ASIDE: Crews Missile, Hamlet & Death of a Salesman

The e-mail message that the self-described middling father Nick Crews sent to his offspring has become a cause célèbre.  David Brooks, in his article for the New York Times, states, that in Britain, Crews has become “a hugely popular folk hero”(2).  The reason for this, the author goes on to say, is that many parents are “delighted that someone finally had the gumption to give at least one set of over privileged slackers a well-deserved kick in the pants”(Brooks, 2).

The Crews Missile, as it is now known in Britain, is the modern day father’s version of the Network rant by TV Anchorman Howard Beale: “‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’”  In the email sent to his children, Crews outlines the bitter source of disappointment each of his children has been to both their parents.  Issues outlined are failed marriages, failed careers and a blatant lack of responsibility shown to his own children’s offspring, whom Crews describes as seven beautiful grandchildren. 

The detraction against Crews’ rant, according to the article, is that tirades such as these simply do not work (Brooks, 2).   The author states, “people don’t behave badly because they lack information about their shortcomings.  They behave badly because they’ve fallen into patterns of destructive behaviour from which they’re unable to escape” (Brooks, 2).  The remedy then “is to maximize some alternative good behaviour” (Brooks, 2).  This follows an understanding of human behaviour that William Shakespeare, whom Freud called the first psychologist, examined over four hundred years ago.

Juxtaposing two scenes from the great playwright’s dramatic work Hamlet provides clear insight into the relationship between character flaw and habit.  While observing his drunken Uncle at a party, the young prince Hamlet makes the following observation on his Uncle’s propensity for alcohol: 

                        So oft it chances in particular men

                        That for some vicious mole of nature in them,

                        As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty,

                        (Since nature cannot choose his origin)

                        By the o’ergrowth of some complexion…

                        Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace…

                        Shall in the general censure take corruption

                        From that particular fault.

                                                                        (Act 1.4. 24-36).

The stamp of his Uncle’s weakness for alcohol, according to the playwright, overtakes the other virtues of the man and left unchecked, either through bad habit or lack of reason, corrupts the entire man.  Later, the young prince provides his mother with a remedy to her own natural defect---lust for Hamlet’s Uncle.  He tells his mother to no longer go to his Uncle’s bed even though she desires it:

                        Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

                        Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness

                        To the next abstinence; the next more easy;

                        For use almost can change the stamp of nature… 

                                                                                    (Act 3.4. 161- 169)

                                                                                   

Basically, the act of performing good actions will eventually transfer to the custom of doing good and so become a part of one’s nature through the re-directed power of habit. 

However, the Crews missile is not necessarily intended to be a guide to the errant offspring it is directed at.  The letter can and should also be viewed from the perspective of a man who will no longer accept responsibility for his adult children’s behaviour by being a party to it.  This also has literary precedence. 

In Arthur Miller’s great play Death of a Salesman, Linda Loman confronts her eldest son about his immature behaviour.  She tells him that if his life is to have direction then he, himself, must provide it:  “‘A man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime’” (Miller, 54).  Chastising her son for roaming the countryside at the age of 34 and only returning to his father’s home when he desires respite, she attempts to impress upon him that the true mark of an adult is in the acceptance of responsibility for his own life.  She tells him that, even though death feels far away to a man in his thirties, the reality is that he has parents who are now in their sixties and so the support they have always provided for him will eventually be unavailable.  In the most definitive part of the exchange she gives her son an ultimatum about his disrespectful conduct toward his father and the future of their relationship:  “‘You’ve got to make up your mind now…Either he’s your father and you pay him that respect, or else you’re not to come here’”(Miller, 55).  Since her 34 year old son would never expect to seek refuge in another man’s home while at the same time treating that man with disrespect, Linda is essentially telling her son that the same expectations should apply to his father in his father’s home.  Essentially, at the age of 34, the home of one’s parents should no longer be considered the rightful home of the child, just as the opposite is true for the adult child’s own home with respect to his parents. 

