"Ode to Psyche" - John Keats

John Keats’ choice to write about the story of Psyche evokes the desire of many of his contemporaries in the Romantic Era to return to the Classics. The idealistic portrayal of undying love was a sentiment expressed in many Romantic poems. From the first few lines of Ode to Psyche, one can tell that Keats has a reverence for love. He begins by humbling himself before the subject. He calls out to Psyche (“Oh Goddess!”) and entreats her to listen to his poem that he refers to as “tuneless numbers”.  He goes further by asking her to “pardon” him for sharing her secrets even if she is the only one who hears (“And pardon that thy secrets should be sung, even into thine own soft-conched ear.”) It is almost as though he holds her story in such high esteem that, to him, it may be too holy or precious to tell. 

As if deciding that it is too important of a story to be left untold, he continues. What he witnessed what so unbelievable, he thought that “surely” he was dreaming (“Surely I dreamt today or did I see…”). He saw Psyche with wings and “awakened eyes.” This description of Psyche insinuates that she was in the form of a Goddess.

            According to the myth of Psyche, she was a human who was so beautiful that men worshipped her rather than the Goddess Aphrodite. This greatly anger Aphrodite, and she ordered her son, Cupid, to force Psyche to fall in love with the most hideous man on Earth. Instead of following his mother’s command, Cupid fell in love with Psyche, and took her away to his palace. He told Psyche that she must never look at him. However, one night, Psyche disobeyed him. Because of this, Cupid left her, and in order to get him back, Psyche had to prove her love by completing extremely difficult tasks. This involved a trip to the Underworld: she literally went to Hell and back to prove her love for Cupid. When her tasks were finished, she was granted immorality so that she could be with him. She had won it through her unconditional love.

            The poet now sees her in her immortal glory with her lover. He describes them as “calm-breathing” as they lay on the grass, which evokes a sense of peace. Their trials are over and they can be together without fear of punishment. Equality is represented through the description of their body language: “ Their arms embraced, and their pinions too.” They both have wings (“pinions”); therefore, they are both immortals. However, Keats points out that he has heard of Cupid (“The winged boy I knew”), but had not heard mention of Psyche (“But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove? His Psyche true!”). His reference to Cupid is somewhat flippant (“boy”) compared to that of Psyche.  A dove is considered a holy, pure creature. Also, when he refers to her as “true”, it evokes faithfulness.

            After giving Psyche much praise, claiming that she is the “loveliest vision far of all Olympus’ faded hierarchy”, he ponders why she, though the most deserving of all immortals, was never worshipped like the others (“though temple hast thou none…”). Because she had missed the opportunity to be worshipped (“…too late for antique vows, Too, too late for the fond believing lyre…these days so far retired…”), Keats offers to be her priest and to build temple for her in his mind (“I will be thy priest and build a fane, in some untrodden region of my mind.”) This is his way of honoring what he views as an ideal example of love. It is as if he wants to travel back in time to provide a safe haven when the lovers were in need of it (“A rosy sanctuary will I dress… And there shall be for thee all soft delight that shadowy thought can win, a bright torch, and a casement ope at night, to let the warm Love in!”) - Chamblee Smith

             

“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is story about the brevity and seduction of youth. Dr. Heidegger invites four of his older friends, with less than desirable pasts, over to be a part of his experiment. Mr. Medbourne, who was once a wealthy man, had gambled all his money away. Colonel Killigrew is a man known to be in “pursuit of sinful pleasures.” Mr. Gascoigne is a forgotten politician and a “man of evil fame.” Widow Wycherly  was once a beautiful woman but now lived in seclusion after scandalous stories put the town against her. The experiment requires the four of them to drink water from the Fountain of Youth.

