Milton's use of Landscape

Milton uses the natural setting of Paradise Lost to explore ideas of the naturalness of obedience to God, using the pastoral idyll, and the time period in which it is set to contrast to Satan’s manipulation of sin.

Milton uses the freshly created universe at his setting, thereby implying that the equilibrium at the start is how the earth was intended to be, using it to show his vision of God’s will. Milton sets Paradise Lost during the biblical book of Genesis when God created the ‘heavens and the earth’. Milton however, does not use the togetherness of heaven and earth that the ‘and’ in Genesis implies, instead using the delineations of heaven, earth and hell to set up a rigid hierarchy. The character of God does not appear in Book 9, with Milton not showing the conversations that Genesis says took place between God and humans, instead using the hierarchy he sets up to explain God’s position in his contemporary time. That Eve argues that ‘Heaven is high’ suggests that God feels far off to her, perhaps because once she has eaten the apple she loses her closeness with God, but the word ‘high’ also suggests his majesty and glory, with Milton perhaps suggesting the God is remote in his holiness, offering an explanation for why humans no longer had the same kind of connection with God in his time, when people went to church regularly but didn’t experience the same kind of spiritual encounters. The word ‘high’ also connotes that God is looking down on ‘earth’, with Milton setting up a hierarchy of rulers being untouchable by the common people, perhaps reaffirming the entrenched class system of his time. This however, would seem more to reflect a King with the ‘divine right’ to rule rather than the parliamentary system Milton served in, with Satan’s attempt to move up in the hierarchy both by attempting to overthrow God and leaving hell having disastrous consequences despite the fact he seems to be seeking a more democratic system where power is shared amongst ‘Gods’. However, Milton could equally be condemning people for criticizing the Government or the Church leaders, both of whom had been replaced in the Restoration. Therefore Milton’s setting Paradise Lost at the beginning of time implies a hierarchical system is natural and ordained by God.

Milton further explores how this perfect system is abused by showing Satan as manipulating the natural setting around him. Satan enters the garden as an outsider and yet is able to use it to lure Eve, not only by blending into his environment by taking over the body of a ‘snake’ but by using the natural elements around him in his plan. In his invocation Milton bemoans how the Garden’s ‘sweet flowers’ hid the ‘ambush’ waiting for mankind, with the word ‘flowers’ perhaps suggesting their ‘sweet’ scent hid the pungent odour of sin. Also as a feminine symbol Milton could perhaps be suggesting that woman’s ‘sweetness’ disguises the sin that she causes, with women at the time seen as temptresses much more interested in sex than men were. Similarly Satan lures Eve alone into the woods, with the extended semantic feild of the ‘mazes’ and Milton use of an epic metaphor which describes Satan as a ‘skillful steersman’ indicating that she may not be able to find her way out again. Also Milton compares Satan to a will o the wisp, suggesting that he is a supernatural and dangerous thing that has been introduced, connoting the more superstitious medieval age and that Eve is being lead astray without the knowledge that people had later on in the renaissance. Le Gallienne also explores the deceitfulness of nature, marvelling at how it’s ‘beauty’ can distort one’s ‘eyes’ from ‘life’s true bitterness and pain, with the word ‘net’ echoing the trap to which Satan is drawing Eve.  Milton doesn’t just show Satan’s effect on nature though, but sin itself, showing the Earth’s reaction when Eve commits the first sin. That it ‘wounds’ the earth suggests a permanence and a pain that can not be undone and that will always be remembered through the scar it leaves, meaning that the earth is no longer perfect and whole, starting the degeneration that Milton criticised in his own time whilst he was a pamphleteer, writing on varied subjects such as the church and divorce. The personification of nature as a ‘her’ sets the earth up as helpless and weak, unable to defend itself against sin, contrasting Earth’s passivity with Eve’s activeness as ‘she plucked, she ate’. The verbs strongly place the blame on Eve and emphasize the fact that they are irreversible, with the past tense used adding to this. This places earth as the victim and humankind as the wrongdoer, abusing their positions as ‘Lords’ of the earth. This could perhaps suggest that Milton thinks rulers have a duty to look after their subjects, or that nature must be respected, although alternatively it could represent the harm sin does to the innocence of the human soul. Hence, Milton’s explanation of how nature can be abused can be seen as a rallying call against temptation and being lead stray by the devil, with humankind being seen as naturally good but in need of constant diligence.

Furthermore, Milton’s use of the pastoral continues his warning against the unnaturalness of sinful acts, presenting God’s natural way as the way to serenity. Satan emerges from the corrupt city of Bedlam in Hell to the ‘worthier seat of the gods’ that is earth, with his longest soliloquy focusing on earth’s beauty and how it makes him question his plan for ‘revenge’.  Adam and Eve could perhaps be the shepherd and shepherdess living in harmony, although they tend the garden rather than sheep, but that they enjoy this task is perhaps shown in Eve’s eagerness to do it more efficiently, calling it ‘pleasant’, not wanting anything to ‘intervene’ in their labour’. Hence Milton seems to suggest that a life at one with nature is what God intended, with Satan’s residence in hell therefore being the perversion of everything God wanted. This criticism of the city could also link to the criticism of modernity, with the city being a manmade invention associated with sin, and it is significant that as soon as Adam and Eve sin they look for somewhere to ‘lie’ so that they can have sex. This perhaps relates to the association of sinful behaviour with the city, and cities fame for prostitutes, with London St James’s park being particularly well known as a haven for vice. The sinfulness of modernity could perhaps relate to the sinfulness of the tree of knowledge, as modernity can only advance with knowledge, with Milton perhaps advocating innocence as a way to be free from sin. In ‘August Moonlight’ the narrator also finds respite in nature, remarking on how the ‘cricket’ ‘’rose’ and ‘butterfly’ lead him away from his existential crisis, and yet in Paradise Lost Milton does not put enough strength in nature to allow it to dissuade any of his characters from sinning. Therefore Milton could perhaps be criticising how far he saw contemporary Restoration society from nature as being, perhaps because of the Restoration leading to the reopening of the theatres and many festivals and parties which were very unpuritanical. Hence Milton continues his warning, wishing for a return to the Lord’s ways.

In conclusion Milton uses his natural setting to contrast the way in which he sees God as having ordained things to be to the way things become when sin enters people and the world, criticising those who go against God’s natural order and advocating a return to his way.

Love in Paradise Lost

3.  “One way or another, poetry always seems to be concerned with love.” How far do you agree with this view?

Both Gascoigne and Milton examine the fidelity of love, and the power it has over one’s action, though while Gascoigne focuses primarily on the love between a man and a woman, Milton goes on to inquire into the relationship between God and Man, and the effect of love for one’s self.

Milton looks into the love between Adam and Eve, putting it at the heart of his poem by involving it in the dilemma of the fall. Book 9 of Paradise lost shows the scope of Adam and Eve’s relationship, with their lovingness turning into lust after the fall,with Milton noting this change’s catastrophic effect on their relationship. Before the fall they are ‘handed’, merged together and completely united, with this ‘handedness’ not only illustrating their closeness but also their equality, going through life as one. Later however, Adam ‘seizes’ Eve’s ‘hand’, with the violent and commanding implications of the word ‘seized’ indicating the effect of lust on their relationship, with love turning to desperation, and they make love on top of Eve’s beloved ‘flowers’, perhaps connoting that their behaviour destructs the natural way ordained by God. Milton however complicates this, as Eve ‘withdraws’ her hand from Adam’s before the fall, seeking separation in order to labour better as their ‘discourse’ and ‘smiles’ distract her from her work. This could illustrate the contemporary Restoration shift to women having more ability to work, and women such as Celia Feinnes who visited every county in England riding alone on horseback, wanting more freedom, although it could also express a desire about the infidelity of women. Indeed as Eve is without Adam she could be seen as being wooed by Satan who flatters her ‘divine beauty’ whereas in Gascgoine’s poem the ‘doubt’ originates from the narrator’s female lover, with him rejecting the other ‘fish’ in the ‘Sea’. Eve however, does not spurn Satan, with his courtly lover language matching that of Adam’s, and the fact that he stands ‘erect’ before her having phallic implications. Adam’s fidelity however is never in question, as Milton makes it clear that he falls for Eve, calling it a ‘trial of love’ much as a courtly lover would compete for his lady and be ready to die for her. Here then, Milton could be seen as echoing male writers long lament of the constancy of men’s love in comparison to women’s, or at least the resistance of women to submit to their place in a relationship as Eve refuses to heed Adam’s warning about the ‘danger’ that might await her, and how she would be better off near his ‘strength’. Either way, Milton bemoans the loss of the pure love that Adam and Eve once shared, with the radical change showing Milton’s readers the bitter consequences of sin.

The other source of infidelity is that of humankind to God, with the breach of this love at the heart of Milton’s poem. He begins Book 9 immediately saying that there is ‘no more’ of the relationship that once existed between ‘God and Man’ where they once shared ‘venial discourse unblam’d’. The word ‘discourse’ suggests genteelness, learning but also discussion, with man and God talking ‘venially’ as friends. The fact that Eve says that their ‘reason is their law’ could perhaps even connote that God didn’t have to rule over them, with no laws being needed as Adam and Eve wouldn’t have contemplated evil. The character of God however, does not feature in the book, with no divine intervention preventing Adam and Eve from disobeying God, which could be seen as undermining the closeness that Milton tries to suggest they had, or could be shown as God allowing them to make their choice, with Milton perhaps examining the worth of love if it is false, with God giving them freedom to test their love. Milton’s contemporary audience would have been aware of the commandment to ‘Love the Lord your God above all else’, with Eve and Adam’s failure to do so being their downfall. Gascoigne’s narrator seems more dependable than that, but only because of the foolishness of ‘wishing’ that you could have all the fish in the sea for oneself ‘alone’ rather than because of his undying love. That he knows that it is futile to ‘wish’ does not diminish the fact that the word connotes that having many women would be something to be wished for, with him only containing himself because he knows that it would be ‘in vaine’. Adam and Eve however do not remain faithful, with Eve loving herself more and Adam loving her more, with Adam’s ‘glorious trial of love’ for Eve having implications that love for her is ‘glorious’ when in fact Milton shows that God has the ‘glory’. Hence while Adam is undergoing a trial he chooses the wrong lover to fight for and threatening the rest of mankind’s relationship with God. Milton therefore seems to urge his readers to rexamine their love for God and to put it before all else, unlike Adam and Eve who reject him and lose all the closeness they once had with their maker.

