Assignment- 101 : Restoration Comedy

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 1 Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods. In this assignment I am dealing with the novel The rover as a restoration comedy.

Restoration comedy: The Rover 

“Life is a Tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think”

-Horace Walpole

Comedy-

The term comedy originated from ancient Greece, from a Greek word komodia. It is a Genre of fiction which is intended to induce laughter. Generally defined as literary work that is written to amuse or entertain a reader. Tragedy appeals to out heart and comedy appeals to our mind

The are different forms of comedy are-

1. Screwball Comedy

2. Black Comedy

3. Scatological Comedy

4. Race Humour

5. Comedy of Manners

6. Romantic Comedy

Among these we are going to deal with comedy of manners or restoration comedy.

Background of the Restoration comedy/ Comedy of manners:

The period from 1660- 1700 is known as the restoration period/ the age of Dryden. The restoration age starts with the restoration of King Charles II to the English throne after his exile. With this the theatres were reopened which remained closed in Puritan age. 

In the restoration period the french influence was more dominant in literature as the king was brought in France. So the French writers were imitated by the English writers.

The Restoration drama was characterised by its intricate plots, sexual intrigues, moral duplicate and pretended identities. 

Restoration comedy-

Comedy of Manners was popularised by the writers of the Restoration Period. Comedy of Manners is  realistic and satirical. It questions manners and social conventions of a greatly sophisticated and artificial society, Restoration period. It is also known as an Anti-sentimental Comedy. It talks about the manners and ideals of Aristocratic/ upper class society.Generally the topics of this comedy are religion, Politics, love affairs etc. John Dryden, who was the representative of the Restoration period, was the first one to write comedy of manners.

Characteristics:

• Unemotional treatment of sex.

• Rich with wit and satire, appeals to our intellect.

• Fashion of the time is reflected.

• The manners of the upper class are presented realistically.

• Realism, social analysis and satire.

Witty dialogues are given more importance than plot.

Aphra behn’s ‘The Rover’ both conforming to the genre, as well as cleverly bringing down it.

Aphra Bhen was not only the female professional writer but also the first female writer to earn from her writings. She was not only writing for money but to overthrow social norms and expectations. She was the one to introduce the women actors in the English drama. She herself was a revolutionary, a woman operating the world of literature which is in the domain of men. Even her female characters did the same, in her plays.

There was a growing tendency in theatre to serve the audience, who watched plays not for observation or learning but for leisure and fun. Aphra Behn did the same as other playwrights, he allowed the watcher to act as voyeur. It was the time when female writers were not given equal place as men. The society in which equal wages were not paid to female and male actresses also criticised them and were forced to become mistresses out of fear and poverty.

Some features of restoration drama:

The Rover is a metaphor of the restoration period and also overthrows its characteristics primarily by setting it in the Carnival which is considered to be lacking moral or legal restraints. 

But it also serves to problematize behaviour as part of deception.

Even in the characters of Florinda and Helena we see figures of the aristocratic virgin and witty heroine. Florinda is afraid to rebel against her brother and enters the carnival to achieve her desires. She was very much aware about the value of her virginity and she protects it to the very end to present it to her beloved. The youthful respectable female revolt against marrying an old man is also a typical comedy of that time. Helena is significant for setting up the battles of wit. With her intellect she became the sole match for Willmore. Helena costs the best although she is lustful. Her power is based on her wit not on her lustfulness. Both the women characters are fighting against the society based on the institution of marriage.  Aphra Behn’s women always put up a mighty fight against restrictive norms and mirror her own sense of agency. 

Restoration comedies also portray the character who is disappointed in love or fortune, in The Rover Angellica Bianca is a model for it. A rich prostitute without chastity and modesty. She thinks it her privilege to seduce whomever she fancies. Angelica points out that men also prostitute themselves in market when the marry marry a girl for her money and not for love. It shows the double standard of the society. Sadly the courtesan wealth of Angellica cannot save her from her submissive bondage in which Willmore her love traps her.

Willmore plays the role of a rake, a model of king Charles II. he is an outsider not tied with social norms rope because he is a free spirit. The change in him occurs when he sees a charming woman.

The play ends with rather  typical ways with, the prostitute returning to her trade, and the virgins being awarded with marriage- proverbial ‘happy ending’. However, all men, women and institutions pass through the marketplace and are valued, just as the text, and even its author, is. 

The two Rovers of the play Willmore and Helena share the same density both are Frank about their temperament. Helena's attitude to female sexuality is as Natural as that of Willmore. She has a natural urge to have a man who she likes. In fact she is appropriately masculine because in her attempt to escape the  nunnery. Willmore is undoubtedly the hero of Cavalier and flirts with women without any uneasiness of  conscience but it is Helena who seems to be the real Rover in the Play.

Crisis in the aristocracy- of which Pedro's character is a function- is also turned on its head by his ultimate acceptance of Florinda and Belville’s marriage. At this point, it may be argued that the Belville- Florinda romance itself, though very generic and typical of comedies, is problematized through the repeated attempts at the rape of Florinda, which Belville reacts to a little too mildly, considering he has been set up the ‘knight in shining armour’* Belville’s friends act as typical rates by mocking his love for Florinda and claiming that women could only be used for sexual needs. Blunt initially seems to be purely a stock figure- one often found in restoration comedies. He is an English country gentleman, rich but foolish, a ‘country bumpkin’, fooled by a wily prostitute. His attempts at projecting himself as a wit evoke much laughter from the reader. However the same character later become a mouthpiece for violent horrific misogyny and his speech directed at Florinda where he threatens to rape her, beat her up and hang her from a window, disrupts the harmless bumpkin stereotype.

