Lit 12 - Fishbowl Notes

Death

 

In Beowulf- death was always a threat - tied up with fate, dying honourable is important - Beowulf's funeral - shows both Christianity and Pagan rituals

 

"Bonny Barbara Allan" - "if my love died for me today, I'll die for him tomorrow"

 

"To the Virgins" - live life to the fullest - "carpe diem" - "the same flower that smiles for you today, tomorrow will be dying" - warning to get married before prime is gone

 

"Modest Proposal" - literally killing babies for food - shock value

 

Beowulf - dying honourably, medieval times - afraid of death; restoration - less afraid of death

 

"Elegy" - death is the great equalizer - "the paths of glory lead but to the grave" - obsession with being remembered "storied urn" - no matter how much money or power people have, they are still dead

 

"Rime" - life in death

 

Keats - "When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be" - fearful of not having an "unreflected love"

• "Ode to a Nightingale" - idea that people are going to die - come to terms with it - wanted to die happy - "I have been half in love with easeful death"

 

"Ulysses" - "live life to the lees"; "sail beyond the sunset" - don't stop living (better to wear out than rust out) - Victorian values of utilitarianism - being of use - Telemachus - different from him - acceptance of different styles - different ways of living

 

[different ways of looking at death?]

 

• Sonnet 43 - "I shall but love thee better after death" - like "Valediction" - transcendent ("if God choose"

 

-"Song" - all about death - related to "Elegy" - "where are all their tear floods now" - speaker wonders why no one else cares - nature moves on and in the end "soothes my lady" -

 

• "Because I Could not Stop for Death" - death is personified, suave, sweeps the speaker away - death seems like a suitor - doesn't seem bad - person who is dead isn't the one suffering [think about time]

 

• "Dulce et Decorum Est" - WWI - death is not heroic (the opposite of Beowulf) - the old lie "pro patria amori" - it is not "sweet and honourable to die for one's country" - images

 

• "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" - fight death - "rage against the dying of the light"

 

• How could you frame your argument?  What would your thesis be?

 

 - "The Hollow Men"- metaphorical - standing by the tumid river with no sight

 

-Holy Sonnet 6 - John Donne - "Death Be Not Proud" - death is personified - "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men" - these factors can control death - "one short sleep past, we wake eternally" - a secular way of looking at it is once a person is not afraid of it, it ceases to exits - Christian interpretation - if people believe in Heaven, then no one really dies

 

• Religion deals with death - big focus
• Death shifts
• Depending on the era - Romantic Era - (corresponds with religion) - nature is dominant - death not as scary - come to terms; Modern - fight against death, but will happen

 

 

Heroism

 

• Anglo Saxon times - having a larger than life figure makes sense because they must face other clans, the elements - many things are against them

• "my duty is to go to the Danes" - he's been taught to fight for others
• Heroes look out for the common good
• The only difference for Beowulf and our time - not humble - he fought in the water - "chased all of the giants from the earth" - he knows what he's capable of
• Anglo Saxons - oral tradition- must say out loud - like a resume
• Loyalty utmost important

• Value confidence

• Family (Unferth murdered his brother)

 

Medieval: Canterbury Tales / Sir Gawain - humble/Christian - does not do everything right - he's flawed

• Walled city - safer
• Integrity/chivalry was valued
• Privilege to think about integrity - less about survival
• Flinching = flawed - but he loved his life ("my head when it's gone won't talk in my hands")

 

Renaissance/17th Century

• Paradise Lost - Satan is three dimensional - has heroic qualities

• "Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable" - different idea about heroism

• Satan is the ultimate anti-hero, but he still has heroic qualities - of course Satan is not watching out for the general good ("to do aught good never will be our task"
• Complexity about what we value
• Followers
• Beowulf and Satan had followers - similar qualities

 

• Less of a need for a hero in modern times
• Different times - people depend on God to be a hero
• In Milton's time less precarious
• No longer walled cities
• More idealized in Beowulf's time

• "Rape of the Lock" - mock epic - lack of need for strong heroic figures (or maybe there are no heroes and this piece mocks the fact that no one is stepping up - "coffee" quote and "sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea")

 

18th Century/Romantic

-different kinds of heroes - things are much more vague

• Fearlessness of death = heroic quality
• Nightingale, albatross

• Heroic to accept death and be okay with it

 

Victorian/2oth Century

• War makes us look at heroes in a different way
• "Dulce" - questioning what "heroes" do - Owen mocks the Beowulfian ideal (dying honourably) -
• Heroes today (Mohammad Ali just died)
• What can people do with their lives -what can you give
• Nelson Mandela fought against his society (the powers)

 

 

Social Structure

 

 

How social structure affects morals (for example)

 

Anglo Saxon times - clan - loyalty

 

Medieval - feudal - unified but also individuals - every one has his/her place in the world - static

• How much power the church has - corrupts
• Society - highest - most corrupt
• Parson - most humble - one of the most valued pilgrims
• Canterbury Tales - more sophisticated than King Arthur
• How does integrity relate to societal structure?

• People have more protection with feudal system - room to have integrity (not so worried about survival)

 

Renaissance

-Great Chain of Being

• Wealth
• Class system
• Middle class starts to exist more (in Canterbury Tales - mercantile class)
• Diary of Samuel Pepys - more focus on the individual - look at the fire
• More security
• Queen Elizabeth I
• People thinking for themselves

• idealistic

 

 

18th Century/Romantic

• "Rape of the Lock"/ "Modest Proposal" - satire shows dissatisfaction with social structure

 

 

Victorian/20th Century

"On His Blindness"

-God is above all - Great Chain of Being "Taskmaster" - "lodg'd with me useless" - can't use his talent to serve God

• Faith

 

"Rime" - The Lyrical Ballads - when the mariner kills the albatross - separate from nature - things only get better when he realizes that everything is equal in the world (blesses the water snakes) - things are not as hierarchical

• French Revolution influences all these writers

• Catholicism = animals have no souls

• Relationship between the church and social structure

 

"To a Mouse" - first time discussing the mouse's world - thinking of creatures other than men - first time anyone who is not really rich is mentioned - writing by middle class writers - rise of middle class

-"Elegy" - addresses inequality - if lower class had the opportunities of rich -their life would be vastly different (Gray, Robert Burns… middle class) - new perspective

-in modern age - separating from nature -

 

"Dulce et Decorum Est" - young poor men went to war - rich people with status gave the orders

 

 

Quotes - more overarching ideas - what works show social structure?