Saturday 23 October 2021

The Rape of the lock by Alexander Pope


Hello i am Himanshi Parmar, as a task of Thinking activity, about the very famous poem of Alexander Pope named "The rape of the lock", here i write a blog. And answered various questions. But before this let me put a Trailer Video of the poem "The Rape of the lock".



1] According to you, Who is the protagonist of the play clarissa or Belinda?Why?

    According to me, Belinda is the protagonist of the poem. Because the entire poem revolves around her. And her dream. She is the central character or we can say heroin of the Mock epic. The poem starts with Belinda, who is wealthy and young woman, who travels to Hampton Court for a day of socializing and leisure. Her remarkable beauty attracts the attention of the Baron, who snips off a lock of her hair and this thing turns into the big matter.

   It is difficult to regard her purely as a goddess, or as a pretty spoiled child, or as a flirt. She is combination of all these three. This thing we also found in her character.

    In the starting, we see her sleeping till noon and her awakening by he lape dog "Shock". Then we see her proceeding from the Thames River to the Hampton Court. Pope Compares Belinda to the sun and suggests that it recognizes in Belinda a Rival. Belinda is like the sun not only because of her bright eyes and not only because she dominates her special world. She was as beautiful as every eye was fixed on her alone. She is like the sun in another regard:

Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike.
And, like the sun, the shines on all alike.”

   Second thing is, she is like a model, represented the fashionable, aristocratic Ladies of Pope's Age. Such social butterflies in eighteenth century. Who does not have any serious concern with life. And as further as we read the poem, we find that there is a Belinda who is in the center of the poem. She is present throughout the whole poem, while clarissa came into the last part.

    Another thing is that what action is belinda taking or what she speaking is she did according to Belinda's action or speech. So if there is no Belinda then the poem has no meaning or virtues. Even Clarissa's speech or a lines also have not stay meaningful.  So according to me, Belinda is the protagonist of the poem.
2] What is beauty? Write your view about it.

    People can be beautiful in two ways. he/she beautiful is in inner way and in outer way. But i believe that inner beauty is more important and worthy. Inner beauty refers to the personality of a person including his/her mind and character. Where as outer beauty simply refers to the looks of a person. It can easily be faked and changed through makeup, dressing, surgery etc.But it takes a whole lot of effort and a true heart to maintain your inner beauty in this modern age.Beauty isn’t about the matching earrings or expensive bracelets, it is always about carrying the smile and a whole lot of confidence on your face.Beauty is about simplicity, elegance and grace. We need to be comfortable in our own skin.

Outer beauty is transient, it fades with time and so does the looks but your soul, knowledge and heart is something that will stay. In today it is our biggest belief that we are not good looking and if we do not wear fashionable clothes than we will not look beautiful.but in my opinion it is our skill and talent that makes us at par with others. We see this in  Belinda's example also, she don't have any specific skills or any talent, she just have a beauty and still people used to impressed by her always. And also the faeries and good spirits are always roaming around her to take care of her safety. So this is the mentality of society we see that how they give much importance to outer look. But i found that inner beauty is more important than outer.

    Let me put here one quote which reflect the importance of inner beauty.

. “Why try to be an attractive oyster when you can be the precious pearl inside it.”

To prove my point, that how concept of outer beauty over powered us. here i am sharing one video related this.




3] Find out a research paper on "The Rape of the lock". Give the details of the paper and write down in brief what does it say about the poem by Alexander Pope?

This is the link of the research paper by DR. MEETA MATHUR, Associated professor Department of English University of Delhi, Delhi, India. Click here to download the research paper.


   Here i am discussing about the research paper is in brief :- 
 
     According to research paper named "The Rape of the lock : A complex Mock Epic". By Meeta Mathur. Pope here combined two forms of writing together. First is epic and satire. And the technical brilliance of the poem is just because of pope. Because he studied great epics very carefully. Along with the point of view of critics also. And keep it in mind while writing his own epics. In this mock epic, the dignified gener is put as to witty. Use according to Meeta  Mathur. "A  mock heroic epic and not the ridicule of a literary form as some critics believe it to be.

   Another thing she mentioned in her research paper is, English poetry no more beautiful and exquisite description than that of the sylphs in cant two of "The Rape of the lock". Pope's mock heroic epic dealing with sylphs and their elemental colleagues. Mock heroic epic describes a quarrel, Pope is also mentioned quarrel in a beautiful way. Use it with humor. The nature of his subject leads to an immense difference between his mock epic and those of Homer and Virgil. Also the poem Rape of the Lock, written in pomp and luster of the idom. And the opening lines is evidence of it. So at last she try to say that pope's epic is quite complex, which is satirizing the society and mocking on it. But in different tone, in different form. And in different way of writing.
  Thus to conclud we can able to say that Rape of the lock is the most popular poem, based on the true incidents of Lord  Petre and Arabella Fermor.

Words :- 1092

References :-




Wednesday 20 October 2021

Pride and Prejudice : Novel and Movie.



  Hello, as a task of Thinking activity, here i write a blog on Pride and Prejudice : novel and Movie. 
    
Here we discuss about the novel "pride and prejudice". By jane austen. This is a romantic novel. And the satire.The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. The novel was first published in 28 January 1813. The novel is most intresting piece of that century. And still liked by many readers.

:- Which version of the novel is more appealing? Novel or Film adaptation? Why?

  During this modern era also people widely prefer to read novel, "Pride and prejudice". The novel also steals hearts of many film makers. And that make them think to creat a film from the novel. Many of the movies consists from novel. But when we compare novel with the movie, however movie is so intresting, there where lots of settings, beautiful sights, musical editions, and many of the beautiful characters etc, but still we find that movie is good but not best. Novel is more appealing, because there where many of the minor scenes and emotions which was not able to cover in two or three hour's film. In the novel, author describ everything in details. But in movie it's can't be possible to cover each and everything.

  The another point is, The whole Movie is particularly the point of view of script writer towards novel. So it's possible that other have different point of view for this. So give us a chance to read it by our own understanding, with our own point of view and imagine the scenes and characters by our own thinking power. So this is more pleasurable. And that's why according to me Novel is more appealing.


