Literature is great because of its universality. It is powerful enough to supersede the narrow interests of a class in favor of humanity as a whole. lt does not deal with the specific society of a specific community, but with the society of man as a whole. For this reason literature that appealed to the people through the spoken word has a greater appeal than which appeals through the written word—which may not reach all men. “The recited epics of
Homer, the acted plays of Shakespeare, the chanted songs of Chandidas have a more universal appeal than our modern poets and novelists who express only segments of social life and direct their appeal to particular social classes. Poetry that expresses intensely individual standpoints, novels that depict manners of a class or community, and deal with highly specialized problems cannot surely be of the same level as are Tulsidas’s or Krittidas‘s Ramayana which had and still have a mass appeal.”
Universality in literature connotes the appeal to the widest human interests and the simplest emotions. Though we speak of national and race literatures, like the Greek or Teutonic, and each has certain superficial marks arising out of the peculiarities of its own people. It is nevertheless true that good literature knows no nationality, nor any bounds save those of humanity. It is occupied chiefly with elementary passions and emotions,——love and hate, joy and sorrow, fear and Faith which are an essential part of our human nature; and the more it reflects these emotions, the surely does it awaken response in men of every race. Every father must respond to the parable the prodigal son; wherever men are heroic, they will acknowledge the mastery of Homer: wherever man thinks on the strange phenomenon of evil in the world, he will find his own thoughts in the Book of Job whatever place men love their children; their hearts must be stirred by the tragic sorrow of Oedipus and King Lear. All these are but shining examples of the law that only as a book or little song appeals to universal human interest does it become permanent. The restricted appeal of modern literature resulted from the dependence of writers on the patronage of great men. Necessarily such writers had to produce work that would appeal to their patrons primarily. As a result became limited.
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But compensation was offered by the delicacy and refinement of their work. The contrast between these writers and the popular writers may be seen in the contrast between Chaucer and balladists. Chaucer is the perfect artist; his insight into life is also profound; but he lacks spontaneity, the range, the popular appeal of the ballad-writers. “Such also is the difference between Bharatchandra of Bengal and the anonymous poets of the Mymensingh ballads. Modern writers depending on the patronage of an educated and well-to-do public, have developed a flair for expressing feelings and situations that are subtle and complex in language that verges on the idiosyncratic. Wordsworth realized this when he made the revolutionary statement that poetry, should use language of common speech. The more literature is freed from its class limitations and becomes the expression of the thoughts and feelings of the common man, the community of working people, the more it will tend to conform to the Wordsworthian doctrine.
lt must be noted that literature contains the universal and the particular which are combined together. According to Aristotle, literature indicates the universal element, i.e., what is true for all times and ages and the particular, i.e. what is true of the men, events, customs, culture, and manners of an age. To quote John Bailey: “lt must be at once individual life and universal. If Homer contained nothing but what was abstractedly or universally true, he would be dull. He must have, as he has many things which surprise, amuse, even perhaps, disgust us who live in so different an age and country. He must have things which are peculiar to the Greeks of his day, and even things peculiar to himself alone among the Greeks.
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Without that, he would not have individuality or even nationality; and without individuality and nationality there is no life in literature …. But if he were only Homer or only Greek, he would be something worse than dull he would be dead for us, because there would be link between us; dead, because the life of poetry needs an immortal and universal element without which its lease of life is a very short one. A poet cannot carry himself and his own age and their idiosyncrasies and peculiarities unless he provides them with the elixir of immortality which is universal truth.” In other words, literature is manifestation of life as handled by the writer’s personality. His distinctive imagination, his slant of outlook, his feelings, and the character of his experience constitute the medium through which his reading of life is communicated to the reader.
But his feelings and thoughts and fusion of elements extracted from the chaos of life have deeper and paramount significance for all. According to Middleton Murry, “the highest style is . . . a combination of the maximum of personality with the minimum of impersonality 1 on the one hand, it is a concentration of peculiar and personal emotion, on the other, it is a complete projection of this personal emotion into the created thing …. ‘There is no antithesis between personal and impersonal art.” That is why Aristotle said; “Poetry is more philosophical than history.” What he meant was that literature is the mixture of the personal and universal. The whole effort of a sincere man is to build his personal impression into universal pattern.
Showing posts with label English Literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English Literature. Show all posts
All My Sons
In All My Sons, Arthur Miller has depicted the American Dreams by exposing some fundamental tragedies in the lives of his protagonists. According to modern concept of tragedy, the protagonists should be accountable for their deeds while facing any kind of moral dilemma, they make some wrong decisions and choices for themselves which lead them on the verge of worst kind of tragedy. Such critical thinking is also observed in several TV programs, movies and other media sources where American dream is exaggerated to attract masses to move to America but they have to encounter bitter realities of life (All My Sons Summary, 2010).
What are the American Dreams; these are to grow up with heaps of wealth and precious properties! There are different interpretations of the American Dreams but it is the common gist of it. But at the end of this play, All My Sons, the American Dreams are depicted contrarily where it is described how someone lives happily even after growing up, owing lots of property and becoming prosperous financially. Joe Keller had become prosperous and auspicious in his life financially but his life turned into a tragic life as the story moves towards a conclusive end, Arthur Miller wants to convey two contradictory viewpoints in his play, All My Sons, the American dream is bogus dream which is depicted only in very few and certain people’s life but most of them suffer from some panic situations in life in spite of having money (All My Sons Summary, 2010).
Arthur Miller has evoked some fundamental questions in his play, All My Sons what are the individualistic social obligation, personal responsibility and dissimilarity between personal and public matters. In the play, All My Sons, Keller performs his specific actions during the war, he is depicted an individual who is accountable for himself and his family rather than for society. Miller evaluates Keller’s discriminatory worldview which affirms his belief; there is no value of crimes which are committed for sake of the family (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010). The main reason of conflicts which arises in the mind of Keller, who believes that Keller is not wrong in his proclaims, there is nothing more valuable than the family rather than whole world where Keller lives, “To cut yourself off from your relationships with society at large is to invite tragedy of a nature both public (regarding the pilots) and private (regarding the suicides)” (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Miller wants to show that it is not necessary to enhance some carefulness for others being a family member, it is most important to develop an individual’s responsibilities to the family versus society at large. The family is also depicted as unit within the society and it is distorted or damaged by the individualistic actions. Though All My Sons is related with the past but this past helps to shape present and future of the individuals. It is inescapable to ignore or forget crimes. The characters speak such words or dialogues in the pay which disclose the different secrets about the current history of the Keller family. Arthur Miller displays how such past secrets of life have influenced the lives of his characters in the play who keep themselves in past always (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Arthur Miller has manipulated the flow of the story in the most technical manner that revelation of all secrets of the characters in play occurs on the same day. Such revelations are inevitable, causing the fatal consequences due to Denial and self-deception. The questions are raised how we deceive ourselves and others? We choose things to spotlight on life but we also need to refute some certain things for upgrading our living standards? What are impacts of denial upon the psyche of family and certain society? Keller family history displays what factors causes distortion and confrontation in the life. These factors include Larry’s death and Keller’s sense of liability for the consignment of defective parts. In the whole play, the mother denies first while she has to accept it and same case is with Keller himself. Such acts of denial and self-deception are rooted in both characters who live in a state of self-deception, avoiding one of the realities of life willingly in order to keep up the functional life-style of family (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Chris is also characterized as an idealist who remains angry against the wartime profiteering. Some people views that he is a man of scruples setting apart from the social networks. Chris thinks to abandon all such scrupulous brooding who sends his father to jail. How idealism are not sustainable in the practical world which is very complex. Miller wants to stress upon the values of ideals or dreams by depicting such characters in his play how such ideals are sacrificed according to the current circumstances (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Keller gives solid arguments during wartime how all his actions are so defensible in maintaining good business practice. He always asserts himself as an ill-mannered and uneducated person, boastfully taking pride in his financial success without any business education. But gradually his well-flourished business is victimized of downfalls. Here Miller takes this failure in comparison with loftiest politics and awkward system of capitalism which enhance the value of materialistic pursuits rather than the moral sense. The dramatist raises the question how rules of good business are exempted from moral and ethical norms & laws of the certain society (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Every character is delineated with different kinds of self-blames, Joe Keller doesn’t miss any chance to blame anybody and everyone for crimes of wartime and the main cause of his partner’s imprisonment. When he has to encounter with truths of life, he finds faults in business practice and US army and everyone he may have contacts. When he admits such blames after self-recognition process, Larry had taken to his heart all such shameful blames and Keller commits suicide in fits of despairs (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Chris feels culpable himself for the ongoing of the war and materialistic pursuits but when the crimes are disclosed, he shifts his blame to his father side, blaming his father for his incapability to imprison his jails. You may observe such several instances of deflected blame in this play; very human impulse is reflected to demonstrate the actual relationships and powerful role of characters which maintains self-respect and family honor (All My Sons Study Guide, 2010).
