"My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations." - John Green Megan. 23 years old. CT/NY HUFFLEPUFF{ POTTERMORE SORTED } HUFFLEPUFF{ wear } Friend(s) of Harry
It really pains me when people say that “a thing of secret lovely beauty” is Gwyn’s line or represents Gwyn, and that we are trying to make everything about Elain when we say the line is her line.
But…it is. It is her line. No one else’s.
Here is what Azriel thinks when he takes the necklace out:
“The golden necklace seemed ordinary -- its chain unremarkable, the amulet tiny enough that it could be dismissed as an everyday charm. It was a small, flat rose fashioned of stained glass, designed so that when held to the light, the true depth of the colors would become visible. A thing of secret, lovely beauty.
‘It's beautiful,’ she whispered, lifting it from the box. The golden faelight shone through the little glass facets, setting the charm glowing with hues of red and pink and white. Azriel let his shadows whisk away the box as she said softly, ‘Put it on me?’”
This is a metaphor for Elain. Not only is it a rose, which has been used to represent Elain throughout the books, but outwardly the necklace appears boring and typical, when it actually is a thing of secret complexity and beauty when you hold it to the light and look closely enough.
All throughout ACOSF, Sarah was hinting at how underestimated Elain is. How she’s seen as boring and useless; only good for gardening.
For example:
“Maybe you’ll become interesting at last, Elain.”
Her own mother saw her only as a doll to dress up.
“Elain was like a dog, loyal to whatever master kept her fed and in comfort.”
Yet Amren herself tells us not to underestimate Elain, as everyone has.
And Cassian again gives us that message—that Elain has been underestimated by Nesta (and readers!).
And then of course, we get this passage in the Feysand bonus:
Rhys asked, “Have you ever seen Elain act like that before?”
“No.” I chewed on my bottom lip. Rhys’s gaze tracked the movement. I mean, she’s been brave when she had to be, but she’s never been confrontational.”
“Maybe she was never given the chance to be that way.”
I whipped my head toward him. “You think I stifle her?”
Rhys held up his hands. “Not you alone.” He surveyed the study as he thought. “But I wonder if everyone has spent·so long assuming Elain is sweet and innocent that she felt she had to be that way or else she’d disappoint you all.” He sighed toward the ceiling. “With time and safety, perhaps we’ll see a different side of her emerge.”
“That sounds dangerously close to what Nesta said about Elain finally becoming interesting.”
“Sometimes, Nesta isn’t wrong.”
I glowered at Rhys. “You think Elain's boring?”
“I think she’s kind, and I’ll take kindness over nastiness any day. But I also think we haven’t yet seen all she has to offer.” A corner of his mouth tugged upward. “Don’t forget that gardening often results in something pretty, but it involves getting one’s hands dirty along the way.”
“And torn up by thorns,” I mused, recalling a morning this past summer when Elain had come into the house, her right palm bleeding from several gashes thanks to a stubborn rosebush that had pierced her gloves.
Everyone, the characters in these books and many readers alike, underestimate Elain. They see her as a pretty face but nothing more. Just kind of…boring.
But when put in the (figurative) light, it becomes clear that there’s a lot more to Elain under the surface. That she’s complex and beautiful and multi-faceted. Not boring.
That’s what this necklace represents, and what’s what “a thing of secret lovely beauty” is referring to. Not elain’s outward beauty, which everyone is aware of. But the fact that everyone perceives her as boring and one-dimensional, when she actually has a secret inner beauty and complexity that everyone has refused to see thus far.
And she will be held to the light in the next book, and the true depth of her inner colors will become visible.
[As an aside, I do think the repeated line at the end of the chapter could also be referring to Gwyn’s “secret beneath the lovely face”, but that’s for a different post and for a different discussion.]
Feelings. Jesus. The truth is, for so long, I’d forgotten what those even were. I’ve been stuck in one place, in a cave, you might say. A deep, dark cave.
Honestly it gets on my nerves how the school system handles Shakespeare, and it’s because of its poor handling of Shakespeare that so many people hate his plays and view them as boring or uninteresting.
I’ve acted in Shakespeare plays for about six years now and after spending just one unit in school on Romeo and Juliet, the reason why people hate Shakespeare becomes so much more understandable. I learned Shakespeare’s plays, his rhyming scheme and scansion through putting on productions of the shows, and that’s how Shakespeare should be taught.
Shakespeare’s works aren’t meant to be read by anyone other than the actors putting on the show. It isn’t supposed to be enjoyed like that. Shakespeare is at its best when it’s being watched or it’s being performed. His plays are scripts for a reason. Scripts are the groundwork for a performance and when schools assign endless reading of his plays, they essentially feed their students the bare bones of Shakespeare.
Acting is what makes the show come alive. In my most recent production, I remember cold-reading Love’s Labors Lost and being so confused about the story and how this could ever be considered a comedy. By performance day, we were up onstage loving every bit of the story, and the audience, who knew as much as the cast had on our first day with the scripts, was laughing at the jokes we initially didn’t get the first time. Acting is what conveys Shakespearean text and the witty lines that are much harder to understand today, but the actor’s choices onstage (be it actions, tone of voice or movement) are there to explain it all.
Shakespeare is at its most relatable and enjoyable when it’s being performed, and that was how things were always intended to be. Making students read these scripts as if they were textbooks is a one-way fast track to making a class confused, frustrated, and hating these plays.
TLDR: Shakespeare and acting are inseparable, and schools need to stop ignoring that fact if they want their students to actually care about these plays.
Nicki Minaj may start a charity to pay off her fans’ student loans
Nicki Minaj now officially has beef with student loans.
After offering to pay some of her Twitter followers’ tuition bills, Minaj posted to Instagram receipts of what she paid and signaled to others that their days of student loan tyranny may soon be over, as well.
“This makes me so happy,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’ll do another impromptu payment spree in a month or two but please know that I’m launching my official charity for student loans/tuition payments very soon! You’ll be able to officially sign up! I’ll keep you posted.” Read more. (5/13/17, 11:40 AM)
