Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie II

The Glass Menagerie
source: John F. Kennedy Centre of Performing Arts

 

Tom

Tennessee Williams dramatizes memories into a play, The Glass Menagerie which constantly moves between past and present in the midst of an atmosphere of congestion and tension.  The play contains certain autobiographical elements of Williams’ life which he represents through the character of Tom who inhabits a dual role in the play. Tom is one of the three protagonists of the play. He is the son of Amanda Wingfield and younger brother to Laura. He’s the narrator of the play as well as a character of his own subjective memory which he represents on the stage. Tom, is a victim of societal pressure who struggles to deal with reality by compensating with his dreams.

 Being a memory play, past has a very significant role to play in its advancement, that is, there are certain events of Tom’s life which are deeply rooted in his subconsciousness.

Memory play is a one dimensional or subjective form of dramaturgy where a world out of memory is constructed and audience’s perspective is shaped only through protagonists’ memory. Therefore, as we see in ‘The Glass Menagerie’ the perspective gained is very filtered as narrative is built only by one entity, that is Tom. This is a very unconventional mode of representation and gives a closer approach towards truth and reality.

In the beginning of the play, the nature of the fourth-wall is re-enforced by Tom. He breaks the fourth wall as he addresses the audience. He is aware of the audience.

Tom’s position in the play is conventional as he acts as a character in the play. At the same time, he is also the narrator, therefore, he has been given a dramatic license through which he is free to manipulate conventions according to his purpose. Again, because it is a memory play and it is Tom’s memories which are being emoted on the stage, therefore Tom has the freedom to utilize the conventions within the dramatic play. He acts as a link between the audience and the dramatic action. The play is a convoluted mapping of Tom’s memories.

Tom as a narrator always gives his commentaries through the fire escape. The fire escape symbolises his aspirations and dreams which are trapped in the apartment. The ‘escape’ doesn’t really provide him with any kind of liberty or mitigates his pain. Tom stands on this liminal space with which he is the part of the play but also outside the play.  

The play opens with a scene-setting narration and as the narrator, Tom addresses the audience and exerts his control over the play by turning the time back in the days of the Great Depression. He sets the social background and talks about his family history. With this he moves into his self-confessed nostalgia. Through his role as a narrator he tries to come in terms with his decision to abandon his family. He exorcises his pain for leaving Laura with the creation of the play.                                                                                                                                                                 

 In  character list of the play, Williams says-

“His nature is not remorseless, but to escape from a trap he has to act without pity.”

Tom has the soul of a poet. The gentleman caller, Jim calls him “Shakespeare” but Tom’s dreams and aspiration are constantly dismissed and disregarded. There’s a huge gap between what he is actually doing and what he wants to do. He has to give up everything in order to fulfil his responsibilities and duties.

The play begins with a nagging discourse between Amanda and Tom. The mother-son confrontations reveal the tension between the members of the family. Tom’s frustration with his mother due to her constant assertive behaviour is revealed only at the beginning of the play. There exists a tension of contradiction between mother and son.

Tom experiences a lack of freedom because of her mother who keeps on nudging in Tom’s personal life. She keeps on holding him back from his dreams and aspirations in order to feed the Wingfield family through the times of the great depression. There are times when Tom desperately tries to communicate with Amanda but isn’t able to do so because of the confronting nature of mother and her lack of understanding towards her children. According to Amanda, Tom lives in a dream;  manufactures illusions instead of shoes and regards him as a “selfish dreamer”. He is constantly reminded by Amanda that he won’t be able to escape the reality.

Tom finds comfort in many things like going to movies and smoking cigarettes. It provides him escape from hardships of his life. It allows him to have a glimpse of the adventurous world which he desperately seeks. Tom finds the urban space monotonous and extremely agonising. He feels claustrophobic midst the confined space of the society.

A person like Tom, who desperately wants to be a poet and live an adventurous life, in reality is lost individual stuck in the mechanised society. He wants to be creative and hates his monotonous job at the warehouse. He lives in a reality where there is no space for adventure, emotions and creativity. He is the character with whom we have more direct emotional access because of his soliloquies. His emotions are chiefly expressed through his soliloquies which represents his frustration with life. The people around Tom constantly ask him to forget his dreams as one can’t live in illusion of such a life when the atmosphere is cloaked in economic tensions. Throughout the play, he tries to come in terms with the reality of life by compensating it for his dreams. He is an alienated figure who attempts to find a space in the society, but can’t fit in.

Tom’s growing alienation and loss of his aspirations is central to the theme of the play. It symbolises the life of an ordinary individual within the society who is stuck in the industrial bubble and is unable to hold onto his dreams.

Tom secretly practised the habit of retiring to the cabinet of his warehouse washroom to work on his poems. Instead of making shoes in the warehouse, he wants them to be on his “traveller’s feet”.

Tom is not able to cut the gordian knot of conflict between his personal desires and responsibilities, and he follows his father’s footsteps.  He even pays merchant seaman’s due against their home’s electricity bill which shows his determination towards his goals. He is taunted by Amanda at making a fool of them by calling a gentleman caller who is committed to some other girl. He feels burdened and pressurised, and leaves his family to pursue an independent future.

Even after abandoning his family, Tom never succeeds in running away from his past. He feels a sense of guilt at having leave Laura alone when she must have needed his support and love. The whole play is a manifestation of his guilt-ridden memories which keeps on torturing him till the end. He looks at Laura with fond nostalgia but also with haunted guilt.

