3 Confronting reality by reading fantasy

3 Confronting reality by reading fantasy

It was a quarter of a century ago that Bruno Bettelheim, the child psychologist, accounted for what may be the most impressive and otherwise mysterious publishing phenomenon of the season: the fact that the Harry Potter mysteries by the previously unknown J. K. Rowling are turning out to be among the best-selling books in history.

In his classic study of children's literature, ''The Uses of Enchantment,'' Bettelheim denigrated most children's books as mere entertainments, lacking in psychological meaning. The great exception to this rule was fairy tales, to which Bettelheim attributed something close to magical power. ''More can be learned from them about the inner problems of human beings,'' he wrote, ''and of the right solutions to their predicaments in any society than from any other type of story within a child's comprehension.''

That was quite a statement at the time, applied as it was to a form of literature that depicted fantastical worlds, seemed unnecessarily scary, depended on unrealistically happy endings and had very little claim on high literary culture.

But Bettelheim's main idea was that children live with greater terrors than most adults can understand, and fairy tales both give uncanny expression to that terror and show a way to a better future. The same can be said of the Harry Potter books, and that could well be the reason why the three published so far occupy the first, second and third places on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list, something that no other author in living memory has achieved before.

Ms. Rowling's books are not fairy tales in the conventional Grimm Brothers sense, and they are not as good either. They lack the primal, brutal terror of the Grimm stories, and it was the expression given to that terror that was at the heart of their emotional usefulness for Bettelheim. The Harry Potter stories are light, modern tales, Indiana Jones-like fantasies for children.

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When I began to read them, having heard how great they were from my several addicted nephews, it was hard for me to understand what all the sensation was about. Conservative Christians have criticized the Harry Potter books, saying they lead their young readers in the direction of paganism. For me the problem was that Ms. Rowling's world of sorcerers, gravity-defying broomsticks, spells, potions, unicorns and centaurs, goblins, trolls, three-headed dogs and other monstrous and magical creations seemed so divorced from any reality as to kill off the narrative excitement. But whereas adults see in Harry Potter a fairly conventional supernatural adventure story -- one not nearly as brilliant or literary as, say, ''The Hobbit'' or the ''Alice in Wonderland'' books -- something more fundamental evidently reverberates in the minds of children, something as powerful as the witch of ''Hansel and Gretel.'' And read from this point of view, the Harry Potter books do indeed contain many of the elements that Bettelheim identified in the Grimm tales. Ms. Rowling's success in this sense may show the continued power of the form and the archetypes that those long-ago Germans perfected.

The key here is, not surprisingly, the hero, Harry himself, who is 10 years old in Ms. Rowling's first book. One of the first things we learn about him is that his parents died when he was an infant; he is being raised by an aunt and uncle who are dumb, stiff and uncomprehending and who treat him with stingy cruelty. Following Bettelheim's model, this would be very similar to the archetype of the evil stepmother as a representative of the ''bad'' parent who frighteningly and uncontrollably replaces the ''good'' parent. What children see at the outset in the Harry Potter books is a lonely boy being raised by evil people, and all parents seem evil to their children at least some of the time.

Unknown to Harry is that his real mother and father, who died when he was a baby, were important sorcerers who were killed by a certain Voldemort, the evil genius of this story, who has been trying to seize power for eons. Here Ms. Rowling's adventure takes on a primal quality that links it with many classic tales, from ''Great Expectations'' to ''Star Wars'': there are a family secret and a family struggle passed down from one generation to another, and a lot of meaning comes when the true nature of that struggle is revealed.

What is important in the fairy tale scheme is that Harry's situation contains many of the inchoate fears of childhood, not just the parental abandonment fear. Harry is skinny and weak and wears glasses patched together with tape, and in this sense he seems to stand in for the vulnerability, the powerlessness that children feel. He lives in a cupboard under the stairs, since his spoiled cousin has both of the children's bedrooms upstairs, so in a sense he is expelled, like Hansel and Gretel, even from the evil home he has.

Most conspicuously, Harry is picked on by his cousin, Dudley, the son of Harry's guardians, who treat Dudley with blatant favoritism. There could hardly be a stronger echo of another common fairy tale theme, exemplified by Cinderella's evil stepsisters.

To Bettelheim the conflict between Cinderella and her stepsisters represents the intense sibling rivalries that children feel and the fears that these rivalries give rise to. Fairy tales, with their eventual happy endings, point a way out for the child who otherwise, Bettelheim said, has no hope ''that he will be rescued, that those who he is convinced despise him and have power over him will come to recognize his superiority.''

In the early stages of Harry's story the disadvantages he feels are partly recapitulated outside his home. After he learns that he is somebody, the son of famous sorcerers, Harry goes off to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There he discovers that other students all seem to know more than he does, that they are insiders while he is the quintessential outsider.

