Character Sketch

Sriram Character Sketch Mahatma Gandhi

Sriram By R. K. Narayan | Sriram Waiting For Mahatma Character

Character Sketch, Novel
Sriram Character Sketch Mahatma Gandhi
Sriram Character Sketch Waiting For Mahatma

          Sriram is the main Character and Protagonist of Waiting For the Mahatma, Which is written by a great Indian Novelist R. K. Narayan. The story of this novel is set in Malgudi, R. K. Narayan’s famous fictional village. The novel covers life in pre-independence India and the freedom struggle in the 1900s.

The Novel is woven around how its protagonist Sriram is changed from the state of ignorant and aimless youth to an acute and committed freedom fighter. At first, Sriram is an inspired person who can easily influence by anyone. At the opening of this novel, it is revealed that Sriram is an orphan; both his parents have died, his mother in childbirth, and his father in Mesopotamian as a soldier for the British Army. After his parent’s death, Sriram grows up under the loving care of his grandmother. When he is twenty, his grandmother hands over the fat sum of money. She had been saving in his name.

            Sriram is presented as a lazy and complacent young high school graduate living with his grandmother. He has no knowledge of the condition of the country. But once he meets Bharati and falls in love at first sight with her. She is a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and is involved in the freedom struggle.

            Sriram comes into contact with Gandhi through Bharati. The nearer he goes to Bharati the more he learns about Gandhi. Sriram becomes a non-violent soldier of Gandhi and his aim was to remain with Bharati. Gandhiji welcomed Sriram and told him:

“Before you aspire to derive the British form this country
 you must drive every vestige of violence form your system.
 You must train yourself to become a hundred percent
 ahimsa Soldier.”

            Gandhi could easily read what type of a man Sriram was. So he advised him to leave his materialist life and accept a spiritual life. Meanwhile Sriram, a pleasure-seeking man was totally changed into a freedom fighter and a follower of Gandhi. As part of propagating Gadhi’s message, especially Quit India, Sriram came to the village name Solur. He halted before a shop and brought two plantains and a bottle of Soda. The shopman told Sriram that he had a nice biscuit. Sriram asked him if the biscuit was English. Shopkeeper replied,

“Purely English biscuits which you cannot get for miles around.”

            Sriram asked, ‘Have you no sense of shame?

Sriram has transformed from a wayward selfish modern materialist to a spokesman of traditional values, swaraj, and nationality. In pursuance of Gandhi’s while Bharati arrested,  and Gandhi ji. Sriram meets Jagdish. In the touch, Jagdish Sriram became a violent soldier of freedom. He became a slave of Jagdish who was a follower of Subhash Chandra Bose.

            Sriram did many destructive works at the request of Jagdish. Soon he understood that by destroying things like setting fire to the records in half a dozen law courts, derailing a couple of trains, paralyzing the work in various schools, and exploding a crude bomb none could oust the British from India. He felt that Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent weapon was superior to the violent weapon. He was arrested under the Defence of Indian rule.

            The Materialist Sriram was converted into a spiritualist and patriot through the effort of Bharati and Gandhiji. Sriram’s name recalls that of the great hero of the Indian epic the Ramayana.

            In the plot of this, the transformation of the protagonist due to his meeting and falling in love with Bharati is significant. The path of the protagonist’s progress has been from a state of isolated individualism to a state of involvement with others and issues that transcends the self such as love and nationalism. The novel clearly shows how the personal life of people is affected by political events. Sriram and Bharati cannot consummate their relationship until India is independent.

            Thus, Waiting for the Mahatma’s character Sriram is an example of progress and growth. At one level, Sriram’s Character is an example of the progress of young, irresponsible carefree Sriram into a passionate lover, a responsible citizen of the country with a record of considerable sacrifice, and a term in jail to make him a complete patriot.

