The Rivals – Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)

 

          Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the most important dramatist of the 18^th century, was born in Dublin in 1751.  His father Thomas Sheridan, an Irish actor-manager had a name for himself in his profession.  So, he had taken young Sheridan to the town of Bath, where he established an Institute for elocution and grammar in 1770.  Sheridan used to write sonnets, verses, satires and lampoons upon others.  However, his powers as a dramatist are displayed in design, in dialogues, in most effective presentation of comic characters.  That’s why Balston has said, “Of the only three plays in the English language besides those of Shakespeare which have achieved permanent popularity, two, ‘The school for Scandal’ and ‘The Rivals’ are by Sheridan, the third, ‘She Stoops to Conquer’, is by Oliver Goldsmith.  Moreover, it is also said in the warfare with sentimentality Goldsmith was an elder not a better soldier than Sheridan.

          Sheridan’s first play ‘The Rivals was staged in 1775.  As the play was not a success, he revised it and staged it again.  However, the revised play became a big success.  After writing a farce and a comic opera, he staged ‘The School for Scandal’ in 1777, which won him immediate recognition. ‘The Critic’ which he wrote in 1779 was the last play as he selected parliamentary career as his life long one.  Though he shone well in his social and political life of London, his excellence as a dramatist still helps him shine better.  Such were his precision of diction in dialogues and skill in the construction of scenes in his plays.

          ‘The Rivals’ is a comedy of situation and intrigue.  As the title indicates many of the characters consider themselves as ‘rivals’.  The play opens with a chance meeting of Fag, the servant of Captain Absolute and Thomas, the Coachman of Captain’s Father, Sir. Anthony in a street of Bath.  Captain Absolute is there in Bath in the guise of poor Ensign Beverley with the hope of winning the hands of Miss. Lydia Languish.  Sir. Anthony visits Bath with his ward, Julia for his gout, as the city water is a cure of gout.  Lydia, is greatly disturbed because of her aunt’s discovery of her secret love- intrigue with Beverley.  Her tough aunt Mrs. Malaprop not only stands against her love but insists her to marry Bob Acres.  Then Julia enters.  Both talk about their love affairs.  Though Julia and Faulkland love each other, Julia thinks that Faulkland is jealous and has no faith in himself where as Faulkland is afraid whether her love towards him is out of gratitude on his saving her from a boat accident.

          When Sir. Anthony absolute enters, Mrs. Malaprop talks about the love affair of Lydia.  When Sir. Anthony proposes his son Captain Absolute as Lydia’s husband, she withdraws her candidature and gives her consent.  Both Sir. Anthony and Mrs. Malaprop are ignorant of the fact that Lydia’s lover, Ensign Beverley is none other than Captain Absolute.  Mrs. Malaprop wants to have the marriage of her niece at the earliest.  Then she may not have any problem to continue the secret love affair with Sir. Lucius O’ Trigger.  Because she knows very well that the letters that she sent to him with the name ‘Delia’ is considered by him as they were the letters from the charming niece of Mrs. Malaprop.

          When Fag and Captain Absolute talk about the arrival of Sir. Anthony, Faulkland enters.  The two friends exchange their love affairs with Lydia and Julia.  Bob Acres enters then and talks about his rival Ensign Beverley.  Actually he is not aware that the Ensign and his friend (Absolute) Jack are one and the same person.  After his departure, Sir. Anthony enters the scene.  He wants his son to marry a rich heiress of his choice.  Captain Absolute says that he won’t marry a girl whom he has not known or seen.  Moreover, when he says that he has already pledged his love to another lady, Sir. Anthony is greatly shocked and says that if he disobeys him, in that case, he will disinherit and even disown him and leaves.  However, when Lucy, the maid servant of Mrs. Malaprop delivers a letter of Mrs. Malaprop to Sir. Lucius and gets kissed by him, Fag enters there.  So Lucy has to reveal the truth that it was the letter of Mrs. Malaprop to Sir. Lucius that she delivered to him.  She also tells Fag that Beverley has now to face a worse rival than Bob Acres.  That is Captain Absolute who has been proposed by Sir. Anthony to get married to Lydia.

          Captain Absolute is happy at the news brought by Fag that whom his father insisted to marry is Lydia herself.  So, he meets his father with his willingness to marry the girl of his father’s choice.  With a letter of introduction from his father, he meets Mrs. Malaprop.  Mrs. Malaprop not only talks of her niece’s foolish infatuation for poor Ensign Beverley but also gives him a letter of Beverley to Absolute.  However, Captain Absolute makes Mrs. Malaprop to bring Lydia to him by saying that Beverley has come to see her.  Lydia is greatly surprised to see Beverley there.  Captain Absolute explains that somehow he has supplanted his rival and impersonates him there.  Lydia is pleased to see her aunt deceived and wants to implement her plan of elopement if he decides to forgo her dowry.  Absolute assures her that her beauty and love are all the dowry he values.  However, Mrs. Malaprop has all the time been over hearing the talk between Captain and Lydia.  On the contrary, in the meeting of Julia and Faulkland, he says that when lovers are separated, they should shed tears of sorrow.  Then in a long speech about true love unfortunately complains that women often profess love for men for motives other than that of true love.  Julia bursts into passion, begins weeping and leaves the room.  Then only he realizes his mistake of torturing a faithful girl.  However, he resolves not to treat her like this anymore.

