MODERNISM

Queen Victorias Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent the end of an era.
Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species puts the existence of God into radical
question. Society became more fragmented and individual identities more fluid.
The Boer War (1899-1902), which was fought by the British to establish control
over the Boer republics in South Africa, marked the beginning of rebellion against
British imperialism. Liberal beliefs in the gradual transition to a better world
began to be questioned. The mass destruction of the First World War led many
towards more extreme affiliation, and both Fascism and Marxism held attractions
for many intellectuals and workers, particularly during the 1930s. Increasing
access to literacy, and to education in general, led to profound changes in the
reading public. The Education Act of 1870 made elementary education
compulsory for everyone between the ages of 5 and 13, and that led to the rapid
expansion of a largely unsophisticated literary public, the rise of the popular
press, and the mass production of popular literature for semi-literate lowbrow readership. Some writers reacted to this situation by concerning on a
narrow, highly educated audience who would understand their alienation from
this changing world, thus, the avant-garde era in writing began. This
intellectualization has been criticized as restricting literature to a cultural and
academic elite. Isolation and alienation, together with experimental forms of
expression, came to characterize serious literature. Modern begins to define the
twentieth century. Modernism is one of the key words of the first part of the
century. It is a search to explain mankinds place I the modern world, where
religion, social stability and ethics are all called into question. This resulted in a
fashion for experimentation, for the tradition of the new as one critic, Harold
Rosenberg, memorably put it. The workings of the unconscious mind become an
important subject. What went out was narrative, description, rational exposition;
what emerged focused on stream of consciousness, images in poetry, anew use
of universal myth, and a sense of fragmentation both of individuality and of such
concepts as space and time. T.S. Eliot even furnished footnotes to help the reader
with his Waste Land. The 1890s the decade of Aesthetic and Decadence. It
was largely a poetry of urban themes. In 1899, Arthur Symons, one of the poetic
aesthetes of the 1890s, published his study The Symbolist Movement in
Poetry, which would have great influence on modern poets like W.B. Yeats and
T.S. Eliot. He brought home to British poets the significance of French
experimental symbolists like Rimbaud, Verlaine, Laforgue and Marallme . Yeats
himself quickly drew the lesion that We must purify poetry. Throughout the
Victorian and Georgian periods the language of poetry was felt to have a special
decorum and to be different from everyday language. Modern poetry contains
language that is closer to the idioms of everyday speech and to a more diverse
range of subject matter. Dialect words, colloquial expression, specialist
terminology, poeticism, and foreign words may be found in the same poem. The
language mix reflects a sense that there is no longer a fixed language of poetry
just as there is no longer one English. Among the voices which can be more
clearly heard in the novel in resent years are those of the young and the lower
classes, the voice of the new educated middle classes, the voices of women,
racial minorities, gays, and outsiders and many other types. Various subgenres of
novel have become bestseller while retaining intellectual acceptability- for
example, the working-class novel, the Hampstead novel, the academic novel, the
Scottish novel, the womens novel, the magic realist novel. At the same time
there have been numerous bestseller which have never reached intellectual
1

acceptability-for example, romances, thrillers, and historical novels. Some genres,

like the detective story and the spy story, have, however, begun to receive
critical acclaim, and to be recognized as major contribution to literature. The
growth in cultural studies has meant that many previously unconsidered areas of
written expression have come under scrutiny in the late twentieth century.
Throughout all the Greens fiction he remained fascinated by people who are
capable or incapable of judging between good and evil. His novels are carefully
constructed, with powerful plots and a strong sense of place. The fascination with
guilt and salvation is reflected in his thrillers just as much as in his more serious
novels. In the world of spies violence, betrayal, treachery and human weakness
are bought into play in terms of plot before they become moral or spiritual issues.
Do, although his shockers are superficially novels of escape, like Maughams
influential Ashemden stories or Buchans Richard Hannay novels, they reveal a
more serious purpose. His works creates an identifiable Greenland- a world od
constant anxiety rather than easy excitements. Greens technique- his strengths
in plotting and cutting from one scene to the next-and the sinister atmosphere of
the thriller were influenced by his time spent as a cinema critic in the late 1930s.
Modernism vs. Victorian novel
Influenced by English romanticism, developments in modern art, in the changing
and the and a changing intellectual milieu that questioned the possibilities of
universal values or objective truth, modern novelists erased the boundaries
between art and life. They realized that each man perceived a different reality
and lived in a closed circle. They wrote not only to urge their perspectives upon
their audience but to create their own identities and values. On the other hand,
the artist doubts that he can change the world, but, on the other he tries to
convince himself and his audience that he can. 20th century British writers
invented ways of seeing the human psyche in a more subtle and complex
manner. While the Victorian novel focused upon man and his social aspect,
Conrad, Lawrence, Joyce and Woolf isolate their characters from the social
community by focusing on the perceiving psyche. The English novel from 1890
-1930 made self-consciousness and self-awareness its subject, and the stream of
consciousness within the soliloquy and the interior monologue - both direct and
indirect became more prominent. Since characters are often versions of the
author who either does not or cannot achieve the traditional distance between
the author and the characters, the experience and self- consciousness of the
characters reflect those of the author.
In the traditional novels we are more conscious of the characters, actions,
themes, and rhetoric and less conscious of the authors presence. While reading
Emma is the discovery of a finished three - dimensional imagined world, reading
the major British novelists in the period 1890-1930 involves participating in their
process of struggling to define their values and their concepts of the novel. The
authors struggle with his subject becomes a major determinant of novel form.
Telling becomes a central action in these novels. Sometimes a character will
become the spokesman for values that the omniscient voice articulates. The
structure of a novel is no longer a preconceived pattern in which characters move
towards discovering values held by an omniscient voice who is a surrogate for the
author. To read the novel is to participate in the process by which, through his
characters, the novelist proposes, tests, examines, and discards moral and
aesthetic values. Thus it becomes increasingly difficult for writers to remove
2

themselves from the text. The stream of consciousness, which has been thought
of as a movement towards objectivity, is actually often a disguise for authorial
presence rather than a means for the author to absent himself. (We know a great
deal more about Joyce from a portrait and Ulysses than we know about Austen
from Emma and P&P.)
A novelist lives in his work. He stands there, the only reality in an invented world,
among imaginary things, happenings, and people. Writing about them, he is only
writing about himself. He remains, to a certain extent, a figure behind the veil; a
suspected rather than a seen presence a movement and a voice behind the
curtains of fiction.

BRITISH LITERATURE QUESTIONS

Some of the possible exam themes
Trensc Poets
I. Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) Matfield, Kent
The Effect, They
II. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) Oswestry, Shropshire
Strange Meeting, Anthem for the Doomed Youth, Spring Offensive, Dulce and
Decorum Est, The Letter, Exposure
III. Issac Rosenberg (1890 1918) Bristol
IV. Dead Man's Dump, Break of Day in the Trenches
1. ANTI-WAR MESSAGE IN THE POETRY OF TRENCH POETS
Unlike Georgian poets who presented was as glorious, noble thing, where
British army was celebrated and British young men were becoming heroes, the
war poets questioned traditional ideas that were earlier taken for granted.
Although their poetry was labeled as WAR POETRY, it would be more correct to
call them TRENCH POETS who wrote ANTI-WAR POETRY. Their poetry was
direct, open and full of authentic details, irony, sarcasm and cynicism.
Thousands of them died in battles or in trenches and those who survived
became wise and suspicious of the purpose of the war . Many of those people
turned to writing and in that way tried to cope with their experience showing
the reality of war, about which the official war policy propaganda kept silent.
As a result of the fact that for many of these poets their daily experience
destroyed their image of war as something great, the reader is offered strong
anti-war messages in great poems full of naturalistic horror scenes and
brutalities of war, showing physical and mental hardships, fear of death and
compassion for the enemy soldiers. For example. S.Sassoon wrote poetry in
Georgian style in the beginning of the war. It was artificially romantic, empty
and sweetend, but war experience soon sobered him up. In the Effect,
Sassoon uses a quote from a war correspondent as an epigraph upon which to
base his poem. The correspondent had observed the effect of our
bombardment was terrific. One man told me he had never seen so many dead
before. He juxtaposes the news from the war reality. The people engaged in
war hate what they are doing. In this very poem, the pilot does not like the
effect of his bombardment. For example, his anti-war feelings are reflected in
the poem They, which is a direct attack upon the Bishop for supporting the
war and in the same time not participating in the war himself. He contrasts
Bishop who represents tradition with the reality of war. Brutal pictures were
deliberately used to make people think, and the purpose was to reveal the
cruelty of war to those who stayed at home.
In the poem Dulce et Decorum est, Wilfred Owen put the title which is
deliberate allusion to the famous Roman poet Horace, who said that it is sweet
and fitting thing to die for one's country (Dulce et Decorum est per Patria
Mori). Owen reveals all the horror of war traumatic experience by showing very

maturalistic and detailed images of the blind and devastated soldiers looking
for a shelter after being attacked. Marching soldiers are so tired and their
senses dulled to run away from granades. For the first time modern images
entered literature wherein the poisoned gas was presented as a green sea.
Green colour symbolizes death, i.e. the poetic voice, which is at the same time
the protagonist, sees his fellow dying under a green sea. He shows that dying
is not sweet but choking. Finally, after presenting the traumatic experience
and helpless sight that has been reflected in all his dreamsm the poetic voice
highly ionizes traditional views expressed in the title calling it the old lie and
saying that war is anything but sweet and honorable. Owen tries to prevent
young men from dying, he addresses the reader on behalf of those who were
like himself, in position to see a fellow soldier gasping for air while dying of
choking or to look at his hanging face while standing behind the wagom
where his corpse was flung, by saying that the odl lie which kept soldiers for
fighting for centuries should not be repeated to children ardent for some
desperate glory.
A recurring theme in Owen's poetry is the notion of unseen scars for many of
the surviving soldiers who, not able to help a dying man, carry remediless guilt
with them. Though soldiers may return alive or injured, their lives will never be
the same. In the poem Strange Meeting, we have a strange notion of
escaping into hell from war which is presented from a perspective of a soldier
who has just died in combat and goes to the underworld. Owen goes beyond
social irony AND RAISES EVERYTHING ON a metaphysicall level by showing
compassion that a dead soldier feels about his enemy I am the enemy you
killed, my friend, realizing that they are humans just like them, and that is
what was a taboo for war propaganda. He remembers himself before the war,
he is mourning because of the undone years. He regrets that the truth about
his suffering dies with him and the truth about the war will stay concealed in
the underworld. There are no influences from the upper world on the
underground world and there is no battle there. It is worse on the Earth than in
hell another anti-war message.
In the poem Anthem for the Doomed Youth, Owen also condemns the war
showing that there is nothing glorious in dying in battle. The young people who
died in battles as cattle will not receive ordinary funerals and instead of the
usual rituals, their weapon will be the last thing they will hear; only the
weapon will say their last prayer.
In Exposure, as time goes on, the poem becomes more unsettling and each
stanza shows the life of the soldiers becoming worse. The repetition of the line
But nothing happens at the end of each stanza is particularly poignat
because it shows the pain and suffering combined with a hope that something
might change and finally disappointment over the fact that none of these
things that were waited for with extreme anticipation will ever take place.
In the poem Dead Man's Dump, Isaac Rosenberg juxtaposes images of
uninterested living people and apocalyptic elements of dead people. He uses
irony to indicate his compassion for young soldiers in the war. To show the
misery of war, he uses images of dead bodies being overrun by the wheels and
writes about trauma that such images leave on those who survive. The
important moment is when he reveals that people on both sides are afraid of
dying.
In the poem Break of Day in the Trenches poetic voice is a soldier who
addresses a rat and gives him human characteristic. The soldier envies the rat
5

because of his freedom to constantly change sides and it is very ironic that
people cannot do what the rat can. The poet has an impression that the rat
perfectly understand the situation and he mocks the soldiers. The poet soldier
feels that nature also suffers because of war, human beings are doing violence
to the Earth by digging trenches.
War poetry is no longer a hobby or composition of sweet verses used to
escape from reality: on the contrary, it is a call for awareness, it has a purpose
to sober up the reader in a very shocking way and recall that the war is brutal,
unnatural, and that there can be no winners. One of the goals is to use very
sharp, shocking detailed images, and present ironic contrast between the
officially produced norms and reality based on personal experience.

2. CRITICISM OF IMPERIASL AND COLONIAL POLICY IN HEART OF

DARKNESS
Heart of Darkness was first published in Blackwoods Magazine in 1899, and
then in 1902 in book-form. It can be read on two levels: on the surface level it
is a story on imperialism, which starts in London and continues in Congo.
The end of the 19th century brought one of the most famous examples of
imperialism and genocide in modern memory. King Leopold of Belgium secured
the Congo region of Africa sa a Belgian colony. The king said that the natives
should be grateful to them for bringing Christianity and European civilization
but the Africans were exploited. The belgians performed cruel punishment,
they terrorized and despised the savages. When we combine all those
things, we get the Congo that Heart of Darkness portrayed as horror. There is
no doubt about Conrad's attitude towards Imperialism. He tries to tell the
readers that imperialism and colonial policy are immoral. He believes that
Europeans are too arrogant in dealing with these uncivilized people; he
indicates that the whites are too materialistic and they don't understand how
spiritually advanced the natives are. On the other hand, the Company is a
collaboration of imperialistic notions, hides its core of darkness behind noble
ideas of civilization and commerce. The Trading Company is a model of
colonialism. This writer uses colonization to wake and explore the universal
questions about man's capacity for evil and horror.
In this book, Marlowe symbolizes the positiveness of imperialism. When he
says: I've got heavenly mission to civilize you, he expresses his good
intentions to help the African progress and advance. He grows cynical with the
Company's ideas and sees the imperialists as trying to conquer something
much more immense than could be conceived. This is the world of suffering
and oppression to a false power imperialistic Europe. Marlowe compares the
Romans with the British people. Romans brought the flash of lightening
civilization. They were not colonists, they were killers, thieves. They missed
something; they missed a plan how to change their own space and learn to be
like the British. Kurtz is hidden by the socio-political message here, it winds up
controlling you. The Western civilization that Kurtz presented in HOD is the
logical fulfilment of Western religious memory. That's the idea that the Earth is
a gift to the specific people. Kurtz a symbol of Europe (his mother and father
were half French-half English). His only work was to exploit the Africans for
their ivory. His terminal illness and later death represents the eventual death
of imperialism due to inability to respect the culture and the people of the

invaded country. The Accountant was described as a white in a sptless dree. It

symbolizes the Company's desire to seem morally spotless to the rest of the
world. He lost his soul on the way of greed for money. Ironically, this money is
supposed to be used to help the natives that the company is destroying.

JOSEPH CONRAD, 1857-1924 BIOGRAPHY

He was one of the true masters of English novel, even in spite of the fact that it
was a foreign language. He belonged to a distinguished polish family form POLISH
UKRAINE. Both his father, APOLLO KORZrENOWSKI and mother EVA BROBOVSKA
were from noble families. They MET IN 18 17, and WERE MARRIED IN 1856. Joseph was
born a year later.
Toward the end of the 18th century Poland was split between Prussia, Russia and
Ukraine. Poles never accepted this since their country used to be a great
kingdom. They tried to regain their independence by rebellion. Conrad's father
was involved with LITERARY AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES and was also among the
UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT. Russians sent him to EXILE IN SIBERIA because he was an
organizer of the uprisings. His family followed him into exile. These were his early
memories of hardships. His MOTHER EVA gradually developed TUBERCULOSIS and DIED IN
1865, which left Joseph devastated. He also developed health problems
(migraines and lung inflammation) which persisted throughout his life. His FATHER
APOLLO ALSO DIED OF TUBERCULOSIS IN 1869, frustrated with his lack of success. At the
age of eleven, Joseph became an orphan and went to live with his MOTHER'S BROTHER
TODENSZ BOBOWSKL He wanted to make sure he got good education, would send him
to Switzerland and then have him help with his business. But Joseph wanted to
travel, get away from the Russian stronghold.
In 1874 he left for MARSEILLES with the intention of becoming a SEAMAN Since he had
no experience, he had to start from the bottom. At one moment, he BECAME CAPTAIN
of the ship. He learned French well. He traveled across the world, first
MEDITERRANEAN, then PACIFIC OCEAN, VENEZUELA where he met a colorful person who was
the model for the NOSTROMO. He couldn't choose where his ships would take him
and he went to ASIA. While these trips lasted, he heard all kinds of stories and met
all kinds of people, and BEGAN TO JOT DOWN THESE STORIES. He then went to THE ENGLISH
COMMERCE NAVY, where he had to START AGAIN, SINCE HE DIDN'T KNOW THE LANGUAGE. After a
number of years and a series of exams, he eventually became captain there too.
Ships are a small world on their own - a microcosm. Sailors had a lot of hardships,
especially if they had a cruel captain. The sailors had to count on each other and
focus on their survival. Being at sea and traveling these dangerous oceans brings
a lot of unusual events and personal experience.
HE DIDN'T IN FACT START WRITING TILL 1889, while he was waiting for a ship in London. In
1890 he sailed to AFRICA, to the MOUTH OF THE RIVER CONGO. It was a BELGIAN COLONY,
owned by KING LEOPOLD as his personal property, rich in ore, wood, and diamonds.
He wanted to see one'particular trade - IVORY, (hat started to flourish at that time.
TJiis gave him enough material to write HEART OF DARKNESS. BY 1895 HE WAS WELL
KNOWN. He MARRIED A 22 YEAR OLD JESSIE GEORGE and they had TWO SONS. He was too
enclosed in his writing, not very comfortable at home. He was often absentminded.
Conrad was indeed a profoundly moral novelist but he recognized the moral
complexities of his age which stemmed in part from the absence of any clearly
shared set of values between people. In order to present this world fictionally,
7

Conrad develops techniques of multiple points of view. He is a master of complex

narrative techniques such as time shifting and flashbacks, which prevent reader
from adopting too simplistic an interpretation of events. In HD, Conrad describes
a long journey to a place deep inside the Belgian Congo, the heart of darkness of
the title. The story is again told by the intermediate narrator Marlow, who
retraces his first visit to colonial Africa and his growing awareness of the evils he
encounters. The story contrasts Western civilization in Europe with what that
civilization has done to Africa. The theme of darkness leads to the figure of Kurtz,
the central character, a portrait of how the commercial and material exploitation
of colonial lands can make men morally hollow, and create a permanent
nightmare in the soul (Marlow about Kurtz his was an impenetrable darkness).
Conrad also shares with another writers of this time a sense of impending
anarchy and the collapse of moral and political order.
The end of the nineteenth-century brought about one of the most notable examples of
imperialism and genocide in modern memory. King Leopold II of Belgium (ruled 1865
1909) possessed an insatiable greed for money, land, and powerand looked to Africa to
find them. Like many other Europeans, he was intrigued by reports of Africa made by the
famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), whose books How I Found
Livingstone: Adventures and Discoveries in Central Africa
(1872) and Through the Dark Continent (1878) were best-selling accounts of his travels.
Through a series of machinations and a deluge of propaganda proclaiming his
munificence, Leopold eventually secured the Congo region of Africa as a Belgian colony.
On May 20, 1885, Leopold named his new nation the tat Independent du Congo, or The
Congo Free State. This huge area of Africa remained under Belgium control until 1960.
The Congo was a perfect colony for Leopold II for several reasons. First, ivory and rubber
were plentiful and could be systematically gathered and shipped to Europe. Second, the
only law there was Leopolds: Although he constantly presented himself to his European
contemporaries as a philanthropist and humanitarian, Leopold ran the Congo (without
ever visiting it) from a distance with an iron hand. Third, labor was plentiful and, more
important to Leopold, free, because his agents
routinely forced the Congolese into slave labor by means of torture or intimidation:
Women, for example, were often kidnapped and held until their husbands and sons
gathered sufficient quantities of rubber. Forth, there were few operating expenses: Huts
and mess-halls were constructed for the agents, and the construction of a railroad
system running through the Congo guaranteed that supplies could reach different
stations quickly. Finally, the colony was thousands of miles away from sheltered
European skies. People could not condemn what they could not see. Leopolds agents,
therefore, comprised a chaotic, unforgiving, and hateful force determined only to make
the most money possible by exploiting the nativesoften whipping them with a piece of
sun-dried hippopotamus hide called a chicotte, chopping off their hands and heads, or
killing them by dozens at a time. In his recent study of the Congo, King Leopolds Ghost,
the historian Adam Hochschild estimates that during
the period of Leopolds pillage of the Congo, the population dropped by ten million
people. Disease, starvation, a low birth rate, and outright murder all combined to turn
the Congo into what Heart of
Darkness later portrayed as a nightmare. Some observers of the atrocities committed
theresuch as E. D. Morel and Sir Roger Casement became noted anti-Leopold
activists and launched semisuccessful campaigns to end Leopolds rule. Other observers
transformed what they saw into artas did Joseph Conrad when he wrote Heart of
Darkness. Leopolds Congo and the peopleWhite and Blackwho populated it find their
way into the pages of Conrads novel. The ominous Company that hires Marlow, for
example, is a thinly veiled depiction of Leopolds operations in Africa. Leopolds agents
become the faithless pilgrims looking for riches that Marlow describes once he reaches

the Congo, and the chain gang Marlow sees at the Outer Station is a glimpse at the
slavery enforced by Leopolds agents. Kurtz, the first class agent who commits
numerous acts of savagery (including the placing of rebel heads upon posts
surrounding his hut) is an embodiment of the collective horrors that Conrad witnessed
firsthand. As Marlow tells his audience on board the Nellie, In the blinding sunshine of
that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weakeyed devil of a
rapacious and pitiless folly. The devil in this context is the greed that motivated
Leopold to continue the systematic ravaging of the Congo and its people for more than
twenty years.
A Brief Synopsis
Heart of Darkness begins on the deck of the Nellie, a British ship anchored on the coast
of the Thames. The anonymous narrator, the Director of Companies, the Accountant, and
Marlow sit in silence Marlow begins telling the three men about a time he journeyed in a
steamboat up the Congo River. For the rest of the novel (with only minor interruptions),
Marlow narrates his tale.
As a young man, Marlow desires to visit Africa and pilot a steamboat on the Congo River.
After learning of the Companya large ivorytrading firm working out of the Congo
Marlow applies for and received a post. He left Europe in a French steamer. At the
Companys Outer Station in the Congo, Marlow witnesses scenes of brutality, chaos, and
waste. Marlow speaks with an Accountant, whose spotless dress and uptight demeanor
fascinate him. Marlow first learns from the Accountant of Kurtza remarkable agent
working in the interior. Marlow leaves the Outer Station on a 200-mile trek across Africa,
and eventually reaches the Companys Central Station, where he learns that the
steamboat he is supposed to pilot up the Congo was wrecked at the bottom of the river.
Frustrated, Marlow learns that he has to wait at the Central Station until his boat is
repaired. Marlow then meets the Companys Manager, who told him more about Kurtz.
According to the Manager, Kurtz is supposedly ill, and the Manager feigns great concern
over Kurtzs healthalthough Marlow later suspects that the Manager wrecked his
steamboat on purpose to keep supplies from getting to Kurtz. Marlow also meets the
Brickmaker, a man whose position seems unnecessary, because he doesnt have all the
materials for making bricks. After three weeks, a band of traders called The Eldorado
Exploring Expeditionled by the Managers unclearrives. One night, as Marlow is lying
on the deck of his salvaged steamboat, he overhears the Manager and his uncle talk
about Kurtz. Marlow concludes that the Manager fears that Kurtz is trying to steal his job.
His uncle, however, told him to have faith in the power of the jungle to do away with
Kurtz. Marlows boat is finally repaired, and he leaves the Central Station (accompanied
by the Manager, some agents, and a crew of cannibals) to bring relief to Kurtz.
Approximately fifty miles below Kurtzs Innerm Station, they find a hut of reeds, a
woodpile, and an English book titled An Inquiry into Some Points of Seamanship.
As it crept toward Kurtz, Marlows steamboat is attacked by a shower of arrows. The
Whites fire rifles into the jungle while Marlow tries to navigate the boat. A native
helmsman is killed by a large spear and thrown overboard. Assuming that the same
natives who are attacking them have already attacked the Inner Station, Marlow feels
disappointed now that he will never get the chance to speak to Kurtz. Marlow reaches the
Inner Station and notices Kurtzs building through his telescopethere is no fence, but a
series of posts ornamented with balls that Marlow later learns were natives heads. A
Russian trader and disciple of Kurtz, called The Harlequin by Marlow, approaches the
steamboat and tells Marlow that Kurtz is still alive. Marlow learns that the hut they
previously saw is the Harlequins. The Harlequin speaks enthusiastically of Kurtzs
wisdom, saying, This man has enlarged my mind. Marlow learns from him that the
steamboat was attacked because the natives did not want Kurtz to be taken away.
Suddenly, Marlow sees a group of native men coming toward him, carrying Kurtz on a
stretcher; Kurtz is taken inside a hut, where Marlow approaches him and gives him some
letters. Marlow notices that Kurtz is frail, sick, and bald. After leaving the hut, Marlow
sees a wild and gorgeous native woman approach the steamer; the Harlequin hints to

Marlow that the woman is Kurtzs mistress. Marlow then hears Kurtz chiding the Manager
from behind a curtain: Save me!save the ivory, you mean. The Harlequin, fearing
what might happen when Kurtz is taken on board the steamboat, asks Marlow for some
tobacco and rifle cartridges; he then leaves in a canoe. At midnight that same night,
Marlow awakens to the sound of a big drum. He inspects Kurtzs cabin, only to discover
that he is not there. Marlow runs outside and finds a trail running through the grassand
realizes that Kurtz is escaping by crawling away on all fours. When he comes upon Kurtz,
Kurtz warns him to run, but Marlow helps Kurtz to his feet and carried him back to the
cabin.
The next day, Marlow, his crew, and Kurtz leave the Inner Station. As they move farther
away from the Inner Station, Kurtzs health deteriorates; at one point, the steamboat
breaks down and Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of letters and a photograph for safekeeping, fearing that the Manager will take them. Marlow complies. One night after the
breakdown, Marlow approaches Kurtz, who is lying in the pilothouse on his stretcher
waiting for death. After trying to reassure Kurtz that he is not going to die, Marlow
hears Kurtz whisper his final words: The horror! The horror! The next day, Kurtz is
buried offshore in a muddy hole. After returning to Europe, Marlow again visits Brussels
and finds himself unable to relate to the sheltered Europeans around him. A Company
official approaches Marlow and asks for the packet of papers to which Kurtz had
entrusted him. Marlow refuses, but he does give the official a copy of Kurtzs report to
The Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs with Kurtzs chilling postscript
(Exterminate all the brutes!) torn off. He learns that Kurtzs mother had died after
being nursed by Kurtzs Intended, or fiance. Marlows final duty to Kurtz is to visit his
Intended and deliver Kurtzs letters (and her portrait) to her. When he meets her, at her
house, she is dressed in mourning and still greatly upset by Kurtzs death. Marlow lets
slip that he was with Kurtz when he died, and the Intended asks him to repeat Kurtzs last
words Marlow lies to her and says, The last word he pronounced wasyour name. The
Intended states that she knew Kurtz would have said such a thing, and Marlow leaves,
disgusted by his lie yet unable to prevent himself from telling it. The anonymous narrator
on board the Nellie then resumes his narrative. The Director of Companies makes an
innocuous remark about the tide, and the narrator looks out at the overcast sky and the
Thameswhich seems to him to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.

2. CRITICISM

OF IMPERIAL AND

COLONIAL POLICY

IN

"HEART OF DARKNESS"

notable
The end of the nineteenth-century brought about one of the most
examples of imperialism and genocide in modern memory. King Leopold II of
Belgium (ruled 18651909) possessed an insatiable greed for money, land, and
powerand looked to Africa to find them.
The Congo was a perfect colony for Leopold II for several reasons. First, ivory and
rubber were plentiful and could be systematically gathered and shipped to
Europe. Second, the only law there was Leopold. His agents routinely forced
the Congolese into slave labor by means of torture or intimidation. The ominous
Company that hires Marlow, for example, is a thinly veiled depiction of Leopolds
operations in Africa. Leopolds agents become the faithless pilgrims looking for
riches that Marlow describes once he reaches the Congo, and the chain gang
Marlow sees at the Outer Station is a glimpse at the slavery enforced by
Leopolds agents.Leopolds agents become the faithless pilgrims looking for
riches that Marlow describes once he reaches the Congo, and the chain gang
Marlow sees at the Outer Station is a glimpse at the slavery enforced by
Leopolds agents. Kurtz, the first class agent who commits numerous acts of
savagery (including the placing of rebel heads upon posts surrounding his hut)
is an embodiment of the collective horrors that Conrad witnessed firsthand. As
Marlow tells his audience on board the Nellie, In the blinding sunshine of that
land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weakeyed devil of a

rapacious and pitiless folly. The devil in this context is the greed that
motivated Leopold to continue the systematic ravaging of the Congo and its
people for more than twenty years.
The vision of Europe as a civilizing and torch-bearing force does not accord with
Marlows portrayal of it in his narrative.Marlow learns that the narrators version
of imperialism is a
lie. The Europeans he meets are not knight-errants but faithless pilgrims; the
Company does not bring a spark from that sacred fire, but death, and instead of
a bright jewel, flashing in the night of time, the Company is a rapacious and
weak-eyed devil. At the end of the novel Marlows tale has significantly
changed the narrators attitude toward European imperialism. The narrator
compares him to a meditating Buddhaclearly he has been touched by
Marlows teachings. While the Director of Companies remarks, We have lost the
flow of the ebb because he wants to break the uncomfortable silence created by
the power of Marlows story, the narrator has been too affected by Marlows
ideas, and his enlightenment affects his description of what he sees as he looks
at the Thames: a dark river leading to an immense darkness. When Marlow
visits Brussels to get his appointment, he describes the city as a whited
sepulchera Biblical phrase referring to a hypocrite or person who employs a
faade of goodness to mask his or her true malignancy. The Company, like its
headquarters, is a similar whited sepulcher, proclaiming its duty to bring
civilization and light to Africa in the name of Christian charity, but really
raping the land and its people in the name of profit and the lust for power.
The first glimpse Marlow and the reader have of the Companys headquarters
hints at the organizations sinister, evil, and conspiratorial atmosphere. First,
Marlow slipped through one of the cracks to enter the building, implying that
the Company is figuratively closed in terms of what it allows the public to learn
about its operations.
When civilized Europeans go to Africa, the restraints placed upon them by
European society begin to vanish, resulting in the kind of behavior previously
seen in Fresleven.
Note: All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz. Literally, Marlow is speaking of Kurtzs
ancestrybut metaphorically, Marlow implies that the horrors he saw in Africa cannot all be
blamed on one man. More importantly, Kurtz is not an isolated figure all of Europe has
produced him, and the power, hunger, and evil he embodies. The appearance of the
Harlequin (like Kurtzs jester) at this point emphasizes the charisma and power of the
demagogue and prepares the readerlike the previously discussed digressionfor the
entrance of Kurtz in Part 3.
The novel is about the meeting of two men (Marlow and Kurtz) whose existences mirror each
other. Ultimately, Conrad suggests that Kurtz is who Marlow may become if he abandons all
restraint while working in the jungle. Part 3 emphasizes Kurtzs godlike stature to show why
Kurtz became what he did and how Marlow retreats from this fate.
Once a formidable tyrant, Kurtz is now an animated image of death carved out of old ivory.
As Kurtzs wild woman is a personification of the jungle Kurtz himself is the embodiment of
the Company: a force that revels in its own power for powers sake. (Recall how Kurtz turned
his canoe around after coming two hundred miles down the river; after tasting the power that
his position afforded him, Kurtz could not return to the confining civilization of Europe.)
Besides implying the idea that Kurtz embodies the Company, the passage is important
because it suggests that even men with great plans such as Kurtz (recall his painting and
11

ideas about how each station should be a beacon on the road to better things) can discover
they are, in fact, exactly like the savages they are purporting to save. Underneath the
sheen of civilization, there exists, in every man, a core of brutality. Many people manage to
suppress this part of themselves, but Kurtz chose to court it instead. His previous beliefs and
plans really meant nothingthere was no substance to them, which is why Marlow calls
Kurtz hollow at the core. Kurtzs report on Savage Customs reflects this dualityits
opening pages are filled with grandiose plans for reform, but its authors true feelings are
revealed in his postscript, Exterminate all the brutes!
The Company wants to get rid of Kurtz because he reveals the lie to their methods.The
Company, however, does not want to appear loose from the earth like their number-one
agent, which is why its representatives (the Manager and the spectacled man who accosts
Marlow in Brussels about Kurtzs papers) want to ensure that Europeans never learn the
truth about him. According to Marlow, Kurtz was a noteworthy man because he had made
that last stride, he had stepped over the edge, while I had been permitted to draw back my
hesitating foot. Kurtz is not heroic, but he is more of an adventurer than Marlow ever
imagined he could beinstead of voyaging into an unknown continent, he voyaged into the
unknown parts of his own soul.Heart of Darkness is not a fable, and one of its themes is that
the darkness courted by Kurtz is potentially in everyones heart.Like Africa, Kurtz is
mysterious, and the workings of his heart at his supreme moment remain mysterious
as well.
Despite the fact that Marlow knows that lies are wrong, he cannot refrain from telling this one
(his lie to Kurtz's Intended), because to do so would have been too darktoo dark
altogether. As the Intended gratefully receives Marlows lie, so Europe accepts the one
it tells itself about building empires and civilizing savages.
3. SYMBOLISM (E.G. LIGHT VS. DARKNESS) IN "HEART OF DARKNESS"
(CLIFF NOTES)
Many critics have commented (sometimes inconclusively) on Conrads use of white and black
imagery; The Company claims to be a means by which (as Marlows aunt calls them),
emissaries of light can bring civilization to the darkness of Africa, which is done by
denoting Brussels as white and the Congo as black. The white men in the novel (particularly
Marlow and Kurtz) will be greatly influenced by their experiences with the Africans.Although
the Company professes to be a force of white moral righteousness, it is actually spotted
with black spots of sin and inhumanity, and the corpses of the Black natives that are found
throughout the Congo. In short, the Company may appear to be white and pure, but it is
actually quite the opposite, as denoted by the accountant and his white shirt. Some critics
argue that the white characters in the book are actually more black than the natives they
slaughter and that Conrads imagery stresses the hypocrisy of the Company and its white
employees.
The Companys chief accountant, who suggests the immense amount of money that the
Company is making from its campaign of terror and whose dress is impeccable. Again the
reader sees the Companys attempts to array itself in colors and faades of purity. Marlow
calls the Accountant a miracle because of his ability to keep up a dignified European
appearance amidst the sweltering and muddy jungle. (He even has a penholder behind his
ear.) Completely and willingly oblivious to the horrors around him, the Accountant cares only
for figures and his own importance: When a sick agent is temporarily placed in his hut, the
Accountant complains. He also tells Marlow, When one has got to make correct entries, one
comes to hate those savageshate them to the death. To the Company, as embodied in the
Accountant, profits take precedence over human life and the bottom line is more important
than any higher law of humanity.

The discarded machines (at the Outer station) symbolize the complete disregard of the
Company for making any real progress in the Congo, as well as the disorganization that
marks its day-to-day operations.
The grove of death: a shady spot where some of the nativeslike the machinery
mentioned previously are dying without anyone seeming to notice or care. Marlow notices
that this man has a bit of white worsted tied around his neck and puzzles over its meaning,
but the reader can see that the wool is symbolic of the Companys collaring the natives and
treating them like animals.
Earlier in the novel, Marlow states that he would, in time, become acquainted with a flabby,
pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless follynow, at the Central Station, he
remarks, the first glance of the place was enough to let you see the flabby devil was running
that show.
One of Conrads personifications of the flabby (because it has devoured Africa),
pretending (because it masquerades its avarice in the name of enlightenment), and weakeyed (because it refuses to see the effects of its work) Company is the Manager. He has
no education, is a common trader, inspires neither fear nor love, creates uneasiness in
all who meet him, and lacks any genius for organizing. All Marlow is able to conclude is that
he was never ill and is able to keep the supply of ivory flowing to European ports. Marlows
growing perceptions soon allow him to understand that the Company possesses not an atom
of foresight or of serious intention and that To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land
was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars
breaking into a safe.
An imortant symbol is Kurtzs painting, which Marlow sees hanging in the Brickmakers
room. The painting depicts a woman, blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. Clearly, this
woman reminds one of the usual personification of justice, while the torch suggests the
Company bringing the light of civilization into the Dark Continent. (Recall Marlows aunt
and her hope that Marlow will help those ignorant savages become more civilized.) The
woman in the painting also symbolizes the Company, which willingly blindfolds itself to the
horrors it perpetuates in the name of profit; it also recalls the Companys ineptitude and the
ways in which it blindly stumbles through Africa. This painting also symbolizes its creator.
Like the blindfolded woman, Kurtz once yearned to bring the light of civilization and
progress to the dark continent. (This explains the torch coming out of the darkness.) At the
end of his life, however, Kurtz changes his position, most markedly apparent when Marlow
reads a handwritten line in one of Kurtzs reports urging, Exterminate all the brutes! Thus,
according to the painting, Europe puts on a show of bringing light but this light ultimately
reveals a sinister appearance, which marks the womans face. Here, Conrad foreshadows
what Kurtz will be like when Marlow meets him: a man who once held high ideals about
bringing justice and light to the Congo, but who became sinister once he arrived there.
THE TWO WOMEN KNITTING BLACK WOOL SUGGEST THE FATES OF

Greek mythology; like these

goddesses, the Company is knitting the destiny of the Africans, represented by the black wool. The
Company, therefore, plays God with the lives of the Africans, deciding who in the Congo will live or
die.
On a deeper level, Heart of Darkness" can be read as an allegory depicting
cosmological struggle between light and darkness resulting in a powerful
indictment of the evils of imperialism. It reflects the savage repressions carried
out in the Congo, Africa. It is a conflict of abstract ideas, allegory of light vs.
darkness, light falling into darkness. Africa is called the Dark Continent.
Paradoxically, it is an honest, pure land clean from these human soul - sinister,
evil, and corrupted. Darkness in one sense represents the heart of Africa where
13

black people are being enslaved. The main goal is to wrap up exploitation and
present it in a better light.
Conrad exploits the primary and secondary connotations of light/darkness.
"And God said, Let there be light..." In most books light was the most ancient
of associations with sanctity, truth, purity, chastity.These characterizations of
light and darkness were mixed here. The imagery of light and dark very clearly
corresponds to the tension that is arranged between civilization and savagery.
It is important_to note that the city is always described in stark contrast to its
dark surroundings, which may be water or land, they are so amorphous. Light
represents civilization; darkness represents the savage or uncivilized side of the
world. Europe is described as a place of light, and Africa is a place of darkness wild, unknown. "Light dawned upon me" - Marlow uses it as a symbol of
knowledge. This symbolism is not new; these connotations have been present in
society for centuries. According to Christianity, in
the beginning of time there was darkness. God created light. According to the
Heart of Darkness, England was in darkness before the Romans came. The same
way Africa is in darkness. When you look deeper, the usual pattern is reversed
and darkness=light, light=corruption, evil. No matter where the whites exist - in
civilized London or in deepest Africa they bring darkness. Darkness has another
application - - a colour of skin. Reading this book, the reader gets the idea that
the darkness of natives' skin is always mentioned. At first glance Marlow
describes them as "mostly black and naked, moving about like ants. There is
absolutely no differentiation between dark animals and dark people. Even the
rags worn by the natives are described as tails. Darkness is like a starting point
for a discussion. Heart of Darkness can suggest a number of things: dark soul,
heart, a living heart beating in darkness. It's a double meaning symbolism.
The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that not only Congo, but London as
well is the Dark Place; the difference between London and Africa is relative. We
cannot think of London as a place of lightness and prosperity, or about Congo as
a place of darkness, when it is one and the same.
The other symbols are: The portrait of the blind woman holding a torch, suggests
the failing
of Kurtz - that he has blindly traveled into a situation and became absorbed in it,
much as the woman is absorbed into the darkness of the painting with the
exception of the torch which provides insufficient light.
4. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL IN HEART OF DARKNESS
DEVILS
Marlow's first taste of man's true self as he saw it, began when he saw the six
man chained together treated as slaves.. Marlow compares the white men who
are leading these chained up men to devils, by remarking that he had seen
devils, but never devils that drove other men like cattle. Men who were no
different themselves, except in the color of their skin. Question of devils is
enforced by the descriptions of the manager and his uncle as flabby, pretending,

weak-eyed of a rapacious and pitiless folly. Neither of them would be particularly

keen to take direct action against Kurtz. This is shown by their deliberate failure
to get a doctor to Kurtz, as well as their personalities generally. Devil's symbolism
is a very important here. Conrad is really showing that their minds, their souls
may not be entirely what one may consider human. It could also be interpreted to
suggest the inhuman aspects of the man.
Irony In Heart of darkness
This novel opens with Marlow noting that England was once one of the dark places of the
earth. This can be read two ways. First, Marlow may mean that "Western" civilization is just
as barbarous as African civilizations. This reading may contradict the European belief that
white men are more "civilized" than their colonial subjects, but it hardly mitigates racist
notions about primitive or degraded "savages": it just means that Europeans are as "bad" as
that which they have constructed as the lowest form of humanity. The second way to read
Marlow's comment is as a reference to the historical precedent for colonization of other
peoples. England, after all, was once a Rornan colony. Again, this reading is more
ambiguous than it seems. On the one hand, it implies that all peoples need a more advanced
civilization to come along and save them; on the other hand, though, it also implies that the
British would and did react to an exploitative colonial presence in the same way the Africans
are reacting.
The images from the Thames in Heart of Darkness lend support to the argument that this is,
at a basic level, a novel about imperialism. At the beginning of the novel, Conrad connects
the Thames to the Congo. The Thames is "a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the
earth." It is connected to the Congo like "an interminable waterway." It is connected both
symbolically and actually. It is connected physically as all rivers are connected to each other.
It is also connected by shared humanity, and it is connected economically. One piece of the
economic connection is the ivory coming out of the Congo on its way to Europe. Darkness
and its opposite, light, are contrasted in H. D. to reveal the irony of imperialism. Traditionally,
light and darkness represent civilization and the uncivilized world, respectively.
(Cliff notes)
What makes Heart of Darkness more than an interesting travelogue and shocking account of
horrors is the way that it detailsin subtle waysMarlows gradual understanding of what is
happening in this faroff region of the world. Like many Europeansincluding his creator
Marlow longed for adventure and devoured accounts such as those offered
by Stanley. But once he arrives in the Congo and sees the terrible work (as he ironically
calls it) taking place, he can no longer hide under the cover of his comfortable civilization.
Instead, all the horrors perpetrated by European traders and agentstypified by Kurtzforce
him to look into his own soul and find what darkness lies there.
Narrative style
Modernist style and Joseah Conrad

15

In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness we can see an interesting form of writing which is
characteristic for Modernist's experiments. He spoke of a different type of chaos present in the world at
his times. The issue of slavery was very important to him. Heart... describes a voyage to Africa
common for the British novels in that time, but what Conrad showed was not a pink picture. He wrote
about the horrific treatment which was present alter a cruel colonization. The chaotic, stream of
consciousness style helped Conrad to display the confusion and made readers interpret to themselves
what they thought the writer meant. Conrad experiments with this style, leaving some sentences
without ending. Conrad mixes situations like two women knitted black wool feverishly at the gate of
the city (of hell) and his aunt who is the main point why he feels that women are out of touch with
truth to how the British are as weak-eyed devils of a rapacious and pitiless folly. Conrad's narrative
frame also continues his experimentation with literary form in Modernist style. Two separate
monologues are present throughout Heart of Darkness. The first part starts out with an unnamed
narrator aboard the ship Nelly describing to himself, as well as to the reader and those aboard the ship,
particularly Marlow. At first, the narrator is not known for sure to be a character aboard the ship until a
few paragraphs later identify him as a person observing the others. Marlow gradually takes over the
narration beginning.

Conrad has Marlow take over the entire monologue and the unnamed
narrator jumps in from time to time. It is very easy for a reader to see "Heart of Darkness" as
a description of Africa's truth and an attack upon colonialism in general through brutal picture
of colonialism that took place in the Belgian Congo (mistreatment of the Africans, the greed of
the so-called "pilgrims," the broken idealism of Kurtz and Brussels as the city of the whited
sepulchre). The key answer of this novel stands in the fact that man can change in a certain
situation, cross the line from morality to darkness of soul and that is why the doctor tells
Marlow that people who go out to Africa bourns "scientifically interesting", they find their inner
darkness. It is important to say that Conrad in his novels developed techniques of multiple
points of view. He is a master of complex narrative techniques such as time-shifting and
flashbacks which prevent a reader from adopting too simplistic interpretation of events.
Symbolic setting
The superiority of whites over blacks faces the horrid reality that the whites are there not to
colonize the Congo but to conquer it. In the novel the blacks are described at one point as
helpers, but they are really treated more like slaves. The white men are corrupt and greedy in
the Congo, as Marlow states when he is first entering the Congo. The whites enter the jungle
thinking that natives must become civilized. The natives have a relationship with nature
where things are still pure and innocent, where they are not exposed to the corruption of the
civilized world. The white men made some natives to live by rules and these natives help to
enslave the others. This creates unhappiness and degradation of the blacks where they tend
to retreat to the forest to die. The ivory trade in the Congo is very dark and no one really
knows how Kurtz's gets the ivory he does. Marlow describes Kurtz face just before his death
as a face of ivory trader full of pride, ruthless power, terror and hopeless despair. Both Kurtz
and Marlow found a dark heart of Africa. They were forced to look at the face of darkness,

hate, fear and evil within themselves. They saw that the white men were not really bringing
progress to Africa and the price of being the part of it was dying without hope. The white men
have no escape from the darkness as Kurtz realized as he spoke his last words.
The jungle as a symbol
Like darkness", the jungle as a metaphor is found through the text. The jungle is an unwanted barrier,
a challenge for the colonists. The frequent personification of the wilderness, saying ...the big trees
were kings , for example, make the jungle another entity or presence, which the white man must face
and fight before they can colonize. Like the natives, generally, the jungle is viewed negatively. Within
the jungle, a tall, dance grass is mentioned a multitude of times. Many of the huts or houses are almost
buried in the greens. The recurrent imagery of grass, particularly associated with decay, is a wonderful
example. The decaying machinery in grass, the skeleton of Fresleven with grass growing up through
the nibs, and Kurtz's decaying building that is half-buried in the grass, shouts that the jungle can be
destructive, but is also possessive It was reclaiming what belonged to it. This would be seen as
threatening by the colonists. This further emphasizes that it is actually the colonists that are in the
wrong, not the apparently dark, uncivilized natives. This in turn accents the effect on a reader, namely
one of sympathy for the natives and aversion for the colonists. The silence of the forest is terrifying
because sound is unnecessary to prove the fobs power, and its silence consumes the sounds of man.
Here, as elsewhere, the jungle is alternately a symbol of depth and an impenetrable surface, a mask of
silence.
The Whited Sepulchre
I arrived in the city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre . (Brussels)
A sepulchre implies death and confinement, and indeed Europe is the origin of the colonial enterprises
that bring death to white men and to their colonial subject, it is also governed by a set of reified social
principles that both enable cruelty, dehumanization, and evil and prohibit change. Marlows nickname
for Brussels "the sepulchral city" comes from the words of Jesus. This would make good description of
the Belgians' hypocrisy toward the Congo; they claim to be guiding and helping the Africans, when in
fact they were enslaving and slaughtering them in record numbers. The Company hides its appetite for
wealth and power behind empty platitudes about advancing the light of European civilization through
the darkness of the African jungle, and ... weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways."
Symbolism in HD
Conrads use of symbolism, metaphors, and irony was necessary in order to convey the stories overall
theme. Africa was, to the Europeans, a place of another type of darkness. The symbolism of the color
of the hens reveals the unpleasant fortune of the men and village. He also depicts the jungle and the
native people with words that inspired images of darkness and gloom. The darkness therefore, is not a
literal absence of light; it is instead a device creating a feeling of despair, anguish, and evil. Kurtz had
succumbed to the darkness within, becoming a savage. The symbolism of the white ivory and the
darkness enveloping everything around represents the civilized Kurtz, who once was a sane ivory
trader. Within all the darkness, a big snake-like river stands out "It had become a place of darkness.
This path leads into the darkness of Africa. What is symbolic about this river is it's a dark path and as
people travel deeper and deeper into Africa, the darkness will eventually consume them. There is also
symbolism in the setting of which Conrad uses to describe Kurtz's home. Again, Conrad uses
symbolism in the black wool that is being knitted by two women. One more area where Conrad uses
17

symbolism to portray the good and evil, civilized and uncivilized is character. Throughout the novella,
symbolism can be found in everything aspect of it.
Kurtz
The men who work for the Company describe what they do as "trade," and their treatment of native
Africans is part of a benevolent project of "civilization." Kurtz, on the other hand, is open about the
fact that he does not trade but rather takes ivory by force, and he describes his own treatment of the
natives with the words "suppression" and "extermination": he does not hide the fact that he rules
through violence and intimidation. His perverse honesty leads to his downfall, as his success threatens
to expose the evil practices behind European activity in Africa. However, for Marlow as much as for
Kurtz or for the Company, Africans in this book are mostly objects: Marlow refers to his helmsman as
a piece of machinery, and Kurtz's African mistress is at best a piece of statuary.

WILLIAM B. YEATS, 1865 -1939, SANDYMOUTH, DUBLIN

Nobel prize 1923 for Cuchulain's Fight With the Sea
THE PICTURE OF MODERN CIVILIZATION IN POETRY OF W. B. YEATS
n 1913, Yeats met the American poet Ezra Pound Pound traveled to London to
meet the older man, whom he considered to be "the only poet worthy of serious
study." From that year until 1916, (the two men wintered in the Stone Cottage at
Ashdown Forest, with Pound nominally acting as Yeats' secretary. The relationship
got off to a rocky start when Pound arranged for the publication in the magazine
Poetry of some of Yeats' verse with Pound's own unauthorized alterations. These
changes reflected Pound's distaste for Victorian prosody. In particular, the
scholarship on Japanese Noh plays that Pound had obtained from Ernest
Fenollosa's widow provided Yeats with a model for the aristocratic drama he
intended to write. The first of his plays modelled on Noh was At the Hawk's Well,
the first draft of which he dictated to Pound in January 1916.
Yeats is generally considered to be one of the twentieth century's key English
language poets. Yet, unlike most modernists who experimented with free verse,
Yeats was a master of the traditional verse forms. The impact of modernism on
Yeats' work can be seen in the increasing abandonment of the more
conventionally poetic diction of his early work in favour of the more austere
language and more din of approach to his themes that increasingly
characterizes the poetry and plays of his middle period, comprising the volumes
In the Seven Woods, Responsibilities, and The Green Helmet.

5. THE IDEA OF TRANSITORINESS IN YEATS' POETRY

Yeats had his own philosophical theories which he expanded in "The Vision". The
image of the winding stair is very important and appears repeatedly throughout
his work. This relates to his Irish ancestry, time and his cyclical theory of history.
He saw history diagrammatically and believed that the world is done and undone
in two thousand years, where each era is overthrown by some catastrophic
change. Thus:
He symbolized this in the gyres, alternating series of historical change, a gyre
being a conical spiral movement which begins at a point in history (an
annunciation, the birth of Christ etc.) and expands to its fullest circle, whereupon
in the middle of this circle occurs a point, the next annunciation, and with it the
birth of the new age which will be the reverse of all that has gone before. The
winding stair reminds Yeats of a gyre and he believes that his era will come to
some catastrophic end due to all the war he has seen.
In "Sailing to Byzantium" Yeats again presents the reader with a symbolic
(although imaginary) journey, where the speaker sails away from a place of decay
- the natural world of "fish, flesh of fowl" to one with the promise of immortality
where neither time nor nature can intrude. Byzantium becomes a symbol for this
world.
When Yeats talks about the "monuments of un-ageing intellect" he is not just
talking about buildings which are often associated with the cold and formal but
also the "rational quality of intellect", perhaps suggesting that the monuments
might be verses, pictures or any other artistic creation. The buildings may be
weatherworn and can change over time but here he suggests that those created
out of intellect are beyond lime, thus suggesting that these monuments are more
magnificent man the works of nature. The marbles of the dancing floor" can also
be viewed similarly, although they could stand for coldness; they could also stand
for durability of art.
The "gold mosaic" of "Sailing to Byzantium" is a symbol of eternity, where a
moment in history is frozen and preserved through art and into the "artifice of
eternity". This symbol aims to remind the reader of the transience of nature and
the durability of ail These monuments and works of art that Yeats discusses serve
to provide and imagined defense against time.
Sailing to Byzantium
Sailing to Byzantium enters a qualification against a venerable topos within Irish poetry: the
fecundity of Ireland. The aged speakers decision to travel away from Ireland to Byzantium is
the result both of his pained contemplation of the young In one anothers arms and the fact
that they are part of a cycle of nature which ends in death: Whatever is begotten, born and
dies. The reference to death is picked up in the account of Irish violence later in the volume.
Byzantium, unlike Ireland, offers a wisdom founded in the eternal, beyond the cycle of life
and death: Monuments of unageing intellect.
Yeats handles themes of age and myth in poems such as Sailing to Byzantium, which opens
with the line:
That is no country for old men.
The concern is with the new Ireland, and its future; the poet returns to the holy city of
Byzantium as symbol of artistic/creative perfection. The concern with the passing of time, a
19

major concern in many Modernist writers, becomes clear in the poems last line, which
speaks Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
(iz diplomskih)
Written in 1927, this poem expresses Yeats belief that in order to get immortality through art,
it is necessary to move away from the song of the senses and move to songs celebrating
"monuments of unaging intellect".
That (the Ireland) is not the right place for an old man. In that country, the dying generations
of birds and young lovers celebrate things which are slave to the natural cycle of birth and
death. Creatures, "...Caught in that sensual music..." are very much subjects to death and
decay.
An old man, "A tattered coat upon a stick..." has only one alternative - to educate his soul to
clap its hands and sing louder and louder as the physical powers go from bad to worse.
Since in "That" country there is no school for his soul to be educated, the poet decides to sail
to the holy city of Byzantium. Byzantium is the old name for Constantinople or Istanbul,
capital of Roman Empire. For Yeats, it was the ideal of culture and wisdom.
The third stanza sees the poet already in the holy city, Byzantium. He addresses the sages
standing in God's holy fire to purify his heart because it is tied to the animal instincts and is
sick with physical desire. Once that is done, it would be easier to do what poet most desires to gather him into he artifice of eternity. In other words, he wants to become a part of those
things which are beyond the cycle of birth and death: "Consume my heart away: sick with
desire /And fastened to a dying animal / It knows not what it is; and gather me / Into the
artifice of eternity."
Once the poet is out of this circle of nature, he will break the contacts with natural, i.e.
physical world. Instead of taking his bodily form, he will take a form of a golden bird,
hammered by Grecian goldsmiths. The golden bird could sing to a sleepy Emperor and keep
him awake. The poet dreams of singing of all times - past, present and future to the lords and
ladies of Byzantium. That song would be different from the sensual music of "dying
generation" and will sing of "monuments of unageing intellect". The last stanza: "Once out of
nature I shall never take / My bodily form from any natural thing, / But such a form as Grecian
goldsmiths make / Of hammered gold and gold enamelling / To keep a drowsy Emperor
awake; / Or set upon a golden bough to sing / To Lords and ladies of Byzantium / Of what is
past, or passing, or to come."
Apart from the obvious main dilemma that the poet sets in "Sailing to Byzantium", the poem
has deep mystical significance. Herald Bloom said his book "Yeats, 1970": "God's holy fire in
this poem is not a state where the creator and his creation are one, as in Blake, but rather a
state where the creator has been absorbed into his creation." The very opinion was
profoundly influenced with Hinduistic approach to Creator and Creation from their holy
scriptures ''Upanishads".
This famous poem is also an emphatic reminder of Yeats's keen interest in historic capital of
the Eastern Empire and the significance he attached to its art and culture. Byzantium to Yeats
stood for that moment in history where religious aesthetic and practical life were one something never achieved before or since in recorded history. In Yeats' concept of history
development, the Christian civilization achieved the point of fullest synthesis or unity in the
visionary art if Byzantium, about the time of Justinian. Byzantium became a symbol of "the
artifice of eternity" where the soul may realise its possibilities in life. After that moment, the
disintegration of the Christian civilization set in; there is a complete immersion in only one,
materialistic, aspect of life, at the cost of another. Modern generation has no thought for
those masterpieces of art which are the product of ageless intellect and spirit and symbolise

permanence in the stream of life. "Sailing to Byzantium" presents the voyage to the land of
the mind. To help us hear the golden bird and its song beyond the time.
The Wild Swans of Coole
A middle-aged man observes a flock of swans first seen years before; contrasting their
unwearied energies to his own diminished spirits, he wonders what will happen when the
vitality they symbolize leaves him behind for good. Each stanza blends melancholia with
mysterious expectancy. The expectancy arises partly from such vividly elemental images as
brimming water among the stones. It also derives from the speakers resonant voice, which
coaxes the diction and syntax of mildly elevated speech into harmony with gentle rhythms,
lilting undulations of longer and shorter lines, and the music of assonance and rhyme. (The
first stanzas pairing of stones and swans is one of the most oft-admired oV-rhymes in the
language.) Can anyone capable of such imaginative seeing and speaking really possess a
heart that will grow old? The poems concluding reference to an eventual awakening
suggests that the end of ordinary life may bring the start of something else.
His poem The second coming is a chilling vision of impending death and dissolution. It
contains the famous lines:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
but the dissolution is part of a cycle of history which also guarantees order, joy and beauty.
There is gaiety and celebration in Yeats poetry in these years as well as terror and fear of
anarchy.

