John Galsworthy's Falder in "Justice": How does his Tragedy Prove Social Injustice?


 Introduction:

John Galsworthy's Falder in Justice is not a hero in the Aristotalian or Shakespearen sense. The dramatic action of Justice by Galsworthy revolves around Falder. He is in the middle of our attention of sympathy and pity. He is the tragic hero and the victims of social injustice which we all resent. He is the character of a man who is in the machinery of social injustice.

"The Rising of the Moon" by Lady Gregory as a Drama of Patriotism


"MAN [going towards steps]. Well, good-night, comrade, and thank you. You did me a good turn to-night, and I'm obliged to you. Maybe I'll be able to do as much for you when the small rise up and the big fall down . . . when we all change places at the rising [waves his hand and disappears] of the Moon."-The Rising of the Moon 
The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory is a play concerning patriotism and struggle for freedom in the background of Ireland political history involving two characters- one the disguised ballad singer and the other the sergeant in search of a run away prisoner. The Rising of the Moon carries a title well chosen from a popular ballad for the Irish Revolutionary who would relay round at the precise moment for same undertaking. Fenian poet John Keegan Casey composed his well known ballad with the following lines:
“Who would follow in their footsteps at the Rising of the moon”

Here moon symbolizes freedom or urge for freedom. Gregory symbolically suggests the moon with the combined spirits of revolutionary in the Irish freedom movement. In fact, the Ragged man, the disguised ballad singer, is no other than the escaped freedom fighter and he is willing to have a change in the political history of Ireland. At the end of the play the Ragged man says to the sergeant, “when we all change places at the rising of the moon”. The implied meaning is that the Irish people would register freedom denying the oppressor British in near future.

We can have a ready reference to Granuaile one of the Irish rebels who fought a brave battle and well memorized Irish freedom rebels who were active and did underground works for the Irish way to freedom.

The play also exposes the emotional weakness the sergeant for his motherland. The Ragged man succeeds in bringing out the patriotic zeal and qualities of the sergeant. The Ragged man persuades him to share a common cause and the sergeant gets ready even to ignore the reword, prospects of promotion and duties of a police man. At the end a true Irish and patriot is given birth - a friend of Granuaile. So in a nutshell, The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory has ample implication of being a patriotic drama and she, in fact, voices for the common cause of Ireland, similarly as Dinabandhu Mitra's NilDarpan (The Mirror of Indigo) portrays the Indian cause of patriotism. One can also remind the scene from Pather Dabi (Demand of the Pathway) by Sarat Chandra Chattapadhya where in similar account the rebel patriot escape to Burma. 

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                     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinabandhu_Mitra

Biographical and Autobiographical Writing in English Text: Preview of It's Journey


B
iographical and autobiographical prose is more or less true-to-life stories and often bears great literary merits. They pervade the world of history, philosophy, psychology, ideology, propaganda, untold mysteries, confessions, criticism, travelogues etc. These works are conventionally classified into factual writing and fictional writing, or simply, true and semi true. The present essay deals with biography and autobiography and its truthfulness and literary merits. As a descriptive term, biography and autobiography is completely meaningless, since all story is beyond eyewitnesses when it first appears. Further, if one takes it as applying to all modern perceptions, one soon discovers that they differ so much among themselves that any simple definition of the school will exclude a number of important lies. One perception will emphasize close reading, another symbol, another morality, another psychology, sociology, and till another mythical as of criticism.

Now coming to the terminology into better introspection, the fertile of English biography emerged in the late eighteenth century, the century in which the terms "biography" and "autobiography" entered the English lexicon. The word autobiography was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical the Monthly Review, when he suggested the word as a hybrid but condemned it as 'pedantic'; but its next recorded use was in its present sense by Robert Southey in 1809. The form of autobiography however goes back to antiquity. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography, however, may be based entirely on the writer's memory.

A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 103


A Set of Objective Questions & AnswersUGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK

1.Oxymoron: A figure of speech made up of two seemingly opposite words.

2. John Dryden’s poems that describe the political and social events of the Restoration period: Astraea Redux, in celebration of Charles II’s return to the English throne and Annus Mirabilis giving a spirited account of the great fire in London . The title Annus Mirabilis means the wonders of the year .


3. Absalom and Achitophel: Dryden wrote Absalom and Achitophel. It is a political satire in the form of allegory. The historical figures hidden under the Biblical characters referred to in the title are Charles II, the Duke of York and the Earl of Shaftsbury.
4. Allusion: A passing reference to something outside of a literary work.

