Peer Pressure of the Heart

The stories about men trying to woo women and competing with other men for the same conquest had been happening for ages, as have the stories of women being promiscuous and teasing towards them. I loved that The Coquette was written in the form of letters though because it gave a better feel for the gossip in the tale as well as hearing it from all sides. I thought it made the story easily relatable even to modern times, though it was an older work. Now I'm sure I'm not the only girl who has connected with Eliza's situation, though I knew it was harder than it sounds to make a decision between two people who want you for their own. I've been put in the situation two major times that I can remember so far. Eliza needed to choose between two men who were there, but perhaps not connected to her or to be alone. To me, Eliza seemed like a pretty level-headed woman at first, believing " that the graces and virtues are not oftner united! They must however, meet in the man of my choice; and til I find such a one, I shall continue to subscribe my name." She seemed like the type of woman to know what she wanted generally and not to settle. I related to her in this way because of the morals and values I was raised with, but also because of past horrible relationships. While Eliza wanted to find a man good enough for her, I wanted to find a man who wouldn't trick me and treat me badly later on. I wanted to find a good guy.

While our intentions may not have been the same, the men certainly were. Eliza had Reverend J. Boyer, who while maybe not the most interesting man, was respectable and seemed to truly care about her. As a gentleman, he wanted to remain ' a reasonable creature; and not suffer my judgment to be mislead by the operations of a blind passion." This statement showed that his intentions were good towards Eliza because when he finally realized he "believe it peculiar to lovers; and with that class I must now rank myself, though I did not know, until this evening, that I was so engaged as I find I really am. I knew indeed I was pleased with this amiable girl; that I was interested in her favor; that I was happier in her company than anywhere else, with innumerable other circumstances, which would have told me the truth." He only wanted to be with her, honest with himself, out of love, nothing more.
I had a guy who was pretty shy, but a sweetheart who tried to do all the right things and was always polite, but we had no chemistry and only a few things in common (and you have to know those few things aren't enough to last long). So after just a few dates and giving him the benefit, I could feel it wasn't going to work though I couldn't let go just yet.

Then Eliza had Major Peter Sanford, who I like to call the 'bad boy' of the story, on the other side. He was the devilishly handsome, charmer at first sight, but with all the wrong intentions for later on. While she may of suspected, she couldn't have known his wrong intentions from the beginning as only the reader could view his letters, but from the very start he fancied 'this young lady is a coquette; and if so, I shall avenge my sex, by retaliating the mischiefs, she meditates against us" so he was treating her more like a game, like a conquest. Though he keeps it in the dark to only talk to some "again of conquests" though to "only enjoy them in silence." Being of his status and persona, he seems to certainly get around. There was also the intention of wanting her wealth that I picked up on, seeing as Eliza was of higher society, as was well known, his intentions are revealed in private that while he is "persuaded she would make an excellent wife; but that you know is no part of my plan, so as long as I can keep out of the noose. Whenever I do submit to be shackled, it must be from the necessity of mending my fortune." He doesn't really care anything for her and would only surrender to her if he needed the wealth. Now I'm not wealthy, but the other guy I was caught on was a guy who could make me laugh instantly, was very playful, so there was instant attraction, but I could see the early signs that if anything started, he would end up treating me like dirt.

Now it seems obvious who would be the right choice, if feeling you had to indeed choose. You want someone who is going to treat you right, but you also want someone you can connect with and be attracted to. In my situation and Eliza's both men had a bit of each, so it's hard to choose or even decide against both. In the end, I was able to realize neither man was right for me, so I chose independence, and although a bit miserable, I knew it would be the best for the time being. I didn't want to just choose one of the guys so I would have someone, then end up getting pregnant and dying at an inn ha! These times are much different than back then though. Eliza knew neither man was right for her, she felt Sanford was "deficient in one of the greatest essentials of the character, and that is, virtue" and "could not repulse and do not intend to encourage" Boyer since he was not of interest to her heart. I think a lot of her decision to choose a man, when she would have been just fine without them, was the time period. Society felt finding a man was much more important in order to be successful! If a woman didn't find a man that could represent her, than she didn't have much hope for a fulfilling future. They were not taken as seriously as they are now, so there was no real place other than beside a man to lead her, which is why I believe if I remember my research right, The Coquette was not published with her real name at firs. She was pressured into thinking she needed a man to get ahead in life, which became her focus and control in life in the end. Although we can wonder what would have happened if she chose to be with Boyer or alone, I believe everything happens for a reason so I can't help but feel the irony in Mr. Haly's words at the beginning when he told Eliza, "God is wise nd good in all his ways; and in this, as in all other respects, I would cheerfully say, His will be done." It makes me wonder if Eliza's fate was inevitable. What do you think? Do you think she would have somehow reached the same fate with Boyer? What would have happened if she rejected both of them?