Miller reveals how such individualistic flaws can be interpreted with the economic progress and business success in terms of American dream. Keller has sacrifices all other parts of the American dream for just materialistic pursuits or financial growth only. He has given up the main role of his life as head of family, the basic human nature how he has made sacrifices of Steve and Larry. Miller points out the basic flaws of capitalist system which has no concerns with cultural as well as social morals. Miller criticizes such system of capitalism which encourages just greed for profiteering shares in the business stakes holders who may want to sacrifice the human life and happiness. So American dreams are so attractive apparently but there is too much hollowness inwardly which splits up the social networks in fits of despair and anger. But media and broadcasting sources have interpreted the American dreams in very attractive manner which shatter down the people so badly that they are forced to kill themselves (American Dream, 2010).
There is need to recover the full American dream of vigorous communities with prosperous families whether or not capitalism would lead economic system on right direction of progress and happiness. Only economic prosperity and mobility is very detrimental as man can’t enjoy life joyfully with just financial progress, there should be some social order which controls any kind of chaotic state of mind of individuals within the society to lead a peaceful and blissful life (American Dream, 2010). Is the American Dream can be depicted as nightmare by Arthur miller who portrays the picture of a typical American family life after world war second. All characters are displayed with complacency and prosperity due to thriving business but at end of the play Keller shoots himself to complete the nightmare! The Americans are suffering from such tragic and panic situations which come on their way in the pursuit of the financial progress and prosperity. The people have become so materialistic and morally vacant that they don’t have any scruples in their hearts while committing crimes with the self-deception and denial approaches how they think that they are doing rightfully rather than confessing their crimes (American Dream, 2010).
The media plays vital role in idealizing America via different attractive advertisements on TV channels and heroes of movies how American is shining so brightly and everyone is entangled by such attractive commercial ads which invite the people to come to America. In All my Sons , Arthur Miller has delineated an ideal family characters which seems externally very good and complacent but inwardly there is nothing good, having many dark aspects of American life which seems very charming in media portrayals. The American dream idealizes the particular life-style of people in America which relates with potential and rights rather than morals or means (American Dream, 2010).
In different TV dramas and shows, we observe how people are living an idealized life-style without knowing how it has been achieved via fair or unfair means. For instance the main character of Dr. Huxtable in Cosby Show is depicted how he has good standard of living, apparently good relationships with his family and friends but he never seems to be a good and responsible doctor, he always tries to take advantage of his patients via his deceitful nature. Media disseminate the ideals of American life-style and happiness to indulge the masses to work hard for achieving successful status as publicized by big multinational corporations (American Dream, 2010).
You may observe American dream as depicted by some TV shows and plays like the Cosby Show, Married with Children and Family Ties, all these depicts the same attitudes, hollow aptitudes and confused state of minds, full of despair and despondency as it is shown by all characters of All My Sons. “Real people with real feelings are potentially harmful to the American Dream which, really, encourages selfishness because of the emphasis on individual achievement. It does not explicitly say that one should not trample on others while striving for happiness” (American Dream, 2010).
In nutshell, media depicts the American Dream externally without discussing the main sources of happiness and prosperity. But reality is entirely different; most of people has to use such unfair means which remains them more unscrupulous to attain successful and luxurious status of life. This may result into panic situations for the people how they are suffering, it is not portrayed in media, “Other vision’s and goals not in line with the mainstream American Dream are potentially troublesome to economic progress” (American Dream, 2010).
Works Cited
[1]. American Dream, 2010, retrieved from: http://www.sacredswans.com/AmericanDream.pdf
[2].Miller,2010, All my Sons by Arther Miller, retrieved from: http://pdfdatabase.com/download/all-my-sons-pdf-1438948-html
[3]. All My Sons Summary, 2010, retrieved from: http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/2/13/211719/251
[4].All My Sons Study Guide, 2010, written by Arthur Miller, retrieved from http://www.gradesaver.com/all-my-sons/study-guide/major-themes/
Cubism in Hemingway’s the Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) has gained immense popularity due to his innovative and creative writings, a marvelous American fiction of 20th century. Hemingway has portrayed the realistic picture of the modern man’s wretched life how the modern man is disillusioned and disintegrated due to the shattered old values. It is dilemma of modern man that he has become a mechanically a machine like man by indulging himself into his materialistic pursuits. Ernest Hemingway’s prose style is very simple, unconventional and genuine, depicting the problems of postwar era, death, violence and degeneration of old values in his novels (Balakrishnan, 2003).
The themes of his novels range from moral, social, psychological and ethical degradation to horror, futility and fear of human existence, showing the frustration, demoralization and degeneration of human spirits. He is a realist prose-writer who portrays a true picture of reality on the canvas of life with exclusive pictorial quality (Balakrishnan, 2003).
Hemingway has been immortalized by the individuality of his style. Short and solid sentences, delightful dialogues, and a painstaking hunt for an apt word or phrase to express the exact truth, are the distinguishing features of his style (Balakrishnan, 2003).
It is unjustifiable statement about Hemingway that his writings are devoid of high seriousness but Hemingway is a philosophical writer, interpreting his famous `Iceberg theory’: ‘The dignity of the movement of an iceberg is due to only one eighth of it being above the water’ (Balakrishnan, 2003). His novels reveal the symbolic implications of his art, very true nature of human life how he represents human life in his fiction-writing. He aims to show the dramatic value of human life in this vast universe where supernatural elements influence man’s life (Balakrishnan, 2003).
As with them, a moral awareness springs from his awareness of the larger life of the universe. Compared with the larger life of the universe, the individual is a puny thing, a tragic thing. But in this larger life of the universe, the individual has his place of glory (Balakrishnan, 2003).
Hemingway gives the very idea of futility of human existence in this cosmic world by exposing the themes of death, violence, darkness and predicament of human life. Hemingway presents metaphysical philosophy about the nature of human existence in this universe by delineating his protagonists as alienated and disintegrated individuals who struggle with the odds of life with endurance, bravery and courage. He portrays his heroes, who are wounded emotionally or physically. His all protagonists are depicted in terms of code of courage, fortitude and loneliness who have to fight a losing battle in this world of irrational devastation (Balakrishnan, 2003).
If we observe the novels of Hemingway critically, it is noteworthy that all his novels are panorama of general drama of human pain by posing symbolic questions about life. Hemingway gives symbolic presentation of predicaments in man’s life how a man has to carry on his perpetual struggle for overcoming the supernatural forces which restrain man’s free will power. In nutshell, Hemingway gives an excellent picturesque of human life which ends in death, combating with odds of life perpetually. It is futile to fight a battle for man who is reduced to a pathetic figure by some hostile forces (Balakrishnan, 2003).
However, what matters is the way man faces the crisis and endures the pain inflicted upon him by the hostile powers that be, be it his own physical limitation or the hostility of society or the indifference of unfeeling nature (Balakrishnan, 2003).
The ultimate triumph depends upon the ways of struggling how individuals assert their dignified status in this cosmic world by facing pains and failures with courage and strong will power. Man has free will power to establish his own ideals and values by indulging into the persistent combat against oppressive forces in three dimensions like biological, social and environmental obstacles in this universe. Charles Child Walcutt comments about Hemingway’s fiction writings in these words:
The conflict between the individual needs and social demands is matched by the contest between feeling man and unfeeling universe, and between the spirit of the individual and his biological limitations (Balakrishnan, 2003).
Cubism is an abstract art of exposing the intellectual vision of modern life, an industrial and materialistic society. Cubism is the pure and artistic technique to give pictorial quality to the landscape of the artists’ mind rather than the external world. Cubism is the embodiment of the modern environment, landscape and materials of everyday life (When Cubism Met the Decorative Arts in France). As Legar explains:
A modern man registers a hundred times more sensory impressions than an eighteenth-century artist. . . . The compressions of the modern picture, its variety, its breaking up of forms, are the result of all this (When Cubism Met the Decorative Arts in France).
Cubism is the excellent art movement which leaves deep impacts upon the mind in order to produce new visual consciousness. The cubists have presented the viewpoints more understandable in the post-war era when war was proved to be catalytic to generate elements of modern consciousness (When Cubism Met the Decorative Arts in France).
In the beginning of 20th century, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway present their innovative and creative visions about the modern life in graphical manner. Both Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway has earned great fame for the particular artistic qualities as Picasso’ unique and original style of painting while Hemingway’s revolutionary prose-style, abstract ideas, terse but simple style of writing, ambiguous stories which evoke the intuitive and imaginative powers of the readers (Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators, 2009).
Hemingway is inspired by Picasso’ new style of painting, known as cubism and the deep impacts of Picasso’ artistic style, cubism can be seen in his writing works, particularly in his famous novel, The Sun Also Rises. Picasso and Hemingway depict the moral human drama of modern life in their artistic works. Hemingway portrays the exotic world with all colors in order to expose the inherent response of the individuals towards the real life, both artists expose the futility of war and its destructive influences upon humanity (Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators, 2009).
In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway presents his war experiences by portraying the uncertain world of lost generation who indulge in merry-making and pastimes like fishing trips, bullfighting, passing time in nightclubs and cafes. All main characters of the novel, The Sun Also Rises like Jake; Brett’s fiancé, Mike Campbell, Brett, Count Mippipopolous are true depiction of the lost generation who lead life of uncertainty and ambiguity (About The Sun Also Rises, 2010). In the novel, everything is painted as reaction to the dilemma of the war how the major characters of the novel are affected physically and psychologically, engaging them in incredible consumption of alcohol and continuous travelling from place to place. Hemingway paints the life of those characters in vague manner to reveal the very truth of life how these characters are leading life without any proper destination. All these characters reveals the devastating influences of Great War upon their minds and souls, if they are not post generation of war, they would act in different way (The Sun Also Rises, 2002).
