Symbolism in John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger”: The Bear and Squirrel Game


Some critics feel that the bear and squirrel game is simply a device to escape the harsh and cruel realities of life in the face of mutual conflicts and tensions and the failure of marriage between Alison and Jimmy. This is true as far as it goes, but it does not go very far.

This game is not merely a device for the evasion of the complexities of a marriage. It is the statement of the nature of human love to share the pain and pleasure of life. It seems that Jimmy ultimately reconciles himself to an animal relationship with Alison.

Is T. S. Eliot A Genuine Classicist in “Tradition and the Individual Talent”?


Eliot’s ideas of ‘tradition’, ‘classicism’ and ‘depersonalization’ in  “Tradition and the Individual Talent” should not mislead us. He is not Orthodox or traditionalist in every sense of the terms. He does not like a retreat to Roman Catholicism. He becomes a citizen of England. The land of his forefathers and adopts the religion of that Nation. In his later essays like ‘Frontiers of Criticism’ he does not insist on Tradition. In essays and lectures, Eliot profoundly influenced modern literary criticism. In the collection The Sacred Wood (1920), he contended that the critic must develop a strong historical sense to judge literature from the proper perspective, and that the poet must be impersonal in the creative exercise of the craft.

The Real Secret of Greatness and Popularity of Charles Dickens as a Novelist


Charles Dickens is a good story-teller. His stories are gripping in their interest. Critics after critics have recognized the genius of Dickens; they have also emphasized his many glaring social criticism.  However, critics have mentioned time and again several weaknesses in Dickens’ plot-construction such as superfluity, verbosity, incoherence, lack of unity, improbability, abuse of coincidence, over-crowding of events, lack of logical relationship between the plot and character, subordination of plot and character, over-moralizing, etc.

In spite of his shortcomings, Dickens is able to give us a very good kind of entertainment: he fills the gaps by good scenery and immortal characters. For him characters are more important than their manners or situations. For example, his David Copperfield is without many of these shortcomings. It is one of the best few plots he has constructed. Its plot has been praised by critics such as Ward and Baker.

First his range of characterization is extremely limited. Most of his characters belong to lower middle class or lower classes of London. Characters belonging to the aristocracy or intellectual and complex characters are beyond his range. He cannot draw a gentleman. But his worst fault is that he does not recognize his range, and often goes beyond it, and thus creates theatrical, lifeless abstractions. Moreover, he is taken up with the externals of his characters and does not probe the inner depths. The result is that his characters remain: 
(1) Flat and one-sided like the dummies of a melodrama. 
(2) They are distinguishable into monsters of vices and virtues rather than remain human beings compounded of human traits.
 (3) They have some particular traits exaggerated proportion. 
(4) They have some tag, label or catch phrase attached to like the characters of inferior drama. 
(5) They often act out often, and 
(6) suffer from continual repetition and exaggeration for an emphasis.

As Legouis and Cazamian point out, his imagination is essentially aesthetic and so he often distorts or falsifies reality to create picturesque emotional effects. Particular traits of his characters are thus exaggerated, much so that they look like caricature; it is also in this way that his plot is often over-done and becomes mawkish and sentimental. It is for this reason; too, though his novels have many realistic touches, they sometimes give the impression of reality. His fantastic imagination thus hires both a weakness as well as a source of strength. It enables him searching beauty in ugliness, but it also leads to gross exaggeration.

Dickens’ plots are, generally speaking, weak and incoherent. The plot has no sense of form. His plots are like shapeless bags in which novelist pours all sort of characters and events. There is much that is superfluous, much that is unnatural and impossible. There is often natural floatation often there is abuse of coincidence, too many ends are left loose and hanging till the very last chapter; sometimes, they are tied together in haste, and at other time quite a few of them are not tied at all.

As George Sampson points out, “the pamphleteer and moralist in Dickens often pushes out, the artist.” He was a novelist with a purpose; his was a fight against oppression and injustice andhis reforming zeal often comes in the way of an artist. Many of Dickens’ exaggerations are prompted by his reforming enthusiasm. Besides this, he often introduces into his stories an element of superfluity with his sentimental comment and views. The story waits as Dickens moralizes, and the readers get bored and annoyed. Moreover, in the end, the vice must be punished and the virtue rewarded. The conclusions of his novels, for this reason, are often artificial, unnatural and fantastic.

