Marriage in Jude the Obscure

Assignment 

Name : Latta J. Baraiya 

Roll no : 12

Paper : Literature of Victorians 

Semester : M.A sem 1

Topic : Marriage in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure 

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

Introduction

"Marriage", as an important social institution, has always been considered one of the major themes around which a good number of Victorian novels such as Jude the Obscure revolve. It is believed by many critics that the presentation of "marriage" in this novel has been performed through various literary tones including irony, diatribe, sarcasm, satire or direct criticism. Indeed, the bulk of articles and books about Thomas Hardy and his treatment of "marriage" in Jude the Obscure indicates the critical reception that this novel has enjoyed in this regard. Thus, it can be reasonably surmised that Jude the Obscure not only "resists the dominant code" (the Victorian concept of marriage) but  also "mirrors" and "moulds" and consolidates it. In order to clarify what 

we mean by "consolidation of the dominant code," we can investigate a number of relevant questions about this novel and its writer. 

◆Jude The Obscure◆

In the view of Hardy, he also criticizes marriage, describing it as a binding contract that most young lovers are incapable of understanding. He doesn’t believe that the institution is inherently evil, but that it isn’t right for every situation and personality “sensitive” souls like Jude and Sue should be able to live as husband and wife without a binding legal contract. Though he argues for this flexibility and seems to propose the couple’s unmarried relationship as an ideal solution, Hardy then punishes his protagonists in his plot, ultimately driving Sue back to Phillotson and Jude back to Arabella.

The novel is not a simple diatribe against marriage, but instead illustrates a complex, contradictory situation. Sue and Jude want their love to be true and spontaneous, but also totally monogamous and everlasting. The epigraph to the novel is “the letter killeth,” which comes from a quote from Jesus in the Bible: 

“The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth light.” 

Hardy intended this quote to refer to marriage, where the contract of the institution kills joy and true love, but Hardy purposefully leaves off the optimism of “the spirit” Jude and Sue’s joy is fleeting even when they are only following “Nature’s law,” and in the end they find no good answer for how to properly love and live together. By the novel’s tragic end Hardy still leaves the question of marriage unanswered, emphasizing only his dissatisfaction with the institution as it stands. 

◆Marriage system◆

The first question is about Hardy himself: Does Hardy take sides with his own fictional characters (Jude and Sue) or does he support the conventional side? 

It is already known that Sue and Jude's ideas do not conform to the dominant definition of marriage in the Victorian era. However, at the end of the novel, we have Sue define herself as "a poor wicked woman who is trying to mend" and we observe Jude musing, "What does it matter what my opinions are, a wretched like me!" 

Thus, it can be argued that even though Jude the Obscure has  always been discussed as a text against the authority of the Victorian marriage, it can also be viewed by the dominant discourse to confirm its own righteousness. In other words, even if Hardy aims to criticize the conventional institution of marriage, the outcome of his novel is not necessarily limited to this single interpretation. As Binion says, 

"Even a work of creative genius may convey a message other than its author intended. To tease arguments out of fiction can be tricky".

That is, although Hardy, as it is generally believed, has meant to criticize the status quo of his time, his text may not merely convey criticism. 

Most of the women characters Thomas Hardy tried to present in his novels were willing to struggle for their human rights and emancipation especially in terms of marriage laws and sexual liberty. Theywere new women to the Victorian society in different aspects though they were paradoxical sometimesand torn between being themselves and being what the society imposed. On the one hand, they wereattractive, lively, intelligent, and intellectually emancipated but, on the other, they were vulnerable andeventually crushed by a society that looked at them as inferior to men. In other words, they wereagainst the institutionalised marriage and against treating woman as a property in general and againstsexual depression which women had to suffer at that time in particular. These traits were not expectedfrom a Victorian woman who was believed to be educated and brought up to be a mother and a wife nomore no less. In today's time we find example of Jude and Sue who are doing something against the rule of society, and they had been punished by religion and god. If we see after this all accidents she become religious and Jude become more ungodly. 

◆Belief of Marriage◆

The Victorian woman, whether married or single, was expected to be weak and helpless, a delicate ‘doll’ who was not allowed to make decisions. The wife’s duties were mainly the houseworkand making sure that her many children were taught moral values and that the home was a comfortable shelterfor her husband and family from the stresses of Victorian time. Hardy’s portrayals of women characters were different from the conventional image. Through such new different portrayals, Hardy tried to restore to woman ‘not only a flesh and blood reality, but also a human nature lovable in its all imperfections’. At the time, Victorian society had a very narrow view of the potential and individuality of women. A good example of Hardy’s emancipated women is Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure.

In Hardy and the Erotic, T. R. Wright assures that ‘Sue Bridehead is in many ways at the centre of Jude the Obscure because she is stronger, more complex, and more significant’. As a main feminine character in Jude the Obscure, Sue Bridehead represents in some aspects the New Woman of the Victorian period. Sue’s rebellious and enthusiastic spirit and intellect urge her to confront and, most of the time, attack the conventions of her time and try to gain her voice in a world that mainly gives ears and attention to the man’s voice. Though in the end she submits and restores to the church and the conventions whichshe has been against, Sue shows how harsh the journey of the New Woman can be. This essay will study Sue’s character and to what extent she represents the New Woman in the Victorian era shading alight on her attitude against the Victorian institutionalised marriage mainly. 

◆Women in Victorian era◆

The Victorian social life was marked by the ideology of separate spheres of activities for thesexes. The status that woman held in the Victorian era did not give her the same rights as man. In her British Women in the Nineteenth Century, Dorothy Thompson defines these two spheres. She points to the public world for men as the ‘world of politics, the market and the workplace was the location of the rough, competitive male activities’, whereas the private world for women as ‘the world of home andfamily encapsulated the Christian virtues and the morality of personal relationships’. In fact, this israther a more general image than other images of how women were treated in the Victorian age interms of educations, politics and marital issues.

