A Note about Podcasts

Hi! Thank you for stopping by to listen to the Podcast series. You will notice that some of the podcasts are more "introductory" than others. This is because the lecture notes, themselves, come from copyrighted material. Therefore, the lecture notes exist beyond the walls of WebCT in compliance with copyright laws.

Module 4 Assignment 6

Sonnets

1. This is about continuous beauty. Old people die and make relatives sad. Eventually you become your own enemy and the beauty dies also.

12. This questions beauty because summer comes to an end. Therefore, all beauty will come to an end at some point. When someone stays beautiful forever they are to be saved and studied to find out why.

15. Youth is the best time in life. After that it all goes downhill, so live it up.

18. His love is perfect. Even more perfect than beauty. It is a never ending love and beauty, better than a warm summers day.

20. This brings Shakespeare's homosexuality to light. It is about a gentle man who is adored by both men and women. He believes this person is a woman in a man's body. Although his loves this man, he knows that he is meant to be with women.

29. He feels like an outcast. He wishes that he was more like this other man. What used to satisfy him no longer does. When he feels like this though, he thinks of the one eh loves, and he is no longer sad.

30. This is about him thinking about his past. He dwells on the time that he wasted and all the things he wanted to do but did not do. He cries about all this and friends that he has lost. When he thinks about his love though, all those feelings go away.

31. This is about the loss of past lovers and friends. They stand for death and now so does he.

33. He has seen many beautiful mornings and they have been hidden by dark clouds. He applies this to his feeling of happiness that is hidden by the loss of his love. Despite his loss, he loves the man anyway.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was a great playwright and poet. He was born circa April 23, 1564. He went to grammar school in Stratford. He was married to Anne Hathaway and had two daughters and a son. The son died around age 14. The years before Shakespeare became known as a writer, are known as his "dark years" because there was no record of his life at this time. His career began as a playwright. He also acted in many plays. He became a poet when the plague caused the theaters to be shut down. He helped to open the Globe Theater and was a member of the Chamberlain's Men acting group. He owned many properties and was very popular with royalty. He died on April 23, 1616.

http://www.enotes.com/william-shakespeare/shakespeare-biography

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/

module 4 assignment 5

Donne seemed to be very against the idea of having a nation that did not have the church as the center of government. He wanted to make the Americas another Britain. The goal for the Americas, though, was to make it a different place. He did not understand how people could live without the Anglican church. If more people would have listened to Donne about his ideas and beliefs, we would not have the America that we have today. The whole concept of freedom may have meant something totally different. Who knows, The USA may have been run by the Anglican church, and we may have still been just a territory of England instead of one of the strongest countries in the world.

module 4 assignment 4

Christopher Marlowe wrote beautiful love poems. He must have been a busy person to have written so many plays and poems...and be a spy in the Queen's secret service. It seems that in 16th century everyone who worked for the Queen was accused or accusing others of treason or blasphemy. Although, it was probably very difficult not to commit some sort of crime with how strict laws were, especially about religion. Marlowe died fairly young, but he created many works and a history that we still read about today.

Module 4 Reading Assignment 3

After reading this section, I have not changed my opinion on Elizabeth. She was a very courageous women who turned England around. She was a great example to women of power. She seemed to really care about her subjects and did what was good for them. The only was that I was disappointed that she never got married. Not because I think she needed a man to help her run England, but because if she would've had a child to take over the throne she could have taught them her ways of ruling and England would have continued to prosper as it did when Elizabeth was queen.

Elizabeth Video

1. Why did Mary hate Elizabeth?
Mary hated Elizabeth because Elizabeth was protestant and Mary was Catholic. Also, Elizabeth was the daughter of Mary's father, Henry VIII, and Anberline. She was a illegitimate child.

2. What was the role of the Anglican church in Elizabeth's reign? What is the significance of Elizabeth's position? The Anglican church during Elizabeth's reign was the official church of England. It was the unified church of the Protestants and the Catholics. Elizabeth was the ruler of both church and of state.

3. Who wanted to marry Elizabeth and why? The King of Spain wanted to marry Elizabeth in order to ensure England as an ally. The Duke of Anjour also wanted to marry Elizabeth to ensure England as an ally of Scotland. Lord Robert Dudley wanted to marry Elizabeth because he loved her.

