Pegasus
Vol 1 No 5 April 2001
Bulletin of the Department of English, Heramba Chandra College
Contents Foreword
Look Back in Anger: Relevance in The insistence of the UGC on so-called self-improvement has spawned
India a mad rush for gathering certificates of participation in seminars. These
gatherings have a tendency to turn into carnivals with morsels of
Modern Poetry: A Note academic trivia thrown in. How these ‘‘dos’’ can lead to
‘self-improvement’ of any kind is beyond comprehension. The cynicism
The Strain of Melancholy in Twelfth that so sadly has taken root is best perceived in these ritualistic get-
Night togethers. That, however, is only to be expected when demands from
the UGC show lack of perspective as well as an utterly lamentable
Through the Child’s Eye: Rahel divorcement from ground reality.
and Estha in The God of Small However, seminars and workshops are necessary forms of academic
Things activity and as such should be encouraged. The organisers should take
pains to work out meaningful programmes – for the teachers, as well as
The Reader’s Autobiography for the taught. With this in mind, the English and Bengali Departments
of our college are jointly hosting a Workshop on evaluation of answer
Is the lover in The Last Ride scripts at the Honours level examinations on April 7, Saturday. We have
Together too noble to be real? collected answer scripts from a number of undergraduate colleges for
evaluation by specially selected examiners as well as by the other
The Bard of England Comes Alive participants in the Workshop on the spot. Discussion will then centre
in Kolkata on related problems and solutions. The Workshop will also focus on the
difficulties faced by students as they sit for the dreaded examinations.
Contributors Students have also been invited to join the proceedings. In this context,
I would like to thank Dr. Krishna Bandopadhyaya, Dr. Sukanti Dutta, Sri
Suchira Sarkar is a lecturer in Tarun Ghose, Srimati Sutapa Sengupta and Srimati Sohini Ghosh,
English at Brahmananda without whose active help the Workshop could not have taken place. As
Keshab Chandra College. we write, we are certain that teachers from various colleges who have
responded with enthusiasm to our choice of subject will show equal
Dr. Chandrika Mukherjee is a alacrity in participation.
Reader in the Department of For various reasons, we had to put Pegasus on hold for several
English, Rammohan College. months. One was the lack of good enough material to publish. In the
last few weeks people have expressed willingness to write for us. We
Siddhartha Biswas is a find that encouraging. Also in the last few months, we have seen such
Lecturer in English at St. Paul's promises broken. We did not find that discouraging.
Cathedral Mission College. As you all know with such sad clarity, the institutions most of us work
in hardly excel as places fit for pursuit of knowledge or advancement of
Srabasti Guha Thakurta is a learning. For a literary journal of our kind to thrive in the prevalent
Lecturer in English at Heramba atmosphere is difficult. Costs are high; labours of love have limits of
Chandra College. endurance; help from most quarters come bundled with obligations too
heavy for our fragile shoulders. But, the penchant for dreams dies hard.
Sudeshna Basu and Moumita We have survived for a bit. Let us see how long we can go on. The odds
Sanyal are students in the 2nd are long. Good words are plentiful; assistance is not.
Year English Honours class in Teachers and students of English from other colleges are invited to
Heramba Chandra College. send us typed articles not longer than 1000 words. Items not selected
Debanjana Dasgupta is in the will be returned if accompanied by stamped self-addressed envelopes.
2nd Year English Honours class Send us notices and news of literary activity in your college. We will
in St. Xaviers College. also review books and periodicals.
E-mail: pegasusHCC@caltiger.com
Visit us at:
http://members.rediff.com/SBofHCC/1_Pegasus_Symbol.htm
Look Back in Anger: Relevance in India
Suchira Sarkar
Look Back in Anger embodies certain socio-cultural set up many schools, colleges and universities. Along
contradictions of post Second World War Britain on with spread of so-called higher education this also
the domestic level. The core of the conflict between produced a large number of educated unemployed.
