Hello,

For this blog, I will be talking about the book “Carmilla” from pages 1 to 292. This book is very interesting as we get into the theory of vampires. As to summarize the book, the book is about a girl named Laura who lives in this castle in a very dense forest. Laura becomes very lonely because she has nobody to talk to except for passing people and her governess. One day, a woman arrives named Carmilla. Laura seems to be very attracted to Carmilla. Laura ends up getting sick and it turns out that Carmilla is actually a woman named Mircalla and was a vampire so they went to Mircallas's grave and basically did everything they could do to make sure Carmilla wasn't coming back which includes cremation, staking and decapitated. This book is very good and gets a 9 rating out of a 1 – 10 rating.

To start off this blog I would like to go into detail about the author of this book which is Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was born in Dublin to a very wealthy family. Joseph Sheridan started off writing poems during his childhood years and went to Trinity College and studied law and graduated in 1837. Le Fanu wrote and published his first story, 'The Ghost and the Bone-Setter' which was in the Dublin University Magazine in 1838. He then joined the staff of the Dublin University Magazine and decided to go and start his career in journalism.

Joseph got married in 1842 to Susanna Bennett and had a total of four children. As some of his horror stories seem depressing, this was because his wife had died in 1858. Le Fanu was very depressed about this. After this, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu became 'The Invisible Prince' because of his lifestyle. One reason they call him that is because he rarely went out into the town. His lifestyle dramatically change when the death of his wife occured. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu died February 7^th , 1873. His works were finally published in 1923.

On going to the book, homosexuality was very identifying once you realize that it is actually in the “Carmilla”. Laura seems to be widely attracted to Carmilla and seems to be turning Lesbian. According to the Online Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, “Lesbian” means 'A woman who is homosexual. To state this in 'common english' terms, she likes other women. I believe that Carmilla had some special power that makes people (male and female) to be attracted to her, thus a connection happening between Carmilla and Laura.

The Catholic Emancipation was a period during the 18^th and 19^th century where in britain, people were trying to reduce the restrictions of people who were Roman Catholics. One of the broken restrictions were that Roman Catholics would be able to sit in the British Parliament. The British Parliament is a board of people who hold all the Legislative power in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland ( http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/cath2.html ).

The Irish Famine was during the 19^th century. During this period of time there was mass starvation in Ireland. The reason was because a potato disease caught wind in most potato crops and about one-third of Ireland's population ate potatoes and depended on potatos, Irelands population dramatically decreased ( http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/introduction.htm ).

I think that the relationship between these two examples with 'Carmilla' is that during that time of where this book takes place these things are happening, lessening of people, food starvation, which could lead to an outcome of sickness.

Overall, This vampire novel was very enjoying to read,

--Sharon    

Wuthering Heights pt.2 Ending

Good evening,

First of all, 'Wuthering Heights' is a good book. Even though it was written in the 19^th century it has a very nice flow once you get to understand what is actually taking place in the book. I really like the ending of the book because sadly Healthcliff ends up dying but Cathy and Hareton marries each other which I thought was a very sweet way to end a book. for this blog I will be rewriting the scene on page 14 to 15 from Cathy's point of view.

{'This chair is bleedin' bored.' I thought as I sat in this chair sipping some tea, looking at the textures of the ceiling. 'Healthcliff treats me so badly, and all I asked was 'Must tea?'' I don't get it. All I did was ask was he (Lockwood) to have any tea. I was very proper of me to ask before I gave him some. Healthcliff though has been acting very angry towards me for what did I ever do to him. “Maister, Maister, he's staling t' lantern!' shouted Joseph. I then constantly hear hounds barking, something must be going on with that Lockwood guy.

I see Healthcliff and Hareton walk past me, so I decide to get up and go take a look for myself. I can barely see anything yet I see Mr. Lockwood on the floor badly bruised by those hounds. How horrible of those hounds! To be truly honest I never really like dogs. They always reminded me of Healthcliff, very fierce indeed.

Zillah then rushed past me and cried “Well, Mr. Earnshaw, I wonder what you'll have agait next. Are we going to murder folk on our very door-stones?” “Yes I muttered loud enough so only I can hear. Its about time something interesting happens because I am sick of of Wuthering Heights. “...Come in and I'll cure that. There now, hold ye still.' After a well quarter from the hour, I saw Zillah ushering Mr. Lockwood upstairs.}

The reason that I chose this scene to do was because during pages 12-13 there was an incident about whether Lockwood was to have tea or not. To me, this was very interesting because we also had no part with Cathy during this incident on page 14 and I decided that we could hear what Cathy had to say and what she did when all of this was happening.