Milton shows that love of the self is an obstacle to love of God, and a damning force. Both Satan and Eve are driven to breaking away from God because of their wish to become ‘gods’ themselves, with vanity and arrogance driving them away from him. Satan’s wish to have the ‘glory sole’ connotes that he fights for himself alone, as although he has freed the ‘angelic multitude’ he will be the ‘sole’ glorious one, taking the place of God and perhaps having the same ‘adorers’ as God. Likewise he persuades Eve to think better of herself, calling her ‘divine’ and fit to ‘rise’ up to be amongst ‘Gods who will properly appreciate her. Satan coaxes the same forces of vanity and love of the self in her as have motivated him to try to rise up. That Milton chooses Eve, not Adam, to fall for this flattery perhaps reflects common contemporary beliefs in women’s only use being in their beauty, though it could also be argued that Eve wants ‘superiority’ and more for herself because at the moment she is ‘inferior’, with Adam not feeling the same need to be appreciated because he is already at the top of the human hierarchy. That would therefore shift the blame for Eve’s want to better herself onto God, but Milton combats this by making his universe a resolutely meritocratic one, with Adam being above Eve as he has more ‘reason [and] strength’ whereas as Eve has only ‘beauty’. There can be little wonder then, in how Satan is able to use Eve’s only strength to manipulate her, with the ‘fairness’ of her fruit matching her own ‘fairness’. However, Milton make Eve repeat God’s commandment as soon as she sees the tree, showing that she has full knowledge of how it will cause ‘death’, so that the reader knows that she is fully informed and has complete responsibility for her downfall, choosing her own wish to become a ‘God’ over loving and obeying the God who made her. The wish to become a ‘God could be seen as disregarding God’s purpose for Eve and Satan’s lives, or as idolatry, with both upsetting God’s ordained order , building up suspense in the reader about God’s reaction to this having already heard about Satan’s punishment. Gascoignes’ narrator is similarly aware of the consequences of pursuing to many women, with their boats becoming stuck, with this being mirrored in Milton’s probable condemnation of the personal life of Charles II who was famous for his parties and womanising, his hedonistic lifestyle putting his own wishes for pleasure above religious ones.  Similarly Eve and Satan’s love of themselves and wish to promote their own wishes is shown to contradict God’s wishes and to interfere in the relationship between them. Therefore Milton seems to show how love can be a dangerous force hen directed in the wrong way, hinting that the self must be subjected to God and all one’s life devoted to serving him out of love, showing the reader the terrible consequences of diverging from the plans of their loving God.

In conclusion then, Milton examines how love can go wrong, condemning infidelity and love of the self, and advising his religious audience to put the love of God before all else despite living in the increasingly vain and self-centred world of the Restoration.

How does Keats present sex and sensuality in Isabella?

In his poem Isabella Keat’s presents sex and sensuality as being physical and highly dependent on the senses, whilst also representing it as a consuming and connecting force.

Keats explores the way that physicality is needed to maintain love, and the way that the denial of this affects love. Throughout the poem there are references to Isabella’s then Lorenzo’s physicality, with him enjoying her ‘full shape’ and how he is unable to live without ‘tast(ing her) blossoms’, whilst she becomes much more obsessed with his physicalness once he is dead and she can no longer possess his soul. The way she ‘com’d’ his ‘wild hair’ and ‘Pointed each fringed lash’ gives her an obsessive and yet motherly quality, as combing can be seen as a bonding activity between a parent and their child, and Keat’s emphasis on the word ‘each’ makes her sound meticulous and as though she has become absorbed in menialities. This could perhaps relate to gender stereotypes as men are often seen as more lustful and women as more faithful, and yet both suffer when they are apart. This could suggest both are in constant need of each other’s presence, or that the desire for each other physically makes them ‘sick with longing’, with the word ‘sick’ connoting both a hunger and need for each other, and that their emotions are strong, intensified through absence which drives Lorenzo to ‘watch’ as ‘constant as her vespers’. The word ‘vespers’ could signify his religious devotion, and perhaps contains hints that he needs her as much as humans need Jesus’ body through during communion, painting her as saving him and bringing light into his life. Alternatively however, Keats also portrays love and sex as being physically detrimental to the body, or at least the absence of it ‘makes their cheeks paler’, perhaps connoting the denial of sensual pleasure takes the life from their cheeks, suggesting the idea that physical closeness is the basis of love and sexual desire, both through its absence and its fulfilment, with references to the soul focused mainly when Lorenzo’s soul is absent from his physical body. Perhaps Keats is suggesting that while souls are important for long term affection, the body is the driving force behind physical attraction and desire.

However, the poem is also full of sensuality, with Keats exploring the connection between it and the senses and proximity. There is a music lexis running through the poem, with Isabella’s seeming to give out music with her ‘laugh full musical’, and ‘lute-string giving out an echo of his name’, whilst wishing that Lorenzo’s lips would ‘breathe... love’s tune’. This reliance of sound emphasizes the barriers between them, and their inability to be together physically which heightens the importance of their senses. That Lorenzo knows ‘whose gentle hand was at the latch’ before he’s seen Isabella shows the way that the denial of physical pleasures has deepened the connection between them, and how not being able to see her ‘hand’ at the ‘latch’ makes his expectations and longing much stronger than if they were together all the time. The word ‘hand’ highlights the way that imagination and yearning have taken a more prominent role in their relationship, so much so that Lorenzo has to speak out even when Isabella is ill, to tell her of his intense cravings to touch her. The way he describes their being together through natural metaphors such as a ‘ripe warmth’ as opposed to the manmade ‘in-door lattice’ could perhaps suggest that their love is natural and pure, and is organic instead of restrictive as the ‘lattice’ is. It also connects to Song of Songs, comparing their love to that of Solomon, elevating it to a higher plane, however the use of the words ‘ripe’, ‘lusty’ and ‘blossoms’ make their relationship sound much more sexually orientated, perhaps connoting that delayed gratification makes it all the stronger. Isabella and Lorenzo’s relationship involves all the five senses at first, but this changes after his death as she appears to lose her senses, as she ‘forgets’ everything sensual about the natural world that Lorenzo used to compare her too, letting go of the feeling of a ‘breeze’, hearing the ‘waters run’ and seeing the ‘stars, the moon and sun’. Instead, one sense grows stronger: her sense of smell. That this is the only sense not particularly involved in the early stage of their relationship indicates the way it has changed, with the loss of him giving her no use for her senses. The fact that basil smells so strongly however, with Keats remarking ‘it smelt more balmy than its peers’, is perhaps not only to mask Lorenzo’s decaying head, but also is intoxicating, and its strength could be overpowering her other senses and leaving her fixated upon itself, keeping her from the world around it. The smell’s strength could even remind her of the extreme sensuality she felt with Lorenzo, or it could have such power because the basil has grown out of him and consequently might have the same intoxicating effect. Either way Keats, highlights the links between the senses and emotions, and the way that sensuality can be a wondrous, loving thing or a poisonous, trapping one.

The way that sensuality and sex and be a connecting and a consuming force is also traced through the poem, with Keats exploring the implications of sexual desire and love. At the beginning of the poem, Lorenzo and Isabella’s love is shown to be both connecting as they are ‘twin roses’, and consuming, as the lovers become ‘pale’ and ‘nightly weep’. The fact that they cannot ‘sleep’ is indicative of suffering for love, and the denial of each other’s presence as making them ‘sick’ as they are so connected they need to be together all the time. However, this could also be seen as a consuming force, as their senses and emotion become so concentrated in one another the rest of the world seems unimportant. Furthermore, Keats could be suggesting this all-consuming love is the most devastating of all, because when the ‘twin roses’ become separated by death, Isabella ‘withers’, sacrificing both her mind and eventually her life to her devastating loss. So consumed is she that she kisses Lorenzo’s decaying and mouldy head, losing all sense of reason and hope and becoming utterly absorbed in maintaining his memory. This is another example of how love and desire consume, with Isabella growing ‘thin’ whilst the basil growing out of Lorenzo grows ‘thick’, with it feeding of her in a vampiric way, sucking any life or hope of moving on from her. The way that she wraps herself around her circular ‘garden pot’, feeding it with her won bodily fluids (her tears), is much as a mother feeds her growing child from her own body, with the pot perhaps symbolising the womb. This is a profoundly disturbing image, particularly as ‘basil’ is such a trivial thing that it is not worth giving up your lifeblood for, and her utter absorption in it, not noticing ‘day’ or the ‘new morn’ illustrates how love and desire can become warped and utterly consuming, and perhaps Keats is warning of the dangers of such as profound and complete investment.

In conclusion Keat explores the way the sensuality is driven by physicality and proximity, but also how it can be a dangerous force in the way that it can consume people.

Explore the ways in which Milton makes use of setting and/or landscape.

