literary form- comedy

COMEDY

What is comedy?

In ordinary English the words comedy and comic are used for anything that is funny or laughable. But the truth is that we use the word comedy in different and confusing way. Generally Comedy means a play which has a pleasant atmosphere and a happy ending. It may not actually make us laugh, but it must at least be amusing and entertaining. Even satirical, satire and comedy are closely related. Comedy is found in other forms of literature too.

Certain people and certain situation always seem to be funny,  mother-in-law,  an old man with young wife,  blind man,  odd behavior of lunatics. These people deserve sympathy rather than laughter, but they always seem funny to other world. They can be like all time comedians.

There is of course  no clear border line between comedy and satire. Even the lightest comedy must contain some kind of social comment as in 'comedy of manners',  but when a dramatist tries to to use the stage is the base of lectures,  sermons and propaganda. We must expect the death of true comedy. Less attractive features of drama between 1922 -1970 has been a continuing attempt by some writers and critics to persuade us that plays try to be profound or significant. Most of us do not go to theatre for advice about difficult problems of politics or morality. We are not interested in opinion,  there maybe place for the kind of drama that preaches in societies to who are illiterate like audience of miracle places in medieval time, but generally teaching and preaching are not part of true comedy.

Theories:

Laughter,  it must be admitted to be Cruel and harmful more than reliving comedy seems to be working on the Aristotle's theory of catharsis,  it provides us imaginary objects on which we laugh and perform cruelty without harming others and without shocking. More,  one can not laugh on own friend whose wife is having an affair with the other person, but can freely laugh on the stupid old husband in Chaucer's 'Miller tale'. The theory of laughter is also an expression of pleasure and thankfulness at one's own comparative good luck. To laugh at a fat woman is to express one's own satisfaction at not being a very fat women. We laugh at others misfortune it is because we observe ourselves happy and free of them. Laughter is not always cruel or selfish but there is a difference between laughing at somebody and laughing with somebody. Also,  there is no possibility of being witty without a little in nature. 

History:

History of comedy would have to begin with the ancient Greek COMOS (a revel) and the satyr play which were performed as the kind of comic relief.

Greek >  Comedy of Aristophanes (448-380 BC) [Satirical in tone and are still alive when performed in transition.] > Menander (340-292 BC). [He developed so called new comedy.] > Latin dramatist Plautus (254-184 BC) [It imitated Menander comedies.] > Terence (190-159 BC) [It resembled to what is called comedy of manners.]

The true origin of English comedy is to be found in the mystery place and miracle plays of middle ages. Mystery and miracle plays were based on the biblical stories for the lives of the saints.They were performed in large towns,  it showed the whole cycle from beginning with the story of Adam and Eve and ending the Christ crucifixion and resurrection. The plays were performed on heavy Wagons called 'pageant'. It had three stages presenting heaven,  Earth and hell. There were stations where it would stop and present its own particular play. Four mystery play still exist Chester, Coventry,  York and Wakefield.

In York play of Noah's flood for instance much comic relief is provided by Noah's wife,  who refuses to leave her gossip and go into the Ark of water rises. In the end She was forced by her three sons and Noah pulled her in boat and They had an argumental conversation.

In Wakefield play,  the ship stealer steals the ship when the shepherds were listening the news of Christ's birth. Mak's (the stealer) wife was admiring their new born child in cradle,  while the Shepherds were on the Way to Bethlehem. And they noticed that the child is strange and they realise it to be stolen ship. Then Mak was thrown about in the blanket as punishment. 

There are many such comedy play,  one cannot be failed to impress by the happy way in which two elements are mixed to create drama.

Three of the most popular characters in the mystery plays were king Herod,  the devil and the Vice. Herod was always shown as the comically angry Tyrant,  his rage. The devil wore an ugly mask and was given long fingernails. He was accompanied by a vice- a sort of lesser devil than having who danced around him and pretended to be threaten him with a wooden sword. Vice was to play a long and important part in the history of European comedy. He reappears in England as the Shakespearean down,  Often a clever amusing commentator on the other actors and events in the play. 

Types:

Romantic comedy:

It is the most popular form of Entertainment. Plays of romantic are very different play. It is a pleasant mixture of love and laughter, this plays are popular all over and it's not difficult to explain. The earliest English romantic comedy is probably 'Ralph Roister Doister' written by headmaster of Westminster school 12 years later. 'Gammer Gurton's Needle' produced at Christ College,  Cambridge. Both plays are farcial and has a love interest. 'The honorable history of Friar Bacon and Frian Bungay' by Robert Greene pattern of farcical  qualities with dialogue in prose,  mixed with the theme of love and romance expressed in verse 

Shakespeare carried romantic comedy almost to perfection during the period 1594-1602. The welknown romantic comedies are 'A midsummer Night's Dream', 'As you like it' and 'Twelfth night'. Comedy of this kind depend on good deal.

Midsummer Night's Dream: For example Theseus hippolyta story and the moonlight Mistakes of the lovers would probably seemed tedious sentimental if it was not the foolery of bottom and his friends. The latter might seem crudely farcial If not lightened by the poetry and romance of the lovers. The story of Titania and the changed  bottom makes a link between the two world and might be taken as and symbol of all comedy. 

Shakespeare was a practical playwright. He had to please to quite separate group of audience: educated and uneducated. Educated part of the audience liked fine poetry romance and touches of satire,  while others preferred partial humour and good natured clowning. After seeing aristocratic hippolyta seeing bottoms play Shakespeare himself apologised to the educated half of the audience. With changing time educated failed to enjoy the journey. The last three plays of Shakespeare's comedy 'The Tempest',  'Cymbeline',  'The winter's Tale' were designed for private performances rather than public playhouse,  have less farce and more poetry and romance than his earlier comedy. The Other writers of comedy in Shakespeare's time were Beaumont (1584-1616) and Fletcher (1579-1625) who worked together and Thomas Dekker ( 1570-1632). Dekker stressed the humorous and realistic element more than poetic 'The shoemaker's holiday' is one of the liveliest.

Shakespeare	Twelfth Night A midsummer night’s dream As you like it Cymbeline The winter’s tale The tempest
Goldsmith	She stoops to conquer
Wilde	The importance of being earnest
Shaw	Pygmalion
Noel Coward	Blithe spirit
Dekker	The shoemaker’s holiday
Robert Greene	The honourable history of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
Nicolas Udall	Gammer Gurton’s Needle Ralph Roister Doister

• Romantic comedies are famous because of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth night',  Goldsmith's 'She stoops to conquer' (1773), Noel Cowards 'Blithe spirit'(1941).

Comedy of humours:

Comedy of humours is used in connection to Ben Jonson. He had an eventful life. He had been in his long days a bricklayer and a soldier. He also have been a productive writer. Not only play but also masques,  poetry and criticism. Johnson's idea was that comedy should not be true to life but larger-than-life. Each character should be so much real men or women as a personification of some human passion or weakness. His comedies are, every man in his humour', 'every man out of his humour,',  'the silent woman',  'Volpone',  'The Alchemist' and 'Bartholomew fair'. Hear the humour has a special use. It is not used in modern sense but in sense of a dominant passion for obsession.
In 'Every man in his humour' the richest merchant, Kietly has a young and Pretty wife of whom he is jealous,  jealousy in his humour; Young heroes father is always worried about his son's behaviour and safety,  anxiety is humour; Captain is the talkative but coward old soldier, boastfulness is humour. The passion that rule characters whole life is humour. In Bartholomew fair Johnson shows us how to humans of various types of Londoners are taken advantage of by the hard headed and quick witted market people. 

