Victorian Prose ( Paper 8 - Assignment )

Victorian Prose.

The 60 years, 1830-1890 commonly included under the name of Victorian age present many dissimilar features. Victorian Prose , though chronologically related with and sometimes even overlapping the era of Romantic prose, marks a distinct break both thematically and stylistically. The change is less of conscious purpose than of the difference in temperament and intellectual interest. The familiar essay with its highly personal often whimsical flaunting of the writers taste prejudices and peculiarities, the hallmark of the romance gave way to a distinctively Victorian willingness to engage in moral and intellectual debate. Not only was it a period of ‘Gods plenty’ but also of amazing, the notice diversity and astonishing intellectual passion. Victorian prose was of such diversity as to include the critical writings of Ruskin and Arnold, the social and historical writings of Carlyle and Macaulay, the religious writings of Newman and the philosophical essays of Mill and Spencer.

For more than a generation, Thomas Carlyle ( 1795 - 1881 ) was revered ( respected ) as a teacher and a prophet. By his admirers he was called ‘The sage Of Chelsea’ and he maintained his reputation by means of books, letters, and conversation. He was much concerned with contemporary, social and political affairs as well as with the more personal concerns of religion and private morals. A later generation finds it somewhat difficult to accept Carlyle’s teachings. His writings abound in words and a rather confusing amount of good advice. By its influence Carlyle’s teaching did do an immense amount of good. His strong faith in himself and in the ultimate good of all things was like a tonic in a time of wavering faith and increasing pessimism. ‘Sartar Resartus’ ( 1833 ) a kind of autobiography of an imaginary German professor. ‘The French Revolution’ ( 1837 ) which gave fire and intensity to history, while political tracts of great insight and literary merit appeared in ‘Past and Present’ ( 1843 ) and ‘The Life of John Sterling’ ( 1851 ), The series of lectures he delivered in ( 1837 ) was published as On Heroes, Hero-Warship and the Heroic In History.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

Macaulay offers a curious contrast to Carlyle. The later was the preacher, the idealist and the sage.  The former was the hard headed man of affairs, taking the world as it came and offering no remedies to cure its evils. In his prose we find no struggle, exhalation and despair such as we find in the prose of Carlyle. Instead, we observe a brisk confidence a clear, vivacious utterance and a selection of picturesque details, the copious vocabulary, the clever variations of the sentences of the sentences and the swiftly moving rhythm.

Before he left for India Macaulay had written 22 essay for “The Edinburgh Review”. He added 3 during his stay in India and finished 11 others after he returned to England. With the 5 biographies that he contributed to “The Encyclopaedia Britannica”, these include all his shorter prose works. His ‘History Of England’ ( 1849 ) was unfinished at his death. It had an enormous popular success which was due to his selection of telling incident, his clear and rapid narrative and clean cut assured manner of statement.

John Ruskin 

Ruskin was born of affluent parents, but his views on life were not in keeping with his social position in it. Early in his career he developed subversive opinions upon social questions of all kinds and took to expounding advanced forms of socialism. In art he was equally unconventional. Ruskin was an idealist far in advance of his time. He spent much of money and nearly all his life preaching to people who were largely indifferent to his efforts. He retains his position in literature chiefly as a prose stylist. Features of his prose style are enormous sentence, cunning use of semi colons, strong rhythm. He had another style for his numerous lectures. It had poetical effect but it is intensely simple. Frequently its diction ( words ) is suggestive of ‘The Bible’.

Works of John Ruskin.

His first and longest book ‘Modern Pointers’ ( 1843 - 1860 ) began in 1843 and completed in 1860. It expounded Ruskin’s ideas upon art and life in general. Shorter works on art were ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’ ( 1849 ) and ‘The Stones Of Venice’ ( 1851- 1858 ). Among his articles and lectures are ‘The Two Paths’ ( 1869 ), ‘The Crown Of Wild Olive’ ( 1864 ) and ‘Sesame and Lilies’ ( 1865 ).

Other prose writers of this age were :

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson ( 1803 - 82 )
2. John Addington Symonds ( 1840 - 93 )
3. Walter Moratio Pater ( 1839 - 94 )
4. James Anthony Fraud ( 1818 - 94 )
5. Oliver Wendell Holmes ( 1809 - 94 )

On The Pleasure Of No Longer Being Very Young ( Paper 8 - Assignment )

On The Pleasure Of No Longer Being Very Young

- G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton’s essay, ‘On The Pleasure Of No Longer Being Very Young’  analyses the advantage of old age. With the help of humour, paradox and frequent allusions, getting old is a universal experience. This experience can tell us the relevance of traditions in the ever changing modern world. This essay was written after the great economic depression in the 1930s when the new industrial economies have completely collapsed and modern man had learnt a lesson of being too proud of his knowledge.

