Self-Flagellation

In Persepolis there is a part where it shows how part of their religious acts is to hit themselves.  Oddly enough I had never heard of a religion doing this, and then I wondered why they did it.  An article from BBC News had defined it as: Flagellation is the beating or whipping of the skin, most often on the back, and often drawing blood, as a bodily penance to show remorse for sin.  I then asked the beloved M-Dubs, and he said it was also to replicate and feel what Christ had gone through, not only for remorse.

So I was wondering why it is so popular in Iran/many other countries in the middle east and so not popular towards the western hemisphere.  I came upon an article called Why do some Catholics self-flagellate? from BBC News.com.  What surprised me the most when I read it was that it said "It was a widespread practice in some parts of the Catholic ministry up to the 1960s but is uncommon today."  The majority of the Catholic population is located in the West, so why had I never even heard of it?  The rest of the article goes on talking about Pope John Paul II and how he may have done this act of remorse too.  It was pretty interesting to read about here is the link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8375174.stm

 

Golden Train-- Justin Nozuka

Justin Nozuka is probably my favorite musician, and I was listening to one of his songs called Golden Train and it reminded me of Jane and Rochester's story.  Below are the lyrics and the song so you can listen to it also.  In gold I have the part that connects to Jane Eyre.

Don't you wake up yet
Give me some time to watch you asleep
Oh angel of mine
And I
I will be fine
As long as your near me
(Both are happier together; Jane thinks of Rochester when she is away from him.)
Oh angel of mine

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
(Golden Train Resembling Jane's ethical decision she made to leave Rochester)
Would you go or would you stay?  
(Also Jane continually questioning her self to leave or stay at Thornfield)                              
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away      
Would you go or would you stay?

Here in this cozy room just me and you
(The room with the fireplace where Jane and Rochester were alone a lot together)
Oh cuddling and kissing making sweet love shooting star wishing and watch the sun come up
And then we'll sleep all day
Meet in our dreams and live life our way
(Meet in our dreams like the calling Jane heard from Rochester.)
(Live life our way, meaning not caring about the social class.) 
Drop it all off and we'll fly away 
Dip through the stars and wake up slowly

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

One thing I know fore sure                                                   
Is my love for you is deeper then any root or stone mamma told me
(Deeper than any root reminded me of the lightning struck tree that symbolized their love and Rochester himself)
So don't walk the streets alone (x2)
(Don't walk the streets alone, meaning that women should be married in the late 1800's)                                                                                                                                
I said
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?

Heey hey
Ooh, oh
Would you go or would you stay?

But tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you stay?
Tomorrow if a Golden Train came to take you away
Would you go or would you staay.. with me

Big Bertha

So Bertha is a character that I question a lot.  I wonder if she is just a character to spice up the book or if there is a larger meaning to her that Charlotte Bronte wanted preach.  I read a little more about it online from other people's opinions and a lot of what I read said that she is a symbol for wives in the Victorian time era or women in general.  One opinion I read had said that she represented women, because women back then weren't looked at as workers they were looked at as precious objects that shouldn't be able to do anything.  I can definitely see this, because Bertha is locked up in the attic and not allowed to come out.  Another opinion that I read was this:

"For Charlotte Brontë, Bertha seems to become a strange kind of alter ego. Bertha is rejected by the man who was supposed to love her; Charlotte never married and fell in love with an unattainable man. Bertha is kept prisoner in a lonely house on the English moors; Charlotte traveled a little, but spent most of her life shut up in her father’s house in Yorkshire, away from any big-city culture. Bertha is only able to show her powers to the world in what seem like insane, destructive ways; women novelists were common but their works were often considered ridiculous and their abilities inferior to those of men. The parallels are too strong to ignore, and perhaps Bertha does double-duty, both representing the restrictions that Charlotte felt and becoming Charlotte’s wish-fulfillment of breaking through those restrictions to inspire fear and awe."  ---http://www.shmoop.com/jane-eyre/bertha-mason.html

I find this strangely coincidental...

Another thing that I wondered about was when Bertha came into Jane's room and tore apart her wedding veil.  A lot of people had suggested that this was a warning to Jane about Rochester; the liberty that Jane would lose if she married him.

Outer Beauty Vs. Inner Beauty

In Jane Eyre there are ideas repeated over and over again.  One of them is outer beauty, and the importance it played on people in the 1840's.  So in class we discussed if it is as important to be beautiful on the outside in today's society then it was back then.  I had brought up how "super" models tend to have a flaw about them, that not only makes them different, but also beautiful.  For example, recently I have noticed that a lot of models I see in adds for big designers have a gap in there teeth.  The need to look flawless in the modeling business, I feel, isn't as important as it used to be.

But obviously there is still the want of needing to be perfect.  I think everybody has heard of Heidi Pratt.  Supposedly she had around 10 plastic surgeries, and if you have seen the before and after pictures it's pretty obvious that the tabloids weren't lying on this story.  Below is a video for a Covergirl makeup commercial.  Now I'm not sure if this is just advertising for the makeup company, or if this is still the idea of the people in our society.

What do you guys think?  Are we getting away from the idea of "outer beauty is everything" or is it getting worse??