“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer and “The Flea” by John Donne Essay Example for Free

â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† by Geoffrey Chaucer and â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne Essay In this paper I will compare the approach to marriage in the works â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† by Geoffrey Chaucer and â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne; in both cases it is a means to an end: in the first the old woman wants to get â€Å"the thing that most of all Women desire† and in the second the lover seeks â€Å"How little which his lover (thou) deniest him (me)† and uses an allusion to marriage to achieve this. In â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† the old woman seems to ask the knight a naà ¯ve request; there is no hint that what she will ask of him is to marry her: â€Å"Swear me true that whatsoever I ask of you, you’ll do it if it lies whithin you might†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . After the knight returns to the queen, and the answer the old woman gave the knight is the one the queen looked for, the old woman’s intent becomes clear: â€Å"Before the court I ask you, then, sir knight, To take me, as you wife.† The knight in shock tries to refuse, but as he has sworn â€Å"upon his (my) honor† he has no way out of the deal he closed; therefore, they get married. As married couples are due in the night of the wedding, the couple goes to bed to consummate the marriage. Here is when we learn what the old woman’s plan was. As they lay in bed they old woman is waiting for the knight to act as a newlywed husband, but she then realizes that the knight’s intentions were not the ones she hoped for: â€Å"You are so loathsome and so old as well†¦ †¦It is no wonder that I toss and turn.† The wife tells her husband that he has two choices, and he is welcome to choose what he best prefers, for she will do as he bids and never complain. The knight thinks carefully, and weighs his options, and then realizes that this choice should not be his: â€Å"My love and lady, my dear wife. In your wise government I put my life†¦ †¦I am content, whatever pleases you.† Now the old woman’s motive is clear, and she got â€Å"the thing that most of all Women desire† â€Å"to have sovereignty†¦ †¦above their husbands, and to have their way in love†; the choice is hers to do as she pleases, and what she wants is to please him, so she gives her husband everything he could have wanted. The decision she makes can be confusing since she denies herself the power she wanted after getting the choice, but the main point is that even so she was able to choose. In â€Å"The Flea† the man is not looking for marriage, he seeks only to consummate it. The allusion to marriage is used to undermine the importance of the act that comes after the wedding: the bedding. The poem starts with the comparison between both lovers being bitten by a flea, and the lover thinks that the act of being bitten by a flea is less than the consumption of marriage: â€Å"Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do.† The fact that they were bitten by the same flea means that they are as good as married. The lover tries to convince his mistress that what he wants is not sinful as she thinks since they are already married by the bite of the flea, so they may as well do what married couples do: â€Å"The flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed and marriage temple is.† The woman is not convinced by his words, and tries to kill the flea, but her lover tries to convince her that this flea is them, and their love and marriage, and if she kills the flea, not only the flea will die: â€Å"†Three sins in killing three.† After the flea is killed by his lover, he finds a way to turn around the situation for his benefit, and tells her that the fact that flea is dead only shows that nothing is as important as it seems; therefore, why should not them lay together? She will lose as much as the flea lost which apparently she thinks it is not a lot: â€Å"’Tis true; then learn how false fears be: Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me, will waste†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In this works the use of marriage although used for alternate purposes is given different meaning. In â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale†, the old woman wants â€Å"the thing that most of all Women desire†, and is willing to do anything to get it; in â€Å"The Flea† the lover wants to lay with his mistress, and will say anything to convince her, even that they are â€Å"married† after being bitten by a flea. The use of the marriage in both stories is done differently since the old woman lures the knight into marrying her, so that she can get what she want, and the lover tries to convince his mistress they are already married in a sense, so that he will able to bed her. One may well say nevertheless that in both cases marriage is a means of leverage, a tool to be best used as the authors see fit, in order to allow their characters achieve their aims; whatever those aims might be. In these sense marriage gets a similar treatment in both stories.

