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Monday 30 December 2019

Hamlet symbolism



Hamlet Symbolism

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Symbolism means an artistic and poetic expression or style using figurative images and indirect ideas to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. The reader will find significant symbolism thought the play ‘Hamlet’ which shows a variety of connotations from situation to situation and context to context. Some of the most important symbols in Hamlet are discussed below.

Symbolism in Hamlet
Symbol #1
Ghost

The appearance of the ghost of Old Hamlet in the very first scene of the play symbolizes tough times are coming ahead. It signifies the presence of supernatural powers like the three witches of Macbeth. However, it represents the difficult times ahead for Hamlet as well as Claudius, making the revelation that Claudius is the murderer of Old Hamlet. Ghost also symbolizes the foreshadow of the upcoming the turmoil in Denmark as Hamlet prepares to take revenge against Claudius. It shows that the ghost is not a good but a bad omen for the state of Denmark as well as its ruler, Claudius.



Symbol #2
Flowers

Flowers appear in Hamlet when Ophelia loses her mind. She starts distributing flowers to everybody she meets. She presents each flower, describing what it stands for and then moves to the next. The flowers show various features as she states that rosemary is for remembrance, pansy for thoughts and so on. Ophelia expresses her pain of the betrayal she felt by offering the flowers and describing what they symbolize. Her father’s murder and Hamlet’s taunt takes its toll on her. That is why the flowers symbolize her inner turmoil and also her faithfulness.

Symbol #3
Skull

The skull in Hamlet is of Yorick, the court’s jester. This skull is a symbol of death, decay and uselessness of a person after his death. It is a physical remnant of the dead person that is an omen of what he may have to face in the life hereafter. The skull makes Hamlet think about his own destiny and his own life after his death. It implies how man finally returns to dust. The skull reminds Hamlet that even “Imperious Caesar” is subject to death and decay. Death does not leave anybody intact or alive.

Symbol #4
Weather

Weather is another important symbol in Hamlet. It shows that the bad weather is the sign of worse situation coming ahead and good weather points to good times. However, in the first scene, Shakespeare has shown that the weather is frigid and foggy in which the ghost of Old Hamlet appears. This confusing and ambivalent weather is signifying the same situation coming ahead. Hamlet is confused like the situation that is hazy and unclear. Therefore, the good or bad weather is the sign of good or bad times in the play.

Symbol #5
Graveyard

Although death is in the mind of Hamlet since the play starts, it becomes an important subject when he enters the graveyard. The gravedigger plays with words when responding to Hamlet’s questions. He gives him the philosophy of life that all sort of skulls whether they are of the kings or beggars are lying there in the graveyard. He responds that all the dead persons are equal when they are stripped of their political statuses. Graveyard signifies a place where all are equal and the people working in the graveyards become insensitive to the positions and political status of the dead.

Symbol #6
The Mousetrap

The Mousetrap is the play titled as The Murder of Gonzago, which has been staged in Hamlet. Hamlet has given directions to the players and written parts of the speech delivered by the queen. The title ‘The Mousetrap’ shows that the purpose of Hamlet to insert his own ideas in the play to force his mother to confess her crime, recall her promise to her late husband or at least show signs of guilt. It is also interesting that almost all the characters in this short play are based on the real characters who are watching them on the stage. Therefore, the story is symbolical for the trap laid by Hamlet to catch the real culprit.



Symbol #7
Fencing Swords

Fencing swords in Hamlet have been used in the final scene during the duel between Laertes and Hamlet. The fencing swords point to the approach of the end of Hamlet’s quest and resultant deaths. The fencing sword is a sign of a person having courage, bravery and the will to exact revenge. As both the characters engaged in fencing swords have some cause, and also have their honors at stake, they come to fight a duel in which both are killed. Therefore, fencing swords symbolize violence and deaths in the play.

Symbol #8
Gravedigger

Although there are two gravediggers, one of them is not only a good player of words but also a good philosopher. His responses to the questions posed by Hamlet show that he knows how death makes all equal in the graveyard. He also knows that he has dug graves of everyone who died. When digging Ophelia’s grave, they also point out to Hamlet that it doesn’t matter whether somebody has committed suicide. Their presence signifies that deaths make all people equal in spite of their p

Sunday 29 December 2019

OEDIPUS REX REFERENCE TO CONTEXT

(M.A English Part 1 Paper 2 Drama)        Oedipus Rex by Sophocles


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Important Quotes

The following important quotes convey information about themes, symbols and motifs or the characters of the play. Section (as divided by the chorus) and line numbers are indicated.

There are many translations of the play, these quotes and line numbers refer to the translation by Robert Fagles The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus, published by Penguin Classics (1st edition).

Section 1. Lines 6-9:

“I thought it wrong, my children, to hear the truth from others, messengers. Here I am myself—you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus”
- Oedipus

Oedipus addresses the people of Thebes in this opening passage, which right away sets up the paradigm of dramatic irony Sophocles employs throughout the work. What makes these particular lines ironic is that Oedipus is known not only to the people of Thebes for defeating the Sphinx, but by the actual theater audience because of his terrible fate, which had long been known through the retelling of myths. Also, it is through messengers that Oedipus eventually pieces together the puzzle of his life, leading him to his ghastly revelations—the truth—of his life.

Section 2. Lines 284-285:

“I curse myself as well…if by any chance he proves to be an intimate of our house”
- Oedipus

Oedipus says these lines while pronouncing a curse on the murderer of Laius. He hasn't yet realized he is the murder and is thus cursing himself—a curse that will later be carried out. This decree of punishment is ironic because he is both judge and criminal.

Section 2. Line 499:

“This day will bring your birth and your destruction”
- Tiresias

Spoken by Tiresias to Oedipus, this line acts as a riddle to Oedipus, a master at solving riddles, except he has no patience for this one. Tiresias provokes Oedipus by challenging his ability to solve riddles. This line also foreshadows the origins of Oedipus, the death of his wife, the loss of his sight, and the decree he pronounced on Laius's murderer being carried out upon Oedipus himself. Tiresias is directly referring to Oedipus's peripeteia, or reversal of circumstances.

Section 4. Lines 963-967:

“Pride breeds the tyrant violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting with all that is overripe and rich with ruin—clawing up to the heights, headlong pride crashes down the abyss—sheer doom!”
- Chorus

This commentary on the effects of pride occurs when Oedipus is quickly finding out more details about his two edged curse, and does not cease trying to find the truth, despite pleas from Jocasta. The sentiment of pride being Oedipus’s downfall is one that is repeated throughout the play, with Tiresias being the first to mention it. Oedipus is a proud man, he is praised as the King of Thebes and the defeater of the Sphinx, but it is his pride, his own belief that he is a good man who is favored by the gods, that leads him to unravel this very belief. In his attempt to find the historical evidence to prove he is favored by the gods, he only proves to himself and those around him that he suffers from a cruel fate.

Section 5. Lines 1188-1190:

“I count myself the son of Chance, the great goddess, giver of all good things—I'll never see myself disgraced”
- Oedipus

These lines are spoken by Oedipus before he is aware that the prophecy he tried avoid has come true. However, this quote is just as true at the end of the play, where Oedipus knows and accepts his horrible fate. In Greek mythology, Fortune (Chance) is the goddess of fate and she is depicted as veiled, as to be unbiased of those to whom she was distributing good or bad luck. In the situation in which he says this line, Oedipus is dealing with the newfound fact that the people who raised him were not his parents. He thinks that because his patronage is unknown, that Fortune must be his mother, since he has been gifted with greatness. At the end of the play, the irony is that Oedipus is still greatly under the guidance of Fortune, but rather than favoring him, it destroys him.

Section 7. Lines 1471-1472:

“What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy”
- Oedipus

Oedipus speaks these lines in response to a senator’s questioning as to why he gouged out his own eyes. He believes it is better to no longer see the things and people around him. This is a testament to Oedipus’s character that he is willing to accept a harsh, self-administered punishment, and accept it with all the grace he can muster. At this point in the play, Oedipus sees no alternative to blind exile and speaks calmly in lyric form.

Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes’s “Wodwo”

‍♂️
Poetry Analysis: Ted Hughes’s “Wodwo”

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Ted Hughes introduces “Wodwo” in the “Poetry in the making”:”Here is another poem of my own about some goblin creature-I imagine this creature just discovering that it is alive in the world. It is quite bewildered to know what is going on .It has a whole string of thoughts, but at the centre of all of them you will see is this creature and its bewilderment. The poem is called “Wodwo”. A Wodwo is a sort of half-man half animal spirit of the forests.”It is the titular poem of the collection published in 1967.The Wodwo, according, to Wikipedia, “was a link between civilized humans and the dangerous elf-like spirits of natural woodland.”Therefore, the term Wodwo is indeed emblematic as it stands for the state of Identity Crisis as the Wodwo stands between two worlds, as he is in quest for his roots. As the proverbial ‘Wodwo’, he is caught between instinct and reason, myth and reality, freedom and rootedness. It illustrates the irresolution that Hughes stood for after the ‘Lupercal’ poems that portrayed instinctive violence and

The Wodwo probes his roots at the very outset as he asserts “What am I?”Note that he uses “what” instead of “Who” pointing to animal and vegetative qualities. He seems to be “nosing” here or rather meddling with affairs that are not essentially his. Therefore, he feels to be divorced from that particular place. The action of “turning leaves over” is also a pursuit in search for himself. It follows a faint stain to the river’s edge with the hope of locating something meaningful.

The Wodwo does not hold the sure stance or the arrogant stand of the Hawk in Hughes’s “Hawk Roosting”. Neither does it possess the single-minded killer-instinct of Hughes “Pike “It is confused ,and has no feeling of belonging: “Who am I to split”. It views things from two from two perspectives:

The glassy grain of water looking upward I see the bed

Of the river above me upside down very clear

Note that first it finds itself unrelated to the river bank; then to the river (Who am I to split/The glassy grain of water),and then he finds himself divorced from the air too(What am I doing here in mid-air?)Further, he feels himself to be separate from the ground ;he is not just rooted, but dropped. The action of not being rooted signifies that he did not belong to the ground even in the past. He seems to be “dropped” as if out of nowhere. It seems to have no threads to link him. It appears as though he has been given the freedom of the place; however, it is this freedom that lends him disorientation-as he does not know where he belongs to,he cannot explore his roots. The ‘rotten stump” comes across a metaphor for his base: picking off bits of bark gives him no pleasure.

Even if he does coincide somewhere, it seems to be a mere coincidence and queer. As part of his state of being-neither is he a perfect Man nor Animal. Neither does he belong to the vegetative world:

Do these weeds

know me and name me to each other have they

seen me before do I fit in their world?

He endeavors to judge himself based on certain attributes-name (But what shall I be called),precedence(am I the first),tenure(have I an owner) and size(am I huge).He continues on his way on and on, till he realizes that he is tired, and discerns a sign that he exists-‘touching one wall of me.”All he finds is roots, roots and roots like a maze where he has to locate his identity; and the water gives him a blurred reflection. Nevertheless, he goes on looking.

Tuesday 24 December 2019

How to attempt reference to context

#Must_Read
⚛✴How to Attempt Reference to the Context question in examination✴⚛

Exemplary lines..
Taken frm Oedipus Rex..

And i tell you what i think
You planned it,you had it done
You all but killed him with your hands
If you had eyes,i will say
the crime was yours and yours alone

⚛_Reference to the context⚛
These lines have been taken from Shophocles' play "Oedipus Rex". In this play we came across king Oedipus who is trying to solve the riddle of king Laious' murderer because it is the murderer who is the cause of calamity. Being a loving and responsible king he wants to save his subject and for this purpose he consults Teiresias who could help him surely.

✴#Explanation✴
In these lines king Oedipus is talking to Teiresias who has refused to reveal the murderer's name in spite of all pleadings of the king. Finally when he refused to utter the murderer's name, Oedipus got hyper and insulted the prophet of Apollo. Along with this he immediately concluded that Teiresias is hiding the name of the murderer as if he himself is the murderer.

Though the conclusion of Oedipus was not wrong if we analyse it from an honest king's point of view who is restless to solve the issue because his nation is suffering. His attitude shows his honesty,care and devotion for his nation.But this is  the one side of picture. If we analysed this behaviour in an other way we will see that Oedipus had immediately drawn the conclusion in a very rash mood. His anger, harshness, and jumping at conclusion without solid proof were his tragic flaws which became the cause of his tragedy.

Oedipus had no solid proof of Teiresias' disloyalty. He must keep in mind to whom he was talking. He was talking to the prophet of Apollo. This shows that Oedipus had no ability to judge the man or situation. Here  the reader is forced to think that deep down Oedipus was proud of his worldly wisdom which forced him for this blasphemous act. Here we are reminded of Dr. Faustus who was also proud of his worldly wisdom and because of it he performed blasphemous acts but the comparison is just limited.

These lines are basically ironic in nature. Oedipus was blaming Teireias for the murder but in fact he himself had no knowledge of it that he himself is that curse   man who is the cause of calamity. It is one of the best example of irony found in this play.


Sunday 22 December 2019

SHELLEY AS A ROMANTIC POET

SHELLEY AS A ROMANTIC POET

Introduction
Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era; an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18th century, and lasted from 1800 to 1850, approximately. Romantic poetry contrasts with neoclassical poetry, which is poetry of intellect and reason, while romantic poetry is the product of emotions, sentiments and the heart. The best known romantic poets are William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, John Keats, S.T Coleridge, Mathew Arnold and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The major romantic elements found in the poetry of Shelley are; love of nature, imagination, melancholy, supernaturalism, Hellenism, beauty, idealism and subjectivity.
1. Love of Nature
Like the other Romantic poets, Shelley too was an ardent lover of Nature. Like Wordsworth, Shelley conceives of Nature as one spirit, the Supreme Power, working through all things. He celebrates Nature in most of his poems as his main theme such as The Cloud, To a Skylark, To the Moon, Ode to the West Wind, A Dream of the Unknown. In his treatment of Nature, he describes the things in Nature as they are, and never gives them colours. He gives them human life through his personifications, but he does it unintentionally for he felt they are living beings capable of doing the work of human beings. His mythopoeic power has made him the best romanticist of his age. He also believes in the healing aspect of Nature and this is revealed in his "Euganean Hills" in which he is healed and soothed by the natural scene around him and also the imaginary land.
2. Imagination
Belief in the importance of imagination is a distinctive feature of romantic poets. 'Facts' said Shelley, 'are not what we want to know in poetry, in history, in the lives of individual, in satire or panegyric. They are the many diversions, the arbitrary points on which we hang and to which we refer those delicate and evanescent hues of mind, which language delights and instructs us in precise proportion as it expresses.' Shelley calls poetry "the expression of imagination", because in it diverse things are brought together in harmony instead of being separated through analysis. Shelley made a bold expedition into the unknown and he felt reasons should be related to the imagination. His expedition was successful when he made the people understand that the task of imagination is to create shapes by which reality can be revealed to the world.
3. Melancholy
Melancholy occupies a prominent place in romantic poetry, because it is a major source of inspiration for the Romantic poets. Though Shelley was a man of hope and expectation and spiritualistic about the future of mankind, yet he represents himself in his poems as a man of ill luck, subject to evil and suffering. He expresses this in his "Ode to the West Wind":
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud.
I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bound
One to like thee.
4. Supernaturalism
Most of the Romantic poets used supernatural elements in their poetry. Shelley's interest in the supernatural repeatedly appears in his work. The ghosts and spirits in his poems suggest the possibility of glimpsing a world beyond the one in which we live. In "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", the speaker searches for ghosts and explains that ghosts are one of the ways men have tried to interpret the world beyond. The speaker of "Mont Blanc" encounters ghosts and shadows of real natural objects in the cave of "Poesy". Ghosts are inadequate in both poems: the speaker finds no ghosts in "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", and the ghosts of Poesy in "Mont Blanc" are not real thing, a discovery that emphasizes the elusiveness and mystery of supernatural forces.
5. Hellenism
The world of classical Greece was important to the Romantics. Shelley wrote "Hellas" which is the ancient name of Greece. "Ozymandias" is an ancient Greek name for Ramses II of Egypt. Shelley was mainly influenced by Platonism. Plato thought that the supreme power in the universe was the spirit of beauty. Shelley borrowed this conception from Plato and developed it in his metaphysical poem "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty". Intellectual Beauty is omni-potent and man must worship it. The last stanza of "The Cloud" is Shelley's Platonic symbol of human life. In fact, Shelley frequently turned to Greece as a model of ideal beauty, transcendent philosophy, democratic politics, and homosociality or homosexuality.
6. Beauty
Beauty is an other element of Romanticism in Shelley's poetry. Beauty, to Shelley, is an ideal in itself and a microcosm of the beauty of Nature and he calls it "Intellectual Beauty". He celebrates Beauty as a mysterious power. In the de arts, to intellectual Beauty, he says that when Intellectual Beauty departs this world becomes a "dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate" and if human heart is its temple, then man would become immortal and omnipotent:
Man were immortal and omnipotent
Did'st thou, unknown and awful as thou art,
Keep with thy glorious train firm state
Within his heart.
7. Idealism
Idealism is the very much common characteristic especially in second generation Romantic poets. Shelley's idealism falls under three subheadings. Revolutionary, Religious and Erotic.
(i) Revolutionary Idealism: His revolutionary idealism is mainly due to French Revolution. Through his Queen Man, The Revolt of Islam, and Prometheus Unbound, he inspired people to revolt against by scorning at the tyranny of state, church and society and hoping for a golden age.
(ii) Religious Idealism: Though Shelley was a rebel, he was not an atheist. He believed in the super power of God, and he imagined God as supreme 'Thought' and 'Infinite Love'.
(iii) Erotic Idealism: Shelley believed in the abstract quality of love and beauty -- love as infinite and beauty as intellectual. He celebrates love as a creator and preserver in his "Symposium"; and beauty as Supreme Spirit in "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty".
8. Poetic Style
Shelley's poetic style is also romantic. To some extent, it is an imitation of William Wordsworth's style. He uses a lot of powerful symbolism and imagery, especially visual. The series of gorgeous similes in "The Skylark" show the romantic exuberance of Shelley. His diction is lush and tactile. But he never uses any ornamental word and every word fits in its place and carries its own weight. They express the diverse feelings of the poet with the notes of music which appeal to every human beings's ears. He uses terza rima in his "Ode to the West Wind" which is one of the finest uses of terza rima in an English-language poem.
Conclusion
In brief we can say that every bit of Shelley's poetry is romantic. Shelley's joy, his magnanimity, his faith in humanity, and his optimism are unique among the Romantics; his expression of these feelings makes him one of the early nineteenth century's most significant writers in English. Of all the Romantics; Shelley is the one who most obviously possessed the quality of genius-quickness, grasp of intellect, the capacity of learning languages rapidly, ability to assimilate and place scientific principles and discoveries. Due to his premature death, he attained the iconic status as the representative tragic Romantic artist like Byron and Keats. No wonder Shelley is heralded as the best Romantic poet of his age


