The Poetry

Francis Bacon Classic Essay Of Studies The Poetry

2019-10-02T10:54:00.000+05:30

Francis Bacon Classic Essay Of Studies The Poetry

Studies serve for Delight, for Ornament, and for Ability. Their Chief Use for Delight is in privateness and retiring; for Onament, is in discourse; and for Ability, is in the Judgement and Disposition of Business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, the general Counsels, and the Plots, and Marshalling of Affairs, come best from those, that are Learned. To spend too much Time in Studies, is Sloth; to use them too much for Omament is affectation; to make Judgement wholly by their Rules is the Humour of ascholar. They perfect Nature and perfected by Experience; for Natural Abilities are like SI by one, but auo aur Natural Plants that need Proyning by study: and Studies themselves do giveforth Directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty Men Contemn Studies; Simple Men admire them; and Wise Men Use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a Wisdom without them, and above them, won by Observation. Reade not to Contradict, and Confute; nor to Believe and Take for granted; nor to find Talk and Discourse; but to weigh and Consider. Some Books are to be tasted, Others to be Swallowed, and some Few to be Chewed and Digested: That is some Books are to be read only in Parts; Others to be rea but not Curiously; and some Few to be read wholly, an with Dil , ice and Attention. Some Bookes also may be read by Deputy, and Extracts made of them by Others: but that would be only in the less important Arguments, and the Meaner Sort of Books; else distilled Books are like common distilled waters, Flashy things. Reading maketh a Full Man; conference a Ready Man; and Writing an Exact Man. And therefore, if a Man Write little, he had need haye a Great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a Present Wit; and if he Read little, he had need have much Cunning; to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make Men Wise; Poets Witty; the Mathematicks Subtile; Natural Philosophy deep; Moral grave; Logic and Rhetorick Able to Contend: Abeunt Studia in Mores', Nay there is no Stond or Impediment in the Wit but may be wrought out by Fit Studies: like as Diseases of the Body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the Stone, and Reines; Shooting for the Lungs and Breast; gentle walking for the Stomache; riding for the head; and the like. So if a Man's Wit be Wandering, let him Study the Mathematicks; for in Demonstrations, if his Wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his Wit be not apt to difference, let him Study the Schoole-men; for they Cymini Sectores'. If he be not apt to beat over Matters, and to call up one distinguish or find are Thing to Prove and illustrate another, let him Study the Lawyers' Cases. So every Defect of the Mind may have a special Receipt.

Summary Of The Essay

Studies serve man in three ways. In a state of loneliness and leisure they amuse us, in conversation they embellish our speech, and in business management they increase our ability. The experienced people can execute and judge the details of particular matters one by one, the learned people can give their best advice in planning and handling of affairs. Bacon calls it laziness to devote too much time in studies, it is called artificiality to use studies too much for the ornamentation of speech. It is a tendency of a scholar to judge by the rules given in books. Nature is perfected by studies, studies are are like plants that need trimming by studies. Cunning or shrewd men condemn studies, ordinary men show their adimication towards them, only the wise men utilize them. But true wisdom comes from observation of things minutely. One should not read to contradict or prove others false. One should neither believe blindly or take for granted what is given in the books Some books are to be read in parts, other to be read not seriously, still others to be read wholly with diligence and attention. Some books are to be read in the form of brief notes made by others. Some books are of meaner types, some others of less importance to be made abridged and presented to us like distilled water. A man becomes well-informed by reading books, by conversation he becomes quick-wited in argument, and by writing he becomes a perfect man. Therefore, ifa man writes little, he should have a great memory, if he coaverses little, he should have quickness of mind, and if he reads little, he should have much skill to pretend ignorance. History makes a man wise, and by poetry he becomes intelligent and maginative. The study of mathematics makes a man's mind sharp and quick Endse or understanding. The study of science makes a man deep, eshics serious, logic and rhotric enable him to argue well. Studies pass into character. Not only this, by studies there remains no restraint in mind. Proper studies remove the mental defects, just as physical defects are cured. Bowling is good for stone and kidneys, shooting retmoves the defects of lungs, gentle walking is good for stomach, riding is good for the head, and so on. The study of mathematics removes the inconsistency of mind. The stady of the great works of the scholars and philosophers makes a man capable of distinguishing between things. Lawyer's cases are discussion. In this way every defect of mind can be removed by the studies and improves our total personality.

Francis Bacon Life And Works (1561-1626)

2019-10-01T12:15:00.001+05:30

Francis Bacon Life And Works (1561-1626)

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Francis Bacon, the Father of the English Essay, was born on January 22, 1561 in London. His father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was Lord keeper of the Great Seal. Bacon was influenced from a very early age by the strong, narow Calvinistic beliefs and the classical knowledge of his mother Anne Cooke. When he was twelve years old, he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge for higher education. Aristotelian philosophy disgusted him there. He could not pull on for more than a couple of years. So he left Cambridge without qualifying for a degree and returned to London for the study of Law. When Sir Amyas Paulet was appointed as English Ambassador to France in 1576, Bacon accompanied him as a Junior Secretary. He spent two years in Paris. On his return to London in 1578, he took to the study of law again. He joined the Bar in 1582. He entered Parliament in 1584. He took keen interest in politics for the rest of his life. His abilities soon marked him out as a prominent member there, but he was disappointed in his hopes of getting a good job through the influence of his uncle Lord Berghley. He made his path to advancement clear by betraying the cause of Essex at his trial by leading the prosecution of that unfortunate noble. Bacon rose high in honour and office as soon Queen Elizabeth's successor, James , ascended the throne.

Francis Bacon was knighted in 1603. He became Solicitor General in 1607, and in 1613, he became Attorney General. He also received a considerable fortune by his marriage. He earned much money but his habits of extravagance always kept him in debt. He flattered the king assiduously, and in 1617 he became Lord Keeper. In the next year he became Lord Chancellor. But he misused his high position flagrantly by accepting bribes and presents. He was impeached, he pleaded guilty of bribery and threw himself on the mercy of the Judges. He was deprived of his state offices. He was imprisoned for life in the Tower and was fined £40,000. The king set him free the next day and remitted the fine. He retired in disgrace to his country residence and spent his life in scientific and literary pursuits. He is said to have fallen ill while engaged in scientific researches. He died in 1626.

Bacon's works may be divided into three classes.

(i) Philosophical-

(A)The Advancement of Learning (1605).

(B) The Novum Organum (1620),

(ii) Literary Works-

(a) Of Bacon's literary works, the most important are the, Essays first published in 1597 and issued in final form in 1625.

(b) De Sapientia Veterum (1609)

(d) The New Atlantis (1626)

(e) History of Henry the Seventh (1622).

(iiI) Professional Works

(a) Maxims of the Law

(b) Reading on the Statute of Uses.

Renaissance in Bacon's Essays

Bacon the man was the product of the Renaissance, Man's glory generous or tense, his opportunities of mind and body, his eye finely rolling across the subtlety and magnificence of the world, his joy in leaming, discovering, weighing, creating all this as it existed in Bacon's mind shifted through into the essays. The age of Bacon is the age of Renaissance or better called the age of Shakespeare. The term Renaissance means'rebirth'. It implies the great spiritual and intellectual awakening which marked the end of the middle ages and the advent of the modem world in all its varied aspects. For the first time since the extinction of the great Roman civilization in England following the awakening of Italy and France stirred from deep slumber of the spirit into which she had fallen because of ignorance of the past and the authority of the church. Superstitions credulity and witchcraft reigned supreme. Spirit of adventure was entirely absent. Blind faith in the powers of nature, black magic and phantoms were prevalent among the people. The end of the 15th century saw tremendous change coming over men's minds. This change had several phases or aspects:

1. Revival of Learning- Greek scholars persecuted by Turks in Constantinople fled to italy where they brought their learning, art and science. taly became the fountainhead or centre of the new great learning. France, Germany and England sent their scholars to Italy in quest of this new Knowledge. They studied the elevating poetry of Homer, the philosophy of Plato and the science of Aristotle. They learnt Greek and Latin languages and literatures and came back home to enlighten their countrymen and infuse a new spirit into them.

2. Humarism - The Re- discovery and Study of Past roman civilisation and culture led to a new interest in humanity. Life gained importance and value. It was no longer considered to be for more penance and suffering to get into heaven and attain etermal bliss. The world was regarded as something real and abiding and not transitory and trifling or unreal. There came into being an ideal practical man who exercised his reason and intellect upon art, science, literature and philosophy. He took interest in adventure and exploration. He developed his body for war and hunt. He was a perfect courtier and an ardent lover.

3. The Reformation - People brought their reason to bear on religion too. They no longer believed in dogmcs or doctrines of the church quite bindly. The Renaissance converted fanatics into liberal belk ers. Orthodoxy lost its way over men's minds. Authority of the Pop was defiec nd schism or separatism from Rome in religious Tatters was the natural result. Thus the English people were free not only politically but aiso from the yoke of the Roman Pope. Protestants came into prominence as a consequence of the reformation, or movement for reform in religion.

