Enam's Note

The Difference between Tragic Literature  and Non-tragic Literature Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), a great literary critic, highly individualistic writer and a major modern essayist, shows the difference between tragic literature, containing partial truth and the non-tragic literature, containing whole truth, in his master-piece essay “ Tragedy and the Whole Truth ”. Here he also shows the superiority of the whole truth over the tragedy.  Now we are going to discuss the difference between tragedy and the whole truth in detail. In order to know the difference between tragedy and the whole truth, we are, at first, to know what the truth is. We generally find two types of truth. First one is actual truth and another one is literary truth. To Huxley, two and two makes four, or Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 or light travels at the rate of 187000 miles a second is the example of actual truth.  But in literature we may not find such kind of truth. Literary trut

‘ Riders to the Sea’ , by John Millington Synge, is one of the perfect one-act plays where all the characters are the puppet of the fate. Synge, suggested by WB Yeats, stays four years in the “Aran Island” and very closely observes how destiny plays an important role in the life of the islanders and very sincerely portrays in this great play. Now we are going to discuss it in detail. In this play, tragedy comes to the characters without any hamartia or tragic flaw. Here we see, the characters are not least responsible for their downfall or death unlike Shakespearean tragedy. Here destiny or the fate controls every thing. None can avoid it. Here life means nothing but tragedy and unconditional surrender to the mysterious fate. We see that, the inhabitants of the “Aran Island” are constantly struggling against the sea in order to support their daily bread ignoring the possibility of death, because they have no other option to avoid the sea. Thus, they embrace the watery

Question: How does the playwright portrays the character of Maurya as a Universal mother in his play "Riders to the Sea"? Maurya, a woman of over eighty, is one of the four major characters of the play ‘ Riders to the Sea’ by John Millington Synge. The whole story moves around her, telling the tale of her tragic past. Her great endurance and bravery in the most striking phases of the life reaches her at the level of real heroine of the play. Now we are going to look into Maurya critically.                         At the very beginning of the play we see that, Maurya has already lost her four sons and now she is waiting to recover the dead body of fifth one, Michael, who has been missing for nine days and to receive his dead body. As she says; “…if Michael is washed up to- morrow morning, or the next morning, or any morning in the week, for it's a deep grave we'll make him by the grace of God.” Now, Bartley is only one alive son of her family.    

“Oedipus the King”, Sophocles’ most artistic creation, is a play on a mythical king Oedipus based on the Theban Legend . It is the tragedy of a hero who has been made zero and led away from the country most miserably.              We know that a tragic hero usually possesses high birth and high social standard . In case of Oedipus, we see that, he is the son of “ Laius ”, the king, and “ Jocasta ”, the queen, he is brought up by Polibus , the king of Corinth, and “ Merpe ” the queen. Later he has become the king of Thebes and marries the queen of Thebes and begets children. The people of Thebes considers him as the saviour and father.             Actually, Oedipus is the hero of the tragedy of fate or destiny or nemesis based on the oracle of Apollo that Oedipus would kill his father and would marry his own mother. All the characters of the play have tried desperately to avoid the occurrence what they could not do. Laius and Jocasta have tried to escape the happenings b

Shylock, an amusing as well a confusing figure, is one of the main characters of Shakespeare’s outstanding play “ The Merchant of Venice ”. His activities are full of variegation making us very complex to understand him. At times, his ridiculous activities give us pleasure and make us laugh. Again sometimes his brutal actions fall us in fear and make us anxious. So we, very easily, mark him as the comic villain of the play. Let us discuss it in detail. Actually, Shylock is a usurer and his business of usury is disturbed by Antonio lending money without interest. So Shylock considers him as the worst enemy and awaits an opportunity to take revenge on him. As he says: “If I can catch him once upon the hip   I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.” [Act: I, Scene: III] Shylock alsohates  Antoniofor his  religion. As he confesses: “I hate him for he is a Christian” [Act: I, Scene: III]   At that time, the most of the Christians think the usury as cruelty while the J