Saturday 21 December 2019

Drama MA English 4th Term 2019 University of Sargodha Pakistan 🇵🇰 🇵🇰🇵🇰

Drama
MA English 4th Term 2019
University of Sargodha
Pakistan 🇵🇰 🇵🇰🇵🇰


Modern Critical Theories MA English 4th Term 2019 University of Sargodha Pakistan 🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰

Modern Critical Theories
MA English 4th Term 2019
University of Sargodha
Pakistan 🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰


Thursday 19 December 2019

Twilight in DELHI

Twilight in Delhi
Significance of the Title “Twilight in Delhi”
The name or title of Ahmed Ali’s novel as “Twilight in Delhi” is very significant in itself. This is the most proper and appropriate name of the story he has told in the novel. “Twilight” is a word that signifies the short span of time that spreads itself between a dying day and emerging night just as “dawn” is the opposite term that signifies the death of the night and the arrival of the day. “Twilight in Delhi” deals with the dying culture and civilization of Muslim India as such. If we take Mir Nihal as a symbol of that culture etc. which he really is, we can see the civilization crumbling with our own eyes.
When we go through the novel, we find out that its main male character has passed his middle age and is almost knocking at the door of old age. We are talking of Mir Nihal who is nearing sixty in the beginning of the novel as he had witnessed the fateful day of the fall of Delhi, 14th September, 1857, as a ten-year old boy. Still he is so healthy and strong that he can pick up a running snake from the gutter of the house with a swift movement of his hand and he can break its spinal cord by hitting it on the floor of the house with a powerful jerk of his hand. But, later on, we find his health going to dogs. He gets a paralysis attack and is unable even to talk. Then, three days later, his power of speech is restored to a great extant but not so the physical or bodily power. Hakim Ajmal Khan comes to Mir Nihal twice or thrice a week and brings costly medicines from his home for him. Still his condition is not improved. Mir Nihal’s nice friend, Kambal Shah, advises “Pelican oil” for massaging on the body of Mir Nihal. A pelican is arranged from somewhere. It is slaughtered and the oil is prepared under the supervision of Kambal Shah himself. Later on, the famous wrestler of Delhi, Shammoo, is called daily for massaging but with no improvement at all. At last, Mir Nihal becomes totally bed-ridden. He lies drown and goes on remembering his past. Then his son Habibuddin falls sick and dies. This tragedy casts a terrible effect on Mir Nihal and he becomes almost unable now even to remember his past. He is in a living death, so to speak. The same is the case of the Indian Muslim civilization and culture that faces a living death.
When Mir Nihal is healthy and jovial in the beginning, he looks after his hobby: pigeon flying. He also earns more money because he also has to arrange for his beloved keep, Babban Jan. he also looks after the family name and honour because they are Sayyeds and Bilqeece is a Moghal. But when the conditions deteriorate, Mir Nihal loses his beloved keep, a very great extant. Mir Nihal leaves his hobby and asks Nazir to sell out all his pigeons. Mir Nihal leaves to work for extra income. He leaves to care for family honour and self-respect etc. and gives his consent to the marriage of Asghar with Bilqeece. The world has stopped caring for him: let him stop caring for the world! So we find out that Mir Nihal has been used as a top-priority symbol to portray the deterioration of the customs, traditions, ways and means of which he has been the proud representative.
We can find this deterioration in other characters as well, symbolically enough. Begam Nihal becomes blind slowly and steadily. Begam Jamal leaves her classical residence at Mir Nihal’s. Shams loses his wife. Hafizji does not get “pulao” on the very first uttering. Astghar stops loving Bilqeece and starts to find other women for his love.
This does not happen to the world of human beings alone. Even the buildings etc. are affected by time. The gutters of the city which were deep down are dug up and laid on a shallow level. The city walls are demolished. So the stink and sand attack on the city dwellers. The Jamia Masjid whose floor has been coloured redder by Muslim sacrifices on 14th September, 1857, wears a cheap garland to welcome the procession of King George V on the Coronation Day. Even the date-palm tree standing in the middle of the courtyard of Mir Nihal’s home throws away its leaves and becomes yellow and sered. All these things have been aptly and appropriately used by the writer to show us, symbolically, the dwindling and dying Indian Muslim Civilization and Culture. So we can justly claim that although there could be many other names or titles of the novel under discussion, but the most appropriate and the best title for the same could only be (as it is!) “Twilight in Delhi.”
Plot Construction of the Novel
Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi is a well-knit and brilliantly constructed novel. It consists of four parts and every part has the chapters which gave additional meaning to the course of events. The plot is constructed in a particular style—in the act of narration. Every character is in descriptive or in evaluating style which gives additional significance and beauty to the plot. Mostly the plot revolves around the family of Mir Nihal representing on symbolical level the Muslim class's present and past life. The novelist Ahmed All relates a person's tale in this novel that, in the end, looks alienated and apart from the surroundings and all this happens only through his out dated attitude in the present condition.
Ahmed Ali has utilized his events of the story to construct an organic whole in the shape of plot of the novel "Twilight in Delhi". This thing tells us about his expertise in the field of novel-writing or fiction-writing as such. The novel under reference has basically been designed by the writer to give us a rich glimpse of the Indian Muslim society along with its customs, traditions and ways.
The plot of Twilight is Delhi seems purposeful in every way. There are many characters and events only included in the novel to make the novel realistic and to give a true colouring to the Muslim Indian society as such. Nawab Puttan is one of such characters. His character has nothing important to do with the advancement of the story. Still he is very important for the reasons that he is the representation of Nawahi culture and life. For giving complete a social picture of the Indian Muslim Society, Ahmed Ali has told us in detail about Ramazan and the traditions of Ramazan. He tells us a detail about how Eed is celebrated, and including that famous, classical verse used at this occasion by numberless people:
"It is the day of Eid, my dear,
Ah come, let me embrace thee.
It is the custom and besides
There's time and opportunity "
Mir Nihal, in his sixties has a family, a mistress named Babban Jan from whom he gets mental and sexual levels pleasure. He has a son, Asghar, a boy in twenties, who desperately wants to marry a girl, Bilqeece. His marriage takes place after a huge amount of resistance from Mir Nihal's side. In the background of these events, Ahmed All has portrayed a graphic picture of historical moments of violence and tyranny in this novel and also the pathetic condition of Delhi on a big canvass. The marriage of Asghar is caught in a fiasco and the relations weaken day by day and after Bilqeece's death the whole scenario changes. Asghar thinks himelf responsible for her death but Bilqeece's younger sister Zohra again turns Asghar to the beauty of life. Zohra, a young girl, full of charming and alluring beauty, fascinates him to marry her but finally nothing happens according to his desires. In the end we see Mir Nihal as a paralyzed man who has faced many hard blows from fate like, death of Babban Jan, death of his pigeons and the end of his rule—all pathetic. His wife Begum Nihal, who has spent her life honestly and devotedly, is unable to retain happiness in Mir Nihal's life.
In the background, the plot of the novel advances through the story of the freedom struggle of the people of India and of the Indian Muslims. We read about the fall of Delhi and about the fateful time for Jama Masjid, Delhi, as well as for the Muslims of Delhi. We read about the fires burning petrol depots and the royal canopy at Delhi-Darbar before it was held. We read about rallies, procession, agitation, marches and strikes. We read about the non-cooperative movement. So we see the advancement of the struggle for freedom going in the background of the story of the novel. But the thing is so well knit into the texture of the plot that we are ready to take it as an integral part of the main story. The story, which started from the first section, shows every character's attitude and ordinary view about life.
Whatever be the criticism, the plot, on the whole, is compact. Even the smallest details promote the action, produce the necessary atmosphere and fulfil the purpose of the novel. The concentration on the main theme is well maintained to achieve the desired purpose. All the strings are gathered at the end to give the final touch. Thus the plot construction in Twilight in Delhi, is nothing but remarkable. There can be arguments that the plot has some drawbacks or loose ends but it was never easy to pack a rapidly changing culture in limited pages and Ahmed Ali's realistic technique in describing the actual conditions is not only brilliant but also shows his precision in every way.
Decay of City and a Family
Twilight in Delhi gives a broad and realistic view of Muslim life set in Delhi. With the collapse of the Mughal Empire, the old feudal order in the Muslim society had disintegrated and the Muslim bourgeois and aristocrats were no longer prominent after 1858. This novel gives a glimpse of the discontent that was brewing among the Muslims during the second decade of the twentieth century. As the title of the novel suggests, the city of Delhi is now no longer in its pinnacle of glory and Mir Nihal’s premonitions infuse the reader with the ominous sense that very soon, Delhi would plunge into the darkness of night. In fact, when the novel ends, it is both literally and figuratively dark.
