Commedia dell'Arte - Italian Comedy.

The link you gave us Sir was wrong, it doesn't work, so yeah, thanks for that.

Here's what I've managed to get:

Commedia dell'Arte is a form of theatre characterised by masking 'types' which began in Italy in the 16th century and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches and scenarios. The characters in Commedia represented fixed social types. 

Stock characters:

Arlecchino: the most famous. He was an acrobat and a wit, childlike and amorous. He wore a cat-like mask and motley colored clothes and carried a bat or wooden sword.

Brighella: Arlecchino's crony, was more roguish and sophisticated, a cowardly villain who would do anything for money.

Il Capitano (The Captain): a caricature of the professional soldier - bold, swaggering and cowardly.

Il Dottore (The Doctor): a caricature of learning - pompous and fraudulent.

Pantalone: a caricature of the Venetian merchant, rich and retired, mean and miserly, with a young wife and adventurous daughter.

Pedrolino: was a white-faced, moon-struck dream and the forerunner of today's clown.

Pulcinella: was a dwarfish humpback with a crooked nose, the cruel bachelor who chased pretty girls. This character is often seen in Punch and Judy shows.

Scarranuccia: dressed in black and carrying a pointed sword, was the Robin Hood of his day. 

Inamorato (The Lover): handsome and went by many names. He wore no mask and had to be eloquent in order to speak the love declamations. 

Inamorata: was former's counterpart: Isabella Andreini was the most famous. She is headstrong, flirtatious and articulate. Typically depicted as Pantalone's daughter. Men constantly fall in love with her and she loves to tease them and is often a prima donna.   

Columbina: Inamorata's servent and was the beloved of Harlequin. She is a comic servant playing the tricky slave type and wife of Pierrot. She was often the only functional intellect on stage. 

La Ruffiana: was an old woman, either the mother or a village gossip, who thwarted the lovers.
Cantarina and Ballerina: often took part in the comedy, but for the most part their job was to sing, dance or play music.

Done.

Bluebeard.

Bluebeard is a French literary folktale. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors.

Bluebeard is a wealthy aristocrat, feared and shunned because of his ugly, blue beard. He has been married several times, but no one knows what became of his wives. He is therefore avoided by the local girls. When Bluebeard visits one of his neighbours and asks to marry one of her two daughters, the girls are terrified, and each tries to pass him on to the other. Eventually, he talks the younger daughter into visiting him, and after hosting a wonderful banquet, he persuades her to marry him, which she does and she lives with him in his chateau.

Very shortly after, Bluebeard announces that he must leave the country for a little while; he gives all his keys to his new wife, telling her they open doors to numerous treasures. He tells her to use the keys freely apart from the key which opens one small room beneath the castle. Bluebeard stresses to her that she must not open this room under any circumstances but still leaves her with the key - obvious temptation. She vows she will never enter the room but is overcome with a hungry desire to know what the forbidden room holds and despite warnings from her sister Anne, who has come to visit her, she opens it.

Upon the opening of the room, the new wife discovers the horrible secret the room kept. Its floors were awash with blood and the murdered bodies of her husbands former wives hang from hooks on the wall. Horrified she drops the key in a pool of blood and flees from the room. Despite several attempts the blood on the key won't wash off. She reveals her husband's secret to her sister Anne and both plan to flee the castle the next day. Bluebeard returns home unexpectedly and noticing the blood on the key flies into a violent rage and threatens to behead her on the spot. However, she implores him to give her fifteen minutes to say her prayers upon which he consents and she locks herself in the highest tower with Anne. Bluebeard tries to break down the door whilst the two sisters wait for their two brothers to arrive. At the last moment the brothers break in to the castle and as he attempts to flee they kill him. He leaves no heirs other than his wife, who inherits his great fortune - the money is used for a dowry to marry off her sister, her brothers' captains' commissions and the rest to marry a worthy gentleman who makes her forget her horrible encounter with Bluebeard.

Bloody Chamber is basically Angela Carter's modern day adaption/version of Bluebeard (with a few differences) and is completely different to what I thought Bluebeard was as a child - I use to think it was a pirate story. Boy was I wrong!

Impressions of Walton.

So our blogging task this week was to blog on our impressions and opinions of Walton, the primary narrator of the novel of Frankenstein. I'm going to bullet point my opinions because just...yeah.

