The Neo-Classical Literature

    Name                                         : Dodiya Mehul Maheshbhai

    Roll Number                                   : 29

    Sem                                                 : 1

    Enrollment number                       : 2069108420180011

    Submitted to                                   : Puja Ma’am

    Paper Name                                   : The Neo-Classical Literature

    University                                       : Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji

                                                             Bhavnagar  University

Question: What is Anti-sentimental comedy? Write a note on the reflection of society in R. B. Sheridan’s Play?

          If we want to know what is Anti sentimental comedy, first of all we have to know its begging. Its term started to the age of Neo-Classical Age. The term Neoclassicism is a combination of two words: Neo and Classic. The word neo has been derived from a Greek word neos, which means young or new, while the word classic, according to the Webster Dictionary, refers to the style and works of the ancient authors of Greece and Rome. To combine these words, we get the meaning of Neoclassicism as the rebirth and restoration of Classicism. Hence, Neoclassicism is the movement in the history of English literature, which laid immense emphasis on revival of the classical spirit during the period between 1680 and 1750 in the age of Pope and Dryden. It is a prototype of Classicism. Writers of this period immensely endeavoured to follow the footpaths of the writers of the period of Augustus, emperor of Rome, which produced unparalleled writers as Horace, Virgil and Ovid. That is the reason; the age of Pope and Dryden is also called Augustan Age.

Neoclassical Poetry is a type of poetry, which follows the pattern of poetry authored by the poets of ancient time i.e., Greek and Rome. Pope and Dryden were the leading writers, who deviated from the traditional schools of poetry and sought guidance in the works of ancient Greek and Roman writers. They tried to follow the writers of the antiquity in letter and spirit in the Augustan Age. According to Britannica Encyclopaedia:

"Classicism and Neoclassicism, in the arts, historical tradition or aesthetic attitudes based on the art of Greece and Rome in antiquity. In the context of the tradition, Classicism refers either to the art produced in antiquity or to later art inspired by that of antiquity; Neoclassicism always refers to the art produced later but inspired by antiquity. Thus the terms Classicism and Neoclassicism are often used interchangeably."

The period we are studying is known to us by the name, the Age of Queen Anne; but, unlike Elizabeth, this “meekly stupid” queen had practically no influence upon English literature, so the name Classic or Augustan Age is more often heard  because the poets and critics of this age believed in the works of the Latin writers, as Pope writes in Essay in Criticism:

“Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem

To copy nature is to copy them.”

Poetry of the Classical school is the product of the intelligence playing upon the life. It is exclusively a ‘town’ poetry made out of the interests of ‘society’ in the great centres of culture,   which makes it an age of prose and reason. It was now a fashion with the poets to follow (human) Nature, and Pope was its greatest protagonist:

“First follow Nature, and your judgement frame   

         By her just standard, which is still the same”. 

The qualities such as mystery, imagination, romanticism, came to be discounted and replaced those related to reason and logic. It was for the first time that theoretical as well as practical criticism of drama, poetry, essay, and novel appeared,   such as Pope’s Essay In Criticism, Addison’s Spectators, Johnson’s Preface To Shakespeare. “The idea of the modern novel seems to have been worked out largely”, says Long, in Augustan Age, in which, the classic Heroic couplet was perfected by Pope whose “ten thousand verses’ marvellously varied within their couplets, crown the experiments of a century,” Tillotson in The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad. However the percept and epigram, the satire and the Mock-heroic of the Age might have been discarded by the subsequent generations of the writers, but its gift of novel continued long after the Augustan Age had gone out of fashion.

o  The Sentimental Comedy

The sentimental comedy did not last long. The sentimental soon degenerated into sentimentality. This change gradually manifested itself in the advent of sensibility to replace wit and immorality in the comedy. In this sentimental comedy of Colley Cibber and Steele there was conventional morality and sentimentality in place of grossness of the restoration comedy. These dramatists dealt with the problems, of conduct, family and marriage in a tone that will no longer shock decorum and by virtue of tears they cause to flow, they contributed to the edification of souls. These dramatists aimed at preaching some moral lessons by restoring suffering innocent virtue to happiness and converting rogues into good characters. Thus these comedies lost the true spirit of comedy. There are no gaiety and innocent mirth created by wit and fun. Instead, these plays served the false morality of the middle class.

