House of Notes

"Who is this Pope that I hear so much about?" said George II; "I cannot discover what is his merit. Why will not my subjects write in prose? I hear a great deal, too, of Shakespeare, but I cannot read him, he is such a bombast fellow." Alexander Pope, an only child, was born in London, on May 21,1688, the year of the Glorious revolution . His father, a linen-draper, was forty-two, his mother forty-six. Both were Roman Catholics , and his father, Alexander Sr., retired from business after his son's birth, perhaps because a new act of Parliament prohibited Catholics from living within ten miles of London. Between 1696 and 1700 Pope was tutored at home by a priest, and then enrolled in two Catholic schools, but he was largely self-educated. His religion would have made it impossible, at the time, to pursue a career in law or medicine or the Clergy even had he wished to: as a Catholic he was not, for example, permitted to attend a un...

Grand Style of "Paradise Lost" Book-I Introduction "The name of Milton", says Raleigh, "is become the mark, not of a biography nor of a theme, but of a style - the most distinguished in our poetry." In all that he has written he has impressed his indomitable personality and irrepressible originality. John Milton is not only in every line of Paradise Lost but in every line of poetry that he has written. As Macaulay has said: "There is not a square inch of his poetry from first to last of which one could not confidently say." "This is Milton and no one else." His accent and speech alike in Ode to Nativity and in Paradise Lost are his own and in marked contrast to any other English poet. Essentials of Miltonic Style Since style is the expression of personality, we have to find the peculiar quality of Milton's style in his personality and character. In the first place, Milton's mind was "nourished upon...

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. , When asked what one could expect from “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Mr. Oscar Wilde said, “It is exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it hasits philosophy… that we treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and allthe serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”  Indeed,his play is peopled with desperately trivial characters, manipulating andcoping with a stifling, hollow system of rules to maintain their classdistinction and privileges.  At least two of them invent alter egos to escape this hell and to pursue their dreams of love and romance.  Through parody, irony and verbal paradox, Mr. Wilde adroitly strips off what Cecily calls “the shallow mask of manner” to reveal the hypocrisy and prejudice that prevailed in a society obsessed with appearance and propriety – one that was divided by class, money, gender and generation. People ...

The Satire of The importance of being earnest...... The use of satirical devices such as irony, travesty, sarcasm and farce to ridicule society and the behavior of people in society is quite often successful in questioning the morals and values of the people under observation. In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest, Wilde mocks the Victorian structure of society in Britain, and the rules it followed in the 1800s. Each character is used by Wilde to satirize the society on such issues like marriage, morality, intelligence, and the appearance versus the nature of something. Wilde usually satirizes the Victorian society that he lived in with the idea of marriage. Marriage is seen in Victorian society as a business arrangement, as shown when Lady Bracknell questions Jack to determine if he is suitable for Gwendolen, she had provided a list of bachelors that have been prearranged. in addition illustrating the attitude on marriage, Algernon’s speech criti...

The Jew of Malta: A Typical Marlovian Tragedy Marlovian tragedy is significant due to its newness, Renaissance influence, Machiavellian morality, powerful and passionate expression, element of tragic, inner conflict, its tragic hero, popular literary type, high seriousness, bombastic language and blank verse. Medieval drama was linked with church and there were only Mysteries and Morality plays but after the rise of a new wave of the Renaissance in Europe, there was a great change in the taste of audience. After the Reformation Movement, Mysteries and Morality plays lost all their influence on audience, rather they were disliked by the people because of their link with the old church. Interludes, Masques and Pageants were introduced and touch of comedy was felt in English Drama but all these innovations were in chaotic state when Marlowe and other “University Wits” started their career. With the revival of learning in the fifteenth c...