I like this because it is true, even is Africa is considerably less civilized, so was Europe at some point, therefore it is hypocritical for them to judge Africans as savages and barbaric as they are just in their own separate timeline of development.

In a story that is clear to be void of much emotion as it has been drained from being a slave, this almost seems as a glimpse of hope that our speaker may draw his inner motivation and whatever happiness he has from. Comparing oneself with the Jews finding the promise land is clear evidence that the speaker has hope or faith that he and his fellow people will come to be free and have a great civilization.

This aligns with patriarchal ideology in the family as the "head of the family" clearly refers to the husband with the wife lower in power and the children under her.

The writer does not go out of their way to express how bad and dehumanizing the circumstances slaves lived in were, he simply states just what they were. I find this to be especially important as the lack of exaggeration helps to build more credibility for the author, but also the plain descriptions themselves are enough for the reader to grasp that no human should live in such an environment.

The attire described seems to shape a lot of the psychology of the writer. When everyone is dressed the same and everyone has the same luxuries the people are driven towards complacency. Therefore the slaveowner is causing their slaves to slowly just accept slavery as their life by convincing them that the slaves at least have equality between each other and that is is a complacency driven luxury.

This has got to be relating to some sort of racism or form of slavery sympathy as it contains the idea that people outside of one's cultural norms and beauty standards are savages and not fully human. It is clear that our main character has some predispositions towards those who are not alike himself.

Since this is a story from times of slavery could the "rogues" really be a symbol for slave workers and that he is expressing that without proper control that they could overpower and revolt therefore stressing the need for stern dehumanization and rule over them in order to maintain status.

These reappearing of breaking the fourth walls seems to be a relatively innovative writing style as there has not been such blatant speaking to the reader in previous writings. Also, I feel as if they are creating a theme themselves that is very colloquial and progress the story without excess description.

I am so mad at myself that it took me this long to realize that there is a Jack Black movie based off of this. I wonder what possible allusions the fall of the main character could be to. Fall of Rome to outside forces? I feel like there is just a deeper historical connection to why the main character is so large compared to the indigenous people he encounters.

Is he talking about the people dancing on him? I wonder what this means. It almost creates a larger than life persona of the speaker where he is a giant and the indigenous people are his little pep squad.

This is sad to read because he is expressing how much better it would be to die than to remain a slave.

That just shows how emotionally fired these people were to be free again, once they had the slightest hope at a revolt, word spread like wildfire and everyone came together.

This is honestly hard to read because of how hypocritical and wrong this type of thought is, but it was the norm and was reinforced in that society. As a Christian myself, i find it hard to understand how someone could be properly informed by the Bible and be a captain for the slave trade. The captain is the true heathen here.

This is both heart warming and gross at the same time to read, but it is also clear that something bad is going to happen in response to Oroonoko seeing Imoinda regarding the King.

So the king feels a little guilty for literally stealing his sons girl (which is weird), but he does not take responsibility for doing anything wrong, but just blames it on passion. That makes the king appear even more self-centered and down right mean.

It is reassuring when everyone talks about how great the person you are in love with is and all, but doing so in front of the king is dangerous as he could force her to be with him instead. This appears to be foreshadowing future problems for Oroonoko and Imoinda.

The speaker is sort of going out of the way to include Black women in beauty standards, which pushes an anti-racist narrative that the speaker appears to hold.

Female character expressing goals in middle ages. Is this growing awareness of gender inequality and early feminism I see?

This is an interesting portrayal of afterlife thought. Plato was obviously from a time much earlier than when this was written so I wonder how this piece was received in a time of Christianity as well as more modern renaissance thought. I would think somewhat archaic and nostalgic of past thought and culture.

This has very Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz vibes. I wonder if there is some sort of relation or inspiration here.

Honestly this was very disturbing to me. The thought of relating death to cooking seems to be a very light-hearted way of perceiving the loss of human life, especially in today's culture where life is so valued and treasured.

This seems to be a very revealing line about what the author thinks about death. The author has a hopeless tone when it comes to trying to beat death, by using the hare's running away as a comparison to a person striving to beat death, but inevitably life does come to an end, which therefore foreshadows what will happen to the hare in the rest of the story.

is this just a fancy way of saying that the hare is trying to lose the dogs, or hopping down a path that the dogs hopefully cannot traverse?

I'm guessing it's hot because hares only point their ears towards the wind in order to cool themselves off in extremely hot weather.

Is she saying she is powerless?

I am having a hard time deciphering this part but it sounds like she is saying men's love and duty comes depends on the beauty of his woman, and that the speaker does not have those virtues in abundance like eve did.

I love this quote because it shows how the disparity between man and woman has created unrest between them. It amuses me to see how spiteful the speaker is here towards men (her tone is fully understandable and deserving though).

The speaker appears to be highlighting the unjustly high expectations on women by men when men are not perfect themselves.

