The Merry Wives of Windsor, a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare, was first performed in 1600. The play centers on the attempts of Falstaff to seduce the wives of Ford and Page in order to gain control of their money. Mrs. Page is infuriated by Falstaff’s letter asking for an liaison and she seeks the help of Mrs. Ford, who has received an identical letter from Falstaff, to find a way to ruin Falstaff without destroying her honor and reputation. Both husbands are told of Falstaff’s intentions and Mr. Page is not worried, since he doesn’t think his wife will fall for Falstaff, while Mr. Ford becomes jealously irate and seeks to capture Falstaff.
Mrs. Ford invites Falstaff over for a liaison, and while they are talking, Mrs. Page rushes in, forcing Falstaff to hide. She announces that Mrs. Ford’s husband is about to return and Falstaff panics. Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford hide him in a laundry basket and the servants sneak him out under Mr. Ford’s nose. However, he nearly suffocates in the dirty laundry, gets all dirty, and then is thrown into the river.
Even though he has been humiliated, Falstaff returns again to Mrs. Ford and seeks to seduce her. This time Mrs. Page enters and again acts angry to discover Falstaff there. She warns them that Mr. Ford is almost home, so they disguise Falstaff as a fat old woman who has come as a fortuneteller. Mr. Ford hates witches and kicks Falstaff out of his house, unaware that he is the woman in disguise.
Even though humiliated a second time, Falstaff agrees to meet Mrs. Ford in the haunted forest at night. While he tries to seduce her, the children and slaves dressed up like fairies and elves attack Falstaff, pinching and burning him until he is completely terrified. As the children leave, Mr. Ford and Mr. Page arrive and Falstaff realizes he has been fooled. Falstaff is urged to give up his lustful pursuits and Mr. Ford is admonished to trust his wife. In the end, the merry wives of Windsor have won.
Shakespeare has effectively dealt with the issue of immorality and jealousy, playfully showing the foolishness of men. The wisdom of the two wives turned a potentially destructive situation into a learning occasion for the men. Shakespeare’s main objective was to show that wives can be merry, that is have a full, exciting, and meaningful lives, while remaining true to their husbands. This is a much more constructive and wholesome philosophy than what is being taught through our popular culture today.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Monday, March 26, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Windows to God's Grace
Do you believe that God is present in the smile of a child, in the tears of a parent's grief over a suffering adolescent, in the sudden breakthrough of understading between quarreling spouses? Eternal truths can be learned by observing the most common elements of life: nursing an infant may be a window into God's nurturing care for each of us; bandaging a cut can help us know the healing desire of God; playing games may speak of the divine playfulness that knows our need for recreation; tending a garden may teach us the dynamics of growth. Families learn that they are sacred communities when they begin to name and claim the many forms of God's grace in their daily life.
Marjorie J. Thompson
from "Family: The Forming Center"
Marjorie J. Thompson
from "Family: The Forming Center"
Monday, February 5, 2007
Today Matters, Decision #4 FAMILY
4. Decision #4 FAMILY: “Today’s family gives me stability”
Communicate with and care for my family daily.
Some families tear you down instead of building you up. You can’t change your ancestors but you can influence your descendants. Spend time with those who build you up and avoid those who knock you down as much as possible.
1. Your family can be a safe haven in a stormy world.
Theodore Roosevelt said he would rather spend time with his family than any world figure.
2. It also provides a photo album of memories to draw upon the rest of your life.
3. It can be a crucible of character. It molds your character and your children’s character. Help create personal discipline.
4. It is a treasure chest of your most important relationships. Your family relationships are the most important ones in your life. The people closest to you form you and are formed by you. Therefore, value them. If you want to make an impact on the world, start at home. Treat them like treasures.
Mother Teresa: What can we do to promote world peace? “Go home and love your family.”
Nick Stinnent: When you have a strong family life you receive the message that you are loved, cared for and important. The positive intake of love gives you inner resources to deal with life more successfully. Family gives you stability.”
