Hell

Religion plays an important role in every man’s life. Its impact is manifested on every person daily affairs and his or her behavior. Hundreds of literatures that explicitly tackle religion have already been written. While the list may be inexhaustible, the Metamorphoses, Aeneid, Inferno and Odyssey serve as some of the popular literary works where a religious strand can be looked into.

The fact that the Metamorphoses by Ovid composed of mythological stories printed in the form of poetry gives one the first impression that divine beings are already incorporated into the book and that, consequently, the “myth” in these literary piece may have something to do with religion. True enough, the various sections found within the book have a common subject— the power of a divine entity and how such power determines the fate of men. Most of the transformations that happen in the stories are of people being “punished” for “the sins” they have committed (Ovid, p.171).

This punishment of sins can be taken to mean as one way of reflecting justice in the sense that the action of man is essentially incorporated with a corresponding responsibility and that God—or religion—has a corresponding role in the provision of these sanctions. By focusing on the relationship between the individuals and God in the Metamorphoses, one can immediately draw the idea that religion is the binding force between the two, bridging the invisible—and perhaps inconceivable—distance that separates the mortal from the immortal.

Metamorphoses shows great belief in the power of God such as the instance of ‘creation’ where “the king of the gods divided the year into four new seasons” (Ovid, p. 10) and the belief that every person committing a sin should undergo a punishment such as “impiety and its awful punishment” (Ovid, p. 293). All his stories tell us widely of the power and influence that God and religion has on people. Dante Alighieri’s Inferno begins on Good Friday and ends on Easter day showing the awareness of the author on these two crucial Christian doctrines that focus on God.

Dante tries to create a creative connection between a person’s sins on Earth and the sentence the man or woman gets in Hell such as the case when people are “condemned for gullet sins” (Alighieri, p. 51) and “for carnal sin” (Alighieri, p. 41). The angry people are made to stifle on mud, the enraged people assault each other, the greedy people are forcefully made to eat human excreta etc. All these inspirations grant the majority of Inferno’s moments of stunning descriptions and representational power, and also provide to shed light on the primary theme of Dante—the flawlessness of God’s fairness.

Readers might feel that the torments that Dante underwent were very harsh, yet the author justifies the fact that sinners are punished according to the severity of their sins. According to Dante, God’s justice appears as strictly purposeful, unthinking, and remote, and that “divine justice searches the moral character of all created beings” (Alighieri, p. 324). There appears to be no mitigating situations in Hell, and punishment is a must for every sinner. People who show sympathy to the people suffering have a lack of thoughtfulness.

Taking into account his Inferno, Dante appears to be a strict follower of Christian principles, or at least a literary author who employs the Christian conception of Hell in order to amplify the main contentions behind Inferno (Sanders, p. 112). As Dante feels that fraud is a greater evil compared to violence, the main intention of the author is not to think about evil but to teach and support the importance of Christian principles. It can also be observed that Dante’s intention in writing Inferno is to show a brief picture of the terrible political activities in the fourteenth-century of Florence.

This has a major role in the religious conception of Inferno because, through the literary work, Dante stresses his personal view that Church and the State are not different but identical authorities on Earth. This reflects the idea that religion should take an authoritative role in the context of the larger society. Dante also gives many references to the Greek and Roman community. According to Dante, religion and faith takes the topmost place in a person’s life and religion has its impact on any person who has faith in God and believes in Hell and being punished for the evils and sins he has committed.

Dante illustrates this point by stating the instance where “Saint Paul, the chosen Vessel, came to carry back a strengthening of that faith from which salvation always must begin” (Alighieri, p. 13). On the other hand, The Aeneid tells the story of how something great got started, how Aeneas had to let go Troy to form a new Rome. One of the most unforgettable incidents is when Aeneas weeps on leaving Carthage. Virgil shows how the messenger of the gods indirectly asks Aeneas to leave Troy (Virgil, p. 140).

It is perhaps a manifestation of divine intervention, as most people call it, which leads one into the realization that a Divine entity manifested through religion has a lot to do with the affairs of human beings. Since the course and purpose of Aeneas’s path are destined and that the pain and fame he had to face in combat as the story continues cannot change his fate, God would have certainly have had a huge role in changing Aenas fate. It tells us that The Aeneid is inclined to relating how a Divine authority has the power to greatly alter the lives of men.

In essence, The Aeneid shows consideration for the belief in gods in the exploits of ancient kingdoms, such as the passage “the King of the Gods has sorted out your fate, so rolls your life, as the world rolls through its changes” (Virgil, p. 116) The Trojans moving from Troy to Italy are shown in the first part of Aeneid. Dido the Queen wishes Aeneas, but destiny rejects her, and the desire for Aeneas makes her commit suicide. Virgil wrote the Aeneid in a period of the Golden age of Roman Empire when Caesar Augustus was the emperor.

Virgil compares the biased and communal circumstances of his period with the hereditary custom of the idols and Greek gods, to show that the political rule under Augustus was traditionally resulting from the gods. Since The Aeneid is filled with foresight and mystical calculations, with dreams, strange visits from people who are dead, puzzling omens, and messengers from God, it can hardly be denied that the story itself is filled with religious precepts that correspond to contemporary society.

The weather is used as a power to express God’s will. The storm at the start represents the fury when Juno sends it. The Goddess Venus protects the Trojans by calling the God Neptune. All these instances show faithfulness in the context of the literary piece inasmuch as it reveals the significance of a deep faith and belief in God and religion. Meanwhile, Homer’s Odyssey is the story of a man with many complications surrounding him.

