WEEK 18 西概筆記(Western Literature)

Final Exam

WEEK 17 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. Stories

a. Samson

Samson, meaning "man of the sun", is one of the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Hebrew Bible .
According to the biblical account, Samson was given supernatural strength by God in order to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats such as killing a lion, slaying an entire army with only the jawbone of an ass, and destroying a pagan temple. Samson had two vulnerabilities, however: his attraction to untrustworthy women and his hair, without which he was powerless. These vulnerabilities ultimately proved fatal for him.

b. Delilah

  
Delilah is a character in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall. Her figure, one of several dangerous temptresses in the Hebrew Bible, has become emblematic: "Samson loved Delilah, she betrayed him, and, what is worse, she did it for money," Madlyn Kahr begins her study of the Delilah motif in European painting.
→ Fatal woman

The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1,100 silver coins) to try to find the secret of Samson' s strength so they can get rid of it and capture their enemy. Samson, refuses to reveal the secret, teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength should he be bound with fresh bowstrings.She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings. She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too. She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together.She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes. Eventually after much nagging from Delilah, Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair. Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson' s seven locks. Since that breaks the Nazirite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines, who blind him by gouging out his eyes. After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain and making milk by turning a large millstone.

c. Beatrice Portinari

Beatrice Portinari was a Florentine woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also commonly identified with the Beatrice who appears as one of his guides in the Divine Comedy in the last book, Paradiso, and in the last four cantos of Purgatorio. There she takes over as guide from the Latin poet Virgil because, as a pagan, Virgil cannot enter Paradise and because, being the incarnation of beatific love, as her name implies, it is Beatrice who leads into the Beatific vision.

d. Purgatorio

Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno, and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, except for the last four cantos at which point Beatrice takes over as Dante's guide. In the poem, Purgatory is depicted as a mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, consisting of a bottom section (Ante-Purgatory), seven levels of suffering and spiritual growth (associated with the seven deadly sins), and finally the Earthly Paradise at the top. Allegorically, the poem represents the Christian life, and in describing the climb Dante discusses the nature of sin, examples of vice and virtue, as well as moral issues in politics and in the Church. The poem outlines a theory that all sin arises from love – either perverted love directed towards others' harm, or deficient love, or the disordered or excessive love of good things. 
→ 最底下是 Satan 犯了 hubris的罪行

e. Moses

Pharaoh had commanded that all male Hebrew children born be drowned in the river Nile, but Moses' mother placed him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bulrushes by the riverbank, where the baby was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. One day after Moses had reached adulthood he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses, in order to escape Pharaoh's death penalty, fled to Midian (a desert country south of Judah).

He encountered the God of Israel speaking to him from within a "burning bush which was not consumed by the fire" on Mount Horeb (which he regarded as the Mountain of God).There, on Mount Horeb, God revealed to Moses his name YHWH (probably pronounced Yahweh) and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring his Chosen People (Israel) out of bondage and into the Promised Land (Canaan). 
God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak with assurance or eloquence, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson.

After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land.

f. Plagues of Egypt

The Plagues of Egypt, also called the ten biblical plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, the God of Israel inflicted upon Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth plague, triggering the Exodus of the Hebrew people. The plagues served to contrast the power of the God of Israel with the Egyptian gods, invalidating them.

For the last plague, the Torah indicates that they were only spared from the final plague by sacrificing the Paschal lamb, marking their place directly above their doors with the lamb's blood, and eating the roasted sacrifice together with Matzot in a celebratory feast. The Torah describes God as actually passing through Egypt to kill all firstborn children and cattle, but passing over (hence "Passover") houses which have the sign of lambs' blood on the doorpost.

g. Manna 瑪那神糧

Manna sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is an edible substance that, according to the Bible and the Quran, God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert. 

h. Jesus knocking at the door

 

2. Other stories

a. Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton . The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton' s major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.
The poem concerns the Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton' s purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men".

