Shakespeare-Romeo and Juliet, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Shakespeare-Romeo and Juliet e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet was written in the 1590s: we don’t know exactly when, something in the middle 1590s, probably in the earlier years, but we cannot know for certain and there is a simple reason: between the years 1592 and 1594 the theatres in London were closed because of the Plague and therefore there were no performances during these 2 years and then we don’t know what plays were performed. This play became the symbol of a young love, iconic: it probably contributed to the emergence of what we now call “romantic love”; romantic love is a fairly recent phenomenon, in the past relation between the sexes were determined really by social arrangements: indeed, two young people didn’t married because they fell in love with one another, people married because their families wanted them to marry for dynastic reason, monetary and financial reason or whatever. Romeo and Juliet was one of the texts which, in a sense, contributed to this evolution in the concept of love. Actually in Romeo and Juliet there is some confusion between it being a comedy or a tragedy: we know it’s a tragedy because the two young people die in the end and yet there are comic elements (possibility of a comic interpretation). Themes • The contrast between love and hate: On the one hand we have the Capulets while on the other hand we have the Montagues. They are enemies and they have been fighting for years. • Time: Shakespeare talks about two different kinds of time. Subjective time and chronological time. The first is Romeo and Juliet’s time. When they are together they seem to be out of time because they are in love and because time flies when they spend time together. Then we have chronological time. Chronological time is the time of the story, it makes the development of the different events of the story. In general we can say that Shakespeare manipulates time and finally he is able to condense many different events into few hours. • Names: names are crucial in Romeo and Juliet. For example we can see the balcony scene in which Shakespeare shows us the ambiguity of names. • Language: Shakespeare was fascinated with language and this tragedy is full of contraddictions, puns, oxymora and homophonies. One of the most famous oxymora was fair Montague and it was referred to Romeo. He was fair, but he belonged to the Montagues, so Juliet couldn’t marry him. • Wedding and sexuality: in the story we have three different people to consider: The Nurse, Capulet and Friar Lawrence. The nurse thinks about sexuality only in terms of procreation. She said for example that women were grown by men, or that men own women in a certain sense. Then we have Capulet, Juliet’s father who at first was seen as the modern father who knows what Juliet deserves for her future life. However, when Juliet didn’t want to marry Paris, he got angry with her, and he wanted to kill her. So Capulet thinks about erotic relationships as something elegant and institutional. Finally Friar Lawrence have a more traditional idea about wedding and he accepts to marry Romeo and Juliet only in order to placate the hate between the families. The sources: • Metamorphosis by Ovid • Two previous versions of Romeo and Juliet written by Arthur Brooke and William Painter: in these tragedies the protagonists were described as two young transgressive people who violated the rules of their families. A short summary of the story Romeo and Juliet fall in love at a party. But they come from families which hate each other. They are sure they will not be allowed to marry. Nevertheless, helped by Friar Laurence, they marry in secret instead. Unfortunately, before their wedding night Romeo kills Juliet's cousin in a duel, and in the morning he is forced to leave her. If he ever returns to the city, he will be put to death. Juliet's parents told her she must marry Paris. Her parents do not know she is already married. She refuses in the beginning, but later agrees because she plans to fake her death and escape to be with Romeo forever; again with the help of Friar Laurence. Frair Laurence designs the plan. He gives Juliet a sleeping potion. She appears to be dead and was put in a tomb. However, Romeo does not know about the plan, visits her grave, thinks she is dead, and kills himself. When Juliet finally wakes up, she discovers that Romeo is dead and then kills herself. The prologue The play begins in a way which is rather unusual: it begins with a sonnet spoken by a chorus; during the period when Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream and others, he was particularly active as a poet: actually, he wrote the poems Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece and perhaps he was even considering becoming a professional poet and not a professional play writer. At that time, everybody knew already the story of Romeo and Juliet, so they knew also about the ending of the play: for this reason, in the sonnet Shakespeare speaks about what happen in the whole play. Actually even the title anticipates how the story ends up: the full title is “The most excellent and lamentable tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”. This is a perfect English sonnet: it was derived from the Italian sonnet, but whereas Petrarchan sonnets are in octave and sestet (eight lines followed by six lines), the English sonnet consists in three quatrains and a rhyming couplets. In Petrarchan sonnets, we have what we call “volta”, i.e. there is between the octave and the sestet something that happens in the sestet; it’s the same in the English sonnet: after the two opening quatrains we have what is called “turn” and then there is another quatrains and the closing couplets. The function of the chorus is to give to the audience a summary of the play and a general background. Analysis ROMEO: • He belongs to the Montagues family • Romeo is 16 years old. • His name suggests the idea of those people who went to Roe, so it recalls the idea of pilgrimage. • Sometimes he uses a very