5. Restoration: Restoration indicates the restoration of monarchy. Charles II was restored the throne of England after a period of Puritan vale.

6. The personal satire by Dryden: Macflecknoe. Dryden satirized his political and poetical rival Shadwell.

7. Dryden’s play on the subject of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra: All For Love and The World Well Lost.

8. Dryden’s longest prose work: Essay of Dramatic Poesie .It is a major piece of English literary criticism. It shows the lucid direct prose style that Dryden introduced.

9.John Dryden wrote The Hind and the Panther: It is an allegorical defense of the Roman Catholic faith written after the accession of James.

10. Restoration comedies by William Congreve: The Old Bachelor , The Double Dealer, Love for Love, The Way of the World ,  The Morning Bride –a tragedy. 

11. Plays / comedies by William Wycherley: Love in a Wood , The Gentleman Dancing-master , The Country-wife , The Plain Dealer .
12. Two plays by George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer , The Beaux Stratagem .

13. Two Restoration Tragedies: Venice Preserved by Thomas Olway, Caligula by John Crowne.

14. Genre: A class of literature.

15. Antagonist: The person or thing that presents a problem.

16. Samuel Butlers: Samuel Butler wrote Hubibras . It was a satire on the Puritans. Samuel Butler wrote Hubibras and he belonged to the later 17th century. Another Samuel Butler wrote Erewhon and The Way of all Flesh. And he belonged to the later 19th century.  John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress.
17. Important diarists of the Restoration period: Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.

18. Metaphor: A type of figurative language that makes a direct comparison not using like or as. (Simile: A type of figurative language that makes a comparison using like or as.)

19. Allusion: The representation of ideas or moral principles by means of symbolic characters, events, or objects.

20. Setting: The time and place a story takes place.

21. Two graveyard poets of the 18th century: Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Edward Young etc.

22. The Red cross Knight is Spenser’s Faerie Queene represents: Truth. Here it is philosophical treatise. Truth, a concept in philosophy that treats both the meaning of the word true and the criteria by which we judge the truth or falsity in spoken and written statements. Philosophers have attempted to answer the question ‘What is truth?’ for thousands of years. The four main theories they have proposed to answer this question are the correspondence, pragmatic, coherence, and deflationary theories of truth.

23. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway: A writer on safari in Africa is close to death and looks back on his life regrettably in this short tale.

24. The South by Jorge Luis Borges: Considered by Borges to be one of his best short stories, this story centers on a man who is on his way home after a near death experience.

25. Macbeth: The line Present fears/Are less than horrible imaginings appear in: Macbeth .Macbeth, tragedy in five acts, written by English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. First performed in about , the play was originally printed in the  edition of Shakespeare's works known as the First Folio. The author’s principal source for Macbeth was Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland  by English chronicler Raphael Holinshed. The play’s title role is loosely based on the career of a King Macbeth of Scotland. A commander under King Duncan I, Macbeth murdered Duncan in  and claimed the kingdom for himself. After a rule of  years, Macbeth was killed by Duncan’s son Malcolm, who later became King Malcolm III.

26. Reflections: Edmund Burke denounced the French Revolution in: Reflections.



 Ardhendu De
Ref: 1. History of English Literature- Albert     
2. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature
3. UGC NET OLD QUESTION PAPERS
4. Baugh, A.C and Cable T . A History of the English Language. th ed. London: Routledge

Significance of the Dumb Scene (Act III Sc. III) in John Galsworthy’s "Justice"


In John Galsworthy’s play Justice the exercise of social injustice in the name of legal justice has been criticized. And in the dramatic action of the Dumb Scene (Act III Sc. III)  of his play, Galsworthy has portrayed the deep agency of a sensitive prisoner kept in a solitary confinement. With a cudgel in hand here Galsworthy is merciless in his criticism of prison administration that treats prisoners not as humans but as dumb inhabitants of dungeon.


Here is the description of the small cell that brings out the indifference of the prison authority to the emotional needs of a prisoner. The scene shows Falder, the convict, hasten to catch a sound from the world outside. But nothing except the sound of a lid of tin falling from his hand or that of an occasional banging travelling from cell to cell is heard. He has no companion but his image reflected on the tin lid. The only activity in which he may engage himself is the stitching of a shirt in which he sometimes seen to fancy something else or somebody. In a fit of depression he prowls about, listens eagerly to sounds incoming. The solitariness crushes him beyond reorganization. The simile of a caged animal has been appropriately used to describe the impact of a terrible confinement on Falder’s psyche. No wonder he would gasp for breath or engage himself in meaningless activities like the beating of the door.

