James Chambers
English 12H Period 3
Mrs. Chappell
5/16/14
Background: Edmund Spenser was a poet who is most famous for his work “The Faerie Queen”. Unfortunately his ma¬¬-ster piece went unfinished. Spenser also held minor offices in Ireland. He owned and lived in the castle Kilcolman in county Cork until 1598 when the Tyrone rebellion burned his castle down because he was a tyrant who tortured and prosecuted the Irish people. He even suggested he favored the annihilation of the Irish people in his work “A View of the Present State of Ireland”.
In 1552 Edmund Spenser was born in to a middle class family in East Smithfield, London. It is thought that he might be the son of John Spenser, a free journeyman cloth maker in East Smithfield, London but it cannot be confirmed. Whoever his parents were it is likely that his origins were in Lancashire where he would have had connections with prominent local families, such as the Norwells and the Towneleys. Spenser had one sister named Sarah, and numerous brothers. As a child, Spenser attended Merchant Taylors' school starting in 1561. His teacher was a celebrated humanist and pedagogical writer named Richard Mulcaster. Spenser's place at the school may have been secured by a relative called Nicholas Spenser, who was the warden of the school at the time. While Spenser was a student at the school, a man by the name of Robert Nowell is said to have supported Spenser. Spenser was taught about the works of Cato, Caesar, Horace, Lucan, and Homer while attending Merchant Taylors School. He also studied the rhetorical models of Cicero, Vives, and Erasmus; additionally he was educated extensively in Latin while at the school. Many of the students also studied Greek and Hebrew for ...
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...nce in Ireland, where a series of increasingly important positions and the acquisition of land kept him for nearly twenty years. A turning point in his career came in 1589, when he spent one more year at court under the patronage of his friend Walter Raleigh, who helped him publish the first books of The Faerie Queene in 1590. In 1594 Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle; their courtship and marriage are immortalized in Spenser's sonnet sequence, the Amoretti, and his wedding ode, the "Epithalamion" (1595). In 1598 political unrest in Ireland forced Spenser and his family to flee the country; his Irish estate, Kilcomen Castle, was destroyed in Tyrone's Rebellion. They went to London, where Spenser died soon after. He is buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. At his burial the leading poets of the day gathered in a ceremony to toss commendatory verses into his tomb.
In The Faerie Queene, Spenser presents an eloquent and captivating representation of the Roman Catholic Church, her hierarchy, and patrons as the malevolent forces pitted against England in her exploits as Epic Hero. A discussion of this layer of the allegory for the work in its entirety would be a book in and of itself, so, for the purposes of this exercise, the focus will be confined to Book I, Canto 1, through the vanquishing of the dragon, Errour. Even in this small section of the work, however, it will be evident that Spenser very much took to heart both his duty as an Englishman to honour Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth I, and his duty as a Protestant Christian to champion the Church of England. The purpose of this exercise is not to prove whether Spenser was correct in his assertions, but to explore the manner in which he sets forth his views; it is, therefore, written from the position that his views are righteous, in the interest of eliminating the need for multiple caveats stating that the ideas herein are an interpretation of Spenser's beliefs. That being said, Spenser's multi-layered allegory sets him apart as perhaps the first Anglican Apologist, in whose footsteps C.S. Lewis would later follow with his own deeply symbolic tales. That Spenser displayed the literary and imaginative prowess to lay down so many layers of richly crafted allegorical fabric has made The Faerie Queene a work for the ages, both as lessons in English and Ecclesiastical history and as a fine example of the enduring beauty of the Language.
Ireland’s purpose is to show how Chaucer had a good example to show his final order to his audience. He establishes a reflecting tone for explaining the Wife of Bath’s sovereignty. This work is significant because of the comparison between The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue. (Ireland 10)
Death is an eternal mystery and the most controversial subject stemming from human inexperience. Its inescapability and uncertainty can give insights on the core principles and vulnerability of human nature. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet he skilfully makes use of death as a lashing force to explore the depths of his characters along the way illustrating man’s continual dilemma “To be or not to be”?
One might say that Hamlet could be linked to many news articles today, specifically, consider the case featuring the Bever teens. These teens really didn’t have a motive behind their actions. Hamlet didn’t have a specific motive other than revenge, and the Bever brothers possibly had the same mind set. Maybe their parents didn’t treat them fairly, or possibly they struggled with coping with these parent struggles, just like Hamlet. He was still coping with his father’s death and his mom got over it pretty quickly. That could be a reason why Hamlet was out for revenge. Hamlet came across as a confused man. He was a very passionate man and then he descended into a deep, dark state of depression. A conclusion could be made for the brothers also.
More tragic play The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark is the most popular works of William Shakespeare. Probably the popularity of this play lies in the use of character of Hamlet in exemplifying the human mind through its complex workings. Hamlet’s internal dilemma of making the decision whether he should revenge the death of his father or not was a crucial turn in his life as the state of mind was the main reason which effected the decision power one makes in his life. His uncle Claudius was the one who murdered his father and the moment when the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears and asks Hamlet as to when the revenge of his foul and most unnatural murder is to take place. From this point onward Hamlet is under a constant dilemma. He does not find himself ready to take the revenge. If Hamlet had killed Claudius at the first opportunity than the revenge would have been taken but his internal dilemma would have never been solved. This play became very popular and the reason for the popularity was Shakespeare’s use of the character Hamlet and through this character he has tried to exemplify the complex workings of human’s mind. Shakespeare used emotion, reason and attitude of Hamlet to allow the readers to form an opinion or make a judgment about the basic aspects of the life of human beings. The reason the prince could not take the revenge of his father’s death was that he was a man of great moral integrity and to take revenge was an act which was against his deepest principals. Some of the other behaviors of the prince was that after the death of his father Hamlet became so disenchanted with his life that he lost all his desire and will to take any kind of revenge. Due to the delay in revenge Shakespeare was able to develop th...
