write an essay on Coleridge’s Kubla khan as an allegorical poem. In 1816, Coleridge began “Kubla Khan” with an introduction that explained why others should not destroy the poem in their criticism, but enjoy it for itself. He begins his preface by claiming that another title might be “A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment,” but that the poem itself seems complete. This is akin to a young artist claiming that his art is not yet perfected, and then parting the proverbial curtain to reveal a painting of such skill that the ancient masters might have envied. This may be done to defend the poem, which has relatively of what typifies Romantic poetry, against the attacks of critics in Coleridge’s own day, as it does not seem to be true about the poem itself. By attributing the images of “Kubla Khan” to a dream (identified later as a druginduced reverie), Coleridge allows people to dream a bit themselves as they read the poem, something forgotten in the Neo-Classical period, but seeing something of a rebirth with the Romantics. Imagination is the key to “Kubla Khan,” and is the source from which it stems. The work Purchas his Pilgrimage is in part to blame (or praise) for Coleridge’s dream, according to the introduction, because the plot of the poem resides within it, and was his last thought before falling into sleep. As Benjamin Franklin once claimed to do, Coleridge goes on to quote himself with much gravity. His carefully cited poem tells how, though his concentration was broken, the great dream he had known would come to light again. He makes excuse as to why his poem has not yet reflected the true image of his dream, and lets readers make do with what fragments he can attach to the fleeting reminders that remain. “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree,” the poem begins. The cadence of the words is unmistakable, and the words seem to have a power of their own. Where is this place, this Xanadu, readers ask themselves, and what of Kubla Khan? Astute readers might recognize Kubla from Chinese history, the warlord who began the Mongol dynasty. Those who do not look too deeply, see instead the wonder of fantastic times and places, enjoying more and thinking somewhat less. A stately pleasure-dome, these readers postulate, is not such a bad idea at all, perhaps I shall make one for myself. The power power of Kubla Khan (as (as indeed indeed of “Kubla Khan”) is is implied implied rather rather than than stated. stated. Coleridge does not describe a stately throne or golden crown, but simply that Kubla has the power to create by will alone. This is much like Coleridge’s own power in the creation of “Kubla Khan” and of all poets to their works. A pleasure-dome is made because Kubla wishes it to be so. Through his mind’s eye and his vast imagination, Kubla has envisioned a great dome girdling miles of beautiful nature. By will and imagination, Kubla subdues nature and makes it an object of his own. This wouldn’t have won Kubla any points with Coleridge’s friend Wordsworth, and perhaps it is that very voice of Coleridge’s Romantic ancestor that later prophesies war.
There are are two blemishes blemishes on Kubla’s power, outside forces that run deep and confoun confound d even the great builder. The first mystical blight on Kubla’s world is a chasm running through the hills and forests. It is a magical place that seems to breathe, and erupts into violent spasms, coughing up vast chunks of earth. This chasm disturbs the river upon which Kubla has constructed his great walls and towers, and thus disturbs Kubla himself. It seems as though this chasm might be the result of an earthquake, a primal natural force, that changes forever the Alpheus’ course. The river runs a similar course, through wood and dale to deep dank caverns, but its tumult, which was once within Kubla’s realm, is now heard from far. The shadow of Kubla’s dome, which once girdled the whole of a beautiful stretch of nature, fed by the river, now falls midway upon the waves it once encircled. If the chasm did alter the course of the river (it is rather difficult to say for certain from the poem itself), then this could symbolize the power of nature to overcome the ingenuity of man. Like the theme of Jurassic Park, this implies that man’s imagination might be better spent on more innocent pursuits, and that perhaps nature has a wisdom of her own that humanity ought to let lie. The chasm, whether or not it affects directly the river, does have a negative effect on Kubla, for it is during the eruption of the chasm that he hears of an impending war. The second second dark dark force force in Kubla’s life is is the prophec prophecy y of doom. Sounded Sounded by ancestral voices crying out to Kubla, war is prophesied, but is not seen in the poem. Instead, the poem changes to the first person, praising the idea of the pleasure-dome and wishing to build the dome in air. This seems to be Coleridge lamenting the loss of his vision, and claiming that if it were to be had again that he could do great things with it. This opium-induced dream never does return, or if it does it was never put to paper, for as Coleridge says more than fifteen years after the work’s composition, “the to-morrow in yet to come.” If imagination is the basis for the poem, power is the theme. Kubla, for all his might and majesty, faces the fact that he is not a god. Coleridge, on realizing that his dream has faded with time, and that he may never reach the truest form of it by description and poetry, realizes that he too is not a god. Like in the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge creates a situation and a world that are entirely his own. The power of creation, “Kubla Khan” warns, is the danger of overextending one’s boundaries. Kubla became mad with power, and nature struck him down, while Coleridge felt the ultimate muse brush past him, leaving him with fragments of what might have been. This life life we have, this beauty beauty that that we have around us, Coleridge Coleridge seems to say, is enough. It needs not to be captured, nor does it need to be fully explored to understand its nature. It is by overreaching the power that God grants to men that each will find his downfall. The poem “Kubla Khan” is about poetry, and art in general. It is about power and ruler ship. It is about living to fulfillment, and not being dissatisfied when we come near our mark but fall just short. Enjoying the near perfection that we are allowed, this call to art rather than to arms, is the only way for each person to drink deeply of the milk of Paradise.
Attempt a critical appreciation of browning’s browning’s porphyria's lover.
