Paper (1): Classical Poetry

1. Chaucer’s art of characterization

Chaucer flourishes the fantastic colours of his words and paints different characters of his age
with minute observation. Indeed, he is a great painter who paints not with colours but with
words. Undoubtedly, he has The Seeing Eye, the retentive memory, the judgment to select and
the ability to expound. His keen analysis of the minutest detail of his characters, their dresses,
looks and manners enable him to present his characters lifelike and not mere bloodless
abstractions.

His Prologue is a real picture gallery in which thirty portraits are hanging on the wall with all of
their details and peculiarities. Rather it is a grand procession with all the life and movement,
the colour and sound. Indeed, his characters represent English society, morally and socially, in
the real and recognizable types and still more representative of humanity in general. So, the
characters in Chaucer’s “The Prologue” are for all ages and for all lands. Though the plan of the
Canterbury’s Tales has been taken from Giovanni, Italian poet, Chaucer’s technique of
characterization is original and unique. As a result his characters are not only of his age but
universal in nature. They are not only types, but individuals. The pilgrims are the epitome of
mankind. It is such a veritable picture gallery of the 14th century as the details of their physical
appearance, their social status and character are so artistically presented that the whole man
or woman come alive before our eyes. Tim Brink wrote:

“We receive such an exact idea of the men he (Chaucer) is describing that we can almost see
them bodily before our eyes”

Chaucer is the first great painter of character in English literature. The thirty portraits traced by
Chaucer give us an excellent idea of the society at that time. The different pilgrims represent
different professionals. For example, the doctor, the sergeant, the Oxford Clerk and the Friar
represent certain traits which characterize their respective professionals. The war-like elements
are represented by the Knight, the Squire and the Yeoman. The ploughmen, the Miller, the
Reeve and the Franklin typify agriculture. The Sergeant of Law, the Doctor, the Oxford Clerk and
the Poet himself represent the liberal professions. The Wife of Bath, the Weaver, and the
embody industry and trade; similarly the Merchant and Shipman personate commerce. A Cook
and the Host typify provisional trades. The Poor Parson and the Summoner represent the
secular clergy while the monastic orders are represented by the Monk, the Prioress and the
Pardoner. Thus, the characters in the Canterbury Tales are types as well as individual, as each of
them represents a definite profession or class of society and portrays certain individual
characteristics with all their idiosyncrasies of dress and speech. A.C. Ward asserts:
“Chaucer’s characters are not mere phantoms of the brain but real human beings and types true
to the likeness of whole classes of men and women”

Chaucer description of each man’s horse, furniture and array, reads like a page from a memoir.
He describes them in the most nature genial and humorous manner. Although, Chaucer’s
characters are typical, they also have other features which are not to be found in other
members of their profession. Thus, his characters can be distinguished from their colleagues.
Because he imparts individual traits to them. These features distinguish them as individuals. For
example, the Shipman has a beard; the Wife of Bath is ‘Som-del deef’ and ‘gat-toothed’; the
Reeve has long and lean legs, the Miller has “a wart surmounted by a tuft of hair” on his nose,
the Summoner’s face is full of pimples and Squire is “as fresshe as is the monthe of May”.
Chaucer’s lawyer seems typical of our own day when he says:

“Nowhere so bisy a man as he ther was/ And yet he seemed bisier than he was”

In fact, there is a different method of almost every pilgrim. He varies his presentation from the
full length portrait to the thumb-nail sketch, but even in the sketches, Chaucer conveys a strong
sense of individuality and depth. Chaucer does not take a dramatic approach, he uses
descriptive and narrative approach which suits the theme of The Canterbury Tales. Unlike
Wycliffe and Langland, He has broad humanity and sympathy for all the characters, the just and
the unjust. We feel a sense of comradeship with Chaucer. They are shown to possess those
traits and humors and habits that characterize the men and women of all ages in the world.
Their traits are universal, though some of them have changed their positions yet their nature is
the same. Chaucer uses the technique of contrast in drawing the portraits of the pilgrims. The
good and the bad rub shoulders together. We have the paragon of virtue in the Parson and the
Ploughman and monsters of vice in the Reeve, the Miller and the Summoner. Like Shakespeare,
Chaucer’s characters are three-dimensional i.e., having length, breadth and depth. For example,
the Wife of Bath and the Monk are complex figures. Chaucer has been called an outstanding
representative poet of his age because of the typical element in his characterization. So, Dryden
says:

“All his pilgrims are severally distinguished from each other, and not only in their inclinations
but also in their physiognomies and persons”

2. Irony and satire in the prologue

Humour is an essential ingredient of Chaucer's poetry and the back-bone of “The Prologue and
The Canterbury Tales”. All the characters in The Prologue have been humorously described.
Humour, infact, makes Chaucer’s characterization distinct. A humorist is one who is quick to
perceive the funny side of the things and who has the capacity to laugh and makes other laugh
at what is absurd or ridiculous or incongruous.
Chaucer is called the first humorist of English literature. No English literary work before him
reveals humour in the modern sense. And Chaucer is a greater humorist than Boccaccio.
Chaucer’s humour is consistent all pervasive and intense as we find in Shakespeare’s plays. He
paints all the characters in “The Prologue” in a humorous manner. The Knight is as gentle as a
maid; the Squire is too sentimental in his love to sleep at night; the Friar has relations with the
bar-maids instead of the poor; the Parson is too innocent and Clerk is too studious. Chaucer
even does not spare himself and says:

“My wit is short, ye may well understonde”

His humour has refined and sophisticated touches and it does not offend anybody. For
example, when he tells us that Prioress is so amiable and pleasant in her manners that she
takes paints to imitate the manners of the court we cannot know whether he is praising her or
laughing at her affection:

And full pleasant and amiable of port;

And peyned hire to counterfete cheere

Of court, and been es’attich of manere,

But his humour is of the finest type. It is pleasant and sympathetic because he is a man of
pleasant temperament. He knows that every human being has one type of defect or others. He
pinpoints the defect in a light manner with a view to cure them, not for degrading the victim.
His attitude is positive. So, when he says that the Friar lisps a little out of affection and when he
plays on a harp, his eyes twinkles in his head like sparkling stars on the frosty night, we do not
hate him or his affection, rather we just laugh at him at this weakness.

Chaucer’s humour is also tinged with pity. It makes us thoughtful of the weakness of his victim
and we start pitying him. For example, when he tells us that the Monk is more interested in
riding, hunting and other worldly pursuits than in religious activities we pity him and wish him
better. It means that his humour carries a sound message.

Chaucer’s humour is, of course, satirical but it is sugar coated. Hs purpose is to awake the
people against realities of life. His age is of romantic idealism and people are blind to the
realities of life. His satire is not corrosive but gentle and mild. Secondly, he is not a zealous
reformer. He satirizes only these characters that cannot be reformed at any cost, e.g. the
Summoner, and the Pardoner who are extremely corrupt. Here he openly passes remarks about
their dishonesty and corruption.

Most of the time, Chaucer’s humour takes the form of irony because it relieves the bitterness of
satire. For example, the use of the world “Worthy” for the most unworthy characters brings a
tickling irony except for the “Worthy” Knight. Chaucer employs different sorts of irony. He has
made an ample use of irony by contract in “The Prologue”. For example, after talking about the
bravery, skill, experience and grandeur of the Knight, he tells us that in his behaviour he is as
gentle as a maid and cannot harm anyone.

“And of his port as meeke as is a mayde”

He also employs irony be exaggeration when he says the Prioress has all the manners of eating
because she knows how to carry a morsel and how to keep. She does not let any morsel fall
from her mouth and she does not dip her fingers deep in the sauce. This is all exaggeration
because these things do not account for manner and everyone knows them well.

He creates irony by situation too. For example, he describes those qualities of the Monk, which
are not worth of his religious rank i.e. he is a good rider and brave man.

A monk there was, a fair for the maistrie,

An outridere, that lovede venerie;

A manly man, to been an abbot able.

In this way, he creates an ironical situation, which makes us think since he is a Monk, he should
not do this. His actions are set in contrast with is situation as a Monk.

Chaucer’s humour is wide in range. It covers all kinds of humour from downright jokes to good-
natured strokes when he paints the physical appearances of characters. For example, he
describes Reeve:

Ful longe were his legges and ful lene,

Y-lyk a staf, ther was no calf y-sene

Then, he says, that the Doctor of Physic is the greatest physician because he has the knowledge
of astronomy.

In the description of the Shipman, he creates humour by incongruity when he says that he is a
good fellow because he steals wine and has no prick of conscience.

In conclusion, we can say that critics may be divided in opinion as to Chaucer’s right to be called
the father of the English poetry, but there can be no question that he is the first great English
humorist.

3. Treatment of Ecclesiastical characters

4. Chaucer’s style and narrative skill

5. The Prologue as a picture gallery

6. Critical Appraisals of characters: Knight, WIB, Pardoner, Summonor, Parson, Friar and
Prioress

7. Wyatt’s Contribution/ Wyatt as poet or sonneteer

8. Surrey’s Contribution/ Surrey as poet or sonneteer

9. Critical Appraisals: The Long Love that in my thought I harbor, Is it possible? Madam
Withouten many words, Wyatt’s Death, Prisoned in Windsor, Love that doth reign and lived in
within my heart

10. Donne as a metaphysical poet

Introduction

The term “metaphysical” can be interpreted as beyond (meta) physical nature (physical).
Dryden was the first to use the term in connection with Donne by saying that he “affects the
metaphysics.” Dr. Johnson later described Donne and his followers as the metaphysical poets.
However, we cannot call Donne’s poetry metaphysical if the term is to imply the exposition of
some philosophical system of the universe, or speculation about the nature of things.
Furthermore, though Dr. Johnson used the term in a derogatory sense for Donne, the qualities
which he enumerated about Donne’s poetry are valid.

What is metaphysical poetry?

In brief, the term “metaphysical poetry” implies the characteristics of complexity, intellectual
tone, abundance of subtle wit, fusion of intellect and emotion, colloquial argumentative tone,
conceits (which are always witty and sometimes fantastic) scholarly allusions, dramatic tone,
and philosophic or reflective element.

Concentration is an important quality of metaphysical poetry in general and Donne’s poetry in

particular. In all his poems, the reader is held to one idea or line of argument His poems are
brief and closely woven. In The Ecstasy, for instance, the principal argument is that through the
different acts of love the function of man as man is being worthily performed. The poet
develops the theme without digression.

An expanded epigram would be a fitting description of a metaphysical poem. No word is

wasted, and nothing described in detail. There is a sinewy strength in the style. Verse forms are
usually simple, but always suitable in enforcing the sense of the poem.
Fondness for conceits is a major characteristic of metaphysical poetry. Of course, all
comparisons discover likeness in things unlike: but in a conceit we are made to concede the
likeness even while being strongly conscious of the unlikeness. Donne often employs fantastic
comparisons. The most famous and striking one is the comparison of a man who travels and his
beloved who stays at home to a pair of compasses, in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. A
clever, though obviously frivolous conceit is employed in The Flea where the insect is called the
marriage-bed and the marriage-temple of the lovers because it has bitten them and sucked
their blood. In his religious poetry, too, Donne uses far-fetched conceits. In the Holy Sonnet If
poisonous minerals, there is an image of the poet’s tears mingling with Christ’s blood and
taking the form of a learned conceit of the sphere and its intelligence with its
“correspondence”, between microcosm and macrocosm. While these conceits evoked Dr.
Johnson’s displeasure, they are fairly well enjoyed by modern readers.

Wit striking and subtle marks metaphysical poetry. Indeed, the conceits especially display a
formidable wit. So do the various allusions and images relating to practically all areas of nature
and art and learning. Allusions to medicine, Cosmology, ancient myth, contemporary
discoveries, history, law and art abound in Donne’s poetry. The hard core of logic is undeniable
in The Flea, for instance, though the poem is obviously light-hearted. Donne’s wit assumes
different moods and attitudes reflecting his perception of the complexity of life. Wit makes
itself evident in the paradoxes employed in the poem. In The Legacy the lover is his own
“executor and legacy”. Such paradoxical statements are to be found in several poems. In Death
be not proud, he says: “Death thou shall die”. Batter my heart is also full of such paradoxical
statements.

Combination of passion and thought is a peculiar characteristic of metaphysical poetry, and is

another form of wit. Thus there is a “unification of sensibility”, to use T.S. Eliot’s phrase, in
metaphysical poetry. There is in Donne’s poems an intellectual analysis of emotion. Every lyric
arises out of some emotional situation, but the emotion is not merely expressed; it is analysed.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning proves that lovers need not mourn at parting; The
Canonization establishes that lovers are saints of love; The Good Morrow asserts that lovers are
the best possible hemispheres who make up a complete world.
Argumentation and reasoning balance the passion in Donne’s poems. No one can deny the
passion in The Sun Rising, but there is also plenty of argumentation to prove that the sun has no
power over the lovers, as love knows no season or clime. Similarly, in The Canonization, there is
passion expressed through beautiful metaphors:

Call us what you will, we are made such by love;

Call her one, me another fly.

We are tapers too, and at our own cost die.

But at the same time, the tone of the poem is intellectual and there is plenty of complexity
involved in the conceits and allusions, such as the Phoenix riddle. Aire and Angels is highly
refined in thought and subtlety, even while being a passionate utterance. In A Valediction: Of
Weeping we have an exquisite blend of intense concentrated passion and profound thought.

The use of colloquial speech marks metaphysical poetry, as far as Donne is concerned. This is
specially apparent in the abrupt, conversational opening of many of his poems, for instance:

For God’s sake hold thy tongue, and let me love

(The Canonization)

Busy old fool, unruly sun (The Sun Rising)

Donne arrests our attention both by the content and the dramatic style of his poetry.