In this literary piece, the power of God and faith in religion is shown when Greek gods come in various forms to relate with humans. The story also reveals that the gods show compassion to mortals such as the instance when Athena said that her “heart breaks for Odysseus, that seasoned veteran cursed by fate so long” (Homer, p. 79). It tells us that, although gods have superior power above all mortals, they nevertheless have (or at least some of them do have) a sense of pity and remorse for the wretched conditions of humanity.

It gives us the impression that gods do have a definitive role in the lives of mortals at least in the context of Odyssey. All these literatures have one thing in common—religion or religions have implied meanings and consequences to the life of the characters. The characters in the literary works are widely influenced by their corresponding Divine Beings and their religion and that the differing status between the struggling individual and the powerful Divine Beings shows how one is subordinated before the other.

Reflections From The Mahabharata Jeremy Bartel The Mahabharata is one long detailed epic, it is one of the oldest books the world has. However The Mahabharata is more than just collection of verses and poems, it illustrates beliefs and religious views of this ancient society. Some of the major themes are,ethics of right and wrong,and wrestling with ones place and how to act accordingly in their caste system,and of course at the end trying to figure what our purpose is in life not just individually but universally.

All of these examples suggests and leads one to believe without a doubt that the epic was written with intent of reflecting on the social, and religious beliefs at that time. So how does the Mahabharata reflect on the religious and social values of this ancient society that created it? The Mahabharata has one overarching theme that sums up the whole epic, that being the theme of fulfilling your sacred duty. This is known throughout the hindu culture as dharma, and according to their law everyone is assigned to a role within the caste system.

The Mahabharata is all about achieving your sacred duty, or suffering the consequences of failing to accomplish your task. One specific example of this is when Arjuna is struggling with attacking and killing who he considers close friends and family during the war. However Krishna is there remind him that it is his dharma to carry out his role as a warrior. Most of the main characters belong to this warrior caste and all must carry out their duties of honor and bravery in accordance to that caste.

This theme of dharma goes way beyond just the book but it is a main focal point in hindu religion and thinking. Which most likely why it was such a huge factor in the book, because to the people who created this book that was highest goal to achieve. During this great speech given to Arjuna by Krishna he discusses what it means to seek renunciation, and relinquishment. Krishna tells Arjuna that renunciation is “giving up those works which are prompted by desire. ” Krishna also explains what is meant by relinquishment, which means “the abandonment of fruits of all works. The message he is teaching Arjuna goes back to his role or duties within his caste. Arjuna must not think that he is destroying anyone or killing them but simply sending them to heaven, because every soul is immortal and simply takes a new form. So because of this Arjuna must rise up and fulfill his Ksatriya or warrior role and destroy his enemies because that his is caste in life. These ideals are very similar to that of the hindu religion in regards of reincarnation, where a soul is immortal and does not perish but comes back to take a different form in a new caste.

Evidence like this only suggests that religion was a major factor in writing this epic, and was the main themes of the hindu religion are seen as main themes throughout this composition of literature. The other major evidence that points towards this text reflecting the religious and social values of the society that created it was the question of purpose in life after the war. Once the war was over Yudhishthira, decides that he does not want to rule over this land because of all the violence and losses of men.

He is saddened at the thought of so many dead he says “I caused the destruction of my kinsman and the cause of extermination of my own race. ” The message of duty completing ones sacred duty is heard again, this time it is Bhima who is reassuring the king that his deeds were necessary. This idea dharma is illustrated yet again which shows just how important it is to the people who created this story. They would not have continually brought up the cultural belief of dharma if it was not an integral part of their society and religious beliefs.

To seek a purification for all his sins Yudhishthira performs a sacrifice of a horse, which would purge him of all his wrongdoings. Once this ceremony was over did he go back into the city to rule. This part of the Mahabharata is a lot like the vedas we discussed in class which was a normal practice of the people who were living in this time period. Vedas were ritual sacrifices used for reasons much like that of Yudhishthira to purify oneself and it yet again more proof that the Mahabharata reflects greatly on social and religious values of that society.

Many years go by and after the death of other characters Yudhishthira embarks on an asceticism journey which after 36 years leads him to the gates of heaven. The group he began with as all perished along the way, all except his dog who makes it to the top of the mountain with him. Once at the gate he must past a series of tests, the first being he can only enter heaven if he leaves the dog. He refuses however because the dog was so faithful throughout his journey, he passes that test because the dog was the god Dharma in disguise. The next one he learns his family is in hell and he chooses to join his loved ones in hell, e passes that last test and his allowed into heaven with his loved ones. This idea of passing tests also is evidence for the case that the Mahabharata used the religious and social values of the ancient society, because in that cultural ones actions whether good or bad determined if one was to make it to heaven. Heave was also not a permanent place because of the never ending cycle of life. All of these themes and examples are solid evidence in supporting the claim that the Mahabharata was in fact very reflective of religious and social culture and values of the ancient people that wrote the epic.

