William Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads.

Introduction :-

“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is an essay by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In 1798 Wordsworth wrote, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads. Believing that the poems were so novel in theme and style that they required some explanation, Wordsworth wrote a prefatory essay to accompany the second edition of the poems in 1800; he then expanded the essay for the third edition of 1802.

About William Wordsworth :-

 William Wordsworth was born in 7 April 1770, Cockermouth, United Kingdom. And died on 23 April 1850, Rydal Mount & Gardens, Rydal, United Kingdom. Wordsworth was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads. Some of the main features of Wordsworth's poetry are a spiritual veneration for nature, a dislike for modernity, an interest in the individual and the imagination, a fascination with childhood, and the employment of common language.

Now let me discuss about Wordsworth's preface of lyrical ballad.

“PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS” :-

“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is an essay by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In 1798 Wordsworth wrote, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads. Believing that the poems were so novel in theme and style that they required some explanation, Wordsworth wrote a prefatory essay to accompany the second edition of the poems in 1800; he then expanded the essay for the third edition of 1802.

The “Preface” is often considered a manifesto of the Romantic movement in English literature. Wordsworth explains his intention in his poems to express incidents from everyday life in everyday language and imbued with poetic sentiment. He defines poetry as a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, and the poet as “a man speaking to men”. Because poetry speaks of universal human emotions, it should use diction that is natural rather than artificial and self-consciously literary. Thus, Wordsworth sets himself apart from classicist poets who addressed an elite audience in language that was tied to formal rules. Wordsworth argues that poetry and prose should be close in style and that the aim of poetry should be to imitate nature and inspire emotion in the reader in a way that emphasizes pleasure. In the final part of the essay, Wordsworth outlines the procedure whereby a poet may observe the world around them and compose poetry through deep reflection on their experiences.

(1) What, according to Wordsworth, is the relationship in his poems between feeling and action?

In the “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” Wordsworth argues that in order to compose a successful and impactful poem, the poet must immerse themselves in a sort of process for poetic creation, which includes observing the subject matter, recollecting his or her emotions, contemplating those emotions, reviving those emotions in a composition, and, finally, enjoying the pleasure that his or her poetry creates.

For Wordsworth, a worthy poet must be able to convey his or her own emotional sensibility to the reader. Wordsworth claims that emotions and thoughts are strongly intertwined: “For our continued influxes of feeling are modified and directed by our thoughts, which are indeed the representatives of all our past feeling.” The poet must be able to understand this connection, as someone who often thinks of the relationship between thoughts and feelings will become more emotionally sensitive and aware. Then, when one such sensitive person communicates his or her thoughts, the listener, “if he be in a healthful state of association, must necessarily be in some degree enlightened, and his affections ameliorated.” In other words, when a poet successfully communicates their emotions, readers will be vicariously enlightened. Because the poet is tasked with successfully conveying that “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” to his or her readers, the poet must engage in a process that allows him or her to find the right words to express himself or herself. But first, the poet must be uncommonly aware of emotions: the poet needs to have “a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind.” Such a sensibility allows the poet to “slip into an entire delusion, and even confound and identify his own feelings with [those of the people he describes.” In this way, a poet must be a sharp observer and must be able to contemplate and process the emotions that came with his or her observations.

The Wordsworthian poet ought to recollect their emotions “in tranquility" so that what he or she composes will not be momentary, but timeless. Wordsworth claims that “the poet is chiefly distinguished from other men by a greater promptness to think and feel without immediate external excitement, and a greater power in expressing such thoughts and feelings as are produced in him in that manner.” The purpose of this is so that the poet can better communicate their thoughts and feelings to others: “in order to excite rational sympathy, he must express himself as other men express themselves.” The Wordsworthian process for poetic creation involves not just contemplating emotions “in tranquility,” but contemplating those emotions until “by a species of reaction the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind.” In other words, the poet should calmly process the emotions he or she initially experienced without distraction, until he or she feels in touch with those emotions again. Then, the poet may begin composing. This process allows the poet to create a distance between the initial emotion and the reader, in a way that tempers “the painful feeling which will always be found intermingled with powerful descriptions of the deeper passions,” and thus leads to greater pleasure. The process for poetic creation has so refined the poet’s composition, Wordsworth adds, that it will carry an enduring rather than momentary pleasure for its readers.

For Wordsworth, the essence of poetry comes in the form of a profound rendering of emotions, which helps the reader understand themselves better. As Wordsworth writes in his “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” the important thing is “that the feeling therein developed, gives importance to the action and situation and not the action and situation to the feeling” poetry, in Wordsworth’s eyes, hinges on emotion even more so than the actual event or situation it’s describing. This how Wordsworth consider emotions and action in his preface to lyrics ballads.

(2) What, according to Wordsworth, is the "great spring of the activity of our minds"?

According to Wordsworth, the spring of mental activity comes from contrast between different things. In poetry, the different things he contrasts are regular rhyme and rhythm schemes and rural themes and language. The combination of disparate parts confuses and stimulates the mind, and produces engagement and beauty.In the "Preface to Lyrical Ballads " Wordsworth discusses the pleasure we receive from the deployment of regular metrical language in a poem. This is Wordsworth's way of reassuring his readers that although his conception of poetry is indeed revolutionary in terms of its language and subject matter. And it is very hard to understand it's deep meaning. It made exercise of mind. And that's why Wordsworth said that, "great spring of the activity of our minds".

