IMPOSSIBLE LOVE : ROMEO AND JULIET

This week, our topic was Romeo and Juliet which was written by William Shakespeare. It is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The author wrote this play in 1591. Story is love of children of two enemy families. Main characters of this play are Romeo and Juliet. Other characters are Lord Capulet who is Juliet’s father, Lady Capulet who is Juliet’s mother, Tybalt who is Juliet’s cousin, Lord Montague who is Romeo’s father, Lady Montague who is Romeo’s mother, Benvolio who is Romeo’s best friend, Laurence who is priest, Balthasar, Rosaline, Peter, Prince, Paris, Mercutio and Nurse.

A brief story of Romeo and Juliet: Montegue family and Capulet family are enemy each other. Romeo is son of Montegues, Juliet is daughter of Capulets. They fall in love each other at prom night. They learn children of two enemy families but this state cannot be obstacle to love. They begin to meet in secret. Finally, they decide to get married. They want to help from Priest Laurence and nurse. They accept helping and Laurence marries them in secret manner. And, one day Tybalt meets Romeo and his friend Mercutio. Tybalt begins to tease them. Mercutio can’t be calm and he attacks Tybalt. While they are fighting, Thbalt kills Mercutio. Romeo cannot stand when he sees this and he kills Tybalt. Therefore, Romeo is banished. He is sent to away from Juliet. The while, Juliet’s father Lord Capulet wants to be Juliet’s marriage with Paris. So, Juliet and Laurence make a plan. Laurence gives a potion to Juliet. This potion will allow two days to be as still dead. Thanks to it, Juliet will be able to go to Romeo. Without knowing this state, Romeo comes to his country; he sees that Juliet was dead. He poisons near the Juliet’s grave and he dies. Juliet wakes up two-day sleep. She sees that Romeo was dead. So, she takes Romeo’s dagger and she kills herself.

As usual, great loves end with separation. We can say this: IMPOSSIBLE LOVE...

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ( 2 Aralık Pazartesi )

This week, we talked about William Shakespeare who is playwright and poet. My teacher said general information which we need to know about him and his works in the lesson. Such as, He was born in 1564 and he died in 1616, he wrote a lot of poem and plays. Some of them are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth. He affected to English Literature in all respects etc. Therefore, I want to touch on unknown things about him now.

Firstly, he was married with a woman who was 8 years older than him while he was 18 years old. They had 5 children. Both of children were twin. One was Hamlet who died at the age of 17, the other was Judıth. Shakespeare wrote some works inspired by the twin because he was very upset to leave children because of death.

Secondly, after his death one woman who was named as Delia Bacon claimed that works of Shakespeare weren’t written by him. She wanted to open his grave to find clue but she didn’t managed to open. Because, when she went to Shakespeare’s grave, there was quite creepy. She preferred to flee from there immediately.

As a result, he was very interesting men and still his works are quite important for human and literature. I want to give more unknown information but unfortunately I didn’t found anything on the Internet. So, I am sorry…

DOCTOR FAUSTUS

This week, our topic was Doctor Faustus and Christopher Marlowe. First of all, I want to talk about the play of Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus is main character of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus Play. He is a doctor who completed his doctorate. But, he wants to be advance on his work like every person. On the one hand he wants to make a deal with devil; on the other hand he doesn’t want to be disobedient against God. So, he makes a deal with Lucifer that is the leader of hell and devils. He sells his soul to Lucifer and he wants to have more knowledge, ability and power from Lucifer. The devil makes his wanting and the doctor will give his soul after 25 years. These years pass quickly. The doctor who was very happy when he had power and knowledge starts to repent because he sold his soul, but he doesn’t do anything against Lucifer. His last day on the world comes. He is quite regretful because he behaved disobediently to God. He begs to God to be forgiven but it is quite late for everything. Lucifer comes and he takes Faustus’s soul.

As for my opinions about this play, if I was Doctor Faustus, I could want to understand people’s thoughts. Understanding people’s thoughts is very interesting and amazing for me. It could create problems but I could sell my soul this ability.

THE RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance  in English Literature was the topic of this week. First of all, I want to explain what is renaissance. The Renaissance is rebirth both in social life and literature after The Middle Ages. Thanks to the renaissance, dogmatism and scholastic thought took a back seat. Also, beliefs against church and reverends of people began to decrease. No longer people  believed whatever reverends say. They began to think more rationally. Therefore, humanism  was born. Man is more important than other things for humanism. Thanks to these developments, social life began to get better.