Nationalism - The Renaissance had its effect in the political world also. The people of England were inbued with a new spirit of nationality. They began to think themselves as English men firsti every relationship. This spirit was still more accentuated by her war with France and the victories she won over the enemies

5. Discovery - Discovery and adventure was another aspect of the Renaissance. England was no longer ready to stay at home and remain lethargic. Columbus set out on his great and memorable voyage and discovered America. Vasco-de-Gama went round the Cape of Good Hope. They were followed by other adventurers who crossed the Atlantic ocean and returned home with wealth and wonders.

6. Printing- The art of printing, the result of mental and intellectual awakening led to a rapid spread of education. It created a wide reading public and education came out of the narrow precincts of a few churches and progressed by leaps and bounds through schools established in every nook and corner of the country. Teaching was freed from religious influence of the church and became secular This multifarious influence of the Renaissance had its impact on literature. These new tendencies are evident in every poet and prose writer of merit. This new spirit is fully reflected in their writings. The literature of this period is marked by certain trends Imagination was replaced by realism. Fiction and falsity gave way to fact and truth. Exaggeration was no longer indulged in. Artificiality waš substituted by naturalness. Reason prevailed over credulity and blind faith. Search for truth or scientific enquiry was the dominant feature. Fanaticism gave way to liberality. Democratic and critical spirit became visible in every sphere of life. The religious faith was carefully analysed and timed. Honoured institutions were judged frankly and fearlessly, In short, literature began to convey facts. Bacon, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Burton, Delouy, Decker etc, all exhibited this spirit of the Renaissance with all its varied aspects in their works.

William Shakespeare Life And Career In London

2019-09-30T15:34:00.000+05:30

William Shakespeare Life And Career In London

Shakespeare In London :- Shakespeare left Stratford in or about 1586. The immediate cause of his departure was trouble with the police, financial difficulties, possibly the dissatisfaction with the family life and the lure of the city together with dramatic tendency. There are records io show that a company of it itinerant players, such as were becoming popular, visited Stratford at this time and it was as a member of this company that Shakespeare left his native Stratford. For many years the name of Shakespeare remained unheard and oblivious. He was next heard of in 1591 and we find that the other playwrights of London were already beginning to find him a formidable rival. He was spoken of as a successful actor and author. According to Prof. Hudson, the drama at this time was gaining rapidly in popularity through the work of the University Wits. Shakespeare son turned to the stage and his first employment in connection with the theatre was that of holding the horses of those who came to the play. With Prof. Dowden we too may dismiss it as probably mythical. Dr. Johnson believes this myth but shortly afterwards he became an actor and mender of old plays.

The flower of William Shakespeare's genius blossomed forth in the nourishing soil of London where he could well study both men and things. During his apprenticeship he worked at odd jobs provided by theatrical companies, dined at the ordinary taverns, gazed on courtly processions and spectacles, seeing new types of character and hearing new stories day by day he tried his hand at acting and was soon a successful actor. The coarse and worthless plays of the time disgusted him, and he began his dramatic career by recasting existing plays and changing them beyond recognition. He was an INTELLIGENT and OBSERVANT man, the theatre managers were soon impressed by him as his rise was rapid. It was here that he acquired varied experience, wide outlook, human sympathies and knowledge of living men and women. His name and fame spread. Greene became jealous of him and called him "An upstart crow", beautified with our feathers that with his tiger's heart wrapt in a player's hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and being 'an absolute Johannes Factotum is in his own conceit the only Shakespeare in the country'. Englishmen in those days, were crossing the bounds of sky, being distinguished as sailors, adventurers, lawyers, scholars, statesmen, churchmen, dramatists and the like. These things had left an indelible mark on the mind of Shakespeare. He adopted and rewrote several plays besides acting in the plays. (Adam in the 'As You Like It' and Ghost in the Hamlet').

In 1593, he dedicated his 'Venus and Adonis' to the young Earl of Southampton. Lucrece' in 1594 dedicated to the same nobleman written like the earlier dedication : "What I have done is yours : what I have to do is yours" being part of all I have devoted yours. Shakespeare's genius was warmly appreciated and recognized. According to Davernant Southampton offered to Shakespeare a sum of £ 1000 to go through with a purchase he had mind to. This is doubtless an exaggeration according to Prof. Dowden. Southampton was at this time a warm and generous friend we may riot doubt and Shakespeare was scoffed at by Green. From Greene's ill-natured allusion that Shakespeare must have been actively engaged in the play-writing by 1592. His plays were, worthless plays of the time disgusted him, and he began his dramatic career by men and as sailors, adventurers, lawyers, however, based on the works of others.

The Tide Turns

Ben Jonson praised Shakespeare profusely and called him "Sweet Swan of Avon". Shakespeare appeared twice before Queen Elizabeth in 1594. He was now writing historical plays and earlier comedies and was gathering enormous wealth. John Shakespeare tried to recover the ancestral fields, A letter still exists in which Shakespeare's famé and interest in his country home are recognised. He acquired property both at Stratford and London. Ben Jonson's first comedy 'Every Man in His Humour' appeared in 1598. It was through Shakespeare's good offices that it was brought before the public and he even acted in it, playing the role of Knowell. 'Palladis Tamia', 'Wit's Treasury' by Francis Meres contains twelve of Shakespeare's plays which are witness to the true chronology of his works. Meres also mentions the 'Sugared Sonnets' of Shakespeare. The earliest editions of his plays belong to this period. He was so famous then that many persons passed their plays under the name of Shakespeare and this is testimony enough of his popularity, recognition and acceptance.

Family Matters

Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, died in 1601. The dramatist was now a shareholder of the Globe Theatre. It was built by a player and joiner, James Burbage in 1577 by the name The Theatre' in the fields outside the city walls, on the West of Bishopsgate Street, in Shoreditch. In 1998, it was pulled down and next year was rebuilt as The Globe', on Bankside, Southwark. The dramatist was now gentleman of Stratford-on-Avon. Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 but Shakespeare did not bother to write even a single line on it. When Elizabeth's successor, James First, arrived in London, he issued a warrant licensing the theatrical company to which Shakespeare belonged. His name appeared second in the list of players contained in the warrant. He again played in Ben Jonson's play. He left the stage and returned to Stratford. On June 5, 1607 his eldest daughter Susanna was married to Mr. John Hall. That very year his youngest brother Edmund died. In September, 1608 his mother died. On February 21, 1607-8 was baptized a daughter of John and Susanna Hall.

Stratford Again

William Shakespeare's life in London had been one of continuous success and prosperity. These years in London were passed in great exertion. Monèy had never been the supreme concern for him and yet he was now a prosperous man. After eleven years of absence, in or about 1609, Shakespeare is supposed to have left London for Stratford. There is nothing definite to fix the change to any one year, but the internal evidence of his plays and Sonnets as well as the fact that he must before he made his will have sold or released it to his partners all his interest in the Globe and Blackfriars's profits and in his plays almost obliges us to conclude his leaving dates from 1609 or thereabouts. On account of his name, fame and money he was respected by his fellowmen. The atmosphere here, at Stratford, in comparison to that of London was calm and quiet. Still he had not lost his interest in London. In 1613, he bought a house near Blackfriars Theatre. In 1612, his brother Richard had also passed away. Ill Luck dogged him still. In 1613, the Globe Theatre was burnt to ashes and many manuscripts of his plays perished. The following year there was again a fire at Stratford in which fifty four houses were burnt down.

THE END

On February 10, 1616 Shakespeare's younger daughter Judith, aged 31, was married. Shakespeare's health had begun to decline. On March 25, he executed his will. For quite sometime he had not been keeping good health. Since August 11. 1596 after the death of his only son. Hamnet, Shakespeare had been in indifferent health. The end came on April 23, 1616-the day of his birth. He was fifty two years old. The only report as to the cause of his death is in the Diary printed in 1839 of the Rev. John Ward, who was 1662 that Shakespeare. Drayton and Ben Jonson had an eerie meeting and it seems drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contacted. He left his appointed Vicar of Stratford in property to his daughter, Judith, sister Joan, his grandson, his Stratford friends and some of his players. His body was laid in the Parish Church of Stratford-on- Avon with this epitaph, written by himself, inscribed over his grave:

"Guod friend, for Jesus sake forbeare,

To dig the dust enclosed heare,

Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones,

And curst be he yt moves my bones.

