AD's English Literature

Introduction: English drama in the late 18th century underwent a significant shift, moving away from its traditional focus on emotionalism, sentimentality, and morality towards a more realistic depiction of life. This shift was due to a number of factors, including the rise of the novel, the influence of the French Revolution, and the growing interest in science and philosophy. Popular Genre in the early 18th Century: The novel, which had emerged as a popular genre in the early 18th century, offered a more realistic and complex view of human nature than traditional drama. Novels such as Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) showed that people were not always motivated by reason and virtue, but could also be driven by passion and self-interest. This new realism had also a profound impact on drama, leading playwrights to abandon the traditional happy endings and moralistic messages of their plays. The French Revolution: The French Revolution also...

Mock-epic – a work which employs manner, the high and serious tone and the supernatural machinery of epic to treat a trivial subject and theme in such a way as to make both subject and theme ridiculous – almost a case of breaking a butterfly upon a wheel. It is a type of epic derived from the serious epic, which satirizes contemporary ideas or conditions in a form and style burlesquing the serious epic.   By extension the epic mode is also mocked but this is a secondary consideration. Noted mock epics include The Rape of the Lock (1712) by the English poet Alexander Pope . The mock-epic typically uses the following elements of the epic poem: A grand style and elevated language A long and complex plot A cast of heroic characters Supernatural elements Battles and other heroic events However, the mock-epic uses these elements in a way that is humorous or ironic. For example, the characters in a mock-epic may be petty or ridiculous, and the plot may be trivial or ...

“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.”-     Charlie Chaplin  (1889 - 1977)  British actor and director   My Autobiography Comedy, a universal form of expression and a major dramatic genre that is intended to amuse, has always been considered inferior to tragedy. She has remained a Cinderella of the Muses, as Gordon says. There has been an awakening of interest in comedy in the recent times. Meredith was of the view that comedy (High Comedy) appeals to the intelligence – “aims not at our ribs or armpits but at our heads”.   In comedy, the victim is attacked impersonally and without heat. The laughter of heart and mind are inextricably interfused in Shakespearean comedy. His is the Imbued with a playful spirit; comic entertainment frequently exposes incongruous, ridiculous, or grotesque aspects of human nature. Meredith says: ‘Shakespeare is a well – spring of characters which are satu...

It was Jonson who said that the poets lived to please and they must please to live. There is no truer truism than this epigram. A dramatist particularly must either please or perish. He cannot wait like the novelist or other sorts of artists for the verdict of posterity. The present is his immediate concern and he must for his sheer survival as a playwright make his peace with the popular tastes and habits.  Shakespeare  was undoubtedly a popular playwright and a great entertainer of his spectators on whose patronage he and his company depended for their fortune and prosperity.  What was the nature of that audience which Shakespeare lives to please? Opinions are no doubt divided. The puritan moralists describe them as a vulgar crowd with coarse tastes and noisy nature. Some of the playwrights themselves refer to them rather condescendingly as the “groundlings” or the “hydra – headed” multitude with “serpent – tongues and contagious breath”. Shakespeare himself at least i...

W illiam Shakespeare confronted Time, which he called all – devouring with some trepidation as we all mortals do. Time is a great healer and it is a greater destroyer for it takes all in its eternal sway. The question is when the great bard of Avon faced his moment of truth, how did he think of tackling Time? Shakespeare’s first weapon in the battle against Time was the biological perpetuation through marriage as evidenced in the first 17 sonnets addressed to the fair friend. Read More William Shakespeare     His second was love of a transcendental variety and the third weapon consisted of his verse that was to be immortal and related to the running theme of compensation.

"I hope you agree that, in studying a Shakespearian drama, we must...do our best to understand, exactly what Shakespeare's dramatic purposes are, before we even begin to explore how the play came to be constructed."- Dover Wilson (1881 - 1969) British academic and critic, 1934.   The Hero though they introduce a long list of dramatic personae, Shakespeare’s tragedies are ultimately concerned with only one character – the hero – whose fortunes are its real theme. Shakespeare’s heroes are among the most powerful studies of human nature in all literature and appropriately stand as the greatest achievements of his dramatic artistry. The other characters, though sufficiently interesting in themselves, serve only to provide the links in the story of his fate.  William Shakespeare It is not without significance that all the four chief tragedies are named after the principal figure. In the love – tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and Antony and C...

Self knowledge is perhaps the most significant theme in so-called joyous comedy ( begins with music and ends with a song) of William Shakespeare , Twelfth Night . At the start of the play only Feste, a singing fool and Viola, disguised as a page, for her master, the Duke Orsino have a reasonable degree of Self knowledge. Orsino believes that he is in love with Olivia, but the falsity of this belief is shown by the fact that when they finally do meet they are arguing within a few seconds.  Orsino never goes to meet Olivia, but sends messages to her through others, and it is the idea of being in love that attracts him. His lack of Self knowledge means that he cannot come to a realistic appreciation of anyone else's characters. It takes most of the play for him to realize that he is really in love with Viola. Olivia believes her desire to withdraw from the world is a result of grief at the loss of her father and brother, whilst in reality it is fear of a cruel world and a...