Essay about The Lady of Shalot - 507 Words

quot;The Lady of Shalotquot; tells the story of a woman who lives in a tower in Shalott, which is an island on a river that runs, along with the road beside it, to Camelot, the setting of the legends about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Every day, the woman weaves a tapestry picture of the landscape that is visible from her window, including Camelot. There is, however, a curse on her; the woman does not know the cause of the curse, but she knows that she cannot look directly out of the window, so she views the subjects of her artwork through a mirror that is beside her. The woman is happy to weave, but is tired of looking at life only as a reflection. One day, Sir Lancelot rides by, looking bold and handsome in his†¦show more content†¦As she drifts along, singing and observing all of the sights that were forbidden to her before, she dies. The boat floats past Camelot, and all of the knights make the sign of the cross upon seeing a corpse go by, but Lancelot , seeing her for the first time, notes, quot;She has a lovely face.quot; This poem was first published in 1832, when Tennyson was 23 years old, in a volume called Poems. Up to that point, Tennyson had received great critical acclaim, and had won national awards, but the critics savagely attacked the 1832 book, mostly because of poems such as quot;The Lady of Shalottquot; that dealt with fantasy situations instead of realistic ones. The next year, 1833, Tennysons best friend died, which affected the poet as greatly as would anything in his life. For a long time, during a period that later came to be known as quot;the ten years silence,quot; nothing of Tennysons was published. In 1842, a new volume, also called Poems, was published, to great critical acclaim. The new book had a slightly revised version of quot;The Lady of Shalott,quot; and this version is the one that is studied today. Deprivation In this poem, the main character exists under a spell without knowing what its origin is or why it has been put on her and without thinking of how she can remove it. She seems toShow MoreRelatedOrientalism : The Romantic Era Of British Literature And Meshes Essay2475 Words   |  10 Pagesfinds himself back on his walk with Christ. 3. â€Å"Lady Susan† by Jane Austen is a short epistolary novel published after she died. Lady Susan is not only the titles namesake but the main character of the in the short epistolary novel. Lady Jane is a beautiful, manipulative, calculating, and self-indulgent widow; a woman so cold-hearted in her machinations that she puts her own interests ahead of her daughter’s, or anyone else’s for that matter. Lady Susan exemplifies many aspects of William Blake’s

Is That a Man or a Woman in Da Vincis Last Supper

The Last Supper is one of the great Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vincis most famous and fascinating masterpieces — and the subject of many legends and controversies. One of those controversies involves the figure seated at the table to the right of Christ. Is that St. John or Mary Magdalene? The History of The Last Supper Although there are multiple reproductions in museums and on mousepads, the original of The Last Supper is a fresco. Painted between 1495 and 1498, the work is enormous, measuring 15 by 29 feet (4.6 x 8.8 meters). Its colored plaster covers the entire wall of the refectory (dining hall) in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. The painting was a commission from Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan and Da Vincis employer for nearly 18 years (1482-1499). Leonardo, always the inventor, tried using new materials for The Last Supper. Instead of using tempera on wet plaster (the preferred method of fresco painting, and one which had worked successfully for centuries), Leonardo painted on dry plaster, which resulted in a more varied palette. Unfortunately, dry plaster is not as stable as wet, and the painted plaster began to flake off the wall almost immediately. Various authorities have struggled to restore it ever since. Composition and Innovation in Religious Art The Last Supper is Leonardos visual interpretation of an event chronicled in all four of the Gospels (books in the New Testament). The gospels say that the evening before Christ was to be betrayed by one of his disciples, he gathered them all together to eat and to tell them that he knew what was coming (that he would be arrested and executed). There, he washed their feet, a gesture symbolizing that all were equal under the eyes of the Lord. As they ate and drank together, Christ gave the disciples explicit instructions on how to remember him in the future using the metaphor of food and drink. Christians consider it as the first celebration of the Eucharist, a ritual still performed today. This Biblical scene had certainly been painted before, but in Leonardos The Last Supper the disciples are all displaying very human, identifiable emotions. His version depicts iconic religious figures as people rather than saints who are reacting to the situation in a human way. Furthermore, the technical perspective in The Last Supper was created such that every single element of the painting directs the viewers attention straight to the midpoint of the composition, Christs head. It is arguably the greatest example of one-point perspective ever created. Emotions in Paint The Last Supper depicts a specific moment in time. It illustrates the first few seconds after Christ told his apostles that one of them would betray him before sunrise. The 12 men are depicted in small groups of three, reacting to the news with differing degrees of horror, anger, and shock. Looking across the picture from left to right: Bartholomew, James Minor, and Andrew form the first group of three. All are aghast, Andrew to the point of holding his hands up in a stop gesture.The next group is Judas, Peter, and John. Judass face is in shadow and he is clutching a small bag, perhaps containing the 30 pieces of silver he received for betraying Christ. Peter is visibly angry, and a feminine-looking John seems about to swoon.Christ is in the center, the calm in the midst of the storm.Thomas, James Major, and Philip are next: Thomas clearly agitated, James Major stunned, and Philip seems to be seeking clarification.Finally, Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon comprise the last group of three figures, Matthew and Thaddeus turned away to Simon for explanations, but their arms are stretched out towards Christ. Was Mary Magdalene at the Last Supper? In The Last Supper, the figure at Christs right arm does not possess an easily-identified gender. Hes not bald, or bearded, or anything we visually associate with masculinity. In fact, he looks feminine. As a result, some people (like the novelist Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code) have speculated that Da Vinci wasnt depicting John at all, but rather Mary Magdalene. There are three very good reasons why Leonardo was likely not depicting Mary Magdalene. 1. Mary Magdalene wasnt at the Last Supper. Although she was present at the event, Mary Magdalene wasnt listed among the people at the table in any of the four Gospels. According to Biblical accounts, her role was a minor supporting one. She wiped feet. John is described as eating at the table with the others. 2. It would have been blatant heresy for Da Vinci to paint her there. Late 15th-century Catholic Rome was not a period of enlightenment with regard to competing religious beliefs. The Inquisition began in the late 12th century France. The Spanish Inquisition began in 1478 and 50 years after The Last Supper was painted, Pope Paul II established the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Rome itself. The most famous victim of this office was in 1633, Leonardos fellow scientist Galileo Galilei. Leonardo was an inventor and experimenter in all things, but it would have been worse than foolhardy for him to risk offending both his employer and his Pope. 3. Leonardo was known for painting effeminate men. There is controversy over whether Leonardo was gay or not. Whether he was or wasnt, he certainly devoted more attention to male anatomy and beautiful males in general than he did to female anatomy or females. There are some rather sensuous young men depicted in his notebooks, complete with long, curly tresses and modestly downcast, heavy-lidded eyes. The faces of some of these men are similar to that of John. Based on this, it seems clear that Da Vinci painted the apostle John swooning next to Christ, and not Mary Magdalene. The Da Vinci Code is interesting and thought-provoking. However, it is a work of fiction and a creative tale woven by Dan Brown based on a bit of history that goes well above and beyond the historical facts.