Life and Career Of William Shakespeare

2019-09-29T09:52:00.000+05:30

LIFE AND CAREER OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare is a national institution next only to the Bible,

Shakespeare has become a household word with the students of English language and literature. The little known life-story of the greatest dramatist is replete with speculations. Despite concerted research endeavours spread over almost four centuries the complete life-history of Shakespeare is still uncertain and insufficient. Shakespeare is a special majestic eminence has induced people to attempt the writing of his life without material of the expected kind. We do not know anything about many of his contemporaries, for example Kyd the author of the most popular tragedy of that age, we know almost nothing, till recently, about the death of a celebrated person like Marlowe. So comments the 'Cambridge History of English Literature'. Many legends have been woven around his personality. There are some glaring black spots on his character which are not accepted to be true. Some have even questioned his very name..

"We know nothing about Shakespeare's actual life and upbringing", writes Dr. E. Knox, therefore he must have been an plays which show 'multiscience, if not omniscience', must have been written by a number of Peerage who passed his first few plays under the name Shakespeare and then when the name of Shakespeare became extremely popular the Peer could not but continue doing the same. In the beginning he must have feared lest his first one or two plays might be mocked at and ridiculed so he did not unfold his own identity and used an imaginary name a the name of Shakespeare became indispensably important and popular, the same practice had to be continued. Some other researchers in the states reveal that it was Marlowe who wrote the plays and passed them under the name of Shakespeare, as Marlowe, being involved in a murder case had to remain underground for a number of years and did not like to reveal his identity for fear of being arrested. There are still others who declare that four or five persons wrote the plays under an imaginary name-Shakespeare.

We need not waste our time and energy over these speculative propositions as many of them refute themselves. We agree while complaining with Stevens. All that we know of Shakespeare is that he was born at Stratford-on-Avon, married and had children, went to London where he commenced as actor and wrote plays and poems; returned to Stratford, made his will and died"

There are three phases of Shakespeare's life:

1. Life at Stratford-on-Avon 1564-1586

2. Life in London 1586-1604

3. Life again at Stratford-on-Avon 1604-1616

The life of Shakespeare that we give here is based on the description of one of the greatest authorities on Shakespeare, Prof. Dowden.

BIRTH

M. Drayton, contemporary of Shakespeare calls Warwickshire as "the heart of England". The country around Stratford-on-Avon was remarkable for its wealth of wild lovely flowers, deep meadows on each side of Avon and sweet woodlands. In Shakespeare's days the town numbered about 1400 inhabitants. Flood and fire were the main dangers. The quiet and serene river, Avon, often became angry in autumn and left disease behind it. It was here that our Shakespeare was born on or about 23rd April, 1564. Prof. Dowden is also not certain upon what day Shakespeare was born. But he was baptized on April 26, 1564 is certain. The entry in the Register of Baptism at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, runs thus:

"1564, April 26, Gulietmus Filiress Johannes Shakespeare."

[William Son (of) John Shakespeare]

The usual practice in those days was to present children for baptism on the third day after their birth hence the poet's birthday is taken to be April 22 or 23, 1564.

PARENTAGE

Our dramatist, William Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare was a prosperous tradesman of the town who became its high Bailiff or Mayor. He made and sold gloves, farmed land and though he knew not how to write his name, became an important public person of the town...keeping the Queen's peace, imposing fines upon offenders, rising in course of time to the honourable posts of Chamberlain, alderman and high bailiff. He was married to Mary Ardens, daughter of his landlord. The Ardens were Warwickshire gentry since before the conquest and had been holding places of distinction in the household of Henry VII. First two children, girls of John and Mary Shakespeare died in their infancy. The third, William, their first son, braved the plague and survived. Then they had a daughter, another daughter who died early and three sons- Gilbert, Richard and Edmund.

EDUCATION

"Though there is no actual record of the fact" writes Prof. Hudson. "It is practically certain that like other Stratford boys of his class, he went to the local Grammar School, an excellent institution of its kind where he was taught Latin and Arithmetic and perhaps a little Greek."-(Dowden) The amount of Shakespeare's classical learning has been described by Ben Jonson as "Small Latin and less Greek". Prof. Dowden conjectures, he seems to have learned something of French and possibly also of Italian. If his picture of "the whinning school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwilling to school" be not impersonal we may suppose that Shakespeare himself was at some school and has written these lines from his own experience.
In many of his plays he makes frequent references to school boys, pranks. Lately in the The Essential Shakespeare' Prof. J. D. Wilson questions the Grammar School education of Shakespeare and says that Shakespeare's father was an ardent Catholic, the boy might have received his education as a singing boy in the service of some great Catholic gentleman.

It is certain that Shakespeare might have been taken to see the entertainments in the Guildhall coventry, not far away from Stratford. might have observed Herod with his painted masque and violent burning and the black souls, might have been the entertainment accorded to Queen Elizabeth when she paid her famous visit to Kenilworth in 1575, Prof. Dowden is of the opinion that what Shakespeare wrote in A Midsummer Night's Dream (III) is nothing but recalling the Kenilworth shows actually seen by him.

Consequent upon the declining fortunes of his prosperous father when the latter had to mortgage his property acquired from his wife, William Shakespeare, the son had to be withdrawn from the school at the early age of twelve to assist his father. He may also have worked for sometime as a school master in the village-school. The family passed through withdrew himself from the affairs of the town, lost his position citizen and became an insolvent debtor. a crisis. Shakespeare!s father withdrew himself from the affairs of the town, lost his position as the leading citizen and became an insolvent debtor.

At the immature age of nineteen Shakespeare contracted an imprudent and indiscreet marriage with Anne Hathway, some eight years older than Shakespeare. On the basis of some passages in his plays critics have tried to show that the marriage was an unhappy one but nothing can be concluded for certain. Only six months later was born his eldest daughter, Susanna, and in 1585 the marriage was blessed with twins. Hamnet and Judith. Thus, when Shakespeare was older, and three children. The situation must have worried him but nowhere in his writings he exhibits any bitterness against the women.

According to Rowe. the earliest biographer of Shakespeare "by misfortune common enough to young fellows" he was involved in deer-stealing from a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy. For this he was presented by that gentleman, "as he thought, some what too severely and in order to revenge the ill usage William Shakespeare made a ballad upon him. And though this, probably the hardly twenty one he was burdened with wife, eight years first assay of poetry be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for sometime and shelter himself in London."

John Galsworthy plays And Works (1867-1933)

2019-09-28T15:39:00.001+05:30

John Galsworthy plays And Works (1867-1933)

His Works- In Galsworthy's family the career of a novelist was not considered a particularly worthy or desirable one. The idea that the eldest son might one day become a writer was not acceptable to his parents. His father wanted him to become a leading barrister or a judge. His mother also did not want her son to be a distinguished writer at all. The thought rather pained and disappointed Galsworthy's father. This was probably one of the reasons why his first four books, including, Villa Rubein, came under the pseudonym: "John Sinjohn", (John son of John). It would never have done for the family name to be linked with such a venture as serious writing, till the author had become more or less established.

John Galsworthy was twenty-eight when he began writing. He writes, "Until I was twenty seven years and eight months old it never occurred to me to write anything. And then it didn't occur to me; it occurred to one who was- not then my wife. Why don't you write ? You're just the person', she said. "He sums up the experience of his early days as an author: "If one has been brought up at an English public school and university, is addicted to sport and travel, has a small independent income, and is a briefless barrister, one will not take literature seriously, but one might like to please her of whom one was fond. I began. In two years I wrote nine tales. They have every fault."

John Galsworthy was a prolific writer. He wrote for more than thirty years. During this period he wrote many novels, plays stories, poems, essays, specches and satires. He wrote nineteen novels, eighteen full-length plays and six one-act plays. His first book was a volume of short-stories, From the Four Winds, published in 1897. This was a failure in every way. Galsworthy was not very happy with it, and called it "My First Sins". He withdrew it from circulation. His first novel Jocelyn was published in 1898. It presents a conflict between love and duty. Then Galsworthy came under the influence of lurgenev and Maupassant. In 1900, he wrote his next novel Villa Rubein. None of these works gave any promise of a great writer. In 1901, he wrote A Man of Devon, A Knight and Salvation of a Forsyte. The tide began to turn with his third novel The Island Pharisees which appeared in 1904. It is a powerful satire on English society.

The year 1906 proved to be a turning point in Galsworthy's career. In this year, he published The Man of Property which was the first of his chronicles of the Forsyte family. Some people think it is his best work, In this year he took to writing plays. Between 1906 and 1918 he occupied himsel with plays. His first play, The Silver Box, appeared in 1906. It gave him instant recognition. His next play Joy appeared in 1907. It deals with domestie affairs. His novel, The Country House, also appeared in the same year.

In 1909 appeared Strife. Galsworthy himself regarded it as his best play It presents the conflict between Capital and Labour. His novel Fraternity was also published the same year. In 1910 came out Justice. In this play he attacks the English judicial system. It is a scathing attack on English prison system. especially solitary confinement. His next novel The Patrician appeared in 1911. In this novel the writer focuses attention on the harmful effects of aristocracy. In the following year appeared his famous collection of essays entitled The Inn of Tranquility: Studies and Essays. It contains some very important essay in which he propounded his literary theory. Moods, Songs and Doggerels-a collection of poems, The Pigeon, The Eldest Son-a domestic drama, were also published in 1912. The Dark Flower, a powerful love novel, was published in 191. Then followed The Fugitive, The Freelands (1915) and The Foundations.

