CHARACTER OF CLYTEMNESTRA IN AGAMEMNON

Of the characters of Aeschylus which has been wrought with the greatest care , and which leave the most profound impression on the memory,is clytemnestra.It is to the delineation of this character that our dramatist has devoted maximum care.
she is an accused wife,pitiless and contemptuous,but resolutely bent on revenge.The virile masculinity of purpose gets a reference when the watchman says, "victory!Great news for clytemnestra ,in whose woman's heart/A man's will nurses hope."
Clytemnestra possesses a power of intellect which reigns throughout her speeches-she prepares an elaborate welcome for Agamenon.Her next insistence most famously known as the carpet scene ,displays an excessive zeal in giving Agamemnon a welcome that is unexpected.In an instance of irony she adds after her instructions to the slaves to spread the silk tapestries beneath his feet-"Justice herself;/shall lead him a home he never hoped to see."
She has often been compared to Lady Macbeth.But the comparison is too far fetched.Lady Macbeth provoked a lot but did the task of an accomplice while clytemnesta executes the act herself.
In a masterly fashion ,Aeschylus has drawn the portrait of clytemnestra.She is not merely a bad woman who has an adulterous intrigue ,she is an outraged mother.

"Silence! The court is in session "as a drama of protest: a critical overview

Vijat Tendulkar, ”the angry young man of Marathi theatre”, protests against the various problems of his contemporary society.He once said-“As a social being,I am against all exploitations,and I personally believe that all exploitations must end”. His plays, such as “sakharam binder”,”kamala”,etc, are all violent attacks on the society with its cockroach –ridden customs and prejudices.In Silence! The Court is in Session, Tendulkar has depicted the plight of a young woman, who is betrayed by the male dominated society. A traditional male dominated society cannot relinquish its paralyzed values and customs. The society does not like to perceive or receive any social change. Tendulkar presents a treatment of those ugly ways of society in this play. It is a bitter satire against the social ills and an interesting attempt to criticize the follies that prevail in our society.Here,multiple themes are woven in the texture of the drama.
Benare,,a lively sportive woman,is subjected to different atrocities.From the outset, Benare is presented as a happy, communicative woman. She cultivates the acquaintance with samant as soon as she arrives at the village for the show. As a school teacher she is very punctual.she takes part in a play concerning the trial of president Johnson. But as they have plenty of time berore the drama, they decide to stage a mock trial.Benare is singled out as a culprit who is to be tried.she is charged with infanticide and unmarried motherhood. Benare gets dumb at the change of situation.Witnesses after witnesses heap charges against her, as they would peel the layer of an onion. The accusations against her are based on conjectures and hearsay,but they strike home.The accuser and the accused become one.The judge verdicts that the child in Benare’s womb should be destroyed.They spare Damle who exploits the gullibility of Benare and her body.
Tendulkar also hammered the contemporary judicial system.A judicial court is supposed to be a seat of Justice, seriousness and decorum. Through this play, Tendulkar also makes a review of the present day court procedures, and points out the problem of degradation and the loss of the dignity of the court. It is a matter of fact that a witness has to take an oath keeping his hand on the Gita or some such religious scripture, during the court procedures.In the play, the witnesses take oath touching the Oxford English Dictionary. What is more, Mr. Kasikar, the judge, also jumps into the witness box in violation of all court procedures and decorum, and declares his personal views from the witness stand: "A sinful canker on the body of society- that's my honest opinion of these grown-up unmarried girls."5 It reminds us the words of Lord Bryce,-“If the lamp of justice goes out in the darkness, then how deep is that Darkness.”
Tendulkar has criticized the middle-class morality that throttles the tender desires of Benare, a middle class woman, to mother a child in the play. Tendulkar seems to leave the play without suggesting any solution to the problem. None in the play is ready to sympathize with Benare. Only Mr. Kashikar, the judge, feels that they are going too far in their mock-trial but, then, he immediately silences his conscience. After all the Court is in session, and everyone is expected to keep silence! Tendulkar covertly pleads for sympathy for the victims of the society through this flash of humanity for a moment in the heart of Mr. Kashikar.