When it comes to Lakshmi Krishnan about putting Wuthering Heights in the vampire category and I think that her argument is not convincing enough because even though they share characteristics they do show sympathy and not just death, death and death as her topic is 'Gothic Literature'.

Land inheritance had a big part in this novel. One way that Healthcliff got ownership of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Height was by marriage and Debts. The way Healthcliff got Wuthering Heights was by debts that his step brother couldn't pay and he got Thrushcross Grange was by making Cathy and Linton marry each other then when Linton died ( Healthcliff intentionally let him die by restricting any medical aid while sick) Healthcliff inherited all of the property. Yet when Healthcliff dies Hareton owns both of the estates because he is next in line for them.

Overall, If I chose a 1 through 10, I would choose an 8. I chose this number because the thing was that this story was very good yet I think the language in this novel was mildly complicated to understand and for me it seemed like it took me forever to finish the book.

--Sharon

My online Artifact

This essay will talk about how a successful literature love story is wrote. As my online Artifact, I am using the 'Best Love Stories in Literature: Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, and Romeo and Juliet. Wrote on May 28, 2009 by Jeris Swanhorst ( http://www.suite101.com/content/lasting-love-stories-in-literature-a120919 ) . My online Artifact explains what are some 'needs' that almost every successful love story has.

I choose this Artifact because it includes the book 'Wuthering Heights' and because it shows the details about the components that are needed. I also chose this book because the article looks very well written and after you read it you can tell that it had some thought behind it instead of just something put together. The author is also very well educated also and not just someone that is there who has no degree and just wanted to put it on there just to do it.

Jeris Swanhorst went to Minnesota State University, Mankato and earned her Bachelors's degree in English and Literature, then went on to collect her Masters degree in the same field. She has also studied Film, World Literature and British Literature. Since 2006, Swanhorst has taught college English and Literature for MSU, Mankato and for Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.(http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/jswan)

When Swanhorst wrote this article, I think that she was trying to get out that every great love story in Literature have something in common, which are forbidden/brief love, a love triangle, and young love. I believe that she is trying to persuade the audience that if these ingredients are put right into the bowl then you get a perfect love story and in her article she gives three examples: Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering heights, and The Great Gatsby and what I will be doing is talking about how Jeris wrote this article and giving my part in it but, first of all I think I should give some background into each story that will be talked about.

The first story is 'Romeo and Juliet'. 'Romeo and Juliet' is about two teenagers who fall in love yet shouldn't be together because both of their families are at war Romeo and Juliet ends up getting married and Juliette and her maid concocts a plan that Romeo and Juliette will be able to live together. Juliet will drink a potion that will make her seem deceased and be buried in a family crypt yet, when it all comes romeo only hears that Juliette is dead and goes to her crypt and drinks poison and dies by her side. Then Juliette wakes up and sees him dead and kiss him and once realizing that the poison won't kill her she kills herself with a dagger and dies by his side.

The second story 'Wuthering Heights' is about two young lovers, Healthcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. When Catherine decides to marry Mr. Edgar Linton because of financial reasons, Healthcliff plans to destroy the Earnshaw and the Linton family empire.

The last story mentioned in this article is 'The Great Gatsby.' In the 'The Great Gatsby' Jay Gatsby is in love with daisy who married Tom when Jay Gatsby was in the Great War. Jay and Daisy gets reunited and see each other frequently yet Nick also is starting to like Daisy. Daisy ends up having an car accident in Gatsby car and Gatsby gets killed because people thought that he was driving when the accident happened.

Every love story should have a young love. Jeris explained how each book had a young love story like in Romeo and Juliet, they were teenagers, in Wuthering Heights, they liked each other when they were kids, and The Great Gatsby, they were young. I believe that she put this as one of the three ingredients is because it is more romantic to be young and in love than old and in love. I myself do feel the same way. To me, it gives the usual scenario of young love yet with a twist. For example, Romeo and Juliet love each other and they end up both dead for love. Another example is that in 'Wuthering Heights' Healthcliff acts like he can't live with Catherine yet can't live without her .

Every love story should also include a love triangle. When comes a love triangle, drama seems to fall right behind it. Reason being is that usually when a love triangle happens there is fame and fortune involved. For example, in The Great Gypsy, Tom, Daisy and Gatsby are in the love triangle. Daisy marries Tom for the same reason Cathy marries Healthcliff in 'Wuthering Heights' and that Juliet is already promised to Paris yet, she loves Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet'. As I said there usually comes drama and indeed it did which included lots of arguments, sword battles and so on and so forth. This talk was actually my favorite part in this article. I say this because it talks about love yet in a strange way because usually one person has to choose and each person has pro and con factors like statuses, money, true love, handsomeness, etc.

