Blog 13

The ending has some ironical meaning to me and I do feel not sorry for the main character , Ti Moune, but pity for her decision in leaving her family. The reason why I feel ironical is when Ti Moune is thrown out of the gate by Lucifus and tries to let Daniel see her on the other side of the gate with the crowd, Daniel's eyes indeed fall on Desiree but, just like what his father did before back in that village, he "gazed  at her and not seen her". With all these love and effort that Ti Moune has put in Daniel, Daniel just simply cannot recognize her in a crowd. The reaction of Daniel to her must be absurd to the peasant girl. From the reaction of Daniel, I feel like without all these beautiful clothes and shoes, Desiree is mundane among those poor peasants. It is sarcastic when Desiree deeply hopes for a rich life, yet the death is finally what she gains. Besides, Desiree might misunderstands the kind of “love” that the young man has for her for her. The young man is grateful for what she has done for him and even though marrying Andrea is destined, Daniel still says to the girl that “Ti Moune, stay. I love you”. Daniel may simply love her because he views her as her younger sister and  it can be Desiree to be the one who over-think everything. The entrenched hierarchy with distinct identity in the society cannot be changed. The peasant girl becomes some kind of example, showing no matter how she has tried to become someone new, she will back to her original status eventually. The ending shows the story of Cinderella  won't happen in "real life" and it is rather to be satisfied to the present than pursuing something that is not belonged to you. Desiree does understand this idea finally as she talking about what is the point to leave nice Mama and Tonton to here, the hotel. She realizes she should not go away from the village with such an anxiety and “lost her beloved Tonton Julian” and “Mama Euralie”. People always truly value something when they lose them and the story of the girl suggests that people should indeed cherish what they have at the present. Ti Moune in the end also regrets the time she lost that red comb due to her immersion in happiness and neglect of the past. “ In the days of her elegance she had thought little of her magic comb” and lost the comb without notice.

4 thought provoking questions

Why Ti Moune does not want to let the butterfly go freely from her cage? 

What is the symbol of Ti Moune failing to catch the butterfly in chapter 13?

Did Papa Ge actually possess the guard called Lucifus? Why the God did so?

Why the red comb has such power?

A weak but unyielding woman in love

Ti Moune, as the main character in My Love, My Love, shares some similarity in characteristic with the little mermaid. They are innocent and both have strong will and tenacity in pursuing their love. Although Ti Moune’s first self-glorification in which she thinks she is not as ordinary as the other peasants makes me dislike her at first, her later dauntless and persistent efforts are the elements that make me change to admire her. She has to face so many displeasures and obstacles in order to pursue her own happiness because the story takes place in a world where the hierarchy in the society is so entrenched. Being Sneered and belittled by both the rich and the poor is what Desiree will always encounter in following her dream.  

After the young man is taken from Ti Moune by his father, Ti Moune has never given up to find him again, even though her mother opposes her action and some villagers doubts her ability to actually manage to see the young man. After knowing the route and with the encouragement of Toton Julian, Ti Moune starts her journey to Beauxhomme’s hotel. I feel sorry for Ti Moune when she finally arrive at Daniel Beauxhoome’s house after many days and nights’ travel, but still be laughed at by the crowd and refused to enter because of her beggar-like clothes. Her polite words of asking the guards to let her in only gets scorn like “Peasant pig, get back with the scum where you belong” and rude action of being thrown outside the gate, into the crowd. As the only person who does not have shoes, she even becomes the target of public criticism in that crowd, making her can do nothing but to run away. Humiliation does not daunt her, and instead, she grows from it, knowing the fact that she should have decent clothes and shoes in order to gain basic respect. Just like the little mermaid he endures great pain in order to transfer into a better form: for a girl who has never worn shoes, she has to forces her toes together to make them “fit the confinement of the unyielding plastic of the too small shoes”  and “every step she took became a new experience in torture”.She withstands the pain and her sacrifice gets payback: the guards even do not recognize her as the previous poor peasant girl. Besides, her patience is admirable. After all these failures of entering the hotel, she knows that she need to use her patience to wait the gods sending Daniel to her. After the peasant girl is announced as the new lady in the family, there are sarcastic remarks about her and her identity as a peasant, but Daniel is the one she only cares about and he is the only one in her eyes so that Desiree does not be bothered by others. Her devotion in the love to the young man is indeed noteworthy and likable.

