The Last Scene: Helen of Troy and the Old man in "Dr. Faustus"

The Last Scene: Helen of Troy and the Old man in "Dr. Faustus"

Introduction: Faustus’s great final soliloquy consummates the play. The last scene of the play is the most poignant  The last scene, be it in the form of Helen’s presence or the final beseeching of  Doctor Faustus, makes Marlowe reach the flights imagination.  We may divide last scene of the play into three parts: First the Helen Episode, Second the Old Man and the Last soliloquy of Doctor Faustus. The three parts of the play make up the whole last scene to abide in our thoughts.

The Helen Episode: When ‘music sounds’ and Helen passes across the stage, her sanctity is mirrored in the awed calm of the scholars. Her “heavenly beauty passeth all compare” She isthe pride of the nature’s work. Here outburst the eternal words of praise for Helen from Doctor Faustus who, in the most ravishing way, loses himself in the arms of Helen to avoid his imminent doom.

Was this the face that launce’d a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? -

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!

Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again,

Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,

And all is dross that is not Helena.

I will be Paris, and for love of thee.

Instead of Troy , shall Wittenberg be sack’d:

And I will combat with weak Menelaus,

And wear thy colors on my plumed crest;

Yes, I will wound Achilles in the heel,

And then return to Helen for a kiss.

O, thou art fairer than the evening air,

Clad in the beauty of a thousands starts;

Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter

Faustus’s poetry for Helen shows his ultimate desperate condition and his futile effort to evade the eternal doom.

The Old man: Doctor Faustus is ‘But a man condemned to die.’ Soon after the appearance of Helen, the old man approaches Doctor Faustus to reconcile him. The Old Man’s compassionate advice to Faustus adds a new dimension to our senses of the human predicament.

Yet, yet, thou hast an amiable soul if sin by custom grows not into nature.

The Old Man is, rather the last man trying to      pull Faustus from the snaps of death. But           Faustus, as he is eternally doomed, must   reach his self-imposed torments of hell.

The Last hour: As Faustus’s fascination for Helen, ‘The only paragon of excellence’ reveals the Renaissance characteristics of love and adoration of classical art and beauty, Helen epitomizes the charms of classical art, learning and beauty. And her shade of apparition may also be the symbol of sensual pleasures of life which is but transient, and leads to despair and damnation. If it is so, the old man represents Christian faith with its obedience to the laws of God and its needs for prayer and penitence that can assure eternal joys and bliss.  Doctor Faustus knows that his end is approaching. The proud and puffed scholar of Wittenberg, who once dreamed of becoming a Jove on the earth, ironically craves to be transformed into some mean creature so as to escape his doom. And when the last hour strikes, we find the anguished cry of a terror-stricken man who is facing his damnation.

O, it strikes: No body turn to air,

Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell,

O, soul, be changed into little water drops.

And fall into the ocean, never be found!

Critics and scholars of one opinion that the last scene of the play is highly consummate and grim.

Medieval elements and the spirit of Renaissance in Dr. Faustus

Medieval elements and the spirit of Renaissance in Dr. Faustus

Introduction: Doctor Faustus is the only one of Marlowe’s plays in which the pivotal issue is strictly religious and the whole design rests upon protestant doctrines. This issue, stated simply, is whether Doctor Faustus shall choose God or the evil delights of witchcraft and we witness his bargain with the witchcraft. Thus the drama is not primarily one of external action but of spiritual combat within the soul of man, waged according to the laws of Christian world order. Here Marlowe, through Faustus, utters strictures on prayer, hell and the Christian religion, but he never lets these iconoclastic sallies overthrow the Christian dogma.

Depiction of the Devil in the Moralities: Miracle and Moralities offered two versions of the devil. One heroic – the definite Lucifer contesting the throne of God or claiming over the world. ; the other unheroic and comic – Satan down on his luck and trying to get his own back somehow.

Marlowe’s Audacity: Marlowe himself enjoyed a reputation as ‘Atheist and Epicure’ condemner and mocker of religions. Thomas Kyd and Richard Bains under pressure of authorities brought against him many charges of blasphemy, heresy and atheism. He was accused for instance, of saying that the first beginning of Religions was only to keep man in awe and that Moses as a juggler and Aaron a cosoner the one for his miracles to Pharaoh to prove there was a god, and the other for taking the earrings of the children of Israel to make a golden calf. It seems that Marlowe even delivered a lecture on atheism. We admit these charges against him as true because he had no serious reverence for Christianity.

