Preoccupations

6.2 MKTH/DRS: Chaucer revision essay

Considering in detail one or two portraits, discuss the effectiveness of Chaucer's uses of irony.

In the course of your answer, look closely at the effects of language and imagery. Comment on how the portrait(s) you have chosen relate(s) to others in the Prologue in terms of the uses of irony.

The Tempest

For the 6.2 set I teach with MKTH ...

Early this coming term, we will be returning to The Tempest. You may like to look now at the following articles as I will be drawing on material they raise when we discuss the play in revision:

'National and Colonial Education in Shakespeare's The Tempest', Allen Carey-Webb. (Not always an easy read, but you can pick bits out.)

''You Can Go Home Again, Can't You?' An Introduction to The Tempest', Ian Johnston.

Chaucer's 'General Prologue': II

For the 6.2 set I teach with MKTH ...

Last term, I posted a number of suggestions for work on this text. One of the links there (this overview of the three estates) also has a useful general introduction. (There is also a good site here, but this is by the way of more general information and links.) It is to my February posting that you should really return now as this has the best of the links to material about the 'General Prologue' on the web.

The American Dream

For the 6.2 set I teach with MKTH ...

A number of you have read, or know about, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Here are some quotations for you to think about. Even if you don't know the play, use the quotations as starting-points for further revision work in preparation for the synoptic paper.

From careful reading ... of Death of a Salesman, it is evident that Arthur Miller not only indicts the shallowness and weaknesses of Willy Loman, but also indicts many weaknesses of 20th century American society. Consider (for discussion next term) the broader social criticism of each of the following quotations:

1. “As more light appears, we see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile seeming home. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality.”
2. “Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.”
3. “The street is lined with cars. There’s not a breath of fresh air . . . . The grass don’t grow . . . ., you can’t raise a carrot in the back yard.”
4. “I don’t know what the hell I’m workin’ for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment—all alone . . . . My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddammit, I’m lonely.”
5. “. . . you’re both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest is the man who gets ahead.”
6. “Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way.”
7. I’m always in a race with the junkyard: I just finished paying for the car and its on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts . . . They time those things . . . . so when you finally paid for them they’re used up.”
8. “Business is definitely business . . . .” ... “The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell.”
9. “Be liked and you will never want.”
10. “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away—a man is not a piece of fruit!” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

The Yale site also has these thoughts:

This essay expresses ideas about the 18th century American character as “a new man who acts upon new principles” and as one who has left behind old prejudices and traits and has taken on a new way of life. (Andrew J. Porter, Jr., Henry L. Tarrie, Jr. and Robert A. Bennett, American Literature [Lexington, Mass.: Ginn and Co., 1981], pp. 201-202.) ... Next, students will read Alfred Ferguson’s essay about “Dreams and Goals” in which he explains that a dream is a vision that we receive from our imaginations while a goal is something exact and precise that can be achieved by deliberate effort. Dreams can be changed to goals if we imagine them precisely and work to make them real. From the earliest times of the American experience there was a wide discrepancy between what we imagined was the American dream and what we were able to realize. Nevertheless, “the dream of America as a land of opportunity for a new way of life” has persisted. (Philip McFarland, Allen Kirschner, Alfred Ferguson, Larry D. Benson and Morse Peckham, Themes in American Literature [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1972], p. 661, 712-721.) Morse Peckham’s essays, “Ideas and The Arts” and “Music” from Themes in American Literature will be assigned after Ferguson’s “Dreams and Goals”. ... In the essay “Ideas and The Arts” Peckham provides pictures with commentaries on American paintings which relate to the American dream or experience themes. ... For example, one painting, Edward Hicks’s “Peaceable Kingdom”, depicts many creatures and humans living together peacefully.