(3) What sort of truth does poetry give? How is this truth communicated? To what tribunal does it appeal?

Aristotle was the fist who declared poetic truth to be superior to historical truth. He called poetry the most philosophic of all writings. Wordsworth agrees with Aristotle in this matter. Poetry is given an exalted position by Wordsworth in such a way that it treats the particular as well as the universal. Its aim is universal truth. Poetry is true to nature. Wordsworth declares poetry to be the “image” or “man and nature”. A poet has to keep in mind that his end (objective) is to impart pleasure. He declares poetry will adjust itself to the new discoveries and inventions of science. It will create a new idiom for the communication of new thoughts. But the poet’s truth is such that sees into heart of things and enables others to see the same. Poetic truth ties all mankind with love and a sense of oneness.

Conclusion :-

Here, i covered mainly preface to Lyrical ballad, about William Wordsworth as a poet, and some of the important questions related to the preface of Lyrical ballad by Wordsworth.The Preface is an essay, composed, for the second edition of the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads, and then greatly expanded in the third edition of 1802. In his preface we found he agrees the Aristotle's view and argues according to that. And beautifully described such things like, what is poet, what is poetry, great spirit of activity, diction, language of poetry, universal human emotions,made argument about poetry and prose, and also talk about his personal experience.. and many more.

Words :- 1507

References :-

1) Supersummary.com

2) Englishsummary.com

3) Wikipedia.com

4) enotes.com

5) litcharts.com

6) words.cat.com

Dryden's essay on dramatic Poesy.

Introduction :-

“An Essay of Dramatic Poesy” was probably written in 1666 during the closure of the London theaters due to plague. It can be read as a general defense of drama as a legitimate art form taking up where Sir Philip Sidney’s “Defence of Poesie” left off as well as Dryden’s own defense of his literary practices. The essay is structured as a dialogue among four friends on the river Thames. The four gentlemen, Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius, and Neander. begin an ironic and witty conversation on the subject of poetry, which soon turns into a debate on the virtues of modern and ancient writers. It is how the Dryden structured the book. Now let me discuss about the views of Dryden in the essay, but before that let me give information about Dryden shortly.

John Dryden :-

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was appointed England's first Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romanticist writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John". John Dryden is rightly considered as “the father of English Criticism”. He was the first to teach the English people to determine the merit of composition upon principles. With Dryden, a new era of criticism began. Before, Dryden, there were only occasional utterances on the critical art. Like Ben Jonson and Philip Sidney. Though Dryden’s criticism was of scattered nature; he paid attention to almost all literary forms and expressed his views on them. Except An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Dryden wrote no formal treatise on criticism. His critical views are found mostly in the prefaces to his poetical works or to those of others.

Dryden's essay on dramatic poesy :-

 An Essay of Dramatic Poesy deals with the views of major critics and the tastes of men and women of the time of Dryden.

The work is in the form of semi-drama thus making abstract theories interesting. In the late 17th century, Shakespeare was severely criticised for his careless attitude towards the mixing of genres. It was Dryden who elevated Shakespeare to height for his natural genius.The narrative of An Essay of Dramatic Poesy has four debaters among whom, Neander is the one who holds the views of Dryden. Unlike other characters, Neander does not diminish the arguments that are on contrary to his views. Though he himself favours modern drama, he does not blame others.

Summary :-

The beginning of the narrative An Essay of Dramatic Poesy or Of Dramatic Poesie is as follows. A battle is going on between England and the Netherlands.

Four gentlemen namely Crites, Eugenius, Lisideius and Neander are travelling by boat to see the battle and start a discussion on modern literature. 

Crites opens the discussion by saying that none of his contemporaries (i.e. moderns) can equal the standards and the rules set by ancient Greeks and Romans. Eugenius restrains him from wasting time on finding demerits. He asks him to find relative merit in Greeks and Moderns.

( Click here to read more )

1) Do you find any difference between Aristotle's definition of Tragedy and Dryden's definition of Play?

Dryden defines Drama as: “Just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humours, and the. changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the. delight and instruction of mankind.”

Aristotle's Definition of Tragedy is, “A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;... in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear,effecting the proper purgation- catharsis of these and similar emotions.”

Comparison :-

Dryden was influenced by the definition of tragedy by Aristotle. And then he wrote his own new definition. In his definition dryden use the words like "just and lively" image. It means it means the real life. Where eles Aristotle present imagery life. In Aristotle ’s definition the line, ‘Tragedy, then is an imitation of an action’. Which says that tragedy is an imitation not an actual so it is copied. But Dryen wrote that it present real life, not a copied one.

This are the difference between definition of both Dryden and Aristotle.

2) If you are supposed to give your personal predilection, would you be on the side of the Ancient or the Modern? Please give reasons.

I would like to be a side of modern. Because the argument of Dryden that Discussion of ancients and moderns should not be for who is ‘better’. It should be more fundamentally about how history itself functioned and should be read thus it should be about the relationship between past and present humanity and nature and human understanding and knowledge. This is seems quite true. And the argument of him against ancient is also seems understandable.

The morden writers are supposed to be not following the rules of time, action, place. But they only look for entertainment. And according to me entertainment is something much important than rules. Because if the rules are followed but the audience feel no interest and entertainment.

