This blog is in response to the task as a part of Sunday Reading and also critical thinking of The term Post-Truth assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Department of English, MKBU.In this blog I am going to present my understanding of the Word Post-Truth and I will also deal with some examples related to it.
"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."
Post-Truth is a term that refers to widespread documentation of and concerns about disputes over public truth claims. Post-Truth as a contemporary phenomenon is not "What is Truth?", but "Why don't we agree that this is or that is true?" While referring to the word Post-Truth, we may at first sight apply the prefix Post as time after specified situation or event. Like in post-war. But the word post truth refers to the idea to belonging to a time in which the specified concept has become an important or irrelevant.
To understand the word and its definition, we have to look towards three major parts of it.
Fact: A piece of information presented as having objective reality.
Truth: The body of real things, events, and facts, the property of being in accord with fact or reality and forcing somebody to be objectively truth must be a fact.
Opinion: Belief stronger that impression or less strong than positive knowledge or A view, judgement, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter. Opinions are the product of one's feelings.
We are in one or the other are getting opinions, a kind of manipulation in disguise of Fact or truth, which is completely opposite of it. Emotional manipulation has become an inevitable part of modern truths. We all are becoming more and more emotional rather than rational so that we are easily trapped into the information which is not true at all. Here it is very essential to differentiate two words, 1. Information and 2. Fact. There is a very wide as well as slight difference between these two words. For example, news is a kind of information supplied by Newspapers and Social Media, doesn't mean it is true or Factual. We can also say that the information can never be categorised as a part of Fact, it can also be fake. And it is very easy to turn a fake into fact nowadays.
Nowadays it has become very easy to turn Fake into Fact. And that is why the word Post-Truth has been chosen as a word of the year 2016. Fact checking is now becoming very important to be away from various fake news. The harsh reality of today's time is we accept that and never try to check whether it is true or not. Social Medias are the sources to spread these kinds of things very quickly. We can say that they never present the whole truth. It can be either half truth or complete lie.
There are two important aspects of Post-Truth, which are spreading many fake things, which are also very important to build the Nation or Society.
Post-Truth in Politics
Post-Truth in Social media/news/journalism
Let's have look of both of this aspects,
★Post-Truth in politics:-
In this form of post-truth politics, false rumours become major news topics. Lies can be used to get others to form false believes and garner their support. It is well known that false information can influence people's thinking even after they come to realise the information is false. This makes it particularly concerning when people in leadership position lie.
According to the research, former United States President Donald Trump famously made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims during the four year of his presidency. This is an average of more than 20 a day.
It is an example of foreign country, latest have a look at the current Indian political sphere.
So, these three images are about how untruths are accepted and we are not even raising our voice. GST now applied on food items as well. For this we can take an example that when Britishers laided tax on Salt, Gandhiji started Dandi kuch movement to stop the tax. This is the same India and our government as they always says, it also imitating the same Idea then why we are not raising voice against this things. The only reason is we are not checking the fact or we can say we don't want to apply our mind.
Michael Deaton of The Daily Telegraph, summarising the core message of post-Truth politics, says,, “Facts are negative, Facts are pessimistic, and Facts are unpatriotic.” In the Indian context, we may add a few more adjectives to Facts: “Facts are seditious, Facts are anti-social, or anti-national, Facts disturb social harmony, or they incite hatred.”
★Post-Truth in Social Media/news/journalism
Due to the developments in information technologies in the last 20 years, social media is frequently used especially for mobile devices for news announcement and follow-up. This has led to a large increase in the number of information produced, too. Considering information/news sharing pages on social media around the world and sharing/posting too much information or news, there are many news sources that need to be verified after being accessed. There is no accurate filtering process in the dissemination of information on social media and therefore, unverifiable news can affect the masses in a very short time. Nowadays, it is important that users check the reality of such information in social media.
