Showing posts with label ENGLISH LITERATURE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ENGLISH LITERATURE. Show all posts

June 07, 2020

Appreciation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Appreciation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 


The essential story of “Pride and Prejudice” is precisely that – pride and prejudice and how these two can come as a serious barrier in deep, intimate love. 

The story involves 4 sisters and with 4 suitors. And each sister and her suitor, has a particular difficulty. The main couple here is Elizabeth and Darcy. 

The conflicts came from both outside and also inside. It is the 4 stories of 4 different couples reflecting the variety of ways in which barriers are set up to stop the fulfillment of love, by society and by our own lack of self knowledge. 

So, the plot goes in a variety of twists, leading to a climax that had to be happy. 

The prime barriers highlighted are pride and prejudice, the title of novel itself. 

Pride does not allow us to reveal beyond a point. Prejudice is common in life, where we make a judgment of a person that is contrary to fact. Yet what conquers finally is that quality that alone can break such barriers, ultimately and that is LOVE. 

The novel shows that in all the ways that actually happen in real life and which Austen had observed. 

She technically crafted it with beauty, clarity and especially with sympathetic humor and great depth of feeling too. It is her greatest work, and also the most celebrated, precisely for all these qualities presented in a beautifully integrated way.


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June 06, 2020

Appreciation of Gulliver Travels by by Jonathan Swift

Appreciation of Gulliver Travels by Jonathan Swift


Gulliver’s Travels is the story of one Mr Lemuel Gulliver, a strange fantasy story. 

It strikes as very real and a statement of the world around, and gives a total clarity about how the world really is and even the fact that we all know it. But, we hide it from ourselves, limiting ourselves, blinding ourselves and living a debased life and not even knowing that we are living such a worthless life. 

Now, how does a sensitive, knowledgeable, fully experienced person, who knows the world, not as a complicated thing, but utterly obviously, SHOW such a world? 

To show it like a normal story, would be in a way not effective, and even insulting,. The one great tool is satire. 

The satire in this is not personally harsh. It would have been harsh, dark, and depressing, had the author been affected by the world he is showing. 

But the main point is that the author finds the world actually ridiculously trivial, and idiotic. 

And he shows 4 aspects of the world as 4 voyages. 

In the first voyage, Gulliver reaches the land of Lilliputs, The people there are very energetic, hard working, planned men, but they are devoid of any purpose, and their being Lilliputs, tiny people, makes the point openly and almost idiotically clear. 

It is as if the world of Lilliput is precisely that - a small world, and you cannot take it seriously, even if put under arrest by them, even when they admire you, even when they use your services in stupid wars, that world is too stupid to take seriously and yes, it IS our world!! That is the satire!! 

The next voyage Gulliver undertakes is the opposite now. He goes to the world of giants, who are powerful, but only physically so and in no other way. 

They are bestial, cheap, and indulgent. 

The third voyage Gulliver travels is to a land where people are using their brains for studies and researches but with no purpose and no meaning whats ever. 

The final voyage is to a place where the beings are beautiful, but they are not humans, but noble horses, and here Gulliver shows the nobility of beings by showing horses, not men!! 

But men too live in this world. They are called Yahoos, and they are enslaved by the noble horses. The yahoos are dull, stupid and cannot create or manage anything with deeper values. 

With this satire, fantasy, and detached themes which reflect starkly our world, Gulliver finished his life purpose. 

Satirizing on a grand plane, he shows the world for what exactly it is and thus indirectly, this book, is a reminder of our follies, of our idiocy, lack of meaningful goals, and it stands as a message of how to be, by showing mainly how we are and how, thus we should NOT be. 

It reaches the noble soul deep within the reader and thinker, in all of us, the person in us, who really asks in innocence, disbelief and wonder- what is this world? And finds only evil, stupidity and chains. 

Gulliver travels takes him on a height of liberation, by directing the MIND of the reader, that forces the reader, while deeply entertaining him, to look within and without and reach the level of proper, natural human nobility. 

By that detached satire, and lack of sadness and tragedy and by its very ruthlessness and cutting theme and presentation, Gulliver goads us, but as a laughter, to BE human and to reach human grandeur. 

No wonder, this book has never gone out of print for centuries and has become a legendary work of art and stands in the hall of fame of the greatest and most inspiring and liberating books ever written, but with deep sage like sympathy, wisdom, clarity, humbleness and simplicity.

June 05, 2020

WHAT IS THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND THE POWER OF LITERATURE?

WHAT IS THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND THE POWER OF LITERATURE? 


A great writer SHOWS the world and people in a deeper way. 

Normally, most people in the world at large, given the limitations imposed by societal pressures, do not have the inner resources to observe life and the world, on a deeper, clearer and more meaningful level. 

By default, people live out their psychologies with a complicated and unresolved mixture of whatever they were influenced by and absorbed. 

They miss out on a life that can be and ought to be, the kind that is lived with a great clarity, joy, meaning and power. 

Here comes the power of a great writer in any era. He shows stories with a greater level of observation and that is why, usually, they do reach a good audience too and in the syllabi of educational programs. 

They REACH the people and take them on a higher level. This has been, in fact, the way by which mankind slowly has developed till now and would develop in the future too!! 

The observations that a great writer makes are of the characters’ psychologies and the social, political, and cultural realities he is living in. 

