Bolognese Vera

1
Bolognese Vera

• Literature and Peace

2
TitleLiterature and Peace ObjectiveFinding
out how a literally text may promote peace
3
MaterialsW. SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth, Mursia 1971
(parallel text) W. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, Act
III, Scene 1 (parallel text)S. SASSOON, TheyS.
SASSOON, Glory of WomenW. OWEN, Futility, from
The Collected Poems, 1963.
4
Working MethodTextual analysis (finding
relationship between text and peace)Class
discussions
5
W. SHAKESPEARE

• He was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon
• He married Anne Hathaway and had three children
• In 1580s he moved to London and become first
  actor and after playwright for the Kings Men
• He died in 1616 in Stratford

6
SHAKESPEARES TRAGEDIES

• In his greatest tragedies (Hamlet, Macbeth, King
  Lear and Othello) the themes of war and search
  for inner peace are always present also in the
  meaning of peace of the kingdom.
• In Macbeth especially the peace of the kingdom is
  strictly connected to the kings inner peace

7

• Shakespeare lived in a period of changes and
  civil war
• Queen Elizabeth declared Catholicism and Judaism
  illegal.
• All the people who were not Anglican were
  persecuted
• James first unified the crowns of England and
  Scotland

8

• He practiced the theory of absolute monarchy and
  the divine right of Kings.
• This situation caused an increasing hostility on
  the side of Parliament towards the monarchy.
• All this led to the Civil War in 1642

9
MacbethPLOT

• The tragedy is about a general called Macbeth
  who, following a witches prophecies, murders his
  King to take his place.
• The sense of guilt makes him and his wife mad
• In the end both die in tragic ways

10
Peace

• In the beginning of the tragedy order and peace
  reign in the kingdom Macbeth and the other
  generals are loyal to Duncan
• Macbeths ambitions lead him to kill his King
• He breaks the balance and brings chaos and war in
  the kingdom

11
The word peace occurseleven times in Macbeth

• Witches Peace! the charms wound up
• Lady Macbeth Shake my fell purpose, nor keep
  peace between theffect and it
• Macbeth Prythee, peace
• Lady Macbeth - Hark! Peace
• Macbeth Put rancours in the vessel of my peace,
  only for them

12

• Macbeth Better be with the dead, whom we, to
  gain our peace, have sent to peace
• Lenox But, peace!
• Malcom Nay, had I power, I should pour the
  sweet milk of concord into Hell, uproar the
  universal peace, confound all unit of earth
• Macduff The tyrant has not batterd at their
  peace?
• Rosse No they were well at peace when I did
  leave em

13
The word peace is used with different
connotations

• In 4 cases it is used as an invitation to make
  silence
• 3 times peace refers to characters usual
  living conditions
• Twice it is used to refer to Macbeths and Lady
  Macbeths inner peace
• Only in 1 case it refers to universal peace

14
Peace and Death

• The word peace does not occur in Act V when the
  sense of guilt has already made Macbeth mad and
  peace seems to be an unreachable condition.
• Peace seems to be something that everyone desires
  but no one can get it if not through death

15
What did Shakespeare want to communicate to his
contemporaries with Macbeth?

• The tragedy ends with Malcom bringing peace again
  in the kingdom.
• He is seen as the only person deserving the crown
  because he is Duncans son.

16

• The King as representative of natural order
• With Macbeth, Shakespeare paid homage to his
  King James I and invited to obey him.
• He represented the monarchy and the King as
  warrants of peace in the kingdom.

17
What message can be inferred from Macbeth?

• Macbeth loses the control of the situation and he
  is entrapped in an endless spiral of murders and
  blood that make him mad.
• Reading Macbeth you can understand violence only
  causes only further violence.

18
And what about today?

• Nowadays you can be see conflicts in Africa, in
  Israel, Palestine and many other battle fields
  like Iraq,.

19
Hamlet

• To be or not to be ? to act or not to act.
• Does Hamlet have to kill his uncle to revenge
  his father? He does not know.
• He asks himself why men have to bear all life bad
  situations when they could kill themselves?
• The only answer he finds is because they
• fear death

20

• The rhetorical questions suggest a person torn
  by the difficulty to face duties and is looking
  for a way out.
• Even if Hamlet does not seem scared by death,he
  does not have the courage to kill himself.

21
Hamlet and Peace

• Peace
• ?
• deep sleep when nobody and nothing can upset you.
  
• place where you may even find the redemption
  (like Macbeth)
• Hamlet can find his inner peace through death
• ?
• a far, beautiful land
• from which no traveller returns

22
Peace in Shakespeare

• In Shakespeares tragedies peace is strictly
  connected to the natural order of things
• Every change can break social balance and lead to
  war
• His plays provide the proof peace is a
  never-granted condition we should safeguard.
• War never is a solution.
• It involves innocents who pay the price of human
  beings ambitions and desire for power

23
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon

• He was born in 1886 and educated at Marlborough
  College in Wiltshire and at Clare College,
  Cambridge.
• Motivated by patriotism, he became soldier just
  as the threat of World War I was realized.
• Horrified by war, the tone of his poems totally
  changed details such as rotting corpses, mangled
  limbs, rubbish, cowardice and suicide are all
  trademarks of his poetry.

