My English 101 Papers

Paper #1

"Pathway to Liberty Through Language"

Throughout the readings of Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Frederick Douglass' Narrative, both of these works discuss the idea of liberty for a particular person or group of people through the use of different styles of language. The style of language used by both of these men displays how two people perceive liberty during different periods of history.

In Frederick Douglass' Narrative, he uses a language style which may be considered elevated for someone who taught himself to read and write with the help of one of his mistresses. Douglass writes, "These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it" (Douglass 2). This quote demonstrates the high level of knowledge Douglass has about language and uses this understanding to show the reader how he started finding personal liberty out of slavery.

Plato's style of writing is shown through the words, "At first, when anyone of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows;" (Plato 178). This particular quote shows the language style Plato uses when discussing the process someone in the cave goes through when they want the liberty and freedom to see what is going on outside of the cave. Plato also goes on to write, "When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities" (Plato 179). Again, Plato writes in a way that is more intellectual than most people, but he does it to get his point across about having the liberty to see beyond the shadows in the cave.

Douglass used his particular style of language and understanding of liberty because he was a slave, and that is how he was taught to write. Liberty to Douglass was the freedom from slavery and the freedom from the restraints put on him by other people and society.

Plato wanted to show that through language people have different perceptions at what the outside world is really like after being kept away in a cave. Plato talked about the people in the cave having the liberty to get up and walk around, but that was only if they chose to make the first step to get out of the chair. People in different times of history have different word usage and the term liberty can have many different connotations. Plato was a philosopher and he spoke to people with his same intelligence level, so he wrote in a more intellectual understanding.

There is no question about it, life during Plato's time is different from Douglass', and through this different visions of liberty are seen in their writing. All of these different time periods bound together as one show how things really can be relatively the same when certain aspects are looked at like the use of language and the liberty discussed throughout each one. During Plato's era, liberty was knowledge and enlightenment, but during Douglass' knowledge was liberty and physical emancipation. This just goes to show that liberty can be shown through the eyes of different people to have different connotations for an individual or group of people.

Liberty in both of the works can mean different things than the other. However, when looked at by the whole, the similarities outweigh the differences, which bind both of the works together. Liberty has a synonym, freedom, and for both works its fit very well.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. 14 June 1997. SunSITE. . 4 September 2001.

Plato. The Republic-Book VII (Allegory of the Cave). Trans.: Jowett, Benjamin. Mineola, New York: Dover Pub. Inc., 2000.

Paper #2

The Curious King

Pentheus is king of Thebes, thus giving him many powers over the people who live there. Only a god, like Dionysus, the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, has more power than King Pentheus. Who wouldn't be jealous of someone who is a god? While Pentheus has been away from Thebes, people are starting to believe and follow Dionysus' ways instead of his. Upon his return, Pentheus speaks of those who have begun following Dionysus. He says, "Some of them I've had trapped: they're in prison, chained. The rest are in the hills. I'll track them down, all of them, even Agave, my mother, …I'll have them all in cages" (19). So in order to restore some of his control, Pentheus imprisons a few who are participating in the drunken parties and dances on the top of the mountain. Pentheus can be viewed as both jealous and arrogant in this situation, but if you look at a king who's own people are acting crazy, does he not have to do anything in his power to bring these actions under control? His actions may seem radical, but he believed that imprisoning these rebels would help restore the order that was once there under his supervision.

In the play, Pentheus knows that the group of Bacchant women who gather on top of the mountain are creating quite a spectacle of themselves, and he wishes to witness it first-hand. In order to accomplish this, Pentheus trusts Dionysus to do what is necessary for him to see what is taking place and says, "Yes, I'm in your hands," (59). He is telling Dionysus that his appearance to look like a woman in a dress is left up to Dionysus. Pentheus wants to be sure that he looks believable as a Bacchant, and wants to be able to do certain motions in the dress that he is wearing. Pentheus asks Dionysus questions like, "Would a good Bacchant hold her thrysus this way, in her right hand, or like this, in her left? … Tell me, could I lift Cithaeron now- Bacchae, cliffs, all of it: could I?" (59). Pentheus wants everything to be perfect, and he will even go to his "enemy" for help with this situation to do what's necessary to see the Bacchant dances and rituals.

When Pentheus gets up to the mountain he must climb up into a tree to see the Bacchant women performing their wild deeds. Dionysus helps him out by pulling the top of an enormous tree down for him to get up in. Pentheus is a very curious person, just like anyone else would be, and will take any help he can get. Pentheus gets up into the tree, but the Bacchants see him and call him to get down from the tree. When he refuses, the Bacchant women headed by Agave, Pentheus' mother, pull the tree out of the ground, and then proceed to tear Pentheus limb from limb until his death.