One boy in particular is the head of a small gang that picks on him. A teacher seems intensely and for no reason to dislike him. But gradually Harry emerges as an independent figure whose talents and skills are widely recognized. The rest of Ms. Rowling's first volume shows Harry assuming his true identity, gaining the courage to overcome obstacles and winning a battle against the adversaries of his ancestors.

Web Resources

1) 

https://mind-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/reading-fantasy-books-could-make-you-better-person-0158479/

2) https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/30/books/critic-s-notebook-the-reality-of-the-fantasy-in-the-harry-potter-stories.html

3) https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/30/books/critic-s-notebook-the-reality-of-the-fantasy-in-the-harry-potter-stories.html

2 Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry Potter

2 Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry Potter

The term 'pure-blood' refers to a family or individual without Muggle (non-magic) blood. The concept is generally associated with Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, whose aversion to teaching anybody of Muggle parentage eventually led to a breach with his three fellow founders, and his resignation from the school.WHERE THE TERM 'PURE-BLOOD' ORIGINATED FROM

Pure-blood is the term for wizards and witches who claim to have no Muggle or Muggle-borns in their family tree; however, when traced back far enough, nearly every family tree had some non-magical ancestors.

By 1995, the number of pure-blood families were declining. Most pure-blood families were related by then in an effort, by some, to retain their status by marrying only other pure-blood families, but it had eventually led to inbreeding. While some families, such as the Malfoys, had allowed for marrying half-bloods, others such as the Gaunts, Lestranges, and Blacks, required their family to only marry pure-blood individuals, or those with no Muggle or Muggle-born ancestors. This refusal of marrying Muggles or Muggle-borns had led to difficulty in propagating their families.

The pure-blood families are all interrelated. If you’re only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods, your choice is very limited; there are hardly any of us left.SIRIUS BLACK'S OVERVIEW OF BLOOD PURITY

Pure-blood individuals are people who have no Muggles or Muggle-borns as parents or grandparents. Traditionalist pure-bloods like to keep the generations "pure" by breeding with other pure-bloods and are generally the ones who use the term 'Mudblood', a term considered derogatory by the wizarding world. Families of pure-blood status are often avoiding marrying their heirs off to Muggle-Borns and Half-Bloods, believing that the next generation could lose their capability to perform magic. Mudblood means Muggle-born, suggesting they have dirty blood and thus have no right to be a witch/wizard. Pure-bloods who do not share these prejudices are considered "blood traitors" by the ones that do.

In the 1930s, a wizard, commonly believed to be Cantankerus Nott, published a Pure-Blood Directory featuring twenty-eight families he believed to be pure-blooded, though many objected to this designation.

So-called pure-blood families maintain their alleged purity by disowning, banishing, or lying about Muggles or Muggle-borns on their family trees. Then they attempt to foist their hypocrisy upon the rest of us by asking us to ban works dealing with the truths they deny. There is not a witch or wizard in existence whose blood has not mingled with that of Muggles...

Black Family Tapestry

Some pure-blood families can trace their pure-blood status through many generations of magical ancestors and deny ever having any Muggles within the family, such as the House of Black, the motto of which is "Toujours pur", meaning "Always (or Still) Pure". However, the truth is that if they ever did exist in the past, true pure-blood wizards and witches do not exist today. They merely erase Squibs, Muggle-borns, and Muggles from their family trees.

Half-bloods who consider blood purity very important also hide their Muggle ancestry, clinging to the magical heritage they do have.Many Death Eaters are believed to have done this, and their leader himself took on the name Lord Voldemort out of a desire to not keep the name of his "filthy Muggle father".It is likely that Voldemort told his followers he was a pure-blood, or that most of the Death Eaters knew better than to question Riddle's blood status, given the reaction of Bellatrix Lestrange to Harry's "accusation" that he was in fact a half-blood.

Web Resources

1)https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Muggles%27_Guide_to_Harry_Potter/Magic/Half-blood

2) https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Pure-blood

3) 

https://dharabarayjada.blogspot.com/2019/03/discourse-on-purity-of-blood-in-harry.html?m=1

1 Feminist reading of Harmione’s character in Harry Potter

1 Feminist reading of Harmione’s character in Harry Potter

Without Hermione, Harry would’ve died in book 1,” read another.

In 1997, readers were first introduced to the brilliant and bookish character in Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone ― a young witch born to Muggle (non-magical) parents, with lots of “bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.” In 2017, Hermione’s face is on protest signs around the world. She’s been reimagined as the center of the Harry Potter series, tasked with battling the patriarchy. You can even purchase posters, T-shirts and embroidered crafts on Etsy that ask “What Would Hermione Do?” 

Over two decades, the young British witch from J.K. Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter series has grown from a literary smart girl into a powerful feminist symbol.

So, What Would Hermione Do?

Perhaps the greatest lesson that Hermione teaches us is how valuable it can be to take risks. After all, saving or changing the world often requires some form of sacrifice, danger and facing down the forces of evil. 

