The Renaissance 1485
The Renaissance 1485
The Renaissance 1485
SUMMARY
The Renaissance was a time of optimism and exploration as the world
emerged from the Middle Ages to a time of increased knowledge and
global confidence. Renaissance literature change the world forever
through writers such as Shakespeare.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
1.THE SONNETS
A. CONTEXT
The most important playwright of the English Renaissance was born in
1564 in England. His career bridge the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I
and he was a favorite of both monarchs.
Shakespeares sonnets are very different from Shakespeares plays, but
they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story. Each of
the poems deals with a highly personal theme, and each can be taken on
its own or in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel of
1
autobiographical poems, but we dont know whether they deal with real
events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeares life to
say whether or not they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to
refer to the voice of the sonnets as the speakeras though he were a
dramatic creation like Hamlet or King Lear.
There are certainly a number of intriguing continuities throughout the
poems. The first 126 of the sonnets seem to be addressed to an unnamed
young nobleman, whom the speaker loves very much; the rest of the
poems (except for the last two, which seem generally unconnected to the
rest of the sequence) seem to be addressed to a mysterious woman,
whom the speaker loves, hates, and lusts for simultaneously. The two
addressees of the sonnets are usually referred to as the young man and
the dark lady; in summaries of individual poems, I have also called the
young man the beloved and the dark lady the lover, especially in
cases where their identity can only be surmised. Within the two minisequences, there are a number of other discernible elements of plot: the
speaker urges the young man to have children; he is forced to endure a
separation from him; he competes with a rival poet for the young mans
patronage and affection. At two points in the sequence, it seems that the
young man and the dark lady are actually lovers themselvesa state of
affairs with which the speaker is none too happy. But while these
continuities give the poems a narrative flow and a helpful frame of
reference, they have been frustratingly hard for scholars and biographers
to pin down. In Shakespeares life, who were the young man and the dark
lady?
Throughout his sonnets, Shakespeare clearly implies that love hurts. Yet
despite the emotional and physical pain, like the speaker, we continue
falling in love. Shakespeare shows that falling in love is an inescapable
aspect of the human conditionindeed, expressing love is part of what
makes us human.
3.Real beauty vs clichd beauty
Traditionally, sonnets transform women into the most glorious creatures to
walk the earth, whereas patrons become the noblest and bravest men the
world has ever known.
Shakespeare makes fun of the convention by contrasting an idealized
woman with a real woman. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare directly engages
and skewersclichd concepts of beauty. Real love, the sonnet implies,
begins when we accept our lovers for what they are as well as what they
are not.
Other sonnets explain that because anyone can use artful means to make
himself or herself more attractive, no one is really beautiful anymore.
Thus, since anyone can become beautiful, calling someone beautiful is no
longer much of a compliment.
4.The responsibilities of being beautiful
Shakespeare portrays beauty as conveying a great responsibility in the
sonnets addressed to the young man, Sonnets 1126. Here the speaker
urges the young man to make his beauty immortal by having children, a
theme that appears repeatedly throughout the poems: as an attractive
person, the young man has a responsibility to procreate.
3
b)Motifs
1.Art vs time
Shakespeare, like many sonneteers, portrays time as an enemy of love.
Time destroys love because time causes beauty to fade, people to age,
and life to end. One common convention of sonnets in general is to flatter
either a beloved or a patron by promising immortality through verse. As
long as readers read the poem, the object of the poems love will remain
alive. Through art, nature and beauty overcome time. Several sonnets use
the seasons to symbolize the passage of time and to show that everything
in naturefrom plants to peopleis mortal. But nature creates beauty,
which poets capture and render immortal in their verse. Nature, art, and
beauty triumph over time.
2.Stopping the march toward death
Growing older and dying are inescapable aspects of the human condition,
but Shakespeares sonnets give suggestions for halting the progress
toward death. Shakespeares speaker spends a lot of time trying to
convince the young man to cheat death by having children. The speakers
words arent just the flirtatious ramblings of a smitten man: Elizabethan
England was rife with disease, and early death was common. Producing
children guaranteed the continuation of the species. Therefore, falling in
love has a social benefit, a benefit indirectly stressed by Shakespeares
sonnets. We might die, but our childrenand the human raceshall live
on.
3.The significance of sight
Shakespeare used images of eyes throughout the sonnets to emphasize
other themes and motifs, including children as an antidote to death, arts
struggle to overcome time, and the painfulness of love. For instance, in
several poems, the speaker urges the young man to admire himself in the
mirror. Noticing and admiring his own beauty, the speaker argues, will
encourage the young man to father a child. But our loving eyes can also
distort our sight, causing us to misperceive reality. In the sonnets
addressed to the dark lady, the speaker criticizes his eyes for causing him
to fall in love with a beautiful but duplicitous woman. Ultimately,
Shakespeare uses eyes to act as a warning: while our eyes allow us to
4
c)Symbols
1.Flowers and trees
Flowers and trees appear throughout the sonnets to illustrate the passage
of time, the transience of life, the aging process, and beauty. Rich, lush
foliage symbolizes youth, whereas barren trees symbolize old age and
death. Traditionally, roses signify romantic love, a symbol Shakespeare
employs in the sonnets. Sometimes Shakespeare compares flowers and
weeds to contrast beauty and ugliness. In these comparisons, marred,
rotten flowers are worse than weedsthat is, beauty that turns rotten
from bad character is worse than initial ugliness.
2.Stars
Shakespeare uses stars to stand in for fate, but also to explore the nature
of free will. Many sonneteers resort to employing fate, symbolized by the
stars, to prove that their love is permanent and predestined. In contrast,
Shakespeares speaker claims that he relies on his eyes, rather than on
the hands of fate, to make decisions. According to Elizabethan astrology, a
cosmic order determined the place of everything in the universe, from
planets and stars to people. Although humans had some free will, the
heavenly spheres, with the help of God, predetermined fate.
3.Weather and seasons
Shakespeare employed the pathetic fallacy, or the attribution of human
characteristics or emotions to elements in nature or inanimate objects,
throughout his plays. Weather and the seasons also stand in for human
emotions: the speaker conveys his sense of foreboding about death by
likening himself to autumn, a time in which natures objects begin to
decay and ready themselves for winter, or death.
SONNET 18
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeares
sonnets. On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about
the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of
windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate.
The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the
young man to have children. The procreation sequence of the
first 17 sonnets ended with the speakers realization that the young man
might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the
speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, in my rhyme.
Sonnet 18, then, is the first rhymethe speakers first attempt to
preserve the young mans beauty for all time. An important theme of the
5
doing. Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about indecisiveness, and
thus about Hamlets failure to act appropriately. It might be more
interesting to consider that the play shows us how many uncertainties our
lives are built upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for granted
when people act or when they evaluate one anothers actions.
2.The complexity of action
Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it
possible to take reasonable, effective, purposeful action? In Hamlet, the
question of how to act is affected not only by rational considerations, such
as the need for certainty, but also by emotional, ethical, and psychological
factors. Hamlet himself appears to distrust the idea that its even possible
to act in a controlled, purposeful way. When he does act, he prefers to do
it blindly, recklessly, and violently.
3.The mistery of death
In the aftermath of his fathers murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea
of death, and over the course of the play he considers death from a great
many perspectives. He ponders both the spiritual aftermath of death,
embodied in the ghost, and the physical remainders of the dead, such as
by Yoricks skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Throughout,
the idea of death is closely tied to the themes of spirituality, truth, and
uncertainty in that death may bring the answers to Hamlets deepest
questions, ending once and for all the problem of trying to determine truth
in an ambiguous world. And, since death is both the cause and the
consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and
justiceClaudiuss murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlets quest for
revenge, and Claudiuss death is the end of that quest.
The question of his own death plagues Hamlet as well, as he repeatedly
contemplates whether or not suicide is a morally legitimate action in an
unbearably painful world. Hamlets grief and misery is such that he
frequently longs for death to end his suffering, but he fears that if he
commits suicide, he will be consigned to eternal suffering in hell because
of the Christian religions prohibition of suicide. In his famous To be or not
to be soliloquy (III.i), Hamlet philosophically concludes that no one would
choose to endure the pain of life if he or she were not afraid of what will
come after death, and that it is this fear which causes complex moral
considerations to interfere with the capacity for action.
4.The nation as a diseased body
Everything is connected in Hamlet, including the welfare of the royal
family and the health of the state as a whole. The plays early scenes
explore the sense of anxiety and dread that surrounds the transfer of
power from one ruler to the next. Throughout the play, characters draw
explicit connections between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the
health of the nation. Denmark is frequently described as a physical body
made ill by the moral corruption of Claudius and Gertrude, and many
observers interpret the presence of the ghost as a supernatural omen
indicating that [s]omething is rotten in the state of Denmark (I.iv.67).
7
JULIUS CAESAR
Analysis of major characters
1.Brutus
Brutus emerges as the most complex character in Julius Caesar and is also
the plays tragic hero. In his soliloquies, the audience gains insight into the
complexities of his motives. He is a powerful public figure, but he appears
also as a husband, a master to his servants, a dignified military leader,
and a loving friend.
Brutuss rigid idealism is both his greatest virtue and his most deadly flaw.
In the world of the play, where self-serving ambition seems to dominate all
other motivations, Brutus lives up to Antonys elegiac description of him
as the noblest of Romans. However, his commitment to principle
repeatedly leads him to make miscalculations: wanting to curtail violence,
he ignores Cassiuss suggestion that the conspirators kill Antony as well
as Caesar. In another moment of nave idealism, he again ignores
Cassiuss advice and allows Antony to speak a funeral oration over
Caesars body. As a result, Brutus forfeits the authority of having the last
word on the murder and thus allows Antony to incite the plebeians to riot
against him and the other conspirators. Brutus later endangers his good
relationship with Cassius by self-righteously condemning what he sees as
dishonorable fund-raising tactics on Cassiuss part. In all of these
episodes, Brutus acts out of a desire to limit the self-serving aspects of his
actions; ironically, however, in each incident he dooms the very cause
that he seeks to promote, thus serving no one at all.
2.Julius Caesar
The conspirators charge Caesar with
substantiates this judgment: he does vie
reveling in the homage he receives from
himself as a figure who will live on forever
9
Caesars conflation of his public image with his private self helps bring
about his death, since he mistakenly believes that the immortal status
granted to his public self somehow protects his mortal body. Still, in many
ways, Caesars faith that he is eternal proves valid by the end of the play:
by Act V, scene iii, Brutus is attributing his and Cassiuss misfortunes to
Caesars power reaching from beyond the grave. Caesars aura seems to
affect the general outcome of events in a mystic manner, while also
inspiring Octavius and Antony and strengthening their determination. As
Octavius ultimately assumes the title Caesar, Caesars permanence is
indeed established in some respect.
3.Anthony
Antony proves strong in all of the ways that Brutus proves weak. His
impulsive, improvisatory nature serves him perfectly, first to persuade the
conspirators that he is on their side, thus gaining their leniency, and then
to persuade the plebeians of the conspirators injustice, thus gaining the
masses political support. Not too scrupulous to stoop to deceit and
duplicity, as Brutus claims to be, Antony proves himself a consummate
politician, using gestures and skilled rhetoric to his advantage. He
responds to subtle cues among both his nemeses and his allies to know
exactly how he must conduct himself at each particular moment in order
to gain the most advantage. In both his eulogy for Caesar and the play as
a whole, Antony is adept at tailoring his words and actions to his
audiences desires. Unlike Brutus, who prides himself on acting solely with
respect to virtue and blinding himself to his personal concerns, Antony
never separates his private affairs from his public actions.
THEMES
1.Fate versus free will
Julius Caesar raises many questions about the force of fate in life versus
the capacity for free will. Cassius refuses to accept Caesars rising power
and deems a belief in fate to be nothing more than a form of passivity or
cowardice.
Ultimately, the play seems to support a philosophy in which fate and
freedom maintain a delicate coexistence. Thus Caesar declares: It seems
to me most strange that men should fear, / Seeing that death, a necessary
end, / Will come when it will come (II.ii.3537). In other words, Caesar
recognizes that certain events lie beyond human control; to crouch in fear
of them is to enter a paralysis equal to, if not worse than, death. It is to
surrender any capacity for freedom and agency that one might actually
possess. Indeed, perhaps to face death head-on, to die bravely and
honorably, is Caesars best course: in the end, Brutus interprets his and
Cassiuss defeat as the work of Caesars ghostnot just his apparition, but
also the force of the peoples devotion to him, the strong legacy of a man
who refused any fear of fate and, in his disregard of fate, seems to have
transcended it.
10
Brutuss rigid though honorable ideals leave him open for manipulation by
Cassius. He believes so thoroughly in the purpose of the assassination
that he does not perceive the need for excessive political maneuvering to
justify the murder. Equally resolute, Caesar prides himself on his
steadfastness; yet this constancy helps bring about his death, as he
refuses to heed ill omens and goes willingly to the Senate, into the hands
of his murderers.
Antony proves perhaps the most adaptable of all of the politicians: while
his speech to the Roman citizens centers on Caesars generosity toward
each citizen, he later searches for ways to turn these funds into cash in
order to raise an army against Brutus and Cassius. Although he gains
power by offering to honor Caesars will and provide the citizens their
rightful money, it becomes clear that ethical concerns will not prevent him
from using the funds in a more politically expedient manner. Antony is a
successful politicianyet the question of morality remains. There seems
to be no way to reconcile firm moral principles with success in politics in
Shakespeares rendition of ancient Rome; thus each character struggles
toward a different solution.
5.Rhetoric and power
Julius Caesar gives detailed consideration to the relationship between
rhetoric and power. The ability to make things happen by words alone is
the most powerful type of authority. Words also serve to move hearts and
minds, as Act III evidences. Antony cleverly convinces the conspirators of
his desire to side with them: Let each man render me with his bloody
hand (III.i.185). Under the guise of a gesture of friendship, Antony
actually marks the conspirators for vengeance. In the Forum, Brutus
speaks to the crowd and appeals to its love of liberty in order to justify the
killing of Caesar. He also makes ample reference to the honor in which he
is generally esteemed so as to validate further his explanation of the
deed. Antony likewise wins the crowds favor, using persuasive rhetoric to
whip the masses into a frenzy so great that they dont even realize the
fickleness of their favor.
MOTIFS
1.Omen and portents
Throughout the play, omens and portents manifest themselves, each
serving to crystallize the larger themes of fate and misinterpretation of
signs. Until Caesars death, each time an omen or nightmare is reported,
the audience is reminded of Caesars impending demise. The audience
wonders whether these portents simply announce what is fated to occur
or whether they serve as warnings for what might occur if the characters
do not take active steps to change their behavior. Whether or not
individuals can affect their destinies, characters repeatedly fail to interpret
the omens correctly. In a larger sense, the omens in Julius Caesar thus
imply the dangers of failing to perceive and analyze the details of ones
world.
2.Letters
12
3.Dreams
14
and more like everyday language.The fated destinies of Romeo and Juliet
are foreshadowed throughout the play.
2.Juliet
Juliet, like Romeo, makes the transition from an innocent adolescent to
responsible adult during the course of the play. In Juliet's case, however,
there is a heightened sense that she has been forced to mature too
quickly. The emphasis throughout the play on Juliet's youth, despite her
growing maturity, establishes her as a tragic heroine. Juliet is presented as
quiet and obedient; however, she possesses an inner strength that
enables her to have maturity beyond her years.
THEMES
1.Fate
From the beginning, we know that the story of Romeo and Juliet will end in
tragedy. We also know that their tragic ends will not result from their own
personal defects but from fate, which has marked them for sorrow.
Emphasizing fate's control over their destinies, the Prologue tells us these
"star-cross'd lovers'" relationship is deathmark'd."
In Act I, Scene ii, as Lord Capulet's servant is searching for someone who
can read the guest list to him, Benvolio and Romeo enter. Completely by
chance, Capulet's servant meets Romeo and Benvolio, wondering if they
know how to read. This accidental meeting emphasizes the importance of
fate in the play. Romeo claims it is his "fortune" to read indeed,
"fortune" or chance has led Capulet's servant to him and this scene
prepares us for the tragic inevitability of the play.
The lovers will be punished not because of flaws within their personalities
but because fate is against them. Ironically, the servant invites Romeo to
the Capulet's house, as long as he is not a Montague, to "crush a cup of
wine." Only fate could manufacture this unlikely meeting with Capulet's
illiterate servant, as only fate will allow Romeo to trespass into the
Capulet's domain and meet Juliet.
2.Love
Love is another important thematic element in the play, which presents
various types of love: the sensual, physical love advocated by the Nurse;
the Proper or contractual love represented by Paris; and the passionate,
romantic love of Romeo and Juliet. How do these various types of love
relate to one another? Is physical attraction a necessary component of
romantic love? Because words are slippery, Juliet worries that Romeo's
protestation of love are merely lies. How can we know if love is true?
3.Value and doubleness
Another important theme is the idea of value and doubleness. Just as
language is ambiguous, so are value judgments. As the Friar reminds us,
"virtue itself turns vice being misapplied, /And vice sometime's by action
dignified" (II.iii.17-18). Within a flower, for example lies both poison and
medicine. Similarly, the deaths of Romeo and Juliet are tragic but also
17
bring new life to Verona. The Friar's own role in the play contains this
ambiguity. Although he tries to help the lovers, his actions lead to their
suffering. Shakespeare's message is that nothing is purely good or evil;
everything contains elements of both. Ambiguity rules.
4.Meaning of gender
A final theme to be considered is the meaning of gender. In particular, the
play offers a variety of versions of masculinity. One example is Mercutio,
the showy male bird, who enjoys quarreling, fencing and joking. Mercutio
has definite ideas about what masculinity should look like. He criticizes
Tybalt for being too interested in his clothes and for speaking with a fake
accent. Similarly, he suggests that Romeo's love-melancholy is
effeminate, while his more sociable self is properly masculine. Therefore,
his happiest when Romeo rejoins his witty, crazy group of male friends:
"Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou art, by art as
well as by nature" (II.iv.89-90).
Romeo's masculinity is constantly questioned. Following Mercutio's death,
for example, Romeo fears that his love of Juliet has effeminized him: "Thy
beauty hath made me effeminate/And in my temper soften'd valour's
steel" (III.i.116-117) so that his reputation as a man is "stain'd" (III.i.1113).
In addition, the Friar accuses Romeo of being an "[u]nseemly woman in a
seeming man" and says that his tears are "womanish" (III.iii.109-111).
What is the proper role for a man? The play seems to suggest that
violence is not the way. Mediating between Mercutio's violent temper and
Romeo's passivity, the Prince is possibly the best model of masculine
behavior in the play: impartial and fair, he also opposes civil violence.
SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS
1.Light and darkness
One of the most often repeated image patterns in the play involves the
interplay of light and darkness. The integration of the language indicates
an important motif overall. Romeo compares Juliet to light throughout the
play. Upon first sight of her, Romeo exclaims that she teaches "the torches
to burn bright" (I.v.43). She is also "the sun" who can "kill the envious
moon" (II.ii.3), and later in this scene, Shakespeare says that her eyes are
like "[t]wo of the fairest stars in all the heaven" (II.ii.15). But hers is a light
that shows best against the darkness; she "hangs upon the cheek of
night / As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear" (I.v.44-45).
Romeo is also compared with a light that illuminates the darkness; if Juliet
dies, she wants Romeo cut "in little stars/And he will make the face of
heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night/? And pay no
worship to the garish sun" (III.ii.22-25). This quote reminds us that their
light shines most brightly in the dark that it is a muted glow associated
primarily with stars, torches, and the dawn, rather than with sunlight,
which is almost obscenely bright.
18
THE AUGUSTAN AGE. The greatest poet of the Augustan Age was
ALEXANDER POPE.
The 18th century is also best remembered for the development of prosewriting. The early part of the century witnessed a dramatic rise in prose
output in the form of journalism, essay writing, political satire and
pamphleteering.
Five dominant literary figures
DANIEL
DEFOE,
SAMUEL
RICHARDSON, HENRY FIELDING, JONATHAN SWIFT and LAURENCE
STERNE moulded fictional prose into a literary form that appealed to the
18th century reader. In doing so they created the dominant literary genre
of the next three centuries: THE MODERN NOVEL.
In the second half of the 18th century, the admiration for the classical
ideals which had characterized the Augustan Age began to wane (a fi in
declin):
The grandeur, rationalism and elevated sentiments of the early part
of the century gave way to a simpler, more genuine form of
expression
There was a renewed interest in nature and the simple rural life.
ROBINSON CRUSOE
CONTEXT
Daniel Defoe was born in 1660, in London and witnessed two of the
greatest disasters of the seventeenth century: a recurrence of the plague
and the Great Fire of London in 1666. These events may have shaped his
fascination with catastrophes and survival in his writing. Defoe developed
a taste for travel that lasted throughout his life. His fiction reflects this
interest; his characters Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe both change
their lives by voyaging far from their native England. Defoe attended a
respected school in Dorking, where he was an excellent student, but as a
Presbyterian, he was forbidden to attend Oxford or Cambridge. He entered
a dissenting institution called Mortons Academy and considered
becoming a Presbyterian minister. Though he abandoned this plan, his
Protestant values endured throughout his life despite discrimination and
persecution, and these values are expressed in Robinson Crusoe.
Robinson Crusoe was based on the true story of a shipwrecked seaman
named Alexander Selkirk and was passed off as history. His focus on the
actual conditions of everyday life and avoidance of the courtly and the
heroic made Defoe a revolutionary in English literature and helped define
the new genre of the novel. Stylistically, Defoe was a great innovator.
Dispensing with the ornate style associated with the upper classes, Defoe
used the simple, direct, fact-based style of the middle classes, which
became the new standard for the English novel. With Robinson Crusoes
theme of solitary human existence, Defoe paved the way for the central
modern theme of alienation and isolation.
ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS
21
1.Robinson Crusoe
While he is no flashy hero or grand epic adventurer, Robinson Crusoe
displays character traits that have won him the approval of generations of
readers. His perseverance in spending months making a canoe, and in
practicing pottery making until he gets it right, is praiseworthy.
Additionally, his resourcefulness in building a home, dairy, grape arbor,
country house, and goat stable from practically nothing is clearly
remarkable. Crusoes business instincts are just as considerable as his
survival instincts: he manages to make a fortune in Brazil despite a
twenty-eight-year absence and even leaves his island with a nice
collection of gold. Moreover, Crusoe is never interested in portraying
himself as a hero in his own narration. He does not boast of his courage in
quelling the mutiny, and he is always ready to admit unheroic feelings of
fear or panic, as when he finds the footprint on the beach. Crusoe prefers
to depict himself as an ordinary sensible man, never as an exceptional
hero.
But Crusoes admirable qualities must be weighed against the flaws in his
character. Crusoe seems incapable of deep feelings, as shown by his cold
account of leaving his familyhe worries about the religious
consequences of disobeying his father, but never displays any emotion
about leaving. Though he is generous toward people, as when he gives
gifts to his sisters and the captain, Crusoe reveals very little tender or
sincere affection in his dealings with them.
His insistence on dating events makes sense to a point, but it ultimately
ends up seeming obsessive and irrelevant when he tells us the date on
which he grinds his tools but neglects to tell us the date of a very
important event like meeting Friday. Perhaps his impulse to record facts
carefully is not a survival skill, but an irritating sign of his neurosis.
Finally, while not boasting of heroism, Crusoe is nonetheless very
interested in possessions, power, and prestige. His teaching Friday to call
him Master, even before teaching him the words for yes or no,
seems obnoxious even under the racist standards of the day, as if Crusoe
needs to hear the ego-boosting word spoken as soon as possible. Overall,
Crusoes virtues tend to be private: his industry, resourcefulness, and
solitary courage make him an exemplary individual. But his vices are
social, and his urge to subjugate others is highly objectionable. In bringing
both sides together into one complex character, Defoe gives us a
fascinating glimpse into the successes, failures, and contradictions of
modern man.
2.Friday
Probably the first nonwhite character to be given a realistic, individualized,
and humane portrayal in the English novel, Friday has a huge literary and
cultural importance. If Crusoe represents the first colonial mind in fiction,
then Friday represents not just a Caribbean tribesman, but all the natives
of America, Asia, and Africa who would later be oppressed in the age of
European imperialism. At the moment when Crusoe teaches Friday to call
22
mastery over his fellow humans is more doubtful. Defoe explores the link
between the two in his depiction of the colonial mind.
2.The necessity of repentance
Crusoes experiences constitute not simply an adventure story in which
thrilling things happen, but also a moral tale illustrating the right and
wrong ways to live ones life. This moral and religious dimension of the
tale is indicated in the Preface, which states that Crusoes story is being
published to instruct others in Gods wisdom, and one vital part of this
wisdom is the importance of repenting ones sins. While it is important to
be grateful for Gods miracles, as Crusoe is when his grain sprouts, it is
not enough simply to express gratitude or even to pray to God, as Crusoe
does several times with few results. Crusoe needs repentance most;
Crusoe believes that his major sin is his rebellious behavior toward his
father, which he refers to as his original sin, akin to Adam and Eves first
disobedience of God. This biblical reference also suggests that Crusoes
exile from civilization represents Adam and Eves expulsion from Eden.
