Italian Literature Final Exam Study Guide PDF

Preview

Summary

Final Exam study guide...

Description

Italian Literature Final Exam Study Guide Part I – Petrarch 1. The most used rhetorical device is the oxymoron “I see with no eyes and shout without a tongue” look at page 339, and the mythological allegory which he uses with Apollo and Daphne, and him to Laura. a. 2. A sonnet is a poem written in 14 lines. Petrarchan sonnets include two stanzas: an octave and a sestet. Alternatively, they can be written in three stanzas with two quatrains and a sestet. They are written in iambic pentameter with a typical rhyme scheme of abba abba cde cde. Petrarchan sonnets are most well-known for their subject matter of ideal love. In describing a subject’s beauty, Petrarchan sonnets make use of extended metaphor and simile. Typically, the octave of a Petrarchan sonnet sets up a question and the sestet attempts to answer it. 3. St. Augustine was a Catholic saint who converted from a life of loose living to Christianity after reading a passage in one of the Letters of St. Paul that urged one to renounce impurity and live in imitation of the Lord just as St. Anthony had done before. St. Augustine wrote Confessions , and in it he stated that “Men go about admiring the high mountains and the mighty waves of the sea and the wide sweep of rivers and the sound of the ocean and the movement of the stars, but they themselves they abandon.” This influenced Petrarch by making him feel ashamed of continuing to admire the things of the earthly world when he should have been looking within and connecting with his soul. This forces Petrarch to turn an inward eye and perhaps reconnect with who he really is. 4. This line is a quote by Petrarch in his letter to an Augustinian monk The Ascent of Mount Ventoux. This quote has a dual meaning in that it is both literal and allegorical. In a literal sense, Petrarch is trying to use his wit to find an easier way up the mountain that is less steep, while his brother unquestioningly takes the steeper path and then is able to rest as he waits for him. These attempts are in vain for Petrarch, however, and he always ends up having to take the steep path after his laziness fails him. Just as he is literally ascending the mountain, however, he is also saying that he cannot reach spiritual heights in his actual life journey by taking the easy way out. Just as he has taken the easy path on the mountain to no avail, he has also taken the easy path in his spiritual life journey. Meanwhile, his brother, who reaches physical heights by taking the steep paths up the mountain, has also reached a spiritual height by travelling the arduous path of becoming a monk.

5. Main theme is his love for Laura, some are religious, an homage to God and Christianity, others are patriotic. Nature of eternal landscape because he sees god in nature. The question of time, because he is always referencing back to the critical moment he saw Laura. 6. Apollo was teasing the god Cupid, and as vengeance Cupid shot him with a golden arrow (golden arrows make people fall in love) and then shot the nymph Daphne with a led arrow (led arrows make people not want to love). Apollo fell in love with Daphne but she did not reciprocate. Daphne begs her father to let her remain a virgin like the goddess Artemis and he finally relents. One day in the woods Apollo begins to chase her and she begs her father, Penues, to help her. He turns her into a Laurel tree, to keep Apollo away from her. However, Apollo declares this tree sacred and wears a laurel leaf crown. 7. The final poems of the Canzoniere are about repentance: his love for Laura has because it led him astray from his religious path and his Part II – Boccaccio 8. The title Decameron is composed of two Greek names: Deka, meaning ten, and Hemera, meaning day. The title of Greek derivation means “ten days” and refers to the number of days spent telling stories; it is modeled on that of a work by St. Ambrose called Hexameron. 9. The Decameron has 10 narrators, 7 women and 3 men, all from the city of Florence. Florence is plague-stricken so they retire to the well-watered countryside, where, in the course of a fortnight, each member of the party has a turn as king or queen over the others, deciding in detail how their day shall be spent and directing their leisurely walks, their outdoor conversations, their dances and songs, and, above all, their alternate storytelling. This storytelling occupies 10 days of the fortnight (the rest being set aside for personal adornment or for religious devotions); hence the title of the book itself, Decameron, or "Ten Days' Work." The stories thus amount to 100 in all. Each of the days, moreover, ends with a canzone (song) for dancing sung by one of the storytellers, and these canzoni include some of Boccaccio's finest lyric poetry. Names of Narrators:

● · Pampinea ● · F  ilomena

● · Neifile ● · F  iammetta ● · Elissa ● · L  auretta ● · Emilia ● · F  ilostrato ● · Dioneo ● · P  anfilo

10. Boccaccio dedicated the Decameron to women, because he feels like they do not have the upper-hand in most male-female relationships. 11. Saladin, the Sultan of Babylon, came from humble beginnings and defeated Christian and Saracen Kings many times. There came a time when he needed money, and having used up all of his fighting battles and on frivolous displays of his magnificence, he decided to ask a rich Jew named Melchisedech, who loaned money at extravagant rates in Alexandria, for the money. The Sultan knew he would not agree to help willingly, so he would have to come up with a plan. He asked the Jew which religion he believed to be the true one: Judaism, Saracen, or Christianity. The Jew realized that the Sultan was trying to find a way to pick a fight with him, so he could not hold one above the others. He tells the Sultan that in order to answer his question he will tell him a story. There once was a wealthy man who had a precious ring among his collection of jewels. This ring was very beautiful and was worth a lot of money. He wanted to honor the ring by bequeathing it to his descendants; keeping it in the family forever. He ordered that whichever one of his sons had the ring shall be honored as the rightful heir and head of the family. The ring had been passed down from generation to generation. The ring finally ended up in the hands of a man who had three sons, he loved them equally. He had promised to leave the ring to each of his sons, and he secretly had the ring duplicated. When the father was about to die he secretly gave each son a ring. Once he died each son declared that he was the true heir. When they discovered that each had rings and that the rings were indistinguishable from each other, they decided to leave the true heir undecided. To this day there is no true heir. The Jew told the Sultan that just like the rings the question of one true religion will remain undecided. The Sultan realizing that he had been outwitted came out an asked the Jew for the money and it was given to him. Saladin more than repaid him and always considered him an esteemed friend. So,

through the story of the three rings, this Jew was able to escape a trap set for him by Saladin. 12. The quote comes from the video is by Pier Paolo Pasolini and it is called the “Decameron.” The old men/ thieves told Andreuccio this when they asked him to rob the tomb of the Archbishop of Naples and he was refusing to do it. 13. **Tancredi, Prince of Salerno, kills the lover of his daughter and sends her his heart in a gold goblet; she pours poisoned water on it, drinks it, and dies.** Tancredi, the Prince of Salerno, had a daughter named Ghismunda, who returned to live with her father after the death of her husband. She fell in love with one of her father’s valets named Guiscardo. She devised a plan to let Guiscardo know how they could be alone together. "Near the Prince's palace was a cave hollowed out of a hill a long time before, and it was lit by a small opening in the side of the hill. That night he went down into the cave and waited for the lady to come get him. Once she was alone, she opened the stairway door and descended into the cave. Finally, they ascended the stairs to the lady's bed chamber and there they enjoyed each other fully. Before he left they made arrangements to keep seeing each other secretly. One day, Tancredi entered her bedroom and sat down on a stool at the foot of her bed, he then leaned back to rest his head on her bed, and pulled the bed curtain around himself to wait for her to return from her garden. He ended up falling asleep. Ghismunda had sent for Guiscardo that day, so she left her ladies-in-waiting in the garden and went to her room. She didn't notice her father in the room, because he was concealed by the bed curtain. She went over to the cave door and let her lover in and they immediately went to bed. Her father happened to awaken while they were enjoying themselves, but he did not say anything. Tancredi, despite being an old man, climbed through a window and down to the garden unseen and went back to his room completely grief-stricken. When night came Guiscardo climbed back up his rope only to find two of Tancredi's guards were waiting for him. They took him to Tancredi, who was in tears. The next day, Tancredi went to Ghismunda's room and had her summoned to him. He told her that he had Guiscardo imprisoned and that his fate was sealed, but that he still didn't know what to do with her. She then told him that he should do to her what he had done or had planned to do to Guiscardo, or she would do it for him. Tancredi didn't believe Ghismunda's threat, so that night he had the guards strangle Guiscardo and then cut out his heart. The next day, Tancredi sent for a gold goblet; he put Guiscardo's heart in the goblet and gave it to one of his most trusted servants to give to Ghismunda. She took out the phial of poison that she had prepared the previous day after her father had left her, and poured it into the goblet and then drank it all down. She lay down on her bed and arranged herself as modestly as possible. Those around her didn't understand what was going on, so they sent for Tancredi, who came immediately. She asked