In this same way, it can be argued, Crews abdicates his connection to adults that he no longer respects irrespective of their blood ties to him.  His folk hero status is ironically indicative of the traditional attitude that elder generations have stereotypically held for younger generations that come after them. Whether the negative estimation of today’s youth is actually true or not is debatable.  If only for a chuckle, however, it is amusing to compare today’s over privileged generation with that group of individuals who came of age during the Second World War, known as The Greatest Generation.  

What, for example, would the D-Day invasion look like if it took place in 2012?

Brooks, David. “How People Change.”  The New York Times, 26

     November 2012. Early Ed.: The Opinion Pages. Online.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/opinion/brooks-how-people-change.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&

 “Hamlet.”  William Shakespeare: The Complete Works.  Ed. Alfred  Harbage.

      NewYork: Penguin Books, 1969.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

THE ANTIQUARIAN: Sir Bartholomew Burghersh & Cormicy Castle

A legacy of William the Conqueror, who became King of England in 1066 while still Duke of Normandy, the Hundred Years’ War was a conflict waged for control of the throne of France.  The war began in 1337 when Edward III refused to pay homage to Phillip VI of France.  The French king responded by confiscating Edward’s lands in Aquitaine.  As a result, Edward III (who was the son of Isabella, the daughter of Phillip IV of France) declared that he was the rightful heir to the French throne; with this challenge to the legal succession of the Kingdom of France, the first phase of the conflict began and only ended in 1453.

One of the most distinguished soldiers to have participated in the conflict was Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, the younger.  He was the son of Lord Bartholomew Burghersh, the elder, who laid the family’s esteemed foundation as both a man of military and diplomatic genius.  The younger Burghersh’s career rivaled his father’s and began in 1339 when he accompanied Edward III on his expedition to Flanders.  The younger Burghersh participated in such campaigns as Brittany, Crecy, Gascony and the siege of Calais.  His personal letters have provided scholars with one of the few trusted eyewitness accounts of the famed Battle of Poitiers and in 1350 he was chosen “to be one of the first knights companions” in the newly instituted Order of the Garter (Stephen, 335).   

Considered one of the great Barons of his age, an event involving Sir Bartholomew Burghersh at the Seige of Rheims is recorded by Sir John Froissart in his chronicle on the history of England.   After reconnoitering the great Castle of Cormicy and concluding that it could not be taken by assault, Froissart reports that Burghersh ordered the undermining of the castle’s most formidable defensive structure, a large square tower “whose walls were very thick”(Froissart, 128).  Starting at a great distance from the tower, so as to keep the operation secret, the miners worked night and day to advance to a great depth under the tower and so, unnoticed, push upward.  When the miners had secretly replaced the secure footings of the tower with their own wooden props and the report was sent back to Burghersh that the tower could be thrown down at his command, the great knight mounted his horse and advanced to the castle.    The defender of the castle was Sir Henry de Vauix, the black armoured knight of Champagne, and after being summoned by his guards at the request of Burghersh, the French knight came forward and called down from the battlements, asking the English knight what he wanted. “’I want you to surrender,’ replied Burghersh” (Froissart, 128).  Laughing, Sir Henry de Vauix inquired what would possess Burghersh to suppose they would surrender from such an impregnable fortress as Cormicy.  To this the English knight responded, “if you were truly informed what your situation is, you would surrender instantly…” (Froissart, 128).  De Vauix, still skeptical, was then persuaded, on Burghersh’s assurance of safety, to come down and witness the true nature of the great tower’s precarious situation.  When de Vauix saw that the castle’s strongest defensive position was now only held up by wooden props in the control of the English, he thanked Burghersh for his gallant offer of surrender and the entire garrison was taken prisoner.  Without a single loss of life, England gained possession of the great castle of Cormicy.

Sir Bartholomew Burghersh died in 1369 and was buried in the lady chapel of Walsingham Abbey.

"No really...I think, you are going to want to see this!"

Froissart, Jean et al.  Chronicles of England, France, Spain & the Adjoining Countries. Trans. Thomas Johnes.  New York: John B. Alden, 1884.

Stephen, Leslie and Sidney Lee.  Dictionary of National Biography.  Vol. 7.  London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1886.

LITERARY CORNER: "The Planter's Daughter"

When night stirred at sea

And the fire brought a crowd in,

They say that her beauty

Was music in mouth

And few in the candlelight

Thought her too proud,

For the house of the planter

Is known by the trees.

