Outline how Shakespeare uses the structure and conventions of pastoral in 'As You Like It' and highlight one or more possible interpretive emphases which you think arise from this.
* Outline how Shakespeare uses the structure and conventions of pastoral in 'As You Like It' and highlight one or more possible interpretive emphases which you think arise from this. You should support your reading of the play through close reference to the text, and the inclusion of appropriate background reading. 'As You Like It' finds its origins in the pastoral tradition of the renaissance in which the rustic field and forest provides a sanctuary from urban or courtly issues. The play itself takes place in a forest where the characters are hiding from treachery at court or injustice in the family. This pastoral tradition began with theocrites in ancient Greece, whose writings explored the sorrows of love and daily injustices in a rural setting. Virgil expanded the tradition, emphasising the distinction between urban and rural lifestyles even more. The Pastoral traditions, in spite of taking many literary forms, conformed to a traditional set of rules. A typical story would involve exiles from the court or city going into the countryside and living there either with or as shepherds. While in the rural area, they would hold singing contests and philosophically discuss the various merits of both forms of life. Eventually the exiles would return to the city having resolved their particular problems. The pastoral works within Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' have most
Arthur Miller.
ARTHUR MILLER A leading American playwright, Arthur Miller, b. New York City, Oct. 17,1915, has enriched the Broadway stage for several decades. Although Miller's dramas take place in familial settings, he has made a reputation for dealing with contemporary political and moral issues. Miller began writing plays while a student at the University of Michigan, where several of his dramatic efforts were rewarded with prizes. In 1937, during his senior year, one of his early plays was presented in Detroit by the Federal Theatre Project. In 1944 his The Man Who Had All the Luck won a prize offered by New York City's Theatre Guild. With his first successes--All My Sons (1947; film, 1948), winner of the Drama Critics Circle Award, and Death of a Salesman (1949; film, 1952), winner of both the Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize--Miller condemned the American ideal of prosperity on the grounds that few can pursue it without making dangerous moral compromises. Death of a Salesman, with its expressionistic overtones, remains Miller's most widely admired work. The keen social conscience evident in these plays has continued to manifest itself in Miller's writing. In the Tony Award-winning The Crucible (1953), for instance, he wrote of the witch-hunts in colonial Salem, Mass., and implied a parallel with the congressional investigations into subversion then in progress. The
Analyse the poem 'Ode to a Grecian Urn' and comment on the poetic form and language used and the way they contribute to the meaning and effects of the poem.
Analyse the poem 'Ode to a Grecian Urn' and comment on the poetic form and language used and the way they contribute to the meaning and effects of the poem. In the early 19th century it was not unusual to make a work of art, painting or sculpture a subject of a poem. Taken literally, the poem 'Ode to a Grecian Urn' is a poem about a vase, but Keats has inverted the traditional understanding of physical, tangible objects and transformed them into metaphors for abstract concepts, such as truth and time. An urn is primarily used to preserve the ashes of the dead. The theme of the Ode, accordingly, has to do with the relationship between imagination and actuality, and the supremacy and immortality of a work of art if compared to our ordinary life. With the masterful use of the device of figurative language, Keats has created a melodic, beautifully flowing poem which well serves the purpose he gives it. Keats himself can be assumed to be the speaker, the overall setting is unknown. The tone of the poem reflects the fact that Keats seems truly awed and astonished by the urn he considers. The poem is written in ten-line iambic pentameter throughout, which creates a flowing rhythmic effect. The rhyme scheme is unusual, but Keats breaks the form with this five-part poem. The rhyme pattern is A - B - A - B - C - D - E - D - C - E. There is a pattern of interwoven
Romantic Poetry Anthology
Nurses Song - Blake The Evening Star - Blake The Garden Of Love - Blake Frost At Midnight - Coleridge The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner - Coleridge This Lime Tree Bower My Prison - Coleridge Ode On A Grecian Urn - Keats Ode To A Nightingale - Keats To Autumn - Keats The World Is Too Much With Us - Wordsworth Tintern Abbey - Wordsworth She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways - Wordsworth Romanticism is not about love or romance, it is a system of attributes relating to poetic and artistic practice from the late 18th century to the 1830's. In fact the romantic era cannot be pin pointed to a particular century. Instead it is said that Romanticism started around 1789, when the French Revolution had begun, and ended when Queen Victoria took to the throne in 1836. Romanticism was a reaction against poetry of the previous period. 18th Century poetry was, amongst other things, harmonious, graceful and balanced. Romantic poetry was a revolution and an innovation. Wordsworth stated that it was the 'real language of men'. There are six key figures on Romanticism; the first generation consisted of William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The second generation, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats. As there would be in many different eras and periods, there are certain characteristics of Romantic Poetry, although not all of them would be found in a single
Who was John Locke?