The novel devotes many pages to what colonialism has done to the city of Delhi, giving both a panoramic and close view. The author turns the city into a living entity that has been “mourned and sung, raped and conquered, yet whole and alive, lies indifferent in the arms of sleep”. Lamenting the death of its culture, he cries out, “yet gone is its glory and departed are those from whom it got the breath of life”.  Giving a picture of total abjection, the author says, “Like a beaten dog it has curled its tail between its legs, and lies lifeless in the night as an acknowledgement of defeat”. There is a poetic account of the anger that is felt by the residents of Delhi at not only what the British are doing to its landscape, but at the imminent demise of a culture and a way of life with the construction of a new Delhi outside the old city. “She would become the city of the dead, inhabited by people who would have no love for her nor any associations with her history and ancient splendor.
The novel vividly delineates the clash of two cultures; between tradition and modernity. The events are set in a time when Western modes of living and thinking were entering Indian homes and minds. Mir Nihal, the embodiment of the old customs, is pained at this “hybrid culture” which is a “hodgepodge of Indian and Western ways which he failed to understand”. He is grieved that the “wealth of poetry” is gone and there is “in place of emotion and sentiments a vulgar sentimentality”. The author’s own nostalgia for the old phase of life is seen in the representation of the character of Mir Nihal.
The novel shows how the older generation feels outraged at some of the younger people’s acceptance of Western habits. Mir Nihal does not like his son Asghar’s adoption of English clothes and manners. Bilqeece becomes the target of insulting remarks when she wears English shoes. Small incidents like these reflect the resentment that is brewing in the hearts of many people at the colonial intrusion into their everyday lives.  Thus, the novel delineates both a traditional and a modern way of life in the persons of Mir Nihal and Asghar respectively, but it also points out the flaws in both ideologies.
Twilight in Delhi is not an explicitly political novel – it deals with the impact of colonialism on people’s social lives. It does not have any of the main characters engaged in any direct action against the British forces. Mirza, the milk seller’s son is shot-dead when he goes to non-co-operate but Mirza is a peripheral character and his son does not even appear in the novel. British rule does not have a specifically harmful impact on the particular Muslim family that the novel deals with. But it gives a glimpse of the emotional anguish that some of the characters’ experience because of colonial rule. For instance, Mir Nihal’s state of mind on the day of the coronation of King George V – “There were those men of 1857, and here were the men of 1911, chicken hearted and happy in their disgrace. This thought filled him with pain, and he sat there, as it were, on the rack, weeping dry tears of blood, seeing the death of his world and of his birthplace”.
Mir Nihal’s loss of his youth and health mirrors the predicament of Delhi itself. Bedridden with paralysis, he lives in a “constant twilight of velleities and regrets, watching the young die one by one and gain their liberty from the sorrows of the world”. The devouring of his pigeons by the cat not only puts an end to his favourite hobby but can also be taken as a symbol for the intrusion of colonial forces into the heart of India. But though Mir Nihal is sensitive to all this, his daily life is unaffected either by British rules and policies or by nationalist struggles for freedom.
Asghar is also totally indifferent to the widespread freedom movements of 1919. “He was unconcerned whether the country lived or died”.  It is ironic that he considers love to be the only permanent thing, when he falls in love with his wife’s sister just after six months of her death. On the other hand, the novel shows people like Saeed Hasan, Mir Nihal’s son-in-law who is affected by “foreign modernity” but unperturbed by foreign rule. “Life went on peacefully for aught he cared, and that was all he was interested in, like most Indian fatalists”. Being comparatively well off, the male members of the family can afford to hold long discussions regarding the harmful effects of foreign rule without being directly affected by it. When the influenza epidemic struck and people had difficulty in affording a winding-sheet for a dead relative, Asghar could build a proper grave for his wife.
We are given a close view of the Indian joint family where women are shut up in their zenanas while men are free to keep mistresses. Referring to the realm of the zenana, the author says eloquently, “The world lived and died, things happened, events took place, but all this did not disturb the equanimity of the zenana, which had its world too where the pale and fragile beauties of the hothouse lived secluded from all outside harm, the storms that blow in the world of men”. Ahmed Ali gives an apt picture of the Indian woman who is subjected to so many restrictions that “the idea of love does not take root in the heart’. Bilqeece is such an Indian woman who is ‘unromantic’ but a ‘perfect housewife’ and the novelist gives a poignant picture of her later passive suffering. He also gives a psychological insight into Mehro’s temper whenever her fiancé’s name is mentioned. This novel does not portray any female resistance to the patriarchal biases prevalent in the home and the family.
From our situatedness in a time when upper and middle class Indian society has internalized so many Western habits and ways of life, Twilight in Delhi can be seen as looking into a time when the situation was very different, and as trying to articulate a people’s helplessness in the face of what colonialism was doing to their culture and to their beloved and once glorious city.
Major Themes in "Twilight in Delhi"
In “Twilight in Delhi” memory is seen both as source of personal identity and as a burden preventing to attain happiness. Each character is involved in a struggle to remember but more importantly in a struggle to forget certain aspects of their past. Mir Nihal the protagonist of the novel wants to seek refuge in the past. He wants to live in past not is present. The other characters, like Begum Nihal, Begum Jamal and the elder sons of Mir Nihal, all of them found in struggling condition. The grandeur and wonderful Muslim’s past, in which they were rulers not wipe out from Mir Nihal and his family’s mind, like Asgher seemed rebellious but in the end of the novel he was caught in the trap of cruel and remorseless fate. The city “Delhi” had faced the rise and fall of many Kings and princes like a poet said.
Delhi which was once the Jewel of the world,
Where dwelt only the loved ones of Fate,
Which has now been ruined by the hand of time,
I, m a resident of that storm-tossed place . . . .
But now the present scenario has impolitely changed people who were rulers now they are under the domination of colonial forces. So Mir Nihal is not able to forget the grandeur of past. Hid management and behavior in his family totally reflect the king like way as Moghals did in past. All the characters of the novel especially Mir Nihal are shown in a struggling position, the whole family and the surrounding area’s people never able to come out from the memory of their glorious past.
With the arrival of the British colonial forces in the sub-continent everything had changed. People who were habitual in living under the kings were not able to face a change. The protagonist of the Novel Mir Nihal never able to compensate with the new traditions. Britishers gave change to their style of living and the government structure but he wants to live according to the past.
“New ways and ideas had come into being a hybrid culture …. The whole culture of India was a mixture of two cultures the new generation want to adopt the English culture like in the beginning of the Novel Asgher’s first appearance was in wearing English shirts and Mir Nihal scolded on it His sudden anger on him showed his hatred and non-accomodateable attitude towards and modernity.”
He was a backward person like in the mid-end of the novel the episode when he tries to give punishment to the children he said to Dilchain that you go and took my sword and he took his sword and children seemed terrified not in real sense, this shows that he did not left the past, but he did not want to think about it.
Sex is the most important theme of the novel. Mir, Asgher and all the women characters in the novel are sexually suppressed figures. Mir Nihal, a tall handsome and energetic man, desperately wants a woman who knows well the art of sex and the art of capturing man. So Babban Jan, a young girl gave him all these pleasures and when she died his whole world deranged. He felt a kind of flux in his life, which cannot be full-filled. He had also sexual relations with Dilchain. Begum Nihal’s quarrel with her husband shows that Mir Nihal’s sexual appetite was not satiated from Begum Nihal.
It was a rampant trend in the Delhi that male society went to prostitutes and when they became habitual of them then they were not accommodating with their wives because they were not adroit in the art of capturing man through sensual ways. So most of the men had not time for their wives.
Asgher also had a mistress Mushtari Bai. She was a young, beautiful, fascinating and charming girl. Asgher often went to her Kotha and became habitual of her. But when he saw Bilqeece he bewitched by her extreme beauty. He desperately wants to marry her and after huge amount reluctance from Mir Nihal he succeeds to marry with her. But he feels that she lacks sexual understanding. So Bilqeece cannot able to feel the gulf between them. So she is unable to understand why her husband left her in the house for weeks. But begum shahbaz feeling the actual problem interferes but Asgher is not able to manage the whole issue.
The whole Mir Nihal, s family represent the Muslim class of India and throughout India they have the same life style. Men often satiate their sexual appetites to go to the prostitutes and women remained ignorant because they had no knowledge about what is going on there.