THE MAIN THEME AND SYMBOLISM IN YEATS POETRY

Yeat's work is characterized by two main preoccupations: literary explorations of
occult, mystic or spiritual themes and the promulgation of Irish nationalism
through the medium of literary propaganda. Mystic and occult themes run
throughout his "literary oeuvre" from the early appearance of "magic" in Mosada
to the "over mysticism" of The Celtic Twilihgt and the "spiritualism" of A Vision.
Later when Yeats was fifty two years old, he married twenty five years old George
Hyde-Lees, who practiced "automatic writing". Yeats and his wife shared an
enduring interest in "research into occult matters"; his A Vision, privately
reflected many of their mutal spiritual concerns. Yeats's earlier encounter with the
political agitator Maud Gonne inspired his interest in nationalistic literary themes,
culminating in his assistance in the founding of the Irish Literary Theatre, to which
he contributed many dramatic works. The fifty years the publication of Yeats's
first volume of poems "The Wondering of Oisin and other Poems"(18829 and his
death in 1939 saw many ups and downs in Yeats's own life as well as in Ireland
and the world. Yeats tried to record most of these ups and downs and tried to
interpret them in his own unique poetic way. The result is that his themes cover
such wide-ranging areas as love, old-age, politics, art and aristocracy, violence
and prophecy, history, myth, unity of being and courtesy, intellectual hatred,
innocence, anarchy and nostalgia. For him Augusta Gregory was a living symbol
of the old Irish Aristocracy The poem Olin Memory of Major Robert Gregory" is a
21

commemorative poem on the death of Lady Gregory's son, whom Yeats admired
as a kind of symbol of aristocratic good breeding. Yeats's poetry is replete with
symbols. He has been regarded as one of the greatest symbolists in English
literature. In his poetry the same symbol is often used for different purposes and
in different context His Symbols are derived from occult studies, which included a
fascination for fairies, banshees, astrology, automatic writing and prophetic
dreams. He had come to know from Madame.
YEATS AS A MYSTIC
Yeats believed the invisible life is the matter of poetry. Poetry should discover
essential truth within the poet's intuitive understanding In a letter to his friend
John O'Leary Yeats explained the importance of the supernatural in his work: "The
mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write. It
holds to my work the same relation that the philosophy of Godwin holds to the
work of Shelley and I have always considered myself a voice of what I believe to
be a greater renaissance [sic] The revolt of the soul against the intellect--now
beginning in the world." In his essay "Ideas of Good and Evil" he gave principles
of his doctrine. He believes:
"1. That the borders of our mind are ever shifting, and that many minds can flow
into one another, as it were, and create or reveal a single mind, a single energy.
2. That the borders of our memories are as shifting, and that our memories are a
part of one great memory, the memory of Nature herself.
3. That this great mind and great memory can be evoked by syrnbols."
Byzantium as the heart of European civilisation and the source of its spiritual
philosophy appears in two Yeats' poems: "Sailing to Byzantium" in 1927 and
"Byzantium" in 1930. Yeats was impressed by the holy city with its great dome
and its mosaics, which defy nature and transcend material existence. He
cultivated the myth of Byzantium as a city of perfect and eternal art, the great
magical city where the soul reaches its perfection and artists live in the unity with
the supernatural. Critics' opinions on the poem range from that it is a poem about the
images in poet's mind to that it is about the life after death. The main question is what, in the
poem, is Byzantium itself? H. Bloom writes: "Byzantium is for Yeats a state of inspiration, a
kind of death, and an actual historical city, all at once. For this to be possible,
phantasmagoria is necessary, and Yeats begins and ends his poem as a phantasmagoria.
Indeed, the given of the poem is this phantasmagoria". It may be Yeats' most obscure poem.
Yeats' concerns are the actual creative experience, the relation of art and life and various
phenomena of mental vision. "The importance of this "reverie" as a dramatic process in
Yeats' later verse is underscored by the fact that two of his finest poems, "Among School
Children" and "Byzantium," are basically dramas of thought and image.".
The first stanza gives the imaginary setting. It is the midnight hour in the ancient city of
Byzantium and the streets are apparently deserted. "The unpurged images of day" are
receding. Those are the ordinary banal images of everyday life describing events inside the
city like "The Emperor's drunken soldiery" and "night-walkers' song". "They are "unpurged"
because they are still a part of human life: they have not yet been refined of "All mere
complexities, / The fury and the mire of human veins. The poem continues with the image of

the moon and the stars shining on the enormous cathedral dome, the symbol of eternal,
perfect art which "disdains /AII that man is."
The speaker of the poem appears in the second stanza. He is in a state of inspiration and an
image is floating before him. He describes it as "man or shade, / Shade more than man, more
image than a shade." It is more shade than a man because it is a spirit, but more an image
than a shade because it is a human soul. The conclusion is that the phenomenon is more
spiritual than human, more mental than spiritual, but involving all this in its complexity of an
artistic image. This image has been interpreted as a metaphor for Yeats poetry or the
poetical inspiration. He calls it death-in-life and life-in-death. The spirit has come to him
through Hades bobbin bound in mummy-cloth, which may unwind the winding path. In
hailing this superhuman image, Yeats in effect takes on the role of Dante, a Dante who has
found his guide to the world of death and judgment.
In the next stanza Yeats glorifies a golden bird, which he calls a miracle. It is an image
based on golden birds that adorned trees in the palace of the Byzantine emperor. He also
compares the bird to the cocks of Hades, the supernatural birds which according to an
ancient tradition, crow the arrival of spirits into and out of our temporal world. So the golden
bird has helped the poet to summon the superhuman. The bird represents the embodiment of
the relationship between nature and art: its form comes from nature, but being a perfect
everlasting artistic creation it is not subjugated to this temporal world and the fury and the
mire of human veins.
The fourth stanza deals with the purification of the spirits entering on Emperors pavement.
They are given in an image of dancing flames Yeats, customarily, uses a symbolic dancer to
suggest complete or almost complete Unity of Being, whether of a disembodied soul or of a
living human being. Those are Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steal has lit, /Nor storm
disturbs, flames begotten of flame. This symbolizes a purification of human soul through the
art. The flames cannot be extinguished so they are set free from the cycles of death and
rebirth. In the stanza five the spirits are called to Byzantium. They encounter the Emperor
golden smithies that break the flood. The violent, flooding sea is the centre of this stanza as
a symbol of every movement in nature. There is a reference to dolphins at the end: That
dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea. In classical mythology dolphins carry the souls of the
dead. The gong that symbolizes time or mans suffering in it corresponds to the church bell in
the opening lines of the poem. Through the imagery of the "dolphin" and the "gong
tormented sea", Yeats is now saying that men reach the supernatural by dying and carrying
with them "all complexities of mire or blood". But he is also saying something else. He is
saying that intuitively the great poet borrows his symbolism from nature". The whole poem is
a symbol of "journeys over the waters of life and death towards nature or God".
THE SECOMD COMING
Using his "antithetical rhetoric", Yeats concentrates into imagery as much of his thought as is
possible and represents some of the most profound elements of his philosophy. But this
condensation can create interpretative problems. The title of "The Second Coming" suggests
that the poem will depict the return to Earth of Jesus Christ preceded by the Apocalypse,
when the world will end, and the final judgment will take place. But Yeats challenges the
traditional Christian vision describing his vision of something that could be- not the expected
return of Christ, but the Second Coming of the Antichrist. He projects the present moment in
history into a vision of the past and the future.
The whole poem is full of antitheses, Yeats confronts: the centre with a centrifugal force it
cannot control; a blood-dimmed tide and the ceremony of innocence, the best and the worst,
a lack of conviction and a passionate intensity; a stony sleep vexed to nightmare and a
23

rocking cradle; a slouching, rough beast and Bethlehem. There is not any introduction to the
poem. It opens in medias res with the image of a falcon circling in the sky, far away from the
falconer who released it. It is a reference to Yeats' philosophic system and his cyclical
conception of history. Yeats believed that history was divided into two thousand year cycles.
The central symbols of this conception are two interlocking gyres or cones. The cone
representing the coming era rises from its base to its peak, while the inverted cone
representing the previous two thousand year cycle, rises to its point of greatest expansion, a
widening gyre like the one in which the falcon loses its point of reference. "Turning and
turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer" The separation of man
and bird presents an image that has been interpreted in many ways as mankind moving from
a period of Christianity to Paganism or as a symbol of human technology getting out of
human command or as the society going out of control and becoming lost and disoriented or
as social and cultural destruction of the aristocratic ideal of the order that Yeats so admired.
The poem continues with an image of doomsday, anarchy or is "loosed" upon the Earth. The
centre, or the nadir of the inverted cone, is the birth of Christ, "the first comings". But, 'Things
tall apart; the centre cannot hold" because as the cone reaches its utmost expansion it
begins to slow down and to destabilize. Yeats believed that Christianity had culminated in an
"egalitarian democracy " which will finish disintegrating into "mere anarchy". The following
lines show extent of death and destruction. ''The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and
everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the
worst / Are full of passionate intensity. This is the world between the two great wars and in
the period of civil war and revolutionary struggles in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. Violent
followers of different ideologies are absolutely sure of themselves and "full of passionate
intensity". And "the best" who are free of dogmatic ideology and "lack all conviction" are
unsure of what to do. Violence, which is symptomatic of the end of one era and the beginning
of another, becomes widespread. So the poem's speaker concludes that "surely" revelation,
the uncovering of apocalypse, is at hand. But immediately after he has expressed the words
"the Second Coming" his sight is troubled by sudden rising of "a vast image out of Spiritus
Mundi", opposed to the I Holy Spirit, the soul of the universe which is the general inventory
where the human race preserves its past memories and condenses a whole history into it. It
is the source of prophecy, since in Yeats' belief history repeats the same predestined cycles.
This vast image involves not so much fear as confusion caused by imperfect vision. The
shape, situated "somewhere in sands of the desert," appears monumental and vague at the
same time. The desert could symbolize the worthlessness of the egalitarian mass society that
Yeats so disliked. The creature has a "lion body and the head of a man, it is an image of the
sphinx although it is not named, a combination of human intellect and brutal strength. It is
frightening but majestic. Her gaze is "blank and pitiless as the sun. The creature appears
impassive, proud, and fearless.
The imagery of the second stanza becomes increasingly disturbing. The protagonist of the
poem has a vision of the sphinx rising up. The angry desert birds are flying around the slowly
moving sphinx. As the vision comes to an end and The darkness drops again, he uses the
phrase now I know, which suggest a knowledge from some higher power similar to divine
wisdom. The speaker realizes that he has had a preview of things to come. The sphinx, a
symbol of classical civilization, was "vexed to nightmare" that is to say, overwhelmed and put
to a sleep by Christ's birth, "by a rocking cradle" which suggests the manger where he was
born. She slept in a world of nightmares for 2000 years. The essential question of any
interpretation of the poem concerns the sphinx symbol. Critical opinion has predominantly
interpreted the rough beast as a pessimistic vision of horror, symbolizing the beginning of a
violent, bestial anti-civlization. The god of that era who rises fiom the desert sands, is not
beneficent but a monstrous. He inspires a sense of horrible helplessness. It could seem that
there is no hope for the existence of mankind. But in Yeats' cyclical view of history this life is
our eternal life, the Christian civilization is only a trio thousand year episode, like others that

have preceded and will follow it. All they are part of the cycle. The Christian era had its birth
in violence, just as the modem era did. This is his answer to cataclysm Yeats ends his poem
in a question leaving it open to interpretation.
YEATS' MYSTICISM
Yeats was as visionary instead on surrounding himself with images. Just magic and its
imaginative life appealed to him. The age of science was not interesting to him; he was more
attracted by astrology than astronomy. Numerous visions were connected with Yeats leading
idea of gyres, the cones that spiral together and symbolize objectivity and subjectivity of the
world. These idea was practically collaborated with his wife through her automatic writing
and connection with a ghost named Leo Africanus.
The gyres give the image of a single circle when looking down on them. This circle
represents the moon and the twenty-eight phases of the moon which are closely related to
the progression of time and world history. The new and full moon are the periods where time
begins end ends. However, it is not an end in the right sense of the word, it is actually a
beginning of a new cycle. The phases in between are the growth and evolution of the human
soul over time. The cycle lasts two thousand years and each period is dominated by a single
civilisation and its own prevailing myth. The present one begun with the birth of Christ and
now, as Yeats says, is already in the period of disintegration. Thus the end of our cycle will
come in the year of 2000. He calls this time 'The Second Coming'. These ideas appeared in
the Yeats' poem 'The Second Corning':
'The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born ?'
Together with the idea of cyclic history comes to Yeats the idea of cyclic repeating of life and death,
the reincarnation of souls. He also speaks about what happens after death, describing the process of
return of the soul to the cosmic trance from which it sprang. The body is looked on as an animal part of
a man full of desires which should be purified.
Yeats shared the idea of reincarnating of a soul through all worldly things, not only within the
human being. This idea actually refers to his view at the world or the universe as a view in
the very modern term. It is the way of looking at the universe as a whole interconnected
system of energies, always changing but never disappearing.

JAMES JOYCE, 1882 1941; RATHGAR, DUBLIN, IRELAND

JOYCES

TECHNIQUES OF STREAM... ARE DIFFERENT OF WOOLFS. THE MOVEMENT OF

THE PORSE IS MORE STACCATO AND LESS POETIC IN RHYTHM. IN LINGUISTIC TERMS,
THE FRAGMENTATION OF NARRATION IS OFTEN REPRESENTED BY UNUSUAL COHESION,
OR CHANGES IN THE NORMAL WAYS OF LINKING SENTENCES, PARAGRAPHS AND
NARRATION. THIS LEADS TO UNUSUAL JUMPS, JUXTAPOSITIONS, AND CONNECTIONS,
OFTEN ALSO MARKED BY UNUSUAL OR MISSING PUNCTUATION, WHICH CAN CREATE
UNEXPECTED VISUAL OR GRAPHOLOGICAL EFFECTS ON THE PAGE. STREAM OF... TAKES
THESE EFFECTS TO EXTREMES, OFTEN ABANDONING COHESION, SYNTAX, AND
PUNCTUATION AND LEXICAL CORRECTNESS WHICH PREVIOUSLY BROUGHT ORDER AND

25

CLARITY TO NARRATION. DIFFERENT CHARACTERS HAVE DIFFERENT INNER LIVES AND

DIFFERENT WRITERS PERCEIVE AND REPRESENT THE INNER MIND IN CONTRASTING
WAYS. HIS DUBLINERS DEPICTS THE LIVES OF THE ORDINARY PEOPLE OF THE CITY WITH
CLARITY AND REALISM. THE STORIES ARE CAREFULLY ORGANIZED SO THAT MEANINGS
ARISE NOT ONLY FROM THE INDIVIDUAL SKETCHES BUT ALSO FROM THE RELATIONS
BETWEEN THEM. THE BEST OF THESE STORIES THE DEAD IS THE FINAL ONE IN THE
SEQUENCE, TO WHICH MANY OF THE PREVIOUS STORIES POINT. IT IS A STORY IN WHICH
A HUSBAND IS SHOCKED OUT OF HIS SELF-SATISFACTION AND EGOTISM BY LEARNING OF
WIFES LOVE FOR A YOUNG MAN SHE HAD KNOWN MANY YEARS BEFORE.
THE THEME OF THE MANY OF THE STORIES IN DUBLINERS IS THE ATTEMPT OF THE
CITIZENS TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM LIVES IN WHICH THEY FEEL PARALYSED BY
RELATIONSHIPS, BY SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS, OR BY THEIR OWN
NATURES. JOYCES TREATMENT SHOWS A MASTERY OF THE SHORT-STORY FORM AND
BECOMES INCREASINGLY DETACHED AND NEUTRAL. JOYCES FIRST MAJOR NOVEL, A
PORTRAIT OF... IS SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AND TELLS THE STORY OF STEPHEN
DEDALUS FROM THE VERY EARLIEST DAYS OF HIS LIFE, SHOWING HIM GROWING INTO
ADULTHOOD AND INDEPENDENCE UNDER THE POWERFUL INFLUENCES OF IRISH
NATIONAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS FEELINGS. THE NOVEL SHOWS HOW HE
GRADUALLY FREES HIB MSELF FROM THESE INFLUENCES AND DECIDES TO BECOME AN
EXILE FROM IRELAND AND TO DEDICATE HIS LIFE TO WRITING. HE ALSO DEVELOPS A
VIEW OF THE WRITER AS NECESSARILY ALIENATED FROM THE VALUES OF SOCIETY AND
COMMITTED ONLY TO ARTISTIC VALUES. LIKE T.S. ELIOT IN POETRY, STEPHEN (WHO
MAY OR MAY NOT REPRESENT JOYCES IDEAS) BELIEVED THAT THE TRUE ARTIST HAD TO
BE OBJECTIVE AND NOT SIMPLY GIVE DIRECT EXPRESSION TO HIS FEELINGS. HE
COMPARED THE ARTIST TO THE GOD OF CREATION WHO REMAINS WITHIN OR BEHIND
OR BEYOND OR ABOVE HIS HANDIWORK, INVISIBLE, REFINED OUT OF EXISTENCE,
INDIFFERENT, PARING HIS FINGERNAILS.
IN HIS NOVELS, JOYCE PUSHES LANGUAGE TO THE ABSOLUTE LIMITS OF EXPERIMENT
AND FOR MOST READERS THE RESULT IS A VERY DEMANDING, SOMETIMES VERY
COMPREHENSIBLE DEMANDING, AND SOMETIMES INCOMPREHENSIBLE EXPERIENCE.

6. JOYCE'S

MODERNIST TECHNIQUE IN

"A PORTRAIT.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ma 'is one of the earlier examples in English
A
literature of a novel that makes extensive use of stream of consciousness'.
Stream of consciousness is a narrative technique through which the author
attempts to represent the fluid and eruptive nature of human thought. The book
opens with stream of consciousness narrative filtered through a childs
perspective. The narrative is anchored in the interior life of a character rather
than from the perspective of an objective third-person narrator. Structure is not in
usual sense of composition. Each section is composed of subsections. Every
section covers different period of Stephen's life." There are many instances of
deeper structures in the book. Most of important things happens in Stephens
mind. Artist cannot be isolated from the community. They are part of the
community but they are different. There are two purposes to this - to show that
what happens in his mind is chaotic ant to show the way an artist develops.'
Nobody is born an artist. Every single person when born is tabula rasa.
The opening section is in stream of consciousness with a child protagonist, and
the novel is marked by an increasing sophistication of narrative voice as the
protagonist matures. Although many sections of the novel are narrated in a

relatively direct style, Joyce writes long passages that sustain a complex and
difficult language attempting to approximate the workings of a human thought.
Even when the work is narrated in a straightforward manner, the narrative voice
never strays from the interior life of Stephen Daedalus. We see events only as
they are filtered through Stephen.
The book shows a wide range of narrative styles. There are lush and intricate
passages, sections narrated in a direct style, and highly experimental sections.
The close is very simply done, all in a form of Stephen's journal entries before
leaving Ireland.
7. THE REJECTION OF TRADITION IN "A PORTRAIT.. AS BILDUNGSROMAN
(THE REBELLION AGAINST TRADITION)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a novel about the life of Stephen
Daedalus, a development from child to adult, from unlearned rural boy to an
intellectual and an artist. Stephen is Joyces fictional recreation of himself.
Throughout the book we see him increasingly obsessed with sex. Going with
prostitutes becomes a habit. Criticism of Catholicism is present. He becomes
increasingly frustrated by the Catholic doctrine. During his college days, he
develops an increasingly hostile attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church.
Stephens mother Mary is quite religious, and is deeply concerned with Stephen.
She decides to trust the Catholic Church rather than her own son, which shows
that her support is not toward Stephen. Stephens father shows a lack of respect
for his son by calling him lazy and goes on to imply that he is not very
masculine". Through his parents' lack of emotional support, Stephen :
must look inside himself for help. Stephen compares Ireland with the sow that
eats her
farrows. He cannot artistiouly flourish in a place that destroys everything creative
and docs not tolerate independent thoughts and ideas. We see his development
from early childhood to young adulthood to his life-changing, decision to leave
Ireland. The novel is profoundly autobiographical. Like Stephen, Joyce had early
experiences with prostitutes during his teenage years and struggled with
questions of faith. Like Stephen, Joyce was the son of a religious mother and a
financially inept father. Like Stephen. Joyce was eldest of ten children and
received his education at Jesuit schools. Like Stephen, Joyce left Ireland to pursue
the life of a poet and writer.
Although he has no shortage of friends, he feels isolated. He regards. Ireland as a
trap, and he realizes that he must escape the constraints of his nation, family,
and religion. He can only do that abroad.
Stephen imagines his escape as something parallel to the flight of Deadalus: he
escaped from his prison with wings crafted by his own genius. The book ends with
Stephen leaving Ireland to pursue the life of a writer. He has become a selfassured and courageous young man, willing even to risk hell for his convictions.

JOYCE'S

MODERNIST TECHNIQUE IN

Portrait

"A PORTRAIT.

of the Artist as a Young Ma 'is one of the earlier examples in English

literature of a novel that makes extensive use of stream of consciousness'. Stream of

consciousness is a narrative technique through which the author attempts to represent
the fluid and eruptive nature of human thought. The book opens with stream of

27

consciousness narrative filtered through a childs perspective. The narrative is anchored

in the interior life of a character rather than from the perspective of an objective thirdperson narrator. Structure is not in usual sense of composition. Each section is composed
of subsections. Every section covers different period of Stephen's life." There are many
instances of deeper structures in the book. Most of important things happen in
Stephens mind. Artist cannot be isolated from the community. They are part of the
community but they are different. There are two purposes to this - to show that what
happens in his mind is chaotic ant to show the way an artist develops.' Nobody is born an
artist. Every single person when born is tabula rasa.
The opening section is in stream of consciousness with a child protagonist, and the novel
is marked by an increasing sophistication of narrative voice as the protagonist matures.
Although many sections of the novel are narrated in a relatively direct style, Joyce writes
long passages that sustain a complex and difficult language attempting to approximate
the workings of a human thought. Even when the work is narrated in a straightforward
manner, the narrative voice never strays from the interior life of Stephen Dedalus. We
see events only as they are filtered through Stephen.
The book shows a wide range of narrative styles. There are lush and intricate passages,
sections narrated in a direct style, and highly experimental sections. The close is very
simply done, all in a form of Stephen's journal entries before leaving Ireland. This novel is

narrated, for the most part, in the limited omniscient point of view; at the same time, it
progresses in form from the lyrical and epical modes of expression and moves finally into the dramatic
mode of expression. (These "modes of expression" are Stephen's own terms, defining the various kinds
of literature; when we encounter them in the novel, we should write down Stephen's definitions and
attempt to chart the course of this novel according to its evolving lyrical, epical, and dramatic levels.)
Stephens thoughts, associations, feelings, and language (both cerebral and verbal) serve as the primary
vehicles by which the reader shares with Stephen the pain and pleasures of adolescence, as well as the
exhilarating experiences of intellectual, sexual, and spiritual discoveries. In order to highlight the
importance of Stephen's aesthetic experiences, Joyce borrowed a word from the Catholic faith in order
to create a literary term of his own. When Stephen suddenly understands "the essential nature of a
thing"--whether it is the understanding of a person, an idea, a word, or a situationhe has a moment of
profound revelation. Joyce called these moments epiphanies.

7. THE REJECTION OF TRADITION IN "A PORTRAIT.. AS BILDUNGSROMAN

(THE REBELLION AGAINST TRADITION)
Stephens natural, maturing sexual urges confuse him even further. Stephen is a keenly
intelligent, sensitive, and eloquent young man, but he also possesses the feelings of urgent sexuality,
selfdoubt, and insecurity--all universal emotions which are experienced during the development of the
average adolescent male. Joyce reveals these tumultuous adolescent feelings through a narrative
technique called stream-of-consciousness. He takes the reader into both the conscious mind and the
subconscious mind, showing him the subjective and the objective realities of a situation. Using
Stephen Dedalus, he explores the depths of the human heart.
Criticism of Catholicism is present. He becomes increasingly frustrated by the Catholic
doctrine. During his college days, he develops an increasingly hostile attitude toward the
Roman Catholic Church. Stephens mother Mary is quite religious, and is deeply
concerned with Stephen. She decides to trust the Catholic Church rather than her own
son, which shows that her support is not toward Stephen. Stephens father shows a lack
of respect for his son by calling him lazy and goes on to imply that he is not very
masculine". Through his parents' lack of emotional support, Stephen must look inside
himself for help. Stephen compares Ireland with the sow that eats her

farrows. He cannot artistically flourish in a place that destroys everything creative and
does not tolerate independent thoughts and ideas. We see his development from early
childhood to young adulthood to his life-changing, decision to leave Ireland. Silence,
exile and cunning are the means and methods Steven Dedalus prescribes for himself
when he makes his famous Non serviam in a Portrait which increasingly came to seem
the foundations of the necessary rebellion. The mans of experiment, source of the long
critical instance and the great struggle with culture, form and language, the modern
writer, unaccepted by his own society, needed to undertake in order to break open the
meaning of his history, his origin and his world.
The novel is profoundly autobiographical. Like Stephen, Joyce had early experiences with
prostitutes during his teenage years and struggled with questions of faith. Like Stephen,
Joyce was the son of a religious mother and a financially inept father. Like Stephen, Joyce
was eldest of ten children and received his education at Jesuit schools. Like Stephen,
Joyce left Ireland to pursue the life of a poet and writer.
Although he has no shortage of friends, he feels isolated. He regards. Ireland as a trap,
and he realizes that he must escape the constraints of his nation, family, and religion. He
can only do that abroad.
Stephen imagines his escape as something parallel to the flight of Deadalus: he escaped
from his prison with wings crafted by his own genius. The book ends with Stephen
leaving Ireland to pursue the life of a writer. He has become a self-assured and
courageous young man, willing even to risk hell for his convictions. He wants to abandon
tradition in terms of time. People dont think in coherent manner. Not in a structured,
orderly way as characters in novels-it is artificial. True reality is in Joyces mind is
different than we perceive it. People who shared his ideas coined a term-a stream of
consciousness it flows, runs by doesnt present time in a traditional way . The author
freely jumps in place and time. It recreates an illusion of what actually may go in side the
characters in order to present the chaotic world you need to find appropriate literary
form. But expressing chaos in chaotic way is counter productive. He uses 18 different
styles ironyzing traditional style.

EXPLAIN THE POLITICAL ISSUES TOUCHED IN J.JOYCE'S NOVEL A

PORTRAIT . AND THE MAIN CHARACTERS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEM
In A Portrait, the reader learns through the particular experiences of Stephen Dedalus how an artist
perceives his surroundings, as well as his views on faith, family, and country, and how these
perceptions often conflict with those prescribed for him by society. As a result, the artist feels
distanced from the world. Unfortunately, this feeling of distance and detachment is misconstrued by
others to be the prideful attitude of an egoist. Thus the artist, already feeling isolated, is increasingly
aware of a certain growing, painful social alienation. Stephen shuns the
arbitrary restrictions governing religion and/or politics; he prefers, instead, to re-create (in his mind) a
more tolerant world in which he can feel free to express his own wild, creative nature. In addition to
introducing us to Stephens "differentness" and his feelings of alienation, Joyce is also introducing us
to the matter of loyalty--in particular, the matter of Stephen's loyalty to his "mother country," Ireland.
The character who most represents Ireland is Stephens mother, Mary Dedalus, and Stephen's later
anxieties about exile from Mother Ireland are foreshadowed here in his thoughts about being exiled
from his loving mother while he is at boarding school. Stephen contemplates his feelings of isolation
as he falls asleep, lulled by pleasant memories of home and the sad sound of Brother Michael's voice
as it reveals the news from the daily paper that Charles Stewart Parnell, the Irish Nationalist leader, is
dead. In his dream, Stephen's preoccupation with his illness and his fears of death merge with his
thoughts about Parnell's death, and he begins to identify his own plight with that of the great, rejected
Irish hero. Dante, his old nurse and governess, a woman whom he has loved as if she were an aunt, is
rigid and cruel as she loudly defends her faith and the Church's interference with matters of the state.
Interestingly, this scene is based on an actual occurrence in the Joyce household. Dante Conway (the
Joyce childrens governess) and a Mr. John Kelley (a friend of Joyce's father who had been imprisoned
for giving public speeches in defense of Parnell) actually did have a loud, angry argument during a
29

Christmas dinner when Joyce was a boy. The vicious screaming ingrained itself so deeply in Joyce's
memory that he was able to re-create its strong, minute details here. As a result of the argument,
Stephen realizes that the pursuit of freedom usually includes martyrdom--a situation enunciated by
Joyce himself, a belief that Ireland would always destroy her heroes. Stephen prefers his mother to his
father, and he is unconsciously aware of his nurse Dante's political and religious ideologies. One of the
conflicts which Stephen must face is the class competition between the scholastic teams of York and
Lancaster, named after the British royal families involved in the War of the Roses (1445-85). Although
the team badges, bearing either a red or white rose, represent two political factions, Stephen is not
really
concerned with winning the scholastic contest. He is concentrating on a world which might allow the
limitless possibilities of "wild rose blossoms." Here, as he will do in future years, Stephen shuns the
arbitrary restrictions governing religion and/or politics; he prefers, instead, to re-create (in his mind) a
more tolerant world in which he can feel free to express his own wild, creative nature. Ironically, this
dinner, which is traditionally held to announce the joyous anniversary of the birth of the Savior of the
World, becomes the scene of loud, vindictive, religious and political debate. Ultimately, its angry focus
is not on a birth, but on the death of a man who seemingly was once Ireland's savior, Ireland's hope for
independence from England, Ireland's best hope for Home Rule. Discarding Davin (a symbol of Irish
patriotism and culture), Stephen proceeds to challenge the sterile, "monkish" knowledge that he is
receiving in the Irish institutions of higher learning. During his conversation with the Dean of Studies,
Stephen reveals the marked difference between the "practical arts," which the dean represents, and the
"liberal arts," which Stephen admires. Here, Joyce uses a "light" metaphor (the lamp symbolizing
enlightenment). We see that Stephens figurative approach to aesthetics is superior to the deans
limited, literal views on the subject. It is comic that Stephen's continued attempts to clarify his views
further confuse the dean. Nonetheless, Stephen has an opportunity here to differentiate
between his own aesthetic use of language, as opposed to the language that is used in the "literary
tradition . . . of the marketplace"--that is, that which is taught by the dean. Stephen perceives the dean's
scholastic limitations, and he pities him for his uninspired, but faithful service to his order. He realizes
that a university education cannot adequately prepare someone like himself if he is to attain unique,
individual, aesthetic ideals
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
Religion is a problem for the young boy. He finds comfort in the repetition of memorized prayers; he is
offered solace, but, at the same time, he is terrified by the notion of the eternal fires of eternal
damnation. In the scene when Stephen recites his prayers before going to bed, Joyce conveys his own
disdain for the rote memorizations encouraged by the Catholic Church. Such prayers, he believes, offer
small hope for people who are deeply troubled; ultimately, such prayers are of little use in times of
deep suffering. Stephen's own prayers seem to echo Joyce's observations; it is likely that the boy does
not even understand the prayers that he is reciting. Note that his night tremblings seem to cease not
after prayers, but after he reminds himself
that he will not go to hell when he dies. However, Stephen is not truly comforted. He is still haunted by
the terrible image of the prefect's descent down a dark, mythical corridor. Stephen's night fears
dissolve only after he remembers that he will soon be going home for the holidays. The fact that
Brother Michael is not a priest, like the other clerics in the school, makes Stephen wonder whether
Brother Michael's kindness differentiates him from the others; Stephen wonders if Brother Michael is
less holy because of his kindness. The priest intends to "put the fear of God" into these potentially
wayward young boys. The "nature of that
abode of the damned," as Joyce portrays it, dramatically reveals the underpinnings of Dante's Inferno.
This coincidence is not surprising because Joyce revered Dantes masterpiece almost as much as he did
the Bible; he considered Dante's works to be "spiritual food." Nonetheless, this particular Hell is very
definitely a realm of Joyce's own design, wherein his fears of restriction and darkness are merged with
residual anxieties from his early experiences with the Roman Catholic Church. The final sermon of the
retreat climaxes in a series of questions from the "voices of conscience": "Why did you sin? . . . Why

did you not give up . . . that impure habit? . . . Why did you not . . . repent of your evils ways?" Here,
Stephen suffers a "spasm of religious terror" and is obsessed with a burning need to confess and begin
a dedicated reparation of his life. During the past three days, Stephen has suffered terribly as he
emotionally conjured up the burning torments of Hell. He has undergone physical anguish, as well as
spiritual and imaginative Hell; his has been a journey that parallels the period of testing common to
most mythical heroes. The mythical heros descent into Hell is detailed in Dante's Inferno, and
Daedalus, Stephens mythical namesake, disobeyed orders from the powerful King Minos and was cast
into the labyrinth of his own design, imprisoned with the monstrous Minotaur. Similarly, Stephen,
through his disobedience to God's will, has been cast into a loathsome hell of his own imagination,
where he suffers restriction and is threatened by beasts within his soul.
Stephens repentance and humility are closely paralleled with the biblical story of the disobedient
Jonah, who was confined in the belly of a whale. After three days and a humble repentance, Jonah was
cast out of the whale. This duration of three days also carries the symbolic significance of the three
days during which Christ descended into the depths of Hell and returned with the keys of Hell and
Death; thus he atoned for man's sins and became his Redeemer. Stephens three-day retreat enables
him to imaginatively experience Hell, repent his sins, and fly free (like Daedalus) from damnation,
through sincere and contrite confession.
It is worth noting that although the chapter concludes with Stephen's confession and rededication to a
life without sin, the Capuchin priest was chosen by Stephen because he believed that the Capuchin
would be more merciful in his directives than Stephens own priest would have been at Belvedere
College. Note, too, that Stephen shows his preference for the benignity of Mary, rather than confront
the stern justice of an omnipotent male God. Even the act of confessing to a Capuchin priest
("capuchin" also means a hooded cloak worn by women), rather than a possibly "tough" priest at
Belvedere College, indicates Stephens growing tendency toward creating a softer, more beautiful
world to exist in, rather than enduring the harsh, more realistic one. After his confession to the
Capuchin, Stephen overcompensates for his sins of the past. He becomes a slave, as it were, to the
rituals of the Catholic faith. He devotes all his free time to prayer and meditation. Imagining himself to
be one of the first Christians "kneeling at mass in the catacombs," Stephen tries simultaneously to
experience the privilege and the persecution of practicing his faith. However, by subjecting himself to
continual self-denial and repeated physical discomforts, he seems more a sinner than a young, zealous
Catholic. Moreover, his compulsion to fill his time continually with some form of devotion
reveals a deep fear of allowing himself even one free moment--lest some minor, impulsive "weakness"
manifest itself. It is practically universal that students who have been schooled by church clergy or
laity have, at least momentarily, considered a religious vocation. Some students are attracted by the
power, others by the ritual, and still others by the unselfish devotion of missionary work.
Consequently, when a teacher, priest, or nun notices the piety and dedication of a student like Stephen,
that student is usually targeted for a talk about a religious vocation. Here, Joyce satirizes the so-called
honor of being selected by a priest to discuss a "religious calling." Note also Joyce's elaborate use of
religious imagery here. Note, too, the director's calculated smile as he "slowly dangl[es] and loop[s]
the cord of the other blind";
Joyce makes the director seem like a skillful hangman, eagerly awaiting a chance to snare Stephen in
his noose. In addition, the priest's face, in "a total shadow," raises the possibility of an underlying
darkness in his nature, with the "deeply grooved temples and the curves of his skull" reminiscent of the
skull which rested conspicuously on the rector's desk at Clongowes. Ultimately, this view of the priest
causes readers (and possibly even Stephen) to wonder whether the cleric is really no more than a
religious hangman who intends to make Stephen his next victim. This moment of insensitive ridicule
reminds us of the time when Stephens father laughed heartily with the Jesuit priests about Stephens
pandying incident at Clongowes. Here is another instance of Joyce's theme of betrayal by the father(s).
Stephen has been betrayed by his own father (Simon), by Father Conmee, and Father Dolan. Now, this
"father" has seemingly betrayed Stephen's concept of what a priest should be. Clearly, the director is
not a man of discretion; he has revealed a worldliness that Stephen finds distasteful and inappropriate.
At this point, we have little doubt about Stephens final decision regarding a religious vocation. Joyce's
31

diction reveals the conclusion of the matter. Note his description of the "grave and ordered . . .
passionless" life from which Stephen turns as he crosses the bridge over the Tolka and "descend[s]"
into the disorder of the natural world.

8. THE LACK OF COMMUNICATION IN "THE DEAD"

he modernist movement of the early twentieth century drastically changed the way

that art and literature were perceived in Western culture. The themes expressed in
modernism are perhaps some of the most diverse, disturbing to understand. One of the
principal themes expressed in modernist literature is alienation; this motif can be found
in James Joyce's story "The Dead."
"The Dead" is a short story which presents the theme of alienation primarily through the
central character, Gabriel Conroy. Gabriel's attendance at a Christmas party hosted by hi
aunts is coupled with a feeling of isolation and revulsion for social activities. Gabriel
longs to escape the company of the people at the party; he yearns to go outside in the
cold and walk beside the river instead of socializing with those inside. Gabriel is socially
alienated because of his "paralysis of will, energy and imagination" (Stevenson 49). This
is especially evident in his failed attempts to connect meaningfully to Lilly, Miss Ivors,
and his wife, Gretta. Both Lilly and Miss Ivors say things which make Gabriel feel anxious
and uncomfortable because he is unable to communicate effectively with them; Gabriel
does not make an effort to overcome disagreements and as a result he constantly seeks
escape and isolation. Gabriel's physical longing for his wife is not reciprocated by her;
Gretta's introspection and her lack of awareness of Gabriel's feelings isolate Gabriel to
the point that he is finally forced to examine his own feelings and his past. At this point,
Gabriel understands that as he is estranged from other human beings, he is also
estranged from himself. .
It is the ending of "The Dead" which epitomizes the modernist theme of alienation. Like
many other characters created by James Joyce, Gabriel experiences an epiphany at the
end of "The Dead." Gabriel's awakening is not a truly positive one; the epiphany is his
true realization of isolation. Gabriel experiences his epiphany through his wife: it is her
memories and realizations that prompt him to examine his own past. Gretta's nostalgia
for the past and what might have been with Michael Furey cause Gabriel to reflect on his
own past; Gabriel realizes that "He had never felt like that himself towards any woman
but he knew that such a feeling must be love." This epiphany is rendered hollow because
in it there is no redemption: Gabriel realizes how alienated he is from his own wife, from
love, and from life itself. This moment of utter loneliness and isolation is compounded by
Gabriel's consciousness of death and its physical manifestation in the snow that is
covering Ireland at that moment. The bleak observation made by Gabriel that ""One by
one they were all becoming shades" is a one that clearly defines Gabriel's view of life.
Although death is inevitable, it is made out to be more tragic because so many people
have never truly lived. This alienation from life is symbolized in Gabriel's reaction to the
snowfall: '"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the
universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the
dead." This poignant ending to the story illustrates Gabriel's feelings of isolation and
alienation perfectly.

THE MAIN THEMES IN "THE DEAD"

THE STAGES OF LIFE: Dubliners is roughly organized into a framework chronicling a human
life: we begin with younger protagonists, and then move forward into stories with
increasingly aged men and women. Although this is a broad generalization, the stories
also tend to increase in complexity. "Araby", "An Encounter", and "Eveline", for example,
are fairly simple and short. "The Dead", the final tale of the collection, is nearly three
times as long as the average story in Dubliners. It is also the '-;:hesi of the stories,

weaving together many of the previous themes of the book. Joyce's portrait of Dublin life
moves not only across a small range of classes (the poor and the middle class) but also
across the differej t periods of a human life.
POVERTY AND CLASS DIFFERENCE: Poverty is one of the most pervasive themes of the novel.
Joyce usually evokes it through detail: the plum cake Maria buys in "Clay", for example, is
a humble treat that costs her a good chunk of her salary. Characters rail against poverty.
Lenehan in "Two Gallants" sees no future for himself, and sits down to a miserable supper
consisting only of peas and ginger beer. Farrington of "Counterparts" stays in a hateful
job because he has no other options. His misery is such that he ends up spending far
more than he can afford on booze. We catch glimpses of slums, as in "An Encounter",
when the two young schoolboys see the poor children without fully comprehending what
their ragged clothes imply about the small children's home condition and their prospects
in life. Dublin's poor economy is also the reason why characters must fret about keeping
even miserable jobs. Poverty is never pretty in Dubliners. For every gentle, poor soul like
Maria, there are numerous revolting characters like Corley and Lenehan of "Two
Gallants." Joyce explores the negative effects of poverty has on the character.
COLONIZATION AND IRISH POLITICS: Dublin is a defeated city, the old capitol of a conquered
nation. At the time of the stories, she is even more so: the Irish political world is still
suffering from the loss of the nationalist movement's greatest leader, Charles Stewart
Parnell. Joyce does not exactly write to rally; his appraisal of the state of Irish politics and
the effects of colonization on the Irish psyche are both quite bleak^. Nor does he agree
with many of the policies and cultural initiatives embraced by some nationalists: he was
no fan of the Irish language movement, and he was unimpressed by a good deal of the
Irish art being produced in his period.
DEFEAT, POWERLESSNESS, STASIS. IMPRISONMENT, AND PARALYSIS: These five themes are closely
connected. The colonization of Ireland is paralleled by the sense of defeat and
powerlessness in the lives of individuals. In many stories, characters are so trapped by
their conditions that struggling seems pointless. In "Counterparts," for example,
Farrington is allowed one moment of triumph when he publicly humiliates his tyrannical
boss. But for that one moment, Farrington is made to grovel in private, and he knows
afterward that his life at work will become even more unpleasant.
Joyce conveys this powerlessness thorough stasis. In Dublin, not much moves. At times
the paralysis is literal: note Father Flynn in "The Sisters." At other times, the stasis is a
state of life, as with the frustrated Little Chandler of "A Little Cloud." This feeling of stasis
is closely connected to a feeling that Dublin is a kind of prison.
Many characters feel trapped. We begin with a paralyzed priest in "The Sisters," followed
by frustrated schoolboys trapped by Dublin's tedium in "'An Encounter," followed by a
boy without the means to indulge his fantasies in "Araby," followed by a young woman
crushed by the stifling conditions that entrap her at home in "Eveline"... most of the
characters rein some way imprisoned. The entrapment is often caused by a combination
of circumstances: poverty, social pressure, family situation. Sometimes, the
imprisonment comes from the guile of another character, as with the hapless Mr. Doran
in "The Boarding House."
The frustration caused by this stasis, impotence, and imprisonment has a horrible effect
on the human spirit. Often, the weak in Dubliners deal with their frustration by bullying
the still weaker. Mahony of "An Encounter" picks on small children and animals. Little
Chandler and Farrington, in the hack-to-back stories, take out their frustrations on their
children.
LONGING FOR ESCAPE: The natural complement to the above mentioned themes. Its first
expression comes from the boys of "An Encounter," whose dreams of the American Wild
West provide an escape from the tedium of Dublin. Unfortunately, most of the characters
are unable to escape. Eveline finds herself too frightened to leave Ireland; Farrington
rinds even alcohol unsatisfying; Little Chandler realizes he'll never find the focus to be a
poet. The greatest barrier to escape is sometimes psychological, as it is with Eveline.
Escape is also a central theme of The Portrait of the Ariist as a Young Man. As an Irish
writer who lived most of his adult life abroad, Joyce was obsessed with the liberating

33

effects of fleeing Ireland, and he transfers that obsession, in one form or another, onto
many of the characters in Dubliners.
ISOLATION: Dubliners has some profoundly lonely characters, but the theme of isolation
does not end there. Isolation is not only a matter of living alone; it comes from the
recognition that a man or woman's subjectivity is only their own, inaccessible to all
others. Failed communication is common throughout the stories. Conversations are
striking for how little meaningful communication takes place. The supreme example of
this theme in Dubliners comes in "The Dead", when Gabriel and Gretta leave the party.
While Gabriel thinks about his life with Gretta and how much he desires her, Gretta
cannot stop thinking about the young boy, her first love, who died for need of her.
Husband and wife have been in the same room, but they may as well have been on
different planets.
MORTALITY: Mortality is another theme, a natural result of Joyce's stages-of-life structure.
But the stories at the end of the collection, where the characters tend to get older, are
not the only ones to deal with mortality. The preoccupation with mortality puts a bleak
spin on the themes of stasis and paralysis: although it often feels in Dublin like time isn't
moving, Joyce reminds us that the steady crawl toward death is one movement we can
count on.

JOYCE'S USE OF IMAGERY

Although Joyce is frequently praised for his mastery of the "stream-of-consciousness" narrative
technique, his distinctive use of imagery has contributed much to the artistic development of the
twentieth-century novel. Specificlly in A Portrait, he uses imagery to establish motifs, identify
symbols, and provide thematic unity throughout the work. Perhaps the most obvious use of imagery in
the novel occurs during the novel's first few pages, with the introduction of the sensory details which
shape Stephen's early life: wet versus dry; hot versus cold; and
light versus dark--all images of dichotomy which reveal the forces which will affect Stephen's life as
he matures. If we can understand this imagery, then we can better understand Stephens reasons for
deciding to leave Ireland. The wet/dry imagery, for example, is symbolic of Stephens natural
response to the world versus a learned response. As a small child, Stephen learns that any expression
of a natural inclination (such as wetting the bed) is labeled "wrong"; the wet sheets will be replaced by
a dry, reinforcing "oilsheet"-- and a swift, unpleasant correction for inappropriate behavior. Thus, wet
things relate to natural responses and dry
things relate to learned behavior. Other examples of this wet/dry imagery include the wetness of the
cesspool (the square ditch) that Stephen is shoved into and the illness which follows; likewise, the
"flood" of adolescent sexual feelings which engulf Stephen in "wavelet[s]," causing him guilt and
shame. Seemingly, "wet" is bad; "dry" is good. A turning point in this pattern occurs when Stephen
crosses the "trembling bridge" over the river Tolka. He leaves behind his dry, "withered" heart, as well
as most of the remnants of his Catholicism. As he wades
through "a long rivulet in the strand," he encounters a young girl, described as a "strange and beautiful
seabird." She gazes at Stephen from the sea, and her invitation to the "wet" (natural) life enables
Stephen to make a climactic choice concerning his destiny as an artist. Later, after Stephen has
explained his aesthetic philosophy to Lynch, rain begins to fall; seemingly, the heavens approve of
Stephen's theories about art, as well as his choice of art as a career.
The hot/cold imagery similarly affects Stephen. At the beginning of the novel, Stephen clearly prefers
his mother's warm smell to that of his father. For Stephen, "hot" is symbolic of the intensity of physical
affection (and, in some cases, sin); "cold," on the other hand, is symbolic of propriety, order, and
chastity. Specific examples of this symbolism can be found in Stephens memories: resting in his
mother's warm lap, being cared for by the kindly Brother Michael (when Stephen is recovering from a
fever), and receiving a heated embrace from the Dublin prostitute during his first sexual encounter. In
contrast, the cold, slimy water of the square ditch is evidence of the cruel reality of his changing life at
school; in addition, Stephen initially experiences a "cold . . . indifference" when he thinks about the

Belvedere retreat, and his vision-like worship of Eileen (the young Protestant girl) has coldly
symbolic, touch-me-not overtones; her hands, pure and white, enable him to understand the references
to the Tower of Ivory in an oft-repeated Church litany. The last of this set of opposites is concerned
with the light/dark dichotomy: light symbolizes knowledge (confidence), and dark symbolizes
ignorance (terror). Numerous examples of this conflict pervade the novel. In an early scene, when
Stephen says that he will marry a Protestant, he is threatened with blindness: "Put out his eyes /
Apologise." Stephen is terrorized without knowing why; seemingly, a good Catholic boy should
remain ignorant about other faiths--and perhaps even of women. Stephens natural fondness for Eileen
is condemned. Stephen is only a boy, but his sensitive artist's nature realizes that he is going to grow
up in a world where he will be forced to suppress his true feelings and conform to society's rules and
threats. Stephen's broken glasses are also part of this light/dark imagery. Without his glasses, Stephen
sees the world as if it were a dark blur; figuratively blinded, he cannot learn. And yet he is unjustly
punished for telling the truth about the reason for his "blindness." He quickly realizes the potential,
dark (irrational) cruelty of the clergy. Further on in the novel, there are recurrent images of darkness in
the streets of Dublin--for example, when Stephen makes his way to the brothel district. Here, we also
see the darkness within Stephen's heart as he wanders willfully toward sin. Later on, the philosophical
discussion about the lamp with the Dean of Studies (Chapter V) reveals the "blindness" of this cleric,
compared with the illumination of Stephen's aesthetic thoughts. A close reading of the novel will
produce many more images within these patterns. Joyce's use of them is essential as he constructs his
intricate thematic structure. Another kind of imagery in the novel is made up of references to colors
and names. Colors, as Joyce uses them, often indicate the political and religious forces which affect
Stephens life. Similarly, Joyce uses names to evoke various images--specifically those which imply
animal qualities, providing clues to Stephens relationships with people.
For an example of color imagery, note that Dante owns two velvet-backed brushes--one maroon, one
green. The maroon brush symbolizes Michael Davitt, the pro-Catholic activist of the Irish Land
League; the green-backed brush symbolizes Charles Stewart Parnell. Once, Parnell was Dante's
political hero par excellence, but after the Church denounced him, she ripped the green cloth from the
back of her brush. Other references to color include Stephens desire to have a "green rose" (an
expression of his creative nature) instead of a white one or a red one, symbols of his class' scholastic
teams. Another reference to color imagery can be seen in Lynch's use of the term "yellow insolence"
(Chapter V); instead of using the word "bloody," Lynch uses the word "yellow," indicating a sickly,
cowardly attitude toward life. The idea of a "bloody" natural lust for living would be appalling to
Lynch. Lynch's name, literally, means "to hang"; he has a "long slender flattened skull . . . like a
hooded reptile . . . with a
reptilelike . . . gaze and a self-embittered . . . soul."
Like Lynch, Temple is also representative of his name. Temple considers himself "a believer in the
power
of the mind." He admires Stephen greatly for his "independent thinking," and he himself tries to
"think" about the problems of the world. Cranly, like his name (cranium, meaning "skull"), is
Stephens "priestlike" companion, to whom he confesses his deepest feelings. Note that several of
Joyces references also focus on Stephens image of Cranly's "severed head"; Cranlys symbolic
significance to Stephen is similar to that of John the Baptist (the "martyred Christ"). The name
"Cranly" also reminds us of the skull on the rector's desk and Joyces
emphasis on the shadowy skull of the Jesuit director who queries Stephen about a religious vocation.
Concerning the other imagery in the novel, perhaps the most pervasive is the imagery that pertains to
Stephen's exile, or, specifically, his "flight" from Ireland. The flight imagery begins as early as his first
days at Clongowes, when Stephens oppressed feelings are symbolized by "a heavy bird flying low
through the grey light." Later, a greasy football soars "like a heavy bird" through the sky. At that time,
flight from unhappiness seemed impossible for Stephen, but as the novel progresses and Stephen
begins to formulate his artistic ideals, the notion of flight seems possible. For example, in Chapter IV,
after Stephen renounces the possibility of a religious vocation, he feels a "proud sovereignty" as he
crosses over the Tolka and his name is called out by his classmates; this incident is followed by
35

another allusion to flight. Later, the girl wading in the sea is described as "delicate as a crane," with the
fringes of her "drawers . . . like the featherings of soft white down"; her bosom is described
as "the breast of some darkplumaged dove." Her presence in this moment of epiphany enables Stephen
to choose art as his vocation. Finally, note that when Stephens friends call him, his name seems to
carry a "prophecy"; he sees a "winged form flying above the waves and . . . climbing in the air." The
image of this "hawklike man flying sunward" is at the heart of the flight motif. As Stephen realizes his
life's purpose, he sees his "soul . . . soaring in the air." He yearns to cry out like an "eagle on high." He
experiences "an instant of wild flight" and is "delivered" free from the bondage of his past. At the end
of the novel, Stephen cries out to Daedalus, his
"old father, old artificer," and prepares for his own flight to artistic freedom.

JOYCE AS A MODERNIST
Although Joyce is considered one of the leading British modernists, he was, of course Irish,
and lived in Ireland when it was still part of the British Empire. He never belonged to any
modernist group. At a time when there were diverse and diVerent movements such as
Bloomsbury, the Futurists, Imagists, Vorticists, Expressionists, Surrealists, and Dadaists, Joyce
kept his distance. He was always suspicious of groups and fought hard to maintain his artistic
independence. What Charles Baudelaire did for lyric poetry in the nineteenth century, Joyce
did for the novel in the twentieth century. He found a way to make literature capture the
ephemerality of modern life. The realist novel, which was enormously successful in England
and Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, could no longer adequately
represent the reality of a world that had undergone dramatic social, political, and
technological upheavals in the first decades of the twentieth century. In spite of the rise of
mass markets, and the cheaper production and circulation costs for books and journals, The
difficulty of so many modernist texts created a conspicuous divide between intellectuals and
the masses. Portrait was serialized in The Egoist between 1914 and 1915 and published as a
complete book in 1916. Joyce says: picture of [his] spiritual self. Portrait belongs to the
genre of the Bildungsroman, or novel of education, and the Kunstlerroman, or novel of
artistic development, which typically involve a young man or woman in search of life
experience and success. In the Bildungsroman the protagonist finds his or her place in
society but ends up disillusioned by the ways of the world. The protagonist of the
Kunstlerroman, on the other hand, forcefully rejects the commonplace life that society has to
offer. Stephen belongs a bit to both traditions: he comes up against the social, political, and
religious institutions that want him to conform, and he rejects them for the artistic life. But
there is also a twist. However, Portrait was the first to articulate a distinctly Irish-Catholic
experience. In addition, Joyce gave his creation a mythical dimension. Stephens last name,
Dedalus, comes from the name of the Greek artificer, Daedalus, who built a labyrinth for King
Minos in Crete to imprison the evil Minotaur. The epigraph of Portrait is taken from Ovids
Metamorphoses, and it describes Daedaluss reaction after King Minos tells him that he
cannot return to his native country: Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes (He turned his
mind to unknown arts). The myth of Daedalus and Icarus provides two possible destinies for
Stephen: he can be the father artificer or the rebellious son. Portrait follows Stephen Dedalus
from childhood until about the age of twenty. As the title itself implies, the dramatic action is
organized around the formative moments that lead up to Stephens decision to become an
artist and leave Ireland. The plot proceeds chronologically and each chapter identifies a
significant stage in his emotional, intellectual, and artistic development. In Portrait Joyce
learned how to write a novel. It is an autobiography of sorts that begins with a third-person
narrator and ends with a first-person narrator. Stephen is the unifying consciousness for each
of the five chapters, and we see the world as he does. When the novel opens, he is a young
child listening to the stories of his father: Once upon a time and a very good time At
this point Stephen cannot speak, but he can listen. He experiences the world through basic
sensory impressions: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Throughout Chapter 1 he learns to
distinguish between pleasant and unpleasant (sometimes painful) sensations. The body will
become a contentious site for Stephen. He will be forced to decide between a life in the
Church that wants him to repress bodily desire and an independent artistic life in which he
can embrace it. The childlike simplicity of the first chapter gives way to an increasingly

sophisticated style that mimics Stephens intellectual growth. In the second, third, and fourth
chapters, the language becomes more complex because his mind is developing, and he is
beginning to find ways to express himself. In the final pages of Portrait, when Stephen is a
young man, we come across an abrupt series of journal entries. The third-person narrator
disappears at this point, and Stephen begins to speak (or write) in the first person. This
dramatic shift indicates that Stephen has found a voice, and he is finally able to narrate his
own experiences directly. Stephen reflects on the previous twenty years of his life and
understands that his future requires living with, not breaking with, the past. He gets his first
taste of betrayal when Father Dolan beats him unjustly at the end of Chapter 1. He stages a
mini-rebellion against his fellow classmates when he chooses Lord Byron as the best poet..
In Chapter 2, Stephen accompanies his father on a trip to Cork, he confronts his fathers
frailties and feels that his childhood was dead (P, 102). By the end of the chapter, Stephen
can no longer repress his adolescent sexual urges, and he visits a prostitute for the first time.
In Chapter 3 he goes on a retreat with the Jesuits. When the retreat is over, he confesses to a
Capuchin priest and vows to live a virtuous life. In Chapter 4, he mortifies his five senses to
repel physical desire. Shortly after his refusal of the priesthood he sees a
young girl wading in the water and vows to accept a life of the senses. In Chapter 5, in a
series of three conversations with Davin, Lynch, and Cranly, he explains why he must break
with his nation, home, and church. Voluntary exile is the price Stephen must pay for an
artistic life. Stephen will learn over the
course of his early life that language and politics are as intertwined as art and religion. Part of
achieving his independence involves wresting language and art away from the religious,
political, and social institutions that attempt to coopt them. He will have his own reasons for
associating the Church with betrayal. Stephens experience with the priest also teaches him
an early and valuable lesson about language. Words do not always mean what they say.
Central to Stephens education, artistic and otherwise, is the gradual command he takes of
language. As a young boy, he thinks about how the word for rose can conjure up the
colours of lavender, cream, and pink. This leads him to wonder if you could have a green
rose. Without being aware of it, Stephen has, in fact, brought a green rose into the world
precisely by naming it. The word wine conjures up the color dark purple and images of
Grecian houses. There are some words that Stephen cannot understand as a child. When
Stephens classmate, Simon Moonan, is called a suck, he does not know what to make of
it: Suck was a queer word. A number of readers have argued that there is also a sexual
meaning for suck that Stephen is too young to get. The language that the adults speak
also confuses Stephen, but it has more to do with politics than the playground. Early in
Chapter 2, he listens to his Uncle Charles discuss Irish politics. He realizes that he can
make foreign words familiar by committing them to memory. If he can harness and control
language through memory, he will be able to shape the reality around him. As an Irishman,
Stephen also learns that the English language has a complicated history in Ireland. Although
he repeatedly thinks that adults talk about politics, he will come to understand that the very
language they speak, English or Irish, is political. From his early days at Belvedere, various
Irish nationalist groups attempt to enlist Stephen to their cause. At a pep rally he is told to
raise up her [Irelands] fallen language and tradition, but he soon loses interest (P, 88). At
this point in his life, he is uninterested in the national revival not because of its politics, but
because it asks him to belong to the group. At this point in his life, he is uninterested in the
national revival not because of its politics, but because it asks him to belong to the group. By
aligning himself with any movement, Irish or otherwise, he would have to give up his own
voice and pay for the debts of others. English is a native tongue for him, something he was
born into, but it is also, historically speaking, an acquired tongue in Ireland. Stephen may
never feel at home in the English language, but by using it to
articulate an Irish experience he can make it foreign to the English. In addition to Irish
nationalists and English deans, Stephen must confront Jesuit priests. Instead of saying No
(or more appropriately non serviam: I will not serve, 126), he stages his denial by
repeating the word fall, one that alludes simultaneously to the fall of Lucifer from heaven,
the fall of Adam and Eve, and the denial of eternal life offered through the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ: Not to fall was too hard, too hard. Once he refuses, he conjures up the image of his
patron pagan, Daedelus.

