Assignment 2 : Critical approach of "Gulliver's Travels".

Name : Makwana Vijay K.
Course name : M.A English
Semester : 1
Roll no : 46
Enrolment no : 2069108420180035
Email : vijaykm7777@gmail.com
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Batch year : 2017-18
Submitted to : department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Paper no : 2 "The Neo-Classcal Literature"
Topic : Critical approach of "Gulliver's Travels".


Introduction About the author :

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667 and came of age at the height of the Glorious Revolution, in which James II, a Roman Catholic, was forced to abdicate in favour of William of Orange, a Protestant. Although he was a great literary figure even in his time, we know very little about his private life. For example, we are not even sure if he married. He became an influential member of the British government but he never achieved the position in the Church of England that he felt he deserved. He was, he felt, banished to the deanship of St. Patrick’s and when his party fell from power with the accession of George I, his period in the political limelight came to an end. Swift died in a mental institution, finally struck down by an illness which had probably been with him for a long time. But he wasn’t mad when he wrote Gulliver’s Travels, a brilliant satire on politics and society, and a timeless book for children.

Summary :

In each of the three stories in this book, the hero, Lemuel Gulliver, embarks on a voyage, but, as in the Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor on which the stories may in part have been based, some calamity befalls him. First, Gulliver arrives in Lilliput, where he finds himself a giant, held prisoner by tiny men. They are initially afraid of him, but he gradually wins their trust and eventually helps them in their war against Blefuscu. The second land he visits is called Brobdingnag, a land of giants. Gulliver, now a tiny person, has to work as a freak in a show at first but is then rescued by the Queen and has long talks with the King.
Gulliver finally ends up in the land of the Houyhnhnms, peaceful horses who have created a perfect society, except for the presence of monkey-like Yahoos. Although Gulliver looks like a well-kempt Yahoo, he wants to be a Houyhnhnm. Finally, he has to leave because he does not fit into this society.

Gulliver Travels is based on 4 voyages :

1. The voyage of Lilliput
2. The voyage of Brobdingnag
3. The voyage of Laputa
4. The voyage of Houyhnhnms

1 : A Voyage to Lilliput :
"A Voyage to Lilliput," is the most famous section of Gulliver's Travels. Lured by the prospect of adventure and easy money, Lemuel Gulliver signs up as a "surgeon," or ship's doctor, for a voyage through the East Indies in Asia. Unfortunately for Gulliver, he is shipwrecked. He swims to an unfamiliar shore and, exhausted by his efforts, goes to sleep. When he awakes, he finds himself tied up by a crowd of extremely tiny and well-armed people. Gulliver is taken prisoner, shipped to the capital, and presented to the Emperor. A cross between court pet and circus attraction, Gulliver makes friends with many of the courtiers and learns about the history, society, politics, and economy of Lilliput. For many years, Lilliput has been at war with its sister island Blefuscu over whether to break soft-boiled eggs at the big or little end. This clash parodies the French-English and Catholic-Protestant conflicts of Swift's time, and many of the characters in this section correspond to actual political figures of the day.

2: A Voyage to Brobdingnag :
Gulliver is only home two months when he sets out on Part II, "A Voyage to Brobdingnag." After encountering a terrible storm, Gulliver's ship puts in to another unfamiliar shore for much-needed food and water. He goes ashore with the landing party but is abandoned by the crew when they discover there are giants living there. Gulliver is captured by a farmer, who displays him as a circus wonder at local fairs. The farmer's daughter, Glumdalclitch, teaches Gulliver to speak the language and the two become good friends. Eventually, the farmer sells Gulliver to the Queen of Brobdingnag, who allows Glumdalclitch to join the court as Gulliver's keeper.

Once at court, Gulliver has a series of violent, physical misadventures because of his size. Once, he is taken into the country and allowed to walk around a meadow on his own. Poor Gulliver has not yet learned the limits of his size in Brobdingnag, however. As he reports, "There was a Cowdung in the Path, and I must needs try my Activity by attempting to leap over it. I took a Run, but unfortunately jumped short, and found my self just in the Middle up to my Knees." Gulliver spends most of his time discussing history, politics, philosophy, and economics with the King. The King frequently dismays Gulliver by displaying his "ignorance," that is, finding certain aspects of Gulliver's England repulsive. When Gulliver offers to teach him about gunpowder so he can rule over his subjects with force, for example, the King rejects him in horror. In the end, Gulliver is carried off by a giant bird and dropped into the sea, where he is rescued again by an English ship. Disoriented by the size of things on shipboard and then in England, Gulliver takes some time to adjust to people of his own size. Eventually he gets used to other English people again and resolves to stay at home for the rest of his life.

