'Tintern Abbey'

             ‘Tintern Abbey’ is an expression of Wordsworth’s philosophy of Nature. Accordingly, in this poem, he sets out to seek beauty in the meadow, woodland and the mountain-top, and to interpret this beauty in spiritual terms. The poem is a noble expression of the influence of Nature in the life of man in all its three stages: childhood, early youth and mature age. 

                Wordsworth, with his sister Dorothy, revisits the Wye River in 1798 after a gap of five years. The poet is spellbound by the beautiful landscape and objects of Nature such as ‘mountain springs’, ‘lofty cliffs’ etc. the long gap of five years could not erase the impression of the beautiful sight from his mind. The memories of the beautiful landscape which faded revived again. The poet, however, confesses that in the initial years of his life, he was only attached to the physical and superficial beauty of Nature.

                    However, a change appears in his attitude towards Nature. This is the second stage of his life i.e. early youth or the period of the sense. He has learnt to look at Nature, not as a thoughtless youth; he asserts that the memories of these beautiful objects of Nature have given him great joy and peace in noisy towns and cities.

                    Wordsworth has started listening to the ‘music of humanity’ in the ‘sounding cataract’ which used to haunt him like a passion when he has immature. He is now conscious of the sorrow of humanity and he sees in Nature the revelation of the divine law. Towards the poem's concluding lines, the third stage of the poet’s development is revealed. Wordsworth begins to find a soul and living spirit in the objects of Nature. His physical and sensuous appreciation of nature disappears. He now starts looking into the objects of Nature a soul which is closely linked to the soul of a human being:

A spirit, that impels….

And rolls through all things.

            Noting that his sister Dorothy is glad to see the beauty of Nature, the poet exhorts her to unite with Nature. Her love for nature would help her a great deal in her life future life. He asserts that when she would have troubles in her life, the memory of this landscape would provide her solace. In the last couple of lines, Wordsworth tells her sister that the objects of nature seem beautiful to him not because they are nice-looking but also because he is in her sweet company.
            'Tintern Abbey' is a great poem. It expresses clearly and powerfully what nature meant to Wordsworth. It shows him not as a lover of nature, but as “a high priest of Nature”. In this way, the poem is marked by an autobiographical note and personal feelings. It is a poem of sublime thought. The poet has expressed his honest and natural feelings about Nature’s Superiority. The language is so simple and lucid that one is not tired of reading it again and again. The sweetness of style touches the heart of the reader. The medium of this poem is neither ballad nor a lyric but an elevated blank verse. The blank verse that is used in it is low-toned, familiar, and moves with sureness, sereneness and inevitable ease. It has a quiet pulse, suggestive of 'central peace', which is felt in all his great poetry.

Wordsworth as a poet of Nature

As a poet of Nature, Wordsworth stands supreme. He is a worshiper of Nature. His love of Nature is probably truer, and tenderer, than that of any other English poet, before or since. Nature occupies in his poem a separate or independent status and is not treated in a casual or passing manner as by poets before him.

Wordsworth has a full–fledged philosophy, a new and original view of Nature. At least, three things can be noted in his treatment of Nature:

(i)  That it has a living personality,

(ii) That it exercises a healing influence on the aggrieved souls,

(iii) That it is a great moral teacher.

Wordsworth believes that we can learn more about man and morals, evil and good from Nature than all the philosophies. In his eyes, “Nature is a teacher whose wisdom we can learn, and without which any human life is vain and incomplete”.  He conceives of Nature as a living personality. He believes that there is a divine spirit pervading all the objects of Nature. This belief in Nature may be termed mystical Pantheism and is fully expressed in Tintern Abbey. He believes that the company of Nature gives joy to the human heart and he looks upon Nature as exercising a healing influence on sorrow-stricken hearts.

In the poem, ‘Daffodils’ William Wordsworth reveals his relationship with Nature. His choices of words throughout the poem make it clear that his relationship with Nature is a good one. The whole poem is about Nature. It talks about clouds, valleys, hills, trees, the breeze, stars, the Milky Way, a bay, waves, and most of all daffodils. Nature brings a state of imagination. It brings people into a different state of mind, an ambience to encompass the world and make it a better place.  In this poem, a host of daffodils stops the speaker while travelling through Nature. The word “host” makes it transform into a vision, which is imagination.

In the poem ‘Ode on Intimations of Immorality,’ Wordsworth uses nature to explain his perception of the beauty of nature. He uses meadows, groves, streams, the earth, rainbows, roses, birds, lambs, seasons, mountains, seas, valleys, the sun, flowers, and stars.

Nature has played an important role in ‘Solitary Reaper’. This poem is about a harvester girl. She is alone in the field, she cuts and binds, she bends over a sickle and she sings a melancholic song. The song that the poet has heard is sung by ‘solitary Highland Lass’. Her voice overflows the vale with her music, a melancholy strain’ that she sings while working in the field. So, we can say that the lonely girl is very nearly merged with nature. The girl is singing the song in dialect. The poet is trying to guess the theme of the song because he cannot understand the dialect. That is why, 

William Wordsworth discovers in nature an uncommon power which can transform this earth into a homeland for fairies and other supernatural agents. It is proved in his other poem, ‘To the Cuckoo’. The title itself is about a bird and it is also a part of nature. The bird is wandering in the valley. The poet heard the sweet voice of the Cuckoo. He felt delighted. The valley was full of beautiful flowers. Clear sunshine made the atmosphere in the valley enjoyable. So, it is a part of Nature. The poet in his extreme gladness addresses the Cuckoo as a ‘Blithe New-Comer’.

Wordsworth’s attitude to Nature can be clearly differentiated from that of the other great poets of Nature. He does not prefer the wild and stormy aspects of Nature like Byron, or the shifting and changeful aspects of Nature and the scenery of the sea and sky like Shelley, or the purely sensuous in Nature like Keats, or takes interest mainly in human nature rather than its pure form like Shakespeare. It is his special characteristic to concern himself, not with the strange and remote aspects of the earth, and sky, but with Nature in her ordinary, familiar, everyday moods. He does not recognize the ugly side of Nature ‘red in tooth and claw’ as Tennyson does. Wordsworth stresses the moral influence of Nature and the need for man’s spiritual discourse with her.