Men that had seen her

Drank deep and were silent,

The women were speaking

Wherever she went---

As a bell that is rung

Or a wonder told shyly,

And O she was the Sunday

In every week.

-         Austin Clarke

"So what do you think the Poet is trying to say?"



Note: For an interesting discussion on the above poem, go to

http://liladubois.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/poetry-analysis-the-planters-daughter/

Clarke, Austin. “The Planter’s Daughter.”  The Celtic Quest: An Anthology from Merlin

            To Van Morrison.  Ed. Jane Lahr.  New York: Welcome Books, 2007.

THE ANTIQUARIAN: The Blarney Stone & Castle

An iconic symbol of Ireland, Blarney Castle has become the most famous of the many strongholds of the MacCarthy family.  In his record of the MacCarthys, Daniel MacCarthy Glas said of this illustrious family: “Their history commences with the first page of authentic Irish records and is as well attested as the history of any royal house in Christendom.”  The Annals of the Four Masters records that ““thirty of the Kings of Ireland and sixty-one of her Saints descended from the MacCarthys, and to them belongs the matchless glory of producing the first Christian King in Ireland…”

There is a tradition that prior to the Anglo-Norman invasion Dermot MacCarthy Mor, King of Desmond, had a timber hunting lodge built on the present site of Blarney Castle; in the twelfth century, this was followed by the building of a stone structure.  However, the first identifiable archeological evidence places the site’s current structure with the powerful cadet branch of the senior MacCarthy Mor line known as the Lords of Muskerry.  Construction of the castle is dated to the mid fifteenth century, with its builder most widely believed to be Cormac ‘Laidir’ mac Taidgh, the MacCarthy lord of Muskerry. 



North side of Blarney Castle with projecting oriel window from the Earl's Chamber (Photo by Mike Schenk)

The legend of the Blarney Stone is intimately linked to both the castle and the family that possessed it.  The actual stone “is a block of limestone a metre long, mounted high up on the wall of the keep, just below the battlements on the south side” (Castleden, 102).  Various legends have been attached to the origins of the stone. Believed by many to be one half of the Stone of Scone, one legend reports that King Robert the Bruce of Scotland gifted Cormac Mor MacCarthy, Prince of Desmond, the stone in recognition of his having sent 5000 infantry to aid the Scottish king at the Battle of Bannockburn.  Another idea is that since the Stone of Scone originated in Ireland, the Blarney Stone may simply be that part of the stone that never left and so acted as a crowning stone for the Eóghanacht Irish kings. 

Harkening back to Celtic Ireland’s ancient past, more magical myths of the Blarney Stone exist.  One explanatory myth takes place in the eighth century and involves a powerful druid who has two daughters, Cleena and Aoival (Samuel et al, 71).  As the story goes, Cleena is “exceptionally eloquent and beautiful and is the ‘Queen of the Fairies in South Munster’”(Sameul et al, 71).  She falls in love with one of the MacCarthy chieftains who does not return her love.  After he is killed in battle, “she finds he has fallen on a stone on the side of the Lee, into which his blood has soaked [and] because she spends many hours there weeping and kissing the stone” her magic gifts are “transferred to it “(Samuel et al, 71).  A continuation of this particular myth involves the builder of Blarney Castle, Cormac ‘Laidir’ mac Taidgh, who is worried about a litigation he is involved in.  Cliodhna, Queen of the Fairies, visits the worried Lord in the night and instructs him to “kiss the stone he will see facing him when he first wakes up and goes out (Samuel et al, 71).  Unbeknownst to him, the stone is the same one that his ancestor had died upon and so it had been brought up from the banks of the Lee.  Cormac ‘Laidir’ does as Cliodhna instructs and wins the court case.  “He then carries the stone to the top of the castle and hides it so that no one else will be able to match him in eloquence” (Samuel et al, 71). 

