Medieval and Renaissance
Part I
- William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet
The passage develops two main characters of the play, with Romeo’s speaker, and he is referring to Juliet, her lover. It portrays Romeo’s feelings towards Juliet; he refers to her as the light given that the place was full of darkness. He explores her beauty to that of the sun as her light even makes the moon envious. According to Romeo, the moon is superior to Juliet as he refers to her as the maid, but she still outshines it. The passage relates to the work’s plot as it is the sense that ensures the prevalence of the love story between Rome and Juliet. In this passage, he had sneaked in to see Juliet, and he could get a view of her from the balcony even though it was at night. It results in the development of the greatest love story that is still talked about.
A major theme significant in William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is love. The passage contributes to the theme’s enlightenment as it portrays the love existing between Rome and Juliet. Even in darkness, Rome still finds a way to see his lover, and he can see her clearly from a balcony. He is in a position to describe her beauty form his point of view. The passage employs renaissance in its portrayal as the author tried to capture the beauty in a modern way. Romeo compares Juliet’s beauty to that of the sun and implies that it makes the moon jealous.
- Edmund Spenser, the Faerie Queen
The passage
- William Shakespeare, A midnight summer Night’s Dream
The passage explores the relationship between two main characters, Hernia and Helena. Hernia initiates the conversation, and it is about a man who loves her. She insists that she does not have feelings for him and treats him unfairly, but the man still portrays love towards her. On the other hand, Helena likes the man in question as she wishes she had a similar frown to Hernia so he could love her. Hernia consoles her, saying that the man will not see her again as she plans to escape with her lover. The passage relates to the story’s plot as it brings in the idea of Hernia and her lover escaping. The event resulting in the conversation is the plan that Hernia and her lover Lysander have, which is to escape from issues around them that hinder their love. It is preceded by them escaping, and Hernia is telling Helena their secret.
A major theme in this story is love; the passage contributes to developing the theme as the two ladies engage in a conversation about love. They both confess their love for two different men, although the man Helena loves is in love with Hernia than her. Helena, on the other hand, loves Lysander. To ensure every love blossom, Hernia and her lover choose to escape the area. The passage uses resonance in its development depicted by the beauty of modern language to illustrate the two characters’ different feelings.
- Anonymous Everyone
The passage focuses on the relationship between two characters, Death and Everyman, exploring the theme of Death and morality. Death is a visitor to everyone, and he says that Everyman is subject to Death; thus, they all fear him. However, he warns Everyman that if he takes him, he will be judged by God based on his deeds. Everyman then seeks to portray only good deeds to have favor in the eyes of God. The passage is in line with the story’s plot as the event leading to it is associated with the visit of Death to Everyman. As a result of Death’s advice to Everyman it leads to the subsequent events where he tries to summon his good deeds to ensure he gets to heaven.
A major theme in Anonymous Everyone is morality, and the passage goes a long way in developing it. According to the passage, Everyman is subject to Death and that it is God’s commandment. It makes Everyone cautious as he reflects upon his deeds to see whether he is ready for Death. In line with this, he aims to act morally upright to receive favor upon God. The passage portrays a religious aspect that is concerning today’s religious beliefs. That everyone is afraid of Death, and God is the judge of everyone. Moreover, he is the commander as his commandments are to be followed.
- Anonymous, Sir Gawain, and the Green Knight
The passage dives deep into Gawain’s character, narrating how he underwent challenges through the various adventure events that befell him. It gives an insight into how he fell victim to physical pleasures by falling in love with a married woman. It portrays his ability to acknowledge his mistakes as he returns home even though he is aware the king will find him. He is received with joy and forgiven of his vices. The passage concerns the work’s plot as it explores the events happening before the return of Gawain. The event leading to the passage is Gawain’s decision to be back home, and it is proceeded by the embrace Gawain received from Arthur and his court.
Anonymous sir Gawain and Arthur aim to seek the theme of religious virtue, especially forgiveness. The particular passage is essential in achieving the theme as it portrays the forgiveness Gawain is granted based on how he is received with celebrations by everyone. The passage portrays religious aspects concerning people’s practices. It promotes the virtue of forgiveness and embracing lost souls.
- William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 1
The passage explores the relationship between two speakers concerning beauty and how it should be maintained. The first speaker questions the second speaker why he chose to waste his beauty by not procuring to pass it to his heirs. According to the first speaker, beauty should be appreciated and maintained, and the only way to achieve that is through procreation. The passage relates to the plot of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 1 as it focuses on the maintenance of beautiful creatures in the world. As a result, there emerges the need to procreate hence resulting in the passage of human life that proceeds the work.
One main theme in Sonnet 1 is the preservation of beauty; it in line with the passage as it explores the need for preservation of beauty. According to speaker one, beauty should not be put to waste; hence procreation should be carried to ensure when older people pass away, their young ones will ensure continued beauty. The passage captures the social, cultural aspects of life where people have been portrayed to desire beauty. As a result, they tend to have young ones to ensure beauty continues to exist even in the parents’ absence.
- John Milton’s Paradise Lost
The passage explores Satan’s character; it contains words that were said to him to his followers who had left heaven. He seems authoritative and an influencer as he left heaven and had followers on his side. Through the passage, he tries to reason out with his followers on what to do to defeat God as it seemed impossible. They contemplate whether to go back and apologize to God, but their pride gets the better of them. The passage relates to the passage as the event leading to it is Satan’s defeat by God as he was trying to wage war against him. It is followed by Satan continuing to find a way to defeat God and the choice of refusing to ask for forgiveness to be allowed back to heaven.
