Hamlet, read as a Dialectic form.

 

Prepared By: Chennur Amrutha Valli Reddy

Roll No: 38

Semester 1

‘Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.’

                                                                                Friedrich Schiller.

 

Hamlet.

Hamlet is the longest play of William Shakespeare, the Father of English Literature. It is the story of a Prince named Hamlet from Denmark, who is told by the ghost of his father to take revenge of his death, but at the very same time, not to give any woe to his mother, who is now married to the executioner of his father.  The whole play depicts the psychological conflict that the son faces in taking the revenge. The atmosphere of revenge is very much alive in the air of the play. Every son in the play is desperate to take revenge of his father’s death. Hence, Hamlet is instigated to take revenge as soon as possible.

 

The beauty of the play lies in the delay of taking revenge. There are many questions which pop up in the mind of the Prince regarding the assassination of his dear father. He is surrounded by many anonymous questions. This play is about a protagonist who set out on a journey to find the answers to the miscellaneous questions that constantly rise in his mind. When, Hamlet acquires the answers of these questions, he again sets on a journey to take revenge of his father’s death and give justice to his soul.

 

In this very course, the audience is the only eyewitness of innumerable deaths that take place on stage. The wind of suspense is very much around in every scene of the play. It ultimately touches the heart of the spectator, and gives place to pity and fear in the minds of the audience.  To make the feeling more dominant, Shakespeare has also employed supernatural elements like ‘Ghost’ in his play.  Nature adds to the beauty of play. It can also be said that nature is personified as fear throughout the play. 

 

Hamlet is rich of symbolisms. We find most of the characters in the play to be surrounded by the clouds of death. Yet, the characters are full of gallant and live to their fullest. The scenes of graveyard are found in all the five acts. Hence, the tone of the play is very much ironic, melancholic, dark, passionate, contemplative, violent and desperate. All the characters with revenge motif are in the thirst of the culprit’s blood. A trap is set by each one of them to hunt the criminal. We see all such characters fighting with their death with the strong passion to live.  But, nature had its own ways. All the characters are stuck in trap of nature ultimately.  Death has ruled upon them and made them the poor slaves of their own guilt.

 

 

Dialectic Form.

 

The very beauties of the writers lie in ornamenting their language with the use of different Figures of speech. He also amuses the readers with the hidden meanings that he gives in his texts. The readers are amazed by the symbolisms that are employed by them. In the very act of symbolisms, nature is personified. Many other symbols can also be used, such as food, places, situations and many more. The difference between the lay man and the creative writer is he employs the words in a creative manner by pouring life to his imaginations. He nurtures them by portraying different emotions through words and making every scene very lively and appealing to the audience.

 

Hamlet is the best example of the dialectic form. The intensions of Shakespeare as such, might not have been to give multi meaning to this long tragedy of his. But, he has succeeded in giving it to the audience.  The book can be read from the perspectives like, feministic, psychological, dialectic, philosophical and etc. Hence, this adds to the beauty of the play. The very important aspect of the play is the dialectic form. As it is commonly said,

 

                 Every word has a meaning of its own in its own context.

Every word written by Shakespeare adds to the meaning of the play.  It has its own symbolisms. It rather has its own trap. Readers are tricked by Shakespeare. Some of the dialogues seem to be of the protagonists. But, in fact they are spoken by the antagonists. The cosmos had its own trap for all the characters.  They all knowingly or unknowingly walked on the path of death. They set a trap for other characters. But, they themselves were entangled in the trap. They dig the grave for others. But unfortunately, they themselves were buried in the graves. People tend to believe that whatever is witnessed by us is the truth. But, in fact it wasn’t.  Hence, this also gave place to innumerable deaths in the play. At the same time, there were some intellectual characters, which seemed to see and know the things.  Here, I would go forward by illustrating the four categories of the dialectic form.  They are,

 

1.     The Trap Imagery.

2.     The Cosmological trap.

3.     Seeing and Being.

4.     Seeing and Knowing.

 

The Trap Imagery.

We all know the meaning of the word trap. Trap is to catch a person with a trick. Here, we see Shakespeare is trapping his spectators with the mesmerizing dialogues and the script. The flow of the language is very philosophical. As the protagonist of the play - Prince Hamlet - is a philosopher we get trapped in his language assuming all the philosophical and beautiful dialogues to be delivered by him.

                    ‘Though inclination be as sharp as will,

                    My stronger will defeats my strong intent,

                  And, like a man to double business bound,

                 I stand in pause where I shall first begin,’

                                                                 Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3.

The above lines seem to be very much philosophical. We mistake it to be the dialogue spoken by Hamlet. But, the fact is the above lines are spoken by Claudius who in the dark night confesses his crime. He is guilty of the crime committed by him. He prays for the mercy of the God. Hence, we believe that a criminal in a very rare case confesses his crime as he is always in a fear that he may be caught red handed. But, the antagonist here took a daring step. Trap imagery works very actively here in this dialogue.