One of William Shakespeare’s greatest works is a play entitled Hamlet. This play is about Prince Hamlet whose father, the king, was killed by his Uncle, Claudius, who then took the throne. Shortly after the death of his father, Gertrude, his mother, married Claudius. His father comes back as a ghost and tells him about the murder and asks him to seek revenge on Claudius. This is when a great controversy arises that is debatable to this day. Hamlet begins to act mad to set up his revenge on Claudius. The question is, does Hamlet still truly possess his sanity, or is he really mad?
The relationship between Odysseus and his wife Penelope is one of loyalty, love, and faith. Both characters are driven by these characteristics. Odysseus displays his loyalty in his constant battle to get home to his wife. This love helps him persevere through the many hardships that he encounters on his journey home. Odysseus spent 20 years trying to return to his home in Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. Along the way he manages to offend both gods and mortals, but through his intelligence, and the guidance of Athena, he manages to finally return home. There he discovers that his home has been overrun by suitors attempting to win Penelope’s hand in marriage. The suitors believed that Odysseus was dead. Odysseus and his son, Telemachus,
Some of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters are insiders who become outsiders in both a figurative and a literal sense; these characters struggle to find their place in society. Edmund an unwanted illegitimate son and Iago a foreigner are exceptions and are accepted in their community, but they are driven by their desire for evil, as a result of their second-class status. Although they are well integrated and accepted by respected characters they become obsessed with their hatred and their desire for revenge, hate, and greed, lead them to create mayhem. Both Iago and Edmund would ultimately become outsiders as a result of their own actions.
Chaucer was born in 1343 in London, although the exact date and location of his birth are not known. His father and grandfather were both London vintners and before that, for several generations, the family were merchants in Ipswich. His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffrey's father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the twelve year old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the £250 fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure, upper middle-class, if not in the elite. John married Agnes Copton, who in 1349 inherited property including 24 shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton, who is described as the "moneyer" at the Tower of London.
In the play Hamlet, Hamlet mentions to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that “Denmark’s a prison.”(Act 2 Scene 2 Line 262) Throughout the play, it is made apparent that there is no physical entity that is imprisoning Hamlet. Rather, Hamlet is mentally imprisoned by his mind. Throughout the play, Hamlet is physically free to do many things, but his mind traps him into taking action on some things and prevents him from doing other things. He does not wish to murder Claudius but is bound by vow to commit the act. Whenever he wishes to commit suicide, his beliefs prevent him from doing so. Throughout the play, Hamlet feels as if he is in a prison, as he is being constantly watched by everybody.
“William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was and English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s preeminent dramatist” (vodppl.upm.edu 2). He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK, he also passed away in his hometown. “When Shakespeare died in 1616 the event was barely noticed” (Epstein 7). “Shakespeare’s family was initially prosperous but began having financial difficulties in the 1570’s” (Allen 325). “Shakespeare gained his education by attending the local grammar school, King’s New School, where the curriculum stressed a classic education of Greek mythology and roman comedy”(shakespeareinamericancomunites.org 1). He never carried his educational career to a higher level as in a university. “William Shakespeare was not recognized as an actor, poet, and playwright until 1592” (Allen 346).
Will Hamlet avenge his father’s death? Who killed King Hamlet? Is Hamlet really mad? These are the things that keeps the reader intrigued throughout Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, is shown to be the tragic hero of the play. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. A Greek philosopher, by the name of Aristotle, said that any tragic hero must have a tragic flaw. Hamlet is a perfect example of a tragic hero because of the many tragic flaws he has. Hamlet also experiences suffering in the play and he also learns lessons. The tragic hero is an important character; without one, there wouldn’t be a tragic play.
Madness is a state-of-mind were a person loses their sanity, they are mentally ill. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet meets his deceased father in a ghost form only to inform him of who caused his death and wants revenge. Now Hamlet must avenge his father's death, and the only way he can do it in a less obvious approach is by acting mad. But as the play continues, it becomes a lot harder to tell if Hamlet is still sane due to his actions. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare makes Hamlet's madness appear real but only to prove that he was only acting as if he were mad.
Differing slightly from the traditional Greek example of a “wedding lyric,” (Britannica) Edmund Spenser’s Epithalamion is Spenser’s way of sharing both his fears and apprehensions, but also his hope and optimism in regards to his own new marriage to Elizabeth Boyle in 1594. The entire poem is written from the bridegroom’s point of view; from the moment he awakens on the wedding day, to the night, after the couple has consummated their nuptials. The poem’s structure and form are extremely complicated and often highly debated, but there are obvious patterns and insight in the poem’s form in connection to time. The most important interpretation of Spenser’s structure is the number of stanzas in direct correlation to the number of hours in a day. Thematically, the continuous change of tone in the poem during the 16th stanza - when the wedding day turns to the wedding night – suggests that, despite Spenser’s immense joy in his new marriage, he has deep fears regarding time, and the possibly damning effects time may have on his wedded bliss.
Although Hamlet has many significant soliloquies throughout the play, two show very different sides of Hamlet’s character to the naked eye. His “O all you host…” soliloquy portrays an enraged, passionate Hamlet while his “O, what a rogue…” demonstrates how Hamlet’s rationality has stopped him from taking action. Both soliloquies use dark diction, vivid, scholarly imagery and syntax to characterize Hamlet, and portray common Shakespearean themes of revenge and deception.