Social media are very vital to spread news or facts, at the same time we can see that by the name of sharing facts, they are the main cause to spread fake news instead of fact. We are having free media but I don't think media is free. They present what is happening, not the fact behind the situation and they are even spreading lies. And whoever tries to check the truth or presents truth is either killed or imprisoned. Let's take a very recent example of India, where a reporter is accused of was checking facts and proves false news as false.
"The voice of dissent is necessary for healthy Democracy."
This news also shows that there are only a few who are checking facts. Because it is very complex to do. Below picture shows that majority people choose simple way, which is not truth.
While talking about The media in the post-truth era, In the post-truth world, a far-right embrace of social media threatens the broadcasting of truth, Ahmed Al Sheikh, the former chief editor of Al Jazeera Arabic states that,
Mainstream media must use social media tools intensively in order to defend the truth, present the correct information and balance opinions. Here he also witnesses that media are disseminating untruths.
Here he also talks about untruths disseminated by Donald Trump. To read more about the article Click here.
In the book, "Myth of Free media and Fake news in the Post-Truth era", writer Kalinga Senevirante gives the same idea of Fake news spread by free media.
In the cover photo of the book, we can see a man who can't see or speak, as per my interpretation of the poster, we are now not allowed to speak or even see the fact and it will be true if I will say we don't want to watch and speak.
As a part of critical thinking development, the Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University organised a two day thinking skills workshop by Dr. Milan Pandya sir. This workshop is very much related to the Term Post-Truth.
Thinking means when we start to apply our Mind on anything that we come across. We should not accept the thing as it is presented or shown to us. Anyone can be wrong while presenting something. We need to be Skeptical, because only this thing led us to the truth. At that time it is necessary for us to go into the roots and find out the truth. In this workshop Milan Pandya sir gave some examples of people who are at a very high position and spreading untruths. Yes, this is also true that they might not be aware of the fact, but the harsh reality is that we are not even checking whether it is true or not and disseminate the same news. Actually We are addicted to untruths, we can't even try to look at the thing critically.
He explained that context is everything. When we look at anything we have to be critical about what else has to be true. For this also he uses line,
"If something is true, what else has to be true in that."
That means to look within the truth. We also have to think whether the thing is Possible or Plausible. And have found that we all are just looking at possibilities not Plausibility. Yes, possibility is an inevitable part of thinking, but it is always necessary to look at its plausibility. And that’s what makes a man Rational animal. For that it is necessary to be Skeptical. Click here For complete explanation of the Thinking Skills workshop.
To conclude my blog I want to say that applying mind and finding facts are two essential aspects of the modern world.I hope this blog will help you to understand the concept of Post-Truth.
This blog is in response to the thinking activity of the novel Pride and Prejudice assigned by Yesha Ma'am, The Department of english. In this blog I am going to discuss Character sketch of Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, comparison between the Movie and Novel Pride and Prejudice, Illustrations 0f the society of Austen's time, My chosen actors suitable for the movie, My favourite scene, comparison of Narrative stratagy of novel and movie.
★Which version is more appealing: Movie or Novel
While comparing original novel and film adaptations, there always lies a question, Which version is more appealing. So, Click here to read my perspectives about this.
★Elizabeth Bennet
The twenty year-old Elizabeth, sometimes Lizzy, sometimes Eliza, the second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Not only is she beautiful, with eyes that made her irresistible to Mr Darcy, but she has an exceptional personality. She is high spirited but self-controlled, always guided by her good sense, which few of the other female characters in the novel have. She is self-assured, outspoken, and assertive, but never rude or aggressive.
She is very different from her sisters and even other girls. She has her own opinion and that we can see in mostly in three scenes, first, at the ball, when she tells Lucas that she will never Dance with Mr. Darcy as he has rejected her, Second, when she rejects Mr Collins and third when she rejects Mr Darcy's proposal.