:- Character of Elizabeth Bennet :-

She is the main heroine of the novel. We can concider her as a protagonist. The whole story revolves around her and Mr. Darcy. And have happy ending, along with the love story of this both. Whole novel is about a love story of Elizabeth and Darcy. That what kind of problems they tackle and at the end they come together. This things are beautifully outlined there in novel. Here we now discuss about Elizabeth or Lizzie, is in detail.

 

   The novel’s protagonist. The second daughter of Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth is the most intelligent and sensible of the five Bennet sisters. She is well read and quick-witted, with a tongue that occasionally proves too sharp for her own good. Her realization of Darcy’s essential goodness eventually triumphs over her initial prejudice against him.


Woman with pride -

    The twenty year-old Elizabeth, sometimes Lizzie, sometimes Eliza, is a most attractive young woman. Not only is she beautiful, with eyes that made her irresistible to Mr Darcy, but she has an exceptional personality. She is high spirited but self-controlled, always guided by her good sense, which few of the other female characters in the novel have. She is self-assured, outspoken, and assertive, but never rude or aggressive.

Strong opinion :-

   Although Jane Austen is criticized for creating characters that reaffirm the expectations about female stereotypes it is clear that the character of Elizabeth Bennet challenges the expected gender norms of her time, particularly when compared with the other females in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is willing to express her opinions wherever she is, without fear, and has the confidence openly to challenge the views of those of superior social standing.  On her first meeting with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Lady Catherine interrogates her and is surprised by the open, frank replies of the twenty year-old.

“Upon my word,” said her Ladyship, “you give your opinion very decidedly for so young a person. Pray, what is your age?”


This dialogue shows her strong opinionated attitude.


 Mature and controlled :-

    Elizabeth also behaves in an unorthodox fashion in her approach to marriage, and in a society where a woman’s security depends on a good marriage, and in a family where for at least one of the daughters finding a husband is a matter of social and economic survival, refuses two advantageous proposals. In doing so she challenges the traditional norm whereby women have a financial obligation to marry at the first opportunity.

In Elizabeth’s social setting her mother would be the arbiter in matters of marriage and Elizabeth would have been raised to understand and accept it. However, she defies her mother in refusing to marry Mr Collins and astonishes him. Given her lack of money and social connections he is unable to understand her rejection of his proposal and interprets it as insincerity. He persists, saying that all women refuse at first as a matter of coyness, and then Elizabeth puts him straight expresses herself in language that opposes gender norms. “Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart,” she says.A woman is not supposed to have a rational response to such things – rationality being reserved for men – and later, Mr Collins admits that she would have been too much for him anyway.

Judgemental and honest :-

  Elizabeth has a fine-tuned critical mind and is able to sum up most of the people around her. Although she fails to do that accurately with both Darcy and Wickham – the former because of the misinformation she receives about him and the latter because of the practiced charm of the con man that he uses on her – she gets it dead right with most of the other people she meets. Her assessments of Mr Collins, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Caroline Bingly are spot on. The first is a fool, the second a tyrant, and the third a nasty piece of work. Elizabeth gets that very quickly and part of the story is about the way she deals with them.

However, her confidence in her own judgment is the thing that leads her to make some almost terminal mistakes and it’s only because of her ability to step back and honestly assess her own behaviour that she finally wins through.

Now after knowing about the Elizabeth let us discuss about the darcy also.


Character sketch of Mr. Darcy :-

    The son of a wealthy, well-established family and the master of the great estate of Pemberley, Darcy is Elizabeth’s male counterpart. The narrator relates Elizabeth’s point of view of events more often than Darcy’s, so Elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure. The reader eventually realizes, however, that Darcy is her ideal match. Intelligent and forthright, he too has a tendency to judge too hastily and harshly, and his high birth and wealth make him overly proud and overly conscious of his social status. Indeed, his haughtiness makes him initially bungle his courtship. When he proposes to her, for instance, he dwells more on how unsuitable a match she is than on her charms, beauty, or anything else complimentary.

   Elizabeth's rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility in Darcy. Darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to Elizabeth, in spite of his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues Lydia and the entire Bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the wishes of his haughty aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to pursue Elizabeth. Darcy proves himself worthy of Elizabeth, and she ends up repenting her earlier, overly harsh judgment of him.

Man with Pride :-

    Mr. Darcy is a proud and arrogant man, particularly to those that he considers of lower social status.At the dance, he does not dance with any ladies outside of his own party because he believes them to be beneath him in class and beauty.

Introvert :- 

   Mention later on to Elizabeth that he does not find it easy to make new acquaintances and finds it hard to converse with people he does not know. This shows a sort of shy, perhaps even reclusive nature in Darcy that is not illustrated before this point in the book.

Silent lover :- 

   Vivien Jones notes that Darcy's handsome appearance, wealth and original arrogance signify to the reader that he is the hero of a romance novel. For example, He is in love with Elizabeth but still he can not able to tell her that he loves her.because he is shy and very introvert personality. So readers can concider him as a silent hero.

Darcy’s Pride :-


   Definitely, Darcy is proud in the beginning. His behaviour on his first appearance, is so appallingly insolent that few readers can entirely forgive him for it, and it is doubtful if Meryton could ever have learnt to make excuses for a man who slighted the whole neighborhood, refusing to dance and declaring audibly that none of the women present were handsome enough for him. He is contemptuous of the people below him in social status and feels no need to conceal his contempt. He acknowledges his own pride and conceit’ and his selfishness in caring for none beyond his own family circle and thinking meanly of all the rest of the world. At Netherfield he tells Elizabeth, “My opinion once lost is lost for ever”. And finally his proposal to Elizabeth at Hunsford parsonage is more eloquent on the subject of pride than of tenderness.

Darcy’s Superior Moral Nature :-

   Thus, Darcy is definitely proud in the beginning. Some of his coldness and reserve may be at least attributed to his inordinate shyness and his awkwardness in the company of strangers at a large ball. Also Darcy’s pride is to be seen as something other than mere snobbishness. As Catherine Lucas points out Darcy does have much, to be proud of and his pride is the result of a genuinely aristocratic consciousness of merit.

As the book proceeds, we come to discover the truth about Darcy. He is complex, sensitive and intelligent and – on the whole he is superior to all the other males in the story, including Bingley. He is not morally blind either and recognizes the vulgarity and ill-manners of the Bingley sisters and is as much embarrassed by Lady Catherine’s behavior as he had been by Mrs. Bennet’s vulgarity. He realizes that good manners are not the monopoly of any particular class and observes how cultured and brilliant Elizabeth is.