In the novel, The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley are attracted by each other sexually but their sexual desire is too much intense. But Jake is unable to consummate his desire of love-making due to the wounded physique in war. But in spite of being injured, he can’t control his passionate desire of sexual intercourse, though he has lost his penis, yet he has deep emotions for Brett. He wants to satisfy her sexually after developing this deep relationship but Jake is incapable to do so (About The Sun Also Rises, 2010). Jake’s agony interprets the mechanization of industrialized society where life is much happier and better but after World War II, life has become more terrible for the individuals. The lives of Jake and Brett are true mirror to the lives of people after the Great War. The Sun Also Rises is one of the greatest novels ever written by Hemingway due to its unique literary devices like realism, impressionism and cubism to elaborate the stories of love and war more perfectly (About The Sun Also Rises, 2010).
Hemingway portrays how World War has destabilized the conventional concepts of faith, justice and morality. The people are unable to rely upon each other traditionally, they are lost generation who have undergone the bitter experiences of War, leading aimless and meaningless life as they are morally and psychologically lost people (The Sun Also Rises, 2002). The lives of Jack and Brett are embodiment of hollowness as they have good acquaintances with each other but still they are not contented due to the lack of consummation of love who try to fill this gap of life via escapist activities e.g. dancing, drinking, travelling, debauchery etc. Hemingway never exposes explicitly that Jake and his friend’s lives are pointless and aimless but it is his style of writing which implies such ideas about the sentimental and mental background of the characters. This implied manner of exposing ideas shows the influences of cubism in this novel, The Sun Also Rises (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
In the novel, all characters live a life of discontent and dejection, Jake and his friends always indulge in constant merry-making but all merrymaking or revelry activities remain joyless. They involve themselves in heavy drinking in order to forget about War and internal spirits. They always remain busy in partying, dancing, drinking and chattering but still they remain sorrowful, dejected, purposeless and nothingness (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010). The novel depicts the post war era by narrating the destructiveness and aimlessness of human lives, victimized by horror of war. Jake and other soldiers have to lead life without manhood due to his physical injury (loss of penis). He is confused soul who can’t deter his feelings of sexual love for Brett as he thinks that he is “less of a man” than he was before. Jake is personified as weakened or empty soul of masculinity who feel unconfident of their manhood power (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
Hemingway doesn’t narrate this fact directly but it is the reaction of Jake and his friends towards Cohn. They hit hard Cohn by abusing when they capture him while showing “unmanly” attitude with Brett. They handle their fears of being pathetic and unmasculine by pointing out the weakness they observe in him. Hemingway also stresses upon this thematic sense by portraying the character of Brett, who often behaves like men as she too introduces herself as “chap,”having short boy haircut and masculine name. she is physically and spiritually too strong, confident and independent as if she embodies all traditional masculine characteristics while all male characters are doubtful about their masculinity like Jake, Bill and Mike (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
Sex is the most influential and critical force in The Sun Also Rises. It is the sexual jealousy which forces Cohn to infringe his basic code of ethics and assault Jake, Romero and Mike. It is the sexual desire which prevents Brett to establish intimate relationship with Jake despite of her true love for him. It is the sex passion which undercut the self-respect of Cohn, passions of love, displayed by Jake and Brett. Brett is characterized to display the negative influences of sex as she is a modern woman, having sexual relations with several men without any scrupulous feelings (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
The gap of communication is also displayed the influences of cubism in the novel how Hemingway depicts his characters without effective communication with each other. The hide their true feelings and never be honest or direct to each other. They can’t share their torments which is the legacy of war. As they talk about war in ridiculous manner, Georgette and Jake have agreed on this point during dinner that the war “would have been better avoided” (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010). The dejected feelings are expressed when Brett distresses Jake and he exposes his discontent with her. Similarly, Mike is drunk aimlessly and expresses his disgusting feelings for Cohn. Drunkenness helps Jake and his friends to tolerate their lives without any true passions of love and aim. They want to escape the reality of life by indulging themselves in drinking and merry-making (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
Oh, Jake, Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together (The Sun Also Rises, 2002).
The bullfighting in the novel is symbolic presentation of healthy activity and bright aspect of life. It is the presentation of postwar society in the perspectives of Jake’s characterization. For example, we can construe the outline of Belmonte from the viewpoint of Jake and his acquaintances. Just as Cohn, Mike, and Jake all once swayed Brett’s love, so too did Belmonte once control the fondness of the crowd, which now rejects him for Romero. Belmonte is the symbolic representation of the lost generation while bullfighting is the symbol of destructiveness of sexual passions. The words Hemingway use to portray Romero’s bullfighting is about sexual, and his assassination of the bull gives shape of a seduction (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
This symbolic equation of sex and violence further links sexuality to danger and destruction. It is important to note that the distinctions between these interpretations are not hard and fast. Rather, levels of meaning in The Sun Also Rises flow together and complement one another (The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).
In nutshell, the words and forms in the novels and short stories of Hemingway have visual art akin to Paul Cézanne, portrayed on the canvas of real life so accurately. Several critics identify the works of Hemingway in the context of visual and verbal arts (Recurrence in Hemingway and Cézanne).
The motif is at its most dominant in the middle chapters of The Sun Also Rises where the route tournante takes us not only into the Spanish Pyrenees but into Cézanne’s world of color and forms (Recurrence in Hemingway and Cézanne).
Hemingway’s cubism can be displayed like a powerful light which mitigates the darkness in order to clarify everything prominently. In Our Time, Hemingway probes into the disparaging influences upon the human existence how his words have been changed into horrified creatures with dominant standpoint towards the world and all apparent qualities are exposed by employing this technique of 20th century (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
An artificial extension of the human eye, the searchlight for Hemingway also possesses a peculiarly tactile quality, as if to emphasize the physical force of this technology, and reverse the conventional associations of light with objectivity and enlightenment (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
In Our Time, Hemignway provides an appraisal and cautious clarification of domineering culture, giving appropriate touches of light and darkness. In Our Time, Hemingway relates the people, creatures and things without objectifying them if we evaluate the very structure of In Our Time with the modern cubist styles of painting, the readers would be enjoyed such interesting comparisons when unique touches of cubism are employed to see the world in new angle, modern set of techniques (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
After critique of Paul Rosenfeld, several critics have agreed that there are cubist elements in this book, In Our Time. For instance, Jacqueline Vaught Brogan discusses that the fragmentation of the story in In Our Time is directly associated with the visual fragmentation of cubist painting styles. In the similar context, Elizabeth Dewberry Vaughn asserts that Hemingway’s verbal recurrence is equal to repetition of visual images, painted by Picasso in geometrical shapes (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism). Elizabeth Dewberry Vaughn states:
Both Hemingway and Picasso emphasize form over content; because of this emphasis the audience discovers meaning by looking both at the work as a whole and at the relationship among the individual parts of the text or painting (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
Like Cubists, Hemingway brings into the light by showing multi-faceted things, events, people, ideals and concepts on his textual canvas in order to dominate the world. In Hemingway’s novels, the themes of alienation, disintegration, fragmentation and dejection are linked with cubism.
The continuous vibration and twinkling of brush-strokes against the discontinuous geometry of their structure is set forth, not as light, but as a property of matter—that plasma…. of which the Cubist world was composed (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
Paul Rosenfield relates Hemingway’s prose-style with cubist painting how he employs direct, rudimentary, fragmentary and simple forms, textures and rhythmical tones, depicting the modern American society which enhances his value as a revolutionary American story-teller (Wagner-Martin, 2002). Hemingway paints a true picture of postwar era by representing the scenes of Spain’s hotels, churches, nightclubs, fishing streams and bullfights in authentic manner. Everything is painted with the fine touches of brush strokes of the expert painter who portrays a realistic picture on the canvas of real life (Wagner-Martin, 2002).
The intellectual structure built up from the story makes for violent dislocations in the customary logic of narrative (such as the “dislocations” inherent in both visual and literary “cubism,” I would add) (Brogan and Vaught, 1998).
According to Berger and Hughes, cubism is a form of realism, depicting the latest world of scientific advancement so perfectly. It is the gradual process of unfolding the utopian truths in pre-war era, how the cubists strive hard to amalgamate all disparate elements of the cosmos as whole.
In a Cubist picture, the conclusion and the connections are given. They are what the picture is made of. They are its content (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
The reader of Hemingway’s fictitious stories has to find his role within the textural content while the intricacy of the forms and fragmentary phrases allocate him as partial reviewer. Hemingway uses the artistic techniques of cubism in In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises, parallelizing the spirit, themes, content, forms and characteristics (Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism).
Cited Works
About The Sun Also Rises, 2010, About The Sun Also Rises, retrieved from:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/The-Sun-Also-Rises-About-The-Sun-Also-Rises.id-178,pageNum-14.html
Balakrishnan,2003, Introducing Ernest Hemingway by Prof. Ganesan Balakrishnan, Ph.D.
Retrieved from: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/hemingway.html
Brogan and Vaught, 1998, Article: Hemingway’s ‘In Our Time’: a cubist anatomy.
