2. +
AGENDA
Recitation Sign up sheet
Lecture: Sonnets
Style and Format
Activity: Scansion
Introduction
Trickster Characters and QHQs
Twelfth Night
3. +
Recitation: A Sonnet or Soliloquy 50 points
Each person in class will do one presentation of
either a sonnet or soliloquy (speech/monologue),
including a written summary—half a page describing
the content and the formal elements —and a
memorized performance.
Please sign up on the sheet that is being circulated!
4. +
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
The composition dates of Shakespeare’s sonnets is unknown, though it
is likely that he wrote them over a period of several years, beginning in
the early 1590s. Some of them were being circulated in manuscript form
among his friends as early as 1598. The sonnets as we know them were
certainly completed no later than 1609, when they were published by
Thomas Thorpe under the title Shake-speares Sonnets. According to
Shakespearean scholars, it is likely that Thorpe obtained the manuscript
on which he based his publication from someone other than the
Shakespeare. Few believe that Shakespeare oversaw the publication of
Thorpe’s edition because the text is riddled with errors. Still, Thorpe's
1609 compilation is the source for all modern texts of the sonnets.
5. + Shakespearean Sonnet Conventions
With only a few exceptions, Shakespeare's verses follow the established
English form of the sonnet.
Each is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, comprising four sections:
three quatrains, or groups of four lines, followed by a couplet of two lines.
It is essential that a sonnet contain a “turn” or “volta.” Often the first two
quatrains explain a problem or ask a question. The last quatrain and the
couplet offer a solution to the problem or an answer to the question.
Sometimes, particularly in Shakespearean sonnets, this “turn” does not occur
until the final couplet, where it is a commentary on the previous twelve lines.
It should be noted that some of Shakespeare's final couplets do not fit the
conventional strategy of summary. Shakespeare did, however, employ the
traditional English sonnet rhyme-scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
6. +
Iambic Pentameter
Meter: Iambic pentameter
Unstressed, stressed pattern
Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit
Five feet (10 syllables)
Shall I compare the too a summer’s day
Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit
Though art more lovely and more temperate
Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit-Detroit
7. +
General Sonnet Conventions
14 lines
Strict rhyme scheme
Specific structure
We’re going to talk about three specific types
Shakespearean (English)
Petrarchan (Italian)
Spenserian
8. +
The Spenserian Sonnet
Form: 14 lines: three quatrains followed by a couplet.
Content: It is essential that a sonnet contain a “turn” or “volta.”
Meter: Iambic pentameter
Unstressed, stressed pattern
Detroit Five feet (10 syllables)
Rhyme scheme:
abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee
9. Is it | her na | ture or | is it | her will,
To be so cruel to an humbled foe?
If nature, then she may it mend with skill,
If will, then she at will may will forgo.
But if her nature and her will be so,
that she will plague the man that loves her most:
And take delight t'increase a wretch's woe,
Then all her nature's goodly gifts are lost.
And that same glorious beauty's idle boast,
Is but a bait such wretches to beguile:
As being long in her love's tempest tossed,
She means at last to make her piteous spoil.
Of fairest fair let never it be named,
That so fair beauty was so foully shamed.
In this example, you can
see how Spenser links the
idea of each quatrain into
a continuous thought,
which he reflects in the
rhyme scheme. We also
find that the final couplet,
once again distinguished
by elements of rhyme,
characteristically presents
a different idea from the
rest of the sonnet or
comments on it in some
way.
Sonnet No. 41, from Amoretti
10. + The Petrarchan Sonnet
Form: 14 lines: octave and a sestet
Content: The octave forms proposition that describes
problem, asks question, or sets situation. The sestet
proposes turn or resolution.
Meter: Iambic pentameter
Unstressed, stressed pattern
Detroit Five feet (10 syllables)
Rhyme scheme:
octave:
abba abba
Rhyme scheme for sestet:
Can be arranged in various ways:
cdcdcd cdccdc
cdecde cdcdee
11. "London, 1802” by William Wordsworth
1. Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
2. England hath need of thee: she is a fen
3. Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
4. Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
5. Have forfeited their ancient English dower
6. Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
7. Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
8. And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
9. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
10.Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the
sea:
11.Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
12.So didst thou travel on life's common way,
13.In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
14.The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
The Petrarchan Sonnet is divided
into two sections by the two
differing rhyme groups. In
accordance with the principle, a
change from one rhyme group to
another signifies a change in
subject matter. This change
occurs at the beginning of L9 in
the Italian sonnet and is called the
volta,or "turn"; the turn is an
essential element of the sonnet
form. It is at the volta that the
second idea is introduced
12. +
The Shakespearian Sonnet
Form: 14 lines: three quatrains followed by a
couplet.
