The Puritan Age

We are having the Puritan Age in our syllabus of M.A with English Literature and Prof.Dilip Barad Sir has given this task to write a blog on the literature of this age.

In literature also the Puritan Age was one of Confusion,due to the breaking up of old Ideals.

Puritan Literature 

With the beginning of the Restoration period (after the monarchy was re-established in 1660), poets like John Dryden etc brought some creativity back to Puritan poetry.

We can find poems in this period are way too different from the previous one. We may even call the literary in this period as the depression kind of expression. If in Elizabethan period we know some greatest poets like Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney, George Chapman and Thomas Sackville who each of them expressing their emotions through their works. The emotions here are like the real emotion which a human possessed. Unlike this period, we can find three new kinds of poems which are different with any poem in previous periods. The characteristic of a poem in this period includes a thing, like geometrical, not human being, as the comparison material. This kind of poem can be classified into metaphysical poetry.

This age is mostly known for its literature like,

1. Transition Poets,

2. Metaphysical Poetry and

3. Cavilier Poetry.

 

Metaphysical Poetry

The term was first used by Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1786), a famous writer of the 18th century.

Term 'Metaphysical' derived from Latin words like 'Meta' and 'Physical' 'Meta' means something beyond and Physical means something regarding body or Physical aspects,so Metaphysical means something out of ordinary self.

Metaphysical Poets wanted to differ from others and selected different way of writing.

Metaphysical poetry prefers intellect rather than emotions, so there are a lot of scientific terms in the poem. There are plenty of prominent metaphysical poets in this period, like John Donne (1572-1631), George Herbert (1539-1633), Edmund Waller (1606-1678), Sir John Suckling (1609-1642), Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), and Henry Vaughan (1621-1695).

Metaphysical poetry has the following characteristics:

1. The poems are always in short version, have solid meanings and very economical in the use of words (concentration).

2. The use of unusual imagination (imaginary or unusual conceit).

3. The use of harsh language and rude (often very strong and rough language).

4. The use of science terms (science and learning).

5. The theme revolves around human nature ambiguous (man's dual nature): physical and spiritual.

John Donne (1572-1631)

He is the first poet of metaphysical poetry who was born and raised in a strong Catholic tradition. He studied in Trinity College, Cambridge and then became a Lincoln’s Inn’s member. He was popular for his lifestyle: read a lot but living lavishly. As a metaphysical poet, he used unusual imaginary and he doesn’t use conventional comparisons, rather uses fantastic metaphors and excessive hyperboles. The Sun Rising, The Good Morrow, Love’s Alchemy, and A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning are some his phenomenal works. As for the latter poem, Donne said that his idea was still telling about a couple, even when one of them is separated. He is so popular in making a lot of poems about love. Here is the uniqueness comparison which he used in one of his metaphysical poems:

Our two souls therefore, which are one

Through I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion

Like gold to airy thinness beat

If they be two, they two so

As stiff twin compasses are two,

Thy soul the fix foot, makes no show

To move, but death, if th’ other do.

And thought it in the centre sit,

Yet when the other far death ream,

It leans, and hearkens after it,

And grows erect as that comes home.

Such wilt how to be me, who must

Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circles just,

And makes me end, where I begun.

We can see that the first stanza states that two souls have become one, then even if one had to go, it will not lead to a split, rather becomes widespread as gold which hammered into as thin as air.For the second stanza, it states that if they become two souls, those souls are like a pair of rigid compasses. The compass’ soul that became permanent leg shows no sign of move, but the legs would move, if the other leg moves.

Cavalier Poetry

The poets of this kind of poetry are the most loyal followers of King Charles I. They have high-spirited souls which are different with those metaphysical poets. They really love secularism things and not really a fan of religious thing. They imitate a popular motto from Italy, Carpe Diem which means “Catch the Day” or in our current motto, it is like You Only Live Once, so be happy and do whatever you want to do. Make pleasure while you are still alive, because tomorrow you may be dead. Some prominent poets are like Robert Herrick (1591-1674) with some of his works; To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, To Enjoy the Time, and To Daffodils, Thomas Carew (1595-1639) with some of his works; To His Mistress in Absence, and Richard Levelace (1618-1658) with his poems To Althea from Prison. 

Prose : John Bunyan is a famous prose writer of the Puritan Age 

John Bunyan (1620-1688)

He wrote allegory prose, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which tells about an allegorical journey undertaken by a person who represents mankind in general. The journey begins from the City of Destruction or mortal life to the Celestial City or the life hereafter.During the journey, the person experiencing various forms of grief, inducements, and temptations, but he never give up to reach The Holy City and his struggle eventually resulted in victory. The places he went through; The Valley of Humiliation, the Slough of Despond, Doubting Castle, The Valley of the Shadow of Death, and so on. While the figures who encountered; Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Pliable, Evangelist, Giant Despair, Hopeful, and so on.This work is paired with the world famous allegory works such as DivinaComedia, by Dante and the Faerie Queen, by Edmund Spencer.

 Here I have linked one video which might be more helpful to understand the Puritan Age and its literature more clearly 

John Milton (1608-1674) 

John Milton John Milton was a 17th century historian, journalist and poet born on December 9th, 1608 in London, England. He was best known for his writing of Paradise Lost.

The most prominent poet using this kind of poet style in Puritan period is John Milton (1608-1674). He served also as a foreign affair at Oliver Cromwell’s reign. He was raised in a strong Puritan so that it made him to be a Renaissance high-spirited and devoted to his faith. He studied in Cambridge and for a short-term he lived with his parents in Horton. At Horton, he wrote L’Allegro and IL:Pensoroso. Those are lyric verses that depict a happy man (life during the day) and human melancholy or contemplated (life at night). He also made Lycides, which is a pastoral elegy about the death of his friend. In this elegy he denounced the corruption and lacks the spiritual life pastors. In 1652, Milton became completely blind, as he really loves to read. But he kept writing with a help from all of his daughters. On his blindness, he makes Sonnet on His Blindness which tells about his brave in facing his pain. His last work which he made on his darkness is Samson Agonistes which tells about his feelings as a blind. He feels like a Samson, a great hero which was made blind by the enemy.

Another prominent work of John Milton is Paradise Lost which has its sequel; Paradise Regained. Paradise Lost is an epic poem consisting of 12 books, written in the form of blank verse. This poem was written in 1658 when he was totally blind and was completed in 1663. This poem tells the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from heaven because they were tempted by a devil persuasion which is formed of a snake. They have to live on earth with all their sins and sufferings. As for Paradise Regained, it tells about a human salvation. He writes prose, monograph and pamphlet too. Some of his works on prose field are On Reformation and The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.

