Witch-wife By Edna St.Vincent Millay (deconstruction theory)

Introduction

Literature can be defined as source of written works language, period and culture; it is an imaginative or creative writing in expressing feeling of the author. It is also different with other science that known on academic because literature deal with our feeling in order to understand hidden meaning in those art works and usually it will create an ambiguous perception between reader. Usually Literature contains of poem, short story, drama that has feminism, love, gay/lesbian value on it, on the other hand it also included some theories like the other science-subject.

I choose “Witch-wife” poem by Edna St.Vincent Millay. Personally I like Edna V Millay poetry; she is deserved as one of America best-love poets. She wrote many poems in traditional sonnet form, on topics such as love, fidelity, erotic desire, and feminist issues in twentieth-century. One of her famous works is “Witch-wife”, this is my favorite poem all the time because it contains passion of love and fascinating when you realize how the poem which written by woman author show much desire of love to a woman also. I will try to find hidden meaning and explore deeper on the poem “Witch-wife” By Edna St.Vincent Millay based on deconstruction theory and show how the deconstruction theory appropriate for gay/lesbian poetry analysis.

Analysis

Based on Lesbian, this “Witch-wife” poem is used to express feeling and desire love of Edna Millay to a woman who interpret as witch-wife but I will use Deconstruction theory to analysis this poem so another meaning from this poem could appear. “Witch-Wife” is the title of this poem but when we observe it, the title made a clearly refers to woman who is married or have husband (wife) and witch can define as something that magic or evil.

First line in the first stanza “She is neither pink nor pale”, when we look at the line it seems that I read she is neither happy nor sad. Pink color usually identified as something wonderful, happy or lively on the other hand pale refers to something dead and sad. It is contrast combination appears on this line and the next line confirms it She will never be possessed. “And she never will be all mine”. This line is special because it will be repeated later as the last line.

The third line in first stanza “She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,” and the forth line “And her mouth on a valentine.” It seems the author saying the witch-wife has learned all her life through her fantasy world. Her hands is what she does, the witch-wife does imaginary side of her life. Her mouth is defined as what she says on a valentine which something romantic, both of these things having been learned in the realm of the imaginary and romantic. In the first stanza, it begins to be apparent to me that the author knew very well and express any detail of witch-wife in this poem.

The second stanza begins with “She has more hair than she needs” it describes that the witch-wife has very long hair more than she needs and in the next line “In the sun this is woe to me” In the sun deal with our sight sense which eyes. In this line show that the author express her jealously to the witch-wife because when looks on her, she suffer that can’t be the witch-wife.

Third line on the second stanza “And her voice is a string of colored beads,” and “Or steps leading to the sea.” The words her voice in this line revive this character and show how wonderful of the witch-wife. Her beauty (specifically her wisdom) of the witch-wife beyond ordinary like string of colored beads that described by Millay while “or steps leading to the sea” sound wonderful but who is it wants to walk into the sea? This means suicide for us. In this line show that the witch-wife has such powerful magic which her beauty to make us consumed by it and do anything for her even kill ourselves.

The last stanza begins with “She loves me all that she can” from this line we can conclude the author and the witch-wife known each other because the witch-wife loves her very much till her maximum limit. In next line “And her way to my ways resign” seems that both of them choose different path and break their relationship away.

The third line “But she was not made for any man” In the line “But she was not made for any man”, all of the witch wife womanly qualities is not worthy for any man then who is worthy to the witch wife? She may willingly to be love by man but her existence not for man and her realization of this is what makes her the witch-wife. It will make sense if we conclude that the witch wife is special sort of woman who lesbian. The last line on this poem has repeated from the second line “And she never will be all mine” then question appear why this witch wife can’t be someone else possession? Because she is her own possession, and she lives her life in an awareness of that fact, the witch-wife is some part of herself who is homosexual.

Conclusion

Deconstruction theory tends to be much more emotive than structuralism. The meanings words have never can be guaranteed one hundred percent pure because the words contain implicit meaning. It also drives us to think deeper about hidden meaning in poetry and indirectly it help us in using our critical thinking to understand what the author tries to express in their literary works. This theory is appropriate in analyzing gay/lesbian piece of literature. According to me, the deconstruction theory can be used in “Witch-wife” poem by Edna St.Vincent Millay. From lesbian-feminism view this poem express Millay feeling to her lover whom already married but personally I think is about a self-portrait poem and describe part of her homosexual being.

Manuals for writing thesis with films as subject

The following regualtions apply to writing this type of thesis.
1. Types of films
a. Any kind of film is permitted as long as they are using English as the language of communication Students may analyze films that are not based or take the setting of English as the background. For example. Slumdog Millionaire (India), Gladiator (Roman empire), Lord of the Rings, and Wizard of Oz (fictitious setting), etc.
b. Films, which are dubbed or subtitled in English cannot be used as a subject of analysis.

