Hardy as a Novelist

Name :Hetalba C Gohil

Paper :   405 A Study of an Author: Thomas Hardy

Sem  :4    M.A: 2

Topic : Hardy as a Novelist

Submitted to:

 

Dr, Dilip Barad

Dept. Of English

   

M.K. B.  Universty

Hardy as a Novelist

   
Hardy's Novels of Character and Environment convey a strong sense of fatalism, a view that in life human actions have been predetermined, either by the very nature of things, or by God, or by Fate.
Hardy dramatized his conception of destiny in human affairs as the Imminent Will. In his great novels — The Return of the Native, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the D'Urbervilles , and The Mayor of Casterbridge — Hardy saw man beaten down by forces within and without himself and sought to record man's eternal struggle with fate.


Wessex: Its Location

An understanding of Hardy's Wessex, its physical features, etc., is necessary for a proper understanding of his works, for this region forms the background to all that he has written. In some of his novels, as in the Return of the Native, it is a dominant over-character influencing both character and action.


"gives the reader a standard of normality by which he can gauge the . . . heights and depths to which the main characters rise and fall."

As a realist, Hardy felt that art should describe and comment upon actual situations, such as the heavy lot of the rural laborers’ and the bleak lives of oppressed women. Though the Victorian reading public tolerated his depiction of the problems of modernity, it was less receptive to his religious skepticism and criticism of the divorce laws. His public and critics were especially offended by his frankness about relations between the sexes, particularly in his depicting the seduction of a village girl in Tess, and the sexual entrapment and child murders of Jude. The passages which so incensed the late Victorians the average twentieth-century reader is apt to miss because Hardy dealt with delicate matters obliquely. The modern reader encounters the prostitutes of Caster bridge’s Mixen Lane without recognizing them, and concludes somewhat after the 'Chase' scene in Tess that it was then and there that the rape occurred. In Hardy's novels female principals differ from one another far less than do his male principals. The temperamental capriciousness of such characters as Fancy Day, Eustacia Vye, and Bathsheba Everdene arises from an immediate and instinctive obedience to emotional impulse without sufficient corrective control of reason.


Hardy a Realist and Not Pessimist


The fact is that Hardy was a thorough realist. Born and bred in a scientific age, he could not shut his eyes to the fact of suffering. Therefore, the cheap, blind optimism of poets, like Browning, who sang,


“God is in His heaven
all is right with the world.”

Failed to satisfy him. Rather, the brutal and ruthless struggle for existence which he saw being waged in Nature everywhere, the starvation, hunger, sickness and disease which stalks the earth, made him feel that God was not in heaven and all was wrong with the world. He claimed, and rightly, that his position was nearer the truth. Nor could he agree with the Romantic poets, like Wordsworth, who said that Nature had a “Holy plan” and that there was joy everywhere in Nature. How could it be so, when numbers of children were born to shiftless parents, like the Durbeyfields, to bring misery to themselves and to others? The world was already over crowded; there were already too many hungry mouths to be fed. Acutely conscious of this fact of universal suffering, he felt with his own Jude that mutual butchery was the law of nature. This is not pessimism, but realism. This state of affairs can be mended not by turning our backs to it, but by facing it squarely. He therefore taught:


“If a way to the better there be
It implies a good look at the worst.”
This is a perfectly sane and healthy view of life and no right-minded person can object to it.


Philosophy of Resignation, Not of Nihilism


Besides this, Hardy is not a Nihilist. Except in his last novel Jude the Obscure, he never advocates a rejection of life. Suffering, no doubt, is the universal law but human lot can be ameliorated a great deal through tact and wisdom and through wise social reform. It is a philosophy of resignation which he teaches. The Wessex rustics are resigned to their lot and suffer patiently. Joan Durbeyfield’s suffering is not so intense, because when faced with misfortune she again and again mutters, “It was to be”, and then goes about her way as usual. Elizabeth-Jane and Thomasine tactfully adjust themselves to their circumstances and so escape much misery.