In this novel she is shown as a headstrong woman, woman with pride, judgemental, mature, strong- opinions, controlled and honest character. She is portrayed as a headstrong girl and which glimpse we can find in the very first chapter of the novel. When Mrs. Bennet have conversation about Mr. Bingley, Mr. Bennet says that,
"I must throw in a good word for my Lizzy."
Moving on when Mrs. Bennet says that Lizzy is not a bit better than the others; and she is not half so handsome as Jane, nor have so good you made as Lydia, Mr. Bennet replies that,
"They have none of them much to recommended them. They are all silly and ignorant like other girls, but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters."
So, these lines of Mr Bennet in the very first chapter proves that she has something uniqueness within her than others. We can see that she is both proudy and Judgmental but at the end her this sort of prejudice melts with the revelation of Mr Darcy's truth of himself and his way of life. In chapter 5, when Mr. Darcy tells Mr Bingley, Elizabeth is not handsome enough to tempt him, she assures her friend Miss Charlotte Lucas that,
"I could not easily forgive his pride, if he has not mortified mine".
This line presents both the emotions parallel, Female ego or we can say female expectations and judgemental tendency and prejudice towards him. The same thing, we see when Mr. Wickham spoils her ears. Now she is more prejudiced towards Mr. Darcy. Besides, she is a very caring sister. When Jane is ill, she goes to the Netherfield park to take care of her.
Later on her prejudice has converted into pride as she decides she will never accept Mr. Darcy's proposal as he has rejected her. But At the end of the novel, we can see that when Mr Darcy gives appropriate reasons why he has done the things, she forgives him and thus the novel ends happily.
★Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy:-
Colonel Fitzwilliam is the younger son of an earl and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy, making him a cousin of Anne de Bourgh and the Darcy siblings, Fitzwilliam and Georgiana.
In the novel he is portrayed as a Man with pride (Male ego), introvert, observer, silent lover, superiority complex, and true lover. All these types of personality we can see from the beginning to the end with character development. Inthe beginning of the novel, he is portrayed as a very proudy person. Even at the ball party he tells his friend Mr Bingley about to dance with Elizabeth Bennett that,
"She is not handsome enough to tempt me."
She was also the cause why Bingley left Netherfield park and so Jane Bennet. This we come to know when Mr. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth that Mr. Darcy has saved his friend from the relationship. All these things make him too proudy in front of Miss Elizabeth.
He didn't like Elizabeth but he always praises her eyes a lot. But as time passes he feels something for her. When he confesses his feelings to her, there is also a deep presentation of pride and class consciousness. When he says,
"In vain I have struggled. It will not do! My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. In declaring myself thus I'm fully aware that I will be going expressly against the wishes of my family, my friends, and, I hardly need add, my own better judgement."
She rejects his proposal as, Darcy's Cousin Mr Fitzwilliam accidentally reveals to Elizabeth that Darcy has separated Bingley and Jane due to her low birth and lack of fortune. He did not know that Elizabeth and Jane were sisters. In this scene, we come to know that he was not proudy man but he can't connect socially very much like others. He gives appropriate reasons about Wickham and the relationship of his Friend Mr Bingley in the letter. After this justification, we come to know that Mr. Darcy first found Lydia and Mr. Wickham and helped them financially to get married. By the revelation of Lydia to Elizabeth about his help her prejudice breaks apart and thus accepts his proposal. Therefore in this novel, Jane Austen developed the character of Mr Darcy from his first rejection to marry Elizabeth Bennet.
★Illustration of the society of the time of Jane Austen:-
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was written in the Georgian Era which is a well developed book that demonstrates the society and cultural views of the time she was living. The original name of the book was called first impressions which incorporated the novel's main themes such as marriage, social class prejudice, pride and how the characters of this book can be portrayed through their point of view in this era. There are many things which present the time of our writer.