2. How to Approach the research subject.
a. A film should be treated as a text although it does not appear in printed form*. ((see the expalantions).
b. Students have to consider the approach to be used in analyzing the movies prior to the analysis.
c. Theoretical background may be adapted from either single or multi disciplinary approach such as literary, historical, psychological, or political approach.* (see the expalantions).
d. Students are expected to focus on analyzing the following areas:
1. The content of the film in terms of:
a. Historical background* (see the expalantions).
b. Psychological analysis* (see the expalantions).
c. Popular culture analysis * (see the expalantions).
d. Characters and their representation
e. Representation of social conditions* (see the expalantions).
f. Values and norms of the movie’s cultural context.
2. The language of the movie for example:
a. Linguistic features used
b. Discourse analysis
c. Cultural values expressed in the language (eg. Non standard, vernacular, formality, etc.)
d. Translation
e. Closed captioning

Explanations:
A. Films as part of literary and culture
The justification for studying film may be supported by this quote from Hall (2001):

“… not only the methodologies of textual analysis but also the definitions of ‘text’ have proliferated dramatically in recent years. Today, literary and cultural critics examine not only poetry, drama, and fiction but also texts as diverse as film, advertising, political prose, sub-urban shopping malls, and literary and cultural theory itself. Students should always be guided by their instructors regarding what constitutes an acceptable text for analysis in a given course or project, but certainly the field of literary and cultural studies today is an expansive one. New forms of literary and cultural analysis encourage innovative thinking and dense sociopolitical inquiry, as long as the text itself provides evidence that can be used to support generalizations and defend a well-articulated thesis” (Hall, 2001:p. 4)
The quotation above states that what is considered as text in literary and cultural research can be something outside prose, poetry and drama (for example: advertisement, film, political speech, comics, etc.
The definition of “text” in cultural contexts is based on two important definitions: Culture and Sign (See Thwaites, Davis and Mules, 1995).
“Culture is the ensemble of social processes by which meanings are produced, circulated and exchanged” (p. 1)
“A sign is anything which produces meanings” (p. 7)
“A text is a combination of signs” (p. 67)
“Obvious types of texts are a sentence someone writes or a fashion outfit someone wears. Each of these texts has paradigmatic and syntagmatic features. The words and clothes can be thought of as signs, and they join together to form a verbal text and a fashion text” (p. 67)
The word ‘text’ may be seen as: “…looking at literature or text as cultural and historical phenomena and to investigate the conditions of their production and reception” (Klarer, 1999:p.2)

Based on the explanation above, students are supposed to focus on writing films in the form of textual analysis, which focus on the content of the movie. Therefore, non textual features in films such as technical features (lighting, sets, camera angles, cinematography, sound, visual effects, editing, shot types, etc.) are not part of the analysis.

B. Psychological analysis
Students may employ psyhological analysis for analyzing the characters in the movie. But students should focus only on psychological phenomenon of the movie (such as the relationship between the characters, the psychological theme), and NOT cover clinical psychological analysis.

C. Popular culture analysis
Think Outside the Box!
These are the elements that students can consider in analyzing films.
1. Genre: what “kind” of movie is it, and how do you know? What can you learn from the film’s genre? Think a bit about the norms and limitations of its genre. When you view the film, you can then consider how these limitations are obeyed or stretched. For example, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is a western that challenges its genre’s typical notions of good guy vs. bad guy. Knowing how this dynamic plays itself out in other westerns helps you to understand and to appreciate Eastwood’s accomplishment.
2. The history and the production history of the film. All films are deeply involved in history: they reflect history, influence history, have history. A film like Gone With the Wind not only tells a story of the South during the Civil War, but (more importantly) it reflects the values and ideas of the culture that produced it, and so can be understood as an historical document. It will also be interesting if you can find out anything about the conditions under which the film was made. All films are part of the cultural history. They derive from and contribute to historical events. War films, for example, take their substance from historical events. They also influence those events – by influencing wartime audiences to rally behind the troops, or to protest them.
3. The ideology of the film. It’s important to remember that even films whose purpose is to entertain may be promoting or even manipulating our feelings about a certain set of values. Independence Day, for example, is entertaining partly because it plays on the audience’s feelings of American superiority and “never say die.” An analysis of the film benefits from a consideration of these values, and how they are presented in the film.
4. Other “Critical” aspects of the film (moral, social, gender, economic issues, etc)

D. Linguistics Features analysis
Films can be analyzed through its linguistic features such as:
1. Semiotics. (signs and Codes)
2. Icons, Symbol
3. Narrative (language used in the films)

Writing Tips
In many ways, writing a paper about a film is no different from writing other kinds of papers. You need to focus on your topic, write a good thesis sentence, settle on a structure, write clear and coherent paragraphs, and tend to matters of grammar and style.
In other ways, however, writing a paper about film has some challenges of its own. We’ve collected a few tips here:
1. What do the critics and scholars say? Reading what others have said about the film before you see it may help you to focus your observations.
2. Don’t simply summarize the film. Your lecturers have seen the film; you don’t need to recount the plot to them. They are looking for analysis, not summary.
3. Avoid the “I.” It’s too easy to slip into a subjective “reviewer’s” stance when you use the “I” in your criticism. Try to find a more objective way of beginning your sentences than “I found” or “I feel.”

