Wed Answers

Year 3 Student

Tell about a tall tale.

Joe Magarac - He was made out of metal and one time one girl's father had to decide who got her as a wife, and Joe Magarac got her but gave her to who really wanted her and they were married and lived happily. But the steel mill was going to be put out of business because of Joe Magarac, because he was steel. So he melted himself and they made a new steel mill with his metal. So they made one and that was it.

Tell why Timoleon was heroic, OR tell why Othello wasn't.

Othello wasn't heroic because he wasn't a good man. He was being told lies by Iago and killed Desdemona. And Cassio tried to be murdered by Iago and Roderigo, but Roderigo got murdered instead of Cassio, and Iago murdered Emilia his own wife. Othello was a good man, but he shouldn't have believed Iago and shouldn't have killed his wife. A good man wouldn't have stolen Desdemona to be his wife.

Year 5 Student

How did Lobo the wolf die?

They caught and killed his mate and then used her as bait to catch him. He was then killed, maybe strangled.

What led Othello to kill his own wife? OR What made Timoleon a successful leader?

Timoleon - what made him a good general, a good leader, is that he used tactics and not brute force, and that's all there was to it. He was a nice guy, so the troops followed him and obeyed him willingly. He didn't try to become powerful, he tried to bring peace back to the nation and get rid of the tyrants.

Year 9 Student

How did Othello end up killing his wife?

The obvious answer is through the deceptions of his supposed friend, Iago. But really Iago’s lies only exploited faults of Othello’s character that reveal themselves more as the play continues.

Othello was jealous and possessive of his wife, and therefore mistrusted her reasons for marrying him and her fidelity to him. He had very little self-control, so instead of putting away Iago’s lies, he encouraged them, and worked himself into a rage that blinded his reason and (as Desdemona saw) amounted to madness. He had strong emotions and a fiery temper, which when ignited he could not control. Finally, he had a skewed sense of right and wrong, which led him to an attempted assassination of Cassio and the actual murder of his wife--thinking all the while that he was doing right and satisfying justice.

This is an excellent depiction of the nature of evil. The devil tempts us and deceives us, but he is only exploiting faults that are already there. Evil is both an external and internal thing.

What are the four loves?

1. The love of pleasure. Under this love are sloth and idleness as well as the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.
2. The love of money and possessions. Under this is all our love for material things.
3. The love of power. The desire to control others. Pride is a big factor in this.
4. The love of self. All three other loves center around this one and come from it.
(Apparently this is a joke, and I'm told that the real answer is forthcoming!)

The real answer:
1. The first is storge, or affection. Under this usually fall our love for pets and the love between parents and children.
2. The second is philia. This is “brotherhood,” comradeship or friendship.
3. The third is eros, or amorous love: the love between a man and a woman.
4. The fourth is agape, which Lewis calls charity. This is our love for all people—or rather, what should be our love for all people.
All four loves are from God and are good as long as they remain under God’s law. As Lewis put it, “love, when it becomes a god, becomes a demon”—any love, when given free reign to make itself our god, is a bad thing. All four loves are also models or representations of God’s love for us.