1. Social aspect:-
The social class in England in the 19th century was influenced by the industrial revolution and the impact of the industrial revolution had a great influence especially in forming the structure of the society. They are
Upper class
Middle class
Lower Class
But Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice only reflects two structure of the society,
Upper class : Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley
Middle Class: Bennet Family
2.Cultural aspect:-
Through Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen introduces the major theme of marriage and how the society's beliefs of marriage was at the time.. Jane Austen uses marriage in this book as a way for the reader to see the different characters' opinions on marriage and for the marriage goes into showing the societal views during this time period. Very first line of the novel is all about marriage and thus is the only thing on which the plot of the novel is based.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife."
In the novel Mrs. Bennet is always busy getting her daughters married to perfect and wealthy suiters. This we can see by her behaviour and also by narrative of Austen,
"The business of her life was to get her daughters married; it's solace was visiting and news."
When Lydia gets married to Mr Wickham, she behaves like she has won the battle.
After the marriage, the wives tended to stay at home to manage the households and took care of the family. In this novel, Charlotte Lucas after becoming Williams Collins’s wife, she also tended to stay at home and managed the households.
In the nineteenth century many people, especially the upper class, enjoyed an aristocratic excessive diet, and married women from this class enjoyed increasing leisure. The amount of reading and writing grew voluminously. It was common to judge everything materially, money and wealth became the standard of pride and dignity. Ball parties also illustrate social gatherings. At that time a girl should have some knowledge of music, painting and other things that we can see by the statement of Miss Bingley,
"She must have thorough knowledge of music, painting, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern Languages to deserve the world and something in her air and manner of Walking."
The clothings are also illustrates the 18th century. Jane Austen’s characters are continually watching, judging and gossiping about others and, in turn, are watched, judged and gossiped about. All these presents the common way of life of people.
3. Religion:-
Jane Austen represents William Collins as the religious person. He is a clergyman and he has a patroness, Lady Catherine. She always pays attention to his wishes, and consideration for his comfort, appears very remarkable. William Collins had already had the honor of preaching her. So, in this way Jane Austen illustrated her time in the novel Pride and Prejudice.
If you were a director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of a movie? Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?
If I were a director or screenplay writer, i would make some changes. Like some scenes are omitted in the movie, which are very important to build the plot. I would reduce the melodrama a little from the beginning, when Mrs. Bennet asks Mr Bennet to permit and come along with them to the Netherfield park.
I would choose,
Elizabeth - Kriti Sanon or Shraddha Kapoor,
Mr. Darcy - Hritik Roshan, Ajay Devgan
Mr. Bingley- Siddharth Malhotra, Shahid Kapur
Jane- Ananya Pande
Mr. Collins - Rajpal Yadav (if I want comic character), and Ritesh Deshmukh
Wickham:- Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonu Sood
Write a note on a scene you liked the most.
A scene that I like the most is when Mr. Collins proposes to Miss Elizabeth and she rejects it very openly. The reason I like the scene is that in the time when the novel was written, women were supposed to get married to a man who was wealthy. Mrs. Bennet also wants the same, but Elizabeth presents her own opinion about her getting married to Mr. Collins. Another reason why I like this scene is that Mr. Bennet supports her daughter whichever decision she has taken.
Narrative Strategy of Novel and Movie:-
Though both the movie and Novel are having the same story line, the narrative strategy of both are very different from each other. According to the beginning, middle and ending I have different narrative patterns. To justify my interpretation I will present tables of that,
In the beginning of the novel we have narrative of novelist herself by the sentence.
"It is the truth universally acknowledge, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in a one of wife."
But the movie starts with the female protagonist Elizabeth reading a book, which shows Elizabeth as a literate girl and a girl who is interested in reading. We can also say that it depicts the development of her character from the beginning. Moving on to the character development and also the development of the story line there are many scenes which are having differences in dialogues and situations. Narration is also very different from each other. At the end of the novel we find that the novel ends with the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth but at the same time the movie ends with an intimate scene between Mr Darcy and Miss Elizabeth but not with the marriage.
For a brief overview of the novel watch the given video.