The another thing is ancient dramas are not divided into acts and which makes that play boring sometimes and also a too long play reflect bad vibes. Where eles modern plays are divided into acts, as well as into scenes which make the play short and it gives a Chance to perform it more influential way.

Also as eugenius argued that, ancient have lack of originality, because their plot are always based on well known stories, so the charm of ancient found less than modern.  

Of course, modern are follow ancient in many way. But still they succeeded to creat it's own identity and that's why i would like to favor modern.

(3) What would be your preference so far as poetic or prosaic dialogues are concerned in the play?

I like poetry, because it gives better understanding in much shorter form. And also it is effective because of it's lyrical way of singing. Dialogues sometimes became much long and it turns into boring felling. But poetry is always found lively and melodious.

I also agreed that poetry is sometimes hard to understand, but dialogues are much easier than poetry to understand. So if we see with that view then dialogue are also good.

Conclusion :-

Here i give information of all about Dryden's dramatic poesy and some of the other questions related that.

Words :- 1113

Reference :-

1) poetryfoundation.com

2) eaJournal.org

3) Wikipedia.com

4) Englishsummary.com

5)Alpaponda.blogspot.com

6)bhumijoshi2014-16.blogspot.com

Aristotle's Poetics

Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar. Here i am writing a blog as a part of Thinking activity. In this blog i write about Aristotle's Poetics, about Aristotle, some of the text which are follows Aristotle's concepts, and some  texts which are not follows.

Introduction :-

    Before discussing about Aristotelian poetics, it is very important to discuss that what is poetics. According to Oxford Dictionary, poetics is :

"The art of writing poetry."

"Poetics is the study of linguistic technique in poetry and literary."

"Poetics is the theory of literary forms and literary discourse. "

      Meaning of poetics :-

The term poetics derives from the Ancient Greek word poietikos, it means "pertaining to poetry", also "creative" and "productive".In the Western world, the development and evolution of poetics featured three artistic movements concerned with poetical composition:

1)  the formalist,

 (2) the objectivist,

 (3) the Aristotelian. 

  

       During the Romantic era, poetics tended toward expressionism and emphasized the perceiving subject. Twentieth-century poetics returned to the Aristotelian paradigm, followed by trends toward meta-criticality, and the establishment of a contemporary theory of poetics. Eastern poetics developed lyric poetry, rather than the representational mimetic poetry of the Western world.

About Aristotle :-

Aristotle (c. 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist who is still considered one of the greatest thinkers in politics, psychology and ethics. When Aristotle turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s Academy. In 338, he began tutoring Alexander the Great. In 335, Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching and writing. Some of his most notable works include Nichomachean Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Poetics and Prior Analytics.

Aristotle's Poetics :-

Aristotle, a greek philosopher wrote a book named 'Poetics', written around 335 B.C. it was a time of classical period. John Dryden said about Aristotle that, "Aristotle is first literary critic." But before him, Plato also used proved as a well known critic. Plato wrote his book called, 'Republic', and in this book he wrote that "All poets are liers".  And to the contrast this concept, Aristotle wrote a book named, 'Poetics'.

   Aristotle believes that criticism means to judge. But creation is must needed, to criticise something. So according to him creation comes first than criticism. Here again he create contrast with his Teacher Plato. In his work Poetics, Aristotle discuss about dramatic theories, poetry, variations in poetry, Tragedy, Plot, Tragic hero, and epic poetry. Mainly in his book Aristotle wrote about three main forms :

1) Epic

2) Tragedy

3) Comedy

   Firstly he wrote about poetry. And qualities and structure of poetry, and also noted that how to divide poetry in various parts. He give one vary famous definition of poetry,

"Poetry is an art of imitation".

  It means all poets are imitators. They imitate the things which they found in the world, in the nature, in the human behavior, and what they feel. They reflects that all in their poetry. And thats why poetry also have it's own importance and also poet have certain kind of importance. They are not liers, wrote Aristotle.

Aristotle in his book divided poetry in various parts like,

1) Epic poetry

2) Tragedy

3) Comedy

4) music Poetry

When it origin, it was divided in two parts :

1) for nobles

2) for means

Mainly the poetry which was written in tragedy, focuses on upperclass or noble people. But Poetry which written in Comic way are quite different. It focuses on middle class people and lower class people. And by thik kind of writing they used to mock on lower and middle class people and they mannerless behaviour. But in tragedy, hero or we can say protagonist must taken from upper, noble class. And the end of this kind of hero creats catharsis among audience. And that's why Aristotle tell that tragedy is superior than comedy. Comedy is shown as a vulgar, trivial thing but tragedy has it's own value.

Aristotle also show difference between Tragedy and epic poetry.

              Tragedy                       

                        

1- Limitations of time.     

2- Complete in Fix time.

3 - no single miter.

4- plot, Character, thought, diction, song and spectacle.

5- written in various forms.

6- show action in dramatic form

7- superior

            Epic poetry

1- no limitations of time.

2- single type of meter.

3- no use of songs and spectacles.

4- not placed in particular place.

5- written in  Hexameter

6- speak in verse narration form.

7- less important than tragedy.

   According to Aristotle, tragedy is superior than Epic comedy and than any other form of poetry. Because its includes Plot, characters, thoughts, diction, songs, and spectacles. Among which plot is most important in tragedy. Because it is only thing which help to create Hamartia. But if we see in epic poetry, it is not use songs and spectacle. And might be because that reason it seems less interesting.