Structuralism on Star Wars Trilogy

Background of the movie
Star Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Star Wars, but later had the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope added to distinguish it from its sequels and prequels. It was originally released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels released in three-year intervals. Sixteen years after the release of the trilogy’s final film, the first in a new prequel trilogy of films was released, again released in three-year intervals, with the final film released on May 19, 2005.
As of 2008, the overall box office revenue generated by the six Star Wars films has totaled approximately $4.3 billion, making it the third-highest grossing film series. The Star Wars franchise has spawned other media including books, television series, video games, and comic books. These supplements to the film trilogies comprise the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and have resulted in significant development of the series’ fictional universe. These media kept the franchise going in the interim between the film trilogies. In 2008, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released to theaters as the first ever worldwide theatrical Star Wars film outside of the main trilogies. It was the franchise’s first animated film, and was intended as an introduction to the Expanded Universe series of the same name, a 3D CGI animated series based on a 2003 animated 2D series, also of the same name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars

Summary
The prequel trilogy follows the upbringing of Anakin Skywalker, who is discovered by the Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn. He is believed to be the “Chosen One” foretold by Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the Force. The Jedi Council, led by Yoda, sense that his future is clouded with fear, but reluctantly allow Qui-Gon’s apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to train Anakin after Qui-Gon is killed by the Sith Lord Darth Maul. At the same time, the planet Naboo is under attack, and its ruler, Queen Padme Amidala, seeks the assistance of the Jedi to repel the attack. The Sith Lord Darth Sidious secretly planned the attack to give his alias, Senator Palpatine, a pretense to overthrow the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. The remainder of the prequel trilogy chronicles Anakin’s fall to the dark side, as Sidious attempts to create an army to defeat the Jedi and lure Anakin to be his apprentice. Anakin and Padme fall in love and eventually she becomes pregnant. Anakin soon succumbs to his anger, becoming the Sith Lord Darth Vader. While Sidious re-organizes the Republic into the Galactic Empire, Vader participates in the extermination of the Jedi Order, culminating in a lightsaber battle between him and Obi-Wan. After defeating his former apprentice, Obi-Wan leaves Vader for dead – but Sidious arrives shortly after to save him and put him into a suit of black armor that keeps him alive. At the same time, Padme dies while giving birth to twins. The twins are hidden from Vader and not told of their true parents.
The original trilogy begins 19 years later as Vader nears completion of the massive Death Star space station which will allow him and Sidious, now the Emperor, to crush the rebellion which has formed against the evil empire. He captures Princess Leia Organa who has stolen the plans to the Death Star and hidden them in droid R2-D2. R2-D2, along with his counterpart C-3PO, escapes to the planet Tatooine. There, the droids are purchased by Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin, and his step-uncle and aunt. While Luke is cleaning R2-D2, he accidentally triggers a message put into the robot by Leia, who asks for assistance from Obi-Wan. Luke later assists the droids in finding the Jedi Knight, who is now passing as an old hermit under the alias Ben Kenobi. Obi-Wan tells Luke of his father’s greatness, but says that he was killed by Vader. Obi-Wan and Luke hire the Corellian space pilot and smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca to take them to the rebels. Obi-Wan begins to teach Luke about the Force, but allows himself to be killed in a showdown with Vader during the rescue of Leia. His sacrifice allows the group to escape with the plans that allow the rebels to destroy the Death Star.
Vader continues to hunt down the rebels, and begins building a second Death Star. Luke travels to find Yoda to become trained as a Jedi, but is interrupted when Vader lures him into a trap by capturing Han and the others. Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father and attempts to turn him to the dark side. Luke escapes, and returns to his training with Yoda. He learns that he must face his father before he can become a Jedi, and that Leia is his twin sister. As the rebels attack the second Death Star, Luke confronts Vader under the watch of the Emperor. Instead of convincing Luke to join the dark side, the young Jedi defeats Vader in a lightsaber duel and is able to convince him that there is still some good in him. Vader kills the Emperor before succumbing to his own injuries, and the second Death Star is destroyed, restoring freedom to the galaxy.
<span style=”font-style:italic;”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars</span&gt;

