Collect Abandon All Hope HW
Create a notes page titled: Prereading and Background on Prufrock
Prereading and Background
From the research you did for last night's homework you now know that the Italian quotation in yesterday's blog is from Canto 27 of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. In the story of the Inferno, Dante, a man halfway through his life, wakes up near a dark and ominous wood without knowing quite how he got there. The pathway from which he has strayed leads up a hill, but each time he attempts to scale the hill, his way is barred by a ferocious beast. Seeing no other way to go but down, Dante turns to the dark wood when he is met by a man he knows – or rather, a man whose works he knows: the ancient Roman poet Virgil, long since dead.
Virgil explains to Dante that he is perilously close to the Inferno, the Hell into which his actions will surely lead him, but that he, Virgil, has been sent to show Dante a better path. However, as is often the case, the only way out is through: as Virgil explains, they must go through Hell together. Dante descends into the concentric circles of the Inferno, each circle darker and grimmer than the last as the sins being punished increase in their gravity and damage.
At this point in the story, Dante encounters Guido da Montefeltro, a man being punished for giving false counsel by being encased in a constant flame. Seeing Dante, and believing that he also must be among the dead, Guido makes the following statement, a translation of the passage from yesterday's blog:
If I thought my answer were given
to a person who would return unto the
world,
this flame would cease to flicker.
But since no one has ever returned alive
from this abyss,
If what I have heard is the truth,
Then without fear of dishonor I answer
you.
In class reflection activity
Title your paper: Individual Reflection
Before you begin another small-group discussion, answer the following questions
individually, jotting down answers on a separate piece of paper .
1. How does this quotation change our expectations about “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock?"
2. How does this quotation change our understanding of Prufrock’s identity?
3. In the original text, Guido speaks to Dante. In the context of this poem, who is speaking to whom?
Pair/Small Group Discussion
Students should meet in pairs or small groups to compare and contrast answers.
Students should press their peers for evidence – have them substantiate their responses with reasons from the text.
“It’s just my opinion” doesn’t really help.
Whole-Class Discussion
The class discussion should continue the insights shared about the Dante epigraph. Often, students’ views of Prufrock will be radically shifted – those who initially felt he was sort of a fuddy-duddy might well now see Prufrock as a dead man, one who speaks to us from beyond the grave.
Some students have concluded that by including this epigraph, Eliot (or Prufrock)
has turned us into Dante…or perhaps into Virgil. The implications of either choice are
fascinating.
Closure
Think back to your initial impressions of this “love song” or your first ideas of Prufrock and contrast those initial impressions with the deeper insight we got into this man’s character by reading the implications of the epigraph.
HW=
1. Now you should reread the poem and conduct additional close readings of pivotal moments or quotes, occasionally returning to the central issues raised by our discussion from today.
2. Answer the following questions (in a paragraph or more for each question) for homework tonight.
Title your paper:
Closure Questions for Prufrock
Does the further reading of the poem confirm the idea that Prufrock speaks from a hell he has created?
Or is he like Dante, presented with a possible future he is able to bypass or avoid -- though he must go through it?
3. Read your LC book and work on your LC Analysis Group Presentation.
No comments:
Post a Comment