Dryden as a critic

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   Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
            Assignments
Name:-  Rathod Neha R.
Class:- M.A. Sem-1
Roll No:- 33
Email Id:   neharathod108@gmail.com
Year:- 2015-2016
Paper No:- 3
Topic:- John Dryden as a Critic

Introduction:-
The English author John Dryden (1631-1700) is best known as a poet and critic. He also wrote almost 30 plays and was one of the great dramatists of his time.
                John Dryden was born on Aug. 9, 1631, in Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire, in the parsonage of All Saints Church, where his maternal grandfather was rector. His family were supporters of Oliver Cromwell and comfortably situated. When Dryden was 15, he was sent to London to Westminster School to study under the celebrated headmaster, Dr. Richard Busby, who was known both for his rigorous discipline and for his ability to instill in his students a knowledge of Latin and Greek.
                 In 1649 while still at Westminster, Dryden published his first poem, "Upon the Death of Lord Hastings." The next year he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge. While at Trinity he published a poem in honor of a friend, John Hoddesdon, but there is no evidence that his university career was especially dedicated to poetry. In 1654, the year he earned a bachelor of arts degree, his father died, leaving him family property that yielded an income of about £40 a year. After his father's death Dryden seems to have settled in London as secretary to his cousin Sir Gilbert Pickering, but there is no record of his activities until 1659, when his third poem, "Heroic Stanzas to the Glorious Memory of Cromwell," was published.

                 Shortly after the death of Cromwell, Charles II was restored to the throne. Although Dryden had been brought up to support the parliamentary party, he was evidently weary of the chaos and disorder that followed upon Cromwell's death, for in 1660 he welcomed the King with his poem "Astraea redux." The following year he offered a second tribute, "To his Sacred Majesty," to celebrate Charles II's coronation. He was criticized for changing his political allegiance, but he never withdrew the loyalty proclaimed in these two poems, although it would have been advantageous for him to do so in 1688, when William III came to the throne
                       On 1 December 1663 Dryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard (died 1714). The marriage was at St. Swithin's, London, and the consent of the parents is noted on the license, though Lady Elizabeth was then about twenty-five. She was the object of some scandals, well or ill founded; it was said that Dryden had been bullied into the marriage by her brothers. A small estate in Wiltshire was settled upon them by her father. The lady's intellect and temper were apparently not good; her husband was treated as an inferior by those of her social status. Both Dryden and his wife were warmly attached to their children. They had three sons: Charles (1666–1704), John (1668–1701), and Erasmus Henry (1669–1710). Lady Elizabeth Dryden survived her husband, but went insane soon after his death. Though some have historically claimed to be from the lineage of John Dryden, his three children had no children themselves
Dryden as a critic:-
                    Dryden was both a writer and a critic and he had rather a dogmatic bent. Most of his critical interpretations are found in the prefaces to his own works. In Dryden we find an interest in the general issues of criticism rather than in a close reading of particular texts. We call Dryden a neoclassical critic, just as Boileau. Dryden puts emphasis on the neoclassical rules. His best-known critical work, An Essay on Dramatic Poesy, partly reflects this tension in Dryden's commitments. Its dialogue form has often been criticized as inconclusive, but actually, as in most dialogues, there is a spokesman weightier than the others. Dryden carried out his critical thoughts effectively, stating his own ideas but leaving some room for difference of opinion. Neander's overall statement on the literary standards is that, the norms can be added to make the work ideal, but the norms will not improve a work which does not contain some degree of perfection. And as Dryden believes, we may find writers like Shakespeare who did not follow the rules but are nevertheless obviously superior to any "regular" writer. Shakespeare disconcerts Dryden; he recognises his superiority but within himself he would feel closer affiliations with Ben Jonson. In Dryden, then, we find a "liberal" neo-classicist, although he is most coherent (a trait of classicism) when he is dealing with that which can be understood and reduced to rule.
Poetic style:-
                What Dryden achieved in his poetry was neither the emotional excitement of the early nineteenth-century romantics nor the intellectual complexities of the metaphysicals. His subject matter was often factual, and he aimed at expressing his thoughts in the most precise and concentrated manner. Although he uses formal structures such as heroic couplets, he tried to recreate the natural rhythm of speech, and he knew that different subjects need different kinds of verse. In his preface to Religio Laici he says that "the expressions of a poem designed purely for instruction ought to be plain and natural, yet majestic... The florid, elevated and figurative way is for the passions; for (these) are begotten in the soul by showing the objects out of their true proportion.... A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into truth
The Satires:-
                     Dryden the poet is best known today as a satirist, although he wrote only two great original satires, Mac Flecknoe (1682) and The Medall (1682). His most famous poem, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), while it contains several brilliant satiric portraits, unlike satire comes to a final resolution, albeit tragic for both David and his son. Dryden's other great poems— Annus Mirabilis (1667), Religio Laici (1682), The Hind and the Panther (1687), Anne Killigrew (1686), Alexander's Feast (1697), and "To My Honour'd Kinsman" (1700)—are not satires either. And he contributed a wonderful body of occasional poems: panegyrics, odes, elegies, prologues, and epilogues.
                      Shortly after joining the Duke's Company, Dryden attacked the dullness of his fellow playwright Thomas Shadwell in MacFlecknoe. The attack seems to have been unprovoked, and the bitterness aroused by this unsolicited lampoon was heightened by political differences between the two playwrights. Dryden was a royalist; Shadwell was a Whig and a supporter of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who was scheming among the Whigs to have Charles II's brother, the Catholic Duke of York, excluded from succession to the throne. Dryden was apparently commissioned by the King to expose the treason of the Whig sedition and the presumption of Shaftesbury, and he produced two of the finest political satires in English—Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682). His next poem, Religio laici (1682), while nominally a defense of the authority of the English Church, was in effect also a satire on the unreason of all who dissented.
                       When Charles II died in 1685, Dryden was reappointed laureate by James II. At this time Dryden became a Catholic and in 1687 wrote a public apology for his new religion, The Hind and the Panther. Although his enemies accused him of accommodating his faith to that of his king in order to secure preferment, there is no evidence that James influenced Dryden's conversion. His adherence to his new faith after 1688 cost him the laureateship. During James's short reign Dryden was occupied primarily with poetry. He translated selections from Latin poets such as Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius. He also wrote several fine lyric odes: "Threnodia Augustalis," in memory of Charles II, "To the Memory of Anne Killigrew," and "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day."
                      In 1688, when William III appointed Shadwell poet laureate, Dryden was forced to return to the theater to earn a living. He produced a number of plays—Don Sebastian (1689), Amphitryon (1690), and Cleomenes (1690)—none of which was notably successful. He then turned to translating, which proved more profitable. His greatest translations were probably the Satires of Juvenal and Persius (1692), the Works of Virgil (1697), and the Fables (1700), a collection of tales from Ovid, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Geoffrey Chaucer. He was the first English author to earn his living by his writing. Dryden died on May 1, 1700.
Criticism:-
                          In the last half of the 17th century, what little formal criticism or critical theory that had been produced by English writers was scattered and not systematic. Moreover, Restoration writers who were aware of this absence of refined criticism also felt that the insightful poetry produced by the Greeks and Romans had been abandoned by English writers. In addition to studying a handful of writers of the 17th century, such as William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson, Dryden used the work of ancient poets and playwrights to establish and demonstrate the overarching theoretical principles of literature.
                        Inspired by the ideals of Enlightenment thinking and the conviction of the need for a systematic theory, Dryden wrote his own works of criticism. In them, he addresses various issues of poetry and plays, such as language and setting. More than simply using the works of the writers he admired to demonstrate good writing, Dryden was also eager to describe their weaknesses in his attempt to outline a poetic theory. Dryden, for example, attempted to identify both the strengths and flaws in Shakespeare's plays. One of Dryden's most interesting criticisms is that Shakespeare violated the Greek ideal of the unity of time in plays, meaning that Shakespeare's plays would be better if they were written in real time (meaning the hours portrayed in the play would match the actual time of the play) rather than condensing months or years into a two or three hour play.
                      Although many readers may not hold to all of Dryden's critical thought today, his impulse to establish and introduce theoretical principles played a crucial role in the development of English literature and its aesthetics. Moreover, in addition to crediting him as one of the first real English literary critics, many of the writers of the 18th century used his critical works in their own writings
 Modern criticism:-
Eliot, T. S., "John Dryden", in Selected Essays (London: Faber and Faber, 1932)
Hopkins, David, John Dryden, ed. by Isobel Armstrong (Tavistock: Northcote House Publishers, 2004)
Oden, Richard, L. Dryden and Shadwell, The Literary Controversy and 'Mac Flecknoe (1668–1679) (Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, Inc., Delmar, New York, 1977)
Van Doren, Mark (2007). John Dryden: A Study of His Poetry. Read Books. ISBN 978-1-4067-2488-2.
Stark, Ryan. "John Dryden, New Philosophy, and Rhetoric", in Rhetoric, Science, and Magic in Seventeenth-Century England (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2009)