 

We see the characters setting the trap for others. Initially, Prince Hamlet is the one who sets the trap just to give justice to the soul of his late father. But, we witness that Claudius is also planning a trap. This trap is very much similar to the Chess game ( political ). Hamlet is playing the game. But, Claudius is adding more characters to the game. For example, Claudius invites the friends of King Hamlet Rosencrantz and Guildenstern just to make them the spy of his nephew/son. He wants them to know the real problem with Hamlet. He wants to know if it is a political issue or a personal issue. Therefore, he orders them to be around the Prince and take notes of his mood swings. Hence, it is also a trap set by Claudius. None of them are aware of the trap set by Claudius. Hamlet wants the drama company to play an act which is very much similar to the deeds done by his uncle Claudius.  He sets the trap only to know if the ghost was of his late father King Hamlet or not. If his uncle was the one who is the culprit of his father’s death. Claudius ultimately gets caught in the trap as he orders the drama company to stop the drama from then and audience was able to see the clear change in his facial expressions.

 

Claudius kills his own brother, the late King Hamlet just to get his wife and throne. He pours the poison into the ears of the King. He bluffs the people of Denmark by telling them King died by the bite of the poisonous snake when he was sleeping in the Orchard. This is also a trap set by Claudius to get power and at the same time, the Queen. 

 

Polonius, one of the best friends of King Claudius also sets a trap for Prince Hamlet. He sends his daughter Ophelia to him so that Claudius could witness the love which has blossomed between them and find a reason for his mad behaviour. Hamlet is very much aware of this trap. Hence, he disrespects Ophelia and walks away from there. But, Polonius does not accept his defeat even then. He sketches out another plan to trap Prince Hamlet. He decides to hide himself in the room of Queen and the mother of Hamlet – Gertrude without their knowledge. He wanted to listen to their conversation and inform the King about it. But, he is killed by Hamlet. Hence, he gets trapped in his own plan.

 

Claudius after learning that probably Prince Hamlet is aware of his guilt, he decides to get him killed. He sends him to England with his spies, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He writes a letter to the King of England saying, to kill the one holding the letter immediately. But, Hamlet reads the letter before hand, and re - writes the letter, saying to kill the duo who hands over the letter to him. Hence, the duo Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get trapped by the Prince.

 

Laertes is instigated to take revenge of his father’s death by Claudius. He is very much ready to do so as he loses his sister Ophelia who is not able to recover from the depression of losing her father and finally drowns herself in the madness. Thus, Laertes determines to take revenge of his loved ones death by killing the one who is responsible for all the chaos. Claudius helps him to do so, as he also wants to get rid of Hamlet. He sets a trap again for Hamlet by betting on him in the fence fight against Laertes. He wants Laertes to kill Hamlet by fighting with the poisonous sword. In the very act, their swords get exchanged and even Laertes is killed in the hands of Hamlet. Hamlet is also killed. When Hamlet comes to know about the trap laid by Claudius, he kills Claudius. Gertrude also becomes the victim of the trap. She drinks the drink with poison which is for Hamlet. Hence, the whole royal family gets destroyed. In this manner, we see the trap imaginary very much actively functioning in the play. 

 

The Cosmological Trap.

 

From the very beginning of the drama, we see something which is mysterious. The atmosphere of fear is carried out throughout the play because of the mysterious elements present in the play. The audience of those days wanted super natural elements to be involved in the play. They believe in all such stuff. Hence, Shakespeare has employed such elements in some of his plays like Macbeth.

In cosmological trap, we see the intervention of Nature in trapping the simple beings. In the very beginning of the play, Act 1, Scene 1, we see the ghost of the late King Hamlet which is very much visible to all the characters around during the night time. The guards are very much frightened every night as it is their chief guest during their routine rounds.  Horatio on seeing the ghost for the first time, gets pale and thoughtful. He wants to know if anything is troubling him. But, the ghost doesn’t talk to him. It is to his only son Prince Hamlet that the ghost opens up. He tells the Prince to take revenge without hurting his mother.

 

In the same manner, we see the entry of the ghost for two or three times. But the fact is the ghost is seen by Hamlet only. Ghost is in the room of Hamlet’s mother and his ex-wife, Gertrude on the same night when Polonius is killed. The ghost is very much present for Hamlet. But, at the same time, it is omnipresent as it is visible only to Prince Hamlet.

 

As it was said before, whole cosmos motivated the Prince to take revenge. We see Fortinbras marching to invade the patch of ground which of no worth in Poland. Hamlet is then forced to think, if he is really working upon the task given to him by his late father. Therefore, he decides to take revenge at any cost. This is also the intervention of cosmos as we are not informed if Fortinbras had any plants to be worked upon to invade a part of Poland.

 

The other incident that can be related here is about the attack of pirates on Hamlet. If the attack would not have taken place, then there was a probability of Hamlet being killed. The role of cosmos is very much prevalent here. Even before Hamlet goes for the fence fight with Laertes, something was preventing him to go. But, he goes only because he felt that he is responsible for the plight of Laertes because; he lost his father as he killed him and his sister as she was driven to madness after the death of her father.

 

 

 
In the previous topic, we see many people laying trap for others. But, they themselves got trapped in it. Cosmos had its own sketch to be implemented. Hence, it made the poor people puppets and got its plan into action. In a way, we can also conclude that it is cosmos which is responsible for the massive blood shed at the end of the play. 

 

Seeing and Being.

