At last…

Horaaayy.. at last, we have finish learning Antony and Cleopatra. You can’t imagine how relieved I was when Dr. Edwin finished the last page of the play. But, I really thank to Dr. Edwin for helping us with the text. It really helps us a lot. I have a clear view when learning the play with Dr. Edwin, compared to my misery days when I read it alone. If you ask me now whether I like the play or not, my answer is YES! The love relationship that portrayed in this play is so much different compare to the portrayal of love in Romeo and Juliet. The play does not sugar over Antony and Cleopatra’s famous love affair; instead Shakespeare puts on stage Cleopatra’s calculated attempts to seduce Antony from his responsibilities in Rome, as well as Antony’s jealous rages and threats against Cleopatra’s life when he thinks she has betrayed him to Caesar. Nonetheless, Antony and Cleopatra are represented as finding together such sensual and emotional satisfaction in their love for each other that each yearns for an afterlife in which they may renew their union. Shakespeare lavishes such rich figurative language on his heroes’ recollection of their shared past and dreams of a future together that Caesar’s success in the business of world conquest seems a smaller thing than what Antony and Cleopatra have found in each other. In this play, he made us realise there
should be a sense of balance in life. If we let our emotion to rule our life, experiences of pleasure would disappear in no time and may end up ruining our life or the others.

Antony and Cleopatra…urrghh! what a struggle to finish it.

Antony and Cleopatra is one of the playwrights that we, B.Ed students have to learn this semester. When I think of the play written by Shakespeare for the first time, I told myself that I am going to die and suffer learning it. The language presented by Shakespeare appeared very difficult to me. Yeah.. I know that I am going to a teacher, and Shakespeare should be one of my favourite authors. But I just can’t lie to myself! It is so damn hard and depressing. When I said to my father, this play is so hard to understand, and he just said I have to read it several times to make sure that I have deeper understanding about it. I was so miserable. This is because in order for me to finish it for the first time also is in a way living in hell, what about reading it for several times. Durhh.. What he knows about Shakespeare. It is so difficult. Even though there are foot notes below for every page, I still have difficulties in reading it.

Good Morning class…

Simulated teaching is one of the compulsory things in our list as an education student. No matter what happen, we still have to go through our simulated teaching. I have gone through a few presentations before this in Maktab but I am still nervous when it was my time to do simulated teaching. I had goose bumps all over my body. I have done simulated teaching on teaching of short stories last semester with Dr. Edwin, and he has guide us on how to teach in a right and proper way, where he would stop us and correct our mistakes so in future, we will not repeat the same mistake over and over again.
At this semester, it was not Dr. Edwin who evaluated us, but it was Miss Baiti. At first, I thought she was not that fussy, but my expectation was wrong, as she critics lots. At this point, we have just to teach the set induction and pre-reading. At first I was so blur as I do not have any idea what to do for the induction. Then I got the idea to use two pictures, one is a picture of a young woman, and another one is a woman of about 40 above. I asked the students to compare between the loves that they would show towards the two women. It must have differences. Next, I asked them how they would react if one day they found out that their wives are also their own mother. Then, I continue to my pre-reading exercise. I have expected after I end my lesson, Miss Baiti would asked me so many questions, and she said that my induction is not so suitable with the text that I have chosen for the pre-reading. In addition, the way I deliver my lesson is not very smoothly. I am too nervous to the extent that I forget to look on my script even though I have prepared. I guess that is how most of us feel whenever we are asked to speak in front of many people.

An adventurous live of Teiresias

Among all the characters in Oedipus the King, I am very interested towards Teiresias. Besides, only knowing his character in Oedipus the King, I want to know more about him. Therefore, I have search on the internet about Teiresias, and I found out that there are some interesting stories about him. Teiresias is the aged blind prophet whose appearance turns the plot in all Greek tragedies set in Thebes. Teiresias can foretell the future, past as well as present. What makes me eager to know about him is that the reasons on how and why he is blind. There are two conflicting stories recorded by Appolodorus. The first story is when young Teiresias saw Athena bathing nude in the pool. Due to this, he was punished, which was struck to blind to make sure that he would never see again what men was intended not to see. But he was given a special gift by having lost his eyesight which was to be able to understand bird language and foretell the future. The other version of the story happen near Mount Kyllene in the Peloponnese when Teiresias saw a pair of snakes lustfully intertwined and he hit them a smart blow with his stick for animal decency. Hera, Zeus wife heartily approved of sex, even for the lower creatures and she punished him to be transformed into a woman in mind as well as body. But later after seeing the copulating snakes again, he allowed them to have their pleasure. Due to this he was released from his sentence and resumes his masculinity. All turn out well until Teiresias was drawn into arguments between Hera and Zeus. They were arguing about marital discussion when question such as who has more pleasure in sex, the men or women appear. Hera let Zeus believe that men are superior in this until both of them decided to check with Teiresias because he had known better what is actually like in both role. Teiresias revealed that woman's greatest secret on a scale of 10. She gets parts of the pleasure to his one. Hera was furious and struck him to blind again. Zeus could not do anything and he gave Teiresias a second sight. In conclusion, I believe that Teiresias is a very important person in Greek theatre as he is the religious consultant to the rulers of Thebes for seven generation. He is also the God's voice to remind us as the mortal to hear ad being sensitive towards out life.

Lets get it started..yeah!

Holla...this is the 1st time i'm having a blog. I do not have even a personal blog before, but i do like to read people's blog. Some of my favourite blogs of course my favourite artist. But after Dr.Edwin asked us to create our own blog, it makes me sigh...haih....So, here i am, my first ever blog!
Last Wednesday was our 1st meeting with Dr.Edwin for this fresh new semester. I feel quite excited to meet Dr.Edwin back, especially after he took long holiday for the Christmas Day. He does look the same. Surprisingly...hurm..actually it is not so surprise, he gave us a test! It was about point of view, and his reason was just to make sure whether we still remember his last lesson. Of course all of us did not stop grumbling for the sudden test!
Lastly,Dr.Edwin has assigned us to read a drama by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex.