Midterm Blogging

My personal blog posts seem to lean towards a critique of whatever I happen to be reading. Overall, the three posts seem to emphasize a critical flaw in either the society in which the events of the play are taking place or flaws in the individual characters.
The first post in response to The Merchant of Venice is a critical examination of the society that it takes place in. It discusses the presence of anti-semitism and bigotry as a whole. It is very broad, discussing the larger issue of anti-semitism in Shakespeare’s society and citing textual evidence from the introduction written by Katherine Maus and Shylock’s memorable monologue towards the closing of the play; “Hath not a Jew eyes...?” The writing closes by drawing a conclusion based on the aforementioned paragraph that clearly states an opinion, but remains broad.
The second written response is a critical examination of Measure for Measure, and the behavior of the characters in response to their society. This blog response is much more focused on the specific issue of repressing sexual desires, and how it can be related to our modern society. This blogging entry is my personal favorite because it is an intriguing topic, within a fun and intriguing play. It also uses ample amounts of evidence from different parts of the story to emphasize its points. It is a well supported, well thought out post.
My third entry is also a critique, but this time it focuses on one particular character. Its center focus is the critical review of the character of Richard II and how he has been completely spoiled, and thus he is an ineffective king. I really enjoyed writing this post, because it is so obvious that a child who is given all they desire will be a completely non-functional adult. This vaguely reminded me of growing up on Long Island with intensely spoiled children as neighbors. I also enjoyed this post because I used evidence from the text to support my arguments as to why Richard II is spoiled and a completely incapable ruler.
In my writing, I see a trend towards improvement as the semester goes on. While I did not much enjoy re-reading my first post on the Merchant of Venice, I very much enjoyed re-reading my thoughts on Measure for Measure and Richard II. They seemed to have garnered more evidence to support their ideas.
Concerning the weekly posts overall, I really enjoy being able to share my random trains of thought on a class blog. Not everyone has a chance to speak in class, even though we all clearly have very diversified ideas and opinions concerning the plays. This is the perfect opportunity to ramble on about different aspects of the play that interest you, or a parallel that you drew or a connection that you made or a random thought that occurred to you while reading.