*†*

 A fi puternic

"A fi puternic inseamna a iubi pe cineva in liniste.

 A fi puternic inseamna sa radiezi de fericire atunci cand esti trist/a. 

A fi puternic inseamna a incerca sa ierti pe cineva cand nu merita iertarea. 

A fi puternic inseamna a ramane calm intr-un moment de disperare. 

A fi puternic inseamna a arata bucurie cand nu o simti. 

A fi puternic inseamna a zambi atunci cand vrei sa plangi. 

A fi puternic inseamna a face pe cineva fericit chiar daca tu ai inima franta.

 A fi puternic inseamna a consola pe cineva cand cel care are nevoie de consolare esti tu. 

A fi puternic inseamna a te increde in Dumnezeu in orice moment al vietii!"

***

 

Ionel Teodoreanu, povestea vieții de la “Ulița copilăriei” la “La Medeleni”

Ionel Teodoreanu s-a născut pe 6 ianuarie 1897 la Iași, fiind cel de-al doilea fiu al avocatului Osvald Teodoreanu și al Sofiei Musicescu Teodoreanu, care era profesoară de pian la Conservator. Familia viitorului scriitor era foarte bine situată, bunicul patern, Alexandru, fiind fost magistrat (Alecu și Elencu, bunica paternă, sunt personajele volumului “În casa bunicilor”), iar bunicul matern, Gavriil Musicescu, a fost directorul Conservatorului din Iași și conducătorul corului Mitropoliei, căsătorit cu Ștefania Musicescu. Băiatul a avut doi frați, viitorul scriitor Alexandru O. Teodoreanu (Păstorel) și Laurențiu Teodoreanu (Puiu), care a murit pe front în 1918.

Ionel Teodoreanu a urmat doi ani la Școala primară germană „Pitar-Moș” din București, apoi familia a revenit la Iași, iar el a fost înscris între 1908 și 1912 la Liceul Internat, după aceea la Liceul Național, finalizându-și studiile medii în 1916.

Spre sfârșitul anului 1918, în perioada refugiului guvernului și administrației la Iași în timpul Primului Război Mondial, tânărul Ionel Teodoreanu a întâlnit-o pe viitoarea sa soție, Maria Ștefana Lupașcu, căreia i se spunea Lily. Cuplul s-a cunoscut prin intermediul Cellei și al Henrietei, fiicele scriitorului Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea cu care Lilly era verișoară. Maria era născută în octombrie 1897 la Saint-Maurice, în Franța, dar fusese crescută și educată de familia Delavrancea după despărțirea părinților ei, diplomatul Ștefan Lupașcu și franțuzoaica Marie Mazurier. Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, refugiat la Iași în perioada războiului, le-a introdus pe fiicele sale în mediul intelectual și artistic al orașului și astfel tânăra pianistă Cella s-a apropiat de Sofia Teodoreanu, mama scriitorului, împărtășind pasiunea comună pentru muzică. Tânărul Ionel se va împrieteni cu Lilly, care va deveni ea însăși scriitoare și va fi cunoscută sub numele Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu.

Ionel Teodoreanu se înscrie la Facultea de Drept de la Universitatea din Iași, promovează toate examenele în doi ani, în 1920 devine licențiat în drept și în același an se căsătorește cu Lilly, dar ceremonia este foarte restrânsă, din pricina doliului familiei după decesul prematur lui Puiu, fiul mai mic al scriitorului. Un an mai târziu, pe 3 februarie 1921, s-au născut cei doi fii gemeni ai cuplului, Ștefan și Osvald- Cezar, alintați în familie Afane și Gogo.

Ionel Teodoreanu a debutat în revista “Însemnări literare” în 1919 cu poemele în proză „Jucării pentru Lily” și în 1923 a publicat volumul de nuvele „Ulița copilăriei”, Demostene Botez fiind cel care i l-a prezentat criticului Garabet Ibrăileanu pe talentatul avocat, iar acesta din urmă, intuind forța și valoarea tânărului, îi va deveni prieten și susținător și îl va integra în colectivul revistei Viața Românească.

Începând cu anul 1924 Ionel Teodoreanu începe să lucreze la trilogia „La Medeleni”, publicând succesiv în revista Viața românească, până în anul 1928, fragmente generoase din cele trei volume ale romanului.

Deși George Călinescu îi ironizează stilul numindu-l “Metaforel”, la doar 30 de ani, Ionel Teodoreanu devine un nume cunoscut al generației interbelice, iar cărțile sale au un succes extraordinar mai ales la publicul tânăr.