He also gives the philosophical truth about life as such. A LOT is conveyed with a story and that is why it is so deeply entertaining, if studied with focus and care. 

In our selections, as examples, William Blake’s “Tyger” takes the reader to really wonder about existence, life, reality and other worlds AS SUCH. 

“Twelfth Night” by Shakespeare gives that joy of living lightly, and also shows that one person is not different from another. We usually differentiate people based on some narrow divisions of class, gender, position etc. Shakespeare shows directly and powerfully that these do not count, as each person is a real human being and not a stereotype. 

Reading “Gulliver’s Travels” really makes this silly world small and makes the so called “big bad world” almost look harmless by its sheer triviality and smallness. The reader himself becomes a giant like the hero. The reader realizes more consciously that one need not be so stupid and, by that very realization, rises to the level of Swift!! 

With Jane Austen’s, “Pride and Prejudice”, the reader is made more aware of how we all create barriers between us in love, and much more. 

With “The Importance of Being Earnest”, the reader becomes very intelligently satirical, and really sees the world with great cutting and laughing criticism, while retaining his lightheartedness!! 

All this and MUCH MORE is experienced with great stories of great writers simply because the great writer writes with greater depth of observation. People normally do not observe so much, since they live out their lives mechanically, as we said earlier. 

A writer is both influenced and influences the world and the reader is made aware of both. 

We should keep in mind that a great writer is not a superman or God. He too is a normal human being, living in a culture and usually having absorbed the limitations of that culture and also the positive points in that culture. 

But, at the same time, a great writer is superior in his observations and very powerful too!! He is able to, to a good extent, transcends his culture, thinks on his own and showcases a great originality, meaning and universality in his works. 

Now, when a reader reads a great writer, he takes in both, and both these aspects are useful, in a deep way, for him. 

He learns directly about cultures and that is great knowledge of History learnt in a direct way, as if he is going back in time. Also, he sees how that writer had risen above his culture and commented on it through a story. 

He learns both and benefits in a great many ways. He realizes that a person need not be limited by his culture and he sees the impact the writer made in the world, 

ALL this comes as a great experience!! 

A great writer also reflects on the culture and in his own unique way, brings out both the good points and the negative points in terms of philosophical truth. 

As has been already stated, a writer is critical of the world, with his greater ethical outlook and sense of truth and powers of observation. 

This helps the reader to be critical himself and develops the reader’s powers of observation and judging immensely. 

A great writer is both an artist and a philosopher and he is as much a human being as anyone, but with great insight, both as an artist and as a philosopher. 

We must remember that a great writer is both telling the truth and living the truth. So, obviously he will have many different shades, aspects, conflicts too within him and all this gets seen. This is not a negative point. By thus giving the gift of showing his naked soul, the reader sees his own soul, both, those aspects which match his own soul and even those that do not. 

He is made AWARE!! And. any psychologist will tell you, self- awareness is everything!! 

A great writer indirectly shows and makes known, with stark reality both what makes a human being and what limits the human being. 

Because the great writer is so vulnerable and revealing about his own real self, the reader is able to see fully and clearly, what gives strength and solidity to a human being and what is limiting him. He is able to reach great perfection, happiness, stability, self confidence and natural self reverence in his own life. 

Reading of many great writers makes the world known, as a whole - the past and hence the present and also the future, in a prophetic way. 

Because a reader usually reads many great writers, the great value given by each great writer, is multiplied hundred fold with hundred books!! 

Life becomes too clear to such a reader and he becomes, almost without knowing and just by reading, very comfortable on a very high level of energy, joy and clarity. 

Great writers teach, not by lectures but in an incredible way- by stories, poems and essays that are concrete experiences!! Just imagine the gift you get from a great writer. You do not have to do anything, only read and enjoy and experience a story. You get so much KNOWLEDGE, POWER, MEANING, JOY AND STABILITY THAT COMES FROM KNOWING LIFE FULLY!! 

A great writer gifts the power of great living to the reader!! 

The reader experiences the world in stark strokes – the whole social, political and psychological worlds. 

Reading many authors, he stands on a mountain top and sweeps the whole world with a single glance!! 

The avid reader is finally able to work out in his daily living, with great love and fire, his own first hand outlook on life, and that enables him to live a life of beauty and grandeur as a philosopher himself! 

All this and much more would come to the reader, by reading great writers. That is the reason why we have written this book and why we want to introduce, in a very deep way, hundreds of great works by great writers. 

The reader will have a deeper appreciation of all the above points after he has been introduced to the six great works and writers in this volume – 1 

Then, he can make a plan of reading the 6 works with perfection and surely take his life to a higher level of confidence, perfection, happiness and energy!! 

HAPPY DISCOVERY!!

June 03, 2020

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST BY OSCAR WILDE (APPRECIATION OF THE PLAY)



*** APPRECIATION OF THE PLAY ***  

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST 
BY OSCAR WILDE 


The plot of “The Importance of Being Earnest” centers around two characters, who is the same person! 

One a good man and named, Jack Worthing and the other, his so called brother, whom he himself has created. He does this to have the excuse to meet his “brother” in London city to have fun, and be freer and doing what he pleased. 

He is guardian, of Cecily Cardew, who gets to know about the brother, and secretly falls in love with the fictional brother, who does not exist!! 

