The Scarlet Letter

 Hello Folks , I am writing this blog on the grounds of a task assigned to by my teacher as a thinking activity, to know more about the task CLICK HERE

The Scarlet Letter a tragic story of Hester .The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

The Scarlet Letter was one of the first mass-produced books in America. It was popular when first published and is considered a classic work today. It inspired numerous film, television, and stage adaptations. Critics have described it as a masterwork and novelist D. H. Lawrence called it a "perfect work of the American imagination".

Looking at the setting part of novel, the entire novel has a Puritan settlement which sets in the year of 1642 in a Bostan city. The entire plot of the novel mainly moves around the characters like Hester Pryne, Pearl, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. But the protagonist character Hester Pryne-mother of Pearl mainly leads the plot of the novel. She is a young wife whose husband has been missing for over a year and she is accused for adultery following the birth of her infant daughter Pearl. Firstly she was forced to stand on scaffold for more than three hours and as she refused to reveal the name of her child’s father, this act angered the Puritanical citizens of Boston and she was forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her body as punishment for her adulterous affair with town minister Arthur Dimmesdale. After that she lived with her daughter at the edge of town while Chillingworth moves in with the beloved Reverend Dimmesdale. At the end of the novel Dimmesdale climbs the scaffold and confesses in front of everyone then dies of his wounds in Hester’s arms.

In a way,

It presents the journey of Hester and how she succeeded in

changing the meaning of  Adultery to Able and at last Angle.

The Waste Land

 I am composing this blog on the grounds of a task assigned to me by my teacher Pro. Dilip Barad Sir . To more about the task CLICK HERE.

ABOUT THE POEM WASTE LAND BY T.S. ELIOT 

The Waste Land, at first when you read the poem you will not get  the idea of , what the poet is trying to say in the poem , you will find it full of vagueness . it makes the readers confuse but once you read the poem and try to connect all the images and metaphors used by the poet you will get the whole meaning .The poem is divided into 5 parts :

 1 ] The Burial of Death 

2] A Game of Chess 

3] The Fire  Sermon 

4 ] Death by Water 

5 ] What The Thunder Said

                   The theme of the poem is Sexual Perversion and Spiritual Degradation . According to Eliot Spiritual Degradation leads to sexual perversion. 

1) What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?

I agree with Nietzsche and his progressive and forward looking policy in giving solution to the problem of contemporary crisis in faith and self. In his book he gave the concept of super human .It is not fair enough to considered Eliot as regressive in compared to Nietzsche. Eliot tries to give the answer of contemporary problems by using the reference myth and Upanishad. Because myth and religion always seems as a powerful weapon in shaping the society. This both have a great impact on human mind. Each and every myth is related with religion, which is for betterment  of people if they are spreading immoral notion in society, it is another matter. The religion should be for giving a knowledge to the people either in a form of moral values or to develop a compassion in people. Whenever history repeats we always look back to find a solution of contemporary problems which have been lying in our myth and Upanishad.

 

What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?

Here I am not agree with Eliot’s view that salvation of man  lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition. Because suppression of natural desire or feeling gets more powerful and strong with the passage of time and at last turns out into something bad. Rather than it is better to give free vent to the repressed ‘primitive instinct’ which lead us to happy and satisfied life.

Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)

In “The Wasteland” we find many allusion of the Indian thoughts. Let’s have a look on some of 

them.

The Fire Sermon

The Fire Sermon is a name which was given to 

the third part of The Wasteland. It is the name of

 a sermon which was given by Budhdha. 

Brahmayoni hill is a place where Budhdha 

taught the fire sermon and deliver a sermon

 about achieving liberation from suffering 

through detachment from five senses and mind.

 In ‘The Wasteland’ sexual perversion is the 

central theme that’s why by referring this Elio

t wants to give a message to keep away from all 

the senses and desires.

Three ‘Da’

In the poem Eliot also used three Da in order to 

remind us about self control and solicitude.

Datta- Give

Dayadhavam- Sympathize

Damyata- Control

 The first suggests about to sacrifice something for other. The second gives a message to show a sympathy for others and third suggests about self control of  five senses.

River Ganga and Himalaya

As we know that River Ganga is known for its 

purity and the Himalaya is known for peace and 

spirituality. Here Eliot referrers Ganga and 

Himalaya because of their spirituality and 

purity as well as he finds the solution of 

contemporary problems in it.

Characteristics of Modernist Literature

       What is MODERNISM ?

Modernism is a period in literary history which started around the early 1900s and continued until the early 1940s. Modernist writers in general rebelled against clear-cut storytelling and formulaic verse from the 19th century. Instead, many of them told fragmented stories which reflected the fragmented state of society during and after World War 1.

                   Modernism is the reaction against Victorian Age,Modernists rejected the HYPOCRISY and ARTIFICIALITY of Victorians and gave importance to RATIONALITY. They rejected the traditional and simple language of narration and experimented with Stream of Consciousness, Absurdity , Science fiction, war narratives etc, Modernists broke all the old orthodox norms of Victorians.