Scriitorul nu renunță la cariera sa profesională, rămânând în continuare membru al baroului, dar până în 1947 publică aproape în fiecare an câte o carte. Romanele „Fata din Zlataust” si „Golia”, ambele în câte două volume, apărute între 1930 – 1933, sunt astăzi mai puțin cunoscute, dar un mare succes îl au cărțile„Lorelei”, publicată în 1935, „Arca lui Noe”, tipărită în 1936, “Turnul Milenei” din 1928 și “Bal mascat” din 1929.

La sfârșitul anilor ’30 revista “Viața românească” se muta la București, scriitorul este afectat de moarte bunului său prieten și susținător Garabet Ibrăileanu în 1936, apoi de dispariția tatălui său, Osvald Teodoreanu în 1937, astfel că ia decizia de a veni împreună cu familia în capitală în 1938.

Aici își continua activitatea de avocat înscriindu-se în barou, dar și cea literară, publicând volumele „În casa bunicilor” în 1938, “Prăvale Baba” în 1940, „Masa umbrelor”, în 1941, “Hai-Diridam”, în 1945 și „Întoarcerea în timp”, în 1946. Familia Teodoreanu se stabilește într-o casă frumoasă de pe Strada Polonă, dar după venirea comuniștilor la putere este evacuată și obligată să se mute într-o locuință insalubră din zona Hala Traian.

În dimineața zilei de 3 februarie, în timpul marelui viscol din 1954, scriitorul își anunță soția că trebuie să meargă la tribunal, unde avea de susținut un proces, dar imediat ce iese pe stradă realizează că circulația în oraș e blocată din cauza nămeților și decide să se întoarcă acasă, nu înainte de a intra în magazinul alimentar de la colțul Străzii Căuzași să cumpere câte ceva de mâncare. După câteva minute Ionel Teodoreanu s-a prăbușit fără viață pe podea și în scurt timp i-a fost declarat decesul. Nu este cunoscut motivul morții sale subite, pentru că în acele condiții meteorologice nu a mai fost transportat la spital pentru a i se face autopsie, dar cel mai probabil a fost vorba despre un infarct.

Poetul Vlaicu Bârna rememorează ziua înmormântării lui Ionel Teodoreanu în volumul său, “Între Capșa și Corso”, publicat în anul 2005 de Editura Albatros: “Mi s-a telefonat că eram delegat să depun din partea Uniunii Scriitorilor o coroană de flori la catafalcul dispărutului. Am intrat într-o o casă veche, afumată, dărăpănată, unde nu mă invitase niciodată, iar acum înțelegeam de ce. În mohorâtul interior am găsit-o pe Ștefana Velisar între cei doi fii, străjuind împietrită, mută, trupul inert al celui care fusese soțul ei. Pe figura ei, nicio lacrimă. Sărăcia își arăta din plin fața în acea odaie unde pe jos era întinsă făptura fără viață a scriitorului, în costumul sport pe care i-l cunoșteam (o haină pepită cu pantalon gri). Ceea ce m-a frapat îndeosebi era încălțămintea, veche și ea, dar talpa de crep înnegrită de uzură își avea vârfurile și călcâiele albe gălbui strălucitoare, că fuseseră pesemne refăcute prin vulcanizare. Coșciugul nu fusese adus, dar preotul începuse slujba”.

Sicriul scriitorului a fost transportat la Cimitirul Bellu legat cu sfori pe o sanie împrumutată din vecini, după cum va povesti criticul literar Geo Șerban, pentru că nu erau bani pentru a închiria o mașina de la serviciul de pompe funebre. Soția sa, delicata scriitoare Ștefana Velisar Teodorescu, i-a supraviețuit 41 de ani, încetând din viață pe 30 mai 1995, la vârsta de 97 de ani, și fiind înhumată alături de soțul său și de fratele acestuia, Păstorel Teodoreanu, decedat în 1964, în cavoul familiei Delavrancea de la Cimitirul Bellu.

***

 

Lucruri care se intâmplă in Japonia:

1. Din clasa întâi până în a 6-a se preda o materie "drumul despre bunul simț” din care elevii învață comportamentul civilizat și manierele de bun simț!

2. Nu rămâne nici un elev repetent din clasa întâia până la clasa a 7-a, fiindcă scopul este educația și implantarea principiilor și nicidecum învățământul și stocarea informațiilor!

3. Japonezii cu toate ca sunt considerați printre cei mai bogați oameni din lume, nu angajează femei de casa sau dădace pentru creșterea copiilor, părinții sunt primii răspunzători de educația copiilor!

4. Elevii japonezii, zilnic,  timp de 15 minute, fac curat în școlile lor împreuna cu educatori, învățători și profesori, lucru ce a determinat apariția unei generații modeste și atente la fenomenul curățenie și igiena!

