Far from the Madding Crowd (by Thomas Hardy)

 Summary

Far from the Madding Crowd opens with an introduction to Gabriel Oak, a farmer in his late 20s who has experience with shepherding. Currently in debt, he tends his own flock to be best able to manage them and turn a profit. A wagon arrives with Bathsheba Everdene and her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. Bathsheba loses her hat, argues about paying a toll, and ultimately, Gabriel pays the two pence toll. Bathsheba, about 20 years old, is beautiful and strong-willed. When Gabriel next sees her, she rides astride a horse skillfully. They meet, exchange words, and not long afterwards, she rescues him. Gabriel has fallen asleep with the smoke trapped in his cottage; had Bathsheba not noticed and acted, the smoke inhalation would have killed him. She is calm as she does so. In short order, he decides he loves her and will propose. Bathsheba refuses his offer. Not long after she leaves for Weatherbury, his flock dies. Gabriel travels in pursuit of work, and a hiring fair leads him to the same town where Bathsheba lives. A crop fire draws him in, and for no reason beyond it being the right thing to do, he steps up and leads the efforts to save the crops. Afterwards, he learns that the farmer—a woman—needs a shepherd. The farmer is Bathsheba. He becomes her employee.

At the same time, one of her employees, Fanny Robin, vanishes. Gabriel meets the woman as she is leaving and he gives her money for her needs. As time passes, Fanny meets up with the man who has been courting her, Sergeant Francis Troy, and pursues the marriage he has promised her. As a prank, Bathsheba sends an anonymous valentine to the farmer of the adjacent farm, William Boldwood, stating "Marry me." Her identity is found out, and Boldwood begins to think of marriage. At this same time, Gabriel receives a letter from Fanny. She reports that she is going to get married and sends back his money. That wedding does not happen. Bathsheba and Gabriel continue to have a rapport, and he defends her to the locals who are less than impressed by her independence. At this time, Boldwood proposes, and Bathsheba refuses. He presses her to consider. Not long after the first, he proposes again, and they agree that she will think on it while he is away for the next five to six weeks.

While he is away, Bathsheba meets a soldier, Sergeant Troy, who flatters and charms her. He conducts a sword demonstration for her only, cuts a curl of her hair to keep, and kisses her. Soon she is in love, sends a letter to Boldwood, who is temporarily away at Bath, and continues to develop a relationship with Troy. Gabriel advises against this relationship and warns her that Troy is not the admirable man he claims to be. Boldwood returns, demands that Bathsheba answer his questions, and curses Troy. Bathsheba goes to Bath, intending to end her relationship with Troy out of fear for his safety, but she marries him instead. When they return, Troy buys his way out of the army but has little work ethic regarding the farm. He spends Bathsheba's money on gambling and brandy. Boldwood sinks into depression over the loss of Bathsheba and lets his crops rot.

Meanwhile, Gabriel sees a storm coming that will threaten the crop. He takes it upon himself to save the crops yet again (this being half the year's yield), and Bathsheba comes to help. Troy and the employees are uselessly drunk. This action occurs, notably, eight months after the night when Gabriel saved the crops from fire. Troy and Bathsheba quarrel when they see a woman (Fanny) along the road, and Bathsheba realizes that he knows her. At this point, Bathsheba doesn't realize the woman on the road is Fanny or that Bathsheba's husband is the soldier Fanny loved. Troy makes arrangements to go to Fanny to give her money several days later, but she is already dead. Bathsheba and Troy quarrel when she sees a lock of golden hair in his possession.

Word comes to Bathsheba that her former servant Fanny is dead while Troy is in Casterbridge to meet Fanny. Bathsheba sends for Fanny's body. Before Troy returns, she discovers that Fanny and her child are both in the coffin. Her husband's former lover and child arrive dead in her own house. Distraught, as is Troy when he returns and discovers the circumstances, Bathsheba argues with him, and they separate. He goes to have a grave marker made, and Bathsheba leaves the house. Francis Troy does not return. He sleeps at the churchyard, plants flowers that wash away, and has the stone set for Fanny. Afterward, he goes for a swim. The current carries him away, and he ends up being rescued by a ship with passage to America. (Later, the narrator reveals that Troy works as a "Professor of Gymnastics, Sword Exercise, Fencing, and Pugilism" once in America).

Troy is presumed dead. Bathsheba is presumed a widow. Within the year, Boldwood again proposes to her, this time with the belief that she owes him. She points out that her husband might not be dead, and it would be years until she could marry. Boldwood asks her to still be engaged, expressing that he will wait. They agree that she will decide if she can accept his proposal—and a multiple-year engagement—by Christmas. Gabriel continues to advise Bathsheba and run her farm. He takes on the management of Boldwood's farm, too. Troy, meanwhile, returns to Weatherbury. He decides to reveal himself to his wife, and he chooses to do so at Boldwood's party where Bathsheba has just agreed to marry Boldwood if her husband is, in fact, dead. When Troy reveals himself, Bathsheba, clearly stunned, lets out a cry as he grabs her. Boldwood draws a gun from above the fireplace and kills Troy. He attempts to kill himself, too, but a servant stops him. He then reports to prison.

Bathsheba has her husband's body taken home, cleans and dresses him, and collapses after the surgeon and parson come. She has her husband buried with Fanny and their child, and she has the stone that he purchased for Fanny amended to include him. The discovery of clothing and jewelry labeled for "Bathsheba Boldwood" serves as proof that Boldwood is not of sound mind, and he is spared death. Gabriel continues to run both farms. However, he tells Bathsheba that he will be quitting, possibly going to America. His resignation arrives at Christmas, a year after Troy's death and Boldwood's imprisonment. She confronts Gabriel about his resignation, and he reveals that people spoke ill of him and of her, suggesting that he was waiting around to wed her and take over her farm. In the conversation, she reveals that he ought to ask her, and soon after, they have a private, quiet wedding.

