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5th
Sem. Eng. Hons |
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Paper: - 5016 |
Heart of Darkness By-
Joseph Conrad
1.
In
which year the novel ‘The Heart of Darkness’ was published?
Ans.
In 1899
2.
What
is Congo Diary?
Ans.
Conrad visited Congo from 1890 to 1894, and during his stay in Congo he recorded
his experiences on the native people of Congo and the brutality of European in
his diary. This diary is known as Congo diary. Later, Conrad published his
Congo diary in the form of novel, Heart of Darkness.
3.
Name
two major novels of Joseph Conrad.
Ans.
Almayer’s Folly, Lord Jim.
4.
What
are the themes of the novel ‘The Heart of Darkness’?
Ans.
Colonialism, imperialism, brutality of European power, etc.
5.
Who
are the other person with Marlow on the ship?
Ans.
Director, Lawyer, Unnamed narrator, and Accountant.
6.
Name
the company where Marlow worked as a seaman.
Ans.
Belgian Ivory Trading Company.
7.
How
many stations are there of Belgian company in Congo, and what are those?
Ans.
Three stations, Outer station, Central station, and Inner station.
8.
Who
do control the three stations in Congo?
Ans.
i. Outer station controlled by Accountant, Central station controlled by
General, and Inner station controlled by Kurtz.
9.
How many days does Marlow stay in the Outer
station?
Ans.
Ten days.
10. Who dies by the attack of Native
Congo?
Ans.
A helmsman of Marlow’s ship.
11. Where does Kurtz die and why?
Ans.
Kurtz dies in the ship of Marlow due to serious illness.
12. Whom did Kurtz give his personal
documents?
Ans.
Kurtz gave his personal documents to Marlow.
13. What words did Marlow utter before
his death?
Ans.
‘The Horror! The Horror!
14. To whom did Marlow return the
documents of Kurtz?
Ans.
To Kurtz’s fiancé who came to meet Marlow.
15. What Kurtz’s fiancé asked Marlow
about Kurtz and what Marlow replied?
Ans.
Kurtz’s fiancé askes Marlow whether Kurtz said anything about her before his
death. Marlow told her that he talked about her, Marlow told lies not to hurt
her more.
16. Name the ship that is seen in the
Thames River at the beginning of the novel.
Ans.
Nelli.
17. What natural resources does the
Belgian company collect from Congo?
Ans.
Ivory
18. Who told Marlow that Kurtz was a
musician and humanitarian, as a whole a genius?
Ans.Kurtz’s
cousin.
19. Discuss the symbolic
representation of evil in the novel, ‘The Heart of Darkness’.
Ans. In Heart of Darkness, symbols
help to convey the themes in the novella. The story is a condemnation of
imperialism, and by having symbols such as darkness appear throughout, the
message becomes clearer: the evil was brought to Africa, it did not originate
there.
In
his classic novel 'Heart of Darkness', Joseph Conrad deals with many themes.
One of the most important of these themes is evil. It is presented as a
concept, as well as personified or given human form, in certain characters in
the story. Conrad's extensive use of darkness throughout the novel, including
title, represents the pervasiveness of evil in the story.
In
the novel, Joseph Conrad says that everybody has within oneself vulnerability,
fragility, weakness and strong fear of being deviated from the essential norms
and values, all of us possess within ourselves basic evils. In our day-to-day
normal life this basic hidden evil doesn't emerge strongly and overwhelmingly.
But when we enter into that zone, which fires our evils, these evils become
unconquerable. These evils become so threatening that they can claim our lives.
For example, greed and lust for power and prosperity is invisibly hidden in the
innermost part of our life. At the normal state of our life, we are not aware
of how life threatening they are. But the moment we enter into the atmosphere
of temptation we succumb to the temptation of evils if we have no substance to
prevent.
In
the novel, there is a unique and pretty extraordinary genius Kurtz. He
represents a highly refined civilized, European, moral self. Amidst the
enchanting glow and glamour of his civilized personality all basic evils
remained unknown. But as soon as Kurtz landed on the soil of Congo, his
civilized personality and 'self' began to dwindle and disintegrate. He saw the
prospect of exploiting ivory. He happened to see lots of economic resources in
the Congo. He found those people incapable of self-governance. So, in Kurtz's
mind the ambitious desire to rule the Africans in Congo developed. Having seen
lots of ivory, Kurtz's greed soared uncontrollably. In the name of dominating
the natives, he became more barbaric than the natives.
Kurtz's
evils cropped up and mushroomed panoramically He became so sexual that he
forgot about his European girlfriend and began to enjoy with an African woman.
So, it seems that Kurtz's evils increased by leaps and bounds as he came in
touch with evil-stimulating outer atmosphere. But like Kurtz, Marlow too had
reached Congo. But unlike Kurtz, Marlow kept himself intact amidst the enticing
climate of evil. Hence the novel asserts that by exploring the outer world of
evil the explorer happen to explore his own inner world of evil. Hence Conrad's
'Heart of Darkness' is an exploration of evil.
Moreover, Joseph Conrad ridicules the
hollowness of the Western European civilization. European civilization trumpets.
countess slogans like "Universal Culture", "Universal
Civilization" and "The White man's burden". But all of its
claims and slogans sound somewhat hollow and empty. Its basic context lacks a
sense of profundity when Kurtz came in the face of confrontation with Congo,
the symbol of Barbarism, an antithesis of civilization. Kurtz began to show his
hidden barbaric self. His unrestrained greed just increased unbelievably. Had
the western civilization been as strong as it was told, Kurtz should not have
degenerated into the lusty, licentious, cruel and exploitative figure.
So,
in conclusion we may say that the evil in Heart of Darkness is not the darkness
of Africa, Instead, it is the evil of imperialism which European powers bring
to the continent. The darkness symbolizes the greed and evil of imperialism
which permeates everything in the novel. Even after leaving Africa, Marlowe
sees darkness in his native England since it is an imperialist power. The evil
in ‘Heart of Darkness’ is absolute power and its corruptive influence.
20. Discuss the significance of title
of the novel ‘The Heart of Darkness’
Ans.Joseph Conrad's most read novella ‘Heart of
Darkness’ has double meant in its title. One dictionary meaning is that the
title refers to the interior of the Africa called Congo. Another hidden meaning
is, the title stands for the darkness or the primitiveness that every person
possesses in his or her mind and heart.Title meaning the entire theme of the Novel lies
in its title. The darkness refers to the dark civilization of Africa and Heart
symbolizes the very core of the African nation where people are savage,
inhuman, uncivilized and fully ignorant. Symbolically the title deals with the
unexplored story and history of civil and uncivil spirit in nature and human
heart.
The
etymological meaning of the phrase Heart of Darkness is the innermost region of
the territory which is yet to be explored, where people led the nomadic and
primitive way of living. The setting time of the novel Heart of
Darkness dates back to those periods when the continent of Africa was not
fully explored. So, the continent was called the heart of darkness. The major
and significant events of the novel take place in the Dark Continent, though
the first and the end of the story takes place outside the continent. The
central character, Kurtz, comes under the influence of the savages and becomes
one of them in the same dark place called Congo. The savages and Kurtz, in
fact, belong to the heart of darkness.
The
description of the scenery by Marlow adds something vital meaning to the title
of the novel. The wild scene, thick and impenetrable jungle, the pictures of
the natives hiding in the dense jungle, the silence and the dangerous stillness
of the river Congo, the thick fog, all these features are suggestive to the
title ‘Heartof Darkness’. The outer physical setting intensifies the horror and
the fear among the readers. The reading about the description of the natives
and their way of appearing in the novel bring the terrific effect in the mind
of the reader.
On
one occasion, Marlow is attacked by the natives in his steamer. In that attack
the helmsman is killed. The natives attack the steamer of Marlow not knowing
why he is there, but in the ignorance. The ignorance and backwardness of the
savages, the purposeless attack creates the feeling like being in the midst of
the heart of darkness. The attack to the steamer is planned by Kurtz, who has
become one savage living with the natives. He becomes more barbaric than the
inhabitants. The essence of savagery, brutality and cruelty sums up in the
existence of Kurtz. Kurtz's mission was to civilize the natives, to educate
them, to improve their way of living and the important one is to bring the
light into their lives and into that dark territory. But he ends in converting
himself into the savages, and the most striking thing is that he has set
himself like a god in that Dark Continent. He starts following their
unspeakable rites. He does any brutal raids for the sake of collection of
ivory. According to Marlow, Kurtz has become a devil being failure to control
his moral restraint. He lets his inner self, the primitive self, dance freely
in the lap of darkness and becomes the representatives of the darkness. His
superstition and evil have become the embodiment of darkness. Psychologically,
Kurtz is the symbol of everyman's darkness which is veiled under the curtain of
civilization. Kurtz is the heart of darkness.
The
term heart of darkness stands for another meaning too. The journey of Kurtz and
Marlow to explore the interior of the Dark Continent called Congo is not only
the physical search of some the territory, but it is an exploration of the
innermost part of the human mind and the human heart. The geographical search
is comparatively easier than the search of one's self, one's Dark Continent.
Both Kurtz and Marlow are in an implied sense in the journey to find their dark
region of mind and heart. In case of Kurtz, he cannot hold the mystical and
attractive power of his savagery self, his suppressed primitive self and gives
in. He fails to control his moral restraint. He submits to the dark side of his
personality and becomes one savage. He reaches to the heart of darkness, but
cannot resist its power upon him and he cannot come back from his subconscious
state of mind. But in the case of Marlow, he too travels to the heart of
darkness, the subconscious. He reaches there and witnesses the heavy influence
of primitive self on Kurtz. He notices that he has become totally a devil,
deviating from his main aim to civilize the savages. Marlow, despite the truth
that Kurtz has been transformed into the barbaric self, praises him and is
attracted towards him. He has fallen a near prey to the primitiveness. But
amazingly, he does not submit himself to the savagery self of his subconscious.
He reaches to the heart of darkness, witnesses the transformation of Kurtz, and
gets to know the irresistible power of barbaric hidden self, praises it and
again comes back to the light of civilization. He is so able to control
his morality and spirituality. His journey to Africa is, symbolically,
exploration of the dark side of human life, either psychologically, or morally
and or spiritually.