One of the major themes is the passing away of Muslims civilization in India. Twilight in Delhi basically showed the decay of the Muslim civilization. Muslims ruled on India from many centuries but with the arrival of Britishers, the whole civilization had to face a huge set back. Mir Nihal, who lived in the illusions of splendid past, not able to accommodate with the present condition. His appearance and attitude represent the Muslims community of that time. Which is not able to live according to the changed conditions because they felt that this is the most humiliating condition for the Muslims. Like Niven says: “Despite the rhapsodic treatment of Asgher’s love Bilqeece (Ali’s own wife is called Bilqeece), the autumnal mood at the covel’s close the grief-stricken regrets for the Mughal past and the frequent coherence in his prose style, Ali writes less from a romantic than a classic stand point. He recognizes the immutability of the basic elements in human life individual remains the same in every age.”
Yet classicism in so far as it refers to recognition of the permanence of the change brought about by the passing of time is perhaps the intention of the novel’s plot.
Ahmed Ali’s Art of Characterization in "Twilight in Delhi"
In "Twilight in Delhi" Ahmed Ali has used descriptive method to show the characters in the development of novel's plot. Every character is close to the actual condition of Delhi. Ali's realistic mode of expression in describing the relation of plot and character is remarkable. The opening section of the novel and its first chapter seems as a prologue to city's actual condition and its inhabitants. When we go through the novel, we find that the writer has used the art of characterization as a nice tool to realize his end. He has a plot and for the completion of the plot the characters come at the stage at a particular time and then leave the stage. Still there is one central character that is most of the time there in one or the other manner. This is the main male character of Mir Nihal who plays the pivotal role in the book novel. All the events have a direct or indirect bearing at his character: all the characters are related to his character in one or the other way. So the spot light remains most of the time on Mir Nihal.
Mir Nihal's character has been portrayed with utmost precision and accuracy. He is a man who has witnessed the last episode of the surrender of Delhi on 14th September, 1857, the fateful day, with his own eyes. He is a patriot in the core of his heart. He feels pain and torture at Hindustan's slavery but he believes in direct use of sword to liberate his country whereas people are resorting to some other "useless" ways and means, like rallies, marches, strike and non-cooperative movement.
Mir Nihal's character is a representative of the older generation who has seen the country going into the clutches of slavery with his own eyes. So he hates the rulers. On the other end is Asghar, his younger son, who likes the English fashion and ways. Although, he also represents Indian Muslim culture in his own way but he belongs to the younger generation and, as such, differs with Mir Nihal. Both of them are having their own singing and dancing girls: Mir Nihal has Babban Jan and Mir Asghar has Mushtari Bai but the former "keeps" Babban Jan till her death whereas the latter leaves Mushtari Bai in the lurch and starts loving Bilqeece so intensively that he leaves no stone unturned for her achievement as a wife. It is another story that he, even then, does not keep himself limited and goes out on his romantic adventures or errands to find out new women for him.
The author has taken one family and shown what its members experience in their day to day life. All these are simple, insignificant things, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, festivals and fairs, marriage, birth, death, naive love affairs, quarrels and arguments. The arrangement and selection of these incidents in the novel have been given a fundamental and universal significance.
Ahmad Ali is depicting the story of the dying Indian Muslim society in his novel, so he picks and chooses from the society only such characters that can be helpful to him in the context. These characters may be as overwhelming as Mir Nihal and Asghar and these may be as summarized as Kabiruddin, the elder brother of Asghar, and Habibuddin. These small characters perform their duty behind the scenes. Even Ahmad Wazir, the family barber of Mir Nihal, has to perform his duty at two places in the novel. Dilchain and Ghafoor do the duties of servants in zanana and mardana of Mir Nihal's house. Once Dilchain wears men's clothes and dances in a lewd manner on the occasion of the marriage of Asghar. But all this is done to represent the dying Indian Muslim culture.
As the society depicted in the novel is basically a male-oriented society, so we see that generally males are taking lead in all the matters of importance and generally females are lagging behind or following them. Strangely enough, if we look deeply into the matter, there are two trees growing in the middle of the courtyard of Mir Nihal's house. One is the date-palm tree. It is tall and manly. The other is the henna tree. It is small and womanly. And, as such, the "male" date palm tree has been talked about at more times and in more manners than the "female" henna tree has been talked about.
Ahmed All also shows a complete picture of female class. Female characters like Begum Nihal, Dilchain, Babban Jan, Begum Shahbaz, Bilqeece, and Zohra—all of them are the part and parcel of this man-made community. They have their own ways of living which the outside world is unable to comprehend and they themselves are not able to understand their frustrated life.
To sum up the discussion, we can say, Ahmed Ali has used direct as well as indirect way of describing the characters. Every character, from its appearance to his way of life, is remarkably close to reality. Different characters of the novel ‘Twilight in Delhi’ advance the plot of the novel in their own peculiar manner So it can be said that Ahmed Ali’s art of characterization shows his sagacity and brilliance of thought.
Character-Portrayal of Mir Nihal
“He is tall and well built, and is wearing a white muslin coat reaching down to the knees, and an embroidered round cap is put at a rakish angle on his bobbed head. His white and well-combed beard is parted in the middle, and gives his noble face a majestic look……”
The whole physical description shows that he had a royal appearance with a sober style of wearing cloth. He is nearly sixty-two whose outward appearance is a picture of Muslims grandeur which they had in past but inwardly he wasn’t able to comprehend the actual scenario. He is the representative of the royal Muslim class. It seems that Ahmed Ali made this character before writing this novel, there is no further scope for any fundamental change in it. Mir Nihal is shown as a “noble”.
The nature of this character is totally passive. He has only interest in life: his pigeons and his mistress Babban Jan. The passivity lies in his unreceptive mind in understanding the change in surroundings. He felt that he remained immortal as the Muslims thought in past that their dignity remained forever, but when the colonial forces came in the sub -continent they had changed the entire atmosphere. The matter of Asgher’s marriage is the most crucial moment in his life when he showed his refusal then the whole family turned against his decision, and it was the beginning of change. I had never approved of Ashfaq’s marriage to Mirza Shahbaz’s daughter,’ Mir Nihal said angrily. ‘And I do not approve of Asghar’s friendship with Bundoo. Why don’t you stop him?’
But Mir Nihal not able to stop the change and a time came when the women of the family themselves decides to take step; “The best thing to do is to settle the thing quietly. Brother –in-law will come round in the end. If you wait for his consent nothing will ever come off……” “Begum Nihal seemed to agree with her sister-in-law…” The whole speech from begum Jamal has showed the courage to do something against Mir Nihal .The women in India has a subordinate position in certain matters like marriage etc. So they rebel against the authority.
The snake episode shows his ability to deal with the danger from outside. He shows his anger on this little invasion but when his own son Asgher shows rebellious attitude then he was not able to prove strong resistance because everything worked against him.
Babban jan is the most important personality in Mir Nihal’s life . She is the symbol of courage, love and hope in his life. He loved her from the core of his heart but her death destroyed him. “Mir Nihal got up with a heavy heart and, giving the old woman some money, cast a last lingering glance at the dead body and walked away. She who was Babban Jan had gone,. She who brought him here had walked the way of death, and nothing could bring her back to life again . . ..” He was nearly mentally disabled; he left everything because there was no one who gave him mental and sexual solace.
The death of pigeons is one of the severe blows to Mir Nihal. After he came to home and found the loft’s door open he got frightened but when he looked in it his whole world sunk because there were few pigeons left and others wings and scattered parts of the body were found here and there. So his whole world now reduced to dust. Pigeons, which were his treasure now killed by the outside forces. His hatred against the British or farangis is quiet obvious throughout the novel. Most of the time he shows his contemptuous remarks about the British. “You are again wearing those dirty English boots! I don’t like them. I will have no aping of the Farangis in my house. Throw them away! . . . And where have you been so late in the night? I have told you I don’t like your friendship with Bundoo. Do you hear? I shouldn’t find you going there again.’……”
“Twilight in Delhi” is basically a novel about traditions and customs. The whole novel shows Mir Nihal family’s lives who were the staunch believers of traditions and customs. Mir Nihal, the head of the family and the protagonist of the novel, is a traditional Indian Muslim who spend life with the same idea of grandeur and magnificence which the Mughals had in past, he believed in caste system, and his negation of Asgher’s marriage with Bilqeece is the proof of his belief on royal blood. His life is a typical Indian Muslim’s life who gave importance to the prostitutes not their wives because what he wants his wife cannot able to give him.