SYMBOLISM IN TAGORE'S "THE POST OFFICE"

Symbolism denotes something that stands for something else.It has two meanings; apparent and hidden.In post office,Tagore uses differnt phrases,words,characters symbolically.
On the surface leve,the play is the story of pain and agony of human condition.It is the story of an orphan boy amal who has been adopted by madhav.Amal is suffering from some fatal disease and is restricted by the physician.Amal expects a letter from the king .So it is the story of agony of a child.
But beneath the natural level,the play symbolizes man's yearning for the union with God.Human being,the finite,seeks fulfillment with the God,the infinite.And he is elated whenever the union takes place.This is illustrated through exquisite symbols.
AMAL: See that far away hill from the window. I often long to go beyond those hills and right away.
MADHAV: Oh! yoy silly!As if there is nothing more to be done but just get up to the top of the hill and away.
The conversation shows the difference between the materialist and a spiritualist. Unlike a materialist, a spiritualist believes that there is another world beyond this world.The post office is therefore a symbolic representation of two currents of thought.The post office itself provides a symbolic background.It is a sort of bridge between the known and the unknown.
The king's letter is a suggestive symbol .It comes from a distant,mysterious world bringing a message from someome whom we hold very dear ro us.It is an invitation to leave the world of pain and enter into the world of eternal bliss.Time is an essential symbol, played by the watchman.we are bound by time ,but we can conquer it.It calls for great suffering and pain.Amal's deliverance suggests the note.
The symbol of death is also praiseworthy. Death is suffused with a great aura of liberation.It comes always at the moment when the self of a man,seeking no longer for personal gains, is able to say ;all my work is thine. we know that amal is sleeping, but when he will awake,he will find himself in a world of eternal freedom.We are reminded of DONNE:
"One short sleep a spent,we wakw eternally,
And death shall be no more,death thou shall die."
The character of sudha also contributes much to the symbolic structure of the play.The word sudha is both connotative and denotative.Sudha means nectar.W hen she asks the physician to tell amalthat sudha has not forgotten him,we understand that amal is not dead,because he has with him sudha,the drink of immortality.
Thus,the play has several symbolic meanings.Amal represents the soul or atma.The king represents the God.Dr.Iyenger talks of these symbols very well; " One of the deeply significant plays ,which a child could read and understan,though it might intrigue the grown ups".

TAGORE AS A SHORT STORY WRITER:AN EVALUATION

R.N. TAGORE is an outstanding figure in the realm of short story genre. His multi-dimensional vision of life is discernable in his 61 short stories, telescoping man’s relationship with nature and social milieu. Endowed with boundless love for human beings, he emerged as a singer of the weal and woe of common life .
As a short story writer, Tagore was a practitioner of psychological and spiritual realism. What Tagore did was to record certain moments in the lives of the common people. CABULIWALLAH is study of peculiar bond of relationship between the people despite the vast hiatus of ages. Here love transcends social barrier and makes us sympathize with a poor cabuli fruit seller.
Tagore saw that while the privileged persons were enjoying in the cosy inn, others were “wallowing in the mud”. Tagore defied the class barrier between the haves and have- nots. He represented the ordinary mass who were neglected.
Tagore believed that man can upgrade morally and spiritually if he lives a life in close contact with nature. THE HIDDEN TREASURE is an apt illustration of that. Fatik, the protagonist of THE HOME COMIG ,is a child of naure. The delirious talk of the boy with his ultimate welcome of holiday is heart rendering.
Tagore hated the prevailing education system which cramped the personality of the children.Problems faced by the wards by their teachers is mirrored in HOUSEWIFE .In THE EXERCISE BOOK the agony of a child is presented. Tarapada is after his heart, a settled life is not for him.Balai clings to his flowers.
Hardships of Bengali women due to unhealthy customs is seen in many of his stories.In NUMBER ONE a woman suicides to get rid of biases.THE LIVING OR DEAD deals with the same thing.In PUNISHMENT a man kills his wife to save his brother.Extraction of dowry from marriage leads to the stoppage of marriage in THE UNKNOWN.In DEBITS AND CREDITS the evils are scathingly castigated.
Thus we see that Tagore sings the saga of the pathos of common life from the standpoint of a sympathetic humanist.He envisions a better future for mankind despite its present woes.His stories are universal and eternal in their appeal as Tagore himself feels excited “ If I do nothing but write stories, I am happy….my characters are with me when I am shut up in my room.”