Jack Worthing has a best friend, and this friend, Algernon Moncrieff, comes to Jack’s home one day, and sees Cecily and falls in love with her. He becomes Ernest to woo Cecily!! 

Jack Worthing actually loves Gwendolen Fairfax and she loves him and his name both. 

In the course of the play, Lady Bracknell, the mother of Gwendolen, asks Jack about his parentage, and he informs that he was found in a bag in a railway station by Cecily’s grandfather, Thomas Cardew, who had adopted him. 

Later events reveal that Jack is actually the son of Lady Bracknell’s sister. And his name indeed was Ernest John. 

There is a fun elements associated with the name, Ernest. Both the ladies, want their lovers to have the name and they even to go to change their names. Finally all are happy. 

This is a fun play and it makes fun but at what? 

It is not just light heated but makes fun at common morals of society and its emphasis on being serious and duty bound. 

Oscar Wilde deeply believed that life is very “state of the nature”, Man is both a sinner and saint and on a deeper level, man is just man, with all that he has learnt, acquired, chosen, by influences and has become, and yes, he does face consequences and there is an interplay and conflict between his morals and his innate desires and nature. 

He believed too strongly, almost as a determined mission that literature should show all that not bring morality and preaching. 

If a writer does that, truth, beauty and the natural - what makes life so special, full of meaning and love- is gone. That was his deep aesthetics. 

It shows in the beauty of language, the unserious way in which his characters speak and the full fun and yet deep joy that pervades the play. He thus believed that a play should entertain, and that it is not wrong, but the primary duty of a story to be aesthetic and not moral. 

Morality kills aesthetics. He not only believed that, he lived that and his plays fully reflect that. 

It most reflects in this play, and you can see the fun that is made around the very word, “Ernest”. 

He liberates without preaching, and is that not really, truly, what a living story should do? 

He was deeply modern, in fact, far ahead of his times and this play and his writings actually hide a deep loving and caring and life celebrating personality. 

He was deep within a beautiful being, and so are his plays such works of utter beauty!!


June 01, 2020

THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF OSCAR WILDE

THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF OSCAR WILDE




Oscar Wilde was that rare genius, who was highly educated in the classics, and developed a keen sense of the beauty of literature as against propaganda as such. He also made clear both in his writings, and even in his life, that a writer and a person must not follow conventional morality but develop his own sense of truth and morality. He was very modern, daring, open, and expressive and mission oriented not only about his works, but about literature as such. He had a unique view of what IS really beauty.
Early Life and Education

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. His father, William Wilde, was an expert doctor and was also knighted for his contributions to medicine. 

Wilde was a very sensitive and intelligent child and was in love with books from early on. He studied in the Portora Royal School at Enniskillen.

He absorbed himself in Greek and Roman studies and fell deep in love with them. He won a series of prizes in school. He truly was a master in his studies. And what is more, he had a passion for great literature and understood the deeper significance of Literature like no other. 

He achieved this kind of learning very early and with absorbent mind, and obviously this unfolded as wings later in life, and also led to conflicts with a world that could not see his vision exactly. 

He graduated in 1871. Then Wilde got the Royal School Scholarship to attend Trinity College in Dublin. At the end of his first year at Trinity, in 1872, he stood first in the school's classics examination and got the college's Foundation Scholarship which was the highest honor given to under graduate students. 

Upon his graduation in 1874, Wilde joined Magdalen College in Oxford with a scholarship. At Oxford, Wilde continued to absorb himself in academics and won several prizes. He graduated in 1878.
Beginning years of his career and life 

After graduating, Wilde went to London and lived with a friend Frank Miles who was a portraitist. There, he concentrated on writing poetry and published his first work, called, Poems, in 1881. That book made him known among many writers. 

Then Wilde embarked upon a legendary lecture series, and he gave a staggering 140 lectures in only 9 months in the USA.

He met many great writers of his time, and had a great love for Walt Whitman whom he befriended. 

After his American tour, Wilde returned home and continued lecturing in England and Ireland till 1884.

On May 29, 1884, Wilde married a wealthy Englishwoman named Constance Lloyd. They had two sons: Cyril, born in 1885, and Vyvyan, born in 1886. He also edited Lady's World and took it on an intellectual level. 

His famous quote about that magazine was – “The Lady's World should be made the recognized organ for the expression of women's opinions on all subjects of literature, art and modern life, and yet it should be a magazine that men could read with pleasure."

Great Works

By 1888 Wilde felt a deep inner need and also was ready to what would become his masterpieces. He wrote the following works. 

The Happy Prince and Other Tales, a collection of children's stories (1988)

Intentions (1891) an essay collection in which he laid out his original theory of Art as beauty and not to propagate anything and in which all elements, the of the inner psyche had to be given freedom of expression. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray. 

This novel is a strange, very haunting story of a beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, who wishes for a portrait that reflects his inner world, and what happens to his life lives with pleasure and sin.

Then Wilde took to writing plays and he did a brilliant job of showing both the dark and the bright sides of human being but with laughter and satire and with great delightful entertainment.

His plays were 

Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892 

A Woman of No Importance (1893), 

An Ideal Husband (1895) and 

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), his most famous play.
Personal Life 

Around the same time that he was enjoying his greatest literary success, Wilde fell in love with a young man named Lord Alfred Douglas. On February 18, 1895, Douglas's father, the Marquis of Queens berry, who came to know about the homosexual relationship and insulted Wilde. 

