Dishonesty is an evil of various forms. More often than not, it sullies understanding in the form of a simple lie: short, deliberate, yet easily enough deductible. However, say the lie is taken into acceptance. Say the lie garners a foothold and establishes roots; thus, growing like a weed in persistence, say the lie institutes a sort of ‘myth.’ A myth, although unrealistic, becomes indulgently persuasive. In To Each His Own, Leonardo Sciascia weighs the battle for integrity in an ethically empty society against the oppression of falsehood within a Christ figure whose faith in morality likens to madness. Laurana is challenged not only by the lies of certain individuals, but more importantly by the myth his trust succumbs to in the wake of those lies. As one transcends beyond the novella’s simple plotline and into an underlying critique on Sicilian chivalry, Sciascia provides a social commentary on the ethos of a culture, it’s self-indulgent permittance of corruption, and the brutal demeaning of those who stand in opposition to it.
Sciascia, an Italian politician and French-enlightenment writer, utilizes Laurana as an impartial looking-glass; a means for analyzing and assessing “the insular, mafia-saturated culture of Sicily–which [Sciascia] believed to be a metaphor of the world,” (Sciascia III). Laurana, principled as a symbol of innocence, yields a detached atmosphere regarding his acquaintances: “it was something opaque, dense, almost repressed” (Sciascia 43). Sciascia’s use of contrast, subtly established by these shallow observations, introduces the driving force behind the investigation in conjunction with Laurana’s tragic flaw: purblind trust.
Laurana believes in the “supremacy of reason and candor over irrationality and...
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...limax of To Each His Own features Rosello’s integrity as a mafioso in sheep’s clothing at juxtaposition with the sleuthing Professor Laurana’s opaque complacency in disengaging his better judgment. Impaired by his loyalty and oblivious to the facade established in the semblance of friendship, he maintains this complacency even after his investigation undeviatingly points him to Rosello, Ragana, and the Branca cigar. Laurana, without comprehension of the danger he is facing. Consequently, the professor is perturbed further by the unforeseen absence of a would-be date, as opposed to the metaphoric noose his delusions of security place around his neck. Ultimately, in the all too noble quest for truth, Laurana’s ship succumbs to the abyss.
Works Cited
Sciascia, Leonardo, Adrienne W. Foulke, and W. S. Di Piero. To Each His Own. New York: New York Review, 2000. Print.
In the book, Giovanni and Lusanna, by Gene Bucker, he discusses the scandalous actions of a Florentine woman taking a wealthy high status man to court over the legality of their marriage. Published in 1988, the book explains the legal action taken for and against Lusanna and Giovanni, the social affects placed on both persons throughout their trial, and the roles of both men and women during the time. From the long and complicated trial, it can be inferred that women’s places within Florentine society were limited compared to their male counterparts and that women’s affairs should remain in the home. In this paper, I will examine the legal and societal place of women in Florentine society during the Renaissance. Here, I will argue that women were the “merchandise” of humanity and their main objective was to produce sons.
Gilbert’s use of imagery emphasizes the wild, vibrant, energetic nature of the city of Naples. It becomes clear that, In Gilbert’s eyes, Naples is a city unlike any other. The author writes, “An anthill inside a rabbit warren, with all the exoctism of a Middle Eastern bazaar and a tough of New Orleans voodoo” (Gilbert 175). This shows
For many centuries, the art of deception has been a powerful tool for achieving goals, and it has spawned the ancient debate of the ends justifying the means. In the tragedy Philoctetes by Sophocles and in Hesiod's Theogony, there are many instances of deception, particularly on the part of men in the texts. For each of them, the deceit is justified as a means of building and maintaining a reputation or obtaining power. Ultimately, however, the use of deception results in putting the men in positions of further vulnerability.
In the traditional political history of Italy the people outside of the ruling class of the society were rarely studied. Only with the use of social history did the issues of class and gender begin to be debated by scholars. Numerous recent articles have done a great job of analysing particularly men of high status. In this paper I will look at the lower classes of Renaissance Florence. More specifically, I will center my focus on the lives of women during this era, how they were treated and viewed by people of other classes and how women were viewed and treated by men.
Although the ‘Legend’ of the Wicked Italian Queen is limited by its personal malicious nature, it is credible in its demonstration of Catherine’s ambition f...
After five hundred years, Niccolo Machiavelli the man has ceased to exist. In his place is merely an entity, one that is human, but also something that is far above one. The debate over his political ideologies and theories has elevated him to a mythical status summed up in one word: Machiavelli. His family name has evolved into an adjective in the English language in its various forms. Writers and pundit’s bandy about this new adjective in such ways as, “He is a Machiavelli,” “They are Machiavelli’s,” “This is suitable for a Machiavelli.” These phrases are almost always the words of a person that understands more about Niccolo’s reputation than the man himself. Forgotten is that Machiavelli is not an adequate example of the ruler he is credited with describing; a more accurate statement would be to call someone a “Borgia” or a “Valentino.” Most of the time they are grossly mistaken in their references. All these words accomplish is to add to the legend, and the misinterpretation, of the true nature of Niccolo Machiavelli.