Content: It is essential that a sonnet contain a
“turn” or “volta.” Meter: Iambic pentameter
Unstressed, stressed pattern
Detroit Five feet (10 syllables)
Rhyme scheme:
abab, cdcd, efef, gg
13. + Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course
untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18
William
Shakespeare
14. +
_________
_
Shakespearean Sonnet Form and Structure
Iambic pentameter A
B
B
A
C
C
D
D
E
E
F
F
G
G
Quatrain
Quatrain
Quatrain
Couplet
octave
sestet
Volta
Lines!
14
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
15. +
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
Rhetorical Question
“temperate” is a pun
Personification: Death brags
Line one sets up the extended
metaphor
Hyperbole
Personification: winds shake;
summer’s lease; summer’s gold
complexion
Comparison: “summer” to “youth”
Note the repetition of first words: And, Nor, So
Metonymy: “the eye of heaven”
the substitution of
the name of an
attribute or adjunct
for that of the thing
meant, for example
suit for business
executive, or the
track for horse
racing.
Assonance: lives, this, this, gives
16. +
The Subject
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
The speaker starts by asking whether he should compare his subject to
with a summer’s day. Then, instead of considering that further, he gives
us a thesis of sorts. The object of his description is more "lovely" and
more "temperate" than a summer’s day.
17. +
Lines 3-8
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
These line focus on a personification of nature, explaining the cycles of
life and details of summer.
18. +
Lines 7-8
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
With these lines, the speaker gets even broader in his philosophy,
declaring that everything beautiful must eventually fade away and
lose its charm, either by chance or by the natural flow of time.
19. +
The Turn: Lines 9-10
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Here is a classic example of a "turn." Suddenly (though it was
foreshadowed a bit in line 8), the tone and direction of the poem
change dramatically: the speaker pronounces that the person he’s
speaking to isn’t subject to all of these rules of nature. The speaker
argues that, unlike the real summer, his beloved’s summer will never
end nor will his/her beauty ever fade.
20. +
Lines 11-14
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shakespeare successfully predicts that this poem will continue to be read,
analyzed, and re-analyzed for all time. In other words, by allowing us to try
to give life to "thee" (figuring out who he/she was), the speaker and the
poem itself give "thee" life.
28. +
Possible traits of the trickster
• Deceitful (“truth-eluding ambiguity” according to Lock) : The
trickster uses trickery to bring about change. According to Lock,
the trickster “shifts and disguises the boundaries, undoes and
redraws the traditional connections” (III).
• Self-Serving: The trickster often feels that he or she has been
wronged and is therefore justified in taking action to bring about
change and/or to defeat “the enemy.”
• Shape Shifter: The trickster may change forms, sex, and so forth
as an element of surprise to his victim. The change may also be
psychological instead of (or in addition to) a visual change.
According to Lock, “Trickster is not gendered—only cultural
perceptions of the freedom and mobility necessary to be trickster.
Thus, premodern tricksters were imagined as primarily masculine,
though with gender-changing abilities” (III)
29. Cultural Hero:
The trickster may be idealized as a cultural hero when, as the agent of
transformation, he or she overturns a cruel or unfair leader or political/social
system or reverses the fortunes of the more powerful party. According to Helen
Lock, this characteristic separates the fool from the trickster: “The true
trickster’s trickery calls into question fundamental assumptions about the way
the world is organized, and reveals the possibility of transforming them (even if
for ignoble [shameful] ends)” (Lock III). Michael J. Carroll includes cultural hero
as an attribute as well; he characterizes the trickster as “a transformer who
makes the world habitable for humans by ridding it of monsters or who provides
those things [such as fire] that make human society possible (“Levi-Strauss,
Freud, and the Trickster” 305). Hardy characterizes the trickster as the source
of unexpected changes in a world where change is not always comfortable and
as a symbol of the uncertain world in which we live.
30. • Solitary creature: Many tricksters are solitary animals (or humans),
working alone rather than with a partner or within a group – to undertake
change. Michael P. Carroll notes that “Ravens are usually sighted singly or
at most in pairs; coyotes forage independently…; hares have long been
noted for their solitariness…Spiders generally associate with members of
their own species on only two occasions: when they are born and when
they mate” (“Trickster as Selfish Buffoon” 115).
