QUOTE:
“Poor Dorcasina, overcome by surprise and terror, jumped out of the window at the backside of the summer-house, and fainted upon the turf” (Tenney 908).
SUMMARY:
Dorcasina thinks that Scipio is O’Connor, so when O’Connor startles Scipio and is roughly handled, Dorcasina becomes mortified and knocks herself out.
RESPONSE:
After reading Tenney’s “Female Quixotism” I started to wonder if this could possibly be the origin of calling someone a “dork,” at least in the sense of acting as silly as Dorcasina, and not as a “whale’s penis” like most dictionaries also display for the definition of a dork. I guess I am thinking this particular story could in fact be the origin, since the name “Dorcasina” is unusual. However, because of this, I also don’t even necessarily doubt that the word already existed.
Tenney also uses “Philander” as a name, which I’m pretty sure is on purpose, since in class I asked if philander was already a word when “Female Quixotism” was written. If Tenney chose basically silly names to describe her characters, then I think maybe “dork” already existed. Now the question is why didn’t Tenney name her character “Dorkasina?” Maybe Dorkasina with a “k” just didn’t look right? Or maybe when the kids in the 50’s started calling each other a “dorc,” somebody misspelled it. Whatever is really behind the name Dorcasina, the way Dorcasina acts definitely classifies her as a dork, at least by today’s standards.
Now speaking of being a dork, I actually don’t like Dorcasina’s character, so I think she gives being a dork a bad name. I personally classify Dorcasina as being completely oblivious to how undesirable or “uncool” she is, which I guess can be pretty dorky, but in possibly the worst way.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Journal #13 Tabitha Tenney: How Does She Want Dorcasina to Come Across??!!
QUOTE:
“Hush Betty; you are in a passion and know not what you say: I am extremely sorry that you were so rudely treated; but it is unjust to impute it to Philander. I dare say the youth is well nigh distracted at his disappointment” (Tenney 927).
SUMMARY:
Dorcasina is completely unaware of the joke that has been played on her, and Betty gets to suffer for it. However, this could possibly be an example of how foolish a girl obsessed with potential love can be.
RESPONSE:
Dorcasina can be looked at in many different ways: she could be a strong female who does what she wants and even disobeys her father, she could be naïve and trusting of the men who just want to use her, or she could be seen as a completely self-centered girl who deserves to have what happens to Betty happen to her. I tend to think of her as the last possibility, especially since she is smug enough to assume Philander is head over heels in love with her. Dorcasina also seems to speak to Betty as if she knows everything, and Betty is too inexperienced to understand what it’s like to deal with multiple men trying to woo her.
Betty may be inexperienced, and she does seem to let her imagination get the best of her, but I think she’s on to something when she says the other female could not possibly be a woman. Dorcasina, on the other hand, is positive that Philander must be a very desirable man (since he is in love with her), so therefore he had to have chosen her over a woman who’s already his supposed lover. Part of me wants Dorcasina to be completely humiliated so she can be brought down from her ridiculously high horse, and the other part of me still wants her to be humiliated, but maybe to make her stop putting Betty through so much unnecessary drama.
I’m not sure if Betty is an African slave, or just a white handmaiden, but this type of situation makes me detest how spoiled people can put their “help” through so much; and this when they don’t even deserve it. Betty has to look out for Dorcasina, because I guess it’s part of her job, but I really hope that Dorcasina gets what she deserves without causing any more trouble for Betty in the rest of the story!
“Hush Betty; you are in a passion and know not what you say: I am extremely sorry that you were so rudely treated; but it is unjust to impute it to Philander. I dare say the youth is well nigh distracted at his disappointment” (Tenney 927).
SUMMARY:
Dorcasina is completely unaware of the joke that has been played on her, and Betty gets to suffer for it. However, this could possibly be an example of how foolish a girl obsessed with potential love can be.