Jimmy Porter on the one hand and his wife Alison This frustrated generation is the Indian counterpart
and Helena on the other, lies in Jimmy's deep rooted of Jimmy Porter's generation in Britain.
class consciousness and class hatred. Difference in In this situation the Communist Party of India
their cultural ideas determined by their respective started gaining ground among the working class and
class background constantly get in the way of mutual also a small segment of the middle class. But they
acceptance. Moreover, there are a number of too failed in channelizing the anger and energy of the
aspects of the socio-cultural phenomena of post-war nation into the path of revolution. Thus both the right
Britain neglected in the text, which are strikingly wing and the left wing political parties failed to
similar to those of post-independence India. Perhaps provide leadership in bringing about a change. It was
this is why this English play first enacted in 1956 this kind of confusion in the British scene too that
seems not only to be relevant but often prompted Jimmy to say:
contemporary in the India of 2000. I suppose people of our generation aren't able to
Great enthusiasm was generated, especially among die for good causes any longer. We had all that
the youth of post-war Britain, over the victory of the done for us in the thirties and the forties when
Labour Party in 1945. They hoped for a we were still kids.
revolutionary change that the rule of this party The allusion to Jimmy's dead father who fought
having a leftist stance would bring about in the against the fascists instantly reminds us of the
British social system. But the way the task of freedom fighters who fought against the British
economic reconstruction and regeneration was rulers with an unwavering sense of direction. What
managed soon disillusioned this section. The fruit that Jimmy mourns is not the absence of a cause, an
the welfare measures taken up by the Labour ideology, but his inability to be active and dynamic,
government yielded was not upto the expectations of even when class hatred goads him on for some kind
the people. Their frustration resulted in the defeat of of purposive activity. He does not find a way under
the Labour Party in the election of 1951, as a large the banner of any party to employ his energy in the
section of the voters felt that the Labour government cause of the British working people and deserting to
betrayed the cause of the working class. However, China, where the socialist revolution had already
the next conservative government proved no better taken place in 1949. In Hugh's decision is manifested
and we hear Jimmy continuously attacking their a sense of futility of revolutionary endeavour in
ethos. But this sense of betrayal is an important Britain against a very powerful capitalist ruling party
factor behind Jimmy's anger. that holds the H-Bomb. When the Indian Communist
Similar was the situation in post-Independence Party split in 1964 many of the activists became
India. After two hundred years of British colonial totally inactive being unsure which way to go.
exploitation and oppression when freedom at People's discontent and anger found expression in
midnight on 14th August 1947 was ushered in at the the Naxalite movement as sporadic revolutionary
cost of thousands of lives throughout all these years activity. But that was soon ruthlessly crushed. With
of struggle, what an outburst of joy, hope and this ended a chapter in the leftist movement in India.
inspiration rippled through the country! People Hope in the leftist camp burgeoned again in the late
envisaged a total economic reconstruction and the 70s. But now, at the threshold of the 21st Century, a
emergence of a truly independent nation where note of despair is in the air. Once again there
everybody would be provided for according to one's prevails a sense of confusion and betrayal. Curiously,
need. Nehru declared that all the hoarders and black we have not received in Bengali theatre a character
marketeers will be hanged from the nearest resembling Jimmy Porter, though in films like Albert
lamppost. What did actually follow? With the Pinto Ka Gussa Kyon Ata Hai and some films
accompanying phenomena of partition and influx of featuring Amitava Bacchan as an angry young
refugees and the way everything was handled by the man, we do find shadows of Jimmy. Of course,
Congress government the euphoria soon started to many of Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen’s early films
evaporate. With growing industrialisation the document the angry mood of the 70s.
economy was partly revamped, but the The disgusting state of affairs in the present Indian
maldistribution of wealth further added to the existing politics alienates the younger generation and creates
economic disparity. The common rank of Indians confusion over the choice of any particular ideology.
realised that freedom from the clutches of the We see a self-centred careeristic generation that will
colonisers had not meant for them freedom from soon realize that their upbringing guarantees no
age-old socio-economic exploitation and oppression. economic security. We apprehend that many Jimmies
Like post-war Britain, in India too, the government are in the offing.
2
The irreverent and defiant attitude of the younger a faculty that is hardly ever recognised to be
generation of post-war Britain towards the essential. However, among the educated section
establishment manifests itself in Look Back in distinct erosion of religious faith was discernible from
Anger in many ways. An important aspect is this point of time.
