Textuality » 4A Interacting
Camuffo Francesca 4 A 2/10/08
COMPITO DI INGLESE
The sonnet, that is a lyrical form of poetry, developed in Italy thanks to Petrarch in the 14th century. In the following two centuries Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced it into England changing its structure. The Petrarchan sonnet was arranged into an octave and a sestet, both made up of two quatrains, which had the purpose to give to introduce a problem, and two tercets, which had the purpose to give some solutions. The Shakesperian or English sonnet was arranged into 14 lines consisting of three quatrains, that introduced many aspects of the same problem, and a rhyming couplet, that gave a possible solution.
Sonnets were usually referred to an unattainable woman, an idealized woman. Another theme was that of courtly love, that is the love born at court. For that reason the intelligent reader may understand that sonnets are not a popular form of poetry as were ballads in the Middle Ages, but they are written for the aristocracy, who were able to read and understand the language of sonnets. As a matter of fact poets used to write trough figures of speech, like metaphors, similes, etc.
Unlike traditional sonneteers, Shakespeare refused to write conventionally according to courteous love. He decided to addressed his works to a young man, the fair youth or to a woman, called "dark lady". The young man was beautiful while the lady wasn't. She was described in a parodized way. In ballads the idea of the woman was very different from the one in sonnets, probably because ballads belonged to the Middle Ages while sonnets belonged to the Renaissance. As a matter of fact every period has its values, that clearly appear in the works.
In ballads the idea of the woman was that she was dangerous, a dangerous tempter of men's integrity. In the Middle Ages you thought that women, the love for a woman, was used to reach God. We can read for example sonnets by Cavalcanti or by Guinizzelli to understand better the real purpose of women. Only for God, for religion, physical love was punished (as it happens in the Divine Comedy, in Paolo and Francesca).
In sonnets the idea of the woman was that she was like an angel, with fair hair. She also was given an homage by the poet (to a patroness or to the Queen herself).
We can remember the Woman of Bath, a weaver woman, a widow, different from the other, who were mothers, nun. She was described in a not so clear way, because temptation is abstract. The reason why the poet decided to choose the Woman of Bath, is because she was different and to be different inspired the curiosity of people.