Dickens has been criticized on other counts as well. There is no sex in his novels. Sex is an important part of life, but it is completely missing from the novels of Dickens. There is no psychological analysis of sexual problems and there are no sexual deviations or sexual abnormalities. His novels are, “clean”, not likely to bring a blush to the most innocent cheeks. But to that extent they suffer as works of art. The picture of life they present is partial and one sided. Dickens refuses to face fact, and avoids everything which his age regarded as coarse and vulgar.

Moreover, it has been said, there is no philosophy, no serious body of thought in his novels. The absence of point of view, of a considered philosophy of life, accounts to a very great extent for the modern reaction against Dickens. His style is mannered, often coarse and vulgar, at his best lacking in refinement and polish. Often there are glaring faults of grammar. It is the style of a journalist rather than of a man of letters.
Such are the faults of Dickens. But as Long points out, his novels place to which his wife has fled. This end could have been achieved by more natural means, but Dickens’ fondness for melodramatic self betrays him into wild excesses.

Dickens' lack of invention mars even some of his best novels. Thus in David Copperfield the story of Emily is unhappily conceived. The mysteries surrounding Wickfield, the knaveries of Uriah Heep, have no claim upon our belief; intrigues are half-heartedly introduced merely because intrigue seems necessary. The situation in which Mr. Micawber brings Uriah Heap to book is theatrical and unconvincing. For example, the scene between Emily and Rosa Dartle is entirely theatrical and fails to carry conviction. David’s fight from London and the direction it takes are insufficiently accounted for. There is much in his novels that is merely conventional in the tradition of Fielding—long lost heirs, mistaken identity, disguised lovers, artificial intrigues, etc. However, David Copperfield is remarkably free from such conventional elements. Indeed, as Ward points out, the double love-story of the hero—David’s love and marriage with Dora and then with Agnes—has been managed with great skill. Similarly there is a double story pattern in Great Expectations.

Charles Dickens
His closing scenes are often contrived in the tradition of the theatre and are brought to a happy end, however forced and unnatural that happy end may appear. This sin is to be seen at its worst in Martin Chuzzlewit, where a family of emigrants from America turns up at the right moment to fill the cup of benevolent rejoicing. In Great Expectations, Pip is not left a lonely man in the interest of happy ending. There is always poetic justice at the end; the wicked are punished and the virtuous are suitably rewarded. For example, in David Copperfield Uriah Heep is punished Mr. Micawber prospers in Australia, and David is happily married to Agnes. Thus his moral purpose makes his closing scene often unnatural and improbable.

“The sin most palpable, most gross, which Dickens everywhere commits, is the abuse of coincidence.” In David Copperfield, Steerforth returns to England from his travels with Emily, his ship is wrecked at Yarmouth, and his dead body is washed up at the feet of David who happened to have made a little journey to see his Yarmouth friends on that very day. It is again a coincidence that Miss Murdstone happens to be the companion of Dora. The plot of Bleak House: is held together by the abuse of coincidence in its most flagrant form. In Dickens’ novels, things happen when and where the novelist wants them to happen. All this misuse of coincidence makes his plots artificial and unnatural.

Dickens’s narration frequently suffers from much tedious superfluity. Frequently, he opens a chapter with a long passage of old moralizing which has nothing to do with the story. In Martin lewit, there is a long chapter directed against the advantage of high which is entirely superfluous, and the story would gain much by its missing. There is much tedious superfluity of this kind in our Mutual as well. In David Copperfield, the story is told in the first person, David relates in detail conversations which took place before his birth, a plot which, therefore, could not have been heard by him. Thus similitude is violated. The natural question which the readers ask is why David came to know all that happened before his birth? However, verisimilitude has been preserved with remarkable care in Great Expectations which, too, is narrated in the first person.

However, the various faults we have noted above may be accounted in a number of ways. Much that is conventional in his plots results from fondness for the theatre and the picaresque tradition. He often wrote first time, and the rapidity of production forced upon him by the serial method of production tended to looseness of construction. Marks of haste lack of revision are writ large on his novels. There was, further, his intellectual inability to see his work as a whole. The serial method of publication had this further disadvantage that he could not see mentally the whole of the work on which he was engaged, and could not make alterations in the earlier chapters even when he considered such alterations necessary. Resides this he cared more for character than for plot or incidents; he strained his plots to the utmost to accommodate his characters.