3: A Voyage to Laputa :
Gulliver is unable to keep his resolution. He is tempted by the prospect of easy money yet againand embarks on Part III, "A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnag, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan." Gulliver's misfortunes begin when he and his crew are seized by pirates, who abandon him alone on a deserted island. In despair, Gulliver begins to make the best of his bad lot when he is astonished to see a giant floating island appear in the sky. The inhabitants carry him up to them and make him welcome on the island, which they call Laputa. The Laputans control a nonfloating island named Balnibarbi and live entirely by the rules of science and mathematics: even their bread and meat are carved into geometric shapes. The men are so consumed in thought that they have servants, called flappers, to bring them out of a trance into conversation. Women, who are excluded from these activities and entirely ignored by the men, frequently try to escape to Balnibarbi. After some persuasion, Gulliver is allowed to descend to Balnibarbi, where he witnesses the destructive effects of not enough practical thinking on agriculture, economics, education, and architecture.
Gulliver visits the Grand Academy, Swift's parody of London's Royal Society. There he meets men devoting their lives to absurd experiments such as extracting sunlight from cucumbers and turning human waste into its original components. Gulliver proceeds from Balnibarbi to Luggnag via the island of Glubbdubdrib, which is run by magic. There the governor raises several historical leaders and philosophers from the dead, giving Gulliver a chance to wonder at the corruption and brutishness of these supposedly great men. In Luggnag, Gulliver hears of a race of people called Struldbruggs, who live forever. Gulliver imagines what he would do if he were a Struldbrugg, but when he meets them he realizes that eternal life does not necessarily mean eternal youth. The Struldbruggs actually have both infinite age and infinite infirmity, and they are miserable, senile people.

4 : A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhms :
Gulliver's last voyage, Part IV, is called "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhms" (pronounced whin-hims). Part IV examines less what humanity creates, such as science or gunpowder or government, and more what humanity is. Appropriately, Gulliver is left on an alien shore by a mutiny, a betrayal and abandonment that sets in motion the wheels of Gulliver's detachment from his own people. He encounters two types of inhabitants: the rational Houyhnhms and the vicious, crude Yahoos. The Houyhnhms are talking horses who have established a society based on reason rather than emotion, while the Yahoos are hairy humanoids who are used by the Houyhnhms as slaves. As usual, Gullive


In the beginning of the story, Gulliver explains to the reader a bit about his background, why he was on these journeys to begin with, and where he finds himself at the beginning of his tale. The story begins with Gulliver recounting how he was shipwrecked the land of Lilliput. He awakens to find himself tied down and held captive by a tiny race of people. To the inhabitants of Lilliput, Gulliver is something of a giant. He could not move, because he was tied down, but he notices a a race of tiny people moving about him. These people take all of his possessions for inspection, for they are in awe and fear of his great size. They feed him, and soon untie him but still keep him in confinement. While in his confinement, he is visited by the emperor who likes Gulliver. Gulliver learns there language and the customs of the people of Lilliput. In this book Swift, by describing the ludicrous system that Lilliput's government fashions in, is satirizing the English system of governing. He uses parallels that seem absurd at first glance but make more senses when looked at carefully.
When Gulliver reaches the land of Brobdinag, he finds himself in the exact opposite situation that he was in when in Lilliput. In Brobdinag, it is Gulliver who is the tiny person, and the inhabitants of that land who appear to be giants. Gulliver expects these "giants to be monsters", but soon finds that they are a peaceful race of people, who live in a sort of peace-loving land. Swift was playing on all people's fear of being frightened by those who appear different looking or more powerful.

