Assignment Writing: Paper-103 (Literature of the Romantics)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper no-103( Literature of the Romantics) assigned by Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Gayatri Nimavat 

Paper: 103 (Literature of the Romantics)

Roll no: 09

Enrollment no: 4069206420220019

Email ID: gayatrinimavat128@gmail.com

Batch: 2022-24 (MA Semester - 1)

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English,Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University 

Plot construction and Character analysis of 'Pride and Prejudice'

Introduction:

Pride and Prejudice, probably the most popular of Austen's finished novels, was also, in a sense, the first to be composed. The original version, First Impressions, was completed by 1797, but was rejected for publication; no copy of the original has survived. The work was rewritten around 1812 and published in 1813 as Pride and Prejudice. The final form must have been a thorough rewriting of the original effort, for it is representative of the mature Austen. Moreover, the story clearly takes place in the early nineteenth century rather than in the late eighteenth century. This is the inevitable consequence of the fact that Jane Austen carefully places her characters in just the proper symbol of their economic, social or intellectual condition.

Jane Austen put great care and thought into the construction of the plots of her novels and as a result of her industry, her plots are well knit. There is nothing superfluous or irrelevant in her novels. These plots are marked with simplicity, symmetry and precision. The story is not encumbered with religious, moral or philosophical abstractions and speculations. There are no superfluous or obtrusive characters, no episodes which obstruct the progress or movement and also no loose ends left dangling at the end. Her art of plot construction compels us to admire her. There is a complete interdependence between main plot and subplots. There is perfect organic unity of interplay between characters and events.

About Author:

Jane Austen, (born December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire, England—died July 18, 1817, Winchester, Hampshire), English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published together posthumously, 1817), she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also became timeless classics that remained critical and popular successes for over two centuries after her death.

Plot construction:

Jane Austen had a considerable skill in constructing her plots which were simple plans of novels and the plans for telling her story the way she would like too. The plot of the novel Pride and Prejudice turns on the development of love between Darcy and Elizabeth and its final culmination in marriage Jane Austen has shown a remarkable dramatic scene in exhibiting the different stages of growth of pride and prejudice of the hero and the heroine and their final self knowledge which cure their feelings. 

The novel has neat and coherent dramatic structure. At the Meryton Ball where Darcy meets Elizabeth, there is the first sowing of the seeds of pride and Prejudice. The prejudice of Elizabeth is strengthened by Wickham’s disclosure of Darcy’s unfair treatment of him. Darcy is however attracted by the liveliness of her mind. His feelings grow steadily warmer towards Elizabeth.

When she is on a visit to the Hunsford parsonage Darcy proposes to her. But his proposal reveals his pride. His frank explanation of his condescension angers Elizabeth. She rejects the proposal and this rejection is the dramatic climax of the plot. Darcy is soft into self knowledge. His letter of explanation opens the eyes of Elizabeth to the lack of any basis for her prejudice against him. The walls rose between them by pride and prejudice began to crumble slowly. At this stage Austen creates another situation which helps the establishment of perfect understanding between the two Wickham elope with Lydia. Darcy exerts himself to force Wickham to marry Lydia. Elizabeth is duly grateful and when he proposes to her again there is nothing to stand in the way of her accepting him. Thus a pretty tangle is created and it is resolved finally.

The subplot with Jane and Bingley is quite naturally woven into the main plot and the contrast is significant. Both Elizabeth and Jane begin their relationship with Darcy and Bingley at Meryton Ball, but then Jane and Bingley are attracted to each other. Bingley is made to mistake Jane’s modesty for indifference. Once this mistake is realized, nothing can keep Bingley away from Jane. Both these lovers serve a foil to Elizabeth and Darcy. This subplot is quite inseparable from the main plot as it develops the complex pattern.

The novel imitates drama in its structural neatness and unity. The novel is told from the point of view of Elizabeth who at first appears to be a sort of mirror character. We see other characters and the situations created by them as they impinge upon Elizabeth, the marriage of Miss Lucas, the distress of Jane, the elopement of Lydia, the activities of Gardiner etc. The dominant position of Darcy and Elizabeth is secured by the fact that they have a complete self awareness. It is this dominant position that gives unity in diversity in the novel.

Different characters are variations on the theme of pride. Pride here is a social grace or a social failing. In Darcy, pride is essentially self respect, virtue shared by Jane and Elizabeth, to which Miss Bingley and Lady Katherine suffer from social snobbery, Marry in her conceited bookishness, the Lucas’s in their perpetual bowing and Collins in his servility suffers from a perpetual pride. Others suffer from an accent of pride. Thus it is pride which is seen in different perspectives. Austen’s ironic tone unifies her materials. Therefore, the plot is so skillfully constructed that they can not be separated from one another nor can they be considered unnatural. 

