Saturday, April 25, 2020

Jason Leite Essays - Greek Mythology, Birds In Art, Nude Art

Jason Leite Jason Leite British Literature II Dr. Marck Critical Essay #2 Even though certain works are designated to certain periods in time, many works from say, the Victorian period have similar controlling images when compared to works from the Twentieth century. Each writer presents an image that is repeatedly used throughout the work. The same image is used in each work even though they were written during different periods in time. Sometimes, even the location of the image, where it was placed in the text, helps to develop the image within the work. It may be used to convey the writers opinion on the subject but a lot of images are familiar and carry over from generation to generation and are continually discussed in works of literature. The only thing that changes is the way in which it is being presented and discussed. Two works that we have studied this semester that possess similar controlling images are, William Butler Yeatss Leda and the Swan and Robert Brownings Porphyriaa Lover. Both discuss the idea of love gone bad and the suppression of women by men. Starting with the earlier of the two, Porphyrias Lover is a poem written at the end of the 1830s during the Victorian Period in England. How it is categorized with the rest of Brownings poems, Dramatic Romances, tell us that nothing good will result of any love that is to occur in the poem. Porphyria is introduced as the dominant partner with agency, while her lover is reticent and inactive. When the lover suddenly inverses the roles, it appears as if he is achieving some sort of revenge because this woman has manipulated him. Yet the entire time, we only see Porphyria through the eyes of the lover. The speaker uses Porphyria to rationalize his own shortcomings and recasts her as a reflection of himself to help compensate for his weaknesses. The fact that he retains his voice and Porphyria lacks hers puts him in the assertive position. Why is it that such a passionate woman is unable to get a response from the man that she loves? Why is the narrator of this poem unable to respond to his lover when she calls out his name? Is the narrator unable to deal with her intense love for him? Is this why he murders her, is he murdering the entire concept of desire and love? Was their love a forbidden love, and if so, forbidden by whom? It is obvious that even after the murder takes place that the narrator still burns for his love, her cheek once more/ Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss, (47-48) which forces me to believe that there was some deep motivation for the strangling. Perhaps he wanted to keep her weak. He regains his dominance upon strangling her. Also, I find it interesting that the narrator does not get a sign from God even after he commits this crime. Does this imply that God, and perhaps the entire institution of religion supports this act of passion, that it was justified in the eyes of a higher being? By this, Browning may be saying that religion supports male dominance and suppression of female passion. In Leda and the Swan, written during the 1920s, Yeats deals with an ancient Greek myth that Zeus came down from the land of the Gods and basically raped a mortal woman named Leda. According to Yeats, the poem was inspired by the situation of world politics in Ireland. There are several power images within the poem, not only of the swan's initial power in taking Leda, but of a loss of some of that power before the poem ends. At first, overwhelmed by the suddenness of the attack, Leda is held helpless breast upon breast (4), her nape caught in his bill (3). The power and results of this attack continues it effects long afterward as the broken wall, the burning roof and tower (10) of Troy as well as Agamemnon's death are occur there. But the swan, even though it has taken complete control of Leda throughout the entire poem, is not in full mastery of his victim by the end. Leda has put on some of the swan's power before his

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