In such social conditions, Sue Bridehead was introduced to the Victorian readers by Hardy whowas promoting the necessity of demolishing the doll-woman image in the fiction and replacing it withthe prospective of the New Woman. Sue at the beginning of the novel is a liberated young woman withemancipated intellect, active and lively. The reason why her revolt voice against conventions andcollapse was considered a characteristic dealing with the New Woman. Sue was different from the old-fashioned Victorian girls whose freedom was illusory as it is described by Jenni Calder:In fact, the freedom was largely illusory, for most young women exchanged the control of afather for the control of a husband. Restriction was an ill education for liberty, and most of them passed straight from childhood to the responsibilities of matronhood without the chance oftesting their strength as young women, except in the marriage market.  They aren't free to do anything they have to do only house works. They are only made for this...

◆Sue as New Women◆

Sue’s characterization is designed to present the New Woman and that she exists but she doesnot necessarily prevails or overcomes the harshness and obstacles she confronts in herenvironment. Sue, the intellectual open-minded woman, is trapped by the old ideologies ofrestraint, of religious guilt at the time of ideological transition. In spite of her attempt to moveon to a world of relatively independent and freer conduct where she can realize herself andenjoy her liberated intellect, Sue is eventually crushed by the conflict of both worlds and realms of ideologies. She is the victim of both her theoretical emancipation and conventionality. Wattsargues that Sue can be considered a tragic victim and ‘a person of great potential whose vitality and independence are eventually destroyed by the partly internalized and partly external forceof religion, a force aided and abetted by a society which is largely hostile to her kind of emancipation’. Sue’s romantic ambitions and ‘Shelleyan’ dream which are nourished by her emancipated intellect and vitality collapse utterly by the reality of natural and social lawsespecially those of sex and marriage. 

If in today's time any married girl wants to live with other man despite being husband society punish them both. Girls are not free to do anything that they want, as hardy portray Sue and Arabella. This is also satire on the system of marriage. 

◆Expectations of Society◆

As a part of soceiry, society have some expectations toward us and we have to complete that expectations. If we are trying to fail in this society can't live us with peace. If we talk about marriage it is one of the most important pillar of society. We know some people around us who's aims only to be married, nothing else ! But nowadays womens are toot all responsibility, some of them are are also adopted a child and grew up them.

The other expectation is if man and women wants to live together they must be married. Without marriage they can't live with each other. Hardy break this rule, that's why he has to face many critical comments also. So many copy of his work are burned, because he hurts the sentiments of society and it's rule. If a couple want a home on rent the owner asked them they are married or not ! If no then they can't give room them on rent. If we see the example of movie LUKA CHUPPI, we can find that Guddu and Rashmi wants to live together without marriage. They creat fake proof of marriage and then they get room on rent.

The highest form of marriage is definitely not just the sex-based but is a complex matter containing a number of factors which not only arise from the couple but also from the society. However, for a happy marriage, an indispensable factor is the true love from both the man and woman who are always in the pursuit of mutual and deeper understanding of each other. From this sense, for Jude and Arabella, whose marriage is based on the flesh, it is impossible to for them to construct a solid marriage and a happy family through their efforts. The combination of Jude and Arabella, at the same time, decides the failure of their marriage and the pain of their lives. 

◆Marriage System Today◆

In recent years scholars have carried out valuable research into relationships between the sexes in Victorian times. They have focused especially on the late nineteenth century a period often referred to as the 'fin de siecle'. It was an exciting phase of transition, once described as being 'electric with new ideas'. Inevitably, there was conflict between those people who strove to maintain traditional standards and those who were receptive to change, and in the maelstrom of ideas it is not surprising that the institution of marriage was a subject of discussion and re-evaluation.

The Marriage Act of 1753 had defined marriage as a contract. Under common law a married woman's condition came to be referred to as 'coverture' a term which meant that 'the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything.' A wife's property and earnings automatically became her husband's and any legitimate children also belonged to the father. There were few prospects for unmarried women spinsters were often too poor to manage without employment, yet were limited in their career options. As women did not have access to as wide a range of jobs as men, marriage was the only viable career for most of them.

Educational provision for women began to improve from the mid-nineteenth century onwards but it was still the case that girls tended to be viewed as potential wives, so for many of them education meant primarily a grounding in womanly behaviour. The function of a wife was to devote herself to the needs of her husband and children, and the home was regarded as a sacred institution indeed the stability of the nation itself was thought to hinge upon family values. During the course of the nineteenth century, however, reformers called for considerable changes in the marriage laws and in such areas as property rights, custody regulations and divorce law. 

Conclusion

Consequently, Jude the Obscure does not solely contain the critical discourse of the conventional marriage, as modern criticism has always claimed. It, rather, presents the possibility of a consolidating 

narrative in which the institution of conventional marriage is reinforced. In other words, Hardy, though unconsciously, has created a novel in which the nonconformists are marginalized as "the others" and are finally suppressed by the dominant social discourse that has influenced the mentality of a Victorian writer. 

Therefore, it is believed that Thomas Hardy, as a member of the Victorian society presents the subject of marriage in Jude the Obscure in a two dimensional discourse. The first level, which is explicit, seems to be a critical approach to the Victorian marriage; the second one, however, the one that is more implicitly provided, is a consolidatory discourse that supports the traditional marriage.

Restoration Age

Assignment 

Name : Latta J. Baraiya 

Roll no : 12

Paper : History of English Literature 

Semester : M.A sem 1

Topic : Restoration Age 

Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English MKBU 

Introduction 

The period from 1660 to 1700 is named as the Restoration period. In 1660 King Charles II was brought to the throne. The people of England were suffering from tension due to strict rule of Cromwell. Thus the nation welcomed the Restoration of Charles II. This Restoration brought about a revolutionary change in social life and literature. 