Donne’s love poems are especially entitled to be called metaphysical in the true sense. Poems
such as The Good Morrow, The Anniversary, The Canonization and The Ecstasy raise, even
though they do not explicitly discuss, the great metaphysical question of the relation of the
spirit and the senses. They raise it not as an abstract problem, but in the effort to make the
experience of the union of two human powers in love, and the union of two human beings in
love, apprehensible. Often Donne speaks of the soul and of spiritual love. The Ecstasy speaks of
the souls of the lovers which come out of their bodies to negotiate with one another.

Conclusion

Intellect and wit blending with emotion and feeling marks metaphysical poetry, especially that
of Donne. Indeed, Donne represents very well the school of poetry somewhat vaguely called
“metaphysical”. He brought the whole of his experience into his poetry. He is erudite, “the
monarch of wit”, colloquial, rhetorical or familiar. He chooses his language from the court or
the camp, the jargon of law, study, or the marketplace. These qualities are present in Donne’s
poetry—in the earliest of his love poems as well as in the later religious poems. Grierson aptly
sums up: “Donne is metaphysical not only by virtue of his scholasticism but by the deep
reflective interest in the experiences of which his poetry is the expression, the new
psychological curiosity with which he writes of love and religion”.

11. Donne as a love poet

Introduction: The variety and scope of Donne’s love poetry is really remarkable. He hinges
between physical and holy love, between cynicism and faith in love and above all the sanctity of
married life. He was born at the time when writing love-poems was both a fashionable and
literary exercise. Donne showed his talent in this genre. His poems are entirely different from
the Elizabethan love-lyrics. They are singular for their fascination and charm and depth of
feeling.

When by thy scorn, o murderess,

I am dead

And that thou think’st thee free

From all solicitations from me,

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed

Donne does not lay stress on beauty or rather the aesthetic element in passion. His poems are
sensuous and fantastic. He goes through the whole gamut of passion. Dryden writes: Donne
affects the metaphysics not only in his satires but in his amorous verses where nature only
should reign. He perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when
he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the softness of love”

Tenderness and sentiment are not the qualities to be found in Donne’s poetry. Donne in Lover’s
Infinitenesse, pleads with his beloved that she should give him a part of her heart. After she has
given him the part, he demands the whole heart. This is the goal and consummation of love. He
then startles and outrages the expectations of his readers.

I long to talk with some old lover’s ghost;

Who died before that God of love was born,

Twice or thrive had I loved thee,

Before I knew they face or name.

Donne’s love poems can be divided under three heads.

Poems of moods of lovers, seduction and free love or fanciful relationship

Poems addressed to his wife Anne More (his wife) before and after his marriage.

Poems addressed to other noble ladies.

Three Strands of his poetry. Firstly, there is the cynical which anti-woman and hostile to the
fair-sex. The theme is the frailty of man – a matter of advantage for lovers who liked casual and
extra-marital relations with ladies. Secondly, there is the strand of happy married life, the joy of
conjugal love in poems like A Valediction: forbidding mourning. Thirdly, there is the Platonic
strand, as in The Canonization where love is regarded as a holy emotion like the worship of a
devotee to God. Donne’s treatment of love-poems is realistic and not idealistic because he
knows the weakness of the flesh, pleasures of sex, the joy of secret meetings. However, he tries
to establish the relationship between body and soul. True love doesn’t pertain to the body; it is
the relationship of body and soul to the other soul. Physical union may not be necessary as in A
Valediction: a forbidding mourning. However, in the Relic, the poet regarded physical union as
the necessary complement. Despite the realistic touches, Donne nowhere seems to draw the
physical beauty or contours of the female body. Rather, he describes its reaction on the lover’s
heart. It is highly surprising that a poet so fond of sex, be restrained from describing the
physical patterns of the female body.
True Sex is holy: That sex is holy whether inside or outside marriage is declared by Donne in his
love-poems. If love is mutual, physical union even outside marriage cannot be condemned. As a
Christian, he may not justify extra-marital relationships, but as a lover and poet, he does accept
and enjoy this reality. Donne feels that love-bond is necessary for sexual union otherwise mere
sex without any spiritual love for the partner is degrading and mean. However, true love can
exist outside marriage, though moralists may sneer at this idea of Donne. He doesn’t feel that
woman is a sex-doll or a goddess. She is essentially a bundle of contradictions. He believes in
‘Frailty, thy name is woman’. His contempt for woman is compensated by his respect for
conjugal love. At times, he regards woman as the angel who can give him ultimate bliss. This
two-fold attitude is Donne’s typical quality as the poet. The poems referring to his wife, Anne
More reflect true serenity and consummation of love.

Donne’s uniqueness: While the Elizabethan lyrics are, by large limitations of Petrarchan
traditions, Donne’s poems stand in a class by themselves. He broke away from the traditional
concept of poetry as was Petrarchan in nature. The concept of woman in Petrarchan and in that
of Donne is totally different. Another quality is his passion and though, he doesn’t allow his
passion to run away with him. Grierson writes: Donne’s poetry is a very complex phenomenon,
but the two dominant strains in it are just these: the strains of dialectic, subtle play of argument
and wit and fantastic; and the strain of vivid realism and a record of passion. Donne shows the
supremacy of love.

Love, all like, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time, in fact true love is the merger of two souls.
Donne has certainly been an innovator of a new kind of love-poetry. What surprises the reader
is the variety of different moods and situations of the theme of love – sensual, violent, and full
of vivacity of life. There is scorn, cynicism, bitterness and sarcasm but the force of love is
genuine and unquestionable. Donne is one of the greatest English love-poets. In fact, among all
the English love-poets, he is the complete amongst them.

12. Critical Appraisals of select poems: Death be not proud, The Sun Rising, A Valediction:
forbidding Mourning, The Good Morrow, Twicknam Garden
13. Milton’s Grand Style

Milton’s Style: Its Grandeur and Loftiness

Abundance of Allusions and References: Difficulty

The first characteristic of Milton’s poetry that meets the eye, is its extremely difficult nature,
and this difficulty largely lies in his style. An appreciation of Milton, said Mark Pattison, “is the
last reward of consummate scholarship”. He is a poet not for the masses, but for the learned
few.

A whole treasury of allusions and references to classical myth, history and literature, to Biblical
mythology, and contemporary literatures, lies scattered all over his poetry, even his early
poetry. For example, in order to describe the vastness of Satan’s troops, he brings in the names
of the mightiest armies known to history and legend. As Hanford points out, “The whole
treasury of poetry and the whole storehouse of learning are at his command. He assumes that
they are also at the command of his reader and accordingly he loads every rift of his verse with
the ore of myth and legend, and with historical, literary, and scientific fact. Of no other English
style is erudition so integral a part. Classical and Biblical allusion is, of course, the most
abundant, constituting a kind of current coin of expression where-with to convey a meaning
rich in poetic and cultural suggestion.”

Extreme Terseness and Condensation

This difficulty of Milton’s poetry is further heightened by the extreme condensation and
terseness of his style. Raleigh calls Milton’s lines “packed lines” and writes, “The packed line
introduced by Milton is of a greater density and conciseness than anything to be found in
English literature before it. It is our nearest native counterpart to the force and reserve of the
high Virgilian diction.” He packs his meaning into the fewest possible words and studies
economy in every trifle. A reader of Milton must be always upon duty; he is surrounded with
sense; it rises in every line, every word is to the purpose. There are no lazy intervals; all has
been considered, and demands and merits observation. Even in the best writers you sometimes
find words and sentences which hang on so loosely, you may blow them off. Milton’s are all
subs-tance and weight; fewer would not have served his turn, and more would have been
superfluous. He expresses himself so concisely, employs words so sparingly, that whoever will
possess his ideas must dig for them, and often-times pretty far below the surface.”
Connec-tives and conjunctives are often missing, and all superfluous graces are usually
discarded and the poet continues to move forward giving the reader no rest. Each word is of
value; there is no mortar bet-ween the stones, each is held in place by the weight of the others,
and helps to uphold the building. He can enclose vast concepts within little space. Thus in the
following from Book II, the whole dreariness of the fallen angel’s march to their retreats after
the conference is expressed in the last line which is just a catalogue with-out any cement :

Through many a dark and dreary vale

They passed, and many a region dolorous,

O’er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp.

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death.

And in Book I the mightiest army one can imagine is rendered in less than six lines:

All in a moment through the gloom were seen

Ten thousand banners rise into the air,

With orient colours waving; with them rose

A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms

Appeared, and serried shields in thick array of depth immeasurable.

Latinisms; Loftiness and Sublimity

Milton’s genius for terseness and condensation accounts for many of the peculiarities of his
diction. His use of words in their original Latin sense, Latin constructions, and inversions is not
pedantry or vulgar show of knowledge. Through his Latinisms the poet achieves conciseness as
well as that elevation and remoteness, that distancing from the speech of everyday life, that
grandeur and sublimity, which are the key-notes of an epic. He was writing an epic in which the
characters are God, His Son, the angels, both good and bad. Naturally, he had to use words
which would be suitable for such super-human characters, and the order in which these words
are used must also be different from their order in the speech of ordinary mortals. That is why
he uses old English words in their original Latin sense. Thus the quaint expression ‘sounding
alchemy” is used for ‘trumpets of brass’, ‘Landskip’ for ‘landscape’, ‘highth’ for ‘height’, and
‘strucken’ for ‘striken’, ‘sublime’ is constantly used by him in the Latin sense of ‘aloft’ or ‘in the
air’, ‘sovran’ is used instead of ‘sovereignty’, and ‘author’ is used in the Latin sense of
‘informant’. Many of his Elisions and contractions also result from his passion for conciseness.

Inverted Constructions:

(a) Impart Brevity

Similarly the construction of his sentences is not the normal familiar construction of ordinary
speech. His construction aims at maximum of condensation and loftiness. In his sentences, says
Raleigh, “You cannot guess the adjective from the substantive, nor the end of the phrase from
its beginning. He is much given to inverting the natural English order of epithet and noun, that
he may gain a greater emphasis for the epithet.” For instance he places a noun between its two
qualifying adjectives, though the English idiom requires both to be placed before the noun: ‘the
upright heart and pure’, ‘the dismal situation waste and wild’, ‘ever burning sulphur
unconsumed’. Sometimes he prefers the Latin idiom to English, as in never, since created Man
Met such embodied force,

Here, as in Latin, the past participle ‘created’ and the noun ‘Man’, both combined, mean an
event—the creation of man, and the pre­position ‘since’ governs the event.
(b) Impart Force and Effectiveness

Inversion often forces our attention on a specific point which the poet wishes to stress. Take for
example the following opening lines of Book I:

Of man’s first disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death, into the world, and all our woe

With loss of Eden, till one greater man

Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,

Sing Heavenly Muse

Normally the words “sing Heavenly Muse” should open the poem. But Milton brings the object
just in the forefront, and stresses in one breath “man’s first disobedience”, “the Fruit”, the
“Forbidden Tree”, ‘‘mortal taste”, and these are central to the poem. Thus by inverting the
normal order, he is able to focus our attention on the theme, and raise before our imagination
the dramatic and historical dimensions of his cosmic stage.

He inverts the normal word-order to make his communication snore effective and to focus our
attention exactly where he wishes. “The violation of the normal English, which have upset some
purists” says Daiches, “are carefully and systematically employed in order to achieve different
kind of emotional pitch, to effect conti-nuity and integration in the weaving of epic design, and
above all to sustain the poem as a poem and to keep it from disintegrating into isolated
fragments of high rhetoric.”

Catalogues of Proper Names

The long catalogues of proper names which we come across so frequently in Paradise Lost also
enable him to achieve terseness, to dilate the imagination of his readers by opening out large
vistas before their mind’s eyes, as well as to surprise and delight them by their music and
melody. Milton was a conscious artist who chases his words both with reference to their sense
and their sound. Indeed, many of the proper names are chosen for their sonorous music. On a
small scale we have “Busiris and his Memphian chivalry”, “Vallombrosa where the Etrurian
shades”. On a bigger scale we have those famous lines in Book I:

Begirt with British and Armoric Knights,

And all who since, baptized or infidel,

Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond.

and so on, till the catalogue of musical names ends with Fortarabbia. By all these means, “he
attained to a finished style of perhaps a more consistent and unflagging elevation than is to be
found elsewhere in literature”—(Raleigh). This cataloguing is not a cheap ‘rhetorical device, or
display of erudition as has been objected, to by some critics, it is integral to Milton’s epic-
purpose.

Suggestiveness

Closely allied to condensation, is suggestiveness, another important characteristic of Milton’s

style. Milton suggests much more than he actually states or describes. His poetry must be read
imaginatively. The poet was dealing with events and situations prior to known history, even
prior to creation itself. He was dealing with characters supernatural who lie beyond the pale of
human experience, and so can only be comprehended imaginatively. Even the human
characters, Adam and Eve, are quite different from any known human being. Thus the very
subject of Milton made it unavoidable that he should suggest much more than he actually
states, that he should constantly evoke and bring into play the imagination of his readers. Thus
the vastness of Satan’s figure, the immensity of his shield and spear, is conveyed through a few
deft strokes. For example, the very fact that a “horrid vale” is formed in the Lake of Fire when
Satan comes out of it, is sufficient to give us an idea of his huge bulk. Writes Rose Macaulay in
this connection, “the most unimaginative man must understand Homer. Homer gives him no
choice, and requires from him no exertion ; but takes the whole upon himself, and sets the
images in so clear a light, that it is impossible to be blind to them. The works of Milton cannot
be comprehended or enjoyed, unless the mind of the reader co-operate, with that of the
writer. He does not paint a finished picture, or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches and
leaves others to fill up the outline. He strikes the keynote and expects his hearers to make out
the melody.”