Character analysis:

1 Elizabeth Bennet:

"Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world is good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life."

Elizabeth Bennet, the second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Her admirable qualities are numerous. She is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society. 

"That is very true, and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine"

Nevertheless, her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments often lead her astray; Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all obstacles,including their own personal failings to find romantic happiness. Elizabeth must not only cope with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy’s character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.

2 Fitzwilliam Darcy:

Bingley's closest friend, the brother of Georgiana, and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Darcy is very wealthy and a person of great integrity, but his extreme class-consciousness makes him appear vain and proud. He finds Elizabeth attractive, even ideal, but is clumsy in expressing his feelings and disdains her sometimes crass family. Elizabeth's harsh appraisal of him compels him to reassess his behavior and attitudes. Her intelligence and her disregard for mere social rank teaches him to see people more for who they are, rather than the status into which they were born. 

The narrator relates Elizabeth’s point of view of events more often than Darcy’s, so Elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure. The reader eventually realizes, however, that Darcy is her ideal match.

Elizabeth's rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility in Darcy. Darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to Elizabeth, in spite of his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues Lydia and the entire Bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the wishes of his haughty aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to pursue Elizabeth. Darcy proves himself worthy of Elizabeth, and she ends up repenting her earlier, overly harsh judgment of him.

3 Jane Bennet:

The oldest of the Bennet sisters, Jane seems almost too good to be true: beautiful, sweet-tempered, and modest. Her sole fault is that she refuses to think badly of anyone. She always looks on the bright side and is quick to defend someone when Elizabeth suspects them of having shortcomings. 

The easy pleasantness with which she and Bingley interact contrasts starkly with the mutual distaste that marks the encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane and Bingley engage in a courtship that occupies a central place in the novel. They first meet at the ball in Meryton and enjoy an immediate mutual attraction. They are spoken of as a potential couple throughout the book, long before anyone imagines that Darcy and Elizabeth might marry.

Despite their centrality to the narrative, Jane and Bingley are vague characters, sketched by Austen rather than carefully drawn. Indeed, they are so similar in nature and behavior that they can be described together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly egotism of Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane’s gentle spirit serves as a foil for her sister’s fiery, contentious nature, while Bingley’s eager friendliness contrasts with Darcy’s stiff pride. Their principal characteristics are goodwill and compatibility, and the contrast of their romance with that of Darcy and Elizabeth is remarkable. Jane and Bingley exhibit to the reader true love unhampered by either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness, they also demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull.

4 Charles Bingley:

Darcy’s considerably wealthy best friend. Bingley’s purchase of Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets, serves as the impetus for the novel. He is a genial, well-intentioned gentleman, whose easygoing nature contrasts with Darcy’s initially discourteous demeanor. He is blissfully uncaring about class differences.

5 Mr. Bennet:

Mr. Bennet is the patriarch of the Bennet household, the husband of Mrs. Bennet and the father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and Mary. He is a man driven to exasperation by his ridiculous wife and difficult daughters. He reacts by withdrawing from his family and assuming a detached attitude punctuated by bursts of sarcastic humor. He is closest to Elizabeth because they are the two most intelligent Bennets.

Initially, his dry wit and self-possession in the face of his wife’s hysteria make Mr. Bennet a sympathetic figure, but, though he remains likable throughout, the reader gradually loses respect for him as it becomes clear that the price of his detachment is considerable. He is in fact a weak father who, at critical moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish indulgence of Lydia’s immature behavior nearly leads to general disgrace when she elopes with Wickham. Further, upon her disappearance, he proves largely ineffective. It is left to Mr. Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and rectify the situation. Ultimately, Mr. Bennet would rather withdraw from the world than cope with it.

6 Mrs. Bennet:

Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome character. Noisy and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically, her single-minded pursuit of this goal tends to backfire, as her lack of social graces alienates the very people (Darcy and Bingley) whom she tries desperately to attract. Austen uses her continually to highlight the necessity of marriage for young women. Mrs. Bennet also serves as a middle-class counterpoint to such upper-class snobs as Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley, demonstrating that foolishness can be found at every level of society. In the end, however, Mrs. Bennet proves such an unattractive figure, lacking redeeming characteristics of any kind, that some readers have accused Austen of unfairness in portraying her—as if Austen, like Mr. Bennet, took perverse pleasure in poking fun at a woman already scorned as a result of her ill-breeding.

7 George Wickham:

A handsome, fortune-hunting militia officer. Wickham’s good looks and charm attract Elizabeth initially, but Darcy’s revelation about Wickham’s disreputable past clues her in to his true nature and simultaneously draws her closer to Darcy.