o  The Anti Sentimental Comedy

An anti-sentimental comedy is also called “Comedy of Manners”. When Sentimental comedy did not last long, that time anti-sentimental comedy was created by “Oliver Goldsmith” and “Richard Sheridan”. It is an artificial comedy, arose during 18th century. The dramatist of this period wrote plays according to middle class family and their interest. It is kind of comedy representing complex and sophisticated code of behaviour current in fashionable circles of society, where appearance count for more than true moral character. Its plot usually revolves around intrigues of lust and greed, the self-interested cynicism of the characters being masked by decorous preteens Oliver Goldsmith’s “SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER” and Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s “THE RIVALS”& “SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL “are from the Anti-sentimental comedy. We can see that Sheridan’s play how they reflect the Society.

“The Rivals” is a Comedy of Manners by Irish-born dramatist and statesman Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The five-act play first premiered in 1775, marking Sheridan’s work as a standout piece of eighteenth-century theater. The comedy was not always so well-received, however. After its initial premier, it was roundly criticized and dismissed as subpar craft. Needing funds and intent on his writing, Sheridan learned from his mistakes with the initial premierence. He cut the work by an hour, strengthened the characters and premiered a practically new comedy, which was well a received, and which is the version now performed and read. Comedies such as“The Rivals” are a product of their time, often in fused with the prevailing thought of the day. As such, one would expect Sheridan’s play to be filled with the moralezing sentimentalism that much of eighteenth-century theater produced. Sheridan departed from this didactic form of comedy, however, creating what Oliver Goldsmith himself labeled as “laughing comedy.” This new type of comedy trumped the dismal sentimental comedy, providing audiences with a fresh take on morals and a new manner of viewing life. The characters in “The Rivals” are stock caricatures. As such, they represent various aspects of human folly. For an eighteenth-century play on morals, however, Sheridan’s play is still as fresh and funny today as when it brought audiences to laughter in Sheridan’s day. Indeed, the term “malapropism,” which is still in use to this day, was actually coined from one of the characters in the play, Mrs. Malaprop. As the term suggests, Mrs. Malaprop is known for using sophisticated words or fancysounding ones in the wrong contest.

The play itself makes good work of satirizing the pretensions of its day. The larger tropes of false identities and romantic complicacy, along with parental disapproval, are played out against ridicouslly sentimentality. In addition to Mrs. Malaprop, the characters include Lydia Languish, whose head has been inundated with nonsense from her penchant for romantic novels; Captain Jack Absolute, who is in love with Lydia; Sir Anthony Absolute, Jack’s father; Sir Lucius O’Trigger, a rambunctious Irishman; and Bob Acres, who is Jack’s neighbor and somewhat of a simpleton in love with Lydia. Captain Jack wishes to woo Lydia, and so attempted to do so by pretending to be a penniless ensign named Beverley. This ruse almost causes Bob Acres and Captain Jack to fight one another in a duel. The deception also causes a number of other comical turns. Captain Jack is also rejected by Lydia’s aunt, Mrs. Malaprop, who provides much of the comedy with her misuse of words. Things are eventually resolved in true dramatic form, but not before the caricatures of human folly weave their tale of comical farce.

Sheridan’s “The Rivals” provides many themes both in its creation as a work and its reception as a well-liked piece of literature. Sheridan’s own struggles with failing and then succeeding show just how important it is not to give up on one’s dreams. Had it not been for Sheridan’s tenacity, “The Rivals” would not exist as it does, and more likely than not, would have been lost to time like many other plays of the eighteenth-century. The work itself shows how deception and attempts to be other than what one is can often have poor consequences. Instead of duping others with one’s character or words, it is best to approach situations with the truth. It is the truth that is eventually revealed at the end of an ordeal, and it is the truth, at least according the “The Rivals,” that furthers the plot of one’s life in the direction it is meant to go.

