APPUNTI LETTERATURA INGLESE

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

He was born into an emerging family of London merchants. He received a good education, studied classics,
tecnhology, medicine… He joined the army during the Houndred Years’War. His most important journeys are to Italy
where he gains knowledge of Dante, Petrarch and Boccacio.
Chaucer’s literary career is divided in three periods: French (poems modelled on French romance style and subjects),
Italian (a great maturity of perception and skill in the manipulation of the metres. Influenced by Boccaccio) and
English (marked by greater realism, includes his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales). From 1387 onwards, Chaucer
work on his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, whose setting, characters and adventures, unlike his previous works,
are those of 14th-century England, of which the poet offers a faithful and life-like portrayal.

THE CANTERBURY TALES

PLOT: Chaucer and 29 other travellers meet at the Tabard Inn in London, before leaving for the pilgrimage to
Canterbury. Chaucer is the narrator. To entertain the group, each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to
Canterbury and two stories on the way back. The various tales are both religious and humorous, moral and satirical.
Chaucer initially plans to write 100 stories, but he only complete 24.
THEMES: There are 3 fondamental themes: anthology of the usual genres of medieval literature. There is a mix of
allegory with realism to reflect on the course of human existence. The pilgrim’s route allegorically recalls man’s
earthly journey, from sinfullnes to holiness.
STYLE: The pilgrims come from a range of different classes, but highest and lowest ranks are not included. There are
realistic details, natural, lifelike dialogues. Most of the work is written in verse.
Chaucer want to give a portrait of English society: he mixed female and male characters to underline the growing
importance women were assuming within the middle classes. Chaucer didn’t follow the social hierarchy of
presentation of the time. The descriptions of the pilgrims emphasise clothes, tools, personal qualities, personality.
The names given to the pilgrims refer their professions.

Troilus and Criseyde, tragic verse romance by Geoffrey Chaucer, composed in the 1380s and considered by some
critics to be his finest work. The plot of this 8,239-line poem was taken largely from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Il filostrato.
PLOT:Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer tells his listeners he is going to tell a story for lovers. In Troy during the Greek
siege, Prince Troilus falls in love with Criseyde. Her father Calcas the seer, knowing Troy must fall, has gone over to
the Greek camp. Criseyde is under the protection of her uncle Pandarus, who is also Troilus's friend. Troilus falls ill
with love. Pandarus, pitying him, convinces Criseyde to see him. She too falls in love and, assisted by Pandarus, the
young couple become lovers. One day, however, Calcas sends for his daughter. Criseyde goes, promising she will
return within ten days. Troilus waits, but she does not come back. Time passes and one day the Trojan soldiers
return carrying Greek armour captured in battle (the wearer had in fact escaped with his life). On the armour Troilus
sees a brooch he once gave to Criseyde: he understands why she has not returned. Now Troilus wants only to die.
Each day he goes into battle, until he is killed.

LORD RANDAL

Lord Randal is an anonymous ballad that comes from the Anglo-Scottish border. It was composed in the late Middle
Ages and was passed on orally, which explains why it exists in many different versions, and was finally written down
in the 18th century. No details are provided about the events, direct speech and simple, concrete words
communicate the story in a dramatic way, consist of four line stanzas and the rhyme scheme is simple and repetitive.
The storyline is simple: through a conversation between mother and son, the poem tells the tragic story of a young
man who dies at the hands of the woman he loves after he went hunting in the forest.
As in most ballads, the subject matter is tragic and the themes dealt with are universal. Lord Randal’s sad story is
about the destructive power of love.
 THE RENAISSANCE

From the Tudors to the Restoration

The 16 century is the age of the Tudor dynasty. Under the Tudors the English naval fleet became the most powerful
in Europe, England acquired its first colonies.
In this period there is the transformation of agricolture: transition from medieval open fields to individually owned
fields, called “enclosures”. The land is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. Many people
migrate to cities. Coal is used as an energy source and the mining and textile industries are developing.