Jimmy’s deliberate violation of upper class norms of In post-war Britain the tendency of young people
speech, profuse use of slang and dirty words. The meeting at parties increased much more than before,
frustration and anger in the failure to gain economic leading to early marriages. This social tendency is
security and position in life often manifested itself in reflected in the fictional situation of Look Back in
the same way in Bengali language from the early Anger in the meeting and the consequent marriage
70s. The pseudo-political revolt took the shape of of Jimmy and Alison, though they came from two
rebellion against standard norms of speech. And different classes. The mixing between men and
incorporation of slang in standard speech became a women had become much easier and casual than the
new linguistic feature. pre-war days. Women had more social freedom. The
Consider the ongoing Americanization of the Indian status, and social recognition of women enjoyed by
market and culture in the name of globalization. the middle and upper classes in Indian society today
Quite often one feels like exclaiming in unison with is comparable to that in Britain in the 50s. In
Jimmy as he does in Act I Sc. I: Osborne’s Britain as well as in Bengal of the 80s and
I must say it is pretty dreary living in the 90s the unfamiliar picture of young girls parading
American Age – unless you are an American of their newly acquired freedom may amount to or
course. Perhaps all our children will be seem to amount to declassment. That declassment
Americans. even in an economic and social sense cannot lead to
The craze for jeans, T-shirts emblazoned with words or long sustain a forced cultural transformation is a
like "I love California", sharp increase in the taste for basic idea in Look Back in Anger, as it is the basic
Pop, imitation of Pop and film stars from Hollywood factor in numerous separations of newly wed young
in fashion, and many such phenomena are indicators couples that we often hear about today. This perhaps
of growing American influence on Indian culture. is the result of a process that was triggered in Indian
What was brought to Britain by her post-colonial society in the 50s by the socio-economic impact of
dependence on America in the 50s, is now brought to the war. Moreover, in the class as well as
India in the form of loans from such agencies like the caste-ridden Indian society, the phenomenon of
IMF, the growing influence of the Multi National inter-caste marriage was possible only in the
Corporations, the present government's shameless post-war social scenario where women could assert
selling off of its assets. themselves – a phenomenon unthinkable before.
India did not have to bear the brunt of the World The steady liberalization in the Indian attitude
Wars as much as England did. Yet, some of the towards free mixing between men and women, dress
major changes in value systems and attitudes code, relationship with the elders, sexual mores that
towards certain institutions that took place in England we find current at present, was reality in Britain in
as an aftermath of war did take place in India as the 50s, as is reflected in the text of Look Back in
well. The mindless butchery of millions and the all- Anger. Many other minor points of similarity can be
out destruction of the two wars severely jolted enumerated. Hence Look Back in Anger read in
Europe’s faith in divine providence. We heard the the context of broad-based similarities in the socio-
pronouncement, ‘God is dead.’ For Jimmy, a working cultural situation of post-war Britain and that of post-
class youth owing allegiance to materialistic ideology, Independence India can be highly rewarding. In fact,
religion is as retrogressive as (Act II, Sc. I, p. 99) the Indian response is not limited to the
‘selling out the old firm of Reason and Progress’ and comprehension of a domestic situation consisting of
‘free enquiry’. These are the sustaining shibboleths conjugal misunderstandings and their resolution. On
that the Enlightenment along with its religious the contrary, it spontaneously takes account of
scepticism handed down to succeeding generations. socio-political reverberations which contitutes the
But placed before a stagnating economy, collapsing essence of Look Back on Anger.
values and anti-rationalistic frenzy in various forms,
this generation was disenchanted completely. For Bibliography
Jimmy it is as escapist and selfish a trend as to
‘move into a lovely little cottage of the soul cut right Boris Ford (ed.): The Present: The New Pelican Guide to
off from the ugly problems’ of the 20th century English Literature, Vol 8 (1983; Penguin, Harmondsworth)
altogether. Hence in the play the tug of war between
Jimmy and Helena on whether or not Alison will go Arthur Maswick, Social History of Britain,: British
to church. This drift away from religion in the Society since 1945 (1988; Penguin, Harmondsworth)
fictional situation is altogether supported by the fact
in reality that, at the beginning of the 50s, under 10% John Taylor Russell, Anger and After (1963; Penguin,
of the British population were regular church-goers. Harmondsworth)
In India this sort of loss of faith was certainly not
present among the masses. But faith almost always JohnOsborne, A Better Class of Person: An
bordered on superstition in a state of sleeping reason, Autobiography 1929-1956 (1981; Faber & Faber,
London)
3
Modern Poetry: A Note
Chandrika Mukherjee
Our modern age is certainly the age of science life, but they did not inherit his inner moral attitude
which has gained control of nature and has grown and his spontaneous moral reactions. Thus modern
very powerful. The scientists believe that the bodies poetry naturally had a depressing effect on the
of human beings are nothing but complex human mind.
bio-chemical mechanisms. This fairly recent But have we forgotten Walt Whitman and his
tendency in modern science is has been called epoch-making creation Leaves of Grass? His idea
Reductionism. Of course, this attitude has been of the sacredness of all human beings and his robust
criticised as it is an effort to turn what is alive into a optimism will inspire hope in the depressed humanity
mere object. It is wearing away humany's all over the world. He spoke of cosmic unity in the
psychological health, men and women are losing faith variety of existence in Song of Myself:
in themselves. They do not believe in religion, they Do you see O my brothers and sisters?
are afraid of death. The modern poets also have not It is not chaos or death – it is form,
escaped this contagion. Union, plan – it is eternal life – it is happiness.
