Example Of Argumentative Essay On World Literature I
Type of paper: Argumentative Essay
Topic: Literature, Shakespeare, Religion, Dante, Poetry, Christians, Poem, Beowulf
Pages: 6
Words: 1650
Published: 2023/02/22
(Examine the role of religion in three texts that we have discussed in the latter half of this semester. Remember, choose one focused approach here.)
Beowulf
Beowulf’s theme of religion motivated scholars to explore more on it. Its examination provides understandings into the poem and the periods in which it was created. In simple languages, the story can be defined as a reflective on pagan Scandinavia over the perceptions of Christian ethics. But in the real sense, the inadequate historical context and internal irregularities within the story offer some space for analysis and even assumption concerning the writer’s reasons and purposes. The heroic but nostalgic poem, Beowulf, is an image of several Anglo-Saxon principles and ideas. This literary work was made after the Anglo-Saxons were previously Christianized; however, the pagan customs and conducts that had established in their lives still existed in their thoughts (Shmoop Editorial Team). Generally, Beowulf comprises numerous pagan subjects and notions, but then it correspondingly comprises numerous apparent orientations to the Christian faith. It can never be denied that it is an Anglo Saxon literary work but it is also lavished with an unusual religious atmosphere.
Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is not a certified church doctrine, but it has predisposed the understandings of several people about the life after death. Dante’s character is far from ordinary; Dante is described as someone who is well-educated in terms of the church’s wisdoms and philosophical beliefs. He is even famous in Italy for the duration of the 14th century. The Divine comedy mentions some lines from the bible and it is does not aim to be understood as a literal representation of an expedition to hell or heaven or it will mean as the Roman Catholic approved perception on religious beliefs but it does offer a dogmatically comprehensive exhibition of the life after death (Roberts, et.al, 2015). Dante’s background on the literary works he has read from several church scholars and two of them is St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. For those who are well-informed of the church doctrines, one would perceive that Dante’s Divine Comedy is well-researched, reasonable, and possess a collective sense of integrity. It would seemed more likely as a credible guidance to life and death situations.
Hamlet
Shakespeare’s tragedy entitled “Hamlet” is one of the most significant of Shakespeare’s plays and it is set in a framework of religious principles, and the concern of religion is very significant in considering the characters’ motivations. The level of openness, wittiness, and smooth affluence with which the author has employed his characters to appropriately depict human existence is inspiring, and not until at the present outmoded by other dramatists. Hamlet is in broad a portion of his collection, and accordingly his language and his manners replicate his religious belief. Hamlet’s character does not compel suicide because of his obligation to comply with the commands of his God (Encyclopedia.com). Various Hamlet’s confrontations display him to be religious and intensely in contradiction of wickedness. He condemns the dissemination of inebriation and wickedness in the public. In the writer’s outlook, Hamlet is as considerably an advocate as anybody in his society. Nevertheless, he turns out to be more religious after the surprise of the unlawful marriage. One of the foremost explanations for Hamlet’s distaste to his uncle is a religious motivation. Religion is the background over which a religious believer aspects at the world and judges moral from immoral. Religion likewise supports the follower to persist balanced when he accepts a blow and typically adversities sources the follower to turn out to be more religious and ascetic. Even though, Shakespeare’s religious faith is not strong in his masterpieces, there are writer who believe that Shakespeare has this simple consideration of man and man’s irrationality. Through this notion, he is able to reveal man’s self-determination and assumed as a struggle concerning a life based on choice of destiny (SparkNotes Editors). The predominant message of Shakespeare in this play and also the same for others is the fact that most men do not like to follow God’s will but they do not understand that by following His will would guide them to a long and lasting happiness.
(Examine how three of the writers that we have discussed in the latter half of this semester have challenged the conventions of his time. Defend your answer with examples from the works we covered.)