RESPONSE:
Dorcasina can be looked at in many different ways: she could be a strong female who does what she wants and even disobeys her father, she could be naïve and trusting of the men who just want to use her, or she could be seen as a completely self-centered girl who deserves to have what happens to Betty happen to her. I tend to think of her as the last possibility, especially since she is smug enough to assume Philander is head over heels in love with her. Dorcasina also seems to speak to Betty as if she knows everything, and Betty is too inexperienced to understand what it’s like to deal with multiple men trying to woo her.
Betty may be inexperienced, and she does seem to let her imagination get the best of her, but I think she’s on to something when she says the other female could not possibly be a woman. Dorcasina, on the other hand, is positive that Philander must be a very desirable man (since he is in love with her), so therefore he had to have chosen her over a woman who’s already his supposed lover. Part of me wants Dorcasina to be completely humiliated so she can be brought down from her ridiculously high horse, and the other part of me still wants her to be humiliated, but maybe to make her stop putting Betty through so much unnecessary drama.
I’m not sure if Betty is an African slave, or just a white handmaiden, but this type of situation makes me detest how spoiled people can put their “help” through so much; and this when they don’t even deserve it. Betty has to look out for Dorcasina, because I guess it’s part of her job, but I really hope that Dorcasina gets what she deserves without causing any more trouble for Betty in the rest of the story!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Journal #12 Olaudah Equiano: Freedom Over The Zombie Life
QUOTE:
“This speech seemed to confound him, he began to recoil, and my heart that instant sunk within me. ‘What,’ said he, ‘give you your freedom? Why, where did you get the money’…and said he would not have made me the promise he did if he had thought I should have got the money so soon” (Equiano 707).
SUMMARY:
Equiano’s master tries to take back his promise since he didn’t expect Equiano to get the money to buy his freedom. Luckily Equiano’s friend helps oblige his master into letting Equiano buy his freedom.
RESPONSE:
When I pointed out this passage in class, I said that Equiano was quite lucky to have made friends with the captain. The captain basically makes Equiano’s master feel obligated to accept the money from Equiano in exchange for his freedom. However, the question of whether Equiano was, in fact, better off free came up in class. Were newly freed slaves actually living happier lives? Or did they find life much harder without even the minimal sustenance they would at least receive as slaves?
I think that even living a “harder” life as a free man or woman would still be greatly preferred to living in a state of servitude by basically every African. I guess I see this in a kind of unusual way, because in class I related this matter to all of the “zombie” movies I have recently seen: i.e. Resident Evil I, II, III or 28 Days Later. The characters in these movies would much rather die and stay dead, than end up one of the “undead” forever. I think that being “free” is an ambition equivalent to not being a mindless zombie, and is something that most of the Africans will even die for.
Although in Equiano’s life he writes about certain masters that seem to be at least “nice,” he’s still a slave, and still has to work for nothing. He still knows that he has no choice, and that he has to do whatever his master asks. As a slave, Equiano or any human, is a zombie with no choice in what they do if they want to survive. The slaves must work until it kills them, and the zombies must feed on human flesh/brains until a protagonist kills them. Maybe it's a stretch, but this comparison makes sense in my brain!
“This speech seemed to confound him, he began to recoil, and my heart that instant sunk within me. ‘What,’ said he, ‘give you your freedom? Why, where did you get the money’…and said he would not have made me the promise he did if he had thought I should have got the money so soon” (Equiano 707).
SUMMARY:
Equiano’s master tries to take back his promise since he didn’t expect Equiano to get the money to buy his freedom. Luckily Equiano’s friend helps oblige his master into letting Equiano buy his freedom.
RESPONSE:
When I pointed out this passage in class, I said that Equiano was quite lucky to have made friends with the captain. The captain basically makes Equiano’s master feel obligated to accept the money from Equiano in exchange for his freedom. However, the question of whether Equiano was, in fact, better off free came up in class. Were newly freed slaves actually living happier lives? Or did they find life much harder without even the minimal sustenance they would at least receive as slaves?