'The Immortality Ode’

 

‘The Immortality Ode’ is one of the most famous poems in English literature. It is the greatest poem in the whole series of Wordsworth’s poems. Wordsworth reached one of the highest peaks of the English poetry of the Romantic period with this ode. In fact, it is a landmark in the history of English poetry.

The theme of the poem is very simple but the thoughts conveyed are great. It deals with the theme of the immortal nature of the human spirit which is intuitively known by the child and partly forgotten by the growing man. But this spirit is to be known once more in maturity through the intense experience of heart and mind. Wordsworth’s philosophy of nature is beautifully expressed in this poem. According to the title, the poem deals with the knowledge of the immortality of the soul, or the recollection of childhood.

Wordsworth believes in the divine origin of the soul. The child is aware of this divine origin and had a direct touch with divinity. His soul is in direct communion with the divine spirit. As he grows up, he loses touch with spirit because of his attachment to the material world. In fact, this is beautifully explained in his sonnet ‘The World Is Too Much with Us’. The loss of childhood glory is the recurrent theme of Wordsworth’s poetry. ‘The Immortality Ode’

The Ode is built on a simple but majestic plan. The first four stanzas tell of a spiritual crisis, of a glory that has passed away from the earth and end by asking why and where the glory has fled. The middle stanzas examine the nature of this glory and seek to explain it through the philosophical doctrines of pre-existence and recollections from its childhood. Then the last three stanzas show that though the vision of celestial radiance is lost there remains much in life to compensate for this loss that can motivate him and bring his creative mind out of sadness.

‘The Immortality Ode’ can also be called an autobiographical poem. In this poem, the poet unlocks his heart and describes a crisis in his intellectual development. The ode deals with his childhood glory and the poet’s loss of ‘vision’ in his advancing years. ‘The Ode’ deals with two childhoods, the childhood everyone experiences after birth and the childhood we carry within us like memory. These two childhoods may be called ‘visible childhood’ and ‘invisible childhood’. The poet describes the experience of both these childhoods and contrasts it with the material world.

The descriptions of nature are also beautiful. The poem reveals the difference between his love for nature as a child and his love for nature as a man. As a child, he had a passion and appetite for nature, but he has a love for nature as a man. He was meditative and reflective towards nature. Even the most ordinary objects of nature gave rise to profound thoughts in him.

The poem is characterized by a strange sense of duality. Even though the world around the speaker is beautiful, peaceful, and serene, he is sad and angry because of what he (and humanity) has lost. Because nature is a kind of religion to Wordsworth, he knows that it is wrong to be depressed in nature's midst and pulls himself out of his depression for as long as he can.

‘The Immortality Ode’ is one of the greatest of Wordsworth’s odes. It is a poetic account of the immortal nature of the human spirit. So we can say that ‘Immortality Ode’ is the immortal ode in English literature.

 

Doctor Faustus as a Renaissance Play

         The Renaissance was one of the most important periods in English literary history. The word Renaissance means “rebirth.” It marked a revival of learning, art, science, classical literature, and confidence in humanity. In England, the Renaissance created a new spirit of curiosity and inquiry. People began to question old beliefs and traditions and developed a great interest in knowledge, discovery, adventure, beauty, and worldly life. The Renaissance also encouraged individualism. People began to believe that human beings had the ability to shape their own lives and discover the secrets of nature. They wanted to achieve great things and go beyond the limits imposed by traditional beliefs. Christopher Marlowe was one of the greatest writers who expressed this spirit in his works. His famous tragedy Doctor Faustus is a powerful representation of the Renaissance spirit. The central character, Doctor Faustus, is a typical Renaissance man. He is highly educated, ambitious, courageous, curious, and dissatisfied with the ordinary limits of human knowledge. At the same time, his tragic life shows the dangers of excessive ambition.

            The greatest characteristic of the Renaissance was the thirst for knowledge. Medieval people were often expected to accept traditional religious beliefs, but Renaissance thinkers wanted to investigate the world for themselves. Faustus represents this intellectual curiosity. He is a highly educated scholar who has studied theology, philosophy, medicine, law, logic, and other subjects. He has become a famous scholar, but he is not satisfied with what he has learned. His hunger for knowledge is endless. At the beginning of the play, Faustus examines different branches of learning. He finds that they cannot satisfy his ambitions. He therefore turns towards magic and necromancy. He believes that magic can give him knowledge and power beyond the ordinary limits of human beings. His famous statement, “A sound magician is a mighty god,” clearly expresses his ambition. He does not simply want knowledge for its own sake; he wants knowledge that will give him control over the world.

            Another important feature of the Renaissance was confidence in human power and ability. Renaissance individuals wanted to achieve greatness and believed that human beings could accomplish extraordinary things. Faustus takes this desire to an extreme. He dreams of controlling spirits, nature, wealth, kingdoms, and even the forces of the universe. He wants to become almost god-like in his power. For this purpose, he makes a contract with Lucifer and agrees to surrender his soul in return for twenty-four years of magical service. This decision shows how strongly he desires power. For Faustus, knowledge is valuable because it can give him control over the world. Thus, his character represents the Renaissance man's desire to rise above ordinary human limitations.

            The Renaissance was also an age of deep learning. There was a revival of interest in books, classical authors, philosophy, science, and education. Faustus loves learning. He has spent years reading and studying. He is familiar with the major areas of knowledge available in his time. His study of Aristotle and other subjects shows his intellectual background. However, Marlowe presents an important problem through Faustus. Mere accumulation of knowledge does not bring him satisfaction. Instead, his desire for more knowledge becomes an obsession. He wants to know what is hidden from ordinary human beings. This makes his intellectual curiosity both admirable and dangerous.

            The Renaissance encouraged a spirit of questioning and inquiry. People wanted to examine the world instead of accepting everything blindly. Faustus has exactly this spirit. He constantly asks questions and seeks answers. He is not satisfied with traditional explanations of life, nature, and the universe. He wants to discover the unknown personally. His repeated questions to Mephistopheles reflect this restless curiosity. He wants to know about astronomy, geography, the universe, and supernatural matters. Therefore, Faustus represents the questioning mind of the Renaissance.