Drama

Puritan people think that drama or theatrical activities represent the habit of evil so that there were no prominent figures for drama.

Thak you...

Thinking Skills Workshop

Thinking Skills Workshop.

We were having a Workshop on 'Critical Thinking Skills'

And the resource person was Milan Pandya sir and he was going to deal with this interesting topic of critical thinking, that how one can think critically.

In our everyday lives many things are there with a wrong conception that even no one will try to find out the hiding truth and will go with the wrong flow and will lead others in trouble.

Every field is having that much problems because of the lack of critical thinking,like Journalism, Politics, Education and our day to day life also.

Milan sir started with one image of a famous hindi serial "Ye hai Mohabbatein"

One side of an image is a good couple that he is helping his wife but if one will notice this image carefully, will realise that her makeup and hairstyle is perfect but though they are pretending something else by their actions.

After the starting of critical thinking he shown some another images where much famous people are there who are making wrong things viral and people followed them in their wrong conception.

In this image, there are various things which are useful for different works and Milan sir told us elaborate new ideas with each of them and in any field.

As we are having learning experience from our childhood, and there are three methods of learning,

1.Learning by Observation,

2.Learning by Experience and

3.Learning by Guidence.

Our social aspects and nearby environment are having influence on our thoughts and behaviour but while we grow up we come to know critical point of view of their impact on us and our own thinking also,and if that is right as per our thinking we won't change it but if there is something problematic we must change it because only thinking can affect our behaviour and behaviour can affect whole the world as we are having connection with the world.

If we are having critical perception of thinking we will analyse each thing which comes to us and if something is wrong with that we will rationally change the way of it

"Your teacher might be wrong,

Learn to think for yourself "

-Tao Te Ching,by Lao Tzu 600 BC

Keep Thinking Critically,

Thank you.

Character Analysis of 'Pride and Prejudice'

Academic Information 

Name : Dangar Rinkal Nathabhai

Roll no.20

Enrollment no.4049206420220007

Batch : M.A (2022-24)

Paper Name : Literature of the Romantics 

Paper code : 22394

Paper no.103

Topic : Character Analysis of 'Pride and Prejudice'

Submitted to : S.B.Gardi Department of English M.K.U Bhavnagar 

Submitted on : 07/11/2022

Character Analysis of the novel 'Pride and Prejudice'

Pride and Prejudice is a novel written by Jane which is having every character significant in the context of its development and that is how character Analysis becomes necessary sometimes,as we are having various kinds of people around us in our society and in family also.

To start with the Analysis of each character let's have an introduction of the writer and novel.

Jane Austen: 

Jane Austen is an English writer(born in 1775) of Romantic age and she has written six novels. The common theme of her novels is Love, Relationships, Marriage, analysis of social life and family matters.

Six novels are very famous which have been written by Jane Austen.

1.Sense and Sensibility (1811),

2.Pride and Prejudice (1813),

3.Mansfield Park (1814),

4.Emma (1815),

5.Persuasion and

6.Northanger Abbey (both 1817).

Jane Austen often criticized society and some wrong practices of people during the eighteenth century. 

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.

Characters of the novel 

Mr.Bennet,

Mrs.Bennet,

Elizabeth Bennet,

Fitzwilliam Darcy,

Jane Bennet,

Mr.Bringley and 

Lydia Bennett 

Character Analysis 

Elizabeth Bennet

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

Her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments often lead her astray; Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all obstacles-including their own personal failings-to find romantic happiness. Elizabeth must not only cope with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy's character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.

Fitzwilliam Darcy

A wealthy gentleman, the master of Pemberley, and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though Darcy is intelligent and honest, his excess of pride causes him to look down on his social inferiors. Over the course of the novel, he tempers his class-consciousness and learns to admire and love Elizabeth for her strong character.

Jane Bennet

The eldest and most beautiful Bennet sister. Jane is more reserved and gentler than Elizabeth. The easy pleasantness with which she and Bingley interact contrasts starkly with the mutual distaste that marks the encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy.

Charles Bingley

Darcy's considerably wealthy best friend. Bingley's purchase of Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets, serves as the impetus for the novel. He is a genial, well-intentioned gentleman, whose easygoing nature contrasts with Darcy's initially discourteous demeanor. He is blissfully uncaring about class differences.

How did Jane and Bringley make the novel significant ?

Jane and Bringley both are much good and kind characters who didn't judge each other and that is the sequence which made us feel something wrong in the relationship or behaviour of Elizabeth and Darcy.

As I have written above about the personalities of Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley that they are having a simple mind without any differences, during the whole novel Jane didn't show her eagerness to marry a wealthy and upper class person and Bringley didn't Denied to marry a lower class girl or never showed his pride about his class and money.

Despite their centrality to the narrative, Jane and Bingley are vague characters, sketched by Austen rather than carefully drawn. Indeed, they are so similar in nature and behavior that they can be described together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly egotism of Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane's gentle spirit serves as a foil for her sister's fiery, contentious nature, while Bingley's eager friendliness contrasts with Darcy's stiff pride. Their principal characteristics are goodwill and compatibility, and the contrast of their romance with that of Darcy and Elizabeth is remarkable. Jane and Bingley exhibit to the reader true love unhampered by either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness, they also demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull.

Mr.Bennet 

Mr. Bennet is the patriarch of the Bennet household-the husband of Mrs. Bennet and the father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and Mary. He is a man driven to exasperation by his ridiculous wife and difficult daughters. He reacts by withdrawing from his family and assuming a detached attitude punctuated by bursts of sarcastic humor. He is closest to Elizabeth because they are the two most intelligent Bennets.

Initially, his dry wit and self-possession in the face of his wife's hysteria make Mr. Bennet a sympathetic figure, but, though he remains likable throughout, the reader gradually loses respect for him as it becomes clear that the price of his detachment is considerable. He is in fact a weak father who, at critical moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish indulgence of Lydia's immature behavior nearly leads to general disgrace when she elopes with Wickham. Further, upon her disappearance, he proves largely ineffective. It is left to Mr. Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and rectify the situation. Ultimately, Mr. Bennet would rather withdraw from the world than cope with it.