8 Lydia Bennet:

Lydia is the youngest and wildest Bennet daughter. She is her mother’s favorite because like Mrs. Bennet, she is preoccupied with gossip, socializing, and men. Lydia is described as having “high animal spirits and a sort of natural self-consequence.” She is attractive and charismatic, but she is also reckless and impulsive. Lydia’s behavior frequently embarrasses her older sisters, and when Lydia receives the invitation to go to Brighton, Lizzy makes an impassioned speech about her sister’s character. She explains that “our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia’s character” Lizzy also articulates her fear that Lydia is on the road to becoming “a flirt in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation.” Lydia has an innate tendency toward wild and selfish behavior, but as a character she also sheds light on the failings of her parents, and father in particular. Because of her young age and lack of education, Lydia is presented as not entirely culpable for her behavior because she lacks parental guidance and discipline.

Although Lydia seems initially a harmless and entertaining character, her elopement with Wickham shows that her selfish actions can cause real damage. In the note explaining that she has run off with Wickham, Lydia writes “What a good joke it will be!” From Lizzy’s point of view, however, the focus is “the humiliation, the misery, she was bringing on them all.” Lydia does not think about the repercussions of her actions for herself or for her sisters. She does not learn any responsibility or sense of propriety over the course of the plot. Although Lydia’s reputation is barely salvaged through a hasty marriage, she focuses on her own importance, declaring, “Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower, because I am a married woman.” She spends her married life relying on the generosity of her sisters and “moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation.” In a novel where many other characters experience psychological development and growth, Lydia remains foolish and headstrong throughout.

9 Mr. Collins:

A pompous, generally idiotic clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property. Mr. Collins’s own social status is nothing to brag about, but he takes great pains to let everyone and anyone know that Lady Catherine de Bourgh serves as his patroness. He is the worst combination of snobbish and obsequious.

10 Miss Bingley:

Bingley’s snobbish sister. Miss Bingley bears inordinate disdain for Elizabeth’s middle-class background. Her vain attempts to garner Darcy’s attention cause Darcy to admire Elizabeth’s self-possessed character even more. 

11 Lady Catherine de Bourgh:

A rich, bossy noblewoman; Mr. Collins’s patron and Darcy’s aunt. Lady Catherine epitomizes class snobbery, especially in her attempts to order the middle-class Elizabeth away from her well-bred nephew. 

12 Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner:

Mrs. Bennet’s brother and his wife. The Gardiners, caring, nurturing, and full of common sense, often prove to be better parents to the Bennet daughters than Mr. Bennet and his wife. 

13 Charlotte Lucas:

Elizabeth’s dear friend. Pragmatically, where Elizabeth is romantic, and also six years older than Elizabeth, Charlotte does not view love as the most vital component of a marriage. She is more interested in having a comfortable home. Thus, when Mr. Collins proposes, she accepts. 

14 Georgiana Darcy:

Darcy’s sister. She is immensely pretty and just as shy. She has great skill at playing the piano.

15 Mary Bennet:

The middle Bennet sister, bookish and pedantic.

16 Catherine Bennet:

The fourth Bennet sister. Like Lydia, she is girlishly enthralled with the soldiers.

 

17 Mr. and Mrs. Phillips:

A country attorney and his vulgar wife, who is Mrs. Bennet's sister.

18 Colonel Fitzwilliam:

Darcy's well-mannered and pleasant cousin, who is interested in Elizabeth, but who needs to marry someone with money.

19 Miss De Bourgh:

Lady Catherine's sickly, bland daughter.

20 Mr. and Mrs. Hurst:

Bingley's snobbish sister and brother-in-law. Mrs. Hurst spends most of her time gossiping with Caroline, while Mr. Hurst does little more than play cards and sleep.

Conclusion:

Pride and Prejudice is full of character-driven themes that revolve around the literary concept of comedy of manners. A comedy of manners is a literary work that deals with young lovers attempting to unite in marriage, and usually includes several incidences of witty commentary from the main characters, which can take form in terms of anything from clever flirting to open warfare, as in the case of Darcy and Elizabeth. Pride and Prejudice is mainly concerned with the pairing of several couples and the issues surrounding each of those couples.

References:

Anderson, Walter E. “Plot, Character, Speech, and Place in Pride and Prejudice.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 30, no. 3, 1975, pp. 367–82. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2933075. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.

McCann, Charles J. “Setting and Character in Pride and Prejudice.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 19, no. 1, 1964, pp. 65–75. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2932788. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.

Southam, Brian C.. "Jane Austen". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jane-Austen. Accessed 4 November 2022. 

