Art:
Buttercup's Wedding Dress and What it Represents:
When Buttercup is walking down the aisle to marry Humperdinck, it represents the end of it all, the climax of the entire story. Her dress, however, represents more of Buttercup than the situation itself. In the beginning of the book, the author talks about all these beautiful women with hearts of stone. Now Buttercup is a beautiful woman, and her dress helps show that. However, those beautiful women were said to be cruel, but Buttercup isn't. Her white dress seems to show that she has kindness and love within her.
The dress design that I specifically chose, in my opinion, perfectly describes Buttercup. The fact that it is sleeveless kind of shows that she doesn't need anyone or anything to cover for her, or in a way, protect her. She isn't the best example of an independent woman, but she will fight her own battle if she needs to. The gloves, however, show that it's okay for someone to hold her hand; to lead the way. Now as for the designs on the dress, this gets a little tricky. The designs on the skirt of the dress, although they may look like swirls, represent, in a way, flowers. How is this, you might ask? Well, as you can see, they are pointed inwards, showing that these so-called flowers are not quite ready to bloom. They are trying their best to hide, kind of like Buttercup's emotions. Buttercup know that Humperdinck is going to make her miserable, and even though she has hope that Westley is coming, she still needs to hide her excitement. |
Fabrics and Cost:
Buttercup's dress, although provided by the castle, isn't free. A big wedding dress like Buttercup's would require many kinds of fabrics, and would cost a lot. The most common fabric during the time period of the book, which is around the mid-14th century was wool. This, however, was mostly used by common folk, and is extremely unlikely for Buttercup's dress to contain it. It would probably be made of Brocade, a combination of woven silks. However, there are mostly made in multiple colors, so these wouldn't be likely for a wedding dress. Buttercup's wedding dress would still probably be made of silk, though. Along with being made of silk, it would also be lined with gold. As a result it would probably cost a lot.
As predicted, it will. Just the small amount of gold lining would cost 860 gold coins! If that doesn't seem like a lot, let me compare. Just the gold lining, in regular American dollars, would cost about $356.49 in our money! And that doesn't even include the cost for the silk, which was a luxury during the time, and the multiple layers. To find the cost for the silk, you need to find out how much a certain is. One yard of silk, according to my resource (see resources tab) is worth 10-12 shilling, or $1.32. Now if Buttercup were to be 5'6, since the actress who plays her in the movie (Robin Wright) is 5'6, I can assume the dress would take a total of 6 yards of fabric. Even though $7.92 may not seem like much, we have to remember that it seemed a lot more expensive for them than us. So in total, Buttercup's dress would cost about 879 gold coins, or $364.41.
As predicted, it will. Just the small amount of gold lining would cost 860 gold coins! If that doesn't seem like a lot, let me compare. Just the gold lining, in regular American dollars, would cost about $356.49 in our money! And that doesn't even include the cost for the silk, which was a luxury during the time, and the multiple layers. To find the cost for the silk, you need to find out how much a certain is. One yard of silk, according to my resource (see resources tab) is worth 10-12 shilling, or $1.32. Now if Buttercup were to be 5'6, since the actress who plays her in the movie (Robin Wright) is 5'6, I can assume the dress would take a total of 6 yards of fabric. Even though $7.92 may not seem like much, we have to remember that it seemed a lot more expensive for them than us. So in total, Buttercup's dress would cost about 879 gold coins, or $364.41.
Popular Styles for Common Folk and Royalty in Era:
Although Buttercup's dress was very significant, it wasn't the only thing she wore. The time period the story takes place is actually filled with unique clothing styles, and was actually the beginning of the 'fashion' era. It was during this time that the concept of fashion was important to people as a part of there social status. The common-folk women always wore dresses, as it was most common during the period. These dresses consisted of two layers, which included a chemise, which was a medieval time form of an undergarment, and a kirtle, which was the dress worn on top. There were also gowns for special occasions that were worn on top of the kirtle. These gowns usually had sleeves, while the kirtle itself was, the majority of the time, sleeveless. With nice dresses, of course, people wore headdresses, as well. In the late middle ages of Italy, however, most women didn't put on hats. Although. they did often braid, tie, and put up their hair.