   Darcy and Elizabeth both are the totally referent from each other and still the best loving couple of the novel. Here we discuss about both and now let we see the society around them. And the role of society in the novel.

Give illustration of the society of that time :-

   This are the several point to understand the role of society in novel or movie.

Love -

   Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression, while Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues. (Of course, one could also say that Elizabeth is guilty of prejudice and Darcy of pride—the title cuts both ways.)

   Austen, meanwhile, poses countless smaller obstacles to the realization of the love between Elizabeth and Darcy, including Lady Catherine’s attempt to control her nephew, Miss Bingley’s snobbery, Mrs. Bennet’s idiocy, and Wickham’s deceit. In each case, anxieties about social connections, or the desire for better social connections, interfere with the workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeth’s realization of a mutual and tender love seems to imply that Austen views love as something independent of these social forces, as something that can be captured if only an individual is able to escape the warping effects of a hierarchical society.


   Austen does sound some more realist (or, one could say, cynical) notes about love, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his money, to demonstrate that the heart does not always dictate marriage. Yet with her central characters, Austen suggests that true love is a force separate from society and one that can conquer even the most difficult of circumstances.

Reputation -

    Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism. This theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and her friends. At other points, the ill-mannered, ridiculous behavior of Mrs. Bennet gives her a bad reputation with the more refined (and snobbish) Darcys and Bingleys.

    Austen pokes gentle fun at the snobs in these examples, but later in the novel, when Lydia elopes with Wickham and lives with him out of wedlock, the author treats reputation as a very serious matter. By becoming Wickham’s lover without benefit of marriage, Lydia clearly places herself outside the social pale, and her disgrace threatens the entire Bennet family. The fact that Lydia’s judgment, however terrible, would likely have condemned the other Bennet sisters to marriageless lives seems grossly unfair. Why should Elizabeth’s reputation suffer along with Lydia’s? Darcy’s intervention on the Bennets’ behalf thus becomes all the more generous, but some readers might resent that such an intervention was necessary at all. If Darcy’s money had failed to convince Wickham to marry Lydia, would Darcy have still married Elizabeth? Does his transcendence of prejudice extend that far? The happy ending of Pride and Prejudice is certainly emotionally satisfying, but in many ways it leaves the theme of reputation, and the importance placed on reputation, unexplored. One can ask of Pride and Prejudice, to what extent does it critique social structures, and to what extent does it simply accept their inevitability?

Class -

    The theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in Regency England. The lines of class are strictly drawn. While the Bennets, who are middle class, may socialize with the upper-class Bingleys and Darcys, they are clearly their social inferiors and are treated as such. Austen satirizes this kind of class-consciousness, particularly in the character of Mr. Collins, who spends most of his time toadying to his upper-class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

    Though Mr. Collins offers an extreme example, he is not the only one to hold such views. His conception of the importance of class is shared, among others, by Mr. Darcy, who believes in the dignity of his lineage; Miss Bingley, who dislikes anyone not as socially accepted as she is; and Wickham, who will do anything he can to get enough money to raise himself into a higher station. Mr. Collins’s views are merely the most extreme and obvious. The satire directed at Mr. Collins is therefore also more subtly directed at the entire social hierarchy and the conception of all those within it at its correctness, in complete disregard of other, more worthy virtues.

Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows the power of love and happiness to overcome class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive. Of course, this whole discussion of class must be made with the understanding that Austen herself is often criticized as being a classist: she doesn’t really represent anyone from the lower classes; those servants she does portray are generally happy with their lot. Austen does criticize class structure, but only a limited slice of that structure.

Family -

   Family is an integral theme in the novel. All of the characters operate within networks of family connections that shape their decisions and perspectives. For the female characters in particular, the influence and behavior of their family members is a significant factor in their lives. Because “the business of [Mrs. Bennet’s] life was to get her daughters married”, the Bennet sisters constantly have to navigate their mother’s plans and schemes. While male characters like Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley have much more social and financial independence, they still rely on the judgment and opinions of female family members like Caroline Bingley and Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Individuals are judged according to the behavior of their family members, which is why Darcy points out to Lizzy that he is doing her a favor by proposing even though she comes with embarrassing family connections. The theme of family shows that individuals never lead totally autonomous lives, and that individual actions have wider communal implications.

Integrity -

    Elizabeth Bennet considers herself to have very high standards of integrity, and she is often frustrated and disappointed by the way she sees others behaving. She complains bitterly to her sister, “The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it, and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters.” She behaves in ways she considers consistent with her definition of integrity by refusing to marry both Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy (when he proposes the first time): Elizabeth thinks it is very important to only marry a man she loves and respects, despite the pressure to achieve economic security.

    By the end of the novel, Lizzy's commitment to integrity has been rewarded because she marries a partner who will truly make her happy. She has also come to see that she can sometimes be too rigid and judge too quickly, since she was initially mistaken about the nature and ethics of Wickham and Darcy. The novel endorses the importance of integrity, but it also reminds readers not to be too quick to pass judgment on who has it and who doesn’t.

Gender -

    Gender is a key theme in Pride and Prejudice. The story takes place at a time when gender roles were quite rigid, and men and women had a very different set of options and influences. Marriage is a pressing question for female characters like Charlotte Lucas and the Bennet sisters because marriage is the only way women can achieve economic stability and autonomy. As upper-class women, they would not have been able to work to earn a living, or live independently. Marriage offered one of the only ways to move beyond their birth families. However, a woman’s marriageability relied on an impeccable reputation for chastity, and for women like Georgiana Darcy or Lydia Bennet, a reckless decision to trust the wrong man could permanently ruin their future prospects. Lydia’s elopement causes Lizzy to exclaim with horror that “she is lost forever.” If Lydia is living with Wickham without being married to him, her reputation will be destroyed.


Compare the narrative strategy of novel and movie :-

   The 2005 movie starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett and Matthew Macfadyen. The movie was filmed in England and was marketed towards a mainstream audience. Originally, the movie was going to be very true to the book. All the dialogue was kept the same and almost the entire movie was going to be from the perspective of Elizabeth (like the book). In the end, the dialogue in the film varied between being exactly the same as the book in some scenes, while most scenes had altered dialogue.