→ Satan = Lucifer = Prince of Darkness 

b. The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. A controversial novel originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation.

"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.""Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it." Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right—I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, what's a game about it? Nothing. No game.

c. Three famous museums in the world

Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Louvre

The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is one of the world's largest museums and a historic monument in Paris, France. 

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum dedicated to human history, art, and culture, located in the Bloomsbury area of London. 

d. Hark the herald angels sing

Part of lyrics : 

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!" 

3.  prefix, root and suffix

para : 平行並列                                 eg. paragraph, Paradiso, parachute
parachute (n.) a large piece of cloth joined to heavy strings, used by someone jumping out of a plane

 

WEEK 16 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. Stories

a. Seven deadly sins

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a Western religious grouping and classification of vices. This grouping emerged in the fourth century AD and was used for Christian ethical education and for confession. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the life of grace and charity within a person. Though the sins have fluctuated over time, the currently recognized list includes pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. There is a parallel tradition of seven virtues.

b. Psalm 23 (King James version)

1. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.   

 

c. Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel were, according to the Book of Genesis, two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Cain was the first human born and Abel was the first human to die. Cain committed the first murder by killing Abel. Interpretations of Genesis 4 by ancient and modern commentators have typically assumed that the motives were jealousy and anger.

→ Am I my brother' s keeper? 

 

d. Lot

 

Lot is a person mentioned in the biblical Book of Genesis chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable episodes in his life include his travels with his uncle Abram (Abraham), his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which Lot's wife became a pillar of salt, and the seduction by his daughters so that they could bear children. 

 

e. Adam and Eve

 

The serpent assures the woman that God will not let her die if she ate the fruit, and, furthermore, that if she ate the fruit, her "eyes would be opened" and she would "be like God, knowing good and evil", Gen. 3:5. Indeed, the woman sees that the fruit of the tree of knowledge is a delight to the eye and that it would be desirable to acquire wisdom by eating the fruit. The woman eats the fruit and gives some to the man Gen. 3:6. With this the man and woman recognize their own nakedness, and they make cloths of fig leaves and loincloth.

→ 男人必須辛勤工作直到汗水滴進泥土里長出 daily bread

→ 女人要承受生產的痛苦

→ 蛇要用自己腹部的鱗片匍匐前進（原本有腳）

 

f. 40 → 舊約聖經中漫長的數字

For example,   

Jesus is tested in the wilderness by evil in 40 days.

Moses was on the mountain with God for 40 day.

It rained for 40 days and 40 nights when God wanted to cleanse the world and start over.

 

 

 

2. Other stories

a. George W. Bush 's 911 speech

 

Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.” 

b. WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) is an informal, sometimes disparaging term for a group of high-status and influential White Americans of English Protestant ancestry. The term applies to a group believed to control disproportionate social, political, and financial power in the United States. It describes a group whose family wealth, education, status, and elite connections allow them a degree of opportunity held by few others.

 

→ Stuart Little

 

c. My sister's keeper

My Sister's Keeper is a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who sues her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia.

 

 

d. Orpheus and Eurydice

 

...Orpheus was delighted; he thanked the gods and left to ascend to the world. He was trying to hear Eurydice’s steps, but he could not hear anything and he started believing that the gods had fooled him. Of course Eurydice was behind him, but as a shadow, waiting to come to light to become a full woman again. Only a few feet away from the exit, Orpheus lost his faith and turned to see; Eurydice was behind him, but her shadow was whisked back among the dead. Eurydice was gone forever. 

 

e. 去過冥府回來過的人

 

Psyche, Odysseus, Aeneas, Orpheus, Charon 

 

f. Eyes wide shut

 

Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 erotic thriller film loosely based upon Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story). The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually charged adventures of Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated an affair a year earlier. He embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a massive masked orgy of an unnamed secret society.