            The Renaissance brought a growing interest in science, astronomy, geography, and the natural world. People became curious about the structure of the universe and the laws of nature. This spirit is clearly present in Doctor Faustus. Faustus takes an interest in the heavens, the earth, the movement of the planets, and the structure of the universe. He tries to understand matters that had traditionally been explained mainly through religion. His desire to discover the secrets of nature shows the scientific curiosity of the Renaissance. At the same time, the play belongs to a period when magic and supernatural beliefs were still powerful. Thus, Marlowe combines the new scientific spirit with older beliefs in magic and the supernatural.

            The Renaissance was also the age of geographical discovery and adventure. European explorers were travelling across seas and discovering new lands. Trade and commerce were expanding, and people were becoming interested in distant countries. Faustus shares this adventurous spirit. Through his magical powers, he wants to explore the world and obtain its wealth. He wishes that the spirits would travel to distant lands and bring him precious materials. His desire to reach beyond familiar boundaries reflects the Renaissance fascination with the unknown world.

            Individualism is another important quality of the Renaissance. Renaissance men wanted to develop their own personality and make their own choices rather than simply follow social and religious traditions. Faustus is strongly individualistic. He does not want to live an ordinary life or remain within the limits set by society. He wants to create his own destiny. His decision to make a pact with Lucifer is an extreme example of his individualism. He chooses his own path even though he knows that it is dangerous. His tragic story therefore presents both the strength and weakness of Renaissance individualism.

            The Renaissance was deeply influenced by the beauty and culture of classical Greece and Rome. There was a renewed interest in beauty, art, music, literature, and the human body. Faustus's attraction to Helen of Troy reflects this love of classical beauty. Helen is presented as an ideal of physical perfection and becomes one of the most memorable images in the play. Faustus says: “Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?” His fascination with Helen shows his attraction to beauty and sensual experience.

            The Renaissance was not concerned only with knowledge and intellectual development. It also encouraged an appreciation of worldly pleasures, music, entertainment, beauty, and enjoyment of life. Faustus uses his magical powers to enjoy the pleasures of the world. He travels, attends royal courts, performs magical tricks, and enjoys wealth and entertainment. However, Marlowe also suggests that pleasure alone cannot provide lasting happiness. Despite having supernatural powers, Faustus remains deeply dissatisfied. His pleasures are temporary, while the consequences of his choices are permanent.

            An important feature of Doctor Faustus is the conflict between the Renaissance spirit and the medieval Christian moral order. Faustus represents the new Renaissance spirit. He trusts his own intelligence and wants to discover the world through his own efforts. On the other hand, the play contains strong medieval elements such as the Good Angel, the Evil Angel, Lucifer, Hell, sin, repentance, and divine punishment. The entire play can therefore be understood as a conflict between two forces. One is the Renaissance desire for knowledge, freedom, power, and self-development. The other is the traditional Christian belief that human beings must remain within moral and divine limits. Marlowe does not present this conflict in a simple manner. Faustus's desire for knowledge is attractive, but his misuse of knowledge becomes destructive. His death suggests that knowledge and ambition are valuable, but they become dangerous when they are separated from wisdom, responsibility, and moral judgment.

            Thus, Doctor Faustus is one of the finest expressions of the Renaissance spirit in English literature. Faustus represents the Renaissance desire for knowledge, power, individual freedom, exploration, scientific curiosity, beauty, and worldly experience. At the same time, Marlowe does not present the Renaissance spirit as completely positive. Through the tragic fate of Faustus, he shows the dangers of excessive ambition and the misuse of knowledge. In the end, we can say that Doctor Faustus is one of the most powerful Renaissance tragedies in English literature.

Character Sketch of Doctor Faustus

 

Faustus is the central figure of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Faustus is a character ideal to be the hero of a tragedy where man alone is the maker of his fate, good or bad. He falls, not by the fickleness of fortune or the decree of fate, or because he has been corrupted by Mephistophilis, the agent of Lucifer, the Devil, but because of his own will.

Faustus is an ordinary German born in a humble family who goes to Wittenberg for higher studies, mainly supported by his kinsmen. But in course of time, he graces the golden field of learning and before long obtains a Doctor’s in Divinity for his unsurpassed skill in dispute on heavenly problems. He has attained mastery over various branches of study. Thus Faustus is a break from the traditional concept of the tragic hero to the extent that he is not of royalty or any noble parentage. But he is great all the same, because of his scholarship.

He possesses rich imaginative faculty. He cherishes the idea that as a magician he will be greater than emperors and kings, and his dominion will stretch “as far as doth the mind of man.” He will become a mighty God. Endowed with exceptional imaginative power, he visualizes as a magician the bright dreams of his future.

Faustus is not satisfied with his vast knowledge in various subjects of the university, for still, he is an ordinary man. Faustus wants to be a superman; he wants to be a “mighty God.” He is “swollen with cunning and of a self-conceit”—to such an extent that he becomes the “Icarus” of classical mythology. And he aspires on the artificial wings of his knowledge to soar above human limits, to reach the status of a “Jove in the sky.” Pride is the sin for which the angels fell.

Faustus stands not for a character, not for a man, but for Man, for Everyman. The grim tragedy that befalls him is not a personal tragedy, but a tragedy that overtakes all those who dare “practice more than heavenly power permits.” The terrible conflict that goes on in his mind is not particular to him alone, but common to all who waver between opposites.

Faustus’ choice of necromancy is made after inner conflict. The appearance of the Good Angel and the Bad Angel side by side are the personifications of his good and evil impulses. His conventional heart is opposed to his self-damnation and this is clearly hinted when his blood congeals as he proceeds to write: “Faustus delivers his soul to the Devil.”

