Sound and Sense Chapter 13 Exercise

11-      A: The major difference between the two lines is the lack of the euphonious “gu—” sound present in the A but not in B. The use of the “gu—” sound adds a sense of security as in the “guide” and the “guard”.

22-      B: The sounds achieved in the words “harsh” and “crabbed” offer a more harsh tone than in the first set of lines, and the use of a more “l” sound in “Apollo’s lute” offer a more desirable tone than the “lute of Phoebus”.

33-      A: The first line offers more of a sense of assonance through the use of the “o” sounding tone in “crows croak hoarsely”, giving the piece a more calm and melancholy outlook.

44-      B: “Your voice” and “how bells” offer a more euphonious sound than the original “talk attests”, which in turn reinforces the subtle silence and loneliness in the piece.

55-      B: The use of parallelism in “immemorial” and “innumerable” in the second set of lines offer more of a sense of ferocity than in the previous lines, and the repeated “m” sound in “myriads” and “moan” reinforce this intensity.

66-      B: The use of the word “warbles” emphasize the “out of tune” that appears right afterwards because of the sound nature of the word. Also, the repeated euphonious sounds in “discordant”, “tones” and “doleful” reinforce the lark singing out of tune.

77-      B: The repeated euphonious sounds in “drums” and “guns”, “bastions” and “batteries”, and “bayonets” and “bullets”, as well as the ongoing “b” sound, serve to bluntly reinforce the message that weapons are a menace to society.

88-      A: The repetition of the “s” sound in “incessantly”, “softly” and “soiled” offer a more soothing tune towards the piece, which heightens the intensity of the daughter’s Death and Night cleansing the world.

99-      B: The repeated “l” sounds in “tolls the knell”, and the repeated “m” and “w” sounds in “plowman” and “homeward” add to the peaceful tone of the piece.

110-  B: As opposed to the sounds offered in the previous lines, this set focuses more on the rhythm, especially in the second set of lines. This short-syllable rhythm emphasizes the energy of the “bug with gilded wings”.

Iago's Motives for Disgust

Scattered throughout Act 1 of William Shakespeare’s Othello are various stated motives for Iago’s actions against the high ranking Venetian General. Hints of jealousy, disgust, and hatred create an interesting contrast within Iago’s character, between his personal side and his public side, that cannot go unnoticed. Below are some of the various motives:

Motive 1: Iago is jealous of Cassio’s appointment to Lieutenant under Othello’s campaign, and he expresses this envy in the very first scene of the play.

“But he, sir, had th' election; / And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof / At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds / Christian and heathen, must be belee’d and / calmed / By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster, / He (in good time) must his lieutenant be, / And I, <God> bless the mark, his Moorship’s ancient” (I.i.28-35).

·         Iago is certainly disappointed that he did not get the nomination to Lieutenant. He strongly believes that his experience in battle should outweigh the mind and wit of Cassio, who has merely been schooled. Since it is Othello’s responsibility to appoint the Lieutenant, Iago feels betrayed, as he has proven his skills to Othello in battle before. Iago expresses this bitterness to Roderigo and agrees to help his cause by turning Brabantio against Othello.

Motive 2: In the soliloquy that concludes Act 1 Scene 3, Iago expresses more distaste for Othello, citing his fear that Othello has slept with his wife.

“I hate the Moor, / And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets / He’s done my office. I know not if ’t be true, / But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, / Will do as if for surety” (I.iii.429-433).

·         Expounding upon the bitterness Iago experiences earlier in the play, he emphasizes his hatred for Othello in his concluding soliloquy of the act. Iago claims to have heard rumors of Othello sleeping with his wife, but is still unaware of their validity and truth. However, this does not stop Iago from denouncing the claim upright; in fact, it encourages him to believe the claim to be not only a “suspicion” (432) but a “surety” (433). The readers can only expect more mischief from Iago’s character as his demonizing hatred for Othello rages forth.

Sound and Sense, Chapter 12 notes: Rhyme and Meter

Chapter 12 – Rhyme and Meter

Rhyme and Meter:

·         Rhythm: Any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound.

·         Accented or Stressed: A word or syllable that receives more pronunciation in relation to its surrounding neighbors.

o   toDAY; toMORrow; interVENE…etc.

·         Rhetorical Stresses: certain methods of pronouncing a word in order to display a certain meaning or intention.

·         There are multiple methods of displaying meaning through pauses as well:

o   End stopped line: end of the line corresponds with a natural pause.

o   Run-on line: the flow of the line moves on with no pause in between.

o   Caesuras: grammatical or rhetorical pauses that occur in the middle of the line.

§  Grammatical pause: A pause introduced by punctuation or anything grammatical.

§  Rhetorical pause: usually through syntax, a natural pause in the poem.

·         Free verse: Nonmetrical poetry where the basic unit is the line and where pauses and breaks occur out of the necessity of the poem instead of its style.

o   Predominating style of poetry among contemporary poets.

o   Opposite of metrical verse, which follows a meter and the pauses and breaks originate from the style.

·         Both free verse and metrical verse are distinguished by its meter and foot:

o   Meter: the identifying aspect of rhythmic language, the beat of a poem or song.

o   Foot: measures the metrical verse, and usually consists of one accented syllable and 1-2 accented syllables.

§  Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, Dactylic, and Spondaic (adjectival examples of foot).

·         Stanza: Third unit of measurement; metrical pattern repeated throughout the entire poem.

·         Variations of the meter and foot:

o   Metrical variations: variations that deal directly with the departure of certain metrical patterns.

§  Substitution: replacing one foot with another.

§  Extrametrical syllables: added to the beginning or end of a line.

§  Truncation: omitting an accented syllable from the beginning or end of a line.

o   Expected rhythm: the expected rhythm the audience may perceive due to the meter and beat.

o   Heard rhythm: the true rhyme of the poem when read naturally. Usually a derivative of the expected rhythm.

The Stranger Essay Outline

Thesis: Camus uses Meursault to promote his own absurdist philosophy, or the idea that life has no meaning, through the incorporation of Maman’s funeral, Marie’s love and affection, his trial, and his overall reaction to these events.

-          Maman’s funeral:

·         “Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. I got a telegram from home: ‘Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday” (3).

§  Very first lines of the novel; it establishes Meursault’s detached tone, which emphasizes the absurdity of Meursault as a character. Meursault feels completely unmoved by the whole situation and can’t seem to find any emotion to fit the current scenario, thus putting forth the argument that life is meaningless.

§  Meursault begins to quickly move on with the death of his mother by indulging in sensuous pleasures at the beach and with Marie.

-          Marie love/marriage

·         “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so” (35) and “that evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to” (41).

§  Again, Meursault does not find the joy or the meaning in loving Marie or marrying her. He is simply indifferent, and in the end he wonders what the point of the whole matter really is.

§  Meursault embodies Camus’ absurdist philosophy by negating the emotional effects of love and marriage as meaningless aspects of life. This attitude eventually plays a major role in his trial.

§  Marie tries to make meaning out of Meursault’s meaningless actions.

-          Trial

·         “Fumbling a little with my words and realizing how ridiculous I sounded, I blurted out that it was because of the sun. People laughed. My lawyer threw up his hands” (103).

§  The absurdist philosophy behind the trial is more of an attack on the system of justice rather than society as a whole, and Meursault, understanding this injustice, decides to mock it.

§  Readers can interpret this section of the novel differently, but the theory that Meursault even brought up the sun was to bluntly spew force the courts to make meaning out of something inherently meaningless.