Venice: A Lagoon City

Two weeks after arriving in Florence, while walking home from dinner across the river, stumbled upon Piazza della Signoria, for the first time. With the sound of a street performer’s violin in the crisp night air, I sat on the edge of the open-air gallery of statues. I still do not know why the piazza affected me the way it did, but with tears in my eyes, I knew I had found a place in Florence where I could be bitter sweetly happy.

“I failed to see to the burial of my family. They rot where they fell, the rats crawling from corpse to corpse. Fearing death myself, and knowing it is coming for me, too, I ran from home to home on our street and where there were the dead I took what coins I could find and stored them in my purse. A boy about my age lay swollen on the floor of one fine house by the port—his father was a merchant, I think—and I took his coat you see here, very fine, and washed the fluid that comes with death from the fabric in the sea.

In contrast, The Merchant of Venice generates another embodiment of justice through Shylock’s desire in search of a fair treatment from Antonio. Antonio is in need of money for Bassanio; yet, Shylock is willing to “lend” him “thus much money,” but first Shylock tells Antonio how unjust he has been to him, “…you spet on me on Wendesday last; You spurned me such a day; another You called

Shakespeare sets the scene on the dark streets of Venice, creating the atmosphere of a clandestine meeting that we have just stumbled upon, as an argument in sues between Iago & Roderigo. Iago’s manipulation is prevalent in the scene for it foreshadows

Women’s role in the literary scene of the Venetian High Renaissance greatly erupted in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Women eventually became the most educated citizens in the city and were referred to as, “honest courtesans.” (Pg. 624) Our textbook outlines how women, “dominated” the literary scene with their fierce ability to be, “both sexual and intellectual.” (Pg. 624) Although there were many great poets of the Venetian High Renaissance, I will limit this essay to analyzing the amazing poems of only four very influential poets of this time. I will discuss how Veronica Franco intelligently transforms courtly love into sexual metaphor. I will identify the missing elements of chivalry and courtly

After a long and perilous journey from Verona, Catullus had finally arrived at Rome. As he stood by the entrance to that magnificent and intimidating city, his emotions overtook him like a tempestuous storm. He had left his family and his filial duties in order to pursue a glorious career in his vocation and avocation: poetry. For Catullus, the small town of Verona was a cultural wasteland; it suffered from a paucity of playwrights, poets, and prose writers. Only in Rome, with its diverse and cultured populace, could he truly fulfill his dreams of becoming one of Latin’s greatest poets. Thus, as he stood by the gates of Rome, he felt a mixture of feelings; excitement and apprehension at the future lying beyond the entranceway’s ivory veneer, and a sense of sadness and melancholia at the past he was forever abandoning.

I remember my first brush with Florence, that precise moment when I planted my foot down and a sudden awareness of belonging or mores so, a sensation of never wanting to leave in case I were to miss something rushed over me. There was a sense of excitement, and familiarity, story's told and untold. I stood in this fascinating place and felt the warmth of its embrace soak into me, as history and charm dripped from its depths. I felt it was the kind of place where coziness met with grandeur and solitude with chaos. I could feel my creativity flow as I felt captivated by it's loveliness, tantalized by the aromas of leather, incense, rising dough and those yet to be discovered.

Predominantly “Death” is constantly lingering around us, particularly in the periods of war, like the setting in the text. With the references of relation from the book’s narrator “Death” and the factual reality of death upon our daily lives, we can visualise the vast elaboration, simultaneously occurring from the unification of reality and narration upon our human

Mann's use of Venice as a backdrop is critical. Venice, an ancient city, inexorably sinking beneath the water, a "forbidden spot" (38) with "stagnant lagoons" (28) the "fallen queen of the sea" (36). Venice, with a "faintly rotten scent" (37) "half fairy tale, half snare" (55) "that hid sickness for love of gain . . . (56). The city that had "a disreputable secret [like] his own" (57).