37

Stephen can now imagine himself as a Daedalian artificer, who can escape by and with the
nets of language, nationality, and religion. He has finally risen from what he calls the grave
of boyhood .He has denied the Church, but he has accepted the fact that he will serve as
an artist. Stephens revelation influences how he perceives those around him. Shortly after he
imagines the hawklike man, he walks down to the sea and spies a young girl wading in the
water. She is not just any girl. Instead, she reminds him of a seabird
Until this moment, his relationship with women has been limited to his mother, his aunt,
prostitutes, Eileen, and his boyhood crush Emma. He has been able to see them only as
symbols of otherworldly virtue or as temptresses and betrayers. This nameless girl is
representative of a life-giving force that he is finally ready and able to accept. For Stephen,
this girl is not an intercessor between his soul and heaven but between his body and his art.
He has already begun to see himself as a priest of the eternal imagination. In Chapter 5, the
longest chapter in the novel, Stephens emergence as a practicing artist in private is
interwoven with his renunciations of home, nation, and religion in public. When the soul of a
man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me
of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by
those nets. Stephen explains his aesthetic theory to Lynch. Aesthetic apprehension is a static
process that involves the intellect and the imagination: the intellect beholds truth, the
imagination beholds beauty (three things are needed for beauty, wholeness, harmony, and
radiance). Stephen uses these three things to explain the phases of aesthetic
apprehension that enable the viewer to contemplate the beauty of an aesthetic image. In
the final stage Stephen reflects on the relationship between literary form and artistic
personality. There are three forms available to the artist (the lyric, epic, and dramatic), but
they are often confused (P, 232). For Stephen, the dramatic form is ideal because it
enables the artist to represent personal experience and simultaneously withdraw behind a
curtain of impersonality. In the climax of his exposition, Stephen gives the artist a godlike
role. After Stephen puts together an aesthetic theory, he writes a poem (a villanelle, a French
poetic form popular at the end of the nineteenth century). Emma is the temptress of the
villanelle. He attempts to universalize the experience by making her a figure of the
womanhood of her country. Although Stephen modeled his aesthetic theory on the
procreative cycle of artistic conception, artistic gestation and artistic reproduction, this
moment is more masturbatory than anything else. Artistic creation derives from the sexual
desire of a poet, who is alone in his bed. We finally get Stephens Villanelle of the
Temptress immediately after this description, but it is diYcult to read the line While
sacrificing hands upraise/The chalice flowing to the brim without thinking about where
Stephens own hands have been. The journal represents the public exposure of a private
voice, one that he has wrested forcefully from the more dominant voices of his church,
nation, and home. Emboldened by this newly acquired voice, Stephen makes some big
promises. The penultimate journal entry is a case in point: Welcome, O Life! I go
to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my
soul the uncreated conscience of my race. The act of becoming symbolic of his race requires
that Stephen transcend
the geographical borders of his country and break down the stereotypes of his countrymen
through his art. He will be Irish by leaving Ireland for Europe and by writing about his
experience through Greek, Latin, and European models.

VIRGINIA WOOLF, 1882 - 1941, HYDE PARK: GATE, LONDON

Mrs. Dailoway- 1925
To the Lighthouse - 1927
Essay: The Narrow Bridge of Art - 1927
Orlando: A Biography 1928
BIOGRAPHY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF

1. Parents Leslie Stephen and JulIA Jackson DUCKWorth married

in 1878. second
MARRIAGE TO BOTH. ADELINE VIRGINIA STEPHEN Was bom four years later, on the 26TH OF
MARCH 1882, at 22 Hyde Park Gate. London. She was the THIRD of four children. Her
father began his carrier as a CLERGYMAN, but soon became an AGNOSTIC and look up
JOURNALISM. Though denied the formal education allowed to men, Virginia was able
to take advantage of her father's abundant library and observed his writing
talent. Virginia's mother, more delicate than her father, helped to bring out the
more emotional sides of her children. Both parents were very strong
personalities; Virginia would feel overshadowed by them for years.
Virginia would SUFFER THREE MAJOR MENTAL BREAKDOWNS during her lifetime and she
would DIE DURING HER FOURTH. In all likelihood, the compulsive drive to work that she
acquired from her parents, combined with her naturally fragile state, primarily
contributed to these breakdown. Her FIRST BREAKDOWN occurred after the DEATH OF HER
MOTHER IN 1895. Two years later; 1897, Virginia's STEPSISTER STELLA DUCKWORTH DIED.
Virginia fell sick soon after- Stella's death. The same year, Virginia began HER FIRST
DIARY.

Over the next seven years, Virginia's decision to write took hold and her
admiration for women grew coupled with a dislike for men. In 1904 HER FATHER DIED,
shortly after finishing the Dictionary of National Biography and receiving a
knighthood. Though freed from his shadow, Virginia was overcome with the event
and suffered HER SECOND MENTAL BREAKDOWN, combined with scarlet fever and an
attempted suicide.
When she recovered, she traveled to Bloomsbury, where she began to consider
herself a serious artist. She immersed herself in the intellectual company of her
brother Thoby and his Cambridge friends. They were dedicated to the liberal
discussion of policy and art. In 1906, Thoby died of typhoid fever and Virginia's
sister married one of Thoby's college friends, Clive Bell. Virginia was on her own.
Over the next four year Virginia began work on her first novel, The Voyage Out
(1915). In 1909, she ACCEPTED A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL from STRACHEY, who later broke off
the engagement. She received a LEGACY OF 2,500, which would allow her to live
independently. In 1911, LEONARD WOOLF, another of the Bloomsbury group,
returned from Ceylon, and they were MARRIED IN 1912. Woolf was the stable
presence Virginia needed to control her moods and steady her talent. Virginia
trusted his literary judgment. Their marriage I vas a partnership, though some
suggest that their sexual relationship was nonexistent.
Virginia fell ill more frequently as she grew older, often taking respite in rest
homes and in the care of her husband. In 1917, LEONARD FOUNDED THE HOGARTH PRESS to
publish their own books, hoping that Virginia could bestow the care of the press
that she would have bestowed on children. (She had been advised by her doctors
not to become pregnant after her-THIRD SERIOUS BREAKDOWN IN 1913. ) Through the
press, she had an early look at Joyce's Ulysses and aided authors such as Forster,
Freud, Tolstoy and Chekov. She sold her half interest in 1938.
Before her death, Virginia published an extraordinary amount of groundbreaking
material. In MARCH 1941, Virginia left SUICIDE NOTES for her husband and sister and
drowned herself in a nearby river.
She feared her madness was returning and that she would not be able to
continue writing, and she wished to spare her loved ones. Over the course of her
many illnesses, however, Woolf had remained productive. Her intense powers of
concentration had allowed her to work ten to twelve hours writing
In total, her
work comprises five volumes of collected essays and reviews, two biographies,
39

two libertarian books, a volume of selections from her diary, nine novels, and a
volume of short stories.
Woolfs first novels were relatively traditional inform, but she later rebelled
against what she called the materialism of novelists such as Wells, Bennet etc.
Her characteristic method appears in her third novel, Jacobs Room. She renders
the flow of experience through a stream of consciousness technique, but her work
is also particularly characterized by an intensely poetic style. She utilises poetic
rhythms and imagery to create a lyrical impressionism in order to capture her
characters moods with great delicacy and detail. The novel shows her breaking
free from traditional forms and the traditional concerns with external reality the
materialism which she felt to be untrue to life.
Mrs. Dalloway describes the events of one single day in central London through
the mind of one character, Clarissa, who is to be the hostess of a party for highsociety friends later the same evening. It is a finally shaded portrait of an
individual personality. The novel contains many flashbacks to Clarissas past
experience as she seeks to bring together past memory and present action and
as she endeavours to balance a need for privacy with a need for communication
with other people.
Some of her novels may be understood as experiments in the Bildungsroman (a novel
charting an individuals development) or in the Kunstlerroman (a novel charting an artists
development) or in biography, individual and collective; some sport the formal features of
satire and elegy, some come closer to poetry than fiction. The setting of each novel is also
worth careful consideration. These are imaginary, literary places, even the London that
appears in several of her works. In Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway occupies centre stage.
The novel appears a seamless account (there are no chapters, but there are twelve sections
separated by spacing) of one June day in London in 1923, charting the parallel experiences
of two figures, Clarissa Dalloway, society hostess and politicians wife, and Septimus Warren
Smith, a shell-shocked young war veteran. In keeping with Woolf s theory of androgyny
(see A Room of Ones Own), a double narrative unfolds in which we follow both Clarissa,
haunted by a refrain from Shakespeares Cymbeline (fear no more the heat o the sun)
during preparations for her party, to be attended by various friends from her past as well as
the prime minister, and Septimus in his mental decline towards suicide in the company of his
despairing wife Rezia. Clarissas sexuality is a point of considerable critical interest. She is
visited by an old suitor, PeterWalsh, who has returned from India, and whom she remembers
for interrupting the most exquisite moment of her whole life
(MD 52), when the friend she was in love with, Sally Seton, kissed her. This sympathetically
drawn Sapphic moment contrasts withWoolf s rather crude portrayal of the lesbian Doris
Kilman, tutor to Clarissas daughter.

9.

WOOLF'S MODERNIST TECHNIQUE IN "MRS. DALLOWAY"

During its writing,Woolf conceived of her method as a tunnelling process (D2 272) whereby
she dig[s] out beautiful caves behind my characters with the idea that the caves shall
connect, & each comes to
daylight at the present moment (D2 263). Woolf s narrative methods are subtle and elliptical,
and shift between the two parallel strands, using a number of the days passing events held
in common as points of transition between them. Her free-indirect technique allows the
narrative subtly to shift interior focus between characters, creating a collective discursive

continuum. The structural parallels with James Joyces Ulysses (1922) (similarly set on one
June day, in Dublin, 1916), have encouraged critics (erroneously) to liken this
method of shifting and collective free-indirect discourse in Mrs Dalloway to Joyces streamof-consciousness. The sound of a car backfiring, a sky-writing plane, the song of a
flowerseller and the striking of Big Ben are among the novels points of transition between
different consciousnesses. Here is how the narrative first moves from Mrs Dalloway to
Septimus Warren Smith. But the narrative not only ranges spatially and subjectively, from
consciousness to consciousness, it also ranges back and forth through time. And in Mrs
Dalloways consciousness, it arabesques around the remembered moment of passion
between herself and Sally Seton, now also married. The diamond becomes a symbol of a lost
lesbian erotics, and the image is reprised throughout the novel(when Sally gave her a flower).
Later, when Mrs Dalloway is in front of the mirror, she narcissistically defines herself as
diamond-like. The diamond image serves here also as a model for Woolf s vortex-like
methodology, in which Mrs Dalloway is understood in terms of the constellation of people she
brings together, at her party, and more generally in her life. Such passages make it di Ycult to
like the character, Mrs Dalloway, yet many readers are seduced, nevertheless, into reading
her without irony. Similarly, her shopping expedition in Bond Street may be interpreted as a
paean to capitalism, rather than a satiric critique on the detritus of Empire served up for the
entertainment of one privileged womans vanity. An alternative inscription of womens
experience, in a new language of the feminine, may be available in Mrs Dalloway in the
prehistoric, primal syllables (ee um fah um, and so on) uttered by the flowerseller whose
voice is described as the voice of no age or sex, the voice of an ancient spring spouting from
the earth, yet it is the voice of the battered woman. Septimus Warren Smiths mental illness
has attracted many
biographically based critical approaches to the novel, showing how his appalling medical
treatment parallels Woolf s own. She celebrates the urban scene of London as at times a
powerful and liberating feminine space, for all that it is haunted by the spectres of war.
10. MALE VS. FEMALE PRINCIPLE IN WOOLF
Much of Part One Section Five takes place in Peter's memory, allowing us to relive
the past relationship between Clarissa and him. However, the beginning of the
section relates the interesting appearance of the solitary traveler. Though Woolf s
prose often edges on the poetic, this is one of the only portions of the novel
where her writing becomes extremely abstract. Why? What does the solitary
traveler add to this section of the novel as a whole? Critics suggest that the
solitary "traveler is Peter Walsh, as both are male, primarily alone (at least during
the day on which the novel takes place), and over fifty years old. He travels
through the wood until reaching the giant figure, who ironically is one of the least
imposing figures possible, an old matron or nurse. Thus, the archetype of the
eternal feminine is evoked. This figure will reappear as we continue through the
novel. The section during Peter's dream introduces the idea to the reader
abstractly because of the larger symbolism the feminine figure will hold.
Using Peter's recollection as a vehicle, Woolf provides insight into both Clarissa's
and Peter's characters. Clarissa is often referred to throughout the novel as being
cold, as if she was missing something that warmed other humans. The memory
that Peter has describes Clarissa as a prude because she is utterly disgusted by
the thought of a woman becoming pregnant before marriage. This occurrence
was not supported by her social circle, but her peers obviously do not react in the
same way as she. Ironically, however, Sally Seton, a figure who loved rebelling as
41

a youth, deeply attracted Clarissa. Perhaps Clarissa seeks the warmth that other
people offer because of her own lack of warmth.
This absence in Clarissa is also suggested in her manner toward Richard. She is
eager to bestow maternal instinct toward Richard, as she would her sheepdog, to
compensate for that flow. It is possible also that the warmth she lacks could
inhabit the sense of awakened sexuality that Sally evidently provokes but whom
men do not. Thus, Clarissa can mother a man or a dog, but not feel impassioned by
them. Clarissa quickly dismisses the passion of feeling that Peter does awake in
her for more tranquil, controllable emotions.
The recollection also illustrates Peters overabundance of emotion as he allows
himself to be ruled by his feelings. He is able to discern future events through his
instincts, such as his feeling that Clarissa and Richard will many. The memory also
presents a separation of Clarissa and Peter as a couple, a moment that haunts
both characters throughout the novel.
The archetype of the feminine maternal is represented by the woman seen by the
solitary traveler and also by the vagrant woman singing in the subway in Part Two
Section One. She sings of eternal love. The figure serves as a vehicle to transition
the reader from Peter to Rezia Smith, two characters lacking companionship. The
theme of eternal love is examined within the theories held by the love interests of
Peter and Rezia; Clarissa and Septimus, respectively. Clarissa espoused a theory
in earlier chapters when she reflected on the idea that a piece of her remained in
every place she has been to. As Manly Johnson, the critic, notes Clarissas
theory (is) about the affinities between people and how one must seek out those
who complete one: the unseen part of us might survive, be recovered somehow
attracted to this person or that.
Septimus theory on beauty in the world does not differ greatly, and it is through
their similar approaches to the world about them that one begins to see the real
similarities between Septimus and Clarissa. He too notices the ever-present
beauty of the moment. In fact, Septimus can be said to fill the void of feeling that
Clarissa lacks. Septimus first applauds himself for not feeling sadness when his
friend, Evans, is killed, and then punishes himself for not feeling it afterwards.
However, as critic Isabel Gamble asserts, the real truth is, of course, that
Septimus has felt too deeply, has been shaken and numbed by shell shock and
the war, specifically by the death of his friend, Evans; his feeling have flowed
through channels deeper than any so far sounded by Clarissa. But he has never
gone by the first paralyzing numbness to see, consciously, the reality of his
emotion.
Clarissa Dalloway remains a model of thankful sanity (because of Richard, calmly
sitting there, reading the Times: 281) and balance, while the character of
Septimus has an irrevocably fractured internal personal space. He mus loosely
and wildly wander through a public par, in which his wife (his female counterpart)
sees no great beauty or merit. It is only in the walls of his own home that he
experiences some moments of peace, after which he can make the decision to kill
himself (a good choice according to Clarissa, 283).
The other main male character counterpoised to Clarissa, Peter, is slightly better
off. He is growing to a more androgynus state, thanks to the women that
surround him (Clarissa prime among them) and the giant female-figure that
occurs in his dreamy vision in the park. Both he and Sally, however, are on the
outskirts of civilization, in the wilderness, away from the cultivated civilization
with which Mrs dalloway has achieved a truce. Their struggles and peripheral
forays of main contrasting characters serve to underline Mrs Dalloway's more

central and fore-square psychological victory achieved in London, the seat of

governship of the state of England and its entire empire.
Woolf also strived to illustrate the vain artificiality of Clarissa's life and her
involvment in it. The detail given and thought provoked in one day of a woman's
preparation for a party, a simple social event, exposes the flimsy lifestyle of
England's upper classes at the time of the novel. Even though Clarissa is affected
by Septimus' death and is bombarded by profound thoughts throughout the
novel, she is also a woman for whom a party is her greatest offering to society.
The thread of the Prime Minister throughout, the near fulfilling of Peter's prophecy
concerning Clarissa's role, and the characters of the doctors, Hugh Whitbread,
and Lady Bruton as compared to the tragically mishandled plight of Septimus,
throw a critical light upon the social circle examined by Woolf.
The book ends with Peter's probing inner words: "What is this terror? What is this
ecstasy?...What fills me with extraordinary excitement? It is Clarissa .... for there
she was." In this short narration of Peter's elated consciousness, he contemplates
and feels his experience of Clarissa. The book is about Mrs Dalloway, yet ends
with Peter's contemplation of her: he is "filled" with this woman, and thus the
genders are criss-crossed as the book comes to its end with Peter's perspective. A
sort of spontaneous androgynous union of the male and female minds occurs.
Peter uses her "real" name, Clarissa, "Mrs Dalloway" without the protective shell:
in effect, her purer essence, and this moment of revalation is parallel to Clarissa's
earlier revelation (that she achieved by way of entering a male perspective)
represented by the crocus.
DISCUSS THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS TECHNIQUE IN WOOLF'S
NOVELS AND ESSAYS WITH APPROPRIATE EXAMPLES FROM HER FICTION
In the 20th century uite a few writers were influenced by Freud's theory of
psychological analysis and they adopted stream of consciousness method of
writing. They depicted the characters' mental and emotional reactions to external
events rather than events themselves. They abandoned the conventional usage
of realistic plot structure characterization and description. It has the following
features: (1) it reveals the action or plot through mental processes; (2) the
character development is achieved through revelation of extremely personal and
often typical thought process; (3) the action of the plot seldom corresponds to
real, chronological time, but moves back and forth through present time to
memories of the past events and dreams of the future, (4) it replaces narration
and description with dramatic interior monologue and free association.
The writer attempts by the stream of consciousness to reflect all the forces,
external and internal, influencing the psychology of a character in a single
moment. Virginia Woolf is considered a pioneer and a master of this technique.
(to remember: its (the stream of consciousness novel) forunner was the
psychological novel as exemplified by Marcel Praust's Remembrance of the
things past)
The term stream of .was first used by William James, the founder of
pragmatism. He did not use it to describe a novel but the workings of the mind.
This method is an attempt to render thoughts as they fall upon the mind. It is the
rendition of the astonishing disorder in our minds.
Influenced by the works of Marcel Praust and James Joyce, Woolf strove to create
a literary form that would convey inner life. Her novels, however, do not limit
43

themselves to single consciousness , but move from a character to character ,

using interior monologue to present each person's differing responses, often to
the same event. In Woolf's best fiction, plot is generated by the inner lives of
characters. Psychological effects are achieved through the use of imagery,
symbols and metaphores. A character unfolds by means of the ebb and flow of
personal impressions, feelings and thoughts. Thus, the inner lives of human
beings and ordinary events in their lives are made to seem extraordinary. Woolf's
fiction was largely drawn from her own experience, and her characters are almost
all members of of her own affluent, intellectual upper-middle class.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf discards realistic presentation of of objective reality and
concentrates on an individual's consciousness. She incessantly shifts from the
mind of one character to another's enabling readers to receive myriad
impressions from a variety of different angles.
Wolof's use of the multipersonal representation of consciousness is unique
through its combination with the treatment of time.
Her novels are tightly shaped, but still loose enough to reveal the unstructured
inner consciousness of her characters (caves as Wooolf would name them).
She tried to connect all these insights found in caves by a process she described
as tunnelling. Another technique was to reveal her characters by installments;
for example, just how the characters' past was revealed in Mrs. Dalloway in
episodic fragments.
DISCUSS THE SIMILARITIES AND DISSIMILARITIES IN WOOLF'S AND
JOYCE'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS METHOD
USING THE APPROPRIATE EXAMPLES FROM THEIR RESPECTIVE WORKS.
Mrs Dalloway is often discussed in terms of its affinities with James Joyce's
similarly constructed Ulysses. However, while both novels are written in the
stream of consciousness technique, it is noted that Woolf's novel greatly differs
from Joyce's in length, setting and characterization, and its development of Wolf's
lifelong aestethic concern: the interrelationship of time, existance and the human
psyche.
9. WOOLF'S MODERNIST TECHNIQUE IN "MRS. DALLOWAY"
efore her death, Virginia Woolf published an extraordinary amount of
groundbreaking material. She was a renowned member of the Bloomsbury group
and a leading writer of the modernist movement with her use of innovative
literary techniques. In contrast to the majority of literature written before tlie
early 1900s, which emphasizes plot and detailed descriptions of characters and
settings, Woolf's writing thoroughly explores the concepts of time, memory, and
consciousness. The plot is generated by the characters inner lives, not by the
external world.
In Jacob's Room, the novel preceding Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf works with
many of the same themes she later expands upon in Mrs. Dalloway. To Mrs.
Dalloway she added the theme of insanity. As Woolf stated, "I adumbrate here a
study of insanity and suicide; the world seen by the sane and the insane side by
side." However, even the theme that would lead Woolf to create a double for
Clarissa Dalloway can be viewed as a progression of other similar ideas cultivated
in Jacob's Room. Woolfs next novel, then, was a natural development from

Jacob's Room, as well as an expansion of the short stories she wrote before
deciding to make Mrs. Dalloway into a full novel. Clarissa Dalloway was-modeled
after a friend of Woolfs named Kitty Maxse, whom Woolf thought to be a
superficial socialite. Though she wanted to comment upon the displeasing social
system, Woolf found it difficult at times to respond to a character like Clarissa.
She discovered a greater amount of depth to the character in series of short
stories, the first of which was titled "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street", published in
1923. The story would serve as an experimental first chapter to "Mrs. Dalloway".
A great number of similar short stories followed and the novel was inevitable.
Within the next couple of years, Woolf became inspired by a "tunneling" writing
process, allowing her to dig caves behind her characters and explore their souls.
As Woolf wrote to painter Jacques Raverat, it is 'precisely the task of a writer to go
beyond the formal railway line of a sentence" and to show how people "feel or
think or dream... all over the place." In order to give Clarissa more substance,
Woolf created Clarissa's memories. Woolf used characters from her own past in
addition to Kitty Maxse, such as Madge Symonds, on whom she based Sally
Seton. Woolf held a similar type of affectionate devotion for Madge at the age of
fifteen as a young Clarissa held for Sally.
The theme of insanity was close to Woolf s past and present. She originally
planned to have Clarissa die or commit suicide at the end of the novel but finally
decided that she didn't want this manner of closure for Clarissa. As critic Manly
Johnson elaborates, "The original intention to have Clarissa kill herself - in the
pattern of Woolf s own' - intermittent despair - was rejected in favor of a 'dark
double" who would take that act upon himself. Creating Septimus Smith led
directly to Clarissas mystical theory of vicarious death and shared_existance,
saving the novel from a damaging balance on the side of darkness". Still, the
disassociation of crippling insanity from the character of Clarissa Dalloway did not
completely save Woolf from the pain of recollection. Woolfs husband and close
friends compared her periods of insanity to a manic depression quite similar to
the episodes experienced by Septimus. Woolf also included frustratingly
impersonal doctor types in Bradshaw and Holmes that reflected doctor she had
visited throughout the years.
As the novel focused mainly on the character of Clarissa Dalloway, Woolf changed
the name of the novel to Mrs. Dalloway from its more abstract title, The Hours,
before publishing it. Woolf struggled to combine many elements that impinged on
her sensibility as she wrote the novel. The title best suited her attempts to join
them together. As Woolf commented, "In this book I have almost too many ideas.
I want to give life and death, sanity and insanity; I want to criticize the social
system, and to show it at work at its most intense." Furthermore, she hoped to
respond to the stagnant state of the novel, with a consciously "modern novel.
Many critics believe she succeeded. The novel was published in 1925,and
received much acclaim. In a war-torn world, crumbled and disillusioned following
World War I, Woolf attempted to illustrate the difficulty of simply living. Howard
elaborates, "In Mrs. Dalloway, she began to assemble the bits and pieces, to find
the angles, the original voice that would make us feel" and thus, communicate
again. The novel, as a truly modem novel of the post-World War I era, is
constructed of fragments pieced together. How does one learn about Clarissas
character, for instance? We learn from Clarissa herself, but also from comments
and thoughts made by others, by memories discovered, and by symbolic
reference. The postmodern novel is a pastiche of reflections, alternating
narration, poetic allusion, direct prose, metaphor, dialogue, and character
45

development. Several layers of emotion, sentiment, logic, character and motive

create the design. The moment of creation is thus a culmination of life and
significance in the novel. Past and PRESENT INTERSECT in Woolfs writing which lacks
transitions and purposely avoids specifying pronouns in order to emphasize the
blurred distinctions between the two. The immediacy of the moment is blended
beautifully and generously with the timeless memories of the past.
Jelica iz knjige
On every page we experience a W's own quest for meaning, a puzzlement with
wife's riddles, her sense of wonder intermingled with her anxiety and doubt. This
effort to create meaning mirorrs the major subject of her novels: the quest of her
characters to create meaning within a world in which a time and mortality are the
first prinnciples and where the order is absent. Like Joyce, she felt the gap
between word and world; for her the word was often more real than the world.
Writing for Wooolf was not merely an effort to define her past, but also a refuge
and antidote for madness. Writing fiction enabled her to feel that her life had a
purpose and value. What is most real to W is language she uses to create an
alternative to the painful reality in the world which she lives. Ws web of multiple
connection moves towards but never quite reaches unity for the reader, because
the reader is always aware that she is obsessively insisting on unity in a world
she knows at the deepest level lacks it. Like Joyce and Elliot, she wanted to write
about her experience when it represented the experience of others. She wishes to
isolate events from their temporal dimension and give them pictorial shape. In
Mrs. Dalloway, to emphasize how there is not one reality, she depicts London
from the perspective of every character in terms of his or her individual interior
space. She is trying to give shape to moments of experience without ordering
them any more than is necessary. For her, the novel is like a canvas, a material
surface on which to place words, to recreate a new reality by verbal strokes of the
brush and patches of colour. On one hand, in Woolf, the reader experiences a
disembodied voice meditating between separate consciousness; on the other, the
most physical aspect of a Woolf is the narrative voice. The voice is more personal
and more distant than a traditional omniscient narrator. It is more personal
because we feel Ws compelling urgency. Mrs .Daloway is a lyrical novel rather
than a narrative one. It is also a autobiographical because it explores the
similarities and differences between what we call madness and what we call
sanity. For W. , no theme could be more urgent. Mrs. D. is Ws response to Joyce,
Ulysses, a work she grudgingly admired. Like Ulysses, Mrs. d. takes place in a
large impersonal city in the month of June; and Woolf chooses the crystallysing
day because Peter and Sally return to her life from the past and her double,
Septimus Smith, commits suicide. The dawn of a clear June Morning is the setting
for the novel that is an elegy for Clarissa, Septimus, and ineffectual society to
which Clarissa belongs. Virginia has captured the agony of Clarissas loneliness,
the results of her sexual repression and frigidity, and her capitulation to social
convention. Clarissas life is a function of a few crucial decisions made years ago.
In a sense, her life is over, because she has missed her chance for love with both
Peter and Sally and settled for something else. Clarissa feared intimacy with
Peter, because everything had to be shared; she chooses the separateness that
culminates in the room in the Attic. For Clarissa, giving parties provides the
possibility of unity that her personal wife lacks. She requires the admiration of
others to complete her.

Peter feels young in his passion for Daisy, just as Clarissa feels old for the lack of
the passionate love. Is not Woolf implying we are what we love?
The solitary travellerwho by conviction is an atheist and who thinks
Nothing exists outside us except a state of mind is not only Peter, but Woolf
herself. Like Septimus and Clarissa, Peter gives meaning to the sky and branches
and uses his imagination as a refuge from this fever of living. Instead of Christ
or instead of Joyces great humanistic hero, Bloom, Ws London has for its
prophet, a pathetic self-appointed scapegoat who commits suicide. The major
character in Mrs. Dalloway is death. The process of reading Mrs. Dalloway shows
us that death lurks in every crevice of imagined world, just as emptiness and
loneliness define every life. The novel is pervaded by constant reminders of the
ravages of war (Septimus is a war victim). Death is never absent from the text
from more than a few pages, nor is it absent from the thoughts of Mrs. Dalloway
or S. Smith. Death is in the lines of the Cymbeline that echo in her mind:
Fear no more the heat o the sun
nor the furious winters rages.
Mrs. Dalloway is the woman Woolf feared that she might become. This novel
includes every social class. Miss Kilman finds in religious fervour and piety an
outlet for class resentment. Each character has trouble connecting with his own
experience and understanding that of others. To avoid nihilism, to discover
meaning in ones life, one has to become actively aware of others and of the
context of experience in which one is living.
At the essence of the novel is the relationship that never comes off between Peter
and Clarissa. She (Clarissa) sliced like a knife through everything. At a crucial
time that knife had cut the bond to Peter. She is unresponsive to men, but
capable of pleasure of being aroused by women. Sally Seton represents the
libidinous, forbidden, unacknowledged self. As in Elliot, Conrad, Lawrence and
Joyce, allusions suggest the fullness of the present in comparison to the
emptiness of the past, as well as the inevitable passing of the present into the
dead past. Woolf regards Clarissa from an ironic perspective. The party is
described as if it were a religious ceremony or epic battle. Clarissa expands
emotional energies on a minor social occasion which would more appropriately be
reserved for more important matters. On one hand, Clarissa is a social
anachronism in a world which no longer will sustain the hierarchies on which her
life depends; on the other for Woolf she is a product of a social system which is
reluctant to give a place to women. The imagined world of Mrs. Dalloway is
seeped in death and without any promise of meaningful life. Like a cubist painter,
Woolf wants to show different facets of the whole; thus by pulling together past
and putative future into a single moment of the present by rearranging spatial
and temporal planes Woolf discover order and significance. It may be that the
novels major revelation is that disparate characters share common bonds: every
character becomes a face of the other, and, the major figures are aspects of the
voice who for a time shares their perspective. Another of Clarissas doubles is the
old lady who survives alone, but is inevitably approaching death in the room
opposite to her house. Miss Kilmans probable sexual interest in Elizabeth recalls
Clarissas for Sally. The novel insists compulsively on the parallel between
Septimus and Clarissa. Like Clarissa, Septimus is pale and beak-nosed. Both are
prey to their own imaginations. Both intuitively sense that the world may be
without the meaning. Clarissa identifies with Septimus in his suicide. She longs
for death as a consummation. She seeks in death what she lacks in life. Woolfs
47

perception is that a thin line divides sanity and madness, civilization and
barbarism, love and hate, isolation and participation in community,
communication and incoherence, form and chaos. Both Septimus and Dalloway
suffer from a kind of narcissism and suffer from their lack of interest in things
outside themselves. Septimus has a homosexual fixation on Evans. Within their
stifled claustrophobic worlds, Clarissa and Septimus cannot open the doors and
windows of their libido. Like an artist, Septimus hears the words no one speaks
and seeks to convey his visions to others. In the tails he tells himself, Septimus
sees himself as a Christ, the scapegoat and eternal sufferer.
Peters vision of death in which the fever of living will cease and he will blow to
nothingness with the rest establishes a parallel to Septimus. The ending is
pessimistic and undermines the ecstasy of Peter because we see that people fail
to respond to one another. The ecstasy Peter feels for a woman whom he knows
is frigid, whom he knows had spoiled his life, is poignantly ironic. The real
meaning of the party is in the unexpected guests, Sally and Peter, her two
possibilities for passionate love. Both Peter and Sally feel that Clarissa lacks
something and has sacrificed something in marrying Richard. Clarissa has simply
gathered people together for what is primarily banal social conversation. At the
end we realize that Clarissa has fulfilled Peters prediction that she will be the
perfect hostess. But the perfection she achieves contains within it the promise of
approaching death.

D.H. LAWRENCE, 1885 - 1930; EASTWOOD, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE,

ENGLAND
Biography
D. H. Lawrence came from a mixed family in Central England. This traditional
England was called Merry Old England. Lie was horn in Eastwood, Midlands near
Nottingham Forest. This part was utterly transformed from meadows, woods and
forests to coal mines. His father was a miner, hut his mother was a school
teacher. This unlikely union had repercussions on his novel-writing because he
drew heavily from his own biography - Biography as a novel.
His first major work was_Sons and Lovers (1913). Many portions of his life can be
seen in it. The critics say that he simply transfoTmedhis life into tins novel. Wliat
we are dealing with here is fiction, it might closely resemble life but it is
something (hat happens in some other world" (meaning of fiction). The main
characters do resemble his family, but also many others at the time father
outspoken, funny; fond of drinking, going out with friends. He had a difficult job,
always in the darkness, below the earth. Miners worked under very difficult
conditions, so they are a particular kind of people. TJiey tend to enjoy life as
much as they can. England at this time pays the miners every Friday, sometimes
they would drink all of their salary. They usual!" had many children. D. H.

Lawrence grew up in (his kind of situation. His mother wanted thereto get an
education to avoid (he fate of their father.
D. H. Lawrence later worked as a teacher, after which he went back to university
where he attended classes of professor Weekly. He met his wife there, a woman
of German origin, Frida von Richthoffen. One of her cousins was the Red Barron.
She was older than D. H. Lawrence. Someho.w (here was a kind of instant
chemistry which caused Frida to leave her husband and children and eloped with
him to Germany. It was a scandal. This proved to be a fateful union because she
would support him to the end of his life. They had to find their fortune all over the
world - France, Germany, Italy, England.
During WiV ID. H. Lawrence was suspected of being a German spy. After a lot of
trouble he go( a passport and they traveled'throughout the world, finally settling
on the border of USA and Mexico. Later they went to France where he died in
1930 at the age of 45. He was exhausted with constant struggles, bitterly,
harshly attacked. He was also a marvelous poet, a good essayist, interested in
everything - philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis on which he wrote several
books. The thing that was missing was normal environment. He didn't want to .
compromised just to gel the comfort of bourgeois life he despised, lie was often
accused of being anti-moral, loo obscene; he was an outcast, a black sheep who
carried a stigma of his scandalous life but didnt want to accept any of his wife's
money.
His first major novel S&L is largely autobiographical, and chronically the domestic
conflicts in his own home between a coarse, inarticulate father and a self
consciously and gentile mother. The novel also explores the theme of the
demanding mother who exercises strong emotional influences over her son and
frustrates his relationships with other women; it is also a portrait of the birth of
the artist. Later in his life, Lawrence felt that his mother had prejudiced him
against his father and against the working class.
11. CRITICISM OF MODERN CULTURE IN "THE RAINBOW'"

(THE VIEW OF MODERN CULTURE IN THE WORK OF D.H.LAWRENCE)

1. Tom Brangwen & Lydia Lensky - although their marriage meets difficulties it
becomes a happy one
2. Will Brangwen & Anna Lensky - this marriage is more troubled but they are
united in a passionate night-time sensuality
3. Ursula Brangwen & Anton Skrebensky - love affair which ends in frustration
The Brangwens are a family of farmers and have for generations lived on their
own land which, as the novel begins, is near encroaching Tom Brangwen, the first
of the main characters, is sent to a grammar school by his ambitious mother; the
experience both frustrates him and arouses him. His awakened need for what is
strange and mysterious attracts him to Lydia Lensky, an aristocratic but
impoverished Polish exile, a widow, and a mother of a small daughter. They marry
and although their marriage meets difficulties it becomes a happy one. Lydia and
Tom remain ignorant of much in each other's nature, but Lydia finds confidence in
Tom's established way of life, while he finds enlargement precisely in what, for
him, is mysterious in his wife. Tom's stepdaughter, Anna, is attracted to his
nephew,Will Brangwen, who has had an urban upbringing and has a strong
49

artistic imagination and profound religious instincts. This marriage is more

troubled but they are united in passionate night-time sensuality. Their daughter,
Ursula, belongs to the first generation of modern women; she sets out to be a
teacher, and after an intense struggle in an inhuman English board school, she
succeeds in affirming her independence. But her love affair with Skrebensky, a
thoroughly Anglicized descendant of another Polish exile, ends in frustration. She
inherits from her mother a capacity for passion which expresses full nature,
whereas his nature is divided between a dead conformity to society and a
sensuality which is incapable of real passion. The relationship
ends with Ursula pregnant, although in the novel's climactic scene, Ursula
miscarries, but then finds reconciliation through the image of the rainbow. The
novel was suppressed on grounds~of~ immorality and burnt in 1915 primarily for
it's representation of Ursula's lesbian affair with her schoolteacher. It is now
regarded as Lawrence's greatest achievements which outline the effect on
everyday human life of the rapid cultural changes caused by the Industrial
Revolution setting them against the emergence or modem England.
Set in the rural midlands of England, "The Rainbow" explores the lives of three
generations of the Brangwen family over a period of more than 60 years, from the
1840s to the early years of the twentieth .cenjury, conveying how their rural
existence is gradually but profoundly changed bv the influx of industry and
urbanism. In the beginning of the novel the Marsh farm is described as an Edenlike connection to the land. This story of three generations works through echoes
and parallels in the lives of its characters as a consequence of the
changing_materiai conditions of life in England
through increased
industrialization, the expansion of urban communities and their effects on the
daily life men, women and children, change of the landscape they live in. For
example, Tom goes and asks Lydia to marry him carrying a bunch of daffodils for
her, the flowers of early spring. By contrast the stockyard scenes between Anna
and Will and Ursula and Strebensky must occur when the harvest is reaped, when
germination has born fruit. Ursula Brangwen is the best sample of the impact of
industrialization and urbanization on the human psyche. Sne represents the new
woman and the turn from the
nineteenth into the twentieth century. Ursula's story gives the most elaborate
version of how
these changing conditions determine her relationships in the world, though this
principle of change applies also to her parents and grandparents. In all her
relationships there is a repeated pattern of optimism and despair in her being her relationship with Skrebensky, then brief lesbian affair with her school teacher
Winfred Inger, her friendships with other young women, Maggie Schofiled and
Dorothy Russel, who are committed suffragettes.
Apart for the words rainbow and flood, there are certain symbols in the novel
used to signify the process of germination and growth such as kernel and shell,
for example, in one conversation between her and Maggie Schofield. Unlike
Maggie, who remains enclosed as though the kernel of her being cannot escape
the shell which enfolds it, Ursula is very much in favor of joy, happiness and
permanency. Thus, for example, although she even admitted once, in one of her
conversations with Maggie, that her chances to be happy are low for the passion
cannot last long ( and one has to distinguish between love and passion), she
decided to struggle against the confines of her life and not to remain enclosed
like her friend Maggie. The canel above the March farm, like the coal mine is an
index of the process of industrialization which made Tom a wealthy farmer through
local commerce. Tom died in a flood which occurred through a breach in this very

canal bank. The novel ends with an appearance of a magnificent rainbow which
Ursula interprets as a promise of universal rebirth through a "new germination".
THE RAINBOW
The Rainbows unfolding process presents a history of his struggle for fulfillment. Each phase of the
Brangwens history dramatizes a crucial episode in Lawrences development. The rainbow dramatizes
Lawrences quest for the kind of fiction that is appropriate both for passionate sexual relationship
between men and women and for the struggle within each man between, to use his terms, mindconsciousness and blood-consciousness. The Rainbow enacts Lawrences quest for self-realization. In
one sense each generation represents aspects of his psyche and is a means by which he uses the novel
to discover hos own individuality. Lawrence conceived himself as prophet, seer, visionary, shaman,
and Divine Messenger. His message is that mankind must rediscover the lost instinctive, biological,
passionate self that has become sacrificed to democracy, imperialism, and urbanization. Each
Brangwan generation:
Corresponds to an historical period

To stages of growth in the passionate Elect

To an historical phase of Englands development-from rural(Tom and Lydia) to village(Will

and Anna) to urban, industrial society(Ursula)

To important phases of Lawrences relationship with Frieda

The Anna and Will section corresponds to the passionate struggle that raged between Lawrence and
Frieda while he wrote the novel. As he speaks with urgency and intensity, we realize that the prophetic
voice is a major character in the novel, that he is not only the teller but an essential character in the
tale. Lawrences ending undercuts and discards the novels dramatization of the pervasive growth of a
destructive strand of human life, represented by Skrebensky, Winifred, Uncle Tom, and Dr. Frankstone.
Reading this book we must be attentive to the authorial presence embodied within the text. Knowing
something about Lawrences life is essential. He writes of his own passions and experiences even
when he assigns them to invented characters.
LAWRENCE'S NARRATIVE STYLE
Lawrence's struggle to come to terms with his own experience is revealed in the novel's conflict
between narrative incident and narrator contemporary. This conflict reflects Lawrence's continuing reevaluation of his experience as he rewrote Sons and lovers at a time when he has torn between the
desire to be true to the sacred memory of his mother and to respond to the views of first Jessie
Chamblers and later Frieda. To come to terms with his autobiographical material, Lawrence tries to
divide himself into two seperate characters: Paul and the narrator. Paul, a former self and embodiment
of his past, is a subjective creation; Lawrence immerses Paul in a narrative that mimes crucial events
of his own life, but does not ask Paul to judge himself scrupulously. That task is left to the narrator, the
embodiment of the present self who is supposed to be an objective figure charged with evaluating and
measuring Lawrence's former self and tracing his linear development. But this dichtonomy breaks
down as Lawrence's objective self becomes emphatetic to his former self, Paul Morel. Because
Lawrence is not emotionally removed from the narrated experience, his superego has not grown
sufficiently beyond the experience to evaluate and control his own mother-love. The narrator is an
apologist for Mrs. Morel and an adversary of Miriam. He takes distinctly different stances towards
similar behaviour in the two women. If it is a proper for Paul to resist having his 'soul' possessed by
51

Miriam, why is the narrator rather tolerant of Mrs. Morel's 'rooting'' her life in Paul and becoming 'the
pivot and pole of his life, from which he could not escape'. Anxious to justify Mrs. Morel's behaviour,
the narrator provides half-convincing excuces in which he desperately wishes to believe. Lawrence's
speaker cherishes rather than criticizes the intimacy between his younger self and his mother. In the
novel's first part, Lawrence tries with some success to establish a discrepancy between the narrator's
perspective and Paul's and demonstrates that Lawrence wishes to seperate hismself from Paul. But the
autobiographical material of Sons and Lovers resisited the convention of omniscient narration in which
Lawrence conceived it. Lawrence is intruding into the silence of unconscious psychological experience
and inviting the reader to participate directly in the sensual life of his characters. His metaphors seek to
transform the space in which the sexual act or passionate moment occurs into a place where the texture
of life is sensuous, physical, instinctive, and biological and where cognitive life is absent. A sentence
such as '' They had met, and included in their meeting the thrust of the manifold grass stems, the cry of
the peewit, the wheel of the stars'' libidinous energy displaces the diurnal world in which they dwell
and makes their world coterminous and spatially eqivalent with the cosmos; in a world microcosm
becomes macrocosm. When it works, as I believe it does here, Lawrence's style becomes his
argument. According to the narrator's myth, the passionate relationship with Clara enables Paul to
grow and mature because his soul has been fertilized. But what about Clara? The narrator, Paul's
surrogate, convinces himself that Paul has been the agent of Clara's revitalization. Sons and Lovers
mimes Lawrence's psyche rather than his intent. The unsuccessful struggle of the omniscient narrator
to achieve objectivity is as much as agon as the tale of Paul's abortive quest for psychosexual maturity
12. ECHOES OF FREUD'S THEORY IN "SONS AND LOVERS" (PSYCHOANALYSIS IN
S&L)

Edipus complex:
Sigmund Freud's most celebrated theory of sexuality, the Edipus complex, takes
its name from the title character of the Greek play Edipus Rex. In the story,
Edipus is prophesied to murder his father and have sex with his mother (and he
does, though unwittingly). Freud argued that these repressed desires are present
in most young boys. The female version is called the Elektra complex.
This novel is the story of the Morel family. Gertrude and Walter Morel had four
children Annie, the daughter, and three sons, William, Paul and Arthur. As
Gertrude Morels sons grew up, she no longer felt love for her husband and
instead turned all her love and passion towards her sons.
D. H. Lawrence was aware of Freud's theory' and Sons and Lovers famously uses
the Edipus complex as its base for exploring Paul's relationship with his mother.
Paul is hopelessly devoted to his mother, and that love often borders on romantic
desire. Lawrence writes many scenes between the two that go beyond the
bounds of conventional mother-son love. Completing the Edipal equation. Paul
murderously hates his father and often fantasizes about his death.
Paul assuages his guilty, incestuous feelings by transferring them elsewhere, and
the greatest receivers are Miriam and Clara (note that transference is another
Freudian term). However, Paul cannot love either woman as much as he loves his
mother, though he doesn't always realize that this is an impediment to his
romantic life. The older, independent Clara, especially, is a failed maternal
substitute for Paul. In this setup Baxter Dawes can be seen as an imposing father
figure; his savage beating of Paul, then, can be viewed as Paul's unconsciously
desired punishment for his guilt. Paul's eagerness to befriend Dawes once he is ill

(which makes him something like the murdered father) further reveals his guilt
over the situation. But Lawrence adds a twist to the Edipus complex: Mrs. Morel is
saddled with it as well. She desires both William and Paul in near-romantic ways,
and she despises all their girlfriends. She, too, engages in transference,
projecting her dissatisfaction with her marriage onto her smothering love for her
sons.
At the end of the novel Paul takes a major step in releasing himself his Edipus
complex. He intentionally overdoses his dying mother with morphine, an act that
reduces her suffering but also subverts his (Edipal fate, since he does not kill his
father, but his mother.
Sons and Lovers is about the fundamental infantile wish that all boys have and
repress, according to Freud, the wish of Edipus to kill their father and marry their
mother. Freud's theory of the Edipus complex and of its frequent effect of
psychical- impotence, of "which Paul is a classic victim, offers a valuable key to a
coherent understanding of the novel and the way in which it is structured. The
extent of the bond established between mother and son is most vividly
dramatized by the episode where Paul's mother cries at the thought of losing him
to Miriam:
"I can't bear it. I could let another woman - but not her. She'd leave me no room,
not a bit of room. "
And immediately he hated Miriam bitterly.
"And I've never you know, Paul, I've never had a husband - not really. " He
stroked his mother's hair, and his mouth was on her throat.
Not only does she invite Paul to occupy the place of her husband, but she accuses
Miriam of the same possessive love with which she smothers Paul. At the end of
the chapter, Paul echoes Hamlet, another exemplary Edipal victim, when he tries
to persuade his mother not to sleep with his father. At this point in the novel, the
presence of the Edipus complex in Paul is so patent that one can hardly consider
it as a submerged theme. Looked at another way, a major theme of the book is
the gradual awakening of Paul to the deadly effects of his Edipal fixation on his
mother. The penultimate chapter, tellingly called "The-Release" shows how Paul
comes to reverse the Edipal desire to kill the father by administering an overdose
to his mother. One could say that he has finally learnt to direct his anger
outwards to its source.
In order to prevent polarization of Miriam and Clara as the two sexual objects
desired in two different ways by the psychically impotent Paul who can only love
Miriam by repressing desire on one side and enjoy sexually with Clara, Lawrence
includes the episode in which Paul and Miriam become lovers and another one in
which he introduced Clara's husband who acts as a father figure. Baxter Dawes
acts as a father figure, so that by adultery, Paul can live out the Edipal fantasy by
proxy. At the same time, his guilt at breaking the incest taboo is strong enough
for him to almost desire the punishment he receives during his fight with Dawes.
The son-lover later arranges the reconciliation of his proxy parents, living out a
fantasy in which the incestuous son undoes the harm he has caused to die
marital relationship.
Paul, in his sexual relationship with Miriam, repeatedly vacillates between anger
and shame at his loss of temper:
He was often cruelly ashamed. But still again his anger burst like a
bubble surcharged; and still, when he saw her eager, silent, as it were,
blind face, he felt he wanted to throw the pencil in it, and still when he
53

saw he hand trembling, and her mouth parted with suffering, his heart
was scalded with pain for her (page 157)
It shows that growing up is not possible for Paul Morel who constantly fails to
liberate himself of his mother. In order to grow up and continue with his life, he
needs to rebel against his mother.
13. SONS AND LOVERS AS "BILDUNGSROMAN"
A Kunstlerroman - German: "artist's novel"
A Bildungsroman - German: "novel of education" or "novel of formation"
A Bildungsroman is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or
social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to
maternity.
A Kunstlerroman is a kind of Bildungsroman, a novel about an artist's growth to
maturity Such novels often depict the struggles of a sensitive youth against the
values of a bourgeois society of his/her time.
Sons and Lovers is D. H. Lawrence's autobiographical novel and reflection of his
own childhood. This realistic story recreates his own personal experiences
through Paul Morel, the protagonist, and it can be classifiedin the literary genre
of the Bildungsroman, a German word meaning development novel, tracing the
development, and growth of the main character." Much of the time, the
protagonist of such a tale, like Paul, will grow up to be an artist, and the story
reveals all the psychological and social development that prepare the hero or
heroine for his or her life's calling. Sons and Lovers is an intensely realistic novel
set in a small English mining town, much akin to the town in which he was raised.
The son of a miner, Lawrence grew up with a father much like the character of Mr.
Morel in Sons and Lovers. Morel (as the father is called) is an ill-tempered,
uneducated, and a rather crude man, a man" with little ability to express his
feelings to his wife and family, who love him dearly despite the fact that he was
seldom cordial to any of them. Lydia (Lawrence's mother) was high-minded and
pious. She had been a schoolteacher and had written poetry. She hated dirt anddrink and poverty.
Nature in Lawrences novel
In his novel S&L, the author depicts the character and nature of Bestwood and
the surrounding, mining countryside, the coal and iron fields of Nottinghamshire
and Derbyshire. He uses light and darkness as continuing symbols throughout the
novel. He relates this theme to the hideousness of industrialization and the
beauty of nature, and to the personal struggle in and between the characters of
the novel. Lawrence has a great gift for description of nature. He shows the
contrasts of the countryside around, passion or the stillness of nature through
colour and sound. For example, Mrs. Morels passion and anger seem reflected in
the blaze of sunset; the sense of peace she soon feels becomes part of the peace
of the meadow after the sun has gone down.
Often , when Paul is with an important woman in his life, Lawrence introduces red
flowers or red berries to signify passion. However, Paul dislikes Miriam's sensual
attachment to the flowers and feels that should show more restraint. Throughout
the novel , Miriam is shown fondling flowers and fervently kissing their pettals.
When Miriam submits to Paul, they are in the dark wood; the sunset blazes across
the sky in deep red and gold, and then falls, passionless, into greyness. In this
case, the description of nature can be seen as foreboding; they both realize their
relationship has always been a failure. When Clara and Paul ride in the tramcar,

he thinks how she looks like a very full ear of corn that dips slightly in the wind,
and as they walk alone together, Lawrence uses the metaphors of the flowers,
the wet black crimson balls...dahlias in the rain he uses the river, sliding by in
a body... like some subtle, complex creature. There is a sense of sleeping
passion, struggling to be free, that Paul is experiencing.
When Paul and Clara have their first sexual intercourse, the petals of the red
carnation Clara has been wearing, lie strewn about her. Later, when they have tea
together, the owner brings scarlet and white dahlias, reminding us of the purity
and passion of this moment. When they make love in the grass, with the call of
peewits around them, it is as though they are the part of the grass stems, the cry
of the birds and the stars. They are both part of the source and meaning of life
around them. Paul feels he has been through a baptism of fire. Later, when Paul
and Clara go together to the seaside, it is as if they go in darkness, each unable
to find the other. They walk together down the darkness of the sands and it is a
kind of darkness without and within.

THE RAINBOW
Lawrences next major novel was the Rainbow, which was published in 1915 but
suppressed a month later as indecent. The novel deals with three generations of
the Brangwen family, from the middle of the 19 th century to the early years of the
20th century. Like many of his novels, TR explores human individuality and all that
might hinder or fulfil that essential individuality. At the heart of individual
fulfilment is a proper basis for marital relationships, and the elemental symbols
which Lawrence employees represent the deepest rhythms and impulses in the
relationships between women and men. At the end of the novel, Ursula Brangwen
the main character, projects a future life with her fiance because he is
insufficiently aware of her as a unique individual. For Lawrence, awareness of the
essential otherness of ones partner is fundamental to a truly harmonious
relationship. If either partner is two week or seeks to dominate the other, then
mutual distraction will follow. Here Lawrence explores human relationships with
psychological precision and with intense poetical feeling. He combines a detailed
realism with poetic symbolism in ways which make us believe in his characters at
the same time as we understand the most deeply buried aspects of their selves.
There are creative tensions both in his novels and his short stories between
different generations, between man and his environment and between human
reason and human instinct. The area in Nottinghamshire in which he was brought
up highlighted the contrasts between industrial and natural worlds. The coalminer walking home from the waste of an industrial site often past through
relatively unspoilt countryside. Lawrence saw industrialization as a threat to a
natural, fulfilled life. The industrial world is associated with mechanised feelings
and with the death of spontaneous, instinctive responses to life. He once wrote
that the human personality was like an iceberg, with the major part of it under
the surface. His art attempts to capture the submerged parts of the self and to
develop forms and techniques in the novel which render those intense
experiences. Lawrence is a novelist who was concerned to represent the
innermost thoughts and feelings of his characters. In his development as a
novelist, the story of plot line of his novels became less important than the shifts
in feeling and the stream of consciousness of his characters. While probing this
deeply into the recesses of his characters psychology, Lawrence externalises
55

their relationships with the outside world, particularly the world of nature. Other
writers focus more on the inner workings of their characters minds in a way that
is much more appropriately defined as stream of consciousness.
Stream of c... is a term widely used in discussions of the 20 th century novel. It is
usually used to refer to particular techniques of presentation, which a number of
Modernist novelists developed. The term refers to the flow of impressions,
perceptions, and thoughts which stream unbidden through our minds. These
impressions can be stimulated by something that happens to us or by
subconscious impulses; the stream... can be illogical and random. We can be
aware of various impressions in a no particular order; past memories may
intermingle with present actions or thoughts of future; saying something to a
friend may be quite different from the thoughts or impressions passing through
the mind at the same time; sounds, smells, and sights are all registered and may
stimulate unpredictable feelings. For many modern novelists it became a central
task to find a way of recording this kind of subjective flow in the language and
form of the novel.
Novelists such as D. H. Lawrence and, more particularly, Woolf and Joyce felt that
the demands of the traditional novel with its emphasis on external realism were
restricting. Such a form of the novel emphasised a plot development and a logical
order which was not consistent with experience. New stylistic techniques were
needed to reflect that experience.
A major subject of much modern literature is the authors quest for self-definition.
In particular, the search for moral and aesthetic values is central to the novels of
Joyce, Proust, Woolf, Conrad, and Lawrence. Lawrences struggle with his subject
(his relationship with Frieda) is a major aspect of The Rainbow, just as Sons and
Lovers dramatizes his struggle to come to terms with his relationship with Jessie
Chambers and his mother. Lawrence wanted to write about the passions of men
and women in a new way. He also wanted to re-create himself and to urge his
readers to re-create themselves. Each phase of the Brangwens history
dramatizes a crucial episode in Lawrences development.
1. The Rainbow dramatizes Lawrences quest for the kind of fiction that is
appropriate both for passionate sexual relationship between men and
women and for the struggle within each man between, to use his terms,
mind-consciousness and blood-consciousness;
2. The Rainbow enacts Lawrences quest for self-realization.
Lawrence wrote his novel to announce a credo to replace the Christian mythology
and value system that dominated English life foe several centuries. He conceived
himself as prophet, seer, visionary, shaman, and Divine Messenger. Lawrence
adopts biblical tales, images, syntax, and diction for the purpose of expounding a
doctrine that undermines the traditional reading of the Bible. The opening pages
of The Rainbow express his fantasy of men who live purposeful, proud, sexually
fulfilled lives and who are not inhibited by ponds to an historical period; 2. To
stages of growth in the passionate Elect; 3. To an historical phase of Englands
development-from rural(Tom and Lydia) to village(Will and Anna) to urban,
industrial society (Ursula); and 4. To important phases of Lawrences relationship
with Frieda. The process of myth-making, the reaching out for biblical archetypes,
is part of Lawrences effort registers a partial recovery of freshness for Lawrence.
Lawrence goes beyond Sons and Lovers in the use of nature imagery to confer
value on his characters sexual responses and to make human sexuality a
microcosm of the natural cycle of the cosmos. Lydia articulates Lawrences basic
premise in the novel: Between two people, the love itself is the important thing,

and that is neither you nor him. It is a third thing you must create. But neither
the novels opening dumb-show not the story of Tom and Lydia speaks to the
problem between Anna and Will. In his impulse to lose himself either in sexuality
or religious mystery, Will is trying to go back to a simpler world. His effort to
reconcile his aesthetic impulse with passionate embrace mimes Lawrences.
Except when they come together in passion, Anna and Will must inevitably
remain separate; nor do they have, like Tom and Lydia, the teeming richness of
the farm to sustain them. In the Will-Anna relationship, Lawrence explores the
second principle of the grammar of passions: each person must bring an
independent existence to marriage. The sheaf-gathering scene defines the
essential problem between Will and Anna. Like Hardy, who uses the May-dance in
Tess, he knew that, within rural life, vestiges of primitive rites survived in
England. The chapter entitled Anna Victrix defines the problem of man an
woman after they have awakened to self-consciousness and are no longer in
rhythm with nature in a pastoral world. Thus Anna Victrix is an ironic title. By
winning Anna loses. Anna is indifferent to the outside world, but, like Lawrence,
she needs to find a balance between mind-conciousness and bloodconsciousness. Just like Lawrence, Will requires his life in the world beyond; like
Frieda, Anna is obvious to these needs, and thus must share with Will the blame
for the couples problems. She needs to defeat him in body and spirit. She
defeats him by despising his job, depriving him of his spiritual life, and taking
away his pride. Will may be more the average sensual man than any other male
figure, but he also objectifies Lawrences fear that sexual passion will deprive him
of his creativity.

