Wednesday Night Live Radio Show

Video commentary

The passage we chose is from the short story A dill pickle.

“You’d like almost everything about Russian life, he said warmly. It’s so informal, so impulsive, so free without question. And then the peasants are so splendid. They are such human beings-yes, that is it. Even the man who drives your carriage has-some real part in what is happening. I remember the evening a party of us, two friends of mine and the wife of one of them, went for a picnic by the Black Sea. We took supper and champagne and ate and drank on the grass. And while we were eating the coachman came up. ”Have a dill pickle”, he said. He wanted to share with us. That seemed so right, so-you know what I mean?”

Mood: Delighted

Language
1. Choice of words: are in bold in the passage

2. Sounds of words: The sound “s” is often repeated in the passage we chose. (“so impulsive”, “so splendid”, “seemed so right”). This assonance made us feel like we were at the picnic with the man and his friends. In fact, the sound “s” reminds us of the sound of waves and the sound of a light wind gently caressing our skin, which are pleasant sounds that reinforce the happiness of the mood.

3. Grammar: This passage is written in an active voice. This reinforces the effect of joy, happiness and freedom. The sentence “Even the man who drives your carriage has-some real part in what is happening” shows that the author puts the accent on doing the action, being free, being delighted! Reading this passage made us feel happy. It made us feel like we wanted to be in the man’s shoes, because we could tell, by the tone the author gave him that he was in a state of delight. Expressions such as : “he said warmly”, “so free without question”, “such human beings”, “that seemed so right”, express a positive tone in the man’s voice, which shows how happy he was at that moment, and that is what he is trying to share with Vera.

4. Sentence structure: The passage is composed of short sentences, so that every word really has an impact on the listener. Take for example the sentence: “He wanted to share with us”. The shortness of the sentence emphasizes the feeling of surprise, of positive astonishment the man is feeling. In the sentence “It’s so informal, so impulsive, so free without question”, the repetition of the word “so” also intensifies the feeling of positive astonishment, like the man could not believe how happy Russian life is, and that is the feeling that is transmitted to the reader when reading the passage.

5. Images in the passage: The author uses beautiful images to express delight: a picnic by the black sea, supper and champagne, the peasants are splendid. He uses a very rich vocabulary to describe happiness and beauty.

The mood delighted goes with the state of mind of the man in the story. We can see that throughout the whole short story, the character Vera feels uncomfortable, but on the opposite, the man looks extremely happy. He keeps on describing all the places he visited, and all the experiences he made. He is in state of delight. This shows how memories can be different according to one person or another. For the man, the memories are wonderful, but to Vera, they are terrible. His state of delight accentuates Vera’s irritation towards him.

First, the song we selected for the video was based on the state of mind of the man in the story. It is a song that makes us feel instantly happy, that makes us smile. Since reading the passage we selected made us feel delighted, happy, we wanted to choose a song that would have the same effect while listening to it. Second, there are two types of images we selected for our video. There are images of landscapes, of beaches, because, like we said earlier, the sound of words transported us at the man’s side, at a picnic by the sea, and we wanted to give the listener the same effect while watching the video. There are also images of people smiling, of happy people because we wanted to make the listener happy, delighted, so it would recreate the passage’s mood, and we thought that the best way to make someone smile is by actually smiling at that person.

VIDEO BASED ON THE MOOD DELIGHTED

Précis

Vera, a young woman, suddenly sees, in a café, a man she has not seen in six years, whom is an ex lover of hers, or was a close friend. She goes to sit with him, and he looks happy to see her. They start talking, and they remember an afternoon they had spent at Kew Gardens. The man does most of the talking. At first, the man's memories are much more romantic and idealistic than the woman's memories, but after a while she starts remembering the good things about their past relationship. They talk about how in love the man was with Vera, while she wasn't. They also remember a Christmas night they had spent together. While the man has good memories of the night, like telling Vera all about his childhood, Vera remembers how he complained when she bought a little pot of caviare. Then, the man tells Vera about the trips around the world he made, to Spain, Corsica, Siberia, Russia, and Egypt. She realizes that he did all the plans they had made together, but without her. She feels jealous and, at the same time, attracted to the new man he became. At some point, she gets up to leave because she feels he mocked her, but he convinces her to stay. Then, he tells her about eating a dill pickle with the coachman in Russia. Imagining the situation, the dill pickle leaves a sour taste in Vera's mouth. At this point, Vera realizes how much these memories are hurting her. The man just keeps talking until he realizes Vera is gone. He just asks for the bill, and not to be charged for the cream.