Thus the Dumb Scene intensifies the tragedy of Falder arousing pity and fear in the audience. It is a faithful depiction of the terrible or hell experienced by Falder as well as by prisoners of that time during the period of solitary confinement in yearly 20th century. Galsworthy has made the scene eloquent without using dialogues or lengthy speeches. In it, he has effectively attacked the system of solitary confinement prevailing in his time. The scene could well be the catastrophe of Falder’s tragedy.

The catastrophic scene should have aroused pity and fear in the audience. But Falder fails to arouse their admiration, which is characteristic of a tragic hero. Replacing the blind, relentless fate of the Greek tragedy, social determinism crushes him under its chariot wheels. In stead of struggling stoically with the hostile society, like a classical tragic hero, he is subsumed to its forces. His end is rather pathetic than tragic. So, he cannot be called a tragic hero in the Aristotelian sense of the term. But his unequal struggle with the social forces and his ultimate end represent the tragedy of modern man struggling against an antagonistic society which holds an individual in its power yet perishes him. That is why, Falder should be regarded as a tragic hero in the modern sense of the terms and the Dumb Scene the height of his tragic plight.

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Roman Mob in William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is Itself a Character


Introduction:

 In the group of Shakespearean  Roman playsJulius Caesar remains an epic making work and like Coriolanus, their other theatrical play, Julius Caesar also has a strong opening scene of a crowd in commotion. In fact, the presence of Roman Crowd in their various characteristics can be felt throughout the play of Julius Caesar. However, it is in the opening scene and in the forum scene that they are actively instrumental in mounding the course of the play. Let us now have a close look of their characteristics under the following heads.

R. K. Narayan's "Emden" is the Reminiscence of Human Life in Old Age: Clocking Time


Some of the important literary qualities of R. K. Narayan's Emden are the use of humanized time reference, character complexity and development, interwoven stories, a flashback technique to vividly portray past events, and a setting that demonstrates themes, personalities, and conflicts. Emden, the title character in R. K. Narayan's Emden, is more than 100 years old and now he can’t even remember his age. Emden, the oldest man in Malgudi, who hated birthdays. He abominated birthdays because according to him it may reduce the days of birthdays' count. He has nearly lost his hearing abilities and can’t retain names. According to Narayan “Even such a situation was acceptable, as it seemed to be.........by nature to keep the mind uncluttered in old age”. 

Narayan in his portrayal of the oldest man gives a glimpse of his history through half remembered memories by the old man who loves his routinely two-hour walk. We also get a peep into his history through an account by others who witness him on this routine. Like the photographer who mixes Emden’s history with his fiction while gossiping about him as Emden crosses his shop.

Narayan gives us a very vivid picture of the old age. The newspaper reading routine with special attention being given to the religious and the philosophical section and the brooding over. It is a delight to read as it captures the sentiments of a majority of old people who fallow this routine. The looking forward to an evening walk with a reactionary message being given in the background by someone at home is a thing we as readers can relate to if there are elderly people living with us.

For first few pages the story focuses on the life and character of the old man but Narayan very cleverly introduces a situation first through Emden’s favourite philosophical column which the reader would take it to be his characteristics and when the old love interest whose name and address he is unable to remember. He decides to embark on a walk to meet her.

Overall, the picture of Emden does not make one pity him but rather it is a comic picture. One that reader enjoys reading probably because of this reason even towards the end of the story when a reader feels involved with the man not because of his age and condition but one gets involved with one’s character.

Narayan during his stay at the Chelsea Hotel had met a gentlemen who was more than 100 years old and probably he got the idea to write a story about the oldest man in Malgudi through him. Emden is full to life, a well rounded character whom a person might have come across in one’s life. We are also given inputs to the history of Ratnapuri ,a part of Malgudi, where  Emden made his bungalow . It is a feature in Narayan’s writings in his stories we are introduced to some or the physical geographies of Malgudi.

Narayan's Malgudi peoples like that of rustics of Thomas Hardy present life of Emden that are 'humanized;' that is, they think, feel, speak, and react as humans might. Their conflicts can be seen as analogous to human conflicts. Emden is a believable character who overcomes his fears of dying to develop a sense of independence. Fear and courage, insensitivity and kindness, all are depicted as facets of a character's complex personality.

