literature anaylsis E.C

The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Translated by David R. Slavitt

General

1. The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius is an essay written by Boethius, a wealthy well educated Roman aristocrat, as he is unjustly imprisoned and awaiting execution for treason around 524 A.D.  The essay is a conversation with “Lady Philosophy” on the spiritual meaning of human existence.  She provides him a philosophy that is capable of consoling him at his moment of greatest despair.  Boethius had been a prominent and noble person and was now facing execution for treason on trumped up charges and false testimony. Lady philosophy explains how fortune, health, wealth, honor and power are temporal, and they are given and taken away often quite quickly, so it is unwise to become attached to any such temporal things.  Of greater significance to a potential eternal existence are the soul and the intellectual capacity of a combined humanity.  As such Lady Philosophy offers up the belief in God as a better path to true happiness than the pursuit of earthly temporal treasures.  She offers up a very compelling, empowering, and beautiful argument that does indeed console Boethius. It is an argument on the eternal sustainability of goodness and the temporal nature of wickedness.

2.  The theme of the novel is that true happiness can only be found in the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment and virtue. Nothing we can acquire on earth, such as power, wealth and pleasure are certain or predictable so they cannot provide true happiness.

3. The tone of this book is uplifting and empowering, although the author is unjustly imprisoned awaiting his execution. The book does offer a logical argument for the existence of an eternal universal truth which can provide consolation for a desperate situation. The loss of any material or temporal things including your physical life should not cause sorrow because the only thing of true value is within yourself to realize and once realized is eternal so it cannot be taken away.  This is a very “hopeful” and empowering idea.  The mind is very powerful and ultimately your ability to be happy does depend on your ability to reconcile evils such as disease, despair, and destruction that eventually affect all temporal things.  God being universal truth and happiness is the only thing the really exists as it is sustainable throughout eternity, all evil doesn’t really exists because it is temporal.  Evil by its own nature eventually destroys itself.

4. Personification is used as a literary element to enhance the tone as philosophy is personified as a lady who appears to be of a greater world than the one we know.  Lady philosophy is a mystical vision or allegory with whom Boethius speaks throughout the essay. Dramatic visualization is used to describe the robe that Lady philosophy wears being made out of imperishable material woven by her own hands, but tattered by the hands of “marauders” who have torn off pieces of the robe.  Imagery is used often to describe in detail the setting. It is ironic that the author being more virtuous the most of the current Roman government is the one in prison. The story itself is a paradox in that the author “finds” himself as he is awaiting his execution. An example of symbolism in the story is Lady Philosophy’s varying height.  The taller she is the more philosophical her arguments are.  When she is an average height she provides practical philosophy.

 

Characterization

1. The main characters are the author, narrator and the mystical vision of philosophy, called Lady Philosophy.  Boethius’s father-in-law, Symmachus, and his wife, Rusticiana, are moral upstanding characters.  Boethius loves them and his son, and is comforted some that they are still alive.

2. The author's syntax and diction changes as some of the philosophy is written in poetry and other in dialog.  The essay is a very convincing argument for spirituality. The argument for free will is also maintained.

3. The author is the main character and is a dynamic character. He is profoundly affected by the arguments of Lady Philosophy.  Her lessons are indeed consoling and timeless.  I really did get the feeling that the author was deeply and profoundly affected by the logic, although he had led a noble and honest life, which in itself was not enough to save him from his untimely death. 