For Crusoe, repentance consists of acknowledging his wretchedness and
his absolute dependence on the Lord. This admission marks a turning
point in Crusoes spiritual consciousness, and is almost a born-again
experience for him. After repentance, he complains much less about his
sad fate and views the island more positively. Later, when Crusoe is
rescued and his fortune restored, he compares himself to Job, who also
regained divine favor. Ironically, this view of the necessity of repentance
ends up justifying sin: Crusoe may never have learned to repent if he had
never sinfully disobeyed his father in the first place. Thus, as powerful as
the theme of repentance is in the novel, it is nevertheless complex and
ambiguous.
3.The importance of self-awareness
Crusoes arrival on the island does not make him revert to a brute
existence controlled by animal instincts, and, unlike animals, he remains
conscious of himself at all times. Indeed, his island existence actually
deepens his self-awareness as he withdraws from the external social world
and turns inward. The idea that the individual must keep a careful
reckoning of the state of his own soul is a key point in the Presbyterian
doctrine that Defoe took seriously all his life. We see that in his normal
day-to-day activities, Crusoe keeps accounts of himself enthusiastically
and in various ways.
Crusoe obsessively keeps a journal to record his daily activities, even
when they amount to nothing more than finding a few pieces of wood on
the beach or waiting inside while it rains. Crusoe feels the importance of
staying aware of his situation at all times. We can also sense Crusoes
impulse toward self-awareness in the fact that he teaches his parrot to say
the words, Poor Robin Crusoe. . . . Where have you been? This sort of
self-examining thought is natural for anyone alone on a desert island, but
it is given a strange intensity when we recall that Crusoe has spent
24
months teaching the bird to say it back to him. Crusoe teaches nature
itself to voice his own self-awareness.
MOTIFS
1.Counting and measuring
Crusoe is a careful note-taker whenever numbers and quantities are
involved. Counting and measuring underscore Crusoes practical,
businesslike character and his hands-on approach to life. But Defoe
sometimes hints at the futility of Crusoes measuringas when the
carefully measured canoe cannot reach water or when his obsessively
kept calendar is thrown off by a day of oversleeping. Defoe may be subtly
poking fun at the urge to quantify, showing us that, in the end, everything
Crusoe counts never really adds up to much and does not save him from
isolation.
2.Eating
One of Crusoes first concerns after his shipwreck is his food supply. Even
while he is still wet from the sea in Chapter V, he frets about not having
anything to eat or drink to comfort me. He soon provides himself with
food, and indeed each new edible item marks a new stage in his mastery
of the island, so that his food supply becomes a symbol of his survival. His
securing of goat meat staves off immediate starvation, and his discovery
of grain is viewed as a miracle, like manna from heaven. His cultivation of
raisins, almost a luxury food for Crusoe, marks a new comfortable period
in his island existence. In a way, these images of eating convey Crusoes
ability to integrate the island into his life, just as food is integrated into
the body to let the organism grow and prosper. But no sooner does Crusoe
master the art of eating than he begins to fear being eaten himself. The
cannibals transform Crusoe from the consumer into a potential object to
be consumed. Life for Crusoe always illustrates this eat or be
eaten philosophy, since even back in Europe he is threatened by maneating wolves. Eating is an image of existence itself, just as being eaten
signifies death for Crusoe.
3.Ordeals at sea
Crusoes encounters with water in the novel are often associated not
simply with hardship, but with a kind of symbolic ordeal, or test of
character. First, the storm off the coast of Yarmouth frightens Crusoes
friend away from a life at sea, but does not deter Crusoe. Then, in his first
trading voyage, he proves himself a capable merchant, and in his second
one, he shows he is able to survive enslavement. His escape from his
Moorish master and his successful encounter with the Africans both occur
at sea. Most significantly, Crusoe survives his shipwreck after a lengthy
immersion in water. But the sea remains a source of danger and fear even
later, when the cannibals arrive in canoes. The Spanish shipwreck reminds
Crusoe of the destructive power of water and of his own good fortune in
surviving it. All the life-testing water imagery in the novel has subtle
associations with the rite of baptism, by which Christians prove their faith
and enter a new life saved by Christ.
25
SYMBOLS
1.The footprint
Crusoes shocking discovery of a single footprint on the sand in Chapter
XVIII is one of the most famous moments in the novel, and it symbolizes
our heros conflicted feelings about human companionship. Crusoe has
earlier confessed how much he misses companionship, yet the evidence
of a man on his island sends him into a panic. Immediately he interprets
the footprint negatively, as the print of the devil or of an aggressor. He
never for a moment entertains hope that it could belong to an angel or
another European who could rescue or befriend him. This instinctively
negative and fearful attitude toward others makes us consider the
possibility that Crusoe may not want to return to human society after all,
and that the isolation he is experiencing may actually be his ideal state.
2.The cross
Concerned that he will lose [his] reckoning of time in Chapter VII, Crusoe
marks the passing of days with [his] knife upon a large post, in capital
letters, and making it into a great cross . . . set[s] it up on the shore where
[he] first landed. . . . The large size and capital letters show us how
important this cross is to Crusoe as a timekeeping device and thus also as
a way of relating himself to the larger social world where dates and
calendars still matter. But the cross is also a symbol of his own new
existence on the island, just as the Christian cross is a symbol of the
Christians new life in Christ after baptism, an immersion in water like
Crusoes shipwreck experience. Yet Crusoes large cross seems somewhat
blasphemous in making no reference to Christ. Instead, it is a memorial to
Crusoe himself, underscoring how completely he has become the center
of his own life.
3.Crusoes bower
On a scouting tour around the island, Crusoe discovers a delightful valley
in which he decides to build a country retreat or bower in Chapter XII.
This bower contrasts sharply with Crusoes first residence, since it is built
not for the practical purpose of shelter or storage, but simply for pleasure:
because I was so enamoured of the place. Crusoe is no longer focused
solely on survival, which by this point in the novel is more or less secure.
Now, for the first time since his arrival, he thinks in terms of
pleasantness. Thus, the bower symbolizes a radical improvement in
Crusoes attitude toward his time on the island. Island life is no longer
necessarily a disaster to suffer through, but may be an opportunity for
enjoymentjust as, for the Presbyterian, life may be enjoyed only after
hard work has been finished and repentance achieved.
GULLIVERS TRAVELS
CONTEXT
26
Like almost all the literary men of his time J. Swift, was involved in the
struggle between the Whigs and the Tories. His literary work include:
Literary satire The battle of the books on the controversy
between modern and ancient writers
Religious satire A tale of a tub
Political satire A proposal for the Universal Use of Irish
Manufacture and The Drapiers letters
His masterpiece Gullievers travels
J. Swift was a pamphleteer of genius. He differs from the other great Tory
satirists by the transgressive nature of his satire. His writings are often
ferociously subversive, his satire is mingled with sarcasm, invective
vituperation and above all a crushing irony which is often extremely
destructive.
Swifts typical tactic is to disguise his satire from the reader behind a fable
or fiction of some kind. His style is a model of clarity and precision. Irony is
the most powerful instrument of satire and one of the most difficult to use.
Swift is a true master of irony and satire, as he is able to say the most
shocking things in the most natural possibly way.
GULLIVERS TRAVELS is an anatomy of human nature, a sardonic
looking-glass, often criticized for its apparent misanthropy; each of the 4
books recounting four voyages to mostly fictional exotic lands has a
different theme, but al are attempts to deflate human pride.
Swifts masterpiece can be read at various levels. It may be seen
as:
An account of imaginary adventures in utopian countries
A travel book
An allegorical story
A satirical essay on the political, social and religious conflicts of the
time, as well as on the problems caused by scientific and economic
progress
A tale for children.
due to the fact that he rarely shows his feelings, reveals his soul, or
experiences great passions of any sort.
What seems most lacking in Gulliver is not courage or feelings, but drive.
One modern critic has described Gulliver as possessing the smallest will in
all of Western literature: he is simply devoid of a sense of mission, a goal
that would make his wandering into a quest. He says that he needs to
make some money after the failure of his business, but he rarely mentions
finances throughout the work and indeed almost never even mentions
home. He has no awareness of any greatness in what he is doing or what
he is working toward. In short, he has no aspirations.
We may also note Gullivers lack of ingenuity and savvy. Other great
travelers, such as Odysseus, get themselves out of dangerous situations
by exercising their wit and ability to trick others. Gulliver seems too dull
for any battles of wit and too unimaginative to think up tricks, and thus he
ends up being passive in most of the situations in which he finds himself.
He is held captive several times throughout his voyages, but he is never
once released through his own stratagems, relying instead on chance
factors for his liberation. Once presented with a way out, he works hard to
escape, as when he repairs the boat he finds that delivers him from
Blefuscu, but he is never actively ingenious in attaining freedom. This
example summarizes quite well Gullivers intelligence, which is factual
and practical rather than imaginative or introspective.
Gulliver is gullible, as his name suggests. For example, he misses the
obvious ways in which the Lilliputians exploit him. While he is quite adept
at navigational calculations and the humdrum details of seafaring, he is
far less able to reflect on himself or his nation in any profoundly critical
way. Traveling to such different countries and returning to England in
between each voyage, he seems poised to make some great
anthropological speculations about cultural differences around the world,
about how societies are similar despite their variations or different despite
their similarities. But, frustratingly, Gulliver gives us nothing of the sort.
He provides us only with literal facts and narrative events, never with any
generalizing or philosophizing. He is a self-hating, self-proclaimed Yahoo at
the end, announcing his misanthropy quite loudly, but even this attitude is
difficult to accept as the moral of the story. Gulliver is not a figure with
whom we identify but, rather, part of the array of personalities and
behaviors about which we must make judgments.
THEMES
1.Might versus right
Gullivers Travels implicitly poses the question of whether physical power
or moral righteousness should be the governing factor in social life.
Gulliver experiences the advantages of physical might both as one who
has it, as a giant in Lilliput where he can defeat the Blefuscudian navy by
virtue of his immense size, and as one who does not have it, as a
miniature visitor to Brobdingnag where he is harassed by the hugeness of
everything from insects to household pets. But overall, the novel tends to
28
show that claims to rule on the basis of moral righteousness are often just
as arbitrary as, and sometimes simply disguises for, simple physical
subjugation.
2.The individual versus society
Like many narratives about voyages to nonexistent lands, Gullivers
Travels explores the idea of utopiaan imaginary model of the ideal
community. The idea of a utopia is an ancient one, going back at least as
far as the description in Platos Republic of a city-state governed by the
wise and expressed most famously in English by Thomas
Mores Utopia. Swift nods to both works in his own narrative, though his
attitude toward utopia is much more skeptical, and one of the main
aspects he points out about famous historical utopias is the tendency to
privilege the collective group over the individual. The children of
Platos Republic are raised communally, with no knowledge of their
biological parents, in the understanding that this system enhances social
fairness. Swift has the Lilliputians similarly raise their offspring
collectively, but its results are not exactly utopian, since Lilliput is torn by
conspiracies, jealousies, and backstabbing.
Gullivers Travels could in fact be described as one of the first novels of
modern alienation, focusing on an individuals repeated failures to
integrate into societies to which he does not belong.
3.The limits of human understanding
The idea that humans are not meant to know everything and that all
understanding has a natural limit is important in Gullivers Travels. Swift
singles out theoretical knowledge in particular for attack: his portrait of
the disagreeable and self-centered Laputans, who show blatant contempt
for those who are not sunk in private theorizing, is a clear satire against
those who pride themselves on knowledge above all else. Practical
knowledge is also satirized when it does not produce results, as in the
academy of Balnibarbi, where the experiments for extracting sunbeams
from cucumbers amount to nothing. Swift insists that there is a realm of
understanding into which humans are simply not supposed to venture.
Thus his depictions of rational societies, like Brobdingnag and
Houyhnhnmland, emphasize not these peoples knowledge or
understanding of abstract ideas but their ability to live their lives in a wise
and steady way.
Swift also emphasizes the importance of self-understanding. Gulliver is
initially remarkably lacking in self-reflection and self-awareness. He makes
no mention of his emotions, passions, dreams, or aspirations, and he
shows no interest in describing his own psychology to us. Accordingly, he
may strike us as frustratingly hollow or empty, though it is likely that his
personal emptiness is part of the overall meaning of the novel. By the
end, he has come close to a kind of twisted self-knowledge in his
deranged belief that he is a Yahoo. Swift may thus be saying that selfknowledge has its necessary limits just as theoretical knowledge does,
29
and that if we look too closely at ourselves we might not be able to carry
on living happily.
MOTIFS
1.Excrement
While it may seem a trivial or laughable motif, the recurrent mention of
excrement in Gullivers Travels actually has a serious philosophical
significance in the narrative. It symbolizes everything that is crass and
ignoble about the human body and about human existence in general,
and it obstructs any attempt to view humans as wholly spiritual or
mentally transcendent creatures. Swift suggests that the human condition
in general is dirtier and lowlier than we might like to believe it is.
2.Foreign languages
Gulliver appears to be a gifted linguist, knowing at least the basics of
several European languages and even a fair amount of ancient Greek. This
knowledge serves him well, as he is able to disguise himself as a
Dutchman in order to facilitate his entry into Japan, which at the time only
admitted the Dutch. But even more important, his linguistic gifts allow him
to learn the languages of the exotic lands he visits with a dazzling speed
and, thus, gain access to their culture quickly. He learns the languages of
the Lilliputians, the Brobdingnagians, and even the neighing tongue of the
Houyhnhnms.
3.Clothing
Critics have noted the extraordinary attention that Gulliver pays to clothes
throughout his journeys. Every time he gets a rip in his shirt or is forced to
adopt some native garment to replace one of his own, he recounts the
clothing details with great precision. These descriptions are obviously an
easy narrative device with which Swift can chart his protagonists
progression from one culture to another: the more ragged his clothes
become and the stranger his new wardrobe, the farther he is from the
comforts and conventions of England. But the motif of clothing carries a
deeper, more psychologically complex meaning as well. Gullivers intense
interest in the state of his clothes may signal a deep-seated anxiety about
his identity, or lack thereof.
SYMBOLS
1.Lilliputians
he Lilliputians symbolize humankinds wildly excessive pride in its own
puny existence. Swift fully intends the irony of representing the tiniest
race visited by Gulliver as by far the most vainglorious and smug, both
collectively and individually. There is more backbiting and conspiracy in
Lilliput than anywhere else, and more of the pettiness of small minds who
imagine themselves to be grand. All in all, the Lilliputians symbolize
misplaced human pride, and point out Gullivers inability to diagnose it
correctly.
2.Brobdingnagians
30
novel. He may be hinting, to those more insightful than Gulliver, that the
Houyhnhnms should not be considered human ideals at all. In any case,
they symbolize a standard of rational existence to be either espoused or
rejected by both Gulliver and us.
5.England
As the site of his fathers disappointingly small estate and Gullivers
failing business, England seems to symbolize deficiency or insufficiency,
at least in the financial sense that matters most to Gulliver. England is
where Gullivers wife and family live, but they too are hardly mentioned.
Yet Swift chooses to have Gulliver return home after each of his four
journeys instead of having him continue on one long trip to four different
places, so that England is kept constantly in the picture and given a
steady, unspoken importance. By the end of the fourth journey, England is
brought more explicitly into the fabric of Gullivers Travels when Gulliver,
in his neurotic state, starts confusing Houyhnhnmland with his homeland,
referring to Englishmen as Yahoos. The distinction between native and
foreign thus unravelsthe Houyhnhnms and Yahoos are not just races
populating a faraway land but rather types that Gulliver projects upon
those around him. The possibility thus arises that all the races Gulliver
encounters could be versions of the English and that his travels merely
allow him to see various aspects of human nature more clearly.
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. Janes
gentle spirit serves as a foil for her sisters fiery, contentious nature, while
Bingleys eager friendliness contrasts with Darcys 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 householdthe 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 wifes hysteria make him 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. Detached from his family, he is a weak father
and, at critical moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish
indulgence of Lydias 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 heras if Austen, like Mr. Bennet, took
perverse pleasure in poking fun at a woman already scorned as a result of
her ill breeding.
THEMES
1.Love
Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in
English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any
36
good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling
blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers own personal
qualities. Elizabeths pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a
poor first impression, while Darcys prejudice against Elizabeths poor
social standing blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues.
Darcy and Elizabeths realization of a mutual and tender love seems to
imply that Austen views love as something independent of these social
forces, as something that can be captured if only an individual is able to
escape the warping effects of hierarchical society. Austen does sound
some more realist (or, one could say, cynical) notes about love, using the
character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his
money, to demonstrate that the heart does not always dictate marriage.
Yet with her central characters, Austen suggests that true love is a force
separate from society and one that can conquer even the most difficult of
circumstances.
2.Reputation
Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a womans reputation is of
the utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways.
Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism. This
theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and
arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss
Bingley and her friends. The happy ending of Pride and Prejudice is
certainly emotionally satisfying, but in many ways it leaves the theme of
reputation, and the importance placed on reputation, unexplored. One can
ask ofPride and Prejudice, to what extent does it critique social structures,
and to what extent does it simply accept their inevitability?
3.Class
The theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly
regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in Regency
England. The lines of class are strictly drawn. While the Bennets, who are
middle class, may socialize with the upper-class Bingleys and Darcys, they
are clearly their social inferiors and are treated as such. Austen satirizes
this kind of class-consciousness, particularly in the character of Mr. Collins,
who spends most of his time toadying to his upper-class patron, Lady
Catherine de Bourgh.
Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows
the power of love and happiness to overcome class boundaries and
prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are hollow, unfeeling,
and unproductive. Austen does criticize class structure but only a limited
slice of that structure.
MOTIFS
1.Courtship
In a sense, Pride and Prejudice is the story of two courtshipsthose
between Darcy and Elizabeth and between Bingley and Jane. Courtship
therefore takes on a profound, if often unspoken, importance in the novel.
37
Marriage is the ultimate goal, courtship constitutes the real working-out of love.
Courtship becomes a sort of forge of a persons personality, and each courtship
becomes a microcosm for different sorts of love (or different ways to abuse love
as a means to social advancement).
2.Journeys
Nearly every scene in Pride and Prejudice takes place indoors, and the
action centers around the Bennet home in the small village of Longbourn.
Nevertheless, journeyseven short onesfunction repeatedly as catalysts
for change in the novel. Elizabeths first journey, by which she intends
simply to visit Charlotte and Mr. Collins, brings her into contact with Mr.
Darcy, and leads to his first proposal. Her second journey takes her to
Derby and Pemberley, where she fans the growing flame of her affection
for Darcy. The third journey, meanwhile, sends various people in pursuit of
Wickham and Lydia, and the journey ends with Darcy tracking them down
and saving the Bennet family honor, in the process demonstrating his
continued devotion to Elizabeth.
SYMBOLS
1.Pemberley
Pride and Prejudice is remarkably free of explicit symbolism, which
perhaps has something to do with the novels reliance on dialogue over
description. Nevertheless, Pemberley, Darcys estate, sits at the center of
the novel, literally and figuratively, as a geographic symbol of the man
who owns it. Elizabeth visits it at a time when her feelings toward Darcy
are beginning to warm; she is enchanted by its beauty and charm, and by
the picturesque countryside, just as she will be charmed, increasingly, by
the gifts of its owner.
Pemberley even offers a symbol-within-a-symbol for their budding
romance: when Elizabeth encounters Darcy on the estate, she is crossing
a small bridge, suggesting the broad gulf of misunderstanding and class
prejudice that lies between themand the bridge that their love will build
across it.
38
LATER VICTORIANS
This term is used to refer to writers in the last two decades of Victorias
reign. A spirit of rebellion developed against Victorian materialism,
optimism and self-confidence. Unlike Dickens and other early Victorian
writers who criticized society, but believed in the possibility of finding
solutions, an air of gloomy pessimism pervaded the work of later Victorian
writers. Perhaps the writer who best represents the period is THOMAS
HARDY. His stories are so closely linked to this rural setting that they are
referred to as REGIONAL NOVELS.
39
AESTHETICISM
The crises of faith and morality which characterized the latter half of the
Victorian period gave rise in the 1880s and 1890s to an artistic movement
known as AESTHETICISM a term which comes from the Greek
word meaning to perceive or to feel. Aesthetes believed that
sensation should be the source of art, and that the role of the
artist was to make the public share his feelings.
It is now, in the 19th century, that we witness the manifestation of
industrialization, England being the first industrialized country in the
world. Basically, industrialization refers to the substitution of man by
the machine in the economic process and the mass production of
consumption goods.
Industrialization represents the engine of the capitalist society and the
premise of a long series of social, cultural, economic and psychological
transformations of the human community.
1.THE HISTORICAL EFFECT OF THE INDUSTRIALIZATION. The
traditional English society can be imagined in the form of a pyramid which
concentrates its absolute power at the top in the symbolic persona of the
king or queen. The dominant class is the aristocracy. Authority is
inherited and not conquered by personal merits and the king represents
God on earth and his unnatural, violent elimination from the top may push
the whole pyramid into chaos (this happens in Hamlet and Macbeth).
Industrialization brings competition among the rules of socio-economic
organization of the system. Authority is no more inherited by birth, bur
conquered through personal merits. The pyramid is transformed into
a circle where margins can have access to the center.
2.THE POLITICAL EFFECT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION. Politically, this
huge transformation in the life of the English society should be linked to
the beginnings of the modern democracy in Europe. The Parliament
becomes more democratic and opens its door to other social categories.
The monarchy is no longer absolute and authoritarian, but liberal and
subject to the Parliament.
3.THE ECONOMIC EFFECT OF THE INDUSTRIALIZATION. Economically
speaking, Great Britain develops tremendously as a result of the
industrialization. Colonialism expands and England gets supremacy in the
world.
4.THE SOCIAL EFFECT OF THE INDUSTRIALIZATION. Socially,
industrialization represents a turning point in the life of England and
Europe generally speaking. It marks the birth of a new and powerful class
the BURGEOISIE. The representatives of this social category are the
direct beneficiaries of the industrial progress and they use their financial
power to substitute the TRADITIONAL ARISTOCRACY from its positions
of authority. The STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE BURGEOISIE AND THE
ARISTOCRACY represents a favourite topic in the Victorian novel.
40
41
Wonderland, Alice finds that her lessons no longer mean what she
thought, as she botches her multiplication tables and incorrectly recites
poems she had memorized while in Wonderland. Even Alices physical
dimensions become warped as she grows and shrinks erratically
throughout the story. Wonderland frustrates Alices desires to fit her
experiences in a logical framework where she can make sense of the
relationship between cause and effect.
3.Language
Carroll plays with linguistic conventions in Alices Adventures in
Wonderland, making use of puns and playing on multiple meanings of
words throughout the text. Carroll invents words and expressions and
develops new meanings for words. Alices exclamation Curious and
curiouser! suggests that both her surroundings and the language she
uses to describe them expand beyond expectation and convention.
Anything is possible in Wonderland, and Carrolls manipulation of
language reflects this sense of unlimited possibility.
4.Curious, nonsense and confusing
Alice uses these words throughout her journey to describe phenomena
she has trouble explaining. Though the words are generally
interchangeable, she usually assigns curious and confusing to experiences
or encounters that she tolerates. She endures is the experiences that are
curious or confusing, hoping to gain a clearer picture of how that
individual or experience functions in the world. When Alice declares
something to be nonsense, as she does with the trial in Chapter 12, she
rejects or criticizes the experience or encounter.
SYMBOLS
1.The garden
Nearly every object in Alices Adventures in Wonderland functions as a
symbol, but nothing clearly represents one particular thing. The garden
may symbolize the Garden of Eden, an idyllic space of beauty and
innocence that Alice is not permitted to access. On a more abstract level,
the garden may simply represent the experience of desire, in that Alice
focuses her energy and emotion on trying to attain it. The two symbolic
meanings work together to underscore Alices desire to hold onto her
feelings of childlike innocence that she must relinquish as she matures.
2.The Caterpillars mushroom
Like the garden, the Caterpillars mushroom also has multiple symbolic
meanings. Some readers and critics view the Caterpillar as a sexual
threat, its phallic shape a symbol of sexual virility. The Caterpillars
mushroom connects to this symbolic meaning. Alice must master the
properties of the mushroom to gain control over her fluctuating size,
which represents the bodily frustrations that accompany puberty. Others
view the mushroom as a psychedelic hallucinogen that compounds Alices
surreal and distorted perception of Wonderland.
44
This last part of the novel resembles more the traditional melodramas,
because of its highly emotional content. Great Expectations is an ironic
novel that deconstructs the idea of the traditional authorship.
Everything starts with Pips subjectivity and is shaped out according to his
wish, without the intervention of the author. Pips love for Estella is like an
axis of the epic. Ms. Havisham looks initially like a good mother and a
benefactor. Later on, Magwitch replaces her as the actual father and
benefactor. The whole text becomes thus a clash between appearance
and reality. In the middle we have Jaggers who knows all about
everything and everyone. He turns out to be the actual alter-ego of the
omniscient author. He is a deus otiosus who no longer interferes with the
lives of his creatures. This is one of the strongest pre-modernist
metaphors about the lost authorship in the English novel. Therefore, the
novel is in fact a pyramid articulated from bottom (text) to top
(author).