John Locke, a prominent English scholar of the 17th century, was one of the first of many philosophers who delved into the ideas of the laws of nature, state of nature, natural rights, and the social contract. By creating hypothetical situations in which humans interact with one another in an attempt to form a society and government, he formulated several theories about human nature itself. Using these situations, he also attempted to articulate the basic wants and needs of man. What resulted were clear-cut and fairly accurate theories about humankind. Making generalizations about the entire human race is a grand task indeed, however Locke faces the challenge exceptionally. Stating that there are laws of nature, laws which are active only in one's conscience, he explains that they oblige everyone not to hurt "another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions..." This is resting solely on the person himself - if this person has an active and good conscience, then this law will apply; not all people are good, however. This theory about the conscience of individuals is very accurate, especially in stating that people depend on a government to make sure that the laws of nature are enforced - and the government depends on the people's consent to enforce them. Without government, one would have no repercussions for violating the law of nature, and thus chaos would ensue, with
What view of human nature does Stevenson present in the novel, 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'?
'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' Coursework What view of human nature does Stevenson present in the novel, 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'? In this essay I aim to define what view of human nature Stevenson has and how he portrays this in the book. I will also explore what I believe human nature to be and how collectively Jekyll and Hyde represent all people. One of the best ways in which Stevenson represents human nature is through Hyde. Jekyll/Hyde is one of the most complex characters in any book from the 19th century, or indeed, from any book that has been written to date. Hyde is someone who gives off an inexplicable aura of evil. People are instantly filled with hatred upon seeing him. 'I had taken a loathing to the gentleman at first sight. So had the child's family... Sawbones turned sick and white with the desire to kill him...not all of these together could explain the hitherto disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr Utterson regarded him...I never saw a man I so disliked, yet I scarce know why.' He is short, ugly, and pure evil. 'a little man...so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me...some damned Juggernaut...had Satan's signature upon his face.' On more than one occasion he is described as being deformed. Upon meeting him Utterson sees Hyde as 'pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression of deformity without any notable
Tony Kytes The Arch Deceiver
Introduction Tony is a nice and gentle man but he has a thing with the ladies and he has a problem in the little town of Wessex that he living in. There are three women that he likes and one of them is the one he wants but he cannot seem to make his mind up. These three ladies are called 'Milly Richards', 'Unity Sallet' and 'Hannah' at the moment Tony is engaged to Milly Richards and is getting seduced by the other two women. He gets caught be Milly and she doesn't care what other women think or say to Tony. She can trust Tony and that he wouldn't go with any of them women. All that Tony has to do is wake up and smell the coffee and marry Milly and stop fooling around with those other two women. Through out the essay I will discuss the matter in more detail. Tony is a womaniser it shows this in the text e.g. "O the petticoats went off and the breeches went on? ". Tony says this in a religious manor as if having sex with women is like his religion. Tony does have a sensitive side though for example "Milly Richards, a nice, light, small, tender, little thing and soon said that they were engaged to be married". He talks about Milly in a soft and tender way like he truly did love Milly and it was his right choice. Again it shows Tony is a womaniser because he is seeing other women and they are called Unity Sallet and Hannah, he still cannot make his mind up. But he is a small
Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw makes more sense when it is read in the context of the history of Victorian Ghost Stories. Do you agree with this assessment? Discuss in relation to the Turn of the Screw and at least one other ghost story. The Turn on the Screw written in 1898 has lent itself to many different interpretations, from the supernatural to the hallucinationist. Critics use these elucidations to attempt to determine what the nature of evil within the story actually is. I present that The Turn of the Screw's narrative remains deliberately ambiguous and does not make more sense when it is read in the context of the history of the Victorian ghost story. If the reader decided at the start of the novella that the Governess was insane, then it would be read as a straight piece on the insanity of the woman. We would take the death of Miles as deliberate, or if not deliberate solely the Governess's fault. By presenting the tale in the format of a Victorian Ghost story, it allows James to use the power of the fictional narrative to manipulate the reader. Due to the Gothic genre's popularity in the late nineteenth century, James's choice of style for his novella could be viewed as a deliberate façade for an examination into the depths of the human psyche. I would argue that The Turn of the Screw makes more sense when read alongside works such as William James's Principles of