“What would Hermione Granger do? A lot,” wrote HuffPost’s Chloe Angyal, a week after the presidential election. “She’d take real risks, lots of them, and endure a great deal of uncertainty, fear and suffering. We’re going to have to do the same.”

When our own world begins to feel darker and in need of saving ― from terrorism, bigotry, or even the leaders of our own government ― it’s only natural to turn to pop culture for inspiration. And who better to emulate than Hermione Granger, the clever, idealistic young woman who uses her brains rather than brawn to create lasting, widespread change? (The fact that Emma Watson has become an outspoken feminist, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and HeForShe spokesperson since finishing the Harry Potter franchise makes the political associations we have today with Hermione even more potent.) 

Work sites

1) https://m.huffingtonpost.in/entry/hermione-granger-feminist-symbol-20-years-later_us_59381659e4b0b13f2c65d5c6

2) https://feminisminharrypotter.weebly.com/hermione-granger.html

3) https://www.bustle.com/articles/136244-the-5-least-feminist-moments-in-harry-potter

Webquest Activity on Harry Potter

Introduction

Harry Potter is a series of fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's struggle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic, and subjugate all wizards and Muggles (non-magical people).

• The Philosopher's Stone (1997)
• The Chamber of Secrets (1998)
• The Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
• The Goblet of Fire (2000)
• The Order of the Phoenix (2003)
• The Half-Blood Prince (2005)
• The Deathly Hallows (2007)

Since the release of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, on 26 June 1997, the books have found immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers and are often considered cornerstones of modern young adult literature. The series has also had its share of criticism, including concern about the increasingly dark tone as the series progressed, as well as the often gruesome and graphic violence it depicts.
The series has also had its share of criticism, including concern about the increasingly dark tone as the series progressed, as well as the often gruesome and graphic violence it depicts.
As of February 2018, the books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, and have been translated into eighty languages.
The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly eleven million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release.

1)  Feminist reading of Harmione’s character in Harry Potter


2) Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry Potter



3) Confronting reality by reading fantasy



4)  The discourse of Power and Politics in Harry Potter


5)  The theme of Choice and Chance Harry Potter


6)  The theme of Love and Death Harry Potter


 7 ) Moral and Philosophical reading of Harry Potter


8)   Mythical and Magical creatures in Harry Potter



9)  Christianity and Harry Potter

Play

Play

1) Ghashiram Kotwal



2)  The Hairy Ape

Poem

Poem

1) Prayer for My Daughter


2) Baby Running Barefoot - D.H. Lawrence

Novel

Novel

1)  Far from the Madding Crowd

2) Heart of Darkness

3) The Namesake

4) The Bluest Eye

Baby Running Barefoot

Baby Running Barefoot - D.H. Lawrence

In the first line the poet talks about the "Barefeet" of baby who runs across the grass. He then tells about her little white feet, nod like the flower, nod in the wind he beautifully had described. How a baby child runs across the grass out of innocence to watch baby running across medowfield is the most beautiful sight D.H.Lawrence brilliantly and beautifully has captured the beauty of little baby's play in his poem.

                 When baby runs barefooted it this sight which soothes your eyes. He compares baby's white play with the song of robin. Robin song its listeners in the same way the sight of baby running barefooted attracts. All the watchers, you cannot take of your eyes when a child is playing in the Medlow-field.

                    The poet has compare baby's to feet with two white butterflies, like two white butter settled in the cup of one flower baby's barefoot set in the grass. The poet has compare grass with the cup of flower and two white baby's white feet with two white butterflies. Baby's white feet also does not stop at one place like white butterfly it run away from one place to another like white butterfly away with a flutter of wings.

                The poet wants baby to wander around him like wind shadow over the water. He want to enjoy the innocence of little baby it also happen sometime that some of us do not enjoy childhood like others and when we see such little baby playing around. We see are innocence in them more than the babies we enjoy their play as it not only soothe our soul than the poet compares her little barefoot with syringe buds, and pink peony flowers baby's buds and firm and silken like pink young peony flowers.

Conclusion
                    Thus in this poem the poet describes not only beauty of the baby but her childlike innocence.

Prayer for My Daughter

 Prayer for My Daughter

Prayer for My Daughter is a beautiful personal poem by William Butler Yeats reflecting his gloomy mood and a fear of a disturbing future. The poem was composed in 1919 and appeared in 1921. It was written during the World War I, thus it reflects the post-war agitation that was prevalent during that time. Though the war ended but Ireland was still in disturbance. William Butler Yeats’ daughter Annie was born that time and the poet was worried for her future. He is worried that his infant daughter has to face the challenges and hardships of the future and how best would she be able to fight them. The poet suggests some characteristics that she must undertake which can sustain her future and keep her safe and happy.