Analysis

1. Structuralism
Structuralism is a form of cultural science;   it tries to explain how the visual and audio representation of film creates meaning.  Structuralism tries to avoid the subjective, critic-based flaws of many other film analysis methods, and to use a more empirical, objective approach.  The creation of structuralist film criticism helped introduce the notion of systematic study and scientific rigor into film criticism.
Structuralism looks at a film as a form of language, and like linguistics, it studies reality as a system of signs.  Structuralism assumes that meaning is culturally construction, and that meaning is arbitrarily assigned to the signifiers.  Once a signifier is created to represent something, its meaning becomes a cultural convention.  The structuralist method attempts to understand how meaning is culturally constructed through signs.  According to structuralists, film does not copy external reality, but instead it constructs its own reality through a structure of signifiers.
Structuralism focuses on the syntagmatic axis of the linguistics model, and studies the sequence of signs, similar to the concept of a grammar.   Structuralists believe that discovering the order of a film’s signs in time and finding the “grammar” of the film can give us a better understanding of how film’s meaning is constructed.
2. Structuralist Criticism on the Star Wars Trilogy
In George Lucas’ film “Return of the Jedi,” the third film of the “Star Wars” trilogy, it is revealed that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are brother and sister, and that Darth Vader is really Anakin Skywalker, their father.  The introduction of familial relations in the third film of the trilogy sheds a new light on the interpretation of the first two films, “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back”.  When you consider the content of the three films as a whole, keeping in mind the new information about the Skywalker family, it appears that there may be an underlying theme concerning family relations throughout the trilogy.   By performing a structuralist analysis of the films, it may be possible to cut through the surface details of the film and find the underlying opposition around which the story revolves. After viewing and taking screening notes on the entire “Star Wars” trilogy, focusing on the action between members of the Skywalker family, I have found that there are four major categories of events which are repeated:

2.1.Harmful Parental Power
When the scenes are divided up in this manner, it appears that the “Star Wars” trilogy deals with rites of passage, in which the children must defeat their father in order to maintain their independence.  While the father uses his power to either capture his children, question his children, or to destroy the alternative families that his children have built, the two children strive to escape from, to fight, and finally to defeat his parental influence.  The trilogy appears to revolve around the opposition between parental power and the independence of the children.  The opposition is similar to a line which Princess Leia said to Governor Tarkin in “Star Wars”, The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.”   Replace the word “systems” with the words “your children” in this quote, and you will have a good description of Vader’s position in the trilogy.

2.2.Escapes from Parental Power
While it appears that both children need to go through rites of passage, they do it in very different ways.  Luke’s rites of passage are very direct.  Luke faces his father in three instances:  in the aerial Death Star battle in “Star Wars”, and in face-to-face confrontations using light sabers in the conclusions of “Empire” and “Jedi”.  In the first confrontation, Luke manages to destroy the Empire’s deadly space station, the Death Star, despite Vader’s attempts to stop him.  By destroying the Death Star, Luke destroys a weapon which is both a symbol of and a major cause of his father’s power, and thereby fulfills his first rite of passage.
In Luke’s second confrontation, Luke is badly beaten by Vader, but he is able to escape with Leia’s help.  Although Luke did not defeat Vader in this confrontation, it was here that Vader showed the first signs that he was changing, and it was the turning point towards the resolution of the opposition.
In the third and final confrontation, the opposition is resolved when Vader turns away from the dark side of the Force and saves Luke from the Emperor.  Not only did Luke physically defeat Vader in this battle, but he made his father renounce the evil person he had become and return to being the good Jedi Anakin Skywalker.  Vader was forced to do something which many children would love to see their parents do, and admit that his son had been right while he was wrong.  Vader died shortly after saving Luke, but was able to achieve immortality through the good side of the Force as Yoda and Ben Kenobi had before him.  Luke completely fulfills his rite of passage by not only defeating the parental power which had harmed him, but by converting the parental power into a form of power that helped him instead.

