Get ready for Christmas!

The Value(£) of Women in 'The Beggar's Opera'

It is made extremely clear to the readers of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera that the play has several main themes. These include money, possessions and women, and what is fascinating to see is how John Gay links the former with the latter in order to show that women are often treated like property or possession, like money. In The Beggar's Opera, Gay likens women to money in order to explore a woman’s worth in eighteenth-century society.

A prime example of this can be found in Air 5 of the Opera when women are compared to gold, “A maid is like the golden ore” (Act I).  A married woman is then likened to a minted Guinea whose “worth is never known, before it is tried and impressed in the mint” (I, v). In Air 5 Gay relates the stamping of new coins to a woman taking the last name of her husband and he even claims that “a wife's like a guinea in gold, stamped with the name of her spouse” (I, v).

Mrs Peachum states that men are attracted to “minted” women because their values have already been determined and she herself even refers to women as property, claiming that “All men are thieves in love, and like a woman the better for being another's property” (I, v). Women are referred to as money or as a material possession that “..is bought, or is sold...” (I, v). It is interesting to note that this reference, written by John Gay, is highly relevant to the time in which the play was written, as, during the eighteenth century, money was seen as a major symbol of status.

Polly’s decision to marry a low-class man is seen by Mrs Peachum as a failure on her own part as she believes that her daughter is lowering her worth by marrying a highwayman. “How the mother is to be pitied who hath handsome daughters! Locks, bolts, bars and lectures of morality are nothing to them” (I, viii). During the Restoration period in England a strong sense of morality was seen as the perfect symbol of a well-bred family and it is therefore highly disappointing for Mrs Peachum to realise that her daughter has failed to pay attention to this social indicator. Polly’s parents hope that their daughter will not choose a man who brings no benefit to the family’s honour within society and wish that she would find a wealthier man who can be trusted with the family’s finances.

It is refreshing to see that contrary to older philosophies that regard women as worthless objects without men, Air 5 suggests that instead of creating and giving value to a woman, the man simply shapes it. Marriage is represented as a way of upgrading or degrading a woman’s initial value and as Mrs Peachum herself recognises this, she worries that her daughter's change in value will become permanent through marriage. It is therefore not the relationship itself, but marriage that causes problems.

--------------------------------

Kidson, Frank. "'The Beggar's Opera'." The Musical Times. 62. 937 London: Musical Times Publications Ltd., Mar. 1, 1921.  (167-169)

From Alice to Jane Eyre

I want to share with all of you the new adaptation of one of my favourite English novels, Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë would be pleased to see MiaWasikowska's bedazzling interpretation.

I also recommend you this review from The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/sep/08/jane-eyre-film-review

KWLT John Gay's The Beggar's Opera on Stage

This is The Beggar's Opera on its September 2009 presentation directed by Chris Rovers. I hope you like it!! I really enjoyed watching it!

The Beggar's Opera in Regent's Park

One of the last times The Beggar's Opera was adapted was in an 18th century setting opera at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in summer 2011, in a production directed by Lucy Bailey.

176th anniversary of Mark Twain's Birth

"Mark Twain was addicted to practical jokes—especially when they were jokes he
played on other people. One day, when he was looking out the window of an editor’s
office on the third floor of a building, he noticed a friend of his standing immediately
below. Unfortunately for his friend, Mr. Twain had just been made the recipient of
the gift of a watermelon by the editor. You can guess what happened to the friend and
the watermelon. Still, Mr. Twain reflected, the friend came out ahead because the
practical joke spoiled the watermelon, making it unsuitable for eating." (David Bruce)

 

 

Research International Conference: Tennessee Williams

This week, we're excited to welcome John S. Back, Ugo Rubeo, Peter W. Ferran, Annette Saddik, Félix Martín Gutiérrez and María Soledad Sánchez Gómez to the School of Art, Language and Literature Studies, in the Universidad de Extremadura (Cáceres), Spain.

Organised by:
Department of English
Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literatures

International Tennessee Williams Centennial Conference:
"Embracing the Island of His Self"
http://gexcall.unex.es/twilliamsconference/node/11

Enjoy it!