exaggerated poetry, in particular during the balcony scene. Portia arrives in her disguise to defend Antonio. Given the authority of judgment by the Duke, Portia decides that Shylock can have the pound of flesh as long as he doesn’t draw blood, as it is against the law to shed a Christian’s blood. Since it is obvious that to draw a pound of flesh would kill Antonio, Shylock is denied his suit. Moreover, for conspiring to murder a Venetian citizen, Portia orders that he should forfeit all his wealth. Half is to go to Venice, and half to Antonio. Antonio gives his half back to Shylock on the condition that Shylock bequeaths it to his disinherited daughter, Jessica. Shylock must also convert to Christianity. A broken Shylock accepts. News arrives that Antonio’s remaining ships have returned safely. With the exception of Shylock, all celebrate a happy ending to the affair. Places Places are extremely important in this tragedy. We have two different words, two different mentalities and two different ideologies. On the one hand we have Venice, while on the other hand we have Belmont. VENICE: • It’s the modern city of capitalism • People use the language of quantification • People think with their reason BELMONT: • It’s completely different from Venice • Things have their values in themselves The structure This is one of the most formally structured play which Shakespeare wrote, because he created these two worlds, Belmont and Venice, and he established relations between them on a linguistic level first: very often in Venice they use the language of Belmont (but really they use it for Venetian purposes), whereas in Belmont they use imagery of Venice (in terms of quantification), but they use it metaphorically (so it’s a kind of linguistic exchange). Shakespeare combined these two worlds because both values’ systems are necessary: for this reason, the figure of Janus is so important in Shakespeare. Usury Venice’s society is the beginning of modern capitalism (based on capital, money): usually people are not prepared to give other people money for investments unless they’re going to get an exchange. According to the church, including the Anglican church, usury was wrong and therefore Christians were not allowed to engage in usury, so this is a very peculiar position: we need usury, lending money at interests, without usury we don’t have money to invest, but we can’t do it because we’re Christian, so we let the Jews do it. For this reason, in many societies in Europe it was the Jew who lent money for interest. Anti-Semitism The figure of Shylock is one of the most memorable Jews in English literature. Technically in Shakespeare’s time there were no Jews in England, because they have been expelled centuries before. However, many people pretended not to be Jewish, but they pretended to be Anglicans; perhaps they continued to practice their own religion privately; actually there were Jews also at the English court and one of them was named Bassano (very similar to Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice), who had a daughter named Emilia (who might possibly have been the dark lady in sonnets). At the time one of the most famous Jews in England had a tragic fate, his name was Rodrigo Lopez: he was a Portuguese Jew, he was the physician (the doctor) of Queen Elizabeth and he was accused of trying to poison the queen. Shakespeare creates the character of Shylock in such a way that the play can be performed in completely different ways by different people. We understand his nastiness, but we understand the reasons for his nastiness; some people interpret The Merchant of Venice as the tragedy of Shylock (they show that the Christian society which treats the Jews in this way is an evil society), such as in Shakespeare, but in Shakespeare there’s also another interpretation: Shylock is seen as a villain above all in Nazi period. So it can be considered both as the tragedy of the Jews and as the Jews as villains who destroy Christian people around them. Shakespeare doesn’t give his own perspective about this theme, he doesn’t give answers, so the same play can be interpreted in radically different ways, it’s ambivalent such as many other Shakespearian plays. The casket test The scene of the casket test reminds us the Turandot, because even in the Turandot we have three different caskets. Here we have: • The golden casket • The silver casket • The lead casket which was the right one which was chosen by Bassanio. This test was invented by Portia’s father before his death and the aim was to find the right future husband for Portia. However al the suitors must understand the real meaning of the casket. Previously, there were the Prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon who failed, because the chose the wrong caskets. In fact they used their intellect and their meritocracy without understanding the real meaning of the casket. Finally in the same moment in which Bassanio chose the right casket made of lead, he found a portrait of Portia in the casket, and then she gave him a ring which would become the symbol of their love. The rings Shakespeare talks about two different rings in this tragedy: • The ring which was given by Lea to Shylok : it symbolized their relationship, but then it was stolen by Jessica, Shylok daughter, and then she treaded it for a monkey. • The ring which was given by Portia to Bassanio: it was the symbol of their love. In particular Portia tells him that if he loses the ring, their love will be ruined forever. But then we have a comic situation because when they are in Belmont, a letter arrives and it announces that Antonio has lost all his ships, so Bassanio can’t pay Shylok back. So Portia decided to disguise herself as doctor of law in order to save Bassanio and in order to test his loyalty. So when Shylok was defeated, Portia (or Balthazar, this was Portia’s name) asked Bassanio for the ring and he gave the ring to Balthazar, whithout knowing that Balthazar was Portia disguised as a man. Mercy: Another important value, is mercy. Mercy is linked with the Christian world. In particular we have the scene in