◆LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF RESTORATION AGE :- 

The literature of the Restoration period marked the complete breaking of ties with the Renaissance literature. It reflected the spirit of the age. The spirit of corruption and moral laxity, which were predominant in the social life of the restoration, are reflected in literature. The following are the chief feature of the period: 

The Restoration:- 

During this period gravity, spiritual zeal, moral earnestness and decorum were thrown to winds. The king was a thorough debauch. He had a number of mistresses. He was surrounded by corrupt courtiers. Corruption was rampant in all walks of life. 

Religious and Political Quarrels:- 

In the Restoration period we see the rise of two political parties. They were the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs were opposing and the Tories were supporting the king. The rise of these parties gave a fresh importance to men of literary ability. Both the parties supported them. The religious controversy was also going on. It was very bitter. The Protestant and the Catholics were face to face. The nation was predominately Protestant. The Catholics were being punished. Dryden’s 'Absalom and Achitophel' reflects these religious and political conflicts of the day. 

Rise of Neo-classicism:- 

The Restoration marks a complete break with the past and the Elizabethan Romanticism was almost over. With the end of the past, literature took a new spirit and outlook and a different attitude in the subject and style. As Edward Albert says,

"The Post Restoration period is often setup as converge and anti thesis of the previous Elizabethan Age. It is called ‘Classical’ as opposed to the Elizabethan Romanticism". 

The Restoration marks a complete break with the past. The people believed in the present, the real and the material. Moody and Lovett remark: "In all directions it appeared as a disposition towards conservation and moderation. Men had learned to fear individual enthusiasm, and therefore they tried to discourage it by setting up ideals of conduct in accordance with reason and common sense, to which all men should adapt themselves. Rules of etiquette and social conventions were established and the problem of life became that of self-expression within the narrow bounds which were thus prescribed". All these tendencies were reflected in the literature of this period. The writers, both in prose and poetry, tacitly agreed upon the rules and principles in accordance with which they should write. Rules and literary conventions became more important than the depth and seriousness of the subject matter to the writers of this period. They express superficial manners and customs of the aristocratic and urban society and did not pry into the mysteries of human mind and heart. 

Opening of Theaters:-

                  

All the institutions that were closed in the puritanical movement were opened during the Restoration period. Political monarchy, Parliament Episcopacy and law were all restored. The clubs and coffee houses were also established during the period. These houses become the centers of political discussions and from here only, the periodical essays were originated. 

Imitation of the Ancient Masters:- 

The authors of the period were not endowed with exceptional literary talents. So they turned to the ancient writers, in particular, to the Latin writers, for guidance and inspiration. It was generally believed that the ancients had reached the acme of excellence and the modern poets could do no better than model their writings on the classics. Thus grew the neo-classical school of poetry. The neo-classicists or pseudo-classicists could not soar to great imaginative heights or could not penetrate deeply into human emotions. They directed their attention to the slavish imitation of rules and ignored the importance of the subject matter. This habit was noticeable in the age of Dryden. It strengthened in the succeeding age of Pope. The authors of the period were not endowed with exceptional talents. So, they turned to the ancient writers for guidance and inspiration. They directed their attention to the slavish imitation of rules and ignore the importance of the subject matter. This habit was noticeable in the Age of Dryden. And it was strengthened in the Age of Pope. That’s why Alexander Pope writes, 

"earn hence for ancient rules a just esteem,

To copy nature is to copy them"

Imitation of the French Masters:- 

King Charles II and his companions had spent the period of exile in France. They demanded that poetry and drama should follow the style to which they had become accustomed in France. Shakespeare and his contemporaries could not satisfy the popular literary taste. Pepys wrote in his diary that 

"he was bored to see Shakespeare‘s Midsummer Night’s Dream". 

The Italian influence had been dominant in Elizabethan period. Now began the period of French influence, which showed itself in English literature for the next century. Commenting on the French influence on the literature of this period W. H. Hudson writes: Now the contemporary literature of France was characterized particularly by lucidity, vivacity, and by reason of the close attention given to form correctness, elegance and finish. It was essentially a literature of polite society, and had all the merits and all the limitations of such a literature. I was moreover a literature in which intellect was in the ascendant and the critical faculty always in control. It was to this congenial literature that English writers now learned to look for guidance; and thus a great impulse was given to the development alike in our prose and in our verse of the principles of regularity and order and the spirit of good sense. As in verse pre-eminently these were now cultivated at the expense of feeling and spontaneity, the growth of an artificial type of poetry was the inevitable result. The famous French writers like Corneille, Racine, Moliere and Boileau were imitated. Boileau‘s good sense ideal became very popular. English writers imitated the French blindly; rather they copied the worst vices of the French, instead of their wit, delicacy and refinement. The French influence is seen in the coarseness and indecency of the Restoration comedy of manners. The combined influence of French and classical models of tragedy is seen in the heroic tragedy. The French influence is responsible for the growth and popularity of opera.

Correctness and Appropriateness:- 

The work of the authors of the Restoration period was imitative and of limited quality. Since they lacked creativity and flight of imagination, they abandoned freedom altogether and slavishly followed the rules. Edward Albert writes: Thus they evolved a number of rules which can usefully he summarised in the injunction Be Correct, correctness means avoidance of enthusiasm, moderate opinions moderately expressed, strict care and accuracy in poetic technique and humble imitation of the style of Latin Classics. The new tendency, which reached its climax in the Age of Pope, is very clearly marked in the literature of the Restoration period. To Dryden Dr. Johnson applied the term Augustan, saying that Dryden did to English literature what Augustus did to home, which he found  of brick and left of marble. Dryden was the first representative of the new ideas that were to dominate English literature till the end of the eighteenth century. 