Peaceable Kingdom (ca. 1833), Edward Hicks (1780–1849) Worcester Art Museum

The Quaker, Edward Hicks was inspired by William Penn’s treaty with the Indians which supposedly established coexistence between the settlers and the Indians. One aspect of the American dream was the idea that America was a Garden of Eden without hatred or war. ... Finally, students will read the essay, “Music” by Morse Peckham which discusses the American dream and the American promise. He tells about Ernest Bloch, a musician, who was born in Switzerland and in 1916 emigrated to America. Bloch wrote a musical composition, America: An Epic Rhapsody in Three Parts for Orchestra. “This symphony has been written in love for this country, in Reverence for its Past, in Faith in its Future. It is dedicated to the memory of Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman whose vision has upheld its inspiration.” ... Thomas Wolfe has written, “I believe that we are lost here in America, . . . I think that the true discovery of America is before us. I think the true fulfilment of our spirit, of our people, of our mighty and immortal land is yet to come.”

Chaucer's 'General Prologue'

Some notes for 6.2 (MKTH):

General material on Chaucer, useful at this stage, can be found here. A parallel text (Middle English/modern English) of 'The General Prologue' is here, whilst you can listen to the whole text read in Middle English here. An overview of the 'Prologue', and then a brief discussion of the frame narrative, are here and here, respectively. There is a potentially useful concordance of the text here.

On the three estates, there is a succinct overview on the Norton Anthology website; elsehwere on this site, there are some good questions:

Can the pilgrims as described in the General Prologue be divided between those who conform to their estate and those who do not? How does Chaucer's narrator view those whose lives do not match their traditional roles? Does he seem more critical of those who challenge the social order or of the social order itself?

An alternative, brief overview of the three estates is located here.

For revision this half-term, focus primarily on re-reading the text a number of times. Be sure to know it very well — all the vocabulary must be properly understood, of course. Your editor's introduction and the lengthy end-notes also contain much important material. Topics you should be well aware of and have detailed notes on include: language and style, set pieces (ie, the opening), the narrator's role and place, irony, idealism, the three estates and society, characterisation ...

Scott Fitzgerald

6.2 (MKTH) may miss this link (given below), as it's buried there with other material — American Literature and its Discontents: The Great Gatsby, etc

Blogs in Education

Some sites:

English IV British Literature weblog for Beth Fullerton's classes

American Literature and its Discontents: The Great Gatsby, etc

Western Nebraska Community College newsblog

Learning to use blogs in education

Coetzee receives the Nobel Prize

Coetzee's Nobel Prize acceptance speech

6.2 (MKTH) holiday work (Xmas, 2003)

1) Re-read The Tempest a few times and think in careful detail about the major themes and all issues to do with characterisation. We ran through topics in class. At the start of next term I will be asking you to write a timed essay on whether the play is a comedy.

2) Get hold of a copy of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey) and read this as further material for the American synoptic option.

3) Re-read A Streetcar Named Desire several times. If you omitted some of the summer holiday work (building up your notes on characters and themes), now is the time to put this right. You must acquire a "total knowledge" of the play.

6.2 (FMCC) holiday work (Xmas, 2003)

Re-read and revise carefully Gulliver's Travels. Be sure to read with an eye to the overview — no longer are we looking at it just microscopically, but trying to see how it ticks as a whole and, in particular, considering its narrative style(s).

Also have a look at some poems by John Rochester, Earl of Wilmot:

http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/lemaux3.htm

http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet360.html

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/wilmotj/ — this gives you the text of his famous Satire against Mankind (read on if you have problems accessing it).

A Satyre against Reason and Mankind

Based to some extent on Boileau's eighth satire,
this famous poem is also indebted to Hobbes, Montaigne,
and the tradition of le libertinage generally.

Were I (who to my cost already am
One of those strange, prodigious creatures, man)
A spirit free to choose, for my own share,
What case of flesh and blood I pleased to wear,
I'd be a dog, a monkey or a bear, 5
Or anything but that vain animal
Who is so proud of being rational.

