...August 20, 2015 3.2.13 Practice: Revision Strategies The tempest one of the most difficult Shakespearean works in my opion to stage, from its stormy, chaotic first scene to its sureality to its ambiguous resolution, with Prospero facing his silent, treacherous brother and renouncing the power that has made every action in the story possible. Potent language remains the central force and mystery of this fathomless play. Prospero speaks almost a third of the lines in The Tempest, and controls the amount of speech every other character on the island has through manipulation and magic. Prospero’s narrative of how he came to the island, what he did once there, and what he is owed for this history, goes largely unchallenged in the text. Yet the play offers innumerable readings and opportunities for alternate staging, particularly in light of postcolonial discourse about Prospero’s relationship with Ariel and Caliban, the legitimacy of his authority, and the nature of his magic and command over language. Though Prospero can be played many ways, there is no doubt he is The Tempest’s show runner. The metatheatrical nature of the play sometimes detracts from its action on the page, but it also offers the chance to explore exactly why Prospero needs an audience for his revenge, and whether or not it satisfies him, onstage. Prospero restricts the sight and knowledge of the other characters, putting them to sleep or manipulating them with invisible forces, but he often lets us, the audience...
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...1-57 Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy is an allegorical epic novel describing Dante’s journey through the Inferno, to Purgatorio and finally to Paradiso. The purpose of this journey, particularly the journey through the Inferno, is to expose people to the recognition and rejection of sin (Casagrande). Dante, being that he is human, must first pass through the Inferno to witness the sinners and their according contrapasso, before he can enter Purgatorio towards his final pursuit to Paradiso. The Divine Comedy is a metaphorical journey of bringing the light of God to the darkness of human sin. In Canto XXIV (24) of the Inferno, Dante and Virgil have made their way to the eighth circle of Inferno – “The Malebolge” – and are in the process of making their journey through the 10 pits of Circle 8 (Mahfood). Being the second to last circle in the inferno, the circle of the sinners who commited fraud and theft in their early life (Dante Worlds), the contrapasso witnessed here is more terrifying than what Dante and Virgil have seen during their journey previously. To provide some background information to Canto XXIV, the previous happenings of Canto XXIII (23) should be provided: Virgil is leading Dante through the pits, or bolgia, of Circle 8 when he remembers a bridge connecting the sixth and seventh pit. Virgil asks the circle’s monster-keeper, Malacoda, if the bridge is still intact, to which Malacoda confirmed in reply. At the end of Canto XXIII, however, Virgil and Dante realize...
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...brilliant works of world literature - "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. "This is a poem about the Dante," danteida, "and at the same time, a poem about a man who, descending and ascending the ladder of the universe, cleaned, and acquires perfect knowledge." People at all times sought to know the universe. And he could not. Maybe that's why his "comedy" to this day loved by ordinary readers and critics, and researchers are still hotly debated around her, every day, opening in this work, something new, not yet solved. "" Comedy "- it's poetry, which has become itself the judge, interpreter, and the key to unlocking secrets" - rightly remarked Alexander L. Dobrokhotov in his book "Dante Alighieri". The theme of my work - "The conductors and the twins Dante and their functions in the" Divine Comedy. '"I think for most of its first full disclosure should understand that in general it is a product. First, the genre of "Comedy" - a vision. The entire poem - a "journey to the underworld, this poet in a vision." However, it is worth noting that "in the" Divine Comedy "the central character - not an abstract" I "and Dante with all the features of his personality and life events of the past ... At the same time," Comedy "is a fiction that develops on the literary laws." Dobrokhotov draws our attention to the fact that "the combination of real and personal fate of the literary scene was made possible by some middle managers - Chosen sense. Dante does not consider himself an ordinary man: first...
