Thursday, December 13, 2007
SHifts in the development of the English language
The English language has developed and changed as the land of it's birth was invaded and conquered by many different peoples and languages. Those groups included the Celts, Danes, Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Norse, and the French. Each language brought new words, spellings, and grammar to the language. By the time Bede was writing his History of England the language had begun to standardize slightly, though differences did occur by regions. The dialects that develop in different regions were the result of the group that had the most influence over the region for a long period of time. An example of this would be that Bede's history was written in Old English in the dialect of Northern England, which received a heavy Norse and Celtic influence, while later and much further south, Marie de France's Lanval was influenced more by the French after the Norman invasion in 1066. Also the shift in the English language was caused by the need to standardize spelling for literature and speaking with the introduction of movable type and public schooling. In order to have a well ordered, controlled public, standards in language were needed, though dialects are still expressed through accents, and different stresses on syllables. The English language continues to evolve as more words from other languages are blended in each day, and new ones are created. An example of this would be the influx on Native American words into the English language with colonization in the New World and modern day acronyms used in computer messaging such a lol (laughing out loud). The language will continue to evolve as long as there are words and meaning to be included and changed.
Oral/Aural vs. Literary Experiences
Oral/Aural vs. Literary Experiences
The different in Oral and Literary experiences is that oral experiences are meant to be shared in a group setting, such as a king’s court or around the fire in a peasants’ hut while literary experiences are almost always a solitary pastime. Most of the pieces of literature we have read this semester were originally intended to be shared orally. The rhyme and rhythm of pieces like Lanval, Beowulf, and Caedmon’s Hymn are meant for oral telling, sort of a bedtime story for burly knights. By the time the reader arrive at Eloisa to Abelard or A Modest Proposal the literature has lost many of it’s rhythmic features and though it could be read aloud for an audience it was more likely meant to be for solitary reading.
The different in Oral and Literary experiences is that oral experiences are meant to be shared in a group setting, such as a king’s court or around the fire in a peasants’ hut while literary experiences are almost always a solitary pastime. Most of the pieces of literature we have read this semester were originally intended to be shared orally. The rhyme and rhythm of pieces like Lanval, Beowulf, and Caedmon’s Hymn are meant for oral telling, sort of a bedtime story for burly knights. By the time the reader arrive at Eloisa to Abelard or A Modest Proposal the literature has lost many of it’s rhythmic features and though it could be read aloud for an audience it was more likely meant to be for solitary reading.
Figurative Language
Figurative language is defined as “an intentional departure from the normal order, construction, or meaning of words.” This can become a different misspelling of a word in order to make it fit into a rhyme scheme, or switching words to make the meter fit. Five examples of these are Caedmon’s Hymn, Beowulf, Eloisa to Abelard, A Modest Proposal, and Dr. Faustus.
In Caedmon’s hymn words are switched in order to make the rhyme scheme fit better. Instead of “established the beginning” it becomes “the beginning established”. Not a major change, but it does make the rhyme flow.
In Beowulf, the figurative language also takes the form of kennings or metaphorical noun compound instead of always using the proper name for the person or creature. Grendel, the monster, is often referred to as “God-cursed” or “shadow-stalker” as often as Beowulf is called a “Half-Dane” or referred to as someone’s servant or retainer. This language spices up the oral tale and relieves the monotony of always mentioning the person’s name.
In Eloisa to Abelard, the figurative language is used to thinly veil the desire and rage of Eloisa at not being able to be with the man she loves nor being able to concentrate on her supposed devotion to the Lord she is now condemned to serve by her father. With words like “lost in a convent’s solitary gloom!” referring to her loneliness in the convent and her longing for Abelard’s attention and affection. Figurative language in this piece gives her plight a sense of poetics and begs the reader to sympathize with her plight.