Realism and formalism:-

Restoration literature is realistic. It was very much concerned with life in London, and with details of dress, fashions and manners. The early Restoration writers, observes W. J. Long, sought to paint realistic pictures of corrupt court and society, and emphasized vices rather than virtues and gave us coarse, low plays without interest or moral significance. Like Hobbes, they saw only the externals of man, his body and appetites, not his soul and his ideals… Later, however, this tendency to realism became more wholesome. While it neglected romantic poetry, in which youth is eternally interested, it led to a keener study of the practical motives which govern human action. The Restoration writers eschewed all extravagances of thought and language and aimed at achieving directness and simplicity of expression. Dryden accepted the excellent rule for his prose, and adopted the heroic couplet, as the next best thing for the greater part of this poetry. It is largely due to Dryden that writers developed formalism of style, that precise, almost mathematical elegance, miscalled classicism, which ruled the English literature for the next century. 

New Literary Forms:-

           

The writers of the age went against the Elizabethan romantic ideals and tried to give realistic picture of the corrupt court and society. They exposed vices rather than virtues. The most important literary forms expounded during this age are as under:

                                      A) Satire

Restoration age was an age of political unrest, sharp wit and personal contention. For this reason, satire got a new importance. Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe which was written in heroic couplet is considered as the best satire respectively.

                                    B) Poetry

The Restoration poets completely discarded the romanticism of Elizabethan poetry and also rejected the morals of puritan poets. Poetry presented a realistic picture of the corrupt court, society, men and manners; and its appeal was to intellect and reason.

                                     C) Drama

The theatres which were closed in 1642 were opened during the Restoration. Consequently, the plays were written for the play  houses. It gave rise to the development of the Comedy of Manners, which portrayed the sophisticated life of the dominant class of society.

                                       D) Heroic Couplet

Restoration literature adopted the heroic  couplet as a poetic medium that is two iambic pentameter lines which rhymed together. Waller, who began to use it in 1623, is generally regarded as the father of the couplet. Later, Waller and Dryden made the couplet a literary fashion. 

◆POETRY OF RESTORATION AGE:-

The poetry of the Restoration period is formal, intellectual and realistic. In it form is more important than the subject matter. S. A. Brooke writes: "The artificial style succeeded to any extinguished the natural, or to put it otherwise, a more intellectual poetry finally overcame poetry in which emotion always accompanied thought".

(i)John Dryden (1631-1700)

Dryden was the first of the new, as Milton was the last of the former school of poetry. He was a versatile poet. Absalom and Achitophel is a fine, finished satire on contemporary political situation. Medal is an attack on Shaftesbury. Mac Flecknoe is a biting attack on a former friend, Thomas Shadwell. Religio Laici and The Hind and the Panther are two doctrinal poems. Dryden appears as a great story teller in verse in The Fables. As a lyric poet his fame rests on song for St. Cecilia’s Day and On Alexander’s Feast. Dryden is the representative poet of his age. He began the neo-classical age in literature. It was his influence and example which lifted the classic couplet for many years as the accepted measure of serious English poetry. 

(ii)Samuel Butler (1612-1680)

Butler‘s Hudibras is a pointed satire on Puritans. It was influenced by the satires of Rabelais and Cervantes. It has genuine flashes of comic insight. It is a great piece of satirical poetry and it stands next to Dryden‘s Absalom and Achitophel. Butler is a remarkable figure in the poetic development of the Restoration period. 

◆PROSE OF RESTORATION AGE:- 

The Restoration marks the beginning of modern prose. Matthew Arnold remarks: "the Restoration marks the birth of our modern English prose. It is by its organism an organism opposed to length and involvement, and enabling us to be clear, plain and short  that English prose after the Restoration breaks with the styles of the times preceding it, finds the true law or prose and becomes modern, becomes, in spite of superficial differences, the style of our own day". The spread of the spirit of common sense and of the critical temper of mind; the love of definiteness and clarity; and of the hatred of the pedantic and obscure have contributed to the development of English prose. It was an age of intellectualism and rationalism, the qualities which are essential for prose. The growing interest in rationalism and the advancement of science greatly aided the general movement towards precision and lucidity of expression which are the essential qualities of good prose style. Various political parties and groups, and growing interest in day to day activities encouraged journalism which needed simple, straightforward prose style. The Coffee houses and drawing rooms attracted the intellectuals and general public for discussions on various topics of general interest. 

◆RESTORATION DRAMA:-

The theatres which were closed in 1642 were opened during the Restoration. They became the riotous haunt of the upper classes. Consequently, the plays written for the play houses were distinctly calculated by the authors to appeal to a courtly and cavalier audience. It is this that explains the rise of the heroic tragedy and the development of the comedy of manners. The heroic tragedy appealed to artificial, aristocratic sentiments on the subject of honour. And the Restoration comedy of manners reflected the morally vicious but intellectually brilliant atmosphere of the saloons and the chocolate houses. 

Conclusion

To sum up we can see social and historical aspects of Restoration period stressing the phenomena like concept of restoration, religious and political conflicts on the social sphere and the revolution that brought a deep changes in the society in general and literary activities in particular. The unit deals with the facets of restoration age like rise of neo-classicism, imitations of the ancient masters and their impact on the writings of the Restoration age, and introduction of correctness and appropriateness as well as formalism and realism in their writings. It also speaks of the prose and verse of the age. The emphasis is placed on the dramatic activities of restoration age especial the birth of new tragedy called Heroic tragedy and comedy called Comedy of Manners. The important dramatists and their works are introduced which is followed by the discussion on the decline and decay of drama during Restoration Age.

Thus the Restoration age has great importance in the literary history of England. This age offered leading authors like Dryden and Congreve whose contribution to the literature is memorable. 

Character study of Achitophel

Assignment 

Name : Latta J. Baraiya 

Roll no : 12

Paper : The Renaissance Literature 

Semester : M.A sem 1

Topic : Character study of Achitophel in "Absalom and Achitophel"

Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English MKBU 

Introduction 

Absalom and Achitophel, verse satire by English poet John Dryden published in 1681. The poem, which is written in heroic couplets, is about the Exclusion crisis, a contemporary episode. Dryden based his work on a biblical incident recorded in 2 Samuel 13–19. These chapters relate the story of King David’s favourite son Absalom and his false friend Achitophel, who persuades Absalom to revolt against his father. In his poem, Dryden assigns each figure in the crisis a biblical name; e.g., Absalom is Monmouth, Achitophel is Shaftesbury, and David is Charles II. Despite the strong anti-Catholic tenor of the times, Dryden’s clear and persuasive dissection of the intriguers’ motives helped to preserve the duke of York’s position. 

