Comparing the Themes of Vincenzio Bellini’s Norma and Euripedes' Medea
Vincenzio Bellini’s opera Norma is considered by many to be a reworking of Euripedes' classic Greek tragedy Medea. Both plots have many identical elements of Greek tragedy such as a chorus, unity of location, and a human decision and action culminating in tragedy. Richard Wagner greatly admired Greek tragedies, believing them to be “The highest point ever reached in human creative achievement…” (Wagner 1). In his essay Theories of Art, Wagner gives five reasons for this “artistic perfection:” 1. It represented a successful combination of the arts-- poetry, drama, costumes, mime, music, dance and song-- and as such had greater scope and expressive powers than any of the arts alone. 2. It took its subject matter from myth, which illuminates the human experience in universal terms. (“The myth is true for all times.” (Wagner 2)) 3. Both the content and the occasion of performance had religious significance. 4. It was a religion of humanism and a celebration of life, even in death. 5. The entire community took part. Medea also deals heavily with the themes of female jealousy, its capabilities, and infanticide, as does Norma. Norma exhibits not only the embodiment of these themes, but also exhibits Wagner’s theories of effectiveness of Greek tragedy, therefore qualifying Bellini’s opera to be as effective in portraying the classic ideals of Greek tragedy as its counterpart, Medea.
Wagner believed that as time went on, Greek art slowly disintegrated, each individual art going a separate way, developing alone—instrumentals without words, poetry without music, drama without either, etc. He believed it further disintegrated with the introduction of Christiani...
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In Swift’s satirical essay he stated the main issue to be the hunger and starvation of Irish country and their lack of money to support oneself. He said the complication was they themselves don’t have food, to many families in poverty, and that the Englishman took their land and charging high prices for rent. Swift makes this argument because he too is an Irish men and he struggles to see his fellow men parish in the streets. He desires his people to stand up against England and take back what’s theirs. He argues that the Irish...
Jean Kilbourne, Richard Pollay, Sut Jhally, Bernard McGrane and other noted critics, performing a cultural
Medea's first public statement, a sort of "protest speech," is one of the best parts of the play and demonstrates a complex, at times even contradictory, representation of gender. Medea's calm and reasoning tone, especially after her following out bursts of despair and hatred, provides the first display of her ability to gather herself together in the middle of crisis and pursue her hidden agenda with a great determination. This split in her personality is to a certain degree gender bias. The lack of emotional restraint is "typical" of women, and the strong attention to moral action is a common trait of heroes. Medea actually uses both of these traits so that her wild emotions fuel her ideals, thus producing a character that fails to fit into a clear mold.
Again, satire involves exaggeration to reveal or shame concerns. This aspect of satire is seen when Swift writes that he “believe no Gentleman would repine to give Ten Shillings for the Carcass of a good fat Child which, as I have said will make four Dishes of excellent Nutritive Meat” (swift 316), this would allow the Mother earn “have Eight Shillings neat profit, and be fit for Work till she produceth another Child” (316). Swift’s statement was to address the economic issues. By buying and selling child as a food source this would help with two problems that Ireland is dealing with. First by selling the children it would put money back into the pockets of the people. This proposal would also aid in feed the people that are starving because of the poor condition and the bad growing
...loss of their friendship but of a man who was both an idol and kindred spirit. In the space Wagner left, Bizet was able to root himself by planting his music. It had roots; it was real and based on experience in that it allowed the audience to brings theirs to the theatre. Where Wagnerian theatre told the audience what to feel, Carmen just told them to feel. It asked the audience to overcome its imperfections, to evaluate why they liked it, what it made them feel. Parsifal made them feel till they believed. Bizet was more appropriate for small theatres in that he only sought to produce the best thing that he could; what was his best over the best. That is the realm of Wagner, and in order to compose the greatest, most popular opera one has to pander to the masses. Those rabble which Nietzsche says are afflicted by the illness of Christianity, morality and decadence.
