FREE ESSAY ON DEATH IN THE DREAM OF THE ROOD

DEATH IN THE DREAM OF THE ROOD

The crucifixion of Christ is treated differently within the bodies of Old English and
Middle English literature. The values of each era's society are superimposed on the
descriptions of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Christ is depicted either as the
model of the hero, prevalent in Old English literature, or as the embodiment of love and
passion, as found in Showings by Julian of Norwich.
Old English literature establishes the elements of the heroic code, to which its society
ascribed. A man must live, or die, by his honor. In The Dream of the Rood the crucifixion
of Christ is depicted as the ultimate symbol of heroism, as all mankind bewailed Christ's
death and prepared a gilt cross for him. This was surely no felon's gallows, but holy
spirits beheld it there, men upon earth, and all this glorious creation. Wonderful was
the triumph-tree, and I stained with sins, wounded with wrongdoings. I saw the tree of
glory shine splendidly, adorned with garments, decked with gold, jewels had worthily
covered Christ's tree. (Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p. 19) Christ
is not rendered as a figure of pathos. Christ is identified with the other glorious
warriors of Anglo-Saxon times, such as Beowulf, in this rendering of the cross. It was
tradition during the Anglo-Saxon period to bury the honored death with all of the
adornments of wealth that they had gained in the earthly life.
The Dream of the Rood treats the death of Christ as the culmination of His glory. As the
Rood itself speaks, Disclose with your words that it is the tree of glory on which
Almighty God suffered for mankind's many sins and the deeds of Adam did of old. He tasted
death there; yet the Lord arose again to help mankind in his great might. (Norton
Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p. 21) Julian of Norwich, an anchoress of
Saint Julian, received great visions of the crucifixion of Christ, on what was thought to
be her deathbed. According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., her
revelation of these visions, Showings, is colored by her experience and temperament as an
individual woman. Julian's depiction of the crucifixion describes Christ's love for
humanity upon his crucifixion. This I took it for that time that our Lord Jesu of his
courteous love would show me the comfort before the time of my temptation; for me thought
it might well be that I should by the sufferance of God and with his keeping be tempted
of fiends before I should die. (Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p.
294) His choice to die upon the cross seems to be the necessity for the salvation of
mankind, not as the manifestation of His inimitable honor and glory.
The thanes of the heroic code are bound to their lord by honor. The Dream of the Rood
affirms this powerful obligation as the author writes that when God visits us on judgment
day, He will ask who would stand fast, unafraid, for Him, their real leader: Before his
host he will ask where the man is who in the name of the Lord would taste bitter death as
he did on the cross. (Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p. 21). In
addition, the lord is bound to his men. This ideal is continued within the chivalry of
the Middle Ages. As a passage of Showings tells the reader: It is the most worship that a
solemn king or a great lord may do a poor servant if he will be homely with him; and
namely if he show it himself of a full true meaning and with glad cheer both in private
and openly. (Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p. 296)
However, Julian's mystical visions imbue a more feminine idea to the crucifixion than
does The Dream of the Rood. Showings tells us of Christ as the figure of the trinity left
on the cross, but also relates a singularity of motherhood upon his actions. Would not
any mother die for her child? Christ died for the lambs of his fold. The lofty ideals of
the chivalric code: love, humility, and perfection, are evidenced in Christ's actions.
The Dream of the Rood obviously depicts Christ as the masculine hero of his band of
retainers, as shown by the passage The Son was victorious in that foray, mighty and
successful. (Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p. 21) In a manner
similar to leaders of Old English literature, Christ endowed gifts to his followers upon
his death. Herein is a similarity between Showings and The Dream of the Rood: his gifts
were not of gold and treasure to be found on this earth. Christ's death enabled man's
everlasting life.