Absalom and Achitophel 

Dryden writes Absalom and Achitophel by the request of Charles II in order to defend the King and his followers against the Whigs led by the Earl of Shaftesbury. From the history, we know that Charles had no legitimate son who could ascend the throne after his death. Therefore, the King was in a problem and nominated his brother James, the Duke of York, as the legal heir of the throne. But in general the people of England were not in favour of James because he was a Catholic. The Catholics wanted James as their King but the Whigs did not want James. The Whigs were vigorously against the Duke of the York. They now want to succeed the throne the Duke of Monmouth an illegitimate son of Charles. Though the king loved his illegitimate son, he opposes this. At this time, Dryden was Poet Laureate and so he was asked to write a poem in support of the King attacking king’s opponents. Dryden did this ridiculing the opponents depicting a mirror like poem Absalom and Achitophel. According to Hobbes, 

"in every society there is an 

absolute monarch and this monarch governs the society"

In this poem, Achitophel is a treacherous conspirator whose name was cursed not only by the people of his contemporary age but also by the succeeding generations. 

◆Character study of Achitophel◆

Achitophel here is represented as sagacious, bold, a fiery soul, a great wit blessed with wealth and honour. As every man is free in his will, his mind was always busy for making secret plans and for wicked advice. At the same time he was restless and had a lust for power but when he was in power he wasted of it. Outwardly, he appeared to be prudent and courageous, noted for taking risk, but he was mischievous by nature. 

• Earl of Shaftesbury :-

Dryden argued that Shaftesbury had a weak and sickly body but he never cared it and he was always busy in planning intrigues against the King and the Crowd and against Absalom for his personal gain. 

“The Power of man, to take it 

Universally, is his present means to obtain some future apparent Good”

We can connect this with the nature of Shaftesbury. 

• False in Friendship :-

Dryden explains in passage that why Achitophel wanted to use Absalom in the struggle against the King. Achitophel knows that he is unpopular and as such he could not be able to lead the revolt against the King. Moreover, his loyalty was suspected and he was to face the treason. He therefore wanted a suitable person to become the leader and to use him. 

Achitophel knew that Absalom had no legal claims to the throne and would have to depend on the support of the people. Regarding this, Achitophel actually would like to use Absalom as a weapon. So, Achitophel thinks in this way, the authority of the king would be undermined and it may pave the way for the rule of the mob. 

• Religionity :-

As we know that people have blind faith in religion. In this poem Dryden also include this topic as very important fact for fight and rebel. Achitophel is trying to prove the King as a Jebusite or Roman Catholic.

“Of listening Crowds, with jealousies and Fears of 

Arbitary Counsels brought to light, And proves the King himself a Jebusite”

• Achitophel 

(A&A, 212-214)

Thus Achitophel plans to rebel against the royal power with multitude. Achitophel united the discontented people of Israel (England) into a single party which had been working separately, now began to work together to achieve one and the same goal. The best people among them included persons of royal blood who were of the view that the king was exercising too much power. Some of the men were really patriotic but they were misguided. They were not evil minded but they were won over by unholy tricks and intrigues. These people made extraordinary claims on the basis of their property and the result was that the government could not stand this pressure and broke down. the general people treated the Popish plot with contempt and hated to be out done by the Jebusites. These people were lead by hot headed priests. These priests were deprived of their positions by the Act of Uniformity passed in 1662 during the Commonwealth and now they reasserted their false notions with great enthusiasm in order to reestablish the theocratic State established by Cromwell. They wanted to regain the power of the Commonwealth under which the parliament and the priests governed the people and justified their misrule by claiming that their actions were inspired by God. Who could be better qualified to rule the country than the race of priests, if spiritual grace was regarded as a basis of political authority. The Presbyterian priests led the crowd. They were not sure of their goal; they spoke vehemently against the government. They used all their strength to destroy discipline and peace. They did not wish to build anything, but they were out of destroying everything. 

• Ambition and Power :-

Power and ambition drive the plot of John Dryden’s poem “Absalom and Achitophel.” King David of Israel has all the power in theory, but in practice, he has little ambition. According to Achitophel, the King’s deceitful counselor, David is lacking manly force, and he gives in too easily to the people. The King is mild and hesitant to draw blood, and Achitophel, in his own ambition for increasing power, sees David as weak. But when should people strive their bonds to break, Achitophel says to David’s son Absalom, “If not when kings are negligent or weak?” Dryden's poem suggests that the desire for power is a common one in the hearts of men. Almost all men want it in some fashion or another, and they are easily swayed from their rightful place and beliefs if given the opportunity to amass it. Absalom is generally a good, loving, and moral son, but he cannot help himself when Achitophel comes calling with whispers of the throne. Achitophel also holds a significant position, but it is not enough for him. Whether one is in politics, the law, or religion, one still has these desires. Dryden doesn't condemn ambition outright, but he asserts that one must know his place and that, if it is not moral or legitimate to seek a specific office or position, then the one who occupies it has the right to resist with force. Absalom wants to rule over the country, and if it's not possible then he wants to destroy the authority of the king. 

• Satire :-

The use of typology in the biblical context of the poem suggests a fine distinction between Absalom’s response to the temptation, and to Achitophel’s well-spoken words. By using types to persuade Absalom of his role as savior, Achitophel becomes an ironic Gospel prophet, and Absalom a false messiah. Achitophel is not slow to offer specific examples of his predictions. He first claims that Absalom’s nativity was marked by some royal planet that ruled the southern sky a favorable omen. The astronomical sign, which is one of the messianic allusions of the temptation scene, is not the correct nativity sign ! The star of the real Messiah rises in the east, not the south.