          The simple-minded Bob Acres decides to fight a duel with Beverley at the instigation of Sir. Lucius and writes a letter of challenge.  However, David his servant advises him not to have a duel with Beverley.  So, Bob Acres hands over the letter of challenge to Captain Absolute and wants him to act as his second in the duel.  Captain Absolute is greatly amused on hearing this, declines to accept that honour and suggests the name of Sir. Lucius.  Then Captain Absolute is taken by his father to the house of Mrs. Malaprop.  But Lydia refuses to look at the new suitor, not to speak for receiving his address when Absolute is compelled to speak, he talks in a very low gruff tone lest she should recognize him as Beverley.  Sir. Anthony asks his son to speak clearly and Lydia to show them honour by turning her face.  Lydia recognizes her Beverley’s voice in the young man.  Absolute is caught in his deception.  Lydia is frustrated and wild with anger for the deception practiced on her so long by the Captain.  However, Sir. Anthony and Mrs. Malaprop decide to forgive the two young persons, leaving them alone to settle their problem.  Absolute fails to convince Lydia.  Sir. Lucius who thinks that Absolute has spoiled his chances of marrying Lydia, challenges him to fight a duel with him.  Absolute, takes up the challenge and agrees to have the fight at king’s Mead-fields that evening.

          Both Absolute and Faulkland meet and disburden their disappointments in love.  Absolute asks Faulkland to act as his second in his duel with Sir. Lucius.  On hearing this incorrigible capriciousness of Faulkland makes him to plan another test for Julia’s consistency in love for him.  He meets her and tells her that as he has killed a person in a duel he has to leave England immediately.  Hearing this Julia proposes to share his sorrows, go in exile with him and marry him.  Then Faulkalnd tells her that it is a cooked up story.  But Julia who is terribly shocked at the capricious jealousy of her lover leaves Faulkland out o despair.  The disappointed Faulkalnd goes to king’s mead-fields to act as Absolute’s seoncd.  When Julia and Lydia talk about their lovers, Mrs. Malaprop enters the room with Fag and David shouting ‘murder and man-slaughter in the fields’.

          At king’s Mead-fields, on seeing Absolute with Faulkland, Sir. Lucius takes Faulkland to be Beverley.  But Bob Acres says that he will fight with only Beverley.  Thus Absolute declares himself to be Beverley.  Acres says that he won’t fight with his friend Absolute.  But Sir. Lucius draws his sword to fight with his opponent Absolute.  Sir. Anthony along with all women intervene and prevent the fight.  When Sir. Lucius talks about the letter of ‘Delia’, Mrs. Malaprop reveals the truth and declares herself to be ‘Delia’.  When Sir. Lucius decides not to marry Mrs. Malaprop, Sir. Anthony steps into cheer the disappointed Mrs. Malaprop, by saying, “you are in your bloom yet’.  When Lydia offers her hand to Absolute, Sir. Anthony advises Julia and Faulkland also to get married.  He also propses a drink for their health and wishes a husband for Mrs. Malaprop.  Thus ‘The Rivals’ a comedy of manners reflects the ways of life of a particular social class – men and women whose follies and foibles are made subjects of fun and satire.  It also ends happily with its objects achieved by correcting the manners and refining the conduct of the majority of the characters of the play.

Sheridan’s attitude towards sentimental comedy and his satiric portraiture of contemporary society

 

By the middle of the 18^th century the sentimental comedy had fully established itself on the English Stage.  The comedy of manners, so popular in the restoration period, was then rapidly degenerating.  It became much too coarse, artificial and blantantly immoral.  Its heroes and heroines became immoral.  Wit and humour were completely replaced by ‘conscious moralization’.  So, a reaction against sentimentalism began to grow in the domain of drama.  However, it resulted gradually in the revival of the comedy of manners in a new setting.  However, the pioneers of this reaction were Goldsmith and Sheridan who declared war against the sentimental comedies, while Goldsmith registered this protest in his essay on ‘On the theatre’ and illustrated his views in his comedy ‘The good-natured man’.  Sheridan projected his protest with greater force in his three plays, ‘The Rivals’, ‘The School for Scandal’ and ‘The Critic’.

          Though ‘The Rivals’ is an artificial comedy of manners, it is not totally devoid of sentimentalism. Obviously Sheridan tries to satirize the heroine of sentimental comedy in the person of Lydia Languish who is ready ‘to die with disappointment’.  Similarly, in the Julia-Faulkland episode Julia loves Faulkland, who is an incorrigible sentimentalist.  He is obsessed with some fixed ideas about love, sex and marriage.  He is full of doubts about the sincerity of his beloved. Every time Faulkland meets Julia, he finds occasions to quarrel with her and Julia has to leave him with tears.  All these draw sympathy from the spectators for poor Julia.  Moreover, the play ends with a note of moral preaching.  Thus, though Sheridan tried to attack sentimentality in his plays, yet he could not completely get rid of the prevailing force of sentimentality.  But, through these characters and the situations he satirizes the manners, habits and follies of the people of the contemporary society.

          Sheridan attempts to portrait the pleasures, intrigues as well as the artificial conventions and follies of the aristocratic section of the eighteenth century.  Lydia Languish is a satiric portrait of the one whose head had been turned by her reading of too many romantic novels.  In Faulkland his jealousy is exaggerated.  In Mrs Malaprop, Sheridan satirizes the provincial woman desperately trying to live up to the smartness of Bath by her muddle-headed but unconscious life of learned words.  In the character of Sir Antony, Absolute, Sheridan presents a satiric portrait of the type of self willed authoritative father of the old conservative school who believes in keeping an iron hand over his son even when he has grown into an adult.  Through Sir Lucius O’ Trigger Sheridan satirizes the type of adventures with whom fighting is a kind of pastime.  Bob Acres represents the type of foolish country-squire who believes that merely by putting on fine dress and assuming a swaggering air he can win the love of his lady.

The Rivals is full of series of cleverly devised situations and intrigues.  All the complications arising out of these situations continue to develop the theme.