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...December 10, 2011 Dante and St. Augustine Spiritual Journeys During St. Augustine’s life, there was extreme decline while Christianity was being accepted as an official religion. In this era, there was intense political stress, as well as widespread religious concern. The confessions of St. Augustine reveal things in his formative years. During these years, he tried inexorably in overcoming sensual desires, finding faith and understanding philosophical and religious doctrines. Augustine often experienced confusion, blindness and darkness while seeking to find the truth in the creator. Inside him, he truly knew that after he eventually finds him, there would be redemption of his confused heart. Augustine’s confessions begin as a prayer (Kline Para. 5). In 1300 AD, Dante could have headed to hell together with an ancient Roman poet as a guide. In this case, he required better help to find heaven. Virgil’s Aeneid gives an approximation of the Homeric song. The song borrows extensively from Odyssey and Iliad (Kline Para. 7). However, the politics are anti-Greek while there is also a lack of Homer’s irony and a penetrating observation of violence from humans. May be, Virgil could have successfully achieved all of Homer’s effects if he had tried since he is considered to be a strong imitator. However, the Roman imperialist politics determined his agenda. One of Augustine’s confessions consists of the eternal Rose’s yellow that stretches and slopes while diffusing fragrance of...
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...Aeneid” and “Confessions” in Dante's Poem Dante in his poem “"The Inferno" talks of his journey to hell and back. He narrates it in the form of an autobiography. The poem does, however, indicate a strong influence from Maro's "The Aeneid" and Augustine's the "Confessions." The influence from the two in the “Inferno” range from the themes, concepts, literature devices and the language styles used. Maro Virgil, the author of the poem “The Aeneid” was a controversial figure in most Christian texts at the time. His influence in the “Inferno” is clear because Dante uses the name for the leader in the poem. Virgil is an influence in the poem rather than just a fiction figure or character. Dante does not borrow directly from the Aeneid, but expresses his own ideas in different twist. A major difference in the texts is that while Dante uses the underworld to denote hell, Virgil extends the physical world, as we know it. Dante feels that the pagan Virgil is contradicting in his ways, and Dante’s hell is an extension of Virgil’s underworld. Virgil influenced the way Dante denotes hell in specific circles or steps. While Virgil had only three; Tartarus, Elysium and Lugentes Campi, Dante had nine; Limbo, Gluttony, Lust, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. Apparently, it is also clear that the concept of underworld is yet another influence Dante received from Maro’s “The Aeneid” (Maro 930-939). Throughout the “Inferno”, Dante exhibits a sense of redemption and freedom...
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...The two stories or myths, The Inferno written by Durante Alighieri published in 1314 and the Odyssey by Homer in 800 B.C.E. are about true love, great journeys that are different but in some ways parallel and end with them back with their true love. Both Dante and Odysseus have a woman who waits for them and in their travels must search themselves and make the right choices to get back to them. Odysseus longs to be with his wife Penelope and Dante to be with the woman he wants to marry Beatrice. Both men are very much love the woman in their lives, go to their own hell and back and can think of nothing other than finding their way back to them. Beatrice even after death has a spirit that is very much in love with Dante. She has faith in him, and asks Virgil to guide him through hell to bring him back to her. As written by a professor in psychoanalysis, "Dante the voyager through this arduous voyage, a voyage that initially descends into ever deeper, ever more terrifying levels, is the love of and the love from two people: Virgil (his 'Psyche') and Beatrice (his 'Eros')" (Szajnberg, N. M., 2010). Dante travels through hell with Virgil's guidance to find his Beatrice that is lost on earth after suffering an early death. Dante's Inferno does not tell a lot about Beatrice but does show her deep love for him and that she will do what it takes to be with him again. "For I am Beatrice who sends you on; I come from where I most long to return; Love prompted me, that Love which makes...
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...Symbolism The Inferno by Dante Alighieri is a work of art in which symbolism plays a prevalent role. Whether it is in the punishments or the monsters in each circle, everything has a dual meaning. During the entire book there are seen thirty monsters and five hybrid creatures, each representing something different. Throughout the circles the readers view tortures that are the physical equivalent of their actions. Alighieri exposes societies misdeeds in an ingenious way that leaves the readers smirking with satisfaction at the justice. In the first circle, those unbaptized wander around in a fog. This is a fitting punishment because the fog blinds them much like the absence of god blinds them wit no hope. It is odd that Alighieri put Virgil, Homer and anyone else who came before ‘God’ in this circle. In the second circle, those considered lustful and wanton are constantly blown about like leaves in the wind. This is an apt punishment because these particular sinners let their uncontrolled emotions rule their judgment, therefore they will never settle. In the second circle, we meet a monster called Minos. He is the son of Zeus and Europa and had been a King of Crete while in the world of the living. It is said of Minos that “His terrifying treatment of the souls is significant as after Charon, he is one of the first figures who they encounter on their passage into hell, and his unique method of demonstrating which area of hell that the souls should be sent to increases the...