5. Fiecare elev japonez are tot timpul la el periuța de dinți și își spală dinții după ce mănâncă și în acest mod învață de mic cum să se păstreze igienic!

6. Profesorii iau masa cu 30 de minute înaintea elevilor, ca să fie siguri ca mâncarea este buna și nu este alterata, fiindcă elevul este considerat viitorul țarii și trebuie protejat!

7. Gunoierul în Japonia este cunoscut sub numele de ”inginer sanitar” și are un salariu de 5000 până la 8000$. Pentru a ocupa acest post candidatul trebuie să treacă proba scrisa și orala!

8. Este interzisa utilizarea mobilului în trenuri, restaurante și locurile publice cu spații închise și mobilul trebuie setat pe modul ”bun simț” care la ei este foarte important!

9. Dacă te duci la un restaurant cu bufet suedez vei vedea ca fiecare pune în farfuria lui atât cât ii trebuie, nu fac risipa, nici nu lasă resturi de mâncare în farfurii!

10. Media de întârziere la trenuri pe an este de 7 secunde!

***

 

😢Dureros de emotionant!

Sunt nenumărate cazuri,

in care părinții bătrâni și neputincioși sunt  uitati în singurătate! 

Doamne, Dumnezeul nostru, ai grija de parintii dați uitării! 😢

Mai veniți copii, pe acasă! 

CUCUL ȘI BĂTRÂNA 

Din țări străine, mai devreme

S-a întors la casa lui  un cuc.

Copacul plin de floare  geme,

Iar el cântă parcă-i  năuc.

Și vine zilnic să îl vadă

O bătrânică în baston.

Ce bucurie, că în ogradă

Are un suflețel...în pom.

-Tu, păsărică călătoare,

Din care parte a lumii vii?

Zburând poate-ai văzut în cale

Vre-o unul dintre ai mei copii?

Îi tot aștept mereu să vină

Măcar la sfinte sărbători.

Că am rămas în sat străină

Fără de nici un puișor.

Nimeni nu-mi deschide portița,

Să mă întrebe vre-un cuvânt.

Vorbesc seara cu iconița

Și cu Maica Domnului Sfânt.

-Tu, cucule, zborul de-ți iei

Și vei pleca mâine, poimâne

De-i întâlni  copiii mei,

Să le arăți drumul  la mine.

M-aș duce eu la fiecare,

Dar am îmbătrânit demult.

Și bietele mele picioare

Pân la portiță doar mă duc.

Nimeni nu-mi deschide portița,

Să mă întrebe vre-un cuvânt.

Vorbesc seara cu iconița

Și cu Maica Domnului Sfânt.

-Tu, cucule, zborul de-ți iei

Și vei pleca mâine, poimâne

De-i întâlni  copiii mei,

Să le arăți drumul  la mine.

M-aș duce eu la fiecare,

Dar am îmbătrânit demult.

Și bietele mele picioare

Pân la portiță doar mă duc.

Pe-o ramură de măr rotat,

Cucul în limba lui doinește.

Iar o bătrână în toiag

Necazurile-i povestește.

Autor: Natalia Mazilu-Miron

***

 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer of the English language, known for both his plays and sonnets. Though much about his life remains open to debate because of incomplete evidence, the following biography consolidates the most widely-accepted facts of Shakespeare's life and career.