THOMAS HARDY'S DARKLING THRUSH ;AN ANALYSIS

Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) "The Darkling Thrush" was published in 1901, New Years Day. It refers to the beginning of a new year, a new century and the uncertainty of change. The rhyming scheme is formulaic ababcdcd, the tone is pessimistic and yet there is something that resonates long after the poem has been read.
In the first line the narrator says,
"I leant upon a coppice gate"
This refers to a gate leading to a wood. Woods are often dark and gloomy. Normally a door or a gate leads to new beginnings but in this case it doesn't seem hopeful. He leans upon it, which suggests reflection but also tiredness. The season reflects the mood. It is winter and frosty, which reminds us of a coldness of emotions. He is alone taking in his surroundings.
The descriptive language about the frost being "specter-gray" highlights the bleakness of the environment. Gray isn't an interesting color. There is a tremendous sense of loneliness in the following lines:

"And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day."
For some people this time of year is a desolate time when others are surrounded by families. The word "dregs" suggests distaste; the last of something. There is a musical quality to the rhythm of this poem and even the following lines reflect this:
"The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres, (lines 5 and 6)"
The imagery unfolded by the above two lines could refer to the score of music and related to the words "strings" and "broken lyres". Broken strings would make an unpleasant sound, which reflects the narrator's mood. Score can also mean to cut something. It is as the stems are cutting into the sky. The coldness has meant that people have hurried inside to warm up by "their household fires" (line 8)
If the first stanza is about loneliness, the second one reflects the death of the century.
The imagery of death is used with words such as "corpse;" it is the death of not just a year, or a decade but a whole century. For Hardy, who would have been in his 50s, change would have felt harder to deal with. The world has "sharp features" not only physically but perhaps surrounding him with change. Even the wind reflects the mood of the poem it is described as a "death-lament."
Hardy concludes his second stanza with:
"And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I."
There is stillness. If "fervor" suggests excitement and energy then "fervourless" suggests Hardy, like nature is lacking. He has no enthusiasm for change. It is the third stanza
that will alter the mood of the poem slightly making it less pessimistic.
Even if the whole of the surroundings appear bleak, a thrush will sing breaking the spell of the quietness. It has "joy illimited." There is reference to religion with the words "evensong" as if the thrush is in touch with his creator. The thrush can bring some joy with his voice in the gloomy circumstances. This is a turning point in the poem; there is some hope that makes the narrator think. He is momentarily distracted with the noise.
The final stanza is controversial. It can be interpreted that the thrush brings hope to the narrator and ends the poem on a positive note. We are told how the bird has "such ecstatic sound" (line 3) when there was no reason for it, "so little cause for carolings" (line 1). Nature has found a secret source of hope the narrator is not familiar with and so the narrator feels a sense of peace.
Or it can be perceived that whilst the thrush is happy, the narrator is still not convinced. In the final two lines the narrator says,
"Some blessed hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware."
The narrator isn't aware of feeling anything positive. It is simply the bird who is content. The narrator still feels sorry for himself and a sense of despair.