Word count: 3029

Images:  29

Assignment Writing: Paper-104 (Literature of the Victorians)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper no-104( Literature of the Victorians) assigned by Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Gayatri Nimavat 

Paper: 104 (Literature of the Victorians)

Roll no: 09

Enrollment no: 4069206420220019

Email ID: gayatrinimavat128@gmail.com

Batch: 2022-24 (MA Semester - 1)

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English,Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University 

Industrialism and its Evil in 'Hard Times'

"It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage."

Introduction:

The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the eighteenth century, is the result of a long period of social and economic evolution extending into the late Middle Ages. Apart from its several favorable outcomes, the Industrial Revolution caused some undesirable outcomes for working life. The aim of this study is to inspect Dickens’s Hard Times which can be counted as one of the preliminary works that reflected on the effects of the Industrial Revolution on working life with a critical perspective within the scope of administrative mentality of that time. 

Within this context, scientific works which focused on the intellectual foundations of the industrial era and Dickens' Hard Times are taken into consideration for the conceptual framework of the study. Qualitative research approach has been adopted to the study and through the inspection of the novel, the main perspectives which make up the foundations of management mentality has been evaluated. As a result of this study, it is seen that positivism, economy science and utilitarianism have been influential in the management concept and practices of the Industrial Revolution era. In Hard Times, Dickens propounds the negative effects of these perspectives which can be useful for humankind when used for good causes. 

About Author:

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Born near Portsmouth, at Portsea. He was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era. His many volumes include such works as 'A Christmas Carol', 'David Copperfield', 'Bleak House', 'A Tale of Two Cities', 'Great Expectations', and 'Our Mutual Friend'. 

Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity during his lifetime than had any previous author. Much of his work could appeal to the simple and the sophisticated, to the poor and to the queen, and technological developments as well as the qualities of his work enabled his fame to spread worldwide very quickly. His long career saw fluctuations in the reception and sales of individual novels, but none of them was negligible or uncharacteristic or disregarded, and, though he is now admired for aspects and phases of his work that were given less weight by his contemporaries, his popularity has never ceased 

 

Industrialism and its Evil:

The novel Hard Times contains vivid pictures of the ugliness of industrialism which was raising its head in the Victorian Age. Coketown is described as a town of machines since the people living in the same town are supposed to have souls. Instead they all go in and out at the same hours, with the same purpose upon the same pavements, to do the same work. These pictures express the monotony of the workmen’s life in the Victorian Age. 

As the Victorian Age was assumed as an age of Industrialism and Capitalism, the workmen are not men at all; they are “hands”, so many hundred hands, “So many hundred horse steam power”. These men are not supposed to have any souls; they are hands who have to work upon “the crashing, smashing, tearing mechanisms, day in and day out”. Industrial towns now give importance to human beings for their competence to work and generate income, therefore the towns are like machines where materials are used, fuel is consumed and money is made. It is the fact that the man who makes money through the labor of these hands regards the smoke of the chimneys as meat and drink for the capitalist.

Dickens not only attacks the industrial evils of his time, but also portrays capitalism and factory owner inhuman. As a manufacturer, Bounderby adopts an arrogant attitude towards the workmen and does not feel the least sympathy for them in their troubles or in their desire for a better life. He always expresses the view that these workmen want “to ride in a coach drawn by six horses and to be fed on turtle soup and venison, with a gold spoon”. His treatment of the workmen shows a mechanical mind; he looks upon the workmen as so many hundred “hands”, so many hundred horse steam power. Although Dickens tries to convey to us all the ugliness of the factories and the industrial town, he yet shows his awareness of the bright side of these factories when he writes: "The lights in the great factories, which looked, when they were illuminated, like fairy palaces". 

The treatment of the workers in the factories of Coketown as nothing more than machines, which produce so much per day and are not thought of as having feelings or families or dreams. Dickens depicts this situation as a result of the industrialization of England; now that towns like Coketown are focused on producing more and more, more dirty factories are built, more smoke pollutes the air and water, and the factory owners only see their workers as part of the machines that bring them profit. 

As the book progresses, it portrays how industrialism creates conditions in which owners treat workers as machines and workers respond by unionizing to resist and fight back against the owners. In the meantime, those in Parliament (like Mr. Gradgrind, who winds up elected to office) work for the benefit of the country but not its people. 

Dickens reflected the working and living conditions of the working class, which included a tiring and deadly working environment, unionization struggles, employer's attempts to push down these attempts, work accidents and Poor Laws, and he portrayed life in industrial cities in the era after the Industrial Revolution.

Three separate stories which are connected to each other are told in the novel. The first one is the story of a little girl named Sissy who is left to Coketown and needs to work in a circus in order to go to school. The second story is the story of Gradgrind's children, Louisa and Tom. The third story is the story of a worker, Stephen Blackpool and his girlfriend Rachel. In these stories Dickens aimed to criticize the failing education system and portray the living conditions of the working class in Coketown.