The Rake was the hero of most restoration comedies. In the rover Willmore is the hero of the play. Typically restoration comedies portray the life of Hedonistic young men who fill their leisure with drinking, whoring, theatre going and wit. They need money but have no resources for earning it except for marriage to earn it. The hero and his companions reject the conventions of the past and believe in fredon. 

Restoration comedy also takes a look at the plans of its young women characters. When young man are shown to actively seeking out sex and money young women are depicted in a way to have a choice in a marriage  partner. The heroine is rebellious, rebelling against an arranged marriage to an old man. As we see in the play rover Florinda is against marriage to the partners his father and brother choose for and and instead choose a partner for herself. Helena is also shown to have a mind of her own, when she decides her fate for  herself, she chooses to marry instead of becoming a nun. However, it is important to note that when a heroine is allowed freedom of thought, freedom of action is confined to ensuring that she is a virgin when she gets married.

Characters are judged on the basis of their wit and intelligence. Trickery and deception are almost mandatory parts of the comedy. Intelligent characters like Willmore and Hellena are able to use deception to their advantage. However, foolish characters like Blunt are disadvantaged by the deception of the other characters of the play. Wit and Intelligence are shown to be important  to navigating trickery and deception in these plays.

There is a tendency to bypass moral judgmental in the restoration comedies. Most characters in this play, play physical pleasures over intellectual stimulation. Another very popular feature of the restoration comedy  was the use of body humour and sexually explicit language and theme. 

Anand Prakash in his essay ‘Designing’ women socially and market- wise’: glimpses of the Restoration strategy in the Rover’, “...Bhen is not attempting in The Rover a typical Restoration comedy with fops and wit in the Fray out to merrily titillate us but a representation that focuses upon serious issues of freedom, identity and physicality particularly with respect to women”

These are the features of restoration comedy and an analysis of the rover as Restoration comedy.

        

Thank you

Importance for Being Ernest- Oscar Wilde

IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

This blog is in response to the blog task given to us by Dr. Dilip Barad sir based on the classical play The Importance of Being Earnest. In this blog I am going to discuss Wilde's changed subtitle of the play and one of the female characters from the play.

Brief about the play:

The importance of being Earnest, A trivial comedy of serious play was first performed on 14 February 1895 at the St. James Theatre in London. This play is a farcical/ absurd/ laughable comedy. Genre of this play is Social comedy; comedy of manners; satire; intellectual farce. It is set in the 1890s in London (Act I) and Hertfordshire, a rural county not far from London (Acts II and III). In this play the characters maintain imaginary personae to escape from the burdensome social obligations.

Characters of the play:

Jack Worthing (Ernest)- a young gentleman from the country, in love with Gwendolen Fairfax.

Algernon Moncrieff- a young gentleman from London, the nephew of Lady Bracknell, in love with Cecily Cardew.

Gwendolen Fairfax- a young lady, loved by Jack Worthing.

Lady Bracknell- a society lady, Gwendolen's mother.

Cecily Cardew- a young lady, the ward of Jack Worthing.

Miss Prism- Cecily's governess.

The Reverend Canon Chasuble- the priest of Jack's parish.

Lane- Algernon's butler.

Merriman- Jack's servant.

In brief the central act of play:

In the play we see that the protagonist named Jack Worthing maintains a fake person named Ernest in the town as a younger brother who always creates some troubles and because of that he has to visit the town from the countryside again and again. The main aim to visit town was to meet his beloved. Along with, he was a guardian in the town, he was a responsible person, an authority in town so to get out of that authority mark and have a burden less time he used to visit town. Same was with another protagonist Algernon Moncrieff, he also maintained a fake person named Bunbury to rest out from his burdensome life. Once Algernon surprisingly visited the country house of John when he was going to end the story of Ernest. Going there he lies that he is Ernest and falls in love with Cecily, ward of John. where Cecily was already in love and engaged to the person named Earnest, who in front of her is Algernon. Gwendolen, beloved of John, was in love with John but only if he had the name Earnest. Gwendolen and Cecily met and in conversation realized that they both were in love with a person named Earnest but there was no one with real name Earnest. And to fulfill the wish of their beloved both male protagonists were going to christened with the name Earnest. Moving towards the end of the play the mystery comes out that John was the lost child of Mrs. Bracknell’s poor sister, he was brother of Algernon Moncrieff and his name was baptized from the first name of his father and that was Earnest.

Title and Subtitle explanation:

Looking at all these incidents of the play somewhere inside we realize how can someone be so insane. How can any female demand such things like name or how can anyone think to maintain fake persons to move out of their burdensome life. But this play is satire and criticism of the society of the Victorian era. Now it would be easier for us to understand the title and why Wilde is putting such words like trivial and serious in the title. The importance of being earnest: after reading the central act of the play we realize how important it was for the male protagonist to have a name Earnest. They required the name Earnest to marry their beloved. If we look at the literal meaning of the word earnest then it means showing sincere and intense conviction; serious minded. And somewhere in the male protagonists we lack the literal meaning of that word because if they would have been serious minded they would have never done such a trivial act of making an imaginary person to get away from regular life and also the decision to change their names to Earnest.

