MEG - 03

BRITISH NOVEL
ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020
(Based on Blocks (1 - 9)
Max. Marks: 100
Answer all questions.
1. As a reader from the Third World can you relate to the events and happenings in
Fielding’s Tom Jones? And would you agree that ‘Tom Jones is so simple that it
makes no great demand on you as a reader’? Discuss with reasons. 20
Answer- Certainly, there is much in Tom Jonesthat the modern day reader who experiences
economic challenge could understand. Tom is poor and must revert to specific actions because
of his impoverished condition. Stealing for food, searching for work, and not having a direct and
routine path for consciousness in the world are all a part of these realities. Tom demonstrates
that being poor and economically challenged can have an impact on individual behavior and
choices.

Yet, one element that a modern reader who is strapped in economically challenging times might
find difficult to accept is the comic ending. In the end, Tom struggles through poverty and then
everything becomes well as Tom becomes redeemed. For literally millions of people in the world
who are economically challenged, there is no landfall of wealth or no simple stroke of luck in
which money is provided. There are people who still struggle for wealth. The manner in which
Tom Jones' economic struggles go away is something that a modern day person who is
economically challenged might not fully embrace or understand. The ending to Tom Jones'
narrative is not something that might not be fully embraced from those who are economically
limited.

Fielding’s best-plotted novel, his masterpiece, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, probably
was begun in 1746. When the novel finally appeared, it was “enthusiastically received” by the
general public, though not by two groups, the Tory journalists, who strongly disliked Fielding for
supporting the House of Hanover, and Richardson and his group, who saw Fielding as a “filthy
and immoral writer,” even to the point of slandering Fielding himself, particularly for “marrying
his cook.”

This novel can be labeled pseudoautobiographical: Tom Jones, the main character and hero, is
to a large degree a fictionalized version of his creator’s own boyhood experiences, as well as
Fielding’s own psychological responses to those experiences. The narrative structure moves,
through the journey to London that Tom makes, from innocence to experience. Fielding, in this
novel, used a central plot interspersed with seemingly peripheral incidents or subplots, all of
which helped the central plot to move steadily toward a desired terminal objective. These
peripheral episodes thus fit into the main plot—seeming detours, but all part of the route that
Tom must take on his road to knowledge. Using the tight construction of a well-made play,
Fielding produced in Tom Jones one of the best-plotted novels in English.
Fielding himself called Tom Jones a “comic epic poem in prose,” though others say it is
“essentially a comic romance.” Yet Fielding does include some parts that parody the effects of
heroic poetry, particularly the digressions. Like other eighteenth century writers, Fielding felt it
was his duty to try to change his society. Thus, he headed each of the eighteen books of Tom
Jones with an introductory essay, each of which elaborates on an idea that he wished to
promote, much like the Greek chorus in a tragedy. The digressions that he interjected only
briefly divert the plot, which continues inexorably on to its conclusion.

2. Does modern critical perspective help us understand Wuthering Heights better or does
it just confuse us? Discuss. 20
Answer- Critical history refers to how literary reviewers reacted to a work around the time it
was published and to later academic perceptions of it. Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte's sole
novel; she wrote it under the pen name Ellis Bell so it wouldn't be discredited for having a
female author. Victorian reviewers acknowledged its potent, gripping story, but some
complained that it lacked a clear moral message and contained crude language. (For the
Victorians, even a modified expression like: ''Go to the deuce!'' was offensive--''deuce'' meant
''devil'').

Many nineteenth-century critics sought out biographical, historical, and literary sources for
Wuthering Heights. C.P. Sanger (an English barrister) and Lord David Cecil (an English literary
critic) argued that readers should analyze the novel's formal elements (themes, metaphors,
narrative structure, etc.) rather than relying on social or moral biases. This influenced formalist
criticism and critics, whose approach in the mid-twentieth century was popular before other,
newer forms of criticism emerged.