which Portia disguised as a man; whose name was Balthazar, speaks about mercy in order to persuade Shylok. In fact she said for example that mercy is spontaneous and the person who gives mercy and the person who receives mercy will be both blessed in the future. However, mercy belongs to the Christian world, but Shylok was a Jew. He only wants revenge, he only wants a pound of Antonio’s flash. So Portia uses a trick: she said that Shylok can take a pound of Antonio’s flash, but without spilling any drop of blood. Of course this is impossible, Shylok capitulates and finally he was also forced to convert himself to Christianity. So at first Portia was speaking about mercy, but at the end she wasn’t so merciful with Shylok. Macbeth King Duncan’s generals, Macbeth and Banquo, encounter three strange women on a bleak Scottish moorland on their way home from quelling a rebellion. The women prophesy that Macbeth will be given the title of Thane of Cawdor and then become King of Scotland, while Banquo’s heirs shall be kings. The generals want to hear more but the weird sisters disappear. Duncan creates Macbeth Thane of Cawdor in thanks for his success in the recent battles and then proposes to make a brief visit to Macbeth’s castle Lady Macbeth receives news from her husband of the prophecy and his new title and she vows to help him become king by any means she can. Macbeth’s return is followed almost at once by Duncan’s arrival. The Macbeths plot together and later that night, while all are sleeping and after his wife has given the guards drugged wine, Macbeth kills the King and his guards. Lady Macbeth leaves the bloody daggers beside the dead king. Macduff arrives and when the murder is discovered Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain flee, fearing for their lives, but they are nevertheless blamed for the murder. Macbeth is elected King of Scotland but is plagued by feelings of guilt and insecurity. He arranges for Banquo and his son, Fleance to be killed, but the boy escapes the murderers. At a celebratory banquet, Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo and disconcerts the courtiers with his strange manner. Lady Macbeth tries to calm him but is rejected. school for mysterious reason, which the governess starts speculating about. She becomes more and more excited of her job and of what happens at Bly in general; she learns that before herself there was another governess, Miss Jessel, who had a relationship with a man named Quint and, even if it is not stated directly, we understand that she got pregnant and died, whereas Quint got drunk and fell and died too. She becomes convinced that the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Quint are continuing to be around the children in order to seduce and corrupt them and bring them where they live. At a certain point, she sees the ghost of Quint outside in front of the window and then she goes there to control what he is doing (she hasn’t realized yet he is a ghost): this means that Quint is an aspect of herself. She tries to prove they’re in danger and also that they can see the two ghosts, so she starts protecting them, until at a certain point she confronts Flora, who has a breakdown and is taken away; so she has the final confrontation with Miles, she wants him to pronounce Quint’s name(she has the certainty that she’s right and she thinks that in this way he will be saved), but Quint appears at the window looking him from outside and the boy finally pronounces his name. The governess, in relief, hugs this boy so hard that a moment later he is dead. Interpretations After a number of decades, an American critic, named Edmund Wilson, had the inspiration that ghosts in this story are hallucinations, that the governess is a mad woman and that what happens is only a fabrication. She invents the ghosts because she was sexually frustrated and she projects this sexual frustration into these ghosts and their sexual relationship; for this reason, he believed that it was a fabrication of this woman and in fact she kills the boy (squeezing him). So we have two different interpretation of this story: 1. what happens is real, the two ghosts really exist and the governess can see them (so it’s interpreted as a ghost-story); 2. it’s a story told by a psychotic woman, considered for this reason an unreliable narrator. It’s the structure of the story which creates this doubt and we’ll never know the truth. The signs of the governess’ madness are: • she’s sexually repressed; • she’s in love with the uncle of the two children. So she projects her own sexual repression on to the figures of Quint and Miss Jessel, who seem to have had this passionate love affair in the past with the strong suspicion that she got pregnant and then died for pregnancy. Joseph Conrad His full name is Jozef Teodor Naleçz Konrad Korzeniowski, he was Polish in origin and the name Josph Conrad is the English simplification. He was born in 1857 in what is now Ukraine into a noble Polish family, Heart of darkness Heart of Darkness is about a journey: therefore, it fits into an ancient tradition, which includes the earliest works of literature that has come to us, such as the Odyssey, the Aeneid and the Epic of Gilgamesh (a king goes on a quest for immortality). In many of these cases, the journey is not only a physical journey, but also a spiritual and allegoric journey; in Sailing to Byzantium, Byzantium is an idealised place of art, so in this poem it’s not a physical journey, but a mental voyage. Even in the case of The Merchant of Venice, if we move between Venice and Belmont we are moving between two ways of living, so it’s both a physical and a mental voyage. Heart of Darkness is based upon Conrad’s experience in Congo: this fact doesn’t mean that it’s autobiographical, but it’s very strongly based upon events and effects that those events had on his life. However, in Heart of Darkness there’s no explicit mention to Belgium, to the Congo, there are no names. The narrative structure Henry James built The Turn of the Screw on more levels: we have to distinguish between the story and the way the