Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale is a romance in which Chaucer, through his character the Knight, expresses his views on the courtly love system of the Middle Ages. I will further discuss this story and how it reflects the criticism of a society that applauds a system that takes little stock of a woman’s true feelings on being involved in courtly love. The tale takes on a typical plot of a romance and in the eyes of the aristocrat that is simply all the story is about. However, to the rest of the literate population out of the penumbra of that high level of the hierarchy, the tale is more about the unfairness of the courtly love system. The men are supposed to be sick with love, vehement about it, and so sweet a woman would have to accept his advances.
Compare the ways the poet explores ideas of power in lgs and one other: The form of the poem seems quite conventional, laid out in four stanzas, and the poem begins by reflecting on conventionality. It is structured in two parts, however, with the first three stanzas describing romantic love before a dramatic turnaround in the final stanza showing how once married the man loses his power over the women and becomes less controlling and manipulative, the women becomes more ‘equal’ and gains more power over the man. The title Les Grands Seigneurs sounds grandiose, partly because it is French, a language associated with chivalry and courtly love in the medieval era. The term originally referred to aristocratic or noble men which means that men have a certain power and very much noticed for it. The third and fourth stanzas depict the narrator as she is viewed by men.
06/14/2012 YASH PANCHAL Love and Seduction “My Last Duchess” by Browning and “To His Coy Mistress” by Marvell are examples of two men searching for the right words to express their emotions towards a woman. The speakers in both poems are talking about love and seduction. Even though they both are written in two different centuries, both pieces have remarkable similarities as well as some of the common expected differences. “To His Coy Mistress” values women and their love they give, while “My Last Duchess” totally humiliates the role of women in society. “My Last Duchess" and "To His Coy Mistress" shows the act of the men in these two poems.
Alternatively, it could mean that their love is so strong that it causes a change to the rhythm of the poem, as it conquers time. “To His Coy Mistress” is similar to this; it’s made up from rhyming couplets like “grow” and “slow” throughout the whole poem, which I think, is because the poem is meant to persuade his lover to sleep with him. The rhyming makes it sound witty and well-constructed; so the woman can understand it more easily and is more likely to want to sleep with him. However, like “Hour”, it contains some half rhyme “lie” with “eternity” and “try” with “virginity”. This is found in the second premise which is aimed at being realistic- the poem starts off with “but”- and the truth is often
Also the simile “like a silken knot,” the use of this simile is comparing her to something soft and fragile, therefore there is a theme of possessiveness and this shows that lower class women in the Elizabethan era were easily manipulated by higher class men. However, the “Lord” shows his commitment towards “Cousin Kate”. “I watched her walk along the lane,” in this quote the verb shows his concentration on Cousin Kate and implies that he is falling deeply in love with her at first sight. Therefore, there is a theme of falling in love at first sight not only in the poem “Cousin Kate” but also in Romeo and Juliet. In a dialogue with religious metaphors that figure Juliet as a Saint and Romeo as a pilgrim, he tries to convince Juliet to kiss her as it would be the only way in which Romeo can be free from
Shakespeare uses language, structure and dramatic devices to convey and create the effect of strong emotions through his ambitious characters, which is similarly portrayed in laboratory with the narrator’s strong and bitter emotions towards her husband’s infidelity. These characters can also be compared to the narrator of Porphyria’s lover whose intense emotions of love become too overwhelming for him to handle. Both Shakespeare and Browning show Elizabethan society as patriarchal, where men were considered to be the leaders and women subservient. Women were regarded as the weaker sex not just in terms of physical strength, but also emotionally. Women were also depicted as kind and caring as well as being the perfect mother and housewife, on the other hand men were portrayed as brave, strong and loyal.
Larkin portrays this sense of objectification in his poem with regards to woman as he describes a woman as a ‘bosomy English rose’ and then follows on to call her ‘beautiful’ throughout the poem portraying the sexual lust involved with love. In Larkin’s poem the male would seem he is not bothered about the unfortunate break up between him and the girl he is dating as he avoids mentioning the facts of how their relationship ended and seemed pleased she returned what is believed to be an engagement ring. Abse on the other hand is describing the atmosphere of Valentines day where he does include a sense of sexual desire however he is still hoping to fall in love as he did once before. The position both characters are in are similar. In
Twelfth Night Essay Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, consists of a number of themes including love, appearance versus reality, acting and theatre, madness and time. However, it could be said that the central theme of this play is love. It can be seen from the very first line of the play: “If music be the food of love, play on” (I. i. 1). The play presents a rich variety of types of love, from foolishness to self-sacrificing unrequited love.
Paris’s insincere love does no justice to his case; in fact, it serves to further illuminate the legitimacy of Romeo’s adoration. There are three causes of Paris’s apparent love: social obligation, political and economic advantage, and being in love with the idea of love. As far as the first motive goes, Paris may be obligated to maintain the appearance of love in order to retain social propriety. As a member of a royal family, and the bearer of the title “County,” certain standards of conduct are expected from him. If, after his betrothed dies, he immediately starts wooing another girl, his reputation as a fine and upstanding gentleman will be ruined, and he will be hard-pressed to find a new wife of appropriate status.
Already, there is a clear pattern shown in these poems in the relationships between men and women; the man has little respect for the female. In Marvell’s poem the man is making sexual advances to the woman, and in Browning’s poem the Duke talks about how the Duchess annoyed him with her personality and flirting nature when he says She had A heart how shall I say? too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. and then how he ordered her death, and now how he is trying to get someone else to find him another wife. The speaker