The point of Dr. Heidegger’s experiment is to see how the friends would act if they were able to get back their youth. Dr. H even warns them before they drink of the water that they have experience that they didn’t have before and should let it guide them. He also believes it would be a shame if they “should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age.” Before they drink, they laugh off the notion of repeating the actions they had come to regret in their old age. However, after they drink it, the group becomes infatuated with the feeling of being younger and go back to their former selves. Mr. Medbourne was caught up in his money. Colonel Killigrew began looking lustfully at Widow Wycherly, and she in the mirror to see her young face. Mr. Gascoigne mind was on politics, patriotism, and people’s rights. They became so caught up in themselves and each other that they knocked over the table and the vase, which contained the water, was shattered. As the elixir wore off, they yearned for more and Dr. Heidegger got the answer he was looking for. An elixir of youth cannot change his own shameful past. As he says before the experiment, “For my own part, having had much trouble in growing old, I am in no hurry to grow young again.” He has been trying to live his past down and it is hard for him. So now that he knows he cannot change it, he is willing to accept his only option, to wait for death to take away his pains.

Another point of interest of the story is whether the elixir was real or not. There are many instances which would make a supernatural drink seem to fit into the story. Much of what is in Dr. Heidegger’s study is explained to have supernatural or ominous qualities. For example, he literally had a skeleton in his closet, he often asked his bronze bust of Hippocrates about his practice, his mirror held the spirits of his deceased patients, he had a picture of his love that was said to have once stepped out of the frame, and he had a black leather book that was said to be magic. So it seems that the elixir could be magical. However, throughout the story there are hints that it is nothing but alcohol. The effervescent liquid had a sweet scent and when drank the group lightened up, “not unlike what might have been produced by a glass of generous wine.” Then, when they looked at one another, they “fancied” that they looked younger. Also, when they asked for more, the doctor replied with “philosophic coolness.” Was it really a scientific experiment or a philosophic experiment? “Was it delusion?” They could have been seeing what they wanted to see or they could have been drunk. The gentlemen were behaving in a way that “proved that the water of the Fountain of Youth possessed some intoxicating qualities.” The narrator also admits that the drunkenness could be due to the “sudden removal of the weight of years.” As they were fighting over Widow Wycherly, the mirror was said to have shown the group as being three old men struggling over an old hag, which leaves two possibilities. One is that the elixir was wine and they had not been young. The other is that the mirror was supernatural and showed the groups true selves even if they had appeared outwardly young. Either way it is looked at, the findings of Dr. Heidegger would be the same. Regaining youth would not have allowed him to reconcile with his past. - Rebecca Hardiman

“Little Girls Wiser Than Men” by Leo Tolstoy

“Little Girls Wiser Than Men” by Leo Tolstoy is as straightforward a short story as they come. Two girls, Malasha and Akoulya, disobey their mothers’ rules by playing in the mud after church and watch as their rebellion escalades and leads nearly the entire village into hysterical, mindless bickering. The short story is a dramatic interpretation of Matthew 18:3—Tolstoy is fairly explicit about that, to the point of actually citing the verse at the end of the story. Basically, the verse says that no one will enter the kingdom of Heaven until they change and become like children.

I can read “Little Girls Wiser Than Men” no other way than an allegory for the Biblical fall of man. With the children representing the original sinners Adam and Eve, fallen from a state of perfection (the church they came from before playing in the mud puddle), the mud representing sin, and the people of the town representing every human that has lived since Adam and Eve and had to cope with pre-existing sin, the poem is an allegory about the fall to sin and the way that mankind struggles to cope with it by fixating on casting blame rather than dealing with the sin itself. Like Adam and Eve, the girls had both been warned about and understood the consequences of disobeying the rules but make a conscious decision to anyway. Akoulya tells Malasha “your mother will scold you (if you go in)”. We are to notice patterns throughout the poem, particularly in the way that “different houses,” (or households, collectively) have the same standards of conduct: you keep your clothes clean, you don’t play in the mud, etc.  These are to represent Scripture put in place for our own good as humans.

And how about all the violence? Tolstoy uses violence to show us how sin makes us digress. Three times, various characters respond to conflict by acting on their primal impulses to hit. The first was when Malasha soils Akoulya’s dress by splashing it with muddy water, when “she was angry and ran after Malásha to strike her.” The next, we would probably agree, is even more alarming because it is a woman hitting a child (a child that is not even hers, might I add). Akoulya blames her soiled dress on Malasha, and “at this, Akoúlya's mother seized Malásha, and struck her on the back of her neck”—just like that, no questions asked. This upset Malasha’s mother, who came out onto the street and began quarreling with the woman hitting her child, “till one gave another a push.”