In the mid-sixteenth century, William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, moved to the idyllic town of Stratford-upon-Avon. There, he became a successful landowner, moneylender, glove-maker, and dealer of wool and agricultural goods. In 1557, he married Mary Arden.During John Shakespeare's time, the British middle class was expanding in both size and wealth, allowing its members more freedoms and luxuries, as well as a stronger collective voice in local government. John took advantage of the changing times and became a member of the Stratford Council in 1557, which marked the beginning of his illustrious political career. By 1561, he was elected to be one of the town's fourteen burgesses, and subsequently served as Constable, then one of two Chamberlains, and later, Alderman. In all of these positions, the elder Shakespeare administered borough property and revenues. In 1567, he became bailiff—the highest elected office in Stratford and the equivalent of a modern-day mayor.Town records indicate that William Shakespeare was John and Mary's third child. His birth is unregistered, but legend pins it on April 23, 1564, possibly because it is known that he died on April 23rd 52 years later. In any event, William's baptism was registered with the town of Stratford on April 26, 1564. Little is known about his childhood, although it is generally assumed that he attended the local grammar school, the King's New School. The school was staffed by Oxford-educated faculty who taught the students mathematics, natural sciences, logic, Christian ethics, and classical languages and literature.Shakespeare did not attend university, which was not at all unusual for the time. University education was reserved for wealthy sons of the elite, and even then, mostly just those who wanted to become clergymen. The numerous classical and literary references in Shakespeare’s plays are a testament, however, to the excellent education he received in grammar school, and speaks to his ability as an autodidact. His early plays, in particular, draw on the works of Seneca and Plautus. Even more impressive than Shakespeare's formal education is the wealth of general knowledge he exhibits in his work. His vocabulary exceeds that of any other English writer of his time by a wide margin.In 1582, at the age of eighteen, William Shakespeare married twenty-six-year-old Anne Hathaway. Their first daughter, Susanna, was not baptized until six months later—a fact that has given rise to speculation over the circumstances surrounding the marriage. In 1585, Anne bore twins, baptized Hamnet and Judith Shakespeare. Hamnet died at the age of eleven, by which time William Shakespeare was already a successful playwright. Around 1589, Shakespeare wrote Henry VI, Part 1, which is considered to be his first play. Sometime between his marriage and writing this play, he moved to London, where he pursued a career as a playwright and actor.Although many records of Shakespeare's life as a citizen of Stratford have survived, including his marriage and birth certificates, very little information exists about his life as a young playwright. Legend characterizes Shakespeare as a roguish young man who was once forced to flee London under suspect circumstances, perhaps having to do with his love life, but the paltry amount of written information does not necessarily confirm this facet of his personality.In any case, young Will was not an immediate universal success. The earliest written record of Shakespeare's life in London comes from a statement by his rival playwright Robert Greene. InGroatsworth of Witte (1592), Greene calls Shakespeare an "upstart crow...[who] supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you." While this is hardly high praise, it does suggest that Shakespeare rattled London's theatrical hierarchy from the beginning of his career. In retrospect, it is possible to attribute Greene's complaint to jealousy of Shakespeare's ability, but there is little evidence one way or the other.With Richard III, Henry VI, The Comedy of Errors, and Titus Andronicus under his belt, Shakespeare was a popular playwright by 1590.* The year 1593, however, marked a major leap forward in his career when he secured a prominent patron: The Earl of Southampton. In addition, Venus and Adoniswas published - it is one of the first of Shakespeare's known works to be printed, and it was a huge success. Next came The Rape of Lucrece. By this time, Shakespeare had also made his mark as a poet, as most scholars agree that he wrote the majority of his sonnets in the 1590s.In 1594, Shakespeare returned to the theater and became a charter member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men—a group of actors who changed their name to the King's Men when James I ascended the throne. By 1598, Shakespeare had been appointed the "principal comedian" for the troupe; by 1603, he was "principal tragedian." He remained associated with the organization until his death. Although acting and playwriting were not considered noble professions at the time, successful and prosperous actors were relatively well respected. Shakespeare’s success left him with a fair amount of money, which he invested in Stratford real estate. In 1597, he purchased the second largest house in Stratford—the New Place—for his parents. In 1596, Shakespeare applied for a coat of arms for his family, in effect making himself a gentleman. Consequently, his daughters made “good matches,” and married wealthy men.The same year that he joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet,Love's Labour's Lost, The Taming of the Shrew, and several other plays. In 1600, he wrote two of his greatest tragedies, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Historians and scholars consider Hamlet to be the first modern play because of its multi-faceted main character and unprecedented depiction of the human psyche.The first decade of the seventeenth century witnessed the debut performances of many of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works, including many of his so-called history plays: Othello in 1604 or 1605; Antony and Cleopatra in 1606 or 1607; and King Lear in 1608. The last of Shakespeare's plays to be performed during his lifetime was most likely King Henry VIII in either 1612 or 1613.William Shakespeare died in 1616. His wife Anna died in 1623, at the age of 67. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of his church at Stratford. The lines above his tomb—allegedly written by Shakespeare himself—read:Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones And cursed be he that moves my bones.*The dates of composition and performance of almost all of Shakespeare's plays remain uncertain. The dates used in this note are widely agreed upon by scholars, but there is still significant debate around the dates that he completed many of his plays.

