A Brief Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Writer).

                                                                              BHAVESH G PARAMAR.

                                                                                       PhD (PURSUING), M.A. (ENG)

                                                                                      JRF, NET, GSET, GATE 2022/23. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)

 

                                              

“Trust Thyself.”

                              - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 25, 1803. He was a poet, essayist, lecturer, and philosopher. He was one of the most prominent writers and philosophers in the United States of America during the nineteenth century. Emerson's initial encounter with non-Western works came through his father, William Emerson, a Unitarian preacher with a polite interest in learning and letters. Emerson's formal education began in 1812, when he was nine years old, at the Boston Latin School. Emerson entered Harvard College at the age of 14 in 1817. Emerson had few opportunities to study the different literary and religious traditions of Asia and the Middle East while at Harvard.

However, as seen by his diaries and library borrowing records, Emerson paid close attention to the wider European Romantic interest in the "Orient" or "East" in his spare time. Emerson gained much of his knowledge of India from British colonial agents, reading treatises, travelogues, and translations of legal, theological, and poetic literature published in the aftermath of Britain's imperial push into India.

Emerson's "Indian Superstition," a densely allusive poem he wrote for the graduation ceremonies at Harvard College in 1822. Emerson portrays in the 156-line poem how "Superstition," the personification of religious oppression in Asia, has enslaved "Dishonoured India." "Indian Superstition" may be closer to caricature than literary art, with its Romantic primitivism and enormous imagery. Emerson's poem is significant for diverging from a popular era formula that held that a debased India could only be rescued by Western colonialism.

Emerson's wife, Ellen Tucker Emerson, died of TB in 1831, causing a flurry of personal and professional events in his life. Emerson was deeply impacted by her death and paid frequent visits to her grave in Roxbury. He wrote in his journal on March 29, 1832, "I visited Ellen's tomb & opened the coffin."

Emerson returned to his ancestral home in Concord, Massachusetts, after travelling around Europe and meeting literary giants such as William Wordsworth and Thomas Carlyle. He launched a nearly 50-year career as a public lecturer and married Lydia Jackson, whom he affectionately referred to as "Mine Asia"—a play on Asia Minor, the location of Lydia's ancient kingdom.

“Nature”, Emerson's first significant declaration of mature philosophy and a landmark book that generated the Transcendentalist movement in New England, was released in 1836. Following this effort, he delivered a speech titled "The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. saw as America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence."

Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, Theodore Parker, and Henry David Thoreau were among the New England Transcendentalists, a diverse group of theological, literary, educational, and social reformers. In July 1840, the transcendental group launched its flagship journal, The Dial. Emerson published The Dial, a Transcendentalist periodical, from 1842 to 1844. They began planning the journal in October 1839, but it did not begin until the first week of 1840. The managing editor was George Ripley. Margaret Fuller was the initial editor, when Emerson approached her after numerous others declined the position. When Emerson took over, Fuller stayed on for nearly two years, utilising the journal to promote brilliant young authors such as Ellery Channing and Thoreau.

 

Emerson frequently wrote poetry. His poetry reflects spiritualism, religion, and man's first relationship with God. Emerson's poetry was written between 1844 and 1854. Poems was the first book published in 1847. May-Day and Other Poems was published twenty years later in 1867. Emerson, like Thomas Hardy and D.R. Lawrence, preferred poetry over prose. His first love was poetry. In his March 1842 address in New York, he made it quite plain.

 

Emerson considered poets to be seers. The old English refer to him as a bard. Bede is referred to as venerable, while Shakespeare is referred to as 'Bard of Avon.' The poet is an idea collector. Emerson considers the poet to be the sayer, namer, and representer of beauty.

 

Emerson considers literature to be a magnificent art form in and of itself. There, words are deeds. Poetry is visual music. It's an enlightening experience. Poetry's duty is to make visible and specific the link between the human and the divine. It was taught to Emerson by English metaphysical poets. At the same time, Emerson believed that poetry should accompany science. Emerson made use of symbol appropriations. He felt that the mystic and the science must become one, and that the symbol is the only way to achieve this union.

 

In his essay "The Poet," Emerson outlines his conviction that poetry, like any other kind of art, should be organic rather than metrically or musically beautiful. Emerson employs imagery. 'Mottoes,' 'Days,' 'The Sphinx,' 'Hamatreya,' 'Uriel,' 'Brahma,' 'The Snow-Storm,' and 'Merlin' are examples. According to Robert Spiller, the poet used his full rights with volatile nature, employing the evidences of the pines, the sea, and the stars to its own ends and demonstrating the relationship of the law of things to the law of God.