We are often told by our elders that we should believe only the things which are seen by us not the things which are narrated to us. But, it is not so always. This is play is the best example of it. Claudius seems to be the virtuous character to everyone in the play except, Hamlet and Horatio. (The ghost – King Hamlet) But, the fact was quite opposite to it. He planned intrigues to kill his own nephew/son. When Hamlet tries to frame him in front of his mother, she is not ready to believe him.

 

Mother and Queen Gertrude is not ready to believe Hamlet because, she considers him to be insane. She believes that the loss of his father had mentally affected him. It is not only she who believes so, but almost all the characters except Horatio all the others tend to believe that he is an insane. This was the illusion of the people.

 

The love that Claudius showered on Hamlet and the announcement that he made in Act1, Scene 2, of making Hamlet the next King was to win the heart of his lady love and the public. Laertes was also trapped by the good mask that he carried on his face. Making Laertes as his weapon, he plans to kill Hamlet. But, Laertes realizes this at the end of the play when he was counting his last breath.

 

Claudius not only cheated Hamlet, but he also cheated his brother King Hamlet. The portrayal of the two brothers in the room of Gertrude shows the intimacy and affection between both the brothers. None of them would have thought even in their wildest dreams that Claudius could ever kill his brother. Although, we see the character repenting for his deeds, we see at the very moment not able to sacrifice the power and the lust for the Queen.

 

We also see some downfalls in the character of the Queen Gertrude. Hamlet in Act 2, Scene 2, tells the players to act the scene of The Murder of Gonzaga. From this act, he wants to know if Claudius is the real culprit who killed his father as the scene resembles to the death scene of his father Late King Hamlet. In the act, we see the Queen promising the King to stay as her widow even after the death of the King. But, after the sudden death of the King, she remarries. In Act 1, scene 2, we see that Hamlet is very much upset with his mother because he believes that she has deceived his father by giving him fake promises and remarrying his own brother.

 

Seeing and Knowing.

Our eyes may bluff us sometime, but not our experience. Our experience helps in identifying the genuine person in the crowd of frauds. It helps us in calculating the intensions of the person. It certifies the person according to his deeds. Rarely, we find it miscalculating like our eyes because; our eyes justify a person looking him from outside but our experiences makes its calculations by peeping into the soul of the being rather than his actions. Hamlet is the character who is worthy enough of scanning all the souls of the play.

 

Hamlet doubted the character of Claudius even before the intervention of ghost in the play. He believed that might be, it is Claudius who is responsible for the sudden death of his father. When Claudius sends his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy Hamlet and let him know about his madness, Hamlet immediately identifies them as King’s spies and calls them Sponge. When Polonius wants to tell King Claudius that Hamlet is in love with his daughter, Ophelia, he sends his daughter to Hamlet while the duo was hiding them. Hamlet is very much aware of the plan sketched to trap him. Hamlet knew that Denmark was a swamp. He was very much aware of the political activities which took place. Hamlet is very much alert to every action that takes place around him. The spirit of asking several questions gave him the capacity to identify a person’s true colour.

 

The other character who is as genuine as Hamlet is Horatio. He knew all the secrets of Hamlet. Yet, he did not deceive him. He stood by his friend’s side in thick and thin times. He supported him in every manner. After Hamlet, it was Horatio who knew about the things around the Kingdom. But, he never interfered in them until he was told to do so. He fulfilled all his responsibilities as the best friend of Hamlet and also as a responsible citizen, took care of a Price of the Kingdom and the son of a worried mother.   

Plato's Objection and Aristotle's Defence to POETRY.

Republic.

               ‘Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere’

                                                                      Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Republic is a work written in a Socratic dialogue form around 380 BC in Ancient Greek by Plato, the pupil of Socrates. It is considered to be one of the Plato’s best known works which is deeply intellectual and historical rooted in philosophy and political theory. The whole work of Republic is written in ten books in a dia. Socrates is used as the mouthpiece by the author. Though Plato mainly tried to define and defend Justice in The Republic, it also gives us a view of theories in the field of epistemology and metaphysics.  

 

                                ‘Justice is the excellence of the Soul.’

                                                                                                  Socrates.

 

Plato creates an ideal and efficient state which habitats people of three classes. They are guardians, auxiliaries and craftspeople. Each and every class has its own role to play for the well-being and the uplift meant of the society. In book I, Plato tries to define the word Justice. There are different arguments that come up on the screen. But, all have some or the other loop holes. Finally, we see the apt definition given by Socrates in book II. In book III, Plato throws light on the system of education and he also gives some space for art. In all the other books except the last one, there is a discussion on the welfare of the state, the then prevailing issues regarding the government, and the possible solutions. Now, in book X, Plato raises the issue of the imitative poetry.

 

The views of Plato on the poet’s imitative poetry are not accepted by many of the critics. Even the disciple of Plato, Aristotle does not accept his view points. Thus, as a reply to his allegations against the poets and the poetry, he wrote the treatise named Poetics. The greatest defect in the Plato’s Republic is the absence of free will and freedom. When both are not given to a person, he would not be able to think in an innovative way. Thus, there won’t be new inventions and all great studies would go futile.  They are merely the puppets in the hands of the ruler. Hence, the nation described by Plato in Republic is deeply flawed and would fail to prove itself as a republic nation.

Poetics.