THE TUDOR MONARCHY

HENRY VII: He’s the first Tudor monarch and gains the throne after the Wars of the Roses. He weakens the
aristocracy and promotes the emergence of the middle class, obtains loyalty and economic support from the wealthy
bourgeoisie. He invests in shipbuilding and England embarks on worldwide explorations. Start the export of goods
and thus accumulation of gold and silver. This is called “mercantilism”.

HENRY VIII: He’s the son of Henry VII and succeded him to the throne. He is an enthusiastic patron of the arts. His
reign is mark by the advent of the Protestant Reformation in England. Henry wants to divorce his first wife, Catherine
of Aragon, for political and dynastic reasons, but the Pope refuses and the king broke with Rome. Then the Act of
Supremacy proclaims the king Head of the Anglican Church. Anne Boleyn is execute on charges of having
extramarital affairs with different men and conspiring to have the king murdered. However Henry had three more
wives.
The next monarchi s Edward VI and imposes Protestantism.
Mary Tudor, who succeded him, attempts a restoration of Catholicismand imposes a cruel repression of Protestants.
She marry Philip of Spain and weakens England’s role in Europe.
ELIZABETH I: She, although Protestant, is very tolerant and doesn’t persecute the Catholics. With the english victory
over the Spanish Armada, conquest England’s dominance of the seas. With Elizabeth I there is a long period of
prosperity and English trade develops.

JACOBEAN ERA: The passage of the crown to James sixth (VI) marked the end of the Tudor monarchy. James, the
first Stuart king, was crowned King James I of England and Scotland. He is the first monarch to unite the crowns of
England and Scotland. He imposed an absolute monarchy and he also imposed a strictly Anglican worship, excluding
Catholicans and Puritans from the government. The Catholican also tried to kill him with the "Gunpowder plot", but
the night before some cospirators have been seen in the Parliament with barrels of gunpowder. They have been
arrested, processed and executed. The puritans have also been repressed because of what their religion said, and
they had to escape England to go in North America, where founded the city of New Plymouth, today Massachusetts.
They took the name of pilgrim fathers.

CIVIL WAR AND RESTORATION: After James come his son Charles I; he firmly believes in the divine rights of king and
was opposed by those who want his powers limited by Parliament. In fact, Parliament in 1628 with the Petition of
Rights, declared that without the parliament's approval every decision made by the king will be declared illegal.
(there could be no taxation without Parliament’s approval and a free man could not be imprisoned without a trial).
So the tensions between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians led to a Civil War that ended with the victory of the
Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell. Charles I was tried and sentenced to death. Was proclaimed by Parliament
the birth of the United Republic of England, Scotland and Ireland (Commonwealth) and Cromwell was appointed
Lord Protector, but his government turns into a dictatorship. When Cromwell dies, is succeeded by his son Richard,
but the Parliament when resumes its powers, drove him and restores the monarchy. Charles II, son of Charles I, takes
the English throne.
THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance didn’t begin in England but in Italy and gradually extends in Europe. It is characteraised by: rebirth
of classical learning and aesthetic values. Humanism, which places man at the centre of intellectual inquiry. Scientific
discoveries, birth of modern science, mathematics and astronomy. In this period there is a great literary
accomplishment, innovation and experimentation with genres and form.

POETRY: Increase the prestige of English as a literary language. The technological advances in printing techniques
accelerated the diffusion of poetry, available to a vaster readership. With the influence of Italian verse happens the
evolution of the lyric poem into the sonnet. Scientific discoveries lead to the birth of intellectually complex
metaphysical poetry.

RENAISSANCE DRAMA: With the dramatic prose there is the revival of classical literature, through translation of
Roman tragedies and plays. Is introduced the five-act structure and are preferred long speeches and monologues.
Medieval drama is replaced by new forms of English drama.

