The “Flesh” of Boar's-head Tavern, Eastcheap According the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “flesh” has numerous meanings depending on the context one is using it in. The main definition is, “The soft substance consisting of muscle and fat that is found between the skin and bones of an animal or a human” (Oxford). However, in Henry IV 2, Shakespeare uses “flesh” as an adjective to describe the prostitute, Doll Tearsheet in Boar's-head Tavern in love with Falstaff. Specifically, the use of the word “flesh” in the tavern and the people in the scene create a negative, dingy and sinful atmosphere of Boar’s-head. The noun, “flesh” is derived from the Germanic origin, old English word, flaesc, which means “flesh” or “meat” and related to the Dutch word, “vlees” and German word, “fleisch”. In Act 2, Scene 4, “flesh” is used by Falstaff to describe prostitutes that Mistress Quickly allows in the Tavern. Today, we frequently associate the word “flesh” with the old English definition, a part of our body or animal’s body. The word is frequently used a synonym for “skin”, “meat” or “body” as it indicated that it is used to represent a human or animal. In a Biblical reference, the word “flesh” often has a negative connotation to it meaning that it “refers to a sexual behavior regarded as unnatural” (Oxford). This Biblical explanation connects with the popular phrase, “sins of the flesh” that can be explained as actions of unchastity (Oxford). Each of the various meanings of the word “flesh” are relevant to Henry IV 2 because the play uses the word to suggest a sense of impurity and dingy sinfulness being performed and present in the Tavern. In Christianity, the word “flesh” is used in Biblical passages to describe sexual behavior that is ... ... middle of paper ... ...ys that the acts of prostitution are allowed in the Tavern by using the word “flesh” to represent the prostitutes. In this case, Shakespeare uses the word “flesh” to represent the sexually promiscuous, sinful and unnatural acts of Doll Tearsheet in Boar’s-head Tavern. Also, Hal in Henry IV 1 insults Falstaff and his oversized body by using the adjective “flesh”. In both examples from each play, Shakespeare uses the word in a negative way; he is either representing a sinful act of immoral ways or using the word as an insult in the physicality of Falstaff. This differs from todays meaning because one does not often use flesh as an insult towards someone but as a way of describing a part of a body. However, just as Shakespeare uses the word negatively, so do we; “flesh” is usually not used to describe something in positive terms, but in negative and/or gruesome terms.
“…is fallen in the third world was convinced the curl in her empty mouth into gold. Behold. she is alive, gasping on a gloryhole. With a throat so good she could suck a nail through wood. Keep her hands busy and her mouth full. But did you forget Mary Magdalene was once a prostitute” (0:42) This describe the difficult path this woman must choose to stay alive by falling into ways that produce easy income, thus prostitution. This person ‘accepts’ she is making by in order to survive by prostitution work, which it stated “gasping on a gloryholes”. Although prostitution is shunned upon society and that there are risks involve, she was really good at it. Harrison Ines used allusion by comparing the women to Mary Magdalene, she was a prostitute that showed great example of obedience to Jesus and that she was considered a saint among Catholics. This comparison between these two made the women less immoral, since Mary Magdalene was viewed very highly among the Catholics, the woman should be viewed the same way as well. Ines also use a lot of idiom in this part of spoken word such as “…suck a nail through wood.” and “…empty mouth into gold.” These idioms allowed us to visually and emotionally feel empathy toward this woman who work as a
The reader has to ask what is the point of making a “curvy” or describing her lips. The reader has to pay attention to the non-physical details of the nun which talk about she tries to make herself look like she is high class. She wants to impress people around her by using her poor French that was spoken with a Stratford ascent (Line 124-125). The nun would also use her looks to impress the men around her by showing off her forehead or her curves. Chaucer used the nun as his vessel to critique the members of the church on how vain they could be. This vainity was shown by the members of the church by the way they acted and how they tried to obtain objects like a “broche of gold” (Line 160) that made them looked wealthy in which as a member of the church they should not need because of the words Jesus said,” Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew
It is important to notice that Chaucer meant this story to be comical not serious nor moral. The first definition of porn from Merriam-Webster is the depiction of erotic behavior such as in pictures or writing intended to cause sexual arousal. In this story there were no pictures nor writing to cause sexual arousal. Yes, of course there were bits and pieces of sexual relations and activity, but not the point where it caused sexual arousal. The narrat...