Conclusion:-
          Dryden was a very genius and great critic. Dryden was both a writer and a critic and he had rather a dogmatic bent. Most of his critical interpretations are found in the prefaces to his own works. In Dryden we find an interest in the general issues of criticism rather than in a close reading of particular texts.
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Milton's Paradise Lost

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  Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
            Assignments
Name:-  Rathod Neha R.
Class:- M.A. Sem-1
Roll No:- 33
Email Id:-  neharathod108@gmail.com
Year:- 2015-2016
Paper No:- 1
Topic:-  Milton’s Paradise lost
                       
                                                   Introduction:-

                                  Born Dec. 9, 1608, London, Eng.—died Nov. 8,  
1674, London), English poet, pamphleteer, and historian, considered the most significant English author after William Shakespeare.
                           Milton is best known for Paradise Lost, widely regarded as the greatest epic poem in English. Together with Paradise Regainedand Samson Agonistes, it confirms Milton’s reputation as one of the greatest English poets. In his prose works Milton advocated the abolition of the Church of England and the execution of King Charles I. From the beginning of the English Civil Wars in 1642 to long after the restoration of Charles II as king in 1660, he espoused in all his works a political philosophy that opposed tyranny and state-sanctioned religion. His influence extended not only through the civil wars and interregnum but also to the American and French revolutions. In his works on theology, he valued liberty of conscience, the paramount importance of Scripture as a guide in matters of faith, and religious toleration toward dissidents. As a civil servant, Milton became the voice of the English Commonwealth after 1649 through his handling of its international correspondence and his defense of the government against polemical attacks from abroad.

     Paradise Lost ( Book IX )
    John Milton ( 1667 )




            Major Theme in Paradise Lost :-

                  Modern criticism of Paradise Lost has taken many different views of Milton’s idea in the poem. One problem is that Paradise Lost is almost militantly Christian in an age that now seeks out diverse viewpoints and admires the man who stands forth against the accepted view. Milton’s religious views reflect the time in which he lived and the church to which he belonged. He was not always completely orthodox in his ideas, but he was devout. His purpose or theme in Paradise Lost is relatively easy to see, if not to accept.
Milton begins Paradise Lost by saying that he will sing , “Of Man’s First Disobedience” (I,1)so that he can “assert Eternal Providence,/ And justify the ways of God to men” (I,25-26). The purpose or theme of Paradise Lost then is religious and has three parts:
              1)     Disobedience
              2)     Eternal Providence
              3)     Justification
                        Of God to men.Frequently, discussion of Paradise Lost center on the latter of these three to the exclusion of the first two. And, just as frequently, readers and those casually acquainted with Paradise Lost misunderstand what Milton means  by the word justify, assuming that Milton is rather arrogantly asserting that God’s action and motives seem so arbitrary that they require vindication and explanation.

                       However, Milton’s idea of justification is not as arrogant as many readers think, Milton does not use the word justification in its modern sense of proving that an action is or was proper. Such a reading of justify would mean that Milton is taking it upon himself  to explain the propriety of God’s actions – a presumptuous undertaking when one is dealing with any deity. Rather, Milton uses justify in the sense of showing the justice that underlies an action. Milton wishes to show that the fall, death, and salvation are all acts of a just God. To understand the theme of Paradise Lost then, a reader does not have to accept Milton’s ideas as a vindication of God’s actions ; rather the reader needs to understand the idea of justice that lies behind the actions.

CHARACTERS LIST
 Main Characters
Satan :-

                     The major figure for many readers is Satan, Partially because he is strong-willed, partially because he is introduced early in the poem, partially because his speeches are so rhetorical  and dramatic, and partially because some of the idea he is arguing are on the surface receptive .what the writings of those who advance Satan to heroic stature medicate however is that they are not reading Books I and II carefully to discern the picture of Satan being presented. He does not deteriorate as the poem progresses he is a liar and self-deceiver from the beginning, he warps ideas and colors opinion by pejorative (but not honest ) language; he shows intemperance illogicality , wrath and deceit. Milton dose present his material with the focus appropriate for the substance and context ,so that Satan and his cohorts looked at in Hell, appear giant figures engaged in colossal action and idea.(For analogy without infernal implications we might compare the importance to us of say a school election when we are in school and the refocus which will come as we move out into the larger world.) However,Milton has not been deceitful in creating this impression,for the two similes (of the bees and the fairies ) which end Book I should make clear the discrepancy between Satan’s point of view and the relative view encompassing all elements in all worlds.


Adam :-
                        The crux for the interpretation of Adam’s character is his succumbing to the allurement of Eve. Adam falls because of uxoriousness, his love for Eve and her appeal to him. This fall in Book IX has been prepared for in Book VIII, as we have  seen. Aside from this concern, the character of Adam has not elicited argument. Probably because he tends to meld into the texture of the poem and dose not stand out from it. His moral realizations in the last two books somewhat tend to characterize him as native and impressionable, but more of their effect is philosophic than dramatic.


Eve :-

                       The character of Eve is created largely in Book IX although we have been prepared for what happens there in Books IV and V. what we discern is a narcissistic personality, weak- willed and easily pliable of mind, one who thinks in terms of herself and her own needs. The effects of the fall, the despair of Book X with its possible suicide, and the discussions leading to hope because of the prophecy concerning Eve’s progeny are significant in themselves rather than for the development of an attitude toward her Eve all investigators have concluded, presents a better opinion of women than was usual in seventeenth century Puritanism. She is not presented as a mere possession of man to do his bidding  without question she is not merely childbearer and housekeeper. Eve is not interested in such mental excurisions as the cosmology of Book VIII (she would rather hear any of this from Adam )and she sleeps through the visions of the future. But though mentally inferior to Adam and though concerned with love for Adam. Rather than for God , she is nonetheless presented as an individual who has feelings and personality wrongly disposed though they may be .


God :-

                     Primarily as a result, first, of the popular advancement  of Satan as hero and secondly of the nonacceptance  of Milton’s theology, the God of paradise Lost has in the twentieth century been criticized as harsh, vindictive, and unjust. This attitude develops because of the secaration of the godhead between Father and Son as speaking characters, because of the position of the Father as a kind of observer of the action, all of which he has foreseen, because the fallen angels cannot ever change the position according to the Father’s words in Book III, and because of the feeling that Adam and Eve could not a void falling . God the Father, of necessity ,has to enunciate the law under which the action takes place. Any individual in authority runs a like risk of antagonism, e.g. the school official who must warn against plagiarism and pass a harsh judgment when plagiarism has occurred. God lays down the rules of the game played in the arena of life. The son – who the erities forget is also God – presents love and mercy, and this emphasizes contingently the Father’s statement of rules and judgment when the rules are broken. The Son’s judgment in Book X is acceptable to God’s critics because Satan has been so degenerated in their eyes by this time and because Adam and Eve are shown mercy.




Other Characters


Sin:-    The daughter of Satan

Death:-        Death is Satan’s son and grand son. God says that both of them will be sealed in Hell after judgment day.

Beelzebub:-  The devil second in rank to Satan. His name the term of  “lord of the flies in the Bible.

Belial:-      In the Bible , Belial is synonym for devil or an adjective meaning wickedness or destruction.

Mammon:-   In the Bible he presented as a king but in Paradise Lost, he is called the “ Least erected “

Moloch:-     He argues at the council for total war against God.

Mulciber:-   Fallen angel who is the chief architect for pandemonium.

Michael:-   He is loyal to God. He helps Adam by the story of biblical history of the world through the birth of Jesus.

Raphel:-    Raphel was angel of man. He sent to earth to warn Adam and Eve not to Disobedience of God.

Garbriel:-      In the Paradise Lost he is the angel who guards the gate of Eden.

 Abdiel:-      Host of Satan who plans to rebel and returns to God.

Zephron:-     An assist Gabriel in guarding eden.

Ithuriel:-     He capture satan whispering in Eve’s ear.

Urania:-       Milton transforms her into Christian inspiration or the holy spirit.

Urie:-       One of the seven archangels. He is tricked by Satan disguised as a cherub.
                                                                 Style
                      Critics and fellow poets have paradise Milton’s poetic skill even when they have reacted adversely to his theology or to his personality or to specific parts of Paradise Lost. For example J.H.R Master man in his history of seventeenth century literature sees many weaknesses in the epic, but then he calls Milton’s poetry “the utmost measure of attainable excellence in metrical form.” It is difficult to define where in the greatness of poetry as of music lies, but some simple facts about Milton’s prosody should be noted.

                           Paradise Lost is written in blank verse, that is unrhymed iambic pentameter. (In other words the lines have five feet each foot usually consisting of two syllables with the accent on the second syllable.) In order to have the sound reflect the sense, or for variety and effectiveness, Milton frequently substitutes spondees (feet of two accented syllables) and irochees (feet of two syllables, with the first syllables stressed, the following unstressed) for the more regularly employed iambs. The use of blank verse, unbroken by set stanzas, permits the author to develop his ideas briefly or at length unhampered by a predetermined pattern.
                                           
                                      Milton as a well-educated man of the seventeenth century wrote in Latin with almost as much ease as in English. It is not surprising, then that his choice of words (his diction) seem to our modern ears to be highly Latinized. One interesting point rises here. As Professor Frank Patterson, Milton’s great modern editor, used to tell his classes, Milton presumably expected his reader to have in mind the original Latin words as well as the later English word derived from it. Accordingly he hoped that through these connotations words with a Latin source would have  added values or bring more vivid pictures to mind. For example, in Book I, line 46 when Satan was hurled from Heaven with “hideous ruin,” the Latin word ruina, meaning “a falling down” adds to the picture value. Or when in Book VI, line 619, Satan mockingly speaks of the use of gunpowder against the angels as having a “quick result” the Latin source of the words result gives a picture of the victims “ leaping back” One other influence of Milton’s Latin scholarship should be noted his frequent inversions in word order these do not surprise the ear of anyone accustomed to Latin sentence structure.
                                     
                             To emphasize his points and to appeal to the aesthetic senses of his readers, Milton uses many references, metaphors, and similes. (see the comment on Book I for a discussion of his Homeric similes.) For his comparisons he usually drew upon the Bible and upon classical mythology and literature. He lived in a period when a man of any education was far better acquainted with the Bible and the classics than most people are today. But even in his own day Milton was exceptionally well read remember that he devoted his life to study until after he was thirty. (It is obviously unfair to accuse him of making a deliberate display of his learning.)
                                    From time to time Milton has passages with many proper names, usually of gods or places. One excellent critic, J.A. Symonds, said that these lists are “magnificent for their mere gorgeousness of sound.” Later critics have pointed out that these lists serve a more specific purpose at various points. C. S. Lewis , for instance , claims the sound of these “splendid, remote, terrible, voluptuous, or celebrated things” suggests the richness and variety of the world and so gives us a needed background for the action.


                                      A minor device that Milton again and again uses effectively is to add a second adjective (or qualifying phrase) to an already modified noun. He speaks of “heavy days and cruel.” the “upright heart and pure,” “a sad task and hard.” Here Milton is showing and making good use of another side of his culture. T. H. Prince a modern critic, has shown this was common usage in the Italian poetry of Dante and Petrarch, two of the English poet’s favorite authors.


                                    In noting these obvious points about Milton’s prosody, the reader should not forget Milton’s prevailing genius, what one of his earlier (James Prendeville) called one of the rarest perfections of poetry : the perfect “assimilation of the sound and the sense.”

Compare and contrast the character of Adam and Eve created by John Milton
                    By the creation of God Adam and Eve live together in the garden of Eden. They don’t know about the tree of knowledge.
                   Adam is a strong, intelligent and rational character. In fact, before the fall , he is as perfect as a human being can be. He understand his ideas and views , he also know that what is good or not . But he loves eve a lot. After fall his conversation with Michael during his visions is significantly one sided. He also ate the fruit of knowledge given by Eve.
                Eve is a sinner character she is a created by Adam’s rib. She is beautiful , wise, and able. She is superior to Adam only in her beauty but the Satan as the serpent will use her innocents and fall her into guilt.
   Milton is quick to note, however.

   “ yet went she not as not with such discourse delighted , or not capable of her ear of what was high ,such pleasure she reserved.”

                         The fall of man ,then ,turns evil into good and that fact shows the justice the ways of God’s actions or in Milton’s terms “ justifies the ways of God to Men.”
                                         Many questions are arising in our mind that if the God know everything about what will happen then why he created good human beings against Evil. Somewhere we think that God also responsible for this thing happened by Adam and Eve. It the God also become sinner in one or other way. His making of stepparent , sending him to Eden garden whispering talk with Eve trapping into plan created by satan these whole things the God knows verywell then how he creates evil if they make mistake then Eve and Adam are the common and innocent human beings.

Milton’s reality and seeds of imperfect world by God

                                       The purpose of any of the religious book to teach ways of God to Men. What is man and God repetition and why do people suffer, why there is pain in life of human beings. If god has created the world why he created evil also it was also a god mistake. If God has created the world why he created imperfect world Evil.  God has tp play minimum role to play in his life . In reality there is nothing but their creations of their own.

                                      Here we can see that how Milton creates entire things and what was his ideas towards his epic. How does God deals with human beings where been he can care human beings or not. God is perfect he knows everything he makes the perfect world then why he creates the evil? There is something which is not controlled by God also. The question is that why evil was not controlled by God? Why we can see imperfect world? These all show that at that time Evil are not controlled by God also “ God is good ,God is judge god never makes any error”

                                      God is not perfect at that time also otherwise the Evils can’t enters into perfect world. God makes mistake by making evils. So we are the Adam and Eve sinner? They don’t know about the fruit and ate by planning of serperent to trap  both of them. Eve ate fruit because of Satan overcoming talks and Adam ate this fruit because of he loves Eve. So this that they are sinners then why should God not ? Who make evils ?
Religious Background

                          Throughout Paradise Lost Milton repeatedly states the main religious lets underlying the poem: The fundamental sin of both the fallen angels man was pride. (pride is here used in the theological sense of putting trust in oneself rather than in God, and all other sins stem from it this other use of pride should not be confused with its modern usage as a nonym for normal self esteem.) Both Adam and Eve manifested this sin of pride when they disobeyed God’s command not to taste the fruit of the Tree Knowledge. Again and again Milton stresses that obedience to God’s commands is basic to all virtue.


                               Milton believed that men have free will free will has to be governed reason. Eve allowed flattery to overcome her weaker, feminine reasoning powers; Adam allowed passion (his love Eve) to overcome his stronger, masculine reasoning powers. Both sinned and had to repent and to dept God’s punishment as just before they could hope for forgiveness and ronlemption. Having repented and acknowledged God’s justice, they could be forgiven, but they still had to pay the penalty for their acts – in their case, expulsion from the Garden of Eden and after suffering, Death. By the great paradox of Christianity, however, Death for true believers is the beginning of Eternal Life.

                              Much has been written about whether or not Milton was a Puritan. How orthodox he was in his religious beliefs is another question often caused. The answers, of course, depend upon the definitions of terms.

                              In the larger sense of the words Milton may be called Puritan that is he believed that man should seek the closest possible relationship with his maker, unhampered by rites and formal prayer. On the other hand, most puritans of the seventeenth century were Calvinists, and so believed in destination. Milton certainly was not a Calvinist; no man ever was firmer is his belief in free will and the power of reason. (Consideration of Milton’s obvious love of learning and music is beside the point here. Contrary to popular notions, many educated Puritans made no objection to anything cultural or aesthetic as long as, by it, man was led toward God rather than away from the Creator.



                                Most of Milton’s basic teaching in Paradise Lost is completely orthodox Christian doctrine. The possible exception is his presentation of the Trinity, a very complex point, and one in which terms have to be defined clearly, the changing definitions of words considered, and the necessity of presenting ideas graphically remembered. The reader of Paradise Lost should always keep in mind that Milton did not expect his descriptions of happenings in Heaven and his reports on conversations between God and His Son to be taken as literal truth, any more than he wanted the building of pandemonium in Hell to be regarded as other than symbolic. He carefully explains (see especially Book V 563-577) that all has to be reduced to terms understandable to man, that spiritual facts can be represented only in material terms.
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Background History of Neo-Classical Age.

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Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
            Assignments
Name:-  Rathod Neha R.
Class:- M.A. Sem-1
Roll No:- 33
Email Id:-  neharathod108@gmail.com
Year:- 2015-2016
Paper No:- 2
Topic:-
BACKGROUND OF HISTORY OF NEO-CLASSICAL  AGE

         The Neo-classical Age
 
The thick shows the period of active literary work:
Ø Pope: 1688-1744(The Rape of the Lock)
Ø Priot:1664-1721
Ø Young:1683-1765 (The Complalnt, or Night Thoughts)
Ø Swift:1667-1745(Gulliver’s Travels)
Ø Addison:1672-1719(The Spectator)
Ø Steele:1672-1729
Ø Defoe:1659-1731(Robinson Crusoe)
The Historical Background (1700-1750)
                In the beginning of the eighteenth century the old quarrcts tack on new feature.
The Rise of  the Political Parties:
               In the reign of  Charles 2 the terms ‘Whig’ and ‘Tory’ first  become current; by the year  1700 they were in everybody’s mouth. About that time domestic politicians become sharply cleft into two groups that were  destined to become established as the basis of our political system.
  Domestic affairs, While they never approached the stage of bloodshed, took on a new acrimony that was to affect literature deeply. Actual points of political faith upon which the parties were divided are not of great importance to us here; but, generally speaking, we may say that the whig  party stood for the pre-eminence of personal freedom as opposed to the Tory view of royal divine right.
  Hence the Whose Supported  the Hanoverian Succession,  Whereas the Tories were  Jacobites. The Tories, whose numbers were recruited chiefly  from the landed classes, objected to the foreign war upon the score that they had to pay taxes to prolong  it; and the whigs, representing the trading classes generally, were alleged to be anxious to continue the war, as it brought them increased prosperity. In the matter of religion the whigs were Low Churchmen and the Tories high churchmen.
   This war of the Spanish succession was brilliantly successful under the leadership of Marlborough, who besides being a great general, was  a prominent Tory politician. The Tories, as the war seemed to be indefinitely prolonged, super planted the whigs, with whom they had been co-operating in the unfortunate Treaty of Utrecht, contemporary literature is much concerned both with the war and the peace.

The Succession:
                When Anne ascended the throne the succession seemed to be safe enough, for she had a numerous family Nevertheless, her  children all died before her, and in 1701 it become necessary to pass the Act of settlement, a whig  measure by which the succession was settled upon the House of Hanover on the  death of Anne, in the year 1714,the succession took effect, in spite of the efforts of the Toris, who  were anxious to restore the stuarts the events of this year 1714 deeply  influenced the lives of Addison, Steele, Swift and many other writers of lesser degree.
 The Spirit of the Age:
                 After the succession of the House of Hanover the first half   of the  eighteenth century  was a period of stabilization and steadily growing wealth and prosperity. The evils of  the approaching Industrial Revolution had not yet been realized and the country, still free from any suggestion of acrimonious class consciousness, underwent a period of comfortable aristocratic rule, in which local  government rested on the squires, typified by sir Roger de coverley . It  was age of tolerance, moderation, and common sense, which, in cultured circles at least, sought to refine manners and introduce into life the rule of sweet reasonableness.
           The balance of political power, in spite of the fifty years  superiority  of the whig oligarchy, was so even as to predude fanatical party ,paliticies, while the
 Established church pursued a placid middle way and all religion was free from strife over dogma and the fanaticism which it called enthusiasm  until Wesley and whitefield began the Evangelical Revival, This middle way of control and reason, and the distrust of ‘enthusiasm’ are faithfully reflected in the literature of the period.
          “The Predominance of Prose”
    The age of pope intensified the movement that, as we have seen , began after the Restoration. The drift away from the poetry of passion was more pronounced than ever, the ideals of ‘wit’ and ‘common sense’ were more zealously pursued, and the  lyrical  note was almost unheard. In its place we find in poetry the overmastering desire for neatness and perspicacity, for edge and point in style, and for correctness in technique. These aims received expression in the devotion to the heroic couplet, the aptest medium for the purpose. In this type of poetry the supreme master is Pope: apart from him the age produced no great poet on the other hand, the other great names of the period – Swift, Addison ,Steele, Defoe are  those of prose writers primarily, and prose writers   primarily, and prose  writers of a very high quality.
                 Some other outstanding condition of the age remain to  be considered. Most of them, it will be noticed , help to give prose its dominating position.


        Political Writing:
         We have already noticed the rise of the two political parties,       accompanied by increased acerbity of political passion. This development gave a fresh importance  to man of literary ability, for both parties competed for the authors with place and pensions, and admitted  them more or less deeply into their counsels. In previous ages authors had to depend on their patrons, often capricious beings or upon the length or their subscription lists; they now acquired an independence and an importance that turned the heads of some of them. Hardly is writer of the time is free from the political bias.
                After bring a Whig Swift become a virulent Tory: Addison was a tepid Whig Steele was Whig and Tory in turn, it  was indeed the Golden Age of political pamphleteering  and the writers made the most of  it.

        The Clubs and Coffee House:
               Politicians are necessarily gregarious, and the increased activity in politics led to a great addition to the number of political clubs and coffee houses which become the foci of fashionable and public life. In the first number of ‘The Tatler Steele’ announces as a matter of course through activities of his new journal will be based upon the clubs, accounts of Gallantry, pleasure, and Entertainment shall be under that of with coffee House, Learning under the title of Grecian, Foreign and Domestic news you will  have from saint James coffee house.
           These coffee house became the ‘clearing house’ for literary basicness, and from them branched purely literary association such at the famous scriblerus and kit cat clubs, those haunts of the fashionable writers which figure so  prominently in the writing of the period.

           Periodical Writing:
                The development  of the periodical will be noticed elsewhere. It is sufficient here to point out that the struggle for  political mastery led both factions to issues a swarm of Examiners, Guardians, Freeholders, and Similar publication. These journals were run by a band of vigorous and facile prose writers, who in their differing degrees of excellence represent almost a new type in our literature.
          The New Publishing House:
                      The interest in politics and probably the decline in the drama caused a great increase in the size of the reading public. In its turn this aroused the activates of a number of men who become the forerunners of the modern publishing houses. Such were  Edmund Crull, Jacob Tonson and John Dunton.
                               These men employed number of needy  writers, who produced the translations, adaptations, and other popular works of the time. It is unwise to judge a publisher by what authors say of him, but the universal condemnation leveled against curll and his kind compels the belief that they were a breed of scoundrels who preyed upon authors and puplic, and upon one another. The miserable race of  hack  writers venomously attacked by pope in The Dunciad who existed on the scanty bounty of such men lived largely  in a though farwe near mortifield called grub street,the name of which has become synonymous with literary drudgery
           The New Morality:
                 The immorality of the Restoration, which had been almost entirely a court phenomenon and was largely the reaction against extreme Puritanism, soon spent itself. The natural process of time was hastened by opinion in high quarters William 3 was a severe moralist, and Anne, his successor, was of the same character. Thus we soon see a new tone in the writing of the time and a new attitude to life and morals. Addison, in an early number of the spectator, puts the new fashion in his own admirable way:
     “I shall Endeavour to enliven morality
      With wit, and to temper wit with morality”.
Another development of the same spirit is seem in the revised opinion of woman, who are treated with new respect and dignity. Much coarseness is still to be felt, especially in satirical writing, in which swift, for  instance, can be quite vile, but the general upward tendency is undoubtedly there.



        Prose- Writers
            1)   Jonathan swift
            2)   Joseph Addison
            3)   Sir Richard Steele
             4)   Daniel Defoe
       Other Prose Writers
             1)   John Arbuthnot
             2)   Lord Bolingbroke
             3)   George Berkeley
             4)   Lady Mary Worley Montagu
             5)   Earl of Shaftesbury
       Famous Poets:
             1)   Alexander pope
         Other poets:
            1)   Matthew Prior
            2)    John Gay
            3)    Edward Young
            4)    Sir Samuel Garth
            5)   Lady Winchilsea
            6)   Ambrose Philips
            7)    Allan Ramsay
      Development of Literary Forms:
                      The period under review marks a hardening of the process scernible in the last chapter. The secession from romanticism is complete; the ideals of classicism reign supreme. Yet even at the west ebb of the romantic spirit, a  return to nature is feebly beginning.
                       In the most chapter we shall notice this new movement, for the next period we shall see it becoming full and strong.
Poetry:
    In no department of literature is the triumph of classicism seen more fully than in poetry.
The lyric almost disappears:-
       What remains is of a light and artificial nature. The best lyrics are found in some of prior’s shorter pieces, in Gay’s ‘the Beggar’s Opera’ and in Ramsay’s ‘The Gentle Shepherd”
The ode still feebly survives in the Pindaric form:-
               Pope wrote a few with poor success, one of them being               on St. Cecilia’s Day in imitation of Dryden’s ode Lady Winehilsea was another mediocre expoint of the same form.
The satiric type is common, and of high quality:-
               The best example is Pope’s Dunciad, a personal satire, of political satire in poetry we have nothing to compare with Dryden’s satire tends to be lighter, brighter, and more lyrical. It is spreading  to other forms of verse  besides the heroic couplet, and we can observe it in the octosyllabic couplet in the poems of Swift, prior, and Gay. A slight development is the epistolary from of the satire, of which Pope become found in his latter years. Such is his Epistles of Horace imitated.
Narrative poetry:
            This is of considerable bulk, and contains some of the best productions of the period. Pope’s translation of Homer is a good example, and of the poorer sort are Blackmore’s imitations are bloodless things, but they are abundant epics. We have also to notice a slight revival of the ballad, which was imitated by Gay and prior. Their imitations are bloodless things, but they are  worth noticing because they show that the interest is there.
The pastoral:
              The artificial type of the pastoral was highly popular, for several reasons. In gave an air of rusticity to the most formal of composition, it was thought to be element, it was easily written; and it had the approval of the ancients, who made free of the type. Pope and  Philips have been mentioned as example the pastoral poet.
Drama
                Here there is almost a blank. The brilliant and explanation flower of restoration comedy has withered, and nothing of a merit takes its place. In this period nothing is more remarkable than the poverty of its oramatic literature of this no real explanation can be given. The age was simply not a dramatic one;  for the plays that the age produce, with the exceptions of a few notable  examples of comedy, are hardly worth nothing.
      Tragedy comedy off worst of all.
               The sole tragedy hitherto mentioned in this chapter is Johnson’s Irene, which only the reputation of its author has preserved from complete oblivion. A tragedy which had a great vogue was Douglas, by John Home. It is now almost forgotten Joanna Baillie produced some historical blank-verse tragedies, such as count Basic and De Monfort. Her plays make fairly interesting reading and some of their admirers, including Scott said that she was Shakespeare revived .
Prose:
The prose product of the period is bulky, varied, and of great importance. The importance of it is clear enough when we recollect that it includes, among many other things, possibly the best novel in the language, the best history, and the best biography.
 The Rise of the Novel
             There are two main classes of fictional prose narratives, namely, the tale or romance and the novel. The distinction  between the two need, not be drawn too fine, for there is a large amount of prose narrative that can fall into either group, but broadly speaking, we may say that the tale or romance depends for its chief interest on incident and adventure, whereas the novel depends more on the display of character and motive.
                   In Addison the story of the novel tends to  be more complicated than that of the tale, and it often leads to what were called by the older writers “Revolution and Discoveries”-that is, unexpected developments in the narrative, finishing with an explanation that is  called the denouement. The tale, moreover, can be separated from the romance the plot of the tale is    commonly matter- of -fact, while that of the romance is often wonderful and fantastic.
                   There is little doubt that the modern novel has its roots in the medieval romances, such as sir Gawain and the Green Knight and those dealing with the legends of king Arthur. Another sources of the novel was the collection of ballads telling of the adventures of popular heroes of the type of Robin Hood. These romances were written in verse; they were supplied with stock character, like the wandering knight, the distress damsel, and the wicked wizard; they had stock incidents, connected with wicked; stock incidents, connected with enchanted castles, fiery dragons and perious ambushes; and their story rambled on almost interminably, they were necessary to satisfy he human craving for fiction, and they were often fiction of a picturesque and lively kind.
                   The age of Elizabeth, saw the rise of the prose romance. We have examples in the Euphues of Lyly an Arcadia of Sidney. As fiction these tales are weighed down with their fantastic prose, styles, and with their common desire to expound a moral lesson. Their  characters are rudimentary, and there is little attempt at an integrated plot. Yt they represent an advance, for they are fiction.
                    The are interesting from another viewpoint. They  show us that curious diffidence that was to be a drag on the production of the novel even as late as the time of Scott. Authors were shy of being novelists for two main reason; first, there was thought to be some- thing almost immoral in the writing of fiction, as it was but the glorification o a pack of lies and, secondly the liking for fiction was considered to be the craving of diseased or immature intellects, and so the production of it was unworthy of reasonable men. Thus if a men felt impelled to write fiction he had  to conceal the narrative with some moral or allegorical dressing.
                   “The Development of Literary Style”
1)   Poetry:
                      In poetical style the transitional features are well marked. The earlier authors reveal man artificial mannerisms for example, extreme regularity of meter and the frequent employment of the more formal figure of speech, such as personification and apostrophe. The Pindaric odes of Gray and