 

The Dumb Dancer by Asif Currimbhoy

 Introduction:  “The Dumb Dancer”,  a highly acclaimed Psychological play of an Indian playwright Asif Currimbhoy, is a fascinating story of a Kathakali dancer’s emotional plight in the competitive world. The central characters in this play seem to be affected with Schizophrenia. The text has elaborate footnotes and numerous illustrations to explain to a foreign reader the history and tradition of Kathakali dance. The play was written in 1961 and was staged in 1965 in United States later it was staged at the British Drama League Festival. The kathakali dance with the accompaniment of drums, cymbals, gongs and songs can easily hold the foreign audience spellbound. Currimbhoy recalls its effect on the audience when it was staged at the British Drama League Festival: The timing and the tone of the play were just right. Everything was bizarre to the point of fascination and the audiences were absolutely thrilled. I don’t think we will ever forget the experience.”

Discussion: “The Dumb Dancer” is a story of a Kathakali dancer Bhima, who plays the mythological role of Bhima and over identifies himself with the role to the extent of forgetting his own identity in this world. He gradually turns insane and becomes a patient in a mental asylum. Bhima, the kathakali dancer is under the delusion that he is the real Bhima of the Mahabharata, who had avenged the humiliation of his beloved wife Draupadi by killing Duryodhana. He becomes mentally deranged at the thought of his having become a murderer, the victim in his insane fantasy. Dr. Prema, the psychiatrist who treats him, becomes so strongly involved emotionally with his problem that, instead of curing him, she herself becomes insane. While treating him she gradually starts identifying herself with Draupadi, the beloved wife of Bhima and slowly turns insane.

The play begins with a scene in the operation theatre of a mental asylum where ‘a dance sequence from Duryodhana’s slaughter’ is enacted with the sane on one side and the insane on the other side as its audience. The surprising thing is Bhima, a Kathakali dancer but an inpatient in the hospital plays the role of Bhima. No one knows this fact till Prema, the doctor who is treating Bhima reveals it to Dilip a house surgeon. Through the conversation between Prema and Dilip, one comes to know the illness of Bhima and his over identification with the mythological character Bhima to the extent of forgetting his real identity. “Your patient is a Schizophrenic who calls himself Bhima and identifies himself with a mythological character in a historical play. The case is not an uncommon one.” When Dr. Dilip asks Dr. Prema why she had allowed the patient to enact the violent scene, Dr. Prema explains that she gives him a shock therapy which would bring back to his real-self. To give Bhima a shock treatment Dr. Prema wishes him to go through the performance again, as close to reality as possible.

Act II is a flash-back which takes us to the training center where Bhima is exposed to the strict and rigorous training in kathakali center. He often lapses into contemplation and tries to identify himself with Bhima of “The Mahabharata” who stands for courage, strength and ferociousness. He is very ambitious to achieve perfection in his art. In “thundering accents” he recites a few verses from the vow of revenge from “The Mahabharata” and performs the kathakali dance. His competency with a co-student, the singer Madhu a blind one, his intimacy with Guru’s daughter Shakuntala, his mental illness in the budding stage which from time to time is corrected by Guru, his fierce act of cutting his tongue to become greater than Madhu and also the greatest in the art field, he gradually turning insane and becoming a patient in asylum are seen in the second act. The verses chanted by Madhu, a blind pupil in the kathakali training centre, and a rival to Bhima are intended to give the background of the play. In a moment of elation, Bhima asks his Guru if he will ever attain the greatness of Madhu at all. The teacher says ‘No’. Then Bhima becomes upset and insists his Guru to explain why and how Madhu is greater? Then the Guru says, perhaps Madhu’s genius is due to his blindness, as those who lack one of the senses develop an unerring accuracy in another. He advises Bhima to – get back to work ‘since there can be no greatness without sacrifice. He also tells Bhima that his speech interferes his practice. Bhima who wants to excel Madhu is instructed by the Guru to practice dance ‘silently’. He grows restless, contorts his body into an agonizing dumb dancer and cries out. The dumb dancer…the dumb…dancer …These words electrify the situation and express the mental agony of Bhima. Immediately, he recedes into darkness, cuts his tongue and emerges again into the flickering light and throws his severed tongue at the feet of his Guru.

The III Act consists of Prema’s efforts to bring Bhima back to normalcy. She wants to place a dead corpse with torn abdomen in the place of Duryodhana to give a kind of shock therapy to Bhima to bring him back to normalcy. As a part of shock therapy, Dr. Prema keeps the corpse with a mask of Duryodhana on it when Bhima is playing the role of roudra (ferocious) Bhima getting ready to kill Duryodhana. Dr. Prema’s fascination for Bhima grows stronger and stronger and she slowly starts identifying herself with Draupadi, the beloved wife of Bhima. Her identification is interrupted by Shakuntala whom Bhima identifies as Draupadi. She feels jealous of her. Sensing that she is drawn very much towards the dumb dancer, Dr. Dilip wonders at her behaviour and asks her to come out of this illusion. In the final scene, Dr. Dilip finds Dr. Prema standing with her tresses dripping blood, on her head with the hands of Bhima who stands impassive. With wild eyes she declares that she has killed Shakuntala for her complete identification with Draupadi. The play ends with Prema turning insane, identifying herself with Draupadi. Prema, the superintendent of the mental asylum murders Shakuntala, her rival in order to own Bhima. In her ecstasy of identification, she puts Bhima’s arms around her, making his hand caress her hair.

The drama symbolically displays the indispensable struggle between the real self and the self that is projected and takes the audience to the inner depths of mind to show that alienation is an indispensable factor in the human life. Bhima the kathakali dancer and Prema the psychiatrist who treats him are the characters that show this inner struggle which in turn turns them insane. Through these two characters Currimbhoy presents the conflict between the real-self and the projected self in human mind which leads to the contemplation of human existence. Bhima feels comfortable in the dark and feels it difficult to come into light. This symbolically presents the conflict of real self and projected self in Bhima and he retreating himself into the inner depths of mind to find the real identity. As the degree of identification grows he forgets his existing identity in the world and becomes insane in the eyes of society.

Prema is another rare and sensitive individual who is aware of the conflict between the natural self and the image projected. Dr. Dilip comments on the tension in her mind. The more she thinks in terms of exercising her psychiatric skills the more she grows restless and is drawn towards Bhima. She tells Dilip about the restlessness in her mind. She develops emotional intimacy with her patient and even feels jealous of Shakuntala for her hold on Bhima who considers Shakuntala as his Draupadi and is very tender to her. Such behaviour is against her professional ethics as dictated by the society in which she lives.