The doubts and fears which rock the mind of Faustus are not of one character alone: these doubts and fears about hell, heaven, God, salvation and damnation have been experienced by all inquisitive men of all ages. Faustus wavers between his Good and Evil angels, between God and Devil, so we may see Marlowe hesitating between the submissive acceptance of a dogmatic system and a pagan simplicity of outlook to which instinct and temperament prompted him. It will be hard to condemn Marlowe as an atheist. His skeptical and rebellious temperament was not simply his personal tendency; rather he was impressed by the prevailing tendency for free thinking on religious matters. In the same sense, Faustus, with all their doubts and fears about hell and damnation, believes in Christ and God. Faustus in the beginning is a bold, defiant and adventurous spirit of the Renaissance but at the approach of his doom, he reaffirms his faith in Christ.

Doctor Faustus as a Morality Play

 

The play may largely be called a morality play. By selling his soul to the devil, Faustus lives a blasphemous life full of sterile and sensual pleasures for only twenty-four years. He criticizes Christianity by insulting the Pope with the Holy Fathers of Rome. There is a sharp conflict in his soul between his ambition and conscience, between the good angel and the evil angel who breaks out of this internal struggle. Yet, at the end Faustus yields to the temptations of Evil angel, thus paving the way for an eternal curse. When Faustus has barely an hour to live, he realizes with the utmost pain and horror that his sins neither can be ignored nor be purified and nothing can save him from an eternal curse. He realizes that his soul burn permanently into hell and he with the most effective expression scourges the very tormented soul in his last soliloquy: "My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!...”

The main goal of the morality play was to present educational ethics. It was a dramatic guide to Christian life and Christian death. Those who ignore the path of virtue and renounce faith in God and Christ and follow the path of the Devil and Satan is destined to despair and an eternal curse. This is Marlowe's message to his play Doctor Faustus. The sad choir's most palpable expression is in the final line: “I’ll burn my books!—Ah, Mephistophilis !”

In the depiction of moral plays, abstract figures of vices or virtues were embodied. Here in this drama Doctor Faustus, we also find the good angel and the evil angel, the first symbolizing the path of virtue and the last of sin and curse. The old man strongly symbolizes the forces of righteousness and morality. He suggests Doctor Faustus abjure magic and come to the path of light. This also bears witness to morality.

Doctor Faustus is hungry for knowledge and as result, he always is on a quest for that. He studies almost all branches of knowledge as well as religion, yet he still is hungry for more knowledge which is the reason behind adopting the prohibited knowledge of "black magic". Here his incomparable wisdom fails him.

The comic scenes of Doctor Faustus also represent the tradition of miraculous plays and ancient morals. We found Faustus playing despicable tricks on the Pope, who represents the corrupt religion. We also capture Doctor Faustus to make the trick with that of the horse courser who plainly believes Doctor Faustus. When he was overwhelmed by the magical horse, he, at last, realized the deceit of Doctor Faustus. The struggle between Faustus’s uncontrolled appetites and the powers of heaven continues. Faustus has free will, free choice, and the ability to affirm or deny God. He cannot blame anybody but himself for his actions and their consequences. After signing the document, Faustus says: ’Consummatumest’ which was the last words of Christ on earth according to the Gospel of St. John.

Marlowe shows great insight into the twisted mind of the magician by putting these blasphemous words in Faustus’s mouth. We see Faustus, his emotional and intellectual instability is fully revealed. He dwindles and waves between God and the devil. At first, he is conscience-stricken: “Now Faustus, must thou needs be damned, and canst thou not be saved”.

The issue of good and evil is very significant in Doctor Faustus. The struggle between good and evil turns the man to be hesitant and remain puzzled and Doctor Faustus is no exception to that. It is the selection of the man that he must have to choose either good or evil and which way is good and which way is bad for him.

We can conclude that Doctor Faustus is both the fulfillment of the English moral traditions and the finest and final of Marlow's heroic plays. As a morality play, it bears all the relevance and proves humility, belief, and compliance with God's law. As a heroic play, it rejoices in power, beauty, wealth, and knowledge as well as it is Marlowe’s masterpiece.

Twelfth Night: Theme of Love

 

                In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare explores and illustrates the emotion of love with precise detail. Shakespeare examines three different types of love: true love, self-love, and friendship.

            Twelfth Night consists of many love triangles, however many of the characters who are tangled up in the web of love are blind to see that their emotions and feelings toward other characters are untrue. They are being deceived by themselves and/or the others around them.

            There are certain instances in the play where the emotion of love is true, and the two people involved feel very strongly toward one another. Viola’s love for Orsino is a great example of true love. Although she is pretending to be a man and is virtually unknown in Illyria, she hopes to win the Duke’s heart. In Act 1, scene 4, Viola lets out her true feelings for Cesario, “yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife (1).”

            That statement becomes true when Viola reveals her true identity. Viola and Orsino had a very good friendship, and making the switch to husband and wife was easy. Viola was caught up in another true love scenario, only this time she was on the receiving end, and things didn’t work out so smoothly. During her attempts to court Olivia for Orsino, Olivia grew to love Cesario. Viola was now caught in a terrible situation and there was only one way out, but that would jeopardize her chances with Orsino.

            It’s amazing that Olivia could fall for a woman dressed as a man, but because Viola knew what women like to hear, her words won Olivia’s heart. The next case of true love is on a less intimate and romantic scale, and more family-oriented. Viola and Sebastian’s love for one another is a bond felt by all siblings. Through their times of sorrow and mourning for each of their apparent deaths, they still loved each other. They believed deep down that maybe in some way or by some miracle that each of them was still alive and well.

            Many people, even in today’s society, love themselves more than anything else. Twelfth Night addresses the issue of self-love and how it affects people’s lives. Malvolio is the easiest to identify with the problem of self-love. He sees himself as a handsome nobleman.

            Malvolio believes many women would love to be with him. He likes to see things one way only, and he deceives himself just to suit his outlook on the situation. For example, in the play, he twists Olivia’s words around to make it sound like she admires his yellow cross-gartered stockings when she really despises them. Both Sir Toby and Olivia show signs of self-love but it is not as big an issue. Sir Toby only cares about himself and no one else, not even his friends.

            He ignores Maria’s warnings about drinking into the night, and he continues to push Sir Andrew to court Olivia. Although he believes Sir Andrew doesn’t have a chance. Olivia cares about the people around her, but she also believes that no man is worthy of her beauty. She thinks she is “all that,” and that no one can match her.

