...DREAM INTERPRETATIONS IN THE DUCHESS OF MALFIAND ALL FOR LOVE Superstition, a sort of a feeling that takes umpteen number of forms and at times frightens life out of people, takes a special place in the life of a person which might make a person float on cloud nine or perish in dungeons. Superstitions are universal and they do exist even now in the 21st century and the plays before three centuries are no exceptions. The plays during the 16th and 17th centuries were abounding with superstitious beliefs which might seem ridiculous in the present scenario. In this paper we shall see the role of superstitious beliefs and dreams in The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster and All for Love by John Dryden. The Duchess of Malfi is a revenge tragedy and unlike other revenge tragedies here the villain himself avenges the death of the Duchess. The Duchess is a young widow who is in love with Antonio, the manager of her house hold and is steadfast on marrying him. In spite of the threatening of her brothers she marries Antonio with the aid of Cariola. Ferdinand, one of her brothers employs Bosolo to spy her. Ferdinand apart from eyeing the fortune of the Duchess he also eyes her beauty. But Cardinal, the other brother of the Duchess is worried only about her wealth. Bosola passes the news that the Duchess has given birth to a child and Ferdinand in unquenchable fury banishes the Duchess. Ferdinand with the help of Bosola gains a fake key to the chamber of the Duchess and enters the chamber without...
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...Sophie Bryan It has been argued both that Act One is chaotic and pointless, and that it is a clever introduction to the play. How far do you agree? The role of Act One of the Duchess of Malfi is argued to have many different functions, as the introduction to the play. It introduces the audience to the characters, and gives them the opportunity for formulate their own opinions. It has also been argued that the opening act creates tensions and a sense of foreboding, through the use of foreshadowing. The opening act gives the audience the opportunity to create their own opinions of the main characters, aided by Antonio who acts as a honest narrator to the audience. Webster uses Antonio as a device to deliver messages to the audience about his other characters. For example, when describing Ferdinand, Antonio narrates '...the law to him/ Is like a foul black cobweb to a spider,/ He makes it his dwelling and a prison/ To entangle those shall feed him' (170-173). A semantic field of corruption is created through 'foul black' and 'prison', which implies that Ferdinand is a devious and corrupt man. This also suggests that neither the characters or the audience should trust his words or his actions. The simile 'the law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider' hints that Ferdinand cheats his people by adjusting the law to suit him, and other people of a high status. This could also foreshadow that later in the narrative, Ferdinand will do something similar to what Antonio is...
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...presentation of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and Shakespeare’s Cleopatra. Your study should refer to relevant contextual material and also include appropriate readings of the plays by other critics: The Duchess of Malfi (Main Text) In Jacobean England (1603-25) the theatre enjoyed enthusiastic royal support and the period was notable for some of the greatest plays ever written. Webster was already part of the ‘second generation’ and Shakespeare was already one of the most revered dramatists of his time. Both Webster and Shakespeare produced remarkable plays in this period, which gave dramatic prominence to complex tragic women. The Duchess of Malfi (1612) and Antony and Cleopatra (1607) are two plays that explore the contradictions of social and sexual relations in a patriarchal and misogynistic period of England as seen through the presentation of there two heroines The Duchess and Cleopatra, and also through the different forms of linguistical and structural methods employed by both writers that ultimately highlight the two women’s similar yet opposing natures. Essentially both plays are Jacobean tragedies of gender politics where the Duchess and Cleopatra seek freedom of action and desire but are defined and shaped by patriarchal oppression and thereby doomed for their perceived subversive sexuality. Through language both writers present their two heroines’ as powerful women who challenge the traditional male restrictions. The Duchess is representative of purity and...
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...‘Revenge is a confession of pain’ – Latin Proverb. In the view of this statement compare and contrast the extent to which the playwrights demonstrate the idea that revenge arises from the pain of the aggressor. In the view of this statement and in relation to ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ it is important to define what pain actually is. Pain relates to grief in terms of Hamlet grieving for his father’s death. It also relates to suffering and injury – be that of the mind or body. There are instances in ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ where the motivation for revenge may arise from the emotional pain of the aggressor; there are however acts of revenge shared in these plays that cannot be explained as a confession of pain but rather as a result of self-preservation and duty. Somroo explains that ‘The motive of revenge is a primitive emotion to be found in natural man, though it is a dangerous emotion.’ Somroo explains that revenge is primitive therefore it can be explained as an impulsive emotion born of pain or suffering. This shows that suffering and revenge are closely linked; the idea that revenge is born out of pain has excited audiences throughout history as a theme of revenge tragedies. In this genre of play both Webster and Shakespeare use the theme of revenge to show that it has consequences for every character that is unfortunate enough to be involved as it often results in multiple and an almost comical amount of dead bodies. Shakespeare more than Webster has...
