“Galeotto was the book and he who wrote it”1 : Lyrical Play in Dante’s Inferno 1 1 Dante’s Inferno, Durling and Martinez. 1 In his essay “Paolo and Francesca,” Renato Poggioli analyzes and interprets a piece of the fifth canto of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. The passage deals with the affair of two passion-driven lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, and the readings of Lancelot du Lac which are said to have provoked their sin. Poggioli uses his research and understanding of the subject to draw conclusions about the meaning behind Dante’s choice and structure of words. He has many observations that deserve recognition, and is correct about Dante’s overall use of the romantic episode as a parody between his feelings of sympathy and compassion toward the sinners paired with his sound and harsh judgment toward the sin.
Sebastian Castillo Mr. Pentecost English 3, Period 5 4 March 2013 From Night Life to the Priest Life John Donne’s progression of poems reflects the progression of his own life by displaying the development of his maturity through his characteristic stages from “Jack” to “John” Donne. John Donne portrays his progression in his maturity by displaying his two contradictory, metaphysical characteristics: Jack and John Donne. Earlier in his life and poetry, the now referred to John Donne was a philandering, partying, and wild man known by the name of “Jack.” The poems by Jack Donne, such as “Song” and “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” display his charming and philandering ways through his coupled relationships with several women. Donne in “Song” displays some of the most descriptive and charming words a man could ever give when parting from a woman: “But think that we/ Are but turned aside to sleep. / They who one another keep/ Alive, ne’r parted be” (423).
The reason for this is because “The essential details of Poe’s final days leave us with more questions then answers. (1.1)” The major rumor here is that Poe has died because of Alcohol. But “Dr. J.E. Snodgrass who examined Poe’s body feels certain that alcoholism was the reason why Poe had perished and then started to spread rumors at his temperance lectures in the early 1850’s that this is why he died.
Amir felt the reason Baba was always distant and seemed cut off, was because he was torn inside after the death of his beloved wife, which Amir had killed at delivery. “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...” This evidence shows how the one event at twelve years old has molded his entire life. “I became what I am today at the age of twelve.” At twelve years old Amir witnessed the rape of his childhood friend and brother Hassan. This example shows that Amir felt his entire life was shaped by the memory of the rape that happened at twelve years old. Amir lived the rest of his life trying to deal with the guilt and hide from the memory of that horrific
2. Discuss the differences and continuities between Homer’s Odyssey and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad. Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad gives a contemporary insight into Homer’s ancient epic poem Odyssey. Atwood challenges and criticizes this epic story by transforming this classical myth “by means of demythologizing devices and burlesque conventions of the Greek satyr play and the Menippean satire” to expose the vast double standards that Homer instills amongst class difference and gender (Staels 2009, 100). This “metafictional parody is… used to seriously rework a literary model… to call attention to its conventions and limitations by putting it in a new, contemporary context” (Staels 2009, 101) that is achieved “through the technique of self-conscious mythologizing and demythologizing” through the use of a contemporary Penelope (Staels 2009, 103).
For months now, Paul has only known war and conflict, and a sudden change in that lifestyle can be unbearable. Additionally, when he finds out that his mother is dying of cancer, Paul feels sorry for
Tammi Collins English Comp II Section 7/Paper 6 April 30, 2012 The Bubonic Plague, also known as Black Death, is one of the most powerful epidemics known to mankind and its impact on the Elizabethan Era resulted in countless deaths and left millions begging for death. No one knew this better than William Shakespeare, this tragic epidemic affected his life and work in an inconceivable way he lost family, his grief later comes out.in his work, and the plague closes theaters forcing him to leave. Shakespeare’s experienced the loss of the Bubonic Plague first hand he lost three brothers and sisters and a son. Even after his death the Bubonic Plague continued to take his family when his grandson dies from the plague. William was
Three children died instantly and over a dozen were critically injured. Willie’s prophecy on time being the steward of the truth proves to be beneficial for him. “Oh, God, I am punished for accepting iniquity and voting against an honest man!” cries one of the parents who lost his child (65). In Mr. Sandeen’s (the father who lost his child) statement, Warren exhibits another phenomenon in the South that might have sustained just as much if not more momentum than politics – this phenomenon is religion. Surreptitiously but not blatantly, Warren provides his audience with the experience of watching a typical Southern citizen in reaction to a tragic event.
Voltaire used certain literary techniques and language, such as humor, in order to effusively express his contempt of what was happening in his world. Voltaire uses humor from the beginning of the novel, and doesn’t stop until the end. At the start of the novel, he uses names such as “Thunder-Ten-Tronckh” (Voltaire 1) in order to ridicule the guttural way that the German language sounds. This is evident again when Candide asks about a Mr. Vanderdendur, which can be seen as a play on names with a Germanic origin. The name is also supposed to suggest a certain VanDuren, who has gotten into an argument with Voltaire in real life (Voltaire 40).
These men were the Proto-Romantics. Benjamin Franklin was among these individuals. Franklin’s ideas and actions represent some of the most basic and primitive ideas behind the Romantic Movement. What specifically is Romanticism? “…a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms…” (marriam-webster.com).