            Friendship is the third type of love expressed in “Twelfth Night.” The closest friendship would have to be between Orsino and Cesario. They barely knew each other at first, and before long Orsino was telling Cesario his inner love for Olivia. He even had Cesario running his love messages to Olivia.

            The second friendship between Viola and the Sea Captain was not mentioned a lot, but they had a very deep bond between themselves. They survived the shipwreck together and the Captain promised to keep Viola’s idea about pretending to be a man a secret. If he had opened his mouth the entire play would have changed.

            The third friendship, and definitely the strangest, is between Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. They are close friends but sometimes Sir Toby doesn’t show it. He sets Sir Andrew up and likes to get him into trouble. An example is persuading Sir Andrew to challenge Cesario to a dual, even though he is not a great swordsman and is unaware of Cesario’s ability. On the other hand, Sir Andrew appreciates Sir Toby’s company because he always lifts his spirits and makes him feel like a true knight.

            Love plays a major role in “Twelfth Night,” and Shakespeare addresses true love, self-love, and friendship in a very compelling and interesting way. Love is great to read about because everyone deserves a little love. “Twelfth Night” is the true definition of love, and Shakespeare does a great job of explaining a somewhat difficult topic.

Character Sketch of Duke Orsino

          Duke Orsino is one of the most important characters in William Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night. He is the ruler of Illyria and, therefore, occupies the highest social position among the major characters. He is presented as a noble, handsome, wealthy, brave, generous, and cultured young man. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare introduces him as a romantic and emotional lover who is deeply attracted to Lady Olivia. However, as the story develops, we discover that Orsino is not as mature and serious as he appears at first. He is often moody, self-centred, and changeable. Through his character, Shakespeare gently makes fun of the traditional idea of romantic and courtly love.

            Orsino is the Duke of Illyria, and his position gives him authority and respect. He is a powerful and wealthy ruler, but Shakespeare does not spend much time showing him performing his political duties. Instead, we mostly see him thinking and talking about love. This is significant because it shows that his emotional life is more important to him than his responsibilities as a ruler.

            A sea captain describes him as “a noble duke, in nature as in name.” This suggests that Orsino is genuinely noble in character as well as in social position. He is courteous and generally generous towards others. His high position also explains why Olivia considers him a suitable match for her.

        At the beginning of the play, Orsino is completely absorbed in his love for Olivia. His famous opening words are: “If music be the food of love, play on.” These words immediately establish his romantic nature. He wants music because he believes that it can increase and satisfy his love. He imagines himself as a passionate and suffering lover. However, Shakespeare presents his love with a touch of humour. Orsino spends a great deal of time talking about love, listening to music, and imagining his own emotional suffering. He seems to enjoy the experience of being in love almost as much as he enjoys Olivia herself. His love for Olivia is also largely based on imagination. He does not know her deeply, yet he describes his feelings in highly emotional and poetic language. This makes his love appear more like romantic fantasy than genuine understanding.

            Orsino represents the tradition of courtly love popular in Elizabethan literature. According to this tradition, a lover idealises a beautiful woman, considers her almost perfect, and suffers because his love is not returned. Orsino behaves exactly like such a lover. Olivia has rejected him, but he continues to think about her. He sends messages to her and uses Cesario as his messenger. His language becomes highly poetic whenever he speaks about love. His speeches reveal his education and refined taste. At the same time, Shakespeare also suggests that Orsino enjoys listening to his own beautiful words. His love is therefore partly a form of self-love. He is fascinated by his own emotions and repeatedly discusses them.

          Orsino is highly emotional and changeable. His unrequited love makes him melancholy. He listens to music, thinks about Olivia, and complains about the pain of love. His mood changes quickly. At one moment he is passionate and romantic; at another, he becomes angry or impatient. The clown describes his mind as: “For thy mind is very opal.” An opal is a stone that appears to change colour. The statement suggests that Orsino's mind and emotions are constantly changing. He can be loving, angry, sad, jealous, or cheerful depending upon the situation. This changeable nature is one of the main sources of humour in his character.

            Orsino sends Cesario to Olivia to speak on his behalf. He does not know that Cesario is actually Viola, a young woman disguised as a man. Viola soon falls in love with Orsino. She therefore finds herself in a difficult position. She has to speak about Orsino's love for Olivia while secretly loving Orsino herself. Olivia loves Cesario, Viola loves Orsino, and Orsino believes that he loves Olivia. Orsino becomes very fond of Cesario because Cesario understands his feelings and listens patiently to him. This relationship gradually reveals that Orsino's feelings are not as fixed as he believes them to be.

            One of the most interesting features of Orsino's character is his tendency towards self-love. He repeatedly speaks about his own emotions and suffering. His love for Olivia sometimes seems to be less about Olivia herself and more about his own experience of being a lover. This is why Shakespeare treats him humorously. Orsino thinks he is a great romantic hero, but the audience can see that he is often behaving like an immature and self-absorbed young man. His character therefore contains both romance and comedy.

            The relationship between Orsino and Viola is central to the development of the play. Viola, disguised as Cesario, becomes Orsino's trusted companion. She understands his feelings better than anyone else because she herself is in love with him. Orsino gradually becomes deeply attached to Cesario. He shares his thoughts and feelings with Cesario and treats him differently from an ordinary servant. When Viola's true identity is finally revealed, Orsino realizes that the person who has understood him and remained loyal to him is actually a woman who loves him. This discovery changes his understanding of love. His supposed love for Olivia disappears surprisingly quickly, and he accepts Viola as his future wife.

            Orsino's immature side becomes especially visible when he discovers that Olivia has apparently married Cesario. He becomes angry and jealous. His reaction shows the possessive nature of his love. Although he has spent much of the play speaking about the beauty and power of love, he finds it difficult to control his emotions when he feels rejected. However, he eventually learns the truth about the identities of Viola and Sebastian. The confusion is resolved, and the lovers are united.

