Author: Eremiţa Cristina

English literature
“All good books are alike in that they are truer than
if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that
happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the
remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”
Ernest Hemingway

The first definition of culture was given by anthropologists in the 19-th century. According to the
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by culture is very complex concept which covers all aspects of human life.
“Cultural knowledge is defined as the information about the other culture which
gives the necessary framework for its understanding and is static, external, reduced to the
information available. Cultural awareness is based on the knowledge of the target and of the
native language and is defined as a sensitivity from cultural impact wich was fistly then people
ivent the comunication. ”( Tomalin B. 93)
“The ‘British way of life’ and British identities are partly determined by
how people function within and react to national and local structures, whether positively or
negatively. These are not remote abstractions but directly influence individuals in their daily
lives. For example, government policies affect citizens and families; commercial organizations
influence choices in music, clothes and fashion; the media try to shape news values and agendas;
sponsorship and advertising may determine sports activities; and local government partly
conditions community life. ”(Oakland J. p.2)
These features cover a range of practices on both high and
popular cultural levels. Their number and variety mean that there are many different ‘ways of
life’ in Britain and all contribute to the diversity and pluralistic identities of contemporary
society. Social structures must adapt to new situations if
they are to survive and their present roles may be very different from their original functions.

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Introduction In earlier centuries, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland experienced very varied
events and conflicts in their historical growth. But, since 1707 when England and Wales were
united with Scotland as Great Britain and since 1801 when the United Kingdom (England,
Scotland, Wales and Ireland) was formed, British state structures and a resulting social life have
generally evolved slowly, unevenly and pragmatically, rather than by violent change.
British culture, a complex term with
no right definition as there are many different perceptions of what British culture really is. Britain
as it is today is commonly seen as a multicultural and multi-faith society. Which is a society that
consist of several cultures, meaning that Britain is a country brimming with different ethnic
minorities living alongside. A country, whereas the dish curry, whichever is an Indian cuisine has
been adopted as a national dish. Additionally, making the British culture seen moreover as a blend
of different cultures.

England
“England (population 49,753,000) consists mainly
of undulating or flat lowland countryside, with highland areas in the north and south-west.
Eastern England has the low-lying flat lands of the Norfolk Broads, the Cambridgeshire and
Lincolnshire Fens and the Suffolk Marshes. Low hill ranges stretch over much of the country,
such as the North Yorkshire Moors, the Cotswolds, the Kent and Sussex Downs and the Chiltern
Hills. Highland zones are marked by the Cheviot Hills (between England and Scotland); the
north-western mountain region of the Lake District and the Cumbrian mountains; the northern
plateau belt of the Pennines forming a backbone across north-west England; the Peak District at
the southern reaches of the Pennines; and the south-western plateau of Devon and Cornwall. The
heaviest population concentrations centre on the largest towns and cities, such as London and in
south-east England generally; the West Midlands region around Birmingham; the Yorkshire
cities of Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield; the north-western industrial area around Liverpool and
Manchester; and the north-east region comprising Newcastle and Sunderland. ”( Oakland J. p16)

Literature

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 “English literature it is about nearly all facets of society lives from which the English
literary works spring up. That is, Englishspeaking people of certain country, academic, working,
religious, and cultural backgrounds and political leanings and of certain times express various
aspects of their lives in written English. ”(Ista Maharsi 10)
Humour is an universal human characteristic which all cultures posses. In the
British society it is important to have humour, because it is seen as demonstration of health and
well being. Humour firstly appeared in British literature during the Middle Ages, when Chaucer
developed the storytelling tradition along with the ironies that resulted from the juxtaposition of
people from different classes and points of view. Britain’s ancient class system has always been a
mystery to strangers and a great source of humour fascination. In the past, the British were
expected to “know their place”.