The Hairy Ape

The Hairy Ape
 The Hairy Ape is a 1922 expressionist play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It is about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. At first, Yank feels secure as he stokes the engines of an ocean liner, and is highly confident in his physical power over the ship's engines and his men.

However, when the rich daughter of an industrialist in the steel business refers to him as a "filthy beast", Yank undergoes a crisis of identity and so starts his mental and physical deterioration. He leaves the ship and wanders into Manhattan, only to find he does not belong anywhere—neither with the socialites on Fifth Avenue, nor with the labor organizers on the waterfront. In a fight for social belonging, Yank's mental state disintegrates into animalistic, and in the end he is defeated by an ape in which Yank's character has been reflected. The Hairy Ape is a portrayal of the impact industrialization and social class has on the dynamic character Yank.

Ghashiram Kotwal

Ghashiram Kotwal

Ghashiram Kotwal is a Marathi play written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar in 1972 as a response to the rise of a local political party, in Maharashtra.
The first show of this play was done on 16 December 1972 at Bharat Natya Mandir in Pune. The play saw a huge controversy and success in the following years. It made the trip to Europe in the year 1980. Later in the year 1986, the group also done plays in US and Canada. They also travelled to Russia, East Germany, Hungary etc.

The play begins with an invocation to lord Ganesha. Then the Brahmins of Pune introduce themselves and we can see the morally corrupt state of affairs in Pune. Nana Phadnavis who is the Diwan (Chief Secretary) of Pune is also corrupt and visits the lavani dancer. Ghashiram is working with the lavani dancer. Ghashiram being a Brahmin goes to collect alms at the Peshwa's festival the next day. However he is ill-treated there and is charged with pick-pocketing and imprisoned for the offence. He then decides to take revenge. So the play continues on to reach the next part of this play.

Ghashiram barters his own daughter to get the post of Kotwal (police chief) of Pune from Nana. Having got the post he begins to enforce strict rules in the city. He starts asking for permits for everything and starts throwing people in jail for the smallest offences. In the meantime, Ghashiram's daughter is impregnated by Nana, and dies during childbirth. The situation goes out of hand when a few people in the jail die from suffocation. The Brahmins then complain to the Peshwa. The Peshwa summons Nana who orders Ghashiram to be killed in the most inhumane way possible.

T.Y.B.A

1) Novel


2) Poem


3) Play

The Namesake

The Namesake

The Namesake is the story of two generations of the Gangulis, a family of Indian immigrants to the United States.

When we first meet Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli they are living in a small apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about to welcome their first child into the world. The young couple met through an arranged marriage in Calcutta, India, where Ashima had lived her whole life before leaving to accompany Ashoke as he studies engineering at M.I.T. Ashoke has been set on traveling abroad ever since a terrible train accident a few years previous, which he barely survived. He was discovered by the rescue party because of the blowing pages of the book he had been reading when the train derailed—a copy of The Collected Stories of Nikolai Gogol. For Ashima, however, the journey abroad has proven difficult. She feels lonely and homesick in America, clinging to letters from her family and devising makeshift Indian recipes with the ingredients she can scrounge together Soon their son is born, in the foreign environment of the American hospital. Ashoke reflects on how lucky this boy is—the baby receives the present of a book from a Bengali friend—and how different his life will be from Ashoke’s own. Ashima, too, is struck by how different her son’s life will be, but she pities him because he will grow up alone, without the extended family that was so central to her own development. The couple waits for their son’s “good name” to come in a letter from Ashima’s grandmother in India, but in the meantime they must give the hospital a temporary “pet name,” and so they settle on “Gogol,” the writer whose book saved Ashoke’s life and made possible this new one.

The novel then tracks Gogol’s growth, as the family moves into a small suburban town when Ashoke is hired as an assistant professor at the local university. Gogol becomes central to his mother’s life, filling some of the loneliness she feels for India. When he begins kindergarten, his parents decide that his “good name” will be Nikhil—Ashima’s grandmother had suffered a stroke, so her naming letter was lost in the mail—but at school Gogol continues to be called by his “pet name,” frightened by the idea of changing it. His sister Sonali (Sonia) is born, and the two siblings begin to bond as the carriers of American influence in the house. The two children, with their natural, unaccented English and socialization in the American school system, are the reason for Ashoke and Ashima’s adoption of Christmas and of certain American food items. At the same time, Ashoke and Ashima take their children to regular gatherings of their Bengali friends in America, and the family takes extended trips to Calcutta, at one point living with relatives for an eight-month period. During this trip, Sonia and Gogol feel like outsiders. India is a foreign place to them, even as they see their parents’ joy at being home.