This connection between the stone and eloquence is enhanced by a historical episode that occurred in the 16^th century.  Wanting all the chiefs of Ireland to occupy their lands under title from her, Elizabeth I became exasperated by the cunning way in which Cormac Teige MacCarthy, the then lord Muskerry, continued to tactfully agree to do so whilst cleverly avoiding any actual legal concession.  After yet another round of negotiation and more brilliant political maneuvering by Lord Muskerry, it is reported that in a frustrated rage the Queen stormed from the room and shouted, “Blarney!  What he says he never means.  It’s the usual Blarney!”(Castleden, 103).

 

"You want me to do what to the stone?!"





Castleden, Rodney.  Castles of Britian & Ireland. London: Quercus, 2012.

MacCarthy Glas, Daniel.  Historical Pedigree of the Sliochd Feidlimidh, The MacCarthys Of Gleanmacroim. England: Exeter, 1849.

Samuel, Mark and Kate Hamlyn.  Blarney Castle: Its History, Development and Purpose. Cork: Cork University Press, 2007.

THE THINKER: Ancestor Syndrome

In the preface to her book The Ancestor Syndrome, the psychotherapist Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger cites an entry from Roman Law to explain the theory and practice of transgenerational psychotherapy:  “The dead pass down to the living”(xii). 

The approach is historically rooted in Sigmund Freud’s study of the unconscious and its manifestations.  On “the archaic heritage of human beings” Freud said, “not only dispositions but also subject matter” such as “memory-traces of the experiences of earlier generations” can be transmitted transgenerationally (Schutzenberger ,5).  It is, then, the work of the transgenerational psychotherapist to go beyond what is transmitted consciously in a family from one generation to another and to bring to light what is transmitted unknowingly (Schutzenberger, 3-4).  By discovering and expressing a repressed family secret, for example, the patient can be freed from a neurosis that has been inherited. 

In an article for The New York Times, Dr. Darold A. Treffert explains the phenomenon of genetic memory with the following analogy:  “In the animal kingdom, we accept without question migration patterns that birds are born with which they never learned.  The monarch butterfly makes a trip from Canada to Mexico to a 23-acre spot, and they take three generations to get there” (Carvajel, 3).  Essentially, the author of the article goes on to say, “genes have memory” and the “lives of our grandparents --- what they breathed, saw and ate --- can directly affect us decades later” (Carvajal, 2). 

According to Transgenerational Theory then, present day behaviours can be linked to ancestors in an individual’s family tree.  By discovering those links, the individual uncovers the source of impelled repetitions that continue down the generational chain.  Through understanding an individual’s ancestral past, the theory argues, the individual acquires ownership of both their experience of that past as well as their own present.

"My ancestors were gentry...All I'm hardwired to do is ride horses and the occasional housemaid!"

Carvajal, Doreen. “In Andulalusia, on the Trail of Inherited Memories.” 

            The New York Times, 17 August 2012. Early Ed.: Science. Online.

Schutzenberger, Anne Ancelin.  The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational  

            Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree. London:

            Routledge, 1998.

THE ANTIQUARIAN: The Last Earl of Barrymore, Henry "Cripplegate" Barry

When John R. Robinson created his chronicle The Last Earls of Barrymore, the author pointed out that his aim was not to glorify the behaviour of the infamous earls but rather to provide an exposé against what he called their “disastrous example of extravagance and folly”(5).   As part of the Prince of Wales’ Carlton House Set, the last Earls of Barrymore epitomized the indulgence of England’s Regency Period (c1811 – 1821); in an aristocratic world of privilege, debauchery and extravagance, they came to be known as some of the most notorious rakes of their age. 

One of the earliest known members of this illustrious family was a nobleman of the early 12^th century named William de Barry who married Hangaret the daughter of Gerald of Windsor by his wife Nesta, the beautiful princess of South Wales.  In 1169, members of the Barry family participated in the invasion of Ireland and became so powerful that they were called “the Great Barrys” or Barry more.  The chief of this family held the titles Lord of Olethan, Viscount of Buttevant and in 1627 advanced to the dignity of Earl of Barrymore.