We notice that Wilde has originally subtitled the play 'A Serious Comedy for Trivial People' but then changed it to 'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.' We already know that the play was a farcical play, it is a comedy of manners. The play is fun and a comedy of triviality. The literal meaning of the word ‘trivial’ is something of less importance, cheap. if we look the meaning in Guajarati language then it is તુચ્છ,મામૂલી. If the subtitle was ‘a serious comedy of the trivial people’ then the audience would have self- prejudiced that they are already being judged and are given no importance and no audience would gather to watch the play. Comedy is for fun and people are an important part of society and in comparison of these two things if more importance would have been given to comedy by telling it to be serious and people to be trivial, the audience would not accept it. The importance of being earnest is a satire to the people of Victorian age. The satire is to ridicule ideas, conditions, or social conventions with which the audience is familiar (or even practices and supports) without making the audience feel estranged. If Wilde openly and publicly insulted them by referring to them as 'trivial people,' they would not attend. Perhaps, so Wilde interchanged the words and subtitled as ‘A trivial comedy of serious people’ and gave importance to people and named comedy to be trivial. This is my one interpretation.

This change of subtitle can also be interpreted keeping the characters of the play in the center. We already read about the insane actions of the male protagonist and the insane need of the female protagonist in their husbands. The actions are completely trivial. Whenever we are watching a movie or a play we always compare ourselves with the protagonist of the play. At the very first watching of the play we just compare ourselves with them; we do not or cannot find the flaws or cannot criticize them. We get connected to them. If the direct subtitle indicates that the characters and their actions are trivial, people after feeling connected to them will realize that the writer is calling them trivial and on the spot they will start criticizing the writer and would not accept any argument of the writer. So instead of telling characters to be insane and trivial, the writer himself is telling comedy means his own writing to be trivial and makes people feel that it is only for fun. The subtitle ‘a trivial comedy of the serious people’ shows that characters are serious and good enough but the comedy the fun they are making is trivial, characters are correct at their place.

Further in this blog I am going to discuss the female character Miss Prism as I personally found her attractive.

Miss Prism is Cecily's governess at Jack's house in the country. As such, her position is that of a social anomaly in that her status is greater than that of an ordinary servant, but less than that of a member of her employer's family.

Miss Prism was an independent woman. She's the character of the Victorian era novel where marriage was very strongly prevailing. In that era she was a strong independent woman who was earning on her own instead of being dependent on any male figure like father or husband. On the other hand, working as a governess in a private home was a low-paid occupation, it was at least respectable.

Also, Miss Prism was an intellectual woman, that too in a literary way. She is a creative writer. We get to know this when she brings out the truth of Jack. She is working as a governess and guardian of Cecily. She is guardian of Cecily's education and her virtue. She was the one to inspire Cecily to write a diary which can be published later as a novel. Perhaps it was a dream of Miss Prism which didn't come true. She makes constant moral judgments. We can know this through Her reaction on the news of dead Ernest "As a man sows, so shall he reap."

Miss Prism is an appropriate character to uncover Jack's true history. When Mrs. Bracknell visited Jack's country behind her daughter who was in love with Jack. She met Miss prism; everyone was shocked at how they knew each other. Mrs. Bracknell showers questions on Miss Prism.

“Prism! Where is that baby? Twenty-eight years ago, Prism, you left Lord Bracknell’s house, Number 104, Upper Grosvenor Street, in charge of a perambulator that contained a baby of the male sex. You never returned. A few weeks later, through the elaborate investigations of the Metropolitan police, the perambulator was discovered at midnight, standing by itself in a remote corner of Bayswater. It contained the manuscript of a three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality. But the baby was not there!”

To this Miss prism answered- “ admit with shame that I do not know. I only wish I did. The plain facts of the case are these. On the morning of the day you mention, a day that is for ever branded on my memory, I prepared as usual to take the baby out in its perambulator. I had also with me a somewhat old, but capacious hand-bag in which I had intended to place the manuscript of a work of fiction that I had written during my few unoccupied hours. In a moment of mental abstraction, for which I never can forgive myself, I deposited the manuscript in the bassinette, and placed the baby in the hand-bag.”

Here we see that Miss prism was writing a novel of her own. And we can interpret that she was so much lost in the writing and reading of the novel that she didn't realize about the baby to not be there in the perambulator and when she realized she had already lost the baby. Later, the story opens in a way that Jack was the same baby who was lost. Jack is discovered as the elder brother of Algernon with the baptized name Ernest. He was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew.

I found Miss Prism an attractive character because the Victorian era was the time when women were not given independence of reading and writing, they didn't have equal opportunities as men in the literary writing space. Instead women were asked and forced to concentrate on family and children thinking that if she also starts writing and reading every woman would make mistakes like Miss Prism as they will stay lost in their own world but Miss Prism is being a women representative in the novel who is writing her own novel. And today women are having equal opportunities in the literary and education world.

Comparing it in the contemporary time. Today women and girls are stopped from using mobiles and getting off social media accounts. Here also they have the same argument that if women will start spending time on mobile phones their children and family will fall. These all incidents are also taking place in real life which we keep on reading in newspapers. But we foresee that as women have made their place in the education world they will also make equal space in the digital world.

[words- 1944]

The Rover - Aphra Behn

The Rover

This blog is in response to the blog task given to us by Yesha Ma’am based on the play The Rover or the Banish’d Cavaliers.

About the writer:

The Play The Rover is written by an English Playwright Aphra Behn. Her life period is from 1640-1689, poet, playwright, translator and fiction writer of the restoration period. She was born in Canterbury, kingdom of England and is resting in Westminster Abbey. Behn’s early works were tragicomedies in verse. In 1670 her first play, The Forc’d Marriage, was produced, and The Amorous Prince followed a year later. Her sole tragedy, Abdelazer, was staged in 1676. However, she turned increasingly to light comedy and farce over the course of the 1670s. Many of these witty and vivacious comedies, The rover (two parts, produced 1677 and 1681), were commercially successful. She is a prominent female writer as she was the first writer to break all the cultural barriers of the society and to become the first English woman to earn from writing. She is remembered in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."

