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Character Analysis of Macduff in Macbeth by William Shakespeare

2021-04-16T11:54:00.003+05:30

Character of Macduff in Macbeth

Macduff, after his brief indulgence of the porter in the porter scene (Act 2, Scene 3 ), becomes a most positive character. In Holinshed's chronicle, Macduff offends Macbeth when he sends his men to work for the building of the castle in Dunsinane but he himself does not go. Macduff fears his life because by that time Macbeth has become a tyrant and has killed Banquo. Macduff flees to England and excites Malcolm to rouse the Scottish nobles. Macduff reveals later to Macbeth that he is “even that thy Wizards have told thee of who was never born of my mother, but ripped out of the womb." Macduff slays Macbeth.

Thus Shakespeare takes the bare materials from his source for conceiving Macduff as an agent of Nemesis and endows him with many individual traits which mark him off from other lords.

Macduff comes into limelight when he announces the discovery of Duncan's murder in extreme extravagant language which emphasizes the horror and the sin of the murder.

He describes the king as 'Lord's anointed' thus emphasizing the Divine Right of Kings (an idea embraced by James I). So over-wrought is Macduff that he tries to find the right image to describe revulsion, referring to the Gorgon (which turned men to stone if they directly looked at it) and then to Doomsday. It is his emotional nature that distinguishes him from other characters. He calls all from sleep, he is considerate to Lady Macbeth, but reveals the news to Banquo in the same breath, a mark of his righteous emotion and disgust. His suspicion of Macbeth is immediate, shown by his question "wherefore did you so?"

When Macbeth reveals that he has killed the chamberlains. Thereafter Macduff suggests through innuendo ('those that Macbeth has slain') and (that Malcolm and Donalbain being suspected of the 'deed because they have fled) that he suspects Macbeth of the murder of Duncan. This suspicion matures into conviction, and he thinks that Macbeth has wrongly won the throne. So he does not attend the coronation at Scone while Rosse like a time-server decides to join the coronation. Macduff’s remarks are highly ironical "Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!” Matters are made worse when he obviously refuses to attend Macbeth's banquet. Macduff rejects the 'unholy king' and seeks assistance from the "holy king” (of England).

Macduff is a true patriot. He puts the country before the family. He is so much concerned for his country and anxious to rid the country of the tyranny of a usurper and put the crown on the rightful heir that he leaves his wife and children to their fate. We may question his wisdom ad judgment with regard to his family, but his sincere attachment to his country is above question. He is determined to set things right and is courageous to be subservient to Macbeth’s will.

Macduff's family life is, however, sweet and happy. When his wife reproaches him with lack of love, it comes from injured affection. Her feelings for him appear in her spirited reply to the murderer's question: ‘Where's your husband?' 'I hope in no place so unsanctified where such as thou may'st find him.’ His son also admires and loves him. To the murderer's remark that Macduff is a traitor, the boy gives an angry reply: ‘Thou lies, thou shag-haired villain.’ This sweet and affectionate domestic life of Macduff contrasts with the harsh and cruel life of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and their gradual disintegration.

Macduff's reaction to the news of his family's slaughter shows his concern on their account. He blames himself, suffers anguish and utters grief in poignantly brief words –

“My children too? .... And I must be from thence!" "My wife killed too? .... "all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop".

His brief utterances are charged with intense and deep emotions. He must grieve for the loss of family ties because he is a father and a husband. But he must take revenge on their slaughter like a man.

The shock of bereavement provides him with the appropriate motive for his vengeance on Macbeth. He is urged on to play the role of the instrument of Nemesis. He is determined to give to Scotland her legitimate ruler. His tolerant loyalty to Malcolm is attested by the fact that he is ready to endure his greed and lust if he had other graces. When Malcolm says that he has no kingly graces, he has the forthrightness and courage to say that he is not "fit to live" and recalls that Duncan was 'a most sainted king’ Malcolm appreciates his 'integrity' and 'noble passion'.

Macduff is a hero, a patriot. He is a man of action. He is by nature reticent and reserved. His resolve on revenge is firm and he wishes immediate revenge:

"Front to front

Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself.”

When the leaders discuss prospects of battle against Macbeth, he wishes them to put on 'industrious leadership’. When he meets Macbeth in the field of battle, he wastes no words in abuse and threats:

"I have no words

My voice is in my sword".

Macduff is the fittest person to lead the opposition against Macbeth and make the time free from tyranny and nightmares for Scotland.

Irony in Abhigyan Shakuntalam by Kalidasa

2021-04-14T20:21:00.003+05:30

Irony in Abhigyan Shakuntalam by Kalidasa

Kalidasa being a phenomenal writer in Sanskrit literature extracts a simple story from the Mahabharata and gives it a new treatment by introducing the curse motif and the ring motif along with the structural device of irony. Irony has been employed as a powerful literary device to enhance and heighten the emotional impact of the narrative. Irony is the use of words that say the opposite of what one really means in order to make a point. It is used to achieve special rhetorical or poetic effects. Irony employed in Abhigyan Shakuntalam is of different types such as verbal irony, structural irony, sarcasm, dramatic irony, cosmic irony and romantic irony.

Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker implies differs from the meaning that is expressed. The ironic statement involves the explicit expression of one attitude. There is an ironic reversal of the surface statement. In structural Irony, the author, instead of using an occasional verbal irony, introduces a structural feature that serves to sustain a duplex meaning.

Dramatic irony involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader shares with the author knowledge of present or future of which a character is ignorant, cosmic irony or irony of fate involves a deity or late that manipulates events so as to lead the protagonist to false hopes. In romantic irony, the author builds up the illusion of representing reality, only to shatter it by revealing that the author is the creator of his characters. This type of irony involves a self conscious narrator in the main plot that brings the revelation.

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👉Character of Shakuntala in Abhijnana Shakuntalam

Recognition (abhijyana) of truth is the central issue: in the play, Shakuntala is recognized "by virtue of a token of love, not by love itself. In the absence of concrete, tangible proof of love and marriage, she is lost.”

This token of love is the ring itself which is lost and later found by a fisherman. It is ironical that king's lady-love is before his eyes yet he asks for some proof. Again, he has loved Shakuntala, the child of nature, carnally and it takes a long time for him to recognize her intrinsic beauty and feminine grace. He has to pay a heavy price for this and loses his wife and son. This initiates him on a journey to discover the meaning of beauty and love. Kalidasa lets the established ideals of society to be examined through the use of ironies. When he meets his own son in the hermitage of Marica who plays with a lion cub, Dushyanta describes the boy as 'the young of a black serpent that spoils/for other creatures the pleasant sanctuary that is the fragrant sandal tree.'

Ironically, Dushyanta himself is the black serpent who has entered the 'tapovan.' The sandal tree is Shakuntala. Act V is full of ironies that leads to ‘rasotpati' in the reader. Here, the personality of Dushyanta becomes more enigmatic and complex than it appears to be.

In Act I and Act VII, one finds graphic descriptions of the 'tapovan', the hermitages of Kanva and Marica. Here, one finds good-humoured irony at play. The 'rishis', seers and other ascetics have been presented as given to anger and anxiety. Through the undisciplined behaviour of Durvasa, the ideal of asceticism is questioned. Chandra Rajan observes that ascetic claims are subjected to ironic scrutiny in Act V.

A number of disciples of Kanva are given to anger and also suffer from complexes. Sarngarava can be easily provoked and he lacks self-discipline. Other disciple of Kanva is Saradvata who is observed with the idea of cleanliness. Sage Durvasa is the main example of this type of behaviour. Kalidasa also makes use of the device of foreshadowing in the main plot. King Dushyanta refuses to recognize Shakuntala and she is stripped of dignity.

“Such isolation is of the essence of a tragic situation in life. The play is poise on the edge of tragedy from which it must now be retrieved."

It is not Shakuntala who proves her innocence but a fisherman who by chance produces the signet ring of the king. A great sage like Kanva fails to press upon the king to accept the reality and he leaves it to her destiny. The trial scene presents Shakuntala as an isolated being, abandoned by society. Now she faces the existential limit and look up towards heavens. Suddenly the Apsara Menaka appears and vanishes after taking Shakuntala away. In this regards, the remarks of Chandra Rajan on the tragic tone of the play need attention:

“The reconciliation and reunion of Sakuntala and Dushyanta takes place in another world, the golden world of the primal pair. The resolution of the plot is effected in this mythical world; therefore, one way of reading the play is to see it as having a fictive ending. By introducing the device of a deus et machina, the situation is saved, temporarily; the tragedy is averted, but the tragic tone remains.”

In Sanskrit literature, one does not find pure tragedies like the Greek tragedies but plays with tragic tone.

“There are moments of bitter irony accompanied by flashes of pure good humour. But the play, though it has had its tragic moments, closes on a note of serenity, expressing the poet's vision of peace and harmony in a world where order has been restored."

In Act I, Shakuntala is alone in the hermitage as sage Kanva is out on a pilgrimage. Here the irony is that it is during the absence of Kanva that she surrenders before an unknown person who enjoys her carnally. This episode leads her to a close encounter with the tragic fate. Again, when she asks Kanva to let her know about the delivery of her pet deer, it is ironical that the birth of her own son, the successor of Hastinapur remains a secret.

At one place, a reference is made about how the cuckoo transfers her offsprings in the nest of crows for rearing. This is tragic irony that suggests that Shakuntala is in family way and her son will be brought up in the palace. The opening words of Shakuntala's love letter contain dramatic irony that is a proof of her love for the king but it is an exercise in futility. The king has already become forgetful of his sylvan love. Umashankar Joshi observes:

"Irony can be seen as being availed of as a structural principle, giving the work its artistic form. It plays a supremely significant role in the juxtaposition of the fourth and the fifth acts giving an edge to the artistic impart of the structuring of the play by describing the superb scene of the send off to Shakuntala, a scene of consummate harmony in the life of man and nature, that of a sort of Cosmic harmony, only to be shattered or at least savagely disturbed in the ensuing court scene."