story is told. • In The Turn of the Screw, there is a narration within another narration, i.e. we have a narrator who turns the attention to Douglas who turns the attention to the governess (actually, the governess tells the story both as a woman who has just started to work at Bly and as the woman who has experienced terrible things and is writing what happened). So, in The Turn of the Screw we have a first narrator and then we have Douglas; • it’s the same for Heart of Darkness, which actually is the narration by a man named Marlow, who tells his own experience (which is very similar to Conrad’s own experience) as a Captain on a steamboat going up a river in an unnamed continent. We see him as a narrator who begins to tell his story within the first narrator’s story: actually, we can consider Marlow both as an unemployed man who is looking for a job and finds it in the Company and as a Captain of a steamboat who makes a journey). When he arrived probably at the first station, he saw the blacks. The blacks are aliens to Marlow, because he doesn’t understand them, but on the other hand he feels human compassion and high communion for them. Mr Kurts Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man who went to Africa for ivory and he managed to exploit the natives in order to get as much ivory as possible; Marlow wants to meet him because everybody else is so false, so overcritical that he thinks Kurtz will be a revelation, someone who will be able to tell him something true. This is the another theme of the story: what truth is and different kinds of truth, together with the importance of language; he eventually meets Kurtz, who is very ill, so Marlow plans to take him away, even if all the natives don’t want him to go; they attack the boat, but Kurtz stops them. His last words were The horror! The horror!: these words indicate a moment of complete self-knowledge and also a moment of understanding civilization itself, is a horror. Women in Heart of Darkness This story is full of stories and anecdotes, but each one is emblematic (the conclusion itself is very ambiguous). One of these is when Marlow goes to the Company’s offices and encounters two women: they are dressed in black and sitting on a chair, knitting. It is a completely innocent image, but he describes them as fake figures: actually, they symbolize the Fates, i.e. the ones that spin out men’s destiny (she seemed uncanny and fateful); here there are two Fates, but actually in mythology they are three, so reading this story we look for the third and we try to find another woman to fit the missing one. Symbolically, they continuously introduce the unknown, because everyone who goes to those offices passes by the women and goes towards the unknown and many don’t come back; so in the story they do what they do in mythology: they spin out human lives (even if here they are knitting out human lives). Furthermore, they are associated with two black hens, indirectly responsible for Marlow to get a job. When Marlow is going to take Kurtz on the steamboat, we meet another woman, Kurtz’ mistress, a splendid barbarian woman, described as sensual and attractive; she stands on the river and she stretches her arms over the river towards Kurtz, making an emblematic gesture. Finally, we meet the woman who’s referred to as the Intended, i.e. Kurtz’ fiancée; Conrad uses this term (a synonym for fiancée) which indicates Mr. Kurtz’ intention to marry her (another intention Kurtz had was going to Africa and redeeming populations, bringing them the light, civilization; however, he betrayed both these intentions). Then, she makes a gesture very similar to the gesture of the mistress: so they become assimilated to one another. Kurtz’ painting We read about a painting who Kurtz has painted: there is a woman carrying a torch (a very conventional symbol); in this story, at the beginning the first narrator thinks about civilization and about the English who goes to uncivilized countries, carrying the sword (because those are missions of conquer) and sometimes the torch, which means carrying civilization to uncivilized countries and people. So the torch becomes the emblem of bringing a light where there is darkness. However, in the painting the effect of the light on the woman’s face is sinister and she is also blindfolded (so she doesn’t see what she is carrying). Marlow’s lie At the beginning of the story, Marlow on the boat is recounting to his companions what has happened in the past; at a certain point, it gets dark and Marlow himself becomes only a voice, he is no longer a human being who is speaking, he’s merely a voice thinking back to the past when the other Marlow was looking for Mr. Kurtz, who himself is represented as a voice, so we have a voice pursuing another voice in a group of many other voices which only tell lies. the countless dead in living people's lives, and observes that everyone he knows, himself included, will one day only be a memory. He finds in this fact a profound affirmation of life. Gabriel stands at the window, watching the snow fall, and the narrative expands past him, edging into the surreal and encompassing the entirety of Ireland. As the story ends, we are told that "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."