            Although Orsino does not undergo a dramatic transformation, he does gain some emotional maturity by the end of the play. At the beginning, he is absorbed in an imaginary love for Olivia. He believes that he is deeply and permanently in love with her. By the end, he recognises that his real emotional connection is with Viola. He also learns to accept reality rather than remain trapped in romantic fantasy. His acceptance of Viola shows that he is capable of adapting to circumstances and recognising genuine affection. His attitude towards Antonio also shows another side of his character. Although Antonio has been his enemy, Orsino is capable of acknowledging Antonio's bravery and loyalty. This suggests that beneath his moodiness, he possesses generosity and nobility.

            Despite his weaknesses, Orsino possesses many qualities that make him attractive as a romantic hero. He is noble and wealthy, handsome and brave, courteous and gracious, cultured and educated, loyal to those close to him, capable of deep affection, generous and forgiving. These qualities help explain why Viola falls in love with him. He is therefore not a completely ridiculous character. Shakespeare makes him comic, but he also gives him qualities that command respect.

            Duke Orsino is a complex mixture of romantic lover, noble ruler, self-centred dreamer, emotional young man, and comic character. At the beginning of Twelfth Night, he believes that his love for Olivia is the centre of his life. He enjoys the language and suffering of love, but he does not fully understand genuine love. His relationship with Viola gradually exposes the difference between imaginary love and real emotional attachment. By the end of the play, he accepts Viola and abandons his earlier obsession with Olivia. Thus, Orsino is not presented as a perfect hero. He is immature, moody, sentimental, and sometimes selfish, but he is also noble, generous, cultured, brave, and capable of change. Shakespeare uses him both to entertain the audience and to explore the confusing, unpredictable, and often comic nature of love.

Character sketch of Viola

 

Viola is the most vital character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a romantic comedy. She is the heroine of this play. She is the most charming character in the world of Shakespeare.

Viola is very practical in her life. She has strong willpower and she is the mistress of her will. As a shipwrecked orphan, she has no one to protect her, she must resort to some means whereby her safety is assured. She knows that a single woman unattended in a foreign land would be in an extremely dangerous position. Consequently, she evaluates the sea captain's character, finds it suitable, and wisely places her trust in him. She takes no time in making future plans for herself. Within three days she wins the Duke’s favour with her sweetness and devotion. She plays the role of a boy so nicely. She knows well how to grab success. She is a keen observer of life and the world. That’s why she is never deceived.

Her radiant hope and sweet temperament make her an excellent character.  In the play, she is appreciated by all. She knows her duty well and performs it honestly. She goes again and again to Olivia and very earnestly and sincerely tries to enkindle love in her heart. We should also remember that even though she is in love with the duke, she is loyal in her missions and she tries to win Lady Olivia's love for him.

Viola’s character reflects her modesty. It is a precious jewel of her character. She disguises herself as a boy so that she will be safe and have a man's freedom to move about without protection. We know that she has a great love for the Duke but due to her modesty, she never expressed it. By putting Olivia and Viola in the same situation, Shakespeare shows the two ways of dealing with it. While Olivia chooses to mourn for her brother, Viola opts for looking forward. Viola attaches hope to the good fortune of her own survival and asserts faith that her brother may not have drowned at all. It is interesting to note the contrast between Olivia and Viola. Viola displays intelligence, and self-control and has a mature respect for love. Her views of love are confident, compared to Olivia who has no concept of the idea of true love.

Viola also has native intelligence, an engaging wit, and an immense amount of charm. These qualities will help her obtain her position with Duke Orsino, and they are also the same qualities which cause Lady Olivia to immediately fall in love with her. It was her charming personality, we should remember, which won her the sea captain's loyalty, without whose help her disguise would have never succeeded. And within a short three days, her wit, charm, loyalty, and her skill in music and conversation won her the complete trust of Duke Orsino.

Viola is essentially a woman. She may disguise herself as a man, but she has a woman’s tenderness, pity lack of physical boldness and courage. She is afraid of bloodshed and violence. She nearly faints at the sight of bright swords in the brief comic scene of her fight with Sir Andrew.

Viola’s love is pure noble and sacrificing. Her love is not the sentimental love of Duke, Orsino for Olivia not the impulsive love of Olivia for Sebastian, nor the sensual love of Sir Toby for Maria, nor the shallow love of Sir Andrew for Olivia, nor the self-love of Malvolio. Her love is sincere and noble love of the heart. She loves Orsino and never speaks of it.

Viola is a lovable character. In the play, she is appreciated by all. She knows her duty well and follows it strictly suppressing all her personal feelings and emotions. That’s why a scholar exclaims: ‘….Rosalind is a woman, Viola is a poem.”

Twelfth Night: As a Romantic Comedy

 

William Shakespeare has written many romantic comedies. Twelfth Night is one of the finest comedies of the author. We know that a romantic comedy is a play in which the romantic elements are mingled with comic elements. It is a form of comedy that deals with love. Love, at first sight, is often its main theme. Generally, a romantic comedy starts with some problems that make the union of the lover difficult. But it ends with their happy union.

Twelfth Night possesses certain features which are common to all romantic comedies of Shakespeare. It is based on love leading to marriage. It is a tale of love at first sight. Not one or two of the characters are in love, but all are in love. Twelfth Night opens with a note of love. The duke is in love with Olivia, Olivia is in love with Viola (disguised as Cesario) and Viola is in love with the Duke. Sir Andrew and Malvolio both love Lady Olivia and want to marry her. The entire fifth act echoes the wedding bells and offers a happy ending.

In Shakespearean romantic comedies, female characters play an important role. This predominance gives the play an air of romance. In this play, the entire story revolves around the two female characters named Viola and Olivia. Even the chief male characters find their significance due to them.

The atmosphere of Twelfth Night is full of mirth and laughter. From the beginning to the end the play presents a beautiful love story. When the play opens we find a Duke who is panting for Olivia. Viola in the guise of a boy gets a job with the Duke. She has fallen in love with him, though she keeps it a secret. Since the Duke has a great love for Olivia, he sends Viola to her to plead for him. Viola is good-looking and charming. She wins the heart of Olivia. This triangular love makes this play interesting and romantic.