Perhaps the most striking contrast between the Old English text of The Dream of the Rood
and the Middle English text Showings is the depiction of Christ's actual death upon the
cross. The Dream of the Rood does not allude to the odious suffering Christ endured for
days as he hung upon the cross. However, Julian of Norwich tells us in Showings that
Christ died upon that cross as all blood drained from his body and he became withered and
beset by the pallor of death, with his final words begging forgiveness for his
persecutors. The Old English hero would never beg for forgiveness; the heroic code
mandated that his thanes avenge his death. Because Middle English society developed the
chivalric code, in which love is a central theme, Showings is able to depict Christ's
honor as a form of love: For he is the endlesshead and he made us only to himself and
restored us by his precious passion, and ever keepeth us in his blessed love (Norton
Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Ed., p. 296)


  
    
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Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh Vincent was born on March 30, 1853, in the village of Groot Zunbert in
the Dutch province of North Brabant. His father, Theodorus, was pastor of a small Dutch
Reformed Church. Vincent's mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was a similarly mild and
uninspired soul. It is common for biographers to dismiss Van Gogh's parents with a wave
of the hand. Vincent had two brothers and three sisters. At the age of twelve Vincent was
sent to boarding school in the village of Zevenbergen, fifteen miles away. At sixteen he
left school. Through the influence of Uncle Cent a place was found for him in the office
of Goupil and Cie at The Hague. Goupil's was a conservative house, specializing in
well-made reproductions of famous paintings. When he was twenty Vincent was transferred,
with a fine recommendation, to the London branch of Goupil's. He found a room in the home
of Mrs. Loyer, who with her daughter Ursula, and therefore began the first of his several
disastrous encounters with women. He fell in love with the girl, but evidently did not
bother to tell her. When Vincent shared his feelings with Ursula, he discovered that the
thought of loving him had never entered her head. In 1875 Uncle Cent arranged for him to
be transferred to the Paris office in the hope that his spirits might be revived by a
change in scene. Here he became increasingly careless in his work. He was given three
months notice, and then six years of training as an art dealer came to an end. He was
almost twenty-three, unemployed, and had not the slightest idea what he would do next.
Vincent decided to return to England, where he found a job as a teacher in a boarding
school. After he gave up that job, he took another teaching job at a school in Isleworth.
Alexander 2 As a young man Vincent Van Gogh's strongest compulsion was to love and help
mankind. The son of a minister, he chose quite naturally to take up religion. If he had
been successful as an evangelist, as he tried to be for several years, he might have
drawn and painted as a hobby but he almost surely would not have become an artist. His
evangelical mission was a disaster. If anything he tried too hard. At the age of
twenty-five, when he went out to serve the peasants and coal miners of the Borinage, in
southern Belgium, his manner was so intense, and his devotion to Christ's teachings so
literal, that he antagonized his clerical superiors and probably frightened the people he
wanted to help. Although he loved humanity, he could not communicate with individuals
and, at twenty-seven, he turned to art to communicate for him. The major reason Van Gogh
committed him to being an artist was that through art he could pour out his feelings. If
he could not alleviate the hard life of the poor Dutch peasant, at least he could show
his compassion in drawing and paintings. Perhaps this was his way to a communion with
God. In any case, it was in this crucible that his art was formed. In his short life Van
Gogh wrote nearly a thousand letters, often several a day. Most were written to his
brother Theo, possibly the one person in the world who understood him. Only to Theo could
Van Gogh describe the impressions and feelings that boiled within him. The letters are
extraordinary; literary critics have compared them to the works of the great 19th Century
Russian masters of confessional writing. But even as he was writing so expressively Van
Gogh apparently felt that words were not as distinct as pictures. Alexander 3 Having
decided at twenty-seven that his mission in life was to become an artist, he established
his first studio in the cottage of a Borinage coal miner. He paid the rent with small
sums sent by his father and commenced his education in a rage of work. From Paris, Theo
forwarded sheaves of prints for him to study and copy, and from The Hague the manager of
Goupil's branch office sent textbooks on anatomy and perspective. Theo suggested that
Vincent join him in Paris, but Vincent seems to have been reluctant to venture into what
was then the center of the art world. Instead, in the fall of 1880, he went to Brussels
and moved into the cheapest hotel he could find. Vincent remained in Brussels during the
winter 1880-1881, struggling with his draftsmanship and reporting his progress to Theo.