Poetics is the first philosophical treatise of dramatic theory written by Aristotle the pupil of Plato, as a defence on poetry. It mainly focuses on literary theory. He has tried to differentiate the two types of drama – Tragedy and Comedy. He gives us the account on how they came into existence. This book has laid the canons for writing the Tragedy. The Greek tragedies qualify themselves as the tragedies as they follow all the rules. They are called Classical works. Hence, Poetics is a classical work. 

 

Aristotle mainly deals with Tragedy in this Greek work of his. It is believed that Poetics originally was written in two books. The former one dealt with Tragedy and Epic whereas, the later dealt with Comedy and other subjects. But, the book on comedy seems to be incomplete and unrevised. Poetics gave us different literary terms like catharsis, hamartia, hubris, purgation etc. Aristotle stresses on the need of Theory Of Unities in the work of Art. Hence, he says Plot is the SOUL of Tragedy.

 

 Aristotle had some issues with the Plato just because he gave the picture of poets in a derogatory manner in his Republic. So, Aristotle stepped forward to lay the primary canons for the literary work of art. But, many of the descendants also had issues with the canons that were laid by him. So, new canons were made so that all the new form of art also got place in literature. 

Example: Shakespeare’s drama never qualified the Canons laid by Aristotle. So, the high class never went to appreciate his dramas as they believed that his dramas were specially to entertain mass rather than class. So, John Dryden had to come forward with new set of Canons in his work named, Essay on Dramatic Poesy which gave name and fame to both, William Shakespeare as a creative writer and John Dryden as a critic.

 

Plato’s Objection to Poetry.

 

Plato in his book Republic puts many allegations on the poets. He says that the poets should be discarded from the society. Plato says that poetry is inspirational and not rational. They are possessed because, the poetry that they give to the public is written by them in frenzy state of mind. The problem which Plato raises here is that this frenzy is passed on to viewers, listeners etc which is very harmful. Hence, it leads the activation of inappropriate emotions which is ethically incorrect.

 

Plato further says that the poetry implicates the wrong depiction. He accuses the poets to be liars because, Gods are presented in a bad light and the real world is an unchanging world. For example, Gods are shown equal to or lesser then human beings. Therefore, Gods are portrayed in a degrading manner which does not provoke their devotes to worship him. The world shown in the poetry is very much like a mortal world. They brought the change in the unchanging world. Thus he believed that it was harmful to follow such poets who spread inaccuracies and crook the Soul of the period. Further, Plato believed that poets are imitators. Hence, they are immoral as they give immoral depictions to the people. Plato objects poetry because of three primary reasons. They are,

Education.

Philosophy.

Morality.

 

Education.

Plato believes that the literature celebrates all the vices and evil habits. It shows God in a derogatory manner. Most of the Greek works always had a plot ready. The plots were taken from myths. Myths always had place for Gods. Gods were shown to be fighting and sometimes indulging in immoral activities.  All such vices crept into the works of Literature. Hence Plato believed that such types of works should not be taught at schools.

Plato further said that children would fail to differentiate between good and bad. They won’t be able accept the virtue and reject the vice by themselves.

For Example:- 

1.      If the students are taught the Epic poem the Mahabharata in their schools, might be, there are chances that children may draw a conclusion that wars are indeed virtuous to be fought. They fail to understand the true intentions behind the war.

2.     When students are told about the Epic poem the Ramayana, students may make the misconceptions of Ravana’s abducting Seeta out of  love for her. Hence, they may take a wrong lesson from it and there are chances that they may do anything for their love tomorrow. 

From this, we can clearly understand what Plato meant by showing Gods in a bad light. He wanted the poets to make some type of renovation and show God as superior to human beings rather than depicting him to be equal or less than human beings.

Plato believed that poetry enriches the emotional side of our mind. Education is to enrich the mind of reason rather than the emotional mind. In those days, French people used to fight with the monstrous Spartans. To fight against them, Greeks needed not only courage but also mental stability. Plato believed that poetry would disable the Greek children in the aspect of reasoning and would make them more emotional. Hence, he did not want students to read poetry.     

  

Philosophy.

Plato says that there are four types of world. The very first one is Truth. We do not know what this world is like. We just can imagine this world. Hence, this world just exists in our imagination. Then comes the second world named Ideal world. This world is the imitation of the Truth world. We can call the world to be an ideal one, only if it qualifies all the criteria set by the True world. Then comes the Real/Phenomenon world. This world is an imitation of Ideal world. This is the world where we live in. It is hence a mortal world. We want this real world to live like an ideal world. Thus, we imitate it. Now comes the Literary world.

 

                        ‘ Literature is the mirror of the Society.’

                                              Or

                       ‘ Literature is the X Ray of the society.’

Literary world is created by the poets in their literary works. It is the imitation of the real/phenomenon world. The poets present the world as it is rather than modifying it and putting up a makeup of moralities and philosophy. Hence, Literature is thrice removed from reality.           

From the above argument, it is clear that Literature is an imitative art. In fact, it is an imitation of imitations. Hence, Plato calls the Literature to be an inferior art. He says,

‘The imitative art is an inferior who marries an inferior and has inferior offspring.’

He further says that poets write the poem in the frenzy state of mind. They depict the world with all the flaws or in other words, they portray the world as it is. They do not colour the world with morality or rather preach the public by imparting a valuable message. Through their work, they hence pass on the madness to the public.

