The Pre-Raphaelite movement was started by two German painters based in Rome in 1810. The movement drew inspiration from Italian painters before Raphael such as Giotto, Bellini, and Fra Angelico. The movement was concerned with the art of painting. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics. It was formed in England in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Michael Rosetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens, and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member “Brotherhood” modeled in part on the Nazarene movement. The Brotherhood was only ever a loose association and their principles were shared by other artists of the time, including Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes, and Marie Spartali Stillman. Later followers of the principles of the Brotherhood included Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, and John William Waterhouse.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in September 1848, is the most significant British artistic grouping of the nineteenth century. Its fundamental mission was to purify the art of its time by returning to the example of medieval and early Renaissance painting. Although the life of the brotherhood was short, the broad international movement it inspired, Pre-Raphaelitism, persisted into the twentieth century and profoundly influenced the aesthetic movement, symbolism, and the Arts and Crafts movement.

Firstly, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849), in which passages of striking naturalism were situated within a complex symbolic composition. Already a published poet, Rossetti inscribed verse on the frame of his painting. In the following year, Millais’s Christ in the House of His Parents (1850) was exhibited at the Royal Academy to an outraged critical reception. The master of a brilliantly naturalistic technique, Millais represented biblical figures with closely observed portrayals of the features of real, imperfect models. In 1850 the Pre-Raphaelites also produced a literary and artistic magazine, the Germ, which was something of a manifesto for their artistic concerns and ran for only four issues.

From the first, the Pre-Raphaelites aspired to paint subjects from modern life. In The Awakening Conscience (1854), Hunt represented a kept woman realizing the error of her ways, and in 1852 Madox Brown began the most ambitious of all Pre-Raphaelite scenes from modern life, Work (1852–1865). Although the brotherhood included no women, Christina Rossetti, sister of Dante and William, pioneered a Pre-Raphaelite style in poetry, and Elizabeth Siddall-model, muse,
and eventually wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti-produced distinctive watercolors and drawings that went unrecognized in her lifetime but received critical attention after the advent of feminist art history in the late 1970s.

Another element in Pre-Raphaelite poetry is perceived in love for beauty. The Pre-Raphaelite poets are lovers of beauty. Here they are the followers of the great poetic creed of Keats. In their rich sensuousness, they are also found to carry on the tradition of great romantic poetry. They are also found to be medievalistic in their attachment to the medieval past. This also constitutes another romantic aspect of Pre-Raphaelitism. Their attempt to follow Byron’s revolutionary spirit and Shelley’s inspiration for loveliness does not appear to have much succeeded, yet these elements are not ignorable in them. Pre-Raphaelite poetry, in this respect, appears to be the second phase of Romanticism in the nineteenth century. This, however, appears to lack in humanism and the idealistic vision of human life, so much marked in romantic poetry. The Pre-Raphaelite poets aimed at infusing the art and spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite painters into poetry.

An essay is a short composition in prose. It discusses, either formally or informally, one or more topics. This term was first applied to Montaigne’s volumn of informal pieces. This volume was first published in 1580. After seventeen years, Francis Bacon used the English word ‘essay’ to describe his brief philosophic discourses. With the development of periodicals, the essay become a popular form. Addison, Steel, Lamb, Hazlitt, and Pater made it their major concern.

The Aphoristic Essay Bacon was the first to write proper essays in English. Though he was inspired by the French writer Montaigne, his essays are more objectives and impersonal than those of the French master. Bacon’s essays are written in an aphoristic style. They contain mostly short, crisp sentences with a didactic bent. Bacon called his essay’s ‘counsels civil and moral’ and ‘dispersed meditations’. Aphoristic essays are known for their precision of style and balancing structure. No superfluous words are used and sentences flow rapidly. They seem abrupt and rugged but express the ideas directly and clearly. As a critic says, the sentences in an aphoristic essay are in a state of ‘literary undress’

The Character Essay In the earlier part of the 17th century, the essay took the form of character sketches in the writings of Joshep Hall, John Earle, and Sir Thomas Overbury. They were inspired by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus and the Roman Seneca. The early character essays were marked by minute details and were often presented in a humorous and satirical manner. Such essays were almost like pen pictures of various types of men and women. Some traits of the character essay can be seen even in Addison’s essays on Sir Roger de Coverley.