Medival Literature
Today we discuss about another part of Elnglish literature, dark and mysterious . I
will provide an analysis on each of three works belonging to the medieval literature that I have
chosen: “The Pardoner’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer, Everyman. The main purpose of this part is
to highlight and analyze the sins that have prevailed over the main characters, as well as the
characters such as the Death and the Devil who will have a connection with mythology or
demonology. One of the most famous stories from the collection Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is
“The Pardoner’s Tale”. The first scene, presenting the unbridled drunkenness in the tavern is a
real feast during the plague. It is broken by a funeral ringing, followed by a story of the
innkeeper about the devastation caused by the epidemic. This story makes three friends get on
their feet in drunken fits and go on a death march. On their way they meet a mysterious old man;
their conversation with him is even more exacerbated by the horror of the whole picture. The
three friends are instructed by him on where to look for death, as well as where to find a chest
full of gold. This is death: the greed of finding the treasure kills all three. In general lines about
this tale the character who speaks with death in person sees this spirit which was mad and
influenced them to do what they wanted, convincing the humanity in deference. When a person
wants something he can do everything to obtain it and can commit different sins. The
introductory part and the Seller’s Tale of indulgences is preceded by the Doctor's Story. The
story is set in Flanders indefinitely and is opened by the image of three young people drinking,
playing cards for money and vilifying in a tavern. The seller of indulgences condemns each of

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these “tavern sins” in turn, insatiability, drinking, gambling, and vows with the support of the
scriptures, before continuing the story. The rebels hear a bell signaling a funeral; their friend was
killed by someone who is known as Death, who also killed a thousand others. Men intend to
avenge their friends and the other victims by killing Death.
The old man, whom they sharply questioned, tells them that he asked Death to take him,
but he refused. He then says that they can find death in the foot of an oak tree. When men reach
the tree, they find a large amount of gold coins and forget about their quest to kill Death. They
decide to sleep in the oak overnight, so they can take the coins in the morning. These three men
are pulling straw to see who among them is to bring wine and food, while the other two are
waiting under a tree.
The youngest of the three men pulls the shortest straw and leaves; in his absence, the
remaining two constitute a conspiracy to overpower and strike the youngest one when he returns.
However, the one that leaves for urban also plots to kill the other two. In order to do this, he buys
rat poison and laces the wine. When he comes back with food and drinks, the other two kill him
and then unwarily consume the poisoned wine, dying slow and painful deaths. “Death. Like Lot
and Herod before them, the three companions make an especially foolhardy choice. On “God’s
blessed bones,” they vow to join forces and slay the traitor “Death”: “If we can only catch his,
Death is dead!” (Bloom 1999: 64) The old man who appears before the rebels can be seen as the
Death in person, the Wandering Jew, the very old age and the messenger of Death. In mythology
but also in the Bible death is a man, whereas the discussion between Death and people is a
metaphor referring to the fact that death can be wherever we go, this attribute representing the
connection with the Dark Part of any human being. The Devil is not present in this tale but sin is,
reminding the reader of the biblical text where we initially find this sin. “The old man directs
them to Death’s residence; when they arrive they discover eight bushels of gold coins, divisible
by two but not by three. They lose interest in their quest and two stay to guard their treasure and
send off the third to buy, Wine and bread.” (Bloom 1999: 65) The Pardoner, the teller of this
story, admits extortion of the poor, the appropriation of leniency and the refusal to comply with
training against jealousy and greed. He also admits quite openly that he deceives the guiltiest
sinners into buying his fake relics and really does not care about what happens to the souls of
those whom he cheated. On the matter of the three travelers, I can say that they owned greed, and
their punishment is meant to make people understand that death cannot be avoided.

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 The Old Man is a more mysterious character in this poem. When he meets the friends on
the way to find Death, he is shriveled and wrinkled, and he begs Death to release him from his
body, which slowly disappears. I think he is actually a representation of death itself, because in
English literature, as we already know, Death is mostly pictured as a male, talking about the time
when he has been sentenced to roam the earth until God will show him some mercy and will end
his life. The fact is that we do not even know how old this man was. He could have been a
thousand years old. “Tell where he is or you shall rue it, aye By God and by the holy Sacrament!
Indeed you must be, with this Death, intent, To slay all us young people, you false
thief”(Chaucer 1977: l. 467-470).
The theme of this poem is sin. Every person in the world is a sinner but we can draw a
parallel between a person who knows when he can do the sin and a person who does not know.
The characters know that they can, if they want, to kill for gold. Death does what he knows best:
he lures them, to teach them the lesson of how much you can lose when you are greedy.