The Forsyte chronicle was resumed with Indian Summer of a Forsyte, In Chancery (1920), Awakening and To Let (1921) They, along with The Man of Property, appeared in one volume as The Forsyte Saga (1922). Between the years 1920 and 1922 Galsworthy produced his best works. He again returned to writing plays and published The Skin Game (1920), A Family Man (1921), Loyalties (1922), Windows (1922) and Old English (1924). Loyalties is Galsworthy's masterpiece. It was an intent hit and had a long run. He continued with the Forsyte group and produced The White Monkey (1924), The Silver Spoon (1926) and The Swan Song (1928). These novels are collectively entitled A Modern Comedy. His next trilogy End of the Chapter (1934) contained Maid in Waiting (1931), Flowering Wilderness (1932) and Over the River (1933).

John Galsworthy wrote about a hundred poems also. They were published in two collections entitled Moods, Songs and Doggerels (1912) and Verses New and Old (1926). In these poems he expresses his thoughts with which he deals fully in his prose. His poems are loaded with thoughts and philosophy. It is not as a poet that Galsworthy is remembered today. His reputation rests on his novels and plays.

John Galsworthy Profile (1867-1933)

2019-09-28T10:54:00.000+05:30

John Galsworthy Profile (1867-1933)

John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

His Personality- John Galsworthy was of slight build and medium height; his head long, well shaped; his features fairly regular, a stralght nose, high forehead; his eyes blue grey and clear. He used a monocle in his right eye in which he was genuinely short-sighted. His hands were remarkable, lean like a surgeon's, rather veined and very brown. He was very fastidious in his dress. It was very painful for him to see anything dirty. Anything mechanical automatically fell to pieces in his hand. He could never handle any sort of machinery. He could not even use a fountain -pen, which leaked immediately he tried to use it.

John Galsworthy was very kind and generous. He was courteous even to his servants. He did not dismiss his two servants who avoided work. He always helped people. He usually gave away half his income and lived modestly on the rest. He kept the following motto on a small writing table : I shall pass through this world but once : any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, or dumb animal, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. "Galsworthy loved dogs and horses. He worked for the cause of the humane treatment of animals.

He visited slaughter-houses and advocated humane methods of killing animals.

John Galsworthy was a very shy person. He did not like publicity of any kind. He never publicized the help he gave to many needy people. He hated cruelty and injustice of every kind. Cruelty and injustice to the weak and helpless aroused his anger.

John Galsworthy was a complex personality. He was a man of extraordinary self-control. He was very modest and reserved, He had a warm heart but he did not like to show emotion. There was a certain aloofness mixed with his shyness. The way he looked people up and down through his monocle made them uneasy. His deep silence, his perfect self-control, dignified reserve and modesty earned him a reputation for coldness.

John Galsworthy was a lover of beauty. He loved beauty of every kind and had a keen eye for it. He had inherited the love of Nature from his parents. He had very delicate feelings towards womanhood. He was obsessed with his wife's miserable life with her first husband. He championed the cause of unhappily married women. He felt that their economic dependence- was the cause of their slavery. He hated those men who regarded women as a their property. He was of the view that if a woman was not happy with her husband she should be granted divorce.

John Galsworthy was a great social reformer and humanitarian. He loved every living being. His heart was full of the milk of human kindness. He was a champion of the poor and the weak. His heart melted at the suffering of the poor section of society. He was very fond of wandering about at night in the poorer districts, listening to the conversation of the people. His knowledge of the miseries of the poor was personal. He often visited the slums to collect rent for his father who owned substantial property there. Yet some critics allege that he did not understand the problemis of the poor as he did those of his own class. But this is not true. He drew the attention of the people towards the injustice that was being done to the poor. Galsworthy did not clearly express his religious views in his writings. But he did not believed in orthodox Christianity. All dogmatic theorising hateful to him. He believed in humanity.

John Galsworthy is regarded and manners which he shared with other Englishmen. He loved England and believed in English instinct for fair play. He accepted his responsibility: English citizen. During the First World War he donated all his earnings from writing to national war fund. He tried to write as much as he could do so that he could donate more money. He also undertook some hospital work with his wife to serve the soldiers. Wherever he lived or wrote he wrote of English people. Yet Hernmon Onld does not agree that Galsworthy English. He thinks that Galsworthy's personality was "unique". His patriotism was not of a narrow variety. He gave the Nobel Prize money to P.E.N. It still flourishes, and its objects are still those so dear to Galsworthy's heart: "to promote the friendly co-operation of writers in every country in the interests of literature, freedom of experience and international goodwill."

John Galsworthy lived the quiet life of a successful man of letters. He and Ada travelled very widely about the world. No other person could have easily given so much time to so many social causes besides writing and travelling so much. He deeply believed in life. "Life is good enough in itself even if it leads to nothing", he said. Courage was the virtue he admired most. The working creed of his life is summed up in the following lines by Adam Lindsay Gordon that he often liked to quote:

'Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand like stone:

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own.'

John Galsworthy Life (1867-1933 )

2019-09-27T09:01:00.001+05:30

John Galsworthy life (1867-1933)

John Galsworthy's ( 1867-1933)

His Life - John Galsworthy was one of the greatest dramatists of the modern age in English literature. Alongwith other dramatists like George Bernard Shaw and Sir James Barie he brought to the drama an awareness of the complexities of modern life. He was a prolific writer. His genius was versatile. He wrote in many literary forms. Hermon Onld has given a list of fifteen literary forms in which John Galsworthy worked. He wrote novels, plays, poems, stories and essays and in each of these he left his mark. He was a great social reformer. Although he was born in a rich family, he championed the cause of the poor and the oppressed. In his early life he gave no sign of becoming a great writer or any kind of writer at all. Yet he became one of the most outstanding novelists and dramatists of his time. He received the highest national an international awards.

John Galsworthy was born on August 14, 1867 at Kingston Hill in Surrey. Now it is a suburb of London. His ancestors were small farmer in Devonshire. His father, whose name was also John Galsworthy, was a wealthy London lawyer and property owner. To some extent he described his own family as the Forsyte family in his novels. His father, whom he held in great affection, was the original of old Jolyon in The Forsyte Saga. His mother came of an old Worcestershire family named Bartleet. Galsworthy was brought up with all the comforts of an upper middle class family.

John Galsworthy was educated at Harrow, one of the most famous and exclusive of English public schools, where he was the captain of the football team. At Harrow he had a creditable, but not remarkable career. He was the best dressed boy in the school. He was an athlete of some distinction and a good scholar, but there was head of his house, but there was nothing unusual about his literary tastes. No one at school detected in him signs of future greatness. In 1886 he passed on to New College, Oxford where he studied law and obtained a degree in law in 1889. At the University also he showed no marked literary taste. He was only fond of shooting and racing. None of his contemporaries was aware of the presence even in a rudimentary form of the qualities which afterwards displayed themselves in him. None of them foresaw what he would become and do.

John Galsworthy was "called to the Bar" in 1890, that is, he qualified as a barrister. He became a barrister at his father's suggestion, but he did not like his profession. He had no need to eam his living and he never practiced law. His father sent him to Canada to investigate the affairs of a mine. He travelled adventurously for two years in Canada, Australia, New Zeeland and the South Seas. During these voyages he read Dickens, Turgenev, Maupassant and Tolstoy. On his way home from Australia he met Joseph Conrad, the Polish seaman who became a great English novelist. The two remained friends till Conrad's death in 1924.

John Galsworthy expressed, for the first time, his desire to become a writer in 1894. He wrote in a letter, "I do wish I had the gift of writing; I really think that it is the nicest way of making money going.... ". But it was Ada Galsworthy who made him into a writer. Without Ada Galsworthy he might never have become a writer. Ada was the exceptionally beautiful and talented wife of Galsworthy's cousin Arthur Galsworthy. John Galsworthy met her a week after her marriage and at once he fell deeply in love with her. Ada was very unhappy in her marriage. Gradually they grew closer and often travelled abroad together. On the platform of the Gare du Nord in Paris, when he was seeing her and her mother off, she spoke the fateful words, "Why don't you write? You're just the person". It was Easter Week, 1895, and John Galsworthy the writer was born. For ten years they maintained a secret love affair. In those days a divorce was a major social scandal. Galsworthy's father would have felt it as a deep disgrace. Both the lovers did not want to hurt the feelings of old John Galsworthy. So they waited until after his death. Galsworthy's father died in December, 1904. On January 10,1905, they left for Italy where they travelled about. They returned to London in September. They on September, 23, and settled happily down. The long ordeal was over.