E. M. FORSTER
E. M. Forster offers a more detailed critic than many of his contemporaries of the
social and cultural world of the early part of the 20 th century and of the values
which held the British Empire together. In his last novel, A Passage... he questions
whether the dualities of East and West, the Indian people and ruling British, can
be truly brought together. Forster tries to bring them together, but in doing so he
illustrates the complexities of colonial situation. In the novel, he can admire the
detachment of the Hindu mind, at the same time criticizing the inflexibility of the
British approach to life.
14. METAPHYSICAL SYMBOLISM IN "A PASSAGE TO INDIA"
The most important metaphysical symbol in A Passage to India is the Marabar
Caves. They are prehistoric, millions of years old, miles and miles long (more
than 25 km); they are caves into caves - like a labyrinth (antiquity, size, intricacy).
The choice of the Caves had 2 reasons - Marabar Caves are the central themes in
the novel.
V. Aziz considered the Marabar Caves as national monument - a question of
national PRIDE.
VI. HE wanted to impress the Europeans with a miracle he considered the proof
of the existence of God religious pride.
The Hindus were not so astonished by the Marabar Caves because they represent
mystery, and mystery is inherent in Hindu soul. For them it was a matter of
57

routine. For Muslims they were national monuments, but they could not
understand their mystery. For Europeans it was just an amazing eruption of
nature. Aziz and Adela went up to have a look at the Caves; Mrs. Moore was old
and could not. When they entered, Aziz felt some kind of suffocation,'
claustrophobia so he went out to have a cigarette and Mrs. Moore waved to him
since she saw him. After a moment the whole valley echoed with shouting. Adela
was discovered unconscious inside one of the Caves. She had a bruise on her
arms and face as if she had been struggling with something. Aziz was charged
with attempted seduction (the climax and the most important aspect of the
novel). The Muslims believed it was one of the British political stunts to humiliate
Muslims. Hindus did not take any sides when Muslims wanted their support. The
British took it as a reflection of typical Muslim grudge against them. They all had
justified reasons, but none of them ever tried to understand the other the
theme of the novel. None of them bothered about the problems of the others,
only themselves existed. The theme is not Indian crisis, but the crisis of the
human soul. The basic "argument of the novel is that religious diversity is
considered as a spiritual crime. The theme is universal, mankind's lack of insight
into one another.
Marabar Caves - When the case was on trial, the British lawyer said that "dark
skins find the white more attractive". The Indian lawyer answered, "Even if the
white is uglier than the dark?" They all depended on two witnesses Adela and
Mrs. Moore who saw him smoking. Mrs. Moore wanted to appear in court to
defend Aziz, and she becomes the novel's true hero. On the basis of morality and
human soul she decides to appear at court, but her son, in the charge of the trial,
didn't allow her. For him, it was a Muslim-British problem, not individual - the
community only matters it's a matter of prestige. Mrs. Moore, disappointed with
the law and moral principles, decides to leave. Here Forster is mocking the British
aristocracy and administration, which was produced by the public school. This is
stereotype understanding of society. Adela couldn't go against her fiance
because it would mean losing him. It was certain that Aziz would lose. Muslim
politicians sent letters to Mrs. Moore to return and testify, but sje dies on her way
to India. In Chandrapur she was treated like a divine figure, a real hero, and
everyone waited for her when the news came of her death. By that time, Adela
regained her courage, claiming that Aziz was not near her. This then raises a
question of who was it, but she did not answer. The question always remained
unanswered. She said she could never explain. Most of the critics believe that
Marabar Caves must be taken as the symbol of Indian mysticism. One critic says
that Adela's experience in the Caves (fear of the unknown) should be similar to
our first visit to space.
Emptiness, nothingness are the names of God. He is dark light; everything is His
reflection, illumination. Black is the combination of all colours it's like space,
absolute darkness. For a European girl it was too much. What happened in
Marabar caves was that Adela's soul was seduced by the discovery of the truth. It
was too sudden, too exasperating that she could not accept it. In a frantic frenzy,
it was a journey of soul within and Adela discovered the microcosm that existed in
her own self. Hindus knew the problem and could give a mystical explanation but
never did. Muslims were too conventional to look upon this aspect, and the British
were too strong to think of any favors or explanations in favour of anybody. That
was the cause of crisis.
15. CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN A PASSAGE TO INDIA'

A Passage to India is known as a unique novel and first of the rare where Indians
saw themselves treated as honorable people. Furthermore, the novel emphasizes
a spiritual superiority of India over West. It was written in 1924. It was a result of
Forster's observations when he visited India in 1912. The novel is not written
through colonial eyes. The basic purpose of writing this novel is to bring forth true
Indian mind, with all its complexities.
Action takes place in a small town of Chandrapore, a small town with extremely
mixed Hindu-Muslim community. Choosing Chandrapore was a delicate thing. No
divisions, differences, only one concern
freedom from the British. There was no concept of free Muslim India or free
Hindu India, just free India. It revolves around the main character, Dr Aziz,
who represents the Muslim community of India. He's the hero of the novel,
a very strange character - typical Indian Muslim. He is a government
servant at the municipal hospital of Chandrapore. He hates the English, but
tries to behave like them as well. Also, he's a great follower of a Hindu
philosopher Gokle who preached rights for women, against child marriages
and superstitions like the tradition of sati. At the same time he didn't
approve of Muslim women mixing with men. His desire to resist the English
power led him to a folly.
Hindu community was represented by Dr Aziz's friend, a Hindu teacher of a
local school, Godbole. In him and Aziz we can see the whole Muslim and the
whole Hindu attitude. Hindus calm, cunning, dedicated to their work and
in crisis always impartial. Muslims aggressive, confused about his identity,
very sincere, believe in Indian nationalism but with essential supremacy of
Muslims with Back to Rule slogan.
Alongside these two communities, there were new settlers, the Europeans,
the British white, proud, neglectful of a spiritual growth, mindful of their
great scientific achievements and military power (a very important aspect
of the novel). They believed that the Hindus were easier to make friends
with. Muslims were always considered as prospective rebels. There is a
certain amount of fear regarding Muslims and confidence towards the Hindu
allies. A young English girl, Adela, travels to India to see her fiance, a
captain in the army. She's accompanying her future mother-in-law, Mrs.
Moore, a genuine human soul who considers that Muslims, Hindus and
Christians are equal. But Adela is disappointed in her brutal fiance, so she
decides to go away but not before she takes a look at the Caves of Marabar.
A Passage to India in the context of queer theory
One of the ways in which APTI has been read is through the context of queer
theory. Many critics have made it clear that issues of race and colonialism are
very much bound up with the homoerotic and queer. The queerness of APTI
begins with its title, an illusion to the homoerotic poetry of Walt Whitman. The
ending of Forsters novel underscores the sense, for Bristow, that Aziz and
Fielding cannot exist in Whitmanian comradeship, that comradeship between
men and between nations can only come about with the end of empire. The
novel is also funny-amusing and funny-queer. It does queer things with words, as
it does with the word queer. Adela is introduced as a queer, cautious girl, Aziz
regards Fielding as a queer chap, what Godbole sings is queer, what happens in
the caves is queer.
59

IZ DIPLOMSKIH RADOVA
We must be aware of his impulse to mysticism, on the one hand, and his sense of
the difficulties of Iiberalism and openness of view on the other hand. He was also
known for the importance that he place on human relationships. In his books, his
emphasis is on the need for truth, tolerance, temper, and sympathy especially in
personal affairs; his novels often show the problems of social barriersbetween
races, between classes, between men and women and between art and life. One
important feature is that the book is an interpretation of India, traditionally a land
of mysteries and muddles, and an interpretation of its impact on those who live in
it and on aliens who come to it. He shows the land as challenging to the stranger
and characters with larger views than they have known.
Forster can also be described as a symbolist. The world passage has a special
signil;cance in the novel. First, it refers to the physical passage between India and
England.
The second and more significant passage concerns a journey to friendship and
loyalty between people from different cultures. He questions if there can be a
'passage' between cultures shared by bonds of friendship.
Forster questions whether the dualities of East and West, the Indian people and
the ruling British, can be truly brought together. The total lack of imagination on
the part of the British to understand and appreciate both the Indian way of life
and the rich heritage of ancient India adds dimension to the conflict. This novel
also centers on the difficulty of trust in cross-cu^ltur It relations.
It is about something wider than the politics, about the search of the human nice
for a more lasting home, about the universe as embodied in the Indian earth and
the Indian sky, about the horror lurking in the Marabar Caves and the release
symbolized by the birth ol Krishna. A Passage to India shows English and Indian
differences as irreconcilable, thanks largely to English prejudice. In the opening
chapter Forster points out the difference in appearance between the British and
Indian section of Chandrapore, hinting at the underlying conflict. He also
foreshadows that the two disparate parts of town cannot peacefully co-exist
under this sky. the only thing they share is the earth below and the sky above.
Once a British arrives in India, he becomes a ruler with snobbish and rue attitude.

Mrs. Moore is a kind of universal mother who believes that people are born to love
one another. She is shocked and unhappy about her son's attitude to Indians and
dismayed at the behavior of many people in India. As she reflects on [ndia. she
realizes that the Marabar Caves and their echo arc not the only India. In truth,
there are hundreds ol Indias, she wishes she had seen only the right' ones. It IS
Important to notice that Mrs. Moore departure is the point that evil is really
unleashed in Chandrapore. Symbolically, the universal mother has gone and left
her children to Rght ii out For themselves.
The end result of ihc Bridge party is that the British are bored and condescending,
and the Indians are shy and aloof. The get-together which was to bring the two
races closer, ends up only drawing them further apart. Fielding has no prejudices
and thinks that education should teach people to be tolerant, humane, and
sympathetic towards their fellow beings. He is eager to teach any student. British
or Indian. To him education is the means by which to strive for universal
brotherhood.

Forster chooses not to enlighten the readers on any point regarding the history of
the caves, their relation to any religious sect, or their anthropological interest.
Like India, they will retain a sense of mystery to a westerner. Within the novel, the
caves become a metaphor for the fragile rr lation between eastern and western '
friends. While Godbole and Aziz personify the divisions within India, they also
represent its unity. Both want the pro- British past back. There arc recurring
references to the difficulties of enten^le between Hindus and Moslems. Yet it is
clear that they share more with each other than with the West.
Forster belonged the middle class of British society and he criticized the class
division and prejudice of Edwardian England. A Passage to India is a unique novel
in 20th century because it is called " the century of experiments, absurdness,
expressionism, streams of consciousness". it's a complex age, and we have some
complex requirements Passage to India is the only novel written in Victorian style.
It's one of the real novel which follows classical plot.
Forster sends us the message that you can be friends only if you are equal and
independent. Mrs. Callender, whose moral conviction to help others is
exemplified by "the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die... To
Forsler, Muslims seem to be emotive, but fundamentally understandable and
explainableparticularly Aziz. Hindus, however, are intensely mystifying; Forster
describes Godbole's mind as Ancient Night." "According to Forster, Religion is a
living force to the Hindw, and can at certain moments fling down everything that
is petty and temporary in their natures.

61

Mysticism in API
In its larger intentions, the novel is about the Indians spirituality, their kindness and
mysticism. Though Islamic space is a crucial and recurrent theme in Forster's colonial writing, it is of

course not the only important religious theme in Forster's writings about India or Egypt. One sees an
equally intense interest in Hinduism, in the concluding section of A Passage to India as well as in a
number of personal letters. It is clear that for Forster, Hinduism and Islam are themselves in a kind of
dialectical relationship in India.
Though the main characters of A Passage to India are generally Christian or Muslim, Hinduism also
plays a large thematic role in the novel. The aspect of Hinduism with which Forster is particularly
concerned is the religion's ideal of all living things, from the lowliest to the highest, united in love as
one. This vision of the universe appears to offer redemption to India through mysticism, as individual
differences disappear into a peaceful collectivity that does not recognize hierarchies. Individual blame
and intrigue is forgone in favor of attention to higher, spiritual matters. Professor Godbole, the most
visible Hindu in the novel, is Forster's mouthpiece for this idea of the unity of all living things.
Godbole alone remains aloof from the drama of the plot, refraining from taking sides by recognizing
that all are implicated in the evil of Marabar. Mrs. Moore, also, shows openness to this aspect of
Hinduism. Though she is a Christian, her experience of India has made her dissatisfied with what she
perceives as the smallness of Christianity. Mrs. Moore appears to feel a great sense of connection with
all living creatures, as evidenced by her respect for the wasp in her bedroom.
The clash between Christianity and Hinduism
One of the major themes of E. M. Forster's novel A Passage so India is cultural misunderstandings
Differing cultural ideas and expectations regarding hospitality, social proprieties, and the role of
religion in daily life are responsible for misunderstandings between the English and the Muslim
Indians, the English and the Hindu Indians, and between the Muslims and Hindus. Cultural
misunderstanding culminates in the experience at the Marabar Caves and one thing this episode seems
to reveal is how much cultural misunderstanding, especially of the Indian by the British, is deliberate,
even necessary.
The clash between Hinduism and Christianity in A Passage lo India parallels the conflict between the
Indians and the English. Hinduism is best represented in the novel by Professor Godbole, and
Christianity is epitomized in Mrs. Moore. Mrs. Moore comes to India with the kindness and
understanding heart of a devout Christian but leaves morose and peevish. Perhaps she is haunted into
this state by Professor Godbole's strange song: ,At times there seemed rhythm, at times there was the
illusion of a Western melody. But the ear, baffled repeatedly, soon lost any clue, and wandered in a
maze of noises, none harsh or unpleasant, none intelligible... The sounds continued and ceased after a
few moments as casually as they had begun - apparently half through a bar, and upon the
subdominant." When Godbole explains that his song is about a milkmaid begging for the Krishna's
assistance, and Krishna's failure to appear, Mrs. Moore asks: But he comes in another song, I hope?
to which Godbole immediately replies,Oh no, he refuses to come. I say to him, Come, come, come,
come, come, come. He neglects to come".
It is this song that forces Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested into emotional cocoons from which they only
escape to meet horrible circumstances: Mrs. Moore is terrorized to the point of apathy, and Mrs.
Quested meets horror in the caves. Many critics pay special attention to authors' mastery of
characterization, but in A Passage to India, Forster proves that abstract ideas, such as the Hindu
religion, can be developed and portrayed with as much detail as a protagonist. Because of Foresters
talent, the reader, upon completing the novel, feels equally acquainted with both the Hinduism of
Professor Godbole and the Christianity of Mrs. Moore.

Forster spends large sections of the novel characterizing different typical attitudes the English hold
toward the Indians whom they control. Forster's satire is most harsh toward Englishwomen, whom the
author depicts as overwhelmingly racist, self-righteous, and viciously condescending to the native
population. Some of the Englishmen in the novel are as nasty as the women, but Forster more often
identifies Englishmen as men who, though condescending and unable to relate to Indians on an
individual level, are largely well-meaning and invested in their jobs.

The Muddle of India

Forster takes great care to make a distinction between the ideas of "muddle and "mystery in A
Passage to India. "Muddle" has connotations of dangerous and disorienting disorder, whereas Mystery"
suggests a mystical, or precise plan by a spiritual force that is greater than man. Fielding. who acts as
Forster's primary messenger in the novel, admits that India is a "muddle while figures such as Mrs.
Moore and Godbole view India as a mystery. The muddle that is India in the novel appears to work
from the ground up: the very landscape and architecture of the countryside is formless, and the natural
life of plants and animals defies identification. This muddled quality to the environment is mirrored in
the makeup of India's native populations which is mixed into a muddle of different religious, ethnic,
linguistic, and regional groups. The muddle of India disorients Adela the most; indeed, the events at
the Marabar Caves that trouble her so much can be seen as a manifestation of this muddle. The muddle
of India also affects Aziz and Fielding's friendship, as their good intentions are derailed by the chaos of
cross-cultural signals. Though Forster is sympathetic to India and Indians in the novel, his
overwhelming depiction of India as a muddle matches the manner in which many Western writers of
his day treated the East in their works..
The Echo
The echo begins at the Marabar Caves: first Mrs. Moore and then Adela hear the echo and are haunted
by it in the weeks to come. The echo's sound is boum"a sound it returns regardless of what noise or
telling is originally made. The echo tortures Mrs. Mooro until her death, causing her to abandon her
beliefs and stop to care about human relationships.

The Green Bird

Just after Adela and Ronny agree for the first time, in Chapter VII, to break off the engagement, they
notice a green bird sitting in the tree above them. Neither of them can positively identify the bird. For
Adela, the bird symbolizes the unidentifiable quality of all of India: just when she thinks she can
understand any aspect of India, that aspect changes or disappears. In this sense, the green bird
symbolizes the muddle of India. In another capacity, the bird points to a different tension between the
English and Indians. The English are obsessed with knowledge, literalness, and naming, and they use
these tools as a means of gaining and maintaining power. The Indians, in contrast, are more attentive to
undertone and the emotions behind words. The unidentifiable green bird suggests the incompatibility
of the English obsession with classification and order with the shifting quality of India itself the land
is, in fact, a hundred Indians that defy labelling and understanding.

63

The Wasp
The wasp appears several times in A Passage to India, usually in conjunction with the Hindu vision of
the oneness of all living things. The wasp is usually depicted as the lowest creature the Hindus
incorporate into their vision of universal unity. Mrs. Moore is closely associated with the wasp, as she
finds one in her room and is gently appreciative of it. Her peaceful regard for the wasp signifies her
own openness to the Hindu idea of collectivity, and to the mysticism and indefinable quality of India in
general. However, as the wasp is the lowest creature that the Hindus visualize, it also represents the
limits of the Hindu vision. The vision is not a panacea, but merely a possibility for unity and
understanding in India.
Marabar Caves
In the caves, mystery and chaos prevail, as symbolized in the horrible echoes and the imagined attacks
on Mrs Moore and Adela. The caves are much more mysterious that their outward appearance
indicates. Older than Islam, Christiantty and Hinduism, the caves represent the chaotic nothingness of
existence before God created order. In the primitive state of man caves functioned in a dual way: they
were his shelter and also his grave. Men after death were buried in the caves. They also lived in them.
This previous nature of the Caves suggests man's attempt towards unity between the material and the
spiritual and is reflected in the significant scene of the two flames. The Caves thus symbolize man's
attempt towards universal unity as well as the fact of his mortal being, death as a fact of life.
What did happen to Adela in the Cave? Wilfred Stone thinks that it is the Belgian "shadow ", the dark
depth of the unconscious, which strikes horror in Adela's being. The process is very similar to that of a
human being passing through a narrow passage in Adela's case, the Cave where she meets herself as
"something other " the shadow. It is a crisis of identity, the problem of knowing oneself, the reality of
one's being and Adela is deeply shocked to realise the truth that she does not love Ronny at all, and
that her marriage would be a superficial and unreal coexistence. The conclusion is that she speaks of
an assault, which she very much wanted to take place, but which, in reality, did not take place at all.
Another aspect of Adela's experience in the Cave is her psychic state of hallucination, which implies
that she develops an illusion, a feeling of having seen a man who is not actually there. In any event she
seems to have lost her sense of perception, a fact which is demonstrated by the broken strap of the field
glasses she has carried with her into the Cave. These broken straps probably symbolise her broken
power to perceive the truth, the reality of the situation. She also begins to suffer from a terrible echo,
which took hold of her mind and resulted in creating hallucinations. . Her entry into the Cave implies
her getting into the dark chamber of her subconscious mind and the consequent explosion of her
rationality.
Mrs Moore suffered a spiritual and also a physical breakdown. She wished to communicate with God
but finally ended up with a total loss of desired. Mrs Moore was overtaken by a profound despair and
lost her will to live. The echo appeared to end everything for her. The mood, which had dominated her
in the last two months at last, took shape, and she was confronted with the universe without value, of
utter Nothingness.
The Bridge party
The Bridge party" organized in honor of Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested at the club fails to establish a
bridge" between the Anglo-Indians and the few Indians who were invited, because of an immaturity
on the part of Anglo-Indians like Mrs. Turton who "refuse to shake hands'' with any of the Indians.
"While District Superintendent McBride is an exception, being the "most reflective and well educated
of the officials in Chandrapore, some of the others are like Mrs. Callender, whose moral conviction to
help others is exemplified by "the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die," and most like
Ronny Heaslop, an official merely performing his duties; "I am out her to work, mind, to hold thus
wretched country by force. I'm not a missionary...lm just part of the Government

Forster's view of Hindus and Muslims

It seems that even Forster had trouble understanding the Hindus. While the main scale of the novel is
the relationship between Dr. Aziz and various English or Anglo-lndians, the last section, "Temple,"
tries to give the reader a flavor for Hinduism. To Forster, Muslims seem to be emotive, but
fundamentally understandable and explainableparticularly Aziz. Hindus, however, are intensely
mystifying; Forster describes Godbole's mind as Ancient Night." "According to Forster, Religion is a
living force to the Hindu, and can at certain moments fling down everything that is petty and
temporary in their natures.... Aziz could not understand this, any more than an average Christian could
". Even Aziz, an Indian, can't claim to understand (or even like) Hindus but can only resolve to try to
appreciate them better. The book ends with Forster's longing to understand Hinduism and his
admittance that he can'tnor can many Muslims. This fundamental inability to relate to one another
religiously may have fueled the fires that led to the Partition.
Three parts in the novel: Mosque, Caves, Temple meaning
The three sections of Forster's A Passage to India, "Mosque," "Caves," and "Temple," each represent a
different aspect of Indian religious and cultural belief. Of course, more accurately, the three parts of the
novel comprise different versions of an English writer's Western perspective on certain aspects of
Indian culture. There are three different narrative modes Forster uses in relation to the three areas of
Indian culture he considers in the novel, exploring the way he accommodates his subject matter and
storytelling technique to the place, meaning, and philosophico-religious importance of Moslem
mosque, pre-historic cave, and Hindu temple.
The "Mosque" section of A Passage to India uses Moslem ideas of friendship and connection to
thematize possible friendships and connections between the English and the Indians in the novel. The
exceptional cross-racial intimacy of Dr. Aziz and Mrs. Moore, whose chance meeting in a moonlit
mosque initiates the novel, as well as of Aziz and Cyril Fielding, are the signal instances of Part One's
narrative method which proceeds, quite simply, by bringing characters together. The so called "Bridge
Party" arranged for the new English visitors to India is the formal and institutional version of the
"Mosque" section's effort to bring English and Indians together, and it is notable for its failure. . If the
social ethic and narrative practice of " Mosque" is "only connect," the theme of "Caves" is
"disconnection" - what the novel calls "the decomposition of the Marabar." All the groupings and
gatherings of the first section culminate in the disastrous expedition to the Marabar Caves the results of
which fragment and level the camaraderie established in the earlier scenes. Not only are the relations
between characters annihilated; as a result of her experience in the cave, Mrs. Moore comes to feel that
she didn't want to communicate with anyone, not even with God". The Marabar Caves have a
corrosive, nihilating effect on those who are susceptible to their power, and they become the central
mystery of ,,mysterious India". The narrative technique elaborated in the "Temple" section of A
Passage to India takes a more interesting form. Professor Godbole is the spokesman for and
representative of the Hindu philosophy as Aziz is for the Moslem religion (there is no character
associated with the Marabar Caves because they are finally concerned with nothing human).
As Godbole explains and exemplifies, the Hindu outlook incorporates a simultaneous awareness of
Being and non-Being. The Hindu perspective is a double vision of Being and non-Being, past and
present, presence and absence, existence and nothingness. As such, it entails a simultaneous
affirmation and negation of the divinity it worships. To the Western mind, this simultaneous
affirmation and negation of divinity in Indian religious belief is confounding. Fielding and Miss
Quested. They simply cannot comprehend this "mixture of fatuity and philosophy" that is India. The
expression of a religious or philosophical truth (full of meaning) that can equally well be regarded as
simply a pun (a merely accidental association of words with no meaning) is the linguistic model
informing the narrative inovations of the ,,Temple" section of A Passage to India.
65

THE MAIN THEMES IN A PASSAGE TO INDIA

DISCUSS THE SIMILARITIES AND DISSIMILARITIES IN CONRAD'S AND
FORSTER'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS INTERNATIONAL THEME USING THE
APPROPRIATE EXAMPLES
WILLIAM GOLDING, 1911 - 1993;. SAINT COLUMB MINOR IN CORNWALL,
ENGLAND
Lord of the Flies - 1954
The Inheritors - 1955
Free Fall -1959

WILLIAM GOLDING, 1911 - 1993;. SAINT COLUMB MINOR IN CORNWALL, ENGLAND

Lord of the Flies - 1954
The Inheritors - 1955
Free Fall -1959

16. "LORD OF THE FLIES" AS A STUDY IN HUMAN NATURE

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that underlies
even the most civilized human beings. Golding intended this novel as a tragic
parody of childrens adventure tales, illustrating humankinds intrinsic evil nature.
The former schoolboys sought unthinkingly to dominate others who were not of
their group. They discovered within themselves the urge to inflict pain and
enjoyed the accompanying rush of power.
When confronted with a choice between reasons civilizing influence and
animalitys self-indulgent savagery, they choose to abandon the values of the
civilization that Ralph represents. Golding places supposedly innocent schoolboys
in the protected environment of an uninhabited tropical island to illustrate the
point that savagery is not confined to certain people in particular environments
but exists in everyone as a stain on, if not a dominator of, the nobler side of
human nature. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon Fancy thinking the Beast was
something you could hunt and kill! Simon has the revelation that evil isnt simply
a component of human nature, but an active element that seeks expression. On
the island, Jacks hunters are successful in providing meat for the group because
they tap into their innate ability to commit violence. Violence continues to exist in
modern society and is institutionalized in the military and politics. Golding
develops this theme by having
his characters establish a democratic assembly, which is greatly affected by the
verbal violence of Jacks power-plays, and an army of hunters, which ultimately
forms a small military dictatorship. The boys assemblies are likened to both ends
of the social or civil spectrum, from pre-verbal tribe gatherings to modern
governmental institutions. Golding addresses the effects of fear on the individual
and on a group. Golding gives a more subtle treatment to the theme concerning
speechs role in civilization. He repeatedly represents verbal communication as
the sole property of civilization while savagery is non-verbal, or silent. The conch
plays a key role in this theme because it symbolizes not only to the power to
speak during assembly but also the power of speech, an ability that separates

humans from animals. Verbal communication is crucial to the development of

abstract thought. Civilization provides institutions where the individuals can
devote themselves to mental activities. Simon created such a place in his hidden
spot in the jungle. He found silence necessary to contemplate his vision of the
beast. Simon is able to comprehend the brutality of the sows death and
beheading. The sows head becomes covered with flies, creatures that lack the
capacity to feel compassion for or empathy with the dead sow, occupied entirely
by their need to eat and multiply. That compassion is one of the key dividers
between humanity and animality.
Phrases like the end of innocence'' and "the darkness of man's heart" show us
the author's attitude more clearly than has appeared hitherto. He believes in the
Fall of Man and perhaps in Original Sin. Or if he does not-exactly believe, he fears;
the same fear infects his second novel, a difficult and profound work called The
Inheritors. Here the innocent (the boys as it were) are Neanderthal man, and the
corrupters are Homo sapiens, our own ancestors, who eat other animals, discover
intoxicants, and destroy. Similar notions occur in his other novels.

17. SYBOLISM IN LORD OF THE FLIES

Symbolism played an important part in the development of the story. This

narrative technique is used to give significance to certain people or objects,
which represent some other figures. The following table lists many of the
examples of symbolism used throughout Golding's book.
CHARACTERS
RALPH.

DEMOCRACY, ORDER. Ralph is a natural leader because of his superior

height, strength and good looks. He is also the democratic man,
the keeper of the civilized ways, chosen as a chief by a vote from
his peers and strives to maintain order, to rule through persuasion,
with the consent of the governed. Ralph represents leadership, the

properly socialized and civilized

young man. He is attractive, charismatic, and decently intelligent. He
demonstrates obvious common sense. Ralph is the one who conceives the
meeting place, the fire, and the huts. He is a diplomat and a natural leader.
Although he becomes worn down by the hardships and fears of primitive life
and is gradually infected by the savagery of the other boys, Ralph is the only
character who identifies Simons death as murder and has a realistic,
unvarnished view of his participation. He feels both loathing and excitement
over the kill he witnessed. Once Ralph becomes prey, he realizes that he is an
outcast Cos I had some sensenot just common sense but a sense of his
identity as a civilized person, a sense of the particular morality that had
governed the boys culture back home. In exchange for his innocence, he has
gained an understanding of humankinds natural character, an understanding
not heretofore available to him: that evil is universally present in all people
and requires a constant resistance by the intellect that was Piggy, by the
mysticism and spiritualism that was Simon, and by the hopes and dreams that
are his.

PIGGY

CLEAR-SIGHTEDNESS, INTELLIGENCE. AS THE BRAINY REPRESENTATIVE OF

CIVILIZATION, PIGGY CLAIMS THAT LIFEIS SCIENTIFIC. HE CANNOT BE THE
LEADER HIMSELF BECAUSE HE LACKS LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND HAS NO
RAPPORT WITH THE OTHER BOYS. HE ALSO RELIES TOO HEAVILY ON THE POWER

67

OF SOCIAL CONVENTION. He believes that holding the conch gives him the

right to be heard. He believes that upholding social conventions get results.

His glasses are a symbol of vision and truth. He is also a representative of the
adult world. He is the voice of reason.
V

SIMON

JACK

ROGER

Piggy-is.fat, nearly blind, and asthmatic. He also embodies reason

and intelligence. Piggy represents rationality, logic, science,
arid the ways of thinking that a civilized society depends on. He
Iras a strong urge to distinguish and to order until reduced to a
manageable system. Piggy is the brain behind Ralph's leadership.
He is the first one who suggests using the conch Ralph found to
assemble the others.
PURE GOODNESS, CHRIST FIGURE. His voice of revelation, he
consistently reveals a kindness that no one seems to possess
whether he is comforting Ralph, offering food to Piggy, or getting
fruits for the younger children. He is the most self-conscious of the
boys, and prefers to withdraw into solitude for lonely meditations,and is tire first to suggest that there is no beast, that " ...maybe it's
only us. " Simon seeks to confront his fears and comes to accept
the evil lluit exists both in him and in everyone. He does (his by
speaking to a pig head that was put on a stick and climbing the
mountain to find that the "beast" is really just a dead pilot. Simon
is mistaken for the "beast" when Ire comes back to explain to the
rest of the children what he found and is ironically killed by those
he wished to save. Simon has bright eyes, a symbol of another kind of
vision and truth. When Simon tries to visualize what the beast might look
like, there arose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once
heroic and sickGoldings vision of humanity as flawed by inherent
depravity. Simon sees the darker side of knowledge. By courageously seeking
to confront the figure on the mountaintop, Simon fulfills his destiny of
revelation. He doesnt get to share his revelation with the other boys because
they are not ready to accept or understand it. Instead he dies as a result of
being made the scapegoat for the boys unshakeable fear. When Simons
body is carried off by the tide, covered in the jellyfish-like phosphorescent
creatures who have come in with the tide, Golding shifts the focus from
Simons bodys
movements to the much larger progressions of the sun, moon, and earth
because Simon represented a knowledge as fundamental as the elements.
SAVAGERY, ANARCHY, Jack represents evil and violence, the dark side of
human nature. He is eager to make rules and punish those who break them,
although he consistently breaks them himself when he needs to further his
own interests. His
main interest is hunting, an endeavor that begins with the desire for meat and
builds to the overwhelming urge to master and kill other living creatures.
Hunting develops the savagery that already ran close to his surface, making
him ape-like as he prowls through the jungle. His domain is the emotions,
which rule and fuel his animal nature. His rise to power begins when the

younger children's fears start to distort their surroundings, so he

uses this fear to become their protector. If they do what he says,
the "beast" cannot get them. Jack soon decides to form his own
society. It becomes based on a kind of ceremonial obeisance to
him and is shown by those sacrifices by which the tribe creates the
beast.
EVIL, SATAN. Jack's henchman, he has a sadistic soul and delights in

tormenting others. An example of this is when he throws stones at

a younger child when nobody is watching. As the children's society
degrades. Roger slowly loses the inhibitions that society has
imposed upon him. Where once he was afraid to kill a child, he
becomes a deadly enforcer. He kills Piggy by pushing a bolder on
him while in plain sight of everyone and (ortures Sam arid Eric until
they tell him where Ralph is hiding. Roger gladly enacts_ the evil
deeds (/rat help the story progress in its downward spiral towards
savagery.

OBJECTS
THE ISLAND

a microcosm representing the world. The boat shape of

the island is an ancient symbol of civilization.
The water current around the island seems to be
flowing
backwards,
giving
the
subtle
impression
that
civilization
may
be
going
backwards for the island or its inhabitants.

THE CONCH

DEMOCRACY, FREE SPEECH. The conch used to regulate tlie

assemblies is th, symbol of democracy and free speech. Although
adequate when used to gaihz the boys together, it holds little
power when confronted with violence am tyranny. Tliis is shown
when Roger destroys the conch with (he same boulde, (hat /alls
Piggy, effectively destroying the last remains of Ralph's civilized
society
RESCUE- The fire on the mountain has tremendous symbolic meaning. First,

SIGNAL FIRE

PIGGY'S GLASSES

THE BEAST

LORD OF THE FLIES

it represents hope and aspirations for the future, a gift from the gods, a tool
that separates humankind from the animals. Just as the beach platform and
the untamed jungle represent the duality in humanitys behavior, the fire,
also, represents both savagery (evil) and hope. And while fire starting was
one of the first technologies to separate humanity from the animals, to start
this fire, the boys adopt a primitive use of force in taking Piggys glasses
from him, making him an unwilling Prometheus.

CLEAR-SIGHTEDNESS AND LACK THEREOF. Piggy's glasses serve as c

marker forJhejr society's progression info darkness. As Piggy'
loses sight, so the boys lose the sight of their original goal:
rescue-One of the lenses of Piggy's glasses breaks after a fight
with Jack. The fight started when Jack let the signal fire die out
while a ship was passing , thereby costing them a chance at
being rescued.
THE EVIL RESIDING WITHIN EVERYONE, THE DARK SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE-TO
REPRESENT THE EVIL THAT IS PART OF HUMAN NATURE, GOLDING USES THE
BEASTIE DESCRIBED BY THE LITTLEST BOYS The "beast" becomes a sign
of the children's unrest. It goes from being a nightmare in some
little boy's dream in the beginning of the lie novel to something
very real that requires sacrifice if one is to be safe. The beast
represents the children's superstitious fears which become so
overpowering that it eventually takes control of the situation.
THE DEVIL, GREAT DANGER OF EVIL. IT symbolizes the anarchic,
amoral, driving force of Jack's tribe. 'Only Simon knows that the
reason why the beast cannot be found outside is because the
beast lives inside all of us. We all have a little of the Lord of the
Flies inside us.

69

SNAKES

During the forest fire, the little boys shriek at the burning creeper vines
Snakes! Snakes! Look at the snakes! This allusion is to the serpent in the
Garden of Eden who stole innocence and introduced humanity to its own
physicality.

In Lord of the Flies the character Simon has about him a general aura of
saintliness.. Critics have suggested tliat Simon is a Christ figure. And William
Golding, on the artist's part, has said that he intended to present a Christ figure in
the novel, intimating th Simon is the character he meant so to present There is a
very definite relationship between Simon and his brutal death and Chrisi-and his
crucifixion. .The author himself says that he: "intended a Cluist figwe in tlie navel,
because Cluist figures occur in humanity, really, but J couldn't, limx tlie full
picture, or as near as full, a possible picture of human potentiality, unless one s
potentially a Ovist figure. So Simon is' the little boy who goes off into the bushes
to pray. He is the only one to take any notice of the little 'uns - who actually
hands them food, gets food from places where they can't reach it and hands it
down to them. He is the one who is tempted of the devil: he has this interview
with the pig's head on the stick, with Beelzebub, or Satan, the devil, whatever
you'd like to call it, and the devil says, "Clear off, you're not wanted. Jusl go back
to the others. We'll forget the whole thing." Well, this is, of course, the perennial
temptation to the saint, as I conceive it, to just go and be like ordinary men and
let the whole thing slide. Instead of tliat, Simon goes up the hill and takes away
from the island, removes, discovers what this dead hand of history is that's over
them, undoes the threads so that the wind can blow this dead thing away from
the island, and then when he tries to take the good news back to ordinary
ordinary human society, he's crucified for it. This is as far as I was able to find a
Christ parallel, you see.
Simon is Goldins's first "saint and a most important figure." He is for the illiterate
a proof of the existence of God because the illiterate (to whom we are tacitly but
unmistakably expected to attribute a correct insight here) will say, "Well, a person
like this cannot exist without a good God" For Simon "voluntarily embraces the
beast., and tries to set rid of him." What he understands and this is wisdom
Goiding treats with, awe - is that evil is "only us." He climbs up to where the dead
fire is dominated by the beast a dead airman in a parachute, discovers what this
ternble thing really is, and rushes off with the good news to the beach, where the
maddened boys at their beast-slaying ritual mistake Simon himself for the beast
and kill him.'. As Piggy - the dull practical intelligence is reduced to blindness and
futility, so Simon, the visionary, is rnurdered before he can communicate his
comfortable knowledge. Finally, the whole Paradise is destroyed under the
puzzled eyes of an adult observer. Boys will be boys.

3. LORD OF THE FLIES AS A SOCIAL FABLE

A fable is a short fictional story intended to teach a moral lesson. Golding
considered Lord of the Flies a fable because his novel allows much room for
speculation. Instead of using cartoonish talking animals, Golding teaches his
lesson with fully developed human characters representing the dominant motifs.
As the characters interact with each other and with their environment, so do the
forces they represent. Because Ralph finds himself participating in the same
savage behavior he condemns in the other boys, he presents a realistic picture of
a humane person resorting to brutality under unusual circumstances. Piggy

represents the scientific rationalist whose knowledge and intellect far exceed that
of the other boys. Yet for all his intelligence, he cannot figure out how to speak so
that the others will listen. Golding does seek to provide a lesson in morality, but
the lesson lacks the straightforward and decisive tone of the proverb that
concludes most fables. At the end of Goldings fable, the reader has learned not
that evil is confined to the militaristic portion of the population as epitomized by
Jack; the pacifist Ralph participated in some of the brutal tribal activities. Neither
has the reader learned that science or even simple common sense will save
humanity from itself; Piggy is ridiculed throughout and then killed. Mystical
revelations or visionary insight into the human condition will not save us; consider
the fate of the saintly Simon. Instead the reader learns that evil lives in us all, and
there is no proverb to remedy that situation. By invoking the complexity that
underlies human nature, Goldings tale brings depth to the fable structure and
presents a complex moral lesson as well.

16. "LORD OF THE FLIES" AS A STUDY IN HUMAN NATURE

In "Lord of the Flies" society plays little part in determining the corruption and
violence in man. The boys are innocent of their own natures. They don't
understand their own natures and therefore, when they gel to this island, they
can look forward to a bright future, because they don't understand the things
that threaten it. This seems to me to h{ innocence; I suppose you could almost
equate it with ignorance of men's basic attributes, and this is inevitable with
anything which is born and begins to grow up. Obviously, it doesn't understand its
own nature. '
They don't understand what beasts there are in the human psyche which has to
be curbed. They're too young to look ahead and really put the curbs on their own
nature and implement them, because giving way to these beasts is always a
pleasure, in some ways, and so their society breaks down. Of course, on the other
hand, in an adult society it is possible society will not break down. It may be that
we can put sufficient curbs on our own natures to prevent it from breaking down.
We may have the very common sense to say that if we have atom bombs and so
on-H-bombs-well, we cannot possibly use these" things.
Simon, in Lord of the Flies, is different from, the others and who understands, for
example, that the evil that the boys fear, the beast they fear, is substantially of
their own invention, but when, in fact, he announces this he himself is regarded
as evil and killed accordingly.
There's a point a couple of chapters before where these children on the island
have got themselves into a hell of a mess, they're - it's the things that have
crawled out of their own bones and their own veins, they don't know whether it's
a beast from sky, air or where it's coming jut there's something terrible about it
as one of the conditions of existence.
I

Phrases like the end of innocence'' and "the darkness of man's heart" show us
the author's attitude more clearly than has appeared hitherto. He believes in the
Fall of Man and perhaps in Original Sin. Or if he does not-exactly believe, he fears;
the same fear infects his second novel, a difficult and profound work called The
Inheritors. Here the innocent (the boys as it were) are Neanderthal man, and the
71

corrupters are Homo sapiens, our own ancestors, who eat other animals, discover
intoxicants, and destroy. Similar notions occur in his other novels.

DORIS LESSING, 1919 CONTEMPORARY WRITER, PERSIA, NOW IRAN

THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
18. FEMINIST ISSUES IN TGN
The Golden Notebook is a complicated novel about a middle-aged writer and a
single-mother named Anna Wulf. Anna, the protagonist in the novel, lives alone
with her young daughter, occasionally renting a room in order to feel less lonely
by filling some of the empty space around her. Her world is a confusing and
emotionally intense world of lovers, leftist politicians, and the dilemma of being
what she calls
"a free woman". After publishing her first novel, an
autobiographical story about a group of Communists in colonial Africa, a book
that was commercially successful, but unworthy by Anna's standards, and being
abandoned ny a lover, Anna must try to salvage her identity as a woman and as a
writer.
For the first time some important issues for women and their position in society
are mentioned in the book. What is a real woman and what is a real man, how a
real woman has to behave? Although the truth is that feminism is only one of the
issues in the novel, many male literary critics focused on the feminist issue and
tried to discredit Doris Lessing as a writer and also her novel by saying that it is
too concerned with feminist issues.
The novel is concerned with changes . Anna changes as an individual, then as an
artist, as a political activist and also as a woman.
The necessity to produce new gender roles came out from the fact that the
present ones are kind of a limitation for both, Anna and Doris. Although Anna tries
to live as a feminist prototype, single mother who is financially independent, she
has some problems with that because she feels she needs some male support
and protection. Anna's attitude is that security is an illusion and that not only
women need to be emancipated, they also need new men.
Anna changes and rejects certain traditional womanly attitudes such as the ability
of empathy (traditional feminine quality). This book encourages women to think.
At the end, the relationship between man and woman becomes a kind of
cooperation.
19. ARTISTIC CRISIS IN THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
Anna Wulf, like Lessing herself, strives for ruthless honesty as she aims to free
herself from the chaos, emotional numbness, and hipoctricy afflicting her
generation. She has difficulties in he writing, suffers from the writer's block.
Anna's artistic crisis is deeply connected with her psychological crisis. She feels
she is failing to capture the truth. The traditional belief was that a writer is an
objective recorder of reality his work is separated from his life. Modernists don't
believe in that concept. Anna feels that a writer is powerless against the dark
forces. She realizes that despite this chaos the artist can give some kind of
meaning to it, achieve some kind of balance.
In 640 pages of well-written prose, D.Lessing tries to come to terms with all she
has or hasn't created in life. She's up against the same choices many of us have
to make: deciding what's important in her life and what isn't.

20. MADNESS AND CREATIVITY IN THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK

Anna is on the verge of insanity, the writer's block; she feels that life is too
complex and she cannot bear that any longer. Writer's block has taken her over
and choked the love for writing and searching she once had. She's in a midst of a
breakdown and a breakthrough, which is evident through the plot elements
presented in each notebook.
The point of the novel, according to Lessing, is the relationship of its parts to
each other. By viewing her life from these different angles, going over her
experiences, gauging her responses, and caerefully probing her intertwined
layers of consciousness, Anna eventually manages to unify her identity in one
notebook The Golden Notebook. As she does so, she comes to terms with her
growing disillusionment with communism, the trauma of emotional rejection and
sexual betrayal, professional anxieties, and the tensions of friendship and family.
She unifies her existence and identity into one by bringing together all the
themes of the novel. The unity is finally achieved, it symbolizes her victory.
NARRATIVE AND STRUCTURE IN "TIDE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK"

he Golden Notebook, a daring narrative experiment in which the multiple

selves of a contemporary woman are rendered in astonishing depth and detail, is

the story of Anna Wulf, a writer and a single mother, who lives with her young
daughter in a flat, occasionally renting out a room, less for the income than out of
a reflex of social obligation. Laboring against a writer's block, following the
immense success of her autobiographical debut novel about a group of
Communists in Colonial Africa, Anna struggles to find a way to integrate the
multiple selves that fragment her personality and make her life unbearably
painful. Out of "fear of chaos, formlessness - of breakdown", she decides to keep
four notebooks, one for each component of her life - black_for her experiences in
Africa, red for current politics, yellow for a fictionalized version of herself and blue
for a diary..
When she becomes aware that these four books fail to capture her whole self,
Anna attempts to convey the totality of her experience in a new (golden)
notebook. Bewilderingly, the reader now discovers that he or she has been
reading this novel all along - a glimpse of what Ms. Lessing presented at the
beginning, Free Women. This new novel, or rather the one that has been hidden
beneath it all, is a realistic one in which Anna Wulf appears as relatively sane
whole human being. Free Women forces the readers to abandon their
preconceptions.
Ms. Lessing's novel broke the mold in 1962 when it was first published. Even now,
it is difficult to imagine another piece of work that fuses sex, politics and
emotional breakdown so completely and with such honesty and frankness. What
is most astonishing and intriguing about this novel is how it takes the reader
through the essence of a true emotional breakdown. The very form of this novel is
what provides such an intimate glimpse of something to which almost any reader
can relate at some point in this novel. And it isn't even recognizably a novel at all.
73

Instead, the reader is shown fragments, memories, emotions, and opinions

thrown together - but the relationship they all eventually form together is what
the reader is forced to figure out and learn from.
ANNAS VIEW OF ART AND HER SEARCH FOR AN ADEQUATE ARTISTIC
FORM IN THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
JELICA ARMIN
THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK

IS BUILT OF INTERLOCKING PARTS THAT ARE A APPARENTLY

UNIFIED BY A SINGLE CONSCIOUSNESS, THAT OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CHARACTER
ANNA FREEMAN WULF. EITHER HERSELF, ANNA FREQUENTLY DENOUNCES THE
INADEQUACY OF WORD: THE REAL EXPERIENCE CANNOT BE DESCRIBED. IN TGN THE
FOCUS IS ON ANNA WULF. SHE IS NEUROTIC BECAUSE OF A FRAGMENTED
PERSONALITY. HOWEVER, THE POINT OF THE NOVEL IS THE COMPLEXITY OF ANNAS
FRAGMENTATION AND EVENTUAL INTEGRATION. ONE OF HER DIFFICULTIES IS TO KNOW
THAT TRUTH CANNOT BE CAPTURED IN WORDS AND THAT THE KNOWN FORMS OF THE
NOVELS ARE PARTICULARLY UNABLE TO EXPRESS IT.
FOR LESSING ALL REALITY IS DUAL, TWO SIDES OF A COIN, AND THE NARROW BEAM OF
CONSCIOUSNESS CANNOT LIGHT UP BOTH SIDES AT ONCE. SINCE IN THE TGN
LESSINGS CHIEF MAIN IS TO SHOW THE ESSENTIAL DUALITY OF PERSONALITY AND THE
NEED TO FIND THE WAY TO BALANCE THE OPPOSITES WITHIN ONESELF, SHE USES A
COMPLEX BLEND OF ANNAS CONSCIOUS THOUGHT, DREAM, MADNESS, AND FICTIONAL
CREATION TO COMPETE HER CHARACTERIZATION. THE GREAT ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT OF
THIS NOVEL IS ITS MERGING OF FORM AND CONTENT DESPITE THE COMPLEXITY OF ITS
MATERIAL.
ANNA IS INTRODUCED AS ONCE PUBLISHED NOVELIST UNABLE TO WRITE A NEW
NOVEL; INSTEAD SHE FILLS UP 4 NOTEBOOKS. THESE NOTEBOOKS ARE COLOUR CODED:
BLACK FOR HER EXPERIENCES IN AFRICA DURING THE WW 2 AND THE NOVEL BASED
ON THEM; RED FOR HER RELATIONSHIP TO THE COMMUNIST PARTY; YELLOW FOR STORY
IDEAS, WHICH FEATURE THE ROMANCES OF HER ALTER-EGO ELLA; AND BLUE FOR HER
DIARY ENTRIES. THE FIVE SECTIONS OF FREE WOMAN, WHICH LESSING
CHARACTERIZED AS TOGETHER COMPRISING A CONVENTIONAL SHORT NOVEL ARE
INTERLEAVED BY SELECTIONS FROM THE 4 NOTEBOOKS AND A 5TH , GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
NEAR THE BOOKS END. THE CHARACTERS IN FREE WOMAN ARE VARIANTS OF THE
NOTEBOOKS CHARACTERS, OFTEN WITH REPEATING SIMILAR NAMES, AS IN THE SONS
AND LOVERS NAMED PAUL, SAUL AND MICHAEL. THE ANNA OF FREE WOMEN DIFFERS
IN SOME RESPECTS FROM THE VARIOUS ANNAS IN THE NOTEBOOKS, FROM ELLA AND
FROM THE AUTHORIAL PERSONA. ANNA BOTH IS AN IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF THE ENTIRE
TGN, CREATING A STRUCTURE WHERE INSIDE UNDECIDABLY BLENDS INTO OUTSIDE: I
SEE ELLA, I, ANNA, SEE ELLA. WHO IS OF COURSE, ANNA. BUT THAT IS THE POINT,
FOR SHE IS NOT.FREE WOMEN IS ALSO A JUNGIAN NARRATIVE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT, WHICH BEGINS WITH THE LINE: THE TWO WOMEN WERE ALONE IN THE
LONDON FLAT.WE LATER LEARN THAT ANNA RECEIVED THIS SENTENCE FROM HER
LOVER SOUL GREEN AND THAT IT REFERS TO THE TWO WOMEN OF ANNAS DIVIDED
PERSONALITY. EVERYTHING BEGUN IN THIS NOVELLA IS ALREADY AT AN ENDING, SO
THAT IT ASSUMES A CIRCULAR FORM. THE FIRST 4 SECTIONS OF FREE WOMEN ARE
FOLLOWED BY SELECTIONS FROM THE 4 NOTEBOOKS IN COLOUR AND CHRONOLOGICAL
SEQUENCE, ALTHOUGH THE ARRANGEMENT INCREASINGLY BREAKS DOWN UNTIL THE 5 TH,
GOLDEN, NOTEBOOK INCORPORATES THE THEMES AND CHARACTERS OF THE REST. IT IS
WRITTEN COLLABORATIVELY BY ANNA AND SAUL GREEN, WHOSE CHARACTER SEEMS
MIXED FROM YELLOW BOOK STORY IDEAS AND BLUE NOTEBOOK INCARNATIONS OF

THEM. THE RED AND THE BLACK OF ANNAS NOTEBOOKS PLACE INDIVIDUAL DESTINIES
IN CONTEXTS OF NATIONAL UPHEAVAL WHERE IDEAS ARE TRANSFORMED BY EVENTS AND
EVENTS BY IDEAS. THESE NOTEBOOKS DOMINATE THE EARLIER PORTIONS OF TGN, BUT
THEY BECOME LESS SALIENT AS THE NOVEL PROGRESSES. IN THE LATER, YELLOW, BLUE
AND THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOKS, THE NOVEL MOVES FROM HISTORICAL REALISM TO
MODERNIST INTERIORITY IN ITS FOCUS ON ANNA AS A WRITER WHO ANALYZES SEXUAL
AND EMOTIONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN. ANNA AND MOLLY CALL
THEMSELVES FREE WOMEN LARGELY BECAUSE THEIR SEXUAL AUTONOMY. ELLAS
AFFAIRS IN THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK EXAGGERATE THE MASOCHISTIC, PASSIVE,
DEPENDENT, AND DELUDED ASPECTS OF ANNAS RELATIONSHIPS. LESSING DOESNT
SHOW MEN AS THINKING MORE DEEPLY, BUT SIMPLY AS LESS EMOTIONALLY COMMITTED.
THE REAL MEN ARE COMPULSIVE PHILANDERERS, WHILE OTHER MEN ARE UNMANNED
OR UNMANLY LIKE THE SEXUALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL CAPITALIST RICHARD OR THE
CARICATURED GAY COUPLE IVOR AND RONNY. TGN FITS MANY FEMINIST VALUES AND
HAS BEEN HAILED AS A FEMINIST NOVEL. FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE, THE BOOK BREAKS
NEW GROUND IN PORTRAYING THE COMPLEX SUBJECTIVITY OF A STRONG, POSITIVE,
FEMALE MAIN CHARACTER WHO IS A WRITER, AN INTELLECTUAL, AND A MOTHER, AND
WHO ACKNOWLEDGES HER BODY, HER DESIRES, AND HER ANXIETIES. FEMINIST
READERS APPRECIATE THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN ANNA AND MOLLY, THEIR SEXUAL
FRANKNESS,
ECONOMIC
INDEPENDENCE,
AND
UNDERSTANDING
OF
WOMENS
SUBORDINATION. SAUL BECOMES ANNAS BROTHER BECAUSE AT LEAST HE CAN
RECOGNIZE THAT HE ENJOYS A SOCIETY WHERE WOMEN ARE SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS
AND BECAUSE HE CAN NAME AND UNDERSTAND HER FEELINGS. ANA AND MOLLY
KNOW THAT WOMEN ISOLATED AS HOUSEWIVES AND MOTHERS ARE OFTEN MISERABLE,
SUFFERING THE PROBLEM THAT HAS NO NAME, WHICH ANNA CALLS THE
HOUSEWIFES DISEASE. YET ANNA ALSO INTERNALIZES THE MISOGYNY AROUND HER:
SHE DISLIKES WOMEN FOR NOT THINKING WHEN IT SUITS US. AS FREE WOMEN
ANNA AND MOLLY REGULARLY SLEEP WITH MARRIED MEN AND SHARE THE MENS
DISREGARD FOR THEIR WIVES. IN THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK, ELLA BEGINS BY FEELING
SUPERIOR TO HER LOVERS WIFE BUT LATER ENVIES HER. FINALLY SHE REALIZES THAT
THE SHADOW OF THE THIRD IN THIS TRIANGLE IS NOT THE NEGLECTED WIFE AT ALL
BUT RATHER A JUNGIAN PROJECTION, HER OWN SHADOW, EVERYTHING SHE IS NOT.
AND SINCE ELLA IS IN SOME SENSE ANNAS SHADOW SIDE, IT MAKES SENSE THAT
ANNA TITLES HER INCOMPLETE NOVEL ABOUT ELLA THE SHADOW OF THE THIRD.
THE BLUE NOTEBOOK OF ANNAS DIARIES RECORDS HER VENTURE INTO
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ALSO HER POLITICAL AND SEXUAL RELATIONS, BUT IT ALSO
CONTINUES THE THEME OF THE WRITER DEVELOPED THROUGHOUT THEIR BOOK AND
ESPECIALLY IN THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK. THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK INCLUDES ANNAS
STORIES ABOUT ELLA WHILE DEMONSTRATING THE WRITERS CHOICES CHARACTER,
PLOT, AND POINT OF VIEW, MOST OBVIOUSLY WHEN IT CEASES CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE
AND INSTEAD CONSISTS OF NUMBERED STORY IDEAS ABOUT HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONS.
THESE NUMBERS APPEAR PARENTHETICALLY IN THE BLUE NOTEBOOK, WHERE THEY
EXPLAIN THE SITUATIONS THAT GAVE RISE TO THE STORY IDEAS OR SHOW HOW THE
STORIES MIGHT BE WRITTEN. THE SINGLE DAY THAT ANNA CHOOSES TO CHRONICLE IN
HER BLUE NOTEBOOK IS SEPTEMBER 16, 1954. IT BEGINS WITH THE ATTEMPT TO
WRITE DOWN, AS TRUTHFULLY AS I CAN, EVERY STAGE OF A DAY BUT ENDS
ILLUSTRATING THE INCOMMENSURABILITY OF ART AND LIFE AND THE INEVITABLE
FRACTURES IN SUBJECTIVITY: WHO IS THAT ANNA WHO WILL READ WHAT I WILL
WRITE?.
ON THIS DAY SHE STARTS HER MENSTRUAL PERIOD AND WORRIES ABOUT HER
IRRITABILITY, HER MOODS, AND HER BAD SMELLS. SHE REFLECTS ON A MAJOR

75

PROBLEM OF LITERARY STYLE, OF TACT, LIKE THAT FACED BY JAMES JOYCE DESCRIBING
HIS MAN IN THE ACT OF DEFECATING . ANNAS LITERARY CONCERN ABOUT BEING
TRUTHFUL IN WRITING (WHICH IS BEING TRUTHFUL ABOUT ONESELF)LEND INTO HER
CONCERNS ABOUT THE LIES IN THE CP AND HER OWN EROTIC ILLUSIONS. COOKING FOR
HER LOVER MICHAEL MAKES HER HAPPY, BUT BEING HAPPY IS A LIETHE FIGHT WITH
MY VARIOUS FORMS OF DISSATISFACTION TIRES ME. THE DAY SHE RECORDS IS THE
DAY SHE LIVES CP AND THE DAY HER LONG TERM LOVER BREAKS OFF THEIR AFFAIR, SO
THAT THE MENSTRUATION WORKS SYMBOLICALLY WITH THESE EVENTS AS AN EMBLEM
OF STERILITY, THE LOSS AT ONCE OF RED BLOOD, RED BELIEFS, AND THE TRUTHFUL
SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP. MOTHER FIGURES (MOTHER SUGAR, PATRICIA BREND, ETC, )
ARE ALL ENVIOUS OF THE WRITERS CREATIVE POWERS. THUS ANNAS DECISION IN
FREE WOMEN NOT TO WRITE MORE FICTION CAN BE SEEN AS AN ADOLESCENT
VICTORY IN THWARTING SUCH MATERNAL DESIRES. ANNA MAY ALSO BE TREATING HER
READERS AS AN ADOLESCENT DOES HER PARENTS, PROTECTING HER SENSE OF HERSELF
BY NEVER GIVING A STRAIGHTFORWARD ACCOUNT OF HER AFFAIRS. ANNAS DECISION
IN FREE WOMEN NOT TO WRITE MORE FICTION CAN BE READ AS A SELF-DEFEATING
ANTICLIMAX. THE DAY ANNA COMPLETES HER ANALYSIS WITH MOTHER SUGAR IN THE
BLUE NOTEBOOK IS ARIL 23, 1954.
THIS IS ALSO SHAKESPEARES BIRTHDAY, A
PROMISE THAT THIS ANNA WILL WRITE AGAIN. TOMMY, A PIVOTAL FIGURE IN FREE
WOMENS PLOT, IS BOTH ANOTHER DOUBLE FOR ANNA, CRITICIZING HER DIVISIONS
AND HER DIARIES, AND AN ALIENATED CHILD EAGER FOR A CONFORMITY THAT ANNA
CONDEMNS. HE IS CLOSE TO THREE MOTHER FIGURES IN FW: HIS MOTHER MOLLY,
ANNA, AND HIS STEPMOTHER MARION. HE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE, LIKE THE HERO OF
ELLAS NOVEL. INSTEAD OF KILLING HIMSELF, HOWEVER, HE IS STRICKEN BLIND,
IRONICALLY INCARNATING THE INCESTUOUS OEDIPUS. AFTER HIS INJURY, HE INHABITS
HIS MOTHERS HOUSE LIKE AN OMINOUS ORACLE, DOMINATING IT, CONSCIOUS OF
EVERYTHING THAT WENT ON IN IT, A BLIND BUT ALL-CONSCIOUS PRESENCE. HERE,
TOO RESEMBLES ANNA, WHO CLAIMS THAT WHEN SHE IS WRITING I SEEM TO HAVE
SOME AWFUL SIGHT.
TGN BOTH RELIES ON AND REJECTS FREUDIAN AND JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGIES. THE
JUNGIAN MRS. MARX, NICKNAMED MOTHER SUGAR FOR HER COMPLACENT FAITH IN
ART, TEACHES ANNA TO CONTROL HER DREAMS, TURNING TO CREATIVITY THE
MALEVOLENT, SADOMASOCHISTIC POWER OF JOY IN SPITE THAT APPEARS IN HER
FANTASIES AS AN OLD DWARF OR BEJEWELED CROCODILE. JOY IN SPITE MIGHT ALSO
BE SEEN AS THE DEATH INSTINCT THAT FREUD AFTER WW 1 DECIDED WAS AS BASIC TO
HUMAN NATURE AS SEXUAL DESIRE. THE CHARACTERS IN TGN BELIEVE FREUDS
THEORIES. THE MEN INTERPRET THEIR PSYCHES THROUGH OEDIPAL DYNAMICS, WHICH
SEPARATE DESIRABLE YOUNG WOMEN FROM MATERNAL AND THEREFORE UNDESIRABLE
WIVES, WHOM THEY ACCUSE OF TRYING TO CASTRATE THEM. THE LOWEST POINT OF
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SAUL AND ANNA IS REACHED WHEN HE CURLS INTO HER
LIKE A BABY SEEKING HIS MOTHER AND DECLARES: ISE A GOOD BOY. ANNA
HEIGHTENS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA OF FW BY CONVERTING THE MARRIED
TOMMY OF THE BLUE NOTEBOOK INTO FWSREPULSIVE, QUASI- INCESTUOUS BLIND
SEER. AND, FIGURATIVELY AT LEAST, LESSING DOES CASTRATE MANY OF HER MALE
CHARACTERS BY MAKING THEM SEXUALLY IMPOTENT. MORE LITERALLY, SHE KILLS
AIRMAN PAUL BLACKENHURST WHEN HE WALKS INTO AN AIRPLANE PROPELLER: HIS
LEGS WERE CUT OFF JUST BELOW THE CRUTCH AND HE DIED AT ONCE. ELLA WRITES A
NOVEL ABOUT A MAN WHO DOESNT REALIZE HE HAS DECIDED TO COMMIT SUICIDE
UNTIL HE DOES SO ONE EXAMPLE OF THE FREUDINA DEATH WISH, AND ALSO AN
INDICATION OF TGNS RELATIONSHIP TO ANOTHER EUROPEAN IDEOLOGY OF THE MID20TH CENTURY, EXISTENTIALISM. TGN CAN BE READ AS AN EXISTENTIALIST NOVEL THAT
ASKS ITS CHARACTERS TO CHOOSE FREEDOM OVER BOTH CONFORMITY AND

ATTACHMENT. THE WORD THREE ECHOES CONSTANTLY THROUGHOUT THE BOOK.