(Ernest Hemingway), Article from: The Hemingway Review Article
dated: March 22, 1998 Author: Brogan, Jacqueline Vaught,
Retrieved from: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20653057.html
Hemingway’s In Our Time: Cubism, Conservation, And the Suspension of Identification, Lisa Narbeshuber, Acadia University
Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators, 2009, Picasso and Hemingway – 20th Century Innovators, retrieved from:
http://modern-american-fiction.suite101.com/article.cfm/picasso_and_hemingway_20th_century_innovators
Recurrence In Hemingway And Cézanne, Recurrence In Hemingway And Cézanne,
Published By Ron Berman, University Of California, San Diego
The Sun Also Rises, Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010, retrieved from:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/sun/themes.html
The Sun Also Rises, 2002, The Sun Also Rises, written by Ernest Hemingway
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Sun-Also-Rises/Ernest-Hemingway/e/9780743237338
Wagner-Martin, 2002, Ernest Hemingway’s The sun also rises: a casebook By Linda Wagner-Martin, retrieved from:
http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=giRG96HKM9oC&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=cubism+in+sun+also+rises&source=bl&ots=Mm6PAGEzyU&sig=Qkw3yANb7RwkRYPLzfXJeNIsX8M&hl=en&ei=e6GbS-_2Oc2HkAWZhezMAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CAwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false
When Cubism Met The Decorative Arts In France, When Cubism Met The Decorative Arts In France, written By Paul Trachtman,
A Doll’s House
The struggle to harmonize with society’s expectations can destroy relationships. When one strives to conform into the set regulations of his environment, he is bound to interact with the world through appearances rather than reality, and that creates a harmful impact on his relationship with his spouse. In “A Doll’s House”, Henrik Ibsen demonstrates this notion through his character, Torvald Helmer, a husband who dissipates his relationship with his wife because of his determination to stick to the moral code that he entirely derives from society’s expectations. Torvald’s relentlessness to follow society’s regulations- his fixation on maintaining a high status in the eyes of others- causes him to lose sight of the values that matter, and he isn’t able to save his relationship with his wife- to be her hero (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
For the author, Torvald stands for all the individual-denying social ills against which Ibsen has dedicated all his writing….Ibsen, however, drives home the loathsome qualities of such a character by attributing to him a personal decadence. Implying that Torvald considers Nora merely an ornamented sex object, the author shows how he maintains amorous fantasies toward his wife (Character Analysis, Torvald Helmer, 2010).
The play, “A Doll’s House”, emphatically stresses upon the status of women how their roles should be perceived in the context of the social norms, related with marriage and motherhood. The character of Torvald Helmer is portrayed in displaying the specific roles of women how they should perform their sacred duty as faithful wife and loving mother. Ibsen also focus on the roles of women how the women are liable to develop ethical sense of morality in the minds of their children (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
Ibsen portrays the characters of women as childlike, powerless and helpless creatures who have no concerns with realistic approach of life but there is influential role of women to develop a sense of sincerity, purity, morality and responsibility in the children. Torvald is not much award about the conflicting pressures on the manhood powers rather than the incompatible pressures on the performance of the women in the society. Torvald has viewpoints about the manliness as it has great significance of total independence. He disregards the very idea of financial or moral dependence upon anybody else and his this passion of entire freedom keeps him out of the social circles where there is need of human interaction or interdependence in real life (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
The major thrust of this play has something to do with gender relations in modern society and offers us, in the actions of the heroine, a vision of the need for a new-found freedom for women (or a woman) amid a suffocating society governed wholly by unsympathetic and insensitive men (Johnston, 2000).
Torvald is always seen in amassing wealth and indulging in materialistic pursuits rather than the human relationship, depicting the social interaction of the people in the modern society. Torvald assumes the role of Nora as diminutive character and calls her with different names like “little songbird,” “squirrel,” “lark,” “little featherhead,” “little skylark,” “little person,” and “little woman (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).”
Ibsen’s concerns about the position of women in society are brought to life in A Doll’s House. He believed that women had a right to develop their own individuality, but in reality, their role was often self-sacrificial (A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010).
Light is used metaphorically for the illustration of self-journey of Nora. When Torvald claims to do everything by himself in the presence of Dr. Rank, the light begins to diminish into darkness as “Nora sinks to new levels of manipulation (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).” Nora comes into her sense of reality rather than living in her fantasy, when Dr. Rank exposes his love for her, she insists to bring lamp into the room. Light is emblem of enlightenment, used as metaphors for developing understanding of the readers by Ibsen. The fancy dress of Nora is also symbolism of her role in married life when she puts on such fancy dress. She changes herself by choosing such gorgeous costumes and at end of the play, she leaves Torvald and is ready to play role as new women of the modern society (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
Nora’s final exit away from all her traditional social obligations is the most famous dramatic statement in fictional depictions of this struggle, and it helped to turn Ibsen (with or without his consent) into an applauded or vilified champion of women’s rights and this play into a vital statement which feminists have repeatedly invoked to further their cause (Johnston, 2000).
The play focuses upon the clash between the real life and moral ideals as his other famous play, The Wild Duck also depicts same themes of human life. At the end of the play, the glorious victory of individualistic success reveals through the character of Nora how it would be foolish or idealistic decision to end up happy moments in the life of Nora (A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010).
In A Doll’s House, portrays a depressing picture of the sacrificial role of women in all societies of the world and his heroine, Nora is exemplified with all women of the world how they have to sacrifice them while men deny to sacrifice their veracity, “hundreds of thousands of women have (Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010).” Ibsen displays the theme of incestuous relationship of the husband and wife in the portrayals of Nora and Torvald. How Torvald takes his wife as show piece for sex only and encourages her to dance like pretty doll or Capri fisher girl in order to arouse his sexual passions. It is with this ultimate touch of falsification that Ibsen portrays the character of Torvald systematically culpable to the audience (Character Analysis, Torvald Helmer, 2010).
Marriage was a trap in another sense, too. Though divorce was available, it carried such a social stigma (not just for the woman, but also for her husband and family) that few women saw it as an option. This is why Torvald would rather have a pretend marriage, for the sake of appearances, than a divorce or an amicable parting (A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010).
The theme of the play is related with the moral concerns of the individuals and society, a suffocating moral climate which is criticized so harshly in A Doll’s House. How Nora plays a heroic action in her life to safeguard her life as unpardonable misdemeanor and dutifulness as illegal action and it is not astonishing end of the play when her journey of self-recognition starts to probe into the reality of life, “who is right, the world or I (A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010).”
Cited Works
A Doll’s House, Theme Analysis, 2010, retrieved from:
http://www.novelguide.com/ADoll’sHouse/themeanalysis.html
A Doll’s House Study Guide, 2010, written by Henrik Ibsen, retrieved from:
http://www.gradesaver.com/a-dolls-house/study-guide/major-themes/
Character Analysis, Torvald Helmer, 2010, retrieved from:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/A-Doll-s-House-Character-Analysis-Torvald-Helmer.id-80,pageNum-155.html
Johnston, 2000, On Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, published by Ian Johnston,
[This is the text of a lecture delivered, in part, in Liberal Studies 310 at Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada. References to Ibsen's text are to the translation by James McFarlane and Jens Arup (Oxford: OUP, 1981). This text is in the public domain, released July, 2000], retrieved from: http://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/introser/ibsen.htm
Themes, Motifs & Symbols, 2010, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen,
Retrieved from: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dollhouse/themes.html
Stream Of Consciousness
Stream consciousness is known as literary genre which exposes the thoughts, passions and feelings of the characters which are developed via continuous process of soliloquy, an incessant flow of ideas and emotions which comprise an individualistic conscious experience. According to the literary critics, stream of consciousness is also taken as a narrative mode of novelists, dramatists and poets who portray a character of an individual (Stream of Consciousness, 2010). In other words, it is defined as the gush of thoughtful ideas in one’s conscious mind. Stream of consciousness is a narrative technique to expose the inward feelings and experiences of the individuals to give impressionism and naturalism in the character-portrayal, representing the random growth process of the character via its thoughts and sense impressions (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
Writers who create stream-of-consciousness works of literature focus on the emotional and psychological processes that are taking place in the minds of one or more characters. Important character traits are revealed through an exploration of what is going on in the mind (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
Stream of consciousness is an advanced writing technique which reveals the perceptions, judgments, feelings, memories, and thoughts as if they are disclosing from the brain of the character directly and writer interpret them in unstructured and ungrammatically mode of writings without any specific chronological order in accordance with the portrayal of the character. According to William James, it is disclosure of inner experiences of an individual, used as tool of depicting the multitudinous ideas and feelings which comes in the mind of the individual. The term of coin is used for the first time by Dorthy Richardson, Conrad, James Joyce, W. Faulkner and Virginia Woolf (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
W. Faulkner portrays the character of the child in ‘‘Barn Burning,’’ exposing the moral awareness how he finds himself alone from the social stratum when he is reaching the age of adolescence. As consciousness develops more deeply, this sense of loneliness and alienation deepen so strongly in the son-father relationship, Sarty and his father (Barn Burning | Themes, 2010).