Political ideology and Pope’s poetic style

“See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll,/ Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul!” (Alexander Pope)

Ideologically conservative and stylistically innovative, Alexander Pope throws his literary darts at the triviality and banality that characterised the fashionable behaviour of the nouveax riches in “The Rape of the Lock”. Pope produces and derides the grandilocuent and flamboyant rhetoric that the mock-heroic mode demands. This use of language, added to his mastery of the satirical style, allows for a harsh criticism against both the bankrupt aristocracy that has married bourgeois money and those bourgeois à la mode whose trendy behaviour is merely the result of a marriage with the ruined gentry of the ancient regime. Thereby, mocking the excessively baroque language of auto-of-plays and time epics, Pope indirectly proclaims the goodness of the Royal Society’s stylistic recommendations; and the stupidity, if not the moral perversion, of the new combination-marriage between the new moneyed and the old ruined classes.

                                           (One of Urano's satellites named after Pope's 'Belinda')

Seen from this angle, Belinda is dealt with as an object, as a consumer good or even a toy, and Pope’s parodic and satirical presentation of the story implies a firm rejection of the game in which a woman is reified. This author, that is to say, may have been a male chauvinist, but in this particular case he sees indecency in what probably the majority of men would have seen only an amusing game. Once again, ideologically perspective and style prove to be bosom friends.

Think before you Speak -- Thanksgiving Round Up

Happy Thanksgiving, America. Or commiserations on the National Day of Mourning, depending on your point of view.



(Norman Rockwell, via)



• Talking about the White House, you can watch President Obama pardon this year's turkey, Liberty.

• Musical interlude: the Washington Post has been collating a list of Thanksgiving songs via Twitter. Warning: bad puns ahead.

• Or how about a Lady Gaga Thanksgiving Special? Apparently she'll be making waffles. No, really.

• Of course, the story that's rather dominating this Thanksgiving is the news that some retailers aren't going to wait until Black Friday to start their traditional price-slashing. Instead, they're starting sales on Thanksgiving itself, resulting in protests from employees and consumers alike. More from PRI and the Washington Post.

Translation "The Rape of the Lock" -- Traducción Canto I

Canto I (versos 1-19)

Qué ofensa cruel de amor se causara,
y las trivialidades que formara
un vanal asunto que yo canto.
¡Oh, musa! A Caryl debo mi canto.

Pequeño es el asunto que leyera
aunque gloria y diosa no lo fuera.

Si mis versos ella dulce inspira
y con benignos ojos él los mira,
¿cuál es el motivo por el que osa
caballero a asaltar a dama hermosa?

A una noble beldad, y por qué fue
el más severocon extraño desdén
hombrecillos, como el lord desdeñado.

Por las cortinas del sedal nevado
el sol lanzó un tímido rayo
que toca los ojos al despertarse.
Los perros falderos se agitan al alzarse,
amantes despiertan al mediodía
mientras Belinda eclipsa al día.

Luis Conejero

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

To celebrate Thanksgiving Day I would like to share with all my readers the next tale written by the famous North-American writer Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women, among others).

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgivingby Louisa May Alcott
(1832-1888)

---

"SIXTY YEARS AGO, up among the New Hampshire hills, lived Farmer Bassett, with a houseful of sturdy sons and daughters growing up about him. They were poor in money, but rich in land and love, for the wide acres of wood, corn, and pasture land fed, warmed, and clothed the flock, while mutual patience, affection, and courage made the old farmhouse a very happy home. (...)"

You can read the whole tale here: http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lmalcott/bl-lmalc-old-fashion.htm

Women in "The Rape of the Lock" -- Useless or powerful?

At a first glance, “The Rape of the Lock” appears to portray women as useless individuals whose sole purpose is to serve as a prize for the male population. Following a more thorough examination, however, we can identify that the women of this poem are not as powerless as we had first believed them to be, and that also their role in the poem is a rather important one.

Belinda for example is at the very centre of the poem, and without her there would be no story. Surrounding Belinda are several other characters, which one must note, are mainly made up of females.

If we analyse with more detail the importance of Belinda we can further support the argument that women are more powerful than we first perceive them to be. The fact that Belinda is in need of protection can at first be seen as a sign of weakness. However, one could also say that the attention and care that she receives is proof of her importance, or even, her power.

Another example of the relevance of women is shown to us through Thalestris’s words, “Already hear the horrid things they say,/Already see you a degraded Toast,/And all your Honour in a Whisper lost!/How shall I, then, your helpless Fame defend?/'Twill then be Infamy to seem your Friend!” (Canto IV, 108-112). The persuasion used by Thakestri here demonstrates to the reader her strength and power.

