Friday, 22 July 2011

Symbolism of Gold in Literature


The field of literature is a rich in symbolism and quality of the rhetoric. Expression goes a long way in determining the degree of appeal a piece of poetry or prose possesses concerning its audience. In the light of this hypothesis, authors and poets, over the years, have employed the gift of their creativity to come up with fascinating dimensions of expression and have utilized them very fruitfully to their advantage.

Beauty is a rare commodity but speaking in terms of quality literature, the case is otherwise. As a matter of fact, whenever it comes to any field of art, be it literature, music, sculpture or any other kind, beauty is actually the prime ingredient that comes forth as a striking factor, more precisely, a highlight that defines the quality of art.

Having shaped up this conclusion, be those playwrights or poets or even novelists for that case, there are tons of words as well as expressions and phrases that have a very loveable and desirable status for the general population of the literary artists. One of them is gold. Over the years, the utility of gold, both as an element of symbolism in terms of illustration of glory and opulence as well as its literal comprehension, has been very frequent and as reviews elaborate, very much admired and encouraged by the critics.

Be that Shakespeare crafting the backdrop of the scene in which Cleopatra and her lover Antony share a moment, the Holy Bible or Milton's hymns, gold has always had a very divine status in literature, about as valuable as its monetary value.

For a number of eras, the usage of gold in literature was restrained to a particular fashion and lacked the diversity of utility. As the historian C. H. V. Sutherland has shaped his observation, he emphasizes that this limited employment of the word yet could not help but accept the fact that the comprehension and symbolism attached to gold in literature has a very positive feel to it, reflecting characteristics such as importance as well as opulence along with desirability and many other attributes to follow.

However, with the passage of time, gold found a more diverse degree of manifestation in literature. A classic example of this enriched comprehension comes forth in the form of the interpretation of the word in relation to the usage of the metal in the historical context, something that is very clearly reflected in Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus' vows. This new dimension to gold in literature encouraged the generation of further illustrations to the word.

Another classic example is of Geoffrey Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales where he introduced another spectrum of utility of the word 'gold' to literature. This was symbolism in its purest form, the execution of which was received with open arms. In addition to that, Rudyard Kipling had a more pragmatic shade of elaboration for gold, using its role in the age of industrialization and at the same time, giving a very exquisitely carved picture of the social setting of that very era.

There are many more examples to follow, nevertheless, the crux of this article remains intact on the diversity of usage that gold has happened to achieve in literature, be that the past era or the present times.




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