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...A recurring theme in both Webster’s Duchess of Malfi and Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the concept of female honour and chastity, even though the women of the plays are secondary to the main plot. A woman’s necessity to marry is a negative message in Hamlet, and proves to be the hubris of the Duchess- it is her marriage that, in part, leads to her eventual death. Ergo, Wiggins’ statement about ‘second marriages troubling the male imagination’ is certainly true from the outset. The second scene of Hamlet opens onto a celebration, but in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, he distains his mother, for her ‘frailty’ in needing a new husband, likening her to worse than a ‘beast’ wanting ‘discourse of reason.’ Bearing in mind, the contemporary society where women spinsters and widows were stigmatized, yet, according to these plays, a woman’s remarriage was socially unacceptable. However, such is the misogyny and class based prejudice that a high-ranking woman is not socially stigmatized but merely gossiped about in private. However, the famed serial monogamist Henry VIII married six times; even introducing divorce, yet Hamlet is troubled by his mother’s single remarriage, even before learning of his uncle’s treachery, despite the fact that his father is dead. Perhaps then, it is the line ‘or ere these shoes were old’ that demonstrates his trouble with the hastiness of the remarriage, rather than the concept of the marriage itself. Throughout, the Duchess is defined not through her ideals, as noble...
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...Bertolt Brecht Drama Project. He was born on 10 February 1898 in Augsburg, Germany His full birth name was Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht He was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director A prolific director he one of the most influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century He died on 14 August 1956 in Mitte, East Berlin, German Democratic Republic Brecht died on 14 August 1956 of a heart attack at the age of 58. He is buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery on Chausseestraße in the Mitte neighbourhood of Berlin, overlooked by the residence he shared with Helene Weigel. Brecht left the Berliner Ensemble to his wife, the actress Helene Weigel, which she ran until her death in 1971. Perhaps the most famous German touring theatre of the postwar era, it was primarily devoted to performing Brecht's plays. His son, Stefan Brecht, became a poet and theatre critic interested in New York's avant-garde theatre. Brecht has been a controversial figure in Germany, and in his native city of Augsburg there were objections to creating a birthplace museum. By the 1970s, however, Brecht's plays had surpassed Shakespeare's in the number of annual performances in Germany. Have a pleasant day. Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, to a devout Protestant mother and a Catholic father. The modest house where he was born is today preserved as a Brecht Museum. His father worked for a paper mill, becoming its managing director in 1914.Thanks to his mother's...
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...B.A. (HONOURS) ENGLISH (Three Year Full Time Programme) COURSE CONTENTS (Effective from the Academic Year 2011-2012 onwards) DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF DELHI DELHI - 110007 0 Course: B.A. (Hons.) English Semester I Paper 1: English Literature 4(i) Paper 2: Twentieth Century Indian Writing(i) Paper 3: Concurrent – Qualifying Language Paper 4: English Literature 4(ii) Semester II Paper 5: Twentieth Century Indian Writing(ii) Paper 6: English Literature 1(i) Paper 7: Concurrent – Credit Language Paper 8: English Literature 1(ii) Semester III Paper 9: English Literature 2(i) Paper 10: Option A: Nineteenth Century European Realism(i) Option B: Classical Literature (i) Option C: Forms of Popular Fiction (i) Paper 11: Concurrent – Interdisciplinary Semester IV Semester V Paper 12: English Literature 2(ii) Paper 13: English Literature 3(i) Paper 14: Option A: Nineteenth Century European Realism(ii) Option B: Classical Literature (ii) Option C: Forms of Popular Fiction (ii) Paper 15: Concurrent – Discipline Centered I Paper 16: English Literature 3(ii) Paper 17: English Literature 5(i) Paper 18: Contemporary Literature(i) Paper 19: Option A: Anglo-American Writing from 1930(i) Option B: Literary Theory (i) Option C: Women’s Writing of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (i) Option D: Modern European Drama (i) Paper 20: English Literature 5(ii) Semester VI Paper 21: Contemporary Literature(ii) Paper 22: Option A: Anglo-American Writing from 1930(ii) Option B:...
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...Renaissance Theatre. The Protestant Reformation in northern Europe put an end to most religious drama by the mid-16th century, and a new, dynamic secular drama developed in its place. The Renaissance began at different times in different areas of Europe and was a slow process of change rather than a sudden shift in ideas and values. England The English drama of the 16th cent. showed from the beginning that it would not be bound by classical rules. Many themes and ideas can be seen in the components of the Elizabethan drama. For example, many works were influenced by other works. Themes on revenge were seen and blood and killing was evidenced in many works by, for instance, Thomas Kyd 's Spanish Tragedy (c.1586). Marlowe’s works presented deeper meanings of questioning life. Shakespeare, of course, stands as the supreme dramatist of the Renaissance period, equally skilful at writing tragedies, comedies, or chronicle plays. His great achievements include the perfection of a verse form and language that captures the spirit of ordinary speech and yet stand above it to give a special dignity to his characters and situations; a marvellous ability to unify plot, character, imagery, and verse movement. With the reign of James I the English drama began to decline until the closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 1642. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_drama Comedy in Elizabethan Drama: The term "comedy" as applied to a division of the drama was not...
