TONE: that which is verbal expressed in the word...al?

My Mistress' Eyes: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breast are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go,--
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

     Throughout this piece, Shakespeare weaves two distinct yet complimentary tones. He mixes adoring with affirming. Specifically seen in the phrases highlited gray, Shakespeare seems to be conceeding the "mediocrity" of his mistress. His comparative words--nothing like, far more, but no such, yet well-- would seem to have a tone of shame, but Shakespeare's ingenious combination of adoration with apparent "shame" leads me to believe that his "shame" is actually affirmation. Through his affirmed tone, Shakespeare is telling the audience that his mistress, while she may not be pictured in People's 50 Hottest Women spread, is just  what he wants. We additionally see his satisfaction with his mistress in his obvious tone of adoration. Here, Shakespeare's word connotation flips and serves as an indicator of his new tone. Now, Shakespeare utilizes words such as: love, heaven, rare and compare. In comparison to the previous darker and more 'ugly' words (damasked, reeks, tread...), Shakespeare's change of word choice reveals an ardor for the person of his mistress.
    Employing strong word connotation and exaggerated comparisons, Shakespeare reveals his tone of adoration and confirmation to his audience...by which it seems he is affirming his love for his mistress.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Test:

My name is Camille, and I am an INFJ:

Introvert-- 44%
Intuitive--25%
Feeling--50%
Judging--56%

Wow! What an interesting test. Never once have I felt like a personality test was so spot on. Initially, I was a bit confused by the terminology of the four catergories, but once I read up on them, I understood how my introvertedness, intuition, sense of feeling and sense of judging are all vital components of my psyche. For example, I tend to be in my element in smaller groups of people where deeper levels of conversation are reached. Also, I respond much better to situations when I have had the chance to engage my emotions and my recollection of previous experiences. All of these "Camille quirks" are accurately depicted in my test results, and, believe it or not, suggest a profession that I have already decided upon! In the past few years, I have really become excited by the field of Psychology. According to the Myers-Briggs test, Counseling (a branch of Psychological study/practice) is a match for my personality type. Yay! One quote in the description of an INFJ personality analysis that particularly sparked my interest was that INFJ's "value their integrity a great deal, but they have mysterious, intricately woven personalities which sometimes even puzzle themselves." If there is a better way to describe me, I'd sure like to see how.

Crime and Punishment Thought Piece #1

     "Well, and what if I'm mistaken?" [Raskolnikov] suddenly found himself exclaiming. 'What if man-- the whole human race in general, I mean-- isn't really a villain at all? If that's true, it means that all the rest is just a load of superstition, just a lot of fears that have been put into people's heads, and there are no limits, and that's how it's meant to be!..." (34).
    Within the first few pages of Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky has already let his readers in on the mental perversions and spineless justifications of Raskolnikov. In this passage, my interest was quickly peaked when Dostoyevsky takes the quiet thoughts of Raskolnikov and suddenly rockets them to an entire new set of ethics. Here, Raskolnikov is characterized as ungrounded and dillusioned-- both descriptions intended to describe the mental state of his crime. His quick tangent of thoughts is means of self-justifying his crime, but most importantly, it attests to the rabid guilt of the human mind.
    Realistically, the main conflict throughout the novel is Raskolnikov's struggle with this rabid guilt. He is quick to compromise truth and logical reasoning just to satiate his ravenous conscience. As evidenced in the quote, Raskolnikov uses his own presumptions about the motives of mankind to mold an entire new system of thought and happily concludes by saying that his presumption is "how it's meant to be!" (34). Raskolnikov's circular reasoning is extremely vivid in this passage as Dostoyevsky uses his insanity to preface his reasoning throughout the rest of the book.
    Coincidentally, I find that this insanity-stricken compromise of "truth" is ever so rampant in today's culture as well. With the dynamic changing of our society, all sorts of ideas and beliefs are melded into whatever justifies an individual's conscience. Just as Raskolnikov is, people are trapped in their nebulous minds, and their reasoning is rendered obsolete. Truth is no longer constant, and bewilderment is ever-present.  
  

Test Blog.

"Now that she's back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-Bo
Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey
Now that she's back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as
Plain ol' Jane told a story about a man
Who was too afraid to fly so he never did land
But tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance
To dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way?
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find?
And then you missed me
While you were looking for yourself out there."
-Drops of Jupiter by Train