The central theme of the play is that there is quadrangular rivalry among four sets of characters for the heroine, Lydia Languish.  They are Ensign Beverley, Captain Absolute, Sir Lucius O’ Trigger and Bob Acres. Thus, ‘The Rivals’ represents the superficial habits and manners of only the then fashionable society of aristocratic and middle classes.  The dialogues are witty, sharp, keen, humorous, sparkling in brilliant exchange of words.  Sheridan’s main aim of writing this play was to provide entertainment to his audience.  So, he may lack the high seriousness and the depth of Shakespeare.   But Sheridan occupies an important position in the history of English drama.  Some critics give him even the second place after Shakespeare.

 

 -----Thulasidharan V

Procrastination of Hamlet

 

Procrastination of Hamlet

 

          William Shakespeare is said to be not of an age, but of all time and not of a land but of all lands. He had an amazing genius for words.  Hamlet is considered as one of the best tragedies of Shakespeare.  The mental torture that Hamlet faces makes this tragedy at the top of all tragedies of Shakespeare.  The death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother with Claudius shattered Hamlet.  When the ghost of his father appeared and asked him to take revenge upon his uncle Claudius, who had killed him, Hamlet decided to kill his uncle.  But there appeared procrastination.  Though he was fully aware that Procrastination as the thief of time, he postponed his revenge.  He unnecessarily delayed to get confirmed whether it was Claudius, who had killed his father.  But unfortunately he had to pay a big price for his delay.

          There is a play within the play in the third act.  Before that Hamlet asks one of the players to deliver a dialogue from Virgil’s Aeneus.  When he saw the genuine emotion of the actor on his narrating the pathetic condition of Hecuba, after her husband Priam’s death, Hamlet delivers a soliloquy.  There Hamlet bitterly scolds himself for his ruthless delay to execute his revenge.  He calls himself as “A dull and muddy-mettled rascal”.  He even considers himself as a prostitute and a kitchen menial, who suffer everything and lead a life of shame and vulgar as he can’t take revenge upon his uncle.  However, he finds the reason that causes procrastination in him.  So he wants to play, ‘Mouse trap’ and catch the king red handed.  He says

          “The Play’s the thing

          Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

Thus he justifies his procrastination.  Moreover he doubts the ghost and thinks that sometimes it may deceive him and lead him to commit the sin of murder.  So, he wants to get confirmed of the crime of Claudius before taking revenge.

          Then in his soliloquy, “To be or not to be, that is the question’, Hamlet has a doubt in his mind.  He is in a dilemma: whether he has to suffer silently the cruelties of fate or to put an end to all the sufferings by committing suicide.  As he doesn’t know what is waiting for him after his death, he decides not to commit suicide.  Thus this soliloquy reveals the speculative nature of Hamlet than any other soliloquy.  Here he becomes more of a philosopher than a man of action by saying,

          “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all”

          In another situation, he hesitates to kill his uncle on his finding him in prayer.  He thinks that as Claudius is in direct connection with God then, his killing him will send him to heaven.  When his father gets tortured in Hell, how can he send his murderer to heaven?  So, he decides not to kill him then.  He puts his sword down by saying

          “And now I’ll do it,

            And so a goes to Heaven’

Instead, he decides to wait for an opportunity, where he may find him sleep and drunk or do some equally wicked deed.  Here he evades the responsibility that has been entrusted to him by the ghost, by finding same reasons not to kill his uncle.  Thus Hamlet’s procrastination becomes the assassin of opportunity.  As Hamlet is a man of moral idealism he shows an unlimited delight and faith in everything that’s good and beautiful.  So, it is clear that the revenge is delayed because of  the peculiar temperament and character of  him.  Instead he might have killed his uncle and revealed the truth to all.  Thus he could have made his revenge an inevitable one.  But that he never did. So, his delay makes many die including the innocent people like Ophelia and Laertes.  Thus the procrastination of Hamlet becomes the main villain in the play that creates all the troubles in Hamlet’s life.

Woman Characters in Hamlet have been designed to be called as "Frailty thy name is woman"

 

          Shakespeare's Hamlet is remarkable for its richness and variety, its fullness of interesting characters, and its striking contrasts. There are only two female characters, Gertrude and Ophelia. Both are sincerely loving Hamlet and are loved by Hamlet. But the words and deeds of them make big wounds in the mind of Hamlet. Mainly the hasty second marriage of his mother with his uncle Claudius ruins Hamlet. His concept about women changes, and he generalizes that all women are weak and they have no strength of character. His remark 'Frailty thy name is woman' is fully applicable to both the female characters in the play. This remark comes in the soliloquy that he makes just after the urge of his mother and uncle Claudius not to go to the University.

          Hamlet recalls the profuse tears that his mother had shed at the time of his father's death. Like Niobe she had followed his father's dead body to the graveyard. He wonders how it was possible to get married to Claudius within a month, who is far inferior to his father.  Moreover, he deplores the fact that she has now entered into an incestuous relationship by getting married to her late husband's brother.  In his opinion, his mother's behaviour is proof of frailty.  Moreover, the Ghost of his father tells Hamlet that Gertrude had been having an incestuous relationship with Claudius during the very lifetime of her, with his first husband. This adds fuel to the fire of his hatred towards women.  Actually, Gertrude is fully aware that the main causes of the disappointment are both the death of his father and her hasty remarriage with Claudius.  But, she miserably failed to think about it before the marriage.  This later realization is also a powerful evidence that makes us think that she is weak-minded and weak-willed.

          When Hamlet has his private interview with his mother, she asks if a middle-aged woman like her has behaved in this manner under the influence of her lust, how would a young woman behave under the influence of her youthful passion. Gertrude begs Hamlet not to go on talking to her in that manner. She says, "these words like daggers enter in my ears". These all show that Gertrude has realized her mistake, but she is incapable of either convincing her son or avoiding the incestuous relationship with her existing husband. Thus, she proves to herself again and again that she is too frail to tackle the problems of her life.