The senses are to gross, and he'll contrive
A sixth, to contradict the other five,
And before certain instinct, will prefer 10
Reason, which fifty times for one does err;
Reason, an ignis fatuus in the mind,
Which, leaving light of nature, sense, behind,
Pathless and dangerous wandering ways it takes
Through error's fenny bogs and thorny brakes; 15
Whilst the misguided follower climbs with pain
Mountains of whimseys, heaped in his own brain;
Stumbling from thought to thought, falls headlong down
Into doubt's boundless sea, where, like to drown,
Books bear him up a while, and make him try 20
To swim with bladders of philosophy;
In hopes still to o'ertake th' escaping light,
The vapor dances in his dazzling sight
Till, spent, it leaves him to eternal night.
Then old age and experience, hand in hand, 25
Lead him to death, and make him understand,
After a search so painful and so long,
That all his life he has been in the wrong.
Huddled in dirt the reasoning engine lies,
Who was proud, so witty, and so wise. 30

Pride dew him in, as cheats their bubbles catch,
And made him veneture to be made a wretch.
His wisdom did his happiness destroy,
Aiming to know that world he should enjoy.
And wit was his vain, frivolous pretense 35
Of pleasing others at his own expense,
For wits are treated just like common whores:
First they're enjoyed, and then kicked out of doors.
The pleasure past, a threatening doubt remains
That frights th' enjoyer with succeeding pains. 40
Women and men of wit are dangerous tools,
And ever fatal to admiring fools:
Pleasure allures, and when the fops escape,
'Tis not that they're belov'd, but fortunate,
And therefore, hat they fear at heart, they hate. 45

But now, methinks, some formal band and beard
Takes me to task. Come on, sir; I'm prepared.

"Then, by your favor, anything that's writ
Against this gibing, jingling knack called wit
Light me abundantly; but you take care 50
Upon this point, not to be too severe.
Perhaps my muse were fitter for this part,
For I profess I can be very smart
On wit, which I abhor with all my heart.
I long to lash it in some sharp essay, 55
But your grand indiscretion bids me stay
And turns my tide of ink another way.

"What rage ferments in your degenerate mind
To make you rail at reason and mankind?
Blest, glorious man! to whom alone kind heaven 60
An everlasting soul has freely given,
Whom his great Maker took such care to make
That from himself he did the image take
And this fair frame in shining reason dressed
To dignify his nature above beast; 65
Reason, by whose aspiring influence
We take a flight beyond material sense
Dive into mysteries, then soaring pierce
The flaming limits of the universe,
Search heaven and hell, find out what's acted there, 70
And give the world true grounds of hope and fear."

Hold, mighty man, I cry, all this we know
From the pathetic pen of Ingelo,
From Patrick's Pilgrim, Sibbes' soliloquies,
And 'tis this very reason I despise: 75
This supernatural gift, that makes a mite
Think he's the image of the infinite,
Comparing his short life, void of all rest,
To the eternal and the ever blest;
This busy, puzzling stirrer-up of doubt 80
That frames deep mysteries, then finds 'em out,
Filling with frantic crowds of tinking fools
Those reverend bedlams, colleges and schools;
Borne on whose wings, each heavy sot can pierce
The limits of the boundless universe; 85
So charming ointments make an old witch fly
And bear a crippled carcass through the sky.
'Tis this exalted power, whose business lies
In nonsense and impossibilities,
This made a whimical philosopher 90
Before the spacious world, his tub prefer,
And we have modern cloisterd coxcombs who
Retire to think, 'cause they have nought to do.

But thoughts are given for action's government;
Where action ceases, thought's impertinent. 95
Our sphere of action is life's happiness,
And he who thinks beyond, thinks like an ass.
Thus, whilst against false reasoning I inveigh,
I own right reason, which I would obey:
That reason which distinguishes by sense 100
And gives us rules of good and ill from thence,
That bounds desires with a reforming will
To keep 'em more in vigor, not to kill.
Your reason hinders, mine helps to enjoy,
Renewing appetites yours would destroy. 105
My reason is my friend, yours is a cheat;
Hunger calls out, my reason bids me eat;
Perversely, yours your appetite does mock:
This asks for food, that answers, "What's o'clock?""
This plain distinction, sir, your doubt secures: 110
'Tis not true reason I despise, but yours.

Thus I think reason righted, bur for man,
I'll ne'er recant; defend him if you can.
For all his pride and his philosophy,
'Tis evident beasts are, in their degree, 115
As wise at least, and better far than he.
Those creatures are the wisest who attain,
By surest means, the ends at which they aim.
If therefore Jowler finds and kills his hares
Better than Meres supplies committee chairs, 120
Though one's a statesman, th' other but a hound,
Jowler, in justice, would be wiser found.

