Sunday, May 13, 2012

EXPLICATION of A SHORT STORY "My Last Duchess" (Margaret Atwood)


 While we had a discussion in last class, a member of our group told us an opinion. It was a nice clue for me on explication of “My Last Duchess” by Margaret Atwood. I would like to think more and go into this story deeply.

What I would like to focus on and what made me interested in is that Margaret Atwood tried to tell us an importance of literature. The conclusive evidence of this opinion is this line.

“Why did we have to study these hapless, annoying, dumb-bunny girls?” (p.74 l.11)

Before this line, the storyteller girl saw the last duchess in a negative view. The duchess always smiles to everyone in the same way, and she was easily pleased. The duke did not like the aspect of her too. The view to the duchess of the storyteller girl made her think more like that line. And what made her think that much stronger is, I think, a quarrel with her boyfriend Bill. When she was talking about “My Last Duchess” with Bill, they didn’t agree with each other, and had a quarrel. She felt so sad. If I had been her, I would have thought that we had a quarrel because of literature. She is good at reading literature, and seemed to continue to study well. However, why did she study literature? And why do I study literature?

From the beginning of this short story, the storyteller girl and her teacher Miss Bessie talked about literature. The students including the girl and Bill explicate the poem. I think, Bill thought that it was meaningless to study literature. Words of Bill “That goddamn Duchess poem” (p.63 l.7) expresses Bill’s thought to study this poetry. Bill thought so, and didn’t try to understand literature. Perhaps, the girl didn’t understand why she studied literature, but she continued to study and tried to understand it. The two students are like but opposite. Many students all over the world might be like one of them. In my opinion, Margaret Atwood wanted readers like us to be as if we were them and think the importance of literature. In this short story, there is no answer about what is importance of literature, so I tried to find it out.

 Some scenes in this short story, for example in Miss Bessie’s class, the students including the storyteller girl and Bill thought deeply about the meanings of the poem at one word, line, part. For example, the girl thought over about a word “last.” (p.51 l.1) She took pains with only one word, and she imagined with only one word. Only one word can have many meanings. Generally, literature especially poem is abstract and not clear. So we have to explicate them. Doing so on every literature is hard woks. However, luckily, we can blow up our images. The ending of this short story is also unclear and we would feel gloomy after reading it. But by think about the continuation of it, a lot of stories are completed. If you read again the stories after you blew up your imagines about it, the view to the story might be changed. I think it is wonderful that understandings of a story are depended on readers, and that is one of appeals and importance of literature. This is not what Margaret Atwood said but just my opinion, and there may be any other importance of literature. But I think Margaret Atwood wanted to tell us such a thing through the girl and Bill.
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5 comments:

  1. HILLMay 15, 2012 at 12:02 AM

    Hello!! This is Hillary Hara, your classmate in Writing 1. I just read your explication of My Last Duchess. It looks so good :) I agree with your opinion that Atwood wanted to teach us the significance of Literature though the story. As you mentioned, I think “Why did we have to study these hapless, annoying, dumb-bunny girls?” is such a good quote to be referred.
    However, I think you could get more references to make your opinion clearer and more accurate. I actually did get a similar opinion to yours and wrote about it, but I used some more quotes: “The grades in the newspaper would determine whether we would go on” (p57. ll.23-24), “We’d have to use our wits, work our way up the ladder provided for us, make something of ourselves” (p58. ll.8-10) and “but with a good set of grades, this dismaying fork in the road could be postponed for a while” (ll.13-14). Etc…

    If you look at my page (It’s My Life), you can see my opinion in detail ;)

    Thanks

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  2. maharuMay 15, 2012 at 11:59 PM

    Hi! This is Maharu, in same writing class as you. I read your explication and I thought it is very interesting:) I didn't read this story trying to understand what the author wanted to say so it was very new for me to look in this way.
    I agree that Atwood wanted to tell us the importance of literature.
    I think the importance of literature is to understand that there are many ways of reading and there is not a single meaning but many. So I believe Miss Bessie wanted to tell Bill, the main character and other classmate to look at the book in several points of view. By using many point of view, we can find many new things and I think that is what Miss Bessie wanted to teach to them.

    thank you:)

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  3. mickeyMay 16, 2012 at 7:03 PM

    Hi! I am Miki Maeda. I am a student of writing class same as you!!!
    What you thought was quite interesting for me because you brought in some speculation on what Margaret Atwood wanted to tell us and what she thought about literature.
    I was so busy to do sum up this story, so I did not think about what the author wanted to say.
    I agree what you said that the poem has a lot of meaning.
    It can be taken a different meaning, so it also was a kind of adding a new twist to this story.
    Thank you.

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  4. rikaMay 16, 2012 at 10:40 PM

    Hi! This is Rika Kojima. I’ve read your explication. And thank you for your comment on my blog!
    As you said, we have same opinion about girl’s attitude toward “My Last Duchess”! But it was so great of you to discuss what the author wanted to say while my group talked mainly about the characters.
    I also felt curious about the phrase in l.11, p.74. I couldn’t clearly say why we study literature even though I had hazy idea of it in my mind. I agree with your idea that the author tries to tell us the importance of literature. At last part, the girl quoted word from “My Last Duchess”. So I wondered she tried to approach literature.
    I think it is important to consider one word or sentence over and over. It will be enjoyable work someday I believe!

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  5. sarahMay 17, 2012 at 5:55 AM

    This is Sarah and I read your explication.
    I found your idea very interesting because I never thought about the importance of literature. I found it interesting that you focused on that point through this poem. I think you're right when you say that the author was trying to get the readers to think about the importance of literature. I also agree that one of the main points about reading literature is that the way you interpret it depends all on the reader and there is no right or wrong. Your explication made me see a different side to the poem! Thank you:)

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