Gogol grows to despise his name, and is deeply embarrassed by his namesake—the author Nikolai Gogol—and by the fact that the name is not linked to any part of his identity. He does not yet know the story of his father’s train accident. When he is eighteen, he decides to legally change his name to Nikhil, and when he leaves home for Yale this is the name that will follow him. It is as Nikhil that he meets his first love, Ruth, an English major who never meets his parents, even though the two are together for more than two years. They break up after Ruth spends a semester (and then a summer) abroad in England. Nikhil’s escape from the world of “Gogol” is still incomplete, though, as every other weekend he travels home, where his family stubbornly persists in calling him by his pet name.

The escape is pushed one step further when, living in New York after having finished an architecture degree at Columbia, Gogol falls in love with a sophisticated young art historian named Maxine Ratliff, who lives with her elegant and wealthy parents, Gerard and Lydia. Gogol moves into their house, which becomes almost a replacement for his own home. He is fascinated by the Ratliffs, whose vacation home in New Hampshire, with its own family graveyard, is emblematic of the ease, security, and solidity he has never felt growing up divided between two cultures.

His escape with Maxine’s family is cut short when his father dies, unexpectedly, of a heart attack. Ashoke had been living in Ohio on a teaching fellowship, and so was far from his wife and children at the time. Struck by the tragedy of this loss, Gogol returns to his family, finding comfort in the Bengali traditions he had once rebelled against. He drifts away from Maxine, who was never a part of that world, and the two stop seeing one another. Later, returning to New York, he goes on a date (suggested by his mother) with one of the other Bengali children present at the many gatherings of his childhood—Moushumi Mazoomdar. The two hit it off, surprised at the ways in which their familiarity and similar backgrounds draw them together, since both have tried hard to distance themselves from their past. Soon enough, they are married at a large Bengali ceremony in New Jersey.

Although they are happy enough at first, soon small remembrances of Moushumi’s past with her ex-fiancé Graham begin to trouble their relationship. Moushumi, a French Ph.D. candidate at NYU, has always sought independence, and cannot help but feel that marrying Gogol was in some way “settling.” In the end, she has an affair with an old crush, Dimitri Desjardins, and she and Gogol are divorced. In the novel’s last chapter, we see the family coming together again, Sonia accompanied by her new fiancé Ben, to celebrate one final Bengali Christmas Eve in their home, which has been sold. Ashima has decided to live for six months of every year in Calcutta. Reflective and sad that this link to his past is evaporating, Gogol finds a book in his room—a copy of The Collected Stories of Nikolai Gogol that his father had given him as a birthday present years before, when all Gogol had wanted was to escape that name. Now that there will soon be no one left to call him by it, he feels a desire to reach out toward his past once more, and he sits down on his childhood bed to read his father’s favorite story.

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by author Toni Morrison.
Morrison is an acclaimed African American novelist, Pulitzer, and Nobel Prize winner whose works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the US.
The novel, which takes place in Lorain, Ohio, tells the life of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grows up during the years following the Great Depression. Set in 1941, the story reveals that due to her mannerisms and dark skin, she is consistently regarded as "ugly". As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with "whiteness". The point of view of the novel switches between various perspectives of Claudia MacTeer, the daughter of Pecola's foster parents, at different stages in her life. In addition, there is an omniscient third-person narrative which includes inset narratives in the first person.

Due to controversial topics of racism, incest, and child molestation, there have been numerous attempts to ban the novel from schools and libraries.
In Lorain, Ohio, nine-year-old Claudia MacTeer and her 10-year-old sister Frieda live with their parents, a tenant named Mr. Henry, and Pecola Breedlove, a temporary foster child whose house is burned down by her unstable, alcoholic, and sexually abusive father. Pecola is a quiet, passive young girl who grows up with little money and whose parents are constantly fighting, both verbally and physically. Pecola is continually reminded of what an "ugly" girl she is by members of her neighborhood and school community. In an attempt to beautify herself, Pecola wishes for blue eyes – a standard that was perpetuated through the gifting of white, blue-eyed dolls throughout her childhood. Additionally, most chapters' titles are extracts from the Dick and Jane paragraph in the novel's prologue, presenting a white family that may be contrasted with Pecola's. The chapter titles contain sudden repetition of words or phrases, many cut-off words, and no interword separations.

The novel, through flashbacks, explores the younger years of both of Pecola's parents, Cholly and Pauline, and their struggles as African-Americans in a largely White Anglo-Saxon Protestant community. Pauline now works as a servant for a wealthier white family. One day in the novel's present time, while Pecola is doing dishes, drunk Cholly rapes her. His motives are largely confusing, seemingly a combination of both love and hate. After raping her a second time, he flees, leaving her pregnant.

Claudia and Frieda are the only two in the community that hope for Pecola's child to survive in the coming months. Consequently, they give up the money they had been saving to buy a bicycle, instead planting marigold seeds with the superstitious belief that if the flowers bloom, Pecola's baby will survive. The marigolds never bloom, and Pecola's child, who is born prematurely, dies. In the aftermath, a dialogue is presented between two sides of Pecola's own deluded imagination, in which she indicates conflicting feelings about her rape by her father. In this internal conversation, Pecola speaks as though her wish for blue eyes has been granted, and believes that the changed behavior of those around her is due to her new eyes, rather than the news of her rape or her increasingly strange behavior.

