Attributes of Characterization of Sixteen Century - Term Paper Example

?Introduction Attributes of characterization of sixteen century: Sixteen century is the period of Renaissance or literary revival in England. This isthe era which gave English literature the first epic “Faerie Queene.” This era left its special impact on literature, especially on themes and characterization. The characters in sixteen centuries are basically associated with the act of romantic love, heroic deeds and cherishing Christian values. Their ultimate aim is to find their lovers and beloved. To pursue the goal, the characters go through many adventures which result into having many man-made as well as destiny made hurdles. Some of the characters are the strict followers of Christian virtues while some of them are distracting from them. The characters are typical fictional characters. They are either too good or too bad. The real characters have never been presented by the contemporary authors. It is because the society was under the influence of Christian doctrines. So the morality, chastity were supposed to be the essential qualities of human beings. Though the characters face obstacles at every step of their life they are shown as overcoming those obstacles by their heroic deeds as well as their virtues. In case of women these obstacles caused due to their womanhood or feminism. It is because the male dominated society had imposed certain constrains on them which were the major hurdles for them to develop themselves. 16th century literature thus had been very much influenced by idealism. The human virtues were dominant in contemporary literature. Rather the literature’s main aim was to produce human virtues. The characters were shown as following Christian virtues and those who were not the followers of these virtues had been presented in a negative shade. A typical theme of Christian virtues is portrayed in Christopher Marlow’s Dr. Faustus, where the protagonist’s fall becomes inevitable after distracting from Christian doctrines. The virtues (rather vices) of the negative characters are presented in forms of Eve who is supposed to be the major cause of the fall of mankind. The women, who rejected virtues were supposed to be the temptresses. The virtuous approach and denial of sexuality by suppressing it is the major hurdle of obtaining one of the basic need mankind and that is sexual desire. Womanhood: a major obstacle: The ideals were directed towards gender. It was an era of the reign of Elizabeth I. Though a woman (Queen Elizabeth) was ruling over the country, the image of a woman was not at all superior and she has to be in the control of a man, may be her brothers, father, her husband or her son. The image of the women in those days was that of a very submissive, meek and modest, who always stay under the influence of her male superiors. The qualities of the typical Elizabethan or Renaissance women were reflected in the characters of the prominent Renaissance writers such as Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser. These attributes of womanhood sometimes become major hurdle for her to save her life and her womanhood. In the discussion two major literary works are taken into consideration, first is Edmund Spenser’s epic Faerie Queene and Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. The thrilling journey of the protagonists and the obstacles they have to face are described in both of these literary texts. In Edmund’s literary work, especially in the epic “Faerie Queene,” the major virtue, presented is chastity. Among the female characters, in Faerie Queene, the protagonist Britomart is the idol of chastity. Chastity would be the major attribute, and it was even more important than the gender representation. For example though Britomart is chaste and virtuous heroine of Faerie Queene, her appearance is masculine. Through her cross dressing she has been presented as a Knight. “Britomart’s disguise frees her from woman’s customary social rule, and her sex frees her from a man’s; through her, the poet can more freely examine the relation of self to desire, of desire to artistic form, and of the desiring self to its historical destination, its destiny in time.”[1] Thus by portraying a picture of an independent woman, Spenser here propounded the gender equality. Britomart is different from other heroes and this difference lies in her womanhood. Spenser was ahead of his contemporaries in portraying the female characters. Many of the women in contemporary literature were vapid and frail. The character of Philoclea in Sidney’s Arcadia, for example is a typical submissive lady who is loyal and obedient to her parents. Being a stereotype character she loses the potential of being a strong heroine like Britomart. Same disguised figure used by Shakespeare like Rosalind and Portia. Britomart’s character resembles Rosalind who is also very courageous and practical minded. Britomart is the character who has no gender limits in performing various acts. She has shown living a man like character. Her virtues, chastity remain intact even in troublesome period. Presentation of the protagonist Britomart is the heroine of Book III. Book III is entirely related to the virtue of Chastity which has been embodied in the protagonist Britomart. "That fairest vertue, farre above the rest (III.i.4)." Though a woman, she is a brave warrior and she is virgin who represents the chastity. She is an extraordinary fighter. Apart from being a female character, she is represented as a lady with strong mind and tremendous courage. She has an amazing ability of troubleshooting and facing the most adverse circumstances in a balanced way. Thus she is portrayed as a lady with beauty and battle-prowess. Being a chaste