Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Study Guide

By James Joyce

Short Summary

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man takes place in Ireland at the turn of the century. Young Stephen Dedalus comes from an Irish Catholic family; he is the oldest of ten children, and his father is financially inept. Throughout the novel, the Dedalus family makes a series of moves into increasingly dilapidated homes as their fortunes dwindle. His mother is a devout Catholic. When Stephen is young, he and the other Dedalus children are tutored by the governess Dante, a fanatically Catholic woman. Their Uncle Charles also lives with the family. The book opens with stream of consciousness narrative filtered through a child's perspective; there is sensual imagery, and words approximating baby talk. We leap forward in time to see young Stephen beginning boarding school at Clongowes. He is very young, terribly homesick, un-athletic and socially awkward. He is an easy target for bullies, and one day he is pushed into a cesspool. He becomes ill from the filthy water, but he remembers what his father told him and doesn't tell on the boy. That Christmas, he eats at the adult table for the first time. A terrible argument erupts over politics, with John Casey and Stephen's father on one side and Dante on the other. Later that year, Stephen is unjustly hit by a prefect. He complains to the rector, winning the praises of his peers.

Stephen is forced to withdraw from Clongowes because of his family's poverty. The family moves to Blackrock, where Stephen takes long walks with Uncle Charles and goes on imaginary adventures with boys from around the neighbourhood. When Stephen is a bit older, the family moves to Dublin, once again because of financial difficulties. He meets a girl named Emma Clere, who is to be the object of his adoration right up until the end of the book. His father, with a bit of charm, manages to get Stephen back into private school. He is to go to Belvedere College, another institution run by the Jesuits.

Stephen comes into his own at Belvedere, a reluctant leader and a success at acting and essay writing. Despite his position of leadership, he often feels quite isolated. He continues to be a sensitive and imaginative young man, acting in school plays and winning essay contests. He is also increasingly obsessed with sex; his fantasies grow more and more lurid. Finally, one night he goes with a prostitute. It is his first sexual experience.

Going with prostitutes becomes a habit. Stephen enters a period of spiritual confession. He considers his behavior sinful, but he feels oddly indifferent towards it. He cannot seem to stop going to prostitutes, nor does he want to stop. But during the annual spiritual retreat at Belvedere, he hears three fire sermons on the torments of hell. Stephen is terrified, and he repents of his old behavior. He becomes almost fanatically religious.

After a time, this feeling passes. He becomes increasingly frustrated by Catholic doctrine. When a rector suggests that he consider becoming a priest, Stephen realizes that it is not the life for him. One day, while walking on the beach, he sees a beautiful girl. Her beauty hits him with the force of spiritual revelation, and he no longer feels ashamed of admiring the body. He will live life to the fullest.

The next time we see Stephen, he is a student at university. University has provided valuable structure and new ideas to Stephen: in particular, he has had time to think about the works of Aquinas and Aristotle on the subject of beauty. Stephen has developed his own theory of aesthetics. He is increasingly preoccupied with beauty and art. Although he has no shortage of friends, he feels isolated. He has come to regard Ireland as a trap, and he realizes that he must escape the constraints of nation, family, and religion. He can only do that abroad. Stephen imagines his escape as something parallel to the flight of Dedalus, he escaped from his prison with wings crafted by his own genius. The book ends with Stephen leaving Ireland to pursue the life of a writer.

About Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was first published in serial form in the Egoist in the years 1914-15. Chronicling the life of Stephen Dedalus from early childhood to young adulthood and his life-changing decision to leave Ireland, the novel is profoundly autobiographical. Like Stephen, Joyce had early experiences with prostitutes during his teenage years and struggled with questions of faith. Like Stephen, Joyce was the son of a religious mother and a financially inept father. Like Stephen, Joyce was the eldest of ten children and received his education at Jesuit schools. Like Stephen, Joyce left Ireland to pursue the life of a poet and writer. Joyce began working on the stories that formed the foundation of the novel as early as 1903, after the death of is mother. Previous to the publication of Portrait, Joyce had published several stories under the pseudonym "Stephen Dedalus."

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is one of the earlier examples in English literature of a novel that makes extensive use of stream of consciousness. Stream of conscious is a narrative technique through which the author attempts to represent the fluid and eruptive nature of human thought. The narrative is anchored in the interior life of a character rather than from the perspective of an objective third-person narrator. While in Paris in 1902, Joyce discovered the French novel Les Lauriers sont Coup?s; Joyce credits this novel with the inspiration for creating his own style of stream of consciousness narrative.

While Portrait lacks the ambition and scope of Joyce's later stream of conscious masterpiece, Ulysses, in many ways it was a revolutionary novel. The opening section is in stream of consciousness with a child protagonist, and the novel is marked by an increasing sophistication of narrative voice as the protagonist matures. Although many sections of the novel are narrated in a relatively direct style, Joyce writes long passages that sustain a complex and difficult language attempting to approximate the workings of human thought. Even when the work is narrated in a straightforward manner, the narrative voice never strays from the interior life of Stephen Dedalus. We see events only as they are filtered through Stephen.

The book shows a wide range of narrative styles. There are lush and intricate passages, sections narrated in a direct style, and highly experimental sections. The close is very simply done, all in the form of Stephen's journal entries before leaving Ireland. The variety of styles is part of what makes Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man such an enjoyable read.

Joyce is one of the central authors of the modernist canon, and he is best known for a core of four works: Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914-5), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegan's Wake (1939). These last three works in particular had a huge impact on the development of modernist English literature. Writers as illustrious as Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner were strongly influenced by Joyce's innovative narrative experiments.

Major Themes

Entrapment and Constraint

Stephen eventually comes to see Ireland as a kind of trap, a restraint that will make it impossible for him to live and create. Three major bonds threaten: family, nation, and the Church. Stephen's family, increasingly destitute, is a source of frustration and guilt. He can do nothing to help them, and the continued ineptitude of his father exasperates Stephen. Though his father is an ardent nationalist, Stephen has great anxieties about Irish politics. He finds the Irish people fickle and ultimately disloyal; at one point, he says to a friend that the Irish have never had a great leader whom they did not betray or abandon. He also rebels against the nature of activities like petition-signing and protest; in his mind, these activities amount to an abdication of independence. At the same time, he leaves Ireland hoping to forge the new conscience of his race.

Catholicism

The Church is perhaps the greatest constraint on Stephen, and merits its own entry. The teachings of the Church run contrary to Stephen's independent spirit and intellect. His sensitivity to beauty and the human body are not at all suitable to the rigid Catholicism in which he was raised. But the Church continues to exert some small hold on him. Although he eventually becomes an unbeliever, he continues to have some fear that the Catholic Church might be correct. Despite his fears, he eventually chooses to live independently and without constraint, even if that decision sends him to hell.

Escape

Escape is the natural complement to the theme of Entrapment and Constraint. Joyce depicts escape metaphorically by the book's most important symbol and allusion: the mythical artificer Dedalus. Dedalus is not at all an Irish name; Joyce took the name from the mythical inventor who escaped from his island prison by constructing wings and flying to his freedom. Stephen, too, will eventually escape from the island prison of Ireland. Independence

Closely related to the above theme, Stephen's move towards independence is one of the central movements of the novel. When we first encounter Stephen as a young boy, his athletic ineptitude and sensitive nature make him an easy target for bullies. He is a rather shy and awkward boy. The contrast with the university student Stephen could not be greater. The older Stephen is fiercely independent, willing to risk eternal damnation to pursue his destiny. He is not cowed by anyone, and he will pursue life as an artist no matter what the cost.

Beauty, Sensitivity, and Imagination

What begins as sensitivity and imagination in the child Stephen eventually evolves into a near-obsessive contemplation of beauty and the mechanics of art. Even as a child, young Stephen is a extraordinarily imaginative and sensitive boy. Eventually, these strong but unarticulated feelings take shape as a passion for the arts. In Chapter 5, Stephen has developed a theory of aesthetics that is quite sophisticated for a university student; he thinks carefully and thoroughly about beauty and the power of art, and knows that he can do nothing else but pursue the life of a poet and writer.

Character List

Stephen Dedalus: Joyce's fictional recreation of himself. Stephen is the hero of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and all events of the book are filtered through his consciousness. He is extremely sensitive and imaginative, and we watch as he develops into a fiercely independent young man. He is the oldest son of Simon and Mary Dedalus, Irish Catholics with ten other children. Because of his intellectual gifts and his position as the oldest child, the family scrapes together enough money to pay for his education. Stephen is an extremely dynamic character. Although he keeps the core traits of imaginativeness and sensitivity throughout his life, Stephen evolves from a shy, almost awkward boy to a brave and brilliant young man. He finally comes to realize that Ireland is a trap for him, and that he must escape the bonds of family, religion, and country if he is to be able to create.

Simon Dedalus: Stephen's father, husband to Mary. Simon, once a medical student, is a financially inept man whose blunders plunge the Dedalus family deeper and deeper into poverty. He is an Irish nationalist. With Simon, one senses constantly that the best days are already behind him. He is deeply nostalgic, and sometimes full of unsolicited cliché advice for his son.

Mary Dedalus: Stephen's mother, wife to Simon. Mary is quite religious, and is deeply concerned when Stephen, during his college days, develops an increasingly hostile attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church. She is burdened with the raising of ten children, with financial circumstances always becoming worse.

Dedalus Children: No child manages to stick out. They are minor characters in the novel, usually lumped together as a group. They have been denied many of the privileges that Stephen has had.

Eileen Vance: A young Protestant girl, neighbour to the Dedalus. Stephen and Eileen play together when both are still too young to be in school. When young Stephen says he will marry her when he grows up, Dante is infuriated because Eileen is Protestant.

Uncle Charles: Stephen's great uncle, lively in Stephen's youth but dead before Stephen is a teenager. Stephen's fondest childhood memories are of long walks with Uncle Charles, who lives with the family.

Dante: Governess to the Dedalus children. Dante works for the Dedalus family during the years when the family's financial situation is better. She is deeply religious, and puts the Catholic faith and loyalty to the Church above all else. When Stephen is a young boy, the first Christmas dinner he sits with the adults, Dante becomes involved in a terrible argument with Mr. Casey and Simon Dedalus over the death of Irish nationalist Charles Parnell.

Wells: Young boy, student at Clongowes. Bully who pushes Stephen into the cesspool, which leads to Stephen becoming very ill. Stephen earns a little of the other boys' respect when he does not rat on wells.

Brother Michael: Monk who works in the Clongowes infirmary. Kindly and gentle, who reassures Stephen and Athy, the other sick boy, and reads to them from the paper. From the article in the paper, Stephen learns of the death of Irish politician Charles Parnell.

Athy: Young boy, student at Clongowes. Stephen is sick with Athy in the Clongowes infirmary.

Mr. John Casey: Simon Dedalus's friend and Irish nationalist. When Stephen is a young boy, the first Christmas dinner he sits with the adults, Mr. Casey becomes involved in a terrible argument with Dante over the death of Irish nationalist Charles Parnell.

Father Conmee: The rector of Clongowes Wood College, where the child Stephen goes to school. He later helps to arrange Stephen's attendance at Belvedere college.

Father Dolan: Prefect at Clongowes. He unjustly punishes Stephen with a smacking from the pandybat. Young Stephen screws up the courage to complain about the incident to Father Conmee.

Father Arnall: Latin teacher at Clongowes Wood College. Later, when Stephen is a teenager at Belvedere, Father Arnall delivers three fiery sermons on the tortures of hell. Stephen, who has taken to using prostitutes, is frightened back into faith.

Mike Flynn: A friend of Simon Dedalus. After the Dedalus family moves to Blackrock, he agrees, at Simon's request, to train Stephen in running.

Aubrey Mills: A neighbouring young boy who becomes Stephen's best friend in Blackrock. They plays at having adventures, leading the other boys of the neighbourhood on imaginary quests.

Emma Clere: Stephen's love interest. She makes Stephen ridiculously shy, and usually he is unable to work up the courage to talk to her. Stephen has somewhat superficial ideas about women; for Stephen, Emma is more like a muse than a flesh-and-blood person. Since all characters and events of the book are filtered through Stephen, we knew almost nothing about her. While still a boy, he writes his first poem to her ("To E----- C----- -"); the poem is a failure. Ten years later, he is inspired by her again and writes a poem that is a success.

Cranly: One of Stephen's best friends at university. Stephen trusts and respects him enough to share all of his fears and feelings with him. Intelligent and sensible, his questions help Stephen to understand himself. In the end, Stephen realizes that Cranly belongs in Ireland in a way that he doesn't; at this point, he realizes that their friendship will inevitably end.

Davin: Stephen's friend at university. Davin comes from good Irish peasant stock. He is simple and pleasant. Stephen is frustrated by Davin's unimaginativeness and his thick-skulled Irish patriotism, but something about Davin's nature touches him.

Lynch: Stephen's friend at university. During a hurling match, Lynch obligingly listens to Stephen's theories about aesthetics.

McCann: Stephen's peer at university. McCann is deeply involved in politics and tries to get Stephen to sign a petition.

Temple: Stephen's peer at university. Temple is somewhat tiresome, sometimes self-deprecating but often abrasive or pretentious. He admires Stephen.