It has long been said that the most explicit scene in Coppola’s film occurs right at the beginning of the plot during Jonathan Harker’s imprisonment in Dracula’s castle. Bram Stoker’s original work also managed to make this incident highly eroticized as well, featuring such words and phrases as “voluptuousness” and “wicked, burning desire;” these descriptions, coupled with actions that featured the vampires “licking [their] lips like animal[s],” creates an unmistakable aura of sensuality around the scene (Stoker 42-43). For Victorian writing, this is an almost obscenely sexualized bit of writing, as emphasized by the way Stoker incorporates the word voluptuous no less than three times in this scene, which was a common term associated with carnality in literature at that time. There is a certain amount of erotic anticipation associated with Jonathan’s involuntary reaction to the inevitable, which hints at latent sensuality.
When the author was describing the petrifying appearance of the creature, she made sure to use words that would make us sick to our stomachs in order to get a really good idea across about how simply disgusting this now-animate creature was. She does this by explaining to us how the creature’s “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath”. The thought of seeing something so sickening even makes us make a wry face and try to get the image out of our heads – and that’s exactly the reaction the author is hoping to see from us. This also helps us know how Mr.
“There are idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which is a call Idol of the Marketplace”. As Bacon says in our textbook A World of Ideas, edited by Lee Jacobus in his essay, “ The Four Idols ” on P. 883. The Idol of the Marketplace is mistakes and usual tendencies of all individual that usually use certain languages such as profanity, or slang words when communicating with other people or some types of an argument. When we use the wrong type of context while communicating with other, sometimes it creates the opposite approach of what you actually really meant to say.
The harlots seem to take the humanity out of anyone they come into contact with. Sally Ledger discusses the popularity of this female character in Aesthetic literature and cites “numerous examples of the exoticised, vampire-like sexuality that became associated with […] the decadent movement more generally” (7). Wilde’s “The Harlots’ House” features this vampire-like sexuality. The speaker says to his lover, “The dead are dancing with the dead” (line 26). In this line, he associates the men who visit prostitutes and these women as the same; they are both dead somehow – dead morally or dead to society as deviants. The harlots have sucked the humanity from their visitor and themselves. In regards to women’s status in Victorian society, Jennifer Kelly writes, “the social structure encourages seduction while appearing to condemn it, and women are judged by a moral double standard: when a woman commits a sexual transgression, she is damned forever in the eyes of society” (368-69). The woman is always associated with her sexual activities; they define her – as their seductive dancing and mechanical sexuality define the harlots. Their sexuality is negative because they are not the traditional pure and innocent women. The speaker can only see them then as
In the General Prologue, the first mention of the Summoner is of his “saucefleem” face, marked by pustules and swollen with infection (625-7). Not even “quyk-silver… ne brymstoon,” or mercury and sulphur, could cure the painful mess (629). Leprosy is the probable culprit, but his appearance could also be from a late-stage syphilitic infection, a common sexually transmitted disease. Chaucer’s Tales are fully representative of the unbridled promiscuity of the day, and considering the lack of reliable barrier protection and any adequate form of antibiotic, the latter diagnosis is fully possible. Were the Summoner indeed afflicted with the French Gout, it would shout loudly his masculinity, albeit also his penchant for unclean prostitutes. Yet it is his masculinity that becomes questionable with the introduction of his traveling
The Wife of Bath is known as one of the world’s first feminists. Her ability to use her femininity to take advantage of men is acknowledged by many who read Chaucer’s anthology. He writes in line 470 of the anthology, “Gat-toothed was she, soothly for to saye...” By saying this, Chaucer is indicating that the Wife of Bath can appear very loving to men. By her having a gap between her teeth, she is showing a sign of amorousness. Chaucer is furthering this sign into translating that the Wife of Bath is considered attractive by a variety of men. In lines 477 to 478, Geoffrey Chaucer writes, “Of remedies of love she knew parchaunce, for she coude of that art the olde daunce.” Most men may not have realized, but the Wife of Bath knew how to charm just about any man. She had been with so many men that nothing is new to her. This leads one to believe she is very knowledgable and cunning, not just a woman in need of a man’s fortune. It takes an astute observer, like Chaucer, to understand
From the start of Romeo and Juliet in Act 1.1 Sampson says the word “maidenhead” which means virginity and “thrust his maids”, the word “ thrust” is often associated with force and violence .This implies that Sampson is going to take the virginity of the women ferociously against their will, in other words he is going to rape them .Additionally the word “his” suggest that women are personal possessions that belong to a men .In this scene women are presented to be sex objects for men to use and dispose of , notice the word “maidenhead “ is reiterated varies times throughout the play. This emphasizes that women are only wanted for their long preserved virginity which shows men have presented women to be sex objects.