Beowulf
In terms of how the rest is imaginatively constructed, the extraordinary tale makes this unidentified poet defy the conventions of his time. Beowulf is a heroic tale of which has in excess of three thousand lines in length, regarding the feats of a Scandinavian leading figure. English language has transformed extensively and that the poem is at the present usually delivered in translation (Shmoop Editorial Team). For many years, scholars were very interested with fixing the precise period and setting of the poem’s structure giving little attention to the etymological, technical and scribal fine points. Some scholars claim that Beowulf’s poet was an artistic and creative writer instead of certain kind of back-formation resulting from 19th century folktale and philology. In a period when the unpredictability of the human focus is continuously contended for if not supposed, there should be no difficulty with a poem that is interlaced from two diverse intellectual stuffs. In reality, Beowulf flawlessly replies the initial present formation of a work of imaginative mind as one in which contradictory certainties. The poem is filled with infused with so much imaginative elements that scholars thought that it has initiated a new era of literary fiction. Moreover, by integrating Old Testament elements, the Beowulf-poet line up his protagonist with Old Testament heads, who are esteemed in spite of the fact that their domain has been superseded. Then again, saints' existences and poetic versions of Old Testament accounts derive syntactic and expansive elements from poems in the secular and epic societies. The original work of the poem has been allocated to times reaching from the 8th century up to the period of writing of the text itself. There has never been an exact time as to when the poem is created; nevertheless, the poem displays a clear sense. The conditions of characters with or contrary to whom the speaker and the supposed original spectators might recognize are correspondingly complex.
Inferno
The Inferno is a remarkable work of medieval writings is Dante’s thoughtful Christian visualization of man’s historical and everlasting fate. On its greatest subjective level, it attracts on the writer’s own involvement of eviction from his native land of Florence. It can be deemed as an allegory and Dante further astonishes his readers through its range of learning, its probing and all-inclusive analysis of existing difficulties, and its resourcefulness of language and images. He expressed the literary piece in Italian instead of using the Latin language and in this manner, Dante definitively influenced the progression of literary growth (Roberts, et.al, 2015). Dante did not just simply impart a voice to the developing lay principles of his particular country, but Italian language turned out to be the literary language in the area of Western Europe for a number of centuries. Dante also composed significant hypothetical works reaching from considerations of rhetoric to ethical viewpoints and political principles. The author was also noted to be completely familiar with the classical convention, depicting for his own determinations on such authors as Cicero, Virgil and Boethius. To be deemed as an ordinary individual, he had likewise been outstanding in terms of his knowledge of the latest academic philosophy and of religious studies. His knowledge and his particular participation in the intense political arguments of his time directed him to other masterpieces of which also contain medieval political beliefs. Dante’s own prominence sustained even if the epic slowly lost its charm to the society. In reality, his extraordinary literary piece relishes the kind of influence unusual to a classic. Dante made an incredible collection of styles in an effort of vivid simulated exhibitions, along with a poem of great artistic creativity in its prefiguration and communications. Furthermore, he combined in all of these significant ethical, political and religious subjects and did subsequently in an approach that displays ethical understanding and arrogant ethical visualization. Dante challenged the conventions of his time through the simple influence of its outstanding creative ideas. His works has persisted to amaze generations of students and readers for several centuries. Dante’s literary pieces have been an essential part in all higher learning programs in the Western world or even around the world and it has sustained to deliver direction and provisions to the most important poets of the existing times.
Hamlet
Shakespeare’s literary pieces are subject to an extensive series of necessities and demands. Human experiences are apparently depicted in Shakespeare every story. The realities behind the characters are clearly illustrated or represented by Shakespeare characters in his play. His writings have provoked an incessant and at times unpredictable argument over mutually the ethics it advocates and the frameworks which best represent these. One part of heated discussion that has increased in current years emphasizes the historical and cultural framework surrounded by which one would find Shakespeare. Shakespeare certainly was a writer who, on some occasion, intentionally disrupted and challenged the standards or conventions of his time in his works to explain his message. This notion is definitely factual of his management of refined love and the approach that he applied and abused anticipations of refined love in his literary pieces. Shakespeare dares to create an amusing sense of the depiction of feminine beauty and the concords of refined love, however, to highlight the perceptiveness and seriousness of his love to poetry. Several of Shakespeare’s plays appear to have exceeded even the classification of brilliance, turning out to be so effective as to intensely touch the progression of Western literary works and philosophy ever since. The unparalleled esteem gathered by his literary pieces directed to an aggressive interest about Shakespeare’s existence, but the lack of biographical evidence has left numerous facts of Shakespeare’s particular past covered in mystery.
Works Cited:
William Shakespeare. “Encyclopedia of World Biography”. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 24 Apr. 2015<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Beowulf Analysis." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
Roberts, James L., and Nikki Moustaki. CliffsNotes on The Divine Comedy: Inferno. 24 Apr 2015 </literature/d/the-divine-comedy-inferno/poem-summary>.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Hamlet.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
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