 Summary and Analysis of Chapter 1

Summary:

We begin with Stephen Dedalus' earliest childhood, described to us in the terms a child would use: there are touches of baby talk, along with visceral imagery of his parents, his governess Dante, and his Uncle Charles. One of his neighbours is a little girl named Eileen, and Stephen announces that when he is grown, he will marry her. His announcement infuriates Dante. We learn later that Eileen is Protestant.

We then move to Stephen's first days at the boarding school of Conglowes, and the language changes to reflect Stephen's aging: he is now a young boy, and he is terribly homesick. He comforts himself with thoughts of how it will feel to return home. He is also very devout, and his nightly prayers are a cross between a child's compulsive superstitions and the Catholic faith in which he has been raised. One day, a larger boy named Wells picks on Stephen and pushes him into a cesspool. Stephen gets a fever from the filthy water, and he fantasizes about how sorry everyone will be when he dies. In the school clinic, Brother Michael takes care of him and another boy named Athy. Brother Michael reads the paper to them. Stephen and Athy hear about the death of Charles Parnell, an Irish nationalist politician. Stephen has earned some respect from the boys for not ratting on Wells.

That Christmas holiday, Stephen eats at the table with the adults for the first time. The happiness of the occasion is shattered by a bitter argument between Dante on one side and Stephen's father, Simon Dedalus, and John Casey, friend of the family, on the other. The fight is over Charles Parnell. Dante is fanatically Catholic, and she approves of the decision of the Church to condemn Parnell for his marital infidelity. That action destroyed Parnell's career, and hounded him to his death from exhaustion. Casey and Simon were both great admirers of Parnell; he was a hero to Irish nationalists. They point out the many times that the Church has betrayed Ireland. The fight is emotional and vicious, and ends with Dante storming out of the room. Casey is in tears; Stephen is horrified when he sees his father begin to cry as well.

Back at Conglowes, Stephen hears about an incident in which several boys stole and drank the altar wine. He listens to the other boys talking it over. He remembers Eileen's fair hands and blonde hair; because he understood those hands and hair, he feels he can understand the meaning of "Tower of Ivory" and "House of Gold," two phrases Catholics use to describe the Virgin Mary.

Some of the boys involved in the altar theft have been given the choice of expulsion or flogging. Only Corrigan has chosen flogging. The other boys approve of his choice; a boy named Fleming adds that Mr. Gleeson will not flog Corrigan hard, because it would look bad if he did. Later, Stephen thinks about Mr. Gleeson. He agrees that Gleeson will not flog Corrigan hard, but he silently disagrees with Fleming's judgment. Mr. Gleeson will be merciful, but not for the sake of appearances; he will be merciful because he is a kind man.

We see Stephen and the boys in Latin class, which is headed by the intimidating Father Arnall. The frightening Father Dolan enters, seeking out boys to punish as examples for the rest of the class. Stephen is not doing any work, because his glasses have been broken; when Father Dolan sees him, Stephen explains that his glasses are broken, but Father Dolan accuses him of having broken them on purpose. He paddles Stephen's hands.

Stephen is humiliated by the punishment and angry about its injustice. After class, his friends encourage him to go complain to the rector. Stephen thinks he might. But as he stays in during recess and heads towards the rector's office, he is seized by terror. He passes through the intimidating corridors, with their paintings of saints, and finally musters the courage to knock on Father Conmee's door. Nervously, he explains to the Father what happened. Father Conmee promises to talk to Father Dolan about it, and sends Stephen on his way. When Stephen goes out to the playground, his friends surround him, eager for news. He tells them what happened and they hoist him up in the air, yelling out with joy. They throw their caps in the air and celebrate Stephen as if he were a hero.

 Analysis:

We are following Stephen through the course of his first year at Conglowes, climaxing in his small victory at Father Conmee's office. The opening condenses the journey Stephen takes in the novel, as he moves toward his decision to become an artist; we also are introduced to the major forces that shape Stephen: Irish nationalism, Catholicism, and his incredible sensitivity.

We watch as Stephen gradually becomes more accepted by his classmates. Although he will always remain something of an outsider, certain events of this passage predict his future position as a reluctant leader. Although initially he is an easy target for bullies because of his sensitive nature, small size, and social awkwardness, we see several traits in Stephen that are the seeds of a formidable personality. He is not a whiner, despite his sensitivity: when pushed into the cesspool by Wells, he remembers his father's warning never to tattle on anyone. And he is tough enough to go to the rector and complain of Father Dolan's unfairness. Still, these moments of strength are not easy for Stephen. He is an extremely sensitive child, and his athletic incompetence makes him nervous and fearful. In all his interactions with the other boys, he is practically silent. If he disagrees with their judgments, he keeps his thoughts to himself.

Two major themes are Catholicism and Irish Nationalism. We see that Stephen is a very devout child, fearful of hell and enraptured by the Virgin Mary. But his relationship with religion will soon grow troubled, and the difficulties are foreshadowed here. The argument at Christmas reminds us that Ireland is a conflicted land, and here we see here as she has lost one of her great heroes. Catholicism is part of Ireland's national identity, but the argument shows that the Church is not always compatible with the Irish longing for liberty.

Nor is rabid Catholicism compatible with Stephen's basic character. Dante's fury over his friendship with Eileen is against the very core of Stephen's sensitive nature: later, he makes sense of the Virgin Mary by remembering Eileen's hands and hair. Ironically, he relates to an icon of his faith by remembering the pretty features of a young Protestant girl.

We see Stephen's sensitivity again and again. He observes his world with the eyes of a poet; even in the naïve and child-like way he explains the things around him, he shows intellectual grace and imagination. He also is already an observer of men. Note that he alone is generous and sensitive enough to see the real reason why Mr. Gleeson will not flog Corrigan hard. There are many moments like this one throughout Chapter 1, as we see how different Stephen is from the other boys in the way he sees the world.

 Summary and Analysis of Chapter 2

Summary:

Stephen spends his summer at his family home in Blackrock, a town near Dublin. His old Uncle Charles is his constant companion. Uncle Charles smokes reeking tobacco and takes Stephen on long walks. Stephen also spends a part of each day with Uncle Charles and Mike Flynn, an old friend of Stephen's father's. Mike Flynn has trained famous runners, and Stephen is being put through a bit of training himself. Stephen also goes with Uncle Charles to Church every day, where his Uncle prays fervently. Stephen is respectful of his uncle's piety, but he has no idea what need or wish could make Uncle Charles pray so intently. Stephen also takes a constitutional every week with his father and grandfather; together, they walk many miles.

He is enraptured by The Count of Monte Cristo, and he imagines himself living through the adventures of the protagonist, culminating in his rejection of his old love, Mercedes. As another outlet for Stephen's longing for adventure, Stephen and a neighbouring boy named Aubrey Mills head up a pack of boys and go on adventures together. In the fall, Stephen is happy because he does not have to return to Clongowes; but he also knows that this change is because of some financial trouble of his father's. Although the neighbourhood gang of boys breaks up, he and Aubrey still play together. Stephen still feels himself different from other children. At times, their play annoys him. He has a vague conception of a world of images that he longs to meet; he also awaits some kind of transformation, although he is not exactly sure what it will entail.

That autumn, the family moves to a shabby home in Dublin. Stephen understands his father is in some kind of trouble, but there is little Stephen can do to help. Uncle Charles is growing more senile. The move is depressing, and Dublin is a world of new urban experiences. We see Stephen at a Christmas party: he has developed a crush on a neighbouring girl. But he cannot muster the courage to kiss her; the next day, he tries to write love poetry for her.

Soon, Stephen leans he will be going to Belvedere, a Jesuit School‹his father ran into Stephen's old rector and chatted him up. The rector will arrange for Stephen to come back to school with the Jesuits. His younger brother, Maurice, is also old enough to go.

We jump forward in time; Stephen is now a teenager, a reluctant leader in his own way, and a successful essayist and actor at his school. It is the night of the Whitsuntide play, and Stephen is taking a moment for himself as he prepares to go onstage and act his part. Outside, he runs into Wallis and Heron, two other boys at Belvedere; Heron is both his rival and his friend, as Stephen and Heron are the two brightest boys in their class. Heron and Wallis tease Stephen about a girl in the audience. Their chiding makes sets off a new train of through for Stephen, as he remembers an incident that took place during his first term at Belvedere. A teacher found heresy in one of Stephen's essays, but Stephen simply explained that he meant something different; still, the idea of heresy gave him a strange feeling of joy. Some time later, Heron, Nash, and Boland caught up with Stephen outside and pulled him into a conversation about writers. Stephen refuses to say that Tennyson was a better poet then Byron, even though Byron was a heretic, and the boys physically attacked him, trying to get him to say that Tennyson was better. He managed to escape. We are brought back to the evening of the Whitsuntide play, as Stephen, Heron, and Wallis continue to make light talk. Stephen looks at Heron now, remembering the past incident and Heron's cowardice, but he realizes that he feels no anger. He thinks about the girl sitting in the audience, remembering their shy contact and his unfulfilled desire to kiss her. A boy comes to tell Stephen to get dressed and ready for his part. As the curtain is about to go up, Stephen thinks about the silliness of his part and feels humiliation. After the play is over, he does not socialize but instead goes for a walk, restlessly searching for something. The crisp night air, occasionally heavy with the odours of the city, calms him, and he goes back.

Sometime later, Stephen is taking a voyage by train with his father. They are going to Cork to sell property at an auction. The trip is marked by Simon's attempts to bond with Stephen, but Stephen feels embarrassed by his father's intense nostalgia and trite advice. Images of the dead are unreal to Stephen, save that of his dead Uncle Charles (this is the first time we hear of Charles' death). In Cork, his father chats up everybody about old times and how things were; only when Stephen goes with his father to Queen's College do his father's stories come to life. There, in an old anatomy theatre, Stephen sees the word Foetus carved into a desktop. Suddenly, he sees the world of the students come to life: he can imagine the boy carving the letters, the students of the past sitting and studying, all of them now aged or dead. The word also reminds Stephen of his increasing preoccupation with sex. He tries to remember his own childhood but the memories seem faded and unreal; he is a different person now. He suffers through the rest of the trip with his father, meeting with Simon's old friends and sitting through sessions of wet-eyed nostalgia and avuncular advice.

We are back in Dublin. Stephen has won a hefty sum in an essay contest. Rather than save the money, he begins a prolonged spending binge, buying useless gifts for everyone and indulging himself. When the money is gone, he feels ashamed. He had tried to use the money to create a feeling of elegance and affluence, but in reality they are as poor as ever. He also wanted to use the gifts to bring himself closer to his mother and his many younger siblings; however, he feels as isolated from them as ever. He wanders the streets of Dublin, lonely and suffering from intense sexual longing. He accepts the proposition of a prostitute; his time with her is his first sexual experience.

Analysis:

Chapter Two contains the transition from Stephen's late childhood to his teenage years. We begin in the world that Stephen will later be unable to remember clearly: his Uncle Charles, adventures with the boys in the neighbourhood. There is also a strong contrast between Stephen's fantasies about romance at the beginning of the chapter to his encounter with the prostitute at chapter's end. We move from vague ideas of romance, influenced by The Count of Monte Cristo, to a much more visceral sexual experience.

Adolescence is a conflicted time for Stephen, and an extremely important one. We see him finding success as an actor and an essayist, somewhat popular among his peers, a "leader afraid of his own authority" (103). But again and again, the narrative emphasizes Stephen's isolation from others. He is full of thoughts and feelings that he cannot articulate to others. The world strikes him in a way that he is not yet ready to share.

The voices of his elders and peers often sound hollow to him, but he does not yet have a means of rebellion. Nor is rebellion necessarily how he wants to react. His isolation des not mean he despises his family and peers; he simply feels disconnected from them. The child in Chapter 1 is often frightened, ashamed of the difference between himself and others; the adolescent Stephen is more independent. His rejection of the Church is foreshadowed here: he defends Byron, despite the poet's heresies, and he himself writes an essay that contains a small bit of heresy on a philosophical point. Stephen's independence and sensitivity are at odds with the dogmatism and limited perspective of Christian philosophy.

The gap between his childhood and his adolescence is paralleled by a series of moves and deaths: we see the move to Dublin and the move to Belvedere, as well as the death of Uncle Charles, who is portrayed in the early part of the chapter as an inextricable part of Stephen's childhood. During the trip to Cork, Stephen realizes that he has changed so completely that his childhood seems like a dim memory. In some way, the fate of the child Stephen is similar to death; he has not died, but he has faded away.

His intelligence is often a source of discomfort. He is too smart to bear his father's nostalgia and advice easily. Stephen is regaled with his father's pat wisdom, but he has become increasingly aware of his father's many failures. Stephen is also torn by the intensity of his sexual longing. He is honest enough with himself to know that his feelings are a far cry from romance or love as it is taught in the Church. His decision to go with the prostitute is a major turning point in his life.

Summary and Analysis of Chapter 3

Summary:

Stephen continues to see prostitutes, and enters a period of deep confusion and spiritual paralysis. He considers his actions to be terribly sinful, but he becomes strangely indifferent toward the idea of eternal damnation. He continues his studies and his duties in the society of the Blessed Virgin, strangely numb towards his own hypocrisy. He finds himself an altogether less pleasant person, as if his violation of one rule has led to a complete loss of self-control; although he began with Lust, he lately finds himself tainted by all of the Seven Deadly Sins. St. Francis Xavier's Feast Day approaches, and every year for three days before the feast day the boys of Belvedere have a spiritual retreat.