Christian Context: According to Irvin Ribner: “ The only one of Marlowe’s plays which is cast in a deliberately Christian context is Doctor Faustus.” Kocher has argued that much of his dramatic activity may be explained as a struggle the theological training of his youth: “ However desperate his desire to be free, he was bound to Christianity by the surest of chains – hatred mingled with reluctant longing and fascination much akin to fear.”

Doctor Faustus  and Christianity: Marlowe’s may well have known Nathaniel Woods’s morality play, The Conflict of Conscience. But Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus is not Christian morality play, for it contains no affirmation of the goodness or justice of the religious system it depicts with such accuracy of detail. It is rather a protest against this system, which it reveals as imposing a limitation upon the aspiration of man, holding him in subjection and bondage, denying him at last even the comfort of Christ’s blood, and dooming him to the most terrible destruction. The religion of the play is Christianity from which, as Michael Poirier has pointed out, Christ is strangely missing. 

Faustus’s Spiritual Condition: Faustus’s state of mind in the early scenes is that of a man apt for reprobation. Most dangerously is he “swollen with cunning, of self-conceit” to use the authoritative words of the Prologue.  His search for knowledge knows no boundaries. He wants to gain the deity and rule the whole universe.

Failure in repentance: In becoming a witch, Faustus formally renounces God and gives himself over to the ownership of the devil.  Short story …. The trouble with Faustus is not that God withhold from him the grace necessary to repentance but that he himself refuses to take a real effort to accept it when it is offered. He lets himself be lured away by the embraces of Helen and by the threats of physical torments from the demons. Therefore, he earns the rebuke of the old man.

Conclusion: There is a terrible warning for humanity in the final chorus:

Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,

Whose friendful fortune may exhort the wise,

Only to wonder at unlawful things

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To praise more than heavenly powers permit

The price of aspiration, of seeking to probe beyond the ordinary limits of man, is death in its most terrible form. If the progress of Faustus is, as Miss Garner has written “From a proud philosopher, master of all human knowledge, to a slave of phantoms, this is not to say that the order of things which decrees such as human deterioration as the price of aspiration.” In this play Marlowe is using a Christian view of Heaven and Hell in a vehicle of protest which is essentially anti-Christian.

In so far as Marlowe’s anti-Christian is concerned the play allows us to draw some further conclusions of great interest.  The powerful speeches about Christianity from Mephistopheles and Lucifer show that however, scornfully Marlowe rejected the system intellectually; it still has a powerful impact on his imagination and emotions.

Pride and Prejudice - Theme of the Novel and Title

Pride and Prejudice - Theme of the Novel and Title

Introduction: First written in 1797 under the title First Impressions. It was later revised and published under Pride and Prejudice in 1813. Jane Austen took the title and theme from Fanny Burney, who wrote of her novel, Cecelia, ‘the whole business was the result of Pride and Prejudice’. First impressions do play an important role in the novel.

First impressions do play an important role in the novel. Elizabeth is misled in her judgment of both Darcy and Wickham. Her attitude towards both the characters is only a result of the First Impression. But if we study the novel deeply, we find that P&P is an apt title. The first Impressions only last for the first few chapters of the novel while P&P permeates the soul of the novel. The novel is about the pride of Darcy and the prejudice of Elizabeth and the change andcorrection of their attitude caused by first impressions. 

Theme of Pride and Prejudice: Darcy embodies family pride. Wickham tells Elizabeth that he has a ‘filial pride’. Darcy himself says that his pride consists in being selfish and overbearing, caring for none beyond his own family circle, thinking meanly of all the rest of the world. No doubt, he is a proud man. Nothing can excuse his remark about Elizabeth …tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me. And other remarks such as …my good opinion once lost is lost forever. His first appearance is appalling insolent. The climax of Darcy’s pride and Elizabeth’s prejudice is most prominent when Darcy proposes to her but his proposal is based on pride and rests on the sense of inferiority of Elizabeth. He remains blind to the faults of Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley and is prepared to think meanly of those beneath him in social standing. Darcy’s pride stubs Elizabeth and her prejudice stems from her feeling that he is all pride. Being rejected by him at the ball, her prejudice mounts up and from the start; she willfully misinterprets all his utterances and actions. Her prejudice clouds her clear judgment and foresight and she believes the poor account of Darcy as related by Wickham and blinded by prejudice, she rejects his proposal. It is at Rosings that hteir process of self-discovery andeducations starts. At Netherfield Park, Elizabeth’s family had seemed vulgar and ill-bred, but at Rosings, Darcy is embarrassed by the vulgarity of his aunt, Lady Catherine and realizes that the refinement of manners is no monopoly of the elite. His lesson is complete when he is totally humbled by Elizabeth’s rejection of his proposal and realizes his misplaced pride in the woman whom he loves. This excessive love for Elizabeth cures Darcy’s pride and humbling himself, he writes a letter of explanation to her. Elizabeth’s prejudice is neutralized by the revelation of Darcy’s character. She receives the letter and learning the truth about Wickham’s character, she realizes her own blindness and prejudice in having judged Darcy and Wickham mere on first impressions. She is also able to see some of the validity of some of his objections to Jane-Bingleymarriage. The Lydia-Wickham episode brings the final reconciliation. Darcy overcomes his pride and completely gets involved in the solution of the Lydia-Wickham elopement and this softens Elizabeth and also cures her of her initial pride.