The imaginative constraint of 'Hard Times' is the symbolic expression of Dickens's critique of the interlocking structures, economic, social, and political reflections of industrial capitalism. As a realistic description of the industrial city and the industrial worker, it has been compared to blue book reports, to the work of Friedrich Engels and other commentators on the emerging industrial society, and to Dickens's own journalistic description of the Preston strike. Dickens reflects his observations of industrialism after his visits to newly developing industrial cities and Preston in 'Hard Times' as: 

“It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness”.

Dickens reflects the sultry atmosphere of industrial cities through his observations. Inhabitants of industrial cities were badly affected by polluted air. For instance, the “Great Smog” was an extremely dense and polluted fog affecting the whole of the London area. It caused the deaths of a vast number of people. 

There are several studies investigating the hospital records about this topic. Although this air pollution which was known as the Great Smog affected life in London in 1952, the conditions of the other industrial cities were not different. While describing the air pollution in Coketown in Hard Times, Dickens likens the industry city to a factory with its standardized lives of workers who had similar daily lives. Furthermore, the city has a factory-like shape with its working class slums which provides the fuel for the system. Dickens uses the metaphor of the society as a family to organize the novel. Hard Times uses the physical structure of the factory itself as both the metaphor for the destructive forces at work in its characters' lives and as the metaphor for its own aesthetic unity as a novel. As Johnson notices the slums are the habitats of the factory hands and “when they die, black ladders are raised to the windows to dispose of the dead, the sliding away of all that was most precious in this world to a striving wife and a brood of hungry babies, like coal down a chute”. Monotony in Coketown is described as:

“It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next”.

The machines of Coketown represent a monstrous life with their continuous clangs which sound like "melancholy mad elephants". The city provides a dreary death scene and the factory scenes are much more psychological with its cure lying on providing a natural harmony between workers and factory owners. According to Spectator Dicken’s assertion that Dickens’s generalized portrayal of the people of Coketown embedded in the metonymy of the city and its inhabitants is in fact his association of machine and labor which reinforces the workers' character. 

Within this framework, Dickens's characterization of the labor and description of the city is unique. In Dickens’s criticism of the ugliness and monotony of the city, there is no hope of returning back to the preindustrial conditions or a utopia of a brighter future.Dickens portrays the present conditions as far as possible in order to show the necessary amendments that should be made. In spite of his dark criticism of the industrial city, Dickens is not against industrial revolution. He only stresses the need for a betterment of the present order. In the novel, the character Bounderby hardly suits the bloody tyrant character of the factory owner. Although he can be seen as a deplorable character, as a factory owner he aims to keep his factory working whatsoever that happens to his workers without having any sympathy for them. He does not care about the wages or conditions of his workers in his factory. 

Here we find that the factory owners are mean and selfish people since they have too little trust and good will between them. While they are ready to pay high prices for machines, they do not show the same willingness for workers and try to keep their expenses as low as possible. The British workers had the pride to be the richest country in the world, they were forced to live with their wives and children in mines or factories under terrible conditions which were worse than slaves. The conditions of the workers of Coketown were the same. They were working for very small amounts under terrible conditions and they were very unhappy. However, according to the mentality in Coketown the poverty and unhappiness was their mistake: 

“Any capitalist there, who made sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence, always professed to wonder why the sixty thousands nearest hands didn’t each make sixty thousands pounds out of sixpence and more or less reproached them every one for not accomplishing the little feat. What I did you can do, why don’t you go and do it?” 

The workers are mentioned as "hands" in the novel and among the society of the age since they were not counted as real personalities who had hearts and souls. It was a difficult job to discipline these “hands" who did not attend church and were always ready to show ingratitude to their bosses. Coketown as a milltown showed the polarization between the industrialists and the working class people.

“So many hundred Hands in this Mill; so many hundred horse Steam Power. It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse, at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants, with the composed faces and the regulated actions” 

It is possible to observe the status gap between the factory owners symbolized by Bounderby and the workers in the novel: 

“...Her own private sitting-room was a storey higher, at the window of which post of observation she was ready, every morning, to greet Mr. Bounderby as he came across the road, with the sympathising recognition appropriate to a victim.” 

Throughout the novel, the unfortunate relationships between the workers and factory owners have been portrayed frequently. For example, Stephen’s case when he falls down Old Hell Shaft can be given as an example of an unfortunate relationship because the mine owners neglect to close up abandoned pits. Dickens writes about the employer-employee relationship which is frequently stressed in the novel in an article he penned for Household Words:

“I believe... that into the relations between employers and employed, as into all the relations of this life, there must enter something of feeling and sentiment; something of mutual explanation, forbearance, and consideration and is not exactly stateable in figures; otherwise those relations are wrong and rotten at the core and will never bear sound fruit."