To sum up my views of the Novel and movie Pride and Prejudice, I have tried here to illustrate my perspectives of various aspects. If you find any suggestions to my blog, do write in the comment section. I hope it will be helpful to you.
This blog is in response to the task "The Rape of Lock' assigned by Vaidehi ma'am. In this blog I am going to deal with the questions like, protagonist of the poem, my views about beauty, singnificance or symbolism of Hair and also going to discuss one of Research paper on The Rape of the Lock.
★Introduction:-
The Rape of the Lock is a Mock Heroic Epic written by Alexander Pope. The first version of the poem was published in 1712, which comprised 2 cantos. The final version was published in 1714 and it was expanded to five cantos. The poem is a mock-epic that satirizes the upper class in London at the time. The story focuses on the central character Belinda, whose lock of hair is cut off at a social gathering by Baron. In this poem, Pope uses Belinda and Baron to mock two of his acquaintances, Arabella Fermor and Lord Peter.
★Protagonist of the Mock Heroic Epic The Rape of the Lock: Belinda or Clarissa:
While thinging about the Protagonist of the poem, we must have to have sight of both of their role and Character traits in the poem. Because only by that we can make certain decisions and can justify why we are thinking of one of them as a protagonist. So here first of all I will look at both of their role and their way of thinking, and then I will give an explanation of why I have chosen one of them as the protagonist.
♦Belinda:-
Blinda is the central character of the olay. Opening lines of the poem make it very clear to the readers that she is the central character and heroine of the poem. She is also a very complex character. Her character is presented under different roles and shades. Belinda is presented as,
An object of Admiration and Mockery
Representative of Social class of 18th century.
A lady of Romantic nature
She is totally blind with a sense of pride and arrogance. but on the other hand she is very emotional. We can judge her emotions when she fights with Baron.
She lacks spirituality. She is caucious about her personal reputation rather than spiritual purity and has no sense of moral integrity.
♦Clarissa:-
Clarissa ia woman in attendance at the Hampton Court party. She lands the Baron scissors with which Baron cuts Belinda's Hair locks, and later delivers a moralising lecture. As per my understanding, She presents a kind of contrast within herself. In the beginning of Canto 5, she hands on the scissor to Baron the cut Belinda's hair locks. And when the task is done she gives a moral lecture to Belinda for her loss.
But a close reading of Clarrisa's Speech in canto 5 shows her to be the poem's best balanced of the character. Clarissa reminds Belinda that:
"Ho vain are all these Glories, all our pains,
Unlessgood Sense preserve what Beauty gains."
To her, a man is a fool to desire a woman for beauty alone, and a woman is a fool to demonstrate nothing but beauty in order to attract him. She so richly points out that beauty alone is no virtue, for it is feeling.
So, Both Belinda Clarissa have different views towards life. Protagonist generally means the leading character of any work. So in this sense BElinda is a protagonist as the whole story moves in and around her character and her way of looking towards the world. Belinda believes in outward beauty or materialism while Clarissa believes in inner beauty or Moral side of a character. When thinking of Who is the protagonist, If we consider beauty as a leading aspect of the Protagonist then Belinda is perfectly suitable for that. She has no worries about other things except her beauty.
But the concept of the protagonist is also not suitable to her. In canto 2, Pope gives description where Benida awakes from sleeping, The Dream of Belinda and her social activities, Nothing else. She is purely devoted to her beauty and doesn't care except that. In the poem, we can see that she is not able to even help herself as Ariel always protects her from problems. In canto 3, when Baron cuts her hair locks, she behaves like she has lost everything. In this sense she is too melodramatic and too much conscious about her outer beauty.
In the comparison of Belinda, Clarissa is a very clear and focused girl, who knows the traits of life very well. Though she gets only a small part of conversation or the play, she delivers the way of looking and ultimate truth regarding inner and outer beauty. But it is a bit confusing to consider one as a protagonist.
As Belinda holds the central position in the play she is the heroine or the protagonist of the play, but if we think about maturity in a protagonist, Clarissa perfectly fits in it.