Critical view of Gulliver's Travels :
In recounting third journey, Gulliver visits the land of Laputa. The stories that are contained within are a satire on specific figures and policies of the British government of the period in which Swift lived. This is probably, out of all of the parts of this story that are commonly read today, the least widely read. This is because most people today do not know of whom Swift is referring to.
When Gulliver reaches the land of the Houyhnhnms, we read a very fine story that we can still relate to today. There is a distinction made between the two type of people Gulliver encounters in this land. The Yahoos, who are considered to be uncivilized Neanderthals, and the Houyhnhnms, who Gulliver's considers to be civilized. Gulliver contends that the Houyhnhnms are civilized because they are similar to him, the people remind him of English people, and they have the most complex language he has run across in his travels. We also read in this part of his travels of a war between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians, who are at war with one another over which end of a hard boiled egg should be cracked on. Swift is satirizing the futility of wars over things like religion.
Gulliver soon returns home in wonder over his journeys to these lands. Swift did a excellent job of hiding a biting criticism of the government and society in which he lived. He did this by making the characters in the story so fantastic and foreign to the reader that the story could only be a fairy tale, written for children. The actions of the people he runs across are so absurd, and Gulliver seems so innocent, that at first read many people didn't even get what Swift was trying to say. There were, however, people who knew Swift's intentions from the start, and got all of the symbols in the story.
It has been said that Dean Jonathan Swift hated humanity but loved the individual. His hatred is brought out in this caustic political and social satire aimed at the English people, humanity in general, and the Whigs in particular. By means of a disarming simplicity of style and of careful attention to detail in order to heighten the effect of the narrative, Swift produced one of the outstanding pieces of satire in world literature.
Swift created the character of Lemuel Gulliver as his narrator for Gulliver’s Travels, he developed a personality with many qualities admired by an  eighteenth century audience and still admired by many readers. Gulliver is a decent sort of person: hopeful, simple, fairly direct, and full of good will. He is a scientist, a trained doctor, and, as any good scientist should, he loves detail. His literal-minded attitude makes him a keen observer of the world around him. Furthermore, he is, like another famous novel character of the eighteenth century—Robinson Crusoe—encouragingly resourceful in emergencies.
The novel is a satire, and Gulliver is a mask for Swift the satirist. In fact, Swift does not share Gulliver’s rationalistic, scientific responses to the world or Gulliver’s beliefs in progress and in the perfectibility of humanity. Swift, on the contrary, believed that such values were dangerous, and that to put such complete faith in the material world, as scientific Gulliver did, was folly. Gulliver is a product of his age, and he is intended as a character to demonstrate the weakness underlying the values of the Enlightenment—the failure to recognize the power of the irrational.
Despite Gulliver’s apparent congeniality in the opening chapters of the novel, Swift makes it clear that Gulliver has serious shortcomings, including blind spots about human nature, his own included. Book 3, the least readable section of Gulliver’s Travels, is in some ways the most revealing part of the book. In it Gulliver complains, for example, that the wives of the scientists he is observing run away with the servants. The fact is that Gulliver—himself a scientist—gives little thought to the well-being of his own wife. In the eleven years covered in Gulliver’s travel book, Swift’s narrator spends a total of seven months and ten days with his wife.
Gulliver, too, is caught up in Swift’s web of satire in Gulliver’s Travels. Satire as a literary form tends to be ironic; the author says one thing but means another. Consequently, readers can assume that much of what Gulliver observes as good and much of what he thinks and does are not what Swift thinks.
As a type of the eighteenth century, Gulliver exhibits its major values: belief in rationality, in the perfectibility of humanity, in the idea of progress, and in the Lockean philosophy of the human mind as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, at the time of birth, controlled and developed entirely by the differing strokes and impressions made on it by the environment. Swift, in contrast to Gulliver, hated the abstraction that accompanied rational thinking; he abhorred the rejection of the past that resulted from a rationalistic faith in the new and improved; and he cast strong doubts on humanity’s ability to gain knowledge through reason and logic.
The world Gulliver discovers during his travels is significant in Swift’s satire. The Lilliputians, averaging not quite six inches in height, display the pettiness and the smallness Swift detected in much that motivates human institutions such as church and state. It is petty religious problems that lead to continual war in Lilliput. The Brobdingnagians continue the satire in part 2 by exaggerating human grossness through their enlarged size.

Conclusion :
Gulliver's Travels is a story of journey of Lemuel Gulliver. The whole story partly divided into 4 voyages they are 1 Lilliput, 2 Brobdingnag, 3 Laputa, 4 Houyhnhnms. Every voyage discribed the social life, it's aspects, human emotion, vertue, action, kindness and other aspects of social and people life.

Work cites :
https://www.enotes.com/topics/gullivers-travels-jonathan-swift/critical-essays/critical-evaluation
http://mural.uv.es/mafranch/critic.htm
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/gullivers-travels/critical-essays/swifts-satire-in-gullivers-travels

Assignment 1 : Doctor Faustus as a Mythical play.

Name : Makwana Vijay K.
Course name : M.A English
Semester : 1
Roll no : 46
Enrolment no : 2069108420180035
Email : vijaykm7777@gmail.com
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Batch year : 2017-18
Submitted to : department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Paper no : 1 "The Raneissance Literature"
Topic : Doctor Faustus as a Mythical play.