We usually think that divorce won’t happen to us. But if we neglect our marriage it will fall apart. We must constantly work at it.
Rewrite your definition of success: Having those closest to me love and respect me the most.
Get started in building your family:
1. Determine your priorities. Make family a top priority.
2. Decide on your philosophy. Cultivate and maintain your commitment to God. Focus on developing personal potential and growth. Common experiences. Contributions to life, add value to family and others.
Keep it simple, non-negotionas. Communication and problem-solving philosophy.
Disciplines:
1. Put your family on your calendar first.
2. Create boundaries to protect your family time.
3. Create and maintain family traditions.
It is vital to keep your marriage healthy. It sets the tone for the household and provides the primary role model for the children. “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
Commitment is what carries you through. If you depend on feelings you won’t make it.
Communicate with and care for my family daily.
Some families tear you down instead of building you up. You can’t change your ancestors but you can influence your descendants. Spend time with those who build you up and avoid those who knock you down as much as possible.
1. Your family can be a safe haven in a stormy world.
Theodore Roosevelt said he would rather spend time with his family than any world figure.
2. It also provides a photo album of memories to draw upon the rest of your life.
3. It can be a crucible of character. It molds your character and your children’s character. Help create personal discipline.
4. It is a treasure chest of your most important relationships. Your family relationships are the most important ones in your life. The people closest to you form you and are formed by you. Therefore, value them. If you want to make an impact on the world, start at home. Treat them like treasures.
Mother Teresa: What can we do to promote world peace? “Go home and love your family.”
Nick Stinnent: When you have a strong family life you receive the message that you are loved, cared for and important. The positive intake of love gives you inner resources to deal with life more successfully. Family gives you stability.”
We usually think that divorce won’t happen to us. But if we neglect our marriage it will fall apart. We must constantly work at it.
Rewrite your definition of success: Having those closest to me love and respect me the most.
Get started in building your family:
1. Determine your priorities. Make family a top priority.
2. Decide on your philosophy. Cultivate and maintain your commitment to God. Focus on developing personal potential and growth. Common experiences. Contributions to life, add value to family and others.
Keep it simple, non-negotionas. Communication and problem-solving philosophy.
Disciplines:
1. Put your family on your calendar first.
2. Create boundaries to protect your family time.
3. Create and maintain family traditions.
It is vital to keep your marriage healthy. It sets the tone for the household and provides the primary role model for the children. “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
Commitment is what carries you through. If you depend on feelings you won’t make it.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Nicholas Nickleby
I always enjoy reading what Charles Dickens has written. In Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens spins a wonderful tale about a young boy, Nicholas, his sister, and his mother who are left destitute at the death of his father. He begs his uncle to help them, and he grudgingly gives them some token help. His uncle sets him up as a teacher in a boarding school. When the headmaster starts beating a crippled boy, Nicholas intervenes and beats the headmaster, ending his teaching career.
He finds another job acting in a theatre. He is at the height of his popularity when he gets a message that his sister is in trouble and needs his help. He instantly leaves his acting career and goes to defend his sister from an older man who is trying to take advantage of her. His actions against the man and the schoolmaster ruin his relationship with his uncle and his support is cut off. This begins a long feud between him and his uncle, who tries several times to destroy Nicholas.
Nicholas develops a close relationship with the crippled boy he rescued from the schoolmaster and he takes care of him and raises him like a younger brother. Nicholas is offered a great job and he becomes a respected man in the community. The crippled boy eventually dies and Nicholas is heartbroken. In addition to losing his best friend, his uncle schemes to take away the girl he loves, threatening Nicholas with the loss of all he loves.
But all of his uncle’s plans to destroy Nicholas backfire. His uncle eventually loses everything and is totally ruined. The last blow is that he learns the crippled boy was his son, born after he sent his wife away and raised by another family. He was told the boy died while he was still young, but the lie is uncovered after all he has been totally devastated financially and socially. The loss is too great for him and he commits suicide.