Modernism considered as an age of Progress and Regress, it was against mob rule , Youngsters looked at Victorian Age DULL and HYPOCRITICAL , the Victorian ideals were MEAN , SUPERFICIAL and STUPID . Victorians believed in '' ART FOR ART'S SAKE while for Modernists it was ''ART FOR LIFE'S SAKE ''. Abnormality accepted as normal thing. 

• Marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views.
• Belief that the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is.
• There is no such thing as absolute truth. All things are relative.
• No connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair.
• Championship of the individual and celebration of inner strength.
• Life is unordered.
• Concerned with the sub-conscious.

Modern Poetry

Hello Folks ,

       I am composing this blog on the ground of a task assigned to me by my teacher to know more about the task CLICK HERE .

Poet	Poem	What Makes This Poem A Modern Poem ? ( Symbols , Imagery and Metaphors)
1 . T. E. Hulme	The Embankment ( 7 Lines ) The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night.) Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy, In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement. Now see I That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy. Oh, God, make small The old star-eaten blanket of the sky, That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.	Fallen gentleman symbol of something very terrible ,finesse of fiddles .
2. Joseph Campell	Darkness ( 4 Lines ) Darkness. I stop to watch a star shine in the boghole – A star no longer, but a silver ribbon of light. I look at it, and pass on.	Boghole symbol of escaping   ,  silver ribbon symbol of a ray of hope.
3.Edward Storer	Image (3 Lines ) Forsaken lovers, Burning to a chaste white moon, Upon strange pyres of loneliness and drought.	Pyre, drought archetypes of sadness , leaving loved ones .
4.Ezra Pound	In A Station Of The Metro ( 2 Lines ) The Apparition of these faces in the crowd ; Petals on a wet black bought.	Petals metaphor for humans or people , black bought symbol of loneliness.
5.H.D. Hilda Doolittle	The Pool ( 5 Lines ) Are you alive? I touch you. You quiver like a sea-fish. I cover you with my net. What are you—banded one?	Sea- fish metaphor used to describe those who are just living but already are half -dead inside , in a nutshell maybe it is a symbol of suffering .
6. Richard Aldington	Insouciance (5 Lines )  IN and out of the dreary trenches,             Trudging cheerily under the stars,         I make for myself little poems       Delicate as a flock of doves.                   They fly away like white-winged doves.	Dreary trenches metaphor for cheerlessness or darkness .
7. T. S. Eliot	Morning At The Window ( 9 Lines ) They are rattling breakfast plats in basement kitchens , And along the trampled edges of the street I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids Sprouting despondently at area gates .  The brown waves of fog toss up to me Twisted faces from the bottom of the street , And tear from a passer- by with muddy skirts An aimless smile that hovers in the air And vanishes along the level of the roots.	Trampled edges ,damp souls symbol for unhappy or tired person twisted faces
8.William Carlos Williams	The Red Wheelbarrow ( 8 Lines) So much depends upon A red wheel barrow Glazed with rain water Beside the white chickens	White chicken, red wheel and barrow symbol of something horrible .
9. Wallace Stevens	Anecdote of The Jar ( 12 Lines ) I placed a jar in Tennessee,   And round it was, upon a hill.   It made the slovenly wilderness   Surround that hill. The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild.   The jar was round upon the ground   And tall and of a port in air. It took dominion everywhere.   The jar was gray and bare. It did not give of bird or bush,   Like nothing else in Tennessee.	Jar, slovenly wilderness, bare metaphor for memory .
10. E.E. Cummings	I ( 9 Lines ) l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness	Fallen leaf symbol of isolation

THANK YOU.....

Frame study of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and The Great Dictator

 Hello Folks,

       Usually when we watch Charlie Chaplin's movies we enjoy it a lot because of it's humor but have you ever tried to understand his movies and especially the frames used in the movie, no, me neither but today I have tried to study the Frames in Charlie Chaplin's two movies, Modern Times and The Great Dictator.

        In this Frame we can see that Charlie ( worker or employee) is in washroom, he went to washroom for a few minutes but his boss is keeping an eye on his employees even in the washroom, this is Dictatorship. This is a tyranny. 

In this Frame we can see that there's a mob of unemployed protestor and they have sign boards in their hands which says zz , but when the police arrives they all vanished and the second thing is that because of the industrial revolution machines took place of humans and humans become unemployed.

In this two Frames we can see the peaceful county life and the urban life and man's quest to earn money. Somewhere in the race of earning money human is unknowingly getting away from all the small things. 

Is it really peace established after the war? 

"Cage" symbol of the helplessness of the jew people. 

Thank you..... 

 

 

Virtual Teacher's Day 2020

VIRTUAL TEACHER'S DAY 2020

Hello Folks ,
       As we all know that the whole world is suffering from the Corona pandemic, schools and collages are still shut and student's are learning through online classes on different online apps such as Google Meet , Zoom, webex and many more . So , we the student's of English Department Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University come up with an idea of the "VIRTUAL TEACHER'S DAY CELEBRATION" , in which we all prepared  promotional video as well as recorded  full lecture video and premiered on you tube as well as on Facebook, with the help of our HOD Pro. Dilip Barad Sir. 

                                                          

Promotional Video 

Sima Rathod's Video Lecture 

CLICK HERE to appear in the online quiz

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIEWER'S CHART

CLICK HERE to view the Power Point Presentation

THANK YOU...