Blood Wedding Journal #3

I am not certain weather this play constitutes tragedy or not. As opposed to tragic, it seemed chaotic. It was not things happening outside of a persons control, but seemingly random acts that were preformed well within peoples control. Why did the bride marry the bridegroom? She should have ran away with Leonardo beforehand. Called off the wedding. If she didn't want to get married, it seems like the mother also didn't want her to get married, and she should have then called the wedding off. This is not tragic but stupidity and lack of foresight that created an unhappy situation.

To me this play raises the question of who is to blame. The bride? The bridegroom? Leonardo? I think that Lorca leaves this unclear intentionally. Possibly, who is to blame that brings about these unhappy situations doesn't matter. Perhaps they are inevitable. If the rise of these situations in bound to happen, then it doesn't matter who gave rise to them. Or possibly it is a combination of people, one act by one person and one act by another person combine to make a third person act a certain way. This however, doesn't matter if one way or another the unhappiness will come.

IOP Journal # 5

With the process of creating my IOP winding down, I am well pleased. Now what I have left is to add transitions and smooth over the edges and I will be ready to present. My project has evolved from my original idea, but I am pleased with the result. I think that I am accurately reflecting Camus philosophy, and I would like to think that he would approve of my presentation. I think I am presenting a different look on The Stranger than other presenters have and I think my presentation also digs deeper into the philosophy behind the book. With my own analysis I synthesized what I thought about the book and what I have read on absurdism and I think the product is insightful and that it will be a meaningful presentation.

I am definitely nervous, but if I say every thing I have come up with in an organized manner I will be happy with my presentation. It has form and substance, and I hope that I leave the class with a better understanding of what the absurd is all about.

Blood Wedding Journal #2

Is style more important than plot?

For the play Oedipus, I answered that plot was more important than style. I stand by this answer, I think that plot was more important that the details of the way the plot was written. However, I do not think the same for blood wedding. I think style is extremely important in this play. Lorca uses a lot of symbolism and the play switches between prose and poetry. The poetry is more difficult to read and makes you pay more attention to the words being used. Blood Wedding is written in a more stylistic way than Oedipus or Wild Duck. Because of this it is more important to pay attention to the style used, and the style will be a contribution to the them of the play.

Blood Wedding Journal #1

This play seems deceitful. I think it is one that requires exceptionally close reading. Things seem okay and possible rather cheery on the outside, but are rather glum on the inside. The bride says she knows what she is getting herself into when the mother says "do you know what being married is, child?" However, the stage direction points out that she "gravely" says that she knows. She claims to be happy and to be voluntarily be married, but she knows the unhappiness it will bring. Possibly she does not have hope for a better situation. She call marring "my duty." She feels obliged to marry, and it is possibly societal pressure that is drawing her into this.

The idea of marriage is seen in all three texts we have been studying in class. And so far in the two we have finished, the marriages are all to some degree dysfunctional. Oedipus unknowingly marries his mother, and when he finds this out she commits suicide and he gouges his eyes out. Hjalmar finds out his wife had a relationship with a man he despises and refuses to forgive her, and this leads to his daughters suicide.

At this point, if this trend continues, I can only imagine what tragedy can come of the marriage in this play.

IOP Journal #4

The Stranger is a direct reflection of Camus developing philosophical ideas. He puts them on display directly through the charactor Mersault. However, I think that with the timing of the novel, Camus ideas were subject to misinterpritation.
The Stranger, as well as the absurd that Camus was developing, is not a reflection of the glum situation of the world. Rather, it is a call to happieness. Because the events of world war II, the holocaust, and massive otrocities that happened just before the stranger was published, they saw it as a reflection of this. However, without looking closely at the last two pages of the novel in relation the the Myth of Sysphis, his philosophy is misinterprited. Camus reflected a more positive view of the world and the human condition.

"The struggle towards the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagine Sisphys is happy"

This quote is from the Myth of Sysphis. The same can be said of Mersault.

In the end of the novel, Mersault is happy. That is the foremost detail of The Stranger.

IOP Journal #3

I think that often times absurdist philosophy is put in a negative light. It is thought as depressing and hopeless, but my goal is to show the positive aspects of it. I want to show the absurd as not a depressing and gloomy philosophy but as an invitation to happieness and contentment in life.
The key concept lies in the question of what Sysphys is feeling after he has completed his meaningless task, and is watching the boulder fall back to the ground. Is he regreting his past mistakes and dreading his current situation? Camus would beg to differ. Sysphus could not be happier and more content. He has nothing else to worry about, and has accepted his life. When there is no longer any hope, Sysphys can be happy. He only has this life, so he must live it to its full potential.
Mersault is almost a mirror image of Sysphys. He is also put into this extreme situation, and is forced to deal with being stripped of no hope. Mersault also accepts this, and finds happieness. His reasoning, when he knows his execution is imminent, is that it is the very fininiteness of live that makes it so valuble. When faced with the absurd, Mersault finds happieness and contentment as does Sysphus. It is in theses extreme examples that the philosophy can shine through, and the extreme conditions that help Camus prove his point.

IOP Journal #2

The goal of my IOP is to accurately reflect Camus philosophy according to The Stranger. To do this I will steer away from mentioning existentialism and focus on the absurd. Camus did not like being lumped in to being called an existentialist and I will honor this in my presentation. Camus described The Stranger as "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd" and this is where the inspiration to my presentation comes from.

The Myth of Sysphus is also a source of inspiration of my presentation. This is an essay Camus wrote on absurdism and also a Greek myth. In the Greek myth, Sysphys is condemned by the gods to an eternity of preforming a futile task--rolling a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll back down to be rolled back up again. According to Camus, this is the embodiment of the absurd. Sysphis has no meaningful purpose, and no hope for progression. In life, Camus argues that we all have no meaningful purpose and no hope for progression. This is reflected through the character Mersault in The Stranger. Mersault is a dynamic character, and through him shines Camus philosophical ideas.