Johnson invented his characters and constructed his plays,  characters like boastful soldier,  jealous husband,  etc but the new was the scientific support which Johnson was found of he borrowed it from the believes of medieval doctors and scientist,  who thought human body is made up of four humours which is corresponding to four elements in physical World- Earth,  air,  fire and water. Men's Health and his whole character depends on the balance between the four humours in his body too much of choleric humour (anger,  fire) made a man energetic and hot tempered,  too much of lymphatic (water) human make him cold and spiritless. Johnson found it useful as a support for his theory. 

Johnson's importance depend on the success as a comic dramatist and not because of his theories. His comedies are seen on the stage. In comparison to Shakespeare's romantic comedies Johnson's comedy of humours are seemed to be more acceptable perhaps because romantic comedy is out of fashion.

Ben Johnson

Every man in his humour Every man out of his humour The silent women Volpone The alchemist Bartholomew

Comedy of manners:

This phrase is often used in literary history and criticism. It is particularly applied to Restoration dramatist in England. It makes fun not so much of individual human beings and their humours as a social groups and their  fashionable manners. It is generally more or less satirical to in a good-natured way. They were likely found in aristocratic group like the court of Charles II in England or Louis XIV in France. Congreve (1672 -1729) and Wycherley (1642-1716),  later Sheridan (1751-1816) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) are famous for comedy of manners. Critics who object to the low moral tone of much Restoration comedy forget that Wycherley, in 'the country wife' should the moral weakness of a particular social group.
Sheridan was doing same in 'The school for scandal' where no one complaint  for the Immoral behaviour of lady Sneerwell  and sir Benjamin Baebite- persumable because it is not sexually Immoral. It was hardness and cynicism of the typical restoration comedy as well as indecency and permissiveness which led Jeremy to persuade public that the theatre needed to be cleaned up and wrote 'short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage'. Generally criticised Congreve and Wycherley for their plays.

Wycherley	The country wife
Sheridan	The school of scandal
Collier	Short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage

Sentimental comedy:

Jeremy Collier,  a church man and a Puritan was critical to plays of Wycherley and Congreve  and the hardness,  indecency,  cynicism and permissiveness led him to write his short view of the immorality and profoundness of the English stage. He persuaded public the theatre need to be cleaned up and as a result sentimental comedy appeared. Here the word sentimental is used in an unusual sense or sentimental comedy was returned with the intention of expressing moral sentiments. In other words In contained preaching even though the preaching was disguised as entertainment. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) was the chief writer. He best remembered as the essayist and journalist. Agreed to Collier that English stage needed cleaning up. He thought that the cleaning up would best be done by writing new plays rather than attacking old one,  He wrote 'The funeral'. In 1722 produced 'the conscious lovers' and after these sentimental comedies seized for some two centuries to be taken seriously. L.J Potts, in his book 'Comedy' (1949) described these plays as a display of naked and immoderate virtue such as the modern audience would not endure. It was amusingly satirised by several comic writers of the by time.

Dark/black comedy:

There are many plays which do not belong to any of the classes,  which may not even be funny or amusing all cheerful, but go under the name of comedy. Shakespeare's 'measure for measure' and Eliot's 'the cocktail party' for example might not be called comedy but they have very little in common with each other or even less with place like Sheridan's 'the Rivals' or Rattigan's 'French'. No ready made name to attach this kind of play. Critics and historians used phrases like tragicomedy, comic tragedy or simply drama. In the present century there has been a rebirth of sentimental comedy but under new name and new form. The drama of social consciousness and the drama of commitment are phrases used by critics and writer who felt like Steele that 'comedy should be morally in instructive as well as inter entertaining' Wilde, Sir James Barrie,  Sir Noel and sir Terence Rattigan was criticised for being frivolous and for having no social purpose, where is Shaw has been praised for using comedy as propaganda for his own opinion. While German dramatist Brecht (1898-1956) was encouraged in England and America to think that drama ought to be concerned with political and social problems not actually protect propagandist. these perhaps have led to the death of true comedy and sentimental comedy lead to the death of Genuine comedy of Wycherley and Congreve.

Shakespeare: 

 the best introduction to the dark comedy can be heard by reading Shakespeare's 'measure for measure' and 'Troilus and Cressida'. And comparing them with better known romantic comedy like 'the taming of the Shrew', or 'A midsummer Night's Dream'. The first two are  cynical and unpleasant for the readers of romantic comedy. 

Troilus and Cressida: it is a bitter attack on the weakness of human nature. Almost every character same to be wicked. This is not a sort of play from which one gets many good laugh though  modern produces have tried hard to made it so 

Iliad: Achilles,  hector,  Ajax,  Diameles are heroes in the eyes of Shakespeare's thersites. He sees whole story of the war over the beautiful Helen in such patchery,  juggling and knavery.

Measures for measure: Besides being an interesting study of a Angela man who would now be called sexual psycho path contains much discussion of serious moral and intellectual problems. This both plays are article of darker side of comedy. 

John Osborne:

 He was born a 1929. He was actor before he became dramatist. He wrote to historical Plays 'Luther' and 'a patriot for me', as well as dark comedies, like 'Epithet of George Dillon' and 'the Entertainer' and 'inadmissible evidence'. His work 'Look Back in Anger' first seen on the London became clear that a new age in the story of English drama of beginning. The importance of it was not that it is a better play, but that it introduced new king of drama to the English stage. If it is comedy then it must not be mistaken as comedies of Sheridan or Wild.
Look Back in Anger: The subject is the hidden class war between those who have grown up in comfortable Borgeis homes and those who had fought their way up in Social stairs by their own intelligence. Osborne shows us something of the married life of a young man of the latter type and his wife -a girl of equal intelligence but higher social class who is unable to understand his anger and frustration.

The phrase angry young men become popular as a description of writers who were unhappy about the Injustice and inequality which it still seemed to exist in Britain. Despite of the recent victory of democracy.

Arnold Wesker:

Born a 1932 wrote 'the kitchen' which was actually that in the kitchen of a London restaurant and show the relations both tragic and comic between the people working there. He seems to be the most important dramatist of the dark comedy. He is probably the most readable. His 3 plays 'kitchen soup with barley',  'roots' and 'I am talking about Jerusalem'started in 1950 and are concerned with Jewish family from east end of London the trilogy shows a group of people who are being physically loving and ideal stick trying in a small way to improve the world and build a better life for themselves, but generally defeated and frustrated by hard facts of life and human nature. Wesker's trilogy seems to have unusual mixture of comedy and tragedy social consciousness and human warmth.

Theatre of absurd:

Some of the most successful of the younger dramatist have been much influenced by so called  theatre of absurd (illogical). It's uncertain who invented this phrase but these kind of play began in France with the works of Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. 

Samuel Beckett:

Samuel Beckett is an Irish man who lived in Paris and wrote play in French. Audience has found it puzzling but was extremely successful, he became as one of the chief influence in English experimental theatre.
'Waiting for Godot' Was performed in England 1950.
'End game' (1957) the character lived in Dustbin and the audience sees only their heads and shoulders.
'Happy Days',  women who was almost the only speaking character is slowly buried in sand until at the end of the play only her head is visible.
'Come and go' there is no action only 121 words.