  The movie also features scenes from the perspective of Mr. Darcy, these are additional and not in the book. This was done to show Darcy as more human as well as to show the genuine closeness of his friendship with the character of Mr. Bingley.

The movie has other differences than just the dialogue. In the movie, Elizabeth keeps secrets from her family and grows apart from her older sister Jane. This is different from the book, while Elizabeth does become frustrated with events related to her family, she never keeps secrets from them. She also confides in her sister after difficult events, they never grow apart. The movie also portrays Mr. Bennett as a warmer, more sympathetic father than he is in the book. His role in the family misfortunes, caused by him spending money on the wrong things, is downplayed. His relationship with his wife is much more loving in the movie. However, the movie also makes the Bennetts look poorer than they were in the book. Elizabeth also comes across as much more bold and impatient in the movie, she never yells at her parents in the book.

   Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation Pride & Prejudice had more differences from the Jane Austen novel than just changing the time period, making the film more realistic and romantic in the process. Starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy, the film was a major departure from the previous, more faithful, BBC miniseries that aired ten years prior. Joe Wright took a more romantic approach to the novel, grounded in realism, that turned Pride & Prejudice into a critical success for blending traditional period-film traits with a modern approach. Wright collaborated with Keira Knightley again after Pride & Prejudice with another critically acclaimed adaptation, Anna Karenina.

Write a note on a scene you like the most :-

1] The conversation of Elizabeth and Darcy at the first ball :-

This is one of the best scene in the movie. we see controversy between Elizabeth and Darcy. And here we first found Elizabeth's feminist attitude. Also we able to consider that in the starting they both hate each other but their quarrel turns into the love at the end of the movie.  So the journey of movie is this from quarrel to love. That's why also the scene is very important. 




2] Elizabeth and Darcy's most romantic moment during second proposal scene :-

For the first time Elizabeth rejected Darcy because she has a lots of prejudice in her mind for Darcy. But when she started understanding him and the truth reveals out of all Fogg of lie created around Elizabeth. So Darcy propose her second time and that was the most beautiful scene. The fog, and early morning, his coat and his intentional gait, and the way he stumbles over the words 'I love you!' It was beautiful.



3] Mr. Bigley proposes miss Jane Bennet :-

When Mr. Bingley proposes to jane, She happily accept and say, "yes, A thousand times yes." And after that we found a big - big simle on the face of both Bigley and Jane. Which is look so so cute and steal my Heart. Also during this scene we found that Darcy himself is a scary guy and very introvert personality, but still he is there with his friend Bingley to help him. This reflect their Friendship goal.


4] quarrel between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine :-

  When Lady Catherine finally comes to know that Lizzy also started loving Darcy and she will going to accept his proposal. Lady Catherine yell at her, and tell her that she is not allowed to marry Darcy. But Elizabeth isn't taking any survivors. She let Lady Catherine say her piece, and then she kicks her out. So this thing shows Elisabeth's best courageous nature and deep love towards Darcy.


5]  dinner event at Lady Catherine's house:-

   The scene where everyone in the dinner at Lady Catherine's home. Lady Catherine asked several things to Elizabeth like in what she intrested or what is she know how to play piano. And at that time when Elizabeth told her that she don't know how to play piano, Lady Catherine look her so strangely and told that she don't even know how to play piano.but Lizzy answered very cool, without being guilty or anything, that no she don't know how to play piano. So in this scene her honest nature and how she steak to her point that i like a lot.



6] Bingley's Ball party :-

   The scene when Elizabeth and Darcy dance at Bingley's Ball, during that time darcy started showing his love and true simp nature. And then everything around them disappears and it's just them, the Dance, and those major heart eyes. Steals our heart.


If you were director or screen play writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie? :-

  If i am writer or screen play writer, i tried to be more loyal towards original novel, "Pride and prejudice". And might avoid changes as much as possible.


Thus to conclud we can able to consider that pride and prejudice is the best romantic novel of the era and also a great satire to society of that time. As specially based on a theme of marriage and gender differences. I like the novel as well as movie.

Words :- 4137

Reference :-
1) sites. Psu. Edu
2) sparksnotes. Com
3) study. Com
4) Wikipedia

Monday 18 October 2021

Film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.


    As a task of thinking activity, here i write a blog about Film adaptation of Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

    Macbeth is one of the most famous tragedy by William Shakespeare, it was first performed in 1606. It is a five act's short play, set during the 11th century, in Scotland, in Tho northernmost region of what is now United Kingdom. The play focuses on the main theme of, "The destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraint". The play Macbeth is about a Scottish nobleman and his wife who murder their king for his throne, Charts the extreme of ambition and guilt. Here let we discuss short summary of Macbeth.

   Here is some paintings by some of the famous painters, which drawn in the reference of Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

Summary of play :-

     Macbeth is a play of contradiction and ambition. Driven to becoming King, Macbeth will kill all and any that get in his way. He puts his faith in the words and prophesies of three witches, after their first one (that he will become Thane of Cawdor) comes through. Macbeth's wife.When the play begins, Macbeth is a brave and loyal thane to King Duncan. However, after hearing a prophecy that he will become king himself, Macbeth is overcome by ambition and greed. Encouraged by the prophecy and his scheming wife, he kills King Duncan and seizes the throne. Afterwards, Macbeth’s guilt, fear, and paranoia lead him to commit even more murders to secure his power. His confidence in the prophecies eventually leads to his downfall, and he is overthrown and killed by those he has wronged.

    There are many filmmakers are amazingly influenced by this most intresting theme and story of Shakespeare's Macbeth. And it was resulting as a movie adaptation of Macbeth. Many movies in various languages are based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. Here we discuss some of them and compare the movies and original Macbeth.

Movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth :-

1] Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948)

Macbeth - 1948
Director - Orson Welles.
Notable Cast - Orson Welles, Jeannette Nolan.

