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]

Lyrical Ballads

 Romantic Poetry- Lyrical Ballads

This blog is in response to the blog task based on the romantic poems given by Yesha ma'am. In this blog task I am going to present my views on lyrical Ballads. I have also attached my presentation to it.

In brief about Romantic period:

The period of romantic age was 1788 to 1837. This age started with the publication of lyrical Ballads. Writers of this age made an experiment to write romance for nature in their poetry.

Romanticism, It was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. Romantic age started with the poet's S.T. Coleridge, William Wordsworth and William Blake and in its second generations Keats, Shelley and Byron were notable poets. It can be interpreted as the reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.

This age is known as the second creative age of English literature.

Characteristics of romanticism:

• An emphasis on individualism and subjectivity.
• An emphasis on beauty and purity of nature.
• Focuses on emotions and feelings.
• Belief in the natural goodness of man.
• Belief that imagination is superior to reason.
• Love for the supernatural.

This age is also known as the age of revolution as the three revolutions, Anglo Saxon period of freedom, American Commonwealth and French Revolution were going on altogether.

Edward Hirsch wrote in his treatise on how to read a poem-

“True poetic practice implies a mind so miraculously attuned and illuminated that it can form words, by a chain of more-than coincidences, into a living entity,”

Lyrical Ballads:

Ballads is a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next.

Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dance songs".Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABAB BCBC form, consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines. Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an increasing interest in the ballad form among social elites and intellectuals, particularly in the Romantic Movement from the later 18th century.

Lyrical ballads were published in four different editions. Lyrical Ballads was the collaborative work of S.T. Coleridge.

Edition 1:

Its first edition was published anonymously. It consisted of 23 poems, 19 written by William Wordsworth and 4 written by Samuel Coleridge. Wordsworth in his poems gave emphasis on 'nature' While Coleridge emphasized on 'Supernatural elements'. In the same edition, Wordsworth presented Advertisement, which stated that the poems written are in the form of experiment. And also declared that the conversational language can be used greatly for the purpose of poetic creation.

To read original lyrical ballads and the advertisement.

Edition 2:

The second edition of the lyrical Ballads came with the Preface. The preface covered the points like what is poetry? Characteristics of poets and The value of Poem. 

It gave a definition of the poem- 'Spontaneous Overflow of powerful feeling, recollected in tranquility.’ Along with this preface also included other eight points which are described in the presentation below.

Edition 3:

Edition three, it expanded the preface and added poetic diction. ‘Poetic diction is used to denote linguistic style, the vocabulary and technique used in writing poems.’ Edition four is expandation of the previous edition. We don't find anything extraordinary in this edition.

'William Wordsworth believed that every poet has the Social responsibility of strengthening and promoting human culture through his poetry.'

William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge worked together in Lyrical Ballads, still Coleridge has criticised Wordsworth point of Poetic diction in his critical work ‘Biographia Literaria'. This point is described in my presentation.

Lyrical ballad from Jheel Barad

Thanks for visiting. For any queries or needed changes please drop a comment. I hope it was useful for you.

[words- 646]

Metaphysical poets

Metaphysical Poetry

This blog is in response to the classwork on the unit of Metaphysical poets covered under Dr. Dilip Barad sir. We learnt this unit in a unique way that is flipped learning.

Flipped learning is a new learning approach in which the learners are instructed in their work and they complete their learning in their own individual learning space. In the same way we were also instructed in our google classroom to attend the video lectures of Dr. R.K. Mandaliya Sir which recorded in and online mode last year and were published as a playlist of 6 videos in Dilip Barad sir’s YouTube channel. Along with , we were instructed to write a blog on it and to get a handwritten answer dictated by Mandaliya sir. It was my first flipped learning experience. In flip learning we get a chance of learning in our comfortable zone. As the lectures were previously recorded it became easier to learn. We can pause, re-listen, and understand along with a personal and comfortable place. It was a new and great experience.

Metaphysical poetry- It is a group of poems that share a common characteristic; They are highly intellectualized, use rather strange imagery, use frequent paradoxes and contain extremely complicated thought.

The word metaphysical in a combination of two words. i.e., meta + physical. The prefix 'meta' means ‘after’ and the whole phrase metaphysical means ‘after physical.’

John Donne is a Pioneer of Metaphysical Poetry and the followers of Donne are known as his school. George Herbert, Andrew Marvel and Richard Crashaw are the members of this school. Henry Vaughan, Thomas Treharne and Abraham Cowley are also important metaphysical poets. Their work has considerably influenced the poetry of the 20th century.

The term metaphysical poetry was coined by Samuel Johnson in his biographical work with the title ‘Lives of the most Eminent English Poets’ (1779-81) while writing the biography of Abraham Cowley. Dr. Johnson passed a remarkable comment that, ‘The poetry of the Metaphysical poets stood a trial of their finger but failed in the trail of the ears.’ In the biography Johnson wrote About metaphysical poems and poets in a derogatory sense but with passing of time the same term became the term of appraisal.

Metaphysical poetry emerged in the latter half of the 16th century. It was a conscious attempt by this group of poets to differ from the writing style of predecessors and an attempt for a unique identity. It was not that Metaphysical poets wrote poetry on new, different or complex topics. They wrote poems of the Same topics like religion and love but to bring a uniqueness in their work they used complex metaphors. Predecessors used the images or metaphors from the fields which were related to poetry while metaphysical poets made an attempt to use completely odd metaphors or images, they used far-fetched metaphors which had no direct connection with the field of the poem. They were also from different fields of education like biology, architecture, mechanical engineering, math etc. 

For example, while writing a love poem the previous poets used the metaphor like rose, honey bee etc. In its place metaphysical poet; John Donne used the flea (an insect) as a metaphor in his love poem.

They made an attempt to write differently from their predecessors because if they would have written in the same form and style people might get fed-up of reading the same type of poetry and no one will mark their contribution in English literature.

“No tradition remains for long time” 

-Mathew Arnold

Also, the standard of education, intellectuality, and literacy increased in the Elizabethan age so the poets tried to be intellectual in the writing of their poetry. Critic Helen C. White mentions-

“It was a demand of time for the metaphysical poets to differ from the poets of previous age. Had they continued writing poetry in the same manner, just like the former poets they would have been rejected by the readers.”

General characteristics of metaphysical poetry-

• The Metaphysical poets try to find a connection between the abstract and the concrete, the remote and the near in describing his experience of emotional reality.
• Metaphysical poetry is spiritual & has often religious themes. Moreover, it focuses on love, as the union of souls.
• The most important characteristic of metaphysical poetry is “undissociated sensibility” - the combination of feeling and thoughts.
• Metaphysical poetry displays a fine interspersing of emotions, sensibilities, memories and reasons.
• The metaphysical poets introduced the concept of conceits - A conceit is the bringing together of very unlikely ideas to produce a new idea.
• Metaphysical poets create wild conceits. The poets steal all fields of knowledge, science as well as nature for comparisons. They try to yoke contradictory things together. They link two different areas of experience.
• The Metaphysical poets combine dissimilar ideas without attempting to unite them. The real obstacle in understanding metaphysical poetry is its novelty. They use private symbolism, which the reader finds difficult to understand.
• They used informal language to bring about dramatic realism.
• Metaphysical poets were the men of learning and they wanted to show it through their poetry. 
• Dr. Johnson says- “ no man could be born a metaphysical poet.”
• Using wit has been a prominent feature of Metaphysical poets. In the context of Metaphysical Poetry, the excessive use of intellectual ideas is referred to as wit.
• These poems usually start off from certain events or actions. E.g.; Mark but this flea, and mark in this…. The Flea by John Donne.
• The language used in metaphysical poetry is simple and easy to understand, lacking elevated and ornate speech, which is found in classical writings.
• Metaphysical poetry is considered to be brief & concise. Every line conveys a lot of meanings in a few words.
• Platonic love is one of the prominent features of metaphysical poetry. Platonic love - means spiritual love, which is free from elements of physical love.

Here I am talking briefly about a few metaphysical poems.

You can read original poems by clicking on title.

1. Holy Sonnet X

Holy Sonnet X is written by John Donne, Holy sonnets are famous by its first line and it is well-known with title ‘Death be not Proud.’ ‘Holy sonnets are the sonnets which specifically refers to something related to spirituality, god almighty, sins and repentance.’ This sonnet is addressed to death. The aim of the poet behind writing this sonnet is to nullify the fear of death. The poet says that death is a slave of fate, chance, kings and desperate men and it dwells in poison, sickness and war.

If the poet is asked to draw a picture of death he would draw a picture of a man enjoying sound sleep. The poet also finds the remarkable difference between how death causes sleep and sleep caused by mother.