THEATRES: In this period there aren’t permanent theatres. Dramas are performed by travelling actors (actors are
considered vagabonds and thieves) on temporary stages erected in the courtyards of taverns, called “inn yards”; but,
because of the frequent outbreaks of bubonic plague, the gathering of audiences in the inn yards is a real danger. In
fact, at the end of 16 century, theatrical performances are banned from the city of London. For this reason James
Burbage builds the first permanent playhouse, “The Theatre”, just outside the city limits. Increases demand for new
plays and are born professional companies of male actors, in fact female roles were played by boys. Plays now
included rapid dialogues, scene changes, comic characters and situations. Under James I a new division was
introduced: public outdoor theatres for the commoners and private indoor theatres, set up in private residences,
reserved for the nobility and the court. Moreover In 1642, Puritan moralistic pressure led Parliament to close all
theatres.

PROSE: At the end of 16 century, increasing circulation of prose fiction, inspired inspired by classical texts or literary
works of Renaissance Italy and France. The most important prose writings in the late 16th and early 17th centuries
were probably religious works: sermons, religious tracts, and translations of the Bible.
During the Jacobean period and the Interregnum, ), the amount of political writing also increased.
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

We study Shakespeare because his plays are the greatest literary texts of all times; they express a profound
knowledge of human behaviour; they transmit universal values applicable to all people at all times; he is the most
quoted, most translated of any author on earth.

William Shakespeare Life

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. Attends the grammar school and marry Anne
Hathaway when he was 18. In the mid-1580s he left Stratford and went to London where he started a brilliant
theatrical career, and became a successful and well-known playwright.
From 1594 onwards, he became associated with the ‘Lord Chamberlain’s Men’, the most stable and prosperous
dramatic company of the Elizabethan age. With them, Shakespeare worked for the rest of his career as an actor, a
playwright and a stockholder. He investing money in the building of a new playhouse, The Globe, and in the
acquisition of the indoor Blackfriars Theatre. Later he come back to Stratford where lived until his death.

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Shakespeare’s sonnets, 154 all together consist of 14 lines structured as three quatrains and a couplet. He follows
the “two poem” structure of Petrarchan form.
The sonnets are divided into two different sections: the first section is addressed to a young man, the “fair youth”,
(probably Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton); the second to a woman, the “dark lady”. The sonnets
explore the feeling of love in all its various manifestations.
The first 17 poems, called the “procreation sonnets”, urge the young man to marry and have children.
From the sonnet 18 the speaker praises the young man’s beauty, expresses love or passionate concern for him.
The second group of sonnets revolves around the relationship with the “dark lady”. The woman describe by
Shakespeare is different from the typical woman of Petrarchan sonnets. Infact the lady, in spite of the defects in her
appearance , is depicted as very attractive and seductive. Several sonnets speculate about the unpleasant sensations
caused by love.
Time is another recurring theme. Shakespeare portrays time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love because it
causes beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. Shakespeare sonnets subvert the classic, traditional themes
typical of the Petrarchan tradition. For example, his poems in praise of the lover’s beauty are written to a man.
Shakespeare builds his images of recurring symbols. Flowers, plants and trees illustrate the passage of time; stars
influence the destinies of human beings; weather and the seasons mark the ages of men.

Shall I compare thee…

Sonnet 18 is one of the most famous and is dedicated to a young and unknown friend, referred to as "fair youth".
This sonnet, as every tipycal english sonnet, is made up by three quatrains and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is
ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. William Shakespeare writed this sonnet for a man, probably the Earl of Southampton, who
maybe paid him to glorify his figure in the poem. In fact Shakespeare starts describing him as a perfect person. He is
compared to the summer but Shakespeare says that his friend is "more lovely and more temperete" beacause his
character isn't shaked by "rough winds" or burned by the sun too hot and because his sweetness lasts more than
summer, that dies little by little with the autumn. Shakespeare also says that every kind of beauty is destinated to
vanish or for the circumstances or for the life's cyrcle, but his friend is comparated to an eternal summer that will
never lose his beauty and that will never roam into the death's darkness. In the final couplet Shakespeare says that
the beauty of his friend will last forever and it will live again everytime that someone reads this sonnet.
My mistress' eyes

