THE OTHER
"Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other" - Euripides
On this page, we'll describe the relationship between each author and "the other". When we talk about "The other" we refer to people who surround the poet and are part of their life. Some important authors often refer to a woman they are in love with, and dedicate to her entire poems in which they declare their feelings. Others address their works to a friend, or a family member. So "The other" has an intimate relationship with the author.
Now we will focus on some of them.
Why are personal relationships important?
We all think that family and friends are a very important element of our lives, but why? There is evidence that strong relartionships can help you live longer, happier and healthier lives.
William Shakespeare
Shakespearean Sonnets:
His sonnets were probably written in the 1590s, but they were published in 1690, in a collection called "Quarto".
Shakespeare did not use the Petrarchan form, instead he wrote his works in three quatrains and a final couplet.
THEMES
They can be divided in two sections; the first group is addressed to what he calls a "fair youth" (probably his young patron, the Earl of Southampton) while the second group is adressed to a "dark lady" or a "black woman". This one is physically unattractive but he thinks she's desiderable in an irresistible way.
The themes are not traditional ones. In fact when the poet seems to praise a woman's beauty he's addressing a young man (simply by reading them, if we didn't know, we would have thought that they were adressed to a woman). On the contrary those poems devoted to a woman are more negative.
Other themes, for example, include: time, death, love, beauty, art and the analysis of emotions and behaviour. Shakespeare was a dramatist so he was more conscious of the complexity of human feelings.
"Shall I compare thee"
"My mistress' eyes"
"Shall I compare thee"
This is The Sonnet XVIII and it's one of the ones devoted to the "fair youth".In this sonnet he talkes about his devotion to the "fair youth" and also about the transience of beauty"continue to read...
In the first line he compares her to a summer's day (so to something positive) saying that she is better than it because she's not too hot; she's temperate. He also complains about the duration of summer, which is too short.
Then he talks about the power of time, which takes everything away, so the beauty too wil fade eventually. But her beauty in particular will disappear slowly, because she will live for eternity through this poem .("As long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee").
"My mistress' eyes"
This sonnet is the number CXXX and it's adressed to the "dark lady". In this sonnet he talkes about his love for a woman in an unusual way.continue to read...
He talks about the typical elements used to describe a woman, but here there's a difference. Usually, the poem celebrates the beauty of a Stilnovisti woman but this sonnet describes her as someone not so beautiful, we can also say plain.
The poet describes for example:
her eyes ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun)
her hair ("if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head")
her lips (" coral is far more red than her lips' red")
her skin ("If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun")
But even though he is describing her as she is, so with all of her negative aspects, he still loves her.
He thinks that man doesn't need to use false comparisons to describe his love, because we all know that true love doesn't need to be glorified through false comparing and unrealistic imagery.
John Donne
Features of his poetry:
John Donne is the most important representative of Metaphysical poetry.
The term Metaphysical means that it is concerned with problems of nature, universe and the role of the man in life.
The main characteristics of his poetry are:
originality: he had original ideas and also used unique words
fusion of feelings and thoughts: he combined his passions with his mind
an intense dramatic quality: most of his poems were dramatic monologues (he was recognised as a potential religious thinker and preacher because of his sermons)
use of wit: an intellectual metaphor called "conceit"
colloquialism: he often used common phrases
wide-ranging use of tone and register
Platonic love: he considered love as something more spiritual
"A Valediction: Forbidding Morning"
The main idea is that the love between the poet and his wife is beyond physicality.They're one soul and for this reason, even though they are apart, they are still united and nothing can tear them apart...continue to read
To express this idea John Donne uses the metaphor of the compass; they are always connected to each other and when they are far from each other they are not separated, but they are extended.
The poet also refers to the element of gold (which reminds us of wedding rings) which expands and doesn't break, to underline the fact that they are always linked.
He also compares their separation to a little earthquake, which is nothing compared to what happens in the greater universe; so according to his view man can only perceive small things.
Daniel Defoe
Defoe's Novel:
Defoe is generally regarded as the father of the English novel and he helped with the development of the realistic novel.