    American film director Orson Welles released his Macbeth version in 1948. This black-and-white film features some minor changes to the original play along with significant edits. Welles increased the purpose and presence of the three Witches in the movie to play up the conflict between early Christianity and pagan beliefs in Scotland. Welles also emphasized the violence of the story: the film depicts Lady Macbeth’s suicide and the final battle that ends with Macbeth’s beheading by Macduff. And he also wanted all of the characters to speak with authentic Scottish accents, but the studio that produced the film insisted that the voices be dubbed after the film was completed. He acted as Macbeth in his film and
presented a ‘real’ Macbeth. Jeanette Nolan was in the role of Lady Macbeth, Edgar Barrier acted Banquo and, Erskine
Sanford was in the role of Duncan. Orson Welles's visual strategy, in this black-and-white adaptation, offers more to the
view, but in a blurring style that favors fluidity, uncertainty, and instability through a misty setting, out-of-focus shots, and
slow dissolves. In the established Welles tradition, which has been building for a number of years, the theatrical
mechanics of the medium are permitted to dominate the play and Shakespeare is forced to lower billing than the director,
the star or the cameraman. Welles transforms Macbeth into an expressionistic morality play. The swirling mists and vague
outlines of three crouching figures lure an audience into a disturbing world where supernatural powers seem to be
controlling events. Faceless witches defy our attempts at definition and the sight of them plunging their hands into the
bubbling cauldron confirms our fear.

   Welles Macbeth however look a cheap and feel rushed. But still despite of this Macbeth still stand above much more lavish rendition of the play. Filmsy props and ill - considered narrative changes do hurt the film. But the resulting expressionist visual language delivers what even Shakespeare's words cannot. Most of the scenes of castle and negative space on the sets was pormed from some hellish mountain top.many time he translated the physical space of the film into a nightmarish reflection of Macbeth's mental state. And Welles also removed various set pieces, background actors, and propse. Welles' adaptation of the narrative language of the play is more of a mixed bag thein his bold aesthetic choice. Few characters are also cut from the film and does not even mentioned their name. For example Ross is cut from film and much of his dialogues given to new major character, the Holy man. So the film of welles is little beat different than play but still close to the story and theme of play.

   So we can able to concider that Welles Macbeth is black and white but well structured and based on morality. I share here the opening scene of Orson Welle's Macbeth.



2] Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (1957)

    Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese historical drama film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada in the lead roles, modelled on the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Macbeth vs. Throne of Bloode :- 
         
    The film is set in medieval Japan, while the play Macbeth is set in medieval Scotland.The location is not the only difference between the two productions. The portrayal of the characters is also very different; this is evident in Act 5, Scene 1. In this pivotal scene Lady Macbeth and Lady Asaji are seen cleansing their hands. While the two scenes share similarities, Shakespeare's depiction and Kurosawa's interpretation of the hand-washing scene are quite different: Lady Asaji appears to be without remorse while Lady Macbeth is filled with regret. As Lady Macbeth attempts to wash the blood from her hands she bellows: "Out, damned spot! Out, I say",There are a few ways that we can view this. We may regard Lady Macbeth as an evil person suffering from a guilty conscience. Lady Macbeth's prior encouragement of her husband to kill and betray in order to gain power has come back to haunt her. The bloodstained hands that Lady Macbeth attempts to scrub are not stained with blood at all. The blood she thinks she sees is all in her head, and could very well symbolize guilt. Living with her guilt all over her hands proves to be the best punishment because it is through this suffering that her once aggressive and bloodthirsty nature reveals the small, delicate woman she really is. Through this form of punishment, Lady Macbeth realizes that she is not a strong person and she then kills herself. William Carroll editor of Macbeth: Texts and Contexts recaps that: "When Lady Macbeth is strong, Macbeth is weak (as at the beginning of the murder plot), and when Macbeth is strong, Lady Macbeth becomes weak (as at the end of the play).

  Here is a Trailer of "The throne of Blood ".



3] Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971)

Macbeth - 1972
Director - Roman Polanski
Notable Cast - John Finch, Francesca Annis.
  
    Roman Polanski who is a renowned British film director translated Macbeth as film in 1971 with the same name.
starring is Jon Finch, Francesca Amis as lead actors. The film was set in the open countryside in Scotland and his castle was
more like the setting of the original play which makes it more traditional. It was the first film Polanski made after his
wife’s brutal murder. That is why this film is renowned for its horror, nudity and violence.
 
    Polanski wrote screenplay with
Kenneth Tynan and translated Bard’s play with his own ideas and changed many scenes and situations symbolically
confronting the spectators with a dangerous “gorgon” that could amaze them. This film stages the play in a cruel and pagan
world, between the Neolithic and the middle age. The film nonetheless inserts new possibilities into the play. From
beginning to the end there are notable changes. At some places, however, Polanski presents the key scenes of murder of
King Duncan, and Macbeth differently. The murder of the king Duncan, shown in visual images thrills the heart of the
spectators that isolates them to imagine what they felt at the time of reading the play.
The whole cast of the film is impressive. The actors are young fellows. Even the king lived young and died young
then. John Finch as Macbeth is both athletic and impassioned enough to carry off the soldiering, and young and
introspective enough to be moved by his wife as a women and a co-conspirator as well. In many respects Polanski’s
Macbeth seems near to the original play. For instance the castle keeps are cold, dark, and dirty. The common sleeping
cottages, straw bedding, flaring smoky torches, seeping walls, and muddy yards all contributes to the historical accuracy of
this production. All the scenes of murders are nasty which try to show that medieval Scotland was nasty and bloody.This R-rated film of the play features a nude sleepwalking scene by Lady Macbeth and plenty of on-screen violence. Polanski also emphasizes the passage of time – the events of play span several years, and the Macbeths visibly age over the course of the movie.

   This how Polanski's Macbeth is seems more classical and horror.



4] Rupert Goold's Macbeth (2010)

Macbeth - 2010
Director - Rupert Goold
Notable Cast - Patrick Stewart, Kate Fleetwood.

   Macbeth is a 2010 television film based on William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. It was broadcast on BBC Four on 12 December 2010. In the United States, it aired on PBS' Great Performances. It was directed by Rupert Goold from his stage adaptation for the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2007. Patrick Stewart is featured in the title role, with Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth. The film evokes the atmosphere of Romania in the 1960s, with subtle parallels between CeauÈ™escu and Macbeth in their equally brutal quests for power. The Three Witches likewise receive an update in keeping with the 20th century aesthetics, appearing as hospital nurses. Their presence is pervasive throughout the film, punctuating the horror of Macbeth's murderous reign. The film was shot entirely on location at Welbeck Abbey.