Everyman is an anonymous play in verse which is usually classified as a morality and

uses different characters which are meant to help the reader imagine the underworld. Death and
God have a discourse. These two characters open their actions with their conversation:
“Almighty God, I am here at your will,/ your commandment to fulfill” (Anon. 1510: 3) states
Death. The Messenger unravels the theme of the play about what sin is in our lives, about what
people are like and what death is for them, the fact that we, the human beings, are the vehicles of
time and that after we sin we pay with pain and tears. Afterwards, God reveals his idea that
people do not listen to the word and counsel of God and reminds of the seven sins. He stresses
that people live for the sake of restraint forgetting that they sin in this, referring to the audience
he is saying that they think they deserve them to be in heaven or in hell. God is disappointed in
people, he calls death to wander around the world and overtake it, taking even the big and the
small. Those who will be greedy and will be obsessed with the idea of wealth - their soul will be
taken to hell while only good deeds can free the soul from this fate.
Everyman meets death, who approaches him and tells him that he is assigned to watch
every person and that now it is Everyman’s time. As the latter is afraid, Death says that if there is
someone who is willing to accompany him, then he will take them both, and death gives him
time to think and prepare. Everyman is surrounded by his friends and he tells them about his

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pains, but God sees how everyman is obsessed with wealth. And only then does he realize that
all this has led him to hell and Everyman is trying to be kinder and do only good deeds. But this
is not all. Everyman knows wisdom and it helps him reach the house of prayer so there
Everyman can pray to God. In the following sequence, Everyman continues his journey with the
five main characters, Knowledge, Beauty, Discretion, Strength and Good Deeds, who give him
various tips for Everyman to understand the holy scriptures “KNOWLEDGE: Everyman, I will
go with you, and be your guide,/ In your most need to go by your side.” EVERYMAN “In good
condition I am now in everything,/ And am wholly content with this good thing,/ Thanked be
God my Creator.”(Anon. 1510: 18). “FIVE WITS: Everyman, that is the best that ye can do;/
God will you to salvation bring,/ For good priesthood exceedeth all other thing” (Anon. 1510:
25). They continue to help Everyman to find the truth, and in the final part an Angel appears with
Everyman’s Book of Reckoning to receive the soul as it rises from the grave. “THE
ANGEL :Come, excellent elect spouse to Jesu,/ Here above thou shalt go,/ Because of thy
singular virtue:/ Now thy soul is taken thy body from,/ Thy reckoning is crystal clear;/ Now shalt
thou into the heavenly sphere,/ Unto the which all ye shall come/ Who live well, after the day of
doom.”(Anon. 1510: 30) Then, the Doctor talks to the audience and makes the amends after
Death:

DOCTOR: This memory all men may have in mind;

Ye hearers, take it of worth, old and young,
And forsake pride, for he deceiveth you in the end,
And remember Beauty, Five Wits, Strength and Discretion,
They all at last do Everyman forsake,
Save his Good Deeds, there doth he none take:
But beware, for if they be small,
Before God he hath no help at all;
No excuse may be there for Everyman:
Alas, how shall he do then?
For after death amends may no man make,
For then mercy and pity do him forsake;
If his reckoning be not clear, when he doth come,

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 God will say, ITE, MALEDICTI, IN IGNEM AETERNUM;
And he that hath his account whole and sound,
High in heaven he shall be crowned;
Unto which place God bring us all thither,
That we may live body and soul together;
Thereto help the Trinity:
Amen, say ye, for Saint Charity. (Anon. 1510: 31)

Therefore, the play is an allegorical representation of man’s life and death. The Book of
Knowledge is the Bible, the word of God which has a great influence in this world for us, we
understand this when we find the Knowledge, Confession, Discretion and Beauty. In this
instance, Death is a commander: in the first part this character likes his power and manifests it in
the part where he talks to Everyman “DEATH: I am Death, who no man dreadeth;/ For every
man I arrest, and no man spare,/ For it is God's commandment,/ That all to me should be
obedient.” (Anon. 1510: 4) Death describes life and wants to show this to Everyman and inspire
him to live how God directs.
This character inspires fear, which leads to knowledge. Death explores our emotional part
and brings people to judgment. Life is transitory always moving and changing towards death.
Just as in the case of Chaucer’s tale, the theme of this poem is also the nature of sin, i.e.
understanding what is correct to do and giving the world the beauty of the soul. As a result, we
will receive what we deserve.
The idea of reckoning that Everyman discovers through knowledge is used in the play to
construct the image of a character who discovers purity and shows us the influence of God’s
words in life and the role of Death, as well as the latter’s attitude towards people. “Death: Nay,
thereto I will not consent,/ Nor no man will I respite;/ But to the heart suddenly I shall smite,/
Without any advisement./ And now out of thy sight I will me hie;/ See thou make thee ready
shortly,/ For thou mayest say, this is the day,/ That no man living may escape away.” (Anon.
1510: 5)