Mrs.Bennet 

Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome character. Noisy and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically, her single-minded pursuit of this goal tends to backfire, as her lack of social graces alienates the very people (Darcy and Bingley) whom she tries desperately to attract. Austen uses her continually to highlight the necessity of marriage for young women.

Mrs. Bennet also serves as a middle-class counterpoint to such upper-class snobs as Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley, demonstrating that foolishness can be found at every level of society. In the end, however, Mrs. Bennet proves such an unattractive figure, lacking redeeming characteristics of any kind, that some readers have accused Austen of unfairness in portraying her-as if Austen, like Mr. Bennet took perverse pleasure in poking fun at a woman already scorned as a result of her ill-breeding.

Lydia Bennett 

Lydia is the youngest and wildest Bennet daughter. She is her mother's favorite because like Mrs. Bennet, she is preoccupied with gossip, socializing, and men. Lydia is described as having "high animal spirits and a sort of natural self-consequence." She is attractive and charismatic, but she is also reckless and impulsive. Lydia's behavior frequently embarrasses her older sisters, and when Lydia receives the invitation to go to Brighton.

Elizabeth makes an impassioned speech about her sister's character,She explains that "our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia's character" Elizabeth also articulates her fear that Lydia is on the road to becoming "a flirt in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation." Lydia has an innate tendency toward wild and selfish behavior, but as a character she also sheds light on the failings of her parents, and father in particular. Because of her young age and lack of education, Lydia is presented as not entirely culpable for her behavior because she lacks parental guidance and discipline.

We can notice here,each character of the novel is getting psychological development in their mentality and actions but Lydia Bennett is remaining the same, Foolish and Wild.

Charlotte Lucas

Charlotte is initially described as "a sensible, intelligent woman... who was Elizabeth's intimate friend." Because of this intelligence, Elizabeth assumes that Charlotte shares her values, even though Charlotte is actually much more pragmatic and even cynical. For example, after Charlotte makes a series of speeches explaining that "Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance" and highlighting the importance of choosing a partner who can provide economic stability, Elizabeth gently rebukes her, explaining that "You know it is not sound and you would never behave in this way yourself." Because Elizabeth is blind to Charlotte's true values, she feels shocked and betrayed when Charlotte chooses to marry Mr. Collins. Charlotte's character is consistent throughout; when Elizabeth goes to visit her after her marriage, she is forced to "meditate upon Charlotte's degree of contentment... and to acknowledge that it was all done very well." Charlotte accurately assesses her priorities and what she needs to be happy, and chooses accordingly. As a result, she stands in contrast to Elizabeth, who forms inaccurate assessments of situations and people.

Conclusion :

Each character of the novel Pride and Prejudice are developing psychology and at the end they all comes to know where they were wrong.

As Austen was the Victorian novelist,she made every character as same as the people of our society,the way they're behaving and the mindset they have in this modern times also.

Three Unhealthy Family Generations in 'Jude the Obscure'

Academic Information :

Name : Dangar Rinkal Nathabhai

Roll no.20

Enrollment no.4049206420220007

Batch : M.A (2022-24)

Paper Name : Literature of the Victorians 

Paper code : 22395

Paper no.104

Topic : Three Unhealthy Family Generations in 'Jude the Obscure'

Submitted to : S.B.Gardi Department of English M.K.U Bhavnagar 

Submitted on : 07/11/2022

Three Unhealthy Family Generations in 'Jude the Obscure'.

As we are of the Psychology that many factors like Cultural,Social,Education are responsible to the behavior of a person or it shapes the personality.

Here in the novel there is the only reason for mental instability in characters because they are having unhealthy family relations and it has developed the chain of three generations.

Let's have an introduction of the writer of 'Jude the Obscure'

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, England. He was an excellent satirist, English Novelist and Poet. 

Like many writers of the late nineteenth century, Thomas Hardy was continually striving towards understanding the human condition with a particular interest in Psychology.

Many of his novels explore a wide range of aspects of the human mind and emotions.

'Jude the Obscure' Novel Introduction 

Jude the Obscure is a novel written by Thomas Hardy,published in 1895, Hardy had written about relationships and how outer Norms can affect an Individual.

Thomas Hardy's last finished novel, Jude the Obscure, tells the story of Jude Fawley, a working-class man who dreams of becoming a scholar, and of his doomed relationships with the seductive Arabella Donn and the true love of his life, Sue Bridehead.

Of Course that novel is about love, marriage and relationships but it seems devoid of a stable family,we can find that the root of all of Jude's problems is that he is surrounded too much by the specters of his family.

Introduction of Characters of the Novel

Jude Frawley

The novel's protagonist, a poor orphan who is raised by his great-aunt after his parents divorced and died. Jude dreams of attending the university at Christminister, but he fails to be accepted because of his working class background. He is a skilled stonemason and a kindly soul who cannot hurt any living thing. 

Jude's "fatal flaw" is his weakness regarding alcohol and women, and he allows his marriage to Arabella, even though it is unhappy, to distract himself from his dream. He shares a deep connection with his cousin Sue, but their relationship is doomed by their earlier marriages, society's disapproval, and bad luck. Jude starts out pious and religious, but by the end of his life he has grown agnostic and bitter.

Sue Bridehead 

The novel's other protagonist and Jude's cousin. Sue's parents were divorced and she was raised in London and Christminster. She is an extremely intelligent woman who rejects Christianity and flirts with paganism, despite working as a religious artist and then teacher. Sue is often described as "ethereal" and "bodiless" and she generally lacks sexual passion, especially compared to Jude. Sue marries Phillotson as a kind of rebuke to Jude for his own marriage to Arabella, and is then repulsed by Phillotson as a husband. She is portrayed as inconsistent and emotional, often changing her mind abruptly, but she develops a strong relationship and love with Jude. 

Though she starts out nonreligious, the death of her children drives Sue to a harsh, legalistic version of Christianity as she believes she is being punished for her earlier rebellion against Christianity, and she returns to Phillotson even though she never ceases to love Jude.

Arabella Donn

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

Richard Phillotson

Jude's schoolmaster at Marygreen who moves to

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

Little Father Time 

Jude's son with Arabella, he was born in Australia and sent to England to live with Jude years later. The boy was never named or given love, and his nickname is "Little Father Time" because he seems old beyond his years. Jude and Sue christen him as "Jude," but his old nickname sticks. Little Father Time is a world-weary, depressed child who lacks any curiosity or joy. He is portrayed as a result of the divorce, lovelessness, and bad luck in his life, and in this he acts as a symbol as well as a character. Little Father Time ultimately takes Sue's depressed words to heart and kills himself and Sue's two children in order to try to free Sue and Jude from their burdens.