On each of the three days of the retreat, Stephen hears a fiery sermon on the torments of hell and the punishments meted out by the just but stern God. The first day's sermon is on the inevitability of judgment. God, who gave many opportunities for repentance during life, will be transformed from God the Merciful to God the Just. Stephen is made sick with fear; the sermons seem as though they were written specifically for him. He thinks about his sins, and is too fearful to confess to God, who seems too fearsome, or the Blessed Virgin, who seems too pure. He imagines being brought back to God through Emma, the girl to whom he tried to write a poem. She seems approachable enough. The second day's sermon is on the incredible physical torment of hell. Stephen feels that he must confess, but he is too ashamed to do so. The third day's sermon elaborates on hell's tortures, the greatest of which is being cut off from God. That night, Stephen has terrible nightmares about hell; the dreams are so intense that he wakes and vomits. He searches for a church where he can go and make his confession with true anonymity. He finally finds one, and he confesses all. The world seems born anew when he steps out of the church. He resolves to live a new life of piety.

Analysis:

All of Chapter 3 deals with the results of Stephen's first rebellion against Catholic values. At first, he enters a state of moral paralysis and confusion. Having broken one rule, he seems to lose the ability to maintain any kind of moral structure or self-discipline. His deep unrest manifests itself as a general souring of his whole personality. His situation is difficult. He is indulging in the pleasures of the flesh for the first time, but he soon learns that to abandon the moral order in which one was raised is no easy thing.

Stephen will eventually prove to be too independent a thinker for Catholic doctrine. His love for beauty and for the particular pleasures offered by the human body do not necessarily mean that he is destined for a life of carnal decadence; even before he is terrified by Father Arnall's sermons, his period of whoring brings much discontent and restlessness. This period foreshadows difficulties he will have later on: if and when he rejects the Catholic Church and its teachings, he will have to find a new ethical system on his own.

His sense of being lost makes it possible for Father Arnall's sermons to bring him back to the Church. The sermons are very well written, and are a famous part of the novel. Full of vivid imagery and sensual description, they prey perfectly on Stephen's active imagination and sensitive nature. He is unable, at this point, to assert his independence from the religion in which he has been raised. Fear drives him back. The themes of independence and entrapment by Ireland are central to Chapter 3. We see Stephen's first revolt, and his subsequent repentance and return.

Summary and Analysis of Chapter 4

Summary:

Stephen becomes almost fanatically pious, devoting himself daily to prayer and contemplation of Catholic doctrines. He sweeps away any doubts or misgivings he has with the idea that at a later stage of his spiritual development, all will be clear. He forces different forms of unpleasantness on himself to punish each of his five senses. He prays fervently, and attends mass every day. At times, he is gripped by a great, spiritual love for God and His Creation.

But before long, Stephen's old independence begins to reassert itself. He finds it difficult to maintain a state of saintly serenity. If anything, his various methods of self-discipline make him more irritable. He does not grow more charitable or kind to his family or his peers. He thinks of the various clergymen he knows, and how they seem just as subject to human pettiness and irritability as everyone else; he also has some doubts about the rather rigid Catholic compartmentalization of different virtues and wisdoms.

The director of the school asks Stephen to his office. Having noticed Stephen's piety and his academic talent, the director wants Stephen to consider the priesthood. The director tries to draw Stephen to the calling by describing the incredible responsibility and power of a priest. The idea is not without its appeal for Stephen. But after he leaves the rector's office, he continues to reflect on the life of a priest. He thinks about a long life of pondering obscure questions of Catholic doctrine. Even more vividly, he imagines the stale odour in halls of Clongowes, and of spending his life wandering through corridors such as these; in the end, he realizes that such a life repulses him. The life of a priest would be contrary to Stephen's desire for freedom and independence. On the way home, he sees a tidy shrine to the Virgin; walking in a lane that leads to his home, he notices the faint smell of rotting cabbages coming from the kitchen gardens down by the river. He realizes that his soul belongs to this kind of disorder rather than to the tidiness of the shrine to Mary: he prefers the simple smells and sensations of life and living.

Back home, he looks at his brothers and sisters, reflecting on how everything that has been denied to them has been given freely to him. Yet they do not hate him for it. We learn that the Dedalus family will be moving again, no doubt because of another blunder of Stephen's father. The children begin to sing, and behind the hope and innocence of their voices Stephen feels a weariness and a deep sorrow.

Later, Stephen waits for his father and a school tutor, who have gone into a building in the city on Stephen' behalf to get some information regarding university. Stephen grows impatient and takes off for a walk. The idea of going to university thrills him, although he is not sure yet what his calling is. He encounters some school chums, who are swimming in the sea; the sight of their spindly teenage bodies makes him somewhat anxious, reminding him of his discomfort with his own half-grown body. They call out to him, inviting him to swim, but he does not come. As they call his name, he thinks of Greek myth's great artificer, Dedalus, who fashioned a pair of wings that enabled him to escape from his island prison. He has a sort of vision of the flight, imagining himself as the one who soars through the air.

He continues to walk along the beach. He comes across a beautiful girl, near his own age, wading in the water. The vision of her makes him feel something akin to divine revelation. He continues on his week, and settles down to take a long nap on the beach. When he wakes up, it is night.

Analysis:

Almost as soon as Stephen begins his new regimen of spiritual self-discipline, his nature begins to rebel. The movement from Catholic piety to an acceptance of the physical as part of beauty is central to this chapter. The central themes of entrapment by Ireland and escape are key. Stephen, having given in to carnal pleasure, is made to fear for his soul. He returns, feverishly, to the Church. He tries to stifle the very impulses that distinguish him as an individual: sensitivity to sensation, interest in beauty. But the sensual world of real living wins: ironically, it is the suggestion of the priest that Stephen consider the clergy which sets Stephen back on the path to his destiny.

And when Stephen imagines the life of a priest, his repulsion is grounded in the physical senses: it is the stale odour of Clongowes that strikes him as he considers the rector's suggestion. Stephen prefers another odour: the sour smell of overripe cabbages in the path leading home. It is the world of life and living, with it's mess and shear physicality, that interests Stephen. He realizes that he will "sin" again; he accepts that he was not made to live a spotless life. Rather, he will live life to the fullest and accept that part of his growth will include making great mistakes. The shrine of the Blessed Virgin is too tidy, too sterile. Stephen prefers mess, and he will live his life accordingly.

But it should be noted that Stephen is not without his anxieties regarding the world of the body. The sight of the other boys reminds him of how embarrassed he is by his own half-grown body. This moment reminds us that Stephen's growth is incomplete, both physically and spiritually. Though drawn to the sensual and the physical, shame still manages to stick to him at unexpected times.

Joyce calls our attention to the symbolism of Stephen's name. Stephen, in a vision that he does not completely comprehend, envisions himself as the winged Dedalus. Stephen's destiny is foreshadowed: as Dedalus escaped from his island prison, Stephen will escape from the island prison of Ireland.

The girl wading in the ocean water gives Stephen a revelation of great strength. In looking at her beauty, he feels "an outburst of profane joy" (195). "Profane," because in the Catholicism of Stephen's upbringing, his spiritual reaction to a girl's physical beauty is alien. He realizes that his fate is to "live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to create life out of life" (196). In allowing himself to enjoy the beauty of the girl, to believe in her beauty, Stephen accepts his own nature. Here is the theme of growing up as accepting one's own character and destiny.

This acceptance will allow Stephen to escape. He comes to look at the priest's suggestion as a kind of trap, a way for the Jesuits to take Stephen from his own fate and make him serve their ends. Escape becomes a powerful motif towards the end of the chapter. Joyce uses Dedalus, Stephen's mythical namesake, as a symbol for what Stephen was born to do. He must escape Ireland, which constricts his freedom.

Summary and Analysis of Chapter 5

Summary:

Years have passed. Stephen is at university. It is morning; he is in the kitchen with his mother, who worries that he has been changed by university. He looks at the pawn tickets that have been necessary for his family's subsistence. He is also late for class; from upstairs, he hears his father ask one of his sisters if her "lazy bitch of a brother" has gone out yet. Stephen sets out for class, unhurt by his father's comment. In other ways, he is deeply fatigued by his family's increasingly desperate financial situation.

We see a day in the life of a university student: Stephen goes to lectures, usually bored by them, and interacts with peers one by one. We meet a large number of his friends: Cranly, one of his best friends; Lynch, a good natured boy who listens to Stephen's theory of aesthetics; Davin, a simple boy from the country with a great love for Ireland; Temple, a somewhat pretentious boy who admires Stephen; and McCann, a friend of Stephen's who tells Stephen he is antisocial and antidemocratic and who tries to get Stephen to sign a petition for universal peace. The university is a natural place for boys to agitate themselves over politics and Irish nationalism; Stephen wants no part of it. He refuses to sign MacCann's petition, and he will not be cowed by anyone. He is increasingly absorbed in his ideas about aesthetics, ideas influenced by Aristotle's Poetics and the works of Thomas Aquinas. From his morning classes, we see that he has grown somewhat frustrated by the routine of college life. During lecture, attention wanders back to his ideas about art.

Later, during a hurling match, his friend Davin tries to get Stephen to be more sociable. He also tries to get Stephen to be a more patriotic Irishmen. Stephen has a deep scepticism of Irish politics: he points out that the Irish have never had a hero whom they didn't betray or leave for another. Davin continues to implore Stephen to be one of them. Stephen finds Davin's limitations frustrating, but something about Davin touches him. Later on in the match, Stephen explains his theories of aesthetics to an obliging Lynch. Although too complicated and lengthy to summarize in a satisfactory way here, this passage (pages 232-45) merits a close look for readers who want a deeper understanding of Joyce. Highlights include Stephen's definitions of pity and terror; his delineation between static art (the sublime art that invites contemplation without spurring the viewer to action) and kinetic art (art that moves the viewer to do something); his definitions of lyrical, epic, and dramatic form. He hails the dramatic form as superior because the artist refines his personality out of the work, leaving just the object for the contemplation of the audience. As the head toward the library, he sees Emma. Stephen is speechless as always. He feels somewhat cross towards her because he thinks she flirted with a priest and mocked him behind his back. Even his anger feels like a kind of homage.

But he dreams about her that night, and is inspired to write another poem to her. It is ten years since he failed in the writing of his first poem to Emma. This time he succeeds, but he does not send it.

Later, Stephen sits on the library steps. He dreamily watches birds flying through the air. Some nearby boys begin to argue about politics. Stephen goes to look for Cranley; he finds him in the library, puzzling over chess problems with a medical student named Dixon. Stephen makes clear that he wants to speak to Cranley, but Cranley seems in no hurry.

On the porch, a long conversation between the boys takes place. The boys gathered include Temple, O'Keefe, Goggins, Dixon, Cranly, and a few others. Stephen says nothing throughout the whole talk. The boys trade insults and bluster; Stephen becomes distracted from their talk when Emma walks by. Once again, he is torn between worshipping her and damning her. In her wake, she leaves Stephen thoughts of poetry and beauty. Meanwhile, Temple and Cranly are getting involved in a war of insults, culminating in Cranly chasing Temple with a stick. Stephen asks Cranly to come away with him on a walk, so that they can talk. This time, Cranly obliges him.

Stephen asks Cranly's advice. He is involved in a fight with his mother, who wants him to participate in the Easter rituals. Stephen no longer considers himself a Catholic. Cranly advices him to go ahead with, belief or no belief. He should do it to because it costs him nothing and will please his mother; but for Stephen, Cranly's suggestion seems like a compromise of his integrity. Stephen and Cranly have a long conversation about religion, politics, family, and Ireland. Stephen admits, under Cranly's intelligent questioning, that sometimes he fears that the Catholic Church is right and he'll be damned and sent to hell. But he still must choose as he will choose. He realizes with sadness that after he leaves Ireland his friendship with Cranly will come to an end; he accepts that he may be alone. He must be independent. He is not afraid to be alone. He is not afraid of making a mistake, even if that mistake sends him to hell.

The novel closes with a series of diary entries chronicling Stephen's last days in Ireland. He describes a meeting with Emma, in which they actually talk; he is surprised that he likes her that evening, which is a new feeling. Stephen is thrilled by the idea of leaving Ireland. His journal entries include small experiments in writing. Before he leaves, his mother tells him she hopes he'll learn something of the human heart; it is his wish as well. He resolves "to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race" (288). He invokes Dedalus, the mythical artificer, as he makes his way into the world.

Analysis:

The theme of entrapment and escape develops in this final chapter, and Stephen becomes aware that Ireland is a trap. In his discussion with Davin, he calls Ireland the sow that devours its own offspring. Ireland is a trap, restricting Stephen's independence from too many directions.

We open looking at his family, and, as always, they are more destitute than when we left them. Stephen can do little to help them. Sacrifices have been made for his education, but there is nothing he can really do to alleviate the poverty of his parents and his siblings. He feels removed from them, and through his mother continues to be loving, his father seems to have developed a certain amount of animosity against Stephen (as seen when he refers to Stephen as a "lazy bitch of a brother").

University has provided crucial intellectual material for Stephen's growth. His aesthetic theory, very sophisticated for a college student, is deeply indebted to Aristotle and Aquinas. Stephen's methods and manner of reasoning also shows the influence of the Jesuits and the education he received from them. The kinds of questions he poses about beauty have a similar character as questions he posed about theology in early chapters; Lynch tells him that his methods have "the scholastic stink" (244) which refers to the Catholic philosophy, first developed in the Middle Ages, that synthesizes Greek philosophy with Christian teaching.

At the same time, Stephen has gotten everything that he can out of university. We see him bored in lectures; he also has a very unsatisfactory conversation about beauty with his Dean of Studies. We see Stephen as a very isolated young man, too individualistic and critical to remain happily in Ireland, even in an intellectual community. He feels trapped. In the long conversation between the boys on the steps of the library, he says nothing. And even with Cranly, an intelligent and challenging friend, Stephen realizes that their days of friendship or coming to an end.

His new ideas about beauty are his obsession. This chapter shows the growth that Stephen has undergone; he has moved from sensitivity and unfocused love of beauty to an obsessive and methodical contemplation of aesthetics. His obsession with Emma is more aesthetic and abstract; he has admired her from afar for ten years, but in truth he does not know her that well. His contemplation of her is based on a very abstract idea of woman. He can only damn her or worship. His ideas about woman are actually very shallow. Emma exists more as Stephen's muse than as a flesh and blood woman. In his diary entry, we finally see a conversation between the two of them: Stephen warms up and feels "like" for her, which is new. It hints at the growth that he still has to undergo, which is reiterated in his mother's wish that Stephen learn something of the human heart.

Worth noting is that Stephen is still concerned with questioned of Irish identity. He does not seek to involve himself in politics, but his goal is to forge the conscience of his race. He will help Ireland as an artist, and he can only be an artist if he is independent. Paradoxically, he must leave Ireland to gain his independence. He will do his nation a great service by leaving her. But his need to leave should not be mistaken for a desire to become foreign: he is insulted when Cranly asks him if he is going to become a Protestant.

Escape as a theme is powerfully woven through the chapter, and the idea of escape is most often symbolized by flight. On the library steps, Stephen watches dreamily as the birds fly above him. Stephen's name refers to the flight of Dedalus, and it is on Dedalus that he calls when he leaves Ireland. He has become a self-assured and courageous young man, willing even to risk hell for his convictions.

http://www.gradesaver.com/portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man/

Thomas Hardy as a Social Reformer

‌‌‌‌‌‌‌By: Amir Taheri

Introduction

Thomas Hardy is considered as one of the England's greatest novelists. His works resemble that of the earlier Victorian novelists in technique, while in subject matter it daringly violated literary traditions of the age. Hardy was born in the village of Higher Bockhampton, on the edge of Puddletown Heath. At the age of 22 he moved to London and started to write poems, which idealized the rural life. He did not first find public for his poetry and so the novelist George Meredith advised him to write a novel. THE POOR MAN AND THE LADY, written in 1867, was rejected by many publishers and Hardy destroyed the manuscript. His first book that gained notice was FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (1874). After this success, Hardy was convinced that he could earn his living by his pen. His later works are, The Return of the Native (1878), Two on a Tower (1882), The Mayor of the Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895).

According to the critics, Hardy is a pessimist writer, because they believed that his outlook on life was primarily gloomy. His novels and poems are charged with a deep note of pathos.

In this paper, based on the following novels, I have tried to consider him not as pessimist rather a realist and social reformer.

Far From the Madding Crowd (1874)

Far From the Madding Crowd was the first novel by Thomas Hardy, which has tragic elements. Many critics are of the view that Hardy is a pessimist by his works; because almost the major characters of his novels are facing with death, and the novels are tragic dominate rather than happy. Hardy’s ‘Far From The madding Crowd’ as a matter of fact was the first novel, which arouse criticism. In this novel, the major characters are not free from agony. Bathsheba is not an exception to the fact. Her suffering is not because of the fate or chance but because of her own actions.

In fact, it is she who brings tragedy into the life of another two major characters Gabriel and Boldwood. And, her own tragedy initially was as a result of her own deeds. However, Troy, the man whom she likes very much is also responsible for her tragic life.

The novel ends with the elements of happiness. She got married to Gabriel, but she could never remain the same Bathsheba, as she used to be. Thus, one can claim that there are not lots of elements of pessimism.

Pessimism is a doctrine that reality, life, and the world are evil rather than good. It denotes a belief that the experienced world is the worst possible. It describes a general belief that things are bad and tends to get worse.  

Taking this definition into account, it is unjust if one regards Hardy as a pessimist. On the contrary, I believe that Hardy is more of a social reformer than a pessimist. If we analyze his first novel ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ we would be able to realize that he is not a pessimist. Bathsheba, the main character of the novel is a tragic figure, but this is because of her own flaw. Her attitudes, manners, and egotism show that all the events that happen to her are because of her own action.                 

First, the way Bathsheba behaves with Gabriel Oke, arouses some feelings of love in Gabriel. He thinks that Bathsheba loves him. That is why, he dared to propose to her. Her rejection to his request brought surprises to Gabriel. She said “I don’t love you” and in reply Gabriel says, “You chase after a man, then you say you don’t love him”. Here Gabriel is perhaps wrong, but it was Bathsheba’s manner, which brings misunderstanding. Her conduct to Boldwood too shows her childish behaviour. She sends him an anonymous valentine card and asks him to marry her. This foolish action made the solitary Boldwood to think upon love and marriage in his old age, and making him eager to marry her. But after coming of Troy her first beloved, she rejected Boldwood. This motivated Boldwood to kill Troy. Consequently, Bathsheba returned to Gabriel and both got married.

The above discussion shows that in contrast to ‘Tess’, Bathsheba could behave in such a way so that happiness would come to her. Choosing Troy was not a right decision for her.

Although chance and fate play an important role in our daily life, they cannot be considered as major factors of tragedy in this novel. What happened to the other major or minor characters of the novel is not because of the pessimism on the part of the novelist, they only happened partly by characters themselves and partly by chance. For example, if we consider Gabriel as a tragic figure, that was the chance which ruled upon him, not the pessimism of Hardy. If we take Hardy as a pessimist, then why Gabriel, whom chance had a crucial role on him at the beginning, faced happiness in the end of the novel, and so does with Bathsheba, Hardy gave her a second chance in her life.

The reason which I do not believe Hardy as a pessimist is that a pessimist does not believe in chance and fate at all. As I mentioned before, they believe, things are bad, and tends to become worse.

Hardy does believe in fate and chance, but why he always depicted the negative aspects of chance or fate, is perhaps because (to me) from the evil the good emerges.

He just criticizes the society of his time and his only attempt is to transfer the mistakes of the individuals to the society.

The Return of the Native (1878)

‘The Return of the Native’ is another masterpiece of Thomas Hardy. In this novel, like his previous novel ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, It has a major character which she suffers much in her life, and also like Bathsheba, her tragedy is because of her own action.

It will be good to say that those characters who are kind in relation to the nature are good characters in Hardy’s novels, and those who are not good with their environment and their surrounding are almost tragic figures, with exception to ‘Tess’s’ character.

In the Return of the Native Hardy, through his characters depicts the social problems. Chance and fate also play an important role in this novel. But, the main thing which causes the tragedy is the flaw and error of judgment of the protagonist, Clym Yeobright.

Clym is a good character; he is handsome and has strong discipline in his life. He is working as a manager in the company of diamond in Paris. But, because of the patriotic feeling, came back to his native place Egdan Heath. Though he is a serious and wise person, on the contrary, he has his own flaw. His most crucial flaw was his decision to marry a woman like Eustacia Vye, a woman whom slopes the path of his life from happiness to sorrow. Eustacia wants to be far away from Egdan Heat. She does not like the city and desires to leave, and live in a modern city like Paris. Because of her selfishness and self-will manner, she rejects her beloved Wildeve of marrying him and tries to be the wife of Clym, so that she will be able to go to Paris. Though Clym decided not to return to Paris, she thought that, she will be able to change his mind but in vain. Through the character of Eustacia, Hardy tries to say that the feeling of selfishness and self-centeredness or egotism should be vanish from the society. In fact, he tries to say that those who have such kind of behaviour are not succeeding in their aims or future life. As we observed, the ambitious nature of Eustacia resulted in her tragic life.

Clym could not escape from the immenseness power of the fate and became semi-blind. So, he could not fulfill his desire to become a school master, and he became a furze-cutter, he becomes a mere labourer. The question is that, why the fate became so cruel to him? Why he should suffer this agony? In fact, more or less, this happen to all of us. Since human binges have no control over their own activities, they are unable to know what is going to be happening for what they have planned. This is true with Clym. But what should we do if the same thing happens to one of our family members like mother, father, wife, husband, child, etc. Should we leave them? Like Eustacia did, or we should take care of them. That is why, I am trying to say that Hardy is more a social reformer than a pessimist. Through the mistakes of Eustacia, he tries to reveal the social problems, which can be committed by all of us. Eustacia left Clym for the sake of Wildeve, and her desires. Their efforts of going away from Egdan Heath were in vain. Fate did not allow them to escape and both face with death by drowning into the river. The shadow of fate is always upon us, that is why, Hardy tries to warn us that the fate is more cruel than we think. Wildeve also encounter the same tragedy as Eustacia faced. At the end of the novel, some of the major characters face with a happy life e.g. Thomasin Yeobright married to Mr. Diggory, though she rejects him twice.

Mrs. Yeobright’s tragedy also is heart touching. We feel sad for her, when Eustacia did not open the door, and on her way she is stung by an adder. The rustics could not save her life. The killing of Mrs. Yeobright by writer has some reasons. I think Hardy wants Clym to bear more agony. Because he did not cares of the warnings of his mother about Eustacia. And, it should be added that Mrs. Yeobright’s death also was a kind of tool to push forward the tragedy of Eustacia. So, all the events are interrelated with each other and one suffers because of others, this is the true fact of life.

Two on a Tower (1882)

This novel is one of the minor works of Thomas Hardy. The two main characters are so sympathetically sketched as to make it one of Hardy’s most memorable novels. It charts the tragic romance of Lady Viviette Constantine and Swithin St. Cleve, who is her social inferior as well as ten years younger. These two characters suffer in life. Viviette is deserted by her husband. Because of her suspicious husband, for several years she hardly goes out of the house. But, when she heard about his death, she falls in love with Swithin, however, because of her brother, she has to marry Helmsdane.

Helmsdane dies and Viviette becomes a widow for the second time. For some reasons, Swithin had to leave for South America (Hemisphere) and when he comes back, he finds Viviette sad and thin. When he tells her that he has come to marry her, she dies of over-joy. Swithin vows to take care of the little son of Viviette.

Hardy criticizes the marriage institution not only in this novel but in most of his novels. Marriage is one of the important aspects of the human life, and so as to Hardy’s time. Through his novels he tries to depict the worst aspects of the society so that the idea of reformation may come to the mind of every individual.

 It was the marriage as an institution and society, which leads to tragic life of the two main characters. The most tragic event is the death of Viviette at the time when she is supposes to have a happy life with her lover.

The Mayor of the Casterbridge (1886)

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a story about Michael Henchard, a hay trusser, who sells his wife and daughter while drunk at a fair. After eighteen years, both wife and daughter return to him, while he is the mayor of Casterbridge. But, because of some personal reason he fails. So we can call him a tragic hero of the book, which have elements of classical tragedy. We see how Henchard's appearance and feelings of self-worth becomes worse, as he is punished for his pride and doubts his own strength.

The novel is one of those novels which are not free from the views of the critics. They called him (Hardy) as a pessimist; it is because we cannot see any occasion of happiness for Henchard throughout the novel. But, from the angle observed by me, I think still we cannot call him a pessimist. Through his novel, Hardy criticizes the men and women relationship of his time. At the very beginning of the novel, we see how Mr. Henchard sells his wife and his little child to a sailor in an intoxicated state. It was out of his control, and we may blame the fate for this, it is because unlicensed wine (Ram) was available only at the very day that Henchard and his wife arrived at the place. But, again we can say that he could control himself, having no much Ram.

If we deeply consider the Hardy’s novels we come to know that everything which is happened in his novels is real --- there is the real depiction of the societies.

We cannot say that Henchard is a villain, but his impulsive, jealousy, drinking habit and uncertain moods, were the causes of his misery. This is the adjudication of the nature which decides who wins or who loses. But, Hardy did not rely that much on the fate and chance in his novels as critics believe. For example, Henchard’s drinking habit was his own fault, his impulsive nature, his jealousy and etc., contributed to his misery life. These are all the social problems which we cannot exactly hand it over to the fate and chance.

As we mentioned before, Hardy tries to transfer the mistakes of the individuals to the society. So, if we deeply consider all of the novels, which have been written by Hardy, we come to a conclusion that every protagonist more or less has his/her own flaw. These characters are the representation of every individual in the society. Therefore, in this novel, Hardy tries to depict the social problems such as marriage, relation between classes (capitalism and proletarians), egotism, etc.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)

Tess of the D’Urbervilles was Hardy's bestseller and the heroin of the novel remains his most striking and tragic characters. She hopelessly had torn between two men, Alec D’Urberville, a wealthy dissolute young man who seduces her in a lonely wood, and Angel Clare, her provincial, moralistic and unforgiving husband.