People look at the advantages of old age in a sentiment way. All old men are supposed to be happy and kind like Santa Clause and wise like the classical Greek figure, Nestor. So, young menudo not believe that old age is actually enjoyable but old age is the time to be openly adventurous and romantic. Old people know that they are not aware of many new things but they are happy in their ‘fool paradise’ as they can go on bearing new things.

The real advantages of old age appear to be “comic contradiction”. People feel that “Many things seem to be growing younger” as one becomes old. Young men think that traditions and customs are outdated and useless but old people with all their experience realise that traditions are not outdated, they are practically useful so they have continued to survive through centuries. The writer presents word play.

“Traditions are true and therefore alive, indeed a tradition is not even traditional except when it is alive.”

Proverbs are repeatedly used inly because they are practical. This is best understood in the old age. Old age is the ‘second childhood’ because in the old age on can understand the real meaning of everything.

Proverbs and the human history offers us practical wisdom but people fail to understand that wisdom. The economic depression represents the failure of modern industrial world. It could have been avoided if people remembered the old lessons given by many proverbs. It is always said that the luck tried money are all temporary. This has been proved by the downfall of emperors like Napoleon, Alexander and the great Roman but modern man does not learn anything from these examples. For the writer witnessing the economic depression is to ‘to see the dead proverbs come alive’.

It is not the fault of young people that they must understand the importance of old things. For the young people, old things are on a different level of understanding. Since old people have the experience of life they can better understand the real meaning of everything. It is an irony of life that :

“even as we are dying the whole world is coming to life.”

Another paradox is that “it is not the young people who realise the new world”. Young people cannot understand the  newness of new things because they have never experienced the old things. Old people have the experience of the old things; so they can better understand the difference between the old and the new. The writer gives an interesting analogy. We cannot feel the rotation of the earth because we have never experienced a situation when the earth did not rotate. If the earth stops its rotation starts moving in the opposite direction then only we will understand how it feels when the earth rotates.

Old people can also understand if a new thing is really new or a comeback of old things. If someone says that these days people don’t go to the church, so the village church would be replaced with a chemical factory, the oldest vilager would say that in his childhood even fewer people went to church. Similarly, young people say that the modern world does not believe in the supernatural. But earlier no educated villager believed in ghosts whereas a modern scientist like Sir Oliver Lodge, conducts research in parapsychology and paranormal activities.

This essay discusses the eternal conflict between the old and the new from a realistic and practical point of view. He presents a practical advantage of getting old. The tone is scholarly as the writer proves his arguments with classical, biblical, historical and literary allusions. He point out many funny details of common life. Paradox and word play bring gentle humour to the essay. Finally, this essay can be understood as a defence of the gravity and validity of the old.

From The Preface To Shakespeare. ( Paper 10 - Assignment )

Dr. Johnson As A Critic Of Shakespeare In His Essay ‘From The Preface To Shakespeare’

Johnson’s preface to Shakespeare on everlasting contribution to English Literary criticism displays his assessment of Shakespeare in an unprejudiced manner. Johnson exposes Shakespeare under the light of neoclassical age but in some instances he is not fully justified. The preface opens with a tribute to Shakespeare’s enduring appeal, which Johnson considers and acknowledged as the taste of eminence.

“Nothing can please many, and please long,

but just representation of general nature.”

According to Johnson, Shakespeare characters’ ‘act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated’. Shakespeare’s appeal has stood the severe test of time and its change of taste, because he does not accentuate only on the particular characteristics of particular age. Instead, he focusses his attention on the common nature of men, their general traits, emotions, passions, and manners of life which are to be found in men at all times in all countries. The knowledge of general human nature, Johnson feels enabled Shakespeare to unveil the truths of life and enrich his plays with practical axioms and domestic wisdom. However, Shakespeare was none of those who attached too much of importance to the subject of love with regard to their theme.