   William Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Macbeth, is a tragedy brilliantly brought to the 21st Century by Rupert Goold. Although Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a play set in 16th Century Scotland, Rupert Goold modernizes the play by changing the setting to a Soviet-styled country and implementing modern elements into the characters and theme. Although Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Rupert Goold’s film adaptation share many ideologies and a general storyline, a difference exists in the setting, the characters, and the overall ambience of the story.

     In an effort to successfully relate the plot to his audience, Rupert Goold places the setting for Macbeth in a bleak, militaristic, Society-styled state, described by critic Ben Brantley as a “joyless, stark environment that resembles nothing so much as a morgue.” The setting contributes to a foreboding atmosphere, felt by the audience throughout the entire play. The mannerisms and costumes of the characters of Rupert Goold’s film are in context with the setting.

    As what critic Joseph White accurately describes as “more vicious and less pitiable,” Rupert Goold’s Macbeth is perceived by the viewers of film as a Stalin-like dictator. The halls of his palace are decorated with murals of his face. The film also illustrates the large masses of crowds. Through this perspective of Macbeth, Rupert Goold emphasizes the theme of the corrosive power of unbridled ambition.

    Not unlike Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character of Macbeth in Rupert Goold’s film is a savage, power-hungry politician. In Goold’s film, however, Macbeth finds humor in the tumultuous events leading to his downfall. His chilling laughter upon the announcement of his wife’s suicide and his demeaning attitude towards his fellow regeeir half-truths and prophecies. In the end, they appear to be angels of Hell.

    The Lady Macbeth of Rupert Goold’s contemporary interpretation of Macbeth and the Lady Macbeth of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth are different in regards to their character traits and appearance. In Ruper Goold’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is depicted as an instrument of evil – a constant figure of fiery wrath. Through dark costumes and makeup, the viewers of the film see her as a morbid housewife, consumed with ambition.

   The film remains faithful to the themes of Macbeth. It does not dilute the eternal qualities of evil and treachery that are so viscerally expressed in the play.



5] Justin Kurziel's Macbeth (2015)

Macbeth - 2015
Director - Justin Kurziel.
Notable Cast - Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard.

  This recent adaptation was filmed in Scotland, and opens with the funeral of the Macbeth’s dead son. This plot device links the couple’s thirst for power to their grief over losing their child, and makes the couple initially sympathetic to the audience.

   In Kurzel’s Macbeth, however, the text takes a backseat. Instead, Kurzel relies heavily on sound mixing and symbolic images — the whistling wind, the clashing swords, and the ghostly hooded figures — to communicate plot.Kurzel takes his cues from the text, but he expresses his ideas about the text through images and sounds rather than through the dialogue. Sometimes, these choices even contradict the information embedded in the verse.

    Kurzel’s Medieval Scotland is a harsh, hard world from the outset, full of grey clouds, damp weather, and fog. But the text itself isn’t so blunt.



6] Maqbool :-

    Maqbool was Vishal Bhardwaj's second film as a director. The film had its North American premiere at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. And it was also screened in the Marché du Film section of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. The film has a great star-cast: Pankaj Kapoor (he wins two awards for this role), Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, and Piyush Mishra. The screenplay was developed from the drama by Vishal Bhardwaj and Abbas Tyrewala. The most significant turn in the adaptation is that the film is about Mumbai Underworld. The King, Duncan I of Scotland is actually an underworld don, Abbaji. Macbeth (Maqbool) and Banquo (Kaka) are two of his goons who look after his business. And Lady Macbeth (Nimmi) is actually a mistress of Abbaji and not a wife of Maqbool.

    Two corrupt policemen predicts the reign of Maqbool on Abbaji's kingdom. The role of witches from the drama is taken by these two corrupt policemen. But, unlike drama, they are not passive fortune-tellers. In fact, they are active in manipulating the future events.

   The scenes of hallucination and fright of blood have been portrayed very powerfully. Both Maqbool and Nimmi were guilt ridden and hallucinating the blood and dead-bodies of the people they’ve killed. In drama, Macbeth had hallucination of Banquo during a meet at his castle. Lady Macbeth saved him by asking other guests to leave. In the movie, the scene was well-incorporated. It was a time of one of the death rituals of Abbaji, everyone was there. And the policemen bring the dead-body of Kaka. Maqbool, here, hallucinates that Kaka wakes up from death and discloses his evil intentions.

   When Macbeth asks about his demise, witches tell him that the jungle's arrival at his palace will bring his doom. Similar prediction is used here. On Maqbool's query Policemen tells him that sea's arrival at his palace will bring his doom. Such a prophecy, on literal level, is impossible to turn true. But, the Custom comes to Maqbool's palace to arrest him, due to his smuggling from sea route.

    Thus to conclud, we can able to say that, The Macbeth is one of the Major play with lots of intresting elements, themes, symbols, and horror and supernatural things. Always being a focus of many movie makers.




Words :- 2711

References :-

1)Shakespeare. Org. Uk.
2)encyclopedia
3)phd research papers of scholars.
4)enotes. Com
5)The conversation.com
6)sevent-row. Com

Paragraph :- 11

Saturday 16 October 2021

Neoclassical Age



     Hello, here i am writing a blog on Alexander pope and his notable work as a task of Thinking activity. Along with this i, also discuss about the very famous poem of neoclassical age called, Rape Of The Lock.

   Alexander pope is very famous figure. He was from the generation "The poet" of great nation. But the poetry was limited in the early Eighteenth Century. There were few lyrics, little or no love poetry, no epics, no dramas or songs of nature worth considering. But in the narrow filed of satire and didactic verse, pope was the undisputed master. Many of the foreign writers, as well as majority of English poets, looked him as their model.

   He was the only important writer of that age who gave his whole life to letters. Swift was a clergyman and politician, Addison was secretary of state, other writers also depended on patrons or politics or pensions for fame and livelihood. But pope was independent,and had no profession but literature. With the strong determination and by held it, inspite of religious prejudice, he overcome the physical and temperamental obstacles that would have discouraged him.

   He  knew little of the world of nature or of the world of the human heart. He was lacking, apparently, in noble feeling and instinctively chose a lie when the truth had manifestly more adventurages.  Yet this jealous, peevish, waspish little man became the most famous poet of his age and the acknowledged leader of English literature. Let us discuss about his life.