Modern Literature

Probably the most popular English epic, Paradise Lost by John Milton describes the dark

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side and involves religious motifs in the plot. The poet presents the Prince of Darkness as a
snake, shows him as evil and vindictive, catering to the church, but he also emphasizes the
majesty of his figure. Representing the main enemy of the Creator, the poet goes beyond the
Biblical framework. Milton’s God is not a positive character, a savior. He stands for complete
and unquestioning obedience, but Lucifer aspires to freedom and knowledge, just like the first
people were. In the Bible, the serpent was engaged in seduction of people, the most cunning of
all beasts created by the Lord, and in the poem this task was entrusted to Satan, who converted to
an animal. Satan decides to destroy the purest and most holy place on earth, the Garden of Eden,
in order to subdue the first earthly people to his will. Under the form of a snake, he seduces Eve,
who, after eating the forbidden fruit, convinces Adam to take a bite as well. In Paradise Lost,
Milton distorted the motive for seduction: in his opinion, there was not a deception, but an
insight of a man who also chose independence and knowledge.
The immediate role is played by nature in all its diversity. It changes with the feelings of
the characters. For example, during the quiet and carefree life in Eden, harmony is shown in the
world, but when people begin to transgress God’s command, chaos and destruction come to the
world. But the most outstanding contrast consists of the image of Paradise and Hell. How
ominous and gloomy Hell is pictured, so faceless and gray: “Here for his envy, will not drive us
hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce, To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.” (Milton 1667: 11, line 260)

The story of Adam and Eve has a symbolic meaning. It contrasts the two states of
humanity: the primordial, paradisiacal existence in ideal conditions, when people were innocent
and did not know the vices and the life after the fall, full of pain and lacks. Following the biblical
legend, the spoiling of mankind began from the moment when they tasted the forbidden fruit
from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Sometimes it seems to us that they are the true bearers of justice. Evil gives freedom of
thought and imagination, and it is way simpler and more pleasant to approach its standards than
kneeling in the status of a slave of God. The Devil conquers with cynicism, overtly proud and
eternal spirit of contradiction, which captivates critically inclined people. Evil looks more
attractive, clearer and easier to be achieved than good.

The narrative begins with the overthrow of the Satan who rebelled against God, and then

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this boundary shifts to the time of the creation of the world. This is the earliest of the events
described. The action in the poem ends with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise in
book XII, and the latest information of the life on Earth is contained in the story of the Archangel
and barely reaches the Great Flood. Thus, it would be more legitimate to assume that, firstly, the
author created Paradise Lost and Regarded Paradise as a two-part series, which was prefaced by
a common Prologue. In the course of the council conducted by Satan, a new tactic of confronting
Heaven is being developed to lead a covert war, to try to destroy the harmony of the Divine plan,
inciting to doubt and disobedience the new creation of God - Man. “Of Mans First Disobedience,
and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all
our woe, With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat.”
(Milton 1667: 5) To this end, Satan begins his journey to a new world. Having made their way to
the gates of hell, which are guarded by Death he promises to rescue both Adam and Eve, giving
them a new world that he promises to find. The flight of Satan begins with a fall into the abyss,
from which it is pushed by a flying comet; only after receiving this strong impulse, he copes with
an immeasurable, insurmountable space and, with the greatest strain of his huge wings, aligns his
flight. Satan’s approach to the new world does not go unnoticed by God, who informs the Son
that he knows about the Enemy’s plan and that He will allow this plan to be realized Satan will
be allowed to penetrate into the world of the Human whose perfection and loyalty should be put
to test. It is immediately known that the man will not pass the test.

Satan is struck by the sight of Paradise on Earth. But he persists in his arrogance and
reluctance to yield. The second strongest impression on him is his resemblance to the first
people. He confesses himself as being ready to fall in love with his perfection, but believes that
his duty as the leader of the fallen angels is to bring to completion the conceived. Satan hears
people talk at the Tree of Life, growing next to the Tree of Knowledge, pondering the prohibition
associated with it and stops in its plans to ignite the thirst for Knowledge in people. His first
attempt to influence Eve was via a dream, having inspired her with vague thoughts and vexation.
Satan’s attempt to persuade them to his side, accusing them of servility before God, is met with a
strong rebuff. Eve tells Adam about the dream in which Satan promised her that she will become
a goddess. “Men call’d him MULCIBER; and how he fell From Heav’n, they fabl’d, thrown by
angry JOVE, Sheer o’re the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn, To Noon he fell, from Noon to
dewy Eve” (Milton 1667: 21)

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 The Archangel Raphael comes to the first couple to answer Adam’s questions about the
organization of the world and the nature of Man. He talks about the angelic nature that angels
also have the sense of smell, touch, hear and sight. In a conversation with God, Adam, watching
the pairing of all beings, asks about his loneliness and receives an answer that he was created in
the likeness of God, and he unique.

