The differnces between shakespeare's The Tempest and Aime Cesaire's A Tempest paper no 11

the differences between Shakespeare's the tempest and aime cesaire's a tempest

Name : Gohil Hetalba

Std    : m.a. – II   sem -  III

Sub   :  paper no :  11 ( post – colonial Literature )

Topic :  the differences between the Shakespeare’s “the                          tempest” and amie cesaire’s ‘’ a tempest”

Roll no : 08

Submitted to : smt. S.b. gardi

                                Dept. of English

                                 m.k. Bhavnagar university

year : 2013 – 2014

 Amie Cesaire was born on June 26, 1913 and died in 2008. He dealt with literature and politics. His way from a small Caribbean island to the global stage was traced in a variety of genres poems, plays, essays, prefaces, speeches interviews declaration manifestos letters , telegrams , translations, a film review and a historical study. The liberation of people from all forms of exploration was his main theme of writing.

               His contribution to world literature take many forms. His works have been translated into many languages, a number of which appear in the voluminous anthology prepared student in university courses .  He introduced to the language of liberation the word “negritude”, which conveys the awareness of one’s own roots in Africa and of the need to spread this awareness to other peoples in the African Diaspora. Negritude severed as a banner for those African and Caribbean writers in the 1930s who rejected French cultural assimilation and who wanted to focus instead on their own heritage. The term entered French dictionaries in 1948 after the publication of “ Anthologies de la malagache de language francaise.”

    UNESCO declared 2013 a year for honoring Rabindranath Tagore, Pablo Neruda and Aime cesaire as exemplars of a “reconciled universal.

 Known in the world of letters as the progenitor of Negritude,  a major voice of surrealism and one of the great French poet, Cesaire is equally revered for his role in modern anti-colonial and Pan – African movements.

  He believed that the assimilation of the old colonies into the republic would guarantee equal rights but this turned out not to be the case.

Cesaire believed that colonialism and racism were the fundamental problems that the world faced. He defined “Universal” in a different way  _

“ I have a different idea of a universal’’,

Cesaire explained to his former communist comrades _

“ It is of a universal rich with all that is particular there are the deepening of each particular, coexistence of them all.”

 In his final exploration of colonialism Cesaire retread from modern history and turned to Shakespeare as his vehide. His 1969 adaptation of “ The Tempest ” explored the relationship between Prospero who is the colonizer and his colonial subjects, who are Caliban and Ariel. Caliban rebels outright whereas Ariel attempts to appeal to Prospero’s moral conscience. Caliban is crushed when he attempts to become his own master, but before figuring out that Prospero’s domination and claims to superiority are based on lies. Caliban’s mouth. The mouths of the radical black intelligentsia produced by colonial education. _

       “ Prospero, you are the master of illusion,

         Lying is your trademark.

          And you have lied so much to me

         ( lied about the world, lied about me )

         That you have ended by imposing on me an image of my self.

          Underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, that’s way you have forced me to see my self.

          I detest that image ! what’s more, its a lie !

          But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well.”

 He wrote : “ poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge.” 

          Cesaire has denied trying any linguistic echo of Shakespeare, but the translation of his play into English shows some echoes. An English of American spectator cannot help but “hear ” behind the language of the play, the original text resounding  in all its well known beauty, its familiarity. The modern play has many echos of the former play ‘The Tempest.’

 ‘A Tempest’  is a 1969 play. It is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ from a post colonial perspective. The play was first performed at the Festival d’ Hammamet in Tunisia under the direction of Jean Marie surreal. Cesaire uses all of the characters from Shakespeare’s version, but he specifies that Prospero is a white master, while Ariel is a mulatto and Caliban is a black slave. These characters are the focus of the play as Cesaire foregrounds issues of race, power and decolonization.

             Synopsis of ‘The Tempest’

Alonso ( Naples’ king ), his brother Sebastian, his son Ferdinand, Alonso’s counselor Gonzalo and Antonio are on a ship with crew caught in storm. When the storm subsides, the exiled Duke Prospero, his daughter Miranda lived on the island for 12 years. Miranda talked about seeing a ship to her father but explained that it was his  magic. He tells her that once he was Duke of Milan, but his brother Antonio took studying literature. They survived as Gonzalo had given Prospero money, clothes and his sorcerer books in the boat. When he saw his enemies nearby he caused storm. His spirit Ariel helped him. Alonso is thought to be dead. Prospero rescued Ariel from the ‘foul witch’ Sycorax and will free Ariel him self when his plans for the nobles are complete. Ariel was imprisoned in a tree. Sycorax also had a deformed son – Caliban. Prospero makes him his slave.

