Iconos 1º Estudios Ingleses, Apuntes de Literatura inglesa

¡Descarga Iconos 1º Estudios Ingleses y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura inglesa solo en Docsity! Seminar 2 answers 1. Search for some key quotations by Shakespeare. Relate them to the play they belong to and comment on the passages you have chosen as descriptive of the speaker’s situation in the play or of the main themes in the play. First of all, I would like to point out why I think Shakespeare is a genius and why I love his art. I may say that I saw a movie called “Anonymous”, which made me doubt about how on earth a person could write such great and legendary writings. I have read Julius Caesar and Hamlet. From my point of view, the best thing which has been beautifully portrayed is its soliloquy section (a speech in the play where the character speaks to himself/herself or to people watching them). I also admire him because he was basically a businessman over an artist and the curious fact is that he was clever enough to slide in his personal remarks and comments in a very subtle manner because if it weren’t for the implementation of these techniques, people wouldn’t have liked it. His way of ridiculing subjects as racism and society issues was truly magnificent. His plays were very famous and popular because of the wonderfully designed simple plot and humour. Moreover, the people loved to see the objectification of women and their transition to rise to glory, family feuds, love stories, romance and action. I personally think that one cannot judge his plays from a fair point of view because Shakespeare is modelled according to the past and we judge him through the present. But I must say that culture-wise he was an intelligent man and master at his job. Now, we shall move on with the question. I must say that I have a lot of favourites and all of his quotations are masterpieces, but I would like to name five quotations, from which two have already been read by me in the past. All of these quotations are included or appear in plays and are related to various themes. Firstly, I would like to mention a quotation from Romeo and Juliet and this one in particular is found in the second scene of the second act. It goes like this: “What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” Romeo Montague and Juliet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare's lyrical tale of "star-cross'd" lovers. They are doomed from the start. Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and very meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Romeo Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, passionate for Juliet, rejects his family name, as Juliet asks to deny his father and instead be converted into Juliet's lover. This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of the play. Moreover, I will mention two quotations that are related to themes such as anger and fate. For fate we have got the line: “Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.” and this belongs to the following pastoral comedy: As You Like It. In this line the Roman goddess Fortuna was responsible for bestowing the items of luck (good or bad) on humans. She was popularly shown as being blind. She represented the sudden and unpredictable changes of life. She was also known as the goddess of fate. In the Middle Ages, Fortuna came to be associated with the Wheel of Fortune. In spite of talking about fate, we shall also name a quotation that talks about anger in a scene in Othello and it goes like this: “I understand a fury in your words. But not the words.”. Othello is ranting at her about how she has been unfaithful to him, and she doesn't know what he is talking about. She knows he is angry, and she can read his emotion, but she doesn't know why he is saying it or what he is saying. I have saved my personal favourites for last and the first one is: “To be, or not to be”. This was the opening line in the first scene of the third act of Shakespeare's play called Hamlet. The prince, Hamlet, is confused over death and suicide. He's kind of sure about the pain, sorrow and unfairness of life, but thinks that suicide is not the answer to end all the pains. And, after-life or consequences of a suicide can be worse. What he meant was, "to live or not to live", "to die or not to die" or "to commit suicide or not to commit suicide". People often use this phrase when they are uncertain and confused over anything. Finally, I am mentioning my favourite line and it belongs to Julius Caesar. The line is: “Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more”. This line was told by Brutus, a friend of Caesar. This shows that Brutus is very patriotic, to the point where nationalism is more important to him than his friends and therefore, Brutus killed Caesar because he thought that this would help his city, Rome. Brutus stands against the idea of one-man rule, since Caesar was showing signs of becoming king and thinks that Rome would do better under a democracy and not a kingship. We can see how Shakespeare portrays a lot of subjects such as lust, love, action, patriotism, fate and a lot of other mundane themes in his writings. 2. This scene takes place at night in a garden. How does it affect the content of the speeches? From my point of view, it affects the whole scene in a ginormous and interesting way because the speech and positioning of the characters seem to change and are given the special taste that it needs. I would like to point out that this scene, also known vulgarly as the balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet”, stands alone as one of literature's best and most poetic and romantic exchanges between two extreme lovers because Shakespeare reveals their passionate and truthful love through the use of the iambic pentameter (the number of syllables in the line and the emphasis placed on those syllables) and a great amount of metaphors. If we analyse it in a more specific way, we might find out that due to its state, the interest and curiosity to meet each other grows because Juliet is in the balcony and Romeo is down at the garden, which prevents him to observe her neatly. So, speech and talking is the main goal here to achieve what they want. A kind of secretism is born between these two characters because their love is impossible due to differences and fights between their families. Mythical references are also included and themes such as sad love, darkness, loneliness are included too. We have to keep in mind that he is standing in the Capulet’s Garden (the surname of Juliet’s family is Capulet) and that is why they whisper and are talking quite carefully in order to survive. 3. What are the comparisons or metaphors in this scene? Point out the vocabulary related to the semantic field of nature and the senses. A lot of metaphors related to nature, colours, shades and certain adjectives related to body parts are used in this scene. These comparisons are used to describe in a very poetic and magical way Juliet’s physical appearance and in some cases her personality too. These characteristics show the appreciation and mad love Romeo has got for Juliet. The moon is personified because it is envious and has emotions or feelings attached to it. However, the main metaphors are used for Juliet. First of