In
conclusion we may say that the
title is appropriate for the novel because Marlow has described his experiences
of the Congo and people of Congo. The title of the novel, Heart of
Darkness, states that the darkness here is many things: it is the unknown, it
is the subconscious, it is the moral darkness, it is the evil which swallows up
Kurtz, and it is the spiritual emptiness, which he sees at the center of the
existence, but above all it is a mystery itself, the mysteriousness of man's spiritual
life.
21. Sketch the character of Kurtz in
the novel, 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad.
Ans.Kurtz is the most important
figure in Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad reveals little about him through the
action in the book. We are introduced to this enigmatic character through
various events and other persons. His role is a series of images constructed by
others. Kurtz’s mother was half-English and his father was half-French.
Educated partly in England and partly in other countries, he was a great genius.
Conrad presented him as an efficient agent, a painter, a journalist, a
musician, a great conversationalist and a great man who could win over the
heart of natives. The International Society for the suppression of the Savage
Customs had entrusted him with the making of the report, for his future
guidance, which when prepared was very eloquent. Almost every person shares a
good and sometimes high opinion about Kurtz as he has affected all their lives
differently. His cousin tells Marlow that Kurtz was a great musician and
humanitarian and concludes him as a genius. The Belgian journalist offers
another image of Kurtz. He refers him as a brilliant politician and leader.
Kurtz’s Intended saw him as a loving, devoted and caring person. She obviously
had no idea that he was having an affair with a native woman in Africa.
It has been rightly said, Mr. Kurtz- so
sensitive, so civilized-who at the savage center of the jungle; sees into the
darkness of himself, and dies. It is difficult to distinguish how Kurtz who
seems so insular and isolated from the rest of the society was able to connect
with so many persons. The reason behind this may be, he did not really let
anyone know him truly. He let people see what they wanted to. In Heart of
Darkness, Kurtz is first introduced by the accountant of the Company. As soon
as Marlow arrives, the accountant informs him that he (Marlow) would meet Kurtz
when he goes into the interior of the country. According to the accountant, Mr.
Kurtz is a first-class agent of the Company adding also that he is a very
remarkable man. The brick-maker expresses high opinion about Kurtz. He says,
Mr. Kurtz is a prodigy and an emissary of pity of science of progress and devil
knows of what else. Further, he tells Marlow that men like Mr. Kurtz are needed
for the enlightenment of such dark countries as the Congo, for he is the man of
high intelligence, wide sympathies and singleness of purpose. He also expects
Kurtz to become the assistant manager of the best station of the Company.
Kurtz
had come to the dark country with high aspirations and ideals. His stay here
was a sort of test of his personality- the test of lofty ideals against the
dark powers of the wilderness. In this test Kurtz failed. Besides betraying the
humanity in him, he also betrayed the natives and reduced them to poverty and
subservience; deprived them of their dignity and will. However, he himself
reduced to be a hollow man. Kurtz degradation may largely be attributed to his
utter lack of restraint. Also, at the inner station he is deprived of the
support and restraint of his society. In this wilderness, there is nothing to
prevent him. However, there is no doubt that he was a daring person. Unlike the
agents who rejected the challenge of the dark wilderness, Kurtz went to the
extreme in his exploration.
He
came to Congo to explore the area, but soon his aim was to collect ivory. This
brings forth his greediness. Though one can notice Kurtz was not without moral
awareness. He remains conscious of his cold-blooded exploitation towards the
natives. Their treatment of him almost as a deity gave him pleasure but this
was followed by his intensifying moral awareness. Thus, Kurtz can be seen as a
white man who is conscious of his sinister aspect, though he himself falls prey
to the odious primitivism. If Kurtz has fallen, he has fallen from a
considerable height and Marlow finds in his fall a sign of superiority. He
feels that Kurtz possesses an inextinguishable gift of noble and lofty
expression.
The
last words ‘the horror! the horror!’ uttered by Kurtz before his death comes as
a final judgement of the adventures that his soul has gone through on the
earth. But Marlow feels that these words express some sort of belief. They show
candour and conviction and may be interpreted as an affirmation and a moral
victory over all the innumerable defeats of Kurtz in his life.
To
conclude, Kurtz is a symbolic figure who represents White men s greed and
common mentality. He can also be seen as a symbol of hypocrisy of civilizing
the African savages. He also represents the European men's love of power and a
thirst to rule over the backward classes of the globe even at the cost of basic
principles of humanity.
22. Qs. Sketch the character of
Marlow in the novel ‘The Heart of Darkness’.
Ans.
Heart of Darkness is the masterpiece by Joseph Conrad. Marlow is one of the two
narrators in this novel and he is the more important of the two. Heart of
Darkness can be seen as a journey, Marlow’s mythical journey, in search of the
self, to bring back a new truth. The story is all about the main character’s
experiences journeying up the Congo River in quest of another white man, Mr.
Kurtz.
Marlow is a thirty-two-year-old sailor who has
always lived at sea. The novel's narrator presents Marlow as "a meditating
Buddha" because his experiences in the Congo have made him introspective
and to a certain degree philosophic and wise. As a young man, Marlow wished to
explore the "blank places" on the map because he longed for
adventure; his journey up the Congo, however, proves to be much more than a
thrilling episode. Instead, his experiences there teach Marlow about the
"heart of darkness" found in all men: Many like himself suppress
these evil urges, while others like Kurtz
succumb to them.
Marlow's chief qualities are his curiosity and
skepticism. Never easily satisfied with others' seemingly innocent remarks such
as those made by the Manager and
Brickmaker, Marlow constantly attempts to sift through the obscurities of what
others tell him such as when his aunt speaks to him of "weaning those
ignorant millions from their horrid ways". However, Marlow is no crusader
for Truth. He lies to Kurtz's Intended to
save her from a broken heart and ultimately returns to Europe and his home,
despite his having been convinced by the Company and Kurtz that civilization
is, ultimately, a lie and an institution humans have created to channel their
desires for power.
Marlow’s
view is the central to the novel. He is presenting Africa from a white man’s
point of view in the beginning. According to him Africa is an exotic land, the
heart of darkness.Marlow travels upstream with a crew of cannibals. He says
that they are “fine fellows”, But immediately qualifies his observation by
adding, “in their place”.
Marlow never considersthem as human: at best
they are a species of super hyena.While he is moving towards upstream Marlow
catches glimpses of villages in whichceremonial rites are being performed.
According to him the men are human, but they are madmen performing mad rites.
Before Marlow reaches Kurtz, he comes across that enigmatic figure, the
harlequin Russian sailor. Marlow does not associate the Russian with the powers
of darkness is because he has a white skin, for as the Russian himself
recognizes, he belongs to Africa and its people. Marlow considers the natives
as evil. Thus, he conveys to us the evil which had taken control of Mr. Kurtz’s
mind and his actions. He says that Kurtz had begun participate fully in the
“unspeakable rites” and the ceremonies of the savages. The problem with Kurtz
which Marlow does not realize is not that Kurtz went native, but he did not go
native enough. Kurtz perverted the customs of the tribe, making them a meansto
a deplorable end-keeping the ivory flowing and colonialism a profitable venture
for his employers. Kurtz is more savage than the “savages” of the land. He is
obsessed with ivory.
He
is the actual embodiment of evil. He went native with a purpose. He is also
having a black mistress there. We come to know about her towards the end of the
novel when Kurtz was taking back toEurope for medical treatment by Marlow and
the Manager.
Kurtz’s
last words are “The horror! The horror!” and for Marlow the horror being
referred to the blackness of Kurtz’s soul. But it seems to me that there is
more to say. The brutal torturesKurtz has done to the natives for ivory is
horrifying him in his death bed. After Kurtz’s death, Marlow returns to England
and two years later meets Kurtz’s intended. When he is talking to her, he lied
that the last word Kurtz pronounced was “your name”. He could not tell her the
truth; he could not make her suffer. She loves Kurtz too much. She was unaware
of Kurtz’s evil nature. Thus, Marlow chooses to make her live a fake light – an
illusion- which he finds better than living in the true darkness.
At the end of the novel, Marlow’s perception
changes about Africa. Africa is the heart of darkness, but the heart of
darkness could be referred to Europeans’ greed as they loot and torture the
Africans in their search for ivory. He realises that the Thames leads “into the
heart of an immense darkness,” meaning that English colonizers are as evil as
any other, and that those who set out on colonialist enterprises, no matter how
nobly they were conceived, lose themselves in the processes. Marlow gets
matured through this quest. Experiences lead to knowledge and thereby help in
shaping the true self. Marlow is the symbol of complete
self.
Therefore, Marlow is unquestionably a man of action, given to philosophic
thinking. He has a thoughtful mind and a tendency to meditate. Also, to brood
upon what he observes.
************
Mrs.
Dalloway by-
Virginia Woolf
1. When did the novel ‘Mrs. Dalloway
was written?
Ans. 1924
2. When did the novel ‘Mrs.
Dalloway’ was published?
Ans. 1925
3. Where does the novel ‘Mrs.
Dalloway’ take place?
Ans. London
4. Who is Elizabeth in the novel
‘Mrs. Dalloway’?
Ans. Daughter of Mr. Richard
Dalloway and Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway.
5. Whom did Mrs. Dalloway love
during her young days?
Ans. Peter Walsh
6. Who is Sally Seton?
Ans. A friend of Mrs. Dalloway
7. Name Setimus friend who died in
the war?
Ans. Evans
8. Who is Miss Kilman?
Ans. History teacher of
Elizabeth.
9. Name the character who keeps
always a pocketknife and play with it?
Ans. Peter Walsh
10. Find the character in the novel
‘Mrs. Dalloway’ who is an Indian?
Ans. Daisy Simmons
11. In which single days the novel
‘Mrs. Dalloway’ take place?
Ans. Wednesday.
12. Which political party does
Richard Dalloway support?
Ans. Conservative Party.
13. Which diseases does Septimus
suffer from?
Ans. Shell Shock
14. Name the park where Septimus and
his wife wait for doctor.
Ans. Regin Park.
15. Who is the wife of Septimus
Warren Smith?
Ans. Lucrezia Smith, an Italian
lady.
16. Name the character in the novel
‘Mrs. Dalloway’ who is a psychiatric.
Ans. William Bradshaw.
17. When did the novel ‘Mrs.
Dalloway’ take place?