Next, Achitophel calls Absalom the country’s cloudy pillar, guardian fire, and second Moses. All three are familiar biblical signs; and the pillar and fire are promised in Isaiah as signs of god’s renewed presence among the Israelites. The typical signs that Achitophel mentions have general biblical meaning and would have been persuasive for Absalom, the biblical prince. There is a great deal of irony in this, warning of Achitophel’s deceptive persuasion. Hoping to convince Absalom of the practicality of a “pleasing rape upon the crown”, Achitophel associates David’s old age with his supposed political impotence. Achitophel attempts to remove the kingship and the question of secession from the authority of Heaven and the law of God by falsifying the account of David’s return from exile. According to Achitophel, David was called from Gath by fortune; according to the Bible, he was called from exile by god and anointed by Heaven. Achitophel’s argument makes the sanctity of heaven dependent on the arbitrary role of fortune’s wheel, whose prizes must be grabbed. In the context of biblical history, that ethic obviously contradicts the moral code and world order implied by God’s written law. The association between God and David is made through the clever comparison of divine and human fertility. There is some irony in seeing God’s abundant creation reflected in the king’s sexual extravagances, but the irony doesn’t reduce the status of the king. It serves, at the beginning of the poem, to separate the person of the king from the office of the king. 

• Portrayal of David by Achitophel :-

The opening scenes emphasize David as an indulgent father, not as head of the country. David’s pleasure in Absalom parallels God’s attitude toward Adam in the Garden, but there are two ways of reading this allusion back into Achitophel’s portrait of David. The most obvious is that Achitophel unknowingly predicts the final triumph of David as a Samson figure who wreaks havoc on his enemies and asserts the force of God’s law.

But, in describing David, Achitophel is also appealing to David’s relationship to Christ, especially Christ among enemies and false friends. That relationship also suggests the final victory of God over Satan and all antichrists. Moreover, David as paralleled with Samson, given the typical relationship that both Old Testament figures bear to Christ, plays off nicely against David’s own reference to Absalom as a false Samson. 

• Political sense :-

Achitophel know that how other characters are useful for him. The plans are always made in his mind. Some of the rebel leaders belonged to the aristocracy. The most important among them was Zimri who is the Duke of Buckingham. He had so many qualities that he seemed to be a symbol of all mankind. He was rigid and inflexible in his opinions but unfortunately he held the wrong opinions. He tried his hand at everything but did not stick to any activity for any length of time. Within a month, he would perform the duties of a chemist, fiddler, statesman and a verses and drinking. Besides this, he had numerous other fancies and ideas which he had never put into practice. And Achitophel know that how to use this type of person for his personal benefit. 

• Achitophel of Today's Generation :-

We have lot many Achitophels in and around our town and us. Who looking for their personal desire and advantages. Some of them are also our relatives and our trustful persons. For their personal revenge they use us as weapon like Absalom and provoke us against our near and dear one. But it's our responsibility to be awake with this type of situations. 

Conclusion 

To wind up we can say that the combination of exceptional intellectual caliber and stupendous moral bankruptcy is too rare which we see in Achitophel. It is true that it is not to be found in the character of every politician. Such men as Achitophel, pursuing their ambitious and selfish political goal with extraordinary brilliance through devious means, do exist. There may be few persons of such brilliant intellect who put their intelligence to such devious schemes, but they certainly linger in all lands and in all times. It is true to some extent that, the Earl of Shaftesbury cannot be removed from the context in which Dryden puts him, for we cannot have the same political situation as existed in England at that time. But most of the features presented in Achitophel are to be found universally among politicians hypocrisy, lack of integrity, ambition, etc. When an acutely intelligent man turns his mind to a lust for power, he makes use of his intellectual ability to gain his ends unscrupulously. Such men are to be found in increasing numbers in the modern world of power politics. It proves the universality of Dryden’s portraiture of the Earl of Shaftsbury. 

Contrast between S. T. Coleridge and William Wordsworth

 

Assignment 

Name : Latta J. Baraiya 

Roll no : 12

Paper : Literature of Romantics 

Semester : M.A sem 1

Topic : Contrast between S. T. Coleridge and William Wordsworth

Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavngar University 

Introduction 

The early Romantic period coincides with what is often called the “Age of Revolutions” including of course, the American and the French revolutions an age of upheavals in political, economic and social traditions. The age which witnessed the initial transformations of the industrial revolution. The take off of Romantic Movement in English Language is set in the year 1798 when William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, publish of their poem called “Lyrical Ballads”. Though, these two lake-side poets wrote the poetic book, they have different view of the way poetry is seen, unlike William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge had an inspiration towards the supernatural, the mystic and the occult. A revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art) but the very way we perceive the world. Some of its major precepts have survival into the twenteth century and still affect our contemporary period. 

Romantic writers generally see themselves as reacting against the thought and literary practices of the preceding century. The Romantist’s major subject matter is the beauty and satisfactions derive from nature. Romantists believe in naturalism and realism in the place of morality. They believe that man should not be conformed or stereotyped to one norm of code rather derive pleasure from what he derive from nature. Be that as it may, more emphasis is not laid on the thematic study of Romantic poetry rather that the beauty is derived in its form following the theory of arts for art’s sake. “Nature” meant many things to the Romantics, it was often presented as itself a work of art, constructed by a divine imagination, in emblematic language, for example, throughout “song of myself”, Whitman makes a practice of presenting common place items in nature... 