   Tragedy has a limitation of time. But epic poetry is a long poem. Written in hundreds of lines and because of that it is not possible to perform it at one time. So it has no boundaries and time limit. Epic poetry uses single type of meter. But Tragedy use different kind of meters.  Epic poetry should written in Hexameter.and speak in verse narration form. But for tragedy, it is not written in one particular form. It must be written in various forms. Tragedy mainly show action in dramatic form. This how Aristotle differentiate tragedy and Epic poetry.

With reference to the literary texts you have studied during B.A. programme, write brief note on the texts which followed Aristotelian literary tradition (i.e. his concept of tragedy, catharsis, tragic hero with hamartia etc)

And 

With reference to the literary texts you have studied during B.A. programme, write brief note on the texts which did NOT follow Aristotelian literary tradition. (i.e. his concept of tragedy, catharsis, tragic hero with hamartia etc.)

1) Othello

(1) Hamartia :-

Othello was a powerful leader who deeply loved his faithful wife. He was tricked into believing his wife had cheated on him. His suspicion then overpowered him and he murdered his wife in a jealous rage, never even giving her a chance to defend herself. When he discovers he was deceived, he remains a noble character. He realized everything was his own fault and punished himself by committing suicide. In this case, Othello's hamartia, or internal tragic flaw, is his extreme jealousy. It is this jealousy that enables him to be tricked and allows him to create his own destruction.

(2) Catharsis :-

Othello– while at the time it was written, it was considered one of the best examples of catharsis. However, this may not hold true anymore as, given the importance of relatability, context is also very important to catharsis.

At the end of the play, Othello has a catharsis and realises Iago led him astray, and that it was his own trust, naivete, and jealousy that led him to take Desdemona’s life. His tragic flaw was that he blindly trusted a friend. The Elizabethan audience can immediately relate to it, as in Elizabethan era Britain, war and betrayals were all too common and the common folk were used to seeing monarchs and leaders die at the hands of people they believed to be friends. When they watched Othello, they could relate both to the setting and his betrayal immediately.

Othello’s catharsis results in his suicide, and the audience feels his betrayal– realising that trusting a friend blindly can have severe consequences. The audience thus never needs to experience the feeling of betrayal in reality, as Othello’s catharsis has taught them to be more aware. In a way, they are ‘purged’ of the unhealthy feelings that would result from betrayal. For the present day audience, given the setting of the play, Othello may not be as relatable and his catharsis may not necessarily translate into their own catharsis.

This proved the words of Aristotle that time and plot is most important in tragedy.

Tragic hero and tragedy :-

Shakespeare's play, “Othello, the Moor of Venice,” is a powerful example of a tragedy and it’s main character, Othello, is an excellent illustration of what Aristotle constitutes as a tragic hero. The play imitates life through basic human emotions such as jealousy and rage. In addition, Othello is far from being a perfect character - another quality that meets Aristotle's requirements. Othello also matches Aristotle's ideas of tragic hero because our Othello realizes the error of his ways, causing us to feel sympathy for him. If we carefully examine the third scene in the third act, we can see how Othello fits into Aristotle's definition of tragic hero. This passage reveals how much Othello has deteriorated as far as his ability to reason or consider things with Desdemona logically. Humanity seems to unravel in this scene as we watch Othello experience a myriad of emotions that only push him closer to the proverbial edge. We feel fear, sympathy, and pity as we watch the man transform before our eyes

Not followed Aristotle :-

low the idea of what Aristotle had for the perfect tragedy. Greek tragedies had a musical element that “Othello, the Moor of Venice” lacked.

2) All my sons 

 Peripeteia :- 

Chris sees it as a reminder of his brother, with it standing he cannot live in peace with his fiance, Ann.

Joe ignores the tree because it is a reminder of the son he lost possibly of his own doing. This thing shows peripeteia in 'All my sons.'

Catharsis :- 

All My Sons is the epitome of the modern tragedy. While adhering to the elements of an Aristotelian tragedy, Miller expresses new truth and perspective on the original definition of the tragedy. Miller provides us with the common hero to illustrate that tragedy is found in everyday life. The audience understands that tragedy can exist over a two day period in a small suburban town in America. Tragedy is relative to the human experience rather than the aristocratic experience.

Catharsis according to Aristotle, is a release of emotions, especially pity and fear, at the end of the play. In All my Sons, the audience does develop a sense of pity for the characters and their hardships as well as fear for their futures, but there is no clear catharsis. After Joe dies, Chris is left with a sense of guilt for his father's death and the mother is left grieving for both her dead son and now her dead husband. The audience does not get the satisfaction of releasing their emotions, but is rather left with tension and curiosity.

Tragedy in All my sons :-

All My Sons by Arthur Miller has been argued by many to be a modern tragedy while others claim that his play, All My Sons, cannot be considered a tragedy. However, to truly debate if Miller was able to created a modern tragedy, one must first know what a tragedy is. “Tragedy”, as first coined by Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, is defined as a play that portrays the fall of a good character because of a catastrophic mistake by the protagonist. A true tragedy must also evoke pity and fear in the audience which is called catharsis. A tragedy incorporates a tragic hero which must be the protagonist who is neither entirely good nor pure evil and this tragic hero or protagonist must be consistent and realistic as to relate to the audience. We find fall of good character in All my son. As fall of father of Chris.