Ans. Wednesday, mid-June, 1923.
18. Where did Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway
spend her childhood?
Ans. Bourton
19. Where does Peter Walsh live after
Mrs. Dalloway rejected him?
Ans. In India
20. Who did first coin the term
‘stream of consciousness technique’?
Ans. William James first used
this term in his work ‘The Principles of Psychology’.
21. What is the main difference
between ‘stream of consciousness’ and ‘Interior Monologue’
Ans. In the interior monologue
thoughts pass in a logical manner, but in the stream of consciousness technique
thoughts pass illogically.
22. Name the character who commits
suicide at the end of the novel ‘Mrs. Dalloway’.
Ans. Septimus Warren Smith.
23. Why did Septimus and his wife in
the Regins Park?
Ans. To meet Dr. William
Bradshaw.
24. What does Clarissa set out to
purchase in the novel’s opening scene?
Ans. Flowers
25. What color is Clarissa Dalloway’s
party dress?
Ans. Green
26. Who proposes for marriage to
Clarissa and is refused?
Ans. Peter Walsh
27. Which line from a Shakespearean
play is repeated several times throughout the novel?
Ans. “Fear no more the heat o’
the sun / Nor the furious winter’s rages”
28. What is Lucrezia Smith’s
profession?
Ans. Hat-maker.
29. Why does Lady Bruton invite
Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbread to her home for lunch?
Ans. She wants their help writing
a letter to the editor concerning emigration to Canada.
30. What illness has Clarissa
recently recovered from?
Ans. Influenza.
31. Where does Doris Kilman go after
having tea with Elizabeth?
Ans. Westminster Abbey
32. Discuss
the novel, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf as a stream of consciousness novel.
Ans.The phrase 'Stream o Consciousness' was first
used to describe the unbroken flow of thoughts and feelings in the 'Princi les
of Ps cholo waking mind. 'Stream of Consciousness was widely adopted as a
literary technique during the twentieth century. Most of the stream of
consciousness novels aim at expressing in words the flow of characters'
thoughts and feelings in their minds. The technique aspires to give readers the
impression of being inside the minds of the characters.
In her novel, Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf uses
the stream of consciousness technique. The story of the novel is told primarily
through the characters' thoughts and close interplay. Woolf uses characters'
thoughts, feelings, and reactions without the use of objective characterization
or traditional dialogue. This technique allows readers to feel as if they are
snooping on the characters and their thoughts.
Virginia
Woolf succeeds in the using of stream of consciousness in her novels. Mrs.
Dalloway is the best example of stream of consciousness technique. Stream of
consciousness technique is characterized by the thoughts of the main character.
The character goes back in the past memories and comes back in the present.
Through stream of consciousness technique, Virginia Woolf shows readers the actual
spoken dialogue and what the different characters are actually thinking. Novel
has a unique narrative style, salient for its shifts in a point of view to
occur within one same paragraph, accentuating the psychological and analytical
nature of the narrative. Virginia Woolf uses a literary technique called free
indirect speech to achieve the quick transition. Mrs. Dalloway is the story,
that captures a character’s thoughts and uses them to tell a story. In the
beginning of the novel, Clarissa Dalloway prepares for a party, that is giving
in the evening. She reminds her youth days spent in Burton. She wonders about
the choice of her husband Richard rather than Peter.
One important aspect of Woolf's use of stream
of consciousness is how the interior speeches serve as narrative strategy. In
the context of the story, the streams of consciousness convey information to
the reader. For example, in one particular moment, the reader is able to recall
with Peter Walsh of years ago, when Clarissa did not return the love, he had
for her. Here, through this stream of Peter's consciousness, the reader is able
to understand that Peter may still be hurting from his initial rejection by
Clarissa.
One
cannot discuss Woolf's use of streams of consciousness without talking about
the effect of switching back and forth between thoughts and the outer world. In
the case of the novel, the effect is that the use of the method provides for a
more authentic depiction of the characters. Woolf's goal was to illustrate the
usually covered thoughts forming in a character's heads, which allowed for a
far more experimental relationship between the characters and the readers. So,
using that as context, the reader is able to get a sense of how the characters
truly felt. A good example of such a moment is when Clarissa remembers the
death of her sister. Here, we learn the circumstances of her sister's death and
how she reacted to it. In short, Clarissa chiefly remained detached, continuing
her polite and respectable behavior despite the tragedy. Through the
utilization of stream of consciousness, the reader is allowed to take a deep
dive into the characters' lives, reveal their occasional lunacy, and also
reveal their conflict and ramifications.
The
novel follows no conventional plot or tragedy. In the novel, emphasis is laid
on the manipulation of words, not on the organization of the story. Mrs.
Dalloway thinks from London to her girlhood days in Bourton through morning,
London. This helps us to know about what she actually thinking. The past and
the present are involved with each other as it can be seen in Clarissa
remembering Peter‟s remarks about the vegetable, Peter‟s playing with pocket
knife. Similarly, how Peter thinks about Clarissa, who rejected him in the
past. On the other side, we get to know about Septimus‟s trauma through
Lucrezia, who also ends up painting her solitary picture that we pity. In this
novel, Virginia Woolf has used the stream of consciousness. She has mingled
various thought processes of various humans. She also uses the Big Ben Tower
and Airplane to avoid the chaos which have been created due to complex nature
of the brain. The characters think like a river flowing. This novel shows the
frustrated inner life of the characters through the stream of consciousness technique.
The main idea of Mrs. Dalloway seems to be the
expression of thoughts versus impressions. The use of streams of consciousness
perfectly encapsulates that idea in the novel. The reader witnesses’ characters
having moments of inner monologues and open conversations with others. The idea
is illustrated in various moments in the story, particularly when the reader
sees the struggle in Rezia with her husband Septimus. To Rezia, Septimus was so
dead and emotionless that he made everything terrible. This moment displays
Rezia's inner thoughts and feelings. This moment perfectly spotlights the theme
of the expression versus the impression of thoughts, characterizing the theme
through Rezia and her personal struggle with Septimus.
To sum up, Woolf's use of streams of
consciousness technique helps to provide a deep understanding of her purpose as
a writer. We are able to come to understand that Woolf strives to allow her
readers to truly understand and know her characters on a much more personal
level. In regards to 'Mrs. Dalloway' Woolf is successful in her execution of
the idea, allowing the reader to delve deep into the characters of Clarissa,
Peter, Septimus, Rezia, and other key characters of the novel. Unlike other novelists, Virginia
Woolf tries to go inner minds of every character, who are constantly thinking
about their past days. She was influenced by the advancement of psychology. In
Mrs. Dalloway, characters’ thoughts are vividly presented. She illustrates the
relationship between exterior world and inner world.
33. Sketch the character of Mrs.
Dalloway on the basis of your reading the novel.
Ans. Clarissa Dalloway is the
protagonist of the novel. She is 52 years old lady, having dark and exotic
looks, belongs to high society, as her husband Richard Dalloway is the member
of the conservative government. Clarissa Dalloway is the wife
of Richard Dalloway. After marrying with Richard Dalloway, she is known as Mrs.
Dalloway, without the name of Richard Dalloway she is just Clarissa.
Richard
Dalloway loves her wife Clarissa Dalloway and takes his relation with Clarissa
as a normal happy couple but dedicated to social reforms. He gave the identity
to Clarissa Dalloway, although he is always hesitant to reveal his affection to
Clarissa. She is also a loving wife. She has love for her husband and
is loyal to him in all her actions and thoughts. She considers it a pleasure to
accept a present from him. He brings roses for her: she is mightily pleased at
this; he brings a pillow and a quill and asks her to rest for an hour as per
the advice of the doctor. Such actions of his are regarded as “adorable” and
full of “divine simplicity”.
Clarissa
Dalloway has a strong sense of independence. She at least had this
trait in her to a pronounced degree before her marriage with Richard. Peter
Walsh was her companion from childhood and temperamentally she feels attracted
towards him more than towards Richard. But she selected Richard, and not Peter
Walsh, when she was confronted with the question of marriage, and never regrets
what she had done. Her reason for so doing is to be traced in the fact that
Peter Walsh would not allow her independence.She would not hesitate sacrificing
her love for the sake of her independence.
Clarissa
Dalloway is the mother of Elizabeth Dalloway, her only child and somewhat
passive character just opposite to Clarissa Dalloway her mother. Clarissa
Dalloway is a complex figure in having relationships. Sally Saton was a deep
female friend of Clarissa Dalloway as they get into some sexual interaction
while living together in their teenage. Mrs. Dalloway is an affectionate mother. She is
proud of her daughter. She does not like Doris Kilman, because she thinks that
the teacher is taking away the love of her daughter for her.
Peter
Walsh was a close friend of Clarissa Dalloway, was having passionate love with
Clarissa and proposed her when she was eighteen but Clarissa rejected his
proposal. Mrs. Dalloway loved Peter Walsh before she married Richard
Dalloway. She has always loved him and she still loves him. Her love for him
has left a permanent mark on her mind and it is almost a part of her being.
Whenever she thinks of her past, of Bourton, she recollects Peter Walsh.
Like
almost all other characters Clarissa Dalloway is also a victim of loneliness.
Although her parties are the way to make the isolated individuals together, we
see what kind of people and what sort of thoughts people brought and share with
each other. There is a heyday of hypocrisy in the atmosphere of Clarissa
Dalloway’s party.
She is one of those women who can feel women
with the same intensity as men for women. Her love for Sally Seton is
intense and passionate. She loves her with an overtone of homosexuality. On
being first introduced to her she is fascinated by her face and it is difficult
for her to take her eyes from her. At dinners they would often eke out
opportunities to talk and discuss together and derive immense pleasure in each
other’s company, Sally in a moment of intense joy would take a flower and
present it to her, and she then kissed her on the lips.
To
sum up, through the character of Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf explores the
human psyche. Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway during her discussion with another
character James Park came to know that there is a mist among the people even
among those who are very close to each other. She dares to judge other people
but very soon she realizes that she is unable to judge even herself.
34. Discuss the
narrative technique of Mrs. Dalloway.