Symbols are present in every person’s daily life. Symbols are seen everywhere, whether it is through art, religion, culture, or road signs, they are all around. Blood is a symbol that is seen in art, religion, literature and many other visual forms. Its direct connection to the human body is a significant aspect of its symbolism. People in the medieval period, which was right before Shakespeare’s time, thought that the blood was a person’s life force, and to some extent they were right. Literature uses blood to represent a variety of things such as a character’s desires, emotions and conscience. In the play “Macbeth,” by William Shakespeare, blood symbolizes many things, however, the most significant
In the very beginning of chapter 7, Offred contemplates the words "lie" and "lay". She recalls the word "lay" as a colloquial term used to describe the action of performing sexual relations, for example, "Even men used to say, I'd like to get laid. Though sometimes they said, I'd like to lay her." Atwood's purpose in presenting this was to portray the objectification of women by men even in a pre-Gilead community. Men would often express the reasonable, yet considerably sinful, desire to "get laid", which portrays sex as not an act of love or for procreation, but as an act committed for the sole purpose of pleasure and ultimately Lust, one of the Seven Deadly Sins classified by the Catholic Church.
In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer opens describing twenty-nine people who are going on a pilgrimage. Each person has a dissimilar personality that we can recognize from the way people behave today. He creates The Wife of Bath to stand out more compared to the other characters that are involved in these stories. In Chaucer’s “General Prologue,” the Wife of Bath was described as a woman who was intentionally described in an obvious way to provoke a shocking response. The Wife carries a lot of experience with things; she is a worldly person and has experience in the ways of the world in a sense of love and sex. Her clothes, physical features and references to her past are intentionally discussed by Chaucer causing the reader to wonder how well she is such a flamboyant and extravagant character. She shows off her clothes with evident pride, her face is wreathed in heavy cloth, her stockings are a fine scarlet color, and the leather in her shoed is soft and fresh. Her clothing symbolizes to the reader that she is not fearful or shy, and also shows off her expertise as a weaver.
Gulliver scrutinizes the women, seeing everything amplified, inspecting as if it were through a microscope. Gulliver speaks about the Brobdingnag women, and when he does, it is with nothing but disgust. Viewing the bodies of the women Gulliver points out many things to dislike about women physically. The skin of the women is described as too rough, no color to their skin, they are very oily. Carrying on with the negativity towards women physicality, He is disgusted by their aroma, is disgusted with their gigantic blemishes, pores, acne and moles. (quote) In order to expose the women to the best of ability Gulliver uses the maids of honor to point out the flaws in women, which are looked passed. Describing how disgusted he was when he was set down on one of the maid’s breast for recreation. He talks about their bodies as an un-tempting sight, in Gulliver’s words “very far from being a tempting sight.”(page) Gulliver makes a connection with the women of England as he makes it clear they have these same flaws but they are unnoticeable due to them being the same size as he is. “This made me reflect upon the fair skin of our English ladies, who appear so beautiful to us only because they are our own size, and their defects not to be seen but through a magnifying glass, where we find by experiment that the smoothest whitest skins look rough and coarse and ill coloured.”(page)Being that
...th of the commodity of virginity was held in such high regard that talk of sex was relegated to that which took place for a price by a whore .