Wilde sued him and it backfired. The trial that followed brought him a bad reputation and he was also imprisoned on May 25, 1895 for 2 years.

Wilde, after being release, spent time in isolation and wrote on his prison experiences and, in 1898, published it as, "The Ballad of Reading Gail."
On November 30th, 1900, Wilde contacted meningitis and died. 
A strange life came to an end. It was a life full of academic reading, falling in love with the beauty of literature, developing deep relationships, including even a homosexual one, trying all forms, poems, novels, plays, and having a great number of lecture series to the world. 

It was a life full of love, passion, and in one word- life


May 29, 2020

LIFE AND GENIUS OF JANE AUSTEN

Life and Genius of Jane Austen 



Jane Austen was a Georgian era author, and was well known for novels that dramatized what people would call a seemingly boring daily life. She would do it with deep, and fully clear observation of the primary motivations of each character, and she would put them in normal social situations, with regular pressures and how the central character, usually women and men of strength and character, themselves resolve their conflicts with the world, and interestingly, within themselves too. 

The novels show a seamless integration of romance and realistic situations of life. In a strange way, they elevate life, from the surface to a higher level of soul, and value conflicts and the deep pursuit of happiness. 

Early Life 

Jane Austen was the seventh child and second daughter of Cassandra and George sausten. She was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. 

Her parents were well respected in the community and her father was a rector. Her father was very learned and well educated and with great love for books and original, independent thinking. 

This he also encouraged fully, at home, and al the children, especially Jane benefited obviously from such daily dose of reading, discussions and enjoyment and also intimacy in the family. 

It was a very healthy upbringing, private but very eventful, in terms of imaginative reading, thinking, being expressive and growing prodigiously. 

Not only this, Jane’s father sent his children to a good school. His view was that children, even girls, should get the best academic input, and their thinking, imagination and knowledge should be broad and comprehensive. They learnt the subjects well, and Jane even wrote on History later, and developed a fertile imagination and expression in the written language. 

Unfortunately, due to unrest and also financial constraints, Jane had to leave school. But, she continued to read, and read out to her family members, after she was home. 

As you can see, she was homely and yet, she was mentally very active, and this trait of hers continued all her life. 

The foundation, as it were, could not remain still, it grew in leaps and bounds, and resulted finally in around a dozen masterpieces of literature, signaling a new way in which stories could be told. 

It was a strange story of a woman, who, just from home, became a celebrated thinker and writer in England, though this happened after her death. 

AUSTEN’S JUVENILIA AND HONING OF WRITING SKILLS AND HER LATER MASTER PIECES 

Jane learnt writing by writing itself. She started ambitiously and put her best and in the beginning, wrote many books, though now the world calls them her JUVENILIA. 

She did have an imagination, and was always hard at work, with a fertile creation of characters, words and situations and with great delight. This is the way she became slowly, extremely talented and that too in a very natively original way. 

She always had a ready audience at home. She read aloud books, and usually written by her own self, to her intelligent, eager and sensitive family members. 

By her thirties, she had almost perfected her unique style of writing stories and she wrote many novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and sensibility, Persuasion etc. 

They got critical acclaim, but it was not until the beginning of the 20th century, after her death, that the world realized that these were masterpieces. She had an unusual fame. Books of hers were made into movies, and she was voted as 80th in the top 100 celebrated thinkers. She got fan clubs and even today, the world over, her stories have been made into movies and have been watched by millions in many languages too. 

Jane Austen death, tragically, was at a very early age of 43. She got a disease and she left behind a strange story of her own life. 

A simple girl, living largely at home, with no family, who read and wrote and thought out stories all her life, perfected her art AND SIMPLY ACHIEVED WORLD FAME. 

It is a great lesson of how the greatest achievements come from within and not from pomp and show, and flattery, traits that she herself mocked in her novels. 

This was a wise and happy woman, and extremely observant and intelligent, yet a great story teller, not of big scale events, but seeing significance in daily, real, actual, human lives. 

She left that impact and that lesson for posterity, and her works would be examined, studied, and millions would learn and live by applying that basic principle, each in his own way. 

She is a lesson in independence, gender equality and self generated, honed, and applied passion and real living with the highest human faculty of imagination and bringing to life, real world of real people, yet making it all full of meaning, drama and entertainment.

May 28, 2020

LIFE AND GENIUS OF JONATHAN SWIFT


LIFE AND GENIUS OF JONATHAN SWIFT 


Jonathan Swift was a beautifully original writer - serious about ideas, especially politics and the human condition, in love with learning, which to him, was the most natural of all human qualities. 

He was deeply loving, as a person, and also very devotedly romantic, activist to the core, religious in a deeply human sense, and an exceptional writer, imaginative and satirical but with a very real humanity. 

Early life and education 

He was born in Dublin, Ireland. A few months before he was born, his father died. But his mother took great care of him, not just in terms of feeding and bringing him up, but with a determination that, despite her circumstances, her son must get the best of everything. 

His mother was hard up on finances, and she took a wise decision to hand over her son’s education to her brother-in-law, Godwin Swift who was an established attorney. Jonathan was enrolled in Kilkenny Grammar School, which was one of the best schools in Ireland at that time. 