Introduction :

Playwright, poet. Christopher Marlowe was a poet and playwright at the forefront of the 16th-century dramatic renaissance. His works influenced William Shakespeare and generations of writers to follow.He born in Canterbury, England, in 1564. While Christopher Marlowe's literary career lasted less than six years, and his life only 29 years, his achievements, most notably the play The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus, ensured his lasting legacy.

Marlowe's major works :

Dido, Queen of Carthage (1586)
Tambourine the Great (1587)
The Jew of Malta (1589)
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1589)
Edward ii (1592)
The Massacre at Paris (1593)

Character of Doctor Faustus :

Faustus :
Faustus is the protagonist and tragic hero of Marlowe’s play. He is a contradictory character, capable of tremendous eloquence and possessing awesome ambition, yet prone to a strange, almost willful blindness and a willingness to waste powers that he has gained at great cost. When we first meet Faustus, he is just preparing to embark on his career as a magician, and while we already anticipate that things will turn out badly (the Chorus’s introduction, if nothing else, prepares us), there is nonetheless a grandeur to Faustus as he contemplates all the marvels that his magical powers will produce. He imagines piling up wealth from the four corners of the globe, reshaping the map of Europe (both politically and physically), and gaining access to every scrap of knowledge about the universe. He is an arrogant, self-aggrandizing man, but his ambitions are so grand that we cannot help being impressed, and we even feel sympathetic toward him. He represents the spirit of the Renaissance, with its rejection of the medieval, God-centered universe, and its embrace of human possibility. Faustus, at least early on in his acquisition of magic, is the personification of possibility.
The protagonist. Faustus is a brilliant sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg, Germany, whose ambition for knowledge, wealth, and worldly might makes him willing to pay the ultimate price—his soul—to Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers. Faustus’s initial tragic grandeur is diminished by the fact that he never seems completely sure of the decision to forfeit his soul and constantly wavers about whether or not to repent. His ambition is admirable and initially awesome, yet he ultimately lacks a certain inner strength. He is unable to embrace his dark path wholeheartedly but is also unwilling to admit his mistake.

Mephastophilis :
A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical experiments. Mephastophilis’s motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his oft-expressed goal is to catch Faustus’s soul and carry it off to hell; on the other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade Faustus from making a deal with Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell. Mephastophilis is ultimately as tragic a figure as Faustus, with his moving, regretful accounts of what the devils have lost in their eternal separation from God and his repeated reflections on the pain that comes with damnation.

Chorus :
A character who stands outside the story, providing narration and commentary. The Chorus was customary in Greek tragedy.

Old Man :
An enigmatic figure who appears in the final scene. The old man urges Faustus to repent and to ask God for mercy. He seems to replace the good and evil angels, who, in the first scene, try to influence Faustus’s behavior.

Good Angel :
A spirit that urges Faustus to repent for his pact with Lucifer and return to God. Along with the old man and the bad angel, the good angel represents, in many ways, Faustus’s conscience and divided will between good and evil.

Evil Angele :
A spirit that serves as the counterpart to the good angel and provides Faustus with reasons not to repent for sins against God. The evil angel represents the evil half of Faustus’s conscience.

Lucifer :

The prince of devils, the ruler of hell, and Mephastophilis’s master.
Wagner :
Faustus’s servant. Wagner uses his master’s books to learn how to summon devils and work magic.

Clown :
A clown who becomes Wagner’s servant. The clown’s antics provide comic relief; he is a ridiculous character, and his absurd behavior initially contrasts with Faustus’s grandeur. As the play goes on, though, Faustus’s behavior comes to resemble that of the clown.

Robin :
An ostler, or innkeeper, who, like the clown, provides a comic contrast to Faustus. Robin and his friend Rafe learn some basic conjuring, demonstrating that even the least scholarly can possess skill in magic. Marlowe includes Robin and Rafe to illustrate Faustus’s degradation as he submits to simple trickery such as theirs.

Rafe :
An ostler, and a friend of Robin. Rafe appears as Dick (Robin’s friend and a clown) in B-text editions of Doctor Faustus.


Doctor Faustus as a mythical play :
The story of Doctor Faustus is a familiar myth, in which the main character sells his soul , makes a deal with the devil, for something he speciously holds more valuable. There are many versions of this story in our culture, and it would take quite a time to make note of them all. Most people will have seen or heard one of the various stories in the for of a book, play, movie, or television show. The original story of Doctor Faustus, as created by Christopher Marlow, was prevalent to society at the time because it spoke to peoples growing dizzy awareness of their possibilities and capabilities at this time.