The finest finest woks woks of Browning Browning endeavor endeavor to explain explain the mechanics mechanics of of human psychology. The motions of love, hate, passion, instinct, violence, desire, poverty, violence, and sexed sensuousness are raised from the dead in his poetry with a striking virility and some are even introduced with a remarkable brilliance. In his poem “Porphyria’s Lover” we find Browning at his best. The poem is a love poem… but has a lot more to offer than just the bright sunny side of love. For Browning love was a passion, which had its destructive side as well. But this did not in anyway lessen or tarnish its reputation as being the purest emotion. In fact the destruction that mostly love brought on the characters of Browning’s poems was mostly due to other reasons like violence, may be. Porphyria’s Lover also demonstrates several of Robert Browning's defining characteristics as a poet. It contains his criticism towards the beliefs and practices of self-restraint and his traditional use of dramatic monologue to expose a single character's personality, which in turn often provides an additional depth to his works in coordination with his use of unphonetic language. Also taking into account the author's own personal experiences with his wife, the poem can also be perceived as a representation of the development of their relationship. Browning's criticism of the idea of self-restraint is evident throughout the poem "Porphyria's Lover" as it was shown in the internal debates both characters underwent as they decided whether or not they should consummate the love between them. In Robert Browning's dramatic monologue, "Porphyria's Lover," the love-stricken frustrations of a nameless speaker end in a passionate, annihilating response to society’s scrutiny towards human sensuality. Cleverly juxtaposing Porphyria's innocent femininity and her sexual transgression, Browning succeeds in displaying society's contradictory embrace of morality next to its rejection of sensual pleasure. In an ironically tranquil domestic setting, warm comfort and affection come to reveal burning emotional perversions within confining social structures. The speaker's violent display of passion ends not with external condemnation, but with the matterof-fact sense of a duty fulfilled. Porphyria’s lover sits next to his murdered love without any regretful aftermath or consequence; from the narrator's viewpoint, a perception wholly distorted by the forced internalization of his feelings for Porphyria, not even the ultimate hand of God can rob him the serenity of a moment free from judgment. judgment. Porphyria’s Lover is his first dramatic monologue in which we are witness to the union of two lovers. This union, as the poem reaches its end, culminates in to a unique eternal nirvana. Browning's presentation of an unreliable narrator is necessarily so,
for in the ironically ordinary setting of Victorian simplicity, the speaker's insanity is justified justified and accounted accounted for. for. With With traditional traditional notions of nature's nature's wrath wrath and God's omnipotence framing the start and finish of the scene, Browning employs the narration's natural poetic flow in order to heighten the blow of the unexpectedly unorthodox turn of events. The speaker’s great passion comes to parallel that of God, nature, and ultimately, social expectations, thus embodying the force of the "sullen wind" (Line 2) itself. Moreover the very beginning of the poem shows a setting where the nature is presented in wrath and fury-violence marks its presence from the very onset. This is in fact a sign of forces other than ‘love’ at work. As the young goddess is shown gliding across to meet her lover, the forces of nature rage around. They represent the various odds going against the two lovers. The use of nature as an opposing force by the master poet is a splendid technique. The reason being only nature in its enormity would have been potent enough to match the magnanimous stature of love. And Browning did want to convey this message across that despite its pure magnanimity love was overshadowed and forced to change its direction because of other forces. And the consequences of such changes though ending up in the final victory of love did cast rather painful shadows
The first first line of the poem, ‘The rain set early in tonight, ’is indicative of the fact that there was something that was not right. Something that was unusual. Something that was just not befitting the sacredness of the meeting of the two lovers. The very word ‘early’ provides that desired effect and the reader at once realizes the inevitability of fate. The word also signifies that there was a certain degree of expectation and hope; that the rain would set in late at some other expected time. The feeling of hope that things might have worked the way love wanted them to! In the next line the use of ‘sullen’ is actually the word that cements the fact that there are opposing forces working against love. Moreover the sheer potency that the force of wind represents shows the odds that the passion of love is up against. Even though the reader has no idea what the poem is going to bring but the mention of the force of wind is enough to make us realize that there is s tension from the very outset ‘No pain felt she; And then as if to substantiate his view he adds I am quite sure she felt no pain.’ This line line perhaps perhaps encomp encompasses asses the whole whole love love of the lover…. lover…. his belief that what what he desires would be the same thing desired by his beloved. Somehow the line acts as a balm to the stressful event maybe. Such is the intensity his conviction that may be
the reader is even drawn to the belief that this is the right to thing to do. Or maybe this line in a way sanctifies the whole act. His strong faith in his conviction exudes a feeling of satisfaction and consummation as well on the part of the lover. But seen in another light the speaker’s lust for precedence over other forces in Porphyria's life evidently leads to her fatal end. His ecstasy at her new, momentary devotion leaves him at the gate of attaining his dream, but without any sense of trajectory: "Porphyria worshipped me; surprise / Made my heart swell, and still it grew / While I debated what to do" (33-35). On the instantaneous realization of Porphyria's love, the speaker's requited passion and rational mind still stand separate to some extent. However, it is not long before his heated desire to keep her "Perfectly pure and good" (37) lead him to find "A thing to do" (38). The narrator's being situated above social law, if but only once, proves to be so stunningly empowering that he loses rational ability to decipher anything but a self-centered whim. The complacency of Browning's speaker in carrying out his murderous deed ironically reflects the complacency of society towards the sexual, aesthetic, and sensual pleasures of life. Exhibiting no definite regret beyond the weariness of having taken what was the only available path, the speaker points to the painlessness of his lover's necessary death: "No pain felt she; / I am quite sure she felt no pain" (41-42). However, Browning's presenting the reader with an unreliable narrator serves only to intensify the psychological effects of his unrequited love, and says nothing for the supposed convictions and yearnings of Porphyria. While Porphyria finds her way to the speaker through the symbolically oppressive weather of the outside world, the speaker kills her upon realizing not only society’s restrictions on their relationship, and maybe also his belief of Porphyria's own unwillingness