Harold Pinter:

Harold Pinter's play 'The birthday party 'was part of absurdity theatre. The writers of the theatre of the Absurd are in the happy position beyond all question and criticism as people were willing to see their play. A woman wrote a letter to Harold Pinter after watching play the birthday party. She asked the meaning of play and the two points, which she could not understand.
1.Who are the two men?
2. Where did Stanley come from?
3.Were they all supposed to be normal?
And Pinter replied- Asked Ma'am To explain the meaning of the letter and who are you?
2.Where did you come from?
3.Are you supposed to be normal?
After Pinter the chief writer to use ideas of the theatre of the Absurd in 1960s were:

Jean Baptiste Poquelin:

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-73) Was  French playwright known to the world under the name of Moliere. Most of his play were returned for performance at the court of the French King Louis XIV. Moliere works in little comedy called L'Amour Medicin (Loves the best doctor) emphasises as strongly as possible that stage comedies are intended to be active. Moliere himself was an actor and a writer. It can be proved by reading his other works like 'The Miser' (L'A vare) Or 'world be gentlemen '(Le bourgeois gentlihomme).

Sheridan:

He was not an actor, but he had a good sense of theatre for he became part- owner of Deury theatre in London, and as a member of parliament knew how to obtain dramatic effects. He wrote his first play as age of 24 years 'The rivals'. It is a good example of comedy of manners,  to be heard and seen not merely read. The rivals invites us to laugh at the social conventions of the duel. When the play appeared in 1770s duelling was in common, even Sheridan fought to duel in France. However in England people began to realise it to be a bad habit and that the idea of gentleman being obliged to fight about Matters of imaginary honour was Not only uncivilised but also ridiculous.

Comedy in novel:

Comedy is almost always taken to mean a stage comedy but comedy itself is something to be found in other forms of literature, especially the novel. George Meredith as a novelist give one of the best descriptions of the comedy spirit in his 'essay on Comedy', but we scarcely disagree with his very thoughtful description of comic view of life.

Non dramatic comedy: 

World's greatest Masterpiece of non-dramatic comedy is 'Don Quixote De la Mancha' 1605 by Miguel DE Cervantes. According to L.J. Potts significance of story lies between Quixote's nobility of mind and his absurdity of Behaving and between Sanchi's cynical peasant selfishness and his irrational behaviour loyalty to his master. Conceiving the most famous characters in the literature,  Cervantes divided the whole human nature in two  with the neatness of a surgeon's knife. 

It is to remember that To great comic novel is merely funny. Indeed a book which sets out to be purely comic is likely to be failure; The comedy must be mixed with Pathos and humour and human so that we love what we love at and laugh at what we love. 

The tradition of English comic novel is largely by Cervantes,  taking it from Dickens followed by Smollett,  Sterne,  Goldsmith,  Elliot and Trollop.

Chaucer:

He is unique among major English poets in being also comic writer. In The Canterbury Tales include the whole range of comedy and lively farce of the miller's tale to the delicate mixture of romance and comedy in the Franklin's tale and artificial humour in the prologue.

The nun's priest's tale: Chaucer's comic Masterpiece is 'the nun's priest's tale' is of Chanticleer. Chanticleer and his wife Pertelote. Chanticleer wakes up one morning distressed by a terrifying dream in which He has seen a dog like animal with burning eyes about to attack him Pertelote his favourite by among 7 wife comforts him by saying that he had an upset stomach and that some medicine will soon put him right. Chanticleer feels better and soon walks towards the yard,  to his great surprise finds himself face to face with sir Russel,  The fox,  terrified, he is about to fly away. when sir Russel addresses him with a politest tone,  praising his voice and appearance and referring with respect and admiration of his father to whom Russell had made an enjoyable dinner. Chanticleer is easily persuaded to show that he is a good singer as his father was he shut his eyes and open the mouth he was seized by the throat and carried towards the Woods. Chanticleer helpless in Fox mouth has to admit that he is fairly Caught but he says Russell l,  "if I were in your position I should want to turn back and laugh at my pursuers." This is what exactly fox does and Chanticleer escaping from the teeth flies to the safety of a high tree.

The moral of fable- don't shut your eyes when they are both to keep them open and don't open your mouth when you go to keep it shut.

The comedy in the nun's priest's tale lies partly in the story itself, but mainly in Chaucer's way of treating it. The character talk and behave like recognisable types of human being. Chanticleer is a pompous s middle age gentleman,  Pertelote is a hard headed but kind wife who knows exactly how to manage him and Russel is a persuasive,  confidence man- all typical characters. The mock philosophical discussion display of the learning,  the entertaining digressions and the comical irony of which Chaucer is a master.

Dickens:

Dickens is certainly the great English master of comedy in the novel, though with the exception of the Pickwick papers more of his major works is wholly comic in intention. Generally,  the book wholly is likely to be failure and it may be that Pickwick is the exception. One can admire to wide range of emotions expressed from the most deep tragedy the most absurd and farcial. He gives us comedy as set in life not in isolation, but shining out of the Dullness  of everyday work for breaking through the gloom of even the most serious tragedy. He invented in his comics the very kind of human creature ranging from the grotesque evil to the lovable lovable absurdity. It has been objected that Dickens characters are near caricatures, but he proves that there is no human oddity in any case. The writer of comedy is under no obligation to give us character which are rounded and whole. Dickens owed a great deal to his illustrators  in no way to distract from his creative genius, but it is a fact that the drawing of character have helps to fix the his characters in our imagination in such a way that they seem almost more real than the people we meet everyday. All the characters by Dickens are colourful and alive,  all mixed with the normal characters whose adventures provide the plots of the novels. The comic genius of Dickens was often used in satire. He is indeed with Chaucer,  an outstanding example of the fact that humour is probably the most powerful weapon in the satirist armoury.

The Pickwick paper: A famous case of Bardall versus Pickwick,  Pickwick's landlady Mrs. Bardall encouraged by the villainous of lawyers Dodson and Fog,  claims on him because he has broken his promise to marry her. Mrs. Bardall lawyer produces a notice which Mrs Bardall has displaced in the window of a house in Goswell street.

Play in book and play on stage:
The proper relationship between play in book and play on the stage or screen is often forgotten especially by reader and writer of this kind of book. Play is a like Symphony on score paper: the real symphony is what we hear in the concert halls interpreted by conductor and orchestra. The real play is what we see and hear on the stage,  interpreted by actors and produces,  with the help of scene designers,  costume designers,  makeup artist and other technical and artistic exports. So when we are reading a play especially comedy one should try to think of it in terms of sound and movement.

Reunion- W. St. John Tayleur

Reunion

Introduction:

William Tayleur's period is from 10 September 1803 to 5 November 1873. He was an English liberal politician who said in the House of Commons from 1832 to 1835. He died at the age of 70.

Reunion is a one-act play which successfully brings out a man who changes himself according to the circumstances and becomes selfish. The reunion title suggests the reunion of the comrades who survived while serving British Army in Second World War.

Characters:

• George Carter 
• Philip Rowland
• Mark Tallis
• Peter Ransom 
• Vinceto 
• John Grayson 
• Colin Grayson 
• Sergeant Smith 

Theme:

A theme of this play is stated in the words of Grayson,  one of the character in the play, "Will men never learn"?  If man gets into serious trouble, and finds himself face-to-face with death or destruction. He prays to God to be saved making sincere promises to himself in that hour of Crisis. But when he is mercifully spared he is once more his old self- possessive,  destructive and brutal. 

All the blueprints of human wealth which are conveniently forgotten during peace time are rediscovered paraded and traded upon during critical times and armed conflicts between Nation.Four war comrade survivors from a group of seven have met in accordance with a pledge they had taken 10 years ago.The historical event is referred to in the play was the difficult position of the British army after the fall of France in the early stages of the second World War.We are told that a group of seven soldiers were in a ruined farmhouse 20 miles from Dunkirk. The chances to escape seemed very dim to these doomed person. When this abled body decided to leave the enemies place, they made a pact to meet at same place after 10 years and celebrate. Carter informs Vinceto when the play opens that they have assembled to commemorate the date with Destiny.

