Through out this semester of school I have definitly learned a lot going from the 19th to the 20th century. Learning about ancient greek drama, Russian fiction, poetry, and all the different types of plays. The plays were harder for me to understand but getting into groups in class and discussing it in class really helped. I thought the stories we read were more interesting then the plays. I defintly learned and took a lot more out of the stories such as A clean well lighted place, A doll's house, and the yellow wallpaper. In a clean well lighted place it made me realize that you can not judge people before getting to know them. One of the waiters was constantly on the old man's case about him staying at the cafe late and how he wanted to just go home. The old man was unhappy and even tried to kill himself and by the waiters attitude im sure did not help him at all. In A Doll's House, it changed my outlook on womens role in society. It has changed so much from the nineteenth century to now. Women were seen more as what they refered to as an "ornament." It was looked down for women to work. They were supposed to be a stay at home mom, watch the kids, and make sure dinner was ready for the husband by the time he came home from work. Today it has changed from women rapidly entering the work place. Women have started their own business and are financially supporting themselves. However, most women are still able to be a mother and have a career also. It is amazing to see how roles of women changed through out the years. Who knows how it will be in ten years. Lastly in The Yellow Wallpaper, not many people would have the response to what I got out of the story. What it made me realize was how John never gave up on his wife. He knew she was mentally unstable but he did not just drop and leave her. He stuck by her when times got rocky. Not many guys would do this. Although, I think he did baby her a little too much but it could have been for her own good knowing she was mentally unstable. We only read the story from her point of view, it could have been totally different if we read it from his point of view. His actions probably would have made better sense. Over all I think it is important for us to learn about all these different litearatures because it opens up to a new enviorment. It opens us up to a level of deeper thought,expanding our minds to help teach us new ways of seeing the world. We read literature to discover and to learn about ideas and we write it to discover and to cultivate our own ideas. Overall I have learned a lot from taking this course. It has definitly made me realize a lot reading these several stories, poems, and plays.

Oedipus

In my opinion, I think Oedipus is a tragic figure being under the control of gods or not. He is a king who falls apart when he finds out his whole life story. Aristotle says that a tragic hero must be an important or influential man who makes an error in judgment, and who must then suffer the consequences of his actions. Toward the end of the play he realizes that the oracle was right, he had killed his father and married his mother. It was not his intentions to do any of this. He had ran into his father at a crossroad and out of self defense had killed him. Oedipus did not know who his mother was so when he had married the widow and had children, he did not realize until much later that she was his mother. Who knows if the play would have changed if he new who his parents were but then again the oracle always came true.