WHEREAS ANNA GIVES UP HER LITERALLY CAREER IN FW, THE AUTHOR OF TGN
REVELS IN HER FREEDOM TO CRITIQUE SOCIAL PIETIES AND REVISE LITERARY FORMS.
LESSINGS PROSE IS UNUSUALLY FLAT, YET SHE IS FASCINATED BY THE POWER OF
LANGUAGE. HER CHARACTERS OVERLAP OFTEN EXCHANGING NAMES, SO THAT, FOR
EXAMPLE, MICHAEL IS THE NAME OF ANNAS LOVER AND ALSO OF ELLAS SON.
LESSING ALSO SHARES WITH POSTSTRUCTURALIST THOUGHT A TENDENCY TO SEE
SUBJECTIVITY AS FLUID AND MULTIPLE FOR EACH PERSON BOTH OVER TIME AND AT THE
SAME TIME. ANNA ALSO DWELLS ON SUCH POSTSTRUCTURALIST THEMES AS THE
UNRELIABILITY OF MEMORY, THE CONTINGENCIES OF HISTORY, AND THE FAILURE OF THE
TOTALIZING GRAND NARRATIVES OF COMMUNISM, FREE ENTERPRISE DEMOCRACY, OR
PSYCHOANALYSIS. THE NOVEL THUS BECOMES THE HISTORY OF AN EFFORT TO
UNDERSTAND HISTORY AND THE FICTION OF THE EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND FICTION.
ONE OF THE JOKES OF TGN IS THAT ANNA IN FW SUFFERS FROM WRITERS BLOCK
WHILE SCRIBBLING AWAY IN THE NOTEBOOKS, INCLUDING THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK IN
WHICH HER SURROGATE ELLA COMPLETES A NOVEL. THE NOTEBOOKS CONTAIN A
MEDLEY OF LITERARY GENRES AND PARODIES OF CONTEMPORARY WRITING STYLES,
FROM WOMENS MAGAZINE GUSH TO MACHO PROSE, COMMUNIST REALISM, ETC. ANNA
BELIEVES THAT FRAGMENTATION OF EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED TO THE THINNING OF
LANGUAGE AGAINST THE DENSITY OF OUR EXPERIENCE. LIKE MUCH OF LESSINGS
FICTION, TGN IS CLEARLY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. IN TGN LESSING CHANGES THE
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE WOMANS NOVEL, WORKING AGAINST MARRIAGE PLOT
AND ALLOWING ANNA AN OPEN-ENDED SELF-CRITICAL QUEST. SELF-CENTERED AND
GENEROUS, OPINIONATED AND OPEN-MINDED, SHE IS ONE OF THE MAJOR CHARACTERS
OF THE 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE.

THE FIVE SEGMENTS OF FW BEGIN AND END TGN THIS SHORT NOVEL OPENS WITH
ANNA AND MOLLY TALKING IN ANNAS KITCHEN. AT THE END OF THE FIRST FW
SECTION, ANNA IS SITTING ON HER MUSIC STOOL LOOKING DOWN AT HER FOUR
NOTEBOOKS AS IF SHE WERE A GENERAL ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN, WATCHING HER
ARMIES DEPLOY IN THE VALLEY BELOW. ONE REASON THAT ANNA HAS NOT WRITTEN A
SECOND NOVEL IS THAT THE THINNING OF LANGUAGE AGAINST THE DENSITY OF OUR
EXPERIENCE CONVINCES HER THAT FICTION WILL ALWAYS BE A DISTORTION FOR HER.
HOWEVER, TGN MEETS HER DEMANDING CRITERIA; IT MAKES A PHILOSOPHIC
STATEMENT AND PROVIDES A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT LIFE. IT COMBINES THE RAW
TENTATIVE CRUDENESS OF EXPERIENCE WITH THE FINISH OF ARTISTIC FORM. IT EVEN
EVADES THE PROBLEM OF BEING MOLDED BY ITS ENDING, FOR ANNA OF FW AND TGN
EMBARK ON DIFFERENT CAREERS, THE FORMER TO TEACHING AND SOCIAL WORK, THE
LATTER TO WRITING. THE RESULT OF ANNAS AUTHORSHIP IS UNUSUAL DISTANCING OF
THE WRITER FROM THE WORK. LESSING CAN STAND ASIDE TO THE DEGREE NORMALLY
POSSIBLE ONLY IN A FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE, YET BE FREE OF ITS RESTRICTIONS. AS
A RESULT, THE ENTIRE NOVEL IS PART OF ANNAS SELF- REVELATION EVEN AS THE
READER SEEMS TO MOVE OUT OF HER MIND AND LOOK AT HER THROUGH THE VISION OF
AN OMNISCIENT NARRATOR. THIS METHOD OF NARRATION IS PERFECTLY DESIGNED TO
ACCOMPLISH LESSINGS PURPOSE, DRAMATIZING ANNAS GROWING KNOWLEDGE OF
HER OWN NATURE AND ILLUSTRATING THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PSYCHE. IT IS
IMPORTANT TO DISTINGUISH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE BETWEEN FACT AND FICTION
EVEN WHILE BEING SENSITIVE TO THE WAY LESSING BLENDS THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN
THEM. SINCE LESSING WISHES IN THIS NOVEL TO DEAL WITH THE RELATIONSHIP OF
FICTION AND EXPERIENCE - TO SHOW HOW FICTION INEVITABLY SIMPLIFIES AND
DISTORTS SHE CAREFULLY SETS UP TWO LEVELS OF FICTION.

77

WHAT

WE SHALL CALL THE REAL ANNA IS JUST ONCE REMOVED FROM LIFE; SHE IS
THE AUTHOR OF THE NOTEBOOKS, FW, AND TGN ITSELF (STANDING IN FOR LESSING
AS A FIRST PERSON NARRATOR WOULD DO).
SIMILARLY, OTHER REAL CHARACTERS APPEAR IN THE BLUE, BLACK, AND RED
NOTEBOOKS, WHICH PURPORT TO BE THE FACTS OF THIS ANNAS LIFE. WHAT WE SHALL
CALL FICTIONAL CHARACTERS ARE TWICE REMOVED FROM REALITY, THE REAL ANNAS
CREATIONS IN FW AND THE SHADOW OF THE THIRD (NOVEL WITHIN THE NOVEL), AND
TO SOME DEGREE THE FINAL NOTEBOOKS: THE LAST BLUE NOTEBOOK AND THE GOLDEN
NOTEBOOK. HOWEVER, THE DIVISION BETWEEN WHAT IS REAL AND FICTIONAL IS NOT
ALWAYS CLEARLY DEFINED, SINCE THERE ARE DISCREPANCIES, UNDOUBTEDLY
INTENTIONAL. (ANNA USES FICTIONAL NAME WILHELM RODDE FOR HER HUSBAND MAX
WULF). SINCE LESSING ALWAYS WISHES TO BLUR THE DISTINCTION, THE READER NEEDS
TO HOLD IN MIND THAT LESSINGS WHOLE POINT IS THAT TRUTH IS VIRTUALLY
IMPOSSIBLE EITHER TO DISCERN OR COMMUNICATE, THAT THE WRITTEN WORD
INEVITABLY DISTORTS. STILL, TO SEE CLEARLY WHERE ART AND LIFE MERGE, IT IS
NECESSARY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THEM WHERE POSSIBLE. THE SHADOW OF THE
THIRD AND FW PRESENT NO PROBLEM, SINCE THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY FICTION BASED N
ANNAS LIFE: HEROINE OF FW BEARS ANNAS OWN NAME, AND THE ANNA OF THE
NOTEBOOKS SEES THAT HER CREATION, ELLA, IS AT LEAST PARTLY BASED UPON
HERSELF. SHE WRITES I, ANNA, SEE ELLA WHO IS OF COURSE ANNA. BUT THAT IS
THE POINT, FOR SHE IS NOT. THE MOMENT I, ANNA WRITE: ELLA RINGS UP JULIA TO
ANNOUNCE, ETC, THAN ELLA FLOATS AWAY FROM ME AND BECOMES SOMEONE ELSE.
LIKE ANNA, ELLA IS A WRITER, ALTHOUGH SHE IS NOT SUFFERING FROM THE WRITERS
BLOCK. IN THE SHADOW ELLA WRITES AND PUBLISHES A NOVEL THAT ITSELF DEAL
WITH SPLIT PERSONALITY: THE PROTAGONIST UNCONSCIOUSLY HEADS TOWARD SUICIDE,
A MOTIVE NOT APPARENT UNTIL THE END. ELLA WORKS FOR A MAGAZINE, WOMEN AT
HOME, ANSWERING LETTERS FROM LONELY DEFEATING WOMEN, WHO WRITE FOR HELP.
SIMILARLY, ANNA DOES WHAT SHE CALLS WELFARE WORK AT THE CP HEADQUARTERS,
ANSWERING LETTERS FROM PARTY MEMBERS AND TRYING TO HELP THEM WITH THEIR
PROBLEMS.
THE ANNA OF FW BEARS A CLOSE RESEMBLANCE TO THE REAL ANNA. LIKE HER, SHE
IS HAVING DIFFICULTIES OVERCOMING HER DESERTION BY MICHAEL. SHE HAS A
DAUGHTER JANET. LIKE THE REAL ANNA SHE HAS ONCE LIVED IN A SMALL APARTMENT
IN HER FRIEND MOLLYS HOUSE. SHE HAS WRITTEN A BEST - SELLING NOVEL, BUT IS
NOT INTERESTED IN WRITING ANOTHER. SHE ALSO SEES MOTHER SUGAR, AND LIKE THE
REAL ANNA SHE HAS A BRIEF AFFAIR WITH AN AMERICAN, MILT.
ANNA OF FW DIFFERS FROM HER COUNTERPART IN DECIDING TO BECOME A TEACHER
AND MARRIAGE COUNSELOR; SHE DOES NOT INTEND TO WRITE AGAIN. MARIAN AND
RICHARD ARE ALMOST ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. TOMMY IS BOTH REAL AND FICTIONAL, BUT
THE FACTS DIFFER GREATLY FROM THE VERSION OF IN FW. TOMMY OF FW HAS A
CHARACTER SIMILAR TO THE TOMMY OF THE NOTEBOOKS, BUT THE FACTS OF HIS LIFE
ARE EXAGGERATED FOR THE SAKE OF FICTION. MOLLY IS MOSTLY FICTIONAL. FROM
TIME TO TIME SHE DOES APPEAR IN NOTEBOOKS. SHE IS A PRODUCT OF FW AND THE
SHADOW, WHERE HER NAME IS JULIA. MICHAEL, ANNAS REAL LIFE - LOVER, IS NOT
AS FULLY DEVELOPED AS HIS COUNTERPART, PAUL TANNER, IN THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK
BUT THERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT HIM. SAUL GREEN APPEARS ONLY IN
THE FINAL BLUE NOTEBOOK AND THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, WHICH ARE COMBINED FACT
AND FICTION. BOTH ANNA AND SAUL ARE A BLEND OF FACT AND FICTION, BUT IT IS
ONLY ANNAS PSYCHE THAT IS EXPLORED DEEPLY. THE REASON FOR THE DIFFERENT USE
OF ANNA IS THAT SHE IS SUFFERING FROM A NEUROTIC FRAGMENTATION OF HER
PERSONALITY. THE OUTWARD SIDE OF HER CONDITION IS HER INABILITY TO PUT ALL OF
HERSELF IN ONE BOOK; SINCE HER IDEAS AND EXPERIENCES CONFLICT, SHE FEELS

COMPELLED TO PUT THEM IN SEPARATE COMPARTMENTS. THE NOTEBOOKS COVER A

SEVEN YEAR PERIOD, FROM 1950 1957. IN ANNAS RELATIONSHIP WITH MOTHER
SUGAR IS LEARNED THAT ANNA MAKES SOME IMPORTANT DISTINCTIONS IN HER VIEWS
OF NEUROSIS. ANNA WENT FOR HELP ORIGINALLY NOT BECAUSE OF AN INABILITY TO
WRITE IN ONE BOOK, BUT BECAUSE SHE WAS NO LONGER TOUCHED BY EMOTION AND
WHEN SHE HAS REGAINED FEELING, SHE NO LONGER GOES. ANNA BELIEVES THAT
NEUROSIS MAY BE A SIGN OF SUPERIORITY, OF BEING HIGHLY CONSCIOUS AND
DEVELOPED. PEOPLE STAY SANE BY BLOCKING OFF, BY LIMITING THEMSELVES. ANNA
DOES NOT WISH TO LIVE WITHOUT CONFLICTS, AND SHE FINALLY PARTS COMPANY WITH
MOTHER SUGAR ON THIS CENTRAL DIFFERENCE: JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY WOULD HAVE
ANNA NEUTRALIZE HER PAINFUL MEMORIES AND DREAMS BY RELATING THEM TO MYTH
THAT IS, TO GENERAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND BE CURED BY PLACING HER PROBLEMS
OUTSIDE HERSELF IN THIS MANNER. HOWEVER, ANNA INSISTS THAT IT IS MORE
IMPORTANT TO BE MORALLY BETTER THAN CLINICALLY HEALTHY. SHE WOULD
PREFER TO LIVE WITH THE PAIN AND THE UNRESOLVABLE CONFLICTS. ANYTHING THAT IS
WHOLE AND FINISHED HAS A DEAD QUALITY, WHETHER IT IS A WORK OF ART OR A
HUMAN BEING. ANNA FINALLY ACHIEVES THE SORT OF UNITY THAT IS NOT STERILE AND
DEAD, BUT TO DO SO TAKES AN ENORMOUS EFFORT. IN FW RICHARD, MARIAN AND
TOMMY ARE EXAMPLES OF THE COST OF FAILING TO DO SO. UNLIKE THESE OTHERS,
ANNA REFUSES TO CUT HERSELF OFF FROM DIFFICULT EXPERIENCE. ANNAS
INTEGRATION AND THE ATTEMPTS TOWARD IT OF ALL LESSINGS PROTAGONISTS BEAR A
STRONG RESEMBLANCE TO JUNGS PROCESS OF INDIVIDUATION AND ALSO THE
ALCHEMICAL ART THAT DESCRIBED THE TRANSMUTATION OF BASE METALS INTO GOLD.
THE ALCHEMICAL WORK IS ACTUALLY A METAPHOR FOR THE INTEGRATION AND
REFINEMENT OF MAN HIMSELF.
INDIVIDUATION HAS A FREE EFFECT. ANNAS
INTEGRATION FOLLOWS THE JUNGIAN PATTERN. SHE EXPLORES HER UNCONSCIOUS AND
DISCOVERS THERE THE ESSENTIAL OPPOSITES TO HER OUTWARD PERSONALITY. THE
RESULT OF THIS INTEGRATION IS THAT SHE TAKES AN ENTIRELY NEW STANCE TOWARD
LIFE: SHE IS SOMEHOW ABLE TO RISE ABOVE THE EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL
DILEMMAS THAT HAD ENTANGLED HER, AND HER CREATIVITY IS FREED.
ANNA SUFFERS FROM NEUROSIS BECAUSE SHE IS ALREADY MORE CONSCIOUS AND
DEVELOPED THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON. AT THE SAME TIME, ANNA HAS STRONG
EMPATHY FOR THE WORLDS MISERY AND IS OVERCOME BY HER HELPLESSNESS IN THE
FACE OF MODERN ENORMITIES. THE RESULT IS A BACKING AWAY FROM EMOTION,
ALTHOUGH SHE DOES NOT SEE THE CAUSE OF HER NEUROSIS UNTIL LATER: IN A
WORLD AS TERRIBLE AS THIS, LIMIT EMOTION. HOW ODD I DIDNT SEE IT BEFORE.
BESIDES HER DISCUSSED FOR FRONTIERS OF WAR, ANNA IS FRAGMENTED BECAUSE SHE
DELIBERATELY HOLDS TO HER COMPLEXITY, EVEN BEFORE SHE REALIZES THE
SIGNIFICANCE OF DOING SO. SHE COULD PUT ALL OF HERSELF IN ONE BOOK IF SHE
WERE WILLING TO SUPPRESS PART OF HER NATURE. INSTEAD, SHE CONSIGNS THE
CONFLICTING AREAS TO DIFFERENT NOTEBOOKS. SINCE SHE CANNOT CONCENTRATE HER
POWER ON ONE CREATIVE WORK, SHE SUFFERS FROM A WRITERS BLOCK. MOTHER
SUGAR SEES FROM THE BEGINNING THAT THIS IS ANNAS MAIN PROBLEM, ALTHOUGH
ANNA DOES NOT ADMIT TO HERSELF 7 YEARS AFTER FIRST SESSION. ANNAS WRITERS
BLOCK IS THE FOCUS OF ALL THE MOTIVES IN THE NOVEL. WHEN SHE IS FINALLY ABLE
TO RETURN TO WRITING, IT IS BECAUSE SHE HAS FOUND THE VISION NECESSARY TO
RECONCILE THE DUALITIES IN HER OWN NATURE AND IN REALITY AS A WHOLE. THERE
ARE 7 MAIN DUALITIES THAT ANNA MUST RESOLVE. FIRST IS THE NEED FOR EMOTION
SET BESIDE THE DIFFICULTY OF ENDURING IT IN A WORLD THAT OFFERS SO MUCH PAIN.
SECOND IS THE PROBLEM OF THE TRADITIONAL VERSUS THE MODERN WOMAN. ANNA
OF THE 1950S MUST LEAD AN INDEPENDENT LIFE, FREE OF WHAT SHE CONSIDERS

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OUTDATED CONVENTIONS; YET HER EMOTIONS ARE FROM ANOTHER ERA IN WHICH SHE
MIGHT HAVE HOPED FOR A PERMANENT AND LOVING MARRIAGE. THE 3D DUALITY IS
BETWEEN CREATIVE NAIVETY AND CYNICISM. CLOSELY RELATED IS THE FOURTH,
BETWEEN IDEALISM AND A HOPELESS SENSE OF FATALITY. FIFTH IS DICHOTOMY
BETWEEN THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE: HUMANITY AS A WHOLE, THE SUM
OF INDIVIDUAL LIVES. SIXTH IS DUALITY BETWEEN FORM AND CHAOS. FINALLY, THERE
IS THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN THE GENEROSITY OR HELPFULNESS AND JOY IN SPITE
OR JOY - IN DISTRACTION. THE NATURE OF THESE OPPOSITES AS LESSING DEFINES
THEM WILL BECOME CLEAR AS WE TRACE ANNAS RECONCILIATION OF EACH OF THEM
THROUGH THE PSYCHIATRIC HELP, SELF REVELATION IN THE NOTEBOOKS, AND A
PILGRIMAGE INTO HER PSYCHE DURING A PERIOD OF MADNESS. IN THE FINAL
INSTALLMENT OF THE BLUE NOTEBOOK AND THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK ALL OF THESE
MOTIVES ARE ORCHESTRATED AND RESOLVED IN A COMPLEX MIXTURE OF FACT, FICTION,
DREAM, AND HALLUCINATION. AFTER THIS UNIFYING EXPERIENCE ANNA IS ONCE AGAIN
ABLE TO WRITE. UNLIKE ITS TREATMENT OF THE OTHER DUALITIES, TGN DOES NOT
DRAMATIZE EITHER ANNAS LACK OF EMOTION OR HER REGAINING OF IT.
IT MERELY PROVIDES ANNAS STATEMENT THAT THIS SYMPTOM LED HER TO AN ANALYST
AND THAT AFTER 3 YEARS SHE HAS LEARNED TO LIVE WITH WHAT SHE CALLS HER
PRIVATE PAIN MATERIAL. SHE THAN REFUSES TO NEUTRALIZE THE PAIN BY RELATING IT
TO MYTH, SAYING THAT IT IS SIMPLY A MANIFESTATION OF EVER RECURRING HUMAN
PATTERNS, SINCE SHE BELIEVES THAT PAIN AND CONFLICT MAY BE THE HARBINGERS OF
NEW FORMS OF EXPERIENCE.
THE PROBLEM OF ANNA THE MODERN WOMAN FORCED TO DEAL WITH TRADITIONALLY
FEMALE EMOTIONS IS EXPLORED PREDOMINANTLY IN THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK IN THE
SHADOW IT IS ONLY HERE, AFTER THE FACT, THAT ANNA REALIZES THE EXTENT OF
HER SPLIT IN HER NATURE. ANNA CONSIDERS HERSELF FREE OF TRADITIONAL
CONVENTIONS ABOUT WOMEN. SHE SUPPORTS HERSELF FINANCIALLY AND IS SEXUALLY
LIBERATED. HOWEVER, WHILE ANNA APPEARS TO BE INDEPENDENT, SHE HAS ACTUALLY
BECOME DEEPLY DEPENDANT MICHAEL DURING THEIR FIVE YEARS TOGETHER. PART OF
HER INTEGRATION MUST BE TO RECOGNIZE THIS DEEP SPLIT IN HER NATURE; ONLY THEN
WILL SHE BE ABLE TO RESOLVE IT. ANNAS DEPENDENCE ON MICHAEL IS UNDERSTATED
IN FW AND THE NOTEBOOKS; IT IS ONLY IN THE SHADOW THAT THE READER AND
ANNA HERSELF BECOME AWARE OF IT. ANNA FEELS THAT THE POINT OF HER NOVEL,
REFLECTED IN THE TITLE, IS THE WAY ELLA AND PAULS AFFAIR BRINGS BOTH THEIR
SHADOWS INTO EXISTENCE. PAULS IS THE CARELESS RAKE. ELLAS IS THE SERENE,
CALM, UNJELAOUS, UNENVIOUS, UNDEMANDING WOMAN, FULL OF RECOURSE OF
HAPPINESS INSIDE HERSELF, SELF- SUFFICIENT, YET ALWAYS READY TO GIVE HAPPINESS
WHEN IT IS ASKED FOR. ELLA SEES THAT AS SHE BECOMES MORE INDEPENDENT,
JEALOUS, AND DEMANDING, HER VIEW OF THIS UNSELFISH FIGURE GETS STRONGER,
CENTERED AN IMAGINARY VISION PAULS WIFE, WHOM SHE HAS NEVER SEEN. JUST AS
ELLA IS PROJECT TING HER OWN SHADOW ONTO PAULS WIFE, ANNA IS PROJECTING
HERS ONTO ELLA.
IN THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK, ANNA BREAKS INTO HER NARRATIVE, INFORMING THE
READER THAT AS ELLAS ALTER EGO GETS STRONGER, HER PERSONALITY
DISINTEGRATES. ONE SYMPTOM IS A NEW DRY CYNICISM AND DISILLUSION WITH MEN.
AT THIS POINT ANNA AND ELLA ARE CLEARLY ALIKE. ON THE FINAL INSTALLMENT OF
THE BLUE NOTEBOOK AND THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, ANNA AND SAUL DO SUCCEED IN
CREATING TUAL STRENGTH ON THE CHAOS OF THEIR MADNESS. IT IS IN THE FINAL
NOTEBOOKS THAT ANNA OVERCOMES THIS PROBLEM OF HER RELATIONSHIP WITH SAUL.
IN MADNESS SHE ENCOUNTERS THE SHADOW SIDE OF HER FEMALE NATURE. IN THE
BLUE NOTEBOOK SHE BECOMES INSANELY JEALOUS, ACCUSING SAUL OF SEEING OTHER
WOMEN AND EVEN READING HIS DIARY TO FIND OUT IF HE HAS BEEN DOING SO.

JEALOUSY

IS UNLIKE ANNAS OUTER PERSONALITY, BUT IT ONLY A STEP FROM THE

EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCE SHE HAS LEARNED TO RECOGNIZE HERSELF. BY RECOGNIZING
HER SHADOW, ANNA LESSENS ITS POWER OVER HER. WITH SAUL ANNA EXPERIENCES
FOR THE FIRST TIME A TRULY CREATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH THE MAN THAT DOES NOT SAP
HER INDEPENDENCE, AND ONE WATCHES HER INTENSE STRUGGLE TO BE CAPABLE OF
SUCH A BREAKTHROUGH. IN ONE FINAL CRISIS SHE CRADLES SAUL IN HER ARMS OUT OF
PITY FOR HIS ILLNESS AND HER OWN NEED TO BE NEEDED. IT IS A GREAT VICTORY FOR
ANNA TO BE ABLE TO TELL SAUL TO LEAVE WHEN SHE SEES THAT THEY ARE BECOMING
BAD FOR EACH OTHER, ENDANGER OF MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. WHEN HE GOES, SHE IS
ABLE TO FACE HIS DEPARTURE WITH EQUANIMITY AND HER AFFECTION IS ON A NEW,
HIGH PLANE.
THE YELLOW NOTEBOOK AND THE FW DRAMATIZE THE UNDERCURRENT OF COMPLEXITY
IN ANNAS RELATIONSHIP WITH MOLLY. IN FACT, MOLLY IS LESS IMPORTANT IN THE
NOVEL FOR HERSELF THAN FOR WHAT SHE SHOWS ABOUT ANNA. IN BOTH FW AND THE
SHADOW ONE OF THE STRONG BONDS BETWEEN THE TWO WOMEN IS THEIR MUTUAL
CRITICISM OF MEN. ELLA DESCRIBES A SIMILAR RELATIONSHIP WITH JULIA AS
PSYCHOLOGICAL LESBIANISM. AND WHEN ANNA LEAVES JULIAS APARTMENT WRYLY
THAT IT IS LIKE THE BREAK UP OF A MARRIAGE.
THE OTHER IMPORTANT
UNDERCURRENT OF MOLLY AND ANNAS FRIENDSHIP IS THEIR MOTHER DAUGHTER
RELATIONSHIP. IN FW MOLLY CONSTANTLY DEMONSTRATES WITH ANNA ABOUT NOT
WRITING. BOTH MOLLY AND JULIA ADVISE ANNA/ELLA ABOUT SOCIAL LIFE AND
CLOTHES. IN THE SHADOW ELLA SEES THAT JULIA HAS DOMINATED HER AND THAT SHE
HAD BEEN PREPARED TO BE DOMINATED LEAVING JULIAS HOUSE WAS LIKE
DAUGHTERS LEAVING MOTHERS HOUSE. IT IS A NECESSARY STEP BEFORE SHE CAN
WALK OFF ALONE, ANNA FREEMAN.
IN THE FINAL BLUE NOTEBOOK AND GOLDEN NOTEBOOK SEVERAL IMPORTANT EVENTS
SIGNIFY ANNAS DEFEAT OF CYNICISM.
PAUL, THE MODEL FOR ANNAS HERO IN FRONTIERS OF WAR AND PROBABLY THE
SOURCE OF THE NAME FOR ELLAS LOVER, IS CHARMING AND LIKABLE, BUT HIS
OUTSTANDING CHARACTERISTIC IS A MOCKING CYNICISM, WHICH HE OFTEN DIRECTS
AGAINST OTHERS CRUELLY. IT IS A TRAIT CHARACTERISTIC OF ANNA IN FW UNTIL
TOMMYS DISASTER. HER FIRST RECOGNITION OF THIS PERNICIOUS TRAIT IN HERSELF IS
DRAMATIZED IN A DREAM VISION. VARIOUS ACQUAINTANCES FROM HER AFRICAN YEARS
TRY TO FIT THEMSELVES INTO HER BODY AS SHE LIES IN THE BAD. WHEN PAUL TRIES,
ANNA IS SUDDENLY AWARE OF DANGER. ANNAS DISPLACEMENT OF THE DEAD PAUL IS
AN IMAGE FOR RIDDING HERSELF OF THE COLD CYNICISM SHE HAS SLIPPED INTO SINCE
MICHAEL HAS LEFT HER.
IN TGN A STILL MORE POSITIVE EXPERIENCE OCCURS: IN A DREAM ANNA SEES PAUL
TANNER, ELLAS LOVER, WHOSE QUALITY OF DRY CRITICAL IRONY HAS SLOWLY
DEFEATED THE IDEALISM IN HAND, AS IT HAS IN ANNA. IN THE SHADOW PAUL HAD
VOICED A RATHER CYNIYAL IDEALISM, THAN INSTEAD BEING A RESEARCHER HE HAD
HOPED TO BE, HIS JOB WAS TO BE A BOULDER PUSHER, PUSHING THE BOULDER OF
TRUTH THAT GREAT MAN INSTINCTIVELY KNOW, UP THE MOUNTAIN OF HUMAN
STUPIDITY. HE HATES HIS JOB, TREATING ILLNESS THAT IS CAUSED BY A SOCIETY SO
STUPID THAT - I WISH I HAD DIED ELLA, I WISH
I HAD DIED. IN ANNAS
HALLUCINATION, PAUL AND MICHAEL MERGE, FORMING A NEW MAN OF HEROIC SIZE
AND STRENGTH. HE VICES PAULS IDEALISM, BUT THIS TIME WITHOUT CYNICISM.
THE DUALITY OF IDEALISM AND A SENSE OF HOPELESS FATALITY CLOSELY RELATED TO
NAIVETY AND CYNICISM, IS THE SUBJECT OF THE RED NOTEBOOK. ANNA JOINS THE CP
BECAUSE OF HER IDEALISM. TO REMAIN A COMMUNIST IS TO BE FRAGMENTED LIKE
JACK, HER COWORKER AT COMMUNIST HEADQUARTER, WHO MUST CLOSE HIS EYES TO

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MUCH WHAT IS GOING ON WITHIN THE PARTY. THE IMPORTANCE OF IDEALISM IS MAJOR
THEME OF TGN, AND ANNAS REGAINING OF IT IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF HER
INTEGRATION. ANNA IS ABOVE ALL SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS. SHE WISHED TO WORK FOR
THE GOOD OF HUMANITY, BUT ALL EFFORT SEEMS DOOMED TO NEGATION. ONE OF HER
CENTRAL NIGHTMARES IS REPORTED IN THE BLUE NOTEBOOK. THE COMMANDER OF THE
FIRING SQUAD, ABOUT TO HAVE AN ENEMY SHOT, HEARS LOUD CRIES ANNOUNCING THE
DEFEAT OF HIS SIDE AND THE VICTORY OF CAPTIVES. WITH IRONIC LOOKS, THE TWO
MEN CHANGE PLACES, AND THE FORMER COMMANDER IS HIMSELF SHOT BY THE
OTHERS COMMAND: NO RIGHT, NO WRONG, SIMPLY A PROCESS, A WHEEL TURNING.
SUCH KNOWLEDGE CANCELS ALL CREATIVE EMOTION. BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE
NOTHING TO BELIEVE IN, THEY SUFFER FROM A LACK OF FEELING, A CONDITION OF THE
TIMES. WITHOUT IDEALISM, A PERSON CANNOT ACT RESPONSIVELY. IT IS IN FW THAT
ANNA MAKES THIS POINT MOST CLEARLY, DRAMATIZED IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
ANNA AND TOMMY. WHEN THE HISTORICAL TOMMY COMES TO HER, SHE KNOWS HE
WANTS SOMETHING FROM HER, BUT SHE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS. THEIR
CONVERSATION CENTERS ON HER NOTEBOOKS, WHICH HAVE UPSET HIM. LATER ANNA IS
HAUNTED BY GUILT THAT SHE HAS SOMEHOW FAILED TOMMY AND UNWITTINGLY
CONTRIBUTED TO HIS ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT TOMMY IS LOOKING
FOR SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN. HE SEES THAT ANNAS SEPARATE NOTEBOOKS ARE A
SIGN OF HER OWN UNCERTAINTIES AND DIVISIONS. THE IMPLICATION IS CLEAR:
CYNICISM BEGETS DESPAIR WHEREAS IDEALISM MAY INSPIRE. ANNA OF THE SEPARATE
NOTEBOOKS, CYNICAL AND DIVIDED CANNOT ACT RESPONSIVELY. ONLY AFTER HER
INTEGRATION WILL SHE BE RID OF HER PARALYSIS OF WILL; THEN AS A COUNSELOR
AND TEACHER, ANNA OF FW WILL BE ABLE TO HELP OTHERS, AND THE ANNA WHO
WRITES TGN WILL BE ABLE TO SHARE HER CREATIVE VISION.
THE CENTRAL DUALITY OF THE NOVEL CONCERNS WHAT ANNA CALLS JOYIN-SPITE, OR
JOY-IN-DESTRUCTION. ANNA MUST RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT THE DESTRUCTIVE IMPULSE
NOT JUST IN A UNIVERSE AS A WHOLE, BUT ALSO IN HERSELF. TO DOS O IS DISARM ITS
POTENTIAL TO DESTROY HER PERSONALITY. JOY-IN-DESTRUCTION IS PERVASIVE AND
UNAVOIDABLE. ELLA HAS HAD A VISION OF IT SINCE HER SIX-MONTH STAY IN A
TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIUM. IT IS DRAMATIZED IN ANNAS MEMORY OF THE PIGEON
HUNT AT THE MASHOPY HOTEL. IN ANNAS DREAMS JOY-IN- DESTRUCTION IS
GRINNING, MALICIOUS DEMON. IN LIFE IT IS EMBODIED IN NELSON, WHO IN SOME
MOODS LASHES OUT CRUELLY AT THE WOMEN HE CARES FOR. MORE PURELY IT IS IN DA
SILVA, WHO TELLS HIS FRIENDS WIFE ABOUT HER HUSBANDS AFFAIR WITH THE
CLEANING WOMAN JUST TO SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN. AND IT IS IN ANNA WHEN SHE
USES A TONE OF MOCKING IRONY. IT IS THE EMOTION NOSTALGIA FROM WHICH SHE
WROTE THE FRONTIERS OF WAR. ANNA IS NOT INTERESTED IN WRITING ANOTHER
NOVEL BECAUSE OF HER HORROR AT THE EMOTION FROM WHICH HER FIRST BOOK
ORIGINATED. ANNAS MAIN REVELATION IS THE PARADOX THAT JOY-IN-DESTRUCTION
HAS AN INHERENT CREATIVE POWER. MOTHER SUGAR HINTS AS MUCH. RECOGNIZING
THE MALICIOUS ELF OF ANNAS DREAMS SHE SAYS, IT IS DANGEROUS TO YOU AS LONG
AS YOU FEAR IT. HOWEVER, ANNA MUST EXPERIENCE ITS CREATIVITY FOR HERSELF.
ONLY WHEN HER EGO DISINTEGRATES IN MADNESS AND SHE EMERGES WITH A NEW AND
FINER VISION DOES SHE SEE THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF DESTRUCTION AND
DISSOLUTION. THE CENTRAL PARADOX OF TGN IS THAT THE SAME FORCE THAT GIVES
RISE TO MALICIOUS CRUELTY, WAR, HOPELESS MADNESS, AND NOVELS THAT FEED
MANKINDS DEATH WISH THIS SAME FORCE MAY ALSO BE THE SEEDBED OF NEW
CREATION. IT MAY BE THE CRACK THROUGH WHICH THE FUTURE MAY POUR THROUGH
IN A DIFFERENT SHAPE FROM SOMEONE LIKE SAUL GEEEN, PERHAPS, WHO REFUSES
TO BE MOLDED INTO ONE OF SOCIETYS SHAPES AND COURAGEOUSLY ENDURES HIS
BOUTS OF MADNESS UNTIL HE CAN COME THROUGH THEM IN A FORM ACCEPTABLE TO

HIM. THE PARADOX OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION IS EMBODIED IN A CENTRAL IMAGE

IN TGN IN ONE OF LESSINGS FINES PASSAGES (ANNA DREAMS SHE IS BACK AT THE
MASHOPY). IT IS WHILE IN THE DEEPEST THROES OF MENTAL DISSOLUTION THAT ANNA
IS ABLE TO PERCEIVE THE MERGING OF CREATIVITY WITH DESTRUCTION. SHE ENTERS
THIS STATE OF MADNESS WILLINGLY BECAUSE SHE SENSES ITS CREATIVE POTENTIAL.
DURING THIS VISIONARY STATE OF DISSOLUTION AND CHAOS, ANNA SEES THE CREATIVE
POTENTIAL OF DESTRUCTION, THAT WAR WAS WORKING IN US ALL, TOWARDS
FRUITION. ONLY AT THAT POINT DOES SHE HAVE A DREAM IN WHICH SHE HERSELF
EMBODIES JOY-IN-DESTRUCTION: BUT INSTEAD OF BEING LEFT WITH A SENSE OF
FRIGHT, SHE AWAKES SUFFUSED WITH PEACE: IN SOME WAY STILL UNCLEAR TO HER SHE
HAS DREAMED THE DREAM POSITIVELY. ANNA CAN CONTROL THE PAINFUL
EXPERIENCES OF HER LIFE BY NAMING THEM: IN THIS WAY, AS ANNA PUTS IT, SHE
BUTTONS UP THE VARIOUS PERIODS OF HER LIFE AND ASPECTS OF HER
RELATIONSHIP WITH SAUL BY DESCRIBING THEM IN A PHRASE. FINALLY, ANNA CAN GIVE
FORM TO THE BEWILDERING COMPLEXITY OF EXPERIENCE BY WRITING. THE HUMAN
MIND CANNOT TOLERATE FORMLESSNESS: THIS IS APPARENTLY WHAT SAUL MEANS
WHEN HE TELLS ANNA THAT SHE MUST START WRITING AGAIN, THAT IF SHE DOES NOT
SHE WILL CRACK UP. THE RESULT IS FW AND LATER ITS INTEGRATION WITH THE
NOTEBOOKS TO FORM COMPLETED NOVEL. THE WHOLE POINT OF ADDING THIS TYPICAL,
REALISTIC NOVEL IS TO CONTRAST TRADITIONAL FICTION (FORM), WITH COMPLEX
HODGE-PODGE EXPERIENCE. ONE INCIDENT AFTER ANOTHER ECHOES THE RUSH OF
EVENTS IN ANNAS LIFE, CULMINATING IN THE CALMLY TOLD AFFAIR WITH MILT, WHICH
GROSSLY OVERSIMPLIFIES THE BEDLAM SHARED IN THE NOTEBOOKS.
ALL THE FINAL RESOLUTIONS OF DUALITY OCCUR IN THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK SECTION:
ANNA LEARNS TO BALANCE HER INDEPENDENCE FROM TRADITION WITH HER EMOTIONAL
DEPENDENCE; SHE IMAGINES MICHAEL AND PAUL TANNER MERGING IN A HEROIC NEW
VOICE THAT BALANCES HOPELESS FATALITY WITH IDEALISM: SHE CAN MERGE HER
INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY WITH THE COLLECTIVE, GAINING A NEW FAITH IN THE
COURAGEOUS ENDURANCE OF ORDINARY LIVES: SHE LEARNS TO BALANCE CREATIVITY
WITH JOY-IN-DESTRUCTION AND FORM WITH CHAOS. IN EVERY SHE HAS HAD TO
RETRIEVE FROM HER UNCONSCIOUS THE OPPOSITE TO EVERY EMOTION, TRAIT, OR IDEA
THAT SHE DISPLAYED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NOVEL.
TGN, IN WHICH ANNAS FATAL RESOLUTION OCCURS, HAS A NUMBER OF ALCHEMICAL
PARALLELS. AS SEEN ALONG WITH THE FINAL BLUE NOTEBOOK, ITS GENERAL PATTERN
IS ANALOGOUS TO ALCHEMICAL DISSOLUTION AND INTEGRATION.
TGN IS THE ONE LESSING NOVEL IN WHICH A TIGHT STRUCTURE MIRRORS THE MAIN
THEME. THE NOTEBOOKS REPRESENT THE CITY, THE FORMS OF HALF-KNOWLEDGE THAT
HAVE BOUND ANNA. EVEN TRADITIONAL LITERATURE (FRONTIERS OF WAR, THE
SHADOW, FW) TURNS OUT TO BE A STRUCTURE OF THE CITY, FORM MADE POSSIBLE
ONLY WHEN THE CHAOTIC MASS OF EXPERIENCE, AND LIFES TENTATIVENESS, ARE SET
ASIDE. HOWEVER, GRADUALLY ANNA OVERCOMES ALL DIVISIONS, WHEN SHE SEES
DEEPLY AND BROADLY ENOUGH; THE RESULT IS THE FINAL GOLDEN NOTEBOOK AND
THEN TGN ITSELF, WHICH ENCOMPASSES NOT JUST ANNAS NEW PSYCHIC UNITY BUT
ALSO A TRUCE BETWEEN ART AND THE FORMLESSNESS OF EXPERIENCE. THE FINAL
SYMBOL OF INTEGRATION IS THE SHAPE OF THE COMPLETED NOVEL, WHICH REFLECTS
TWO SYMBOLS ADOPTED BY THE ALCHEMISTS THE MANDALA AND THE UROBOROS, THE
SERPENT BITING ITS OWN TAIL.
THE STRUCTURE OF TGN INCLUDES THE CIRCLE AND SQUARE OF THE MANDALA. THE
FOUR NOTEBOOKS BLACK, RED, BLUE AND YELLOW REPRESENT THE FOURSQUARE
STRUCTURE OF ANNAS DIVIDED PSYCHE, FINALLY UNITED IN TGN. WHEN FW IS
ADDED, BEGINNING WITH A LINE GIVEN TO ANNA BY SAUL IN THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK,

83

THEY ARE JOINED IN A CIRCLE THE UROBOROS, THE SERPENT BITING ITS OWN TAIL.
PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE IS UNITED IN THE COMPLETED NOVEL BY MEANS OF THE ARTISTIC
IMAGINATION; ONCE COMPLETED, TGN FORMS A MANDALA, SYMBOL OF ANNAS
UNIFIED CONSCIOUSNESS. TO HER REASON HAS BEEN ADDED EMOTION, KNOWLEDGE OF
THE PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, PERCEPTION OF THE AREA OF
EXISTENCE WHERE ALL HUMAN VALUES CEASE TO EXIST, AND FINALLY, THE CREATIVE
AND RESPONSIBLE MEMBER OF SOCIETY. THE UROBOROS SUGGESTS MORE THAN JUST
UNITY. IT IS THE SYMBOL OF THE GREAT MOTHER, THE STATE OF BEING CONTAINED IN
THE WHOLE, WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITY OR EFFORT, WITH NO DOUBTS AND NO DIVISION
OF THE WORLD INTO TWO. THIS IS THE PARADISE OF CHILDHOOD AND OF THE HUMAN
PSYCHE BEFORE THE EGO DEVELOPED, AND MAN WAS SEPARATED FROM CREATION. IN
LESSING IT IS DRAMATIZED IN THE AFRICAN VELD. HOWEVER, THE ESSENCE OF THIS
PARADISE IS REPETITION; AS LONG AS UNCONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUES (IN A RACE OR AN
INDIVIDUAL). THE UROBOROS MEANS MORE; IT ALSO SYMBOLIZES THE CREATIVE
IMPULSE OF THE NEW BEGINNING; IT IS THE WHEEL THAT ROLLS OF ITSELF , THE
INITIAL ROTATORY MOVEMENT IN THE UPWARD SPIRAL OF EVOLUTION.
TGN ENDS WITH A SENSE OF COMPLETION. ANNA ACCOMPLISHES SOMETHING
DEFINITE; SHE FREES HER CREATIVITY AND WRITES A NOVEL THAT SUGGESTS THE
COMPLEXITY OF HER EXPERIENCE, TGN. HER DISINTEGRATION AND REINTEGRATION
FOLLOW ALCHEMICAL PRINCIPLES, AND, AS IT DOES IN ALCHEMY, HER OPUS IS A WORK
OF ART. IT IS SO ON TWO LEVELS; SHE MAKES A WHOLE OF THE MATERIALS OF HER
LIFE AND THEN TURNS THEM INTO ART. BEFORE ANNA CAN BECOME WHOLE ENOUGH
TO WRITE, SHE MUST RECOGNIZE THAT AT SOME DEEP LEVEL SHE IS ONE WITH
HUMANITY, THAN IN A VERY EASTERN SENSE HER INDIVIDUALITY IS A CHIMERA.

KAZUO ISHIGURO, 1954 - CONTEMPORARY WRITER; NAGASAKI, JAPAN

A Pale View of Hills - 1981
The Remains of the Day - 1989
The Unconsoled 1995
22. THE MEANING OF TRADITION IN "THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
The Remains of the Day (1988), Ishiguro's third novel, won him the Booker Prize.
In 1993 it was adapted into a highly successful and acclaimed film starring
Anthony Hopkins as Stevens and Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton. The Remains
of the Day is commonly branded a post-imperialist work, as its protagonist
harbors nostalgia for the English way of life before World War II, when Britain still
held colonies all over the world. However, this fact is merely tangential to the
novel, which is primarily a story of humannot politicalregret. Furthermore,
though many of Ishiguro's works are branded as post-colonial novels, The
Remains of the Day again does not fit into this classification: Ishiguro's Japanese
heritage is not relevant to the plot nor to the narrative. Indeed, the body of
Ishiguro's work defies simplistic classification. Even in his other post-war
narratives set in Japan, his own heritage is much less important than the larger
human concerns that the novels raise. This characteristic is, perhaps, reflective of
the fact that Ishiguro felt himself neither English nor Japanese. His constructions
of each society are those of one who felt himself an outsider in some sense. Each
of Ishiguro's novels describes an individual's memories of how his or her personal
life was changed by the Second World War, and the regret and sorrow that
reminiscences have the power to awaken. Among his primary influences, Ishiguro
cites Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Kafka. He also admires the Czech exile writer
Milan 'Kundera, the Irish exile writer Samuel Beckett, and the American exile

writer Henry James. Though Ishiguro never referred to himself as an "exile," this
theme of exile or expatriation plays a role in many of his works.
23. POLITICAL REPRESSION IN "THE REMAINS OF THE DAY"
Mr. Stevens, the novels first person protagonist and the butler of Darlington Hall,
narrates his 1956 expedition to the English West Country, which is also a journey
in to his past life at Darlington Hall.
Stevens repression extends to his sexual and political life. He hides his political
conscience behind his class father and master, Lord Darlington. Stevens
conceals his striking sexual and political engagement by clothing it under a
heavy overcoat woven of a tissue of lies. The novel figures and prefigures his
physical trip as a voyage not only out of the house but of his mental routine and
psychological paralysis in pursuit of amatory and political engagement. Ishiguros
use of clothing metaphors is not original, but what is original of Ishiguros use of
clothing is that Stevens conceals his sexual and political disengagement beneath
his professional suit. Comments such as I had become blind to the obvious
and I could gain a little idea of what was around me, show Stevens lack of self
and world-engagement. One of the examples of Stevens political blindness
occurs in the early 1930s. It is when Reginald cardinal attempts to explain to
Stevens that lord Darlington is a Nazis pawn. Stevens represses his political
views by saying that he has every trust in his lordships good judgement.
His obsession with professional dignity can be viewed as an excuse to remain
sexually and politically disengaged. Stevens thinks that butlers duty is to provide
a good service and not to meddle in the great affairs of the nation. He does not
succeed in overcoming his repression. Stevens does not gain true inside about his
own political disengagement. In his opinion ordinary people are limited in how
much they can learn and know, so it is not wise to let them contribute strong
opinions to the great debates of the nation.
Stevens' political consciousness is completely connected to Lord Darlington's. He
was totally identified with him and even though Lord Darlington was accused, for
his sympathies for Hitler and Mussolini, Stevens refused to admit that he served
the wrong person.
24. SEXUAL REPRESSION IN "THE REMAINS OF THE DAY"

he Remains of the Day is told in the first-person narration of an English

butler named Stevens. Stevens, the head butler at Darlington Hall, is the
protagonist and narrator of The Remains of the Day. A mercilessly precise man,
his relentless pursuit of "dignity" leads him to constantly deny his own feelings
throughout the novel. For Stevens, "dignity" involves donning a mask of
professional poise at all times. Although there is merit in the ideas of decorum
and loyalty, Stevens takes these concepts to an extreme. He never tells anyone
what he is truly feeling.
85

The most striking examples of sexual repression center around the StevensKenton relationship. Stevens fear of his own sexuality is associated with his
dislike of flowers in his pantry. It is associated with his dislike of distractions
there of any kind, which Kenton persists in supplying.
Steven sublimates his sexual and political aims by directing these to a higher and
consequently unobjectionable aim his professional life. Stevens professionalism
is an excuse to shut out the messiness of life: sex, marriage, personal interests,
it is the wall he labors to construct against his regrets, not the other way
around. That Stevens fails to overcome his sexual repression is equally clear. This
fact is mirrored in the ferocious downpour of rain, the ominous stormclouds,
the gloomy light, and subsequent drizzle Joyces The Dead, precipitation
foreshadows a downpour of tears.
Miss Kenton is the former head housekeeper of Darlington Hall; she and Stevens's
father were hired at the same time. Miss Kenton is Stevenss equal in efficiency
and intelligence, but she has a warmth and personality that Stevens never
displays. When Miss Kenton first starts working at Darlington Hall, for example,
she brings flowers into Stevens's austere room to try to brighten it up. Stevens
summarily rejects Miss Kenton's attempts to introduce flowers. Indeed, the two
disagree over household affairs-with great frequency. Initially, these battles of
wits only seem to highlight the affection the two feel for one another, but as the
years progress, Miss Kenton grows increasingly tired of Stevenss nagging and his
unwillingness to admit any more personal feelings, even though this is the only
way he knows how to communicate with her. She finally leaves Darlington Hall to
marry someone else when it becomes clear that Stevens will never be able to let
himself express his feelings for her.
Though Stevens never says so outright, it appears that he harbors repressed
romantic feelings for Miss Kenton. Despite the fact that the two frequently
disagree over various household affairs when they work together, the
disagreements are childish in nature and mainly serve to illustrate the fact that
the two care for each other. At the end of the novel, Miss Kenton admits to
Stevens that her life may have turned out better if she had married him. After
hearing these words, Stevens is extremely upset. However, he does not tell Miss
Kentonwhose married name is Mrs. Bennhow he feels. Stevens and Miss
Kenton part, and Stevens returns to Darlington Hall, his only new resolve being to
perfect the art of bantering to please his new employer. In the totality of his
professional commitment, Stevens fails to pursue the one woman with whom he
could have had a fulfilling and loving relationship. His prim mask of formality cuts
him off from intimacy, companionship, and understanding.
POSTMODERNISM IN KAZUO ISHIGURO'S WORK
In order to understand what postmodernists do with the novel, we have to
imagine our own past and the way we deal with it. We redesign and recreate it.
What we do with our past is what postmodernists do with their novels.
In 1956, Stevens, a long serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a
motoring trip through the West Country. This journey is not only physical but also
a mental journey. The six day excursion becomes a journey into the past of
Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars and an
unrealized love between the butler and his housekeeper. The days of the British
glory were over and the title of the novel refers to the remains of the British Glory.