Thus the play highlights conflicts in man. Currimbhoy uses one of the moods in the Kathakali dance “Distraction” it is the mood that symbolizes the man growing mad by lapsing into the inner depths of mind. When Shakuntala asks Bhima to show the mood Distraction, he immediately recedes into darkness and tells he can’t come out of it. He invites Shakuntala to come into it. Shakuntala rejects as it is a terrifying world full of darkness and so many masks hanging on the wall. Shakuntala goes back but Prema ventures, she goes into it comes with the mask. She is comfortable in. Inner depths of mind are a vertex. Once you get into it, there is no point of returning. For Prema “Distraction reaches higher than Sanity.”

The element of suspense makes the play more and more interesting. In the very opening scene one does not know why the pantomime is tried and why the psychiatrist is very anxious to make clinical assumptions about the dancer. The audience may be very much interested to know why Dr. Prema asks Dr. Dilip to conduct a shock therapy. The audiences are kept in suspense in act III where the nurse tells Dr. Dilip that a scalpel is missing. After the conduct of autopsy, one hears a scream in darkness and Dr. Prema tells Dilip that she has killed Shakuntala because she thought that she stood as a snag in reaching Bhima. In the end, she goes to Bhima and puts his arms around her. A faint echo Draupadi… Draupadi is heard and we do not know who has called out the name. Thus suspense engages the audience throughout the play.

Currimbhoy uses some effective theatrical devices in the play. He uses kathakali dance as a powerful dramatic device. Light and shadow, music, and masks are used to draw the narrow line between the two worlds – the sane and the insane; conscious and subconscious; external and inner life. By using all these modern theatrical devices and experimenting with the form and content Currimbhoy displays the universal questions related to human behavior and existence. And the play has attracted a great deal of critical attention, an interest which is certainly due to Currimbhoy’s attempt to combine the theatrical code of kathakali with western dramatic form.

Conclusion: The central characters in the play suffer from alienation. They dramatize man’s need for belongingness and the sense of identification. Thus, the play “The Dumb Dancer” portrays the frustration of the kathakali dancer, Bhima to achieve perfection in his art, his sense of insecurity, and his inarticulate groping for identity in the competitive world. And Dr. Prema identifies herself with Draupadi but in the process she finds Shakuntala as an obstacle, and to make her identification complete, she murders Shakuntala. The play ends with the sane psychiatrist turns insane.

Journey to the Interior (Margaret Atwood)

 Introduction:

“Journey to the Interior” is a poem, written in the form of an extended metaphor of the poet Margaret Atwood’s entangled journey into her mental world. The mind, a complex and seemingly inaccessible region, is shaded by a wide array of thoughts and surrounded by the hilly regions of the unknown. Yes, it is too dangerous for a person to roam there without assistance. In this poem, Atwood talks about her regular journey into her mind in order to seek food for poetic thoughts or creative pursuits. Somehow she tries to keep her head during the journey or she will be lost forever.

Summary:

“Journey to the Interior” begins with a description of a hilly region that seems flat from a distance. When the poetic persona gets closer to it she finds a passage through the hills as endless as the prairies. There is a cliff stopping the speaker from progressing further. During her travels, she has faced a lot of challenges. The location of this region is not easily accessible. An inexperienced mind can get lost due to the lack of reliable maps for guidance. Furthermore, the speaker thinks she regularly travels in a circle without discovering any further places. For this reason, it becomes difficult for her to keep her head. She can get lost in that dangerous region more easily than in other landscapes.

Structure & Form:

Margaret Atwood’s poem “Journey to the Interior” consists of two parts. The first part contains the description of the metaphorical landscape. In the following part, she talks about her realization after regular roaming there. The first section has three long stanzas and the next part contains four short stanzas. There is not any specific line count in each stanza. Besides, this poem is written in the form of an interior monologue. As there is not any specific rhyme scheme or meter, it is also an example of a free-verse lyric poem.
Literary Devices:

Atwood uses the following literary devices in her poem “Journey to the Interior”.

• Extended Metaphor: The overall poem is an extended metaphor. Atwood’s journey to her “interior” is a reference to her metaphorical journey into her mind.
• Simile: It occurs in the following lines: “the hills/ which the eyes make flat as a wall”, “become/ endless as prairies”, “sodden as a fallen log”, etc.
• Enjambment: It occurs throughout the poem. Atwood uses this device to internally connect the lines and create suspense in the transition of lines.
• Imagery: In the first stanza, the poet uses visual imagery to depict the landscape of her mind. The second stanza contains the use of tactile imagery in “a net of air” and “light and dark”.
• Repetition: In the first stanza, there is a repetition of the word “that” at the beginning of consecutive sentences.
• Alliteration: It occurs in “wall, welded”, “point to point”, “square surface”, etc.

 

Themes:

This poem taps on the themes of the inaccessibility and mystery of the human mind and self-discovery. Throughout the poem, Atwood details her travel to the unknown regions of her mind by using several metaphors. She describes the mind as a hilly landscape with no access point. The more she visits there the more she becomes entangled in the web. Finally, when she understands the complexities of the mind, she warns readers not to follow her path. It might cause someone to lose his or her mind. In this way, Atwood depicts how inaccessible and mysteriously beautiful the human mind is.

Another important theme of this piece is self-discovery. Atwood, being a veteran of creative pursuit, is well-versed in dealing with her mind. She knows the nooks and corners of her mind’s alleyways. If anyone needs some help, she is always there to help. Her knowledge of her own self, as well as her mind, gets reflected in this poem.

Final Solutions (Mahesh Dattani)

 Introduction:

India is a country of cultural and traditional diversities. Such society has established and institutionalized the ways of living to justify power and authority which some enjoyed over the rest. The existence in such diverse society demands understanding among the people to rejoice the diversities around them, particularly the variances in religion. The conflicts arising out of these diversities have found unique resonance and which have assumed special significance in post-independence Indian theatre. Such path breaking play from contemporary Indian theatre is “Final Solutions” (1992) by Mahesh Dattani  which is a critically acclaimed and thought provoking play which brings out important and representative features of the fragmented modern Indian life and poses varied questions of communal disharmony. The ways in which the modern Indian plays are studied have undergone a considerable change. The paper here aims not only to critique but also to explore the deeper insights of the thematic concerns of the play and to put a range of evaluation and interpretation on the basis of empirical evidences. It analyses the textual narrative of the play which has a considerable significance and important role in highlighting the issue of communalism. It attempts to discover the inappropriate and inhuman behavioural patterns in the society based on conventional stereotyping and established prejudices. Also, communalism has always been one of the major concerns for India. The nation has been struggling to resolve this social issue since pre-colonial era.