These are the characters of the novel who are affecting each other's behavior and developing obscurity.

Three Unhealthy Family Generations in 'Jude the Obscure'

There are three generations which are being developed with the plot of the novel.

Parents of Jude and Sue,

Jude and Sue and 

The Little Father Time and his Siblings

1.Parents of Jude and Sue

As I have introduced characters of the novel that Jude and Sue's parents are siblings and how their life made them obscure that both Jude's father and Sue's mother were been separated from their life partner is affecting their children's lives that Sue's mother left her husband and Jude's mother was no longer alive.

         When the novel begins Jude and Sue's father's are also dead but that sequence is affecting protagonists.

2.Jude and Sue :

When there are two different protagonist that Jude is Religious and Sue is atheist but at the end they are converting their beliefs.They both live together without marriage which created difficulty for themselves and their children because Sue loved Jude though she didn't married him and returned to him with the permission of her husband.

As they were mentally unstable that they won't be able to deal with their financial crises, people who were against of their relationship and also in inspiring their own children also.

Now the third one is the generation which got a disastrous result of Unhealthy Family Relationships.

3.Little Father Time 

 

Little Father Time lacks personality except as an excessively morbid, unexcitable child, but when he kills himself and Sue's children it is the climax of the novel. As a symbol, Little Father Time represents the depression and amorality that Hardy sees as the inevitable result of the injustices in his society. Father Time is driven to despair by how poorly Jude and Sue are treated for being unmarried, and by his lack of love from Arabella and her parents. After Little Father Time's death, the doctor actually diagnoses his murder-suicide as "in his nature" and "the beginning of the coming universal wish not to live." 

In this way Hardy horrifies his readers and makes his social critiques seem that much more urgent, implying that the injustices of his generation will lead to tragedy in the next.

Conclusion :

That is how, Unhealthy Family Generations became dangerous for the growth of mental health of characters which ended with the death of innocent children,that how disastrous it can be.

Impact of the French Revolution on English literature

Academic Information 

Name : Dangar Rinkal Nathabhai

Roll no.20

Enrollment no.4049206420220007

Batch : M.A (2022-24)

Paper Name : History of English Literature from 1350 to 1900

Paper code : 22396

Paper no.105

Topic : Impact of the French Revolution on English Literature 

Submitted to : S.B.Gardi Department of English M.K.U Bhavnagar 

Submitted on : 07/11/2022

Preface : 

Every Historical, Political and Social event is having its influence on literature even some pandemics like Corona and Plague, natural disasters and wars are influencing people and inspires writers and poets to create a piece of Literature.

"The relation between art, literature and history is a complex one. The way in which broad historical processes affect art and literature is not a direct one. The poets and writers of England and other lands did not necessarily set out to express political ideas in a conscious way, though some did. The processes we are dealing with here are far more subtle and indirect. They do not express themselves as a conscious decision or trend, but rather a certain mood. However, unconsciously, or at best semi-consciously, poets and writers can and do reflect the general trends in society." - Alan Woods

An Introduction of the French Revolution 

The French Revolution was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy,while phrases like liberté, égalité, fraternité reappeared in other revolts, such as the 1917 Russian Revolution, and inspired campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage. The values and institutions it created dominate French politics to this day.

It sought to completely change the relationship between the rulers and those they governed and to redefine the nature of political power. 

When the King sought to increase the tax burden on the poor and expand it to classes that had previously been exempt, revolution became all but inevitable.

Before the revolution Church and monarchy was in power people were not allowed to question The King bt after the revolution Catholicism had lost the power,

Revolution produced equality and career open for talents.

Impact of the French Revolution on English Literature 

French Revolution led to the "Liberalism in Literature." The political liberalism of French Revolution inspired the liberation, individuality and rejection of prescribed rules in the Romantic Literature. The Romantic poets were inspired by the ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty.

The French Revolution helped to humanize Wordsworth as his works transitioned from extremely natural experiences to facing the realities and ills of life, including society and the Revolution. From then on, his focus became the interests of man rather than the power and innocence of nature.

Many Romantic Poets and writers are having influence of French Revolution on their writting like..

William Wordsworth,

P.B.Shelley,

John Keats,

Jane Austen and 

William Blake.

 Influence of French Revolution on different poets and their writting : 

William Wordsworth 

 • The French Captain Michel Beaupuy strongly influenced Wordsworth in forming political ideals, and his presence was so important to the young poet that Wordsworth mentions the captain in Book Nine of The Prelude.

• Wordsworth hoped that France would be a "work of honour" and a democratic government could not work unless there were men like Beaupuy to ensure there were radicals to stand for this honor and freedom.

• The young Wordsworth had great hopes for the Revolution, and he believed that once a republic was firmly in power in France, he and his contemporaries "should see the people having a strong hand/ In framing their own laws; whence betters day: To all mankind "

As a Romantic, Wordsworth believed in the equality of all men and saw the monarchy as an institution that sought to take away this equality.

• Wordsworth believed in the equality of all men like most Romantics of the time, and he viewed the monarchy as a means of taking away equality. 

Wordsworth had great hopes for the Revolution, and he believed that once a republic was firmly in power in France, he and his contemporaries "should see the people having a strong hand/ In framing their own laws; whence betters day; To all mankind" 

• Once the Reign of Terror and England's declaration of war against France, he became torn between his ideals of freedom and equality and all the bloodshed he saw going on around him.

• He went from being a Republican with dreams of equality for all men, to a conservative who wished to preserve the stability and resume order in England.

P. B. Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, the year of the deposition of Louis XVI and the September massacres in Paris. Like those of the first generation of Romantic poets, Shelley's views were shaped by the French Revolution and its aftermath, but he came to maturity in a very different political climate.

He wrote a political pamphlet A Declaration of Rights, on the subject of the French Revolution, but it was considered to be too radical for distribution in Britain.

 In 1822 Shelley, moved to Italy with Leigh Hunt and Lord Byron where they published the journal The Liberal. By publishing it in Italy the three men remained free from prosecution by the British authorities.

Shelley's views were shaped by the French Revolution and its aftermath, but he came to maturity in a very different political climate.