Gulliver had another serious problem. He suffered from Meniere’s disease that affected the inner ear and made Jonathan nauseous and hard of hearing. 

Despite these tough circumstances, Jonathan showed great discipline and made good use of his 8 years in the school, 1674-1682. This foundation of the best learning, that he himself made the best use of, had a lasting influence in his life. 

His deeply original mind, sensitivity and power of learning, got wings and he was able to, with such a foundation and a deep passion kindled within him, spend a lifetime in deep study, He could spend a life time learning from experiences, activism and writing. He also made a deep friendship with the great William Congreve in school. 

He flowered in the ability to make friendships and above all, to endure hardships while still being alive and learning with his faculties in top gear. 

That flame never lessened and he grew in leaps and bounds with every passing decade. 

He filled his life, with learning, study, writing works, activism, and also found a deep and lasting and true romantic love, and great friendships. He lived a rich life and put all his life time observations and experiences into great works of artistic writings. 

Without doubt, all the early school studies, combined with challenging circumstances, MADE his life by providing a great foundation which his innate nature HUNGERED NATURALLY FOR and his good fortune gave him. 

Later Studies Years with William Temple (1684 – 1699) 

At age 14, he enrolled in the famous Trinity College for undergraduate studies, for four years he immersed himself in deep acquaintance with all that could be learnt in the humanities during that time. At 18, he graduated and enrolled in Masters too. But soon, huge unrest came about in Ireland. What is called the Glorious Revolution motivated Swift to move to England. 

Here he got employment as secretary under the famed William Temple. It was his mother who had arranged this position for him. 

This was a very fruitful period for Swift. He honed his writing abilities and Temple soon recognized both his brilliance and sensitivity and gave him the most important and sensitive tasks. He rose in his abilities as a writer and also started writing his own essays and began working on a book that would be published later. 

Temple was an excellent employer in that sense and made full use of Swift’s abilities and also encouraged Swift in all ways, especially to write his own original pieces. 

They were wonderful ten years and another extremely eventful thing that happened to Swift was that he developed a deep and, in fact, strange love for a girl whom he called Stella. Her full name was Esther Johnson. 

The special, strange and beautifully dedicated love affair of Swift with Stella. 

Esther was the daughter of the house keeper at Temple’s household. Esther was only 8 years old, when Swift first met her. He began to mentor her and they developed a deep trust, closeness and actually love for each other. This is evidenced from the fact that he wrote two books inspired by her. She was a kind of muse, and his own soul in another form, who would understand all that he felt, thought and loved. When she grew older, it is said that they did marry, but it is not known with certainty. 

What is certain is that all his life, Swift not only loved Stella, but shared all his soul with her. 

Work as a minister near Dublin (1699- 1709) and with the Tories 

In 1699, Temple passed away and after a few failed trials, here and there, Swift finally settled to become a minister near Dublin, in a small church. 

Here, for the next 10 years, he lived a simple life preaching and living in the small residence that the church provided. 

Now, he had ample inner motivation, space and also time to write his first political pamphlet that was called “Discourse on the contests and dissensions in Athens and Rome”. 

He released 2 books anonymously - The Tale of a Tub, and the Battle of the Books. 

Swift, by now, had matured in every way. He was truly a giant and he could see the pettiness, banality of life, in Church and in Politics and in the whole mankind. 

His deeply sensitive nature and his hard earned erudition and his honesty and humanity made it too clear to him, what the problems of the world really were. In fact, he had risen far above the world, and the only way he could really express the truth and clarity he had was through cutting satire. Nothing else or less would do. 

All his unique gifts came to a laser like focus with his satirical pen. 

His love for life, humanity, definitely kindled and blossomed with Esther. Also developed simultaneously, his contempt with detachment the sick, petty, and trivial life of the people, politics and especially the emptiness of false pride. 

All this he expressed in the The Tub and not surprisingly, it became a huge success as he had had laid out the truth, in satirical fashion and with utter clarity, detachment and full, obvious truth. 

But, as he had chosen to use the church to portray false pride, he got a bad reputation and severe condemnation for the church. 

But indirectly, he was celebrated by the more liberal people and intellectuals and when the Tories came to power, they invited him to join them, and he was made editor of the “Examiner”, a weekly. 

He spent 4 years with them till they came down from power. During that time, he saw politics from close, and saw the world, especially those who craved the worst that life offers- power. 

He could see, with his perspective, the degradation, the utter lack of knowledge, care, concern, and totally insane justifications, and he had no choice but to put it all in his writings for the Tories. 

A large part, however, he wrote in a series to his love, Stella, and it became a book called THE JOURNAL OF STELLA. In that, as was usual with him he poured out his humanity and his observations, with a deep, and deadly perspective. 

'Gulliver's Travels' and final Years at St Patrick’s Cathedral 

Before the inevitable fall of the Tories, Swift returned to Ireland. In 1713, he got a post at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. 

It was here that all his life’s study, observations, honed skills as a satirical writer, his panoramic and yet close hand, and first hand perspective on life and living and politics culminated in a legendary, eternal work of the greatest art – GULLIVER TRAVELS. 

The book was an immediate success and since then till today, millions of people have read the book, in full, or in abridged form the world over. 