The classic Marlow play, Doctor Faustus, would also be a hit because in the countries of the world there are many a growing multicultural society, for whom there are continually growing possibilities and capabilities. This is also a similar state of affairs for how one might perceive the womens movement, as women are gaining more equality inside and outside o f the workplace. Also, for society as a whole, one is being exposed to the ever growing world of computers and the world wide web. The largest and most significant change I would make in an attempt to adapt Doctor Faustus so that it would be more engineered towards to todays audience is that I would make Doctor Faustus a Dr. Faustesse. I would make an attempt to portray the main character Faustus, as a women, Faustesse, in an attempt to update the concerns for which the play represents.
A female character fall to the devil to gain power over society it symbolizes and signifies the constant struggle of women, even in todays society, to get past the very patriarchal dominated social structures and ienantiodromia, the reversal of opposites. The psycho-physical law of enantiodromia proclaims that the steep ascent is inevitabily followed by the descent.


Many critics of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus spend too much energy seeing the play solely against its immediate historical background and too little seeing it as a visionary work speaking significantly to the modern condition. Indeed the Medieval and Reformation atmosphere, Faustus' dilemma is easy to see as parallel to that of modern man especially from the twentieth century standpoint of C.G. Jung's psychology of archetypes. Such a method of examination allows for a more fundamental and broader perspective then does more traditional literary analysis.

According to Jung, the death of meaning in the mythic symbols of Christianity was beginning during the Renaissance Reformation period, the age of Dr.Faustus. Mankind then began to lose something which, in one form or another, is necessary for psychic health. Image of Christian mythology no longer work for Faustus when he become to a crisis in his life. They continue to operate only in a strange way, in the nature of the neurotic. But they do not from the basis for anything like a healthy approach toward life.

A chief danger encouraged by Renaissance man with his one sided intellect which values knowledge for the technology, manipulative power it gives over things and other people. Because of the excelling nature of his studies and practice, Faustus is, like Icarus in the ancient myth, place in danger of enantiodromia, the reversal of opposites. The psycho-physical law of enantiodromia proclaims that the steep ascent is inevitabily followed by the descent. According to the prologue, Faustus is 'swoll'n with cunning of a self-conceit", "blutted now with learning's golden gifts".

The opening speech dismissed as petty all the disciplines Faustus has spent his life studying. He now seems, as does Goethe's Faust, as well as contemporary man, to be insatiable, desiring more and more, the sensational, the superlative. He claims that, as a physician, he has protected whole cities from the plague but that he is in despair because, nevertheless, he is still Faustus, a man, who has not the power to raise the dead or to induce immortality. Faustus is like modern man in his tendency to let the thought of power cloud his mind. His desire and expectation run wild, causing him to lose rerepresents to see wholes yet making it easy for him to analyze out of existence whatever does not agree with his hubris.

The intellectual process by selecting only those data which substantiate conclusion predetermined by desire. Only the evidence that confirms his preestablished vision. When he looks at a passage in the Gospel of John, he sees only the part dealing with sin and death, ignoring the rest of the passage offering eternal life to those who trust in Christ. His emphasis on the harshness of the doctrines of original sin and predestination, taken out of context of the whole, is his superficial excuse for rejecting Christianity. Faustus' rejection of Christianity, though, like that of modern man, is based really on no single argument or analysis of text, but on deep psychological realities of the times.

The play's clear emphasis of the presence of these confused attitudes indicates their importance to the Faustian psychology. Another concomitant of Faustus's one sidedly inflated ego is the dissociation of the conscious ego both from the repressed material in the personal unconscious and from the archetype components of the collective unconscious. Certainly one way of seeing Faustus experience with figures like Mephistopheles, Lucifer, a Good and Bad Angle, the mythical Helen of Troy, is as fantasy dramatizing conflict within his psyche. The play in modern terms, as containing fantasy surrealistically presented, is helpful for an analysis of Faustus psychological situation.


In general Faustus's experiences involve a journey into the non-integrated, repressed portion of his psyche. The "four and twenty years of voluptuous pleasures" is, of course, the converse of Faustus hard working and studious life up to that point. Mephistopheles in a symbol of what Jung calls the shadow, archetype of the dark, non-integrated, complementary portion of the psyche. On this level, Mephistopheles can be seen as the converse of Faustus a figure representing the psychological qualities repressed in Faustus.
Faustus is the brave, disdainful skeptic and freethinker, the man of pride and intellectual power. At the same time he displays a certain tenseness evidence of the inner turmoil caused by the snapping of psychic energies by the inflation of his ego. Against Faustus, the powerhungry, prideful, caustic, sensation-oriented skeptic-we see Mephistopheles, in some major speeches as, in tone at least, the humble, totally sincere, feelings oriented Christian, albeit a belatedly converted one.