Ariel scared Ferdinand as he wanders. He met Prospero and Miranda. Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love, Prospero pretends to be tough towards Ferdinand. Alonso and his crew are alive but feared death of Ferdinand. At Prospero’s cave, Miranda saw Ferdinand carrying logs for her father. They vow to marry.  Prospero, watching in secret approves. Caliban convinces Stephano to kill Prospero and seize Miranda. Ariel informs Prospero about this.

Prospero brings the nobles to his cell and reveals himself to them. He forgives Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian them tells them about Ferdinand and Miranda Alonso restores Prospero’s dukedom and Prospero promises to return all home safely to Italy. As for Caliban, he promises to mend his ways while Stephano and Trinculo repent for plotting to kill Prospero. Ariel is freed.

Aime cesaire’s ‘A Tempest’ is a politicized which is based on Shakespeare’s play. This play is created during the late 60s, a time of great social change. It is really a post – colonial response to ‘The Tempest’. It deals much more with the history from the point of view of Caliban and Ariel. In Aime Cesaire version Caliban is a Black slave and the spirit Ariel is represented as a mulatto slave.

 This version follows the same story however there are other differences from play which influenced it. The dialogue on Caliban’s part is ‘harsh’. He says _

I’ll impale you! And on a stake that you’ve sharpened yourself Caliban’s aggression and hate towards Prospero is found.

There are boundary lines drawn among the characters those based on race and even the formerly neutral Gonzalo is condescending towards what he views as a rebellious Caliban obviously in need of Christianity.

 Caliban’s race got a bit low treatment. Ariel was treated as mulatto Ariel’s role here is of a willing servant. He was treated in a better way but was a captive still.

   Caliban was actually a ruler of the island before Prospero’s arrival. Caliban and Ariel react differently to their situation. Caliban favors revolution over Ariel’s non – violence and rejects his name as the imposition of Prospero’s colonizing language. He complains stridently about his enslavement and regrets not being powerful enough to challenge the reign of Prospero to consider giving him independence. At the end of the play Prospero grants Ariel his freedom, but retains confront of that island and of Caliban. This is a notable departure from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. In his daughter and the men who were shipwrecked there at the beginning of the play.

 In ‘The Tempest’ there are quite a few characters that might be easily identifiable as villains but the main figure, Prospero seems to play, many routes, good as well as bad. All of the events in the play are more or less orchestrated by him in his attempt to get justice and return to Milan. It can be said that is at fault for his current situation because he neglected his duties as duke. He passed his own responsibilities to his brother . Whether Prospero is a villain or not in Cesaire’s work is not clearly shown. It’s not mentioned clearly that his purpose as colonialist was oppressive like Britisher.

Prospero is also a good example of the role power plays in the story. He was a magician in Shakespeare’s as well as Aime Cesaire’s play. He possessed great ability to do anything through the loyal spirits on his side. He uses his powerful spirits which he uses to take revenge and also control all the characters around him. Colonialist did this in Cesaire’s play. He controlled his daughter with magic. He used his daughter Miranda, as a tool of reconciliation with king Alonso by marrying her off to his son. Alonso’s party  is wandering the island Prospero conjures up a feast using his magic only to Snatch it away from them. In doing so he demonstrates his power over his enemies, whom he frightens and forced them to flee.

The character called Stephano who happens to meet Caliban as he is hidden gives us another example of powerful person in the play and more specifically how the characters bring their end. When Caliban swears his loyalty to him he readily agrees and takes advantages and declares himself king of the island. This way Caliban once again trusts outsider.

Miranda is the only one female character on the island. She is depicted as a helpless character. Caliban is the name that reminds us of the Canibals. Miranda is helpless whose care is to be taken as she has been the focus of Caliban. Caliban is treated in the text as a person who comes to represent ‘bestial desire’ and Miranda establish herself as an innocent in need of constant Protection.

The ends of the both plays are a bit different Caliban’s character and the way Prospero treats him is a nice representation of colonial attitudes towards indigenous people. “Well I hate you as well !

             For it is you who have made me doubt my self for the first time.” His rebuke of the idea that Prospero did him a favor by teaching him English synonyms with the view of many especially, the late sixties when Cesaire wrote his version.