After a few months of the success of that book, Swift's longtime love, Esther Johnson, fell ill. She died in January 1728. He was obviously shattered, and he poured out his deepest feelings and what he had seen and felt and shared with her, in a book called The Death of Mrs. Johnson. 

In 1742, Swift met with a stroke and lost his ability to speak. On October 19, 1745, Swift passed away. 

He was laid to rest next to Esther Johnson inside Dublin's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

May 17, 2020

WILLIAM BLAKE AND HIS POEM TYGER


WILLIAM BLAKE AND HIS POEM TYGER


William Blake – His Life and Genius 

William Blake was born on the 28th of November, 1757, in London and died on the August of 1827. He was a great visionary poet, artist and engraver and is regarded as one of the greatest Romantic poets, but with very unique gifts of vision, spirituality, originality and intense seeking of truth and meaning. 

He was the author of the following famous books. 

Songs of innocence (1789) 

Songs of Experience (1794) 

Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) 

The first book of Urizen (1794) 

Milton (1804) among others. 

These works he etched, printed coloured, stitched, and sold, with the assistance of his devoted wife, Catherine. Among his best known lyrics today are “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” “London,” and the “Jerusalem” lyric from Milton, which has become a kind of second national anthem in Britain. 

Blake was born over his father’s modest hosiery shop at 28 Broad Street, Golden Square, London. His parents were James Blake (1722–84) and Catherine Wright Armitage Blake (1722–92). 

His father was his mother’s second husband. 

He had a distinct and very deeply influential Christian upbringing. He is reported to having seen angels and god, and saints while awake. Such visions came from his burning combination of secularism, the desire to SEE things by himself, and belief in God and paradise. 

He was regarded as mad in his lifetime, but by the 21st century he has been hailed, in fact, as the greatest of Romantic poets. 

He did not have children and he had an extremely devoted wife, Catherine. He had to struggle for a living. He had an intense desire to be an artist full time, and had shown tremendous talent early on. But, due to his finances, he could not become an artist and, instead, became a skilled engraver. 

He took to writing and he himself made his own books beautifully engraved, etched and bound by his own hands. 

He wrote marvelous poems but due to the strange character and extreme originality of his works, he could not get the recognition he deserved. In fact, people sadly dismissed his thinking as a kind of madness. 

He died at the age of 69, in August 22, 1827. 

Social and Political Background and Romanticism 

The 1700 – 1800 years were turbulent, intellectually stimulating and intensely creative and those years witnessed two great revolutions, the American and French revolutions. 

They were years of very deep transition from long held tradition and habit of faith and servility to the newly emerging scientific and enlightening outlook. 

It had all the passion, suffering, intensity, questioning, confusions, anarchism of a transition, yet, it was a period where man was being finally liberated from the shackles of religion after long ages of being ruled by religious authority and leading dull and dry lives. 

Great thinkers and philosophers emerged in this period and the greatest of literary movements was that of ROMANTICISM. 

This movement had great writers, like Byron, Keats, Victor Hugo, Wordsworth and also Blake and many others. 

Each was very unique but all had a single thing in common- a deep and intense concern as to the meaning of life, the fire to pursue that question by one’s own self, to see and think and observe to truly get the truth. 

It was both liberating and agonizing!! But it changed the world. Man matured and flowered and this movement paved the way for the full emergence of the world of today that is far more enlightened than all the centuries of the past put together. 


THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE POEM, TYGER 

Let us go directly to the poem, and understand the mind, heart and soul and visions, concerns, and sense of life of William Blake. 

Let us analyze, sense, and feel each line, and also let us draw out its inner meaning from the genius of expression of William Blake. 

TYGER 

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night 

As you can see, in just this one line, we have two times, the “tiger” word being used, and with exclamations. The poet is drawing our attention to what we all have seen but never really SEEN, fresh and as if seen for the first time!! 

Here come two words- burning and bright. So, both words together, give us a blinding sense of shine, fire, of the skin of the tiger, and also the word “burning” means passionate, aggressive and powerful. The poet is making us almost SEE the tiger as a NEW VISION!! 

Then you have the words- “IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT”. 

What do these words really mean? 

What does “forest OF the NIGHT” mean? 

It means aloneness, and fearlessness and supreme individuality and power. It shows that the tiger is not soft, dependent and needy. It is IN THE FOREST OF THE NIGHT!! 

So much has been conveyed with the powerful first line itself. 

What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

Now the poet is asking, with a fear and wonder, WHICH could make something so beautiful and fearful. He is feeling a great awe at a GOD, or creator, or rather THAT METAPHYSICAL MYSTERY, DREAD AND WONDER, OF who could have the vision to create something so terrible and yet so wonderfully beautiful. 

The poet is now taking his own seeing of a tiger to the highest metaphysical plane of reflection. He is indirectly, deeply and sincerely wondering about and questioning god himself!! 

Who made this tiger? The poet is asking, THIS kind of incredible beast? 

In what distant deeps and skies burnt the fire of thine eyes? 

Here the poet continues, and is asking in which paradise were these eyes made. He is bringing again that feeling of terrible wonder in looking at the tiger. 

On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? 

And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 

Now the poet is going deeper into wondering about that creator, who made this tiger. What wings, what hand had to catch such a fire, and what shoulder had to make the heart? 

And when thy heart began to beat, 

What dread hand? 

