‘The White Devil’ – Act Three.

Summary:

Vittoria is trialed for both adultery and the murder of her husband. Marcello blames Flamineo for Vittoria’s situation and begs him to be honest. Whereas Francisco and Monticelso arrange for the foreign Ambassadors to attend they arrive later in the first scene.

Although there is not enough evidence to convict her of murder, she is nonetheless put in a prison by Cardinal Monticelso. Flamineo, decides to fake insanity and is therefore released pending payment of fines. He later, pretending to be mad expresses bitterness about the courts judgement. Lodovico and Giovanni arrive and announce Isabella’s death.

Finally, Lodovico learns that he has been pardoned by the Pope on his deathbed and he is delighted. However, Flamineo and Lodovico quarrel and fight.

Key parts of Act Three:

• The Ambassador’s who are invited to witness the trial of Vittoria was a high ranking minister who was resident at a foreign court who represents his country and has the right to a personal interview with the chief magistrate of the country which they reside.
• The English law courts at this period used the Law French instituted by William the Conqueror after the Norman Conquest.

‘The White Devil’ – Act Two.

Summary:

At the start of the act Bracciano’s wife Isabella arrives in Rome with their son, Giovanni. She asks for help from Francisco de Medici (her brother), and Cardinal Monticelso. Both men approach Bracciano and confront him with his adultery. Bracciano meets with Isabella and is cruel to her and thus decides upon a legal separation. Isabella is extremely angry towards Vittoria for what she has done to her marriage, but later agrees to a divorce as she thinks it is what’s best. Isabella publicly requires to divorce her husband where as Brachiano wants to divorce her in private.

Both Bracciano and Flamineo then plot the murders of both Isabella and Camillo. Flamineo finds a doctor to poison Isabella and says that he will personally take care of Camillo. Flamineo tricks Camillo and then breaks Camillo’s neck and tries to make it look like it was an accident.

Key parts of Act Two:

• Webster is well known for his animal imagery which can be deemed to be used ironically as it implies that his characters have become less human like. Francisco describes Camilo’s house as “a dove house” which is symbolic for peace and innocence which he suggests is haunted by “pole-cats” which are known for foul smelling. (could also mean prostitutes).
• There are two dumb shows within this scene (dumbshow – a piece of dramatic mime)These were common in revenge tragedy, usually used as an introduction to the play. However, Webster uses them to show: how it contributes to the plot; what we learn of the characters that is depicted in the dumb show and not through the scenes; what can be shown of Brachiano who observes these shows; the contrast between the two dumb shows and finally how the device affects the audience’s response.

‘The White Devil’ – Act One.

Summary:

The White Devil by John Webster begins with a conversation between Antonelli, Count Lodovico and Gasparo. During this time we realise that Lodovico has just been banished “bloody and full of horror” murders etc. They begin by discussing all the horrific crimes he has committed and how he is going to plan his revenge. Lodovico questions his exile when Bracciano’s desire is to seduce Vittoria. Lodovico is extremely hurt and angry since Vittoria could have “got my pardon / For one kiss to the Duke.”

During the very next scene, Bracciano expresses his love for Vittoria to Flamineo (her brother) who then plans a meeting between both Vittoria and Bracciano. Camillo (Vittoria’s current husband) reveals he’s not slept with Vittoria for a long time. He begins to worry about being cuckolded by her and is ready to shut her away in their home so that she will not betray or leave him. Flamineo being humorous makes Camillo believe that Vittoria wants to sleep with him, but that he should refuse her. Furthermore, the aside talk to Vittoria reveals to the audience that Flamineo is plotting to arrange rendezvous with Bracciano.

Camillo leaves and then Bracciano enters for his assignation with his beloved Vittoria. Cornelia then enters and suddenly overhears the arrangements by them. She is appalled by their meeting.

Then Vittoria informs Bracciano of a previous dream in which she sees her husband’s and his wife’s graves. After this Cornelia instantly breaks her silence and reveals herself. She lectures them on their immoral actions and informs Bracciano of his wife’s actions. Bracciano exits, and Flamineo questions his mother for interrupting his sisters affair. He tells her they are in need of Bracciano for money, as their father have left them penniless.