Hardy a Humanist, and Not a Pessimist


The spirit of, “Loving-kindness”, Hardy advocates, should he the basis of all human relations. Much of human misery results from the imperfections of the First Cause, but much more suffering can be avoided if we are kind and sympathetic to each other. Instead of seeking refuge in nature and turning our back on life, we should rather turn to our own kind, for,


“There at least discourse trills around,
There at least smiles abound,
There sometimes are found,
Life-Loyalties.”

A poet who could write like this cannot be called a pessimist. Thomas Hardy is a ‘humanist” or what he called himself an, “Evolutionary meliorist.”


Hardy as a Landscape-Painter


Hardy’s keen powers of observation and word painting make him a notable landscape-painter. “If word-pictures could be hung on walls”, says Duffin, “Hardy’s nature pieces would fill up an entire gallery.” Hardy’s nature descriptions are fresh and accurate. They are not bookish, but based on first hand observation of the facts and phenomena of nature. He observes everything, nothing escapes his eye, but he selects only those details as are likely to serve his purpose. Thus in his nature descriptions he combines imagination with realism, fact with fiction. By the careful selection and ordering of material he lightens the significant aspects of a scene and renders it with greater effectiveness.


Hardy, a Specialist in Women


The touchstone of a novelist’s power is his handling of hi; female-characters, and Hardy is a specialist in the field. His male character: yield to his women, both in clarity and intensity. A number of bright and beautiful women, as glorious as the heroines of Shakespeare, move across the stage of the Wessex novels. Tess, Eustacia Vye, Bathsheba, Grace, Elfride, Sue, etc., are only a few of the portraits in the wonderful art-gallery of Thomas Hardy. It is an immense wealth of material that we find spread before us as soon as we enter the world. As Duflln points out, it is possible to divide the women of Hardy into four groups on the basis of the space devoted to their portraiture and of their personal significance in the action of the novel.

Reflection of past in A Grain of Wheat.

Name :Hetalba C Gohil

Paper :   402  African Literature

Sem  :4    M.A: 2

Topic : Reflection of past in A Grain of Wheat.

Submitted to: 

Dr, Dilip Barad,    

M.K. B.  Universty

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o :

“Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow [...] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes” 

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said,

“The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say.”  

       This quote applies directly to Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s novel A Grain of Wheat. One could infer from this quote that some writers write not just for the enjoyment derived from it, but rather out of a feeling of obligation to let readers hear what they may have to say.

       The action of the novel focuses on the protagonists’ remembrances of the events of the ‘Mau Mau’ Revolt, which Ngũgĩ Sees as the only historical moment which allows “the space to imagine the birth of a New Kenya” The way these events are recounted and reshaped is a collective one, as a shifting focalization and a complex time structure create a polyphonic, choral narrative that shows in detail the physical, psychological and political impact of the Revolt on individuals living in a small community .

      The novel is set in Thabai, an imaginary gĩkũyũ village of Kenya’s White Highlands, in the days preceding and following 12 December 1963, the day Kenya got its Independence. The latter is continually evoked in the narration with the swahili word Uhuru (“freedom”): Ngũgĩ’s choice not to translate this term is significant, as in the novel the definition of the actual meaning of Uhuru is an open political and social question: the new Kenyan bourgeoisie sees it indeed as the possibility to replace the colonizer without changing the existing social,political and economical structure, whereas for gĩkũyũ peasants Uhuru means a profound break with the colonial past, a rebirth which has to bring about the restitution of the lands usurped by the white settlers and the eradication of poverty.