Modern poets both in English and Bengali merely But how many poets of the future justified this
reveal the degradation of the modern world which unique poet of humanity and carried on his tradition?
have a frustrating effect. James E. Miller, the well- To some extent, Dylan Thomas and D. H. Lawrence
known critic, was right when he wrote: had done it, there were parallel ideas in Tagore – but
The fashionable contemporary stance for the what about others? The modern poets mainly carried
poet is one of alienation and despair, typified by on Eliot's tradition and are poets of frustration.
the spiritual paralysis of T. S. Eliot's ‘Alfred So when modern literature does not point out the
Prufrock’. way to recovery, the positive and optimistic attitude
This lack of humanity, individuality and life content of Whitman’s poetry must be revived in this modern
has resulted in anxiety, stress, boredom, depair, world. In this way we can challenge the crisis of
meaninglessness and ultimately cynicism. modern values and show the way to regeneration
The followers of T. S. Eliot adopted only his through the optimistic attitude of Walt Whitman.
technique of describing the hopelessness of modern
STRAIN OF MELANCHOLY IN TWELFTH NIGHT
Siddhartha Biswas
Twelfth Night is the merriest of Shakespeare’s ages all human activity was directed towards God.
romantic comedies, it is also the saddest. The Man was given little importance. Then with
Christian associations of the title suggests the carpe Renaissance came yet undiscovered knowledge. The
diem theme which runs through the play. Epiphany, new astronomical discoveries allowed man to
according to Christian mythology, is the time when explore the universe independent of the scriptures.
the shepherds recognized the birth of Christ. The With this was born man’s pride in being man in the
feast of epiphany is the last festival of the Christmas mortal universe. And thus man became conscious of
season, after which death takes over. This cycle of the beauty and transience of life. This removed the
life is an extension of the ancient pagan fertility concept of life everlasting from the framework of
rituals. The mood is similar in Keats’s ‘To Autumn’, eternity. This introduced the prominence of mortality.
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with a treble soft The dance of death was now more feared than ever.
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; New questions about human existence took form.
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. Comedy seeks to find answers, a meaning of life; yet
Only, Keats finds reassurance in the fact that Shakespeare presents a frail shadowy background to
swallows will return, but Shakespeare is concerned his actions. One of the main governing thoughts in
with the cessation of life which looms over the whole Twelfth Night is the fragility of life. This is the play
play. Here the recognition is of the transience of life, of youth, almost all the characters are young, and
unlike in Cymbeline where the rediscovery of this generates the sadness. Shakespeare asks all to
Perdita symbolises the rediscovery of one’s soul. enjoy fleeting life, make the most of the twelve days,
Significantly, Twelfth Night is the last of the scorning the Malvolios. A pattern emerges from all
romantic comedies. After this Shakespeare moves this lot which gives life some meaning.
on to the tragedies and the problem plays – this is the Twelfth Night, despite all its laughter, seems to
last play where joy is not alloyed with problems of play upon the keys of loss, affliction and deep
evil and anti-life. bewilderment, which sounds through the gentle
Everything that is subject to time is valueless, this beauty of the romance convention and the festive
was the medieval conception. Thus during the middle humour. The bonded family words – father, brother,
4
sister – signifies absence, loss of security and a wholeness of identity, the twinned heroines are each
longing. It is this sense of irreparable loss, and the presented as halves of a pairing, cloven away from
mild apprehension that all this might prove to be a the male counterpart with whom she started life. In
dream provides the poignant dream-like feeling Jungian terms, when Viola assumes the male
which pervades the play. The loss is internal as well disguise, it is as if she recapitulates in her own
as external. The recognition of one’s self is a person the lost other, dressing exactly like Sebastian,
dominant theme, and almost all characters are and as if Olivia also locates her own in Viola. Herein
haunted by this and hunt for their selves as well as lies the fact that both of them are in an illusory
their lost loves. Orsino’s languorously insatiable world, it is only the presence of Sebastian which
desire for love and ‘food of love’ in the first scene allows a happy resolution, otherwise the imminent
presents a parodic statement of the omnipresent result was definitely tragic.
sense of want. The hunting pun serves to express There might be an autobiographical element in this
the search which is already begun. Nevertheless, brother-sister separation theme. Shakespeare himself
Orsino’s words set the mood of the play, which, even was the father of boy-girl twins of whom the boy
through all the ‘caterwauling’ of the kitchen group, died before the composition of this play. The twins
never fades. Orsino says were eleven and half years old when death
That strain again, it had a dying fall: separated them. Shakespeare must have felt at heart
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound the wistful sadness in the eyes of Judith the surviving
That breathes upon a bank of violets, child, which he endowed to viola. Twelfth Night
Stealing and giving odour contains a calm, loving elegy, and a myth of rebirth.