It's a tipycal english sonnet because is made up by three quatrines and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB,
CDCD, EFFF, GG. It's an ironic sonnet wich plays with his beloved since he doesn't address compliment to her but he
says that she is an ordinary woman as many in the world. In this sonnet he compares his woman to the ideal woman
of the Renaissance, but while the perfect lady has blue eyes, blond hair, beautiful voice ecc., Shakespeare's is
completely different. In fact her eyes aren't blue, her lips aren't red as coral, her hair and skin are dark, she has a
fantastic voice but not as music. Her breath perfumes neither stinks. She doesn't fly ad a goddes should do, she
simply walks. However in the final couplet the poet thinks/believes/mantains that he loves her in the same way
because it's impossibile to compare her to an unreal/fake woman.

ROMEO AND JULIET

PLOT: In Verona, the Capulets and the Montagues are long-time enemies. During a ball, Romeo (a Montague) and
Juliet (a Capulet) meet, fall in love and are secretly married by Friar Lawrence.
Romeo's best friend dies in a fight with Juliet's cousin. Romeo kills him for revenge and is then exiled to Mantua.
Meanwhile, Juliet's father arranges her marriage to Count Paris. In order to avoid it, Juliet drinks a potion which will
make her fall into a sleep similar to death. Friar Lawrence writes to Romeo explaining Juliet's plan, but he never
receives it. Romeo thinks that Juliet is really dead and kills himself. When she wakes up and finds him dead, she stabs
herself with his dagger. When their families find their bodies, they decide to reconcile.

THEMES: Romeo and Juliet is the only Shakespeare play where the theme of love is absolutely overriding. It is love,
rather than Romeo and Juliet themselves, which seems to be the real protagonist of the tragedy. There is the Romeo
and Juliet psychological development; when they fall in love, they are projected into the world of adulthood. There is
a struggle between individual and society; nobody, especially women really has a choise in the patriarchal structure
of Renaissance families. Finally, there is a struggle between a cruel fate and free will; Romeo and Juliet try to obtain
indipendence, bue the final act is suicide.

STYLE: Language is rich, there are references to history, science and religion, and are used different literary forms
and styles for different moods and characters.

WHAT’S IN A NAME – Scena del balcone (commento)

In his passionate monologue, Romeo celebrates Juliet's beauty by means of celestial and astronomic imagery after
seeing her at a window above. Romeo imagines Juliet transforming darkness into light and triumphing like a glorious
angel in the sky. Juliet too is talking to herself. She asks why her beloved must be Romeo, a Montague, and suggests
they should renounce their names to be happy together. She is ready to give up her name and hopes that Romeo will
be too. Hearing that she loves him too, Romeo reveals himself. Whereas he appears brave and ready to face death
for her love, Juliet looks concerned because her relatives may murder him if he is discovered in the garden.

HAMLET

PLOT: The ghost of the dead king of Denmark appears to his son, Prince Hamlet, and reveals that he has been
murdered by his brother Claudius, now married to his widow. He asks for revenge. Hamlet is shocked and pretends
to be mad. A company of actors arrives at the castle: Hamlet asks them to enact a scene similar to his father's
murder to observe Claudius' reaction. During the performance, Claudius leaves. Hamlet follows him and, in the
attempt to kill him, accidentally kills Polonius, the father of his loved one, Ophelia.
Overwhelmed by Hamlet's strange behaviour and by her father's death, Ophelia goes mad and kills herself.
During a fencing match, Laertes, Ophelia's brother, wounds Hamlet with a poisoned sword.. However, he is mortally
injured too. He reveals Claudius's plot and Hamlet manages to kill the king before dying himself.
THEMES: There are four important themes:
→REVENGE: Hamlet is a reveng tragedy, the ghost sets the whole revenge plot in motion.
→MADNESS: Gives Hamlet defence against plotting and time to think.
→LOVE AND DEATH: Hamlet and Ophelia’s love is contaminated by the surrounding circumstances, death is ever
present.
→FROM THE INDIVIDUAL TO UNIVERSAL: Hamlet show the hypocrisy of human relationship and the way power
corrupts.
STYLE: Simple prose mixed with great poetry, in which metaphors for disease and corruption prevail.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE – (commento)
In his soliloquy Hamlet explores two fundamental issues: life and death on the one hand, action and inaction on the
other. His argument starts from the famous question "to be or not to be" and he comes to the conclusion that men
choose to live because they don't know what may come after death. This thought prevents them from committing
suicide and makes them bear all the troubles typical of life, such as the passing of time, unrequited love, the
oppression of the powerful or injustice. The acceptance of life and its ills is equated to inaction, while putting an end
to one's life is equated to action; action is the result of a healthy resolution, inaction the result of the weakness
caused by reflection. Hamlet's philosophical considerations on men's behaviour are based on personal experience;
his tendency to analyse facts prevents direct action which means, in his case, avenging his father.

SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS

Only half of Shakespeare’s plays were published in his lifetime. The first edition of the plays, called “First Folio”, was
published in 1623 by Shakespeare’s friends. In this collection there isn’t a division into acts and scenes and a list of
characters, but the plays were simply grouped as Comedies, Histories and Tragedies without dates.

Editors and critics divided Shakespeare’s dramatic production into four periods: apprenticeship, maturity, major
works and late plays.

HISTORY PLAYS: They focus on moments in English history characterised by national consciousness, Shakespeare
investigate the nature of monarchic power and explores the painful conflict between private feelings and public
duties.
COMIC PLAYS: Inspired by Greek and Latin comedies, Spanish pastoral romances, and Italian “Commedia dell’arte”.
Their dramatic devices are mistaken identities, disguises, cross-dressing and lucky coincidences; always the central
characters overcoming difficulties, securing and happy ending.
TRAGEDIES: The hero has to face a challenge, and is in opposition to his family, social group or fate. There may be a
villan as an antagonist and flaws in the hero’s character bring about catastrophe and death. Focus on: love and
death, jealousy and revenge, power and ambition, deception and crime, greed and ingratitude.
ROMANCES: Set in ideal or remote places. They feature musical and spectacular elements typical of court masques:
magic, mythology and supernatural beings. They always feature redemptive plotlines and conclusions where
harmony and peace prevail.

Shakespeare’s language
He used unrhymed lines with an arrangement of unstressed and stressed syllables known as BLANK VERSE (iambic
pentameter).
VERSE is generally used by aristocratic characters, and in serious or dramatic scenes.
PROSE is generally used by lower-class characters, in comic scenes and in informal converasations.
Clusters of repeated images build up a sense of the themes of the play, like light and darkness in Romeo and Juliet.
Imagery from Elizabethan daily life, like sports and hunting; shipping; law; jewels; medicine.

Use of metaphors, similes and personification. Shakespeare coins a huge amount of expressions, idioms and
metaphors which are still used nowadays.
COMEDIES

Shakespeare's romantic comedies usually start with a calamity. In fact the protagonist has to meet up, from the
beginning ,with the challenge made of misfortunes and he has to turn them into his own advantage. Important are
the figures of heroes and heroines, usually in love , while wrongs are redressed. The tipical ending of the comedy
includes a double or triple wedding. Shakespeare's most delightful comedy is Twelfth night, It represents a comedy
in all his aspects: from love to marriage, from mistaken identity to misunderstandings. The predominant theme in
the plot is, of course, love that moves around a girl, Viola-Orsino-Olivia. It also has an happy ending in the sense that
no heart is broken in the end, but this general happiness clashes with a darker note when a joke made to Malvolio
turned out to be an harmless jest and he demands revenge.

TRAGEDIES

In Shakespeare's tragedies the action is concentated on a single character who fights against his family, the society,
also against his fate. But the challenges that the protagonist has to face during the story will reveal fatal to him.