Milton uses the natural setting of Paradise Lost to explore ideas of the naturalness of obedience to God, using the pastoral idyll, and the time period in which it is set to contrast to Satan’s manipulation of sin.

Milton uses the freshly created universe at his setting, thereby implying that the equilibrium at the start is how the earth was intended to be, using it to show his vision of God’s will. Milton sets Paradise Lost during the biblical book of Genesis when God created the ‘heavens and the earth’. Milton however, does not use the togetherness of heaven and earth that the ‘and’ in Genesis implies, instead using the delineations of heaven, earth and hell to set up a rigid hierarchy. The character of God does not appear in Book 9, with Milton not showing the conversations that Genesis says took place between God and humans, instead using the hierarchy he sets up to explain God’s position in his contemporary time. That Eve argues that ‘Heaven is high’ suggests that God feels far off to her, perhaps because once she has eaten the apple she loses her closeness with God, but the word ‘high’ also suggests his majesty and glory, with Milton perhaps suggesting the God is remote in his holiness, offering an explanation for why humans no longer had the same kind of connection with God in his time, when people went to church regularly but didn’t experience the same kind of spiritual encounters. The word ‘high’ also connotes that God is looking down on ‘earth’, with Milton setting up a hierarchy of rulers being untouchable by the common people, perhaps reaffirming the entrenched class system of his time. This however, would seem more to reflect a King with the ‘divine right’ to rule rather than the parliamentary system Milton served in, with Satan’s attempt to move up in the hierarchy both by attempting to overthrow God and leaving hell having disastrous consequences despite the fact he seems to be seeking a more democratic system where power is shared amongst ‘Gods’. However, Milton could equally be condemning people for criticizing the Government or the Church leaders, both of whom had been replaced in the Restoration. Therefore Milton’s setting Paradise Lost at the beginning of time implies a hierarchical system is natural and ordained by God.

Milton further explores how this perfect system is abused by showing Satan as manipulating the natural setting around him. Satan enters the garden as an outsider and yet is able to use it to lure Eve, not only by blending into his environment by taking over the body of a ‘snake’ but by using the natural elements around him in his plan. In his invocation Milton bemoans how the Garden’s ‘sweet flowers’ hid the ‘ambush’ waiting for mankind, with the word ‘flowers’ perhaps suggesting their ‘sweet’ scent hid the pungent odour of sin. Also as a feminine symbol Milton could perhaps be suggesting that woman’s ‘sweetness’ disguises the sin that she causes, with women at the time seen as temptresses much more interested in sex than men were. Similarly Satan lures Eve alone into the woods, with the extended semantic feild of the ‘mazes’ and Milton use of an epic metaphor which describes Satan as a ‘skillful steersman’ indicating that she may not be able to find her way out again. Also Milton compares Satan to a will o the wisp, suggesting that he is a supernatural and dangerous thing that has been introduced, connoting the more superstitious medieval age and that Eve is being lead astray without the knowledge that people had later on in the renaissance. Le Gallienne also explores the deceitfulness of nature, marvelling at how it’s ‘beauty’ can distort one’s ‘eyes’ from ‘life’s true bitterness and pain, with the word ‘net’ echoing the trap to which Satan is drawing Eve.  Milton doesn’t just show Satan’s effect on nature though, but sin itself, showing the Earth’s reaction when Eve commits the first sin. That it ‘wounds’ the earth suggests a permanence and a pain that can not be undone and that will always be remembered through the scar it leaves, meaning that the earth is no longer perfect and whole, starting the degeneration that Milton criticised in his own time whilst he was a pamphleteer, writing on varied subjects such as the church and divorce. The personification of nature as a ‘her’ sets the earth up as helpless and weak, unable to defend itself against sin, contrasting Earth’s passivity with Eve’s activeness as ‘she plucked, she ate’. The verbs strongly place the blame on Eve and emphasize the fact that they are irreversible, with the past tense used adding to this. This places earth as the victim and humankind as the wrongdoer, abusing their positions as ‘Lords’ of the earth. This could perhaps suggest that Milton thinks rulers have a duty to look after their subjects, or that nature must be respected, although alternatively it could represent the harm sin does to the innocence of the human soul. Hence, Milton’s explanation of how nature can be abused can be seen as a rallying call against temptation and being lead stray by the devil, with humankind being seen as naturally good but in need of constant diligence.

Furthermore, Milton’s use of the pastoral continues his warning against the unnaturalness of sinful acts, presenting God’s natural way as the way to serenity. Satan emerges from the corrupt city of Bedlam in Hell to the ‘worthier seat of the gods’ that is earth, with his longest soliquoy focusing on earth’s beauty and how it makes him question his plan for ‘revenge’.  Adam and Eve could perhaps be the shepherd and shepherdess living in harmony, although they tend the garden rather than sheep, but that they enjoy this task is perhaps shown in Eve’s eagerness to do it more efficiently, calling it ‘pleasant’, not wanting anything to ‘intervene’ in their labour’. Hence Milton seems to suggest that a life at one with nature is what God intended, with Satan’s residence in hell therefore being the perversion of everything God wanted. This criticism of the city could also link to the criticism of modernity, with the city being a manmade invention associated with sin, and it is significant that as soon as Adam and Eve sin they look for somewhere to ‘lie’ so that they can have sex. This perhaps relates to the association of sinful behaviour with the city, and cities fame for prostitutes, with London St James’s park being particularly well known as a haven for vice. The sinfulness of modernity could perhaps relate to the sinfulness of the tree of knowledge, as modernity can only advance with knowledge, with Milton perhaps advocating innocence as a way to be free from sin. In ‘August Moonlight’ the narrator also finds respite in nature, remarking on how the ‘cricket’ ‘’rose’ and ‘butterfly’ lead him away from his existential crisis, and yet in Paradise Lost Milton does not put enough strength in nature to allow it to dissuade any of his characters from sinning. Therefore Milton could perhaps be criticising how far he saw contemporary Restoration society from nature as being, perhaps because of the Restoration leading to the reopening of the theatres and many festivals and parties which were very unpuritanical. Hence Milton continues his warning, wishing for a return to the Lord’s ways.

In conclusion Milton uses his natural setting to contrast the way in which he sees God as having ordained things to be to the way things become when sin enters people and the world, criticising those who go against God’s natural order and advocating a return to his way.

To what extent are the women in Hamlet at the Mercy of men?

The women in both plays seem to be to quite an extent at the mercy of men, simultaneously defined by their relationships with men both familial and romantic, and only really able to exert power through men through who they do or do not sleep with, which would have been normal to Shakespeare’s contemporary audience.

Both Ophelia and Gertrude are restricted and scrutinized by their relationships with men, and often used as pawns in the game of power. Gertrude doesn’t have any asides of soliloquys, always appearing in scenes with the two most prominent men in her life; her husband and son, so therefore is only even represented through her interactions with them and in their presence. In addition to this, Hamlet does his best to blacken her name in front of the audience, calling her ‘wretched’ and ‘incestuous’ even when she is not on stage, poisoning her name just as her relationship has poisoned not only Denmark but her relationship with her son. This is in contrast to Ophelia who Hamlet only ever compliments behind her back on stage, calling her ‘fair’ and ‘nymph’, ending his ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy by spying Ophelia, with the commanding tone of ‘soft you now’ contrasting with the gentle sound of the word ‘soft’, almost as if Hamlet awakens himself out of his reverie to talk to her or that he is commanding himself to regain control in order that he may manipulate her. He precedes to do this, laying traps for Ophelia and swinging between gallantry and abuse seemingly having her feelings at his mercy as Ophelia answers grow shorter as she seemingly shrinks beneath his scorn. The fact that he ‘made her believe’ he loved her could perhaps signify she feels that Hamlet was just using her for sport or laughter, which is echoed in Lussiorio’s desire for Castiza’s body without her personality or indeed a commitment to her through marriage. That Vindice uses this as an opportunity to question Castiza’s chastity reveals how a woman’s sexual relations with men defined her and how they were at the mercy of public opinion in a patriarchal society, with Hamlet also asking Ophelia is she’s ‘Honest’. This is also an example of how the women in both play’s loyalty to different men is tested, with both Gratiana and Gertrude failing to make the grade in the eyes of their play’s tragic heroes. Hamlet’s plan for revenge may even have a multitude of layers, punishing Gertrude and Ophelia to their loyalty to the men of the new regime, Claudius and Polonius, by his madness. It seems to occupy much of Ophelia and Getrude’s mind, with again their emotions being at the mercy of a man’s behaviour towards them, with Hamlet’s madness being the subject of Ophelia’s sole soliloquy and many of Gertrude’s lines. Therefore the female character’s relationships in the play encourage them to be at the mercy of men, especially as their relationships to men would have defined them in an staunchly patriarchal Elizabethan society.