 Foster, Hannah W. The Coquette. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Print.

"Roll It, Pat It, Mark It With an A"

 

Branding is quite an unusual statement. It started off as just a way for ranchers to be able to tell who's cattle was who's by taking a big, hot iron stamp and burning their name or symbol into the cow's ass. It was like there way of claiming or taking power over the cow. Over time, it's spread to a number of different things such as stickers on food to show where it came from, a saying meaning someone had left there 'mark' or some impression on you, even sexual fetishes(Hey! Who knows? Maybe the cows like it....), but they all still stand as a symbol of identification and ownership over something. "At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead(Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter)" because this idea of branding is a lot like the 'A' Hester had to wear in The Scarlet Letter. This 'A' was stitched onto her clothes, burning into her heart and head, to stand as a reminder of the adultery committed. She had become a product, a mascot, of the sin so that everyone who saw this brand would be warned against doing the same. Hawthorne referred to her as "a walking sermon," which instilled fear into the townspeople to disobey or even "let loose" in such a limited religious society. It was a lot like the views for the people during the Salem Witch Trials in a way.

While this may seem far off at first, I thought this scarlet letter Hester was forced to wear was similar to the numbers put on the Jews arms during the Holocaust. It was a mechanism used to take away their humanity and turn them into a statement. The Jews were tortured and killed for standing by their ethnicity, just as Hester was tortured for standing by her desire. But I'm really relating this more to the actual history the story is based on. We learned that these women were killed for going against society's norms, even the smallest thing, and the part of society that wanted an Aryan race, did this to the Jews for being Jews! It was society's need for control over the people, to own them, that led to this. The others was out of fear of being killed for not following what society tells them, even if they didn't commit a crime as such, going against society was enough. I have discovered that fear will often get in the way of what's right in people.

As would be expected from a class focusing on monsters and restless ghosts, there is a reoccurring theme of instilling fear in us. While the first thoughts on evil are what evil presence must we face in the outer world that can harm us, it seems that the worse of these two evils is the inner evil within ourselves. The main inner monsters of The Scarlet Letter are desire and our interest in human suffering. Desire does not have to always be about love and lust, although it often is. It can be the desire for power, wealth, fame, or matters of love, but it all can be pretty overwhelming. Hester's desire to be with the one she wanted at the time led to her punishment and though she knew it was wrong she did it anyway so that she and "the guilty one stands looking on at this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forgetting that God sees him(Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter)." The desire they had became too powerful, leading them to forget there place and morals. It makes me wonder, what is my true deepest desire that I would lose reason for? What is yours? I think mine is matters of the heart as well, but I can never be sure.

I think that desire and suffering go hand in hand. We will go through some pretty horrible and intense events to reach what we truly want. Our need to have what we want, to stand out, make something of ourselves eventually digs so deep we cannot take it, and that's when our own monster of desire comes out and takes over. Hester suffered for love, and this idea reminds me of the song, "A Martyr For My Love For You" by The White Stripes. I mean, the title is the main thing that stands out to me about this topic because it's exactly what she's is, but there is a line in the song that goes, "and we could share a kiss, but I feel like I can't go through with this, and I bet we could build a home, but I know the right thing for me to do, is to leave you alone." The song is about a relationship that is happening even though at least one of them knows it shouldn't be. Even though Hester knew it was wrong, she did it, and that's where we create our own suffering. While the pain can be unbearable, the truth is that we like it, we don't want to get rid of our desires and urges because it makes us who we are. That one moment of pleasure out of all that pain is worth it to us for some odd reason. Even with the worst society could do to us for it, in the end, do we really end up punishing ourselves for our own wrong doings worse than others?

On a final thought, we seem to set ourselves up as old time Freakshows, we're either the attraction everyone is making fun of or in awe of, or we are the audience staring suffering in the face. We know it's horrible, but we watch others suffering disguised as wonder and entertainment because we are glad it's not us up there for the moment, but at the same time we can relate to them. It may not be our turn to be the bearded lady or whatever other freak is in the cage, but we are wary that it could happen, we fear it, but by mocking it, is does not seem as bad, until we get put in the cage and have to experience just how bad it is.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Tribeca Books, 1850. Print.

Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan Van Pelt. Holocaust: A History. New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2002. Print. 

Girls With the Hex

Evil (ee-vil), n. 1. Any natural force, internal or external, human or spirit, that corrupts the soul of any living being to the point that it has lost all sight of anything good or moral and is therefore an unrecognizable being of destruction to itself, those around it, and the whole of nature.

Though you probably wouldn't find this definition in your dictionary, it would definitely be in mine! In class, we were asked what our personal definition of evil was and whether it be "the Temptations of the Devil would inveigle us(On Witchcraft)" as Cotton Mather would say, or a delusion of our own minds, one thing is for sure, it only causes trouble.

