Importance of Being Earnest Costumes

Jack and Algernon Explore McNick

Children and Nature

Children and Nature To be a child again! With eyes so bright To revel in nature, to see with awe To admire the stars and the moon in the night To know and understand what it’s like to be small The children, they still know the magic of earth They have not become too busy to see Nature and its beauty and all of its worth And the splendor that has been lost to me We rush and we hurry throughout the day We don’t take a minute, we won’t take an hour To do like the children and take time to play To lay in the grass, to admire a flower I watch them and see their simple joys They don’t need much to make them smile What we see as plain, they love and enjoy Children understand the best life style They know the smell of books, the taste of tears The warmth of hugs, and the cold of snow They know the night time chill of monster fears And the promise of time still to grow Children have an awe of life when they’re so small And from them we have so much we can learn I wonder—why do they want to grow at all? Instead, to childhood we should all return. I watched a child, her happiness so pure Where does this go as we grow and mature? I wrote this poem in the style of William Wordsworth. William often wrote with common language, preferring natural sounding words over the lofty and pretentious sounding poetry of the day. Therefore, I tried to write simply and without using many elaborate metaphors. But at the same time, he definitely tried to make his poems flow and have a very lyrical rhyming pattern. One of his most common styles was ABAB CDCD EFEF, etcetera (which is what I followed in my poem). He also wrote often in stanzas of eight lines, which is also what I did in my imitation poem. One of his themes was of children’s connection to nature, and how people often lose this connection as they grow up. I wrote my poem on this theme as well, loosely based on his “Intimations of Immortality.” Out of all the Romantic poets, Wordsworth tried to connect to human feeling the most, which is why I liked his poetry the best. I also liked how he did not use elaborate language because his simple analogies and images make his poetry still understandable and relatable, even today.

Shakespeare in the Future

Shakespeare In the Future
by: meganrs114

Macbeth's Playlist

http://open.spotify.com/user/1221236253/playlist/6SirIH297kfhCXtlWkItNJ

1. I Just Can't Wait to be King (The Lion King)  This song very literally describes Macbeth's desire to be king.  As soon as he hears the Weird Sister's prophecy, he is obsessed with the idea of becoming king.

2. I'll Make a Man out of You (Mulan)  Lady Macbeth sits Macbeth down when he is having doubts and bullies him into killing the king, questioning his manhood and doing basically what the title of the song states, promising to "make a man out of him."

3. Dirty Little Secret (All American Rejects)  Once again, this song pretty literally represents how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth must keep the murder of the king their "dirty little secret."

4.  Ghost (Neutral Milk Hotel)  Although much of this song does not go along with Macbeth, the first line, "Ghost, Ghost, I know you live within me" describes the relationship between Macbeth and the ghost of Banquo.  Macbeth is the only one who can see the ghost of Banquo.

5.  Viva La Vida (Coldplay)  Most of the lyrics to this song fit the story of Macbeth's rise and fall of power.  I especially liked the lines "One minute I held the key/ Next the walls were closed on me/ And I discovered that my castles stand/ Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand."  Macbeth had it all for a while before he lost it.

6.  Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)  Macbeth is willing to do whatever it takes to survive.  He stands up to "the challenge of his rivals" by killing the family of Macduff.

7.  You're Gonna Go Far, Kid (The Offspring)  Many of the lyrics to this song describe Macbeth's rise to power.  For example, "With a thousand lies and a good disguise/ Hit 'em right between the eyes" (referring to the murder of the king) or "There's someone in your way/ And now someone is gonna pay" (referring to Macduff).

8.  All I Do is Win (DJ Khaled)  When Macbeth goes to the Weird Sisters for more prophecies, they make him overly confident in himself, so that he feels like all he can do is win.

9.  Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day) Near the end of the play, with the suicide of his wife and the advancing of Macduff's troops, Macbeth feels utterly alone and depressed.

10.  I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty) Even when Macbeth knows he is going to lose to Macduff, he continues to fight to the death.  He refuses to back down.

Women in Leadership Positions

Leadership and the transition of power has been, is, and always will be a big deal in society.  A leader, by definition, is someone who guides others and is seen as “in charge.”  Therefore, the person chosen to be in charge has a lot of weight on their shoulders.  It is a big responsibility, especially the leader of an entire society—like a king, queen, or president.  So what makes a good leader?  A leader should be able to think for the good of the community, which often means thinking with logic rather than emotion.

A stereotype of men versus women is that women are more inclined to be emotional and think with their hearts rather than their heads.  Men on the other hand, are stereotyped as the opposite: led by facts and their head, without as much consideration to the emotional outcome of a decision.  However, I would say that this stereotype is harmful because it leads us to believe that there are only two extremes: there is only emotion or logic, heart or head.  But this is not true, and a leader who lived by only one of these extremes would be a very poor leader.  It requires both—the capacity to make decisions for the greater good, but also the capacity to understand and consider the emotional outcome.  Therefore, I don’t think a woman needs to “dial down her emotions and act the part of a man” because I think that’s stereotyping.  But I do think that for a woman to be in a leadership position, she would have to be able to make decisions with less emotion—not because it is “more masculine,” but because it is a necessary leadership quality, despite the gender. 

