Satire in English Literature

The satire is a literary technique that blends ironic humor and wit with criticism for the purpose of ridiculing folly, stupidity in individuals and institutions. It aims to correct or improve the society. Though writers of all ages use satire, it is the chief device practiced by the writers of the Neo-classical period. The tone of satire varies from light and witty chiding to passionate indignation to bitter denunciation. Its chief device is irony. Other satiric devices include sarcasm, innuendo, burlesque, prosody, and caricature.

Satire is sometimes divided into formal satire and indirect satire. In formal satire, the author, or a person speaks in the first person directly to the reader or, sometimes to a character who responds and leads the speaker on. In indirect satire, the satirist creates a story or play peopled with characters who speak and act in such a manner that they themselves are the targets of satire. One form of indirect satire is Menippean satire, which according to Northrop Frye, “deals less with people……….than with mental attitudes”. Satire may also be classified as Horatian satire and Juvenile satire. Horatian satire is gentle, amused and mild in nature. In contrast, Juvenile satire is harsh, amused, and bitter.

Pope’s Rape of the Lock and Swift’s Gulliver Travels are the most pungent satires ever written in English. Byron’s Don Juan is a satiric epic in which the poet makes a sever criticism of marriage without love.

Ode in English Literature

The ode is a long lyric poem, often in the form of an address, generally dignified and serious in subject and treatment, exalted in feelings, elevated in style and elaborate in its stanziac structure. It is often inspired by some great public occasion. In it the speaker addresses someone to express his inner grief. Its thought is developed in a somber atmosphere but it ends in hope and consolation.

Odes are of three kinds: the Pindaric or regular ode, the Horatian or private ode; and the irregular ode. The Pindaric ode is developed by the Greek poet, Pindar. It is modeled on the songs by the chorus in Greek dramas. Gray’s The Progress of Poesy is a Pindaric ode. The Horatian ode is modeled on the matter, tone, and form of the odes of the Roman Horace. It has regular stanzas. It deals with personal grief of the poet. Keats’ To Autumn is a Horatian ode. The odes which are not written in regular stanzas are called irregular odes. These were introduced in 1656 by Abraham Cowley. This kind of ode may deal with public or private issues. Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimation of Immortality is an irregular ode. Despite those difference, in all these types, music is created by the use of rhythm, rhyme, and musical words.

“Imperialism”or “the evil thing” in George Orwell’s Shootinjg an Elephant

Eric Arthur Blair who wrote under the pseudo name of George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, and critic and famous for his political satires Animal Farm, an anti-Soviet tale; and Ninenteen Eighty-Four, which shows that the destruction of language is an essential part of oppression. Orwell was an uncompromising individualist and political idealist. V. S. Pritchett called him “the wintry conscience of a generation”. His political views were shaped by his experiences of Socialism, Totalitarianism, and Imperialism all over the world. In his essay Why I write, he admitted that “Every line of serious work that I’ve written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against Totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism, as I understand it”. Again his ambition as a political author was to “make political writing into an art”.

So according to his claim, the essay Shooting an Elephant published in 1950 conveys the political theme, “Imperialism and its effect” which is called by him as “an evil thing”. But before we advance to write on it, we should know about its political background which is mostly related to our topic.

In the 19th century some of the European countries like England, France, and Belgium occupied many nations of Asia and Africa. They imposed colonial rule in these countries. Normally by colonization we understand two sides- the oppressor and the oppressed. But we normally never think of people like Orwell who belong to the oppressor class but suffer for their involvement in imperialism. Among the English writers there have been two views on imperialism. There have been writers like Rudyard Kipling who supported colonization whole heartedly. They thought that Europe was highly civilized and it was the duty of the European people to civilize others. And on the other hand idealists like George Orwell hated imperialism as it is against humanity.