TRD is one of the most profound novelistic representations of repression

masquerading as professionalism, yet it is also aimed at an entire nations
mythical sense of itself. Indeed, the novel associates Stevens deceptive selfconception with that of Englands at large. Stevens equates the significance of
events in Darlington Hall with those in England generally, confuses house
knowledge with world-knowledge and moves freely between the subject of what
makes great butler great and what makes Great Britain great, arguing that
both exhibit calmness and a sense of restraint. And Stevens clearly equates a
decline in the status of Darlington Hall with the postwar Americanization of
England and with what David Gurewich calls the disintegration of the good old
world where Stevens and his ideals held value. Yet if Stevens exhibits a nostalgia
for this good old world of grand old English houses, TRD does not. TRG
exhibits only mock nostalgia, one that throws into question the good old world
as much as it does the grandeur of Stevens professional dignity. As Ishiguro
says: The mythical landscape of England is harmless nostalgia for a time that
didnt exist.
Stevens is in the same time the protagonist and the narrator. In postmodernist
novel, the first-person narrator is also a participant of the story, the protagonist
who has something to hide. They are usually ordinary people with rather limited
perspectives; they try to reconstruct history in order to make it look better.
Stevens is trying to avoid some unpleasant truth about him. He keeps information
by concealing the segment of the truth. The reader cannot consider him a reliable
source and since his memories are the source of information provided in the
novel, the reader is constantly forced to question the information. There is no
objective truth, it is illusive. Stevens is deluded in many things. This is one of
postmodernist characteristics. Postmodern novel explores subjectivism, turning
from external reality to examine the inner state of consciousness.
That Ishiguros novels avoid a postmodern dimension does not make them simple
or straightforward. In fact their psychological and particularly their chronological
complexity make them difficult and even murky for novice readers.
In his novels Ishiguro reaches back and forth in time with later events prefiguring
earlier events, so that even to a reader with a highly retentive memory who reads
the book at one sitting the significance of what is earlier revealed is not available
until a second reading on which the novel will read like a new novel about familiar
people. Joseph Frank has remarked of James Joyce is no less true of Ishiguro: He
cannot be read he can only be reread.
The form of the novel is not postmodernist but the idea the writer wants to
accomplish is very postmodernist. It reveals how people use language for their
own purposes. They simultaneously deceive and project themselves in the
language they use. People build illusions around them like protective walls.
Throughout the novel Stevens is repressing his sexual desire, unpleasant
emotions,
disappointment
with
Miss
Kenton's
engagement,
political
consciousness, emotional trauma over his father's death and general
disappointment with his life. He is unable to answer" the question of Miss Kenton
who asks him why he always has to pretend.
T. S. ELIOT (THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT) 1888 -1965; ST. LOUIS

The Waste Land- 1922

87

Ones time was the culturally barren modern era, and The Waste Land was its diagnosis. Even today,
one finds the poem spoken of loosely as a work of our time or of modern times, usually with the
implication that The Waste Land continues to give the times most accurate data. The Waste Land
invites and, indeed, almost demands such a reading. And it may be said fairly enough that many of the
large problems with which the poem concerns itself remain live issues. The Waste Land is the poem,
after all, of O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag, a detail that articulates Eliots puckish relation to the
popular culture of his day, to which he was genuinely yet ambivalently attached .But The Waste Land
also belongs to the Jazz Age in many less apparent ways. In opposition to the romantic myth of
inexorable human progress, The Waste Land, like a number of other prominent modernist texts, adopts
a cyclical model of history. Anthropology, still a new and developing science, testified that numerous
civilizations had existed in the past and had been succeeded by others. The Waste Land was a major
contribution in its time to the discourse of Kulturpessimismus or cultural pessimism. Of course the
end of a civilization, even ones own, is not the end of history; history continues with its replacement,
as the city in The Waste Land not only cracks but reforms, only to burst again. The Waste Land
gives literary expression to Eliots harrowed Kulturpessimismus not only through its content but
through its technical innovations. The failure of culture in The Waste Land is concentrated in its
portrayal of the Unreal City, with its brown fog, its polluted river, and its rat-infested banks. The
streets and structures named in the poem take us from the modern city in general to the City of London
the towns commercial center in particular, hinting again that the oppressiveness of the
environment is connected with a social system driven by the quest for wealth. The crisis at the center
of The Waste Land is thus one of values and of politics; it is also, and relatedly, a crisis of
epistemology. Eliots sense of social crisis is not entirely separable from the personal crisis he suffered
in the same period. The Waste Land dates from a period of rapid change in sexual mores, gender
norms, and the institution of marriage. Walking a thin line between symbolism and social criticism, the
poem treats barren sexuality and the victimization of women as both a metaphor for and a consequence
of a broken world. The myth of Philomel, raped by her brother-in-law, King Tereus, and transformed
by the gods into the first nightingale. Sex in The Waste Land is never healthy and seldom fertile.
Eliots Notes on The Waste Land explain the title, . . . the plan, and a good deal of the incidental
symbolism of the poem by referring readers to the legend of the Holy Grail, whose history was traced
in Jessie Westons From Ritual to Romance, and to the fertility rites inventoried in James G. Frazers
The Golden Bough.Most treatments of the poem since the 1970s have downplayed the importance of
this material to the extent that earlier readings made it central. The fact remains, though, that Eliots
use of symbolism drawn from Frazer and other anthropological sources is already visible in the poems,
such as Sweeney among the Nightingales and Gerontion, that precede his composition of The
Waste Land. Such material was thoroughly enmeshed in Eliots thought and perception, and it is
integral to the themes and methods of The Waste Land as well (Crawford 1987: 127 49). The first
speaker in The Burial of the Dead is dismayed that spring rain threatens to awaken the undead to
a little life. A permanent sleep would be preferable; to wake to life is to return to suffering. None
knows this better than the Sybil of Cumae, who by her own misguided wish was endowed with
immortality but not perpetual youth; she appears in Eliots epigraph (from the Roman satirist
Petronius) as a shriveled old thing, completely desiccated yet unable to die. Marie, who once found life
in a moment of daring on a sled and now flees the snow in her old age, seems similarly, if figuratively,
shrunken. The theme of dryness is immediately taken up by the next speaker, who describes in
prophetic language a desert landscape with decaying buildings and desecrated altars, the relics of a
once thriving civilization now sinking in the sand. Just as water commonly figures life and fertility, its
absence in The Waste Land represents sterility and desolation. The inhabitants fear life and so fear
water. They reject the suffering that must precede renewal, the storms that would usher in the spring,
the risks that attend human love. To live mechanically, to remain buried, to go through the motions of a
life mostly barren of feeling is easier. Faced with the fertile sensuality of the hyacinth girl, whose
hair is wet and whose arms are filled with breathing flowers, Eliots swain is paralyzed, as impotent as
the Fisher King. Like all his fellows in The Burial of the Dead, he is neither living nor dead,
confined by his terror in a nebulous, in-between state. His failure is framed ironically by the strains of

Tristan und Isolde, Wagners grand vision of a legendary love. Both quotations from the opera allude
to the sea. The Waste Land surprises us when in Part IV, Death by Water, the long-dreaded drowning
finally transpires in language that is almost consoling. After the ghastly scenes of living death that
dominate the first three sections of the poem, and particularly after the frenzied Burning of The Fire
Sermon, Phlebass watery afterlife seems unexpectedly welcome. In the final section of the poem,
What the Thunder Said, water has finally become an element that is actively sought rather than
feared: If there were only water amongst the rock, the speaker there laments. But the situation does
not resolve itself within the poem. The closing movement of The Waste Land offers only repeated
instances of suspended plots, implying an uncompleted action. And in its struggle toward such a peace
in the face of an uncertain future of falling towers, The Waste Land may remain, after all, a poem of
our time.
25. THE PICTURE OF MODERN CULTURE IN "THE WASTE LAND"
The Waste Land is a long poem made after the WWI, in a period when everything
in society seemed to be changing and many felt that the pre-war values were
lost. It is a poem about a civilization's struggle for regeneration. The title refers to
the legend of the Fisher King, the ruler of the Waste Land, whose lack of potency
is the cause of his country becoming a waste land, and according to the legend
the fertility of the land is possible only if the king is healed. Only when killed, the
king's blood was able to rejuvenate the land. In other words, his death was
necessary to turn the waste land into a fertile one. Reflected in modern world, it
means that the previously made literature needs to be buried in order to create
enough space for the new one. Eliot picks up the legend of the impotent king as
appropriate description of the state of modern society. His main intention was not
to confuse the reader but to present the life in the confusing world of the
twentieth century.
The Waste Land is divided into five sections :The Burial of the Dead, A Game of
Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water and What the Thunder Said.
In the Burial of the Dead, Eliot refers to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and
introduces introversion of the symbols. For example, April is not considered as a
happy month of pilgrimages and story-telling. It is perceived as a month that
brings regeneration after winter. And regeneration is painful, because it reminds
the reader of the more fertile and happier past.
Like other modernists, Eliot finds it necessary to quote. He explained the
necessity of quoting in
his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent where he emphasized the importance
of having a feeling of historical sense (i.e. being aware that history does not begin
with you). For example by quoting from Baudelaire, Dickens and Dante the
reader is offered a picture of desolated and depopulated cities.
In The Game of Chess, Eliot gives five different associations to the title and
stresses the conflicting relationship between women and men. The death of
civilization is inevitable because of the lack of communication between them.
One of the main themes in the third section called The Fire Sermon is a feeling of
incompleteness caused by finding a comfort in fulfilling sexual -desire without
emotions.
The fourth section, Death by Water, which is the shortest one, discusses water in
its other function. Water does not present a life-bringing liquid that could turn the
waste land into a fertile one. It can be deadly and stands in a direct contrast to
the fire of the passion from part three. It functions as a symbol of death. Inverted
values are present again; death presents relief, something positive, final
liberation. Once you die, you are free of your physical values.
89

The entire poem is rather pessimistic but there is a sign of hope in the last
section Wliat a Thunder Said. This section presents a waterless picture of a land.
The thunder might bring the rain and fertility to the waste land. Water in this part
represents life, for lack of water is seen as lack of life. Thunder provides
instruction to people On how to live, how to overcome sterility. If the commands
of the thunder were to be followed, the water would flow and the land would be
rejuvenated. Eliot considered this section to be the best of all because it closely
examines and resolves the issues that were raised in die first four sections.
The Waste Land ends with a few words in Sanskrit (data, dayadhvam and
damyata). The meaning of the words is in the same time the final message to
the reader, data meaning that one has to give. This is a criticism of selfishnesspresent in the modern culture and the only way to overcome it is in learning how
to give. Dayadhvam expresses the necessity of showing compassion and
sympathizing with other people rather than withdrawing within the four walls.
Damyata instructs us to take over self-control as the captain controls his ship. The
possibility that one can change the world or write great poetry is small, but it
exists nevertheless, and this is what the finale of The Waste Land is about.
26. EXPERIMENTATION WITH FORM IN "THE WASTE LAND"

' The Waste Land can arguably be cited as Elliot's most influential work. When
he published his influential poem in 1992 - first in his own literary magazine
Criterion, then a month later in wider circulation in the Dial - it set off a critical
firestorm in the literary world. The work is commonly regarded as one of the
seminal works of modernist literature. Indeed, when many critics saw the poem
for the first time, it seemed too modern. In the place of a traditional work, with
unified themes and coherent structure, Eliot produced a poem that seemed to
incorporate many unrelated, little-known references to history, religion,
mythology, and other disciplines. He even wrote parts of the poem in foreign
languages, such as Hindu. In fact, the poem was so complex that Eliot felt the
need to include extensive notes identifying the sources to which he was alluding,
a highly unusual move for a poet, and a move that caused some critics to assert
that Eliot was trying to be deliberately obscure or was playing a joke on them.
Yet, while the poem is obscure, the critics have identified several sources that
inspired its creation and which have helped identify its meaning. Many see the
poem as a reflection of Eliot's disillusionment with the moral decay of post-World
War I Europe. In the work, this sense of disillusionment manifests itself
symbolically through a type of Holy Grail legend. Eliot cited two books from which
he drew to create the poem's symbolism: Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to
Romance (1920) and Sir James G. Frazer's The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic
and Religion (1890). The 1922 version of "The Waste Land" was also significantly
influenced by Eliot's first wife Vivien and by his friend Ezra Pound, who helped
Eliot edit the original 800-line draft down to the published 433 lines.
(JELICA I ARMIN)
TWL is a highly condensed epic of the modern age, because it truly reflects the
spirit of modern civilization. The basic theme of TWL is disillusionment of the
post-war generation in sterility of the modern world. It also shows dissatisfaction
with so-called scientific achievement and an industrial progress of Europe. The
title itself symbolically depicts the main idea of the poem. The prevailing images
of drought, water and dry sterile thunder are contrasted with the rain that
restores life to the parched earth throughout the poem. Vigour and vitality are the

secret of any civilization or great period in history. Eliot is aware that spiritual
paralysis has overtaken man of the modern age. He also wants to point out that
decay of civilization is a part of the history of mankind. The myths employed by
Eliot are borrowed from nature, ancient civilization, old literature and Christian
scripture. One of the important myths Eliot uses in the poem is that of birth,
death and rebirth. The historical myths of the Fisher King and king Oedipus of
Thebes refer to the consequences of sin, which affected the rulers and their
lands. Through the repentance and penance, the rulers regained their health and
their lands became fertile and productive. Similarly, the modern wasteland for its
spiritual barrenness and sexual perversity can be saved through self-reformation
and life of faith, service and dedication to the moral values.
Sexuality is vitally connected with the cycle of renewal, the fertility of the land,
and its ability to generate new life.
Firstly, one ought to acknowledge that The Waste Land is a text of the First World
War and its aftermath. The immediate postwar situation in Britain and Europe
added to the sense of collapse and chaos. The disorder in Europe was particularly
upsetting. The Waste Land, born in a chaotic time, attempts to integrate a sense
of fragmentation and disorder into its very texture. The key to the poem may lie,
paradoxically, in the fact that there is no single key to its meaning. Indeed, the
poem needs to be read in a way that was unfamiliar to many contemporary
readers of poetry in 1922 and still challenges readers today.
The poem depicts a cultural and spiritual wasteland, a land populated by people
who are, physically and emotionally, living a kind of death in the midst of their
everyday lives:
A crowd flowed over London bridge, so many
I had not thought death had undone so many
accent of its times and an unmistakably 20 th , indeed post-war poem which records the
collapse in the values of Western civilization. The main examples of this collapse are sterile,
unloving sexual relationships, cultural confusion, and spiritual desolation. Eliot sees the route
of the modern worlds unhappiness and alienation in the fact that people are unable to bring
together the different areas of their experience to make a complete whole. Their social,
sexual, and religious experiences are fragmentary and not unified. His poetry was

formally more experimental and innovative, and intellectually more complex and
philosophical. He uses images that shock and bewilder. They are images which
are original and novel, striking and obscure, drawn from a discordant urban rather
than a harmonious rural life. The reader has to work hard to build up meanings
without overt explanation from the poet. He has to rebuild the fragments by an
indirect process of association.
The three principle qualities which characterize Eliots work are: first, his
particular sense of the age in which he lived; second, his conviction that poetry,
although using the poets emotions as its starting point, becomes
impersonalized by the tradition in which the poet works; and third, his use of
quotations from and allusions to other poets work for reference, parody, irony,
and a sense of continuing intertextual communication and community. He had no
time for free verse, which he said does not exist. He continues the tradition of
the dramatic monologue, especially that used by Browning and while alluding to
the whole tradition of English poetry he exploits the past for use in the present.
91

He requires of the reader and auditory imagination rather than just a capacity
to understand his poetry. He was influenced by Charles Baudelaire and Dante.
Difficulties are created by Eliots frequent allusions to other literatures,
languages, and cultures. For example, the allusion to Sun of Man is taken from
the Bible and refers to god who addressed EzeThe people move across a desolate
landscape of fragmented images; they do not relate to one another. The many
different voices we hear in the poem speak not to each other but past each other.
There is no uniting belief in one transcendent god. In this sense, Eliot echoes the
post-darwinian concerns of an unstable world, and many of the ides owe a lot to
Frazers The Golden Bough. To many of Eliots contemporaries, the whole poem
was written in thekiel direct. In Eliots poem, communication between man and
god is at best indirect, if it takes place at all. The broken images are also the
false idols of Israel, which god has destroyed. In the modern world, the false and
broken images are all that remain. Eliot achieves an ironic contrast by
highlighting differences between ancient and modern worlds. One possible result
of this poetic method is obscurity, but it is an important part of Eliots overall
purpose. Fragments broken from a whole are all that 20 th century civilization has
to interpret the world. At the end of The Wasteland, however, Eliot succeeds in
suggesting that a spiritual whole can be created from the parts. Timeless values
still exist and can be recovered. The wasteland can be regenerated and
fragments from the past can be used to survive the ruins of a collapsed
civilization.

2. Our presence in
The Waste Land is considered as one of the defining poems of 20th modernist literature. This essay offers an
engaging and thorough analysis of the poem, that is considered notoriously difficult to read. Radeljkovic argues
that T.S Eliot does in fact offer the reader a belief in a meaningfulness of our existence, or at least in the
existence of transcendentalism - something that Eliot fears has been lost in the modern world of science and
rationality.

Sometime between the end of 1927 and the beginning of 1928, thinking about the direction his literary
work was taking, Ernest Hemingway wrote on the back of an envelope, perhaps as an ironic piece of
[1]

advice to himself as regarded writing: "Water the waste land and make it blossom like a rose" .
Eliot's poem was obviously on Hemingway's mind as a signpost as late as five years after its
publication, although he tried to thoroughly transform its original ambiance and meaning. In the words
[2]

of American poet Delmore Schwartz, Eliot quickly became an "international hero" . Even without a
global communication device resembling today's Internet, it did not take long before poets around the
world, as if by osmosis, became aware that an American in England, employed by the Lloyds Bank in
London, wrote a long poem that fundamentally changed and transformed the idea of poetry. Anything
that had seemed, up until then, to be an important poetic standard, particularly the principles of unity
and continuity, was absent from it. Instead, it included among other things numerous quotations and
literary echoes in six languages (Sanskrit, Classical Greek, Latin, French, German and Dante's Italian,
apart from English) covering an astounding time range of over three thousand years. It was probably
out of sheer surprise and confusion that the then famous English novelist Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)
publicly wondered whether The Waste Land and its accompanying notes were not in fact a joke, and
stated that, unless this were the case, he could not see the point of the poem. The reviewer of the Times
Literary Supplement, the most trusted British source of information on newly published books,
claimed, in what was probably a typically British understatement, that Eliot sometimes came very
close to the edge of sense. W. B. Yeats saw Eliot first and foremost a as a writer of satire, not a poet,
mostly on the account of The Waste Land. And yet, The Waste Land itself sold surprisingly well: even
though it first appeared in two periodicals[3] without Eliot's notes, the first book edition of 1000
copies published by the New York publishing house Boni and Liveright, when it finally appeared on
December 15, 1922, sold very quickly. The second edition appeared within a few months, an event
which happens rarely with books of poetry.
The reason behind this was not only the bizarre quality of this complex literary work; but also the fact
that Eliot's poem, in spite of all its esoteric ambiguity, managed to express in its tone and images the
mood of many Europeans and Americans three years after the ending of World War I - the "war to end
all wars" as the official Anglo-American propaganda called it. The 433 lines of The Waste Land use a
technique of double or multiple exposure to merge images of the mythical waste land from the legends
and myths about King Arthur - a land infertile as its king (often called the Fisher King) is impotent with realistic images of decadent Europe after World War I, where the poet lived, reminiscent of the
mythical waste land at least in its spiritual climate. Within this framework, Eliot built on the
complexity by introducing several typically modernist concepts: in his poetic world, various historical
events overlap to produce an image of essential identity of events in futile human history. One could
say that, for Eliot, history represents an image of the meaningless human gestures' endless repetition,
generating only suffering and pain for its protagonists and others, without changing anything in the
human condition. So, for instance, the historic reference to the Sicilian port of Mylae (line 70), recalls
not only the first sea battle between Rome and Carthage which took place in the First Punic War in 260
B.C., but also the sea battle of the civil war in 36. B.C., in which Agrippa triumphed over Sextus
Pompeius - as well as any of the sea battles of World War I. This much can be deduced from the
meeting with a war buddy, which Eliot described in this line. The same applies to many other
situations that are touched upon or are central in the poem: the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, the lover of
Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony who appears at the beginning of the second part of the poem, acts as
double of the neurotic modern woman wearing synthetic perfume. Similarly, Elizabeth I, the English
Renaissance Queen, acts as double of the modern woman from the jazz age, possibly the same one
(lines 279-291 in third part), at least where the futility of her amatory plans is concerned. But matters
get even more complex. Eliot is not satisfied merely to allude to the essential identity of various
historical points; the analogy is used explicitly, when in the Note to line 218, he states that "all the
women are one woman"; it may, therefore, be legitimate to conclude that all men are one man. In this
way, history and destiny become inextricably linked to each other within a absurd circle that cannot be
broken unless a significant change takes place, a change that would have to do - first and foremost -

with human nature. It is as if one of the messages of The Waste Land were that human life is, and will
always be, meaningless, unless... Such bizarre and deeply depressing concepts could perhaps be
explained, at one level, by the poet's biography and the conditions under which this exceptional poem
was created.
3. I
In what might be his best known essay, written a few years before The Waste Land, Thomas Stearns Eliot
(1888-1965) denies any connection between biography and literary creation by claiming that "the more perfect
[4]

the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates."
This
American, born on the banks of the Mississippi, in St Louis, Missouri, made his home in London, after a period
of studies at prestigious universities: Harvard (1906-1910), Sorbonne (1910-1911), Harvard once again (19111914) and Oxford (1915). Having completed his doctoral work, but without getting the degree, he married Vivian
Heigh-Wood, an Englishwoman, and a little later - as befits a family man - found a job as a teacher in High
Wycombe Grammar School, where he taught French, mathematics, history, geography, art and swimming - all
for 140 pounds sterling a year, plus free dinner. Already in 1911, while still a graduate student at Harvard, he
wrote a few crucial early poems, including "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which was published in the
important "little" magazine Poetry, due to Ezra Pound's insistence, only in 1915. The financial situation of the
future Nobel Prize for literature laureate (1948) and arbiter of English literary taste was far from auspicious: after
another high-school teaching post, which, under similar conditions as his previous one, brought an extra 40
pounds a year, Eliot followed the recommendation of a friend of his wife's family, and obtained employment at
the Colonial and Foreign Department of the Lloyds Bank in London. His job there was to fill in and analyze
forms on the profit and expenditure of foreign banks, for a salary of 2 pounds and 10 shillings a week, which,
once again, added up to barely 120 pounds sterling a year. Even with additional evening lecturing in philosophy
and literature at a London lecture forum, and the position of assistant editor on the staff of the Egoist literary
magazine, the money was still short, partially because of his wife's frequent and not very specific "neuralgia's
and migraines". In 1916 Eliot's close friend Jean Verdenal got killed somewhere in the Dardanelles. It was to
Verdenal that Eliot dedicated his first collection of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations(1917).
During 1918, Eliot made several attempts to get a commission, possibly seeking escape from personal and
financial problems. He approached the navy first, then the infantry; but his efforts were unsuccessful, largely due
to his American citizenship. In 1919 the New York publishing house Alfred Knopf refused his manuscript which
contained a combination of poetry and criticism; however, The Sacred Wood, his first but influential collection of
literary essays, was published by them in the following year. Although his salary at the Lloyds Bank had finally
reached 500 pounds a year, his experiences and poor state of general health resulted in a nervous breakdown
[5]

which Eliot suffered in September 1921. His wife

took him to the best specialist in London, probably a
neurologist, who recommended three months of solitude abroad. To save money, Eliot first went to the English
coastal town of Margate, which is mentioned in The Waste Land, and it was there that he continued working on
the poem, which he had mentioned for the first time in a letter to his admirer, New York banker John Quinn, on
November 5, 1919. He continued work on the poem in Lausanne, where he was seeing a "specialist for
psychological problems", Dr Vittoz, recommended by Julian Huxley, also a patient of his. After some six weeks
in Switzerland, Eliot, visibly recovered, returned to London via Paris, where he left nineteen pages of manuscript
of what was to become The Waste Land with his friend Ezra Pound, another expatriate American poet.
As many critics have pointed out, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of interventions Pound made, with
Eliot's consent, on the manuscript of The Waste Land. Pound was three years Eliot's senior, and - as a poet,
literary instigator, mediator and advisor - he played a crucial role in the shaping and spreading of modernism in
th
poetry. In the second decade of the 20 century, Pound started at least two avant-garde Anglo-American poetic
movements, imagism and vorticism, which helped shape modern poetic consciousness, at least for the Englishspeaking poets. Two years before The Waste Landappeared, Pound had published his first modernist poem
"Hugh Selwyn Mauberley: Life and Contacts", which, through a number seemingly unconnected poetic images,
talks about the insipid contemporary English literary situation, but it contains magnificent lyrical passages as
well. It was not only Eliot whom Pound helped: many other avant-garde modernist writers such as Joyce,

Hemingway, Tagore, William Carlos Williams, and Wyndham Lewis were indebted to him not only for help in
publishing their works, but also for helping them resolve their fundamental existential problems. From 1913 to
1916 Pound associated intensely with the Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats, and, according to some views,
changed Yeats' attitude towards modern literature by challenging him to leave the placid waters of neo-Victorian
sentimentalism peppered with Irish mythology and set sail on the uncharted seas of modernism. [6] As for The
Waste Land, Pound's interventions helped turn this poem (which, at least in certain sections of its original form,
resembled a parodic version of poetry by Pope, Tennison and Browning) into a prototype of a modernist poem,
consisting of a sequence of seemingly unconnected fragments.
In the general form of the poem, Pound accomplished this by deleting several narrative parts: a pub-crawling
expedition opening the poem (54 lines), a description of morning ablutions of Fresca, a fashionable courtesan
with literary pretensions (42 lines), the description of London which followed the section about Mr. Eugenides in
Part III (19 lines), and the flashback about the vagaries of sailors' life in Part IV (83 lines). This constituted more
than a quarter of the poem as it stands today. But Pound's changes of the text were more intensive as well:
many individual lines and parts of lines had been edited out in order to prevent the text from leaving an
impression of conventionality and romantic poetic ease, thus also deleting certain common poetic devices: like
the rhymed quatrains describing the tryst between the typist and the young man carbuncular, where 12 out of 16
verses of the original version were deleted. Pound's suggestions about the epigraph also greatly contributed to
the tone of the poem, as well as the poem's prophetic theme. That said, it must be borne in mind that Pound did
not add anything to the poem[7], nor did Eliot accept all of Pound's suggestions (even though he did accept
most of them). As Helen Gardner pointed out, the importance of Pound's influence on Eliot lies in the fact that
Pound offered Eliot his unconditional intellectual and emotional support at a difficult time of Eliot's life, which
helped create the poem in the first place.
[9]

[8]

In the last line of a parodic poem sent to Eliot in a letter dated "24

Saturnus, An I"
Pound precisely described his role in the birth of The Waste Land: "Ezra performed the
caesarian Operation". One could say that Eliot and Pound were two complementary Americans in Europe, both
on a mission to preserve tradition and the relevance of poetry in the modern world - particularly in Europe,
where awareness of the importance of poetry as well as tradition was beginning to fade. Pound's poetic
principle, "make it new", which had to do with the idea that literary tradition can be meaningful only if alive, fitted
into a new context, found its embodiment in Eliot's use of tradition in the form of quotations and literary echoes
in The Waste Land, which is in itself tradition revived in a modernist framework.
Despite literary prominence this poem has achieved, there are other important aspects of its greatness which
should not be overlooked. Eliot, notorious for his reticence and secrecy which earned him the famous nickname
[10]

of "Old Possum"
, repeatedly stressed that The Waste Land was autobiographical in character, and, in doing
so, almost protested too much. One of his most direct statements to this effect is as follows:
Various critics have done me the honour to interpret the poem in terms of a criticism of the contemporary world,
have considered it, indeed, as an important bit of social criticism. To me it was only the relief of a personal and
wholly insignificant grouse against life; it is just a piece of rhythmical grumbling.[11]

It would appear that the tone of this quotation, particularly its last phrase, reveals a pseudo-humorous approach
to both himself and his poem, and should - in the same spirit - not be taken too seriously. And yet, numerous
critical texts, including a full-length book[12], were devoted to proving the thesis thatThe Waste Land is based
first and foremost on autobiography, particularly those of its parts which the author would prefer to hide. Even if
we take Eliot's claims regarding demons[13] at face value - even though, to my mind, they are prevalently
metaphorical - could the demons in question not be demons of creativity, and not necessarily those of
homosexualism or impotence, as these critics have claimed? Of course, every artist begins from autobiography;
since he is limited to this approach by his own experience, not knowing anybody better than himself, as Henry
David Thoreau once wrote ironically, but this must not necessarily mean that autobiography is the be-all and
end-all of a work. It is evident that the nervous breakdown which Eliot went through in the fall of 1921, which
could have stemmed from impotence, resulted in it, or had to do with suppressed homosexualism, must have
had an impact on the form, tone and potential messages of The Waste Land; but must this necessarily exclude
other, broader meanings? Isn't it possible to perceive oneself and the world simultaneously? The Waste

Land may very well be an image of Eliot's emotional state at the time of its gestation; but it is also much more
than that: it is an image of the universal human condition in various historic moments, including that of
contemporary Europe in year 1922 - and a commentary on the vanity of the strongest human wishes and
desires, which remain unchanged.

4. II
Early in his Notes to The Waste Land, Eliot pointed out that "not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of
the incidental symbolism of the poem, were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book on the Grail legend,
From Ritual to Romance", adding that he believed this book would better elucidate the difficulties in
understanding The Waste Land than his notes. On the other hand, much later, in his essay entitled "Frontiers of
Criticism" (1956) he was equally eloquent in expressing regret for sending many readers on a wild goose chase
for Tarot cards and the Holy Grail. Which statement, then, should be believed?From Ritual to Romance (1920) is
study of anthropology and folklore, specifically concerned with the link between ancient fertility rituals
(previously meticulously described and documented by Sir James J. Fraser in his Golden Bough) and the
ostensibly Christian apocryphal legend of the cup that Jesus Christ used during the Last Supper - into which,
while Jesus was on the Cross, Joseph of Arimathea collected his blood. The quest for the Grail, or the Holy
Grail, as some writers called this cup, became a part of the theme underpinning the medieval cycle of works on
King Arthur and his knights of the round table. Although there are many versions, the best known (Perceval by
the French writer Chrtien de Troyes, written in the second half of 12th century, andParzival by the German
writer Wolfram von Eschenbach, from the beginning of 13th century) tell the story of Perceval, a young sinless
knight, but also without experience and wisdom, who visits the Fisher-King, the Keeper of the Grail. The FisherKing is wounded, ill, or sexually impotent, and his illness has somehow been transferred to his kingdom, which
has become infertile - a waste land without rain. When the Knight, in the Chapel Perilous asks the right question
and the Holy Grail appears on the wall, the King's ailment is cured, waters run again, and the kingdom is once
more fertile. However, Jessie Weston established and proved that this legend is pre-Christian in origin, and
linked it to the ancient fertility rituals. Her book does not find it surprising that Christian church had never
officially accepted the legend of the Holy Grail, the reason behind this being that the learned dignitaries had
been well aware that the legend is in fact a modification of the Dionysian fertility rituals. What Eliot seems to
have adopted from Jessie Weston's book are the terms "waste land", "the Fisher King" and "The Chapel
Perilous", as well as related dominant imagery. His reason for it was a modernist quest for an alternative vision
of human history, the state of humanity, and a search for images that could present that state; in this case more
Celtic than mainstream Christian. One could also say that the idea of individual and collective salvation aided by
the "primitive" rituals (described in detail by Jessie Weston) was used as one of the conceptual pillars of the
poem[14], and a reflection of Eliot's private belief.
However, even though Eliot never mentions this in either his Notes or elsewhere, the structure and poetic
method of The Waste Land owe a great debt also to Richard Wagner (1813-1883), the German composer, poet
and theoretician of art, perhaps greater than to Jessie Weston. The poem contains only two quotations in
German from Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde in Part I, while the three Daughters of Thames appearing in
Part III act as counterparts to the Rhine-daughters, from Wagner's opera Gtterdammerung. If the quest for the
Grail is to be taken as pivotal to the poem, this is confusing, as Wagner had, of course, wrote one of his operas
about Parsifal, the Grail knight. In the first act of Parsifal (not mentioned or alluded to by Eliot), a character by
the name of Gurnemanz, the first Parsifal's tutor and the Master of the Swans, puts forward an Einsteinesque
[15]

concept of time saying that the "space here becomes time" ("Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit")
. But this is not
the only parallel and it cannot be taken as just coincidental. Like Wagner's opera, Eliot's poem primarily
[16]

functions through leitmotifs

, namely a sequential shift of scenes from history and mythology, ranging from
the Upanishads all the way to post-World War I Europe on the one hand, and scenes from the mythic waste
land on the other hand, emphasizing the analogy mentioned above between various periods of history conveyed
by merging of different characters (Philomel, Cleopatra, Elizabeth I, all the way to the London typist, probably
from the fall of 1921). This may be what is meant by the suggestion in Wagner's letter of 25 and 26 January
1854 to August Rckel from Zurich, where he claims that "the essence of reality lies in its
multiplicity"

[17]

Similarities extend as far as the main traits of their artistic methods and approaches: Wagner

may have been the first prominent European artist whose oeuvre sought to combine contradictory, eclectic
influences ranging from the ancient Greek theatre, Shakespeare, old-Germanic mythology and medieval
(pseudo)Christian legends to the music of Beethoven. He is an artist whose work confirms in practice Eliot's
theoretical dicta on the pyramid of tradition posited in "Tradition and Individual Talent", as well as their practical
applications in The Waste Land. Although Wagner is essentially a Romantic composer, his works and ideas
point the way towards modernism and have greatly helped Eliot in shaping his own literary method.
Another powerful influence on The Waste Land remains practically unexplored: not only are the rhythms of this
poem closer to syncopation than to metronomic regularity, but the entire poem is reminiscent of a dirge,
a blues lamenting the human condition and destiny. It is not surprising that the sensibility of a musician and
writer such as Ralph Ellison, perhaps the foremost twentieth century African-American novelist, recognized this
aspect of The Waste Land; he mentioned it in a speech which he later turned into a literary and autobiographical
essay, which was published in the book, Shadow and Act (1964). Reminiscing about his own education, he said:
Somehow its rhythms [of

The Waste Land] were often closer to those of jazz than were those of the Negro poets;
and even though I could not understand then, its range of allusion was as mixed and as varied as that of Louis
Armstrong. Yet there were its discontinuities, its changes of pace, and its hidden system of organization, which
escaped me.

[18]

Jazz also has an immediate presence in the poem, through the 1912 song called "That Shakespearean
[19]

Rag"
(music by David Stamper and lyrics by Gene Buck and Herman Ruby), which the rich lady's partner
recalls, with aspiration (lines 128-130) as the only thing he has in his head. It is the pervasive presence of jazz
in the poem that defines the very core of The Waste Land, its literary method: it was this quality that enchanted
Ellison. In the recently published words of R.V. Young,
Much as a jazz musician takes a well-known song and works bits of it into a series of variations and changes
without ever playing the entire melody straight through,, so the poet of

The Waste Land evokes shadowy images of

[20]

many of the great works of world literature, without ever actually narrating a complete version of any story.

Just like a jazz musician, Eliot need not play out the complete melody either: the listener (or reader) is expected
to recognize musical or literary allusions within their context or ambience, so that a word or a line does not bring
only the flavor of a tune or a literary work but also its historical context. In this way, every detail of the complex
edifice becomes important for itself as well as a part of the whole.
Eliot's metrical scheme is typically modernist in its deviation from traditional prosody. The fundamental English
narrative verse form, unrhymed iambic pentameter or

blank verse, acts as the backbone of The Waste Land, but

Eliot varies it constantly, dropping or adding an accent here, several syllables there, bringing the Twenties'
colloquial speech rhythms to life in spite of the poem's basic elegiac tone. The syncopated rhythms
of enjambment add a musical as well as a semantic dimension, emerging occasionally to reflect changes of
versification, speaker or situation and bring form and content together. As the prosodist Harvey Gross put it
perceptively: "The Waste Land was an experiment in the use of repeated thematic material as well as being
orchestral in its elaborate handling of contrasted sonorities."

[21]

5. III
This is particularly well demonstrated by the title, epigraph, and the beginning ofThe Waste Land. The title is
general enough to make sense outside the contexts of anthropology or folklore and can be applied to any
historic period, including very appropriately the one we live in. The epigraph, on the other hand, apart from
imparting a flavor of classical antiquity through its combination of ancient Greek and Latin, stresses the terror of
life in the waste land: Sibyl [Sibylla], who craves death but is unable to renounce the gift of immortality, is the
image of human soul hopelessly suspended in the hopelessness of a meaningless existence. It is more effective
than Eliot's original epigraph drawing on a similar theme, a quotation from Conrad's Heart of Darkness, ending
in words "The horror! The horror!" Pound, however, understood that the horror implicit in the image of Sibyl - the
prophetess who unconsciously brought her doom upon herself, and is found suspended in a bottle, immortal but
yearning for death - far exceeds Conrad's explicit exclamations of horror.

The famous opening lines on April being the cruellest month are yet another example of the modernist tendency
to reverse traditional literary meanings. Just as Joyce ridiculed Irish and any other history on the very first page
of Ulysses, as Hemingway reversed the meaning of rain in Farewell to Arms, so Eliot turns upside down not only
Chaucer's message, but also the concept of pastoral atmosphere and the romance of spring in general. In the
waste land, renewal of life is painful and tedious, as it is in fact a return to awareness of life in death which was
more pleasant and less noticeable in hibernation, while asleep; it mixes memory and desire to raise our
awareness of that which can never return to us, or to life.
Line eight abruptly switches from the general to the particular; from the waste land, to the Central Europe of the
first decades of the twentieth century, although it keeps the first person plural pronoun "we". The aristocratic
ambience reflects the characteristics of this world: false national pride (line 12), but also fear and
claustrophobia. Though seemingly cosmopolitan, this life is strictly limited by written and unwritten rules: the
sense of freedom experienced in the mountains is a reminder of its absence in the valleys. Line 19 takes us
back to the waste land from the beginning of the poem, among squalid vegetation sprouting from an unlikely
place, "out of this stony rubbish". In a splintered world where tradition - the mind of the past - becomes reduced
to a heap of broken images, everything boils down to mere survival; the quotidian monotony of passing time.
"Fear in a handful of dust", which appears in line 31, has many meanings, one of which is surely the fear of too
long a life. After all, Sibyl from the epigraph had asked Apollo to grant her as many years of life as there were
grains of dust on her palm.
Further consideration of the futile existence's horror is abruptly interrupted by a lyrical quotation from Wagner, in
German. Tristan and Isolde are, as Denis de Rougemont showed, archetypal lovers of the European civilization,
but also an image of unsuccessful attempts to overcome existential absurdity through love. The collapse of love
(lines 35 to 41), an image of unrealized potentiality of love, illustrates Eliot's determination to reject, like many
other modernists, for instance Faulkner in The Wild Palms, a modern attempt to substitute religious and moral
principles by sexual love. For such love, most eloquently invoked in Matthew Arnold's Victorian poem "Dover
Beach", cannot last; it is subject to limitations, so that it can often turn into misunderstanding or indifference, as
Eliot showed in this instance as well as throughout the poem. This is also what the second Wagner quotation
means which ends this section: Tristan will never see Isolde again.
The next stanza builds on the theme of love's insufficiency (lines 43-60), where Eliot introduces a pack of Tarot
cards, one of the strongest expressive devices of The Waste Land. One of the poem's many layers is indeed
dedicated to prophets: Sibyl, the clairvoyante, and Tiresias are all inarticulate and not very successful. Being a
prophet in the waste land is, indeed, no easy task; a situation devoid of change makes it particularly difficult;
there, the proverbial waiting period lasts a long time, if not forever. The clairvoyant Sosostris [22], a phoney
prophet, does not understand the sacred mysteries of Tarot cards, which were once used to predict fertility of
the land, essential for human survival. The modern-day clairvoyant has reduced everything to self-interest and,
using the sacred for profane ends, tells her clients what they want to hear: what was once ritual has been turned
into daily opportunism. But one must take into account that all women in The Waste Land are in fact
[23]

Belladonnas, as claimed by Langbaum

and that all men are partly reminiscent of either the drowned
Phoenician sailor, the man with three staves or the one-eyed merchant. And thus Tarot cards, though
misunderstood and misused , still rule the world.
An image of the unreal city in which a crowd of bland clerks rush to work at dawn like robots or zombies, ends
"The Burial of the Dead", a ritual prayer for the poet's own dead civilization. Here, Eliot draws parallels to
Dante's Hell (Limbo, to be more precise), Baudelaire's nineteenth century Paris, and Webster's Renaissance
version of ancient nightmares, confirming unity and absurdity of history. Thus the reader - who also inhabits this
modern world with lost moral and religious values - is indeed the poet's double and brother in adversity. "The
Burial of the Dead", however, raises a question, particularly poignant in lines 71 to 75: is some form of
resurrection of the European civilization possible? If Stetson is really a version of Ezra Pound, then this
articulates the issue of resurrecting literature by means of old literary corpses, perhaps only temporarily dead in
the general sterility of modern life. The answer to this question will not, of course, appear in the poem in a direct

and unambiguous form, but is, nevertheless, the central theme of The Waste Land, paraphrased by the
medieval longing for the Grail. But what the poem also examines are the reasons why civilization died, why the
waste land appeared.
The title of Part II, "The Game of Chess", stresses the essentially conflicting relationship between women and
men, instead of natural cooperation in creating new life, as one of the reasons for the death of civilization. The
description of a modern rich woman at her marble toilet table - reminiscent of Shakespeare's Cleopatra - does
not aim at showing the exclusive superiority of the ancient to the modern world, but, like other such instances in
the poem, rather introduces an essential identity of, in this case, historic female position, illustrated by the myth
of Philomel and the king Tereus. Sex without ritual - stripped of its framework of tradition and form - is mere
rape. Philomel's response to violence - as well as the response encountered in other parts of The Waste Land is to sing. But rape can come in other, more direct and indirect forms: is it possible that Cleopatra once upon a
time truly fell in love with both Caesar and Anthony? Why did Dido's love for Aeneas have to end in suicide? Is
ambition for the creation of an empire more important than love? Have women forgotten their primary mission,
the survival of the human race? Whatever the case, the modern rich woman of the poem is indeed - as Tate
[24]

says
- surrounded by glorious works of art from the past, but she fails to notice them or understand the
significance of the fact of Cupids, gods of love, surrounding her. "Withered stumps of time", pictures on the wall
mentioned in line 104 , actually correspond with their modern-day incarnations. This part of the poem presents
two couples: a rich (lines 111 to 138) and a poor one (lines 130-172), but, apart from their financial status, there
are no other significant differences between them. The lives of both, the rich and the poor, are hollow and
squalid - but for different reasons: the rich woman is agonized by boredom and fear of loneliness, whereas poor
Lil is surrounded by threats of excessive fertility, the consequences of numerous abortions as well as
unprincipled sexual competition. In any case, lives of these two women, and consequently their partners, are
empty and unsatisfying at both personal and social levels: they contain neither morality, nor faith or love.
However, these relationships are relatively stable and predominantly monogamous; they reflect the state of
long-term relationships. As far as more radical human relationships - such as passionate love affairs - are
concerned, things are even worse.
The Buddhist timbre of the title to Part III of The Waste Land warns of the dangers lurking in the comforts of
flesh. The autumnal landscape of its first lines vibrates between the modern and the Renaissance vision of the
Thames shores, achieved by repetition of the line from Spenser's wedding song "Sweet Thames, run softly...",
allusions to Marvell persuading his coy mistress to lovemaking as soon as possible, and the dilemmas of the
Fisher King, all the way to modern nymphs - women of easy morals who consort with rich young heirs - finally
incarnated in Mrs. Porter and her daughter, teamed up with the small-time gangster Sweeney. Their washing of
the feet in a night-club orgy reminds Eliot, if not of Jesus, then of Verlaine's Parsifal, who had to wash his feet
before he could enter Chapel Perilous and face the Grail. But the tone of the poem constantly varies between
the sublime and the vulgar; the washing of the feet is also reminiscent of contraceptive ablutions.
After a brief intermezzo (lines 203-206) which recalls the ancient narrative of rape and crime, the poet
introduces an eight-line stanza in which Mr. Eugenides, a modern equivalent of the one-eyed merchant or the
Phoenician sailor, makes an indecent proposal to the narrator, but he soon returns to heterosexual passion in
the key stanza (lines 215-249) in which the prophet Tiresias, plays a double role of observer and commentator,
modeled on chorus from Greek tragedies. Here, in a surreal merger of the sublime and the vulgar, like in line
225, we read of sexual intercourse between the typist and the young man painfully carbuncular, entirely
mechanical, devoid of any pretence of feelings on either side. Tiresias, who has experienced sexuality from both
male and female perspectives, who had known that it was Oedipus' incest with Jocasta that caused the plague
but was not allowed to say it, and who met Odysseus in the Hades but was not allowed to prophecy, stands as a
representative of the human being from the Waste land who knows - but, akin to Sibyl from the epigraph or a
modernist poet, may speak out only in riddles; sing mutely. Knowledge and awareness bring nothing but
suffering and damnation for Tiresias and other inhabitants of the waste land.
In the next eight-line stanza, the focus shifts from Tiresias to the typist, who is aware of the misery of her
relationship and yet ready to seek comfort in the mechanical music of the gramophone, without questioning a

follow-up tryst, avoiding any thought of a deeper relationship. It is the music that connects this stanza to the
next, whose nine lines speak of authentic music which can still be found somewhere in London, even if it is to
be sought with humble fishermen, not the nobility or the city-folk. The lines also reveal the grandeur of certain
architectural elements of the "unreal city", which the city officials are, of course, keen to remove. The
atmosphere of the waste land is self-destructive.
What follows is the part which Eliot's Notes call "The Song of the Three Thames-daughters". Its first two stanzas
depict the modern Thames (lines 266 to 278) as well as the Elizabethan one (lines 279 to 291); the only
difference between them being that the royal barge which floated in it in the 16th century has been replaced by
th
commercial barges of the 20 century. Each of the two thirteen-line stanzas ends in lament by the Daughters of
the river, a quotation from Wagner. They evoke choral singing, followed by solo arias of each of the daughters
(two quatrains and the third a five-line stanza). All three stories are in fact identical, and serve to highlight the
theme of dissatisfaction or emptiness brought on by sexual desire or need. "The Fire Sermon" ends with the
merging of Buddha's words with a quotation from St. Augustine's Confessions; the messages of both
philosopher-saints, one Eastern and one Western, at least by the provenance of his followers, are the same woe to the one who heeds the call of the flesh: for they will burn - if not in real hell, then in the metaphorical
one.
Part IV of the poem, "Death by Water", is its shortest and most lyrical segment. Viewed literally, one could say
that Eliot in it discuses water in its other incarnation and function: it is not only a life-bringing liquid that could
turn the waste land into a fertile land, it can also be deadly and it stands in direct contrast to the fire of passion
of Part III: Eros is accompanied by Thanatos. But here we are no longer dealing with life in death, a
monotonous, vegetative existence instead of life, but with real death that everyone should remember each day;
death which comes as a final release, a deliverance from the illusory world of senses. Death can, as in
Shakespeare's The Tempest, lead to strange metamorphoses: bones into corals; eyes into pearls. Phlebas'
death could be a ritual one, death could lead to rebirth, or resurrection. When it comes to choosing between the
two contradictory Latin proverbs, Carpe diem or Memento mori, Eliot consistently opts for the latter; throughout
the whole poem, but particularly in this part. Phlebas, who could very well be a character based on Jean
Verdenal, Eliot's lost friend who died at the Dardanelles, must pass through all the human ages in order to forget
the world. Death by water is one of the ways to reach "peace that passeth understanding" which ends the
poem.
Eliot himself says - this time in a letter [25] - that Part V of The Waste Land is for him the best of all. This does
not only mean that it contains the best poetry, which is the gist of Eliot's claim, but also that this part closely
examines, if not resolves, the issues raised in the first four parts. A synthesis of Christian and Hindu attitudes
towards existence, it most resembles Gtterdammerung, even though Wagner is never quoted, as Young points
out in his essay. The key to the meaning of this part lies in its multi-faceted title: when the thunder speaks (and it
could mean an intimation of rain, the beginning of the end of the waste land, or, according to the Hindu tradition,
the voice of the supreme god) gods, demons and humans interpret what it says in three different ways. But all of
the ways are correct, and all of them place demands on man, instead of man placing demands on life,
particularly after a war catastrophe. The injunctions to "give", "sympathize" and "control", made in Sanskrit, are
the final commandments of the poem, and make - as Pound claimed in 1924 - Eliot's notes indispensable, even
though the lines would also be understandable from their immediate context. Following these injunctions is the
only way to overcome human limitations and thus limitations of life as well.
"What the Thunder Said", however, begins in a short poetic summary of Jesus Christ's passion, moving from the
garden of Gethsemane, and Khaifa's palace, to the judgment of Pontius Pilate and the Golgotha crucifixion (9
lines). But there is no resurrection to be found in the poem: the verses that follow are the closest Eliot will have
come to expressing a Christian world view:
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience

This is a moment close to desperation; realistic in terms of human experience, but not necessarily far removed
from salvation. The next stanza (lines 331-358) is the most detailed and evocative description of the waste land,
and a part that Eliot considered to be the best. "Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth" are confronted with a
dream of water. These are no longer the same mountains in which Marie from Part I feels a fleeting sense of
freedom; the mountains are now filled with inimical natives, allegedly from Eastern Europe, whose "red, sullen
faces sneer and snarl".
From this point onwards the poem is focused on illusions, dream sequences and nightmares reminiscent of
those from the Book of Revelations and its description of Judgment day. The seven-line stanza mixes or
superimposes the image of resurrected Christ appearing in front of his disciples on the road to Emmaus onto
the impressions of three men at the expedition to Antarctica in 1916, all of whom saw an unknown man who
moved together with them and helped them survive. Are we, the readers of the poem, in a position similar to that
of Christ's disciples after the crucifixion, while still unaware that resurrection has taken place? The next, elevenline stanza is an eerily modern, prophetic account of the Western civilization's cataclysm, the fall of the JudeoChristian world in which there are "falling towers", just like in New York in 2001, and "Jerusalem Athens
Alexandria Vienna London" - the religious and cultural centers of this world -acquire an aura of the unreal when
crammed in a random, non-selective list. The following complementary eight-line stanza has another take on
"upside down in air were towers", but its poetic focus is turned on the brave, or possibly mad woman, who,
amidst the chaos, plays on her hair, not heeding "bats with baby faces" and other horrors surrounding her. After
this brief but extraordinarily dramatic sequence, Eliot beams us into an altogether different world: we find
ourselves beside the Chapel Perilous, which could enclose the Grail. Here, where it is grass that sings, not
disembodied voices coming from dried-up wells and cisterns like in the previous stanza; here, where "dry
bones", or, the presence of the past, can "harm no one"- we find the rooster singing "on the rooftree": roosters
are common domestic birds, but also mythical protectors against evil spirits. Lightning and moist gust of wind
herald the rain, or salvation: the possibility that Grail would be found, and the waste land made fertile.
And then, again, a change of the ambiance takes place: the next sequence, a six-line stanza, takes us to the
banks of the Ganges, the most sacred of Indian rivers, where the thunder will utter its message. The thunder, of
course, says "DA", which, in Sanskrit, one could suppose, represents an onomatopoeic clap, something like
"boom" or "crash". But gods, demons and humans will interpret this holy syllable in their respective ways, and
the subsequent three stanzas of nine, six and five lines - each separated by the sound of thunder "DA" - present
these different interpretations. But regardless of whether the thunder has commanded us to give, sympathize
and control ourselves, the poem makes it clear that, in our history so far, we have failed to observe those
injunctions. Our greatest act of giving is the sexual act, because it is to this act that we owe our existence; and
yet it is "secret", and cannot be discussed, particularly within the bounds of Victorian decency, nor can it be
mentioned in public documents. Instead of sympathizing with our fellow-men, that is all the people we meet, we
lock ourselves up in the solitary cells of our personalities, vanities or perceptions like Dante's or Shakespeare's
characters, forgetting that we are but a small part of a great whole, and do not have particular importance as
individuals. Controlling oneself could be pleasant, like steering a sailing boat with well-skilled hands; but in our
culture such askesis is simply not customary. We find it much more acceptable to reveal our emotions and
motivations publicly, in various violent and non-violent ways, than to strive towards keeping them in check lest
we endanger the rights or feelings or others. And so, with this statement, Eliot formally ends his sermon.
For a brief moment thereafter, in just three lines, Eliot takes us to the Fisher King, wondering if he will ever
accomplish his task, turn his land into a well-organized community of a kind that many of us, his readers, wish
for, even today. But it seems that the very ending of The Waste Land - the last ten lines - change focus, and turn
away from characters which had been speakers of the poem up to that moment back to the poet. Not
necessarily Eliot himself, but any poet in the world, once the message of the thunder is understood. From line
423 onwards, Eliot's speaker is no longer the Fisher King, Tiresias or an impersonal narrator, as before. Now all
his previously used personae overlap

[26]

, again, in what seems a multiple exposure - together with the poet,

[27]

who always gets the unenviable task of restructuring the world and investing it with meaning
after a
cataclysm (regardless of what kind, monotonous in its repetitiveness, no matter what the period of human
history). This is why London Bridge is falling down (line 426), mostly so that we would wonder how we are going

to rebuild it in the very words of the nursery rhyme. But in 1921, as he was writing the poem in Margate and
Lausanne, Eliot was going through the initial stages of the religious conversion [28], and is likely to have
believed - at least partially - in the possibility of purification or redemption, such as is experienced by Arnaut
Daniel in Dante's Purgatory. This is why the poet still speaks despite everything; he must utter something, even
if somewhat hermetic and inarticulate. And so, unlike the voice saying the "Pervigilium Veneris", he still sings.
Eliot - or the generic poet, the speaker of the lines at the end of The Waste Land resembles Nerval's
protagonist who sees himself in the role of a prince in a ruinous castle, but the road from there could very well
lead to victory and triumph, even to rebuilding the castle. The Waste Land, Eliot seems to say at the end,
resembles the drama of Hieronimo in that it proves the presence of method in what appears to be madness. The
poet seeks to express the inexpressible. This is precisely what Eliot tried to articulate in his speech on the
occasion of receiving the Nobel prize for Literature, where, at the very beginning, he states that words are
[29]

beyond his command.

The possibility that one can change the world or write great poetry, is a tiny one
indeed: but it exists nevertheless, and this is what the finale of The Waste Land is about. If the commands of the
thunder were to be followed, the waters would flow; and the waste land would be no more.

6. IV
There can be no simple answer to the question of whether we should take Eliot's notes to The Waste
Land seriously, or consider them a literary joke. For, sometimes, they are a humorous gesture: they are a device
"Old Possum" uses to defend himself from his readers' excessive interest in his models and reasons. In his
notes for line 68, for instance, Eliot reflects on the dead sound of a London church bells; in the note for line 357,
he provides the biological, Latin name of a bird, the geographical location of its habitat and related ornithological
commentary - all of which is, in fact, meant to prevent us from thinking of the analogy with Whitman's thrush. It
[30]

may even be true that the length of his notes was determined by the printers' request for material.
Things
become even more complicated when, in the note for line 411, Eliot provides a quote from Bradley, the subject
of his undefended doctoral dissertation:
My external sensations are no less private to myself than are my thoughts or my feelings. In either case my falls
within my own circle, a circle closed on the outside; and, with all its elements alike, every sphere is opaque to the
others which surround it. ...In brief, regarded as an existence that appears in a soul, the whole world for each is
peculiar and private to that soul.