2.3.Battles Against Parental Power
When you look at Princess Leia’s rites of passage, however, you find that they are not as clear as Luke’s were.  Leia does not achieve her rites of passage merely by direct combat with her father; instead, she forms alliances which enable her to achieve her goals and fulfill her separation from parental power.
In “Star Wars”, Leia is an organizer of the Rebel Alliance, and she recruits Luke, Han Solo and Chewbacca as allies.  Prior to the final battle in “Star Wars”, Leia pleads for Han to put himself aside and to help the Rebels fight the Death Star.  Han initially refuses, and appears to escape with his well-earned fee.  However, he returns at the end of the battle just in time to send Darth Vader spinning off into space, preventing Vader from killing Luke and allowing Luke to destroy the Death Star.  Leia’s plea motivated Han to return and assist his new-found friends rather than allow them to be destroyed by the Empire.
It is very interesting that Leia falls in love with the man who shot down her father and saved her brother, even though she didn’t know that she was related to either one at the time.
In “The Empire Strikes Back”, Leia’s grief at Han Solo’s capture and carbon-freezing is instrumental in causing Lando Calrissian to end his uncomfortable alliance with her father and help Leia and Luke to escape Cloud City.  Lando betrayed Han and Leia when they arrived at Cloud City, turning them over to Vader in the belief that they were only bait for capturing Luke, and that they would be turned over to his control after Luke was captured.  However, Vader tortured Han and Leia, and carbon-froze Han as a test for the planned carbon-freezing of his son.  Vader also informs Lando that he will be retaining control of Leia and Chewbacca and taking them away on his ship.  Lando watched Leia’s anguished face as his old friend Han was carbon-frozen, and shortly thereafter, he helped Leia to escape and to rescue Luke.
Finally, in “Return of the Jedi”, Leia forms an alliance with the Ewoks, who are instrumental to the final defeat of the Empire. Leia, Luke and Han go to the planet Endor on a mission to destroy the energy shield that protects the Death Star.  The Rebel Fleet will then arrive and destroy the now-vulnerable Death Star.  Leia crashes her speeder bike and encounters Wicket, a furry young creature called an Ewok.  She establishes trust with the young Wicket by giving him food, and he takes her to the Ewok Village to meet with the Elders.   The Ewoks agree to help the Rebels defeat the Stormtroopers on Endor, allowing the Rebels to destroy the generator and allow the pilots to destroy the Death Star.

2.4.Defeats of Parental Power
I will now go into a closer analysis of the concluding battle and scene from “Empire”, in order to provide some more specific evidence to back up my contention that the trilogy revolves around a binary opposition between parental power and the children’s independence, and that the opposition is often revealed through the children’s rites of passage.  The sequence alternates between scenes of Luke fighting Vader and scenes of Leia escaping from Cloud City with Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and the two robots R2-D2 and C-3P0.  First I will discuss how specific details from Luke’s battle with Vader support my theory that this scene is the turning point of the opposition, and when the signs first begin to point towards a possible resolution.
When Luke first sees Vader in the carbon-freezing facility, Vader says, “The Force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.”   With this statement, Vader is denying Luke’s strength and independence, and is apparently hoping to use some of his “parental power” to convince Luke to join him.  Luke approaches Vader, and they begin to fight.  Vader is surprised by how skilled Luke has become and remarks on it: “Obi-Wan has taught you well.”  Luke tells Vader, “You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”  Although this appears to be an insignificant quote at first, it becomes more important when seen in relation to the trilogy’s binary opposition.   Luke’s remark takes on the appearance of a challenge to Vader, a challenge which Luke lived up to very well when he faced both Vader and the Emperor in “Jedi”.  Luke gains the advantage in the fight momentarily, knocking Vader over the edge of the platform, but Vader soon dominates the fight by using the dark side of the Force to throw things at Luke and knock Luke out of a window.  When Luke catches hold of a catwalk and begins fighting Vader again, Luke cuts Vader’s shoulder, and then Vader chops off Luke’s hand.  The alternation between which character is dominant that occurs throughout this section seems to indicate that neither father nor son has a significant advantage in the fight, and that the battle will not be resolved as simply as Vader might have expected.
Vader backs Luke onto a small platform over a large drop and says, “There is no escape.  Don’t make me destroy you.”  Vader’s plea to Luke gives the impression that Vader does not want to kill his son, regardless of his promise to the Emperor that Luke would “Join us, or die.”  When Vader follows this statement with the revelation that he is Luke’s father, and he asks Luke to join him in destroying the Emperor so they can “rule the galaxy as father and son,” there seems to be a perceivable softening in Vader’s manner.  Finally, Vader tells Luke to “Come with me; it is the only way,” but Luke proves that Vader is dramatically wrong in that statement.
Luke looks at Vader, looks at the drop below him, then smiles and let’s himself fall.  The combination of Vader’s underestimation of Luke’s strength, the softening of Vader’s manner, and the proof of Luke’s resolve all suggest a subtle change in the relations between Luke and Vader, which will lead to the resolution of the opposition in the next film.
At the same time that Luke is battling Vader, Leia is trying to escape from Cloud City.  Han has already been carbon-frozen, and she enlists Lando’s help to escape from the city in the Millenium Falcon.  As the Millenium Falcon takes off, Luke is dangling from an antenna underneath the city, where he ended up after his fall.  Luke uses the Force to call Leia for help, giving the first clue that the Force might be strong in Leia as well.  Leia goes back to Cloud City and picks up Luke.  There is a parallel drawn between Leia and Vader here; both contact Luke through the Force within the space of only two short scenes.   The parallel drawn between Leia and Vader offers a strong clue to the family relationship that will be introduced in the next film.
Finally, Luke and Leia escape as the Falcon goes into light speed, and Vader is left staring at the void where the ship was only a moment ago.   Interestingly enough, two of the strongest hints about Vader’s pending change of heart are reflected in this scene by what he doesn’t do.  First, he does not kill Luke, as he had promised the Emperor he would if Luke failed to join them.  Second, Vader did not kill Admiral Piett, who was in charge of capturing the Millenium Falcon.  In two earlier scenes in the film, Imperial officers who failed to catch the Falcon were executed by Vader.  When the Falcon final goes into light speed and escapes, Admiral Piett looks very nervously at Vader, expecting that his fate will be the same as his predecessors.  However, Vader merely turns and walks out of the room, and does not kill Admiral Piett.  The fact that Vader did not kill the officer who “failed” him indicates the beginning of a change in Darth Vader, a certain softening of Vader’s darkness that acts to foreshadow the complete reversal that Vader will make in the next film.