Orwell had written the essay Shooting an Elephant recording his personal experiences, in Moulmein, in lower Burma, while he was employed as a sub-divisional police officer under British rule. He was an anti-imperialist, but his service compelled him to act as “a conventionalized figure of a sahib”. At that time the power and influence of British imperialism were unchallenged all over the world. And because of its evil activities the Europeans who used to live in Burma were hated by the “natives”. The writer said that, “If a European woman went through the bazaars alone, somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress”.

As a police officer he has an obvious target and was baited when ever it seemed safe to do so. The yellow faced young Burmans used to insult the author when he was at a safe distance. Moreover, he informed us that “the young Buddhists priests” were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them seemed to have nothing to do except stand on street corners and jeers at Europeans.

The writer was secretly for the Burmese and all against the oppressors, the British. Orwell did not like his job because the police were employed to torture the people to perpetuate the rule of the imperialist. In his job time, he had seen “the dirty work of Empire at close quarters; the wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups; the grey, cowed faces of long-term convicts”- that oppressed him with an intolerable sense of guilt.

Sometimes, Orwell thought that “the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into Buddhist Priest guts”. Then he mentioned that, “feelings like these are the normal by products of imperialism.

In the case of shooting the elephant, which had ravaged a bazaar and killed a coolie, we get the most evil effect of imperialism upon the writer.

E.B. Browning’s pationate love in her Sonnet-43/How do I Love Thee

Elizabeth Barret Browning, the life partner of Robert Browning, deserves her place in the history of English poetry not by being the wife of the celebrated poet, but in her own independent right, for she was left behind quite valuable poetry. Even Robert Browning loves Elizabeth after being impressed by her poems. How much can one love another? In how many manners can one love another? E. B. Browning writes Sonnet-43 answering above two questions. Perhaps, this poem is written to express her deep love towards her husband. So this is not only a love poem but also a guide line for a wife to make herself love her husband. Now, it is time to know why a husband should make his wife read this poem.

How Do I Love Thee? belongs to E. B. Browning’s best work Sonnets from the Portuguese collection of love sonnets just before she married Robert Browning. Here the poetess enumerates the different ways of her loving Robert Browning. In order to explain the nature of her love or to make her love understand the depth and intensity of her love she has recourse to different dimension.

Firstly, she loves Browning to the depth and breadth and height that her soul can reach. These dimensions are not physical ones; they are spiritual. This expression emphasizes the sincerity, depth, and intensity of her love and the absence of artificiality, insincerity, and pretence.

The next way of her loving is secular, worldly and very usual. For our physical existence and growth, everyday, we need many things most. If they are denied to us, we cannot live. She loves Browning to the level of everyday’s essentials. She loves him all the while by sun and candlelight. Light or darkness, day or night nothing can influence her love; it lasts with all its full intensity and force by day or night.

Thirdly, her love is free from all kinds of compulsion, obligations, impurities, and imperfections. She loves him with all the force and energy of heart as one strives with one’s all energy and strength-physical and spiritual- for right.

The fourth way of her love is the pure one. Many men strive for right with no intension to win praise or appreciation or recognition from people. But no earthly or proposal interest guides her. She expects no praise or returns for her love.

The fifth way of her love is free from sensuality, physical passion and demands. In the case of removing one’s grief there is no room for physical interest. She loves him with the passion that Browning put to use in nursing her in her with his tender cared old grieves. She also loves him with her childhood’s faith.

Sixthly, her love is connected with religion. She loves him with a love that she apprehended to lose with her lost saints. Here her love is raised to religious status. She, perhaps, thinks he is her God and she, his devotee.

Seventhly, she loves him thinking him to be as essential as breath to her life. Browning is all to her. She cannot think of her own being without him. She loves him in weal and woe, in smiles, and tears.

At last, she declares that if God allows her, she will love her better after death. Thus she thinks her love for him will not end with the end of her life.

The emphasis on summation throughout, in a sense, paradoxical. The “how” of love escapes quantification, yet Browning’s breathless catalogue conveys something of its variousness and richness. In the last line, the poet stresses the ultimate mysteriousness of a passion which extends beyond the grave-

“I shall but love thee better after death”.