Cesaire’s rich and insightful adaptation draws on contemporary Caribbean society, Africa – American experience and African mythology to raise question about Colonialism , racism and their effects. _

And now, Caliban it’s you and me !

What I have to tell you will be brief:

 ten times a hundred times, I’ve tried to save you above all from yourself.

But you have always answered me with wrath and venom

like the opossum that pulls itself up by its own tail ,

the better to bite the hand that tears it from the darkness.

Well, my boy, I shall set aside my indulgent nature

And henceforth I will answer your violence with Violence!            

  

                       

  

comparison and differentite of behaviorist theory and nativist theory paper no 12 elt

comparison and differentiate of behaviorist theory and nativist theory

Name : gohil hetalba

Std    : m.a. -  ii   sem – iii

Sub   :  paper no 12 ( elt)

Topic : comparison and differentiate  of behaviorist theory and nativist theory on learning and acquisition .

Roll no : 08

Submitted to : dept. of English

                      Maharaja Krishna kumarsinhji Bhavnagar university

Year : 2013 – 2014

There are some basic advanced to describe how language is acquired learnt and taught. The behaviorist theory Mentalist theory , Rationalist theory and Interactionism, Native theory are some of these theories.

      The behaviorist theory and mentalist theory are mainly applicable to the acquisition of native languages. While the rest can account for foreign language acquisition. The theories are complementary to each other.

  Native language growth must pave the way for foreign language growth. The basic theories are fundamental pillars of language learning. Whose relevance to education is undeniable.

 “Infants learn oral language from other human role models through a process involving, imitation, rewards, and practice. Human role models in an infant’s environment provide the stimuli and rewards.”

               _ Cooter and Reutzel, 2004

When a child attempts oral language or imitates the sounds or speech patterns they are usually praised and given affection for their efforts.

 Behaviorist theory is basically a Psychological theory. It was founded by J.B. Watson, is actually a theory of a native language learning advanced in part as a reaction to traditional grammar. Leonard Bloomfield, O.N. Mowrer, B.F. Skinner, A.W. Staats. Behaviorism was advanced in America as a new approach. It was based on verbal behavior. Educational world gave him considerable response.

  The Nativist theory is where it is believed that we have an inborn ability to learn and learning is in our genetics. N. Chomsky did many researches on this and has the greatest influence on this theory.

Nativist theory can be interpreted as under :

Advocating the perpetuation of native societies. “ the old nativist prejudice against the foreign businessman”, the nativistc faith preaches the old values.

              _ C.K. Kluckhohn.

Nativist is of or relating to or advocating nativism, nativist theories the traditional controversy between the nativistc and empiristic theories.

 The nativistc theory with the biological belief that language is an innate feature of the infant. Researcher Noam Chomsky is a firm advocate for this theory. He gave the idea of a language organ which is called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Other researchers have discredited Chomsky’s theories.

The behaviorist theory depends on the analysis of human behavior in observable stimulus response interaction and the association between them. Thorndike was the first behaviorist to explore the area that learning is the establishment of associations on particular process of behavior and consequences of that behavior. The behaviorist theory is a theory of stimulus – response psychology.

  “ Through a trial and error process in which acceptable utterances are reinforced by comprehension and approval an unacceptable utterances are inhibited by the lack of reward, he gradually learns to make finer and finer discrimination until his utterances  approximate more and more closely the speech of the community in which he is growing up.”

                         _ Wilga M Rivers

 A highly complex learning task can be learned by being broken down into small habits. The acquisition of learning in infancy is governed by the acquisition of other habits.

             The nativist theory tells us that language does not develop quickly. According to the Nativist theory it is more gradual process. Also this theory does not put into account the many different languages spoken throughout the world. Nativist theory deals with the development processes most closely associated with initial language acquisition.

 Acquisition of language is the study of the process by which a person learns a language. Nativist theories hypothesize that language is an innate fundamental part of the human genetic make – up and that language acquisition occurs as a natural part of the human experience.

 Nativists believe that children are born with an innate ability to organize laws of language which enables children to easily learn a native language. They believe that the children have specific language ability which assists them as the move ahead. This idea is often contrasted to the behaviorist perspectives of Skinner and Watson.

Some principles operating on behaviorism:

Ø Behaviorist theory dwells on the language that is spoken.

Ø  Behaviorist theory is the habit formation theory of language teaching and learning reminding us the learning of structural grammar.

