Setting the Scene

In act 3 scene II of The Taming of the Shrew, the setting starts out in the daytime before Kate and Petruchio’s wedding is to take place. This is evident when Petruchio says to Baptista “But what a fool am I to chat with you/ When I should bid good morrow to my bride” (lines 123-124). Petruchio officially declares that it is morning time. Another indication of the time is the many times the characters say the word “day.” In Shakespeare’s time, the word “day” typically signifies morning as oppose to a specific date. Baptista says “this is the ‘pointed day/ That Katherine and Petruchio should be married” (lines 1-2).
Shakespeare also hints at the scene’s mood through the characters’ language. When Biondello enters the scene with the description of Petruchio’s ridiculous wedding attire, readers get an idea of the wedding’s unserious environment. If the groom did not care about looking traditionally appropriate for his wedding, why should anyone else take the event seriously? Katherine’s and Petruchio’s wedding turns out to be a joke not only because of Petruchio’s ridiculous attire, but also due to the lack of love and gravity. Bapatista’s reply to Petruchio’s attire is “I am glad he's come, howsoe'er he comes” (line 73), which basically means he did not care about anything other than getting Katherine married away, it did not even matter if the husband is rude, arrogant, selfish, stubborn, and very odd. Petruchio displays the lack of love in his marriage to Katherine when Katherine bids him to stay by saying “Now, if you love me, stay” (line 209), to which Petruchio replies “Grumio, my horse” (line 210). The shrew’s one attempt at being a polite and kind woman is unnoticed and shot down by her very own husband. In addition, Petruchio claims Katherine as his property, no different than “my goods, my chattels; she is my house,/ My household stuff, my field, my barn,/ My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything” (lines 236-238). Although Petruchio’s and Katherine’s marriage is legitimate under the law and God, Petruchio treats the marriage as a lighthearted event even though a lifelong commitment is a very serious pledge. Other characters contribute to the unserious mood as well, such as Baptista and his disregard to Petruchio’s behavior and Katherine’s feelings.

Katherine Character Analysis

Katherine is the eldest daughter of Baptista and the real protagonist of Shakespeare’s play, even though the play starts out with Bianca as the focus. As the “shrew” that is to be “tamed” in the story, Katherine is a round and dynamic character. Through her encounter and marriage with Petruchio, Katherine’s character changes dramatically from a shrew to an obedient wife and woman. The first apparent sign of Katherine’s transformation is during her first encounter and squabble with Petruchio. Everyone calls Katherine a shrew for her bold opinion and sharp tongue, however, once she meets her match with Petruchio. Petruchio proves to be wittier than Katherine is, as well as vulgar, selfish, and greedy. During the squabble, Petruchio turns every insult Katherine throws at him into a suggestive or positive remark and convinces Katerine to marry him…or at least not disagree to marry him. When Baptista checks up on Petruchio’s and Katerine’s status, Petruchio proclaims them engaged and Katherine did not argue otherwise. The process of taming Katherine was well under way. Katherine’s actions also effect the actions of the characters around her, as she is the protagonist. Bianca is most directly affected by Katherine’s character because she is not allowed to marry until Katherine is wed, therefore, her character has no life and action (since being married was the main life goal of women in those times). In turn, this Bianca’s many suitors prevents to progress forward and create action since they have to wait for Katherine to wed so they can pursue and wed Bianca. So in a sense, everyone waits upon Katherine’s character; only when Katherine’s character makes a move (progress) forward in the play do the other characters get to progress.
Katherine’s character stirs the reader’s sympathy because even though she is a shrew, the readers can see why she appears the way she is and knows that deep down, Katherine just wants what every other girl wants: a husband. This is apparent throughout Katherine’s entire character transformation, as she becomes less outspoken and more obedient. At the same time, Katherine also brings humor to the play. Her wit is very amusing, especially when paired with Petruchio.

Joycean Absences

In Dubliners, James Joyce repeatedly made a point to have absences in his stories, particularly the absence of parents. For example, in “Eveline” readers are informed that Eveline’s mother died when she was young and the only parent she had was an abusive father. In the story, Eveline seemed to have little parental influence in her life since her mother passed away. Eveline was a character who desperately wanted to get away from the grasp of her father yet she was unable to in the end. The significance of the absent mother comes into play when Eveline makes her decision to stay. It seems that Eveline’s mother was the one that made Eveline feel guilty and doubtful about leaving. While at the dock, Eveline kept thinking about the promise she made her mother to take care of the family how her mother told her “Derevaun Seraun,” meaning “the end of pleasure is pain.” Eveline’s mother was able to bind Eveline from leaving. The absent parent in “Eveline” plays a significant role in that they have a large influence in the character’s life; even though deceased, Eveline’s mother was still able to control her. Another example of Joycean Absences is the absence of a reliable narrator in "The Sisters." Joyce used a young nameless boy as the narrator for the short story who tells the reader what is happening as well as what he thinks of the situation. A reliable narrator would allow readers to judge a situation for themselves as oppose to being swayed by the narrator's opinion. Joyce's intention of using the young boy as a narrator appears to be because of the narrator's young mind. With a young and innocent narrator, it is more likely the narrator will state the facts of situations just as he sees it. A young mind is not likely to be influenced by outside opinion besides their own; they do not care how others think of their opinion. For example, the young boy did not take into consideration the fact that his uncle and Mr. Cotter disapproved of his and Father Flynn's relationship, it was not important to him what they or others thought. An innocent mind is only before it is influenced by others and institutions, having the young boy narrate the story is allowing readers to view the situation from an innocent point of view, it attempts to take strip readers of their own personal beliefs and influences as well.