Laura

Laura is one of the three protagonists of the play. She is the daughter of Amanda Wingfield and elder sister to Tom. She is a character of Tom’s subjective memory of past which he represents on the stage. Laura, is a victim of societal pressure who struggles to deal with reality and constructs a totally different world for herself accompanied by her glass objects.

Laura suffers from social anxiety disorder. She is self-conscious and leads a reclusive life with her family. She is a sociophobe. 

A childhood illness made her suffer from a crippled leg for which she wore leg braces that clumped loud when she walked. Due to the illness, she contemplates herself to be different from others and fails to interact with people around her. Her lack of social interaction and nervousness is evident from her behaviour which impacts her ability to function properly in the society.

Her shy nature contrasts with the assertive and forceful nature of her mother. She isn’t  like her brother who dreams of living an adventurous life. Laura lives in her own reality which contains her glass collection. Like her glass collection, Laura is exquisitely tender and fragile. Her other favourite possessions include the old victrola player left behind by her father. Her another precious possession is her high school yearbook. The book is close to her heart as it contains the picture of her childhood crush, Jim.

Amanda for the first time exerts the voice of sanity when she asks Laura if she liked any boy. Laura being a reserved person, gathers up the courage to tell her mother about Jim. Laura is a deeply isolated person and lacks faith in herself. Her physical deformity and chronic nervousness impact different outlooks of her life.

Laura being sensitive is terrified by fight that takes place between Amanda and Tom. She is distraught by the idea of a gentleman caller.

As Williams mentions in his character description of Laura-

“Amanda, having failed to establish contact with reality, continues to live vitally in her illusions, but situation is even graver.”

Her crippled leg becomes the reason for her self-consciousness and acts as a stumbling block to have access to a normal life. She escapes reality by tending her favourite possession of glass menagerie.

The episode of Laura in scene II in which she lies to her mother about going to business school tells us about the weak mother-daughter relationship. Amanda is not able to understand Laura and pushes her to do things according to Amanda’s will. Laura refrains from social interaction as it makes her physically ill. Laura is terrified by the memories of  

She constantly has to face anger and confronting nature of her mother. She also tries to hide things from her mother which is suggestive of the distrust between the two characters.

Blue roses don’t exist in nature and that’s why are often seen as symbol of unrequited love. Laura being referred to as blue roses by Jim represents the null possibility of any amorous relationship between the two. Laura is never able to cope with pressure. She is never able to stand up to her mother’s expectations and fears the disappointment her mother has to face.   She is unable to confront the outer world.

She combined extreme vulnerability with an overly  sensitive understanding of reality. With no hope for a miracle, her life was a gradual and irreversible withdrawal from external reality, lity, until she was flung into a final and irreparable despair.

Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie I

 

Plastic Theatre
source: John F. Kennedy Centre of Performing Arts

Character List and Production Notes 

Tennessee Williams dramatizes memories into a play, The Glass Menagerie which constantly moves between past and present in the midst of an atmosphere of congestion and tension.  The play contains certain autobiographical elements of Williams’ life which he represents through the character of Tom who inhabits a dual role in the play. He’s the narrator of the play as well as a character of his own subjective memory which he represents on the stage. Tom, is a victim of societal pressure who struggles to deal with reality by compensating with his dreams.  

Being a memory play, past has a very significant role to play in its advancement, that is, there are certain events of Tom’s life which are deeply rooted in his subconsciousness. One of those elements is, Laura, his sister around whom the play significantly revolves. Jim, the gentleman caller is the most long awaited and realistic character whom we encounter in scene six. He represents the dreams and aspirations of various people.  His character is an expression of hopes and desires, the other characters hold onto. Amanda unlike Tom and Laura lives in her own past and pushes her expectations on her children. She embodies a sort of duality which she splits up between reality and memories of her past.

 

William through this play wants to bring out a completely new form of dramaturgy. Through his production notes, Williams wish to conceive the notions of theatrical experience within the script for the readers as well as the audience making the play more organic. Williams’ idea of dramaturgy has a foothold in the understanding of the mind and psychic of his characters rather than the actions they represent on the stage. The earlier form of American drama was focussed on the kind of actions the characters portrayed on the stage. According to him, words and language are not only the principle mediums of the theatre. The voice of mind was under toned or supressed, but here in ‘The Glass Menagerie’, we see that functioning of the mind or psychoanalysis becomes more important. 

This is where, Tennessee Williams invents the concept of a new form of ‘Plastic theatre’ and ‘Memory play’, both of which deals with the action as well as the source of action, that is, the mind. Memory play is a one dimensional or subjective form of dramaturgy where a world out of memory is constructed and audience’s perspective is shaped only through protagonists’ memory. Therefore, as we see in ‘The Glass Menagerie’ the perspective gained is very filtered as narrative is built only by one entity, that is Tom. This is a very unconventional mode of representation and gives a closer approach towards truth and reality.

 

He also mentions about photographic arts which are very static and gives only surface understanding of things unlike realism which is far more complex and elastic. Plastic theatre or sculptural drama uses stage resources like props, lights, music, design to generate a theatrical experience that would induce more emotions, fervour, catharsis and a sense of actuality amongst the audience.