Background in brief and about the title:

The full title of the play The rover is The rover Or the banish'd cavalier It is a restoration comedy, comedy of manners. This play stood as 'Behn's most popular and respected play' for three centuries. It is a dark comedy that mixes themes of prostitution and rape with comic buffoonery This play is revision of revision of Thomas Killigrew's play Thomaso, or The Wanderer (1664). It is set in Naples at Carnival time. Behn was a Royalist, and her works frequently portray Puritans negatively. The subtitle "Banish'd Cavaliers" is a reference to the exile that the Cavalier forces experienced during the English Interregnum.

According to John Dryden it 'lacks the manly vitality of Killigrew's play, but shows greater refinement of expression.'

The rover of the title is either Willmore, an exiled English sea captain on shore leave to enjoy the carnival, or Hellena, a young woman hoping to experience life and love before being committed to a convent by her brother. These two rovers meet and fall in love amid witty debates and sexual maneuvering. Willmore has many parallels to Charles II, whose exploits during his twenty-year banishment from England were well known. Charles II enjoyed the play so much that he commissioned a private viewing of it.

The structure of the play:

Act 1 contains two scenes,

Act 2 contains two scenes,

Act 3 with four scenes,

Act 4 with 3 scenes and

Act 5 with one scene.

Starting with a prologue and ending with an epilogue.

 

Characters in the play:

Female:

FLORINDA- Sister to Don Pedro, and Hellena.

HELLENA- a young Woman designed for a Nun, and Sister to Florinda.

VALERIA- a Kinswoman to Florinda

ANGELLICA BIANCA- a famous Courtesan in Spain who returns to Naples to put herself up for sale.

MORETTA- the "lady in waiting," or personal assistant, of Angellica Bianca.

CALLIS- Governess to Florinda and Hellena in charge of overseeing the girls and making sure they stay out of trouble.

LUCETTA- a "jilting wench" who steals the clothes and belongings from Blunt.

Male:

DON ANTONIO- the King's Son

DON PEDRO- Florinda and Hellena's brother

BELVILE- an English Colonel deeply in love with Florinda

WILLMORE- the "rover" to whom the title refers; a naval captain who spends most of his days roaming around.

FREDERICK- English Gentleman

BLUNT- a foolish English Country Gentleman who gets duped out of all his possessions by Lucetta.

STEPHANO- Servant to Don Pedro

PHILLIPO- Lucetta's Gallant

SANCHO- Pimp to Lucetta

BISKEY and SEBASTIAN- two Bravoes to Angelica

DIEGO- Page to Don Antonio

In this blog I am going to deal with the following question-

Moretta claims that love is the “disease” of the female sex, whereas Willmore claims that “virtue“ is the true infirmity in women. With whom do you agree and why? Draw from the text to support your answer.

First of all we will deal with the basic character sketch of Moretta. She is a minor character of the play. Moretta is an elderly servant of the most expensive prostitute Angelica. She herself was a former prostitute. Moretta is a strong believer in economically advantageous relationships and opposes Angelica's decision of giving heart to Willmore and having a free of cost relation with him. She is disgusted by Angellica falling in love with Willmore.

This statement of Moretta where she claims love to be disease is in Act 2. Scene 1.

Angelica is most expensive and extremely beautiful prostitute. In the Carnival Poster s of the prostitutes are realized showing their availability. Angelica released her poster in the street. Willmore and Antoni both were looking at the poster but her cost was too high for Willmore so he tried to take the poster of Angelica with him. At that time Don Antonio resisted him for doing so and the fight began between them. Angelica heard the fight and sent her men to look out. She called down Willmore to know about the fight.

Willmore was a lustful Englishmen, he kept on wandering from one to another woman to fulfill his lustful desires. When Angelica called him he started talking about very virtuous things and praised the beauty of Angelica.. Willmore says that although he is poor, he is a gentleman. He relates that he feels conflicted about Angelica—he hates her for putting a price on love, but would sacrifice all he owns to have her. He says that the knowledge that she can be bought will help him heal the wounds that her eyes have made in her heart. Last, he holds her and stares at her in order to prove his strength, once more marveling at her beauty. All this behavior of Willmore attracted her towards him and she started falling for him. Angelica Exclaimed that his words had reached her soul, she started urging Willmore. Willmore promised her to pay with happiness for the rest of his life.

Looking at all this Morreta was worried that Angelica will fall for this fake person and will give her love to him free of cost. And on that time she says the following sentence and tries to explain to Angelica that a sex female should stay a from love, love is a disease for them because once they start sharing love for free she herself lowdown's her own price.

“I wonder what has kept you from that general Disease of our Sex so long, I mean that of being in love.”

But the flattering of Willmore was still on.

“why what the Devil should I do with a virtuous Woman?—a fort of ill-natur'd Creatures, that take a Pride to torment a Lover. Virtue is but an Infirmity in Women, a Disease that renders even the handsom ungrateful;”

Here in this statement in order to flatter angelica he calls her ‘a virtuous woman’.

Contradicting it, Before the entrance of Angelica Willmore had already met Hella who was in disguise of the Gypsy women. He was attracted to her intellect and way of talking. But one of his friends told him that she is a virtuous woman. At that time he says that he needs a ‘wench’ who would play games with him and fancies Angelica. He says that he must find another woman, like Angelica, who is not so virtuous, so that he can put the gypsy girl out of his mind.

“She has play’d with my Heart so, that ’twill never lie still till I have met with some kind Wench, that will play the Game out with me—Oh for my Arms full of soft, white, kind—Woman! such as I fancy Angelica.”