Ans. Virginia
Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway follows several characters through a
single day in London in June of 1923. It being set shortly after the end of the
First World War, its characters all represent a post-war society bent on
reflection and reminiscence. We are made aware of this, however, not through
the plot of action—for as far as action goes, not much occurs—but through
Woolf’s style of narration through the characters’ “stream of consciousness,”
or narration of their thoughts and memories as they occur.
Mrs.
Dalloway is told through an omniscient third-person narration—one which
delves deeply into the characters through a combination on dialogue, interior
monologue, and free indirect discourse. The novel begins, Mrs. Dalloway said
she would buy the flowers herself.For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The
doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer’s men were coming. And then,
thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning—fresh as if issued to children on a
beach.
While the first
line is presented in the third person, the sense of being plunged into this
character’s day, without introduction gives us the sense that we are plunging
directly into Clarissa’s mind. The second line is in the free indirect style—
giving us Clarissa’s thought without any narratorial indication such as “she
thought”—which continues through the third line. The fourth pulls the narration
back out a step, by assuming an authorial presence, giving us Clarissa’s full
name, and telling us what she thought.
Without even leaving this first page, the next paragraph takes us into another
powerful aspect of Mrs. Dalloway’s narration: memory. It continues, What a
lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when, with a little
squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French
windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller
than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave;
the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then
was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that
something awful was about to happen.
Without any indication,
Woolf has taken shifted us in this scene from Clarissa’s present to her
past—just as a mind shifts on a morning that reminds one of a past
morning—where she muses on days spent at a place called Bourton during her
eighteenth year.
We later find out what Bourton is, and what went on during Clarissa’s time
spent there. We learn of it through the presentation of her memories—such as
the one presented above, unannounced, streamed—as well as through those of
characters who share them, mainly Peter Walsh.
Another striking aspect of Woolf’s style is her sentences. They grow long by
what seems their own accord, whirling up like breezes and creating not only
tones but entire scenes, entire characters, entire worlds. One example from
early on in the novel occurs as Clarissa walks through bustling London on her
way to the flower shop.
And everywhere,
though it was still so early, there was a beating, a stirring of galloping
ponies, tapping of cricket bats; Lords, Ascot, Ranelagh and all the rest of it;
wrapped in the soft mesh of the grey-blue morning air, which, as the day wore
on, would unwind them, and set down on their lawns and pitches the bouncing
ponies, whose forefeet just struck the ground and up they sprung, the whirling
young men, and laughing girls in their transparent muslins who, even now, after
dancing all night, were now taking their absurd woolly dogs for a run; and even
now, at this hour, discreet old dowagers were shooting out in their motor cars
on errands of mystery; and the shopkeepers were fidgeting in their windows with
their paste and diamonds, their lovely old sea-green brooches in
eighteenth-century settings to tempt Americans (but one must economies, not buy
things rashly for Elizabeth), and she, too, loving it as she did with an absurd
and faithful passion, being part of it, since her people were courtiers once in
the time of the Georges, she, too, was going that very night to kindle and
illuminate; to give her party.
This sentence
describes the scene before Clarissa, while—in its seemingly infinite run—also
creating the very sense of it all, the endless impressions and turns of walking
through a city and seeing all the bustle at once and more broadly about being
alive on a morning such as this one. We also get in this sentence not only a
description or impression of her surroundings but from within Clarissa
herself—her reminder to herself to “economies” and not impulse buy for her
daughter, her sense of pride over the history of her family’s royal proximity, and
ultimately it leads back to the party—the essence of Clarissa’s purpose and
part in it all.
Woolf’s style in Mrs. Dalloway shifts endlessly in a masterful
manner. Her ability to convey her characters’ thoughts and impressions so
seamlessly and honestly requires a knowledge of them that lingers above the
narrative, an existence from which to pull that I hope to be able to formulate
and convey.
************
‘The Second Coming’ by W.B.
Yeats.
1. When did the poem ‘The Second
Coming’ was written?
Ans. 1919
2. When did the poem ‘The Second
Coming’ was published?
Ans. 1919
3. The poem ‘The Second Coming’ is
written in ………… verse.
Ans. Blank verse.
4. What is ‘Spiritus Mundi’?
Ans. Refers to Yeats' belief that each human mind is linked
to a single vast intelligence, and that this intelligence causes certain
universal symbols to appear in individual minds.
5. Where did Jesus was born?
Ans. Bethlehem.
6. Critically
appreciate the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B. Yeats.
Ans. The poem, ‘The Second Coming' is one of W.B.
Yeats' most famous poems. Written in 1919 soon after the end of World War I, it
describes a deeply mysterious and powerful alternative to the Christian idea of
the Second Coming. The poem's first stanza describes a world of chaos,
confusion, and pain. The second stanza imagines the speaker receiving a vision
of the future, but this vision replaces Jesus' heroic return with what seems to
be the arrival of a grotesque beast. With its distinct imagery and vivid
description of society's collapse, The Second Coming' Is also one of Yeats'
most quoted poems, ft is one of the finest poems written in the arena of
English poetry. It. is a significant poem, especially because it does not deal
with contemporary Ireland only, but with the whole civilization of mankind.
Surveying the world-view of disorder, degeneration and destruction and anarchy,
Yeats comes to the conclusion that the civilization as ushered by Christianity
is about to end.
The first stanza of the poem shows the
barrenness of the world and the problem of the modern society. Yeats tries to
present frustrated mind of modern man and tells that modern man is dissatisfied
and burning himself. He also shows loss of moral and spiritual values in modern
society. The poet compares civilization with rotating gyre. As soon as its
circumferences widens it loses the center. Like a gyre twentieth century man
have lost center of universe. It imparts us a picture of the disintegration
which has overtaken the Christian civilization. The diminishing force of
Christianity is conveyed to us through the idea that Christianity is like a
falcon — a symbol for man who no longer hears the call of the falconer, i.e.,
God. As a result, the falcon has lost contact with the falconer and it becomes
directionless. Things are falling apart and there is no stabilizing force. The
shadow of disorder, lawlessness, and confusion is looming over the world. The
"blood-dimmed tide" is the tide of violence. This tide has drowned
the "ceremony of innocence". The ruthless, full of passionate
intensity of fanaticism seem to rule the whole world. As a result, the pure and
best men have grown skeptical and they have lost all conviction.
Then in the second stanza, Yeats becomes very
optimist and shows the remedy of the poem. All these decadence and disorders
imply that a new civilization is about to be born. As soon as the thought of
'Second coming' flashes across the poet's mind, he sees a vast image coming out
from 'Spiritus Mundi'-a kind of store house in Yeats philosophy. It has the
body of a lion and head of a man like the Sphinx. The poet sees his eyes were
pitiless like a sun. The poet has thought that from twentieth century it was
taking shape and now to be in cradle. It is moving slowly towards Bethlehem —
the birth place of Christ as if it were too to be born there. Yeats shows a
terrifying picture of world in the last lines.
To sum
up, the poem 'The Second Coming' contains vision of the destruction of the
modern world and the prophecy of infinite cruelty and agony. It is a dark,
pessimistic poem as well as realistic and prophetic poem. The influence of war
is seen in the poem. Each and every line of the poem describes the situation of
the people of contemporary time. At once it has strong intellectual appeal,
compactness and economy of expression.
*************
“Sailing
to Byzantium” By-
W. B. Yeats
1. When did W. B.
Yeats was born?
Ans. 13th
June, 1965, and died 28th January, 1939.
2. When did the
poem ‘Sailing to
Byzantium’ was written?
Ans. 1926
3. When did the
poem ‘Sailing to
Byzantium’ was published?
Ans. 1928
4. Name the poetry
collection where the poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ was published?
Ans. The Tower
5. Which city Byzantium
refers in the poem?
Ans.
Constantinople, presently Istanbul.
6. What is the
rhyming pattern of the poem?
Ans. ABABABCC
7. How many lines
does the poem has?
Ans. 32 lines,
four stanzas having nines each.
8. Who is called a
paltry thing in the poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’?
Ans. An aged man
is called a paltry thing.
9. The poem
‘Sailing to Byzantium’ is written in ……………… meter.
Ans. Iambic
Pentameter.
10. Critically
appreciate the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” by W. B. Yeats.
Ans."Sailing
to Byzantium" is a poem by William Butler Yeats, first
published in the 1928 collection The Tower. It comprises four stanzas in ottava rima, each made up of eight lines of iambic pentameter. It uses a journey to Byzantium (Constantinople) as a metaphor for a spiritual
journey. Yeats explores his thoughts and musings on how immortality, art, and
the human spirit may converge. Through the use of various poetic techniques,
Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium" describes the metaphorical journey of
a man pursuing his own vision of eternal life as well as
his conception of paradise.
Yeats, a pillar of
both, the Irish and the British, literary establishments, was a symbolist poet.
Yeats always admired Byzantium, the capital
city of the Eastern Roman Empire, which was called Constantinople and Istanbul
in later times. Yeats was of the opinion that Byzantine art and architecture
represented a blend of “religious, aesthetic and practical life.” The idea,
artistic beauty is eternal reflects Keats’ words “Beauty is truth, truth
beauty”. In this poem, Byzantium is a symbol of the soul, eternity and the
permanence of art, contrasted with the natural world of decaying life. “Sailing
to Byzantium” shows his contempt for mere bodily pleasure divorced from
spiritual longings.
In the first stanza of “Sailing to Byzantium”, Yeats
expresses his dissatisfaction with the life of the senses led by birds, fishes
and humans. They indulge in unlimited procreation. For example, the salmon
leaping upstream, excited by the urge to spawn (to produce); the seas teeming
with mackerel; and human beings engrossed in sensuality as in an entrancing
music. But the poet dismisses all of them as “dying generations”. They are all
caught up in the unbreakable cycle of birth and life and ending up in death.
They ignore artistic objects which have a deathless appeal. Hence, Yeats says
that this country (Ireland) is not for old men.
In this country old man is considered as a petty thing. He
is a “tattered coat upon a stick” – it means the old man is like a scarecrow
and his body is like a worn-out cloth that wrapped upon the thin skeleton. In
old age the body decays but the soul matures. In this state the robust joy the
soul has to sing louder and louder. The only hurdle in this way is getting the
right school where the soul can get an education which is difficult to find in
that country because every singing school, instead of caring for monuments of unageing
intellect is busy studying the monuments of its own significance. This means
that in Ireland the young generation instead of valuing the old men’s wisdom
trumpets its own sensual achievements. As a result of the difficulty in finding
the right school for his soul to be educated in that country, the poet decides
to sail across seas and go to the holy city of Byzantium.