The narrator, of the story is Death. During this passage in the novel, the narrator is observing a situation. The narrator says this passage during the bonfire of banned books in Germany, during Hitler’s reign.

The theme of physical and emotional isolation is explored in the first verse of the poem through the image of a man who had drowned in a sea (Charlesworth & Hilary). However, physical separation can be seen in the first line “Nobody heard him” (1) which had a meaning that he was too far into the sea that no one could hear his cries for help. On the other hand, it could also mean that no one was willing to listen or take time to understand him and, therefore, he is isolated and left with no one to lay a hand of assistance (Livatino 444). The man is lost and tormented as can be seen in the two lines, “Poor chap, he always loved larking” (5) and “Oh…no it was too cold always” (Flower & Dean). Under those circumstances, the author uses two contrasting moods and emotional expressions about the dead man to lament his illusive torment.

While many areas of the fifteenth century were suffering due to severe political battles, the city of Venice continued to thrive. Venice was at the center of all trade, granting it the title of the Jewel of the Adriatic. Venetians regularly imported luxury goods, jewels, expensive draperies, and celebrated their love for pleasure above all else. As the sixteenth century brought more extravagance and luxury, Venice began to outshine all of Italy with its lavish taste for elaborate architecture and pageantry. During a time of increasingly scandalous art, artists in Venice felt challenged to push the limits. Tiziano Vecelli, also known as Titian, was often the subject of controversy. Titian, an artist of both religious and worldly subjects, frequently

Italo Calvino’s extraordinary story, Invisible Cities is a literary accomplishment. Invisible Cities contains of an impressive display of discussions between Marco Polo, the legendary Venetian explorer, and Kublai Khan, the famous Conqueror. The two settled in Kublai Khan’s garden and Marco Polo details, or for all one knows invents, depictions of several wonderful cities. Considering these cities are not ever actually seen, yet only recounted, they are unnoticeable to the emperor. In consideration of the fact that they might not actually exist, they may be truly obscure to all but the reader, who is captivated by the dazzling, foreboding input of Marco Polo. “If I tell you that the city toward which my journey tends is discontinuous in space and time now scattered, now more condensed, you must not believe the search for it can stop. Perhaps while we speak, it is rising, scattered, within the confines of your empire…” (164). The main topic is Marco Polo and the cities he has traveled, or one city in several structures. These expeditions involve cities of memory, trading cities, cities of desire, thin cities, continuous cities and of the sky. The outcome is an intensely intriguing achievement of literature that urges surpassing the borders of the fictional book. Between these enlightening depictions of unfamiliar settings, Calvino allows his readers to indulge in the discussion between two men, one in the middle of his career, the other in

The scenery is a Venetian town in the way of a brewing storm. The true meaning of “The Tempest” is unknown, however theories suggest the man to be a soldier, gypsy, or the father of the nursing child. The mother has been suggested to be a prostitute or even to symbolize Mother Earth. While the man and woman are in the foreground, they do not seem the be to focus of the piece. Rather, the landscape captures more attention than the two figures, especially with the amount of detail given to the setting. This factor has always been a signature of Giorgione, his decision to have the background be a part of the subject matter instead of the prefered method of other artists who want the focus on their

?As the Roman Empire was crumbling in Italy, Huns, Goths, and Lombards began invading towns in the north.? Citizens of Padua, Verona, and Vicenza were forced to travel to the islands of the lagoon.? The most influential invasion occurred in 452 when Attila the Hun drove everyone out of Venetia and they settled ?on the muddy, reed-covered islands of the Rivo Alto.?9? Alethea Wiel claims that the residents of Venezia decided to ?fix an abiding and permanent dwelling-place among the isles and estuaries of the sea; and that moment may be looked upon as the date of the foundation of Venice.?10? The newcomers discovered a thick layer of clay was under the islands.? They put down wooden piles into the clay, then covered these with oak logs and rocks to create the foundation of Venice:? ?it is strange to think how from the shifting unstable formation of mud-bands and sand-isles a city would arise, whose beauty would remain unequalled.?11?