Key parts of Act One:

• Banishment was the contemporary punishment for a nobleman who had committed a crime. It has been included in numerous plays in the period including many by Shakespeare.
• “Women are like curst dogs: civility keeps them tied all daytime, but they are let loose at midnight.” Here, Flamineo shows his view of women presenting context of how women were deemed the inferior sex throughout society. This challenges feminist approaches to the play.
• “Fortune’s a right whore:/If she give ought, she deals it in small parcels,/That she may take away all at one swoop” Lodovico personifies fortune as a female whore. However, fortune was frequently personified as the Roman goddess Fortuna – why is this the opposite? It becomes evident that the women throughout the play are considered the be virgins or whores. This links fortune to the other “whore” of the play, Vittoria.

Mansfield Park – How Fanny is treated (Chapters 2-3)

Fanny, who has been born into a working class family moves to Mansfield Park to receive education. When she first arrives she is noted as “exceedingly timid and shy, and shrinking from notice” and physically described as “small of her age, with no glow of complexion”. Instantly, this highlights how scared Fanny is to meet Mrs Norris and the rest of her family at Mansfield Park – although this is in fact a normal emotion for a girl of just ten.

Once she arrives she is made welcome by Lady Bertram and Sir Thomas; Lady Bertram has made more of an impression on Fanny. Both Miss Bertram’s believe Fanny to indeed be rather stupid: “my cousin cannot put the map of Europe together”. Today, not many people could in fact place a map of Europe together at her current age, however, this is the way both sisters have been brought up and therefore know no better. Moreover, the only person who gains Fanny’s trust is that of her cousin Edmund “‘My dear little cousin,’ said he with all the gentleness of an excellent nature , ‘what can be the matter?’ “. It is because of Edmund’s gentleness and excellence that both he and Fanny develop a bond and thus she finds comfort in him.

However, the biggest issue when Fanny arrives is that of her social class. She is made to feel “ashamed of herself” because of how different she is. As she is working class, she is consequently much below the Bertram’s as they are in fact upper class. Mrs Norris constantly reminds Fanny of this and thus does not understand the child’s feelings about leaving her home “she cannot as yet understand how much she has changed for the better”.

Mrs Norris’ relationship with Fanny can be somewhat described as hatred and disapproval as she constantly puts her down and reminds her of her place. However, also, when Sir Thomas discusses Fanny living with Mrs Norris, she does not want Fanny any where near her and states that it is “The last thing in the world for me to think of” – highlighting the lack of respect and compassion she has for the girl.

Due to Fanny not feeling at home and missing her brother, she puts herself down “Everything – my situation – my foolishness and awkwardness”. Jane Austen describes Fanny’s feelings for the reader to feel sympathy for Fanny because of this traumatic move, and also helps the reader understand how fearful Fanny is feeling at present – consequently, to save the reader misjudging Fanny’s character as well as Maria and Julia defining her as “prodigiously stupid” even though she loves to read books as they do in fact “charm[ed] her leisure hours”. 

Relating to Dorian Gray..

Dandyism

Firstly to define the word Dandy – ”A man unduly devoted to style, neatness, and fashion in dress and appearance”.

How does this relate to Dorian Gray? 

In ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ there is a character called Lord Henry and he is notably a ‘Dandy’. He seems to believe that good looks and fine clothes are more important in life than morals.

“Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins — he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all. “

Dorian’s view of life was dramatically changed. However, before listening to Lord Henry’s eloquent persuasion, Dorian thought that “the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him would be a guide to him through life, would be to him what holiness  is to some, and conscience to others, and the fear of God to us all”. Now however, convinced by Lord Henry’s opinion, Dorian now is slowly being transformed to think like Lord Henry and thus become a Dandy caring only for his physical appearance.