Discussion:

Final Solutions is situated with a long history as it deals with religious communalism, which is also one of the  very important national concerns which have problematized the peace of nation for over a century. While India is well known for its rich history of theatre unfortunately the country is also known for its history of religious rigidity. The religious conflicts and its consequence such as hatred, animosity and anger are often referred to be as religious communalism. The religious communalism results due to the ideological differences between the members of different religions and in fact it emerges out of the political manipulation of social issues. The emphasis put on community would eventually lead to the political innstitutions that dominate such as vote-bank politics and India is a very clear example of such politics. The real problem underlies with the stereotyping, punishing and blaming the whole community for the deliberate mistakes and anti-social activities by some of them. Ever since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, a communal tension between the Hindu and Muslim communities in India has been pervasive.

Despite India’s secular government and religious pluralism and tolerance there have been a number of violent communal conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, which are often products of politically motivated events. In fact, India has a long history of communal violence and “Final Solutions” is a kind of plea for the end of the communal violence, with one of the worst examples that is Ayodhya dispute. Communalism like casteism involves stereotyping and prejudice which results into animosity, anger and hatred because of their cultural and religious variance. The past incidents and events like the partition in 1947, Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and Godhra incident in 2002 have created a huge gap between the Hindus and Muslims. The same can be understood if we carefully speculate the action throughout the play “Final Solutions.” Dattani puts masks on the Mob/Chorus to make frequent change of identity to look natural. When the characters articulate inner feelings the chorus whisper or shout along. The plays opens when there has been curfew in the city because of the disturbance in the Rath Yatra resulting in communal violence. The play starts itself with a curfew in the city because of the communal conflicts. The central character Hardika had sorrowful past which had made herself averse to the religious sect of Muslims. Zarine’s father came to her father-in-law in search of job but his entreaty was not accepted. This created a tension between those two families and it continued through Hardika. And same experiences might have been of number of families which multiplied the tension between each other resulting into split and hatred between the two sects.

Hardika cannot forgive the people of that community who brutally killed her father even if the murderers did not have any relations with the boys who had come to their house to protect themselves. In most of the cases the matter of dispute is very simple but due to involvement of some anti-social elements it takes shape of communal riots which creates a huge difference in the psyche of victims. There are spiritual losses. People not only lose their people and material but also their souls. The experiences change their perspectives and same was true for the two young Muslim men. Through their experiences their perspectives about the Indian society and for themselves change as Bobby reveals to Ramnik the reason of Javed’s turning point from a common Muslim guy to a riot rouser or a hoodlum. Javed and Bobby felt equally angry about the man’s behaviour which created a deep and vast difference.

Aruna is a character which responds in most staunch and devout ways. She even risks her own family members. She also forcibly tries to make her daughter to believe the same in what she does. The characters Bobby, Ramnik and Smita despite the outer layers of secularism remain acutely aware of the roots of religious identity they all are trying hard to supress through their own identities. Javed then confesses about the riots which broke-out because of the disturbance in the Rath Yatra was initiated by him, as he threw stone on the idol of deity in the procession. And in Act III the conversation between Ramnik and Javed speaks his heart out and inflicts the attack on community which appears antagonistic to him.  From here too one can find the animosity and hatred of Javed towards the Hindus is not for some particular individual or a group but for the community as whole.

Finally when Bobby and Javed are about to leave, Bobby breaks all norms by lifting the tiny image of Lord Krishna from Aruna’s prayer room and declaring in front of all : “Bobby: See! See! I am touching God! Your God! My flesh is holding Him! Look, Javed!” Aruna screams against the sacrilege. Through Bobby, Dattani voices out the solution to get rid of such problems in the society. The words of Bobby are enough to explain that it is the society and ones living in it have created such havoc because of some events in their lives. If people genuinely trust each other and accepts the diversity amongst them it will be simpler to live than the present situations. Through Bobby Dattani conveys that if the two communities understand and believe in each other, then nothing can be destroyed. But probably the only suggestion is that it needs practice and immediate implementation of brotherhood forgetting the past and the stereotyped notions of each other. When the young men leave Ramnik confesses to her mother Hardika that his father, Hari and his father had burnt the shop of Zarine’s father’s shop in the name of religious supremacy. It suggests that the causes of the communal riots are not only due to disbelief, anger, hatred and influence of politicians but it is also related to economy.

Conclusion:

From an in-depth study and analysis of the dramatic text “Final Solutions” one comprehends three things. Firstly, theatre always directly or indirectly presents the utter truth of life through language which is destined to survive, move and rule man’s mind and heart forever. Whether it is social or political issues, creative playwrights have always tried to portray contemporary social conflicts and reality through their plays. Secondly, although it portrays reality, theatre has brought hope, courage, awareness and understanding to man about what he is and what he should do to stand against anything with a vision towards a better future to come and determination to fight against all the social evils and odds. And finally, theatre is a key educational device which informs and demonstrates the perception of class, religion, caste and ethnicity prevailing in the society by conceptualizing the identities. In “Final Solutions” Dattani expresses his humanistic concerns. He deals with the theme of communalism. In this play Dattani applies the religion consciousness and the prejudices towards different religions. He presents communalist attitudes and stereotypes prevalent in the society which influence to have a sensibility of hatred of one community against another. Through the method of reflection of contemporary socio-political issue in the play Dattani tries to explain that if discursive boundaries are ignored in the effort to understand the complexity of communalism, solutions might not be really so far away.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale (from The Canterbury Tales)

 About The Canterbury Tales:

The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of the Peace and, in 1389, Clerk of the King's Works. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale:

In a land populated by fairies and elves, in the days of King Arthur, a young knight rapes a maiden he sees walking from the river one day. For his offense, Queen Guinevere and her ladies rule that his punishment is to find out within one year what women most desire, or else he'll be beheaded. The knight departs on his quest to find the answer to this question, but despite questioning women all over the land and receiving numerous answers, he cannot find two women who agree on what women most desire.

