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The Wonderful World of Literature. Part IV -- Shakespeare and The Bible. When in doubt…. It’s from Shakespeare Any Literature between the 18 th and 21 st centuries is dominated by the Bard. Famous Lines:. To thine own self be true.
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The Wonderful World of Literature Part IV -- Shakespeare and The Bible
When in doubt… • It’s from Shakespeare • Any Literature between the 18th and 21st centuries is dominated by the Bard.
Famous Lines: • To thine own self be true. • All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. • What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet. • What a rogue and peasant slave am I. • Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Get thee to a nunnery! • Who steals my purse steals trash. • Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. • The better part of valor is discretion. • A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! • We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble. • By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. • O brave new world, that has such people in it. • To be or not to be, that is the question.
If not Shakespeare… • It’s from The Bible. • Garden, serpent, plagues, flood, parting of waters, loaves, fish, forty days, betrayal, denial, slavery and escape, fatted calves, milk and honey.
Writers use scripture ALL the time: • Stories of the Apocalypse. • The Four Horsemen • The pale (or green) horse is Death. • Clint Eastwood -- Pale Rider
Loss of innocence • In “Araby”, this could be The Fall. • Every story about the loss of innocence is really about someone’s private reenactment of the fall from grace.
Here goes… • A young boy (11, 12, or 13 years old) has experienced a life of safety—uncomplicated—limited to attending school, playing in the street, when suddenly… • He discovers girls.
Early adolescence… • The narrator has no way of dealing with the object of desire—or even to recognize that what he feels is desire. • His culture does all it can to separate boys and girls. • He promises to buy this girl something from Araby • She can’t go because of a religious retreat at her school.
After many delays and much frustration, he arrives at the bazaar just as it is closing. • He finds a stall open—turns away from what he sees and suddenly recognizes… • he sees he is no different from anyone—that the girl is average—that he’s been a fool—that the girl has never really thought about him.
Loss of innocence, fine… • …but The Fall? • No serpent, no apple, no garden. • OOPS! • But… • The doors are protected by two great jars. • So what? So what you say?
Well… • They’re described as being “like two eastern guards”. • Genesis 3:24 -- “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
The swords keep man from a former innocence. • And this is a loss-of-innocence story. • It’s harsh because these stories are so final. • You can NEVER go back—that’s why the narrator is so upset—his childhood and innocence is gone forever. • Authors know their religion.