CONTEXT
Many of the events from Dickenss early life are mirrored in Great
Expectations, which, apart from David Copperfield, is his most
autobiographical novel. Pip, the novels protagonist, lives in the marsh
country, works at a job he hates, considers himself too good for his
surroundings, and experiences material success in London at a very early
age, exactly as Dickens himself did. In addition, one of the novels most
appealing characters, Wemmick, is a law clerk, and the law, justice, and
the courts are all important components of the story.
Great Expectations is set in early Victorian England, a time when great
social changes were sweeping the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries had transformed the social
landscape, enabling capitalists and manufacturers to amass huge
fortunes. Although social class was no longer entirely dependent on the
circumstances of ones birth, the divisions between rich and poor
remained nearly as wide as ever. London, a teeming mass of humanity, lit
by gas lamps at night and darkened by black clouds from smokestacks
during the day, formed a sharp contrast with the nations sparsely
populated rural areas. More and more people moved from the country to
the city in search of greater economic opportunity. Throughout England,
the manners of the upper class were very strict and conservative:
gentlemen and ladies were expected to have thorough classical
educations and to behave appropriately in innumerable social situations.
These conditions defined Dickenss time, and they make themselves felt in
almost every facet of Great Expectations. Pips sudden rise from country
laborer to city gentleman forces him to move from one social extreme to
another while dealing with the strict rules and expectations that governed
Victorian England. Ironically, this novel about the desire for wealth and
social advancement was written partially out of economic necessity.
In form, Great Expectations fits a pattern popular in nineteenth-century
European fiction: the bildungsroman, or novel depicting growth and
47
his behavior as a gentleman has caused him to hurt the people who care
about him most. Once he has learned these lessons, Pip matures into the
man who narrates the novel, completing the bildungsroman.
2.Estella
Estella is a supremely ironic creation, one who darkly undermines the
notion of romantic love and serves as a bitter criticism against the class
system in which she is mired. Raised from the age of three by Miss
Havisham to torment men and break their hearts, Estella wins Pips
deepest love by practicing deliberate cruelty. Unlike the warm, winsome,
kind heroine of a traditional love story, Estella is cold, cynical, and
manipulative.
Ironically, life among the upper classes does not represent salvation for
Estella. Instead, she is victimized twice by her adopted class. Rather than
being raised by Magwitch, a man of great inner nobility, she is raised by
Miss Havisham, who destroys her ability to express emotion and interact
normally with the world. And rather than marrying the kindhearted
commoner Pip, Estella marries the cruel nobleman Drummle, who treats
her harshly and makes her life miserable for many years. In this way,
Dickens uses Estellas life to reinforce the idea that ones happiness and
well-being are not deeply connected to ones social position: had Estella
been poor, she might have been substantially better off.
Despite her cold behavior and the damaging influences in her life, Dickens
nevertheless ensures that Estella is still a sympathetic character. By
giving the reader a sense of her inner struggle to discover and act on her
own feelings rather than on the imposed motives of her upbringing,
Dickens gives the reader a glimpse of Estellas inner life, which helps to
explain what Pip might love about her.
Finally, Estellas long, painful marriage to Drummle causes her to develop
along the same lines as Pipthat is, she learns, through experience, to
rely on and trust her inner feelings. In the final scene of the novel, she has
become her own woman for the first time in the book. As she says to Pip,
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent
and broken, butI hopeinto a better shape.
THEMES
1.Ambition and self-improvement
The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty,
and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and
class. Dickens establishes the theme and shows Pip learning this lesson,
largely by exploring ideas of ambition and self-improvementideas that
quickly become both the thematic center of the novel and the
psychological mechanism that encourages much of Pips development. At
heart, Pip is an idealist; whenever he can conceive of something that is
49
MOTIFS
1.Doubles
Dickenss plots involve complicated coincidences, extraordinarily tangled
webs of human relationships, and highly dramatic developments in which
setting, atmosphere, event, and character are all seamlessly fused.
From the earliest scenes of the novel to the last, nearly every element
of Great Expectations is mirrored or doubled at some other point in the
book. There are two convicts on the marsh (Magwitch and Compeyson),
two invalids (Mrs. Joe and Miss Havisham), two young women who interest
Pip (Biddy and Estella), and so on. There are two secret benefactors:
Magwitch, who gives Pip his fortune, and Pip, who mirrors Magwitchs
action by secretly buying Herberts way into the mercantile business.
Finally, there are two adults who seek to mold children after their own
purposes: Magwitch, who wishes to own a gentleman and decides to
make Pip one, and Miss Havisham, who raises Estella to break mens
hearts in revenge for her own broken heart. Interestingly, both of these
actions are motivated by Compeyson: Magwitch resents but is
nonetheless covetous of Compeysons social status and education, which
motivates his desire to make Pip a gentleman, and Miss Havishams heart
was broken when Compeyson left her at the altar, which motivates her
desire to achieve revenge through Estella. The relationship between Miss
Havisham and Compeysona well-born woman and a common man
further mirrors the relationship between Estella and Pip. This doubling of
elements ads to the sense that everything in Pips world is connected.
2.Comparison of characters to inanimate objects
Throughout Great Expectations, the narrator uses images of inanimate
objects to describe the physical appearance of charactersparticularly
minor characters, or characters with whom the narrator is not intimate.
For example, Mrs. Joe looks as if she scrubs her face with a nutmeg grater,
while the inscrutable features of Mr. Wemmick are repeatedly compared to
a letter-box. This motif, which Dickens uses throughout his novels, may
suggest a failure of empathy on the narrators part, or it may suggest that
the characters position in life is pressuring them to resemble a thing more
than a human being. The latter interpretation would mean that the motif
in general is part of a social critique, in that it implies that an institution
such as the class system or the criminal justice system dehumanizes
certain people.
SYMBOLS
1.Satis house
In Satis House, Dickens creates a magnificent Gothic setting whose
various elements symbolize Pips romantic perception of the upper class
and many other themes of the book. On her decaying body, Miss
Havishams wedding dress becomes an ironic symbol of death and
degeneration. The wedding dress and the wedding feast symbolize Miss
Havishams past, and the stopped clocks throughout the house symbolize
51
52
hybris, too ( Tess provokes her social and moral limit when she accepts
Alec the second time, becoming a sort of urban mistress).
CONTEXT
Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton in
Dorset, a rural region of southwestern England that was to become the
focus of his fiction. Although he built a reputation as a successful novelist,
Hardy considered himself first and foremost a poet. To him, novels were
primarily a means of earning a living. But Hardy cannot solely be labeled a
Victorian novelist. Nor can he be categorized simply as a Modernist, in the
tradition of writers like Virginia Woolf or D. H. Lawrence, who were
determined to explode the conventions of nineteenth-century literature
and build a new kind of novel in its place. In many respects, Hardy was
trapped in the middle ground between the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, between Victorian sensibilities and more modern ones, and
between tradition and innovation.
InTess of the dUrbervilles and other novels, Hardy demonstrates his deep
sense of moral sympathy for Englands lower classes, particularly for rural
women. He became famous for his compassionate, often controversial
portrayal of young women victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of
English social morality. Perhaps his most famous depiction of such a young
woman is in Tess of the dUrbervilles.
Hardy lived and wrote in a time of difficult social change, when England
was making its slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned,
agricultural nation to a modern, industrial one. Businessmen and
entrepreneurs, or new money, joined the ranks of the social elite, as
some families of the ancient aristocracy, or old money, faded into
obscurity. Tesss family in Tess of the dUrbervilles illustrates this change,
as Tesss parents, the Durbeyfields, lose themselves in the fantasy of
belonging to an ancient and aristocratic family, the dUrbervilles. Hardys
novel strongly suggests that such a family history is not only meaningless
but also utterly undesirable. Hardys views on the subject were appalling
to conservative and status-conscious British readers, and Tess of the
dUrbervilles was met in England with widespread controversy.
Analysis of major characters
1.Tess
Intelligent, strikingly attractive, and distinguished by her deep moral
sensitivity and passionate intensity, Tess is indisputably the central
character of the novel that bears her name. But she is also more than a
distinctive individual: Hardy makes her into somewhat of a mythic
heroine. Her name, formally Theresa, recalls St. Teresa of Avila, another
martyr whose vision of a higher reality cost her her life. Other characters
often refer to Tess in mythical terms, as when Angel calls her a Daughter
of Nature in Chapter XVIII, or refers to her by the Greek mythological
names Artemis and Demeter in Chapter XX. The narrator himself
sometimes describes Tess as more than an individual woman, but as
something closer to a mythical incarnation of womanhood.
54
3.Angel Clare
55
ended his sport with Tess, we are reminded that justice must be put in
ironic quotation marks, since it is not really just at all. What passes for
Justice is in fact one of the pagan gods enjoying a bit of sport, or a
frivolous game.
2.Changing ideas of social class in Victorian England
Tess of the dUrbervilles presents complex pictures of both the importance
of social class in nineteenth-century England and the difficulty of defining
class in any simple way. Certainly the Durbeyfields are a powerful emblem
of the way in which class is no longer evaluated in Victorian times as it
would have been in the Middle Agesthat is, by blood alone, with no
attention paid to fortune or worldly success. Indubitably the Durbeyfields
have purity of blood, yet for the parson and nearly everyone else in the
novel, this fact amounts to nothing more than a piece of genealogical
trivia. In the Victorian context, cash matters more than lineage, which
explains how Simon Stokes, Alecs father, was smoothly able to use his
large fortune to purchase a lustrous family name and transform his clan
into the Stoke-dUrbervilles. The dUrbervilles pass for what the
Durbeyfields truly areauthentic nobilitysimply because definitions of
class have changed. The issue of class confusion even affects the Clare
clan, whose most promising son, Angel, is intent on becoming a farmer
and marrying a milkmaid, thus bypassing the traditional privileges of a
Cambridge education and a parsonage. His willingness to work side by
side with the farm laborers helps endear him to Tess, and their
acquaintance would not have been possible if he were a more traditional
and elitist aristocrat. Thus, the three main characters in the Angel-TessAlec triangle are all strongly marked by confusion regarding their
respective social classes, an issue that is one of the main concerns of the
novel.
3.Men dominating women
One of the recurrent themes of the novel is the way in which men can
dominate women, exerting a power over them linked primarily to their
maleness. Sometimes this command is purposeful, in the mans full
knowledge of his exploitation, as when Alec acknowledges how bad he is
for seducing Tess for his own momentary pleasure. Alecs act of abuse, the
most life-altering event that Tess experiences in the novel, is clearly the
most serious instance of male domination over a female. But there are
other, less blatant examples of womens passivity toward dominant men.
Even Angels love for Tess, as pure and gentle as it seems, dominates her
in an unhealthy way. Angel substitutes an idealized picture of Tesss
country purity for the real-life woman that he continually refuses to get to
know. When Angel calls Tess names like Daughter of Nature and
Artemis, we feel that he may be denying her true self in favor of a
mental image that he prefers. Thus, her identity and experiences are
suppressed, albeit unknowingly. This pattern of male domination is finally
reversed with Tesss murder of Alec, in which, for the first time in the
novel, a woman takes active steps against a man. Of course, this act only
leads to even greater suppression of a woman by men, when the crowd of
57
and her aunt, who raised the Bront children after their mother died, was
deeply religious.
Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the canon of world
literature, and Emily Bront is revered as one of the finest writersmale
or femaleof the nineteenth century. Like Charlotte Bronts Jane
Eyre, Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition of the late
eighteenth century, a style of literature that featured supernatural
encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery,
seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. But Wuthering
Heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic
subtlety. The novel has been studied, analyzed, dissected, and discussed
from every imaginable critical perspective, yet it remains unexhausted.
And while the novels symbolism, themes, structure, and language may all
spark fertile exploration, the bulk of its popularity may rest on its
unforgettable characters. As a shattering presentation of the doomed love
affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains
one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature.
Analysis of major characters
1.Heathcliff
He resembles a hero in a romance novel. Traditionally, romance novel
heroes appear dangerous, brooding, and cold at first, only later to emerge
as fiercely devoted and loving. Considering this historical context,
Heathcliff seems to embody the anxieties that the books upper- and
middle-class audience had about the working classes. The reader may
easily sympathize with him when he is powerless, as a child tyrannized by
Hindley Earnshaw, but he becomes a villain when he acquires power and
returns to Wuthering Heights with money and the trappings of a
gentleman. This corresponds with the ambivalence the upper classes felt
toward the lower classesthe upper classes had charitable impulses
toward lower-class citizens when they were miserable, but feared the
prospect of the lower classes trying to escape their miserable
circumstances by acquiring political, social, cultural, or economic power.
2.Catherine
The location of Catherines coffin symbolizes the conflict that tears apart
her short life. Catherine is buried in a corner of the kirkyard, where the
wall is so low that heath and bilberry plants have climbed over it from the
moor. Moreover, she is buried with Edgar on one side and Heathcliff on
the other, suggesting her conflicted loyalties. Her actions are driven in
part by her social ambitions, which initially are awakened during her first
stay at the Lintons, and which eventually compel her to marry Edgar.
However, she is also motivated by impulses that prompt her to violate
social conventionsto love Heathcliff, throw temper tantrums, and run
around on the moor. Isabella LintonCatherines sister-in-law and
Heathcliffs wife, who was born in the same year that Catherine was
serves as Catherines foil. The two womens parallel positions allow us to
see their differences with greater clarity. Catherine represents wild nature,
60
in both her high, lively spirits and her occasional cruelty, whereas Isabella
represents culture and civilization, both in her refinement and in her
weakness.
THEMES
1.The destructiveness of a love that never changes
Catherine and Heathcliffs passion for one another seems to be the center
ofWuthering Heights, given that it is stronger and more lasting than any
other emotion displayed in the novel, and that it is the source of most of
the major conflicts that structure the novels plot. The book is actually
structured around two parallel love stories, the first half of the novel
centering on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, while the less
dramatic second half features the developing love between young
Catherine and Hareton. In contrast to the first, the latter tale ends happily,
restoring peace and order to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
The differences between the two love stories contribute to the readers
understanding of why each ends the way it does. The most important
feature of young Catherine and Haretons love story is that it involves
growth and change. Catherine and Heathcliffs love, on the other hand, is
rooted in their childhood and is marked by the refusal to change.
Moreover, Catherine and Heathcliffs love is based on their shared
perception that they are identical. Given that Catherine and Heathcliffs
love is based upon their refusal to change over time or embrace difference
in others, it is fitting that the disastrous problems of their generation are
overcome not by some climactic reversal, but simply by the inexorable
passage of time, and the rise of a new and distinct generation.
Ultimately, Wuthering Heights presents a vision of life as a process of
change, and celebrates this process over and against the romantic
intensity of its principal characters.
2.The precariousness of social class
As members of the gentry, the Earnshaws and the Lintons occupy a
somewhat precarious place within the hierarchy of late eighteenth- and
early nineteenth-century British society. At the top of British society was
the royalty, followed by the aristocracy, then by the gentry, and then by
the lower classes, who made up the vast majority of the population.
Although the gentry, or upper middle class, possessed servants and often
large estates, they held a nonetheless fragile social position. The social
status of aristocrats was a formal and settled matter, because aristocrats
had official titles. Members of the gentry, however, held no titles, and
their status was thus subject to change.
MOTIFS
1.Doubles
Bront organizes her novel by arranging its elementscharacters, places,
and themesinto pairs. Catherine and Heathcliff are closely matched in
many ways, and see themselves as identical. Catherines character is
divided into two warring sides: the side that wants Edgar and the side that
61
2.Repetition
Repetition is another tactic Bront employs in organizing Wuthering
Heights. It seems that nothing ever ends in the world of this novel.
Instead, time seems to run in cycles, and the horrors of the past repeat
themselves in the present. The way that the names of the characters are
recycled, so that the names of the characters of the younger generation
seem only to be rescramblings of the names of their parents, leads the
reader to consider how plot elements also repeat themselves.
3.The conflict between nature and culture
In Wuthering Heights, Bront constantly plays nature and culture against
each other. Nature is represented by the Earnshaw family, and by
Catherine and Heathcliff in particular. These characters are governed by
their passions, not by reflection or ideals of civility. Correspondingly, the
house where they liveWuthering Heightscomes to symbolize a similar
wildness. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange and the Linton family
represent culture, refinement, convention, and cultivation.
SYMBOLS
1.Moors
The constant emphasis on landscape within the text of Wuthering
Heights endows the setting with symbolic importance. This landscape is
comprised primarily of moors: wide, wild expanses, high but somewhat
soggy, and thus infertile. Moorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity
makes navigation difficult. It features particularly waterlogged patches in
which people could potentially drown. (This possibility is mentioned
several times in Wuthering Heights.) Thus, the moors serve very well as
symbols of the wild threat posed by nature. As the setting for the
beginnings of Catherine and Heathcliffs bond (the two play on the moors
during childhood), the moorland transfers its symbolic associations onto
the love affair.
2.Ghosts
Ghosts appear throughout Wuthering Heights, as they do in most other
works of Gothic fiction, yet Bront always presents them in such a way
that whether they really exist remains ambiguous. Thus the world of the
62
Also known as "Lord Jim," or "Tuan Jim." The hero of our story, Jim is a
young man who, inspired by popular literature, goes to sea dreaming of
becoming a hero. He gets his chance when the ship he is aboard gets
damaged, and fails utterly by abandoning ship with the rest of the crew.
Haunted by his failure and stripped of his officer's certificate, he wanders
from job to job, finally becoming the manager of a remote trading post. He
falls in love with Jewel, a beautiful, half-native girl, and, by defeating a
local bandit, becomes leader of the people. His dreams of heroism lead to
his failure to kill a marauding white pirate, Gentleman Brown, which in
turn leads to the death of Dain Waris, his best friend and son of Doramin,
the local chief. Jim allows Doramin to shoot him in retribution.
2.Marlow
The narrator of this story and a ship's captain. Marlow first encounters Jim
at the inquiry where Jim loses his certification. Feeling that Jim is "one of
us," he takes an interest in him, first helping him find employment as a
water clerk and as a trading post manager for Stein, then compulsively
piecing together Jim's story and perpetuating it through various retellings.
It is Marlow who filters and interprets most of the narrative for the reader.
SYMBOLISM, IMAGERY & ALLEGORY
Brierly's Pocketwatch
When Brierly commits suicide by jumping ship, he leaves his pocketwatch
hanging on the rail. Let's take a look at that scene:'There's a funny thing. I
don't like to touch it.' It was Captain Brierl...
Imagination
The fear grows shadowy; and Imagination, the enemy of men, the father
of all terrors, unstimulated, sinks to rest in the dullness of exhausted
emotion. Jim saw nothing but the disorder of his tosse...
Butterflies
Stein collects butterflies, which may seem like just a passing hobby. But
we think there just might be something more to it. Let's take a look at
Stein's description of his favorite pasttime: "When...
Water Imagery
We've got a novel about sailors in Lord Jim, which means that water and
the sea are like characters in and of themselves. Marlow spends a fair
amount of time pondering the sea and its moods, person...
Darkness Imagery
It seems like half this novel takes place at night. The Patna sinks at night,
Jim confesses his shameful actions to Marlow under the cover of darkness,
Marlow relates his story to an audience over...
ANALYSIS: SETTING
Where It All Goes Down
65
Patna, the Malabar Hotel, Patusan, Southeast Asia, Late 19th century
Lord Jim is technically a British novel, though almost none of the novel's
action takes place in Jolly Old England. This novel really belongs more to
the British empire, specifically Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. As a
former sailor, Conrad kept the action in places familiar to him on boats
at sea, at seaports, and on islands. This is a novel written by a sailor about
sailors, so it makes sense that the bulk of the action takes place at in the
more watery corners of the world.
Backdrops and Backgrounds
Unfortunately, Conrad doesn't seem all that interested in painting a vivid
picture of these environs. He's much more interested in Jim's story.
Perhaps that's why he doesn't go into much detail when it comes to the
locations where events go down.
The bulk of the novel takes place on board the Patna, at the anonymous
port where Jim's trial takes place, at Stein's house, and on Patusan. These
places are all tropical and filled with eclectic individuals, but ultimately
they are fairly forgettable. They're merely backdrops for the more exciting
human dramas going on. And even when Conrad does give us details
about the setting, it's often the human element that draws his attention.
At a description of Jim's trial, the characters seem to become part of the
setting itself. Conrad tends to define places by the people in them.
[T]he big framework of punkahs moved gently to and fro high above his
head, and from below many eyes were looking at him out of dark faces,
out of white faces, out of red faces, out of faces attentive, spellbound, as
if all these people sitting in orderly rows upon narrow benches had been
enslaved by the fascination of his voice. [...] The light of a broad window
under the ceiling fell from above on the heads and shoulders of the three
men, and they were fiercely distinct in the half-light of the big court-room
where the audience seemed composed of staring shadows. (4.1)
These nameless faces provide the backdrop against which the trial occurs.
Though these faces are, of course, people, who they are and what they
are saying isn't of huge importance. Conrad is more interested in the
image because it helps him set the scene
The setting for Jim's trial is relatively generic it could be taking place at
any number of locations in the South Pacific. What's important isn't so
much the location as the mood, the people involved, and the overall
atmosphere defined by people. The same is true for the other settings of
the novel, which are filled with tropical "stock footage."
Setting the Mood
The setting details we do get are often very atmospheric and mirror the
characters' moods and emotions. Take, for example, this description of
Stein's house:
We passed through empty dark rooms, escorted by gleams from the lights
Stein carried. They glided along the waxed floors, sweeping here and
66
67
We'll just level with you here: the narrative technique of Lord Jim is
confusing to say the least.
Third Person Sort of
First, we have Marlow, who is the main narrator of the novel. But as he
tells Jim's story, other voices creep into the mix as the characters he
meets share what they know of Jim. It's as if Marlow is channeling a story
with multiple voices into one narrative stream. Plus, there's the fact
Marlow is not actually the narrator of the novel at all.
Yep, that's right. There's a whole other, unidentified person who is sitting
on the verandah listening to Marlow, and interrupting every once in a
while to remind us that Marlow, too, is a character:
Marlow paused to put new life into his expiring cheroot, seemed to forget
all about the story, and abruptly began again. (8.10)
Weird, right? Plus, there's the anonymous narrator of the first five
chapters, which document Jim's early life. If your head is already spinning,
don't worry. Shmoop has your back.
First Person... Sort of
For the sake of sheer practicality, we're going to go ahead and call Lord
Jim a first person narrative, because the bulk of the novel is told in
Marlow's words. As Conrad's go-to narrator (Marlow also narrated Conrad's
first novel, Chance, and his most famous novel, Heart of Darkness),
Marlow has his work cut out for him. Lord Jim has a great many stories
woven together, and we need someone to tell them to us. That
gargantuan task falls to Marlow.
After the first four anonymously narrated chapters, we meet our
storyteller at the end of Chapter Four. Every chapter after that uses
quotation marks around the paragraphs to indicate that Marlow is
speaking. For much of the novel, it's a pretty straightforward narrative;
Marlow tells us Jim's story, and how he came to find out about it (through
his many, many sources, far and wide).
The only wrench that ever gets thrown is that pesky third person we've
already mentioned. Why not have Marlow just narrate the whole darn
story?
Part of the reason might be thematic Lord Jim is largely about
storytelling, and Conrad uses multiple storytellers throughout the
narrative who all interpret one another and repeat one another. The novel
shows us how stories can get filtered and distorted through different
people's perspectives, including Marlow's.
Also, the outside narrator means that Marlow functions both as a narrator
and an independent character. Bonus, right? Instead of seeing the whole
world of Lord Jim through Marlow's eyes, we get one layer of removal that
gives us a good dose of perspective. Every time that other narrator rears
his anonymous head, we're reminded to take Marlow's words with a grain
of salt, because he's only human.
68
69
1.Marlow
Although Marlow appears in several of Conrads other works, it is
important not to view him as merely a surrogate for the author. Marlow is
a complicated man who anticipates the figures of high modernism while
also reflecting his Victorian predecessors. Marlow is in many ways a
traditional hero: tough, honest, an independent thinker, a capable man.
Yet he is also broken or damaged, like T. S. Eliots J. Alfred Prufrock or
William Faulkners Quentin Compson. The world has defeated him in some
fundamental way, and he is weary, skeptical, and cynical. Marlow also
mediates between the figure of the intellectual and that of the working
tough. While he is clearly intelligent, eloquent, and a natural philosopher,
he is not saddled with the angst of centuries worth of Western thought. At
the same time, while he is highly skilled at what he doeshe repairs and
then ably pilots his own shiphe is no mere manual laborer. Marlow can
also be read as an intermediary between the two extremes of Kurtz and
the Company. He is moderate enough to allow the reader to identify with
him, yet open-minded enough to identify at least partially with either
extreme. Thus, he acts as a guide for the reader.