We may conclude this account of Dickens plots with the words of David Cecil: “Dickens may not construct the story well, but he tells it admirably. With the first sentence he grips the attention of the readers, and does not let it go till the very end.” His scenery is always charming, dialogue admirable, and incidents thrilling and exciting. There is often overabundance of wit and humour to delight and entertain. Besides, as both Ward and Baker agree David Copperfield is remarkably free from the usual faults of Dickens. (a) It is not a mere string of adventures and experiences but has a well-marked theme and the story moves forward more rapidly and smoothly than is the case with the novels of Dickens. (b) There is much less of melodrama, and (c) there is less or direct moralizing.


Points to Remember

To sum up, Dickens’ plots suffer from:
(a) Incoherence and superfluity.
(b) Improbability; abuse of coincidence.
(c) Melodrama; much in them is merely thrilling and sensational.
(d) Over-crowding; the canvas of Great Expectations also is overcrowded.
(e) The closing chapters are often artificial; there are too many trivials crowded.
(e) The closing chapters are often artificial; there are loose ends.
(f) There is always poetic justice at the end. This introduces element of artificiality. But there is no poetic justice in the case of Havisham in Great Expectations.
(g) Plot is sub-ordinated to character.
(h) Narration suffers from too much of moralizing.
(i) Often there is lack of verisimilitude and poverty of invention.
(j) However, Dickens is good story-teller. His stories are gripping in their interest.

Are Shakespearean Sonnets a Psychological Drama in Five Acts?


"Shakespeare's verbal imagination was also his dramatic imagination."

Inga-Stina Ewbank (1932 - 2004)
British academic and critic.

Shakespeare and the Arts of Language, "Companion to Shakespeare Studies"


Shakespeare’s sonnets have been a riddle to critics and readers alike and in the maze of criticism and interpretation it is more likely for one to lose his way than to get out of it. For those who believe that the sonnets display a chronological order of composition, the separate poems do not have much value by themselves unless they feel the developing situations show a definite pattern of sustained dramatic utterance. For them it is the poetry of self-dramatization unfolding a psychological drama in full five acts.

The first act is rather short; being that of Shakespeare’s acquaintance with his young patron who accepts the former’s company and who in turn is solicited earnestly by the poet to marry. It is generally pleasant time in spite of Shakespeare’s awareness of his inferior status.

The second act opens with what we may call in Absentia Shakespeare is found touring the country perhaps as an actor to please the motley crowd and feeling constantly depressed and becoming increasingly aware of his inferior social status. The patron-friend does not save him from economic plight when it would have cost him just a trifle but instead he elopes with the poet’s mistress, to add insult to in fury. We need not unduly stress this stealth for the object of this thievery was perhaps too willing to be stolen. In any case, this second act adds poignancy to the developing situation.

The third act shows Shakespeare back and happy again in his own way. The old sense of security is missing, however, and a deep note of melancholy fills the sonnets which now exhibit a profounder power of poetic expression. The poet senses the burden of ageing and the thought of an approaching death haunts him.

The fourth act signals the arrival of the rival poet. A silence, more eloquent than speech, envelops an agonizing Shakespeare. The disillusioned poet sings farewell to his young patron, now perhaps charmed by the former’s rival and tells him in tears “Thou art too dear for my possessing.”

The fifth act celebrates the renewal of friendship on a different footing. Shakespeare is now free and being free, resumes his true function as a poet no more enthralled to his master.

William Shakespeare
A plot is dimly discernible in the unraveling of the sonnet story with its exposition, rising action, crisis, falling action and catastrophe. It is not, however, fully Shakespearean and the thematic unveiling is abrupt and at times rather obscure, which it is bound to be, being a theme close to the poet’s heart. The triangular relationship between the poet, rival poet, patron and the Dark Lady seems to add to the ingredients of a suspense drama the form of which the sonnet-story sometimes assumes. The thematic abruptness in the opening, the mysterious obscurity frequenting the sonnets, the poet’s anguish over the transience of things and aching awe of all-devouring Time, the painful journey away and the happy come-back followed by the emergence of the rival poet and a prolonged silence, and the final celebration of a real friendship based on a freer footing compose a dramatic pattern enclosing the sonnets which, as some critics maintain, provide the golden key to the gate of Shakespeare’s inner garden.