Religious conflict between Christianity and the Judaism is clearly distinct in Shakespeare’s great tragicomedy ‘ Merchant of Venice’ . Here, Shakespeare makes Shylock, a Jew, the villain of the play and portrays negatively as much he can while the Christians are shown as great and noble. Now we are going to discuss the theme of racial conflict in the drama “Merchant of Venice”  Though at that time the usury was completely legal, Shylock’s business usury is shown very contemptibly as if it were prohibited. Moreover his business of usury is often hampered by Antonio.  Antonio might be a good and sympathetic person but Shylock is not wrong in his activities. Antonio has no right to disturb him. Antonio does not like him only for religious facts.  As Shylock says: “He hates our sacred nation; and even Where merchants most do congregate°, he rails On me, my contracts,° and my well-earned profit, Which he calls, usury”             In the drama, Shylock, the Jew, is portrayed a

The Idea of love, marriage and war are the recurring themes of “Arms and the Man”, a fantastic romantic comedyby George Bernard Shaw, a great modern playwright.   Shaw has shown that it is the romance of war that leads to the romance of love. He satirizes idealized notions of love and war in the comedy.  The play opens with highly romantic views of love and war of Raina. She standing on the balcony of her bedroom, admiring the beauty of the night dreams of her fiancée, Sergius. Soon she learns that ignoring the orders of his Russian commander, he made a heroic charge on the artillery of the Serbs and put them to flight. Raina, in ecstasy, raptures kisses on the photo of her lover and her knight. She feels that she has been a ‘prosaic little coward’ in her doubts about Sergius’ heroism and is unworthy of him. Sergius’ heroism in war feeds her romantic love of him.   Raina’s heroic ideals of war receives a violent shakewhen she is told the truth about Sergius’ cavalry charge. I

Louka, one of the main figures of the play “ Arms and the Man ” by great British playwright George Bernard Shaw, is an exceptional character. She is good looking in her appearance, sharp in her observation, and confident in her mentality. She, at times, seems to be afraid of her master Catherine, but even with her she goes as far as she dares. Let us now cast a look at Louka’s character. Louka is very intelligent and sharp minded girl. We find her sharpness at the very beginning of the play, when, for example, she secretly tells Raina that one of the shutters has not been bolted at the bottom and that it can be opened with a little push if need to do. As Louka says: “If you would like the shutter open, just give them a push like this.”             Again, Louka is highly observant person. When she leaves Raina’s room, she casts a look at first at Raina, then at the sofa, at last at the curtain; and then gives an insolent laugh indicating that she has detected the presence of

Catherine is one of the important female characters of the play “Arms and the Man” by George Bernard Shaw, a great British playwright. She, in the play, rules over all the characters. She is an affectionate mother, at the same time, she is also a careful guardian and ideal house wife. Now we are going discuss his character. First of all, we see, Catherine is a very careful mother about her daughter’s safety. As, at the very beginning of the play, Catherine says: “Raina! Raina! Why, where-?  Heavens child! Are you out in the night air instead of in your bed? You will catch your death. Louka told me you are asleep.”  Again, she shows her concern about the house when she comes to know that some enemy solders have run away from the battle field and are being pursued by Bulgarian cavalrymen. She orders Louka to shut all the doors and the windows against any possible intruders. Riana seems to be very jubilant even more than Raina, when she comes to know that the Bulgarian have won a great

“ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an extra-ordinary dramatic monologue by T S Eliot, a pioneer of a new literary trend of early twentieth century. In the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” through the character of “J. Alfred Prufrock”, a modern man, the poet portrays a modern man’s mental crisis of so called urban civilization. Actually, the age the poet was the age of growing so called civilization, but the human being’s mental condition was full of frustration. The First World War took place owing to unwise decision of some ambitious world leaders while the world was developing in different aspects. The war caused the death of millions of people and massive destruction of property. Moreover, it threw the modern people in desperation which reflected in their thought and feeling. So, a conscious man of that time T S Eliot shows us a modern man’s mental crisis and ugliness of an urban modern civilization through his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.