The family of Richard, 6^th Earl of Barrymore, moved to London after their father’s death in 1773 and as part of the Regency Rakes (so named after the swearing in of George, Prince of Wales, as Regent in 1811) earned the following nicknames:  Richard “Hellgate” Barry, who was notorious for racing teams of horses through London streets and squares, and who, dying at the early age of twenty-four, squandered over 300,000 pounds in six short years; Augustus “Newgate” Barry, so named because Newgate was the only penitentiary he had never been incarcerated in; Lady “Billingsgate” Barry, whose obscene language resembled the kind associated with the Billingsgate Fish Market and Henry “Cripplegate” Barry who, after the death of his more famous elder brother Richard, became the 8^th and last Earl of Barrymore.

Having received the nickname “Cripplegate” due to his clubfoot, Henry Barry began his notorious career as the youthful companion of his elder brother Richard.  As boys, the pair indulged in such pranks as changing signposts, propping coffins containing dummy bodies against doorways then ringing the bell to terrify the maid who answered, and imitating the cries of a woman in distress only to knock the watchman down who had come to her rescue. 

Called in one literary vignette of the time a paragon of debauchery, the earl was also known for his beautiful singing voice and his passion for drama and music.  Described as having the consummate bearing of the aristocrat, he was reputedly a man of great wit and so his company was much sought after; it was said that as the constant companion of the Prince of Wales the two men participated in “many disgraceful orgies.” It was, in fact, the Earl’s unrestrained propensity for humour that led to the many quarrels and duels that became part of his legend---the duels becoming a cause célèbre because, as some records report, the Earl fought them in the nude. 

On one occasion he mocked the General Sir James Alured Clarke, who claimed to be an expert on Native tribes of North America, by creating fictitious tribal names for Clarke to pontificate on at a gathering.  The General fell for the ruse and as the interview continued each tribal name became more fantastical then the last. By the time the Earl asked the veteran soldier to give a description of the Fol-lol-di-riddle-low tribe, both the Earl and the entire gathering had burst into great laughter.  On another famous occasion while dining at Windsor Castle, the Earl challenged a Colonel Cowper to create a better plan than he for assaulting the Castle.  The two men proceeded to draw lines of attack and defence over a tablecloth.  When Cowper’s plan began to outstrip the Earl’s, Henry calmly took up a tumbler of water and then just as calmly threw it into the Colonel’s face, saying, “your plan is full of faults, for you have forgotten the Thames.”

In 1795, contrary to acceptable practice, Earl Henry “Cripplegate” Barry married a commoner, Anne Coghlan, the extremely beautiful daughter of a tavern keeper (Melville, 71).  Twenty-eight years later, the last Earl of Barrymore died of stroke related symptoms on December 18, 1823 in Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris at the age of fifty-four.  He was penniless.



"What do you mean, you find it too distracting?!"

Melville, Lewis.  The Beaux of the Regency.  London: Hutchinson & Co., 1908.

Robinson, John Robert.  The Last Earls of Barrymore.  London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1894.

EXERCISE: Gestalt & Groupings

Gestalt therapy entered prominence in the 1960s with its most popular proponent Fritz Perls.  As mentioned in an earlier posting, Gestalt therapy focuses on the here and now and its examinations into the patient’s psychological past are viewed, most specifically, with the patient’s reactions in the present.

Another interesting hallmark of this particular school of psychology is its understanding of the way individuals perceive their world.  The origin of the word “Gestalt” is German and is defined by Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary as “a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts.”  To put it simply, the human mind categorizes visual stimuli into a functional whole that can be readily perceived by the viewer.   As an example, consider the following exercise:

  

What does (A) depict?

A

 What does (B) depict?

B

The truth of both representations is that each of them simply illustrates dots on a page.  Individuals familiar with the English alphabet, however, view (A) as the letter “M” and this is not because it is truly represented but because their minds have grouped the dots into the recognizable form of a familiar English letter.  The individual’s mind connected the dots automatically, where no actual connection existed (see figure [C]).  

C

  

Contrarily, because the mind could not find a familiar grouping in depiction (B) the individual perceives that depiction as a random congregation of dots or may view it in dissimilar ways, such as a snake or winding road etc. 

In everyday life, the Gestalt of human perception can be encountered everywhere.  With some variation, examples include proximity groupings in phone numbers, paragraphs in essays or the infamous branding of French Connection with their logo “FCUK.”



"I think creating two groups here should be fairly easy."



