Performance comes in many different forms, from the stage to your own home. Performing from home is different and may raise the question: how? Video games have become a different way of communicating narrative. Most video games have a form of background narrative, like Tomb Raider or Grand Theft Auto. They use “audience-like” participation to communicate it. For example, the performers at The Globe sometimes include members of their audience. Yet, gaming is different because the audience and performer are the gamers. The difference between how gaming is performed is the amount of people in relation to an audience. The first step is defining the word “audience”. An audience is a group of spectators or listeners at a performance. In video games, their audience is their friends in multiplayer online games. Gamers make a performance of themselves tailored towards their audience. It is different when playing by yourself because it takes away the performance arc of gaming. When you are alone, the atmosphere is more relaxed and there is a release of pressure. While playing with or for other people, the persona created is the main part of the performance. There is a sense of motivation to strive to be at the same level as others or to be entertaining. Video games and the gaming community show a different medium when it comes to performing.

Shelley’s poem describes a bird that becomes transformed through the imagination into a spirit ascending to Heaven. Heaven is the center of many poems about religion because it is the ultimate goal, a divine place full of innocence and purity. The poet describes the spirit “like a star of Heaven” because he imagines the bird as an innocent creature. He asks the bird to “teach” him and the world because he wants to change the world through poetry. Poetry could be the connection to having the world understand the a divine power. The narrator is using the bird as symbol for faith. I believe he compared the bird to a spirit because each one is untouchable. Comparing divine entities to an animal or object that can be seen enables humans to comprehend them. The bird has spiritual qualities because it rarely touches the ground and is free of all sin. The poet identifies himself  with this “scorner of the ground”, but fears that he is impure and does not have “wings” or the right words to change the way society views. He asks the bird-spirit to teach him just as religious people pray to God to strengthen their faith. The poem is like the poet’s prayer.  He wants to have the power to produce a “harmonious madness” from his lips, so that “The world should listen then, as I am listening now” to the bird. The narrator imagines developing a divine poetic power that could compel an audience to listen.

Prufrock is the narrator of the poem, and the title is ironic because of his terror of speaking to a potential lover. I believe he wants love, but doesn’t have any confidence. Prufrock is an older man that is becoming more cynical as he ages ( I grow old …I grow old…). In lines 1-12, he is perhaps addressing himself (‘you and I’) and thinking about spending an evening with the object of his love, constantly digressing from it, and imagining how it will proceed. Towards the middle of the poem, he starts to come back to reality and in the end does not address his important question to the woman. He starts to let his insecurity show: “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair-( They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’…They will say: ‘But how how his arms and legs are thin!)”. These are common insecurities among men today because men feel that they have to look a certain way to attract women. Prufrock’s anxieties echo those felt by women which feminism tries to combat. Women and men equally feel insecurities about themselves. Prufrock compares himself to an insect because he feels lonely and detached from his emotions and he goes on to compare himself to the ocean because he feels overwhelmed by his feelings. He imagines mermaids and their singing, but in lines 120-125, Prufrock explains how the mermaids won’t sing to him because of his age. Today, men have started to accept these characteristics about themselves, and a few fall into this depression like Prufrock. Prufrock would have an easier time dating during this time period. Since our society is less formal and everyone is more accepting, he could try technology to find himself a companion. A few timid men may have difficulty with women because women have more power than the last century. Women’s living arrangements were limited, and this made them have to find a husband to care for them. Today, women can live alone and make their own money and a few men may not be able to connect with independent women. I think we should treat men the same as women when it comes to these issues. We are all human and want to have a sense of security in our lives.  

The tale is relevant to contemporary society because of the wisdom of the wife and the queen. Both characters have proto-feminist attributes, and provide the same logic for women in modern society. The knight has to figure out what a woman desires or be put to death by the queen. First, the power of another life is in the hands of a woman. Men traditionally had the power to determine women’s lives. That the knight has to go on this journey to find out women’s desires makes a strong proto-feminist point; what women want is as important as men’s desires. The queen made it a point to tell the knight that his mission was a matter of life or death, so he has to learn to see from a woman’s point of view from his journey. In today’s western societies, many men have some difficulty understanding feminism because they do not take the time to learn what it means. Power had been patriarchal for the last few centuries and there is a slow shift in viewpoints.  Some men, however, have started to see the world through a woman’s eyes, understanding the need for feminism. During the journey, the knight learned that women crave many things and each one is different. Different women want different things from feminism, but most of the time it is treated as one movement instead of being a broad concept.

The wisdom from the wife of the knight is different aspect of Feminism. When she still looks like an ugly old, she asks him why he is unhappy with their marriage, even though she saved his life. He admits that it is about her appearance. In a patriarchal viewpoint, woman’s physical appearance is central to her desirability. The wife’s photo-feminist view point insists on finding beauty in all forms of femininity. The wife told the knight about how their marriage is more than her physical appearance. He learned that she will be a faithful wife and he saw her beauty through loyalty. The wife tells the knight that their marriage should mean more than her physical appearance. He learns that she will be a faithful wife and he begins to see the beauty in her loyalty. Today, women have to show there is more to them than their physical appearance. The Feminist characteristics throughout the tale have the same affect. The wife explains to the knight about her faithfulness and sincerity; she explains how a younger wife might not behave the same way. Chaucer’s depiction of the marriage is relevant to today because narcissism still exists. Some women have chosen to use their appearance to gain wealth or social status. This tale should teach women to respect themselves and men will learn that physical appearance does not show a woman’s personality.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton