Sex and the Church

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The Coronet - analysis

The Coronet, according to gradesaver (and click on 'next' for their analysis of 'The Definition of Love'.)

Sex and the Church - bbc iplayer

You need to watch these three episodes by May 5th. Answer the questions below as you watch.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05ql6hf/sex-and-the-church-1-from-pleasure-to-sin

What did Jesus have to say about sexuality?

Name three abominations alongside homosexuality.

Describe in two or three sentences how Plato and Aristotle contributed to the mistrust of 'the flesh'.

Explain what Plato’s cave has to do with earthly desires.

Who made chastity popular? 

What twist did Augustine add to the existing misogyny?

How did penitentials come about?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05r6dkq/sex-and-the-church-2-sexual-revolution

Outstanding extracts from your essays...

An entire paragraph that hangs on the analysis of one word - 'we' - and darts back and forth between the two texts, and contextual knowledge. (Could be more technical, if I'm being picky!)
Both Marvell and Ford depict the afterlife as the home of true justice. This is affirmed in Tis Pity by Richardetto's assertion that "we must obey, but heaven will judge them for't another day", as this suggests that heaven is where true justice is given. However, perhaps this is also an attempt to break the fourth wall, as 'we' suggests an elements of unity, which he may have intended to extend to include the audience of his 1633 play. This is plausible due to the fact that there was immense political unrest at the time, as Charles I's attempt to reign as an absolute monarch meant that there was also a lack of justice in reality. Therefore is it is possible to that Ford was encouraging his audience to resist revolt and perhaps even fear during this time of political chaos, by bearing in mind the notion that true justice will be served by God in Heaven. This concept of a just afterlife is also echoed in Marvell's poem The Nymph Complaining' where the speaker affirms that 'Heaven's King keeps register of everything', suggesting that justice does indeed lie in heaven, like Ford, but more specifically with Christ - a fitting interpretation because like Ford, Marvell was raised as a Christian. This concept of justice in the afterlife is further reflected in Tis Pity by the notion that hell is where 'there is the murderer for ever stabbed, yet can never die' (according to the Friar). Therefore, whilst one may perceive this to be a clear allusion to the hell illustrated in the Divine Comedy in Inferno, another may take this to mean that Ford is trying to suggest that the afterlife is a place of equality, as each will endure the sin which they did to thers, presenting life after death to be the ultimate purveyor of justice.




Excellent AO4 understanding when writing about the relationship between sin and knowledge:


"When the Friar cries '"O ignorance in knowledge!" he is (unwittingly perhaps) referring to the old-fashioned use of the word 'know' to mean 'have sex with'. The idea of knowledge as sinful in itself is also explored in reactions to the Bible. Eve and Adam fall because they gain knowledge of good and evil, they are no longer innocents. The controversy of phyiscaly knowledge was at the time very topical, as a new school of philosophy, empiricsm, was forged. John Locke's focus on evidence and physical knowledge was scorned by the Neoplatonic tradition, which preferred theoretical notions of truth and beauty. Milton's descriptions of Eve (from the serpent's mouth) as "Mother of Science" was undoubtedly a dig at Renaissance, empiricist ideas. Marvell and Ford both question the role of knowledge in creating sin. It is Giovanni's flawed reasoning, his "faith not in the power of God, but in the power of reason" which leads him to death, in Schmidt's words. Likewise Marvell's soul solemnly reminds us that "none thither mounts [to heaven] by the degree of knowledge, but humility." There is recognition that knowledge must always in some way be sinful to a Christian God."


Lovely combo of argument, detail, critical reading and context (AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4):

Overall, as the statement suggests, the consequences of sin and temptation for the characters and speakers of the texts are negative ones. We see this presented in the speaker of 'The Mower's Song's cascade into pessimism, madness, and talk of death. The dactylic start to the third stanza, "unthankful", acts as a stark contrast to the previous two stanzas, which begin with the typical iamb. This expresses the speaker's sudden explosive anger and bitter attitude towards his rejected acts of temptation and desire. The speaker continues in this developed pessimistic tone as he informs the grass that it will mourn his death by becoming a 'heraldry' for his 'tomb'. Here Marvell perhaps demonstrates a fall into madness as a result of sinful lust, which has also caused him to lose everything and consider death. Consequently, the speaker's lust has satisfied his basic sexual appetite temporarily, but this ends in chaos and possible death. Similarly, as Donald K Anderson Jr writes, "Giovanni tears out Annabella's heart and brings it to Soranazo's feast, [a] spectacular action, [which] is foreshadowed thoughout the play." We see this manifested in various ways, namely through the use of blood as a motif from as early as Act II, where Annabella's illness is thought to be aresult of "a fullness of her blood", to the symbolic writing in her blood, again echoing Dr Faustus. However, the ultimate sacrifice is her death, which results in a bloodbath.