     The meaning of Uhuru is thus a central question, quite far from being obvious: so much so that Ngũgĩ clarifies what Uhuru should be only in the 1986 version of the novel, when the former ‘Mau Mau’ guerilla General R. states in his Independence speech

“We get Uhuru today. But what’s the meaning of ‘Uhuru’ ? It is contained in

the name of our Movement: Land and Freedom”

    

The whole novel can indeed be summarized as a collective act of recalling and reflecting on the events leading to Uhuru, in order to understand what actual meaning it should/could have for Thabai peasants. It is precisely in the act of recalling and reflecting on the past that A Grain of Wheat constructs a narration of the nation: the pedagogic moment (the act of recalling the liberation struggle) materializes in a performative moment (Bhabha 1990a) disseminated in lots of narratives, each of which is a speech act. The narration becomes therefore an active (re)construction of the past, an act of writing, in the sense of modeling

“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abided alone: but if it die, it bring forth much fruit”

    These quotations give a religious and epic tone to the novel and assert the necessity of a sacrifice for the (re)birth of the nation. In A Grain of Wheat the heroic character par excellence is the late Kihika, the courageous guerilla leader full of messianic spirit. We learn of Kihika’s life and deeds mainly from the memories of those who survived, but it is the narrator-storyteller who gives his life a meaning in the perspective of the liberation struggle, summarizing its course in the second chapter, after a long digression on the story of the party. This digression is central in the narration of the nation, as here the modern history of Kenya is identified with the story of the resistance to colonization and of the development of the liberation movement:

Mass media and communication

Name :Hetalba C Gohil

Paper :   403 Mass media and communication

Sem  :4    M.A: 2

Topic : What is Journalism ?Types and Role of journalist

Submitted to:

Dr Dilip Barad

M.K. B.  University

What is journalism?

Journalism refers to the news or feature stories (light, entertainment stories) that are expressed either in a descriptive way or concise pattern through different types of media. A journalist reports news, which can be through print, television, radio, or even the Internet. The main purpose of a journalist is to report news with accurate facts in an unbiased manner. Over the decades, several types of journalism have developed that have given different dimensions to the field of mass media. One method of classification is on the basis of their specialization (beat), method of gathering information, and writing/reporting style.

Journalism is the investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience for different purpose. Journalism’s role at the time was to act as a mediator or translator between the public and policy making elites. The journalist became the middleman. When elites spoke, journalists listened and recorded the information, distilled it, and passed it on to the public for their consumption.
Journalists have many roles to play commonly as; watchdogs, investigators, moderators, entertainers, analysts, informers, editors, commentators, and advertisers. They are community activists, agenda-setters, and voices for the voiceless. They are public servants, keepers of public record, protectors of democracy, and promoters of public dialogue. Thanks to these responsibilities media is playing, it has earned the recognition of fourth estate.

Role of journalist 

The importance of journalism comes from the people’s right to opinion and expression. Since right to opinion and expression would not be a reality without the press. People today depend greatly on the press for being informed. Journalism is taken as inseparable part of any democratic system. The Press plays a vital role in democratic society. It is an institution in its own right. The Press has earned the recognition of ‘Fourth state’. Journalism is the ‘voice of the voiceless’ and it plays the role of ‘watch-dog’ in our society. It is strong bridge between concerning authorities and the people. It handles all public issues. In fact, press is the people’s open forum. Press makes such an environment where people get information and be prepared to take part in democracy. People’s participation is the foundation of democracy. Press is the pillar of democracy.

Similarly, the main principles of journalism are; Accuracy, Balance and Credibility. One of the important responsibilities of journalist is to maintain their principles in their reporting. The information should be based on truth and facts which provides accurate news. Apart from that, journalist is responsible for giving space to every one without biasness. While reporting one should be balance. If we compare the same news from two or three different newspapers, we find distinction in terms of how much one reporter is leaned towards certain groups or political parties. In the other hand, citizens/ audiences should have some sort of faith over media. Without credible information, there would be no trust PRESS and could have no strength. Thus maintaining accuracy and balance provides credible information.