 Collins are examples of the transitional style:

“Ye distant spires! Ye antique towers!
That crowns the wat’ry glade’
Where grateful science still adores
Her Henry’s holy shade;
And ye that from the stately brow
Or grove, of lawn of mead survey,
Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
Wanders the hoary Thomas along
His silver winding way.”

2)   Prose:
 In prose the outstanding feature is the emergence of middle style, of this the chief exponent is Addison, of whom Johnson says:
“His prose is the model of the
Middle style… pure without scrupul-
Osity, and exact without apparent
Elaboration; always equable, and
Always EASY, WITHOUT Glowing words
Or pointed sentences”
                             While the school of Addison represented the middle style, the plainer style is represented in the work of Swift and Defoe Defoe’s writing is even plainer and often descends to carelessness and inaccuracy. This is due almost entirely to the haste with which  he wrote we give an example of this colloquial style:
  “Well” says I “honest man, that is a great mercy, as
    Things go now with the poor, but do you live then
    And how are you kept from the dreadful calamity       that is now upon us all!”…… 

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Tagore as a Dramatist

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Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English
            Assignments

Name:-  Rathod Neha R.
Class:- M.A. Sem-1
Roll No:- 33
Email Id:-     neharathod108@gmail.com
Year:- 2015-2016
Paper No:- 4
Topic:- Tagore as a Dramatist

Introduction:-
              Rabindranath Tagore, son of Maharishi Devendranath Tagore, was born on 6th may, 1861. Tagore is the most outstanding name in modern Bengali literature. He was a great poet and a great man, and he has left behind him a great man, and a great institution the Visvabharati at Shantiniketan.
                   Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali, but had a mastery of English also. He translated many of his poems and plays into English, often changing, telescoping, and transforming the originals. He was a poet, dramatist, actor, producer; he was a musician and a painter; he was an educationist, a practical idealist who turned his dreams into reality at Shantiniketan; he was a reformer, philosopher, prophet; he was a novelist and short- story writer, and a critic of life and literature; he even made occasional incursions into nationalist politics, although he was essentially an internationalist.
                    He wrote many plays like, ‘Chitra’, ‘The Post Office’, ‘Sacrifice’, ‘Red Oleanders’, ‘Chandalika’, ‘Mukta Dhara’, ‘Natir Puja’, and ‘The king of the Dark Chamber’.
So let’s have a look on one by one on his plays and dramas.

Sanyasi or the Ascetic:-
                    Tagore’s first important play was ‘Sanyasi or the Ascetic’. This play deals with the conflict between truth and beauty: between reason and love, between rejection and acceptance. The protagonist in this play turns a ‘Sanyasi’ or an ascetic who renounces the world and its mundane activities and interests. However, soon afterwards he feels disturbed by the stir and bustle of actual life. Then he feels even more disturbed by coming into contact with a little outcast girl. His attachment to the girl is against the principles of his ascetic morality because he claims to have deserted both gods and men. Then, thinking that there would be a danger of his yielding to human emotions, he goes away for a long time and returns, only to find that the girl is dead.
                   He now awakens to a deeper morality or realization. He meets another child who completes the education which the first had begun in him. Then he decides to break the staff of negation and lean on the tree of life. The ‘Sanyasi’ has learnt the lessons of love and life, and he would not now return to arid region of mere ascetic negation.
                  Thus the ‘Sanyasi’ achieves his redemption. He had discovered that it is not life which is the enemy of man but the wrong kind of egotism which degrades and enslaves the body, the mind, and the soul of a man. True love, far from enslaving a man, can liberate and enlarge him. Such is the message of the play.
Natir Puja:-
                      ‘Natir puja’ is one of Tagore’s most famous plays. This play depicts a conflict between the temporal power of a king and the spiritual power of Lord Buddha. Srimati is the court-dancer who is murdered by the royal guard under the orders of the king when in the course of her dance; she discards, one by one, her ornaments and even her garments till she stands pure and naked in a nun’s wrap. She is evidently triumphant even in her death because now even Queen Lokesvari, and even the elder princes Ratnavali, fall under the spell of the court- dancer’s self- sacrifice and touch the dead Srimati’s feet in token of their convention to Buddhism. It is a deeply moving play depicting a rare act of religious martyrdom by a person who was least expected to rise to such great heights of self-sacrifice.                                                      
Chandalika:-
                  The word ‘Chandalika’ means a person belonging to the lowest class of society, the class known as the untouchables. The protagonist here is Prakriti, a girl belonging to the untouchable class. She falls desperately in love with a Buddhist Bhikshu by the name of Ananda.
                   The Bhikshu is, of course, under a vow of celibacy, and is therefore absolutely indifferent to women. But Prakriti is feeling so obsessed by her passion for Ananda that she compels her mother, who knows the art of black magic, to work a spell by means of which Ananda can be brought to her door and seek her love. Prakriti’s mother begins to work a spell; and the spell begins to take effect even as the worker of the spell herself begins to suffer the effects of the devilish act which she is performing to please her daughter. Eventually, Ananda comes and stands at Prakriti’s door, a humble suppliant for her love, but the passion of love has robbed him completely of his spiritual radiance, and his face now looks most repulsive and abhorrent because it has been distorted and twisted by his lust for Prakriti. Seeing this tremendous change in Ananda’s physical appearance, and feeling deeply touched by her remorse at having caused the Bhikshu’s spiritual downfall and degradation, Prakriti appeals to her mother to undo the spell. The mother, though now on the point of death because of her devilry, does unto the spell, with the result that Ananda is able to realize his predicament and goes back, a redeemed man, while Prakriti’s mother breathes her last. This play too is deeply moving, and it makes an enormous impact upon our sensibilities.
             The conflict between the desires of the flesh and the aspirations of the soul has most effectively been conveyed to us through this play.
Mukta-Dhara:-
               Mukta-Dhara is Tagore’s greatest play. In any case, it is his greatest symbolical play. Bibhuti, the royal engineer in the mountain-kingdom of Uttarakut, has performed a marvelous engineering feat by building a dam across the waters of Mukta-dhara with the help of his steel machine. The yuvaraja of uttarakut is however, opposed to the dam which has been built to stop the flow of the waters of Mukta-dhara into the plains below. The people living in the land of Shivatarai below the mountainous kingdom of Uttarakut would now be denied the use of the waters of Mukta-dhara for the irrigation of their fields; and the Yuvaraja of Uttarakut is on their side in this matter.
                Thus, a rivalry, and even an antagonism, begins between Bibhuti and the Yuvaraja whose name is Abhijit. Scientific technology has won a great triumph which is symbolized by the construction of the dam; but the Yuvaraja’s innate love of freedom and his innate humanitarian sympathies rebel against this inhuman dam which might even lead to the starvation of the people of Shiv-tarari. In the end, the Yuvaraja breaks Bibhuti’s dam at a weak point, thus releasing the waters of Mukt-dhara and restoring to the mountain-spring the freedom which it originally possessed. The Yuvraja loses his life in the act of breaking the dam; but his act; in breaking the dam and releasing the waters of Mukta-dhara from its grip, shows the triumph of the human spirit over the achievement of science and technology. Mukta-dhara is one of Tagore’s most moving and uplifting plays.