After a year, the knight returns to King Arthur's court with a heavy heart, no closer to knowing what women most desire. On the way, he comes across a ring of 24 fairy ladies dancing. The fairies quickly disappear, only to be replaced by an ugly old hag. Upon learning of his quest, the hag agrees to tell the knight what women most desire if he promises to grant her anything she desires. The knight agrees. The hag tells the knight what women most desire – to have sovereignty over their husbands and lovers. The queen and all the ladies assemble agree that he is correct. As the court is adjourning, the hag petitions the queen to force the knight to fulfill his promise to her: she wants the knight to marry her. Despite the knight's reluctance, the queen insists that he must do so, and the knight and hag are married.

On their wedding knight, the knight doesn't want to consummate the marriage. The hag asks what ails him, and he tells her that she is so ugly, old, and low-class that it's no wonder he does not desire her. This prompts a long speech from the hag on the true origins of gentility, and the advantages of poverty and old age. The hag concludes her speech by offering the knight a choice: either he can have her old and ugly, but a good and faithful wife, or he can have her young and beautiful, but with no guarantee of these other good qualities. The knight turns the decision over to his wife, asking her to make the choice. Once the hag has confirmed that her husband has yielded sovereignty to her, she tells him that she will be both: young and beautiful, and a faithful, good wife to him. The knight takes his young, beautiful wife in his arms and they live happily ever after. The wife is not only faithful and good, but also obedient to her husband for the rest of their lives together.

The Wife concludes her story by praying Jesus to send women “husbands who are young and fresh on bed and also to show grace to them.” She also calls down a curse on husbands who refuse to be ruled by their wives.

Themes:

Women and Femininity:

The knight's punishment for rape is a quest in which he must discover what women most desire. This plot element is an occasion for the tale to expound upon all of the various things women desire and, in some cases, what these desires reveal about their nature. Although "The Wife of Bath's Tale" begins with the sexual assault of a woman, the rest of it imagines a world in which women are sovereign and in which they mete out judgments, administer justice, and have power over men's bodies. This world is the one that women want, at least according to the loathly lady's assertion that what women most desire is sovereignty over their husbands and lovers. Yet curiously, at the end of the tale, the loathly-lady-turned-beautiful-wife yields power back to her husband despite his willingness to grant it to her, raising questions about what it is women really desire. This ending is in keeping with the wide variety of things people tell the knight women most desire, for, at the end of the tale, women turn out to be just as big of a question mark as they were in at its beginning.

Power:

A knight deprives a maiden of power over her own body; his punishment, as decided by the women of the court, is that he must find out what women most desire, which turns out to be power. "The Wife of Bath's Tale" makes a point of how the knight's punishment fits his crime inasmuch as he must yield power over his body, first to the queen and her court, and finally to the hag he must marry. And indeed, after the disturbing opening, power in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" rests solely in the hands of women, who mete out punishment, administer justice, and force the knight to fulfill his promise to the hag. At the end of the tale, however, the locus of power seems to have shifted when the knight's wife gives mastery back to her husband. Even the Wife of Bath's concluding prayer requesting easy-to-dominate husbands can't quite contain our feeling that, by the end of the tale, power has again reverted to the hands of men, the place where it was abused at the tale's beginning.

Rules and Order:

At the beginning of "The Wife of Bath's Tale," a knight commits rape, and the rest of the tale is concerned with how the law punishes him for his misdeed (or not). The queen immediately asks for the privilege of judgment over the knight, but rejects the traditional punishment of beheading in favor of justice that's more rehabilitative than punitive. "The Wife of Bath's Tale" emphasizes the way in which the law demands sovereignty over people's bodies in the way you forfeit the right to determine the fate of yours when you break it. It also emphasizes the way making a vow has the same effect in one's voluntary yielding of sovereignty to another. The law and vow-making thus join women as things that demand cession of a man's sovereignty; since the 'thing that women most desire' is also a kind of rule for men, this consonance makes sense.

Principles:

The big principle at issue in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" is gentility. Gentility was thought to be a quality of a person that caused him to do noble deeds, keep his promises, and generally behave virtuously. The knight's accusation that the loathly lady is 'lowborn,' implying that she lacks gentility, prompts a response from the lady in which she unearths the true origins of "gentilesse." The question at hand is whether this gentilesse is a quality that naturally inheres in the offspring of a certain class, or whether it results from one's actions. The lady believes the latter, and uses logical, educated arguments to convince the knight of it, too. The upshot of her discussion is that, at the end of it, she's able to reasonably claim that she is gentle and the knight is not. Score one for the loathly lady.

Appearances:

Since the plot of "The Wife of Bath's Tale" has at its heart a loathly lady who shape-shifts into a beautiful, young damsel, we might expect appearances to be important here. And they are, just not for the reason you might think. For instead of this being a tale about how a knight learns to appreciate people for what's on the inside and that outer appearances don't matter, it's a tale about how a knight learns to give up sovereignty to his wife. That sovereignty includes power over the body. The loathly lady's physical appearance becomes an important symbol of that body, so that, at the end of the tale, when she offers her husband a choice about how he wants her to look, she's in essence offering him control of her body. He grants this control back to her, thus proving his understanding of the doctrine of women's sovereignty in marriage. Medieval stories don't necessarily go in for the whole 'appearances don't mean anything' maxim anyway, as we've seen in the  “General Prologue”.

Old Age:

The loathly lady's old age is what makes her wise, a fact she establishes definitively when she reminds the knight that the old age gives wisdom to her. The connection of age with the wisdom of lived experience is the main idea that we get from the tale of the Wife of Bath. What we're not familiar with from that Prologue is the linking of age to "foulness," sexual sterility, or undesirability that occurs in "The Wife of Bath's Tale." What we need to keep in mind, however, is that much of the equation of age with ugliness is made by the knight. The fact is that, in the end, the loathly (old) lady is the one who saves the knight's neck and reforms him  and this suggests that old age makes one wise and useful. It does not, however, make one a suitable marriage partner for a young bachelor, which is why at tale's end, the old lady becomes a young damsel.