As he mentions for the screen device, “It is to give accent to certain values in each scene”. The capstone point in each scene is always hooked with a screen appearance on the gauze to create a certain sense on mood or tone in the play. The screen device like an image, quote, phrase or legend would basically strengthen the relationship between the audience and the play. It also gives voice to certain expressions or situations which are left unsaid or to give a very symbolic meaning to baffling situations. So, the idea of screen device boils down to an emotional appeal to bring out the supressed emotions trapped inside the human psychic.

In the play, both the children in the play are caught up in the expectations of their mother and are experiencing a life of quiet desperation. Character like Laura uses her glass menagerie as her constant companion of expression. It is through the menagerie that she escapes reality. Laura is an alienated figure who rarely expresses, and is like a piece of glass which is extremely fragile. Therefore, the screen device becomes an important element which speaks for Laura rather than herself.

Plastic Theatre

Apart from psychological complexities in the central characters, Williams tend to focus on other elements and came up with an innovative approach of plastic theatre. He introduces the concept of plastic theatre in his production notes where he insists on a multidimensional theatrical experience which is more than mere reality.

Williams found the realistic drama problematic as it doesn’t catch the essence of real life on stage fully. According to him, words and language shouldn’t be the principle medium of communication in theatre. Presence of certain elements like props create a theatrical experience which is beyond reality.

Williams was a pioneer in experimenting theatrical drama and set a paradigm for American acting and production. Williams exploits his creative freedom as an innovative dramatist and focussed on practical implications of the play.

Williams is believed to have borrowed the concept of  ‘plasticity’ from American-German  painter, Hans Hofmann. Plastic theatre makes the stage more alive and organic where even empty space or darkness is also significant.

Plastic theatre or sculptural drama uses stage resources like props, slide projections, costume, scenery, lighting, music, design to generate a theatrical experience that would induce more emotions, fervour, catharsis and a sense of actuality amongst the audience.

Richard E. Kramer in his essay ‘The sculptural drama: Tennessee’s Williams plastic theatre’ writes

“Williams envisioned a theatre which begins with the playwrights who create theatrical experience in the script because they are not just composing words, but theatrical images.”

 Plastic theatre is an artistic staging technique which rapt the attention of the audience inducing a realistic scenic art lending an effect of aura on the stage.

‘The Glass Menagerie’ is considered as an important modernist literary piece, as it represents the ideas of expressionism, surrealism and the working of the human mind. These are not only visual presentations but are more sensuous in nature.

Through plastic theatre, Williams tends to explore the picture of reality unlike photographic arts which are very static and gives only surface understanding of things. The use of plastic theatre makes the drama far more complex and fluid. It focuses on simplicity with stage designing and restraint in acting. It is more expressionistic and renders emotions. It can be used as an analytical tool to provide a more vivid and penetrating picture of the theatre, something which even realism can’t do.

It isn’t only actors who are involved in a plastic theatre. There’s a whole bundle of performers, musicians, dancers, stage directors which make plastic theatre a successful concept.

It is a dynamic concept which gives metaphorical meaning gives voice to certain expressions or situations which are left unsaid bring out the suppressed emotions trapped inside the human consciousness.

Dry September by William Faulkner

William Faulkner
source: The Paris Review

 

Published in 1931, ‘Dry September’ is a short story by famous American writer William Faulkner. The story is a five-part narrative and is set in Jefferson, a region in Mississippi – American South. The story is an episode of mob lynching of an Afro-American man who had allegedly abused a white spinster lady.

The story focusses more on the manners and mores of the American south society where racial terrorism is unleashed on coloured people in order to enforce white supremacy. The story also digs deeper into the gender stereotypes imposed on women and the manner in which the society treats them when they fail to find a husband for themselves.

The whole ‘event’ of killing of Will Mayes has various dimensions where Faulkner implicitly criticises the white characters, McLendon and Minnie Cooper who were responsible for the event.

“Do you suppose anything really happened” is the bone of contention of the story. 

These were the closing lines of fourth part of the narrative, and were said by one of Minnie cooper’s friends while tending Minnie. The lines represent the sentiment or the state of doubt that people have regarding Minnie’s accusation of being attacked by the Black man. Here, they seem to question whether the rumour was reality or just a mere fragment of Minnie’s imagination.

Minnie’s social status is deeply rooted in the sexual role that has been ordained for her by the code and traditions of the society. Minnie used to be the center of social activity in Jefferson. She was a vivacious, popular girl in high school and used to “ride upon the crest of town’s social life”.  Presently, she’s in her forties, a spinster and is leading a futile life of her own inescapable fantasies. She has a deep and desperate desire to recapture her prestigious but dead past. 

She lets her needs corrupt her and, in the process, gets an innocent man killed. Her past shows us that she too has been a victim of the society where her womanhood is reduced to her inability to get married. Like the weather of Jefferson, she too lives in a suffocating state of mind which makes her an object of sexist ridicule.  It was just because of her color, that her words were revered before the black man’s.

 It was only after the tragedy that she was able to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Her hysterical fear is clearly visible in the later part. For most of her life, she has enjoyed the attention of the town but now that she has grown old and withered, even idol men never look at her.  After the event has taken place, Minnie returned to the days of her youth as she hanged out with her friends and all the men who before looked uninterested, now gave her attention but at the expense of a black man’s life.  