Ø The stimulus response chain, S – R, is pure case of conditioning. Behaviorist learning theory emphasizes conditioning and building from the simplest conditioned responses to more and more complex behaviors.

Ø  Positive reinforcement is reward while negative reinforcement is punishment.

Ø  Each person can learn equally if the conditions in which the learning takes place are the same for each person.

                

             Some limitation of Nativist theories are:

Language doesn't develop as forecast by Nativists. This theory does not put different language spoken in account. It is somewhat in contrast with the behaviorist theory. The process of language acquisition in children is constrained.

The theorist  of nativism believes that it is difficult to explain how children within the first five years of life routinely master the complex and puzzling grammar and the rules of the native language. Other scholars however resisted the possibility that infants routine success at acquiring the grammar of their native language requires anything more than forms of learning.

  Basic strategies of language learning within the scope of behaviorist theory are imitation reinforcement and rewarding. In behaviorist theory the process of learning relies more on generalization rewarding condition three of which support the development of analogical learning in children objection made on instinctively based learning will doubtlessly harm the creative way of learning . Behaviorist theory does not explain social influence rate on a learn equally well in the same conditions in which learning takes place. This theory is useful for the most part on animal experimentation and learning.

  It can be concluded for behaviorist theory that as learning process  is complex language acquisition cannot take place through habit formation. Behaviorist theory aims at discovering behavioral justification for designing language teaching in certain ways being a hub of many language teaching and learning theories .

 Now if we talk about the nativist theory the debate surrounding the nativist theory is in the center on whether the inborn capabilities are language specific or domain general such as those that enable the infant to usually make sense of the world in terms of objects and action.  The anti nativist view has many strands  but a frequent theme is that language emerges from usage in social contexts , using learning mechanisms that are a part of a general cognitive learning apparatus.

 

                    

  

 

Hawthorne's Secrete sin in The Scarlet Letter paper no 10

   

 Name : Gohil Hetalba   

       Std      :  M.A. – ii Sem – iii

       Roll no :  08

       Sub : paper no ( 10 ) American Literature

       Topic  : Hawthorne’s Secrete Sin in The Scarlet

                                                          Letter

       Submitted to :  Dept. Of English

                                 Maharaja Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavnagar university.

Year : 2013 - 2014 

                                  

                                   

   

v    Introduction

                                            Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4 1804. His father was captain Nathaniel Hawthorne and his mother was Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hawthorne. He married Sophia Peabody. Financial problems continued to plague his family. With the help of his friends , Hawthorne succeeded in being appointed “ Surveyor for the District of Salem and Beverly and inspector of the Revenue for the port of Salem.” He could take time for writing now. His experiences during this time, however, provided some of the material which he later used in the “ Custom House” section of ‘ The Scarlet Letter’.

                The victory of the Whigs in the 1848 presidential election cost Hawthorne his position. It was financial shock to the family, but the loss of the position at the custom house provided the time necessary for him to write ‘ The Scarlet Letter’. The Scarlet Letter was finished after very hard work but unfortunately the book was pirated by two London publisher. It was sold well but the author could not get reward. His health started decorating . His life was mixed with pleasure and frustration. Hawthorne died in his sleep on May 19,1864.

[ Note : He added ‘W’ to his family name later on ]

v Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

Most modern critics consider. The Scarlet Letter is his master piece. Evidence of the continued popularity of this work, even among people not usually concerned with literary work, appeared in two 1984 issues of the New England Journal of Medicine. Hawthorne’s work had proof in medical science. Also he was concerned with his family history and with colonial history. Hawthorne’s ancestors are not forgotten by him. Moral is placed by Hawthorne in the final chapter of the novel where he writers. “ Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world , if not your worst yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred.

        When Hawthorne finished ‘ The Scarlet Letter ’ , he had already written most of the works that were to make him famous. Thus many stylistic techniques and themes which are characteristic of a work by Hawthorne were already a habitual part of his style. Those elements include- 

1)   Hawthorne's theory of the romance as a literary form.

2)  Hawthorne’s use of symbolism in the novel.

3)  Hawthorne’s Style.

4)  Hawthorne’s use of historical materials and figures as part of setting.    

5)  Hawthorne’s use of ambiguity.

v Hawthorne and the Romance    Tradition

During his writing career, Hawthorne was convinced that his works were not as popular as they might be. The technique, or style, developed throughout his longer works, produced his version of what he termed “ the romance novel”. Hawthorne attempts to clarify his concept of the romance is found in the “ Custom House”. Section of “ The Scarlet Letter”. After explaining how he supposedly, by accident found a scarlet letter ‘ A ’ and “ small roll of dingy paper ” around which the scarlet letter had been twisted. Using the image of a ‘ deserted parlour lighted only by the glimmering coal fire and the moon’, Hawthorne outlines the frame of mind necessary for both writing and for reading his romance.