It is quite hard to take anything from Pope’s mock-epic at face value, and the above examples can most likely be understood in different ways. However it is fairly evident that Pope did not find the women of his time to be entirely powerless. Rather, they were at the core of little social storms, the catalysts for days of card games within their small groups that were indeed their entire world and their only worry. 

JFK Memory

At 12.30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 1963, some military soldiers were calm and relax. A couple of minutes later, they were standing under order, awaiting commands,weapon in hand.

The president of the United States had just been shot, twice, while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas.

At 1 p.m., President John F. Kennedy was declared dead.

Apparently, his favourite poem was Alan Seeger's  "I have a rendezvous with death".

Transgender Day of Remembrance and its Literature

In memory of those killed by anti-transgender hatred or prejudice and also those who have been victims of transphobia resulting in suicide.

It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn't perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten.

Day of Remembrance gives allies a chance to step forward with trans people and stand in vigil, memorializing those who have died by anti-transgender violence.

We should remember, in such a special day, Kilian Meloy's quotation:

"In a historical sense, literature as we understand it is a fairly new innovation, and the current concept of homosexuality is even fresher from the cultural oven. It's no great surprise, then, that gay literature — or even gay characters in literature — are so relatively new as to still be shiny." (AfterElton.com / Influential Gay Characters in Literature)

Some examples of this 'queer literature' can be found in many mythologies and religious narratives that included stories of sex or romantic affection between men; in a lot of vampire stories, in some teen literature ...

Another way of approaching The Rape of the Lock

Poppies in the battlefield

Due to being the only flowers growing in some battlefields during World War I, along with the inspiration for John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" and the only company that hundreds of thousands of soldiers had in their graves, poppies have become a symbol of the memorial that we owe them.

A more legible version of the poem can be found in: http://librivox.org/in-flanders-fields-by-john-mccrae/

The Scriblerus Club and its Treasures

After doing a bit of research on 'The Scriblerus Club', I found -- in one of my favourite web pages on the Internet (Trend Hunter) -- some images and an interesting background information about this hidden treasure. It is an 18-karat gold antique timepiece that was given to John Gay by writer Jonathan Swift.

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/scriblerus-club-pocket-watch#!/photos/84650/1

Remember, remember ... Gunpowder Plot (2)

“Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament...”

(Evey Hammond, V for Vendetta)

In relation to the Bonfire Night some of friends in England celebrated last Saturday, I would like to share with all of you one of my favourite movies, V for Vendetta (2006), based on the revolutionary Gunpowder Plot. The film, based on one of Alan Moore’s comics, treated the misunderstood Gunpowder Plot from a modern point of view, dealing with topics such as homosexuality, totalitarianism... Enjoy this clip and watch the film!

Jesuit 'Fawky' Treason or Puritan invention?

On November 5th one commemorates Guy Fawkes Night, generally known as Firework or Bonfire Night. As is well known, Roman Catholics, especially the Jesuits, were accused of the Gunpowder Plot, which was allegedly intended to blow up the House of Lords in 1605; and to replace King James I by his more militantly Catholic daughter, princess Elizabeth.

Guy Fawkes, a professional soldier, was discovered guarding a huge amount of gunpowder, arrested, convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. And so was Father Henry Garnet, the head of the Jesuit order in England. The Puritans took advantage of this event to denigrate Roman Catholics, especially the Jesuits and the Pope, and still nowadays this day is celebrated.

Related with this event we can find songs like this one. Enjoy it!

Don't you Remember,
The Fifth of November,
'Twas Gunpowder Treason Day,
I let off my gun,
And made'em all run.
And Stole all their Bonfire away. (1742)

Halloween 2011

It was on a dreary night of November [...]. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open ...

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

The Black’s long march to freedom

From Oroonoko to Cinque



Upon reading Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko it is hard to not think about the abolition of slavery in the United States after the American Civil War (with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865) and the end of the shameful South African Apartheid after the multi-racial democratic elections in 1994. Somewhere in the middle of this “Black” road to Calvary which goes from the buying and exploitation of African slaves in America on behalf of the Europeans –so realistically portrayed by Aphra Behn— to their emancipation, is the story depicted and narrated by Spielberg’s film Amistad.  The dream Oroonoko had when he rebelled against his owners, becoming one of the first martyrs, became a reality in Cinque when he managed to convince the jury that Blacks have the same dignity as Whites, as it is contemplated in the revolutionary text of the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

Mary Rowlandson’s diary: A Precedent for Aphra Behn's realism?