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...SECOND DRAFT Contents Preamble Chapter 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Background Rationale Aims Interface with the Junior Secondary Curriculum Principles of Curriculum Design Chapter 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 1 Introduction Literature in English Curriculum Framework Strands and Learning Targets Learning Objectives Generic Skills Values and Attitudes Broad Learning Outcomes Chapter 3 5 7 9 10 11 11 13 Curriculum Planning 3.1 Planning a Balanced and Flexible Curriculum 3.2 Central Curriculum and School-based Curriculum Development 3.2.1 Integrating Classroom Learning and Independent Learning 3.2.2 Maximizing Learning Opportunities 3.2.3 Cross-curricular Planning 3.2.4 Building a Learning Community through Flexible Class Organization 3.3 Collaboration within the English Language Education KLA and Cross KLA Links 3.4 Time Allocation 3.5 Progression of Studies 3.6 Managing the Curriculum – Role of Curriculum Leaders Chapter 4 1 2 2 3 3 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 21 Learning and Teaching 4.1 Approaches to Learning and Teaching 4.1.1 Introductory Comments 4.1.2 Prose Fiction 4.1.3 Poetry i 21 21 23 32 SECOND DRAFT 4.1.4 Drama 4.1.5 Films 4.1.6 Literary Appreciation 4.1.7 Schools of Literary Criticism 4.2 Catering for Learner Diversity 4.3 Meaningful Homework 4.4 Role of Learners Chapter 5 41 45 52 69 71 72 73 74 Assessment 5.1 Guiding Principles 5.2 Internal Assessment 5.2.1 Formative Assessment 5.2.2 Summative Assessment 5.3 Public Assessment 5.3.1 Standards-referenced...
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...http://www.historytoday.com/jerome-de-groot/signposts-historical-fiction These were some of the questions raised at a recent conference at the Institute of Historical Research at which History Today Editor, Paul Lay, hosted a discussion between Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall, and the Tudor historian David Loades. Historians often describe themselves as detectives, seeking out a kind of truth among the conflicting evidence of the past. There is, furthermore, a large and growing subgenre of historical crime fiction. From C.J. Sansom to Philip Pullman, from Orhan Pamuk to Walter Mosley, from Ellis Peters to Boris Akunin, novelists have been keen to use the past as a backdrop for their stories of detection and mystery. The most famous historical detective might be Brother William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco’s peerless The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa, 1980). Recently we have seen a flowering of historical crime fiction as the subgenre attains maturity and becomes increasingly popular and innovative. Jason Goodwin, Philip Kerr and Susan Hill were all shortlisted for the prestigious Crime Writers Association Dagger this year (recent historical winners include Arianna Franklin, Jake Arnott and Craig Russell). Clearly the combination of thriller, crime and historical detail is compelling. Anne Perry’s new Inspector Pitt novel, Betrayal at Lisson Grove (out in paperback from Headline this year) is a pacy, twisting thriller. It is 1895 and Pitt is up against a conspiracy...
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...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE • Palaeolithic nomads from mainland Europe; • New inhabitants came from western and possibly north-western Europe (New Stone Age); • in the 2nd millennium BC new inhabitants came from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine (Stonehenge); • Between 800 and 200 BC Celtic peoples moved into Britain from mainland Europe (Iron Age) • first experience of a literate civilisation in 55 B.C. • remoter areas in Scotland retained independence • Ireland, never conquered by Rome, Celtic tradition • The language of the pre-Roman settlers - British (Welsh, Breton); Cornish; Irish and Scottish Gaelic (Celtic dialect) • The Romans up to the fifth century • Britain - a province of the Roman Empire 400 years • the first half of the 5th century the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (N Germany, Jutland) • The initial wave of migration - 449 A. D. • the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) • the Britain of his time comprised four nations English, British (Welsh), Picts, and Scots. • invaders resembling those of the Germans as described by Tacitus in his Germania. • a warrior race • the chieftain, the companions or comitatus. • the Celtic languages were supplanted (e.g. ass, bannock, crag). * Christianity spread from two different directions: * In the 5th century St Patrick converted Ireland, in the 7th century the north of England was converted by Irish monks; * in the south at the end of the 6th century Aethelberht of Kent allowed the monk Augustine...
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...A ROOM OF ONES OWN [* This essay is based upon two papers read to the Arts Society at Newnharn and the Odtaa at Girton in October 1928. The papers were too long to be read in full, and have since been altered and expanded.] ONE But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction--what, has that got to do with a room of one's own? I will try to explain. When you asked me to speak about women and fiction I sat down on the banks of a river and began to wonder what the words meant. They might mean simply a few remarks about Fanny Burney; a few more about Jane Austen; a tribute to the Brontës and a sketch of Haworth Parsonage under snow; some witticisms if possible about Miss Mitford; a respectful allusion to George Eliot; a reference to Mrs Gaskell and one would have done. But at second sight the words seemed not so simple. The title women and fiction might mean, and you may have meant it to mean, women and what they are like, or it might mean women and the fiction that they write; or it might mean women and the fiction that is written about them, or it might mean that somehow all three are inextricably mixed together and you want me to consider them in that light. But when I began to consider the subject in this last way, which seemed the most interesting, I soon saw that it had one fatal drawback. I should never be able to come to a conclusion. I should never be able to fulfil what is, I understand, the first duty of a lecturer to hand you after an hour's discourse a...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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