As Ada had been divorced she was avoided by people. John Galsworthy himself felt that his close friends had the right to condemn and disown him for what he was doing. These years left a permanent mark on him. That iS why he finally rebelled against the class to which he belonged and insisted on the theme of loveless marriage. Ada John Galsworthy was fully convinced o his ability. She was his inspiration. She helped and encouraged him for the rest of his life. Neither of them was happy in the absence of the other. She was to him the breath of life. When she was not at his side. Something seemed to darken in his soul, She was his best and wisest critic. They discussed every detail of his work, and she typed nearly all of it herself. When he was writing with difficulty nothing helped him so much as her playing to him. She was a fine pianist and they both loved music. He often read his day's production to Ada. He always valued her criticism. In the dedication to "The Forsyte Saga" he describes her as "One without whose encouragement, sympathy and criticism I could never have become even such a writer as I am".

As John Galsworthy developed into an eminent and widely respected literary figures of England, his fame and popularity grew. He and his wife were well received everywhere. He received honorary, degrees from various universities. In 1918 has refused a knighthood as he thought that such kind of honour was inappropriate to his profession. The order of merit, the highest British honour, was conferred upon him in 1929. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932. He gave the prize money to the P.E.N., (Poets. Playwrights, editors and essayists, novelists) the international club of writers of which he was the first President. Galsworthy died at Grove lodge, Hampstead, in north London, on January 31, 1933.

Thomas Hardy Books - Far From the Madding Crowd - The Wessex Nove (1840-1928)

2019-09-26T10:41:00.001+05:30

Thomas Hardy Books - Far From the Madding Crowd - The Wessex Nove (1840-1928) Thomas Hardy As A Novelist

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

The Wessex Novel

Since the end of the eighteenth century there has been a heightened sense of locality in English literature. The fact that Milton was a Londoner does not have much effect on our appreciation of Paradise Lost, but the fact that Wordsworth was a salesman of the lake country is very important for the understanding of The Prelude. Sir Walter Scott was the first great novelist to make use of this modern feeling for the character of places. His Waverley novels are not only a series of great and moving stories, but also a complete portraiture of the Scotland that he knew and loved so well. The achievement of Scott in thiss respect has only once been rivalled in Britain since his time. A service similar to that which he performed for the Scottish Lowlands was rendered by Thomas Hardy to certain parts of rural England more than half a century later.

Thomas Hardy's cighteen books of prose fiction deal in the majn with one part of England. For this district he revived the ancient name of Wessex which had long been forgotten by all except historians and antiquaries. The Wessex of Thomas Hardy has no very clearly defined limits. Bounded on the South by the English Channel, it stretches as far West as Cornwell, as far Hardy's art is his native country of Dorset. Dorset is one of the most historic of english countries and in the nineteenth century it was one of the most conservative and backward. When Hardy was a boy it was still hardly touched by the great industrial revolution. It was a country of sleepy old towns and secluded villages, where old customs still survived, and where the social fabric had undergone little change for centuries. Something of "the old age of the world" lingered up to the middle of the reign of Victoria in this sheltered corner of South-Western England.

Thomas Hardy had an intimate knowledge of Wessex. He had studied it with the enthusiasm of a poet and with the scientific precision of a social historian. He knows the Wessex landscape not as a tourist knows it, but as a farmer might know it if he had the sensitiveness of an artist. He shows a knowledge of local history and antiquities that few people could have boasted. He knows every details of the business of the farmer, the shephered, the woodman, and the dairyman, and all the rustic occupations of the Wessex countryside But the true basis on which his art is built is his deep and sympathetic understanding of the life and character of the Wessex people, the farm hands and servants, dairymaids, shepherds and labourers, as well as the farmers, the gentry and the country tradesmen, parsons and doctors.

English country folk have appeared Ages onwards, but generally they have been in the background as they are in Shakespeare s plays. They have been used to provide comic relief to serious plot. Thomas Hardy is The First great English author to choose English Peasant types For His Heroes and Heroines.
He neither caricatures them nor idealises them He has shown that English village life can provide a gallery of characters that Is truly Shakespearean in its richness and variety. To give only a few examples, it is a gallery that includes the noble and steadfast Gabriel Oak, the unspeakably patient and long-suffering Marthysouth. Michael Iftenchard with his elemental strength and energy. Tess Durbifield with her exquisite spiritual beauty, and Jude Fawley with his tragic and terrible longing. Hardy carried out in prose fiction the programme that Wordsworth proposed for poety: "to choose incidents and situations from common life and to relate or describe them throughout, as far as possible in a selection of the language really used by men, and at the same time to throw over then, a certain colouring of imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect."

Another great characteristic of the Wessex novels is their tragic quality Hardy was the first great English novelist who wrote tragic novels comparable to the poetic dramas of the Greeks and the Elizabethans in their profound feeling, their intellectual power, the intensity of their passion, and the austere beauty of their expression. It is true that all Hardy's works are not tragie. But his masterpieces, the series of six great novels which began with Far from the Madding Crowed and ended with Jude the Obscure, are the supreme examples of the tragic novel in English literature. Apart from the tragedies of individual Ivies there are certain fundamental tragic ideas underlying all these works. One is that of a conflict between the old-fashioned simple Wessex folk and the new spirit of the modern world with its complexity of mind, its interest and its scepticism.

The theme of all Hardy's great novels is in some degree the tratic result of the impact of this "new and strange spirit" on the lives of Wessex men and women. Sometimes this conflict is seen in the outward and economics changes as in the pitiful ejection of Tess and her family from their cottage after the death of her father or the intrusion of Farfrae's modern business method- into the sleepy world of Casterbridge commerce. But much more subtle and far- reaching effects are shown to be due to the relations between the old fashioned, simple-minded. Wessex-folk and the more complex characters of modern civilization. This was the theme that seems to have haunted Hardy's imagination again and again he shows us the tragic consequences that ensure from the contract of a Sergeant Troy or a Lucetta Templemen with unsophisticated straightforward country folk like Gabriel Oak and Micheal Henchard. Such relationships reveal a kind of tragic conflict between the spirits of two ages, and it is all the more tragic because the chief actors are often unconscious of it.

Such are Hardy's Wessex novels. He has used his beloved Wessex in his novels and immortalised it. He has succeeded in raising it to the level of the universal and the ideal.

Thomas Hardy As A Novelist
Thomas Hardy Story
Thomas Hardy Poem
Thomas Hardy Book

Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy Life And Works

2019-09-25T11:00:00.001+05:30

Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy Life And Works

Thomas Hardy's Life And Work (1840-1928)

United kingdom

On June 2, 1840, Thomas Hardy was born in the lonely and silent hamlet of Higher Bockhampton, Dorsetshire, situated a few miles away from the town of Dorchester. This town was situated within walking distance of a small working community consisting largely of agricultural people. The surroundings of the village of Hardy be a misrepresentation of the environment of Hardy's childhood if one recreates it in idyllic terms. The working people lived in the most abject conditions of which Hardy must have had the first-hand knowledge and which went a long way in determining the sort of thinking that is revealed in his important novels.

On the paternal side, the family of Hardy descended from the Jersey le Hardys, who had arrived at Dorset centuries ago. Hardy once entertaited an idea of calling himself Thomas Hardy', but never did so. Though his father came from long established Dorset families, he was not privileged to enjoy the ancient status. Neverthless, he rose to become a builder employing a number of labourers, which placed him in the better ranks of society. Hardy's father was also a gifted amateur musician, centring his musical taste on the church services. descended from the Chiles, Childs, or Childses, the Swetmans and other families of north-west Dorset. His maternal ancestors were small landed proprietors in Melbur Osmond, Dorset and adjoining parishes. mother was an omnivorous reader and had a great liking for singing songs.

Thomas Hardy was a fragile child. He was so puny at the time of birth that he was declared dead by the attending doctor. Had it not been for the common sense of the nurse, who slapped the child Hardy till he was restored to life, he might never have come to life to create immortal works. Such a fragile and reserved sort of a boy lived his childhood amidst the rural sights and sounds and beliefs and superstitions of country folk. He got accustomed to local speech. His father used to speak local dialect to his labourerss and standard English in the home. An interesting incident of this time is worth mentioning here. At the age of about ten Hardy experienced his first love- affair, though strictly in a Shelleyan sense. It was with a lady, Mrs. Julia Augusta Martin, more than four times his age.

At the age of eight, Thomas Hardy was sent to the village school to learn the rudiments before being sent to more advanced schools. Interestingly enough. he was the first pupil to enter the new school building. At this stage, besides learning Arithmetic and Geography, he was made to read by his mother suck works as Dryden's Virgil, Johnson's Rasselas, and Paul and Virginia and popular illustrated history of the Napoleonic wars which later on became responsible for the creation of The Trumpet Major and The Dynasts. Atthe age of about twelve, he also read Shakespeare, Scott and Bunyan as well i such popular novelists as Dumas and G.P.R. James.