 

The other issue that Plato has is, he wants the poets to depict the world which is unchangeable. He believes that the true world is a stable world. It would not change like this mortal world of that is pictured by the poets.  But, poets imitate the Real /Phenomenon world which is a mortal or rather a changeable world. In a word, Plato had a problem with the imitation that was done in their works For him, imitation was a sin. .   

 

Morality.

Plato is a philosopher by profession. He tries to give a philosophical argument here. He says, the works should have some moral thoughts and moreover, some morality also should be present in the work. The main theme of writing literary works is to preach the public. But, as he has already slapped the poets saying that they are imitating he objects the poets in all the above fields.

For Example: - When the readers read Hamlet, there is the absence of morality in the play. He does not have any moral lessons to take from the work. In fact, he is left with many questions. The reader may get baffled with the concept of to be or not to be.

                           When one reads, The Oedipus, we do not find even a pinch of morality. Oedipus marries his own mother after killing his own father. Hence, he is the murderer of his father. When his mother comes to know about this fact, she kills herself.

                             If we come to Paradise Lost, the whole concept is taken from the Bible, chapter 1 named ‘Genesis.’ It is not more than two or three pages. But, John Milton extents the whole thing into an epic poem. He adds many imaginary flavours in the work.       

 

Hence, in all the above points, we have seen all the objections raised by Plato. Now, let’s give a look to Aristotle’s defence.

 

Aristotle’s defence.

As many allegations have been put on poets by Plato, Aristotle, the disciple of Plato comes forward in the defence of the poets. He agrees to the fact that art is an imitation of the real world imitated from ideal world which is further imitated from the world of Truth. But, Aristotle says that art gives something more which is actually absent in the real world. It is not simply the imitation of the world but, it is the imitation of selected events and characters in a coherent manner.

For instance, Plato says art is simply the imitation. Aristotle says that we all have the image of chair in our mind. It is a thing with four legs and two arms. It has a back to rest and seat to sit upon. Now, when an artist is told to imitate a chair, he will draw the chair as described above. But, he will further add some shades, or colours to the image. The shades or the colour added to the chair is the creativity. Hence, Aristotle says that Literature is an imitation with creativity.

 

Now, the world created by God himself is not a pure creation of his. It is also the imitation of the ideas that he got in his mind. When God created the world, he had an idea in his mind. When he sat to create it, he was in fact imitating the idea that prevailed in his mind. When he created the world, he was dissatisfied as he felt there is something which is lacking in his creativity. This means, all that which is in the form of an idea in our mind, cannot be imitated. Most of them, but yet something is left out to be imitated. Same happens with the poets. Hence, they say that they are not satisfied with their creative writing as they cannot find the place for all their emotions.

 

Plato now raises the issue that literature is not preaching to the public as it should have been its core idea. But, Aristotle says that the core idea of writing literature is just to amuse or rather give aesthetic pleasure to the readers. Just as Samuel Taylor Coleridge says, if literary work is able to give the aesthetic pleasure at the end and the whole journey has been enthusiastic then it is a true work of Literature. Moreover, Aristotle says, it is not the duty or literature to preach lessons or give some moral thoughts. It is in fact a wrong question to the literature. Teaching is the duty of morality and Philosophy. Literature is an art and hence, it has to be judged with the artistic parameters. Plato believes in ‘Art for Life sake’ whereas Aristotle believes in ‘Art for Art sake.’

 

Plato also feared that students may loose the mental ability of reasoning and start being more emotional if they were taught poetry. But,  Aristotle through the theory of ‘Catharsis’ (purgation of feelings) proved that people tend to clear excess emotional feelings in them after reading poetry rather than becoming more emotional. When people read a work, they sometimes tend to become more emotional and start crying. When they undergo this process, they cleanse off the excess of emotions in them. This therefore gives them a relief and further makes them feel more comfortable.

 

The main point that Plato forgot while making his arguments is that Literature is a subject which is quite different from Philosophy. The main object of Philosophy is to give some philosophical views which might also preach people. But, it is not fare to expect the same thing from literature. If literature also does the same duty of Philosophy, then what is the difference between the two subjects ? Literature has its own criteria and canons from where the works have to be judged. If we reject a song just because it is not a painting and we reject a painting just because it does not sing, it is simply ridiculous. Hence, all the arguments of Plato were futile.

 

Conclusion.

 

Apart from the allegations that Plato has put on the poets, the literary world is  very much thankful to him as he is the one who laid the foundation stone for all the critics. As Alfred North Whitehead says, “… all subsequent philosophy is merely a footnote to Plato…”  So, it is because of whom, Aristotle had framed canons for the literature. Plato did not want the poets to imitate because, the period In which he was living in, was full of issues. There was political instability in the state. This can also be one of the prime reasons behind penning down the book, Republic. Education was in a poor condition. Hence, Plato wanted the children to study Philosophy because, it gives knowledge and lessons for life. Women were considered to be an inferior. There was no equality in the state. All this is because of poor education. Plato was slapping all the allegations on the poets because; the son of Greek literature had set down. Hence there were no innovative thoughts. Even the innovative thinkers were imprisoned and were harassed. Thus, confusion prevailed all over the world of Greek. 

