Current Search: UWF Theses (x) » Criticism and interpretation (x)
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Title
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"Foolish men that prayse gin eke t'envy": armes, armor, and eroticism in Spenser's The Faerie Queene.
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Author
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Desimone, Noah Ryan
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Abstract/Description
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In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, scenes of armament and disarmament allegorize the way that idealized and degenerate forms of masculinity are forged. Armor, in Spenser, is less a physical than a psychological shield. Donned at the wrong time, the knights become cruel, untrustworthy, and apathetic. Removed at inappropriate junctures, they descend into lust, avarice, and gluttony. Spenser's epic models the self-fashioning by which gentleman could come to embody the harmony of Venus and...
Show moreIn Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, scenes of armament and disarmament allegorize the way that idealized and degenerate forms of masculinity are forged. Armor, in Spenser, is less a physical than a psychological shield. Donned at the wrong time, the knights become cruel, untrustworthy, and apathetic. Removed at inappropriate junctures, they descend into lust, avarice, and gluttony. Spenser's epic models the self-fashioning by which gentleman could come to embody the harmony of Venus and Mars. Empedocles' principle of love and war--the idea that eros and strife must come together for the generation of life to occur--is central to Spenser's idea of exemplary masculinity as well as to his political and artistic vision of harmony. The epic models a paradigm of courtly masculinity that places a premium on intense emotional relationships between men, even as it divorces eros from the realms of martial honor and patriarchalism. Since Spenser's vision of self-fashioned masculinity depends upon his understanding of court culture and the woman presiding over it, I conclude my thesis by looking at the epic's critique of Elizabeth I's use of romantic tropes and erotic pageantry
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Identifier
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1296388542, WFE0000781
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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Title
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Incest and feminine bodies in the garden of "Rappaccini's Daughter".
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Author
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Reyes-Wright, Lydia Faith Gyulavics
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Abstract/Description
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This thesis examines sexual connotations of the garden space in Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter." Its focus is the sexuality of the protagonist Beatrice within the traditional patriarchal family unit. Her sexuality is a fixation for her biological father and her courter-turned-brother, and is reflected in the poisonous flowers that surround her. She, too, is envenomed from having cultivated the plants. As a result, they come to take on a familial relation. This shared toxicity shows the...
Show moreThis thesis examines sexual connotations of the garden space in Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter." Its focus is the sexuality of the protagonist Beatrice within the traditional patriarchal family unit. Her sexuality is a fixation for her biological father and her courter-turned-brother, and is reflected in the poisonous flowers that surround her. She, too, is envenomed from having cultivated the plants. As a result, they come to take on a familial relation. This shared toxicity shows the dangerous nature of feminine sexuality. Beatrice and the plants have provocatively sexual beauty on display for the men in the garden to fixate on, fear, and punish, manifesting in incest. This thesis reveals parallels between Beatrice's experiences in the garden and the biblical Eden concerning sexual awareness of the physical body. This inverted Eden makes its few inhabitants, including Beatrice's sister-plants, into a quasi-family. It becomes the stage where incestual taboos and their repercussions play out. Ultimately, Hawthorne's text is a cautionary tale for when feminine beauty is flaunted and male control turns perverse.
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Date Issued
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2020, 2020
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Identifier
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1201532566, WFE0000708
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Format
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Document (PDF)