Time and time again there is evidence sprinkled throughout the entire book that shows the inspiration of the idea for this book, came directly from the ideas and beliefs that were held with the most regard back in those days. Which were fulfilling your dharma, and if you live within your caste system then by that nature you have done good deeds and are worthy of heaven reward. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Narasimhan, Mahabharata,1997),124 [ 2 ]. Narasimhan, Mahabharata,1997), 124 [ 4 ]. Narasimhan, Mahabharata,1997),194 [ 3 ]. Narasimhan, Mahabharata, 1997, 190 [ 5 ]. Narasimhan, Mahabharata,1997),212

It would be almost impossible for the audience of this satiric comedy, Valpone not to be moved, if not shocked by the larger than life, absolutely corrupt character of Valpone. He evokes both disgust and a perverted sense of admiration as we are presented to someone who is so completely vacant in compassion. We are almost in awe of this character who has no fear of punishment for his sins in this world or the next, yet the realisation that his evil is so strong and overbearing that he longs to rape the personification of innocence is chilling and deeply disturbing. Remorseless, loveless and careless, Johnson gives us a character not like any other and sets him in Renaissance Venice, the ideal place and time for such a tyrant and his parasite to thrive.

Valpones gold is his god, and he in turn worships it as such

“Good morning to the day; and, next, my gold!

Open the shrine, that I may see my saint.”

This opening speech is drenched with religious imagery, this blasphemous language shows no fear of retribution and this is backed up when he reveals that for him hell would be made heaven if he had gold there. Ironically it is the control that money and possessions have over Valpone that bring about his downfall, for while he is deeply cunning, witty and intelligent he continuously overreaches, blinded and seduced by money. We are immediately appealed and appalled by this foreboding fascination for riches for although it is sacrilegious it shows an amazing strength of character to turn his back completely on religion and its threat of eternal punishment. However his misery and stinginess are unbecoming qualities that fail to lure the audience. Here he shows the familiar characteristics of a fox, in that it is the chase not the kill that brings the thrill, i.e. he takes sheer pleasure in fooling his peers, and has no need for the money that he gains in doing so, except perhaps for looking at.

Another unattractive quality found in Valpone is his void of affection and love, he exploits his freakish bastard children, using them as a source them for entertainment

“Call forth my dwarf, my eunuch and my fool

And let ’em make me sport”

Johnson has added these abnormals not only as a comic restbite but to give let us see the result of Volpones inner corruption externalised. Even his seemingly pleasant relationship with Mosca is built solely on flattery and humouring each other, they do not love each other, but instead need each other, their parasite and host relationship is inter-reliant and interdependent.

With the aid of Mosca, Valpone sets out to bring down each of the other ravenous characters in turn. Although it is Johnson’s desire to inform and instruct he allows us to become amused by their amoral scheme and their amazing double act of trickery, due to the other characters gullibility, as each of them have too been infected by the degenerate disease of avarice. Their greed has given Valpone three years to enjoy “playing with their hopes” and their ignorance allows Valpone to continually take pleasure in

” Letting the cherry knock against their lips…”

These legacy hunters, aware of the effective threat of each other, bring presents, each trying to outdo the other, naively trusting Mosca as their vector to Valpones treasure. This old Italian tradition encourages such behaviour, and although this play is fictional, it is based on the diseased Italy which was rotten to the core with corruption.

In his pretended dying state Valpone lacks the opportunity to show off linguistically, his plan requires Mosca to do his lying and deceiving for him. Ironically however the materialisation of Mosca’s plan sees Valpone disguised as a mountebank. In this masque Valpone successfully woes the crowd, his exhibitionist side is exposed, he is persuasive and entertaining, his dazzling sales pitch deceives the crowd, making them think that they are buying a great product at a bargain price

“I am content to be deprived of it for six;”

Valpone as Scotto of Mantua even manages to accomplish verbally seducing the virtuous Celia into dropping her hanky with his sensual and soft language.

Only that Valpone disgustingly tries to pervert and rape the innocent and beautiful Celia he would almost seem heroic. Till this point there is almost a sense of fairness in that he gulls those equally selfish and greedy, in a simplistic term one bad guy taking from another. He is superior to those waiting to gorge on his corpse in that he has a sense of dignity, demands a sense of respect and is so warped in arrogance it is humorous. However, in his attempted rape his evilness takes a step too far, while we may have forgiven him for duping the melodramatic Bonario out of his inheritance there is no repentance in his attempt to take Celia without her will.

“yield or I’ll force thee”

The sympathy we felt for Valpone in Act three Scene four when confronted with the garrulous grotesque Lady Would-be has been dissolved, her sin was that of being irritating, vain and boring, while all ugly qualities her seduction lacks the malice the violence and pure evil of rape. This is when the laughter stops and the audience is forced to look introspectively at their own moral values.

The play narrowly escapes with a “happy” ending, Johnson ensures that no matter how persuading or entertaining the corrupt were, they are punished, full of vitality and life, or not, while the good are absolved. It is not the stereotypical “good overcoming evil” resolve, as neither Celia or Bonario, the only evidence of innocence throughout the play, carried much characteristic weight being two dimensional and shallow. The result is that evil overreaches and destroys itself.

Valpone although a mastermind is left to wither away at an asylum, and without his gold to keep him company he his left to rot in his own hell. The audience was tempted and seduced by his explosive personality and the life that oozed out of him, even when feigning sick. Although hyperbolised and exaggerated he was the emphasis of human folly, we are all to a degree driven by greed, we too are tempted by wrong and dishonesty, and that is the very reason that the character of Valpone appeals to us.

In the beginning of time a serpent slithered through a garden as he notices a soft nude woman walking alone. The serpent comes up behind her and tells the beautiful woman of the apple from a sacred tree that will make her as all knowing and powerful as god. Although god had told this woman to never eat from this sacred tree, she was convinced by the evil snake. After convincing her male companion they both eat the sacred apple and immediately are awaken as their eyes open wide. That very instant they, for the first time in human history, become aware of their physical self; the birth of self hatred of the human form had emerged.