In A Modest Proposal, Swift uses figurative language to refer to people and places in order to first protect himself from attacks from the people he is criticizing and second to allow the reader to judge or his/her self exactly who is being condemned and made fun of. This refers to the “Pretender in Spain” which is a reference to James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of James II, a man to whom many of the Irish were loyal to. Writing in figurative language gives Swift the advantage of having “an inside joke” with his readers. Only those in the know would have the insight into what he is talking about.
Finally in Dr. Faustus, figurative language is used again to describe thing and make them appear to be more fanciful than they really are. Faustus uses “Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look” instead of just saying the constellation the constellation Orion. The Devil and Metastophilis use figurative language in order to lure Faustus into signing his soul to the devil and to keep him from renouncing his deal and returning to the arm of God.
In Caedmon’s hymn words are switched in order to make the rhyme scheme fit better. Instead of “established the beginning” it becomes “the beginning established”. Not a major change, but it does make the rhyme flow.
In Beowulf, the figurative language also takes the form of kennings or metaphorical noun compound instead of always using the proper name for the person or creature. Grendel, the monster, is often referred to as “God-cursed” or “shadow-stalker” as often as Beowulf is called a “Half-Dane” or referred to as someone’s servant or retainer. This language spices up the oral tale and relieves the monotony of always mentioning the person’s name.
In Eloisa to Abelard, the figurative language is used to thinly veil the desire and rage of Eloisa at not being able to be with the man she loves nor being able to concentrate on her supposed devotion to the Lord she is now condemned to serve by her father. With words like “lost in a convent’s solitary gloom!” referring to her loneliness in the convent and her longing for Abelard’s attention and affection. Figurative language in this piece gives her plight a sense of poetics and begs the reader to sympathize with her plight.
In A Modest Proposal, Swift uses figurative language to refer to people and places in order to first protect himself from attacks from the people he is criticizing and second to allow the reader to judge or his/her self exactly who is being condemned and made fun of. This refers to the “Pretender in Spain” which is a reference to James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of James II, a man to whom many of the Irish were loyal to. Writing in figurative language gives Swift the advantage of having “an inside joke” with his readers. Only those in the know would have the insight into what he is talking about.
Finally in Dr. Faustus, figurative language is used again to describe thing and make them appear to be more fanciful than they really are. Faustus uses “Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look” instead of just saying the constellation the constellation Orion. The Devil and Metastophilis use figurative language in order to lure Faustus into signing his soul to the devil and to keep him from renouncing his deal and returning to the arm of God.
Meter and Rhyme
Meter can be defined as “the recurrence of in poetry of a rhythmic pattern, or the rhythm established by the regular occurrence of similar units of sound” (Handbook of Literature, 323). Rhyme is defined as “Identity of terminal sound between accented syllables, usually occupying corresponding positions in two or more lines of verse” (Handbook of Literature, 449). In short it is the musical quality in the play of words off of the tongue that makes a work of literature wonderful. Five examples in the literature that we have studied this semester are Lanval, The Canterbury tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Caedmon’s hymn, Layamon: From Brut.
In Lanval, Marie de France uses an ABA rhyme scheme to tell the story of Lanval’s adventures. This rhyme scheme gives the story a sing song quality to it, which makes it very easy to memorize and tell as an oral tale. An example is “Another lay to you I’ll tell, of the adventure that befall, a noble vassal whom they call In the Breton tongue Lanval”
In The Canterbury Tales the rhyme scheme and meter are a bit different than Lanval in that Chaucer writes in couplets, or two lines that end in the same rhyme, giving it the appearance of AA, BB, CC, and so on. An example of this is “Whan that April with his showres soote, The droughte of March hath perced to the roote.’ Soote and roote have the same rhyme ending causing the pattern to also fall into a start/stop jerky rhythm that is also easy to remember in order to recite.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the rhyme and meter are a bit different with the addition of the bob and wheel, used to summarize the free verse above. The “Bob” is the first inset of the summary and the wheel is the ABAB format that follows. This gives the reader and the listener an easy to remember potion of the story that captures the essence of what has come before, making following the tale easier.