Minnie cooper is a promiscuous lady who was leading life of futility. She is bereft of adventure and attention in her life which she used to get early when she was young. She is also known to consume alcohol due to which she is able to delve deeper into the world of her imagination. She also uses alcohol to disconnect herself from her friends. She watched cinema too – “her idle and empty days, had a quality of furious reality.”

The ‘event’ is also significant for McLendon, the mob leader who looks at it as an excuse to satiate his blood lust. McLendon was a celebrated war-hero of the first world war. His sole identity too, lies in his past and tries to reignite its small portion by killing a black man, thus reinforcing social order and justice in the society.  He tries to express his dominance over the Afro-American by subverting a judicial enquiry and becoming a vigilante.

As Lulia A. Milica in her essay ‘Racial violence in Faulkner’s Dry September’ says,

“The much-appraised idea of southern lady is as shallow as that of white supremacy.”

Both Minnie cooper and McLendon live in the same frame, each struggling to reconquer their supreme achievement while Will Mayes is martyred in this attempt. The story focuses on race, class and gender. It exposes the southern ideologies of racism where the coloured people are detested and have futile existence. The narrative of the story is held within a central image of aridity, symbolizing the claustrophobic environment in which the characters dwell. 

Mclendon becomes the so-called hero of the story by  punishing the person accused of attacking a woman. However, on the other hand, the same McLendon thrashes her wife and abuses her.

 Faulkner dwells deep into the psychological construct of white American south people, which is usually reduced to violence and aggression against the black people. Even today, the scars of racial violence have not faded and these events continue to be a horrid part of American History.

Metaphors of dryness have been frequently used to identify the violent nature of southern white supremacy. In the story, the indifferent nature of white people towards black people have been justified because of presence of certain climatic factors like dryness in the air, lack of rain etc. Such factors cause white people to drive out of their mind due to which they commit horrid crimes. Weather is usually beyond human control but in the story the weather is controlling the actions of the people. The heat of their mind manifests by the heat experienced by their bodies. Phrases like vitiated air, stale pomade, stale breath, lifeless air, all of these words are associated with violence and death.

“Rumour of twice waxed moon” – the line is indicative of doom and death that has been evoked through the synonyms of twice waxed moon.

There’s a kind of uncertainty regarding the credibility of the event. Hawshaw is not in favour of what is happening with Will Mayes. The barber was ludicrously named as “nigger-lover” by other white people for supporting Will Mayes portrays the ill-formed prejudices of the southern white society towards black people.

 Faulkner writes about the oppressive society of south which is redolent of the black history in America. The American south has never accepted afro American people and hence, abjures them. They are not given any identity and are identified on the basis of their skin colour; they’re often called “niggers”.

 Ideas of racism and misogyny have been juxtaposed in the story where McLendon chooses to take a white lady’s word before a nigger’s.

The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe

 

The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe
source: Wikipedia

 Published in 1845, ‘The Purloined Letter’ is a detective short story written by the famous American poet, writer and literary critic, Edgar Allan Poe. Predominantly, throughout his career he wrote gothic and sensational literature. Edgar Allen Poe is popularly known as the “father of detective fiction”.

During his lifetime, Poe wrote three detective stories which were the ‘murders in the Rue Morgue’, ‘Mystery of Marie Roget’ and ‘the Purloined Letter’. Unlike his other stories, these were not sensational crime stories.

‘The Purloined Letter’ is often cited as a “tale of ratiocination” where rational thinking and logical deduction resonates throughout the story. The central mystery surrounds a letter that has been stolen from “an exalted personage” and needs to be recovered from the perpetrator. Poe’s protagonist is a private detective, C. Auguste Dupin solves the mystery with his astute use of rational thinking and observation skills.

The epigraph of the story gives clues about the theme of the story, guiding the reader through its main motive.

Nil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio

The epigraph of ‘The Purloined Letter’ is a Latin phrase by Roman philosopher, Seneca which literally translates into-

“Nothing is so hateful to wisdom as an excess of cleverness.” The line of the epilogue creates a contrast between wisdom and excessive cleverness. The above line hints to the main characters of the story, that is, Dupin and the Minister. As Peter Swirski in his essay The case of Purloined letter says that 

"... the story can be seen as a conflict between a brilliant mind and a brilliant criminal."

 Poe through this story tries to convey his sentiment that excessive cleverness can lead to unfortunate circumstances, therefore wisdom is always more stable than excessive cleverness.

Poe tries to show the consequences of excessive cleverness when motivated by the desire to deceive or manipulate others (i.e. Queen and the police). Wisdom is more balanced, and always accounts for the consequences that can unfold due to the actions committed.

“Wisdom” may refer to the detective, Auguste Dupin who with the help of his knowledge, proper planning deals with the deceptive cunning of the Minister.

The Minister who is also referred to as “monstrum horrendum” is an intelligent yet unprincipled man, who managed to fool the whole Parisian police through his cleverness but couldn’t fool Dupin.

Knowing the police’s instincts to search the letter in complicated places, the minister had tried to conceal the letter within the range of their vision. The Minister with the help of his poetic cleverness, had set a visual trap for the police forces. But Dupin’s analytical approach, imagination and good sense made him outwit the minister. The letter, which had escaped the probing of the police, was found to be at a regular place by Dupin. The place of concealment was an ordinary shelf at the nook of the house.