Based on play:

All four are George Carter,  Philip Rowland,  Marked Tallies and Peter Ransom. They meet up to discuss what they decided and planned after war and where did the reach. Did they get off on the values ethics and plants? Carter is a person with a dominating personality and may be considered to represent the tripe of go-getters. Successful type of men who have come to believe that money is the most important thing in the world. As all is Fair in Love and War,  All is fair in industry and commerce as well. He has no feeling of hesitation in Morality,  He considers it to disagree the law and money only helps him to do so. Then Padre,  Rowland good humorously protests against his philosophy of Life,  Carter replies- "It is the way of the world, you know, there's not much room for our sermon of the mount principles in life today. Blessed are the meek may sound very nice in sermons, but they will take the hinder most is my motto." That in fact is the rule of the large number of people. Successful man of the world like Carter have always dismissed these values of Life which constitute the basis of all civilised life, as impractical and unrealistic. 

And when Grayson  tells him how their comrade Sergeant Smith was squeezed out of business and driven to commit suicide all including Carter were horrified. He protests that,  "if he would know,  he would not have allowed it to happen. He might have saved Sargent Smith because of personal relation." 'But what about all other sergeant Smith and the Brown and the Robinson's and the rest? Only swine would do down an old friend, but if he's just a stranger, it's a smart bit of business. You never stopped to think that he also was somebody's  comrade.' These are the sentiments and ideas which are emerging from the dramatic situation to give it Universality  and make it a moving experience. 

The second character Mark Tallis, he is a writer who to has sold his soul for immediate fame and profit. Before the war he believe in the ideals about an author's duty to the public.But as he became the writer he started writing pornography and felt that- "Authors first duty is to cater for his audience not to preach to them." He was younger with intelligence, but slightly dissipated face. 

The third character is Philip Rowland ,  a pleasant easygoing person of about middle 40s. He was supposed to look after the spiritual welfare of the people. Before the war he considered it his mission to work among the poor in East End and he is now apologetic about the whole thing. He rationalises by saying that- "it's really a young man's job some people seem to think that labouring among the people is the Parsons only proper sphere, a most narrow-minded notion as if the rich did not need spiritual guidance!" But it is evident that he too has rejected Christ and uses the church for his own advancement. 

The fourth character is Peter Ransom,  who is younger in all four of about 28. Whose good looks are rather spoiled by a discontented expressions. He is disgrunted young man who holds debt to his country,  for which he gave some of the best years of his life has ignored him and thrown him on the dunghill. Therefore he has made up his mind to migrate to America for better opportunities. He has a distorted view of things and dissatisfaction is due to the fact that he unlike other comrades has not been provided with a comfortable job. Ideals have no place in his scheme. He represents the unbeatable youth of England and he says' "My generations got nothing except the bitterness of six wasted years.

Grayson delivered his great speech and opened eyes of these comrades. For some time all four were touched of the white dream of peace and Humanity. But Vision soon dispelled when they found out that these Grayson  is not their comrade, but his brother. They all got angry and abused him which showed the stuff they were made of. But Grayson still manages to have a upper head. And clears he is brother of Colin Grayson, John Grayson. He delivers his brothers message from letter. Colin requested john to go for reunion and explained that he is dying for his other comrades. He was happy like sacrificing  his life,  so that other comrades can enjoy and achieve their values in life. Before departing he delivers to them the message of Colin which has an apocalyptic significance. And the last word of Grayson, "But there's still time gentleman!" May be regarded as a prophetic warning to the human race. 

The theme of the play has both Universal as well as particular significance. The story of mankind is a record,  not so much wars and massacres as of man's inability to learn from history. If history repeats itself, It also plants signpost and danger signals in the Corridors of time. The first world war (1914-18) was for to make the world safe for democracy. It was a war to end war but hardly had the ink dried on the peace treaty when the seeds of another wall were sown. The Second World War II failed to awaken mankind as a whole to a realisation that man must change radically if the past disasters were not to be repeated. Consequently,  another War seems to loom large Over the Horizon. The play beautifully dramatised the theme of failure,  theme of treachery,  of betrayed hope and ideals. 

But the dramatist does not present merely negative or pessimist picture of life. There seems to be some hope. The human conscience can still be moved and to do so, he makes use of fantasy in the play. When Grayson is delivering his great speech which is addressed not only to these four person, but to the English nation and the human race in general, the stage is darkened and these four persons under the spell of his voice are transformed.  

Conclusion: 

These four characters are not individuals but symbols the ruling class or capitalist,  the church, the writer who is conscience keeper of society, the youth the vanguard of progressive forces have all forgotten their duty to the nation and towards mankind in general. Therefore Grayson's Cry of Anguish,  "Will men never learn!" is not only Grayson's cry alone, but the Cry of dramatist and On man of good will. 

Short story- The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

The Monkey’s Paw- W. W. Jacobs

Introduction:

William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943) is an English author of famous humorous short stories. The monkey’s paw is a supernatural short story by him. It was first published in England in the collection ‘The Lady of the Barge’ in 1902. The monkey’s paw is a powerful horror story; it was adapted for the stage by L. N. Parker with whom he wrote the plays. The one-act-play of the monkey’s paw is presented in three scenes. Every scene comes with a new climax piled with others.  The play appeals to a human fascination for mystery and horror.

 

Theme:

The theme of the play is very clearly stated in the play in words of Major Sergeant Morris- “Fate ruled the people’s lives and those who interfere with fate do so their sorrow.”

Characters:

John White/ Mr. White

Jenny White/ Mrs. White

Herbert White

Mr. Sampson

Sergeant Morris

Scene-1   

It was a dark story night as the three members of the white family were relaxing in the cozy house. Mr. White and Herbert were playing chess and Mrs. White knits near the fire. A family friend sergeant Major Morris arrives for a visit. Over whiskey, he tells of his exploits abroad. Major Morris returned home after serving the British army in India. They were discussing the magic fascinating the people of India and Major Morris was favoring the fakirs of India. He explained that the fakir cast a spell after 15 years of continuous meditation on a monkey’s paw, the monkey’s paw can fulfill the three wishes of three people. Sergeant explains about the paw; Sergeant was the second to get this paw; he himself has already had his three wishes, and the person before Sergeant had a last wish of his own death. The sergeant tries to sell it as if it was causing more trouble but no one buys the paw without seeing proof of its effect. He throws the paw into the fire in order to destroy it but Mr. White rescued it. Even after the Sergeant warning he desires it. He learned to make a wish from Sergeant. Mrs. White referred to ‘Arabian nights’ there. The family jokingly suggests their wish; Mrs. White asks for extra pair of hands while Herbert says Mr. White should make an emperor so that they don’t have to listen to Mrs. White’s nagging. The sergeant takes a leave from the family with a warning. Mr. White said he had everything he wanted and didn’t know what to wish for. Herbert asked to wish for 200 pounds which are to be paid for the house’s EMI. Mr. White wishes for 200 pounds; he suddenly cried out and said that the paw moved but no one believed. There was no change, they didn’t get 200 pounds, and they felt it is fake. Herbert was working in the industry, and had night swift it was half-past-eleven (11:15), Herbert left for the job and Mr. and Mrs. White slept.

·        The climax of the scene- 1 is the introduction of the monkey’s paw by sergeant Major Morris.