Epic-Similes

The use of Homeric or epic-similes helps the poet a great deal to secure the co-operation of his
readers. Richard-Garnett considers Milton’s epic-similes more arresting, more grand and more
numerous, at least in Book I, than they are even in Homer. Such similes impart variety,
grandeur and expressiveness to the poet’s style. They serve to introduce that human interest
into his epic in which a number of critics, following Dr. Johnson, have found it lacking. Milton’s
similes are elaborate and learned. The army of the fallen angels lying dazed in a stupor in Book I
is illustrated by three or four different similes drawn from natural history, and from the
scriptures. The re-assembled forces of these spirits are again illustrated with five similes drawn
from scripture and history. As Professor Raleigh writes: “From Herodotus to Olaus Magnus and
onward to the latest discoveries in geography, and astronomy, the researches of Galileo and
the description given by contemporary travellers of China and the Chinese, or of the North
American Indians, Milton compels the authors he had read, both ancient and modern, to
contribute to the gracing of his work.”

Verbal Music

A word may now be said about Milton’s verbal-music. As already pointed out above, he chooses
words both with reference to their sound and their sense. Many of the proper nouns used by
him have a grand sonorous music. Many of his Latinisms as, “resounding alchemy”, are also
accounted for by his fondness for sound affects. The music both of polysyllabic Latin words and
of monosyllables is fully exploited. The music in the following lines arises from skilful balancing
of vowel sounds:
…… chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet,

Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,

The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds,

Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

use of alliteration, assonance (correspondence in sound) onometopoea (sound-echoing sense),

repetition, etc., are some other devices used by Milton to impart music and, melody to his
diction.

Some Faults

Milton’s style has been criticised on a number of counts, and some of his faults may now be
noted. First, his style is heavily overloaded with his learning and is far beyond the reach of the
average reader. Secondly, he avoids the commonplace and often uses a roundabout way of
expression or circumlocution. Dr. Johnson, therefore, criticised his style as, “perverse and
pedantic”. Thirdly, his frequent Latinisms and inverted constructions have exposed him to the
charge of corrupting the English language, and writing, “as if he were writing a foreign
language.” Fourthly, his use of high sounding words and phrases and his long cataloguing of
proper names have been condemned as theoretical by no less a critic than T.S. Eliot. Fifthly,
often he is guilty of using mixed metaphors which result in obscurity, and needless perplexity
and confusion for the readers. And lastly, there is his fondness for ‘puns’ and word-play. Thus
we have, “At one slight bound high overkapt all bound”, and “Beseeching or besieging”, etc.

Conclusion: Milton’s Grand Style

However, such faults are only minor flaws in the chastity, the sonority and girded majesty of
Milton’s diction. Milton remains in the final analysis the great master of the great or grand style
which arises when a noble nature poetically gifted treats with severity or simplicity a noble
subject. In the noblest tradition of the epic, big thoughts are uttered by him in a big way. As Dr.
Johnson rightly pointed out, “His natural port is gigantic loftiness”. For want of a better word
his style has been called ‘Miltonic’, a thing apart in English literature. Loftiness of thought and
majesty of expression combine to make Milton’s style ‘sublime’ in the real sense of the word.

14. Paradise as a Renaissance Epic

15. Hero of Paradise Lost: Satan or Adam

The Hero of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

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Introduction

Much controversy has clustered round the question as to who is the hero of Paradise Lost.
There are very sensible persons, who advocate the claim of Satan, and others, that of Adam.
One critic suggests God, and another the Messiah (Christ). A French critic (Denis Saurat) puts
forward the strange thesis that Milton himself is he hero of Paradise Lost.
(A) SATAN: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

Satan as A most Powerfully Drawn Character

Let us see some of the points of his character which are definitely indicated. In the beginning, it
is Satan who, first of all the angels, arouses himself up from the lake of fire. He has the power of
recovery in the face of defeat. Not one word, which he utters, expresses despair, when he
discovers the terrible nature of the place to which God has banished them. Immediately his
active mind begins to scheme, and he proceeds to reassemble his shattered forces. We are
often told that adversity reveals the best qualities in a man; adversity certainly reveals the
vigorous intellect and driving personality of Satan. He shows the highest degree of fortitude and
"courage never to submit or yield." His personal example soon communicates itself to the other
angels, and they gather round their great leader. In the plays of Shakespeare, we have often
seen that the great dramatist contrives to create his finest characters by letting us hear what
other people think of them, and say about them, so it is with Milton. All the angels welcome
with joy their mighty leader. It matters not that they have been defeated and expelled from
Heaven, because of their share in his rebellion. They gather round him with absolute
confidence such as earthly men feel instinctively at times when they realize the worth of a great
leader. The mighty qualities of Satan's mind, and the indomitable resolution which animates
him, are displayed when he exclaims:

... and thou, profoundest Hell

Receive thy new possessor, one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

There are sentiments which might well be uttered by the most spiritual of characters. The spirit
of self-reliance, of mental courage, which rises independent of environment, is a quality
possessed only by the greatest characters. This might well have been spoken by some saint in
exile, or languishing in dungeons of a cruel tyrant. A few lines later, there blazes a burst of
strong, over-mastering ambition, the expression of a nature the must, be first in all things:

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell;

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

It is no ordinary ambition which we see here; there is something colossal in this bold challenge
to the Almighty for supreme power. We have seen instances in the history of the human race
where two great natures clashed, and neither would give way: Caesar and Hannibal, Wellington
and Napoleon, and we have been impressed by the greatness on either side. It may be a wicked
things to defy God, but, in this case, God is far-removed and unreal, and it is the greatness of
the challenge, rather than the wickedness, which is the prominent impression.

Beelzebub bears witness to the great worth of Satan as a leader:

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

.... they will soon resume

New courage and revive, though now they lie

Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire.

If this was said of the noblest general who ever led mortal armies, he would be acclaimed by all
as a leader of men. The effect here is similar; we must judge Satan according to earthly and
human standards since we have no other. We respect him because of the confidence with
which he inspire the forces. When the downfallen angels reach the shore, their dejected spirits
are cheered, and their look show:
Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their chief

Not in despair...

Million then makes Satan console them, raise their sinking courage, and dispel their fears. The
poet seems to feel here that he is ennobling the Archfiend unduly, for he reminds the reader
that Satan achieves this by:

high words that bore

Semblance of worth, not substance.

A Great Figure of Epic Dimension

But Milton has endowed Satan with all those qualities which make a hero. In fact, it is the
grandeur of Satan's character that makes Paradise Lost an epic. Milton has imparted something
of himself to Satan, and so Satan arouses our admiration by the strength of his character and
individuality. He assets himself against the autocracy of God, and is able to win over to his side
the third part of the angelic host in Heaven. He is no doubt defeated by the Messaih (Christ) but
his defeat and his expulsion from Heaven cannot curb his indomitable spirit. He would urge
eternal war against God; he remains as bold in spirit and as defiant as he was before his defeat;
and the change of his surroundings cannot in any way dampen his unconquerable spirit. He will
make Heaven of Hell, and undertakes all kind of risks and dangers in order to take revenge on
God. This figure is heroic in every way. He is a perfect leader, and all the fallen angels submit
unquestioningly to his authority. "It is surely the simple fact" says Abercrombie, "that Paradise
Lost exists for one figure that is Satan, just as the Iliad exists for Achilles and the Odyssey for
Odysseus. It is in the figure of Satan that the imperishable significance of Paradise Lost is
centered; his vast unyielding agony symbolises the profound antimony of modern
consciousness." Satan is indeed a great figure of epic dimension. He is a true hero, but he is so
only in Books I and II of Paradise Lost.
Robert Burns strongly upheld Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost, in these words: "give me a
spirit like my favourite hero, Milton's Satan", W. Hazlitt was of the same view, "the interest of
the poem arises from the daring ambition and fierce passions of Satan, and from the account of
the paradisical happiness and the loss of it by our first parents, Satan is the indubitable hero - in
fact, the most heroic subject that ever was chosen for a poem".

Arguments against Satan being the Hero of the Poem

As the poem proceeds, this heroic figure gradually loses its splendour, though he retains his
original greatness even when he comes to the earth and sees the joy; but pride prevails over
him, for he must have his revenge on God who is his eternal enemy.

Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

Your change approaches, when all these delights

Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe-

****

Yet no purposed foe

to you, whom I could pity thus forlorn,

Though I unpitied

From now onward, the deterioration of Satan starts. In fact when he enters into a serpent to
tempt Eve, he has turned from a great hero into a despicable spy and cunning trickster. So
when we take the whole of Paradise Lost into consideration, we cannot agree with the view
that Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost.

Admiration and Sympathy of Satan Misunderstood

According to some critics, Satan is the hero of the poem. In the preceding chapter, we have
expressed the view of these critics of the Romantic age and the twentieth century. Now let us
interpret the views of these critics. In fact, Satan is not the hero of the poem. Even Dryden was
misled by the epic current in his day. The Romantics misunderstood Blake. It is a pity that even
a great critic like Tillyard misunderstood him. As Rudrum Alan remarks in his book Milton:
Modern judgements: "It is only in the context of his own highly complex system of thought that
Blake's remarks on Milton's Satan can be properly understood. But of course they have been
abstracted from that context..." Blake never means that Milton identifies himself with Satan.
According to him, poetry is emotional rather than rational. In other words, evil inspires a poet
more than the good; a poet finds it easier to depict evil than good, as stated by Blake. It is in
this sense that Milton is of the Devil's party. So, the Romantics misunderstood Blake. A poet has
'as much delight in depicting an Iago as an Imogen' (an evil and good character). Milton took
pleasure in the exercise of his power.

Secondly, those who think that Satan is the hero of the poem, confine their criticism to the first
two books. As A. Stopford Brooke remarks: "The interest of the story collect at first round the
character of Satan, but he grows meaner as the poem develops, and his second degradation
after he has destroyed innocence is one of the finest and most consistent motives in the poem.
This at once disposes the view that Milton meant Satan to be the hero of his epic." Thus in the
first two books he is made a heroic figure. Subsequently, his character degenerates.

Thirdly, Milton's identification with Satan is misunderstood. Tillyard says that the character of
Satan expresses something in which Milton believed very strongly. But Tillyard forgets that the
identification of Milton with Satan, is only partial. Milton is also Adam. Milton thought himself a
sincere Christian. Milton has Satan in him and wants to drive him out. "He was of the devil's
party without knowing it; but he was also of God's party, and what is more important, he knew
it." (Denis Saurat Milton: Man, and Thinker). Further Denis Saurat remarks: "And yet Satan is
not the hero of the poem: he is intellectually condemned, in spite of all the poet's and the
reader's sympathy."

We should not be taken in by Satan's impressive speeches. For what indeed does his fine
sounding phrase sense of "injured merit" mean but simply "not fair" which is far from being a
heroic cry. Stylistic reasons enforce superficially the heroism of Satan-his utterances are always
couched in language of unrivalled poetic splendour. But this should not mislead us, for in the
end Satan himself realized his impotence and inner helplessness.
Finally, the splendour of Satan is misunderstood. The magnificence and splendour of Satan
must be exalted in order to indicate the epic greatness of the coming conflict. In other words, in
order to rouse the reader's fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and
gratitude for his redemption, Milton has shown the magnificence of Satan's character. George
Sampson remarks: "Those who maintain that Satan the rebel is the real hero of the poem fail to
understand that the adversary of God and Man must be presented in majesty and magnitude if
he is to be worthy of his place in the story that he must have, in fact all the fascination of evil.
"We should not be swept away by the sheer grandeur of Satan's speeches, or by the splendour
of his personality. Heroism exerted in the bad cause, ceases to be virtue. And, therefore, it is
not enough to say that Satan is the hero of the poem because he is brave and bold.

Many of the twentieth century critics do not hold the view of the Romantics i.e. Satan is the
hero of Paradise Lost. John Peter is of the opinion that "the loss of poetic energy or resonance
in the heroic similes applied to Satan shows an important aspect of the deterioration in Milton's
treatment of the Devil". According to David Daiches, the whole poem is the story of Satan's
inevitable degeneration.

(B) MILTON: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

This theory has been formulated by Denis Saurat, a French critic. He says in his book Milton:
Man and Thinker that Adam is not the fitting counterpart for Satan. According to him, the hero
of the poem is Milton himself. As stated by him: "Though Satan is Milton's own creation, and he
has displayed a greater force of poetry in him than in any other character in Paradise Lost as he
represents a part of his own mind and character, yet it seems that Milton throws himself
personally into the struggle against Satan". Further Saurat feels that Milton has exalted Satan
because he himself wanted to drive out malignant and militant Satan from his own heart. In this
connection, he says: "Milton had Satan in him and wanted to drive him out. He had felt passion,
pride and sensuality. The displeasure he takes in the creation of Satan is the joy of liberating,
purging himself of the evil in himself by concentrating it outside himself into a work of art. A joy
peculiar to the artist……a joy that, perhaps was God's ultimate aim in creating the world, as we
have seen.
The argument is not plausible that Milton himself is the hero. No doubt, Milton's personality is
revealed in Paradise Lost: and he never conceals where his sympathy lies. There is again some
similarity between the position of Satan and that of Milton. Satan had defied the authority of
God the autocrat, just as Milton had defied the autocracy of the King. Hence, Satan is endowed
with all the force and fire of Milton's own spirit. But Milton's object was to justify the ways of
God to man. He therefore, expresses himself here and there to execute his avowed aim. The
epic, it must be remembered, is a piece of objective art. He calls Satan's "infernal serpent"
'Arch-fiend' and uses abusive epithets to expose Satan's real character. But Milton himself
cannot and does not take part in the action of the poem. The lyrical qualities of Milton's genius
inevitably enter into Paradise Lost. But to say that he is the hero of Paradise Lost, is nothing
short of preposterous.