Dupin, who is a genius in solving mysterious cases, shows that sometimes things appear to be obscure and mysterious, when actually they are simple and evident. The Parisian police and the Prefect had underestimated the intelligence of the Minister, that’s why the prefect was declared as an imbecile by Dupin.   

Poe shows that Dupin had the ability to put himself into the opponent’s shoes and imaginatively identify with their thinking, which shows us a deep understanding of human mind and psychology with which the detective is able to solve the crime. The place of concealment was an ordinary nook of the house.

Dupin gives us an analogy of eight-year old school boy, who had mastered the game of marble puzzles.

The boy was able to identify the marbles by “mere observation and admeasurement of the astuteness oh his opponents” and “identification of the reason’s intellect with that of his opponent.”

According to Dupin, Minister D was a poet also as he mentions that “as poet and mathematician, he would have reasoned well; as mere mathematician, he could not have reasoned at all”

Mathematicians often limit themselves to logic and aren’t creative. Creativity and imagination doesn’t come from logic or analytical thinking. Convergent thinking seeks only one plausible solution to the problem with the help of logical and analytical skills. However, divergent thinking is making arguments out of the box. Such thinking involves in coming up with multiple and creative answers to a given problem. Daniel pink argues, that people need to develop on divergent skills over analytical thinking. This makes a person unique in its own way. Twisted answers are often thought to be witty and more enjoyable to read or learn. This way we can touch up on different variety of thinking and also go beyond the conventional boundaries of contemplating things.

Famous American Poems

Walt Whitman's O' Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman 
source- Pinterest

                O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

                The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

                The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

                 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

                                         But O heart! heart! heart!

                                            O the bleeding drops of red,

                                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,

                                                      Fallen cold and dead.

 

                O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

                Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,

                For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,

                For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

                                         Here Captain! dear father!

                                            This arm beneath your head!

                                               It is some dream that on the deck,

                                                  You’ve fallen cold and dead.

 

                My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,

                My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,

                The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,

                 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

                                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

                                            But I with mournful tread,

                                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,

                                                   Fallen cold and dead.

Analysis

Born in 1819, Walt Whitman was an American poet and writer renowned for his poetic works based on the ideas of realism and transcendentalism. Often labelled as the father of free verse, Whitman’s poetry is prose-like and makes use of symbols and images. Walt Whitman was deeply affected by the American civil war of 1861, and this influence is clearly visible in his poems. He expresses his emotions through rich and subtle language in his poems.

 ‘O Captain! My Captain’ is one of the most famous American patriotic poems by Whitman. The poem is an elegy to the then American president, Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated in 1865. The poem has a sad rhetoric and is full of sorrows. It is rhymed and follows regular meter. The poem recalls a journey which has been undertaken by young and brave men to save America. The poem uses the metaphor of a ship where the journey is a naval warfare involving a ship which is being led by Abraham Lincoln. 

The theme of victory and loss resonates throughout the poem. Whitman feels that all of their hard work against the confederate states has been futile as his beloved president is no more.

 Through the means of a dream which Whitman imagines, he perceives a ship coming to the harbour one night before Lincoln’s assassination. Lincoln is the captain of the ship who has brought it safely across the sea to the American shore after having a tough war with the Confederate states of America.

 The idea of ship coming to the harbour is symbolic to America itself which has been saved by Lincoln. As already mentioned, the American Civil war was very close to Whitman’s heart. With Lincoln abolishing slavery and the war drawing towards the end, Whitman feels that America has been saved from the sin of slavery. The “prize sought” in the poem refers to the abolishment of the slavery, emphasising on the fact that their objective of the war has been achieved and they’re closer to victory. 

All this has happened because of Lincoln, who has led this ship through obstacles of high waves of sea. In the next part of the poem, Whitman is mourning the loss of his captain who has been bled to death. Abraham Lincoln was murdered only five days before the confederate states surrendered. 

That’s why Whitman mentions that he was close to victory. Whitman is urging Lincoln to wake up as the whole America is waiting on the shore to venerate him with garlands, flowers, wreaths and the American flag. He wants the dead man to taste the victory. Whitman had thought Lincoln to be the greatest leader of the century, and referred to him as a father figure. “The voyage is closed and done”, the war has been finished and America is safe now. What they sought has been achieved but its useless as the captain is dead. The victory bells are tolling, but Whitman is mourning. The American land is experiencing some divine peace after so long but Lincoln isn’t alive. 

 Walt Whitman who is also known as the national poet of America, invokes a patriotic tone in the poem. There is a close relation between victory and pain. The poem starts with a sense of relief, that the ship is saved but ends on a sad note, summarising the legacy of the greatest American president, Abraham Lincoln

BOOK REVIEW: Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth and Darcy
Image by hd_artist (Himanshu Negi)

 

I always tend to avoid Romantic (Romantic era) novels carrying idyllic love stories, and for a long time thought Pride and Prejudice to be one of them but since, it’s a famous classic literary piece, I couldn’t avoid it much longer.

 On the surface, it’s a story about two people (Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy) having contrasting system of values who ultimately fall in love with each other. The potency to consider Pride and Prejudice, as a romantic novel has a limited scope. Austen has tried to broaden the vision of the novel into a social commentary and criticism or novel of manners. Clearly, it is a satire and social parody than a romantic novel.

Austen brings forth an important question through her novels, 

How to establish oneself securely when the only option open to a woman was marriage? In what favour a woman should go for? Money or Love?”