Psychoanalytic criticism in literature originated in the work of Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalyst
who in 1900 published his model of the conscious and unconscious mind. He argued that
thoughts and emotions repressed by the conscious mind are often expressed unconsciously.
(You have probably heard of a ''Freudian slip,'' which is a verbal example of this).
Psychoanalytic criticism became a literary approach in 1909, and it's useful in studying
Wuthering Heights because many of the novel's characters exhibit abnormal behavior. Freudian
critics might study, for example, the way Hindley chooses to cope with Frances' death. Carl
Gustav Jung's thought on the collective unconscious was introduced in the early twentieth
century, and a Jungian critic might focus on the unconscious drives of Wuthering Heights
characters as universal ones that we all share.

A third major psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, argued that the subconscious was a language. He
created a symbolic structure to study it. Many literary critics have used or adapted the ideas of
Freud, Jung, or Lacan in their research. Philip K. Wion, for example, argues that Catherine's
declaration that she 'is Heathcliff'' comes from her unconscious confusion about unity versus
separateness, and he says this is caused by the loss of her mother at an early age.
Feminist criticism includes diverse perspectives and interests. The fact that female writers were
rare during Bronte's lifetime makes feminist criticism of this novel even more important.
Beginning in the 1970s, three main types of feminist criticism have been defined: British,
American, and French.

British feminists, like Judith Newton and Deborah Rosenfelt, tend to focus on political, historical,
and cultural factors in discrimination against women to encourage social change. A British
feminist might study how women in Wuthering Heights are disenfranchised by inheritance laws.

3. How many women characters are to be found in the Heart of Darkness. would you
consider Conrad to be a misogynist? 20
Answer- ​The women characters in the Heart of darkness are -

Marlow’s Aunt - It is because of his aunt that Marlow finds himself headed into the heart of
Africa. She sees Marlow’s appointment to the Company as an opportunity for him to spread the
message of the glories of the Western world and its way of thinking. She views Marlow as
someone who will go about “weaning those ignorant millions [the Africans] from their horrid
ways." She believes he will bring truth and light to a dark place in the world.

Marlow says about his aunt, “It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a
world of their own . . . ." This sentiment about women is played out in Marlow’s attitude toward
his aunt as well as in his later meeting with Kurtz’s fiancée. This seems to be a point of view
shared by Kurtz who says regarding women, “We must help them to stay in that beautiful world
of their own, lest ours gets worse."

The Knitting Women

When Marlow arrives at the offices of the Company, he encounters two women, “one fat and the
other slim," who sit knitting with black wool. Marlow sees the two figures as “guarding the door
of Darkness." While these women appear only briefly, they are important in their symbolic
meaning. The women correspond to the mythological Fates who spin, measure, and cut the
thread of life. It is in the offices of the Company that Marlow’s life is being measured out as he
begins his journey into the heart of Africa.

Kurtz’s African Mistress

Though the reader learns very little about Kurtz’s African mistress, “a wild and gorgeous
apparition of a women," she has a powerful presence in the novel. She is beautiful and
bejeweled, and she seems to have influence over Kurtz. She is also able to create fear in
others, as seen when the Russian discusses her. Neither Marlow nor the reader is able to learn
anything about her since she does not speak. The main sound heard from her is the shout she
gives as Marlow takes Kurtz away on the boat and she is left standing on the shore. She
contrasts sharply with the fiancée Kurtz has left back home.

I would agree that Conrad in Heart of Darkness is misogynistic, but only up to a certain point.
Misogyny is the marginalization or disparagement of women in some way. Certainly, the world
of trade and exploration in this novel seems very much to be a man’s world, and the story
features very few women characters. In fact, according to Marlow, women live in a separate
realm:

It's queer ... how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there
has never been anything like it, and never can be.