In Caedmon’s Hymn the meter and the rhyme of the literature follows the Old English style of poetry that calls for a four accents to a line, with no fixed number of unstressed beats, and a caesura or break between the second and third accents. Also Caedmon’s hymn are example of the Old English style of alliteration (the first consonant is always the same), assonance (the same vowel sounds), and kennings, a metaphorical noun compound. An example of this is:
“Meotodes meahte and his modgepanc”
This line shows the break between the beats and the alliteration as nearly every word begins with the letter m. The kenning comes in “Meotodes meahte” which translated means “Measurer’s might” a reference to God or Christ who takes the measure of a man’s soul.
Finally in Layamon: From Brut the meter and rhyme the ABAB rhyme and sing song meter are again see in the section called “Arthur’s Dream. “Then came to pass what Merlin spoke of long before, That the walls of Rome would fall down before Arthur” Though this rhyme is a bit of a stretch as “before” and “Arthur” do not have the same spelling in the end they both roll of the tongue in the same manner. This quality again makes it very easy to memorize and speak aloud, giving it magical quality.
In Lanval, Marie de France uses an ABA rhyme scheme to tell the story of Lanval’s adventures. This rhyme scheme gives the story a sing song quality to it, which makes it very easy to memorize and tell as an oral tale. An example is “Another lay to you I’ll tell, of the adventure that befall, a noble vassal whom they call In the Breton tongue Lanval”
In The Canterbury Tales the rhyme scheme and meter are a bit different than Lanval in that Chaucer writes in couplets, or two lines that end in the same rhyme, giving it the appearance of AA, BB, CC, and so on. An example of this is “Whan that April with his showres soote, The droughte of March hath perced to the roote.’ Soote and roote have the same rhyme ending causing the pattern to also fall into a start/stop jerky rhythm that is also easy to remember in order to recite.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the rhyme and meter are a bit different with the addition of the bob and wheel, used to summarize the free verse above. The “Bob” is the first inset of the summary and the wheel is the ABAB format that follows. This gives the reader and the listener an easy to remember potion of the story that captures the essence of what has come before, making following the tale easier.
In Caedmon’s Hymn the meter and the rhyme of the literature follows the Old English style of poetry that calls for a four accents to a line, with no fixed number of unstressed beats, and a caesura or break between the second and third accents. Also Caedmon’s hymn are example of the Old English style of alliteration (the first consonant is always the same), assonance (the same vowel sounds), and kennings, a metaphorical noun compound. An example of this is:
“Meotodes meahte and his modgepanc”
This line shows the break between the beats and the alliteration as nearly every word begins with the letter m. The kenning comes in “Meotodes meahte” which translated means “Measurer’s might” a reference to God or Christ who takes the measure of a man’s soul.
Finally in Layamon: From Brut the meter and rhyme the ABAB rhyme and sing song meter are again see in the section called “Arthur’s Dream. “Then came to pass what Merlin spoke of long before, That the walls of Rome would fall down before Arthur” Though this rhyme is a bit of a stretch as “before” and “Arthur” do not have the same spelling in the end they both roll of the tongue in the same manner. This quality again makes it very easy to memorize and speak aloud, giving it magical quality.
The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins are sins that are so sever that only complete submission to god and service to him in order that he person who committed them would be able to enter heaven. These sins are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. In each blog set there are examples of at least one of the Seven Deadly Sins, though in Dr. Faustus they are all present and paraded before him. The five pieces I have chosen to look at for this entry are Dr. Faustus, A Modest Proposal, The Wife of Bath Prologue, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Lanval.
In Dr. Faustus, the main character is guilty of nearly every one of the seven deadly sins, with the exception of sloth and gluttony. He is very industrious in his studies and interest in accumulating knowledge. He is very guilty of pride, because he is so proud of his accomplishments in the academic fields. He is guilty of envy because he is envious of the knowledge the Lord and the Devil possess. He is guilty of wrath and lust because he is very vengeful to a high ranking duke and the pope himself; he is lustful because he takes his pleasure in many women rather than entering the holy bonds of marriage.