The regency era, during the time when the novel was written was very much well focused on marriage, fashion and manners. French revolution and its horror left a major impact on England and other European countries. Eventually, ideas of liberty and individualism inaugurated in the mindsets of the people. After the revolution, English society rapidly began to grow and social transformation became a part of the lives of the people and is evident in the theme of the book, that is, social reality and class structures. Humorous and witty literature was prominent during this era. Austen’s world of novels is tame, dramatic and has variety like real lives.  Romance was a secondary issue for Austen, she was primarily concerned with the burdens couples have to face in marriage.

Austen planted the roots of the novel in the rustic settings of Hertfordshire and Derbyshire primarily with Elizabeth and Darcy as the central characters. Pride and prejudice is very well regarded as a realist literary piece. There’s a sensation of youthfulness in the narrative. It’s a very young though mature novel discussing social and moral barriers, and reasonable outcomes. Elizabeth Bennet is a very vivid character. She is well read, quick, absolute and has a boyish zest of liveliness. Uncommon during those days when women were supposed to live in a limited range, Elizabeth Bennet had a distinct personality. This is what attracted Mr. Darcy, her liveliness and her adventurous, yet modest nature. She is indeed a bewitching personality. Individual sensibility, acknowledgement, impression and morality have been given a special space in the novel.

More than a love story Pride and Prejudice is the transformation of two sensitive and blindly wrong-headed people who were duly absorbed in their own blunt world. Elizabeth Bennet is an inspiration to many readers as her character is very much symbolic to freedom of choosing your own partner. She has been embraced by generations of readers as one of the first classical feminist protagonist. Elizabeth Bennet with her compulsive and sceptical nature didn’t fit into conventional romantic feminine trope.

Austen’s characters are stubborn like real people yet, bound to morality and acceptance of truth, making them flexible as literary characters. There’s indeed pride and prejudice in their subconsciousness, yet they shift their ideas and overcome their biases to become the most loved union of all time.

The whole plot revolves around the dichotomy of pride and prejudices that exist in the society, represented by Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. It shows how manners and demeanour dupes the society. Pride and prejudice is a novel of manners, “The conventions of the society dominate the story, and characters are differentiated by the degree to which they measure up to the uniform standard, or ideal, of behavior or fall below it.”

Austen creates a juxtaposition between societal and individualistic concerns in the novel. Elizabeth bears the flagship of rebellious individual. She is an independent woman who bears no tolerance for men with ill-suited manners and behaviour.

Alistair Duckworth finds it generally agreed that Pride and Prejudice "achieves an ideal relation between the individual and society. There’s a reconciliation between two sensitive and socially developed characters.

 And the fact that her discovery is chiefly a psychological process, not an outward action, is stressed by her realization that it involves self-discovery. "Had I been in love," she cries (tantalizing the reader with the conditional), "I could not have been more wretchedly blind.... I have courted prepossession and ignorance and driven reason away where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself." 

The readers feel deceived and want to retaliate the action by uniting Elizabeth and Darcy which eventually happens in the end. That’s why Pride and prejudice is simply so pleasing and emotionally satisfying to the readers.

 Jane Austen creates this charming tale of individual development and self-knowledge. It is a discourse to self-knowledge to not know the un-known or better not to judge the unknown.

Image by: Rohan Sarathe

Pride and Prejudice is a sexually implicit novel with a historical setting. Austen never describe the intricacies of the characters like what colour hair Elizabeth has or decoration of the room etc. Austen is more open to describe emotional and mental trauma rather than describing the physical one.

The melodramatic Mrs bennet is a pretty but silly and acquisitive woman who is committed to get  her daughters married and settled before Mr. bennet dies, and the responsibility alone shows up on her.

Elizabeth’s beauty isn’t her physical demeanour, it’s her independent nature, impertinence and robustness which most men don’t admire in a woman but attracts Mr. Darcy. No wonder why Mr. Darcy is the most loved fictional character of all time!

Mr. Darcy ‘s character as a self-righteous moralistic person who considers himself superior to others in the first half of the novel. He seemed to have a very rigid personality but of course, love for Elizabeth brings a change in himself.  Mr. Darcy was cautious of Elizabeth’s family which was socially inappropriate for his class. He previously an insolent man; consumed by his pride and turned down by Elizabeth, brings a considerable change in himself. He bends and moulds himself and subdues his pride and accepts Elizabeth’s family.

Both the characters overcome the deceptions of pride and prejudice by attaining self-knowledge and truth. Through Elizabeth, Darcy learns about individual choices. A society occupied by judgement and pride is hidden between various characters of the novel. Charlotte Lucas, a twenty-seven-year-old, plain looking girl, forces herself to marry a man of ill demeanour.

Mr Bennet was captivated by the beauty and youth of Mrs Bennet with whom he had married and put an end to all the affection he had for her because of her illiberal and plain mind. Their marriage was an eye opener to Elizabeth; she shaped a world out of narrow conventions. She and Mr Darcy have alternate path of living but are bound to each other by their ideas of love. Lively Elizabeth and aloof Darcy.

Elizabeth’s ephemeral (short lasting) admiral for Mr. Wickham is also significant in terms in which society considers knights to be loyal and chivalric. Austen, however, destroys this misconception. Mr. Wickham’s polite and conversant manners tricked Lizzy (Elizabeth). Manners do not actually describe the character of a person, whereas Mr. Darcy who is described as “insolent” because of his lack of manners to communicate with others and profoundly isolated behaviour makes him a proud and egoistic person in the eyes of the society.