 “ Moon light ............. making every object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibility, - is a medium the most suited for a romance writer to get acquainted with illusive guests”. 

             The sentence above shows his concern for romance.

v   Hawthorne’s Style

              The style of ‘ The Scarlet Letter’ is clean, precise and effective. The diction is wide and well controlled. During Hawthorne time, his prose was extraordinarily precise. It was not overly ornate, as it sometimes seem to be. It is the contemporary language of his time . He frequently used images. He used fresh and effective metaphors and similes. He made skilful colours use from the red rose of opening chapter to the red, black and gray predominating the novel. The effect of colours is seen throughout the novel. Hawthorne failed to individualize the dialogue, or to make the speech consistent with the character and situation of the speaker, is a weakness which later novelist tried to avoid.

v Historical Materials and Figures

  As Hawthorne indicates in the “ Custom House” chapter of The Scarlet Letter, two of his ancestors were eminent and powerful men during the early days of Massachusetts Bay Colony. One was a magistrate who participated in the persecution of the Quakers and another was a judge in the in famous Salem witch trials. Because of this family association, Hawthorne had keen interest in the early history of Massachusetts, and form his college days on, ha read widely in that field. The Scarlet Letter doesn't fall strictly in the historical category. The author conveys some timeless and universal truths about sin and conscience and psychology than he is in relating minutely accurate information about a specific place. The time of the novel’s opening pages is about 1650 AD. Hawthorne was quite familiar with the period he wrote about. The use of Governor Bellingham and Reverend Mr. Wilson, the passing reference to Isaac Johnson’s lot, king’s Chapel, prison Lane , Anne Hutchinson, John Eliot, Increase Mather, and a handful of other historical figures. The detailed treatment of Puritan methods of punishment, as well as Hawthorne’s description of the Election Day crowed are superbly described with historical accuracy. The only felt of his is he doesn't give minute details. He doesn't say anything  about the family custom, their recreation of their educational system. The description of Governor Bellingham and some details about the Puritan’s clothing and the general facial expression of people and indication of their popular public recreations. The main four characters are somewhat isolated from the community. We can say that Hawthorne may not be a realist. He was a symbolist. The Scaffold the forest, Mistress Hibbins, Governor Bellingham the Election Sermon, the drab and Solemn town people have symbolic importance Hawthorne is able to mellow the lights, deepening and enriching the shadow of the world of The Scarlet Letter.

vHawthorne's use of Ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter :

He uses ambiguity to defuse the skeptical objection of his readers. Hawthorne remarks “ We impart it.......... solely to the disease in his own eye and heart, that the minster looking upward to the zenith beheld there the appearance of an immense letter, the letter ‘ A ’ marked out in lines of dull red light.’’

  While a telling how the forest animals befriend pearl. Hawthorne writes. ‘ A wolf , it is said , - but here the late has surely lapsed into the improbable came up and smelt of pearl’s robe and offered, his savage head to be patted by her hand.        

         In all the cases Hawthorne leaves the solution to the reader, the reader must decide what is “ literary true”. It seems as if Hawthorne wishes to make use of the supernatural or fantastic devices on behalf of symbol he also offered the explanation for the literal- minded  to whom the fantastic is not Justified not even for an artistic effect.

v      Hester Prynne’s Sin

Hester is introduced as being young, tall and beautiful, with an elegant figure, abundant glossy dark hair, a rich complexion and deepest black eyes.

 She comes from an impoverished but gentle English family, having lived in a decayed house of gray stone, with a poverty – stricken aspect but retaining a half – obliterated  held of arms over the portal in token of antique gentility.” But even without that specific indication of her high birth, the reader would know that Hester is a lady, from her bearing and pride, especially when she bravely faces the humiliation of the Scaffold : “ And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady – like, in the antique interpretation of the term than as she issued from the prison.”

 It is Hester’s pride which sustain her, from that opening scene until she dies, still wearing the scarlet letter A. And coupled with that pride is a passion which is demonstrated not only through her relation with Dimmesdale but also in her emotional attachment to Pearl, in her defiance of Governor Bellingham, and even in her conversations with her husband old Chillingworth.