Poverty:

When her husband attacks her suitableness as a wife because she is poor, the loathly lady launches into a long speech in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" that includes a meditation on the virtues of poverty. Coming right after her longer consideration of the origins of gentility, the lady's poverty speech sometimes repeats the same technique, attempting to convince the knight that, just as those who aren't gentlemen are still "gentil," those who are poor can still be rich. To do this she points to various things poor men have that rich men lack, including freedom from fear of robbery and  a general sense of contentment. These 'possessions,' the lady is saying, actually make the poor man rich. The lady also points to various virtues of poverty-as-poverty, including a knowledge of God, self, and who one's friends and enemies are. The lady's discussion of poverty has nothing to do with the material day-to-day lives of the poor; instead it explores the concept of poverty in an abstract way that draws upon a tradition of writings about poverty by authors like Seneca and Boethius.

The Knight’s Tale (from The Canterbury Tales)

 About The Canterbury Tales:

The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of the Peace and, in 1389, Clerk of the King's Works. It was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.

 The Knight’s Tale:

The noble Duke Theseus of Athens is on his way home from his invasion of Scythia, where he has won a wife, Hippolyta, and a sister-in-law, Emily. Sounds like a pretty successful trip, right? Along the way, Theseus & Co. meet a group of crying women. They beg Theseus to take vengeance on Creon, King of Thebes, because of his refusal to allow them to give their husbands' bodies a proper burial. Theseus agrees and beats Creon. In the process, he wins two noble Theban hostages, cousins Palamon and Arcite.

Theseus throws Palamon and Arcite in the slammer (a tower next to his garden), without ransom. One day in early May, Emily walks in the garden, gathering flowers. Palamon sees her from the prison window and immediately starts crushing on her. He's so smitten that he cries out. Hearing his cry, Arcite runs to his cousin. But as soon as he lays eyes on Emily, he falls for her too. The knights argue about who gets dibs on Emily. Arcite finally decides that it's a dumb argument to have; since both knights will be in prison forever, they'll just have to love Emily from afar with no hope of consummation.

Or maybe not. Soon, Arcite gets out of jail because he and Theseus have a mutual friend, who petitioned to get Arcite released. The only catch is that Arcite has to leave Athens and never set foot in the city again. Arcite moans and groans and feels sorry for himself, convinced that Palamon is better off than him because he gets to see Emily every day. Palamon, on the other hand, thinks that Arcite is a lucky dog because he can assemble an army to win Emily in battle.

Arcite returns to Thebes for a while, but, unable to stay away from Emily, quickly returns to Athens disguised as a servant. He works his way into Theseus's household, becoming Emily's manservant.

Meanwhile, Palamon has managed to escape from prison. He takes shelter in a grove of trees not far from the palace, planning to continue his journey under cover of nightfall. And – surprise, surprise – Arcite happens to go walking in that same grove. Palamon doesn't recognize him at first because of his disguise. When Arcite begins to speak of his love for Emily (because, you know, emo lovers always talk to themselves about their crushes), though, Palamon figures out who he is and leaps from the bushes, outraged. He and Arcite bicker. Arcite challenges Palamon to a duel, promising to return the next day with armor and weapons for Palamon, to ensure a fair fight.

The next day comes, and the two knights begin their duel. Duke Theseus and his party, out hawking, happen to come across the two knights as they battle. Theseus orders them to stop. When he finds out who they are at what they're fighting about, he at first wants to put them to death. But when the ladies, especially Hippolyta and Emily, beg for mercy, Theseus reconsiders. The Duke admits that he, too, has done some pretty stupid things for love.

Theseus decides that each of the knights must return in one year's time with one hundred knights, in order to fight an epic joust. The winner will get Emily. The knights agree, and ride home to Athens to gather knights. Meanwhile, Theseus pours time and money into building a huge stadium for the joust. It's like he's prepping for the World Cup. The stadium is complete with temples dedicated to Venus (goddess of love), Mars (god of war), and Diana (goddess of the hunt).

After a year has passed, Palamon and Arcite return to Athens, where everybody is ready to watch the competition and party. On the morning of the joust, the two knights and Emily visit the different temples. Palamon prays to Venus to grant him Emily, while Arcite asks Mars for victory in the joust. Emily, on the other hand, asks Diana to grant her perpetual virginity. (Guess she doesn't want to marry either of these guys.) Only Emily's request is refused. The knights' requests cause a conflict between Mars and Venus in the Heavens, but Jupiter (the king of the Gods) figures out a way to please both of them.

The joust begins, and many captives are taken. The fighting is fierce on both sides. In the end, Palamon is captured, and Arcite wins. On his victory ride, an earthquake in the stadium causes Arcite's horse to trip, sending him headfirst to the ground. Despite cracking his head pretty hard, everyone is sure that Arcite will recover. That night the people of Athens celebrate the upcoming marriage of Emily and Arcite.

But Arcite doesn't recover. He dies with Emily and Palamon at his bedside, using his last breath to tell Emily what a great guy Palamon is. Theseus arranges a fancy funeral for Arcite, after which Palamon returns to Thebes in mourning. He doesn't stay in Thebes very long, though. Theseus's counselors want an alliance between Athens and Thebes, and think that a marriage between Palamon and Emily would be just the thing. Theseus gives a long speech about how death is a part of God's plan for the world. At the end, he recommends that Palamon and Emily marry. They agree, and the story ends with a big, happy wedding.

 

Themes:

Rules and Order:

"The Knight's Tale" shows what happens when the rules of two different systems – chivalry and courtly love – come into conflict with one another. Palamon and Arcite have sworn a knightly oath to be loyal to one another, but they both fall in love with the same girl. The problem is, the rule of chivalry, which demands knights keep their oaths, is tested by the rule of courtly love, which demands that a knight put his love for his lady before everything else. This inevitably leads to a big, fat fight between the two knights. The tale solves the problem in the character of Duke Theseus, who proposes an organized contest to solve the feud. The winner gets Emily. Theseus is the order-bringer and rule-protector from the very beginning of "The Knight's Tale," when he sets its plot in motion by punishing a king who has broken the societal rule that bodies must receive a proper burial. Yet his desire for an orderly universe is tested when Arcite, the knight who wins the joust and Emily, dies in a freak accident immediately following the battle. To disprove the seeming randomness of this event, Theseus lays out a vision of an orderly universe with all creation deriving its existence from God. In this universe, death is a part of God's plan for creation, a sign that all is as it should be, so rules and order still prevail.