to love him fully but for the present moment. Browning presents the justifiability of the murder only through the stricken eyes of the narrator; while the poet points to social confines as the cause of the speaker's insanity, he does not discount the narrator’s moral responsibility for the deed. The next actions that follow this act also amplify these notions. He opened the lids of her eyes and saw them as laugh as freshly and sweetly as they were before. Such was the intensity of his love for her that he could not see any change that the violent blow of death had brought on her, but does this at nay stage justify the murder. Calmly he untied the firm hold of her tresses around her neck and passionately kissed her on her cheek. It is evident that the social barriers had made his love hinge on madness. For him that moment is forever when Porphyria was his own. But under all these charges of insanity, the intensity of his love is undeniable as he propped his darling’s head on his shoulder and as they sat in that calm… he realizes that may be this was what Porphyria wanted too… and so both had the love they wanted… such was the union that not even the heavens had not said a word. Thus in freezing the moment and liberating the two of them from social structures, Browning distorts the deed to a point where it appears to be a divine event foreseen even by God. In toying with Porphyria's dead body, the narrator relates not the coldness of sudden death, nor the warmth of sitting with his love, but the blazing, untouchable serenity of enacted passion: "her cheek once more / Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss" (49). In the moment of Porphyria's death, the existence of her heated love for the speaker
appears to him to be so infallible that God cannot even intervene: "All night long we have not stirred, / And yet God has not said a word!" (59-60). Browning presents the viewpoint of a speaker educated in the divine workings of an ultimate force, yet the long-stifled yearnings of an unjustly socialized man color the intensity of the situation. In Browning’s dramatic monologue, God's hand of judgment shifts away from the murderer himself and onto the culture that first inhibited the speaker's rational thought. Browning’s characterization of a nameless speaker in "Porphyria's Lover" forms an unexpectedly conclusive response towards the sensual numbness of Victorian society. While the suggested insanity of the speaker would traditionally indicate the narrator’s unreliability in a moral sense, Browning constructs the isolated scene such that the lover’s emotional internalization is not only understandable, but divinely justified. The musings and actions of this unreliable narrator serve to illustrate the consequence of society’s confines in a shockingly violent release. Through naturally flowing flowing language, language, this poetic poetic account account of burning burning emotion emotion within within a setting of tranquil domesticity presents the all-consuming power of human sensuality in its bleakest attempt to override social structures.
Examine waiting for Godot as an existential play. “Waiting for Godot” is an existentialist play because it has clear tints of existentialism in it. If we study the term existentialism we would come to know that it is a philosophical doctrine which lays stress on the existence with his concrete experience and solidities. However, “Waiting for Godot” is an existentialist play for it embodies Christian existentialism. Christian existentialism stress the idea that: “I God only, man may find freedom for tension.” For Christian, existentialism religious leads to God, whereas according to the Atheistic Existentialism, it is based on the idea of Jean Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger who state that: “Man is alone in a godless universe.” The comparat comparative ive study study of of both philosophies philosophies helps us to prove prove “Waiting “Waiting for Godot” Godot” as as a Christian existentialistic play.
We know that man is confronting the problem of his existence as a being. He is striving for his survival and to control the bridle of the pacing time. He is struggling to save his “individuality” and this very idea leads to the philosophy of existentialism. The word word “Existential “Existentialism” ism” stands stands for one’s one’s “awareness” “awareness” of one’s one’s “beingness”. “beingness”. It stands for a vital principal of life. “Waiting for Godot” resembles the existentialist literature because it deals not only with existence or identity but also with the momentary and the internal time. The time mentioned in “Waiting for Godot” is related to man’s mental condition. For instance, the major problem for the tramps is to make time pass in such a way that they are least bothered by it. Vladimir and Estragon constantly complain of the slowness of time passing and do their best to hurry it with their futile diversions. Estragon says: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful.” But we know that outside the natural time, its consequences flow on. For example, the tree has grown five or six leaves. Pozzo has grown blind and Lucky dumb. Here Estragon remarks: “They all change, only we not.” It should be noted that waiting the natural course of time, they think they would believe themselves from all of their problems without doing any effort. They might die naturally and save the effort of hanging themselves. There is is a distincti distinction on between between the momentary momentary and eternal eternal time time for for it deals deals with with the question of existence and identity. This difference can also be seen in this play. In “Waiting for Godot” physical time is sometimes taken seriously and sometimes it is ridiculed or condemned. Estragon once succeeds in confusing Vladimir about the passage of time as well as about the day of week. In the same sentence the tramps speak of a million years ago and in the nineties. We have no reason to be certain that the second description is anyone factual than the first. Doubts about time make the tramps doubtful about their existence and identity. One tramp claims to be of the part, it is doubted by the other. Their own identity and existence in time is also questionable. One day seems to have elapsed between the first act and the second, yet it becomes extremely difficult to differentiate this day with the previous by any important physical evidence. The play play “Waiting “Waiting for Godot” Godot” has has all the traits traits of existentialism existentialism both Vladimi Vladimirr and Estragon represent the man in general who is facing the problems of his existence in this world. They are interdependent like all other man. Hope for salvation is the subject of play and is the problem faced by the whole human race. Representing the man in general, the two tramps realize the futility of their exercise and we note that they are merely filling up the hours with the pointless activity. Hence their ‘waiting’ is mechanical and deals with problem of existentialism.
To conclude conclude we say that the the whole whole picture picture shows shows a pretty hopelessness. hopelessness. Neither Neither time nor existence, neither reality nor memory or the past have any meaning or significance. Acts are meaningless, time does not flow consecutively, memory seems deceptive, existence is an impression or perhaps a dream and happiness is extremely and affliction is crystal clear through the situation of two tramps. They are on the point of becoming hollow philosophies of existence but demand no other equipment in an audience than the bond of common perception.