Sources

1)    https://www.enotes.com/topics/school-scandal

2)    https://letterpile.com/poetry/Neoclassical-Poetry-Definition-and-Characteristics-of-Neoclassical-Poetry

3)    http://www.supersummary.com/the-rivals/summary/

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The Renaissance Literature

•     Name                                    : Dodiya Mehul Maheshbhai 

•     Roll Number                      : 29

•     Sem                                        : 1

•     Year                                       : 2017/2019

•     Enrollment number       : 2069108420180011

•     Email                                   : svkmehul97@gmail.com

•     Submitted to                      : Dr. Dilip Barad

•     Paper Name                      : The Renaissance  Literature

•     College / Department  : Department of English

•    University                           : Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar  University

Question: Suicide is an important theme in Hamlet; Discuss how the play treats the idea of suicide morally, Religiously and aesthetically with particular attending to Hamlet’s two important statement about suicide. “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt” soliloquy. Although capable of suicide, man humans beings choose to live, despite the cruelty, pain and injustice of the World?

                          English poet and playwright William Shakespeare was born and raised Stratford-upon-Avon. He was baptized on 26th April, 1564. His father John Shakespeare was a barges of there recently contituted corporation of Stratford. His mother Mary Arden was a local landed heiress. William Shakespeare had two sister, Joan and Judith and Three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. Not much is known of Shakespeare education. It is generally assumed that the local grammar school, the King’s new school. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26 year old Anne Hathway With whom he had three children Susanna, Hamlet and Judith. Hamlet died at the age of 11 by which Shakespeare was already a successful playwright. Shakespeare’s Literary career started earning a living as an actor and a playwright in London. He became a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain’s men, and acting company in London. After the crowing of King James 1, in 1603. The company changed it is name to The King’s men. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. Most of his play were written as ‘quarto texts’. An sheet of paper folded four ways. A few of his plays were printed in his lifetime. Though they appeared more voluminously after his death his first collection of work was printed in 1623.

                 Shakespeare retried to Stratford some years before his death after 1606-1607. Shakespeare wrote fewer plays and none are attributive probably with John Fletcher, who successes for the king’s men. Shakespeare died on the 23rd April, 1616.

• Ø  Suicide is important theme in Hamlet

               William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy, a revenge play. We know that prince Hamlet’s father has died and the queen Gertrude has married with Claudius, who is the brother of her husband. Gertrude has married Claudius after her husband died yet 2 month and she married. The ghost came and told reality to hamlet when he knowing the reason of his father’s death. He feels very guilty and he tried to committed suicide but however he could not committed suicide. other character the Ophelia, a daughter of Polonius and Sister of Laertes and Lover of Prince Hamlet. Ophelia's role is more important in Hamlet. because she follows all her Relation such as Lover, Daughter, Sister. When misfortune Hamlet killed her father she became mad and eventually she drown in river. when she's buried ceremony, the priest did not doing her death ceremony properly because they believe that she committed suicide the mourn of her father's death. and We can see that to two main soliloquies “O, that this is too too solid flesh” and “To be or not to be, that is question”.

       According to A. C. Bradley has pointed out, in his very first long speech of the play, ‘O, that this too too solid flesh”, Hamlet seems on the verge of total despaired, kept from suicide by the simple fact of spiritual awe. He is in the strange position of both wishing for death and fearing it intensely and this double pressure gives the play much of its drama. We can see that many scenes the aspects of death which hamlet find most fascinating its bodily facility. Hamlet major thinking about the human bodies. It is required, feelings, sexuality. We can see that the scene of graveyard, Hamlet’s handled Yorick’s skull, Its represent that the dead earth, a skull, reality have a connection to a person, a personality. Hamlet is unprecedented for the darken every scene of the play, Not that the play resolves anything or settles any of our species. Old doubt and anxieties. As with most things, we can expect to find very difficult and stimulating question in hamlet but very few satisfying answer.

• Ø ‘ O, that this too too solid flesh’ and ‘ to be or not to be’

                ‘O, that this too too solid flesh’ is first soliloquy in Hamlet. Hamlet speaks this soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2. Because Hamlet doesn’t forget his father death and her mother marry to Claudius, who is the king of Denmark and he was also a brother of her dead husband. Hamlet wished that his body would just melt turn to water and became like the dew or that the almighty hadn’t made a law forbidden suicide. He say that It was terrible, The whole world was like an unwedded grand that had gone to seed only ugly disgusting thing thrived. He could not believe what happen. Only two month dead, no not even two hamlets compared his father such as a excellent king, Hyperion, the sun god and lecherous satyr. After Hamlet talk about his mother that she had loved him so much, adored him. And yet within a month, she married her husband’s brother and says that even an animal that doesn’t have reason would have mourned longer, she married his uncle at last he said that even before the salt of those hypocritical to incestuous sheets. It could not end happily but would just have to break his heart. Because he had to hold say that this soliloquy’s main center them is suicide.

