how literary texts may promote Peace

Fardella Flora

MATERIALS:

• S.SASSOON, “Glory of Women” from handout• S.SASSOON, “They” from handout• W.OWEN, “Futility” from Collected Poems by C.

Day Lewis• W.SHAKESPEARE, “Hamlet Act III,Scene1”

from handout• W.SHAKESPEARE, “Macbeth” , Mondadori

2004 (English and Italian version)

WORKING METHOD:

• Textual analysis

• Finding relationship between text and peace

• Class discussion

PEACE TODAY

It is an important problem all over the world. People always goes to the search of PEACE

But, What is Peace?Peace is a never-guarantied condition.

WAR TODAY Today there are a lots of conflicts in the world

like the case of Israel and Palestine, the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq, the frequent presence of terrorism, the tragedies in all the African area and many others. As a matter of fact nowadays

there are about thirty conflicts in the world and also this

gives the idea of the difficulty to get to and keep a global balance.

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

Siegfried Sassoon 1886-1967,

English poet and novelist.

Importance of his biography for our project:

Sassoon was an officer in World War I.

Thus he knows very well what means fight.

Glory of Women• You love us when we’re heroes, home on leave,

Or wounded in a mentionable place, You worship decorations; you believe That chivalry redeems the war disgrace. You make us shells. You listen with delight, By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled. You crown our distant ardours while we fight, And mourn our laurelled memories when we’re killed.

You can’t believe the British troops ‘retire’ When hell’s last horror breaks them, and they run, Trampling the terrible corpses – blind with blood. O German mother dreaming by the fire, While you are knitting socks to send your son His face is trodden deeper in the mud.

Text Analysis

- Title: “Glory of Women”, from reading it you can note

the possible main characters - Central theme: the soldiers talk through women’s

point of view. But women don’t know the real face of war: they believe that it is something that change men in hero.

- Message of the poet: He wants to underline that war is unimaginable, only soldiers can know it.

- In relationship with Peace: Only they who fight can know really importance of Peace.

Different point of view about war:

• The women’s one they believe that it is something that change men in heros.

• The soldiers’ one only they who fight know war negative vision of it.

Conclusions

• IMORTANCE OF PEACEIMORTANCE OF PEACE

• NEGATIVE VISION ABOUT WAR:NEGATIVE VISION ABOUT WAR:

• THE IGNORANCE OF PEOPLE IN THE IGNORANCE OF PEOPLE IN FRONT OF WARFRONT OF WAR

They

The Bishop tells us: “When the boys come backThey will not be the same; for they’ll have fought In a just cause; they lead the last attackOn Anti-Christ, their comrades’ blood has bought New right to breed an honourable race,They have challenged Death and dared him face to

face”. “We’re none of us the same” the boys reply. “For Gorge lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blindPoor Jim’s shot through the lungs and like to die And Bert’s gone syphilitic: you’ll not find A chap who’s served that hasn’t found some change”. And the Bishop said: “The ways of God are strange!”

Text Analysis

- Title: “They”, reading it the reader expect the poem to be about people different from the speaking voice because they conveys the idea of distance.

- Central theme: dialogue between a bishop and some soldiers. The bishop thinks that when men come back from a war they will not be the same because “they fought in a just cause”. But the boys reply that they have changed because war has mutilated their body.

- Message of poet: Also in this poet, Sassoon wants to underline the difference between they who fight and they who see war from outside.

- In relationship with Peace: In the poem war is seen also like a concrete danger for soldiers’ body. Thus Peace represents an important condition to safeguard our self.

Different point of view about war:

- The Bishop’s one war is a source of moral change for the soldiers.

- The soldier’s one they know what is in reality war, thus they have got a negative consideration of it

Summary about Sassoon’s poems

GLORY OF WOMEN THEY

Sassoon's

point of view:

- negative vision of war

- only they who fight know war for certain

- they who live war from outside haven’t a real vision of it.

WILFRED OWEN

Wilfred Owen was an English poet and a soldier, regarded by some as the leading poet of the First World War.

Futility

Move him into the sun -Gently its touch awoke him once,At home, whispering of fields unsown.Always it woke him, even in France,Until this morning and this snow.If anything might rouse him nowThe kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds, -Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir?Was it for this the clay grew tall?- O what made fatuous sunbeams toilTo break earth's sleep at all?

Text Analysis

- Title: “Futility”. It suggests the idea of something not very important.

- Central theme: A dead soldier has been placed in the sun. He lived and worked in the English countryside, an early riser, and perhaps the sun will wake him again.

- Message: The poet wants to underline the futility of things in human life.

- In relationship with Peace: War is considered a futility of life, thus the poet has got a negative consideration of it.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare 1564-1616, English poet and playwright.

Importance of his works for our project:Macbeth and Hamlet are the most famous tragedies in which Shakespeare underline the importance of Peace.

To be, or not to be (from Hamlet 3/1)

- Title: Reading the first line, the reader can already understand the protagonist’s problem and his difficult question: to be or not to be?

- Central theme: Hamlet asks himself if it is right to depend upon fortune or if it is right to fight against it to get what we are looking for. After that he speaks about the reason why people with serious difficulties, prefer continuing to live even if they could kill themselves: they don’t know what there is after death. Therefore they remain in life which they find easier than doing an extreme act.

- Message: Hamlet gives an unusual suggestion about knowledge: it is considered a negative element that contrasts with active human intentions. Moreover the monologue provides the reflection about the sense of the life.

- In relationship with Peace: Hamlet is a perfect example about the broke out of a inner balance. Thus in this case, Shakespeare speaks about an inner Peace.

Macbeth

Macbeth is one of the most important Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Text Analysis

- Title: it coincides with the main character. This is important because Shakespeare wants to underline the person.

- Central theme: The determination and the ambition of Macbeth bring the protagonist to the commitment of murders, conflicts and after to the madness and the defeat. At the end he was killed and is this particular that makes him an hero.

• Message: Shakespeare can convey the negative effects of the break of the balance driving the protagonist to commit murders and eventually to madness and defeat.

• In relationship with Peace: Macbeth is the symbol of the war, thus Giving us a negative example in the play, Shakespeare suggests us reflection on the value of

peace.

The Word Peace in Macbeth

Act I

Witches: “Peace! – the charm’s wound up” Lady Macbeth: “Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace

between the effect and it”

Macbeth: “Prythee, peace”

Act II Lady Macbeth: “- Hark! – Peace” Act III Macbeth: “Put rancour in the vessel of my peace, only

for them”

Macbeth: “Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace”

Lenox: “But, peace!”

Act IV Malcom: “Nay, had I power, I should pour the sweet milk

of concord into Hell, uproar the universal peace, confound all unit of earth”

Macduff: “The tyrant has not batter’d at their peace?”

Rosse: “No; they were well at peace when I did leave ’em”

In the tragedy the word Peace is used by Shakespeare to stop a discussion between the characters or to underline their sense of guilt.

Summary about Shakespeare’s plays

MACBETH HAMLET • Peace like an inner balance

• break of this balance

• theme of murders

Murders to satisfy his ambition.

In to be or not to be he express is problem: to killor not his uncle.

• theme of madness

• death of two protagonists

TRAGIC HEROES