       Hester’s sin the sin which gives the book its title and around which the action of the book revolves , Adultery prohibited by the seventh commandment was so seriously condemned by the Puritans of seventeenth century Massachusetts that it was often punished by death.

    In contrast, Hawthorne doesn't condone Hester’s adultery, but he does find it less serious a sin than the sin of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Clearly Hawthorne sees Hester as a victim. He emphasizes, for example, that Hester is a victim of her own youth living in age which forced her to marry Chillingworth without loving him. Second Hester is a victim of Chillingworth’s selfishness, which permitted him to marry the young and passionate girl knowing all the while that she did not return his love and knowing that he was not suited to the role of her husband. Third, Hester is the victim of Chillingworth stupidity in sending his young wife ahead of him to the Massachusetts colony while he remained in Amsterdam. Fourth, Hester is a victim of fate which led to Chillingworth’s capture by the Indians and left Hester without any word from him to indicate even that he was alive. And fifth Hester is a victim of Dimmsdale’s weakness, he allowed their love affair to develop when he knew that he was unprepared to either marry Hester or share responsibility for their child if she were to become pregnant which she did, of course.

  But the most important facts distinguishes her from Chillingworth. He deliberately, with his intellect, sets out to destroy Dimmesdale. In addition Hester’s sin is openly acknowledged, rather than concealed in her heart. This fact distinguishes her from Dimmesdale, who choose to hide his sin.

   Hester did not with deliberate calculation plan to commit the sin of adultery nor did she deliberately plan to do injury to others. That she deeply loved Dimmesdale is obvious throughout the book. Her fault was that her passion and her love were stronger than her respect for the New world’s Puritan code of morals. As she says “ What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so, we said to each other!”

     Although Hester is clearly not a Puritan and it is doubtful that her respect for the Puritan code ever truly overcomes her independent passions. Hester does fully acknowledge her sin and she boldly displays it to the world. The elaborateness with which she embroiders her. Symbol of shame, dresses Pearl in scarlet as a second symbol, and wears the scarlet ‘ A ’ long after she could have removed it all these facts are proof that she is trying to hide nothing. Hester’s salvation lies in truth.

           When apologizing for having concealed Chillingworth’s identity ; she tells Dimmesdale “ In all things all else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast and did hold fast through all extremity ...... A lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side ! ’’

 Hester learns from sin and she grows strong as a result of accepting , her punishment . “ The Scarlet Letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair , solitude! These had been her teacher stern and wild ones and they had made her strong.”  At the end of the novel , Hester emerges from her experience and is revealed to be  a woman capable of helping others and respected  by them. She has the happiness that comes of being at peace with one self one’s fellow men, and with one’s God.

v    Conclusion

“ Thou shalt not commit adutlery”

                                                   __ Bible

The above sentence is considered to be the seventh commandment are sinners. Hester, the heroine and Dimmesdale committed adultery. So, The Scarlet Letter is a story of sin.

 The Scarlet Letter deals with Puritan settlers and their ideology. The title of the book is derived from the custom strictly practiced by the settlers. The women who is caught is adultery had to wear ‘ A ’ embroidered in scarlet on her dress. Dimmsdale’s sin, Chillingworth’s sin are unpardonable. Hester’s sin seems to be pardonable compared to both male’s sin. Chillingworth did the worst sin where as Dimmesdale confessed his before the end of his life.

   Hawthorne believed that the greatest sin of all is __

  “ the violation of another soul, another heart simply for the purpose of finding out hoe it would react.”

 The character of Chillingworth is made more sinister as he is shown using black magic after he decided to revenge his wife’s lover. On this side if we see, Hester’s loneliness was responsible for her sin but the secret sins are more painful then Hester’s open sin.

                 Sources :  The text book of The Scarlet Letter

                                  Class note

                                   Cliff note.                   

                     

     

         

                     

Art of Characterization in To The Lighthouse Paper no 09 Modern Literature

Art of Characterization in To The Lighthouse

Name :     Gohil   Hetalba  I.

Std      :     M.A. – 2  Sem – 3

Sub     :     Paper no ( 09  ) The Modern Literature

Roll no :      08

Topic  :      Art of Characterization in To The           

Lighthouse

Submitted to :  Dept. Of English

                             Maharaja Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavnagar university  

Source :               The real text

                                Class note

                               Cliff note of the real text

 Year :            [ 2013 – 2014 ]   

                              

Art of  Characterization in To The Lighthouse

Virginia Stephen ( Woolf ) was born in London, on January 26, 1882. Her father, Leslie Stephen, was the author critical, biographical, philosophical essays and the friend of scholars and men of letters during a brilliant period of English literature. Virginia Woolf  in her Memories stresses the atmosphere of freedom in their family life.