The fifth and final act of the play shows a happy ending. In this act, we find Sebastian, the twin brother of Viola. He is very smart. His arrival solves the problem. All mysteries are exposed and almost all the characters get their due share of cheerfulness. This happy ending makes the play highly romantic.

A happy blending of fact and fiction is a very important characteristic of Twelfth Night. The person and the places, the plot and the setting are all imaginary. They have been given romantic touch by William Shakespeare. Some characters like Fest, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Malvolio are humourous characters. They provoke laughter and create a romantic atmosphere in the play.

Music and song play important role in the comedies of William Shakespeare. They are the keynote of the Twelfth Night. The whole body of the play is studded with songs. In short, the song and music of the play provide this comedy with an excellent romantic atmosphere.

To conclude, Twelfth Night is the purest and merriest comedy that Shakespeare wrote ever. Dowden has rightly called this play ‘Joyous, refined and romantic.’

Keats’ Negative Capability

Keats believes that a poet has no personality of his own. Just as a dramatist merges his personality into his characters, the poet should also identify himself with what excites his emotions. The dramatist splits his personality into the manifold variety of human life: his imagination embodies itself only in the figures of his imagination. His creations are living because they share his life breath. In the same manner, according to Keats, the poet should be open to every emotion that comes to him from the objects of nature. He should subdue his ego or self in such a manner that he may possess the negative capability of participating in the life of nature. In one of his letters, Keats writes that when he sees a swallow picking up the grass, he wants to be a swallow to feel what it is like to be one.

In ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, he actually transforms into the world of Nightingale and imagines himself on the same branch to experience what it experiences. And when he listens to its song in the darkness of the night, he shares its joy and wants to die.

In ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’, he is wonder-struck to see the forest scene of some festival or sacrifice carved on the Urn. The details of the scene arrest his attention. He shares with the leaves and the human beings the immortality that they enjoy. He finds the young man singing a song that he will sing for eternity. He finds love and beauty captured in a moment of an ecstatic union and makes the moments eternal. This feeling of participation in the eternity of love and beauty as carved on the Grecian urn leads him to exclaim:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all,

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

In ‘Ode to Autumn’, Keats splits his personality into the personified visions of autumn, as it expresses itself in the various activities of Autumn and in the persons engaged in those activities. He finds autumn sitting like a happy farmer amid his heap of corn. Sometimes the season is present in the form of a man fanning the corn to separate from the husk, its ‘hair, soft-lifted by the winnowing wind’.

Keats was a worshipper of beauty, and it was his senses that revealed to him the beauty of things. The beauty of the Universe from the stars of the sky to the flowers of the earth - first struck his senses, and then from the beauty perceptible to the senses, his imagination seized the principle of beauty in all things. It was through his sense-impressions which kindled his imagination that he realized the truth that ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’.

It is this capacity for a negative capability that enables the poet to experience at the same time the emotion of melancholy and joy. This is the peculiar quality of Keats’ genius that enabled him to express his feelings most naturally. Keats’ negative capability is precisely a rejection of set philosophies and preconceived systems of nature. According to Keats, the poet should be receptive rather than searching for fact or reason and should not seek absolute knowledge of every truth, mystery, or doubt.

John Keats: As a Sensuous Poet

The term ‘sensuous’ usually refers to delights borrowed from the senses. Sensuousness is the quality derived from five senses- sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. It is a way of perception through five senses. A sensuous poet uses those word pictures that help the reader to understand the sights and sounds expressed or suggested in a poem. John Keats is best known for his use of such images that appeal to human senses. The poetry of Keats is characterized by the use of sensuous language. Keats is a worshipper of beauty and apprehends beauty everywhere. It is his senses that first reveal to him the beauty of things. All his works, including his great odes contain rich sensuous appeal.

“Ode to Nightingale” is one of the most remarkable poems of sensuousness. In the second stanza of this ode, there is a description of the gustatory sensation of drinking wine. There are references to the visual and auditory senses too. The poet also paints the picture of a drunken whose mouth is purple stained because of the red wine he has drunk:

“With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stained mouth,”

‘Ode to Autumn’ is considered to be the perfect embodiment of concrete sensuous experience. The poem gives a graphic description of the season with all its variety and richness. The whole atmosphere and the mood of the season are presented through sensuous imagery and descriptions:        

                 “With fruits the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

                                 To bend with apples and moss’d cottage-trees,

                                 And fill all fruits with ripeness to the core.”

                ‘The “Ode on a Grecian Urn’ contains a series of sensuous picture-passionate men and Gods chasing  reluctant maidens, the fair youth trying to kiss his beloved, the happy branches of the tree enjoying an everlasting spring, etc. The ecstasy of the passion of love and of youth is beautifully depicted in the following lines:

                       More happy love! More happy happy love!

                       Fore ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,

                       For ever painting, and forever young.

            In the ‘Ode to fancy”, we have a series of pictures which please our senses. The fruits of autumn, buds and bells of May, the sweet singing of the birds, the various flowers, the daisy, the marigold, the lily, the primrose are a kind of feast which we enjoy as we go through the poem.

Wordsworth’s imagination is stirred by what he sees and hears in nature. Milton is no less sensitive to the beauty of nature, of the flowers in “Paradise Lost” in a sensuous manner. But Keats’ poetry appeals to our sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch and sense of hot and cold. He exclaims in one of his letters “O for a life of sensation than of thoughts”. He is a pure poet in sense of seeking not sensual but sensuous delight.

Keats is a poet of sensations. His thoughts are enclosed in sensuousness and this sensuousness is linked to the great pictorial quality of his poetic art in which he equals the excellence of Spencer. Keats is a mystic of senses. He sought to reveal the ultimate truth of the universe trough aesthetic sensations and not through philosophical thoughts. As he became a mature poet, Keats began to see not only the beauty of things but also their truth. The sensuousness of Keats’s poetic language is a heroic attempt to stabilize and appreciate an ultimately unattainable reality. That is why Keats’s poetic genius is unparalleled for all ages.

Theme of Astrophil and Stella

             The sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella was published in 1591. One outstanding quality of the sonnets is the sincerity of the poet. Mair says, “The sonnets of Sidney are the first direct expression in English literature of an ultimate and personal experience.’’ The influence of Astrophel and Stella was so strong in the contemporary age that everybody tried his hands to write sonnets.