Love:

From the second Palamon and Arcite lay eyes on the lovely Emily, they are pierced to the heart by a love so intense that it literally makes them ill. Yeah, they seem like drama queens, but their behavior is pretty typical of the courtly love genre. Palamon and Arcite, two noble knights, spend most of their time pining for the love of a beautiful but distant noblewoman. The knights express their love in terms of wounds and sickness. Emily, the noblewoman, becomes almost a goddess. Palamon and Arcite swear to do anything to win the love of Emily, even if it includes breaking their knights' oaths to protect one another. But then Duke Theseus comes onto the scene and calls into question this kind of intense love and devotion. Theseus questions why anyone would want to serve the god of love if the only reward for this service is suffering. In the end, though, Theseus admits that he's done some pretty stupid things for the sake of love too. In fact, being lovesick and silly is something all people experience. The depictions of suffering for love that Theseus orders painted in the Temple of Venus prove his point, tying the suffering of Palamon, Arcite, and all lovers to a long and storied history of love.

 

Friendship:

Arcite and Palamon have sworn an oath of brotherhood to one another, promising to defend one another's interests in everything. Yet why might they break their promise? Because they love the same girl, that's why. Both Palamon and Arcite seem to think that romantic love is more important than bonds of friendship, and "The Knight's Tale" doesn't do much to question that point of view. In contrast to Palamon and Arcite's fair-weather friendship, however, a brief passage just after their falling-out details the devotion of Perotheus to Theseus. Apparently, these guys are such good friends that they're willing to go to Hell and back for one another. So, despite the main, unsuccessful friendship in the tale, we do get an inkling that other, deeper possibilities exist for the bond between two friends.

Death:

In "The Knight's Tale," death is closely connected to love on multiple levels. Like love, says Theseus, death is the great equalizer. It's an experience that every human – whether rich or poor, fat or thin, smart or silly – will someday endure. Like love, death makes the characters feel powerless over their fates. Like other stories that fall into the genre of courtly love, "The Knight's Tale" is in the habit of talking about love in terms of death.  Yes, Palamon and Arcite seem like drama queens when they complain that their love of Emily "slays" them, that they will "die" if separated from her.  But the placement of this metaphor next to very literal deaths brings out the similarities between these two kinds of death in an original way.

Suffering:

In "The Knight's Tale," suffering takes multiple forms, both physical and mental. Palamon and Arcite suffer a lot from their love for Emily. Their love afflicts them like an illness, or an arrow that pierces them through the eyes and stabs its way into their hearts. At various points, both men declare that they are suffering so much "wo" for love that they think they're going to die. It's not just our two heroes that suffer, though. Other, lesser characters suffer too. There's the lamenting women whose husbands' bodies Creon refuses to bury, not to mention all of the people of Athens, who scratch their faces and tear out their hair when they hear of Arcite's death. In most cases, characters in "The Knight's Tale" express their mental anguish physically, by comparing it to illness or physical wounds, or by actually wounding their bodies. In this way, "The Knight's Tale" points out that being messed up in the head or the heart can translate into actual physical pain. In the Temple of Mars, we also see how physical suffering can also be caused by war, so that love, loss, and violence become a triangle of suffering in the Tale.

Competition:

Palamon and Arcite are rivals for the love of the same woman.  The knights decide to fight a duel to determine who gets her. Yet when Duke Theseus stumbles upon the dueling knights, he declares their fight is unlawful.  The Duke proposes instead that there be a public joust, with a very clear set of rules, and the winner will marry Emily. Whereas the knight's duel upset the order of Theseus's kingdom, the joust becomes a part of it, showing the way in which violent competition can both disrupt and reinforce the rules of a society. Emily is the "prize" in this game whether she likes it or not, just as her sister, Hippolyta, was Theseus's prize after defeating the Amazons. In "The Knight's Tale," then, a man's job is to compete, while a women's role is to reward the winner.

Fate and Free Will:

All of the characters in "The Knight's Tale" believe that larger forces are at work behind everything that happens to them, deciding their destinies in love and life, and determining the time and circumstances of their deaths. Variously called "Fortune," or any one of the gods, this mysterious force writes people's fates in the stars. As Theseus reminds everyone in his  speech, it is pointless to rage against fate. Still, he's confident that the Fate has a plan, and that what may seem senseless is actually part of something larger than ourselves. All this talk about destiny and fate raises the question of how much responsibility an individual has for the course of his life. But the thing is, "The Knight's Tale" isn't really concerned with that question. Instead, it points to the fruitlessness of trying to shape one's own destiny. The proper way to live your life is simply to accept your fate with patience and to try to make the best of it.

Strength and Skill

Palamon and Arcite have to decide who gets Emily in armed combat, which means that the better fighter gets the girl. Or does it? See, Palamon and Arcite are both equally strong knights who are able to marshal equally strong armies when necessary. This means that in addition to strength and skill, luck (a.k.a. having the gods on your side) is necessary in order to win. The knight's job is to bring his talents to the table and hope that the gods will do the rest. This isn't to say that strength and skill are totally without use in "The Knight's Tale." Theseus demonstrates how might can be used to make right when he goes to battle with Creon to avenge the mourning women. And as the tale pauses to describe the battle-array and sheer spectacle of Team Palamon versus Team Arcite, we can't help but be kind of impressed by it all.

THE REFORM BILLS

 Introduction:

The most outstanding change that took place in the nineteenth century was the gradual emergence of England as a democracy. This change was brought about by a series of Reform Bills. With the passing of each bill, a larger section of the population was given the right to vote. By the time the last bill was passed in 1928, every adult male and female could vote.