Age isn’t the point here; don’t be misled by the title. Were it not for the older woman of the poem, it might seem that way—that Tolstoy was making an argument very similar to the one that William Blake made in his poem “Infant Joy,” (published in Songs of Innocence): that is, that the wisest among us are those most blameless and pure, and wisdom fades with age. However, the old woman who enters about halfway through the poem has as much insight as the young girls because she understands that fighting is not going to solve anything.

Tolstoy’s concept of wisdom might be oversimplified and unrealistic.  The story resolves with the young girls “laughing” and “delighted,” but we know that sin cannot be laughed off or “forgotten”. Regardless, Tolstoy expertly creates an allegory that makes us look at how humanity deals with its fallen nature. - Elise Cofield

“The Ambitious Guest” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

            “The Ambitious Guest” is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in his collection Twice-Told Tales.  The story tells of a family who lives by themselves in the mountains of New England.  The family entertains lonely guests as they pass through the mountain.  One night a stranger arrives and pours out his emotion to the family, about how he wants to leave a monument to his name and does not want to leave this world without making some sort of memorable impact.  During the discussion, rocks tumble down the mountain, prompting the father to tell the visitor not to worry, that rocks often fall from the mountain, and they have a shelter to flee to in a time of real trouble.  As the night lengthens, the discussion grows deeper and more meaningful—even the children join in from their beds, talking about life after they grow up.  The conversation ends after the grandmother has given a wish for her dying day.  Not long after the conversation ends, “the slide” occurs, and rocks and boulders tumble down the mountain in catastrophic way.  The family and the stranger flee the house toward the safe place but are caught in the slide and killed while the house remains perfectly intact.  Later on, people remember the family for their kindness and hospitality, but no one knew the fate of the stranger or even if a stranger had passed by on that tragic night.

            The overall theme of this story is death and the impact a person leaves behind after death.  The stranger is consumed with the idea that he has to be remembered in the world; however, he painfully realizes that he has made no outstanding contributions to the world for which to be remembered.  The reason for the journey of the man is never disclosed, but he may have been on a journey to find his destiny.  When he finds his destiny, he says he will say, “Let death come!  I shall have built my monument!”  The story also recounts how this man has never allowed himself to become emotionally connected with anyone before; however, he does allow himself to become close to this family.  Perhaps the man’s destiny was to pull down the barrier keeping him from human connection; once he becomes fully a part of the family and embraces his destiny—unknowingly—death answers his call and the rocks slide.  He had built his monument, which was to one family, instead of the whole world.

            The family members also dwell on death and lonesomeness.  The father tells his family of his wish to have some kind of gravestone—whether nice or not—that marks his grave, and the grandmother tells of how she wants someone to hold a mirror in front of her corpse so she can make sure she looks alright.  The stranger announces, “Old and young, we dream of graves and monuments.”  The family—though tucked away in the crevice of a lonely mountain—is seldom lonely because weary travelers pass by often.  They feed and house strangers when needed and make themselves readily available for them.  Even though they live in a lonely place, they are not lonely, in contrast to the stranger, who has lived in busy places but has always been lonely until that night. 