Scene- 2

The next morning Mr. and Mrs. White talks about the night Mr. White felt very restless that night. It was a sunny day; Mrs. White settled a breakfast near a window. It was 8:45 but Herbert didn’t return yet they started their breakfast. They were chatting about wishes, paw, and sergeant. There came a post in a post box. Mrs. White with hope said to Mr. White that its banknotes it can be the 200 pounds we wished for but it was a receipt for the interest of 200 pounds which was duly received. Later Mrs. White notices a stranger outside dressed in nice clothes. Stranger hesitantly approaches the door, he nervously states that he is representative of ‘maw and meggins’. Herbert’s employer, Mrs. White asks whether Herbert is all right, and the representative (Mr. Sampson) says he is hurt but not in pain. It strikes Mrs. White that it means he is dead. Representative nervously and with stress explains that last night Herbert was caught in the machinery/ caught in the flywheel. And the company doesn’t take any responsibility for it but will give 200 pounds as compensation.

·        The climax in this scene is Herbert being late and Mr. and Mrs. White’s anxious feelings. Along with, Mr. Sampson’s entry with horrifying news and completion of their wish at cost of Herbert.

Scene- 3

Even after ten days of Herbert's burial. The couple felt exhausted and hopeless. A week after being buried Mr. White hears his wife crying by the window, he gently urges her to come back to bed, and she refuses. Mrs. White suddenly cries that she needs a monkey’s paw. She realizes that paw can still fulfill their two wishes. She insists Mr. White wish Herbert back to life, she orders him to make a wish and he finally does so. They hear the voice knock Mr. White thinks it is a rat but Mrs. White runs downstairs with the expectation of Herbert at door but the bolt of the door was stiff; she called Mr. White to help her. Mr. White begs not to open the door. He was horrified. Mr. White frantically searches for the paw, which was dropped on the floor, Mrs. White pulls back the bolt and Mr. White finds the paw and makes a final wish- “I wish him dead. I wish him to die a peace.” The knocking stops abruptly. Mrs. White opens the door and the street is empty.

·        The climax in this scene comes when Mrs. White realizes that more two wishes are yet to be fulfilled by the monkey’s paw.

Moral:

The person can never own anything more than what is in his fate. And if he tries to do so he will definitely lead to some sorrow in his life or have to abandon.

Symbols in the play:

Monkey’s paw- The monkey’s paw is a symbol of desire and greed.

Chess- it symbolizes the life of those who play daring and risky games of chess will lose, just as those who take unnecessary risks in life will die.

Literary form- Short story

Short Story

What is short story?

Shot story is a story which is short in size. Short story is a form or genre having rules of its own. Short story is as story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel. The shortest short story may be of no more than a page or two in length; and the longest may run to over hundred pages. At some point it becomes impossible to draw line between long short story and short novel. Some modern critics have revived the word ‘novella’ to avoid the use of awkward phrase ‘long short story’.

The novella is different from short story in its characteristics- As short story has less varied setting and a simpler plot. Short story has less words and it can be read in one sitting.

Some long short stories are:-

·         D. H. Lawrence’s- St. Mawr, The Caption doll, The Virgin and the Gypsy

·         Henry James’s- The turn of the screw

·         Somerset Maugham’s- Rain

Short story is the product of 19^th century and the first half of 20^th century. This was the great time for short story. The increase of literary in Britain and America after about 1800 created a demand for periodical literature of all kinds literally hundreds of magazines appeared during that time. Many novels appeared in serial form being printed monthly or fortnightly parts. Some had religious or instructive tone like ‘Sunday at home’, ‘The Quiver’ and ‘Household words’ started by Dickens in 1850. Others offered simple entertainment, but all used short stories as the main was of filling pages; thus offering the market to both good and bad writers. And short story flourished it became the chief literary food of millions of readers and remained so until the second quarter of our present centaury when magazines began to fade away with the rise of broadcasting and the development of paperback publishing.

Maugham suggest short stories, one of the oldest time of literature in the Bible, The Old Testament in full of wonderful stories which modern writers have borrowed or imitated over and over again. Even older than this are the stories to be found in the histories of Herodotus. Herodotus was a historian but since to have been more concerned with the strangers or the human interest of his history that with its actual truth. Herodotus was matter of simple direct storytelling. While the writers of old Testament were concerned with more serious matters of history, religion and philosophy: It would be impossible in one short chapter to give anything like a history or a survey of the short story as a form of literature.

Gay De Maupassant (1850-93):

He is universally accepted as master. Maupassant’s approach is that of the naturalistic writer, direct detaches almost scientific. A tragic little story is placed before us without comment and without much attempt at psychological depth. He wrote hundreds of tales. The Necklace and Paste are among his tales.

Paste is about a set off pearls which were believed to be worthless imitations but which were in-fact immensely valuable.

The Necklace on the other hand was of imitation diamonds which the  girl who borrowed it believed it to be real. But having lost it, she went to desperate lengths to obtain enough money to repay his owner; she learned that the diamonds in fact were worthless imitations.

The similarity of the two stories hides the profound difference in a treatment. The necklace makes the good starting point for anyone who is interested in the technique of the short story.

Henry James (1843-1916):

He was born in America, spent much life in England and took British nationality in 1915. James approach less simple, the characters of the Cousins, Arthur and Charlotte Prime, skilfully revealed in conversations by Maupassant which reminds James has ambition as a dramatist. James also wrote short story on Necklace.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49):

Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts and lost his parents in early childhood. His guardians sent him to school in England, then to the University of Virginia, there he developed bad habits and spoiled his life. After sometime he was sent to military academy from which he was expelled at age of 22. He turned to journalism. Despite of failures, difficulties and quarrels to develop he extraordinary imaginative and poetic gifts which he possessed. 3 years later he got married to his 14 year old Cousin Virginia Clemm, whom he seems to have deep love and since affection. In next 10 years Poe won reputation as a poet, critic and writer of strange stories. He always quarrelled with his friends and ruined his health by drinking. At 38, his wife died due to difficult illness and Poe returned to his life of dissipation.

Poe was the father of the detective stories; it developed in later 19^th century. They are written in the strong and simple prose of a practical journalist and they keep to the rules which we now regard as traditional in the detective tale. Poe deserves a high place in the history literature. Even detective stories do not deserve part in serious literature but millions of readers had much pleasure reading them. Poe’s tales appeared in various magazines especially the ‘Southern Literary Messenger’. A collection of his best stories was ‘Tales of Mystery and imaginations’. His detective imagination was cleared/ proved in ‘The Murderers in the Rue Morgue’, The Mystrie of Marie Rogel’, ‘The Gold Bug’.

The horrible, the psychopathic, the fantastic, the mad are aspects which appealed the Poe’s romantic imagination. Through which he places fantasies like the fall off the house of Usher and The Masque of the Red Delhi. In order to know this, one should know Terror School’ and the unit of the ‘Gothic’- feature of romantic revival in Britain and Europe, which fascinated Poe in his young age.

It is very difficult to choose favourites from Poe’s tales of fantasy. R.J. Rees own favourite is The Black. His some works are-

The Cask of Amontillado: It describes against a background of Venetian carnival, how a murderer leads his victim to the cellars to taste a particularly fine Sherry, then chains him into a corner and starts to bury him alive behind a brick wall. The victim, at first slightly drunk didn’t realise what is happening. Gradually he cools down and as he does he becomes aware that his companion, far from being engaged in a rather horrible joke, is clearly serious. This little story is in many ways a model of what short story should be-neat, difficult and full of atmosphere.

The Pit and the Pendulum: It is a nightmare of suspense and horror based on the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition.