It is a sentimental novel primarily discussing the themes of morality, tenderness, sensibility and emotions. The characters of the book exist in social and emotional harmony. The novel is a brilliant piece of inventive wit and humour with essence of romance. It has a hidden back space for economic issues and manipulating hearts. Elizabeth’s world is deeply flawed, violent and chaotic, just like the world of any other girl. She witnesses her circumstances and draws out logical conclusions.

Halliday in his essay mentions that Austen maintains little narrative distance; she frequently takes the responsibility of her opinion. Her observations aren’t much critical. She sees what we see as the readers, giving an ironic relation to the views with a wonderful balance between sense and sensibility.

My own personal favourite moment in the book was Elizabeth’s two-mile walk to Netherfield in rain, leaping over muddy roads and puddle to see her sister. Her features and eyes brightened and twinkled, her face turned pink out of exhaustion when she reached Netherfield and Mr. Darcy is obliged to admit to himself that he "had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her”.

Austen pays sheer amount of attention to no character other than Elizabeth. She isn’t the narrator, but we know her more than anyone in the novel. We, the readers live in the consciousness of Elizabeth. She’s a heroine with flaw and perhaps, this is irresistible about real people. She derives her strength from the power of her self-assertive nature. Her flaws including her impertinence, curiosity and boldness have been admired by generations of readers and Janeits (devotees of works of Austen). We get very little glances of what is going on in Mr. Darcy’s mind. Austen left a big loophole for the readers to think how and when did exactly Mr. Darcy begin to fall in love with Elizabeth

Rich people like Lady Catherine de borough hardly possess any manners and their characters are shaded by duty, honour, gratitude, prudence, decorum, and interest. Her shrewishness is a mirror into the lives of aristocracy. She believes that Elizabeth social status would “pollute the shades of Pemberley.” Politics in the novel does nothing but backfires the whole plot. Lady Catherine de borough persuades Elizabeth not to accept Mr. Darcy which she declines, which in turn gives Mr. Darcy a hope of their union. All the characters in the book have their unique and independent voices.

Lizzy and Darcy by Hugh Thompson, 1894

Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth came suddenly but not without a warning. Her unexpected meetings with him at the park, Darcy appearing frequently at Collin’s parsonage, his steadfast and admirable gaze at Elizabeth, their walk to Oakham mountain all are some of the endearing moments of the couple.

In turn, Mr. Darcy’s letter of disclosure to Elizabeth erases all her prejudices that she had painted out against Mr. Darcy. She slowly begins to realise her faults and is extremely apologetic. She later at the end accepts his second proposal.   

At the beginning of the book, Mr. Bingley and Jane are center to everyone’s attention. Elizabeth and Darcy aren’t given much role to play and are thought to play subsidiary roles in uniting the former couple.

Elizabeth dares to choose a man for herself instead of letting someone else impose a man over her. She is strict on choosing a man for love rather than marrying for a wealthy living. A person belonging to regency era would call her an impractical woman as the condition of women was grim and they had nothing to secure their future well, except they marry a rich man. People thought that it’s a very good idea to defy social customs for the sake of love and interestingly, this idea is in common practice even today. Authors like Jane Austen, shelly with their realism bore a ground for the late Victorian age. Though Austen received little fame during the Victorian age. Her books did not live up to the principles of ideal romanticism. But got her favour when she became popular during realism ages.

Austen highlights the distinction between a prudent and mercenary marriage. For example, the marriage of Lydia and Wickham has been driven by greed and juvenile behaviour which ultimately spoils their lives.

Elizabeth draws her power from the ability to interpret others correctly, and Mr. Darcy’s incompetence is in his pride of being a wealthy man. He thinks Elizabeth would never deny his proposal because she was born in a gentry and couldn’t afford to have a better living for herself in future without her marrying him. Naturally, which girl doesn’t want to marry a man who earns ten thousand pounds a year? But for Elizabeth, affection and companionship is the major concern in the selection of the partner. How could she even possibly be engaged to a man who mocked her family status, hurt Jane and is jealous of Wickham? She tore down his pride in front of him and rejected him saying the most ineligible and disdainful person.

Kiera Knightley’s Pride and Prejudice (2005), has shown me how light touches and little glances were the only possible ways to awake sensuality towards your lover because of the sake of modesty. Young and unmarried men and women rarely had any chance to exchanges talks during old regency era.

Ultimately, their conflicting points of view and ontological defectiveness are adjusted which brings forth their union and as Elizabeth says, “they complete each other”. 

Mr. Darcy isn’t like the traditional patrician hero with large inheritance and happy fortune. He embodies flaws which makes him a complex human being.  Darcy’s sense of Elizabeth’s inferiority and his language during the first proposal. There’s a vast difference between the Darcy of the first ballroom scene and the man whom Elizabeth Bennet marries at the end of the novel.

Darcy, as we discover in the end of the book, is a good man but is salted with contrariety. He out of generosity and love for Elizabeth, saves Lydia and her family from bad reputation. A man whom everyone hated in the beginning, was suddenly admired by everyone. Austen has mocked the society and her sharp social commentary makes us question the stability of the customs.

