Pragmatic Notes

Book Review: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

noreply@blogger.com (Govind Jee Rai) — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 23:30:00 +0530

It is a truth universally acknowledged that some stories are capable of resisting the passage of time.

In her most recognized work, Austen tells us the story of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Bennet, the second of five daughters of a rural family. Her father is the owner of Longbourn state, but given that he does not have a son to inherit the property, the same must go to a cousin of his, leaving his daughters economically unsustained when he dies. It is then a matter of great importance for at least one of the sisters to marry well, and so, be able to support the others. The person who is more enthusiastic when it comes to carrying on that plan is Mrs. Bennet, whose biggest wish is to have all their daughters married. The move of a wealthy gentleman to the neighborhood seems to be what this lady has been waiting for.

Mr. Bingley, the new tenant of Netherfield Park, arrives at his new home with the company of her two beautiful sisters and one of his closest friends, Mr. Darcy. During the first party the group attends to it becomes clear that the personalities of the two friends are quite different: Bingley is good-tempered, kind and sociable, while Darcy is quiet, distant and cold. The first gets enchanted at once with Jane, Lizzy’s older sister, while Darcy looks with disdain at all the ladies in the room, getting to the point of saying that he does not consider Lizzy “pretty enough” to dance with him, a comment that comes to ears of the aforementioned and starts a kind of unspoken rivalry between them.

As the story goes on, both these characters get to know each other more and begin to revise their respective opinion about the other, but their personalities and the people and situations they meet along the way will make it difficult for them to accept and address their growing feelings towards each other. The pride of the one and the prejudices of the other are certainly capable of tearing them apart.

"There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense. "

— Jane Austen

Why should you be reading it?

It could be difficult for some to understand why a novel about some girls whose first aspiration in life is to get married is still so well-known nowadays, and some may even consider it a retrograde reading. The world has changed and we all know that, but I do not think it will ever change so much to make Miss Austen work obsolete. If we read carefully, we can find her story is still accurate to our modern times.

I know that Jane Austen’s novels are often classified as romantic stories for women, but I believe that saying that is denying the recurrent social topics that appeared in her novels, topics that sometimes seem to be bigger than the love stories’ themselves. She does not focus only in the protagonist’s love life but gives us a social background, something that not only makes it possible to understand and relate to the characters in question but also allows us to find the similarities between the society of that time and our own.

It is true that the situation of women has experienced an enormous change since Jane Austen wrote “Pride and Prejudice”, more than two hundred years ago, but it is also true that social expectations are still high for them. Marriage is not the only destiny that us women can aspire to but, who does not have that friend that is continually depressed because she is the only one of her social circle who does not have a boyfriend? Or someone who has been pressured into a relationship because someone told them that is the right thing to do? Who has not find people that recite a list of their accomplishments in the first meeting to make a good impression? And what about people that mistrust or consider persons of a different social class to be less worthy? I do not think we are really that different. Even though rules and expectation have relaxed a little bit, in some new ways society is still as merciless as it was in the past. To this, I can relate.

When I read this book for the first time I was nearly eleven, but reading it again as an adult I started wondering how it was possible for a woman of the nineteenth century to have written such a book. She does not only seem to criticize in some way the social rules but also to make fun of them. I can tell: That woman not only had advanced ideas for her time, she also had a very ironic sense of humor! I do not think she could have created a character like Lizzy Bennet if it was not the case. In the third chapter of the book Lizzy is described as a person with “a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous”, and this is how I imagine that the author herself was like.

Another thing I love about this book are the dialogues. When you are reading it you can imagine exactly how the characters’ voices sound, their expressions, everything! I have read “Pride and Prejudice” so many times that I can recite most of my favorite dialogues by heart, but it does not stop me from reading it again and again and find it even more delightful each time.

Some people say they love the story because they have watched the movie and they think it to be very romantic. For those people, I tell you this: You ain’t seen nothing yet. Someone said that a book should not be judged through its movie, and I agree: If you want the big, full experience of this wonderful story, I recommend you to try it in the prose. It will not disappoint you.

The Metamorphosis (Chapter 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Govind Jee Rai) — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 13:40:00 +0530

The Metamorphosis Summary and Analysis of Chapter 3

Gregor's injury cripples him so that he finds it difficult to move around and can no longer climb walls. As a result, however, his father realizes that Gregor should be treated as part of the family and not as an enemy, and the family now leaves the door to his bedroom open so that he can watch them sitting around the table while he remains hidden in the dark. The interactions of the family are very quiet, however. After dinner, his father falls asleep while in his armchair while still wearing his uniform, which has become dirty. His mother sows and his sister, who has taken a job as a salesgirl, studies French and shorthand. Every night Grete and her mother struggle to get the father into bed.

