Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

While I was reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley I had the opportunity to imagine the entire story and I felt like a little child while reading it, because I was able to open my mind and think as a kid who is always wondering why things happen.

According to the period in which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, she was very influenced on the nature of Romanticism as well as her own experiences with life. If we think about the hidden message that Mary Shelley presented us in the book, we are going to realize that the story can be read as a tale of what happens when a man tries to create a child without a woman. Furthermore, the fact that the main character, Victor the modern scientist who created the monster was challenging the nature through his experiment represents how science and religion were confronting at each other, because it can be represented the powerful idea that man could change nature and being seen as God when having control of technology.

If we want to see the societal issues that Shelley depicted in her book, we just have to focus our attention in the main character, Victor, the modern scientist who unleashed upon an unsuspecting society. He was not fully aware of the consequences of his creation, the monster called Frankenstein, a new race of human beings. He spent his entire life trying to destroy the same creation. His excesses finally destroy him. From my point of view Victor represented the part of the psyche that is governed by the instinctive impulses of sex or aggression, as probably Freud could also describe him in his office.

To conclude I’d like to mention that I really like this book, because even though I’ve had read it before, this second time I could realized the context in which it was written. Besides, I also was able to open my mind and read as a child, due to the fact that through the image of Frankenstein I remembered the period when I was a child and as him I had to learn through my observations and by imitating what I saw, as well as Frankenstein Jr.

"I wandered lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth.

Wordsworth poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” can be very easy for us to interpret it if we know something about the Romantic era and its poetry, due to the fact that it emphasized on feelings such as freedom from rules, spontaneity, solitary life, intuition, love of beauty and nature and some irrational ideas about the self.

From my point of view, I believe that this poem puts the reader in the poet's state of mind, because it describes his process of thinking as someone who was wandering of a cloud, in its celestial route above earth in order to represent a peaceful factor such as loneliness. Although, to me loneliness does not carry a negative connotation; one can read this line as peaceful solitude as opposed to loneliness. Moreover, we can see through the poem that Wordsworth was not only alone, in fact he was happy to be alone as he enjoyed the tranquility of solitude while contemplating daffodils’ beauty.

To conclude, I’d like to relate this poem to my own experience with loneliness and what I always do to fight against that feeling. In Wordsworth case, the contemplation of nature was his only way to avoid sadness. In my own case to look at the stars give me the strengths and the hope I need to proceed when I feel sad and alone. Some other times I just appreciate the stars and the sky without having any reason, just to observe God's creation and realize what life has giving me. Some people sometimes fail to appreciate nature's wonders as they go about their daily routines. We have to learn to appreciate our environment.

"When I have fears that I may cease to be" John Keats.

Death, an enormous word, a cruel meaning that provokes us fears because of our own end of life as well as our loved one’s death. Probably most of us think about death once a while, wondering what happens after death in order to find any convincing answer to this question that no philosopher, scientist or religious can answers us.

Keats poem “When I have fears that I may cease to be” perhaps shows us the immensity of death which leaves a person standing isolated and alone metaphorically on "the shore of the wide world”. Furthermore, this poem represents the worst fears that a young person has while thinking about his or her early decease. In my own case I have the same feelings that Keats captured in his poem, such as: “not having enough time to love another fully, or write till the point where his pen glean'd his teeming brain, or reaching the level of fame he has always desired”, to me those words represent all my horrible feelings when thinking about death, although those last lines of the poem are beautiful well written.

As I mentioned before through this poem we can figure it out that the author knew that he will die being a young man because of his disease, and what hurts him the most is not being able to write his poems which will lead him to fame, and the loss of his beloved one.

To conclude, I believe that it is important to see in this poem how Keats uses a sonnet to discuss human fears about death through his own different fears of death.

"Kubla Khan". Poem written by Samuel Coloridge.

“Poetry is an art…of representing, in words, external nature and human thoughts and affections, both relatively to human affections, by the production of as much immediate pleasure in parts, as is compatible with the largest sum of pleasure in the whole”.

I strongly believe that in order to conceive the meaning of the story behind Coleridge’s poem called Kubla Khan, it is necessary to understand the circumstances and language techniques in which was written in, because in my opinion it seems that the poem was written by someone with mental disease.