Orsino’s appetite is soon satiated. The music loses its It feigns that Hamnet, the boy twin, is not dead, but
appeal and his love for love becomes evident. Even lingers in the unknown, washed up on the shores of
the hunting image takes on contemporary Illyria, the land of illusion and lyricism.
significance – Diana becomes the naked truth which Prove true, imagination, O prove true
makes Acteon wild. This is a parody of Petrarchan This is not only Viola’s, but also Shakespeare’s
conceits and it is fittingly given to Orsino, who, like heartfelt cry. Thus Viola’s sadness resounds with a
all in Illyria, is in a state of illusion. new meaning. Her exclamation at her entry is,
According to Plato’s Symposium love is a hole, an And what should I do in Illyria?
absence longing to be filled. So Twelfth Night is a My brother he is in Elysium.
play of pining: Orsino for Olivia, Olivia for Viola, Her brother comes back to her, but Hamnet does
Viola for Orsino, and comically Sir Andrew and not.
Malvolio for Olivia. This emphasis on pining invokes Unlike Sebastian, Viola controls herself and centres
the classical myth of Narcissus and Echo, and makes her thoughts on immediate problems. Her wit allows
a narcissistic triad of self enclosed loneliness. Each her to obtain a shelter in an alien and unfriendly
of them playing simultaneously Narcissus and Echo world. But her wit also has a touch of the autumnal
with respect to others. They seek their own – in keeping with the autumnal note of the play. And
reflections in the other’s face and own echo in the even in her sorrow she can sympathise with others.
other’s voice. But more melancholy than this ‘love- She understands Olivia’s plots instantly in place of
sorrow’ is the separation of loved ones by real or scorn, shows tender understanding, she says,
apparent death. This again can be traced to the Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,
sense of romantic lack as embodied in this state of For such as we are made of, such we be.
primary loss. Nearly all characters bear traces of Her identification with Olivia is appropriate in more
such loss – from the father-brother loss which ways than one – not only both of them are lovesick,
provides similar traumatic experiences for Viola and but also they long for a brother figure. But Viola’s
Olivia, down to the farcical yet nostalgic exclamation pathos is more touching. She has to bear messages
of Sir Andrew: ‘I was adored once, too.’ to her rival from the man she loves. This she does
While Viola’s sorrow is genuine, Olivia’s vow to without a murmur and with all sincerity. Her praise
keep her face veiled for seven years seems more of Orsino comes straight from her heart. She is
like a ploy to ward off Orsino’s unwanted advances. pained to the extreme, and almost reveals herself
Otherwise her whole behaviour is comically when Orsino calls women less faithful and lacking in
excessive in place of being melancholy. Seven years depth of emotion. She tells the Duke:
in black violates the Elizabethan mourning etiquette My father had a daughter lov’d a man,
which prescribed a period of one year for a brother. As it might be perhaps, were I a woman,
Olivia closely parallels Orsino – both in her I should your lordship.
reclusiveness more alleged than borne out – and as Thus secretly professing her love. But her
a willing victim of introspective melancholia. Olivia’s suppressed agony is felt when she tells Orsino the
unnamed brother fades from the surface of the play. supposed ending of her non-existent sister’s love
But his spirit continues to haunt. For no sooner has whose history was, she tells Orsino,
the theme of brother loss been sounded in the minor A blank, my lord: she never told her love
key than it recurs in the major. The ‘eye-offending For she never expects to have Orsino and she dares
brine’ of tears gives way to the sea. Olivia’s brother not aspire to the impossible. As when her brother’s
fades into Viola’s. In a drama greatly concerned with name is mentioned she fears to hope for the best.
5
Shakespeare saves the play from ending in total security. He begs to acquire money. For a man of his
disaster by bringing in Sebastian and thus allowing intellectual capacities this must be disgusting. He has
Viola to have a happy end, in an union with Orsino. no past, no future and no considerable present. He is
In the first scene orsino begins with an imagery of a relic of the past, from Olivia’s father’s time. He is
flowers. And the scene ends with flowers: constantly threatened with discharge which is as bad
Away before me to sweet beds of flowers! as hanging for him. But he lets summer bear it out.
Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers. Only his song betray his state. Thus in his songs the
The image of flowers comes again and again thought of hereafter is subordinated.
throughout the play. Flowers symbolise transience – In the final scene everyone leaves except Feste,
momentary beauty, something that does not last. So who stays to give the audience a song. A song in
Feste tells Olivia: which he is transformed from the character to the
As there is no true cuckold but calamity, so actor. His final song marks the ending of the play, the
beauty’s a flower. ending of the twelfth night. Death’s reign starts from
Reminding her that times are never always bad, thus the next day. Feste’s song is nostalgic, he recalls
to keep on mourning for something that is past is to when folly was not as unacceptable or threatening.
waste precious time and no one has world enough He also gives a cynical view of marriage as an
and time. Orsino talks about woman’s beauty, asking unwanted responsibility. This casts an oblique
Cesario to fall in love with some woman younger perspective on the centrality of marriage in the play
than he, as a symbol of concord and resolution.
For women are as roses, whose fair flower A great while ago the world begun,
Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour. With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
Viola has to agree. She admits that death comes But that's all one, our play is done,
when one has just reached perfection. Speaking not And we'll strive to please you everyday.
only for women but for all mankind. The flower ‘That’s all one’ signifies from one perspective that
imagery stresses the carpe-diem theme of the play – since nothing is really important enough to worry
cease the day before it ends. about, pleasure and folly are the only activities worth
This theme is also propagated through the music of undertaking. From another, similar, perspective the
the play. In Twelfth Night music plays a vital role, phrase can be read as hopeless, despairing
establishing the tone of the play. Through music the resignation, pleasure and folly are doomed attempts
emotive basis of human existence is emphasised, to escape from an intolerable consciousness of
which is to be felt rather than perceived cerebrally. futility. In ‘our play is done’, it is more about the
There is rare music in Viola. She does not sing, but innocent activities than about the play itself. It is a
her words carry poetic inspiration. She echoes nostalgic recognition of the post innocence state.
Shakespeare’s sonnets when she tells Olivia: Feste’s song probably takes place on a dark,
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive empty, silent stage, encapsulating Feste’s loneliness.
If you will lead these graces to the grave His life is really as empty. He is as much an outcast
And leave the world no copy. as Malvolio, only he is not embittered. He is the
Like the early marriage sonnets the theme here is of artist. Isolated, presenting life, but not belonging to it.
beauty perpetuated through marriage. But the His song is a very cynical comment on human
character who is full of music and is truly existence. To Feste the world does seem like
melancholy, though not in his attitude or expression, ... a tale
is Feste. Feste is the first true fool of Shakespeare's Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
plays. One of the functions of the clown is to sing. Signifying nothing.
He sings to Toby and Andrew: The song is a reminder of the theme of the play –
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter, youth and its subjection to time. The question which
Present mirth hath present laughter: arises is whether this kind of existence is worth the
Whats to come is still unsure. strife. With this question the curtain descends on
In delay there lies no plenty, Shakespeare’s romantic world.
Then come kiss me sweet and twenty: The final song, which brings together all the
Youth’s a stuff will not endure. melancholy passages in the play, leaves a yearning in
The fragility of youth and shadow of death – this is the reader’s mind. A tinge of sadness which fills the
in line with the play’s theme and mood and also heart and leaves a deep impression, is given to the
Feste’s character. His other song, which he sings to whole play. This song marks a turning point in the
please Orsino, is equally sad, world of Shakespearean drama. The playful attitude
Come away, come away death, is done, now it is time for serious businesses of life,
And in sad cypress let me be laid. which involves the greatest of calamities. Perhaps at
Fie away, fie away breath, the moment Shakespeare himself identified with
I am slain by a fair cruel maid. Feste. He who even with his immeasurable height of
This song continues to reveal Feste’s own bleak mind had to be the public’s jester and servant.
future. He is outside the action, an objective Perhaps for an idle moment he wondered, if all this is
onlooker. There is no involvement. He is poor, has no worth the complications or not.