(C) ADAM: THE HERO OF "PARADISE LOST"

To put forward the claim either of God or of the Messiah (Christ) is absurd, for they do not take
part in the central action of Paradise Lost. However, the whole epic, turns rounds what Milton
indicates even in the first line of the poem 'Man's first disobedience.' Adam disobeyed God, and
by this act of disobedience, he not only lost Paradise but brought about the fall of the whole
human race. No action can be more tremendous in its import and significance than that which
brought the fall of the whole of humanity. And Adam, being responsible for it, is obviously
meant by the poet to fill the role of the hero of the great poem.

Difficulty arises because Adam does not act. He is merely a passive figure, who is acted upon by
others. But it is his fate that engages the attention of God and the Angels in Heaven, and of
Satan and the devils in Hell. His fate again causes a terrible upheaval on the Earth. When Eve
plucks the fruit, "Nature sighs that all is lost." Adam may not be a heroic figure in the same
sense as Achilles is. But Paradise Lost is a different kind of epic from Homer's Iliad. Milton
himself says,

... Yet argument

Not less but more heroic than the wrath of stern Achilles.
In creating Adam, Milton attempted a very peculiar task. Adam, the father of mankind is almost
without human experience and so cannot have much personality. Milton has to present a figure
who appeals imaginatively and poetically and this he does. Adam has a natural magnificence
that fits him to be the hero of an epic. However, Adam is not a hero like Achilles and Ullyses,
etc. capable of incredibly heroic deeds. Adam is a hero of a nobler kind.

Adam's role is not that of a warrior but that of a God-fearing man, faced with a temptation and
defeated in the conflict between himself and Satan. In studying the question of the hero of
Paradise Lost, we need not be obsessed with the classical conception of the epic here. Adam is
defeated no doubt but through the Messiah (Christ) he regains the Paradise 'happier far'. Thus
the ultimate victory which is of a spiritual nature goes to Adam. Adam is the real hero of
Paradise Lost.

Conclusion

"One supposed defect in the story of Paradise Lost has been frequently dwelt on, and the fact is
that Satan, and not Adam, is the hero of the epic. We think that only those, who reading of
Milton has been confined to the first two books, can be misled by this nonsensical paradox. In
the first two books Satan is naturally made a heroic figure; he is still an Arch-angel (though
fallen) one of the chief Arch-angels and king over his fellows. "His character has power. His
capacity for evil must be exalted in order to show the epic greatness of the coming conflict and
in order to arouse the reader's fears for himself, human sympathy with his first parents and
gratitude for his redemption. But we have not to wait for Paradise Regained to see the steady
deterioration in Satan's character. Surely, to take one instance alone there is little of the heroic
in Satan when he takes the form of a toad to whisper in Eve's ear and is stirred up by the spear
of Ithuriel. At the close of the poem Satan's degradation is complete." (Wyatt and Low).

“Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, but he is in no sense the hero of the epic as a whole;
he is only a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with
dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity" Helen Grander.
Although Adam is a passive and not an active agent in the poem and although he suffers more
than he acts, his claim to the title of the hero seems to be better than anybody else's. As Landor
points out, and as everybody at once notices, Adam is the central figure in the poem, round
whom the others act. It is his fall that is the subject matter of the poem. Our interest centres
round him; our sympathy goes to him. He may reasonably be called the hero of 'Paradise Lost'.
Adam does not have a romantic character and obvious bravery of a noble; he is Every man as
he recognizes his own weakness: accepts his responsibility, and faces life with true courage. His
battles are within him, as is fitting for the hero of a great religious epic

16. Theme in Paradise Lost: Justifying the ways of God

The Theme and Moral Purpose of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction

Since all epics of antiquity deal with personalities and events of divine or superhuman
dimensions, it has become a fixed rule that an epic worthy of the name should deal with an
action or story which has universal or even cosmic appeal. The affairs of small people do not
interest us since there is nothing heroes or noble about them at first sight. The Iliad dealt with
Gods and heroes, lovely women and romantic lovers, doughty deeds on the battle-field and
heroic achievements and death.

The Ramayana deals with the heroic virtues of constancy, parental duty, filial love, chivalry,
succouring the oppressed, loyalties and treacheries on a grand scale. In the Mahabharata, we
have the endless complication all springing from the rivalries of brothers for power and
dominion. As the fortunes and misfortunes affect all human beings, all are interested in
following the adventures of such exceptional beings. We see what man is capable of, what man
has to contend with and what man has to suffer as a result of transgressing the rules of
Dharma. From such knowledge we come out chastened and inspired to order our lives more
honorably and nobly.
But the ancient epics dealt with men and events which we know could not have happened as
described. Much of it is pure imagination, much of it is fantastic or incredible and many other
parts are beyond human agencies. They help us to realise that we are surrounded by invisible
powers which can shape us to some extent, and which exert a continuous influence over us for
good and ill. Faith in God and a divine order is thus inculcated, and we do not feel as strangers
or helpless beings in this world. Death is the final end of all mortal men. But before death
comes, we are impelled to do something worthy of our higher natures so that it may remain as
an object of inspiration to all mankind. Thus, epics give us delight, instruction, edification and
consolation.

Milton's Subject: Fall of Man

Milton was a profound student of the classics, and from a very early period of his life, he was
seized with the ambition to write an epic poem. But the course of his life was chequered by
many interests, conflicts and crosses which prevented him from taking up the work on which he
kept on brooding. At last he hit upon the subject of the fall of Man as narrated in the Bible as a
fit theme for his epic, and planned and completed his Paradise Lost. The actual story of Adam
and Eve, of their blissful state of innocence in paradise and the manner of their fall from it is
very briefly narrated in the Genesis. Taking it as the kernel of his work, he decided to enrich it in
all possible ways with the resources of his poetical faculties, his wide knowledge, learning and
scholarship.

Coleridge commenting on the theme of Paradise Lost said: "It represents origin of evil and the
combat of evil and good, it contains matter of deep interest to all mankind, as forming the basis
of all religion and the true occasion of all philosophy whatsoever."

Universal Interest

The fall of man is a subject of universal interest. Unlike other epics of ancient times, he could
treat it in such a way as to ring conviction to the modern mind. But as mythology is a very
essential aspect of all epics, he decided to make use of all his classical lore to embellish and
illustrate his own narrative. As an epic should provide for the free play of all the nova rasas as
we call them, he developed a plot which provided scope for them in ample measure. Biblical
history is a part of the Sematic racial heritage; and the ancient Hebrews had come into contact
with the pre-classical body of knowledge which goes back to a much more ancient past than
that of ancient Greece and Rome. At the same time, according to the Christian religion, all
mankind has been cursed as a result of the disobedience and fall of Man. Also that religion
connects it with the coming of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of mankind from the sin of which
Adam and Eve were guilty.

Raleigh remarks: "A prerogative place among the great epics of the world has sometimes been
claimed for Paradise Lost, on the ground that the theme it handles is vaster and of a more
universal human interest than any handled by Milton's predecessor. It concerns itself with the
fortunes not of a city or of an empire but of the whole human race, and with that particular
event in the history of the race which has moulded all its destinies.".

A.C. George states: "We can state the essential theme of Paradise Lost as the sustained
opposition between love and hate, God responds to the destructive challenge of Satan with the
creative expression of love." "Milton has combined two traditional elements - the story of the
challenge and response through an indirect agent. The former theme is the direct physical
conflict of the Celestial Battle, and the latter is Satan's challenge of God-indirectly through
God's own creature man. The second theme arises out of the first."

Another interpretation is that the theme of Paradise Lost is "the Fall of Man" from Paradise on
account of his sin. Here Milton has tried to show that every action of man, however,
insignificant, has its consequences. His principal concern is that man must make the right use of
every moment of life because his actions are irrevocable. Milton's object in this poem was also
to emphasize the role of Christ as the Redeemer of mankind and to justify the ways of God to
men.

According to Tillyard, when the passions get the upper-hand chaos ensues, all peace is gone
and man falls from true liberty to moral anarchy. According to F. Kermode, Paradise Lost points
the contrast between the true delight of love and the false delight which leads to sorrow.
The doctrine of Free Will has been insisted on by Milton frequently and emphatically. The kind
of action or state of mind Milton felt desirable was one perfectly controlled by the conscious
will. Any deed, however significant, performed instinctively or without the full significance of
the issue realized, was of little value. Milton has not condemned the element of desire in
human nature but the difference between love that is genuine and passion that is not
controlled by reason has been brought out.

God's Pity on Mankind

As every sin has to be punished so was it the lot of mankind to suffer death although they had
been promised immortality by God. But God himself took pity on mankind after a time, and
resolved to come down in human shape to save men from hell and death. So Christ is
represented as the Son of God, who came on earth and suffered Himself to be crucified, thus
taking on himself the sin of mankind. This is known as the doctrine of vicarious suffering. God as
man, suffered despite being pure and guiltless. By following Christ men were thus giving a
chance of regaining their lost Paradise. This is the main topic which Milton has elaborated in his
two great epics called Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. The first deals with the entire story
of the Universe from the moment of the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, down to
the disobedience of Adam tempted by Satan.

Two Groups of Angels

To explain how Satan came to be an evil spirit, we have another mythological story of how
there was formerly great war between one group of angels devoted to God and another group
of angels led by Lucifer who wished to overthrow God so that he himself might become the
most supreme of spirits, in the end, Lucifer was defeated and hurled down by God with all his
hosts into a bottomless pit there to suffer for ever. But Lucifer, thereafter called Satan rankled
in his defeat and planned to seek revenge against the Almighty. On hearing that God had
created Man to take the place of the fallen angels, he decided to tempt him and wean him
away from God. He found an opportunity to do so, since God put Adam and Eve in Paradise and
gave him the lordship of all creation with one exception alone. This was that they should not
taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge which grew in Eden.
Satan seized the opening, and after recognising his shattered hosts and placing them in suitable
dwellings in Hell, came out, and taking the form of a serpent, entered Eden and caused the fall
of both Adam and Eve by persuading Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. With knowledge, Adam
and Eve lost their innocence, and God cursed them not only with the loss of their immorality
and happiness but also drove them out of Eden to wander over the earth and earn their bread
by the sweat of their brow.

Various Episodes

Into this main Biblical story, Milton has woven many episodes, drawn from the entire range of
ancient lore to give his poem both substance, bulk and shape and impressive majesty and
sublimity.

Vastness of the Theme

Critics have admired Milton's courage in dealing with the universal subject. The scene of action
is the universal space; time is represented by eternity. The characters are God and His creation.
The epic deals with the fortunes of the whole human race and not of a particular country and
nation.

The Problem of Evil: The Conflict between Good and Evil

The problem of evil is a very old subject. Philosophers have given different views regarding the
origin of the evil. Some regarded it as something external. Others regarded it as something
eternal. For Satan, evil is the disobedience of the order of God. It is the will of the Man asserting
himself. In fact, Satan brought freedom to Man. He gave consciousness of personality to Man.
Man began to act with free choice and judgement. Now this freedom meant facing the
consequences of one's choice. Adam and Eve have, therefore, to leave paradise because they
followed their own free will. Milton condemned the act of Man. He did not appreciate man's
free will and judgement because he was a very strict Puritan. His stress was on the results of
the evil which led man to his ruin.
Some critics feel that there are two themes which are quite balanced, namely, the Fall of Angels
and Fall of Man. The first half deals with Satan's efforts to do something against God. The
second half is the drama of Adam and Eve.

But this cannot be accepted. Milton clearly said that his story dealt with the Fall of Man. Satan's
story is subsidiary to the main story of Adam and Eve.

Milton's Failure to Justify the Ways of God to Man

Some critics believe that the poet instead justifies the ways of Satan to men, he has not
justified the ways of god on the poetic level. Milton has tried to do so through arguments which
are unconvincing.

Moreover, the punishment given to Adam and Eve is out of proportion to their sin of
disobedience. Hanford points out that "the justification of divine ways lies in the representation
of Adam as a free agent and in the revelation of the working of God's Grace which allows to him
and his descendants the opportunity for a new exercise of moral choice and of consequent
salvation even after the Fall... The poet has gone out of his way again and again to insist on the
fact of Adam's freedom…..Neither personally nor as a part of the system did the idea greatly
move or interest him."

Poetic Justice

The theme of the epic is the justification of "God's ways to Man. "Milton justified the
punishment of Adam and Eve for the crime they committed. They are expelled from Paradise.
However, Milton is not a pessimist. He believe in spiritual development from Hope to Faith.
God through His Goodness redeems man from sin. His son namely Christ offers his own sacrifice
for the sake of Adam and Eve. At the end of the Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve feel repentant.
They are punished in Heaven by God through the angel named Michael.
David Daiches states: "Milton's heart was not fully in this sort of justification. Whatever he
might have consciously thought." However, he adds that the true justification lies in the way in
that virtue, can only be achieved by struggle, that the Fall was inevitable because a passive and
ignorant virtue, with the challenge of an imperfect world, cannot release the true potentialities
of human greatness.

Conclusion

Milton's Puritanism and his great faith in the Bible made him choose his subject which was of
interest to all men. His great achievement lies in making such a serious subject which is
agreeable and acceptable to all. In fact, his sublimity (greatness and grandeur) can only be
maintained at high level on a very lofty subject,

"Paradise Lost": A Classical Epic

November 9, 2010 neoenglish MA English-Literature

Characteristics of an Epic

An epic is the highest type of narrative poetry. It is a long narrative poem in which the
characters and the action are of heroic proportions. From the works of Homer and Virgil,
certain characteristics have become established in the West as standard attributes of the epic.
The main attributes are given below.
(i) The hero is a figure of great national or international importance. Moreover, the characters
must belong to the highest class in a society, raised above the common man by birth, position,
manners and appearance. They must be kings and princes descended from heroes, and even
from the gods, compelling in their deportment and arresting in their personal appearance. In
Paradise Lost the hero is Adam, who incorporates in himself the entire race of man.