Theme of Pride in Ozymandias

Yes, there may be controversy whether Ozymandias is a perfect sonnet or not as this poem’s rhyme scheme (ab ab ac dc ed ef ef) conforms neither to a Shakespearean nor to a Miltonic sonnet. In spite of its technical drawbacks as a sonnet, Ozymandias is universally accepted as one of the finest poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The theme of his sonnet- ravages of time- is the favorite theme of Shakespeare, and it its presentation with detachment and poetic skill, Shelley has indeed come very near to the great master (Shakespeare). If he had not wriggled out of the fetters of the sonnet form, he would never have been able to attain such magnificence for this poem.

Ozymandias was one of the Greek names of Rameses II (1301-1234 B.C.). Ozymandias was supposed to have ruled Egypt and conquered a few Asiatic countries 4000 years ago. This poem is about the ruin of his statue, said to have been found in the Sahara desert. Ramesseum (of Rameses II) at Thebes is described by Diodorus Siculus as the tomb of Ozymandias. In this poem Shelley describes the broken statue and reflects upon the impermanence of earthly things. The king, once powerful, is no more. His relic, the statue, is broken to pieces and will soon crumble to dust. Time destroys everything.

The poet is the speaker of the first line and he introduces a traveler coming from an antique land, who speaks of the rest of the poem. The traveler tells the poet that two vast and trunk less legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them his shattered face lies half-buried in the dust. The sculptor, being a psychologist, could read his passions well and dexterously convey his frown, sneer of cold command and wrinkled lip through the sculpture. The sculptor dislikes and hates the passions of vanity, pride, and frowns and successfully captures them on the face.

In the sestet the traveler recites the inscription on the pedestal. In the possible fewest words the poet speaks through the inscription the king’s name, position in the world in his life-time and futility of his tyrannic power. The inscription also shows a great lesson to the mighty rulers of the world. It says Ozymandias was the king of the kings, but now his power has been smashed to the ground. Ozymandias addresses the mighty rulers to see his works and their tragic consequence. The king thinks if the powerful persons observe his ruins they will despair. Nothing is left of his power. It is an irony that the more men are powerful in the world, the greater is the decay of their work. Nothing of their power and reign stands the test of time. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless, and bare the sands without living beings stretch far away. The sestet displays the theme-through antithesis which smacks of irony. Ozymandias is king of kings but his end is nothing but some handfuls of dust. The statue or the sculpture of the king is a fruitless and tragic endeavor to immortalize the king and his works. His power has now crumbled to dust. In his life-time he had numerous attendants, many a servant was at his beck and call. Now he is companionless; he is solitary in the desert. So futile are power and human life!

Desmond King Hele writes; “………Shelley’s habit was to aim high, sometimes impossibly high and even though he would often turn out the most rewarding type of poem which yields new layers of meaning at, each re-reading, his success was rarely, complete. In Ozymandias, however, he is content with a limited objective, a straight-forward piece of irony, and he succeeds completely.

Dramatic monologue in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

A dramatic monologue is a type of lyric poem which is essentially a speech delivered by a single person about a definite and particular event or character to his silent audience. It is also essentially a study of character, of mental states, of moral crisis, made from the outside. The poem gains added affects and dimensions as the speaker comments on the characters and circumstances. The ideal aim of a dramatic monologue is the self-portrayal. Another character of characters remain all-along silent but every now and then react to the speaker, which is understood by the turns and shifts of the speaker’s speech.

A comparison between the dramatic monologue and the soliloquy will afford us to understand the features of the dramatic monologue better. Both of these forms of poetry are speeches of single person. The dramatic monologue implies the presence of some other persons or person. But a soliloquy is the speech of a single man to himself. It is something of a private talk or debate. In it the speaker delivers his own thoughts uninterrupted by the objections or propositions of other persons. It is not objective but the dramatic monologue has to be objective if it is written properly.