The Aesthetic Movement

Around the time of the Victorian Era during which Oscar Wilde was at the peak of his career, the Aesthetic Movement was a very popular social attitude which was formed in opposition to traditional Victorian values. The Aesthetic Movement believed that art in various forms should not seek to convey a moral, sentimental or educational message but should give sensual pleasure. 

In Britain, Oscar Wilde is very famous for one of the best representatives of the aesthetes. Oscar Wilde’s aestheticism can be seen in the preface, themes, plots, conflicts and the symbolic meaning of the characters. He believes that art represents nothing but itself.

At the heart of the aestheticism movement was the belief that art should not have no purpose other than to be beautiful. Throughout the preface in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, Wilde delves even deeper into this stance by stating, ”No artist desires to prove anything,”. In this preface, Wilde wastes no time in making his views and opinions very clear to the readers, and his view continues to be clear throughout the novel and also in the actions and words of the characters.

William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896)

William Morris, the son of a successful businessman, was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian Marxist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and English Arts and Crafts Movement. As an author, illustrator and medievalist, he helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, and was a direct influence on postwar authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien.

Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include ‘The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems’, ‘The Earthly Paradise’  and the fantasy romance ‘The Well at the World’s End’.

W. B. Yeats has pointed out: “No man I have ever known was so well loved. He was looked up to as to some worshiped medieval king. People loved him as children are loved. I soon discovered his spontaneity and joy and made him my chief of men.”

Marxism, Post-Colonialism and Feminism.

The homework/research given to us is surely a plot to establish who among the group actually research such topics, as apposed to those who rush off and plague Wikipedia or similar websites, cut and paste text and do not actually know what any of it means.

I have decided to that the hedonist approach and state quite clearly that at this stage in our studies, I was unable to answer the homework in high detail posed due to the simple fact I have little or no knowledge of Marxism, Post-Colonial or Feminist ideology at week 4 of my studies. I would argue that most are/were in a similar position!

I have detailed below a few publications which we should all read.

1. ”The unhappy marriage of Marxism and Feminism”, by Hartman (Heidi).
   Paper can be found on website:  http://www.old.li.suu.edu/library/circulation/Gurung/soc2370sgUnhappyMarriageMarxismFeminismFall10.pdf
2. Marxism and literature, R Williams.
   Brief text can be viewed on:
   http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kFF9pV5FmucC&printsec=frontcover&dq=marxism+and+lite
   rature&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZypTUqEx
3. 6ZvRBc6FgMgJ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=marxism%20and%20literature&f=false
4. Post-Colonialism: A very short introduction, R. Young.
   Brief text can be viewed on:
   http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5prvBIINKBkC&printsec=frontco
   ver&dq=Post-Colonialism:+A+very+short+introduction&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vSpTUtqBJ4OY0AXyp4GADw&re
   dir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Post-Colonialism%3A%20A%20very%20short%20introduction&f=false

The above should give you a better insight into the research posed. I intend to properly research the above and answer the question in more depth throughout the year as I am committed to only submitting well researched quality work. However, despite my methodology which has most probably caused a few ‘raised eyebrows’ I shall give my brief overview of what I have learnt from both my research and my fellow classmates blogs.

 

W.B Yeats

Post-Colonialism: From my very little knowledge on this topic this is what I have come up with. Yeats examining the idea of change throughout his poetry, mostly include the change within Ireland and the people around him. As in ‘September 1913′ Yeats compares contemporary Ireland to the “Romantic Ireland” in which he adored, also in ‘Easter 1916′ Yeats compares the abusive MacBride to the hero he changed into. Moreover, ‘Easter 1916′ and other poems are heavily about change, “all changed” and how the fighting has completely changed the social etiquette of Ireland.

Feminism: From my very little knowledge on this topic this is what I have come up with. Throughout Yeats’ poetry he does not seem to be a feminist. Living in this sexist time he did not help women through his poetry, although some of his poetry seem to suggest that he did worship or admire them. He mainly refers to Maud Gonne throughout his poetry as she was in fact the love of his life, however she did not love him back. Gonne was a strong feminist as she stood up for what she believed in to do with women’s rights. However, he also made many other references to other women such as: Eva Booth and Constance Markiewicz who he also admired.