2.Kurtz
Kurtz, like Marlow, can be situated within a larger tradition. Kurtz
resembles the archetypal evil genius: the highly gifted but ultimately
degenerate individual whose fall is the stuff of legend. Kurtz is related to
figures like Faustus, Satan in Miltons Paradise Lost, Moby-Dicks Ahab,
and Wuthering Heightss Heathcliff. Like these characters, he is significant
both for his style and eloquence and for his grandiose, almost
megalomaniacal scheming. In a world of mundanely malicious men and
flabby devils, attracting enough attention to be worthy of damnation is
indeed something. Kurtz can be criticized in the same terms that Heart of
Darknessis sometimes criticized: style entirely overrules substance,
providing a justification for amorality and evil.
Themes
1.The hypocrisy of imperialism
Heart of Darkness explores the issues surrounding imperialism in
complicated ways. As Marlow travels from the Outer Station to the Central
Station and finally up the river to the Inner Station, he encounters scenes
of torture, cruelty, and near-slavery. At the very least, the incidental
scenery of the book offers a harsh picture of colonial enterprise. However,
for Marlow as much as for Kurtz or for the Company, Africans in this book
are mostly objects: Marlow refers to his helmsman as a piece of
machinery, and Kurtzs African mistress is at best a piece of statuary.
While Heart of Darkness offers a powerful condemnation of the
hypocritical operations of imperialism, it also presents a set of issues
surrounding race that is ultimately troubling.
2.Madness as a result of imperialism
71
4.The river
The Congo River is the key to Africa for Europeans. It allows them access
to the center of the continent without having to physically cross it; in
other words, it allows the white man to remain always separate or outside.
Africa is thus reduced to a series of two-dimensional scenes that flash by
Marlows steamer as he travels upriver. The river also seems to want to
expel Europeans from Africa altogether: its current makes travel upriver
slow and difficult, but the flow of water makes travel downriver, back
toward civilization, rapid and seemingly inevitable. Marlows struggles
with the river as he travels upstream toward Kurtz reflect his struggles to
understand the situation in which he has found himself. The ease with
which he journeys back downstream, on the other hand, mirrors his
acquiescence to Kurtz and his choice of nightmares.
rather than to violate custom by leaving him and searching for a happier
life.
2.Gilbert Osmond
A cruel, narcissistic gentleman of no particular social standing or wealth,
who seduces Isabel and marries her for her money. An art collector,
Osmond poses as a disinterested aesthete, but in reality he is desperate
for the recognition and admiration of those around him. He treats
everyone who loves him as simply an object to be used to fulfill his
desires; he bases his daughter Pansy's upbringing on the idea that she
should be unswervingly subservient to him, and he even treats his longtime lover Madame Merle as a mere tool. Isabel's marriage to Osmond
forces her to confront the conflict between her desire for independence
and the painful social proprieties that force her to remain in her marriage.
3.Ralph Touchett
Isabel's wise, funny cousin, who is ill with lung disease throughout the
entire novel, which ends shortly after his death. Ralph loves life, but he is
kept from participating in it vigorously by his ailment; as a result, he acts
as a dedicated spectator, resolving to live vicariously through his beloved
cousin Isabel. It is Ralph who convinces Mr. Touchett to leave Isabel her
fortune, and it is Ralph who is the staunchest advocate of Isabel remaining
independent. Ralph serves as the moral center of Portrait of a Lady: his
opinions about other characters are always accurate, and he serves as a
kind of moral barometer for the reader, who can tell immediately whether
a character is good or evil by Ralph's response to that character.
Themes
those who care about her, Isabel falls prey to the more sophisticated
Europeans who manipulate her for their own purposes.
James does make a moral judgment about which culture produces better
people; he clearly portrays the Americans as having more integrity. But he
also shows that, taken as individuals, most Americans and Europeans alike
have both good and bad qualities. While Isabel is almost wholly admirable
and Gilbert is almost wholly despicable, the other characters are drawn in
shades of grey. Henrietta is an example of an American whom James
portrays less positively. Her American qualities are exaggerated so that
her directness is actually rudeness. Her lack of regard for society and
convention is so extreme that she offends as routinely as Isabel enchants.
Lord Warburton, on the other hand, exemplifies European qualities in their
most positive form. He is sophisticated and conventional, but he is also
courteous, sensitive, and gracious even in defeat. Ralph is also a positive
European character, a physically weak man who is nevertheless morally
strong.
2.Social and Emotional Maturation
Isabel's social and emotional development is thrown into high relief by
James's contrast of American and European natures. Yet Isabel's
experiences and the wisdom she gains from them are certainly not unique
to American women coming of age in European society. Isabel's naivet is
common among young women in all cultures, which is one reason why the
novel remains popular. It is almost a rule that young women make poor
romantic choices. In fact, they often make exactly the mistake that Isabel
makes: they choose a man who is charming and seductive, yet selfcentered, over one who is less worldly but more substantial and caring.
This oft-repeated error of youth has been the subject of many works of
literature. Perhaps the best-known is Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility,
which contrasts the naive Marianne and her wiser sister, Elinor.
In The Portrait of a Lady, James uses one theme, the contrasts between
Americans and Europeans, to intensify another, more universal theme of a
woman's development from naive youth to mature wisdom as she suffers
the consequences of a poor romantic choice.
The Realism of Henry James
Henry James has had a tremendous influence on the development of the
novel. Part of this influence has been through the type of realism that he
employs. On the other hand, the most frequent criticism against James
has been that he is not realistic enough. Many critics have objected that
James does not write about life, that his novels are filled with people
whom one would never meet in this world. One critic (H. L. Mencken)
suggested that James needed a good whiff of the Chicago stockyards so as
to get a little life into his novels. Others have suggested that James' world
is too narrow and incomplete to warrant classification as a realistic
depiction of life.
Actually, James' realism is of a special sort. By the early definitions, James
is not a realist. The early definitions stated that the novelist should
78
accurately depict life, and the novel should "hold up a mirror to life"; in
other words, the early realist was supposed to make an almost scientific
recording of life.
But James was not concerned with all aspects of life. There is nothing of
the ugly, the vulgar, the common, or the pornographic in James. He was
not concerned with poverty or with the middle class who had to struggle
for a living. Instead, he was interested in depicting a class of people who
could afford to devote themselves to the refinements of life.
What then is James special brand of realism? When we refer to James'
realism, we mean James' fidelity to his own material. To best appreciate
his novels and his realism, we must enter into James' special world. It is as
though we ascended a ladder and arrived at another world. Once we have
arrived at this special world and once we accept it, then we see that
James is very realistic. That is, in terms of his world, he never violates his
character's essence. Thus, James' realism, in the truest sense, means
being faithful to his characters. In other words, characters from other
novels often do things or commit acts that don't seem to blend in with
their essential nature. But the acts of the Jamesian character are always
understandable in terms of that character's true nature.
James explained his own realism in terms of its opposition to romanticism.
For James the realistic represents those things which, sooner or later, in
one way or another, everyone will encounter. But the romantic stands for
those things which, with all the efforts and all the wealth and facilities of
the world, we can never know directly. Thus, it is conceivable that one can
experience the same things that the characters are experiencing in a
James novel; but one can never actually encounter the events narrated in
the romantic novel.
When James, therefore, creates a certain type of character early in the
novel, this character will act in a consistent manner throughout the entire
book. This is being realistic. The character will never do anything that is
not logical and acceptable to his realistic nature, or to our conception of
what that character should do.
In later years, James, in writing about realism, maintained that he was
more interested in a faithful rendition of a character in any given situation
than in depicting all aspects of life. Therefore, when he has once drawn
Isabel Archer's character in one situation, the reader can anticipate how
she will act in any other given situation. Her actions are not
unexplainable. We are able to logically understand all of her actions. Thus
James' realism would never allow the characters to perform actions which
would be inconsistent with their true natures.
just as they lead Mrs. Moore, to question the standard behaviors of the
English toward the Indians. Adelas tendency to question standard
practices with frankness makes her resistant to being labeledand
therefore resistant to marrying Ronny and being labeled a typical colonial
English wife. Both Mrs. Moore and Adela hope to see the real India
rather than an arranged tourist version. However, whereas Mrs. Moores
desire is bolstered by a genuine interest in and affection for Indians, Adela
appears to want to see the real India simply on intellectual grounds. She
puts her mind to the task, but not her heartand therefore never
connects with Indians.
4.Mrs. Moore
As a character, Mrs. Moore serves a double function in A Passage to
India,operating on two different planes. She is initially a literal character,
but as the novel progresses she becomes more a symbolic presence. On
the literal level, Mrs. Moore is a good-hearted, religious, elderly woman
with mystical leanings. The initial days of her visit to India are successful,
as she connects with India and Indians on an intuitive level. Whereas
Adela is overly cerebral, Mrs. Moore relies successfully on her heart to
make connections during her visit. Furthermore, on the literal level, Mrs.
Moores character has human limitations: her experience at Marabar
renders her apathetic and even somewhat mean, to the degree that she
simply leaves India without bothering to testify to Azizs innocence or to
oversee Ronny and Adelas wedding.
After her departure, however, Mrs. Moore exists largely on a symbolic
level. Though she herself has human flaws, she comes to symbolize an
ideally spiritual and race-blind openness that Forster sees as a solution to
the problems in India. Mrs. Moores name becomes closely associated with
Hinduism, especially the Hindu tenet of the oneness and unity of all living
things. This symbolic side to Mrs. Moore might even make her the heroine
of the novel, the only English person able to closely connect with the
Hindu vision of unity. Nonetheless, Mrs. Moores literal actionsher
sudden abandonment of Indiamake her less than heroic.
Themes
1.The difficulty of English Indian friendship
A Passage to India begins and ends by posing the question of whether it is
possible for an Englishman and an Indian to ever be friends, at least within
the context of British colonialism. Forster uses this question as a
framework to explore the general issue of Britains political control of India
on a more personal level, through the friendship between Aziz and
Fielding. At the beginning of the novel, Aziz is scornful of the English,
wishing only to consider them comically or ignore them completely. Yet
the intuitive connection Aziz feels with Mrs. Moore in the mosque opens
him to the possibility of friendship with Fielding. Through the first half of
the novel, Fielding and Aziz represent a positive model of liberal
humanism: Forster suggests that British rule in India could be successful
and respectful if only English and Indians treated each other as Fielding
82
and Aziz treat each otheras worthy individuals who connect through
frankness, intelligence, and good will.
Yet in the aftermath of the novels climaxAdelas accusation that Aziz
attempted to assault her and her subsequent disavowal of this accusation
at the trialAziz and Fieldings friendship falls apart. The strains on their
relationship are external in nature, as Aziz and Fielding both suffer from
the tendencies of their cultures. Aziz tends to let his imagination run away
with him and to let suspicion harden into a grudge. Fielding suffers from
an English literalism and rationalism that blind him to Azizs true feelings
and make Fielding too stilted to reach out to Aziz through conversations or
letters. Furthermore, their respective Indian and English communities pull
them apart through their mutual stereotyping. As we see at the end of the
novel, even the landscape of India seems to oppress their friendship.
Forsters final vision of the possibility of English-Indian friendship is a
pessimistic one, yet it is qualified by the possibility of friendship on
English soil, or after the liberation of India. As the landscape itself seems
to imply at the end of the novel, such a friendship may be possible
eventually, but not yet.
2.The Unity of All Living Things
Though the main characters of A Passage to India are generally Christian
or Muslim, Hinduism also plays a large thematic role in the novel. The
aspect of Hinduism with which Forster is particularly concerned is the
religions ideal of all living things, from the lowliest to the highest, united
in love as one. This vision of the universe appears to offer redemption to
India through mysticism, as individual differences disappear into a
peaceful collectivity that does not recognize hierarchies. Individual blame
and intrigue is forgone in favor of attention to higher, spiritual matters.
Professor Godbole, the most visible Hindu in the novel, is Forsters
mouthpiece for this idea of the unity of all living things. Godbole alone
remains aloof from the drama of the plot, refraining from taking sides by
recognizing that all are implicated in the evil of Marabar. Mrs. Moore, also,
shows openness to this aspect of Hinduism. Though she is a Christian, her
experience of India has made her dissatisfied with what she perceives as
the smallness of Christianity. Mrs. Moore appears to feel a great sense of
connection with all living creatures, as evidenced by her respect for the
wasp in her bedroom.
Yet, through Mrs. Moore, Forster also shows that the vision of the oneness
of all living things can be terrifying. As we see in Mrs. Moores experience
with the echo that negates everything into boum in Marabar, such
oneness provides unity but also makes all elements of the universe one
and the samea realization that, it is implied, ultimately kills Mrs. Moore.
3.The Muddle of India
Forster takes great care to strike a distinction between the ideas of
muddle and mystery in A Passage to India. Muddle has connotations
of dangerous and disorienting disorder, whereas mystery suggests a
mystical, orderly plan by a spiritual force that is greater than man.
83
interiors blend into exterior gardens, earth and buildings compete with
each other, and structures appear unfinished or drab. As such, Indian
architecture mirrors the muddle of India itself and what Forster sees as the
Indians characteristic inattention to form and logic. Occasionally,
however, Forster takes a positive view of Indian architecture. The mosque
in Part I and temple in Part III represent the promise of Indian openness,
mysticism, and friendship. Western architecture, meanwhile, is described
during Fieldings stop in Venice on his way to England. Venices structures,
which Fielding sees as representative of Western architecture in general,
honor form and proportion and complement the earth on which they are
built. Fielding reads in this architecture the self-evident correctness of
Western reasonan order that, he laments, his Indian friends would not
recognize or appreciate.
3.Godboles Song
At the end of Fieldings tea party, Godbole sings for the English visitors a
Hindu song, in which a milkmaid pleads for God to come to her or to her
people. The songs refrain of Come! come recurs throughout A Passage
to India, mirroring the appeal for the entire country of salvation from
something greater than itself. After the song, Godbole admits that God
never comes to the milkmaid. The song greatly disheartens Mrs. Moore,
setting the stage for her later spiritual apathy, her simultaneous
awareness of a spiritual presence and lack of confidence in spiritualism as
a redeeming force. Godbole seemingly intends his song as a message or
lesson that recognition of the potential existence of a God figure can bring
the world together and erode differencesafter all, Godbole himself sings
the part of a young milkmaid. Forster uses the refrain of Godboles song,
Come! come, to suggest that Indias redemption is yet to come.
Symbols
1.The Marabar Caves
The Marabar Caves represent all that is alien about nature. The caves are
older than anything else on the earth and embody nothingness and
emptinessa literal void in the earth. They defy both English and Indians
to act as guides to them, and their strange beauty and menace unsettles
visitors. The caves alien quality also has the power to make visitors such
as Mrs. Moore and Adela confront parts of themselves or the universe that
they have not previously recognized. The all-reducing echo of the caves
causes Mrs. Moore to see the darker side of her spiritualitya waning
commitment to the world of relationships and a growing ambivalence
about God. Adela confronts the shame and embarrassment of her
realization that she and Ronny are not actually attracted to each other,
and that she might be attracted to no one. In this sense, the caves both
destroy meaning, in reducing all utterances to the same sound, and
expose or narrate the unspeakable, the aspects of the universe that the
caves visitors have not yet considered.
2.The Green Bird
85
Just after Adela and Ronny agree for the first time, in Chapter VII, to break
off their engagement, they notice a green bird sitting in the tree above
them. Neither of them can positively identify the bird. For Adela, the bird
symbolizes the unidentifiable quality of all of India: just when she thinks
she can understand any aspect of India, that aspect changes or
disappears. In this sense, the green bird symbolizes the muddle of India.
In another capacity, the bird points to a different tension between the
English and Indians. The English are obsessed with knowledge, literalness,
and naming, and they use these tools as a means of gaining and
maintaining power. The Indians, in contrast, are more attentive to nuance,
undertone, and the emotions behind words. While the English insist on
labeling things, the Indians recognize that labels can blind one to
important details and differences. The unidentifiable green bird suggests
the incompatibility of the English obsession with classification and order
with the shifting quality of India itselfthe land is, in fact, a hundred
Indias that defy labeling and understanding.
3.The Wasp
The wasp appears several times in A Passage to India, usually in
conjunction with the Hindu vision of the oneness of all living things. The
wasp is usually depicted as the lowest creature the Hindus incorporate
into their vision of universal unity. Mrs. Moore is closely associated with
the wasp, as she finds one in her room and is gently appreciative of it. Her
peaceful regard for the wasp signifies her own openness to the Hindu idea
of collectivity, and to the mysticism and indefinable quality of India in
general. However, as the wasp is the lowest creature that the Hindus
visualize, it also represents the limits of the Hindu vision. The vision is not
a panacea, but merely a possibility for unity and understanding in India.
tensions in his life during his formative years. In the last chapter of the
novel, we also learn that genius, though in many ways a calling, also
requires great work and considerable sacrifice. Watching Stephen's daily
struggle to puzzle out his aesthetic philosophy, we get a sense of the
great task that awaits him.
2.The pitfalls of religious extremism
Brought up in a devout Catholic family, Stephen initially ascribes to an
absolute belief in the morals of the church. As a teenager, this belief leads
him to two opposite extremes, both of which are harmful. At first, he falls
into the extreme of sin, repeatedly sleeping with prostitutes and
deliberately turning his back on religion. Though Stephen sins willfully, he
is always aware that he acts in violation of the church's rules. Then, when
Father Arnall's speech prompts him to return to Catholicism, he bounces to
the other extreme, becoming a perfect, near fanatical model of religious
devotion and obedience. Eventually, however, Stephen realizes that both
of these lifestylesthe completely sinful and the completely devoutare
extremes that have been false and harmful. He does not want to lead a
completely debauched life, but also rejects austere Catholicism because
he feels that it does not permit him the full experience of being human.
Stephen ultimately reaches a decision to embrace life and celebrate
humanity after seeing a young girl wading at a beach. To him, the girl is a
symbol of pure goodness and of life lived to the fullest.
3.The role of the artist
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man explores what it means to become
an artist. Stephen's decision at the end of the novelto leave his family
and friends behind and go into exile in order to become an artist
suggests that Joyce sees the artist as a necessarily isolated figure. In his
decision, Stephen turns his back on his community, refusing to accept the
constraints of political involvement, religious devotion, and family
commitment that the community places on its members.
However, though the artist is an isolated figure, Stephen's ultimate goal is
to give a voice to the very community that he is leaving. In the last few
lines of the novel, Stephen expresses his desire to "forge in the smithy of
my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." He recognizes that his
community will always be a part of him, as it has created and shaped his
identity. When he creatively expresses his own ideas, he will also convey
the voice of his entire community. Even as Stephen turns his back on the
traditional forms of participation and membership in a community, he
envisions his writing as a service to the community.
4.The need for Irish autonomy
Despite his desire to steer clear of politics, Stephen constantly ponders
Ireland's place in the world. He concludes that the Irish have always been
a subservient people, allowing outsiders to control them. In his
conversation with the dean of studies at the university, he realizes that
even the language of the Irish people really belongs to the English.
Stephen's perception of Ireland's subservience has two effects on his
89
reader of the books in her fathers extensive library. Tragedy first afflicted
the family when Woolfs mother died in 1895, then hit again two years
later, when her half-sister, Stella, the caregiver in the Stephen family,
died. Woolf experienced her first bout of mental illness after her mothers
death, and she suffered from mania and severe depression for the rest of
her life.
The Bloomsbury group, as Woolf and her friends came to be called,
disregarded the constricting taboos of the Victorian era, and such topics
as religion, sex, and art fueled the talk at their weekly salons. They even
discussed homosexuality, a subject that shocked many of the groups
contemporaries. For Woolf, the group served as the undergraduate
education that society had denied her.
Before World War I, Woolf viewed the realistic Victorian novel, with its
neat and linear plots, as an inadequate form of expression. Her opinion
intensified after the war, and in the 1920s she began searching for the
form that would reflect the violent contrasts and disjointed impressions of
the world around her.
In Mrs. Dalloway, published in 1925, Woolf discovered a new literary form
capable of expressing the new realities of postwar England. The novel
depicts the subjective experiences and memories of its central characters
over a single day in postWorld War I London. Divided into parts, rather
than chapters, the novel's structure highlights the finely interwoven
texture of the characters' thoughts. This book, which focuses on
commonplace tasks, such as shopping, throwing a party, and eating dinner,
showed that no act was too small or too ordinary for a writers attention.
Ultimately, Mrs. Dalloway transformed the novel as an art form.
Labour Party, with its plans for economic reform, was beginning to
challenge the Conservative Party, with its emphasis on imperial business
interests. Women, who had flooded the workforce to replace the men who
had gone to war, were demanding equal rights.
Although Mrs. Dalloway portrays the shifting political atmosphere through
the characters Peter Walsh, Richard Dalloway, and Hugh Whitbread, it
focuses more deeply on the charged social mood through the characters
Septimus Warren Smith and Clarissa Dalloway. Woolf delves into the
consciousness of Clarissa, a woman who exists largely in the domestic
sphere, to ensure that readers take her character seriously, rather than
simply dismiss her as a vain and uneducated upper-class wife. In spite of
her heroic and imperfect effort in life, Clarissa, like every human being
and even the old social order itself, must face death.
Woolfs struggles with mental illness gave her an opportunity to witness
firsthand how insensitive medical professionals could be, and she critiques
their tactlessness in Mrs. Dalloway. One of Woolfs doctors suggested that
plenty of rest and rich food would lead to a full recovery, a cure prescribed
in the novel, and another removed several of her teeth. In the early
twentieth century, mental health problems were too often considered
imaginary, an embarrassment, or the product of moral weakness. During
one bout of illness, Woolf heard birds sing like Greek choruses and King
Edward use foul language among some azaleas.
Analysis of major characters
1.Clarissa Dalloway
Clarissa Dalloway, the heroine of the novel, struggles constantly to
balance her internal life with the external world. Her world consists of
glittering surfaces, such as fine fashion, parties, and high society, but as
she moves through that world she probes beneath those surfaces in
search of deeper meaning. Yearning for privacy, Clarissa has a tendency
toward introspection that gives her a profound capacity for emotion, which
many other characters lack. However, she is always concerned with
appearances and keeps herself tightly composed, seldom sharing her
feelings with anyone. Constantly overlaying the past and the present,
Clarissa strives to reconcile herself to life despite her potent memories.
2.Septimus Warren Smith
Septimus, a veteran of World War I, suffers from shell shock and is lost
within his own mind. He feels guilty even as he despises himself for being
made numb by the war. His doctor has ordered Lucrezia, Septimuss wife,
to make Septimus notice things outside himself, but Septimus has
removed himself from the physical world. Instead, he lives in an internal
world, wherein he sees and hears things that arent really there and he
talks to his dead friend Evans. He is sometimes overcome with the beauty
in the world, but he also fears that the people in it have no capacity for
honesty or kindness. Woolf intended for Clarissa to speak the sane truth
and Septimus the insane truth.
93
the themes, structure, and characters of this novel that Woolf almost
named her book The Hours.
2.Shakespeare
The many appearances of Shakespeare specifically and poetry in general
suggest hopefulness, the possibility of finding comfort in art, and the
survival of the soul in Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa quotes Shakespeares plays
many times throughout the day. When she shops for flowers at the
beginning of the novel, she reads a few lines from a Shakespeare
play, Cymbeline, in a book displayed in a shop window. The lines come
from a funeral hymn in the play that suggests death should be embraced
as a release from the constraints of life. Traditional English society
promotes a suppression of visible emotion, and since Shakespeare and
poetry promote a discussion of feeling and emotion, they belong to
sensitive people like Clarissa, who are in many ways antiestablishment.
3.Trees and flowers
Tree and flower images abound in Mrs. Dalloway. The color, variety, and
beauty of flowers suggest feeling and emotion, and those characters who
are comfortable with flowers, such as Clarissa, have distinctly different
personalities than those characters who are not, such as Richard and Lady
Bruton. Trees, with their extensive root systems, suggest the vast reach of
the human soul, and Clarissa and Septimus, who both struggle to protect
their souls, revere them. Clarissa believes souls survive in trees after
death, and Septimus, who has turned his back on patriarchal society, feels
that cutting down a tree is the equivalent of committing murder.
4.Waves and water
Waves and water regularly wash over events and thoughts in Mrs.
Dalloway and nearly always suggest the possibility of extinction or death.
The narrative structure of the novel itself also suggests fluidity. One
characters thoughts appear, intensify, then fade into anothers, much like
waves that collect then fall.
Traditional English society itself is a kind of tide, pulling under those
people not strong enough to stand on their own.
Symbols
1.The Prime Minister
The prime minister in Mrs. Dalloway embodies Englands old values and
hierarchical social system, which are in decline. The prime minister is a
figure from the old establishment, which Clarissa and Septimus are
struggling against. Mrs. Dalloway takes place after World War I, a time
when the English looked desperately for meaning in the old symbols but
found the symbols hollow.
2.Peter Walshs pocketknife and other weapons
Peter Walsh plays constantly with his pocketknife, and the opening,
closing, and fiddling with the knife suggest his flightiness and inability to
96
POSTMODERNISM
THE CONTEMPORARY AGE
BRITAIN 1950 THE PRESENT
Representative writers:
English writers:
William Golding Lord of the flies
J. Fowles
American writers:
K. Vonnegut
Th. Pynchon
Characteristics:
The second half of the 20th century was largely a period of peaceful
prosperity. Despite fractious political and industrial disputes and a
diminished role as a world power, the United Kingdom faced the
challenges of post-industrialism and globalization with the same spirit of
pragmatism that had seen it through earlier periods of historic change.