Aristotle had the objection with the interpretation of Imitation that was done by Plato. Hence, he wanted to give an another interpretation of Mimesis which means imitation. Poetry is not copying but making. It is from the Greek word ‘Poien’ that the word poet has emerged. Poien means to make. Hence, it means that a poet does not copy but make a poem. Logically, Mimesis means making not copying. Now, the process of Mimesis, leads to Mathesis. Mathesis is a Greek word which means to understand. Now, the process of making something leads to the understanding of different aspects of the world. Now, this knowledge is to be passed on. So, according to Aristotle, poets are simply passing on their understanding to the world.

 

 If Plato said that poets are imitating wrong things, which influences people in a negative manner, then the point that was overlooked by him is, poetry not only depicts the wrong things in the world, but it also gives place to the moral and worthy actions.

For Example: - As we have already seen in the above example about the Epic poem the Ramayana, there was the depiction of wrong and immoral things. But, the noteworthy fact of the poem in the Ram Rajya. Even now, people talk about the rajya being the most ideal one under the kingship of Shri Ram.  

If there was bad which was present in the poetry according to Plato, then there was also some place for good in the poetry. Aristotle saw the poetry as the medium through which Catharsis was done. The very much excessive emotions were washed away through the process and moreover we were fully balanced with the apt amount of emotions which were present in our body. Hence, our body became a healthy one which had equal amount of all the four fluids in it.   

Gulliver's Travels as a Satire.

Satire.

              

Introduction.

           ‘Tomorrow is a satire on today, and shows its weakness.’

                                                                              Edward Young.   

                                                                    

Satire is one of the genres of Greek origin (satyr) used in literature  where there is a use of different elements like irony, sarcasm , ridicule, parody, burlesque, juxtaposition, exaggeration and so on to simply laugh upon the flaws in the society or to show the foolishness and decay in human personality, organizations and at different places. Although satirical works tend to be very funny, their main object is to criticise the down follies in the surroundings using WIT as a weapon to draw the attention of the society. 

 

 Chaucer, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and many other creative writers who were not primarily Satirists, did make use of this element in their works. For instance, Chaucer disliked the lack of morality in the church. He fired upon the authority simply by laughing at it in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.      

 

Weapons used by a satirist.

                        

                             ‘Pen is mightier than ATOM BOMB.’

 

The simple but the mightier weapon used by the satirist is Invective – a violent attack in words. When one slaps or kicks the person, the wound caused by it, may disappear soon. But, when he is attacked with words and when the attack is published in the books, it remains for ever in the shelves of the library and in the minds of the audience. The other weapon used by the satirist is Irony – language of opposite meanings. But, the most important weapon is to amuse and entertain the reader. As mentioned above, satire is to laugh upon the different flaws prevailing in the society, so this prime factor should be fulfilled to the fullest by the satirist.

 

Types of Satire.

It is complex to classify the genre ‘Satire’ There are two types of satires. They are,

1.     Horatian Satire.

 

Tolerant, witty, wise and self–effacing.

 

Example: - The Devil’s dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

                  The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope.

                   Adventures of Huckleberry Fin by Mark Twain.

                 

2.     Juvenaalian Satire.

 

Angry, caustic, resentful and personal.

 

Example: - Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

                  Brave new world by Aldous Huxley.

                  A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift.  

Gulliver’s Travels.

‘Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.’(Gulliver’s Travels)

                                                                                          Jonathan Swift

Gulliver’s Travels is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman named Jonathan Swift. It is known for the Satire on the Human society. It is also well known as a parody of ‘traveller’s tales’. The protagonist and the narrator of the novel is Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon from Nottinghamshire, England. He loves travelling to different continents like Daniel Defoe’s character, Robinson Crusoe. This novel is written in four books. Gulliver goes on a voyage to four places. His first voyage is to a land named Lilliput where he sees the troop of tiny people of six inches height. Then, he goes on a voyage to the land named Brobdingnag where the people are sixty feet taller than Gulliver. His next accidental voyage is to the floating island called Laputa. And then comes his last voyage to the land of Houyhnhnms.

 

Gulliver’s Travels is a multi-layered text. In the very first reading of the book, readers may feel that it is a fairy tale set in a frictional world written to amuse children. But, this book has a deep meaning. The book is thus full of fancy ( secondary Imagination.) images. Swift has very bitterly criticized the man kind by making the horses their rulers in the Book 4 – Land of Houyhnhnms. This novel  is a travelogue and a political allegory. This work stood the test of time, and even now, is remembered as the best satire ever written.

Gulliver’s Travels as a Satire.

Jonathan Swift is well known as a satirist. His works like, The Battle of Books, A Modest Proposal, A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver’s Travels are his best satires which can be attributed.  Gulliver’s Travels was written during the age of Reformation also known as the era of change. It is a Menippean Satire.  Gulliver is the mouth piece of Jonathan Swift through whom Swift has indicted politicians, scientists, philosophers and Englishmen in general. In Gulliver’s Travels, satire is exhibited through setting, narration, plot and characters. The first two Voyages throw light upon the follies or on the various facets of the English Society. The last two voyages criticize the human society in contrast with the Utopian concept.

The Voyage to Lilliput.