Although The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is the first poem of Thomas Stearns Eliot’s first published volume of verse, it evidences the signs of and already mature poet. His genius is essentially dramatic. His early poetry up to The Waste Land is predominantly dramatic in nature, and even his later poetry, which is predominantly lyrical, has a dramatic element. His remarks in the “Dialogue on Dramatic Poetry” that “All great poetry tends towards drama” can very well be applied to his poetry. The element of drama in Eliot’s poetry is the drama staged and exacted within the human soul. The dramatist observes complete detachment, and whatever he has to say, is said through the mouths of the dramatis personae. Eliot’s early poetry has this dramatic objectivity. Thus in the Love-Song, Prufrock is the center, and the entire poem is but a projection of his consciousness, moods, reflections, and reactions to the situation.

In any sense The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a dramatic monologue, as it describes the self of the speaker, Prufrock, and not of the poet. Of course, the poem differs from other dramatic monologues like Browining’s because it, despite the use of the “You” has no listener in reality. No reaction is shown by any character, nor it is understood in the speech of the speaker. Besides, the poem lacks coherence and logical development. There are only sudden “Mental jumps” and “Free association of ideas”. Dujardin considers the poem rather and interior monologue because the “You” in the poem is no character. The “I” and the “You” may be the two selves of the protagonist- the realist self and the romantic self. The protagonist is, there, a split personality and the poem is replete with mental clashes and conflicts. The line “Do I dare, do I dare” externalizes his fickleness, futility, cowardice, timidity, lack of energy and enthusiasm, will-power and manliness. He faces a problem of speaking to a woman to make a proposal of love or marriage to her. He thinks and rethinks, takes decision and revises them. In a number of democratic ways he expresses his inability to make the proposal. He makes profuse use of images, allusions and references to reveal him-self. Remarkable that they also symbolize the miserable plight of the contemporary urban city and civilization.

Above all, the tragedy in the life of Prufrock is the tragedy not only of a modern man of the 20th century but also of all ages, which lends a universal color to the dramatic monologue, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Ted Hughes’ idea of revolt in his “The Jaguar”

It will not be excess to say that Edward James Hughes or Ted Hughes in shortly is a scientist of both animal’s and human’s nature. Beginning from “The Jaguar” he writes a lot of poems about animal’s nature. Ted Hughes shows his interest in the animals in the same way that takes them as the representatives of the nature of human beings. It needs to be noted, by way of conclusion, that Hughes’ interest in animals is quite central to his poetic vision. For these animals, the crow, the jaguar, the tomcat, skylark, the hawk, the threshes, the pike, and the horses, all are, in one way or another, representatives of Nature, Nature that once belonged to man but now lies deep-buried in the human Thus, Jaguar of “The Jaguar” is same to all.

The apes in the zoo are yawing and adorning their fleas in the sun. The parrots are shrieking as if they were on fire or strutting like cheap tarts to attract the visitors with nuts. The tiger and the lion, fatigued with indolence, are lying as still as the sun. Curiously enough, the coil in the tail of a boa constrictor is a fossil. All these show that the animals have adopted themselves to the imprisonment and lost their original power and energy. These animals may symbolize the vigor-less human beings in the society who are captives or brought under others’ control, no matter whether it is social, economic, political or cultural, lose their personality, their beliefs and creeds. Sometimes they even quite forget their nature and character and yield to the state of slavery.

On the other side of the picture, the spirit of the jaguar that hurries enraged through the prison darkness after the drills of his eyes on a short fuse is never to be suppressed. Its stare is a strong refusal to acknowledge or to be fettered by the external world. It never experiences boredom and tedium. Its eyes are satisfied to be blind in fire. It is deaf of ear because of “The bang of blood in the brain”. Its stride is expressive of uncontrollable and irrepressible sense of freedom. It seems to be spinning the earth under its feet like a ball or a prayer wheel. This jaguar is a symbol of an idealist revolutionary who does not consider himself to be imprisoned. His rebellious spirit and sense of liberty remain intact. Interpreted thus, the poem teaches us to be conscious of our original power, strength, nature, sense of liberty and will-force and not to yield to anything unlawful and oppressive. So a clear invocation of and ideal revolutionary’s dream and thought is narrated aptly in the poem.