The general field of journalism has become specialized with various types of writing, depending on the audience and motives of the writers. Distinctions are also made to separate various journalism genres as categories of writing. Some types include

On the Basis of Beats

News journalism:

 Here, the primary aim of the journalist is to report news in a straight-forward manner that covers all the required facts. The style is direct with focus on the gist of the story with other necessary points. The news style should be concise and precise. The facts must be crosschecked which makes the news item as authentic as possible without any media bias. Here, the news story can be for the print media, television, radio, etc. Such news pieces often cover politics and social movements. News stories based on political suppression, public movements or abuse of human rights have proved instrumental in effecting many a social change, or giving voice to the oppressed. Similarly, cultural events are also covered in news journalism 

Lifestyle Journalism

The world is evolving and people are interested in reading more about lifestyle. This beat has been on a fast-track growth focusing on entertainment, music, leisure, shopping, home, gardening, and so on. Lifestyle journalists study the stages of development of lifestyle, economic influences on society, fashion, and trends. They provide readers with tips that can help in changing their lifestyle with time.

On the Basis of News Gathering

Ambush Journalism

This is one of the techniques followed by journalists to collect news. It is actually a military tactic used to make a surprise attack in the same way as it is used to confront people so as to get answers. We come across this method more often on television, in a news show, or interviews where answers on sensitive topics are pulled out from people, who generally avoid speaking to journalists.

Citizen journalism:

 Here, it is not the professional journalists who are responsible for the news reports. Any citizen can participate and report news to the media. He/she collects and reports news to the media and participates voluntarily to offer help to the media. They bring to notice issues that may have been missed by media houses

Investigative journalism:

This type of journalism is about unearthing facts and studying cases that may require more efforts, which can take months or even years. Journalists who specialize in investigative journalism create headlines with news that expose scandals. Sometimes, persistent follow-up of a story proves beneficial to uncover some hitherto unsolved cases. This would require in-depth research from the journalist along with evidence.

On the Basis of Writing Styles

Advocacy journalism

 Writing to advocate particular viewpoints or influence the opinions of the audience. Under this branch, journalists are openly biased towards a particular entity while reporting events or happenings. The information they convey is mostly one-sided and tends to defend the specific entity. Most advocacy journalists believe that in their profession, one is very likely to become partial. As a constant follower of any story, it is difficult to stay detached. You eventually will develop an opinion! So, instead of     trying to be indifferent, one might as well report from his point of view

Tabloid journalism

 Writing which uses opinionated or wild claims. This type is a hit with some unreliable newspapers and websites even today! In this style, the journalist tries to sensationalize a particular piece of news by molding the story itself. Also famous by the name 'yellow journalism', such form of news is highly exaggerated and mostly unreliable. A good example of this is when celebrity controversies are hyped and publicized on a big scale to grab eyeballs.

Themes and Motif and Symbol in The Da Vinci Code

Name :Hetalba C Gohil

Paper :   401 New Literature

Sem  :4    M.A: 2

Topic : Themes ,Motif and Symbol in The Da Vinci Code

Submitted to:

Dr, Dilip Barad,

M.K. B.  Universty

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown is a rather unique book. It doesn’t just have one theme; it has many different unique themes and motifs, which are shown in different ways. He demonstrates the conflict between faith and science, as well as the subjectivity of history. The Da Vinci Code is a perfect example of how the themes in a piece of work don’t necessarily have to be meaningless; we can learn significant life lessons from anywhere. 

The False Conflict between Faith and Knowledge

Dan Brown refuses to accept the idea that faith in God is rooted in ignorance of the truth. The ignorance that the Church has sometimes advocated is embodied in the character of Bishop Aringarosa, who does not think the Church should be involved in scientific investigation

“Faith - acceptance of which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.”

 According to The Da Vinci Code, the Church has also enforced ignorance about the existence of the descendents of Jesus. Although at one point in the novel Langdon says that perhaps the secrets of the Grail should be preserved in order to allow people to keep their faith, he also thinks that people who truly believe in God will be able to accept the idea that the Bible is full of metaphors, not literal transcripts of the truth. People’s faith, in other words, can withstand the truth. Dan Brown also shows how the church refuses to believe the existence of Jesus’s descendants, and works to rid the world of such evidence by trying to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Through these different stories within the novel Dan Brown shows us a different side of religion and faith:

 “Every faith in the world is based on fabrication... Every religion describes God through metaphor, allegory, and exaggeration, from the early Egyptians through modern Sunday school... Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that we have proof the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.” (Pg. 341-342).