The sentiments were not enough, ironically he pleads with Faustus not to endanger his soul : "O Faustus, level these frivolous demands which strike a terror to my fainting soul". This speech is by mean the only example of the tone in Mephistopheles described above. The author aspect of Mephistopheles as Faustus shadow in the sort of evil sensuality represented by the Christian devil in the Renaissance. That is another element compensatory to the staid intellectual, come to terms with his shadow and is saved at the play's end, Faustus never comes to terms with this devil, the opposite of his ego.

Faustus despair in the later parts of the play seems to be all but universally noted by the critics. Christian guilt is oddly strong in this resolute but neurotic skeptic. Guilt and despair shatter Faustus resolution and his will, already of an indeterminate quality. One example occurs at the point at which he asks Mephistopheles for a wife. The feminine principal, in opposition to the masculine intellect, is one of the non-integrated portion of his psyche with which he needs to come to terms. Faustus bends quite easily to let Mephistopheles browbeat him to the point that he substitutes sensuality of a particularly nonviable kind for psychological relationship to the feminine. Faustus shadow tries to satisfy him with "a Devil dressed like a women, with fireworks".Faustus attraction to the mythical figure of Helen of Troy clearly involves the archetype of the anime. In paragraph in which he mentions Helen as one of the literary embodiment of the anima, Jung point out that the anima represents "the chaotic urge to life" but also "a secret knowledge or hidden wisdom." Faustus desire to escape the result of the one sided life of the intellectual is a compensation partially prompted by the energies of his in integrated anima. Thus his attraction to arcane magic, the occult, seems to be motivated by anima impulses.

Conclusion :
Faustus has never truly integrated the feminine elements of his psyche with his prideful masculine intellectual, never come to terms with what Jung calls the anima or "soul-age". Faustus own image of himself is essentially crude and, in some senses, adolescent with its fascination with showing off heroically.

Work cites :
https://www.kibin.com/essay-examples/updating-the-myth-of-doctor-faustus-64rH0DgJ http://m.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/characters.html

Review of the play :Digdarshak

Review of the play :Digdarshak

           On 8th August in The Department of English there was a screening of the play Digdarshak.Which was arranged by my senior Alpa Ponda and her team who is the head of the screening committee.First i want to say about the play .The play is about the Theatre life and Cinema life.There is only two character in the play Father and son .The play moves ahead with the flash back technique.Director and new actor both are arguementing with each other about which is good ...Theatre or Cinema.The father sacrifice his whole life for theatre and he wants to make his dream true by his son.But initially son agrees with him than he wants to leave the theatre because of thare is no fame , money and etc .So we can say that's why son goes to cinema.The one more thing is father try to convince his son by his struggle ,determination of life and also explain him that theatre is the basic thing for cinema.But yet son choose the field of cinema and becomes success.In the end Son comes back after long time where his father or Director live.They both share their feelings for that arguements and both are happy......So we can conclude that all things are good at it's own place.the another thing is here we sees is the relationship between coach and student how rudely he behaves with pupil but behind that he want to polish us.If we talk about technical aspect of the play it is very good play.There is use of light,myth like a Aswatthama's dialogue, shows the difference between cinema and theatre,difference between teacher and coach.Set is so simple.Costume also simple,good use of fed in -fed out technique.There is rising action , climax , falling action everything is there.One thing about the acting of the director in the play as a old man is missing.But yet it is very well play .If some one wants to learn the acting or how to do drama so this is the best play for them.

Aristotle's Poetics

Aristotle's Poetics

                                                           

1. Yes, I am agree with the Plato's objection to freedom of expression and artistic liberty enjoyed by creative writer. There is so many movies which should be banned according to the Plato 's objection like
               Grand Masti
               One Night Stand
               Murder ,etc.
           
             All this film should be banned according to the Plato's objection .
         
             There is some advertisement which should be banned according to the Plato's law of objection.
              As we know  that there is so many films or TV shops which are bad for the minor .May they take it personally ,there is so many creative serials that children can try and that is not good for them.

2. In B.A. programme there is a novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde .Which is written by R L Stevenson that we can consider as a creative work .That 's follows the  Aristotelian's literary tradition .But people can imitate him but that is not good .Or we can say that if we want to live the life freely than it is good.

3. During B.A. i studied the tragic play" OTHELLO " which is written by Shakespeare.Othello himself is the protagonist of the play.The Hamartia of the play is there is a tragic flaw in the play and there is a error of the judgement in the end of the play by the hero.Which leads him to the death of his lover and also he himself commit suicide.