Chitra:-
      A few of the plays written by Tagore were inspired by the Hindu epic, ‘Mahabharata’. Three of these plays bear the titles ‘chitra’, ‘gandhari’s prayer’ and ‘karna and kunti’. Chitra may be regarded as Tagore’s version of Kalidasas’s famous Sanskrit drama, ‘sakuntala’. Chitra, a warrior-woman falls in love with Arjuna who is an ascetic. Chitra is a woman of extraordinary beauty; and she now forms a resolve to win Arjuna’s love even if she has to employ some unfair means. Arjuna, forgetting his vows of celibacy, surrenders to chitra’s love. However, this is not a case of true love only for a period of one year; and Arjuna’s passion for her is a flawed passion because it is based on Chitra’s harrowed, or false, beauty. Neither of the lovers feels inwardly happy. Chitra is not happy because Arjuna does not really love her but only her beauty which she knows to be false; and Arjuna is unhappy because he perceives that something is wrongs somewhere. Though he does not know what it is, inspite of this deception, when the truth comes out in the end, true love blazes forth from the ashes of the false love which has existed till now. New love is born of a deeper understanding. Arjuna, still not knowing the truth of the matter, does have a vague glimmering of it. The real truth is that Chitra is no goddess to be worshipped, nor yet does an object of common pity to be brushed aside like a moth. She is a woman; and Arjuna is therefore contented. Arjuna simply says to her: “beloved, my life is full”. In this play, Tagore has depicted the evolution of human love from the physical plane to the spiritual.
The King of the Dark Chamber:-
                       In this play, as in the one which followed, Tagore deals with man in relation to god. The theme of this play is somberly impressive, says a critic who describes it as a magnificent attempt to dramatize the secret dealings of god with the human heart. The king of this play is not identifiable by any of the characters. There is much speculation about him, so that everyone gets involved in a tangle of thought, feeling and conjecture. Even the queen, Sudarshana, has not seen him. Infact, nobody has seen him. Surangama, a maid of Honour, believes in his reality, even though she too has not seen him. But these are a false king in the play, a Pretender whom most of the characters are deceived. Even the Queen takes this man to be the real king. When the false king is exposed, Sudarshana decides to put an end to her sense of shame and degradation by walking into a fire where she sees the real king. Subsequently she flees to her father’s place because she is unable to endure the true king’s love. With Surangama supporting her all the time, she learns, through her suffering, the lesson of self- surrender, and is at last united with the true king. Evidently, the king in this play symbolizes god who is everywhere and is everything but who is yet nowhere and is nobody in particular. Every human being, in his on her littleness or half- knowledge, makes of this king what they can. Some deny his very existence; some try to assure his name and usurp his functions; and some blindly accept him and are contented.
                   While the queen has her doubts, a mere maid of Honour is firmly convinced of his existence. The maid knows that the king would not forsake his subjects. Thus the play is about the human soul’s adventures in its attempt to know god.


The post office:-

             ‘The post office’ is about a child with a sick body. The king visits the dark chamber of the queen’s heart, and all is well; and in the same way the king visits the sick chamber of the little boy, and all is well again. ‘The post office’ too deals with the soul’s adventures with the divine; and the adventures leave the soul as well as the body cured. The divine spirit comes to the parched human heart; and there would now begin the burst of a new spring of vicinity and happiness.
       In 1913, he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature on the basis of the English version of his ‘Gitanjali’. He had now become an international figure, and a celebrity.

Conciusion:-

          In short, Rabindranath Tagore was a man of a versatile genius who achieved eminence in almost all the literary genres. His literary works were rendered into English by diverse hands, with himself also contributing to this procedure to some extent.

                Tagore’s drama is realistic drama; but the realism in his plays is a realism of the mind, not so much of external physical action as of emotional or spiritual action. Infact, he achieves his most intense realism when his symbolism is most complex.

                                    ***
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