Tancredi to bury her publicly next to Guiscardo anywhere he chose, and then she died. Tancredi repented his cruelty, and had them buried honorably together in one tomb. 14. Shakespeare based his comedy All’s Well that Ends Well o n the ninth story of the third day in Boccaccio’s Decameron. In this story, Giletta of Narbonne cures the King of France of a fistula. As a reward, she requests Beltramo di Rossiglione for her husband. After marrying her against his will, Beltramo goes to Florence out of anger, and there he courts a young woman. Giletta impersonates this lover of his and is able to sleep with him in her place. She bears him two children, and as a result, he finally holds her most dear and accepts her as his wife. giletta 15. Guido Cavalcanti answers Messer Betto Brunelleschi by saying, “Genlemen, in your own house you may say to me whatever you wish.” He then places a hand on a tombstone and leaps over the top onto the other side, at which point he goes on his way. Guido’s reply is actually a witty insult to Messer and the others. When Guido claims that the men are at home in the cemetery among the tombs, which are the houses of the dead, he is saying that in comparison to him and to other learned individuals, these men are worse than the dead and therefore they are in their own house in the cemetery. Sixth Day, Ninth Story. After being teased by Betto Brunelleschi and his friends for avoiding their company he responds: Brunelleschi: “Guido you refuse to join our company; but listen here what good will it do you when you finally manage to discover that God does not exist?!”

GUIDO’S RESPONSE: “Gentlemen, in your own house you may say to me whatever you wish.” -Guido is in a cemetery and is saying that they are so much less educated than him and worse off that dead.

16. In the Sixth Day, Seventh Story of The Decameron , Madonna Filippa is brought to trial because she is discovered by her husband Rinaldo de’ Pugliesi in the arms of Lazzarino de’ Guazzagliotri and there was a statute in Prato at that time stating that any woman caught by her husband committing adultery with a lover should be burned alive. So, after discovering her committing adultery, Madonna Filippa’s husband Rinaldo brings her to trial. At her trial, she makes a clever case for herself by saying that he has indeed committed adultery against her husband, but she has also satisfied his every desire when

he required it. So, she asks if it is not better to give what is left to a gentleman who loves her rather than just let it go to waste. All the citizens gathered begin laughing and saying that she is right. Before Madonna Filippa leaves the court, the judge consented to change the statute, modifying it so that it applied only to those women who were unfaithful to their husbands for money. Part III – Machiavelli 17. In 1513, the Medici returned to Florence and overturned the republican government that Machiavelli served. He was imprisoned, tortured, and then exiled from Florence by its Medici rulers. At this time, the son of Lorenzo de Medici, Giovanni de’ Medici, was elected to the papacy, taking the title of Leo X. The Pope’s brother, Giuliano de’medici duke of Nemours seemed destined to rule Florence and Tuscany. For a breif time, it seemed to Machiavelli that Medici power in Tuscany might unite with Medici contriol of the papacy and form an Italian alliance. 18. Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian D  ominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical c orruption, despotic rule and the exploitation of the poor. He prophesied the coming of a biblical flood and a new Cyrus from the north who would reform the Church. Discussed in Chapter VI of Niccolò Machiavelli's book The Prince, Fra Girolamo Savonarola was seen by Machiavelli as an incompetent, ill-prepared, and "unarmed" ruler and legislator, unlike "Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus" Of Savonarola, Machiavelli wrote: "If Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus had been unarmed they could not have enforced their constitutions for long — as happened in our time to Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was ruined with his new order of things immediately the multitude believed in him no longer, and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to believe."

19. Cesare Borgia was an Italian condottiero, nobleman, p olitician, and cardinal, whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Machiavelli. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. He was made the Bishop of Pampolona, and then he became the cardinal of Valencia which he later refused (making him the first person ever to do that).