 

 

 

WEEK 15 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. About Christmas

a. A Christmas carol

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. A Christmas Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

b. Meet me in St. Louise

Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of an American family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904.
Garland debuted the standards "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", all of which became hits after the film was released. 


c. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Part of the lyrics :

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light

From now on,

our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Make the Yule-tide gay,

                                                                             (extremely happy)

From now on, 

our troubles will be miles away.

2. Stories

a. Pentecost

Pentecost, the fiftieth day, is the Greek name for Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai. In Christianity, Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday, inclusively (i.e., 49 days with the first day counted, seven weeks), hence its name. In Judaism, Shavuot is on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan (late May or early June). Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday (40 days after Easter). 

b. Gold, frankincense and myrrh

Since the early days of Christianity, Biblical scholars and theologians have offered varying interpretations of the meaning and significance of the gold, frankincense and myrrh that the magi presented to Jesus, according to the Gospel of Matthew (2:11). These valuable items were standard gifts to honor a king or deity in the ancient world: gold as a precious metal, frankincense as perfume or incense, and myrrh as anointing oil.

c. Original sin

Original sin, also called ancestral sin, is the Christian doctrine of humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man, namely the sin of consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, stemming from Adam's rebellion in Eden. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.

d. Three is a perfect number in Bible. 

For example, the Holy trinity : Holy son, Holy father, Holy spirit.

e. Saint Peter

Jesus promised to Saint Peter, empowering him to take binding actions. In the Gospel of Matthew 16:19, Jesus says to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

f. creation → light
Let there be light, the phrase comes from the third verse of the Book of Genesis. In the King James Bible, it reads, in context:

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.    And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4. And God saw the light, and it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

g. Abraham sacrificed Isaac

According to the Hebrew Bible, God commands Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of God stops Abraham at the last minute, saying "now I know you fear God." At this point, Abraham sees a ram caught in some nearby bushes and sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac.
It can reflect to Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia.

h. God is a male?

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 
上帝依自己的形象創造了亞當→ God is male.






i. rib → woman
Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

3. Other stories

a. No strings attached

“Sometimes I have the strangest feeling about you. Especially when you are near me as you are now. It feels as though I had a string tied here under my left rib where my heart is, tightly knotted to you in a similar fashion. And when you go to Ireland, with all that distance between us, I am afraid that this cord will be snapped, and I shall bleed inwardly.” 

 

 

WEEK 14 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. extension of quiz and orientation

Agamemnon 

5. At the end of the play, the Leader says that Orestes will return home. 

→ The leader tells Electra to invoke some evil against the murderers (Clytemnestra and Aegisthus), calling for "the one who murders in return."

Medea

8. Greek drama could best be described as both stylized, with masks and a Chorus and part of a religious celebration.

10. During his own lifetime, Euripides was the least popular of the three tragedians.

→ Euripides was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Greece (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles).

Lysistrata

5. Why is Kleonike upset that the Milesians cut off the leather trade?
→ She needs a masturbation kit. 

                        

2. Stories

a. Lysistrata

Lysistrata is a comedy by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace—a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes. The play is notable for being an early exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society. Additionally, its dramatic structure represents a shift from the conventions of Old Comedy, a trend typical of the author's career. (sexual strike)

b. farce

In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the many plot twists and random events that occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. Farces have been written for the stage and film. Furthermore, a farce is also often set in one particular location, where all events occur.

c. Catharsis
Catharsis is the purification and purgation of emotions—especially pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of spectator to the effect of a cathartic on the body.

d. Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist. At eighteen, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven.
Definition of Tragedy :
“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Melody.”

→ The plot is the most important.
→ The spectacle is the least important.