 This novel is a perfect way of showing that each religion is based on an event that may not be quite true, but people who are really getting something out of their religion are the ones that understand that their religion could be based on a metaphor or a fabrication.

The Subjectivity of History

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, what is history, but a fable agreed upon?” (Pg. 256).

The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether history books necessarily tell the only truth. Dan Brown has incorporated commonly told stories about the past, but has shown modern interpretations of them, that point out small details which lead us to question the version we have always heard. For example, the fresco: The Last Supper; most people have heard that it is a painting of 13 men, and at the end of the supper they all drink out of one glass, the chalice. But, in the story we learn that there is actually one woman in the picture, Mary Magdalene, and that each person has one wine glass. These small details actually mean a lot, and cause us to question other things, such as the pentacle, and Jesus’s life.   Brown provides his own explanation of how the Bible was compiled and of the missing gospels. Langdon even interprets the Disney movie The Little Mermaid, recasting it as an attempt by Disney to show the divine femininity that has been lost. All of these retellings are presented as at least partly true. This novel is just trying to show us how history is just a one sided account, and that we should never fully believe a story, how we should always be looking at it from another side as well, and that we should be constantly trying to interpret the stories we have always heard. 

The Intelligence of Women

Characters in The Da Vinci Code ignore the power of women at their peril. Throughout the novel, Sophie is underestimated. She is able to sneak into the Louvre and give Langdon a secret message, saving him from arrest, because Fache does not believe her to be capable of doing her job. Fache specifically calls Sophie a “female cryptologist” when he is expressing his doubts about Sophie and Langdon’s ability to evade Interpol. When interpreting one of the clues hidden in the rose box, Langdon and Teabing leave Sophie out, completely patronizing her. When she is finally allowed to see the clue, she immediately understands how to interpret it. Sophie saves Langdon from arrest countless times.

Other women are similarly underestimated. Sister Sandrine, in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, is a sentry for the Brotherhood, but Silas, indoctrinated in the hypermasculine ways of Opus Dei, does not consider her a threat. And Marie Chauvel, Sophie’s grandmother, manages to live without incident near Rosslyn Chapel for years, preserving her bloodline through Sophie’s brother.

Motifs

Ancient and Foreign Languages

Many of the secrets that lie below the surface of the narrative are concealed from would-be interpreters only by language. Saunière leaves anagrams for Sophie to decipher. Langdon and Teabing use the Hebrew alphabet to figure out a clue. Sophie helps Langdon and Teabing use a mirror to read the backward writing that Da Vinci favored. In The Da Vinci Code, language reminds us that secrets exist everywhere and sometimes need just a little interpretation.

Art

Brown uses descriptions of works of fine art to prove that art can tell stories that history tends to obscure. These works of art include Da Vinci’s Last Supper, Madonna of the Rocks, and Mona Lisa, which hide symbols of goddess worship and the story of the Magdalene; the Church of Saint-Sulpice, which still contains an obelisk, a sign of pagan worship; and tarot cards, which hide themes of pagan mythology. These art objects are constantly viewed by people who see them without seeing their hidden meanings.

Symbols

Red Hair

Sophie Neveu’s red hair, mentioned at the beginning of the text, foreshadows her divine blood. When Langdon first sees Sophie, he calls her hair “burgundy” and thinks that her attractiveness lies in her confidence and health. He compares her favorably to the blonde girls at Harvard over whom his students lust. Later, at Teabing’s chateau, Teabing shows Sophie that Mary Magdalene is depicted with red hair in The Last Supper. Langdon also thinks the mermaid Ariel’s red hair in The Little Mermaid is evidence that Disney intended his movie to be an allegory of the story of Magdalene. By the end of the novel, when Sophie’s brother gives a tour of the Rosslyn Chapel and his hair is described as “strawberry blonde,” we understand that Sophie and her brother are of Mary Magdalene’s bloodline.