After the phallic stage is the latent period, where the sexual energy is suppressed due to the development of the ego and superego. Children become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, and other interests (Furnham). In this stage, Medea attempts to represses her sexual anger at Jason, almost deciding against killing her children. Despite her attempt, she is unable to transcend this stage. The last stage is the genital stage, where the focus of the child transitions from individual needs to the interest of the welfare of others. The individual should be well-balanced, warm, and caring (Furnham). Based on her behavior, Medea doesn’t reach the enlightenment that is supposed to come with the genital stage because she doesn’t reconcile
Othello is one of Shakespeare’s four pillars of great tragedies. Othello is unique in comparison to the others in that it focuses on the private lives of its primary characters. When researching the subject of Othello being an Aristotelian tragedy, there is debate among some critics and readers. Some claim that Shakespeare did not hold true to Aristotle’s model of tragedy, according to his definition in “Poetics,” which categorized Othello as a classic tragedy as opposed to traditional tragedy. Readers in the twenty-first century would regard Othello a psychological thriller; it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat creating the emotions of terror, heart break, and sympathy. This paper will focus on what Shakespeare actually intended regarding “Othello” and its Aristotelian influences.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet in the solar system. It is known as a gas giant and its mass is one thousandth of the mass of the sun, however, its mass is two and a half times the mass of all the planets in the solar system combined. It is considered a gas giant along with the three other planets Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune. These four planets are referred to as the Jovian planets or outer planets. The planet was known by astronomers since ancient times which may be one of the reasons the Romans named the planet after their Roman god Jupiter.
The people of today greatly envy the ancient times. They study, idolize, and imitate its culinary, fashion, and social aspects due to believing these had been exemplary. As with any given time period, however, inherent flaws indeed existed, particularly concerning the society of Ancient Greece. Euripides, the renowned Ancient Greek playwright who lived in this period himself, recognized the existence of various social flaws and in suit wrote the allegorical play Medea in 431 B.C.E., a popular work studied by many in its current translation today. In the play, Euripides employs the protagonist, Medea, to provide transparency into the social flaws of Ancient Greek society and culture. He executes this by placing Medea into situations of discord with the king, her ex-husband, and the chorus to exploit the social flaws of abuse of power, male dominance, and blatant naivety in Ancient Greece.
According to Plato, “Human behavior flows from three main sources, desire, emotion, and knowledge.” What exactly is emotion? Everyone has it, feels it, and sometimes we can’t control it. It is a dominating force that sometimes causes us to do the most remarkable and maniacal things. Strong emotion is a rational occurrence in human nature that can be demonstrated through examples in Medea, Sappho, and Force Majeure.
...his moon. There is about half water ice and half rocky material, which consists of magnesium and other elements.
The majority of people have a very basic understanding of Earth, the planet we reside in, let alone the seven other planets in our solar system. The eight planets surrounding our star, the Sun, are separated into two very simple categories: Jovian and Terrestrial Planets. Throughout this paper, I will be explaining the basic structure and properties of the eight planets in our solar system, along with a brief history on the discovery of our solar system and what’s to come in the future. I will also go in depth into the difference between the Jovian Planets and the Terrestrial Planets, from the basic differences to the different structures and properties.
During Swift’s time, English land-lords owned much of the land in Ireland. These affluent Englishmen practiced feudalism in which they employed the Irish to tend to their fields. The English, however, forced high taxes upon the Irish workers. This system prevented the Irish from obtaining much profit, which in turn forced the workers to face an endless cycle of poverty. The majority of the families in Ireland were subject to this system, which resulted in the great issue of the families not being able to care for their children after establishing this precedent; swift introduces his satirical proposal of transforming the burden of childcare into a profitable affair. Swift proposes the Irish market their children to be eaten. Swift suggests that this system will boost the Irish by giving families money in their pockets as well as an end to Ireland’s famine by introducing a new food source. Throughout Swift’s proposal, he presents multiple benefits from his system and how it will cause Ireland to prosper. As beneficial as Swift’s proposal may appear, he drafted his piece satirically, as not to be serious with his proposal but use it to initiate change. Swift realizes his proposal will shock his audience,...
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