In Canto V of Dante’s Inferno, the narrator finds himself in the second circle of hell, where “a hellish storm, never resting, seizes and drives the spirits before it; smiting and whirling them about, it torments them” (75). The narrator learns that “to such torment are condemned the carnal sinners who subject reason to desire” (75).
What does it mean to subject reason to desire? Or as the Ancient Greeks might have languaged it, what does it mean to privilege Dionysus over Apollo? Think about why Dante put those who followed their desires above all else into hell. Do you think those characters/people belong there?
What role does desire play in The Romance of Tristan and Iseult and in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet?
Use the technique of comparison/contrast to examine what these two works, separated by almost four hundred years, one a work of the Middle ages, one a work of the Elizabethan renaissance period, tell us about Love and Desire versus Reason.
Be sure to define your terms and give the appropriate historical perspective to discuss these works in context.
Remember that you are to use the point-by-point or alternating format for this comparison paper.
Paper Requirements: Your paper must be at least five full pages and no longer than seven pages long. Use standard MLA format. You will use the primary texts Tristan and Iseult and Romeo and Juliet. Please construct a works cited page for the primary texts. This essay is not a research paper but an original thinking exercise.
In this paper, you will present a thesis, or main point that you are asserting about your topic. You will then present “evidence” from the texts we have been reading to help illustrate for the reader what you mean. You will carefully construct your essay, remembering the special purposes of the introductory and concluding paragraphs. In between these specialized paragraphs, each topic paragraph will present one idea, develop and explain that idea, and draw a conclusion for the reader about that idea. If you present plot summary, you must use it in illustration of the point you are making. Please remember to “bun,” that is, to surround any quoted text with your own points and explanations and to punctuate accurately around quoted material. Be sure to use parenthetic citation correctly. Use comparison-contrast to structure your essay, and use the alternating or point-by-point method and draw complete analogies in parallel structure. Pay attention to verbs: use the literary present tense where applicable and avoid the passive voice. Proofread, especially for subject-pronoun agreement and avoid using “it.” Make sure all pointing words point to something. A plagiarized paper fails.
** Please use any material we have covered in class (“Genesis,” “The Art of Courtly Love,” “Pyramus and Thisbe,” Canto 5 of the Inferno); however, your essay must include major discussion of Tristan and Iseult and Romeo and Juliet.