Blood

Blood stands for truth and enlightenment in The Da Vinci Code. Saunière draws a pentacle—for him, a symbol of the Church’s intention to cover up the true history of the world—on his stomach in his own blood. Sophie realizes that her grandfather has left a message for her on the Mona Lisa because a drop of his blood remains on the floor. Teabing spies a trickle of blood on Silas’s leg, which he takes to mean that Silas has a cilice, a barbed punishment belt, on his thigh, and disables him by hitting him there. Silas himself had thought of blood as truth in a different way—for Silas, blood means cleansing of impurities. And at the very end of the novel, the discovery of the blood of Mary Magdalene running through Sophie and her brother’s veins proves that the story of the Grail is true.

Cell Phones

In a novel that spends a great deal of time interpreting ancient symbols like the pentacle, the chalice, and the rose, the cell phone might seem like an incongruous modern interloper. But the cell phone symbolizes the fact that in the modern world, secrets are both harder and easier to keep. Teabing conceals his identity as the Teacher by using cell phones to communicate with his unknowing allies. In one instance, he even speaks to Silas from the back of the limousine while Silas is in the front, concealing his identity while only feet away. At the same time, however, the characters are often worried about their cell phone use being traced. Fache, for example, at one point figures out that Sophie has tipped Langdon off by looking up her phone number, which is stored in his cell phone, and finding that it matches the number Sophie gave Langdon as the American Embassy’s number.

General Estimate of Dryden's Essay

Name:Gohil Hetalba C

Paper: 3 Literary Theory and Criticism

M.A 2   Sem 1

Roll: 5

                      Topic: General Estimate of Dryden's Essay

Submitted To,

Dr Dilip Barad

Dept of English

Mk Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar

General Estimate of Dryden’s Essay 

   The Essay is written in the form of a dialogue concerned to four gentlemen: Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander. Neander seems to speak for Dryden himself. Eugenius takes the side of the modern English dramatists. Crites defends the ancient. Lesideius defends the French playwrights and attacks the English tendency to mix genres. 

Dryden's definition of drama 

  Dryden's definition of drama really covers a wide range. According to him, drama is a just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind. He insists on the words 'Just' and 'lively' image of human nature. In support of the words, it must be admitted that material of all topics is drawn from a society. The society is made of mankind or living things, and without them, society is nothing. Dryden implies word 'Image' as an imitation or appearance of human nature must be just. Just means exact or as it is. It means an exact copy of reality. Dryden is different; he does not like only the slavish or exact copy of reality, but it must be lively. John Dryden gives value to labour. If one reveals it as rough as it was, it must be a rough work with a trivial value. If it is represented lively, the work would be lively, and the poet would be valued. John Dryden gives primary importance to delight, and the secondary to instruction. The function of poetry is delight, and to instruct is the function of prose. 

The Ancients versus Modern Playwrights 

      Dryden in his essay, An Essay on Dramatic Poesy, justified the Moderns. The case for the ‘Ancients’ is presented by Crites.He makes us see the achievement of the Ancients and the gratitude of the Moderns to them. The superiority of the Ancients is established by the very fact that the Moderns simply imitate them, and build on the foundations laid by them. The Ancient drama is superior because the Ancients closely observed Nature and faithfully represented her in their work Crites makes special mention of the Unities, of Time, Place, and Action. The Ancients followed these rules and the effect is satisfying and pleasing. 

