Commonplace Book as a Form of Self-Expression

Tom Standage states, “…poems or aphorisms you chose to copy into your book or to pass on to your correspondents said a lot about you, and the book as a whole was a reflection of your character and personality”. Throughout the year, I have been formatting my commonplace book to reflect my interests in a majorly visual format. In an effort to compile my interests and the novelty of the books we have been reading, I have made sure to include images and videos from pop culture/ media that I have personally consumed or re-imaginings of characters. A mostly visual commonplace book has allowed me to fully understand and immerse myself in the novel and some of their key themes. This was really important to me as I have only read one of the books previously, so everything was new to me. According to other people, I kept a mostly visually and aesthetically pleasing book, which I would have to agree with. In an effort to communicate what I was absorbing from the novels, I wanted to create entries that were reminiscent of the books they were modeled after (i.e., dark and moody for Dracula, plain and light for Jane Eyre). The inclusion of pictures, media I have consumed, and my own personal analysis allowed me to insert myself in the world of these novels. 

I have three entries that I will be displaying as my favorites from this semester. My first is “Entry Two: Two Sides of the Same Coin” where I analyze the characters Jane Eyre and Helen Burns from Jane Eyre. I liked this entry because it was the first time I truly used quotes from the novel to frame my entry. Furthermore, it allowed me to fully examine the juxtaposition of Jane and Helen who were practically character foils for each other. My second favorite entry is, “Entry Seven: Narcissism is Not the Key to Life Fulfillment” where I explore Dorian Gray’s self-absorption and how it led to his eventual downfall á la Narcissus (whom I also include in this entry). Besides the pictures I used being some of my favorites, I truly enjoyed being able to use my knowledge of Greek mythology to compare to Dorian as I am pretty sure it was Wilde’s intention to invoke the story of Narcissus while reading the novel. The last entry I would like to mention is, “Entry Eleven: The Problems with Dracula and Vampires in General” where I explore the nefarious background of vampires. For the first time, I utilize literary criticism to examine how vampires are essentially antisemitic dogwhistles that are littered with Jewish stereotypes. Though it has a grim background, this is one of my favorite entries. Not only was I able to learn something I did not know before, I was able to include elements of analysis, aestheticism, and literary discourse to truly flesh out the severity of the grossly stereotypical roots of vampires and how they have morphed over the years. 

In addition to our commonplace books, we utilized the quotation-comment-question technique to specifically analyze portions of the novel we were reading at the time. One of the goals I had, though, was to connect my QCQ’s to my CPB entries as a way to frame my thoughts and elaborate on the themes I originally had questions on. For Entry Two, I examined a quote by Jane where she expressed her boredom with her routine and longed for a day that was not drenched in monotony. I questioned if Brontë included this simply to characterize Jane or if she had a deeper meaning, exploring how Victorian women were often relegated to their homes and stuck in their daily routines. For Entry Seven, I examined Lord Henry’s influence on Dorian which causes him to become more selfish and self-absorbed. Lastly, For Entry Eleven I started to question the overwhelming Christian/ purity themes that started to become more prevalent as we got closer to the main characters defeating Dracula. I questioned why Stoker includes such heavy overtones of religion, and I received my answer after I did my research on the background of vampires. By framing my CPB entries around the questions I asked in my QCQ’s, I was able to get more context on the themes included in the novel and gain more insight into the Victorian lifestyle. 

To conclude, I used my commonplace book as a form of self-expression in an effort to make the novels more relatable and easier to digest.