Claudia, as narrator a final time, describes the recent phenomenon of Pecola's insanity and suggests that Cholly (who has since died) may have shown Pecola the only love he could by raping her. Claudia laments on her belief that the whole community, herself included, have used Pecola as a scapegoat to make themselves feel prettier and happier.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness begins on the deck of the Nellie, a British ship anchored on the coast of the Thames. The anonymous narrator, the Director of Companies, the Accountant, and Marlow sit in silence. Marlow begins telling the three men about a time he journeyed in a steamboat up the Congo River. For the rest of the novel (with only minor interruptions), Marlow narrates his tale.

As a young man, Marlow desires to visit Africa and pilot a steamboat on the Congo River. After learning of the Company — a large ivory-trading firm working out of the Congo — Marlow applies for and receives a post. He leaves Europe in a French steamer.

At the Company's Outer Station in the Congo, Marlow witnesses scenes of brutality, chaos, and waste. Marlow speaks with an Accountant, whose spotless dress and uptight demeanor fascinate him. Marlow first learns from the Accountant of Kurtz — a "remarkable" agent working in the interior. Marlow leaves the Outer Station on a 200-mile trek across Africa, and eventually reaches the Company's Central Station, where he learns that the steamboat he is supposed to pilot up the Congo was wrecked at the bottom of the river. Frustrated, Marlow learns that he has to wait at the Central Station until his boat is repaired.

Marlow then meets the Company's Manager, who told him more about Kurtz. According to the Manager, Kurtz is supposedly ill, and the Manager feigns great concern over Kurtz's health — although Marlow later suspects that the Manager wrecked his steamboat on purpose to keep supplies from getting to Kurtz. Marlow also meets the Brickmaker, a man whose position seems unnecessary, because he doesn't have all the materials for making bricks. After three weeks, a band of traders called The Eldorado Exploring Expedition — led by the Manager's uncle — arrives.

One night, as Marlow is lying on the deck of his salvaged steamboat, he overhears the Manager and his uncle talk about Kurtz. Marlow concludes that the Manager fears that Kurtz is trying to steal his job. His uncle, however, told him to have faith in the power of the jungle to "do away" with Kurtz.

Marlow's boat is finally repaired, and he leaves the Central Station (accompanied by the Manager, some agents, and a crew of cannibals) to bring relief to Kurtz. Approximately fifty miles below Kurtz's Inner Station, they find a hut of reeds, a woodpile and an English book titled An Inquiry into some Points of Seamanship.

As it crept toward Kurtz, Marlow's steamboat is attacked by a shower of arrows. The Whites fire rifles into the jungle while Marlow tries to navigate the boat. A native helmsman is killed by a large spear and thrown overboard. Assuming that the same natives who are attacking them have already attacked the Inner Station, Marlow feels disappointed now that he will never get the chance to speak to Kurtz.

Far from the Madding Crowd

1)  Far from the Madding Crowd
At the beginning of the novel, Bathsheba Everdene is a beautiful young woman without a fortune. She meets Gabriel Oak, a young farmer, and saves his life one evening. He asks her to marry him, but she refuses because she does not love him. Upon inheriting her uncle's prosperous farm she moves away to the town of Weatherbury.

A disaster befalls Gabriel's farm and he loses his sheep; he is forced to give up farming. He goes looking for work, and in his travels finds himself in Weatherbury. After rescuing a local farm from fire he asks the mistress if she needs a shepherd. It is Bathsheba, and she hires him. As Bathsheba learns to manage her farm she becomes acquainted with her neighbor, Mr. Boldwood, and on a whim sends him a valentine with the words "Marry me." Boldwood becomes obsessed with her and becomes her second suitor. Rich and handsome, he has been sought after by many women. Bathsheba refuses him because she does not love him, but she then agrees to reconsider her decision.

That very night, Bathsheba meets a handsome soldier, Sergeant Troy. Unbeknownst to Bathsheba, he has recently impregnated a local girl, Fanny Robin, and almost married her. Troy falls in love with Bathsheba, enraging Boldwood. Bathsheba travels to Bath to warn Troy of Boldwood's anger, and while she is there, Troy convinces her to marry him. Gabriel has remained her friend throughout and does not approve of the marriage. A few weeks after his marriage to Bathsheba, Troy sees Fanny, poor and sick; she later dies giving birth to her child. Bathsheba discovers that Troy is the father. Grief-stricken at Fanny's death and riddled with shame, Troy runs away and is thought to have drowned.