                    “ The right to think one’s own thoughts and

                        to follow one’s own pursuits.”  

Virginia married Leonard Woolf. Two years after Virginia’s marriage the first world war broke out. Virginia was sensitive. War was a horrible and never shattering experience for her. She was weak sick and suffered from depression. She worked hard produced great novels and was honoured by Bloomsbury Group.

    No writer can escape, the influence of his or her environment social, cultural, political, and intellectual same was with Virginia Woolf.

1. Factors affecting Woolf’s Writing 

Ø Rapid Industrialization :

                                            Industrialization brought urbanization people of  the rural areas rushed towards, the cities in order to get education and work. Their agriculture did not earn them much.

Ø Urbanization

   This phenomenon brought chaos in the cities. People of the cities faced problems like housing shortage, rise in crime rate, fall in moral standard.  Social and moral order broke down in the society.

   Doubt and uncertainty, aestheticism, feminism, pessimism also affected her writing.

  Woolf life was dominated by mental illness. Her parents died when she was young. She attempted suicide, throwing her out of window. She ended her life drowning herself in the River Ouse.       

     

v  Style

Woolf’s writing bears the mark of her literary pedigree as well as her struggle to find meaning in her own unsteady existence. Written in a poised, understand and elegant style, her work examines the structures of human life, from the nature of relationship to the experience of time. Yet her writing addresses issues relevant to her era and literary circle. Thought her work she analyzes the Bloomsbury group ( values ) of aestheticism, feminism and independence. Her style allows the subjective mental processes of Woolf’s characters to determine the objective content of her narrative.

                      To The Lighthouse ( 1927 ) is her experimental work. In the novel the passage of time is, modulated by the consciousness of the characters rather than by clock. Woolf’s experimentation has much to do with the time in which she lived; the urn of the century was marked by bold scientific developments. Charles Darwin’s theory and Sigmund Freud’s theory influenced her writing.

v   Structure   

To The Lighthouse is largely traditional in its structure. It is divided into three parts, part-  I is “ The windows describes a house party on the island of Skye. Professor Ramsay and his wife are on holiday with their children and some friends. Mrs. Ramsay has promised to take their youngest son James to see a lighthouse. The father predicts unsuitable weather conditions and the journey  is postponed. Part  - II is “ Time passes”. ‘describe how during the long years of wars the house is left to dust and silence and loneliness.’ Then the family without Mrs. Ramsay and two of the children return. Part – III, ‘ The Lighthouse’ describes the visit to the lighthouse after the passing of the years. The quiet, efficient and thoughtful personality of Mrs. Ramsay has a similar position in this novel to that of Clarisisa Dalloway in the previous book.

v Conventional Technique

Mrs. Woolf fails to provide in her novels a memorable gallery of portraits such as we, get in the works of other novelists. Conventionally since the time of fielding, novelists have adopted two methods of portraying character.  

 They have sketched their characters through set description. We are told directly what a character looks, like hoe he dresses up, what are his oddities, and what are the salient qualities of his head and heart. Secondly, characters have been visualized and made real through their own words and actions as well as through, what others have to say about them. However Mrs. Woolf regarded such methods of characterization as superficial. She adopted new technique and rendered the psyche of her characters.

v  Stream of Consciousness

 Woolf describes her character indirectly. The characters never reveal them selves.

  “ We derive our impression of them from the effects they produce on the minds of other characters in the novel. Her methods is cumulative, and her characters cannot be taken out of the context and judged in isolation. Woolf builds the personality of her character step by step. She depicts the past and present of her character. In this way Mrs. Ramsay is characterized, she receives our sympathy. One character throws light on the other character of To The Lighthouse. Lily gives us information of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay ,same way James give us some information about his father’s dictatorial nature.

v use  of the important Moment

Virginia Woolf’s characters are thrown in such moments that brings out their personality and their inner conflicts. For eg . Mr. Ramsay has to deal with his wife, children, students and guests. We can easily make out his despaired and love for reality from his character.

vThe Multiple point of view

“ There is continual shifting from mind to mind, so that we as often perceive the impression given by one to another as the experiences each receives.”