The female character’s in ‘Hamlet’ words are also at the mercy of men, who manipulate and interpret them in different ways. Hamlet never listens to Gertrude’s protestations of her innocence, choosing to interpret everything she does from his preconceived ideas of her behaviour, as when he still believes her to be ‘false’ even when she doesn’t fall for his play trick. The word ‘false’ connotes that he believes her untrustworthy and deceitful, perhaps explaining why he discounts all she says, even though the fact Gertrude doesn’t recognise Hamlet’s vision of herself, calling it a ‘lady’ in a rather objective and confused tone, suggests that she doesn’t conform to his vision of her. That Gertrude notices that the lady is ‘protest[ing]’ perhaps indicates that Hamlet thinks that she uses words to manipulate others and to have them at her mercy, when in fact his whole ‘antic disposition’ seems calculated to cause her pain, and the majority of Gertrude’s lines are taken up with the subject. Hamlet also manipulates Ophelia through words whilst also manipulating her words, making her lines into lude jokes. Hamlet’s reinterpretation of when Ophelia says ‘nothing’ into a sexual joke shows him using her language for his, and the audience’s entertainment, laughing at her and contrasting her innocence with his greater knowledge.  The fact Ophelia has ‘no thing’ could also be a inside joke that she was played by a man, again indicating the lack of female voices on the Elizabethan stage and in society, as women did not act or write plays. Ophelia’s despondent and short answers show that she is at his mercy, being publicly humiliated, though Shakespeare does evoke the audience’s pity for her, creating an aura of quietness and sweetness about her through her conversations with all the male characters who attempt to use her. Hamlet’s rudeness to her is echoed in Polonious’s calling her a ‘green girl’, and Shakespeare could perhaps be criticising the dampening down or dismissal of women’s voices along with their opinions and feelings. Indeed, Ophelia is the only character in the play not allowed a voice about their death, dying offstage and in ambiguous circumstances, with Shakespeare perhaps using the injustices done to her, a pure and innocent girl who didn’t deserve to die, to illustrate the problems of repressing women’s voices.

Also, all the time that Ophelia is alone with Hamlet she is aware of Polonious’s presence just as Gertrude is ordered to ‘be round with’ Hamlet. Hence their behaviour would change and be checked, with their words controlled by an authoritative male figure who ‘looses’ them in order that they might act the part to get information about a man they care about. In some ways this is similar to Vindice’s use of Gratiana in his testing of Castiza in ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’, but whereas Gratiana acts for money Gertrude and Ophelia’s ability to love is manipulated by men, with Ophelia affection for her father and Gertrude’s for her son driving them to act in the way that a man has told them to, with horrible consequences for both. Hence, Shakespeare seems to criticize the control of women’s voices in a patriarchal society, as Ophelia and Gertrude seem to be undeserving of the consequences they face for putting their voices at the mercy of men, and even when they are speaking without being told what to say their words are scrutinised and deliberately misinterpreted, with whatever they say seeming to be at the mercy of a man to use.

The differences between the married and single women in both plays indicate the way in which women’s status and respect were at the mercy of men. Gertrude’s syntax is much more assured and confident than Ophelia’s for example her occasional use of imperatives such as ‘Let not’, as well as the fact that Gertrude’s lines are far longer than Ophelia’s which rarely exceed 1 or 2-line at a time. This may be because Gertrude is represented as less sexually pure than the ‘honest’ Ophelia, as she lies with an ‘incestious beast’ ‘in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed’ which connotes unhealthy and unnatural lust, the the words ‘rank sweat’ also connoting the illness which has inflicted the state of Denmark which may have been caused by the ‘incest’. In this case Gertrude’s sexual immorality means that the Kingdom is at her mercy, and yet without remarrying the new King Gertrude would have lost her position of power as Queen, showing that her fortune is at the mercy of the men with whom she has relationships with, and perhaps it is her ‘fear’ for her son that drives her to do so. Gertrude’s status as married, and particularly married to the King gives her security which Ophelia does not have as an unmarried woman, which could also be why Gertrude is more confident and speaks more freely. Both Castiza and Ophelia are judged on their chastity, and they both seem to pass the test but both the older women in the play seem to have more reproachable sexual morals and are more sinful. This is perhaps because both of the older women’s husbands are dead and without their husbands they have no guide or not enough sex to satisfy them as Elizabethans and Tudors thought that women were more promiscuous and more susceptible to temptation than men. It could also be because in a patriarchal society women’s worth is amountable to their child-rearing activities, so both older women are worth less as they are less fertile, although the younger women do not get married either even though men have made romantic passes at them. Castiza however, is the only one of her siblings to survive whereas Ophelia’s chastity does not save her from an unjust death, or indeed from being embroiled in romantic entanglements. Laertes and Hamlet’s struggle in her ‘grave’ perhaps reflects how the ownership of women passed from her immediate family to her new husband, with Ophelia on the cusp of this, with both fighting to claim ownership of her and her love. Ophelia’s unmarried body is therefore left to the mercy of men to build an illusion or image of, with men controlling her ‘fair unpolluted flesh’ even after her death. In fact it may be because her flesh is ‘unpolluted’ that they want to control her, with Hamlet similarly obsessed over his mother’s sex life, perhaps indicating that women’s importance lies in their sexuality and bodies rather than because of their personalities, with women becoming objects to control rather than people to the male characters in the play. Hence, Shakespeare seems critical of patriarchal attitudes towards women as this desire for control becomes his obsession as he mentally tortures both Ophelia and his mother leading to her madness and breaking apart the relationships between the female characters and the ones they love.

In conclusion, Shakespeare seems to criticize to some extent the way that women were secondary citizens in Elizabethan society, with his contemporary audience recognising the injustices done to the female characters in the play, particularly Ophelia. He presents women at the mercy of men through their speech and relationships, particularly romantic ones, and by showing the abuses against them and creating pity for the women in ‘Hamlet’ Shakespeare appears critical of an overtly patriarchal society despite Elizabeth being queen.

Compare how Satan is presented compared to Medusa

Satan and Medusa are both presented as iconic figures of evil with hidden depths, with both Milton and Duffy exploring their motivations and emotions.

Both authors explore the human side to famously evil characters, allowing their readers to relate to them. Satan, especially to Milton’s contemporary audience, is famous as the epitome of all evil, and yet Milton imbues him with the characteristics of pastoral poetry, as he is able to appreciate the beauty of ‘Earth’ with all its ‘creatures’ and ‘plants’, far more in fact that either Adam or Eve do. Emerging from the hellish city Bedlam from which he was confined in Book 1, Satan calls earth ‘magnificent’, much as Medusa admires the ‘buzzing bee’, ‘singing bird’ and ‘ginger cat’. The word ‘ginger’  perhaps connotes the intense but simple beauty of the world, and much as Satan could ‘walked round’ enjoying Earth’s beauty Medusa wishes to look upon earth’s varied beauties. Medusa however, is almost a subversion of the pastoral, with everything she ‘looks’ at becoming ‘dusty’, and ‘grey’ like a city. The simple wish to enjoy nature is common throughout human kind, but Medusa is perhaps a more sympathetic character than Satan who turns away from this to focus on being evil. However, Milton’s depiction of Satan as a courtly lover also humanizes him, with her ethereal beauty being understanding beguiling, with Milton’s audience, primarily male, understanding the allure of Eve’s ‘heavenly form’ with the ‘veil of fragrance’ and the fact she is ‘half spied’ serving to reinforce the fact she is aloof and unattainable. The structure echoes Satan’s distraction, with the explanation of Satan’s behaviour broken up by four lines of adulation, and that Satan is struck ‘stupidly good’ could perhaps indicate that he is not innately evil but his overthinking has lead him away from the ‘good(ness)’ that God initially created him with. Similarly, Medusa is humanized by her loneliness and desire for a ‘man’ to be her ‘own’, and yet whilst Medusa was once mortal Satan is an ex-angel in a snake’s body, with this perversion of the typical fighting fit and handsome knight as a courtly lover perhaps indicating how unnatural Satan and his evil is, or creating sympathy for Satan who doesn’t seem to be able to ask forgiveness and return to his natural form. Hence, both Medusa and Satan are transformed into sympathetic characters by Milton and Duffy, allowing readers a new insight into pre-concieved truths.

They also both explore their evil character’s motivations, with Milton both Milton and Duffy exploring jealousy and desire. Satan is motivated by the urge to ‘master heaven supreme’  and to have ‘sole glory’, with his lust for power driving him away from goodness, and seeing ‘serving’ God as ‘inglorious’. The act of submissal or ‘servitude’ seems repugnant to Satan and yet he feigns servitude to Eve, ‘fawning’ over her and calling her his ‘mistress’ and ‘empress’ and ‘telling’ what she ‘commandst’. This however, is part of his manipulation, illustrating how Satan is only really self-serving,  and while he uses the plural of ‘gods’ which is perhaps suggestive of democratising heaven’s rule, he still wishes to have ‘glory sole among’st the infernal powers, dethroning one autocrat and putting himself in its place. The word ‘glory’ connotes that Satan will be the one with the ‘throng of adorers’ and that he will sit higher than everyone else, suggesting Satan is motivated by pride but also jealousy of what God has. Duffy suggests that Medusa was similarly motivated by ‘jealousy’, with both their predicaments growing out of their ‘mind(s)’, but not containing their poisonous and sinful thoughts. Medusa though, was traditionally seen as being motivated by ‘Love’, the antithesis to Satan’s anger and hatred, with Satan deliberately dampening any love for beauty within himself in order to focus on ‘envy (and) revenge’. His envy of being infrerior can be seen in his boast that he can ‘marr’ in ‘one day’ what it took God ‘six days and nights’ to create, showing his destructive power, but also that he is unable to create in the way God does, with Milton showing that Satan’s only power is in destructive evil, with this being perhaps where Satan’s envy stems from. Satan is not only jealous of God however, but of God’s ‘new favourite’ who are made in God’s image, and ‘raised’ out of the ‘dust’ to be rulers of Earth. Through this, Milton seems to show that jealousy is at the heart of sin, issuing a warning to his readers about wanting more than you deserve, but Duffy explores how jealousy can arise out of even the purest of emotions which Milton absolutely refutes.