The Critical Essay Dryden introduced this type of essay during the Restoration period. Though the critical essay retained the traditional form, its theme was literary criticism. Dryden’s Prefaces and other prose writings can be included in this category. The critical essay is the main objective. However, it often exhibits traits of the personal essay because critical opinions are generally colored by the personality of the writer. In the 19th century, the critical essay flourished in the writings of Emerson, Hazlitt, Arnold, Carlyle, and Ruskin. The 20th century has seen a host of critics who made valuable contributions to the critical essay. Among them, T.S.Eliot and F.R.Leavis are the most important.

The Periodical Essay The periodical essay became popular in the 18th century especially with the publication of the ‘Tatler’ and the ‘The Spectator’. The essay that began to appear in the periodicals drew their inspiration from the social life of the people. The periodical essay was adapted for literary criticism and the delineation of character. Addison’s essay delineating the character of ‘The Spectator’ and the several essays by Steele and Addison on the imaginary character Sir Roger de Coverley is the examples of how journalistic writings could attain artistic perfection.

The Personal Essay In the Personal Essay, the personal element predominates. Charles Lamb is known as the greatest writer of the personal essay in English Literature. There is no formal or logical development of thought in an essay. The various points are mentioned haphazardly. Its author likes to enjoy the freedom of conversation. So, he is informal and often chatty. Hazlitt, De Quincey, and Charles Lamb brought the personal essay to a level that has remained unsurpassed. George Orwell, E.M. Forster, James Thurber, and E.B. White are excellent model practitioners of the personal essay.

Twentieth Century Essay In the 20th century, the development of the essay is encouraged by a large number of periodicals and newspapers. Many of the modern essays appear in the form of articles and are often collected and published in book form. In the modern essay, the distinction between the personal and the objective is hardly noticeable. It is at once expository, reflective, and descriptive and one of its main elements is humor. Some of the important modern essayists are G.K.Chesterton, A.G.Gardiner, F.L.Lucas, Max Beerbohm, and Hilaire Belloc

https://track2training.org/2022/01/11/what-is-an-essay/

Metaphysical poetry is a group of poems that share common characteristics; they are all highly intellectualized, use rather strange imagery, use frequent paradox, and contain extremely complicated thought. The most common characteristic is that metaphysical poetry contained large doses of wit. Although the poets were examining serious questions about the existence of god or whether a human could perceive the world, the poets were sure to ponder those questions with humor. In addition, many of the poems explored the theme or carpe diem(seize the day) and investigated the humanity of life.

Delight in novel thought and expression The metaphysical poet deligthed in novel thoughts and expression. As Scott said, they played with thoughts. There is a fusion of passionate feelings and thought in their poems. Instead of the Elizabethan splendor of sound and imagery, the metaphysical employed subtlety of thought and verbal fancies.

conceit Metaphysical poetry uses conceit. A conceit is a far-fetched simile, an ingenious parallel between two highly dissimilar things. It is the ingenuity of a conceit rather than its justness that invites the reader’s attention. A metaphysical conceit is used to prove or define a point. In ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’, Donne compares two lovers to the two legs of a compass. In ‘The Ecstay’ he compares the eye beams of the lovers to a twisted thread that connects the lover’s eyes. This is exemplified in Cowley’s comparison of the experience of loving different women with traveling through different countries.

Concentration Metaphysical poetry is noted for its concentration. The reader is not allowed to pause and muse over the poem; he is required to pay attention and read on. A metaphysical poem tends to be brief. Words and thoughts are compressed. Length of line and rhyme scheme enforces the sense. Hence the reader is expected to concentrate.