Mir Nihal’s paralysis is highly symbolical; it shows the paralyzed condition of the Muslims in the world of British colonial forces. Throughout the whole novel he showed huge amount of resistance in adopting change and in the end time had restricted him in one place and the whole civilization had changed. Formerly, he wished to cry over the ups and the downs of life but in the end he does not even have the desire to do that. Asgher comes to him wearing English clothes but not even object. His body has already become paralyzed; his heart and the mind are atrophied as well. The spring of life now seemed to an end.
To conclude we may say that Mir Nihal is the central character of the novel. His character portrayal is highly symbolic. Ahmed Ali represented the plight of the Muslim society through his character.
Asghar's Chracter-Portrayal
Asgher is the second most important character of the novel. He seemed revolutionary in approach and intention. He is a young man of twenty-two and the youngest son of Mir Nihal. “He (Asgher) is a tall and handsome young man with his hair well-oiled and his red Turkish cap cocked at a smart angle on his head. The upper buttons of his sherwani are open and show the collar of the English shirt that he is wearing under it. He looks an aesthete, and has a somewhat effeminate grace about him. And round his wrist is wrapped a jasmine garland. As he enters his pumps creak” The whole appearance of Asgher shows the difference. He belonged to one of those youngsters whose life is in transition, they lived in a multicultural society. So Asgher‘s appearance shows the eastern and western touch in it .Asgher seemed as the representative of the Indian Muslim youth who are directionless.
Mir Nihal says in an angry tone: ‘You are again wearing those dirty English boots! I don’t like them. I will have no aping of the Farangis is my house. Throw them away! …’ This statement from Mir nihal shows that right from the beginning Asgher seems entirely changed from his family. Asgher is the only son of Mir nihal who showed his opinion to choose bride himself, on a symbolical level it is a threat to the dominance of Mir Nihal. His view of marrying Bilqeece shows the rebelliousness from the old orthodox style of Mir nihal.
Right from the beginning we came to know that he is an in-satiated personality. His longing for sexual pleasure and intimacy can found nearly in every chapter of the novel. He felt that there is no pleasure in his fate. After the refusal from father’s side about his marriage with Bilqeece; he become utterly disappointed from life always remained depressed he often thought of death. His remembering of the man’s curse:
“Would to god that you
Might also fall in love and suffer
As I am suffering now.
The curse had come true, Asgher thought: and there seemed no way out of it.” Asgher’s  restlessness and disappointment can be found in these lines “asgher felt very self –conscious. There was a peculiar sadness in his heart, and he felt restless.”
“ o god, give me death. I am tired of this life…”
“life has become a burden , the time is ripe for death;
The space of existence has shrunk into a narrow cell”
Asghar likes the English fashion and ways. Although, he also represents Indian Muslim culture in his own way but he belongs to the younger generation and. Mushtari Bai is his mistress whom he leaves in the lurch and starts loving Bilqeece so intensively. ‘She is beautiful, Bari, very beautiful,’ Asghar said. ‘She is graceful as a cypress. Her hair is blacker than the night of separation, and her face is brighter than the hours of love. Her eyes are like narcissi, big and beautiful. There is nectar in their whites and poison in their blacks. Her eyebrows are like two arched bows ready to wound the hearts of men with the arrows of their lashes. Her lips are redder than the blood of lovers, and her teeth look like pearls studded in a row.... I tell you she is beautiful.’…….
Ashger desperately wants to marry her and after huge amount reluctance from Mir Nihal he succeeds to marry her. But he feels that Bilqees lacks sexual understanding. So Bilqeece cannot able to feel the gulf between them. So she is unable to understand why her husband left her in the house for weeks. But begum shahbaz feeling the actual problem interferes but Asgher is not able to manage the whole issue.
It was a rampant trend in the Delhi that male society went to prostitutes and when they became habitual of them then they were not accommodating with their wives because they were not adroit in the art of capturing man through sensual ways. So most of the men had not time for their wives.
The marriage of Asghar is caught in a fiasco and the relations weaken day by day and after Bilqeece's death the whole scenario changes. Asghar thinks himelf responsible for her death but Bilqeece's younger sister Zohra again turns Asghar to the beauty of life. Zohra, a young girl, full of charming and alluring beauty, fascinates him to marry her but finally nothing happens according to his desires.
Ahmed Ali has showed a complete picture of sub-continent bachelor who is the representative of the young generation of the early part of the twentieth century. his complexed personality, his longing for true intimacy and rebellious attitude nearly found throughout the whole course of the novel.
Symbolism in "Twilight in Delhi"
Ahmed Ali’s ‘Twilight in Dehli’ is regarded as a masterpiece. His writing is immensely visual. He wants to recreate a world which is real, vivid and close to the actual traditional ways of old Delhi. Throughout the whole novel symbolical element are used vehemently. His direct and indirect ways of using symbolism, is very unique in Pakistani literature.
in Delhi’s opening description has symbolic significance. It shows the down to earth life of the Indians, the decay of Muslim civilization, the darkness in minds or in life which on a literal level is the product their own inefficiencies and mismanagement in handling Govt. or State.
“Night envelopes the city covering it like a blanket. In the dim starlight roofs and houses and by-lanes lie asleep wrapped in a restless slumber, breathing heavily as the heat become oppressive or shoots through the body like pain, in the courtyards, on the roofs, in the by-lanes, on the roads, men sleep on brave beds, half naked, tired after the sore day’s labour.” All deserted conditions of men and their surrounding shows nation miserable plight under the colonial forces rule.
Asgher’s character seemed disillusioned as he was a typical Indian Muslim bachelor who was not sexually satiated and spent life without any prior aim of life. His approach seemed un-realistic of the conclusions like in part 1 chapter 2 when he thought about Bilqeece Ahmed Ali’s creates.
“His heart begins to beat and he follows her until he overtakes her, and arm in arm they go. But soon the road comes to an end, and in front there is a void, deep and dark and dim, as he looks its abynal depth his head beging to reel, and beads of perspiration came upon his brow. He turns to say is not there upon the brink of that void he finds himself alone, and are unknown fear grips his heart.
The character of Asgher symbolically represent the whole trading Muslim are generation who desperately wanted something near because they in a hodge-podge of Indian and British culture. The disillusionment and not able to forsec the coming circumstances, and it also show uncertainty and nihilistic attitude from his part because he hadn’t the courage to make a charge. Mir Nihal’s family represent the whole Muslim community in India.
As he want upstairs to release his pogroms he saw feather an the stairs and many more on the roof-when he looked inside the loft he found that there hand been massacre. He had forgotten to close the door last night and the cats had found their opportunity.
Mir Nihal’s family is an embodiment and avid picture of the Indian Muslim, who had spent the same type of lining from many centuries. Their skeptic approach, religious atmosphere, belief, custom and traditions and superstitious thinking all can be packed by Ahmed Ali in one family Death of Mir Nihal’s pigeons the chapter in which we came to know about death of Mir Nihal’s Pigeons; is highly symbolical. At was turning point in Mir Nihal’s life. A healthy tall and handsome person turned into the most weak person in the world. The whole episode symbolically fortell the defat of a certain traditional way of life; life which showed the static side of Muslim world life. The habit of keeping pigeons was old nobody thought about at this time so Mir Nihal had to adopt the change but he didn’t comprehend the reality or the modern standards.
Cat episode.
This was also the most symbolic event of the novel that a cat kills many of Mir Nihal’s pigeons and Coppola (a famous critic who wrote many articles on twilight in Delhi) sees in it ‘a potent symbol Ali has used repeatedly in his short stories to represent cunning, stealth, and destruction. He also identifies the cat with the British who have succeeded in altering of not destroying these cherished ways of life by introducing new ideolog5ies and mores; which Mir Nihal’s generation stands for.
Mir Nihal’s Paralysis has highly symbolical meanings. It represents a parting away of old order or the end of the old orthodox beliefs. His desperation when came to know about his, sin he hebibuddin’s death he will not able to do; like in the last chapter Ahmed Ali relates about his paralyzed condition
“His days were done and beauty had vanished from the earth. But life remained over which men had no command and must go on.
He was weary and tired, limp like a shaken hand. His world had fallen to pieces all around him, smothered by indifference and death. Yet he was still alive to mope like on owl, and count his days at the mercy of time and fate.
He lay in the bed in a state of coma, too feeling less to sit up or think. The sun went down and hid his face. The rooks cawed and flew away”.
The whole gloomy picture of Mir Nihal’s paralyzed condition also shows his authority, or a rule’s end. His soul or inward condition is totally shattered, his dominating figure and his grandeur scattered or destroyed. He was more then nothing now.