Tess's life is full of misfortunes. Although she is portrayed as an innocent girl, she makes wrongful decisions, which leads to her destruction. Tess's parents, Angel, and Alec, play an important role in her life, leading to her tragedy. Her parents started the cycle of tragedy in Tess’s life by thinking of themselves. The first weakness of her parents is her father's laziness and her mother's simplicity. They needed a new horse, and her mother wanted her daughter, to claim kin, against her will with a noble family member of the D’Urbervilles. This fact was the starting point, which put her on a journey towards destruction. Tess is simple and unaware of danger. The deception and manipulation of Tess^’s parents triggers her tragic life.

Angel's refusing to accept her unfortunate past is the beginning of an intensely tragic portion of Tess’s life. After Angel leaves for Brazil, she sends him a letter in which she confesses her loyalty and her love, and asks for his help against the temptation presented by Alec. Angel's stubbornness and pride puts a dent not only into his life, but to Tess’s life, as well.

Alec D’Urberville adds the most to Tess's tragic life, because as a result of their relationship, she gets pregnant, though her child dies later on. This incident would play a crucial role in her marriage with Angel. This whole affair with Alec made Angel's leaving Tess. Alec is an immoral man, who only seems to care about himself and his needs more than others.

Tess also becomes the victim of social attitudes, financial problem, severe cold, torturous master and teasing of women, which contributes to her suffering. Finally, the novel ends with the sorrowful incident of Tess’s hanging.

All the events which we discussed above are the horrible situations of a pure and simple girl like Tess.

There are some events in the Tess of the D’Urbervilles which we can rely on fate and chance but they are insignificance. In fact, the most important element which brings a tragic life for Tess are the societal norms. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles perhaps is one of the most important novels which he could criticize the society so skillfully.

Jude the Obscure (1895)

Hardy’s last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomy fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control. The novel is about the tragedy of three people, Sue, Jude, and Phillotson. It is described as a tragedy of love and a tragedy of unfulfilled aims. The tragedy of unfulfilled aims lies in the frustration of the intellectual aspiration of Jude. Jude is a young man whose life is a mixture of thwarted dreams, despair, and tragedy. He was born disadvantaged, but loved books and learning and had long harbored dreams of acquiring an education in Christminster. We see him from the very beginning suffering till his death.

Sue is also a tragic character. She marries Phillotson in hurry. Soon she finds it torturous to live with him. She does not like to have sexual relationship with her husband. So she deserts him and goes back to Jude. First she does not have sexual relation with him, but then feeling jealous of Arabella, she yields to him and bears children. After some years the catastrophe of hanging her children by FatherTime falls upon her. She is so mad of agony that wishes to dig the grave, to see her children. She then goes back to Phillotson to have sexual relationship with him. She suffers a lot and lives with Phillotson, just as a living corpse. So, her tragedy is more painful than Jade's tragedy.

The tragedy of Phillotson also wins our deepest sympathy in his distress and suffering. His intellectual ambitions are shattered, because of his poverty. He marries Sue, but allows her to go to her lover. So, he loses his job for doing so. Even when Sue returns to him, she does not bring any comfort to him. Thus, his life becomes more miserable.

This novel is full of tragic atmosphere, as compared with the earlier novels of Hardy. There are many reasons for the tragedy in the novel such as characters themselves, chance, fete, nature, and society in the novel, which contribute in the suffering of the characters. But, still I do not accept that Hardy is a pessimist. Because again he is trying to depict the reality, for example, the deaths of the children were laying in the roots of the social problems. Jude and his family tried to find accommodation, but because of the large number of his family and lack of marriage certificate, no one was ready to give them a place, and even more I think the behaviour of the Sue to FatherTime was one of the reasons of this incident.

A night before incident FatherTime, the little child of the Jude could not sleep and went to enquire for the reasons of their leaving from the house. It was midnight and the impatient manner of Sue made her reply to him in an uncontrolled mood. She said, “We are many, and that is why nobody is ready to give us any place, and now go back to your bed”. So this was one of the faults of the Sue, though after that, Jude tries to convince him (Father Time) to bear the difficulties of their life for little more time, but all in vain, and on the next day the horrible incident was before their eyes. Thus, if we consider that what factors contributed to this incident, we easily come to know that again the social problems such as  marriage, hasty decision of the individuals like Jude and Sue regarding sexual relationship, and jealousy towards others (Sue to Arabella), are responsible.

 Conclusion

We can conclude that Hardy’s novels are not pessimistic but more realistic. Regarding this, we can refer to some characters of the novels as an example that shows Hardy’s realistic or moralistic views upon life. In Far From the Madding Crowd we see how Gabriel helps Bathsheba throughout the novel, though she was not good enough to him. In the same situation we have Diggory in The Return of the Native who also was one of the important and helpful characters for Thomasin. In The Mayor of Casterbridge we have Able Whiittle who has a notable sense of gratitude and innate humanity. That is why he plays a noble part in the end of the novel. Henchard is old, helpless, tired and outcast when he comes to his hut. Able forgets the rebukes and unkind acts of Henchard. Henchard breathes his last in the hut of Able. This behaviour of Able makes him as idyllic figure. Philitsone is a man of tragedy in Jude the Obscure and suffers much because of Sue.

If we say that Hardy is a pessimist, then why he put such kind of helpful characters in his novels.  Hardy does not believe himself as a pessimistic novelist as well, but more a kind of social reformer. Finally, I will conclude this paper with Hardy’s own words:

“But my pessimism, if pessimism it be, does not involve the assumption that, the world is going to dogs. On the contrary, my practical philosophy is distinctly meliorist”.

Bibliography

•   Far From the Madding Crowd
•   The Return of the Native
•   Two on a Tower
•   The Mayor of the Casterbridge
•   Tess of the D’Urbervilles
•   Jude the Obscure

Introduction:

There have been many debates regarding the nature of human mind and its relation to the world. In this paper I have tried my best to remove most of the confusions regarding the understanding of human nature. Central to the understanding of human mind and external reality is the nature of language. In this paper, I emphasize that nature of language should be understood not in an ordinary sense. Rather we should analyze it from the philosophical point of view. The other things to which I refer will be the ideals which have prevented us from approaching reality. We will also see how linguistics plays an important role in shaping human minds. I attempt to emphasize that what has been referred to as linguistic properties of language in ordinary sense is nothing but the bundles of energy, or merely a wave or particles. After this I’ll discuss the other aspect of nature of human mind that cannot be conveyed through the linguistic properties or through ordinary language. This is the mystical state. It abounds in mysticism.

Creation of Thought in Relation with Environment and language:

According to Saussure, the connection between the particular signifier (sound-image) and the particular signified (concept) is itself completely arbitrary. This is evident from variety of words with which I can use to communicate the same concept in different languages.  The system of language itself, though, is a system of the relations of signifiers.  If I explain the meaning of a word to you, or explain to you what I mean by a particular word, I can only give you more signifiers; I can never guarantee that they evoke the same signified emotion or content. Thus language is a linear chain of signifiers, each one following from the last, in the order spoken and each relating to others as a matter of definition and context.  Language itself, Saussure suggests, can be thought of as this purely relational system of differences.

Saussure compares the system of differences to that of economic exchange.  In economic exchange, a particular unit of money (e.g. a dollar) has the value it does because it can be: 1) exchanged for something of value (e.g. a loaf of bread) or 2) exchanged for another instrument of value (e.g. a Euro).  In the same way, signifiers can be exchanged for signified (thus we cross the bar of signification) or they can be exchanged for other signifiers.

To this system of exchange, all that matters is the differences in value between the terms.  (e.g., it doesn’t matter if a dollar is printed on paper or is made of something else – all that matters is what it can be exchanged for).  The properties of signification are defined by the differences between significant elements, not by these elements themselves.

 “Everything that has been said up to this point boils down to this: in language there are only differences.  Even more important: a difference generally implies positive terms between which the difference is set up; but in language there are only differences without positive terms.  Whether we take the signified or the signifier, language has neither idea nor sounds that existed before the linguistic system, but only conceptual and phonic differences that have issued from the system.” So Saussure has opined.

A young child learns from his environment, the variety in behavior, the objects and their characteristics. These are received by means of cognitive system (eyes, ears,…). The microstates and their natural characteristics along with their events define the physical structure of the world. This is connected through visual and auditory particles into the active physical states of brain called ‘Neural Network’ by means of wave signals. The energy which leads and carries these particles transmits the physical states of the world into psychological states. For children, it is very important to have the events and world’s phenomena defined in a logical and correct manner. Otherwise they tend to be misled. Every language has its grammar. The universal rules are common to all languages. Below I have shown the process of thought creation in relation with environment and language and the transmission of the real world to the virtual world through its embedded language and symbols.

     (Fig-1 F=function)         

The process of gaining knowledge by two persons and interaction among many is called the social activity. The psycho sources (human being) put certain energy into each phoneme. These acts as a particle of sound and energy and transmit them to the psychological receptors. Mankind has natural capacity to hear or receive certain frequencies, in order to learn or to memorize the certain pitch and tones of the natural phenomena of speech. This is called social communication. A very young child in the primary stages of his life is blind and deaf. As he grows, he learns to recognize the environments and society. Even in the primary stages when he cannot recognize what is what, it does not mean that he is blind or deaf, physiologically. It means he has not matured to the level of recognizing speech phenomena and behavior patterns of societies or peoples. So, here we have to bear in mind that several phenomena depend entirely upon the biological abilities. The physiological phenomena enhance further stages of human cognition.

The process of recognition takes place through physiological growth and the physiological growth changes from time to time. This means, that the process of growth takes place non-stop. It is continuous. The natural phenomena and social structures will become more recognizable and cognizant with time.

So the process of speech for children depends upon their natural development, and so do their visual recognition ability.

 Fig-02 The Steps toward the understanding the human cognition

When the human beings observe the physical world, they get the picture of natural phenomena either in societies or other social settings. When they consider the received picture, carefully it connects the elements (objects, attributes or characteristics) of that picture to another. So through connecting of these elements with their characteristics, he becomes sensible of them. He senses and perceives the whole picture with its psychological states. This is called ‘Sensation’. The process of perceiving through the senses is called ‘Perception’. The process of manipulating the perceived sensation is called ‘Thought process’.

The process of finding the hierarchical parts of the perceived phenomena is called ‘Conception’. It is sometimes defined as the process of arriving at an abstract idea or belief. It also signifies the moment at which such an idea starts to take shape or emerge. One might be tempted to ask what is the role of language in above figure-02. The role of language is to create the virtual world by means of symbols. These are saved through the learning process as the electrochemical substances in physical brain system. This process creates the memory.

Language is embedded in culture. It conveys the senses which exist in culture. So the development of language depends upon the human culture and its ability to observe and conceptualize the natural phenomena so as to construct an ideal language for its social affairs. Language plays an important role. It is a tool and means of transmission of ideas. It provides means of comprehension. Without language, improvement and development of societies is impossible.

The concepts and meanings remain static, unless they are encoded and interpreted and transmitted by the human mind, so human mind is nothing, but the grammatical structure which is ruled by logic. In the depth of the structure of the mind (language) we have logical structures which share common form with the world.

The proposition and mental structure which have been grasped through the external and internal world carry the energies which convey the sense and bring out the meaning of phenomena, interpreted by the mind.

The meaning of the proposition must be understood in terms of its context, that is, in terms of the rules of the game of which that proposition is a part.

The rules of language are like the rules of game. In any game no one is at the same level as the other. So the players are different in playing the particular game like ‘Chess’. The rules are known to all, but the way one plays is different. So players should know how to bring the objects and characteristics or attributes of the language into use.

Every culture has its own language and the language used in any culture has its own concepts and meaning of itself.

There are many phenomena which we cannot sense through our cognitive system, but which are felt, and through attuned senses which create special meaning which only the individual is aware of. So we conclude that the meaning is embedded in psychological state of every individual. The concept or meaning of, say for instance 'happiness' might vary from individual to individual and society to society and this entirely depends upon the culture and the psychological states of the individuals.

Words are intangible objects along with their very own characteristic and attributes, they exist on their own, their configuration helps us to grasp the way they would be, their state of affaire would bring out certain facts.

At the end of this discussion I would like to mention about the concept of two words which are helpful for understanding the concept of language in relation to the world. They are as follows.

Concept of language regarding what is sense and what is nonsense:

 Sense in philosophical term as cited by Wittgenstein, means:

 Those objects or the phenomenon, which exist in nature and which is grasped by our thought so as to express them in language or in words are called ‘sense’. They make sense and are comprehensible to human mind, because they can be transmitted in any manner through linguistics properties.

Nonsense in philosophical term as cited by Wittgenstein means:

Those objects or the phenomenon, which exist in nature and also in our thought, is inexpressible e.g. morality, which can be gained only through action. They are difficult and abstract and not easy to comprehend in tangible terms.

So we can conclude that our language has limitations for expression of our    personal experiences, (especially mystic ones). Mysticism is the state of thought or mind which is personal experience and we cannot transmit it to other individuals, what is meaningless on transmission to others becomes nonsense to them. As it is a personal experience, it is meaningful only to you not to others. As it makes sense to you it can be meaningful for you, not for others, Wittgenstein called it ‘nonsense’. I have given an analogy or example of ‘nonsense’ which can help to understand it better what ‘nonsense’ is.

First we have the Nature, then thought, then language.

Our thought (Mind) oscillates between our language (Linguistics’ properties) and the external world, So, those things which are known or can be made known to others have ‘sense’, but those which can’t be said or expressed, but have the reality in personal experience are called ‘Nonsense’ or doesn’t have any meaning to others.

