Tia Walters and Laicia Perry
a newsletter for Xavier University English majors, minors, and honors students
May 2008
On April 28th, 2008, English majors and faculty met in the University Center to celebrate the end of another semester and school year. The event was organized by English Club liaison, Mr. James Shade.
Tia Walters and Laicia Perry
Erin Petty, Ashley Bailey and Erise Smith
Burnell Wells and Tamela Carey; Tamela is the outgoing president of the Xavier chapter of the English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta
Christina Ellington, winner of the English Graduate of the Year award
Christian Mitchell and Brittany Windom
Department chair-elect Dr. Nicole Greene and our retiring chair, Dr. Tom Bonner
Writing Center director Jay Todd
S
Jaye Hayes, Stacy Johnson and Ms. Katheryn Laborde
Dr. Violet Bryan
Dr. Biljana Obradovic
Winston Boyd, president-elect of the Enlgish Club
Tia Walters, Dr. David Lanoue and Laicia Perry
Event organizer and Master of Ceremonies, Mr. James Shade
Sister Donna Gould and Dr. Bonner
Troy Baham and Alexander Jupiter
Christina Ellington receives her plaque
[Editor's note: the following is the text of Dr. Bonner's speech given at a reception held in his honor on April 29]
by Dr. Tom Bonner, English Chair
"Yes," I said, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"Fate is a topic germane to examinations of the ancient Greek epics and tragedies. Nearly 1400 years later fate emerges as a theme in the Anglo Saxon poem "The Wanderer": Wyrd bith ful araed —fate is fully inescapable. Aside from allowing me to stretch my world literature class into this afternoon, what has this to do with me? With my being here? Well, I always thought that I came to Xavier accidentally. As a graduate student at Tulane, I received a phone call from Xavier informing me that its professor of American literature had suddenly departed. Sr. Veronica, the University Dean, asked me if I would consider coming to Xavier for the fall 1971 semester to teach. The rest, you would say, is history. A few months ago, however, a former Xavier faculty member in art Johnny Donnells, lent me a copy of Father Edward F. Murphy's memoir Yankee Priest . Father Murphy was an early supporter of Katharine Drexel and her efforts to make Xavier a successful endeavor. He wrote: "Miss Elsie Vulliet, a very intelligent and active sodalist who, I later learned, had been helping the poor since her childhood days, was one of my best listeners, and she promised to do what she could [in gaining community support] for Xavier. Soon many others visited Xavier, studied the life there, became friends, and went forth to spread a goodly enthusiasm" (198). My mother's family name is Vulliet and Elsie was my cousin. And as fate would have it, I was one of those who visited Xavier and stayed.
Since then like so many here in this room and others who are recently and long gone, I made this much of my life's work. To me Xavier has the brilliance, intensity, and focus of a sonnet in its fifth draft. The poet is asked how he can shape fourteen lines of iambic pentameter into a poem. We also are given the dimensions of mission, and we apply our various arts and sciences to make this small institution a force of change and a thing of beauty. It seems appropriate to remember the academic artisans who influenced my efforts here: Sr. Veronica, Sr. Miriam Francis, George McKenna, Joe Rice, Carroll Mace, Bob Skinner, my colleagues in English, and many fine students—some becoming my colleagues here. University administrators like Dr. Norman Francis, Anne Barron and Sr. Monica have kindly said their "Yes's" and their "No's" to my various petitions. My wife Judith and my daughters Ashley and Laura supported me and my work at the University unwaveringly. Often I was at home, but here psychologically, wrestling with an issue and failing to respond to their conversations across a dinner table. At those times I recall hearing: "Tom, are you with us?"
As in all attempts to shape an outcome, there are those wonderfully humorous moments as when writer-in-residence Everette Maddox had walked across the campus one morning with a glass of scotch and thought that he had been reported to Sr. Veronica. When he went to her office to beg for clemency, her door was closed as she was in a meeting. To cover all bases, he went down on his knees before her secretary Mrs. Eloise Simmons, begged forgiveness, and indicated a firm purpose of amendment. Not bad for an Alabama protestant in a Louisiana Catholic world.
I would like to consider what has been said up to now as a somewhat rambling octave of this "little song" in progress, but now the sestet, the last six lines, but these will have to wait as I thank Sr. Donna and those responsible for this gathering and as I thank all of you for giving me part of a spring afternoon. Finally, as I run into the surf off the Pensacola beaches at 9 AM on a hot August day just as the Faculty Institute at Xavier begins, those final six lines of the sonnet might have their chance to be born.
by Jonathan Metoyer, English Minor
In every story, there is a point of no return. The climax is the turning point of a plot, the point in which everything changes. William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a tragic tale of revenge following the royal family of Denmark. The story's structure is often the subject of debate because of its dynamic plot, making it difficult to pinpoint a climax or turning point in the story. Despite arguments against it as the climax, Act III scene IV is no doubt a crucial stage in the play and in character development. Act III plays a pivotal role in establishing Hamlet as a unique, different kind of tragic hero. Hamlet's murder of Polonius essentially sets the stage for the rest of the play to happen, making it a critical part of the story. This act of murder sets off a chain of events that will eventually lead everyone to doom, and one could argue it marks Hamlet for the sting of hamartia .