When it comes down to it, Pentheus is a very realistic character. His dealings may seem out of the ordinary, but they do not make his actions in the play wrong and should not create the mindset he is a bad person. Throwing people in jail, dressing up like a woman, climbing a tree to spy on people, and asking for help from the other side, are warranted when you look at the situation from Pentheus' point of view. What else was he to do? Sometimes in life things must be looked at differently than normal to find the real truth behind the actions.

Work Cited

Williams, C.K. The Bacchae of Euripides. New York, New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1990.

Paper #3

"Has God Given Henry V the Right?"

King Henry V Act I. Scene 2. Lines 9-32 Pages 77-78

KING

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
And justly and religiously unfold 10
Why the law Salic that they have in France
Or should or should not bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul 15
With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth.
For God doth know how many now in health
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to. 20
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake our sleeping sword of war.
We charge you in the name of God take heed,
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops 25
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint
'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords
That makes such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration speak, my lord,
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart 30
That what you speak is in your conscience washed
As pure as sin with baptism.

In this second scene of Shakespeare's play King Henry V, the above lines become vital to the events that occur in the following acts. Henry V sparks this conversation and poses an important question to the Bishop of Canterbury. The words that come out of the king's mouth have tremendous meaning, and lead to the eventual decision to fight the French troops for the throne of France. King Henry V calls upon the Bishop of Canterbury in this scene to clarify the Salic law and interpret it as a representative of the Church. Henry V cautions the bishop about the magnitude of his response, but desperately wants to know whether or not he has a moral and divine claim to the crown of France.

Henry V consults the Bishop of Canterbury on how the church sees this situation. He starts off by saying, "My learned Lord, we pray you to proceed. And justly and religiously unfold…"(9-10). In these lines, Henry begins to ask the bishop of the church for his expertise in interpreting the Salic law through the church's eyes. He shows respect to the bishop by calling him "learned Lord," because the bishop is well versed in the church's views. Henry V wants a clear understanding of the Salic law, which states who is entitled to rightful ownership of the throne. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Salic law comes from around 1599 and means, "a rule held to derive from the legal code of the Salic Franks excluding females from the line of succession to a throne," (Merriam Webster 21 Oct. 2001). These lines are understood that the crown of France cannot be passed down in succession through a woman's family, only the man's. This law is present in France and is the basis for Henry V's decision to fight the French. The king goes on to ask about this law and says, "Why the law Salic…should or should not bar us in our claim," to emphasize how crucial the understanding of this law is (11-12). King Henry V continues telling the bishop that if the law gives him the right to go to battle for the crown, only God will know how many people will give their life in battle.

He says:

For God doth know how many now in health

Shall drop their blood in approbation

Of what your reverence shall incite us to. (18-20)

Henry V puts the bishop in a powerful position, because his response will affect many people's lives. According to the footnotes at the bottom of the text, "in approbation" means to support or prove (Shakespeare 77). These lines point out that people will lose their life fighting for the cause they believe in and support.

Going on, Henry V points out how important the bishop's answer is. He says, "…how you impawn our person," means that what he says will pledge English people to carry out specific orders that involve killing people (21). Henry then says, "… you awake our sleeping sword of war," because his words will decide whether or not the English troops will be headed off to battle the French for the crown (22). Henry V asks the bishop in lines 23 through 28, that in God's name two great kingdoms will go into battle against one another and many people will lose their life. Henry wants to make certain his cause is just, because loss of life is a horrible and wasteful thing, if there isn't a just reason for the actions taken.

King Henry V concludes his questioning of the bishop, and asks him to speak under the "conjuration" that the English people will whole-heartedly believe his word (29). In lines 30 to 32, he says that the words the bishop speaks will carry heavy consequences, but his conscience should be clear just as sin is taken away with the cleansing of holy water in baptism.

This passage is essential to the events that take place in the following acts of the play, and are a deciding factor in who has a right to the crown of France. King Henry V is asking a well-respected church official for the church's (God's) view on who has rightful ownership of the throne, and anxiously waits for the answer that will affect two entire kingdoms.

Works Cited

Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. yourDictionary.com. 2001. . 21 October 2001.

Shakespeare, William. Editor: Gurr, Andrew. King Henry V. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, United Kingdom. 1992.