Are you struggling to keep up with your English Literature Coursework? Do you need detailed, customized notes to help you better understand the texts you’re studying? “Look no further! Our customized paid notes will help you achieve your study goals quickly.
Literature Notes

– Varsha Singh

Sriram By R. K. Narayan | Sriram Waiting For Mahatma Character Read More »

Character Sketch Of Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth Character Sketch | Character Sketch Of Lady Macbeth

Literature, Character Sketch, English Literature
Character Sketch Of Lady Macbeth
Character Sketch Of Lady Macbeth

Introduction

Lady Macbeth is one of the most powerful and dominating female characters in Shakespeare’s tragedy – Macbeth. She is the wife of the Scottish general and the play’s protagonist, Macbeth. Throughout the course of the play, she manipulates her husband Macbeth. She spurs him to commit murder. Lady Macbeth is shown to the audience as a loyal wife who wants the best for his husband, but at the same time, she is portrayed as a malicious character from the very beginning of the play. Some critics consider her The fourth Wicth of the drama. To Goethe, she is “The Super Witch”.

            The fact that three Weird Sisters’ predictions would not have become true without the supreme influence of Lady Macbeth.

            There are the following traits in Lady Macbeth’s Character –

Ambitious

            William Shakespeare the greatest dramatist of whole English Literature sketches the character of Lady Macbeth as an ambitious woman. She is as ambitious as her husband. The only difference between her ambition and that of her husband is that she is not ambitious for herself but for the sake of her husband. She wants him to wear the crown of Scotland. One of the critics named Mrs. Jameson says,

“It is particularly observable
 that in Lady Macbeth’s
 concentrated, strong nerved
 ambition, the ruling passion
 of her mind, there is
 yet a touch of woman
 she is ambitious less for
 herself than for husband.”

            In the first instance, she plans with her husband the murder of Duncan, in fact she takes the initiative in it. Thus Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman.

Strength of will

            Lady Macbeth excels even her husband in her strength of will, determination, and resourcefulness. Once the decision to murder king Duncan is taken, she knows no wavering or retreating back. No sense of morality, gratitude or compassion can deter her from striving to achieve her goal. This force of will made her bold, courageous irresistible, passionless cruel. She invokes the spiritual powers

 “Spirits
 That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
 And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
 of direst cruelty”

            She invokes the spirits to make her blood thick and stop up all access and passage to pity and remorse, so that no powers may

“Shake my fell purpose;
 nor keep pace between
 The effect and it”

It is right to say, that without her murder of the king would have been impossible.

Tactful

            Lady Macbeth is highly resourceful at the same time. She is tactful and does not lose her mental equilibrium even in the most critical situation. She advises her husband to,

“look like the innocent
 flower and be the
 serpent under it”.

She is a woman of  every practical wisdom:

“To beguile the time, look lie the time”

When Macbeth dreads his filthy hands she says:

“A little water clears up of this deed how easy is it the”

Her feminine Nature

            Yet she is essentially a woman possessing the essential feminine nature. She can wholly discard her feminine weakness in spite of her devilish will and unwavering determination. Her feminine nature fully possesses her in the sleepwalking scene. Every scene of murder has gone deep into her mind and heart. She recalls the event and shader at its very thought –

“Yet who have thought the old man
 To have had so much blood in him?”

Not Human Monster

            Lady Macbeth is not quite inhuman. It is a mistake to call her the “fourth width” in Macbeth. She is not inhuman by nature. At one place she says:

“Here is the smell of blood still; 
 all the perfumes of Arabia will
 not sweeten this little hand”

  Conclusion

          Thus, Lady Macbeth is one of the major characters of the play ‘Macbeth’. She is widely considered to be one of Shakespeare’s most memorable and fascinating female characters.

Are you struggling to keep up with your English Literature Coursework? Do you need detailed, customized English Literature Notes to help you better understand the texts you’re studying? “Look no further! Our customized paid notes will help you achieve your study goals quickly.
Literature Notes

– Varsha Singh

Lady Macbeth Character Sketch | Character Sketch Of Lady Macbeth Read More »

“Feminism” reference to Second sex

Feminism Reference to The Second Sex | The Second Sex Summary

Literature, Character Sketch, Critical Appreciation, English Literature
“Feminism” reference to Second sex
“Feminism” reference to Second sex

Introduction

“Feminism” is a movement influenced by the ideas postulated, popularized, and precipitated by thinkers and authors like “Simone de Beauvoir”, ‘Alice Walker’, ‘Elaine Showalter’, ‘Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Millett, and others. It is a modern movement expressing protest against male domination and involves sociological and political theories concerning gender difference issues. The term ‘Feminism’ was first used with regard to the issues of equality and the Women’s Rights Movement.