In The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration, the diary that Mary Rowlandson wrote during the time of her captivity, after falling prisoner to the hands of the Indians in one of the wars fought between them and the White man, we find descriptions of the Indians’ way of life. Rowlandson’s Narrative is so rich in detail and narrated in such simple English that it is truly a precedent for the technique and realist language that would make the rise of the novel possible.  This diary and the quintessential contribution of the narrative work of Aphra Behn, who had most likely read Mary Rowlandson’s testimony, enrich that tradition of realistic accounts which would spawn the great novel of the eighteenth century.

The following fragments are telling evidence of the technique and manner in which they are written (or the manner in which the above are written):

“My master had three squaws, living sometimes with one, and sometimes with another one … ” (The Nineteenth Remove)

“the water was up to the knees, and the stream very swift, and so cold that I thought it would have cut me in sunder” (The Sixteenth Remove)

“About two hours in the night … on Feb. 18, 1675” (The Third Remove)

“They eat also nuts and acorns, artichokes, lilly roots, ground beans, and several other weeds and roots, that I know not.” (The Twentieth Remove)

From A to Z along a Black Cavalry

The Alphabet of Slavery is – a poem published in The Poetry of Slavery (1764-1865) Harvest Films/The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum –, is an excellent reminder of the endless list of grievances that remains alive in the black communities historical memory. Perhaps it would be useful to have a look at it in order to better understand the issues at stake in novels like Oroonoko and in films like Amistad.

The True Meaning of the Word 'Puritan'

The semantic evolution of the word ‘puritan’ has not done justice to the influential group of Scottish and English Calvinists who, from the very beginning of the Restoration, considered themselves to be the purest brand of Protestantism. Today, as everybody knows, this term is quite pejorative if not insulting. This is obviously due to the fact that people (the speech community) refuse to accept those who think of themselves to be the best, the “chosen ones”, as the Puritans did. Historical memory, though, is much fairer and recognizes the enormous contribution of the Puritans in many important aspects. For Christopher Hill:

“The Puritans had high ideals of integrity, of service to the community. Their preachers taught a doctrine of spiritual equality: one good man was as good as another, and better than a bad peer or bishop or king.” (The Century of Revolution 1603-1714. London: Cardinal, 1975, p.78).

Autumn is finally with us!!!

It is a pity that quite often the best translations are not known by the Spanish reading public. This can be said about Tomás Ramos Oreas’s excellent version of “Ode to the West Wind” by Shelley.

“Oda al viento del oeste”

Tienes alma otoñal, viento poniente.

De tu presencia inédita, en huida

se aleja, fantasmal, la hoja yaciente,

negra, pálida, gualda, enrojecida,

como hueste vencida y apestada.

A su cama invernal oscurecida

transportas la semilla fría alada:

yerta estará en su baja sepultura

hasta que la vernal brisa azulada

–tu  hermana— el clarín toque y con hartura

(capullos en tropel, color viviente)

llene de dulce olor monte y llanura.

Tomás Ramos Orea

http://tomasramosorea.com/Documentos/ARTICULOS.pdf

“Ode to the West Wind”

O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being  

Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead  

Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,  

 

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,  

Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou          5

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed  

 

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,  

Each like a corpse within its grave, until  

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow  

 

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill   10

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)  

With living hues and odours plain and hill;

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Everyday Lexicography - Literary technique

As a result of what Stonehenge and the Druids evoke, regarding mystery, religion ..., I have to admit that I find the history of the Celts rather fascinating. As a philologist I take great interest in knowing that some Celtic languages are still spoken in England, like in the Highlands; Gaelic, Welsh, Irish ... vestiges of the past. And I am led to believe that the autochthonous language of Cornualles (the Conish language) was spoken until well into the nineteenth century when the last Cornish speaker died. My main interest is in the many Celtic languages (and the literature produced with them). In terms of this, I would like to share some Celtic placenames that still exist in Britain, especially river-names. Apparently, they are among the oldest words in the language. And the fact that many rivers still have a Celtic name futher proves the importance of the Celts (and therefore, the Celtic languages) in what we call Britain today.

Why?

Because the new settlers tend to respect and maintain the old placenames, especially rivernames, we still can enjoy them. Intrinsic in the Celtic term (name) is the fact that they are rivers.