Both writers present their characters as being punished, with their physical form changed as well as people’s attitudes to them. Both Medusa and Satan are hated figures, as Adam and Eve are warned of and fear him whilst Medusa is attacked by young men with ‘shields’ and ‘swords’. Both are also being punished by Gods, with Greek mythology telling how Medusa was punished by Athena for defiling the sacred temple with Poseidon, whilst Satan is thrown from heaven for his rebellion. Hence, both characters are breaking rules set in place by the define who are unquestionable and traditionally seen as ‘just’, and yet at the time the ‘divine right’ of Kings to lay down the law had been refuted by Parliament, refusing to accept Charles I’s taxes and rebelling against him, much like Satan and his angels. This is reconciled by the fact that God as a perfect and omnipotent being would not put in place any unjust laws, with Milton indicating that the fault lies with Satan’s jealousy, though Duffy is less clear who Medusa is ‘jealous’ of, though for both this leads to their bodies becoming ‘snakes’.  The snake has connotations of slipperyness and cunning which seems to suit Satan, and yet being a ‘beast’ is a coming down in status and the opposite to his aspirations to be seated amongst the ‘Gods’, with the snake’s body becoming his prison, and yet he chooses to ‘enter’ it. In ‘Medusa’ Duffy seems to paint Medusa as a victim who suffers unwarranted abuse and whose body bears the brunt of her pain. Medusa’s ‘bullet tears’ emphasizes her loneliness and her eyes power to bring death, but this for her is controllable, whilst Satan chooses to inflict ‘death’ upon Adam and Eve.

Sexuality and consumption in Keats and Dracula

A link is made in both Keats and Dracula between sexuality and consumption, with love and desire often consuming a person or causing them to be consumed.

Both Keats and Dracula explore the vampiric aspect of sexuality and love (albeit Dracula perhaps more explicitly). The way that the pot of Basil sucks Isabella’s life and sanity away in Keats’ poem ‘Isabella’ can also be seen in the way Lucy is drained by Dracula. Both Isabella and Lucy have sexual desires, with Isabella unable to ‘sleep’ and is ‘sick (with) longing’ while Lucy wants to ‘marry three men’. These desires are perhaps what enables them to be preyed upon so easily, with both effectively going out in the night to find a lover; Lucy while she sleepwalks, Isabella to Lorenzo’s grave. This perhaps paints desire as a weakness, and certainly both women become ‘pale’ and lose the ‘roses’ of their cheeks, showing a loss of vitality and life. Love does not only seem to consume their health, but their beauty and their very womanhood, with the ‘rose’ being not only a sign of beauty, but as a flower it is a feminine symbol. This loss is more evident in Dracula where Lucy becomes like a ‘cat’ or a ‘devil’, juxtaposing with the soft and gentle ‘rose’ she once was, and connoting that sexuality had completely absorbed who she used to be and turned her into a inhuman epitome of evil.

Both are presented as experiencing an unnatural and perverted form of motherhood, indicating their lapse from the traditional roles of women and perhaps indicating the dangers of obsessive sexuality. Isabella’s unhealthy and slightly ridiculous obsession with her pot of basil is portrayed as though it has become a surrogate child for her, and she feeds the head of her dead lover her own bodily fluids (her tears) in the darkness of a round pot, perhaps representing the womb, and how she wishes to rekindle and renew the love she once had. The way that she cradles and strokes the pot is also a maternal image, and it ‘flourishes’ while she ‘withers’, once again connoting the vampiric nature of love, and it consumes not just her body but her mind, taking away all her ‘remembrance(s)’ and senses’ as she ‘forget(s)’ the ‘stars’, the ‘autumn breeze’ and everything else beautiful. Likewise Lucy forgets all that she holds sacred and moral when she turns into a powerful sexual vampire, losing the ‘gentleness’ that once had meant she was held in such high esteem by men, and becoming a ‘devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity’. The ‘pure’ and ‘kind Lucy would never feed from a child, and Stoker makes it clear from the newspaper article that Lucy only feeds from ‘young children’. This utter perversion of morality and particularly motherhood illustrates the dangers of sexuality, with Lucy feeding from children instead of feeding them as her maternal instinct would normally prompt her to, consuming what she would normally feed. Perhaps the fact that her blood has been sucked away by Dracula has sucked away her personality and morals, leaving her just a husk of what she once was: incomplete and able to be filled a new with what is other and wrong.

Similarly Isabella has her living human love replaced with an intoxicatingly strong and luscious basil plant that ‘smells more balmy than its peers’, uses her sensual reaction to it to manipulate her and control her, as she tries to regain the strong sensual pleasures she enjoyed with her living love, of his ‘voice’ and his ‘gentle hand’. In both instances, the feelings of love or sexuality these women had are turned into something dangerous and sinister, and profoundly change both women for the worse. Perhaps both Stoker and Keats are warning of the dangers of sexuality and love, particularly when it is given by the wrong people, but Keas focuses more on love as an obsessive and consuming force whereas Stoker focuses on sexuality’s ability to corrupt and consume what once was.

How is sex and sensuality presented in Isabella?

In his poem Isabella Keats presents sex and sensuality as being physical and highly dependent on the senses, whilst also representing it as a consuming and connecting force.

Keats explores the way that physicality is needed to maintain love, and the way that the denial of this affects love. Throughout the poem there are references to Isabella’s then Lorenzo’s physicality, with him enjoying her ‘full shape’ and how he is unable to live without ‘tast(ing her) blossoms’, whilst she becomes much more obsessed with his physicalness once he is dead and she can no longer possess his soul. The way she ‘com’d’ his ‘wild hair’ and ‘Pointed each fringed lash’ gives her an obsessive and yet motherly quality, as combing can be seen as a bonding activity between a parent and their child, and Keat’s emphasis on the word ‘each’ makes her sound meticulous and as though she has become absorbed in menialities. This could perhaps relate to gender stereotypes as men are often seen as more lustful and women as more faithful, and yet both suffer when they are apart. This could suggest both are in constant need of each other’s presence, or that the desire for each other physically makes them ‘sick with longing’, with the word ‘sick’ connoting both a hunger and need for each other, and that their emotions are strong, intensified through absence which drives Lorenzo to ‘watch’ as ‘constant as her vespers’. The word ‘vespers’ could signify his religious devotion, and perhaps contains hints that he needs her as much as humans need Jesus’ body through during communion, painting her as saving him and bringing light into his life. Alternatively however, Keats also portrays love and sex as being physically detrimental to the body, or at least the absence of it ‘makes their cheeks paler’, perhaps connoting the denial of sensual pleasure takes the life from their cheeks, suggesting the idea that physical closeness is the basis of love and sexual desire, both through its absence and its fulfilment, with references to the soul focused mainly when Lorenzo’s soul is absent from his physical body. Perhaps Keats is suggesting that while souls are important for long term affection, the body is the driving force behind physical attraction and desire.

However, the poem is also full of sensuality, with Keats exploring the connection between it and the senses and proximity. There is a music lexis running through the poem, with Isabella’s seeming to give out music with her ‘laugh full musical’, and ‘lute-string giving out an echo of his name’, whilst wishing that Lorenzo’s lips would ‘breathe... love’s tune’. This reliance of sound emphasizes the barriers between them, and their inability to be together physically which heightens the importance of their senses. That Lorenzo knows ‘whose gentle hand was at the latch’ before he’s seen Isabella shows the way that the denial of physical pleasures has deepened the connection between them, and how not being able to see her ‘hand’ at the ‘latch’ makes his expectations and longing much stronger than if they were together all the time. The word ‘hand’ highlights the way that imagination and yearning have taken a more prominent role in their relationship, so much so that Lorenzo has to speak out even when Isabella is ill, to tell her of his intense cravings to touch her. The way he describes their being together through natural metaphors such as a ‘ripe warmth’ as opposed to the manmade ‘in-door lattice’ could perhaps suggest that their love is natural and pure, and is organic instead of restrictive as the ‘lattice’ is. It also connects to Song of Songs, comparing their love to that of Solomon, elevating it to a higher plane, however the use of the words ‘ripe’, ‘lusty’ and ‘blossoms’ make their relationship sound much more sexually orientated, perhaps connoting that delayed gratification makes it all the stronger. Isabella and Lorenzo’s relationship involves all the five senses at first, but this changes after his death as she appears to lose her senses, as she ‘forgets’ everything sensual about the natural world that Lorenzo used to compare her too, letting go of the feeling of a ‘breeze’, hearing the ‘waters run’ and seeing the ‘stars, the moon and sun’. Instead, one sense grows stronger: her sense of smell. That this is the only sense not particularly involved in the early stage of their relationship indicates the way it has changed, with the loss of him giving her no use for her senses. The fact that basil smells so strongly however, with Keats remarking ‘it smelt more balmy than its peers’, is perhaps not only to mask Lorenzo’s decaying head, but also is intoxicating, and its strength could be overpowering her other senses and leaving her fixated upon itself, keeping her from the world around it. The smell’s strength could even remind her of the extreme sensuality she felt with Lorenzo, or it could have such power because the basil has grown out of him and consequently might have the same intoxicating effect. Either way Keats, highlights the links between the senses and emotions, and the way that sensuality can be a wondrous, loving thing or a poisonous, trapping one.

