Is Felicite a saint or a simple-minded servant? Is she neither or both? Outline your perspective on her character as compared to Mme. Aubain’s. How do they differ?
I’m not entirely sure if saint is the correct adjective to use in this instance but I do believe that Felicite was just an overall good quality person. She had a kind and caring heart that led her to do the right thing, care for other people and strive to know god. I think that she fits the simple-minded servant better than being called a saint. She had a lot of rough times throughout the story from losing her parents, to being beaten for something she did not even do. Throughout all of this she was able to keep a good heart and mind. I think a major difference between Aubain and Felicite is that Felicite just wanted to show her affection up front all the time. By that I mean that she just wanted to to spend all of her time with Mme.Aubain’s kids and nurturing them. Aubain wanted what was best for her kids all of the time but this sometimes led to her doing things that did not seem very nice at the moment like sending them off to school for their betterment. Felicite seems like a more “saintly” person up front as she spends a lot of time in devotion and prayer. She is a lot softer spoken and kinder up front while Aubain is a bit less careful with her words. However, Aubain does not beat around the bush, so to speak, and also has her priorities set in a lot deeper where are Felicite has an imagination that rivals a child.
How are women imagined & characterized in the poems you read? What attitude is implied? Is it dual or contradictory? Does Baudelaire give similar weight to the description of men? What definitions of womanliness are depicted, affirmed, or criticized in his work?
Baudelaire, I thought, is very confusing in his work. On one hand, he says all of these extremely poetic and deep meaning things about girls and their beauty, femininity and tenderness and on the other hand he talks about them in a way that just makes the male population sounds like a bunch of terrible people describing them in a way that is very lustful and provocative. When he talks about men its mostly just to say that males are weak minded and lots of other harsh stereotypes.
3. How are Chidam and Chandara distinct from Rama and Sita?
The two groups are pretty much the exact opposite. Rama and Sita are very kind and unselfish while Chidam and Chandara are really just looking for how they can help themselves. Rama and Sita were always looking for how they could help someone else while Chidam and Chandara had some different kinds of morals and looked out for themselves.
4. Pick a Yeat’s poem and discuss what it communicates to you and why.
I chose When You Are Old because it was one that kind of stuck out to me. I think it was kind of a bummer for sure when the actress kept shooting down the guy who actually liked her for her and not just cause she was famous. People suck sometimes so I was kind of rooting for him to just kick her to the curb and move on but he really did love her so he continued to do so. I thought this was pretty cool.
I completely agree with your comparison of Rama and Sita to Chidam and Chandara, they definitely seem to be the polar opposites of one another. I was rooting for the guy to get the actress as well, but such is life. Great post.
Thank you for sharing about the way When You Are Old reminded you of your grandparents. I actually was reminded of myself when I read it because I spend a lot of time on regret and on worrying about getting old and regretting things all over again. I wonder if this poem is about keeping that reminiscing to when you are old. It’s a sad thing for me to do but a rather touching activity to read about elderly people doing.