And what dread feet? What the hammer? 

What the chain, in what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? 

Here the poet is continuing to talk about such a tremendous process of creating the tiger by comparing to furnace. He uses words like hammer, chain, and anvil. 

What dread grasp, dare its deadly terrors clasp! 

Here the poet talks about how a creator could HOLD such a terrifying and powerful beast that is the Tiger. 

When the stars threw down their spears, 

And water’d heaven with their tears, 

Did he smile his work to see? 

Did he who made the Lamb make thee? 

Here the poet is saying that even the stars gave up, with tears, and he continues to ask -did the creator who made the soft lamb, also made the tiger that is such a terrifying and beastly animal? 

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forests of the night 

What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

The poet repeats the beginning sentence but adds the word “dare” instead of could. He is gone now to the limit of asking- who created you? Who could dare? Who and HOW did the God make you? 

How could he hold such a power, such a terrifying beast, and how could he make the tiger, while also making the soft and meek lamb? 

Is there no good and bad? Are both the same? And he seems to even admire such a power of a creator to make such a powerful and terriying thing!! 

As we can fully feel this poem, we realize, that Blake is telling us to see reality, see that the tiger is what he is. 

He is conveying with passion and extreme wonder that reality is wild and merciless and that even the creator is merciless!! 

It is a deep wondering, questioning and leaving the answers open, letting YOU see, and think for yourself while giving YOU great eyes to SEE!! 

That is why this poem haunts people who read it. It is one of the greatest poems ever written. 

As we can see, Blake was a romantic but with far deeper questioning of a metaphysical nature. What IS reality? What is good and bad? Is there such a thing? Or is nature just fully what it IS? It is deeply scientific and spiritual at the same time. It is deeply Romantic in the true sense of that word.




*****

THE TYGER BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night; 

What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies. 

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?


And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain, 

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp, 

Dare its deadly terrors clasp! 


When the stars threw down their spears 

And water'd heaven with their tears: 

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?


Tyger Tyger burning bright, 

In the forests of the night: 

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

May 14, 2020

APPRECIATION OF “TWELFTH NIGHT” BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


APPRECIATION OF “TWELFTH NIGHT” 
BY 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Let us now try to understand the meaning and beauty of the play TWELFTH NIGHT and draw out its significance. Let us more deeply appreciate that great work of art, one of Shakespeare’s great comedies. 

Plot of Twelfth Night 

Place- Illyria 

Time- After Christmas 

CHARACTERS 

Duke Orsino, Olivia, Viola (also Cesario, in male disguise) 

Seabstian, Olivia’s twin brother, Antonio, friend who helps Sebastian 

Malvolio, steward at Olivia’s household. Feste - clown 

Maria, Olivia’s maid, Sir Toby, uncle of Olivia and Sir Andrew, a Knight, hoping to marry Olivia. 

THE STORY 

A ship gets wrecked at the island of illyria. In that ship, Viola and Sebastian, who are twins, get separated and, in fact, Viola thinks that Sebastian has died, as he is not seen anywhere after the wreck. 

She decides to work for the noblewoman Olivia who lives in the island. But Olivia is not taking anyone right now. She is in mourning due to her brother’s recent death and does not also want to marry. 

So, Viola decides to disguise herself as a man and goes to work for Duke Orsino who lives in the same island. She gets employment there. 

Orsino actually is in love with Olivia but, as she is not ready to marry, has to wait. 

This is the setting of the comedy. 

Now, Orsino finds Cesario( Viola) very charming and attractive and she(he) becomes his favorite. Soon, he sends Cesario, Viola in disguise, to Olivia, with a love message. 

But here is the first twist. Olivia finds Cesario attractive and falls in love with him. But there is no Cesario. Cesario is Viola, actually a woman!! 

In the meantime, the uncle of Olivia, Sir Toby, comes to the scene to get his friend, Andrew, a Knight to woo Olivia. Olivia is not interested. 

Malvolio is the steward in Olivia’s house and he is a very strict, stern and, according to others, a spoiler of fun. 

We have Maria, the maid of Olivia, who actually is very witty, intelligent and fun loving. We also have Feste who is a clown. 

Malvolio is very critical of too much fun that Feste And Maria make in the house. To teach him a lesson, Maria copies the handwriting of Olivia, and writes a love letter to Malvolio. 

Poor Malvolio thinks he has got a great chance now to marry Olivia, and he follows the instructions in the letter to wear yellow stockings and behave in a certain way. 

In the meantime, Sebastian with the help of a friend comes back. He had not died in the shipwreck. His friend is Andrew. Sebastian comes to Olivia’s house when Viola (Cesario) is not there. Now, since Sebastian is a twin of Viola, he looks like Cesario, Viola, disguised as a man!! 

So, thinking Sebastian is Viola, Olivia proposes to him!! Sebastian is obviously stunned but he accepts as he finds that prospect interesting and quite advantageous to him. He also finds Olivia attractive. 

In the meantime, Malvolio, starts behaving strangely in front of Olivia. But he is mereley following the instructions in the love letter, playfully given to him by Maria. 

Olivia thinks he has gone mad, and they all put him in a room. Also we have now Antonio, Sir Toby’s friend, who wants to marry Olivia. Not having any other way, he challenges Cesario, to a duel. But it is Sebastian that they challenge. They think Sebastian is Cesario!! 