In “The Fortune Teller,” a strange letter trembles the heart of the story’s protagonist, Camillo as he to understand the tone and meaning. The author, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, attempts to make the reader believe that the letter is very ambiguous. This devious letter is a symbol of Camillo’s inability to realize that the treacherous deeds he has committed in the dark have finally come to light. This letter will ultimately change his life forever something he never expected. Not thinking of the large multitude of possible adverse outcomes, he reads the letter. Frightened that he has ruined what should have never been started, he broods over his decision to love a married woman. In light of this, Camillo continues his dubious love affair with his best friend’s wife, unconvinced that he will ever get caught. “The Fortune Teller” focuses on an intimate affair between three people that ends in death due to a letter, and Camillo will not understand what the true consequences that the letter entails until he is face to face with his best friend, Villela.
Virtue manifests itself differently within Christine de Pizan’s novel The Book of the City of Ladies and Niccolo Machiavelli’s novels The Prince and The Discourses Letter to Vettori. Pizan describes virtue in a moralistic sense, one closer to Aristotle and Plato’s traditional view. On the contrary, Machiavelli has a warped sense of morality and his view of virtue is one without a moral tone; he argues that a prince must adapt himself to whichever situation he finds himself in. Despite their disagreement of the materialization of virtue, they both attribute it to powerful people. Glory is attained through establishing a good political community; it can be marked in preserving the rule, stability, freedom and military power. Although their expressions of virtue differ, their ideas are similar regarding the relationship between virtue and glory; virtue should indefinitely leads to glory.
By the turn of the sixteenth century, the Italian Renaissance had produced writers such as Danté, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Castiglione, each with ideas rooted in the revival of Greek and Roman Classics, localization of the Christian traditions, idealistic opinions of women and individualism. From these authors spread the growth of the humanistic movement which encompassed the entirety of the Italian rebirth of arts and literature. One among many skeptics, including Lorenzo Valla, who had challenged the Catholic Church fifty years earlier in proving the falsity of the Donation of Constantine, Niccolò Machiavelli projected his ideas of fraudulence into sixteenth century Italian society by suggesting that rulers could only maintain power through propaganda, as seen with the success of Ferdinand of Aragon in Spain circa 1490. Today, the coined term Machiavellian refers to duplicity in either politics or self-advancement. Unlike most philosophers of the sixteenth century, Machiavelli wrote from the perspective of an anti-Humanist; he criticized not only the Classics and the Catholic Church, but also encouraged the deceitful use of religion and hated the humanist concepts of liberty, peace and individualism.1
The communal values evolve around religious events, having family honor and virginity. Even though the church’s betrayal is versatile, when the bishop arrives, it emphasizes the failure clearer. The people of the town, including the prie...
This man, knowing that he is close to death, brews up a caldron of lies to put himself in a good light before his untimely death. This is a man that supplies “false testimony with [great] delight”, and has won a great many law cases because of his evil deeds (Boccaccio: Day 1 Story 1: 610). The author uses stories like this to slight the Catholic Church of this time, and he also criticizes the canonization process of saints. The friar in this story is played like a fool, one who often responds to the “sins” of Ciappelletto as “a trifle”, all the while not realizing that he is being tricked into believing these white lies as true (Boccaccio: Day 1 Story 1: 615). While this story makes fun of the Catholic religion and its practices, it also teaches the valuable lesson to never trust a stranger, and to always research people thoroughly before declaring them
While the feudal system did not disappear for some 30 years after unification, both feudalism and a more modern-day rule of law would always be subject to interpretation. Legal scholar and philosopher Dennis Patterson concisely points out there are two prevailing camps standing at opposites: Those who argue that the interpretation of law is solely objective versus those who see it in terms of subjectivity (671). Assuming that passions during the time of Sicily’s turbulent unification were predicated more on subjectivity than objectivity, it becomes understandable that Don Fabrizio was caught in a historical trajectory not of his own choosing.
In this brief monograph, we shall be hunting down and examining various creatures from the bestiary of Medieval/Renaissance thought. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious, egotistical power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of preening social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks are of the species known as pride, while the lamb is of an entirely different, in fact antithetical race, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we shall be exploring include the diverse expanses, from palace to heath, of William Shakespeare, the dark, sinister Italy of John Webster, and the perfumed lady's chambers of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick.
Print. The. Weisberg, Richard H. "Antonio's Legalistic Cruelty: Interdisciplinarity And The Merchant Of Venice'." College Literature 25.1 (1998): 12.
Mowat, Barbara A., and Paul Werstine. The Merchant of Venice. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992. Print.