THE THINKER: Ecclesiastes & the Humility of Humankind

Ecclesiastes has been called one of the strangest books in the Bible.  For many Christians and Jews it is a difficult book to place.  Attributed to King Solomon, the book initially appears pessimistic; its author approaches his understanding of the world from what seems a fatalistic point of view.  He employs reason and logic to trace out a worldview that does not shy away from the kinds of existence questions that agnostics and atheists grapple with aggressively.  In this way, its philosophical nature seems to diverge from the more traditional books that surround it. 

The King James’ version of the book is considered by many as the greatest example of prose ever written in the English language.  Calling it that great book Ernest Hemingway claimed that “he read it aloud to all who would listen” (89).  Throughout the ages, for both its content and lyricism, Ecclesiastes has inspired.

One of its most intriguing passages examines humankind’s place in the universe:

                        I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they

                        may see that they are like the animals.  Man’s fate is like

                        that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As

                        one dies, so dies the other.  All have the same breath; a

                        man has no advantage over the animal…All go to the same

                        place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.  Who knows

                        if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal

                        down into the earth?”

                                                                                    (Eccl., 3: 18-22)

                       

This passage follows the Preacher’s continued observations made under the sun, where the writer essentially asks questions that have never ceased to be asked:  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why does God allow it?  The questions themselves, the Preacher admits, can never be definitively answered for the human mind cannot truly fathom God, but he does provide a tantalizing suggestion:  “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals” (Eccl., 3:18).

"I am sorry, but you'll just have to take your turn behind the slug and the beetle!"

The Holy Bible: New International Version.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984.

Hemingway, Ernest.  Ernest Hemingway on Writing.  Ed. Larry W. Phillips. 

       New York: Simon & Shuster,1999.

LITERARY CORNER: Character Names

In my book The Literary Detective, I teach the method behind expert reading.  In brief, I argue that “becoming a good reader is essentially the method involved in becoming a good detective of literature. Just as a detective is trained to find clues at a crime scene, so too can the reader be trained to detect clues left by the author” (Hammond, 23).

The following is an excerpt from the chapter Staples of Interpretation, which outlines common techniques that many diverse writers employ:

Names:

The name an author gives to a character is also an access point into meaning. Caricatures meant to represent types are often given satirical names. This indicates the author’s attitude toward a recognized group of people.

The famous heroine of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is called Becky Sharp. Known for her ability to manipulate others, Becky Sharp is highly intelligent and cunning. In a word, she is sharp.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the crude and ugly sounding names of Gatsby’s guests to allude to the unsavoury nature of the people who frequent his parties. As caricatures, they too are meant to suggest types rather than actual individuals. Along with being crude, many of the names evoke racist or sexually explicit slang words.

…Hornbeams…Willie Voltaires, and a whole clan named Blackbuck…and Edgar Beaver…and the Ripley Snells…

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman uses the name of the playwright’s main character (Willy Loman, or “Low man”) to suggest his low social status as well as his low self-worth. As Biff Loman later states, the Lomans are examples of the average American – they are a dime a dozen. The play’s social statement is clear: the average American is viewed and treated in a low, demeaning way. This fact is made more tragic by the realization that average Americans also share this demeaning view of their own social class.

The name of Willy’s youngest son is also full of meaning.  Following the logic behind the oft quoted phrase Ignorance is Bliss, Happy Loman’s happiness in Death of a Salesman is attributed to his unawareness:

He, like his brother [Biff], is lost, but in a different way, for he has never allowed himself to turn his face toward defeat and is thus more confused and hard-skinned, although seemingly more content.

The name Happy, then, is an ironic one. The author means to show that happiness based on lies is a false happiness. Since he has purposely remained unaware of his failures and shortcomings, he does not have to deal with the negative feelings attached to them. As a consequence, Happy Loman will never make an attempt to improve his life situation.

Another character whose name is significant in Miller’s play is Dave Singleman. Dave Singleman, unlike Willy Loman, is a successful salesman. Willy Loman longs to “be remembered and loved and helped” the way Dave Singleman is by his clientele. However, as Singleman’s name suggests, Willy is remembered, loved, and helped in a way that Dave Singleman is not:  by both a wife and family. The argument of Dave Singleman’s marital status is made solely on the character’s last name. It takes time and hard work to become a successful salesman, time away from family and friends. Arthur Miller illustrates that Willy Loman is a success where Dave Singleman is not – in his personal life. It is for the reader to decide which kind of success is better: professional or personal.