          But, when Ophelia says that she wants to return all the gifts that Hamlet had given her as tokens of love, he gets angry. He thinks that she must have taken that decision under the influence of her father. Then he begins to talk in a most cynical manner about the chastity of women. Here he thinks about his mother and believes that all beautiful women have a tendency to become immoral. He advises Ophelia, "Get thee to a nunnery." The fact that Hamlet once loved Ophelia becomes clear from his behaviour in the graveyard when he challenges Laertes saying that forty thousand brothers could not love Ophelia as much as he loved her. But later, he suppresses his love for her and behaves as if he were no longer interested in her.

Moreover, Ophelia fails to understand Hamlet. She decides to dance according to the tunes of her father. This is nothing but the frailty of Ophelia. Then she too becomes a frail character in this play.  Both Ophelia and Gertrude have miserable deaths in the play. As they were very weak, they couldn't survive.  However, the words of Ophelia and the deeds of his mother might have made Hamlet think like this and deliver the sentence, "Frailty thy name is woman".

---Thulasidharan V

COMALA

 

COMALA

 

            Santhosh Eachikanam, is a short story writer and scenarist who has received the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for his short story Comala in 2008.  He also won Padmarajan Award, Cherukad Award and Basheer Award.  Many of his short stories were translated into English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Telegu.  His ‘Comala’ is one of the critically acclaimed short stories of Malayalam Literature of the twentieth century.  It was written in the context of the rise of suicidal tendency among the people in the post-globalized world.  Apart from this it is also criticizing the discussions of news channels that don’t contribute anything good to the society.

          In ‘Comala we come to know how Sudhakaran, an insincere friend of Viswan, gets him into the debt trap. By quoting the words of their teacher Mr. Pothuval, ‘helping others is an act of holiness’ Sudhakaran cleverly got Viswan sign as the surety for his loan of Rs. 50,000.  After 3 years Viswan got a notice from the bank demanding him to pay Rs. 90,345 including interest.  He met Sudhakaran and asked him to pay but he didn’t.  So, Viswan’s wife worked hard and got Rs. 7000 that was paid to the bank.  But the bank sends a notice to Viswan saying that his house and land will be confiscated.  As he has no other way, he makes the threat of collective suicide on 15^th August by displaying a board in front of his house.  However, this attracts attention and becomes the topic of discussion in News time.  The unsympathetic attitude of the panelists in the discussion and the society is clearly shown here.

          Madhavan Nair the secretary of the bank argues for his bank where as Dr. Nandakumar tries to prove that Viswan wants to live through this threat.  Alex Punnoose talks about the highest rate of suicide in the country.  He also refers Comala in the novel ‘Pedro Paramo’ by Juan Rulfo saying that Kerala will become Kerala Comala in near future, filled with dead. Advocate Fathima Begam argues that the attempt to commit suicide is an offence.  Unfortunately nobody takes part in the opinion poll on the issue next day.  Thus the entire discussion becomes absurd.

          However, a week before August 15, Viswan decides to look for Sudhakarn.  He travels for 5 days and searches for Sudhakaran.  But he can’t find him.  On the 5^th day, when he is about to drink a black coffee from a thattu kada near a highway, an accident happens and a motor cyclist is seriously wounded.  But nobody in the thattukada or on the way seems to bother.  Viswan takes the injured man to the Medical College in a jeep.  On seeing the unsympathetic jeep driver and the selfish man who gets a lift on the way, he doubts whether it is ‘Comala,’ a dead peoples land.  On the way the man shows signs of death.  Viswan gets two drops of water into the dying man’s mouth.  Then he says ‘My debt was two drops of water.  I have repaid it.  So, I have to remove the stupid board that I have displayed in front of my house.’  Thus the story has a fine ending with the realization of Viswan who decides not to commit suicide at the end.

------Thulasidharan V

ENGLISH DRAMA AND Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’

 

 ENGLISH DRAMA AND Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’

 

 

Actually, a Latin Play in honour of St Katherine is believed to be the first play that was staged in England in 1110 A.D. It was known as then the Miracle or mystery play. The materials for these kinds of plays were taken from the Bible. Gradually the Miracle or mystery plays were taken from the interior portions of churches to church yards and then to village and city streets. In England, the miracle plays reached its peak in the 14^th century. However, during the 16^th century Morality plays replaced Miracle plays. In Morality Plays the characters were personified abstractions. Then interlude entered which was a short dramatic piece of a satire rather than of a religious or ethical nature. John Heywoods, “Four P’s, in which a Palmer, a peddler, a pardoner and a pothecary exchange amazing stories and finally enter into a competition as to which of them can tell the biggest lie, is the most famous example of its kind.

 

Renaissance made English writers learn the Principles of dramatic construction and technique. Thus, Nicholas Udall, the Head Master of Eton came out with the first real English Comedy, ‘Ralph Roister Doister’ in 1550. And then in 1581, ‘Gorboduc’, the first English tragedy was written by Thomas Sack Wille and Thomas Norton. However, there was a conflict between those who insisted on the classical tradition and those who wanted to establish the national taste of the English public. But, a group of scholars known as ‘The University Wits’, John Lily, Thomas Kyd, Robert Greene, George Peele, Thomas Lodge, Christopher Marlow and Thomas Nash established the romantic form of drama. Marlow used blank verse in his plays.

 

William Shakespeare who is said to be with ‘Small Latin and less Greek’ came to London from Stratford-on-Avon and joined Burbages company of actors in 1587. Then started the period of his greatest literary activities. Within five years, ‘The Gentle’ Shakespeare has gained his entrance to the society of Gentlemen and Scholars of London. His poem ‘Venus and Adonis’ that was dedicated to Earl of Southampton won him both fame and wealth. Then came a series of great plays like the Marchant of Venice, As you like it, Twelfth Night, Julius Caser, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra from his pen. Altogether he has written 37 plays and 154 Sonnets.

