My last Duchess 
by Robert Browning

"Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er"

The poem showed the reality that women lived in the Victorian era. Women's goal was to get married and have children. When women got married, their husband owned all properties and money, and women depend financially on men. I consider that women were seen as objects, and in the haunting season, there were like paintings that people see, judge and take the best that they like. 

One part of the poem said that the girl was pleased with everything and all makes her happy. Therefore, women were easy to please because perhaps they never said what they dislike since they had to show they were happy all the time. If they dislike something, they did not have the right to share it. In conclusio, women were seen as objects that one went to the store and pick the best one.

Dover Beach

by Matthew Arnold

"Ah, love, let us be true 

  To one another! for the world, which seems

  To lie before us like a land of dreams..."

This poem has a sense of calmness, so while I was reading, I traveled to this beach. I could imagine what the author narrates. At the beggining, it was difficult to understand the poem. However, after readig it 3 times, I could analyze the poem. Also, at the end, I realized that the author was with his love. Therefore, perhaps the poem is about two lovers in ther honeymoon in the beach; enjoying their love. Two lovers enjoying and loving each other in the beach; it seems very romantic.

The Forsaken Merman 

by Matthew Arnold

"But cruel is she!
She left lonely for ever
The kings of the sea"

Before analyzing the poem, I did some research about the author, so I realized that he believed in science rather than Cristianity. Also, in his works, he related the stories with the Victorian era. In this case, this poem is related to Cristianity, which he critized it.

I can interpret the poem like this: Margaret lived happy in the sea with her family; she did not want it to go back to the land. However, because of her cristian duties, as she said "she must go," she went leaving her family in the sea. She never came back to the sea. This shows that sometimes people leaves everything behind for religion. Also, the poem shows women empowerment in the Victorian era in which women had to obey her husband and submit to him. However, in the poem, she empowered herself, and decided to do something for herself. As the poem shows, she lives in the sea; so she left her home to live with the merman, and sacrifice herself to live in the sea, but then she returned to his home and never came back to the sea. She decided to do what she really wanted.

I enjoy reading this poem, for I can imagine the sea, the merman very clearly. The author explains and gives many details. Therefore, reading this poem was an enriching experience. 

 Break, Break, Break

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Break, Break, Break

     To their haven under the hill"

When you lose someone you love, you feel that your heart breaks a little. This poem was created by the author when his friend Arthur Henry Hallan passed away. As the author sees the sea and some thoughts come to their mind. In this case, I consider that he starts remembering his friend, and all the moments he spent with him. In fact, the memories and thoughts are the only ones which remain when a person passed away.

It is interesting what it says in stanza 4 line 3-4 "But the tender grace of a day that is dead will never come back to me" I understand this part of the poem and I agree with it because as the tender grace of a day will never come back the time or moments you spend with a beloved person wil never come back. For this reason, we should live the present with the people we love as if it were the last day of our lives.

The Lady of Shalott

   The lady of Shalott narrates the story of a woman that is cursed. Hence, she is imprisoned in a tower, and she cannot see anything through the window only through a mirror. However, when a man walked by near the tower, she saw him through the window and the mirror broke; by looking at the window, the curse came upon her.
   
   The lady of Shalott lived all her life in the tower, and respecting the curse  looking at Camelot through the mirror. However, for a knight, she did not care about the curse and looked through the window. Sometimes, we live our lives in a tower looking a the mirror wanting to see beyond, but we are so affraid of the risks (the curse) that we don't see through the window because is too risky. However, there is always something o someone that makes us forget about all the risks (curse) and we forget all the risks (curse), and we look through the window; we do not care the consecuences of our acts due to the fact that thing or person is worth it. This lyrical ballad showed me that if the person is worth it, the risks do not matter.

"I am half sick of shadows" said the Lady of shadows

The Cry of the Children

Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Our grave-rest is very far to seek"

Children should be enjoying theit chilhood playing and eating without worring for money. However, one can think that I shoud not even write this, for it is too obvious that children must not work, but due to workhouses, in the victorian era was normal to see children working in despicable conditions. 