Wave Of Feminism

            Jawaharlal Nehru once said, “You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.”

Women of any nation are the mirror of its civilization. Feminism has experienced two waves. The First Wave also called liberal feminism, usually refers to the social movement in that women fought for their legal vote rights and basic civil rights in America and Britain from 1820 to 1920.

The second wave is also known as the women’s liberation moment, which focused on the differences between females and males and discussed the origin and operation of gender discrimination in ideology, culture, and society. It was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades.

            The modern feminist movement origins from “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir,

            “One is not born, but rather
             Becomes a woman. No 
             Biological psychological or
             Economic fate determines
             that the human female
             presents in society, it is
             civilization as a whole. That
              produces this creature,
             intermediate between male
             and eunuch, which is
            describes as feminine”.

The Second Sex Feminism

“The Second Sex” is one of the best-known works of the French existentialist “Simone de Beauvoir”. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and is often regarded as a significant work of feminist philosophy. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months. She published the book in two volumes – “Fact and Myths” and “Lived Experience.”

Part one is “Destiny” in which she first describes “Biological Data”, the relationship of the ovum to sperm in all kinds of creatures fish, insects mammals. Then Beauvoir proceeds to the human being, comparing the physiology of men and women and saying that women are weaker than men for example, in muscular strength, with fewer red blood cells and a lesser respiratory capacity.

Part two is “History” in which Beauvoir describes two factors explaining the evolution of women’s condition participation in production and freedom from reproductive slavery. She describes man’s gradual domination of women and eventually the opinion of ancient Greeks like Pythagoras who wrote: –

             “There is a good principle
                          that created order, light
                         and man, and a bad
                         principal that created
                         chaos  darkness and
                         women.”

 She also examines the spread of birth control methods and the history of abortion.

Part Three is “Myths” Simone also writes about women’s menstruation, virginity, and female sexuality including copulation, marriage, motherhood, and prostitution. In mythological literature “women are considered as Goddess”. Still, women have to fight with this society for their rights to which only they have the right. Arthur Rimbaud writes hopefully “One day, women can become fully human beings when a man gives her freedom.” Simone also quoted:

“Her wings are cut and
             then she is blamed for
             not knowing how to fly.”

            In the second volume “Lived Experience”, Beauvoir analyses how girls are typically treated throughout their childhood. She contrasts a girl’s upbringing with a boy who at age 3 or 4 is told she is a “little girl”. A girl is taught to be a woman and “Feminine”. Simone described that females only get dignity in only two works 1st is in household work and 2nd one is to provide bed service to their husbands according to their mood.

Women are always expected to be passive and submissive while men are encouraged to be active. The day when it will be possible  for the woman to love in her strength and not love in her strength and not in her weakness, not to escape from herself but to find herself, not out of resignation but to affirm herself, love will become for her as for man the source of life and not a mortal danger.”

Conclusion

            Thus, in the early 20th century, women’s political, social, and economic choices in France were limited due to patriarchal dominance, in almost all aspects of life and business, including the publishing industry. Despite these challenges, de  Beauvoir’ were able to break through these challenges, especially with a book such as “The Second Sex”.

            Although the book “The Second Sex” received much criticism from notable literary figures, the book also praises and supports many others and most importantly women within the feminist movement. Beauvoir’s book played an important role in the second wave of the “Feminist Movement”, especially after being published in the United States.

Are you struggling to keep up with your English Literature Coursework? Do you need detailed, customized English Literature Notes to help you better understand the texts you’re studying? “Look no further! Our customized paid notes will help you achieve your study goals quickly.
Literature Notes

– Varsha Singh

Feminism Reference to The Second Sex | The Second Sex Summary Read More »