[3] Inside and outside Inside is, in a certain sense, the place we organize, where we feel safe in, but also the place that sooner or later we’re going to leave: we die, we confront the overwhelming question, we know that outside there is another reality and that we have to confront with it, although many people pretend that the outside doesn’t exist. The typical position of Gabriel in the story is staying at the window, looking at the outside. The snow One of the central images in this story is the symbol of snow; actually, we don’t know exactly what the snow represents, but we can see the way in which the image of the snow is used: for example, Gabriel always uses galoshes (i.e. overshoes that you put on to protect yourself from water of from snow), so he always protects himself from snow. Michael, on the other hand, died in consequence of getting wet in the rain to talk to Gretta. In the very last sentence of the story, Joyce writes that the snow is falling upon all the living and the dead, i.e. the snow unifies both living and dead people. East and West East is the part of Ireland facing Britain and Europe, as opposed to the heart of Ireland, the West, which is the part that Gabriel rejects so much that he thinks about himself in English and European terms, not in Irish terms. But at the end of the story he’s going to make a journey in that part of Ireland. Gretta comes from the west of Ireland and the tragic event with Michael has happened in that part of the country; Miss Ivors accuses Gabriel of being West Britain, because he behaves as a British man and not as an Irish man. However, even this distinction is overturned, such as all the contrasts in this story. In the end, Gabriel states that he is going to make a journey towards West: we can consider it both as a journey and as his death, because West is not only where there is a life of passions (it is where Gretta comes from), but also it is associated with death. So, he doesn’t die, on the contrary he goes to the churchyard where Michael Furey is buried only mentally. The title At the end of the story, Gabriel realizes that after a physical death we continue as memories in other people’s mind; the question is what kind of memories we leave them. Now, we have a paradoxical idea: Michael Furey is still alive, because he’s in the thoughts of Gretta (because he is the most important person she has had in her life and for this reason she continues thinking about him). On the other hand, Gabriel is technically alive, but he realizes that he’s no really alive at all (he has an epiphany, because he understands that Michael is more alive than him), because he doesn’t have the courage to live. Actually, the possibility of escaping (symbolized by the open window) coincides with a possibility of a spiritual transformation. So here there is the paradox of what is life and what is death. Mathew Arnold Mathew Arnold does not enter into the category of Modernist writers, because he was born in 1822 and he died in 1888, whereas Modernism belongs to the early years of the 20th century. He began to write when Victoria was still on the throne, so he belonged to the Victorian age. Dover Beach The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Rupert Brooke, Peace Now, God be thanked who has matched us with his hour, And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping! With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power, To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping, Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary; Leave the sick hearts that honor could not move, And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary, And all the little emptiness of love! Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there, Where there’s no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending, Naught broken save this body, lost but breath; Nothing to shake the laughing heart’s long peace there, But only agony, and that has ending; And the worst friend and enemy is but Death Analysis 1. At the very beginning of the first stanza he thanks God, because he has given them something to do and he has wakened them from sleeping. The necessity of war make their hands more sure, their eyes more clear and their powers more sharpened: so war exercises a positive effect on them. Jumping in the war is described as jumping in the clean water (“as swimmers into cleanness leaping”), so war cleans soldiers. The world is “old and cold and weary”: so war is going to regenerate the world; people in the society have “sick hearts” and they’re not interested in honour, so they are “half- men”. In the last verses of this first strophe he is expressing his own romantic disappointment and also for this reason he wants to find a release in war. 2. we, who have known shame, we have found release there: even if people have known shame, now with war they find a release (there: in war) The second line shows a simple and banal idea of war (no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending), because he never experienced war in trenches as many soldiers did: this is an idea of idealized, sentimentalized war. Naught broken save this body, lost but breath: the only thing which is broken is their body This poem has a paradoxical title, because peace is death: death itself is going to be peace (Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there), where they die and they are buried they are at peace. According to Brooke, soldiers find peace only fighting because they stop thinking about women, romantic things and other things which only cause agony and pain. The Soldier If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Analysis Also this one was a propaganda poem: reading it, there are a lot of words which Brooke repeats, but they expresses the same concept, because the two words most repeated are England and English. Once again, it is an idealization: he seems to be romantic and naïf. He begins imagining himself died and buried and he says that where he is buried would be a better soil than any other soil, because there is his body there (If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England) and that place would be a part of England and richer than any other part of the Earth. A body of England's, breathing English air, washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home: idealized England this heart...by England given: his heart would become a part of the eternal mind, but it would be forever an English heart. John McCrae, In Flanders Fields In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. Analysis Usually, in war there was bombardments by artillery before an attack in order to destroy the enemy’s defences: this first attack was called “softening up”; this means that the fields where soldiers fought (which previously were used for agriculture by the local farmers) were completely destroyed. What McCrae underlines in the very first lines of the poem is the tremendous anonymity of war: each cross corresponded to a person, sometimes names were indicated on the cross, but not always was possible to identify the person who has been killed, so they were buried anonymously. 