            Another aspect of death that is crafted in this story is its unexpectedness and irony—though all the characters talk about death, the grandmother is the only one who mentions that her grave is not very far away.  The father speaks of when he and his wife are grey-haired, and the stranger speaks of great adventures.  The children do not even think about death but only about their adult life.  Death takes everyone in one instant—the young and old, lonely and not lonely—and leaves only an empty house as a monument.  Also, their death is ironic because they leave the house in search of a safe place when, in reality, the house was their safe place.  This could mean that this family, though they sometimes dream of a life outside their simple home, is meant to play this role in life and that they were fulfilling their own destiny by staying in the house.  The only time they are in trouble is when they leave the house.  The house also stands, then, as a monument to the family.  The stranger leaves no monument for the world; people do not even know if he actually existed or not.  Though death is unexpected for the characters, Hawthorne uses foreshadowing to allow the reader’s to know the characters’ fate.  He asks “Is not the kindred of a common fate a closer tie than that of birth?” when explaining the stranger’s connection to the family.  Also, the stranger’s final words are "I wonder how mariners feel when the ship is sinking, and they, unknown and undistinguished, are to be buried together in the ocean--that wide and nameless sepulchre?"  This implies that all these characters—mostly unknown and undistinguished—are about to be buried together in a wide and nameless place—the mountain—where no one will ever find their bodies.

                 Finally, the children represent hope and a future; they are young and happy and bring joy to everyone in the household.  At one point, one child asks to go get water from the Flume, a brook in the mountain.  The adults laugh off the request to leave the warmth of the cabin, but when a wagon stops in front of the house for a moment before continuing on, the boy insists that they could have gotten the drivers to take them to the Flume.  Once again, the adults laugh.  Could the characters have escaped their death if they had taken up the ride?  The fate of the wagon drivers is not disclosed.  Perhaps, Hawthorne is saying that without taking chances, a person cannot leave a monument in this world.  The family took chances every time they allowed a stranger into their home.  The stranger may have been on his way to take a chance and build his monument, but his opening up to the family was him taking a chance as well, which allowed him to be known to the family, if not the world.  Should they have gone with the wagon drivers?  They probably should not have since them leaving the house at the end is what ensures their death.  Besides, they had already taken their chances in life and established their monument.- Hannah Aycock

"After the Race" - James Joyce

James Joyce wrote the short story “After the Race” as part of a collection called Dubliners.  The story follows a young man named Jimmy as he enjoys an evening out with his friends. They enjoyed riding cars, dinner, and a night of cards. The story centralizes around Jimmy and his fixation on obtaining status and the appearance of wealth, as well as some undertones of political conflict, both of which are representative of society in Dublin at the time.

            Jimmy is so consumed with pursuing social status and wealth, that in the process of doing so he squanders the very resources that could further his aspirations of social notoriety and wealth. His father achieved wealth and uses it to help his son further his ambitions by sending him to school in England, “He had sent his son to England to be educated to in a big Catholic college and had afterwards sent him to Dublin University to study law” (25). However, Jimmy fails to take advantage of this opportunity, “Jimmy did not study very earnestly and took to bad courses for a while” (25).  Jimmy also takes to dressing well and expensively to display his father’s wealth, “Jimmy, too, looked very well when he dressed and…his father may have felt even commercially satisfied at having secured for his son qualities often unpurchaseable” (25). Jimmy is well defined by this quote: “Rapid motion through space elates one; so does notoriety; so does the possession of money. These were three good reasons for Jimmy’s excitement” (25).  Joyce uses Jimmy as a representation of the social climbers and changing social attitudes that were occurring in Dublin in his time.

            The political tension displayed in “After the Race” is also representative of tensions prevalent in Dublin during Joyce’s time.  One example of political tension is Jimmy’s father. In order to gain wealth and success he stifled his political views to match those of popular opinion, “His father, who had begun life as an advanced Nationalist, had modified his views early” (25). Another example of the political tension is that of Jimmy and his friends from multiple origins, “Segouin shepherded his party into politics…the room grew doubly hot…there was even danger of personal spite” (25).  Joyce also illustrates the political tension that was prevalent in Dublin by emphasizing all the characters nation of origin, in turn denoting varying political views, “Andre Riviere, a young electrician of Canadian birth; a huge Hungarian name Villona” (24).  The political tension described illustrates the political changes that were occurring in Dublin during Joyce’s time.

            James Joyce uses the short story “After the Race” to illustrate the changes Dublin was undergoing and society’s response to it.  This short story was interesting to read and I think that Jimmy’s journey through partying and slacking off in school is representative of a period in life many people go through. - Hollie Roberts