Otto Boudet
Ms. Ramirez
British Literature 1600
4 December 2013
The Mind of Thomas Nashe: An Enigma
Thomas Nashe is thought to be one of the world’s first picaresque writers. Although he is a picaresque writer, critics have a hard time characterizing his works due to his incoherent literary structure. Thomas Nashe has been pinned as an enigma of the literary community as his writing often portrays multiple writing styles all at once. “The Unfortunate Traveller” is the epitome of this. It is categorized as a picaresque novel, but it is a gruesome and violent story. The story is almost a paradox itself. Thomas Nashe, born in 1567, lived in the small town of Lowestroft, Suffolk. Not much is known of his early life, other than that his father was a curate and that he was baptized at his father’s church. He went on to study at the University of St. Johns at Cambridge where he acquired his bachelors degree. Little is known on whether his time at college influenced his works.
After his time at college he moved to London, where he was hired by the ecclesiastical authorities to write pamphlets and essays in an attempt to discredit a man know as “Martin Marprelate” (Kinney Page 1). This alias was used by a man who was writing colloquial speeches regarding the episcopacy of the Anglican Church. Nashe might have not been one of the main contributors to the counterattack against “Martin Marprelate,” but he was able to extract a sort of writing style from the experience. After his excursion with the Anglican Church, his writing became more spontaneous and unstudied (Donno Page 1).
This spontaneous and unstudied style was more prominent in his early works such as “The Anatomie of Unsertantie" and the preface of Robert Greene’s “Menapho...
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...e Unfortunate Traveller.” What angered the writers the most, was the accuracy of what Thomas Nashe was saying, even if it was in a sarcastic tone. Not only did he anger authors, poets, and pamphleteers, but he also angered the British government. Although his jeers were not directed towards the government, Nashe’s use of the atrocities throughout the country was thoroughly disliked. The government believed that his rendition of the gross actions of England’s people would tarnish its reputation.
Thomas Nashe is coined with being one of the world’s first picaresque writers. It is quite ironic how after centuries of debate concerning his eloquent pamphlets and gruesome narratives that he is now categorized under a satirical genre. Although he did incorporate this satire and sarcasm in many of works, it seems unjust to confine him to the one genre.
During the height of the British Empire—a time of exploration, discovery and colonization—lower class citizens of Great Britain were suffering under the weight of upper-class oppression. Many of these farmers, braziers, blacksmiths and etcetera passed the long arduous hours of manual labor by daydreaming of freedom, adventure, excitement and most of all landownership in the New World. The class system of eighteenth century England was rigid and restrictive to upward mobility; whereas, the New World was rumored to be a place where a man of any stripe could establish himself. Amongst these tired and sweaty daydreamers, a handful of ambitious men were not content to simply dream. These few courageous young lads were willing to take the risks of sea travel to find out for themselves if the rumors were true. Thus, the men made their arrangements and braved the howling gales and icy waters of the North Atlantic in search of their destiny. Joseph Howse was amongst the men who chased their dreams through the rigorous demands of the inhospitable landscape of Prince Rupert’s Land. Howse may have shared their enthusiasm about what lay ahead in the New World, but he did not share their motives.
Both Saul Indian Horse and Winston Smith use writing as a means of survival from repression. In Indian Horse, Saul uses writing as a means of seeing what made him turn away from the pain of his rape and cease repressing its happening; for him survive and live on with his life. Saul writes memoirs to find the hidden answers of why he turned to violence and alcoholism and using them to break free of the cycle. From pages two to three Saul says “They say I can’t understand where I’m going if I don’t understand where I’ve been. The answers are within me, according to them. By telling our stories, hardcore drunks like me can set ourselves free from the bottle and the life that took us there …. So Moses gave me permission to write things down. So
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens explores the concept of rebirth (physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally) through the exploits of Doctor Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton. Some major keys in his ideas of being resurrected are physical and mental recovery, escaping an unworthy past for a worthy cause, and the nobility of sacrifice.
An artwork will consist of different elements that artists bring together to create different forms of art from paintings, sculptures, movies and more. These elements make up what a viewer sees and to help them understand. In the painting Twilight in the Wilderness created by Frederic Edwin Church in 1860 on page 106, a landscape depicting a sun setting behind rows of mountains is seen. In this painting, Church used specific elements to draw the viewer’s attention directly to the middle of the painting that consisted of the sun. Church primarily uses contrast to attract attention, but it is the different aspects of contrast that he uses that makes the painting come together. In Twilight in the Wilderness, Church uses color, rhythm, and focal
There are two vastly differing works of literature that employ similar elements of satire, whether the story is long or short, essay or novella. In these two works, the authors bring light to ongoing social, political, and philosophical issues of their time and age. The two works I am referring to are Jonathan Swift’s satirical essay, A Modest Proposal, and Voltaire’s novella, Candide, or Optimism. In both A Modest Proposal and Candide, there is a portrayal of irony, cold logic and reasoning rather than emotion, and misguided philosophy. Exploring the issues within these texts can implement a better understanding of not only the literature itself, but also the historical context and the issues of the time. By delving even deeper into these works, one will begin to see the connection that can be made between these texts.
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
The new form was not limited to literature alone, William Hogarth expanded Satire to include art as well. His series of paintings, A Rake's Progress, narrate the life of a young man in eighteenth century London. Hogarth's paintings also illustrate that anything can be the object of satire, as he made fun of every aspect of life, not simply the institutions of religion, science, and politics. Although not all Satire dealt with religion, science and politics, the most notable satirist of the time, Voltaire confined his writings to these subjects. His style, which has been widely used in our time, is to portray a member of the society he is satirizing as foolish and hypocritical. In one of his more famous works, Candide, Voltaire repeatedly mocks the supposedly all-knowing philosophers with the character of Dr. Pangloss, professor of "metaphysicotheologicocosmolo-nigology" (Lamm 175). Voltaire portrays this man of science as very misguided, not the brilliant thinker one would expect. Evidence of this is seen in the Dr.'s proudest accomplishment, "he proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause (Lamm 175).
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Jonathan Swift uses Gulliver travels to somewhat criticize the English society. Gulliver visits four society’s that each have likeness back to England. He sees the Houyhnhnms, Laputa, Brobdingnag, and Lilliputian who all share similar problems. Swift successfully creates the satiric mode by pointing out the same flaws of England through a different society to make the social ills apparent to the reader.
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.
"The Wanderer." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993. 68-70.
What is specific about 18th century travel writing in particular? Pratt invents the term “anti-conquest” to describe how through the innocent...
Gulliver's Travels reflects characters to the reader in numerous inventively nauseating ways. Quick uses his imaginative revamping of every day life to make the meanest, most clever, dirtiest tirade of the whole eighteenth century. Throughout this novel, Swift utilizes amazing misrepresentation and parody to make a figurative association between the distinctive societies experienced on Lemuel Gulliver's excursions and about his own particular society, reprimanding his general public's traditions.