6
Through the Child’s Eye: Rahel and Estha in The God of Small Things
Srabasti Guha Thakurta
Novels where the reader is made to look at the corrupt and conniving nature of the adult world. Roy,
world and its goings-on through the child’s eye, often a female citizen of a third world country, is extremely
seeing and struggling to understand things for the conscious of the binaries which exist in such a
first time, demand particularly rigorous attention from society, and we can see how these gradually register
the author so as to ensure the absence of sudden, in the consciousness of the twins: black versus white,
careless lapses into an adult way of feeling, reacting. lower caste versus upper caste, female versus male,
Unlike Dickens’s novels on more or less the same children versus adults. And whenever a conflict
theme (David Copperfield, Great Expectations) between any pair of binaries take place, the white/
where he invariably uses the first person narrative, higher caste/male/adult always wins.
Roy uses the third person, with the result that we are It could be pointed out that the twins themselves –
given sudden and brief entries into the minds of the one a female, the other a male – embody such an
adults – who are in a position to control – enabling a opposition; but it is impossible to overlook the
better, more objective view of the persons and repeated insistence throughout the novel that the
events. Arundhati Roy’s non-linear narrative in the twins are in some obscure way, one. Each
God of Small Things begins with the present, goes instinctively understands the other perfectly, and are
back to the past, and keeps seesawing between the whole again only after they are united as adults,
two. A child’s impression later changes into a their life in-between having been a fruitless
maturer Rahel’s better understanding of the events wandering, a meaningless existence.
that confounded the child, the narrative assuming an Roy’s narrative technique lays stress on
added dimension. discontinuity, alternating back and forth in time, as if
Both the parents fail to measure up. The mother to suggest that the idea of continuity in a chaotic
Ammu, though she cares for her children, is world is absurd and impossible. At times Roy is
economically and psychologically too insecure and bitterly ironic, for instance, when the reader is told
unfulfilled herself, to be of substantial help to them. about what Mammachi and Baby Kochamma’s
The only redeeming feature in the father is his reaction to Chacko’s exploitation of the female
attempt to accept the boy not too ungraciously when workers in the factory to satisfy his Man’s needs –
an unwanted Estha is forced upon him. The adult ‘‘He can’t help having a man’s needs,’ she said
world is corrupt and indifferent, at times purposefully primly.’’ Surprisingly, Baby Kochamma accepted
malignant, reaching out to hurt the twins. Chaco, the this explanation, and the enigmatic, secretly thrilling
uncle, a worthless pseudo-scholar spends his time notion of Man’s needs gained implicit sanction in the
playing at being a champion of communism and trade Ayemenem house. Neither Mammachi nor Baby
unionism. Yet, he quite blatantly exploits his position Kochamma saw any contradiction between
to satisfy his ‘men’s needs’, almost forcing himself Chacko’s Marxist mind and feudal libido. They only
on the female workers of the pickle factory, which worried about the Naxalites, who had been known to
he had inherited from his mother simply because he force men from good families to marry servant girls
was the male child. He vents his frustration at having whom they had made pregnant. However, more
lost his white wife and child on the helpless twins, by frequently, she tries to, and succeeds in, capturing
separating and scarring and trying to incapacitate the essence of a child’s consciousness. She plays
them for life. The Baby Kochamma, the frustrated with words, revelling in them, as a child gradually
‘baby aunt’, is an active agent in destroying Velutha, getting acquainted with a language frequently does.
the one man the twins loved and by whom they in Use of phrases like ‘trying-not-to-cry-mouth’,
turn were loved. She compels them to act as ‘station-filth’, immediately conjures up vivid pictures.
instruments in his destruction, and then plots and The children’s game of reading words and sentences
separates them – ensuring that they spend their lives backwards, their make-believe world into which they
wandering in an emotional desert – the enforced retreated whenever the real world hurt too much -
burden of their guilt and separation crippling them for simultaneously render both their playfulness and
life. It is only Velutha, despised by other adults for vulnerability breathtakingly real. Economy of words
being a Paravan, an untouchable, who unreservedly and effectiveness of those used is an important
gives the twins the affection they seek. Playing with feature of Roy’s technique. Sentences frequently
them and teaching them various skills, he acts almost consist of three, two and even one words.
as a surrogate father. It is because of this special Sometimes even paragraphs consist of a single
bonding that the children are so traumatised by sentence. Roy’s prose at times almost borders on
Velutha’s brutal murder and their indirect role in it. poetry, especially while depicting deep feelings.
The adults not only take away from the two children While reading Roy we relive the insecurities of our
everything they love (including each other), but childhood, when everything seemed so absurd, out of
manage to burden them with the responsibility for the control – the insecurities which every so often creep
creation of the stifling vacuum in their lives. into apparently controlled adult lives, and the world
Rahel and Estha gradually come to recognise the again seems chaotic, absurd and out of control. The
7
desperation and frustration that mark the lives of recorded in twin-consciousness. We are, in an
Rahel and Estha from childhood onwards make an unique, innovative fashion, offered a stereoscopic
even more vivid impression on us because they are vision of reality.