In Gulliver’s first voyage to Lilliput, he comes in touch with the troops of tiny tots, just six inches tall in their height. Here, The Land of Lilliput is the representation of England.  Lilliputians are in an illusion that they have controlled Gulliver as he is tied and made to follow the norms laid by the King. At the same time, Gulliver is also in an illusion that he too has controlled Lilliputians as they are very much afraid of him. The Lilliputians are astonished to see the food habits of Gulliver as he gulps the food of the whole nation is a morsel. Hence, it causes famine in the nation. Like England, Lilliput is the small nation. Yet England had the capacity to rule on most of the nations of the world. All the nations that it ruled upon were quite powerful. But, they yet they managed to colonize the nations. But, the way their captive Gulliver had to be set free as they were not able to comfort him, same way, England also had to free the captive nation. We find the same resemblance even in this case of colonizing Gulliver. Although Lilliput is a small nation like England, it is proud of the power and significance that it has. Both the nations don’t believe in the existence of any other world apart from that of theirs.  

 

Swift has criticised on the class differences in the small nation. The kingdom is divided  into two blocs – Tramecksan and Slamecksan. The people are classified on the heights of their heels (heels can also be taken as the symbol of their caste, class, religion.) Further, the kids of the rich were taken or rather, adopted by the Government to educate them and the kids of the labourers were forced to learn farming so that, there will be farmers for the further generations to do farming!!!! 

Although, Gulliver is ten times larger in size compared to the Lilliputians, Gulliver is tied up with strings and is kept in the King’s custody. He is told to undergo a security check before meeting the King and the things which seem to be life threat for the King, will be confiscated. Gulliver agrees to this. But the satire here is, Gulliver himself is a life threat because his one blow of air from the mouth has the capacity of creating a calamity like Cyclone.

 

Gulliver is unaware of the language spoken by the Lilliputians. Rather, Lilliputians are not aware of any Languages except theirs. Swift is mocking on the false importance that the people give to themselves. He is forced to learn the language which Gulliver does. He starts communicating in the language.AS he has now learn the language, Gulliver is told to sign a document where every letter emphasises on his greatness.

 

Political Satire is very much evident in throughout the novel. The satire is an attack on the dominant Whig Party. The courtiers are chosen by the King in a ridiculous manner. They are told to jump through the hoops to get the position in the Court. Even the cause of war between Lilliput (England) and Blefuscu (France) is very comic. They fight just to decide on which end the egg is to be broken. Ones, The Kingdom of the Lilliput caught fire and Queen entangles in it. Gulliver saves her by pissing on her. The Queen is the representation of Queen Anne of England.  

 

The Voyage to Brobdingnag.

In this part (II), Gulliver is the representation of England and Brobdingnag is the representation of Europe.  In his previous voyage, Gulliver was like a Godly figure. But, the situation becomes vice versa here. Gulliver is a tiny tot in the island of giants who are sixty feet tall. The power that he enjoyed in his previous voyage is lost. He is enslaved by a giant farmer. He is forced to dance in the public for the sake of the farmer’s livelihood. When King takes the notice of this little thing, he orders his men to bring Gulliver to his Kingdom. There, Gulliver enjoys all the possible privileges in the small cage. He is used as a plaything.

 

Gulliver, again after a calamity, reaches this strange land of giants where even the grass is much longer than him. He comes in contact with a farmer family. When, he is offered food, he tumbles and falls down due to its large size. He is accommodated in the house of the doll by the farmer’s daughter. His importance is at threat. He is a subaltern of the farmer. When King of the Brobdingnag comes to know about this tiny creature, he orders his men to bring Gulliver.

 

Gulliver at the Kingdom, is enjoying the restricted freedom. His adventure is with insects and rats around him. Gulliver also visualizes the sex politics in this kingdom. Women in the kingdom force Gulliver to walk on their body. Hence, Gulliver finds Brobdingnag’s culture to be imperfect. But, the King is of an opinion that their world very much resembles to the Utopian world. He thinks that there are no vices prevailing in his nation or, he is trying to abolish the existing vice in his nation just like Europeans. But, he fails to do so. The farmer, dwarf in the kingdom are the examples.   

 

Gulliver speaks in English and King laughs on him. It is a satire on English culture. When Gulliver is ready to tell the King of Brobdingnag about the secret behind making the gunpowder in return to get freedom, the King denies. He is simply shocked to know that these tiny people are so much destructive. He criticises on the murders, conspiracies, rebellions, banishments, massacres etc done by the tiny nation of Gulliver. When Gulliver tells him that many books have been written on art of Government in his nation, King mocks by saying that common sense, reasons and justice is needed to run government rather than books. Therefore, King mocks on Gulliver’s (England) culture

The voyage to Laputa.

Like the previous part, Gulliver is the representation of England in this part (III) too. In this voyage, we see the concept of dystopian world. This island is full of flaws, immorality, vices and discrimination. The island of Laputa is a floating island. The government of this land seems to be very lethargic as they do not worry about their public.  People of this island are very absurd. Through this book, Swift has criticised the technology and science. Even in this land, Gulliver faces the issues with language.

 

 In the very beginning of the voyage, we see the conflict of Christianity v/s Heathen. Englishmen on one side, talk about the equality. But, it is very much evident from this incident that discriminations do exist even in their nation. This discrimination continues throughout this part. We see the people with marks on their faces. Such people are differentiated as the illegitimates. Whereas, people with plain faces are considered to be pure. People wear clothes with the design of music instruments which shows their soul interest for them. But, they do not have time even to make love with their wives. The people of this land believe that women should be taxes based on her beauty and her dressing skills.