The way that sensuality and sex and be a connecting and a consuming force is also traced through the poem, with Keats exploring the implications of sexual desire and love. At the beginning of the poem, Lorenzo and Isabella’s love is shown to be both connecting as they are ‘twin roses’, and consuming, as the lovers become ‘pale’ and ‘nightly weep’. The fact that they cannot ‘sleep’ is indicative of suffering for love, and the denial of each other’s presence as making them ‘sick’ as they are so connected they need to be together all the time. However, this could also be seen as a consuming force, as their senses and emotion become so concentrated in one another the rest of the world seems unimportant. Furthermore, Keats could be suggesting this all-consuming love is the most devastating of all, because when the ‘twin roses’ become separated by death, Isabella ‘withers’, sacrificing both her mind and eventually her life to her devastating loss. So consumed is she that she kisses Lorenzo’s decaying and mouldy head, losing all sense of reason and hope and becoming utterly absorbed in maintaining his memory. This is another example of how love and desire consume, with Isabella growing ‘thin’ whilst the basil growing out of Lorenzo grows ‘thick’, with it feeding of her in a vampiric way, sucking any life or hope of moving on from her. The way that she wraps herself around her circular ‘garden pot’, feeding it with her won bodily fluids (her tears), is much as a mother feeds her growing child from her own body, with the pot perhaps symbolising the womb. This is a profoundly disturbing image, particularly as ‘basil’ is such a trivial thing that it is not worth giving up your lifeblood for, and her utter absorption in it, not noticing ‘day’ or the ‘new morn’ illustrates how love and desire can become warped and utterly consuming, and perhaps Keats is warning of the dangers of such as profound and complete investment.

In conclusion Keat explores the way the sensuality is driven by physicality and proximity, but also how it can be a dangerous force in the way that it can consume people.

How are women represented in the first 100 pages of Dracula?

Bram Stoker explores Victorian values and fears through his representation of women in Dracula, showing both harlots and housewives to warn of the potential dangers that women could pose if they forget their rightful place in society.

The first woman who is allowed to speak in the novel is ‘a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress’, who is maternal and kind. Similarly Mina is presented as motherly and caring, the epitome of the ‘angle in the house’ through her care for Lucy and the old fisherman, and both Mina and the Old Woman ask many questions of those they want to care for, with the ‘old lady’ asking Johnathan if he ‘know(s) what day it is’ and Mina asking Mr Swales whether all the ‘tombstones can be wrong’. Both women show interest in men who are vulnerable, with Jonathan about to go to Dracula’s castle and Mr Swales being a hundred year old fisherman who dies a few pages later, fulfilling their traditional roles of caring for and showing interest in the menfolk around them. The ways in which the two women do so is very different, with the old Lady ignoring Jonathan’s wishes and giving him a crucifix for his ‘mother’s sake’ connoting an universal instinct to protect in women, while Mina asks questions of Mr Swales, making him feel valued. This maternal instinct stands in stark contrast with Dracula’s three brides, who despite being his brides have no children, and Stoker presents them as being the incarnation of all evil. Stoker uses the sound of a ‘half-smothered child’ to ignite righteous anger and horror within his readership, with the word ‘child’ connoting all that is innocent and pure whilst also emphasizing the unnaturalness of the brides as they are anti-maternal and inhuman. The difference between the care and love shown by the human, motherly characters and the uncaring beastial vampire characters perhaps indicates that Stoker feels that if women are not conforming to their traditional roles of care-givers  they are not human, and the rejection of their maternal instinct is the worst crime they could possibly commit, and the role of mother and child bearer is a god given one – anything else is a perversion of nature.

Stoker goes on to further represent women who deviate from Victorian ideas of sexuality as terrifying and inhuman. This is represented primarily through Dracula’s vampire brides, whose constant ‘hard soulless laughter’ as they are about to suck Jonathan’s blood and as they are pulled back by Dracula mark them out as unwomanly, with the word ‘hard’ highlighting their complete oppositeness to Mina and Lucy’s softness, and their ‘laughter’ could perhaps connote a link between violence and love, or a fetish, both of which would be appalling ideas to the Victorians. The fact they have power over Jonathan initially would also have been frightening, and the ‘hard sharp dents of two sharp teeth’ are not only scary because he is about to be bitten, but also because they could be an image of penetration. The reversal of females penetrating males sets them up as powerful sexual women, and the fact that Jonathan is ‘waiting’ makes him the passive one where it would normally be the female. This could perhaps relate to Freud’s theory of castration anxiety as the male is not penetrating the female, and this could suggest female dominance, and a reversal of what the Victorians saw as the natural order. The fact that there are three brides also emphasizes their dominance as they gang up on Jonathan, however he is completely passive and doesn’t try to fight them off, with the fact that he is in a ‘languorous ecstasy’ perhaps suggesting that he welcomes this, or could hark back to the biblical story of original sin, with the female corrupting the innocent male. Furthermore, the fact that Dracula ‘grasps’ and ‘draws’ one of the brides neck back could indicate the need for punishment of these sexual women, and that a male figure must intervene and put them back in their place, using violence if he has to. Stoker leaves no room for sympathy with the brides despite the fact they are obviously not loved by Dracula, because they feed on a child they are presented as cruel, animalistic and the antithesis of all that is good, suggesting that if women are allowed to be powerful, especially sexually, the consequences will be catastrophic.

Stoker’s representation of women with sexual desires as whores would be very familiar to his Victorian audience, and he foreshadows both Lucy’s and Mina’s experiences with Dracula through their interactions with males, with Lucy wishing that she could ‘marry three men’ and Mina ‘open(ing) her arms unthinkingly’ to Arthur Holmwood. That Lucy wishes she could marry three men makes  her a polygamist foreshadows later on in the book where she receives the blood of four different men, three of whom are not her fiancé, and the fact that she never marries Arthur is perhaps why Stoker allows her to be fully turned into a vampire, while married Mina is saved and doesn’t receive any blood transfusions which Arthur says feel like marriage. Perhaps this is also why Mina is forced to drink Dracula’s blood, and it could be argued that Dracula is fulfilling Lucy’s repressed desires that she has already expressed. That Lucy wants ‘three husbands’ could also reflect Dracula’s ‘three brides’, suggesting that perhaps Lucy was ripe for corruption, and the fact that she is so ‘sweet’ and ‘pretty’ could perhaps make it even more terrifying that she has such suppressed desires underneath. Also if blood transfusions are a metaphor for sex as above, then Lucy effectively is a whore as she shares the blood of four men and has her blood sucked by Dracula, in which case she deserves punishment and perhaps this is why she dies. The fact that women’s sexual desires should be suppressed is also shown through the pure monstrosity of the three brides, as their freedom has made them ‘cruel’ and ‘soulless’, with Bram Stoker issuing a clear warning that women should continue to suppress any impure desires.

Through Stoker’s contrast of whores and motherly figures, he illustrates Victorian fears of female sexuality, depicting the sexually free brides as terrifying and monstrous, whilst Mina and the Old Lady are presented sympathetically. Lucy is perhaps the bridge between the two categories, for whilst she is ‘sweet’ she also has suppressed desires of polygamy, so perhaps Stoker’s representation of Lucy is a warning to maintain the status quo, and the male dominance over women is necessary to preserve social order and Victorian morality.

Essay: Isolation in Eliot and Yeats

Compare how Eliot and Yeats present Isolation in Animula and any other poem...

Isolation is a prominent them of both Eliot and Yeat's poetry, as Eliot explores the effects of it on individuals and how it corrodes society as a whole, whereas Yeats focuses more on the way an individual produces it's own isolation.

A recurrent theme in Eliot's work is the isolation of separation of people from spirituality, and how isolated one feels without an ideology to sustain you. In Animula, Eliot explores how humans erect barriers, or grow more distance from ideas of spirituality and god,as the little souls corrodes from when it was 'issue[d] from the hand of God' until 'after the viaticum'. Both 'God' and 'fairies' could represent the spirituality or the beliefs the little souls starts off with, and the capitalization of 'God' suggests that he is real and present in the little soul's life until he gets pushed out. This distancing from early beliefs is shown through the change in tone from light and happy to despairing and dark, and the change from an imperative heavy first half - 'advancing', 'running', rising - to a adjective filled second half - 'dusty', 'irresolute and selfish'. This represents the freedom and happiness of early life compared to a frightening and sad later life, where the words of the poems itself, full of plosives and sibilance, seem to oppress the little soul, hounding it and isolating it from the comforting things it once knew.

Just as Eliot presents people as isolated from God, they are isolated from other people, and likewise in Yeats he presents people as unable to truly know one another. Both 'The Mask' and 'The love song of J Alfred Prufrock' explore the inablity of people to understand one another, and find out what they are feeling or thinking. For Prufrock, his inability to understand the woman he loves is his purgatory, as he constantly frets 'Do I dare? and Do I dare?', with the repititon representing the frenzy of his thoughts and reiterating his isolation from her thoughts and feelings. Prufrock craves companionship yet does not fell he is capable of or deserves it, saying that he does 'not think [the mermaids] will sing to [him]'. The word 'mermaids' is reminiscent of sirens that used to lure men to their deaths, and perhaps Prufrock feels as though he would not worth their wooing,and this self hatred leaves his helpless and indecisive. His 'bald spot' and 'thin' 'arms and legs' are as much of a mask to his inner self as the 'mask of burning gold' is in 'The Mask'. However Yeats, unlike Eliot, seems to suggest that a 'mask' is able to provoke lust, as the word 'burning' connotes lust and passion' and 'gold' makes it seem precious, and worth keeping on. Both poets agree on the outer self being  brarrier to the inner self and true love however, as the questioner in 'The Mask' grows more dismayed as they are unable to discover whether 'love or deceit' lies behind the mask, just as Prufrock is isolated from his love's true feelings.

Eliot presents individuals isolation as a result of an oppressive society, as both the little soul in Animula and Prufrock are held back by society's expectations. The little soul becomes increasingly baffled by 'the imperatives of 'is and seems' which Eliot uses to connect societal rules to oppression. The way the little soul 'curl[s] up'likens it to a small child or animal, frightened of the world around it and turning in on itself. the fact that there are no other characters in the poem could serve to emphasise the little soul's isolation or alternatively to create a feeling of everyone else being united in their oppression of it. Similarly in Prufrock, he feels trapped by polite society's never ending rules, and has grown tired of 'the eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase', trying to manipulate and keep him in line. his fear of what 'they will say' keeps him in isolation, unable to express his feelings, with the anonymous 'they' keeping him in fear, in the end he has to take his love away from polite society into 'half deserted streets' in order to try to confess his love. In both these poems Eliot seems to express the loneliness that comes from following society's rules, and how it drives people into themselves and separates them from others.