Marlow, then, seems to think that women don’t know reality, or truth, they live fenced off from it,
in a secure place of their own. Later, when talking about Kurtz’s Intended, Marlow reverts once
more to this theme, declaring that women as a whole are not only out of it but that they should
be so, that they should be secluded from the harsh realities of the world:

Oh, she is out of it - completely. They -the women, I mean - are out of it - should be out of it.
We must help them to stay in that beautiful world of their own, lest ours gets worse.

Such comments appear to deny the fact that women have sense and knowledge and intellect.
Marlow, then, seems to be looking down on women, marginalizing the role they play in the world
as a whole. At the same time, though, he remarks that the separate world they inhabit is a
'beautiful' one.

The women characters in this novel hardly appear to be rounded out characters. They appear
one-dimensional: Kurtz’s Intended is a vision of idealized womanhood, of beauty and love, while
his African mistress appears to be little more than the personification of the wildness, the
savagery of nature. This can also be viewed as a kind of misogyny, making women appear as
little more than abstractions.

However, women in this novel are not really viewed in such a negative light as has sometimes
been supposed. Although women characters may be few and far between, and apparently
cocooned, by and large, in their own world, they aren’t weak or helpless. Kurtz’s African
mistress is an imposing, most impressive presence when she appears, and his Intended comes
to dominate the scene at the end of the novel. We should remember, too, that it is a woman,
Marlow’s aunt, who precipitates him into his terrifying journey into the heart of darkness when
she helps secure a job for him in the Congo. Even more important than this, perhaps, is the fact
that the qualities that are generally seen to attach to women in this novel are positive ones: love,
loyalty, emotional nurture.

To conclude: Conrad in this novel does appear to belittle women to some extent, downplaying
their capabilities and understanding. However, their emotional qualities are also extolled as an
antidote to the darker side of human life and nature. Therefore, women have their own
significance in the story, and even appear quite powerful.

4. Give a detailed note on the three broad movements that defines the structure of A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 20
Answer- Published in 1916, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man established its then
thirty-two-year-old author, James Joyce, as a leading figure in the international movement
known as literary modernism. The title describes the book's subject quite accurately. On one
level, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man can be read as what the Germans call a
Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel.

Set in Ireland in the late nineteenth century, Portrait is a semi-autobiographical novel about the
education of a young Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, whose background has much in common with
Joyce's. Stephen's education includes not only his formal schooling but also his moral,
emotional, and intellectual development as he observes and reacts to the world around him. At
the center of the story is Stephen's rejection of his Roman Catholic upbringing and his growing
confidence as a writer. But the book's significance does not lie only in its portrayal of a sensitive
and complex young man or in its use of autobiographical detail. More than this, Portrait is
Joyce's deliberate attempt to create a new kind of novel that does not rely on conventional
narrative techniques.

The young man eventually becoming an artist in James Joyce's first novel, A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man, is the Irish-born Stephen Dedalus. Set at the turn of the twentieth
century, the novel charts Stephen's preschool experience to his university years, from an
individual at the mercy of events to a person in control of them and himself.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A
Künstlerroman in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young
Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and an allusion to Daedalus, the consummate
craftsman of Greek mythology. Stephen questions and rebels against the Catholic and Irish
conventions under which he has grown, culminating in his self-exile from Ireland to Europe. The
work uses techniques that Joyce developed more fully in Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake
(1939).

Religion- As Stephen transitions into adulthood, he leaves behind his Catholic religious identity,
which is closely tied to the national identity of Ireland. His rejection of this dual identity is also a
rejection of constraint and an embrace of freedom in identity. Furthermore, the references to Dr
Faustus throughout the novel conjure up something demonic in Stephen renouncing his
Catholic faith. When Stephen stoutly refuses to serve his Easter duty later in the novel, his tone
mirrors characters like Faust and Lucifer in its rebelliousness.