First Reform Bill:

There had been no major change in the representative system of England and Wales since Tudor times. Each borough and county could send two representatives to the Parliament. After the Agrarian and Industrial Revolutions, most of the people living in boroughs migrated to the cities. Some boroughs even disappeared completely.  Yet they enjoyed the benefits of sending two representatives to the Parliament. Ironically, big industrial towns did not have any representation. The workers resented this as they had no scope for expressing their grievances to the government. Another factor which led to the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 was the unjust qualification for a person to have the right to vote. According to the old custom, any freeholder with an income of forty shillings could vote while wealthy tenant farmers could not.

This caused a lot of discontent in the minds of the people. The Whig government appointed a committee to study parliamentary reform. Lord Durham, the chairman of this committee, made a thorough study of the existing state of affairs and submitted his report. Earl Grey, the Prime Minister, accepted the changes recommended by the Durham Committee and introduced the Reform Bill in Parliament in 1831. The House of Lords opposed the bill, and as a result, Grey requested King William IV to dissolve the Parliament. In the general election which followed the dismissal of the government, the Whigs were reelected. This clearly indicated that the people wanted reform very badly. The Reform Bill was once again rejected in the House of Lords. Earl Grey resigned and Wellington was asked to form the ministry. Wellington could not do so and Grey was asked to return. When the bill was proposed for the third time in 1832, it was finally passed. The total number of seats in the House of Commons remained unaltered. Fifty-six ‘rotten boroughs’ were disfranchised and thirty others could send only one member.

As a result, a hundred and forty-three seats were released. Of these sixty-five were given to large towns and cities that had been unrepresented so far. Sixty-five others were given to newly-created constituencies that were thickly populated. The remaining thirteen were given to Ireland and Scotland. As far as the question of franchise was concerned, the forty-shilling freeholders retained the right to vote, but the franchise was extended to copyholders and leaseholders whose lands were worth $100 a year. Short lease holders and tenants whose lands were worth $50 a year were also given the right to vote.

Effects of First Reform Bill and the Introduction of Second Reform Bill:

These changes, although they might appear impressive at first glance were not all that revolutionary. The people expected a great deal from the Reform Bill, but in reality, only one section of society benefited – the middle class. It nevertheless broke the monopoly of power possessed by the gentry and the nobility. By giving the vote to the middle class, the centre of gravity in politics was shifted. A major result of the Reform Bill in 1832 was that it had set the ball rolling. Once one section of society got the franchise, the other sections were bound to make demands too. The working classes, who did not benefit through the Reform Bill, remained disgruntled. This led to several agitations and movements. Of these, the most important were socialism, trade unionism and Chartism. Chartism was an uprising demanding reform. It was a movement started by William Lovett in 1836. It was fervent and tempestuous protest by the poor against the sordid conditions under which they lived. Demand for the franchise was made for the working class. Lovett, with the help of Francis Place, drew up a programme outlining the reform of Parliament. This programme, which had six points was known as the People’s Charter. It was from this that the movement got the name of Chartism. The Chartists’ demands were rejected by the Parliament in 1839 and in 1842. A general strike was declared and hundreds of Chartists were imprisoned. Although the movement appeared a failure, ultimately, most of their demands were conceded. The Second Reform Bill was introduced by Gladstone in 1866 and was rejected in the House of Commons itself. Later, there was a wave of resentment among the working classes and the lower middle classes. They demanded reform and held demonstrations at Hyde Park. Lord Derby, who was the Prime Minister then, passed the Second Reform Bill in 1867 with the support of Disraeli. This gave the vote to artisans and small householders. By the Reform Bill of 1867, all workmen who lived in towns got the franchise. After 1867, one out of twelve people had the right to vote. However, agricultural labourers and miners were excluded.

The Third Reform Bill:

The Third Reform Bill was passed by Gladstone when he was Prime Minister. It was rejected by the House of Lords and was finally passed only after a series of conferences between Gladstone and Salisbury. Through this bill, all householders in the counties were given the right to vote. By this move, about two million new voters were created in England. It also increased the electorate in Ireland and thus gave it a greater representation in Parliament. The most important effect of the third act was that it did away with the old practice of representation by counties and boroughs. The country was divided into single-member constituencies of equal population. Every man who lived in a permanent house, either as a landlord or as a tenant, had the right to vote. This act made England a democracy and dealt a severe blow to the power of the aristocracy. The power now passed over completely to the people. The Representation of the People Act of 1918 gave the vote to all men above the age of twenty-one and to all women over thirty. For the first time, women were given franchise. This age difference was abolished in 1928 and since then both men and women were considered equals as far as the electorate was concerned.

Conclusion:

A study of these Reform Bills unfolds before us the gradual emergence of England from the clutches of the King and the nobles. Step by step, the various sections of society were given the franchise until every adult male and female had a role to play in choosing the government. Today, England, is one of the leading democratic countries of the world and serves as an example to the rest.

 

 

Covid-19 (Published Poem)

COSMIC VISION DRAMA -19

 (COVID-19)

 

The secret land (China)

broke a 'secret' -

The spread of Corona Virus Disease

(Covid-19),

while the rest of the world was with its

routine and gay.

 

With its gluttony,

the virus started eating away the lives of

many.

Yet countries, leaders and peoples were

not ready,

to heed to the warning bell knelled by

WHO.

 

Slowly and steadily,

the virus crossed The Great Wall,

to show and teach the humankind that

‘He is the Omnipotent.’

 

In His Pandemic Orgy,

He takes forms after forms,

to outwit the form once taken by Satan,

to corrupt the First Parents,

The Fall... once again.

While leaders, doctors, nurses and health workers,

struggle forgetting the fleeting of time,

to keep people alive,

the life has become impasse,

questioning future....

 

While peasants and labourers,

suffer from hunger, losing their

livelihood,

the people from other strata of life,

show their philanthropic heart,

to announce the world that still

HUMANITY is alive.

 

While media entertain people,

creating memes and trolls,

people learn the value of 'living' in such

Pandemic.

 

While the virus inculcates,

the significance of cleanliness in children,

the parents understand,

the psyche of their near and dear,

by being and becoming close to them.

While pessimists say that

the humankind is going to perish,

the optimists hope for a 'New World'

to bloom.

Above all...

We perceive

the omnipresence of God.

only in such bizarre situation!...

With this realization,

we pray for the world to free from corona.