The book is open to interpretations and consciousness. The novel then goes on to suggest how capricious public and personal truths can be, with the case of Darcy and Wickham at Meryton.  

The conversation between Elizabeth and Gardiners is very useful in terms of Elizabeth’s character development. They are ethical people and gave a good colour to the book in matters of rational opinion. In the middle of the social precariousness of the Bennets, Elizabeth and Jane are the only two members who have sworn to save the grace of their family. They are very tolerant characters.

Mr Bennet’s solitude, Lizzy’s coherence, Darcy’s priggishness, Collin’s silliness, Lydia’s empty headedness, all together form into a galaxy of characters making pride and prejudice a very memorable novel.

Bingley praises the heroine: Elizabeth, he declares, is "very pretty, and I dare say, very agreeable"; and he proposes that Darcy ask her to dance. Darcy replies that Elizabeth is "tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”

Moments like above provide the background for the manoeuvrings of the central characters, Elizabeth and Darcy, who, although touched by pride and prejudice, overcome the limitations imposed by these qualities and become equal to the moral challenges presented to them.

 "They walked on, without knowing in what direction. There was too much to be thought and felt and said for attention to any other objects..” 

Book Review- The Shadow Lines

The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
Image source- penguinbooks/amazon.in

Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines is an articulating blend of a unique narrative technique, imaginative renewal of time, events, experience and perspectives of political issues. It is a memory novel purely retrospective in nature weaving personal lives and public events in three countries, that are, India, England and Bangladesh. Memory is something which provides solace and comfort to the characters of the novel. The novel ensures intertwining of contemporary politics and personal turmoil of late and mid-nineties. Conventional chronological narrative is not used in the novel. There’s a constant shift in the events of different years making the plot non-linear. It moves backwards and forwards in time which makes political issues more realistic. 

The novel mainly focuses on the lives of the narrator, Tridib (narrator’s uncle), may, thamma (narrator’s grandmother) and Ila (narrator’s cousin). The vast knowledge and rambling stories of Tridib are responsible for influencing the narrator to a greater extent. His stories create a new vista of experience for the young narrator. 

However, Tridib’s memory is based on observation and processed remembering. Imagination and politics play a central role in the novel. The narrator is a very curious person and he can visualize almost anything in detail he is told about. Amitav Ghosh in his novel raises fundamental queries on imagination and reality, though it gives utmost importance to imagination. There’s a juxtaposition between witnessing and visualizing. 

There’s also a multiplicity of perspectives, for example contrasting perspectives of Ila and the narrator. The writer seems to suggest that just like there’s an imaginary line between borders of two countries; there’s a similar ‘shadow line’ between reality and imagination. He implies that the reality is multi-faceted and is limited to physical contours.

The reality of Ila is monotonous, she lacks imagination to perceive and feel. Narrator’s experiences tell us that imagination can create a more sustained and vivid reality. The narrator uncoils his memories during different stages of his life.

The focus on the grandmother is different. Imagination and reality enable her to recollect the concrete reality of her home in Dhaka and vicinity. Even after years, her childhood and the place of her ancestral home has remained fresh and real as ever. For both narrator and grandmother, the imagination is an ideal retreat. 

The narrator is always curious and excited by the thoughts of places he had heard of or seen on maps. Memory of a place makes it an ideal worth living for amidst the travails of daily life even if the place has changed during the course of time. Much of grandmother’s vision is nostalgic. Yet, this is a novel which acknowledges restlessness and political turmoil of those times. The partition of India, partition of Bangladesh from the Pakistan, communal riots of 1965 (which led to Tridib’s death) have utmost importance during the course of the novel. History is a recollection of memories and memories are deceptive, they are subjective person to person. The novel is global in terms of sensitivity and location but maintains local as well as cosmopolitan flavours. It also displays the inevitable urge for social mobility.

The death of Tridib is the climax of the political theme in the novel. The overall focus is on the meaning and nuances of the political freedom in the contemporary life. Communal strife and irresistible urge of nationalism is also highlighted in the novel through grandmother’s character. 

The concept of one’s ‘belonging’ is also important. As grandmother says- 

 “Ila has no right to live there… she doesn’t belong there. It took those a long time to build that country….” 

The statements show that the grandmother’s insights are sharp and full of clarity. She has an aggressive hold onto belonging as her home was taken away in Dhaka.  According to her, the feelings of nationalism can only develop through war and bloodshed. Emotions like regret and forgiveness are highlighted through May’s character. She faces a lifelong regret that she is responsible for Tridib’s death.  

The desire to be ‘free’ also plays a monumental role in the novel. Freedom was the core concept for the grandmother as she was nurtured in the environment of British rule in India. She is parochial and had concrete ideas of nationalism. Similarly, Ila had a different concept of ‘being free’. Ila wanted to live a carefree life away from social constraints and taboos of the society which was only possible in England and not a country like India which is patriarchal.

The narrator is a completely different person. He is incestuous and develops feelings for her cousin, Ila which are illegitimate according to the society. Though there’s a fluidity in his thinking and doesn’t have aggressive hold of thoughts like his grandmother. He is an empathetic person and has stream of consciousness and has multitudinous thoughts. The narrator acts as impresario deciding time and space of the novel, and often maintains distance to create illusion of objectivity.

The writer shows how different countries, their cultures and people merge together. Imagination, politics, memory and violence are the binding forces of Ghosh’s novel The Shadow Lines.