William Wison: It is partly based on Poe’s memories of his schooldays at Stoke Newington in England, is a clever and frightening surprise story in which young man is haunted by his own ghost or double a theme, incidentally, treated with equal dramatic power in Schubert’s famous song, Der Doppelganger.

The Gold Bug: It is about a small boat caught in the great whirl pool off the west coast of Norway; In fact the maelstrom is a comparative mild affair. In Poe’s imagination however it becomes enormous is whirling funnel of black water; the storm is a splendid example of Poe’s skill in creating an atmosphere of terror and suspense.

The Descent into the Maelstrom: It is a story of great originality both its matter and its manner being, as it were half way between Poe’s dream like horrors and the more down to earth style.

The Black Cat: The narrator is a drunkard, married to a gentle and devoted wife and bitterly conscious of his own failures as a human being. The couple has a black cat to which the wife becomes devoted while the husband develops an unreasoning hate to it. Gradually his hate of the animal becomes madness and he wings to notice that a white mark on the cat’s throat is shaped like a gallows. One night, having returned home in an excited and drunkard state, the man is driven to attack the cat with as axe. His wife in a pathetic effort to save her pet; stands in his way and is herself struck down and killed. Appalled at what he has done, the man takes his wife’s body to the cellar, where he hides it in a corner, over which he builds a wall, as did the murderer in the Cask of Amontillado; After this he feels a sense of satisfaction and security, particularly as the black cat, which he had so feared and hated, seems to have disappears. Sometime later the search for missing woman begins.

He uses an artificial, almost poetical language which well suits the fantasy of his subjects, Poe’s style at its worst is easy to parody but so is the style of any great artist of marks individually.

Rudyard Kipling:

Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay. He was the son of professor who afterwards became curator of the Lahore museum. After five years he was sent to England, first to live with a private family in Southeast. The women who looked after him was a narrow religious fanatic from whom he learned about the angry god of the Old Testament and the punishment waiting for the wicked boys. He was lonely, unhappy and very often afraid; there was no one to love and understand him. Then he went to School mainly for son of officers. But by this time boy has developed he tough skin to hide his sensitivity. Here his literary skills and inventiveness began to show themselves, and were recognised by some teachers. He lived through two war Boer war and the Great War (1914-18). At 17 he returned to India and worked as assistant editor of ‘The civil and military gazette’ and then in weekly ‘The Pioneer’. The work stalky and co. (1889) the school represented all that was worst in public school tradition- bullying, cruel practical jokes and frightening absence of culture. Yet young Kipling seems to have accepted the spirit of the place happily, indeed h looks at school day happily. If we judge Kipling from this; there was often an element of cruelty and insensitivity in his tales and sometimes an imperialistic tone which may reader have fond unpleasant.

Kipling was considerable genius, apart from drama, poems and novels he wrote hundreds of short stories. Most of them were collected under books line Plain Tales from the hills, soldiers three, The Phantom Rickwas (three of them in 1888), many inventions (1893), Debits and Credits (1926), the jungle book, just so stories. Obviously much will depend upon own tastes. Maugham published by Macmillan and entitled ‘A choice of Kipling’s prose.’ In consists, story chosen by Maugham, written by Kipling in   various time of his life, carefully choosing the variety of his work. It is his variety of subject matter and setting, which shows mastery as a writer of short story. Importance is the fact that he matured early as writer. One of was best earlier tales are:

 Without Benefits of Clergy:  It is a simple and moving tale of a young Englishman’s love for Muslim girl in India, and how it ended with a tragic death of their baby and of the girl herself. It is possible to condemn the story as too sentimental but many readers would not find it so. The conversation fills the greater part of the story is written in a strange style that some people will find it irritating while others may consider it sincere and poetic: It is t he result of Kipling’s habit of translating the speech of his Indian characters literally into English. More difficult is the English of some of the stories in soldiers three.

Soldiers three: The three soldiers of the title; Leoyard, Orthesis and Mulvany are simple and uneducated men serving in the army in India; Most of the stories are told in their own language, which is far from being Standard English. Leoyard uses a dialect of his home country Yorkshire, which is difficult for every English reader. This is pity because some of the soldiers’ three stories are among Kipling’s best. They give fascinating picture of India under England’s rule. Most modern readers will find it sad and disturbing picture of colonialism- and strange mixture of selfish inhumanity with a seemingly honest desire to improve life for the native population.

Some of them served India well as shown in one of the Kipling’s Tales called William the conqueror. The girl hero who devoted herself saving the life of Indian babies during the great famine may be a creature of Kipling’s imagination; but one would like to think that she had prototype in reality.

Other stories without the setting of India, which may interest the new of Kipling. Two of them are based on the ideas: the belief of reincarnation.

The finest story in the world:  In this Charlie Mears, a young man who hopes to become a writer finds, his mind possessed by memories of a time when he was roman galley slave. So vivid are these memories that the narrator of the story offers to pay him for his stories, which he believes it would be ‘the finest story in the world’. Luckily, for Charlie but not for his journalist friend, the former falls in the love with the charming girl. This sets him firmly back in his own time, so that the exciting and frightening memories of his past lives simply fade away and once again he is a very ordinary young man.

Wireless: In it Kipling uses a similar idea; in this case a young chemist mysteriously possessed by the mind and spirit of a great poet (Keats). The newly invented wireless takes a very small part in the tale, but Kipling is using it as a symbol for the mysterious communication between the living and the dead in which he seems at times to have believed.

Mary postgate: It was written in 1914-18, it is a grim story full of psychological truth. It is about the English woman who finds a German airman who has been shot down during a raid over England but who is still alive. In a moment of unreasoning hate she sees him as responsible for the death of the English boy whom she has nursed in childhood, and shoots him cold blood. It is a shocking tale, well planned to shoot the cruel wickedness of war, yet the reader is left with the practiced to publish or republish his works in books of mixed stories and poems. His last such book is ‘Limit and Renewals' (1932). It also contained the church that was an Antioch.

The church that was an Antioch: An interesting and living young Roman officer, Valens become involves with Peter and Paul and other members of the new religion. In a short fight he is struck down and dies speaking of his murderers, “Don’t be hard on them… They get worked up….They doesn’t know what they are doing…” Paul recognising the words of Jesus at his crucifixion, suggests that they to baptise Valens as he lies dying in the arms of the girl slave who loves him; but Peter deeply moved at the familiar words in the mouth of the young Roman, silences him with the words, “Think you that one who has spoken those word needs such as we are to certify him as any God?”

Kipling showing his short stories that he is a great master of this kind of literature cannot be denied whatever unsympathetic critics may have said about him.

                                           

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930):

He is 10 years younger than Kipling. Lawrence was the son of coal miner. Rowing up around the beginning of the century into an England where inequality and social injustice were thought natural and unavoidable he was able, with the encouragement and support of his mother, he got trained as a teacher. He started as a poet, but later it was in novel and above all in the short story; that he found his ideal means of expression. In his twenties Lawrence fell in love with the aristocratic Frieda Von Richthofen, who was at the tie married to a professor of English at Nottingham. The coupe escaped to Frieda’s native Germany, and were able to marry after Frieda’s divorce in 1914. Due to war madness he and Frieda had to suffer much at the hands of people who thought they were patriots. They were able to leave England and spent their life abroad specially in Mexico and Italy. In the eyes of the general public he was still no more than the author of sensational novel.

