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Christopher Marlowe's work and style
Marlowe's writing style
Christopher Marlowe's work and style
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Recommended: Christopher Marlowe's work and style
Digressions in Venus and Adonis and Hero and Leander
The poems Venus & Adonis and Hero & Leander have many similarities. Venus & Adonis, written by William Shakespeare (1593), is the story of lovesick Venus and innocent Adonis. Venus attempts to convince Adonis to have intimate relations with her. In the poem Hero & Leander, written by Christopher Marlowe (1598), Leander convinces the beautiful Hero to consummate their relationship despite her arguments. Another similarity of the two works is the digressions within the poems. In V&A, the digression involves two horses that are overcome by lust and eventually run off to mate in the woods. The digression in Hero & Leander is also sexual in nature. It involves Neptune attempting to seduce Leander. The digressions in V&A and Hero & Leander have parallel references to the work as a whole. The digressions also have similar qualities that indicate the influence of Shakespeare on Marlowe.
The digression in Venus & Adonis occurs during the first one third of the poem. Shakespeare chooses to have the horses mirror the behavior of Venus and Adonis. The stallion, Adonis’ horse, mimics the actions of Venus. The stallion is the aggressor in the relationship; it is he who approaches the jennet. He shows off his strength and beauty by prancing and stamping on the ground. After his displays of strength and power the stallion, “looks upon his love, and neighs unto her” (Shakespeare 41). It is clear that the horse is entreating the jennet to submit to him sexually.
When Shakespeare describes the stallion he states that, “this horse excel a common one” (293). This quote directly relates the horse to Venus. The reader knows that Venus is of uncommon status, she is a god and therefore is immortal. Shakespeare uses this knowledge to link the two characters. Venus is also very aggressive in her relationship with Adonis. Shakespeare humorously describes the way Venus demonstrates her strength in a way similar to the stallion. Venus takes, “over one arm the lusty courser’s rein, Under the other her tender boy” (31-32). Venus is attempting to use strength to get her love, the way the stallion used his strength. Shakespeare is making a reference to how Venus’ is taking what is customarily the male role.
The actions of the jennet in the digression can be compared to the actions of Adonis in the poem.
Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is set in Verona Italy. It is a tale of two teenage lovers who risk their lives in order to be united, despite the hatred existing between their families. In both sonnets 116, and the play , love is conveyed as an endless ,everlasting and eternal adventure. Throughout this essay, I aim to evaluate and examine the way the idea of romantic love is presented in Romeo and Juliet and a selection of poetry.
In similar fashion, Lily B. Campbell in Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes indicates the perfect type of love emanating from both the heroine and the general:
Shakespeare uses Lucentio and Tranio's relationship in the play as an ideal for both the master and servant relationship as well as gender relationships. Though Lucentio is the master, he always treats Tranio with respect and kind words. When the pair arrives in Padua, Lucentio tells Tranio that he his happy that he is with him: "And by my father's love and leave am arm'd with his good will and thy good company, my trusty servant well approv'd in all." [1] Rather than abusing his power over Tranio, he is grateful for him. In return Tranio refers to Lucentio as "gentle master mine" and "good master." [2]
Comparison of the Poets' Representation of the Lover in To His Coy Mistress and Porphyria's Lover
The play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is written by a man named William Shakespeare, famous for his poetry, play writing and known for shaping the English Language. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is based on a tragedy of characters Romeo and Juliet who die reuniting their families after many years of hatred. In this essay I am going to be exploring how the writer uses religious imagery in Act 1 Scene 5, love shown in Act 2 Scene 2, love seen to be deathly Act 5 Scene 3 and an analysis of two poems with comparisons to Romeo and Juliet and each other.
Far easier than finding inferior works from this cornucopia of verse would be to snatch and guard his more elaborate, brilliant works such as sonnet XVIII. These lucky few need very little explanation for they speak for themselves. Scholarly glosses, profound explanations, and critic's interpretations - needed in the more ambiguous sonnets - are not only unneeded in these sonnets but sometimes unwanted. It is an insult to the intellect of the reader for a scholar to be as presumptuous with these jewels of verse to think that it needs someone asserting meaning ex cathedra. They have their distinguished place because, after slow and careful reading, one may bask in meaning and beauty, contemplating the sonnets bearing on his life. One does not need a critic to el...
