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Monday 29 February 2016

Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill.

Mourning Becomes Electra

It is a play by American Shakespeare Eugene O'Neill. The play is very much open for various interpretations.
it is divided into parts :- The Homecoming, The hunted and The Haunted.
The play is Psychologically very rich. Oedipus and Electra complex are very well interwoven in the play.
Ezra Menon returns from the war to home and soon dies. The reason behind death is not clear at first that whether he died a natural death or killed by his own wife.
Later on Orin Menon, son of Ezra and Christine returns from the war. it was revealed to him by Lavinia that she saw Christine kissing Adam Brant- who resembles in looks to all Menons. So, Orin shoots Adam Brant.

As the play progresses Oedipus and Elecra complex becomes more prominent in the play. Orin killes Adam because he wanted love of his mother. Where as Lavinia wanted love of his father and this becomes example of Electra complex.



"Psycho analysis
( Freudianism) in "Mourning Becomes Electra" by Eugene O'Neill.


What is Freudianism?
Is there Unscientific Freudianism in the Play?
whether its intuition or O'neill's knowledge of Psychology?
What is Oedipus and Electra complex?



Daughter Lavania wants love of Father, where as son Orin feels attraction towards mother.












Wednesday 17 February 2016

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe as a renaissance play

Dr. Faustus :-




    ·     Introduction:-


                    Dr. Faustus( the Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus) is a classic creation of the great Renaissance writer Christopher Marlowe.

           


    The setting of the play is 1580s , and the time and place when Dr. Faustus was written is 1590s , England. And at that time queen Elizabeth was on throne. It was just the beginning of the Renaissance(Reawakening)(dawn). The people were slowly and steadily coming out from the Medieval ideas, from the dark age. Yet it was just Dawn of Renaissance, Medieval thinking was still there. So religion was over powering upon people, darkness was over powered on them.
            But Christopher Marlowe challenged that medieval ideas with the help of his great works. Christopher Marlowe’s heroes were hungry for more. Marlowe broke that classical rules and regulation and started to write in Blank Verse. During Renaissance the drama made a swift and wonderful leap into maturity. For the first time it rises to a position of first rate importance. Yet Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Spencer, Sackville were still to come.


            Doctor Faustus is a protagonist, tragic hero of the play. He is brilliant 16th century scholar from the Wittenberg, Germany. He was born to a simple parents. He was very profound, intelligent learner. He had acquired all the knowledge available, like Aristotle’s Analytics, Economy, physics, logic etc. He says “ I have also learned Physics (medicine) if I become doctor than I will be rich –earn gold, but I don’t want that”. “I want to become immortal”

    • “couldst thou make men to live eternally
    • Or being dead, raise them to life again’’
    -first monologue


    Dr faustus don’t want to earn name, fame and money. But he wanted to reach at place where no one was reached ever before- and this is the Spirit of Renaissance this thing we can see in the first monologue that he don’t wanted to become lawyer or doctor. But he wanted to do something extraordinary, which make him God. So he says he wants to make dead person alive. So he decided to turn toward necromancy.
       
         This play epitomizes the ideals of the renaissance; egocentrism, the over-indulgence of knowledge and the lust of power. He represents the spirit of renaissance with its rejection to the Medieval, god centered universe, and its embrace of human possibilities. Faustus, at least early on his acquisition of magic is the personification of possibility. Because Faustus gave his life and soul to satan himself for the sake of gaining greater knowledge is the proof that he is a Renaissance hero. He rebels against the limitation set forth by medieval ideas and makes a contract for knowledge and power.

    vMedieval  versus Renaissance


            The play is a clash between the medieval world and the world of emerging renaissance.
    The medieval world(dark age) placed God at the centre of existence and shunted aside man and natural world. They thought that if you try to cross the set limit or to try to go beyond something then god will be unhappy and punish you.
          