 

"Woodnotes," "Threnody," his odes, and "The Rhodora" are examples of his message and effect. Dickinson's use of imagery is reminiscent to Emerson's use of visual image. In "Days," his intricate and ascending imagery come together to form a singular sign of revelation.

His Essays in 1841 and Essays: Second Series in 1844, Emerson emerged as a trans-Atlantic literary celebrity. Emerson’s other volumes include Poems (1847), Representative Men (1850), The Conduct of Life (1860), and English Traits (1865). His best-known addresses are The American Scholar (1837) and The Divinity School Address, which he delivered before the graduates of the Harvard Divinity School, shocking Boston’s conservative clergymen with his descriptions of the divinity of man and the humanity of Jesus.

Friedrich Nietzsche considered him "the most gifted of the Americans" and Walt Whitman referred to him as his "master". Emerson is also well known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow transcendentalist.

 

“Many time the reading of a book has made the future of a man.”

                                                                                   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Literary Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Collections

·         Essays: First Series (1841)

·         Essays: Second Series (1844)

·         Poems (1847)

·         Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849)

·         Representative Men (1850)

·         English Traits (1856)

·         The Conduct of Life (1860)

·         May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)

·         Society and Solitude (1870)

 

Essays

·         Nature (1836)

·         Self-Reliance

·         Compensation

·         The Over-Soul

·         Circles

·         The Poet

·         Experience

·         Politics

·         The American Scholar

·         New England Reformers

·         History

·         Fate

 

Poems

·         Concord Hymn

·         The Rhodora

·         Brahma

·         Uriel

 

The Jew of Malta as a Revenge play.

T.Y.B.A. (ENG)                                                      

SEM : 5                                                                   

CCE : 14                                                                 

 

 

 

The Jew of Malta as a Revenge play. 

A revenge play, as the name implies, is a play in which the play is caused by the quest and taking of revenge. It was a popular style of English play during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, with the dominating motive being vengeance for a real or imagined wrongdoing.

The Jew of Malta is a Renaissance-era play written by Christopher Marlowe and originally presented in 1589 at London's Rose Theatre. The Jew of Malta is a Jacobean vengeance drama. Set on the Mediterranean island of Malta in the 16th century. The new Governor of Malta forces Barabas to convert to Christianity, which enrages him and leads him to seek vengeance. Barabas is helped in his revenge plotting by his daughter Abigail, with whom he has a complex connection. In the end, Barabas succeeds in destroying his foes, but not without suffering losses along the way and without finding genuine satisfaction.

The entire drama is built on the popular theme of vengeance. Its theme is murder and retribution, and it features suicide, intrigues, dramatic happenings, and a gruesomely bloody ending.

The Jew of Malta's principal themes are religious conflict, anti-Semitism, and vengeance. The conflict between Christians and Jews is shown in the drama through Barabas' meetings with the Governor of Malta and the Christian Friar Jacomo. This issue is heightened by Barabas' troubled relationship with his Christian-convert daughter, Abigail. Marlowe often employs anti-Semitism to create conflict between characters and to draw attention to topics of religious discrimination and intolerance. It is a dark, tragic, and frequently violent play about Judaism, Christianity, and questions of social justice.

Barabas is portrayed as an ambitious, calculating, and resourceful man, but he is also a man of deep religious faith. He is determined to avenge the wrongs done to him and his people, but at the same time, he is guided by his Jewish principles. he was moaning for his wealth.

 

Officer.    Ay, my lord. We have seized upon the goods

                And wares of Barabas, which, being valued,

                Amount to more than all the wealth in Malta;

 

Barabas.  Well then,  my lord, say, are you satisfied ?

                You have my goods, my money, and my wealth,

                My ships, my store, and all that I enjoyed;

                And having all, you can request no more,

                Unless your unrelenting flinty hearts

                Suppress all pity in your stony breasts

                And now shall move you to bereave my life.

              

Barabas, is a complex character motivated by ambition and greed. He is determined to use any means necessary to maintain his power and wealth, even destroying innocent people.

 

'Tis in the trouble of my spirit I speak;

Great injuries are not so soon forgot.

-      Barabas.