Exercise:

1.  Match each lettered descriptive sentence with its corresponding name below:

 _____  Jake Barnes

 _____  Mr. Gradgrind  

 _____  Jack Thriftless        

 _____  Cheeryble Brothers 

 _____  Mrs. Mantrap           

          

A. a woman who ensnares men like prey

B. a man who owes money in every capital in Europe.

C. a cruel schoolmaster

D. always looking on the good side of things

2.  Which of the above names did you not select?  Why?



"Travelling again, Mr. Wanderlust?"



Hammond, Glen Paul.  The Literary Detective: A Guide to the Study of Great Literary

     Works.  Blurb, 2011

THE ANTIQUARIAN: William IX of Aquitaine & Dangerosa

Now primarily known as the grandfather of the celebrated Queen of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, William IX was the son of Duke William VIII of Aquitaine and Audearde of Burgundy.  Described by the writer Alison Weir as intelligent, gifted, artistic and idealistic, he was infamous for an “insatiable thirst for sensual passion and adventure” (Weir, 9).  Historians consider him the first Troubadour and his poems were both erotic and often blasphemous (Weir, 9).  Though his poetry offended the sensibilities of the Church, they also extolled the virtues of women and helped establish the concept of courtly love, creating the codes of courtesy, chivalry, and gentlemanly conduct that permeated European culture for centuries afterward (Weir, 9).  Flamboyant and daring, William IX referred to himself as “Duke of the Entire Monarchy of the Aquitanians” (Weir, 9).  His amoral behaviour constantly put him at risk of excommunication and he only avoided the sentence of anathema on one occasion by famously forcing a Bishop to absolve him after charging into the cathedral with a drawn sword (Weir, 9).   He married twice and had many lovers, his most famous lover being a Viscountess named Dangerosa.

In 1115, while still married to his second wife Phillipa (daughter of the King of Aragon), William IX desired the wife of one of his vassals, the Viscountess Dangerosa.  With no regard for the consequences of his actions, he “abducted her from her bedchamber and bore her off to his palace at Poitiers”(Weir, 13).  Neither his wife’s remonstrance nor the threat of excommunication swayed him from his purpose.  When the papal legate, Giruad, was sent to reason with the Duke, William IX responded by telling the “bald legate that curls would grow on his pate before he would part with the Viscountess” (Weir, 13).  When excommunication followed, the Duke defiantly responded by having “Dangerosa’s portrait painted on his shield, saying that ‘it was his will to bear her in battle as she had borne him in bed’”(Weir, 13).  A grief stricken Phillipa finally gave up on her husband and retired to Fontevrault Abbey, dying of unknown causes a few years later and Duke William IX continued his illicit affair with the beautiful Viscountess until his own death, which happened while he was still an excommunicate on 10 February 1127. 

Six years before the death of William IX, both he and Dangerosa arranged for their children, from both their legal marriages, to be married.  In 1121, Dangerosa’s daughter, Aenor, by Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of Chatellerault and William IX’s heir, by Phillipa, the future Duke William X of Aquitaine became husband and wife.  The first child of this celebrated union was a daughter named Eleanor, who became Duchess of Aquitaine and the future Queen of England.



"What?!"



Weir, Alison.  Eleanor of Aquitaine.  New York: Ballantine Books, 1999

THE THINKER: Maturity & the Modern Adult

I saw an ad for adult multivitamins the other day where the new selling point for the product was that the vitamins had been made into tasty gummy bears; this way the adult too could enjoy vitamins just like their children.

Hum, makes you wonder: are adults today as intellectually mature as their own parents were or grandparents? Etc.   

I shall ponder this further on my next trip to Future Shop.

"Now eat your gummy chew chew yummies.  You're a good man...yes you are! YES YOU ARE!!"