At fifteen, Thomas Hardy was sent to learn French from a French governess at the school attended by his sister. But when he was lady who was the jo asoue uonsanb oyn 'uxts profession. As a builder, his father was associated with Mr. John Hicks, an architect and church restores. After thinking of possibilities of Hardy's adopting various professions. his father decided to put Hardy under the subordination of Hicks. Thus Hardy was apprenticed to John Hicks who had his office in Dorchester, and thus architecture was to be Hardy's main concern for the next sixteen years. A the time when he was acquiring his training in Hicks office, Hardy continued pursuing his self studies in literature and classics. Earlier he had learnt a little bit of French and German, now he began studying Greek, the classical authors and the New Testament, reading laboriously for two or three hours before breakfast and the daily walk into Dorchester. During the period of his training in Dorchester, Hardy became intimately acquainted with the country life of Dorchester, which he was to immortalize in The Return of the Native, Far From the Madding Crowd and other novels. Besides this, his architectural shaping his literary skill, exerting a creative and training went a long way in disciplinary influence on all he wrote. He succeeded in acquiring quite a wide store of knowledge through his own efforts.

His self study enabled him to have a sound acquaintance with classical and modern languages and literatures, history, theology, philosophy, science and art history is subsequent writings bear a witness to his immense knowledge of all these.

After completing his training with Hicks. Thomas Hardy moved to London in I862 to join the staff of a well-known architect, Arthur Bloomfield, who was himself deeply immersed in literary and musical tastes. Here too Hardy did not give up the use of his pen. After trying to become an art critic, he took up his pen to the writing of poetry. But on account of his ill health, he was forced to return to Dorchester in 1867.

By now he had begun to consider poetry as a waste of labour. Therefore, he decided to switch over to prosc which he considered a more promising field. Consequently, he wrote his first novel. The Poor Man and the Lady. It is said that his decision to turn to the novel sprang from necessity rather than choice. Perhaps the successful careers of Dickens. George Eliot, Trollepe and others suggested to Thomas Hardy that fame and fortune could be earned only by being a novelist. His fist novel was. however, never published.

When Meredith read its manuscripl he suggested to Thomas Hardy either to rewrite the novel or to write another onc Hardy opled for the second and the result was Desperate Remedies, his tirs surviving novel published by Tinsly Brothers at Hardy's own expense.

For the next few years Thomas Hardy pursued his architectural career. But his leisure time was still devoted to his practice of fiction writing. Desperate Remedied was received with mixed reactions. It was received as powerful novel in such critical papers as Althenoenn and the Morning Post. But Hardy's concentration was centred on an idyllic account of the surroundings of his own liking. Shortly after the aforesaid reviews were written, Under the Greenwood Tree, a village love-story exhibiting Hardy's deep knowledge of rustic life and speech.

The publication of Far From the Madding Crowd which followed the popularity of Under the Greenwood Tree established Hardy as a novelist growing reputation. The novel was writtern with the encouragements of Leslie Stephen, editor of the popular magazine, Comhill in which Far Fron the Madding Crowd was published in instalments. In the meantime, in September 1874, Hardy married Emma Lavinnia Gifford. a lady whom he had met in Cornwall while engaged on church-restoration business in 1870. Their marriage was to prove a source of joy as also of pain and bitterness ending in her death-all spread over the span of forty years.

The Hand of Erhelberta appeared after Far From the Madding Crowd. It was less successful than its brilliant predecessor. However, Thomas Hardy made it up in his. The return of the native in which once again he returned to his coveted rural scene. It was followed by three minor novels : The trumpet Major, a short historical novel showing Hardy's deep interest in the Napoleonic period A Laodicean a novel dealing with the hazards yo which authors and publishers of serialized fiction exposed themselves; and Two on a Tower a novel appearing in an American magazine the Atlantic Monthly.

But Thomas Hardy earned a more popular image in his later years. During the time that all the aforesaid novels were written Hardy and his wife lived in returned houses in London and Dorset. At last he decided to build a house of his own liking and design, for which he selected a spot on the outskirts of Dorchester. This decision was important, as his coming to settle at Max Gate saw the production of his four great novels. The Mayor of Casterbridge is set in Dorchester, for which Casterbridge is the fictional name. The Woodlanders appeared in the monthly Macmillan's Magazine; ten thousand copies of its first number were sold immediately. But a greater sensatino was created by the publication of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. It was more widely discussed than any other novel of Hardy. By this time Hardy was generally recognised, at home and abroad, as one of England's leading novelists. Jude the Obscure was his last novel, which like Tess was subjected to mixed reactions.

After Tess and Jude, Thomas Hardy thought of giving up writing fiction. Perhaps after earning a lot of fame and money, he wanted to write for his own persona! pleasure instead of doing a job for his publishers, reviewers and editors Naturally he switched over to poetry. His first volume of poctry was Wessc Poems, published in 1898. Besides this, his other poetical works were Poes of the Past and the Present (1902), Time's Laughing Stocks (1909), Moments of Vision (1917), Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922), Human Shows, Far Phantasies (1925), and Winter Words (1928) In 1910, Hardy honorary fellowship of Oxford and Cambridge College. But the death of his wife in 1912 was a setback in his life. Though his family life was one of bitterness, he felt the loss of his wife poignantly. The sense of loneliness compelled him to marry again in 1914, Miss. Florence Emily Dugdale, his former secretary. Untiringly, Thomas Hardy continued writing and produced some of his finest works in his old age. But by this time he was run down by weakening health. On 11th January 1928, he breathed his last and was cremated at Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Hardy Life And Works
Thomas Hardy Book Far From The Madding crowd
Thomas hardy As a Novelist

Arthur Miller's Chronology - Death Of A Salesman

2019-09-21T14:38:00.000+05:30

Arthur Miller's Chronology - Death Of A Salesman

Arthur Miller (1915-2005)

Chronology

1915 :- Born in Manhattan, New York city, October 17, second son of Isadore and Augusta Miller.

1929 :- Isadore Miller's clothing business being adversely affected by the Depression, the family moves to Brooklyn.

1932 :- Graduates from High School and works in automobile parts warehouse for $ 15 a week (cf. Bert in A Memory of Two Mondays).

1934 :- Enters University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

1936 :- Honors at Dawn produced at Ann Arbor and wins the Avery Hopwood Drama Award ($ 250).

1937 :- They Too Arise (originally entitled No Villain) produced at Ann Arbor and also wins Avery Hopwood Award and the Theatre Guild Bureau of New Plays Prize.

1938 :- Receives degree of B. A. University of Michigan Begins work with Federal Theatre Project.

1940 :- Marries Mary Slattery.

1944 :- Visits army camps for material for film script The Story of G I. Joe. Situation Normal (prose account of this tour) published. The Man Who Had All the Luck produced in New York and wins Theatre Guild National Prize.

1945 :- Focus (a novel) published.

1947 :- All My Sons produced in New York and wins the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.

1949 :- Death of a Salesman produced in New York : wins the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize.

1950 :- An Enemy of the People (an adaptation of Ibsen's play) produced in New York. The Crucible produced in New York and wins the Antoinette Perry and the Donaldson Prizes.

1954 :- Is refused passport by the State Department to attend Brussels opening of The Crucible in March.

A modest Proposal for the pacification of The public temper

(satirical political essay) published in 7he Narton July 3,

1955 :- The American Theatre' and 'A Boy grew in Brooklyn' Pubiahed a A Modest Proposal for the Pacification of the Public Tmp Mondays and A View from the Bridge produced in New York as double bill.

Commissioned by New York City Youth Board to write a film-script on street gangs, but the Board delays ratification and, in December cancels the project because of rumours of an impending political investigation of Miller

1956 :- Two-act version of A View from the Bridge produced in London,

'The Family in Moden Drama' published in Atlantic, in April.

Divorve ends marriage to Mary Slattery in June.

Receives honorary Divorce ends Marriage to i doctorate at University of Michigan, June 16 .

Appears before House Un- American Activities Committee, June 21.

Marries Marilyn Monroe June 29.

Passport renewed for six months (instead of normal two years) in July.

1957 :- Convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to name suspected Communists May 31. No penalty imposed

"The Misfits" (short story) published in Esquire, October. Collected Plays published.

1958 :- 'Death of a Salesman' a Symposium published in the Tulane Drama Review May.

The Shadows of the Gods: a critical view of the American Theatre published in Harper's Magazine, August.

Conviction for contempt of Congress unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court in August. Elected to the National Arts and Letters Institute. 1958 a Symposium' published in the Tulane Drama

1959 :- Receives honorary degree from the Hebrew university of Jerusalem Awarded the Gold Medal for Drama by the National Arts and Letters Institute.