Those that oppose the view of the sonnets unraveling a psychological drama point out that the sonnets do not reveal any kind of planned sequence. The only order is the order, they say, or division into-two unequal heaps—sonnets 1 to 126 being addressed to one young man and sonnets 127 to 152 to a dark-haired lady. These critics also point out the absence of chronological sequence Sonnets with the same theme are found widely separated and again among batches of sonnets clearly related to each other, some stray one is found different in tone and theme altogether. These critics object to the attempt of some scholars to rearrange the sonnets in a better logical order and are content to accept the jumble as already given. They are firm in their opinion that the Sonnets betray an impressive haphazardness and are of unequal value.

Highlights:Shakespearean Sonnets: A Psychological Drama in Five Acts?

Structure as Drama:
  1. Shakespeare's sonnet sequence exhibits a narrative progression akin to a play's five acts.
  2. The sequence explores emotional states and themes like love, time, and beauty.
Act 1: Introduction:
  1. Sonnets 1-17 introduce the Fair Youth, embodying the idealized concept of beauty and youth.
  2. Themes of procreation, time's passage, and preserving beauty arise.
Act 2: Rising Action:
  1. Sonnets 18-72 depict emotional turmoil and conflicts within the speaker.
  2. Love's complexities, infidelity, and jealousy dominate this phase.
Act 3: Climax:
  1. Sonnets 73-86 delve into aging, decay, and the impending end of life.
  2. Emotions intensify, reflecting the climax of a dramatic plot.
Act 4: Falling Action:
  1. Sonnets 87-108 explore spiritual renewal, redemption, and reconciliation.
  2. Themes shift towards forgiveness, redemption, and introspection.
Act 5: Conclusion:
  1. Sonnets 109-154 address a Dark Lady, concluding the sequence.
  2. Themes of lust, infidelity, and emotional conflict resurface, concluding the psychological drama.
While not a traditional play, Shakespearean sonnets indeed unravel a psychological drama across five phases, delving into emotional states, human relationships, and the passage of time.

Ref:
1. Calderwood, James L., and Harold E. Toliver. Essays in Shakespearean Criticism. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
2. "Shakespeare's Sonnets." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 June 2016.


The Hidden Mystery behind “The Winter’s Tale” as one of the Dramatic Romances of Shakespeare’s Last period: Reflecting His New Attitude of Life


The Winter’s Tale is one of the last plays of Shakespeare along with Pericles, Cymbeline and The Tempest. These are a cluster of plays, forming as it were a distinct group, indicating a happy end of a long joinery of spirit along the many-splendoured path of drama and poesy. They resemble the romantic comedies and are in a way an extension of the preceding tragic mood at least in patches. They combine in their queer way realism and romance and give to Elizabethan fancy and imagination “a local habitation and a name”. The cruelties and caprices of characters and situations are ultimately redeemed in happy ending with innocence getting victorious in a not-unlike Spenserian world of flower and poetry depicting the charms of a pastoral beauty. The recurrent theme is of recognition, redemption and if one might say regeneration.

The Winter’s Tale is set into this magic world of flowers and fairies. Here impossible things happen without our feeling their improbabilities. Here a King is cruel to his Queen without a cause and sixteen years pass between the two halves of the play without our sensing it. The play’s enchanting people and still more enthralling poetry simply make us forget and forbid us to question. Here as nowhere perhaps time merges in the timeless and we all go back mentally with the poet to our boyhood days to partake, if possible, of the childlike pleasures in innocent trifles in a new Arcadia.


As has been observed already The Winter’s Tale is neatly divided into two halves conceived In contrast. The first half is really the tale of winter with harsh, cruel winds blowing all about and making play-things of peace and innocence. The second half deals with the spring-time of regeneration, recognition and reconciliation. The symbols used are of wintry blasts and piercing storms and then of green branches and dancing daffodils of eternal spring. They show with great poetic force the contrast between age and youth, cruelty and kindness, jealousy and faith. Although apparently Leontes and his daughter, Perdita seem to divide the play between them, the plot really is woven round the whirling fortunes of the queen, Hermione. The Shakespearean formula is here reminiscent of Sophocles’ Electra, a typical classical tragedy which In course of time developed a romantic handling and interest. The magic is found again and again in Shakespeare’s last period, happening in Pericles and with Prospero in The Tempest losing and regaining his kingdom and still again in Cymbeline recovering his lovely Imogen.