His purpose was didactic, for this reason in his works he gives moral teachings in order to make people change their behaviour; to transform uneducated bad-mannered people into gentlemen and people of faith.
His novels are fictional biographies that pretend to be true stories, according to the fact that the protagonist always provides a number of biographical elements.
Also the novel is characterized by a series of episodes and adventures, which are united by the presence of a single hero, presented in the form of a diary, in order to increase the realism.
In his novels there is no coherent plot because he didn't use to plan or revise his works.
He narrates the events in first-person and the author's point of view is reflected in that of the main character.
He represents his characters from the inside and they usually are isolated (Robinson Crusoe) and they have to struggle everyday in order to survive (Moll Flanders).
"Robinson Crusoe"
Robinson Crusoe belongs to the middle class which is considered "the best state". The novel begins with Crusoe who rebels against his father, because of his desire of travelling the world, while the father wants him to become a lawyer.continue to read...
Robinsom Crusoe was captured by Moorish pirates but manages to escape. After his escape he was shipwrecked on an island and started to explore it. He started building a boat and looking for food when he met Friday (Crusoe saved him from the cannibals). One day they saw an English ship that took both Crusoe and Friday back home. Friday, who submitted to Robinson, is the first native character to be described in the English novel.
The desert island is a symbol of contradictions and obstacles of the new word. Throughout the journey Robinson Crusoe wants to demostrate that he deserved to be saved by Divine Providence.
When he was on the desert island, he began to work hard and he read the Bible. Defoe wrote "I was going to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place" because he realized that religion gives him strength to survive and man can defeat any adversity with the help of God.
Just in case you want to hear about the entire story, here is a video for you to watch!
Plus remember to visit the other pages of our site to see the work of our classmates where different aspects of this novel are described.
Jonathan Swift
Johnatan swift, an Anglo-irish author, was the foremost prose satirist in the English language.
Gulliver's travels is one of the books that gave birth to the novel form.
A parody of the then popular travel narrative, Gulliver's Travels combines adventure with savage satire, mocking English customs and the politics of the day.
The book is written in the first person from the point of view of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon and sea capitan who visits remote regions of the world, and it describes four adventures.
"Gulliver's Travels"
The original title of the novel was "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World".Lilliputians, giants, scientific community and intellectual horses are the others that Gulliver meets in his travels, helping him to transform his mind and talking about politics in England without being discovered.Here are the themes of the novel.continue to read...
THEMES:
In the work there's the question of what should be the governing factor of social lifes; physical power or moral righteousness. In his adventures he can experience both the advantages and the bad sides of them. In Liliput, where he's a giant, he feels how is like to have physical power and on the contrary, in Brobdingang as a miniature visitor he can see how it feels to not have it (he's even smaller than insects).
Then there's the theme of the individual versus the society. Gulliver's Travel explores the idea of Utopia (an imaginary model of the ideal comunity). The novel focuses on the repeated failures of an individual to integrate into societies, where he doesn't belong.
Another theme is the limits of human understanding. It's important the idea that humans aren't meant to understand everything
SYMBOLS:
THE LILLIPUTIANS: they represent the humankind's exessive pride
THE BROBDINGAGIANS: they represent the private and personal side of humans
THE LAPUTANS: they represent the folly of theoretical knowledge that has no relation to human life. Swift was against the new ideas that where spreading after the Enlightenment because he preferred the traditional knowledge. Laputa represents the absurdity of knowledge.
HOUYHNHNMS: they represent the rational existence; a life governed by moderation
Samuel Richardson
Styles and themes:
He wrote his novels in an epistolary style, so all of the books are made up of letters written by the main character during the time the stories take place. The letters describe the scene or a dialogue.
The themes of his stories are usually the female dominance over man's emotions, and the male dominance over a woman's physicality. His novels also reflect the characteristics of the Journal "The Spectator", such as common sense, modesty and good manners. For this reason in his works he usually uses the terms "virtue" and "honesty", ironically, as synonyms for virginity.
