English Midterm

Beowulf

Types of Epics

• Folk Epic- recited and passed down through oral tradition; later written down

• Literary Epic- originally written down; written tradition

Elements of Epics

• Epic Hero- Beowulf

• Quest- go across the sea road to save the Danes

• Valorus deeds

  1. Beowulf battles and wounds Grendel

  2. Beowulf battles Grendel’s mother

  3. Beowulf and Wiglaf fight the dragon and win, but Beowulf dies

• Divine Intervention- magical sword

• Great Events

Anglo Saxon Values

• strength

• bravery

• honor

• skill

• ancestry

• fame/glory

• loyalty

• kinship

• weapons/trophies/armies

Religious Context

• pagan vs christian imagery

Warrior Culture (examples of the shift away)

• when all of Beowulf’s men leave him

• Beowulf can no longer fight on his own

• Beowulf fights the dragon so he can get the treasure(displays greed)

• aristocratic leader instead of a military leader

Characters

• Beowulf

• Grendel- monster

• Hrothgar- king of the Danes

• Higlac- king of the Getes

• Grendel’s Mother

• Wiglaf- the warrior that stays to help Beowulf fight the dragon

Themes

• good vs evil

• fame/glory

• indentity

The Canterbury Tales

Terms

Estate Satire- genre in which the speaker lists occupations from the estates of feudalism and depicts them in a way that shows how they fall short of society’s expectations

Anticlericalism- opposition to the power/influence of the clergy in the Medieval church

Frame Story- stories within a larger narrative

Historical Context

• England in motion- pilgrims traveling

• The Black Death- plague

• Magna Carta- put limits on the king and create parliament

• Rising Middle Class

Prologue

• nun- well mannered/good ettiquite, likes France, fine food for her dog, fake presentation, big head, lots of jewlery

• monk- hunting, manly, ignores rules, spends money, feasts, fur trimmed robe, fat, bald

• friar- jolly, good speaker, hear confessions for money, drinker, kind to rich not poor

“Pardoner’s Prologue/Tale”

• Themes- death and avarice

• Irony- teaches against avarice but he struggles with it, death can’t be killed

• Morality Tale- a story with a lesson at the end

• morality of the story- don’t be avaricious because it leads to death

“Wife of Bath”

• Themes- power/gender roles and appearances

• Lai Poem- a narrative poem involving knights, ladies, supernatural creatures/events

  • fairies/elves

  • dancing ladies

  • old woman’s transformation

• Question for knight- What do women desire most?

• Answer- self-same sovereignty (power over themselves)

  • king shows this when he doesn’t hesitate to let the queen take over

  • the night lets the old woman choose what she will be

• Significant allusions

  • King Midas Tale

Macbeth

equivocation- half truth

Dramatic terms (need to do this section)

Tragedy Elements

Comedy Elements

Characters

Macbeth- tragic hero

Lady Macbeth- Macbeth’s wife

Duncan- king of Scotland

Malcom- Duncan’s son, flee to ?

Doalbane- Duncan’s son, fee to >

Banquo

Fleance- Banquo’s son

Macduff

Porter- comic relief

Lennox

Ross

Siward

Plot

1. Wars in Scotland

2. Witches Prophesy

   • Thane of Galmis, Thane of Cawdor, and king

   • Banquo descendants=kings

3. Macbeth named TOC

   • sparks ambition to become king

4. Lady Macbeth letter

   • she becomes ambitious for Macbeth to become king

5. Murder

   • LM and M plot to murder Duncan

   • frame the guards

   • sons escape

6. Macbeth is crowned king

   • becomes paranoid and guilty

7. Murder of Banquo

   • Macbeth has banquo murdered bc he is sus and in line for throne somehow

8. Banquet

   • Banquo haunts Macbeth at dinner

9. 3 apparitions

   1. armed head- beware macduff

   2. bloody child- not fear woman born

   3. crowned child with tree- not vanquished, birnum wood to dunsinane

   4. king with mirror with more kings (banquo’s children)

10. Murder of Macduff Family

11. LM Madness

    • sleepwalk/talk bc of guilt, eventually dies

12. Macduff and Malcom plot against Macbeth and attack

13. Macbeth is killed

14. Malcom becomes king

Themes

• ambition

• kingship

• gender roles

• illusion vs reality

• fate vs free will

Imagery/Symbolism

• order vs disorder

• infants and breastfeeding

• sleep and sleeplessness

• plants and growth

• light and dark

• blood- guilt

• birds- fate

Renaissance Poetry

Sonnet Structure

• 14 lines

• quatrain- 3 groups of 4 lines

• couplet- pair of lines

• iambic pentameter- stressed unstressed like a heartbeat

“Passionate Shepherd to His Love”- Christopher Marlow

• shepherd addresses his love- ask her to run away with him

• pastoral- idealize country life with natural imagery

• universal theme- link of nature and love to time as eternal

“The Nymph’s Reply”- Sir Walter Raliegh

• Nymphs critiques the Shepherd’s idealized idea of love

• imagery of the seasons shows how love changes overtime

• reply poem- uses language from the Shepherd

Sonnet 116- William Shakespear

Sonnet 130- William Shakespeare