As has been well observed by Mark Var Doren, this play is really a tale of divisions—division between husband and wife, friend and friend, father and daughter and in the second half between father and son. The plot centres round the fortune of Hermione and the first three acts are fully engaged with Leontes’s obsession. He is a more jealous character than Othello for while jealousy makes Othello mad. Leontes is madly jealous from the beginning. His delusion seems somewhat masochistic and his ravings are disproportionate to the - cause. In fact, there is no cause and Shakespeare also shows us nothing while innocent Hermione suffers worse than Death. In the first half it is really a wintry tale and it is not for nothing that the boy Mamillius tells his mother (Hermione) that “a sad tale’s best for winter”. Ultimately Mamillius has to die and Perdita, the daughter escapes death for good Antigonus only to find herself grow up among shepherds in an alien land. There she grows like a fine daffodil till the unknown princess is entangled in love with the Prince of Bohemia, Florizel. The act of regeneration begins in spring to end happily in a genera resolution of divisions except for those already lost in the earlier tempest of winter. Their memory lingers and despite all the finest poetry and romance makes us somewhat sad Indeed.

William Shakespeare
Along with three others, this play is called a dramatic romance. In romance truth is reached through many disguises, wrongs apparently perpetuated are ultimately righted and strange wanderings end in happy home-coming. Shakespeare develops this romantic theme here by arranging artfully many mystic and inciting incidents. Men are found shipwrecked on the coasts of coastless Bohemia, a name that immediately conjures up mystery and romance; a princess is found in a casket of jewellery and gold and a statue suddenly becomes a living woman. Here again the story was old and known but Shakespeare, as is his wont, with some sure and deft touches and additions and alt rations in the characters of the roguish Autolycus and humane Paulina, makes of Greenes’ graceful tale a quite different thing dramatically and aesthetically. That Shakespeare was too eager to occupy himself with romance in his last period is fully clear from The Winter’s Tale where he deliberately refrains from analyzing the cause and motive of Hermione’s torturer because he knew more than anybody else that a Romance cannot stand too searching a psychology. That is why again Leontes’s obsession cannot stand ny real comparison with the torrent of terrific and tragic passion of the noble Othello. As is natural in such dramatic rom4nces, there is a dearth of dramatic intensity as compared with the preceding tragedies but that is attempted to be made up by the magic of poetry, exquisite description of spring and flowers and other decorative and episodic elements. Romance is again paramount in the spotless love of Florizel and Perdita by means of which the two royal houses of Sicilia and Bohemia come together among universal merry-making.

In discussing the play it is pertinent to ask of Shakespeare’s attitude to life in these last plays. What was Shakespeare coming to as be evidently reached the end of the journey? Critics and scholars advance many theories agreeing where we also agree that these plays were definitely peculiar in nature and structure. An autobiographic approach is preferred by Dowden seeking in these plays Shakespeare’s final vision and wisdom after he had emerged from the shadowy valley of tragic chaos to climb ultimately the pinnacle of piety and Christian charity. The reconciliation theme full of Christian concept of forgiveness is cited as proof. It is also said that Shakespeare, now materially prosperous being owner of considerable property at New Place and Stratford and passing a retired life in rural England peacefully in the company of his loving and growing daughter, wanted to symbolize this happiness of youth and spring and love some lovely romances. That is why it is said we find the presence of a young, charming girl in The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest, Cymbeline as a constant symbol of radiant regeneration, which in turn means the triumph ultimately of Good over Evil. In the same time it is also the victory of innocent youth over remorseful age. It is so to say the surrender of the aged to the grace and poetry of youth in the hope of a better future resplendent with the actualized dreams of the past. E. K. Chambers sees in these plays a sort of spiritual conversion of Shakespeare after the latter’s supposed crisis and suffering in 1607 1608. Lytton Strachey finds in them an aged and weary dramatist relaxing in his last days with dream and poetry after the feverish work of a whole life-time. This again is severely opposed by Prof Tillyard who finds no lack of vitality in them and then argues that the innate poetic qualities of the play are evidence enough that Shakespeare was not bored at all hence the question of relaxation is meaningless. G. W. Knight and Derek Traversi emphasize the spiritual and Christian theme and significance of these last plays which they analyze sympathetically with reference to the key words and images. Perhaps it was Shakespeare who wanted to live away from the shadows; perhaps the crowded city of London was growing weary and irksome to itself and the tired Londoners of the day hungered for a new type of drama; perhaps Shakespeare over eager to respond to his auditors’ yearnings, responded for the last time by writing these fairy tales of plays full of the poetry of reaction from civilization. 