Soon after God exiled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and dammed their ancestors. Today a young girl stands in front of a mirror disgusted by what is been reflected upon her. This girls struggle against the disease her primordial ancestor had given her is depicted in Eavan Boland’s poem “Anorexia. ” As Boland begins her own demise she is envisioned with the beginning of time where man had not yet fallen and self awareness had not been created; a vision that will consume her to do whatever it takes to go back to Eden.

As the speaker stares at the mirror she is consumed with negative thoughts in her mind. She begins to believe her “flesh is heretic”(line 1) as her body is rejecting her ideal thought of what she wants it to be. Her flesh begins to play tricks on her as it “Meshed [her] head / in the half-truths”(7-8). Her flesh becomes “a witch”(2) using tricks to control the girl from not eating. To cure this manipulative disease she is to destroy her exterior. In the following lines the speaker becomes much more explicit in how she is to cure herself:

I am burning it Yes I am torching Her curves and peps and wiles They scratch in my self denial Here it shows how she is starving herself by burning away whatever fat remains from her fragile bones that are protruding from her skin as she now becomes “starved and curveless”(16). Boland begins a slow and painful suicide to bring an end to her disease. Boland falls sleep and enters a vivid dark dream which reveals to her the beginning of her disease. In this vibrant dream she in trapped inside a place she describes as “a claustrophobia”(22).

In this “sensuous enclosure”(23) she hears the “warm drum”(25) beat of a man’s heart and the “song of his breath”(26). “Sleeping in his side”(27) she is “a rib”(19). Boland has regressed back to the beginning of time before the sins of Eve when she was only one rib of Adam. In this dream she discovers what she needs to do to get ride of her disease. She wants to return back inside the womb of Adam. To return to Eden were life was blessed with no self-awareness, and no anorexia. She hopes to erase Eve’s mistake of the past and not eat the scared fruit.

She will finally be able to live a life without self awareness and end the struggle that has consumed herself against her own flesh. Boland will finally “grow / angular and holy”(35-36) again. After she is awakened she is obsessed with returning back to Adam and the Garden of Eden to finally be filled with bliss. Returning to Eden “will make me forget”(40), forget “the fall”(42) she proclaimed. She will forget the fall of mankind and the creation of the disease that has destroyed her from within.

She wants to also forget the hell of what is anorexia as she goes “into forked dark / into [the] python needs”(43-44). Sadly the only way she can possibly reach the gates of Eden would be through suicide which she has already begun. “Only a little more”(28) she says, “only a few more days”(29) until she is dead and can be “back into him again”(32). It is unknown what happens to the girl next, all we are certain off is that the disease of anorexia had beaten her to nearing or even committing suicide. The “witch” was able to trick her to figuratively burn herself alive in agony and pain.

In the mist of all this, her lack of nutrition caused her to hallucinate of the beginning of time when Humanity was only one being, a time when there was no self awareness and no anorexia, a time when man had not yet fallen. This vision that continues to consume her was merely an illusion from the witch and the serpent. All it was was a mere trick to convince her to committee suicide and break god’s major law. Killing herself to return back to Eden will come to no prevail as suicide will only lead her to an eternity in the depths of hell with the serpent, an eternity of living with anorexia.

The entrance into the second circle of hell marks a descent, a motion downwards, and this type of action is significant both in this fifth canto and throughout the whole of Dante’s Inferno. The theme of motion is dominant in this episode through the use of the winds and rains. It also comes out in other subtler motions that intertwine with the shades and the sins that brought them to this their eternal home.

The motions involved here are very frictional. They tell of coming and going, as well as of the conflict between the two. These motions depict a large amount of antagonism, yet they also tell of passivity and subjugation. They underline the posture of the persons involved as well as accentuate their roles in the epic. The motions evident in the poem also give insight into the nature of the hell being depicted. Much can be understood about the degree of the souls’ torment by the types of motion to which they are subjected.

The motions of Minos make him out to be a wielder, and this gives him an air of being in charge. He wields his tail, and with that authority. He “girdles” and “entwines” himself, and this motion is symbolic of the extent to which those sent to him will be bound and tormented in hell (Alighieri, 15). It is interesting that the degree of hell itself is depicted itself by a girdling, as each degree entwines a more horrifying one. This shows a unity of action between the motions of Minos and the nature of hell itself.

The spirits “come there before him” (15) and their movement toward him takes place in a manner of subjection. They are at his mercy, just as they will be at the mercy of the events of the hell to which his motion will whisk them. One almost gets from it the idea of the spirits’ genuflection before an elevated Minos. He sends, and that idea depicts a motion away from himself; but it also demonstrates mastery, as the souls who go away from him do so at his bidding. Then, the motion with which he sends them is akin to the manner in which they are taken. They are whirled away to the place of their doom.

Motions of coming and going occur regularly in this place of gale forces. The motion of the winds is demonstrated by a coming and going. The motion from one circle of hell to the next dooms that spirit to spend eternity in a much more horrifying place. What is more is that each frictional motion to and fro, each coming or going, often happens in fast succession one upon the other, so that it almost seems that they occur at once.

The spirits are forced into this frenzied motion by the winds: “hither, thither, down, up it carries them” (15). This motion echoes their plight. They are forced to come to this place, though in the same instant that they must come, their will is to go. This oscillating motion is indicative of the fact that decision is not granted those who have been condemned to hell. Hell is a place that commands, and all who go there must heed its every whim. There is also nothing inherently rational about that place, or at least its orders are not bound to be so. The vacillation of the winds shows that caprices of punishment are to be expected. Yet all will be punishment.

