BLOG VII

Heritage is Stronger than Modern Changes

            August Wilson in his play Fences exposes feelings of excluded people for discrimination. The play is set in 1957 time when start to change the USA vision about black people. Wilson through Troy exposes a frustrated person who wants to play in the Mayor League of Baseball, but he cannot do it because of his color; instead he has to resign himself to play in Black League of Baseball; teams that do not have the same recognition that white people. Troy vision life is about baseball; Troy tries to connect all around him to baseball because it was a desire that he cannot make real. Baseball in the play is the beginning to set all characters issues, but there is a background that affects the whole family: heritage. It is what really make fences around them, and what it is going to destroy family relationship.

            Wilson strategy was the usage of fences in the whole play, which have a symbolic meaning around each character, but fences have two important meanings: protection and destruction. The first one is represented by Rose who only wants to see finished her fence to protect his family and conserve them together. Even though she came from a broken family, she has the necessity of having a family, a home where she can peace and stability. She can have all above because she has a good advisor: Jesus. Rose is in continuous communication with Jesus through out church, she never loose her faith: “Jesus, be a fence all around me every day/ Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel on my way/ Jesus, be a fence all around me every day/ Jesus, I want you to protect me/ as I travel on my way” (p 1297). Her love in Jesus is her support to help each member of her family, even when her husband cheats on her. She forgives him and accept Troy’s daughter. Jesus fence is stronger than Troy’s destructive fence.

            When the reader starts the play, it would be easy to say all issues are around the baseball, but Troy’s problems not only are baseball issues but heritage. Even the character does not that baseball are not only the origin of his problems but his father image. He did not have a good background, his father was abusive and cruel, Troy’s words: “My mama couldn’t stand him. Couldn’t stand that evilness. She run off when I was about eight. She sneaked off one night after he had gone to sleep. Told me she was coming back for me. I ain’t never seen her no more. All his women run off and left him. He wasn’t good for nobody” (p. 1310). Troy cannot make it with his father, so he left his house when he was fourteen year old. After that his life was auto destructive because he started to steal and when he get married of Lyons mother, he robbed even more. He also killed a man because Troy wanted to rob him: “They told me I killed him and they put me in the penitentiary and locked me up for fifteen years. That’s where I met Bono. That’s where I learned how to play baseball. Got out that place and your mama had taken you and that fifteen years cured me of that robbing stuff” (p. 1311). That was his beginning for a new life because in baseball and Rose, he found a new life, but his heritage was stronger that his desire of change because he continues with his father’s tyranny. Even though he tried to change his environment pull him back to his father attitude because he get frustrated by discrimination; he wants to be a famous baseball player, but his color does not allow him do it. It brings him a feeling of useful life where only job bad paid can be the future for black people, and big opportunities are only for white people. That feeling makes him to demand his children work hard and forget their dreams: Lyon’s music and Cory’s football.

            Troy destroys Cory football career and his opportunity to go to college, a chance that was not common in black people. Troy did it because he was no jealous but because Cory could be discriminated like him. He believes that black people was used only a few times and not in important games, Troy words: “If they got a white fellow sitting on the bench… you can bet your last dollar he can’t play! That colored guy got to be twice as good before he get on the team. That’s why I don’t want you to get all tied up in them sports. Man on the team and what it get him? They got colored on the team and don’t use them. Same as not having them. All them teams the same” (p. 1302). But Cory is sure that he values such as a great football player, and because he was a good student. But Troy beliefs were stronger than Cory desires, and he finishes his career.

            The fence of protection was finished with Troy’s death; it brings all family together and their relationship was reestablished. Troy was a villain was a victim of his own destructive fences; he refuses to see modernity changes, and he decidided for a useful life where there are no dream of improvement. At the same time his death was a protective fence for all his family.

Is a Tragedy of Claudius, King of Denmark or Simple Ambition?

Claudius is a complicated character because can be innocent or guilty depends on someone’s opinion.  Claudius is a strong man and brother of Hamlet sr. He takes the throne of Denmark after his brother died. But we do not know that Claudius kill his brother for ambition after Hamlet talks to his father ghost. This fact can  make of  him , how Hamlet sr. describes him, such as “adulterate beast, o wicked wit and gift, that have the power so to seduce; won to his harmful lust the will of my most seeming-virtuous queen” (p. 1029).  Claudius is not only a killer, but an incestuous brother who takes his brother widow. If we look this fact from this period point of view can be no a big deal. But in that time, married a brother’s widow can be a big moral problem because of Christian beliefs. Gertrude was Claudius sister in law, so she was untouchable for him; she was a forbidden fruit because of family tie.

In the social and political issue, there is not problem because first is the wellbeing of Denmark. In order to stable the country, it is better a person with experience that a young prince. By law Hamlet should become king of Denmark because he was the firs-born, but Claudius has more experience, and also he was cunning enough to win the hear of the queen who is not respectful of  her mourning. Besides,  it was not a big deal the incestuous relation ship between Gertrude and Claudius. This relation ship means stability and prosperity. In that moment that marriage represents that, but when  the treason was uncover all wellbeing of Denmark in in danger.

Claudius, in my personal opinion, is not flawed human being because he is tempt by ambition and he is not a victim of circumstances.  He wanted the throne and  his brother wife, so he in a disgusting way, he acquires Denmark. In my point of view, Claudius worst mistake is kill his brother because his ambition leave him with not moral. Claudius’ situation (his instability in throne and his scare about his murder) is not a tragedy because he just  lives the consequences that bring with itself a bad action.

High Treason

William Shakespeare is an author that reflects in his works human emotion in a master way. His characters show internal conflicts about issues of live in that period. Hamlet is a play that is full of betrayals, but the most important is the death of the King, father of Hamlet. Even though he is sad because his father died, Hamlet is depressed because his mother has an incestuous relationship because the Queen gets married with the brother of the king Hamlet: “She married. O most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets: It is not, nor it cannot come to good, but creak my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (p. 1019).  He knows how hard is to believe that treason, so he plays his father murder and his mother fidelity to see reaction and corroborating what the ghost said. Moreover, when he discovers that his uncle killed his father, that fact bears on him an existentialism issue.  In the middle of his mental illness, he asks himself about death importance:

To be, or not to be, that is the question (…) And by opposing, en them: to die, to sleep, no more; and by sleep, to say we end the heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to; (…) To die, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream, ay there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause—there’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life” (p. 1052).

Hamlet shows his fear about what could be after death. He believes in the possibility of a painful dream, or maybe he believes that death is not enough to relieve that kind of treason: murder and incestuous relationship.