IRONY TO IRONY

By Chelsey Duncan 

4th Block

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, is full of amazing stories that have a moral to each story and irony that lies within them. In the Pardoner’s Tale he tells of a tale of three men that set out on a wild adventure to find Death himself and kill him. To their surprise they actually run into some money.They agree to split the money between the three of them. Out of greed they kill each other. In the end of the ironic story, the the three men win some and loose some. They do find death before their own eyes but loose their money when they all die from the sin of greed. 

In the introduction of The Canterbury Tales, little by little we learn of all the lovely and not so lovely characters of the stories. From the courageous Knight to the repulsive Pardoner. Focusing on the Pardoner’s tale and all the irony within it, we see that there are three men that are going after death. The irony there is that death is not actually a real person so therefore, he can not be killed, but death they do find. Out of greed they will look this “death” into the eyes. 

                    Money is a material object. To the three men of the canterbury tales money will be there death of them. Finding death was quite the opposite really, because once these men run into their fortune, death is to be forgotten. Greed will take over, driving these men into a rage of greed causing them to kill each other for the chance of happiness with money. Ironically the “death” that they had sought will now seek them. 

In the over all story to not be greedy is the moral to the Pardoners Tale. In the beginning, where the audience is introduced to all the characters and story tellers of the Canterbury Tales. The Pardoner is seen as this hideous man. A person that was known for conning and being greedy. That itself is irony within because he was one of the greediest men amongst everyone else. 

In the end the men did not get there fortune, the Pardoner will stay greedy, and death can be sought but can not be killed because death is not a person.

The "Proper Lady"

                Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw has plenty of themes that lie within it, but the two that stand out the most to me is how the book was named after after the myth Pygmalion. Why did Shaw name his book after this famous myth? The other theme that stood out to me was Higgins look on manners.  

                In the myth Pygmalion a man falls in love with a statue of what he thinks is the perfect woman. He dressed it with the finest drapes and named it Galatea. He became obsessed with Galatea and wished that she could be real. So, the goddess Aphrodite turned his lovely statue into a real woman. Shaw found that inspiration for the book tile within that myth. Yet, comparing the two together they are quite different in some way. Starting with the fact that Eliza is not a statue. But she is not beautiful at first sight. Eliza has to be taken in and taught the ways of being a proper lady. Just as the goddess Aphrodite did with Galatea. Henry Higgins takes Ms. Eliza Doolittle to a horse race with “proper” middle class people to test out his transformation in her. This is where she meets Freddy. Where Freddy falls in love with this common flower girl that has been turned into a beautiful proper young lady. Giving the name Pygmalion. 

            Love, the four letter word that means a lot to this book. Trough out Shaw’s Pygmalion Henry Higgins shows that he has his own view at manners. To him it does not really mean much. In the story he tells Eliza that manners are not what matter, that its the way you treat everyone. Telling her that people should all be treated equally the same. The question that lingers is whether he is being truly sincere not. Considering they type of man that he is. He could of just been trying to get himself out of that sticky situation with Eliza. But should everyone be treated equally? Yes, I one-hundred precent agree, to an extent. Always being kind to someone that is constantly putting you down makes you seem like the bigger person. Pickering is a really good example of this. He treats Eliza like a woman with class and manners, even when she really did not have any. With him doing that it gave Eliza the motivation to become that “lady” that she wants to be. 

            With the Higgins out look on manners, it shows that even though treating everyone the same can seems right it can sometimes put those people who do not deserve that bitter treatment. But the way that Pickering treats Eliza, even just being a simple flower girl, he gives her hope into become a “proper lady”. 

Goals for the future

GOALS!

Chelsey Duncan 

4th Block

August 23, 2013

I haven’t really given much thought to what I want to do when I get out of high school. But what I do know is what I absolutely one-hundred percent intend to graduate from Fairhope High School. To me that is a start. Thinking about the future now though, I do have a few things that come to mind. Psychology being the first thing that comes to my mind. Then animals, traveling, and photography all in that order. Those are the things that I, myself, find the most interest in.  And I hope that one day I will be involved in a career that involves those things. 

High school, something every teenager has to go through. Whether I want to or not, by law I must get out of that in order to even begin a future in the so called “heaven” of a world. But in order to get there; to walk down that long awkward/exciting aisle, with that horrid royal blue gown on, I must start with some goals to get there. One goal is to pass my ACT with at least a twenty-five. I know that that is not the highest or best grade to make on it, but it is something. I also have the goal to get through this year with all A’s and B’s. So, I guess in order to do this I would not need to goof off that much this year. Homework is also a huge deal. It’s mostly important in my Trig class. Homework is twenty-five present of my grade. That definitely makes it a bug deal. But in all importance I will just need to do my best in all my class and give everything my one-hundred and ten precent. 

After college I would hope that I landed somewhere I enjoy working. My huge dream is to travel around the world photographing for National Geographic. I could do all my favorite things in one. Thats a pretty huge dream for me and of course if that doesn’t work out I would need a back up plan. I cant in all honesty think of what i’m going to be doing or where i’m going to be in. Six to eight years from my graduation day,  I want to see myself doing what I love and love what i’m doing whether that be with animals, helping a lost mind, or photography, I just want to get there. Once I get all my ducks row, a family would be my next thing in mind. 

Family is a huge thing that every person in the world thinks about when some one asks a question about a family. No one wants to spend their life alone. So, when I am officially out of college with a career I enjoy, hopefully I will meet someone. Someone to spend the rest of my life with. I hope that we will live a two story house with two children. We will be living with no worries and just completely content with our lives. 

When the future does get here I expect to have done the things I was suppose to do to become happy with my life. I will be proud to say that I followed through with all my goals to get there.