Sor Juana 3

Writing poetry came easy for Sor Juana because like she had originally stated, she learned how to read and write at the age of seven. It wasn't difficult for her to put her feelings and opinions down on paper because she was both highly intelligent and inspiring. She wanted others, including her readers and especially women, to hear her out and come to agree with her. Sor Juana discusses several topics throughout her poems, but she mostly focuses on men and their treatment towards women. She writes about passion, truth, love, jealousy, suffering, and how they affect a person's life. Within these topics she argues how they interfere with emotions, fantasy, and cause difficulties until death. Sor Juana mostly focuses on the principles between men and women, constantly bringing up the fact that men cause nothing but problems for women. Women do nothing but love and care for men, while men always feel the need to downgrade them and have the upper hand. Men use their power to overrule women and torment them for anything they feel is wrong, but in reality it is the women who are right and the men who are wrong. I think that she liked poetry better than prose because she could get her point across more easily by using ways of rhythm and verse. It flowed better and could be seen more clear. Earlier she even stated how verses help her think and it isn't difficult for her, but instead it comes easy. 

I really liked poem 165 on page 161 because once again she is depicting love and comparing it to happiness. She claims love is a spell that is the cause of women being content and in a fantasy world. Love is what women most embrace and desire, but at the same time she compares it to jail because of how men tend to ruin it. Women have so much to offer, but men always neglect the feeling of love for lust and do nothing but flatter then disappoint.

I thought poem 92 on page 165 was very interesting because she downgrades men for belittling women. It is always men who are on a higher pedestal than women, but Sor Juana is proving that women can take the lead, as well. She argues how men never take the blame are claim they are never at fault, but she gets her point across that it is them and not the women who they cast it upon. She focuses on scorn because no matter what women do, whether they admit their love or deny it, they are always seen as foolish. Just like lines 30-31  state, "and fails to admit you is ungrateful; yet if she admits you, too easily won." Right after she explains how women may be foolish, but men are also seen as fools because they can never own up to their cruelty or low self-esteem for being at fault.

Sor Juana 2

The first passage that interests me is, “If studies, my Lady, be merits (for indeed I see them extolled as such in men), in me they are no such thing: I study because I must. If they be a failing, I believe for the same reason that the fault is none of mine” (p 77). I chose this quote because I believe Sor Juana is trying to express the fact that she knows of her intelligence, and so, she is never at fault. Merits refer to being of excellence and success, and demonstrating achievement. Since she is well-educated, she upholds these qualities because she is smart, especially more smart than others. Sor Juana doesn’t just study because she “must” or she is forced to, she does it because she takes pride in it. Being studious is something she is passionate about and enjoys, so by her phrasing it like this, she is just trying to hide these facts for other reasons. She is partly sustaining from the truth and not being honest with both herself, and others.

            The second passage that caught my eye was, “To such men, I repeat, study does harm, because it is like putting a sword in the hands of a madman: though the sword be the noblest of instruments for defense, in hands it becomes his own death and that of many others” (p 81-83). I chose this because it reminded me of the first quote since both argue about men. They each compare men to studies in their own unique ways, but they downgrade men at the same time, showing comparison between the two. Sor Juana is talking down upon both men and intelligence, but again for the wrong reasons. Her passages are not honest and she is more or less making things up to hide her true feelings. In a way she is sharing some truth in the statement because study does do harm, since it caused her harm. Others disliked her for her intelligence and so this caused her to believe being studious made her harmful. So, to take the pressure off of her, she instead focuses on men and how them being smart is more harmful than she is. 

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

This title fits perfectly for the story because throughout you can see the constant misfortunes and hardships the women have to face. On a daily basis women become crazy and overemotional mostly because of men, and this is especially true for Pepa. She is head over heels in love with Ivan even though he is a manwhore and player, but that doesn't seem to phase her at first. She is in the state of mind where nothing else matters except him and she cant live without him. This happens to every woman, even in reality, including myself. Women tend to get lost  in men and begin to act crazy and foolish. Men hold that power of women and feed off it because they know they have us wrapped around their finger. Women act out and do things they would not normally do because they can no longer think straight. That is the power of love, not the good side, but the bad side.