Literature:
farmer, this serves to leave her in the limbo world of being fit for the role
of only governess or companion. The society she is born into effectively
marginalizes her twice: for being a woman and for being born into the
working
classes.
Convention
The French Lieutenants Woman uses an overtly twentieth-century
perspective to critique this representation of Victorian England where duty
and conformity take precedence over kindness and honesty.
The belief that one should adhere to convention is put into question by the
hypocrisy of many of the main characters. Apart from Sarah, who is
depicted as attempting to live by her own codes of behavior rather than
societys, others, such as Charles, Mrs Poulteney and Ernestina, are more
concerned about how they appear to the outside world than in acting on
their desires. The sense of duty, which in some measure is shown to be
admirable, has become twisted as duty becomes more valued than the
Christian ethos that informs it.
Loss of faith in authority
As though to undermine the strong thematic concern that exposes the
adherence to conformity in this described society, there is a parallel
theme that questions authority. This is brought about in a range of small
ways, from Sam disobeying his employer Charles, to the depiction of
Charless growing interest in Darwinism. The preference for evolutionary
theories over creationism implies a questioning of the authority of the
Bible. Sarahs decision to be an outcast, rather than another governess
who knows her place, also exemplifies this challenge to dominant thinking
as does the insertion of the author in what appeared to be a realist text.
PERSPECTIVES AND SENSIBILITIES
Although the novel is firmly set in the mid-Victorian period, it also contains
20th century sensibilities and perspectives. We can see the characters
both as Victorians in their attitudes and behaviour, and also as people who
occasionally glimpse a different perspective/time which gives them hope.
This applies especially to Sarah, who "sees through" people with a very un
Victorian directness, and to Charles who dimly perceives the shape of
things to come as he speaks to Freeman and when he is in America. In
FLW the characters are more important than the plot - a twentieth century
literary device which enables us to understand events much more
because we see the characters interior motives and thoughts unfolded as
the novel progresses. Plot would have been the Victorian priority; the
characters secondary to the narrative. Fowles blends plot and
characterisation with a neat combination of Victorian and modern literary
style.
The plot is rather cleverly stereotyped in Victorian fashion - romance,
intrigue, misunderstanding, deceit, forbidden love, carnal desire, betrayal
and a classic "triangle" between two women attracted to the same man.
101
There are also villains, in the shapes of Mrs Poulteney and Mrs Fairley;
rogues like the scheming widow Mrs Tomkins and a brace of lower class
observers Sam and Mary, to comment and make mischief.
Sarah Woodruff - a poor, innocent (yes, she is) harshly treated woman,
spurned by those who are better off socially, if not morally and Charles,
the gentleman compromised by his chivalry are the "main" characters, but
we must not forget Tina (Ernestina - should she have been Ernest?) who is
wealthy and pampered. Does she really love Charles - or just the idea of
his position - his country house - her own status as the wife of a
gentleman, not the daughter of a tradesman? Should we pity her or
despise her? Is she a victim as the others are victims?
Conventionally the novel seldom proceeds as we would expect it to.
Charles is at first the pursuer and Sarah the pursued, but at the lowest
ebb of his fortunes he is entrapped by the pursued - Sarah, and once
compromised - deserted. The conventional ending is abandoned and
Fowles takes us on through a dislocated time structure to two different,
more twentieth century, outcomes. The seduction and consequent events
are described in vivid, very un Victorian detail and we are given the choice
of two alternative conclusions to the action (neither are "endings") - one
Victorian, the other more "modern".
One of the most impressive aspects of the novel is Fowles ability to shift
the characters and the reader back and forth between centuries. The
present impinges on the past and vice versa throughout the story. This
creates in us the "angst" of experiencing with Charles and Sarah the
agonies of their decisions and choices, for we are never allowed to
become detached from the events we see unfolding. Fowles himself at
times appears and forces us, with him to participate in the action, inviting
us to comment - to observe - to judge and to reflect on what happens.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
Again, Fowles cleverly uses a number of different "voices" throughout the
novel. There are several narrative presences and the identity of the storyteller is always ambiguous. He appears (it is tempting to think of him as a
male, isn't it?) as a raconteur, an observer, and a "god" figure (or maybe a
devil?). Sometimes he is the author, dropping into a familiar style and
inviting us to share his creative illusory process, using the "I" pronoun.
The novel begins "in media res" (in the middle of things); and events are
unfolded in retrospect as we go along. This can be confusing, but is also a
technique which serves to increase the suspense and tension. Fowles
keeps his reader guessing, as he himself is guessing, or so he tells us.
Time is played with - events are shown as though in sequence, when in
fact they are happening at the same time, in parallel; sometimes events
which have already happened are not revealed until later on. Most
strikingly, though, we are deliberately told by Fowles that he has
"cheated" by creating three different endings and he even appears in an
enigmatic disguise as an anonymous bearded character to turn back his
watch and give us the last, existential ending.
102
THE EPIGRAPHS
Each chapter has at least one epigraph, taken mainly, though not
exclusively, from Victorian literature (both fiction and non-fiction). The
purpose of an epigraph is to set the tone for the chapter which follows.
Many of them are from the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and there are
also examples from Thomas Hardy, Matthew Arnold, Charles Darwin,
Charles Lyell, E. Royston Pike (1967) and the poet, Clough. He also alludes
to Dickens, Eliot (George), Thackeray and Jane Austen.
STYLE
The novel is written in a familiar style as though the narrator is conversing
with the reader. It contains a mixture of straightforward prose narrative
and dialogue and the dialogue does capture the tone of the Victorian
period.
The imagery is vivid and taken from nature, persistently including animals
and birds - preying and preyed upon. Mrs Poulteney is described as a
"bulldog" , a "plump vulture" with an "eagle eye", and Mrs Fairley as a
"weasel". Charles, visiting mrs P. is described as a "plump mouse dropping
between the claws of a hungry cat".
Throughout the novel we have allusions to judgement, punishment,
suffering and retribution.
On a more sensuous note, flower and plant imagery is included to
emphasise the gentler settings associated with Sarah, especially on the
common, where the two lovers further their doomed acquaintance. In fact
Ware Commons is a kind of Garden of Eden, embodying the twin
connotations of innocence and sin.
Parallel to the themes of nature we find colour strongly used, especially
with reference to Sarah. She buys a brilliant green shawl, for the seduction
scene, which contrasts with her red (Pre-Raphaelite) hair. When Charles
meets her in the Rosetti house she is wearing red and blue and is
flaunting bravely the colours of the "new" woman. This contrasts most
sharply with the black which is her common costume throughout her time
of ostracism in Lyme.
SEXUAL REPRESSION
The novel is described as a definitive study of the sexual repression of the
Victorian age. There is a strong sexual/sensual element in the story and
the characters react as they do largely because of the sexual mores of the
time. It is interesting to speculate as to how much Fowles exaggerates the
reactions and attitudes of his main characters. I suspect that he is in fact
quite accurate, as we know that he researched the period quite
exhaustively.
Women of the middle and upper classes were sexually ignorant before
marriage - some indeed remained so afterwards, except for the processes
of childbirth, which can hardly be ignored! It was certainly not seemly for
a female to invite sexual activity, or intercourse either before, or, one
103
taught that the human mind was the site of a constant battle among
different impulsesthe id (instinctual needs and desires), the ego (the
conscious, rational mind), and the superego (the sense of conscience and
morality). Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a
criticism of the political and social institutions of the West. Ultimately,
there is some validity to each of these different readings and
interpretations of Lord of the Flies.
the antithesis of Ralph. From the beginning of the novel, Jack desires
power above all other things. He is furious when he loses the election to
Ralph and continually pushes the boundaries of his subordinate role in the
group. Early on, Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behavior
that society instilled in himin fact, in school, he was the leader of the
choirboys. The first time he encounters a pig, he is unable to kill it. But
Jack soon becomes obsessed with hunting and devotes himself to the
task, painting his face like a barbarian and giving himself over to
bloodlust. The more savage Jack becomes, the more he is able to control
the rest of the group. Indeed, apart from Ralph, Simon, and Piggy, the
group largely follows Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing
violence and savagery. Jacks love of authority and violence are intimately
connected, as both enable him to feel powerful and exalted. By the end of
the novel, Jack has learned to use the boys fear of the beast to control
their behaviora reminder of how religion and superstition can be
manipulated as instruments of power.
3.Simon
Whereas Ralph and Jack stand at opposite ends of the spectrum between
civilization and savagery, Simon stands on an entirely different plane from
all the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human
goodness that is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as
primal as Jacks evil. The other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as
civilization is no longer there to impose it upon them. They are
not innately moral; rather, the adult worldthe threat of punishment for
misdeedshas conditioned them to act morally. To an extent, even the
seemingly civilized Ralph and Piggy are products of social conditioning, as
we see when they participate in the hunt-dance. In Goldings view, the
human impulse toward civilization is not as deeply rooted as the human
impulse toward savagery. Unlike all the other boys on the island, Simon
acts morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believes in the
inherent value of morality. He behaves kindly toward the younger children,
and he is the first to realize the problem posed by the beast and the Lord
of the Fliesthat is, that the monster on the island is not a real, physical
beast but rather a savagery that lurks within each human being. The
sows head on the stake symbolizes this idea, as we see in Simons vision
of the head speaking to him. Ultimately, this idea of the inherent evil
within each human being stands as the moral conclusion and central
problem of the novel. Against this idea of evil, Simon represents a
contrary idea of essential human goodness. However, his brutal murder at
the hands of the other boys indicates the scarcity of that good amid an
overwhelming abundance of evil.
Themes
1.Civilization vs savagery
The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two
competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live
by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of
the group against the instinct to gratify ones immediate desires, act
107
violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce ones will. This
conflict might be expressed in a number of ways: civilization vs. savagery,
order vs. chaos, reason vs. impulse, law vs. anarchy, or the broader
heading of good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, Golding associates the
instinct of civilization with good and the instinct of savagery with evil.
The conflict between the two instincts is the driving force of the novel,
explored through the dissolution of the young English boys civilized,
moral, disciplined behavior as they accustom themselves to a wild, brutal,
barbaric life in the jungle.Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which
means that Golding conveys many of his main ideas and themes through
symbolic characters and objects. He represents the conflict between
civilization and savagery in the conflict between the novels two main
characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who represents order and leadership;
and Jack, the antagonist, who represents savagery and the desire for
power.
As the novel progresses, Golding shows how different people feel the
influences of the instincts of civilization and savagery to different degrees.
Piggy, for instance, has no savage feelings, while Roger seems barely
capable of comprehending the rules of civilization. Generally, however,
Golding implies that the instinct of savagery is far more primal and
fundamental to the human psyche than the instinct of civilization. Golding
sees moral behavior, in many cases, as something that civilization forces
upon the individual rather than a natural expression of human
individuality. When left to their own devices, Golding implies, people
naturally revert to cruelty, savagery, and barbarism. This idea of innate
human evil is central to Lord of the Flies, and finds expression in several
important symbols, most notably the beast and the sows head on the
stake. Among all the characters, only Simon seems to possess anything
like a natural, innate goodness.
2.Loss of Innocence
As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children
longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to
return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they
possessed at the beginning of the novel. The painted savages in Chapter
12 who have hunted, tortured, and killed animals and human beings are a
far cry from the guileless children swimming in the lagoon in Chapter 3.
But Golding does not portray this loss of innocence as something that is
done to the children; rather, it results naturally from their increasing
openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always existed within
them. Golding implies that civilization can mitigate but never wipe out the
innate evil that exists within all human beings. The forest glade in which
Simon sits in Chapter 3 symbolizes this loss of innocence. At first, it is a
place of natural beauty and peace, but when Simon returns later in the
novel, he discovers the bloody sows head impaled upon a stake in the
middle of the clearing. The bloody offering to the beast has disrupted the
paradise that existed beforea powerful symbol of innate human evil
disrupting childhood innocence.
108
Motifs
1.Biblical Parallels
Many critics have characterized Lord of the Flies as a retelling of episodes
from the Bible. While that description may be an oversimplification, the
novel does echo certain Christian images and themes. Golding does not
make any explicit or direct connections to Christian symbolism in Lord of
the Flies; instead, these biblical parallels function as a kind of subtle motif
in the novel, adding thematic resonance to the main ideas of the story.
The island itself, particularly Simons glade in the forest, recalls the
Garden of Eden in its status as an originally pristine place that is corrupted
by the introduction of evil. Similarly, we may see the Lord of the Flies as a
representation of the devil, for it works to promote evil among humankind.
Furthermore, many critics have drawn strong parallels between Simon and
Jesus. Among the boys, Simon is the one who arrives at the moral truth of
the novel, and the other boys kill him sacrificially as a consequence of
having discovered this truth. Simons conversation with the Lord of the
Flies also parallels the confrontation between Jesus and the devil during
Jesus forty days in the wilderness, as told in the Christian Gospels.
However, it is important to remember that the parallels between Simon
and Christ are not complete, and that there are limits to reading Lord of
the Flies purely as a Christian allegory. Save for Simons two uncanny
predictions of the future, he lacks the supernatural connection to God that
Jesus has in Christian tradition. Although Simon is wise in many ways, his
death does not bring salvation to the island; rather, his death plunges the
island deeper into savagery and moral guilt. Moreover, Simon dies before
he is able to tell the boys the truth he has discovered. Jesus, in contrast,
was killed while spreading his moral philosophy. In this way, Simon
and Lord of the Flies as a wholeechoes Christian ideas and themes
without developing explicit, precise parallels with them. The novels
biblical parallels enhance its moral themes but are not necessarily the
primary key to interpreting the story.
Symbols
1.The Conch Shell
Ralph and Piggy discover the conch shell on the beach at the start of the
novel and use it to summon the boys together after the crash separates
them. Used in this capacity, the conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of
civilization and order in the novel. The shell effectively governs the boys
meetings, for the boy who holds the shell holds the right to speak. In this
regard, the shell is more than a symbolit is an actual vessel of political
legitimacy and democratic power. As the island civilization erodes and the
boys descend into savagery, the conch shell loses its power and influence
among them. Ralph clutches the shell desperately when he talks about his
role in murdering Simon. Later, the other boys ignore Ralph and throw
stones at him when he attempts to blow the conch in Jacks camp. The
boulder that Roger rolls onto Piggy also crushes the conch shell, signifying
109
the demise of the civilized instinct among almost all the boys on the
island.
2.Piggys Glasses
Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses
represent the power of science and intellectual endeavor in society. This
symbolic significance is clear from the start of the novel, when the boys
use the lenses from Piggys glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire.
When Jacks hunters raid Ralphs camp and steal the glasses, the savages
effectively take the power to make fire, leaving Ralphs group helpless.
3.The Signal Fire
The signal fire burns on the mountain, and later on the beach, to attract
the notice of passing ships that might be able to rescue the boys. As a
result, the signal fire becomes a barometer of the boys connection to
civilization. In the early parts of the novel, the fact that the boys maintain
the fire is a sign that they want to be rescued and return to society. When
the fire burns low or goes out, we realize that the boys have lost sight of
their desire to be rescued and have accepted their savage lives on the
island. The signal fire thus functions as a kind of measurement of the
strength of the civilized instinct remaining on the island. Ironically, at the
end of the novel, a fire finally summons a ship to the island, but not the
signal fire. Instead, it is the fire of savagerythe forest fire Jacks gang
starts as part of his quest to hunt and kill Ralph.
4.The Beast
The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the primal
instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings. The boys are
afraid of the beast, but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear
the beast because it exists within each of them. As the boys grow more
savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel,
the boys are leaving it sacrifices and treating it as a totemic god. The
boys behavior is what brings the beast into existence, so the more
savagely the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become.
5.The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Flies is the bloody, severed sows head that Jack impales
on a stake in the forest glade as an offering to the beast. This complicated
symbol becomes the most important image in the novel when Simon
confronts the sows head in the glade and it seems to speak to him, telling
him that evil lies within every human heart and promising to have some
fun with him. (This fun foreshadows Simons death in the following
chapter.) In this way, the Lord of the Flies becomes both a physical
manifestation of the beast, a symbol of the power of evil, and a kind of
Satan figure who evokes the beast within each human being. Looking at
the novel in the context of biblical parallels, the Lord of the Flies recalls
the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. In fact, the name Lord of the Flies
110
2.Roger Chillingworth
As his name suggests, Roger Chillingworth is a man deficient in human
warmth. His twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders mirror his distorted
soul. From what the reader is told of his early years with Hester, he was a
difficult husband. He ignored his wife for much of the time, yet expected
her to nourish his soul with affection when he did condescend to spend
time with her. Chillingworths decision to assume the identity of a leech,
or doctor, is fitting. Unable to engage in equitable relationships with those
around him, he feeds on the vitality of others as a way of energizing his
own projects. Chillingworths death is a result of the nature of his
character. After Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth no longer has a victim.
Similarly, Dimmesdales revelation that he is Pearls father removes
Hester from the old mans clutches. Having lost the objects of his revenge,
the leech has no choice but to die.
Ultimately, Chillingworth represents true evil. He is associated with
secular and sometimes illicit forms of knowledge, as his chemical
experiments and medical practices occasionally verge on witchcraft and
murder. He is interested in revenge, not justice, and he seeks the
deliberate destruction of others rather than a redress of wrongs. His desire
to hurt others stands in contrast to Hester and Dimmesdales sin, which
had love, not hate, as its intent. Any harm that may have come from the
young lovers deed was unanticipated and inadvertent, whereas
Chillingworth reaps deliberate harm.
3.Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale, like Hester Prynne, is an individual whose identity
owes more to external circumstances than to his innate nature. The reader
is told that Dimmesdale was a scholar of some renown at Oxford
University. His past suggests that he is probably somewhat aloof, the kind
of man who would not have much natural sympathy for ordinary men and
women. However, Dimmesdale has an unusually active conscience. The
fact that Hester takes all of the blame for their shared sin goads his
conscience, and his resultant mental anguish and physical weakness open
up his mind and allow him to empathize with others. Consequently, he
becomes an eloquent and emotionally powerful speaker and a
compassionate leader, and his congregation is able to receive meaningful
spiritual guidance from him.
Ironically, the townspeople do not believe Dimmesdales protestations of
sinfulness. Given his background and his penchant for rhetorical speech,
Dimmesdales congregation generally interprets his sermons allegorically
rather than as expressions of any personal guilt. This drives Dimmesdale
to further internalize his guilt and self-punishment and leads to still more
deterioration in his physical and spiritual condition. The towns idolization
of him reaches new heights after his Election Day sermon, which is his
last. In his death, Dimmesdale becomes even more of an icon than he was
114
in life. Many believe his confession was a symbolic act, while others
believe Dimmesdales fate was an example of divine judgment.
4.Pearl
Hesters daughter, Pearl, functions primarily as a symbol. She is quite
young during most of the events of this novelwhen Dimmesdale dies
she is only seven years oldand 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 mothers scarlet 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 questions about its meaning. Similarly, she inquires about the
relationships between those around hermost important, the relationship
between Hester and Dimmesdaleand offers perceptive critiques of them.
Pearl provides the texts harshest, and most penetrating, judgment of
Dimmesdales 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
otherworldliness and her preternatural vision.
Themes
1.Sin, knowledge and the human condition
Sin and knowledge are linked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible
begins with the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the
Garden of Eden for eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As
a result of their knowledge, Adam and Eve are made aware of their
humanness, that which separates them from the divine and from other
creatures. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil
and to procreatetwo labors that seem to define the human condition.
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and
Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it
also results in knowledgespecifically, in knowledge of what it means to
be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as her passport into
regions where other women dared not tread, leading her to speculate
about her society and herself more boldly than anyone else in New
England. As for Dimmesdale, the burden of his sin gives him
sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that
his heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs. His eloquent and powerful
sermons derive from this sense of empathy. Hester and Dimmesdale
contemplate their own sinfulness on a daily basis and try to reconcile it
with their lived experiences. The Puritan elders, on the other hand, insist
on seeing earthly experience as merely an obstacle on the path to
heaven. Thus, they view sin as a threat to the community that should be
punished and suppressed. Their answer to Hesters sin is to ostracize her.
115
Symbols
117
The novels main passions sin and guilt, punishment and redemption,
fear and shame, pride and selfishness, hatred and destructive revenge
are described in allegorical style and through rich suggestive symbolism.
2.Ahab
Ahab, the Pequods obsessed captain, represents both an ancient and a
quintessentially modern type of hero. Like the heroes of Greek or
Shakespearean tragedy, Ahab suffers from a single fatal flaw, one he
shares with such legendary characters as Oedipus and Faust. His
tremendous overconfidence, or hubris, leads him to defy common sense
and believe that, like a god, he can enact his will and remain immune to
the forces of nature. He considers Moby Dick the embodiment of evil in
the world, and he pursues the White Whale monomaniacally because he
believes it his inescapable fate to destroy this evil. According to the critic
M. H. Abrams, such a tragic hero moves us to pity because, since he is
not an evil man, his misfortune is greater than he deserves; but he moves
us also to fear, because we recognize similar possibilities of error in our
own lesser and fallible selves.
Unlike the heroes of older tragic works, however, Ahab suffers from a fatal
flaw that is not necessarily inborn but instead stems from damage, in his
case both psychological and physical, inflicted by life in a harsh world. He
is as much a victim as he is an aggressor, and the symbolic opposition
that he constructs between himself and Moby Dick propels him toward
what he considers a destined end.
3.Moby Dick
In a sense, Moby Dick is not a character, as the reader has no access to
the White Whales thoughts, feelings, or intentions. Instead, Moby Dick is
an impersonal force, one that many critics have interpreted as an
allegorical representation of God, an inscrutable and all-powerful being
that humankind can neither understand nor defy. Moby Dick thwarts free
will and cannot be defeated, only accommodated or avoided. Ishmael tries
a plethora of approaches to describe whales in general, but none proves
adequate. Indeed, as Ishmael points out, the majority of a whale is hidden
from view at all times. In this way, a whale mirrors its environment. Like
the whale, only the surface of the ocean is available for human
observation and interpretation, while its depths conceal unknown and
unknowable truths. Furthermore, even when Ishmael does get his hands
120
2.Moby Dick
Moby Dick possesses various symbolic meanings for various individuals. To
the Pequods crew, the legendary White Whale is a concept onto which
they can displace their anxieties about their dangerous and often very
frightening jobs. Because they have no delusions about Moby Dick acting
malevolently toward men or literally embodying evil, tales about the
whale allow them to confront their fear, manage it, and continue to
function. Ahab, on the other hand, believes that Moby Dick is a
manifestation of all that is wrong with the world, and he feels that it is his
destiny to eradicate this symbolic evil.
Moby Dick also bears out interpretations not tied down to specific
characters. In its inscrutable silence and mysterious habits, for example,
the White Whale can be read as an allegorical representation of an
unknowable God. As a profitable commodity, it fits into the scheme of
white economic expansion and exploitation in the nineteenth century. As a
part of the natural world, it represents the destruction of the environment
by such hubristic expansion.
3.Queequegs Coffin
Queequegs coffin alternately symbolizes life and death. Queequeg has it
built when he is seriously ill, but when he recovers, it becomes a chest to
hold his belongings and an emblem of his will to live. He perpetuates the
knowledge tattooed on his body by carving it onto the coffins lid. The
coffin further comes to symbolize life, in a morbid way, when it replaces
the Pequods life buoy. When thePequod sinks, the coffin becomes
Ishmaels buoy, saving not only his life but the life of the narrative that he
will pass on.
****** Moby Dick the obsessive, epic pursuit of the great white whale by
Captain Ahab. The central theme of the novel is the obsession of Captain
Ahab, master of the whaler Pequod, with a great white whale that had torn
off one of his legs. Ahabs life and journey are dedicated to hunting and
killing the whale, a vendetta that drives himself, his ship and crew to
destruction. Moby Dick is a complex, multi faceted novel. The narrative
is at times naturalistic, at times fantastic and it is interrupted by
metaphysical debates, soliloquies and long digressions on whales and the
art of whaling. It is written in an extraordinary variety of styles which
range from sailors slang to biblical parable to Shakespearean verse.
Several themes can be found in the narrative: madness and monomania,
the conflict between man and nature, the impossibility of escaping fate.
Numerous symbolic associations have been made with the figure of the
whale itself. It has variously been interpreted as the personification of evil
in the world, the mirror image of Captain Ahabs soul and the
representation of the hidden and powerful forces of nature.
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, and died on October 7,
1849. He was a magazine editor, a poet, a short story writer, a critic, and
a lecturer. He introduced the British horror story, or the Gothic genre, to
American literature, along with the detective story, science fiction, and
literary criticism. Poe became a key figure in the nineteenth-century
flourishing of American letters and literature. Famed twentieth--century
literary critic F.O. Matthiessen named this period the American
Renaissance. He argued that nineteenth-century American writers Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman
Melville, and Walt Whitman crafted a distinctly American literature that
attempts to escape from the long shadow of the British literary tradition.