I still remember that during one of our classes we talked about the importance that poetry takes in our lives. In the case of Kubla Khan poem I believe that the author wrote it as a way to express his medical condition. It is known that Coloridge took opium as antibiotic which helped him with his health issues. Probably, that is the reason why the poem seems so strange at times. But as the above quotation mentions; poetry is an art of representing human thoughts in this case Coloridge thoughts.

One topic of the poem that Coloridge points out is the nature of poetic inspiration. According to my own experience while reading the poem, I felt that Coleridge made use of the experience of being possessed by a daemon or guiding spirit in which the poet can’t control the daemon and what the daemon only wants it is to try to take advantage of it when it comes. To me this poem shows us in a paradoxically way the voices and the frustration of a poet whose daemon has dead.

To conclude, whether the poem displays or only simulates wild inspiration, whether the poet is out of his mind or fully in control, “Kubla Khan” is a magical poem full of human representations of feelings, thoughts and nature in order to illustrate the power of imagination to represent fragments of his own life.

"The little Black Boy" Poem written by William Blake.

“Pretty Baa lams” by Ford Madox Brown (1851-1859)

At a first glance in this poem Blake showed that human beings are ultimately the same despite the fact that we can have some physical differences. Through the innocence of a “little black boy” readers are able to see his desire of being accepted by a white English child. Although, we can see that this black boy felt different being a black person, I don’t see racial self-hatred in the poem. What I see is a confident guarantee that in God’s eyes everybody is “equal”.

In Blake's poem it is very clear and well represented an affectionate relationship between the mother and the little black boy. Through this representation the mother is very connected with God’s words and represented the figure of God on earth, due to she explained to her child that they will be vindicated in heaven where they will get closer to Jesus.

The painting “Pretty Baa lams” by Ford Madox Brown (1851-1859) made me feel closely connected to this poem, because its natural space and the way in which the mother holds in her hands the little boy depicts an interesting comparison within the poem. As example, the lambs and the grass field to me are connected with the idea of a symbolic God place in which eternity and heaven are represented through nature.

Final Essay.

Applying Literature inside the classroom.

“The Faerie Queene”: A Representation of the power of a new Female identity.

The following essay will discuss allegorical points of view in the poem; “Faerie Queene” by Edmund Spencer. By looking into the moral lesson in the poem, we are going to be able to understand the deeper dimensions that this knightly tale shows us. Moreover, through this discussion we are going to recognize how the Faerie Queene represented a construction of cultural aspects of the English society during the Elizabethan period.

Besides, this discussion will allows us to relate how literature and specifically the Faerie Queene contributed to be a representation of the literary ideal, as well as the new female image of the Elizabethan period, and how it created a social change. Furthermore, at the end of the discussion, this essay will guide us to find the reasons for using literature or a poem such as the Faerie Queene in the EFL classroom.

If we want to start to examine Spenser’s Faerie Queene we are going to realize that he used faery mythology to represent and celebrate a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. As an example of it the “Letter to Raleigh” provides the most direct expression of Spenser’s intentions for fairy and tells us how he uses the image of the faery queen and fairyland to present Elizabeth and her kingdom.

As we can see the poet of the Faerie Queene used the allegories to show a representation of a perfect image that people must had about Queen Elizabeth I and her reign, as well as the values of the Elizabethan society in order to cause an effect on readers and to establish some sense of meaning for them.

Throughout the The Faerie Queene, Spenser emphasizes the importance of performing one's duty and accepting responsibility to complete the quest. Several heroic figures emerge during the course of the poem and each is given a question to undertake, a monster or demon to extinguish. Each time, the hero must overcome disadvantage and hurdles to succeed, but the importance of the quest is always the overriding concern.

Having provided a motivation for the characters to fight against everything and overcome different types of situation to reflect values that every men should have, Spencer proceeds to supply a topical identification for the allegoric character of Gloriana, the Faerie Queene representing different aspects of the most excellent and glorious person, as well as the most virtuous and beautiful lady.

Probably, all of these representations that Spencer gave to Elizabeth I may have plenty of theories to explain why the poet wrote in favor of the Queen. But, from my personal point of view I think that all of the characterizations that Spencer gave to the Queen were based on the hypothesis of the phenomenon of female power that women started to have in England.

Regarding to the female power that Spencer demonstrated in the Faery Queene we can see reflected the rule that women had in general as a specific and unique aspect of Elizabeth’s rule that was beginning to dominate through when Spencer was writing. Queen Elizabeth, the virgin Queen, had, by virtue her virginity, the singular opportunity to name her own heir and shape England’s destiny. In Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene, the female characters hold the same power over their male companions.

