Prompt #2: In Scene in the Fields, what causes the artist to suddenly change his emotions?  Can you relate to this at all?  Does this seem “normal” to you?

Response to #2: I believe one of the most important reasons is that romanticism culture stresses and emphasizes the philosophy of pursuing what your heart desires. Combined with the artist’s past personal experiences of being laughed at after expressing his love, he had a lack of trust because of that. Therefore, he was hesitant to pursue that desire while also having the uncontrollable urge to express his emotions. I don’t necessarily see it as anything out of the ordinary, it is exactly what teenagers go through during their puberty years. Although, I do have to note that his substance abuse issues with opium have likely hindered his decisions and triggered the hallucinations in later movements.

Prompt #5: What is the overall meaning, message, or theme of this story and music?  Can you relate? Do you feel this is helpful, or just plain self-indulgent?

Response to #5: The entire story placed a strong emphasis on expressing the utmost emotions. While also stressing the idea that taking a particular action of expressing love may also result in denials. Therefore, the person must be strong enough so that way they fall into a constant spiral of deep emotions of feeling lovesick. Ultimately, try not to repeat what is portrayed in this story.

Prompt #6: How can art/music help us to learn about ourselves, and our emotions?  What value is there in exploring emotions, through art/music?

Response to #6: Just as I have stated in the previous response, realistically, it is to stay strong after being denied and do not feel unappreciated. Because that will ultimately result in you being in a highly depressive emotional state. When that emotional state worsens, it will gradually evolve into substance abuse, which will cause hallucinations, and that could be dangerous. Artistically speaking though, one should incorporate their utmost expression of love into their compositions or music, so that it is heartfelt and that your audience will see sincerity and genuine compassion.

Responses to the professor or other students:

Response #1: I really liked your approach and analysis. Yeah, I also had the same feeling that the woman was only there for plot purposes. It wasn’t very engaging for the audience, so people have a hard time understanding the whole story. This is indeed a one-sided story and I felt like he really was a bit of insanity. He expressed a lack of self-confidence and self-respect. I mean, even in our modern perspective, a person such as him will find it difficult to find true love. Although I do have to say, that opium is probably the culprit here.

Response #2: First of all, I want to say that I like your response to Francisco. It really is a bit of evil within himself to actually portray a woman that rejected him as a villain. Although beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder is true, to villainize her after rejection was definitely overly psychotic, to say the least. If this was a true portrayal of a real-life story, I felt like the woman might have just dodged a bullet by rejecting him to be quite honest, so good for her. I am actually also attending psychology class this winter intersession along with this class, I feel like after reading this story, I can confidently say that this main character exhibits all of the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder. 😂 Which, quite frankly, has no clinically viable cure even to this day.