Analytical Experiment Final - "Facing the Inevitable"

Joshua Malang

Professor Flack

English 6

British Literature

Fall 2012

Analytical Experiment

 

“FACING THE INEVITABLE”

            In the fate of the continuous moving hands of the clock: from the Middle Ages Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf; from the Sixteenth century’s William Shakespeare’s timeless Sonnet 3 and in his play Twelfth Night; from the early Seventeenth century’s The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster; and from the morality play of Robert Henryson’s Everyman, significant characters cannot escape the inevitability that beauty fades and everyone must face death. The works support the common idea that in one’s youthfulness, you bloom with life, beauty and strength, yet the authors propose that it is merely temporary. Much like as seasons pass by, consequently we begin to wither away and the fate of age, beauty fades and death comes whether we like it or not. Within this period of time, profound authors presented readers that there are common themes that within the characters that in the works the characters have a notion that in the fate of time, beauty and death are inevitable.

           Beowulf is one of the greatest long Old English poems - the author is a mystery - and that throughout the course of time, deterioration and fire have consequently caused a number of words and lines to be lost from the poem.  Although words and lines have been missing from the epic tragedy, distinct themes emerge. For instance one may identify themes such as: good vs. evil, honor, vengeance, glory, greed, and loyalty. In the concept of inevitability, a prudent theme that one’s fate and death play a significant role in the story of Beowulf. In the epic elegy, the author supports this theme of Beowulf’s acceptance directly in a various quotes. Hrothgar, being the aged and experienced king, gave advice to Beowulf reassuring him the essence of time and what fate brings as he proclaimed to Beowulf, “Do not give way to pride.  For a brief while your strength is in bloom but it fades quickly...” (1761-2).The author of the epic poem presented a series of battles that Beowulf faced.  After Beowulf defeated Grendel’s mother in an exhilarating underwater battle, Beowulf celebrated with his peers - consequently Hrothgar wisely suggested to Beowulf the fate everyone must face, in which this later helped the story build its tragic mood. Being the good role model figure Hrothgar is to Beowulf, he also explained to Beowulf, “Your piercing eye will dim and darken; and death will arrive, dear warrior, to sweep you away” (1766-8). No matter how amazing one is presented, Beowulf is simply a man as confirmed by the author as he announced: “Much as he wanted to, there was no way / he could preserve his lord’s life on earth / or alter in the least the Almighty’s will. / What God judged right would rule what happened / to every man, as it does to this day” (2855-9). In the elegy of Beowulf, the author would revisit the poem with moments that start with a funeral and follow with the praise of death supporting the mood death plays. In Beowulf the writer portrayed a tragic hero who: chose to take on death in a glorious state of mind and accepted the fate that no one escapes death.

In the different genres of William Shakespeare, it is apparent that there is an easily recognizable negative connotation of a theme that beauty will age indefinitely. One can distinctly observe, both in his poetic Sonnet 3 and Twelfth Night, Shakespeare portrayed aging beauty and its conflict with the uncontrollable progression of time. In Sonnet 3, Shakespeare proclaims, “Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee / Calls back the lovely April of her prime” (l.9-10) and soon follows, “Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time” (l.12). Shakespeare is referring to the significance that prime of beauty has a limit, usually found in the “middle of the season of your life”. One may assume that Shakespeare is saying don’t let it (time) pass you by; along with the common suggestive idea that representations of youth coincide with the Spring and Summer season months, and the Fall and Wintering season months symbolically represent the comparison diminishing moments of a person’s lifetime. Similarly Shakespeare’s touches upon the same idea in Twelfth Night as Orsino is conversing with Viola stating, “ For women are as roses, whose fair flower / Being once displayed , doth fall that very hour” (2.4.37-38). In the sonnet, Shakespeare presents it in the form of April being the prime and in the play, a bloomed rose before it (ages) begins to fall apart. Shakespeare used symbolic imagery of nature supporting the theme that beauty with time fades. Figuratively expressing beauty and it’s inevitably to age helped set the mood for Shakespeare’s works and those with similar themes like John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi.

With the issue of aging beauty, we see in John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi women battling a conflict that they are keen to believe that they are at beauty’s best only momentarily. We see Olivia complaining about her beauty only lasting a period of time in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night as well as we see in a conversation with the Old Lady and Bosola in The Duchess of Malfi.  In Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, Bosola pokes fun, mean-like of women and women who lose their beauty due to age. When speaking to the Old Lady Webster states, “Here are two of you, whose sin of your youth is the very patrimony of the physician; … I do wonder you do not loathe yourselves” (2.1.36-9). The mood is set that Bosola is talking down to aging women. Webster supports the tone as he displays Bosola suggest her room as a witch’s lair with all its “magic” (make ups) to cover or fool people. In Twelfth Night, Olivia is being her own judge when allowing Viola as Cesario to see her as she mentions, “Look you, sir, such a one I was this present. Is’t now well done […] ‘Tis is grain, sir; ‘twill endure wind and weather.” (1.5.221-224) Common by the various authors, the use of nature and its symbolic imagery helped convey the inevitability of aging beauty.  It is apparent, whether it is Shakespeare, Webster, or the other noted writers, people are constantly concerned that there is no escaping the fading of beauty, much like there is no escaping the fact that we all will experience death as well.

A more straightforward approach that there is no going around time and that death is a part of all is examined in the work of Robert Henryson’s Everyman. Everyman is a fifteenth century moralistic play and is “devoted entirely to the day of judgment that every individual human being must face eventually. When writing God’s dialogue, Henryson states, “All that liveth appaireth fast” (l.44). Quoted by God in direct detail that coincides with other related works of the Middle Ages in which Henryson is supporting the inevitability of time, conveying that with life comes death. You cannot escape death; death is inevitable. Aiding to understand the significance of the fate of death’s morality, Henryson writes, “I am Death, that no man spareth; / For it is God’s commandment/ That all to me should be obedient.  / O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind. / In thy power it lieth me to save” (l.115-120). This play on mortality teaches genders/ audience viewers, whom were probably illiterate, suggest that you might not expect aging or death, but it will come.

 

Aging beauty and death will come like the seasons of the year. Suggested by Heaney in Beowulf, “fate goes ever as fate must” (455). Mankind knows not what is really in store after death, but one thing is apparent, fate of aging and dying is inevitable. In support, critical examiner Frank Ardolino analyzed John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 10 suggesting, “(death) comes in many shapes and ways, but Donne wants to show that death is not the end but only the short passage to an eternal afterlife where death will not exist” (Death, be not proud p.3). Having critiqued the masterpieces of the legendary authors, societies (readers) have gained a deeper appreciation of the cultural, intellectual, historic and artistic trends of the period. In the selected studies of the Middle, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Ages, it is conveyed that one cannot control, but must accept the fate that as time progresses, beauty shall fade and there is no escaping death. In the writings of Beowulf, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 3 and Twelfth Night in correlation with John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, and in the mortality play of Everyman, it is formulated that  if you are mortal you must face the fact, come to grips, that your beauty or life will age and die.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Ardolino, Frank. “Death, be not proud.” Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition January 2002,

p1-3. Print.

 

“Beowulf”. Trans. Heaney, Seamus. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 8th ed. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Vol A. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 41-108. Print.

Donne, John."Holy Sonnet 10." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Vol B. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 1412. Print.

Henryson, Robert. "Everyman." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Eds. Stephen      Greenblatt et al. Vol A. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 507-529. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 3." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Vol B. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 1171. Print.

Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Vol B. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 1187-1250. Print.

Webster, John. "The Duchess of Malfi." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. Vol B. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 1572-1647. Print.