Late in 1883 he decided to make another attempt to live with his parents. At this time
Vincent's colors were still dark. The Potato Eaters is ordinarily called Van Gogh's first
masterpiece. There are no references to religion in Vincent's remarks about The Potato
Eaters. Eight months after his father's death Vincent left Holland, never to return. The
benefit of his three-month visit in Antwerp was an increased exposure to color, or, more
accurately, increased thought about it. Van Gogh was soon to be the most intense colorist
of his time. He sensed that color has meaning that transcends mere visual impressions.
When Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886, he was eager to learn and ready to be stimulated
by new experiences. In two years he went through a complete change as a Alexander 4
painter. Brightness and lightness flooded his work. He painted serene cafe interiors and
breeze swept landscapes. The dark figures of laborers at work were replaced by close-ups
of friends and of him at rest. Vincent worked hard to perfect his technical skill. In
1888 his production was torrential. Between his arrival in February and his
hospitalization after his mental collapse in December he made at least 90 drawings and
100 paintings. The volume of his output became almost an embarrassment. Vincent defended
himself by referring to the speed of Claude Monet. From February 1888 to May 1889, he
produced some 200 paintings, as well as a lot of drawings. His work under the sun at
Arles established him as a giant in art, but when it was over he had only one year left
to live. One of Vincent's best-known works, Sunflowers conveys the warmth of color
Vincent found at Arles. He made many of these sunflowers studies as decorations for his
rooms, and each radiates his passion for light, color and simplicity. In the south,
Vincent was a lonely man. Many of his paintings, like the picture of his bedroom, reflect
his wanting for companionship. The painting is relaxing, yet signs of his loneliness
appear in the way he longingly paired every object: two pillows, two chairs. Even the
pictures hang in pairs. When Vincent regained consciousness in the hospital in Arles it
was not the fact that he had suffered a severe mental breakdown that first concerned him.
After he recovered from that. He was back to drawing in the fields with his canvas and
easel. Alexander 5 Vincent was admitted to the hospital again on May 8, 1889. Vincent was
assigned not one room but two, one for sleeping and another for painting. There were many
vacancies in the men's dormitory. Within a few weeks after his admission to the hospital
Vincent, accompanied by a guard, was allowed to go out into the countryside to paint.
Vincent's first attack in Saint-Remy after the visit to Arles was a severe one. Had it
not been for the presence of the guards he might have killed himself, he tried to swallow
his poisonous paints. Once again he was able to go home. Where very often his doctor
asked him over for dinner. Vincent believed that life is endless. Vincent did not kill
himself during an attack of insanity. Then he made a journey. At a few hundred yards'
distance from the inn he entered a farmyard, and shot himself. He did not put the gun to
his head or heart but against his abdomen. Then walked back to the inn and back into his
room. The landlord discovered him there, lying on his bed with his face. Vincent died
thirty-six hours after he shot himself. He was only thirty-seven years old. The
occasional fits of illness and despair that finally drove him to suicide altered neither
the quality nor the quantity of his art. Even after the incident at Arles, when he sliced
off part of an ear, he worked himself willfully, his painting interrupted only
temporarily. As the anger of each attack passed, he became as bright as ever, painting
landscapes, portraits, self-portraits and writing scores of clear, logical letters.
Although he was troubled about his lapses, he knew they had not ruined his art. His work
was not the work of a madman. His mature style, which flourished at Arles, became even
freer; his last paintings are brilliant in color. Alexander 6 References Bonafoux,
Pascal. (1983). Van Gogh. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishers. Gilbert, Rita. (1998).
Living With Art. New York: McGraw Hill. Schapiro, Meyer. (1990). Van Gogh. New York:
Henry Holt Company. Wallace, Robert. (1969). The World of Van Gogh. New York: Time-Life
Books