         

Question #4

If you were to stage this novel as a play, how would you costume Desiree (Ti Moune) in order to show her as a member of the peasant village yet also an outsider, a dreamer who longs for something different? Would you show any connection to the Gods or to the rich and if so, how? Explain your answer.

In my perspective, Desiree should display some degree of characteristic of both the peasant and the rich. Although Desiree is poor in this village, she is still longing to see the world outside and keeps expecting something extraordinary will happen to her. Her appearance should be easily sensed as unique among all the other peasants, so first of all, her costume must be different than the other peasants. I will let those peasants wear in Grey and dark to show their simplicity while let Ti Moune dress in a light pink color dress which is tattered a little bit because of the hard fieldwork.. Besides, Ti Moune should be the only one who puts on a slight makeup in the village. However, the trait of the peasants should definitely shows on her as well. As shoes, Ti Moune will wear a pair of frazzled shoes made out of the grass just like everyone else and her believes in those four gods should be as deep as the rest of the peasant group. I want to show that by letting Ti Moune frequently put her palms together devoutly when she talks about god in her speech.

Stage of the gods

My love, My love, written by Rosa Guy, starts with the description of the Island where the story takes place. The Island appears to be the combination of ugly views like the bald mountain peak and scenic beauty like the flushing trees with various colors. For those peasants in the villages, they attribute every things happening around them to the Gods which are Asaka, Agwe, Papa Ge and Erzulie. They are omnipotent in those poor farmers’ eyes and when the four gods are shown in the play, their power should be sensed by the audience while remaining their each distinct style.

Asaka, the Goddess of earth, in my thought should be like a kind and steady lady . Earth always gives humans the sense of immensity and heaviness.A small incident cannot shake the foundation of the Earth at all so that Asaka need to be a women with wide breadth of mind. On the other hand, Earth is the key factor of giving lives to most of the creatures and it also brings them to maturity. With this interpretation, the Goddess of earth should wear in a vibrant green color suit  with the decoration of some flowers.  Afterall, earth can represent as the mother of nature and like the king of the forest, Asaka in my mind should  wear a hat which is made by vines.

Agwe, the God of sea, in the novel does not inherit the peaceful side of the ocean but instead, he incarnates the stormy weather. From the tales that are repeated among the elder peasants, Agwe appears as the irritable God who loves Asaka but has tension with her as well, To show his temperance, he should wear in dark blue costume with holding a fish spear in his hand and whenever he appears in the play, a music of the coming of storm or the sound of lightening should be played in the background.

Papa Ge, the God of death, should undoubtedly be regarded as a frightful and dark character. Death is always some kind of taboo in modern or ancient society, and the God of death must make people afraid. Therefore, if I stage this novel, Papa Ge will be covered all in his dark clothes except for his face which audience only can see a mask of the clown and his hands which are pale and have long nails. The mask of the clown can create a sense of mystery underneath the mask and  his happiness in killing.

Erzulie, the Goddess of love, should be exactly what is opposite from the god of death. She will wear in a bright-colored red long dress with roses on her hand and the actress who acts as her need to be beautiful and passionate because she represents the perfect aspects of a  spouse who is worth to love. She is the most optimistic god of all and she can enter in the play with a dance, showing that when falling love, humans just simply throw away their concerns.

