I. A. Richards is the most influential Critic in twentieth-century Anglo-American Criticism. He along with T. S. Eliot regarded as the founder or father of New Criticism. He was born in 1893. He was a student of Moral Science at Cambridge University and his experience as a teacher proved very fruitful. Among the modern I. A. Richards is the only critic who has formulated a systematic and complete theory of literary art. The study of the text on which new criticism is based was started by no another than Richards himself. All new critics, whether it is John Crow Ranson, Cleanth Brooks, William K Wimsatt, and Robert Penn Warren are much influenced by the work of Ivor Armstrong Richards.
As A Critic Works
As a critic, I. A. Richards is remembered for five important books, which he wrote either independently or in collaboration with others. Among such books include – The Foundation Of Aesthetics, The Meaning Of Meaning, The Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism, and Coleridge On Imagination.
The first book The Foundation Of Aesthetics is published in 1922. It has been written in collaboration with two friends Ogden and James Wood. In this book, Richard tries to give his analysis of the concept of Aesthetic Beauty.
His second book entitled The Meaning of Meaning was published in 1923. Richard wrote this book too in collaboration with Ogden. In this book, Richard distinguishes between the symbolic use of language in Science and its emotive use in poetry.
Richard’s third book The Principles of Literary Criticism is the most outstanding work of English Criticism. This book came out in 1924 and created almost a revolution in the field of English Literary Criticism. In this book I. A. Richard formulated a systematic and complete theory of poetry. He also explains his psychological theory of value and explores the emotive language of Poetry.
Richard’s Practical Criticism was published in 1929 and it is based on his lecture room experiments conducted in Cambridge. According to him a poet writes to communicate and language is the means of that communication language consists of words so the study of words is significant to understand the meaning.
The meaning of words depends on:
◽ Sense ◽ Feeling ◽ Tone ◽ Intention
Sense
By Sense, it meant something that is communicated by the plain literal meaning of the words.
Feeling
Feeling refers to emotions, emotional attitudes, desire, and will pleasure. Words express feelings.
Tone
Tone means the writer’s attitude towards his audience. The writer chooses his words and arranges them keeping in mind the taste of his readers.
Intention
Speaker intention or purpose modifies the speech. It is the effects that one tries to produce.
“The Sound Of a word has much to do with the feeling it evokes.”
According to I. A. Richards, There are three types of Good Critic:
Firstly, A Critic should be a learned person. He has strong control over words and the effect they produce.
Secondly, he must be a sound judge of values and have adequate knowledge of psychology.
Thirdly, he must be able to distinguish experiences from one another.
I. A. Richards himself possesses these qualities. Richard did a great service to literary criticism by linking it with psychology.
His later publication included Coleridge On Imagination published in 1934. I. A. Richard gave us six distinct senses of the word Imagination.
Production of Image.
The use of figurative Language.
The Narrower sense.
Inventiveness imagination.
The Scientific imagination.
The Sense of musical delight.
In simpler form, I. A. Richards says that a poet arranges his experiences and lays them in a style that is not possible for an ordinary person. So the poet always does it better.
Conclusion
Thus, we can say that Richard has done a great service to literary criticism by linking it with psychology. A number of scholars have emerged as critics and interpreted literature in order to help a common reader. But I. A. Richards is considered the pioneer of them. His contribution to the field of Criticism is incomparable and his works influenced a lot of modern critics.
Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King is the play that was written by the famous Greek author Sophocles in 420 B.C. It is probably the most famous tragedy ever written. It is known by various titles including Oedipus Rex, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus Tyrannus. The play Oedipus is a trilogy of Oedipus written in three plays: Oedipus The King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. There are three plays also known as Theban Plays. It describes Oedipus’s tale beginning from his appointment as the king of Thebes after answering the riddles of the sphinx until the fall of Oedipus and later the tragedies of his children suffer.
About The Poet
The author of this play Sophocles was one of three great ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. Only seven of his 123 plays have survived in complete form. Among his major works included- Ajax, Antigone, The Trachiniae, Oedipus The King, Philoetetes, and Oedipus at Colonus.
Analysis Of The Play
The play starts in the city of Thebes, Citizens are dying from the plague, crops fail, women are dying in childbirth and their babies are stillborn. The people of Thebes gather along with a priest and other elders to request Oedipus, the king to ask for help because he saved them once from the sphinx too. The Sphinx was a monster with a woman’s head, lioness body, eagle’s wings, and serpent’s tale. The Sphinx stood at the entrance to the city of Thebes and used to ask riddles from the people who came across her riddles.