Though the legend of Hamlet was already current in the folk literature of Iceland, Ireland and Denmark, Shakespeare got it for his plot from the Danish Historian Saxo Grammaticus’s ‘Historica Denica’ (Danish History) of thirteenth century. Instead ‘Hamlet’ Saxo actually used the name ‘Amleth’ in his book. But Shakespeare changed all the names of the characters in his play ‘Hamlet’. It is said, though the legend of Hamlet is based on historical fact, the proof of it is lacking. The mental torture that Hamlet faces makes this tragedy at the top of all tragedies of Shakespeare. He had an amazing genius for words. That is why Shakespeare is said to be not of an age but of all time and not of a land but of all lands.

-----Thulasidharan

         

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard

 

The Birthday Party – Harold Pinter

 

Harold Pinter, one of the most influential modern British dramatists, is a Nobel prize winner. He was born in 1930 in Hackney, a London borough. At the age of sixteen, he wrote an essay on James Joyce. In the following years, he acted in Macbeth and in Romeo and Juliet in leading roles. In 1956 he married the famous actress Vivien Merchant. ‘The Room’ was his first play. His second play, ‘The Birthday Party,’ was staged in 1958.

As all his plays ‘The Birthday Party has scenes of violence, anger and entering menace from outside to maintain uncertainty and unpredictability in the play till the end. The play opens with a brief conversation between Meg and Patey, who are in their sixties. They talk about Stanley Webber, a man in his late thirties, who has been staying in their boarding house for about a year. Meg is in charge of the boarding house that is close to the sea, whereas Petey works as a deck-chair attendant on the sea beach. Though Meg looks after Stanley with motherly concern, she behaves in the absence of others as if she were his mistress.

Stanley used to play on the piano to entertain the sea-bathers. But now, he hardly goes out of doors when Meg urges Stanley to start playing the Piano again, he tells her how he was once considered a great pianist and why he left that place and stays there. When they talk, she mentions about two visitors who are expected to come to that boarding house. As it disturbs Stanley, he says to Meg that some people may come on that very day with a wheelbarrow in a van in which they will take away a dead body from that place. Meg is greatly shocked to hear about this. Then Lulu, the next-door neighbour of Meg comes with a parcel. That is actually a toy drum, a birthday present of Meg to Stanley. Meg goes out for shopping after asking Lulu not to reveal anything about the parcel to Stanley. Lulu wants to go out with Stanley, but Stanley doesn’t show any interest towards her. So, Lulu leaves the place angrily. Actually, many of the women characters of Pinter are talkative and both mother figures and tarts. So, Meg and Lulu are also presented here with the same nature.

The two expected visitors named, Goldberg and McCann, arrive at the boarding house. Goldberg, a Jew who is in his fifties and McCann, an Irish man aged about thirty. On their coming to know about Stanley’s birthday from Meg, Goldberg suggests a party to Stanley and promises Meg to make all the necessary arrangements. However, before the Party, Meg gives the present of toy drum to Stanley. Stanley begins to bang the drum sticks with great force in a savage manner as if he were under the influence of some evil spirit.

Stanley meets McCann and Goldberg in the evening. Petey says that as he has to go to his club, he can’t attend the birthday party. After the departure of Petey, Goldberg and McCann begin to question Stanley.  Irrelevant questions and irrelevant answers are exchanged between them. Repeatedly they ask Stanley why he betrayed the organization. They confuse him by asking whether the chicken came first or the egg. However, Meg’s arrival saves Stanley from their harassment. Then the birthday party begins. The bottles of whiskey are opened and served to everyone. Meg delivers a brief but sentimental speech. Then Lulu joins the party. Goldberg delivers a speech and congratulates Stanley. Meg kisses Stanley and wishes him. All are under the influence of drink and in reminiscent moods. Lulu encourages Goldberg to flirt with her. Then they decide to play Blind man’s Buff. When they play Stanley tries to strangle Meg. However, she is saved by others. Then the electric lights go off. In the darkness Stanley attempts to rape Lulu. There the second act ends. Then how Stanley is handled by Goldberg and McCann is not shown.

In the next morning Meg is shocked to see a black car outside when she goes out for shopping. Petey says it belongs to Goldberg. Then Goldberg comes down from upstairs and says to Petey that the celebration has brought a nervous break down to Stanley. Then Lulu appears and complains that Goldberg had seduced her last night. As Goldberg and McCann ridicule and threaten her she goes back. Then a totally changed Stanley, who is well dressed and clean shaven comes downstairs. When Goldberg and McCann promise him a golden future, he doesn’t say anything. His mental faculty seems to be paralysed. When Petey asks them where they take Stanley, they reply that they are taking him to Monty for special treatment. When Petey tries to stop them, they threaten him. So, Petey helplessly stares at them, as they leave with Stanley in their black car. Then Meg arrives and asks Petey whether Stanley has got up. Petey says, “Let him sleep”. Meg, who is actually ignorant of what had happened to Stanley, says that it was a lovely party and she was the most admired lady at the party. Thus, the play ends as it began with Meg and Petey talking in the room.