Signs  are  the  senses  which  have  embedded  meaning in them,  a  picture  has  its logical  form  and  it  has  its  meaning  within  its  states  where  its  connection resides. The images are the very connections which imply the meaning.

A picture is a logical proper connection of senses conveyed through the function called ‘language’.

The world is a totality of facts. According to Wittgenstein's ‘picture theory’ of meaning, it is the nature of elementary propositions logically to picture atomic facts, or ‘states of affairs’. He claimed that the nature of language required elementary propositions and his theory of meaning required that there be atomic facts pictured by the elementary propositions.

The main idea that Wittgenstein emphasizes is to draw a limit to language, in that what so ever can be said, can be put it into expression; for that which can’t be said it must be passed over in silence. In his conclusion regarding language, he states that the limit is in language, and not in thought. and  what  lies  on  the  other  side  of  the  limit,  will  simply  be nonsense.

Conclusion:

The philosophical concept of mind in relation to the world resides in language. Language itself has been embedded in two concepts of sense and nonsense. Finally I refer to the analogy of the garden in order to explain it properly. 

Suppose one goes to a Garden and sees many beautiful flowers, smells their fragrances and then returns from Garden, and tries to express the scenic beauty and the fragrances to his friends. He explains about all that he has seen, but finally, he is unable to explain the fragrance in terms. He has only one choice i.e. to take his friends to that place and let them enjoy the fragrance of flowers. Then all of them may feel similarly about that scene. The question of person’s privacy and ethics can be grasped through this analogy.

According to Wittgenstein we cannot draw boundaries to thought but language limits our expressive abilities through its limitations.

However, subsequently in his later work ‘Philosophical Investigation’ Wittgenstein, in contrast to the Tractatus, confines the use of language and the meaning of the words to the society and culture, which he refers to it as ‘language game’, that is why he rejects his previous theories.

References

• Philosophy of Mind by G.W.F. Hegel.

• Part Three of the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences/ William Wallace translation.
• Philosophy of Language/by David Mertz/University of Colorado, Boulder.

Fall, 1987

• The analysis of mind by Bertrand Russell.
• Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus/ by Ludwig Wittgenstein Published (1922).

·       Philosophy of Language: Questions and Answers By Steve Hoenisch Last updated on August 4,2004 Copyright 1996-2006 www.Crrticism.Corn

·       Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.

·       Encyclopedia of Encarta.

·       Philosophical investigation by Wittgenstein.

علی امینی نجفی

منتقد هنری

فیلم سینمایی "میلیونر زاغه‌نشین" ساخته دنی بویل فیلمساز بریتانیایی بی‌تردید مهم‌ترین اثر این فصل سینمایی است. فیلم تا کنون دهها جایزه، از جمله هشت اسکار مهم را برنده شده است.

"میلیونر زاغه‌نشین" در عین وفاداری به چارچوب‌های سنتی هالیوود، برخی از عناصر آشنای سینمای "بالیوود" را نیز به کار می‌بندد، که در سال‌های اخیر به رقیب جدی هالیوود بدل شده است.

پسر هجده ساله‌ای که در آلونک‌های فقیرنشین بمبئی بزرگ شده، با زرنگی در مسابقه معلومات عمومی یک شوی تلویزیونی به عنوان "چه کسی می خواهد میلیونر ‌شود" شرکت می‌کند و به تمام سؤال‌های دشوار جواب می‌دهد.

برگزارکنندگان شو به او بدگمان می‌شوند که در یافتن پاسخ‌ها تقلب کرده است، پس او را به دست پلیس می‌دهند.

مأموران پلیس می‌کوشند با شکنجه دادن جمال معما را حل کنند. جمال برای خلاص شدن از دست مأموران، مقاطعی از سرگذشت خود را برای آنها (و تماشاگران) تعریف می‌کند. با نقل هر داستان روشن می‌شود که جمال طی تجارب گوناگون به این اطلاعات رسیده و در شوی تلویزیونی از روی "تصادف" با سؤالاتی روبرو شده که پاسخ آنها را از پیش می‌دانسته است.

عشق پرشکوه در حلبی‌آباد بمبئی

جمال برای توضیح هر پاسخی که در شو ارائه کرده، برشی از زندگی خود را برای مأموران پلیس تعریف می‌کند. بنابرین بیشتر فیلم در رفت و آمد میان کودکی جمال و زمان حال ساخته می‌شود. در این رفت و آمدهاست که کلاف زندگی جمال گشوده می‌شود: پسر خانواده‌ای مسلمان که مادرش را در ایلغارهای تعصب‌آمیز از دست می‌دهد.

جمال در شبی بارانی به عشق دخترکی به نام لاتیکا گرفتار می‌شود. سپس به همراه برادرش سلیم به دام باندی مخوف با رهبری بیرحم می‌افتند. پسرها با زرنگی از دست رهبر باند فرار می‌کنند و طی حوادثی از هم جدا می‌شوند. اما دختر نخست به فحشا و سپس به حرمسرای شخصی رئیس باند کشیده می‌شود.

جمال در طول سال‌ها از یاد لاتیکا بیرون نمی‌رود و همیشه به دنبال یافتن اوست. از نقل‌های او برای مأموران روشن می‌شود که او در اصل نه به خاطر پول و با هدف "میلیونر" شدن، بلکه تنها برای جلب توجه "عشق بزرگ" خود در شوی تلویزیونی شرکت کرده است.

با ریتم تند و پرتحرک

فیلم سینمایی "میلیونر زاغه‌نشین" داستان ساده و کمابیش سطحی خود را در ساختاری محکم و قالبی سنجیده بسته‌بندی کرده است. تمهیدهای تکنیکی مانند دوربین پرتحرک و نماهای اوریب و مونتاژ سریعی که گاه یادآور سبک کلیپ‌های رایج و شوهای تلویزیونی است، فیلم را مدرن می‌نماید، درحالیکه قصه آن تکراری است.

فیلم با اینکه بر پایه‌ی رمانی پرفروش ساخته شده، و گفته‌اند که در زندگی واقعی هم مرجعی داشته، اما دهها خطای روایتی دارد که در اثری واقع‌گرا غیرقابل قبول است: نظام زمانی و مکانی و منطقی فیلم بارها در هم می‌ریزد. در زندگی واقعی بچه‌های زاغه نشین، هرقدر هم که مثل جمال باهوش باشند، و یا هراندازه که مانند لاتیکا زیبا باشند، مشکل بتوانند از مدار زندگی جهنمی خود بیرون بروند، مگر به نیروی خیال، که فیلم هم همین کار را می‌کند.

زبان فیلم به ویژه در ارائه نقد اجتماعی سخت الکن است: صحنه‌های فقر و محرومیت، حقه‌بازی بچه‌ها با توریست‌های "تاج محل"، خشونت مأموران پلیس، بیرحمی باند تبهکاران، که آخرش روشن نمی‌شود کارشان چیست!

اما در خط روایتی مهمترین مشکل فیلم آن است که در ارائه شگرد "بازگشت به گذشته" منطق این گونه روایت را رعایت نمی‌کند. راوی که باید تنها خاطرات خود را بازگو کند، نباید از چیزهایی بگوید که خود شاهد آن نبوده است. به علاوه فیلم گذشته‌ی جمال را در ده سالگی او "فیکس" می‌کند، گویی او تنها در دو مرحله‌ی سنی زندگی کرده: ده ساله و هجده ساله!

از دنیای پریان و جادوگران

اما فیلم "میلیونر زاغه‌نشین"، به عنوان اثری تخیلی برای دوست‌داران سینمای فانتزی، فیلمی سرگرم‌کننده و جالب است. فیلم ژانر فیلم‌های افسانه پریان را با رشته‌ای از کلیشه‌های آشنا تداعی می‌کند، که شاید قوی‌ترین حلقه مشترک هالیوود و بالیوود باشد. احتمالا معروف‌ترین نمونه‌ی هالیوودی آن فیلم زیبای "جادوگر شهر اُز" است با بازی فوق‌العاده جودی گارلند، ستاره بزرگ بعدی.

دو پاتل و فریدا پینتو (چپ)، بازیگران اصلی فیلم

"میلیونر زاغه‌نشین" ماجرای بچه‌ای فقیر است که به یاری بخت و اقبال (قسمت) به اوج سعادت می‌رسد. این طرح ساده در ایران با سینمای فردین و به ویژه فیلم‌های "گنج قارون" شناخته شده است، که خود تحت تأثیر سینمای هند شکل گرفت.

در این نوع روایت، شخصیت‌ها و حوادث و عناصر داستانی پراکنده، نه با الزام منطقی بلکه تنها به کمک "تصادف" به هم پیوند می‌خورند. این اصل را می‌توان عنصر بنیادین سینمای بالیوود دانست. مقوله‌هایی مانند قسمت و بخت و اقبال حتی در عنوان فیلم‌های هندی تکرار می‌شود.

در "میلیونر زاغه‌نشین" همه شخصیت‌ها طبق الگوی سینمای پریان، سیمایی ساده و یک بعدی دارند: جمال قهرمان جوانمرد فیلم است؛ لتیکا شاهزاده زیباست که به دام نیروهای پلید و اهریمنی افتاده است، و نجات او رسالت اصلی "قهرمان" است. سلیم، برادر جمال، سرشتی پاک دارد، اما به دام افراد خبیث می‌افتد. او سرانجام به گوهر پاک خود بر می‌گردد، اما به خاطر خطاهای گذشته، تنبیه می‌شود و به قتل می‌رسد. رئیس باند هم که معلوم است "به درک" واصل می‌شود.

زیر سایه‌ "همای سعادت"

ستایشگران فیلم "میلیونر زاغه‌نشین" به ویژه بر دو صحنه فیلم انگشت گذاشته‌اند: یکی آنجا که جمال خود را به آمیتبا باچان، بت معروف سینمای هند می‌رساند تا از او امضا بگیرد.

جمال که در توالتی چوبی زندانی شده، برای رساندن خود به هنرپیشه‌ معروف بالیوود به درون چاهک مستراح می‌پرد. تصویری گویا از عشق مردم به سینما و ستاره‌‌های آن. در سینما این صحنه را با پرداختی بهتر دیده‌ایم، از جمله در فیلم "گربه سیاه، گربه سفید" ساخته امیر کوستوریتسا.

صحنه دیگر در پایان داستان است، که فیلم با مونتاژ موازی و با استفاده از فرمول "انتظار قهرمان و نزدیک شدن ناجی" هیجان تماشاگر را بالا می‌برد. جمال قصد دارد آخرین و مشکل‌ترین پاسخ شوی تلویزیونی را با تلفن از برادر خود بپرسد. اما موبایل او که به دست لتیکا افتاده، اینک در ماشین جا مانده است. این نوع "تعلیق" در فیلم‌های مسابقاتی، از بوکس تا بیلیارد و پوکر و رقص، سابقه‌ای طولانی دارد.

فیلم به خوبی و خوشی به آخر می‌رسد، و جز این هم نمی‌تواند باشد: شر نابود و عشق پیروز می‌شود. نیکوکاران پاداش می‌بینند و بدکاران به عقوبت می‌رسند. جمال پس از مصیبت‌ها و مشقت‌‌های بسیار، سرانجام به هدف می‌رسد و به عشق پرشکوه خود را در آغوش می‌گیرد، البته به پول فراوان هم می‌رسد!

در پایان فیلم تمام بازیگران فیلم در ایستگاه راه آهن بمبئی رقصی بالیوودی راه می‌اندازند. از نظر منطق روایت، صحنه‌ای عجیب و ناموجه، اما زیبا و دلپذیر برای تماشاگری که خوش دارد زندگی را یک قصه ساده ببیند.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/2009/03/090325_pm_slumdog_millioner.shtml

Man-Woman Relationship:

a reading between the lines of the selected poems by Kamala Das

Farahnaz Yousefi

PhD student in English Literature , University of Pune

Kamala Das was born in an erudite family in Kerela in 1934. She was married at the age of fifteen to a man who was much older and employed in a city. He came to be a father to his wife and his children. Young Kamala, who harbored many romantic illusions, was not able to relate them to a husband, who seemed paternal, and school masterish. This dissatisfaction is a dominant feature of her poems. However Kamala Das is the first Indian woman who openly talks about the sexual desires and experiences of Indian women. Her poems are known for their honest explorations of Women's social unrest in respect of education and career, sexual desire and frustration, suffocation of a loveless marriage, and such other things are powerfully dealt for the first time in her poems.

The prime concern of Kamala’s poems has been the age old relationship between man and woman. One is aware that right from Adam and Eve, man and woman have come together and lived together agreeing to disagree. This relationship has always been fraught with troubles. The cosmic cause of procreation is fulfilled by the tug-of-war and the attraction between opposites. This relationship has always been held up as one ordained by Gods and therefore not to be questioned. However, Kamala Das questions this blind acceptance of matrimony and its inherent quality of subjugation of women. Often in her poems, she shows up the unfairness of this union. She couches her dissatisfaction in plain words. Her language is controlled honest and free. But, very expressive of the angst felt by a woman trying to build a name in a man’s world. So by analyzing the following poems we can see and understand the deep agony of a woman forced to succumb to an insensitive man.

