Can love be locked up in a casket?

The merchant of Venice is one of the well-known plays of William Shakespeare. The 2004 movie performed by Jeremy Iron and Robert De Niro brought into life this famous play, showing Shakespeare point of view about love and friendship. In Venice, Antonio signed a contract to help his friend Bassanio to get a loan from Shylock in order to go and marry her love Portia. This love story became a tragedy when Shylock, the one who lend the money, demands Antonio to pay back with a pound of flesh his incomplete contract.

Bassanio asked Antonio for money because Portia, his love, is a rich heiress which has her destiny signed by a promise done to her father: she is going to get married with the one who can discover in which of the three caskets –gold, silver and lead- is her portrait. All these caskets have an inscription note which tells the value of each casket to the man who is willing to take a chance and open one of them. “Man and woman are two locked caskets, of which each contains the key to the other”

Firstly in trying to open one was the prince of Morocco. This character seems to be a valiant and secure man who is willing to try this lottery in which Portia is into. His decision was based on the idea that he deserves to be with the rich heiress, so he chose the golden casket which is not the one. Secondly, the Prince of Aragon comes to choose a casket. This character is performed as a selfish man who believes he is better than the rest to deserve Portia. He chose the silver casket which was not the one. With this scene the audience discovers that the leaden casket is the right one. Finally, Bassanio, confident of his fortune, goes and takes his turn in choosing the casket. The uncertainty of this situation makes Portia doubt about his fortune. However, at the moement he arrived to Belmont, he asked her to trust and lead him to the caskets. Looking at all of them, Bassanio trusts in his true love and chooses the leaden casket, the one which has Portia’s picture and the one which allow him to marry her.

This part of the story is well developed along with the perfect images from Venice and the situations that were happening there: Shylock loosing his daughter and with her, his mind becoming his goal the pound of flesh from Antonio as revenge. You will be impressed by the performance of these two actors mention at the beginning: both of them acquire the right mood for their characters and the performance needed to understand what happens at the end of the film.

The climax of the movie occurs in the trial. All the characters take part of it, each one of them defending Antonio’s life and trying to help Shylock see what was wrong about his decision. Justice is been done by people, so we have to start for being fair to our souls and our hearts. What happens in those scenes, you ask spectators need to judge. The only thing that I can provide you with is telling you how well this movie is done and how the argument is close to the book.

This movie is a love story, but not only a couple in love. It is about romantic love, family love, love for your beliefs and the place you live. It is a two-hour movie which shows the true play written by Shakespeare, along with the good performances directed by Michael Radford.

Outline_ Film Review

Can love be locked up in a casket?

1-Promise done: Portia to his father

2-Open a casket and find love

3-Love between souls not titles

4-After all, love always wins

Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh

Reading this letter was a challenging task. Most of the words are known nowadays, but I felt there was some information missing. I felt I did not get the whole idea from the letter, neither the purpose.
I believe the author wanted to use a historical character to develop his story of a noble and virtuous gentleman. At some point, this story is called an allegory because it tried to make a figurative representation of something else; something abstract that it is better understood by using what we know as allegory. For instance, using some well-know character to interpret the main values or virtues of this invented gentleman who is the main character of the story or the usage of king Arthur who we all know from real and fictional stories.
Moreover, Sencer used many characters such as King Arthur and some knights to show some characteristics that he considered important: virtuosity, bravery, honorability and nobility. The author used 12 knights to represent 12 different vales and their opposites to improve his story.

I think this choice was be made base on the common knowledge the society had about this stories, for example, King Arthur's.

I am not sure why he wrote this letter, however, I am going to make a guess. Mr. Spencer would had written to Sir Walter Raleigh because he wanted to show respect to him and at the same time, validate his work in front of his eyes.

What do women desire the most?

The Canterbury Tale we read showed to us what I woman from the 14th century wanted. How different she was from the rest of them, and how truly she tried to be with her heart and desires.

Women desire the most what is in their hearts, and because we are all different human beings, we must have different desires inside of it. Some of us may want be understood, some others be safe and loved; a group may want to be respected and independent and some others feel free to do what they want.

However, most women would wish to receive and give love; receive appreciation for what they do and in my personal case, be remembered for the ones I loved. I want my life to be important for somebody else. I want to make a change, but what I want the most is to be remember for what I did and what I could change in other’s lives: my future students, my friends and people I can meet along the way.

Is that much to ask? Can I be remembered as I want? I have to do my best to live a life that has the characteristics of a good life, being myself and respecting others as I wanted to be respected.

What do we mean by truth?

As Mr. Chaucer wrote, the truth has to do with the reality in which you live. I think he called his poem “Truth” because it was a way of showing what he saw in those days and what most people believe was real.
For example, when he talked about “For greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty…” I believe he tries to show a social issue that happened in the past, and that also has an influence in the present. Having money is equal to having power and it is something that most people want to accomplish to be successful; it seems to be an element from our days but we can see it was an issue already in the past, as part of a big truth.
My feelings about this poem have relationship with what I interpret from Chaucer point of view about religion. At the beginning I was confused, I was not sure if he was criticizing religion or making fun of it. Then, I just figure out that he was showing the role it played in society. So now, I am still confused. I know what he wrote but I am not quite sure if I know that he felt. Poetry is an art, it is written by one but interpret by many.

My definition of an Epic Poem

An epic poem is a story; a fictional situation set in the past. It can be written now or then but it uses an outstanding character who has the courage to confront anything to save someone else. I believe there must be a hero and a difficulty to solve and a message for everyone who reads it. Although, the story is the same I think the message is going to be received/perceived in many different ways.

Being an active reader will be always important because an epic poem could be very different from our own lives, however, we can use our experiences to make it ours.

Teaching Literature, teaching anything.

The understanding of human beings has to be reflected and passed on by someone who can perceive itself as part of this group and has the courage to see the world from a different perspective. In this particular case, Todorov suggests that through literature people can accomplish this understanding of human beings.

“Since the object of literature is the human condition itself, the person who studies it and understands it will be become, not a specialist in literary analysis but an expert in being human” (Todorov, 2007)

If teaching literature requires a special sensibility to perceive other human being, the person who is in charge of teaching it must use all their senses to capture humans’ essence. Moreover, this should be a person so keen that will transmit all his/her knowledge to others thinking in having a better world.

Teachers need to be responsible of the power literary works give to them and the knowledge this give people about humans. A teacher with this power will enter his/her classroom with the knowledge of what to teach to students to make them grow in all the aspects a human beings can grow.

Every person who wants to become a teacher needs to be aware of the role he/she has; being a guide and support students decision will contribute to be aware of the role we all play in this world.