The last ingredient to a love story should include a restricted or brief romance. This section of the article was my least favorite because it shows that during a certain time, you couldn't hang out with a certain group of people even when you had nothing to do with the argument. For example, in 'Romeo and Juliet', their families were enemies and were not able to publicly see each other even when they had nothing to do with it. Also in 'Wuthering Heights', Healthcliff and Catherine had a restricted love because the Earnshaw family kept threatening to put him out of the house plus she wanted to marry Mr. Edgar because he had more money than Healthcliff did even though she knew that she loved Healthcliff.

At the end of this article, Jeris goes on to explain about how young romances are changing. Her example was of twilight which I thought was a very great connection. She was trying to get out that romances are not cut short but are lasting. For example in the series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Edward and Bella live happily ever after instead of something happening. Yet twilight does have some components shown in this essay. For example, Edward and Bella are both young and there is a love triangle going on throughout the series between the human, Bella, the wolf, Jacob, and the vampire, Edward, yet no brief or restricted love is present in this text.

Overall, I really liked this article. It connected very well with the story 'Wuthering Heights'. There is also a comment part on the article where you can leave your own comments so the reader can add there own 'two cents' into whether they liked it or what they agree or disagree with.  

Wuthering Heights Part 1

Hello,

            During 'Wuthering Heights', there are many types of personalities that can be depicted by the characters social status which back in the 19^th century in England would be described in three classes. Those classes are lower class, middle class and upper class and for this blog I am going to be talking about different personalities that are shown in the story so far.

            When we first meet Healthcliff we see him as a bitter and atrocious man. He was considered to be(before returning Wuthering heights) in the lower class. Healthcliff was brought into the Earnshaw family as an orphan and lived in the Wuthering Heights estate which at the time was owned by the Earnshaw family. Yet when Hindley Earnshaw died (Healthcliff's step-brother), Healthcliff inherited the estate because of the loans he gave to Hindley and ended up not being able to pay him back. As of now in the book Healthcliff is very vengeful because not a while after he moved back into Wuthering Heights Catherine died after giving birth to Healthcliff's son, Linton.

            When we get into further detail of Wuthering Heights we get to meet people that either live there or comes there. One that caught my eye was Joseph. Joseph comes of to me as a type of person who keeps to himself, mutters, very stubborn and obsessively religious. One of the problems that I had while reading the book was actually understanding what Joseph was saying because I don't usually see that everyday.

            On the other hand, When we meet Catherine Earnshaw, we see her as a person who worries about money and statuses and back then it did not matter for love because what mattered was where you were in the community and by how much money you had.

“You may see some: and he (Mr. Edgar) won't always be handsome and young, and may not always be rich.”

“He is now; and I have only to do with the present. I wish you would speak rationally.” (Wuthering Heights, pg 73)

By Catherine saying this it says that she cares more about riches than the actual love of a person. Her own heart tells her that she loves Healthcliff but his riches are low because his social status is deemed as lower class and Catherine goes ahead and marries Edgar instead of Healthcliff.

My favorite Tv Show

My favorite Television show is The Bernie Mac Show.  I like comedy and here is the theme song/ introduction of the television show.

First Assignment

Hello and good evening to all,

            My name is Sharon. I am also a returning student and is majoring in finance.  I am so excited to see another semester and I think that this semester is truly interesting even though I am not truly that into vampires.  I was really shocked when I saw the reading material for this class, yet I hope that the settings in the story are in different areas of the United States and the world because the geographical areas of the world interest me.  I would also like to say that I am native to Mississippi. I will be pleased to work with you all this semester on this course.

Three things I like to do:

1. I love to write because I dream of being an author!
2. I  like to read and my favorite author is Terry McMillan.
3. I  love to exercise.

Three of my favorite foods:

1. My first favorite food is Trail Mix Granola.
2. My second favorite food is Speghetti.
3. My third favorite food is roasted turkey.

Three of my Favorite countries:

1. France.  I like France because of the Eiffel Tower that is located in Paris because it is a peice of artwork in my eyes.
2. Mexico.  I like mexico because I like the language spanish. I like how spanish let you roll your tongue.
3. China.  I like china because over 1 billion people live in china.  That's interesting and to even add more to that, China isn't even the biggest country geographical wise.  The biggest country is Russia!

The reason that I joined this course is because I am a reader and I love a good book and I think that these series of books will be interesting to me.  One of the reasons that I joined this class is because one of my favorite hobbies is reading.  To me, reading is like an adventure nothing is more interesting than a good book.  A good book can tell fiction, facts and even someone's life story.  Books can bring different things to your life and that is why I chose this class.