A closer look at the Primary text: Coriolanus

After returning to my play, and getting lost in it all over again, I reassured myself of my ideas and even found some new quotes to analyze here are a few of them.

At the beginning of the play there is a great piece of dialog that takes place between a few of the citizens about the intentions of Coriolanus.  Breaking down and analyzing this discourse would be a great way to introduce and ground my thesis regarding nature vs. nurture in the text:
-First Citizen

"I say unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be content to say it was for his country he did it to please his mother and to be partly proud; which he is, even till the altitude of his virtue."

Second Citizen 
 "What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous."

As my paper continues and I argue that Coriolanus is a victim of the dangerous nurturing practices of his mother and the Roman society here are a few passages that could help support this idea.

This discourse between his wife and mother reveals the way in which he was raised and, in part how his extreme pride was cultivated.
-Volumnia
To a cruel war I sent him; from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than now in first seeing he had proved himself a man.
VIRGILIABut had he died in the business, madam; how then?
 
VOLUMNIA

Then his good report should have been my son; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

As my paper progresses I will show how the tragedy lies not in the pride of Coriolanus but in the blind naivete of a society that cultivates its military leaders in such way that they expect hardness from them on the battlefield and prize their victories but off the battlefield they condemn the attitude that is necessary for such victories to be won.
This praise from Coriolanus's commanding officer shows this dynamic.

-COMINIUS If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work, Thou'ldst not believe thy deeds: but I'll report it Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles, Where great patricians shall attend and shrug, I' the end admire, where ladies shall be frighted, And, gladly quaked, hear more; where the dull tribunes, That, with the fusty plebeians, hate thine honours, Shall say against their hearts 'We thank the gods Our Rome hath such a soldier.' Yet camest thou to a morsel of this feast, Having fully dined before.

Here, this dialog between a friend of Coriolanus and  two tribunes of the people displays this conflict.

MENENIUS The augurer tells me we shall have news to-night.
BRUTUS Good or bad? 
 MENENIUS Not according to the prayer of the people, for they 
love not Marcius.  
SICINIUS Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.
MENENIUS Pray you, who does the wolf love? 
 SICINIUS The lamb.  
MENENIUS Ay, to devour him; as the hungry plebeians would the noble Marcius.  
BRUTUS He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear. 
 MENENIUS He's a bear indeed, that lives like a lamb. You two are old men: tell me one thing that I shall ask you. 
 Both Well, sir. 
 MENENIUS In what enormity is Marcius poor in, that you two have not in abundance?  
BRUTUS He's poor in no one fault, but stored with all. 
 SICINIUS   Especially in pride.
MENENIUS Because you talk of pride now,--will you not be angry?
Both Well, well, sir, well.  
MENENIUS Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience: give your dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures; at the least if you take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame Marcius for being proud?

I realize that all these passages are way to long (Sorry for the lengthy post) I would of course cut them down to size and paraphrase when I incorporate them into my paper (I just haven't got that far yet).  There are a few more passages that I could go into detail about but I think these give a decent foundation to my argument and show something of the substance that my paper will consist of. 



 

Finding Connections: The Winter's Tale

I have been looking at The Winter's Tale for the last two days for close reading. While I am not finding much, I am finding a few interesting parallels between Acts I-III and Anne Boylen's fall. From my studies of the Tudors, as Henry VIII gets closer to removing a wife that is giving him a lot of trouble there seems to be an increase in tension in the royal court. I sense that Shakespeare is trying to construct a similar rising tension as Leontes' obsession with Hermione's supposed infidelity increases. In Act I Scene II, Leontes asks Camillo a series of rhetorical questions about the queen's supposed behavior:

Is whispering nothing? Is leaning cheek to cheek? is meeting noses? Kissing with inside lip? stopping the career Of laughing with a sigh?—a note infallible Of breaking honesty—horsing foot on foot? Skulking in corners? wishing clocks more swift? Hours, minutes? noon, midnight? and all eyes Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only, That would unseen be wicked? is this nothing?

Shakespeare, William (2011-09-07). The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Kindle Locations 40812-40819). Latus ePublishing. Kindle Edition.

I looked up some terms on the Silvia Rhetoricae website. This type of rhetorical behavior is called excusiato, or stirring others to anger by one's own vehement feeling. This also demonstrates amplification, or the arrangement of words or clauses in order of increasing force. Notice how Leontes goes from "whispering" to touching to kissing to secret meetings, increasing the severity of his accusations by increasing the severity of Hermione's supposed behavior. We've heard about the steps leading to from smaller sins to bigger ones. This small passage by itself is a symbol of Leontes' increasing obsession.  

The chief cause of Anne Boylen's fall from failure was her inability to produce a son after the birth of Elizabeth. Over Christmas Break I read The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, which went into detail on this issue. Henry was already apparently in a relationship with Jane Seymour during one of Anne's later pregnancies. At eight months, Anne miscarried, and the fetus was developed enough that they could tell it would have been a boy. Henry increasingly lost interest in Anne and decided to remove her. Weir's description--as well as other descriptions I've read of Henry VIII when he was in one of these moods--describe Henry as a brooding and obsessive, willing to believe anything he convinced himself, and once he was set on doing something nothing could stop him.

Having taken years to depose of Katherine of Aragon. According to Weir, Henry wanted Anne out of the way quickly. He trumped-up charges that she was having affairs with other men (Leontes deposed Hermione for the same reason) and that Elizabeth and her miscarried children were not his. Anne was sent to the Tower of London, put on trial (much like Hermione, although neither trial could hardly be called "just"), and she was executed.

There are one or two small connections to the Tudors I have found in this play that I also believe support my case, but it would take up a lot of writing. I am thinking about narrowing down my topic to The Winter's Tale and Anne Boylen. Thoughts?

Returning to Primary Texts

In developing a research paper idea about a literary, it's important to circle back to that literature in light of one's developing thinking. Here's a suggested procedure:

• Summarize your current thinking, identifying one or two main directions, perhaps in terms of a question or two. With those in mind...
• Review key passages (noted by yourself or others)
• Analyze (a passage, a word, a pattern), often by using critical aids (like footnotes) or other tools (like concordances), looking for patterns (thematically, or in terms of language, form, etc.).
• Synthesize your current thinking in a brief post (which can narrate your process, not just articulate your claim or analysis)

Example from Twelfth Night

• Current thinking: What is the connection between the themes of madness and love in Twelfth Night? Is this kind of madness related to non-love types of madness?
• Key Passages
• "I am as mad as he, / If sad and merry madness equal be" (3.4.15-16)
• "But tell me true, are you / not mad indeed? or do you but counterfeit?" (4.2.107-08)
• Analyze
• I used Shakespeare Searched to look for mentions of madness in Twelfth Night. From this, it appears that madness is linked both to merriness and to sadness, and has both positive and negative connotations. Characters of all rank demonstrate various types of madness. It is associated with music, with mourning, with being lovesick, deluded, and with being either overly religious or with being overly loose in one's morals.

• Synthesize
• A repeated saying in Twelfth Night is "some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them."I am starting to see that one could say the same thing about madness. Some seem to be by nature foolish or crazy, some have events happen in their lives that bring about some kind of irrational behavior, and some become crazy because others drive them to it.