Other themes: However, to say that Darcy is proud and Elizabeth is prejudice is to tell but the half story. The fact is that both Darcy and Elizabeth are proud and prejudiced. The novel makes clear the fact the Darcy’s pride lead to prejudice and Elizabeth’s prejudice stems from a pride in her own perceptions. Darcy is proud of his refinement and superiority of social standing. This lead him to a general prejudice for all those below his social status and Elizabeth’s prejudice stems from her pride when she is offended by Darcy’s refusal to dance with her and this lead her to be prejudiced with him. In the proposal scene, there is an ironic reversal. Both suffer from the faults of pride and prejudice, but they are also the necessary defects of desirable merits: self-respect and intelligence. It is true that Jane and Bingley are not a part of this theme but their love is an important link in the novel without which the story cannot be complete. Jane is a specimen of faultless beauty and she is free of all the vices of Elizabeth’s temperament. She is neither proud nor prejudiced and is always willing to see good in every one. It is the intricate characters of Darcy and Elizabeth that hold our interest and exemplify the theme and title of the novel.

Appearance and reality: Distinguishing appearance from reality is yet another theme in the novel. The theme of fully knowing one’s mate before marriage is closely linked to the theme of A&R. A&R has been exemplified in Elizabeth. She is a good judge but is not able to see though reality and merely falls into appearances of Darcy and Wickham. Thus the theme of appearance and reality has been knitted into the theme of marriage.

The aptness of the title: Lady Katherine is a also an example of P&P. She has the family and status pride. Mrs. Bennet is proud of her daughter and in her stupidity she is also prejudiced against Darcy. So there is a theme of P&P in minor characters too. The title, P&P aptly points to the theme of the novel. The novel goes beyond a mere statement of first impressions and explores in depth the abstract qualities of pride and prejudice – how they grow and can be overcome.

Why is Pride and Prejudice rated among the 10 best novels of the world?

Why is Pride and Prejudice rated among the 10 best novels of the world?

Introduction: In contrast to the simplicity of style, Jane Austen’s plots are extremely complex. She doesn’t draw two or three characters in isolation. She prefers a family with manyfriends and relatives and tries to make things as difficult as possible. There is enough material in any one of her six novels to serve the modern novelist in writing two or three good-sized stories. 

The Plot of Pride & Prejudice: has perfect symmetry, precision and simplicity.  There are no obtrusive characters, no digressive episodes. Language is simple and the relationship of characters is perfectly drawn. There are main and sub-plots, but the interdependence is maintained and the interplay between the characters and events are in perfect organic unity. The main plot is about Elizabeth-Darcy courtship – state synopsis with analysis… the sub-plots are the novel are: Jane-Bingley, Lydia-Wickham and Charlotte-Collins, but are closely and tightly linked to the main plot.

Thematic unity of the play: the main and the sub-plots are logically and thematically unified. The theme of love and marriage is exemplified through the main and the sub-plot. The Charlotte-Collins sub-plot exemplifies a marriage based on economics plainly lacking in love and devotion. The Lydia-Wickham marriage like that of the Bennets is based on physical charm and will soon sink into indifference. All these serve by contrast to highlight the propriety of Darcy-Elizabeth marriage based on emotional compatibility and intellectual understanding.

Symmetry of the plot: is evident in the series of balancing incidents. The novel is divided into three parts. The first and the last balanced against each other. Part I occurs largely in Longbourn and Netherfield Park, Part II is at Rosings and Part III is at Pemberley and then return to Longbourn. The events between these places revolve so symmetrically that by fine precision, Jane Austen makes her plot unique.  There is a perfect correspondence between characters and actions leading to the organic unity of the plot.