• Physically, intellectually, or socially weak creature: The trickster is
often portrayed as a much weaker character than his prey, and yet
through cleverness and trickery, he is able to overcome all obstacles and
prevail. In some cases the trickster may appear to be weaker physically in
order to confuse his prey (false frailty).
31. • Special tools: The trickster may have special tools or abilities that
enable him to perform his acts. Often these tools include magic and/or
supernatural powers.
• Teacher: The trickster is a purveyor of life lessons through the stories,
from manners to ethics. T
• “Trickster discourse is the process whereby language negotiates the
boundaries of the crossblood’s world, deconstructing the fixed,
authoritative beliefs and definitions that Vizenor has called “terminal
creeds” (Bearheart xiv)” (Qtd. In Lock III).
• Some “tricksters work to transform the limitations and boundaries of
language in ways that can have real-world consequences for the ethnic
American” (Lock III).
32. +
“Defining The Trickster”
Perhaps Jean Hardy provides a definition that encompasses the Jungian influence
including the confusion about this archetype:
The archetype of the Trickster…is the existence of the unexpected as it
appears in every human society, sometimes fully acknowledged, sometimes
feared and hidden. He is the opposite of order – but then he is opposite of
everything: he can turn into a she…He is the Green Man, the Jester, the
clown, the witch or the wizard, Mercury, a shape shifter … the Fool with the
potential at times for becoming a Savior. He upsets normality and hierarchic
order…He can change the expected world, and therefore be an agent of
transformation. (1)
taken from “There Is No Box: The Trickster in Literature”
Margaret F. Crawford
33. +
QHQs: Defining the Trickster
1. Q: I don’t understand how the Trickster would be defined as a teacher?
2. Q: The moral that tricksters try to teach?
3. Q. Essentially the question is what makes a trickster, a trickster? Are they
defined by their actions or by their very nature itself?
4. Q: Is it possible for all major characters to be considered a “trickster” at one
point of the play or another?
5. Q: Why is it through the use of the trickster that characters can sometimes
learn the most valuable lessons?
6. Q: What happens to the trickster dynamic if tricksters are the norm? Is it
possible to have a trickster character that conforms to societal norms
instead of standing in opposition?
34. +
“Transformations of the Trickster”
by Helen Lock
“[T]he trickster is not playing. Not just any rogue or anti-hero
can properly be termed a trickster. The true trickster’s trickery
calls into question fundamental assumptions about the way the
world is organized, and reveals the possibility of transforming
them (even if often for ignoble ends). In this regard it is not
surprising that innovative uses have been made of the modern
incarnation of the trickster in American novels produced by
writers of dual ethnic or cultural backgrounds, in whose worlds
boundaries have continually to be mediated and assumptions
challenged.”
35. +
Transformations of the Trickster
1. Q: Has the popularity of tricksters increased in the modern era?
2. Q: Are tricksters known for being more deceitful, or honest?
3. Q: Since a trickster has a unique opinion and often acts very confident and tries to
connect with people, does a trickster act without care of judgement, or do they
actually care what people (audiences) think?
36. +
1. Q: What are there significant differences between the Trickster
and the Trickstar?
2. Q: Why might have Mother Jones have became the person
she was?
“If you become a riddle, people will be sidetracked in the
attempt to solve you; meanwhile, you can stealthily
undermine the power structure and continue to espouse
your radical theories.”(11)
The Female “Trickstar”
38. +Twelfth Night—an allusion to the night of festivity
preceding the Christian celebration of the
Epiphany—combines love, confusion, mistaken
identities, and joyful discovery.
After the twins Sebastian and Viola survive a
shipwreck, neither knows that the other is alive.
Viola goes into service with Count Orsino of Illyria,
disguised as a young man, “Cesario.”
*Synopsis from the Folger
Version of Twelfth Night
1:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39jE4SUEF4
Here is a trailer from a
contemporary version to get you
started.
39. +
Read: Twelfth Night: Acts 1 and 2
Post #4: Choose one
1. Compare and contrast the misidentification in Twelfth Night with
that from A Comedy of Errors.
2. Consider common practices of traditional wooing. In what way
would they be different from Cesario’s endeavors to woo Olivia for
Duke?
3. How does the clown prove that Olivia is a fool? Is he correct or
incorrect in his assessment? (Act 1 Scene 5) Explain your answer
with evidence from the text.
4. Analyze Maria’s speeches in Act 2 scene 3. Explain carefully her
motive to entrap Malvolio. Do you believe that she is justified in
doing it?
5. QHQ: Trickster Characters and Traits