Summary Of Girl By Jamaica Kincaid - 1204 Words

An Analysis of Character Representation in Girl Throughout history women have been an oppressed group of individuals and therefore have had to find ways to satisfy society. Women have at times needed to follow particular guidelines in order to maintain standing in society. Jamaica Kincaid’s in her book â€Å"Girl† conveys a mother and daughter to represent particular social issues during post colonialism. In Girl the daughter serves as a representation of what the mother believes to be society’s ideal woman. Through the stories use of post colonialism and symbolism as well as the stories context, style, and tone, Jamaica Kincaid exemplifies the mother’s ideals for her daughter as a representation of society’s ideals of women at the time. It is quite likely that the author wrote girl to address the ideas of women in this society and give her opinion on these ideas. In â€Å"Girl† Kincaid uses many different techniques to establish the daughter as the mother’s idea of women’s ideal place in society and therefore a representation of women’s place in this society. In one way Kincaid demonstrates this through the stories structure. Kincaid uses multiple semicolons to structure the text as the mothers own emotions and ideas. In the short story Kincaid writes, â€Å"don’t walk bareheaded in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off†. The structure of multiple semicolons Kincaid chose to use creates a sense of characterShow MoreRelatedSummary Of Girl By Jamaica Kincaid918 Words   |  4 PagesThe Stereotype of Womanhood in â€Å"Girl† What is considered a proper way for a woman to act in general society and who has the correct answer? Jamaica Kincaid’s story â€Å"Girl† is fundamentally an instructional writing where a mother is primarily caring for her daughter’s future. The story is performed in fiction where the child needs to get prepared to confront the world as a woman. Most of the commands the mother gave to her daughter are ambiguous; there is not enough content, however, it can be assumedRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart Essay2168 Words   |  9 PagesCompilation of English Writing, the English Domain comprised of more than a fourth of all the region on the surface of the earth: one in four individuals was a subject of Ruler Victoria. Amid the twentieth century, nations, for example, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Canada, and Australia won autonomy from their European colonizers. The writing and workmanship delivered in these nations after freedom turned into the subject of Postcolonial Studies, a region of scholastic fixationRead MoreLiterary Criticism : The Free Encyclopedia 7351 Words   |  30 PagesLiterature Criticism. Enotes.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21. 23.Jump up ^ Martin Coyle; et al., eds. (1990). Formalism and the Novel: Henry James. Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism. New York: Routledge Florence. p. 593. 24.Jump up ^ Martin Eden Summary – Jack London – Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition. Enotes.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21. 25.Jump up ^ Geoffrey Nash (1994). Ameen Rihani s The Book of Khalid and the Voice of Thomas Carlyle. New Comparison Journal. Colchester

Two Great Poets - Coleridge and Wordsworth free essay sample

This paper describes the life and works of ST Coleridge and W Wordsworth and shows how they epitomized the Romantic Movement of English Literature. This paper takes a look at how two contemporary poets from the Romantic era of English Literature Coleridge and Wordsworth, who shared colleagues and personal friends, had quite different attitudes to the world as reflected in their poetry. From the paper: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth were two of the greatest champions of the Romantic Movement in English literature as well as colleagues and personal friends. And yet it would be a mistake to identify them too closely with each other, for while they were both properly enamored ? as must all Romantic poets have been ? of the intense emotions that the world of nature could arouse in the human spirit, they nevertheless approached the relationship of the individual to the natural world in very different ways. We will write a custom essay sample on Two Great Poets Coleridge and Wordsworth or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page