Highlights: Unveiling the Enigma of "The Winter's Tale"

Shift in Tone:
  1. "The Winter's Tale" marks a departure from Shakespeare's earlier tragedies and comedies.
  2. The play balances tragedy with elements of redemption and reconciliation.
Exploration of Themes:
  1. Themes of jealousy, forgiveness, and rebirth echo Shakespeare's evolving perspective.
  2. The play's second half reflects a newfound optimism and maturity.
Time and Transformation:
  1. The play's long time span emphasizes the healing power of time.
  2. It symbolizes personal and emotional transformation.
Symbolic Leitmotifs:
  1. The motif of "winter turning into spring" mirrors life's cyclical nature.
  2. Nature serves as a metaphor for personal growth and rejuvenation.
Reflecting Life's Complexity:
  1. The play embodies the complexities of human experiences, embracing both tragedy and renewal.
  2. Shakespeare's evolving outlook on life is palpable in the play's depth and thematic range.
"The Winter's Tale" encapsulates Shakespeare's transition to a more complex worldview, blending tragedy and romance to illuminate the intricacies of human nature and the transformative power of time.

 Ref:
1. The Winter's Tale. N.p., n.d. Web.
2. Shakespeare, William. "The Winter's Tale." The Oxford Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale (1623): 89-90. Web.

Most Important Thing You Need To Know About “The Poet’s Poet”: Edmund Spenser Bridged the Medieval and Elizabethan Periods




"I was promised on a time
To have reason for my rhyme;
From that time unto this season,
I received nor rhyme nor reason."
Edmund Spenser (1552? - 1599)
English poet.

It was Charles Lamb who called Edmund Spenser ‘The poet’s poet’ and in giving him that honoured title, the prince of essayists and critics, was not wrong. Spenser is regarded the poets poet and the second father of English poetry. Chaucer being the real father, because Spenser rendered incalculable service to English poetry in a variety of ways and left behind him models of poetic excellence to be imitated and Spenser followed by a host of poets came in his wake. He is the great English poet, who bridged the medieval and Elizabethan periods, and who is most famous for his long allegorical romance, The Faerie Queene.

In Spenser’s poetry we have the best and the finest qualities that are generally associated with good and great poetry, and in a way he is the fountain head of all these poetic excellence which are spread over in the works of subsequent poets. The true poetic faculty in Spenser is so abundantly and predominantly present that we cannot think of any other poet save Spenser to occupy the pride of place among English poets.

Spenser is regarded the poet’s poet in more than one ways. There are several grounds for recognizing Spenser as the poet’s poet.

Firstly, Spenser can be regarded as the poet’s poet in the limited Renaissance sense in which he may be deemed as the poet not of the common man but only of scholars and poets well versed in classical lore and humanistic studies. According to this interpretation Spenser is not the poet of the common man, but only of poets and scholars, endowed with the gift of poetry in their nature. During the Renaissance, poetry of the type that Spenser wrote could really be appreciated by those who had made familiarity with classical writers and authors of the Renaissance. Knowledge of classical mythology and acquaintance with Ovid, Homer, Petrarch, Ronsard, Ariosto, Plato, Aristotle, was absolutely necessary for a person to appreciate and understand Spenser. Since only scholars and poets had that necessary equipment to understand him, Spenser has been called the poet of poets and not the poet of the ordinary man. 

One who really seeks to enjoy Spenser shall be required to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of 
(1) The pastoral tradition of Virgil, 
(2) The romantic and moral traditions of Aristo and Tasso, 
(3) The philosophical traditions of Plato and Aristotle,


Edmund Spenser (1552? - 1599)
English poet

Because Spenser’s poetry is grounded in the aforesaid traditions, of the great masters of the past and the present. It is in this narrow sense that Spenser has been regarded as the poet’s poet. But that never was the intention of Charles Lamb when he called him the poet’s poet. Lamb had in view several other qualities and contributions of Spenser before he gave him that honoured title. Spenser is recognized as the poet’s poet, because it was Spenser and not Chaucer who gave to poetry and poets a place nearer to God, the supreme maker. Spenser had supreme trust in poetry and the vocation of the poet. He had intense, conviction in the value of poet’s work and believed the poet as the chosen agent of God. In return for faithful service the poet was granted a measure of the permanence which is in God alone. That was what Spenser thought the ultimate inspiration of his labour and the source of energy The poet was responsible for his country as a nursery of poetry; far his native tongue; for the truth and soundness of his doctrine ; for the action it prompted and the desires it aroused and the thought it directed. He was responsible to the Giver that his talent was sedulously cultivated and worthily employed. Thus in giving a higher conception of poetry and in stating that poetry is immortal like the almighty God, Spenser did something new which other poets before him had not done. Spenser’s famous lines voicing forth his faith in the immortality of poetry and the, greatness of the poet’s vocation have rightly entitled him to be recognized as the poet’s poet.