(ii) The setting is ample in scale, sometimes world-wide, or even larger in the classical epic. The
scope of Paradise Lost is cosmic, for it includes Heaven, Earth and Hell.

(iii) The action involves heroic deeds: Paradise Lost includes the war in Heaven, the journey of
Satan to discover the newly created world, and his audacious attempt to outwit God by
corrupting mankind.

(iv) The action should be an entire action, complete in itself. By this is meant that it should have
a beginning, a middle, and an end.

(v) The next characteristic of the epic poem according to Aristotle is that it must have greatness,
by which is meant that it must produce far-reaching consequences in which the destinies of
great men and nations are involved.

(vi) God are also used in the epic as a tragedy, as deux ex machina; the intervention of
supernatural machinery advances the plot and solves its complications. It not only gives ample
scope for the exercise of the poet’s imagination, it also provides a proper spiritual support for
the heroic deeds.

(vii) An epic poem is a ceremonial composition and deliberately given a ceremonial style
proportionate to its great subject and architecture. Hence, Milton’s Latinised diction and
stylized syntax, his resounding lists of strange and sonorous names, and his epic similes, that is,
sustained similes in which the comparison is developed far beyond the specific points are
appropriate.
(viii) The poet begins by stating his theme, then invokes a Muse in his great undertaking and
addresses the Muse.

MAIN ATTRIBUTES OF MILTON’S EPIC:

“PARADISE LOST“

(i) Universality of the Subject-matter in “Paradise Lost“

Milton’s Paradise Lost is not a national epic like the Iliad or the Aeneid; nor is it an epic after
any of the known types. It is an epic of the whole human species-an epic of our entire planet or
indeed of the entire astronomical universe. The vast compass of the story, its space, time,
characters and purpose make it unique among the world epics and fully entitle its author to
speak of it as involving:

“Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”

It is a poetical representation of the historical connection between the created World and the
immeasurable and inconceivable Universe of Prehuman Existence. The newly created Earth
with all the starry depths about it has as yet but two human beings upon it, and these are the
persons of the epic. The grand purpose of an epic is to connect, by stupendous imagination
certain events of this pre-supposed Infinite Eternity with the first fortunes of this favoured
planet and its two human inhabitants. Now the person through the narration of whose acts this
connection is established is Satan, a central character of the epic.

Milton’s Paradise Lost has a wider scope and larger signifi-cance than either the llliad or the
Aeneid, because it deals with the whole human race and indicates the destiny of all humanity
through the sin of the first man created by God. Thus Milton promotes a universal view of
man’s life on this earth and shows how he has a past, a present and a future devised for him by
the might of God and as a result of his own exertions. This is the didactic or philosophical view
of an epic. Milton says that he has undertaken to write of the Fall of Man and to justify the
ways of God to men. Man is born endowed with free will and great powers, but he is subject to
the decrees of the Almighty who is filled with love for his own creations. We can make or mar
our destiny since we are given freedom to work out the will of God or suffer from the
consequences of disobeying Him. This is a cosmic or eternal view which is bound to inspire all of
us with hope for the future. Coleridge commented on the universal appeal of Paradise Lost
saying “it represents the origin of evil and the combat of evil and good, it contains a matter of
deep interest to all mankind, as forming the basis of all religion and the true occasions of all
philosophy whatsoever.”

(ii) Unity of Action in “Paradise Lost“

There is a perfect unity of action in Paradise Lost as in the great classical epics of Homer and
Virgil. The theme of Paradise Lost is ‘Fall of man'; everything in the poem either leads up to it or
follows from it. The plucking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge by Eve is the apex of the
whole architecture of Paradise Lost. The lines,

So saying, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat.

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through her all works, gave signs of woe

That all was lost:

are the central lines round which everything else in the poem turns. The war between God and
Satan, followed by Satan’s fall, is only a prelude to the main action. Satan defeated and
punished, sought to take revenge on God by bring about the fall of man. Hence the fall of Satan
does not constitute a separate action, as contended by some critics. The whole action of
Paradise Lost is single and compact. There are some episodes, as that of Sin and Death, which
are the necessary appurtenance of the classical epic. Since Milton’s characters are mostly
supernatural-God, Angels, Devils – with but two human beings who are also more like angels
than men, this makes the action of Paradise Lost also different from other epics. In Paradise
Lost it concerns the whole creation: “everything is done under the immediate the visible
direction of Heaven”.

(iii) Beginning, Middle and end of “Paradise Lost“

Paradise Lost begins not at the beginning, but in the middle, then retraces the earlier history bit
by bit and finally takes the story forward to complete the narration in a striking end. The fall of
man is a long story, and its beginnings are to be traced back to Creation itself by the Almighty.
But Milton chooses to deal with the Fall of Satan or Lucifer in the first book. This is a striking
episode which arrests our attention, for we are introduced to Satan lying stunned in the
sulphurous lake of endless fires after having been hurled down from high heaven by God. This is
according to the classical convention that the action of an epic should plunge abruptly into the
middle of the action. Who was Satan, why he fell, are the questions that engage our attention,
and the poet then proceeds to tell us all about these in the later book of the poem.

(iv) Invocation of “Paradise Lost“

There is an introductory invocation or prayer to God to inspire and bless the poet to complete
his task properly. This is a common feature of all ancient epics. But the ancient epics appealed
to gods and goddesses in whom the moderns no more believe. Instead, Milton prays to God to
give him the necessary inspiration to complete his task. Here he brings out his faith in the
concept of God according to the tenets of the Christian religion.

In the invocation to the Muse, Milton follows a poetic tradition adopted from antiquity-but in
such a way so as to fill it with significance. The Heavenly Muse is in reality the divine inspiration
which revealed the truths of religion of Moses and also the spirit of God which dwells in the
heart of every believer.

(v) Hero and other associates in “Paradise Lost“

The characters introduced into an epic poem are all endowed with powers and capacities of
heroic proportions. For only then are our imagination and sympathies roused to their fullest
extent, and we are thrilled by their exploits. Not only is the hero of outstanding personality, but
his associates are also of heroic mould and stuff. This we find in the description and sketch of
Satan, Beelzebub and the other fallen angels.

In one respect ‘Paradise Lost’ differs from the classical epics and that is in the number of the
characters portrayed. The earlier epics were rich in characterization with many mortals and
gods taking part in the action. Their personality and the motivations of all the participants in
the different phases of the story, capture the interest of the readers; and there is also constant
suspense about their fates. The subjects-matter of the fall of Adam and Eve obviously
precluded any such generosity of characterization, especially of human beings.

(vi) Speeches of Elaborate Length in “Paradise Lost“

Speeches of elaborate length are another feature of epics. A part from the poet’s explanations
and descriptions of the background and scenery, the characters themselves speak fully
explaining their thoughts, feelings and motives for our understanding. There is often a good
deal of repetition, but this very repetition adds to a sense of the magnitude the fullness of the
action. Besides direct reporting adds to the vividness of the narrative, and we feel as if we are
spectators or participants in the scene or action.

(vii) Similes and metaphors and allusions in

“Paradise Lost“

Another feature of epics is the frequency with which figures of speech are employed. Similies
and metaphors are most common. Book I abounds in a peculiar type of smiles which is called
the Homeric Similes. They offer scope for the poet to exhibit his varied knowledge of nature,
books and men in all aspects of life. Their appropriateness, picture sequences and beauty add
to our enjoyment of the poem as a whole.
Next to similes, we have allusions, references to different aspects of older tradition, folklore,
mythology, art and related activities of human beings in different parts of the world. Milton was
one of the most learned of the world’s poets. All that was known to the ancient world and to
his own contemporaries in all branches of human endeavour is found referred to in one context
or the other in Paradise Lost. This is another source of pleasure and profit to the reader.

(viii) Grand Style of “Paradise Lost“

The next essential characteristic of an epic is its grand style. A great action needs a worthy style
for its adequate presentation, and Milton’s poetic style in Paradise Lost is the last word of
sublimity in English poetry. Paradise Lost excels as a poetic work both for the loftiness of its
theme and for the grandeur of its style. Truly, Tennyson called Milton “mighty mouthed
inventor of harmonies” and “God gifted organ-voice of England.” The language of Paradise Lost
bristles with Latinisms and to some extent this fact lifts the style above the common place.
Anything common or trivial would have spoilt the effect of the great epic.

(ix) Human Interest in “Paradise Lost“

Above all, the human interest in the poem centres round the figure of Adam, who is the central
character of Paradise Lost. The Epic, like the Tragedy, is according to Aristotle, a story of human
action. Paradise Lost is essentially a story of human action; though there are only two human
characters in the epic – and they make their appearance as late as the fourth book of the poem
– yet their act of disobedience is the central theme of the epic; and this act of eating “the fruit
of that forbidden tree” is of tremendous significance, for on it depends the fate of the whole
human race. The last two lines of the poem describing the departure of Adam and Eve from the
Garden of Eden are pregnant with deep pathos, and appeal to every human heart:

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow

Through Eden took their solitary way.

(x) Sublimity in “Paradise Lost“

An epic is a serious poem embodying sublime and noble thoughts. There is no room for
pleasantry and fun and light-hearted gaiety in a classical epic. Milton’s Paradise Lost is a
sublime and noble poem characterised for the imagination of man to distend itself with greater
ideas than those which Milton has presented in the first, second and sixth books. The seventh
book. The seventh book, which describes the creation of the world, is equally wonderful and
sublime.

(xi) Moral Tone of “Paradise Lost“

An epic is not without a moral. Besides giving a general representation to passions and
affections, virtues and vices, the epic poet does not leave out a moral which he expects his
readers to imbibe. The moral forms an integral and intrinsic part of Milton’s poem. It seeks to
“vindicate the ways of God to men, to show the reasonableness of religion and the necessity of
obedience to the Divine Law.”

DRYDEN’S OBJECTION AGAINST “PARADISE LOST“

AS A CLASSICAL EPIC

Dryden, however, doubted its claim to be called an epic, because, (1) it is not heroic enough; its
main theme is not a war but the tale of man’s loss of his happiness; (2) unlike other epics it
ends unhappily; (3) again, unlike other epics, it contains only two human characters, the other
being “heavenly machines”.

The objections are either superficial or conventional. It is a needless restriction on epic poetry
to say that it must always have a war as its main theme. Similarly, the fact that epics generally
end happily does not mean that all epics must end so. Besides, as Johnson points out, Paradise
Lost does not end unhappily. “If success be necessary,” he says, “then Adam’s deceiver was at
last crushed; Adam was restored to his Maker’s favour, and therefore may securely resume his
human rank.” If Adam loses the eternal Paradise, he gains “a Paradise within him happier far.”
Dryden’s third objection is sufficiently refuted by Addison. He says that though the number of
characters in Milton‘s epic are not many, yet each of the characters is represented in more than
one aspect. Thus we have Adam and Eve as they are before their fall and as they are after it.
God is revealed as the Creator, the avenger of man’s wrongs and as man’s redeemer. Satan has
three different aspects of his character. He is God’s enemy, man’s tempter and a great leader to
his followers. Besides, abstract characters such as Sin and Death, are introduced. And surely,
God and the angels, good and bad, are also characters. They are not merely “heavenly
machines.”

To sum up: Paradise Lost is an epic. And it possesses all the essential characteristics that
Aristotle demanded of an epic poem. (1) Its action or plot has unity, entirety and sublimity. The
subject-matter, viz., the fall of man, forms the centre of the poem. Everything else moves round
it, leads towards it or follows from it. Milton secures the unity of action by starting at the
middle of the story and by opening the poem with the infernal council debate in Hell where
man’s fall is plotted. The story is also told in its entirety. We are told, all that went before to
cause man’s fall and all that followed as its result. The action is also sublime; there cannot be
any more sublime theme than the fall of our first parents and the war in Heaven. (2) The
Characters of Paradise Lost are also true epic characters. They are majestic and they are as
many and as various as the peculiar nature of the poem allowed. (3) Its language is also sublime
and appropriate to the characters. It is a perfect model of epic diction.

There are other incidental characteristics of epic poetry also in it. Like other epics, Paradise Lost
treats a war; it employes “long-tailed” similes: it obeys the convention of invoking the Muse.

17. The Rape of the Lock as a Mock-Epic

18. The Role and Function of Machinery in ROL

19. Character of Belinda

20. ROL as a Social Satire.

Paper (2): Classical Drama

21. Oedipus’s Fate-Action/ Hamartia of Oedipus: hubris

22. Oedipus as a tragedy

23. Dramatic Irony in Oedipus Rex

24. Main Theme: Relationship between man and gods.

25. Dr. Faustus as an over-reacher/ Faustus as Icarus

26. The real sin of Doctor Faustus

27. Dr. Faustus as a tragic Hero

28. Renaissance Elements in Dr. Faustus

29. Othello as a tragic hero.

30. Othello as a (domestic) tragedy

31. Theme of Jealousy in Othello

32. Iago’s motives and Othello’s cause of destruction

33. Winter’s Tale as a tragic-comedy

34. Theme of Jealousy in Winter’s Tale

35. Pastoral elements in Winter’s Tale.

36. Importance of Being Earnest: theme of love, money, marriage and social status.

37. IBE: The title – its significance and value

38. A trivial comedy for serious people/ IBE as comedy

39. Oscar Wilde’s style: pun, wit, paradox & verbatism

40. IBE as a social satire

Paper (3): Novel

41. Pride and Prejudice: Title and significance

41. Art of characterization

Jane Austen’s Art of Characterization

December 19, 2010 neoenglish MA English-Literature

Introduction: Jane Austen’s real talent is revealed much through her wonderful capacity for
characterization. Like Shakespeare, she presents her characters truthfully and realistically. She
is sensitive to every small nuance of manner and behavior and any deviation from the standard.
The range of her characters is narrow and she confines herself to the landed gentry in the
country-side. Servants, laborers and yeomanry rarely appear and even aristocracy is hardly
touched upon. When she deals with aristocracy, she satirizes them such as Lady Catherine in
P&P.