Affectation, Hyperbole and Obscurity Metaphysical poetry is characterised by affectation and hyperbole, and occasional obscurity. The metaphysical poets had the license to say something unexpected and surprising. Their fancy and amplifications have no limit. In the task of finding verbal equivalents for their thoughts and feelings, the metaphysical poets often become obscure. As Dr. Johnson said, dissimilar ideas are yoked by violence together leading to obscurity. In Donne’s A Valediction of Weeping’, the use of geographical conceits makes it a little difficult to understand.

Argument and persuasion Argument and persuasion are two of the elements of a metaphysical poem. Every poem two is based on the memory of the experience. A need to argue arises out of it. The argument is done with help of conceit and dramatic presentation of thought and feelings.

The Scholarship of author Metaphysical poetry shows the scholarship of its authors. As Dr. Johnson pointed out they drew their similes and conceit from the recesses of learning unfamiliar to an average reader. The poems of Donne, Marvell, and Cowley especially show their vast learning in philosophy, literature, science, astronomy, and geography.

Love Metaphysical poetry includes the most impassioned love poetry in English. Donne’s poems like ‘The Anniversarie’, ‘The Good Morrow’, ‘The Canonisation’ and ‘The Extasie’ are love poems that raise the great metaphysical question of the relation of the spirit to the senses. Similarly is Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’. Some of the finest religious poems in English are also metaphysical poems. The poems of Herbert, Vaughan, and Marvell are examples.

https://track2training.org/2022/01/12/the-metaphysical-school-of-poetry/

The term ‘metaphysical’ was first applied to Donne by Dryden and later extended to a group of poets by Dr. Johnson. It has been used to describe the special characteristics of the poetry of John Donne and his followers in the 17th century. John Dryden first used this term in connections to the poetry of John Donne and the same was confirmed by Dr. Samuel Johnson. At the beginning of the 17th century, there appeared a group of poets who reacted against the conventions of Elizabethan love poetry and wrote more colloquial, witty, passionately intense, and psychologically probing poetry. This group came to known as the metaphysical poets. They include John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Abraham Cowley, Richard Crashaw, and Henry Vaughan. They were men of learning, but wrote colloquial and often metrically irregular lines filled with unusual metaphors, similes, and conceits.

Dr. Johnson thought that from the Aristotelian point of view they were not poets at all. Though their learning and subtlely were high, they were wholly concerned with something unexpected and surprising. Johnson says that their attempts were analytic and they broke every image into fragments. “The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions”. Dr. Johnson was certainly not impressed by them. However, T.S. Eliot in the present century discovers several beauties in the metaphyscial. He sees in their Poetry “a direct sensuous apprehension of thought, or a recreation or thought into feeling”. Eliot places them in the direct current of English poetry and points to their ‘quaint and pleasant taste’.

The metaphysical style was established by John Donne. Dryden pointed out that Donne ‘affects the metaphysics not only in his satires but in his amorous verses’. Donne inspired a host of others like Suckling, Cleveland, Crashaw, and Cowley.

Metaphysical poetry resolves itself into two broad divisions amorous verse and religious verse. The amorous verse was generally written by the courtly poets like Carew, Suckling, and Lovelace and religious verse by Herbert, Crashaw, and Vaughan. Donne wrote amorous, devotional, and satirical poems. In his poetry sensuality and cynical wit mingle at times. He excelled in reflective imaginations and sober meditation. Herrick wrote amorous and religious verses and several epigrams. Crashaw was best in his religious verse. Abraham Cowley’s lyrics were sweet and graceful.

