Jude The Obscure- Thomas Hardy

This blog is in response to the blog task given to us by Dilip Barad sir based on the topic from Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy. In this blog I am going to deal with reading of prominent female characters i.e. Sue Bridehead and Arabella Donn.

 Female Characters of Jude The Obscure

Many female characters in Thomas Hardy’s novels clearly illustrate one of the Victorian stereotypes of women: the proper, submissive housewife or the rebellious, independent dreamer. Hardy does not demonstrate how women should be but rather how society pressures women to conform to the accepted image.Sue Bridehead, and Arabella Donn illustrate the stereotypical seductress, female characters of Jude The Obscure.

Thomas Hardy constructs a twisted web involving four characters in six marriages in his last novel Jude the Obscure. The controversial actions and philosophies of his female characters in this novel created such an outcry among readers that Hardy gave up novel writing forever. Both Arabella Donn and Sue Bridehead shun traditional views of marriage as a lifelong commitment, but Arabella follows her physical desires and lust for excitement, while Sue is led by her conscience and social pressures.

Arabella is Hardy’s stereotypical sexual adventurer, but she crudely masquerades as a woman attempting to appease society’s accepted view of women. She is driven by her sexual impulses, frequently aligns herself with men for her own enjoyment and fulfilment. Hardy inundates the meetings between Jude and Arabella with images of physical lust and desire in order to show the reader that their relationship is purely sexual. This highly sexualized encounter likewise slaps the reader in the face with the woman’s true intentions with Jude. Arabella repeatedly creates dimples in her cheeks and eagerly flirts with Jude as a means of enticing him. Because Jude has been ignorant of women and the world of love, he “is an easy victim” for Arabella’s temptations . He blindly falls into her sexual trap believing that she is pure and honourable, but really she is simply out to catch a husband to satisfy her physical lusts.

Once the courting begins, Arabella follows the advice of her friends, a clear sign of social pressures, and ensnares Jude in a sexual trap. She then claims that she is pregnant to compel him to marry her. Although Arabella claims she truly thought she was expecting a child, Because she knows Jude is “Honorable and serious-minded,” she feels confident he will adhere to social expectations and marry her. He does follow through with his responsibility and soon realizes that Arabella is shallow and purely sexual, but he attempts to focus on the hope of their union.

Hardy is also quick to demonstrate the lack of emotional intimacy between Jude and Arabella in their marriage, showing that sexual attraction is the primary motive. Jude is shocked when Arabella detaches a hairpiece and then explains that she bought it during her barmaid days in Aldbrickham, another unknown to the new husband.The couple’s opposing personalities again become evident in the pig-killing scene when Jude chooses to kill the pig quickly and mercifully, but Arabella is concerned only with profit and making her black-pot from the pig’s slow-draining blood. When Jude exclaims, “It is a hateful business!” at the bleeding of the pig, Arabella simply states, “Pigs must be killed.” Jude focuses on the animal’s pain, while Arabella sees only profit. Arabella have different views on the value and purpose of life, and their marriage suffers the consequences.

Arabella also shows a lack of sensitivity in her treatment of her son. She reveals Jude’s paternity via letter and announces that he must take their son because her parents no longer want him; leaving Jude little choice in the matter, the boy arrives the very next day. Her selfish motives are clear in her letter.When Arabella and Jude remarry, the same purpose and emotionless interactions exist. Arabella is lonely after the death of her second husband and is still physically attracted to Jude. She begins to play with Jude’s emotions in relation to Sue’s recent departure and remarriage.

The second female character in Jude the Obscure, Sue Bridehead, likewise goes against the morality of the time regarding marriage, but unlike Arabella, Sue struggles with her role as a woman. She first attempts to conform to the accepted role of housewife in her marriage to Richard Phillotson but realizes her charlatan ways and decides to live with her heart’s love, Jude. When the pressure from society becomes too much and her children are dead, Sue succumbs to her feelings of guilt and returns to her original marital arrangement. Hardy’s strongest comment on the impracticability of marriage lies within this one character. Sue shows her lack of desire to fulfil the angelic stereotype from the very beginning. Jude first sees her as fairly independent, working at a small shop engraving signs. Unlike Arabella, Sue does not possess a strong sense of passion. She is extremely sensitive to others’ emotions but lacks a strong romantic longing for men. Intellectually, Sue is the stereotypical dreamer. She treasures learning and purchases two naked statues of Greek gods that she then must hide to avoid embarrassment and chastisement, and she questions the traditional doctrines of the church and calls her statues her “patron-saints”. She is certainly unconventional in terms of the Victorian woman, but the ambiguity and innocence within her character draws readers closer to her than to Arabella.

Sue’s marriage to Phillotson also reveals much about her character and her struggle against following her heart and conforming to tradition. Sue decides to marry Phillotson shortly after Jude confesses his previous marriage to Arabella, leading the reader to believe she chooses Phillotson as a second choice or simply out of jealously for Jude’s secret past. Unlike Jude’s marriage to Arabella, this marriage is not based on physical attraction or lust but instead on personal gain and convenience. Neither she nor Phillotson ever mention love or physical attraction in their motives for marrying, perhaps displaying the Greek word phileo meaning brotherly love, as evident in Phillotson’s name. She sees only the mutual companionship and social advancement the relationship offers and disregards the physical consummation of the marriage. Clearly, the pair has no emotional ties to one another but simply enters into the marriage for comfort and social advancement.