Settings are distinct and often reflect elements of theme, conflict, or character. The details of Emden's home are realistic; he does not wear miniature clothes nor does he have small versions of human furniture about his house. While the Malgudi colony is described in more fantastic terms, this description of their use of up coming civilization contrasts with Emden's natural or primitive surroundings.

Narayan has a love for describing carnivals, fairs and the expo. Story after story we find in his Malgudi Days being set in such an environment if not than we at least have a market scene. Engine Trouble starts at a fair with protagonist winning an engine, Emden goes through the hustle and bustle of a market place for his bazaar and so is the trail of the Green blazer which is set in a bazaar. It seems Narayan situated most of the Malgudi stories on Malgudi’s public landmarks.

The author skillfully interweaves the conflicts of Emden and the time, not merely through plot, but also through the intricate development of similar themes and conflicts. Because it is told in flashback and not simply through monologue, the action, suspense, and interest are aptly maintained.

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Eliminate Your Fears and Doubts about Comprehension Skill of a Target Text


The students will have to complete numerous comprehension exercises during their time in school, both in class and at end of each Key Stage examination. This is true from early secondary stage to the post graduate label. The tasks i.e. The Comprehension Skill of a Target Text which help the students with their writing, such as adjective use, creating atmosphere and so on, introduce the skills that the students will need to discuss in their analysis of texts. Learning of these skills and implementations of them are very crucial both for the students and the teachers.

Here it is very essential to remind the students of these lessons and of how they create effects in their own writing. Some comprehension questions are 'what' questions i.e. WH questions on knowledge base, which ask the students to retrieve information. These will generally be lower-tariff questions and so remind the students not to spend too long on their answers. Higher-tariff questions will ask the students to comment on the 'how’ questions about a piece of writing. They generally require the students to comment how a particular atmosphere is treated, or how a character is feeling. To answer these types of question effectively, the students need to be trained in the habit of looking for 'clues' in text and using these to support their comments and analysis. If the students do not already have one, give them a glossary of literary techniques and devices. While terminology by itself won't gain the students marks, it does act as good shorthand when they write about text and makes their writing seem more sophisticated. Most important, however, is that pupil can identify and discuss how text works.

 Often time, The Comprehension Skill of a Target Text is needful both short-term and long-term Skill developing method leading to joy of learning, which are conventional as well as innovative. Most of these Skills developing method have been developed after an initial survey of the demand for such Skill developing method among students.

They are launched with a view to fulfill the learner’s needs. The Comprehension Skill of a Target Text follows a multifaceted approach for instruction, which comprises:
a) Written Material: for both theory and practical components of the Skill developing method is given at any unknotted textbook of good quality.
b) Audio-Visual Material Aids: The audio and video CDS which have been often supplied for the Comprehension Skill of a Target Text for better clarification and enhancement of understanding of the Text.
c) Counseling:  counseling sessions are required and a YouTube or virtual or real teacher is handy for this part.

Rather than give the students a whole extract to analyze, give them a piece of text which is broken into short chunks with no more than three questions on each section. You can use any text you feel suitable or, to make sure that the devices are readily available to the students, you could write your own. This will lead to some fundamental achievements:
a) Enabling higher learning of text by taking it to the doorsteps of the learners.
b) Providing access to high quality learning of text to all students.
c) Offering need-based academic Skill developing method by giving professional and vocational orientation to the courses
d) Promoting and developing learning of text, setting and maintaining standards

One way to introduce the idea is to base the text around a mystery or treasure hunt, with textual clues to be picked up throughout. This can help reinforce the idea of a search rather than a cursory reading. For example:

Macbeth

Act 2, Scene iiEnter Lady Macbeth

LADY. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.—Hark!—Peace!
It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman
Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it.
The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
Do mock their charge with snores; I have drugged their possets
That death and nature do contend about them
Whether they live or die.

MACBETH (within). Who’s there? What, ho!

LADY. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked,
And ‘tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
Confounds us.—Hark!—I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss ‘em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.
Enter Macbeth, carrying two bloodstained daggers
My husband!

MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

LADY. I heard the owl-scream and the cricket’s cry.
Did not you speak?

MACBETH. When?

LADY. Now.

MACBETH. As I descended?

LADY. Ay.

MACBETH. Hark!
Who lies i’the second chamber?

LADY. Donalbain.