It was Spenser's greatness that he looked upon the poet not only as a mere lover of beauty, but as man charged with a mission to work for the elevation and redemption of mankind, Spenser believed that poetry was a noble and necessary part of the complete and well ordered life and the ideal that it should teach was one the strenuous efforts towards the perfection of human activity. This emphasis on the supremacy of poetry and greatness of the poet’s vocation makes Spenser the poet’s poet.

Highlights:"The Poet’s Poet": Edmund Spenser Bridged the Medieval and Elizabethan Periods

Transitional Figure:
  1. Edmund Spenser's works spanned the late medieval and early Elizabethan periods.
  2. His poetry reflects the changing literary landscape during this transition.
"The Faerie Queene":
  1. Spenser's epic poem combines medieval chivalry with Renaissance humanism.
  2. Allegorical elements embody both medieval virtues and Renaissance ideals.
Innovative Style:
  1. Spenser introduced the Spenserian stanza, influencing subsequent poets.
  2. His language innovation foreshadowed the linguistic evolution of the Elizabethan era.
  1. Cultural Significance:
  2. Spenser's poetry mirrored the sociopolitical upheavals of his time.
  3. His blending of traditions laid foundations for later English poetry.
Edmund Spenser's significance lies in his role as a bridge between the medieval and Elizabethan periods, shaping the evolution of English poetry by integrating diverse literary traditions.

Why Some Critics Almost Always Get Confused with William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as a Kind of Romance Written in a Tragic Mood


We find William Shakespeare’s so-called final period producing three romances of which The Tempest is the best representative. Several views persist about these romances and some critic almost always get confused with William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as a kind of romance written in a tragic mood. Dowden finds in them a serene self-possession after the sounding of depths in sorrow; suffering and guilt and consequently he think that the spirit of reconciliation observed in the happy endings is not merely a function of stage device but of a compulsive moral need. Lytton Strachey who challenges Dowden holds that the happy ending may not be a response to stage necessity but is demanded by a fairy-tale atmosphere for which a bored poet was hankering after tragic exhaustion. Dover Wilson challenges Strachey and finds in these plays and particularly The Tempest a spiritual conversion of Shakespeare trying to look into the heart of things. Tillyard opines that there s no cleavage between tragedies and romances, they being supplementary creations.

In The Tempest there is much poetry, more magic, exhibition of the supernatural powers, a pastoral0 atmosphere, and wild wanderings on the foams of perilous seas. These are some of the sure marks of the romances where the flight from probability is recurrent and where the search for complete impossibility is not ruled out. The laws rung the universe of The Tempest are not the ordinary laws prevalent in space and time, at least not till the great Prospero abandons his rough magic. Despite the action developing in a world of nature, the natural events grow increasingly stranger till they cease to be natural at all.

Shakespeare had already sounded the depths in the great tragedies, he could dive no deeper. The artist in him demanded a newer fulfillment in fresh themes and pastures new. To the rather exhausted Shakespeare, the romances provided an inexhaustible source. Product of medieval Western Europe, this literary genre was still popular in Elizabethan England where it had received a grand treatment from Spenser to Greene. Shakespeare tried to organize this genre into the dramatic form and in doing so he added is typical touches.

In adopting the romances for the basis of his new drama, Shakespeare departed somewhat from the traditional romances whose normal characteristics are wanderings, disguises, surprises, pastoralism, etc. Shakespeare retained these general features no doubt bat he laid emphasis on certain other elements such as anger, conflict, separation, revenge, reunion, forgiveness and reconciliation. This is nowhere clearer than in The Tempest, where Antonio’s ambition clashes with Prospero’s happiness resulting in a separation on the enchanted island where father and daughter remain on banishment. The revenge motive is clear on the raising of the tempest on the sea at the behest of Prospero’s magic and airy magicians. In the end happy reunion comes between brother and brother, between father and son, and the wedding bell of Ferdinand and Miranda heralds regeneration. However, the original touches of Shakespeare’s romances consist in placing the drama its personae between two- generations, the old and the new. The old generation is marked by anger and revenge motives which ultimately end in forgiveness as is abundantly witnessed in The Tempest. This is also true, more or less, about two other romances of this final period.