These are characteristics most commonly given to men in literature, so it is interesting to hear the speaker say that the Queen, a woman, be referred to as such. It sort of goes against the common idea of gender roles at the time, but may just be pure reverence to appeal to the ear of the Queen rather than challenge cultural norms.

By saying the Queen is from Venus relates the Queen to having descended from idealized woman, representing desire, sex and love. It almost makes the queen have a nostalgic appearance and livelihood by relating her to Venus as Venus is a relatively archaic symbol for beauty in multiple cultures.

It is very interesting to hear the Queen be regarded in this way because it almost makes her appear to be at the same level as Mary is Catholicism, being the Mother of Christ: King of Kings.

I feel like this makes Prospero by a theme of God's grace. He realizes that there is no real benefit to revenge on the people who sought after his death once they were caught, so he gave grace unto them just as God is portrayed to do when anybody sins against Him.

Gonzalo does a good job highlighting the feeling of getting caught doing something wrong by calling it a "great guilt" and the way he goes on to ask Propsero what will he do with them in response to their actions.

Here it is clear that the grace Prospero gives to the three men is inspired by the endorsement of Ferdinand and Miranda's by Ariel.

I like the involvement of the number three here, I believe it is placed so perfectly to represent the three who tried to murder Prospero as an antithesis to the Holy Trinity.

Gonzalo can clearly tell something is wrong. He was drawn out of his sleep as if possessed and enlightened by God to overhear Antonio and protect Propsero.

Im having a hard time understanding this, but I think he is implying that he intends to stab Prospero to death with a knife.

This is the first time that I saw that Prospero is mentioned as a probable target for Antonio to take out and take the position of.

I feel like this helps to establish Prospero as a wise character right away, because he is not caring about worldly riches, but rather legacy based decisions that will have a lasting impact, and wants to better himself rather than live lavishly.

Faustus appears to be showing remorse for his choices both to take up the bargain as well as how he spent his gift while he had it, by calling it his deadly sin. I would say that his deadly sin is most closely greed as it was his greed for power of knowledge and status that caused his downfall.

This appears to be Faustus trying to make a last minute effort to gain grace in God's eyes in order to save his soul from being sent to hell, but it is too late.

Seven is considered a a holy number, being the number of completeness. It appears the Mephist is suggesting that Faustus will be complete once he accepts the deal for knowledge.

This is a very vague response as everything is supposedly under the Heavens. It appears that he is beating around the bush to not frighten Faustus from fulfilling his part of the deal.

This almost feels like Faustus is trying to delay his going to hell, he is trying to buy time to possibly regain God's trust by possibly delaying his damnation. Most people have a good idea of what Hell is whether one is a believer or not, so it seems odd that he would be asking where it is?

This appears to be referring to Faustus's belief that God has destined him for damnation, but Faustus took role as God for his life and still ended up determined for damnation because he is having to give his soul to the Devil now having not used the gift he got in return in a meaningful way.

Now that he has received forgiveness for his sins, he now asks for continuity, not to fall back into the ways of the world. He is able to do this by the characteristics Christians believe they are given when they have Faith, and those are Good Deeds for the demonstration of Faith, wisdom to make heavenly decisions, and strength, perseverance, etc. Pretty much the Characters Everyman encounters are tools that God gives people with Faith in order to live a life according to God.

There is a lot of adoration of God here in his confession of his sins. By constantly stating different divine and heavenly names to call the Lord, it almost feels like he is realizing the greatness and worthiness of God as he enters into his asking for forgiveness.

Here Confession goes beyond just the act of confession of sins which is common practice in Christianity. This builds upon the idea that one can re-purify them self in the Lord by constantly denying worldly pleasures and constant prayer. It was a method used by priests to provide an impossibly hard set of tasks to become right with the Lord or the person could buy indulgences. Most people would just cave in and pay for the indulgence.

this is establishing that God is a timeless being by being present past and future. I would also like to highlight that God is seen as three in one and expresses God's continuity in three tenses. I do not think that is just a coincidence as it is widely used today in Christian literature and worship.

this is a common ideology people fall into in the Christian Faith. Where there is a struggle between saved by Faith alone versus thinking one becomes righteous by both Faith and good deeds. I feel like this stanza does a good job of capturing the lost soul of Christianity that believes that they can earn their righteousness.

It appears that they are looking for Death as if he is a person, it feels as though he is meant to be the physical representation of the devil in this story as the line before mentions "God" and "holy sacrament." Therefore Death being the devil would make sense, continuing the Biblical allusions and ties.

I am surprised with how quaint the description of the murder is. only taking two lines and no stark descriptions about how it happened.

The moves on from describing drunkenness as evil, and explains the social effects it has on the person who is the drunk. The writer expresses that there is no honor in being drunk and that it only hurts you and leaves a stain on your life forever.The strong words against drunkenness really conform to the Christian ideals at the time of staying entirely sober and that any alcohol outside of what society deems reasonable is evil and ruins your life forever.