It has taken 40 years for Lawrence to be generally recognised as one of the great literary figures of the century and one who is at his best in his short stories. There is no doubt that Lawrence possessed that indefinable quality which we call genius. He was a man and a writer whose impact on the world has been tremendous through unrealised. At his worst he can be tedious annoying but the nature of the short story obliged him to concentrate on the qualities of writing which he found most difficult namely precision, economy and design. So the reader would find at once the power and excellence of a novella like St. Mawr or a short story like the caption’s Doll.

Before Lawrence’s short story had been an entertainment depending mainly upon its plot but in Lawrence the plot is mainly of secondary importance, and what matters is situation or atmosphere or sensuous evocations of nature.

Odour of chrysanthemums: This tale shows Lawrence at is best, at his most typical. It is a deeply moving story of the death of a miner in a pit accident, and the better effect of this upon his mother, his wife and his children. The whole atmosphere and setting of the tale are those Lawrence’s own childhood- a childhood described in similar harsh terms in the early chapter of Sons and Lovers. Early in the story Elizabeth Bates, the Collier’s young wife waiting for his return from work. As usual drinking in the pub ‘The prince of Wales.’ The two children are restless and the little girl puts her lips on the ragged bunch of chrysanthemums. Learning from neighbours that there has been accident in a mine, and bates is either injured or dead, Elizabeth sends the children upstairs, with mother-in-law. At last the noise of man is heard in the yard outside, and the dead man is brought home. The manager of the mine explains how Bates was killed instantly when the part of the pit roof fell on him. As they place the body in the little parlour one of the men accidentally knocks over the vase of chrysanthemums and the children wakes up.

The white stocking: It is a powerful study of sexual jealousy which introduces one of his favourite ideas- that on the hidden conflicts between the civilised and intellectual side of man and the primitive and emotional side where man becomes a mere channel for that life force which Lawrence thought of as the driving power of universe. Some critics called this thought as not nonsense but dangerous nonsense. Over and over again Lawrence’s stories on the one hand and the dark and primitive life force on the other. The white stocking there is Elsie’s husband, Ted Whiston and her former lover Sam Adams; In the fox it is Nellie’s rather colourless friend, Banfard, and her over, Henry Grenfel mysteriously linked with the sexual symbol of the fox; In St. Mawr the magnified horse who gives the story its name seems to stand for the life force and it is to follow the horse that Lou and her mother leave the pleasant and Cultured Rico, ho may be said to represent civilised man. The newcomer to Lawrence must read ‘The Prussian Officer’, ‘England, my England’ and ‘The Virginia and the Gipsy’ he first being one of his very earliest stories the second a little latter and the third belonging to his maturity.

The Prussian Officer: It was published in 1914; it is set against a background to which Lawrence had no doubt been introduced by Frieda. It is about a strange love hate relationship between a hard and arrogant cavalry officer and the young soldier servant who eventually murders him.

England my England: It is about Winifred marshal and her husband, Egbert; the latter, a pleasant but intellectual upper class young man, is a typical Lawrence symbol, balanced in the story by Winfred’s father, the embodiment of physical and emotional energy and earthy common sense. The Lawrence’s stories set in the war period but ‘England, my England’ is the only one which includes an actual battle scene.

The Virginia and the Gipsy: Some 40,000 words in length, is a novella rather than a short story in the strict sense. It is certainly Lawrence’s best tales and should be read by anyone who hopes to understand him. The usual theme is here: on the other side ‘dead’ life represented by Yvette’s clergymen father her awful grandmother and her shallow friends; on the other dark, elemental life force personified by Joe Boswell, the Gipsy. But despite of his (Lawrence’s) simple view of the world was a great writer. Consistently the Virginia and the Gipsy is not a piece of propaganda but a work of art and a story which can be enjoyed for its character its conversation and its situations even though the reader may be unmoved by Lawrence’s philosophy. 

Somerset Maugham (1874-1965):

His books were criticised by Lawrence. The narrator in his stories was the factious Ashenden, how is not the same person as Maugham himself. Many of Maugham’s critics have regarded him as low and cynical view of human nature. More serious critics have ignored him or treated him as a mere entertainer.

Maugham’s story range in length from novella like the letter, down the sketches, two or three pages in length like raw material. Then varied settings reflect something of Maugham’s own love of travel, and their wide variety of character shows is knowledge of men and women of the most different sorts. Many of his earlier stories are based on his own experience though he tells them through the mouth of the imaginary. Telling a story in the first person singular was in fact the form which Maugham particularly favoured. He was a highly successful writer of his kind of narrative.

The summing up (1938): In this play he had sadly remarked that the critics of this country have troubled him seriously and never considered him for his writing. Any man whether clever and young or stupid and old, who wrote about the short story without considering Maugham would be behaving in very strange way, for there can be no doubt that his tales have been read with pleasures by millions of people who would place him among the best of all short-story writers,

Maugham cannot be great creative genius as Lawrence but he is wonderful writer and notable man. Maugham has been above all the believer in the short story with a plot at a time when others thought that plot was unimportant. Maugham has no message for the world; he does not set up as a prophet or even a psychologist.

The Verger: This seems to be a particular elegant example of the plotted short story, as well as an illustration of Maugham’s favourite attitude as a cynical and detached observer of the strange ways of the world. The verger as St. Peter’s, a famous London church as Albert foreman.

 He has held his position and done his work for 16 years. The old vicar, with whim foreman had been terms; the new vicar was a believer in efficiency. He was shocked to learn that Albert despite his good service in the past, could not read, it seemed to the vicar that this was intolerable in a verger; and so Albert was, in the nicest possible way, dismissed from his job. Depressed and anxious at being unemployed, he had the idea of using his small savings to start a small tobacconist’s shop. It succeeded and after time he was able to open another shop in another street.  Eventually Albert foreman turned the owner of a whole group of shops, a man of considerable wealth. His bank manager suggested that this should market that this should be invested in the stock market and when the arrangements had been made he invite Albert into the office to sign the necessary papers. At this point the former verger had to admit that he could not read and the story concludes. As well as being a highly successful practitioner of the art of the short story, Maugham was the great admirer of those whom he considered masters of the art, especially Chekhov and Maupassant.

·         The period of 1865-1965, time of Kipling and Maugham was the great time of short stories. Katherine Mansfield and H. E. Bates deserve special attention because they are specialist in writing of short stories.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924):

He is most important among English writer in having learnt English as a foreign language. His mother tongue as polish and it was his career as a sailor his novels are based on his own experience at sea and his knowledge of the Far East was what made him famous. He wrote numbers of short stories of set against the same background of Maugham the word novella or a long short story is perhaps most appropriate for the stories of Conrad’s.

‘The heart of darkness’ is 40,000 in length. The most admired of Conrad’s work are ‘Typhoon’s’, ‘Youth’ and ‘The Rover’.

H.G. Wells:

He was a brilliant writer of short stories along with novels The Time Machine is very good introduction to Well’s specially for young readers. It’s easy to read and good example of early science fiction. He offers a look into the future which is even more frightening then ‘Brave New World’ and less than ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’.

In early part of century writers were influenced by the era Russian short story writers ‘Pushkin’, ‘Gogol’, ‘Turgenev’, ‘Tolstoy’, and ‘Chekhov’.

O. Henry:

W.S. Porter was the real name of O. Henry; he lived from 1862-1910. He was journalist and popular on both the sides of the Atlantic. He had the qualities of best journalism, good plot and extreme directness and economy of style.

A.E. Coppard (1878-1957):

He was like the great Russians’ in building stories on situation and atmosphere rather than plot. Coppard published 100 short stories in lifetime  beginning with, ‘Adam and Eve’ and ‘Pinch Me’, in 1921 but didn’t have any popular success. His work was too quite in tone, attracted large numbers of readers but he has been greatly admired by an expert judge of the short stories. The one who enjoys the work of Katherine will find attraction to the work of A.E. Coppard.

Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp:

She was born in New Zealand in 1888 and died in France in 1923 due to tuberculosis. Her father was business man, he sent her to London for education. Returning new land she was unhappy at home and persuaded her father to give her money to go back to London and began to write. In short life she became the most remarkable short story writer of her generation, she was considered among 3-4 important short story writer of the present centaury. She made a unfortunate marriage to see for book what it felt like she was writing. In 1911 she published a book of sketches with the title ‘In a German Pension’. In 1912 she got attached to Middleton Murray, these two events took her to literary life in London. She met Alduos Huxley and D.H. Lawrence and other well-known figures of that time. Perhaps the most important event in Katherine’s life as a writer was the death of her younger brother killer in France. He as the person she loved the most and this took her toward their past to childhood in New Zealand. There was the inspiration for her most of the writings of next 7 to 8 years. Her stories which appeared in book were ‘Bliss’ (1921), ‘The Garden Party’ (1922), after her death ‘The Dove’s nest’ (1923) and ‘Something Childish’ (1924). In 1918 she divorced her first husband and got married to Middleton Murray. She was already suffering from TB and died at age of 34.

It is not possible to give a useful idea of Katherine’s stories by summarising the plot; plot is indeed the least important element. She takes some small incident of everyday life- some personal meeting and conversations and remarks the scene and the people, usually in the space in few pages. She has a sharp eye in details, the texture of a dress the effect of light on the tree, the colour of flowers in a vase. Children appear in most of her stories and she writes of them with an understanding that came from memories of her own childhood.

The Voyage-  It is nothing more than the description of a little girl Fenella, being taken for short sea voyage with her grandmother. Fenella’s mother has just died and the child is going to stay with her grandparents. His simple situation made seen through the child’s eye makes one of the best and most typical of Katherine’s stories.

Perhaps the most difficult task of the short story writer is to describe scenes and setting in fewest possible words. Example: the scene of Fenella with his grandmother and father, through the dock area of the ship.

Life of Ma Parker- the London Street along which the poor old women sick and sad is struggling.

At the Bay: In the beginning seen a wonderful sketch rather longer than the most of her tales of family life in a small seaside community in New Zealand. In is not artistic skill and brilliance which shows Katherine genius. She also has the qualities of humanity and compassion which makes a good writer.

The Daughter of the late colonel:  It is great to read for a new reader. This seems to be best among best short stories ever written in Chekhov's tradition. It has a real plot but its picture of the two ageing sisters, Josephine and Constantia and their pathetic, helplessness after the old man’s death is a masterpiece of tragic- comic writing.

H. E. Bates (1905):

 He was a successful writer since 1926; his first story was ‘The Two Sisters’. At that time Bates was working as a journalist in the midland town of Kettering. During the war he served as a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force, first in England, then in Burma which provides the setting for ‘The purple pain’ and ‘The jacaranda tree’. But the most direct result of his was experience was the novel ‘Fair stood the wind for France (1944)’ an exciting and moving story about the crew of an R.A.F plane shot down over France. He wrote it under the pen name ‘Flying officer X’ brought him well deserved fame, but also some disadvantages in that there are people who still think him as a  war writer without realising that he has also written nearly twenty novels of various kinds as well as short stories. Anyone who tries to describe the importance of H.E. Bates as a short story writer must have two difficulties.

1.      The first that of deciding how long a short story can be: some of Bates novels are short enough to be called novella or long short stories while some of the short stories are almost of novel length.

2.      And secondary is of making any general statement about his work without being misleading. Bates is such a varied writer that it is hard to believe that ‘the darling buds of May’ is by the author as ‘fair stood the wind for France’.

Comparing him with D.H. Lawrence would concluded as bates to be second Lawrence by the short story entitled ‘the Mawr’ and this impression would be confirmed by reading ‘Dulcima’ or ‘the wild cherry tree’. For Bates certainly has a Lawrence like power of inventing earthly characters and setting them in a atmosphere of emotional tension.

He is to be compared with Maugham as a master of irony and sophistication. It is suggested that Maugham’s hint can also be known in ‘Same tree, Same place’ published in the cherry tree (1968).

Same tree, same place: It is about a middle aged spinster, Miss Treadwell, who lives alone and almost without the money just managing to keep up an appearance of middle class respectability. While sitting in the park one day, hoping to pickup an old newspaper left by someone who can affords suck luxuries she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Thornill, a man of her own age for a time they become friendly and she for a time they become friendly and she begin to have romantic feeling for him. His feeling for her was very different but he never learnt about them because it soon become clear the Mr. Thornill far from being the gentle man she has supposed to be drunkard the meeting in the park come to the end and poor Miss. Treadwell is as lonely as ever. It is a touching little story and like so many of the best modern short stories it has no plot- only a small incident which Bates sets before us as a slice of life.

The grass god: It is novella of some 25000 words. It was published in 1953. The particular aspect of love reveals the grass god is not pleasant. The girl Sara is cool and calculating. The man, Fritzgerald is a rick land owner a country squire who owns a fine house and large estate, which he runs with the heatless efficiency of the worst type of 19^th century capitalist. His farm workers hate him and he hates them he is obsessed with the idea of improving the agricultural value of his land- is specially grassland and this is why the girl nickname him the grass god. The two of them meet while Sara – an intelligent but cold city girl- is holidaying with her relations and in Fritzgerald’s village. Fritzgerald (who was married and lives with his wife) feel overwhelming sexual desire for the girl and they form a habit of going to the great mansion at the centre of the park which was empty from the years and of making love in small attic bedroom, as the summer goes on, he becomes more and more madly in love while Sara becomes cooler and cooler she has in-fact only allowed the affair to develop because she is interested in the aristocratic and romantic surrounding of the place and in the money and power Fritzgerald seems to have. In the end Sara decided to leave having made it clear that she had never felt any real love for him. Fritzgerald returns to his wife Cordelia, who feels no more love for him than Sara did. And to his obsessive concern with the land and the grass- No hopelessly withered after a long dry summer. Such a bare outline can give little idle of the power and interest of this story. The atmosphere of a great country estate and mansion house empty and dead is skilfully build up. The characters of the man and the girl of the several secondary people in the story are cleverly developed in long passages of conversation.

As in nearly all of Bates stories, there is peculiarly English feeling for seasons, weather and landscapes as well as for characters.

The nature of love: It is one of the most impressive volumes o long short stories ever to appear in England. Bates style is fluent and comparatively simple. H. E. Bates can be considered as the English imaginative writer ill give the truest picture of the feel of ordinary life in England- According to R. J. Rees.
                                                                                                                                                         

Writer	Work
Gay De Maupassant	Paste The necklace
Henry James	The Necklace
Edgar Allan Poe	The Cask of Amontillado The Pit and the Pendulum William Wison The Gold Bug The Black Cat
Rudyard Kipling	Without Benefits of Clergy The Finest Story of the World Wireless Mary Postgate The Church that was an Antioch
D. H. Lawrence	Odour of Chrysanthemums The White Stocking The Prussian Officer England, my England The Virginia and the Gipsy
Somerset Maugham	The Summing Up The Verger
Joseph Conrad	The heart of darkness Typhoon’s Youth The Rover
A.E. Coppard	Adam and Eve Pinch me
Katherine Mansfield	The Voyage Life of Ma Parker At the Bay The daughter of the late colonel
H. E. Bates	Same tree, Same place The grass god The nature of love