★Concept of Beauty
It is always very difficult to justify the concept of Beauty as we all have a certain mindset or definition of the word Beauty. I am also interested to know the concept and especially definition of this word. While going through the definitions of this word I have found two concepts of Beauty, one from Google and one from Merriam Webster dictionary. There are also other concepts but they all present these two concepts but in different manner. So let's start with these definitions.
According to Google dictionary,
Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.
According Merriam Webster dictionary,
Beauty is the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit : loveliness."
If we look at both the definitions, we come to know that beauty is both Subjective and objective. First definition explores the idea that outer beauty means objectivity, while the second one gives an idea of Inner beauty means subjectivity.
As per me, both kinds of Beauty are necessary. Both have their own advantages. But at the same time we have to understand that physical Beauty should not be the dominant one and neglect inner beauty. We have so many examples of it. For instance, Miss World contest is not only by very beautiful Ladies, I mean the concept which is accepted by society. - fair skin, Zero figure, walk style and other ways. Module Kwelagobe won the title of Miss Universe 1999 and Zozibini Runs won the same title in 2019, which proves the first kind of beauty concept wrong.
If we look at the poem The Rape of the Lock we can see this contrast of beauty. Belinda presents the concept of outer beauty while Clarissa presents inner beauty or maturity.
So per me, beauty isn't only about the outer way of looking. But beauty is within our life and soul that we generally know as inner beauty.
★Research paper on Rapenof the Lock and explanation of that:-
In this research paper writers emphasise on five major aspects of the poem.
Woman
Love
Fashion
Society
Attitude
In the beginning they talk about the mastery of Alexander Pope in Heroic couplets and it's development and in Pope's literary works. In the poem The rape of the lock Pope Express is the folies of women in the society. The poem is a copy of real womanhood of the age. The research Scholars state that,
"Women are all frivolous and whose genuine interest is in love making."
Fashionable ladies used to wake up late. They are engaged in decorating themselves with jewels, dresses, ornaments and cosmetics. In short they want to look attractive, they want flattering. Pope also presents that the youths of the day were very fashionable about their dresses. They thought they are unfortunate if they don't have half a dozen belowed at a time. Two major things about aristocratic men are presented in the paper in a very good manner.
Essence of life - Love making
Chief object - The pursuit of woman
In this way the Pope depicts society very frankly. The paper is further about the Publication controversies of the poem and then Supernatural machinery of the poem. In the poem Super Natural beings can change their shape and sex, can see the future. Arial is always busy looking for Belinda, who we can consider as Belinda's protector. Belinda is depicted here as a very lazy girl who wakes up late and after that she spends plenty of time beautifying herself.
"From each she nicely culls with curious toil
And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil."
The concern with the hero is also disputable. The Baron is also a characteristic young man of the period taking part in the Hampton Court. He prays to the deity for fulfillment of his desire of possessing Belinda's Lock. He want to possess it by force and by fraud. And he is able to cut one of her locks by cunningness. Logically if Belinda is the heroine, the Baron should be the hero, but his role is so short and it would be true or to say that the poem has no Hero.
Though the paper is about Contemporary Womanhood is well presented here in the paper, the major points of the poem have been covered in research paper. So it was my interpretation of one of the research papers on the poem. If you find any other interpretations, do write in the comment below.
★Significance of Hair/ is it symbolic?
The title of the poem "The Rape of the lock" itself suggests that there is something related to the Hair. But when we have a first look at title, we may fimd a kind of absurdity as the word Rape is included. Rape is a serious matter and we have a question that how Rape and lock suppose to be connected in this particular work. After reading the poem , we come to know there there is nothing serious like Rape but one of the Hair locks of our protagonist Belinda has cut by Baron and it was not by her consent, it is called as the Rape. hair referred to in the title is also a powerful symbol both of vanity and of the power of female beauty over men. So in this sense, Hair is a very important aspect of the poem.