Discuss Eliot's “Murder in the cathedral” as a Christian history drama. After his joining the Anglo-Catholic church, T.S.Eliot was commissioned to write a play to be enacted at the Canterbury festival in 1935. Eliot chose the chronicle material of the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, by King Henry the Second's men in the Canterbury cathedral in 1170. Eliot transformed the historical conflict between the King and the Archbishop, between the secular head of England and her ecclesiastical head, into a Christian martyrdom play, chiefly modelled on the medieval Morality drama, a play in the verse medium that attempts to reinforce the liturgical origins of drama in England. In the first part of his play Eliot highlights the temptations of Becket by the Four Tempters, Tempters, and and this episode episode is clearly clearly reminiscent reminiscent of of the temptations temptations of Christ Christ himself. himself. In the second part, Becket resigns his will to the Will of God, and calmly surrenders his head before the swords of the Four Knights as sent by King Henry for the Archbishop's assassination. The intermediate section in prose shows the preparation of the Archbishop as he delivers his sermon on martyrdom. Eliot's play foregrounds the theme of Christian martyrdom as Becket realizes that by being killed within the premises of the Canterbury cathedral at the hands of the Knights, he is going to become the champion of God, to vindicate the preordained glory of a martyr to his faith. The murder of Becket is the sacrificial death of a martyr, a re-enactment of the martyrdom of Christ, a validation of Dante's famous note in Paradiso:"en la sua voluntate e nostra pace(in His Will is our peace)".
Discuss the theme in George Eliot's Middlemarch. Subtitled A Study of Provincial Life, George Eliot's novel Middlemarch, published in eight books or installments between 1871 and 1872, is also a study in human nature; a portrait of several memorable characters, the first of whom is Dorothea Brooke; and a historical reflection from the vantage point of the early 1870s on the three years culminating in the passage of the first Reform Bill in 1832. By the time she was writing this novel, Eliot was already a well-established and highly respected author. In her editorial work at the Westminster Review and through George Henry Lewes and
their London circle of intellectuals, Eliot was exposed to the leading scientific, medical, and psychological thinking of her day. This novel reflects that exposure and demonstrates the breadth of her reading in English and other languages. Each chapter begins with an epigram (a concise, often satirical poem or witty expression) that is related to the text, sometimes ironically. Some of the epigraphs are attributed to other writers and were taken from a wide range of sources, while the unsigned ones were written by the author herself. Middlemarch Summary Prelude
In the Prelude to Middlemarch, Eliot tells a story about Saint Teresa of Avila (1515– 82), a Spanish mystic and founder of religious communities. In the story, the child Teresa and her her little brother leave their village village in search search of martyrdom, martyrdom, but but their uncles intercept them and turn them back. This story introduces one central idea in the novel: young people may envision lofty goals that later circumstances or forces beyond their control prevent them from reaching. Eliot writes: "Many Theresas have been born who found for themselves no epic life … perhaps only a life of mistakes, the offspring of a certain spiritual grandeur ill-matched with the meanness of opportunity." Eliot explores this conjunction between character and context. The Prelude introduces the "foundress of nothing" who cries after "an unattained goodness," her high intentions thwarted by immediate obstacles. The suggestion is that the would-be saint of this novel is Dorothea Brooke, since Book I focuses on her. Book I: Miss Brooke Like its title, this installment, the first of eight books in the novel, focuses on nineteen-year-old Dorothea Brooke, who aspires to improve the world and ponders how to begin. She and her younger sister, Celia, orphaned a few years earlier, live with their bachelor uncle and guardian, Mr. Brooke, at his home Tipton Grange. In the first chapter, the sisters examine their mother's jewelry, Celia eager to wear it, Dorothea having no interest in adornment. This scene introduces the theme of inheritance and how differently people react to it. The solicitou solicitous s baronet, baronet, Sir James James Chettem, Chettem, courts Dorothea, Dorothea, trying trying to win her her favor favor by showing interest in her cottage plans. Myopic in more than a physical sense, Dorothea incorrectly assumes he is interested in Celia. At dinner with their uncle, Sir James is contrasted with Edward Casaubon, rector of Lowick. In this nearly fifty-year-old bookworm, Dorothea mistakenly sees a man on a grand mission, the writing of a philosophical history, a "Key to All Mythologies"; by contrast, Celia sees a moledotted, spoon-scraping old man. Mistaken in his own way, Casaubon upon hearing Dorothea's lovely voice imagines the older Brooke sister to be the perfect candidate to be a reader to relieve his tired eyes and a nurse to ease him in his declining years.
He proposes, she accepts, and Mr. Brooke admits not being able to make sense of young women. Mr. Brooke, Dorothea, and Celia visit Lowick. Dorothea is pleased with the old house but disappointed when she hears the tenant farmers are doing quite well. She regrets that "there was nothing for her to do in Lowick," a conclusion truer than she knows, since once married she finds she is also unable to assist Casaubon in fulfilling his goal. One part of their conflictive relationship, over the eighteen months they are married, pertains to the clash between her expectation that he will indeed write the book and his habit of using research to avoid writing and to insulate himself from others. On this first visit to Lowick, Will Ladislaw, the grandson of Casaubon's aunt Julia, is introduced. Will, a youthful lover of the arts, is also attracted to Dorothea's voice, which for him associates her with the Aeolian harp, a romantic symbol of creative inspiration. Casaubon faults Ladislaw for not working diligently in a serious career. The wedding wedding trip is planned planned for Rome. Casaubon Casaubon intends intends to bury himself himself in Vatican Vatican manuscripts while Dorothea sees the sights. A dinner party at the Grange introduces other major characters. Nicholas Bulstrode, the banker who will be disgraced, pontificates that coquetry comes from the devil; his example is his niece Rosamond Vincy, who is a contrast to the unadorned Dorothea. Tertius Lydgate, Lydgate, the recently arrived doctor, doctor, is rumored rumored to be connected connected to a titled Northumberland family. By the time Mr. and Mrs. Casaubon are in Rome, Lydgate is fascinated by Rosamond Vincy. For him, being with Rosamond is like "reclining in a paradise with sweet laughs for bird-notes, and blue eyes for a heaven." Rosamond sets her sights on Lydgate because she thinks the doctor can lift her up and out of provincial Middlemarch society. Committed to the practice of medicine in this small town but also a cultivated man who likes nice things, Lydgate is seduced by her because he mistakes her refined manners for docility and her musical training as balm for him after a long day of work. Ironically, the worldly and sexually experienced Lydgate is more mistaken than the inexperienced, provincial Rosamond. Fred Vincy and Mary Garth are related by marriage to Peter Featherstone: their aunts were Featherstone's two wives, now both deceased. The twelfth chapter in Book I, which is set at Stone Court, introduces Mary Garth, who attends her sickly and cantankerous uncle Featherstone. It also describes the first meeting between Rosamond and Lydgate, during which, significantly, he hands her a whip. In marriage, Rosamond will take charge of Lydgate. Mary Garth is contrasted with Rosamond and Featherstone's sister, Mrs. Waule.
