The Castration of Eloisa in Pope's Eloisa to Abelard
If Pope's intent in writing an Ovidian heroic epistle is to show the entire range of his protagonist's emotions from meekness to violent passion, then he was wise to choose the twelfth-century story of Eloisa and Abelard as his subject. Eloisa and her teacher Abelard retired to different monasteries after her family discovered they were lovers and brutally castrated him. Years later, Eloisa by chance intercepted a letter from Abelard to a friend chronicling their love affair. The letter reawakened Eloisa's long repressed passion for Abelard, and she struggles to reconcile her sexual passion with her religious vows. As she has taken a vow of silence, the only mode of expression left to Eloisa is her emotion, which she often expresses by weeping. She tells Abelard in her mind:
Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare,
Love but demands what else were shed in pray'r;
No happier task these faded eyes pursue,
To read and weep is all they now can do. (lines 45-48)
Eloisa thus lives in her mind, communicating mentally with God and now her former lover Abelard alternately. Pope's poem is his idea of what Eloisa would write to Abelard in a letter, albeit a letter whose writing would have spanned several years until her death. In his seminal 1969 article "The Escape from Body or the Embrace of Body," Murray Krieger states that "the poem represents at once a finished letter and a letter that, apparently finished, is actually in the stormy process of being written" (34). The richness of Pope's language juxtaposed with the rigidity of his couplet form have suggested to critics both the depth of Eloisa's emotion and the restraints placed on her by the Church and her vows. This juxtaposition has troubled some critics (including Krieger) as a mismatch. These critics argue that a writer in Eloisa's emotional state would produce writing that is much less polished and constrained than Pope's perfect couplets. In fact, that Pope records Eloisa's emotional language in the confining couplet verse structure is precisely what Krieger calls the poem's failure. I propose that Pope intended Eloisa's emotional outbursts to strain against his own exacting poetic form. I believe Pope constricts Eloisa's florid language within the couplet in order to emphasize the severity of the imprisonment she suffers in the monastery. Further, I would argue that Eloisa's imprisonment in a monastery, combined with the vow of silence and marriage to the Church required of her as part of her religious confinement, is a symbolic act of
Allende effectively used the literary devices of imagery, similes, and diction, to help the reader understand the admiration others have for Clarisa while conveying the deeper meaning of the text without compromising the flow and comprehension. Each literary device provides an easy, enjoyable, and profound way to view this story, and learn about the sacrifices
...estructive. Love led to Dido’s physical death and it lead to Augustine’s spiritual death. Virgil and Augustine further demonstrate that there our ideals greater than love. Aeneas ends his romance with Dido in order to fulfill his destiny to become founder of Rome. Aeneas must obey the gods before his passion. Augustine forsakes his life of lust when Christ calls him. He obeys his God and learns to love and esteem Him above all else. Aeneas fulfills his duty to his gods and to his country; Augustine fulfills his duty to His God and his church. Duty should take precedence and overpower love.
Euripides establishes Electra as a character plagued by grief. In the beginning of the play, Electra introduces a “black night” that consumes her while “bearing this jar” (Electra 55-56). The tone she creates through personifying the “black night” identifies her grief-stricken approach to a preexisting tragedy and her susceptibility towards destined conflict. In addition to her uneasy mental state, Electra’s mother “casts Orestes and [her] from [their] own house” leading to her “spirit wearing thin, exiled from home and heritage” (Electra 65 and 218-219). Collectively, these misfortunes fuel Electra’s ambition to “arrange [her] mother’s death” (Electra 671). By justifying her mother’s death as an exchange for the adversities that Clytemnestra contributed to creating, Electra looses her ability to reason and act rationally. While preying on Clytemnestra, Electra asserts, “I delivered myself. I gave birth alone” (Electra 1164). These lines distinctly mark Electra’s insanity. A...
Religion is a powerful symbol in ‘Equus’. Dora, Alan’s mother is christian and had given Alan a talk about religion when he was child. Dora mentions that she is the one that had a proper talk with Alan about puberty and sexuality. This brings up the idea that perhaps because of Dora’s religious talk nearing the beginning of Alan’s puberty, he may have intertwined the ideas of sexuality and religion together which created the qualities that he sees in Equus.
Williams, D. (1999). Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health: The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896, 173-188.
