“My Last Duchess” -- Margaret Atwood

Near the end of Margaret Atwood’s short story “My Last Duchess,” the narrator, frustrated with the female characters in the stories,  ponders the reason for studying literature with “hapless, annoying, dumb-bunny girls” (74). She even wonders if Bill may be right – maybe it all was a waste of time. 

However, she senses the importance of the literature even though she struggles with identifying the relevance.  Look carefully at the following lines where she imagines a group of teachers – Miss Bessie included — making decisions about the literature to be studied:

“They got together, they had secret meetings, they conferred, they cooked up our book list among them. They knew something we needed to know, but it was a complicated thing – not so much a thing as a pattern, like the clues in a detective story once you started connecting them together. These women – these teachers – had no direct method of conveying this thing to us, not in a way that would make us listen, because it was too tangled, it was too oblique. It was hidden within the stories” (75).

BLOG QUESTION:  Discuss what the something is that the teachers want them to know based on the story. Be sure to include specific references to the text (quotes!) in your response.

You will be writing an initial response and 2 comments responding to your peers' responses. Your initial response must be 8-10 sentences in length and thoughtful. Really explore the ideas here. There are 65 students in this class so there will be 65 initial posts. Of these 65, you must respond to or comment on a minimum of 2 of them. These must be thoughtful responses and/or comments, at least 2-3 sentences in length. Please identify the person you are responding to in your comment so that it becomes more of a connected conversation; for example, "I hadn't thought of the point Hermione Granger raised about the blah, blah, blah, etc."   Your initial response is due by Wednesday morning, March 23nd by 7:30 a.m.  Your responses will be due by Friday morning, March 25th by 7:30 a.m.

Reminder, be good citizens here -- no hurtful comments. You can respectfully disagree with others. And be good thinkers. I so enjoy reading your thoughts and discussion, truly!! 

Ms. Lucas