When I read the poem, I realized that death was common for them that became as normal as sleeping. I guess they live the present because they did not if in the future they survive. It sounds sad to digest, but that was the reality of all those children.

The goverment did not care about their children because the goverment was so focus on making the rich richer that they justify poverty, and they needed poor people to work in those workhouses, and depend on those workhouses to live. Sadly, children also needed to survive. Some might were born in workhouses.

"A Walk in a Workhouse"

Author: Charles Dickens

"I am greatly better in my health, sir; but what I want to get me quite round" with his hand on his throat, "is a little fresh air, sir ...

I really enjoy seeing a Workhouse through Dicken's eyes although it was not the best place to imagine. He described the place with so many details that it looks that I was walking in a workhouse. I realize that workhouses where similar to concentration camps only that in concentration camps they were against their will and in workhouses they went there by their own will. However, can you call that their own will when they had only two options: Dying because they did not have food or working in a workhouse to have food and work, but with non-human conditions. As the quote said without seeing the light and enjoyinng fresh for long periods of time.

The people there were call inmates which has synonyms such as captive, prisioner, convict (workreference). The word explains itself what they were without them noticing; they were prisioners of workhouses. Also, I perceived that in the text when they were interwiewing a inmate he tried to say that he was incredible there eventhough it was not like that. This looks like their boses obligating them to say pretty words and lie when they were asked about the conditions.

Likewise, derogatory words were used to describe women and no men nor children. For example: evil-looking women, ugly old woman, witch like, among others which shows how women were seen in those times.

Elizabeth Bentley, called in; and Examined

Author: Edited by Jonathan F. Scott snd Alexander Baltzly

          

            "How far had you to go for dinner?-We could not go home to dinner"

Before reading this, I was not aware of the fact that children had to work at such a young age in the Victorian era. I wondered if there were laws that permit children working so young. However, I will look for information to understand the laws in this era.

After I read this, I related the text to the situation that occurs nowadays in China where children work in sweatshops for long periods of time with a low salaries. Unfortunately, as Elizabeth, children started working in sweatshpos and continue working  there as they get old. They don't have a choice, so they accept all the poor conditons. I was shocked because in the interwiew, Elizabeth  said that she could not eat the appropiate amount of food, and she had to work for extensive periods of time. Hence, she only had time to work and work.

To finish, to survive Elizabeth had to work since she was a kid, and continue working there. For this reason, I felt grateful that I could enjoy my childhood playing and not worring about working, fot I needed food

Doffers:

The Importance of Being Earnest
 Author: Oscar Wilde


  At the beginning, it was difficult to undertsand the play; so I had to read the play two times and listen to the audio book. After, I watched the movie, and then I could get the idea of the play, so I enjoyed it. There were many words that I have not seen before, but I got the meaning by context. A problem that I had was that my classmates saw the comedy play as a comedy and they laugh or said they laugh while reading it. However, I did not laugh at any time, even I consider this play not to be a comedy. I guess my sense of humor is different from the rest or I did not understand the jokes.

I compared this text with the theory by Jung that talks about the persona, for the persona is the different masks people wear. In this play, the male characters invent a ficticious character as a mask that they wear to be other person and do aspects that they normally cannot perform. Also, I did a research about the author, and I realized that he was gay. For this reason, I think the play may be related to part of his life. In the victorian era, homosexual people were not well seen, so I believe the author had to have two different lives or made up names to hide the reality. 

Last, I analyzed the role of women on the play. I realized that women at a young age were thinking about getting married, and had to obey their parents. Sadly, in the text, the only aspiration that women had was marring and becoming a wife of a man call earnest because "of course the only thing that matters when you marry someone is the last name" (sarcasm). To finish, women had to look good all the time even though they had to wear uncomfortable clothes.