Book II: Old and Young Money matters affect most characters in this novel. Fred Vincy, in debt for £160 and having talked Caleb Garth into co-signing on the loan, asks Bulstrode for a letter confirming to Featherstone that Fred has not tried to borrow money against the prospect of an inheritance from his uncle. Featherstone gives Fred £100, but Fred misuses that money in a horse deal with Bambridge, and the Garths, with considerable personal hardship, are forced to pay the debt.Lydgate, now twentyseven, is assumed to be above the common physician. Orphaned and apprenticed early, with an education in Paris financed by his uncle Sir Godwin, Lydgate aspires to scientific discovery but is hampered by what the narrator calls "spots of commonness," which lie in his prejudices, his tastes in furniture and women, and in his proud assumption "that he was better born than other country surgeons." His past involvement with an actress in Paris who kills her husband foreshadows (or predicts) Rosamond's true character and the ultimate effect on him of his marriage to her. Reverend Tyke is elected to the newly salaried position of chaplain to the hospital over Reverend Fare brother, who has been serving in that capacity without pay for years. Lydgate breaks the tie between the two by arriving late and casting his vote last. People take the election outcome to confirm the doctor's involvement with Mr. Bulstrode who has urged Tyke's election. In Rome alone in a museum Mrs. Casaubon accidentally meets Will. She urges her husband to write and realizes that he will not accept her help and that he is full of his own difficulty regarding his book idea. Book III: Waiting for Death While at the horse fair, Fred contracts typhoid, and Lydgate treats him in the Vincy home, where the doctor frequently meets Rosamond and soon becomes engaged to her. Back at Lowick, Mrs. Casaubon sees the house now as shrunken and dark, this new view caused by her honeymoon insights regarding her husband. Casaubon has a fainting spell, and Lydgate tells him to shorten his hours of study. At the end of Book III, Mary sits up with Featherstone one night during which he directs her to burn one of two wills. She refuses to do so without a witness. By morning he is dead. Book IV: Three Love Problems This book book opens opens with with Featherston Featherstone's e's staged staged funeral funeral at Lowick. Lowick. Mr. Mr. and Mrs. Casaubon Casaubon,, Mrs. Cadwallader, Sir James, and Celia watch the funeral from inside the rectory. Mr. Brooke joins them, apparently having arrived at Lowick in the company of Will Ladislaw who remains outside. Will's presence in Middlemarch is news to Mrs. Casaubon who, given Casaubon's frail health, directed her uncle to write Ladislaw and urge him not to come to Lowick. Actually, Mr. Brooke has done so, but he saw no
problem..
Comment on the character of aziz from your reading of Fgoster’s “A passage to India”. Character Analysis When Dr. Aziz is introduced to us, we don't see him. We see the bicycle he throws on the balcony, and we see the servant missing the bicycle before it hits the balcony. We know that he is "all animation" without being told exactly how he is being "animated." And we hear him calling out his friend's name before we find out his name, before we see his face, or get to know a single detail about his appearance or background. The opening opening scene is just a wind-up wind-up for for the rest of the novel, novel, as it turns out. Impulsive, talkative, gregarious, spontaneously affectionate, Aziz is the Energizer Bunny of the story, rushing into conversations and situations without really thinking too hard about what he's saying or doing. And given the fact that he's so extroverted, it would probably be easy to assemble his profile on a dating site: widowed doctor, father of three, seeking casual relationship or companionship with attractive female. Hobbies include riding horses, waxing nostalgic about the Mughal Empire, and reading and writing Urdu poetry. Peeves include trekking to dark and mysterious caves.But despite the fact that Aziz talks so much, or perhaps because of the fact Aziz talks so much, you might find it hard to get a handle on who he really is. His behavior can seem so contradictory. Aziz can be incredibly friendly and out-going in one moment, and suddenly turn suspicious and rather nasty the next. For example, Aziz seems to like Fielding. Yet he's so ready to believe the rumor that Fielding had an affair with Adela and that Fielding actually plotted to keep Aziz from suing Adela so that Fielding and Adela could enjoy her money together. It's also hard to reconcile the high, romantic idealism that we see when he's contemplating his dead wife, for example, and a matter-of-factness about sexuality that can be hard to stomach, as when he makes plans to see prostitutes. Our difficulties with Aziz may have something to do with the fact that we learn everything about Aziz through the filter of a narrative that is dotted with the racial stereotype of the "Oriental" (see our discussion of Orientalism under the theme "Race"). Of course, the narrative of A Passage to India isn't as racist as the Turtons or McBryde; it's enlightened enough to satirize these characters. But even when it's championing the Oriental/Indian, it still can sound offensive. This is usually signaled when the narrator suddenly stops talking about Aziz the individual, and leaps to all "Orientals." Thus we learn, for example, that "[s]uspicion in the Oriental is a sort of
malignant tumor, a mental malady, that makes him self-conscious and unfriendly suddenly" (2.31.88). Instead of Aziz just being a suspicious guy, the novel wants us to think that Aziz is naturally suspicious because he's Indian. Be that as it may, the novel represents a sincere attempt to inhabit Aziz's mind, to show the effects of living as an Indian under British rule, and to show how the racism of a Turton or Callendar prevent them from recognizing not only Aziz's innocence, but also the validity of Indians' appeal for an independent nation. Perhaps in the end the novel gives us the tools to critically examine itself so that we might finally read Aziz's last gesture to Adela not as the illogical, inconsistent gesture of an illogical, inconsistent Oriental, but as the expression of a generous spirit.