Furthermore, in 'Hard Times' the trade union does not satisfy the demands of working class people for better wages, shorter working hours and more benefits. Dickens does not deal with a strike or the working conditions in the factories. He doesn't even go into the details of the misery of working class people. Bounderby's narrow minded selfishness shows itself as a sign of natural response to his workers by bullying them. In addition to this, Mr. Gradgrind’s utilitarianism and the circuses 

Traditional humanism competes with each other. The steam engines which are the symbol of industrialism are very important for Dickens that he keeps the steam whistle party continue. 

Dickens even wrote in one of his articles: 

“there is a range of imagination in most of us which no amount of steam-engines will satisfy". As Bratlinger notices, Dickens hopes in the novel that the workers will get higher wages and better conditions, but they need fun more." 

 

Study of Bollywood movies:

      This whole story is about industrialism. Likewise, we have so many movies based on this theme. 

Coolie:

    In the 'Coolie' movie, leading actor amitabh bachchan has shown the condition of lower class. Here he plays the role of a laborer(Coolie). The upper class harasses the lower class and labor a lot. Labor is ready to give their lives for their rights. But no resistance is given by the upper class.

Mother India:

   The classic movie 'Mother India' presented by Nargis and Sunil Dutt still holds a place in our minds. As in Charles Dickens's novel Hard Time, the lower class is neglected by the upper class, similarly in mother India, Nargis and her two children spend their entire lives paying debts. Only one character named Sukhi Lala has money, all other lower class people borrow money from him, besides, only Sukhi Lala is educated in the whole village due to which all lower class people are cheated. 

K.G.F:

     Masterpiece of tollywood K.G.F. In this movie we find Poor people are taken to work in the mines against their will by the villains who own the gold mines and are imprisoned there for centuries. They are subjected to unbearable torture. It is shown in the movie that the children born there never saw their own face in the glass, Which shows how miserable these people must be living. He does not allow the birth of a daughter in his house, the girl's parents kill the girl as soon as she is born. Many such tortures are inflicted on the lower class. 

 In all these movies, due to industrialization the lower class people have to face many problems.  

Conclusion:

In short, industrialization creates an environment in which people cease to treat either others or themselves as people. Even the unions, the groups of factory workers who fight against the injustices of the factory owners, are not shown in a good light. Stephen Blackpool, a poor worker at Bounderby's factory, is rejected by his fellow workers for his refusal to join the union because of a promise made to the sweet, good woman he loves, Rachael. His factory union then treats him as an outcast.

The remedy to industrialism and its evils in the novel is found in Sissy Jupe, the little girl who was brought up among circus performers and fairy tales. Letting loose the imagination of children lets loose their hearts as well, and, as Sissy does, they can combat and undo what a Gradgrind education produces. 

 

References:

https://www.berjournal.com/?file_id=507

Collins, Philip. "Charles Dickens". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist. Accessed 13 October 2022.  

Collins, Philip. “Dickens and Industrialism.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 20, no. 4, 1980, pp. 651–73. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/450376. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.  

Word count: 3015

Images: 16

Assignment Writing: Paper-105 (History of English literature-from 1350-1900)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper no-105 (History of English literature-from 1350-1900)assigned by Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Gayatri Nimavat 

Paper: 105 (History of English literature-from 1350-1900)

Roll no: 09

Enrollment no: 4069206420220019

Email ID: gayatrinimavat128@gmail.com

Batch: 2022-24 (MA Semester - 1)

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English,Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University 

Analysis of John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' 

Introduction:

John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love.

Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.  

About Author:

John Milton, (born December 9, 1608, London, England, died November 8?, 1674, London?), English poet, pamphleteer, and historian, considered the most significant English author after William Shakespeare. Milton is best known for Paradise Lost, widely regarded as the greatest epic poem in English. Together with Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, it confirms Milton’s reputation as one of the greatest English poets. 

John Milton, best known today for his epic poem Paradise Lost, was radically committed to the idea of intellectual liberty. This commitment manifested itself throughout his life, and across his widely varied written works, which included poetry, tracts, speeches, and unpublished, private writings. Politically, it was expressed through Milton’s support of republican, rather than monarchical, forms of government. In his religious writings, too, the concept of free will is always at the forefront. His poetry challenges readers to negotiate moral and aesthetic dilemmas, a learning process designed to enable them, ultimately, to choose more wisely between good and evil.