woman she is willing to achieve pure Christian love and she is of course in search of such kind of ideal husband. She has all the qualities of a knight as well as the qualities of being a typical woman. The character of Britomart resembles the Shakespeare’s adventurous character Rosalind of “As you like it” in other sense that she is totally different from what she appears. It is of course in the case of her physical or outward appearance. There is one more female character depicted in book III and she is Florimell. Unlike Britomart, Florimell is a typical representation of the Renaissance woman. She is beautiful but a damsel in distress who is always chased by the men. She has to face the men who are lustful towards her. First of all when she sets for the journey to search for Merinell, a knight, she has to escape herself from the lustful males. She hears that Merinell is wounded and so she went out to help him. She is chased by a lustful Forester, who was then driven away by King Arthur and Timias. From there Florimell flee and takes a shelter in a house. The house was unfortunately a witch’s house. There she finds witch’s son. He becomes lustful for Florimell. Florimell escaped herself from the witch and again flees, but she was chased by a hyena sent by the witch. The character of Florimell is portrayed in a typical Elizabethan stereotype of womanhood, a chaste, submissive, meek and always scared of the attack from males. She is portrayed as a “Damsel in distress,” all the time. The purpose of Florimell journey is to search for her lover. He has initially rejected her so his rejection is one of the major hurdles in attaining her goal. She has to face various dangers and at every moment of her struggle her chastity is at stake. Appearance v/s Reality Every human being especially in sophisticated society always wears a mask on his face. There is a vast difference between how he or she looks and how he or she actually is. This is called facade, where you try to hide your image. Both Faerie Queene and Arcadia the same concept has been described. When one uses the term disguise, it means that the reality is hidden with the help of attires or cross dressing. Sidney has put this theme in such a manner that it seems as a necessity for his male characters to disguise themselves. It is the theme of appearance v/s reality rather than the theme of transvestism. It is because the other prince Musidorus has disguised himself but not in the feminine form but he becomes a shepherd whose name was Dorus. On the contrary the concealment is related to your natural qualities or your personality which has been mentioned above as “Facade.” Malecasta who is a lusty lady and she has a strong obsession for the knight. She appears as a harmless friend in front of Britomart but actually she is not. Her real nature is revealed when the entire castle is asleep, and Malecasta comes over to Britomart’s bed and lies down beside her. She has a strong obsession for the warriors and she always compel the warriors for sex. Britomart, The virgin damsel warrior suddenly was shocked and wakes up and almost leaps from the bed and draws her sword. The other characters are also presented with the mask on their face and thus they are hiding their real appearance. For example Bladamour and Paridell are making show off of their friendship. Apparently looking they have reconciled after their fight. But still they have envy and hatred for each other in their minds. Their hypocritically kind words cannot cover their feeling of animosity. They do not have the true virtues existed in them like Campbell and Triamond. Yet all was forg'd and spred with golden foyle, That vnder it hidde hate and hollow guyle. Ne certes can that friendship long edure, How euer gay and goodly be teh style, That doth ill cause or euill end endure: For vertue is the band, that bindeth harts most sure.[2] Reference of appearance v/s reality from other epics: In Arcadia or in Spenser’s Faerie Queene, the clothes or the outward appearance is not important in determining the gender identity. The purpose behind cross dressing and disguised oneself to opposite gender can differ. Here I would like to give an example from Great Indian Epic which resembles to the same situation. The name of the Indian Epic is “Mahabharata.” There is a major character called Arjuna. He is brave warrior and a prince but at a certain situation he along with his other four brothers has to live in exile. It was a condition that all of the brothers should hide themselves for one year and if they are recognized by their step brothers during this year, they again have to go to exile for 12 more years. Arjuna disguised himself as a female dancer and starts working as a dance teacher in the court of a king. It was of course not the choice of Arjuna but the circumstances has made him to do this act. It was again a mere disguise and not facade. In both of these stories the cross-dressed body is used as an object of desire such as sneaking out from paternal house, to test the loyalty of the beloved or lover, to save oneself from the potential dangers. The phenomenon of cross-dressing is not associated with gender anxiety or homoeroticism. It is also not associated with the parody of both genders. In Arcadia, Pyrocles appears as an Amazon woman to meet Philoclea who is muse. He falls in love with Philoclea and wants win her love. He put the name for himself as Zelmane. Philoclea and Pamela are the daughters of Basilius and his wife Gynecia. Pyrocles and Musidorus are the two princes arrived in Arcadia. Some of the Sydney’s critics are greatly embarrassed by the transvestism. But if studied thoroughly, one can easily understand the necessity of it. Sometimes it is a part of the story. Transvestism had been the source of tremendous fascination in Elizabethan era though it cannot fit in modern terminology. But still Arcadia got criticism because is the reverse transvestism. Reverse in the sense that, In Elizabethan literature, the women are shown to disguise themselves as a man but not vice versa. So the concept of transvestism was not appreciated in case of Arcadia. Spenser in this regard has passed the comment on this topic by his statement ........ that lothly vncouth sight, Of men disguiz’d in womanishe attire [3] Courtly love: The term “Courtly Love,” is associated with medieval European concept of nobly and chivalrously admitting the love. It used to be the secret and used to happen between the noble members. One of the major attributes of Elizabethan literature is the beautiful depiction of courtly love. Spenser sketches the serious implication of courtly love. The term courtly love is conveyed in an allegorical form. The courtly love in Faerie Queene is a completely new invention. It would not be completely pure and platonic in the sense that it was related to sensuous or erotic feelings. Spenser inclines towards representing courtly love as superficial and sometimes even silly and Spenser is mocking the superficial love. The knights in Faerie Queene, for example do not involve themselves in courtly love. They strongly feel that their major job is to protect the honour of women and their chastity. The characters of Spenser tend towards suppressing their sexual feelings. They further feel sex as a sin and they believe that by committing the sin, they would be going to destroy their entire life. Unlike Faerie Queen, “Arcadia in many ways epitomizes the cult of courtly love and passion associated with medieval and Renaissance England.” [4] The characters of Arcadia go to ridiculous lengths to be closer to their beloveds. For example Prince Pyrocles disguises himself with the purpose to go close to his beloved Philoclea. Philip Sidney’s “Archadia,” is a combination of chivalry and courtly love. The main characters Pyrocles and Musidorus know that whatever they are doing is insane but still they cannot resist themselves from doing the act. They are powerless by the arrow of Cupid’s bow. The illicit love is shown through the lust of king Bassilius who falls in love with women disguised Zelmane the Amazon. While his wife falls in love with the Pyrocles as she came to know the real gender of Zelmane. The queen and the king apart from being a wife and a husband are no more loyal to each other and they are finding their sexual pleasure somewhere else. This is the fine example of courtly love. The love or obsession depicted in Arcadia is no more a platonic love. “Sidney’s romance portrayed a virtuous, Petrarchan, and vigorously masculine courtly love.” [5] The major hurdles of the characters: The major characters of Faerie Queene and Arcadia are confronting many hurdles in their life. They have to fight with their foes. The female characters are striving for cherishing their femininity and chastity. Some of them are facing the hurdles made by the nature. The two characters of negative shade have been represented by Spenser and they are Duessa and her friend Lucifera. Both are equally beautiful. But both of them are still far away from what is been called real Christian virtues. It is because of the vices in their personalities. Duessa and Lucifera, both are beautiful as well as mighty. Unlike Duessa, Lucifera is virgin. Since she has been portrayed as a lady with tremendous pride, she is too pride to submit herself to a man. So her virginity has no value. Rather her virginity itself is the major hurdle for her to be a real Christian follower. Una’s role is also very significant. She plays a role of guide of Redcrosse and exercises private influence on him. She also has been the victim of sexual attack from Sansloy. Her liability to deception is of course not a sin. On the other hand it is the illustration of Christ’s warning that “False Christ shall rise, and false prophets, ..... to deceive if it were possible the very elect” (Mark 13.22 Geneva version) By giving warning about hypocrisy, she is warning the potential troubles and hurdles to Christianity. When the two princes Pyrocles and Musidorus were travelling they had to face the shipwreck incident which is the major hurdle for them in attaining their ultimate destination and that is their beloveds. The complications occurred in their love story due to the disguise, has been another hurdle which they have to face. When Pyrocles finds that his would be father in law and mother in law (Basilius and his wife Gynecia) have fallen in love with his original as well as disguised form, he became confused. This is again a comic complication which leads to another obstacle when Basilius was poisoned and declared to be dead. The trial period of course ends in a happy note. The basic motive of Sidney behind writing Arcadia was simply to amuse his dear sister, the countess. The text is composed by him when he was very young. He just aims at indulging his fancy with ideal scenes and sentiments. Spenser on the other hand was very keen to create the first epic in English literature. Both of their approach is different but still both the epics have been fascinating since ages to the readers. The English literature study cannot be done without Spenser and Sidney and this is the real success of both of these literary legendaries. Citations: 1. Pg.298, “The Spenser Encyclopaedia,” by Albert Charles Hamilton 2. Book 4, Canto 2, stanza 29 3. The Faerie Queene, v, vii.37. (Edition of J.C. Smith Oxford 1961 4. Pg. 361, Encyclopaedia of British Writers by Alan Hagar 5. Jennifer Wollock, pg.223 “Rethinking Chivalry and Courtly Love.” Read More