Her Characters are never repeated: despite such a narrow range. Not a single character has
been repeated in any of her six books. The snobbishness of the Vicar, Mr. Collins in P&P is
unlike that of Mr. Elton, the Vicar in Emma. Similarly, there is a great difference between the
vulgarity of Mrs. Bennet and that of Mrs. Jennings. Macaulay declares that her characters are
commonplace, ‘Yet they are all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the
most eccentric of human beings.’

State different psychological habits and emotions of Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane, Mrs. Bennet.

Her characters – individualized yet universal: Jane Austen has so comprehensive and searching
a view of human nature that she invests them with a universal character. Her characters are
universal types. Thus, when Mr. Darcy says, ‘I have been selfish all my life in practice but not in
principle’ he confesses the weakness of high minded dominating males in every age and
climate. Wickham represents all pleasant-looking but selfish, unprincipled and hypocritical flirts.
Mr. Bennet is a typical cynical father. These qualities of Austen’s characters make them
universal and individualized.

Realistic portrayal of her characters: Her characters impress us as real men and women since
they are drawn to perfection. They are never idealized. Even her most virtuous characters have
faults. Jane Bennet, being a virtuous and sweet-nature girl, never thinks ill of others. This makes
her lack proper judgment. Elizabeth, herself is a conventional heroine. She has faults of vanity
and prejudice. Her mother, at a such a high level of responsibility as a mother, exhibits vulgarity
and indecorous manners. Darcy and Lady Catherine’s manners reflect aristocracy so
realistically. The impartiality with which Jane Austen depicts her characters imparts a touch of
realism and volume to them.

Her characters are three-dimensional: Her world of reality is never disturbed for all its
romances, elopements and dejection because of the convincing reality of her characters. Her
characters are three-dimensional portraying various human traits. Collins doesn’t commit
suicide when her proposal is rejected by Elizabeth, but settles down with Charlotte. Darcy
shows his unexpected trait after his proposal is rejected. The psychological and realistic
portrayal of her characters is what makes them according to David Ceil, ‘Three-dimensional’.
The characters come alive in flesh and blood as it were because of their realistic portrayal. Jane
Austen reveals her characters dramatically through their conversations, their actions, and their
letters or gradually through a variety of point of view and this adds to their three-dimensional
effects.

Characters revealed through conversations: She makes very careful use of conversations. Thus,
the dialogue between Elizabeth not only reveals effectively the antagonism between the two of
them, but also the intelligence of the both. Collins and Lydia are revealed through their letters.
And we learn of Elizabeth Bennet, the most striking of Jane Austen’s heroines through her
speech and actions and the remarks of such people as Mr. Darcy, her father and Miss Bingley.
Thus, in the first chapter of P&P the vulgarity and stupidity of Mrs. Bennet and the sarcastic
humour of Mr. Bennet have already been revealed in their dialogues. The characters of Austen
frequently gossip with one another about other characters. This makes the plot even more
gripping, realistic and touching.
Revealed through comparison and contrast: Lady Catharine balances with Mrs. Bennet.
Wickham serves a contrast while Bingley a foil to Darcy. Elizabeth with Jane. In P&P, Elizabeth
echoes Austen’s own sense of humor and ironic wit and the ability to laugh at whims and
inconsistencies, but it is preposterous to assume that Jane Austen herself suffered from such
prides and prejudices. The sympathy and partial identification help Jane Austen in delineating
the character faithfully.

Elizabeth: Jane Austen said of her heroine, “I must confess that I think her as delightful a
creature as ever appeared in print”. To create a charming heroine is one of the rarest
achievements in fiction. Jane Austen’s liking is borne out by the countless other readers who
have fallen in love with her for more than a hundred and thirty years. A.C. Bradley wrote, “I am
meant to fall in love with her and I do”. Her charm arises to a great extent from her intricacy,
her intellectual complexity. She is profound and perceptive with the ability to discern people
and situations extraordinarily well. She comprehends the merits and demerits of the Bingleys
almost at once; she knows Mr. Collins to be an affected fool and judges Lady Catherine at the
first meeting. She understands her family is conscious of the vulgarity of her mother. She has
the ready gift of repartee and a perfect command of epigrammatic expression. She is not
intimidated by Lady Catherine to her enquiry whether Darcy had made a proposal to Elizabeth
and she answers, “Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible”. Despite all these
characteristics, Elizabeth is not an idealized or perfect heroine of a romantic novel. She is prone
to errors and mistakes of every day life. However, she learns from her mistakes and tends to
correct them. It is true that Elizabeth blinds herself absurdly because of prejudice. Thus, her
intelligence, high spirit and courage, wit and readiness, her artistic temperament and her ability
to laugh good-humouredly at herself is the specialty of Elizabeth. Indeed, the popularity of the
novel rests on the brilliant portrayal of its charming and captivating heroine.

Darcy: to many readers and critics, the great blot on the book is the author’s portrayal of Darcy.
To all appearances, there are two Darcys that we meet in P&P, the Darcy in the first half of the
play – proud, cold, haughty and unfriendly and the Darcy of the second half – warm, loving and
considerate, kind, hospitable and eager to please. These seeming incorrigible aspects of Darcy’s
character are taken to be a failure on part of Jane Austen’s art of characterization. Jane Austen
was in her early twenties when she wrote P&P, so this failure is as a result of her immaturity.
However, critics believe that Darcy is a credible character and has these incorrigible aspects as a
result of our misread Darcy’s character along with Elizabeth. Darcy is proud in the beginning.
He acknowledges his own. At Netherfield, he tells Elizabeth, “My opinion once lost is lost
forever”. And finally his proposal to Elizabeth at Hunsford parsonage is more eloquent on the
subject of pride than of tenderness, but he is sensitive, intelligent and complex. He is not
morally blind either and recognizes the vulgarity of 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.

Jane & Bingley: At first glance, it is Bingley and Jane that capture our attention as the main
characters and become the center of attraction for every one. Elizabeth says of Jane, “You are
too good. Your sweetness and disinterestedness are really angelic.” Jane is a foil to Elizabeth.
She, however, enjoys the admiration of both Elizabeth and Darcy and highlights their pride and
prejudice. Similarly, Bingley is only a foil to the more forceful personality of Darcy despite all his
cheerfulness. The Jane-Bingley romance also presents a contrast to the turbulent relationship
of Darcy and Elizabeth. Their relationship is based upon harmony arising out of a similarity of
natures. Jane and Bingley are both characters, not intricate or complex.

Conclusion: Jane Austen’s major characters are intricate; however, there are some failings.
Darcy is real and convincing, but appears only in scenes with Elizabeth. The minor characters
are usually flat but they also develop when we meet them. Thus each of these wide range of
characters are multi-dimensional with a mix of the good and bad qualities, exhibiting strong
individual idiosyncrasies and traits, at the same time typical of universal human nature.

42. Character of Elizabeth in P&P

43. Theme of love and marriage in P&P

44. Jane Austen’s Irony

45. A Tale of Two Cities: Title and its value

46. The theme of resurrection & renunciation in ATC

47. Symbolism in A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens’ use of symbolism in 'A Tale of Two Cities'

Introduction: A TALE OF TWO CITIES contains an abundant use of symbols and symbolic
imagery. Symbolism implies the use of an object, an idea, or a person in a larger or wider
deeper sense than is literary conveyed by that object. An employs symbolism in order to give a
deeper meaning to his writing. Symbolism is an essential element in the structure of the novel.

The Woodman and the Farmer as Symbols: The Woodman symbolizes Fate ad the Farmer is
symbolizing Death. The author says that they work silently and no one hears them when they
walk with their muffled steps. They work like Fate and Death silently and these are the two
forces which destroy France.

Journey of the Mail-Coach: The manner in which the writer describes the journey of the mail-
couch is also highly symbolic. It is an uphill journey; the hill, the harness, the mud and the mail
give the horses a tough time. The horses, however, continue with their drooping heads. There is
also an atmosphere of suspicion all over. The rough journey and the air of suspicion around
signifies the following crisis for the Manette family and the turmoil for the land of France.

The Spilling of Wine: A striking use of symbolism is made in the chapter called, “The Wine-
Shop”. A cask of wine gets broken in the street by accident and the wine is spilled on the
ground. This red wine paints and stains the streets of Saint Antoine in Paris symbolizing the
bloodshed and massacre looming over the country. Many people rush towards it to drink
mouthfuls of wine. The people’s hands and foot are stained red by the wine. This symbol
becomes perfectly explicit when some body dips his fingers in the wine and scrawls upon a wall
the word “blood”. The author comments on his action: “The time was to come, when that wine
too would be spilled on the street-stones and when the stain of it would be red upon many
there.”

The Mill, the Grindstone, and the Carmagnole: In the same chapter, Mill has been symbolized.
Literally, a mill of course, grinds wheat into flour which serves as food fro the human beings.
Here the mill performs a different function. Here we are told that the people of Saint Antoine
had undergone a terrible grinding and re-grinding in the mill. The writer says that the children
in this superb had “ancient faces and grave voices” and the sign of Hunger is apparent upon the
faces of the children, the young and the old. So the mill is not grinding wheat for the people,
adversely it is grinding the people themselves. In the later case, the revolutionaries are
described as sharpening their bloody hA Tale of Two Citieshets, knives and swords at a
grindstone. Both the mill and the grindstone are the symbols of destruction which the people in
France face. Allied with these two symbols and with the symbol of the spilled wine, is the
account of the Carmagnole which also occurs in the final part of the novel. The dancing of the
Carmagnole is a dreadful sight for spectators like Lucie

The Echoing Steps: In the chapter called “Hundreds of People” Lucie, in her conversation tells
the others that she has often sat alone in a corner of the house in the evenings, listening to the
echoes of all the footsteps which are to come by and by into their lives. Sydney Carton
thereupon remarks that, “If such be the case, there will be a great crowd coming one day into
the lives of all of them.” The whole scene is symbolic. Lucie says that she hears footsteps and
Sydney remarks that a crowd will come into the lives of all. Just then there is a roar of clouds
and a flash of lightening. All these are the indications of the coming of a great tempest in their
lives in the form of French Revolution when people will be in the state of turmoil and the
Manette family will get involved with those multitudes.

The Bastille, a Symbol of Tyranny: The Bastille is another symbol. Hundreds of prisoners have
been languishing in this prison for years and years, neglected, un-cared and almost forgotten
and dead. The inhabitants of Saint Antoine, under the leadership of Monsieur and Madame
Defarge, march upon the Bastille and capture it. Their jubilation knows no bounds. The
governor is seized and Madame Defarge herself cut off his head with a knife.

La Guillotine, symbol of excesses: La Guillotine symbolizes the excess committed by the

revolutionaries. If the Bastille was the symbol of tyranny and the government of the King Louis
XVI, La Guillotine has reversed the process. La Guillotine has become, “The National Razor
which shaved close.” It is regarded as the sign of regeneration of the human race. The
eloquent, the powerful and the beautiful are all being mercilessly beheaded. La Guillotine is a
symbol of the tyrannies, the brutalities which are committed by the down-trodden and poor
revolutionaries. La Guillotine is an ugly and hateful symbol as the Bastille previously was.

Madame Defarge, Miss Pross and Carton as Symbols: Madame Defarge symbolizes unlimited
hatred and evil. She certainly has motive and reason for her revengeful and blood-thirsty
attitude but all her vindictiveness and blood-ruthlessness cannot be explained in terms of those
motive and reasons. She is the personification of hatred, revenge and violence. Her knitting
requires a sinister significance because in her knitting are registered those who must be
exterminated from the ground. Miss Pross on other hand is a personification of love. Her
attachment to Lucie is deep and abiding. In the tussle between Madame Defarge and Miss
Pross, the Frenchwoman is killed by a bullet from her own hands thus symbolically representing
that truth prevails and evil is self-destructive. Sydney Carton has a symbolic purpose. His
sacrificial death symbolizes the way by which the highest human aspirations can be achieved
and also the means by which a profligate can attain regeneration.

Opposed Symbols of Life and Death: William H. Marshall tells us that A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a
story about rebirth through death and that therefore, Dickens gives us opposed symbols of life
and death. These symbols, he says, take the form of images of food and destruction. The
symbol of death seems to triumph over the symbol of life. Briefly state the previous symbols in
ref. to the critic.

48. ATC is a social novel in political background

Major Themes of the Novel "A Tale of Two Cities"

Resurrection and Renunciation: A TALE OF TWO CITIES is rich in meaning and significance
because it deals with several themes all of which have been skillfully coordinated and
integrated with another. Some of these themes are obvious and others are less obvious and
need careful examination. Dickens shows grand objectivity of historical events, but also shows
personal projection in the novel.

However, A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a highly impersonal work with multiplicity of themes.
Resurrection is indeed the central theme of A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Resurrection here takes a
variety of forms, and almost at every stage, we witness some manifestation of it. Resurrection
has, of course, a religious connotation and generally calls up the image of Jesus Christ rising
from his grave on the third day of his Crucifixion. But here resurrection requires a secular
meaning. In addition to its religious meaning. Related to this is the theme of renunciation.
Dickens makes use these twin themes in a very elaborate manner. Dickens derived both of
these themes from Wilkie Collin’s play, The Frozen Deep in the performances of which Dickens
himself had taken part as an actor.