      The Renaissance was a movement that began in ITALY and soon spread throughout Europe , carrying with it a new emphasis on individual, on classical learning and on scientific inquiry into the  nature of the world. In medieval academy, theology was the queen of the science. In the Renaissance, though, secular matters took centre stage.





    • ·   Quest for knowledge
    • ·    To go beyond what nature had given to us
    • ·   Quest for power
    • · A desire to be ‘omnipotent’ or ‘demigod’
    • ·    Hunger to achieve impossible (Faustus)
    • You can achieve anything you wish, neither religion (internal) nor outer world will trouble toy
    • ·   The insatiable spirit of adventure
    • ·   Enthusiasm to reach a place where no one had reached before
    • ·   Challenge to the ideas of myth and religion
    • ·   Thinking beyond something
    • ·   Try to do impossible
    • This all are the spirit of renaissance, which we find in Dr. Faustus.

    Good Angel  Vs  Evil Angel


    The legend of Faustus was believed to be a terrible and ennobling example, and a warning to all Christians to avoid the pitfalls of science, pleasure and ambition which had led to Faustus’s damnation. But it has to be noted that the renaissance value represented in what the devil has to offer, and one is loft wondering whether it is the religious life or the worldly life that is more attractive.
            All that the good angel in this play has to offer is “warnings”, for instance, the good angels warn Faustus against reading the book of magic because it will bring God’s “heavy wrath” upon his head, and ask him to think about heaven. To this the Evil Angel replied: “ No, Faustus, think of honor and of wealth”
            At another point in the play the Evil Angel urges Faustus to go forward in the famous art of magic and to become lord and commander of the earth.
            There can be no doubt that the devil here represents the natural ideals of renaissance by appealing to the vague but healthy ambitions of a young soul which wishes to launch itself upon the wide world. No wonder that, Faustus A CHILD OF RENAISSANCE, cannot resist the devil’s suggestions. We like him for his love of life, for his trust in nature, for his enthusiasm for beauty.
            In a word, Marlowe’s Faustus is a martyr to everything that the renaissance valued- power, curious for knowledge, enterprise, wealth and beauty. The play shows Marlowe’s own passion for the Renaissance values.
            It is said that Good Angel and Evil Angel are the presentation of Faustus’s inner conflict/ mental struggle. At the same time we can also say that Good Angel is symbol of Medieval ideas and Evil Angel is symbol of Renaissance spirit(ideas)The legend of Faustus was believed to be a terrible and ennobling example, and a warning to all Christians to avoid the pitfalls of science, pleasure and ambition which had led to Faustus’s damnation. But it has to be noted that the renaissance value represented in what the devil has to offer, and one is loft wondering whether it is the religious life or the worldly life that is more attractive.
            All that the good angel in this play has to offer is “warnings”, for instance, the good angels warn Faustus against reading the book of magic because it will bring God’s “heavy wrath” upon his head, and ask him to think about heaven. To this the Evil Angel replied: “ No, Faustus, think of honor and of wealth”
            At another point in the play the Evil Angel urges Faustus to go forward in the famous art of magic and to become lord and commander of the earth.
            There can be no doubt that the devil here represents the natural ideals of renaissance by appealing to the vague but healthy ambitions of a young soul which wishes to launch itself upon the wide world. No wonder that, Faustus A CHILD OF RENAISSANCE, cannot resist the devil’s suggestions. We like him for his love of life, for his trust in nature, for his enthusiasm for beauty.
            In a word, Marlowe’s Faustus is a martyr to everything that the renaissance valued- power, curious for knowledge, enterprise, wealth and beauty. The play shows Marlowe’s own passion for the Renaissance values.
            It is said that Good Angel and Evil Angel are the presentation of Faustus’s inner conflict/ mental struggle. At the same time we can also say that Good Angel is symbol of Medieval ideas and Evil Angel is symbol of Renaissance spirit(ideas)


    Good Angel- Medieval thinking
    **Evil Angels- Renaissance thinking

    Good Angel:- "o Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
    And gaze not on it, lest it tempt thy soul,
    And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head!
    Read, read the scriptures- that is blasphemy."