4. After reading the book, I definitely felt like I had met a person and felt deeply moved and empowered by the arguments presented.  Despite the constraints placed on your freedoms by wicked governments, or other circumstances, you can at least always have the consolation of philosophy.  In “saving” yourself perhaps you “save” the world as nothing we can comprehend being temporal has any significance as compared to a concept like eternity. No matter your circumstances, it is good advice to cultivate virtue as it is the only logical (sustainable) path to eternity.   

literature analysis #5

The Sun Also Rises
by: Ernest  Hemingway

1. Jake Barnes and his friends live in the contreversial, self-indulgent world of post-World War I Paris. There, they occasionally work, but spend most of their time partying, drinking, and arguing. From Jake’s perspective, we meet the cast of characters that populates his story: the most important among them are Robert Cohn who is down-on-his-luck, a Princeton grad and unsuccessful writer. We are also introduced to Lady Brett Ashley, an exciting, beautiful, and unpredictable British divorcee.  Although Jake and Brett are actually in love, they aren’t together, presumably because a mysterious war wound has rendered Jake impotent. Cohn falls in love with Brett as well and, despite the fact that she’s not terribly impressed with him, she secretly goes on a trip with him to San Sebastian. Cohn is smitten, truly, madly, deeply in love. Unfortunately for Cohn (and for everyone, for that matter), Brett is engaged to a wealthy, charming, and drunkard man named Mike. Jake’s other friend Bill returns to Paris from a trip and a plan is derived, everyone agrees to go to Spain for some fishing and the running of the bulls in Pamplona. On their fishing trip, Bill and Jake have a splendid time with each other, but the relaxation quickly comes to an end. They return to civilization and meet up with Brett, Mike, and Cohn in Pamplona for a weeklong activities of bullfights, alcohol, and high drama. Jake has a true passion for bullfighting, but everyone else is simply there to have a good time. Brett begins a rather scandalous affair with a young bull-fighter, Pedro Romero. Jake feels terrible for many reasons one being the fear that he has corrupted Romero in some way by introducing him to Brett. Cohn’s infatuation with Brett leads to arguments with everyone and, finally, he beats the unfortunate Romero to a bloody pulp. As the fiesta winds down, everyone leaves Pamplona in various states of anxiety, depression and frustration. Jake heads to San Sebastian, where he intends to be alone for a while. Unfortunately, desperate telegrams from Brett arrive immediately. He goes to her in Madrid, where she is alone, having sent Romero away. For the first time, we see Brett truly vulnerable, afraid, and guilty. The future looks just as bad, Jake and Brett agree again that, even though they love each other, they can’t be together.

2. The main theme I recognized in the novel was that of love. This is the best theme that i could find because of Brett. Everyone is so infatuated with her and multiple people "fall in love" with her. Yes, love is corrupted in the novel and usually triggered with the idea of sex behind it, but although this is so I still feel as if the whole them revolves around love because even the environment is romanticized; it's in Paris.

3. The tone of the novel is sort of somber, and detached from reality.  

Examples of this are through these three quotes:

•"I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together"

•"I was a little drunk. Not drunk in any positive sense but just enough to be careless."

•"'Listen, Jake,' he leaned forward on the bar. "Don’t you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you’re not taking advantage of it? Do you realize you’ve lived nearly half the time you have to live already?"

All of these examples show how the author has an odd kind of negative outlook on life, which makes him tone almost depressing.

4. Literary elements that portrayed the tone and theme were not very hard to spot through out the novel.  The symbols were the first thing that i recognized with in the novel, one being the bull fighting. The fighting of the bulls symbolized that some kind of drama was going to show up with Jake and his friends, whether it be a casual argument or a controversy about Brett. Another two literary techniques I saw in the novel that led me into what the authors tone was through diction and syntax.  Hemingway would right with very sophisticated language with a lot of detail and he would make very wise, but somewhat whimsical statements. For example, "Caffeine puts a man on his horse and a woman in his grave." The structure of the sentences were kind of condensed which also led to the depressing or conservative tone. Another literary technique that I could identify was that the author used a lot of comparison within his writing, especially those that portray women as almost scandalous. "And with them was Brett. I was very angry. Somehow they always made me angry. I know they are supposed to be amusing, and you should be tolerant, but I wanted to swing on one, any one, anything to shatter that superior, simpering composure."  The last literary technique I saw with the novel is the allusions that are seen such as the references to greek mythology.