The Representation of the Renaissance era in England under King Henry VIII through the use of imagery : a comparison between Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and the BBC adaptation

It is impossible to escape history. It is on the move and lays the foundation for the present. It has been proven that a relationship exists between individual identity and the sociocultural context to which one belongs. Indeed, learning history is required to construct oneself. Yet, it is not limited to studying about sovereigns and governments. It also is about societies all across the world. In her two books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel depicts a certain society, that of the Renaissance in Henry VIII England. Her novels were adapted by the BBC in a mini-series of six episodes: Wolf Hall. The aim of this dissertation was to demonstrate that, when learning about history, imagery is a great source of information. In fact, the imagery used in the three pieces of work previously mentioned reinforces both the characters that were depicted and the events that occurred, in the representation of the Renaissance era under King Henry VIII in England. My analysis made it possible to see that all the components that constitute the novels and the mini-series work together with this aim in mind. This dissertation shows how, thanks to the concept of historical novel, Mantel achieved the goal of portraying this critical period of history. The process of fashioning the self and the world was also studied as a typical method of the Renaissance. In this matter, Thomas Cromwell can be perceived as the epitome of the self-fashioned man and is put at the centre of both the narratives and attention by means of diverse narratological techniques.