***

 Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROMANTIC LOVE

Modern readers associate the sonnet form with romantic love and with good reason: the first sonnets written in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italy celebrated the poets’ feelings for their beloveds and their patrons. These sonnets were addressed to stylized, lionized women and dedicated to wealthy noblemen, who supported poets with money and other gifts, usually in return for lofty praise in print. Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to “Mr. W. H.,” and the identity of this man remains unknown. He dedicated an earlier set of poems, Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, to Henry Wriothesly, earl of Southampton, but it’s not known what Wriothesly gave him for this honor. In contrast to tradition, Shakespeare addressed most of his sonnets to an unnamed young man, possibly Wriothesly. Addressing sonnets to a young man was unique in Elizabethan England. Furthermore, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different types of love between the young man and the speaker, the young man and the dark lady, and the dark lady and the speaker. In his sequence, the speaker expresses passionate concern for the young man, praises his beauty, and articulates what we would now call homosexual desire. The woman of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the so-called dark lady, is earthy, sexual, and faithless—characteristics in direct opposition to lovers described in other sonnet sequences, including Astrophil and Stella, by Sir Philip Sidney, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who were praised for their angelic demeanor, virginity, and steadfastness. Several sonnets also probe the nature of love, comparing the idealized love found in poems with the messy, complicated love found in real life.

THE DANGERS OF LUST AND LOVE

In Shakespeare’s sonnets, falling in love can have painful emotional and physical consequences. Sonnets 127–152, addressed to the so-called dark lady, express a more overtly erotic and physical love than the sonnets addressed to the young man. But many sonnets warn readers about the dangers of lust and love. According to some poems, lust causes us to mistake sexual desire for true love, and love itself causes us to lose our powers of perception. Several sonnets warn about the dangers of lust, claiming that it turns humans “savage, extreme, rude, cruel” , as in Sonnet 129. The final two sonnets of Shakespeare’s sequence obliquely imply that lust leads to venereal disease. According to the conventions of romance, the sexual act, or “making love,” expresses the deep feeling between two people. In his sonnets, however, Shakespeare portrays making love not as a romantic expression of sentiment but as a base physical need with the potential for horrible consequences.

Several sonnets equate being in love with being in a pitiful state: as demonstrated by the poems, love causes fear, alienation, despair, and physical discomfort, not the pleasant emotions or euphoria we usually associate with romantic feelings. The speaker alternates between professing great love and professing great worry as he speculates about the young man’s misbehavior and the dark lady’s multiple sexual partners. As the young man and the dark lady begin an affair, the speaker imagines himself caught in a love triangle, mourning the loss of his friendship with the man and love with the woman, and he laments having fallen in love with the woman in the first place. In Sonnet 137, the speaker personifies love, calls him a simpleton, and criticizes him for removing his powers of perception. It was love that caused the speaker to make mistakes and poor judgments. Elsewhere the speaker calls love a disease as a way of demonstrating the physical pain of emotional wounds. Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare clearly implies that love hurts. Yet despite the emotional and physical pain, like the speaker, we continue falling in love. Shakespeare shows that falling in love is an inescapable aspect of the human condition—indeed, expressing love is part of what makes us human.

REAL BEAUTY VS. CLICHÉD BEAUTY

To express the depth of their feelings, poets frequently employ hyperbolic terms to describe the objects of their affections. Traditionally, sonnets transform women into the most glorious creatures to walk the earth, whereas patrons become the noblest and bravest men the world has ever known. Shakespeare makes fun of the convention by contrasting an idealized woman with a real woman. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare directly engages—and skewers—clichéd concepts of beauty. The speaker explains that his lover, the dark lady, has wires for hair, bad breath, dull cleavage, a heavy step, and pale lips. He concludes by saying that he loves her all the more precisely because he loves her and not some idealized, false version. Real love, the sonnet implies, begins when we accept our lovers for what they are as well as what they are not. Other sonnets explain that because anyone can use artful means to make himself or herself more attractive, no one is really beautiful anymore. Thus, since anyone can become beautiful, calling someone beautiful is no longer much of a compliment.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF BEING BEAUTIFUL

Shakespeare portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the sonnets addressed to the young man, Sonnets 1–126. Here the speaker urges the young man to make his beauty immortal by having children, a theme that appears repeatedly throughout the poems: as an attractive person, the young man has a responsibility to procreate. Later sonnets demonstrate the speaker, angry at being cuckolded, lashing out at the young man and accusing him of using his beauty to hide immoral acts. Sonnet 95 compares the young man’s behavior to a “canker in the fragrant rose” or a rotten spot on an otherwise beautiful flower. In other words, the young man’s beauty allows him to get away with bad behavior, but this bad behavior will eventually distort his beauty, much like a rotten spot eventually spreads. Nature gave the young man a beautiful face, but it is the young man’s responsibility to make sure that his soul is worthy of such a visage.