Oedipus solved her riddle and she killed herself. People made Oedipus their king as he was brave and saved them from the monster. As their former king was murdered so Oedipus got married to Jocasta, the widowed queen, and became the king of Thebes.
Oedipus has sent his brother-in-law Creon to the house of Apollo to ask the Oracle about this matter. Creon returns with the Orcale’s news for the plague to be lifted from the city, the murderer of Laius must be discovered and punished. Oedipus promises everyone that he will find the man who killed their king and caused the plague and ensures that he will punish him for his deeds. The priest and the people become satisfied and leave.
Oedipus announces that if the murderer is present in Thebes, he can come forward and admit his crime. However, he promises not to kill the person if he comes forward to surrender and he only suggests banishment for him. The Chorus suggests Oedipus call Teiresias, the blind prophet, to resolve this matter.
When Teireslias arrives, he claims he knows the killer but refuses to tell. Oedipus forces him to tell but he continuously refuses the king saying that the truth will only bring pain to him and nothing. He also advises the king to abandon his search for the killer. Oedipus gets enraged and accuses Teiresias of the murder saying that he is the murderer. Oedipus threatens to kill him and hence he is forced to tell the truth. Teiresias tells that Oedipus is the killer of King Laius.
Oedipus doesn’t trust him and considers it just nonsense. He considers it a plot of Creon against him and Oedipus believes that Creon has paid—Teiresias to say these things. Oedipus orders him to leave. Teiresian then leaves saying his last riddle. He tells that the murderer is in front of them, he is the killer of his father and the husband of his mother, he is the brother of his children and the son of his wife.
When Creon enters, he claims that he never thinks of harming king Oedipus and now he has heard rumors that the king accuses him of treachery. Then Oedipus appears, and he orders to execute of Creon because of conspiring against him. Jocasta, the wife of Oedipus and the sister of Creon requests the king to spare his life and let him go. Jocasta asks Oedipus not to take the prophet and their prophecies seriously because they are never accurate.
She starts telling him about one of the Oracles who came to king Laius and said to them that King Laius will be killed by his son. So they gave their child to a shepherd to kill him. Everyone knows that the king was killed by someone robber at the crossroads when he was on his way to Delphi.
Her story troubles Oedipus because he also killed a stranger at a place where roads met. Then he went to an oracle to ask him about reality. The Oracle told him that according to his fate, he will kill his father and marry her mothers. Then suddenly an old messenger arrives from Corinth with the news that Oedipus’s father, king Polybus, has died. It seems his prophecy might not come true but he remains worried because his mother is still alive.
The messenger tells him that the king and queen of Corinth were not his real parents. The messenger himself brought Oedipus as a baby to the royal family as a gift after a shepherd found the boy in the mountains and gave him to the messenger.
Jocasta begs Oedipus to abandon his search for his origin but Oedipus insists he must know the story of his birth. Jocasta cries out in agony and leaves. The shepherd arrives and reveals that he disobeyed the order to kill the infant son of Laius and Jocasta, and instead gave the baby to the messenger.
That baby was Oedipus, who killed his father Laius and married his mother. Queen Jocasta kills herself seeing her body, Oedipus becomes more depressed. He feels severe pain as the bloodstream starts flowing through her eyes. He becomes blind forever. Oedipus leaves the city as he announced that the punishment for Laius, the Killer will only be banishment. So he acts upon his words.
Conclusion
Thus, the play Oedipus Rex or Oedipus The King has several themes such as – Fate, Individual will, Pity and Fear, Pleague and Health, Self-discovery and Memories of the Past, Hubris, Power, Search for Truth, Guilt and Shame, Ignorance, Justice as well as Blind Faith.
The Sunne Rising, also known as The Sun Rising is a metaphysical poem as well as a love poem set in the speaker’s bedroom. The poem was written by John Donne who was a great English essayist, Poet, and philosopher of the 18th Century. He is also known as the founder of Metaphysical poetry. John Donne’s other famous metaphysical poems are The Flea, The Good Morrow, and Holly Sonnets.
structure Of The Poem
Present Poem The Sun Rising is a thirty lines poem with three stanzas containing ten lines. With irregular line length and regular rhyme scheme of ABBACDCDEE. The meter is also varied.
Themes Of The Poem
The Sun Rising poem revolves around the themes of love and appreciation. Love has never-ending power, and it is not bound to any restrictions of nature. The poet is addressing the sun directly. Love and friendship are not bound by the motion of the sun. He praises and accolades the beauty of his beloved.
The Sun Rising Poem Analysis
In the first stanza poem has a dramatic situation, the same as most often in his poems. The speaker gets angry with the rising sun and tells the sun not to disturb him and his beloved in making love. The tone of the poem is striking and angry. The poet addresses the sun by saying – you are a fool, busy and uncontrollable.