Sue begins to demonstrate her repugnance so blatantly that Phillotson can be oblivious no longer. At one point, Sue sleeps in the small closet under the staircase in order to avoid sleeping in the same bed with him. When considering his wife’s circumstances, Phillotson seems hurt, yet amazingly compassionate. He seeks counsel from his friend Gillingham and decides to release Sue from the bond of marriage. When Sue returns to Phillotson after years of living with Jude, the second marriage carries on the same characteristics as the first. Sue is still repulsed by her husband, but she now feels she must force herself to adapt.

The bond between Jude and Sue rests primarily on their remarkable similarities. They are also both sensitive to the suffering of animals as they both awaken one night to the sound of a rabbit’s cry and both desire to put the animal out of its pain. Sue again echoes Jude’s sympathy for the birds in the farmer’s field when she frees her pet doves from the butcher’s cage. Phillotson also realizes the similarities between the two. Their compatibility lends itself to deep passion, and the scenes of greatest 54 emotion in the novel always involve this couple and contrast with the crude sensuality of Arabella and the forced compassion between Sue and Phillotson. Hardy’s disapproval of Sue’s return is evident in her inability to adapt to traditional marriage, and her attempt to become a more acceptable woman in the eyes of society could be why Jude earns the sympathy in the closing chapters instead of the leading woman.

Love and marriage are naturally assumed to coincide in Victorian England, but Hardy teaches his readers that this is not always the case. A couple such as Jude and Sue may genuinely love each other but not marry, while some couples fall into the marriage contract on different terms, as the other combinations demonstrate. While the legal marriages of Jude to Arabella and Phillotson to Sue are legitimate in the eyes of the law and society, they are shallow and even torturous. On the other hand, Jude’s “natural” marriage to Sue is based on mutual attraction and intimacy yet shunned by the world around them. Although clearly speaking out against the traditional sanctions of marriage, Hardy also demonstrates the ludicrous nature of defining women by their appearances and the faults of society in shunning or accepting women on the basis of their matrimonial status. Whereas Arabella often appears as a conventional woman by attempting to marry well and remain honourable, she is actually heartless and crude, driven only by sexual instincts. Sue, on the other hand, remains honest to herself and her emotions until the pressures of society weigh too heavily on her. Because Hardy portrays Sue as both the independent woman struggling to fit into society’s mold and the victim of society’s harsh requirements of women, Jude the Obscure is Hardy’s strongest statement against the stereotyping of women and the illogical and impractical expectations placed upon them.

[words- 1549]

In Memoriam- Alfred Tennyson

This blog is in response to the blog task given to us by Yesha Ma’am based on the topic of Victorian Poets. In this blog I am discussing a poem of Alfred Tennyson In Memoriam.

In Memoriam

I am apart of all that I have met

-Alfred Tennyson

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in full Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson of Roadworthy and Freshwater, (born August 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, England—died October 6, 1892, Roadworthy, Surrey), English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. He was raised to the peerage in 1884. Tennyson possessed a strong poetic power, which his early readers often attributed to his "Englishmen" and his masculinity. Well known among his longer works are Maud and Idylls of the King, the latter arguably the most famous Victorian adaptation of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of the most well-loved Victorian poets. Tennyson, the fourth of twelve children, showed an early talent for writing. At the age of twelve he wrote a 6,000-line epic poem. Many of his poems are about the temptation to give up and fall prey to pessimism, but they also extol the virtues of optimism and discuss the importance of struggling on with life. The need to persevere and continue is the central theme of ``In Memoriam '' and “Ulysses” (1833), both written after Hallam's death. In Memoriam was an enormous critical and popular success. It was a favourite of Queen Victoria who was “soothed & pleased” by it after the death of her husband Prince Albert. It is the most famous work of Alfred Lord Tennyson and is considered one of the great poems of the 19th century.

Tennyson wrote “In Memoriam” after he learned that his beloved friend Arthur Henry Hallam had died suddenly and unexpectedly of a fever at the age of 22. Hallam was not only the poet’s closest friend and confidante, but also the fiance of his sister. After learning of Hallam’s death, Tennyson was overwhelmed with doubts about the meaning of life and the significance of man’s existence. He composed the short poems that comprise “In Memoriam” over the course of seventeen years (1833-1849) with no intention of weaving them together, though he ultimately published them as a single lengthy poem in 1850.

The poem begins as a tribute to and invocation of the “Strong Son of God.” Since man, never having seen God’s face, has no proof of His existence, he can only reach God through faith. The poet attributes the sun and moon (“these orbs or light and shade”) to God, and acknowledges Him as the creator of life and death in both man and animals. Man cannot understand why he was created, but he must believe that he was not made simply to die

The Son of God seems both human and divine. Man has control of his own will, but this is only so that he might exert himself to do God’s will. All of man’s constructed systems of religion and philosophy seem solid but are merely temporal, in comparison to the eternal God; and yet while man can have knowledge of these systems, he cannot have knowledge of God. The speaker expresses the hope that “knowledge [will] grow from more to more,” but this should also be accompanied by a reverence for that which we cannot know.

