In 5 pages images of nature as they are portrayed in various English plays and poems including The Duchess of Malfi by Webster, Volpone by Jonson, Paradise Lost by Milton, The Man by Herbert, 'The Garden' by Marvell,' and 'Anatomy' by Donne are analyzed.
Name of Research Paper File: JL5_JLnature.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The way in which nature is treated in the selection of works chosen reflects not only the authors particular perspective on the theme,
but also the way that they see nature as interacting with both human behaviour and the broader realms of spirituality and religion. The student could therefore consider the extent to
which each writer is commenting specifically upon aspects of nature (as in Marvells The Garden) or using images drawn from nature to investigate and explore human behaviour and interaction (as
in The Duchess of Malfi and Volpone).
In Donnes Anatomy, for instance, he looks at the way in which the natural order of things is hierarchical: he sees verse, and hence the imagination and the
power of words, as exemplifying the middle nature. Heaven is the realm of the spirit, the grave that of the material body, whereas the poets imagination and his capacity to
represent ideas in a symbolic fashion is between both. In the Catholic churchs perception of the natural order, there was a gradual declension from God, at the highest point of
the hierarchy, to base matter, at its lowest level, with man and the natural world between the two, and Donnes commentary reflects this.
In The Garden, Marvell also reflects on the natural order, in his
comment regarding the skilful gardener, namely, God, who has created the trees, fruits and flowers of the garden and the correspondence between the activities of animal life (such as the