Everyone is too tired to care much about Gregor. They let the servant girl go and instead hire on a charwoman to come in twice a day and do the difficult work. The family was forced to sell off their ornaments and wanted to move to a smaller apartment but couldn't because they couldn't think of a way to move Gregor. Gregor, however, believes that the family simply doesn't have the strength to move; they have reconciled themselves to suffering misfortune. Every evening Grete sits with her mother and they close the door of Gregor's room.

Gregor begins remembering people from his past life and thinking about the fact that they were now removed from him and would not help him or his family. Gregor also starts thinking less about his family and more about the way they are neglecting him. His sister doesn't bother to pick out his food any more and cleans his room very hastily and poorly. She insists, however, in being the only one to clean his room and, when his mother does this once, Grete yells at her starting a fight with the father who reprimands them both. Gregor is angry that they did not close his door to spare him the noise. The charwoman discovers Gregor but isn't repulsed by him. She talks to Gregor, calling him to her with names that annoy him. He does not respond until one time when she annoyed him too much and he ran at her, at which point she threatened him with a chair until he retreated.

Gregor's room becomes a storage area for junk. The family takes on three lodgers who bring their own furnishings, so everything that isn't needed is tossed into Gregor's room. He finds that he has little space to move and enjoys shifting the garbage around. The bearded lodgers are extremely scrupulous about cleanliness and order and attempt to arrange the apartment so that nothing unnecessary is lying around. Because the lodgers usually eat at the apartment, the door to Gregor's room is often kept closed. Even when it is opened, however, he often ignores it. He also stops eating almost entirely.

One day the charwoman leaves Gregor's door ajar while the lodgers are in the living room. His mother and sister bring in food for them and they inspect it carefully before eating. The family now eats in the kitchen. Then Gregor's father comes in and bows to the lodgers. Gregor, watching them chew, realizes that he is starving to death because, lacking teeth, he cannot eat human food. Grete begins playing the violin in the kitchen and the lodgers ask her to come into the living room to play. His parents remain standing until the lodgers offer the mother a chair. The lodgers, after listening for a short while, move over to the window and begin whispering to show they are no longer interested and are disappointed with the performance. Gregor, however, is drawn by it. Despite being covered with dirt from his room, he crawls out, fantasizing about bringing his sister back into his room, making her play for him, and then confiding that he had planned to send her to the Conservatory.

The lodgers notice Gregor and stare at him with amusement. His father attempts to drive them back into their room, but they stop on the threshold and the middle lodger, whom the others apparently look up to, announces that he is giving notice and will not pay for the days he has lived there because of the disgusting conditions in the household. The other lodgers also give notice before retreating into their room. At this point Gregor's sister steps forward and forcefully tells her parents that they have looked after the creature long enough and must now get rid of it. She bursts out crying. The father asks how they could get rid of it, and Grete has no answer. She ridicules the idea that Gregor can understand them and insists that, if this were really Gregor, he would have gone away on his own and left them alone. She claims that the creature is persecuting them and wants to drive them out of the apartment into the gutter.

When Gregor attempts to turn around, Grete panics. Finally, he manages to crawl back painfully to his room and his sister slams the door shut behind him and locks it. Gregor, remembering his tenderness and love for his family, realizes that he has to disappear. He agrees fully with his sister. He dies as the dawn is rising.

The charwoman arrives the next day and realizes that Gregor is dead. She announces this fact to the family. They thank God and then retreat to the parents' bedroom to grieve. When the lodgers come out and find there is no breakfast for them, they begin to complain but the charwoman shows them the corpse. At this point Mr. Samsa emerges and tells the lodgers to leave. They attempt a resistance, but his forcefulness intimidates them and they quickly depart.

The family decides to take a walk together and they write notes to their employers. The charwoman, annoying them by standing around, finally informs them that the corpse has been disposed of. As she leaves, slamming the door, Mr. Samsa announces that he will dismiss her in the evening. The mother and Grete then stand by the window, but Mr. Samsa summons them and they depart. They take the tram out of town to go to the country and, on the way, decide that the future does not look bad as their jobs are all likely to lead to better ones and they will soon be able to find a new apartment that is smaller and easy to manage, unlike the one Gregor had picked for them. Mr. and Mrs. Samsa suddenly realize that their daughter has become very pretty and that it is time to look for a husband for her. As their tram arrives, she is the first to jump to her feet and stretch.