• The first letter Walton writes is to his sister, Margaret Saville (ew Saville) who is in England. He is informing her of his safe arrival and expresses both his elation and his fears towards his expedition to the North Pole. The letter basically recounts his life. Walton's expressions towards his expedition present his as a very enthusiastic character who wants to discover. However, his view and belief of the North Pole is quite mistaken as he mentions "there snow and frost are banished". Walton's geographical mistakes, although quite minor considering very little was known about the world when Mary Shelley wrote the novel, inserts an element of uncertainty towards the character. I believe it is used to cause the reader to question the reliability of Walton's judgement's towards other characters and the story as a whole. 
• His views of his expedition are quite poetic and romantic, he believes "the sun is for ever visible" and "diffuses a perpetual splendour." Walton's romantic presentation is not surprising as Frankenstein was written during the Romantic Period - a period which started in the late 18th century and carried on into the first few decades of the 19th century. So argue that Walton's letters highlight the influences which would have affected the writing of the novel rather than an opinion of the character.
• (Another non-opinion towards Walton, more how he allows the story to be told) Basically, Shelley's use of Walton's letters allows her to begin the novel in an epistolary style which creates a narrative frame as the narratives are essentially separate rather than linear and so become interdependent towards one another.  
• Walton appears fearful in regards towards his expedition and bids his sister , with what he hopes is not a final farewell. The characters fear and slight reluctance towards the expedition will present a sense of foreboding into the text and possible create tension and suspense as the reader may question why a character who is so full of passion towards learning and knowledge is so fearful of this trip. 
• There appears to be quite a few similarities between the characters of Walton and Victor and at times Walton appears to anticipate the character of Victor. This is shown through the characters rejection towards a life of domestic ease for a life of adventure and a quest for knowledge, both desire or want a sympathetic friend and both characters become isolated from family and friends on their own personal glory quests. 
• Basically, I feel Shelley has used the character of Walton to mirror the main character Victor and I feel she has done this to possibly create sympathy towards the main character as the mirroring suggests that this want for knowledge and desire to be amazing and glorified can affect everyone and is not just isolated towards the character of Victor.   
• The lengths of the letters and the tone should also be considered because the first two letters are quite similar, there is quite a relaxed feeling and tone towards them and are quite lengthly and detailed. However, the third letter is rushed and short - element of foreboding and creates tension and suspense for the reader - Walton meets the monster in the next letter.

5 Things I Learnt.

I was meant to do this blog weeks ago but never got round to it, but truthfully, I can't think of 5 things we've learnt, that's how bad it was for two weeks. But here is someone who did, so yeah...

http://hannahjadefraser.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/5-things-i-learnt.html

Opinions of Faustus in Act 2 Scene 3.

In today's lesson we looked at Act 2 Scene 3, in this scene we meet several new characters (can they be called characters when they're the Seven Deadly Sins?). So yeah, in the scene Faustus meets the Seven Deadly Sins as well as Lucifer and Beelzebub. Mephistopheles returned as well as the Good and Bad Angel.

Anyway, this blog is meant to be about our opinions and impressions of Faustus throughout the scene.

In the past several scenes, well this one and the one where he was signing his soul away, Faustus appears to go through four phases in a sequence. He starts off with doubt, then persuasion, resolve and then finally gains. This sequence of four phases appears to happen again and again, about three times in the scene where he signs away his soul.

The fourth sequence or time is slightly different though. Faustus starts off being doubtful, we can see this because he banishes Mephistopheles to hell, "curse thee wicked Mephistopheles." Additionally, Faustus mention of "repent" further shows his doubt as it suggests he no longer trusts Mephistopheles and regrets selling his soul.

Faustus then enters the phase of persuasion as the Good Angel and the Bad Angel arrive. For the first time in the play Faustus is able to acknowledge the Angels, most notably the Good Angel, "Who buzzeth in mine ears I am a spirit." Faustus ability to acknowledge the Angels may suggest to the audience that Faustus has lost his ability to repent because he has effectively become a spirit as he can hear the spirits. This means he cannot repent, like he appears to want to a few lines earlier, because he has already be judged and well damned because he sell his soul.

After the persuasion becomes the Resolve, this time Faustus is resolving towards virtue. Before Faustus does this he has an argument with Mephistopheles and their relationship thing reaches an all time low, with Mephistopheles leaving with "Remember this". Once he has left Faustus begins to resolve towards virtue as he calls on Christ to save his soul, "Ah Christ my saviour, seek to save distressed Faustus' soul." This is quite the climatic moment in the play as it will trick the audience, as they will believe, as they have done through each occurrence of this sequence of phases, that Faustus is about to be saved and he has the seen the error of his ways. However, the audience is about to be let down again as Faustus ultimately isn't saved. The re-occurrence of this sequence of phases and feelings will overall build tension in the audience as they will continually hope that Faustus will repent and are disappointed each time.

From resolve to repeated persuasion, except this time Faustus is being persuaded by the most powerful devils, Lucifer and Beelzebub, who appear along with Mephistopheles and terrify Faustus in to submission and away from his idea of repenting, "Pardon me in this, and Faustus vows never to look to heaven."

Faustus then begins to resolve once more, however this time it is towards evil, as Faustus vows to think and speak only devilish things, "to burn his scriptures, slay his ministers..."