'Paradise Lost' overview:

Paradise Lost is an epic poem (12 books, totalling more than 10,500 lines) written in blank verse, one of the late works by John Milton, originally issued in 10 books in 1667 and, with Books 7 and 10 each split into two parts, published in 12 books in the second edition of 1674. It is telling the biblical tale of the Fall of Mankind, the moment when Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and God banished them from the Garden of Eden forever.

John Milton bases his story on the account of the Fall in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, promising very early in the poem to ‘justify the ways of God to men’. But he extends and elaborates the story in many other directions too, including narrations of the formation of the universe out of cosmic chaos, the rebellion of Satan and the other fallen angels in Heaven, the creation of the Earth and of mankind, and swathes of fallen, human history.

Many scholars consider Paradise Lost to be one of the greatest poems in the English language. It tells the biblical story of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve (and, by extension, all humanity) in language that is a supreme achievement of rhythm and sound. The 12-book structure, the technique of beginning in medias res (in the middle of the story), the invocation of the muse, and the use of the epic question are all classically inspired. The subject matter, however, is distinctly Christian.

The main characters in the poem are God, Lucifer (Satan), Adam, and Eve. Much has been written about Milton’s powerful and sympathetic characterization of Satan. The Romantic poets William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley saw Satan as the real hero of the poem and applauded his rebellion against the tyranny of Heaven.

Character analysis:

God:

The omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent creator of the universe. He is depicted as pure light by Milton and rules from an unmovable throne at the highest point in Heaven. God is the epitome of reason and intellect, qualities that often make him seem aloof and stern in the poem. His more merciful side is shown through his Son who is of course one of the Trinitarian aspects of God though not the same as God. God creates Man (Adam) and gives him free will, knowing that Man will fall. He also provides his Son, who becomes a man and suffers death, as the means to salvation for Man so that ultimately goodness will completely defeat evil.

Son:

In the doctrine of the Trinity, the Godhead is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Milton seems to make God the Son not co-eternal with the Father, though the theology here is not absolutely clear. The Son is presented to the angels well after the creation, and God's preference of the Son causes Satan to rebel. The Son creates the Earth (he is referred to as God while doing so). The Son offers himself as a sacrifice to Death as a way to save Man after the Fall. The Son also defeats the rebellious angels and casts them into Hell. He shows the more merciful aspect of God.

Satan:

Before his rebellion, he was known as Lucifer and was second only to God. His envy of the Son creates Sin, and in an incestuous relationship with his daughter, he produces the offspring, Death. His rebellion is easily crushed by the Son, and he is cast into Hell. His goal is to corrupt God's new creations, Man and Earth. He succeeds in bringing about the fall of Adam and Eve but is punished for the act. He can shift his shape and tempts Eve in the form of a serpent. He appears noble to Man but not in comparison to God.

Adam:

The first human, created by God from the dust of Earth. He is part of God's creation after the rebellious angels have been defeated. At first Adam (and Eve) can talk with angels and seem destined to become like angels if they follow God's commands. Adam eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge because he cannot bear losing Eve. His inordinate desire for Eve is his downfall. He and Eve feud after the fall but are reconciled. They eventually go forth together to face the world and death.

Eve: 

Eve is the first woman, created by God from Adam's rib as a companion for him. She is more physically attractive than Adam, but not as strong physically or intellectually. She is seduced and tricked by Satan in the form of the serpent and eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. She then tempts Adam whose love and desire for her is so strong that he eats the fruit rather than risk separation from Eve. Ultimately, Eve brings about reconciliation with Adam when she begs forgiveness from him. God promises that her seed will eventually bruise the head of the serpent, symbolically referring to Jesus overcoming Death and Satan. 

Major Themes:

1 Disobedience:

The first part of Milton's argument hinges on the word disobedience and its opposite, obedience. The universe that Milton imagined with Heaven at the top, Hell at the bottom, and Earth in between is a hierarchical place. God literally sits on a throne at the top of Heaven. Angels are arranged in groups according to their proximity to God. On Earth, Adam is superior to Eve, humans rule over animals. Even in Hell, Satan sits on a throne, higher than the other demons.

The significance of obedience to superiors is not just a matter of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge; it is a major subject throughout the poem. Satan's rebellion because of jealousy is the first great act of disobedience and commences all that happens in the epic. When Abdiel stands up to Satan in Book V, Abdiel says that God created the angels "in their bright degrees" (838) and adds "His laws our laws" (844). Abdiel's point is that Satan's rebellion because of the Son is wrong because Satan is disobeying a decree of his obvious superior. Satan has no answer to this point except sophistic rigmarole. 