MACBETH. (looks at his hands)
This is a sorry sight.

LADY. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

MACBETH. There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried “Murder!”
That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them.
But they did say their prayers and addressed them
Again to sleep.

LADY. There are two lodged together.

MACBETH. One cried “God bless us” and “Amen” the other,
As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands.
Listening their fear I could not say “Amen”
When they did say “God bless us.”

LADY. Consider it not so deeply.

MACBETH. But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”?
I had most need of blessing, and “Amen”
Stuck in my throat.

LADY. These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

MACBETH. Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep—the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.”

LADY. What do you mean?

MACBETH. Still it cried “Sleep no more” to all the house;
“Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more.”

LADY. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane,
You do unbend your noble strength, to think
So brain-sickly of things. Go, get some water,
And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.

MACBETH. I’ll go no more.
I am afraid to think what I have done;
Look on’t again I dare not.

LADY. Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.
Exit
Knock within

MACBETH. Whence is that knocking?
How is’t with me when every noise appals me?
What hands are here! Ha—they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.

Enter Lady Macbeth

LADY. My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.
Knock
I hear a knocking
At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.
A little water clears us of this deed;
How easy is it then! Your constancy
Hath left you unattended.
Knock
Hark! more knocking.
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
So poorly in your thoughts.

MACBETH. To know my deed ‘twere best not know myself.
Knock
Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
Exeunt”

Let these questions be popped up in his brain:
*Is Shakespeare’s Macbeth a study of the evil?
*Is it a one man’s downfall?
*Who has greeted Macbeth that he will one day become king?
*What is the confirming part of the witches’ prophecy?
*How does Lady Macbeth spur her husband’s ambition forward?
*How does The Lady’s purposeful activity provide a stark contrast to Macbeth’s almost paralytic state as he becomes locked into an obsessive contemplation of the bloody deed?
*What is the significance of Macbeth’s account of his inability to say “amen” to the grooms’ prayer?
 *How does Macbeth become the very embodiment of his crime?

Continue in the same vein, setting questions after small sections of text which encourage the students to look for ‘clues' and it goes very handy for interest base. These are the steps which the students should follow:
a.       At least for the first few sections, ask the students to stop after each section and share their answers so as to ensure that all are on the right track.
b.      Some The students' answers will be more detailed than others. They can be asked to go a stage further and look at why the 'clue words' led them to their conclusion.
c.       Following on from this, the students can look at a whole extract and focus on the specifics of a high-tariff question.
d.       Ask the students to look closely at the question and any bullet points that may have been given as guidance, and underline the key words.
e.       They will use these words to structure their answer, using the bullet points as paragraph headings.
They can then begin to structure their response in a number of ways:
a.       These could include underlining and annotating key words or phrases which could illustrate their answer.
b.      Remind the students that they won’t be able to write about everything and so to focus on specific examples and write about them in detail.
c.       The students could also make tables with headings such as ‘device’ and 'effect created' and 'What x does' or 'What this shows us'; or
d.       You could give the students parts of sentences to fill in with observations or quotations.

The formula used by many to structure responses of this kind can be an efficient base. It has many names: PEE - Point, Evidence, Explanation; SEC - Statement, Evidence, and Comment; 'The Hamburger Method'; and so on.

The students are in the habit of justifying and explaining their answers. The problem is that in a long answer, the formula can become very repetitive and can limit some responses. Provide the students with suggested phrases that they can use in their writing to avoid repetition.

Ardhendu De

Reference:
 <http://www.readingrockets.org/article/seven-strategies-teach-students-text-comprehension>

George Herbert’s “The Pulley”: Establishing Our Relation to God


Before we go into the Christian doctrine let’s focus on the title Pulley or the Gift of God by George Herbert first. Pulleys and hoists are mechanical devices aimed at assisting us with moving heavy loads through a system of ropes and wheels (pulleys) to gain advantage. We should not be surprised at the use of a pulley as a central conceit since the domain of physics and imagery from that discipline would have felt quite comfortable to most of the metaphysical poets. God is the most important character in “The Pulley”, and the only one whose name is given except the poet narrator. In the beginning of the poem, he is excited by the ringing of the truth while He and his creations, i. e. the human being are having a conversation while in imaginations through the poet’s conversation with the God. Herbert sees a perfect design of our psychology in Christian ideological terms explained through his God's eyes, but he longs to join the religious journey.

