The eight pieces of writing we are analyzing for this assignment have many common themes. Love, war, loyalty, death, and peace are all themes I noticed in the readings. This essay will focus on the theme of peace in the selected readings. Peace is thought of by some as the opposite of war, but it can also be an inner peace, the absence of conflict, or a feeling of calm or contentment. As I read each piece, I was struck with the thought that each story had at least one death in it, and from each death came some sort of peace. In this essay, I will examine each story and explain how a death in each reading resulted in some type of peace. The peace that came affected the one who died, those who knew him or her, or the overall atmosphere or setting of the story.
In Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies, Christing de Pizan is visited by Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, who tell her many tales of women and urge her to create her own city of only the most deserving women. Reason tells Pizan the following tale of the Queen Berenice of Cappadocia:
When, during a battle in the course of this struggle, the uncle killed two of his nephews, that is, this lady’s sons, she was so grieved that her anger purged her of all feminine fear. She took up arms herself and with a great army advanced against her brother-m-law and fought so hard that in the end she killed him with her own hands, had her chariot driven over him, and won the battle (Pizan 61).
This example, though gruesome, shows that the Queen created peace through death. Killing her brother in law ended the battle and created peace. Further, the murder of her two sons led to peace because it created such a grief in her that she grew brave enough to kill the brother in law, leading to the end of the battle.
The stories about the Aztecs in Duran’s History of the Indies in New Spain were filled with death and destruction at the hands of other people and of the gods. One peaceful moment following a great deal of turmoil resulted from the death of one of their priests. After fleeing king Achitometl and his subjects, the Aztecs were traveling through some marshy areas. Duran explained “As the Aztecs fled through the marshes one of the main elders, a priest of Huitzilopochtli, drowned. The people cremated him and honored him by giving him a very solemn burial” (39). This sad death brought peace to the group who was frantically fleeing death and destruction by uniting them and having a funeral service for the priest.
Unity is also a theme that can create peace, and often death can create unity leading to peace. This was shown by the Aztecs, and also in Queen Elizabeth’s writings. Although she does not refer to an actual death, she does mention her own possible death in the following excerpt:
Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust (30).
Here, the Queen assures her people that she would die for them, and be loyal to them even in death. This assurance would unite the people and create a sense of calm, comfort, and peace in them.
Shakespeare’s Love's Labour's Lost is a comedy that is quite different from the other readings. The only death in the play is the death of the princess’s father, making her a queen. All of the activities leading up to that point were absurdly confusing, with all of the men being in love with different women and the women disguising themselves as each other to fool the men. The death of the princess’s father causes all of the ladies to leave and to stay away for a year, during which time the men are supposed to stay faithful to them. Though there was no war or destruction in this play, the departure of the ladies due to the death of the princess’s father causes peace by ending the endless activity and confusion of the play.
The story of Adam and Eve is well known through the bible, and Milton’s Paradise Lost explains the story even more. Adam and Eve sinned by letting the serpent talk them into eating fruit from the tree of knowledge and acting on their lust. Throughout the reading, the fear of death seemed to motivate the characters to act or not act in certain ways.
Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat. (1447).
The story in itself acts as a warning against sin and being tempted by the devil, but in Milton’s version these are offenses punishable by death. This fear of death led to peace by keeping order among those who feared death.
Doctor Faustaus was another character who was tempted by the devil, but he did not fear death until the very end. Faustus made a deal with the devil, trading his soul for magical powers for 24 years. At the end of that period, Faustus would die and spend eternity in hell with Satan. When the 24 years are over, Faustus wishes to repent but it is too late. After his death, the scholars find his dismembered body and hold a funeral for him:
Well, gentlemen, though Faustus' end be such
As every Christian heart laments to think on,
Yet for he was a scholar once admired
For wondro'us knowledge in our German schools,
Well give his mangled limbs due burial; ··
And all the students, clothed in mourning black,
Shall wait upon ·his heavy' funeral (865).
This is an example much like the death of the Aztec priest. The death of a beloved figure led to a peaceful ceremony honoring the dead.
Roland’s death in Song of Roland also results in peace. This peace is an inner peace for Roland, and brings him to peace with God. The following excerpt details his last moments:
“Mea culpa; Thy mercy, Lord, I beg
For all the sins, both the great and the less,
That e'er I did since first I drew my breath
Unto this day when I'm struck down by death."
His right-hand gloye he unto God extends;
Angels from Heaven now to his side descend (143).
His death seems peaceful in the description, though it must have been quite gruesome when his temples exploded. Yet he has time before he dies to ask for his sins to be forgiven, and angels come down to escort him to heaven. It is a peaceful moment in the face of death.
The Prophecy of the Seeress gives a series of predictions from the Seeress, many of which contain gruesome deaths and destruction. The following passage is what I believe to be a description of heaven, when good men will go after they die:
I see a hall than the sun more fair,
thatched with red gold, which is Gimle hight.
There will the gods all guiltless throne,
and live forever in ease and bliss (63).
The use of words like “ease” and “bliss” in this passage paint a picture of a peaceful place where men will go after they die. Their deaths will end in peace.
When a person dies, people often say that the person who passed is at peace. Yet death can also lead to peace for other people as well. This was shown numerous times in the examples given above. Peace can come in different forms, and many of these forms were shown in the readings. All of the readings had some element of death in them, and that death led to inner peace, peace with God, peace in those who knew the deceased, or peace in the setting of the story.
Works Cited
Anonymous. The Song of Roland. Trans. Dorothy L. Sayers. New York: Penguin Books. 1957. Print.
Duran, Fray Diego. The History of the Indies of New Spain. Trans. Doris Hayden. London: University of Oklahoma Press. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan. “Queen Elizabeth’s Writings.” The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 2007. Print.
Marlowe, Christopher. “Doctor Faustus.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Abrams, M.H. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 1986. Print.
Milton. “Paradise Lost.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Abrams, M.H. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 1986. Print.
Pizan, Christine de. The Book of the City of Ladies. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Love’s Labour’s Lost. Ed. Peter Holland. New York: Penguin Books. Print.
The Poetic Edda. Trans. Lee. M. Hollander. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1962. Print.
