Analysis Of Wedding Dance

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An often used literary form in Medieval English literature was the folk ballad, an example of which is "Get Up and Bar the Door." A typical ballad is humorous, its author is unknown, and it focuses on one subject. This subject and the events of the story are conveyed both by the words written and those implied. The implied thoughts are conveyed and emphasized using a variety of literary techniques such as symbolism, repetition, and rhyme. The anonymous author of "Get Up and Bar the Door" tells his story make use of these and other literary techniques. The basic conflict in this ballad is one if not widely used, easily recognized: man vs. woman, or more specifically, husband vs. wife, a battle of the wills. The setting of this story is mid-November, in the home of a man and his wife, most likely of the lower two-thrids of society, since the wife must do her own housework. The wind is blowing and coming in through the door, and the man, in the typical male fashion, tells his wife to shut the door. She replies, likewise in typical fashion, that she is busy, and that if anyone will shut the door, it will not be she. Having reached a stalemate, they come to an agreement: "That the first word whaeer should speak,/ Should rise and bar the door" (BD, LN 15-16). Here the plot thickens. With the door left open and thus the safety of the house compromised, two strangers stroll into the house. The strangers are of course demons, for what other visitors might arrive in the dark of the midnight hour? These demons proceed to eat all of the pudding the wife has made, and though she wishes to complain in anger, she says nothing. Then the demons turn mean. Seeking to frighten and harm the man and wife, one demon tells the other to shave the man's beard (or more to the point, to slice his throat). He, then, will kiss the wife, adding insult to injury. The demons also decide to

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