I think that even living a “harder” life as a free man or woman would still be greatly preferred to living in a state of servitude by basically every African. I guess I see this in a kind of unusual way, because in class I related this matter to all of the “zombie” movies I have recently seen: i.e. Resident Evil I, II, III or 28 Days Later. The characters in these movies would much rather die and stay dead, than end up one of the “undead” forever. I think that being “free” is an ambition equivalent to not being a mindless zombie, and is something that most of the Africans will even die for.
Although in Equiano’s life he writes about certain masters that seem to be at least “nice,” he’s still a slave, and still has to work for nothing. He still knows that he has no choice, and that he has to do whatever his master asks. As a slave, Equiano or any human, is a zombie with no choice in what they do if they want to survive. The slaves must work until it kills them, and the zombies must feed on human flesh/brains until a protagonist kills them. Maybe it's a stretch, but this comparison makes sense in my brain!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Journal #11 Olaudah Equiano: A Horrific Experience
QUOTE:
“The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential” (Equiano 684).
SUMMARY:
The conditions of the slave ships are absolutely horrible for the African slaves (the “cargo”), who now must all be crammed under deck. The “whites” are also especially cruel to the suffering dejected slaves.
RESPONSE:
Of course this quote can be easily discussed regarding the behavior of “the whites” and how cruel they are to the people they have enslaved, but I would like to discuss it based more on the perseverance of Equiano, or any enslaved person for that matter. The slaves weren’t even really sure what was happening, or how it was happening, but they had to survive the harsh conditions during the voyage through The Middle Passage (although unfortunately many did not survive). Just from reading about the Pilgrims, or other groups of people trying to cross the Atlantic, makes the experience the Africans had seem much worse considering it was not their choice to go in the first place, and they were purposely treated poorly.
Even if Equiano was never in Africa, as some may believe, there is no doubt that the horrible slave ships existed, and that many Africans were just “expendable cargo” in the eyes of their captors. However, I don’t really have any reason to think that none of these things happened to Equiano, so I pretty much believe his story. I can’t even imagine the horror Equiano, or any of the Africans, experienced with “[t]he shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying,” and especially the “intolerably loathsome” (Equiano 684) stench inside the hold.
If I had to think of one of the most terrible ways to die, I think falling into a vat or tub of shit would be up there in the top ten! I don’t think I could even handle having to deal with anything like that being only a few feet away from me. Anyone who survived these horrors had to have been extremely tough, and it’s pretty much appalling that after surviving the ordeal, the Africans got to conclude their dreadful experience with a life of servitude.
“The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential” (Equiano 684).
SUMMARY:
The conditions of the slave ships are absolutely horrible for the African slaves (the “cargo”), who now must all be crammed under deck. The “whites” are also especially cruel to the suffering dejected slaves.
RESPONSE:
Of course this quote can be easily discussed regarding the behavior of “the whites” and how cruel they are to the people they have enslaved, but I would like to discuss it based more on the perseverance of Equiano, or any enslaved person for that matter. The slaves weren’t even really sure what was happening, or how it was happening, but they had to survive the harsh conditions during the voyage through The Middle Passage (although unfortunately many did not survive). Just from reading about the Pilgrims, or other groups of people trying to cross the Atlantic, makes the experience the Africans had seem much worse considering it was not their choice to go in the first place, and they were purposely treated poorly.
Even if Equiano was never in Africa, as some may believe, there is no doubt that the horrible slave ships existed, and that many Africans were just “expendable cargo” in the eyes of their captors. However, I don’t really have any reason to think that none of these things happened to Equiano, so I pretty much believe his story. I can’t even imagine the horror Equiano, or any of the Africans, experienced with “[t]he shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying,” and especially the “intolerably loathsome” (Equiano 684) stench inside the hold.
If I had to think of one of the most terrible ways to die, I think falling into a vat or tub of shit would be up there in the top ten! I don’t think I could even handle having to deal with anything like that being only a few feet away from me. Anyone who survived these horrors had to have been extremely tough, and it’s pretty much appalling that after surviving the ordeal, the Africans got to conclude their dreadful experience with a life of servitude.
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