Ideas of combat and battles are expressed by the motion in the passage. Warfare and all that is connected with such an event is present in the episode’s movements. Looting and plundering are involved in these events. The place is described as moving “as the sea does in a tempest, if it be combated by opposing winds” (15). The winds arise again in this image, but this time their motion creates an atmosphere of battle. This place is one of fighting, where the event smites and molests the “spirits in its rapine” (15).

The whole atmosphere is described as a restless hurricane that pummels the souls that come within its domain. It rushes and blasts them, so that its very motion is of a type that harms and invites (impossible) retaliation. The only record of the souls’ giving back damage is in their lamentation, which smites the speaker as he comes near them. Though it is a battle, it is one that is already won for hell. Its pounding motions perpetrate upon its prisoners a torment that grants them no repose.

Another motion that depicts the nature of hell is its ability to impose its will upon the damned souls. This ties in with the ideas that have gone before: the souls are often being carried and led. The shades are borne along by strife (15), and their motion in the air forms that of a long line, as the captives are being led in the train of death and damnation. This subjugation to the will of the forces of darkness mirror the subjection these souls once had to their own evil lusts.

They are described as having been “called by desire” (16); called, not just in the sense of a foreign summoning but in the necessity they feel to move toward the source of the calling. These souls find themselves in hell because of influences upon their actions that have caused their motions toward things. It depicts a resignation to forces that cause actions that in turn lead to the peril of the damned, on whose part passivity (the lack of autonomous motion) is implied.

This idea is extended in the stories of those whose love was the precipitant of their doom; it, in effect, was the catalyst of their motion toward hell. This love led them, and they in their passivity allowed themselves to be led. In fact, when the speaker addresses one of the souls described as being in motion “through the lurid air” (16), the same soul is described as “benign,” and this gives an idea of stillness and passivity that hints that the energy for its motion is generated by an outside source.

Love is a slave-driver to all of them, continually making them move toward things they otherwise might not have chosen. Some even killed themselves for love, and this signifies a motion toward death that ushered their entrance into hell. Strangely, Achilles was somehow able to deviate slightly from this trend. He, after being ruled by love for so long, makes a motion toward self-government and fights with love. There is no evidence of his triumph, however, as he remains one of the captives of hell.

In order to allow the lover Francesca to tell her story, the motions of the winds hush and the seas become quiet. A level of calm is depicted in the cessation of the motion of elements even beyond the dominion of hell. The city of the speaker’s birth rests its weight upon the seashore, and this motion effects the stillness of the waves. The river Po is seen as descending in order to have peace, so it too moves from motion to stillness. Prior to this, a quasi-invocation to the “King of the universe” (16) was given by the speaker for Francesca’s peace.

Its effect is this stillness that would allow her to speak of happier times, and grant her at least a respite, if not complete relief. This seems to point toward a purgatorial notion of hell, where the living can pray to God for the succour of the damned. It implies that the motions of hell that grant agony to the spirits can be shielded by a divine Hand, further implying that hell itself is driven by an even greater power than itself.

It is evident that the images of motion in the fifth canto of Dante’s Inferno create a dynamic theme that moves the reader along from the entrance to the portal through to the other dimensions of hell. The motions are indicative of the authority of hell over the souls that are quartered there. Ideas of abasement are dominant in the souls’ lack of autonomy, in their compulsion to do the will of the forces that surround them.

Their spirits are flung upon winds, just as in life their wills were navigated by their desires. Other motions tell of a hell as a battlefield of lost causes, as the spirits are doomed, regardless of any desire they might have to fight. The nature of hell is to subdue and to punish, and its motions are ministrants of power that deals out anguish.

“The men in the novel are all repressive patriarchs. For them, male supremacy must be absolute. ” In the light of this comment, discuss Bronte’s presentation of male characters in ‘Jane Eyre’. Throughout the novel of Jane Eyre, there seems to be a common sense of patriarchal dominance, as possessed by the male characters. Bronte shows male supremacy through four key characters that Jane encounters throughout her life. Each character differs hugely, though this sense of a higher and more powerful individual, over Jane, remains prevalent in each – they are all repressive patriarchs in some way, though of varying magnitudes.

The Victorian society was a completely different society to the one we live in now and it was well-known to be male-dominated and one in which women had almost no rights at all. The fact that Bronte wrote Jane Eyre during this period in time is clearly reflected in the male characters in the novel. It is evident that Bronte herself may have experienced or been put in some of the situations that she portrays Jane to be in by some oppressive male character in her own life.

Nevertheless, it is seen that these characters do change as the novel progresses as Bronte seems to give them a chance to withdraw themselves as a repressive force, and show a little more consideration and compassion towards others and women in particular. John Reed is the first of Bronte’s repressive patriarchs in the novel. He is placed at the beginning of the novel and is introduced to us almost immediately. He is in fact the very first oppressive force to Jane in her life and in this way is very significant.

At first, John does not seem to be a huge threat to Jane, merely branding her a “bad animal” and a “rat”. This juvenile name-calling behaviour, as expressed by John, is still oppressive in that he uses these names to assert a higher power over Jane, subsequent to pronouncing all the books in the house as his property. He reminds Jane that she is in a highly precarious position in society and that she has no class due to the fact that she is living with them. She is classified as “less than a servant” according to him because she does “nothing for [her] keep”.

