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The Late Middle Ages in Britain
The world of the late Middle Ages in Britain was dominated by an emphasis on religious faith and a romantic literary spirit. Christianity became more well known during the time of the Anglo Saxons, churches became not only places of worship but a place of learning. An example of how the christian faith and medieval life drew more towards Christianity was through pilgrimages which occurred during spring time visiting holy places for blessings, allowing Christianity to grow. Many more kings converted and gave the church more freedom for any work of Christianity. Chivalry was considered a code of ethics during this period. Purity, Chivalry, truth and honor were highly valued. During the late middle ages courtly love was the complete devotion of a knight to his lady, courtly love became more well known through the tales of romances describing woman from head to two, usually as blonde hair green eyed, paled skin women |
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During this six weeks in my English 4 class, we will be applying a psychological approach to movies and stories which is called "Archetypal Analysis." This involves looking for symbols in works that transcend culture and time.
However in order to really understand where archetypes derive from, we must first understand the underlying theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung regarding the collective unconscious. Here is an example of Freud's and Carl Jung way of explaining the collective unconscious. |
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http://csis.pace.edu Here is an assignment given by my English 4 Teacher of analysis of the archetypes of in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. |
Other examples of the Quest Motif
From my class of 2014 Sammie did a great job explaining her archetypes using the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two http://sammieewashere.weebly.com/late-middle-ages.html Marisol also did an awesome job in her map explaining the quest when she analyzed Fast and the Furious 6 http://marisolsunflower.weebly.com/late-middle-ages.html |
Synopsis of The movie Shrek
This well known movie follows the quest of an ugly ogre named Shrek (outcast), who has been sent out to retrieve Princess Fiona (herald) and return her to the King Lord Farquad (devil Figure). After Lord Farquad (ruling parasite) sends out his armies to find all fairy tale creatures in order to find the magic mirror, originally from “Snow White”, he discovers that he must marry a Princess in order to be considered a King, to have the “fairest kingdom of them all”. Having found the magic mirror, he sends all the useless fairy tale creatures to Shrek's swamp(Place of Community). Having had his swam invaded by fairy tale creatures, Shrek (hero) is determined to reach Lord Farquad (the call) to make him remove the fairy tale creatures from his swamp. Along the way he meets his trusty sidekick Donkey (Mentor), a magical donkey who can talk. Once Shrek reaches Du Lock, the kingdom of Lord Farquad, he finds himself in the middle of a battle to weed out the strongest knight, who would be sent out to save Princess (The Task) Fiona (Damsel in Distress) and return her to Lord Farquad so they can marry.Coming out of the battle as the winner, Shrek makes a deal with Lord Farquad; he would save and return Princess Fiona and Lord Farquad would remove the fairy tale creatures from his swamp. Saving Princess Fiona, the breathing dragon falls in love with Donkey(Nemesis), and the group is able to escape from the castle. On their way back to Du Lock, Shrek falls in love with Fiona and Donkey (loyal companion) soon finds that Princess Fiona is under a curse, which forces Fiona to turn into a “terrible, ugly ogre” at sundown, an that only “true love's first kiss” can break the spell. Having overheard Fiona's words about the ogre, Shrek is hurt, assuming she was talking about him, and returns to Du Lock and returns back the next day with Lord Farquad. Lord Farquad takes Fiona back to Du Lock and the two prepare for their wedding. Not so long after, Donkey (supernatural aid) explains to Shrek that Fiona loves him back and assures Shrek that what he overheard was not about him. Shrek races back to Du Lock just in time to stop the wedding and explain to Princess Fiona what had happened. The angry Lord Farquad attempts to remove Shrek from the church, but ends up being gobbled up by the fire breathing dragon that Donkey and Shrek came to the wedding on. During this time, the sun sets transforming Fiona is turned into ogre form and Shrek remembers her previous words. Fiona realizes she loves Shrek, and they both share “true love's first kiss”. Disappointed, that she remains an ogre but at the same time happy, that the curse is broken, Fiona and Shrek return to his swamp(wilderness). The last few scenes in the movie are of Shrek and Fiona's ogre wedding at Shrek's swamp (place of abundance), with all the fairy tale creatures in attendance. |