“ants”, 

“heap’d stones”, and 

“poke-weed” 

as containing divine elements and he refers to the “grass” as a natural “hieroglyphic”, “the handkerchief of the lord”. While particular perspectives with regards to nature varied considerably nature is perceived as a healing power, a source of subject and image, a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization, including artificial language, the prevailing views accorded nature the status of an organically unified whole. It was viewed as “organic”, rather than as in the scientific or rationalist view, as a system of “mechanical” laws, for romanticism displaced the rationalist view of the universe as a machine with the analogue of an “organic” image, a living tree or mankind itself. At the same time, Romantics gave greater attention both describing natural phenomena accurately and to capturing “sensuous nuance” and this is as true of Romantic landscape painting. Accuracy of observation, however, was not sought for its own sake. Romantic nature poetry is essentially poetry of meditation. 

◆WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850) :-

William Wordsworth was born in 1770 at Cockermouth in Cumberland. He grew up in the Lake District, the beautiful area of mountains, lakes and streams near the Scottish borders in North West England. The natural beauty and grandeur of this area was a major source of inspiration for Wordsworth throughout his life. His mother died when he was eight and his father died when he was thirteen. Like his friend Samuel Coleridge, Wordsworth was denied the blessing and comfort of a happy home. The considerable sum of money left to the children was withheld for some years for legal reasons, but William Wordsworth was nevertheless able to attend Cambridge University in 1787, where he found the curriculum boring. In 1790, he made a tour through France to the Alps with a fellow student travelling on foot like a peddler. He witnessed the Great Revolution of 1787-1890 in France. In 1802, Wordsworth finally inherited the money let to him by his father and married a childhood friend from the Lake District, Mary Hutchinson. Disaster followed in 1802, his favourite brother, John, a ship captain was drowned at sea. In 1810, the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge was broken by an open quarrel. Offsetting the sadness of these middle years however was the steady growth of Wordsworth reputation as a poet. 

William Wordsworth’s major work was his autobiographical poem titled “the prelude” completed in 1805. He continued to make changes and it was not published until his death. William Wordsworth died by re-aggravating a case of pleurisy on 23 April, 1850, and was buried at St. Oswald’s Church in Grasmere. His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical poem to Coleridge as the prelude several months after his death. 

William Wordsworth for the very first time, endeavors to define poetry and poetic process. It is a revolutionary work which attempts to free the poet and poetry from the slavish bonds of ancients and exhibits freedom and liberty. It was a response or reaction against the preceding neoclassical age. On the other hand T.S. Eliot’s concept of poetry and poetic process is a reaction against romanticism and humanism. Here is some interesting view about poetry by Wordsworth and Eliot :

Wordsworth’s concept of poetic process and poetry	T.S. Eliot’s theory of impersonality and concept of poetry
1. Reaction against Classicism	1. Reaction against romanticism and humanism
2. Subjective	2. Objective
3. Expression of Personality	3. An Escape from personality
4. Individual	4. Universal
5. Liberty to express personal emotions.	5. Personal emotions must be transformed in to generalized emotions
6. Non-Conformist (Freedom and liberty from Past)	6. Conformist (gives importance to tradition)
7. Poetry should be simple	7. Poetry should depict complexity
8. Poet is a man	8. Poet is a craftsman

◆SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 

(1772-1834) :-

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 in the country town of Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England. Samuel’s father, the Reverend John Coleridge was a respected vicar of the parish and headmaster of Henry VIII’s Free Grammar School at Ottery. After the death of Samuel’s father, he was sent to Christ’s Hospital, a charity School founded in the 16th century in Greyfriars, London where he remained throughout his childhood, studying and writing poetry. Throughout life, Coleridge idealized his father as pious and innocent, while his relationship with his mother was more problematic. His childhood was characterized by attention seeking, which has been linked to his dependent personality as an adult. He was rarely allowed to return home during the school term, and this distance from his family at such a turbulent time proved emotionally damaging. He later wrote of his loneliness at school in the poem “Frost at Midnight”. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge from 1791-1794. In 1792, he won the Browne Gold Medal for an Ode that he wrote on the slave trade. In 1798, Coleridge and Wordsworth published a joint volume of poetry, “Lyrical Ballads” which proved to be the starting point for the English Romantic Movement. In 1800, he returned to England and shortly thereafter settled with his family and friends at Keswick in the Lake District of Cumberland to be near Grasmere, where Wordsworth had moved. Soon, however, he was beset by marital problems, illnesses, increased opium dependency, tensions with Wordsworth and a lack of confidence in his poetic powers, all which fuelled the composition of dejection: An Ode and an intensification of his philosophical studies. He died in 1834 on the 25 of July in Highgate. 

◆Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Contrast to William Wordsworth :-

William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge are two giants of the Romantic Period. They are the leaders of the Revival of Romanticism. Coleridge's concept of a poet!! They contribute a great lot in this respect. But they do not hold the same views on the nature, function and creation of poetry and poet. Their attitude to them often differs from each other. Their ideas show their different dispositions. It is also true that their ideas are innovative. Wordsworth throws much light on the nature and function of a poet in his "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads". He is highly conscious of the distinction between a common man and a man of genius. This difference is worth considering. It has a certain degree. This leads Wordsworth to analyses the qualities of a poet. His concept of poet is new. Similarly, Coleridge expresses his own ideas of poet in his best-known critical piece, "Biographia Literaria". He shows some qualities of a poet similar to and different from those of Wordsworth. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is often discussed in association with his peer, William Wordsworth. This is due in part to their friendship and joint ventures on works such as Lyrical Ballads. Although he is often “paired” with his counterpart Wordsworth, there are several differences in Coleridge’s poetic style and philosophical views. Coleridge’s poetry differs from that of Wordsworth, and his association with Wordsworth overshadows Coleridge’s individual accomplishments as a Romantic poet. In addition, Coleridge’s poetry complicates experiences that Wordsworth views as very simple and very commonplace. Samuel Taylor Coleridge has a poetic diction unlike that of William Wordsworth, he relies more heavily on imagination for poetic inspiration, and he also incorporates religion into his poetry differently. Coleridge’s different views, combined with his opium addiction, led to an eventual breach in his friendship with Wordsworth  a friendship that had begun in 1797. 