The theme of God’s supernatural ability has been evoked in Paradise Lost; the passage ensures the theme’s depiction. Satan and his team admit that they have no power to defeat God; they acknowledge that waging war against God will result in their defeat again; they even consider asking for forgiveness. The passage resonates with a religious aspect as it explores the powers of God regarding his supernatural nature. It portrays God as one who should be feared and respected.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales
The passage focuses on the development of a young man who is one of the main characters. The man seems to have fallen in love, and he likes it as he observes the woman he likes, the Wife of Bath. He even sees her as being beautiful and young, even though she was old. He goes ahead to hold her lovingly and kisses her symbolizing their love. The passage relates to the plot of the story as it is initiated by the event where the woman of Bath saves the young man from Death due to sexual harassment to young women. It is followed by the event where they live happily with the woman of Bath flourishing their love.
The wife of Bath’s tales explores the theme of marriage, which the passage contributes to its development. The passage reflects on the love shared by the woman of Bath and the young man. As a result of their love, they develop feelings that turn into marriage in the end. The passage focuses on the social life of people in the ancient era. It encompasses the idea of marriage and embraces it as the love story between the young man, and the woman of Bath is destined to end in marriage. It also portrays that people view and appreciate their partners as the most beautiful in the world.
- Marie De France, “Lanval” from the lays.
The passage builds upon the main character, who is Lanval, concerning his secret lover. Unlike other knights, he takes no interest in any of the young women presented to them as his mind is set on his lover. Upon noticing this, the queen takes advantage of making sexual advances to him. It concerns the poem’s plot as it connects the events in it that result in the delivery of its message. The passage comes before Lanval meets a lady he keeps secret from the world even though they are lovers. As a result, he has no interest in any of the young ladies brought to them. It is proceeded by the event of the queen reporting Lanval to the king, implying that he made advances at her building up the story that results in Lanval’s lover coming out.
The poem Lanval explores the theme of loyalty; it has also been depicted form the passage. Even though Lanval is presented with numerous young ladies, he still feels like they are not as right as his lover. He even denies the queen’s advances because he is loyal to his secret lover. The passage employs social aspects of the community where women are viewed as go-getters. The queen, upon noticing Lanval had no interest in the young females she takes it upon herself to make advances to him.
- Anonymous, Beowulf.
The passage explores the role of the main character Beowulf; he was on his mission to defeat the dreadful enemy of the Geats, Grandel. He was a young warrior who believed in his power to save Geat’s people; to achieve that, he had to recruit warriors to help his mission. The warrior is responding to Geats guard at the shore who seeks to know their identification. It connects to the poem as the event leading to the conversation is the desire by Beowulf to help Geats people defeat their enemy. It is followed by Beowulf being allowed into the land where he focuses on his mission of defeating Grendel.
Anonymous Beowulf explores the theme of courage, loyalty, and strength. The passage incorporates the themes as the warriors in question are courageous to plan for a mission to defeat an enemy they have not seen. Moreover, Beowulf’s response to the guard who stops him insight that they are courageous. The passage points out a historical aspect concerning war. Nations used to accord each other help in fighting a common enemy by using the number of warriors as depicted by the passage.
Part II
One
I chose to work on Nicholas from the Miller’s Tale regarding the norms he rebelled against. The story evolved around a carpenter and his wife, who rents part of their house to Nicholas, a student. Nicholas develops feelings for the carpenter’s wife even though he is aware it is wrong, (Morgan, 2015). He goes ahead to seduce her, which commences their love affair. His revolt is not successful or justified because Alison is someone else’s wife trying to make a living for both of them. The narrator does not side with him.
The Flea by John Donne was my second selection. In this work, the Flea has been symbolized as the rebel in a relationship. According to the society, people are expected to have one partner who they are faithful too. The Flea, on the other hand, moves around, biting one persona he moves to the other (Dauth, 2017). It is symbolized as though he is getting into many relationships. He influences the speaker as he uses the Flea to excuse him and the lady to sleep together.
The two literature works portray a loose theme of love, marriage, and affairs. Nicholas and Flea portray a determined attitude to get what they want. Nicholas is determined to have the beautiful woman Alison, who is already married. The Flea, on the other hand, has no focus on a specific person but moves around to various people.
Two
The Pilgrim’s Progress is literature predating by centuries of the author, John Bunyan. It represents a religious story that narrates the origin of Christianity. It portrays how Christian on his salvation journey to heaven meets wise men and other virtues like faithful (Forrest, 2018). The author reaches back to the past to remind people of the journey to salvation and Christianity’s origin. It connects the relationship with today as today’s Christians can use it for religious purposes.
The Nun’s Priest Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer has been set to predate by centuries. It explores the theme of flattery and trust only that it employs talking creatures (Benson, 2015). Talking creatures have been associated with past centuries, like during the creation era in the Bible, where a talking snake tricks Eve. In the story, a fox tries to flatter a bird to come down, which she does not give in.
The two literature works explore the past with an open-minded attitude. According to Nun’s Priest, the past all creatures are equal as they can converse. The pilgrim’s progress appreciates Christianity’s origin as morals were highly valued, unlike in the present day.
References
Benson, L. D. (2015). The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue. https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/npt-par.htm.
Forrest, J. F. (2018). The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Dream That Endures: Christian History Magazine. Christian History Institute. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/pilgrims-progress-dream-that-endures.
Dauth, A. (2017, March 30). A close reading of ‘The Flea.’ The British Library. https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/a-close-reading-of-the-flea.
Morgan, G. (2015). Obscenity and Fastidiousness in The Miller’s Tale. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0013838X.2010.488847?journalCode=nest20.