The telephone plays an important role in the film because it is constantly ringing and every time Pepa gets her hopes up. She continuously believes it is going to be Ivan trying to get in contact with her, but it is almost always Candela. Pepa drives herself crazy because of the lack of communication there is between herself and Ivan, and she even gets to the point where she throws the phone out the window, several times. She can no longer handle the fact that her lover doesn't wish to try and get ahold of her, so whoever else is, including Candela, doesn't matter to her. Even though Candela is worried about Pepa and also needs her help for her own issues, Pepa still does not call Candela back or take the time to finish listen to her messages. The phone is also portrayed to be very ugly and not attractive at all. It is red and the answering machine is hideous and they are both shown like this because of all the problems they both cause. 

Even though the film is supposed to be serious and sad because of the emotional states the women are in, especially Pepa, there is also a lot of comedy. It is considered to be both a romantic and comedic film because there is a lot going on that has a serious tone, so some parts are needed to cause laughter to cool down a little bit. Just as the title states, these women are about to lose their minds and have a nervous breakdown, and that is the farthest thing from funny. In reality, breakdowns are extremely serious, especially when people try to commit suicide or are considered to be mentally ill. In the movie, though, we see Candela try to jump off the balcony and cant go through with it. She is sick in the head, which definately is not supposed to be funny, but us as the audience still laughs because her issue isn't portrayed to be serious, but rather comedic. She is being grabbed and felt up in appropriate places, horns are being beeped by cars, and her screams are irritating. If this were real life, the fact that someone is hanging off a balcony hundreds of feet in the air above a street would be almost sickening because of the horror. This is a movie, however, so even though parts are considered real, it as a whole is fake. 

The Answer Part 1

I believe Sor Juana realizes she is extremely intelligent, but others downgrade her for it. She goes on and on about how much she loves learning and keeps trying to pursue an education, but towards the middle of the story she begins to put herself down. At first, she seems to take pride in knowing that she wants to get the best education possible and even takes the opportunity to attend classes behind her mother's back, but after she loses the excitement over her passion for learning. She begged her mom to send her to that specific University in Mexico City so she could study science, and when her mom refused to let her go she went anyways, on her own. Sor Juana knew of her intelligence and even stated how when she was only seven years old she already knew how to read, write, and sew, which was unusual for such a young girl to be educated in so many different areas. She wanted to attend the school so bad that she even pleaded to her mom to dress in her men's clothes, stressing the idea of how much she wanted this opportunity. Wanting to look like a man was one rhetorical device to make her point clear, but the main one was how she continued to cut her hair every time it grew. She chopped it off once the length was there was again as a form of punishment to herself. To me, its like she knew how smart she really was, but it was humiliating to herself because of what others thought of her intelligence as her being a woman, so she underestimated herself. She both pretended and caused herself to believe she had grown dumb, which she was not, and she even states, "Then I cut my hair right off to punish my dull-wittedness, for I did not think it reasonable that hair should cover a head that was so bare of facts" (p 51).
One quotation that really interested me was, "For as love itself is union, it admits no distant extremes" (p 59). I chose this quote because I do not quite understand what it means or what it is in resemblance of. She talks about experiences of life in community, nature, and how they work together to find happiness, but then she moves on to love. I believe Sor Juana is using love as an example in comparing it to a union to show how they work together to create happiness, just like community and nature does.
Another quotation that really caught my eye was, "But upon seeing so many and diverse crowns, I pondered which sort the crown given to Christ might be; and I think it must be the obsidional crown, which conferred the greatest honor and was called 'obsidional' from obsidio, which means 'siege'" (p 69). I chose this because throughout the whole letter Sor Juana continues to talk about God, the disciples, the Holy Mother, and Christ.  She relates her own stories to those of Moses and others from the Bible, so when she brings up crowns, it was in relation to how a crown would be fit for someone of such Holy power.