THE THINKER: Passion & Performance

The virtues of passion are promoted constantly in our society.  The paintings of the great post-impressionist artists are often used as artistic proof for what only passion can produce.  When viewing a Vincent Van Gogh, for example, one can feel the passion that the artist possessed for not only the portrait itself but also the world in which the artist worked. This is palpable long after the very existence of the famed painter and many promoters of this element in his work rarely follow their observation with an in depth look at both the life of the man as well as the possible negative implications his proclivity for unbridled passion had on the production of that work.

The accepted position is that without passion there must be a lack of dedication and with this follows a suspicion of not only a failed work ethic, but also the negation of growth.  A lack of palpable passion that can be physically observed by the viewer, then, is often equated as proof of apathy in the subject being viewed. 
   

There is an interesting exchange on this very topic in David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia.  In the film, Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence is not only the star of the movie but a superstar to many of the contemporaries that view him from a distance within the film.  In one scene, an initially sycophantic reporter questions Prince Feisal about the humanitarian way Lawrence treats his Prisoners of War.  The wise Prince seizes the opportunity to point out a distinction between his own good behaviour toward Turkish prisoners (even though the Turks do not treat his own people according to the code outlined by the Geneva Convention) and that of the famed British soldier:

   “With Major Lawrence” the Prince responds, standing imperiously over the American reporter.  “Mercy is a passion. With me, it is merely good manners.”  He then adds demurely: “You may judge which motive is the more reliable.” 

The full irony of this exchange is exposed a few scenes later when Lawrence responds to the massacre of an Arab village by ordering the Arab Army to completely annihilate the offending Turkish soldiers.  Now exhausted and in full retreat, the Turkish battalion is easily encircled and Lawrence, himself, wanders through the inner circle with his men indiscriminately slaughtering all who attempt to surrender before him.

Passion may be a worthy characteristic, but is it as much a prerequisite for excellence as our culture imagines?  Think about it: Chef Gordon Ramsey is passionate, but would that make him the best English teacher?



"I said conjugate the f#*!^ing verb!  GET OUT!!"



THE ANTIQUARIAN: Eleanor of Aquitaine & the March to Jerusalem

When Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitou married Duke Henry of Anjou,  on 18 May 1152, she had already been Queen of France and owned a territory whose eastern border spanned the Atlantic seaboard from Poitou in the north to Gascony in the south, stretching as far west as the eastern marches of Burgundy. Strong minded and individualistic, she was also considered one of the most beautiful women in the world.  In 1154, Henry of Anjou mounted the throne of England as King Henry II and Eleanor became Queen; together they ruled the vast Angevin Empire.

The Nuns of Fontevrault said of her in their necrology “she surpassed all the queens of the world” and adorned her noble birth with “the honesty of her life” and “the flowers of her virtues”(Weir, 344).  In her youth, however, Eleanor was often a figure of scandal and controversy.  Her worldly power excited wonder; her beauty attracted fervent admiration and as a woman who transcended the mores of a male dominated society, she was altogether unique in her time.  Her exploits were retold for generations and the power of her character inspired legends. Attesting to this is a romantic telling of Eleanor’s march to Jerusalem. 

As the legend goes, when Eleanor’s first husband King Louis VII of France heard of the fall of Edessa to the Muslims, he vowed to go to the aid of the Christians in Asia Minor and to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Chambers, 459).  Eleanor who loved adventure and excitement was determined to go with him and because Louis “loved her too passionately to go away without her” he agreed (Chambers, 459).  Eleanor’s presence in the Second Crusade, however, was not merely as the wife of her husband.  By right of title to her Duchy, she insisted on leading her own troops into battle.  So according to one version of the narrative, onlookers who had gathered to watch the crusading army depart were astounded when at the front of her battalion, Eleanor led a band of female warriors (made up of her own royal ladies-in-waiting) dressed up like Amazons.   The Greek chronicler Niketas Choniates described Eleanor arriving in Constantinople at the head of her army as a resurrection of Penthesilea herself, the celebrated Queen of the Amazons (Weir, 57).

Weir, Alison.  Eleanor of Aquitaine.  New York: Ballantine Books, 1999

Chambers, Frank McMinn.  “Some Legends Concerning Eleanor of Aquitaine.”  Medieval Academy of America, Vol. 16, No 4. (Oct., 1941), pp. 459-468.