John Keats 

The life-long creed of keats was beauty and he proudly remarked that "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." There was never a more ardent lover of beauty than keats had been. But this love of beauty led him to ignore the harsh realities of life Most of the poets of the romantic era came under the impact of the French Revolution but keats remained a great exception. Stopford Brooke, in this connection, remarks; "The ideas that awoke the youthful passions of Wordsworth, of Coleridge, that stirred the wrath of Scott, that worked like yeast on Byron and brought forth new matter, that Shelley re clothed and made into a prophecy of future - the excitement, the turmoil, the life and death struggle which gathered round the Revolution - were ignored and unrepresented by keats.... In keats the ideas of Revolution have disappeared.

 He has, inspite of a few passages and till quite the end of his career, no vital interest in the present, none in man as a whole, none in the political movement of human thought, none in the future. of mankind, none in liberty, equality or fraternity, no inter est in anything but beauty. This led Brooke to conclude that keats was a pure poet who was just not interested in anything else but beauty.

Jane Austen

The French Revolution was a period of great progress as well as great chaos. This period lines up almost perfectly with Jane Austen's life. This great historical event left a significant impact on not just her life, but also on her family. It, in fact, had a great impact on her literary works.

Austen puts tragedy and war deaths into her fiction, too. In her novel Emma, the orphan Jane Fairfax is said to have lost her father in wartime. That father, Lieutenant Fairfax, was serving in an infantry regiment when he died in action abroad. It’s true that we’re not told about this action. But every reader would have understood that Lieutenant Fairfax was a casualty of the war in a battle with French forces.

How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!”

That is one dialogue of Jane Austen from one latter.

Jane Austen mostly wrote about human behaviour with each other and with surroundings 

S.T.Coleridge 

Coleridge was profoundly influenced by the French Revolution and the revolutionary enthusiasm of Wordsworth When the Bastille was thrown open and the prisoners released to bask in the sunshine of freedom he wrote

"Liberty the soul of life, shall reign Shall throb in every pulse, shall flow thro' every vein."

Stopford A Brooke remarks, "Almost all his best poetic work is co-incident with the Revolution; afterwards everything is in complete. The weakness of will was doubled by disease, and trebled by opium, and his poetic life, even his philosophic work, was a splendid failure. It was in the fitness of things that Coleridge should feel ashamed when England declared War on revolutionary leaders was even earlier than that of Wordsworth

 Lord Byron

By the time the younger Romantics came on the scene the full significance of the French Revolution was lost to the people in general Byron was only one year old when the French Revolu tion broke out Naturally he could not have the revolutionary enthusiasm of Wordsworth. But being a true Romantic he was against all sorts of tyranny and oppression. He was deeply and abidingly influenced the revolutionary philosophy Although the political fallout of the French Revolution was considered disastrous by Byron, yet he was impressed by its social ideas.

Conclusion :

Romanticism was an age in which a group of ideas, a web of beliefs and assumptions held sway. None of the Romantic poets fully expressed all of those ideas, but each believed in enough of them to set him apart from earlier writers. The age was highly emotional as well as imaginative. The Romantic poets acted through inspiration and intuition it is the main influenced of French Revolution. And everyone therefore believed in democracy, humanity and possibility to achieve a better life. In this ways, The French Revolution inaugurated the golden era for mankind in general.

The political thought of Rousseau remained the basis of po litical democrats of Europe. His famous saying, "Man is born free and he is everywhere in chains" came as a challenge to: the old order. In this ways, the revolution has been seen as an impact on romantic poet of the new era. 

Symbolism in 'Rape of the Lock'

Academic Information 

Name : Dangar Rinkal Nathabhai

Roll no.20

Enrollment no.4049206420220007

Batch : M.A (2022-24)

Paper Name : 

Paper code : 2239

Paper no.102

Topic : Symbolism in 'Rape of of the Lock'

Submitted to : S.B.Gardi Department of English M.K.U Bhavnagar 

Submitted on : 07/11/2022

Symbols in 'Rape of the Lock'

Before we go for Introduction of Symbols in 'The Rape of the Lock' let's have an introduction of writer and the poem itself.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature,Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his translation of Homer.

Pope was inspired by classical Greek writer and was writing in a great satirical way.

Rape of the Lock 

The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope.One of the most commonly cited examples of high burlesque, it was first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems as a five-canto version accompanied by six engravings. 

Pope boasted that this sold more than three thousand copies in its first four days. The final form of the poem appeared in 1717 with the addition of Clarissa's speech on good humor. The poem was much translated and contributed to the growing popularity of mock-heroics in Europe. 

This poem is a satire on the aristocratic people of Augustan age.

Characters of 'Rape of the Lock'

Poem is developed by its characters Ariel

Character Analysis

Ariel 

Belinda's guardian sylph. At the opening of the narrative, he explains to Belinda through a dream that he is tasked with protecting her beauty and chastity. He feels that some great disaster is looming in the near future and warns her to "beware of man." Later, as Belinda is sailing to Hampton Court, Ariel calls up an army of sylphs to defend various parts of her, including her hair, her earrings, and her fan. In the vital moment before the Baron snips off Belinda's lock of hair, however, Ariel gives up helping Belinda. When he gains access to her inner thoughts at this moment, Ariel spies "An earthly lover lurking at her heart," meaning she is perhaps not as chaste as she ought to be. Even though Ariel seems to want to protect Belinda, there is definitely something a little sinister about him, too. If he is so interested in Belinda's chastity, why does he choose to send her a dream at the beginning which includes a young man.

Baron 

The antagonist of the poem. Based on the historical Lord Petre, the Baron snips Belinda's lock on account of his infatuation with her remarkable beauty and refuses to give it back. Readers learn that, earlier that day, he created a bonfire to the god of Love made out of, among other things, books containing romantic stories, love letters, and tokens from past romantic attachments, in order to pray for success in winning Belinda in some way, and settled on "raping" her lock. And while his cutting of the lock is not equated with rape in the modern sense in the context of the poem, it means "theft" or "pillaging"-Pope is still using the word to connote injustice, and to unequivocally state that he has taken what he had no right to take. The fact that the Baron is only referred to by his title, revealing his masculinity and his station but nothing else, or else is satirically figured as a "knight," the height of courtly masculinity, allows Pope to metonymically cast a kind of witty judgment over all noblemen, and to question the contemporary assumption that they were the intellectual and moral leaders of their day.