In A Modest Proposal, Swift is making commentary about the social inequalities in Great Britain and the lands under her control during the seventeenth century. He comments on how gluttonous the wealthy, with are while the poor Irish children starve, beg, and die in the streets. But Swift is also of one of the seven deadly sins in writing “A Modest Proposal; the sin of wrath. Wrath in his writing includes the ironic, satiric way in which he rails against the British government for the treatment of the Irish in the way he uses his false logic in suggesting that the poor Irish Catholics sell their infant children to be fattened up and eaten by the upper classes. This is a naturally repulsive idea, but he words his wrath in such a way that it appears to be a sane, sensible solution.
In The Wife of Bath Prologue, the Wife of Bath is guilty of three of the seven deadly sins: gluttony, pride, and lust. She is guilty of gluttony in that she love her fine meals, and she has the girth to show for it and dress, flaunting he fine clothing on what is suppose to be a humble pilgrimage to the shrine in Canterbury. She is guilty of lust because she has had more than one husband; in fact, she has had five and would welcome a sixth if she could find one. She is guilty of pride because she is not ashamed about her life, her choices, or her multiple marriages, though by the standards of her time period; she should have been begging for mercy.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both the Green knight’s wife and Sir Gawain are guilty of the sin of lust, but more so the Green knight’s wife than Sir Gawain. She is guilty of lust because she commits adultery in her pursuit of Sir Gawain. He is just as guilty because he allows himself to be drawn in by her, stopping just short of physical sin with another man’s wife. Gawain is also guilty of pride in that he becomes boastful in the beginning when the rest of the knights shrink from the challenge to the beheading game proposed by the Green Knight. His pride leads him to the troubles of the travel and places him in the position to sin with the wife of the Green Knight’s wife.
Finally in Lanval, the title character is guilty of the sin of sloth. Lanval is described as the least of Arthur’s knights; Arthur even forgets to pay Lanval on occasion! Because he is thought of so little of he leaves in order to seek her fortune, although he even takes to this in a very slothful manner; falling asleep near a river. His sloth continues as he is now supported by his Fairy Queen bride. He is so slothful that when he gets himself into trouble with King Arthur’s wife, he becomes depressed, wanting to do harm to himself until his bride saves him from execution.
In Dr. Faustus, the main character is guilty of nearly every one of the seven deadly sins, with the exception of sloth and gluttony. He is very industrious in his studies and interest in accumulating knowledge. He is very guilty of pride, because he is so proud of his accomplishments in the academic fields. He is guilty of envy because he is envious of the knowledge the Lord and the Devil possess. He is guilty of wrath and lust because he is very vengeful to a high ranking duke and the pope himself; he is lustful because he takes his pleasure in many women rather than entering the holy bonds of marriage.
In A Modest Proposal, Swift is making commentary about the social inequalities in Great Britain and the lands under her control during the seventeenth century. He comments on how gluttonous the wealthy, with are while the poor Irish children starve, beg, and die in the streets. But Swift is also of one of the seven deadly sins in writing “A Modest Proposal; the sin of wrath. Wrath in his writing includes the ironic, satiric way in which he rails against the British government for the treatment of the Irish in the way he uses his false logic in suggesting that the poor Irish Catholics sell their infant children to be fattened up and eaten by the upper classes. This is a naturally repulsive idea, but he words his wrath in such a way that it appears to be a sane, sensible solution.