 

Dorian Gray.

Post-Colonial: This topic seems to mainly revolve around the ‘misuse of power’ and this does strongly relate to the novel as a whole. He tends to misuse his power an awful lot throughout the plot, one of which was misusing his power to control Sybil. 

Feminism: Throughout the novel ‘Dorian Gray’ women are deemed as inferior than men, thus this novel is not feminist at all. The main female character throughout the novel is Sybil, who is noted as being weak and dependent on Dorian. We do not see much of a personality in her at the start just the fact that she participates in the theatre regularly playing the main part in many Shakespearean plays. Later she becomes almost completely dependent on Dorian and once he insults her acting she decides to commit suicide. This shows how unimportant women must have been thought of  and how powerlessness they were during the time the novel was wrote. 

Marxism: Throughout ‘The picture of Dorian Gray’ there are many examples of the class system. This is in fact the very opposite of Marxism. Dorian’s respect and status was based on his youth and wealth, highlighting how the rich were indeed very high ranked in society itself. Overall this novel suggests that both life and society revolve around wealth, money and more important youth, which is initially the total opposite to Marxism.

Feminism.

 Definition: A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.

Feminism first started with a very well known story. A story from the book of Genesis, a Judaic creation story. This story highlights the way in which the world was created, and then him creating man. First he made Adam (Hebrew translation: Man) second he made Eve (Woman), this created many arguments as many people saw a direct divide between Man and Woman. God made man in his image and thus they were immortal. Later, the snake tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Life. After eating from the tree herself Eve then tempts Adam, God then gets angry, and gets rid of their immortality and privileges as they disobeyed him. Moreover, the fact that Eve got tempted by the snake started the many attitudes of Men being ‘superior’ and Women being ‘inferior’.

However during this time most women were either pregnant, married or too young to bare children. Also women were banned from churches due to the fact they were either pregnant, busy or on a period.

The Industrial Revolution played a huge part in feminism. This was due to during the time of the Revolution it was only Boys who were educated. This was due to the fact that it would be them providing for their families as girls were taught by their mothers as they would only take the task of common household chores.

In class we were also told about Mary Wollstonecraft who produced a book called ‘A vindication of the Rights of Women’ in order to portray that women are not inferior, they are only deemed so due to the many myths that are about during this time. She is deemed as the first feminist and therefore it is her who has inspired many more to follow in her footsteps.

As I found this topic fairly interesting I decided to go and look further into the subject of feminism. 

The modern day feminist movement should surely be attributed to Emily Pankhurst along with her fellow suffragettes who chained themselves to parliament in the bid to win the right to vote alongside their male counterparts thus being equal.

The second trigger point as far as feminism is concerned is the onset of the second world war. At this time women took on the roles that the men could no longer do as they went off to war. Jobs included: engineering; factory work; farming; driving; telecommunications and even supporting the civil powers as police women. In a strange sort of way the second world war was in fact a God send as far as the feminist movement is concerned because after the war women were no longer regarded as second class citizens indeed would not tolerate it and were in no mood to do so.

However, the rights that they had gained to this point still fell short of the rights that men enjoyed. There was still the issue of equal pay in the work place, the right to work full time and lastly the right to abort without their husbands consent.

A major jump towards absolute equal pay was made by the women at the Daghanem ford motor company factory in 1968 where they took on a major company concerning equal pay. They defied both their employer and more importantly the male run union.

In conclusion the issue concerning equal pay over the last century has culminated with the enactment of the ‘Equal Pay and Equality Act 2010’. It is blatantly obvious for the most parts of the United Kingdom, Europe and perhaps the USA are endeavoring to close the gap between men and women’s rights or lack of them. However, the rest of the world especially the middle and far east, Africa and South America the issue of equality for both men and women remains a minor issue as far as political leaders are concerned.