Of course, such interpretations are far-fetched, though there may be enough basis for such interpretations. Superficially read, the poem is a dramatization of the original power and force of the jaguar as well as of the changed features and behavior of some other animals but read analytically, the poem may have a didactic quality to teach.
In fine, I would like to mention that Terry Gifford and Neil Roberts advise, “The Jaguar is not a poem just of observation but of longing and affirmation, particularly in its final lines which broaden out to suggest a human possibility, an exciting possibility but one that entails preserving intact the predatory ferocity, rage, blindness, and deafness of our own nature”.

Metaphor in English Literature

Let us take two dialogues between two lovers’:

Male: You are my Juliet, my sweet darling!

Female: And you are my Romeo, my sweet heart!

Here, the comparisons with Romeo and Juliet are the example of metaphor. So we can say that metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison between two different things is implied but not explicitly stated.

The word “Metaphor” comes from the Greek “meta” meaning “over” and “phera” meaning “carry”. Indeed it means “literary carrying over”. By this figure of speech, a word is transferred or carried over from the object to which it belongs another in such a manner that a comparison is implied. Though, in a metaphor one thing is compared with another thing, the other thing may be present, masked or totally absent. For example, in his sonnet “London 1802”, Wordsworth writes:

“Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour!
England hath need of thee: She is a fen

Of stagnant water!”

In these above lines a comparison between two different things- England and fen- is made an implicit way. The point of their comparison is their stagnancy or lack of progress. At last I would like to mention Dr. Johnson’s remark: “It is a great excellence in a style when used with propriety”.

Alliteration in English Literature

“Full fathom five, thy father lies.”

In this line by Shakespeare, the consonant “f” sound is repeated several times and this is an example of alliteration. So we can say that alliteration is the repetition of the letter or syllables or the same sound at the beginning of the two or more words in a line. In this way language becomes musical. The definition of alliteration can be referred also in different manners. According to Abrams, it happens when the recurrent sound occurs in a conspicuous position; at the beginning of a word or of a stressed syllable within a word. Again it is said that alliteration may happen at the beginning of nearby words or in the middle or even at the end of words provided stressed syllables. The use of alliteration makes the importance of literary significance in more intensified degree. This figure of speech is more frequent in writing poetry. By using alliteration a writer presents his sense of elegance in regard of his literary understanding. It shows and employment of mastery by the writer. For examples:

a) The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew

The furrow followed free. (Coleridge)

b) Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux. (Pope)

c) With beaded bubbles winking at the brim. (Keats)

d) Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone, on a wide, wide sea! (Coleridge)

Elegy in English Literature

In Greek and Roman literature “elegy” denoted any poem written in elegiac metre. The term was also used to referring to the subjects and moods frequently expressed in the elegiac verse form, especially complaints about love. In Europe and England, the term continued to have a variable application through the Renaissance. For example, John Donne’s Elegies are love poems. In the course of the seventeenth century, however, the term began to be limited to its present usage: a lament lyric of mourning or an utterance of personal bereavement and sorrow and therefore it should be characterized by absolute sincerity of emotion and expression. In the evolution of literature, the elegy has achieved a great elaboration and has expanded in many directions. It has grown into a memorial poem which contains the poet’s tribute to some great men and often a study of his life and character, as in Spenser’s Astrophel, Milton’s Lycidas. Often the philosophic and speculative elements become predominant in it. Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” is one of the most frankly personal of elegies a large tribute to the dead friend, a spiritual autobiography extending over some three years of intellectual struggle, and a poem of philosophy.