The Metamorphosis (Chapter 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Govind Jee Rai) — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 13:24:00 +0530

The Metamorphosis Summary and Analysis of Chapter 2

At twilight Gregor wakes up, believing that he heard the noise of someone entering and leaving his room. He realizes that his body is badly bruised from being shoved through the door earlier that day. Suddenly Gregor smells food, which his sister had left for him, near the door and moves toward it, discovering that it contains bread floating in milk, which used to be his favorite drink. He discovers, however, that he finds milk repulsive and cannot drink it.

Gregor notices that his father is not reading the paper out loud to the family as usual and there is complete silence in the apartment. He hears the doors to his room being opened and quickly shut, and decides to try to persuade someone to come in the next time this happens, but the doors are kept locked now and no one will enter. Realizing that he feels uncomfortable in the center of his room, Gregor climbs under the couch. He considers that he must do his best to help the family deal with the current predicament.

Gregor's sister comes in and, seeing he is under the sofa, takes away the milk. Instead, she brings various items to see which of them he will eat. She leaves and Gregor comes out, discovering that he cannot eat fresh food at all, but only the spoiled cheese and vegetables. His sister returns, throws away everything he didn't eat, and leaves, while Gregor hides under the couch despite the discomfort (his body is swollen from eating) in order to spare her the unpleasantness of having to see all of him. His sister continues feeding him after that at times when his parents were asleep and the servant girl was away.

No one talks to Gregor because they assume that he cannot understand what they say. He has to learn everything only by listening to conversations taking place outside his door. The family discusses him a lot, especially since there are always at least two people at home since no one wants to be left alone with him in the apartment. The cook, finding out about Gregor's metamorphosis, begs to be allowed to leave and is dismissed.

From listening to conversations, Gregor discovers that his family doesn't eat much. His father explained the financial situation to the family, and would occasionally use money he had saved from his old business, which had collapsed. Gregor had not known about this money. When his father's business has fallen apart, he had thrown himself into his work and advanced in his job so as to be able to provide for his family. He remembers those times happily, but also recalls that after the initial happiness, the family became used to having him provide for them. He retained a strong bond only with his sister, and wanted to use the money he made to send her to the Conservatory to study the violin.

Gregor has to watch his movements very carefully, because if he makes any noise, his family will hear through the door and will become concerned. From listening to their conversations, Gregor learns that in addition to money left over from his father's business, the family had also saved a good deal of Gregor's salary that had been put aside. Gregor knows that he could have used the money to pay off the debt to his chief and leave his job earlier, but he agrees that his father's planning was best since it now left the family with some money. It was not enough to live on for more than two years at most, and should be reserved for an emergency. Every time money is mentioned, Gregor feels extremely ashamed.

Gregor enjoys looking out the window, as he finds this reminds him of how much he used to enjoy looking out the window before his metamorphosis. But he finds that his vision is getting worse, so that he can no longer make out the houses in his street. His sister runs through his room every time she comes in so as to open the window, as if she cannot stand to be in the room with him without the window open. Her running bothers him. When he realizes how much his appearance must upset her, Gregor figures out a way to cover himself with a sheet so that she cannot see him at all while she is in the room.

Gregor's parents do not come into his room, and his sister reports on his activities to them after she cleans the room every day. Gregor's mother eventually begs to see him, but the others hold her back even though she begs to be let in. Gregor thinks that he wants to see his mother because she can understand things better than his sister. In the meantime, Gregor had discovered, as he was losing interest in eating and found lying down all night doing nothing boring, that he enjoyed climbing on the walls and ceiling. Noticing this by the tracks he left, his sister decides to remove all his furniture to give him more room. Since the servant girl is afraid and Grete does not want to ask her father for help, she instead asks her mother. They come into the room, but find moving the chest of drawers very difficult. Gregor's mother suggests that if they were to remove all his furniture, it would look to him as though they had given up on his recovery. Gregor, hearing his mother's voice, realizes that he does want to keep his furniture since, even though it constrains his motion, it keeps him linked to his past. Gregor decides that he has to save his furniture.