Sebastian wins the duel. In the meantime, Andrew wants to meet Sebastian, and he is arrested, as there was some conflict with Olivia before. 

He appeals to Viola thinking that she is Sebastian and she does not help. Andrew feels he has been betrayed. 

All this drama finally is ended by Viola and she confesses that she is not a man, named Cesario, but actually Viola and that her brother is Sebastian and not Cesario. She also confesses that she loves Duke Orsino. 

Finally, Duke Orsino, who anyway was very fond of Viols even when she was disguised as a man, is delighted to marry Viola. 

Sebastian is delighted to marry Olivia. It is revealed that Sir Toby had secretly married Maria. 

Malvolio is released from the room, as Maria confesses that she had written that love letter. 

All ends well, except for Malvolio who gets very angry and gets out of the room. 

Themes in the Story 

Pure light heartedness but with no deeper significance – 

This is seen in the twists and turns of the story and fun elements including making fun of Malvolio’s seriousness and strictness by giving him a false love letter. 

Unbiased Gender roles 

This is striking in this play. Orsino is attracted to Viola, though she is a boy. Olivia is attracted to Viols dressed as a man, though she is a girl!! Also, the women characters, like in real life, are real, not slaves or having no mind of their own. This shows that Shakespeare could show women as real, and equal to men. 

No class divisions : People are shown as equally strong. Maria is witty and intelligent though a maid. Viola as a servant boy, in disguise, is given great love and respect by Duke Orsino. Overall, all people, arte REAL, Human and not slaves or masters. 

So, the themes that emerge are - human characters, not just stereotypes, light living, love and marriage given importance, unseriousness, and no gender bias. 

Also, the absence of any grandeur or deeper themes is clearly evident. The characters are the common people we meet, and the fun is the kind anybody would find funny, but the fun is NOT overlaid by deep satire or anything. 

The dialogues are a full demonstration of Shakespeare’s genius. He makes full use of witticisms, and makes full fun of all the situations that are in the play. But he beautifully gives REALITY to all characters, as he knew that men, women, noblemen and common man, all are same and each is fully human. His characters are NOT stereotypes and stock characters. That is his genius and also the modern element in him. 

The point is Shakespeare does a great job of that. He had a great sensibility, depth, and balance to write plays that could be experienced as stories, than as preaching. This is why he had to be such a great success. It is an out and out and very typical, brilliant and highly engaging and entertaining Shakespeare comedy.

May 07, 2020

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE – HIS LIFE AND GENIUS

William Shakespeare is regarded the world over as one of the greatest literary figures. He was an elusive figure and not much is known about his life, though his works speak for themselves in so many ways, and to a variety of people and in a variety of ways, from the erudite to the common man. 

His appeal was clearly universal, maybe, because his themes and especially his characters were universal. You will find all the strengths and weaknesses of Shakespearean characters in most men. 

He had a way with words, dialogues and presentation that was not just artistically beautiful but also dramatic and deeply entertaining and providing an unforgettable experience. He was very successful in his time. Even today, his plays are performed the world over, in multiple languages and with great success. 

He was born in 1564 and died in 1616 AD. He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. He took to producing plays and that very practical need, maybe, gave his writings that edge of drama and powerful presentation. 

What was his specific genius? 

He had an x- ray vision into people, the kind of people we meet each day. In that sense, he had a deep grasp of psychological motivations especially flaws. The flaws could be made tragic or comic and he did both with great talent and genius. 

He mixed the life of these characters, with philosophy and statements about life too. But he was not primarily a philosopher but a great story teller. 

He knew HOW to tell a story, how to create emotion and sympathy in the reader and audience. 

It was not just plot twists, but the motivation of each character that he presented and also made use of, to tell a story dramatically. 

His dialogues were superb expressions of what happens inside the soul of people, even in evil characters. 

That gave a melodramatic sense of life to the play, to the characters and the fates of the characters. He had a genius to SEE And SHOW drama in the emotions and the psychology and the soul of the common human. Nothing escaped his merciless observation and he brought out the exact elements needed to give a dramatic effect, with twists and turns, expression and real emotions in each character. 

He brought out all the things that are usually muted and buried in the souls of people. 

So, the audience or reader identifies with the characters starkly, deeply and is obviously touched and that is a strange kind of mirror. 

Shakespeare gives that to any kind of reader. You can COME OUT in your mind and play your part while watching. 

As he himself stated, we are all players and we all play our parts and exit one day. 

So, he presented irony too along with emotion, an ability to satirize and even exaggerate without becoming base and cheap. 

That great artist always knew where his sympathy lay. He never crossed a line of truth, almost letting the characters speak, feel, dramatize, fail, succeed, laugh and cry. 

He was like a GOD who did not write but let the play, play itself out. He had no real judgments to make, and his plays do not really inspire, or elevate. He was, as we stated earlier, not a philosopher, showing only men as they are, not as they could or even should be. 

That was the genius of Shakespeare. Within that kind of framework, he did a superlative and matchless job. 

In the next sections, we will bring out that specific genius more concretely with a deep example, and give you the taste of how one can experience Shakespeare and how it can dramatically enhance your life by universalizing the souls of people around you. The reader finds great moments of truth on the conscious and experiential level about fates of men. In usual life, that is not seen or made conscious.