 

Barabas is accusing the other Jews of being wusses because they don't take revenge on Ferneze. That said, he also makes the point that they don't have as much reason to seek vengeance as he does because they didn't lose as much as he did. This is kind of interesting, because it makes vengeance seems like a math problem.

In his mind, justice is a relative concept, and he will do whatever is necessary to achieve his goals. At the same time, his Jewish faith gives him guidance and strength, keeping him focused and determined in his quest for revenge.

Once Barabas decides to seek revenge for the unfair theft of his wealth, he will stop at nothing to avenge his lost fortune, and his desire for vengeance quickly gets out of control. Barabas’s desire to exact revenge on Ferneze informs his sinister plan to kill Ferneze’s son, which just so happens to involve the additional death of Mathias, the love of Abigail’s life. Barabas sacrifices his daughter’s happiness in the name of his revenge. 

After Ithamore, Bellamira, and Pilia-Borza betray Barabas, he exacts revenge on them, too, by giving them a poisonous bouquet. “So, now I am revenged upon ‘em all,” Barabas says. “The scent thereof was death, I poisoned it.” With the flowers, Barabas kills Ithamore, Bellamira, and Pilia-Borza, which again reflects the widespread betrayal and revenge present in broader society.

Lastly, Barabas major flaw in the play was his greedy nature. He was so greedy that he lacks remorse of his own actions and hence he decide to befriend Calymath so to acquire the position of governor. His life was filled with danger and he befriended Ferneeze so to get rid of the dangers at the end of the play. Ferneeze took revenge on Barabas by deceiving him and later at the end of the play, Barabas fall on his own trap on the boiling cauldron and dies.

 

The Jew of Malta - Themes.

T.Y.B.A. (ENG)                                                       

SEM : 5                                                                    

CCE : 14                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jew of Malta : Themes.

A theme is a central, unifying idea. As the characters pursue their ambitions, a larger problem emerges. Many literary works share common themes and core ideas. As a literary device, theme allows the author to show and reveal all facets of human nature and human suffering. By promoting thought, interpretation, and analysis, this improves readers' enjoyment and understanding of a literary work. These are the common themes in Christopher Marlowe's 'The jew of Malta',  

Money and Greed.

Oh my girl,
My gold, my fortune, my felicity;
Strength to my soul, death to mine enemy;
Welcome the first beginner of my bliss:
Oh Abigail, Abigail, that I had thee here too,
Then my desires were fully satisfied.
But I will practise thy enlargement thence:
Oh girl, oh gold, oh beauty, oh my bliss! 

                                                                    - Barabas

Most of the characters in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta are driven by money and greed in some way. The protagonist of the play, Barabas, is described as a man "who smiles to see how full his bags are crammed," and Marlowe suggests that Barabas obtained his money through Machiavellianism (a reference to the corrupt practises of Niccol Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat from the 16th century) to satisfy his unchecked greed. Money is also at the heart of the Maltese governor, Ferneze's, problems with the Turks, as well as the huge tribute payment Malta owes the Ottoman Empire.

Marlowe hints that greed is a genetic human tendency in The Jew of Malta, but he ultimately argues that greed and jealousy is a selfish and foolish mindset that does not pay off and often leads to pain.

When Barabas is first introduced, he sits in his counting-house among his piles of gold and jewels.

Barabas describes....

And in his house heaps of pearl like pebble-stones,

Receive them free, and sell them by the weight; 

Bags of fiery opals, sapphires, amethysts, 

Jacinths, hard topaz, grass-green emeralds,

Beauteous rubies, sparkling diamonds.” 

Barabas' laundry list of riches indicates he isn't content with just a little money, his fortune reflects his unstoppable greed.

Despite the occurrence of greed in The Jew of Malta, Marlowe implies that greed is a dangerous and sometimes fatal human trait that only leads to further pain and suffering. When Malta's Jewish community learns that Ferneze intends to tax them in order to pay Turkish tribute, they immediately ask the advice of Barabas, a man whose "policy" and Machiavellian dishonesty are well known. 

Barabas says, 

"Nay, let 'em combat, conquer, and kill all,

So they spare me, my daughter, and my wealth." 

Barabas is unconcerned about the other Jews, and he is willing to sacrifice their lives to safeguard his own money.

While Marlowe certainly condemns the greed that drives his characters, he also argues that such selfishness is a typical human trait, and that money is often treasured above even the most precious things.