When we (means lovers) are in bed why you disturbed us through your rays and peep into my room? Here poet raises a question. Do you want lovers to go according to your motion? No, and never, love is associated with such barriers. Go and wake up late school boys, huntsman and farmers go to work. Poet further says:
“Love all alike, no season knows nor clime; Nor hours, days, months, which are the rays of time.”
Here poet means love is not bound by climate and neither seasons nor it is connected with the pieces of times, hours days, and months.
The second stanza is about the wholehearted appreciation of the beloved. He can fade the sun into clouds in one second by closing his eyes but he does not lose sight of his beloved. The poet exaggerated in the fifth line by saying my beloved eyes are shiner than you. He says whether east India or west all the things are laying with me. In order to enjoy your go and come yesterday.
In the third stanza, the poet continues the direct address towards to the sun. He says my beloved is my state and I am the king of that state. This means the poet firmly says that he is like a king as he possesses the beauty and true love of his beloved. For him, all the honors and wealth are nothing in comparison to his beloved.
Pitying the sun the speaker says the sun is fully not happy as the loving is, shine its job is to keep the world warm, and in its old age it wants easier work, so all it has to do is to shine on the speaker’s bed where his beloved is lying. This way his job is easily fulfilled as for the speaker his beloved is the world and by shining on the bed I it is shining on the world, which we can understand by these lines:
“Shine here to us and thou art everywhere; This bed thy center is these walls thy sphere;”
Poet means to say for the sun their bed is the center of the world and the walls of the room are the orbit of the Sun.
Conclusion
Thus in the poem, The Sun Rising the poet highlights the importance and significance of Love. Love is more powerful and brighter than the Sun. Although John Donne is not a romantic poet. His poems can be divided into two groups. Love poems as well as divine or holy poems. The present poem The Sunne Rising is the perfect example of a Love Poem.
My Last Duchess is probably Robert Browning’s most popular poem, which deals with Victorian social issues about the condition of women. It first appeared in 1842 in Dramatic Lyrics by the title Italy. Seven years later, the title was changed to “My Last Duchess” in 1849. The major reason for the fame of My Last Duchess is that it is probably the first example of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue.
The poem is about an Italian Duke, the Duke of Ferrara (also known as Alfonza II), who supposedly killed his first wife and is now planning another wedding to another woman. He displays a painting of his dead wife in his house and reveals it to a visitor. The poem explores the Duke’s, Obsessive Love.
About Robert Browning
Robert Browning is a prolific Victorian- Era playwright. He is widely recognized as the master of Dramatic Monologue. A Dramatic Monologue is a type of poetry in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader. Browning’s monologues present a different aspect of love and its intensity.
Browning first major work Pauline is published in 1833. When he reads some poem by Elizabeth Barret, he falls in love with her without seeing her. His world-famous works included – Man and Woman, The Ring and The Book, Dramatic Personae, and Prospice.
Historical Background
The poem was written during the Industrial Revolution when society was starting to see social mobility in terms of class as well as gender. Women were starting to demand equality. Before women have no legal rights, they would become the property of their husbands. The only way for a woman to gain status is through her husband. When Browning wrote this poem he had this thing in mind so through this poem he tried to explore the injustice of the male dominant society.
My Last Duchess As a Dramatic Monologue
The Poem My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue. It maintains the tradition of dramatic monologue and that is the presence of a speaker and the listener. The speaker in the poem is considered to be the Duke of Ferrara and the listener is the guest who comes to visit the Duke.
The important feature of the dramatic monologue is the abrupt beginning. The poem starts somewhere in the middle of the poem,
“That’s My Last Duchess Painted on the wall.”
Another characteristic of the dramatic monologue in this poem is the psychological analysis of the Duke and Duchess. Robert Browning here successfully analysis Duke’s psychology and shows us that the Duke is an egocentric, possessive husband, a cruel and vengeful person, a proud aristocrat, a greedy bridegroom, and an alienated person. He loves artwork more than humans.
However, the poem throws insight into social realism as a dramatic monologue. The Victorian era was a class-conscious society and especially women were bounded to certain conventional norms.
Moreover, Browning sketches the character of the Duchess through a dramatic monologue. The Duke tells his guests that Duchess liked everything and everyone she saw which reflects that she was sleeping around with another man. He even further argues that she gives an equal amount of smiles to another man who passes her and he tries to sketch her as an immoral woman.