God opened a glass of blessings and poured it on man. The glass refers to the material world. Strength, beauty, wisdom, honour and pleasure were the specific riches that God poured on man. God considers rest to be the most precious of all the blessings as all the material blessings will ultimately lead to longing for peace of mind. The pursuit of materialism will lead to longing for peace of mind. It is to explain this philosophy that rest was placed at the bottom of the glass:
“When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by,
“Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can.
Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,
Contract into a span.” ”

If God gave man rest also then Man will think only of the worldly blessings God has granted him and forget God who has given him those blessings. In such an arrangement, man would forget God and God would lose Man. The poem starts out with God creating man. He wants to pour all of His blessings into man. He knows that man is a beautiful, strong creation, and He wants to reward him. The one thing he doesn't want to give to man is His rest. God gives these blessings to man by pouring them out of a "glass of blessings." The only blessing that God leaves in the bottle is "Rest."  This gift is so precious that God does not want to give it to man; if man would have it, he would worship "Nature, not the God of Nature." Rest is seen as kind of a Pandora's Box. God knows that if he gives rest to man, then man will come to worship all the things in nature, instead of worshiping God.

“For if I should,” said he,
“Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;
So both should losers be.

God has to with hold the gift of rest from man as he knew all his other treasures would one day result in spiritual restlessness and fatigue in man- ‘repining restlessness’- that moment when God would lift with his pulley. We can say that the withholding of Rest by God is the leverage that will draw mankind towards God when other means would make that task difficult. A pulley thus signifies a method God adopts to lift human beings to Himself.

God does not have faith in man which is why he has withheld the blessing of rest until man seeks it. God had full knowledge that His treasures would tire man and make him exhausted. He wanted man to find true rest only in Him. He wants all of us to come to Him, for He alone can truly give us the rest we so desperately seek. It is in his weariness, then, that man will realize his imperfections and his need for God and the spiritual life. Then, he will reach for God's "pulley" and seek heaven. When men are separated from godly blessing, they encounter horrible stories about the cruelty of strength, beauty, wisdom, honour and pleasure. They become confused when these things do not harm them and seem to trust him if used the pulley to reach the creator.
“Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.”

When God made man, he poured all his blessings on him including strength, beauty, wisdom, honour and pleasure. However, as in Pandora’s Box, one element remained. We are told that God after a second thought with held ‘rest’. We might in modern parlance call this God’s ace. God is aware that if He were to bestow this ‘jewel’- REST on man, man would adore his gift instead of God who gave those gifts. God has to withhold the gift of rest from man knowing full well that His other treasures would one day result in spiritual restlessness and fatigue in man. The material gifts would tire him and he eventually would turn to God in exhaustion. God prefers that man should be "rich and weary," so that eeriness may toss him to God’s breast. In other words, if man will at least be tired, he will have reason to fear God.  If God bestow this jewel also on creature, He would adore his gifts instead of God, and rest in Nature, not the God of Nature; thus, both are losers. God is concerned that man will rest in Nature, and not in Him. God both fears and admires the Human being before this battle of life. The Human being is important because his actions force God to question his definition of the prayer and creator. Finally, the Human being ends up in a situation where they have to trust the God when they discover a pulley is set up as design. They turn out to be worthy of God’s trust and says a prayer for them in heat’s core. This confuses the Human being even more because they now see this materiality as lures rather than just as bouquets.

The Pulley is a good example of Herbert’s simplicity that only a great artist can attain. He gives this story a delightful twist. The poem, "The Pulley," is one of those poems, that is deep in meaning. It is a comforting sort of poem. God is shown as a God who knows everything and how everything will turn out. God needs to toss man to his breast. In the context of the mechanical operation of a pulley, the kind of leverage and force applied makes the difference for the weight being lifted. Applied to man in this poem, we can say that the withholding of Rest by God is the leverage that will draw mankind towards God when other means would make that task difficult.

Two literary devices that Herbert uses to establish theme and tone are titling the poem's brief stanzas by the dialogue form and giving identities of us a generic the Human being. Both techniques establish the alienation that we experiences during our day at living. Herbert suggests the impersonality of living without God. People are pawns with designated functions; search for peace of mind forces them to give up their individual identities and their capacity to form human honours. George Herbert’s “The Pulley” can be considered the first modern peace of mind poem, incorporates a very essence of metaphysical poem. Herbert’s protagonists are the human race who envisions feats of glory as a glorious adventure only to be disillusioned by ultimate reality of peace of mind- the God.

Ardhendu De

                                    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44370

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