Begum Nihal’s Blindness also shows her lack of comprehension in maintaining or in making proper decisions. Her Blindness also shows the Blindness of that age’s women who can’t able to manage the matters.


Wednesday 18 December 2019

poetry paper 1 2018 supply

poetry 1 paper 2019 punjab university

Significance of the Title of the Novel 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe

Significance of the Title of the Novel 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel whose title bears the central massage of the work. The very title ‘Things Fall Apart’ foreshadows the tragedy which takes place at the end of the novel. The novel depicts the tragedy of an individual as well as the tragedy of a society. The protagonist of the novel Okonkwo who was rich and respectable at the beginning of the novel meets a tragic fate at the end of the novel. Achebe portrays how an ambitious, well known, and respected African Okonkwo’s life falls apart. But when he suffers, his whole tribe also suffers. At the beginning of the novel, the Ibo society was a peaceful, organic society, but at the end of the novel it falls into pieces. Thus, the novel records not only falling apart of Okonkwo’s life but also his whole society.

The Title- A Literary Allusion:

The phrase "things fall apart" is taken from the poem, “The Second Coming” by W.B Yeats, which Achebe quotes more extensively in the epigraph. Achebe’s literary allusion to Yeats’ poem might deepen or extend—by comparison and/or contrast—the meaning(s) of Achebe’s title and his novel.  The beginning four lines of the poem are referred as a preface of the novel.

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,”

"Things fall apart" can be said when something we believed would last forever, comes to an end. The title Things Fall Apart refers to the fact that without proper balance, things do fall apart. The notion of balance in the novel is an important theme throughout the book. Beginning with the excerpt from Yeats' poem, the concept of balance is stressed as important; for without balance, order is lost. In the novel, there is a system of balance, which the Igbo culture seems but at the end of the novel the society people can not listen the leader, so a chaotic situation is created.

Okonkwo’s Life Falls Apart:

At the beginning of the novel we see Okonkwo as a prosperous leader of the Igbo people. But the novel ends with his tragic end. Thus, we can say that the novel Things Fall Apart  depicts how Okonkwo’s life falls apart. Okonkwo is definitely a man of importance for his society. He is a well-known person throughout the nine villages and beyond. He is a warrior and wrestler who gains respect through his athletics. He is a fierce-free individual. He hasn’t lost one fight or any battles. And for this the people of the village love him. He is also respected because of his wealth.

Okonkwo's life first begins to fall apart when he kills Ikemefuna, a prisoner who stayed at Okonkwo's home. Okonkwo considers Ikemefuna as one of his own sons. It has been decided from the oracle that Ikemefuna will be killed. Okonkwo takes part in his murder, despite warning from his friend, “That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death.”  But when he hears Ikemefuna’s crying, ““My father, they have killed me!” as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down.”  Okonkwo’s fear of being weak, which is one of his tragic flaws, drives him to rashness, and in the end it contributes to his own tragedy that his own life falls apart.

        Another significant incidence where Okonkwo's life falls apart was when he was thrown out of the clan for seven years. From this event, one can see that Okonkwo's hopes dreams have begun to fall apart. His hopes of being a rich and popular individual had drifted away with this disturbing incident. Okonkwo had no longer had his farm or animals. Also Okonkwo lost faith with most of his friends. This goes to show that Okonkwo lost faith with his friends, like his father lost faith with his friends.  Another episode that showed the downfall in Okonkwo's life was when Nwoye, his oldest and favorite son, converted to the white mans.

Okonkwo’s life finally shattered after his returning to his village where he finds that everything is changed. After the clansman burn the Church building down, the District Commissioner asks the leaders of the clan, Okonkwo among them, to go and see him for a peaceful meeting. The leaders arrive, and are quickly seized. While they are in detention waiting for the fine to be collected from their people, they are beaten severely by the court messengers and their heads are shaved. They are held in jail until the clan pays a heavy fine. Embittered and grieving for the destruction of his clan’s independence, and fearing the humiliation of dying under white law, Okonkwo commits suicide and his life totally falls apart.
Igbo Society Falls Apart:

Like Okonkwo his Igbo society also falls apart. In the first part of the book we see a socially, politically and religiously organic Igbo society. But this organic society becomes divided and virtually loses all energy at the end of the book. Thus, the novel documents the falling apart of the Igbo tribe due to its own brutal rules as well as the coming of the Christian missionaries and the rule of the English government.

The Society Itself Responsible For Falling Apart:

At the beginning of the book we see that the Igbo people have a strong faith in their traditional religion. The religion of the Igbos consisted in the belief that there is a suspense God, the creator of the universe and the lesser gods. The supreme God was called Chukwu. The other gods were made by Chukwu to act his messengers so that people could approach him through them. People made sacrifices to the smaller gods, but when the failed, the people turned to Chukwu. Ancestor worship was also an equally important feature of the religion of the Ibo people. There were man superstitious ideas related with their religious belief. They believed in evil spirits and oracle. One of such Oracles is responsible for Okonkwo’s sacrifice of Ikemefuna. This incident underlines the superstitious brutality of traditional Igbo society. We also find the brutality, injustice and the inhuman activities in some other rituals or rules such as – people who are affected by some severe diseases are carried on the Evil Forest to die and they do not get any burial and twain babies are thrown out in the Evil Forest just after their birth. The ultimate result of such brutality is when the people, who are dissatisfied with these rules such as- Nwoye, the mother of three twin babies, get the opportunity to change their religion they do it  and the society ultimately falls apart.

Igbo Society Encounters the Colonial Masters and Falls Apart:

Prior to the coming of the white the political life of the Igbo people was also very organic and strong. They were very loyal to their political leaders. After the entrance of colonial masters, the colonial religion, mostly replaces the traditional religion. When the white man arrives, however, they ignore the Igbo’s values and tries to enforce his own beliefs and religious practices. Missionaries would convince these tribesmen that their tribe worshipped false gods and that its false gods did not have the ability to punish them if they chose to join the mission. Like many others, Okonko’s son Nwoye is also affected by the colonial religion.

The only point in the book in which the title is referenced is Chapter Twenty, when the main character, Okonkwo, and his friend, Obierika, are discussing the invasion of white men into their community. Obierika says, "The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." his passage clearly ties the destruction of the Igbo people's way of life to sneaky, divisive action on the part of European missionaries and imperialists.

The colonial politics affects the Igbo society. Okonko’s life is also affected by the colonial politics. The Igbo people become the victims of the colonial politics and many people die as a result of colonialism. The same things happen to Okonkwo.

The novel concludes with the end of the Igbo society and the death of the hero. In the face of the chaos caused by the incursion of Christianity, Okonkwo becomes a murderer and then hangs himself. His world has literally fallen apart, and it symbolically represents that Igbo society has fallen apart. Thus, we can say, the title of the novel, Things Fall Apart denotes its theme appropriately.


Hedda’s Suicide : A Reasonable Act?

Hedda’s Suicide : A Reasonable Act?

In the late nineteenth century, the forces of capitalism and colonialism that shaped European society were veiled in doubt by the evolution of several new ways of thinking. In France, the beginnings of the impressionist movement reformed art, drama and literature by questioning the long-standing tradition of realism.

In central Europe, Sigmund Freud’s revolutionary science of psychoanalysis gained momentum; changing the way people related to each other and paving the way for surrealist art and progress of alternative thinking. Finally, Karl Marx’s promotion of social systems which were alternative to the dominant capitalism of the time raised peoples’ awareness of the severe injustices their new way of living had created.
It was in this social milieu that Henrik Ibsen turned for a final time to write a play with a particular social agenda. In his effort to comment on events around him and assess the impact of society’s new ideologies on a specific echelon of society, Hedda Gabler was born.