4.Yes, these tragedies are follows the rules and regulation proposed by Aristotle. Like a chain of cause and effect ,principle of probability and necessity ,harmonious arrangement of incident ,complete certain magnitude ,unity of action .

             If we conclude this topic we can say that they both are right at it's own way .It depends on us to which way we choose .If we want to live the life of morality than Plato is right .If we want to live a freedomful life than Aristotle is right .But if we  think rationally than Aristotle is somehow better than his guru because most people like to enjoy the life and also to live a creative life .
         
           So it is very good knowledge of poetics as a form of literature.

Review of the play : Yugpurush Mahatmana Mahatma

Review of the play : Yugpurush Mahatmana Mahatma
                                   

                             


It was very good experience  to see a live theatre play and it was my first live seen stage play.The name it self shows the greatness of the play.The main character of the play are Shrimad Rajchandraji (Guru of Mahatma Gandhi) and Mahatma Gandhi.Rajchandraji was a merchant .He had a very good virtue like memory power,multitasking, so many language knower,non -violence,truth,love ,kindness and etc.The play shows how he changed the Barrister life of M K Gandhi into Mahatma Gandhi. It is also an inspirational play .If we talk about technical aspect of play The title is appropriate, characters are like hero ,tragic scene also , and etc. Salute to the director and writer for this amazing idea....all actor acted very well ,they mesmerized us by their acting .I am sure his name and his thought will be "Raj" on us...It is worth to watch...Thanks...

Movie Review of Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti
           On the 71 Independence day I have attended The Flag Hoisting Ceremony at main administrative building of MKBU. Dr, Zala  who  has hoisted the flag than he gave the information about our freedom fighter and also he remembers our soldiers who are on the border for our safety .
           After this ceremony i attended the screening of the THRILLING movie Rang De Basanti .Which was arranged at English Department.I just became mesmerized after watching this film. first i would like to introduce the whole team of the movie.
         
           Director         :Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
           Writer            :Prasoon Joshi
           Release Date  :26 January 2006
           Language       :Hindi ,Punjabi ,English
           Actors            ;Amir khan - DJ , Chandrashekhar Azad
                                 ;Siddharth - Karan ,Bhagatsingh
                                 ;Sharman Joshi - Sukhi, Rajguru
                                 :Soha ali khan - Sonia ,Durga Vohra                            
                                 :Kunal Kapoor, Aslam, Ashfaqullah  khan
                                 : R Madhavan- Flight Lt. Ajay Rathod
                                 : Atul Kulkarni- Laxman Pandey ,Ramprasad Bismil
                                  : Alice Patten - Sue , Mckinley

                                  trailerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U5gGXvJxO8
                         

           First i would like to tell about  the meaning of the film's title - Rang de Basanti :Color of Sacrifice. The another meaning is 'Rang de Mohe' .

           Movie starts  with a British lady Sue comes to India to find an actors who can act in her documentary film.The Documentary or we can say Diary which is of her grandfather who were the jailer of the jail where Bhagatsingh ,Sukhdev and many more were imprisoned.Main theme of the film is Independence Movement of that time and how today's  youth are concern with the sacrifice of freedom fighters.
           Sue stays with Sonia at college .There she takes audition of the students but no one can feets in the character.After passing some time by chance she finds all that courageous freedom fighters images in Sonia's friends (DJ,Karan,Sukhi,Aslam) .So she meets all this friends and they all are busy in Dancing,Drinking,Racing and other unacedemic activity.She goes in party with them .While they all are enjoying party that time Laxman Pandey comes with his party's members and tell them to stop doing this all western activity.They all fights against each other and that time Police comes and try to catch them all but DJ gives money to the Police and Police leaves.The another thing about the film is there is story in the story. Initially we sees that friends who are not at all familiar with the sacrifice of the freedom fighter.May be they knows about them but they don't want to live that life or they have just not at all mind with the situation of  the country.But while doing that acting their souls starts changing and they start living a life like freedom fighters.The another story strats in the story .Lt, Ajay Rathod dies because of the defective parts of the plane .He is a friend of them and fiance of Sonia.They all comes to know that Behind all this incident Defence Minister and A business man is involved in this crime .The interesting thing  is that businessman is the father of karan.

            In  the end of the film they goes to India gate with the candle march for the justice of their friend.But  they all are beats by Police.Finally they all becomes violent as they all acted in the story of Bhagatsingh, Rajguru,and Chandrashekhar Azad. They planned to kill Defence Miniser.They becomes success in the plan .But they don't want to run away and they themselves goes to Radio Akashvani and accept that they have killed the defence minister.After that announcement we come to know that Karan also kills his father and they all are encount.