In conclusion, the age of metaphysical poetry successfully presented great educational benefits and presented significant value to English literature. The significance of this age is quite clear as it presented new aspects of value and new methods of expression that were not known before the seventeenth century, the language and concepts used in metaphysical poetry are unique and present significant cleverness. It also focuses on driving the audience to imagine what they have not thought of before and capture their imaginations. Most metaphysical poets suffered from different struggles, but the one they almost all had in common was self anxiety, presented in the fear of the future of the human soul, which is what lead them to speak and express their thoughts on the journey of life and turning points. Also, most of the metaphysical poets were born in the seventeenth century and raised into religious families and therefore carried out a religious mindset, and some of them even held religious positions during his lifetime, which explains the majority of religious poetry over other types of poetry, other topics such as love was also present, and it shared the common point of desiring reciprocity results whether from God or the loved one.

In Shakespeare’s tragedies, the main protagonist generally has a flaw that leads to his downfall. There are both internal and external struggles and often a bit of the supernatural thrown in for good measure (and tension). Often there are passages or characters that have the job of lightening the mood (comic relief), but the overall tone of the piece is quite serious. Below we are going to take a more in-depth look at each of the elements of Shakespearean tragedy, as well as explore a few examples

• The Tragic Hero
  A tragic hero is one of the most significant elements of a Shakespearean tragedy. This type of tragedy is essentially a one-man show. It is a story about one, or sometimes two, characters. The hero may be either male or female and he or she must suffer because of some flaw of character, because of inevitable fate, or both. The hero must be the most tragic personality in the play.
  An important feature of the tragic hero is that he or she is a towering personality in his/her state/kingdom/country. This person hails from the elite stratum of society and holds a high position, often one of royalty. Tragic heroes are kings, princes, or military generals, who are very important to their subjects. In the classic Romeo and Juliet, Romeo Montague is the tragic hero, whose undoing is his obsession with Juliet Capulet. Juliet’s fake death triggers his emotions, leading him to take poison and die right beside his sleeping love.

• Good vs. Evil
  Shakespearean tragedies play out the struggle between good and evil. Most of them deal with the supremacy of evil and suppression of good. Evil is presented in Shakespearean tragedies in a way that suggests its existence is an indispensable and ever-enduring thing. For example, in Hamlet, the reader is given the impression that something rotten will definitely happen to Denmark (foreshadowing). Though the reader gets an inkling, typically the common people of the play are unaware of the impending evil.
  In Julius Caesar, the mob is unaware of the struggle between good and evil within King Caesar. They are also ignorant of the furtive and sneaky motives of Cassius. Goodness never beats evil in the tragedies of Shakespeare. Evil conquers goodness. The reason for this is that the evil element is always disguised, while goodness is open and freely visible to all.
• Hamartia
  Hamartia is the Greek word for “sin” or “error”, which derives from the verb hamatanein, meaning “to err” or “to miss the mark”. In other words, hamartia refers to the hero’s tragic flaw. It is another absolutely critical element of a Shakespearean tragedy. Every hero falls due to some flaw in his or her character.
  Once again, Hamlet comes into focus as a perfect illustration of hamartia and its role in the tragedy. His indecisiveness and overthinking lead him to overreact, killing Polonius thinking that he was Claudius, his father’s murderer. His obsession with vengeance leads to the senseless murder of the innocent man stirring up tragedy after tragedy. He could have killed Claudius when he was praying at the church but could not act due to his overthinking.
• Tragic Waste
  In Shakespearean tragedies, the hero usually dies along with his opponent. The death of a hero is not an ordinary death; it encompasses the loss of an exceptionally intellectual, honest, intelligent, noble, and virtuous person. In a tragedy, when good is destroyed along with evil, the loss is known as a “tragic waste.” Shakespearean tragedy always includes a tragic waste of goodness. Hamlet is a perfect example of tragic waste. Even though Hamlet succeeds in uprooting the evil from Denmark, he does so at the cost of his death. In this case, the good (Hamlet) gets destroyed along with evil (Claudius). Neither of them wins. Instead, they fail together.