In The Wife of Bath Prologue, the Wife of Bath is guilty of three of the seven deadly sins: gluttony, pride, and lust. She is guilty of gluttony in that she love her fine meals, and she has the girth to show for it and dress, flaunting he fine clothing on what is suppose to be a humble pilgrimage to the shrine in Canterbury. She is guilty of lust because she has had more than one husband; in fact, she has had five and would welcome a sixth if she could find one. She is guilty of pride because she is not ashamed about her life, her choices, or her multiple marriages, though by the standards of her time period; she should have been begging for mercy.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both the Green knight’s wife and Sir Gawain are guilty of the sin of lust, but more so the Green knight’s wife than Sir Gawain. She is guilty of lust because she commits adultery in her pursuit of Sir Gawain. He is just as guilty because he allows himself to be drawn in by her, stopping just short of physical sin with another man’s wife. Gawain is also guilty of pride in that he becomes boastful in the beginning when the rest of the knights shrink from the challenge to the beheading game proposed by the Green Knight. His pride leads him to the troubles of the travel and places him in the position to sin with the wife of the Green Knight’s wife.
Finally in Lanval, the title character is guilty of the sin of sloth. Lanval is described as the least of Arthur’s knights; Arthur even forgets to pay Lanval on occasion! Because he is thought of so little of he leaves in order to seek her fortune, although he even takes to this in a very slothful manner; falling asleep near a river. His sloth continues as he is now supported by his Fairy Queen bride. He is so slothful that when he gets himself into trouble with King Arthur’s wife, he becomes depressed, wanting to do harm to himself until his bride saves him from execution.
The Four Humours
The Four Humours
The Four Humours are thought to control the personality of person and the physical and mental wellbeing. The Four Humors are blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile and have a direct association with the four elements; air, fire, water, and earth. In the literature we have read this semester at least one imbalance in humour can be found in the text, though it might be difficult to discover. The five that I have chosen are Eloisa to Abelard, Dr. Faustus, The Canterbury Tales’ “Wife of Bath”, Lanval, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
In Eloisa to Abelard, Eloisa is depressed over being apart from Abelard and not being able to concentrate on her service to god and at the same time passionate about Abelard, the feelings that her stirs within her, and about her service to God. This swing between a dominance of blood and a dominance of yellow bile causes Eloisa swings in her writing between wanting Abelard to come get her and cursing him for placing her in the predicament she now finds herself in.
In Dr. Faustus, the main character is suffering from a dominance of yellow bile as he rails against his society and his god when he makes his pact with the devil in order to obtain knowledge of the universe that was only known to the Lord. He is vengeful in the way that he treats the figures of authority with his magical tricks, most notable the selling of a disappearing horse to the Duke and making items disappear in from right under the nose of the pope himself. He is also suffering from an abundance of phlegm near the end of the play, causing him to be very pale when faced with the prospect of going to hell and he becomes very cowardly in his futile attempts to thwart the devil.
In The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath is suffering from an abundance of blood and black bile. The abundance of blood causes her to be very amorous, hence the five husbands. She is in love with being in love, but this goes hand in hand with her abundance of black bile which causes her gluttonous appetite, both for rich food, rich dress, and many men. The combination of these two creates the image of a modern day gold digger, albeit a fat and sloppy one.
In Lanval, especially at the end of the tale, Lanval is suffering from an elevated level of black bile as he has become very melancholic at his perceived loss of his beloved Fairy Queen wife because he has told the court of King Arthur about her and therefore broken his word. His melancholia so disturbs the other knights that they keep watch over him to make sure that he does not harm himself. There is a significant upswing in blood and how he feels when his bride comes to Arthur’s court, rescuing him.
Finally in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain suffers from a small upsurge of phlegm when faced with the prospect of having his head chopped off in the beheading game with the Green Knight. He flinches, showing the entire court his cowardice, and betraying the chivalric code he has sworn to uphold. But in the beginning of the tale he is suffering from an abundance of yellow bile when he becomes easily angered at the other knights in Arthur’s court when they will not accept the challenge of chopping the head off the Green knight, in effect displaying the same surge of phlegm that Gawain later suffers from at the end. It is the initial surge of yellow bile that causes Gawain to place himself in the predicament that carries the entire story.