Discuss the different types of sentences in English with examples. There are are four four sentence sentence types types in English. The first first sentence sentence type type is the most most common: common:
Declarative
A declarative sentence "declares" or states a fact, arrangement or opinion. Declarative sentences can be either positive or negative. A declarative sentences ends with a period (.). Examples
I'll meet you at the train station. The sun rises in the East. He doesn't get up early.
Imperative
The imperativ imperative e commands commands (or sometime sometimes s requests). requests). The imperativ imperative e takes takes no subject as 'you' is the implied subject. The imperative form ends with either a period (.) or an exclamation point (!).
Examples
Open the door. Finish your homework Pick up that mess.
Interrogative
The interrogat interrogative ive asks a question. question. In the interrogative interrogative form the the auxiliary auxiliary verb precedes the subject which is then followed by the main verb (i.e., Are you coming ....?). The interrogative form ends with a question mark (?).
Examples
How long have you lived in France? When does the bus leave? Do you enjoy listening to classical music?
Exclamatory
The exclamat exclamatory ory form form emphasiz emphasizes es a statement statement (either (either declarat declarative ive or or imperative) imperative) with an exclamation point (!).
Examples
Hurry up! That sounds sounds fantastic! fantastic!
I can't believe you said that!
Sentence Types
All of these sentence types further fall into four basic sentence type categories in English.
Simple Compound Complex Compound - Complex
Simple Sentences
Simple sentences contain no conjunction (i.e., and, but, or, etc.).
Examples
Frank ate his dinner quickly. Peter and Sue visited the museum last Saturday. Are you coming to the party?
Compound Sentences
Compound sentences contain two statements that are connected by a conjunction (i.e., and, but, or, etc.).
Examples
I wanted to come, but it was late. The company company had an excellent excellent year, year, so they gave gave everyone everyone a bonus. bonus. I went shopping, and my wife went to her classes.
Complex Sentences
Complex sentences contain a dependent clause and at least one independent clause. The two two clauses clauses are connected connected by by a subordina subordinator tor (i.e, (i.e, which, which, who, who, although although,, despite, despite, if, since, etc.).
Examples
My daughter, who was late for class, arrived shortly after the bell rang. That's the man who bought bought our house house Although it was difficult, the class passed the test with excellent marks.
Compound - Complex Sentences
Compound - complex sentences contain at least one dependent clause and more than one independent clause. The clauses are connected by both conjunctions (i.e., but, so, and, etc.) and subordinators (i.e., who, because, although, etc.)
Examples
John, who who briefly briefly visited visited last month, month, won the the prize, prize, and he took took a short short vacation. vacation. Jack forgot forgot his friend's friend's birthday birthday,, so he sent him a card when he he finally finally remembere remembered. d.
The report report which which Tom Tom complie complied d was was presented presented to to the board, board, but it was rejected rejected because it was too complex.
Write an essay on Bilingualism. Education is the most important stage of a child's development, and often it is necessary to adjust styles of teaching for a child's special needs. This is particular the case of migrant children who not only have to deal with the standard issues of childhood but alongside with problems such as culture clash, learning a new language and lacks of confidence they need to adjust to their new surroundings. Bilingual education when working concurrently with ESL programs extends the boundaries of education to accommodate individual needs of the child to ensure a smooth and established transition into their new country. In some cases, it can be conceded that children, especially teenagers develop English slower in bilingual programs than those attending ESL. It is true in many circumstances, the fastest way to learn English is to expose the child to it. However it is essential to note that education encompasses not only the subject of English, but others that are just as crucial in a child's development; they include subjects such as geography and history which relies on an understanding of a language in order for these concepts and ideas to be taught and passed successfully into the child. It is hence indicated that the child cannot grasp the ideas and concepts of history and geography without an established language in which to describe it. Children in ESL programs especially older ones are often in a long period of time in a phase of language clash. Resulting in a situation where the new is coming in terms of the old and neither advancing toward any higher plane. This is most troublesome in situations where new concepts such as `globalisation' is introduced without the child's ability to linguistically describe the term as neither languages are able to progress: the new still coming to terms with the old and the old unable to develop due to its isolation. Bilingual education allows the development of the old language to accommodate the needs of other subjects while at the same time improving their new language and providing a better quality of education and confidence for the child. Bilingual education provides the child with high levels of confidence to progress through their childhood years. It helps the child to keep his/her previous culture, eliminating the risks of culture clash which can often cause harm in a child's development. The child commune with those of similar origin; it is true this creates isolated sub-groups nevertheless it boosts confidence and teachers regularly encourage social interactions between groups regularly in activities such as group work and sport. It helps students to be introduced to new cultures in a culturally
appropriate way allowing support from peers without the set-backs of culture clash. The decision decision however however still rests depende dependently ntly on on the parent parent or guardian. guardian. ESL programs programs still offer great advantages such as a quicker grasp of English and a more integrated and effective introduction of the new culture. One can suggest that ESL programs work better with young children as it avoids problems such as language clash and cultural isolation. Migrating into a new country is hard on both children and parents alike and ultimately, the choice between ESL programs and Bilingual education should be based and attuned to the child's and parents individual interests, circumstances and needs. In the United States, the term bilingual education generally refers to programs that provide support to students with limited English proficiency. Some of these programs teach academic subjects in the students’ home language (usually Spanish) while also requiring language-minority students to take classes in English as a second language (ESL). Other programs aim to teach English to language-minority students by immersing them in English-only classes. Still others are two-way, or dual-language, programs that aim for fluency in two languages—for example, such a program might simultaneously teach Spanish to English-speaking students and English to Spanishspeaking students. These major approaches have several variations, and districts and schools may use a combination of them. Thus, when when people people argue over bilingua bilinguall education’ education’s s effectivene effectiveness ss or ineffectivene ineffectiveness, ss, they could be discussing different forms of bilingual education. In public debate, however, bilingual education usually refers to transitional bilingual education (TBE), which provides native-language instruction to non-English-speaking students in preparation for their eventual learning of English in mainstream classes. The goal of these programs is to help students become fluent in English. In the United States, bilingual education in its modern form began in 1968 with Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides federal funding to schools to help them meet the needs of children with limited English-speaking ability. Title VII, also also called called the the Bilingual Bilingual Education Education Act, Act, was was born out of the civil civil rights rights movement, which, among other things, sought to strengthen economic, political, and social opportunities for minorities. The Bilingual Education Act, together with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was expected to help change attitudes toward immigrant groups and ease resistance to ethnic languages. The Bilingual Bilingual Education Education Act Act resulted resulted in the implemen implementation tation of TBE programs programs in more more than half the states, particularly in districts and schools that had large immigrant (most often Hispanic) populations. TBE programs, in which students are instructed in their native language before being taught English, revived a trend from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when bilingual education thrived among the early European settlers who sought to have children instructed in their mother
tongue. In 1968, however, bilingual education was envisioned as a way to help Spanish-speaking children who had limited or no skills in English and were doing poorly in school.