Before the fall, Adam defines the essence of human nature and speaks about the
impossibility of penetration of Evil in addition to his own will Book X. In Heaven, sadness about
the Fall of Man spreads, but sorrow dissolves in deep compassion and does not violate bliss.
Changes occur in human nature.

God declares eternal enmity between people and snakes, assigns Adam to get his bread in
the sweat of his face, and Eve to bear in torment.

Separated by huge distances from Satan, Sin and Death feel that it’s time to leave Hell
and move to Earth, and build the strongest bridge connecting Hell and Earth. Sin believes that by
rejecting the world, the Creator gave it into the power of Satan and now he will have to share his
power. Satan returns to Hell, holds a speech in the throne room and waits for applause, but
instead hears the hissing of his companions who have been turned into snakes. When the fallen
angels manage to illuminate the palace of Satan, they kindle the artificial lights, the smelly and
fetid ones, which have no relation to the Divine Light. But all the fallen angels are endowed with
the gift of speech, and the depth of their fall is expressed in a word, determined to play it, turning
it into evil. It is the game with the word that constitutes the essence of the tragedy of the fall, and
it is by playing with the word that the fallen angels are confirmed in sin, justifying themselves in
their own eyes.

The Satan character is expressive and unites the cruelty and reality of the religious point
of view. In the poem Paradise Lost, he stands for the obsession with power and mania to create
the Hell in Heaven and be more powerful. He wants to lead in hell, but he is so vain that he does
not want to admit his defeat. He wants to fight on. Demons who want to help Satan in his evil
plans are as part of the character of Satan. Belial, Moloch, Mammon, Mulciber are partly
mythological and demonological characters, who have a continuation of features based on facts
that have been recorded by the Catholic Church. These characters are sent to the ground, most of
them can gain control by which they enter human bodies. Each of the demons is originally from

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another country or continent, each of them has a certain power that marks them to be unique.
The Miltonic Lucifer is not just a rebel, but an extreme individualist, willing to subvert
the natural order of reality and to bend it to his own specifications. His tragic nature is that this
task is impossible to do. Ahab is, perhaps, a more ambiguous character than Lucifer, for his
relationship to the whale itself—who is also an ambiguous cipher that can variously stand in for
God or the devil—makes the nature of his moral and ontological transgressions. (Russ and
Thuswaldner 2017: 279)
Literature is a great part of life to us and, although we do not know how one generation is
going to be different from the previous, we are convinced what they will have one thing in
common at least: literature and art. We do not know how the characters we chose to analyze will
be in the future, but at the moment we can build a generalization of what we have had so far.
To conclude, I would like to observe that most of the characters that are brought
into the literary world play an important role in our lives, as we can see in the subject of the book
the opinion of every writer, his vision and the gift to imagine and create. And that makes us
realize that there is more than one way of seeing things. For example, what is failure to one can
be success to another. This is one of the powers of literature.

List of references

Primary sources
Anon. (1510) Everyman, John Skot edn. [online] available at
<http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/everyman.html> [21 May
2018]

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Chaucer, G.; Morrison, T. (1977) The Portable Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales,
New York: The Viking Press
Milton, J. (1667) Paradise Lost, Samuel Simmons edn. [online] available at
<http://central.gutenberg.org/articles/paradise_lost> [21 May 2018]
Secondary sources
Bloom, H. (1999) Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales, Chelsea House
Coleman, J.A. (2007) Dictionary of Mythology, London: Arcturus
Goodreads (2018) Marie Corelli [online] available at
<https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/8118.Marie_Corelli?page=2>
Jabbour, N. (2008) The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross: Insights from an
Arab Christian, NavPress
Oakland J.(2002).British Civilization, Simultaneously published in the USA and
Canada by Routled LITERATURE ge 29 West 35th Street, New York , p.16

Tomalin, B., & Stempleski, C.,(1993).Cultural Awareness.Oxford, England:

Oxford University Press
Ista Maharsi,(2018) THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

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