Literary Text Summary

Title: The Nightingale and the Rose

Author: Oscar Wilde

Central Character:

The Nightingale is the central character. The Nightingale is a very hopeful and generous character, ready to sacrifice itself for love. ( A nightingale is a little brown and beige bird). Its opinion of love is very optimistic.

Other characters:

• There is the Student, who loves a girl. He is the reason why the Nightingale sacrifices herself because she considers him a "true lover". In the end, he loses faith in love.
• There is the tree, who helps the Nightingale to create a rose.
• There is the girl, who is selfish, and rejects the student in the end.

Setting:

The action takes place in the Student's garden, where there are flowers, trees, little animals and insects. The story lasts one evening, one night, and the day after.

Narrator:

The narrator is omniscient because he knows everything about all of the characters' feelings.

Events in summary:

The story is about a student, who is in love with a girl, and he needs a red rose to dance with her. 1. The student complains about not finding a red rose.

2. The Nightingale hears him, and does everything she can to find a red rose.

3. The Nightingale finds a way to obtain a rose, but she has to die for it.

4. The Student finds the rose the next day, and brings it to the girl.

5. The girl rejects him, and he loses faith in love.

Style + Tone:

• Tone: First, the tone is ironic. For example, in paragraph 39, the Student says how the Nightingale does not have feelings and how she is selfish, but the Nightingale sacrifices herself for the Student at the end. The Nightingale also says, in paragraph 30, "what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?". This is ironic because the end of the story shows us how much the Nightingale has more heart than the Student. Second, the tone is also hopeful when you see it on the Nightingale's point of view because she has hope that the sacrifice of her own life will create something much more important, love.
• Style: The author uses a lot of personifications in the story, which gives the Nightingale, a bird which isn't usually given importance to, a soul and a lot of importance.

Themes:
There is a lot of different, but important, themes in ''The Nightingale and the Rose''. Actually, love, hope, sacrifice, and devotion are several themes used by the author in the story.

Symbols:
The rose symbolizes the birth of love, the beginning of a relationship. The Nightingale represents the sacrifice that you make when you are in love with someone because you always have to sacrifice a part of yourself in a relationship.

Evaluation:
After a first reading, we can think that ''The Nightingale and the Rose'' is only a love story about a boy who would do anything for his girl. However, after a topical analysis of the whole story, we realize that it is also a critique of how love has changed (people only think with their head and do not listen to their heart). We can also see a message of hope in a true love story, and the Nightingale symbolizes this powerful hope.

In Variation on the Word Sleep, the first two sentences of the poem are almost the same,except for a comma. What difference is there in their meaning?

" I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping."

Noura: I think in the first sentence, the narrator says that he would like to observe the person while the person is sleeping. In the second sentence, I think the narrator says that he would like to observe the person, while he, the narrator, is sleeping. Maybe these two sentences reflect that the narrator can only see the person when he is sleeping, he can only see him in his dreams. In fact, he says that watching the person sleeping "may not happen", but he doesn't use these words in the second sentence, when saying that he would like to watch the person while he, the narrator, is sleeping. So maybe this person doesn't really exist, or is dead.

NOTE: THE OTHER TEAM MEMBERS' RESPONSES ARE STATED AS COMMENTS.

Question 1: In The Nightingale and The Rose, what do you think the Nightingale symbolizes? What do you think the Rose symbolizes?

Noura : The Nightingale renounces to life to create a red rose, so the Student could dance with the girl he loves. This gesture makes me think that the Nightingale represents the sacrifice people make for love, the part of themselves they have to sacrifice in a relationship. In fact, in lines 37-39, the Nightingale says: "Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?" I think the sentence clearly shows the importance of love for the Nightingale, and how much she is ready to sacrifice for it.

I think the Rose symbolizes the birth of love, and the hope people should have in love. In fact, the girl with who the Student is in love promised him to dance with him if he brought her a red rose. If he'd bring her a red rose, the Student could "hold her in [his] arms, and she will lean her head upon [his] shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in [his]". This shows that for the Student, the red rose brings a promise of love.

NOTE: THE OTHER TEAM MEMBERS' RESPONSES ARE STATED AS COMMENTS.