1. Flanders fields: it is an alliteration In...place: the rhythm corresponds to a cross after another cross, to a row after another row and so on; this description underlines the anonymity of soldiers: they don’t have identities and military cemeteries reflects this feature. Furthermore, this point of the poem is a caesura, because there is a pause: it always draws attention to something and in this case it’s the following lines, which present another contrast and...below: contrast between the ground, where there are crosses, which are a symbol for each buried man, and the sky, where there are birds singing; so, it’s the old contrast between life and death. Furthermore, another contrast in these lines is between the birds which fly singing in the sky, completely indifferent to the guns on the ground. 2. McCrae is not just talking about English soldiers, but also about French, German soldiers, the enemy: they’re exactly the same young men who have been sent to the war by governments and who died. This idea comes from the fact that the poet was a doctor: he cured everybody, without making distinction; in this sense, the poem is potentially subversive from the English point of view. Short...fileds: some days before there were people who were alive, establishing human relationships and loving other people, but now they lie in cemeteries, because they are dead. Of course the poet is not just talking about English people: all the people from all the sides in this terrible war. In the first verses, he speaks about a boy: in the past, the sun awoke him every day, but even if he is moving into the sun now that he’s dead, the sun is not going to awake him anymore (this is the futility); this is the horrible irony of this poem. We know that someone who is moving into the sun is not going to bring him back to life: so the meaning of the title is already clear; this boy is going to be dead forever and he will never be back; nothing can awake him, it’s impossible. Think how it wakes the seeds: it’s the sun which makes the seeds germinate 2. Woke, once, the clays of a cold star: the sun gave birth even to the Earth; what lives on the Earth is an effect of the sun Whereas in the first stanza he speaks about a dead boy, here he speaks more in general and talks about the effect of the sun on nature and on the Earth. Then, he mentions again men, but in general. dear-achieved: millions of years has passed before the evolution of humanity still-warm: the boy is dead, but his body is still warm Are...stir?: is it impossible for the sun to awake all these things? Can’t the sun bring the boy back to life? Was it for this clay grew tall?: did this young man grow only because he has to be killed? Once again, the futility of life. Dulce et Decorum est Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Analysis In the First World War there were introduced a number of new weapons which had devastating effects and killed on a massive scale: they were, for example, flame-throwers and gas. Gas was released from canisters or from special shells; it had a devastating effect upon the lungs: it usually killed people, but if someone had survived, the effect would have lasted for the rest of his life. Gas was an inconvenient weapon to use, because if wind changed, then gas could kill their own army instead of killing the enemies and for this reason gas was not used in the Second World War. Bent...sacks: this is a description of the soldiers who are carrying heavy rucksacks on their back, full of their equipment, and they’re absolutely tired, because they have fought all day Knock-kneed, coughing like hags: they are coughing because of the experience but also probably because of cigarettes and smoking; like hags, i.e. like old women. They’re described as ordinary men at the limit of exhaustion. towards our distant rest: there are a lot of words which express fatigue and tiredness (such as Men marched asleep; drunk with fatigue) But...lime: all the soldiers are going to put their masks on against the gas, but someone doesn’t manage to do it in time. The effects of the gas upon the lungs was to burn them, so a person suffocates; then, liquid starts forming and he drowns in this liquid Dim...drowning: the poet says that he saw a fellow soldier drowning because of the gas. His helmet - he has wore it in time - has two green pieces of glass on the eyes, so it seems that he was looking in the water this man drowning Now there is a shift, because we realize that this is retrospective: Wordsworth used to recollect his passions, but now the poet is remembering a horrible sight who has a dramatic effect on the person who sees it (In all...drowning). you: now the poet mentions something else, the reader. This technique is called “interpellation” (it is used by many other poets, such as Sassoon and Eliot), so we are suddenly involved in this poem and the poet is addressing us as hypocritical readers His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin: this is the effect of gas upon people Come...cud: a man is literally drowning in his own fluid Of vile...tongues: once again, the effect of gas upon a person My friend: he’s ironic The old Lie: this line reminds us the poem by Ezra Pound Actually, the poet wants to say that if we saw these horrible scenes of death, we wouldn’t say that it’s beautiful and sweet to die for our own country: the reality is completely different and we realize that it’s a lie that each generation tells young men in order to induce them to go to fight heroically for their country (he uses irony to express his idea). Siegfried Sassoon Suicide in the Trenches I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark. In winter trenches, cowed and glum, With crumps and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again. You snug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go Analysis Once again, this poem doesn’t refer to a man or a group of them, but it refers to an entire generation. I knew a simple soldier boy: also in Owen there is the idea of soldiers as ordinary people He put a bullet through his brain: he shot himself 1. the poet is imagining himself and the woman he’s in love with in the future: they are old, they are near the fire reading a book and he tell her to remember their youth take down this book: he refers to this poem; this is a trick that we find also in other poems by Yeats, in which he talks to the woman he loves beyond his own death. 