Both Eliot and Yeats portray isolation as springing from a yearning for the past. For both the little soul and Marie in 'The burial of the dead' it is the past that holds the key to their happiness, and Eliot uses nature and water imagery from Marie's past like the 'Starnbergersee', 'rain' and 'sunlight' to present her past as fertile and full of life. In fact, Marie's memories are one of the few images of fertility in 'The wasteland', reflecting the happiness she felt at that time, just as the little soul's early years are full of the light of 'sunlit pattern[s]', the 'brilliance of the christmas tree'. These images of beauty juxtapose with their present experiences, with the little soul 'fearing the warm reality' and  Marie 'read[ing] much of the night and go[ing] south in the winter'. In Yeat's 'The Lake Isle Of Innisfree' a similar feeling of being isolated from reality is explored, as the fantasy island of Innisfree seems too beautiful to be true, with Yeats sharing Eliot's technique of using nature (such as the 'purple glow' and 'beeloud glade') to insinuate joy and peace. The fact the narrator can 'hear lake water lapping' 'night and day' could connote that it is an imaginary place he has created in his mind, or that he lives in his memories of it and they absorb him. either way, Yeats seem to portray a happy past as a source of isolation in the future, as the narrator, just like Marie, seems to prefer the past to engaging with the present.

In conclusion Eliot and Yeats both explore isolation from others and the present and it's detrimental effects upon the individual, with Eliot suggesting that the original source of isolation is a lack of relationship with God.

Society of Fragments in Eliot and Yeats

“Eliot presents us with a society of fragments” In light of this Statement, compare the ways Eliot and Yeats present broken or fragmented worlds. In your response you must include detailed reference to The Wasteland or at least two of Eliot’s shorter poems.

Introduction:

Eliot’s poetry is often very fragmentary, and in none more so than ‘The Wasteland’, in which the reader has to piece together seemingly random things to discover that even the answers are fragmented, as Eliot presents a world breaking apart from lack of spirituality. Yeats however, focuses more on how a single human’s world can be broken apart by love.

Nature as Broken

‘The Wasteland’ is full with brokenness and emptiness, with Eliot presenting nature as dead and lifeless to reflect society’s sterility. The title of ‘The Wasteland’ immediately introduces the reader to the idea of a broken and dying world, with the first four lines of ‘The Burial of the dead’ filled with words connoting decay like ‘dull’, ‘dead’ and ‘cruellest’. Eliot juxtaposes these words with growth imagery like ‘roots’ and ‘rain’, creating a stark contrast between life and the present deadness. In these lines it seems to be a universal voice speaking, protecting against ‘April... breeding lilacs out of the dead land’, representing the extent to which society is broken, as it does not want the new life that ‘April’ brings. The hanging participles Eliot uses extends this, with lines ending with words like ‘stirring’, suggesting that even the poem’s structure is protesting against movement and change. Both in the ‘Burial of the Dead’ and ‘What the Thunder Said’ Yeats constantly repeats and varies the refrain ‘ no water’ and ‘rock’, almost like a mantra, connoting the sterility of the environment and how it has become entrenched in its way, unable to envisage the healing that ‘water’, or spirituality, would bring. It could also suggest that it was the world’s choice to become broken, as it became ever increasingly fixated on life without spirituality, and without true natural life. Either way Eliot’s portrayal of nature seems indicative of a world content in its brokenness.

Sybilline Nature of Poem

The sibylline nature of the poem is utilised by Eliot to challenge the reader about the part they play in society’s brokenness. Sybil’s speech in the epigraph of ‘The Wasteland’ illustrates just how broken society is, as Sybil ‘want[s] to die’ as it is the only escape from the horrific nature of the world. The fact that Sybil is unable to die reflects the way that society is trapped in its sterile way, and could also represent the inability of the Knights of Camelot to ask the right questions to restore the Wasteland in the legend of King Arthur, which Eliot drew upon when writing ‘The Wasteland’. The sybilline structure of the poem could reflect the way that the knights had to gather up fragments in order to ask the right question, just as the reader must do to glean any meaning from the poem. The scatteredness and disjointedness of ‘The Burial of the Dead’, jumping from the ‘Hyacinth girl’ to ‘Madam Sosostris’ could reflect the way that society is broken, or perhaps the gaps between people, as the two different voices do not run smoothly into one another, but switch from melancholy to brusque. In true sybilline form, it is women like the ‘Hyacinth girl’ and ‘Madam Sosostris’ who illustrate the fragmentary reality of the world, and perhaps Sybil throws up these fragments to show the extent to which brokenness prevails in society, affecting both these radically different women. The ‘Hyacinth Girl’ in particular is made to sound as much of a victim as Sybil, through Eliot’s name for her, which connotes her lost innocence and purity, another victim of the decline of society, and yet not even Madame Sosotris, ‘famous clairvoyant’ can shed any light on this, or indeed notice it. Eliot may be trying to show the extent to which society is broken, and the lack of answers in the poem could reflect the lack of them in the world.

Lust as Destructive:

This sibylline nature also links to the destructive force that is lust in ‘The Wasteland’, as Sibyl is in her predicament thanks to lust, just as in the ‘Second Coming’ the world’s lost innocence is the reason for its decline.  Yeats points to the fact of ‘the ceremony of innocence is drowned’ as consequence of a fragmented world, and the word ‘drowned’ connotes death, suggesting that there is no way of getting the world back to the way it was. The title of the poem suggests that his is a result of spiritual intervention, or rather lack of. The fact that Yeats remarks ‘The centre cannot hold’ perhaps connotes the myth of Christianity and religon breaking under strain, or perhaps that a loss of spirituality has lead to ‘mere anarchy’, and society can’t ‘hold’ back its steady breaking apart. Eliot also explores the way the growth of sin has lead to a decline in spirituality, and therefore society in ‘The Fire Sermon’. The ‘typist’ and the ‘carbuncular’ man’s relationship seems to act as a metonym for society’s succumbing to lust, and the way he semi-rapes her could be intended to reflect the way that purity has been driven out, or the breaking up of morals. Eliot paints a disgusting picture of the man as ‘bold’ and full of ‘vanity’, perhaps connoting the way that society, instead of looking for a greater power or even meaning in life, has become consumed in itself and its best interests, foregoing morals for the temporary pleasures of the flesh. Both Poets reflect on society’s transition from ‘innocence’ to a broken wreck of itself, lacking in principles and spirituality.

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe that both Eliot and Yeats reflect on the broken nature of a fragmented society, both exploring what a world without faith is like. Eliot however, digs deeper, questioning the reader in their own role in society’s fragmentation, and pointing to the brokenness of nature to illustrate what he sees as society’s decline.

Essay: Uncertainty and Doubt in Eliot and Yeat's poetry

What Connections Have You Found Between The Ways that Eliot and Yeats Write about Uncertainty or Doubt? In You Response you must include detailed critical discussion of at least two of Eliot’s poems.

Doubt is a common theme in many of Eliot’s poems especially in conjunction to love. Likewise in Yeats his poems are filled with doubts of truth whether of emotion, personality or decisions.

Unconscious Doubt

In both ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ Eliot explores the way that the inner mind or subconscious casts doubt over a person’s decisions. Prufrock is constantly changing his mind about whether to profess his love or not, and is held back by his mind supplying him with constant doubts like ‘how his arms and legs are thin’, and ‘how his hair is growing thin’. The repitition of the word ‘thin’ could perhaps symbolise the way that he feels he is not enough for her, or that he feels himself ‘thinning’ as he ages and becoming less of a man or less brave. Also both of his worries are about his physical appearance, not about whether she could love him for himself, illustrating how the mind is holding him back from taking a leap of faith. Likewise in ‘Journey of The Magi’ Eliot portrays their supposedly spiritual and mystical journey as it most likely was; doubt riddled and anxious, as the Magi have ‘voices singing in their ears’. This could represent others who are unable to trust to hope vocalising their doubt or that the Magi’s minds were in a state of confusion and indecision, despite the great spiritual rewards they hoped they would gain. In both of these poems, Eliot locates the source of doubt as within a person, and the way that indecision and doubt can create a state of paralysis, with Prufrock unable to make up his mind and tell the truth to the women he loves, crippling him emotionally. The Magi however, complete their journey, but are changed forever, with Eliot creating a numb and lost voice for them. In this way, Eliot does not make it obvious what to do with internal doubt; whether to hide of fight against it, but he shows it as a hindrance and a barrier against an individual’s freedom of decisions.

Barrier to Another Person

Both Eliot and Yeats respectively explore the way that you can never be certain what a person is thinking and feeling in their poems ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘The Mask’. Interestingly, both poets link the theme of concealment and doubt of a person’s true nature with love. In ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ he is constantly putting off his moment of declaration out of fear of what her response will be, living in fear of her saying ‘That is not what I meant at all’. The ‘at all’ connotes the finality of the statement, and part of his reluctance to act rises from the uncertainty over what her reply will be, as either way it will change their relationship forever. The fact that Prufrock asks of himself ‘how should I presume’ could represent his feelings of unworthiness, or perhaps that he doubts whether he could win her affections or even that he would be able to tell the things in his heart to a younger and more attractive woman. This all indicates his complete uncertainty as to her feelings, and her concealment of her feelings had lead Prufrock into a state of agony, with his mind in turmoil, turning  over the same situation without any indication on her part of how he should act. Similarly in ‘The Mask’ one of the characters is trying to dissuade the other from altering the status quo of their relationship, saying ‘you make so bold/to find if hearts be... cold’. Just like in Prufrock, Yeats’s character is suggesting that it is impudence to try to explore a more romantic side to a relationship, with the word ‘bold’ echoing ‘presume’ in Prufrock. Perhaps both Yeats and Eliot are trying to suggest that relationships filled with doubt and miscommunication are doomed to bring pain, and it is only when these doubts are removed that a relationship can blossom.