As he listens to the church bells ringing, he gives a moving speech before ending his life:
“Lie on! with your iron tongue! Ring merrily for births that make expectants writhe, and marriages that are made in hell, and toll ruefully for the dead whose shoes are worn already! Call men to prayers who are godly because not found out, and ring chimes for the coming in of every year that brings this cursed world nearer to its end. No bell or book for me! Throw me on a dunghill, and let me rot there, to infect the air!'
Dickens clearly contrasts the unfortunate end of Nicholas’ wicked uncle with Nicholas’ future. This is clearly demonstrated in the next two quotes, showing that the righteous are blessed in this life, in spite of their poverty, while the wicked are cursed, in spite of their wealth.
Another moving passage clearly shows that Charles Dickens had a profound empathy for the suffering of London’s poor, especially children:
“In every life, no matter how full or empty one’s purse, there is tragedy. It is the one promise that life always fulfills. Thus, happiness is a gift, and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes, and to add to other people’s store of it.”
The movie ends with a toast at a double wedding with a powerful description of what a family should be:
“What happens, if too early, we lose a parent, that party on whom we rely for only…everything. What did these people do when their families shrank? They cried their tears. But then they did the vital thing; they built a new family, person by person. They came to see the family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood, but as those for whom they would give their blood. It is in that spirit that we offer this heart-felt toast to the brides and grooms.”
He finds another job acting in a theatre. He is at the height of his popularity when he gets a message that his sister is in trouble and needs his help. He instantly leaves his acting career and goes to defend his sister from an older man who is trying to take advantage of her. His actions against the man and the schoolmaster ruin his relationship with his uncle and his support is cut off. This begins a long feud between him and his uncle, who tries several times to destroy Nicholas.
Nicholas develops a close relationship with the crippled boy he rescued from the schoolmaster and he takes care of him and raises him like a younger brother. Nicholas is offered a great job and he becomes a respected man in the community. The crippled boy eventually dies and Nicholas is heartbroken. In addition to losing his best friend, his uncle schemes to take away the girl he loves, threatening Nicholas with the loss of all he loves.
But all of his uncle’s plans to destroy Nicholas backfire. His uncle eventually loses everything and is totally ruined. The last blow is that he learns the crippled boy was his son, born after he sent his wife away and raised by another family. He was told the boy died while he was still young, but the lie is uncovered after all he has been totally devastated financially and socially. The loss is too great for him and he commits suicide.
As he listens to the church bells ringing, he gives a moving speech before ending his life:
“Lie on! with your iron tongue! Ring merrily for births that make expectants writhe, and marriages that are made in hell, and toll ruefully for the dead whose shoes are worn already! Call men to prayers who are godly because not found out, and ring chimes for the coming in of every year that brings this cursed world nearer to its end. No bell or book for me! Throw me on a dunghill, and let me rot there, to infect the air!'
Dickens clearly contrasts the unfortunate end of Nicholas’ wicked uncle with Nicholas’ future. This is clearly demonstrated in the next two quotes, showing that the righteous are blessed in this life, in spite of their poverty, while the wicked are cursed, in spite of their wealth.
Another moving passage clearly shows that Charles Dickens had a profound empathy for the suffering of London’s poor, especially children:
“In every life, no matter how full or empty one’s purse, there is tragedy. It is the one promise that life always fulfills. Thus, happiness is a gift, and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes, and to add to other people’s store of it.”
The movie ends with a toast at a double wedding with a powerful description of what a family should be:
“What happens, if too early, we lose a parent, that party on whom we rely for only…everything. What did these people do when their families shrank? They cried their tears. But then they did the vital thing; they built a new family, person by person. They came to see the family need not be defined merely as those with whom they share blood, but as those for whom they would give their blood. It is in that spirit that we offer this heart-felt toast to the brides and grooms.”
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