Conclusion

Structuralism gives critics a good tool for looking at the primary oppositions of a film.  It has been useful in revealing the conventions and assumptions of the films, and in helping critics to strive towards a more scientifically oriented approach to film study.  However, the structuralist method does have its drawbacks.   The method falls apart if you don’t agree with its premise that language should be the paradigm for film study.  The potential for bias still exists, and may show up in the critic’s interpretation of the scientific data that the method has collected.   Structuralism also tends to be reductive, and may ignore subtle differences between films.
My assessment is that structuralism is a useful method within its confines;  it does what it is supposed to do fairly well.  However, structuralism is not sufficient to be the only method used to understand films.  The only way to gain a thorough understanding of a film is to look at it through many different methods of analysis, and to compare the results from the methods to see what their agreements and contradictions reveal about the film as a whole.

Psychoanalysis of the Horror game ‘Silent Hill 2’

Introduction

The sense of horror is somewhat fascinating. That’s because I tend to keep experiencing horror, though it doesn’t make me pleasant. Historically, despite of the transformations of media, the numerous works including novels, movies and games with horror have represented my general interest in horror. The medium has a popular status in a modern visual culture is definitely the movie. The audio-visual stimulating horror movie has been popular. Since the analytical formality (e.g. psychoanalysis) for movie was set up in 70’s, the horror movie has been revalued with new analyses on its deep structure.
Recently the games are becoming the medium has cultural and industrial effects like movie. So a scientific approach to the horror game is necessary. Just as the horror movie got its identity by a scientific approach, this kind of approach to the horror game would be meaningful as well. It is the general view that the experience of the horror game is similar to that of horror movie. It is sustained by the fact that games are based on the visual images just as movies are. But this view is passing over that games have its fundamental medium difference from movies.
McLuhan(2002) contends that “media” is message not “the contents” delivered. In his view, the unique medium feature of games delivers different messages from those in other media’s horror experience like that in movies. So the experience of games is not neutral. Unlike other media, digital games possibly expand the human sense.
What I want to say is the game provides a new experience that others don’t. I’d like to research how the digital games and horror experiences are connected and what differences the game has in delivering this experience from other media, especially from movies.

Horror Games

Unfortunately digital games are not classified into a certain genre. JeonGyeongLan(2005) contends that it is difficult to classify games into a certain genre because they are mutual texts demanding game players’ multiple senses and have technical-industrial aspects. Also because it is for the amusement and competition. These characteristic features that emphasize entertaining and technical aspects rather than specific formality make various genre mixture on games. In addition, its similarity to other media lies over technique, material and the forms of expression. That makes it difficult to tell its identity from the other genre.
Eventually we need to know the horror game is judged by certain subjective standards. The general kinds of games are arcade games, adventure games, roll-playing games and simulation games. This classification is a general practice. The horror games are mainly being developed as the form of arcade (action) games which get rid of or avoid the scary objects and of adventure games. This tells us that the material “horror” is combined with terrible objects or mysterious plot itself. Also the feeling of horror is ambiguous. It is not easy to analyze the term “horror” since it comes complexly and is confusedly used for anxiety, surprise and fear.
The psychological term “fear” is originated from ancient English “fear” means a sudden disaster or a danger. Fear is meant to be an unpleasant artistic effect that is provoking from a pressing danger, and this is also a reaction upon the biological intimidation, which accomplish an exterior expression and an internal emotion with an accompanying physiological changes.
Freud (2005b) distinguishes the astonishment (Schreck), fear (Furcht), and anxiety (Angst). Though anxiety is feeling that the sources of danger are not a known, this is a distinct state of anticipating or preparing some kind of danger. Fear requires a designated object to be frightened. However, astonishment is named by the state when anybody is in danger without any preparation. We can see the biological emotion for the external object is an externalized fear; as compared to the anxiety is an internalized fear. You may well say that astonishment is more like the state when somebody suddenly gets into trouble without any provision. This kind of reaction is psychology buffering work about the fear of nature and dark in a primitive age as well as the fear that human has about the vagueness, which is a common explanation.
With a multiplicity of fear, this emotion does not simply provide an unpleasant feeling without any refusal, but people actually enjoy it, which is an interesting point. As Freud distinguishes a pleasure principle and a reality principle in an early stage, he mentions that a person tends to avoid a temperature-humidity, but to persuade a pleasure, and this gets performed based on the real circumstances (Freud 2005a, 12-22). However, later on, he modifies his opinion on the “Beyond the Pleasure Principle.” He contends that there is an instinct imperative impulsion that tries to go back to the previous state, and this is called “death drive (Trieb)” (Freud 2005b). This impulsion shows that the modern rationality, autonomy and civilization can not overcome the internal fear, and also it never solves the problem of internal fear. This kind of mediated fear is a factor to bring a pleasure, but also is used for material for a work of art.
Freud(2005b, 280-283) contends that people transform the actual fear into playing. He contends that throughout playing people repeat anything has great effects on them and that with his repeat they dissipate the intensity of those impressions and become the controller of that situation. Transforming horror experience’s passiveness into activeness explains enjoying mediated horror well. This attitude characterizes repetition compulsion and play because it eases the horror of death surrounding consciousness. These uncanny objects are used for the major theme of surrealism art. The mediated horror is an actual horror but also means a temporary horror or a transformed horror.
Balint(1987) contends in “Thrills and Regressions” that Philobatism and Ocnophilia were fundamentally corresponded. The horror we feel on the adventure rides is based on the matter of safety. Therefore, drive can’t be fulfilled in unconsciousness is enjoyed in a relieved way or a mediated way. This shows that art works or plays are for the reflection of the human-inside fear rather than catharsis Aristotle mentioned. After all, the conditions, a mediated reality and a stabilized situation games create, are very attractive because they experience the fundamental drives like “horror” and “death” in a new way.