1960 :- Filming of The Misfits takes place in Nevada from August to November.

Separates from Marilyn Monroe in November

1961 :-. Divorced by Marilyn Monroe January 20.

Film of The Misfits released.

The Misfits published a as a novel.

1961 :- Marries Austrian- born photographer Ingeborg Morath. Death of Marilyn Monroe.

1964 :- After the Fall produced in New York. Incident at Vichy produced in New York.

1965 :- Elected International President of P. E.N., serving until 1969.

1967 :- Don't Need You Any More (short stories) published.

1968 :- The Price Produced in New York.

1969 :- Directs London production of The Price.

Receives Brandeis University Creatiye Arts award.

In Russia Published with Inge Morath.

1970 :- Fame produced in New York.

1972 :- The Creation of the World, and Other Business produced in New York.

1974 :- Up from Paradise produced at Ann Arbor. Michigan Miller directs and plays the Narrator.

1977 :- The Archbishop's Ceiling produced in Washington, D. C. In the Country published with Inge Morath.

The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller published

1978 :-. Visits China with Inge Morath

Fame presented on television.

1980 :- The American Clock published 0861

1986 :- Danger : Memory !, consisting of two one-act plays published.

2005 :- Dies of heart failure at his Roxbury Connecticut home where he had lived the life ofa county squire since 1978.

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Arthur Miller's | Death Of A Salesman | Life And Work Of Arthur Miller

2019-09-20T15:39:00.000+05:30

Arthur Miller's | Death Of A Salesman | Life And Work Of Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller ( 1915-2005 )

Life And Work Of Arthur Miller

Life Sketch:- Arthur Miller was born in New York on 17th October, 1915 and died in 2005. Miller's early school life left no significant impression on his mind. Years later when his teachers tried to recall him, none could do so Miller had almost been inconspicuous in his school and it is not surprisihg. He and his classmates were more interested in playing football than in poring over text books.

Miller's father was gifted with an enlivening sense of humour, like Joe Keller of 'All My Sons'. He had a shop and was a manufacturer of ladies' coats. In addition to Arthur, in his family he had an elder brother, Kermit and a sister Joan, who was six years younger and became an actress later.

Miller was essentially influenced by years of the Depression in America. It was the depression that gave him a passionate understanding of man's insecurity in modern industrial civilization. his deep rooted belief in social responsibility and his moral earnestness.

Before rising meteorically to the fame of a dramatist, which we are familiar with, Miller had led unknown life as a truck-driver, waiter, crewman one factor-he grew up during the on a tanker and so on. His plays show a sympathetic understanding of ordinary employments like the ones names above. Before writing these well-known plays, Miller had written eight one of which had been produced in the professional theatre.

In March 1954, the state department refused him a passport to attend the opening of 'The Crucible' in Brussels, on the ground that he was supporting the Communist movement -a denied. or nine desk-drawer plays, only charge which Miller categorically denied.

In 1940, Miller married a girl name Mary Slattery. She bore him a son and a daughter, But the unien ended in a divorce in June, 1956. On 29th June, 1956, Miller married the glamorous Hollywood actress, Marilyn Monroe. The Marriage of beauty and intellect created sensation. This marriage, however, lasted only four years. Miller now went abroad and met Miss Ingeborg Morath, an Austrian photographer whom he married in 1962.

Miller is not a prolific writer. He writes only when he feels he need for it. What he writes, is great. It is not lack of invention or dearth of ideas that limits him, but an excess of self-criticism coupled with a restless intellect Miller's works when seen in an order, exhibit a development in the direction of simplicity in construction and immediacy in language.
Principal Dramatic Works of Arthur Miller:

The major dramatic works of Arthur Miller are:

'The man who had all the Luck' (1944)

The theme ofthis drama is clearly rooted in the nineteen thirties. It belongs to an age of privation and disquiet, of economic insecurity, when wealth seems the product of luck rather than merit, and when guilt is the response proper to the decent minded possessor of money.

All My Sons (1947):- It's a drama about guilt and responsibility. The Security of Chris Keller's middle class existence is turned into a nightmare when he discovers that his much loved father Joe was responsible, through his part in supplying defective equipment to the Army Air Force, for the deaths of twenty- one pilots, an offence for which he deliberately allowed his business partner to become the scapegoat. Confronted with Chris revulsion and the revelation that his second son, Larry, a pilot long listed as missing in action, killed himselfto expiate his father's crime, Joe Keller commits suicide.

Death of a Salesman (1949): It is Miller's best known play. It is the story of Willy Loman, a little man with many dreams and delusions. He has completely accepted the American myth that promises a man and wealth if he has acquired a good personality and pleasant social manners. In the end, Willy has lost everything, including his own self- respect, and has nothing more to lose except his life. Willy Loman the pathetic. perennial failure, entangled in his own dreams of glory, his continuous self delusion, and his fanatical faith in his older son - is a typical Miller 'anti- hero'. He is perhaps Miller's greatest character creation.

The Crucible (1953):- It is a dramatic retelling of the historic Salem with trials of 1692-93 in New England during which hundreds of people popularity P were arrested and twenty persons were put to death. The ordeal begis when a group of hysterical young girls accuse first a Negro slave and then a number of prominent citizens, men and women, of witchcraft. During the general hysteria that follows, the judges a of the time and justice fails. The hero, John Proctor is accused by one of the young girls whose advances he had formerly rejected. Although he is given a chance to save himself by acknowledging his guilt, he chooses instead N caught up in the blind fanaticism are stand firmly by his principle and die.

A View from th Bridge (1955):- It's drama concerning the tragic consequences of Eddie Corbone's incestuous love for his eighteen years old niece Catherine, whom he adopted after her mother's death. Previously, 'A view from the Bridge' was a one act play and published and produced in New York in 1955. Later Miller revised and expanded the drama into two Acts, and its subsequent London production achieved considerable success.

A Memory of Two Mondays (1955):- One act play that examines a group of factory workers trapped without hope of relief in their mechanical jobs and dreary lives. It was published and produced in New York in 1955. The production of the play was not entirely happy and it closed after a moderate run of149 performances.

After the fall & Incident at Vichy (1964):- The first of these two plays is an excessively long self-analysis by a character whose biography closely resembles Miller's own. The second is a kind of round table discussion over a grave, an incident (as the title says) in which one man finds the power to act. Although these two plays are very different in superficial ways, they are alike in' theme and tone. In these two plays, the heroes are not in struggle; they are in analysis. The analysis is successful when they accept that they fit the love-hate stereotype of the psychological man.

The Price (1968):- Play in which two brothers meet many years afte their father's death to dispose of the family furniture. In it the dramatis explores his concern with, life's balance of payments. The play, while longe than 'Incident at Vichy' is written with the some tight simple form, and in Miller returns to the family as the locus of action. The plays considered above show Miller's concern for man and socie and are replete with power and proportion, substance and form. Th immediately place him as one of the great American dramatists of the twentie century.

Introduction To George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950 ) - Shaw's Contribution To English Drama

2019-09-19T11:36:00.000+05:30

Introduction To George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) - Shaw's Contribution To English Drama

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Condition Of The English Stage - At The time when Shaw Came to the English stage English drama was slowly struggling to rise from the torpor into which it had fallen during the victorian age.

Poetical drama had proved to be a failure and the dramatists were looking for something real and alive Pinheiro Arthur Jones and other were trying to bring realism back to English stage.

Ibsen had made a sensation with his new outlook and dramatic technique. The problem play was slowly emerging But much had yet to be done. The stage was still shackled with old tradition and prudery.

Shaw, Father of the drama of Ideas - It Was during this transitional period of the Endlish Drama that Shaw burst upon the scene almost with a clap of thunder. The theatre was experiencing un dual throes of a rebirth and Shaw hastened this process with a caesarian operation.

The very first play of Shaw showed that the drama of ideas had come into life and it's future existence was assured. Not that the new dramatist had an instantaneous reception and recognition.

Far from it the early plays of Shaw created a flutter in the literary dovecotes of the day, and in the words of the dramatist himself they are him "infamous." Shaw's ruthless iconoclasm biting satire and intellectual sharpness combined with his dazzling wit and love of the paradox and the fantastic at once showed that a new and highly original genius though perhaps a little perverted jad come into the field.

But it did not take long for the people to now that Shaw not merely a curious literary, phenomenon, a nine days wonder. They realised that the Father of the drama of Ideas has come into being. Realism and rationalism had come to have their abiding hold on the English stage. Shaw thus widened the scope of the English drama.

His Belief Didactic Art - Shaw is a believer in didactic art. He does not mince matters in this respect. In his preface to Pygmalian he writes "Art should never be anything else but dedicated." At another place he observes that for art's sake alone he would not face the toil of writing a single sentence". Thus Shaw frequently sacrifices art for the sake of his reformist's zeal. His plays, therefore, should not be judged on the score of pure art. And it is also true that the moralist and the satirist in him often overpower and eclipse the artist.

