Abstract
This paper demonstrates Dante's and Boccaccio's opposing views concerning whether the importance of God's divine justice outweighs the innate human qualities present in all peoples. Using the example of how each portrays members of the clergy in their works, Dante's preference of divine justice emerges, as does Boccaccio's preference of human nature.

From the Paper
"Dante and Boccaccio disagree on the issue of divine justice versus human nature. In The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante employs Fortune to prove the importance of divine justice. As a creation of God, Fortune operates strictly within the will of God, enhancing Dante's depiction of God's omnipotence. Dante also illustrates the importance of God's divine justice through the various people the pilgrim meets in the circles of the Inferno, specifically members of the clergy. In sentencing these men to hell, Dante demonstrates the fair and impartial manner in which God judges all people. He points out that God does not favor the clergymen because of their church titles, but judges all people according to the same moral and religious standards. Boccaccio, on the other hand, utilizes the same constructions in The Decameron, but uses them to contradict the previously accepted philosophies set forth in the Inferno. Boccaccio presents Fortune as God's enemy, a power that provides earth with more than it needs."

Tags:boccaccio, church, clergy, corruption, dante, god, inferno, decameron

Abstract
The paper begins with a discussion of allegory as a literary tool. The writer then continues with an in-depth analysis of each story and evaluates how they fit in to this definition, finding each in their own way to be particularly effective uses of allegory.

From the Paper
"Allegories in literature aim to assert and emphasize societal values (O'Siodhachain, 2). This stands true for the poems "Romance of the Rose" by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and "The Inferno" by Dante Alighieri. Although the subject and societal issues the poems allude to differ from each other, the method employed to convey a lesson or promote a social truth through an entertaining format is identical. Through the use of allegory, the reader is aware of Lorris and Jean's views on love and reason, as well as Dante's views on the fall of Man."

Tags:society, values, Alighieri, lesson, loe, truth, Virgil, stone, mankind

From the Paper
"Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies (1405) was written to counteract the lies and misrepresentations about women's character that the author found in literature in which all the male writers seemed to "speak from one and the same mouth" (4). She resolved, with the help and guidance of the allegorical figures of Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, to write a demonstration of the invaluable contributions of women throughout history. She intended to counteract the ridiculous claims by male writers "that the behavior of women is inclined to and full of every vice" (4). Her examples range from the mythological Amazons to the women of the Old Testament and examples from more recent history. The greatest number, however, derived from classical history and literature. One of the best known, or, as Pizan put it, the woman whose "fame has surpassed that of all..."

Abstract
The paper examines the drama "Six Character in Search of an Author," written by Luigi Pirandello, which is play within a play. The paper shows Pirandello's theme throughout the play that life is a script with people fixed to patterns that are evident in everyday workings of life and through the history of previous lives.

From the Paper
"The drama Six Characters in Search of an Author, written by Luigi Pirandello, is a play within a play, full of reality philosophizing, which shows how people are real in the same way that characters are. These two themes are highly reflective on what it means to be a play, by comparing it to life, and what it means to be a person, by comparing what it means to be a character. The drama is an assemblage of a play, put together on the spot, when six characters enter another play's rehearsal in search of an author who will manifest their roles by writing a script to their drama. This is their one bent purpose in life, to live on the stage, in their world in which they are real. Though they seem alive, as they are in their search, they are not fulfilling the purpose of filling their roles. They need to tell their stories, they desire reaffirmation of existence and for this they need their fixed reality, the stage. Their script is this means of existence and acting the script out is a means of living or being real. People in the same way are doomed to be scripted; identical to characters, they live only within their fixed play, that which acts itself out from birth to death."

Tags:author, characters, italian, reality, search, theater

Abstract
For the Victorians, poetry was a vibrant expression of the era's values and its fears. The paper analyzes two poems from the Victorian period which reflect these values. The first shows the era's intense occupation with status and social hierarchy in Robert Browning's "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church". The poem demonstrates how this obsession with people's position in the world merged into an obsession with death and the dead, with death as a force that erased the status that people strove so hard to create and uphold in life. The second paper analyzed in this paper is Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "Jenny", in which we see how the notions of status and propriety that governed Victorian life and death created such a terrible psychological pressure on the Victorians that they had at times to escape into lascivious fantasy.