Analysis

1. Narrative
This game stars when main character (James Sunderland) gets a letter from a wife who has been dead for 3years. The goal of the game is for Silent Hill, James to meet his wife again who shared beautiful memories with him. During the game, James meets Angela, Eddie, Maria and Laura. Main character meets his wife after he finishes killing creatures, solving puzzles. After he finds out that his wife who has been considered to be dead actually killed him, he killed his wife living in his fantasy. Like this, the narrative is based on a primary fantasy and substantial the sense of sin.
Dead wife could be the living dead which returns to the world because of not being able to solve the symbolic debt as Lacan said. James’ wife is described as maternal superego which is castrated other and gives a castration anxiety. Also main character comes back becoming an executioner as agent of law who enjoys jouissance.

2. Characters and creatures (images and their role)
In the game, creatures’ limbs are distorted or concealed. A creature having its arms inside the body, a nurse with crippled legs, a manikin with reversed arm and leg and a monster veiled of a steel tube are abjections Kristeva(2001) said as they were made up on the objective which threatened themselves. When they return to the subject, these objects remind the subject of a sense of sin and his trauma and disturb the identifying himself with a symbolic order.
That makes the creature be the objects which maintain disgust, anxiety and a sense of sin, not be the objects which deliver the pleasure of destruction. Main character is also an ordinary man. Unlike the characters in other RPG games, his power or capacity doesn’t ascend. Game players experience not an external anxiety but an internal anxiety identifying himself with this incapable man’s mental state.

3. Interface and ‘cut scene’
To maximize its subjective point of view on the screen, Interface isn’t used in this game. This increases the player’s involvement into the game and forms an isolated body when it minimize a delivering the information. Also in Silent Hill 2, there is cut scene has nothing to do with a physical operation when an event scene comes up. Those devises show player some of character’s lost memories and deliver an important information and describe character’s mental state.

4. Obstacles and save points.
This game has “physical and cognitive obstacles” in it. But physical obstacles are different from the destructing obstacles in general games. Rather they seem to be objects generating character’s “repetition compulsion” or maintaining the anxiety continuously. Keeping a feature of Adventure game, Silent Hill 2 has a lot of cognitive obstacles (puzzles).
When a character is not capable of going on, those puzzles provide a lead to solve the problem. To solve the puzzles, game players use several of items and look for notes. This process derives their active involvement. That is, in movies, there is an identification mechanism called “fictional enunciation system”. In the game, It has a dual structure of “providing and concealing” the players’ participating in this (fictional) enunciation system. Because save points exist only in specific places, they are devices creating the anxiety and continuing player’s performance.