The speaker asks that God help foolish people to see His light. He repeatedly asks for God to forgive his grief for “thy [God’s] creature, whom I found so fair.” The speaker has faith that this departed fair friend lives on in God, and asks God to make his friend wise Here the speaker states that he feels no jealousy for the man who is captured and does not know what it means to feel true rage, or for the bird that is born with in a cage and has never spent time outside in the “summer woods.” Likewise, he feels no envy for beasts that have no sense of the passage of time and no conscience to check their behaviour. He also does not envy those who have never felt pain (“the heart that never plighted troth”) or those who complacently enjoy a leisure that they do not rightfully deserve. Even when he is in the greatest pain, he still realises that “ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all.”After having asserted in Section LV that Nature cares only for the survival of species (“so careful of the type”) and not for the survival of individual lives, the speaker now questions whether Nature even cares for the species. He quotes a personified, feminine Nature asserting that she does not attend to the survival of the species, but arbitrarily bestows life or death on all creatures. For Nature, the notion of the “spirit” does not refer to any divine, unearthly element, but rather to the simple act of breathing.

The poet questions whether Man, who prays and trusts in God’s love in spite of the evidence of Nature’s brutality (“Nature, red in tooth and claw”), will eventually be reduced to dust or end up preserved like fossils in rock: “And he, shall he, Man...Be blown about the desert dust, Or sealed within the iron hills?” The thought of this evokes a notion of the human condition as monstrous, and more terrifying to contemplate than the fate of prehistoric “dragons of the prime.” The speaker declares that life is futile and longs for his departed friend’s voice to soothe him and mitigate the effect of Nature’s callousness.

T.S. Eliot called this poem “the most unapproachable of all his [Tennyson’s] poems,” and indeed, the sheer length of this work encumbers one’s ability to read and study it. Moreover, the poem contains no single unifying theme, and its ideas do not unfold in any particular order. It is loosely organised around three Christmas sections (28, 78, and 104), each of which marks another year that the poet must endure after the loss of Hallam. The climax of the poem is generally considered to be Section 95, which is based on a mystical trance Tennyson had in which he communed with the dead spirit of Hallam late at night on the lawn at his home at Somersby.

“In Memoriam” was intended as an elegy, or a poem in memory and praise of one who has died. As such, it contains all of the elements of a traditional pastoral elegy such as Milton’s “Lycidas,” including ceremonial mourning for the dead, praise of his virtues, and consolation for his loss. Moreover, all statements by the speaker can be understood as personal statements by the poet himself. Like most elegies, the “In Memoriam” poem begins with expressions of sorrow and grief, followed by the poet’s recollection of a happy past spent with the individual he is now mourning. These fond recollections lead the poet to question the powers in the universe that could allow a good person to die, which gives way to more general reflections on the meaning of life. Eventually, the poet’s attitude shifts from grief to resignation. Finally, in the climax, he realises that his friend is not lost forever but survives in another, higher form. The poem closes with a celebration of this transcendent survival.

“In Memoriam '' ends with an epithalamion, or wedding poem, celebrating the marriage of Tennyson’s sister Cecilia to Edmund Lushington in 1842. The poet suggests that their marriage will lead to the birth of a child who will serve as a closer link between Tennyson’s generation and the “crowning race.” This birth also represents new life after the death of Hallam, and hints at a greater, cosmic purpose, which Tennyson vaguely described as “One far-off divine event / To which the whole creation moves.”

Not just an elegy and an epithalamion, the poem is also a deeply philosophical reflection on religion, science, and the promise of immortality. Tennyson was deeply troubled by the proliferation of scientific knowledge about the origins of life and human progress: while he was writing this poem, Sir Charles Lyell published his Principles of Geology, which undermined the biblical creation story, and Robert Chambers published his early evolutionary tract, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. In “In Memoriam,” Tennyson insisted that we hold fast to our faith in a higher power in spite of our inability to prove God’s existence: “Believing where we cannot prove.” He reflects early evolutionary theories in his faith that man, through a process lasting millions of years, is developing into something greater. In the end, Tennyson replaces the doctrine of the immortality of the soul with the immortality of mankind through evolution, thereby achieving a synthesis between his profound religious faith and the new scientific ideas of his day.

“Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.”

I Hope This blog is helpful to you and easily understandable. Thank you for reading. If you have any Queries or suggestions please drop a comment.

[words: 1512]

Assignment 105: Age of Chaucer

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 5 History of English Literature in this assignment I am dealing with the Beginning of English Literature Age: of Chaucer.

Age of Chaucer

Introduction:

For a profound and comprehensive study of an author’s literary work is required, among other things, a thorough understanding of the age which produced and nurtured him. Without acquaintance with the historical context our evaluation and apprehension of literature is bound to be lop-sided, if not altogether warped and garbled. Every man is a child of his age. He is influenced by it though, if he is a great man, he may influence it also. A great writer like Shakespeare or Chaucer is generally said to be “not of an age, but of all ages.” But, in spite of his universal appeal, the fact remains that even he could not have escaped “the spirit of the age” in which he lived and moved and had his being. So, for understanding him and his works in their fullness it is imperative to familiarise ourselves with the influential currents of thought and feeling and sensibility (not to speak of the sociology politico-economic conditions) obtained in the times in which he flourished. Probably the Reverse of it is also true: we may acquire some understanding of these tendencies and currents, the ethos of the age, through the writer himself. Emphasising this point, W. H. Hudson says: “Every man belongs to his race and age; no matter how marked his personality, the spirit of his race and age finds expression through him” The same critic cogently expresses the relationship between history and literature. “Ordinary English history’ he says, “is our nation’s biography, its literature is its autobiography; in the ‘one we read the story of its actions and practical achievements; in the other the story of its intellectual and moral development.” Though Chaucer transcends the limits of his generation and creates something which is of interest to the future generation too, yet he represents much of what his age stands for. And therein lies his greatness. In the age of Chaucer, the Church became a hotbed of profligacy, corruption, and materialism. The overlord of the Church, namely, the Pope of Rome, himself had ambitions and aptitudes other than spiritual.