The movement of the furniture and the women's walking around the room distracts Gregor. When they are momentarily outside, he crawls out from under the sofa and decides that he has to protect the picture of the woman in fur hanging on his wall. He climbs up on the wall and sticks to the picture. Grete and her mother come in and, when they see Gregor, his mother faints. Grete runs out to get some medicine to revive her and Gregor, wanting to help, follows. When she turns around and sees Gregor behind her, Grete drops a bottle of the medicine and runs into his room, locking him out. Gregor's father soon comes home to discover that Gregor has left his room and caused his mother to faint. Gregor, trapped in the living room by the locked door to his own room, cannot escape his father who chases him around the room and then begins throwing apples at him. One of the apples sinks into Gregor's back, causing him such pain that he can't move. As he loses consciousness, Gregor sees his mother running to his father and begging him to spare her son's life.

Click here for Chapter 3

The Metamorphosis ( Chapter 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Govind Jee Rai) — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 13:09:00 +0530

The Metamorphosis Summary and Analysis of Chapter 1

Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. After examining his new physiology, complete with numerous thin legs, a hard back, and a segmented belly, he wonders only momentarily what has happened to him. His attention is quickly distracted as he observes his room, noting its small size and seeing on the wall a picture of a woman he had clipped out of a magazine and framed. Wanting to go back to sleep, Gregor realizes that he cannot turn over on his side, which is the only position he can sleep in.

Gregor then begins thinking about his job as a traveling salesman. He hates the traveling, the worrying, and the fact that none of the acquaintances he makes are ever anything more than that. Then, finding an itch on his stomach, Gregor attempts to scratch it but dislikes the sensation. He goes back to thinking about his job and how much he hates getting up early. His chief is overly tyrannical and Gregor would gladly have quit the job a long time ago if he didn't have to support his parents, who owe his chief a substantial debt.

Wanting to get up and catch the 5 a.m. train, Gregor realizes that it is past 6:30 and he must have missed the alarm. He would certainly be late for work, which would create a scandal, but it would seem suspicious if he called in sick since he had never been sick in the five years he'd worked there. In any case, Gregor feels well, if a little drowsy, and saw no reason why he couldn't go to work. At this point Gregor's mother begins to call to him, and as he answers her he senses that his voice is changing. Realizing that he is still home, his father and sister also begin calling him through the doors, so Gregor tells them that he is getting up, trying to control the change in his voice, which he believes to indicate the start of a cold. As Gregor's sister attempts to come into his room, he is glad for his habit of locking all his doors.

Unable to control his numerous legs, Gregor instead attempts to move the bottom part of his body out of bed, but this part of his body turns out to be the most difficult to move and is also the most sensitive to pain. He then attempts to move the upper part of his body, which turns out to be easier, but then realizes that falling out of bed like that would injure his head. It is already past 7 a.m., and Gregor attempts to lie back and calm down, hoping this will resolve the situation. Gregor then attempts to rock himself out of bed, hoping to land on his hard back. He thinks that the help of two strong people would make this much easier, but ridicules the idea of calling for help to get him out of bed. At this moment the doorbell rings, and the chief clerk comes into the apartment. Gregor is angered by the fact that, though he is only a little late, already the chief clerk has come to cast suspicion on him in front of the entire family. In anger, Gregor swings himself out of bed, landing on the floor.

Gregor's father asks Gregor to open the door, while his mother is explaining to the chief clerk that Gregor must certainly be ill or he would never be late since he only thinks of his work and never goes out. Gregor refuses the latest request to open the door, and his sister begins to sob in the next room. Gregor cannot understand why his sister is already crying, since he is not yet in serious danger of losing his job and only wants to be left alone. The chief clerk suddenly loses his temper and tells Gregor that he is shocked by his behavior. There has been some suspicion that Gregor was absent from work because he was recently entrusted with some cash payments, and the clerk is now uncertain as to whether this really is the reason for Gregor's behavior. He also tells Gregor that he is acting disgracefully and that his position in the company is in jeopardy because his work lately had been unsatisfactory.

The clerk's speech hits a sore spot, and Gregor begins to defend himself, telling the chief clerk that he is simply suffering from a slight indisposition but that he will soon be at work and that his business has, in fact, not been so bad lately. No one outside understands a word of what Gregor has said due to the change in his voice. His mother, believing him ill, sends Grete, Gregor's sister, for the doctor and Anna, the servant girl, for the locksmith. Gregor is glad that finally, believing that something is wrong, the others are willing to help him. Placing his faith in the doctor and the locksmith, Gregor nevertheless manages to get to the door and turn the key with his mouth.