But some how we find that it is not totally a Aristotelian tragedy. Because it fails to create catharsis among people.

Conclusion :-

Here we see that Aristotle in his poetics, give a definition of tragedy, definition is “Tragedy,” says Aristotle, “is an imitation [mimēsis] of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions.” through this definition he give certain rules for tragedy.like importance of Hamartia, Catharsis, Tragedy and end of Tragedy etc. Which we discussed here with reference of several texts.

Words :- 2032

References:-

1) sparksnotes.com

2) Wikipedia.com

3) biography.com

4) 123helpme.com

5) study.com

6) prezi.com 

M. A. (English ) semester - 1 important material

All the important materials :-

Paper number -1

Elizabethan and restoration period.

The Rover :-

summary, characters, who is the real rover, aphra bhen, critical overview

Macbeth :-

detailed summary of Macbeth

Macbeth's soliloquy,

is this a dagger which i see before me

Themes in Macbeth

characters of Macbeth

William Shakespeare

Shakespearean tragedy

Absalom and Achitophel :-

Biblical characters

political satire or political allegory in Absalom and Achitophel.

Paper number -2 

Neoclassical age

A tale of a tub :- 

summary of A tale of a tub

Jonathan swift as a satirist

The rape of the lock :- 

very brief note about mock heroic epic

Alexander Pope

Lock of the hair symbols, themes, speech of Clarissa, difference between Belinda and clarissa, Rape of the lock as a epic and mock heroic epic. Difference between both, summary of The Rape of the lock etc. Everything here.

Robert Burns and Thomas Gray :-

salient features of 18th century

Robert Burns

Thomas Gray as a transitional poet

A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

An ode on distant prospect of

Eton College by Thomas Gray

characteristics of neo classical age

Paper number :- 3

THE LITERATURE OF ROMANTIC AGE :-

frankenstein by mary Shelley :-

narrative style in Frankenstein

mary Shelley's treatment of human mind in Frankenstein

plot construction in frankenstein

summary of the Frankenstein

summary - 2 of Frankenstein

Narcissistic Complex in Frankenstein

mythological approach in mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Wordsworth and Coleridge :-

Characteristics of Romantic poetry.

Wordsworth and Coleridge

Wordsworth as a Romantic poet

Wordsworth life and works

Ode to duty by Wordsworth

poem Michael by Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Life and Works

Characteristics of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Characters in THE RIME OF ANCIENT MARINER. By Coleridge 

Pride and prejudice :-

difference between Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Bennet

Keats, Shelley, Byron :-

Later Romantics Keats, Shelley, Byron

detailed note on Lord Byron

poems by Byron

Paper number - 4

Victorian Literature :- 

Unit - 1

(Hard times by Charles Dickens )

critical comment of F. R. Leavis

UNIT - 2 (The importance of being Earnest)

The importance of being earnest as a comedy of manner

Unit - 3

(Jude the obscure)

characters of jude the obscure

Summary of Jude the Obscure

symbol Christminster

Unit - 4 

(Robert Browning and Lord Tennyson)

Lord Tennyson as a Victorian poet

Robert Browning as a Victorian poet.

characteristics of Browning's poetry

Themes of Browning's poetry

Paper number - 5 

(History of English Literature)

Unit - 3

Neo - classical age.

history of neo classical age

characteristics of neo - classical age

development of Novel in neo - Classical age

Alexander Pope and his Works

Neo - classical age as a age of prose and reason  with example of Daniel Dafoe and Jonathan swift as a prose writer and satirist.

Unit - 2

(Puritan and Restoration age)

Cavalier poetry and poets

'metaphysical' poetry and poets.

Unit - 4 

(Romantic and Victorian age)

Characteristics of Victorian age.

Unit - 1

(Elizabethan age)

Characteristics of Elizabethan age

    Question papers of 2021

Jude the Obscure

I am Himanshi Parmar, here i write a blog, as a part of thinking activity. The blog is about characters of Jude the Obscure.

Introduction :-

Jude the Obscure is a novel by Thomas Hardy, which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895, though the title page says 1896. It is Hardy's last completed novel. The protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man; he is a stonemason who dreams of becoming a scholar. The other main character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also his central love interest. The novel is concerned in particular with issues of class, education, religion, morality and marriage.

What is your reading of prominent female characters in Jude the Obscure?

1] Sue Bridehead :- 

The novel’s other protagonist and Jude’s cousin. Sue’s parents were divorced and she was raised in London and Christminster. She is an extremely intelligent woman who rejects Christianity and flirts with paganism, despite working as a religious artist and then teacher. Sue is often described as “ethereal” and “bodiless” and she generally lacks sexual passion, especially compared to Jude. Sue marries Phillotson as a kind of rebuke to Jude for his own marriage to Arabella, and is then repulsed by Phillotson as a husband. She is portrayed as inconsistent and emotional, often changing her mind abruptly, but she develops a strong relationship and love with Jude. Though she starts out nonreligious, the death of her children drives Sue to a harsh, legalistic version of Christianity as she believes she is being punished for her earlier rebellion against Christianity, and she returns to Phillotson even though she never ceases to love Jude.

