Shrews and Cuckolds- The Merry Wives of Windsor

"This is the short and the long of it." Act II Scene II



Wonderfully done PSF! I thoroughly enjoyed this play and loved the ideas which were so pertinant in my past weekend in which I spent the weekend dealing with jealousy and mistrust. Since it is my personal goal to behave with grace and class, I am hoping to be able to not dwell on the insanity that is someone else's life, for if it is my insanity, it is their reality, and that is all I need to remember.



Shakespeare plays reminded me greatly of our class discussion in class today. We were discussing the idea of teaching idiomatic sayings and figurative language and it's importnance in the understanding and learning of English among students learning English as their second or third/fourth etc language. Figurative lanugage and idioms are diffficult to understand when you are not familiar with all aspects of the culture. This is important to remember in talking about diverse students. I still struggle with some things from American culture which were not available to me during my time living as a native in England.



I was then reminded how many of our idioms and sayings in English come from Shakespeare plays. And what they mean. I find thinking about the reasons and backgrounds to certain expressions very interesting and some are still confusing to me
"indian giver"??

"the hair of the dog?"

What exactly do these mean?

The Help- Fabulous book for summer

Do I think that racism is inherant or taught? If Aibileen had stayed working for Miss Elizabeth would Mae Mobley have grown up to be racist?

-This question is an interesting one as I feel there are more factors to the answer than inherent or taught. There are also societal influences. Thinking about these characters and their futures I feel that Mae Mobley still had the ability to make her own decisions when she got older. Even at her still young age she knew that her momma was not a kind woman. She was afraid of her and felt Aibileen's compassion. May Mobely may well have grown into the world to become an agent of change, or she may have feel vicitim to the societal pressures of the southern white woman.

The characters in this story are brilliantly written. I feel that maybe May Mobley would grow up to be like Skeeter and to feel that she was lucky to have such a wonderful balck woman to care for her and to teach her the compassion and empathy that their mothers could not teach them.

Overall, this book was excellent and well-written. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Help and couldn't put it down when I was reading it. I was glad to have heard of it through a recommendation, and would readily recommend it to others as well.