appunti di letteratura inglese

Didascalia alternativa:

daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. When she ascended the throne, the country of England desperately needed a period of internal peace and stability after a period of fights against the Catholic enemies, Spain in particular. Elizabeth I was able to reach a compromise between Catholicism and Puritanism, granting peace and stability to her subjects. Besides this, she also gave a huge boost to the strengthening of the marine fleet. She thought that the seas were the key to the power. The controversies between Spain and England opened into a war in 1588. Philip II, king of Spain, arranged an incredible fleet, named the Invincible Armada and decided to invade England. England's ships were noticeably faster and lighter than the Spanish Galleons. In addition, a terrible storm finished the Galleons left. Winning this historical battle, England increased her prestige and self confidence. | The Elizabethan theatre If we think of the most relevant phenomena in Renaissance England, we cannot avoid mentioning the Elizabethan theatre, which was probably the most important. This was for various reasons: first of all, it was extraordinary from an artistic point of view; in addition, it was meant to celebrate England's kings and queens; furthermore, it was able to provide a common mythology to an entire nation. Nobles, burghers, craftsmen, labourers and peasants were all part of the audience. This makes us understand that all the social classes were involved. At the beginning, the locations where the performances took place were the streets (courtyards of the London inns). But then, in 1574, the government decided to ban all the public performances. This was because of the noise that was produced into the cities. At this stage, (we can say that) a new era began for English theatres. Many new public outdoor playhouses such as "the Theatre", "the Curtain", "The Rose", "the Swan" and "the Globe" were erected in a few years. The Globe is worldwide known for being Shakespeare's theatre. Talking of prices, they were related to the wealth of the spectator. People who wanted to stay in the arena that surrounded the stage had to pay a penny. Adding one more penny, the spectators had the chance to access the galleries that went around the playhouse and have a sit there. And lastly, rich people could even be able to sit on the stage. The usual time for the plays was the afternoon. Although they weren't particularly credible, there were some rudimental special effects that made it possible to pretend that the scene was coming at night. The unique and amazing atmosphere of the Elizabethan theatre was reached thanks to the cooperation between actors and spectators. The audience was an important part of the performance. The success that the plays earned granted the players a new social position. Before that change, actors were classified as "vagabonds". Starting from that point, they used to be under the protection of a queen, a king or even a nobleman. As an example, Shakespeare belonged to different companies: The Earl of Leicester's Men, The Lord Strange's Men, The Lord Chamberlain's Men and The King's Men under James I. All of the female roles were acted by males dressed as women. When Elizabeth died, there was a radical division even in theatre. If previously playhouses were attended by all the social classes, there was later a distinction between public outdoor theatres and private indoor ones. The different social classes weren't anymore part of the same audience. | Shakespeare He's considered a mysterious figure, due to the lack of information about his personal life. Some people assume that the famous playwright was not even a man at all, but a woman. Others identify him as an homosexual. Obviously, these are just legends, because we know for sure that he early married a woman, named Anne Hathaway, who was 8 years older than him and they had 3 children together. It is thought that the reason why he decided to move to London and work in the theatre was the fact that he couldn't provide for his family. He quickly archieved success as a playwright with works like "Venus and Adonis" and "The rape of Lucrece", but he owns his fame to the 154 sonnets. He reached popularity between the London audiences and the Court and he managed to became a member and a sharer of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which was a company of players, and later he became the co-owner of the Globe. Shakespeare spent the last period of his life living in Stratford, where he died in 1616. As I previously said, Shakespeare was known to be a great actor and playwright, but he owns his fame to the sonnets. He wrote a collection of 154 sonnets, each of which is composed by three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. Although the sonnets are considered to be completely original, he took inspiration from the Italian and classical tradition (we know he attended Stratford's grammar school, where he studied Greek and Latin). These poems seem to be directed to the Earl of Southampton, who is also thought to be the identity hidden behind the character of the fair youth. This "handsom young man" is initially described as both physically and morally perfect, but he will show to be loaded with defects and flaws at the end. Another fundamental character is the dark lady, the poet is hopelessly in love with her ignoring the fact that she's cruel and unfaithful. Despite her imperfections, Shakespeare is convinced that she's a rare woman. A third character is the antagonist of the sonnets, he is known as the rival poet. Shakespeare fears him because he has started to write poems to the fair youth, too. The main theme is the theme of love, which is treated differently from the Reinassance poetry, as a matter of fact he strongly believes in a form of platonic and ideal love. The first 17 sonnets revolve around the theme of marriage and procreation. The fair youth is encouraged to marry and beget an heir, in order to preserve his precious gifts. Another main theme of the sequence is time. Time is perceived as an antagonist that the Shakespeare fears more than the rival poet. Time is a threat to the goodness of life and there are only two ways to defeat it: procreation or poetry. | Shall I compare thee to a summer day? We are talking about one of the sonnets that Shakespeare dedicated to the fair youth. The themes of love and the passing of time are prominent in this poem. The sonnet is clearly divided into two parts. In the first two quatrains the author starts comparing the young man to a summer day, but Shakespeare is convinced that he is even more lovely and more temperate. Then, he starts reflecting on the fact that summer is just a season, time passes and sooner or later it will be over, and the gifts of the fair youth will fade with it. The third quatrain starts with the word "but", that is the turning point where Shakespeare explains to the fair youth that his summer will be eternal because he will forever be alive in the poet's verses. Poetry wins against the passing of time. | Edgar Allan Poe He's considered to be the father of detective novels, horrors and short stories of mystery. He was american, he was born in Boston. His parents were a couple of actors and he was named after one of the characters of the play they were working on, the tragedy "The King Lear" of Shakespeare. A year after his birth, his mother died of tubercolosis (a disease that affects the lungs) and his father abandoned him. He was later adopted by a merchant, who's last name was Allan. He moved to Scotland, where he became a professor. An interesting fact is that most of his lessons took place in a graveyard near the school. At the beginning of the year, he made his pupils dig the graves and guess who would die during the year. Two of the most important women of his life both died of tubercolosis. He was himself suffering from a serious illnes which led to his death in 1849. | the Oval portrait "The Oval Portrait" is the shortest of all of Poe's published stories. The story concerns a man who spends the night in an abandoned castel which he has never visited before. For reasons which he cannot fully explain, he becomes fascinated by a portrait of a young woman that he sees there. The story's unnamed narrator has been wounded. So as not to leave his injured master outside, the narrator's valet Pedro breaks into a castel, which appears to have been recently abandoned. The narrator and Pedro settle down for the night. The room is decorated with old and more modern paintings. On his bed, the narrator finds a small book which describes all of the paintings in the room. Pedro falls asleep, while he narrator moves the candle next to his bed so that he can see his book better. The candle then casts light on a portrait in a corner of the room which the narrator had not noticed before. The picture is in an oval frame. It potrays the head and the shoulders of a young woman. The narrator acknowledges that the painting is very well executed and that its subject is beautiful. He feels, however, that there is something else about the portrait that fascinates him. He looks at it for an hour. He is fascinated at first because of how lifelike the painting is. He eventually finds that scary, he moves his candle again so that he cannot see the picture. The narrator reads in the little book that the subject of the portrait was the artist's wife. Art was her only rival for her husband's affections and he appeared to care more for art than for her. For that reason, she came to resent art. She agreed, however, to pose for the portrait. While he was painting, the artist spent more time looking at the canvas than at his wife. He did not notice that she was growing weaker, as if the life were going out of her and into the painting. When the portrait was completed, the artist was amazed by the quality of his own work and exclaimed, "This is indeed Life itself!" He then looked at his wife and saw that she was dead.