1. The river 'Avon' in Canterbury is a word that means 'river' in the Old Celtic language.

2. 'Don', which is in Scotland, from the Celtic word 'Devona', means 'Goddess'. 'Devona', 'divina' in Spanish, is usually referred by some scholars as the old term to say 'God' and structurally the pre-term of 'Devil' (devona > devil).

3. 'Esk', which is in Lake District, comes from 'iska', an Old Celtic word that means 'water'.

4. 'Dove', in Derbyshire, is connected with the Old Celtic word 'duvo', which means 'black' and/or 'dark'.

5. And the river 'Tame' --related to the Londoner river Thames, of course--, in the area of Manchester, comes from the Celtic word 'tame' and means: 'dark'.

Open Literary Discussion - October

Hello everyone!  

Following Joe Clarke's comment in the "Dangerous Liasons" section I have taken on board his request and am therefore going to create a monthly "Open Literary Discussion" section in which you are all invited to share with our fellow bloggers any literary interests that you may have.  I shall look forward to your posts.

Dangerous Liaisons - A clip to enjoy

For those of you interested in the epistolary novel. Enjoy this clip --with a wonderful background music-- from a film based on a French epistolary novel.

The Restoration: The Plain English Movement (The Royal Society) II

‘They have therefore been rigorous in putting in

ejecution, the only Remedy, that can be found for this

extavagance: and that has been, a constant Resolution,

to reject all the amplifications, digressions,

and swellings of style: to return back to

the primitive purity, and shortness,

when men deliver’d so many things almost

in an equal number of words.

They have exacted from all their members,

a close, naked, natural way of speaking;

a native easiness: bringing all things as near

the mathematical plainness, as they can: and preferring

the language of Artizans, Countrymen, and

Merchants, before that, of Wits, or Scholars.’

Bishop Thomas Sprat,

The History of the Royal-Society of London

(1667)

Image: Frontispiece to The History of the Royal-Society of London

by Thomas Sprat. National Portrait Gallery (London).

The Restoration: The Plain English Movement (The Royal Society)

           

            ‘The scientific movement had another result: it led to the cultivation of a plain style of writing, and a suspicion of the ornaments of rhetoric. After a century or more had been spent in the pursuit of eloquence in English, there were people in the late 17th century who began to suggest that eloquence was a bad thing. Earlier, there had been an anti-rhetorical movement among the puritans: preachers like William Perkins (1558-1602) cultivated a simple style of preaching, free from ornament, while anti-puritans like John Donne cultivated a high rhetorical style. But in the later 17th century it was above all the natural scientists who advocated plainness and led the attack on rhetoric.’

                                                Barber, Charles. Early Modern English. London: André                                                            Deutsch, 1976, p. 131.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Picture: Cover of Charles Barber's Early Modern English. (2nd ed.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1976.

¿Por qué "Heofones gim"?



El subtítulo de este blog es un conocido kenning anglosajón, con cuyo significado se intenta aquí resaltar esa dimensión inefable, transcendental... sublime, para utilizar un término de la estética kantiana de la literatura. Esa es la connotación con que se utiliza en esta metáfora el término del antiguo inglés “heofona” (cielo). La literatura, por ese poder que atesora de despertar y potenciar las más altas emociones, es una joya preciada, una ‘gema del cielo’. Algunas de las definiciones de kenning son:

‘[a] poetic compound, a traditional form of concentrated metaphor.’ (E.B. Irving Jr.)

‘… a condensed metaphor or simile, for example, “hron-rad” (whale road) for the sea, “sund-wudu” (sea wood) for a ship, “isern-scur” (iron shower) for a flight of arrows, “hildegicelum” (battle icicle) for a sword, and “hædstapa” (heath stepper) for a deer. Other noun epithets verge on the kenning, but many are literal descriptions. All of them share the characteristics of being compounds, and they most frequently occupy an entire half line of verse. They form by far the greater part of the “building-block”  material of Old English poetry.’ (J.D.A. Ogilvy y D.C. Baker)

‘… a two-member (or two-term) circumlocution for an ordinary noun: such a circumlocution might take the form of a compound, like hronrãd “sea” (literally “riding-place of the whale”), or of a phrase, like fugles wynn “feather” (literally “bird’s joy”).’ (Kemp Malone)

Obras Citadas:

Irving Jr., Edward B. Introduction to Beowulf. Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey): Prentice-Hall Inc., 1969. (ISBN: none -- LC number is 77-79447.)