Chaucer’s Age-Both Medieval and Modern:

Chaucer’s age-like most historical ages-was an age of transition. This transition implies a shift from the medieval to the modern times, the emergence of the English nation from the dark ages' ' to the age of enlightenment. Though some elements associated with modernity were coming into prominence,-yet mostly and essentially the age was medieval-unscientific, superstitious, chivalrous, religious-minded, and “backward” in most respects. The fourteenth century, as J. M. Manly puts it in The Cambridge History of English Literature, was “a dark epoch of the history of England ''. However, the silver lining of modernity did “succeed in piercing, here and there, the thick darkness of ignorance and superstition. In fact, the age of Chaucer was not stagnant: it was inching its way steadily and surely to the dawn of the Renaissance and the Reformation, which were yet a couple of centuries ahead. We cannot agree with Kittredge who calls Chaucer’s age “a singularly modern time”. For that matter, not to speak of the fourteenth, even the eighteenth century was not “modern” in numerous respects. What we notice in the fourteenth century is the start of the movement towards the modern times, and not the accomplishment of that movement, which was going to be a march of marathon nature. Robert Dudley French observes: “It was an age of restlessness, amid the ferment of new life, that Chaucer lived and wrote. Old things and new appear side by side on his pages, and in his poetry we can study the essential spirit, both of the age that was passing and of the age that was to come.”What are these ‘old things and new:’ and what made the age restless? The answer will be provided if we discuss the chief events and features of the age.

The period between 1337 and 1453 is marked by a long succession of skirmishes between France and England, which are collectively known as the “Hundred Years War”. Under the able and warlike guidance of King Edward III (1327-1377) England won a number of glorious victories, particularly at Crecy, Portieres, and Encouraging. The French might have crumbled and Edward was once acknowledged even the king of France. But later, after his demise and with the succession of the incompetent Richard II, the English might waned and the French were able to secure tangible gains. The war influenced fie English character in the following two ways: The fostering of nationalistic sentiment; and The demolition of some social barriers between different classes of society. It was obviously natural for the conflict to have engendered among the English a strong feeling of national solidarity and patriotic fervour. But, as Compton-Rickett reminds us, “the fight is memorable not merely for stimulating the pride of English men.” It is important, too, for the second reason given above. It was not the aristocracy alone which secured the victory for England. The aristocracy was vitally supported by the lowly archers whose feats with the bow were a force to reckon with. Froissart, the French chronicler, referring to the English archers says: “They let their arrows fly so wholly together and so thick that it seemed snow”.

The Age of Chivalry:

Nevertheless, the dawn of the modern era was yet far away. Compton-Rickett observes: “Chaucer’s England is ‘Still characteristically medieval, and nowhere is the conservative feeling more strongly marked than in the persistence of chivalry. This strange amalgam of love, war, and religion so far from exhibiting any signs of decay, reached perhaps its fullest development at this time. More than two centuries were to elapse before it was finally killed-by the satirical pen of Cervantes.” The Knight in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is typical of his kind. Even the tale he narrates concerns the adventures of two true knights-Architect and Palamon

The Black Death:

Peasants’ Revolt and Labour Unrest In the age of Chaucer most people were victims of poverty, squalor, and pestilence. Even well educated nobles eyed soap with suspicion, and learned physicians often forbade bathing as harmful for health! That is why England was often visited by epidemics, especially plague. The severest attack of this dread epidemic came in 1348. It was called “the Black Death'' because black, knotty boils appeared on the bodies of the hopeless victims. It is estimated that about a million human beings were swept away by this epidemic. That roughly makes one-third of the total population of England at that time. One immediate consequence of this pestilence was the acute shortage of working hands. The socioeconomic system of England lay hopelessly paralysed. Labourers and villains who happened to survive started demanding much higher wages. But neither their employers nor the king nor Parliament was ready to meet these demands. A number of severe regulations were passed asking workers to work at the old rates of payment. This occasioned a great deal of resentment which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 during the reign of Richard II. The peasants groaning under the weight of injustice and undue official severity were led to London by the Kentish priest John Ball. He preached the dignity of labour and asked the nobles: When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman? The king, overawed by the mass of peasantry armed with such weapons as hatchets, spades, and pitchforks, promised reform but later shelved his promise. The “Peasants’ Revolt'' is, according to Compton-Rickett, “a dim foreshadowing of those industrial troubles that lay in the distant future.” Chaucer in his Nun’s Priest’s Tale refers in the following lines to Jack Straw who with Watt Tyler raised the banner of revolt: Certes, he Jake Straw and his meyne Ne made never shouts half so shrill, When that they wolden any Fleeing kill As thilke day was mad upon the fox. R. K. Root thus sums up the significance of this uprising: “This revolt, suppressed by the courage and good judgement of the boy King, Richard II, though barren of any direct and immediate result, exerted a lasting influence on the temper of the lower classes, fostering in them a spirit of independence which made them no longer a negligible quantity in the life of the nation''. This was another line of progress towards modernism.