At the sight of the large insect, the chief clerk backs away. Gregor's mother faints, while his father clenches his fists and then begins to weep. Gregor begs the chief to give an accurate account of these events at work and to stand up for him. He says that he must provide for his family and that he will gladly go back to work, despite his present difficulty. People in the company often dislike him because he is a traveler and others think he has an easy job, but he insists to the chief clerk that this isn't true and that as a traveler he often finds that others have been gossiping and complaining about him with no foundation in his absence. He begs the chief clerk not to leave without agreeing with him.

The chief clerk continues backing away as Gregor is still speaking. Gregor realizes that if the chief clerk leaves in the state of mind, his job would be in serious danger. He attempts to catch up with the clerk, finally landing on his feet, but then notices that his mother had gotten up. She backs up against the table in fear and tips over the coffee pot. Gregor involuntarily snaps his jaws, frightening her, and she attempts to run away. The commotion gives the chief clerk time to escape down the stairs. Gregor's father picks up a walking stick and waves it while hissing and stamping his feet in order to drive Gregor into his room. Gregor tries to back up but can't, finally attempting to turn around slowly. When he cannot fit through the door and gets stuck, his father pushes him from behind and slams the door behind him.

Click here for Chapter 2

The Metamorphosis ( Summary )

noreply@blogger.com (Govind Jee Rai) — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 12:53:00 +0530

The Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka

Published in 1915, The Metamorphosis is considered modernist fiction, a widely read novella from Franz Kafka. Some things don't change-- it remains on most high school reading lists for its enduring qualities.

The story follows Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who works to provide for his parents and sister. One morning he awakens to find that he has been transformed into a monstrous insect. He is unable to work and becomes a claustrophile, attached to closed-in spaces. Since he can no longer support the family, they begin working again

Mr. Samsa, Gregor's father, returns to work after the metamorphosis. He is unkind and harsh to Gregor. Mrs. Samsa, his mother struggles alternatively between her maternal instincts and her fear and revulsion of her son's new form

Here is chapter wise summary:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

The Metamorphosis Part-I

noreply@blogger.com (Govind Jee Rai) — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 22:14:00 +0530

One of my friend Yamin , a kindly young boy from Kashmir whom I met in kota, once told me not to bother reading boring books. "There are too many good books out there," He said, "to waste your time reading something you're not enjoying."

It was great advice, which I still adhere to almost 2 years later. Of course, I also understood that he was talking about our personal reading preferences, as opposed to what we were assigned to read as students. In the course of my education, I had to read a lot of stories that I would otherwise not have entertained had my grade not been on the line. I came to equate—as so many students do—school reading with boring reading.

That was all before I read Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He lay on his hard armorlike back and when he raised his head a little he saw his vaulted brown belly divided into sections by stiff arches from whose height the coverlet had already slipped and was about to slide off completely."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis' (Translated by: Donna Freed)

There I was, in my bedroom, reading about this man, Gregor Samsa, who woke up one morning and found himself transformed into a giant cockroach! (Note to reader: The Metamorphosis has been translated several times and in the first version I read Gregor Samsa was transformed into a "cockroach," as opposed to an "insect" or "vermin.") Of course, my immediate thought was that Kafka was speaking metaphorically and Gregor simply felt like a cockroach. But, as I read on, I discovered that Gregor actually had transformed. And, while there are plenty of metaphorical implications in the subtext, it was, on its surface, a story about a man who turned into an cockroach.

When I encountered The Metamorphosis about 2 months ago , I felt like I'd discovered some wonderful secret, some hidden gem buried in my otherwise boring textbook. Perhaps because I was so excited about The Metamorphosis, I sort of saw dreams fo the book a multiple times. Soon thereafter, I ended up writing my first blog, analyzing this great novel. I don't really need the extra points, I just don't want to stop talking about it.

"He would have needed arms and hands to prop himself up, instead of which he had only the many little legs that continually waved every which way and which he could not control at all. If he wanted to bend one, it was the first to stretch itself out, and if he finally succeeded in getting this leg to do what he wanted, the others in the meantime, as if set free, waved all the more wildly in painful and frenzied agitation."

-Franz Kafka, 'The Metamorphosis' (Translated By: Donna Freed)

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The Metamorphosis ( Summary )