The Tempest has a fantastic fairy-land setting in an enchanted island floating on the foam of perilous seas. The play opens in this magic atmosphere with many characters which are supernatural agencies. Prospero works wonder with his magic wand and the masque scene enhances the romantic beauty of the pay. The Tempest seems to be a study of the Superhuman in human affairs showing its power and potency through Chance and Providence. It addresses itself, to quote Coleridge, to our imaginative faculty and we enjoy our journey to the enticing world of romances as we read or see the play acted.

However, the serene, comic, blessed and romantic mood of the play depicting an enchanting world of poetic wonder is somewhat marred from the beginning by the faintly tragic rumblings coming from within. Despite the gay romantic atmosphere, there are streaks of pathetic light and dumb feelings of pain reminiscent somewhat of the preceding tragic vision of the poet-dramatist. The innocence of childhood receives a rude shock at the behest of Chance or Providence working through a conflict in which the child (Miranda) has no part. She grows up in banishment (of course, in the magic company of her loving father) ignorant of birth, rank or tradition and at last is restored to her station. We can discern a tragic pattern in this play and Tillyard seems to hit the mark when he says that the Shakespearean romances are supplementary to the tragedies both in sequence and pattern. The tragic possibilities loom large in the romances and the final glow of comedy over the tragic pattern saves them from the darkness of tragedy.

Both the story and the theme of The Tempest suggest the underlying tragic pattern. Shakespeare adopted a new method in telling his tale in The Tempest where action began at a very late point so that the entire story had to be narrated by flash back method, as we moderns may call it. The tragic element in the story is clear from the storm-scene where Shakespeare seems in the words of J. D. Wilson to pack his whole tragic vision of life into one brief scene before bestowing his new vision upon us. And Tillyard tells us that The Tempest “is more typically tragic in the fashion of the age than The Winter’s Tale.” Thematically the tragic-pattern is obvious in the Antonio-Sebastian-Alonso affair in the last scene of the second act. But the tragic trends were finally overcome by the comic possibilities or reconciliation and reunion, love, romances, regeneration, forgiveness and freedom. Here Prospero acted - as his own agent of regeneration making Miranda into a wonder child of his own longing, and changing the minds of his enemies through his magic art. This central motivation on Prospero succeeds ultimately in subordinating the destructive elements of the theme and makes The Tempest justly famous for its almost classical unified structure.

In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates is made to say that comic and tragic genius is allied and one who can write a comedy can write a tragedy. Although the statement is not surprisingly true of Greek drama known either to Socrates or Plato, it applies admirably to the genius of Shakespeare who has written superb comedies and tragedies and romances in which last case the happy conclusion throws into relief a sombre background compounded of conflict, jealousy, suffering, sorrow and sometimes, death. The Tempest after all ends in reunion and happiness despite all the clashes and conflicts, stresses and storms an when the lights go out, the farewell message rings in our ears, romantic, yes, for the brave new world yet reminds of something thrown away, something gone as if never to return. It is not perhaps exactly tragic, this feeling of farewell when a great one “let the moment go with four simple words “Now I will rest”. That is the last plaintive tune of the play and that survives throughout the age despite tempests of time.

Highlights: Confusion Over "The Tempest": Perceived as a Tragic Romance

Blend of Genres:
  1. "The Tempest" possesses elements of both romance and tragedy.
  2. The play's serious themes are balanced by comic elements and a happy ending.
Tragic Undertones:
  1. Themes of betrayal, power struggles, and vengeance create a darker ambiance.
  2. Caliban's subplot adds depth, resembling tragic themes of colonization and oppression.
Ultimate Redemption:
  1. Prospero's forgiveness and the resolution of conflicts align with the romance genre.
  2. The play's overall tone leans towards hope and reconciliation despite underlying tragic elements.
"The Tempest" showcases Shakespeare's mastery in merging genres, blending tragedy and romance to create a unique and complex narrative that can lead to diverse interpretations.
Ardhendu De

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