Requirements for a tragic hero :

In that treatise, Aristotle defines the tragic hero as being someone who participates in a relatively concise narrative (a drama as opposed to an epic) and who possesses a few essential traits.This character must be someone the audience can sympathize with - so not a god or a scoundrel. (see more in this website)

e. tragic flaw

The term hamartia means “to miss the mark” or “to err”. It is most often associated with Greek tragedy, although it is also used in Christian theology. Hamartia as it pertains to dramatic literature was first used by Aristotle in his Poetics. In tragedy, hamartia is commonly understood to refer to the protagonist’s error or flaw that leads to a chain of plot actions culminating in a reversal from their good fortune to bad. What qualifies as the error or flaw can include an error resulting from ignorance, an error of judgement, a flaw in character, or sin. For example, in Antigone, Creon fails to listen to advice or follow the laws of the gods and ends up losing his son and wife and become a "living corpse".

3. How to take great notes 

3 Steps

 

1. Don't write facts. Write conclusions. 

For example, write a question and write the answer following.

2. Use colors!

3. Review your notes. (Try to teach others or spend time to review.)

 

WEEK 13 西概筆記(Western Literature)

1. Stories

a. Helen of Troy

The face that launched a thousand ship, written by Christopher Marlowe
Part of text :

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!

Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. 

b. Hubris

Hubris, defined as exaggerated pride or self-confidence, is the earmark character trait of Oedipus and perhaps Creon. ( Oedipus 自以為人定勝天 )

c. purple robes (皇室象徵)

The scene in which Clytemnestra induces her husband to trod on the purple robes strewn in his path--the principal symbolic act of hubris, an act that foreshadows his death—is also very important.
Another example, blue blood is also the symbol of royalty.

d. dramatic irony

Dramatic irony is the irony occurring when the implications of a situation, speech, etc, are understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.
For example, in Oedipus the King, the audience all know that Oedipus is going to kill his father and marry his mother. Another example, Oedipus has been seeking to find out the murderer of the previous king in order to solve the plague, but in fact, he is the murderer.

e. Sphinx

In Greek tradition, a sphinx is represented as a monster with a head of a woman, the body of a lioness, the wings of an eagle, and a serpent-headed tail. It is mythicized as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus. The Sphinx is the rasping Singer who arrived in Thebes shortly after Latus' departure.

f. The climax

Thebes suffers from a plague. Oedipus wants to end the plague, so he sends Creon to Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. Creon comes back and tells him that the oracle said that to end the plague, the murderer of Laios (who was king before Oedipus) must be found out and punished. Oedipus, the wisest mortal (he did solve the riddle of the Sphinx), decrees that the murderer will be found and punished. But actually the murderer is Oedipus himself. ( the climax of the story )

Part of text :
Messenger : Your ankles had been pinned. I set you free.
Oedipus : From birth I've carried the shame of those scars. 
Messenger : That was the luck that named you, Oedipus
                                                                          ( swollen foot)
 → Audience and the messenger know the truth.

In the end of the play, the chorus made the comment.
Chorus : Thebans, that man is the same Oedipus whose great mind solved the famous riddle. He was a most powerful man. Which of us seeing his glory, his prestige, did not wish his luck could be ours? Now look at what wreckage the seas of savage trouble have made of his life. To know the truth of the man, wait till you see his life end. On that day, look at him. Don't claim any is God's friend until he has passed through life and crossed the border into death ---- never having been god's victim.
→ 只有死才能逃離命運
 

g. Antigone and Haemon

Creon decreed that Antigone was to be thrown into a cave with one day's worth of food, despite her engagement to his son, Haemon. The gods, through the blind prophet Tiresias, expressed their disapproval of Creon' s decision, which convinced him to rescind his order, and he went to bury Polynices. However, Antigone had already hanged herself on the way to her burial. When Creon arrived at the tomb where she was to be left, his son, Haemon, threatens him and tries to kill him but ends up taking his own life. 
Haemon is betrothed to Antigone. He must choose between his father (whom he has always followed) and his lover Antigone. He chooses Antigone but cannot separate himself from either because of the strong ties of family and love. He commits suicide because of his helpless situation, which also leads his mother to commit suicide. These actions cause Creon' s madness at the play's conclusion.

Antigone is the daughter/sister of Oedipus and his mother, Jocasta.
Haemon is the son of Creon and Eurydice.