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?