As far as plot, characterisation, dialogues and theme are concerned, Pinter is a great inventor in the field of drama. As all his plays, The Birthday Party is a thriller and full of mysteries. It lacks the background information, and the relationship between Meg and Stanley leads to ambiguity and mystery. So, the play can be interpreted in different ways. When it deals with the difficulty of communication between individuals, it also reveals the emptiness of the relationship between meg and Petey. Pinter is indifferent towards the less essential aspects of life and the personality of the characters. So, the readers are never told what is behind the action of Goldberg and McCann against Stanley. Mystery, uncertainty, unpredictability, ambiguity and unanswered questions are inevitable in Pinter’s plays. So, a Pinteresque play won’t have a well-defined theme or clear-cut plot. Moreover, the blackout in the 'Blindman’s Buff' scene has a great visual impact. That creates an atmosphere of confusion, uncertainty and terror in the play. These are all the peculiarities and theatrical frauds of Pinter that label his plays as Pinteresque plays.

The Birthday Party – a theatrical fraud, a Pinteresque Play

 

Harold Pinter’s ‘The Birthday Party’ proved a complete failure when it was performed first.  The performance lasted only for a week. But, over the course of time, Pinter’s work received more and more recognition.  Now he is regarded as one of the greatest British playwrights.  He belongs to the group of dramatists of whom Samuel Beckett was the leading spirit.  As for as the plot, characterisation, dialogues and themes are concerned, Pinter is a great inventor in the field of drama.  Uncertainty, ambiguity and unanswered questions are inevitable in Pinter’s plays.  So a Painteresque play doesn’t have a well-defined or clear-cut plot.  There is always an atmosphere of mystery till the end.

In ‘The Birthday Party’, actually, we do not know who Goldberg and McCann really are.  Similarly, we don’t know what Stanley has done to bring their wrath.  However, they seem to be the agents of some organization which has sent them to bring Stanley back.  What is the meaning of the brain-washing sessions which are held by the two outsiders? Where do the two men finally take Stanley and what will happen to Stanley next? No explicit answers to these questions are available.  The author leaves it all to the audiences and the readers to answer these questions themselves.

What exactly is the relationship between Stanley and Meg? Is she already his mistress, apart from being a mother to him, or is it only a mere flirtation? The mystery and the ambiguity in the play are typical of Pinter.  They produce an impression in our minds that the play is very obscure and hard to understand or appreciate.  Actually we don’t have much reliable information about Stanley, Goldberg and Mccann, the three major characters in the play. But, the conventional drama may give the readers and the audiences enough background information which is lacking in the play of Pinter.

In this play, comedy is accompanied or mingled with a feeling of menace which is produced through direct or indirect means by the author in the minds of the readers or audiences. Stanley’s sarcastic comments on the coffee and the cornflakes are amusing.  Meg amuses as when she gets frightened by Stanley’s referring a van and a wheel-borrow.  Her miss-applying the word ‘succulent’ is also amusing us.  There are other menacing situations too in the play.  Stanley beating the drum wildly and savagely.  Stanley’s kicking Goldberg in the stomach and McCann’s picking up a chair to hit Stanley.  Stanley’s attempts to strangle Meg and rape Lulu.  These all have both comical elements as well as the elements of menace.  They are the peculiar features of the plays of Pinter.  Thus the comedy of menace also becomes one of the Pinteresque qualities.

If we ask a question, ‘what does Pinter really wish to convey through the play?’ we don’t get a reply that can be treated as the theme of the play.  But this play is no doubt a thriller and a comedy.  Till the end, we wait almost breathlessly to know what will happen to Stanley.  So, ‘The Birthday Party’ can be labelled as a mystery-cum-thriller-cum-comedy.  At the same time, the play can be interpreted in different ways.  It deals with the difficulty of communication between individuals and deals with the feelings of loneliness that affects the characters of individuals.  It also deals with the life of an artist.  Thus the play has a lot in it of social significance and a lot to our intellect. Thus having not a well-defined theme of its own is also a quality of the Pinteresque play.

The Birthday Party is a typical Pinteresque play concerning its technique and dialogue.  There are silences and pauses in the course of dialogue that are used to convey more meanings in the play.  The dialogues are colloquial in nature and realistic and repetitious too.  In the opening scene, the repetition of the word ‘nice’ in the dialogue between Meg and Petey reveals the emptiness of the relationship between them.  Similarly, there is a blackout in the Blind man’s Bluff scene when the lights go out. No doubt this black-out has a great visual impact.  That creates an atmosphere of confusion, uncertainty and terror in the play.  These are all the peculiarities of Pinter that labels his plays as Pinteresque plays and plays with Theatrical frauds.

------Thulasidharan

Success is not Final, failure is not fatal

‘Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm’ ‘Fall seven times and stand up eight’. These are the common proverbs about success that everybody knows and uses. But, to many it is very difficult to practise in life. That’s why when the results are announced at least a couple of failed students unfortunately commit suicide. As we see more and more of these types of incidents, we fear and doubt whether the new generation becomes too vulnerable to face failures. But, listening to the words of a fourth standard student Fayiz’s genuine words that echo confidence, the consoling words that tell the need of perseverance, our fear disappears and it seems to be an amazing Oasis to our deserted and disappointed mind.

The word - Pablo Neruda

Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, whose pen name is Pablo Neruda was chile’s most beloved poet and diplomat. With the publication of his most renowned literary work, ‘Twenty love poems and a song of Despair’ he won considerable fame. His political life was as absorbing as his creative life. So, apart from getting the international peace prize in 1950, he won Nobel Prize for literature in 1971. ‘Memoirs’ is his life story as well as a fine narration of Latin American history. It is his self-explanation as a poet and as a politician. ‘The Word’ is an excerpt from ‘Memoirs’. It is rendered in italics and so stands out like a poem. It is a great tribute to poetry with images and surrealistic expressions.

