AD's English Literature

Mr. Micawber, one of the outstanding characters in   Charles Dickens ’   David Copperfield is a man of kindly, genial nature. Some critics say that he is a pen-portrait of Dickens’ own father. However it may be, there can be no denying the fact that he “is the type of a whole race of men who will not vanish from the earth as long as the hope which lives eternal in the human breast is only temporarily suspended by the laws of debtors and creditors.” A kindlier and merrier a more humorous and more generous character was never conceived than this. He is one of these optimistic souls who are always waiting for something to turn up, and who are able to maintain their cheerfulness and good spirits despite poverty, debt and imprisonment. Mr. Micawber is typical of those good-for-nothing fellows who are never able to make anything in life, but still manage to live, largely as result of the bounty and generosity of friends, secured for them by their genial and generous temp...

“We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.” John Dryden  (1631 - 1700) English poet, playwright, and literary critic. Aeneis Various causes gave rise to an unprecedented spirit of satire in the Augustan age , from John Dryden (1631-1700) to Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) . It is a materialistic age in which certain fashions and modes of behaving and taste hold away.  (1) What is considered “genteel taste” is vigorously upheld, and any deviation from it is satirized. (2) “Correctness” and “good sense” are the order of the day. Emphasis is on reason and correct observation of certain rules both in literature and social life. Rationalism develops clear thinking and the temptation to pronounce judgment is strong. This accounts for the rise both social and literary satire.  (3) The restoration witnessed a revolt against Puritan austerity. There was also a reaction against religious hypocrisy. The religious and the devout were cr...

The poetry of the Pseudo-classical school was very artificial and unnatural. It was extremely limited in its themes. It was confined exclusively to the city of London and in that city to the artificial and unnatural life of the fashionable lords and ladies. It did not care for the beauties of nature or for the humanity-farmers shepherds, wood cutters etc. Who live its simple life in the lap of nature? Wordsworth reacted sharply and sought to increase the range of English poetry by taking his themes from humble and rustic life, himself living in the lap of nature, was well familiar with the life of the humble people, and he has rendered it in his poetry, realistically and accurately.

After the Restoration dramatists drama in English seems to have gone into hibernation, if it had not died altogether. There were at least two dramatists of great calibre in the closing years of the 19th century. Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, but both of them steadfastly choose prose as the medium of their plays. The 20th century saw some powerful influence that exerted themselves on the drama, the influence of the great continental dramatists, and that of the Irish dramatic movement. It was, however, left to T. S. Eliot to rehabilitate poetic drama and place it on a sound footing. There were several considerations which contributed to the emergence of poetic drama in the 20th century. There were at least a dozen factors which cumulatively worked in this direction. In the first place the prejudice against theatre going began to disappear. There was also, some relaxation in the rigour of censorship. Also there was a steady rise in the standards of judgment, due to the spread of...

"Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished." William Wordsworth  (1770 - 1850) British poet. Lyrical Ballads (2nd ed.) Wordsworth was the chief spokesman of the Romantic Movement. His Preface to Lyrical Ballads says M.H. Abraham has been one of the most discussed and influential of all critical essays. “In the preface Wordsworth tried to overflow the basic theory, as well as the practice of non-classical poetry and also sought to defend and justify the new kind of poetry that he himself and Coleridge were writing.”

The literature of the fifteenth century is comparatively barren in production, and there are no any poets or prose-writer in consequence. There is a steep decline in poetry even in the hands of the English and Scottish Chaucereans. By that time that freshness of Chaucer, in the fields of characterization; narration and versification was come to an end. Chaucer’s great name and fame disciples like Lydgate, Langland, Dunbar, Skelton, Occleve, Barclay, Hawes etc. were also unable to keep the freshness of poetry   of their master. There is a marked decadence in style. In Chaucer’s great disciples the spirit of poetic imagination and phrasings always lacked. Their metres were merely decrial: Compared with master, their works seemed sheer childish. In the sphere of prose there is a little progress, though the prose of the fifteenth century is better man the prose of the preceding age. Several factors are responsible for the barrenness of literary production in this age.

Measure for Measure is one of the dark comedies or problem plays of Shakespeare . In this group of plays, we find Shakespeare confronted with some practical problems of life— generally with the problem of evil in daily life—and we find him also trying for a comic solution but not often getting it. As a result, the comedy gets rather dark and an atmosphere of cynicism seems to emerge. In the present play, the thesis seems to build up around the problem of combining authority with mercy and justice for the purpose of eradicating the evils of a corrupt society.