Eckbert the Fair

Sawyer Auer LIBLR 123 Take home exam #1 October 23,2012 Tieck; Eckbert the Fair Tiek’s â€Å"fairy tale† of Eckbert the fair strays from the classical conception of style given to modern fairy tales. Fairy tales are often associated with several defining characteristics; extra-ordinary circumstances, â€Å"happy endings† and a moral to be learned. While Tieck’s tale does obey two of these three guidelines, he does so in a negative manor going the opposite way of twentieth century thought.Tiek’s protagonist Eckbert is first and foremost described as â€Å"†¦little more than medium height with short, light blond hair that hung in a plain fashion, closely framing his pale, drawn face. † (pg. 35). Eckbert is, normal, plain and pale. Average in more ways than one. A stark difference with traditional fairy tales has already showed itself in Tiek’s opening paragraph. The main character, Eckbert is a plain quiet simple man. As opposed to traditionally tales whereas the lead is a special person, in special circumstances.Furthermore the perspective changes within the narrative bouncing from Eckbert to his wife Bertha and then back to Eckbert. Daunting and depression social issues plague the story line. Bertha’s story begins with accounts of her parents beating her. Eckbert murders his friend in cold blood, incest, as discovered in the final page. Conventional, modern fairy tales take into account the youth of their readers and with this their context is molded to cater to such.Tiek used an arsenal of controversial subjects throughout the story, another way in which Tiek’s strays from the path from what is considered a â€Å"fairy tale† today. Ludwig Tiek’s tale has a theme to it, several factors that come back from the beginning to the end that paint the image that Tiek was attempting to portray through his examples. In the end of the story the message is finally brought to the forefront fo r the reader, punishing Eckbert for a deed that his wife committed and for his leeching of his wife’s treasure.Tiek punishes Eckbert and his wife for their monotonous lifestyle and Berta’s betrayal. Yet the punisher (the old woman in black) is pushing Berta to betray her the whole time, as though all she wanted was to see her fail. The same is true for Eckbert’s failures, the old woman, cackling, tells him that she was in fact Walther and Hugo. The two friends who Eckbert feels he needs to divulge his secrets too in order to be closer. He’s met with the same result each time, to his terrified disgust.One reason why this poem is such a stellar example of the romantic period is the way it portrays the paradoxical nature of the period itself. The attempt to teach a lesson that and punish the couple, whilst the entire time it seems as though they never had a choice, they were almost destined to fail. Hand in hand with the importance of the natural settings to the narrative, it holds true to romanticism. Berta’s journey through the harsh cliffs to the waterfall, we can see the descriptions changing to represent Berta’s environment altering.Nature, the supernatural elements and the paradoxical punishment of Berta and Eckbert make Tiek’s classic a romantic poem. Marx: The Communist Manifesto Dialectic Materialism a phrase coined by Marx, and further progressed by other authors who study Marx and Hegel exclusively, is the idea that every economic system at its core is based on principle values that lift it to its maximum efficiency while simultaneously helping to create an opposing system that will overtake the old one when its flaws see to its demise. Marx saw this occurrence as steps throughout history, which would eventually lead to communism.One system grows to its maximum efficiency, and then gives rise to an opposing system that takes the fundamental positives from the prior systems and evolves with them incorpora ted. In the Manifesto Marx and Engels talk of the Feudal system of Industry and its inability to cope with the changing world around it that it helped make. Being replaced by the system of manufacturing is just an example of marks dialectal materialism, one system being shed by society to be replaced by a more efficient, logical one (page 66).A revolutionary in Marx’s context doesn’t have a positive or a negative connotation, simply a meaning; someone who does away with a old system. To Marx, the Bourgeoisie was a revolutionary group for their role in abolishing the feudal system that precluded them; the proletariat would be revolutionaries too, for their (intended) role in collapsing the capitalist bourgeois society. Marx and Engels saw the bourgeois as destroyers of the feudal era of natural superiority. (Page 68).Whereas before the Feudal serfdom was still in place, god given birth rights granted the few privileged over the many, thanks to the revolutionary bourgeoi s that â€Å"natural superiority† was torn down , replaced by the new system of â€Å"cash payment†, Where economic need and the hoarding of capital separated the few from the many. This new step or system can be characterized by a term common today, â€Å"free trade†. This bourgeois capitalism survives by taking personal worth away for an exchange value, which Mark states as being for the purposes of exploitation.Through making personal worth an exchange value the new society has changed all major professions into simple wage laborers (page 68). The bourgeoisie are in constant need to change and evolve the methods of production and how production relates to society. Capitalist society defends its rebranding of social values as a necessary step to continue forward. Just as stated above about the process of dialectal materialism, this capitalist society will follow the same trend as the previous systems. The weakness that the bourgeois society bears is the same b urden that helped them fall the feudal society (page 71).As well as the creation of those that will see its end, and hoist their own system, the proletariat. Through overproduction and an overabundance of industry, commerce, production, these forces no longer exist for the bettering of society, instead