Satan's Pride in Paradise Lost
Satan’s Hubris Leads to his Fall Because of the fallen angel’s obdurate pride, which eventually turns into vanity, Satan reaches his fall. Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character who is meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever given the chance, Satan tries to undermine God, whom he despises. Satan’s pride initiates his disobedience to God. The opening scene shows Satan and his other former angels on a burning lake as they awaken after they were cast out of Heaven. From the beginning all the fallen angels realize, “to be weak is miserable/.../ To do aught good never will be [their] task,/ but ever to do ill will be [their] sole delight,/ as being the contrary to His high will/ Whom we resist.” (l. 157-162, I) Satan accepts that Hell is the “mournful gloom” that they have traded for Heaven, “that celestial light,” (l. 244-245, I) and that the mind is its own place that can “make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” (l. 254-255, I) Satan’s obdurate pride is shown when he says, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” (l. 263, I) When Satan spake, he was boastful as he stressed that they are still united even in their fall. He assured them, “All is not lost-- the unconquerable will,/ and study of revenge, immortal hate,/ and courage never to submit or yield.” (l. 106-108, I) Together they joined in
John Donne - Batter my Heart
Batter My heart If some of poems in the Anthology were to be changed, which poem would you most like the keep in the selection? Justify you choice of poem, using literary and linguistic concepts and approaches. If I were to choose a poem to remain the selection I would choose Sonnet: 'Batter My Heart' by John Donne. The reason I would choose the poem is because of the remarkable emotion portrayed and the strong, powerful imagery used. 'Batter my heart' is a religious poem, ultimately addressing god himself. It is a plea to god from the perspective of a sinner as he desperately tries to establish faith through argument. Trying to convince himself as much as god. The theme of desperation grows from anger to a apologetic tone. The poem is written in a colloquial fashion and true to Donnes metaphysical side, seen in his other poems. The poem is written in first person, and this is used to create a heart felt and disturbing account of Donne's thoughts. The poem is in the form of Shakespearian sonnet, this is ironic, due to sonnets being used primarily to express love. Donne uses this to shock and further the extremity of the piece. The form of the poem splits between being imperative and apologetic. The poem begins with imperative sentences such as " make mee new" and " o'erthrow me". The use of imperative sentences give an aggressive and demanding feel. Yet as I reader I can
Epic convention - Rape of the Lock
How does Pope use epic conventions in Canto I? 'The Rape of the Lock' is a mock-epic, which essentially means Pope makes fun of the typical epic genre by parodying typical epic conventions. Such parody is used continuously throughout Canto I by Pope such as the ominous warning, supernatural creatures and guardians. Through these, Pope pokes fun at the characters, such as Belinda, in the hope of pointing out the triviality of the argument between the two feuding families the play is concerned with. The first epic convention Pope parodies is the invocation of the muse in the form of "Caryll" - John Caryll (a friend who had asked Pope to write the poem in the hope of uniting the two families through humour). In Greek mythology - which is the cornerstone of many epic myths and tales - the muse were mythical and magical beings who inspired. Therefore, Pope's calling upon a muse seems to give the poem an almost holy theme, which when compared with the realistic events (arguments due to a lock of hair) it is clearly a parody and nothing more. Also, Pope's supernatural beings extends to Sylphs, who Ariel - Belinda's guardian Sylph - eventually reveal to being the outcome of "coquettes" (frivolous, flirtatious women). They are first thought to be holy and noble, for they are "inhabitants of Air!", are viewed to be similar to angels and guard Belinda, but are then revealed to be
My Last Duchess From Fra Pandolfs View.
My Last Duchess From Fra Pandolfs View. I remember when the Duke requested that I produce yet another portrait of his beautiful wife, the duchess of Ferrara. I had painted this amazing woman many times in the past but I hadn't yet captured the real her. I always seemed to miss out her true beauty, there would something missing and this time I was hoping to get it right. I never knew why he did have her executed; I certainly could never bring my self to have such a beautiful thing destroyed. On previous occasions I had noticed that the Duke did not like me to get too friendly with her but how can you ignore such a beautiful and kind woman, I think the Duke was not sure if she was happy with him or just with her surroundings and the life she lived. The problem was that she was very easily pleased, sometimes too easily. Whenever I complimented her beauty she seemed to be embarrassed and her cheeks would blush slightly, she would only reply "Thank you" and as soon as she had finished speaking a glowing smile would return to her face. On this occasion I remember that the Duke was extremely agitated, he was very unhappy about me being alone whilst painting the duchess, he kept checking on me to make sure I was not getting on too well with her. One time I remember he walked in when she was laughing. I could see the look on his face and he asked if he could speak to her. As she
My Last Duchess
My Last Duchess 'My Last Duchess' is a poem written by Robert Browning in 1845. It's a first person narrative of a duke who is showing the ambassador around his palace and negotiating his marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. As they are walking through the palace, the duke stops and looks at the beautiful portrait of his lovely last duchess. The duke speaks his thoughts about the girl, and as the poem progresses we begin to realize that his last duchess had been murdered. "...I gave commands, then all smiles stopped together," This metaphorical sentence tells us that his commands were the ones that caused her death and her 'stop of all smiles together'. The reason behind this is that she was flirtatious with all men because "she liked whate'er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere". The language techniques used in this poem emphasize the Duke's Last Duchess's flirtatious character. They also hint to us the themes of murder, jealousy, suspicion and the Duke's psychopathic character. The word 'I' is quite often used. "The curtain I have drawn for you, but I..." This means that the poem is a dramatic monologue. The metaphor used in the middle of the poem hints to the audience that he has great passion towards her. "My favour at her breast, the dropping of the daylight in the West". Here the Duke tells us that he believed he had a seat at her heart.