Rain! Rain!...along with umbrella, a boat too is needed

In Kerala, before monsoon it is common to see people collecting and storing fire woods, repairing the leaking roof, cutting down the threatening branches of trees near the houses, cleaning the wells, getting the chillies, coriander and turmeric sun dried and ground, repairing the umbrellas or buying new one, buying  rain coats. But this year, apart from all these things, people are buying one more thing. A boat! ….. a boat?! Surprising?! Yes! a boat! In the flood affected areas of Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, it is reported that there are shops selling boats with the capacity of carrying 6 to 7 persons. The lesson that were taught during the last two floods, has made people think and act, taking precautions like this. Yes, survival of the fittest! We have to dance according to the tunes of Nature. In low lying areas, apart from owning a two-wheeler and a four-wheeler, it is also a must to own a boat. We are strictly following the activities of ‘Bread the chain’ and wear a mask not to get affected by the virus, Covid-19. Similarly, apart from taking all the preventive and safety measures of not to get affected by flood, at least some are in need of boats too. We should also get familiarized with this! No other way! Our life style is changing slowly and moving towards ‘Survival of the fittest’!

------Thulasidharan

The More you get, the more you lose

        It is said, near around 27 lakhs needed to purchase 1 kg gold from UAE. If it is smuggled to India without paying 15% tax (including GST) and if it is sold after transforming it into ornaments, 7 to 10 lakhs will be the profit. 4000 tons of gold ornaments are sold in a year in our country. It is also said only 800 tons of gold needed is imported after paying the above-mentioned tax. So, it is crystal clear, the remaining 3200 tons of gold is smuggled. The army that struggle to achieve this Herculean task includes thousands of carriers of different types that vary from small sparrows to big blue whales. The customs officials arrest every now and then a few carriers with one or two kg of gold. They are actually 1% or 2% of the actual gold that is being smuggled. No doubt, it is only a tip of the iceberg.

WAITING FOR GODOT - SAMUEL BECKETT

https://youtu.be/UG9yYaOTE3Q

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), an Irish novelist, dramatist and poet was born on 13th    April 1906 in Dublin.  His father William Frank Beckett was in construction work and his mother Maria Jones Roe was a nurse.  After his graduation from Trinity College, he went to Paris where he met James Joyce and became a devoted student of him. In 1931 he undertook a long journey to Briton, France and Germany. That journey helped him to find many of his characters in his literary works. In 1937 he settled in France, where he was stabbed by a pimp. In his hospital days he met Suzzane and got her friendship. However, he could marry her only in 1961. Though Beckett had “little talent for happiness” in his childhood and his severe depression that kept him in bed until midday in his youth, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969. Though he was recognized as a novelist   and   dramatist   earlier it was ‘Waiting   for Godot’ that   won   him international fame. However, Beckett always wanted to keep himself away from the madding crowd. That was why he even declined the Nobel Prize to avoid making a speech at the ceremonies. Furthermore, after the death of his wife in July 1989, he confined to a small room and died in December 1989.

 

Beckett’s works are filled with allusions to other writers like Dante and James Joyce. His plays aren’t written along traditional line with conventional plot, time and place responses. But they focus on the essential elements of human conditions in dark humorous ways. This style of writing has been named as the writing that belong to “Theatre of the Absurd” by Martin Esslin.  The concept ‘Absurd’ is associated with Albert Camus.    ‘Waiting for Godot’ focuses on human despair and the will to survive in a hopeless world that offers no help in understanding. 

 

‘Waiting for Godot’, a tragicomedy in two acts is a play about waiting. Two men are waiting for the third who never appears. If he comes, they believe that they will be saved. Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo) are bowler hatted and shabbily suited tramps that meet each day by a solitary tree to wait for a man called Godot. ‘Vladimir, an ineffective man of the world, Estragon a marvelously incompetent’ are like Laurel and Hardy, the famous Hollywood comical characters. Nothing is known about them except that they sleep in ditches and that Estragon is beaten at night by violent gang. When they are waiting for Godot, to pass time, they talk, argue and play games. Even they both decide to hang themselves at the bough of the tree,  however at the end they change their decision and decide to wait and see what Godot will say. To them life appears to be on hold until Godot appears. Thus, life is shown as a succession of attempts to pass the time.

Midway through the first act Pozzo and Lucky appear on the stage. Lucky is harnessed by a rope around his neck and carries a large bag, a folding stool, a picnic basket and a great coat. Pozzo comes behind him, holding the other end of the rope with his loud voice and dominating manner. But he is not seemed to be a villain. He made Lucky do many things to entertain Vladimir and Estragon like dancing and ‘Thinking’. That’s how Lucky performs a very long and unbroken speech. After the departure of Pozzo and Lucky, a boy appears with a message to Vladimir and Estragon. He says that Mr. Godot told him to tell them he won’t come that evening but surely the next day. The boy tells Vladimir that he minds the goat of Godot. Vladimir asks him whether Mr. Godot beats him. The boy replies that he won’t but says that Mr. Godot beats his brother who minds the sheep.  Thus, violence and humour, the two extremes of the absurd world is presented in the play.

 

In the second act, the same things are repeated. They are waiting in the same place, saying and doing similar things that they did the previous day. To pass time Estragon becomes Pozzo and Vladimir becomes Lucky and play for some time. Then Pozzo and Lucky appear. But they have totally been changed this time. Pozzo has become blind and Lucky has become dumb. It is not actually the next day.

 

Then the boy comes and says that Godot won’t come that evening but surely the next day and asks Vladimir whether he has any message to Godot. Vladimir asks the boy to tell Godot that he saw Vladimir. After the departure of the boy, looking at the tree, Estragon says, 'why don't we hang ourselves?'. Though, they decide to use Estragon's belt, it breaks when they try to test weather it is strong enough.  However, they decide to bring a good bit of rope and hang themselves the next day unless Godot comes. Though they say that they should go, they don’t move. Thus, the play tells the audience to get up and leave as there is nothing going to happen. Moreover, the play suggest that life has no meaning and it is full of suffering. 