    Evil Angel:- "Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art
    Where in all Nature’s treasure contain’d:
    But thou on earth as Jove in the sky,
    Lord and commander of these elements".
      
    Good Angel:- "sweet Faustus, leave that execrable are.
    -prayer, repentance will bring thee unto heaven!"
    Evil Angel:- Rather illusion, fruits of lunacy
    Good Angel:- sweet Faustus, think of heaven and heavenly things
    Evil Angel:-No Faustus, think of honour and wealth

    This conversation of Good and Evil Angels sounds as they are presenting the Medieval and Renaissance ideas. Medieval idea was that one should not think apart from god, think only about heaven and god. But the renaissance deconstructs the center. According to Renaissance man is at the center, not god. Rather than giving to much importance to the heaven and god, they preferred art, science, new knowledge and thinking. It becomes quite clear that Good Angel is a medieval idea which wants to restrict Faustus in boundary, while the Evil Angel which is a Renaissance Spirit is freely allowing him to enjoy his life, to do whatever he likes, free play of mind is there.- all are Renaissance Spirit.  

     Faustus as a man of Renaissance:-
            Faustus’s inexhaustible thirst for knowledge, his worship of beauty, his passion for the classics, his skepticism, his interest in sorcery and magic, his admiration for Machiavelli and for super human ambition and will in the pursuit of ideals of beauty of power, or whatever they may be prove the Faustus to be a man of Renaissance.
    Faustus appears as a man of the Renaissance in the very opening scene when rejecting the traditional subjects of study, he can subjects of study. He turns to magic and considers the varied user to which he can put his magic skills after he has acquired it. He contemplates the “ world of profit and delight, of power, of honors, of omnipotence” which he hopes to enjoy as a magician. In dwelling upon the advantages which will accrue to him by the exercise of his magic power. He shows his ardent curiosity, his desire for wealth and luxury, his nationalism and his longing for power. These were precisely the qualities of the Renaissance, which was the age of discovery.
    Faustus desires gold from East Indies; pearls from the depth of the sea, pleasant fruits and princely delicates form America. Thus, Faustus’s dream of power includes much that had a strong appeal for the English appeal including Marlowe himself.
    The Renaissance man was fascinated by new learning and knowledge. He took all knowledge to be his province. He regarded knowledge to be power. He developed an in satiable thirst for further curiosity. Knowledge, power, beauty, riches, worldly pleasure and the like. The writer of this age represented their age in their work. Marlowe is greatest and truest representative of his age. So, the renaissance influence is seen in his every plays Dr.Faustus represents it in many ways.
     Thirst for Knowledge/ Intellectual curiosity : -
    The most important desire of renaissance man finds expression in Faustus. In the very beginning of the play, he has studied various subjects, logic, metaphysics, Medicine , law , theology. He remarks ‘ yet art thou still but Faustus , and a man.’    So he decides to study “metaphysics of magician and regarded necromantic books as heavenly” with the help of knowledge he wanted to acquire power and to become “as powerful as Jove in the sky”
    There was an intellectual curiosity during the renaissance. The new discoveries in science and developments in technology went beyond mere material advances. It was a youthful age to which nothing seems impossible. Before the European, this period opened a new world of imagination and led them to believe that  the infinite was attainable. In Dr. Faustus Marlowe has expressed such ideas, when   Dr. Faustus says
    O , what a world of profit and delight,Of power, of honour, of omnipotence,
    Is promised to the studious artisan!
    All things that move between the quite poles
    Shall be at my command.
    Wealth and explorarion.
    The renaissance man desired wealth and worldly pleasure. After his agreement with devil he would have spirit at his command to do whatever he liked. He would like them to bring gold from India, pearls from oceans and delicates from every part of the world. So with the help of Mephistopheles he traveled to distant countries and
    He views the clouds, the
    Planets and the stars
    The tropes, zones, and quarters of the sky
    From east to west his dragons swiftly glide
    Love and Beauty.
    Beside having love of knowledge, power, worldly pleasures Dr. Faustus has the Renaissance spirit of love of beauty. So he wanted to have a wife and fairest maid. As he wanted to see the most beautiful woman in the world, he conjured the HELEN
    He expresses his feeling of great delight in following words.
    Was this the face that
    Launches a thousand ships?
    And burnt the topeless tower of Ilium.