Ridicule

Eliot explores the way in which ridicule exacerbates self doubt, as in both ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Love Song of j. Alfred Prufrock’ the main characters experience mockery from various sources. In ‘Journey of the Magi’ the contrast between the luxury and splendour of their ‘summer palaces’ and the ’villages dirty’ make even the reader doubt their quest, with Eliot using heightened poetic word order to emphasize this contrast. All the people they encounter on their journey are ‘hostile’ or ‘unfriendly’, ‘singing in their ears’ of the Magi’s foolishness as they pass. The fact that other people are ‘hostile’ to the Magi sticks with hem, and they remember that everyone thought what they were doing ‘was all folly’. That the Magi can remember so clearly what was said to them as they reminisce over their journey conveys a sense of self-conciousness and that they themselves were inclined to believe the nay-sayers. Prufrock however, is both worried by his own self-dislike and other people’s opinions of him. He repeatedly frets over what ‘they will say’, perhaps worried of their criticism dissuading his love’s opinion or that ‘they’ will not think him good enough. In both of the poems then, other’s ridicule and poor opinion increases doubt, and perhaps Eliot is trying to convey the need to be independent of others people’s opinions to make decisions, yet also contrasting this with the practical impossibility of doing so.

The Inner Self

Eliot and Yeats both explore dangers of peeling back uncertainty as there is yet more uncertainty to what you may find within. In both ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘The Mask’ someone is trying to delve underneath the polite veneer of the outer self that is presented to society in order to discover the beauty and truth concealed underneath. In ‘The Mask’ one character wants to look underneath the mask, but the other is adamantly against it, as it would seem to mark the change in their relationship to love from ‘fire’ which connotes passion and lust. This is similar to Prufrock who wants to lead his love ‘to an overwhelming question’ that would transform their relationship from friendship to love. Both of the poems seem to represent the current state of the relationships within them by using physical descriptions, as ‘The Mask’ is ‘burning gold with emerald eyes’ and Prufrock’s love has ‘arms that are braceleted and white and bare’. In both the reader is allowed to see the attraction of the outer self, with Yeat’s sounding like a goddess and Eliot’s sounding like an elegant and refined angelic figure. Furthermore, the characters in both the poems are also obviously infatuated, with the repetition of the word ‘and’ making Prufrock sound like he’s gushing. The poets seem to suggest that love drives or makes someone dissatisfied with only knowing the outer self, or at least desirous to know whether the feelings are reciprocated. Prufrock’s thought of ‘To wonder: Do I dare’ seem to echo in ‘The Mask’ where ‘I must enquire’ ‘lest you are my enemy’. This representation of the pursuit of truth seems to be restrained in some way, as both seem to be held back by politeness, with the word ‘enquire’ lending the quest a feeling of reason. Neither, however, comes to any fruition, as neither receives an answer or is able to go beneath the outer self and discover what is there. Perhaps this is to indicate that doubt can never truly be erased, and never completely gotten over, and that all emotion is bound to uncertainty as long as other people remain a mystery to us.

In conclusion, I think that both Eliot and Yeats explore the restriction doubt places upon the individual, and Eliot takes it further, showing how we imprison ourselves through our uncertainty.

Essay: How do Eliot and Yeats present spirituality?

How do Eliot and Yeats present spirituality?

Introduction:

Spirituality is a reoccurring theme of both Eliot and Yeats, with Eliot exploring it in many of his poems especially ‘Journey of the Magi’ and ‘The Wasteland’ and Yeats in ‘The Second Coming’, both looking into spiritual dryness and the futility of religion.

Religious Expectations

In both the ‘journey of the Magi’ and ‘Second Coming’ the poets both explore the way that religion builds up expectations but never fulfils them. Eliot takes on the voice of the Magi and recalls their journey to Jesus’ birth which they only found ‘satisfactory’. This contrasts with the normal representation of Jesus’ birth as a miraculous event, and undermines in effect the entire religion. The word ‘satisfactory’ matches the neutral tone adopted throughout, and the Magi don’t seem particularly enthused by their experience, describing it as a ‘hard and bitter agony’. Instead of being the amazing divine revelation everyone thinks it was Eliot makes it sound painful and tortuous, perhaps because while Jesus was born the Magi were fully aware that he would die. This futility and lack of the joy and emotion associated with spirituality is also explored in ‘The Second Coming’, where Yeats asks ‘Surely some revelation is at hand’. The word ‘surely’ suggests desperation for some sort of spiritual experience, and is also suggestive of someone trying to reassure themselves that something will happen.  This lack of hope and spirituality is reflected in the way Yeats thinks that ‘the best lack all conviction’ suggesting that even the people who should know about these things like the ‘Magi’ have grown disbelieving or despondent, with the lack of spiritual rewards driving people away. Both poets might be saying that after the desperation for a spiritual revelation fades people are left spiritless empty and bereft.

Spiritual Doubt

Both poets also explore spiritual doubt, with Eliot portraying the Magi as uncertain and worried about their journey. The Magi say that while on their journey ‘there were times (they) regretted’ and heard ‘voices sing in (their) ears, saying / that this was all folly’. This is not only an experience common to many people seeking spiritual enlightenment it also reflects the fact that historically, the Magi were uncertain of what they would find in Bethlehem, only having the prophecies of Judaism (a religion unknown and unfollowed by them) to go on. Spiritual doubt is a universal theme, and the ‘voices’ that ‘sing’ to them could be their minds warning them that this is folly. It could also represent the disbelieving and negligent Israelites or even the devil trying to dissuade them from following the star and finding the baby Jesus. Likewise in the ‘Second Coming’ Yeats remarks that the ‘ceremony of innocence is drowned’ perhaps connotes that people have been disillusioned or that their doubts have got the better of hem, or that their doubts were proved to be right. Either way Yeats does not convey much hope, stating it as a fact, and creates a sense of the lost hope and disbelief of the post WW1 world. Yeats does not give any room for disagreement whereas Eliot leaves it much more open, letting the reader decide whether Jesus’ birth was really a miracle or not. This could perhaps suggest that the pursuit of spirituality requires resilience and intellectual questioning and strength, and Eliot could be suggesting in a modern world we have no patience to work hard for a true spiritual experience, or perhaps that it is right to have doubts but you must push through them to find the reward or in the Magi’s case the lack of one.

Sacrifices for Spirituality

Eliot explores the sacrifices that have to be made in the search for spirituality. In ‘Journey of the Magi’ Eliot uses the present participle when the Magi are recalling their arduous ‘journey’, (which is repeated to show how hard it was), to make the Magi sound tired, and their constant listing of things that happened illustrates how exasperated they became.  ‘And’ is also repeated at the beginning of the four lines of listing, reflecting the way the journey grew harder as well as making their journey seem like it was constantly full of problems. Their journey from hell is contrasted to the comfort of their ‘summer palaces’ and ‘terraces’ for  ‘villages dirty’, with Eliot using inversed word order to place emphasis on the negative word ‘dirty’ in order that the reader take that away as their prominent impression of the journey. In line 9 their old life is shown to be one of supreme luxury, with ‘silken girls bringing sherbet’, and the sibilance reflecting the smoothness of their home. The word ‘bringing’ implies that the servants where submissive and respectful, quite the opposite of the ‘camel men’ they take with them who instead spend their time ‘grumbling and cursing’. This juxtaposition of their luxurious lifestyle to the discomfort of their journey emphasizes the amount that the Magi gave up to seek the spiritual experience they hoped for, indicating how important it was to them and how much they were willing to give up for it. It could also be suggestive of the way in which Christians have to give up their lifestyle of excesses and sins to live a simpler life. Either way, Eliot could be saying that no spirituality can be found without seeking far and wide and ploughing through adversity.

Change

Eliot also explores the way that spiritual experiences change you, with the Magi returning from the journey different people. When the Magi ‘returned to their places’ they found that they were ‘no longer at ease’ there, perhaps suggesting that their spiritual experience has changed them, and they are no longer who they were when they set out. The word ‘ease’ also suggests that now they feel apart from those around them, who they now see as an ‘alien people’. Eliot seems to be indicating that they are now foreigners in their homeland, and that the spiritual experience has marked them out as different from their compatriots, or alternatively that the people who didn’t go with them that do not fit in to this new world which has just dawned. In fact, Eliot even says the Magi would ‘be glad of another death’ which could refer to themselves.  This may indicate that spiritual experiences leave you so hungry for more and normal life seeming so futile that the only option after that is death, or that they were so depressed by their new knowledge and isolation that they wanted to die, or even that they want to join God in heaven. That they consider their countrymen’s gods to be ‘their’s’ not their own connotes that the Magi had undergone a significant spiritual change, and they not no longer have their pagan beliefs. With this Eliot could be saying that a true spiritual experience leaves you completely changed, whether for better or worse.

Conclusion

In both ‘The Second Coming’ and ‘Journey of the Magi’ spirituality is presented as quite destructive and not as rewarding as expected, however life-changing it is.