Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man

                                               Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man 

Blog Prompt: How does An Essay on Man reconcile the belief in a divinely ordered universe with the existence of evil and seeming disorder in the world? Do you find these arguments believable? Why or why not?

     Alexander Pope’s theodicy An Essay on Man is written in poetic form and provides two faith based arguments to support his belief in God’s knowing omnipotence and man’s necessary “submission to Providence” (89). The overarching argument that Pope makes is based upon his teleological assertion that man has a natural position within the order of the “universe” and is therefore unknowing of the processes that exist external to man’s position. Pope makes the argument that due to man’s lack of awareness outside of his position it is unreasonable to question God’s motives. To question such unknowing motives Pope asserts would be questioning God’s judgment and the order of God’s creation; “There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man: And all the questions (wrangle e’er so long) Is only this, if God has placed him wrong?” (91).

     Pope’s second faith based argument to support his theodicy is that man defines morality and order according to his own perspectives. Pope asserts that when man tries to use his value systems to question God’s motives he is asserting that his judgment is positionally superior to God’s; “The impiety of putting himself in the place of God, and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice of his dispensations” (90). To support this argument Pope makes the assertion that the natural world itself does not follow rules of morality, or man’s conceptions/desire for controlled order, and if this moral order does not exist in the natural world man has no basis for questioning God’s motives; “The absurdity of conceiting himself this final cause of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the moral world which is not met in the natural” (90).

     Pope’s theodicy concludes by reasserting that man’s submission to his position within the universe is essential because man is ultimately unknowing, and therefore moral expectations based upon this unknowing (that question God’s motives) ultimately dishonor God’s judgment; “All Chance, Direction, which thou cast not see, All Discord, Harmony not understood: All partial Evil, universal Good: And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right” (90). Personally I do not find these arguments believable because they are based in religious belief and do not make sense outside of faith based logic.

 

Works Cited

Pope, Alexander. An Essay on Man. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner, et al. 3rd ed. Vol. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2012. 344-351. Print.  

    

Marguerite de Navarre

 Marguerite de Navarre

 

 

Marguerite de Navarre was an integral figure of the French Renaissance. As a noblewoman her devout patronage of the arts as well as her firm support of intellectual pursuits defined her as “one of the most influential members of French courtly society” and a key player in shaping sixteenth century societal values (1637). During the Reformation de Navarre’s influence and diplomacy protected many French Protestants from persecution despite accusations of “heresy” and her own Roman Catholic based beliefs (1638). Marguerite de Navarre was also an important literary figure in her own right. Her literary legacy involves an important counter-discourse on subjects of gender and sexuality and she was an influential voice in support of religious tolerance and reform.

    Considered de Navarre’s greatest literary achievement, the Heptameron is a complex narrative that uses a multi-story framework (frame narrative) to address themes of spirituality, sexuality, gender, status, political power, morality, and human fallibility. Each of the stories centers on a particular perspective and in doing so provides an understanding of both aristocratic and common life. de Navarre’s value on perspective also functions as a social commentary on societal inequities that emerge due to gender/class power discrepancies. Marguerite de Navarre’s important literary contributions, as well as her diplomatic political influence define her status as an important early feminist and, as the famous scholar Samuel Putnam asserted, “the first modern woman” (Putnam, 1936).  

 

Works Cited

 

de Navarre, Marguerite. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner, et al. Third Edition. New York:  W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. 1637-1647. Print.

Putnam, Samuel. Marguerite of Navarre, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1936.

 



Sunjata

THIS WEEK’S PROMPT: Discuss the origin and purpose of the bride-carrying ceremony in “Sunjata” and the development of the bride-escorting song (lines 750-798).
 

     The epic tale Sunjata “knits together the mythic and the everyday, the ancestral and the contemporary, providing for its Mande listeners a recognizable, living history, and for everyone else rich insight into the culture of a once-glorious empire” (1517). The bride-carrying ceremony is part of the opening tale that reveals the mythic origins of Sunjata. The heroism and dalilu (magic) that define the events of Sunjata’s unusual entrance into this world also exalt Sunjata’s status as a supernatural hero. Sogolon Wulen Conde is Sunjata’s mother she is a wild sorceress unwilling to marry Sunjata’s father, Manko Farakonken. Sogolon is described as “very ugly, the duct in her eye is injured and the tears run down…Her head is bald. She has a humped back. Her feet are twisted. When she walks she limps this way and that” (1525). Despite this description Sogolon is defined as having a destined mythical purpose “Anyone who marries her, Something special will be at her breast” which alludes to the birth of the great hero, Sunjata (1525). The bride carrying ceremony originates from the marriage between Sogolon and Manko. Sogolon because of her “twisted feet” is unable to walk without “raising dust” her “co-wives” when  they see this begin to sing “Walk well, Bride of my brother, Walk well. Do not put us in the dust… They saw that her walk could not improve, That it was beyond her power. The sisters said let us carry her” (1536). The significance of the bride carrying ceremony defines the bride as a possession but the ceremony itself is also a means for community unification because “the bride is thought of as the collective possession of the family and the village into which she marries” (1536).  The connection of this epic tale to the Mande people is evident in the rich marital tradition of the bride carrying ceremony.

Works Cited

  “Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Vol. 1: Beginnings to 1650. Ed. Martin Puchner, et al. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1514 - 1576. Print.