Thalestris 

A courtly lady who befriends Belinda, and laments the loss of the lock with her. Like Belinda, she is subject to the "Sighs, sobs, and passions" dumped out of Umbriel's bag, which prompts her to take to the fight to regain the lock so aggressively. However, her name does recall that of the mythological queen of the Amazons, a group of fierce female warriors, which suggests that Pope might be teasing the reader here again with the question of how much the characters' actions are their own. Thalestris's name suggests she might herself be innately war-like, even without the influence of Umbriel.

The Queen of Spleen

Queen of the subterranean Cave of Spleen. A personification of the concept of spleen itself, she bestows hysteria, melancholy, and bodily dysfunction on women. She provides Umbriel with a bag of "Sighs, sobs and passions'' and a vial of "fainting fears, / Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears," which he pours over Belinda and Thalestris, allowing Pope to once again suggest that the mortals are not really in control of their own feelings or actions.

Clarissa 

A lady at court who lends the Baron her scissors to chop off Belinda's lock of hair. She later finds the whole incident frustratingly trivial and delivers a speech about how physical beauty is ultimately fleeting and that instead women should concentrate on being as morally upright as they possibly can. Looks might prove attractive to the eyes, Clarissa declares, but virtue is most attractive to the soul. While her speech obviously makes good sense, it is typical of a more traditional style of poem which would be primarily concerned with didacticism, or simply telling the reader what the moral is. Pope subverts the conventions of this style of writing by refusing to end the poem here and instead concluding with the absurdity of the courtly battle. But Clarissa's name, meaning "clarity." hints that the reader might do well to take her wise advice.

⚫ Symbols in ' The Rape of Lock'

an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. It originated in late 19th-century France and Belgium, with important figures including Mallarmé, Maeterlinck, Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Redon.

Belinda's Lock 

Belinda's lock of hair comes to symbolize the absurdity of the importance afforded to female beauty in society. Pope offers a hyperbolically metaphorical description of the two locks in Canto II, humorously framing the locks as alluring enough to virtually incapacitate any man who looks at them. The locks are "labyrinths" in which Love "detains" "his slaves" by binding their hears with "slender chains," thus poking fun at the idea that Belinda's beauty is truly powerful enough to make such a deep impact. This absurdity only grows as the poem progresses and after the Baron has snipped Belinda's lock. Under the influence of Umbriel,Thalestris laments the loss of the lock as the symbolic loss of Belinda's reputation in society, exclaiming. "Methinks already in your tears survey,/Already hear the horrid things they say." In Pope's day, the respectability of a woman in society depended upon her having a spotless reputation and being perfectly virtuous, and, in particular, sexually pure. Thalestris then is essentially saying that the loss of Belinda's lock is a rupture which damages all of the rest of her beauty, and the Baron's having taken it in so intimate a fashion compromises the idea that she is chaste, and that people will think she in some way allowed him to violate her body. 

Obviously, this makes very little sense, allowing the Pope to satirize the idea that beauty and virtue are so closely related. 

The lock's final ascension into the heavens is the most absurd part of the whole thing, and Pope's choice to cap off the whole poem with the transparently silly idea that the lock is too precious to remain on earth. that no mortal deserves to be so "blest" as to possess it, emphasizes the ridiculous amount of emphasis placed on female beauty in society.

Playing Cards 

In the poem, the playing cards that Belinda, the Baron, and another gentleman use in their game of ombre symbolize the trivial nature of life at court. Pope describes the playing cards in the terms of an epic battle, where kings, queens, and nobles battle one another, accompanied by "particolour'd troops, a shining train, Draw forth to combat on the velvet plain." While epic heroes engaged in huge battles, where real kings, queens, and nobles' lives would have been at stake, this trio of modern figures at court-Belinda, the Baron, and the other gentleman-only come as close to epic battle as a game of ombre, where the cards make for a silly substitute for the lives which might be lost in a real battle. By infusing the card game with mock-seriousness, Pope consequently suggests that life at court for Belinda and her peers is likewise empty, trivial, and mockable.

The Bodkin

 of the final battle, Belinda draws "a deadly Bodkin from her side" and threatens the Baron with it. A bodkin is a pin for putting up hair. Like in the epics of the Greek poet Homer (9th or 8th century BCE), this weapon has a history. 

Belinda's great-great-grandfather wore rings that were melted down after his death to make "a vast Buckle for his Widow's Gown." It was reformed again into Belinda's "infant Grandma's Whistle." Then it became the bodkin it is now, which was first worn by Belinda's mother. Therefore, the bodkin symbolizes the storied swords and spears used by heroes in epic poems. 

Rape 

The eighteenth century is an age of psychological insight. Every writer as well as his work is being analyzed in psychological terms. Modern psychology has proved that it is the sex psychology which determined the superiority of a sex. Sex is the nucleus of human life and its all activities. It is not the product of conventions, rather, it is just a natural instinct, which is reduced to some discipline by accepted social convention, morals, laws, etc. Sex is at the root of all moral and physical health. So it may be disciplined, but if it is curbed and suppressed, it leads to drastic consequences.

The lock in "The Rape of the Lock" is a symbol of the female organ and the rape of the lock symbolizes the rape of Belinda by the hands of Lord Peter. In fact, the poem projects a synthesis between sex and religion. The boys and the girls were allured to have relations and were in favour of free sex but religion did not allow it. Besides, they were also afraid of their social disreputation. So they had to suppress their natural instinct sometimes. 

Resultantly,established relations with others secretly. Belinda's grief was not the loss of chastity but her social disreputation. That's why she repented that Baron had cut the lock of hair.

Conclusion : 

That is how symbols are affecting the poem even the name Clarissa is itself significant which means clarity and Clarissa is the only one character with the mind in overall poem and all other characters events are also having their own meaning in the poem 'Rape of the Lock'.

Critical Analysis of 'Lady Macbeth'

Name : Dangar Rinkal Nathabhai 

Batch : M.A (First semester) 2022-24

Roll No.20

Enrollment number :4069206420220007

Paper Name :

Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Period

Assignment Topic : Critical Analysis of 'Lady Macbeth'

Paper Number : 101

Paper code : 22392

                           

Critical Analysis of 'Lady Macbeth' 

All the students, teachers, writers and critics,who have read the play 'Macbeth' are having one picture of the character of 'Lady Macbeth' or aware of the character of 'Lady Macbeth'.As a part of the literature and Shakespeare had written it,the play 'Macbeth' becomes a masterpiece and how does the character of 'Lady Macbeth'is true to contemporary time will be discussed in my assignment of her Critical Analysis.