John taunts Jane proclaiming that she “ought to beg” to even live. He continuously reminds Jane that she is a “dependent”; somewhat indicating that she is dependent on him due to the fact that he is the only male in the household, and therefore the master by birth. Furthermore, John demands obedience of Jane, even though he is only but four years older than her. He exercises what he feels is his power as a male over her physically, as can be seen when he hits Jane with a book as the “volume was flung”.

This physical abuse is indicative of Bronte expressing that John Reed believes that male supremacy must be absolute. The regularity of his bullying as a demand for obedience of Jane, not “once or twice in a day, but continually” is also characteristic of a repressive patriarch who would feel more secure in continuous rather than periodic abuse. John Reed’s appearance may even be said to be one of a typical oppressive male character. Being “large and stout” with “heavy limbs and large extremities” indicate that he is quite a large boy for his age and automatically an intimidating individual.

His actions towards Jane are also somewhat animalistic such as “thrusting out his tongue at [her] as far as he could without damaging the roots”, suggesting his belief in a primal sense of alpha male dominance over a shrewdness of apes. He is quite grotesque as well and he does not just exert his power over Jane, but he “twisted the necks of the pigeons, [and] killed the little pea-chicks. ” It is clear that Bronte is extremely disgusted with his manner of indulging in animal cruelty as a means to show his masculinity.

John is also disagreeable towards his mother and acts without respect towards her, emphasising his belief that he is of a higher status than all women, not just Jane. He “called his mother ‘old girl’ too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes, [and] not infrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire. ” These aspects of John Reed, with no doubt, express Bronte’s strong feelings about the fact that all men thought that they were superior to a woman. Her disapproval and abhorrence of male supremacy is clear. Mr Brocklehurst is the second tormenting force that Jane is exposed to in her life.

He differs to John Reed in the fact that whilst John Reed is a form of physical oppression towards Jane, Brocklehurst is a form of religious oppression. Nevertheless, both of the two characters are similar in appearance as can be seen by Bronte’s description of them, reinforcing this idea that male characters of oppression have a certain appearance to express their power. When Jane first meets Brocklehurst, the first description she ever gives him is one with negative connotations – “a black pillar” that was “standing erect on the rug; the grim face at the top was like a carved mask, placed above the shaft by way of capital. Immediately we are given the sense that he is an imposing and unbending character who is just plain frightening, especially to a young Jane. Brocklehurst seems to be a gothic villain in a sense and as a “stony stranger”, the sibilance emphasises the fact that he is extremely unapproachable, hard and unforgiving. Bronte also gives Brocklehurst a “bass voice” which emphasises his masculinity, as well as large features that are “harsh and prim” to highlight his unyielding disposition.

We soon find out that Brocklehurst is in fact a religious hypocrite who uses religion as a vehicle for his repressive force that he exerts on the pupils at his school. However, we are not on first introduction immediately shown his hypocrisy by Bronte until a little later in the novel when Jane is at his school. Upon Jane and Brocklehurst’s first meeting, he pointedly asks Jane if she should like to “fall into that pit [full of fire] and be burning there for ever”. In an oppressive manner, Brocklehurst uses these implications of hell as such to scare and terrify Jane into obedience.

If we read into Brocklehurst’s language, his hypocrisy is revealed to us. He states to Jane that she would burn in hell “for ever. ” The fact that he says “for ever” is key in that he particularly twists the Christian ideas. When he mentions hell to Jane he ignores a key Christian idea that you may be saved from hell in an effort to frighten her into submission. Brocklehurst does not know for a fact that Jane will go to hell, but he is threatening her with the idea of hell, as he does with all the girls at Lowood School. Bronte writes the first conversation between Brocklehurst in a way that puts our sympathies, as a reader, with Jane. You must pray to God to change it: to give you a new and clean one: to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” was the advice given to Jane by Brocklehurst – this is ironic in that Brocklehurst is described by Bronte as being “stony” himself, emphasising Bronte’s effort to sway the audience’s opinions to side with Jane. At Lowood, Brocklehurst firmly preaches the idea that God wants women to devote themselves to domesticity in order to please Him. He states that “humility is a Christian grace and one peculiarly appropriate to the pupils of Lowood” and that he brings the girls up in a way so as to cultivate this.

Brocklehurst reveals his own hypocrisy and effectively shoots himself in the foot and shows that he clearly does not practice what he preaches with his own children when he tells the story of his daughter Augusta and her trip to Lowood. Augusta comments on “how quiet and plain all the girls at Lowood look”, “almost like poor people’s children”, in comparison to herself in a “silk gown. ” Augusta and her sisters also actually arrive at Lowood, as seen by Jane, in velvet shawls, ostrich plume and such.

In this way, Bronte shows her belief that Brocklehurst is all that is wrong with the males of Victorian society as well as many of the rich people who also state that “consistency, is the first of Christian duties”, without fully committing and believing in what they say themselves. Brocklehurst is in fact an extremely inconsistent person in his day to day life. Mr Brocklehurst is a representation of what Bronte believes is wrong with society and its males with regards to religious oppression, as John Reed is a representation of her beliefs with regard to males in society with regards to physical oppression.

In a stark contrast to Mr Brocklehurst is St John Rivers, who is in fact a non-stereotypical patriarch. He is a contrast to Brocklehurst because he firmly does not believe that women like Jane should dedicate and devote themselves to domesticity but instead to God. Brocklehurst is also a hypocrite in this way as he should be preaching the idea of devotion to God but instead teaches his pupils to devote themselves to domesticity. However, there are also some ways in which St John is similar to Brocklehurst, and there is a key link between them in their ideologies.