...ion’s primary purpose stands as a necessary release of bridled passions and as a distraction from the meaningless existence that is everyday life. Both authors push farther into this theory, however, in order to discover what effect such an institution can have on the mental stability of humans as well as the institutions of society. The Stranger’s magistrate, abandoning his oath to remain disinterested, allows his opinion of Meursault to be swayed by his apathetic response to religion, reflecting society’s unwarranted judgment based on religious affiliation. In “Equus,” Alan represents the dangerous effects of confusing sexuality and religion, displaying the dangers of relying on religion as one’s sole source of passion.
The voice of the text presents a view on sexuality and sexual desire through Claudio's brief but nevertheless sharp remark when he is conveyed to prison:
However, the nature of this love is different in each story. In “Araby”, it is an innocent, pure, platonic feeling that completely changes the life of the character exerting an enormous influence on his psychological state. The boy has lost interest in everyday life. He cannot concentrate on his studying; he does not play with his friends; he can think about nothing else except for his beloved. For him, the lady is like a symbol of blissful happiness, a goddess; his love to her is sacred: “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand” (108).It explains the strong feeling of the boy for the girl. With Eveline, the situation is different. It is difficult to say for sure whether she indeed loves Frank or not. She thinks about him only as about a person who will help her to achieve her aim. She does not feel any tenderness, any passion to him –any of those feelings that are associated with real love. For her, the young man is a means, although she does not consciously treat him like that. She praises his virtues seeing that Frank is “kind, manly, open-hearted” (3), that he is interesting as a personality; she is proud to be his beloved. Still, it seems that Eveline is not in love with him. She admits that “it had been an excitement for her to have a fellow and then she had begun to like him” (3). She is simply pleased to have a
In Financial Accounting accountants prepare only the annual finance statement of any organization and shows if the organization is going in profit or loss. But in Management Accounting the managers have to take the future decisions and steps by looking at the past financial statements. So Management Accounting is very important because one wrong decision can transfer the organizations path or the future. Management Accountants have a responsibility to moral qualities which has to be kept intact by using their various skills, which will ultimately help the shareholders of any organization to retain profits earned from the money invested. Strategy formation by executing plans, budgeting and forecasting, risk management and decision making all these are required as skills in Management Accounting. In Management Accounting a manager has to have knowledge on both the financial and non-financial terms of the business and operational sides of the business. Both the financial and non-financial items are reported and analyzed by the managers to come to any decision. Again, the corporate social performance is also analyzed and a report is made on that. They have to take care of the other points also, i. e, profit of the organization, the final and end users, i. e ,customers and their satisfaction levels, employees of the organization, environmental matters related to the
Management accounting in organisation is very important for decision-making and to make the business more efficient and therefore increasing its profits. Is the process of preparing accounts that can help managers to make day-to-day and short-term decisions, by providing them with accurate and timely key financial and statistical information...
1. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; This paper will try to analyze the growth of consciousness of the Lady of Shalott. Ranging from her state of mind in total isolation, her 'childhood', to her changing 'adolescence' and eventually reaching 'adulthood' and death, all in a sort of quick-motion. It will further deal with the development of tension throughout the poem. By making a distinction between tension through formal aspects, such as rhyme scheme, and tension through content, it will try to show the interconnection between both of them. Additionally, the paper will deal with the possible effect of tension on the reader and how the poem might be perceived by him/her.
“The rape of the lock” is a satiric poem which treats a trivial subject, with the sophisticated language and heroic style of the classical epic. Pope addresses a variety of ideas ...
Subsequent to obtaining the accounting information, managerial accountants will then proceed to use it to plan, evaluate the company performance and also control the business operations. With regards to planning, the managers are required to make decisions concerning the kind of product to introduce into the market, when to introduce the product and where the production should take place. In performance evaluation, individual product lin...
Confessions takes readers through Saint Augustine’s spiritual wandering prior to becoming a virtuous and highly influential bishop in the Catholic Church. The early stages of the book have Augustine reflecting on his childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood – parts of his life where he feels that he is dangerously far away from God. “At one time in adolescence I was burning to find satisfaction from hellish pleasures. I ran wild in the shadowy jungle of erotic adventures. ‘My beauty wasted away and in your sight I became putrid’,” displays how Augustine’s focus on worldly things
Managerial Accounting plays very important role in a nonprofit organization. Accounting analysis techniques will help managers within organization to make better management decisions. With the help of these techniques managers making decisions about selecting equipment, determining whether costs are being efficiently incurred, monitoring financial and nonfinancial performance measures, and developing strategic plans.