The third act traditionally holds a key moment in Shakespeare's various works. Hamlet is no different in its story arc. There is a lot of rising action that builds the tension for Act III scene IV. Hamlet's feigned insanity builds anxieties among the royalty of Denmark, and strokes the curiosity of Polonius. This is furthered by the play Hamlet constructs, designed to test Claudius's conscience. When Claudius shows his guilt, Hamlet is assured of Claudius's ill deed and is determined to kill him. However, when the moment of Hamlet's vengeance arrives, he finds Claudius in prayer and decides to wait for a more appropriate opportunity stating, "To take him in the purging of his soul,/ When he is fit and seasoned for his passage/ No!" (3.3.85-7). As a result, Hamlet is anxious to exact his revenge on Claudius, waiting for the next available moment to slay him. By the next scene, Hamlet's mind is so consumed with revenge, that he slays the hiding eavesdropper Polonius, mistaking him for Claudius. Once Hamlet realizes what he has done he tells Polonius, "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!/ I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune" (3.4.32-3). This act of murder by Hamlet is very important to the plot's dynamic as it is his hamartia (his tragic error or flaw), marking him for death in the future.
For every action there is a reaction, and Polonius's death at the hands of Hamlet is no different. The most obvious outcome is Hamlet is now a murderer, and Claudius now has the opportunity and right to stage a counterattack. Claudius uses the death as a way to convince Laertes to kill Hamlet. Claudius schemes a plot with Laertes, telling him, "Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake/ To show yourself in deed your father's son/ More than in words?" (4.7.125-7). Thus, Hamlet's act of murder creates Laertes' motivation for revenge, which is the whole point of the final act. This is furthered by Ophelia's insanity and suicide, brought about by the madness of Act III. The fact that she could have been Hamlet's love adds more weight to the tragic nature of the play. Hamlet's actions in Act III scene IV create the motives for other characters to play their roles in the final act, and these actions are responsible for the ensuing bloodshed.
There is an important aspect of Shakespearean literature that is visible through Act III of Hamlet. What Shakespeare is doing with his plays is taking ancient Greek tragedy along with its concepts, and twisting them into his own image. He creates a new tale that recalls motifs and themes from stories like Oedipus and The Iliad ("Othello..." 151). For example, several aspects of Hamlet's circumstance mirror that of Oedipus. They both face an adversary or a fault by their father/ or father figure, who is paired with their mother. Their love interests both happen to commit suicide after a crucial twist in the plot. Aside from circumstance, it is very interesting how different Hamlet is from heroes like Oedipus and Achilles. Oedipus and Achilles in particular are very direct and prideful, especially in the way they deal with their problems. In contrast, Hamlet can be considered a more bipolar, hesitant, tragic hero. After the encounter with his father's ghost, Hamlet resolves to avenge his father's spirit by exposing and killing Claudius. He develops an intricate plan that involves observing Claudius's reaction to a reenactment of his fratricide. Despite such careful planning, Hamlet still hesitates to kill the king, even when he has an ample opportunity. When Hamlet spares Claudius's life because he is in prayer, he establishes himself as Shakespeare's own tragic hero. Achilles, Hektor, or Ajax would have never uttered the most famous of soliloquies:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:Such hesitation and thought would never occur in the minds of the heroes of old. They would not have taken the time to design a plan to convict their wrongdoers either. When Hamlet has the chance to engage his enemy and fulfill his revenge in a respectful, heroic manner, he backs down by convincing himself to wait, justifying his hesitation with backwards logic. Yet, when Hamlet is having a private conversation with his mother and hears the disguised Polonius, he slays the eavesdropper without "establishing heroic conditions" ("Othello..." 152). This is what separates Hamlet from the old heroes, who sought a direct confrontation with their enemy. As a result, Hamlet's revenge is halted, and his character has the weight of hamartia on his soul. In the old tragedies, it was the hero's convictions, sometimes overzealous or unnecessary, that proved to be their hamartia . However, Hamlet's hamartia is brought about by accident. This advances how pathetic and passive his character is at the wrong time. Yet, it is through this sad young man's inability to make a strong and accurate conviction that Shakespeare creates a different kind of tragic hero ("Othello..." 152). Most importantly, it is in the third act that Hamlet establishes himself as a unique creation of Shakespeare who must deal with the issues and problems of ancient Greek tragedy. Shakespeare has recycled the themes and plot issues of old tragedies such as hamartia , and other critical aspects of tragedy ("Toward..." 29). However, Shakespeare has injected these concepts with his own creativity and imagination, yielding an entirely original story with unique characters.
The third act is always a crucial point in Shakespearean literature. Hamlet truly reveals himself as a bipolar creation of Shakespeare and isolates himself as a tragic hero. Hamlet's hesitation to kill Claudius and his blind murder of Polonius eventually seal his fate in the fifth act. However, one must realize that as a tragedy of Shakespeare, Hamlet has to make a mistake and as Professor Oliver Hennessey said (when he visited our class) the play must last five acts. If Hamlet would have killed Claudius when he had the chance, the body count would not have had the chance to rise for two more acts, and it would have been a quick end to the story. Likewise, if Hamlet would not have killed Polonius, he would have had no hamartia on his soul, and the story would not have a tragic weight to it. Every tragedy has a point where it becomes a tragedy. In Hamlet, this point is the fourth scene of Act III. It is the climax of the plot, the point where Hamlet becomes a tragedy.
Works Cited
The Literary Way is edited by Dr. David G. Lanoue of the Xavier University English Department. Contact: dlanoue@xula.edu