The plot as a Five-act Drama: All of Jane Austen’s plots are structurally so dramatic that it can be stated with confidence that she would have been a highly successful dramatist. Cross compares the workmanship of Pride and Prejudice to that of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing and A.C. Bradley, the great critic of drama thinks that the entanglement of errors, misunderstandings, cross-purposes and view-point of comedy all seem to point a good deal to the influence of drama. Bake points out that she has greater affinities with dramatists like Congreve than with novelists. The plot can be divided into the five acts of drama. Act I – exposition or Introduction, Act II brings in the complication, Act III presents the climax inElizabeth’s rejection of Darcy’s offer of marriage and later her realization of her mistake about Darcy and Wickham, Act IV shows the resolution of the conflict. At this, there is a meeting between the two at Pemberley which clarifies many misunderstandings and Act V is the final stage of the novel where all events roll towards a resolution.

Dramatic Irony: is the prominent feature of the novel and the different between appearance and reality is emphasized at every stage.  The plot of P&P is dramatic, coherent and well-integrated. Give here examples of Appearance and Reality. The narrative mode is also dramatic with action and character being developed though dialogues effectively. Some of the scenes have great dramatic vividness and intensity. Darcy-Elizabeth repartees at Netherfield, the two proposal scenes and the clash between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth. In these scenes, Jane Austen reveals herself as a master dramatist with a perfect ear and sense of timing, instinct for climax and anticlimax.

Why among the ten best novels of the world? The above qualities of her novel are the basic reason for P&P to be one of the 10 best novels of the world.

Conclusion: Jane Austen’s incidents are natural, he characters have an independent reality and yet they fall into a neat logical scheme. The characters of P&P and indeed of her other novels give us a sense of spontaneous life we get from a play of Chekov. 

Jane Austen’s Art of Characterization

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Jane Austen’s Art of Characterization

Introduction: Jane Austen’s real talent is revealed much through her wonderful capacity for characterization. Like Shakespeare, she presents her characters truthfully and realistically. She is sensitive to every small nuance of manner and behavior and any deviation from the standard. The range of her characters is narrow and she confines herself to the landed gentry in the country-side. Servants, laborers and yeomanry rarely appear and even aristocracy is hardly touched upon. When she deals with aristocracy, she satirizes them such as Lady Catherine in P&P.

Her Characters are never repeated: despite such a narrow range. Not a single character has been repeated in any of her six books. The snobbishness of the Vicar, Mr. Collins in P&P is unlike that of Mr. Elton, the Vicar in Emma. Similarly, there is a great difference between the vulgarity of Mrs. Bennet and that of Mrs. Jennings. Macaulay declares that her characters are commonplace, ‘Yet they are all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the most eccentric of human beings.’

State different psychological habits and emotions of Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane, Mrs. Bennet.

Her characters - individualized yet universal: Jane Austen has so comprehensive and searching a view of human nature that she invests them with a universal character. Her characters are universal types. Thus, when Mr. Darcy says, ‘I have been selfish all my life in practice but not in principle’ he confesses the weakness of high minded dominating males in every age and climate. Wickham represents all pleasant-looking but selfish, unprincipled and hypocritical flirts. Mr. Bennet is a typical cynical father. These qualities of Austen’s characters make them universal and individualized.

Realistic portrayal of her characters: Her characters impress us as real men and women since they are drawn to perfection. They are never idealized. Even her most virtuous characters have faults. Jane Bennet, being a virtuous and sweet-nature girl, never thinks ill of others. This makes her lack proper judgment. Elizabeth, herself is a conventional heroine. She has faults of vanity and prejudice. Her mother, at a such a high level of responsibility as a mother, exhibits vulgarity and indecorous manners. Darcy and Lady Catherine’s manners reflect aristocracy so realistically. The impartiality with which Jane Austen depicts her characters imparts a touch of  realism and volume to them.

Her characters are three-dimensional: Her world of reality is never disturbed for all its romances, elopements and dejection because of the convincing reality of her characters. Her characters are three-dimensional portraying various human traits.  Collins doesn’t commit suicide when her proposal is rejected by Elizabeth, but settles down with Charlotte. Darcy shows his unexpected trait after his proposal is rejected. The psychological and realistic portrayal of her characters is what makes them according to David Ceil, ‘Three-dimensional’. The characters come alive in flesh and blood as it were because of their realistic portrayal. Jane Austen reveals her characters dramatically through their conversations, their actions, and their letters or gradually through a variety of point of view and this adds to their three-dimensional effects.