•

He killed his opponents, the Orsini and Colonna families, and converted all of their 

supporters to his side. • •



He got rid of mercenaries and auxiliaries and established his own army He secured his new state, Romagna, by first crushing it with cruelty and then allowing it to run



itself. While being cruel, he used a scapegoat so that no one hated him, and then killed the scapegoat so that he (Borgia) would be feared. • 

He made a four step plan for how to keep power once his dad died, which included the

following: (1) Kill all local rulers. Check. (2) Win support of all Roman nobles. Check. (3) Gain as much control as possible over the people who elect the new pope. Check. • 

He died and the church took all of his land.

20. In The Prince, Machiavelli says that a prince should know how to employ the nature of the man and of the beast, as one without the other cannot endure. The fox and the lion together represent the nature of the beast. However, the lion cannot defend itself from traps and the fox cannot protect itself from wolves, and it is therefore necessary to be a fox in order to recognize the traps and a lion in order to frighten the wolves. Individually, then, the fox represents sly cunningness and the lion represents power. A prince, as stated, must demonstrate both in the beastly aspect of his nature. 21. The fortuitous events of 1513 inspired the writing of The Prince b y Machiavelli because they presented the Medici with a unique historical opportunity. At that time, the son of Lorenzo de’ Medici Giovanni de’ Medici, was elected to the papacy, taking the title Leo X. His brother, Giuliano de’ Medici, seemed destined to rule Florence and Tuscany. It seemed to Machiavelli that the two powers could unite to form an Italian alliance, or perhaps even a nation-state, to liberate Italy from her invaders. Machiavelli wrote The Prince for Lorenzo the Magnificent perhaps on the one hand to gain his favor and return from exile and on the other hand to help the Medici capitalize on this historical opportunity. 22. In Chapter XV of The Prince, Machiavelli breaks ground in political science by setting himself apart as an innovator in his theory of political pragmatism. This theory is summarized the following quote by Machiavelli: “For a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good. Hence it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity.” A prince should not concern himself with living virtuously or being idealistic but rather with acting so as to achieve the most practical benefit, as this resembles the way people truly act in practice.

Part IV – Pirandello 23. H  enry IV is a man who went mad after being knocked off his horse during a masquerade. At the time he was playing the part of Henry IV, and his delusion for over twelve years after the fall was that he was King Henry IV of Germany during the eleventh century. He has been placed in a "castle" with four valets, or "private counselors", all paid for by his nephew Di Nolli. The play opens in the throne room with Berthold, a new valet who has just been hired, learning from the other three valets. Berthold is being taught everything he needs to know in order to work for Henry IV and take care of the madman. There are two portraits next to the throne, pictures of Henry IV and the Marchioness Matilda (known as Donna Matilda). The pictures were done during the masquerade nearly twenty years earlier while Henry IV and Donna Matilda were dressed in their costumes. Donna Matilda, her daughter F  rida, Frida's fiance Di Nolli (who is also Henry IV's nephew), Donna Matilda's lover Belcredi, and a Doctor for psychotherapy all arrive at the castle. They are there in the hopes of curing Henry IV of his madness. Soon after their arrival the valets convince Donna Matilda, the Doctor, and Belcredi that it would be a good idea to visit Henry IV. They dress up in costumes and meet him. Henry speaks to them, but as far as they are concerned he is mad and so they do not pay attention to anything he says. After the meeting with Henry IV, Donna Matilda is convinced that he recognized her. Both Belcredi and the Doctor try to dissuade her from this notion. Frida and Di Nolli have left to pick up the dress that Donna Matilda is seen wearing in the portrait, and they arrive soon thereafter. Frida enters wearing the dress; she looks identical to her mother's portrait. Donna Matilda and the Doctor re-enter Henry's room in order to placate him and make him act calmer. After they leave, Henry turns to his valets and tells them that he is tired of acting. They look at him in surprise, and are even more shocked when he reveals that he is perfectly lucid. Henry has been playing the part of the madman for over eight years, having woken out of his madness after twelve years. He and the valets sit around a table and Henry tells them about what it means to be mad, claiming that madmen always speak the truth....