Further, the poem is all about Hair locks. But there is also a hidden meaning of the concept of beuty. Lock of the Hair of Belinda adds charm in her beauty or we can say adds more Beauty.
Here is the trailer of the movie,
For better understanding of the poem go through this V.
★Conclusion:-
To sum up the blog, I will say that the poem is kind of satire to the upper or aristocratic class, not only of that era but in present time such aristocracy and trivialities also taking place. In this term, Alexander Pope is the true observer of the society.
Thanks for Read. I hope I will be helpful to you to understand the poem.
Romantic movement began in England with the Publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It also marks the ending of the Neo-Classical age, in which poets and writers used to follow classical writers and their way of writing. So after the publication of Lyrical Ballads, there was new enthusiasm and ways of writing. For this reason, we first have to understand the difference between Classicism and Romanticism.
Difference between "Classicism" and "Romanticism"
To understand the difference between Classicism and Romanticism, we first have to understand both terms. Classicism and Romanticism are opposing movements and styles which influenced all the major arts like Architecture, Painting, Music and Literature. Both have different ways of looking and thus different ideologies. In Classicism, Intellect is the Guiding force, While in Romanticism Imagination is the guiding force. In Classicism there were certain restraints but in Romanticism there was Liberty, Freedom and free play of emotions and feelings.
Classicism defines beauty which demonstrates balance and order, as it originates in the Greek and Roman societies. Romanticism developed in the 18th century partially as a reaction against the ideas of classicism and expresses beauty through imagination and powerful emotions. The name "Classical" was given to the Greeks and Romans retroactively by Renaissance writers. Artists and thinkers of The Renaissance which literally means, 'rebirth' saw themselves as the heirs of that world following in the middle ages. Its ideals continued to exert strong influence into the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. But after the publication of Lyrical Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, the influence of classical ended, and there we find the emergence of the Romantic movement.
The French revolution had a deep influence on Romanticism and Wordsworth and thus imitated them for their writings. This led to the "Liberalism in literature". The political liberalism of the French revolution inspired the liberation of individuality and rejection of prescribed rules in Romantic literature. Romantic poets were inspired by the ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty which were the three watch words of the French revolution.
Lyrical Ballads:-
Lyrical is a collection of poems. It was first published in 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It marks the beginning of the Romantic movement.
In the year 1800, two years after publication of Lyrical Ballads, the second edition was published. For this edition William Wordsworth composed an essay, named The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, which was expanded by him in the third edition in 1802. In the beginning of this preface to Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth explains the purpose behind the collection of poems: it was an "experiment" to determine whether poetry written in 'the real language of men' could be successful. Wordsworth readily admits that the poetry in this collection might not be viewed as poetry at all, because it is so vastly different from what readers have come to expect from poetry. In preface, he gives definition of poetry as,
"Spontaneous overflow of Powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in Tranquility."
In this he also gives an explanation of various features like,
What is Poet?
What is Poetry?
Subject and Theme of Poetry
Poetics diction
Function of poetry
Language of poetry
What is Poet?
Why Wordsworth say 'What' is poet Rather than Who is poet.
In his preface Wordsworth says 'What' is poet? rather than Who is poet. To justify his argument he gives the definition of What is poet.
"A poet is a man speaking to men, endowed with more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of Human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, who rejoices, more than other men in the spirit of life; habitually impelled to creative volitions, passions and situations where he does not find them."
By the definition of William Wordsworth of What is poet, we can find certain points.
1. A man endowed with more enthusiasm and tenderness
2. Greater knowledge of Human nature
3. A more comprehensive soul
4. Different in spirit than other man
5. He is habitually more creative than other men.
All of the above mentioned points suggest that a poet is more imaginative, comprehensive, enthusiastic and imaginative person, and these are the points which differentiate a poet and common man.
By this definition Wordsworth presents that the poet is very different from other human being as he has acquired a greater readiness and power in expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and feelings which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own mind, arise in him without immediate external excitement.