Main points of the film :
   
       The narrative technique of the movie is story within the story.
       Youth of India.
       Courageous mother.
       Womens also joins in the movement.
       Corruption.
       An outsider comes and teach us.
       Outsider mesmerized after seeing the style of corruption while it is normal for us.
       Police of the country.        
       Mythical use of character (Bhagatsingh ,Chandrashekhar Azad, etc)
       Relation between politician and business man .
       Use of true events.
       For them kranti means violence.
       Hindu Muslim relation.
       To fit the defective part.(all My Sons).
       Use of  public place for showing feelings.(In today's time social media).

Hamlet

Hamlet
                      : Thinking Activity :

 Introduction -
"Hamlet" is a tragedy written by Shakespeare.
             Between 1559 and1603-1604.(uncertain) Main character of the play is a Hamlet himself who is the Prince of the Denmark .Main theme of the play is a taking revenge of his father King Hamlet 's murder. This taking revenge (secred duty of medieval times) turns their kingdom into desert.

 1-How faithful is the movie to the original play?
 A movie "Hamlet"made by Kenneth Branagh is not fully faithful to the original play. Some of the things like a costume is a Victorian (18th century) costume. Setting is also of The England. Some of the scene (Hamlet and Ophelia 's bed scene) are not in the original play .Hamlet looks not young. This all things are added by the director. But dialogue vise it remains faithful.

 2-After watching the movie have your perception about play character or situation changed?
  Yes ,after watching the movie my perception about the play is changed. Before watching the movie I felt that the situations or setting of the play will be domestic. And Claudius is not suits to be the King.

 3-Do you feel aesthetic delight while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no can you explain with reasons?
  Yes, while watching the movie I felt aesthetic delight. We see Hamlet's behaviour is different towards all other characters. While he is alone, with Horatio, with Polonius, with Ophelia all the time he behaves differently, that shows human's nature. That is also reality.

  4- Do you feel catharsis while or after watching movie?If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no can you explain with reasons?
   Yes, I felt catharsis (The pleasure of Pity and Fear, Purgation, Purification) in the end of the movie. When Hamlet decides to take revenge or kill his uncle Claudius. Earlier he was in dilemma or we can say in over thinking but finally he gets ready to kill Claudius.

   5- Does screening of the movie help you in better understanding of the play?
     Obviously yes, we knows that A picture has a thousand words. By the screening we get good idea that how whole thing is going, whenever we feels Difficulty that time we can pause and solve the problem. May be we sees the movie with more interest than reading so that helps a lot. We can easily remebered the scene. Thus, it is good to screening of the movie.

   6- Was there any particular scene or moment in the movie that you will cherish life time?
       The scene between Hamlet and Horatio where Horatio tells Hamlet that don't go to the ghost because if you do as ghost said that will take you into melancholy and may be whole your kingdom will suffer. In the end we see he does as ghost says and his family, Kingdom everything becomes vain. So we can say that obeying or believing in wrong thing lets us in fall.

     7- If you are director what changes would you like to make in the remaking of movie on Shakespeare's "Hamlet"?
        I will make Hamlet more intellectual.So he will not take revenge. I will make Ophelia more courageous so she'll not becomes made and also give her full freedom. I will make Claudius character more effective. One more thing is that some times we feel bore while watching the movie so I will add some interesting things and remove unnecessary things.

    8- In the beginning of the movie camera rolls over the statue of King Hamlet out side the Elinsore castle. The movie ends with the similar sequence of the King Hamlet is hammered down to the dust. What sort of symbolism do you read in this?
    The whole Kingdom including his family goes to vain because of King Hamlet or we can say his statue who calls Prince Hamlet to take revenge and that is rigidity or determined decision let his kingdom in dust as his statue goes into dust.

   9- While studying the play through movie which approach you find more applicable to the play? Why? Give reasons with illustrations.
     Historical or biographical (It is based on true story), Feminist (Gertrude) , Moral and Philosophical (Hamlet and Horatio and Claudius ) ,Psychological  (Hamlet's behaviour towards other person) , Mythical all This   approaches we find more applicable during or watching the movie.

  10- Which of the above mentioned approaches appeals you more than other?Why?Give reasons.
       Moral and philosophical approaches appeals more than others. Because during whole play we see in Hamlet that he always thinks a lot before doing anything. Sometimes he thinks that let this all things going on as it is going. Claudius's prayer to the GOD is also the example of moral and philosophical approaches.u