Here we can clearly see that Willmore was just flattering to Angelica for having a lust- relation with her. We see that Morreta was correct. She tried to stop Angelica by explaining it to be a disease. Later in the play when angelica realizes about the character of Willmore she points a gun towards him and threatens to kill. Willmore also offers to pay her for her services but she refuses. But later she spares him for his deeds. she ultimately decides to leave his punishment up to the universe, she is clearly overwhelmed and distraught.

On my personal views, I completely agree with Morreta, she herself was a former prostitute and reading to her arguments we can interpret that she might have also faced situation similar to this and she is trying to safeguard Angelica from doing the same. Angelica was a successful prostitute she needs to control her actions which can ruin her source of income and should not trust the wanderer like Willmore. Being a prostitute Angelica must be well aware about the society’s mentality about whore is somehow less virtuous than a courtesan. Being aware about this and still falling for Willmore seems to be her absurdity.

I hope this blog is useful to you and you are able to understand it. Thanks for visiting. If you have any queries or questions drop a comment. Thank you.

[words- 1518]

Hard times: for these times - Charles Dickens

Utilitarianism

This blog is in response to a blog task given to us by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir.

In this blog I am discussing one the major themes of Charles Dickens’s novel Hard times: for these times- Utilitarianism. I hope this will be useful for you.

What is Utilitarianism?

Utilitarianism is a theory of morality that advocates actions that foster happiness or pleasure and oppose actions that cause unhappiness or harm. When directed toward making social, economic, or political decisions, a utilitarian philosophy would aim for the betterment of society as a whole.

Despite its popularity in early utilitarian thought, the theory of utilitarianism has since been supplanted by other similar philosophies and moral systems. At its origins, however, Jeremy Bentham and a group of like-minded thinkers (Immanuel Kant being another example) sought to highlight the importance of the happiness principle and utilitarian consequences. They believed that all human actions are motivated by an innate desire for pleasure or happiness and that morality consists mainly of individual happiness.

"Utilitarian means based on the idea that the morally correct course of action is the one that produces benefit for the greatest number of people."  -Collins dictionary

"The system of thought that states that the best action or decision in a particular situation is the one that brings most advantages to the most people." -Cambridge dictionary

Understanding utilitarianism in simple words- when a person is deciding something for oneself then he thinks of his personal utility and when he thinks of other benefits also that is utilitarian view. For e.g.: When we go to buy an ice- cream we select our favorite flavor for everyone but when we think of everyone and select one common flavor compromising our favorite flavor is utilitarian.

Utilitarianism means an action encourages happiness and anti- utilitarianism if it encourages sadness or opposite to happiness. It doesn't connect only with the happiness of an individual but with all those who are around him or connected to him. Its center is perhaps whether the actions are morally right or wrong depending on its effects. Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting for values like justice and individual rights. For example, say a hospital has four people whose lives depend upon receiving organ transplants: a heart, lungs, a kidney, and a liver. If a healthy person wanders into the hospital, his organs could be harvested to save four lives at the expense of his one life. This would arguably produce the greatest good for the greatest number. But few would consider it an acceptable course of action, let alone an ethical one.

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory which was firstly proposed by Jeremy Bentham and later it was modified by his own follower John Mill. They both were 18th and 19th century British philosophers, economists and political thinkers. Mill felt that Bentham Bentham only considered quantity of pleasure and so he disagreed with his work. He himself explained the importance of qualitative pleasure and considered both quality and quantity of pleasure. Mill's hedonism was influenced by perfectionist intuitions. There are some pleasures like intellectual pleasure which are more higher and satisfactory than basic regular pleasures.

Utilitarianism in Hard times-

Utilitarianism is a doctrine which Dickens attacked specifically in the novel Hard- times (1854). Inculcating the principle of "The greatest good for the greatest number," Dickens objected to this philosophy of expediency because he believed that it crushed upon the rights and feelings of the individual and seemed fundamentally opposed in spirit to "fancy" and works of the imagination.

As we saw the definition of utilitarianism- an action which gives happiness or is good for a major part of people. As there is no action/ deed/ or word which will give happiness to everyone. The small area or group of people will always be unhappy with action or decision. Here Dickens is opposing the idea of Utilitarianism. If we talk of the overall novel Dickens has presented every symbol or character in an excessive hyperbolical way. And with the same ideology Dickens is stating here also. Dickens is opposing excessive utilitarianism. That is when we start an action we are thinking for everyone’s needs, pleasure and happiness, slowly and steadily our circle of everyone becomes smaller and we start getting self centered. Dickens is opposing this situation that when one will start thinking only about oneself it will cause a negative impact.

This utilitarian view of life was epitomized in "Hard Times" by Gradgrind and Bounderby, two men who were so preoccupied with facts and figures that they seemed to be able neither to appreciate the spirit nor to venture a judgement based on anything other than profit or loss. They were single-minded men, seeking nothing but their own material prosperity and willing to trample everything else underfoot. Dickens regarded them as cold-blooded calculators totally lacking in moral sensitivity or imagination. We saw in the novel that everything is judged based on its need and advantage. Here in the novel Dicken has satirized utilitarian logic in three different situations.

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, he is one of the main characters of the novel. He owns a school in Coketown which only focuses on facts and figures. He himself has led life on the same principles and incorporated the same ideology in the school system. He believed that the thing which is not at all useful in time doesn't deserve any time from one valuable life. One should learn which is advantageous to them. They did not consider, however, the children’s need for fiction, poetry, and other fine arts that are used to expand children’s minds, all of which are essential today in order to produce well-rounded human beings through the educational process.

Even he believed that flowers are meant to be in plants not in the room, so one should not use flower carpet they are no meant to walk on it.