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...Dante the Pilgrim is a man who has, himself, been lost in a dark wood, and he is sympathetic to others who have strayed from the right path. When he finds himself lost in the dark wood, he is terribly frightened, and when Virgil arrives, Dante the Pilgrim is at first apprehensive, cautious, and frightened until he is reassured of Virgil's noble intentions.As they begin their journey, Dante shows all of the concern for the condemned that any humane, sympathetic person would show when confronted with the sufferings of the sinners. However, during his journey through Hell, Dante changes significantly as a pilgrim.When they approach the Circle of the Poets, Dante is invited to join them. Dante the Pilgrim is overwhelmed, as he should be, to be so honored and flattered by an invitation to join a group of the most outstanding and exalted poets of the world....
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...lows of their adventures and encourage or discourage their listeners to either attempt the journey or avoid it altogether. In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (approximately 1317-1321), Dante he casts himself as an ordinary, sinful, distracted wanderer. Making his story relatable to the common person, Dante grabs his fellow travelers by the hand and has them follow him on his journey through the three areas of afterlife: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. In sometimes-graphic detail, he describes these places and what can be expected in each level. Dante wants his fellow humans to avoid the eternal effects of sin. In order to assist those around him, he recounts his tale of falling from God’s grace and finding redemption in order to help others from being slaves to their poor choices. Dante believed that men choose...
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...In Keats's version of 'Decameron' he uses the original as a base to reflect his own style and writing techniques. He basically makes it his own and he does this in a number of ways. The most obvious of these adaptations is the fact that Keats has turned a novel style piece of writing into poetic verse. 'Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel! Lorenzo, a young palmer in loves eye!' This is the first two lines of Keats's Isabella, from the start Keats uses imaginative description, this again is another difference of the two. Boccaccio's writing is far more factual, this creates a good affect but Keats chooses the other option and lets his imagination and also the reader's imagination to tell the story. 'Know then that there were at Messina three young men, that were brothers and merchants, who were left very rich on the death of their father' As you can see by comparing the two beginnings of each piece, it is easy to see their differences already. In the beginning of Keats's version he immediately refers to the lovers, he bases his whole poem around the love of these two people, however Boccaccio's original is quite different, he starts off by talking of the brothers, and he instead of love his story revolves around murder and treachery. This major difference could be put down to the fact that the two pieces were written 4 centuries apart, Boccaccio's being written in the 14th and Keats's in the 18th. This I feel plays a huge part...
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...Pier della Vigna In canto XIII of Inferno, Dante enters the Wood of Suicides where he encounters Pier della Vigna, an Italian statesman who was accused of treason by Emperor Frederick II and consequently blinded and sentenced to life in prison. Born to a modest family, Pier was granted an outstanding legal education and possessed an abundance of rhetorical talent, both of which undoubtedly led to his rise to power within medieval Italian society. As his power grew, Pier’s political enemies began to grow envious of his political standing and started to plot against him, directly leading to his his fall from power and his eventual imprisonment. While he was imprisoned, Pier brutally took his own life by smashing his head against a wall until he died, and thus according to Catholic ideology damned his soul to hell forever. However, Dante’s placement of Pier in the Wood of Suicides as opposed to the circle for traitors, as well as his conversations with Pier point to the fact that Dante pitied della Vigna and empathized with his claims of innocence. In spite of Dante’s empathy for a man whom he saw as a faithful servant who was unjustly punished for a crime he did not commit, Pier della Vigna still violated Catholic doctrine by taking his own life and for this reason his soul will forever remain in the Wood of Suicides where, even after the Last Judgment, all those who took their own lives will in theory retrieve their corpses and hang them on the trees in the wood as a sign of their...