 

Betrayal and Revenge.

In Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, betrayal arises. Ferneze, Malta's governor, betrays the Jewish community by unfairly seizing their wealth to pay homage to the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, Barabas, the play's protagonist and Malta's richest Jew, betrays his fellow Jews by fighting for his own happiness and money while ignoring theirs. 

Barabas even betrays his own daughter, Abigail, by plotting the death of her love, Don Mathias, and Ferneze's son, Don Lodowick. Barabas is also betrayed, first by Ferneze and later by Ithamore, his trusty Turkish slave, who sells Barabas for wealth and the affection of Bellamira, a prostitute Ithamore lusts after. The drama is also full with vengeance, as each character who has been wronged seeks revenge on those who have harmed them. Both Ferneze and Mathias' mother, Katherine, vow to avenge their boys' deaths, but their efforts lack in compared to Barabas' rage, which quickly gets out of hand.

Barabas promises Mathias that he will ultimately be allowed to marry Abigail. 

“Thou know’st, and heaven can witness it is true,” 

 

Barabas tells Mathias and Mathias agrees.

“that I intend my daughter shall be thine.”  

 

“Ay, Barabas, or else thou wrong’st me much.” - Mathias

Of course, Barabas cares very little if he wrongs Mathias or Abigail, and he easily betrays them when he later engineers the duel between Mathias and Lodowick, which kills them both and breaks Abigail’s heart. Revenge is also prevalent in The Jew of Malta, indicating that revenge is as common as the betrayal that leads to it. Ferneze seizes Barabas' money. Barabas swears revenge.  

Barabas says, “whose heart I’ll have;  Ay, and his son’s too, or it shall go hard.”

Barabas desires Ferneze to promise the recovery of his fortune in writing or by handshake. Barabas also wants Ferneze's son, Lodowick, to propose marriage to Abigail in order to facilitate Barabas' plan to kill Lodowick and avenge the loss of his riches. In other words, Barabas' mention to Ferneze and Lodowick's "hand" and "heart" reflects his desire for vengeance. When Katharine and Ferneze discover Mathias and Lodowick dead, they think their sons were killed in the duel and decide to take their own vengeance.

Katharine says to Ferneze,

 “Hold, let’s enquire the causers of their deaths, That we may venge their blood upon their heads.” 

For Katharine and Ferneze, there is no justice for their sons’ deaths without revenge.

 

Religion

If thou rely upon they righteousness,
Be patient and thy riches will increase.
Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness:
And covetousness, oh, ‘tis a monstrous sin.

                                                            -  Ferneze.

In The Jew of Malta, Christopher Marlowe suggests the importance of God's will; nonetheless, his play is critical of religion and religious theory, particularly Christianity. Marlowe's portrayal of religion lacks morals, good will, and righteousness. Religion, on the other hand, is filled with hatred, dishonesty, and hypocrisy in The Jew of Malta. When the Turks arrive in Malta under threat of war to collect the tribute money owed to the Ottoman Empire, the Maltese government uses the island's Jewish population to pay the country's debt, all in the name of Christianity. 

Religion is not a motivation for Marlowe's characters to behave morally, it is a means to an end that permits them to behave as they wish. Finally, he claims that religion is a means for gaining power and fortune, not a guidance for morality and virtue.A Christian who exploits and oppresses another, according to Barabas, can never claim morality, and they can never be rescued and live immortal life in paradise by command of their own Christian religion. Marlowe emphasises the hypocrisy of a religion that claims morality yet uses the same religious theory to justify immoral behaviour through Barabas' biblical allusion.

Religious hypocrisy is exemplified further by the actions of Jacomo and Bernardine, two Catholic friars who continually disregard their holy vows in favour of personal wants. When Abigail, Barabas's daughter, asks Jacomo and Bernardine to join the convent.

When Abigail joins the nunnery, Barabas poisons her and the rest of the nunnery for betraying her conversion. But before she dies, Abigail reveals her faults to Bernadine, including Barabas' involvement in the deaths of Abigail's love, Don Mathias, and Ferneze's son, Don Lodowick. Bernardine later breaks the confessional seal and reveals Abigail's confession, he disregards his vows when it benefits him personally, emphasising religious hypocrisy in The Jew of Malta and representing the religious hypocrisy that Marlowe suggests is common among real-life religious leaders.

 

 

ELEMENTS OF SHORT STORY.