“...You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You have nothing to do with it. You are not to have, in any object of use or ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact. You don’t walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets.”

He strongly believed that one should do actions which result in something advantageous and all other fanciful things are of no use. These children were never given the opportunity to think for themselves, experience fun things in life, or even use their imaginations. True, they are smart people in the factual sense but do not have the street smarts to survive.

Mr. Bounderby, he had a same ideology on fact and figure like Mr. Gradgrind. He owned a bank and a factory in Coketown. For him nothing was more important than profit. He had many workers working under him but he never respected them at all. He often refers workers to be ‘hands’ because that is all they are for him, hands to work which fills his pockets. Once his worker Stephen Blackpool came to him for help in his bad marriage. He asked Bounderby to help him to get divorce from his wife but he refused him saying that it is not his cup of tea, only wealthy people can take divorces as it is costly. This suggested that he was not kind or humble towards anyone. He would have helped Stephen if their divorce would have brought any advantage to him on personal or professional terms but as it was not he refused him. This was definitely unfair but the social classes were structured in a way that allowed those who had money to look down upon those who were less fortunate. Generally, those who were not well-educated did not have any money, while the well-educated ones such as Bounderby and Gradgrind were wealthy. The people who knew the factual information, (utilitarian) were successful, while those who did not were reduced to working in the factories of the utilitarian.

Mr. Bounderby was a friend of Mr. Gradgrind, he gave a proposal of his marriage with Gradgrind’s daughter Louisa. She even agrees to marry him as she was trained to think in a factual way, she was molded to see advantages. Thinking that it will give happiness to her father and secure her brother’s job in the bank she married a man of his father’s age. With time she fell in love with Mr. Harthouse. She started getting confused, she was never taught by anyone to think for herself, for happiness. She was torn apart by these two feelings and ended up fainting in front of his father. This was the first time when Mr. Gradgrind realized that his education failed.

We also see utilitarianism in Mr. Gradgrind when his son Tom was caught for robbing the Bank. At that time Gradgrind was trying to hide and was sending Tom with circus people away from Coketown so that he would not be caught. This seems to be his personal advantage that his son should not face any type of difficulties, he wanted to safeguard his son. At the same time Bitzer, a scholar of Gradgrind’s school, arrives and stops Gradgrind from doing this act. Here Gradgrind again fails in front of his own Education system, Bitzer very precisely adapted all lessons of the school and was following the same, looking at facts, moving at the path of virtues. But Gradgrind lost his own ideals.

Sissy Jupe, she was a representative of circus people. She was of free- will, humble and helpful. She was able to survive in every condition of life, just her presence gave happiness all around. It was the result of her own fanciful life. Facts are important in life but fanciness works as a torch in difficult times of life. One actually sees the main character of the book and firm supporter of utilitarianism, Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, experiences the faults of his practice and begins to stray from it.

These are some examples of utilitarianism of the Victorian era, in the Novel which are opposed by Dickens. It is true that Dickens has over-exemplified the situations but if we look from a particular point of view these situations are present even today in our society. People always look for their own benefit first before helping others. Even in today's marriages people compare wealth. Girls are judged on their beauty and boys on their financial status. This all turns out to be an example of facts and figures and emotional attachment and feelings are given second priority.

I hope this blog is helpful to you. Any queries please drop a comment. Thanks for visiting.

[words:1720]

Pamela or Virtue Rewarded - Samuel Richardson

Pamela- Unreliable Narrator!

This blog is in response to the blog task given to us by Vaidehi ma’am on the epistolary novel Pamela or virtue rewarded.

Basic Knowledge about the text:

Pamela or Virtue rewarded is an epistolary novel published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Johnson, Novel of a Neo- classical era. Epistolary novel is a novel written in a series of documents, it can be the series of letters or diary writing or newspaper clippings. This novel has the series of letter writing by Pamela, a protagonist to his father and later in other parts of the novel it is a series of diary writing by Pamela. Pamela tells the story of a fifteen-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose employer, Mr. B, a wealthy landowner, makes unwanted and inappropriate advances towards her after the death of her mother. The full title, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, makes plain Richardson's moral purpose. The novel Pamela brings out the commentary of the domestic violence of that time and brings into question the dynamic line between male aggression and a contemporary view of love.

Pamela, a novel of manners, is divided into 32 letters starting with the publisher’s note. It is set in Bedfordshire, England and Lincolnshire, England. This Novel deals with the psychological changes taking place in various characters. The novel Pamela deals with various themes like the social classes of English society, the importance of chastity, virtue and femininity, religion, a bit of feminism, and love and marriage. The novel Pamela is narrated by two narrators, first is third person narrator who is an editor who presents Pamela's letters to us and comments on her life and fate. Second, the first person narrator Pamela herself. In this blog I am going to discuss whether Pamela is a reliable character/ narrator or not.

Here the question of Pamela’s reliability as a narrator rises because when the novel is written in the letter form it presents a direct view of characters' thoughts and feelings without any interference of the author. We see the events and acts happening from one point of view. In this case it becomes difficult to know whether the narrator is telling us right or just forming a good or bad image of a particular character. When we read novels in the form of letters we get to know a shade of a character from one perspective only. As we know ‘one is always bad in someone’s story’. It might happen that the character tower which is built in front of us might be wrong and if we get to know the same character from another perspective we might favor that character. So it becomes very much important to question the reliability of Pamela as a narrator as we also find that in spite Mr. B is not a person with good character as told by Pamela yet she marries him. The Saying and Actions of Pamela don't Go parallel to each other. So here let us discuss in detail about the reliability of Pamela as a narrator.