St John has extremely congruent ideologies; however he is not a hypocrite, unlike Brocklehurst. It is important to mention that St John is an aesthetic model, an extremely problematic one at that. He is constantly living for his ideals and with his perfectionist nature, these ideals are almost unattainable. He is deeply religious and self-sacrificing when it comes to fulfilling his religious duties, and in this way, he tries forcefully to get Jane to comply with his approach to life and to go to India with him.

To get her to come with him and marry him, he uses language such as “a part of me you must become”, asserting his authority and power as a male over her. He seems to be sacrificing of both Jane’s happiness and health for others, but he applies this to himself as well. St John attempts to dictate Jane’s life in that he seemingly wants her to reject his job offer as a school mistress for village children. He wants her to hold this job for a while but not permanently as he believes that she “cannot be content to pass [her] leisure in solitude, and to devote [her] working hours to a monotonous labour” in a place where her skills are made useless.

He acknowledges that Jane is destined by God to do greater things, and though he may be wrong, he seems to be hinting to her this fact and that she is fit for a missionary’s wife, in what could be seen as a passive oppressive act. St John is also deeply unhappy with the fact that all Jane seems to want is a happy family life and would use all her money that she inherited to secure it. At Christmas, she is set on revelling in domesticity and St John is very much bothered and despairing of this and tries to convince her to become more like him, albeit in a repressive manner. I excuse you for the present: two months’ grace I allow you for the full enjoyment of your new position” – in this authoritative language St John displays that he does not want Jane to remain the position that she is in and to “begin to look beyond Moor House and Morton… and the selfish calm and sensual comfort of civilised affluence. ” He wants Jane to sacrifice herself to God and I believe that in this way St John is more dangerous than Brocklehurst because he can is oppressive with reason, and he is not a hypocrite and willing to do all he preaches.

I have decided to leave discussion of Mr Rochester to the end as I believe that he is by far the most complicated of the male characters throughout the novel, due to the fact that he undergoes a change in which he becomes less of a repressive patriarch and therefore a more suitable husband for Jane. The character at the beginning of the novel is vastly different to the Rochester that we see at the end, in more ways than one. However, the change in his oppressive nature towards Jane is especially significant. Jane did meet Rochester by chance, but even though he did not know who she was, he was still oppressive and authoritative towards her.

He commands her to lead him his horse and when she is unable, he states that “necessity compels [him] to make [her] useful”, laying a heavy hand on her shoulder which is a significant action that demonstrates his sense of authority. This attitude becomes less apparent as he gets to know her though further into their relationship, this dominant side of him reappears as he seemingly tries to force her to stay with him, though deep down he knows he cannot keep her. Jane feels that she is equal to Rochester as he is the first male not to out rightly exercise and force his patriarchal dominance over her.

Jane is comfortable to speak out and give her opinion directly, though this is only after he asks. She pointedly states that she does not think that he has “a right to command [her] merely because [he] is older that her” and in this way she has stated that the fact that he is male also does not play a part, though she does not actually say this. However, as their relationship progresses, this equality is warped and some of it is lost as Rochester seemingly becomes more desperate to have Jane for himself. This gradual increase in commands directed at Jane can be seen when Jane asks to leave him to see Mrs Reed.

He commands her to “promise [him] one thing”, that being “not to advertise: and to trust this quest of a situation to me. I’ll find you one in time. ” His desperation for her to come back as soon as possible is evident in the fact that he orders her not to advertise so that she will definitely come back to him. When Jane tries to leave Rochester for good, upon finding out that he does indeed have a wife, in the form of Bertha Mason, Rochester threatens violence in order to get her to stay. He is desperate to get through to her and to convince her to stay and it is interesting that he seems to want to resort to this.

The fact that he threatens this shows us that he is at an end and this is what a male character would do in order to get someone to comply with their wishes. Rochester is interesting in that he does try to give Jane a lot of freedom as a woman to do as she wishes, and is comfortable being an equal with her, but when it comes down to it, he always finally resorts to his dominance as a male. Jane, however, does finally return to Rochester at the end of the novel. She makes her way back to Thornfield only to find it burned to the ground and she seeks out Rochester whom she finds disabled following the great fire started by Bertha.

This loss of an arm and his sight his key to making Rochester a suitable husband for Jane. The disability means that Rochester is now physically an equal to Jane, and does not have to suppress his opinions and will never have the opportunity to be dominant over her any more. Before he was disabled, Rochester never exercised his power over Jane, out of choice, this disability means that even if he wanted and chose to utilise his male dominance over her, he cannot. The fact that Bronte decides to take away from Rochester so that he becomes less oppressive is interesting.

She seems to be giving Jane a chance to have power in the Victorian society that she lives in, possibly reflecting a wish for herself as a woman. Not all the male characters of Jane Eyre are always patriarchal and some, like Rochester, choose not to exercise their power over the woman. It is important to note that all the characters do it in different ways: physical, religious and only in desperation. However, the distressing reality that Bronte is trying to express is that the majority of the men in society do believe in absolute male supremacy.

Nevertheless, she does give the example of Mrs Reed as a female oppressor who demands submission of Jane as a child, and took revenge when not obeyed. I believe that Bronte wanted the male characters to be a strong repressive force so as to reflect her feelings of society and the imbalance between the males and females. It is possible that Bronte was trying to send a message to society through this novel in an effort to provoke a change in society, which would have been met with dispute from male readers and agreement from a female audience.