Julius Caesar Tragic Hero (Brutus) :: Julius Caesar Essays

Tragic Hero Essay In the play the Life and Death of Julius Caesar (just as in all of Shakespeare’s tragedies) there is much death, much tragedy, and of course, a tragic hero. However unlike most of Shakespeare’s plays this time the tragic hero is not particularly obvious. Throughout the play a few main characters present themselves as possibilities for being the tragic hero. But as being a tragic hero is not only having a tragic flaw but also entails much more, there really is only one person to fit the mold. The character Brutus is born into power and is higher/better then we are. He has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall and at the end he realizes his mistake (a trait none of the other characters can really claim). Throughout most of the play Brutus is constantly internally conflicted. Does he do what he believes is best for Rome or stay loyal to his friend and leader? Should he assist in the murder of one person to benefit many? Although killing Caesar was in the end a bad choice, Brutus always tries to do what is best for Rome and for the people. However even though all of Brutus’ motives are good he still has the tragic flaw of pride, which ultimately leads to his downfall. The reason that Brutus gets caught up in the conspiracy is because Cassias appeals to his pride and flatters him with forged letters from the Roman people saying he is a greater leader then Caesar. This flaw eventually leads to his downfall because of all the bad decisions it causes him to make. The first mistake pride causes him to make is to kill Caesar and the next mistake follows right after. â€Å" Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar’s body. You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, but speak all good you can devise of Caesar, and say you do’t by our permission; Else shall you not have any hang at all about his funeral; and you shall speak in the same pulpit wherto I am going, after my speech is done.† (24) This was said by Brutus to Antony right after Caesar’s death. Brutus not only allows Antony to live but then allows him to speak at Caesar’s funeral after Brutus speaks, completely unsupervised. This choice of Brutus’ is brought about by his pride (and maybe a little bit of shortsighted stupidity).

Religion and Dance Essay

Do you see any similarities between the rituals of primitive societies and rituals that we have in today’s society? Society today does use dance in religious ceremonies or occasions but not necessarily in a ritualistic form that earlier primitive societies would use per say. However, dance in both today and past societies used basic, everyday motions and movements to form dances, where some of these dance practices are still used even today. How might one’s moral, religious and ethical values influence their thoughts and opinions on art? Discuss specific examples in relation to the question. Some religions might view dance as promiscuous or offensive with mere basic body movements such as a hip sway or that of similar movements. For example, most people generally view a traditional form of dance, the belly dance, in the Islamic culture as â€Å"sexual† yet that is not the sole purpose of it whatsoever. Even in today’s society, people are aware that the image of sex is everywhere and can even be seen in the modern day dance culture. Regardless of a person’s religious background, values, or beliefs, anyone can decide on what they consider to be art. All of these factors can influence one’s decision on what art is to them. Can you think of any works of art, in addition to the ones mentioned, that were not readily accepted by the society in which they were created, but held in high regards years later? John Singer Sargent’s â€Å"Madame Pierre Gautreau†, created in 1884, caused a huge uproar over the reddish pink color used on the woman’s ear lobe. At the time, it was considered far too suggestive and supposedly ruining the reputation of high-society. What do you think is meant by the final statement â€Å"†¦an audience’s response to a dance says as much about the audience as it does the dance,† and do you agree or disagree with this statement? The statement basically says that the way an audience reacts to a dance explains and gives a representation of their interpretation of the piece. Meaning both as individuals and as a whole audience. I personally agree with the statement, mainly because it is true. The viewers are just as important as the dance itself because they are the one’s that give meaning to a dance or any work of art for that matter.

The Single s Guide For Stress Management Essay - 1212 Words

The Single s Guide to Stress Management By Janet M Hall | Submitted On September 27, 2011 Recommend Article Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest Expert Author Janet M Hall How do you keep up with this highly competitive and rapidly changing world and manage your stress levels and stay healthy... and look for Mr or Ms Right at the same time? Well from my observations at a typical suburban nightclub recently, lots of you are not doing very well! The obvious signal of high stress/low health is the pall of cigarette smoke that hovers over the whole place and the full ashtrays and bar-gutters and the dirty floor. I stood next to one guy who chain-smoked for an hour and I counted 10 cigarettes - just think... if he was there till stumps at 3am, that means he d have smoked 40 cigarettes in a night. And it s probable that the mixed drink he had wasn t just coke and if he had only one of those an hour his blood-alcohol would have been over the limit. If he hadn t scored on top of that, imagine what a grumpy, depressive and potentially explosive driver he would have been on the way home! No wonder we have road rage nowadays - it starts with all those singles who over-did it on the weekend. And it doesnShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Organizational And Administrative Practices996 Words   |  4 Pagesthe word stress, I would say that it is anything that puts mental and physical strain on the body to get something done. There are different types of stress and people handle it in unalike ways. 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