Certain situations are selected which throw a character into high relief the scene in the bedroom in ‘ To The Lighthouse ’, for example highlights Mrs. Ramsay’s tact and motherly love sympathy and understanding. She emerges as a fully rounded character because we know her as she is reflected in several minds – her husband, William Banks, Lily Brisco and servel other we also shore the memories of her servants and Augustus Carmichael. The novelists also throw light upon James and Cam’s thoughts about their father. His character has been further, realised by his habit of reciting lines of poetry to dramatist his scene of loneliness and desolation. We can say that Mrs. Woolf can realism a character with perfect economy. She conveys the actual sensation of living and suffering and she has fully succeeded in doing so.

v   Woolf’s Limitation :

Woolf communicates limited number of human experiences. Most of the character in ‘ To The Lighthouse’ are of upper – middle class which Woolf belonged to. It should be noted that Woolf creates a limited range of intellectual and moral types. There are the disinterested scholars and intellectuals who can not fall in love with other sex. There are also women of tact and sensibility like Mrs. Ramsay, who have a gift of creating harmony.

  R.L.Chambers says “ When a man has to do something, she sends him off to India and all his achievements take place in that remote mysterious country.

    G.S. Frazer in his book ‘ The Modern writer and His world, writers  “ She offers as a lyrical abstraction from the pain with which she felt the world, the quality of her mind and spirit has a distinction that will make some readers always grateful to accept the offering .”

 Woolf cannot be called the best English novelist but we cannot deny the fact that, “ She is a delicate and subtle, artist, who upheld spiritual and aesthetic values in a coarse, materialistic age.”

  R.A. Scott, James writers, “ After, her in her own country, the serious novel could never again be just what it had been before”.

v   Female characters

Mrs. Woolf was a woman and she is  the best at caricaturing female characters. She successfully readers the essential quality of female experiences where it differs from the male.

  Joan Bennet writes –

    “ But she discerns more clearly, perhaps, than any other novelist, the peculiar nature of typically feminine modes of thought and apprehension, and their peculiar value as the complement of masculine modes”.

        Mrs. Ramsay does not understand what Charles Tansley is studying. She simply says that his dissertation is about the influence of somebody on somebody. Cam has no idea of the four sides of compass Tansley speaks for the novelist her self when he says “ Women can’t paint woman can’t write”. There is certain vagueness a certain muddle headedness about their minds; they are all indifferent to fact. But even then her women are complements to her men folk. This is because they have a special honesty, honesty which comes of self knowledge and the power of distinguishing the essential from the accidental and the non – essential. Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay are the natural complements of which other, together enjoying a fuller life than would have been possible for them separately.

v     Conclusion

Compared with the plot driven. Victorian novels that came before it, ‘ To The Lighthouse ’ seems to have little in the way of action. Indeed almost all of the events takes in the character’s mind. Although “ To The Lighthouse “ is a radical departure from the nineteenth century novel. It is like its moral  traditional counterparts, intimately interested in developing characters and advancing the plot and themes. Woolf’s experimentation  has much to do with the time in which she lived. Scientific invention marked the age and Woolf’s novels too.  Mrs. Ramsay is a beautiful and loving woman with wonderful abilities of handling things.

  Mr. Ramsay is her husband who is a prominent metaphysical philosopher. He is harsh and a bit selfish.

  Lily Briscoe is single painter. The  is the youngest  son of the Ramsay.

  Paul Rayley is young man who visits Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. He later on marries Minla Doyle at Mrs. Ramsay’s wish.  

 Charles Tansley is philosopher and pupil of Mr. Ramsay. His nature is strange.

 William  Bankes is a botanist and old friend of   Ramsay. He is close friend to Lily.

  Augustus Carmichale was eidcted to opium. He became popular by writing poems during war.

Andrew , Ramsay Vasper, Ramsay, Roger Ramsay, Prue Ramsay, Nancy Ramsay, Cam Ramsay are Mr. and Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay’s children .   

 Mrs. McNab, Macalister and Macalister’s boy are some minor character delineated by Mrs. Woolf in ‘ To The Lighthouse’  for Virginia Woolf the novel is –

         “ Neither, a criticism of life.” In the Annoldian sense, nor an entertainment in the popular sense, but a rendering of life in all its fluidity, complexity and subtlety. Virginia Woolf is one of the great thinkers, who sought to give to the English novel a new direction , a new form , as well as spiritual awareness.