It is easy for the modern reader to dislike Sue, even, as D. H. Lawrence did, to make her into the villain of the book. Jude, as well as Hardy, obviously sees her as charming, lively, intelligent, interesting, and attractive in the way that an adolescent girl is. But it is impossible not to see other sides to her personality: she is self-centered, wanting more than she is willing to give; she is intelligent but her knowledge is fashionable and her use of it is shallow; she is outspoken but afraid to suit her actions to her words; she wants to love and be loved but is morbidly afraid of her emotions and desires.

In short, she is something less than the ideal Jude sees in her; like him she is human. She is also a nineteenth-century woman who has given herself more freedom than she knows how to handle. She wants to believe that she is free to establish a new sort of relationship to men, even as she demands freedom to examine new ideas. But at the end she finds herself in the role of sinner performing penance for her misconduct. As Jude says, they were perhaps ahead of their time.If she is not an ideal, she is the means by which J tide encounters a different view of life, one which he comes to adopt even as she flees from it. She is also one of the means by which Jude's hopes are frustrated and he is made to undergo suffering and defeat. But it is a frustration which he invites or which is given him by a power neither he nor Sue understands or seems to control.

2] Arabella Donn :-

Jude’s first wife, a vain, sensual woman who is the daughter of a pig farmer. She decides to marry Jude and so tricks him into marrying her by pretending to be pregnant. Arabella sees marriage as a kind of entrapment and as a source of financial security, and she uses whatever means necessary to get what she wants. After Jude fails to provide for her, Arabella goes to Australia and takes a new husband there. She is often contrasted with the pure, intellectual Sue, as Arabella is associated with alcohol and sexual pleasure. When she wants Jude back she gets him drunk and forces him to marry her, and when he dies (or even just before) she immediately starts seeking a new husband.

She is so selfish, thoughtless, and manipulative that it's hard to take her seriously as a character in some ways she's like a cartoon villain or something. Of course, this isn't a romantic comedy, so Arabella's behavior gets a lot worse than backstabbing and prom antics.

Arabella tricks Jude into marrying her twice. In fact, it is almost impossible at times to know when if ever Arabella is telling the truth.

What is your reading of prominent male characters in Jude the Obscure?

1] Jude Fawley :- 

The novel’s protagonist, a poor orphan who is raised by his great-aunt after his parents divorced and died. Jude dreams of attending the university at Christminister, but he fails to be accepted because of his working class background. He is a skilled stonemason and a kindly soul who cannot hurt any living thing. Jude’s “fatal flaw” is his weakness regarding alcohol and women, and he allows his marriage to Arabella, even though it is unhappy, to distract himself from his dream. He shares a deep connection with his cousin Sue, but their relationship is doomed by their earlier marriages, society’s disapproval, and bad luck. Jude starts out pious and religious, but by the end of his life he has grown agnostic and bitter.

Jude is obscure in that he comes from uncertain origins, struggles largely unnoticed to realize his aspirations, and dies without having made any mark on the world. He is also obscure in the sense of being ambiguous: he is divided internally, and the conflicts range all the way from that between sexual desire and knowledge to that between two different views of the world. Jude is, therefore, struggling both with the world and with himself.

He is not well equipped to win. Though he is intelligent enough and determined, he tries to force his way to the knowledge he wants. Though well-intentioned and goodhearted, he often acts impulsively on the basis of too little objective evidence. Though he is unable to hurt an animal or another human being, he shows very little concern for himself and his own survival, often needlessly sacrificing his own good. He never learns, as Phillotson finally does perhaps too late, to calculate how to get what he wants. In short, he is more human than divine, as Hardy points out.

He is obsessed with ideals. Very early he makes Christminster into an ideal of the intellectual life, and his admitted failure there does not dim the luster with which it shines in his imagination to the very end of his life. He searches for the ideal woman who will be both lover and companion, and though he finds passion without intellectual interests in Arabella and wide interests but frigidity in Sue he maintains the latter as his ideal to his deathbed. Recognizing the Christminster holiday just before he dies, Jude says, "And I here. And Sue defiled!".

Jude is reconciled to his fate before he dies only in the sense that he recognizes what it is. In a conversation with Mrs. Edlin he says that perhaps he and Sue were ahead of their time in the way they wanted to live. He does not regret the struggle he has made-, at the least, as he lies ill he tries to puzzle out the meaning of his life. At the very end, however, like Job he wonders why he was born. But then so perhaps does every man, Hardy seems thonorable.

2]Richardson phillotson :-

Jude’s schoolmaster at Marygreen who moves to Christminster and fails to be accepted at the university there. Phillotson remains as a teacher, and he later hires Sue and falls in love with her. They marry, but Sue finds she cannot live with Phillotson as a husband. Though Phillotson is a conservative man, he finds that letting Sue leave him feels like the most moral decision, and he sticks by it even when he is punished by society for his disgrace and loses his job and respectability. Phillotson is a kindly, ethical man, but Sue’s lack of love for him causes him great torment.

Phillotson is eminently the respectable man. Though he fails to achieve the same goals Jude pursues, his bearing and view of things do not change much. Even when Arabella encounters him on the road to Alfredston, now down on his luck and teaching at Marygreen because it's the only place that will have him, this air of respectability remains. It must be this which Sue can't stand about him, the respectability plus the legal right to make love to her.