All gross sensual desires have to be burnt out of the
mind. This is possible only if we submit to the divine which Yeats associated with
‘fire.’ People become sages and saints by passing through “God’s holy fire”.
They are coming in continuous chain like thread from roll. Yeats invokes such
spiritually advanced people to master and purge his heart of all sensual
appetite and create a taste for eternal verities and values. Yeats still doubts
about the maturity of his soul. He knows that still the soul is sticking on the
decaying thing, his body. So he requests the saints and sages to consume his
soul which has still desires on worldly things. He pleads the angels to take
his soul to the threshold of heaven ‘artifice of eternity’ for his soul does
not know what to do.
The wish to enjoy sensual pleasures without any
interruption is so great that people want to be reborn in order to continue
their enjoyment. Yeats, rejecting sensuality and delighting in art, wants to be
reborn as a golden bird which was hammered and enameled by Grecian goldsmiths.
The ordinary bird sings ‘all summer’ and its music ‘dies soon’. But the golden
bird which is the result of great art has an everlasting appeal, embracing the
past, the present and even the future. Moreover, great art appeals to
intellectually and spiritually elevated people like emperors and lord and
ladies, dispelling their intellectual and spiritual drowse and stagnation and
creating an awakening in them.
In conclusion, it can
be said that this single poem is enough to trace the high poetic qualification
of Yeats in his final stage of poetic development. This poem certainly affects
the conscience of human beings for the spiritual quest of ideal beauty. The
representation of old age as the symbol of tyranny of time runs throughout the
poem and Yeats’ agony facing old age is found with a powerful expression in the
poem, in addition to showing the modern tendency of escape.Thus, in this poem Yeats appreciates
beauty which has the power of enlightening the soul of human beings. In fact,
nature’s beauty is God’s creation and so it has godly spirit in it.
************
‘The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ By- T. S. Eliot
1.
When did the poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock’ was published?
Ans.
First published in 1915 in the poetry collection “A Magazine of Verse”. Again,
second times published in 1917 in “Prufrock and other Observations”.
2.
In which form the poem ‘The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock’ was written?
Ans.
Free verse.
3.
From where the Epigraph of the poem ‘The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ was taken?
Ans.
Dante’s poem ‘Inferno’.
4.
Who is Michelangelo?
Ans.
A famous Italian painter.
5.
In the ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
yellow fog is compared to which animal?
Ans.
Cat
6.
When was T. S. Eliot born?
Ans.
1888
7.
In what language the of ‘The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock’ was written?
Ans.
Italian language.
8.
The lines of the Epigraph are spoken by?
Ans.
Guido do Montefeltro.
9.
When was the ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock’ written?
Ans.
1910-1911
10. What
Shakespearean character does Prufrock compare himself to?
Ans.
Hamlet.
11. Do
you consider ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ as typical modernist poem.
Justify your answer.
Ans: Modernism is a movement in literature that
lasted roughly I from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th
century. It reflected a number of changes both in theme and literary technique
from the earlier poetic tradition. T.S. Eliot is often considered as the
pioneering literary figure of the modernist movement. In his works he opted to
infuse the trending issues of his time. While Dot's 'The Wasteland' is widely
cited as a defining example of modernist poetry, his poem ‘The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock’also shares many of the characteristics of modernism
The modernists significantly li cart the strict
meter formulated by the Romantic school of poetry. They preferred free verse
which follows neither a proper rhyme scheme nor a consistent meter. To be
relevant to the era ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’is also composed in
free verse. However, the poem does not fully follow the free verse; rather it
adheres to some formal rhymes as well.
Stream of consciousness is a popular mode of
narration in the modern era. The modernist writers often used this technique to
perplex the audience, by leaving things vague or unexplained. That is why works
narrated by this technique are often difficult to follow. The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock' also employs the stream of consciousness technique to present
the inner thoughts or anguish of a neurotic, isolated, hesitant, and cynical
man named Prufrock.
Alienation is one of the central themes in the
modern era. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' also revolves around
this theme. The poet explores alienation through the title character Prufrock,
who is paralyzed by indecision and worry about his appearance to women. His
inability to properly express his love and fears of rejection surpass his
natural desire to be with a woman, which in turn created an awkward and
isolated character that is aloof from society.
The modernists significantly deviated from the
Romantics in the matter of choosing the setting. Whereas the Romantics used a
rural setting to explore nature from emotional or imaginary point of view, the
modernists employed an urban setting to portray the city life realistically
with its hustle and bustle. Eliot also followed this tradition and confined his
The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock' within an urban setting of London.
The majority of the modernist works are replete
with allusions, an expression which enabled the writers to encapsulate the
entire theme, mood, feeling and plot of those other stories, with just one word
or phrase. Eliot also used allusions extravagantly in his poem 'The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock' which heightened the symbolic as well as the ironic mode
of expression. The very title of the poem echoes to Rudyard Kipling's 'Love
Song of Har Dal', although in a rather ironic way. Eliot starts the poem with
an epigraph drawn from the 27th canto of Dante's 'Inferno'. In lines 111-119,
Prufrock considers himself to be Prince Hamlet, the title character from
Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, soon he declares that he does not have the
potentialities of Hamlet and that he is more of a side character like Polonius.
To sum up, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock’is a representative poem of the modernist movement due to its features
of free verse, stream of consciousness technique, theme of alienation, urban
setting and extensive use of allusion.
**************
‘Journey of the Magi’
by- T. S Eliot
1.
When was the poem ‘Journey of the Megi’
published?
Ans.
1927
2.
The poem “Journey of the Megi’ has ………….
Lines.
Ans.
43 lines
3.
From where the journey covered?
Ans.
Journey from Persian to Bathelam
4.
In which verse form is the poem written?
5.
Ans. Free verse
6.
In which year T. S. Eliot won the Noble
Prize?
Ans.
1948
7.
Critically appreciate the poem ‘Journey of
the Magi’ by T. S Eliot.
Ans. The poem Journey of the Magi is
based on the theme of the Bible. It is full of religious feeling. The visit of
the Three Wise Men of East to Palestine at the time of Christ's birth has been
described in a very realistic way. The wise men started their journey in the
extreme cold of the winter to reach the place of Christ's birth to offer
presents to him.
In
the course of their journey, they got many hardships and suffering. In spite of
this they continued their journey throughout the night. In the way they did not
get shelter and food. The snowy way made their camel tired. The idea of
beautiful girls who were not present to entertain them is also very imaginative
and artistic. Again, with the non-co-operation of people in the way is also
very heart-touching. The wise men did not get any help from the people of
cities and town. They were hostile and unfriendly to them. This shows that
those people lacked farsightedness about the importance of Christ's birth.
In
the course of a journey, they saw a temperate valley with natural vegetation
and beauty which lessened their tiredness. This is full of nature description
and proves that Eliot was a nature poet also. The sounds of the stream and water-mill
and smell of vegetation were very pleasant to the Magi and the readers. The
white horse galloped in the meadow is also very symbolic and it points out the
speed of the horse with his rider. The Magi reached a tavern where they did not
get co-operation of those six men who were busy in gambling society. The Magi
reached their destination and offered their present to Christ. This is a
religious achievement of T.S. Eliot.
The
poet wants to emphasize that the birth and death of Christ were different from
the common people. His birth was hard and bitter agony of the human race, like
death. He was crucified for the redemption of humanity from sins and bondages.
The description of three trees on the low sky symbolizes the future Crucifixion
of Christ because he was crucified near the three trees. The poet takes a sense
of relief and appreciates the quality of Christ and his extraordinary death.
The language of the poem is very measured. The poet has achieved grand success
as an artist. The poem is very symbolic and full of religious touch.
"Journey
of the Magi" is an allegory of the spiritual journey in which the flesh
still craves for sensual enjoyment. The details of the journey of the three
wise men from the east bound for Jerusalem to honor the newborn Jesus are the
"objective correlatives" of the spiritual experiences of the journey
from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of heaven, which entails the death
of the old physical self and the birth of a new spiritual one. It is a long
hazardous journey in "the worst time of the year" in the "very
dead of winter", when the body needs protection and seeks sensual
pleasure.
The
Magi are a composite symbol of the spiritual quest. While one of them
reminisces, the journey undertaken by them, he longingly recollects their
indulgence in sensual pleasure. He says that while they were going to Emmaus,
they felt drawn to the fleshly enjoyments, the lack of which tortured them and
in such a moment of spiritual crisis, they regretted to have obeyed the call of
the spirit.
However,
the quester survives the long journey in the night and at dawn he is in a
"temperate valley" where everything is pleasant. It is the dawn of
spiritual exhilaration; the different aspects of nature signify the new images
of life; the "running stream" symbolizes the rhythmic flow of life;
the "water-mill beating the darkness" suggests the doubt being driven
away; the galloping away of "the white horse" in the meadow
symbolizes upward movement of the spirit. At this stage the quester becomes conscious
of the betrayal of the man of belief at the hands of those who are without any
belief. In this kingdom of spirit, he visualizes the three crosses on Calvary,
one of Christ and the other two of the two "male-factors". He also
has the vision of Christ riding a white horse and of Judas betraying Christ for
thirty pieces of silver, and the Roman dicing for the robes of Christ after the
Crucifixion. These memories of the misdeeds of men without belief engage his
mind for a while and he realized that the secret of his quest is not revealed
to him as yet and so he continues his exploration. At the end of the day, he
finds himself in a place from where he looks back to the region, he has
traversed and feels satisfied with the advance he has made.
The
positive gain of the journey is the affirmation of the belief that for the
spiritual rejuvenation the overcoming of the sensual aspect of life is
essential. "Journey of the Magi" is inspired by the story in the
Gospel according to St. Matthew. One of the Magi recounts the arduous journey
they undertook to witness the Birth which was 'hard and bitter agony' for them.
The journey is beset with the same kinds of temptations as are hinted at in
"Ash Wednesday", and similar regrets for the summer palaces or slopes,
the terraces, and the silken girls bringing sherbet. The New Birth does not
bring unalloyed joy because the transition from the old to the new is
accompanied by pain. It is a kind of experience referred to by Jung in
his Psychological Types: 'The birth of the deliverer is equivalent to a
great catastrophe since a new and powerful life issues forth just when no life
or force or new development was anticipated'.