A few examples of key details in the poem are: how Elizabeth I rejects her suitors, the way Venus’ son confidently addresses Elizabeth, and the feeling she gets afterwards. When Elizabeth I was faced with a suitor, she would say to them, “Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more.” Simply put, she would tell her suitors to leave and to refrain from bothering her. Once Elizabeth rejects the wrong guy, (Venus’ son) she does not hear the end of it. Venus’ son spoke to her as if she were inferior to him. He was not fooled by her alluring looks, but instead called her dainty. He claimed he would rid her of all her finery until she dropped her selfish acts. At last the poem comes full circle. Elizabeth I feels a change in herself,
During much of the play, Helena relentlessly chases Demetrius, giving him love no matter how many times he spurns her. While in pursuit of him in the woods, where he tells her that he will never reciprocate her feelings, she tells him, “I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,/The more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (II.i.203-204). She is so desperate to win him over that she lowers her own status, calling herself his dog; no matter how many times he may abuse her, she will always adore him. Out of love, Helena is willing to swallow her pride to prove her devotion to him. More evidence of Helena’s blind love towards Demetrius can be found in her overlooking the flaws in Demetrius’ character. For example, he proves himself to be quite insensitive towards Helena: when they are in the woods, he says he will “leave [her] to the mercy of the wild beasts” (II.i.228) if she doesn’t stop following him. He also says to her, “…I am sick when I do look on thee” (II.i.212). Lastly, he threatens her, saying “…if thou follow me, do not believe/But I shall do thee mischief in the wood” (II.i.237). Helena acknowledges this aspect of his character, though choos...
...line "But being both from me" as the couple's being "away from" the speaker, the line can also imply that the two inhabit his mind (11). With this reading, "To win me soon to hell, my female evil/ Tempteth my better angel from my side" means not that the Dark Lady will cast Shakespeare into misery through her upsetting the triangle, but that her power will shift Shakespeare's mind to the dark side. Her temptation is filled with reference to dirtiness of sin: "And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,/ Wooing his purity with her foul pride" (7-8). "Proud flesh" is the swollen flesh surrounding a wound; thus her "foul pride" may be a pun on her genitalia. The eroticization of her darkness is a salient pointer towards the fascination the poets hold toward darkness; beneath that impure exterior lies a devilish promiscuity unlike that of all the other fair-haired maidens.
In a good overall summation of the article, the PowerPoint explores the ways in which Shakespeare both adhere to Ovid's use of sexuality and the ways in which Shakespeare metamorphosizes it. Ovid is known to have questioned the established Roman masculine ideal, and this Shakespeare takes even farther in Venus and Adonis when he transforms the traditional gender roles of the hunter and hunted. Shakespeare also transforms Petrarchan conventions through the adaptation of Ovid's focus on "mournful love", the power of love, and the pain of vulnerability for members of both sexes in Venus and Adonis and in much of his poetry.
“She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd, She is a woman, therefore may be won, She is Lavinia, therefore must be lov'd” (2.1.6). Demetrius’ obnoxious remark suggests that, since Lavinia is a woman, her sole purpose in life is as a sexual object for men to conquer. This is how many people during Shakespeare’s time thought of women. However, in many of Shakespeare’s writings the females are the dominating characters in the play. Shakespeare’s females, though outsiders in terms of the male-dominated culture in which they live, seem stronger, worthier, more intelligent, more interesting, more attractive in every sense, than the men with whom they are paired.
William Shakespeare, born in 1564 and died in 1616, wrote one hundred and fifty four sonnets in his lifetime. It is said that Shakespeare’s sonnets from 127 to 152 discuss the Dark Lady. Shakespeare appeared to have mixed feelings toward this Dark Lady who was not a portrayal of his actual wife. (Absolute Shakespeare, 2005) This paper will discuss Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138, “When my love swears that she is made of truth”. This Petrarchan sonnet has the rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD in the octave and EFEF, GG in the sestet. The fourteen lined sonnet made its first appearance in William Jaggard’s book titled “The Passionate Pilgrim”. This paper will argue against Edward A. Snow’s article on “Love of Comfort and Despair: A Reading of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138”. Snow believes Sonnet 138 transforms “cynicism and despair” into an “affirmative and idealistic” vision of romance (Snow, 462). However, this paper argues against Snow’s opinion of Sonnet 138 with a different judgement on the Shakespearean sonnet. The argument is that the sonnet expresses the refusal to acknowledge the truth and it portrays the idea of a flawed relationship, as opposed to the picture-perfect love.
Juxtaposing an elevation of Emilia with a punch line diminishing females, Shakespeare explores Iago’s ability to appease those around him to accept his sexism without quarrel. Iago references Emilia’s tongue twice, once negatively, once positively, suggesting Iago changes his public personality with fluidity, but returns to his unconscious belief in female inferiority. Directing the negative mention toward a man and the positive toward Emilia, Iago succeeds at maintaining his masculinity among his peers by reinforcing traditional gender roles, but pacifies Emelia by complimenting her. Shakespeare builds Iago’s joke with phrases such as “She that could think” and “She that in wisdom,” representing a break from traditional thought of women as purely domestic workers without a male’s mental capacity.
In the poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats, the main theme is the idea that beauty is only skin deep and can be an extremely painful emotional experience. The title loosely translates into “the beautiful woman with no mercy”. As we read the poem it becomes clear that the knight had his feelings shattered by this woman on his steed.
From the works of William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser it is clear that some similarities are apparent, however the two poets encompass different writing styles, as well as different topics that relate to each other in their own unique ways. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Spenser’s “Sonnet 75”, both poets speak of love in terms of feelings and actions by using different expressive views, allowing the similar topics to contain clear distinctions. Although Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” and William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” relate in the sense that love is genuine and everlasting, Spenser suggests love more optimistically, whereas Shakespeare focuses on expressing the beauty and stability of love.