This is a very important line because one is supposed to confide their sins with the priest in confession at Church, but she is saying that she had told Alison so many secrets about her and her husband that what the priest knew did not compare. It shows an unhealthy relationship because typically in a marriage, it is ideal that secrets be confided in the other, but she is breaking that. Also, much of the things she told Alison regarding her husband are embarrassing or shameful, which could lead to him being seen in bad light if word were to spread.

This are two strong lines, coupled by rhyming -ise. It establishes that the words about lying are for those women who do lie. It also suggest that women that do not lie are wise and that it is unwise to lie. I find it peculiar that it is directed to wives specifically when the art of lying applies to everyone.

These are some very powerful lines Emily uses to describe her lineage. She expresses how based on her lineage, they are destined to fail and suffer greatly throughout life. This contradicts much of the mood of lines 175-233 where Emily is very vibrantly walking through the garden and everything seems very uplifted.

These lines flow very smoothly. It creates a peaceful scene of Emily walking though the garden, picking flowers and singing. It almost makes Emily seem as if she is in her own world as she traverses the garden in what appears to be a blissful idealization of how anyone would go though a garden on a nice sunny day.

I like here how the author does not just leave the description as alone, but really builds on that idea by expressing the aspects of having no friends and sleeping alone, lying in bed for a long duration with no one to turn to. It makes the image come alive much more to the reader as there are more specific examples given related to being alone to imagine and relate to.

The rhyming and direct verbiage does a fine job of expressing how he went on his way quickly, but what was most interesting to me was the change in pace these last few lines gave the stanza. It makes the stanza end with a more hasty pace that marches the reader on to the next stanza just like how he is going on his journey.

This is a passive way to say that the ladies were all longing for love for the dude. It helps create an expressive almost Shakespearean atmosphere by not by taking simple ideas and expressing it in a complex and very humanly exasperated manner.

The first line has alliteration starting with "w" while the other has alliteration starting with "d." This helps separate the ideas of the two lines as well as create the contrasting images in the reader's head by only using words with different starting letters. The contrast here is between the winter setting in the first line and the drought setting in the next.

I would argue there is alliteration between "twined" and "trunk." It is very subtle but does help with rhythm and description of his actions.

That is a very abnormal behavior that leads the reader to suspect that maybe the man may be cheating or doing other dirty business that is typical with such disappearances.

Launfal is now cornered between revealing his love for the Maiden despite her insisting that it be kept secret or possibly being executed after being called a traitor for turning away from the Queen.

This seems dangerous to their "secret love" eating in public together and showing affection to one another. It contradicts what the Maiden was wanting in the last paragraph.

His reaction to being with the Maiden is both heartwarming but one can also tell that things are going to go wrong with how giddy he is. It is clear that he is going to slip up in regards to keeping the relationship in secret.

by separating this phrase it acts as like a pause of reflection during battle, like coming up for a breath

This seems as a moment of exemplified persistence and grit, by him taking the hard path and trusting in his strength and picking himself up while he was down. It shows solidarity and really helps prepare the reader for the following events

repetition of "morning" to demonstate an extended length of time

This makes Beowulf appear honorable and humble by not taking power over Heardred and continuing to support the prince

alliteration to express the escaping from the dragon

interesting way to describe excitement and hurrying to meet someone.

This has a lot of heavy description words that help to create the image of the armor of Beowulf. "hooped and hasped" also seems to be alliteration as it sort of highlights the design and beauty of the armor.

With "Covered the field" being its own line, I feel like it emphasizes the image of a wasteland of dead bodies so great that one cannot see the field anymore. Also, it being at the end of the stanza helps highlight this point even more.

Personification of fate is used to explain Hygelac's war with the Frisians

The phrase is a bit confusing especially when describing a wise man. The wise man cannot be too bold that he may not boast? Boasting is not a quality typically associated with wiseness, Moreover, the lines above state a few other obscure qualities the author belives a wise person must have before they readily know like must be a decent warrior. Besides the few abnormal qualities, the rest are very traditional qualities associated with becoming wise.

I feel like this whole section is a great metaphor for their marriage, where what used to be a grand and beautiful relationship has been left unmaintained so that things have been overgrown and broken down. The structure of the marriage still stands as shelter, but that shelter is so far gone in bitterness and hurt that no more joy can be found in it.

This passage feels like a declaration. That despite the suffering one will face at sea, their efforts be recognized and their deeds be righteous in people's eyes. This is for the purpose of being fondly remembered for ages to come among both children and "angels" so that he leaves behind a legacy.

The discussion opened by the description of the birds in suffering and screeching and comparing them to life at sea help the reader see that seafaring for the author was more than just a matter of trials and tribulations but rather affected his spirit and state of mind. This was especially clear when he states that shelter could comfort his "impoverished spirit."

means very old stones

This imagery signals that the city once was a vibrant and prosperous place before its eventual downfall.

Metaphors of a storm help illuminate the uneasiness of the scene, by describing the sky getting darker and various species hitting the ground. The narrator does not feel unwelcome by the storms, but rather inspired and adventerous.