Faulkner displays a marvelous harmonious blend of ‘blood relation’’ and “morality” by exposing the feelings and thoughts of young boy who has to prefer some existential choice to get be relieved. The close affinity of family is based on the moral grounds to constitute the morality of higher level (Barn Burning | Critical Overview, 2010).
William Faulkner’s Barn Burning (1939) is one of the masterpieces of artistic writings, employing all modern techniques of narration like use of stream of consciousness to expose the dilemma of modern American society which is going to degenerate socially as well as culturally. In the beginning, Faulkner became unpopular due to his vague expressive mannerism and in the later stage, Faulkner had gained immense popularity due to his influential style of prose-writing and Barn Burning is the exclusive example of his modernist style and psychological approach how he probes deep into the minds of his character to reveal the very truth in lucid manner (Barn Burning | Introduction, 2010).
The opening scene of Barn Burning expose the entire story of the different incidents via individualistic monologues or soliloquy of the protagonist, Starty who is accompanied with his father, Abner Snopes in the courtroom, whole story is revealed round after 10-15 years of Civil War. The mental process of generating thoughts and feelings in the child character reveals how much he has sincerity and loyalty for his family-relationship due to the ethical obligations (Barn Burning | Introduction, 2010).
Writers who create stream-of-consciousness works of literature focus on the emotional and psychological processes that are taking place in the minds of one or more characters. Important character traits are revealed through an exploration of what is going on in the mind (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
Stream of consciousness is an advanced writing technique which reveals the perceptions, judgments, feelings, memories, and thoughts as if they are disclosing from the brain of the character directly and writer interpret them in unstructured and ungrammatically mode of writings without any specific chronological order in accordance with the portrayal of the character. According to William James, it is disclosure of inner experiences of an individual, used as tool of depicting the multitudinous ideas and feelings which comes in the mind of the individual. The term of coin is used for the first time by Dorthy Richardson, Conrad, James Joyce, W. Faulkner and Virginia Woolf (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
W. Faulkner portrays the character of the child in ‘‘Barn Burning,’’ exposing the moral awareness how he finds himself alone from the social stratum when he is reaching the age of adolescence. As consciousness develops more deeply, this sense of loneliness and alienation deepen so strongly in the son-father relationship, Sarty and his father (Barn Burning | Themes, 2010).
Faulkner displays a marvelous harmonious blend of ‘blood relation’’ and “morality” by exposing the feelings and thoughts of young boy who has to prefer some existential choice to get be relieved. The close affinity of family is based on the moral grounds to constitute the morality of higher level (Barn Burning | Critical Overview, 2010).
William Faulkner’s Barn Burning (1939) is one of the masterpieces of artistic writings, employing all modern techniques of narration like use of stream of consciousness to expose the dilemma of modern American society which is going to degenerate socially as well as culturally. In the beginning, Faulkner became unpopular due to his vague expressive mannerism and in the later stage, Faulkner had gained immense popularity due to his influential style of prose-writing and Barn Burning is the exclusive example of his modernist style and psychological approach how he probes deep into the minds of his character to reveal the very truth in lucid manner (Barn Burning | Introduction, 2010).
The opening scene of Barn Burning expose the entire story of the different incidents via individualistic monologues or soliloquy of the protagonist, Starty who is accompanied with his father, Abner Snopes in the courtroom, whole story is revealed round after 10-15 years of Civil War. The mental process of generating thoughts and feelings in the child character reveals how much he has sincerity and loyalty for his family-relationship due to the ethical obligations (Barn Burning | Introduction, 2010).
Literature and Life
Literature has close connection with life. In fact, literature is the study of life. The subject-matter of literature is the presentation of life. Life provides the raw material by which literature interfuses an artistic pleasure, pattern and form. Literature is the communication of the writer’s novel and unique experiences of life. Thus, there is the vital and intimate connection between literature and life which is inseparable. Life is not a simple phase. It possesses both depth and comprehensiveness. So, literature manifests the subtle problems of life. “It used to be believed at one time that the deepest things in life are those that deal with what were called the eternal varieties of life. The idea of God, for example,’ or of certain moral virtues, were supposed to be eternal. But experience and a wider knowledge of the changing conditions of social life have shaken man’s faith in the unchangeableness of these concepts. It is found that ideas are rooted in the material conditions of life and the change with those conditions which are never static. Thus, different peoples have different ideas of the Godhead. The vengeful Jehovah of the Israelites is something essentially different from the benignant deity whom, for example, the Vaishnavas worship. The laws of morality again undergo changes from country to country and from age to age. Hence in modern times, our conception of the depth and profundity does not revolve round this doctrine of eternal varieties. We try to understand the forces behind these social changes; and we understand them as mainly economic forces. We try to understand the nature of these changes, and we understand them as the replacement of the old order by the new.
Hence, with regard to literature, our idea or its value depends on the extent to which it has been able to express the changing conditions of social life; the emergent truths that supersede the discredited falsehoods of the past. Great literature always grasps and reflects these emergent truths that rise triumphant over the wreckage of the past. Indeed, literature as its deepest has a revolutionary content, and is violently condemned by unreasoning orthodoxy.
Literature involves the objective and subjective outlook of the writer. He observes humanity and makes the subjective approach to it. Literature plays a vital part in the life of man. lt is the greatest of the secondary sources of sensation. lt makes an immense contribution to the sum total of fact, i.e., the joint result of the experience of the individual and of the fact. Thus there is subjective outlook of the writer upon the world at large. Through literature, we converse with the great dead, with Plato, with Buddha, with Montaigne with Addison. We walk the streets of Babylon, of Athens, of Rome, and of Alexandria. We see great monuments, reared ages ago and long since crumpled to the dust.
We recreate the life of distant epochs, and thus by comparison gauge the progress achieved by the men of today. Through literature, we learn wisdom from Aristotle, geometry from Euclid, law from Justinian, morality front Christ and St. Paul. Literature makes the physical features, the inhabitants, the climate the produce of the antipodes as familiar as those of the neighboring country. More than this, the masters of creative literature have made regions of their own which they have peopled with me children of their genius. Thus the subjective outlook reacts upon the objective. The knowledge which have gained through our own previous sensations and through literature increases our capacity for understanding the objective world, and heightens and intensifies the pleasure which we derive from the contemplation of work of art or the face of nature. it is only by and through the subjective aspect of the world that we can rightly appreciate the objective.
ln conclusion, literature is the brain of humanity. Just as in the individual. The brain preserves he record of his previous sensations, ol` his experiences, and of his acquired knowledge, and it is in the light of this record that he interprets every fresh sensation and experience; so the race at large had a record of its past in literature, and it is in the light record alone that its present conditions and circumstances can be understood. The message of the senses is indistinct and valueless to the individual without the co-operation of the brain; the life of the race would be degraded to a mere animal existence without the accumulated stores of previous experience which literature places at its disposal.
Hence, with regard to literature, our idea or its value depends on the extent to which it has been able to express the changing conditions of social life; the emergent truths that supersede the discredited falsehoods of the past. Great literature always grasps and reflects these emergent truths that rise triumphant over the wreckage of the past. Indeed, literature as its deepest has a revolutionary content, and is violently condemned by unreasoning orthodoxy.
Literature involves the objective and subjective outlook of the writer. He observes humanity and makes the subjective approach to it. Literature plays a vital part in the life of man. lt is the greatest of the secondary sources of sensation. lt makes an immense contribution to the sum total of fact, i.e., the joint result of the experience of the individual and of the fact. Thus there is subjective outlook of the writer upon the world at large. Through literature, we converse with the great dead, with Plato, with Buddha, with Montaigne with Addison. We walk the streets of Babylon, of Athens, of Rome, and of Alexandria. We see great monuments, reared ages ago and long since crumpled to the dust.
We recreate the life of distant epochs, and thus by comparison gauge the progress achieved by the men of today. Through literature, we learn wisdom from Aristotle, geometry from Euclid, law from Justinian, morality front Christ and St. Paul. Literature makes the physical features, the inhabitants, the climate the produce of the antipodes as familiar as those of the neighboring country. More than this, the masters of creative literature have made regions of their own which they have peopled with me children of their genius. Thus the subjective outlook reacts upon the objective. The knowledge which have gained through our own previous sensations and through literature increases our capacity for understanding the objective world, and heightens and intensifies the pleasure which we derive from the contemplation of work of art or the face of nature. it is only by and through the subjective aspect of the world that we can rightly appreciate the objective.
ln conclusion, literature is the brain of humanity. Just as in the individual. The brain preserves he record of his previous sensations, ol` his experiences, and of his acquired knowledge, and it is in the light of this record that he interprets every fresh sensation and experience; so the race at large had a record of its past in literature, and it is in the light record alone that its present conditions and circumstances can be understood. The message of the senses is indistinct and valueless to the individual without the co-operation of the brain; the life of the race would be degraded to a mere animal existence without the accumulated stores of previous experience which literature places at its disposal.