 

The government of this land is very unpleasant. The government officials are beaten with flappers constantly when they sit for the meeting. This shows how important the discussion would be. The Island of Laputa is constantly floating. This is the distance between the public and the King. King never leaves the Island of Laputa.  The relationship between the government and the people of the land very much resembles with the English government and the Ireland relations.

 

Swift criticises the historians and the literary critics. They call the dead ghost and make the mortal beings in a way immortal by communicating with their immortal souls. (Ghosts) Scientists waste their time and the money of the government by making futile attempts to extract sunbeams out of the cucumber, to convert human excreta into food and many others. All these in vain attempts are made in the Academy of Projectors in Lagado. They try to interfere in the natural things. Hence, the education of the highly educated people is of no use. Swift critically passes a satire on such issues in this part.

 

The voyage to Houyhnhnms.

 In this part (IV), Gulliver who is very much in resemblance with Yahoos, is the representation of Human society and European society. These Houyhnhnms, are the representation of the animal world. Swift hates the human mankind. Thus, he has very bitterly criticised the human race mentally and morally by empowering the animals – Houyhnhnms (horses) as their rulers. Gulliver tries to adapt all the customs and traditions of this land. He developed a hatred for the human mankind after living in the land of Laputa. He believed that man were the most dangerous animal on earth. He suddenly finds all the flaws in them. In a way, we can also put it as he started hating himself as he also is a human being, rather ‘a trained Yahoo.’ Swift gave the concept of Utopian world through this part.

 

Gulliver, in this land of Houyhnhnms, is shocked to see the animals, the horses ruling the humans. He sees that he very much resembles with the Yahoos. He is spell bound to see that Houyhnhnms are living the life of mankind by making family planning, living in their stables (houses), communicating like human beings etc. They do not have words like ‘lie’ and ‘falsehood’ in their language. This is the best concept of Utopian world. On the other hand, we see the Yahoos  are the marginalized group. The way the animals are the slaves of mankind in the normal human Kingdom, these Yahoos – Hairy Apes are the slaves of Houyhnhnms. They are unable to speak. They are as dumb as donkey.  

 

Gulliver now wants to become a part of the Houyhnhnms. He, for the very first time, learns perfectly the language of Houyhnhnms. He thus tells Houyhnhnms about his country and all the other European countries. He tells them about war and weapons. He gives the reasons behind fighting the war. He talks about the deadly weapons employed in fighting a war for the destructive purpose. He also gives the account of the Law suites in his nation. He also tells his host about the Prime Minister of his nation who is in hunger of wealth, power and titles. Whereas, Houyhnhnms were the best rulers because, they held a periodical meeting to discuss upon the difficulties faced by their population.

 

On the other hand, Houyhnhnms accounts him about the behaviour of Yahoos. He says that these yahoos are always in want of liquor. They are very much lusty especially the Female Yahoos. This is the bitter satire that Swift writes on the human mankind. Gulliver doesn’t want to return back to his nation as he suddenly realizes the flaws and downfalls in it. He starts criticising his own kind. He becomes a misanthrope.  But, he is forced to leave the land as the Houyhnhnms see as the threat for their nation. Even after returning back to his nation, Gulliver stays in the stable rather than living in his house – The most critical satire that any writer could have ever done on human beings.

Conclusion.

If we bring all the four parts of the book together into a nutshell, the common things that we find in the novel is firstly about language. Gulliver, throughout his voyages, faces language problems. Thus, it is the swifts feeling of anti-eNGLISH which provokes him to mock upon the language. When, Swift is criticizing his own mother tongue, he is also criticising his culture, values, tradition and nation.

 

The novel is constantly revolving around the concept of Utopian World. All the lands almost believe that theirs is the Utopian world full of ideal views and ideal rules. Although they talk about war, they credit their Kingdom to be most humble one. They talk about law and crimes on one hand and boast of their nation as the best one following all the rules. But, we can visualize the ideal world only in the land of Houyhnhnms.

 

Gulliver has a strange dislike for the women. He simply hates women because of the mistreatment that he got from them in his second voyage to Brobdingnag and the lustful nature of the female Yahoos in the land of Houyhnhnms provoked him to hate them to the very extent. Gulliver, by hating Women, is in fact hating his own nation – England as it is always referred as a lady (her) like India. It is also the satire on England as it is not a Utopian world.  

 

Gulliver is considered to be an unusual being in the Land of Lilliput and the Land of Brobdingnag. He is compared with an animal. The people of Lilliput believed that he might have dropped down from some moon onto the earth because no natural being can give birth to such a big man. In the Land of Brobdingnag, when King tells the scholar to examine Gulliver, those scholars compare him with Amoebae. But, in the land of Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is none other but truly an animal. Through Gulliver, Swift criticised human race again and again by comparing them with animals the marginalized group in his nation.

 

Swift has made the acute use of all the elements in his satirical novel. He has contrasted the normal world with the imaginative world of his and highlighted the flaws existing in the world. He did not attempt to bring change in the world. Rather, he just criticised the world by laughing upon it and celebrating its flaws using the comic elements like wit and humour.