Motifs

ART VS. TIME

Shakespeare, like many sonneteers, portrays time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love because time causes beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. One common convention of sonnets in general is to flatter either a beloved or a patron by promising immortality through verse. As long as readers read the poem, the object of the poem’s love will remain alive. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 15, the speaker talks of being “in war with time” : time causes the young man’s beauty to fade, but the speaker’s verse shall entomb the young man and keep him beautiful. The speaker begins by pleading with time in another sonnet, yet he ends by taunting time, confidently asserting that his verse will counteract time’s ravages. From our contemporary vantage point, the speaker was correct, and art has beaten time: the young man remains young since we continue to read of his youth in Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Through art, nature and beauty overcome time. Several sonnets use the seasons to symbolize the passage of time and to show that everything in nature—from plants to people—is mortal. But nature creates beauty, which poets capture and render immortal in their verse. Sonnet 106 portrays the speaker reading poems from the past and recognizing his beloved’s beauty portrayed therein. The speaker then suggests that these earlier poets were prophesizing the future beauty of the young man by describing the beauty of their contemporaries. In other words, past poets described the beautiful people of their day and, like Shakespeare’s speaker, perhaps urged these beautiful people to procreate and so on, through the poetic ages, until the birth of the young man portrayed in Shakespeare’s sonnets. In this way—that is, as beautiful people of one generation produce more beautiful people in the subsequent generation and as all this beauty is written about by poets—nature, art, and beauty triumph over time.

STOPPING THE MARCH TOWARD DEATH

Growing older and dying are inescapable aspects of the human condition, but Shakespeare’s sonnets give suggestions for halting the progress toward death. Shakespeare’s speaker spends a lot of time trying to convince the young man to cheat death by having children. In Sonnets 1–17, the speaker argues that the young man is too beautiful to die without leaving behind his replica, and the idea that the young man has a duty to procreate becomes the dominant motif of the first several sonnets. In Sonnet 3, the speaker continues his urgent prodding and concludes, “Die single and thine image dies with thee”. The speaker’s words aren’t just the flirtatious ramblings of a smitten man: Elizabethan England was rife with disease, and early death was common. Producing children guaranteed the continuation of the species. Therefore, falling in love has a social benefit, a benefit indirectly stressed by Shakespeare’s sonnets. We might die, but our children—and the human race—shall live on.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SIGHT

Shakespeare used images of eyes throughout the sonnets to emphasize other themes and motifs, including children as an antidote to death, art’s struggle to overcome time, and the painfulness of love. For instance, in several poems, the speaker urges the young man to admire himself in the mirror. Noticing and admiring his own beauty, the speaker argues, will encourage the young man to father a child. Other sonnets link writing and painting with sight: in Sonnet 24, the speaker’s eye becomes a pen or paintbrush that captures the young man’s beauty and imprints it on the blank page of the speaker’s heart. But our loving eyes can also distort our sight, causing us to misperceive reality. In the sonnets addressed to the dark lady, the speaker criticizes his eyes for causing him to fall in love with a beautiful but duplicitous woman. Ultimately, Shakespeare uses eyes to act as a warning: while our eyes allow us to perceive beauty, they sometimes get so captivated by beauty that they cause us to misjudge character and other attributes not visible to the naked eye.

Readers’ eyes are as significant in the sonnets as the speaker’s eyes. Shakespeare encourages his readers to see by providing vivid visual descriptions. One sonnet compares the young man’s beauty to the glory of the rising sun, while another uses the image of clouds obscuring the sun as a metaphor for the young man’s faithlessness and still another contrasts the beauty of a rose with one rotten spot to warn the young man to cease his sinning ways. Other poems describe bare trees to symbolize aging. The sonnets devoted to the dark lady emphasize her coloring, noting in particular her black eyes and hair, and Sonnet 130 describes her by noting all the colors she does not possess. Stressing the visual helps Shakespeare to heighten our experience of the poems by giving us the precise tools with which to imagine the metaphors, similes, and descriptions contained therein.

Symbols

FLOWERS AND TREES

Flowers and trees appear throughout the sonnets to illustrate the passage of time, the transience of life, the aging process, and beauty. Rich, lush foliage symbolizes youth, whereas barren trees symbolize old age and death, often in the same poem, as in Sonnet 12. Traditionally, roses signify romantic love, a symbol Shakespeare employs in the sonnets, discussing their attractiveness and fragrance in relation to the young man. Sometimes Shakespeare compares flowers and weeds to contrast beauty and ugliness. In these comparisons, marred, rotten flowers are worse than weeds—that is, beauty that turns rotten from bad character is worse than initial ugliness. Giddy with love, elsewhere the speaker compares blooming flowers to the beauty of the young man, concluding in Sonnets 98 and 99 that flowers received their bloom and smell from him. The sheer ridiculousness of this statement—flowers smell sweet for chemical and biological reasons—underscores the hyperbole and exaggeration that plague typical sonnets.