24

• In 1917, after his friends death, Sassoon made a
  stand against the conduct of war
• The military authorities decided that he was
  unfit for service and sent him to Craig Lockhart
  War Hospital till the end of the war.
• There he met Wilfred Owen.
• He died in 1967.

25
They

• Structure free verse.
• It is arranged into two stanzas.
• In the first one the Bishop tells what he thinks
  about war and in the second stanza the boys reply
  to his words
• Rhyme scheme ABABCC DEDEFF

26
STYLE ADDS TO MEANING

• Stanza one alliteration of hard sounds like ck
  and ght underlines the difficulty of living
  during the war.
• Personification of Death a soldiers comrade
  accompanying them in battle and supporting them
  when their time has come
• Stanza two Soldiers 'pain is suggested by long
  vowel sound recalling men suffering.
• The idea is reinforced by the frequency of words
  belonging to the semantic field of illness.

27
STYLE AND POINT- OF-VIEW

• Words from semantic field of religion Bishop,
  Anti-Christ and God
• The key-word is change
• Both the Bishop and the boys agree on the idea
  that war changes people
• The Bishop means soldiers are honourable and
  brave men, the nations pride

28
Message

• The boys mean they are wounded in their body but
  mainly in their mind
• The poem criticizes not only war itself but
  especially powerful men, like the Bishop, who
  cares only about honour and victory neglecting
  soldiers suffering

29
Glory of Women

• Structure Petrarchan Sonnet.
• The octave conveys womens distorted view of
  war.
• The sestet view of those who fought in war.
• Rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFG EFG
• Long vowel sounds leave, believe, redeems,
  delight, blind. They sound as if somebody is
  calling for help.

30
STYLE AND MEANING

• Octave abstract words like chivalry,
  disgrace, delight and laurelled memories
  convey womens idea of war.
• Alliterations dirt and danger and distant
  ardours provide a different image of the
  situation, close to the soldiers.
• In the first line the word home makes clear
  soldiers' desire.

31
STYLE AND MEANING II

• Sestet concrete, British rooted words belonging
  to the semantic field of war.
• Invocation O German mother is addressed to all
  British, and maybe to all women who have a
  distorted perception of war.
• The poets idea of war is expressed in the word
  mud.

32
Peace in Sassoon

• Av realistic description of soldiers true life
  at the battle front.
• Reporting the wars horrors ? the real
  consequences of the war.
• Invites us to think about peoples sense of
  belonging to the same great family humanity

33
Wilfred Owen

• He was born in 1893 in Shropshire
• After some traumatic experiences in battle Owen
  was diagnosed as suffering from shell shock and
  sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital
• There he met Sassoon who encourage his passion
  for poetry.
• Owen was killed in action in 1918, only one week
  before the end of the war

34
A Poets Statement

• First sentence ? immediately draws the readers
  attention.
• The poet ? his thought about heroes there are
  no heroes in war
• Abstract nouns underline peoples common idea
  about war but that really have nothing to share
  with conflicts.
• War is concrete, like the deaths it causes

35
Style and Meaning

• Owen The Poetry is in the pity of War ? war
  is too cruel and horrible to give space to such a
  beautiful thing like Poetry
• Word elegies conveys feelings of suffering and
  sacrifice

36

• Owens's poems can only console his generation but
  are a warning for the next one.
• This is the reason why he must be truthful even
  if this implies being crude

37
Futility

• Structure organized into two stanzas.
• 1st stanza tells the soldiers story.
• 2nd stanza the poet asks himself some rhetorical
  questions.

38
STYLE AND MEANING

• First stanza Opposition between the words sun
  and snow.
• Sun ? a metaphor for life
• snow ? refers to death.
• until this morning and this snow.
• The sun can defeat death and give life again, but
  the poet considers it impossible
• as you can understand by the modal might.

39
STLYE AND MEANING

• Second stanza why cant the sun awake a corpse
  still warm.
• Were men created from clay to die?
• Was it for this reason the sun Awoke the Earth?
• Message We have some extraordinary things like
  the Earth, the sun and above all our life, why do
  we want to destroy them with war?

40
My Conclusions

• In Shakespeares tragedies, in Sassoons and
  Owens poems the main theme is not peace, rather
  it is the absence of peace and all the horror it
  brings forth
• ?
• in all ages peace has been considered the
  greatest of blessing, something to defend and to
  protect

41

• Our task is to work for peace, not to fight for
  it because, as Gandhi said,
• non-violence is infinitely superior
• than violence