A very basic account of the poem with a tidy accurate conclusion.To move to the next level one would need to consider the text's historical grounding alot more. Many of the questions asked in the essay (such as why the Cid was exiled) can actually be answered by looking at other sources.More concession needs to be made of El Cids attitude towards the Muslims - and whether he was exceptional or not in his dealings with them. In a short statement, I would say the attitude of convivencia and the lack of criticism for the Cid hints that they were not so exceptional of the time.Finally, a more detailed analysis of the motives of the text is needed.A good - if jumbled - start though.
- 03/06/2004
- 19:50:02
- Score: 2 out of 3 people found this comment useful.
A collection of tidy examples of courtly literature that would have influenced the medieval knight.The next step would be too place it in the context of a chivalric code such as Ramon Llulls' and to palce it in context of the growth of courtly literatures abundance and influece in this period.
- 03/06/2004
- 19:40:17
- Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
This essay lays down the beliefs of medieval society towards women and tells us a little of Heloise, but I found it very dissatisfying.Little attempt is made to examine whether Heloise was a typical of the average medieval woman, or whether she was as exceptional as modern (mainly, but not exclusively female) historians make her out.All we know of Heloise is in her deeply personal letters to Aberlard and his account of her in Historia Calimatatum. I was expecting a detailed cross-section of these texts including a comprehensive analysis of both authors, their relations to each other and the motives behind their writings.For example you state about Heloise's second two letters:"This is in part because clerical guide lines were produced by males for monasteries but also Heloise is taking the decidedly subservient role imposed upon her by the outside world."I would dissagree and say that in the second two letters Heloise has abandoned hope of a word consolation from Abelard on her former terms because he was a changed man. I would say she asks for advice from him towar the Paraclete to both offer him respite from his dire situation at Bede and also because she was looking for a tiny bit of warmth and communcation from Abelard through any way possible.An essay using Heloise as a model must question whether she is typical or untypical. This essay does not.Also, we can tell from the work of men such as Abelard who used dialectic that the |Catholic authority was being challenged. No effort is made to examine whether people actually believed in what the church preached. Services were in Latin, not the vernacular and we know from the priest's handbooks that the problem of men and women falling to carnal temptation was common.All in all an OK start but very dissapointing in its handling of the sources, of Heloise and in its evaluative skills.
- 03/06/2004
- 19:36:41
- Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
I have to wonder whether these men were the great figures of 19th century European history..? I personally feel that Napoleon 1st (Great) was more important. Indeed, a great many men were as influencial. However, thisis beside the point and an arguable fact.Factually this essay seems quite good. However while the author does possess the ammunition to create his argument, his lack of structure makes the essay confusing and, to quote the author, 'here and there.'One should pay more attnetion to spelling, structure and punctuation. To go to the next level as a historian you must weight up the argument, evaluate your evidence and then repsent it in a structured way.As a comparitive essay I would have approached this along themes such as 'foreign policy' and 'domestic policy', providing a concise comparitive discussion for each case.
- 01/06/2004
- 20:19:09
- Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
It is interesting that the writer here chooses to defend Robespierre. The lack of french historians in your bibliogrpahy perhaps points you this way. Also, the predominance of biographical sources might lean this way because naturally when you study a man you do fall for him. Websites do not count as valid sources.I feel that a more comprehensive knowledge of the terror might have changed your stance. I can't help but feel that your research would have been better placed by looking at what he created than what he said(in contradiction to what he did).
- 31/05/2004
- 19:08:56
- Score: 1 out of 2 people found this comment useful.
This essay is Ok as a very basic outline of famous people of the renaissance age.However it has no appreciation of the European-wide effect of the Renaissance. The assertion that the renaissance was at its high point in England is contestable and the idea that its popularity was controlled by monarchs and religious imbalance is implausible. Elizabeth might have encouraged the rennaisaince, but one should be aware that she used it as a tool to promote her own propoganda.No appreciation s made of architecture or art and Hans Holbein is surprisingly ommitted from the list of most influenctial men (among others).If this is the work of a 15 year old then its a fine peice of work.Howerver, if one is stidying at GCSE, A Level or higher then one needs to view the rennaissance as very much a european influence and they need to look at how fashion is dictated by continental values. Another interesting aspect to study is to see which aspects actually carried over to England and why. One also needs to appreciate that the rennaisance was more than literature.
- 31/05/2004
- 18:58:24
- Score: 1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.
This chronology is factually correct enough to serve any student up to GCSE level.The definite next step of this essay is the inclusion of his two great 'Thomas's' - Wolsey and Cromwell and maybe Anne Boleyn and Thomas More. An appreciation of their roles and influence are needed for the next stage of understanding of Henry's reign.After this, it is hard to analyse any aspect of his reign unless in separate essays or in a full dissertation or book.I award this good because it is factually correct, up to date and valuable for a student coming to Henry for the first time. It is no however an indepth study of his reign and one needs to consider his great men more.
- 31/05/2004
- 11:32:22
- Score: 2 out of 2 people found this comment useful.