Disenchantments of Love 7-10

Blanca decided to things differently with the marriage situation, which made her different than other women. She knew she was going to be marrying a prince and would be of great wealth, but i believe she went about it the way she did in order for the prince to prove his love for her. She didn't want to marry someone who just desired her for beauty, but who actually was in love with her, more than just infatuation. There have been many stories where a man falls head over heels for a woman, but like we discussed in class, its more lust than love. The love isn't real because it is just based off of appearance and fortune. So, Blanca wanted to get to know this stranger who she would marry a year later to come to know his true feelings for her. If he would take the time and have the patience to wait one year without any physical romance, but just conversations through windows, then that would prove his true feelings. They soon fall in love with each other, the real love, and Blanca becomes so unhappy because she causes herself to believe that as soon as the "mystery" is over and they marry, things will change for the worst. Once marriage sets in shes afraid his feelings for her will change from love to hatred and he will also become unhappy because there will be nothing left to win. The game of trying to capture her heart will be over because he will already have her, and the good times will come to an end. Blanca knew her time was running out and that is what caused her to become nervous and uneasy. She even stated, herself, "I'm in even greater despair because the time is running out so quickly and if they think it's too long, i think it's too short" (p 253).
Blanca was always jealous of Arnesto because of the time he spent with her husband. The prince soon payed no attention to her and was all about Arnesto causing her to believe he was of bad news. She thought her husband was cheating on her and having affairs with other woman behind her back, and that Arnesto was to blame. Truth is, though, that Arnesto was the one her husband was having the affair with and she had no idea up until she saw it with her own eyes. As soon as Blanca walked in on them she immediately left and just sat in her room with her face in her hands, not being able to believe what she had just witnessed. Even though nobody knew about the prince and his gay lover, when they were caught by Blanca they did not care. Instead they just laughed it off and one of the men even said, "That sure spooked the Spanish woman" (p 265). With this i think the prince had really fell in love with Blanca and still had love for her, but he was now in love with someone else. He wasn't gay nor straight, but instead bi-sexual. His feelings for Blanca had changed due to him becoming bored with her, his father's hatred for her, and his new love interest. To him, he didn't cross any boundary because it was his life and he did not want her to be a part of it any longer.
Gossip has been around forever and if anything, it has just gotten worse. It is a cruel form of making up lies and deceiving others for cruel reasons. It never ends on a good note, but instead causes humiliation and betrayal. Stories transform into unbelievable lies that never even really happened, and enemies are transformed. Friendships are ruined and the gossip just continues to spread causing no good the entire time. Eventually, if the person is lucky, new gossip will come into effect and the old gossip will just begin to fade. However, that is still not a good thing because in clarifying my point, it is STILL gossip. Truth is gossip is always going to be there, whether we want it to or not, and there isn't much we can do about it. We can try to avoid it or tell our side of the story, but the whole truth will never come out. Gossip is a form of speech that is used for misfortunate reasons. It is a form of bad language and lies that extends from the truth as much as possible. It is done in order for others to be heard when they cant be heard during other times, mostly when the truth is spoken. Gossip is the evil kind of language which comes from our very mouths, and denies the truth to put others at fault for our own amusement.

Disenchantments of Love 4-6

In the introduction the narrator claims that if women didn't focus so much on beauty and appearance, but instead of education that they would excel men. Women are known to be looked down upon when compared to men because the truth of the matter is that men are actually nervous about how much greater women are in reality. Men take pride in knowing that they have more power over women, but its no secret that women could out beat them any day, if given the chance. Instead of women being able to pursue in learning or engage in activities that only men usually perform, they are forced to only partake in motherhood and chores. Just like Filis states, "Because of men's fears, women are put down and obliged to do only household tasks" (p 140). I think its both unnecessary and downgrading for women to not be able to pursue their own dreams just because men don't want to humiliated or overruled. If women had more say, then they would not be mistreated or disenchanted, which is the factor of the stories. Instead, it would be the men who would learn the hard way and "get wounded by their own sword."
The skull in story 4 clearly resembles the love and affection Elana had for the cousin. She may not have been in love with him, but she was close to him and they shared a tight bond. He was killed for no reason except out of jealousy, and the skull was given to Elana to torture her. It is obvious the skull did not scare her or haunt her in any way because she drank out of it on a daily basis. I would say that is unusual, but at the same time I believe she did this to show both her and the cousin were innocent and his death should be repayed out of loyalty. The cousin was known to be a traitor and had lies made up about him, but in reality he was as honest as he could be and was not harmful. If anything, he was going to tell don Jaime about the Negress and her obsession, so that shows he was both caring and watchful for his "friend." His head was in a good place, but this was not well known until the end, when by then it was, too late.
I feel bad for Dona Ines because she was portrayed to be a deceitful woman even though everyone learned of the truth, and knew she was innocent. She did not willingly partake in the affair, but instead she was under a cruel spell. She was seen as a monster and not the loyal woman she really was. She was torn apart by the three closest people in her life, including her own husband and brother, and she did nothing wrong. She was outcasted and treated unfairly for years. Dona Ines didn't know the circumstances about the dress and the other woman who portrayed her, but when she found out she immediately came forth with the truth that wasn't her. Then after the spell took place she was humiliated again and instead of being secured, she was tormented and locked away. If she was of no wrong, then why would the husband, brother, and sister-in-law be out to get her, the innocent, and not the guilty?