As for men, their styles were, surprisingly, actually quite complex. The common folk men usually wore about four layers of clothing. The first layer, part of their undergarments, were called breeches. They were usually made of linen and held up by a belt. The next layer was the shirt, and was actually also considered an undergarment. After that came the hose, which was made of wool. The hose covered the legs, and was also held up by a belt. In addition, it had leather soles on the bottom, kind of like footsy pajamas, that allowed shoes not to be required. The last layer was the tunic, also made of wool, that was worn over everything else. All this was considered something the average person would wear, and although it may seem strange to us, it was the norm for them.
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Poem to Theme:
A Heart's Journey
The heart is on an endless journey
seeking harmony and balance, yet finding anything but. We torture our souls for the sake of love, enduring countless curves, on the road to the steep summit where a plateau cannot survive the weathered storms for long, but for the season’s summers we exist. |
Should there be such pain in
passion of the heart? Or does the heart, simply by beating, know the boundaries of pain when it can no longer absorb any more joy? The two seem intertwined at times, each exalted unto itself. From euphoria to melancholia, |
This poem talks a lot about finding love, which perfectly resembles our theme. Although this poem doesn't word for word describe Buttercup's and Westley's adventures, it does describe many of their emotions. For example, the first sentence really has a lot of symbolism and imagery. The first line, 'The heart is on an endless journey' is very true. We are always looking for more and more love, no matter how amazing you feel with the love we already have. We all have that greedy little parts of our heart that just wants more and more attention. This is because as human beings, as people who think of themselves as the superiors of the world, we want to be better than others, even if we try not to show it. The next line of the first sentence is, 'seeking harmony and balance,' I think this describes Buttercup's and Westley's perspective on love, as a never-ending journey of seeking love and harmony, since once you have it, it gets taken away, which is why the sentence says it is an endless' journey. The third line of the first sentence is yet finding anything but.' This shows that they are always looking, but never have quite the perfect moment.
Another sentence that I feel really demonstrates our theme is, 'Should there be such pain in passion of the heart?' This shows that it's truly surprising that people have to suffer so much just to find love. Love is something important to people, so why must we suffer to get it? If humans can love, than shouldn't we have the privilege to do so? Love is something that is strong, strong enough to create hate. But people who truly deserve to find love, like Buttercup and Westley, shouldn't have to go through all their suffering because they would never try to turn something as beautiful as love into hate. |
This image above represents not only the poem, but our actual theme in many ways. To start off, the actual image is a world map inside a heart. I think the world map represents how love can and is everywhere, so you can find it anywhere. It also shows that there are about 7 billion people scattered around our world, so it can take time to find love, and maybe, not everyone always does. The heart however, represents a lot of things. When you see a heart, the first thing that may come to your mind is love. The heart, in my opinion, represents how all around the world, there is love. That love is something that so many people have, so many people will have, and so many people have had, that the world might as well be resembled by it. Without love, the world can become a whole lot darker than it should be.
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Song to Theme:
The song The One You Love by Passenger associates with the love between Westley and Buttercup with, what I feel, every lyric in the song. Each line could possibly describe the love between the two, as each line shows how they love each other unconditionally, and they’ll be the only one for one-another. This relates to our theme, that you will always find love, because Westley and Buttercup always find each other, through the toughest times, just like it says in the song. One line that I feel describes the two the most is on the second 2:38/3:02 and states, “If you find someone, that loves you just like I do.” This line describes their love in multiple ways. The way that really caught my eye was the fact that he says “If you find someone,” with the word if putting the most emphasis. This shows that you aren’t guaranteed to find love, and Buttercup and Westley are so lucky to have the love they share. They hadn’t realized what they had until Buttercup was 17 years old, even though they knew each other
almost their entire lives. The second part of the quote is, “that loves you just like I do.” This quote shows that their true love is like no other, and they should cherish every moment of it, especially after all they’ve been through. |
Another quote from the song that describes their love would be on the second 1:44/3:02, “so hold it near.” This quote shows that Buttercup and Westley shouldn’t let go of each other no matter what, since the love they have is so special. When they let go of each other for the first time, Buttercup was miserable for 5 years, and Westley was held captive by a feared pirate. Now they are apart again, and Westley is being tortured and Buttercup is plotted to be killed. Both are in bad situations when apart, so they should hold each other near.
One more quote from the song is one the second 0:45/3:02, “But if you find someone that doesn’t try to change you” I think this represents the theme 'finding love' by showing that when you do find love, it can't be someone who loves you just by appearance, and wants to change your personality. It also can't be the other way around. This is because when you do find love, it has to be someone who loves you just the way you are, which is the message in the quote. |