With Troy supposedly dead, Boldwood becomes more and more emphatic about Bathsheba marrying him. Troy sees Bathsheba at a fair and decides to return to her. Boldwood holds a Christmas, to which he invites Bathsheba and again proposes marriage; just after she has agreed, Troy arrives to claim her. Bathsheba screams, and Boldwood shoots Troy dead. He is sentenced to life in prison. A few months later, Bathsheba marries Gabriel, now a prosperous bailiff.

Poem

Poem

1) Amoretti

2)  To His Coy Mistress


3)  Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Novel

Novel

1) Kim

Play

Play

1) Othello by William Shakespeare

Short story

Short story

1) The Monkey’s Paw: W.W. Jacobs

2) Reunion: W. St. John Taylor

One Act Plays:

One Act Plays:

1)A Marriage Proposal

2)  The Boy Comes Home: A.A. Milne

S.Y.B.A.

1) One Act Plays


2) Short story


3) Play


4) Novel


5) Poem

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope



This first verse of Ode on Solitude begins the analogy that will carry through the poem, seen through the life of an anonymous man who is described as being an ideal for happiness. His deepest desires, the narrator notes, extends a few acres of his own land, where he is content to live and work. The inclusion of the word “parental” suggests that the land belongs to this man by inheritance, and therefore belongs solely to him. “Content to breathe his native air” could also be a commentary on being happy with what a person has, rather than constantly wishing for more (although this might not have been quite as significant an idea in 1700, when the poem was written, as it may be interpreted today).

The verse structure and rhyming pattern is established here; three lines of eight syllables each, followed by one line of four syllables, rhyming in an ABAB pattern. This persists up until the final two stanzas, at which point the final line lengthens to five syllables.

Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,

Whose flocks supply him with attire,

Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

In winter fire.

This verse simply means that the man is self-sufficient. His land, now shown to be a farm, provides for all of his needs — his herds provide him with milk, he is able to bake his own bread. In the summer, his trees provide ample shade, and in the winter the wood from those same trees can be lit to keep him warm. He has no need of anything beyond his own land.

While this verse reads strangely, as “bread” and “shade” do not rhyme, it is important to remember that Ode on Solitude was written over three hundred years ago. During this period in Britain, “bread” was pronounced with a longer vowel sound. While word pronunciation is a difficult thing to estimate and predict throughout different eras of history, it makes sense to believe that at one point, “bread” and “shade” could be used as rhymes for one another.

Blest! who can unconcern’dly find

Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day,

The narrator considered this farmer blessed! Time almost doesn’t have meaning for this man; his world provides for all of his needs. Hours go by, days go by, years go by, and everything remains the same. The health the man is in at the beginning of this cycle is the health he remains in when it is finished. Peace of mind is normal for him — what is there to trouble him? It seems as though, in a world of peace and quiet, there is absolutely nothing that could disrupt the life of this farmer, and the narrator sees that as a high blessing.

Sound sleep by night; study and ease

Together mix’d; sweet recreation,

And innocence, which most does please,

With meditation.

This verse sees the start of the final lines being five syllables long, and continues the sentiment of the verse before it. The idea of innocence is introduced here, and is a fair way to describe a man who lives his life in isolation; he is innocent, which means he himself probably doesn’t appreciate the kind of life he leads in the same way the narrator, author, or reader does. It’s a strange idea and casts the character of the farmer in a different light. He could, in fact, be viewed as a naïve and ignorant individual, one who simply doesn’t know enough about the world, or he could be viewed as living the ideal life.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

Thus unlamented let me dye;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lye.

The narrator of the poem clearly agrees with the latter of the above sentiments — here he wishes for escapism, and begs for an unseen life, one where he may live in solitude until his dying days, which will come and go, unnoticed, unremarked, and unadorned, a perfect life of solitude and peace.

Historical Context
Because of the very mature concepts expressed by Ode on Solitude, particularly the bit about wishing to die alone, many might be surprised to learn that Alexander Pope wrote Ode on Solitude in 1700, at the age of twelve. At the time, Pope had just moved to a small estate by a forest, in a small village far from the main British towns. His family had been forced to live there because of their Catholic faith, and it could be here, in the village now known as Popeswood (named after Pope himself) that the young child found his ideals in solitude, undoubtedly being inspired by his new natural landscape, particularly the Windsor Forest.

4) When We Two Parted: Lord Byron
This poem is kind of like an upset guy's internal monologue when he finds out his old flame is dating somebody else: "OMG, I remember when we broke up. It was cold, your cheek was cold, and that kiss you gave me was so unaffectionate. You made a vow to me, and you didn't even bother to keep it. Sigh. I should have known I would feel like this now, just based on how our goodbye was. I can't even hear your name without getting upset. You'll never know how deeply I mourn your loss. If I meet you again, I will simply be quiet and cry."

To His Coy Mistress

 To His Coy Mistress


To His Coy Mistress has been rightly lauded as a small masterpiece of a poem, primarily because it packs so much into a relatively small space. It manages to carry along on simple rhyming couplets the complex passions of a male speaker, hungry for sexual liason with a lady, before all devouring time swallows them up.