• Conflict
  In Shakespearean tragedies, two types of conflict take place:
  • External conflict – The hero faces conflict from his antagonists.
  • Internal Conflict – The hero faces conflict in their mind.
  Macbeth struggles internally, wondering whether to take power by force. He has to choose to either remain loyal to Duncan or heed his wife’s advice. He faces an external conflict when Banquo and Macduff rise to challenge his illegitimate rule.
• Catharsis
  Catharsis is a remarkable feature of a Shakespearean tragedy. It refers to the cleansing of the audience’s pent-up emotions. In other words, Shakespearean tragedies help the audience to feel and release emotions through the aid of tragedy. When we watch a tragedy, we identify with the characters and take their losses personally. A Shakespearean tragedy gives us an opportunity to feel pity for a certain character and fear for another, almost as if we are playing the roles ourselves. The hero’s hardships compel us to empathize with him. The villain’s cruel deeds cause us to feel wrath toward him. Tears flow freely when a hero like Hamlet dies. At the same time, we feel both sorry for Hamlet and happy that Claudius has received his proper punishment.
• Supernatural Elements
  Supernatural elements are another key aspect of a Shakespearean tragedy. They play an important role in creating an atmosphere of awe, wonder, and sometimes fear. Supernatural elements are typically used to advance the story and drive the plot. The ghost Hamlet sees plays an important role in stirring up internal conflict. It is the ghost who tells Hamlet his father was killed by his uncle Claudius and assigns him the duty of taking revenge. Similarly, the witches in Macbeth play a significant role in the plot. These witches are responsible for motivating Macbeth to resort to murder to ascend the throne of Scotland.

• Lack of Poetic Justice
  Shakespeare’s tragedies share a strikingly similar trait; the lack of poetic justice. Poetic justice occurs when both good and evil characters experience justice. In the real world, good deeds do not always beget rewards, and evil may go unpunished. King Lear’s benevolent daughter, Cordelia, dies while trying to rescue her father. Her tragic end depicts the unfairness of life, which is relatively common and relatable to most people.
• Fate
  Othello is a tragedy that depicts the powerlessness of man when it comes to the destiny. His love for Desdemona elicits disapproval from her father due to his black skin. He never chose to be born black and cannot change his appearance. His black skin feeds his insecurities, and the fact that he is commonly referred to as the Moor makes it worse. His insecurities eventually lead him to kill Desdemona and stab himself.

A Shakespearean tragedy is a play penned by Shakespeare himself or a play written in the style of Shakespeare by a different author. Shakespearean tragedy has got its own specific features, which distinguish it from other kinds of tragedies. Traditionally Shakespeare play types are categorized as Comedy, History, and Tragedy, with some additional play categories proposed over the years. The plays grouped as Shakespeare tragedies follow the Aristotelian model of a noble, flawed protagonist who makes a mistake and suffers a fall from his position before the normal order is somehow resumed. It must be kept in mind that Shakespeare is mostly indebted to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy in his works.

Aristotle’s Theory of Tragedy
A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language; in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions.”
— Aristotle

What Is a Tragedy?

A tragedy is a play which when adequately acted before an audience can produce a complete cleansing of the emotions. To effect such a catharsis the dramatist much move the audience; he must have a capacity to feel the patho of human suffering, a strong moral sense, and great craftsmanship. The word tragedy was derived from the Greek word tragoidia, which means ‘the song of the goat.’ It is called “the song of the goat” because in ancient Greece the theater performers used to wear goatskin costumes to represent satyrs. Today in theater and literature a tragedy is a work that has an unhappy ending. The ending must include the main character’s downfall.

List of Shakespeare Tragedy Plays

Shakespeare wrote eleven tragedies beginning with ‘Titus Andronicus’. They include the four great tragedies ‘Hamlet’, ‘Othello’, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘king Lear’, the two great Roman tragedies ‘Julius Caesar’, and ‘Antony Cleopatra’ and the lyrical tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

The Origin of Shakespearean Tragedy

One of the main features of Renaissance art is that it was inspired by classical art and philosophy. This is evident in the work of such artists as Michelangelo who, caught up in the spirit of Humanism that was sweeping across Europe, focused on the human form. Focusing on the human form during Mediaeval times would have been impossible as it would have been a distraction from the necessary focus on God.