Support for bilingual education
Advocates of bilingual education marshal a variety of arguments in its defense. Key supporters of bilingual education—among them academics like Kenji Hakuta of Stanford University, Colin Baker of the University of Wales, Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California, and Jim Cummins of the University of Toronto— emphasize the effectiveness of using students’ native language as a resource in learning a second language. They maintain that the use of the students’ home language helps keep them from falling behind their fellow students while learning English. They claim that the first language serves as a bridge on learning, and that knowledge acquired in one language transfers to the other language. This means that a child who is not fluent in English but is fluent in Spanish will learn English easily because he has already learned the foundational processes in the first language. The “knowledge-transfer” hypothesis rests on the premise that the process of reading is similar across languages, even though the languages and writing systems are different. As professor of education Stephen Krashen, author of Under Attack: The Case Against Bilingual Education, explains,
When schools provide children quality education in their primary language, they give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that children get through their first language helps make the English they hear and read more comprehensible. Literacy developed in the primary language transfers to the second language. The reason is simple: Because we learn by reading, that is, by making sense of what is on the page, it is easier to learn to read in a language we understand. Once we can read in one language, we can read in general. Notice that Krashen uses the word quality; it is a word that practitioners of bilingual education often emphasize. They maintain that the most effective bilingual education programs are two-way bilingual programs. Such programs aim to teach both native speakers of Spanish and native speakers of English, attending the same classes, academic subjects in both languages. The students initially receive 90 percent of instruction in Spanish and 10 percent in English, and then the amount of English increases with each grade. Supporters of these programs point to studies, such as the one by researchers Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia Collier at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, that document the effectiveness of two-way bilingual programs. Thomas and Collier Collier reviewed student records from 1982 1982 to to 2000 2000 and found that English-language learners do better academically over the long term if English is introduced slowly instead of being submerged in intensive English instruction in a
regular classroom. They conclude that two-way bilingual programs are “the only kinds of programs that fully close the achievement gap between Englishlanguage learners and native English-speakers over the long term.” Most advocates of transitional bilingual education also believe that quality entails a long transition period, which is defined as the period during which a student is taught academics in his or her native or home language before being transferred to mainstream English-only classes. Colin Baker of the University of Wales, who has done an extensive review of studies that measure the effectiveness of bilingual education, calls such programs “stronger forms of bilingual education.” To advocate advocates, s, quality quality bilingual bilingual educatio education n further further requires requires welltrai welltrained, ned, accredited accredited bilingual teachers who effectively take charge of their classes. Finally, supporters of bilingual education maintain that effective native-language instruction requires parents’ consent and participation, low teacher-student ratios, adequate school facilities, administrative support, and other enabling factors. The National National Association Association for Bilingual Bilingual Education Education (NABE), (NABE), a major major advocacy advocacy organization, admits there are existing bilingual education programs that do not meet the above requirements. James J. Lyons, former NABE executive director, mentions a few of them:
Some are bilingual in name only, staffed by monolingual English-speaking teachers with no professional preparation. . . . In a few instances, students have been assigned to bilingual education on the basis of an educationally irrelevant criterion such as surname. . . . In some localities, LEP [limited English proficient] students have been assigned to bilingual-education programs without the informed consent and choice of their parents.
Lyons argues that the existence of such malpractices does not warrant the elimination of a whole range of effective programs and the wholesale dismissal of the bilingual education policy.
What the critics say
Critics of bilingual education maintain that the best way of teaching English to nonEnglish speakers is not to instruct them in their home language but instead to immerse them in English. They often look to Canadian total French immersion, the approach adopted by Montreal, Canada, in teaching French to English-speaking, middle-class children. Under this program, native-English speakers start school entirely in French, with English introduced gradually. By the end of elementary
school, most students become fluent in French, exhibit competence in English, and do well academically. The approach, which gained instant popularity, spread all throughout Canada and has become a model for other countries. Critics of bilingual education in the United States find fault with the lengthy transition period during which Spanish speakers are immersed in their mother tongue before they move to the mainstream classes where they start learning English. They say that under established rules, the transition should only take three or four years, but that this rarely happens; in many cases, children stay with the mother tongue up to seven years, which, critics maintain, amounts to wasted time and lost opportunity. Opponents also point out the lack of bilingual teachers nationwide, which renders existing bilingual programs questionable. Susan Headden, writing in U.S. News & World Report, comments, “Poorly trained teachers further complicate the picture. . . . The paucity paucity of qualified qualified candidates candidates has has forced forced desperate desperate superintendent superintendents s to waive some credentialing requirements and recruit instructors from abroad. The result is teachers who themselves struggle with English.” Most importantly, critics of bilingual education attribute much of the 30 percent highschool dropout rate among Hispanic children to their confinement to Spanish-only classrooms. They observe that the dropout rate is highest among ethnic groups, and that it has not decreased after many years of implementing bilingual instruction. California’s Proposition 227
It was in reaction to these deficiencies that Proposition 227 was introduced in California in 1998. The initiative, which aimed to drastically restrict bilingual education in public schools and promote English-only instruction instead, was spearheaded by Ron C. Unz, a wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Unz believes that English is vital to scholastic achievement, economic success, the speedy integration of immigrants into society, and the preservation of national unity. Californians approved Proposition 227 with a 61 percent vote. According to a report by Kathleen Wilson and Jean Cowden Moore in the Ventura County Star, since the passage of Proposition 227 local school districts in California have reduced the number of students who are learning in Spanish to just 11 percent, down by almost twothirds from 1997.