The resurrection of Dr Manette: First Resurrection: The theme of resurrection is introduced at

the very beginning when Mr. Lorry, who is traveling by the mail-coach top Dover, sends a
message to Tellison’s Bank through the messenger, Jerry Cruncher. The words of Mr. Lorry‘s
message are “Recalled to Life”. (Give summary of Dr. Manette’s story) Mr. Lorry begins to feel
drowsy and it seems to him that he is going to Paris in order to dig out a dead man from the
grave where he had been long buried. When Lorry meets Dr. Manette, it is truly a resurrection
or rebirth after death for Dr. Manette. Second Resurrection: Normal life and living with his
daughter, starting his medical practice and his giving up the habit of shoe-making and the
return of sanity is his second resurrection.

Charles Darnay’s Resurrection: Give Darnay’s account of Old Bailey where Dr. Manette, Lucie
and Carton are present and Darnay is resurrected because of Sydney Carton from a serious
crime of treason against England. Darnay’s second resurrection: When he is caught in Paris and
is prisoned for fifteen months at La Force and is resurrected by the influence of Dr. Manette.
(Give account of case and the prevailing condition of Paris after the revolution). Darnay’s third
resurrection: which is the most important. Dr. Manette’s written paper discovered from his cell
is read out in the court and Darnay is sentenced to death, but his death is replaced by Sydney
Carton, a kind fellow. (Give an account his story at the prison). This is his third resurrection. This
time he has almost been taken out of his grave.

The Resurrection of Carton: Though Carton dies, but he achieves a resurrection in two senses:
Firstly, his death constitutes a spiritual resurrection for him. By this sacrificial death, Carton
who has been leading a life of profligacy, is morally regenerated. This moral regeneration or
redemption is a kind of resurrection for him. Secondly, when Carton conceives his bold plan to
save Darnay’s life, the words of the Christian Burial Service are echo in his ears, “I am the
Resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall
he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Carton had heard these
words at the time of his father’s funeral, and these words now come to him as a promise that
the man who believes in Lord Jesus Christ never dies. These words echo in his ears when he is
actually going to be executed. Thus, Carton dies, feeling sure that he will find himself alive in
another world. Carton dies with the certainty of resurrection.

The Grotesque resurrection of Cly: There are comic and serious resurrections. Resurrection in
this novel assumes some comic and grotesque forms also. Roger Cly, a spy, is believed to have
died and been buried in the graveyard of Saint Pancras’s Church, but later we find him alive in
Paris at his old occupation of spying. So a man who was thought to be dead, came to life is also
a kind of comic resurrection. His normal funeral ceremonies were performed and he was buried
to avoid the wrath of certain person who had become hostile to him in London.

The comic resurrection of Solomon (Barsad): Another comic example of resurrection is Barsad –
Miss Pross’ brother whom she had almost given up as dead, but he appears in Paris. Miss Pross
unexpectedly sees him and is astonished, though he feels greatly embarrassed to be recognized
by her.

Jerry Cruncher – A Resurrection Man: Another example of the grotesque type of resurrection is
to be found in the nefarious business which Jerry Cruncher is pursuing in order to supplement
his income. He and his associates dig out newly-buried coffins from their graves and take out
the dead bodies in order to sell them to a surgeon for medical purposes. Young Jerry has espied
his father at this kind of work and he too aspires to become “A resurrection man.”

Resurrection in the sense of Political and Social regeneration: Finally, resurrection, for the
purpose of this novel, may also be taken to mean political and social regeneration. The French
People having been oppressed and exploited for centuries have been clamoring for a new
political and social order without any success. Ultimately they rise in revolt against the
established authority and try to being about sweeping reforms. Of course, their action involves
unheard-of-criminal acts. The moral of the French Revolution, according to Dickens is that the
upper classes everywhere should take a warning from what happened in France and should
mend their ways in order to see that the poor are contented and happy.

Renunciation as a theme: The other theme, less prominent but more valuable, is renunciation.
It is through a renunciation of his claim to the family estate and the family title that Charles
Darnay attains a heroic stature in our eyes. When Charles Darnay was still a child, his mother
had imposed a duty on him and he had bravely promised to keep faith with her. On growing up,
he decides to give up his claim to the family inheritance because he realizes that the family to
which he belongs had done many wrongs to the poor people. To him the family inheritance
signifies, “a crumbling tower of waste”. This act of his shows his generous heart, a spirit of self-
sacrifice indicative of his humanitarian instincts.

Social injustice, violence, bloodshed and imprisonment as themes of the novel: Among the
various themes of this novel is the social injustice. This theme is related of course, to the French
Revolution which was largely a result of those oppressive classes. The first glimpse of social
injustice is given in the chapter called the Wine-Shop. When the wine from the broken cask is
spilled on the ground symbolize bloodshed in the streets of Paris and the hunger and poverty of
the people who rush to drink it. The incident of the child being run over by Marquis’s carriage.
He scolds the people for not caring about their children and spins a coin for the bereaved father
as if for the compensation of the death of the child. The most shocking example of social
injustice is the prolonged imprisonment of Dr. Manette has recorded the circumstances under
which he was made a prisoner is hair-raising. A TALE OF TWO CITIES is deeply colored by
Dickens’ early experiences in life and by what was happening to his emotional life when he
started writing this novel. Early in his life, he had been a miserable witness to the imprisonment
of his father which had left an unforgettable impression upon his mind. Prison and
Imprisonment are two themes always present in various novels of Charles Dickens. Almost
every body in A TALE OF TWO CITIES is in prison.

Doubling as a theme: The two lovers of Lucie seem to symbolize the duality in Dickens’s own
heart. Darnay and Carton who physically resemble each other were self-projections by Dickens.
These two men represent the two different sides of Dickens’s literary personality. Darnay
represents the light, sunny and optimistic aspect of Dickens’ personality who goes to France to
help Gabelle without releasing the dangers he will face there. And Carton, on the other hand,
represents the dark aspect of Dickens who loves Lucie but denies her by describing her as “a
golden-haired doll” and he fails to claim her. Dickens’ own optimistic mood is reflected in the
novel. Doubling is also a theme in the sense that every thing in the novel is double. Double
appearances, madness and sanity recurrences, the double arrest of Darnay, his double
resurrection and Darnay’s and Carton’s love for Lucie is also a triangle. Doubling is a technique
of symbolism in the fantasizing of reality, reappears throughout the book. The most obvious
example is physical resemblance of Darnay and Carton. These two personalities represent two
different worlds the social and collective on the one hand and the individual and subjective on
the other. Madame Defarge is an instructive example of Dickens’ attempt throughout this novel
to identity fantasy with reality, as in his own life. This is Dickens’ most personal novel in one
way and the most impersonal in the other.

49. Sydney Carton and his sacrifice in ATC

50. Adam Bede and Psychological Realism

51. George Eliot’s art of characterization

52. Hetty’s suffering; its cause and redemption

53. Education and regeneration of Adam Bede

54. The Return of the Native as a tragedy

55. Egdon Heath as a character in TRN

56. Chance and Fate – Hardy as a novelist

57. The Cause of Eustacia or Clym’s tragedy in TRN

Paper (4): Prose

58. Bacon as an essayist/ his style and contribution

Introduction to Bacon Essays

About Bacon and his Essays

1. Bacon (afterwards Viscount St. Albans), the son of Nicholas Bacon was born in 1561 and
died in 1626.

2. The first edition of the Essays (ten included); the second edition (forty included) appeared
in 1625. Tennyson said, “ There is more wisdom compressed into small volume than into any
other book of the same size that I know” Many of the essays are made up of extracts, complied
from commonplace books and his other published works, and woven together into a new
whole.

3. There are three divisions of Bacon’s works: Philosophical as The Advancement of Learning,
Literary as The Essays and Professionals as Maxims of Law.

4. Bacon made no scientific discovery as Newton and Harvey made, but he laid the solid
foundation of Science because he was the first man to point out the importance of experiment
in the study of knowledge.

5. The great influence on Bacon is Bacon himself, his own keen observation of life and
manners. He set forth to propound a doctrine of human conduct - a theoretical scheme in
which the man of active virtue should not be baffled by the vices of others, but use their vices
for his own advantage and the advantage of the state. In opposition of Aristotle who proffered
the life of contemplation, Bacon cries up the life of action. Dr. Johnson defined an Essay as “a
loose sally of the mind, an irregular undigested piece, not a regular and orderly composition.”
The essay as a distinct literary form was born in 16th century with the publication of
Frenchman, Montaigne’s Essays. Bacon borrowed the form from him, but suited it to his own
purpose.
A brief introduction to Bacon’s Essays

1. Of Great Place:

--- The rising onto place is laborious and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is
sometimes base and by indignities men come to dignities.

--- Death falls heavy upon him who dies too well known to others, but unknown to
himself.

--- It is a strange desire to seek power and lose liberty; or to seek power over others and to
lose power over a man’s self.

--- Men in great place are thrive servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants
of fame and servants of business.
Summary: Men are servants of the state, their desires for fame and time restriction. Man
should follow the good examples set in the past. There are faults of men in great place such as
delays, corruption etc. We should refuse bribes. One may while rising to a position use crooked
methods and join sides but after reaching a position, one should become neutral.

2. Of Friendship:

--- Whoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

--- For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures.

--- A great city is a great solitude.

Summary: Aristotle’s remarks that who so likes solitude is either is a best or an angle is
according to Bacon half true. Friendship helps disburden heart. If frustration is kept in heart, it
causes depression and tension for man. Friendship brings better understanding. A man with a
friend has two lives. He can do many things for him and when he dies, he can fulfill his desires
etc. A friend can advise and even praise and flatter us. Friendship increases joys and lessens the
intensity of grief. Man may feel lonely in a crowd in the absence of love.

3. Of Studies:
 --- Studies serve delight, for ornament and for ability.

--- To spend too much time in studies is sloth, to use it too much for ornament is affectation.

--- Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them and wise men use them.

--- Read not to contradict and confute, nor to --- believe and take for granted, nor to find
talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested.

--- Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man.

--- Distilled books are like common distilled water flashy things.

Summary: Studies are a source of delight in one’s leisure and solitude. Studies help people
develop abilities. It is a sign of laziness to spend too much time on studies. We should study
important books and find mere summary of unimportant ones. Books are good companions.
Deferent genres and subjects enlighten our mind differently.

4. Of Parents and Children:

 --- The joys of parents are secret; and so are their griefs and fears.

--- Children increase the cares of life; but they mitigate the remembrance of death.

--- Children sweeten labor, but they make misfortune more bitter.

Summary: Children get benefit because of their parents. Parents usually have unequal
favoritism towards their children. They should give enough pocket money. They should choose
a suitable profession for their child.

5. Of Ambition:

--- Ambition is like Choler which is a humor that makes men active and earnest.
Summary: Ambition makes man active but if it is checked it can also be dangerous. Ambitious
people are highly required fro the war. If ambition is allowed without control, it can be harmful
for the king and the government. Ambitious people can also be used by the king as instruments.

6. Of Truth:

--- What is Truth? said jesting Pilate and would not stay for an answer.

--- But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open day-light, that doth not shew the
masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-
lights.

--- A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.

--- It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore and to see ships tost upon the sea, a pleasure to
stand in the window of a castle and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below. But no
pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of the Truth.

--- A lie faces God; but shrinks from man.

--- But it is not the lie that passes through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in
it that doth the hurt.
Summary: Pilate the Roman emperor was very casual about the truth at Christ’s trial and did
not bother to find it out. Certain people have great delight in changing their opinions. Human
mind is basically attracted to lies, so it dislikes truth. The value of truth is realized only by those
who have experienced and understood it. Truth is important in not only in philosophical and
theological fields, but also in day to day life. Montaign has rightly said that a man who tells lies
is afraid of his fellow men but is unafraid of defying God who is all perceiving.

7. Of Revenge:

--- Revenge is a kind of wild justice.

--- It is the glory of man to pass by an offense. That which is past is gone and irrevocable:
wise men have enough to do with things present and to come: therefore they do but trifle with
themselves, that labor in past matters.

--- A man that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal.

Summary: Revenge is uncivilized and can only be found among the brutes. Forgiving an enemy
is supreme moral superiority. Man should be forwarding looking and forget the past to brood
over the present and the future. Man does wrong to others out of his selfish love for himself. In
taking revenge, it is generous to reveal his identity to the victim, because the pleasure of
revenge lies not so much in causing pain than in making the enemy realize and repent of his
mistake.

8. Of Simulation and Dissimulation:

--- Tell a lie and find a troth.

Summary: The practice of dissimulation is followed by the weak man, for the strong minds and
hearts have the power to tell the truth. The man of secret nature never gives a hint of what is in
his heart. The advantage of simulation and dissimulation is that they keep the opposition
guessing and unprepared and so to be easily surprised at the proper moment. They also help us
discover the intentions of the other. The disadvantage is that they indicate a weakness of the
disposition and one who uses these methods is considered unreliable.

9. Of Death:

--- Revenge triumphs over death.

--- It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant perhaps, the one is as painful as
the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot blood.
Summary: Death is a natural phenomenon. Violent passions enable a man to overcome death.
Revenge, love, honor, grief and fear make him bold enough to meet death. A noble cause
makes a man insensible to pain and torture.

10. Of Adversity:

--- It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of man and the security of a God.

Summary: One may wish prosperity and all the good things it brings with it; but one should
admire adversity and all the good things that belong to it. It is true greatness to be weak and
yet to be careless and indifferent like a God. The pleasure of the heart is better than the
pleasure of the eye. Prosperity can discover vice; adversity discovers virtue.