The essence of Humanistic art was that human beings were created in God’s image so it was possible for Michelangelo even to portray God – as a beautiful and physically powerful man with realistic human features, presented as perfection – in fact, the human form at its most beautiful. Artists became anatomists, going as far as buying human bodies for dissection. The result was a new realism in the representation of human beings in art.

Shakespeare is, in a way, the Michelangelo of literature. That he could, in one play, Othello, written four hundred years ago, represent what we can recognize as a modern psychopath and a modern alcoholic, in Iago and Cassio respectively, is incredible. Iago is a fully realized psychological character just as David is a fully realized man physically.

Greek drama was an important model for Renaissance drama after the flat, unrealistic morality plays of the medieval centuries. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined tragedy and asserted that it was the noblest and most serious, dignified, and important form of drama. Many of the plays of the Renaissance resembled those Greek tragedies. In several of Shakespeare’s plays, there is a central protagonist who undergoes a harrowing experience as he is brought down from his lofty height, ending up dead.

There is also a special feeling created in an observer of those Shakespeare dramas, similar to the feeling described by Aristotle as the effect of tragedy on an observer. Critics thus thought of those Shakespeare plays as tragedies and that notion has remained with us to this day, although many of those interested in Shakespeare are now thinking differently about the plays from this ‘Shakespearean tragedy’ label. There are still teachers, though, who teach the ‘tragedies’ as though they were Aristotelian tragedies and miss a great deal of what those plays are doing.

EXAMPLES OF SHAKESPEARE’S TRAGIC CHARACTERS

Using the term ‘Shakespeare tragedy’ about any of Shakespeare’s plays invites attempts to fit them to the Aristotelian pattern but none of them fits exactly. Othello seems to conform to the pattern but when one thinks about it, Othello, superficially resembling a tragic hero, doesn’t even seem to be the main character in the play. It can be seen as a modern psychological drama about a psychopath who manipulates every one around him just for fun – just because he has nothing better to do – and destroying other human beings gives him pleasure or is necessary because they get in his way.
Othello may seem to have a fatal flaw – too trusting, gullible – but so do all the other characters, because Iago has deceived them all with his psychopathic charm and a deliberate effort of making himself appear trustworthy. Every misjudgment Othello makes is the hard work of Iago. Easily manipulated? Jealous? Does he have all those ‘tragic flaws’ as well? The feeling at the end is not quite Aristotle either. Perhaps it is more of disgust for Iago than pity for Othello, who comes across as more stupid than tragic. And to make things more complicated, our feeling of pity is directed more to, Desdemona. And yet some teachers miss the meaning of this play by their insistence on teaching it as an Aristotelian tragedy.
Antony and Cleopatra are sometimes called a ‘double tragedy’. While Othello appears to fit the Aristotelian pattern because of the huge charisma of Othello at the beginning of the play Antony and Cleopatra cannot fit it in any shape or form. In tragedy, the focus is on the mind and inner struggle of the protagonist. The emotional information comes to the audience from that source. In comedy the information comes from a variety of sources and the comic effect is produced by a display of many different points of view, coming at the audience from different angles. That is exactly what happens in Antony and Cleopatra, so we have something very different from a Greek tragedy. What we have is a miracle – a tragic feeling coming out of a comic structure.
So what is Shakespearean tragedy? Perhaps there is no such thing. And yet we can identify tragic moments, feelings, and even a cathartic effect in some of the plays. We must be very careful not to insist on fitting them to any pattern because that wouldn’t help us understand the plays. We must look elsewhere for our understanding of them. Moreover, all of Shakespeare’s plays have elements of both tragedy and comedy, sometimes very finely balanced, creating effects that Aristotle could never have dreamt of.