What the examiner said

F663 Poetry and Drama pre-1800

General Comments:

The paper generated a wide range of responses, ranging from the pre-rehearsed and formulaic to the intellectually inspiring.

The best answers were fluent, interesting and well-informed, wrestling closely with the question.

Weaker answers fell into familiar traps – treating the question in a descriptive or narrative way, for example, or regurgitating practice essays rather than answering the question as set, or offering simplified or generalised interpretations of characters and contexts.

Critical views (AO3) were often used well – we have moved away from the ‘critic as cake

decoration’ approach to a much more flexible, cogent treatment of critics where they are often used to enrich and drive forward an argument. Feminist criticism was again much in evidence this year and was used to good effect when it enhanced a sense of the complexity of a text, but less so when it was used to endorse simplified responses not fully based on evidence. Critics such as Coppelia Kahn, Harold Bloom, Emma Smith and Jonathan Dollimore were well used to add intellectual vigour to their candidates’ essays. Some candidates displayed an impressive ability to orchestrate a range of critical perspectives to produce an alert and sensitive reading of the text.

There is still some evidence that AO weightings are not fully assimilated, so that contexts (AO4) can be cited too insistently in Section A or neglected in Section B. Context can be something of a blunt instrument; very broad or generalised assertions about contexts are often the hallmark of weaker candidates who may claim variously that Ford lived in a society of misogynists, Prospero was a sadistic coloniser, or that the age of Chaucer should not have been so patriarchal. Under the pressure of timed exam conditions, it is understandable that candidates sometimes revert to such shorthand assertions, but more successful candidates do tend to have at their fingertips a more nuanced sense of context and a greater sense of the significance of specific details.

This said, the great strength of the exam is that it is not prescriptive and allows candidates to express their intellectual personalities and inclinations, so that differently-minded but equally able candidates will approach the same question in markedly individual ways, one pursuing a more historicist angle, another based around difference performance histories of a play, a third weaving together critical views to build an argument. All can be equally successful. What matters above all is for detail to be deployed effectively in the service of an effective argument and for the candidate to do justice to the complexity of the texts studied.

Holiday homework: checklist

Please get loads of rest. Then, when you're awake, get this done so you are ready for the intense last push when you come back.

1) Read the A04 material on this blog (different types of love) and in your folders (handouts on Faust, Blood, the Heart)

2) Make sure that material makes it into your essay response. The essay is about sin and is on the post below. Complete the essay in timed conditions (but you can take an extra half hour to plan it).

3) Update your genius posts, then explore other people's. Remember to choose 2 of each 'type' of poem: nature, soul, love, politics.

Essay question for holiday homework

“Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.” In light of this quote, explore the theme of sin and temptation in your texts.

Tuesday's missing lessons - complete by Thursday

This should take you about two hours, in all, of concentrated work.

Turn to page 131 in your Marvell book: 'Women and Sex'.

Read, annotate and respond to pages 131-137, completing all activities and responding to all questions. That means you should:

-  give detailed answers (in word or on paper) to ANY sentences ending in a question mark

- annotate all the poems mentioned (Young Love, The Picture of Little TC, To His Coy Mistress), using the corresponding sections in the back of the book to help your understanding (pages 92, 93 and 89 respectively).

Everything you need is in those 6 pages; how much you get from them is up to you.

We'll be using this as a basis for discussion on Thursday.

John Carew's gruesome drooling over a 13-year old girl, referred to on page 133, is below:

The Second Rapture

by Thomas Carew

No, worlding, no, 'tis not thy gold,
Which thou dost use but to behold;
Nor fortune, honour, nor long life,
Children, or friends, nor a good wife,
That makes thee happy: these things be
But shadows of felicity.
Give me a wench about thirteen,
Already voted to the queen
Of lust and lovers; whose soft hair,
Fann'd with the breath of gentle air,
O'erspreads her shoulders like a tent,
And is her veil and ornament;
Whose tender touch will make the blood
Wild in the aged and the good;
Whose kisses, fast'ned to the mouth
Of threescore years and longer slouth,
Renew the age; and whose bright eye
Obscures those lesser lights of sky;
Whose snowy breasts (if we may call
That snow, that never melts at all)
Makes Jove invent a new disguise,
In spite of Juno's jealousies;
Whose every part doth re-invite
The old decayed appetite;
And in whose sweet embraces I
May melt myself to lust, and die.
This is true bliss, and I confess
There is no other happiness.