STARS

Shakespeare uses stars to stand in for fate, a common poetic trope, but also to explore the nature of free will. Many sonneteers resort to employing fate, symbolized by the stars, to prove that their love is permanent and predestined. In contrast, Shakespeare’s speaker claims that he relies on his eyes, rather than on the hands of fate, to make decisions. Using his eyes, the speaker “reads” that the young man’s good fortune and beauty shall pass to his children, should he have them. During Shakespeare’s time, people generally believed in astrology, even as scholars were making great gains in astronomy and cosmology, a metaphysical system for ordering the universe. According to Elizabethan astrology, a cosmic order determined the place of everything in the universe, from planets and stars to people. Although humans had some free will, the heavenly spheres, with the help of God, predetermined fate. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 25, the speaker acknowledges that he has been unlucky in the stars but lucky in love, thereby removing his happiness from the heavenly bodies and transposing it onto the human body of his beloved.

WEATHER AND THE SEASONS

Shakespeare employed the pathetic fallacy, or the attribution of human characteristics or emotions to elements in nature or inanimate objects, throughout his plays. In the sonnets, the speaker frequently employs the pathetic fallacy, associating his absence from the young man to the freezing days of December and the promise of their reunion to a pregnant spring. Weather and the seasons also stand in for human emotions: the speaker conveys his sense of foreboding about death by likening himself to autumn, a time in which nature’s objects begin to decay and ready themselves for winter, or death. Similarly, despite the arrival of “proud-pied April” in Sonnet 98, the speaker still feels as if it were winter because he and the young man are apart. The speaker in Sonnet 18, one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems, begins by rhetorically asking the young man, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

. He spends the remainder of the poem explaining the multiple ways in which the young man is superior to a summer day, ultimately concluding that while summer ends, the young man’s beauty lives on in the permanence of poetry.

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JULIUS CAESAR

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It is one of several plays written by Shakespeare based on true events from Roman history, which also include Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra.

Summary:

Two tribunes, Flavius and Murellus, find scores of Roman citizens wandering the streets, neglecting their work in order to watch Julius Caesar’s triumphal parade: Caesar has defeated the sons of the deceased Roman general Pompey, his archrival, in battle. The tribunes scold the citizens for abandoning their duties and remove decorations from Caesar’s statues. Caesar enters with his entourage, including the military and political figures Brutus, Cassius, and Antony. A Soothsayer calls out to Caesar to “beware the Ides of March,” but Caesar ignores him and proceeds with his victory celebration (I.ii.19, I.ii.25).

Cassius and Brutus, both longtime intimates of Caesar and each other, converse. Cassius tells Brutus that he has seemed distant lately; Brutus replies that he has been at war with himself. Cassius states that he wishes Brutus could see himself as others see him, for then Brutus would realize how honored and respected he is. Brutus says that he fears that the people want Caesar to become king, which would overturn the republic. Cassius concurs that Caesar is treated like a god though he is merely a man, no better than Brutus or Cassius. Cassius recalls incidents of Caesar’s physical weakness and marvels that this fallible man has become so powerful. He blames his and Brutus’s lack of will for allowing Caesar’s rise to power: surely the rise of such a man cannot be the work of fate. Brutus considers Cassius’s words as Caesar returns. Upon seeing Cassius, Caesar tells Antony that he deeply distrusts Cassius.

Caesar departs, and another politician, Casca, tells Brutus and Cassius that, during the celebration, Antony offered the crown to Caesar three times and the people cheered, but Caesar refused it each time. He reports that Caesar then fell to the ground and had some kind of seizure before the crowd; his demonstration of weakness, however, did not alter the plebeians’ devotion to him. Brutus goes home to consider Cassius’s words regarding Caesar’s poor qualifications to rule, while Cassius hatches a plot to draw Brutus into a conspiracy against Caesar.

That night, Rome is plagued with violent weather and a variety of bad omens and portents. Brutus finds letters in his house apparently written by Roman citizens worried that Caesar has become too powerful. The letters have in fact been forged and planted by Cassius, who knows that if Brutus believes it is the people’s will, he will support a plot to remove Caesar from power. A committed supporter of the republic, Brutus fears the possibility of a dictator-led empire, worrying that the populace would lose its voice. Cassius arrives at Brutus’s home with his conspirators, and Brutus, who has already been won over by the letters, takes control of the meeting. The men agree to lure Caesar from his house and kill him. Cassius wants to kill Antony too, for Antony will surely try to hinder their plans, but Brutus disagrees, believing that too many deaths will render their plot too bloody and dishonor them. Having agreed to spare Antony, the conspirators depart. Portia, Brutus’s wife, observes that Brutus appears preoccupied. She pleads with him to confide in her, but he rebuffs her.