Structure and Form
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning is a Dramatic Monologue written in five sections. The poem is written mostly in iambic pentameter. This means that the lines contain five sets of two beats, the first of which is unstressed and the second of which of is stressed. There are a few examples of trochee and other stresses.
Themes Of The My Last Duchess
The role of women in society and relationship
Deception.
Ownership, Power, Cruelty, Greed, and Jealousy.
Control Over A Partner and Dominance in a relationship.
Art and Influence.
Setting Of The Poem
The poem is set in the Italian town of Ferrara during the Renaissance period. The Duke who is also the speaker is supposedly Alfonso the second Alfonso is the fifth Duke of Ferrar and he lived during the 16th century. The Duchess is considered to be Lucrezia de Medici, the Wife of Alfonso.
Analysis Of The Poem
In the opening lines of the poem, the speaker talks about His Last Duchess. The speaker is a Duke and he is addressing an unknown or silent listener. The Duke points towards the painting of his Duchess on the wall who is dead now. The picture of the Duchess is so beautifully painted that the speaker says it seems that she is standing alive in front of him.
The Duke praises the painting and calls it a masterpiece. He also tells the listener about the artist or the painter who produced this amazing piece of wonder. He says that Fra Pandolf worked hard and it took him an entire day to complete it and give it a realistic effect. The painting seems as if the Duchess is alive and standing in front of the Duke.
The Duke then invites the listener to sit down and focus on the beauty of the painting. He asks him to examine the painting and admire its art.
The Duke tells the listener that he told him the name of the painter because everyone who looks at this painting, wants to know about the person who produced this piece of art. The People or the stranger who see this painting, also want to question how the painter portrayed so much depth and passion on the face of the Duchess and gave her expressions that look absolutely real. The Duke is only allowed to draw the curtain back that hangs over the painting. It means that only Duke can see this painting or show it to anyone else if he wants.
He further tells the listener that he is not the first one who is surprised to see this beautiful art.
The Duke keeps on addressing his silent listener and this time he calls him Sir. He explains the expression of the Duchess in the painting and tells the listener that the smile and the blush that he can see on her cheeks were not because of her husband’s presence. The Duchess was not happy because the Duke was around. Something else was the reason behind the Duchess’s Joy and Duke seemed jealous of these things because he always wanted her to have these expressions of joy on her face just for her husband.
The Duke starts guessing the reason behind the Duchess’s happiness. He suggests that maybe she smiled because Fra Pandolf praised her beauty. Duke criticizes his Duchess saying that she thought that courtesy or polite comments are enough to make her happy. It shows that the Duke didn’t want her to be happy or blush. On trivial compliments of everyone. He only wanted her to be happy in her husband’s presence or on his compliment.
The Duke next explains the nature of his late Duchess to the listener. He says that the Duchess had a gentle heart, she liked and praised everything that she looked at. In short, it was very easy for everyone to make her happy or to impress her with anything. In these lines, the Duke is not praising the Duchess but he is criticizing her.
The above lines give the idea that Duchess was very kind and down to earth but she was not what the Duke wanted his wife to be.
Next, the Duke calls his listener Sir and tells him further about the behavior of his Duchess. He tells if he brought her any present, brooch, or jewelry that she could wear on her chest, she used to smile or thanked him for the present but she became equally happy on trivial things like watching the sun, setting in the west, the branch of cherries, that some random fool brings for her from the orchard or the white mule on which she rode around the terrace.
Duke further tells him that she praised all these things equally or blushed in a similar way each time. It shows that though the Duke expected a special response from his wife yet the Duchess treated everything equally. Now it is clear that the Duke wanted his Duchess to pay special attention to him but she treated him equally and always responded to him just as she used to respond to any other common person or thing.
The Duke then says that she used to thank men. He had no problem with the Duchess thanking everyone but he didn’t like her way to do that. The Duke gave her nine hundred years old family names and prestige. He gave her a status by making her his Duchess that she never had before marrying the Duke but she didn’t even value this gift of his superior to any other minor thing done for her by any common person. There was a relationship gap between the Duke and the Duchess, this is why he never told her anything about her behavior.
The Duke tells the listener that he admits his Duchess was always nice to him. She treated him well. Then the Duke again asks the question who passed her without receiving the same smile? There was nothing special in her smile for Duke. The Duke admits that he couldn’t bear it more so he gave commands against his own Duchess and as a result, all her smiles stopped. It gives the idea that he gave commands to end her life so that she could no longer be able to smile.
The Duke then ends his victory and again points towards the beautiful portrait saying that now there she stands and it looks like she is alive. Duke asks listeners to stand up and follow him so that they can go and meet other guests. The Duke then starts talking about the listener’s master “Count”.