Conclusion

Games abstract experiences and represent them into new concert and method with devices such as metaphor and magnification. First, they substantiate individual fantasies. Individualized environment of game and the distance from the screen provide personal experiences (Morris 2002, 91). Digital programs dilute the characteristic of images as indexes. They perform the iconic sign and are transformed into the suitable images for substantializing of a specific individual mentality. That is, psychological fact Freud said which triggers the emotion of fear follows themechanism such as the game text itself. Second, behaviors continue by repetition compulsion. Simple process of manipulation and epic logic force the repetition of the same behavior. Third, they have manipulability through performance. It is connected to the repetition of the second point, and it is a constitutional factor of participation subjects to the game. By manipulating buttons physically and continuously individuals connect themselves directly to the game text and convey specific emotions. Finally intentional transformational recognition of even time through the playtime provides the unique time of games.

A Decade by Amy Lowell

A Decade
Amy Lowell

When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.
Now you are like morning bread,
Smooth and pleasant.
I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
But I am completely nourished.

Introduction

Gay and Lesbian poetry refer to explicit content of authorship, readership or supposed content and embraces sexual orientation, passionate same-sex friendship, homosexual and same-sexual behavior. It does not include some related studies such as gender studies or minority studies except when those directly address gay and lesbian subjects. Over the past decade gay and lesbian issues have rapidly increased and accepted in research academy.

It has theory that emerged prominently as a distinct field in 1990s. In this context, it doesn’t mean that lesbian/gay criticism inclusive of interest to gays and lesbians. The purpose of lesbian/gay criticism is studying about sex and sexuality approximately what women’s studies does for gender. Lesbian/gay theory has two major thinking within lesbian theory. The first is lesbian feminism which is understood by seeing the context of its own origins. Second, classic feminism had ignored lesbianism. This theory argued that lesbianism should be regarded as the most complete of feminism. Then, the conflict between heterosexual feminists and lesbians appears. After that the term “queer theory” was introduced, It explores categories of gender, as well as sexual orientation, particularly for gay. Queer theory is derived largely from post-structuralist theory, and deconstruction in particular.

In this analysis, I choose “A Decade” poem by Amy Lowell. She was a poet, translator, essayist, literary biographer, and public speaker. Her poetry is extremely honest, sensual, and often expose lesbian. She is one of my favorite poets besides Emily Dickinson and Edna V Millay, all of them inspire people through their literally works with freedom and love as theme. This poem written in Pictures of the Floating World (1919), it used to be an intensely erotic poem that celebrates her tenth anniversary with Ada Russell, an actress that become the love of Amy’s life.

Analysis

A Decade as the title of this poem means a period of ten years since its used to celebrates Lowell relationship with Ada Russell, it can define as the relationship of couple which together for ten years and they love each other very much.
In the first line of her poem “When you came, you were like red wine and honey” Lowell describes the initial attraction that is inherent in a new relationship by use when you came. She speaks metaphorically with red wine and honey which describe something sweet as the intense passion that she feels for her woman that she love very strong. Both red wine and honey are symbols of lust or flattery, and are used here to represent the sensual nature of the author’s bond with her significant other.
The second line “And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.” Lowell express the love relationship between them is so powerful that she almost feels overwhelmed by it even though she knows that she cannot resist the temptation of her lover. In the first two lines means their relationship was sweet, there was a lot of passion in the beginning, and overwhelmed by their love relationship.
The third line of this poem “Now you are like morning bread” describes a relationship that is a bit soft than the one described in the first line. The use of words morning bread describe something tasteless which contrast with the red wine and honey that describe something sweet in the first line. This supposed means the author has not lost the passion that she felt for her lover, but it has begun to decrease a bit. It seems like Lowell shows any relationship over a period of ten years, would be expected to lose its affection. The next line “smooth and pleasant” used to show their relationship is going well even though they have been together for a long time; she is no less in love with her woman than she had been at the beginning. Both of the third and fourth lines suppose mean the passion can be faded and gone, but there is still love in their relationship.

In next line “I hardly taste you at all, for I know your savour,” and last line “But I am completely nourished” suppose a bit more complex than the other lines. While the phrase I hardly taste you at all may sound like a dismissal or a denial of the importance of their relationship, but when it is finished with for I know your savour, it becomes strength of the couple’s bond and the amount of love that Lowell still feels for her lover after all this time. Nourished in the last line refers to perfect and satisfied, the author of this poem feels she also loved by her lover and this is infinitely satisfying to her.

Conclusion

On first reading Amy Lowell’s poem “A Decade” appears to be a poem about
couple who has met each other and saying how sweet their relationship. But After reading this poem several times it becomes clear that a message exists in this poem. It is a kind of lesbian love, which their love may lack in intense passion, it makes up for with the deep adoration and devotion that the two lovers feel for each other. The message says that passion may decrease in a long-term relationship, but love still goes on in the relationship. Whether it is a poem of a lesbian’s affection for her same-sex lover, of the passion a husband feels for a wife, or merely of the level of comfort someone feels in the company of a trusted friend, the message is the same: Love does not weaken with time. It may change forms, but it ultimately grows stronger with each passing day. Like an eternal light, Amy Lowell’s love for Ada Russell shines brightly forever.