As for literature at this time, a new era began  for literature. because artists get rid of the impact of Bible, they could write their thoughts in works. Moreover, they had the opportunity to replicate their works with the invention of printing press. Hereby, people was more free and rationalism came into prominence in literature.

As a result, Because it brought about many innovations, The Renaissance is a significant improvement for people and literature.                 

LIMITATION IN LITERATURE AND IN SOCIAL LIFE

This week, we talked about The Middle Ages, Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales which is a collection of stories. Now, I want to give more information about Middle Ages that affected authors and their works in all respects. Because knowledge of middle-age lets us understand better the authors living in that period and their works written in that period, I chose The Middle Ages.

According to my research, Middle Ages began the 5^th century and it ended the 15^th century. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire caused starting of The Middle Ages. And, the Renaissance caused ending of it. There was scholastic thought in society. According to this thought, everything in the Bible was true and people didn’t say different thing from it. Moreover, church supported this idea and it restricted people. That is, there was dogmatism in society and  religion was more important than mind. Consequently, science didn’t improve and this age was called as a dark period.

As for literature of this age, it was affected from dogmatism and scholastic thought. Authors couldn't be free because of these ideas in society and they didn’t write whatever they want. They mentioned the "other world" idea under pressure of church  in their works. Besides, they wrote legends of heroism and chivalry.

In conclusion, there was limitation both in literature and in social life in this period. Also, people’s opinions except for nobles and priests were ignored.  

BEOWULF

This week, our topic was Beowulf which is an epic poem.It is the first example of Anglo-Saxon era's works and it reflects the Anglo-Saxon era's society and culture.Its author is unknown but it managed to reach up to the present. General features which we need to know about Beowulf are these.

Now, I want to talk about characters of the poem. The main character is Beowulf who was hero. He was warrior,ruler and wise man. Other characters in the poem are Hrothgar who was the king of Danes, Grendel which was a monster, Grendel's mother, Dragon and Wiglaf who was brave man and helped to Beowulf.

Additionally, I want to mention summary of the poem. Beowulf was a famous and brave man in Geats. One day, a monster attacked to Hrathgar's land. This monster was Grendel. He didn't struggle with him. And he decided to inform Beowulf. Then Beowulf went to there in order to fight Grendel. They fought and finally winner was Beowulf. So, Beowulf proved his power again. He killed Grendel but Grendel's mother would revenge from him. Then, Beowulf came to back his country and he became king. But, shortly after a dragon came to     

Beowulf land. The dragon attacked the 

land and burned homes. It killed everyone in the land. And Beowulf went to find it. While they were fighting, Beowulf was injured. One man saw him. The man's name was Wiglaf. He helped Beowulf but hero bravely died.

As a result, this poem is important work for English Literature. I didn't know anything about it before but I had more information thanks to the lecture. Also, I liked animated form of this poem. It was very effective in order to stimulate the poem.

CELTS

This week, we learned periods of Early English History. While our course teacher was teaching these periods, Celts which were an old tribe were the most interesting thing for me. Therefore, I wanted to have more information about Celts and I investigated them.

According to sources which I wrote, Celts's fatherland was Central Europe. Then they imigrated to British Isles, Spain and Gaul about 4.000 years ago. They were warrior and hunter people. In addition to these features they were perfect farmers. Invented weeled plow and barrel was a proof of unique farmers on their time. Also, they spoke their own languages. Even now, this language is spoken in some countries by peoples. 

Moreover, there was slavery on Celts's System. They used slaves on everywhere. Although they had slavery, the richer Celts cared surprisingly independence and equality.Also, The richer Celts gave equal rights like men to women.So, women had an important role in them.

In addition, Romans destroyed Celts in AD 1. century. However, there are still ruins of Celts on Breton and Ireland.

The First Lesson

Literature is the backbone of a language. English Literature is important for ELT students. Because, we need to know literature of language to learn well. We learn culture, history, authors, and works of language thanks to literature. Also it helps us to correlate among these. Alhough we are ELT students, we need to know and investigate it. My opinions about English Literature are these.                                                                                                                     

I want to talk about our first lesson. It was good. We talked about books, what we will do in this lesson, feedback to us and important of literature. My favorite part of lesson is that we will explain our ideas and opinions clearly. Because, some teachers want that we write things that support their ideas. And, it complicates learning. Also, writing reflection journals to blog every week will be a bit tiresome but I think it will improve us in all respects. Because, these reflection journal will provide doing repetition for lesson as well as it improve our writing skills.

I hope, it will be a successful year for all us.