F.Y.B.A. (ENG)                                                      

SEM : 1                                                                  

DSC : 101 (PROSE)                                             

 

 

Elements of Short Story.

 PLOT.

 

There is a plot in every story. It is the series of events or incidents that make up a story. These events or situations are linked because one thing occurs as a result of another. A well-crafted storyline would include conflict between individuals, groups, the individual and forces like as nature, society, and so on. Surprise and intrigue would also be present. Above all, the plot must be continuous; each event must follow logically from the previous one.

 

The plot is the sequence of events in a story or play; it is how the author arranges events to develop his core idea. The plot is a prearranged logical sequence of events with a beginning, middle, and end. Short stories usually have a single plot and may be read in one sitting.

 

According to Aristotle, the order of a unified plot is a continuous sequence of beginning, middle, and end. A Plot is a sequence of events in a work in which the hero and heroine are meant to be together but get stopped by anything. Whatever is keeping them apart is removed from the balance during the course of the story, usually after a lot of raising misunderstanding and miscommunication, which usually ends in huge humour.

Misinterpretations worsen the problem. Characters get increasingly isolated. The truth will eventually be revealed. Misconceptions are corrected. The characters' views change. Love and understanding help in the recovery of a relationship. The mystery is finally discovered, the terrible man is punished, and everyone marries. 

 

Plot has five fundamental components:

 

1. Introduction - The story's opening, when the characters and setting are introduced.

2. Rising Action - This is where the story's events become complex and the conflict becomes visible (events between the introduction and the climax).

3. Climax - This is the story's most interesting and crucial point. The reader is interested in what happens next; will the conflict be resolved?

4. Falling action - The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. The reader understands what happened next and whether or not the conflict was resolved (events between the climax and the denouement).

5. Denouement - This is the story's final outcome or untangling of events. It is beneficial to extract new information from the main character.

 

 SETTING.

 

The time and location in which a story takes place is called the setting. Each story is set in a particular time and place. The author can either tell the story in a chronological sequence or may start at the end and keep going back and forth in time. Place is equally important and one can try to identify the details that form part of the setting of the story. The next point is to try and discover how the author has tried to use setting in order to heighten the effect of the story.

Setting refers not just to place, time, and event, but also to tradition, characters, social behaviours, and people's perspectives at the time the narrative is written. Setting, according to Aminuddin, is the backdrop events in the literature such as place, time, event, and fiscal and psychological function. A story's background or backdrop is something that defines a place or circumstance. The atmosphere that surrounds a story event, the world that interacts with what is happening, is referred to as the setting. Having set hours (day, month, and year), weather, or a historical period can also be used as background. For example, in horror stories, the setting is usually a dark ancient castle or a bleak graveyard. Thus setting contributes to the atmosphere or mood of the story.

For some stories, the setting is very important, while for others it is not. There are several aspects of a story's setting to consider when examining how setting contributes to a story (some, or all, may be present in a story):

 

1. Place - geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place

2. Time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc)

3. Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?

4. Social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain local color (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)?

5. Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening?

 

CHARACTERIZATION.

Characterization is the act of creating and describing characters in literature. Characterization includes both descriptions of a character's physical attributes as well as the character's personality. The way that characters act, think, and speak also adds to their characterization.

There are two meanings for the word character:

1. Persons in a work of fiction. Short stories use few characters. One character is clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to this character - he/she is the protagonist. The opposer of the main character is called the antagonist.

2. The Characteristics of a Person. In order for a story to seem real to the reader its characters must seem real. Characterization is the information the author gives the reader about the characters themselves.

In short fiction, the writer can employ two methods: 

Direct characterization or indirect characterization.

Direct Characterization: The writer tells the reader about the character’s personality using the narrator of the story, another character, or the main character revealing aspects about himself/herself.

Indirect Characterization: The writer reveals to the reader what the character’s personality through the thoughts, feeling, and actions of the character.

The author may reveal a character in several ways:

his/her physical appearance

what he/she says, thinks, feels and dreams

what he/she does or does not do

what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her

Characters are convincing if they are: consistent, motivated, and life-like (resemble real people)

 

Type of Characters are...

 

 Individual - round, many sided and complex personalities.

 Developing - Dynamic, many sided personalities that change, for better or worse, by the end of the story.

 Static - Stereotype, have one or two characteristics that never change and are emphasized e.g. brilliant detective, drunk, scrooge, cruel stepmother, etc.