2 Eternal Providence:

Milton's theme in Paradise Lost, however, does not end with the idea of disobedience. Milton says that he will also "assert Eternal Providence." If Man had never disobeyed God, death would never have entered the world and Man would have become a kind of lesser angel. Because Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and disobeyed God, they provided the opportunity for God to show love, mercy, and grace so that ultimately the fall produces a greater good than would have happened otherwise. 

The general reasoning is that God created Man after the rebellion of Satan. His stated purpose is to show Satan that the rebellious angels will not be missed, that God can create new beings as he sees fit. God gives Man a free will, but at the same time, God being God, knows what Man will do because of free will. Over and over in Paradise Lost, God says that Man has free will, that God knows Man will yield to Satan's temptation, but that he (God) is not the cause of that yielding; He simply knows that it will occur. 

3 Justification of God's Ways:

Eternal Providence moves the story to a different level. Death must come into the world, but the Son steps forward with the offer to sacrifice himself to Death in order to defeat Death. Through the Son, God is able to temper divine justice with mercy, grace, and salvation. Without the fall, this divine love would never have been demonstrated. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, mercy, grace, and salvation occur through God's love, and all Mankind, by obeying God, can achieve salvation. The fall actually produces a new and higher love from God to Man. 

Political contexts:

Paradise Lost incorporates the political tensions of Milton’s own day – he was writing during and after the Civil Wars in England, which saw King Charles I executed and the country temporarily controlled by a republican government, led by Oliver Cromwell, until Charles II returned to take up the throne – but deals complexly with both republicanism and the monarchy. Satan has long been seen by some critics as a republican hero, eloquent and determined, much more charming and persuasive than the ‘tyrannous’ and rather humourless character of God in the poem. But Royalist readers, especially after the Restoration, chose to see Satan as the figure of Cromwell seen through anti-republican eyes: someone who only pretended to believe in equality, who really wanted power for himself and whose project was doomed to fail.

Scientific and philosophical contexts:

In addition to its political resonances, Paradise Lost includes poetic treatments of some of the most important scientific, philosophical and astronomical advances of Milton’s time. The poem offers insights into the animal kingdom, suggests different theories about whether Ptolemy or Copernicus were right about the sun revolving around the earth or vice versa and asks big, potentially controversial questions about the nature of God and religious worship.

'Paradise Lost' and Mary Shelley’s 'Frankenstein':

'Paradise Lost' was a source of inspiration and fascination for Romantic poets such as William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Romantic interpretation of Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost stems from Blake’s statement that Milton was ‘of the Devil’s party without knowing it’. Shelley wrote in A Defence of Poetry that ‘nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in Paradise Lost’.

The poem was also a crucial influence on Frankenstein. Shelley gave his wife Mary Shelley a copy of Paradise Lost on 6 June 1815. Milton is thought to have visited Villa Diodati, a place on the banks of Lake Geneva where Mary Shelley first conceived the idea for Frankenstein.

In the novel, Mary Shelley highlights the connections between her work and Milton’s poem. The creature also reads the poem with ‘wonder and awe’ as part of his self-education.

The circumstances of the creature and Frankenstein echo many aspects of Milton’s poem: being expelled or refused access to Paradise, having or not having a partner, having or not having the chance of redemption, playing God by creating man.

Frankenstein recognises that ‘like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell’. The creature also compares himself to Satan. Expelled from human society, the creature falls from light into darkness. As he says at the end of the novel, ‘the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil’. His resolution to commit acts of aggression against people around him echoes Satan’s ‘Evil, be thou my Good’. 

Conclusion:

In the end, Milton chose not to copy Homer and Virgil, but to create a Christian epic. His creation is still a work of great magnitude in an elevated style. Milton chose not to write in hexameters or in rhyme because of the natural limitations of English. Instead he wrote in unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, the most natural of poetic techniques in English. He also chose a new kind of heroism to magnify and ultimately created a new sort of epic, a Christian epic that focuses not on the military actions that create a nation but on the moral actions that create a world.

References:

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Paradise Lost". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Mar. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Paradise-Lost-epic-poem-by-Milton Accessed 5 November 2022. 

Labriola, Albert C.. "John Milton". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Milton. Accessed 5 November 2022. 

Lehnhof, Kent R. “‘Paradise Lost’ and the Concept of Creation.” South Central Review, vol. 21, no. 2, 2004, pp. 15–41. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40039808. Accessed 5 Nov. 2022. 

McColley, Grant. “Paradise Lost.” The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 32, no. 3, 1939, pp. 181–235. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1508278. Accessed 5 Nov. 2022. 

Steadman, John M. “The Idea of Satan as the Hero of ‘Paradise Lost.’” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 120, no. 4, 1976, pp. 253–94. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/986321. Accessed 5 Nov. 2022. 

Word count: 2439 

Images : 17