large, yellow, flabby body fell back on the bed..." (209). He has just done something uncivilized, and these uncivilized, unaccounted for actions are things which are related to the ancients or those living outside the wall.

Shadows: On page 202, when he is getting on the Integral and he's thinking about the plan he sees "a rapid spot flew like a brown shadow" and this is not the first time shadows have been noted. They were mentioned in earlier parts of the novel, and I've realized that shadows, or fog, which was also mentioned in the novel, cover things and remove clarity. The One State cannot function properly without clarity, and definite answers, so this idea of shadows or fog is a motif for imagination and souls. Imagination and souls, can challenge or threaten logic by making it harder to have things run on the button, but at the same time imagination helps logic be carried out. So, I think that in the instance before the big event where they will take over the Integral, the fact that D sees shadow, shows how he as a character has had his previously engraved logic be clouded and ignored by his emotions, imagination, and the idea of a soul.

There was the continuation of using nature to make figurative language, but I've talked about that before.

Setting: When D goes outside the walls, he looks at the sun and says "this was not out sun, evenly diffused over the mirror-smooth surface of our pavements" (154). This leads me to believe what I stated in the second journal, about how the weather is controlled, and not only that but maybe that there are two suns, the real sun outside the walls, and the artificial sun which has specific degree rays. Also I think it could be two suns because when the wall explodes D says it's so bright everywhere, and that he fell asleep at seven, and just as it got dark, he "could see the bird-strewn roofs" (225). So, with the wall gone, there's ultimately havoc. There's birds on roofs, which before did not go into the society much, two suns, and on top of that he finds his dead friend R. He says the street was swept clean after the wall got blown up, so the city was really destructed, and branches and nature where inside the society. I think the branches on page 226 re key because nature can be abstract and something to admire, whereas they find it ugly because it may not have a definite logical purpose, but with the destruction of the wall these things are prevailing and infringing upon their society.

Language: He uses lot of figurative language! He uses extended metaphors and lots of similes. for instance, on page 185 he says "the wind was ... carrying me like a slip of paper". Also before he gets the operation, he stops using a lot of math words, however this does not mean he stops using logic. He is talking about how something cannot be white and black because they're opposites, or how duty and crime cannot be one and the same. He is questioning the sort of "grey areas" in life and society, like white lies, or things that may be "bad" but aren't bad considering the situation. D finally concludes that there is "no black or white in life", by realizing that not everything can be computed and deciphered with math and science (190). Although he concluded this, he used logic, but no math terms like he once did. However, after having the operation to remove your soul, he goes back to picking out the finite details in faces and says, "the forehead a huge yellow parabola" noticing that there is a U-shaped function within a mans face (208). I believe Zamyatin does not want people to lose their imaginations because with that it means that things cannot properly function, and truly even in the people who did not have an imagination or soul, like O, she still felt feelings and got pregnant. So Zamyatin is also saying that this can never really happen as is shown through how the doctor in the first half was in on the rebellion, as were many others.

We Journal #2

Motifs:

Colors: last time I talked about how colors could be a possible motif, but now that I've read more I don't think they are. He still mentions the pinks when referring to women or sex because their pink coupons permit sex, and greens in nature, and some days are yellow and the sun and the atmosphere, but for the most part I feel that colors don't play much significance anymore, or maybe they never did and I was just mislead and over analyzing the color scheme.

Faces: D-503 always describes the faces of those he talks to and at the beginning of the 2nd third he would continue to describe various facial movements in the way that their shapes are, rather than saying frown or anger. But now, he doesn't say she looked angry, but he's better at noticing a facial expression has emotion rather than shapes that make it up, for instance he says, "stern, shaggy eyebrows turned to me" (156). D notices that the face is stern, but rather he focuses on one aspect of the face rather than the bigger picture of the emotions.

Nature: He's mentioned before that the society doesn't find nature to be very attractive or important, but he always describes things in nature metaphors, like he says, "I kissed the ingrown mossy mouth" (94). I just think it's interesting that he mentions nature so often, I think that shows how he's different that the society too because of how often he mentions something that they all find repulsive.

Glass: There's still a lot of mention of glass, so the analysis I put for that in my first entry still stands about how it's a very clear way to depict the governments ability to look into the lives of the people.