4. Who was Elizabeth's lover? Does she kill him? Why or why not? Lord Robert Dudley was Elizabeth's lover. She does not kill him when he commits treason because she wants to be reminded of how close she came to danger.

5. Discuss her transformation into the Virgin Queen. Why is this significant? She cuts her hair short and paints her skin white. She announces that she is married to England. This is significant because there would not be an heir to continue her rule.

6. It si said that Elizabeth I was one of the best English monarchs. Based on this movie, why do you think this is true? I believe this is true because she unified the religions in England and let people know that she was not fooling around in doing so. Also, she did not take anyone's hand in marriage just to save herself.

7. How does her role change the definition of women in power? Her role changes this because she proves that she does not need a man to make decisions on what is best for her country. She went against what everyone else thought was right and became a strong leader by herself.

Module 4 Reading Assignment 2

Here are some websites that are very informative about Edmund Spenser and "The Faerie Queene".

http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenser/texts.htm

http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/spenser.html

http://www.enotes.com/faerie-queene/

http://www.bartleby.com/65/sp/Spenser.html

http://www.beyondbooks.com/leu11/2c.asp

Module 4 Reading Assignment 1

Here are 5 websites that discuss Sir Thomas More's "Utopia".

http://www.beyondbooks.com/leu11/2a.asp
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3380
http://www.apostles.com/utopia.html
http://www.outlawsandhighwaymen.com/more.htm
http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/curriculum/bacon.html

"Utopia" was so revolutionary because it gave insight to the outside world beyond Europe. People then still did not believe that any other place existed besides what they new. The idea that there may be something else beyond their continent was unbelievable.

Module 3: Reading Assignment 6

My Question: How was death personified in the Pardoner's Tale? How does this relate to what the Pardoner Preaches? Give Examples.

Answers:

What is the moral of the Pardoner's Tale and how is this contradictory to what he preaches?

The moral of the Pardoner's Tale is Money is the root of all evil. I'm not sure that this is contradictory to what he preaches, but I do think it is contradictory to the way he acts. He does tell people that money is the root of all evil. He says that to solve thei problems they should give up their money. What better person to give their money to than to him? He basically steals from these people who are very naive when it comes to penance.

In the Nun's Priest's Tale, the story is told as if the animals in the barnyard are people.There is a comparison between the rich and the poor. The poor being the old peasant women who has little and doesn't seem to need much and the rich, portrayed by Chaunticleer, who has a lot of responsibilities, like making sure to crow so the sun comes up. Why do you think Chaucer used animals as the main focus to tell this tale?

I think that Chaucer chose to use animals in this story because it shows the animalistic qualities that humans have. Plus, a story using humans to compare the rish and the poor would be alot more boring. Animals bring a humorous quality to the story also.

Module 3: Reading Assignment 5

1. I think that the message that this tale is trying to convey is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Although not conveyed until the end, the knight would not have known the hag's true beauty unless he kissed her. Once he kissed her, her true beauty showed.

2. If I had to cast a current actress to play the role of the Wife of Bath, I would probably choose Diane Keaton. I feel that she is a very independent individual. She always plays such strong roles that show her courage and independence. She does not seem like she would bow down to anyone, let alone a man.

3. I think that Chaucer's position on marriage is that it is supposed to be a once and done sacred commitment that two people in love make to one another. He uses marriage as the satire in the Wife of Bath's tale. He obviously feels that the way that she treated marriage was not right. She treated men as her servant instead of her equal. Although in Chaucer's time men and women in marriage were not completely equal, the men were definately not considered the lesser of the two!

Module 3: Reading Assignment 4

1. The point of the Canterbury Tales is to teach lessons in an amusing way. The satire of each person's lifestyle is written to amuse the audience. Also, it is written to give insight to the not so perfect lives of people who are perceived otherwise.

2. I think Chaucer will make a mockery of these topics because they are of the serious nature. In the text, when he is describing each person who is involved in one of these topics, he seems to focus on it. Which, I feel, could be some sort of foreshadowing on these subjects. Some examples are when he talks about the wife of Bath, he focuses on the fact that she has been married numerous times. Also, when he describes the friar, who is a religious figure, he points out the fact that he is also a beggar, which I'm sure will be focused on later in the tales.

3. The innkeeper is the most captivating to me because he gets everyone to share their stories. This is what leads to the satire in the story. He seems to pull it all together.