11. Of Nobility:
 --- Nobility attempts sovereignty.

Summary: In a democracy, there is no need of nobility and people are commonly quieter and
do not like rebellion, when there is no nobility. Numerous nobility causes poverty and
inconvenience in a state.

12. Of Superstition:

--- It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of
him.

--- The master of superstition is the people and in all superstition wise men follow the
fools.

Summary: Superstition or a false notion of God is highly insulting and irreligious. Atheism is
better than superstition because an atheist uses his sense and reason, has respect for natural
piety and laws and cares for reputation. Atheism doesn’t cause disturbances in the states, but
superstition disregards our moral values and desires men to follow its dictates blindly. The
causes of superstition are certain festivals and rituals which appear charming and to the senses.
Examples from Other Essays:

a. Money is like muck, not good if not spread (of Seditions and troubles)

b. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul (of Riches)

c. Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle-age and old men’s nurses.
(Of marriage and single life)

d. He that hath wife and children, hath given hostages to fortune (Of Marriage and
Single Life)

e. Travel in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.
(Of Travel)

f. Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth and
embaseth it.

g. Unmarried men are the best friends, best masters, best servants, but not always the
best subjects. (advantages and disadvantages of unmarried men)

h. Secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining. (Of Suitors)

59. Bacon as a moralist

60. Swift as a satirist

61. Swift as a misanthrope

62. Describe the first and the last voyage G-Travels.

63. Popularity of Gulliver’s Travels

64. Seamus Heaney’s justification, functions and redressing effects of poetry.

65. What is culture and what is imperialism and how does Edward Said relate the two?

66. Why does Edward Said refer to various novelists to prove his thesis of imperialism?

67. Bertrand Russell as an essayist.

Paper (5): American Literature

68. John Ashbery as a modern poet

69. Major themes in Ashbery and Richard Wilbur

70. Major Themes in Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath

71. Adrienne Rich as a poet

72. Critical Appraisals: Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers, Diving into the Wreck, The Painter, Melodic
Trains, Still Citizen Sparrow, After the Last Bulletins, You are! Ariel, Arrival of the Bee box and
Final Notations

73. The Crucible: its title and significance

Discuss the significance of the title of the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller. (P.U. 2004)

Arthur Miller uses the title of his play The Crucible as a Metaphor constantly throughout the
text. A crucible is a container used to heat metals at a high temperature so the metal can be
cast, often using intense pressure to do so. Crucibles are often also used to remove impurities
from a substance, so that only the pure matter remains. The relevance of the title is apparent in
many of the themes and issues of the play, and is demonstrated through striking imagery and
the actions of characters that Miller portrays to us.

The relevance of the play’s title becomes evident during the first act, as we gradually piece
together the information concerning the girls dancing. The kettle viewed by Reverend Parris, a
argumentative and unreasonable man in his middle forties, mirrors a crucible. We are told that
the girls had made a brew that contained a little frog and blood. This concoction was viewed by
the characters involved as a potent, fearsome mixture and this signifies the beginning of the
Salem tragedy. It seems that from this ‘brew’ a more sinister force is released, or
metaphorically speaking, the impurities are released due to the aid of a crucible.

The dancing and the contents of the little pot seem to fuel the rumours, lies and tragedy of
Salem. Suspicion soon engulfs the community and the little privacy that once existed suddenly
shatters. Privacy was quickly interpreted to mean that people had some terrible fault to hide
and there was an intense pressure for neighbours to reveal each other’s sins. Here is evidence
of how the play’s title is reflected in the actions and words of the characters.

In fact, Reverend Parris makes an ironic comment that is closely linked with the The Crucible:

Reverend Parris: Why, Rebecca, we may open up the boil of all our troubles today because

in the end the witchcraft investigation provokes the burning down and destruction of the

community. Here The Crucible is once again used metaphorically to illustrate characters

beliefs. The use of such words as ‘boil’ and ‘burning down’ are directly linked with the image
of a crucible at work.

The witch trials are also metaphorically a crucible for people’s grudges, and their seeking of
revenge. The play shows us also how people can give into their fear and superstition. Salem
quickly turns into a melting pot of suspicion and vengeance with nearly everyone trying to pull
power out of the pot. The witch trials provided an avenue to bring hostilities out into the open
in a theocratic society that had little opportunity for speaking out.

The trials are not really about witchcraft. Abigail Williams, a strikingly pretty seventeen-year-old
orphan, admits to John Proctor, a well-respected farmer in his mid thirties, how the witchery is
a hoax:

Abigail: We were dancing in the woods last night and my uncle leaped out on us. She took
fright, is all’.

Furthermore, the relationship between Abigail and Proctor is highlighted using imagery
connected to the concept of a crucible. The relationship, based more on lust than love, is one
that Proctor dearly regrets and that constantly plays on his conscience. Heat and fire can be
used as symbols that are strongly connected with a crucible, and Miller uses this symbolism
cleverly:

Abigail: ‘… you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I
came near!’

And later,

Abigail: ‘I have a sense for heat, John … and I have seen you … burning in your loneliness.’
The relationship can be likened to the concept of a crucible because it represents the high
temperatures and reactions that take place in a crucible. The relationship between Abigail and
John is shown in great contrast with his wife Elizabeth, a cold and unforgiving woman. The
relationship between John and Elizabeth is cold, distant and tense, with no passion or fire.
However, despite his feelings of passion for Abigail, Proctor realises that he must not succumb
to them again. This decision effectively ends their relationship and extinguishes the heat
between them.

Fire and heat is used as a symbol once again in Act Three. The Crucible metaphor is illustrated
in the play when Judge Danforth, a strict judge with a strong belief in authority, says to Proctor,

Danforth: ‘We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment’.

The court scenes were times of tension, intensity, pressure and conflicts between powerful
authorities refusing to realise they have signed away innocent lives on the strength of a lie. Also
things are permanently and physically changed in a crucible, when they are turned from one
thing into another. This is reflected in the play by the fact that many characters in the play are
exposed to high pressures during the trial. This pushes many characters to the limits of reason
and changes them mentally, physically and spiritually.

Another parallel between the word crucible and the play is the fact that a meaning of the word
crucible is a severe test or trial. When John Proctor is convicted of witchery he wrestles with his
conscience about whether he should confess or be hanged. His internal conflict between the
opportunity to protect himself at the expense of others weighs heavily on his mind, but he
chooses the ultimate sacrifice – his life. He asks his wife towards the end of The Crucible:

Proctor: ‘Would you give them such as lie? You would not; if tongs of fire were singeing
you, you would not’.
This makes it evident that Proctor recognises his own shortcomings and once again conjures the
image of fire that is closely related to a crucible. Miller also uses the text to make connections
between Salem and Hell.

Proctor: ‘A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! …. And we
will burn, we will burn together!’

Here Miller makes the ultimate connection between the play’s title The Crucible and the society
he is portraying. The intense heat and pressure of Hell is also present in a crucible, and both can
be associated with the hysteria and suspicion of the people in Salem during the witch trials.

The obvious relevance of The Crucible can be found at the very core of the text. A crucible can
be used to separate and discard impurities the in a substance – in effect, that was the essence
of the Salem witch trials. In an attempt to separate the ‘good from the bad’, many respectable
and virtuous people were hung due to the mass hysteria and pressure caused by ‘The Crucible’
of the times.

By reflecting his play’s powerful and effective title throughout the text, Miller prompts his
audience to apply his metaphor to other situations in history. It was most certainly Miller’s own
experiences during the ‘communist hunt’ of the 1950’s that provoked him to write this play.
Miller saw the parallels between the McCarthy era and the Salem witch hunts for what they
really were – a crucible. Severe trials held in an attempt to separate the good from the evil, the
pure from the tainted. Through his text, he shows the frailty and vulnerability of human nature
by showing how hypocrisy and hysteria can lead to times of suspicion and instability. He leaves
us, his audience, to make our own judgement about similar periods in history and to ask
ourselves the question – Is it possible, or even predictable, that this situation will ever occur
again?

74. John Proctor as a tragic hero

John Proctor stands unique amongst Miller’s creations not because of any inherent superiority
but because of the intensity of his moral response. Justify it. (P.U. 2006, 07)
In a sense, The Crucible has the structure of a classical tragedy, with John Proctor as the play’s
tragic hero. Honest, upright, and blunt-spoken, Proctor is a good man, but one with a secret,
fatal flaw. His lust for Abigail Williams led to their affair (which occurs before the play begins),
and created Abigail’s jealousy of his wife, Elizabeth, which sets the entire witch hysteria in
motion.

Once the trials begin, Proctor realizes that he can stop Abigail’s rampage through Salem but
only if he confesses to his adultery. Such an admission would ruin his good name, and Proctor
is, above all, a proud man who places great emphasis on his reputation. He eventually makes an
attempt, through Mary Warren’s testimony, to name Abigail as a fraud without revealing the
crucial information. When this attempt fails, he finally bursts out with a confession, calling
Abigail a “whore” and proclaiming his guilt publicly. Only then does he realize that it is too late,
that matters have gone too far, and that not even the truth can break the powerful frenzy that
he has allowed Abigail to whip up. Proctor’s confession succeeds only in leading to his arrest
and conviction as a witch, and though he lambastes the court and its proceedings, he is also
aware of his terrible role in allowing this fervor to grow unchecked.

Proctor redeems himself and provides a final denunciation of the witch trials in his final act.
Offered the opportunity to make a public confession of his guilt and live, he almost succumbs,
even signing a written confession. His immense pride and fear of public opinion compelled him
to withhold his adultery from the court, but by the end of the play he is more concerned with
his personal integrity than his public reputation. He still wants to save his name, but for
personal and religious, rather than public, reasons. Proctor’s refusal to provide a false
confession is a true religious and personal stand. Such a confession would dishonor his fellow
prisoners, who are brave enough to die as testimony to the truth. Perhaps more relevantly, a
false admission would also dishonor him, staining not just his public reputation, but also his
soul. By refusing to give up his personal integrity Proctor implicitly proclaims his conviction that
such integrity will bring him to heaven. He goes to the gallows redeemed for his earlier sins. As
Elizabeth says to end the play, responding to Hale’s plea that she convince Proctor to publicly
confess: “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!”

75. Mass Hysteria and theme of evil in the Crucible

76. Relationship between individual & society in The Crucible/ Individual commitment in society

77. Character of Abigail Williams

78. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Main theme

79. Robert Jordon as a tragic hero

80. Justify Robert Jordon’s sacrifice

81. Robert Jordon as a code hero

82. Hemingway’s style – Fictional technique

83. Symbolic Significance of the title Jazz

Toni Morrison’s Jazz is a simply titled novel, but this simplicity belies the complexity of the
narrative structure to which the word “jazz” alludes. Toni Morrison’s novel “Jazz” is
experimental in that it challenges the conventions of the American canonical literary narrative.
Toni Morrison incorporates elements of the genre of jazz music as a way of both honoring
African American modes of expression and creative and cultural production, as well as creating
new, hybrid forms of expression. The result is a novel that can be frustrating and difficult, at
times, for the reader to follow. Morrison’s narrative is, by turns, tangential, digressive, and
improvisational and like other novels by Morrison reliant on symbols, it can never be taken at
face value. Nevertheless, understanding the underlying structural and thematic significance of
this narrative approach by analyzing the novel’s structure through the lens of jazz music helps
the reader to not only develop a tolerance for the novel, but to adapt himself or herself to its
expressive power. As a result, new possibilities open not only for Toni Morrison as an author,
but for the reader as well.

Jazz the novel by Toni Morrison, like the origins of jazz music itself, is situated primarily in the
1920s, and its focal point is Harlem, New York. Establishing a sense of place, as well as the
mood that pervades it and the characters that populate it, is crucial to the “plot” of the jazz
tune, whether with or without lyrics, and the same is true for Morrison’s novel. In the novel,
Morrison describes “the city,” New York City, in vivid and descriptive visual terms. The narrator
says in one of the important quotes from “Jazz” by Toni Morrison, “I’m crazy about this City.
Daylight slants like a razor cutting the buildings in half. In the top half I see looking faces…Below
is shadow where any blasé thing takes place….” (Morrison 5). This speech is not normal speech
that one uses to communicate; it is highly visual, imagistic, and sonorous. The speaker does not
necessarily hurry to proceed from this description to the next point; she riffs on her meditation
about the City for as long as she likes, and only then does she proceed with her narrative. This
narrative technique in “Jazz” by Toni Morrison is unusual for literature, but is entirely familiar
to the genre of jazz music, which wanders and improvises, plays with the relationships between
sounds, and juxtaposes seemingly incongruent musical ideas in innovative ways. In Jazz,
Morrison does the same.

There are other elements of speech in Jazz that are reminiscent of the musical genre yet
represent an experimental foray for literature. Consider, for example, that the characters do
not always speak in formal or complete sentences. At times, there are just enough words to
convey a general idea or impression, and the reader must fill in any perceived gaps. The astute
reader picks up on this fact on the very first page of the novel when scanning through the
quotes from this first part. The narrator is describing a woman and she adds, “Know her
husband, too” (Morrison 1). The absence of the subject, “I,” mimics colloquial speech;
extraneous details are omitted and the reader has to pick up the narrative “beat” or lose the
novel’s rhythm completely. “Proper” English is rejected as false in this novel; instead, Toni
Morrison’s characters must express themselves with their own authentic voices, even at the
possible expense of losing the reader. In a sense, like jazz music, the creative act of production
becomes more important than the fact that the work will be received by an audience.

84. City as a character in Jazz

85. Major themes in Jazz

86. Mourning Becomes Electra as a tragedy.