Although I have some previous knowledge on the Salem Witch Trials, I had never been completely sure of the trigger point where it really began until this class. I knew that people were being accused left and right by their neighbors, but never knew it all brewed down to a babysitter and the gossip of young girls. Will times never change hah! Dijuba( I'm not sure of the spelling) has to be one of the most interesting real life characters I have learned about in awhile. She was obviously a bit out of her head, but truly believed in what she was telling and teaching these innocent girls. She(or perhaps the Devil within her) was responsible for their corruption! The Indian voodoo and tricks she taught the girls reminded me of the similar "magic" called hoodoo used in the movie "The Skeleton Key." While it states that hoodoo is not like voodoo, the power behind it is quite the same. While voodoo uses wax dolls, needles, and is more visual in my opinon, hoodoo is an African-American force that is more in the mind. It uses rituals and certain objects, but supposedly cannot effect or hurt you if you do not believe in it. Now you could say you would never fall for such a silly thing, but I think the Salem Witch Trails and society throughout history have proven that "the crazy" is contagious in numbers ha! After relating the girls actions and Dijuba's teachings to this movie it changed my mind about the girls. While at first I thought one or two of the girls persuaded the others to play along with their bratty game of "Who's the Witch?," I now wonder if they believed in what Dijuba said so much that they ended up really thinking these people they accused were witches, and even worse, the symptoms they showed before and during the trials were real! I believe the mind can be led in strange ways and so I really do see the huge possibility that these young girls believed in this witchcraft so much that they tricked their minds into putting full belief into it and therefore, tricked their bodies into believing it as well. In the video we watched from The History Channel, one historian said the girls "couldn't hear the word of God" and had screaming fits. These are symptoms that could be easily faked at that age, but what got me was that she also mentions them having convulsions or seizures, plus moving in sync with actions of the accused witches. These would be much harder symptoms to pass off to the adults, movements and timing would need to be precise, yet they pulled it off. Do you think such young girls would really have enough experience to know how to react with a seizure? I somehow doubt it. Now that truly is a terrifying evil! To think, even our own minds that we keep our strongest beliefs and darkest secrets in, can be crept into like that and distorted without our knowledge. Do you think it's really possible for our minds to become that strayed from even what we stand strongest for?

I really loved the quote Suzanne used in class by Baudelaire that said, "The most powerful thing the Devil can do, is make you believe he does not exist." It struck a powerful cord in me because a lot of the time people tend to make up scientific reasons or conspiracies to explain what we cannot ourselves. While spiritual or religious belief would probably take part in this, we have to remember that as humans, we don't know all there is to know. There were things in life long before humans, just as there will most likely be life here long after we are gone. Evil does exist and it has to come from somewhere! Humans may be jerks sometime, but we are not powerful enough to conjure such a horrible evil alone. We have to learn to be more open-minded and not stay ignorant just because we're scared or "don't care." The supernatural forces that we can't explain are not unnatural at all. The evil put into us is just as natural as the good. Stephen Asma teaches us that the truly existent demons around us, "are not creating so much as altering nature(On Monsters)." They take what is already there, that we don't know of, and "alter nature in ways that scare and frighten us and seem supernatural" to tempt us into giving in to the already existent evil(by the way, I would just like to add that I had no idea who Stephen Asma was before this school year, but after hearing about him and reading only the first few sections of his book, I'm super freaking excited for him to come here and I will probably be buying this book in the future ha). Not straying from my point, puppets freak me out. They are meant to look all cute and innocent with their little, creepy smiles, then screenwriters decide it's fun to write horror movies where they are brought to life by evil and do horrible things(all with those little, creepy smiles). That is just what Asma says witches are, "a pawn in the various schemes of evil demons. An act of maleficium, or harmful magic requires three things: the evil demon who acts as a puppeteer, the puppet human(or animal) who works the harmful magic, and God's acquiescence." This is how demons manipulate life and humans, by making them feel they have the power alone until it destroys them or something else. Humans are puppets, driven by evil forces to do bad things we hear the next day on the news. There has to be some sort of evil force that already existed for this to happen in Asma's opinion. So perhaps, if there wasn't a dark force driving us to do wrong or making little girl's back in history believe in witchcraft some of the horrible things that have happened, wouldn't have. Do you think that's possible? I think it's a nice thought, but that it would probably throw off the balance of life or something. After reading some of Stephen Asma's words, does it seem unwise or ignorant to not believe in the monsters in our closets and horror tales or do you think he's just another person trying to scare us?


 Mathers, Cotton. On Witchcraft. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Print.

Haskins, Jim. Voodoo and Hoodoo:The Craft as Revealed by Traditional Practicioners. 1st ed.
Scarborough House, 1978. Print.

Softley , Iain, Dir. The Skeleton Key. Perf. Hudson, Kate. Universal Pictures: 2005, Film.