Introduction of the play 'Macbeth' 

William Shakespeare had given four most famous tragedies to English literature and 'Macbeth' is one of them which tells the story of a Scottish nobleman, and his own ambition to become King published in 1623.

 

Characters of the Play

Macbeth : 

Macbeth is initially presented as a Scottish nobleman and a valiant warrior. However, after listening to the prophecy delivered by the Three Witches in which he is told he would be king, he is overcome by blind ambition, and, strongly encouraged by his wife, he kills the king to usurp the throne. His thirst for power is counterbalanced by paranoia, which leads to his downfall.

Lady Macbeth :

 Macbeth's wife, she thinks her husband's nature is too full of kindness. She is the one who devises the plot for her husband to murder King Duncan, and is initially less fazed by the deed than her husband. However, she eventually unravels too, and commits suicide.

The Three Witches : 

Whether they control fate or are merely its agents, the Three Witches set the tragedy in motion: they deliver Macbeth and his companion Banquo with a prophecy that the former shall be king, and the latter shall generate a line of kings. These prophecies have a great influence on Macbeth, who decides to usurp the throne of Scotland.

Banquo. 

Banquo is another Scottish thane who was with Macbeth when the witches delivered their prophecy. He is told that he will father a line of kings while not becoming king himself. After the king's murder, Macbeth feels threatened by Banquo and has him murdered by hired assassins. Yet, Banquo returns as a ghost at a banquet, visibly startling Macbeth, who is the only one who can see him.

Macduff. 

Macduff finds King Duncan's body after he was murdered and immediately suspects Macbeth. Eventually, he murders Macbeth.

King Duncan.

The wise and firm king of Scotland at the beginning of the play, he is murdered by Macbeth so he can usurp the throne. He represents moral order in the play, which Macbeth destroys and Macduff restores.

These are the characters and their introduction of the play 'Mackbeth'.

Now let's begin with the Critical Analysis of 'Lady Mackbeth' amongst them 😊.

Lady Macbeth :

Lady Macbeth is the wife of protagonist Character of 'Mackbeth' who is having clear Sense of herself.

She appeared at first time in the play by reading the letter of her husband and the letter scene is telling a lot about her character.

SCENE V. Inverness, Macbeth's castle.

Enter LADY MACBETH, reading a letter

LADY MACBETH Reading the letter :

They met me in the day of success: and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor: by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that shalt be!! This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell."

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shall be What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, at That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it: And that which rather thou dost fear to do

Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical and doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal."

Many of the critics are considering Lady Macbeth as a loving and supportive wife who is happy with her husband's success and supporting him in 'Every way' she is able for.

In the play she is a ambitious lady who can do anything to reach at her goal which is highly problematic.

After reading the letter she determines to make predictions real for her husband and thinks for actions they need for it and that is the murder of king Duncan.

Personality of Lady Macbeth :

LOVED AS AN EQUAL

"my dearest partner of greatness"

WITCH-LIKE of

"Come, you spirits..."

MASCULINE

"...unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty!"

MANIPULATIVE/GOADING

"Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as than art in desire?"

HONOURABLE

"I would [...]have[...]dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn"

SOME CONSCIENCE

"Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it"

CONTEMPTUOUS

"Infirm of purpose!"

FEARFUL

"She has light by her continually"

GUILT-RIDDEN

"What, will these hands never be clean?"

"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand"

"Doctor: more needs she the divine than the physician"

COMMANDING

"Go get some water, and wash this filthy witness from your hand"

ADMIRED

"...They understand mettle should compose nothing but males"

DETERMINED

"...Screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail"

SELF CONFIDENCE 

"Leave all the rest to me"

CUNNING

"... Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under'+"

RUTHLESS

"O, never shall sun that morrow see!"

EAGER TO INFLUENCE

"Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear"

As shown here in these dialogues which are showing personality of Lady Macbeth that she had determined that her husband is willing to become a King then he must become,when she comes to know that there is only the one way to make Mackbeth a King is 'Death of king Duncan' and she finds the opportunity to kill him she didn't wait it to happen by natural death of Duncan.

Her strong point is that after determination,she never looked back till she gets it, this kind of personality is still lacking in many women and men that they are not true to their ambition and are always waiting for some sources to do it for them.

Lady Macbeth herself didn't killed Duncan she inspired Macbeth because he was willing to become the king As Macbeth became ready to kill mackduff she denies.

When Mackbeth is regretting the murder he had done she tells him that whatever is done can not be undone.

Dark side of Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth have achieved success to lead her husband towards kingship but she killed a good King Dunken for that.

She had done it for her husband and guide him to murder it was good if she had done by thy self rather than guiding someone. 

In her opinion,to have human kindness or the milk of kindness is not a good thing for an ambitious person.

If Duncan would not resembled her father, Lady Macbeth would kill him that is significant here that she can do anything with any person out of her family to reach at her goal.

Conclusion

In the time of the Elizabethan Age, women were doing household work well but Shakespeare made his character doing arrangements for the plan and supporting the another.Having courage and strong will power is the positive side of Lady Macbeth.

When there is the matter of Psychology, when Lady Macbeth is different from all the women arround her that she didn't discussed her guilt and that is the reason she is having nightmares, sleep walking and feeling guilty because she had driven her husband to murder.

Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy, (born June 2, 1840, Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, England—died January 11, 1928, Dorchester, Dorset), English novelist and poet who set much of his work in Wessex, his name for the counties of southwestern England.

Jude the Obscure

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

Jude 

A young man from Marygreen who dreams of studying at Christminster but becomes a stone mason instead.

Susanna Bridehead

Jude's cousin. She is unconventional in her beliefs and education, but marries the schoolmaster Richard Phillotson.

Arabella Donn

Jude's first wife. She enjoys spending time in bars and in the company of men.

Aunt Drusilla

The relative who raised Jude.

Richard Phillotson

The schoolmaster who first introduces Jude to the idea of studying at the university. He later marries Sue.

Little Father Time (Little Jude)

Jude and Arabella's son, raised in Australia by Arabella's parents. He is said to have the mind of an old man, though he is a young child.