Bradley's claim, in fact, negates the very idea of poetry: if my experiences are restricted to myself alone, if my
world is "peculiar and private", then poetry, which is a more or less organized and structured attempt to
communicate poet's feelings to the reader - is in essence impossible. If this were how things really stood,
then The Waste Land would really be nothing more than "rhythmical grumbling". But Eliot did not truly believe in
such an idea, as his later poetry clearly shows; it is also debatable whether this was his belief at the time The
Waste Land was being written. If every life were indeed completely opaque to other people, Pound's editorial
work would be purposeless, and literature as such would lose any meaning. Eliot's religious conversion - not to
an obscure cult, but to England's mainstream Christian denomination, the Anglican Church, bears witness to his
faith in the power of collective thinking, if not salvation, not only in terms of his biography, but also poetry, from
"Marina" (1930), where the thrush song of salvation is audible through the fog, to Four Quartets, which end in
the merging of the fire and the rose.
st
Apart from its earlier canonical importance, The Waste Land is interesting to the 21 century reader because it
bears the imprint of a poet's doubting mind before his conversion. In this poem, Eliot searches for meaning, as
poets have been doing from the beginning of time; the meaning of his own life, of course, but also the meaning
of human life in general, in an unstable age in which the contours of the future world are yet unfocused or
undefined, while the old world lies in ruins. Describing the world he never made, but was merely born into - a
world of political turmoil and attempts to adjust to the framework of modernism sketched by the ideas of Einstein
and Freud whose ideas nullified the known axioms of physics and psychology - a world so like ours, Eliot,
helped by Pound, created a paradigmatic modernist poem, fragmented and irregular, characterized at times by
the presence, and at times by the absence of traditional versification devices such as the rhyme or metre,
leaning thoroughly on the established poetic traditions and parodying them at the same time in his use of

quotations - and in this way, also parodying the historic moment in which the poem had been created and the
way it marked the poem. Equalizing the past and the present within a space-time continuum [31]
, Eliot views the inadequacy and insufficiency of human endeavour up to now, in what is in fact an astoundingly sincere,
youthfully naive, very American vision of human potentials, which, of course, can be unlimited. Therefore quest for the Grail
is an image which lends itself particularly well to Eliot's poetic contemplation of the world. The Grail is a symbol of the belief
placed in teleology - the belief in meaningfulness of our existence, or at least in the existence of something transcendent,
lost in the modern world of science and rationality. And while, no doubt, we continue, with perhaps a little more cynicism,
searching for the possibilities of a new world which we would build on the ruins of two world wars and many other wars
("After such knowledge, what forgiveness?", says Eliot in "Gerontion", in 1920) The Waste Land remains one of our
signposts. At a time of the possible end or transformation of communism and capitalism, two opposed views on economy
and organisation of human life, The Waste Land offers evidence that, in another time, other people - however different in
language and customs from us - found themselves treading dusty paths that are similar, if not identical to ours, searching for
the impossible.

JULIAN BARNES, 1946 - CONTEMPORARY WRITER; LEICESTER, ENGLAND

27. "FLAUBERT'S PARROT" AS A TYPICAL POSTMODERNIST NOVEL
THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO DEFINITION OF POSTMODERNISM.
ONE IS THAT POSTMODERNISM IS NOTHING BUT THE CONFIRMATION OF
MODERNISM; I.E. POSTMODERNISTS DO NOT DO SOMETHING ESSENTIALLY NEW,
THEY ONLY CONTINUE THE PROCESS WHICH BEGAN IN MODERNISM. ANOTHER
APPROACH IS THAT POSTMODERNISM IS COMPLETELY NEW. THE AXIOM OF
POSTMODERNISM IS THAT LITERATURE CANNOT TRULY REPRESENT REALITY.
POSTMODERNISTS ARE VERY SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE FUNCTIONS OF ART.
ACCORDING TO THEM, LITERATURE DOES NOT PRESENT ITSELF AS A SOURCE OF
TRUTH. THE READER IS CONSTANTLY BEING REMINDED THAT SOMEBODYS
SUBJECTIVE REPRESENTATION OF SOMETHING CALLED REALITY IS MOST
PROBABLY NOT TRUE.
POSTMODERNISTS USE MANY DIGRESSIONS AND COMMENTS, MANY
INTERRUPTIONS WITH THE MAIN GOAL TO CONFUSE AND PROVOKE THE READER.
THERE ARE NO USUAL ENDINGS IN THEIR NOVELS FOR THE POSTMODERNIST
PHILOSOPHY IS THAT THE READER WILL BEGIN TO THINK ONLY IF PROVOKED AND
CONFUSED. THEY ABANDON ARISTOTELIAN CONCEPT OF ART, THEIR NOVELS DO
NOT HAVE REGULAR CHRONOLOGY AND THE READER IS CONSTANTLY BEING
REMINDED THAT THEIR WORK IS FICTIONAL. THE STORY ITSELF IS NOT IN THE
FOCUS.
FLAUBERTS PARROT DEALS WITH REAL POSTMODERNIST THEMES SUCH AS
WHAT IS TRUTH, CAN IT BE ACHIEVED. THE NOVEL IS COMPOSED OF 15 PARTS
ORGANIZED UNDER DIFFERENT HEADINGS. IT HAS SEVERAL DIFFERENT
NARRATIVE LEVELS:
I. THE FIRST NARRATIVE LEVEL IS THE STORY ABOUT GEOFFREY
BRAITHWAITE, A FICTIONAL CHARACTER AND THE NARRATOR OF
FLAUBERTS PARROT. BRAITHWAITE IS A SINGLE, RETIRED DIRECTOR (A
PHYSICIAN), ENGLISHMAN, WHO HAS A PASSION FOR THE FRENCH
NOVELIST GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, THE AUTHOR OF MADAME BOVARY.
FLAUBERT IS HIS OBSESSION. HE IS FOND OF FINDING SMALL DETAILS
FROM FLAUBERTS LIFE AND EXPLORES THEM. HE WANTS TO DISCOVER
SOMETHING UNUSUAL IN FS LIFE. HE IS PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN
FINDING SOMETHING NEW THAT NOBODY ELSE FOUND BEFORE.
II. THE SECOND NARRATIVE LEVEL PRESENTS THE WORLD AND LIFE OF
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. THREE DIFFERENT CHRONOLOGIES OF FLAUBERTS
LIFE ARE PROVIDED:
1. THE FIRST CHRONOLOGY IS OPTIMISTIC (CITING HIS SUCCESSES,
CONQUESTS ETC.).
2. THE SECOND IS NEGATIVE (CITING THE DEATHS OF HIS
FRIENDS/LOVERS, HIS FAILURES, ILLNESSES ETC.)
3. AND THE THIRD COMPILES QUOTATIONS WRITTEN BY FLAUBERT IN HIS
JOURNAL AT VARIOUS POINTS IN HIS LIFE.

THE

READER CANNOT KNOW WHICH CHRONOLOGY IS

ACCURATE. THERE ARE SOME PARTS IN THE NOVEL WHERE

104

TRUE

AND MOST
HIMSELF

FLAUBERT

SPEAKS TO THE READER. FLAUBERT WROTE SHORT STORIES TROIS CONTES.

IN ONE OF THESE STORIES HE MENTIONED A PARROT. GEOFFREY IS VISITING
FRANCE AND TRAVELS TO FS BIRTHPLACE. WHILE VISITING VARIOUS SMALL
MUSEUMS RELATED TO FLAUBERT., GEOFFREY ENCOUNTERS TWO INCIDENCES
OF PEOPLE CLAIMING TO HAVE THE STUFFED PARROT WHICH SET ATOP FS
WRITING DESK FOR A BRIEF PERIOD.

VII.
THE THIRD NARRATIVE LEVEL DESCRIBES THE WORLD OF
FLAUBERTS FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. THERE IS A CONSTANT MINGLING OF
REALITY AND FICTION. FOR EXAMPLE, FICTIVE CHARACTERS LIKE
GEOFFREY BRAITHWAITE WITH REAL HISTORICAL PERSONS LIKE SATRE,
FLAUBERT, ETC. FACTS MINGLE WITH FICTION. FLAUBERTS LOVER
OFFERS HER VERSION OF HER LOVE AFFAIR WITH FLAUBERT WHICH IS
TOTALLY OPPOSITE TO GEOFFREYS, WHICH IS AGAIN TOTALLY OPPOSITE
TO
HISTORICAL
FACTS.
BRAITHWAITE CANNOT ESTABLISH THE
CONNECTION BETWEEN REAL AND FICTIONAL. HE EVEN THINKS THAT
MADAM BOVARY DETERMINED HIS OWN LIFE HE PRACTICALLY GOES
INSANE BUT WE KNOW THAT BOTH BRAITHWAITE AND EMMA BOVARY ARE
FICTIVE.
VIII.
INTERTEXTUALITY, AS ONE OF THE TYPICAL POSTMODERNIST
CHARACTERISTICS IS PRESENT IN THE NOVEL. FOR EXAMPLE, BARNES
INCLUDES ALL SORTS OF DIFFERENT TEXTS INTO HIS NOVEL SUCH AS
BIOGRAPHIES, PRIVATE LETTERS, EXAMINATIONS, LITERARY CRITICISM, A
LOT OF ALLUSIONS TO OTHER WORKS OF LITERATURE SUCH AS THE LORD
OF THE FLIES, MADAME BOVARY ETC. IT IS A COMBINATION OF
LITERATURE AND CHRONICLES, LITERARY CRITICISM, ESSAYS, ETC.
BRAITHWAITE SAYS HE DOES NOT LIKE THESE NEW MULTIPLE ENDINGS
ABOUT THE NEW NOVELS IRONICALLY BECAUSE BARNES HIMSELF WRITES
THE SAME NOVELS.
FINALLY, AFTER PRESENTING MANY POSTMODERNIST ELEMENTS WHICH ARE
PRESENT IN THE NOVEL, WE CAN CONCLUDE THAT JULIAN BARNES IS A TRUE
POSTMODERNIST WRITER AND THAT HIS NOVEL FS PARROT IS A PROOF OF
THAT.

2. POSTMODERNIST LITERARY METHOD IN FLAUBERTS PARROT

3. DISCUSS THE POSTMODERNIST ATTITUDES TOWARDS NOVEL-WRITING IN
JULIAN BARNESS FLAUBERTS PARROT WITH APPROPRIATE EXAMPLES FROM THE
NOVEL

(UNOS

IZ JEDNOG ESEJA)

BLENDING

FICTION, BIOGRAPHY, AND LITERARY CRITICISM, FP EXPLORES THE

PERIMETERS OF FICTION AND REALITY AND DEMONSTRATES HOW ART AND LIFE
INTERACT. IN THIS NOVEL, BARNES ABANDONS A CHRONOLOGICAL PLOT
STRUCTURE OF CONVENTIONAL REALIST FICTION FOR ONE WHICH DIGRESSES,
TEASES, BREAKS OFF, INTERRUPTS ITSELF, AND MAKES USE OF ALTERNATING
NARRATIVE VOICES AND SHIFTING PLANES OF REFERENCE. BARNES ALTERNATES
FIRST AND THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW IN ORDER TO DISPEL OF ILLUSION OF
NARRATIVE CONTINUITY WHICH CONVENTIONAL LINEAR PLOT STRUCTURING

105

MAKES
POSSIBLE.
FP ALSO REVEALS THE INFLUENCE OF POST
STRUCTURALISMS REJECTION OF TRADITIONAL LITERARY AUTHORITY. 19TH
CENTURY REALIST FICTION USED A TECHNICAL DEVICE OF OMNISCIENT
NARRATION AS A VEHICLE FOR MORAL INSTRUCTION BECAUSE THE WRITERS
AND THE READERS VALUES OF THE SOCIETY WERE VERY SIMILAR. IN 20TH
CENTURY NEW AWARENESS THAT AN AUTHOR CANNOT OPPOSE OWN MORALITY
LIKE AN OMNISCIENT NARRATOR BECAUSE THE SOCIETY IS IN LAYERS AND A
BROKEN
NARRATIVE
CAN
REFLECT
THESE
COMPLEX
MORAL
ISSUES.
THROUGHOUT FP, THE NARRATORS PERSISTENT FAILURE TO IMPOSE ANY KIND
OF MEANING ON EITHER HIS OWN HISTORY OR FLAUBERTS UNDERMINES
HUMANISMS FAITH IN THE CONSTRUCTIVE POWERS OF THE HUMAN SELF.
THIS IS A NEW TYPE OF NARRATOR WHO HAS SEEN, EXPERIENCED OR CAUSED
SOMETHING SO TRAUMATIC THAT HE MUST APPROACH THE TELLING OF IT
THROUGH INDIRECTIONS, MOSQUES AND SUBSTITUTIONS. THE INDIRECTIONS
AND SUBSTITUTIONS WHICH BARNES NARRATOR USES TO RECOUNT HIS TRAUMA
THE TRAUMA BEING HIS WIFES MARITAL INFIDELITY AND SUBSEQUENT
SUICIDE- ARE THE LIFE OF FLAUBERT. BARNES PROTAGONIST DISPLACES HIS
PERSONAL HISTORY ONTO FLAUBERT AND CREATES LITERARY INVESTIGATION TO
ESCAPE HIS OWN FEARS. ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING THINGS ABOUT BARNES
NOVEL IS ITS SINGULARLY UNPROMISING PLOT A PLOT AT WHICH AT FIRST
BELIES THE BOOKS DEEPER NARRATIVE, THEMATIC, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
COMPLEXITIES. AFTER BRAITHWAITE HAS DISCOVERED THAT THERE ARE TWO
STUFFED PARROTS THERE BEGINS THE NARRATORS QUEST FOR TRUTH A
QUEST WHICH WILL FIND HIM CRISS-CROSSING THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE,
WRITING LETTERS, READING DOCUMENTS, AND INTERVIEWING FLAUBERT
AUTHORITIES. PRESUMABLY, BY IDENTIFYING THE REAL PARROT, BRAITHWAITE
BELIEVES THAT HE WILL ABLE TO GAIN A GREATER INSIGHT INTO FLAUBERTS
LIFE AND ART. THAT WE CAN NEVER KNOW FOR SURE IS PRECISELY BARNES
POINT, AND THE DILEMMA BRAITHWAITE FINDS HIMSELF IN A T THE END OF HIS
NARRATIVE IS IN ACTUALITY THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION WHICH THE NOVEL
IMPLICITLY IMPOSES: IF THE LITTLE DETAILS IN AN INDIVIDUALS LIFE ELUDE OUR
ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THEM, THAN HOW CAN WE EXPECT TO GRASP THE
LARGER, MORE SIGNIFICANT ONES. AS THE NOVEL UNFOLDS AND BRAITHWAITE
CONTINUES HIS INVESTIGATION, BARNES EPONYMOUS PARROT BEGINS TO TAKE
ON A MULTIPLICITY OF MEANINGS, REFERRING BY TURNS TO FELICITYS BELOVED
BIRD A KIND OF ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE, A RESTAURANT NAMED AFTER A
PARROT, LANGUAGE (PARROTS BEING THE BIRDS WHICH IMITATE HUMAN SPEECH
WITHOUT KNOWING THE MEANING OF WHAT THEY IMITATE), AND FINALLY OF
PURSUIT OF TRUTH ITSELF (FOR JUST THERE ARE MANY PARROTS BY THE END OF
THE NOVEL, SO ARE THERE MANY WAYS OF APPREHENDING THE TRUTH OR,
BETTER STILL, MANY TRUTHS TO BE APPREHENDED). FP, LIKE MANY
CONTEMPORARY
NOVELS,
CONTAINS
A
VARIETY
OF
SELF-DESTRUCT
MECHANISMS NARRATIVE STRATEGIES WHICH BARNES USES TO UNDERMINE
THE CONVENTIONAL STRUCTURES OF FICTIONAL VERISIMILITUDE. ONE OF THESE
MECHANISMS METAFICTION IS A LITERARY TECHNIQUE WHICH CALLS
ATTENTION TO THE ACT OF WRITING ITSELF IN ORDER TO SHOW THAT FICTIONS
ARE JUST THAT FICTIONS AND NOT EXACT REPRESENTATIONS OF REALITY OR
EMBODIMENTS OF ULTIMATE TRUTHS.
IN SHOWING US HOW LITERARY CREATES ITS IMAGINARY WORLDS, METAFICTION
HELPS US TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE REALITY WE LIVE DAY BY DAY IS SIMILARLY

106

CONSTRUCTED, SIMILARLY WRITTEN. IN FP METAFICTIONAL ELEMENTS ASSUME A

VARIETY OF FORMS: INTERTEXTUALITY, LITERARY CRITICISM, METALEPTICAL
INTRUSIONS, AND PARODY. TO THE NOVELIST WHO TRULY WANTED TO
STIMULATE THE DELTA OF LIFES POSSIBILITIES, BRAITHWAITE PROPOSES THE
FOLLOWING MODEL: BOOKS WHICH CONCLUDE WITH SEALED ENVELOPES
CONTAINING
DIFFERENT
ENDINGS
- TRADITIONAL HAPPY ENDING,
TRADITIONAL UNHAPPY ENDING, TRADITIONAL HALF AND HALF ENDING,
DEUS EXMACHINA, ETC. FROM WHICH THE READER WOULD BE ALLOWED TO
CHOOSE ONLY ONE.
WHILE INTRUSIVE AUTHOR/NARRATOR HAS BEEN A COMMON FEATURE OF THE
NOVEL SINCE ITS INCEPTION, ITS FUNCTION IN 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY FICTION
IS NOT, STRICTLY SPEAKING, METAFICTIONAL.
WHEREAS THE USE OF THIS
DEVICE IN THE EARLY NOVEL TENDED TO BLEND SMOOTHLY WITH THE STORY,
AND THUS PRESERVE THE ILLUSION OF REALITY, THE POSTMODERNIST
INTRUSIVE AUTHOR/NARRATOR SERVES TO EXPOSE THE TEXTS ARTIFICE BY
MAKING THE READER AWARE OF THE CONFLICTING ONTOLOGICAL LEVELS
INVOLVED IN FICTIONAL REPRESENTATION. THE PECULIAR CONFIGURATIONS OF
BIOGRAPHICAL
MATERIAL
IN
FP
REVEAL
BARNES
DISTINCTIVELY
POSTMODERNIST SENSE OF IRONY AND COINCIDENCE, AS WELL AS HIS
FASCINATION WITH THE WAYS IN WHICH ART MINGLES WITH REALITY. A GOOD
EXAMPLE OF THIS IS THE PASSAGE WHERE BARNES ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH
ONTOLOGICAL PARALLELS BETWEEN A HISTORICAL FIGURE, ELLEANOR MARIX,
AND A FICTIONAL CHARACTER EMMA BOVARY. THROUGHOUT, BRAITHWAITE
MAKES REFERENCES TO REAL PEOPLE AND PLACES: FLAUBERT, ENID STARKIE,
CHRISOPHER RICKS, ROUEN AND CROISSET IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION,
THE INTRODUCTION OF HISTORICAL FIGURES SERVES TO WIDEN THE
ONTOLOGICAL GAP BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY.
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOVEL, REAL PEOPLE, PLACES AND EVENTS WERE
INCLUDED OR ALLUDED T IN ORDER TO CONVINCE THE READER OF THE TRUTH
OF THE FICTIONAL ONES. IN HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION, HOWEVER,
INSTEAD OF HISTORICAL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS PROVING THE TRUTH OF THE
FICTION, THEY POINT TO THE INDETERMINACY OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE. THIS
IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE IN IN THE CASE OF FP, WHERE THE INTRODUCTION OF
REAL PEOPLE, FAR FROM FACILITATING HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING SERVES
MERELY TO PROBLEMATIZE BRAITHWAITES APPARENT CONFIDENCE IN THE
ABILITY OF FACTUAL DOCUMENTATION TO REVEAL TRUTH.
BARNES COMBATIVE POLEMICISM, HIS HUMOROUS FORAYS INTO LITERARY
CRITICISM ESPECIALLY HIS ATTACKS ON ENID STARKIE AND JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
- IMPART FURTHER METAFICTIONAL DIMENSIONS TO HIS NOVEL. ONE SUCH
DIATRIBE APPEARS IN CHAPTER SIX, EMMA BOVARYS EYE, IN WHICH
BARNES PITS HIS NARRATIVE AGAINST THE DREADNOUGHT OF ACADEMIC
CRITICISM.
AS CHARACTER LEE ARGUES, BRAITHWAITE BELIEVES THAT
THE
ACCUMULATION OF BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS WILL LEAD TO A GREATER
UNDERSTANDING OF FLAUBERTS LIFE, AND THAT THIS. IN TURN, WILL ALLOW
HIM TO ACHIEVE A FULLER APPRECIATION OF FLAUBERTS FICTION. AS
CHARACTER, THEN, BRAITHWAITE AFFIRMS REALISMS FAITH IN THE
VERACITY OF THE FACTS. AS NARRATOR, HOWEVER, BRAITHWAITES
OBTRUSIVE DIGRESSIVENESS TENDS TO SUBVERT THE VERY REALISM HE PLACES
SUCH STOCK IN AS CHARACTER. ACCORDING TO LEE: (BRAITHWAITE)

107

OFFERS PARODIC IMITATIONS OF FLAUBERTS DICTIONNAIRE DES IDEES RECUES,

OF CHRONOLOGIES OF FLAUBERTS LIFE, AND EVEN AN EXAMINATION PAPER.
EACH OF THESE IS, TO SOME EXTENT, A PARROT A WAY OF IMITATING FLAUBERT
IN THE HOPE THAT THE IMITATION WILL REFLECT THE TRUTH. AS BARNES
NARRATOR TELLS US, DONT WE BELIEVE THE WORDS ENOUGH?
BRAITHWAITES BIOGRAPHY OF FLAUBERT BECOMES AN ENCYCLOPEDIC
COLLECTION OF DISPARATE FRAGMENTS RELICS, ANECDOTAL BRIC-A-BRAC
WHICH RESIST COHERENT INTEGRATION. BRAITHWAITES SEARCH FOR THE
AUTHENTIC STUFFED PARROT WHICH HAD ONCE PERCHED ITSELF ON FLAUBETS
WRITING TABLE WILL FORCE BARNES NARRATOR TO CONFRONT SEVERAL
COMPELLING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NATURE OF TRUTH, THE LESSONS OF THE
PAST, AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART AND REALITY: HOW, FOR EXAMPLE.
DO WE ARRIVE AT TRUTH? CAN TRUTH BE KNOWN AT ALL? HOW RELIABLE IS
THE PAST IN HELPING US ASCERTAIN TRUTH? DOES THE KIND OF FACTUAL
DOCUMENTATION WE NORMALLY ENCOUNTER IN BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS,
PARTICULARLY LITERARY BIOGRAPHIES, ACCURATELY REFLECT THE TRUTH ABOUT
THEIR SUBJECTS LIVES? DOES TRUTH RESIDE MERELY IN THE DOCUMENTATION
OF FACTUAL DATA? CAN BIOGRAPHY BE DISTINGUISHED FROM FICTION? WOVEN
THROUGH THE NOVEL LIKE A LIETMOTIF, BRATHWAITES REFLECTIONS ON THE
PAST AND ITS RELATION TO TRUTH ASSUME VARIOUS METAPHORICAL GUISES: A
GREASED PIG, AN AMBULANCE, A RECEDING COASTLINE ALL OF WHICH
UNDERSCORE THE NOVELS VERY ENACTMENT OF THE INDETERMINACY OF
HISTORICAL MEANING. HOW DO WE SEIZE THE PAST? CAN WE EVER DO SO?
THE PAST OFTEN SEEMS TO BEHAVE LIKE THAT GREASED PIGLET.
AS IT HAPPENS, BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORIES PROVE TO BE NO LESS ELUSIVE
THAN SOCIAL, CULTURAL, OR POLITICAL HISTORIES. THIS IS THE APPARENT
THEME OF CHAPTER 2. THE CHAPTER IS DIVIDED INTO THREE SECTIONS, THE
FIRST TWO OF WHICH CONTAIN CHRONOLOGIES OF THE IMPORTANT EVENTS IN
FLAUBERTS LIFE, WHILE THE FINAL SECTION OFFERS CHRONOLOGY OF
FLAUBERTS REFLECTIONS ON VARIOUS LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL
SUBJECTS. WHEREAS SECTION 1 HAD FOCUSED ON TRIUMPHS AND SUCCESSES,
SECTION 2 HIGHLIGHTS TRAGEDY AND FAILURE, REVEALING DARKER ASPECTS OF
FLAUBERTS LIFE. BY JUXTAPOSING A CHRONOLOGY WHICH ENUMERATES
FLAUBERTS PERSONAL, LITERARY, AND SOCIAL TRIUMPHS WITH ONE WHICH
OUTLINES HIS FAILURES AND CRISIS, BARNES REVEALS THE DEFICIENCIES
INHERENT IN BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THIS TYPE. CROSS-REFERENCING
ENTRIES FROM THE FIRST TWO CHRONOLOGIES SHOW HOW EASY IT IS TO
INTERPRET THE SAME EVENT IN DIFFERENT WAYS.
THE FINAL SECTION OF CHAPTER 2 IS A CHRONOLOGY OF FLAUBERTS
OBSERVATIONS ON SUCH TOPICS, SUCH AS: LOVE, SEXUALITY, AESTHETICS,
FICTION, AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS. WRITTEN IN THE FORM OF EXCERPTS FROM
LETTERS AND NOTEBOOKS, THESE ENTRIES ALLOW US TO BLIMPS VARIOUS
MOMENTS
IN
FLAUBERTS INNER LIFE, THUS COUNTERPOINTING THE
OBJECTIVE BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL IN THE FIRST TWO CHRONOLOGIES.
LIFE, IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS CAN NEVER BE FULLY ARTICULATED BY THE
PARROTRY OF BIOGRAPHICAL EXPOSITION. RATHER, THE WRITERS MIND AND
SOUL FIND EXPRESSION CHIEFLY IN HIS OR HER WRITINGS. ANY BIOGRAPHICAL
RECONSTRUCTION OF A WRITERS LIFE WILL OF NECESSITY BE FRAGMENTARY
AND INCOMPLETE; MOREOVER, INSOFAR HAS THE LIFE WILL BE SHAPED BY
THE BIOGRAPHERS RACIAL, SOCIAL AND SEXUAL BIASES, IT WILL FAIL TO

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RENDER ITS SUBJECT TRUTHFULLY. THE THEMES OF THE NARRATORS LIFE,

FLAUBERTS LIFE AND THE LIFE OF FICTION ARE DEVELOPED THROUGH THE
INTERWEAVING OF TWO MAIN NARRATIVE STRANDS, BOTH OF WHICH
INTRICATELY INVOLVE THE LIVES OF THE NARRATOR, THE NARRATORS WIFE,
FLAUBERT, AND TWO OF FLAUBERTS MOST FAMOUS FICTION CHARACTERS. THE
UNFOLDING
NARRATIVE
REVEALS
A
PARALLEL
DEVELOPMENT
BETWEEN
BRAITHWAITES ATTEMPTS TO PIECE TOGETHER THE LIFE OF FLAUBERT AND HIS
STRUGGLE TO COME TO TURNS WITH HIS WIFES DEATH AND ULTIMATELY WITH
THE MEANING OF HIS OWN LIFE. FP SERVES UP MANY IRONICAL PARALLELS
BETWEEN THE LIFE OF ITS NARRATOR AND SEVERAL KEY EVENTS IN FLAUBERTS
MASTERPIECE OF IRONY, MADAME BOVARY. IF BARNES INTENTION IS TO
EXPLORE WAYS IN WHICH ART AND LIFE OCCASIONALLY MERGE WITH ONE
ANOTHER, THEN HIS IMMEDIATE PROBLEM BECOMES THAT OF CREATING THE
ILLUSION OF BRAITHWAITES REALITY. BRAITHWAITES REALITY COEXTENDS MERELY WITH HIS FUNCTION AS NARRATOR AND CHARACTER.
THAT BRAITHWAITE SHOULD CHOOS TO ADMIRE FLAUBERT, THE MASTER OF
CREATIVE ADULTERY, IS ONE OF THE BOOKS SUPREME IRONIES. THE RESULT IS
A BOOK WHICH COMBINES HUMOR, SENSITIVITY, AND ABSORBING INSIGHTS NOT
ONLY INTO THE PROCESSES LITERARY CREATION BUT ALSO INTO THE
COMPLEXITIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY MANS PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

Flauberts Parrot as Miscellany

Flauberts Parrot is a novel. It is, certainly, one that mixes disparate
elements. It mixes fact and fiction: its fictional narrator Geoffrey
Braithwaite is a student of the Gustave Flaubert who, in fact, lived in
France and wrote novels. But then most novels mix fact and fiction. Barnes
adds to his novels miscellaneity by discontinuity of form. One chapter is
an examination paper; another is a dictionary of received ideas about
Flaubert; another is about animals in Flauberts life and works, and yet
another offers three alternative chronologies of his life. Flauberts Parrot is
a discontinuous novel, in which it is not just the disparate materials that
create this effect but the arrangement of them. Chapter 2 has the three
competing Flaubert chronologies; Chapter 3 contains the story of Julie
Herbert, an English governess with whom Flaubert may have had an affair,
the discovery of a cache of her letters and its later destruction; Chapter 4,
The Flaubert Bestiary, is about animals in Flauberts novels and letters.
Even as a fiction it undeniably lacks unity. The question is: why? One
reason has to do with its most fundamental mixture, that between the
biographical and critical commentary on and speculation about Flaubert
and the reticently autobiographical story of Geoffrey Braithwaite. These
are also, roughly, the nonfiction and the fiction. Reading unsympathetic or
bewildered notices of the novel one would hardly detect that all the
biographical material about Flaubert, even the bestiary and the
examination paper, are not presented by Julian Barnes, but by his narrator
and protagonist Braithwaite, which means that the miscellaneousness of
the organization, the fussiness of the curiosity about minor details what
color was redcurrant jelly in nineteenth-century France? Braithwaite needs
opinions; he also needs great curiosity, patience, and freedom, to promote

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and permit his investigations. But Geoffrey Braithwaite is far more than a
man who, while sharing some of Julian Barness interests, is more pedantic
and obsessed and therefore can make much out of the competing claims
of two moldy parrots. He has his own story as well, and the relationship
between that story and the story of Flaubert is crucial to the novel. The
central fact about Braithwaite is that his wife Ellen was repeatedly
unfaithful to him and killed herself. It takes quite a while to discover this,
though. The first hint of their complex relations comes in Chapter 6,
Emma Bovarys Eyes: I never thought my wife was perfect. I loved her,
but I never deceived myself. I remember. . . But Ill keep that for another
time. Ill remember instead another lecture I once attended . . .
Ellens is a true story; perhaps it is even the reason why I am telling you
Flauberts story instead.
Thus Braithwaites story is related to Flauberts in two ways. One is the
parallel between Ellen Braithwaite and Emma Bovary. She was an
adulterous wife; her husband, a doctor (Charles Bovary was an officier de
sante ), was complaisant. Charles Bovary, in the only rhetorical flourish of
his life, assigns the blame for Emmas infidelity and suicide to fate.
Braithwaite stops short of that, offering the statement hardly an
explanation that I loved her; we were happy; I miss her. She didnt love
me; we were unhappy; I miss her (p. 161). He is clear on how she differed
from Emma: She wasnt corrupted; her spirit didnt coarsen; she never
ran up bills (p. 164). Did she, like Emma, rediscover in adultery all the
platitudes of marriage? He doesnt know. Another link between Braithwaite
and Flaubert, and perhaps more important, particularly since Braithwaite
resists all temptation to discover further homologies between his story and
the one Flaubert told in Madame Bovary, is that thinking about Flaubert
has helped him to avoid thinking about Ellen, and telling the reader about
is a way of delaying telling about Ellen. Braithwaites unhappy marital
history provides the etiology of the investigation, and then the
transmission, of his findings and thoughts about Flaubert.

Flauberts Parrot as Postmodernist Text

There are many reasons to admire Flauberts Parrot. It is immensely
intelligent. It is funny as well as sad. It contains more information about
Gustave Flaubert than most readers will know already, along with some
deeply thoughtful speculations on the meaning and value of that
information, the importance of authors lives, the possibility that loving an
author is the purest love of all, and much more. And Geoffrey Braithwaite
is an easily overlooked epigrammatist. Among his memorable
observations: about writing: Mystification is simple; clarity is the hardest
thing of all (p. 102); about the past: The past is a distant, receding
coastline, and we are all in the same boat (p. 101), or Sometimes the
past may be a greased pig; sometimes a bear in its den; and sometimes
merely the flash of a parrot, two mocking eyes that spark at you from the
forest (p. 112); and (about books? Life?): Books say: She did this
because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to
you; life is where things arent. What does it mean to call a novel

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postmodern? Malcolm Bradbury and Eric Metaxas seem to agree:

fragmentation of form and self-consciousness that calls attention to the
works fictive status. Bradbury points out that Barness postmodernist text
mixes fiction and nonfiction; it takes multiple forms; and it busily plays
with notions of the real and fictional, makes its own rules, breaks up its
own discourse, leaves behind its own ambiguities . . . (1993: 437). If this
is the agreed-upon definition of the postmodern then obviously Flauberts
Parrot qualifies, though it is much less insistent on breaking the frame or
revealing its artificiality than many other comparable works. Whatever the
modishness of the notions that the past is inaccessible, that reality and
truth or reality and truth are no more than linguistic constructs,
and that a seeker of knowledge can really make no claim to any
knowledge at all, many critics find these embodied in Flauberts Parrot. Yet
the evidence for them is inadequate. There are three major data from
Flauberts Parrot that seem to support indecidability and the
epistemological dead end. One of these is the statements made by
Geoffrey Braithwaite himself about the past. He says that the past is a
distant, receding coastline, and we are all in the same boat (p. 101); he
says, Im not sure what I believe about the past (p. 91); strongest of all,
he writes, in the context of a discussion of whether fat men were fatter in
Flauberts time than the present day. More important than Braithwaites
statements and we note that even this last questioning of history is only
what he is tempted to declare every so often is the evidence provided by
the structure of the novel. The chief exhibit is Chapter 2, Chronology,
which contains three chronologies. The first one includes such entries as,
under 1825, Few servant problems will trouble his life (p. 23), and, in
1874, Publication of La Tentation de saint Antoine. Despite its
strangeness, a gratifying commercial success (p. 26). Chronology II is an
alternative compilation of negative, unfortunate, or unhappy events,
including 1839: Expelled from the College de Rouen for rowdyism and
disobedience (p. 28) and 1876: . . . Gustaves last years are arid and
solitary (p. 31). Chronology III consists of statements in the authors own
words. What are we to make of these three chronologies? Does one
undermine the other, and does the inclusion of conflicting and
contradictory chronologies alongside each other in turn undermine the
idea of reliable chronology at all? Reviewing the novel on its American
appearance, Peter Brooks identified it as a kind of collage, pasted up
from a multitude of quotations from Flaubert, facts from his life (often at
odds with one another) (Brooks 1985: sect. 7, 7). But are the facts at
odds with one another, in a way that would deny them their claim to be
facts? The answer is no. As seductive as it may be to think of the
chronologies as conflicting, they really are not. There is no conflict, to an
informed mind, in the idea that a novel may be a commercial success and
a critical failure, or that a person who is in the act of writing a book will, if
he dies, leave it unfinished. A genuine challenge to the historicity of the
past could have provided variant dates for the authors birth and death or
caused the chronologies to disagree on whether Flaubert ever met
Turgenev, lived in Rouen, or had an affair with Louise Colet. The facts are
secure. What creates the great differences between the two chronologies
is the attitude implied by their contents toward their subject. Each
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chronology proceeds from a parti pris. A similar exercise produces the later
chapter called Louise Colets Version. Braithwaite knows that he loves
Flaubert and that his partisanship shapes his version He is in the act of refuting the
accusation that Flaubert was beastly to women, particularly Louise Colet: though
admittedly we hear only Gustaves side of the story. Perhaps someone should write
her account: yes, why not reconstruct Louise Colets Version? I might do that. Yes, I
will (p. 135). Naturally Louise Colets Version places the emphasis differently; it is
partial, but though it casts a different light on Flaubert it does not cancel out any
facts. For his part, Barnes has declared that all the information that Geoffrey
Braithwaite gives you about Flaubert is true, or as true as he and I together could
make it (2002: 261). That he acknowledges the possibility of some inadvertent
factual mistakes that scholars might correct is a testament to the knowability of the
past, not the opposite.
Do You Consider Yourself a Postmodern Author?
Though Barnes never quite answers that question, he does insist on the knowability
of some of the truth and he steadily resists the interviewers efforts to relate his fiction
to literary theory; he claims to be deliberately unaware of literary theory, because he
believe it threatens to make his fiction arid; and he says (very unpostmodernly) that
novels come out of life, not out of theories about either life or literature (Freiburg
1999: 52). (For the record, he told me in a May, 1992, telephone conversation that he
did not consider his novels postmodernist.)
The third chief exhibit in the claim that Flauberts Parrot demonstrates the
unavailability of the truth is the parrot itself. Chapter 1 launches the story;
Braithwaite, despite enough self-knowledge to ask himself Why does the writing
make us chase the writer? (p. 12) is nevertheless on a relic-hunting pilgrimage. At
the Hotel-Dieu he sees a stuffed parrot; the label identifies it as the stuffed parrot
borrowed by the author while he was writing Un coeur simple, in which a simple
woman confuses her parrot with the Holy Spirit. Later, in another museum, he finds
another parrot whose identifying label makes exactly the same claim. Only one of
them can be the authentic parrot. At the end of the novel Braithwaite visits the
Museum of Natural History, from which Flaubert borrowed the parrot in the first place,
and finds three more claimants, remaining from an original fifty, each of which might
have been the model for Loulou.
Here is a genuinely irreconcilable factual conflict. If the bird at the Hotel-Dieu is
Flauberts parrot, the bird at the Flaubert museum is not, and neither is any of the
birds at the Museum of Natural History. And there is no way to decide which is real,
which an impostor. The question is whether this frustration means that all inquiry
about the past and, by extension, about the present, the real, the true is
inevitably as frustrating or, as Andrzej Gasiorek asks, if the seeker of knowledge (as
figured in this novel) is confronted either by fifty parrots among which he cannot
choose or by an abandoned perch, can he or she make any claim to knowledge at
all? (1995: 161). The answer is yes. Geoffrey Braithwaite, the seeker after
knowledge figured in this novel, knows many things about Flaubert as well as about
his own wife and much else that inhabits the supposedly unknowable past.
(Barnes) Im Orwellian in this respect, in that I think that one hundred percent truth is
unreclaimable and unknowable, but we must maintain the superiority of a sixty-seven
percent over a sixty-four percent of truth. This is a messy and, perhaps,
unsatisfactory position by contrast with an absolutist denial that anyone can know
anything at all. But Barnes is not an absolutist, nor is Geoffrey Braithwaite; and

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Flauberts Parrot is more a demonstration of the difficulty of establishing meaning and

the fragility of understanding than of their impossibility
JOHN FOWLES, 1926 - 2005, LEIGH ON SEA; ESSEX, ENGLAND
The French Lieutenant's Woman -1969
The novels of Fowles use magic, artifice, the very self-conscious
fictionality of writing to carry on that search. They have enjoyed great
academic and commercial success in Europe and USA: they are
intellectual, self-conscious experiments with theme and form, and carry
warnings for the reader about the nature of the reading experience. In The
French... , the Victorian novel form is used and then questioned while the
reader is left with a choice between two possible endings. For many
readers and critics, this is the post-Modern novel para excellence,
innovative while using traditional form, subversive while telling a good
tale, authoritative but questioning. It is, indeed, a major achievement,
although its playing with time is not wholly original. Like Golding, Fowles
uses time to great effect, clashing past with present across centuries or
across a characters memories. His novels play with the imagination of the
reader, just as much as they revel in the creative imagination of the writer.
Fowles can be fascinating and irritating at the same time a treasure
trove for academics, an enjoyable story teller for those who simply want to
read for pleasure.
28. COMBINATION or VICTORIAN AND POSTMODERNIST
FRENCH

TECHNIQUES

IN

'THE

LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN

The novel appeared in 1969. It resembles a Victorian novel in structure

and detail, while pushing the traditional boundaries of the narrative in a
very modern manner.
The French Lieutenant's Woman is related to the tradition of the Victorian
novels (Dickens,
Eliot, Hardy). Fowles tried to recreate the Victorian style - he partly
imitates, partly ironises.
The setting of the novel is clearly Mid-Victorian. The action takes place in
the mid or late XIX century (ca1879). Many critics labeled this novel as
historical, which is only partly true. It gives us a panoramic view of
Victorian society in England We see different people with different
professions, social and sexual hypocrisy. Fowles imitates Victorian style
ironically - this does not mean that he criticizes the XIX century; it is much
more complex than that. The setting itself is meant to reveal certain
things.
Fowles wrote an essay Notes on Writing a Novel where he gives a lot of
explanations about how he wrote this novel. He drafted it in nine months
and it took him two years to finish it.
If this was a realist novel only, the narrator would not explain anything to
us. If this was a Postmodernist novel only, the narrator would be another
fictional character, mostly invisible. Postmodernism gives the realism the
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ironic twist. No matter which literary technique, we enter into the brain of
the main character and look at the world through their eyes.. The only
character into which mind he refuses to enter is Sarah. Fowles wants her
to stay mysterious. He refrains from intervening and when he does so, he
only confirms that he would not intervene.
What happens at the end of the novel is always privileged - in the old
tradition - because of that ending is more real (modern contemporary
ending). Fowles deliberately creates a totally confused ending - you can
choose whichever you like everything is equally possible or equally
impossible, truth is the illusion. There is no reason why one ending should
be favourized to the other - the reader decides. Reading - the process of
interpretation - is also a creative act, the democratic spirit of
postmodernism. Victorian novels have very unrealistic happy endings
Deus ex ;Machina (God from the machine) some sudden change of luck or
some unexpected savior. The baby in The French Lieutenant's Woman is a
kind of a Deus ex Machina.
If we want to understand this novel, we as readers also must go through
some kind of transformation.
SARAH, CHARLES AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION TFLW
SARAH

IS ALREADY EMANCIPATED SO SHE DOES NOT HAVE TO GO THROUGH ANY

KIND OF TRANSFORMATIONS SHE IS A MODEL OF A NEW WOMAN BUT SHE IS
NOT A PROTOTYPE OF A FEMINIST; SHE IS ANNOUNCING THE 20TH CENTURY
WOMAN. SHE IS DELIBERATELY CREATED AS A KIND OF ENIGMA. WE HAVE THE
ATTEMPTS BY CERTAIN CHARACTERS TO EXPLAIN SARAH, BUT THESE
EXPLANATIONS ARE INADEQUATE. SHE IS CONNECTED TO THE TERM FEMME
FATALE, BUT IT IS ALSO INADEQUATE. TWO DIMENSIONS OF SARAH THIS
DIMENSION OF MYSTERY (THE NARRATOR NEVER ENTERS HER MIND) AT THE
SANE TIME FOWLES EMPHASIZES HER CONTEMPORARY QUALITY, THE ONLY
TRULY MODERN CONTEMPORARY CHARACTER IN THE NOVEL. SHE IS A CULTURAL
LINKING BETWEEN THE TWO CENTURIES. IN THIS DARWINIAN SENSE, IN ORDER
TO SURVIVE, MAN MUST CHANGE, TRANSFORM. THIS TRANSFORMATION
INCLUDES DIFFICULTIES AND UNPLEASANT THINGS (HUMAN BEINGS ARE
RESISTANT TO CHANGE). ALL OTHER CHARACTERS ARE NOT CAPABLE OF
CHANGING AND THEY WOULD BE FORGOTTEN. SARAH LEADS CHARLES TO HIS
OWN FREEDOM. THE ROLE OF THE FALLEN, OUTCAST WOMAN GIVES HER A KIND
OF FREEDOM. CHARLES AT THE BEGINNING IS NOT EMANCIPATED, HE IS NOT
FREE. SARAH IS A KIND OF A TEACHER TO HIM. IT IS NOT A CONVENTIONAL
LOVE STORY; CHARLES ALSO FALLS IN LOVE WITH HER ATTITUDE, SHE TEACHES
HIM NOT TO BE AFRAID OF CHANGE. AT THE BEGINNING HE THINKS HE IS
PROTECTING SARAH, BUT HE IS ACTUALLY THE ONE WHO NEEDS PROTECTION.
TH SECOND ENDING IS MORE PROBABLE FOR THE XX CENTURY READER. THIS
ENDING SIGNALS THAT PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO CHANGE, IN FOLLOWING WITH THE
THEORY OF EVOLUTION. FOWLES IS A SUPPORTER OF THIS THEORY. SARAH AND
CHARLES COULD BE THE NEW SPECIES IN SOCIETY; THEY ARE READY FOR NEW
TIME TO COME. SARAH ESPECIALLY IS A PROTOTYPE OF A NEW WOMAN AND SHE
ALSO HELPS CHARLES TO TRANSFORM HIMSELF TO BECOME THIS NEW SPECIES.

THE NARRATOR AND NARRATIVE STRATEGY IN TFLW

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THE NARRATOR IS
FOWLES PROVIDED
CHARACTERISTIC (A

BREAKING THE ILLUSION OF THE VICTORIAN REALITY.

TWO DIFFERENT ENDINGS WHICH IS A POSTMODERNIST
CONCENTIONAL AND A MODERN ENDING). HAVING IN MIND
THAT ONE OF THE PREMISES OF POSTMODERNISM IS THAT THE AUTHOR GIVES
FREEDOM TO HIS CHARACTERS AND MAKES HIMSELF INVISIBLE, FOWLES
IRONICALLY PROTESTS AND IRONIZES NOT ONLY TRADITION BUT ALSO
POSTMODERNISM. HE USES POSTMODERNIST CONVENTIONS BUT HE BREAKS THE
ILLUSION AND FINDS RIDICULOUS THE FACT THAT THE AUTHOR SHOULD PRESENT
HIMSELF INVISIBLE. IN THE FLW HE ALWAYS REMINDS THE READER THAT HE IS
THE GOD OF HIS UNIVERSE HE RIDICULES BOTH REALISTS AND
POSTMODERNISTS. THIS FREEDOM OF CHARACTERS IS ANOTHER ILLUSION; IT IS
ONLY AN ALLEGED FREEDOM. THE FREEDOM OF CHARACTERS IS NOT REAL, IT IS
GRANTED TO THE AUTHOR.
HE CONSTANTLY COMMENTS DFFERENT LITERARY THEORIES; HE EXPOSES HIS
OWN MECHANISM OF WRITING A POSTMODERNIST TRAIT. THE ALTERNATIVE
ENDINGS ARE A META-FICTIONAL POSTMODERNIST DEVICE, BUT ALSO THROUGH
THESE ENDINGS HE MAKES HIMSELF VISIBLE AND ALSO PROMOTES THE FREEDOM
OF WILL. CHARLES REALIZES THAT SARAH WAS A KIND PERSON THAT TAUGHT
HIM THAT THERE ARE OTHER POSSIBILITIES, OTHER CHOICES IN HIS LIFE. THE
NARRATOR SITS IN FRONT OF CHARLES IN THE TRAIN AND HE WATCHES
CHARLES SLEEPING THE NARRATOR APPEARS PHYSICALLY.
INTERTEXTUALITY FOWLES INSERTS ESSAYS IN HIS STORY (CHAPTER 35). HE
USES A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEXTS, ESSAYS, EPIGRAPHS, LEGAL
DOCUMENTS, CASE HISTORY WRITTEN IN MEDICAL LANGUAGE, POSITIONS OF
ERNESTINAS SENTIMENTAL NOVEL, THE XVIII CENTURY ACCOUNT OF THE
LONDON BROTHEL..

STRUCTURE, STYLE, AND TECHNIQUE

In The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles does not merely recreate
a Victorian novel; neither does he parody one. He does a little of both, but
also much more. The subject of this novel is essentially the same as that
of his other works: the relationship between life and art, the artist and his
creation, and the isolation resulting from an individual's struggle for
selfhood. He works within the tradition of the Victorian novel and
consciously uses its conventions to serve his own design, all the while
carefully informing the reader exactly what he is doing. His style purposely
combines a flowing nineteenth-century prose style with an anachronistic
twentieth-century perspective. Fowles is as concerned with the details of
the setting as were his Victorian counterparts. But he is also conscious
that he is setting a scene and does not hesitate to intrude into the
narrative himself in order to show the reader how he manipulates reality
through his art. Like Dickens, Fowles uses dialogue to reveal the
personalities of his characters and often he will satirize them as well. For
example, Charles' attitudes toward Sarah and Ernestina are revealed in
the way he talks to them. He is forever uncomfortable with Sarah because
she won't accept the way in which he categorizes the world, including his
view of her. Sarah's responses to the world around her, as seen through
her words and actions are consistent, for she is already aware of herself as
an individual who cannot be defined by conventional roles. However,
Charles changes, depending upon whom he talks to, because he really
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does not know who he is yet, and he sees himself as playing a series of
roles. With his fiance, he is indulgent and paternal; with his servant Sam,
he is patronizing and humorous at Sam's expense, and with Sarah, he is
stiff and uncomfortable. When he attempts to respond to Sarah's honesty,
he hears the hollowness of his own conventional responses. Fowles does
not recreate his Victorian world uncritically. He focuses on those aspects of
the Victorian era that would seem most alien to a modern reader. In
particular, he is concerned with Victorian attitudes towards women,
economics, science, and philosophy. In this romance, Fowles examines the
problems of two socially and economically oppressed groups in
nineteenth-century England: the poverty of the working and servant
classes, and the economic and social entrapment of women. While the plot
traces a love story, or what seems to be a love story, the reader questions
what sort of love existed in a society where many marriages were based
as much on economics as on love. This story is thus not really a romance
at all, for Fowles' objective is not to unite his two protagonists, Sarah and
Charles, but to show what each human being must face in life in order to
be able to grow. While Fowles has titled his book The French Lieutenant's
Woman, Sarah Woodruff is not really the central character. She does not
change greatly in the novel as it progresses, for she has already arrived at
an awareness that she must go beyond the definition of her individuality
that society has imposed upon her.
Because her situation was intolerable, she was forced to see through it
and beyond it in order to find
meaning and some sort of happiness in her life. In the early chapters of
the novel, she perhaps makes one
last effort to establish a life within the norms of Victorian society. She
chooses the role of the outcast, the "French lieutenant's whore," and also
falls in love with Charles or causes him to fall in love with her. But even as
she draws Charles away from his unquestioning acceptance of his life, she
finds that she does not want to be rescued from her plight. She has
already rescued herself.
Charles, it seems, is the actual protagonist of this novel, for he must travel
from ignorance to understanding, by following the woman whom he thinks
he is helping, but who in fact is his mentor. He must discard each layer of
the false Charles: Charles the naturalist, Charles the gentleman, Charles
the rake, and perhaps even Charles the lover, in order to find Charles the
human being. The knowledge he arrives at is bitter, for he has lost all his
illusions, as Sarah discarded hers sometime before. But the result itself is
not bitter. Although Charles and Sarah are not reunited, for life's answers
are never as simple and perfect as those of art, they both achieve a
maturity that enables them to control their lives as long as they remember
to look for answers nowhere but in themselves.
Fowles has taken two traditional romantic characters, a young hero and a
mysterious woman, and has transformed them into human beings.
There is no French lieutenant to pine after, and Sarah's life is not a tragedy
that echoes her nickname in Lyme. Charles' gift of marriage is not a gift at
all. While the novel could have ended with the couple's reconciliation, as it
might have had it been a traditional romance, Fowles does not end it
there. In the second ending, Sarah rejects the familiar security that
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Charles offers and both are forced to go on alone. Fowles' novel echoes
the doubts raised by such novelists as Thomas Hardy, and by such poets
as Matthew Arnold and Alfred Lord Tennyson, about the solidity of the
Victorian view of the world. The world was changing and old standards no
longer applied, though they lingered on long after many had discarded
them in their hearts. This theme that was approached by writers in the
nineteenth century is picked up again by Fowles and carried to a logical
conclusion. The novel is therefore actually a psychological study of an
individual rather than a romance. It is a novel of individual growth and the
awareness of one's basic
isolation which accompanies that growth.
FRENCH LIEUTENANTS WOMAN-DIO
The French Lieutenants Woman is not only an existentialist novel but a postmodern one as
well; and if it is the novels erotic content that made it as a best-seller, it is its postmodern
complexity that has appealed to the many academic critics who have written on it.
Postmodern novels present the world as a place that is endlessly complex and uncertain, often
mirroring it by way of their-conscious arbitrariness and constructedness . Fowles speaks in
French Lieutenants Woman to show how uncertain life can be by providing us with three
possible endings to the novel, in Chapter 44,60 and 61. Each ending shows us a different way
in which the lives of the characters might have developed, and emphasizes that there are
always too many variables in day-to-day existence for any single ending to be the only
possible one. Another example of the novels self-consciousness is found in Chapter 13, in
which Fowles objects to conventional omniscient narration on the grounds that the omniscient
narrator is an analogue to God, and as such is inappropriate to an age in which Gods
existence has fallen into doubt. Fowles includes the chapter, ironically enough, in a novel in
which he pretends to be omniscient, flaunting his ability to enter the minds of some of his
characters, but pointedly refusing to reveal the workings of the mind of one of them, the
enigmatic Sarah Woodruff. Fowles thus demonstrates his mastery of omniscient narration,
including the device of limited omniscience-of withholding from the reader information that
the narrator possess but prefers not to disclose-while at the same time objecting to novelists
who write novels in the mid-twentieth century that adopt on omniscient viewpoint. He also
appears in his own person( or, more accurately, as two caricatured versions of himself) in
Chapter 55, and 61-to remind us that his assumption of omniscient is only a pretence.
Omniscient narration is not only inappropriate in an age of declining faith, but also in the
elight of research, in experimental psychology, which shows that all-encompassing
knowledge of the world lies beyond human reach. The world as we know it through
perception is merely a simplification(because a series of simplification of sense data in
different situations) of the world as it really is. Moreover, it sis a subjective simplification,
since our every act of perception is colored by consideration that are unique to us as
individuals. In the French Lieutenants Woman Fowles invites us to view the narrative as the
tragedy, to see Sarah W. as the tragic protagonist and Victorian society as the protagonist and
Sarah as the protagonist. He asks us, in other words, to apply two different figure-ground
distinctions to the novel and to consider why it is that to view The French Lieutenants
Woman as a tragedy in both cases is to simplify our experience of it. Fowles complicates
matters by providing three endings to his novel. However, the novel contains four potential
tragic actions(with four endings) involving Sarah as protagonist, and three(with three endings)
involving Charles-presenting us with a total of seven different patterns of interpretation
altogether. The first action, with Sarah as the main character, centers on her relationship with
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Varguennes, and ends tragically; the second, third, and fourth, which end in Chapter 44,60,
and 61, respectively, concern her relationship with Charles, Chapter 44. The novels first
ending, may be tragic, but Chapters 60 and 61, its second and third endings, are clearly not.
When we alter the figure-ground relationship and view Charles as the protagonist, we see that
he escapes a possibly tragic fate in Chapter 44. When he decides to marry his fiance,
Ernestina Freemen. Chapter 60 also ends well for him, but Chapter 61 ends equivocally,
suggesting that he may or may not come to a tragic end on the unplumbd, salt, estranging
sea of life. Thus, although it contains tragic elements, The French Lieutenants Woman is
only partly tragic: to describe it as a tragedy overall, as at least three critics have done, is to
simplify its complexities. The fact that Fowles refers to Sarah as the novels protagonist
suggests that she is, more obviously than Charles, the central character in a tragic action,
although, as we see later, Charles has a claim tobeing the protagonist, too. In the four actions
in which Sarah is involved, the antagonist is the society against whose stifling conventionality
she struggles to establish a place for herself as an individual in her own right. Fowles
emphasizes that, as the protagonist, Sarah is superior to the majority of her contemporaries ,
though in intelligence rather than in social class.
She saw them as they were and not as they tried to seem
This statement is problematic. At times Sarah does see through people- she sees for example,
that Mrs. Poultney is a hypocrite-but at other times she makes significant mistakes. Why does
Fowles tell us that Sarah is a good judge of character when she clearly misjudges the
perfidious lieutenant? Part of the answer lies in the fact that Sarah is, prior to meeting
Varguennes, desperate to get married, for she finds it distressing to experience the happiness
of family life as a onlooker-as a governess-rather than as a wife and mother. Varguennes offers
her an escape from the dreariness of spinsterhood, and she jumps at it rashly.
Yet there are at least two other ways of explaining the mistake she makes over Varguennes. At
one point Sarah tells Charles that some deep flaw in my soul wished my better self to be
blinded. Sarah experiences tragic recognition when she sees that Varguennes is a worthless
adventurer who had appeared far more a gentleman in a gentlemans house. What fallows
is her fall from good fortune. All this is consistent with tragedy: what seems odd is that she
takes delight in her new status, telling Charles that she now has a freedom that the people
of Lyme Regis cannot understand. What Sarah is saying it is important to live outside
convention, for once outside it, the individual can experience the freedom to begin
discovering the truth about him-or- herself: to go beyond the conventional role he or she plays
and discover the person he or she really is. Sarahs first tragic fall, from governess to social
outcast is, then, matched by an increase in personal awareness: outside convention, she takes
her first steps towards attaining to existential authenticity. Her second tragic fall, in Chapter
44, takes place without any such compensation. Here, despite his extended conversations with
Sarah and apparent willingness to help her, Charles decides to abandon her and return to his
fiance, Ernestina Freeman.
Whatever happened to Sarah, I do not know-whatever it was, she never troubled Charles
again in person, however long she may have lingered in his memory. In this, the novels first
ending to the story of Charles and Sarah, Sarah simply vanishes into obscurity. Fowles
foreshadows such a possibility three chapters earlier, when Charles picks up a prostitute
named Sarah after leaving his London club. That Sarah W. will suffer this fate, however, is
only a possibility: we cannot say that she comes to a definitely tragic end in Chapter 44,
because Fowles refuses to tell us what happens to her. In Chapter 60 we discover that, after
disappearing from her Extel hotel, she has made her way to London and the household of
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, where she has been working as the artists amanuensis. Chapter 60 is
one in which she exchanges her position of governess for one that is far more advantageous.