Summary: 

The fourteenth century, as J. M. Manly puts it in The Cambridge History of English Literature, which was “a dark epoch of the history of England”. Latin and French were the dominant languages in fourteenth-century England. Chaucer first appears in public records in 1357 as a member of the house of Elizabeth, Countess of ulster. In October 1385, Chaucer was appointed a justice of the peace for Kent, and in August 1386 he became knight of the shire for Kent.

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Assignment 104: Alfred Tennyson

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 4 Literature of Victorians in this assignment I am dealing with the Alfred Tennyson who is representative writer of this age.

Alfred Tennyson

Outline of Tennyson’s Life:

Tennyson was the third of 11 children born to William Hazlitt Tennyson, who would later become the Dean of Westminster, and Elizabeth Hallam, who had been born to a wealthy landowner. His siblings were Ann, Catherine, Fanny, George, Maria, Emily, Elizabeth, Mary, Alfred, and Charles.Tennyson was raised in a conservative household, in spite of his family’s relatively progressive views on politics and religion. As a child, Alfred was taught by a clergyman, and was encouraged to read the Bible for himself. In his youth, he was influenced by the Romantic movement in British culture, and by the French Romantics of the time. He met Wordsworth, and even attended meetings of the Romantic Society. His father, Christopher Tennyson, had been born in Ireland and had moved to Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, in the late eighteenth century. When Alfred was six, his parents moved to Lincolnshire, settling in the village of Alphington near Brigg. In 1818, the family moved to Somersby, where they remained for the rest of his childhood.

Tennyson left Cambridge after three years, never quite finishing his degree. The Cambridge Apostles was a society of upper-class students at Cambridge University in the nineteenth century. It was composed of young men who had shared the same tutors in their youth while attending the prestigious Westminster School, including the poets Robert Browning and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was one of the greatest poets in the English language. He was known for his blank verse, often referred to as “polarised” because it contained so few adjectives. His poems have a timeless quality, and his approach to poetry can still be inspiring today. He was also the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign, and today he is often quoted and referenced.Tennyson was also a passionate believer in the natural world, and was a vegetarian his whole life, even after he became an alcoholic. In 1836, he published “Locksley Hall,” which was the first part of the four-part poem The Idylls of the King. It was a classic of the Victorian era, and is now the most well-known British poem in all of literature.

In this poem, Tennyson uses a technique called “apodosis.” Apodosis,’ or “negative apodosis,” is a rhetorical device that allows the poet to use a word or phrase in a way that is completely different from how it appears in the sentence, so that the listener or reader is surprised and caught off guard. It is a way to emphasise a word or phrase.

Poet Laureate and some works: 

In 1850, after William Wordsworth’s death and Samuel Rogers’ refusal, Tennyson was appointed to the position of Poet Laureate, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. He was the third person to hold the position, following Wordsworth and Rogers. He was also the first poet to hold the position. During his time as Poet Laureate, he travelled around England giving poetry readings and lectures, and was also responsible for writing the poetry for the National Gallery in London.

He moved to London in 1850, finding work as a journalist and also writing poems and articles for publication. In 1853, at the age of 26, he was named Poet Laureate, a position previously held by the great Romantic poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The following year, he published the first part of his most famous poem, The Idylls of the King.

In 1850, after the death of William Wordsworth and the refusal of Samuel Rogers to take the position of Poet Laureate, Tennyson was appointed to the position. He was forty years old, and was the first man from a middle-class background to hold the position.

He returned to Lincolnshire and began writing, first poetry and then plays. In 1850, after the death of William Wordsworth and the refusal of Samuel Rogers to take on the role of Poet Laureate, Tennyson was appointed to the position.

He understood that the Poet Laureate was expected to write poems for major national occasions, and he began to write poems for important events such as the opening of Parliament, the coronation of Queen Victoria, and the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. He also began to write poems for the general public, which were published in magazines and newspapers. During his time as Poet Laureate, Tennyson continued to write both poetry and plays. In 1853, he published the first part of his most famous poem, The Idylls of the King.

His first major public poem was The Lady of Shallot, which was published in 1851 and is about the doomed love affair between the Lady of Shallot and Sir Lancelot. As his official duties as Poet Laureate expanded, so did his responsibilities as a poet. He continued to write poems about the subjects that interested him most: the natural world, the human heart, and the Divine.

In this way, he hoped to help spread the popularity of poetry among a wider audience.

His first publication as Poet Laureate was a long poem, The Princess, which was published in 1853.

Poems by Two Brothers:

In 1826 two brothers, Frederick and Charles Tennyson, jointly published a small collection of poems, Select Sentence. Dated 1827 on the title page, these poems were mostly written by Charles, with some co-written with Frederick. The poems in Select Sentence provide us with an early glimpse at the two brothers' writing styles and their literary influences.

In 1826, two poems were published, which would become the first two published poems by two brothers. These two poems were written by Alfred, with the help of his brother Charles. They were published together on the same title page, but the poems themselves were dated 1827 on the title page. These poems, called Poems by Two Brothers, are considered to be the first published works of Alfred, who would go on to become one of the best-known poets in the English language.

In July 1826, two poems by the sons of the Earl of Tennyson were published. One was written by Charles, the older brother, while the other was written by Lionel, the younger. The poems were printed without a title page, so it is impossible to know which poem was written by which brother.