Johnson was bold enough to differ from his contemporary, critics, opinions about Shakespeare’s portrayal of his characters. Dennis and Rhymer did not approve of Monenius as a buffoon and voltaire did not approve of Shakespeare's depiction of Claudius in Hamlet as a drunkard. Johnson defends Shakespeare by arguing that Shakespeare always makes nature predominant over accident, he also defends Shakespeare’s mingling of tragic and comic scenes in his plays. Johnson justifies the mingling of two on the basis that are means a truthful depiction of human life. Thus, Shakespeare was right in combining comedy and tragedy for such a mingling displays real human nature which ‘partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow’.

In the enumeration of Shakespeare’s merits and limitations, Johnson’s demonstrates his neoclassical bias in judging an author by rules. Among the limitation of Shakespeare, the greatest fault he finds in him is pump and bombast, his verbosity and prodigality in the use of words. His excessive infatuation for puns and quibbles ( word play ) and the vulgarity and licentiousness of his jokes makes his writing loose. Shakespeare is thus, blamed for not conforming to the neoclassical standards of poetic diction. Johnson  also criticises Shakespeare’s failure to conform to his didactic ideal of art. Shakespeare, he says, is so intend in amusing that he forgets the superior duty of edifying the readers. He makes no clear cut distinction between the virtuous and wicked characters and distributes his rewards and punishments indiscriminately. According to Johnson, Shakespeare was often careless about his plots and he cared little for the architectonics of plot development. However, the modern school of criticism has seriously questioned Johnson’s conclusion about careless plots. Further, Johnson also maintained that Shakespeare was often lacking about the endings of his plays and attributed this weakness to the fact that he “…shortened the labour to snatch the profit” and “…remits his efforts where he should most vigorously exert there…” resulting in the weakening of the entire play.

Shakespeare abounds in anarchism and Johnson has rightly pointed out that “he has no regard to distinction of time or place but gives to one age or nation without scruple, the customs, institution and opinions of another, at the expense not only of likelihood but of possibility”. Even a casual reader of Shakespeare will find that the locale never really gets away from England. His play ‘Coriolanius’ has a strong Roman theme, and there are many references to the English parts, a mixture of Christianity and paganism and even the use of English and Greek makes his play difficult.

It is paradoxical that while Johnson is lavish in his praise of Shakespeare comedies, as he says :

“In tragedy he often writes with great appearance of foil and study. What is written at last with little felicity, but in his comic scenes, he seem to produce without labour, what no labour can improve…in his tragic scenes there is always something wanting…”

Ironically, he also attacks the comic scenes and comic dialogues. He complains of Shakespeare’s excessive use of an image such as “cuckold horns”. He found the authors “contests of sarcasm”, seldom successful and maintained that their jests were “commonly gross and their pleasantry licentiousness…” and cautioned that there are many types of gritty “…a writer ought to choose the best”. Much of what Johnson felt wrong about tragedies were the circumlocution and pomp of diction, the excess of characters, the coldness of set speeches, inconsistencies in time and place and the unwieldy sentiments. 

Johnson defines Shakespeare’s approach to the unities. He pointed out the distinction between actual life and dramatic imitation of life. The time element, Johnson maintained, belonged to the reading and did not exist in the theatre. All that is important in the unity of actions.

“Johnson says delusion, if delusions be admitted has no certain limitation, if the spectator can be once persuaded, that his old acquaintance are Alexander and Caesar that a room illuminated with candles is the plain of Pharfilia…”

The reader should not tar the credulity of the place to have the scene shift suddenly to another part of the world since the audience is aware from the start that the performance is unreal.

Johnson’s reputations as a critic of Shakespeare rests mostly on his preface. According to Adam Smith “it is the most manly piece of criticism that was ever published in any country”. Though, it also reveals Johnson’s weakness, his inconsistency, his conflicts, doubts his deficiency in understanding the lighter and imaginative aspects of the poets but overshadowing these limitations, he honestly enumerates Shakespeare’s faults. He also overthrows the validity of the writer. His masterful defence of tragic comedy, his perception of character study and his humbleness in a project, he often felt beyond his capacity.

18th Century Prose ( Assignment Paper 8 )

18th Century Prose ( Assignment Paper 8 )

The eminent critic Matthew Arnold has rightly called the 18th century “the age of prose and reason”. The 18th century literature was mainly the product of reason and intelligence. The dominance of reason made the literature of this period critical, didactic and satirical. The reason manifested itself such as good sense, rationalism, intellect, wit, and was opposed to excessive emotionalism, sentimentalism, extravagance, and imagination. A general search after rationality which set in the age of Dryden culminated in this age. A great bulk of 18th century prose is devoted to the journalistic issues, pamphlets and magazines. Moreover the age saw the rise of two popular genres of prose literature, the novel and the periodical essays. The prose of this age has the qualities of modern style characterised by simplicity, lucidity and clarity.