Themes in Jude the Obscure

Marriage

Much of Jude the Obscure consists of a critique of the institution of marriage, which Hardy saw as flawed and unjust. The novel’s plot is designed to wring all the possible tragedy out of an unhappy marriage, as Jude is first guilted into marrying Arabella by her feigned pregnancy, and Sue marries Phillotson mostly to make Jude jealous. Both protagonists immediately regret their decisions, and realize how a single impulsive decision can affect them.

Fate

Throughout the book Hardy subjects his characters to many hardships and unlucky coincidences which come to feel like fate, whether that fate is interpreted as a supernatural punishment for rebelling against religion or a fate determined by a society structured to thwart independent, sensitive souls like Jude and Sue. The novel’s overarching story of fate is that Jude and Sue’s family is “cursed” in marriage.

Social Criticism

Much of the novel serves as a vessel for Hardy’s criticism of English Victorian society. Most of this critique is aimed at the institution of marriage, but Hardy also targets education, class divides, and hypocrisy. The early part of the novel involves Jude’s quest to be accepted into a college at Christminster, a university town based on Oxford. Jude works for years teaching himself classical languages, but he is never accepted simply.

Women in Society

Sue Bridehead is a surprisingly modern and complex heroine for her time, and through her character Hardy brings up many gender-related issues. Sue is unique in Victorian society in that she lives with men without marrying (or even sleeping with) them, as with her undergraduate student friend. Sue is highly intelligent and very well-read, and she rejects the traditional Christianity of her society.

Religion

Along with marriage and society, Hardy spends much of Jude the Obscure critiquing religion and the institution of Christianity. He often portrays Christianity as life-denying and belonging to “the letter” that “killeth” (from the novel’s epigraph). In contrast, Sue is introduced as a kind of pre-Christian entity, an ethereal, pagan spirit, and she first appears buying figures of the ancient Greek gods Venus and Apollo. 

Importance of Being Earnest

We are having Importance of Being Earnest in our syllabus and here is my understanding on Importance of Being Earnest.

Oscar Wilde 

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet and playwright. He wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the plays Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere's Fan.

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre ...

John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing 

The play’s protagonist. Jack Worthing is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life. In Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate, Jack is known as Jack. In London he is known as Ernest. As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. The initials after his name indicate that he is a Justice of the Peace.

Algernon Moncrieff

The play’s secondary hero. Algernon is a charming, idle, decorative bachelor, nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest. Algernon is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements. He has invented a fictional friend, “Bunbury,” an invalid whose frequent sudden relapses allow Algernon to wriggle out of unpleasant or dull social obligations.

Gwendolen Fairfax

Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter. Gwendolen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest. A model and arbiter of high fashion and society, Gwendolen speaks with unassailable authority on matters of taste and morality. She is sophisticated, intellectual, cosmopolitan, and utterly pretentious. Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a man without that name.

Cecily Cardew

Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of the old gentlemen who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness. This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack’s brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them.

Lady Bracknell

Algernon’s snobbish, mercenary, and domineering aunt and Gwendolen’s mother. Lady Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. She has a list of “eligible young men” and a prepared interview she gives to potential suitors. Like her nephew, Lady Bracknell is given to making hilarious pronouncements, but where Algernon means to be witty, the humor in Lady Bracknell’s speeches is unintentional. Through the figure of Lady Bracknell, Wilde manages to satirize the hypocrisy and stupidity of the British aristocracy. Lady Bracknell values ignorance, which she sees as “a delicate exotic fruit.” When she gives a dinner party, she prefers her husband to eat downstairs with the servants. She is cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian, and possibly the most quotable character in the play.

Miss Prism

Cecily’s governess. Miss Prism is an endless source of pedantic bromides and clichés. She highly approves of Jack’s presumed respectability and harshly criticizes his “unfortunate” brother. Puritan though she is, Miss Prism’s severe pronouncements have a way of going so far over the top that they inspire laughter. Despite her rigidity, Miss Prism seems to have a softer side. She speaks of having once written a novel whose manuscript was “lost” or “abandoned.” Also, she entertains romantic feelings for Dr. Chasuble.

Lane

Algernon’s manservant. When the play opens, Lane is the only person who knows about Algernon’s practice of “Bunburying.” Lane appears only in Act I.

Merriman

The butler at the Manor House, Jack’s estate in the country. Merriman appears only in Acts II and III.

Themes in Importance of Being Earnest

The Nature of Marriage in The Importance of Being Earnest

There are several themes in The Importance of Being Earnest through which the idea of marriage is satirized. These themes will be introduced below and then expanded upon in individual sections.

 love

 The love the characters feel for each other is sincere. Much of the play's charm comes from the underlying love that the characters feel for each other, even when this love seems endangered by things such as a character not being able to get past another character not being named Ernest. (Both Gwendolen and Cecily are in love with the idea of marrying somebody named Ernest.)

 status

 Lady Bracknell, in particular, worries about this, especially regarding potential suitors for her daughter Gwendolen.

The third theme is deception

 The title of the play is The Importance of Being Earnest. However, much of the play is based on accidental misunderstandings and on the intentional misleading of others.

Absalom and Achitophel

John Dryden : 

After John Donne and John Milton, John Dryden was the greatest English poet of the 17th century.John Dryden (19 August 1631 — 12 May 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright

Absalom and achitophel 

Absalom and Achitophel is "generally acknowledged as the finest political satire in the English language". It is also described as an allegory regarding contemporary political events, and a mock heroic narrative. In the preface to “Absalom and Achitophel,” John Dryden claims he is merely a historian, but had he originally created the biblical story.

Absalom

David’s illegitimate son and the protagonist of “Absalom and Achitophel.” David does not have any legitimate heirs to the throne, but Absalom is his favorite child. Absalom is handsome and ambitious.

Achitophel

A deceitful counselor to King David and the antagonist of “Absalom and Achitophel.” Of all the men who oppose David within the government, Achitophel is the most influential. He is smart, ambitious, and morally flexible.

David

The third king of Israel. David is a merciful and kind king who does not have a male heir to inherit the throne. 

Saul

The first king of Israel. According to Dryden, God was the first king of Israel, but the Jews, who are “moody” and frequently unhappy with their king, oust God and make Saul their king

David’s Brother

The heir presumptive of Israel. David’s brother never actually makes it into the poem, but Achitophel and Absalom refer to him multiple times. The crown will go to David’s brother after David dies.

Significance of the Poem 

The poem tells the Biblical tale of the rebellion of Absalom against King David; in this context it is an allegory used to represent a story contemporary to Dryden, concerning King Charles II.