The elegy in modern literature has often been used as a vehicle for literary criticism. One particular type of elegy is the pastoral elegy, in which the poet expresses his sorrow under the mask of a shepherd mourning for a company. This type of elegy is originated among the Sicilian Greeks. It passes into modern European literatures during the Renaissance. It has often been employed by English poets from Spencer to Matthew Arnold. Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is one of the most famous pastoral elegies.

Autobiography in English Literature

Autobiography is a form of non-fictional literature, the subject of which is the life of an individual, written by him self. In it the subject recounts his or her own history. It can be seen as a branch of history, because it depends on a selective ordering and interpretation of materials, written and oral, established around the writer’s personal life.

Autobiographies belong to the branch of confessional literature. In the Romantic Period, many writers’ confided their thoughts and feelings to the readers. They explored the depths of their souls. Rousseau’s Confession, George Moore’s Confessions of a young Man belong to this kind of literature. Autobiographies are to be distinguished from memories and diary or journal. Memories record mainly the people and the events that the author has seen and experienced. Diary is a day-to-day record of the events in a man’s life. But autobiographies trace the development of the author from childhood to maturity through interaction with other characters and events.

Benjamin Franklin, John Stuart Mill, Winston Churchill wrote autobiographies, which, in their truth and design are remarkable achievements. Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s “The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian” deserves mention for its vigorous and bold description of the passing away of Indo-British culture.
But autobiographical writing can easily pass into fiction when rational inference or conjecture pass over into imaginative reconstruction or frank invention or when the subject itself is wholly or partly imaginary.

Biography in English Literature

Biography is a form of non-fictional literature, the subject of which is the life of an individual. In general, the form is considered to include auto-biography, in which the subject recounts his or her own history. Biography can be seen as a branch of history, because it depends on a selective ordering and interpretation of materials, written and orals, established through research and personal recollection. It can also be seen as a branch of imaginative literature in that it seeks to convey a sense of the individuality and significance of the subject through creative sympathetic insight.

The earliest biographical writing probably consisted of funeral speeches and inscriptions, usually praising the life and example of the deceased. Particular philosophical, religious, or political causes were often popularized by biographical means. Plato and Xenophon helped to vindicate Socrates by writing about his life as well as his teaching.

But the major developments of English biography came in the 18th century with Samuel Johnson’s critical lives of the English poets and James Boswell’s massive life of Johnson, which combines detailed records of conversation and behavior with considerable psychological insight. This provided the model for exhaustive, monumental 19th century biographies such as A.P. Stanley’s “Life of Arnold” and Lord Morley’s “Gladstone”.

But biographical writing can easily pass into fiction when rational reference or conjecture passes over into imaginative reconstruction or frank invention or when the subject itself is wholly or partly imaginary.

Point of View in English Literature

In literary works point of view means the perspective through which the writers’ presents his characters and events. It indicates the relationship between the narrator and the narrative. There are many variations and combinations of point of view.

In omniscient, the narrator of the piece narrator of the story, comments on the characters, and situations and direct our responses and reactions to the development of plot and character. The technique adopted here is that of third person. The Omniscient mode enables the writer to present the inner thoughts and feelings of his characters, as in his movement from character to character and event to event he has free access to their motivations, thoughts and feelings. Examples: Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice”.

In autobiographical method, the narrative technique is that of the first person. In this method, the author or writer identifies himself with one of the characters. He must himself see or hear almost everything that happens. In this method, the relationship between the narrator and the story is legitimate. But we get the perspective of the narrator character only and we do not penetrate into the hearts and thoughts of the other characters’ as we do in Omniscient. Example: Rudyard Kipling’s “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes”.

There is another point of view of a single character that the author uses as the central character of participant in the action. The story is narrated in the third person, the central character is followed throughout the action and the reader is restricted to the field of vision and range of knowledge of the character alone. This method is called the Central intelligence. Example: Arthur Conan Doel’s “Sherlock Homes”.