Matthiessen paid little attention to Edgar Allan Poe. Although he long had
a reputation in Europe as one of Americas most original writers, only in
the latter half of the -twentieth century has Poe been viewed as a crucial
contributor to the American Renaissance.
His name has since become synonymous with macabre tales like The TellTale Heart, but Poe assumed a variety of literary personas during his
career. The
Messengeras
well
as Burtons
Gentlemans
Magazine and Grahamsestablished Poe as one of Americas first popular
literary critics.
Poe also introduced of a new form of short fictionthe detective storyin
tales featuring the Parisian crime solver C. Auguste Dupin. The detective
story follows naturally from Poes interest in puzzles, word games, and
secret codes, which he loved to present and decode in the pages of
the Messenger to dazzle his readers. The word detective did not exist in
English at the time that Poe was writing, but the genre has become a
fundamental mode of twentieth-century literature and film. Dupin and his
techniques of psychological inquiry have informed countless sleuths,
including Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes and Raymond
Chandlers Philip Marlowe.
Gothic literature, a genre that rose with Romanticism in Britain in the late
eighteenth century, explores the dark side of human experiencedeath,
alienation, nightmares, ghosts, and haunted landscapes. Poe brought the
Gothic to America. American Gothic literature dramatizes a culture
plagued by poverty and slavery through characters afflicted with various
forms of insanity and melancholy. In the spectrum of American literature,
the Gothic remains in the shadow of the dominant genre of the American
Renaissancethe Romance. Popularized by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Romantic literature, like Gothic literature, relies on haunting and
mysterious narratives that blur the boundary between the real and the
fantastic. In Romances like the novels of Hawthorne, conflicts occur
among characters within the context of society and are resolved in
accordance with societys rules. Poes Gothic tales are brief flashes of
chaos that flare up within lonely narrators living at the fringes of society.
Analysis of major characters
1.The narrator
124
Our narrator is such a wreck, it's hard not to feel sorry for him. He's
nervous ("very dreadfully nervous"), paranoid, and physically and
mentally ill. He doesn't know the difference between the "real" and the
"unreal," and seems to be completely alone and friendless in the world.
We suspect that he rarely sleeps. He's also a murderer.
Maybe this explains why he doesn't share his name, or any other
identifying characteristics. He wants us to know what he did, but not
where to find him. We actually have precious little to go on in discussing
his character. We have to do lots of investigation and reading between the
lines
to
come
up
with
possibilities.
Before we explore some of those possibilities, we should clear up a fine
point. Poe doesn't explicitly tell us if the narrator is male or female. The
only reason we feel comfortable calling the narrator "he" is these lines:
"You fancy me mad. Mad men know nothing" (3) (our italics). This isn't one
hundred percent proof that the narrator is male, so it's important to
consider the possibility that the narrator is female. But, for now, we are
clinging to those lines to get out of having to use the awkward "he/she."
2.The old man
The old man is even more of a mystery than the narrator, partly because
we only see him through the narrator's skewed perspective. We know he
has money (the narrator shows the old man's "treasures" to the police).
We also know he has a blue eye that the narrator is afraid of, and which
fits the description of a corneal ulcer. We know he's old, and that he's a
fairly sound sleeper. According to the narrator, the old man suspects
nothing because the narrator was nice to him the week before he killed
him. We can't prove the old man wasn't suspicious, but because he leaves
his bedroom door unlocked we can assume it. We know the man isn't
naturally trusting he's afraid of robbers. But, it seems he does trust the
narrator enough to give him the run of the house while he sleeps. Nothing
the narrator tells us about the old man fits our idea of "madness" or
"insanity," but the old man does fit neatly into the narrator's definition of
madness: 1) "destroyed" or "dulled" senses; 2) "Madmen know nothing"
(2).
His senses are definitely dulled he only hears the narrator on the eighth
night. He doesn't seem to have the slightest idea what's going on around
him and is incapable of defending himself. Perhaps the narrator is slyly
hinting that he thinks the old man is "mad." This makes us wonder if the
old man was very senile, dependant on the narrator's care. Alienated - We
know that at least one neighbor is suspicious of the goings on in the house
of the old man and the narrator. Otherwise, he or she would not have
been so quick to call the cops after hearing a little scream, and wouldn't
have been able to convince the powers that be to send not one or two, but
three policemen. We don't know if this suspicion is directed toward the old
man or toward the narrator or both. But, it's possible that the narrator
wasn't the only one afraid of the old man's eye. The old man could be an
alienated figure both in and out of the home, and thus the narrator's
murder of him could be symbolic of prejudices and abuses that stem from
physical "difference."
125
Themes
1. Love and Hate
Poe explores the similarity of love and hate in many stories, especially
The Tell-Tale Heart and William Wilson. Poe portrays the psychological
complexity of these two supposedly opposite emotions, emphasizing the
ways they enigmatically blend into each other. Poes psychological insight
anticipates the theories of Sigmund Freud, the Austrian founder of
psychoanalysis and one of the twentieth centurys most influential
thinkers. Poe, like Freud, interpreted love and hate as universal emotions,
thereby severed from the specific conditions of time and space.
The Gothic terror is the result of the narrators simultaneous love for
himself and hatred of his rival. The double shows that love and hate are
inseparable and suggests that they may simply be two forms of the most
intense form of human emotion. The narrator loves himself, but when
feelings of self-hatred arise in him, he projects that hatred onto an
imaginary copy of himself. In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator confesses
a love for an old man whom he then violently murders and dismembers.
The narrator reveals his madness by attempting to separate the person of
the old man, whom he loves, from the old mans supposedly evil eye,
which triggers the narrators hatred. This delusional separation enables
the narrator to remain unaware of the paradox of claiming to have loved
his victim.
2.Eyes
In The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator fixates on the idea that an old man is
looking at him with the Evil Eye and transmitting a curse on him. At the
same time that the narrator obsesses over the eye, he wants to separate
the old man from the Evil Eye in order to spare the old man from his
violent reaction to the eye. The narrator reveals his inability to recognize
that the eye is the I, or identity, of the old man. The eyes symbolize
the essence of human identity, which cannot be separated from the body.
The eye cannot be killed without causing the man to die. Similarly, in
Ligeia, the narrator is unable to see behind Ligeias dark and mysterious
eyes. Because the eyes symbolize her Gothic identity, they conceal
Ligeias mysterious knowledge, a knowledge that both guides and haunts
the narrator.
Analysis
Poe uses his words economically in the Tell-Tale Heartit is one of his
shortest storiesto provide a study of paranoia and mental deterioration.
Poe strips the story of excess detail as a way to heighten the murderers
obsession with specific and unadorned entities: the old mans eye, the
heartbeat, and his own claim to sanity. Poes economic style and pointed
language thus contribute to the narrative content, and perhaps this
association of form and content truly exemplifies paranoia. Even Poe
himself, like the beating heart, is complicit in the plot to catch the narrator
in his evil game.
As a study in paranoia, this story illuminates the psychological
contradictions that contribute to a murderous profile. For example, the
narrator admits, in the first sentence, to being dreadfully nervous, yet he
is unable to comprehend why he should be thought mad. He articulates
his self-defense against madness in terms of heightened sensory capacity.
Unlike the similarly nervous and hypersensitive Roderick Usher in The Fall
of the House of Usher, who admits that he feels mentally unwell, the
narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart views his hypersensitivity as proof of his
sanity, not a symptom of madness. This special knowledge enables the
narrator to tell this tale in a precise and complete manner, and he uses
the stylistic tools of narration for the purposes of his own sanity plea.
However, what makes this narrator madand most unlike Poeis that he
fails to comprehend the coupling of narrative form and content. He
masters precise form, but he unwittingly lays out a tale of murder that
betrays the madness he wants to deny.
Another contradiction central to the story involves the tension between
the narrators capacities for love and hate. Poe explores here a
psychological mysterythat people sometimes harm those whom they
love or need in their lives. Poe examines this paradox half a century
before Sigmund Freud made it a leading concept in his theories of the
mind. Poes narrator loves the old man. He is not greedy for the old mans
wealth, nor vengeful because of any slight. The narrator thus eliminates
motives that might normally inspire such a violent murder. As he
proclaims his own sanity, the narrator fixates on the old mans vulture128
eye. He reduces the old man to the pale blue of his eye in obsessive
fashion. He wants to separate the man from his Evil Eye so he can spare
the man the burden of guilt that he attributes to the eye itself. The
narrator fails to see that the eye is the I of the old man, an inherent part
of his identity that cannot be isolated as the narrator perversely imagines.
The murder of the old man illustrates the extent to which the narrator
separates the old mans identity from his physical eye. The narrator sees
the eye as completely separate from the man, and as a result, he is
capable of murdering him while maintaining that he loves him. The
narrators desire to eradicate the mans eye motivates his murder, but the
narrator does not acknowledge that this act will end the mans life. By
dismembering his victim, the narrator further deprives the old man of his
humanity. The narrator confirms his conception of the old mans eye as
separate from the man by ending the man altogether and turning him into
so many parts. That strategy turns against him when his mind imagines
other parts of the old mans body working against him.
The narrators newly heightened sensitivity to sound ultimately overcomes
him, as he proves unwilling or unable to distinguish between real and
imagined sounds. Because of his warped sense of reality, he obsesses
over the low beats of the mans heart yet shows little concern about the
mans shrieks, which are loud enough both to attract a neighbors
attention and to draw the police to the scene of the crime. The police do
not perform a traditional, judgmental role in this story. Ironically, they
arent terrifying agents of authority or brutality. Poes interest is less in
external forms of power than in the power that pathologies of the mind
can hold over an individual. The narrators paranoia and guilt make it
inevitable that he will give himself away. The police arrive on the scene to
give him the opportunity to betray himself. The more the narrator
proclaims his own cool manner, the more he cannot escape the beating of
his own heart, which he mistakes for the beating of the old mans heart.
As he confesses to the crime in the final sentence, he addresses the
policemen as [v]illains, indicating his inability to distinguish between
their real identity and his own villainy.
basic fact that Roderick has a twin sister. Poe asks us to question the
reasons both for Rodericks decision to contact the narrator in this time of
need and the bizarre tenacity of narrators response. While Poe provides
the recognizable building blocks of the Gothic tale, he contrasts this
standard form with a plot that is inexplicable, sudden, and full of
unexpected disruptions. The story begins without complete explanation of
the narrators motives for arriving at the house of Usher, and this
ambiguity sets the tone for a plot that continually blurs the real and the
fantastic.
Poe creates a sensation of claustrophobia in this story. The narrator is
mysteriously trapped by the lure of Rodericks attraction, and he cannot
escape until the house of Usher collapses completely. Characters cannot
move and act freely in the house because of its structure, so it assumes a
monstrous character of its ownthe Gothic mastermind that controls the
fate of its inhabitants. Poe, creates confusion between the living things
and inanimate objects by doubling the physical house of Usher with the
genetic family line of the Usher family, which he refers to as the house of
Usher. Poe employs the word house metaphorically, but he also
describes a real house. Not only does the narrator get trapped inside the
mansion, but we learn also that this confinement describes the biological
fate of the Usher family. The family has no enduring branches, so all
genetic transmission has occurred incestuously within the domain of the
house. The peasantry confuses the mansion with the family because the
physical structure has effectively dictated the genetic patterns of the
family.
The claustrophobia of the mansion affects the relations among characters.
For example, the narrator realizes late in the game that Roderick and
Madeline are twins, and this realization occurs as the two men prepare to
entomb Madeline. The cramped and confined setting of the burial tomb
metaphorically spreads to the features of the characters. Because the
twins are so similar, they cannot develop as free individuals. Madeline is
buried before she has actually died because her similarity to Roderick is
like a coffin that holds her identity. Madeline also suffers from problems
typical for women in -nineteenth--century literature. She invests all of her
identity in her body, whereas Roderick possesses the powers of intellect.
In spite of this disadvantage, Madeline possesses the power in the story,
almost superhuman at times, as when she breaks out of her tomb. She
thus counteracts Rodericks weak, nervous, and immobile disposition.
Some scholars have argued that Madeline does not even exist, reducing
her to a shared figment Rodericks and the narrators imaginations. But
Madeline proves central to the symmetrical and claustrophobic logic of the
tale. Madeline stifles Roderick by preventing him from seeing himself as
essentially different from her. She completes this attack when she kills
him at the end of the story.
Doubling spreads throughout the story. The tale highlights the Gothic
feature of the doppelganger, or character double, and portrays doubling in
inanimate structures and literary forms. The narrator, for example, first
witnesses the mansion as a reflection in the tarn, or shallow pool, that
130
abuts the front of the house. The mirror image in the tarn doubles the
house, but upside downan inversely symmetrical relationship that also
characterizes the relationship between Roderick and Madeline.
The story features numerous allusions to other works of literature,
including the poems The Haunted Palace and Mad Trist by Sir
Launcelot Canning. Poe composed them himself and then fictitiously
attributed them to other sources. Both poems parallel and thus predict the
plot line of The Fall of the House of Usher. Mad Trist, which is about
the forceful entrance of Ethelred into the dwelling of a hermit, mirrors the
simultaneous escape of Madeline from her tomb. Mad Trist spookily
crosses literary borders, as though Rodericks obsession with these poems
ushers their narratives into his own domain and brings them to life.
The crossing of borders pertains vitally to the Gothic horror of the tale. We
know from Poes experience in the magazine industry that he was
obsessed with codes and word games, and this story amplifies his
obsessive interest in naming. Usher refers not only to the mansion and
the family, but also to the act of crossing a -threshold that brings the
narrator into the perverse world of Roderick and Madeline. Rodericks
letter ushers the narrator into a world he does not know, and the presence
of this outsider might be the factor that destroys the house. The narrator
is the lone exception to the Ushers fear of outsiders, a fear that
accentuates the claustrophobic nature of the tale. By undermining this
fear of the outside, the narrator unwittingly brings down the whole
structure. A similar, though strangely playful crossing of a boundary
transpires both in Mad Trist and during the climactic burial escape, when
Madeline breaks out from death to meet her mad brother in a tryst, or
meeting, of death. Poe thus buries, in the fictitious gravity of a medieval
romance, the puns that garnered him popularity in Americas magazines.
ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS
Roderick Usher
As one of the two surviving members of the Usher family in The Fall of
the House of Usher, Roderick is one of Poes character doubles, or
doppelgangers. Roderick is intellectual and bookish, and his twin sister,
Madeline, is ill and bedridden. Rodericks inability to distinguish fantasy
from reality resembles his sisters physical weakness. Poe uses these
characters to explore the philosophical mystery of the relationship
between mind and body. With these twins, Poe imagines what would
happen if the connection between mind and body were severed and
assigned to separate people. The twin imagery and the incestuous history
of the Usher line establish that Roderick is actually inseparable from his
sister. Although mind and body are separated, they remain dependent on
each other for survival. This interdependence causes a chain reaction
when one of the elements suffers a breakdown. Madelines physical death
coincides with the collapse of both Rodericks sanity and the Ushers
mansion.
131
Themes
The central theme of "The Fall of the House of Usher" is terror that
arises from the complexity and multiplicity of forces that shape human
destiny. Dreadful, horrifying events result not from a single, uncomplicated
circumstance but from a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex
circumstances.
1.Mortality
The plot of Poe's tale essentially involves a woman who dies, is buried,
and rises from the grave. But did she ever die? Near the horrific finale of
the tale, Usher screams: "We have put her living in the tomb!" Premature
burial was something of an obsession for Poe, who featured it in many of
his stories. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," however, it is not clear to
what extent the supernatural can be said to account for the strangeness
of the events in the tale. Madeline may actually have died and risen like a
vampire--much as Usher seems to possess vampiric qualities, arising
"from a sofa on which he had been lying at full length" when the Narrator
first sees him, avoiding all daylight and most food, and roaming through
his crypt-like abode. But a more realistic version of events suggests that
she may have been mistaken for dead--and luckily managed to escape her
tomb. Either way, the line between life and death is a fine one in Poe's
fiction, and Usher's study of the "sentience of all vegetable things" fits
aptly with Poe's own preoccupations.
2.Madness
Poe writes that Usher "entered, at some length, into what he conceived to
be the nature of his malady." What exactly is his "malady" we never learn.
Even Usher seems uncertain, contradictory in his description: "It was, he
said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to
find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, which
would undoubtedly soon pass off." The Narrator notes an "incoherence"
and "inconsistency" in his old friend, but he offers little by way of scientific
explanation of the condition. As a result, the line between sanity and
insanity becomes blurred, which paves the way for the Narrator's own
descent into madness.
3.Fear
If we were to try to define Roderick Usher's illness precisely, we might
diagnose him with acute anxiety. What seems to terrify Usher is fear itself.
"To an anomalous species of terror," Poe writes, "I found him a bounden
slave." Usher tries to explain to the Narrator that he dreads "the events of
the future, not in themselves but in their results." He dreads the intangible
and the unknowable; he fears precisely what cannot be rationally feared.
Fear for no apparent reason except ambiguity itself is an important motif
in Poe's tale, which after all begins with the Narrator's description of his
own irrational dread: "I know not how it was--but, with the first glimpse of
132
of soul which he compares to the opium eater coming out of his pleasant
illusions to find the bitter lapse into every-day lifethe hideous dropping
off of the veil (p. 38). Death is the truth we all fear at the end of life, and
love is not enough to stop it from happening. The narrators friendship and
devotion to Roderick can do nothing to avert the tragedy. He too is drawn
into complicity with death by going along with the plan to bury
Madeleine.
The Sentience of All Things
Having material or normally inanimate objects come alive is one of the
stock motifs of gothic or horror stories. Shrieking trees, moaning or talking
paintings, furniture, houses, animals, and natural locations are thus to be
expected in a story like Poes. Poe takes this archetype further, however,
and makes Roderick Usher propound a theory of the correlation of matter
and spirit. Poe suggests there is a spiritual world beyond the material one,
and that one influences the other. He does not mean this in a particularly
positive or religious sense, but evokes the spiritual in terms of the
demonic. The narrator describes the House of Usher and the black tarn
that swallows it as having no affinity with the air of heaven but instead
having a pestilent and mystic vapor (p. 39).
Of particular interest is Ushers reading of Emmanuel Swedenborg (16881772), the Swedish mystic, whose doctrine of correspondences helps to
explain Ushers theory about the House of Usher being sentient.
Swedenborg taught there are correspondences or equivalent laws and
relationships in the spiritual and physical worldsone reflects the other.
The human soul is a microcosm that precisely mirrors the macrocosm.
Thus, it is not fantastic to think that the material House of Usher, the
mansion, is alive and reflecting the mental or spiritual life of the Usher
family.
Roderick Usher, however, blames the house itself for producing the evil
influence. Is the house evil in itself, the agent of evil, infected with evil
spirits as the ballad suggests, or has it just accumulated the evil influence
and fate of the family over the centuries? Poe does not say, but the story
implies a unified or quantum world where spiritual forces interact with the
material world in a sort of field effect. This is proven when a stranger, the
narrator, enters that field and is affected with some of the same
symptoms as the Usher family (depression, fear, loss of normal moral
perception, distorted judgment). This theory of the unity of matter and
spirit is further developed in Poes essay, Eureka.
Context
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the town of Florida,
Missouri, in 1835. When he was four years old, his family moved to
Hannibal, a town on the Mississippi River much like the towns depicted in
his two most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
The pen name Mark Twain, derived from the riverboat leadsmens signal
By the mark, twainthat the water was deep enough for safe
passage. Life on the river also gave Twain material for several of his
books, including the raft scenes of Huckleberry Finn and the material for
his autobiographical Life on the Mississippi (1883).
Clemens continued to work on the river until 1861, when the Civil War
exploded across America and shut down the Mississippi for travel and
shipping. Although Clemens joined a Confederate cavalry division, he was
no ardent Confederate, and when his division deserted en masse, he did
too. He then made his way west with his brother Orion, working first as a
silver miner in Nevada and then stumbling into his true calling,
journalism.
Throughout the late 1860s and 1870s, Twains articles, stories, memoirs,
and novels, characterized by an irrepressible wit and a deft ear for
language and dialect, garnered him immense celebrity. As the nation
prospered economically in the postCivil War periodan era that came to
be known as the Gilded Age, an epithet that Twain coinedso too did
Twain.
Twain began work on Huckleberry Finn, a sequel to Tom Sawyer, in an
effort to capitalize on the popularity of the earlier novel. This new novel
took on a more serious character, however, as Twain focused increasingly
on the institution of slavery and the South. In the early 1880s, however,
the hopefulness of the postCivil War years began to fade. Reconstruction,
the political program designed to reintegrate the defeated South into the
Union as a slavery-free region, began to fail. The harsh measures the
victorious North imposed only embittered the South. Concerned about
maintaining power, many Southern politicians began an effort to control
and oppress the black men and women whom the war had freed.
Ultimately, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has proved significant not
only as a novel that explores the racial and moral world of its time but
also, through the controversies that continue to surround it, as an artifact
of those same moral and racial tensions as they have evolved to the
present day.
Analysis of major characters
1.Huck Finn
From the beginning of the novel, Twain makes it clear that Huck is a boy
who comes from the lowest levels of white society. His father is a drunk
and a ruffian who disappears for months on end. Huck himself is dirty and
frequently homeless. Although the Widow Douglas attempts to reform
139
Huck, he resists her attempts and maintains his independent ways. The
community has failed to protect him from his father, and though the
Widow finally gives Huck some of the schooling and religious training that
he had missed, he has not been indoctrinated with social values in the
same way a middle-class boy like Tom Sawyer has been. Hucks distance
from mainstream society makes him skeptical of the world around him and
the ideas it passes on to him.
Hucks instinctual distrust and his experiences as he travels down the
river force him to question the things society has taught him. According to
the law, Jim is Miss Watsons property, but according to Hucks sense of
logic and fairness, it seems right to help Jim. Hucks natural intelligence
and his willingness to think through a situation on its own merits lead him
to some conclusions that are correct in their context but that would shock
white society. For example, Huck discovers, when he and Jim meet a group
of slave-hunters, that telling a lie is sometimes the right course of action.
Because Huck is a child, the world seems new to him. Everything he
encounters is an occasion for thought. Because of his background,
however, he does more than just apply the rules that he has been taught
he creates his own rules. Yet Huck is not some kind of independent
moral genius. He must still struggle with some of the preconceptions
about blacks that society has ingrained in him, and at the end of the
novel, he shows himself all too willing to follow Tom Sawyers lead. But
even these failures are part of what makes Huck appealing and
sympathetic. He is only a boy, after all, and therefore fallible. Imperfect as
he is, Huck represents what anyone is capable of becoming: a thinking,
feeling human being rather than a mere cog in the machine of society.
2.Jim
Jim, Hucks companion as he travels down the river, is a man of
remarkable intelligence and compassion. At first glance, Jim seems to be
superstitious to the point of idiocy, but a careful reading of the time that
Huck and Jim spend on Jacksons Island reveals that Jims superstitions
conceal a deep knowledge of the natural world and represent an alternate
form of truth or intelligence. Moreover, Jim has one of the few healthy,
functioning families in the novel. Although he has been separated from his
wife and children, he misses them terribly, and it is only the thought of a
permanent separation from them that motivates his criminal act of
running away from Miss Watson. On the river, Jim becomes a surrogate
father, as well as a friend, to Huck, taking care of him without being
intrusive or smothering. He cooks for the boy and shelters him from some
of the worst horrors that they encounter, including the sight of Paps
corpse, and, for a time, the news of his fathers passing.
Some readers have criticized Jim as being too passive, but it is important
to remember that he remains at the mercy of every other character in this
novel, including even the poor, thirteen-year-old Huck, as the letter that
Huck nearly sends to Miss Watson demonstrates. Like Huck, Jim is realistic
140
about his situation and must find ways of accomplishing his goals without
incurring the wrath of those who could turn him in. In this position, he is
seldom able to act boldly or speak his mind. Nonetheless, despite these
restrictions and constant fear, Jim consistently acts as a noble human
being and a loyal friend. In fact, Jim could be described as the only real
adult in the novel, and the only one who provides a positive, respectable
example for Huck to follow.
3.Tom Sawyer
Tom is the same age as Huck and his best friend. Whereas Hucks birth
and upbringing have left him in poverty and on the margins of society,
Tom has been raised in relative comfort. As a result, his beliefs are an
unfortunate combination of what he has learned from the adults around
him and the fanciful notions he has gleaned from reading romance and
adventure novels. Tom believes in sticking strictly to rules, most of
which have more to do with style than with morality or anyones welfare.
Tom is thus the perfect foil for Huck: his rigid adherence to rules and
precepts contrasts with Hucks tendency to question authority and think
for himself.
Although Toms escapades are often funny, they also show just how
disturbingly and unthinkingly cruel society can be. Tom knows all along
that Miss Watson has died and that Jim is now a free man, yet he is willing
to allow Jim to remain a captive while he entertains himself with fantastic
escape plans. Toms plotting tortures not only Jim, but Aunt Sally and
Uncle Silas as well. In the end, although he is just a boy like Huck and is
appealing in his zest for adventure and his unconscious wittiness, Tom
embodies what a young, well-to-do white man is raised to become in the
society of his time: self-centered with dominion over all.
Themes
1.Racism and Slavery
Although Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn two decades after the
Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, Americaand
especially the Southwas still struggling with racism and the aftereffects
of slavery.