You see how far man's wisdom here extends;
Look next if human nature makes amends:
Whose principles most generous are, and just, 125
And to whose morals you would sooner trust.
Be judge yourself, I'll bring it to the test:
Which is the basest creature, man or beast?
Birds feed on birds, beasts on each other prey,
But savage man alone does man betray. 130
Pressed by necessity, they kill for food;
Man undoes man to do himself no good.
With teeth and claws by nature armed, they hunt
Nature's allowance, to supply their want.
But man, with smiles, embraces, frendship, praise, 135
Inhumanly his fellow's life betrays;
With voluntary pains works his distress,
Not through necessity, but wantonness.

For hunger or for love they fight or tear,
Whilst wretched man is still in arms for fear. 140
For fear he arms, and is of arms afraid,
By fear to fear successively betrayed;
Base fear, the source whence his best passions came:
His boasted honor, and his dear-bought fame;
That lust of power, to which he's a slave, 145
And for the which alone he dares be brave;
To which his various projects are designed;
Which makes him generous, affable, and kind;
For which he takes such pains to be thought wise,
And screws his actions in a forced disguise, 150
Leading a tedious life in misery
Under laborious, mean hypocrisy.
Look to the bottom of his vast design,
Wherein man's wisdom, power, and glory join:
The good he acts, the ill he does endure, 155
'Tis all from fear, to make himself secure.
Merely for safety, after fame we thirst,
For all me would be cowards if they durst.

And honesty's against all common sense:
Men must be knaves, 'tis in their own defence. 160
Mankind's dishonest, if you think it fair
Amongst known cheats to play upon the square,
You'll be undone.
Nor can weak truth your reputation save:
The knaves will all agree to call you knave. 165
Wronged shall he live, insulted o'er, oppressed,
Who dares be less a villain than the rest.

Thus, sir, you see what human nature craves:
Most men are cowards, all men should be knaves.
The difference lies, as far as I can see, 170
Not in the thing itself, but the degree,
And all the subject matter of debateIs only:
Who's a knave of the first rate?

All this with indignation have I hurled
At the pretending part of the proud world, 175
Who, swollen with selfish vanity, devise
False freedoms, holy cheats, and formal lies
Over their fellow slaves to tyrannize.

But if in Court so just a man there be
(In Court a just man, yet unknown to me) 180
Who does his needful flattery direct,
Not to oppress and ruin, but protect
(Since flattery, which way soever laid,
Is still a tax on that unhappy trade);
If so upright a statesman you can find, 185
Whose passions bend to his unbiased mind,
Who does his arts and policies apply
To raise his country, not his family,
Nor, whilst his pride owned avarice withstands,
Receives close bribes through friends' corrupted hands - 190

Is there a churchman who on God relies;
Whose life, his faith and doctrine justifies?
Not one blown up with vain prelatic pride,
Who, for reproof of sins, does man deride;
Whose envious heart makes preaching a pretense, 195
With his obstreperous, saucy eloquence,
To chide at kings, and rail at men of sense;
None of that sensual tribe whose talents lie
In avarice, pride, sloth, and gluttony;
Who hunt good livings, but abhor good lives; 200
Whose lust exalted to that height arrives
They act adultery with their own wives,
And ere a score of years completed be,
Can from the lofty pulput proudly see
Half a large parish their own progeny; 205
Nor doting bishop who would be adored
For domineering at the council board,
A greater fop in business at fourscore,
Fonder of serious toys, affected more,
Than the gay, glittering fool at twenty proves 210
With all his noise, his tawdry clothes, and loves;

But a meek, humble man of honest sense,
Who, preaching peace, does practice continence;
Whose pious life's a proof he does believe
Mysterious truths, which no man can conceive. 215
If upon the earth there dwell such GOd-like men,
I'll here recant my paradox to them,
Adore those shrines of virtue, homage pay,
And, with the rabble world, their laws obey.

If such there be, yet grant me this at least: 220
Man differs more from man, than man from beast.