Characteristics of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
The Middle Ages covers roughly a thousand years, from approximately 400to 1500 and the term generally refers to the changes that the Europeansociety experienced during these years. Many agree that there was not justone medieval civilization, but many. These civilizations are related toeach other in some ways, but they also have their own distinctcharacteristics that set them apart from each other. Historians generallyagree that the Renaissance lasted approximately two centuries, beginningwith the mid-1300s and lasting until the1600s. Each era has definingcharacteristics that that can be recognized through literature. The Middle Ages represents a variety of literature. Literature aboutkings flourished at this time. During this time, the heroic idea includedan aristocratic king. Literature of this time reflects an interestingaspect, which is that by dying gloriously, one might achieve immortality.(Abrams 3) Beowulf is one epic that has survived through the centuries.Another great epic that has survived is Alexander the Great. The literatureof the Middle Ages touched practically every aspect of life and thought.The Middle Ages, Barzun asserts, was not one, but many ages. They are
Shakespeare was agreat study of human emotions such as patriotism, love, and envy and he wasable to make his characters come alive with these very human elements. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales are withoutparallel. Literature was taken from the aristocracy andthe "cohesive spirit" it had formerly carried with it. His Faerie Queen is perhaps his mostfamous work, which is an allegory that mixes thoughts of the old and thenew together. The Norman Conquest was an event that made literature something thatbelonged more to the people. Clearly, Humanism shaped much of what to be created in the Renaissance. (Barzun 46) The Renaissance is a point of controversy because there does seem to beevidence of a "theme of restoration after a long period of darkness"(Breisach 398). Lucas asserts that Dante outranks all the writers of the late stages ofthe Middle Ages. New methods of learning and expression marked a genuinerevolution that in its own way can be termed as a new age that spanned overa thousand years. Courtly love is a "state of being like no other--out of bounds in relation to society and yet in many ways conventional"(Barzun 233). Satire was also common in the literature thatwas produced the late Middle Ages. (Lucas 156) An interesting aspect of the Middle Ages isthe focus on courtly love. Part of the reason behind this was because Renaissanceartists turned away from the deep religious symbolism of Medieval Art andbegan to focus on naturalistic details and classical ideals. One of the first individuals to give expressionto the new spirit of Humanism was Petrarch.
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Acceptance Essays