Although Twain wrote the novel after slavery was abolished, he set it
several decades earlier, when slavery was still a fact of life. But even by
Twains time, things had not necessarily gotten much better for blacks in
the South. In this light, we might read Twains depiction of slavery as an
allegorical representation of the condition of blacks in the United States
even after the abolition of slavery. Just as slavery places the noble and
moral Jim under the control of white society, no matter how degraded that
white society may be, so too did the insidious racism that arose near the
end of Reconstruction oppress black men for illogical and hypocritical
reasons. In Huckleberry Finn, Twain, by exposing the hypocrisy of slavery,
demonstrates how racism distorts the oppressors as much as it does those
who are oppressed. The result is a world of moral confusion, in which
seemingly good white people such as Miss Watson and Sally Phelps
141
1.Childhood
Hucks youth is an important factor in his moral education over the course
of the novel, for we sense that only a child is open-minded enough to
undergo the kind of development that Huck does. Since Huck and Tom are
young, their age lends a sense of play to their actions, which excuses
them in certain ways and also deepens the novels commentary on
slavery and society. Ironically, Huck often knows better than the adults
around him, even though he has lacked the guidance that a proper family
and community should have offered him. Twain also frequently draws links
between Hucks youth and Jims status as a black man: both are
vulnerable, yet Huck, because he is white, has power over Jim. And on a
different level, the silliness, pure joy, and navet of childhood
give Huckleberry Finn a sense of fun and humor. Though its themes are
quite weighty, the novel itself feels light in tone and is an enjoyable read
because of this rambunctious childhood excitement that enlivens the
story.
2.Lies and Cons
Huckleberry Finn is full of malicious lies and scams, many of them coming
from the duke and the dauphin. It is clear that these con mens lies are
bad, for they hurt a number of innocent people. Yet Huck himself tells a
number of lies and even cons a few people, most notably the slavehunters, to whom he makes up a story about a smallpox outbreak in order
to protect Jim. As Huck realizes, it seems that telling a lie can actually be a
good thing, depending on its purpose. This insight is part of Hucks
learning process, as he finds that some of the rules he has been taught
contradict what seems to be right. At other points, the lines between a
con, legitimate entertainment, and approved social structures like religion
are fine indeed. In this light, lies and cons provide an effective way for
Twain to highlight the moral ambiguity that runs through the novel.
example, bases his life and actions on adventure novels. The deceased
Emmeline Grangerford painted weepy maidens and wrote poems about
dead children in the romantic style. The Shepherdson and Grangerford
families kill one another out of a bizarre, overexcited conception of family
honor. These characters proclivities toward the romantic allow Twain a
few opportunities to indulge in some fun, and indeed, the episodes that
deal with this subject are among the funniest in the novel. However, there
is a more substantive message beneath: that popular literature is highly
stylized and therefore rarely reflects the reality of a society. Twain shows
how a strict adherence to these romantic ideals is ultimately dangerous:
Tom is shot, Emmeline dies, and the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords end
up in a deadly clash.
Symbols
1.The Mississippi River
For Huck and Jim, the Mississippi River is the ultimate symbol of freedom.
Alone on their raft, they do not have to answer to anyone. The river
carries them toward freedom: for Jim, toward the free states; for Huck,
away from his abusive father and the restrictive sivilizing of St.
Petersburg. Much like the river itself, Huck and Jim are in flux, willing to
change their attitudes about each other with little prompting. Despite
their freedom, however, they soon find that they are not completely free
from the evils and influences of the towns on the rivers banks. Even early
on, the real world intrudes on the paradise of the raft: the river floods,
bringing Huck and Jim into contact with criminals, wrecks, and stolen
goods. Then, a thick fog causes them to miss the mouth of the Ohio River,
which was to be their route to freedom.
As the novel progresses, then, the river becomes something other than
the inherently benevolent place Huck originally thought it was. As Huck
and Jim move further south, the duke and the dauphin invade the raft, and
Huck and Jim must spend more time ashore. Though the river continues to
offer a refuge from trouble, it often merely effects the exchange of one
bad situation for another. Each escape exists in the larger context of a
continual drift southward, toward the Deep South and entrenched slavery.
In this transition from idyllic retreat to source of peril, the river mirrors the
complicated state of the South. As Huck and Jims journey progresses, the
river, which once seemed a paradise and a source of freedom, becomes
merely a short-term means of escape that nonetheless pushes Huck and
Jim ever further toward danger and destruction.
Many of these events from Fitzgeralds early life appear in his most
famous novel, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925. Like Fitzgerald, Nick
Carraway is a thoughtful young man from Minnesota, educated at an Ivy
League school (in Nicks case, Yale), who moves to New York after the war.
Also similar to Fitzgerald is Jay Gatsby, a sensitive young man who idolizes
wealth and luxury and who falls in love with a beautiful young woman
while stationed at a military camp in the South.
Having become a celebrity, Fitzgerald fell into a wild, reckless life-style of
parties and decadence, while desperately trying to please Zelda by writing
to earn money. Similarly, Gatsby amasses a great deal of wealth at a
relatively young age, and devotes himself to acquiring possessions and
throwing parties that he believes will enable him to win Daisys love. As
the giddiness of the Roaring Twenties dissolved into the bleakness of the
Great Depression, however, Zelda suffered a nervous breakdown and
Fitzgerald battled alcoholism, which hampered his writing.
Fitzgerald was the most famous chronicler of 1920s America, an era that
he dubbed the Jazz Age. Written in 1925, The Great Gatsby is one of the
greatest literary documents of this period, in which the American
economy soared, bringing unprecedented levels of prosperity to the
nation. Prohibition, the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol
mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1919),
made millionaires out of bootleggers, and an underground culture of
revelry sprang up.
Like Nick in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald found this new lifestyle seductive
and exciting, and, like Gatsby, he had always idolized the very rich. Now
he found himself in an era in which unrestrained materialism set the tone
of society, particularly in the large cities of the East. Even so, like Nick,
Fitzgerald saw through the glitter of the Jazz Age to the moral emptiness
and hypocrisy beneath, and part of him longed for this absent moral
center. In many ways, The Great Gatsby represents Fitzgeralds attempt to
confront his conflicting feelings about the Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald
was driven by his love for a woman who symbolized everything he
wanted, even as she led him toward everything he despised.
Analysis of major characters
1.Jay Gatsby
The title character of The Great Gatsby is a young man, around thirty
years old, who rose from an impoverished childhood in rural North Dakota
to become fabulously wealthy. However, he achieved this lofty goal by
participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and
trading in stolen securities. From his early youth, Gatsby despised poverty
and longed for wealth and sophisticationhe dropped out of St. Olafs
College after only two weeks because he could not bear the janitorial job
with which he was paying his tuition. Though Gatsby has always wanted to
be rich, his main motivation in acquiring his fortune was his love for Daisy
Buchanan, whom he met as a young military officer in Louisville before
leaving to fight in World War I in 1917. Gatsby immediately fell in love
145
with Daisys aura of luxury, grace, and charm, and lied to her about his
own background in order to convince her that he was good enough for her.
Daisy promised to wait for him when he left for the war, but married Tom
Buchanan in 1919, while Gatsby was studying at Oxford after the war in
an attempt to gain an education. From that moment on, Gatsby dedicated
himself to winning Daisy back, and his acquisition of millions of dollars, his
purchase of a gaudy mansion on West Egg, and his lavish weekly parties
are all merely means to that end.
Fitzgerald uses this technique of delayed character revelation to
emphasize the theatrical quality of Gatsbys approach to life, which is an
important part of his personality. Gatsby has literally created his own
character, even changing his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby to
represent his reinvention of himself. As his relentless quest for Daisy
demonstrates, Gatsby has an extraordinary ability to transform his hopes
and dreams into reality; at the beginning of the novel, he appears to the
reader just as he desires to appear to the world. This talent for selfinvention is what gives Gatsby his quality of greatness: indeed, the title
The Great Gatsby is reminiscent of billings for such vaudeville magicians
as The Great Houdini and The Great Blackstone, suggesting that the
persona of Jay Gatsby is a masterful illusion.
As the novel progresses and Fitzgerald deconstructs Gatsbys selfpresentation, Gatsby reveals himself to be an innocent, hopeful young
man who stakes everything on his dreams, not realizing that his dreams
are unworthy of him. Gatsby invests Daisy with an idealistic perfection
that she cannot possibly attain in reality and pursues her with a
passionate zeal that blinds him to her limitations. His dream of her
disintegrates, revealing the corruption that wealth causes and the
unworthiness of the goal, much in the way Fitzgerald sees the American
dream crumbling in the 1920s, as Americas powerful optimism, vitality,
and individualism become subordinated to the amoral pursuit of wealth.
2.Nick Carraway
If Gatsby represents one part of Fitzgeralds personality, the flashy
celebrity who pursued and glorified wealth in order to impress the woman
he loved, then Nick represents another part: the quiet, reflective
Midwesterner adrift in the lurid East. A young man (he turns thirty during
the course of the novel) from Minnesota, Nick travels to New York in 1922
to learn the bond business. He lives in the West Egg district of Long Island,
next door to Gatsby. Nick is also Daisys cousin, which enables him to
observe and assist the resurgent love affair between Daisy and Gatsby. As
a result of his relationship to these two characters, Nick is the perfect
choice to narrate the novel, which functions as a personal memoir of his
experiences with Gatsby in the summer of 1922.
Nick is also well suited to narrating The Great Gatsby because of his
temperament. As he tells the reader in Chapter 1, he is tolerant, openminded, quiet, and a good listener, and, as a result, others tend to talk to
him and tell him their secrets. Gatsby, in particular, comes to trust him
and treat him as a confidant. Nick generally assumes a secondary role
146
relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East
Coast. The main plotline of the novel reflects this assessment, as Gatsbys
dream of loving Daisy is ruined by the difference in their respective social
statuses, his resorting to crime to make enough money to impress her,
and the rampant materialism that characterizes her lifestyle. Additionally,
places and objects in The Great Gatsby have meaning only because
characters instill them with meaning: the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
best exemplify this idea. In Nicks mind, the ability to create meaningful
symbols constitutes a central component of the American dream, as early
Americans invested their new nation with their own ideals and values.
Nick compares the green bulk of America rising from the ocean to the
green light at the end of Daisys dock. Just as Americans have given
America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills
Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor
possesses. Gatsbys dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just
as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its
objectmoney and pleasure. Like 1920s Americans in general, fruitlessly
seeking a bygone era in which their dreams had value, Gatsby longs to recreate a vanished pasthis time in Louisville with Daisybut is incapable
of doing so. When his dream crumbles, all that is left for Gatsby to do is
die; all Nick can do is move back to Minnesota, where American values
have not decayed.
2.The hollowness of the upper class
One of the major topics explored in The Great Gatsby is the sociology of
wealth, specifically, how the newly minted millionaires of the 1920s differ
from and relate to the old aristocracy of the countrys richest families. In
the novel, West Egg and its denizens represent the newly rich, while East
Egg and its denizens, especially Daisy and Tom, represent the old
aristocracy. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich as being vulgar, gaudy,
ostentatious, and lacking in social graces and taste. Gatsby, for example,
lives in a monstrously ornate mansion, wears a pink suit, drives a RollsRoyce, and does not pick up on subtle social signals, such as the
insincerity of the Sloanes invitation to lunch. In contrast, the old
aristocracy possesses grace, taste, subtlety, and elegance, epitomized by
the Buchanans tasteful home and the flowing white dresses of Daisy and
Jordan Baker.
What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in
heart, as the East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies
who are so used to moneys ability to ease their minds that they never
worry about hurting others. The Buchanans exemplify this stereotype
when, at the end of the novel, they simply move to a new house far away
rather than condescend to attend Gatsbys funeral. Gatsby, on the other
hand, whose recent wealth derives from criminal activity, has a sincere
and loyal heart, remaining outside Daisys window until four in the
morning in Chapter 7 simply to make sure that Tom does not hurt her.
Ironically, Gatsbys good qualities (loyalty and love) lead to his death, as
he takes the blame for killing Myrtle rather than letting Daisy be punished,
149
and the Buchanans bad qualities (fickleness and selfishness) allow them
to remove themselves from the tragedy not only physically but
psychologically.
Motifs
1.Geography
Throughout the novel, places and settings epitomize the various aspects
of the 1920s American society that Fitzgerald depicts. East Egg represents
the old aristocracy, West Egg the newly rich, the valley of ashes the moral
and social decay of America, and New York City the uninhibited, amoral
quest for money and pleasure. Additionally, the East is connected to the
moral decay and social cynicism of New York, while the West (including
Midwestern and northern areas such as Minnesota) is connected to more
traditional social values and ideals.
2.Weather
As in much of Shakespeares work, the weather in The Great
Gatsby unfailingly matches the emotional and narrative tone of the story.
Gatsby and Daisys reunion begins amid a pouring rain, proving awkward
and melancholy; their love reawakens just as the sun begins to come out.
Gatsbys climactic confrontation with Tom occurs on the hottest day of the
summer, under the scorching sun (like the fatal encounter between
Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet). Wilson kills Gatsby on the first
day of autumn, as Gatsby floats in his pool despite a palpable chill in the
aira symbolic attempt to stop time and restore his relationship with
Daisy to the way it was five years before, in 1917.
Symbols
1.The green light
Situated at the end of Daisys East Egg dock and barely visible from
Gatsbys West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsbys hopes and
dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he
reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal.
Because Gatsbys quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American
dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In
Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the
ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.
2.The valley of ashes
First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and
New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the
dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that
results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge
themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of
150
ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live
among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.
3.The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes
painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may
represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral
wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead,
throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning
because characters instill them with meaning. The connection between
the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilsons
grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the
unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the
essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental
process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these
ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsbys final thoughts as a
depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.
The 1920s was the jazz era in the big cities of the USA. It was an era of
high living and all-night parties to the rhythm of the sax and trumpet. It
was an era of gangsters, of prohibition and of ostentatious new-found
wealth. Scott Fitzgerald was part of that world, and with his glamorous
wife, Zelda, he became a pin-up personality of the time. The main
character in his best-known novel, The Great Gatsby, is a man who, like
his creator, climbs the ladder of social success. The foundations on which
this success is built are fragile, and consequently his fall into obscurity is
almost as rapid as his rise to meteoric success.
Narrators
In The Great Gatsby the first person-narrator is a minor character, Nick;
the reader does not have direct access to the thoughts and feelings of the
main character of the story what he learns he must piece together from
the information that is provided. This narrative technique can be used to
create an air of mistery and tension, and to engage the readers attention
by slowly allowing him to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
Style
Fitzgeralds greatest talent as a writer was his ability to create
atmosphere and characters. His rich, elegant prose style is dense in
metaphors, similes and symbols, and often has the evocative beauty of
poetry.
has lived her whole life obsessed by memories, and Quentin is attempting
to escape his own memories by fleeing to the North, and Harvard.
History
The history of the South, and especially of the Civil War, forms a
compelling backdrop to the book. It is intriguing, however, that Faulkner
does not make a huge effort to ground the novel in the hard-and-fast
dates, locations, and events that many great historical novels do. Instead,
Faulkner's goal is to present an emotional history of the South that
matches the strength and power of the factual history.
"The South"
Quentin is asked, over and over again by Northerners at Harvard, about
the South. "What's it like there." When his roommate Shreve asks him to
talk about the South, Quentin responds by telling him the story of the
Sutpen legend as he knows it. And in telling this story, Quentin exhibits all
the ambivalence, love, and hatred towards the region that most
Southerners have. It is also important that Quentin tells the story of
Sutpen, unknowingly, as a metaphor for the South and its post-Civil War
history and memory.
Narration
The structure of this book is a series of different, intertwining narratives.
Each narrator brings his or her own set of preoccupations, misinformed
knowledge, and interests to the narrative. As a result, there are three
different stories to piece together. Crucial to this theme is the role of the
reader him or herself--Faulkner expects you to participate in restructuring
the Sutpen legend and, through this action, understand how biased each
narrative, each memory, each history, is to each individual.
"Design"
Sutpen's "design" rules his life and causes his downfall. The futility of
directing one's life towards an idea or a "design" without emotional
concern for other human beings is well-illustrated through the figure of
Sutpen, who is unable to engage the people that surround him as people,
rather than as objects. Sutpen's failure to achieve his design strictly based
on his will is proof that the only designs that succeed in life are those that
account for people as humans rather than as objects.
Haunted House
The original title for this book was Dark House, symbolizing both the
work's Gothic roots and its depiction of the "dark house" of the South.
Sutpen's haunted house on Sutpen's Hundred is a metaphor for the South
and all of the sins that it is responsible for, including slavery and the
repudiation of the black "sons" of the South. Just as Sutpen's haunted
house fell because it failed to reconcile the black sons with the white, the
South, too, fell for the same reason.
Style
153
Many readers find that Faulkner's style is the most difficult aspect of this
particular novel to overcome. In fact, Faulkner's style throughout many of
his novels has been a restraining hindrance for many readers.
What Faulkner attempts to do is to adjust his style to his subject matter.
Therefore, to see how his style functions in this particular novel, we must
review briefly his approach to his subject.
We have already seen that Faulkner does not begin his story at the
beginning. Likewise, he does not use a straightforward method of relating
the story. In other words, he will tell the reader a little about a certain
event, and then he will drop it and later return to the event and tell the
reader more and then drop it and then later return once more and tell
more. During this technique of circumlocution (that is, a technique
whereby the author approaches his material in circular movements rather
than heading directly to the heart of the story), the reader gradually
becomes aware of events, facts, motivations, and emotions.
This type of technique would fall very flat if Faulkner used a simple
expository prose. Part of the thrill and excitement of the novel is that the
style is therefore adapted to the subject matter and the emotions. As the
subject matter is told in circular movements, so is the style involved and
circular. Every sentence is almost as involved as is the entire novel; every
sentence reflects the complexity of the subject matter. And every
sentence reminds the reader that this story is not one that can be told
with simplicity.
The complexity of the narration is another way Faulkner uses to indicate
and to suggest the complexity that man (particularly Quentin) must face
in arriving at the truth. Truth is not easy to discover. The Sutpen story
conceals many important revelations and truths which need to be
revealed. The style, then, emphasizes the difficulty which man must
encounter when he seeks after the real truth.
Possibly the story is too great or too violent to be told in a straight, simple
narration. If we were suddenly confronted in simple factual prose with the
facts of incest, possible homosexuality, fratricide, lust, etc., we would
think the story too incredible and too fantastic to believe. But with the
difficulty of untangling Faulkner's complex style, suddenly the very
complexity of his style makes the bizarre plot more believable.
And finally, the style reflects the way which the story actually occurred.
That is to say, Sutpen appeared in Jefferson for one day; nothing was
known about him for a long time. Then gradually a little information was
discovered by General Compson. Then later, years later, more information
was uncovered. Then the death of Bon was announced to the town, but
again it was years before anyone knew all of the facts surrounding this
death. Faulkner's style suggests also the way that story actually occurred,
that is, from fragment to fragment.
If, then, the difficult sentences retard the reader at first, they are
supposed to. It would be dangerous to go too rapidly into the story. If the
sentences surround you and envelop you and entangle you in the story,
154
this is Faulkner's method of making you become a part of the story. And
before long, the reader becomes accustomed to the style and becomes,
as does Shreve, one of the narrators or one of the participants. We
become or we identify with the strong, pulsating rhythms of his style until
we become totally emerged in Faulkner's strange but vivid world so that
when we follow Henry and Bon onto the battlefield, it is not just Shreve
and Quentin following them, but it is also we the readers who are also
following them. Faulkner's style has served its purpose: First, it held the
reader back and confused him, and then gradually it brought the reader
into the story so personally that he became one of the actors or
participants.
Absalom, Absalom! is considered to be one of Faulkner's most difficult
novels because of its complex narrative structure. In a sense, the story
becomes part of an oral tradition among the residents of Jefferson and, as
Shreve becomes involved, people living beyond Jefferson. Many of
Faulkner's characteristic structural innovations are employed in Absalom,
Absalom!, such as long sentences, flashbacks, and multiple points of view
describing the same events. Because the narrative structure is so unusual,
the reader is kept off balance from the opening pages to the end of the
novel and must learn how to read it as the book unfolds.
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCIS
MACOMBER ERNEST HEMINGWAY
1.The old man and the sea
Context
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, the second of six
children, and spent his early years in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago.
Hemingway began to hone his now-famous literary style during his years
as a reporter. His editors instructed him to write short, factual sentences
without too many negatives to deliver the facts in his articles. He later
incorporated this writing style into his own fiction writing. Hemingway
soon grew restless and left the Star to serve in the Red Cross, where he
worked as an ambulance driver in Europe during World War I. While
recovering from a knee injury in a hospital in Milan, he fell in love with a
nurse named Agnes von Kurosky. Although their relationship didnt last, he
based his novel A Farewell To Arms (1929) on their romance.
The iceberg theory and Hemingways style
Many first-time readers read Hills Like White Elephants as nothing more
than a casual conversation between two people waiting for a train and
therefore miss the unstated dramatic tension lurking between each line.
As a result, many people dont realize that the two are actually talking
about having an abortion and going their separate ways, let alone why the
story was so revolutionary for its time. In accordance with his so-called
Iceberg Theory, Hemingway stripped everything but the bare essentials
from his stories and novels, leaving readers to sift through the remaining
155
dialogue and bits of narrative on their own. Just as the visible tip of an
iceberg hides a far greater mass of ice underneath the ocean surface, so
does Hemingways dialogue belie the unstated tension between his
characters. In fact, Hemingway firmly believed that perfect stories
conveyed far more through subtext than through the actual words written
on the page. The more a writer strips away, the more powerful the
iceberg, or story, becomes.
Hemingway stripped so much from his stories that many of his
contemporary critics complained that his fiction was little more than
snippets of dialogue strung together. Others have called his writing overly
masculinethere are no beautiful phrases or breathtaking passages, just
the sheer basics. In Hills Like White Elephants, for example, both the
American man and the girl speak in short sentences and rarely utter more
than a few words at a time. Hemingway also avoids using dialogue tags,
such as he said or she said, and skips any internal monologues. These
elements leave the characters thoughts and feelings completely up to the
readers own interpretations. Hemingways fans, however, have lauded his
style for its simplicity, believing that fewer misleading words paint a truer
picture of what lies beneath.
Analysis of major characters
Santiago
Santiago suffers terribly throughout The Old Man and the Sea. In the
opening pages of the book, he has gone eighty-four days without catching
a fish and has become the laughingstock of his small village. He then
endures a long and gruelling struggle with the marlin only to see his
trophy catch destroyed by sharks. Yet, the destruction enables the old
man to undergo a remarkable transformation, and he wrests triumph and
renewed life from his seeming defeat. After all, Santiago is an old man
whose physical existence is almost over, but the reader is assured that
Santiago will persist through Manolin, who, like a disciple, awaits the old
mans teachings and will make use of those lessons long after his teacher
has died. Thus, Santiago manages, perhaps, the most miraculous feat of
all: he finds a way to prolong his life after death.
Santiagos commitment to sailing out farther than any fisherman has
before, to where the big fish promise to be, testifies to the depth of his
pride. Yet, it also shows his determination to change his luck. Later, after
the sharks have destroyed his prize marlin, Santiago chastises himself for
his hubris (exaggerated pride), claiming that it has ruined both the marlin
and himself. True as this might be, it is only half the picture, for Santiagos
pride also enables him to achieve his most true and complete self.
Furthermore, it helps him earn the deeper respect of the village fishermen
and secures him the prized companionship of the boyhe knows that he
will never have to endure such an epic struggle again.
Santiagos pride is what enables him to endure, and it is perhaps
endurance that matters most in Hemingways conception of the worlda
world in which death and destruction, as part of the natural order of
156
things, are unavoidable. Hemingway seems to believe that there are only
two options: defeat or endurance until destruction; Santiago clearly
chooses the latter. His stoic determination is mythic, nearly Christ-like in
proportion. For three days, he holds fast to the line that links him to the
fish, even though it cuts deeply into his palms, causes a crippling cramp in
his left hand, and ruins his back. This physical pain allows Santiago to
forge a connection with the marlin that goes beyond the literal link of the
line: his bodily aches attest to the fact that he is well matched, that the
fish is a worthy opponent, and that he himself, because he is able to fight
so hard, is a worthy fisherman. This connectedness to the world around
him eventually elevates Santiago beyond what would otherwise be his
defeat. Like Christ, to whom Santiago is unashamedly compared at the
end of the novella, the old mans physical suffering leads to a more
significant spiritual triumph.
Manolin
Manolin is present only in the beginning and at the end of The Old Man
and the Sea, but his presence is important because Manolins devotion to
Santiago highlights Santiagos value as a person and as a fisherman.
Manolin demonstrates his love for Santiago openly. He makes sure that
the old man has food, blankets, and can rest without being bothered.
Despite Hemingways insistence that his characters were a real old man
and a real boy, Manolins purity and singleness of purpose elevate him to
the level of a symbolic character. Manolins actions are not tainted by the
confusion, ambivalence, or wilfulness that typify adolescence. Instead, he
is a companion who feels nothing but love and devotion.