they hoist a select few onto their shoulders, creating those that have little and those that have a lot. The haves and have not’s. Creating the social dichotomy that will eventually lead to the collapse of bourgeoisie society. Baudelaire Baudelaire is a romantic in the most pure sense of the word.He saw the duality in the world, the two forces at odds in his time. The rise of capitalistic values, lethargy taking over, Baudelaire was highly critical of his society and the morals it was raising in the populace, specifically greed and the abandoning of art. Baudelaire believed that mankind’s first responsibility was creativity. He believed the good in people was their minds , their creativity, the imagination, and its counterpart was boredom, sterility, a lack of purpose, the body and all its vices. Baudelaire turned the negatives into a channel in which to convey his creativity.In the poem the old clown, Baudelaire paints a picture of an old clown at a fair surrounded by joy and exuberance. The clown is seen by the narrator, through the crowd and described as such; â€Å"as if, in shame, he had exiled himself from all this splendor – I saw this poor clown, bent over, frail, decrepit, a man ruined, leaning with his back against one of the poles of his hut;† (Page 135). The manner in which Baudelaire describes the absolutes of the two opposing subjects leaves no room for debate. On one hand you have the old clown, â€Å"absolute poverty†, representing that which is used.A human being who once served a purpose placed into the corner alone. While on the other hand, the fair goes on. Baudelaire chooses to even describe the fair using w ords in the genre of economics; profit, â€Å"some were spending money, others earning it. † (Page 135). The duality of the situation is questioned by the narrator after his brief, intriguing interpretation of the old clown. He states that he had just seen a man torn down by his poverty and the ingratitude of the public. Baudelaire uses the old clown and the narrator as a symbol of capitalist modernity.You have the old clown to represent the older generation who used to be a brilliant entertainer in his day, yet left aside to dwell in his own poverty when he was of no use anymore. Marx states in his essay the importance of worth in capitalist society. Baudelaire here shows that when worth in the sense of capitalistic gain an option is no longer, those that cannot produce are cast aside. Even though they once served a role in their own society. The narrator can further press this simply by his actions regarding the old clown.He says to the reader, his intentions of leaving mon ey on the table to help the old man, but suddenly is swept away by the crowd. This is no accident, specifically the wording, of being carried away by the crowd. It’s Baudelaire’s way of showing his audience that society is stripping away human values and emotions and replacing them with the monetary importance and short term happiness. Bel-Ami The film is set in Paris, a rich up and coming seemingly utopian city where to have some is to have it all. Bel-Ami or Georges Duroy is the son of a peasant, returning from war he settles in Paris searching for opportunity.The movie starts with Bel-Ami living in a dirty, grimy small apartment, the seedy underbelly of the city, letting the viewer see the two sides of the coin. Bel-Ami’s first interactions with the bourgeoisies is his run in at a local bar with Charles Forestier, a former army comrade and bourgeois journalist, he extends an olive branch to Georges inviting him over for dinner. A key scene in this early proce ssion is when Charles gives Georges a few gold coins to buy new clothes with, Georges looks down at his new found treasure and uses a partial amount on the purchase of a prostitute.It’s here that a trend and theme of empty adulterous relationships stem from. The modern age in the story is depicted as empty of family values and emotions. Georges first empty sexual encounter is the first of many he is to have. Forestier gives Georges a job at the paper, chronicling his time as a soldier in Algeria as a foot soldier. Forestier’s paper continues to show a motive of taking down the government through showing the intentions to go to war with Algeria. Marx states the bourgeoisie society has torn away the sentimental veil from the family. This statement reigns over the entire story of Bel-Ami.Marriages are decided upon based on social and economic terms, whether or not the couple will be auspicious enough. The viewer witnesses Bel-Ami’s true metamorphosis into the bourg eois when he goes to Forestier’s deathbed, with the motive to marry his wife in mind. The utter lack of human emotions is laid at the feet of the audience here when the wife accepts, with the image of her husband, dead by ten minutes, in the background. Then through anger at Walter, the proprietor of the newspaper, Georges uses his amorous lifestyle, the only thing he really knows and seduces his wife.Marx talks about the destruction of family values and in its place simple wage worth is put into its place. This statement rears its ugly head when Walter confronts Georges for his seduction of his wife and doesn’t seem to care; he is fully focused on moving forward with the overthrow of the government. In the film, there’s an ironic undertone regarding the newspapers intention to overthrow the French government, the group of pompous older men in a stuffy room are attempting to be revolutionaries and overthrow a government that embodies their own wants, nd ultimate ly their objective is the same as the prior government, with their own economic interests at heart. Marx’s theory of the bourgeois revolutionary overthrow of the feudal system comes alive in the final moments of the film. Walter’s true intentions regarding Algeria, his plan to invade even after the overthrow, run parallel to Marx’s double edged praise for the bourgeois revolutionary ways. They overthrow one system to make room for one of equal if not worse intention. Money and power are the corrupting components, taking over Georges integrity.