          

        

Haitian View

Final Draft

Written Coursework on the performance and analysis of act 1 scene 1, act 1 scene 5 and act 3 scene 1

The play Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about how two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love with each other at sight yet are fooled by destiny to meet their eventual death due to the combination of several seemingly accidental events and ironically make a peace finally among their two hostile families. Like other Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet has been viewed as one of the masterpieces of classic English Literature. Often considered as a story of forbidden love, Romeo and Juliet demonstrates how irrationality, impulsion and holding a grudge can trigger the irreversible tragedy. The Feud of the two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, is the main culprit of the demise of the young couple and more importantly, it blinds the ability of those members in these two families to understand the affairs thoroughly: they are easily irritated and treat others with long-held prejudice.In order to embody the importance of this theme to the final tragedy, I chose Act 1 scene 1, Act 1 scene 5 and Act 3 scene 1 to perform with emotional actions, vocal technique, contrary costumes and suitable movements

The world that Shakespeare portrays is violent and full of hatred from the beginning of the play. Act one scene one establishes the ongoing conflicts between the house of Montague and the house of Capulet to an extent in which even the servingmen under two households want to instigate the other to start a fight. The first scene also set the background of  the play. In this scene, two members of the Capulets, Gregory and Sampson, walks alone on the Verona street with the conversation of how tough they are and their hatred to the Montagues. After a while, Abram, the member of the Montagues, enters their sight. Unwillingly to break the law yet loving to provoke Abram into a fight, Sampson bites his thumb, an action that is a disgrace to Abram, while denies the fact that he is actually biting the thumb “at” Abram because the law forbids such fight. Sampson and Gregory successfully infuriate Abram and starts a fight which later entangles Tybalt and Benvolio until Prince restore the peace with severe warning.  We did make a lot of adaptation of the first scene. To indicate the difference between Montagues and Capulets during the performance, we decided to let Montagues wear Black Costume and let Capulet wear green costume with medieval style. In order to show the feud between the families in this scene, we specifically emphasize and pick the lines like “ A dog of the house of Montague shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's"(Act 1 Scene 1, line 12-13), a sentence implicitly states Sampson's strong will to physically suppress the men of Montagues and sexually conquer the women in the Montague Family. We shortened the play and only acted the first part of scene one because that is the part that reveals the conflicts and paves  the way for the larger inharmony later. Although in the original play, the playwright does not mention how the fight ends up, we let Sampson and Gregory stab Abram in the end of the scene in order to exaggerate and show the severity of the conflicts and foreshadow the following aggravated tension and bloody events. Even though Romeo and Juliet do not appear in this scene, the scene is actually related to the tragedy. Tybalt is the one who is involved in this chaos and the fight actually let him hold a grudge and make him want to vent his anger, “As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee” informing those who will listen that he hates all Montagues and will act dangerously towards any of them.

Act one scene five is indeed essential to the overall development of increasing tension, escalating Tybalt's determination of vengeance to Montague's family. It is the scene where the Capulet’s party is held. Everyone, except Tybalt, is enjoying themselves in the party: Capulet is socializing with others, Romeo and Juliet are stunted by each other’s appearance. However, because of the prejudice, Tybalt recognizes the uninvited guest, Romeo, in the party and wants to expel him or gives him severe punishment because “this is a Montague, our foe, a villain that is hither come in spite to scorn at our solemnity this night” (Act 2 scene 5, line 69-71). Tybalt views Romeo as a disgrace to the Capulet party and a people who intends to ruin the party as he says Romeo will "fleer and scorn at our solemnity", but his attempt fails when Capulet forbids him to create disturbance in party. Nonetheless, the seed of revenge is planted in Tybalt’s heart. “I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall” (act 1 scene 5, lines 102-103) is the final speech before Tybalt’s exist, foreshadowing the later turning point of the destiny of the young lover like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. In order to emphasize the power of feud, our group condensed the play of this scene into the conversation between Capulet and Tybalt when Tybalt expresses his hatred to Romeo and Capulet warns him not to do so. Considering the fluency of the play, we selected a part of Romeo's speeches in the party and placed it at the beginning of this scene. Romeo was pretending to talk to a real person beside him and after that Tybalt pointed to Romeo while explaining to Capulet why Romeo should be banished from the party. It is the first time that Romeo presents in our performance, and we want him to be viewed as innocent and looking forward to love so that his later evildoing of murdering Tybalt can be highlighted as astonishing. By citing his wonder of love like “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear” at the beginning of our performance and making the people who acted as Romeo put his palms together devoutly, we managed to do so. In order to show the foreshadowing at the end of Tybalt speech, we added a music which is a deep sound like the coming of storm and let Tybalt throw his wine glass to the ground and leave with heavy foot step after he said " I will withdraw....convert to bitt'rest gall", showing the degree of anger in Tybalt's heart. Besides, to avoid misconception of the audience to think that Capulet stops Tybalt due to his favor of Romeo, we omitted several lines like saying Romeo is “a virtuous and well-governed youth” while kept and underlined the lines like “You’ll make a mutiny among my guest” which states the reason Capulet bears the presence of Romeo is he doesn’t want to ruin his own party and reputation. In conclusion, this short scene and performance serve as the catalyst of outbreak of later mishap.