how to analyze a poem

Critical Analysis of Poetry
The process of analyzing a poem
The elements of analysis discussed below are designed to help you identify the ways in which poetry makes its meaning, especially its 'parts'; they do not give a sense of how one goes about analyzing a poem. It is difficult to give a prescription, as different poems call on different aspects of poetry, different ways of reading, different relationships between feeling, i mages and meanings, and so forth. My general advice, however, is this:
1. look at the title
2. read the poem for the major indicators of its meaning -- what aspects of setting, of topic, of voice (the person who is speaking) seem to dominate, to direct your reading?
3. read the ending of the poem -- decide where it 'gets to'
4. divide the poem into parts: try to understand what the organization is, how the poem proceeds, and what elements or principles guide this organization (is there a reversal, a climax, a sequence of some kind, sets of oppositions?)
5. pay attention to the tone of the poem -- in brief, its attitude to its subject, as that is revealed in intonation, nuance, the kind of words used, and so forth.
6. now that you've looked at the title, the major indicators of 'topic', the ending, the organization, the tone, read the poem out loud, trying to project its meaning in your reading. As you gradually get a sense of how this poem is going, what its point and drift is, start noticing more about how the various elements of the poetry work to create its meaning. This may be as different as the kind of imagery used, or the way it uses oppositions, or the level of realism or symbolism of its use of the natural world.
Reading poetry well is a balance among and conjunction of qualities: experience, attention, engagement with the qualities which make the poem resonant or compelling, close reading of structure and relationships. It's an acquired talent, you have to learn it. When you do, however, more and more meaning, power and beauty start leaping out at you.
Elements of analysis
Here then are some questions to apply to your analysis in order to see how the poem is making its meaning: they cover
genre, the speaker, the subject, the structure, setting, imagery, key statements,
the sound of the poetry, language use, intertextuality,
the way the reader is formed by the poem, the poem's historical placement, and
ideology or 'world-view'
1. What is the genre, or form, of the poem?
Is it a sonnet, an elegy, a lyric, a narrative, a dramatic monologue, an epistle, an epic (there are many more). Different forms or genres have different subjects, aims, conventions and attributes. A love sonnet, for instance, is going to talk about different aspects of human experience in different ways with different emphases than is a political satire, and our recognition of these attributes of form or genre is part of the meaning of the poem.
2. Who is speaking in the poem?
Please remember that if the voice of the poem says "I", that doesn't mean it is the author who is speaking: it is a voice in the poem which speaks. The voice can be undramatized (it's just a voice, it doesn't identify itself), or dramatized (the voice says "I", or the voice is clearly that of a particular persona, a dramatized character).
Identify the voice. What does the voice have to do with what is happening in the poem, what is its attitude, what is the tone of the voice (tone can be viewed as an expression of attitude). How involved in the action or reflection of the poem is the voice? What is the perspective or 'point of view' of the speaker? The perspective can be social, intellectual, political, even physical -- there are many different perspectives, but they all contribute to the voice's point of view, which point of view affects how the world of the poem is seen, and how we respond.
3. What is the argument, thesis, or subject of the poem
What, that is to say, is it apparently 'about'? Start with the basic situation, and move to consider any key statements; any obvious or less obvious conflicts, tensions, ambiguities; key relationships, especially conflicts, parallels, contrasts; any climaxes or problems posed or solved (or not solved); the poem's tone; the historical, social, and emotional setting.
4. What is the structure of the poem?
There are two basic kinds of structure, formal and thematic.
Formal structure is the way the poem goes together in terms of its component parts: if there are parts -- stanza's, paragraphs or such -- then there will be a relation between the parts (for instance the first stanza may give the past, the second the present, the third the future).
Thematic structure, known in respect to fiction as 'plot', is the way the argument or presentation of the material of the poem is developed. For instance a poem might state a problem in eight lines, an answer to the problem in the next six; of the eight lines stating the problem, four might provide a concrete example, four a reflection on what the example implies. There may well be very close relations between formal and thematic structure. When looking at thematic structure, you might look for conflicts, ambiguities and uncertainties, the tensions in the poem, as these give clear guides to the direction of meanings in the poem, the poem's 'in-tensions'.
5. How does the poem make use of setting?
There is the setting in terms of time and place, and there is the setting in terms of the physical world described in the poem.