Style in Literature
Literature has to do with written words, not with spoken words. Spoken words have only a limited range. They have a sort of immortality conferred on them, when they find their place in literature. Thus there is difference between. speech and literature. Literature is a permanent record and it is personal in character. lt is the voice of one individual, not several individuals that speaks to us in literature. The writer expresses his personal feelings and thoughts in literature, but they must have universal truth. Language has an important bearing upon literature. Literature is the personal use or exercise of language. Language is the vehicle of thought. Now there is a question whether language can be superimposed. It is true that poor thought can be dressed up in fine words but all the same we detect the poor thought. The fact is that thought and expression are inseparable. The one is made to suit the other. There is the story of a learned Arabic scholar handing over his matter to a country-curate to touch it and polish it. The curate damaged his matter by polishing it.
So in great writers, thought and expression are equally matched. What may appear as lavish richness of style or over-elaboration in Shakespeare or Cicero is but an adequate rendering of thought. ln great writers expression is dictated by thought. Cicero’s is the voice destined to proclaim great things. His rich, majestic diction and his elaboration are but the natural expression of his thought. Nor should he forget that genius takes pains with the medium of expression. Some amount of elaboration will naturally go with the expression of deep, stirring or tumultuous thoughts as we find in Shakespeare’s tragedies.
It is wrong to think that language is something coming from without, or that it can be superimposed upon thought. Language is the skin and body of thought. We must look to the adequacy of language to thought, and this is the characteristic of a great writer. A mediocre writer may try to conceal his poor thought in flamboyant language but his poor thought does not go undetected. lf we think that his language is richer than his thought, it betrays lack of judgment or discernment in us. It has been said that men of genius take pains with their thoughts and their language. They never let language run ahead of their thought, otherwise they will be no great writers. We may mention here Demosthenes who studied Thucydides over and over, before he formed his style. Gibbon was not satisfied with the first draft of his history till he developed the style to suit his subject. Richness of style and elaborateness are not faults in a great writer. They are demanded by the subject he deals with.
In a nutshell, “literature is the personal use or exercise of language. That this is so is proved from the fact that one author uses it so differently from another. While the many use language as they find it, the man of genius uses it indeed, but subjects it withal to his own purposes and moulds it according to his own peculiarities. The throng and succession of ideas, thoughts, feelings, imaginations, speculations, which pass within him, the abstractions the juxtapositions, the comparisons, the discriminations, the conceptions, which are so original in him, his views of external things, his judgments upon life, manners, and history, the exercises of his wit, of his humour, of his depth, of his sagacity all these innumerable and incessant creations, the very production and throbbing of his intellect, does he image forth . . . in a corresponding language, which is as multiform as this inward mental action itself, and analogous to it, the faithful expression of his intense personality, attending on his inward world of thought as its very shadow, so that we might as well say that one man’ s shadow is another’s as that the style of a really gifted mind can belong to any but himself. lt follows him about as a shadow. His thought and feeling are personal, and so his language is personal.” (Newman)
William Henry Hudson has lucidly elaborated the chief features of literature. According to him, “first, there is the intellectual element—the thought which the writer brings to bear upon his subject, and which he expresses in his work. Secondly, there is the emotional element—the feeling (of whatever kind) which his subject arouses in him, and which in turn be desires to stimulate in us. Thirdly, there is the element of imagination (including its light form which we call fancy), which is really the faculty of strong and intense vision, and by the exercise of which he quickens a similar power of vision in ourselves. These elements combine to furnish the substance and the life of literature. But, however rich may be the materials yielded by experience, however fresh and strong may be the writer’s thought, feeling and imagination, in dealing with them, another factor is wanting before his work can be completed. The given matter has to be moulded and fashioned in accordance with the principles of order, symmetry, beauty, effectiveness; and thus we have a fourth element in literature, the technical element, or the element of composition and style.”
The essential characteristic of literature is that it produces aesthetic pleasure by manner in which theme is handled. Beyond its intellectual and emotional content and beyond its fundamental quality of life, it appeals to us by reason of its form. This means that literature is a fine art and like all fine arts. It has its own laws and conditions of workmanship. Literature always communicates experience of the writer. These experiences of the author’s mind at once affect the reader’s mind because of the intercommunication of style and thought. His experience may be actual of a sort of day-dreaming, but imagination can transform it into something, for the reader. By means of his imagination, the writer can continue the existence of his experience and communicate it to the reader as if he has recently caught it out of the flux of life.
“In order to achieve this, the writer must arouse me acre imagination in his reader, and control it in such a manner that the reader may also imitate the experience. This he achieves by means of words which should act as symbols of his experience, so that it can be properly represented to the reader. The writer must translate his experience into such symbolic equivalence of language, that the symbol may be translated back again by the reader’s imagination into a similar experience. lt is here that the skill of the artist lies. Literature thus expresses and communicates experience by means of language. lt is the expression in language for its own sake, of experience for its own sake. It is beautiful when it achieves this aim. In it, the experience of receiving the communication, and the experience communicated are indistinguishable.”
So in great writers, thought and expression are equally matched. What may appear as lavish richness of style or over-elaboration in Shakespeare or Cicero is but an adequate rendering of thought. ln great writers expression is dictated by thought. Cicero’s is the voice destined to proclaim great things. His rich, majestic diction and his elaboration are but the natural expression of his thought. Nor should he forget that genius takes pains with the medium of expression. Some amount of elaboration will naturally go with the expression of deep, stirring or tumultuous thoughts as we find in Shakespeare’s tragedies.
It is wrong to think that language is something coming from without, or that it can be superimposed upon thought. Language is the skin and body of thought. We must look to the adequacy of language to thought, and this is the characteristic of a great writer. A mediocre writer may try to conceal his poor thought in flamboyant language but his poor thought does not go undetected. lf we think that his language is richer than his thought, it betrays lack of judgment or discernment in us. It has been said that men of genius take pains with their thoughts and their language. They never let language run ahead of their thought, otherwise they will be no great writers. We may mention here Demosthenes who studied Thucydides over and over, before he formed his style. Gibbon was not satisfied with the first draft of his history till he developed the style to suit his subject. Richness of style and elaborateness are not faults in a great writer. They are demanded by the subject he deals with.
In a nutshell, “literature is the personal use or exercise of language. That this is so is proved from the fact that one author uses it so differently from another. While the many use language as they find it, the man of genius uses it indeed, but subjects it withal to his own purposes and moulds it according to his own peculiarities. The throng and succession of ideas, thoughts, feelings, imaginations, speculations, which pass within him, the abstractions the juxtapositions, the comparisons, the discriminations, the conceptions, which are so original in him, his views of external things, his judgments upon life, manners, and history, the exercises of his wit, of his humour, of his depth, of his sagacity all these innumerable and incessant creations, the very production and throbbing of his intellect, does he image forth . . . in a corresponding language, which is as multiform as this inward mental action itself, and analogous to it, the faithful expression of his intense personality, attending on his inward world of thought as its very shadow, so that we might as well say that one man’ s shadow is another’s as that the style of a really gifted mind can belong to any but himself. lt follows him about as a shadow. His thought and feeling are personal, and so his language is personal.” (Newman)
William Henry Hudson has lucidly elaborated the chief features of literature. According to him, “first, there is the intellectual element—the thought which the writer brings to bear upon his subject, and which he expresses in his work. Secondly, there is the emotional element—the feeling (of whatever kind) which his subject arouses in him, and which in turn be desires to stimulate in us. Thirdly, there is the element of imagination (including its light form which we call fancy), which is really the faculty of strong and intense vision, and by the exercise of which he quickens a similar power of vision in ourselves. These elements combine to furnish the substance and the life of literature. But, however rich may be the materials yielded by experience, however fresh and strong may be the writer’s thought, feeling and imagination, in dealing with them, another factor is wanting before his work can be completed. The given matter has to be moulded and fashioned in accordance with the principles of order, symmetry, beauty, effectiveness; and thus we have a fourth element in literature, the technical element, or the element of composition and style.”
The essential characteristic of literature is that it produces aesthetic pleasure by manner in which theme is handled. Beyond its intellectual and emotional content and beyond its fundamental quality of life, it appeals to us by reason of its form. This means that literature is a fine art and like all fine arts. It has its own laws and conditions of workmanship. Literature always communicates experience of the writer. These experiences of the author’s mind at once affect the reader’s mind because of the intercommunication of style and thought. His experience may be actual of a sort of day-dreaming, but imagination can transform it into something, for the reader. By means of his imagination, the writer can continue the existence of his experience and communicate it to the reader as if he has recently caught it out of the flux of life.
“In order to achieve this, the writer must arouse me acre imagination in his reader, and control it in such a manner that the reader may also imitate the experience. This he achieves by means of words which should act as symbols of his experience, so that it can be properly represented to the reader. The writer must translate his experience into such symbolic equivalence of language, that the symbol may be translated back again by the reader’s imagination into a similar experience. lt is here that the skill of the artist lies. Literature thus expresses and communicates experience by means of language. lt is the expression in language for its own sake, of experience for its own sake. It is beautiful when it achieves this aim. In it, the experience of receiving the communication, and the experience communicated are indistinguishable.”
Literature And Society
A literary man is as much a product of his society as his art is product of his own reaction to life. Even the greatest of artists is sometimes a conscious, sometimes an unconscious exponent of his time-spirit. The time-spirit is the total outcome, the quintessential accretion of all the political, social, religious, and scientific changes of a particular age. The historical aspect of literature, therefore, minor or unimportant though it may be for aesthetic purpose, cannot be totally ignored.