Souls: "I have a soul, I am a microbe" (131). He mentions souls a lot, and how it's "bad" to have one, yet he realizes that he is gaining a soul, and with that imagination which goes against his life and society. they believe that imagination and souls are one in the same and to have an imagination or a soul, would be proving the completely math driven, logical society, wrong. Through this motif it is shown that there is conflict in the society with people having souls, emotions, imagination, and how the society that the government has created cannot function properly or have total control when individuals have imaginations.

Setting:

Sun: D-503 mentions the weather and the day changing on page 104 and he says the the day was different but that the setting rays from the sun "fell at exactly the same angle" as the ones when the sun rises, so that makes me question the governments ability to control the weather. I'm not sure why they would want to do this, other than to show that they can, to keep things in their control, to have more power than God, or nature or outside forces. So I guess the weather control shows governmental control.

Green wall and nature: at the beginning of the seventeenth entry he talks about how the green wall blocks out ugly nature, and the ocean, so I don't think there's any moving bodies of water in their society. He says that they were isolated from trees and other nature, so that also makes me question if they have any nature inside their society, and if not, how does D-503 describe it so well, or how does it come to his mind so often? He also thanks the green wall for being there, he's happy to be inside the wall and away from the rest of the world, so I imagine that's how many people feel because the wall is just glass, and I would imagine if people wanted to leave, they could, but they don't.

Also, the ancient house is different than their current houses because when D goes to visit it at one point he mentions the "opaque door" (153). I think it's interesting that the ancient house has an opaque entrance because it makes it so it's unclear, and clouded in the same way that imagination, or a soul, can cloud judgment and logic.

Language:

It's interesting because now we as the reader are really watching him transform from a loyal, unquestioning member of society, to a radical being that thinks, imagines and dreams. D-503 goes off on these elaborate tirades about these dreams or fantasies, but then he will also express how much he loves the society. He did this when he talked about how happy he was for the wall and being "saved" by the wall from animals on the other side, but then goes to the ancient house. He uses a lot of figurative language, and most of it has to do with nature. He uses a lot of extended metaphors or short metaphors to really get his ideas across. He uses similes a lot too, and when he uses them a lot of times he refers to animals. I haven't figured out yet if they have any animals in the society, but he said, "repulsive and agile as a gorilla" (144).

We Journal #1

Q: Dystopian Journal #1: How do the motifs, setting, and language contribute to our understanding of the society. Address each area separately and in depth.

Motifs: In We so far there are several motifs. One motif is glass. Many things are made out of glass, and their homes have glass walls. I think that this motif clearly shows the evasiveness and control of the government through the lack of general coverage people are aloud to have. The glass is transparent and therefore is a very obvious motif for their lack of freedoms. There is the motif of shapes when describing people for example D-503 will say her crescent downward mouth, instead of a frown. Looking at emotions in terms of shapes I think shows the sense of detachment that people were taught to feel. I think they are sort of taught to separate themselves from emotions through looking at things very scientifically and mathematically it just reduces the emotional value in life. There's also a lot of colors of shades. Pink reoccurs a lot when talking about women and the pink coupons, there's the green wall, and there there is emphasis placed on the lightness or darkness of a situation.

Setting: The novel takes place in the future and many of the characters, and D-503 in particular talk about "the ancients" a lot. D-503 is writing his book or journal entries for the ancients, but he also refers to us as aliens or people that live on Mars, so it makes me question either if they've been told that we didn't always live on Earth, or if we moved then went back to Earth. I think the fact that they are meant to be in the future and be far more intelligent than us, the reader, shows their confidence in themselves as a society. Everything is calculated out and math and science play a great effect in people's day to day lives. Generally speaking, people do not question authority or speak out. Their civilization is really small, only a small portion of the worlds population exists now after the 200 years war, and they're in this sort of enclosed place, surrounded by the green wall, although it's not green, it's glass.

Language: There are several allusions to science and math, for example D-503 mentions Newton and his theories. These allusions show the importance of math and science to the society. He also uses math words like sinusoids, and imaginary numbers, those sorts of things. I really like the fact that the novel is told by D-503, I think his point of narration shows a lot of character, especially for how the society is and how people seem to lack character. I like that he shows his thoughts by saying that he apologizes for overlooking to explain things because they're as natural as explaining what a coat is. His narration is just really friendly and it makes you want to keep reading. He uses a lot of figurative language like similes and ongoing metaphors when he writes to the reader and it makes his reading very colorful.