Irony can be seen working as a structural principal holding the central issue of the play. The two motifs have been incorporated to make irony more effective and suggestive. It is an irony that Shakuntala is lost in love and she almost loses love itself.

The poet's mastery over word, sound, rhythm, image, technique and dramatic structuring amply match his cosmic vision and the happy result is a unique play embodying the immortal beauty of human love. Thus, irony as a literary device has been employed by Kalidasa to maximize the emotional impact in the play, and the play presents the wonderful orchestration of Kalidasa's poetic self.

Symbols in To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

2021-04-13T12:53:00.005+05:30

Symbolism in To the Lighthouse

In Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, a few critics have realized the momentousness of symbolism, a corollary to its poetic and lyrical nature which they may extol or censure but can't come up to scratch to acquiesce in.

Virginia's intuition is more abstract than that of Henry or James Joyce. She had an almost mystic assurance of a "reality" behind and within the façade of the temporal. She proclaims,

"I want to put practically everything in but made transparent"

In the novel, To the Lighthouse the emblematic design oversees everything but it has no definite schema. It is rather like the great scroll of smoke.

Symbol of Lighthouse

All the symbols are interwoven and this great work of fiction concentrates on them. In To the lighthouse, the light house is a substantial symbol that manifests Mrs. Woolf's central idea that she insinuates in the novel or upon which the whole novel is woven. The tower is frequently shadowed in mist; its glints are intermitted in the murk. Its light signifies reality or truth that strengthens its states even through the twilight of nascence.

The lighthouse is an enigma but it also pertains to day-to-day living. It is manmade, something is immutable and steadfast that man has built in the flux of time to guide and overcome those at the clemency of its cataclysmic forces. From this facet, it gives the impression to be related to the human tradition and its values, which subsists from generation to generation and tell of both the integrity or community and progression of man. Man tends to its light, which propels its streaks out over the dark waters to those on the Island and so establishes communication with them and illumines them.

Symbol of Window

To Mrs. Ramsay as she takes the seat and crochets in the window, it seems at one moment the light of truth, stern, searching and beautiful with which she can unite her own personality. The odyssey towards lighthouse is also emblematic. It is the emblem of movement toward veracity, which Mrs. Ramsay preaches against the factual truth.

Symbol of Ramsay’s Family Aptitude

Ramsay's family's aptitude at the lighthouse that they contemplate to go in the first part of the novel, symbolizes the aptitude of an artist. If a person is an artist in true aura, he must return towards reality or truth after imagination.

Firstly, Mrs. Ramsay and her family set out to stop by the lighthouse in the winds but due to bad weather unfavourable climatic conditions, they have to set aside their programme. In second chapter, though most judicious ménage pushes up the daisies and Mrs. Ramsay herself kicks the bucket, but in the last part of the novel, remaining persons, at length, succeed in visiting the lighthouse with flying colours.

Symbol of Lily’s Painting

Lily Briscoe's accomplishment of her painting is also symbolic to a great extent. She neither in first nor in second part of the work of fiction can be able to complete her picture. In the whole period that contains more than a decade, she is perplexed about to fill the gap of her picture, but at the lighthouse, she executes her production. This symbolizes that an artist can be impeccable in his art when he reaches and finds the final limitations of reality or truth.

Symbol of Ramsay's knitting of stockings

Mrs. Ramsay's knitting of stockings is also the symbol of the notion that she crochets in her consciousness. The thoughts, through which she knits novel's first part like knitting stockings for lighthouse's keeper's son. Her analysis of every person or character of the novel, her matchmaking, her role at the dinner party and many other actions weave the novel as she knits the stockings.

Symbol of Sea

"The sea is to be heard all through it"

Mrs. Ramsay said, the sea is the symbol of eternal flux of life and time a mid which all we exist. Life ceaselessly changes its characters. Sea is the sign of life as it has altered its visitors from first part to third part of the novel. Mrs. Ramsay hankers for its visit with his clan but she has been incapable to do so as a person in her life of ten falls flat to frame her firmness of findings. After a decade, other characters supplant her and visits Sea or lighthouse.

To Mrs. Ramsay, the sea at one moment sounds soothing and consoling like a cradle song. Sometimes "Like a ghostly roll of drum constantly beating a warning of death," it brings terror, sometimes "a fountain of bright water which seems to match the sudden springs of vitality in the human spirit". As life is sometimes ravishingly beautiful with all its munificence and blessing to human beings so is the case with the sea according to Mrs. Ramsay.

In the long run, we can sanguinely remark that Virginia Woolf's symbols in the novel "To the Lighthouse" revolve round life, flair and facts. In the point of fact, she clears out her outlook of bond of life, art and reality.