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...Trey Brickhouse Prof.Brophy Eng 201 3/3/14 Reading Log 1: Look up a word-Dating Down There wasn’t really a word I didn’t recognize but I have never heard the term “Dating Down” before in the term it is used as in here. I feel like I may have heard it before but in this point in time I cannot recall a moment in which I heard it. Whenever I heard “dating down” it was usually about someone dating someone who was younger than them, but in the book Meg says “[Cathy] never chose her boyfriends or sex partners; she let them choose her.” (Jay 101). Hearing this I take dating down to mean you’re just going for anyone that comes to you and accepting it. The phrase really does put things in perspective; you’re basically dating less than what you can really get to feel some sort of love; which I guess is dating down from what you deserve. “Her mother said she needed a different outfit or better body, her father told her she was too much, too loud- too something.”(Jay 100) This boost the title “dating down” because her parents are literally putting her down which is causing the way she is going about dating in the first place; not much relevance but just stood me out that, a girl who is being put down let it define who she is dating. This whole chapter kind of lived up to its name; circled around this 8girl’s struggle to fit in and how Jay too that and helped her “take charge of her love life” (Jay 111) and help her revise her own story. I thought it was interesting how Cathy used...
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...Alexis Coleman English 12 Gardner is trying to make us sympathize for Grendel because the whole purpose of the story was for Grendel to be able to tell his side of the story. In by getting Grendel's point of view and seeing him as more of a child not necessarily a full grown creature. Having him look for a place in the world. Also Gardner gave him a reason for all his frustration and anger toward the world in general and humanity. When the readers get to see Grendel as more of a childlike monster rather than an adult monster they start to notice that he doesn’t really know better. Gardner attempts to bring upon motivation to Grendel so that the readers see that it’s not just his nature that leads him to kill people. Also that Grendel in a character with a mind of his own, something that he didn’t have in Beowulf, having no lines, only an extended battle scene where he is presumed vicious and bloodthirsty. He portrayed him as a highly intelligent and well observant about the world creature. Grendel lives in a world in which his attempts at communication are continually frustrated. He often finds himself talking to the sky, or the air, and never hears a response. Grendel is just a lost creature trying to fit in with everyone but cannot. Grendel’s most painful reject comes from the humans, who resemble him in many ways. Grendel and the humans share a common language, but the humans’ disgust for and fear of Grendel prevent any actual meaningful exchange. In conclusion, Gardner...
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...Dante’s Inferno, Dante narrates his descent and observation of hell through its various circles. One part of this depiction is his descriptions of the various punishments that each of the different sinners has received. The various punishments that Dante imagines the sinners receiving are broken down into two types. The first type he borrows from various gruesome and cruel forms of torture and the second type is Dante’s creative mind thinking of less physically agonizing types of torture, usually psychological torture. The torturous forms of punishments are either physical pain or mental and psychological suffering. Several punishments that Dante envisions for the various sinners are forms of torture. The first physical punishment from that is his punishment for the heretics. The penalty in the medieval era for heresy was public humiliation or worse, being burned to death for having different beliefs. In Dante’s opinion, to be a heretic was to follow one’s own opinion and not the beliefs of the Christian Church. Dante’s punishment for heretics and those who followed them was that they be sepulchered and to have some tombs “heated more, some less” as in to still have them suffer while buried. Since the archheretics believed that everything died with the body and that there was no soul, Dante not only punishes them with the hot and crowded tombs, but he punishes them with their beliefs and lets them feel what it is like to die. This punishment by Dante is one in which...
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...Odysseus and Dante Dawn Anderson September 24, 2013 World Literature Professor O’Neil South University Online Abstract The travels of Odysseus and Dante are plagued with many trials and tribulations. Odysseus is trying to return home to his wife Penelope, but Odysseus has angered the God and they make it extremely difficult for him to achieve his goals. Dante and Virgil travel through the circles of hell in order for Dante to search for his humanity. The plot of these two stories are evident when comparing the epic characteristics, epic conventions, and comparing the different religious backgrounds of the time period in which these novels were written. Both the Odyssey by Homer and Dante’s Inferno were written to reveal culture and tradition of life and values that each epic portrays. In the Odyssey by Homer the main character Odysseus is a man struggling with multiple obstacles while trying to return home after twenty years fighting in the Trojan War. In the Inferno, Dante is on a journey between good and evil, with references to heaven and hell. The Gods or angels are used in both books by helping Odysseus and Dante to grow in faith and attain their own potential dream. Odysseus faces challenges on his journey home are plagued by the wrath of the Gods. Dante is challenged by going through hell in search of his humanity. Throughout the Odyssey by Homer Odysseus must face obstacles and struggle to be able to overcome these obstacles by using his mind and...
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