At this point of the discussion we are able to see how the Faerie Queen figure is part of Elizabeth’s strategy to construct and manipulate her political iconography and idealized her representation as a Queen in order to legitimate her integrity and identity.

As I mentioned before, Elizabeth’s sex required a form of negotiation achieved through the construction of a series of mythological identities. All of the strategies used by Spenser in the construction of the perpetuation of the “cult” of Queen Elizabeth I were part of the creation of an ideal world where men behave with dignity and with truth and valor.

Edmund Spenser’s fairyland represents a world in which personal values were more important than greed or lechery. From my own perspective, I think that when Spencer was creating his utopia, he was also responding to changes in English life, as English society moves from the middle Ages into the Renaissance.

To sum up, on the one hand we can say that The Faerie Queene represents in an allegorical way the image of female dominion over male identity, because through the characterization that Spencer gave to the Queen, we as readers are able to interpret the figure that Elizabeth I wanted to spread over the English Empire. On the other hand, the poem gives us as readers the opportunity to reflect on the values that were important during the Elizabethan period, and through the image of the characters of the poem find in the hidden messages of this knightly tale some cultural aspects of the English society.

Clearly, until this point of the discussion we are ready to figure out how we as teachers of a foreign language can apply this kind of topic to our classroom. One of the main answers is to teach to our students the capacity of understand what they are reading, even though when most of the times they have to read old texts with different contexts or periods of time that they cannot empathize.

Consequently, we can say that it is crucial for teachers to empathize with our students and guide them when they are in the labor of understanding a literature piece. Similarly, we as teachers must teach our students how through reading they can find messages, so their attitude towards what they are reading must be active, instead of passive. In a nutshell, what I’m trying to explain is what we as teacher must do at the moment of bringing the literature into the classroom. As a first step we need to teach to our students how they can feel part of what they are reading in order to think in a critical way and in the same way practice with them the capacity of critical literacy.

Finally, as we may know literature is authentic material. In the case of The Faerie Queen we can see how through the reading and understanding of it, we are exposing our learners to deal with difficult unknown periods of time, indeed, students are also dealing with new language which expands their language awareness, so they can also used them outside the class. In the same way literature encourages interaction, we can bring discussions about a specific topic of a literature piece, such as the one we were discussing, the representation of Queen Elizabeth I in the Faery Queen.

Literature, also gives us the opportunity to share students’ feelings and opinions. In all respects, literature educates the whole person, by examining values in literary texts, such as the way in which Spencer showed his intention to make readers conscious about the attitudes that a person in the Elizabethan period must had. As we know, these values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom, and that is exactly the way in which a teacher can collaborate to students’ meaningful learning.

Work Cited.

Carter, R. and M. Long. Teaching Literature. 1991, Longman.

References:

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=13567293

http://www.eslelite.com/biz/articles_for_teachers/articles_literature_in_an_esl_classroom.htm

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austin.

Chapter 39.

Elinor and Marianne were invited by the Palmers to Cleveland, due to the insistence of Mrs Jennings, they decided to accept the invitation. Once they were at Cleveland, Colonel Brandon visited them and asked Elinor to inform Edward that he is prepared to give him a position at the Delaford rectory. While Elinor and Colonel Brandon were talking about how Edward could lead a comfortable life, but he wasn't able to afford a wife, Mrs. Jennings, who was observing the conversation, she concluded that they look nice as a couple and instead of talking about Edward they must be talking about a wedding.

Chapter 40.

Mrs. Jennings approaches Elinor soon after the Colonel's exit. She congratulates her and asks her many questions, which reveal her mistaken assumption that there is an engagement between Elinor and the Colonel. Elinor showed to Mrs. Jennings that she really appreciate Brandon's generosity towards Edward. When Edward arrives, Elinor tells him the good news, he is pleseantly surprised.

Elinor goes off to visit Fanny Dashwood, who has not been feeling well since the news of Edward and Lucy's engagement. She is greeted at the door by John Dashwood, who shares the news that Robert Ferrars will inherit his mother's estate in place of his brother. Just then, Robert Ferrars arrives and expresses his pity for his older brother. John leaves them to inform his wife of Elinor's presence, and Fanny Dashwood, upon receiving Elinor, expresses her regret that the Dashwood sisters will be leaving town so soon.