              ‘To be or not to, that is the question’ is the famous soliloquy of Hamlet. Hamlet was confused that he has to do, what should he killed Claudius or not? Because now he is the husband of Gertrude and that relationship make as Hamlet’s father. The first six words of the soliloquy establish a balance. There is a direct opposition – to be, or not to be. Hamlet is thinking about life and death and pondering a state of being versus a state of not being – being alive and being dead. The balance continues with a consideration of the way one deals with life and death. Life is a lack of power: the living are at the mercy of the blows of outrageous fortune. The only action one can take against the things he lists among those blows is to end one’s life. That’s the only way of opposing them. Death is therefore empowering: killing oneself is a way of taking action, taking up arms, opposing and defeating the slings and arrows of outrageou fortune. Living is a passive state; dying is an active state. But in order to reach the condition of death one has to take action in life – charge fully armed against Fortune – so the whole proposition is circular and hopeless because one does not really have the power of action in life.

                    Death is something desirable – devoutly to be wished, a consummation – a perfect closure. It’s nothing more than a sleep. But there’s a catch, which Hamlet calls a rub. A ‘rub’ is a bowls term meaning an obstacle on the bowls lawn that diverts the bowl, so the fear of the life hereafter is the obstacle that makes us pause and perhaps change the direction of our thinking. We don’t control our dreams so what dreams may come in that sleep in which we have shuffled off all the fuss and bother of life? He uses the word ‘coil,’ which is an Elizabethan word for a big fuss, such as there may be in the preparations for a party or a wedding – a lot of things going on and a lot of rushing about. With that thought Hamlet stops to reconsider. What will happen when we have discarded all the hustle and bustle of life. The problem with the proposition is that life after death is unknown and could be worse than life. It’s a very frightening thought. That’s the obstacle on the lawn and it diverts his thoughts to another direction. And now Hamlet reflects on a final end. A ‘quietus’ islegal word meaning a final definitive end to an argument. He opposes this Latin word against the Celtic sweating and grunting of a living person as an Arab beneath an over whelmingly heavy load – a fardel, the load carried by a camel. Who would bear that when he could just draw a line under life with something as simple as a knitting needle.It’s quite a big thought and it’s fascinating that this enormous act drawing a line under life can be done with something as simple as a knitting needle. And how easy that seems.

                 Hamlet now lets his imagination wander on the subject of the voyages of discovery and the exploratory expeditions. Dying is like crossing the border between known and unknown geography. One is likely to be lost in that unmapped place, from which one would never return. The implication is that there may be unimagined horrors in that land. Hamlet now seems to make a decision. He makes the profound judgment that ‘conscience does make cowards of us all,’ This sentence is probably the most important one in the soliloquy. There is a religious dimension to it as it is a sin to take one’s life. So with that added dimension the fear of the unknown after death is intensified. But there is more to it than that. It is not just about killing himself but also about the mission he is on – to avenge his father’s death by killing his father’s murderer. Throughout the action of the play he makes excuses for not killing him and turns away when he has the chance. ‘Conscience does make cowards of us all.’ Convention demands that he kill Claudius but murder is a sin and that conflict is the core of the play.

           At the end of the soliloquy he pulls himself out of this reflective mode by deciding that too much thinking about it is the thing that will prevent the action he has to rise to. This is not entirely a moment of possible suicide. It’s not that he’s contemplating suicide as much as reflecting on life, and we find that theme all through the text. In this soliloquy life is burdensome and devoid of power. In another it’s ‘weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,’ like a garden overrun with weeds. In this soliloquy Hamlet gives a list of all the things that annoy him about life: 

‘The whips and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office and the spurns’

         That patient merit of the unworthy takes. But there’s a sense of agonised frustration in this soliloquy that however bad life is we’re prevented from doing anything about it by fear of the unknown.

Thus, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Suicide is an important and continuous theme throughout the play, Hamlet’s is the main character who contemplated time throughout the play, since the murder of his father. Hamlet weight the advantages of leaving his miserable life with the living, for possibly a better but unknowing life with the dead. Hamlet seriously contemplates suicide against God.

• Ø Source

1.  Link 2
2.  Link 3
3. Link 4

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