 

Waiting for Godot is a comedy of absurdity. It is filled with nonsensical lines, wordplay, meaning less dialogues and characters who abruptly shift emotions and forget everything, ranging from their own identities to what happened the previous day.  All these contributes to an absurdist humour throughout the play. 

 

Vladimir and Estragon pleasantly talk about suicide.  All these have a discomforting effect on the audience, who is helplessly not sure how to react to this absurd mixture of comedy and tragedy, seriousness and playfulness.  The absurdity caused by the seeming mismatch between characters, tones and the content of their speech can be seen as a reaction to a world emptied of meaning and significance.

Allusion 

 

Allusion is a figure of speech that refers to a well-known story, event, person, object or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance in order to make a comparison in the readers’ mind. It is brief and either explicit or indirect. The allusions of Joyce, Pound and Eliot are highly specialized so the readers sometimes need the help of scholarly annotations .

(e.g.) He was a real Romeo with the ladies 

Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel 

Ambiguity

           Ambiguity occurs when something is open to more than one interpretation. It is actually a fault in style. It is actually a use of a vague or equivocal expression when, what is wanted is precision and singleness of reference. Multiple meaning and plurisignation are alternative terms for this use of language. James Joyce and John Donne have excessively used this device in their writings. 

(e.g.) I read the book (whether present or past is not certain) 

              The bark was painful (whether the bark of a tree or dog is not certain) 

           Foreigners are hunting dogs.

 Black comedy

Black comedy or Black humour or Gallows humour is a comic style that deals with the subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. The comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues, thus providing discomfort and serious thought as well as amusement in their audience. Death, violence, discrimination, disease and sexuality are the popular themes for this type. The critics have associated black comedy even with the ancient Greek poet Aristophanes.  It was Breton who coined the Black humour.  He considered Jonathan swift as its originator in English literature where he used comedy to mock the victim by trivializing the sufferings of them. Oscar Wilde who was in his death bed in a cheap boarding house once said, “Either that wall paper goes or I do.” It is actually a remember worthy example for Gallows humour.

Characters in ‘Waiting for Godot’ 

 

Vladimir, who is one of the two main characters of the play seems to be more responsible and mature.  His hat represents mind so, he represents the conscious   mind, the   rational   side of   humanity.   In   French   his   name has connotations with the word ‘Speak’. He is addressed as ‘Didi’ by Estragon and as Mr. Albert by the boy. Estragon, the second of the two main characters seems to be weak, helpless and always looking for Vladimir’s protection. He is practical and physical.  He is with good vocabulary.  His name in French means, tarragon, an herb   used   to   make   pickles   and   vinegar.   He   represents the unconscious mind.  He is earthly as his boots symbolized with earth, body and roots. 

 

Pozzo and Lucky are another pair in this play.  Pozzo’s whip symbolizes power. He symbolizes the sadist. He has the cunning nature to get people with brains on a leash. In Italian Pozzo means ‘Well’. Pozzo treats his slave rather horribly. However, he becomes blind in the second act and does not remember his meeting of Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky is the next character represented as slave to Pozzo. The leash on his neck symbolizes bondage and Lucky is a symbol of man as a machine.  His name is ironic.  Lucky, the masochist, (get pleasure on getting hurt) carries Pozzo’s coat, bags and stool.  In the first Act, he entertains Vladimir and Estragon by ‘dancing’ and ‘Thinking aloud’.  However, in the second Act he is found dumb. 

 

The next important character is the boy who acts as a messenger to Godot. he is the only contact between the tramps and Godot. There he symbolizes a priest figure. He appears, at the end of each act to inform Vladimir that Godot is going to come on the next day. Then Godot is the man for whom Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for. But Godot never appears. Though the name contains the idea of God even Becket was not sure of it when he was asked about it. The play has several archetypal forms and situations. The road is the archetype of journey and travel whereas the tree is the archetype of life and promise. In this play the active one like Pozzo and Lucky pass through whereas the passive ones like Vladimir and Estragon get a message and decide to go on waiting.  Thus, the main characters in ‘Waiting for Godot’ yearn vaguely for existence, yet they insist on looking outside themselves for salvation.

 

The world of Absurd in ‘Waiting for Godot’

 

‘Waiting for Godot’ is an unusual and remarkable play written by Irish Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett in 1952. The miserable condition of life in the present, the constant effort to make it fruitful and the failure to succeed in this is portrayed in ‘Waiting for Godot’. The entire plot centers on two protagonists and their waiting for the mysterious character named Godot. Why is he an important figure for the protagonists? Why doesn’t he appear and why they are waiting? All these questions are unknown and uncertain. The men’s future, the travelers, the messenger, theme and back ground history are all not revealed. Thus, the play opens without any details for the audience and it continues with a lack of information even without reaching at a climax, the play ends at the same place where it started. 

 

The tree is the only object that exists in the middle of emptiness. The tree, which is an absurd element also struggles to survive with the tramps. The tree may symbolize many possibilities such as death, survival, change and life. The tree which has no leaves could be a representation of lifelessness and death, though it tries to survive in , harsh circumstances.

 

Similarly, the tramps are not happy about the present condition of their lives. But they are not capable of changing their present circumstances for better ones instead of wasting time for Godot. Though they would like to die, they are unable to kill themselves. Because the will to live is stronger than the will to die in them. They hope that perhaps Godot will bring the happiness and prosperity in their lives. The ‘tomorrow’ which never arrives in reality keeps the tramps alive with the hope of meeting Godot. A few leaves show the reincarnation of life on the second day in act two. Even if it is so, the plot is captured in the sentence of Estragon, who says, “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” Thus, ‘Waiting for Godot’ focuses on human despair and the will to survive in a hopeless world that offers no help in understanding.

 

----Thulasidharan