Lines 1 - 20

The argument begins with an appeal to the coy mistress based on the idea that, if time and space were limitless, they could spend their days in leisure, she by the exotic Ganges river for instance, he by the ebb and flow of the Humber.

Sex needn't be a priority in this fantasy world. The speaker's ironic tone even allows for his love of the lady a decade before the old testament flood, and she could say no to his advances up to the time when the Jews convert to Christianity - which would never ever happen of course.

This tongue-in-cheek allusion to religious notions of the end of the world, plus the underlying urges for physical intimacy, have been too much for certain Christian groups and others in more modern times. They would like the poem to be banned from being taught in school, claiming that it would negatively influence their children and that it condones predatory male behaviour.
Years he would spend growing his love, like a vegetable grows slowly, rooted and strong, in the earth. And he could bide his time admiring her physical beauty - her eyes, forehead, breasts and other parts.

This imaginary scenario is a clever and slightly ludicrous set up. He is clearly in awe of her body and totally wants her heart but because she refuses to comply he introduces this idea of a timeless, boundless love. Time becomes a metaphor for love but is little more than a limitless resource.

Lines 21 - 32

But all of the previous means nothing because the reality is that the clock is ticking louder and louder. Time is flying. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. Don't look over your shoulder. Don't look ahead either because there is a vast desert - eternity.

The speaker's tone starts to alter, becoming more serious. The future isn't that bright - her beauty will be lost in the sands of time - even worse, when she's dead and buried only the worms will experience what he presently longs for. What a challenging image.

And there are some who think quaint honour is an obscure reference to the female private parts (quaint was used as a noun in pre-Elizabethan times). He too will perish, consumed by his own passion, nothing but a pile of ash.

The last couplet of this section is perhaps the most quoted and puts a seal on the message: Let's make love while we're still alive.

Lines 33 - 46

The final part of this poem concentrates on the rational summing up of what's gone before. Note the first two words: Now therefore,..it's as if the speaker is saying, Look I've given you two quite valid reasons for you to succumb, consequently this final effort will make you see sense.

Never has an adverb carried so much weight.

And the speaker has clearly thrown out the fantasies and wishes of the previous scenes. Gone are space and time and death, in their place is the all-consuming present. Just look at the use of the word now (3 times in lines 33-38), suggesting that the speaker cannot wait a second longer for his postponed fulfilment.

The emphasis is on the physical - skin, sport, roll and tear - the language being tinged with aggression and forceful energy.

Line 34 is controversial as many later versions change the word glew for dew whereas in the original it is definitely glew. So the poet used this word to further the image of youthfulness, as line 33 imparts. The word glew, now archaic, could be the old fashioned word for today's glue but this wouldn't make sense in the context of the couplet: Sits on thy skin like morning glue,; what makes better sense is to look for variants of either glow or glee - we still say the skin glows but do not often say the skin is happy. Her skin has a morning glow.
As the lines progress the intensity increases, the passion starts to burn, and when the images of two birds of prey emerge, devouring time (instead of the other way round) the reader is surely taken beyond mere pleasures of the flesh.
Some think the poet is using the symbols of alchemy to express the deep lying sexual chemistry implied in the second unusual image, that of a ball of sweetness to signify the union of male and female.

The iron gates could well be the barrier, the threshold, through which the speaker wishes to emerge. He sets the imperative. If they come together then who knows what will happen? Common sense and the logic of time will no longer dictate their lives.

Amoretti

 Amoretti


Amoretti is a sonnet cycle written by Edmund Spenser in the 16th century. The cycle describes his courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle.

Amoretti was first published in 1595 in London by William Ponsonby. It was printed as part of a volume entitled Amoretti and Epithalamion. Written not long since by Edmunde Spenser. The volume included the sequence of 89 sonnets, along with a series of short poems called Anacreontics and Epithalamion, a public poetic celebration of marriage. Only six complete copies remain today, including one at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and one at Oxford's Bodleian Library. "The volume memorializes Spenser's courtship of Elizabeth Boyle, a young, well-born Anglo-Irish woman, and the couple's wedding on June 11, 1594" In the sonnets of Amoretti Spenser succeeds in "immortalizing the name of his bride to be ... by devices of word play".

Amoretti has been largely overlooked and unappreciated by critics, who see it as inferior to other major Renaissance sonnet sequences in the Petrarchan tradition. In addition, it has been overshadowed by Spenser's other works, most notably The Faerie Queene, his epic allegorical masterpiece. C. S. Lewis, among the most important twentieth-century Spenser scholars, said that "Spenser was not one of the great sonneteers".However, other critics consider Spenser's sonnets to be innovative and to express a range of tones and emotions, and are much more skillful and subtle than generally recognized.