The poems of Two Brothers are a fascinating insight into the writing process of the young poet A.E. Much of what we know of the poems today is thanks to the efforts of his older brother, Charles, who published the poems in 1826 under the title Poems by Two Brothers. The poems were actually written by A.E. Tennyson with the help of Charles, who provided some of the final touches. It is clear that A.E. Tennyson had a large input into the final text, as evidenced by the unique style that he went on to develop as an author.

On a summer’s evening, when the moon was bright, Beneath the shades of a deep forest's night, Two brothers met, who had long been estranged; Their purpose was to combine their skill; To find a way to earn a living.

In Memoriam:

The distance, the years, the silence, in the end it all seems a lie. It is a story, a poem, a song that lives on, for the man who was my father. For the man who was my father is no more, and he has left me in a world without him. He has left me to live in this world without any knowledge of what it meant to have him, without any knowledge of what it meant to be his daughter.

A.H.H. was one of the first poets to use artificial intelligence in his work. His poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.” was a work of poetry written in honour of his beloved and passed-on Anya. Short and concise, the poem was written using a complex text generation system. The system used deep learning algorithms to learn how to generate text in a style similar to that of A.H.H. The system was also “trained” by A.H.H. himself, by feeding it large amounts of his poetry.

In memoriam A.H.H. was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson as a memorial for his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at the young age of twenty-eight. Hallam was the son of a bishop, and the two had a close, platonic friendship. The poem is mostly an expression of Tennyson's grief and his desperate attempt to come to terms with the permanence of death. It is also a meditation on the nature of time, and on the ways in which our lives are shaped by our experiences.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the Victorian era's most celebrated poet, was known for his melancholy, introspective verse. In 1849, he published "In Memoriam A.H.H.

In memoriam A.H.H., whose name was Latinized as "Deceased Husband, A.H.H.

As to Tennyson's attitude towards the deepest problems of human concern, it is only needful to say that it comes out chiefly in that poem In Memoriam on his dead friend, which so many delicate and loving souls know almost by heart, and which in the last resort gives the hopeful answer of faith to the terrible questions it propounds.

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Assignment 103: Pride and Prejudice

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 3 Literature of the Romantics. In this assignment I am dealing with the Novel Pride and Prejudice's Modern Woman.

Jane Austen’s Modern Woman:Elizabeth

Introduction to Writer:

Jane Austen was born at Steventon on December 16, 1775, the youngest of seven children. She received her education—scanty enough, by modern standards—at home. Besides the usual elementary subjects, she learned French and some Italian, sang a little, and became an expert needle-woman. Her reading extended little beyond the literature of the eighteenth century, and within that period she seems to have cared most for the novels of Richardson and Miss Burney, and the poems of Cowper and Crabbe. Dr. Johnson, too, she admired, and later was delighted with both the poetry and prose of Scott. The novel was published in 1813 but was completed in 1797 and initially titled First Impressions. It is set primarily in the village of Longbourn 1 mile from Meryton in Hertfordshire in England. In general, Austen occupies a curious position between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The most remarkable characteristic of Jane Austen as a novelist is her recognition of the limits of her knowledge of life and her determination never to go beyond these limits in her books. She describes her own class, in the part of the country with which she was acquainted; and both the types of character and the events are such as she knew from first-hand observation and experience. But to the portrayal of these she brought an extraordinary power of delicate and subtle delineation, a gift of lively dialogue, and a peculiar detachment. She abounds in humour, but it is always quiet and controlled; and though one feels that she sees through the affectations and petty hypocrisies of her circle, she seldom becomes openly satirical. The fineness of her workmanship, excelled in the English novel, makes possible the discrimination of characters who have outwardly little or nothing to distinguish them; and the analysis of the states of mind and feeling of ordinary people is done so faithfully and vividly as to compensate for the lack of passion and adventure. She herself speaks of the "little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work," and, in contrast with the broad canvases of Fielding or Scott, her stories have the exquisiteness of a fine miniature. 

Women of that time:

The Regency is a period which started in 1811, when the Regency Act was passed and George, Prince of Wales became Prince Regent, replacing his father George III who was mentally ill. The period ended with the death of George III. During these years, many women established themselves as prominent writers. One of them was Jane Austen, who decided to depict traditional female roles during the Regency era. In those times it was hard to be a woman, especially a woman writer. Women's style of writing was considered to be inferior to men’s writing style.. It is evident that women were misjudged, mistreated, and discriminated against by men. Imperfection became a synonym for women, even when it came to their writing style. Therefore, it is not surprising that women led submissive lives and they had to accept. 

In other words, in Austen's time women thought that they could do nothing but what was expected from them; they were dominated by men. Marriages were arranged, mostly within the same social class. Even middle-class parents wanted their daughters well situated. Love was not important when it came to choosing a husband. Women did not have much choice; unmarried, older than twenty, women were considered to be a burden to their families and many women got married, so that society would not look down on them. They could become governesses; yet, that “was a position beneath the social rank and status of middle and upper class young women and was thus regarded as humiliating” (Swords). A woman’s happiness depended entirely on her parents’ approval until she got married: “women can be seen as oppressed victims of a patriarchal society, subordinate first to their fathers and, then, to their husbands who had, of course, been selected by their fathers'' (Swords). Moreover, women could not inherit property. 2 Once married, they lost control over both their possessions and their fate and became their husbands' property.

Elizabeth Bennet:

The novel Pride and Prejudice deals with the life of the sisters from the Bennet family. It focuses on the life of Elizabeth, the main protagonist of the story. The Bennet family belongs to the middle class. Mr. Bennet does not have a male heir.