"One short sleep past, we wake eternally"

This line suggests that John Donne believes in the theory of re- birth. This is how he ends the poem by convincing all that there will be no fear of death and death itself will die because nobody will be afraid of it.

2. The Flea

As we saw in general characteristics of metaphysical poetry, the poet steals metaphors from different fields of education. Here in this poem the poet John Donne has used the insect Flea- a biological term to express the love of a lover to his beloved. The poem is addressed to a beloved. Flea is an insect which sucks the blood.

"And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;

Thou know’st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,"

Here in the poem the lover explains to his beloved that for whatever she denied to her lover has already happened. The flea has sucked the blood of the lover and is now sucking the blood of his beloved. In the flea their blood has already become one and it hasn't caused any sin or shame, has not even caused the loss of honor or maidenhood. The insect swells after sucking their blood which shows that it is happy and if she allows him to advance their happiness will advance. Listening to this argument beloved attempts to kill an insect. The lover refuses and explains that it would be a sin of killing three lives; as it has their mingles love so they two and an insect. But still my beloved kills insects. The lover explains to her that all her ears are false, if she accepts the proposal there won't be any harm to her honor, instead accepting him as a soulmate would increase her honor. In the poem with the help of the image of The Flea the poet remains successful in the expression of the theme of love.

3. The Sun Rising

‘The Sun Rising’ is another poem by John Donne. The poem is addressed by the lover to the rising sun. Here the rising sun is used as a metaphysical image to deal with the theme of love. Generally the rising sun symbolizes new hope and optimism but here it is a symbol of love. In the poem the lover is criticizing the sun rise by saying ‘Busy old fool, unruly sun’. He calls him unruly as he peeps through the windows and curtains into the bedroom of his and his beloved and makes it clear to the rising sun that it cannot regulate or control them through its movement. Going ahead the lover tries to suppress the sunrays by saying that he can cause an eclipse with a moment by closing his eyes but he cannot afford to lose sight of his beloved. Extending the address he informs sunrise that his beloved is the center of the universe. Also says that the sun is not half happy as they both are.

"Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere."

And at the end he says to the sun that if it shines there to give light and warmth to his beloved it would be equal to giving it to the whole world and his beloved is the center of the universe. ‘The Sun Rising’ is treated as a negative tone to sharpen the theme of love.

4. To His Coy Mistress

‘To His Coy Mistress’ is written by one of the members of the Donne’s school. Andrew Marvell has made a use of an image from an agricultural field.it is also a love poem, addressed to beloved by his lover. In this poem the beloved is very coy- shy and the lover tries to convince her that they do not have enough time so she should not waste time by being shy. They have a limited time of youth. Lover says that if they had enough time and space he would have spent more time praising her and planning a trip with her. The lover explains that if they had enough time he would have spent ten hundred years praising her even if she would object to his proposal. He would have spent hundred years praising her eyes and two hundred years in praising her breast and thirty thousand years in praising the rest of the body because she. Her beloved deserves this kind of honor.

"But at my back I always hear

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity."

But the winged chariot of death is behind them. Also the grave is a private and peaceful place to meet but there they won't be able to express or respond to their love. He compares the span of youth with the morning dew drop on the flower petal. The poem ends with the request of the lover that both should make their time a quality time by responding to each other's love. The last lines are-

"Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run."

5. The Collar

The collar poem is written by George Herbert. Here the title The Collar is suggesting the yoke towards the religion. This Poem shows his serving towards Christianity. The poem is addressed by the sinner and the two selves of the sinner are at the war with each other. The poem sounds like a monologue. Sinner comes across the board and alters which inspires him to leave the life of material pleasure. He feels himself free to take a path of his consciousness, his desire to restore himself in the heart of almighty.

"On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute

Of what is fit and not. Forsake thy cage,

Thy rope of sands,"

While the heart, the free will of Sinner is not ready to get bound by anything. The free will warms sinners to forget the cold war of what is good and what is not good and instigates by saying ‘ Be thy law’. But the sinner is firm on his decision and decides to listen to his lord, conscience and not his free will.

"Methought I heard one calling, Child!

And I replied My Lord."

In the end of the poem the sinner hears someone calling him “child!” and he parts with the world of material pleasure.

This is my understanding of metaphysical poets, poems and its characteristics. I have very briefly explained the poems here. I hope this blog is easily understandable and helpful. For queries please comment. Thanks for visiting.

[words- 2227]