   Eugenius favors the Moderns and said that moderns have not blindly imitated them. Had they done so, they would have lost the old perfection, and would not achieve any new excellences. Even the Ancients’ observance of the three unities is not perfect. The Ancient critics, like Horace and Aristotle, did not make mention of the Unity of Place. Their plays do not perform one of the functions of drama, which of giving delight as well as instruction. There is no poetic justice in their plays. Ancient themes are equally defective. The proper end of Tragedy is to arouse “admiration and concernment (pity)”. But their themes are lust, cruelty, murder, and bloodshed, which instead of arousing admiration and pity arouse “horror and terror”. 

Lisideius’s view in favour of the Superiority of the French Drama over the English Drama 

    Lisideius speaks in favour of the French. He agrees with Eugenius that in the last generation the English drama was superior. The French do not burden the play with a fat plot. They represent a story which will be one complete action, and everything which is unnecessary is carefully excluded. But the English burden their plays with actions and incidents which have no logical and natural connection with the main action so much so that English play is a mere compilation. Hence the French plays are better written than the English ones. Based on the definition of the play, Neander suggests that English playwrights are best at "the lively imitation of nature" Further; he suggests that English plays are more entertaining and instructive because they offer an element of surprise that the Ancients and the French do not. 

Mixture of Tragedy and Comedy 

    Dryden is more considerate in his attitude towards the mingling of the tragic and the comic elements and emotions in the plays. Mirth does not destroy compassion and thus the serious effect which tragedy aims at is not disturbed by mingling of tragic and comic. Just as the eye can pass from an unpleasant object to a pleasant one, so also the soul can move from the tragic to the comic. And it can do so much more swiftly. 

Rhymed Verse versus Blank Verse Controversy 

    Crites’s attack on Rhyme occurs towards the end of the Essay, Rhyme is unnatural in a play, for a play is in dialogues, and no man without premeditation speaks in rhyme. Drama is a ‘just’ representation of Nature, and rhyme is unnatural, for nobody in Nature expresses himself in rhyme. It is artificial and the art is too apparent, while true art consists in hiding art. Tragedy is a serious play representing nature exalted to its highest pitch; rhyme being the noblest kind of verse is suited to it, and not to comedy. 

Conclusion 

In short, John Dryden in his essay, An Essay on Dramatic Poesy, gives an account of the Neo-classical theory and discusses all the topics in the essay.

Psychological changes in the character of Gulliver

Name:Gohil Hetalba C

Paper: 2  The Neo-Classical Age

M.A 2  Sem 1

Roll: 5

Topic: "Psychological changes in the character of Gulliver"

  

Submitted To,

Dr Dilip Barad

Dept of English

Mk Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar

Psychological changes in the character of Gulliver

In Lilliput

          Gulliver's possesses moral superiority to the petty and tiny Lilliputians, who show themselves to be a petty, cruel, vengeful, and self-serving race. Morally and politically, Gulliver is their superior.

In Brobdingnag

          In Brobdingnag (Book II), Gulliver is still an ordinary moral man, but the Brobdingnagians are moral giant men. Certainly they are not perfect, but their moral superiority is as great to Gulliver as is their physical size. In his loyalty to England, we see that Gulliver is, indeed, a very proud man and one who accepts the madness and malice of British politics and society as the natural and normal standard. For the first time, we see Gulliver as the hypocrite — he lies to the Brobdingnagian king in order to conceal what is despicable about his native England.

In Houyhnhnms

          In Book IV, Gulliver represents the middle ground between pure reason (as embodied by the Houyhnhnms) and pure animalism (as embodied by the depraved Yahoos), yet Gulliver's pride refuses to allow him to recognize the Yahoo aspects in himself. Therefore, he identifies himself with the Houyhnhnms and, in fact, tries to become one. But the horses are alien to Gulliver; yet Gulliver thinks of the Yahoos as alien and animal. Separating himself from his naturally depraved cousins, the Yahoos, Gulliver also separates himself from the European Yahoos. He is near to madness — because of pride. Gulliver has "reasoned" himself into rejecting his species and his nature: Gulliver is virtually a madman.