We have different types of tragedies, Hamlet,for example, is a revenge tragedy that derives from the Greek and
Roman ones and that during the Renaissance has became usual the presence of ghosts and violent deaths for most
of the characters. The revenge theme in Hamlet is used near other themes like nature of order and nature of the
good ruler. In the plot, Claudius's murder brings disorder and deaths in all the society because of the killing of the
monarch. The play is also about the suffering of the protagonist, in fact the prince is torn in conflicting feelings: love
and disgust when he reproaches his mother, love and duty when he rejects Ophelia because he must revenge his
father. The precedence is to obey to his father also if he knows that he has to kill a man.

The Roman plays are also categorised as tragedies, they talk about events happened during the roman history. The
play Julius Cesar obviously talks about his murder.

In his speech, Brutus has the chacteristics of a tragic hero that from the beginning shows a noble personality and he
became involved in in cospiracy that will bring death and defeat on himself and on others. He puts public intrest and
honour before all the things but he is divided between loyalty to the republican freedom and loyalty to Caesar. Marc
Anthony instead is shown as a powerful orator, and in his speech he shows personal devotion to Cesar, this seems
true and convincing, but when he is alone he reveals the ability which had inspired his speech to the people, he
raised the crowd to create caos to obtain personal advancement.

THE PLOT
After the return of Caesar from the war against Pompei, a soothsayer warns Caesar to beware the ideas of March,
but while this, Cassius and Brutus are discussing about their fears to see Julius king. One night Casca, Cassius and
Cinna meet and talk about how to convince Brutus to agree to their cause to kill Caesar so, when they arrive to his
house he agrees. And, during the ideas of March, the conspirators kill him. During his funeral, Mark Anthony,
Caesar’s friend, meets the conspirators and allows Brutus to speak. He justifies his action to the citizens and receives
their support but Anthony in his speech turns them against the conspirators, so Brutus and Cassius flee. The angry
citizens kill Cinna the poet instead of Cinna the conspirator. Some days after Mark Anthony creates the first
triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus and they plan the killing of the conspirators. So has started a war that brought
to the killing of Caesar’s murderers.

THE SPEECHES
During the funeral of Julius Caesar Brutus and Marc Anthony make two speeches. Marc Anthony asks the cospirators
to speak in the funeral and they accept but Brutus has to talk first. After the speech Brutus introduces Marc Anthony.
His speech is different from Brutus's because it is written in verse and it attracts the crowd's attention. In his speech
Marc Anthony uses the reverse psychology and the repetition of a concept, for example he says that Brutus said that
Caesar was ambitious, and he is an honorable man. He wants to convince the crowd by saying the opposite. He bases
his speech on emotions, differently from Brutus, that had relied on logic and reason, and he closes his speech with a
pause saying that he was oppressed by pain, making everyone participating in his emotions.

During his speech Brutus didn't gave any tangible proof that Caesar was ambitious, to clear oneself he only has his
reputation and if this would be negated all his speech and his credibility will collapse. So he tries to involve the
crowd emotionally saying that he loved Caesare but he had to kill him because he loved Rome more than him and he
had no choice apart killing him.

So Brutus tried to say that he killed Caesar for a noble cause, instead Anthony wants to persuade the crowd to make
them know that who killed Caesar was a traitor.

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At the funeral of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Mark Antony make two speeches. Anthony asks the conspirators to speak
at Caesar's funeral and they accept on the condition that Brutus is the first to speak. After his simple and honest
speech, in prose, Brutus introduces Antony, who begins his speech by resuming Brutus' opening "Roman,
countrymen and lovers", but modifying it with an initial "Friends": "Friends, Roman, countrymen, lend me your
ears". In this way the speech begins drawing the attention of citizens with friends, more emotional than Romans.

Anthony's speech, differently from Brutus's, is in verse, and this attracts more public attention. Anthony speaks to
the crowd praising Brutus and the conspirators but using reverse psychology and the repetition of a concept, that is
to say the fact that Brutus says that Caesar was ambitious and Brutus is a man of honor, he manages to convince the
people of the exact opposite. Moreover, he bases all his speech on emotion, unlike Brutus, who had relied on logic
and reason, and closes his speech with a pause, saying that he was oppressed by pain, making everyone participate
in his emotions.