Caesar prepares to go to the Senate. His wife, Calpurnia, begs him not to go, describing recent nightmares she has had in which a statue of Caesar streamed with blood and smiling men bathed their hands in the blood. Caesar refuses to yield to fear and insists on going about his daily business. Finally, Calpurnia convinces him to stay home—if not out of caution, then as a favor to her. But Decius, one of the conspirators, then arrives and convinces Caesar that Calpurnia has misinterpreted her dreams and the recent omens. Caesar departs for the Senate in the company of the conspirators.

As Caesar proceeds through the streets toward the Senate, the Soothsayer again tries but fails to get his attention. The citizen Artemidorus hands him a letter warning him about the conspirators, but Caesar refuses to read it, saying that his closest personal concerns are his last priority. At the Senate, the conspirators speak to Caesar, bowing at his feet and encircling him. One by one, they stab him to death. When Caesar sees his dear friend Brutus among his murderers, he gives up his struggle and dies.

The murderers bathe their hands and swords in Caesar’s blood, thus bringing Calpurnia’s premonition to fruition. Antony, having been led away on a false pretext, returns and pledges allegiance to Brutus but weeps over Caesar’s body. He shakes hands with the conspirators, thus marking them all as guilty while appearing to make a gesture of conciliation. When Antony asks why they killed Caesar, Brutus replies that he will explain their purpose in a funeral oration. Antony asks to be allowed to speak over the body as well; Brutus grants his permission, though Cassius remains suspicious of Antony. The conspirators depart, and Antony, alone now, swears that Caesar’s death shall be avenged.

Brutus and Cassius go to the Forum to speak to the public. Cassius exits to address another part of the crowd. Brutus declares to the masses that though he loved Caesar, he loves Rome more, and Caesar’s ambition posed a danger to Roman liberty. The speech placates the crowd. Antony appears with Caesar’s body, and Brutus departs after turning the pulpit over to Antony. Repeatedly referring to Brutus as “an honorable man,” Antony’s speech becomes increasingly sarcastic; questioning the claims that Brutus made in his speech that Caesar acted only out of ambition, Antony points out that Caesar brought much wealth and glory to Rome, and three times turned down offers of the crown. Antony then produces Caesar’s will but announces that he will not read it for it would upset the people inordinately. The crowd nevertheless begs him to read the will, so he descends from the pulpit to stand next to Caesar’s body. He describes Caesar’s horrible death and shows Caesar’s wounded body to the crowd. He then reads Caesar’s will, which bequeaths a sum of money to every citizen and orders that his private gardens be made public. The crowd becomes enraged that this generous man lies dead; calling Brutus and Cassius traitors, the masses set off to drive them from the city.

Meanwhile, Caesar’s adopted son and appointed successor, Octavius, arrives in Rome and forms a three-person coalition with Antony and Lepidus. They prepare to fight Cassius and Brutus, who have been driven into exile and are raising armies outside the city. At the conspirators’ camp, Brutus and Cassius have a heated argument regarding matters of money and honor, but they ultimately reconcile. Brutus reveals that he is sick with grief, for in his absence Portia has killed herself. The two continue to prepare for battle with Antony and Octavius. That night, the Ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus, announcing that Brutus will meet him again on the battlefield.

Octavius and Antony march their army toward Brutus and Cassius. Antony tells Octavius where to attack, but Octavius says that he will make his own orders; he is already asserting his authority as the heir of Caesar and the next ruler of Rome. The opposing generals meet on the battlefield and exchange insults before beginning combat.

Cassius witnesses his own men fleeing and hears that Brutus’s men are not performing effectively. Cassius sends one of his men, Pindarus, to see how matters are progressing. From afar, Pindarus sees one of their leaders, Cassius’s best friend, Titinius, being surrounded by cheering troops and concludes that he has been captured. Cassius despairs and orders Pindarus to kill him with his own sword. He dies proclaiming that Caesar is avenged. Titinius himself then arrives—the men encircling him were actually his comrades, cheering a victory he had earned. Titinius sees Cassius’s corpse and, mourning the death of his friend, kills himself.

Brutus learns of the deaths of Cassius and Titinius with a heavy heart, and prepares to take on the Romans again. When his army loses, doom appears imminent. Brutus asks one of his men to hold his sword while he impales himself on it. Finally, Caesar can rest satisfied, he says as he dies. Octavius and Antony arrive. Antony speaks over Brutus’s body, calling him the noblest Roman of all. While the other conspirators acted out of envy and ambition, he observes, Brutus genuinely believed that he acted for the benefit of Rome. Octavius orders that Brutus be buried in the most honorable way. The men then depart to celebrate their victory.