 :- Life of Pope


      He was born in London in 1688. The year of the revolution. His parents were both Catholics, who presently removed from London and settled in Binfield, near Windsor. Where pope passed his childhood. Pope received very little school education. Because of an unfortunate prejudice against Catholics In the public schools. And might be because of his own weakness and deformity.He contracted a tubercular infection in his later childhood; tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease that generally causes damage to the lungs but can also affect other areas, such as the spine, as it did in Pope's case. Tuberculosis was a widespread concern in Pope's time, since effective treatments for the disease were still two centuries away, and half of those who developed full-blown symptoms would eventually die. Pope lived, but because of his illness, he never grew taller than four feet six inches, suffering from curvature of the spine and constant headaches. His physical appearance, frequently mocked by his enemies, undoubtedly gave an edge to Pope's satire, but he was always generous in his affection for his parents and many friends.

     But he started reading lots of English books and mainly focus on reading classics. Very early he began to write poetry. Because of his Catholic religion, he rejected by many of hid desirable employment. So he decided to make literature his life work. And he started following the Dryden, whom he consider his only master. Though much of his works seems to depended on Boileau, The French poet and critic.

 Some intresting facts about Pope's life :-

1] Second quoted writer in the English Language :-

   Alexander Pope’s poetry and famous sayings are extremely popular to this day, a well-known fact about Alexander Pope. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations places him second only to William Shakespeare. Some of his verses are now idioms in common speech, e.g. “damning with faint praise”.

2] Health issues :-

   Even from a young age, Alexander Pope had bad health. He suffered from Pott disease which is a form of tuberculosis affecting the spine. As a result, his growth was stunted and he developed a hunchback. He also had breathing difficulties, eye inflammation, and high fever. His poor health made it even harder for him to integrate in society, on top of his Catholic roots, a sad fact about Alexander Pope.

3] He rarely left the house without a gun and his Dog :-

  His satire made him lots of enemies and he developed a slight paranoia, after also being advised by friends to not leave his house on his own. This was especially the case after a failed attack by the son of critic John Dennis. Pope therefore carried a brace of pistols and brought with him his dog, a Great Dane called Bounce.

4] His lavish London home :-

    From his earnings after translating Homer, Alexander Pope actually made a good living. This meant that he was able to live in a villa in Twickenham in London, complete with a grotto and lovely gardens, an interesting fact about Alexander Pope.

5] Three of the moons of Uranus are named after characters from his poetry :-

  Alexander Pope’s best-known poem is The Rape of the Lock and in it, the heroine Belinda and two Sylphs, Umbriel and Ariel, inspired the naming of the satellites of the planet Uranus. All the 27 known satellites of Uranus are named after literary characters, but it’s interesting that the other 24 all owe their names to Shakespeare.

6] famous phrases originate from Pope’s work :-

    We use a lot of phrases and idioms which first appeared in Pope’s poems. For example, the line “To err is human; to forgive, divine” come from Alexander Pope’s work.

The popular film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind owes its title to Pope’s poem Eloisa to Abelard.

Finally, the phrase “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” is extremely well-known and has been used everywhere from Hollywood movies to everyday life. It comes from Pope’s work An Essay on Criticism.

7] He cured his headaches with coffee :-

    Samuel Johnson used to say that Alexander Pope inhaled the steam of coffee to cure headaches., an interesting fact about Alexander Pope. Pope called this “Mocha’s happy tree”. This might just be connected to the rising popularity of coffee during his time, especially among English tea-drinkers. Samuel Johnson was known for drinking extremely large amounts of tea in one sitting, so it’s only normal that he’d have found Pope’s love of coffee peculiar. As for Pope, he advised drinking strong coffee on a regular basis.

8] His nickname was “the Wasp of Twickenham” :-

   Because of his satirical works, Alexander Pope didn’t make many friends among the famous people of his age. For example, he wrote The Dunciad as a comic version of Virgil’s Aeneid and basically ridiculed everyone he didn’t like: the stupid, the tasteless, the incompetent.This will have caused his many enemies to be created.

9] His skull may have been exhumed :-

    Upon his death, Alexander Pope was buried in the nave of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin at Twickenham, next to his mother. There are rumors that his skull was dug up afterwards, and bought to be examined by phrenologists. This has fed into a belief that his spirit now haunts the church.

   This is some of the intresting facts about his life.  Now let we discuss about some of his notable works.

MAJOR WORKS :-

(1) An Essay on Criticism (1711)
(2) The Rape of the Lock (1714)
(3) The Dunciad (1728)
(4) Moral Essays (1731–1735; collected 1751)
(5) An Essay on Man (1733)

  Alexander Pope was a superstar of English neoclassical literature, so much so that the first half of the British eighteenth century is often referred to as “the age of Pope.” Pope alternately defined, invented, satirized, critiqued, and reformed almost all of the genres and conventions of early-eighteenth-century British verse. He polished his work with meticulous care, and he is generally recognized as the greatest English poet between John Milton and William Wordsworth.
  
    For convenience we may separate Pope's work into three groups, corresponding to the early, middle, and later period of his life. In the first he wrote his "Pastorals," "Windsor Forest," "Messiah," "Essay on Criticism," "Eloise to Abelard," and the Rape of the Lock; in the second, his translations of Homer; in the third the Dunciad and the Epistles, the latter containing the famous "Essay on Man" and the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," which is in truth his "Apologia," and in which alone we see Pope's life from his own view point.

   1} Pastorals (1709):-
 
   Pope was a child prodigy. His first publication, Pastorals (1709), drew on long-established literary conventions but nevertheless announced him as a major new talent. Pope's next major work, An Essay on Criticism (1711), was much bolder. In the work, Pope finds modern literature largely failing in its responsibility to follow unchanging “nature,” the test of which is how well we can recognize basic human truths in ancient classical works (particularly Homer). An Essay on Criticism became the manifesto for a major movement in literary criticism: neoclassicism. Pope wrote the entire essay in heroic couplets (pairs of rhymed iambic pentameter lines).