But just as Hillary Clinton said, there is sort of a double standard for men in leadership positions versus women in leadership positions. “If you get too emotional, that undercuts you,” Hillary said. “A man can cry; we know that. Lots of our leaders have cried. But a woman, it’s a different kind of dynamic.”  It is definitely true that women are traditionally more sentimental or feeling-oriented than men.  But people should be judged by their abilities, not predetermined by their gender.  There should not be a double-standard.  Maybe Hillary was using this as part of her campaign, as some suspected: (“That crying really seemed genuine. I’ll bet she spent hours thinking about it beforehand.”)  But despite the motive, her statement still holds some truth.  A leader does need to have some degree of emotional thinking, but women are often judged harshly when they show this emotion.  Predetermined judging has always been a flaw in humankind, and it can trickle over to leadership positions as well.

Can You Learn Anything From a Void?


            We have been taught our entire lives that the bystander who lets something bad happen is as guilty as the one committing the act.  It’s just called a sin of omission, instead of a sin of commission.  And that’s really what a bystander does—they omit.  They act as if the problem never happened.  They choose to oversee it.  So yes, I know what I’ve been taught.  Bystanders are guilty by association, so those in Macbeth who carry out the executions are technically guilty, as are the Germans (including both Victor Capesius and Konrad Jarausch) who understood some depth of the atrocities the Nazis were committing, and either helped them to happen or allowed them to happen.

            But I don’t think we can be so quick to judge the bystanders.  How are we to know that in the same situation, we would be any different?  I would say that one basic fault of most humans is our tendency to follow the crowd, no matter where the crowd is going.  It’s difficult to stand up and fight the current, especially in cases where things like our lives are at stake.  Like the article said, to stop something like the Holocaust, millions of people would have to be willing to be killed for what they believe in.  And we simply do not have millions of martyrs in our society.  Sitting in my room, completely safe from harm, it’s easy for me to say that I would be willing to stand up for what I believe in to the death.  Of course it’s easy.  It’s not actually happening.  But if you put me in one of those situations—well, that’s a lot different.  I’m not saying that it’s okay for bystanders to let things happen.  I still stand by the fact that bystanders are responsible to do what is difficult and stand up for the right thing.  But I would like to acknowledge the difficulty of the task we are asking bystanders to do at the same time.

             I also would like to question the idea that the bystanders/”accomplices” hold an equal amount of guilt as the person committing the crime.  I think the amount of guilt depends on how much a person knows and understands about the crime.  (For example, in the most extreme sense, a toddler is not really guilty of something he or she does because of a general ignorance of right and wrong.)  But if the person knows what is going on and chooses to go along with it anyway, they hold equal guilt.  So in my opinion, Victor Capesisus holds equal guilt.  His actions may not have caused as much large scale damage as Hitler, but the depth of the crime is similar.  The same holds for the murderers who kill Banquo for Macbeth.  They knew what they were doing, and are therefore responsible for their actions. 

The Globe Theatre

The air around me is humid and sweaty, and there are people packed to bursting in the standing area—called the pit, I think—at the bottom of the stage.  It is a surprisingly hot day, and since this theatre is open air, the warmth of the sun mixes with the mingling bodies to make it hot enough that my clothes begin to stick to me.  There are crushed peanuts on the earthy floor that have started to dig into my feet, and loud chatter and noise comes at me from every which direction.  I turn to say something to my sister Mary, who came with me for an entertaining afternoon since we had finished work early.  I speak quite loudly to her, but she can barely hear above the festive atmosphere that surrounds us.  As groundlings, we are not exactly in the most comfortable position here at the Globe Theatre; but the price was only a penny and we are finally about to see one of William Shakespeare’s infamous plays!  I adore theatre of all sorts, and have always aspired to be an actress…however, as a girl, I know that dream is highly unreachable.  I will have to settle for today’s show, Romeo and Juliet.

I glance around at the people surrounding me, then at the wealthier class sitting in higher rows.  Their seats are better, but Mary and I could never afford it.  The people of the upper class that are sitting above us are dressed nicely, and some of the wealthiest women are even adorned in ornate masks.  There are three levels of seating above us, and they all look relatively packed.  I wonder how many people this place could hold—Mary thought one or two thousand, but I would guess something more like three thousand!  I gaze even farther upward, toward the architecture of the theatre.  The roof above the stage is decorated to look like part of the scenery—the sky, I suppose.  Everything surrounds the stage, which is right in the middle of the place.

                As the play starts, the crowd quiets only a little.  This appears to be a social function as much as it is entertainment!  There are even people who paid extra money sitting on the stage.  However, it is not hard for me to get lost in the play.  The plot is incredible, and I am immediately entranced by the star-crossed lovers.  It’s just so romantic!  I don’t understand everything that’s being said—partly because it can get hard to hear the actors over the crowd, and partly because the language of the play can get a little bit unusual, but I understand the underlying message. When the fight scenes occur, I gasp, and when Romeo kills himself just as Juliet wakes up, I feel tears welling up in my eyes.  This William Shakespeare fellow is a genius.           

                As Mary and I leave to walk back home, we bump into some friends who suggest going out to the local hang out spot, a friendly neighborhood tavern.  They were as impressed with the play as we were—and they said another play may be coming soon!