Eveline

In James Joyce's short story "Eveline," the main character, Eveline, desires to escape the control of her abusive father but in the end she passes up the opportunity to leave. The paralysis and epiphany Eveline experiences causes her to make her last minute decision to stay behind. Throughout the entire story, Eveline remains in a state of paralysis; she makes very little action which gives the story an overall calm and standstill mood. It seems as if Eveline is lost in her thoughts and there is no track of time while she is thinking. Eveline keeps weighing the bad and the good that would come of either her decision to stay or to leave. At one point in the story, Eveline thought her life "was hard work--a hard life--but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life" (38). Eveline is scared to leave the familiarity of her current life, even though she lives in fear, at least she knew it well. While on the other hand, leaving with Frank would bring about great changes, people, obstacles; it would bring about a whole new life (which she wants but is afraid of at the same time). Even when at the dock, Eveline is still contemplating whether or not she should leave her old life for a new one with her lover Frank. She remains lost in her thoughts and the world around her seems to be in slow-motion. Joyce transitions between the description of Eveline's surroundings and her thoughts, giving an impression of a frame-by-frame scene in which every little detail can be pointed out. In her thoughts, Eveline hears her mother repeating: "Derevaun Seranun! Derevaun Seraun!" which in Irish means:"the end of pleasure is pain." The image of her mother speaking to her causes Eveline to have an epiphany. The epiphany is that Eveline realizes that her happiness with Frank could only last so long and after the happiness part of their relationship is over, their relationship will change from pleasure to pain. Although all relationships are bound to have problems, however, Eveline does not see problem-solving as a solution. Eveline can only sees abuse and neglect and alcoholism (all of which she bases upon her father's abusive character). At that point, Eveline gets scared to leave with Frank, adding on the hesitating thought she had earlier about leaving her life and she decides that she felt safer and more comfortable staying in her old life. She is expressionless as she watches Frank call to her as the ferry leaves because she believes Frank would be no good for her future, that he would only cause her pain.

The Metamorphosis Citation Exercise

Gregor's family and Gregor's personal identity change dramatically when he becomes a vermin. In the new identity his senses are different: the hospital across the street is now beyond Gregor's range of vision. His abilities change. Shifts in spatial arrangements circumscribe Gregor's movements. His voice is transformed. Some of Gregor's changes are generated from within. Gregor hides himself completely, likes the isloation, and the remove of the furniture from his room. On the other hand, Gregor’s “disappearance” forces his parents and sister out of their own parasitic existence, leading them to a much deeper transformation. At first we can observe his family's social decline, burdened by shame and the expense of looking after their metamorphosed son; they eventually give up, bitter, tired, and angry. Later, Gregor’s parents and sister have themselves metamorphosed: they regain a youthful vigor as they begin to work, take trips to the countryside, and eventually sell the apartment they had shared with Gregor. The family no longer depend upon Gregor for all their needs; they no longer need him at all. The family leaves Gregor completely behind and makes a new life for themselves. Gregor exists only to help in the change of his family. In a sense, the story's focus is not on Gregor, but instead on his family; the change of Gergor's family is the important part. Just like how the story begins with the focus on Gregor's transformation and ends with the family's new life, the focus of the story and the power in the Samsa family shifts gradually from Gregor to the family.

Sympathy in the Metamorphosis

In his short story, “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka is very consistent about maintaining an ambiguous point-of-view; Kafka was very careful to keep who the protagonist and antagonist in the story are. Kafka intend for his readers to think and judge for themselves, to decided what they should get out of the story. However, every story should have an antagonist and protagonist and in this story, Kafka has given some hints and supports to the idea that Gregor is the antagonist of the story while his family (Grete, father, and mother) are the protagonists. Having the family take the role of protagonists, naturally readers are suppose to relate and sympathize with them, therefore, there is little or no sympathy left for Gregor. One strong support of the lack of sympathy for Gregor’s character can be distinguished from this paragraph:

“We must try to get rid of it,” his sister (Grete) now said explicitly to her father, since her mother was coughing too much to hear a world, “it will be the death of both of you, I can see that coming. When one has to work as hard as we do, all of us, one can’t stand this continual torment at home on top of it. At least I can’t stand it any longer.” And she burst into such a passion of sobbing that her tears dropped on her mother’s face, where she wiped them off mechanically” (133).

This paragraph emphasizes the pain and suffering of the family as Grete informs the readers of how she miserable she felt and what a burden the bug that use to be Gregor was on the entire family. Grete’s grievance definitely draws a lot of the reader’s sympathy. However, on another note, all of Gregor’s after suffering after the metamorphosis seems to be nonexistence after Grete’s speech. Gregor never gets a dialogue describing all of his emotions, sufferings, and pains. Gregor’s status and thoughts were reported and described from time to time but he never gets to speak for himself after he was completely transformed. As an effect, Gregor’s thoughts and emotions seem less emotional and more detached, and after all, Gregor was just a bug. Gregor’s sufferings were not only minimal because of his lack of dialogue but also because of the lack of emphasis on all that Gregor has done for the family before the metamorphosis. Before the metamorphosis, Gregor worked day and night in order to support his father’s laziness, mother’s feebleness, and Grete’s youth. In exchange, Gregor gave up his life, he had no life besides work. The narrator mentioned Gregor’s life and job before the metamorphosis there were no emotions neither involved nor stirred in those paragraphs. Beyond that, Gregor’s sacrifice was minimized if not at all absent. Kafka placed heavy emphasis on the family’s meager sacrifice and suffering as oppose to Gregor’s life-long sacrifice and suffering.