Sue's opinion of him does not make him any less decent. He is like Jude in many ways: he is goodhearted and honorable he allows instinct to overrule reason; he is too accommodating for his own good; he is intelligent. Like Jude he is ill-equipped to get what he wants in life and soon resigns himself to mediocrity. However, unlike Jude he no longer is dazzled by ideals, perhaps because he is older. Maybe too late he learns to act on the basis of calculation, estimating that Sue's return will be worth the benefits it may bring.Phillotson, in short, is a man whom it is easy neither to like nor to dislike; he goes largely honorable.

Conclusion :-

If we analyze Arabela and sue we found both them totally opposite characters, similarly jude and Richardson are also opposite characters. Here we see four of them in detail.

Words :- 1608

Paragraphs :- 8

References :-

1) Litcharts.com

2) Cliffnotes.com

3) Wikipedia.com

Mediaeval Drama, Or drama before Shakespeare.

 Mediaeval Drama, Or drama before Shakespeare.

Name :- Himanshi Parmar

Paper :- 105, History of English Literature.

Roll number :- 08

Enrollment number :- 4069206420210025

Email id :- himanshiparmar3004@gmail.com 

Batch :- 2021 - 23 (M. A. Sem 1)

Submitted to :- S. B. Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

                                     

                                                

                                                  Introduction :-

A play, as most of you know, is where live actors get on a stage and act out a story in front of an audience. During Mediaeval times most plays were religious and were used to teach people about the Bible, the lives of saints, or how to live your life the right way. There were three different types of plays performed during mediaeval times; The Mystery Play, the Miracle Play and the Morality Play.

Mystery plays :-   

   Mystery plays were stories taken from the Bible. Each play had four or five different scenes or acts. The priests and monks were the actors. Each scene or act was performed at a different place in town and the people moved from one stage to the next to watch the play. The play usually ended outside the church so that the people would go to church and hear a sermon after watching the play.

 Miracle plays :-

The miracle play was about the life or actions of a saint, usually about the actions that made that person a saint. One popular Miracle play was about Saint George and the dragon.

Morality plays :-

Morality plays were designed to teach people a lesson in how to live their life according to the rules of the church.Sometimes these plays had elaborate sets, sometimes no sets at all. It didn't seem to matter. The people attended these plays. They didn't have to, but it was a break from their normal daily lives.

Mediaeval drama definition and meaning :-

Definition - 

"Mediaeval drama is something, which is relating to the Middle Ages : of or relating to the period of European history from about A.D. 500 to about 1500."

"Literature which is related to the characteristics of the Middle Ages."

Meaning -

With its roots medi-, meaning "middle", and ev-, meaning "age", mediaeval literally means "of the Middle Ages". In this case, middle means "between the Roman empire and the Renaissance" that is, after the fall of the great Roman state and before the "rebirth" of culture that we call the Renaissance. This same period used to be called the "Dark Ages", since it was believed that in these years civilization all but vanished. And indeed, for most Europeans in these centuries, it was a time of poverty, famine, plague, and superstition, rather than the age of magic, dazzling swordplay, towering castles, and knights in splendid armour displayed in today's graphic novels and video games.

       

 Origin and Development of Mediaeval Drama :- 

"As Christian Church grew in power, its opposition to the stage became more effective. Plays were prohibited and actors proscribed in city after city throughout the Roman Empire" (A History of English Literature, William Vaughn Moody, chapter 5)

Well before the Norman conquest, while the Roman empire was dissolving and the Christian Church was growing in power, the Roman drama was proscribed. The demand for spectacles did not decrease, though. People attended performances on market days (jugglers, minstrels) and at festival occasions (country folk plays, which contributed to the formation of traditional figures such as Robin Hood, maid Marian, the Green Dragon). Pageants were also organised near the city gate to welcome the official visit of the King or of people of rank. Pageants were pantomimes which involved traditional allegorical figures, i.e. they were spectacular displays with an elaborate scenic background.

Many scholars surmise it is from the regular service of the mass that the mediaeval drama emerged. The mass was conducted in a language most of the people could not understand: Latin. Moreover their knowledge of the Bible was quite superficial. For these reasons music and charts were used to underline a great part of the service. Painted rolls picturing the principal events of the Bible stories were also displayed since most of the people could not read.

Around the 11th century the services started being dramatised. At the beginning very few additions were made. Then episodes from Christ's life were performed in which the priests covered all the roles. When more episodes were added and more people took part in these Liturgical Plays (in Latin), the churches became too small to contain them all. The compositions were therefore displaced to the churchyard, later to the market places or the city streets.

In Europe the plays which dealt with subjects taken from the Bible were called Mystery plays while the plays which told the lives of the saints were usually called Morality plays. This distinction did not apply to English Liturgical plays which were currently called Miracle plays.

By the 12th century the roles, formerly held by the priests, were taken over by laymen. When the priests ceased organising the performances, the trade guilds took charge of them. Drama was still liturgical, but the plays were now performed in vernacular.

The greatest stimulus to the transformation from liturgical to non liturgical drama was the institution of the summer feast of Corpus Christi in 1311. On that occasion the guilds used to present a series of plays about the Christian story. Fear of death was the main theme.

By the 14th century miracle plays were so popular that they were performed in almost every large town. They were arranged in sequences or cycles and could last several days. Each guild assumed the entire charge of its own particular play.