To
conclude we may say that the poem
Journey of the Magi, touches on the journey of human spirit and their endeavour
for perfection. It delivers a message: that we are all involved in the
process of perfection of self, and somberly, one can only reach this place of
utter satisfaction through death. Eliot wrote Journey of the Magi soon after
his dramatic conversion to the Anglican faith in 1927. With his conversion,
T.S. Eliot was inspired by religion and the idea of religion as an ongoing
journey rather than a 'cure' or solution.
************
‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ by W.H. Auden
1. When was the poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ written?
Ans.
1940
2.
Why is Auden's ‘In
Memory of WB Yeats’ considered an elegy?
Ans. In Memory of W.B Yeats (1939), written
by W.H Auden is an elegy which deals with the death of William Butler
Yeats and a tribute written in honour of his contribution to literature.
3. What is the full name of Auden?
Ans. Wystan Hugh Auden
4.
What are the major
symbols in ‘In Memory W.B. Yeats’?
Ans. The major symbols: W. B. Yeats used a
number of symbols in his poetry. among these symbols the major symbols
are- the rose, the tower, the gyre, the wheel, the sword, the sea, the
bird, the tree, the sun, the moon, the gold, the silver, the earth, the water,
the air and the fire.
5. How many lines are there in the
poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’?
Ans. 65 lines
6. Critically analyses the poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ by W.H. Auden.
Ans.
‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’ by W.H. Auden is a modern poem in
its imagery, concept and versification. The poem, as its title indicates, is an
elegy written to mourn the death of W.B. Yeats, but it is different from the
conventional elegy. Traditionally, in an elegy, all nature is represented as
mourning the death, here nature is represented as going on its course
indifferent and unaffected.
The great poet's death goes unnoticed both by
man and nature: human life goes on as usual, and so does nature. Secondly, in
the traditional elegy the dead is glorified and his death is said to be a great
loss for mankind at large. But Auden does not glorify Yeats. He goes to the
extent of calling him 'silly' and further that his poetry could make nothing
happen. "Ireland has her madness and her weather still." Thus, Auden
reverses the traditional elegiac values and treats them ironically. Although,
apparently the poem is an elegy, Auden reverses and departs from the known
traditions of elegy. He does not idealize Yeats as a poet or sentimentalize his
fate. He proceeds to embody certain general reflections on the art of a poet
and the place of poetry in the flux of events, which constitute human history.
So, the death of Yeats remains at the focus of the poem only to support the
peripheral reflections in the poem.
Auden
denies the political consequence of poetry but admits that poetry can
effectively portray the world and connect people sharing the same problems,
fears and anxieties. Auden’s poem points out that Yeats’ work did not gain
prominence by his political ambitions and socially-oriented intentions but
rather by the depth and beauty of his verse.
The
first line of the poem, “He disappeared in the dead of winter:” introduces a
strong image of Yeats walking out alone into the darkness of winter. The
desolation of the scene becomes stronger with each successive image. Not only
nature, but the cold and mechanical works of man felt the passing of Yeats, and
thrust the reader step by step into the cold shock of the described day. Auden
expresses doubts about the adequacy of human tools to measure or reflect upon
the actual death of a man. If recording the death of the body is hard, it is
much more difficult to commemorate the life of the mind and soul. Auden
deliberately chooses to refer to Yeats as "the poet," making him an
anonymous figure rather than a specific man. Even the mourners are abstracted
into "mourning tongues," not specific people. In the absence of
specific people in these lines, Yeats' poems themselves seem to take on a life
of their own. Auden emphasizes Yeats’ humanness by taking a glimpse into the
world of hospitals and nurses and all the mundane things that we generally
don’t tend to think about when mourning a national figure.
Auden
turns to geographic and architectural language to describe human conditions.
Yeats’ body is described as a city at war with itself – a war it eventually
loses. In death even Yeats’ poems change; they can no longer emerge from the
poet’s own mouth. Instead, they get “modified in the guts of the living.” The
human world goes on as usual. We wonder whether Yeats’ death really outlives
the evening news. The last two lines of the first stanza are repeated as the
final two lines of the first section. This repetition underscores the fact that
we hardly have adequate tools to tackle something as strange and complicated as
death.
In
the second section suddenly, the speaker directs his words towards a ‘you’ who
seems to be Yeats. Instead of showing us the honorable and good side of the
dead poet, he makes sure we understand that Yeats’ ‘gift’ emerges in spite of,
or perhaps because of, all the complexities of his personality. Some of his
most remembered poems like, ‘Easter 1916’ emerge from his engagement with
struggles for independence. He cared passionately about Ireland but his
political positions were often complicated. Yeats wrote poetry to cure his
country but his country remains sick. The speaker says that Ireland hasn’t
changed one bit because of Yeats’ poetry. However, he isn’t saying that poetry
is worthless. After all, he is speaking in a poem himself. While poetry can’t
be or do specific things, it allows us to think about things that we may not
ordinarily think about. This subtle distinction indicates the delicate
opposition between Yeats and Auden. Yeats considered poetry to be a tool
whereas Auden believes that it is nothing in itself but its value lies only in
how its readers respond to it. Yeats’ fault was that he expected too much out
of poetry. Auden clarifies that, poetry is not a force in itself but made
dynamic by its interpreters and each one’s “foreign code of conscience.” Poetry
presents a world that’s both real and far removed from our own, and it does so
on its own terms.
In
the third section for the first time Yeats is referred to by name. Conventionally
an elegy explains right at the beginning just who it is that the poet is
mourning. Here Auden reverses this practice by mentioning it in the final
section. Here Yeats is referred to as an “Irish vessel,” a body meant to carry
only poetry and not the problems the speaker brought up at the beginning of
Section II. Auden also gives some of the specifics of Yeats’ death,
particularly the time of his death. Yeats died in 1939, just as the world was
gearing up for World War II. Yeats and Auden shared the sentiments of many of
their fellow artists and intellectuals, who were dismayed at the thought of
another world war. The speaker paints the impending war as a sort of
nightmarish unreality. The third stanza of the Section doesn’t seem to have
anything to do with Yeats, the man. Auden perhaps believes that a good way to
pay homage to someone is to spend some time thinking about his views and
concerns. He goes on to admire how Yeats combines realism with rejoicing. The
poet is a figure that lives on through Yeats’ poetry and isn’t necessarily
attached to Yeats, the man. Poetry is now channeled into a single image of a
healing fountain. The poem holds out hope for the possibility of life and
growth.
The
poem makes effective use of the images of water, frozenness and immobility and
impending doom. Moving, flowing and churning things up, water is the
quintessential symbolic image for motion and change. Water is personified as a
‘peasant’ river and a ‘fashionable’ quay. Poetry is imagined as a river snaking
through landscapes of concrete and congestion. Water images are also used to
depict the negative: the ‘seas of pity’ ‘frozen’ inside people become a potent
image of failed compassion. Finally, poetry is described as ‘the healing
fountain’, the water that nurtures our souls.
Rhyme,
form and meter are the poem’s blueprints. Each of the three sections of the
poem has unique formal characteristics. Auden uses the traditional elegy form,
simple rhyming couplets as well as free form. Auden's language in this poem is
incredibly sparse almost as if he is determined to depict Yeats' death with a
restraint that he himself doesn't feel.
In
conclusion we may say that the poem certainly makes us realize that poetry is
an experience. It is all about freedom and exposing yourself to new ways of
looking at the world and people. The
poem ends optimistically but also with a dark image of the human condition. He
states that life is a “prison” and that by spending time with poetry,
specifically Yeats’ poetry, one can learn how to praise, or be hopeful. The powerful and wide-ranging themes are
discussed within the context of Yeats' life and death. Auden uses an exacting
tone and direct language to depict the events around Yeat's death. Auden’s
final approach to this elegy is interesting and thought-provoking. He doesn’t
want Yeats to live forever or his poems to be immortalized. He wants people to
read and think and possibly become better by reading Yeats’ poems.
***********
My Beautiful
Launderette By- Hanif
Kureishi
1.
What is profession of Hussein?
Ans. Journalist
2.
When was the play published?
Ans. 1985
3.
Who is Tania?
Ans. Daughter of Nasser Ali.
4.
Whose launderette runs by Omar Ali?
Ans. Nasser Ali’s.
5.
What job does Omar Ali get from Nasser Ali?
Ans. Car Washer.
6.
Who is drug trafficker in the play My Beautiful Laundrette,?
Ans. Salim.
7.
Who is Nasser’s mistress in the play My Beautiful Laundrette?
Ans. Rachel.
8.
Who does fall ill with skin rash in My Beautiful Laundrette?
Ans. Rachel.
9.
Who is Nasser’s wife?
Ans. Bilquis.
10.
How many daughters do Nasser has?
Ans. Three.
11.
What is the name Nasser’s launderette?
Ans. Churchill’s Laundrette.
12.
What business does Nasser run in London?
Ans. Nasser operates two business, namely
garage, launderette.
13.
Whom does Omar propose in the play?
Ans. Tania.
14.
Who are two homosexual characters in the play?
Ans. Omar Ali and Johnny.
15.
Discuss the themes of Identity, Crime and
Drugs, Alienation, and Sexuality in Hanif Kureishi’s ‘My
Beautiful Laundrette’.
Ans. In
his play, My Beautiful Laundrette,
the British Pakistani author, Hanif Kureishi chronicles the life of Pakistani
immigrant, Omar Ali, in South London inner-city of Battersea. It depicts the
reality of the place through the squalid imageries of crime, sex, and drugs,
laced with the complexities of postcolonial racial identity that travels
through the borders. The narrative of the screenplay is set against the
backdrop of twentieth century’s post-war colonial immigration to Britain.