According to Hudson, “A nation’s life has its moods of exultation and depression; its epochs a strong faith and strenuous idealism. Now of doubt, struggle and disillusion, now of unbelief and flippant disregard for the sanctities of existence ; and while the manner of expression will vary greatly with the individuality of each writer, the dominant spirit of the hour, whatever that may be, will directly or indirectly reveal itself in his work.” Thus literature reflects his zeitgeist or the Time-Spirit. Non writer can escape influence of his age. livery titan, according to Gocthe`s statement, is the citizen of his age as well as of his country. Renan remarked: “One belongs to one’s century and race, even when one reacts against one’s century and race.” Thus literature always expresses the thoughts and sentiments of human mind which are closely connected with and conditioned by the age. The influence of the age on the human mind is due to the fact that the latter is constantly influenced by the spirit of the age and reacts to it vividly and vigorously. The reflection of the age depends on the quality of the mind in which it is reflected. if a work of literature is to be judged by the quality of this reflection. It is apparent that it depends on the quality and nature of the reflecting mind. A sensitive mind will be able to render back the slightest shades and nuances, and its creation are characterized by delicacy, subtlety and depth.
Literature studied as a reflection of the spirit of the age creates a new spirit for us. With its help, we travel into the minds of the other races and the minds of the other epochs. Thus it becomes a son of sociological approach, a supplementary and eomtnentary on history. Once we are steeped in the spirit of a by-gone age, we are able to enjoy even archaic books which otherwise would not appeal to us. . ·
Influence of the Writer
We do not find any interest in the novels of Richardson or Fielding if they are studied as the books of social facts. Even we do not find charm in the Spectator, The Faerie Queene and Arcadia, if they are studied for understanding the ages of their respective authors. Thus it is an admitted fact that if the work of a writer merely reflects the spirit of his times. It cannot be great literature. It is a very useful piece of valuable material for the sociologist and the historian. It is entirely devoid of the virtue of permanence and universality. The literature of the Greeks should not appeal to an Indian or a German mind if its historical factor is taken into consideration. Similarly Shakespeare should not be regarded a great dramatist, if he simply and purely reflects the Elizabethan period.
The essence ofliterature lies in the individual approach of the author, his personality which will dominate over other influences. Undoubtedly, the author is shaped by the spirit of his age, but he has also got the capabilities to mould his period. A great man of letters is the creature as well as the creator of his age in which he exists. Thus we talk of the age of Shakespeare, the age of Dryden, the age of Wordsworth, the age of Bernard Shaw and so on. The students and literary historians keep in view a process of social growth; always mistake the real point at issue. They at once ignore the genius of the man of letters who can manage to transcend the bounds of race and country. For example, Milton`s Paradise Lost, was a great challenge to the age of cynicism, low morals and satirical literature. This mighty book does not reveal the time spirit of his age. Milton revolted rather than expressed the spirit of his times. Similarly, in spite of all the atmosphere of heroism and love of song and drama, the Elizabethan age could not produce another Shakespeare. The original, mysterious and incommunicable element of personal genius of Shakespeare made him the dramatist for all ages and climes. lt is this factor which gives an abiding and universal appeal to the work of a great writer.
The function of literature is different from that of history. Literature is the revelation of beauty. Beauty is the expression of emotion and all such expression without any exception is beautiful.
Santayanas defines beauty as ‘value, positive, intrinsic and objectified`. We may explain this in less technical language as pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing. Aesthetic pleasure or beauty differs the same school of thought. H.R. Marshall speaks of the ‘stable pleasure` which is especially provided by art and known to us by the name of beauty. Another psychological aesthetician M. Porena defines the beautiful as that which pleases the mind as an objective value, i. e. without any apparent reference to ourselves as the sources of feeling. There is this element of objectivity in our appreciation of the beautiful. Tolstoy, in his famous book What is Art, defines art and literature as the communication of emotions. When we tell a story, compose a song or paint a picture with the object of communicating to others an emotion, we have ourselves felt, that is Art. Art leaps to the Olympian height of great art when emotion is fresh and springs from a fresh and vivid attitude to the world. The beauty of a work of art to Tolstoy should be assessed entirely by reference to the verdict of the greatest number of men. Thus a democratic principle was applied to the field of art criticism because Tolstoy took beauty not to be objective and inherent in works of art. Beauty is a quality of the effect produced by works of art on those who are brought into contact with them. lt is a mere subjective experience; works of art and literature simply produce a sense of the beautiful in the people who view it. Undoubtedly it is extreme subjectivism. The position of Tolstoy has been further strengthened by Dr. I.A. Richards has ably offered a psychological explanation of the enjoyment of the beautiful. Dr. Richards in his Principles of Literary Criticism and Foundations of Aesthetics defines beauty as emotional satisfaction. By the contemplation of a beautiful object certain impulses in ourselves are brought to emotional equilibrium of harmony. We experience satisfaction because of this condition of equilibrium and postulate the presence of beauty in that which has caused it.
From the above criticism it is apparent that some critics wish to disassociate from the spirit of the age. According to them, literature can be disassociated from the age to which it belongs. But it is not always true. The literature which is solely concerned with emotions and sense of beauty is more or less ephemeral in character. Such literature may be hopelessly romantic. lt may be morbidly called fin de siècle (decadent). “lnstead of being conserved with the grand realities of human existence, it creates a sort of ‘palace of art’ or `ivory tower’, where it isolates itself from the freshening current of life. There can be no doubt, however, that in a measure, this literature also derives its character from the character of the age; instead of canalizing the progressive urge inherent in the age, it picks out the careful jetsams that stream of the time carries into the gulf` of oblivion and makes an interesting no doubt, but meant only for the hour, without any basis on permanence.”
According to Hudson, “A nation’s life has its moods of exultation and depression; its epochs a strong faith and strenuous idealism. Now of doubt, struggle and disillusion, now of unbelief and flippant disregard for the sanctities of existence ; and while the manner of expression will vary greatly with the individuality of each writer, the dominant spirit of the hour, whatever that may be, will directly or indirectly reveal itself in his work.” Thus literature reflects his zeitgeist or the Time-Spirit. Non writer can escape influence of his age. livery titan, according to Gocthe`s statement, is the citizen of his age as well as of his country. Renan remarked: “One belongs to one’s century and race, even when one reacts against one’s century and race.” Thus literature always expresses the thoughts and sentiments of human mind which are closely connected with and conditioned by the age. The influence of the age on the human mind is due to the fact that the latter is constantly influenced by the spirit of the age and reacts to it vividly and vigorously. The reflection of the age depends on the quality of the mind in which it is reflected. if a work of literature is to be judged by the quality of this reflection. It is apparent that it depends on the quality and nature of the reflecting mind. A sensitive mind will be able to render back the slightest shades and nuances, and its creation are characterized by delicacy, subtlety and depth.
Literature studied as a reflection of the spirit of the age creates a new spirit for us. With its help, we travel into the minds of the other races and the minds of the other epochs. Thus it becomes a son of sociological approach, a supplementary and eomtnentary on history. Once we are steeped in the spirit of a by-gone age, we are able to enjoy even archaic books which otherwise would not appeal to us. . ·
Influence of the Writer
We do not find any interest in the novels of Richardson or Fielding if they are studied as the books of social facts. Even we do not find charm in the Spectator, The Faerie Queene and Arcadia, if they are studied for understanding the ages of their respective authors. Thus it is an admitted fact that if the work of a writer merely reflects the spirit of his times. It cannot be great literature. It is a very useful piece of valuable material for the sociologist and the historian. It is entirely devoid of the virtue of permanence and universality. The literature of the Greeks should not appeal to an Indian or a German mind if its historical factor is taken into consideration. Similarly Shakespeare should not be regarded a great dramatist, if he simply and purely reflects the Elizabethan period.
The essence ofliterature lies in the individual approach of the author, his personality which will dominate over other influences. Undoubtedly, the author is shaped by the spirit of his age, but he has also got the capabilities to mould his period. A great man of letters is the creature as well as the creator of his age in which he exists. Thus we talk of the age of Shakespeare, the age of Dryden, the age of Wordsworth, the age of Bernard Shaw and so on. The students and literary historians keep in view a process of social growth; always mistake the real point at issue. They at once ignore the genius of the man of letters who can manage to transcend the bounds of race and country. For example, Milton`s Paradise Lost, was a great challenge to the age of cynicism, low morals and satirical literature. This mighty book does not reveal the time spirit of his age. Milton revolted rather than expressed the spirit of his times. Similarly, in spite of all the atmosphere of heroism and love of song and drama, the Elizabethan age could not produce another Shakespeare. The original, mysterious and incommunicable element of personal genius of Shakespeare made him the dramatist for all ages and climes. lt is this factor which gives an abiding and universal appeal to the work of a great writer.
The function of literature is different from that of history. Literature is the revelation of beauty. Beauty is the expression of emotion and all such expression without any exception is beautiful.