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Bennet is the second daughter of the Bennets. She is twenty years old. . Because of her intelligence and observations, she is one of the most famous literary characters of all time: “For the first time in English literature, outside Shakespeare, we meet heroines who are credible, with minds, with the capacity to think for themselves, with ambition and wit”. She is Mr. Bennet’s favourite child.  In contrast, she is the last dear to her mother because “she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor half so good humoured as Lydia” (Austen, Pride and Prejudice 5). Yet, Elizabeth transcends her family members in her manners and understanding of life. Moreover, Elizabeth states her opinion directly and has a sharp tongue, which often shocks those who believe that ladies cannot be allowed such freedom. During her conversation with Lady Catherine, who is a very powerful woman, she answers a lot of questions but with some reservation and asserts her opinion on the social norms.

Lady Catherine is astonished by such an answer because Elizabeth openly challenges social norms regarding female behaviour. When Lady Catherine finds out that the five daughters have been brought up without a governess, she is shocked because it is unimaginable that young women have not been taught necessary skills such as drawing and playing an instrument. Elizabeth understands the true purpose of marriage, something that neither her mother nor her sisters do. When she rejects Mr. Collins. She even rejects Mr. Darcy’s first proposal because she believes him to be an immoral and evil man. He is very rich, richer than Mr. Bingley. Her attitude towards marriage is visible from the way she speaks with Charlotte, her dearest friend, when she hears that Charlotte has accepted Mr. Collins’s proposal. She feels sorry for her friend because she knows that she and her future husband will never love each other. Moreover, Elizabeth’s judgements are sometimes irrational and blinded by her pride but, when this is the case, she is willing to admit that she is wrong. When she realises that Wickham has deceived her and lied to her about Darcy’s nature, that Darcy is actually an exceptional man, she grows absolutely ashamed of herself.  She tries to be fair towards everyone and that is why she feels that she has done wrong to Darcy. Later on, when Lady Catherine confronts her because she believes that Elizabeth and Darcy will get married, Elizabeth shows that she is not afraid of her. Lady Catherine states that their marriage would be the most unsuitable match. In other words, Elizabeth does not care about money and does not think of Mr. Darcy as her superior; she believes them to be of equal worth. When Lady Catherine asks that she refuse Darcy, Elizabeth dismisses. 

Elizabeth is not a woman whom someone could easily scare and she fights for what she wants and believes in – and that is Mr. Darcy and her love for him. Again, Elizabeth proves to be an intelligent and independent woman who does not care about the opinion of others; she does what she thinks to be the best for her

Critics have often remarked on the ostensible link between Elizabeth Bennet and her creator. Elizabeth’s wit and playfulness, the argument goes, reflect Austen’s own personality. But this observation, innocuous as it seems, devalues the artistry of the novel, implying as it does a lack of design on the author’s part: Jane Austen merely looked in a psychic mirror and reported the thoughts of the charming Elizabeth.  Even a critic who does not identify Austen and her character still finds an odd link between them. Austen does several things with the ironic wit of her main character. By blurring the distinction between Elizabeth’s voice and that of the omniscient narrator, she controls the reader’s point of view. Austen tempts the reader to accept Elizabeth’s initial assessment of Wickham and Darcy because Elizabeth sounds so much like the third-person omniscient narrator. In this way, Austen forces the reader to experience the same errors that Elizabeth makes and to realise the difficulty of arriving at truth in a constantly shifting world. Elizabeth’s ironic wit also defines nuances of her character in ways that make her stand out from the more one-dimensional women in the novel: Caroline Bingley, Charlotte Lucas, Lydia, even Jane. And, ultimately, Elizabeth’s wit defines theme as the novel develops a critique on the worth of an ironic worldview

Elizabeth represents women who are intelligent and independent in their actions. They do not get married because of necessity; on the contrary, they see marriage as an act of love. Each one of them is a strong woman who thinks with her own head.

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Assignment 102: A Tale of a Tub

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 2 Literature of Neo-Classical Period in this assignment I am dealing with the novel A Tale Of A Tub as a Religious Allegory.

Analyze “A Tale of a Tub” as a Religious Allegory.

What is Allegory?

The  Oxford English dictionary defines allegory as ‘a story, picture, or other piece of art that uses symbols to convey a hidden or ulterior meaning, typically a moral or political one.’ In its most simple and concise definition, an allegory is when a piece of visual or narrative media uses one thing to ‘Stand in for’ a different, Hidden idea. It's a little bit like an algebra equation, like y= 2x, but in the form of art. Like in algebra. When we talk about meaning in allegory, we have to talk about meaning in allegory, we have two different variables we’re thinking about, but we don't call them X and Y. Instead, we call them the tenor and a vehicle. A tenor is the hidden concept , object, idea or ulterior meaning;  and the vehicle is the word, image, or narrative in the story that ‘Carries’ it. 

In a piece of literature or work of art, the words or visual objects are never really the things themselves, but instead are the representations of something else.  So in an allegory really about what's inherently in a text that we read, a movie we watch, or painting we look at? Or is it more about how we choose to engage with a text, a movie, or a piece of art? Allegory is fascinating because, in order for it to work, you as a reader  need to approach the text as if it were an allegory! Sure, some works of art are more convincing or complete allegories than others, but when we think about what allegory actually is, It isn't just ‘a story, picture, or other piece of art that uses symbols to convey a hidden or ulterior meaning, typically a moral or political one.’ Instead, allegory is the expectation and intention that we approach a piece of art as if it had a hidden or ulterior meaning. 