            Astrophel is the central character, who expresses his views, his passion for love for a lady, his conflict between reason and love, and so on. Sometimes, Astrophel seems to be addressing a friend, wits, or other persons and sometimes he communes with himself. The sonnets are a series of conversational monologues in which we hear the outpouring of the poet’s love and frustration caused by her enigmatic attitude or by her perpetual silence.

            In this, Sidney touches on a few main themes throughout the sonnet sequence. One of these themes is that of love versus desire. Throughout the sequence, Astrophel is shown as being madly in unreciprocated love with Stella. But this love quickly turns to desire that he cannot control, ultimately leading to their platonic relationship's downfall. Another theme, and all-encompassing metaphor, is the difference between light and day as the difference between Stella being with Astrophel and not being with him, respectively. Even the name of the sequence and characters imply this metaphor, translating to “star-lover” and “star.”

             In the beginning, Stella does not bestow any affection on Astrophel and it becomes clear that the feelings aren’t mutual; Stella proceeds to still be kind towards him. Astrophel later discovers that the woman he deeply loves is married to another man. During the marriage, Stella also discovers that she is unhappy which makes Astrophel become more in tune with his feelings for her. He eventually grows to love Stella by being in her presence and gaining knowledge of what and who she is. Stella then returns Astrophel's affection, though Stella isn’t completely satisfied. At the end of the sonnet, Astrophel tries to persuade her to make love with him despite her marriage vows. As a result, Stella ends the relationship and begins to let him know that the affair can no longer be consummated. Even though Stella loves Astrophel she will not continue to break her marriage vows.

    Throughout the sequence, Astrophel struggles between his love for Stella and his rationality. Because Stella is married, Astrophel recognizes that he can never have a full relationship with her. Moreover, he recognizes that his infatuation with her is foolish and irrational. He isolates his friends and family, damages his reputation in court, and threatens his emotional and mental well-being because he is obsessed with Stella. Yet, even as his reason urges him to give up Stella for his own good, Astrophel cannot stop loving her. The sonnets are full of dialogues between Reason and Love in which Astrophel admits that Reason is correct, but he remains unable to give up his love. Even at the end of the sequence, Astrophel's love prevails over his reason; he is happier having loved her and lost her than never having loved her at all.

            The sonnet sequence expresses the bitter sorrow, the struggle of a virtuous heart between love and duty, desire to possess her. Through the sonnets, the figure of a high-born young man appears more and more revealed. Within the narrow bounds of its fourteen lines, he expressed each movement of his verse, each incident of his love.

Sidney’s Sonnets

 

1.    1.  Not at First Sight, nor with a Dribbed Shot

In this sonnet, the poet declares that his love for his beloved was not a love at first sight but a gradual development. He says that he did not fall in love with Stella at first sight. Stella could impress him but did not captivate the heart of the poet completely. The poet rejects the Petrarchan convention of love. He says that no doubt when he saw his beloved first time his reaction was positive and he liked it. Yet he had not fallen in love with it so intensely that it became a passion with him. He began to love her gradually when he came to realize the worth and nobility of her character. After falling in love the lover has become accustomed to his slavery. He takes it a matter of pride to be the slave of his beloved and suffers the tyrannies of his beloved. The beloved has completely swayed over his mind, thought and feelings. In his slavery, he suffers the tortures of hell and expresses these sufferings of love in his poem.

2.     2. Virtue Alas, Now Let me Take some rest.

The poem presents the tussle between Astrophel's reasoning and emotion (passion). His heart (emotional side) wants to resign before the ruthless and "vain love". He requests his virtue to take rest and leave him at love's mercy and oppression. He urges virtue to use its scepter i.e. correction measure in schools or churches which is well suited for its purpose. Astrophel confesses that he has done a wrong by falling in love with Stella. He couldn't deny its charges because he can't stand against virtue's power. He can convince virtue with the little "reason that is left" in him about his feelings. He believes he can show "true a deity" that resides in his heart and even virtue would also fall in love with Stella. This love sonnet shows the contention of the narrator against love. It's an internal fight inside his mind. His reason says that love is sort of a crime, even Astrophel admits this point. He confesses it as if he has committed a sin. The poem follows a rhyme scheme: abab abab ccd ccd. Virtue is personified in the poem.

3. Your Words My Friend, Right Healthful Caustics Blame

In this sonnet, Astrophel declares that he is fully committed to his beloved Stella. Actually, the advice of Astrophel’s friend is the voice of reason and he is not ready to listen to it. He tells that he is in the trap of love. Love has spoiled his wits. He categorically negates all philosophies. He says that he is not ready to accept the teaching of Plato that man should sublimate his desire and concentrate on the higher thing. In this way, we witness again the debate between reason and passion and ultimately the lover proclaims that Stella is the most natural of all activities. 

4. No More, My Deare, No More These Counsels Try

Sidney begins the second section of his sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella with this sonnet. In this section, Astrophel comes before us not as a hesitant lover who is afraid of the criticism of the world, but as a man of will and determination. He declares that there is no question of regret. The shame and disgrace even the criticism of his friends cannot the lover’s mind. His only aim in life is to possess the heart of Stella- the Goddess of beauty and love. Astrophel differs from the conventional lover in his refusal to reproach his beloved for cruelty. He recognizes the irresistible power of love. Stella has become for him a forbidden fruit and it has increased his longing for her more acute and intense. The lover is not after a big post. He does not want to be a philosopher like Aristotle or a great general like Caesar. His sole aim is to get Stella.  

5. Desire, Though Thou My Old Companion Art

Astrophel says that his desire and love have become one and inseparable. His love has been accepted by his beloved – Stella but on the condition that he would prove himself a virtuous and pure lover. He agrees but it is a short-lived commitment. The lover finds clamour of several desires once again compelling him to change his stance. The lover realizes that it is not possible for him to oppress his casual desires. The body cannot be controlled by virtue. And Astrophel sadly but frankly admits that more idealism is not enough, his body also wants sensual pleasures.