Daniel Defoe works can be divided into two groups, political writings and fictions. Defoe wrote a number of political tracts and pamphlets. Many of them were published in his own journal, ‘The Review’ which is considered to be the fore runner of ‘The Tatler’ and ‘The Spectator’. Its main aim was to make the English people acquaint with the thoughts of Defoe on international politics and commerce. ‘The Review’ comes nearer to the periodical essay proper in the section called ‘Advice From Scandalous Club’ which is described as “being a weekly history of nonsense, impertinence, vice and debauchery”. Later, it was separated from the main portion and was distinguished by the title ‘The Little Review’ in which the element of news took all the gossip and moral criticism. He contributed number of essays on the vices and follies of society and on the minor morals of the day.

His works in fiction were all produced in the latter parts of his life. The first work being ‘Robinson Cursoe’ . It was followed by ‘Duncan Campbell’ ( 1720 ), Memoirs Of Cavalier ( 1720 ), ‘Captain Singleton’ ( 1720 ), ‘Mollflanders, A journal of the plague year ( 1722 ), ‘Roxana’ ( 1724 ), and ‘A New Voyage Round The World’. These stories in fiction are all picaresque in matter and form. The hero who is the narrator constitutes the chief element of unity. Defoe conceals his personality behind that of the hero yet his personal attitude towards life is revealed clearly in each. Robinson Cursoe is Defoe’s masterpiece and one of the most enduring fables of western culture. The story is derived from the experience of ‘Alexander Selkirk’ who was wrecked on the island of Juan Fernandez off the coast of chile and who remained their for 5 years. Crusoe makes a kingdom of his own on this new island. His relations with first xeury then with his manfriday is of master and slave. Crusoe can also be seen as a coloniser, who establishes on the island a model of his own society. Defoe’s best known heroine ‘Mollflanders’ is an autobiography of a prostitute. It shows the writer’s knowledge of English social and economic life. Moll uses her beauty to achieve financial security and it becomes a commodity and she tries to sell it in the higher market. The stories of Defoe presents a realistic narrative with a matter of fact, business, lifestyle appropriate to the stories of actual life.

Jonathan Swift published on a variety of topics. He is called as ‘prince of English satirist’. In his satires he lashes at all kinds of aberration ( disorder ), every kind of affectation, hypocrisy, folly and pretension comes under his lash. The most important of his satires are ‘The Battle Of The Books’ ( 1704 ), ‘A Tale Of A Tub’ ( 1704 ) and ‘Gullivers Travels’. The theme of the first is the dispute between ancient and modern authors. A Tale Of Tub was meant to be a satire on the numerous and gross corruption in religion and learning. It represented the church of England as the best of all churches in doctrine and discipline and also lashed at the shallow writer and critics of the age. Gulliver’s Travels is the most famous of swifts work. In it he savagely indicated ( accused ) “ that animal called man”. Though it had been considered a comic fable for children but it is a severe attack on the political parties of the time and on the pointlessness on religious controversies between different denominations within Christianity. ‘The Voyage To Liliput’ and ‘Brobbingnay’ satirises the politics of England and Europe that to Laputa mocked the philosophies and the last to the country of Houyhnhnms, lacerated and defiled the whole body of humanity. Houyhnhnms presented, was a  race of rational, clean, civilised horses who are contrasted with the foul, brutal, uncivilised Yahoos, a race of ape - like beasts. The beastly yahoos represents Swifts conception of man. This book shows him to be a misanthrope ( hater of man ).

Swift despises all unnecessary ornamentation. His style is masked by directness, vigour and simplicity. So, convincing in his prose that the reader never looses the sense of reality, of being present as an eyewitness of the most impossible events. According to him, “proper words in proper places makes the true definition of style”.