Hemingway does hint at the boys resentment for his father, whose wishes
Manolin obeys by abandoning the old man after forty days without
catching a fish. This fact helps to establish the boy as a real human being
a person with conflicted loyalties who faces difficult decisions. By the
end of the book, however, the boy abandons his duty to his father,
swearing that he will sail with the old man regardless of the
consequences. He stands, in the novellas final pages, as a symbol of
uncompromised love and fidelity. As the old mans apprentice, he also
represents the life that will follow from death. His dedication to learning
from the old man ensures that Santiago will live on.
Themes
The Honor in Struggle, Defeat & Death
From the very first paragraph, Santiago is characterized as someone
struggling against defeat. He has gone eighty-four days without catching a
fishhe will soon pass his own record of eighty-seven days. Almost as a
reminder of Santiagos struggle, the sail of his skiff resembles the flag of
permanent defeat. But the old man refuses defeat at every turn: he
resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen to where the biggest fish
promise to be. He lands the marlin, tying his record of eighty-seven days
after a brutal three-day fight, and he continues to ward off sharks from
stealing his prey, even though he knows the battle is useless.
157
Because Santiago is pitted against the creatures of the sea, some readers
choose to view the tale as a chronicle of mans battle against the natural
world, but the novella is, more accurately, the story of mans
place within nature. Both Santiago and the marlin display qualities of
pride, honor, and bravery, and both are subject to the same eternal law:
they must kill or be killed. As Santiago reflects when he watches the
weary warbler fly toward shore, where it will inevitably meet the hawk, the
world is filled with predators, and no living thing can escape the inevitable
struggle that will lead to its death. Santiago lives according to his own
observation: man is not made for defeat . . . [a] man can be destroyed
but not defeated. In Hemingways portrait of the world, death is
inevitable, but the best men (and animals) will nonetheless refuse to give
in to its power. Accordingly, man and fish will struggle to the death, just as
hungry sharks will lay waste to an old mans trophy catch.
The novel suggests that it is possible to transcend this natural law. In fact,
the very inevitability of destruction creates the terms that allow a worthy
man or beast to transcend it. It is precisely through the effort to battle the
inevitable that a man can prove himself. Indeed, a man can prove this
determination over and over through the worthiness of the opponents he
chooses to face. Santiago finds the marlin worthy of a fight, just as he
once found the great negro of Cienfuegos worthy. His admiration for
these opponents brings love and respect into an equation with death, as
their destruction becomes a point of honor and bravery that confirms
Santiagos heroic qualities. One might characterize the equation as the
working out of the statement Because I love you, I have to kill you.
Alternately, one might draw a parallel to the poet John Keats and his
insistence that beauty can only be comprehended in the moment before
death, as beauty bows to destruction. Santiago, though destroyed at the
end of the novella, is never defeated. Instead, he emerges as a hero.
Santiagos struggle does not enable him to change mans place in the
world. Rather, it enables him to meet his most dignified destiny.
Pride as the Source of Greatness & Determination
Many parallels exist between Santiago and the classic heroes of the
ancient world. In addition to exhibiting terrific strength, bravery, and
moral certainty, those heroes usually possess a tragic flawa quality that,
though admirable, leads to their eventual downfall. If pride is Santiagos
fatal flaw, he is keenly aware of it. After sharks have destroyed the marlin,
the old man apologizes again and again to his worthy opponent. He has
ruined them both, he concedes, by sailing beyond the usual boundaries of
fishermen. Indeed, his last word on the subject comes when he asks
himself the reason for his undoing and decides, Nothing . . . I went out
too far.
While it is certainly true that Santiagos eighty-four-day run of bad luck is
an affront to his pride as a masterful fisherman, and that his attempt to
bear out his skills by sailing far into the gulf waters leads to disaster,
Hemingway does not condemn his protagonist for being full of pride. On
the contrary, Santiago stands as proof that pride motivates men to
158
greatness. Because the old man acknowledges that he killed the mighty
marlin largely out of pride, and because his capture of the marlin leads in
turn to his heroic transcendence of defeat, pride becomes the source of
Santiagos greatest strength. Without a ferocious sense of pride, that
battle would never have been fought, or more likely, it would have been
abandoned before the end.
Santiagos pride also motivates his desire to transcend the destructive
forces of nature. Throughout the novel, no matter how baleful his
circumstances become, the old man exhibits an unflagging determination
to catch the marlin and bring it to shore. When the first shark arrives,
Santiagos resolve is mentioned twice in the space of just a few
paragraphs. First we are told that the old man was full of resolution but
he had little hope. Then, sentences later, the narrator says, He hit [the
shark] without hope but with resolution. The old man meets every
challenge with the same unwavering determination: he is willing to die in
order to bring in the marlin, and he is willing to die in order to battle the
feeding sharks. It is this conscious decision to act, to fight, to never give
up that enables Santiago to avoid defeat. Although he returns to Havana
without the trophy of his long battle, he returns with the knowledge that
he has acquitted himself proudly and manfully. Hemingway seems to
suggest that victory is not a prerequisite for honor. Instead, glory depends
upon one having the pride to see a struggle through to its end, regardless
of the outcome. Even if the old man had returned with the marlin intact,
his moment of glory, like the marlins meat, would have been short-lived.
The glory and honor Santiago accrues comes not from his battle itself but
from his pride and determination to fight.
Motifs
Crucifixion Imagery
In order to suggest the profundity of the old mans sacrifice and the glory
that derives from it, Hemingway purposefully likens Santiago to Christ,
who, according to Christian theology, gave his life for the greater glory of
humankind. Crucifixion imagery is the most noticeable way in which
Hemingway creates the symbolic parallel between Santiago and Christ.
When Santiagos palms are first cut by his fishing line, the reader cannot
help but think of Christ suffering his stigmata. Later, when the sharks
arrive, Hemingway portrays the old man as a crucified martyr, saying that
he makes a noise similar to that of a man having nails driven through his
hands. Furthermore, the image of the old man struggling up the hill with
his mast across his shoulders recalls Christs march toward Calvary. Even
the position in which Santiago collapses on his bedface down with his
arms out straight and the palms of his hands upbrings to mind the
image of Christ suffering on the cross. Hemingway employs these images
in the final pages of the novella in order to link Santiago to Christ, who
exemplified transcendence by turning loss into gain, defeat into triumph,
and even death into renewed life.
Life from Death
159
Death is the unavoidable force in the novella, the one fact that no living
creature can escape. But death, Hemingway suggests, is never an end in
itself: in death there is always the possibility of the most vigorous life. The
reader notes that as Santiago slays the marlin, not only is the old man
reinvigorated by the battle, but the fish also comes alive with his death in
him. Life, the possibility of renewal, necessarily follows on the heels of
death.
Whereas the marlins death hints at a type of physical reanimation, death
leads to life in less literal ways at other points in the novella. The books
crucifixion imagery emphasizes the cyclical connection between life and
death, as does Santiagos battle with the marlin. His success at bringing
the marlin in earns him the awed respect of the fishermen who once
mocked him, and secures him the companionship of Manolin, the
apprentice who will carry on Santiagos teachings long after the old man
has died.
The Lions on the Beach
Santiago dreams his pleasant dream of the lions at play on the beaches of
Africa three times. The first time is the night before he departs on his
three-day fishing expedition, the second occurs when he sleeps on the
boat for a few hours in the middle of his struggle with the marlin, and the
third takes place at the very end of the book. In fact, the sober promise of
the triumph and regeneration with which the novella closes is supported
by the final image of the lions. Because Santiago associates the lions with
his youth, the dream suggests the circular nature of life. Additionally,
because Santiago imagines the lions, fierce predators, playing, his dream
suggests a harmony between the opposing forceslife and death, love
and hate, destruction and regenerationof nature.
Symbols
The Marlin
Magnificent and glorious, the marlin symbolizes the ideal opponent. In a
world in which everything kills everything else in some way, Santiago
feels genuinely lucky to find himself matched against a creature that
brings out the best in him: his strength, courage, love, and respect.
The Shovel-Nosed Sharks
The shovel-nosed sharks are little more than moving appetites that
thoughtlessly and gracelessly attack the marlin. As opponents of the old
man, they stand in bold contrast to the marlin, which is worthy of
Santiagos effort and strength. They symbolize and embody the
destructive laws of the universe and attest to the fact that those laws can
be transcended only when equals fight to the death. Because they are
base predators, Santiago wins no glory from battling them.
160
Human courage
The search for dignity amidst the harshness of the world
The stoic hero who lives by his own code of values
The ability to function with grace under pressure
The images of the athlete, animals and Christ
The themes:
161
power. A mans power lies within his soul, not his wallet, and Francis
Macomber learns these lessons the hard way.
"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" can be viewed thematically
as the last phase of the initiation of the code hero, a phase whose echoes
are heard in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and, in one form or another, in For
Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. The at-first cowardly
Francis Macomber and his symbolically castrating wife are being
guided on a big-game hunt by a professional hunter and code initiate,
Robert Wilson. Macomber repeatedly shows his cowardice and is verbally
chastised by his wife, who sarcastically responds to his assertiveness late
in the story with the line, "You've gotten awfully brave, awfully suddenly."
Ironically, Macomber has, in fact, become brave, as he demonstrates by
standing his ground and firing at a charging buffalo, "shooting a touch
high each time and hitting the heavy horns, splintering and chipping them
like hitting a slate roof...." Margot grabs a gun, ostensibly to get the
buffalo,
and
shoots
Macomber
through
the
skull.
The literal reader will find a number of questions about this story, at the
level of plot, nagging. Why does Macomber, if he is a coward, go on a biggame hunt in the first place? Why does he, when in the company of
Wilson, allow his wife to badger him? Of what is he actually afraid and
how does he overcome his fear? Finally, does his wife shoot him
intentionally? None of the questions is answered explicitly in the story,
and yet the reader familiar with Hemingway's aesthetic theories can make
good guesses at the answers. Moreover, he knows that the unstated
answers tell what the story is really about. Macomber, although a coward,
goes on a big-game hunt because of his craving to break free of the
oppressive forces, represented by his wife, which bind him. Perhaps the
fear is, on one level, of castration; perhaps on another, it is a fear of being
forever bound to woman, a condition which keeps his identity as a male
and as an individual in eclipse. On the deepest level, as the text of the
story indicates, it is a fear of death, which because of the heroic Wilson's
presence and with his guidance, Macomber overcomes. the title of the
story suggest that every moment Macomber lived in fear was not actually
life at all; only in overcoming the fear of death did he escape the
suffocating attachment ot Margot and actually have a life, although the
life was only of a few seconds' duration. Whether Margot shot Macomber
intentionally or not makes little difference, because when the code hero
embraces death, that, for him, is the end of the story.
With Francis Macomber the code hero finally reaches the point of full
initiation toward which he has been moving since the early Nick Adams
stories. In his first form, as in "Indian Camp," the hero becomes dimly
aware of the central dilemma of life: to face his own mortality. Once he
accepts this call to adventure, he begins his pursuit of experiences which
will reveal to him, at least symbolically, the truth that in life, death is
always present. It becomes the hero's task to accept it stoically. Seeing
death, calling it by various names like nada or nothingness, empathizing
with those who are close to it like the old man in the cafe--it remains only
for the code hero to grasp the thing itself. When he does, as Francis
Macomber does, embrace death without fear, the cycle is complete; the
163
initiation
is
accomplished.
From the beginning, the dominant concern of Hemingway's short stories
is with initiation; the mythic pattern of the heroic quest, whose end point
is death. His triumph, however, is the knowledge that it can be faced
gracefully and with courage. That is the boon that the Hemingway hero
finally, often through his sacrificial death, gives to those with whom he is
associated and to the Hemingway reader. In his Nobel Prize acceptance
speech, Hemingway concludes with these words: "A writer should write
what he has to say and not speak it." Through the short story, the genre
by which Hemingway learned to practice his craft, he wrote what he had
to say--perhaps until he had too few things left on the surface that he did
not know about and which did not go without saying. After that, what
remained for him was to embrace the thing itself in his suicide. "But not
before, in William White's words, "he had written a shelf of some of the
finest prose by an American in this century."
Themes
Nature
Nature, in the form of beautiful landscapes and wholesome surroundings,
is a constant presence in Hemingways short fiction. It is often the only
thing in the text, animate or inanimate, that is described in a positive or
laudatory fashion. Hemingway was a great believer in the power of nature,
both in terms of its beauty and its challenges, to improve ones quality of
life. He was a lifelong outdoorsman, an avid hunter, fisherman, camper
and boater, and he believed that overcoming natural obstacles using only
ones intelligence and skills made one a better person. In addition,
Hemingways characters look to majestic landscapes and other
manifestations of natural beauty for hope, inspiration, and even guidance
during difficult or challenging times.
In many Hemingway stories, the ability to conquer nature by hunting and
killing animals is the test of masculinity. For example, in The Short Happy
Life of Francis Macomber, the title character comes into his own by
shooting buffalo.
Death
Also a near-constant presence in Hemingways stories is the theme of
death, either in the form of death itself, the knowledge of the inevitability
of death, or the futility of fleeing death. Clearly evocative of death are the
stories in which Hemingway describes actual deaths: the war experiences
of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and In Another Country; the suicides of A
Clean, Well-Lighted Place and Fathers and Sons; and the accidents of
The Capital of the World and The Short Happy Life of Francis
Macomber.
Hand-in-glove with the theme of death is another Hemingway favorite:
fatalistic heroism or heroic fatalism. This attitude entails facing ones
certain death with dignity. In addition, Hemingway can be seen to
embrace nihilism, the belief that life is meaningless and that resistance to
death is futile, in some of his stories. In short, Hemingway, critics have
164
speculated, feared death but was fascinated by it; it crops up in one form
or another in nearly every one of his stories.
Masculinity
Hemingway, it is often noted, was enamored of a particular notion of
masculinity. Hemingways heroes are often outdoorsmen or hunters who
are stoic, taciturn, and averse to showing emotion. Real men, according to
Hemingway, are physically courageous and confident, and keep doubts
and insecurities to themselves. In addition, there is always an emphasis
on the necessity of proving ones manhood rather than taking it for
granted. According to the authors biographers and critics, Hemingway
was brought up with this notion of masculinity; it certainly pervades all of
his works of short fiction.
In The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, the title character goes
from emasculation to full manhood just by shooting buffalo. In A Days
Wait, Schatz proves his masculinity by stoically holding his emotions in
check even as he believes he is dying while his father proves his by going
shooting in spite of having a sick son at home. In Up in Michigan Jim
Gilmore displays his masculinity by going on an extended deer hunt with
his buddies and in The Capital of the World, Paco and Enrique play out a
make-believe bullfight in order to prove they are manly enough for the
real thing. In Another Country describes Nick Adamss inferiority
complex with respect to three Italian soldiers who received medals for
bravery; he explains that received his simply for being an American. The
Killers describes Nicks heroic physical courage in defying hit men to
warn their target, and Fathers and Sons describes Nicks coming of age
in terms of hunting and killing black squirrels.
Animals as Symbols
Animals in the Hemingway canon, whether they are game, pets, or wild,
sometimes serve as symbols for their human hunters, caretakers or
observers. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the frozen leopard on the top of
the mountain represents immortality, which is the quality Harry strives for
even as he is dying. The hyena in that story, conversely, represents
Harrys impending death. In Old Man at the Bridge, Hemingway switches
the word pigeons, a reference to the old mans eight pet birds, for the
word doves, a symbol of peace in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. In
Hills Like White Elephants, the white elephant of the title is Jigs
unborn baby, a cumbersome, largely useless thing that is on the brink of
driving the relationship apart. In The Short Happy Life of Francis
Macomber, the wounded lion that Francis shoots and then runs away
from represents the obstacle to his proving his masculinity; though not
cowardly itself, it represents Macombers cowardice.
As it left the Second World War behind, the Unites States set its
sights on forgetting the misery and depression that had taken root for
over a decade following the economic collapse of 1929. While Europe was
slowly reconstructed in the late 1940s and 50s with the help of American
investments, the United States began to take on its role as leader of the
Western world. In foreign affairs it emerged as the main opponent of
Soviet and Chinese inspired communism and at home it became a
laboratory for new social and lifestyle trends that would be copied all over
the western world and beyond.
In the 1950s the United States saw a marked increase in the birth
rate and the children born during this baby grew into a generation that
profoundly changed the nature of American society.
The first winds of change were felt during the 1960s as young
people started to rebel against the values and traditions of previous
generations. Both the term teenager and generation gap were coined in
these years to describe the rebellion of youth which made its voice heard
in many fields.
Women won the right to control birth through the use of artificial
contraception and in 1973 abortion was legalised for the first time. The
feminist movement continued to promote womens welfare and made
great strides in obtaining equal opportunities for women in all walks of life,
Of similar if not even greater impact on American life was the Civil
Rights Movement which demanded equal rights for black Americans and
subsequently all non-whites.
The two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats,
regularly alternated periods in power without greatly upsetting or
changing general social and economic trends. Meanwhile, the United
States consolidated its position as the most powerful economy in the
world and continues to dominate world trade.
As the United States enters the new millennium, it holds a preeminent position in the world. The small cluster of north-eastern colonies,
that gave birth to a new state in the 18 th century, has grown and
expanded to become the most powerful country on earth both militarily
and economically. It has become a multiethnic nation in which people of
all races and religions live and to which the rest of the world looks as a
major partner in plotting the future of humanity.
NORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE
On a general cultural level America has had and continues to have
enormous influence on Britain. America has also led the way in certain
artistic fields. Of undoubted significance was the emergence of Pop Art in
the 1960s as championed by Andy Warhol, who used the styles and
themes of popular culture to create a new form of visual expression.
FICTION
166
The Crying of Lot 49 was written in the 1960s, one of the most politically
and socially turbulent decades in U.S. history. The decade saw the rise of
the drug culture, the Vietnam War, the rock revolution, as well as the birth
of numerous social welfare programs after the Democrats swept Congress
in the 1964 elections. This was also the decade of John F. Kennedy's
assassination, Martin Luther King's assassination, Civil Rights, and, to
some extent, women's rights. The novel taps into this explosion of cultural
occurrences, depicting a dramatically fragmented society. The Crying of
Lot 49 contains a pervasive sense of cultural chaos; indeed, the book
draws on all areas of culture and society, including many of those
mentioned above. In the end, the novel's protagonist, Oedipa Maas, finds
herself alone and alienated from that society, having lost touch with the
life she used to lead before she began her attempt to uncover the mystery
of the Tristero. The drug culture plays a big part in this sense of isolation.
The world around Oedipa seems to be a world perpetually on drugs, manic
and full of conspiracies and illusions. And though that world is exciting and
new, it is also dangerous: drugs contribute to the destruction of Oedipa's
marriage, and drugs cause Hilarius to go insane. Oedipa hallucinates so
often that she seems to be constantly high, and ultimately, this brings her
nothing but a sense of chaotic alienation.
Many of the problems with chaos found in the novel are tied in to the idea
of communication. The major symbol of order in the novel, Maxwell's
Demon, cannot be operated because it requires a certain unattainable
level of communication. Letters in the novel, which should be clear and
direct forms of stable communication, are ultimately meaningless. The
novel also contains a mail-delivery group that requires its members to
mail a letter once a week even if they have nothing to say. Indeed, the
letter Oedipa receives in chapter one may itself be meaningless, since it is
the first step in what may be nothing more than a big joke played on
Oedipa. The religious moment Oedipa experiences in chapter two seems
for a moment to promise the possibility of some kind of communication
being communicated, but the process breaks down. Religion, language,
science, all of the purveyors of communication, and through that
communication a sense of wholeness, do not correctly function in the
novel.
Related to the theme of the problem of communication is the novel's
representation of the way in which people impose interpretation on the
meaningless. It is very telling that Oedipa wants to turn the mystery of the
Tristero into a "constellation," which is not really an example of true order.
Solar systems are simply mankind's way of imposing an artificial but
pleasing order on the randomness of outer space. It is, furthermore, an
imposition of a two-dimensional structure onto a three-dimensional reality.
Oedipa's quest to construct a constellation seems to indicate that she is
only looking for a superficial system. Indeed, she never succeeds in
figuring out the meaning behind the Tristero, and, further, the novel ends
with the very strong likelihood that the mystery may hold no mystery at
all. And just as she is unable to piece together the puzzle of the Tristero,
she is similarly unable to refashion her life after it begins to fall apart.
168
Even the United States government, which tries to impose an order on the
world of mail delivery, cannot prevent side groups from springing up to
undermine its work.
There are two concepts underlying all this: puns and science. The novel is
full of puns and language games of all sorts. For instance, the odd names
of the novel's characters are a type of play on different words and their
symbolic baggage. Another example is the concept of the word "lot" in the
title, which actually occurs several times in the book but does not relate to
anything in the story until the last few pages. Also, we see that Mucho's
radio station spells "fuck" when read in reverse, forming another little
language game that does not have necessarily any inherent meaning but
does indicate an interest in manipulating language for intellectual
enjoyment. Language is the means through which the story is
communicated, and Pynchon has chosen to use a language full of jokes,
puns, and satires. Science seems to stand in opposition to the chaos of
language that all of Pynchon's manipulation suggests. Science is ordered
and coherent and offers a body of definite knowledge that all can study.
And yet, even the coherence of science is undermined in the existence of
Maxwell's Demon and the figure of Dr. Hilarius. Though pure science may
offer coherence, the uses to which that science is put, the interpretations
imposed on that science, can scatter that coherence to the wind.
More than anything else, The Crying of Lot 49 appears to be about cultural
chaos and communication as seen through the eyes of a young woman
who finds herself in a hallucinogenic world disintegrating around her.
Themes
Entropy
The process of entropy leads to the inevitable progression of a closed
system to patterned, chaotic sameness. In thematic terms, entropy
represents Pynchon's concern with our culture's movement toward
intellectual inertia. In Maxwell's Demon, Nefastis created a machine which
works directly with Pynchon's theme of entropy. The sorting inherent in
the machine would actually preserve a world able to remain
heterogeneous. By dividing the two types of molecules into different
compartments so that heat is created and maintained, the molecules do
not have a chance to share properties until an equilibrium is reached. As
Grant comments, "Sorting,' therefore, becomes an absolutely central
metaphor, and the fact that Oedipa singles this concept out for objection
is an indication of her intuitive grasp of her own predicament." The closed
system will move toward entropy in the same manner that the entire
universal system will, both existentially and rationally. In tune with the
allusions to Narcissus, the world is contained within itself and has become
an egotistical system moving toward a chaotic sense of orderlessness.
Post-modernist examination
literary significance
of
textual
versus
metaphorical
by Pynchon to lead the reader into drawing the easy references and falling
into the traps readers so often do when they reach for allusions in order to
find significance. Pynchon is possibly leading the reader into assumptions
which they are all too likely to make so that they realize the error as they
proceed within the postmodern novel which espouses a theme of noncategorization and structuralism. We are taken on her journey because the
search for self and meaning and connection is insatiable, even when it is
being parodied as is often the case with Pynchon. Is the search of
meaning and analysis then a fruitless attempt to grant significance to an
increasingly grey ash type of modern society or is the only escape in a
system which is decreasingly transmitting communication to forge new,
alternate means of informing and differentiating human beings?
Excluded middles: the grey ash / what has been thrown away as
valuable
The entire idea of waste is concurrent with Pynchon's theme of excluded
middles, in this sense, where the grey ash of life is often tossed away in
order to hold onto the overly extreme binaries. A consumer society
disposes and dispossesses more of life than it keeps. Often more
questions are raised then answered and for every binary presented, an
inversion of the duality is also usually suggested. One of the most
common terms thrown around in literary criticism concerning Crying is the
"excluded middle." The progression toward dichotomy is also a
progression toward the questioning of what lies between the two
extremes. The grey area is very significant, while also asking the reader if
it is significant only because the human being cannot be satisfied without
an attempt at pointing significance. Largely, though, it points to the
waste, the disinherited of society, as symbolized by the amount of
underground networks who have felt unrepresented by the official postal
system. These are the people, the lives, the core of humanity disregarded
and dispossessed. Mucho Maas is haunted by nightmares of these grey
ash leftovers of humanity and so, in its way, is the entire novel.
Man versus modernity/consumerism/consumption
At the start of the novel, Oedipa is not working. She attends a Tupperware
gathering, a clear symbol of mid-twentieth century American housewifery.
As some critics have noted, the fact that the host of the party had likely
put too much kirsch in the fondue shows that the party signifies superficial
consumership in material America more than any type of sincere
communal bonding as the hostess felt the need to get her attendees
drunk in order to entertain them. Oedipa's search for information and
cohesion within the world at large is symbolized by her entrapment by
commercial society. Parallels have been constructed between the green
bubble glasses that Oedipa wears when crying as she views the painting
in Mexico City and the lone green eye that is a metaphor for the television
screen. Furthermore, expanding the theme of disillusioning modern
commercialism, Oedipa notes that in her vision, Pierce only reaches the
top of her tower when he uses a credit card to shimmy his way up. In the
170
mass consumer society in which Oedipa lives, the individual is in dire need
of revelation, another term which is used often by Pynchon.
176