After his initiative was passed, Unz went on to spearhead a campaign called “English for the Children,” which aims to make English the sole medium of instruction in public schools. Unz’s campaign has won a few victories outside of California. Denver and Chicago have increased the amount of English instruction and limited TBE programs to three years. In 2000 Arizona, inspired by California’s example and helped by Unz’s resources, ended bilingual education. In 2002 Massachusetts approved a similar initiative against bilingual education. On the national level, various bills have been, albeit unsuccessfully, introduced in Congress either to end, reform, or restrict the
federal role in bilingual education. Indefinite research leads to politicization
With restraints on bilingual education gaining momentum, the debate has become more intense. In the above-mentioned states that have legislated on the issue, both the pro-bilingual education camp and the pro- English camp have wooed politicians and advocacy organizations and raised large sums of money to support their cause. Listening to the arguments of the two sides, it is easy to see that both have some valid points. However, research on the effectiveness of bilingual education, which should provide objective evidence to decide the issue, has not clearly determined which approaches work best. The relevant research over the past twenty years has been ambivalent: There is a substantial body of research that points to bilingual education’s effectiveness, but there is also evidence indicating that English immersion is effective and that TBE programs may inhibit scholastic achievement. Professor of education Colin Baker attributes the contradictory research to the differing political agendas of those who favor and oppose bilingual education, which may influence the work of research institutions and individual researchers. Richard Rothstein, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., attributes the mixed results to the difficulty in measuring school achievement and isolating the individual factors that lead to it. Without a final word on the subject, the debate between advocates and critics of bilingual education has become politicized. Many times, discussions have been conducted under the sponsorship of special-interest groups. Often, decisions have been made depending on who is in power in Washington, in the state capital, or the district. Bilingual education has been discussed alongside such volatile issues as nationalism, racism, immigration, and adoption of English as the official language of the United States as well as minority rights, cultural diversity, and the goals of education itself.
Lobby groups and ethnic activists
Many supporters of bilingual education view the opposition to it as part of a nationwide movement to make English the official language of the United States and to restrict the use of ethnic languages. Advocates name two major organizations as the nemesis of bilingual education—U.S. English and English First—both of which advocate for the legislation of English as a national language and the adoption of government limits on the use of other languages.
U.S. English was founded by [U.S. former] Senator S.I. Hayakawa [of California] in 1983 to push for a constitutional amendment to make English the official language on
both federal and state levels. However, critics of U.S. English view it as a racist lobby that aims to ban the use of ethnic languages. Pro-bilingual supporters note that two organizations funded by U.S. English—the Learning English Advocates Drive and Research in English Acquisition and Development—are at the forefront of campaigns seeking to reduce the scope of bilingual education in schools.Commenting on the profile and history of U.S. English, journalist Andrew Phillips says the organization ran into controversy in the late 1980s after some leaders complained publicly that “Hispanics were breeding too fast.” As a result, the organization was discredited and its officials were accused of racism. U.S. English claims it recovered in the late 1990s when its membership rose to 1 million and it had an annual budget of $15 million. The second second organiz organization ation that supports supports English as an official official national national language language is English First. Supporters of bilingual education often connect the organization to right-wing politicians, pointing out that it was once headed by Larry Pratt, founder and head of the lobby group Gun Owners of America, who later became adviser to former presidential contender Pat Buchanan. Countercharges from official-English groups English-only proponents hurl back to the other camp similar charges, claiming that left-wing cultural activists are using the bilingual education debate to promote the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. Critics also argue that educators may wrongly support bilingual education in order to preserve the jobs of bilingual instructors. As John R. Silber, chancellor of Boston University, declares, Bilingual education is the interest of only two groups: one, bilingual educators, who face unemployment from the judgment of the people, and two, ethnic nationalists, for whom the preservation and exaltation of immigrant language at the expense of English gives important political advantages to their English-speaking spokesmen. We must stop sacrificing the interests of our children to these two groups. Ron C. Unz attributes the staying power of bilingual education to vested interests and what he calls the silence of the media. He says,
In this vast cavern of embarrassed media silence, the views of the overwhelmingly many were easily shouted down by the voices of the tiny but committed few. The story of the growth and entrenchment of these bilingual education programs constitutes a truly impressive and most remarkable illustration of the powerful dynamics of special-interest group politics. In 1999 English-only proponents and the official-English movement gained a major victory when the House of Representatives finally passed a law mandating English as the country’s official language. It was on this occasion that House Speaker Newt Gingrich declared, “Without English as a common language, there is no [American] civilization.” The Senate, however, has not passed the legislation.
The claims claims and countercla counterclaims, ims, the accusatio accusations ns and rebuttals, rebuttals, are repeated repeated again again and and again in various forums and media. In the absence of definitive research on whether bilingual education helps or harms students, the politicization of the bilingual education debate will certainly continue. With more state ballot initiatives on the issue expected to gain momentum in the coming years, the debate over bilingual education versus English-only classrooms will be hugging the headlines for the foreseeable future.