The Four Humours are thought to control the personality of person and the physical and mental wellbeing. The Four Humors are blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile and have a direct association with the four elements; air, fire, water, and earth. In the literature we have read this semester at least one imbalance in humour can be found in the text, though it might be difficult to discover. The five that I have chosen are Eloisa to Abelard, Dr. Faustus, The Canterbury Tales’ “Wife of Bath”, Lanval, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
In Eloisa to Abelard, Eloisa is depressed over being apart from Abelard and not being able to concentrate on her service to god and at the same time passionate about Abelard, the feelings that her stirs within her, and about her service to God. This swing between a dominance of blood and a dominance of yellow bile causes Eloisa swings in her writing between wanting Abelard to come get her and cursing him for placing her in the predicament she now finds herself in.
In Dr. Faustus, the main character is suffering from a dominance of yellow bile as he rails against his society and his god when he makes his pact with the devil in order to obtain knowledge of the universe that was only known to the Lord. He is vengeful in the way that he treats the figures of authority with his magical tricks, most notable the selling of a disappearing horse to the Duke and making items disappear in from right under the nose of the pope himself. He is also suffering from an abundance of phlegm near the end of the play, causing him to be very pale when faced with the prospect of going to hell and he becomes very cowardly in his futile attempts to thwart the devil.
In The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath is suffering from an abundance of blood and black bile. The abundance of blood causes her to be very amorous, hence the five husbands. She is in love with being in love, but this goes hand in hand with her abundance of black bile which causes her gluttonous appetite, both for rich food, rich dress, and many men. The combination of these two creates the image of a modern day gold digger, albeit a fat and sloppy one.
In Lanval, especially at the end of the tale, Lanval is suffering from an elevated level of black bile as he has become very melancholic at his perceived loss of his beloved Fairy Queen wife because he has told the court of King Arthur about her and therefore broken his word. His melancholia so disturbs the other knights that they keep watch over him to make sure that he does not harm himself. There is a significant upswing in blood and how he feels when his bride comes to Arthur’s court, rescuing him.
Finally in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain suffers from a small upsurge of phlegm when faced with the prospect of having his head chopped off in the beheading game with the Green Knight. He flinches, showing the entire court his cowardice, and betraying the chivalric code he has sworn to uphold. But in the beginning of the tale he is suffering from an abundance of yellow bile when he becomes easily angered at the other knights in Arthur’s court when they will not accept the challenge of chopping the head off the Green knight, in effect displaying the same surge of phlegm that Gawain later suffers from at the end. It is the initial surge of yellow bile that causes Gawain to place himself in the predicament that carries the entire story.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Eloise to Abelard #2
Historical fiction is defined in the Handbook to Literature as “Fiction whose setting is in some time other than that in which it is written.”(256) Eloisa to Abelard is an example of Historical fiction because its author, Alexander Pope, wrote the letter in the seventeen hundreds and set the story in the twelfth century. He based his work on the French and English translations of the original letters and adapted them to the fit the sensibilities of his seventeenth century audience’s perception of the middle ages. Through his writing in the perspective of Eloisa, he tells the story of her longing and her angst about being torn between her love for Abelard and her love for the Lord he was suppose to serve. “Pope brings these internal struggles to the surface by externalizing them in bold dramatic rhetoric” (Norton Anthology, 2532). An example would be on page 2543 Eloisa exclaims “line after line my gushing eyes o’erflow, Let through a sad variety of woe; Now warm in love, now withering in my bloom, Lost in a convent’s solitary gloom!” Exclamations like these are littered throughout this piece as Pope weaves Eloisa’s indecision about whether or not she wants Abelard to come for her and free her from the convent or that she should try and forget about the passionate love the two of them shared and devote herself to the God she also professes to love. Pope does an excellent job of writing in the female voice and capturing the passion of a young nun who was forced into the service of her God.
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