Myth of Daedalus- The myth of Daedalus and Icarus has parallels in the structure of the novel,
and gives Stephen his surname, as well as the epigraph containing a quote from Ovid's
Metamorphoses. According to Ivan Canadas, the epigraph may parallel the heights and depths
that end and begin each chapter, and can be seen to proclaim the interpretive freedom of the
text. Stephen's surname being connected to Daedalus may also call to mind the theme of going
against the status quo, as Daedalus defies the King of Crete.

Irish freedom - Stephen's struggle to find identity in the novel parallels the Irish struggle for
independence during the early twentieth century. He rejects any outright nationalism, and is
often prejudiced toward those that use Hiberno-English, which was the marked speech patterns
of the Irish rural and lower-class. However, he is also heavily concerned with his country's future
and understands himself as an Irishman, which then leads him to question how much of his
identity is tied up in said nationalism.

5. Why do you think Forster shifts the theme of the novel from history to philosophy? 20
Answer- A Passage to India begins and ends by posing the question of whether it is possible
for an Englishman and an Indian to ever be friends, at least within the context of British
colonialism. Forster uses this question as a framework to explore the general issue of Britain’s
political control of India on a more personal level, through the friendship between Aziz and
Fielding. At the beginning of the novel, Aziz is scornful of the English, wishing only to consider
them comically or ignore them completely. Yet the intuitive connection Aziz feels with Mrs.
Moore in the mosque opens him to the possibility of friendship with Fielding. Through the first
half of the novel, Fielding and Aziz represent a positive model of liberal humanism: Forster
suggests that British rule in India could be successful and respectful if only English and Indians
treated each other as Fielding and Aziz treat each other—as worthy individuals who connect
through frankness, intelligence, and good will.

Throughout his lecture series, Forster includes commentary on the role he plays as a literary
critic in relation to literature. He makes observations about his methodology as a critic,
occasionally refers to the assertions of other critics, and sometimes questions the validity of the
critic in the world of literature. In his introduction, Forster dismisses, for the purposes of his
discussion, standard methods in literary criticism based in the tracing of historical development
and the influence of earlier writers on those who come after them. Likewise, Forster mentions
the notion of tradition put forth by T. S. Eliot, who asserted that it is the task of the critic to
preserve the best of literary tradition. Forster immediately dismisses this as an impossible task.
He does, however, agree with Eliot that the critic is required to see literature in its entirety and
not as it may be determined by the constraints of a historical timeline. Throughout the book,
Forster occasionally cites other literary critics, often in order to present a counterargument. He
also continues to question the relationship of the critic to literature when he observes that
perhaps his lectures have moved away from literature itself, in the pursuit of abstract theorizing
about literature. Ultimately, however, Forster asserts that the most important measure by which
literature ought to be judged is that of the "human heart," concluding that the most important
"test" of a novel is "our affection for it."

Forster's series of lectures on the novel are concerned not just with analysis of the novel itself
but with what he deems the requirements the novel demands of the reader. He asserts that the
appreciation of plot requires of the reader both intelligence and memory. He explains that, while
curiosity may be what leads the reader to take an interest in the story, it is, in itself, a rather
basic and uninteresting trait in a reader. In order to grasp the plot, however, the reader must first
possess intelligence. He observes that, though curiosity is the quality that allows the reader to
take an interest in individual pieces of information, intelligence makes it possible for the reader
to appreciate the aura of mystery embedded in plot, allowing her or him to contemplate the
relationships between pieces of information. He further notes that the reader requires memory in
order to recall the relationship of information provided earlier in a novel to that which comes
later; it is therefore the responsibility of the writer to satisfy the reader's memory by making sure
each piece of information contributes to the whole. Forster further claims that the element of
prophecy requires both humility and the "suspension of a sense of humor." He explains that
humility is required of the reader in order to hear the voice of the prophetic in the novel and that
"suspension of a sense of humor" is required in order to avoid the temptation to ridicule the
universal, or spiritual, element that makes it great. In describing his requirements for the great
novel, Forster thus makes clear his definition of the appropriate reader of great literature.