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Dubliners by J.Joyce (riferimento a 'Eveline' e 'The dead')

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“Dubliners” is a collection of fifteen short stories written by James Joyce in which the author analyses the failure of self-realisation of inhabitants of Dublin in biographical and in psychological ways. The novel was originally turned down by publishers because they considered it immoral for its portrait of the Irish city. Joyce treats in “Dubliners” the paralysis of will in four stages: childhood, youth, maturity and public life. The paralysis of will is the courage and self-knowledge that leads ordinary men and women to accept the limitations imposed by the social context they live in. In “Dubliners” the style is both realistic - to the degree of perfectly recreating characters and idioms of contemporary Dublin - and symbolic – giving the common object unforeseen depth and a new meaning in order to show a new view of reality. Joyce defines this effect “epiphany” which indicates that moment when a simple fact suddenly explodes with meaning and makes a person realise his / her condi
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Compare and contrast the way nature is treated in Coleridge, Wordsworth and Shelley’s poetry

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Morning amongst the Coniston Fells, CumberlandWilliam Turner - Morning amongst the Coniston Fells, Cumberland (1798)

Nature is one of the most important Romantic themes.

According to Romantics, nature doesn’t mean only a realistic description of it, but it is the main viewer of the turbulent feelings of the human soul; poets endow it with life, passion and feelings and talk about nature in terms once used for God, or a lover or a dear friend.

Moreover, they want to express through the poetry the complex interaction between man and nature and the emotions, the sensations that arise from this relationship.

So, nature becomes a source of poetic inspiration, which stimulates the imagination of the poet.

This particular relationship is described with mastery by WilliamWordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley.


William Wordsworth

Wordsworth offers a detailed account of the complex interaction between man and nature, of the influences, the emotions and the sensations that arise from this contact, rather than objective and scientific description of the natural world.

He considers that man and nature are inseparable, in particular the child, in his innocence and simplicity, is closer than the adult to the original state of harmony with nature.

So, he believes in the pre-existence of the soul and the soul, after birth, gradually loses its memory of a perfect union with the universe.

This concept, expressed in Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood , is integrated with other meanings in Lyrical Ballads.

Nature is considered as the countryside which is opposed to the noise and confusion of the town.

Moreover, according to a pantheistic conception, nature is animated by a divine spirit.

Then, it is considered a source of feelings, joy and pleasure that comforts man in sorrow and teaches him to love and to act in a moral way.

Nature is the major source of poetic inspiration. Wordsworth considers it as “the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being”.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Unlike Wordsworth, Coleridge doesn’t see nature as a source of consolation and joy or as a moral guide.

His contemplation of nature is accompanied by consciousness of the presence of the ideal in the real.

Because of his strong Christian faith, Coleridge considers nature as the only way the “One life” (the divine power) manifests itself to man; so, all creatures must be respected, being the “personification of God” (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

The natural elements and the landscape are endowed with a deep symbolic meaning.

He doesn’t identify the nature with the divine according to a pantheistic conception adopted by Wordsworth, but he sees nature and the material world in a sort of neoplatonic interpretation as projection of the real world of “Ideas” (Iperuranio) on the flux of time.

So, Coleridge believes natural images carry abstract meanings and uses them in his most poems like The Rime ofthe Ancient Mariner.


Percy Bysshe Shelley

Unlike Coleridge, Shelley considers nature as a source of joy and a life force, expression of the “Spirit of Universe”, which continually creates new life and governs natural phenomena.

So, all creatures aspire to return to the “Whole”, the “One”.

However, nature takes another meaning to Shelley: it is a shelter from injustices of life and the disappointment of the ordinary world.

In his lyrics, we can locate the poet’s own rebel spirit in communion with the natural scenery and the natural forces.

Like Wordsworth, Shelley considers nature as a source of poetic inspiration.

He, inspired by the natural phenomena and forces like the West wind in Ode to the West Wind, writes his lyrics and announces it to the world of men.

So, nature is endowed of social ideals; it becomes a source of prophetic political and social revolutions.

Through it, Shelley becomes a prophet who notices all men about these great revolutions.

In Ode to the West Wind , in fact, just as the wind has no voice without nature, so Shelley asks the wind to give him the liberating force of poetic inspiration, to transmit a natural force to the world of men.


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Analisi del testo. Tre cose solamente mi so 'n grado di Cecco Angiolieri

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Wars and social revolt in 14th century

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Agincourt battle In 1337, war between England and France broke out when Edward III claimed the vacant throne of France. One of the most famous victories in English history was achieved by Henry V at Agincourt. The conflict was interrupted by other tragic events such as the Bubonic plague or Black Death. Under Henry VI's reign, the French obtained spectacular victories thanks to Joan of Arc. In the end, the English kings had lost all their continental possessions. Opposition to the Church developed in the second half of the 14th century under the leadership of John Wycliffe, a member of Oxford University who attacked the supremacy of the Pope. From 1454 to 1485 there was a civil war between the two noble houses of York and Lancaster. It was called the War of the Roses because symbols of Lancaster and York families were respectively red rose and white rose. The war was won by Henry Tudor of the Lancastrian dynasty, and he became Henry VII of England.
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Comparison between Joyce's "Ulysses" and Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway"

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The Ballad of Lord Randal

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Text "O where ha you been, Lord Randal, my son? And where ha you been, my handsome young man?” I ha been at the greenwood; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “An wha met ye there, Lord Randal, my son? An wha met you there, my handsome young man?” “O I met wi my true-love; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “And what did she give you, Lord Randal, my son? And what did she give you, my handsome young man?” “Eels fried in a pan; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “An wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal my son? And wha gat your leavins, my handsome young man?” “ My hawks and my hounds; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie down.” “And what becam of them, Lord Randal my son? And what becam of them, my handsome young man?” “ They stretched their legs out and died; mother, mak my bed soon, “For I’m wearied wi hunting and fain wad lie
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Giovanni Pascoli: Lavandare

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Analisi del testo. La vita fugge, et non s'arresta una hora di Francesco Petrarca

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I contributi a livello di poesia di Francesco Petrarca e Dante Alighieri a confronto

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