For example :-

The Chester cycle (of 25 plays)

The Coventry cycle (of 42 plays)

The Wakefield cycle (of 31 plays)

The York cycle (of 48 plays)

The aforementioned four cycles have come down to us completely. These religious performances have reached their greatest popularity between the 14th and 15th centuries but continued to be represented until the sixteenth century.

       

                                                 Mediaeval literature :- 

The Mediaeval period runs from the end of Late Antiquity in the fourth century to the English Renaissance of the late fifteenth century.

The early portion of the Mediaeval period in England is dominated by Anglo-Saxons, whose language is incomprehensible to today's speakers of English. That early portion is known as the Old English period. The Old English period came to an end with the Norman Invasion of 1066. Normans spoke a dialect of French later called Anglo-Norman.

Alongside Anglo-Norman, Old English developed into Middle English. Middle English is a distinct variety of English, influenced in large part by Anglo-Norman French. For example, Old English speakers did not distinguish between /f/ and /v/. Just like speakers of Modern German, OE speakers would use both sounds ([f] and [v]) for the letter <f>. "Aefre '' was pronounced [ever]. But French speakers do distinguish these two sounds. (Vous means "you" and fou means ``crazy.") After the Conquest, English people had to distinguish between, for example, veal and feel. So, new sounds, new words, new syntax—all contribute to a significant change in the English language. And to a new literature.

The Invasion put French-speaking people at the highest levels of society. Families that ruled England also ruled and held land in France. William the Conqueror was also Duke of Normandy, and the English King continued to hold that office and its lands until the thirteenth century. Only a handful of Anglo-Saxon families remained in any positions of power. In England, French was the language of education and literature. It was not an obvious choice for Chaucer to write his Canterbury Tales in English. Consequently, the High Middle Ages in England were characterised culturally by their close relation to French and Italian arts. This will change in the late thirteenth century as England and France come to loggerheads.

Literary selections from various centuries will give you a very rough idea of the wide variety of literature circulating in Mediaeval England.

12th Century

In the twelfth century, perhaps the most accomplished vernacular writer was an English woman named Marie de France. She wrote in Anglo-Norman. (We will read her in an English translation.) Marie was one of the main forces behind the stories of King Arthur and the Round Table. In France, Chretien de Troyes was writing Arthurian romances for Marie of Champagne. Other Anglo-Norman writers are described in our authors page.

The works of Aristotle and other Greeks became widely available in the twelfth century. Translated into Latin for the first time, they fueled a renaissance. Universities in Bologna, Padua, Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge took up the teaching of logic and science. Most reading was done by cloistered clerics or by French aristocracy. There was almost no social cachet in being an author or in owning books.

13th Century

The thirteenth century marks the flowering of Latin literature in England. The reign of King John (1167–1216) is characterised in part by an increasingly deep cultural separation between France and England. Anti-papal attitudes (Oxford professor Robert Grosseteste called Pope Innocent IV the Antichrist) and a growing sense of nationalism helped to fuel native literary talent. English literature comes into its own. Still, very little survives, and most of it is in Latin.

The "preaching orders" of monks came into existence: the Dominicans and the Franciscans. Scholar A.G. Rigg says, "They formed a new kind of intellectual elite....Their evangelical fervour and commitment to academic training contributed to the rise of the English universities." Their squabbling and venal excesses do not become objects of widespread literary satire until the fourteenth century. In this century, they help to increase literacy and the stock of books in England.

14th Century

During the fourteenth century English literature comes into its own. This is the century of John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Langland. We also have a number of surviving vernacular romances such as Sir Orfeo, as well as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (We will read these in the original Middle English.)

The Battle of Bannockburn (1314) and the defeat of the English by the Glorious Scots is only one of many upheavals and revolutions during this tumultuous century. Other calamitous events include the Black Death (or Plague) in the middle of the century; the Peasants' Revolt of 1381; and the Hundred Years' War.

Perhaps the single most important development for our purposes is the wholesale replacement of the French language in government and law by the English language. Anti-French attitudes (due to the war, among other things) helped displace French from polite society and from literature. John Gower, Chaucer's friend, wrote one of his major poems in Latin, another in French, and a third in English.

15th Century

1422 marks the death of Henry IV and a subtle shift from mediaeval to humanistic themes in literature. For our purposes, one of the interesting developments concerns the Mystery Plays. (Mysteries were unions or guilds.) These plays were performed in a number of towns and involved much of the working population. They retell the story of the Bible, sometimes humorously.

Another remarkable literary phenomena of the early fifteenth century is Scottish interest in Chaucer. Like today's "fan fiction," Scots authors copied Chaucer's style so well that for centuries some of their stories were thought to be Chaucer's own.

At the end of the century, a German silversmith named Johannes Gutenberg invented a moveable type. The printing revolution made books cheaper and more widely accessible. The first successful printer in England was William Caxton. He printed self-help books and romances, including the tales of King Arthur. He also printed a book on chess.

                                                  Conclusion :-

Thus to conclude, the point is clear that Mediaeval drama includes mystery, Morality, and Miracle plays. Mainly that kind of dramas were based on Religious theme. And as specially biblical stories. And widely popular among people of that time. And even now also.

Words :- 1980

References :-

https://www.literature-no-trouble.com/medieval-drama/

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medieval

https://medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/plays.html