Unreliable Narrator:

We cannot rely on anyone unless we see with our naked eyes. Sometimes the view scene with our own eyes turns out to be incorrect so listening to something through others and believing it might bring us to the wrong conclusion.

No one more control over the plot than the narrator. Whether its first person limited or third person omniscient the narrator controls the pacing chooses the language and is often the moral compass telling you who to root for and how you should feel about what happens the reader listens, believes and empathizes so what happens when the person telling the story isn't telling the whole story? How can we even tell if a narrator is unreliable?

The term unreliable narrator was coined in 1962 by literary critic Wayne C Booth in his book ‘The Rhetoric Of Fiction’. ‘I have called the narrator reliable when he speaks or acts in accordance with the norms of the work (which is to say the implied author’s norms) unreliable when he does not’ which says that the narrator is not reliable when it does not share the perspective of reality or morality shared by author and reader.

An unreliable narrator is a character whose telling of the story is not completely accurate or credible due to problems with the character's mental state or maturity. An unreliable narrator, however, holds a distorted view of the events, which leads to an inaccurate telling of the story. This can give readers or viewers a chance to offer their own interpretations.

In context to Text:

The novel Pamela is divided into two parts. Pamela was a 15 years old young girl, working as a maid far from her family. This shows her love and self- sacrifice for her family. In the whole novel she seems to be a virtuous character. She was working as a maid for Mrs. B from many years ago. But she dies suddenly handing over Pamela responsibility to his son Mr. B. The first impression of Mr. B to Pamela was of Gentleman. "Indeed he is the best of gentlemen, I think!” we find this image of Mr. B in Pamela's mind through her letters to her parents.

“I always thought my young master was a fine gentleman, as everybody says he is: but he gave these good things to us both with such graciousness, as I thought he looked like an angel.”

Even moving further in the novel towards sixth letter of Pamela we realize that she has still positive thoughts about Mr. B but reading of letter from her father shows that they are afraid for her daughter and finds Mr. B fearful for her.

In the same part of the story happens so that Mr. B starts getting a lustful feeling for the young girl Pamela. And instantly in the letter ten and eleven we find the negative personality of Mr. B drawn. In this letters she claims to be sexually harassed by is master. 

"This very gentleman (yes, I must call him gentleman, though he has fallen from the merit of that title) has degraded himself to offer freedoms to his poor servant! He has now shewed himself in his true colors; and, to me, nothing appears so black, and so frightful.”

In further reading also we find that Pamela was mentally broken and harassed by Mr. B. Mr. B tried to have physical relation with her but she to safeguard her virtues did not allow Mr. B to touch her. Mr. B started harassing Pamela and insulting her. Mr. B asks for marriage to Pamela but she refuses to marry him. He gets angry on her and spreads rumors of Pamela’s relation with Mr. Williams. And he kidnaps her.

In part two, Pamela is kidnapped in another house. From where she isn't able to send or receive the letters from her family. So she started writing a journal. 

“I looked after him out of the window; and he was charmingly dressed: To be sure he is a handsome fine gentleman!—What pity his heart is not as good as his appearance! Why can't I hate him?—But don't be uneasy, if you should see this; for it is impossible I should love him; for his vices all ugly him over, as I may say.” 

After reading this statement of Pamela how can one resist believing that she is not on love with Mr. B. and here she is again contradicting with her own statements she wrote in the letter before.

Here these things can be interpreted in two ways. First there can be psychological changes happening in Mr. B. it might happen that firstly when Pamela ignored or didn't support him or did not agree for physical advances his male dominant ego or his standard of socially upper class than Pamela might be hurt. Which resulted in abducting Pamela and having rude behavior towards her. And later he must have realized that Pamela is doing everything for her virtuous family and he had a change of heart towards her. And this change of Mr. B bright changes in the statements of Pamela.

Or the second interpretation can also be the psychological changes in Pamela. Pamela is a teenage girl. This is the age when generally children get attracted to the opposite gender. In the starting she was in a frame of mind that Mr. B is a master and she is a maid. Mr. B is generous towards her and was not able to understand his early advances. Later when He tries physical advances she was not able to accept it. After being kidnapped she was all alone and we can see through her writings that she was always in thoughts of Mr. B. This was her beginning to fall for Mr. B. Also, when in the second He proposed to her for marriage and she agreed to it shows that she was attracted to her little or more. We can also say she has the temptation of being a part of upper class society.

Here we see that we are interpreting Pamela with different views. We can also say that Pamela herself is not clear in her own mind! Pamela is presenting us two different shades of Mr. B. we as a reader cannot connect to the character of Mr. B or cannot draw her specific character sketch. So it becomes difficult to say that what Pamela is telling is correct or not; not only in terms of Mr. B but in the overall novel. So we conclude Pamela is an unreliable narrator.

I hope my interpretations and blog is useful to you. Thanks for visiting.

[words- 1606]

A tale of a tub- Jonathan Swift

A TALE OF A TUB

This blog is a response to the blog task given to us by Vaidehi Haryani ma’am as a classwork. In this blog I am going to explain the symbols used in the prose/ tragedy/ satire/ parody or an allegory ‘ The Tale of a Tub.’

Writer:

'A Tale of a Tub' is written by Johnathan swift. He belonged to the 18th century and was an Anglo- Irish satirist, poet and priest. He was known as a master of satire. Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopedia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry.

Brief Intro:

A tale of a tub was published in 1704, it has too many metaphors and so it becomes one of the masterly works of Swift. A Tale of a Tub might be written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind.

It was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, arguably his most difficult satire and perhaps his most masterly. Through this tale he is trying to point out the flaws in the all three branches of the Christian religion. This Tale’s primary focus is religion. It is a prose Parody (an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect). The tale consists of 'A preface', '11 sections' and 'a Conclusion'.