Another characteristic of Richardson's work is that there is a psychological analysis, and while reading the book, the reader experiences the states of mind of the characters. What's more, the characters are not static; they develop gradually along the story.
How society reacted to the book:
As a young servant and also as a woman, Pamela should have been invisible but instead Richardson gave her a voice. A lot of people loved the novel and started creating merchandise for the book, such as paintings for example. On the other hand, there were other people who criticised the novel and for this reason created parodies. In these parodies Pamela is represented as a prostitute and the book itself is presented as a guide for how to seduce a young girl.
"Pamela, or virtue rewarded"
"Pamela" is an epistolary novel, which is based on the story of a 15 year old servant, Pamela Andrews, and a man, Mr. B. who is the son of Pamela's dead mistress and who, after failing in seducing her, eventually marries her.continue to read...
PLOT:
Pamela Andrews is a 15 year old servant from the working class who works for a rich family. When her mistress dies she starts working for his son, Mr. B., who begins a series of stratagems to seduce her, but he fails. Consequently, he threatens to rape her, but despite this she resists and never gives up. The only thing that can cofort her is writing letters to her parents in which she informs them about the events. Mr. B. starts to fall in love with her and decides to offer marriage as a reward for her virtue (she preserves her verginity), so at the end they get married.
THEMES:
In this novel there are a lot of themes, but those linked to the relationship with "the other" are the relationship between social classes in English society, the rights and duties of marriage and finally violence; there's hand-slapping, sword brandishing and attempted rape (a lot of violence for a book which is supposed to talk about virtue).
William Wordsworth
The poet's task:
In the life of this author, the relationship with "the other" is fundamental. He was a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and from this friendship, the work of "The Lyrical Ballads", his most famous work, along with "The Prelude", was born. In this work William Wordsworth gives the definition of the poet which is connected to his relationship with man.
The poet, according to William Wordsworth is "a man speaking to men". He's not superior, but he has a greater sensibility and the power of imagination allows him to comunicate his knowledge to "the other"; the poet becomes a sort of teacher who shows people how to understand their feelings.
"A certain colouring of imagination"
This is an extract taken from "The Preface" (form the second edition of the "Lyrical Ballads") and it's regarded as the Manifesto of the English Romanticism. In this text the author gives us an idea about the style and the language of the poet.continue to read...
The language must be simple, connected to the rural life, where we can find the purest emotions. ("our elementary feelingsco-exist in a state of greater simplicity").
Also the style must be simple because the poet is speaking to common people so everyone should be able to understand.
In this extract he also expresses a new view and a new copncept of poetry. Poetry comes from the emotions which the poet can't control, and than the poet recollects them, in a following moment, when he's alone and can think.
"I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity..."
Then, like we've said before, Wordsworth has a new vision of the figure of the poet:
"He is a man speaking to men: a man, is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind"
Watch this video to see how Wordsworth came up with his ideas and how he managed to create poetry!
Mary Shelley
The birth of the novel "Frankestein":
Mary Shelley's novel was actually born from a relationship with the other.
In fact, in the summer of 1816 she was in Switzerland with Shelley and Byron. Byron suggested that they should write a ghost story of their own because they often stayed at home due to the wet weather and they used to read ghost stories too.
If you want to learn more about Mary Shelley's life check out the work of our classmates on this page!
"Frankestein, or The Modern Prometheus"
This is an epistolary novel, told by three different male narrators. Mary dedicated it to Godwin. continue to read...
The three different narrators are Walton (who informs his sister); then there is Frankestein (who informs Walton, who informs his sister) and lastly there is the monster (who informs Frankestein, who informs Walton, who informs his sister). At the end the receiver is always Walton's sister (Margaret Saville).
Mary Shelley decided to use three male narrators perhaps to disguise her own female voice. During the creation of the novel she also used a lot of ideas given to her by her parents (like social justice and education)
She sympathises with the creature but is also afraid of the consequences of his actions.
If you want to find out more about the whole story watch this amazing video on youtube!