The Reader’s Autobiography one’s body, mind heart and soul. The argumentative
and the analytical poem sometimes depicts the
Sudeshna Basu strange lover as an optimist who perhaps believes
that no earthly failure should crush the soul of a
I adore life but my experience of the world is lover. He reveals intense passion as well as a
that it is pretty terrible. meditative bent. So, in this poem, the lover may be
called extraordinary but not unreal by any means.
This fragment from the letter of Katherine Mansfield
shows how complex a person she was. The same
complexity is revealed in her short story The Fly, The Bard of England Comes Alive in
written in February, 1922. She carefully blended
intimate matters from her life into the events of the Kolkata
story. Debanjana Dasgupta
Her father, Sir Harold Beauchamp was wealthy
and dominating like the Boss in the story and the ‘‘Macbeth shall sleep no more!’’declared the
Boss’s son, like her beloved brother Leslie, was disturbed protagonist, lovingly called by Upamanyu
killed in the War. Mansfield was extremely close Chatterjee the ‘‘greatest insomniac in English
with Leslie and was deeply affected by his death. Literature’’ and in a dark auditorium occasionally lit
After his death she wrote: by the busy torches of the ushers, Orson Welles’
We were almost like one child. I shall see us Macbeth recreated the magic of William
walking about together looking at things together Shakespeare.
with the same eyes. For three days starting from the 23rd February
Mansfield never had happiness in her life. She was a 2001, the English Department of St.Xaviers College,
victim of Tuberculosis and suffocated in blood like Calcutta, presented Cinematic Adaptations Of
the ‘fly’ which too suffocates in ink in the story. The Shakespeare, which included Japanese maestro
efforts of the fly shown in the story represents the Akira Kurosawa’s Ran (Kurosawa’s meditation on
philosophy of man’s struggle against all hostilities of Shakespeare’s King Lear), Celestino Coronado’s
life only to be toyed with by the Fates. The fly has Freudian version of Hamlet, Orson Welles’
much in common with all of us. The role it plays in Macbeth, Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (a superb
the story – all human beings play it, whether it is the interpretation of Macbeth), Orson Welles’ Othello,
Boss, old Mr. Woodifield, Boss’s son or Katherine and a more recent version of the same, directed by
Mansfield herself. The story thus is the reader’s Oliver Parker.
autobiography as well. It was a novel experience for some, and a lifetime
experience for many. Be it the haunting tune of a
Is the lover in The Last Ride Together flute, coupled with the constant buzz of crickets in
Ran, or the old hag in the eerie Cobweb Forest in
too noble to be real? Throne Of Blood, Shakespeare had never been so
Moumita Sanyal innovatively presented before a crowd comprising
mostly of English Honours students from Presidency,
"Truth is stranger than fiction" -- therefore it should Lady Brabourne, Scottish Church, Heramba
not be said that the lover in Browning's The Last Chandra, Rani Birla, Dinabandhu Andrews, Jadavpur
Ride Together is too noble to be real. The Last Ride University, and Chitrabani, savouring their first taste
Together is a poem of unrequited love, but the of Shakespeare on screen. The talks presented by
rejected lover does not whine and whimper like the Prof. Somdatta Mondal, Rev. Gaston Roberge,
conventional lovers. The lover becomes grateful to Shamik Bandopadhay, Prof. Paromita Chakraborty
his beloved mistress for granting his one more ride and Prof. Sanjay Mukhopadhayay were enlightening,
with her that would attain him to Godhead for one to say the least.
day more. He has the ideal in his heart; it shall be Complementing the visual feast, came the excellent
cherished as the occupant of his heart’s throne for cuisine from the college canteen. We sincerely look
ever. In this poem Browning, the poet and the forward to more such seminars in the years to come,
philosopher, joins hand with Browning the where we will have such an illuminating time again,
psychologist. Browning's deep psychological insight where the rigidity of Austen, or the modern
into the lover's mind reveals the conception of love complexities of a post-war Joycian fiction will come
as a spiritualizing and elevating force which purifies alive once again in the heart of old Kolkata.
Edited and published by Salil Biswas of the Department of English, Heramba Chandra College, 23/49 Gariahat Road,
Calcutta-29 and printed by Calcutta Graphics Private Ltd., 3A Maniktalla Industrial Estate, Ultadanga, Calcutta-54