Symbolized as the turning point of the play, Act 3 scene 1 is definitely the part in the play where the feud rises to the peak and it plays an unprecedented role of leading to tragic ending.  Mishap always pays an unexpected visit. When both Juliet and Romeo are immersing in felicity in which they successfully marry each other and are united together, Tybalt, no longer able to bear the disgrace he gets from Romeo during the party, decides to get his revenge on Romeo.Due to the long-holding feud, when Romeo is saying words like “I have to love thee” to Tybalt, Tybalt only can comprehend Romeo’s action as teasing him. Therefore, what Romeo tries to explain and appease does not work at all. With Tybalt still saying “turn and draw” to Romeo, there is nothing can be done to redeem the tragedy. Dramatically, after that, Mercutio, with a impulsive personality, replaces Romeo to duel with Tybalt and finally gets killed under Romeo’s arm, triggering Mercutio’s most famous line: “A plague o' both your houses” .What he said, like a curse, is exactly what happens: both families immerse in sorrow of the loss of their important members finally, and an actual plague blocks the messenger that Friar Lawrence sends to Romeo to inform him that Juliet’s death is faked. Romeo, outraged by the death of his best friend, slays Tybalt. After Romeo falls apart and flees, both lady Capulet and Capulet, distrust the word of Benvolio because “he is a kinsman to the Montague, affection makes him false”, insist that Romeo get severe punishment and Romeo is eventually banished from the city. In our performance, we focused on the interaction between Romeo, Mercutio and Tybalt and since Benvolio is a true peacemaker in this scene, we deleted this character in our play to maximize the reflection of the power of feud. One goal of the performance is to show the significant change of Romeo before and after the death of Mercutio. In this scene, I, acted as Romeo, showed my resolution of refusal to fight against Tybalt by throwing away my sword back to Tybalt when I said “ Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting: villain am I none”. However, after the death of Mercutio, everything changes. In our performance, when Romeo said "Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him", I did not give Tybalt much time to react, and used my dagger to stab Tybalt right after I finished my sentence. In our adaptation, the fight between Romeo and Tybalt was instantaneous for showing hatred blinds Romeo and makes him impulsive and regardless of the honor. The scene, as a whole, exactly shows how feud exacerbates or even creates the tragedy.

Trace to the heart of the bitter story, it is the feud. The madness of Tybalt leading to self-destruction and the dramatic change of Romeo causing his banishment and later murder of Paris are exacerbated by the theme of feud which is reflected from the beginning of the play. The unique figure of feud is its insidious ubiquity insides members in both houses and no matter how innocent the character, like Romeo, is, the feud finally let those people be entangled into the circulation of vengeance. Therefore, it becomes the chief culprit of Romeo and Juliet's tragedy.