From the Paper
"The contrast is not simply that, however, of the upright and virtuous life against the scandalous and criminal one (for Rossetti makes it clear in the opening lines that Jenny is a prostitute) but that between male and female worlds. Life for the Victorians was divided into strictly separated spheres: The worlds of men and women touching upon each other barely more than the worlds of life and death. This poem is in part an expression of regret at this latter divide."

Tags:sexuality, traditional

From the Paper
"This paper will discuss Italo Calvino's book Marcovaldo, or The Seasons in the City. This book is a collection of twenty short stories, all of which depict events in the life of the title character, Marcovaldo. The stories are placed within the book in a seasonal order; in other words, the first story takes place in Spring, the second in Summer, and so on, consecutively. This gives the effect of the reader experiencing a span of several years duration in the life of Marcovaldo.


Marcovaldo is a poor workman living in an industrial city in northern Italy during the 1950's and '60's. Although he is a factory worker in an urban area, Marcovaldo "possessed an eye ill-suited to city life," and is always noticing the signs of..."

Abstract
This paper discusses how, beginning in Canto VIII as Virgil and Dante approach the City of Dis, their journey slows then stops at the gate. It contends that the entrance to the City of Dis causes a climactic battle between Heaven and Hell that changes the course of Dante's journey and of the poem.

From the Paper
"The legion of rebel angels tries to persuade Virgil from his undead companion, leaving Dante to find his way out alone, if at all. At this Dante breaks the 'fourth wall' and addresses his audience directly, pleading with the reader to "but conceive of his dismay" at being left alone (94). This entire scene has a heightened sense of drama, with more fear, distress, and anxiety than any previous. Appealing directly to the audience Dante seems to be pulling the reader deeper into the scene. Dante pleads for Virgil not to forsake him, offering to quit altogether and hasten back (100). While Virgil holds council with the demons the narrative focuses on Dante and his growing fears of abandonment. "

Tags:power, virgil

Abstract
This paper looks at the book, "The Cheese and the Worms " by Carlo Ginzburg. Discussing how the author has used his research to find and discuss the main character, Menocchio. The paper also gives a precise critique of the book and then systemic ways that Ginzburg has emitted or over looked facts by ways of his research.

Abstract
The following paper examines the novel, 'The Leopard' , a story that takes place in the backdrop of the Italian Revolution of the 1860's highlighting the views of the aristocratic class at the time when the demise of the monarchy was imminent. Concepts such as monarchies, elite feudalism, the industrial revolution and Nationalism are discussed. The way in which the critics reviewed this novel, which was published in 1958, is also discussed.

From the Paper
"The Leopard was written by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa much before his death but was published posthumously in 1958. The first English translation of the book appeared in 1960 after which it gained worldwide fame and became one of the very few novels from Italy to reach such heights of recognition. Lampedusa was praised for his intelligent writing style, his vivid imagination and his good command over the Italian history. But the last part was not exactly difficult for the man who himself was a prince and has based the story on his own experiences and observations. The story takes place in 1860 Italy when unification was taking place and this meant end to a long dynasty of monarchs. The society was rapidly changing and this led to the demise of aristocracy in Italy."

Tags:italy, elite, revolution, tyrant, aristocracy, traditional, nationalism, 1860

Abstract
This paper shows that Giovanni Boccaccio wrote "The Decameron" for several reasons. The paper suggests that "The Decameron" was meant to be a way to educate women that did not attend school, a way for Boccaccio himself to deal with his own "lovesickness," and to offer solace to others that also feel lovesick. But perhaps the most significant reason for writing "The Decameron" was to comment on various aspects of society that he found to be flawed or unsound. To help demonstrate his point, the author of the paper uses the stories "Ser Cepperello," "Masetto di Lamporecchio," "Friar Cipolla," and "The Abbott and Ferondo" as examples.

From the Paper
"He did this in a somewhat inconspicuous way, by not actually writing a work of condemnation or disapproval. Instead, by joining together several stories of lust, greed, corruption, and infidelity, as told by ten youths during the plague, Boccaccio effectively criticizes several facets of society. The church and it's many faults is one of these facets that Boccaccio criticizes at length. "