The Wife

"As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foilage about the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs; so is it beautifully ordered by Providence, the woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the broken heart."

-The Wife, pg. 65

This excerpt relates to not only the couple featured in the story, but also to everyone in real life. Both the tree and vines are personified to be a man and a woman, and the woman is tending to the mans "wounds." The irony in this passage, though, is that the man has the broken heart. Men are almost always described as the stronger of the two sexes- they are untouchable. Women have to deal with pain, not men. The story, though, focuses on Leslie's paranoia regarding his new wife, Mary. Instead of Mary constantly worrying of what Leslie will think of her, Leslie drives himself into a depression. This displays that everyone experiences pain. Just because you're a man doesn't mean you can't cry. When the story wraps up, Irving alludes back to his previous imagery- "A wild vine had overrun one end with a profusion of foliage; a few trees threw their branches gracefully over it..." Irving uses this nature theme to display that men feel pain, but women are usually the ones to heal, and hurt, the wounds.

blog post

1) "A man, my dear Asem, who talks good sense in his native tongue, is held in tolerable estimation in this country; but a fool, who clothes his feeble ideas in a foreign or antique garb, is bowed down to as a literary prodigy. While I conversed with these people in plain English, I was but little attended to; but the moment I prosed away in Greek, everyone looked up to me with veneration as an oracle."

2) "To let thee at once into a secret, which is unknown to these people, themselves, their government is a pure unadulterated logocracy, or government of words. The whole nation does everything viva voce, or by word of mouth..."

The first document from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan gave off a superior tone; the diction used in the first letter was powerful and all knowing. This second expercept from him, however, transitioned into a much more contradictory tone. The above two quotes display this very well. The first one explains how a man who fakes knowledge (i.e., a language foreign to him), is the one that attains respect, not the actual person who understands the power of words. The next page, however, contained diction that gave off a new, clueless tone. The second quote contradicts what the narrator first said- he was now speaking in a language that was foreign to him (the language was also quite absurd. It was not belieavable in the least).

By transitioning these two letters from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan from wise to clueless, Washington Irving created a new meaning in his work. Mustapha is not an intelligent, respected leader, but the prototype he had always degraded. This indirect imagery displays a rhetorical scenario with no true answer; everyone constantly contradicts themselves, and even though the human race will always attempt to be perfect, we will never be able to.

Post 1/2/09

The letter from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan, from the Selections from Salmagundi, was hysterical. The actual narrator from the other letters must have actually written this, to prove the point that he's conveying in the rest of the letters. The satirical tone makes the reader laugh with the absurd situations presented.
I really liked this selection, so I have two quotes from it.

Quote 1- "But, notwithstanding the charms of these infidel women, they are apt to have one fault, which is extremely troublesome and inconvenient. Wouldst thou believe it, Asem, I have been positively assured by a famous dervise, or doctor, as he is here called, that at least one-fifth of them-have souls! Incredible as it may seem to thee, I am the more inclined to believe them in possession on this monstrous superfluity, from my own little experience, and from the information which I have derived from others. In walking the streets I have actually seen an exceedingly good-looking woman, with soul enough to box her husband's ears to his heart's content, and my very whiskers trembled with indignation at the abject state of these wretched infidels. I am told, moreover, that some of the women have soul enough to usurp the breeches of the men, but these I suppose are married and kept close; for I have not, in my rambles, met with any so extravagantly accoutered; others, I am informed, have soul enough to swear!- yea! by the beard of the great Omar, who prayed three times to each of the one hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets of our most holy faith, and who never swore but once in his life- they actually swear!"
Not only did I laugh at this quote, but I also realized it connected with previous selections in the novel. The narrator is always trying to prove that societies standards of everything and everyone-especially women- are completely ridiculous and difficult to obtain. Instead of using an angry tone, though, the narrator tried a different style; by showing how insane societies standards of women are with dramatic diction and an over the top situation, he showed his readers the problem in a very obvious way that is easy to grasp and laugh at.

Quote 2- "One of them, in the zeal of admiration, threw an old show, which gave thy friends rather an ungentle salutation on one side of the head, whereat I was not a little offended, until the interpreter informed us that this was the customary manner in which great men were honored in this country; and that the more distinguished they were the more they were subjected to the attacks and pelting of the mob."
Firstly, I found this quote ironic because of the recent incident when a shoe was thrown at President Bush. I honestly just like how easily the narrator exposed the problems society disregards, and how everyone puts themselves up on a pedestal, especially the well known. When leaders do something that will negatively hurt the people they care for, they will try to express their anger, but they still think they are the best thing that ever could have happened to their country.