Despite any difference, the two poets were compatible because they were both “preoccupied with imagination, and both [used] verbal reference in new ways”. In 1798 the publication of their joint effort, Lyrical Ballads, signified the height of their relationship. This came at a time when they were together in Alfoxden, where they had enjoyed the simple pleasures of spending time together, discussing ideas, and devising schemes for publications. 

“Never again would the two poets have the sort of compatibility which allowed for major differences of opinion, without creating unease”

Following this time period, their friendship began to slowly deteriorate; beginning with criticisms of each other’s poetry, then growing into conflicting views on creativity and intellect, and finally culminating in a “radical difference” of “theoretical opinions” concerning poetry. However, their friendship could have been spared, had Coleridge not been misinformed by Basil Montagu that Wordsworth referred to him as a “burden” and a “rotten drunkard”. That was the last straw, and had deeply upset Coleridge, who was by this point addicted to liquid opium and very sensitive about the topic. Thus, after 1810 their friendship would never be the same, and although Wordsworth and Coleridge had once been compatible, and are often paired together as Romantic poets, it was ultimately their distinguishable differences that led to their falling out.

Coleridge’s different perception of poetry is what sets him aside from Wordsworth. In fact, Coleridge even reflected on the difference between his contributions and those of Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads. He stated, 

“my endeavors would be directed to persons and characters supernatural  Mr. Wordsworth, on the other hand, was…to give charm of novelty to things of everyday”. 

Although Coleridge’s retrospective interpretation of this work could be viewed as an overly simplistic division of labor, it nonetheless proves that Coleridge viewed his poetic style as different than that of Wordsworth. Moreover, Coleridge’s retrospective interpretation insinuated that he dealt with complex subject matter, while Wordsworth gave the ordinary a revitalizing freshness. Even though they worked together successfully on the publication Lyrical Ballads, Coleridge and Wordsworth clearly had contrasting opinions about “what constituted well written poetry.” 

Whether their differences stemmed from religion, means of inspiration, or simply poetic diction, it is evident that these two poets were uniquely individual. Moreover, although Samuel Coleridge is often paired with William Wordsworth, upon further examination one can plainly see that the two poets are undoubtedly different. The similarities between them often overshadow their individual achievements, ideas, and styles. Due to the fact that Samuel Coleridge sought out the acquaintance of William Wordsworth and had his appreciation for Wordsworth’s poetry well documented, Coleridge is considered the lesser of the two poets. Additionally, before the men collaborated on Lyrical Ballads, Coleridge was temporarily viewed as Wordsworth’s understudy. Combined with the fact that his opium addiction crippled his poetic potential, these elements portray Coleridge as less accomplished poet than Wordsworth. Regardless of popular opinion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge possessed his own unique poetic diction, sought non-traditional methods of poetic inspiration, conveyed original theories about the imagination, and distinctly incorporated his religious philosophies into his poetry. It is for these reasons that Samuel Taylor Coleridge remains a pillar for the Romantic era of poetry. 

◆View about Poet :-

According to Coleridge, imagination and emotion are two principal qualities of a poet. A poet is a person who has excessive ability to manage different qualities. He plays a reconciliatory role in the activities of different concepts and percepts. He is a person who is gifted with a special ability to feel emotions. Apparently, the mind of a poet seems to be disordered. But inwardly, it is always in an ordered condition. The poet is adjusted with the universe. The universe never comes out from its proper order. In the same way, the poet's mind never districts from its track. It is always in a proper order. The imaginative activity of the poet does not come out of its routine work. Imaginative activities of the poet follow the ordered direction of his mind. Coleridge thinks that poetry is a recurrence of God's creative act. For this reason, the effort of the poet is the poet's adoration of God. The poet recreates the glory of God. So he is the singer of God. 

According to Wordsworth, a poet must feel the pulse of the common man. He is the poet of common humanity but not for the poets only. In this respect, we mention Edmund Spenser. He is called the poets' poet in the Elizabethan Age. When we go through his poetry, we feel that he does not write it for ordinary man but writes only for the poets and the elites. In the Neo-classical Period, we see that the poets composed poems in describing the decorated drawing room, coffee houses etc. Personifications of abstract ideas are salient features of the eighteenth century. There is no room for common people in their poetry. Wordsworth disapproves such tendency of the poets. He says,

     

  "But poets do not write for poets alone but for men." 

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that Wordsworth does not produce any well-knit definition of a poet in his famous "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads". Similarly, Coleridge does not define a poet well in his "Biographia Literaria" too. Both of them only venture to identify some qualities or ideas of a man who intends to get himself included in the class of poets. They try to show some features or qualities of a poet in their critical pieces. 

Coleridge in this sense differentiates himself from his contemporary romantic poet William Wordsworth because Wordsworth‘s poems follow rural and humble, rustic and natural visions, whereas Coleridge finds his fantastic creations in nature‘s forces and nature‘s creations. Secondly Wordsworth does not live in illusion or create any illusion, while Coleridge with his figurative words draws a world of poetic dream, instead of poetic sensibility, in which Coleridge‘s poems earlier leave reader awfully dumbstruck, with congealed nerves and at times heart wracking state while the poems of William Wordsworth‘s poems carry the reader to a phenomenon of truth and bliss. Coleridge‘s objectivity to nature‘s beauty is of wonder and enigma, while Wordsworth‘s subjectivity to nature is of a kind of a friend and guide. Both the poets of romantic age sensitise common man to feel nature from the artistic sense in order to derive moral good in human life. It is apt to conclude with the fact that human consciousness, collective consciousness and universal consciousness do play a major role in imparting aesthetics to a piece of literature or art, but it is the high-flown sensibility, logical reasoning and imaginative talent that creates and recreates the world of literary tradition and creativity. The poetic pleasure is possible if there is proper and balanced coordination of language and harmony. Both the abovementioned poets with their own poetic capacity contributed significantly in a novel way to design the poetic art and truth.