Anthony's speech at Caesar's funeral was more effective than Brutus', because Anthony used a multifaceted
emotional argument, instead of using a single statement, as Brutus had done. For this reason, Anthony managed to
move the crowd at his side against Brutus and the conspirators.

Anthony had many examples that Caesar was not ambitious.

Anthony reminded the people of Rome that Caesar was not ambitious because he gave his spoils of war to the
people of Rome instead of keeping them for himself.

“When the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;/ Ambition should be made of sterner stuff” (3.2.93-94 Shakespeare).

Antony says: I thrice presented to [Caesar] a kingly crown,/ Which he did thrice refuse” (3.2.98-99 Shakespeare).

Caesar's rejection proves Anthony's thesis that Caesar was not ambitious, and Anthony begins to gain the approval
of the common people when he thinks about what he said.

The main flaw of Brutus' speech was that his argument had only one source of proof, his reputation. During his
speech, Brutus gave no tangible proof that Caesar was ambitious: no example, no witness or letter to prove that
what he said was true. The main weakness of this kind of argument is that if that one source of proof, in this case
Brutus' honor, is negated, the full argument collapses. During his speech, Brutus tries to emotionally involve the
crowd only once, when he tells them that he loved Caesar, that he was a good friend of Caesar, but that he loved
Rome more, and that he had no choice but to kill him

Brutus tried to make the mob believe he killed Caesar for a noble cause. Antony tried to persuade the crowd that the
conspirators committed an act of brutality towards Caesar and were traitors.

LINK: https://literatureessaysamples.com/antony-s-and-brutus-speeches-in-julius-caesar/
 JOHN MILTON
He was born in 1608 from a puritan family in London; at the age of 24 he retired in Horton for five years and here he
wrote L'allegro and Il pensieroso. In 1638 he left and he went to Europe for two years. On his return in London he
became a prose polemicist. In 1642 he married Mary Powell, but she left him after a few weeks, so he became a
fierce advocate of divorce. Moreover , he writes four tracts, which the most important is The Doctrine and Discipline
of Divorce. During the Civil War he became a supporter of Oliver Cromwell's cause. His death in 1658 marked the
beginning of the third phase of his literary production, when the poet spent all his time to the writing of his best-
known works.

MILTON’S THREE PERIODS

- The years 1642-43 marked the end of Milton’s first period spent during the reign of Charles I. He was fascinated by
Italian writers like Petrarch, Dante and Tasso and, also in this period he published Lycidas.
- Milton’s second period was the one of public office and prose propaganda. All the writings of this period are
characterized by a Ciceronian style, since the periods are long reflect Latin syntax.
- The third period began in 1649 he wrote The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in which he justified the execution of
Charles I.

THEMES
Milton's production was influenced by his life, and his themes were strictly connected. We have the connection
between the obsession with power and the various types of liberty. In his prose works he appealed to the rethoric of
rebellion and insubordination, instead his poetical works represented the sophistication and refinement of the
educated speech of his times. He wrote 22 sonnets, mostly following the rules of the italians authors and, in fact, his
works in italian talk about conventional amorous themes. Instead the english ones talk about politics and private
subjects.

COMUS
Comus talks about the importance of chastity. The story talks about two brothers and a girl called “The Lady”, lost in
the woods. The lady si seduced by Comus, the God of revel. He represents the body and the desire while she
represents the reason. He wants to control her body because he can’t limit the freedom of her mind.

LYCIDAS
The poem talks about the death of Milton’s friend Edward king, who the poet calls Lycidas. Milton uses the story of a
shepherd grieving to eplore his feelings. The poem begins with the shepherd collecting leaves for Lycidas’s funeral
and calling the world to cry for his loss. So a group of characters from the Greek mythology comes to comfort the
shepherd but he continues to cry. But in the final stanzas he finds consolation in the promise of Christian
resurrection.