Plot in brief:

The main plot of A Tale of a Tub concerns three sons who inherit coats from their father with a command never to alter them. In youth, the brothers are committed to obeying their father's dying wish, but fashions change and they begin to feel left behind by polite society. They begin scrutinizing their father's will to see if there can be any justification for altering the coats after all. By twisting his words, they manage to rationalize the addition of decorative knots, then of gold lace, and eventually of numerous other decorations. Each time, they depart further and further from the obvious intent of their father's will, until eventually they are not even pretending to consult it. 

As stated before the ale uses a lot of metaphors. Here father, coats, will, brothers all these are used as a symbol to satire the religious practices of that time. And in this blog I am going to elaborate some of the metaphors used in the tale.

Symbols/ metaphors in the prose are:

Father	God
Three brothers	Three branches of Christainity
Will of the father	Bible
Coats	The religious practices
Tub	Digression
Whale	The one who attacks

Tub and Whale:

The tub- The word tub in the title refers to that sailors used to toss out to distract whales from tipping their ship. Here the ship represents the status of the English government and their religious structure and the whale refers to new ideas and controversies. Generally, when the sailors go for a voyage, it used to happen that whales attack them in the ocean and to safeguard themselves and to distract the whale sailors used to throw tubs in the water so that the whale moves to that direction and the ship remains safe. 

We can interpret this symbol in a way that the authorities always tosses a new topic or throws something in the air or brings out useless news so that the society gets distracted from the real news, the major news which can become a solid question of the working of the authorities. Here the whale symbolism to the public, the society and the tub tossed to district them is fake news. In this situation the Whale can be interpreted as the question raised by the society to the authorities for welfare. We can take a recent example, when the covid- 19 was spreading all around and numbers of cases were emerging in India. Our media was trying to distract people with the news of Sushant Singh Rajput's death making it a controversy of murder or death. This is my interpretation. The questions by people of the nation about the steps taken by authorities to safeguard them from the Covid- 19 virus works as a whale symbol which was ignored and everyone was driven towards a tub.

In the satire the Digression talks on various topics like critics, modernity, madness, readers, soul as well as the literary intentions. The digression is used to distract readers from understanding that the tale talks and criticizes the supreme authorities. So here we clarify the simple word like tub shows us very deep meaning like distraction and symbiosis to the digression used in the prose satire.

Will of the Father:

Will of the father is a symbol of the Bible in this tale. As we saw in the summary this tale is a satire to Christian religious practices. According to the tale the father wrote a will and gave 3 coats to his 3 sons. The will stated that no one among the three brothers can make any changes in the coats; it will bring misfortunes to them.

“Sons, because I have purchased no estate, nor was born to any, I have long considered of some good legacies to bequeath you, and at last, with much care as well as expense, have provided each of you (here they are) a new coat.  Now, you are to understand that these coats have two virtues contained in them; one is, that with good wearing they will last you fresh and sound as long as you live; the other is, that they will grow in the same proportion with your bodies, lengthening and widening of themselves, so as to be always fit.  Here, let me see them on you before I die.  So, very well!  Pray, children, wear them clean and brush them often.  You will find in my will (here it is) full instructions in every particular concerning the wearing and management of your coats, wherein you must be very exact to avoid the penalties I have appointed for every transgression or neglect, upon which your future fortunes will entirely depend.  I have also commanded in my will that you should live together in one house like brethren and friends, for then you will be sure to thrive and not otherwise.”

All three brothers very faithfully followed the will but with time the fashion kept on changing they started getting corrupted from the surrounding influences and started to desire to look better and smart in the coats. Due to their desire they got driven towards making changes in the coats and slowly and steadily they started facing problems in their life. The Misfortunes attacked them. Will told them to stay together as brothers but time imbalance among them separated them.

Here simplifying the will and making changes in them brought misfortunes to brothers. Same way symbolizing the Bible, simplifying the bible and making its rules and regulations comfortable for living divided the Christian society into three divisions, which made them lose their brotherhood. They started fighting among them and this brought misfortune to whole Christian religion.

Coats & Three brother:

The coats are the main and central symbol in this tale. The coats were the only inheritance to three brothers from their father with some rules given to them. In the beginning they stuck to the rules very precisely. But with time with their understanding and facility they simplified the will made changes, alteration in the coats. Soon conflict began in their life. The eldest brother realized that he is right and has not done any harm to the coat as he was earning good in life. Younger two brothers realized their mistake and decided to change the coats by altering how they were looking before. Martin very precisely and safely removed the altering and the things which couldn't be removed without damaging the coat was left as it is. While Jack removed all the altering roughly and damaged the coat.

Here the coats symbolized three different Christian tradition. Peter, who represents Catholicism, sticks to those extravagances and even multiplies them; he deliberately avoids consulting the will to see whether he is going astray. Martin represents Anglican church so his coat represents practices of Anglican church. He did not damage the coat and left it with some changes, which signifies that he changed the rule of the Bible for comfort of the society. While Jack the youngest one symbolized protestant. He damaged his coat in removing altering that signifies that all the rules and regulations of the bible are completely destroyed in the practices of the protestant. And the hate of Jack towards Peter also symbolizes the protest of protestants against Catholic church followers. 

Here I have explained two topics together in two points as they are interlinked with each other. I hope you were able to understand the point easily in this blog. I have also hyperlinked the blog of our faculty  for your better understanding. I am also embedding a summary video from the YouTube so that you can easily catch up with symbols given.

Thank you for visiting. I have purely written my understanding in the elaboration of symbols. If any queries or changes please drop a comment.

[words- 1542]