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In Chapter 61, Sarah is again found in the Rossetti household. Here she tells Charles that she
is only interested in his friendship; and his reaction is to storm out of the house without
discovering that the baby held by another occupant of the house is his daughter. The family is
not united as in Chapter 60, but things have still worked out well for Sarah; she has improved
her station in life and is able to live, as in the previous chapter, authentically and in the
company of intelligent, creative people. Prostitution would be tragic, Fowles suggests, while
financial dependence is the best a woman in Sarahs position could hope for in mid-Victorian
England. Thus, in the four potential tragic actions in which Sarah appears as the protagonist,
there is only one tragic ending. Her association eith Varguennes ends badly for her, in that she
becomes the French Lieutenants Whore in the eyes of provincial Lyme Regis; however, there
emerges from it a new sense of existential freedom and self-knowledge. In the second action,
ending in Chapter 44, it is unclear what happens to Sarah after Charles abandons her, while in
the third and fourth actions, she emerges in a advantageous position, ensonoced in the
Rossetti household. To conclude that The French Lieutenants Woman is a tragedy in which
Sarah serves as the protagonist and Victorian society as the antagonist is to deny the
significance if these latter endings. Fowles makes a central character of Charles by entering
his mind repeatedly, and by presenting most of the action of the novel from this young mans
point of view. Sarah, as the antagonist, is a quintessential female temptress: Charles thinks of
her as being a siren and Calyopso. Afraid that he might come to similar end, he decides
to abandon Sarah in the novels first ending, Chapter 44. This is not a tragic ending, for
Charles as protagonist escapes the threat posed by Sarah by ending their relationship.
Nevertheless, Fowles emphasizes that Chapter 44 is a betrayal of Charless deeper
potentiality, by which he means that Charles would have done better, in existential terms, to
remain with Sarah. The life he will lead married to Ernestina will be a conventional Victorian
life, characterized by an unwillingness to question what societal norms dictate. By contrast,
Fowles implies, the life Charles would spend with Sarah would be one in which convention
would be eschewed in the interests of attaining to existential authenticity. However the
Chapter 44 exists only in Charless imagination: in actuality, he visits Sarah in Exter and
makes love to her, but discovers to his surprise that she is virgin-that she lied to him about
sleeping with Varguennes. Later she will tell him that she cannot explain why she lied: I
cannot explain it. It is not to be explained. In the Exter hotel, we are led to believe that Sarah
is destructive figure. Here Charles experiences , in existential terms, the anxiety of
freedom-that is, the realization that one is free and the realization that being free is a
situation of terror. Now that he has made love to Sarah, Charles can see that he is free to
choose between living a conventional life with Ernestina, or breaking off his engagement to.
Charles does not, of course, imagine that he is a Christ figure, or that he will be literally
crucified: he simply sees that Sarahs role is to uncrucify him, to help relieve his anxiety by
serving as a monitor and friend. The false version of her betrayal by Varguennes, her other
devices, were but stratagems to unblind him; all she had saidwas but a test of his new
vision. The visionary experience to which Sarah gives rise enables Charles to see her no
longer as a temptress figure but as a savior who might help him to enjoy a life of existential
freedom. Charles employs a private detective to find Sarah, but after the search has dragged
on for some time he begins to doubt her status as savior, distinguishing between the real
Sarah and the Sarah he had created in so many such dreams. For Charles, Sarahs status in
uncertain, and each of the novels two remaining endings, Chapter 60 and 61, resolves it is in
a different way. Charles finds that she has been living and working in the home of the
Rossettis, that she now has appearance of a self-supporting New Woman and that she is
apparently uninterested in marriage and children. Rather than conclude as a tragedy, Chapter
60 ends as aProvidential melodrama, with Charles convinced that the familys reunion had
been in Gods hands, in His forgiveness of their sins. Now he assigns responsibility for his

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reunion with Sarah to benevolent Providence. In invoking a benevolent God to explain his
situation, Charles denies himself the role of existential hero. Charles in now convinced of
something he only suspects in Chapter 60:that Sarah is a manipulative schemer who
habitually makes victims of the men in her life. Although Charles, who is filled with a sense
of his own true superiority to her, here pictures himself melodramatically as the lost
honorable man on the way to the scaffold , in fact it is unclear that he is necessarily
proceeding to a tragic fate. In the novels closing sentences, Fowles suggests that in fact
Charles has become a better person and can look forward to a better life. His decisiveness
about no longer needing Sarah to bolster his freedom indicates that he has. Fowles echoes the
line from Arnold for the sake of suggesting that however hard he has tried to make his
characters seem free, as their author he is ultimately the God who separates them. He
separates them in Chapter 61 for the sake of emphasizing that true existential freedom is only
to be found in solitude on the unplumbd sea of life, with the sea representing lifes
unfathomed depths, its flux and hidden mysteries. When he objects, in Chapter 13, to the
convention of omniscient narration, he makes it clear not only that it is inappropriate for the
novelist to mimic Gods omniscience in a century characterized by widespread loss of faith,
but(by extension) that the world is far too complex to be represented fully in any but a novel
that would be impossible for any human being to write. Instead, a novel such as The French
Lieutenants Woman, whose several endings are an extended remainder that tragedy, like all
literary forms, is an all-too-obvious simplification of the worlds infinite complexity, must of
necessity serve in its place. The truth that The French Lieutenants Woman belongs to a new
category of prose fiction. Breaking with todays aesthetic norms, it carries a fiction into she
fields of comparative cultural history and sociology. The French Lieutenants Woman relies
on superliterary effects. Besides starting with an epigraph, it posts one or more epigraphs at
the head of each of its sixty-one chapters. In keeping with its scholarly bent, it has an
Acknowledgments page, and resorts to both footnotes and learned allusions. The French
Lieutenants Woman is a Victorian vaudeville show, a magical mystery tour through Victorian
England, and Fowles is the impresario-guide. Fowles faces his reader directly. He not only
tells the story, he breaks in at will in order to criticize or interrupt it; he worries his ideas with
a Victorian doggedness. To give his book a rich texture, Fowles varies its tempo in chapters,
paragraphs, and even sentences. Different rhetorical units pull the plot forward; others digress,
build background, or criticize the action. Even though changes happen quickly, the narrative
moves slowly. The difference between his novel and those of a century ago comes from his
knowing things about Victorian fiction that writers like Dickens did not know. The French
Lieutenants Woman is a very Victorian book. It has an interior logic that meshes with both its
Victorian page-design and narrative mode. Fowles spends several pages spoofing Victorian
sexual hypocrisy-prostitution and pornography never thrived more than during Victorias
reign. Several reviewers have called The French Lieutenants Woman a Victorian novel no
Victorian novelist could have written. Fowless comparative method and use of modern
psychology do put the novel beyond the creative scope of any Victorian writer. Its voice and
vocabulary both seat The French Lieutenants Woman stylistically in the last century and
oscillate with the modern day ideas that build its intellectual fiber. This oscillation varies the
novels tone. At times the tone is witty, detached, and gently ironical;then, without warning, it
grows angry or confidential. Fowles comments on the actions but he does not control them.
Characters must take on lives of theirs own, regardless of plot or authorial will: A genuinely
created world must be independent of its creator; a planned world(a world that reveals its
planning) is a dead world. Charles Smithson is a character whose will works independently of
his authors. Charless preferences typify the Victorian man of leisure. Whereas Sarahs
promise of renewal makes her the woman who was the door, he is called the man without
the key. He can not unlock her mystery, and his failure is strongly sexual. He dabbles in

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science, especially paleontology; for a hobby, he collects marine fossils, especially the
petrified sea urchins called tests. This hobby is strangely revealing. His life-style puts him in
danger of hardening into a fossil himself: he is even called: Unformed and unready but not
the scientist or collector. Science leads Charles to Sarah. Charles admires evolution as an idea.
His prospective father-in-law, Mrs. Ernest F. , makes him test the Darwinian principle that
survival depends on adaptation when he offers him a partnership in his huge store. Sarah is a
figure of mystery, and hand.-maid of evolution. Victorian England was an age of great men;
Sarah shows that it was also an age of great woman, though nobody bothered to look. Even
Dickens has drown Fowless fire for his almost complete inability to invent intelligent,
independent, woman. Any society reveals itself in action. We become aware of Sarahs
beauty together with Charles. Sarahs hair is not fully displayed until Exter, where Sarah and
Charles make love. The hair symbolism reaches its logical development in Sarahs last
appearance in the book.
Guy Davenport says about her: Her essence is in the fact that she can not be understood.
This enigma puts her beyond formulas and definitions. Her mystery invades and transforms
several lives. It robs Ernestina of her future husband; it sends that future husband on a twoyear tour of Europe and America: it lands his servant Sam Farrow. Sarah changes these lives
because she takes charge of her own life. She continuous to exude shadows and darkness; in
Chapter 12 she is called a black figure, in Chapter 16 Charles becomes aware of her as a
dark moment; she enters his thoughts when he stares into the dark air in Chapter 25; a local
doctor calls her predicament. Dark indeed.Very dark. This darkness take son sexual force.
Mystery is a principle of survival for her. She says, after making love to Charles, Do not ask
me to explain what I have done. I can not explain it. It is not to be explained. She confess an
imaginary sin-sleeping with Varguennes-and begs his forgiveness. Pain is her special
province. She enjoys playing the outcast; she defoliates a spray resembling microscopic
cherubs genitals. A poor, classless girl, break all standing rules of courtship and go after him
herself. But, living in an age that expects women to submit, not dominate, she can not let her
quarry know he is being stalked. Fowles gives Sarah special treatment. Whereas he analyzes
the others, he cloaks her in thickening layers of mystery. Charles never decides whether she is
Eve personified, all mystery and love and profundity or a half-scheming, half-crazed
governess. She worked to Mrs. Poultney. Like her basement kitchen, a Stygian domain
whose walls are rich in arsenic, she is inconvenient, unamenable, and lethal. Fowles grants
her freedom rather than making fun of her, even though the freedom she craves denies the
freedom of others. She mines her garden with mantraps quite powerful enough to break a
mans leg in order to keep suitors away from her maid-servants; she has Sarah watched and
followed during her off.duty hours; a sadist, she will dismiss a servant for the slightest
infraction. A minor character less Mrs. Poultney is Dr. Michael Grogan. His importance in the
novel,though, comes more from his crusty wisdom than from his medical practice alone.
Several interviews holds with Charles criticize and deepen the action rather than advancing
it. The basis of Charless fellowship with Grogan is Sarah, not science.
Sam also adds to Fowless doctrine of mystery. His love with Marry, a carters daughter from
Davon, succeeds better than either of Charless romantic attachments. The French
Lieutenants Woman ends first in Chapter 44 with Charles resigning himself to marry
Ernestina and to forget Sarah. Fowles, backing away from Victorian nostrum of duty, calls
this outcome, a little too sweet to satisfy peoples ideas about reality. Two other endings
we have in Chapters 60 and 61.

KINGSLEY AMIS, 1922-1995; LONDON

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 Lucky Jim- 1954 > Biography

Kingsley Amis was BORN ON APRIL 16, 1922. The Amises lived a lower-middle
class existence in NORBURY, a suburb just south of London. Kingsley
attended the CITY OF LONDON PRIVATE SCHOOL ON SCHOLARSHIP, and enrolled in the
spring of 1941 AT ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD, to study ENGLISH LITERATURE. At St.
John's, Amis met Philip Larkin, who shared Amis's love of jazz and admired
Amis' talent for mimicry. Larkin would become a life-long friend, as well as
a renowned poet and novelist in his own right. World War II soon
interrupted Amis' college career, and he SERVED IN THE BRITISH ARMY BETWEEN THE
YEARS 1942 THROUGH 1945.
After the war, Amis RESUMED HIS STUDIES AT ST. JOHN'S and took on several
literary side projects. He began WRITING A NOVEL, a CRITICAL STUDY OF GRAHAM
GREENE, and his FIRST VOLUME OF POETRY, BRIGHT NOVEMBER. In 1948, Amis MARRIED
HILARY ANN BARDWELL. Awarded a FIRST-CLASS DEGREE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, Amis
TOOK UP A POSITION IN 1 94 > as
LECTURER ON ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SWANSEA IN WALES. Amis taught at
SWANSEA, then at CAMBRIDGE, UNTIL 1963, when he RETIRED TO WRITE FULLTIME.
Amis BEGAN WORK ON LUCKY JlM IN 1951. According to Amis himself, a 1948 VISIT
to LEICESTER UNIVERSITY, where his friend Philip Larkin held a teaching post,
INSPIRED THE NOVEL. LUCKY JIM WAS PUBLISHED IN 1954 TO TREMENDOUS POPULARITY,
ALTHOUGH SOME CRITICS ACCUSED AMIS OF VULGARITY BECAUSE OF THE COARSE LANGUAGE AND
IMMATURE BEHAVIOUR OF JIM DIXON. IN SPITE OF THESE NEGATIVE REVIEWS LUCKY JIM WON
THE PRESTIGIOUS SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD THE FOLLOWING YEAR.

29. REBELLION IN "LUCKY JIM" (THE MAIN PROTAGONIST IN LJ A REBEL OR

AN OPPORTUNIST)

Lucky Jim is frequently cited as a key text in the 1950s phenomenon of the
Angry Young Men. Their state of mind is diagnostic; it tells us something
about the tensions created within the New England after the post-war
Labour government, about class mobility, promiscuity and radical ideas.
But Jim's anger symbolizes nothing in particular, and it never lasts very
long. He is not really malicious, he never takes anything very seriously,
and his state of mind is certainly not a channel for contemporary angst or
intellectual unease. He does not care about these things. The novel is a
satire of the habits and practices of the faculty at a provincial English
university. The university is not so much the novel's satirical target; rather
it provides a fruitful counterpoint for the activities, ambitions and mindset
of Jim Dixon, a young, untenured don who teaches history.
His consciousness will dominate the third-person narration. Jim and the
narrator tell the story in combination Jim's perspective from the narrators
perspective. Our knowledge of Dixon's thoughts opens up another comic
incongruity of the novelthe discrepancy between the venomously critical
thoughts Dixon has about those around him, and his outwardly meek
behavior toward those same people. This discrepancy, however, is also
Dixon's underlying predicament, as he is trying to win himself a lifetime
position in a social group that he ultimately despises. We see that Dixon
has little respect for academic work, including his own. He detests the
intellectual pretensions of many of his colleagues, yet he promotes no
alternative code of behavior or system-'of belief. His own interests seem to

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focus upon drink, jazz, getting a right girl and a well-paid job somewhere
else.
He succeeds in his ambitions, and to a degree the novel was a success
because it satisfied the desire of many readers to escape from, and
ridicule, the moribund conventions and pretensions of Middle England.
Dixon is an anti-hero in the sense that everything about him is ordinary his appearance, his accomplishments, and his talents are all completely
unremarkable. He ridicules everything, but lie is never an agent of satire this is provided by the narrator. Jim performs the jokes. By accident and
design he finds himself at the centre of mildly farcical yet plausibly
realistic situations, surrounded by an abundance of satirical targets:
pomposity, pretension, cultural elitism, unwarranted self-regard. It is the
dynamic relationship between Jim and a presence who
Comments sardonically on the state of things and who records Jim's
thoughts that provides the
novel with its energy and its satirical edge.
His boss, professor Neddy Welch, is a semi-articulate buffoon, and a
representative of the old-guard faculty; "cultured" in the ivory tower sense
of the word - he passionately enjoys classical music, for example, and the
closest he will come to swearing is "my word." He is the archetype of
head-in-the sand academia, and his satirical function is embedded in the
contrast between his own absurdist persona and the presentation of the
context as something that the contemporary reader recognizes as very
real. But, due to the expansion of the British college system after World
War II, Welch and others like him find themselves working at newly-built
colleges and teaching a student population that suddenly includes
students of different social backgrounds. The incongruity of Welch and
others like him in this new learning environment furnishes much of the
humour of Lucky Jim.
Betrand, Neddys son, is an artist of loud pretensions, fashionable leftist
sympathies and limitless social ambitions. Like Neddy, he is absurd but not
quite implausible. Jim's colleague and occasional girlfriend, Margaret Peel,
is theatrically neurotic, sometimes simulating the kind of nervous
breakdown favoured by intellectuals, but only when this is tactically
propitious. She is a personification of the mid-fifties taste for
psychoanalytical depth, European existentialism and very English
calculation.
Jim is a successful opportunist. His "luck enables him to escape the
mundane hypocrisies of provincial academia for a well-paid job in industry,
and he takes with him Christine, Bertrand's -stunningly attractive and
unpretentious girlfriend. He is neither malicious, nor cunning nor corrupt,
but at the same time he does not promote any particular system of
morality or belief. Contemporary readers liked him not because of what he
represented but because of what he did. He exposed the hypocrisies and
absurdities of middle-class life while securing for himself a satisfactory
position within it. Jim has an ability to ridicule practically everything and
promote nothing- apart from a kind of selfish philistinism. This impression
is made all the more effective by the formal structure of the novel.
There is a comic tension between Jim's "inner and outer worlds; the outer
consisting mainly of deferential relations with a circle of characters,
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including the Welch's and Margaret, whose Opinion will affect his present
and future life; the inner, of Jims actual feelings and thoughts, including
the desire to ram a necklace bead up Margaret's nose, and plant his head
of department in a lavatory basin. At the end the two words merge. He
tells them what he thinks and makes his triumphant exit. Jim functions like
a first-person narrator, in that the reader is offered only his perspective
upon the world and the story. But the third-person mode excuses Jim from
having to justify, celebrate or even explain his thoughts and acts to the
reader. More significantly, the alliance between Jim and his narrator grants
him a level-of sophistication and control that belies his status as the
disempowered victim of a farce. It is as though there are two Jim's: one
inside the narrative, struggling with his own impatience, frustration and
feelings of contempt; the other controlling, and orchestrating the
narrative, ensuring that the reader will share his perspective - on the
idiocies of the Welch's and the pretension of Bernard and Margaret. Jim the
character is "lucky"; he gets the girl, the job and he gets out. But the other
Jim has all the time been exacting a kind of revenge on the characters and
the world that seemed intent on denying him these prizes.
2. CONFORMITY AND NONCONFORMITY IN LUCKY JIM
3. EXPLAIN THE SOCIAL SATIRE AND IRONY IN AMIS NOVEL LUCKY
JIM
(IZ KNJIGE)
Lucky Jim is the 18th century picaresque novel reborn in the 1950s. Amis
chose the setting of a provincial university mainly because he worked in
one. The university is not so much the novels satirical target; rather it
provides a fruitful counterpoint for the activities, ambitions and mindset of
Jim Dixon. Jim is intelligent but he is not really interested in big ideas. He
detests intellectual pretentions of many of his colleagues, yet he promotes
no alternative code of behavior or system of belief. His own interests seem
to focus upon drink, jazz, getting the right girl and a well paid job
somewhere else. He succeeds in his ambitions, and to a degree the novel
was a success because it satisfied the desire of many readers to escape
from, and ridicule, the moribund conventions and pretensions of Middle
England. What makes Lucky Jim important both as a literary event in its
own right and as a prototype for much of Amis later work is the
relationship between Jim and his narrator. They are like narrative doubleact. Jim performs jokes. By accident and design he finds himself at the
centre of mildly farcical yet plausibly realistic situations, surrounded by
abundance of satirical targets: pomposity, pretension, cultural elitism,
unwarranted self-regard. But Jim alone never really operates as an agent
of satire. It is the dynamic relationship between Jim and a presence who
comments sardonically on the state of things and who recalls Jims
thoughts that provides the novel with its elegy and its satirical edge. The
novel is significant not simply because it indicates a post-war shift towards
anti-modernism, nor because it mirrors the social and intellectual state of
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1950s England, but because it revived a trend that had been largely
absent from main stream literature since the 18th century, and which can
best be described as serious comedy.
Comedy is the literary genre that most effectively resists abstract
definition. Unlike tragedy, comedy is far more personal and divisive. If we
share a writers sense of humour, if we laugh, our feeling of satisfaction
transcends its fictional source. And our sense of outrage and offence when
something that we value is mocked is equally genuine.
Amis, like many of his peers and associates was anti-modernist. His fiction
is realist or traditionalist in the sense that you do not need to know a great
deal about literature or literary theory to understand or enjoy it. It shows
us the world through language, while showing us that a substantial part of
this world is made from language. His novels fall into two categories: the
first group, beginning with LJ, are overtly realist. They are contemporary.
These novels are not mimetic. They are halls of mirrors, in which the
reader is invited to recognize aspects of their own situation, yet which
gradually, subtly, distort this experience. Jim Dixon is, like Amis, a young
untenured don in provincial university, though his subject is history rather
than English. He becomes the agent for a fast-moving, almost random
sequence of satirical attacks. His boss, professor Neddy Welch, is a semiarticulate buffoon with a taste for madrigal music and a commitment to
the organic simplicities of medieval England. Bertrand, Neddys son, is an
artist of loud pretentions, fashionable leftish sympathies and limitless
social ambitions. Like Neddy, he is absurd but not quite implausible. Jims
colleague and occasional girlfriend Margaret Pell is theatrically neurotic,
sometimes simulating the kind of nervous breakdown favoured by
intellectuals, but only when this is tactically propitious. She is a
personification of the mid-fifties taste for psychoanalytic depth, European
existentialism and very English calculation.
Jim refuses to play the helpless victim. Jim is a successful opportunist. His
luck enables him to escape the mundane hypocrisies of provincial
academia for a well-paid job in industry, and he takes with him Christine,
Bertrands stunningly attractive and unpretentious girlfriend. He is neither
malicious, cunning, nor corrupt, but at the same time he does not promote
any particular system of belief. Contemporary readers liked him not
because of what he represented but because what he did. He exposed the
hypocrisies and absurdities of middle-class life while securing for himself a
satisfactory position. Jim functions like a first person narrator, in that the
reader is offered only his perspective upon the world and the story. But
the third person mode excuses Jim from having to justify, celebrate, or
even explain his thoughts and acts to the reader. More significantly the
alliance between Jim and his narrator grants him a level of sophistication
and control that belies his status as the disempowered victim of a farce. It
is as though there are two Jims: one inside the narrative, struggling with
his own impatience, frustration and feelings of contempt; the other
controlling and orchestrating the narrative, insuring that the reader will
share his perspective. Jim the character is lucky; he gets the girl, the job
and he gets out. But the other Jim has all the time being exciting a kind of
revenge of characters and the world that seemed intent on denying him
these prizes. The narrator does not simply show us the comic interplay
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between Jims inner and outer worlds; he functions rather as Jims

superhuman alter ego. He times and structures the narrative with the
same deft, sardonic irony that Jim would have used if he had told his own
story. Amis always admired and enjoyed the novels of Henry Fielding, and
it is possible to find the imprint of Fielding in the style of LJ.
Amis adapted Fieldings dynamic, seat-of-the pants tension between
fictional and non-fictional levels to the structure of LJ, and the parallels
become particularly evident in the episode of the university dance
occupying chapters 10-12. The dance episode can be classed as realistic,
in the sense that the stylistic devices are transparent, rather than selfreferential but at the same time it is chaotically realistic.
Modernist fiction is celebrated for its ability to make us think again about
the routine relationship between language and the things, feelings and
events that language mediates. The interior monologue, made famous by
Joyce and Woolf, shows us that when we translate our thought processes
into the organized structures of language we do s grave injustice to their
fluid, chaotic actuality. Joyce shows us Dublin on a single day through a
kaleidoscopic lens: practically every established post 16 th century prose
style is employed to demonstrate that a single sequence of events can
effectively be altered by the manner in which we choose to disclose it.
Amis is not a modernist. Joyce and Woolf would, initially, confuse and
mystify a reader whose diet of fiction had been limited to the novels of the
18th and 19th centuries; Amis would not. But at the same time Amis shares
with modernists a capacity to use fiction as a challenge to familiar
expectations and perceptions. Unlike the modernists, he does not abandon
the established techniques of realist fiction. Rather he shows us that these
techniques have not exhausted their capacity to unsettle the readers
preconceived reality. Amis hero is no altruist, and the novel concerns his
attempt to perpetrate his own sort of fraud in a world he denounces
privately as this honest. He is a recently a appointed probationary lecturer
in medieval history at a provincial university who is desperately trying to
hang on his job by convincing everyone in authority that he is a
responsible person and dedicated teacher and scholar. In fact, Dixon hates
everything about academic life his subject, lecturing, his colleagues, and
especially the pretentiously arty and deviously absentminded head of his
department, Professor Welch. He also hates Welches family, especially
Welches son, a painter, and Dixon rival in love, the odious Bertrand.
Jims secret loathing for his circumstances provides novels point of view
and swings it from comedy to a occasional violence and potential
nightmare, which quickly turn back again to comedy as we realize that Jim
is not only the victim he loathes but also of his own engaging fecklessness.
Jims fury is as much at his own hopeless inability to act honestly and
speak forth rightly as it is at the pretentiousness and incompetence he
sees surrounding him. Amis is vague about Jims social class and
background, but the novel is about Jims resentment not just of his
immediate academic overseers but of those who are at ease in the larger
world of privilege and pleasure that Jims long to be a part of. Faced with
his own imagined (and real) deprivations and second- rate existence, Jims
imagination improvises compensatory violent fantasies, and he makes
wonderful secret faces at those he hates, such as his sex life in ancient
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Rome face or his Chinese mandarin face. But he also at times acts as a
satiric mirror and corrector of the external world he loathes. That is, he
passes occasionally from his fantasies of comic revenge for his own dreary
life to impassioned satiric denunciation of incompetence and selfishness.
For example, as he contemplates Welches evasive silence to his question
about his reappointment, he makes the shift from wishing to tie Welch up
in his chair and beat him about the head and shoulders with the bottle
until he disclosed why, without being French himself, hed given his sons
French names to wanting simply to say quietly in very slowly and
distinctly, to give Welch a good chance of catching his general drift: Look
here, you old cockchafer, what makes you think you can run a history
department, even at the place like this, eh, you old cockchafer?
In moments like this, Jim aspires to tell the truth as he sees it about a
phony world, and eventually he does just that, in the novels hilarious
drunken climax, with a lecture he delivers on Merrie England to a crowd
that includes the officers of his university. As he speaks he finds that he is
mimicking the speech first of Welch and then of the principle of the
college. Drunk and fed up, Jim explodes with the anarchic verbal
inventiveness that has been merely private till now; he tells the truth as he
has understood it all along about his academic specialty: Had people ever
been as nasty, as self-indulgent, as though, as miserable, as cocksure, as
bad as art, as dismally ludicrous, or as wrong as theyd been in the middle
age?
Lucky Jim is more than a sustained satire of academic life or a novel of
social realism. Its subject is an intensely imagined individual and his
difficulties in rejecting a world he wants to be a part of. In this
ambivalence, it doubtless reflects Amis own feelings. It is one of the
funniest of recent English novels because its hero is part of the joke, better
that the people he satirizes mainly in his honesty and in his luck. And also
Jim is superior to those around him in his verbal facility, his capacity for
mimicry of the masters that undercuts the fake discourse of everyday life
with an exhilarating self-assertiveness. It can perhaps be said that Jim is
rewarded with a happy ending for that combination of stand-up comic
talent and ultimate honesty: he loses his job after the disastrous lecture,
but he is offered a better one in London as the private secretary of the rich
uncle of his new girlfriend, Christine, stolen from the odious Bertrand.
GRAHAM GREENE, 1904- 1991; BERKHAMSTED, HERTFORDSHIRE
Travels with my Aunt - 1969
30. HUMOR IN "TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT"
Graham Greene told Fr Duran that he thought Travels with My Aunt his
best book after The Power and the Glory because it was a "serious and sad
book which happens to be funny." The stage adaptation by Giles Havergal
in 1991, in which all the parts were played by three male actors who
constantly swapped roles, as in a theatrical mad hatter's tea-party,
brought out this bizarre laughter the product less of character than of
attitude of life.
Henry Pulling, the retired bank manager, thinks he has settled down to a
quiet existence, tending his dahlias until he meets his "Aunt" Augusta at
his Mother's funeral. Henry finds himself lured away from the security of
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his suburban home into a life of travel, where his aunt's enjoyment of sex,
and her pleasure in outwitting the law, addicts him in time to a life that is
also mouvemente. A good deal in the novel reflects Greene's enjoyment of
self-parody: as he admitted, "my subject is my life." And that subject
contains his earlier novels, bringing him back here to the Orient Express
and Brighton as settings. But this Brighton is no longer the home of gangs
on the race-course; their place has been taken by a church for dogs in
which the barking drowns out the prayers. Greene's attachment to the
novel derived appropriately from his feeling that it represented a break
with the past in having no obvious Catholic theme.
Nonetheless, this picaresque novel does have a very distinctive theme:
survival. Aunt Augusta is sustained in her life by her love for Mr. Visconti,
with whom she is seen dancing serenely at the close. Visconti has always
been a criminal; at one time disappearing with all her money, and later
collaborating with the Nazis, but he knows how to survive. \
Traveling, not-sitting still, is to be enjoyed; and the enjoyment of life
sustains the desire to prolong it. This sense of enjoyment and taste for
adventure are what Aunt Augusta gives to Henry, at first to his dismay
destroying his love of dahlias, and then giving him a new identity.
Stylistically, Travels with my Aunt is a major achievement. Greene's
assurance is creating a narrative voice for Henry Pulling works from the
start to establish a settled identity which his travels will Aunt Augusta will
gradually disrupt and transform. Greene's imagination is drawn to a comic
anarchy, in which figures of authority are deflated by imaginative vitality.
In spite of Visconti's collaboration with the Nazis, and the violence of the
dictatorship in Paraguay, the novel is not preoccupied with right and
wrong, good and evil; depth has been replaced by surface, the horror
which is always real is largely hidden by the comic invention. But the
resulting laughter is a way of surviving in a world where the horror exists.
And the last laugh in this novel.
GRAHAM GREENE
Greene told Fr. Duran that he thought Travels with my Aunt his best book after The Power and
the Glory because it was a serious and sad book which happens to be funny. Henry Pulling,
tzhe retired bank manager, thinks he has settled down to a quiet existence, tending his dahlias
until he meets his Aunt Augusta at his Mothers funeral. Henry finds himself lured away
from the security of his suburban home into a life of travel, where his aunts enjoyment of sex,
and her pleasure in outwitting the law, addict him in time to a life that is also mouvemente. A
good deal in the novel reflects Greenes enjoyment of self-parody: as he admitted, my subject
is a life. And that subject contains his earlier novels, bringing him back here to the Orient
Express and Bringhton as settings. Greens attachment to the novel derived appropriately from
his feeling that is represented a break with the past in having no obvious Catholic theme.
None the less this picaresque novel does have a very distinctive theme: survival Aunt Augusta
is sustained in her life by her life for Mr. Visconti, with whom she is seen dancing serenely at
the close. Stylistically, Travels with my Aunt is a major achievement Greenes assurance in
creating a narrative voice for Henry Pulling works from the start to establish a settled identity
which his travels with Aunt Augusta will gradually disrupt and transform.
WRITING STYLE

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Greene's writings were innovative, not only in the religious themes he incorporated, but also
in his avoidance of popular modernist experiments. His writings were characterized by a
straightforward and clear manner. He was a realist, yet his technique created suspenseful and
exciting plots. His word combinations led many to feel like they were reading something
cinematic. His descriptions were full of imagery, yet he was not superfluous in his word
usage, a trait that was admired by his audience and contributed to his wide popularity. Another
facet of Greene's writing style was the ability he had to depict the internal struggles that his
characters faced, as well as their outward struggles. His characters were deeply spiritual with
emotional depth and intelligence. They each faced universal struggles, but Greene portrayed
them as highly individualistic. The reader cares deeply for the characters facing rampant
cynicism and world-weariness. His characters often faced living conditions that were harsh,
wretched and squalid. The settings of Greene's stories were poverty stricken countries like
Mexico, West Africa, Vietnam, Haiti, Argentinacountries that were hot, humid, and abject.
This trait led to the coining of the expression "Greeneland" for describing such settings. Even
with the most destitute of circumstances Greene's characters had the values and beliefs of
Catholicism explicitly present in their lives. Greene was critical of the literature of his time
for its dull, superficial characters who "wandered about like cardboard symbols through a
world that is paper-thin." He felt that literature could be saved by adding religious elements to
the stories. He felt the basic struggle between good and evil, the basic beliefs in right and
wrong, the realities of sin and grace, were all tools to be used in creating a more sensitive and
spiritual character. Greene believed that the consequences of evil were just as real as the
benefits of being good. V. S. Pritchett praised Greene, saying that he was the first English
novelist since Henry James to present, and grapple with, the reality of evil. As Greene grew
older, his writings changed. No longer did he focus as intently on religious views. Instead, his
focus became more wide-spread and approachable to a broader audience. He turned to a more
"humanistic" viewpoint. In addition to this, he outwardly rejected many of the orthodox
Catholic teachings he had embraced earlier in his life. Readers of his work began to see that
the protagonists were much more likely to be believers in Communism rather than
Catholicism. Travels with My Aunt is the only book I have written for the fun of it. Although
the subject is old age and death a suitable subject to tackle at the age of sixty-five and
though an excellent Swedish critic described the novel justly as "laughter in the shadows of
the gallows," I experienced more of the laughter and little of the shadow in writing it. When I
began with the scene of the cremation of Henry Pullings supposed mother and his encounter
with Aunt Augusta I didnt believe for a moment that I would continue the novel for more
than a few days. I didnt even know what the next scene was likely to be I didnt know that
Augusta was Henrys mother. Every day when I sat down before the blank sheets of foolscap
(for as symbol of my new freedom I had abandoned the single lined variety where the lines
seemed to me now like the bars on a prison window) I had no idea what was going to happen
to Henry or Augusta next. I felt like a rider who has dropped the reins and left the direction to
his horse or like a dreamer who watches his dream unfold without power to alter its course. I
felt above all that I had broken for good or ill with the past.

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I was even irresponsible enough to include some private jokes which no reader would
understand. Why not? I didnt expect to have any readers. So I christened "Detective-Sergeant
Sparrow, John" after that elegant scholar the ex-Warden of All Souls, Augustas black lover
"Wordsworth" after a villainous District Commissioner whom I had met more than thirty
years before in Liberia, Mr. Viscontis son "Mario" after my friend Mario Soldati who once
greeted me and gave me lunch in Milan station with similar flamboyance on my way to
Istanbul. I remember I even found room for Kingsley Amiss surname which I gave to a
character on whom I cant at the moment lay my finger. The name Visconti for Aunt
Augustas lover was adapted from my favourite character in Marjorie Bowens The Viper of
Milan which I had loved as a boy, and it gave me an innocent amusement when I heard
Detective Sparrow describing him as a viper.
Upon the publication of Travels With My Aunt, two as- sumptions about Greene quickly
arose. Both appeared to make sense at first, but both eventually proved to be wrong. One
assumption was that Travels With My Aunt signalled a "new" Greene. To many of his readers,
Greene now appeared to turn to the subject of sex with a mellow, wry aspect which more
nearly resembled the comic fiction of someone like Joyce Cary than that of his previous dark
books. He seemed, in other words, to have come to terms with the bestial element in man to
the point where he could actually smile at it. To what extent did this out- look represent a
real change in Greene? There is no doubt that the years separating Greene's earliest books
from this novel had taken some of the edge off his sharpest views. Yet the lineations of these
views, grounded on the values of justice and mercy, re-mained essentially the same. If
in Travels With My Aunt it ap- peared that Greene had suddenly grown more sympathetic and
understanding of human failings, it was an illusion created by the comic subject and style of
the novel itself. The truth is that Greene always wrote with great sympathy for his characters,
unless they did not themselves have the required sympathy for other human beings. In fact,
it's safe to say that he has exhibited a strong element of charitable romanticism all of his
writing career, an element so powerful that it can sometimes threaten the reality, or
believability, of the reflective picture he is always trying to present of the contemporary
world. Thus, it's only be- cause of the fanciful nature of the novel that Travels With My
Aunt seems to be written by a "new" Greene. In actual fact, this was still the same writer
pursuing his search for ways in which we could be redeemed. He had already found grace
and forms of personal commitment, and now he arrived at the possibility of a personal vision
which extends into an animating vital-ism.

EZRA POUND, 1885 - 1972; HAILEY, IDAHO, UNITED STATES

POUNDS POETRY
Pounds early poetry was rooted in emotion, a kind of late Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite
world of color and imagery focusing on beauty. But like Tennyson, Browning and even
Yeats, he began to attribute this emotion to another speaker, a persona. The term
originated in the habit of Roman actors wearing clay masks, the Latin for mask being
persona, originating in a verb meaning to sound through. In the classical period,
the term also meant character. Appropriately, Pound titled his first London volume,

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Personae (1909). Essentially, from his study of early Romance literatures, Pound
imitated the troubadour origins of modern lyric poetry and returned to a personalized
history; as he writes at the end of Provincia Deserta, I have thought of them
living. His eclectic taste united twelfth-century Provence, eighth-century China and
first-century Rome. From the last, he developed a set of poems on modern life that
were epigrammatic and imagistic, often found inset in longerworks like Homage to
Sextus Propertius andMauberley.Manifestoes such as A Pact also appeared, a
poetic statement of his rough bond with Whitman (EPEW 74). But in his effort to
make poetry new, he knew he must first learn from the past, as he noted in 1915:
the first step of a renaissance, or awakening, is the importation of models for
painting, sculpture or writing . . . we must learn what we can from the past to
understand its excellence and see the inadequacies of the present (LE 214, 219).
Restraint is another quality of his work which he finds in the poetry of Dante and
Arnaut Daniel. Provencal poetry becomes Pounds ideal, not only in terms of its
exact imagery and tone but in its use of metrics. It was made to sing, and throughout
his writing career melopeia, as he would later term it, and music would be
fundamental.
The importance of the persona as a device for Pound cannot be overstated
because,by evoking the voiceof another,Poundwasable toexpress both the dramatic
and the lyric.He was able to cast off as itwere, complete masks of the self in each
poem (GB 85). Strong emotion could now be dramatically expressed in his work
because it was another who expressed it; the actual poet could hide. In this manner,
Pound could be both modern and not modern, adapting both a Provencal method
and late nineteenth-century practice to his contemporary concerns. Hugh Selwyn
Mauberley (1920), with its varied voices and forms, demonstrates this fully. Pounds
diction, however, occasionally exposes his still dated use of language, in which
sensibility exceeds its object.

(IZ KNJIGE)
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley refined Pounds sense of sequence and structure,

anticipating the form of The Cantos. It also encapsulates Pounds growing

disenchantment with England, partly because little he wrote at this time
met with praise. To Williams in September 1920 he complained that there
is no longer any intellectual life in England save what centres in this eight
by ten pentagonal room (SL 1589). After twelve years, Pound was no
longer finding England congenial to the arts. The fragmented narrative yet
direct voice of Mauberley may be a metaphor for what is essentially an
embittered social vision in which Pound condenses imagery and allusions
but this time without
a central speaker. But he makes it especially clear that he is
nomoreMauberley than Eliot is Prufrock . . . Mauberley is a mere surface.
Again a study in form, an attempt to condense the James novel. Meliora
speramus (SL 180). Mauberley essentially tells the story of the
conventional poet Mauberleys unhappiness with London and its culture in
response to the horror of the First WorldWar. It also alludes to influences
likeHenry James andTheophile Gautier.
In James, Pound admired the presentation of atmosphere and impressions;
in Gautier, a hardness in the verse, which he celebrated as poetry that was
austere, direct, free from emotional slither (LE 12). Medallion, the final
poem in
the Mauberley sequence, possibly byMauberley himself, displays the
hardness Pound admired in Gautiers Emaux et Camees (Enamels and
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Cameos) of 1852. Eighteen poems in two parts make up Mauberley, the

first part running from Ode to Envoi (1919). The second begins with
the title Mauberley (1920) the combination of the title and date an
unusual conflation of name and time. It endswithMedallion and the
image of a glazed, oval face Beneath half-watt rays where the eyes turn
topaz (EPEW 142). On the title page of Personae (1926), Pound included
a footnote to the poem since deleted: The sequence is so distinctly a
farewell to London that the reader who chooses to regard this as an exclusive
American edition may as well omit it and turn at once to [Homage to Sextus]
Propertius.He omitted the Latin epigraph from the Roman poet Nemesianus, the
heart calls us into the shade, and the subtitle Life andContacts in Selected Poems
(1949) but reintroduced them in a revised version appearing in 1958, although the
subtitle is reversed to read Contacts and Life, which Pound told his publisher,
James Laughlin, was the actual order of the subject matter.6 Early readers of the
poem understandably had difficulty distinguishing between Pound as poet, as
narrator, and as the persona of Mauberley. Pound insisted they were all different but
readers were less confident. And when he wrote that the poem was merely surface
and an effort to condense a novel by Henry James, readers were equally perplexed,
largely because, unlike a James novel, it possessed no coherent narrative tone nor
linear text. Rather, the narrative focused on nuances, personal impressions and
inconsistent tone, which Pound took to be Jamesian attributes (SL 180).Another
problem was structure: were the sections linked or just arbitrarily joined? The
answers can partially be found in Pounds French sources. The rhythms of Gautier
and Bion, poets he had recently read for his essay A Study in French Poets (1918),
are the models for the work, in which the title figure, Mauberley, appears only in the
latter half. Mauberley, in contrast to Pound, is a mask of the contemporary aesthete
to show what the minor artist could expect from the England of the day.7 The focus
of the poem is the poets place in society. Beginning with the ironic Odetoan
imagined E.P., aprojectionofPound
himself, the poet emphasizes dislocation in his effort to resuscitate the dead art /Of
poetrywhose true inspiration was Flaubert (EPEW127). This is something of a mock
obituary the title of the section, translated from the French, is Ode for the
Selection of his Tomb. The poet, finding disillusionment with classical models like
Homer (the source of the Greek in the passage), then suddenly shifts to his own age,
exposing how commercialization and money prevent the artist from realizing his art in
society. He fished by obstinate isles carries over the nautical imagery of Homer into
the artistically difficult modern times to which he does not adjust
(EPEW127).Aesthetic concerns have
disappeared. Democracy has also corrupted itself (II, III). Sections IV andVare the
climax of Pounds denunciation, as the young die for a diseased tradition, although
such a theme was evident earlier in Propertius: Now if ever it is time to cleanse
Helicon he writes at the start of the fifth section of Propertius, continuing by
remarking that the primitive ages sang Venus, / the last sings of a tumult
(EPEW113). InMauberley, however, the language is more direct, the corruption
endemic: The age demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace. The war-weary
return to a lie, / home to many deceits, / home to old lies and new infamy. Too many
died, he laments, for an old bitch gone in the teeth, / For a botched civilization
(EPEW 128, 130). The sources of this decay are, for the poet, clear: the
overpowering of Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics by the official morality of Gladstone and
Ruskin, an attitude that neutralized creativity and the imagination. E.P. himself, the

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persona of Pound, announced on the title page and parallel to Pound in his early
London years, has also been compromised by his times because he failed
tomodernize.
His style has been trapped by old-fashioned ideals of beauty that have rigidified his
language. The age has changed but not the literature. The Yeux Glauques section
(Glaucous Eyes, a phrase used by Gautier to evoke the dull, graygreen gaze
common in Pre-Raphaelite portraits of women) provides a condensed portrait of the
Pre-Raphaelite period and its aftermath, moving rapidly from Ruskin and Rossetti to
the Rhymers Club of the 1890s, Max Beerbohm
(Brennbaum), Arnold Bennett (Mr. Nixon) and Ford Madox Ford. But again, Pound
does it through the voice of another, in this case Mr. Verog, who represents the minor
poet and critic Victor Plarr, author of In the DorianMood
(1896).Verog speaks, in the Siena mi fe;DisfecemiMaremmasection, Dantes phrase
which means: Siena made me; Maremma undid me (Purgatorio V). London is the
modernMaremma undoing the Rhymers, a process which Plarr recounts. In Sections
XI and XII, Pound shifts from the artists to the audience, satirizing various
representatives of popular taste, showing, for example, an educated woman who
inherits sterile traditions she does not understand (XI). In XII Pound provides a selfexamination and finds he does not belong in the fashionable circles of literary
London: Knowingmy coat has never been /Of precisely the fashion, as he awaits
Lady Valentine, an ironic presentation of aristocratic patronage (EPEW 134). He
bows out with a love lyric, again emphasizing title
and date. Envoi (1919), however, contradicts the surface judgments of the critics in
the opening Ode to the poem, showing that E. P., who had been out of key with
his time, can recover the sublime (EPEW 127). Mauberley 1920 begins the second
part of the poem, replacing the active Pound with the aesthete, tracing the effect of
cultural change on the poet, Mauberley, who begins as an Imagist but turns to a kind
of indulgent impressionism.
Pound models the quatrains and cameo technique of the poet on the hard surface
technique of Gautiers Emaux et Camees. Firmness, / not the full smile he writes in
Section I (EPEW 137). Here, Pounds impersonality reigns as he traces the career
of Mauberley, not his own. Mauberleys goal is to incorporate the values of clear
presentation in his work, parallel to the distinct profiles on classical medallions. The
presentational style of Flaubert is
his desired method but his art is not vigorous. Mauberley drifts in bewilderment,
uncertain psychologically, and poetically embodied in the broken speech patterns of
Section II. Mauberley, the poet, drifts into a refined subjectivity and stops writing
entirely:
The glow of porcelain
Brought no reforming sense
To his perception
Of the social inconsequence.
He prefers Mildness, amid the neo-Nietzschean clatter and, soon, unexpected
palms destroy the artists urge (EPEW139, 140).Mauberley abandons the Odyssean
quest; his epitaph laconically reads:
I was
And I no more exist;
Here drifted
An hedonist

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(EPEW 141)
The decline of this modern Elpenor parallels the fallen crewman of Odysseus who
asks the hero to set up his oar and inscribe on his tomb an epitaph which reads A
man of no fortune, with a name to come. Medallion, at the end, is a characteristic
product of Mauberleys porcelain reverie, a static representation of beauty based on
allusion and simile. The poem is only a visual record of a porcelain reality where the
womans eyes become gems, petrified
and inert. But Mauberley is more than a surface of fractured narratives. The facade is
complex, its base appearing simple, a disparity that disconcerts at first or even
second reading. This occurs partly because images imply entire arguments. Pound
fits his substance with a surface at times at odds with his meaning. His emphasis on
craft has shifted an emphasis from substance, but it exists in the poem which flows
into the medium itself rather than into plot,
myth or poetic convention. He has succeeded in making the narrative, in all its
guises, new. Dissociation describes the change, one that exists not only structurally
between the first and second parts of the poem but also between
Pound, as the poet of passion for whom emotion is intellectual instigation, and
Mauberley, the poet of beauty for whom relationships become frozen (Espey 82). The
active instigator versus the passive aesthete might be one
configuration of the difference as Pound was himself, at the end of 1918, preparing to
replace poetrywith politics. InMauberley, Pound rejects the mask ofwhat he feared he
might become if he remained in England. The next year he left for Paris. Mauberley,
however, also had a positive aspect. It provided away forPound to break the impasse
of The Cantos. By 1919, he hadwritten seven but not solved the formal problems
presented by Three Cantos (1917) of which six would eventually be rewritten and
rearranged. Mauberley, however, showed him ways in which to use the mythical
method he was reading in Joyces Ulysses, which he had started in 1917. InMay
1922, Canto VIII (which would later become Canto II) appeared in the Dial, the
same month as his review of Ulysses, and Pound was underway again, with an
intensive period of composition lasting the next three years. In July 1923, he
published the Malatesta Cantos and, shortly after, revised the opening of the poem,
in which he took the Nekuia episode from the end of Canto III and moved it to Canto
I. The scaffold of his long work had changed, partly the result ofMauberley and the
realization that the way to make the big poemwork might be to find a series of
historical heroes. Or, as he wrote in a letter of 1 November 1924 to his father, he was
trying to find some bhlooming historic character who can be used as illustration of
intelligent constructivity (inWitemeyer 177).
SELWYN

Mauberley is taken to announce Pounds break with London. The poem follows the
aesthetic struggles of its titular subject without itself observing the aesthetic principles
for which Mauberley stood. Mauberley is at once the protagonist of the sequence and
its satirical object a feat that Pound manages by borrowing from what was then still
radical narrative rather than poetic means. The key to how this happens can be found
in the poems two references to the nineteenth-century French novelist, Gustave
Flaubert. The first reference comes in the opening section of Part I; the second
comes in the opening section of Part II. The line, his true Penelope was Flaubert, is
often read as though Flaubert was Mauberleys real Penelope; it is more revealing to

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take the word true as a kind of epithet, so that Flaubert becomes the faithful
Penelope waiting for the wandering Mauberley to return (stylistically) home. In this
sense, the first reference suggests that Mauberley wasted years fishing by obstinate
isles and by doting on the bewitching Circe, rather than returning home to the Ithaca
of le mot juste (the right word); the opposition here is between language that is
bewitching florid or ostentatiously poetic, and language that is exact true and
concrete language. Flaubert was the inventor of free indirect discourse, a
technique that blurs any clear distinction between first and third person narration,
wherein what different characters think or feel shapes the idiom or diction of the
ostensibly omniscient narrator. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley deploys several strategies
of this kind. The poem positions us sometimes inside Mauberleys consciousness,
and sometimes outside it viewing him with ironic detachment and even ridicule. The
poem itself unfolds in ways that highlight various kinds of discontinuities; two
principal parts each divide into sections
bearing individual titles: Part I comprises 13 subsections, and Part II comprises a
further five. The title for Part I, H. S. Mauberley (Life and Contacts), would seem to
emphasize the man; the title for Part II, 1920 (Mauberley), clearly emphasizes the
moment. These different emphases circumscribe one of the principal conflicts in the
poem. Stylistically, the two parts differ in significant ways. Part I is often aesthetic in
style, while Part II with its important dateline, 1920 is more compressed, more
aggressively modernist. So when in Part II Pound repeats the phrase His true
Penelope / Was Flaubert, the phrase is ironized in quotation marks, the break into
two lines suggesting further that there was something too self-indulgent in
Mauberleys style. That is, the longer line of the early style has been replaced by a
new style, starker and more chiseled, less patient of elaboration.These distancing
effects are virtually uninterrupted in Part II of the poem. We so consistently see
Mauberley in third-person terms that it becomes a question whether the Medallion
that closes the poem is, as critics like Jo Brantley Berryman or Ian F. A. Bell have
suggested, Mauberleys masterpiece, or whether it constitutes the final sign of a
precious failure. Is the medallion a perfectly realized work of art, or
does it represent the transformation of a life into a metal objet dart? The ambiguity
here is deliberate. Far from signifying an imperfectly realized design on Pounds part,
this ending is by design open: an openness that gives form to Pounds own deep
ambivalence about the aesthetic in its relations to politics, history, and culture. The
poet, out of key with his time, erred most fundamentally not in how he struggled to
make his art but rather in striving to resuscitate the dead art at all. His values were
as out of place as they were untimely indeed, they were out of place because they
were untimely. Do these lines represent Mauberleys own thoughts, or do they
represent the poets account of him? Syntactically, it would seem to be the latter;
however, the second section (The age demanded an image / of its accelerated
grimace, etc.), which contains no third-person references but is identical in
perspective, suggests that we are hearing from Mauberley himself. In other words,
the movement between these sections generates ambiguity through the deployment
of Flaubertian free indirect discourse. Section III continues in this manner, ending
with the sarcastic parody of an ancient address to the god:
O bright Apollo,
. . . What god, what man, or hero
Shall I place a tin wreath upon!

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This third section, almost Swinburnian in attitude (Christ follows Dionysius), is more
surely Mauberleys voice than anything else in the poem. Its final figure of the tin
wreath sets up the celebrated fourth and fifth sections and leads to an apparent
contradiction: the voice railing against expectations that the poet should speak to the
times unexpectedly and concisely does so. Sections IV and V deliver a profound
critique of the First World War, focusing less on the immediate experience of soldiers
than had the so-called War Poets, and more on the culture whose failures produced
the war, protracted it, and learned next to nothing from it:
There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization.
Pounds suggestion is not that political leaders betrayed their culture but that deepset
cultural values were themselves responsible for the war. The waste of war could have
been avoided civilization has been botched and a kind of spiritual rot has robbed
the West of its cultural vitality. This diagnosis was hardly unique to Pound; indeed,
this vision is central to T. S. Eliots The Waste Land. But it is immediately important
here in that it implicitly contradicts the presentation of Mauberley as an aesthete with
no interest in the march of events, or the spirit of his age. Signs of this ambiguity
are evident from the beginning of the poem. Section I
carries the title, E. P. Ode Pour LElection de Son Sepulchre (E. P. Ode for the
selection of his tomb). First, the obvious question: if this poem is about Mauberley,
his life and contacts, then why does Pound immediately interpose his own identity
(E. P.)? Second, the title, although adapted from an ode by the Renaissance French
poet, Pierre Ronsard, unmistakably recalls Brownings The Bishop Orders His Tomb
(1845). Brownings Bishop proves to be a man obsessed with the aesthetic at the
expense of spiritual life: a man whose life was driven by rivalry (with Gandolf ) over
a woman and who hopes to crown his worldly achievements with the most beautiful
tomb in Saint Praxeds Church. In the case of E. P., the tomb is this poem itself
ultimately no more finished than the Bishops sepulcher. By combining features of
Flaubertian free indirect style with elements of Browningesque dramatic monologue,
Pound essays a new openness of form. Interpretive ambiguity is further heightened
by the unstable relations between the poems two parts. Where Part I seems to invite
sympathy with Mauberleys struggles, Part II is frequently mocking in tone. Passages
are repeated as we have
seen with His true Penelope / Was Flaubert almost tauntingly. Consider the
transformation of another instance: the opening line of Part I, For three years, out of
key with his time, / He strove to resuscitate the dead art / Of poetry becomes For
three years, diabolus in the scale, / He drank ambrosia. Whereas the language
from Part I suggests active struggle, the drinking of ambrosia suggests a kind of selfindulgence, an effete indolence. By the end of the third section of Part II, the speaker
finds nothing in Mauberleys career but maudlin confession / Irresponse to human
aggression. The two parts of the poem suggest a dilemma; the wanly aesthetic
manner and the aggressively modern manner do not and cannot cancel one another.
As the poem gives form to and so performs this conflict, it suggests that the utter

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rejection of the aesthetic would come at too high a cost. Pound is interested not in
delivering a finished and coherent image of the character, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley,
but rather in using Mauberley as a persona to explore the principles and limitations of
both his own previous work and of the London literary scene in general. Pounds
ending, the ekphrastic Medallion, offers overt resolution neither to Mauberleys
struggles nor even to his sense of purpose, so much as an antique beauty in chiseled
modernist form. In other words, it effects a kind of synthesis of the conflicting styles of
the poems two sections. The poem does not merely tell us about something but
endeavors, rather, to present it to us, so that we experience some part of it directly.
Mauberley is truly a transitional poem, but the transitions are not merely a matter of
the poets individual growth; they have much more to do with Pounds increasingly
clear sense of what he could expect from readers, and the distance between those
expectations and all for which he might hope. Poets before Pound (and Eliot and the
other modernists) were in a better position to know who their public was. But in part
because of the growing power of modern media such as film and radio, and in part
because of the increasingly international horizons of the literary world after the First
World War Pound would spend the rest of his long career trying to identify the
audience for whom he was writing. The years ahead
would bring a long succession of popularizing primers (ABC of Reading, ABC of
Economics, etc.), all aiming to create the audience whose existence he could not
assume. In this process, Mauberley was Pounds wake-up call to himself. Thereafter
his writing would never again be the same.

1. PESSIMISTIC VIEW OF MODERN WORLD IN THE POETRY OF W.B.YEATS

1. LIST CHRONOLOGICALLY THE

MAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS

CONCERNING E.M.FORSTER
2. NAME FOUR WORKS, INCLUDING THE PUBLICATION DATES, BY JULIAN
BARNES
3. LIST CHRONOLOGICALLY THE MAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS
CONCERNING T.S.ELIOT
4. NAME FOUR WORKS, INCL. THE PUBLICATION DATES, BY VIRGINIA WOOLF
5. LIST CHRONOLOGICALLY THE MAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS
CONCERNING KINGSLEY AMIS
6. NAME FOUR WORKS, INCL. THE PUBLICATION DATES, BY JAMES JOYCE
7. LIST CHRONOLOGICALLY THE MAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS
CONCERNING VIRGINIA WOOLF
8. NAME FOUR WORKS, INCL. THE PUBLICATION DATES, BY JULIAN BARNES
9. LIST CHRONOLOGICALLY THE MAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS
CONCERNING JOSEPH CONRAD
10. NAME FOUR WORKS, INCL. THE PUBLICATION DATES, BY KAZUO
ISHIGURO
11. LIST CHRONOLOGICALLY THE MAIN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS
CONCERNING JAMES JOYCE
12. NAME FOUR WORKS, INCL. THE PUBLICATION DATES, BY E.M.FORSTER
13. EXPLAIN THE ATTITUDE OF THE IMAGISTS TOWARDS THE EARLIER
TRADITIONS IN POETRY
14. POETRY ANALYSIS: EACH POET KNEW FOR WHOM HE HAD TO WITE

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15. POETRY

ANALYSIS: OH DAMN! I KNOW IT! AND I KNOW IT / HOW THE MAY FIELDS ALL
GOLDEN SHOW /AND WHEN THE DAY IS YOUNG AND SWEET..

16. POETRY

ANALYSIS: THE AGE DEMANDED AND IMAGE/OF ITS ACCELERATED GRIMACE/

SOMETHING FOR THE MODERN STAGE.
(EXPLAIN AS CLOSELY AS YOU CAN THE MEANING OF THE PHRASES IN ITALICS HAVING
IDENTIFIED THE TITLE AND THE AUTHOR; DISCUSS ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

A)
B)

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THE TRAGIC FEATURES OF THE MODERN WORLD AS OPPOSED TO THE GLORIOUS PAST
THE CONFLICT OF TWO OPPOSING PRINCIPLES RELATED TO THE CONDITION OF MODERN
ART.