His characters - He is unable to give real life to his characters. They are usually the mouthpiece of his views and, therefore, they fail to appeal, as creature of flesh and blood. The readers cannot sympathise with them or identify with them. For instance, in The men of Destiny, Shaw has painted a rather distorted picture of the Great Nepoleon who with all his faults was not such a despicable creature as we find him in this play. The oniy answer is that it is Shaw's version ofthe French Emperor.

The failure to creat convincing characters who are able to stand on their feet is a great failing indeed. But Shaw has certain gift, which compensate for this shortcoming. Even on the score of creating real characters.

Shaw is not a canplete failure. He has given some real characters like Saint John. Shakespeare in The dark Lady of the Sonnets, Candida and Bluntschli in Arms and The Man. But they are exceptions rather than the rule. His dramatist personae are interesting in another manner. In fact Shaw's women are more alive than his Man men who generally lack power and self-will. Perhaps this explains incidentally the reason for the remarkable success he achieved in drawing the character of John.

His Dialogue - Shaw's real success as a dramatist is to be found not so much in his idea or characterization as in his superb mastery of dialogue Shaw's plays may not present a good story, his characters may be shadowy; disembodied beings his, ideas too shocking and hence unaccountable, his attitude to paradoxical; and his satire too cold and steely but his dailogue is bewitching, incisive and irresistible.

On this hinges the real success of Shaw. Getting Married is a play which is nothing but conversation and the discussion Scene in Saint Joan is supreme example of Shaw's power as a conversationalist Moreover, when occasion demands he can write fine rhetorical prose with telling effect.

His Humour - If the touchstone of comedy is its capacity to provoke laughter, Shaw is a prince among writers of this types of plays. His plays provide an inexhaustible source of laughter. One may feel that the dramatist is behaving like a clown at places of delíberately saying absurd things, one will admire the ingenuity of the observation and enjoy a hearty laugh.

This aspect of Show is both an aset and a liability, for if on the one hand, it makes the reader laugh, on the other hand, it exposes the dramatist to the charge of sheer fAippancy. At any rate, it makes his plays amusing in the highest degree. Shaw may have any other weakness as a dramatist but he is never dull. His plays are as readable at home as they are enjoyable on the stage.

His stage Directions - Shaw has introduced new dramatic devices in the form of long and elaborated stage directions. The stage directions are not mere appendage in the play; they are its vital elements. It is here that the dramatist gives his correct and detailed impression about the setting and characters of the plays Shorn of the stage directions the play would be mutilated piece of creation.

On account of the stage directions the reader enjoys the play in the closet also. In this respect Shaw is quite opposite to Shakespeare in whose plays so much is left to the imagination of the audience and the direction of the stage manager. Shaw leaves nothing to be desired in this respect.

His Perfacees - Shaw is often ridiculed as a person who writes long perfaces for short plays. When the preface is long or short, it is in the opinion of the dramatist an integral part of the play. Actually, the need for the preface is justified only on the score of the dramatist's earnestness to present his point of view as correctly as possible before the reader. The prefaces are really independent pieces of composition, excellent essays on the various topics of the day.

That is why Shaw's perfaces have been separately published. They form a picces findependent literature, fit for the closet. Apart from expounding the underlying object of the plays they throw valuable light artistic growth of the dramatist himself. Thus Shaw has succeeded in making drama a real literature and not a mere threehour traffic of the stage.

Shaw's Contribution - Finally, what did Shaw achieve? In the words of a modern critic Shaw's contribution is summed up thus; "He (Shaw) laughed out of theatre its romantic falsities and its prudery. He immeasurably enlarged the dramatist's horizon. He threw open the doors to the new theatre of ideas; he made the author bigger than the actor, and lastly he creased a new public, the intellectual middle class."

Introduction to George Bernard Shaw's ( 1856-1950) His Life And Plays

2019-09-18T11:26:00.000+05:30

Introduction To George Bernard Shaw's (1856-1950) His Life And Plays

1. His life And Plays

His Life - George Bernard Shaw Was Born In Dilon Of Irish protesant Stock, and Thee Received a Somewhat shanty education At a number Of Local schools, including the wesleyan Convexional School. most Of His Cultural Back ground he owed to his mother, a talented artist with whom, in 1876, he came to London.

Here he become an active member of the Fabian society soon after it was founded in 1884, and not only wrote pamphlet on politics and economics but did much platform speaking as his part in the campaign to disseminate the ideals of Fabian socialism from 1885 to 1908 he won fame as a journalist with the Pall Mall Gazette (1885); The world as An Art critic; The star (1988); a music ciritic; The world again (1890,94) this time as a music critic ; and most important of all, as dramatic critic for the Saturday Review (1895,98). By the end of the First World War Shaw Had become a cult. In 1952 he was awarded the nobel Prize for literature, and four years later Sir Barry Jackson founded the shaw festival at Malvern, for which shaw writes new plays until 1949, when his last full-length play, Buoyant Billions, was performed there At the time of his death in 1950, such was the strength of the Shaw legend there were few who did not know him as a personality though many many not have known his work.

His plays - Shaw's plays are there considered in the order of their composition. His first works were received with hostility and the need to create his own audience led him to publish some of them before they were produced.

Plays - Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898) contained seven works, there "unpleasant" , four "pleasant "unpleasant" were widowers Houses (1898) Mrs. Warren's Profession (1894) : banded by the censor privatcly produced 1902 : publicy produced (1925) and The Philanderer (1893-1905). The first two are unflinching and deep examination of slum landlordism and organized prostitution respectively.

They are well constructed and contain flashes of Shavian wit, but their serious realism proved unpalatable for the times and merely brought their author notoreity. Shaw adopted a humorous, witty approach in the first of the "pleasant" plays - Arms And The Man (1898) an excellent and amusing stage piece which pokes fun at the romantic conception of the soldier, and which has since Candida (1895), which presents a person,his wife and poet involved in the eternal triangle, has more human warmth than many of his works, and the main interest is focused on the characters rather than on any thesis.

The Devil's Disciple (1897) Caesar and Cleopatra (1898-1899) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899-1900) were collected in the three plays for puritans (1901) The first satirizes the melodrama by using all its ingredients with a typically Shaving difference. It is full of fun excellently constructed and Has been very popular. Caesar And Cleopatra Though on a more lavish scale, dose for its two main characters what the man of Destiny did for Napopeon, studies great historical personages as ordinary human beings.

Man and Superman (1903 : 1905) one of Shaw's most important plays, deals half seriously, half comically, with woman's pursuit of her mate. The play is Shaw's first statement of his idea of the life force working through human beings towards perfection, and this, he feels here can be reached only be the selective breeding which will eventually produce the Superman. The play is unconventional in its constructions, especially in the third act, en titled "Don Juan in Hell" but its is A fine drama and contamos three notable characters in Ann White field John Banner And Energy Sarakar."

John Bull's other Island (1904) is a good humoured satire on English and Krishna prejudices as seen chiefly in the characters of Tom Broadbent and Larry Doyle, about whom the plays revolves.

Religion and social problems are again the main topics in Major Barbara (1905), which dwara with the paradoxical situation where the attempts of the Salvation.

The shewing up of Blanco Posnet (1909) is a melodramatic piece about religious conversion against a background of horse stealing and lunch law in the west. Banned as blasphemous by the censor it was first produced at the Abbey Theatre Dublin.

In Fanny's First play (1911) and Androcles and the lion (1912) Shaw his first long run in London the religious theme is combined with an attack on the critics and a examination of the nature of Roman Christian religious experience conducted the genuine honesty and considerable in sight, in a mein party serious, partly comic. Indeed the comedy is so amusing that the underlying seriousness is all too easily missed.

Social conventions and social weakness were treated again in Pygmalion (1912-1913) a witty and highly enertaining study of class distinction, and in Heartbreack house (1913-1921) which though set in the war peroid really treats of upper class disillustionment during the pre-war years.

Back to Methuseleh (1921) and St. Joan (1923-1924) are fir thee studies or religion. The first is a cycle of five playa concerned with the conception of the revolutionary force which will being man no perfection. Selective breeding now gives way to the idea of an indefinitely long life which will allow man to outgrow his limiting passion and achieve a state of pure contemplation and evenatual happiness. In it the independence of tute protestant is seen in opposition on the forces of organized society. Joan herself is a finely drawn character and inspite of its length and the great quantity of discussion contains the play is most effective on the stage.

Note of the playa written after St.joan is comparable in quality with his best work. Here it must suffice to mention them. They were the apple cart (1929); Too true to be Good (1932); on the Rocks (1933) the dictionary of calais (1934) ; the simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934). The millionairess (1936) Geneva (1938); In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1929) Buoyant Billions (1949).