          This aspiration to become a horse exposes Gulliver's grave weakness. Gullible and proud, he becomes such a devotee of reason that he cannot accept his fellow humans who are less than totally reasonable. He cannot recognize virtue and charity when they exist. Captain Pedro de Mendez rescues Gulliver and takes him back to Europe, but Gulliver despises him because Mendez doesn't look like a horse. Likewise, when he reaches home, Gulliver hates his family because they look and smell like Yahoos. . His attitudes when he arrives in London make him a source of derision, for Gulliver seeks to change his basic nature by thinking; reason becomes the sole guide of his life.He is still capable of seeing objects and surfaces accurately, but he is incapable of grasping true depths of meaning.

Conclusion

          Gulliver, usually quite sane, is misled when we leave him, but he is like most people. Even dullards, occasionally, become obsessed by something or other for a while before lapsing back into their quiet, workaday selves. Eventually, we can imagine that Gulliver will recover and be his former unexciting, gullible self.

Dialectic of Argumentation in Paradise Lost

Name:Gohil Hetalba C

Paper: 1 The Renaissance Literature

M.A 2   Sem 1

Roll: 5

Topic: Dialectic of Argumentation in Paradise Lost

Submitted To,

Dr Dilip Barad

Dept of English

Mk Bhavnagar University

Bhavnagar

Dialectic of Argumentation in Paradise Lost

  

     In the paradise lost, we find use of rhetoric by different character especially Satan’s argument are very suggestive when he question to god. Even the argumentativeness dialogue of Eve also suggest the feminine inequality at that time.Satan having compassed the earth with meditated guile returns as a mist by night into paradise enters into the serpent sleeping. Adam and eve in the morning go forth to their labours which eve proposes to divide in several places, each labouring apart. Adam consents not, alleging the danger and eve urges to go apart to check her strength. Adam at last yields

Argument between Adam and eve

    

      Adam insist eve should be close to him and they should work together where as eve wants to live an independent life. she wants to live independent without Adam’s supervision.

“Thou where choice/leads thee or where most needs/while I”

“But to delight/he made us and delight to reason joyn’d/for solitude sometimes is best societies.”

     

     Their existence is for the sake of delight and therefore they should not be worried about the duty assign .Adam tries to pursued Eve not part from him. There is threat to their lives from the enemy in the form of Satan .he is likely to attack and take advantage of their separation.

“And what is faith, love, virtue unassaid/alone, without exterior help sustained? Let us not then suspect our happy state/left so imperfect by the maker wise,/as not secure to single or combin’d.one alone/fraile is our happiness.”

    Eve sticks to her decision and remarks that unless her capacity is tasted. it is not capacity if she would not allow herself to move away and prove her strength. If she try and then she tasted .her strength cn be  proved only where it put to taste.

Argument between Satan and eve

   

    Satan is waiting for opportunity to attack. He knows well that Adam and eve together cannot be deceived but eve alone can be his victim. So he approached secretly toward eve

“Fairest resemblance of thy maker faire/thee all things living gaze on”

     

     He uses oil tongue .he tries to eve that he had eaten the apples and obtains the power to speak. Eve is extremely delighted and having glance at the tree. On seeing the tree Eve immediately realizes that it is a tree of knowledge whose fruit is forbidden.

“but of this tree we may not taste nor touch god so commanded/our reason is our low !ye shall not eat”

      Satan uses his logic and flatters her by using the following expression.

“queen of this universe, do not believe .those rigid threats of death ye shall not die”

    

    He cites his example saying that he is alive though he ate the fruit .and she argues that good unknown is us is sure not bad and bay not eating the fruit god forbids us to be good and wise and such limitations cannot bind us. But after death bind us with after-hands then what profit of the freedom inward?

“Forbids us to be good .forbids us to be wise!

Superior or inferior, who is free?

   

      She wants to be equal to Adam but she also argues that after all who is free? Even Adam is superior to her .he is not freedom choice to eat the fruit

Conclusion

    We find best example that how to argue and how to counter argue through the example of argument between Adam and Eve and Eve and Satan.