In terms of the physical world of the poem, setting can be used for a variety of purposes. A tree might be described in specific detail, a concrete, specific, tree; or it might be used in a more tonal way, to create mood or associations, with say the wind blowing mournfully through the willows; or it might be used as a motif, the tree that reminds me of Kathryn, or of my youthful dreams; or it might be used symbolically, as for instance an image of organic life; or it might be used allegorically, as a representation of the cross of Christ (allegory ties an image or event to a specific interpretation, a doctrine or idea; symbols refer to broader, more generalized meanings).
Consider this a spectrum, from specific, concrete, to abstract, allegorical:
concrete --- tonal -- connotative -- symbolic --- allegorical
6. How does the poem use imagery?
"Imagery" refers to any sort of image, and there are two basic kinds. One is the images of the physical setting, described above. The other kind is images as figures of speech, such as metaphors. These figures of speech extend the imaginative range, the complexity and comprehensibility of the subject. They can be very brief, a word or two, a glistening fragment of insight, a chance connection sparked into a blaze (warming or destroying) of understanding; or they can be extended analogies, such as Donne's 'conceits'or Milton's epic similes.
7. Are there key statements or conflicts in the poem that appear to be central to its meaning?
Is the poem direct or indirect in making its meanings? If there are no key statements, are there key or central symbol, repetitions, actions, motifs (recurring images), or the like?
8. How does the sound of the poetry contribute to its meaning?
Pope remarked that "the sound must seem an echo to the sense": both the rhythm and the sound of the words themselves (individually and as they fit together) contribute to the meaning.
9. Examine the use of language.
What kinds of words are used? How much and to what ends does the poet rely on connotation, or the associations that words have (as "stallion" connotes a certain kind of horse with certain sorts of uses)? Does the poem use puns, double meanings, ambiguities of meaning?
10. Can you see any ways in which the poem refers to, uses or relies on previous writing?
This is known as allusion or intertextuality. When U-2's Bono writes "I was thirsty and you kissed my lips" in "Trip Through Your Wires," the meaning of the line is vastly extended if you know that this is a reference to Matthew 25:35 in the Bible, where Jesus says to the saved in explanation of what they did right, "I was thirsty and you wet my lips."
11. What qualities does the poem evoke in the reader?
What sorts of learning, experience, taste and interest would the 'ideal' or 'good' reader of this poem have? What can this tell you about what the poem 'means' or is about? The idea is that any work of art calls forth certain qualities of response, taste, experience, value, from the reader, and in a sense 'forms' the reader of that particular work. This happens through the subject matter, the style, the way the story is told or the scene set, the language, the images, the allusions, all the ways in which we are called by the text to construct meaning. The theorist Wayne Booth calls the reader as evoked or formed by the text the "implied reader."
12. What is your historical and cultural distance from the poem?
What can you say about the difference between your culture's (and sub-culture's) views of the world, your own experiences, on the one hand, and those of the voice, characters, and world of the poem on the other? What is it that you might have to understand better in order to experience the poem the way someone of the same time, class, gender and race might have understood it? Is it possible that your reading might be different from theirs because of your particular social (race, gender, class, etc.) and historical context? What about your world governs the way you see the world of the text? What might this work tell us about the world of its making?
13. What is the world-view and the ideology of the poem?
What are the basic ideas about the world that are expressed? What areas of human experience are seen as important, and what is valuable about them? What areas of human experience or classes of person are ignored or denigrated? A poem about love, for instance, might implicitly or explicitly suggest that individual happiness is the most important thing in the world, and that it can be gained principally through one intimate sexually-based relationship -- to the exclusion, say, of problems of social or political injustice, human brokenness and pain, or other demands on us as humans. It might also suggest that the world is a dangerous, uncertain place in which the only sure ground of meaningfulness is to be found in human relationships, or it might suggest on the other hand that human love is grounded in divine love, and in the orderliness and the value of the natural world with all its beauties. What aspects of the human condition are foregrounded, what are suppressed, in the claims that the poem makes by virtue of its inclusions and exclusions, certainties and uncertainties, and depictions of the way the natural and the human world is and works? For a brief elaboration of the concept of ideology, see my page on the subject.