In "An Introduction" which is one of her poems we see protest against domination of the world by men; it is one of the recurring themes in this poem. Kamala Das’ feminism or her advocacy of the rights of women clearly appears here. She expresses that when she asked for love, she got a husband, who could not give her the true love, which she expects. He approached sexual union crudely without any sensitivity. Though there was no physical violence, the sexual act itself made her feel miserable. The poetess says that she could not get any love from her husband so she went to other lovers and tried to get a real love from them. She did not like the men who did not give her true love which she desired to have. She concludes that all men are similar, they don’t pay any attention to the woman’s heart, her longings and her aspirations. She says “I am sinner, I am saint. I am the beloved and the betrayed.”Here with device of antithesis she conveys to us a sense of loneliness and of being trapped inevitably in the hand of a lover who gives her love and yet makes her feel that she is betraying herself.

Kamala Das’ poems voice not only her own resentment against her husband but, by implication, the resentment of other women who find themselves in a similar predicament.

In the poem “The Freaks” she experiences certain degree of disgust about her sexual relationship. One can see a strange relationship between man and woman. The hands of man are on the knee of his beloved. They are ready in an attempt to make love, but their minds are away from love. There are little hurdles in the way of the fulfillment of the sexual desire. There is no emotional contact at all. This poem paints a rather helpless situation when the man is passive and the woman is burning with desire, but she is helpless. It is about lack of human communication and failure of man-woman relationship. The phraseology employed in this poem is noteworthy as being very effective in convening the poetess’ reaction of disgust to her lover or, maybe, her husband. The poetess realizes that her marriage had failed and they have not really been able to achieve any conjugal happiness. Her empty heart is therefore filled only with a stinging silence comparable to coiled snakes which could sting a person at the least provocation. She calls herself a freak or an abnormal person who makes a show of being lustful to be regarded as a normal person.

Kamala Das wants her husband to regard for her individuality. She rebels against man’s technique to convert his wife into slavish miniature of himself in personality. “The old playhouse” tell us that love is perhaps no more than a way of learning about one’s self or the completion of one’s own personality. It is about the fever of domesticity, the routine of lust, artificial comfort, and male domination. She compares herself to a swallow and her husband to a captor who wanted to tame her and keep her fully under his control. He wanted to make her forget all those comforts which she might have enjoyed in her home before being married, but in addition to that, he wanted also to make her forget her very nature and her inner love of freedom by keeping her in a state of subjugation to him. The poem indicates that her husband had not made it possible for her to learn anything because he was a self-centered man and his egoism prevented him from letting her learn anything except his own nature and disposition.

 Again the poetess explains her continuous search for love and for understanding of herself. To her, the drab drawing room is prison and she is fed up with the daily routine of a housewife. Ultimately she got the impression that her personality, instead of developing, had been reduced in stature, almost to nothingness and her mind was like forsaken theatre-hall which was no longer in uses.

For Kamala Das, ideal love is fulfillment on the levels of body and mind. We can see the extra-marital relationship in the next poem “In Love”. In this poem Kamala Das gives us a brief account of asexual experience which created a kind of dilemma for her. She expresses her difficulty in relating to a man who had made love to her in a rough manner. She describes that in his relationship with her, there had been no room, no excuse, and even no need for love, and that every embrace between them had been like a finished jigsaw which is a complicated situation. At the end of the poem she talks about a lover to whom she went to learn about love. Since she is already committed, she dare not call her games with him ‘love,’ she calls it the ‘skin-communicated’ thing or purely a physical desire, as if, it is a communicable disease. Kamala Das here, suspects not only her lover of wanting merely to satisfy his lust without any feelings of love for her, but she suspects herself also of being lustful at the time and having no love in her heart.

In the poem “Sunset, Blue Bird”, she talks about the poetess hatred for her husband and her relation with him after one year from their marriage. She says that he loved her in the beginning of their life, they were happy but soon their love came to an end. The poetess says that her husband doesn’t care for her, is not waiting for her and does not call her out any more. She tells that when she is with her friends, her face becomes pale as soon as she remembers her husband’s cruelty. These confessions show that it is the husband who is responsible for her unhappiness; it is he who after one year changes his mind and does not have any love for her. Her husband is like any other man and does not care for her happiness or unhappiness.

Next poem, “The Stone Age” deals with the reality of love being offered to the poetess by another man rather than by her husband. This poem portrays the husband of the poetess as “old fat spider” who weaves webs of bewilderment around her and erects the dead, dull stony wall of domesticity, and thus the callous indifference of her husband turns her into “a bird of stone". His touch and strokes have no warmth in them. He does not even allow her to dream. With loud talk, he bruises her pre-morning sleep and “sticks a finger into her dreaming eye". She calls her husband primitive man who lived in the Stone Age. The husband is the eternal irritant, an unwelcome intruder into the privacy of the wife’s mind, and her life with him is so difficult for her that she can not tolerate it any more. She wants to be free from the prison which he has made. The poem shows that she does not bother about her roundabouts and just wishes for more freedom.       

Kamala Das analyses man-woman relationship from an anti-romantic angle and protest against womanhood suppressed by ethics and taboos. As she has mentioned in almost all poems her husband’s contact with her was usually cruel and brutal. She grew revengeful towards him and reacted in a non-traditional fashion in love-making. We can say that Kamala Das has an inner language that not only fascinates, but also reveals that she is a bold and daring poetess. She gives very bold pen-pictures of the interaction between man and woman without compromising her femininity. Every time you read a Kamala Das’ poem, you realize that it has many hidden depths. They give candor and honesty to her poems. In reading between the lines, one finds many treasure troves of meaning. It is always an interesting exercise to engage in reading a Kamala Das’ poem. It has many layers to uncover.

A Socio-Political Approach to Azadi:

A Novel by Chaman Nahal

National Seminar on Indian Writing in English & in English Translation,

Department of English, University of Pune

25 - 27 of Feb, 2009

Presented By Amir Taheri

Introduction

Chaman Nahal is one of the outstanding novelists of the seventies (1970's). He worked as a professor of English at Delhi University. He wrote eight novels. Four of them constitute the Gandhi Quartet.  Azadi (1975) is one of these four novels, and is added the Epilogue (1993) which serves as the Epilogue to the whole Quartet.  Nahal's other novels are, Crown and the Loincloth (1981), the Salt of Life (1993), and the Triumph of the Tricolour (1993). Chaman Nahal received Sahitya Akademi Award for Azadi in 1977.

The navel Azadi deals with the theme of partition of Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan. As Chaman Nahal h

imself was a refugee, he writes with remarkable penetration and realism. The novel is historical, political, and above all, a great work of art.

Nahal has presented life-like picture of the period of the Partition. However, the remarkable feature of the narration is the tragic effects of the Partition. We certainly feel horrified when we read about the murders, massacre, rapes burning, looting and the condition of uprooted refugees caused by the partition.

In this regard, K R. Srinivasa Iyengar says:"Azadi is about the partition of India that held the subcontinent in a nightmare of horror for months and left a trial of phenomenal bitterness and misery. Even at this distance of time, the wounds bleed afresh at the prod of memory".  

The division of the novel into three parts 'Lull', "Storm" and "Aftermath" makes it clear that the novel is about the silent atmosphere before the announcement of Partition, the horrible incidents caused by the partition and the Pitiable conditions of the uprooted refugees after the partition. Nahal has used the seven families of a Muslim-dominated city Sialkot to represent thousands of sufferers like them.

Reasons of Partition & Role of the British

By the end of the 19th century several nationalistic movements had started in India. Indian nationalism had grown largely since British policies of education and the advances made by the British in India in the fields of transportation and communication. However, their complete insensitivity to and distance from the peoples of India and their customs created such disillusionment with them in their subjects that the end of British rule became necessary and inevitable.

While the Indian National Congress was calling for Britain to Quit India, the Muslim League, in 1943, passed a resolution for them to Divide and Quit. There were several reasons for the birth of a separate Muslim homeland in the subcontinent, and that all three parties --- the British, the Congress, and the Muslim League, were responsible.

The British had followed a divide-and-rule policy in India. Even in the census they categorized people according to religion and viewed and treated them as separate from each other. They had based their knowledge of the peoples of India on the basic religious texts and the intrinsic differences they found in them instead of on the way they coexisted in the present. The British were also still fearful of the potential threat from the Muslims, who were the former rulers of the subcontinent, ruling India for over 300 years under the Mughal Empire. In order to win them over to their side, the British helped establish the M.A.O. College (or Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College) at Aligarh and supported the All-India Muslim Conference, both of which were institutions from which leaders of the Muslim League and the ideology of Pakistan emerged. As soon as the League was formed, they were placed on a separate electorate. Thus, the idea of the separateness of Muslims in India was built into the electoral process of India.

There was also an ideological divide between the Muslims and the Hindus of India. While there were strong feelings of nationalism in India, by the late 19th century there were also communal conflicts and movements in the country that were based on religious communities rather than class or regional ones. Some people felt that the very nature of Islam called for a communal Muslim society. Added to this were the memories of power over the Indian subcontinent that the Muslims held on to, especially those in the old centers of Mughal rule. These memories might have made it exceptionally difficult for Muslims to accept the imposition of colonial power and culture. They refused to learn English and to associate with the British. This was a severe drawback for them as they found that the Hindus were now in better positions in government than they were and thus felt that the British favored Hindus. The social reformer and educator, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who founded M.A.O. College (or Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College), taught the Muslims that education and cooperation with the British was vital for their survival in the society. Tied to all the movements of Muslim revival was the opposition to assimilation and submergence in Hindu society. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was also the first to conceive of a separate Muslim homeland.

Hindu revivalists also deepened the chasm between the two nations. They resented the Muslims for their former rule over India. Hindu revivalists rallied for a ban on the slaughter of cows, a cheap source of meat for the Muslims. They also wanted to change the official script form the Persian to the Hindu Devanagri script, effectively making Hindi rather than Urdu the main candidate for the national language.

Congress made several mistakes in their policies which further convinced the League that it was impossible to live in an undivided India after freedom from colonial rule because their interests would be completely suppressed. One such policy was the institution of the "Bande Matram," a national anthem which expressed anti-Muslim sentiments, in the schools of India where Muslim children were forced to sing it.

The Muslim League gained power also due to the Congress. The Congress banned any support for the British during the Second World War. However the Muslim League pledged its full support, which found favour from the British, who also needed the help of the largely Muslim army. The Civil Disobedience Movement and the consequent withdrawal of the Congress party from politics also helped the league gain power, as they formed strong ministries in the provinces that had large Muslim populations. At the same time, the League actively campaigned to gain more support from the Muslims in India, especially under the guidance of dynamic leaders like Jinnah.

There had been some hope of an undivided India, with a government consisting of three tiers along basically the same lines as the borders of India and Pakistan at the time of Partition. However, Congress' rejection of the interim government set up under this Cabinet Mission Plan in 1942 convinced the leaders of the Muslim League that compromise was impossible and partition was the only course to take.

In Azadi Chaman Nahal through his protagonist (Lala Kanshi Ram) also expresses his idea of partition and the British role. He (Lala Kanshi Ram) has dual attitudes towards the British. He admires them for their qualities but criticizes them for their faults. For example, he praises the British Rule for bringing safety and peace to his country but deeper down he also admired the British in any case he enjoyed the safety of British Raj and hugged it lovingly. The British had brought some kind of peace to his torn land, Lala Kanshi Ram praises the power of the British, he says:

"They are a nation which cannot be easily beaten, he thought. A handful of them have kept us under their feet for over two hundred years And now that Hitler too has met the same fate at their hands. An absolutely invincible race Lala Kanshi Ram also praised the controlling power of the British rule and police officers. For example, he had great faith in General Ress But just before leaving his house Lala Kanshi Ram blames the British for not protecting the refugee. He also blames the faults of the British. If the British were going to loose India, it was not because of Gandhi or the awakening amongst the masses, it was because of the tactical error they made in sending out an ugly Viceroy in the crucial days of their Raj." 

Chaman Nahal expresses one of his memories which was about his meeting with Gaundhi, related to the partition, he wrote:

"I had been personally exposed to Gandhiji during the last few months of his life. After 1947, he made Birla House in New Delhi his home. Our family by then had migrated from Pakistan to Delhi. And it was possible for me to attend Gandhi's prayer meetings on most evenings. And what caught my eyes was the immense humility of the man. Many of us amongst his listeners were angry young men who had lost everything in Pakistan including the dear ones who were assassinated in the riots. And, we asked Gandhi angry questions, to which he never gave an answer without making us feel that our pain was his pain too. I also saw how plain and ordinary Gandhi was to look at short-statured, thin, with rather common features."

This shows that the novelist was not happy with partition of India and he poignantly expressed the feelings of anguish and anger about it in Azadi which is predominantly a political novel, for example Lala Kanshi Ram, the protagonist, is against the partition. He like many others does not wish the subcontinent to be divided into two nations. He has great faith in Gandhi who would oppose partition. But the partition is announced, Lala Kanshi Ram becomes both angry and sad. He blames the English, as saying:

"Yes, they (the British) are the real villains, they had let the country down, they had let him down, he who put such faith in them".

Muslims & Hindus before Partition

Everyone knows that India is known for its democracy, different communities and religions are living together without conflict. This has been shaped in the root of the society of India that no religion attacks another. Muslims are free to live according to their own rules and regulation and Hindus and Sikhs… are as well.