Santayanas defines beauty as ‘value, positive, intrinsic and objectified`. We may explain this in less technical language as pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing. Aesthetic pleasure or beauty differs the same school of thought. H.R. Marshall speaks of the ‘stable pleasure` which is especially provided by art and known to us by the name of beauty. Another psychological aesthetician M. Porena defines the beautiful as that which pleases the mind as an objective value, i. e. without any apparent reference to ourselves as the sources of feeling. There is this element of objectivity in our appreciation of the beautiful. Tolstoy, in his famous book What is Art, defines art and literature as the communication of emotions. When we tell a story, compose a song or paint a picture with the object of communicating to others an emotion, we have ourselves felt, that is Art. Art leaps to the Olympian height of great art when emotion is fresh and springs from a fresh and vivid attitude to the world. The beauty of a work of art to Tolstoy should be assessed entirely by reference to the verdict of the greatest number of men. Thus a democratic principle was applied to the field of art criticism because Tolstoy took beauty not to be objective and inherent in works of art. Beauty is a quality of the effect produced by works of art on those who are brought into contact with them. lt is a mere subjective experience; works of art and literature simply produce a sense of the beautiful in the people who view it. Undoubtedly it is extreme subjectivism. The position of Tolstoy has been further strengthened by Dr. I.A. Richards has ably offered a psychological explanation of the enjoyment of the beautiful. Dr. Richards in his Principles of Literary Criticism and Foundations of Aesthetics defines beauty as emotional satisfaction. By the contemplation of a beautiful object certain impulses in ourselves are brought to emotional equilibrium of harmony. We experience satisfaction because of this condition of equilibrium and postulate the presence of beauty in that which has caused it.
From the above criticism it is apparent that some critics wish to disassociate from the spirit of the age. According to them, literature can be disassociated from the age to which it belongs. But it is not always true. The literature which is solely concerned with emotions and sense of beauty is more or less ephemeral in character. Such literature may be hopelessly romantic. lt may be morbidly called fin de siècle (decadent). “lnstead of being conserved with the grand realities of human existence, it creates a sort of ‘palace of art’ or `ivory tower’, where it isolates itself from the freshening current of life. There can be no doubt, however, that in a measure, this literature also derives its character from the character of the age; instead of canalizing the progressive urge inherent in the age, it picks out the careful jetsams that stream of the time carries into the gulf` of oblivion and makes an interesting no doubt, but meant only for the hour, without any basis on permanence.”
Alliterative verse: 8th - 14th century AD
The story of English literature begins with the Germanic tradition of the Anglo-Saxon settlers. Beowulf stands at its head.
This epic poem of the 8th century is in Anglo-Saxon, now more usually described as Old English. It is incomprehensible to a reader familiar only with modern English. Even so, there is a continuous linguistic development between the two. The most significant turning point, from about 1100, is the development of Middle English - differing from Old English in the addition of a French vocabulary after the Norman conquest. French and Germanic influences subsequently compete for the mainstream role in English literature.
The French poetic tradition inclines to lines of a regular metrical length, usually linked by rhyme into couplets or stanzas. German poetry depends more on rhythm and stress, with repeated consonants (alliteration) to bind the phrases. Elegant or subtle rhymes have a courtly flavour. The hammer blows of alliteration are a type of verbal athleticism more likely to draw applause in a hall full of warriors.
Both traditions achieve a magnificent flowering in England in the late 14th century, towards the end of the Middle English period. Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain are masterpieces which look back to Old English. By contrast Chaucer, a poet of the court, ushers in a new era of English literature.
Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain: 14th century AD
Of these two great English alliterative poems, the second is entirely anonymous and the first virtually so. The narrator of Piers Plowman calls himself Will; occasional references in the text suggest that his name may be Langland. Nothing else, apart from this poem, is known of him.
Piers Plowman exists in three versions, the longest amounting to more than 7000 lines. It is considered probable that all three are by the same author. If so he spends some twenty years, from about 1367, adjusting and refining his epic creation.
Piers the ploughman is one of a group of characters searching for Christian truth in the complex setting of a dream. Though mainly a spiritual quest, the work also has a political element. It contains sharply observed details of a corrupt and materialistic age (Wycliffe is among Langland's English contemporaries).
Where Piers Plowman is tough and gritty, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (dating from the same period) is more polished in its manner and more courtly in its content. The characters derive partly from Arthurian legend.
A mysterious green knight arrives one Christmas at the court of King Arthur. He invites any knight to strike him with an axe and to receive the blow back a year later. Gawain accepts the challenge. He cuts off the head of the green knight, who rides away with it.
The rest of the poem concerns Gawain, a year later, at the green knight's castle. In a tale of love (for the green knight's wife) and subsequent deceit, Gawain emerges with little honour. The green knight spares his life but sends him home to Arthur's court wearing the wife's girdle as a badge of shame.
Geoffrey Chaucer at court: AD 1367-1400
In 1367 one of four new 'yeomen of the chamber' in the household of Edward III is Geoffrey Chaucer, then aged about twenty-seven. The young man's wife, Philippa, is already a lady-in-waiting to the queen.
A few years later Chaucer becomes one of the king's esquires, with duties which include entertaining the court with stories and music. There can rarely have been a more inspired appointment. Chaucer's poems are designed to be read aloud, in the first instance by himself. Their range, from high romance to bawdy comedy, is well calculated to hold the listeners spellbound. Courtly circles in England are his first audience.
Chaucer's public career is one of almost unbroken success in two consecutive reigns. He undertakes diplomatic missions abroad on behalf of the king; he is given administrative posts, such as controlling the customs, which bring lodgings and handsome stipends. Even occasional disasters (such as being robbed twice in four days in 1390 and losing £20 of Richard II's money) do him no lasting harm.
A measure of Chaucer's skill as a courtier is that during the 1390s, when he is in the employment of Richard II, he also receives gifts at Christmas from Richard's rival, Bolingbroke.
When Bolingbroke unseats Richard II in 1399, taking his place on the throne as Henry IV, Chaucer combines diplomacy and wit to secure his position. Having lost his royal appointments, he reminds the new king of his predicament in a poem entitled 'The Complaint of Chaucer to his Empty Purse'. The last line of each verse begs the purse to 'be heavy again, or else must I die'. Henry IV hears the message. The court poet is given a new annuity.
Henry is certainly aware that he is keeping in his royal circle a poet of great distinction. Chaucer's reputation is such that, when he dies in the following year, he is granted the very unusual honour - for a commoner - of being buried in Westminster abbey.
Troilus and Criseyde: AD 1385
Chaucer's first masterpiece is his subtle account of the wooing of Criseyde by Troilus, with the active encouragement of Criseyde's uncle Pandarus. The tender joys of their love affair are followed by Criseyde's betrayal and Troilus's death in battle.
Chaucer adapts to his own purposes the more conventionally dramatic account of this legendary affair written some fifty years earlier by Boccaccio (probably read by Chaucer when on a mission to Florence in 1373). His own very long poem (8239 lines) is written in the early 1380s and is complete by 1385.
Chaucer's tone is delicate, subtle, oblique - though this does not prevent him from introducing and gently satirising many vivid details of life at court, as he guides the reader through the long psychological intrigue by which Pandarus eventually delivers Troilus into Criseyde's bed.
The charm and detail of the poem, giving an intimate glimpse of a courtly world, is akin to the delightful miniatures which illustrate books of hours of this period in the style known as International Gothic. Yet this delicacy is only one side of Chaucer's abundant talent - as he soon proves in The Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales: AD 1387-1400
Collections of tales are a favourite literary convention of the 14th century. Boccaccio's Decameron is the best-known example before Chaucer's time, but Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales outshines his predecessors. He does so in the range and vitality of the stories in his collection, from the courtly tone of 'The Knight's Tale' to the rough and often obscene humour of those known technically as fabliaux.
He does so also in the detail and humour of the framework holding the stories together. His account of the pilgrims as they ride from London to Canterbury, with their constant bickering and rivalry, amounts to a comic masterpiece in its own right.
The pilgrims, thirty of them including Chaucer himself, gather one spring day at the Tabard in Southwark. The host of the inn, Harry Bailly, is a real contemporary of Chaucer's (his name features in historical records). He will act as their guide on the route to Canterbury and he proposes that they pass the time on their journey by telling stories. Each pilgrim is to tell two on the way out and two on the way back. Whoever is judged to have told the best tale will have a free supper at the Tabard on their return.
Of this ambitious total of 120 stories, Chaucer completes only 24 by the time of his death. Even so the collection amounts to some 17,000 lines - mainly of rhyming verse, but with some passages of prose.
The pilgrims represent all sections of society from gentry to humble craftsmen (the only absentees are the labouring poor, unable to afford a pilgrimage of this kind). There are respectable people from the various classes - such as the knight, the parson and the yeoman - but the emphasis falls mainly on characters who are pretentious, scurrilous, mendacious, avaricious or lecherous.
The pilgrims are vividly described, one by one, in Chaucer's Prologue. The relationships between them evolve in the linking passages between the tales, as Harry Bailly arranges who shall speak next.
The pilgrims for the most part tell tales closely related to their station in life or to their personal character. Sometimes the anecdotes even reflect mutual animosities. The miller gives a scurrilously comic account of a carpenter being cuckolded. Everyone laughs heartily except the reeve, who began his career as a carpenter. The reeve gets his own back with an equally outrageous tale of the seduction of a miller's wife and daughter.
But the pilgrim who has most delighted six centuries of readers is the five-times-married Wife of Bath, taking a lusty pleasure in her own appetites and richly scorning the ideals of celibacy.
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