Andrew Vollen English Commentary ‘The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1791. He was part of the Romantic Era in literature. The ballad is about a Mariner who shoots an albatross, and is cursed forever. This essay will analyze part the seventh. In this extract the Mariner is talking to a Hermit about his travels and the effect it had on him. In the extract he begins by describing the Mariner’s repentance and catharsis doings. He later creates a juxtaposition, with a structural shift, between the horrible pain he felt and the happy wedding.

Throughout the extract the writer uses religious symbols surrounding his pain or the wedding. This extract is significant in the ballad, because he describes why he is forcing people to listen to his story. It brings a full circle to the ballad, and it returns to the wedding. The Mariner has arrived in England, and he was spotted by a curious Hermit. The Hermit then questions who he is, and he describes the pain he feels. These stanzas are from the middle of part the seventh. Coleridge writes, “Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched with a woeful agony, which forced me to being my tale; and then it let me free. In the first line Coleridge writes, “this frame of mine. ” This means he does not belong to his own body. This would be done, because he only lives to warn others of his wrong doings. The Mariner, himself, died on the boat, and only his body exists. This connects with the thesis, because he has become his story, and it introduces the pain he has suffered. In the third line of the second stanza Coleridge writes, “which forces me to being my tale;” Here, he is talking about the “woeful agony” he felt as a result of his actions.

His tale is the warning he gives to others who must hear, so they do not make the same mistake. The pain he felt creates, and is the reason for his story. This is the origins of the ballad, because he is talking to the wedding guest as a warning. It is also a reason the extract is so significant, because his connection with the wedding guest being the ballad to a full circle. The story has ended back where it began, therefore it is an epic. In the fourth and final line of the extract he says, “let me free. ” Here, he is referring to the previous line about why he tells his tale.

By telling the tale it releases him from the pain brought upon him. This life and being has become the telling of his tale. When he feels pain, the only way to relieve it is by telling his story. He was cursed by the god Life and Death after he killed the albatross, which causes the curse. Between stanzas four and five, Coleridge switches perspectives from first person to third person. In doing so he creates a juxtaposition between the horrible pain he felt and the happiness of the wedding. From the fourth to the fifth paragraph the Mariner returned to third person.

This caused the scenery of the fifth stanza to change. The reader becomes aware that the ballad has returned to the wedding. This creates a full circle effect, because the ballad has returned to where it began. This makes the ballad an epic, although an epic must include an educational or emotional experience that the main protagonist had. This was an emotional experience that the Mariner had. His life goal has become warning all those who need to hear about his accident. There is another important technique used in the transition from the fourth to the fifth paragraph.

That is the juxtaposition created between the pain of the curse, and the happiness of the wedding. In the third paragraph he describes, “This heart within me burns. ” This describes the immense pain he felt, when the gods want him to tell his story. This pain originally stems from the shooting of the albatross earlier in the ballad. Before this stanza there is no description or understanding of the pain the Mariner has felt all this time. The third and fourth stanzas have a claustrophobic feeling to them, to speed up the reading and create an ending to the Mariner’s story.

In the fifth and sixth stanzas he indicates the change to third person by narrating all of the sounds that are heard. For example, “What loud uproar bursts from that door! ” This makes the reader feel like they are looking in from above. The reader now senses the happiness of the moment by the description of the environment, “And bride-maids singing are; And hark the little vesper bell,” It creates the scene of the wedding, and the church bells ringing. This is a juxtaposition of the stanza before where he is giving the reasons for the pain he has endured.

This connects with the thesis, because the structural shift causes the scenery of the ballad to return to the wedding. This return to the wedding is what causes the full circle effect. Throughout the ballad there are different references to religion, mostly surrounding Jesus and his execution. There are many different religious symbols in part the seventh, whether in this particular extract or through the part. The first stanza there are two instances of religious references. This is when the Mariner has just arrived in England, and is greeted by the Hermit. He says, “O shrieve me, shrieve me, holy man! To “shrieve” yourself, is to purify yourself of wrong doings through pain. This is what Jesus did when he was hung from the crucifix, he purified the human race from their sins. By calling the Hermit a “holy man,” he sees everyone that is not himself as heavenly. This shows the pain and suffering he has endured. In the third stanza there is only one religious word. He describes the pain that he feels before he warns someone of his past, “This heart within me burns. ” The word ‘burns’ has a correlation with hell. Here, he writes that his heart is burning in hell.

The fourth stanza is the returning to the wedding, and there is religious symbols. These include, bride, biddeth, and prayer. The bride is seen as a liberator of his suffering, because she is the first person that he sees after the description of his pain. She is performing the most religious deed, marriage. The final line in the stanza says, “Which biddeth me to prayer. ” This means the vesper bells command him to pray. Praying is a completely religious word and action. In the final stanza the author mentions “God” himself. Here, he is commenting how on the boat there seemed to be no presence of God.

This connects with the thesis, because the use of the religious symbols makes him seem more innocent and guilty. He is guiltier, because he shot the albatross which is depicted as a savior. He is more innocent, because of the comparison between the pain Jesus suffered and his suffering. In conclusion, this extract is significant, because of the Mariner’s painful repentance, the structural shift, and religious symbolism. Each one creates a full circle effect, where the ballad returns to the wedding. There is also an explanation of why he is repeating his story to all those who need to hear.