8. Alliteration- “Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner” pg. 8- describes all the cities that they burn in one week.…
During the Medieval period, European society was divided into three estates. The first estate included the Holy church, and it made up about 5-10% of the population. The second estate was the nobles, knights, and warrior, and they also made up 5-10% of the population. The majority of the population was made up of the commons, the third estate. The only form if government the medieval times had was feudalism. Feudalism is a loose system of government where vassals give their obedience and service in exchange for land and protection. This form of government helped the lesser lords.…
‘Comedy, while delights in the events of a topsy-turvy world, is ultimately conservative’ To what extent is this true for the Shakespearean comedy you have studied?…
The 16th and 17th centuries were a time of religious upheaval and the different European countries dealt with the disturbances in various ways. The Spainish approach was to crush any dissenting views through the Spanish Inquistion and enforce conformity to the Catholic faith. England embraced the Protestant Revolution with its split with the Catholic Church and fostered many Protestant sects. The uniformity of religion in Spain led to a zealous Catholic population who were driven to convert the natives of the New World. In contrast, the religious diversity of England to persecutions and many Englishmen sought freedom in the New World. Thus, the Spanish and English colonies followed a similar pattern of conformity and diversity, respectively,…
While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.…
Design and architecture was also an important part of medieval European culture. The plague tore at the lavish artistic European lifestyle in another very evident way. It halted the production of intricate, aesthetically pleasing architecture. It is known that, “because of the Black Death and the recession the building industry was also affected. Building in the medieval Europe would never be as extravagant as in the century before the Black Death. If the Black Death did indeed have a direct impact on landowner building practices, it was chiefly in the area of self defense.” The plague pressured people to begin designing more practical, stronger buildings that would be able to protect them from the inescapable wrath of the Plague. This lead…
Victoria is able to swim all over the pool without assistance. She has a lot of energy, and is capable of moving almost non-stop for the entire swimming session. Retrieving rings in the shallow end of the pool is one of her favorite games. Victoria also enjoys jumping into the pool in the deep end.…
“Like the rest, we shall return to claim our bodies, but never again to wear them— wrong it is for a man to have again what he once cast off” (102-103). The seventh layer of hell: where the suicides’ go to forever take on the body of a tree, and to have life begin to grow only to be eaten by Harpies. Dante Alighieri, author of the poem, “The Divine Comedy” derives the meaning behind the “forest of suicides” and the “bush-souls” from the influence the Catholic Church played in Florence around the 1300’s. The “forest of suicides can be explained through the Last Judgment, and how the sinners punishment compliments their crime. As for the “bush- souls” it reflects Florence’s turn to Christianity, and the change from mythological legend to John the Baptist.…
Knights. These ironclad men of honor were the defining feature of the Middle Ages, becoming heroes and villains in post-medieval literature alike. Stories like The Once and Future King, a King Arthur story, are widely popular today for one reason: not because they are great sources of fantasy, but because they contain knights. Sir Lancelot, Sir Grummore, and Sir Gawaine are all great examples of heroic knights. However, the lives of knights are mostly unknown to the people of today. In the following 3 paragraphs, this report uncovers the truth behind becoming a knight, as well as the complex knighting ceremony, and later the daily life of these mounted warriors.…
“Spruce bachelors looked sidelong at the pretty maidens, and fancied that the Sabbath Sunshine made them prettier than on week days.” They are getting ready for the church activities and to pray with the preacher. The young and old, men and women all gather and celebrate the greatest tradition in the Puritan’s takes. “Sabbath Sunshine.” They all have the same conclusion on why Mr. Hooper has the black veil. “The opening paragraph of the story presents the town of Milford on a typical Sunday morning as the community gathers for worship.” (Pennel…
Magic and supernatural occurrences in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, and The Tempest are used to create a surreal world to confuse and resolve conflicts in each play. Magic provides the audience with an escape from reality and the comfort of the play’s unrealistic nature. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a love potion from a magical flower is used and misused to provide comic relief and resolution to love’s difficulties, supernatural ghosts are used to condemn a horrific murderer in Richard III to ensure his downfall and deserved death and finally, magic from Prospero’s book in The Tempest is used for his righteous revenge and harmony amongst the characters. The Duke of Athens, Theseus, states, “the best in this kind are but shadows; and the / worst are no worse, if imagination amend them” providing Shakespeare’s use of magic in his various plays is a real participant in the entertainment and structure in them. Magic and supernatural occurrences are used by Shakespeare to create illusionary situations to resolve bigger conflicts, such as love’s difficulties, revenge, and justice.…
The Medieval Church had a large role in the Middle Ages and everyone's daily life revolved around the church. In the Middle Ages, when there was a weakened government, the church rises in power and becomes more of a political role. The church had all control over the people. Peasants worked for no pay on the church land. Also, the church didn't pay any taxes which saved them a lot of money making them more wealthy than any king of England at this period of time. Some of the money the church received was spent to build cathedrals, churches and monasteries, and by constructing these buildings, it showed the church's wealth.…
Twelfth Night was a popular Holiday that happened every January 6th as a festival of Epiphany and the celebration of the last remaining day of twelve days of Christmas. During Shakespeare’s life, Twelfth Night represented the end of a time of seasonal festivities in which dances, party gatherings and banquets…
Towns. A new class emerged during the Middle Ages; the merchant. The growth of trade and the merchant middle class went hand in hand with the growth in towns. Town populations swelled during this period, particularly after the Black Death. Trade routes grew, though roads remained poor and dangerous, so most goods were transported by water.…
William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night introduces a wise fool named Feste. As a licensed fool, Feste plays an integral role within the plot of the play. Feste acts as the voice of reason in a play filled with cross-dressing, disguises, confusion, trickery, and chaos. Feste has the ability to break down the barrier between the cast on stage and the audience members, while also embodying the festivities of the feast of the Epiphany and the beginning of Carnival. Even though Feste is called a fool in name, he becomes the only character to not be foolish in nature. Shakespeare uses the character of Feste to provide a running commentary on each of the characters while also participating in the action that is unfolding on stage.…