    same happen with Dr. Faustus.

    v   Conclusion

    Thus in many ways Dr. Faustus is a Renaissance play.



    Thursday 4 February 2016

    The White Tiger novel by Aravind Adiga

    How far do you agree with the India

    represented in the novel The White Tiger?















    The White Tiger is a Man Booker Prize winning text by Arvind Adiga. The novel is both- praised and criticized. Praised because of its literary quality and criticized for ruthless portrayal of India.

    Now the question is that at what extent we can believe in whatever said in  the text?? So the answer is at large extent anybody will agree that whatever written is real, it has grains of truth.

    One of the advantages of studying text like The White Tiger is that, it is set in Indian background. We all are born and brought up here. So, whatever incidents are narrated in the novel, some of them may be experienced by each and every individual in his/ her personal life. For example...
    → Corruption in politics, police & education, pollution, prostitution, Hit & run, failure of governmental institution, Rich V/s poor conflict, tragic life of workers like rickshaw pullers, drivers, sweepers etc, Globalization and changing morality, two sides of India-Darkness and Light  etc.

     There is not a single object left out by Adiga. Whatever has come to his way, he has bluntly criticized it. Balram's  story is  a tale of bribery, corruption, skulduggery, toxic traffic jams, theft and murder.

    While studying The Waste Land, there was a line "The Waste Land is a collage of several Images"; so I must say "The White Tiger is a collage of several experiences".



    From the beginning Balram satirizes various institutions of India. He says ....."And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs."(P-4)
    Here in school teachers are selling uniform of students given by government. Why teachers do this?? Because govt. don’t pay them their salary on time.
    The similar thing happens with hospitals also that there is no doctor in hospital; he is in his own clinic. He can run clinic by bribing officers.

    I may not believe the representation of India, unless if it is proved. The major incident in novel takes place in Delhi - capital of India. While working as a driver Balram many times refers to traffic jam and air pollution. Is it true? Do we have any scientific proof proving it as truth?
    In last Nov-Dec (2015), there was a summit about climate change in France. According to agency's report, most 150 polluted cities were identified from all over the world. 15 cities of India were also mentioned there, and surprisingly Delhi was top in list. This report came in 2015, but this problem discussed much earlier novel in 2008.
    Right now Odd & Even formula started by Delhi govt. to control traffic and pollution. This step also proves narrative as right.

    Another significant point is India of light & India of Darkness. In rural area people had no work at all. People roam here & there for work. Whereas, as Balram mentions In Bangalore there are hoardings for job. Well qualified people are not available who can satisfy the need of market.





    Let’s quote words of Adiga …….


    "Well, this is the reality for a lot of Indian people and it's important that it gets written about, rather than just hearing about the 5% of people in my country who are doing well. In somewhere like Bihar there will be no doctors in the hospital. In northern India politics is so corrupt that it makes a mockery of democracy. This is a country where the poor fear tuberculosis, which kills 1,000 Indians a day, but people like me - middle-class people with access to health services that are probably better than England's - don't fear it at all. It's an unglamorous disease, like so much of the things that the poor of India endure.
    "At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society. That's what writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens did in the 19th century and, as a result, England and France are better societies. That's what I'm trying to do - it's not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination."