The Duke expects the count to give the dowry of her daughter as much as he demands. It suggests that the Duke is now getting married again to the daughter of the count and he talks to the servant to him about the matter of dowry.
The Duke ends his discussion and they start going down, while on their way the Duke draws the attention of the servant toward another beautiful piece of art in his gallery. He points towards the statue of the God Neptune who is shown taming his sea horse. The Duke also tells the servant about the artist who made it. He tells him that Claus of Innsbruck made this statue with bronze, especially for him.
Conclusion
Thus, Robert Browning’s poem My Last Duchess is a haunting portrayal of the destructive nature of power, jealousy, and possessiveness. The Duke’s words and actions reveal, a man consumed with the desire for control and power over others, ultimately leading to the destruction of his wife. Although the final line of the poem,
“Notice Neptune, though Taming a sea horse, thought a rarity which clause of Innsbruck cast in Brozne for me!”
These lines are chilling reminders of the Duke’s cold and calculating nature.
The Rape of The Lock is a witty satire against the fops and belles, fashionable dandies, and ladies of Pope’s age. It is also a Satire on the society of that day. But the section chosen by the poet is the aristocratic section of society. The poem is the most powerful satire against feminine frivolity. This poem was a response to a request that John Caryll made to Alexander Pope. He was his friend who requested him to write a poem.
The first version of this poem was published in 1712. It had only two cantos then. But its immense and popular reception by the public encourage Pope to add more cantos and thus the poem appeared in the present form of five cantos in 1714. Alexander Pope wrote this poem to make fun of society that was wasting time in useless activities. So The Rape of The Lock is a mirror to the 18th-century aristocratic society.
Why The Rape of the Lock can be called a social satire?
The reason why Pope’s The Rape of the Lock can be called a social satire is given Below:
Satire On Vanity of 18th century England Society
In The Rape of The Lock, the poet explores the vanity of English aristocratic society, he exposes their excessive beliefs in their own abilities and attractiveness to others. On one hand, he talks about fashionable men whereas, on the other hand, he also mentions that Ladies were not different from men in this regard.
The Poet creates war-like scenes in the poem to ridicule society and to show them they make preparation for useless activities as they are going to war. He does not target a single person nor does he talks about any specific professions but as a whole; it is the beauty of The Rape of The Lock that it is a complete social satire due to which it has a universal appeal. Although the poem has not been ever judged from the psychological perspective yet it is a matter of fact that the poet shows the mental psyche of those people through social satire in his poem The Rape of The Lock. He writes
“With varying vanities, from every part, They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart”
Satire on Males and Females
In the poem, the poet creates a female character named Belinda. Although in the complete poem, he talks only about her yet he means to say every single female of that era who belonged to the aristocratic class. On the opposite, he creates a male character name, Baron. He uses him to show the routine life of gentlemen. England has been known for the people with heroic deeds for many years, however, the lifestyle that the gentlemen adopt in this poem is entirely opposite of heroism. In the very beginning of the poem, the poet starts showing the laziness of the upper class.
Behind wakes up from sleep and sleeps again. It means that she has nothing to worry about. She prepares herself for a party just like a soldier prepares for a battle. Thus, it is a social satire on noble ladies of that century in The Rape of the Lock.
There is no denying the fact that women were busy impressing men and men were trying their best to make good impressions in front of the ladies. Women’s curiosity has been shown towards puffing, makeup, using cosmetics, drying hair, petting, etc. Whereas men on the other hand are shown as useless, idle, lazy, unwise, foolish, and hollow-minded who think flirting with ladies as their primary moto.
Satire on Materialistic Relationship
Relationships between men and women were not real at all. The poet sheds light on this issue too. Romeo and Juliet once lived there, however, the poet does not portray any such relationship between anyone. He shows that the people were busy in making affairs and they were pathetic to a real relationship.
The Rape of the Lock in actuality is the Rape Of Honour and a social satire that honor had no value in the eyes of those ladies. It seems that the poet was living in the 21st century. These days people are living in Living Relationships without marrying, however, that was started many years ago though it was not usual for everyone. The poet has shown this in his poem if we deeply study it with symbolic meaning.
The poet targets every relationship. People do not like the friendship of those people who are inferior to them. When Belinda’s lack was cut, her friends left her alone, the incident is a social satire on the emptiness in relationships between the people of that era.
Conclusion
Thus, we can say that the poet does not directly uses any word against the standards of 18th-century England society; rather he used the technique of social satire in his poem The Rape of The Lock to spread awareness about the follies of their people. He covers almost everything in the poem. From every angle, The Rape of The Lock seems a poem that best defines the technique of Social Satire.