Ogilvy, J.D.A., and Donald C. Baker. Reading Beowulf: An Introduction to the Poem, Its Background, and Its Style. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. (ISBN: 0-8061-2019-3.)

Hamlet no longer loves Ophelia

One of the most striking statements that we can find in Hamlet happens in the moment he realizes he no longer loves Ophelia and decides to tell it to her. Hamlet´s statement is as follows: “Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?” (Act 3, scene I. A room in the castle).

It is easy to understand why he tells her to go to a convent. Indeed, according to medieval customs and conventions, especially in the court of a Christian kingdom, when a woman had been a man´s fiancée and the relationship was over, she was not supposed to find another man but to become a nun. This is exactly what happens in this scene: Hamlet has just broken his relationship with her and invites her to go to a convent. What may not be all that easy to understand, is the fact that he puns on the word nunnery, and he does indeed puns on it, as can be deduced from the context of these words, namely, the scene in which Hamlet utters them. Nunnery, in Elizabethan or Early modern English meant convent; but at that time, the word also had substandard sense: brothel. Obviously, Hamlet plays on this second sense of the word; and this makes the whole thing complicated. It is easy to understand why he tells her to become a nun, but it is not easy at all to understand why he tells her to go to a brothel. Is he suggesting that Ophelia is a prostitute? It would not be the only time, because in this play there are other ambiguities referred to Ophelia which connote this same idea. Hamlet thinks that in the struggle he is waging against his mother and his uncle, Ophelia is rather on Polonius´ (her father) side than on his. Polonius, who was so happy before because his daughter was engaged to Hamlet (the Prince Heir), is now changing his mind because he thinks that Hamlet will never become the king of Denmark. Therefore, Hamlet concludes that if Ophelia was with him before but now hesitates, it is because love did never exist: she was with him, he thinks, because of his position, not because she was in love with him. And this is prostitution according to Hamlet´s new view of the world. Now he is fighting against the “rottenness” of Denmark, he is fighting for an honest world, and he feels she is not following him.

This is the reason why Hamlet ends up by rejecting and hating Ophelia. He does not find her sufficiently honest for him. In other words, she is also corrupt, like the rest of the courtiers in Denmark. Some readers think that Hamlet is a misogynist because he rejects Ophelia and also his mother. But he also has good reasons for hating his mother. His mother, who was responsible for his father´s murder because she was having an affair with her brother in law, Claudius, was likewise “stew´d in corruption”, as Hamlet said and thought. And Hamlet was right, because Shakespeare himself puts a few ambiguous words in Claudius´ mouth whose second senses denigrate her. Thus, when Claudius is announcing that he has married her, he begins his speech with the following words: “Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, the imperial jointress to this warlike state …” (Act 1. Scene II. A room of state in the castle) the three words with which Claudius refers to Hamlet´s mother –“sister”, ”queen”, and “jointress”—also had a bawdy meaning in Elizabethan English: the three of them also meant in substandard English, prostitute.

Presentación

‘Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it’

C.S. Lewis

Literature, like life itself, is a tapestry interwoven by every kind of feeling, experience, ideal, activity, society and individual from all walks of life.   And perhaps it is in this multicoloured aspect of its essence that we can find justification for the interdisciplinary approaches and the variety of points of view and perspectives from which literary texts are normally looked at.

Thus, within the limited confines of the modest space of our blog , we offer fragments of sociological, psychological, and linguistic and stylistic criticism, both published and unpublished,  as well as any opinion or spontaneous comment  from  visitors to this blog, along with a sampling of literary creations from all genres and time periods. 

            ‘La literatura no sólo describe la realidad sino que se suma a ella’

C.S. Lewis

La literatura, como la propia vida, es un espacio en el que converge toda suerte de sentimientos, vivencias, ideales, actividades, sociedades e individuos de todo tipo. Y quizá en ese carácter variopinto de su esencia halle justificación la interdisciplinariedad y riqueza de enfoques y perspectivas con que se abordan los textos literarios.

De ahí que en este blog, dentro de los reducidísimos límites de su modesto espacio, se ofrezcan, junto con muestras de creación literaria de todos los géneros e incluso épocas, fragmentos de crítica sociológica, psicológica y lingüístico-estilística, tanto publicada como inédita, así como cualquier opinión o comentario espontáneo que se reciba en este blog.