    so , my point is that this representation of India is real.

     though, this kind of condition may not be in all the states of India. India itself is very large and full of diversity. at many extent, to me, it looks like novel is tale of 1970s India. Because while living in Gujrat we dont have seen the poor condition narrated in novel. But this kind of scene is common in Bihar. so from where it is said is also very important.
    its not about WHOLE india, but about few selected parts (states)of India 


    ★★
    Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

    It is a bit tricky question. I can’t say yes or no directly. But it can be read like that also. For success one has to slit another's throat. Metaphorically read as using other as a step or use their blood or money (or blood money!!!!) for personal success.  This is what Balram did. It can be called Microcosm narrative of how to become successful businessman in India?  Critics like Thomas Friedman were looking with hope towards India, but at that time this novel came as a shock to many people. Is this the business model of India ?? Is Balram stands for all the successful businessman of India? The canvas  of the novel is very important. Balram  says in the novel that he don’t want to make his  statues. Means  all the great ones , whose statues are made were murderers.



    ★★★
    "Language bears within itself the necessity of its
    own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to
    show that any text inevitably undermines its own
    claims to have a determinate meaning, and
    licenses the reader to produce his own meanings
    out of it by an activity of semantic
    'freeplay'.  Is it possible to do deconstructive reading
    of The White Tiger? How?

    First of all DECONSTRUCTION IS NOT A DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITY, BUT IT IS INQUIRY INTO FOUNDATION OF THAT THING.

    According to Derrida, every text contains elements which deconstruct the text itself. What we've to do is "To find a loose stone". This loose stone is capable to blow up entire building (text). In Literary terms this is known as 'Aporia'. But the necessary thing is that this Aporia should be inside, within the text. So, where is it in the White Tiger?
    Balram himself says, "It is an Autobiography of a Half- baked Indian". Now the question is that how far we can believe in the story, who himself is half - baked. His experiences and observations must be limited. We can’t rely on his narrative that whatever spoken by him is truth. This single line can falsify the entire narrative.


    Waiting for Godot

    Waiting for Godot

    It is one of the most discussed and debated play by critics and scholars. The story is very simple- Vladimir and Estragon- two tramps are waiting for someone called Godot, but Godot never comes. Who or What is Godot? Why is he not coming? Why both tramps are waiting for Godot? What will happen if Godot comes?? Since how long time Estragon and Vladimir are waiting?? These and many other similar kinds of questions remain unanswered.

    Samuel Beckett's language is very simple, but that simplicity is deceiving.

    Waiting for Godot falls under the category of Theatre of Absurd. It has no plot, neither beginning nor end. it ends at a similar mode from where it begins. Existentialism is a prominent theme of this play.

    Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

    Tom Jones by Henry Fielding




    The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones , is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding . The novel is both a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel . First published on 28 February 1749 in London, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel.



    In the begining of the novel description of Squire Allworthy is given. They are rich. while returning he founds a baby there. After search they conclude that it must be child of  Jenny Jones - a servant of a schoolmaster and his wife. child is named Tom Jones


    .

    Tom - protagonist and title character is a unheroic hero. The kind of background in which he brought up,,we cant expect good behaviour from him. He had affairs with so many girls, lives a wondering life. But the turns and twists in the novel are interesting

    Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. His first love is Molly, gamekeeper Black George's second daughter and a local beauty. She throws herself at Tom; he gets her pregnant and then feels obliged to offer her his protection. After some time, however, Tom finds out that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a neighbouring squire's lovely daughter, Sophia Western. Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time. Sophia's father, Squire Western, is intent on making Sophia marry the hypocritical Master Blifil, but she refuses, and tries to escape from her father's influence. Tom, on the other hand, is expelled from Allworthy's estate for his many misdemeanours, and starts his adventures across Britain, eventually ending up in London. Amongst other things, he joins the army for a brief duration, finds a servant in a barber- surgeon named Partridge (who habitually spouts Latin non sequiturs), beds two older women (Mrs Waters and Lady Bellaston), and very nearly kills a man in a duel, for which he is arrested. Eventually the secret of Tom's birth is revealed, after a short scare that Mrs Waters (who is really Jenny Jones) is his birth mother, and that he has committed incest . Tom's real mother is Bridget, who conceived him after an affair with a schoolmaster — hence he is the true nephew of Squire Allworthy himself. After finding out about Tom's half-brother Master Blifil's intrigues, Allworthy decides to bestow the majority of his inheritance to Tom. Tom and Sophia Western marry, after this revelation of his true parentage, as Squire Western no longer harbours any misgivings over Tom marrying his daughter. Sophia bears Tom a son and a daughter, and the couple live on happily with the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy.





    Tom was in love with Sophia Western. But her father dont like it because he is a bastard, and plans marriage with cunning Blifil. In between many incidents takes place. But both are united at hand.

    The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    The Scarlet Letter



    The Scarlet Letter is a novel set in Puritan Boston. Narrator of the novel is custom house surveyors who found this story. And then he narrates the story of a Adulteress Hester Prynne.
    In the begining of the novel Hester was standing on scaffold because  of commiting Adultery. Dimmesdale and other priests ask her to reveal name of father of Pearl but Hester refuses to give name of her fellow sinner. So she has to wear Scarlet A on her bosom- symbol of Adulteress Hester. During this Roger chillingworth comes, who, we later come to know is the husband of Hester. But somehow not able to come to Boston. After punishment She lives with her daughter Pearl on the outskirt of the town. The novel is full of suffering of Hester.When she passes through market people follows her, beats drum that Hester has came and abuses her.And Dimmesdale who is the real father of Pearl watches all these from window.
    Roger chillingworth - a newly arrived physician in Boston lives with Dimmesdale. Any how he came to know that actual reason behind illness is unconfessed sin, so Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl.
    Later on, Dimmesdale meets Hester in forest and both plan to settle somewhere else. Dimmesdale confeses his sin publically and dies. Chillingworth also dies because now there is no object to take revenge. Pearl marries and went to Europe. Hester also dies and she was buried near grave of Dimmesdale.
    And we can see the transformation of Hester from Adulteress to Able to Angle Hester.
    Literature always stands for humans.

    The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is an 1850 work of fiction in a historical setting, written by
    Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his magnum opus.Set in 17th-century
    Puritan Boston , Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester
    Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity . Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism , sin , and guilt .


     Quotations



    Mother, said little Pearl, the sunshine does
    not love you. It runs away and hides itself,
    because it is afraid of something on your bosom.
    . . . It will not flee from me, for I wear
    nothing on my bosom yet!
    Nor ever will, my child, I hope, said Hester.
    And why not, mother? asked Pearl, stopping
    short. . . . Will it not come of its own accord,
    when I am a woman grown?








    Mother, said [Pearl], was that the same
    minister that kissed me by the brook?
    Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl! whispered
    her mother. We must not always talk in the
    market-place of what happens to us in the
    forest.

    Her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them pointed questions and draws their attention, and the readers, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. In general, children in The
    Scarlet Letter are portrayed as more perceptive and more honest than adults, and Pearl is the most perceptive of them all.




    • "Pearl makes us constantly aware of her motherscarlet letter and of the society that produced it. From an early age, she fixates on the emblem. Pearls innocent, or perhaps intuitive, comments about the letter raise crucial questionsabout its meaning. Similarly, she inquires about the relationships between those around her— most important, the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdaleand offers perceptive critiques of them. Pearl provides the textharshest, and most penetrating, judgment of Dimmesdale's failure to admit to his adultery. Once her fathers identity is revealed, Pearl is no longer needed in this symbolic capacity; at Dimmesdales death she becomes fully human,” leaving behind her other worldliness and herpreternatural vision."