The themes running throughout the text of the
screenplay revolve around multicultural identities that include alienation,
exclusion, conflict, sense of belonging, and also the complexity of
sexuality. Torn between the two extremes of tradition and modernity, each
of these elements is represented by two characters of Omar’s family in the
screenplay. While Omar’s father longs to go back to their home in Pakistan,
Nasser, his brother, finds the country “sodomised by religion.” In the
climactic conversation between the two brothers, Nasser tells him, “compared
with everywhere, it is a little heaven here London.” This is a powerful
climax, which successfully attempts to bring to the fore the complexities of an
immigrant life, the struggle to survive, and conflicts with the self. Kureishi
brilliantly sums up the theme of his screenplay in the last five pages, leaving
the reader to ponder over the profound questions of an immigrant identity –
race, belonging, and sexuality.
In Kureishi’s work, we see that the
burden of immigration falls on British multiculturalism, that is, any policy
paralysis at the level of the Government is quickly blamed on the immigrants,
who find space in a culturally diverse society. He depicts a time when
“inequality became almost exclusively understood through the prism of race and
ethnic identity.” In My Beautiful Launderette,
one observes that the link between race, inequality, and the rise of
multiculturalism has led the white working class to think of themselves as a
new ethnic minority with their own distinctive culture. The tension between
immigrant and indigenous groups within Britain is realistically represented in
the play.
This colonialist mentality illustrates the
resentment against mass post-war immigration, which many white working-class
people feel has resulted in their economic and social downturn. This story – a
richly textured and most original account of a Pakistani immigrant life in
London – is of particular interest because of Kureishi’s experiential
epistemology. It recounts the author’s first trip to Pakistan, where he found a
combination of servility towards Western culture and troglodytic calls for a
return to Islamic purity.
In My Beautiful Laundrette,
one notices a negotiation of sexuality. The two men rekindle their teenage
relationship when they are alone together in the laundrette. It is illustrative
of how they escaped the ethical and moral boundaries that both society and
Omar’s family had imposed on them. When they are left alone in the laundrette,
they are able to surpass Omar’s family’s cultural expectation of a heterosexual
arranged marriage between Omar and Tania. Similarly, Johnny is able to detach himself
from his racist group of resentful white working-class peers and form a
relationship with the supposed “other” – the son of a Pakistani immigrant. In
this sense, the laundrette further serves as an analogy for the individual
fulfillment the two men feel, regenerating it from an abandoned, misused
business to a successful one. Their relationship, like the laundrette, demands
hard work and commitment through adversity, symbolised by their secretive
relationship, which only allows them to show affection for each other in
darkness, outside of the “real world”. The dominant discourse on ‘correct’
model of sexuality foregrounds the importance of spatiality in the play.
My Beautiful Laundrette further
illustrates the general ignorance attached to homosexuality – that is, it can
be a conscious decision rather than always being a natural occurrence in human
nature. This is evident when Omar’s uncle, Salim, questions whether his
nephew’s penis is in working order, when he shies away from the idea of
marriage with Tania. It did not occur to Salim that possibly his nephew chose
to be a homosexual. However, some scholars have argued that there is very
little scientific evidence that sexuality is a state we are born into. This
means that homosexuality is still a choice. The film seems to critique this
when Omar drunkenly proposes to Tania in an effort to both please his family’s
expectations of heteronormativity and to deny his homosexual feelings. Both
Omar and Johnny, however, are seen to struggle with their feelings of
homosexuality after hearing the news of Omar’s engagement. In an attempt to
bury his feelings for Omar, Johnny leaves the laundrette and decides to drink
all by himself. The engagement unsurprisingly falls through, and Johnny, after
failing to abide by expectations of heteronormativity, confesses his secret
relationship to Tania. This illustrates how Omar and Johnny could not
successfully deny their genuine sexuality. The case for innate sexuality is,
thus, still unclear, both academically and scientifically.
In conclusion, we may say that Kureishi
succeeds in dealing with issues that still hold relevance in twenty first
century. My Beautiful Laundrette provides
a satirical, comic portrait of upper middle-class Pakistanis in twentieth
century England, where young, native Cockneys have only the dole and street
violence to console them. The play, the immigrant and indigenous idiosyncratic
lives vividly reflect the social realities.
**************
‘Church
Going’ By-
Phillip Larkin.
1.
When was the poem ‘Church Going’ published?
Ans. 1955
2.
When was the poem ‘Church Going’ written?
Ans.
1954
3.
Where was the poem ‘Church Going’ published?
Ans.
In the poetry collection, “Less Deceived”.
4.
How many lines are there in the poem ‘Church Going’?
Ans. 63 lines. (7 stanzas with 9
lines each).
5.
What meter does the poet use in the poem ‘Church Going’?
Ans.
Iambic pentameter.
6.
What is the rhyming scheme of the poem ‘Church Going’?
Ans. ABABCDECE
7.
How many pence does the poet donate?
Ans.
Six pence.
8.
When did Phillip Larkin was born?
Ans.
9th August, 1922
9.
According to the poet for what reason church is
used since long?
Ans.
According to the poet church is used for separation, marriage, birth and death.
10. Critically
appreciate the poem ‘Church Going’ by Phillip Larkin.
Ans. ‘Church
Going’ written in 1954, is a monologue in which the speaker discusses the
futility and the utility of going to a church. It clearly reveals the social
context of the time when it was written. It was a time of general decline in
the attendance in churches which had begun to take place in 1945. Philip
Larkin, a contemporary poet, wrote ‘Church Going’ after World War II, when the
shattering influence of war was at its peak and there were constant social
changes. Poet noticed the people’s dependence on the church was fading, which
leads us to the two possible meanings of the title ‘Church Going’, the first
being the weekly act of going to a church, or the fading away of the church.
The poet himself wasn’t a believer in the church, he was agnostic and
indifferent, and the speaker in the poem could be the poet himself or a persona
adopted by him. The poem talks about the speaker’s thoughts as he enters a
vast, empty church and wonders what will happen when the churches fall into
disuse. At a deeper level the poem becomes an inquiry into the role of religion
in our lives today.
In
the poem, the speaker says that he goes into a church and sees the matting on
the floor, the seats, and a number of Bibles, flowers which had been placed
inside on last Sunday, a small organ etc. He mounts the lectern, and goes
through a few verses in a Bible. Then he goes back to the entrance, signs the
book, drops an Irish sixpence into the charity-box, and comes out. It seems to
him that it was not worthwhile for him to come to the church. He thinks about
the people who come to the church for different purposes and goes on to
conclude that the importance and use of churches is going to decline. According
to the speaker, a time is coming when people would stop going to churches
altogether, because they would have lost their faith in God and in divine
worship.
“Church
Going” is one of the best of Philip Larkin’s poems. The title itself is puzzling. It gives us two
different meanings. One meaning is that it is a regular visit to a church. The
other shows the decline of the institution because people lost faith in God and
religion. His greatest virtues are clarity and close observation of social
life, perfect control over feeling and tone. The language is always simple and
lucid and the idiom has great variety. Through his poetry Larkin advises us not
to be deceived by illusions or ideals.
He asks us to have a better awareness of man’s weaknesses. Larkin is
called a sceptic poet. He enters the church as a sceptic who does not have any
faith in the church. But he slowly realizes the truth that church fulfils a
deeply felt human need and that it is “a serious house on a serious earth it
is”.
The
speaker then moves forward and touches the baptismal font with his hands. He
notices that the roof looks almost new but he does not know whether it has been
cleaned or restored because he is not a regular church-goer. Then he mounts the
lectern and began to read out a few verses from the Bible. After that he comes back to the door and
signs the visitor’s book and donates an Irish six pence which has no value in
England. Thus, all his activities and manners inside the church show that he is
a sceptic who has no faith in the church service. Finally, he thinks that his
time is wasted, because the place is not worth visiting at all.
But
the speaker could not avoid the church. Over and again, he visited the church
and each time his skeptical attitude grew less and less. This time he stood
inside the churching thinking about its future. As science and technology began
to develop, people lost faith in the institution of church. In future, churches
will become empty and completely out of use.
A few cathedrals may be preserved as museums for future generation
because of its great art and architectural value. Their parchment, the plate
and the pyx may be kept in locked cases. But other church buildings will become
sheltering centers for sheep and other animals and poor people during rainy
time. Sometime people may avoid such places as unlucky because of its
graveyard. The speaker of the poem thinks that perhaps the church will become
the centre of superstitions in the coming years. But if faith disappeared,
naturally superstition will also be disappeared because both are connected with
each other. Finally, the church buildings will tumble down and only its
concrete pillars would be standing as silent witness of the past glory of the
church. The church path will be over grown with grass, weeds and creepers. It
will become a deserted place. In course of time future generation will forget
even the shape of the churches.
Now
the speaker of the poem reflects who will be the last person to visit the
church for its purpose. It may be a lover of antiquity who is eager to see very
old things or some Christmas-addict who visits church only on important
occasions such as the Easter or Christmas and he wants to enjoy the smell of
myrrh burnt, the flowers, the choir music, the dress worn by the choir and the
priest and the music of the organ.
Finally,
the speaker realizes that the church is a serious house on a serious earth. A
church is a symbol of man’s sincere search for the ultimate meaning of life.
Science and technology cannot solve his spiritual needs. That is why the
speaker himself comes to the church again and again when he is tired of the
problems of life. A church is equipped with baptismal fond, flowers and the
graveyard where “all human glories are buried” with his bones. Thus, the
ceremonies of most important events in man’s life such as birth, marriage and
death are conducted in the church. In this sense we can say that this is a
religious poem. Thus, the first meaning of the title “Church Going” is
affirmed. The poem underlines the truth that the power and the glory of God
cannot be destroyed by the advancement of science and technology. On the other
hand, the church will continue to be the center focusing universal love and
peace and giving spiritual solace to man’s problems and sufferings in his life.
Despite
the really conversational tone of the speaker, "Church Going" uses very
a good deal of iambic pentameter and a regular rhyme scheme. The same could be
said of the poem's rhyme scheme: ABABCADCD. In other words, in this poem of
nine-line stanzas, in each stanza the last word of lines 1, 3, and 6 rhyme
(denoted by the A), the last word of lines 2 and 4 rhyme (B), the last words of
lines 5 and 8 rhyme (C), and the last words of lines 7 and 9 rhyme (D).
"Church
Going" seems like a very simple and straightforward title, just as the
poem itself seems to be simple and straightforward. On the most literal level,
it refers to the way that regular "church goers" attend mass every
week. For the speaker of this poem, though, church going has a completely
different set of meanings, because he's not connected to the official teachings
of Christianity. Church going for him refers to the way that he continues to
return to the church even though he can't find anything in it that's
believable. This double meaning of "church going" helps to highlight
the tension this poem explores between traditional religious meaning and the
speaker's personal relationship to the church.