Joseph Addison has written nearly 400 essays which are nearly uniform in length. He attacks all the little vanities an all the big vices of his time, not in Swift’s terrible way, which makes us feel hopeless of humanity, but with the kind of ridicule and gentle humour which takes a speedy improvement for granted. His essays reflect the distant observations of the life of the time. He sets out to be mild sensor of the morals of the age. Most of his composition deals with topical subjects such as fashion, manners, modes of conversation and vices like gambling, drinking, duelling ( fight between two person ). Addison’s first contribution to ‘The Tatler’ which Steele began appeared first in number 18. Henceforward, he wrote regularly for the paper contributing about 42 essays in number. In the same year Steele began ‘The Spectator’ which was issued daily. In ‘The Spectator’, Addison rapidly became the dominating spirit, wrote 274 essays out of a complete total of 555. Addison also made remarkable contribution to literary criticism. In his essays, he sort to develop the literary taste of his readers. He discussed drama and poetry in his essays. In the Spectator, he published 18 papers on the Paradise Lost helping the readers to have a better understanding and appreciation of Milton. 

Credit goes to Addison for painting pictures of men and manners admirably outside the genre of drama. His papers of The Spectator dealt with such leading figures of The Spectator club as ‘Will Honeycomb’ a middle aged man of fashion, ‘Sir Andrew Freeport’, a merchant and Mr. Spectator, a shy person who hears some resemblance to himself, and especially with the eccentricities of the amusing Tory Squire, Sir Roger De Coverley. Though in scattered papers of the Spectator, one cannot have the sustained interest which is must for a novel but we cannot regard but this great development in the characterisation as a stage in the evolution of the genuine novel. Some of his essays, concerning episodes from Sir Roger De Coverley’s life makes it a modern novel in germ. While commenting on Addison’s contribution to the development of the English novel, ‘E Albert says :

“If Addison had pinned the Coverley papers together with a stronger plot, if instead of only referring to the widow who had stolen the nights affection, he had introduced some important female characters, we should have had the first regular novel in our tongue…”

Addison contribution to the development of English prose style is equally praiseworthy. He perfected English prose as an instrument for the expression of social thought. It was he who, more than anyone else invented the middle style, something between the grave stately diction of formal writing and the free, easy speech of everyday. The style that is needed in almost all human discourse.

Richard Steele finds his place in literature as a miscellaneous essayist, his fertile mind gave literature many inventions. He started ‘The Tatler’ in 1709, ‘The Spectator’ in 1716 and several other short timed periodicals such as ‘The Guardian’ ( 1713 ), ‘The Englishman’ ( 1713 ), ‘The Reader’ ( 1714 ) and ‘Chit-Chat’ ( 1716 ). Steele’s working alliance with Addison was so close and so constant that comparison between them is inevitable. Together they gave people their most loveable characters such as ‘Will Honeycomb’ and ‘Sir Roger De Coverley’. Around the later many essays were built ( composed ), sweetened with good natured and light humour. ‘The Tatler’ was a single sheet paper that came out 3 times a week and in the beginning consisted of short paragraphs or topics related to domestic, foreign, literature and theatre and gossip. Each topic fell under the heading of a specific place such as a coffee house where the discussion was most likely to take place. He gave expression to the public dislike of gambling and argued that duelling was senseless and gusty practice. Another innovation brought about in ‘The Periodicals’ was the publication of letters to the Editor, ‘brought new point of views’ and created a sense of intimacy to the readers. The feature evolved into a forum for readers to express themselves, engaged in a discussion an important event or question, conduct a political debate or ask advice on a personal situation. Steele even introduced a separate lovelorn column in the Tatler and The Spectator. He desired to bring about reformation in the contemporary society manners and is notable for his consistent advocacy of womanly virtues like decency and modesty and the ideals of the gentleman, courtesy chivalry and good sense.

Steele writes as a rule less from his head than from his heart. His humour is kindly and genial, his sympathies quick springing and compassionate, his instincts uniformly on the side of what is good, honest and manly. Apart from their moral qualities, there is in Steele’s essay’s an open frankness. He is all the more sincere because frequently his self revelation is unconscious thus in Steele we have the beginning of what genial intimacy of the writer with the reader which was rare was found much later in the writing of Elia, Hazlitt and Thackeray.

18th century prose with the rise of periodicals, journals, satire, letters indeed suited the new temperament of the age. The emergence of the social essay, the middle style in prose spoke against the coarser vices of the time. Addison’s prose is the model of this middle style, eventually a prose suitable for miscellaneous purposes defining periodical essays of time William Hazlitt remarks :

“ It makes us familiar with the world of men and women records their actions, assigns their motives exhibits their whims …exposes their inconsistencies, holds the mirror up to nature and shows the very age and body of the time, its forms and pressure…”