According to Chaman Nahal, in his Novel 'Azadi' there was a Hindu - Muslim unity and peaceful life before the Partition. Sialkot was a Muslim dominated city. Yet, there was unity among people of all castes. There was seldom any rivalry between Hindus and Muslims. This fact is presented through the friend­ship of Lala Kanshi Ram and Chaudhari Barkat Ali and the love of Arun and Nur. Lala Kanshi Ram and Chaudhari Barkat Ali were not only friends but just like brothers. Both the families heard each other's happiness and sorrow. Influenced by Gandhi's speech, Chaudhari Barkat Ali says to Lala Kanshi Ram:

"You are my brother from today'. The author adds:

"Lala Kanshi Ram chuckled. He had always regarded Chaudhari Barkat Ali as a brother; he did not need Gandhi to make him aware of that". 'Then, Arun, the son of Lala Kanshi Ram, loves Nural-Nissar, the daughter of Chaudhri Barkat Ali. He is ready to become a Muslim for her sake. Munir advised him to show harmony between Hindus and Muslims.

 The two friends' converse:

"I'll become a Muslim, if your father insists". (Arun) "You don't have to.

Why can't you keep your separate religions?" (Munir) "How do we solemnize the marriage?"  "A ceremony in a civil court".

The atmosphere in Sialkot was peaceful. All people did their jobs calmly. There was really 'lull' all over the city. The only excitement and even that of happiness was experienced on the New Year Celebration called "Hurrah Parade". On other occasions, men worked, children went to schools and women gossiped after household works.

Muslims & Hindus after Partition

The peaceful life of residents of Sialkot and their Hindu-Mus­lim unity was disturbed by the announcement of Partition by Mountbatten. The Muslims started celebrating the creation of Pakistan with drum-beating and firecrackers. When they passed nearby the two buildings of Bibi Amar Vati the owner of the house where Lala kanshi Ram and other tenants were lived, they threw some stones which broke the window panes of the houses. The efficient police officers could keep peace. But soon the Muslims started looting shops even Lala Kanshi Ram's shop was looted. Then the Mus­lims started burning one Hindu 'mohalla' every night. Meanwhile, a train came from Amritsar which was full of murdered and wounded Muslims. This excited the Muslims who killed and wounded the Hindus in Trunk Bazaar. Soon the Hindus were forced to leave for the Refugee Camp. The scene of the leaving of the tenant families and of the family of Bibi Amar Vati is really very emotional. The scene symbolizes thousands of such scenes.

15 million refugees poured across the borders to regions completely foreign to them, for though they were Hindu or Muslim, their identity had been embedded in the regions where their ancestors were from.

Many years after the partition, the two nations are still trying to heal the wounds left behind by this incision to once-whole body of India. Many are still in search of an identity and a history left behind beyond an impenetrable boundary. The two countries started off with ruined economies and lands and without an established, experienced system of government. They lost many of their most dynamic leaders, such as Gandhi, Jinnah and Allama Iqbal. India and Pakistan have been to war twice since the partition and they are still deadlocked over the issue of possession of Kashmir. The same issues of boundaries and divisions, Hindu and Muslim majorities and differences, still persist in Kashmir.

Overall Chaman Nahal ended his novel with a sadly depleted family trying to begin a new life in Delhi. Azadi has none of the sensationalism of other novels about India's partition, such as Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan or Manohar Malgonkar's A Bend in the Ganges. Nahal shows the cruelty as well as the humanity of both sides. The novel also shows the maturing of Arun, Kanshi Ram's only son, but the account of his love, first for Nur, the Muslim girl left behind in Pakistan, and then for Chandni, a low-caste girl who is abducted on the way to India, is not as gripping as the rest of the novel.

Conclusion

As the above discussion shows, this novel mainly deals with the theme of   partition. It is a realistic record of the horrible incidents caused by the partition. It is not less than any tragic novel. It should be also add that, Chaman Nahal in his novel did not try to criticize one religion against other (Muslim against Hindu).

As we mentioned before Nahal himself was one of those refugees who compelled to leave Sialkot for India, so he wrote what he had observed. Almost at the end of the novel this fact had been cleared by him.

He wrote: In Delhi Lala Kanshi Ram and others had to see the Muslim abducted women's parade, they felt bad. Soon they saw that a train of the Muslim refugees was attacked and many Muslim were killed. Nahal through his protagonist gave his idea that he did not hate the Muslims because what they did in Pakistan with the Hindus, the Indians did the same with the Muslim in India. 

نيما صالحيان

نويسنده و مترجم

متولد سال ١٣٥٥ تهران

*اخذ مدرك كارشناسي در رشته ادبيات دراماتيك در سال ١٣٨٥

*دانشجوي كارشناسي ارشد رشته ادبيات انگليسي ، كالج فرگوسن ، شهر پونا، هندوستان

*ارائه مقاله وسخنراني در يازدهمين كنفرانس بين المللي ايبسن در شهر اسلو، نروژ

*نويسنده نمايشنامه هاي “نستور”، “دستان زند”، “برخواني سياوش”، “تباهي نامه‌ي تبار گرد آفريد”

*انتشار نمايشنامه “تباهي نامه‌ي تبار گرد آفريد” انتشارات آبرخ

*نگارش مقاله “بررسي تطبيقي اصول مكتب ملامتيه با آراء و انديشه هاي ايبسن در نمايشنامه دشمن مردم” .

*ترجمه و تاليف مقاله “ادبيات اروتيسم در زبان سانسكريت”

                              سرنوشت

                   شعری از شاعر محمد نور طاهری 

     زدم قلوه سنگی به سنگی دگر        جدا شد یکی   پاره  زان  دو   حجر

     صدایی بر آمد  از  آن  پاره سنگ        که می گفت با من چرایی به جنگ

     من  از  نسل  نوع  بشر  بوده ام        ز  شاهان    ملکی   دگر    بوده ام

     به  کامم  همه  عمر  و  ایام  بود        به   هر   سوی  عالم  مرا  نام  بود

     به  ره  بر هزاران عسس داشتم        سپاهی  ز  پیش  و  ز پس داشتم

     نمی ماند   هیچم   به   دل  آرزو        سبو   بود   و   من   بودم  و خوبرو

     چنینم   گذر   بود   با   کبر  و ناز        در    این    کهنه  دنیای آدم نواز       

     شبی  از قضا  مجلسی ساختم        به    چنگ   و   ربابش    بیاراستم

     بسی کبک و  آهو  مرا شام شد        بسی لب که آن شب لب جام شد

     ز  اعیان   ملک    و     دیگر   دیار        ز   ابرو      کمانان      آن    روزگار

     ز شرق و ز غرب و جنوب وشمال        ز گلگونه    رویان  با   وجد  و حال

     همه   آمدند  و    نبد    هیچ  کم        تو    گویی    نزاده    ز   مادر   الم

     درآن شورو غوغا و جشن و سرور        در آن  شب که  بودم سرا  پا غرور

     درآن شب  که  دل  در پی کام بود        فضایی     سراسر     دلارام   بود

     شدم  تا  که   شیرین کنم کام را        به   لب    برگذارم    لب   جام  را

     که  دیدم  مرا  پای   گشت  گران        به    تلخی   و    لکنت   فتاد زبان

     رمق   از    وجودم    کناری گرفت        دل   و   دیده ام را  غباری  گرفت

     ز   سوی   جمال     آفرین  جهان         رسولی   بیامد   که   گیرد  روان

     بزد   خنده   بر   آل   و احباب من         به   سیم و زر زور و  اسباب  من

     به   آنان  که   همراه    بودند  مرا         عسس  بر  تن  و  جاه  بودند مرا

     سرافراز     آمد    به    بالین   من         نپرسید   از  کیش  و    آیین من

     سبک   طوق   روح  از  تنم باز کرد        به   غم آن شب شاد را ساز کرد

     نه   دولت در  آن لحظه  آمد به کار        نه  تدبیر   و  نی  لشکر  بیشمار

     از   آنان   که    بودند  در  آن مکان        نیامد     دگر       کار     الا  فغان

     خبر   بر    سراسیمه   فریاد    داد        که     ابن     فلان  جان بر باد داد

     مرا     بانکه     بودم    شهی نامور        به   خاک   اندرم شدمکان  و مقر

     سرانجام     چندین       قرن    دگر        تنم خاک    گردید  و  خاکم  حجر

     کنون     گویمت  با   زبانی  خموش        که ای صاحب عقل و ادراک و هوش

     من    از   نسل    پاک  بشر بوده ام        ره    این    جهان  را بپیموده ام

     دلم  سنگ   بود  و  تنم  سنگ  شد        ز  هر  ذره خاکم صد آهنگ شد

     نمی دانم اکنون  چه   شد   آن  دیار        چه شد لحظه های لب  جویبار

     چه  شد  مزرعه  باغ  شمشادو  بید        چه شد رقص گلهای سرخ و سپید

     چه شد کاسه  و  کوزه های  شراب        چه شد چنگ و بر بط کجا شد رباب

     کجا     رفت      صیاد    ابرو    کمان        چه شد تاب گیسوی نازک  تنان

     همه  خاک    گشتند و  گرد  و  غبار        نمانده    نشانی    بجز   کردگار

     یکی  را تنش   سنگ  گشته چو من        یکی را به گردن رسن شد کفن

     یکی  را  که    از    ظلم  بودش  حذر        شده   خاک    او    توتیای  بصر

     همه  خاک   گشتند    و  قوت  زمین        نه شاهی نه تختی نه تاج و نگین

     نه   زر   مانده   اکنون  نه زور و نه زن        نه   تاری   نه  پودی از  آن انجمن

     همه   خاکشان   باد    بر    باد    داد        کنون    مهر ورزی   مرا  یاد داد

     تو  هم   طاهری خاک گردی  چو  من        برد باد خاکت به  دشت  و دمن

     برد   باد    و      آنرا     زجا    بر   کند        ندانی که سر  از   کجا  در کند

     ندانی  که    خاک     تو   را   کوزه گر        سبویی  کند  یا که صنعی دگر

     چنان    محو    گردی  از  این     دایره        که نی خاک مانده و نی مقبره

     چنین  باشد آخر  تو    را    سرنوشت        ماند  بجز  نام   نیکو     زشت.

  منبع :

   http://www.balochacademy.blogfa.com

                                                       .. بلوچ ..

    من بلوچم خاک ایران مهد و گهوار من است     

                                                       هر وجب ازخاک پاکم همچو ابصار من است 

   ثروتم  گنجینه ایی از آدمیت  بوده است        

                                     صلح و دوستی وصداقت حرف و اظهار من است

    قدمتی  دارم   کهن   فردوسی ام   داند  مرا   

                                        از   نگاران   بهترین   دیگر   چه   آثار  من  است

   خانه ام   بر پایه   تقوا   و   دین   گشته   بنا    

                                       خصم و  کین و دشمنی بیرون ز افکار من است

    طعنها  بشنیده ام  از  هم  وطن ای هم وطن       

                                       من  نگویم  بدزکس چون بد نه در کار من است

    خاک   پای   آن  بباید  کاو  در  این  وادی  فقر    

                                      از  صمیم  دل شفیق  و  یار و غمخوار من است

    طاهری   باید   ترا   تا  پاک  بینی  نسل  پاک    

                                       گر  خطا  راندم  سخن  را  حد  سزاوار من است

                                                                                 شعر از: محمدنور طاهری

BRAQUE, Georges

(1882 - 1963)

Georges Braque, was born in 1882 in Argenteuil-sur-Seine, and was trained as a craftsman. From 1901 he studied painting at the Acádemie Humbert and the École des Beaux Arts. After a brief spell as a Fauve painter in the South of France, he moved to Paris where he was represented by the dealer Daniel-Henry-Kahnweiler. Along with Picasso both artists developed the Art Movement known as Cubism. Braque was very loyal to the Movement and throughout his career he continued to develop variations on the theme.

The effect of the First World War on Braque was profound, he served at the front line where he was seriously injured. The effect on Paris the city he had so loved was equally profound. His circle of friends had disbanded. Some were killed during the war including Apollinaire, and others were forced into exile including Kahnweiler. His friendship with Picasso became strained and they quarelled. The result was that Braque painted less.

It was only in the summer of 1918 that Braque regained full control of his creative force. He redeveloped his style of painting. Instead of the grey colours and the use of elaborate and complicated geometric planes of his early cubist phase he began to reinstate the use of bright colours and simpler and larger forms. The still life of grapes and bowls is divided into simple planes which intersect the composition. The effect is brilliant, of floating forms moving in and out of picture plane whilst being underpinned by the solidity of the fruit.

1919 was a great year for the artist, he had his first major show with Léonce Rosenberg of the Galerie de L’effort Moderne, which gave the public its first opportunity to see his work since the outbreak of the War five years beforehand.

منبع : http://www.grosvenorgallery.com 

بررسی دوره های هنری(بخش ۲)

دادائيسم

دادائيسم، يا به قول معروف جنبش دادا، به سال ۱۹۱۶ از کافه ای کوچک در شهر زوريخ شروع شد. اين کافه پاتوق حلقه ای از جوانان پرشور و نا آرام بود که از ساير کشورهای اروپايی به سويس، که در جنگ اعلام بی طرفی کرده بود، پناه آورده بودند. سه چهره برجسته گروه هوگو بال، تريستان تزارا و هانس آرپ بودند که بيشتر به شعر و موسيقی علاقه داشتند.