The title of the play is the maiden name of its protagonist. The audience is invited into Hedda’s new home in Norway shortly after she has returned from honeymoon with George Tesman, a scholar of Middle Ages history. In the introductory conversation between George and their maid, Bertha, we are introduced to Hedda’s upbringing which is to play a crucial role in events to come. With the renowned General Gabler as a parent, Hedda was conditioned for a life of independence, entertainment and decadence. After her father dies and her life of horseback riding comes to an end, Hedda slowly realises that her society will not let her live in the way she would like.

As a bourgeoisie woman, taking up a job is both awkward and very difficult for Hedda. Hedda has little choice: she must marry if she wants to have any chance of supporting the extravagant way of living to which she had become accustomed.

In George Tesman, Hedda found both the perfect solution of her situation and the inevitable curse of boredom and discontentment. George, brought up by his Aunts, is as conventional and colourless as his name suggests. His conversation is trite, and he is completely oblivious to the subtlety; failing to notice Aunt Julie’s suggestive questions about Hedda’s pregnancy. He is dedicated to his studies, having spent his honeymoon researching “marvellous old documents that nobody knew existed”.
It would have been very dangerous for Hedda to pass up George’s offer of marriage. With Lövborg and Brack, two men with whom she had relationships in the past, indisposed, doing so would have squandered her opportunity to live comfortably in marriage. Hedda realizes the merit in marrying a man who is to soon become a professor, and feels scared of approaching age and loneliness. Her decision, however, is guided predominantly by the structure of her patriarchal society which dictates that she must depend completely on men and on marriage for her future happiness.

It is with her marriage to George that Hedda’s life of monotony and boredom increasingly strains her personality and livelihood. She declares: “Sometimes I think I only have a talent for one thing… boring myself to death!” and becomes obsessed with the task of finding interest and beauty in her life. The tragedy of Hedda Gabler begins when Hedda is unable to discover these qualities in her own life. She cannot have the fulfilment of a profession - the interest in another world of studies, colleagues and relationships. As an uninfluential member of society, she is not challenged intellectually or socially. Living under a monarch and as a woman in a patriarchal society, she can have no influence on the future of her community. With European countries establishing colonies throughout the world, Hedda realizes the inexorable domination of her society and feels a helpless victim of its hegemony.

To find the interest and beauty she desires, Hedda must turn to others. In her earlier life, she made use of Lövborg to satisfy herself. Often described as Hedda’s alter ego, Lövborg had an intense relationship with Hedda during childhood. Hedda was attracted by the “style and Romantic secrecy” and ended the relationship when it threatened to become physical. In a revealing dialogue with Lövborg, Hedda exposes her profound desire for fascination and intrigue in an otherwise uninteresting life:

The reasons for Hedda's suicide are fairly clear, she realised she could not live in a middle-class environment under the threat of Brack revealing the fact that she gave the pistol to Lovborg whilst her husband is wrapped up in a project which does not involve her and it is clear that he is not going to provide her with the attention or standard of living which she was hoping for. Her first environment, materialistic and prestigious, led her to choose her second environment purely on material values. She soon found that she could not move from one environment to the other, and with the added problem of people within her environment who reminded her of her own failings, she simply found she could not cope. It is clear that in another environment, probably a more wealthy one and one in which she received more attention, she could have been happier. — with Muhammad Hussain and 2 others.


Past papers of waiting for Godot drama 2 Punjab University LAHORE 2012 to 2019 annual

Past papers of waiting for Godot


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1. "Yet, If Beckett devalues language, he continues to use it and, bilingually, to show a mastery of it". How far do you agree with this view? Waiting for Godot.(2004)

2. Is Beckett's Waiting for Godot relevant for us today?(2005)
3. Can one identify with Beckett's characters in Waiting for Godot and if so why?(2006)

4. "In an instant all will vanish and we’ll be alone once more, in the midst of nothingness!" How far do you agree that these lines of the play Waiting for Godot reflect the intellectual climate of Beckett's time?(2007)

5. How does Beckett transform inaction into dramatic auction in Waiting for Godot?(2008)

6. What is the dramatic significance of the song in Act II of Waiting for Godot?(2009)

7. Is Waiting for Godot a meaningful play?(2010)

8. Waiting for Godot shows Beckett's ability to blend derision, humour and comedy with tragedy. His words are simultaneously tragic and comic. How far would you agree?(2010-supp)

9. How does Beckett prevent the audience from being bored by Waiting for Godot?(2011)

10. "I have used Christianity as mythology in the play WAITING FOR GODOT'. What dramatic purpose does Christian mythology serve in the play?(2011-supp)

11. WAITING FOR GODOT exposes the eternal loneliness, bafflement and ennui suffered by man. Comment.(2012)

12. WAITING FOR GODOT shows the individual as the product of linguistic forces, a 'tissue of textualities'. Comment.(2012-supp)

13. Bring out the significance of the title of WAITING FOR GODOT.(2013)

14. Waiting for Godot voices the infinite hope and despair of man about the future of humanity. Do you agree?(2014)

Q : Waiting for GODOT exposes the eternal loneliness,  bafflement and ennui suffered by man. Comment
2012 annual

Q : Waiting for godot shows the individual as the product of linguistic forces, a tissue of TEXTUALITIES. COMMENT.
2012 supply

Q : Bring out significance of the TITLE of waiting FOR GODOT
2013 Annual

Q: Waiting for goDOT voices the infinite hope and despair of man about the future of humanity. Do you agree?
2013 supply

Q: Repeated question 2013 supply
2014 annual

Q: Repeated QUESTION 2012 supply
2014 SUPPLY

Q : Discuss waiting for godot it as representative of 20th century issues of anxiety and despair.
2015 annual

Q: Waiting for Godot is the greatest 20th century play aiming to question the religion. Do you agree? Substantiate your answer with appropriate textual quotations.
2015 supply

Q : Bring out the various ways in which language has been exploited waiting for Godot
2016 annual

Q : How does waiting for godot treat the concept of time.
2016 supply

Q : How far Would you agree that waiting for godot highlights the concept of KIERKEGAARD's philosophy of existentialism?
2017 annual

Q : What  is the SIGNIFICANCE of little games the characters play in waiting for GODOT? Elaborate Your ANSWER citing examples from the PLAY.
2018 annual

Q:The hope of salvation may be merely an evasion of the suffering and anguish that spring from facing the reality of the human condition. Discuss with the reference to the play Waiting for Godot...(2018) supply

How does Waiting for Godot appropriate language and why?
2019 annual

what are major concerns voiced broken by Lucky through his speech?

how do they integerate with the rest of the play
2020 annual

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1. He imagines when I see him indefatigable I'll regret my decision. Such is his miserable scheme.(2004)
2. (gesture towards the Universe) This one is enough for you. (silence). It's not nice of you, Didi. Whom am I to tell my private nightmares to if I can't tell them to you?(2005)

3. We wait we are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don't protest. We are bored to death, there is no denying it.(2006)

4. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen of known the answer. Yes, in this manner confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come .....(2007)

5. Is there anything I can do, that's what I ask myself, to cheer them up? I have given them bones, I have talked to them; about this and that, I have explained the twilight, admittedly.(2008)

6. We should ask him for the bone first. Then if he refuses we'll leave him there.(2009)

7. But we were there together, I could swear to it! Picking grapes for a man called .... (he snaps his fingers) .... can't think of the name of the man, at a place, do you not remember?(2010)

8. Remark that I might just as well have been in his shoes and he in mine. If chance had not willed otherwise. To each one his due.(2010-SUPP)

9. Perhaps I haven't got it right. He wants to mollify me, so that I'll give up the idea of parting with him. No, that's exactly it either.(2011)

10. Gentlemen I don't know what came over me. Forget all I said. (more and more his old self) I don't remember exactly what it was, but you may be sure there wasn't a word of truth in it.(2011-SUPP)

11. Was I asleep? While the others suffered? Or am I asleep at this time? When I wake up tomorrow, or think that I have woken up, what shall I say about today?(2012)

12. Does he not have the right to put down his bags? He certainly have the right. From this we conclude that he keeps on carrying the bags all the time because he likes to do so. This is a good explanation.(2012-SUPP)

13. Recognize! What is there in which one should recognize? All my wretched life I have crawled in mud! And you think it proper to talk to me about scenery? Look at this heap of rubbish! I have never gone away from it.(2013)

14. Was I asleep? While the others suffered? Or am I asleep at this time? When I wake up tomorrow, or think that I have woken up, shall I say about today?(2014)

15. Does he not have the right to put down his bags? He certainly have the right. From this we conclude that he keeps on carrying the bags all the time because he likes to do so. This is a good explanation.(2015)

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