In
conclusion we may say that Church going meaning is very simple but it is very complex
inwardly because in this poem Church Going meaning is that Church Going is just
a custom or ritual that is performed at every Sunday. Nothing is else,
spiritual essence has been gone by soul there is merely show off nothing else. “Church Going” transpires that it
was written at a time when people's belief in religion was declining. The purpose
of the poem is not to target any specific religion nor does its satires
society. Larkin shows that life has changed and so has the belief systems that
governed it. ‘Church
Going’ concludes with the speaker deciding that
no matter what the building might mean, it is important for humanity that
churches be maintained. He sees them as being places of coming together and
acceptance of one’s common humanity with the rest of the world.
*************
‘Hawk
Roosting’ By-
Ted Hughes
1.
When
did the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ was published?
Ans. 1960
2.
Where
did the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ was published?
Ans. Lupercal.
3.
When
did Ted Hughes was born?
And. 17th August, 1930
4.
To
whom did Ted Hughes marry?
Ans. Silvia Plath.
5.
In
which year Ted Hughes became poet laureate?
Ans. 1984
6.
What
is the second / other title of the poem ‘Hawk Roosting’?
Ans. Hawk’s monologue.
7.
The
poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ is divided into ……………. quatrains.
Ans. Six quatrains.
8.
Where
does the hawk sit?
Ans. Top of the wood.
9.
What
does the hawk symbolize in the poem?
Ans. Arrogance and superiority.
10. Write the critical analyses of the poem ‘Hawk
Roosting’.
Ans. In the poem, ‘Hawk Roosting’, Ted talks about a superior and
egoistic creature, the Hawk. Hawk represents the top of the food chain and
always ruled the food chain according to its wish. The poem “Hawk Roosting” was
written by ‘Ted Hughes’. He was born on 17 August 1930
and died on 28 October 1998. He was noted as an English poet, translator and
children’s writer and also, married to Sylvia Plath, a distinguished American
Poet. The poem ‘Hawk Roosting’ was published in 1960 in the collection “lupercal”.
The poem was written in free verse with no rhyme and no meter and contains 24
lines of six quatrains.
In
the poem, ‘Hawk Roosting’, Ted talks about a superior and egoistic creature,
the Hawk. Hawk represents the top of the food chain and always ruled the food
chain according to its wish. Here, we will see that the Hawk being superior to
its power always tries to confine himself as the most powerful creature with no
regrets in his life. Here, Hawk had been personified as it contains human
qualities. The whole poem was dictated by the Hawk, so we can call ‘Hawk
Roosting’ a monologue.
At
the starting of the poem, we have seen that the Hawk was taking nap at the top
of the tree after a tiring day and even when he was in asleep, he was dreaming
about killing its prey with more perfection and eating it. In his dreams too,
his feet and head were hooked properly. Likewise, we can say that, when a
powerful person set a goal/aim about something, they try their best to achieve
it at any cost. And if they don’t get it, they use their power and snatch it.
They will not think about anything/anyone. In their dreams also, they will be
planning and plotting to get that thing.
In
the second stanza, the Hawk says that the nature made the tall trees, air
buoyancy and the sun rays to help him to catch his prey. Nature is also under
him and works according to his benefits, “the earth’s face upward for
my inspection”, that is the sun rays help him to see, the air buoyancy
to fly and the top of the tree to inspect his prey. Here, we can say that Hawk
is a superior creature and even nature was bound to make it for the personal
benefit of the Hawk. We can also relate it with the High Society/Rich/Corrupted
People, who give their priority to themselves to fulfil their needs and
requirements.
In
the upcoming stanzas, we will see that the Hawk said that every creature helped
him to get each feature and the foot. And now he is the one, who is holding the
same creature with that foot to kill and eat them. Likewise, we can say that
High Society/Rich/Corrupted People use people during their needs or elections
and betray the same people after their needs are over. They don’t even give
explanations about anything to anyone for their dominant behaviour and show no
sophistry, the same as the Hawk does. The Hawk plans the hunt so smoothly and
cleverly by holding its prey so tightly that the hook of the foot reaches their
bone and makes it difficult for the prey to come out of it and the same goes
for the corrupted people too.
In
the last stanzas the Hawk is trying to show us its selfish or fascist nature by
saying that, “the Sun is behind me”, and “Nothing
has changed since I began”, that is, from the day the Hawk
began to hunt its prey, he had never had looked back and had grown stronger and
stronger by the days. Even the Sun which is out of human control is behind him
and is following his orders. Now he wants it to be as it is, he does not want
to change anything. Likewise, we can say that Higher Authorised/Political
people also want their position to be fixed forever and hold it tightly so that
nobody can snatch it away from them.
So,
we can say that “Hawk Roosting” by ted Hughes is a metaphorical poem as the
‘hawk’ is personified as it shows human qualities in it. The Hawk also shows
the megalomaniac or fascist qualities of a person of a higher post, who want to
reach success in no time, by any means, whether it is good or bad they don’t
care. It is also a monologue as the whole poem is dictated by the ‘hawk’, that
is the single speaker. Also, it contains political qualities too, so we can
call this a political satire. The
poet here is not simply talking about the hawk. Hawk speaks with sure
confidence. It is the manifestation of the cruel force of nature. It is, thus,
the symbol of the powerful, ruthless, deadly physical force, unsupported by any
kind morality, and devoid of any mercy, humanity or humility. It is also a
symbol of the cruel tyrants of the world.
************
‘Casualty’ By-
Seamus Heaney
1.
Which
year the poem ‘Casualty’ was published?
Ans.
1979
2.
Where
did the poem ‘Casualty’ was published?
Ans.
In the poetry collection, ‘Field Work’.
3.
How
many people died in ‘Bloody Sunday’?
Ans.
Twenty-six
4.
Which
day is called ‘Bloody Sunday’?
Ans.
30th January, 1972
5.
Name
poet’s friend on whom the poem ‘Casualty’ is written?
Ans.
Luois O’Neill
6.
What
was the profession of poet’s friend Luois O’Neill.
Ans.
Fisherman.
7.
When did Seamus Heaney get Nobel Prize for Literature?
Ans. 1995
8.
When was Seamus Heaney born?
Ans. 13 April 1939
9.
When did Seamus Heaney die?
Ans. 28 January 2009
10. Critically appreciate the poem ‘Casualty’.
Ans.
Casualty
is a poem written by Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet who lived during the civil
war, which split Irish people between the two countries: one run by Catholics
and other run by Protestants. The poem talks about the funeral of thirteen men,
considered casualties of war. The poem refers to Bloody Sunday on 30 January
1972. Thousands of people went down onto the street to protest against a law
that gave authorities the power to imprison people without trial. This poem is
a tribute to the thirteen people killed that day.
The poem is divided into three parts, each telling the story
of the speaker who is mourning his dead friend, a fellow fisherman The poem Casualty by Seamus Heaney was written in memorial of
Louis O'Neill, who was killed during the conflicts surrounding the dark day in
Irish history known as "Bloody Sunday," though he is unnamed in the
actual text. It is separated into three sections of similar length and uses very
sophisticated rhyme and rhythm though Heaney does not enforce it exactly, using
slant and near rhymes when wanted and using them to draw attention to certain
lines as is common in his other works. Heaney was an excellent craftsman and it
is no less apparent in this piece, making full use of enjambment and very
concise language to convey his message.
The first two stanzas
describe O'Neill drinking in a bar and the manner in which he does things. The
reader gets a strong sense of the personality of both the narrator, and O'Neill
mostly through comparison of the two as Heaney switches between himself,
O'Neill, and their relationship. Throughout the piece, Heaney sets up
opposition, by switching from descriptive narratives of past dealings with
O'Neill to graphic facts about the bombing or descriptions of the tension
present in Ireland as he did with the reference to the graffiti in stanza
three, which compares the death toll to soccer score, "paras thirteen, the
walls said, / bogside nil."
Stanza four begins the
second part with imagery of the day of the funeral of those killed on Bloody
Sunday, as coffins are carried through the cathedral doors. It makes a birth
reference that I feel like I am missing part of: "The common funeral / Unrolled
its swaddling band, / Lapping, tightening / Till we were braced and bound /
Like brothers in a ring." These lines bring an image of people closely
huddled around a grave at a funeral, all dressed in black, as everyone gathers
around to say their final farewell. Maybe the unrolling of the swaddling band
is the birth of their group, as those around them died they all become closer,
not only literally because of the circle becoming smaller with each funeral but
also in their association with each other. It then goes on to say that O'Neill
ignored the curfew that was imposed by his fellow Catholics and that it was to
pursue his thirst for alcohol, "For he drank like a fish / Nightly,
naturally / Swimming towards the lure / Of warm lit-up places." The cause
of his death is what he is described as doing most often in this poem. The poem
begins with his drinking and his life ended with the same thing. Heaney
questions if O'Neill was deserving of blame when he was killed and he imagines
his face the night of the bombing just as the explosion occurred. Heaney is
pointing out in this stanza that everyone was innocent who was killed in the
conflicts, like a war that people have been fighting so long they forget what
they are fighting about.
The third part of the
poem describes the morning of the funeral which melds into the morning he went
fishing with O'Neill; it seems as if he is addressing the ghost of O'Neill,
telling it to find its "proper haunt." The last line of the poem is
"Question me again." This line alone is profound but also refers back
to the question in the second part: "How culpable was he?" He cannot
find the correct answer because everything has become hazy or foggy as the poem
describes the morning, another visual reference symbolic of the entire conflict;
there are no clear answers to be found. There are seldom any clear answers for
those who are left behind when people die, but in a time such as that of the
poem, when there was so much violence and hate, I can't even begin to imagine
the confusion and feelings of paralysis that those people must have felt. They
seek someone to blame but there is no one to be found, because they were all
complicit, by doing nothing "while the worst are full of passionate
intensity," as William B. Yeats writes in The Second Coming. Heaney even
uses the word "complicity" in the sixth stanza in reference to
"our tribe" meaning the Catholic Church. The good people have been
hardened against the violence of a hundred years and they can't see any end in
sight.
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