My Last Duchess.
Nancy Kuo Introduction to Literature Journal 4 0 Apr. 2003 My Last Duchess This is a monologue of a duke of Ferrara, who is introducing a painting of his last wife to a person or some people. Through the painting, the duke reminds her beauty and trifles of hers. The duke speaks arrogantly and shows his jealousy about the duchess and then he murders her. After that, he is going to marry a new wife. This poem is somewhat a confess but even looks like an invitation to the duke's intimate friend. Through this kind of monologue, all I can see is the words of the only side of the duke, which is full of mad and jealousy words. It easily makes me become one of the listeners, the "you", in this poem, and I can smell some chauvinisim in it. The duke must love very much as we can see from these lines, "......that pictured countenance/The depth and passion of its earnest glance(7,8)." She must have bright eyes, and her cheeks are also charming. "...it was not her husband's presence only, called that spot/Of joy into the Duchess' cheek(13-15)." Then I would think the duke is very rich and he married a very beautiful woman; he paid to the painter(s) for her portrait. Maybe the duke is old or very ugly but the duchess is very young. She is not fond of staying with her time with the duke and she has a heart to play around. The duke can't put up with that and killed her. The
Dreamer of The Rood.
Dreamer of The Rood Throughout the course of history there have been many pieces of literature that have contained characters that are portrayed as heroic. Two great examples of this are "Beowulf" and "Dreamer of the Rood". Both of these pieces of literary work had main characters that were considered Anglo-Saxon heroes for their time. When reading the two stories you can see many similar characteristics when it comes to describing a hero. This is because the writer who wrote "Dreamer of the Rood" copied some of the characteristics from the epic poem "Beowulf". The first quality that Beowulf had is extreme strength. The watchman states this upon his arrival to Herot. " Nor have I seen a mightier man -at-arms on this earth than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken, he is truly noble"("Beowulf" 37). Just like Beowulf was portrayed as a warrior Christ was also portrayed as a warrior. Beowulf was a warrior who was fighting to save a kingdom whereas Christ was a warrior fighting to save his people. The talking tree in "Dreamer of the Rood" tells us how he had to stand strong for the young hero/strong stout hearted" (Norton). Christ had a different kind of strength than that of Beowulf. Christ had more of a spiritual strength, whereas Beowulf had a strength that was more physical. Humbleness is another characteristic that the two characters posses. Both of
The introduction of The Rape of the Lock identifies the poem as a heroi-comical poem- i.e. mock heroic. This style of poem is a type of satire; and in this case, Pope satirises the beau-monde of eighteenth century England
The introduction of 'The Rape of the Lock' identifies the poem as a 'heroi-comical poem'- i.e. mock heroic. This style of poem is a type of sattire; and in this case, Pope satirises the 'beau-monde' of eighteenth century England of which he was not a part of and Canto 1 demonstrates both his crticism and perhaps even fascination or admiration for Belinda and the society in which she moves. The tone of Canto one already indicates that the high seriousness of traditional topics has suffered severeve diminishment, and the second line confirms explicitly what the first hints at: 'the am'rous causes' Pope describes ar enot comparable to the grand love of Greek hereos, but rather represent a more trivialized version of the same emotion. In lines one and two, Pope suggests that society is taking a fairly trivial incident too seriously, displaying an exaggerated sense of their own importance. The 'contests' Pope alludes to prove to be 'mighty' only in an ironic sense. They are card-games and frilvous tussles as opppsed to the great battles of epic tradition. Unlike the Helen of Troy, 'the face that launched a thousand ships', Belinda prompts foppish nonsense. With Belinda's dream, Pope exposes the 'machinery' of the poem- the supernatural powers the influence the action from behind the scenes. The sprites who watch over Belinda mimic the Greek and Roman Gods of tradition who
Venus and Adonis
The poem opens with a description of Adonis's physical beauty, "rose-cheeked", this clashes with the accepted norms of a love sonnet. Traditionally a sonnet would be praising a woman's beauty rather than the other way round. Venus says he is "sweet above compare, stain to all nymphs" and " more white and red than doves or roses are". What is notable about this is Shakespeare's reference to Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella as Sidney often uses the colours red and white to refer to female beauty "Marble mix'd red and white do interlace". One interpretation could be that he deliberately means to perhaps use it to signify a blushing innocent. I think it is vital to realise that Shakespeare did model his poem on earlier adaptations of Ovid's Metamorphoses for instance Thomas Lodge's Scillaes Metamorphosis which was the first Elizabethan erotic minor epics based on Ovid. Adonis appears to be an unconventional male, not strong and aggressive, rather he is sweet and delicate. He constitutes the characteristics of a woman in love by being effeminate, he is "more lovely than a man". Adonis blushes, revealing his apparent sexual innocence which in turn makes him more sexually desirable to Venus. An interesting parallel is with the story of Narcissus and Echo. Narcissus avoided sexuality, like Adonis and eventually dies as he cannot leave his reflection. Is this Shakespeare