What is poetic diction? Which sort of poetic diction is suggested by Wordsworth in his Preface?
In the third edition of Lyrical Ballads published in 1802, he elaborately explained his theory of poetic diction. He was highly against sophisticated language of the 18th century and that's why he gave rustic colours to the poetic diction. While writing about Poetic Diction, He states that,
"The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure."
Poetic diction generally means "Choice of Words". There are so many controversial aspects of Wordsworth's Poetic diction.
He rejects classical belief that poetry should be evaluated and composed in a formal style. As a result of which he presents rural life- the lives of ordinary men and women, farmers. He used the language which is used by common man. There is no high poetic diction. Wordsworth gives 3 principles for the explanation of Poetic diction to justify his arguments, which are..
1. The language of poetry should be the language ‘really used by men’, but it should be a ‘selection’ of such language. All the words used by the people cannot be employed in poetry. It should be filtered and refined. The refined vernacular words should be the diction of poetry.
2. It should be the language of men in a state of vivid sensation. It should have a certain colouring of imagination. The poet should give the colour of his imagination to the language employed by him in poetic composition.
3. There is no ‘essential’ difference between the words used in prose and in metrical composition. Wordsworth means if the words in conversation are properly selected, it would provide the rough framework of the language of poetry, which is heightened by feeling and emotion. Through the power of imagination the poet can select words fit for poetic composition. When the poet is truly inspired, his imagination will enable him to select from the language really used by men.
In Biographia Literaria (1817), S. T. Coleridge shows strong disagreement to Wordsworth's Poetic Diction, he asks Wordsworth what does mean by language "really used by men." The controversy of Wordsworth's poetic diction is that he himself does not adhere to that kind of Diction in his own poems. In his disagreement to Wordsworth's poetic diction, he selects one of Wordsworth's poems named 'Michael', as per Coleridge it does not depict common man life rather it is an exceptional one.
What is Poetry?
Discuss 'Daffodils- wandered as a lonely cloud ' with reference to Wordsworth's poetic creed.
The Romantic age is dominated by the genre Poetry. After Dryden, Wordsworth offered the definition of poetry. In the Preface he gives the definition of Poetry.
"Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, it takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquility."
The definition shows that poetry is something which spontaneously flows the feelings and emotions, which are there in the imagination of the poet. It means first feelings and emotions are captured by a poet. After that when he writes a poem he recollects those feelings and emotions. Poetry has its origin in the internal feelings of the poet. It is a matter of passion, mood and temperament. Poetry cannot be produced by strictly adhering to the rules laid down by the Classicists. To understand his idea of poetry we have to look at an example. One of his poem daffodils is an excellent example which is truly fitted to his definition of poetry.
The poem 'Daffodils' is also known by its first line 'I wandered as lonely Cloud'. It is a lyrical poem, published in 1807. The poem contains Four stanzas. First Three stanzas are in Past tense and the last stanza is in present tense. The poem begins with,
"I wandered as a lonely cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,"
We can find that the first line is in the past tense. Further two stanzas are also in past tense. Which shows that the poet is sharing something that took place in the past, but if we move towards the last stanza the poet uses the present tense.
"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood"
In the last Stanza, the poet comes to the present. If we observe the poem, we can find that the poet is presenting his thoughts and feelings while lying on the couch and recollecting his nature walk, as he is a Lake poet- who writes while having walk through the Lake. So in vacant time he recollects his emotions and feelings about Daffodils. According to his definition of poetry, it is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, which took place by recollected tranquility. By the observation of the poem, we can find that this poem clearly justifies his definition of poetry.
To conclude, Wordsworth in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads gives understanding of major aspects of poetry including poet. In the second edition, he tries to remove misconceptions towards his theory of poetry. We can say that by this explanation he emphasizes the real source of inspiration which is Nature.
To get further information of the Preface to Lyrical Ballads Click Here or Here
