The Faerie Queene: The Differences Of Epic Romance And Medieval Romance

The first thing I noticed were the way the relations between the couples began in the stories. Pyramus and Thisbe grew up together and were in love since they were children. Romeo and Juliet fell in love at first sight. After the moment they have spotted each other, they fell head over heels in love with one another. When does that ever happen? I believe this is when Shakespeare was trying to show that there was going to be consequences for being so naïve. Shakespeare probably felt young love, especially at first sight, was foolish. Romeo and Juliet shows the consequences of young love and moving too fast. That is how I read it.

The Greek forces won the Trojan War. The story of the war is a cornerstone of Greek legend, and pervaded Greek literature and culture. Though the evidence for the Trojan War as historical fact is scarce, it was a formative event in Greek cultural memory, producing some of the classical world’s most famous heroes and narratives. The War was won, Helen was retrieved from Paris, whose violation of ξενία was redressed, the heroes attained the κλέος that many of them fought for – and yet the positive outcomes of the Trojan War are difficult to grasp. For the victims of the Trojan War, the tragedy is obvious; the War ended in genocide and total cultural destruction. But such a war, burnt into legend, should have left the victors far better off; and yet, the Greek heroes only suffer because of it. They die tragic, dishonourable deaths; their households are left in ruin; their families are torn apart. From both modern and classical perspectives, the Trojan War is a tragedy, a “harrowing destruction of life” (Euripides, Andromache, 291). The victory is pyrrhic, the loss of life is horrific, the reparations non-existent.

Avalon, the Goddess was not male as God was believed to be, and the followers of

First and foremost, the fiction and nonfiction aspect comes into play when talking about these two specific books.

    Most people think of a hero as a strong, superior, good-looking person that could never make a mistake. However, in a story called The Odyssey, a connection to real life reveals imperfections to be common in heroes. Each person has their low points and highlights, regardless of their “rank”. The author and epic poet, Homer, exemplifies our main character, Odysseus, to take on this idea of a hero throughout his writing. The time period took place in Ancient Greece, allowing Greek culture to relate to the poem. Different aspects of such culture and history may have influenced the works and creativity of Homer as well. A major point includes The Trojan War because it focuses in on Odysseus’ journey to bring Helen back home by devising a plan to destroy warriors in the city. Acknowledge this factor when reading The Odyssey, for not only evidence of heroism, but also other major points of archetypes, in which the device reflects the insights of readers in modern time and what is seen from Ancient Greek culture.

Without realizing it in classical literature, many of the epics and stories are the same story even though they talk about completely different topics. A reader can be reading Beowulf and the monsters in it while tying it back to the tragedy of Macbeth. They are very contrasting stories, but they have countless similarities between them. This goes for all classical literature because the stories all reflect and tie back to the idea of what classical literature is. Once you read a few stories from classical literature, the more connections you ill surprisingly find between them all. There are many cultures to look at in classical literature, which also affect how the story goes on, but everything attached to each other once a reader analyze

Before we get into the similarities and differences of the two we should get to know them first. The first one is reading books is fundamental which was written by a man named charles M. Blow. He and his family

The Trojan War is described as one of histories most legendary battles. This battle is told to have lasted ten years, resulting in the eventual collapse of Troy, under the siege of Greek forces. Modern knowledge of the Trojan War has survived mainly through the account given in Homer’s Illiad, and while having proved to be a rich source of inspiration for other writers, artists, and even filmmakers in recent history, much speculation still exists surrounding his account. I will analyze modern interpretations of the Trojan War and examine both speculation and support for Homer’s account. Concluding with sufficient evidence that has been collected surrounding this epic battle, proving Homer’s account of a massive battle between these two powerful city states to not be just a tale of myth and legend, but actual history.

Homer’s Iliad does not fail to portray the role of the gods in the Trojan war and it also includes several magical elements within the poem. However, in the 2004 movie Troy, these significant elements are rather neglected. In addition, some of the history of the characters are changed in the film, resulting in a change of plot. Nevertheless, the portrayal of the characters, gods and magical elements in the epic and the film differentiate from each other in a multitude of ways. The differences between the two are definitely worth pointing out and discussing.

Barry Strauss, professor of classics at Cornell University attempts to redefine a one of history’s biggest love affairs, the Trojan War. Strauss explains how certain events and characters from Homers “The Odyssey” might have actually existed, but also uses modern discoveries from the Bronze Age to compare Homers account to those of Egypt, the Middle East, and etc. While Homer’s epic should not be read as a historical document which recounts the Trojan War hundred percent accurately, it can still be seen as document which embodies some historical truth. The novel as a whole explains the customs, economic standing, fighting styles and beliefs of the Greeks. Strauss’s writing style allows for the book to be accessible to both students and historians. He argues that just like Franz Ferdinand was the spark which ignited World War 1, Helen on the other hand was just a spark which escalated an existing tension between the Greeks and Trojans. Strauss’s personal input on the war itself gives the novel a different outlook on the Trojan War because, it allows for readers to see beyond the facts and make connections with ideas that Strauss had made with recent discoveries and Homers epic.

From the standpoint of the study of Homer as a poet, the War of Troy was a war actually fought nearly four centuries before Homer's time, and the causes of that war were almost certainly political and economic (Moss and Wilson). Homer thus, adopted the historical fact of the war and the tradition of an exciting legend. In The Iliad Homer uses the War of Troy as an example of the tragic futility of all wars, rather than assuming either an antiwar or a pro-war position.

Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene is well known as an allegorical work, and the poem is typically read in relation to the political and religious context of the time. The term allegory tends to be loosely defined, rendering a whole work an extended metaphor, or even implying “any writing in verse or prose that has a double meaning”(Cuddon 20). In true Spenserian style, with everything having double meanings, both uses of the term allegory are applicable to his writing.

The poem, "The Faerie Queene", is a story about a courageous knight who goes through great trials and fights monsters. This in itself is entertaining but, it also has many allegorical references to Christianity. Many times Spenser talks about things when in reality he's really talking something closer to home. For instance, this faerie land he talks about sounds like he is referring to England, the country where he's from. Also, the title Faerie Queene itself is seems to represent Queen Elizabeth, the Queen of England. Redcrosse, the hero of the poem, is a major part of this allegory. He is called the "Knight of Holinesse" which is a reference to being holy and worshiping God. He represents the lonely Christian on a journey to put

Spenser also wrote the famous wedding hymns Prothalmion and Epithalmion. The Faerie Queene is the masterpiece of Spenser. He modeled it on Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. It contains six books each of which describes the adventure and triumph of a knight who represents a moral virtue. It is a didactic romance. For this he invented a poetic form known as Spenserian stanza. Spenser's idealism, his love of beauty and his exquisite melody has earned him the name "The Poets' Poet."

The Faerie Queene is an important romantic epic that more than being just poetry, represents the protestant imagery in terms of kinds of individual virtue , the forces of temptation and human weaknesses to which the greatest of persons can succumb and, of course, the humanist ideals of its time. His author, Edmund Spenser, makes use of biblical and classic allegories to tell his story, that more than have been a religious writing, the poem’s purpose was to educate, to turn young men into gentlemen and to make a declaration of faith in England. However, the more important purpose of the Faerie Queene is its allegory, the meaning behind its characters and events. The story's setting is a fanciful "faerie land," that