Many such allegories are used in literature work. A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift is also a great religious allegory. A Tale of a Tub (1704), one of Swift's earliest satire works, is a religious allegory. The book exposes the quarrels of the churches in the famous story of three brothers, Peter (Roman Catholics), Martin (Anglicans) and Jack (Puritans). The target of satire in A Tale of a Tub is mainly the Roman Catholics represented by Martin, but the Puritans in the image of Jack can’t escape Swift’s sword either. Only to Anglicans is he tolerably mild. A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind.  A satire on the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches and English Dissenters, it was famously attacked for its profanity and irreligion, starting with William Wotton, who wrote that the Tale had made a game of "God and Religion, Truth and Moral Honesty, Learning and Industry" to show "at the bottom [the author's] contemptible Opinion of every Thing which is called Christianity." The work continued to be regarded as an attack on religion well into the nineteenth century. The Tale was enormously popular, presenting both a satire of religious excess and a parody of contemporary writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical Exegesis, and medicine through its comically excessive front matter and series of digressions throughout. The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity. At the time it was written, politics and religion were still closely linked in England, and the religious and political aspects of the satire can often hardly be separated. 

Jonathan Swift's Tale of a tub is a brilliant failure. It is a prose satire intended as a defence of the Anglican church, but it was widely interpreted by contemporary readers as an attack on all religion. At the time of writing it, Swift was a junior Anglican clergyman hoping for substantial preference in the Church. The appearance of the Tale, and its assumed message, was a serious obstacle to his promotion.

One of the things that makes the Tale difficult to interpret for that the work attacks multiple things of things at the same time: it's an allegory about religious differences; it's a satire on pedantry and false scholarship; it's a parody of the contemporary book trade; it has attached to it two further treatises, the 'Battle of the Books', and the 'Mechanical Operation of the Spirit'. This essay will examine notions of authorship, intertextuality, originality, and the relationship between parody and allegory, and try to determine how all these components fit together.

Jonathan Swift tells us in a tale of a tub the story of the father who gives his 3 sons coats and gives them his will in which he noted details, instructions regarding the use of the coats. Here father stands for gods and sons; Peter, Martin and Jack represent three branches of Christianity.

And the will represents a word of god or the holy bible. The allegory represents history of the christian Church. Peter the elder son of the father represents the Roman Catholic Church. Martin represents the reformed church of the England, he makes several changes in the coat after Seven years. Jack represents the extremist sect of the protestants or the dissenters of puritans. The action of Peter in turning out his own and his brothers life his decision to have shoulder knots and silver frink on the coats and his medicine for various ill represents the corruption and harasses of the roman catholic church of England.  By interpreting the Bible in their own way the Pope and his priest amast vast fortune and wealth and will their tremendous political powers. Martin’s attempts to remove the lace and the silver drinks from the coat very carefully represents the  moderate reformation carried out in England. The violent manner in which Jack removes the decorations, almost tearing off the coat itself represents the excesses of the Puritans who almost destroyed the church and the state by precipitating the civil war and imposing Cromwell's autocratic rule in England. Swift thus brings out the moderate and reasonable position of the church of England between the extremes of the biogatory and corruption of the Roman Catholics and the destructive Enthusiasm of the dissenters and the Puritans. 

Religious Orthodoxy: 

Swift says in the 'Apology' that was added to the 1710 edition that A Tale of a Tub was partly intended to attack the religious groups that he saw as threatening the hegemony of the Anglican church. In the Tale, Swift uses the analogy of the three brothers - Martin, Peter and Jack - to represent, respectively, the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church, and the Low Church, or Dissenters. In doing so, he is trying to demonstrate that the spiritual practices of the Catholic Church and dissenting sects were based on a false interpretation of the true Word, the Bible. However, the sweep of Swift's irony in the book, and, the destabilising and confusing nature of its changes in satiric personae meant that many of his contemporaries read the Tale as an attack on all religion.

For a young Anglican churchman intent on a speedy ascension through the ranks of the church, this was a very damaging charge. Swift's decision to publish the apology in the revised edition of 1710 likely is related to his anxiety about his career at this time, and the Tale's potential to compromise his position. Late 1710, was perhaps the most exciting and promising time in Swift's career; he was being courted by the rising Tory leader Robert Harley to join the Tory cause, and power and importance seemed imminent. Swift was to believe for the rest of his life that his failure to secure the ecclesiastical promotions that he wanted was due to influential (including royal) disapproval of the perceived irreligious tendencies of A Tale of a Tub.

An important factor in the reception of Swift's work is that the narrator of the work is an extremist in every direction. Consequently, he can no more construct a sound allegory than he can finish his digressions without losing control (eventually confessing that he is insane). For a Church of England reader, the allegory of the brothers provides small comfort. Martin has a corrupted faith, one full of holes and still with ornaments on it. His only virtue is that he avoids the excesses of his brothers, but the original faith is lost to him. Readers of the Tale have picked up on this unsatisfactory resolution to both "parts" of the book, and A Tale of a Tub has often been offered up as evidence of Swift's misanthropy 

Conclusion:

One of the great themes that Swift explores in A Tale of a Tub is the madness of pride involved in believing one’s own age to be supreme and the inferiority of derivative works. One of the attacks in the tale was on those who believe that being readers of works makes them the equals of the creators of works.

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