PARADISE LOST
It talks about Adam and Eve, their creation and how they lost their place in the garden of Eden, the Paradise. This is
the same story told in the first part of Genesis.

PLOT
One day, God decided to give his power and his authority on the heaven to his son Jesus instead of Lucifer, the
brightest angel of all the heaven. So he started a war against God, but he got defeated and so Lucifer is thrown in the
hell by God. But Satan wants revenge and so he enters into the Eden Garden where he finds Adam and Eve, God’s
creatures. He turns into a snake and finds Eve alone, he induces her in eating the apple on the forbidden tree, the
one which God had recomended not to eat. Adam, resigned to join in her fate, eats it as well. They go wild and they
have their first fight. Satan and his crew, when they return to hell, they are all turned into snakes as punishment.
After their reconcile, God sents Michael to expel Adam and Eve from the Paradise, and they are sent on the earth.

THEMES
In his poem, Milton wants to describe the universe as a hierarchically organized: with God at the top, the angels in
the middle, man and animals coming next and below them the fallen angels, in the hell. In this view, disobedience to
God generates chaos and destruction.
Paradise Lost shows two falls:
- the Lucifer one who puts in discussion God’s order by refusing to honour the Son
- that of man who eats the forbidden fruit, however, Adam and Eve take a different moral path, seeking forgiveness
for their sins.

There isn’t a real hero in all the poem, in the first two books Satan represents in all his aspects an epic hero: corage,
spirit of leadership. Instead God is represented as a tyrant. However, this poem shows also how Satan has given all
his qualities to the wrong hands, and follows his phisycal transformation that turns him into primal Evil.

STYLE
Light and darkness reinforce the contrast between the opposing forces through the poem: light represents the
Kingdom of Heaven, full of God’s Grace, the devil lives in Milton’s darkness visible, in fact Hell is a place of
punishment for the fallen angels. This is an epic poem and, in fact. It follows the typical epic conventions: it opens in
medias res, after an invocation to the muse; it employs blank verses and elevated tones, in fact Milton had altered
normal English constructions to imitate Latin syntax.

BETTER TO REIGN IN HELL, THEN SERVE IN HEAVEN

Satan appears as a brave warrior who, despite losing in the war against God, is determined to take
possession of his new infernal world, claiming that "it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven". He
thinks that God is his superior only in strength, not in intelligence, and seems to be indifferent about his
new standing: to him one's state of mind is more important than the physical place one is in. Moreover,
these new surroundings have some advantages too, since he and the other rebel angels are finally free.
The tone of the passage is highly solemn and elevated, thanks to Milton's use of words of Latin origin and
allusions to classical mithology, and the long verse paragraphs add grandeur to the epic quality of the
poem.

FRANCA RAME’S VERSION OF PARADISE LOST

Dario Fo recites a monologue written by his wife, Franca Rame. It is a monologue that describes the creation of
Adam and Eve and describes the landscape of paradise. These are the same topics that are explored by John Milton
in his most important work, Paradise Lost.

One difference we find is that of the creation of the first human being, who is not Adam, but Eve. Eve is not born
from Adam's rib, but modeled by God. Later God gives her life and speech, all before creating Adam. In fact Eve
initially, wandering around paradise complains that she is the only one of her kind, while all the other animals are
already in pairs or groups.

Later Eve meets Adam, and when she sees him she starts jumping for joy and shouting, as if she wanted to provoke
Adam. Adam, at first is scared and in fact runs away into the forest.God then proposes to Adam and Eve, two trees:
one with abundant fruits, which if eaten would have made the two eternal and the other of apples, thanks to which
they will not have eternity but will discover knowledge.

Apples are not a symbol of sin but of knowledge and thanks to them there will be discoveries and inventions. The
apple tree is not chosen by Eve, because invited by Satan transformed into a serpent, but she chooses of her own
free will. Eve makes this choice saying that she does not want an eternal life, but she wants to make discoveries and
inventions.