Characters revealed through conversations: She makes very careful use of conversations. Thus, the dialogue between Elizabeth not only reveals effectively the antagonism between the two of them, but also the intelligence of the both. Collins and Lydia are revealed through their letters. And we learn of Elizabeth Bennet, the most striking of Jane Austen’s heroines through her speech and actions and the remarks of such people as Mr. Darcy, her father and Miss Bingley.  Thus, in the first chapter of P&P the vulgarity and stupidity of Mrs. Bennet and the sarcastic humour of Mr. Bennet have already been revealed in their dialogues. The characters of Austen frequently gossip with one another about other characters. This makes the plot even more gripping, realistic and touching.

Revealed through comparison and contrast: Lady Catharine balances with Mrs. Bennet. Wickham serves a contrast while Bingley a foil to Darcy. Elizabeth with Jane. In P&P, Elizabethechoes Austen’s own sense of humor and ironic wit and the ability to laugh at whims and inconsistencies, but it is preposterous to assume that Jane Austen herself suffered from such prides and prejudices. The sympathy and partial identification help Jane Austen in delineating the character faithfully.

Elizabeth: Jane Austen said of her heroine, “I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print”. To create a charming heroine is one of the rarest achievements in fiction. Jane Austen’s liking is borne out by the countless other readers who have fallen in love with her for more than a hundred and thirty years. A.C. Bradley wrote, “I am meant to fall in love with her and I do”. Her charm arises to a great extent from her intricacy, her intellectual complexity. She is profound and perceptive with the ability to discern people and situations extraordinarily well. She comprehends the merits and demerits of the Bingleys almost at once; she knows Mr. Collins to be an affected fool and judges Lady Catherine at the first meeting.  She understands her family is conscious of the vulgarity of her mother. She has the ready gift of repartee and a perfect command of epigrammatic expression. She is not intimidated by Lady Catherine to her enquiry whether Darcy had made a proposal to Elizabethand she answers, “Your ladyship has declared it to be impossible”. Despite all these characteristics, Elizabeth is not an idealized or perfect heroine of a romantic novel. She is prone to errors and mistakes of every day life. However, she learns from her mistakes and tends to correct them. It is true that Elizabeth blinds herself absurdly because of prejudice. Thus, her intelligence, high spirit and courage, wit and readiness, her artistic temperament and her ability to laugh good-humouredly at herself is the specialty of Elizabeth. Indeed, the popularity of the novel rests on the brilliant portrayal of its charming and captivating heroine.

Darcy: to many readers and critics, the great blot on the book is the author’s portrayal of Darcy. To all appearances, there are two Darcys that we meet in P&P, the Darcy in the first half of the play – proud, cold, haughty and unfriendly and the Darcy of the second half – warm, loving and considerate, kind, hospitable and eager to please. These seeming incorrigible aspects of Darcy’s character are taken to be a failure on part of Jane Austen’s art of characterization. Jane Austen was in her early twenties when she wrote P&P, so this failure is as a result of her immaturity. However, critics believe that Darcy is a credible character and has these incorrigible aspects as a result of our misread Darcy’s character along with Elizabeth.  Darcy is proud in the beginning. He acknowledges his own. At Netherfield, he tells Elizabeth, “My opinion once lost is lost forever”. And finally his proposal to Elizabeth at Hunsford parsonage is more eloquent on the subject of pride than of tenderness, but he is sensitive, intelligent and complex. He is not morally blind either and recognizes the vulgarity of ill-manners of the Bingley sisters and is as much embarrassed by Lady Catherine’s behavior as he had been by Mrs. Bennet’s vulgarity.

Jane & Bingley: At first glance, it is Bingley and Jane that capture our attention as the main characters and become the center of attraction for every one. Elizabeth says of Jane, “You are too good. Your sweetness and disinterestedness are really angelic.” Jane is a foil to Elizabeth. She, however, enjoys the admiration of both Elizabeth and Darcy and highlights their pride and prejudice. Similarly, Bingley is only a foil to the more forceful personality of Darcy despite all his cheerfulness. The Jane-Bingley romance also presents a contrast to the turbulent relationship of Darcy and Elizabeth. Their relationship is based upon harmony arising out of a similarity of natures.  Jane and Bingley are both characters, not intricate or complex.

Conclusion: Jane Austen’s major characters are intricate; however, there are some failings. Darcy is real and convincing, but appears only in scenes with Elizabeth. The minor characters are usually flat but they also develop when we meet them. Thus each of these wide range of characters are multi-dimensional with a mix of the good and bad qualities, exhibiting strong individual idiosyncrasies and traits, at the same time typical of universal human nature.