2. one man...face: that man was himself 3. basically, the poet is saying that the woman, in the future, will regret not having loved him For this reason, this poem can be considered as a parody: a man is trying to seduce a woman by poetry. An Irish Airman Foresees his Death I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above; Those that I fight I do not hate, Those that I guard I do not love; My country is Kiltartan Cross, My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor, No likely end could bring them loss Or leave them happier than before. Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, A lonely impulse of delight Drove to this tumult in the clouds; I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death. Analysis I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above: he knows that sooner or later he is going to be shot down and he’s going to die. Those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love: he doesn’t hate who he is fighting, but he doesn’t love the people who he is defending neither, so he is neutral, because he is Irish . No likely end could bring them loss or leave them happier than before: whatever happens in this war it’s not going to make better or worse their conditions than before Sailing to Byzantium That is no country for old men. The young In one another's arms, birds in the trees, —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect. An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress, Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence; And therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium. O sages standing in God's holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity. Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; Or set upon a golden bough to sing To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come. Analysis 1. the poem begins with a contrast between the old men and the young men: the young people are embracing, they are loving, so that’s no country for old men, because the young are making love with one another and they are association with birds in the trees Those dying generations: the young belong to a world of life and love-making (to which the old men don’t belong anymore), but also of death At this point of the first stanza, there are two images which are going to develop in the whole poem: one is birds (birds in the trees) and the other is music (at their song). salmon-falls: salmons are famous for the fact that they return to the place of their birth in order to produce off-springs and die; they go up to sea to live there, but then they go back, they go up to river jumping over the falls and when they arrive where they were born they die because they are exhausted. Yeats is comparing our lives to this situation: the salmon such as any other being (even men) belongs to the cycle of nature where birth and death are interrelated commend...dies: whatever is conceived in nature, it is born and then it dies The voice who narrates this poem belongs to an old man, who doesn’t belong to this world anymore. sensual music: again the image of music 2. paltry: insignificant unless...sing: the old men is nothing unless his soul claps its hands and sings; this is not the music of the body, but another kind (of the mind). Once again there is a contrast: it is between the world of nature and the world of art, which is eternal (the same idea of Shakespeare and Keats) And therefore...Byzantium: he’s not talking about a physical journey, but a mental journey, because he’s going mentally to Byzantium, the centre of art. 3. This old man cannot belong anymore to the world of nature, because there is death which waits for him, but there is another world, the world of art, of the mind, the aesthetic dimension of life, which is symbolically represented by the holy city of Byzantium, basically because there it is the magnificent mosaic of Moses (now in Ravenna). Now he invokes those who are represented in the mosaic (O sages...soul), he imagines them coming down in order to teach him their own music (be the singing-masters of my soul); of course it is not the sensual music of the body, but the music of the mind. Then, he wants his body to be consumed away and burn away in a holy fire (fastened to a dying animal), because as long as the soul is attached to the body, it doesn’t know its own nature as a soul. artifice of eternity: the word artifice suggests art, but it suggests also something non-natural; so, on one hand, he wants to identify with the world of art, because his body is dying, but on the other hand he recognizes that even if art is eternal, it is however artificial. 4. Once...thing: when he will be out of his own body, he will never get a form anymore, so he will live out of nature, but if he doesn’t belong to a body, to nature, he will become a work of art (such a form as Grecian goldsmiths). Here, he becomes ironic, because there’s a kind of nostalgia for his body and the sensual music, because becoming a work of art means becoming an artifice The poem is going to end up as a bird, but an artificial bird (golden bough): it will be eternal The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question ... Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin — (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”) Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? And how should I presume? And I have known the arms already, known them all— Arms that are braceleted and white and bare (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) Is it perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ... I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while, To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it towards some overwhelming question, To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”— If one, settling a pillow by her head Should say: “That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all.” And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— And this, and so much more?— It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.” No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; about his figure; so he’s completely paralysed by self-doubts and his inhibitions Do I dare disturb the universe?: he doesn’t dare doing anything In...reverse: he will continue to change his mind I have measured out my life with coffee spoons: he drank a coffee after another coffee after another one, so in this sense he has measured his life with coffee spoons. This means that his life is completely without purpose, meaning or direction So how should I presume?: he has no courage to do anything; in this sense he is afraid of living The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase: once again, he is afraid of people who will criticise him And when...wall: he compares himself to an insect in a collection (when he is criticised by people) how should I presume?: this sentence represents his state of mind What sort of character Prufrock is? Prufrock is an inept, he has no moral courage, he has no courage to live; he’s obsessed with self- consciousness, he doesn’t have a strong sense of his own personality, so he is particularly aware of the way people see and judge him. We started using the word “persona” (it’s a word we can use to describe Prufrock himself) as a psychological category with Jung: it defines what we are publicly and what we pretend to be publicly; it recalls Romeo and Juliet, in particular the split between the public and the private identity. He’s very observant and we see once again the image of this man alone leaning out of windows smoking his pipes: he represents the solitude, loneliness in a big city such as London. This is a concept which belongs to Henry James too, who wrote about a lonely crowd: even in a crowd, we are alone. a pair of ragged claws: not an entire body, just a pair of claws of something like a lobster, a crayfish, but without a body, something completely irrelevant. This image reflects the conviction of Prufrock that even if he starts talking about something he knows, everybody won’t listen to him and will talk about Michelangelo, for example, or about something different you and me: the poet continues mentioning two people, but he doesn’t tell us who they are after tea and cakes and ices: again, the suggestion of a tea party in the afternoon He wonders whether he will have the force to make what both he and the woman he is interested in want (Should...crisis?), i.e. a declaration of love, but we know the answer: he will never have the courage. I have seen my head brought in upon a platter: it recalls the story of John the Baptist, who was decapitated and his head was put on a large platter; so Prufrock is putting himself in the context of great events, but of course he is nothing greatness flicker: he refers to the declaration of love he would like to make the eternal Footman: he refers to death; he imagines it as a servant who is holding a coat because he has to leave. So, leaving that room means die, in this case (the image of the window is very important in this poem together with the image of the room, because it symbolises the boundary between outside and inside); basically, he’s saying that death surrounds him: he isn’t able even to do a declaration of love because he thinks about the ultimate question of life, like death I was afraid: so he is afraid of doing his declaration of love because he thinks about many other things, such as death and meaninglessness; in consequence of this, there is a paradox: thinking about meaninglessness he destroys the meaning of his own life. After the cups, the marmalade, the tea: once again, domestic details overwhelming question: once again, the idea of the ultimate questions of life Actually, we realize that Prufrock hasn’t got the necessary vocabulary to talk with the woman (That is not what I meant at all), so he can’t say anything appropriate to the occasion. after the skirts that trail along the floor: he has come back to fashion now It is impossible to say just what I mean!: he can’t formulate his spiritual impotence, he’s frustrated turning toward the window: again the emblematic image of the window So, he is imagining the conversation with the girl, but he continues telling the wrong things, completely inappropriate that he didn’t want to say. I am not Prince Hamlet: intertextual reference; the main features of Hamlet’s behaviour are his indecisiveness, his inability to do what he is expected to do, his thinking too much. However, Prufrock denies he’s Hamlet and in fact Hamlet’s indecisiveness in Prufrock is moral cowardy and incapacity to act; so the only difference between them it’s that Hamlet has some reasons to behave in that way, he hasn’t any reason to do it, he’s just a coward Am an...obtuse: this is a reference to another Hamlet’s character, Polonius the Fool: a character who often recurs in Shakespeare’s plays Actually, this is a judgement of himself; he’s full of words, but in the end he’s ridiculous and fool. This is a reference to the fashion of old men, who were a certain kind of trousers. We know that he’s not so old, but he’s obsessed with his physical appearance. Do I dare to eat a peach?: he’s incapable of doing anything He imagines himself in the future, what he is going to do when he will be old (I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach). I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each: he heard the mermaids singing, but he doesn’t think that they were singing to him, because he’s pathetic(I do not think that they will sing to me) Till human voices wake us, and we drown: basically he says that when the mermaids stop singing and we hear human voices, which wake us, we drown.