After this, Faustus enters the final phase of the sequence, gains. Through Faustus submission he is rewarded with a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, each of which he questions (although he appears to become bored of them quickly and wants to move on to the next one, " What art thou the first...the second...") It becomes clear that Faustus ultimate curiosity is to see hell and return. The scene closes with Lucifer promising to deliver that hollow privilege and Faustus is thus committed to Mephistopheles again, "Come Mephistopheles."

Faustus change of emotions and feelings, and sometimes the re-occurrence of these feelings, presents and creates the opinion of Faustus as quite a fickle character. It also suggests that Faustus is easily controlled, which would be quite surprising and shocking as Faustus is meant to be of the highest intelligence and therefore above the ability to be controlled, honestly, if you take in to account his arrogance and pride it would make more sense if Faustus was the one controlling someone. However, it appears Faustus is naive and blind to the Devils ability to manipulate and control him - new impression formed.

However, on the other hand, it could be argued that Faustus becomes quite submissive because he is afraid of the devils, he is being scared in to submission. But, depending on how the play is performed this interpretation could become invalid as the presentation of the sins, most notably Gluttony, could be performed as quite comedic which would therefore suggest that Faustus has been mocking the religious idea of repenting and still doesn't truly value his soul (well the soul he gave away) and is not scared of the devils after all.

That's all I have so far, if I think of anything else I'll do a quick update of the blog. Done.

Comedy In Doctor Faustus.

Last English Lit lesson we looked at comedy and the idea of comedy in the play Doctor Faustus. We started off talking about comedy and what we thought it meant and was. Obviously everyone knows what comedy is, but it ended up being pretty hard to explain, I ended defining it as a "form of entertainment which makes you laugh or amuses you, a.k.a, HANNAH' Well, she is a VERY funny gal! We then talked about other things about comedy , such as what makes it comedy, so kind of a relief of tension, breaking of taboo's etc. 

After this we looked at the idea of Renaissance Comedy, and we wrote that comedy as a genre, during the Renaissance times, was more about mistaken identities, love and marriage. Then there was comedy in a tragedy, which was more about 'lower' status characters outwitting their 'higher' status characters, and was more like wordplay and slapstick. This in turn lead us on to the point of our lesson, comedy in Faustus. 

We looked at the final scene of Act 1, so Act 1 Scene 4, and discussed its comedic values and the point or worth of it being included in the play as a whole, as well as where it is in the play. This scene is in between to quite vital scenes, the one where Faustus meets Mephistopheles and before he sells his soul. DUN DUN DUN! Anyway, in the scene, the character Wagner is trying to convince the character, who we have just been introduced too, Robin, to be his slave basically. The situation between Wagner and Robin is meant to mirror that of Mephy and Faustus. However, although it seems to mirror the scene before, this scene is meant to be funny and well full of comedy. It was so funny, like really really funny...

After reading the scene we started quickly discussing reasons and possibilities as to why the scene as included and why it was placed in between two very serious and important scenes. I feel the main reason, and I sort of mentioned it earlier, for why the scene was included was because it mirrored or was parallel to the events between Mephy and Faustus and I feel Marlowe wanted to ridicule and mock Faustus. Marlowe does this successfully because he creates a contrast and comparison between the lowly "boy" that is Robin and the great Doctor Faustus. He does this by making Robin rejects Wagners offer of becoming his servant boy and so causes Fautus to appear foolish and well stupid. This would be comical to a Renaissance audience because, when we looked at their style and the criteria for their comedy, it mentioned lowly status outwitting higher status. So, although Robin didn't outwit Faustus personally, he technically outwitted Faustus with his overall decision,and so placed the lowly person as being more clever (?) than Faustus, who felt he was better than "divinity...medicine...law and theology."

Other slightly weaker interpretations as to why the scene was included are:

• It was used to relieve tension from the audience, as the two scenes surrounding this scene touch on what would have been a pretty heavy subject for them, e.g. the corruption of religion and association with the devil. 
• Its connected to relieving the tension, as I felt he wanted to lift the atmosphere because he included the scene as he was trying to break, what would have been considered during his times, as a taboo subject (Not entirely sure) 
• Faustus was trying to ridicule norms, so in this context I feel Marlowe was trying to ridicule the fear the audience feels towards certain parts of religion etc. (Not entirely sure myself again)

As you can probably tell I'm not really entirely sure or certain as to why this scene was included and why it was included where it was, but if I become more certain or we go over it more in class them I will blog about it. 

Done. 

The Legend of the Extra Devil in Faustus.

Well this will be a nice short blog on a rumour, or legend about an extra devil in the play or performance Doctor Faustus.

Basically, a long time ago, 16th Century times, the play Doctor Faustus gained an infamous reputation of having a real devil/ spirit on stage with the actors. This occurred around 1594ish, when a member of the audience claimed he had seen an extra devil character on stage, which in turn scared both the audience and the cast/actors. Supposedly, according to rumours and legend, the appearance of the extra devil occurred several times and caused many to believe the play was cursed, which in all honesty acted in Marlowe's favour and caused the play to become more popular.

Done.