 2}  Rape of the lock (1714):-

    Pope surprised many by showing he was also a master of humor and satire with "The Rape of the Lock", which immediately made Pope famous. A fashionable young lady, Arabella Fermor, had a lock of her hair cut off without permission by a suitor, and Pope was asked by a mutual friend to soothe ruffled tempers with a jest. Adopting a mock-heroic style that drew upon Homer and others (who were valorized so seriously in An Essay on Criticism), Pope showed how ridiculous it was to treat the event overseriously and simultaneously satirized the vanity and glitter of upper-class society. Here i am sharing the small trailer of poem Rape of the lock.




3} Pope's Translations :-

  He had done poetic imitations, transformations, or translations of Vergil, the Bible, and Chaucer. The fame of Pope's Iliad, which was financially the most successful of his books, was due to the fact that he interpreted Homer in the elegant, artificial language of his own age. Not only do his words follow literary fashions but even the Homeric characters lose their strength and become fashionable men of the court. So the criticism of the scholar Bentley was most appropriate when he said, "It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer." Pope translated the entire Iliad and half of the Odyssey; and the latter work was finished by two Cambridge scholars, Elijah Fenton and William Broome, who imitated the mechanical couplets so perfectly that it is difficult to distinguish their work from that of the greatest poet of the age.

Works In Literary Context :- 

1] Pope and Neoclassicism :-         
  
   Pope, particularly in An Essay on Criticism and “Epistle to Arbuthnot,” contributed to neoclassicism, or the resurgence in ancient ideals in art and literature—particularly the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome. For Pope, the core truth is whatever has lasted longest across many generations of readers; thus we should look to ancient literature for truth. In the epics of Homer, for example, the ethics of heroism, loyalty, and leadership are as true now as they were then. In addition, the balanced and symmetrical structures of classical literature and architecture represent values of reason and coherence that Pope says should remain central to all modern arts.

2] Comic Satire :-

     Pope used his great knowledge of and respect for classical literature to write mock-epics that poked fun at the elite. Essentially Pope believed the upper class possessed an exaggerated sense of its own importance. He also made fun of hack writers, comparing their shoddy work with timeless stories of the past. Pope is credited for proclaiming, “Praise undeserved is satire in disguise.”

3] Pope and Proverbs :-

     Pope's style and personal philosophies have become part of the English language. For example, “A little learning is a dang'rous thing” comes from An Essay on Criticism, as does “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” Other well-known sayings from An Essay on Criticism include “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread” and “Hope springs eternal.”

Conclusion :-

       Pope was died at 30 May 1744, in Radnor House, Independent school, Twickenham, United Kingdom. But remain in the heart of people for his extraordinary works and satires. 

Question - 2

Write in a brief about your favorite work from the neoclassical age.

  Rape of the lock is one the most famous work of the neoclassical age. So here i want to discuss the poem is in brief.

    The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope.it was first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. In May 1712 in two cantos. Contains 334 lines.a revised edition "Written by Mr. Pope" published in March 1714 as a five-canto version contains 794 lines.this was sold more than three thousand copies in its first four days.The final form of the poem appeared in 1717 with the addition of Clarissa's speech on good humour. The poem was much translated and contributed to the growing popularity of mock-heroic in Europe.

   The story focuses on the central character, Belinda, whose lock of hair is cut off at a social gathering. Although trivial to most, Belinda is outraged that her lock of hair has been cut by the Baron. In the Rape of the Lock, Pope uses Belinda and the Baron to mock two of his acquaintances, Arabella Fermor, and Lord Petre. The poem follows the events of the night, leading up to Belinda’s “horrific” loss.

Why was the poem written?

   Pope wrote The Rape of the Lock in response to a request made my his friend John Caryll, a prominent Roman Catholic of the time. Caryll explained that his friend, Lord Petre, had cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s hair. Ever since the incident, the families had been feuding. In order to make light of the situation, Pope wrote The Rape of the Lock. “The stealing of Miss Belle Fermor’s hair, was taken too seriously, and caused an estrangement between the two families, though they had lived so long in great friendship before. A common acquaintance and well-wisher to both, desired me to write a poem to make a jest of it, and laugh them together again. It was with this view that I wrote the Rape of the Lock.”


Summary of the poem :-

  At the opening of the poem, Belinda, a beautiful and wealthy young woman is asleep. Ariel, her guardian sylph, watches over her and sends her a dream which highlights what the role of the sylph is namely to protect virtuous young women.He is worried that some disaster is close at hand, though he is not sure what form it will take. He instead warns her through the dream to “beware of man.” Belinda then awakes and begins dressing herself for a day of social engagements. With the help of her maid Betty, and that of her attendant sylphs, Belinda then completes the elaborate process of beautifying herself.

 Then she sails from London to Hampton court.The two locks in which she has styled her hair look especially attractive, and the Baron eyes them in admiration he has resolved to take one for himself, either by force or by theft.

Belinda soon sits down with two men to play a game of ombre. With a little help from her band of sylphs, Belinda begins the game well, declaring that spades are to be trumps, and quickly gaining the upper hand. The Baron, however, is quick to fire back and begins to dominate the game, and Belinda is close to being beaten. At the very last second, though, Belinda is able to win the final play.she was extremely happy. But baron decided the to steal her lock of hair with the help of Clarissa. Clarissa draws out a pair of scissors. And he unexpectedly steal Belinda's lock of hair. The Baron crows with delight and Belinda screams in horror at what has happened.

   Belinda asked then for her lock of hair to Baron. But even Baron became failed to find it. So everyone started searching lock of hair.At last, Clarissa quiets the group and makes her own speech, which essentially argues that this whole debate is silly that everyone, including women themselves, places too much value on transient female beauty, and that women should instead invest their time and energy in being the best moral beings they can be. But her good sense is lost on the assembled company, and Belinda calls the women to arms.

    However the lock of hair. She Never get back but it will burn brightly in the sky as an eternal testament to Belinda’s spectacular beauty. And there the poem ends.

For better understanding of poem. Here i am sharing of one video about virtual MCQs related poem.

 



References :-




4] English Literature by W. J. Long


Words :- 


બુક પ્રતિભાવ : ટ્રેન ટુ પાકિસ્તાન - ખુશવંતસિંહ

  બુક પ્રતિભાવ - ટ્રેન ટુ પાકિસ્તાન લેખક - ખુશવંતસિંહ અનુવાદક - જય મકવાણા પ્રકાર - નવલકથા  ખુશવંતસિંહ દ્વારા લખાયેલ અને જય મકવાણા દ્વારા અનુ...