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☝ Click the above link to get Tamil explanation for the Short story “The Facts of Life” by Somerset Maugham
About
Author:
William
Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was a British novelist, playwright, short-story
writer, highest paid author in the world in the 1930s. Despite his popularity,
Maugham did not gain serious recognition. This was expressed in his
autobiography The Summing Up (1938) that he stood 'in the very first row of the
second-raters'.
Somerset Maugham has written 24 plays,
19 novels and a large number of short stories. The most mature period of his
life began in 1915.
His reputation as a novelist is based on
the following prominent books: “Of Human Bondage”, “The Moon and Sixpence”,
"Cakes and Ale", "Theatre", and “The Razor's Edge”. In many
novels the surroundings are international and the stories are told in clear,
economical style with cynical or resigned undertone.
About
Story:
The
Facts of Life by William Somerset Maugham was published in International
Magazine in April 1939.
The story is about Nicky Garnet, the son
of well-known broker and a good bridge player. This story is told by his father
Henry Garnet.
Characters:
- Henry
Garnet - Nicky’s father
- Nicholas
Garnet - 18 years old boy
- Mrs.
Garnet - Nicky’s Mother
- Colonel
Brabazon - non-playing captain, talks about Monte Carlo tennis
tournament with Henry.
- Young
Lady - 4 years older than Nicky.
Summary:
Nicholas
(Nicky) was a successful boy for his age, pleasant appearance gave the girls’
attention to him, model behaviour made his parents to be proud of him, the
great success in the lawn tennis made his father adore him.
The plot of the story is about one lucky
day of Nicky’s life. The day when he went to Monte Carlo to take part in the
tennis tournament. He didn’t make much a go of it, but didn’t go unnoticed.
Before the trip his father had said him
very important advice. They were that there were three things especially that
he wanted to warn Nicky against: one was gambling, he shouldn’t gamble; the
second was money, he shouldn’t lend anyone money; and the third was women, he
shouldn’t have anything to do with women. Nicky promised that he wouldn’t
forget it and he didn’t.
But it didn’t mean no to do it, that he
thought. So he made up his mind to go to the Sporting club where he tried
everything which was forbidden. He won twenty thousand-franc notes in the
roulette, he lent the money to unknown woman and spent a night with her. The
woman thereafter stole his money.
The
most intriguing moment was the scene when Nicky tried to steal his own money.
Nicholas took not only his money back but also woman’s money and he proved to
his father that his advice were wrong. Everything was better than he had
expected.
Henry just didn’t want his son think
that he was a clever and canny boy but Nicky was just very lucky one.
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☝ Click the above link to get Tamil explanation for the Short story “A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf
About
Author:
Virginia Woolf, (Adeline Virginia
Stephen) born on January 25, 1882, London, England and died on March 28, 1941.
She was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, essays, diaries, letters
and biographies.
Woolf was a significant figure in London
literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of
intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To
the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of
One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a
room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Virginia Woolf is known for using stream
of consciousness in her writing. Stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or
method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings
which pass through the mind" of a narrator.
About
Story:
“A Haunted House” was first published in
1921 as a part of Virginia Woolf’s short story collection Monday or Tuesday.
The collection, which contained eight short stories. Later It was appeared as
the lead story of another collection of stories, A Haunted House and Other
Short Stories (1944).
Text:
Whatever
hour you woke there was a door shutting. From room to room they went, hand in
hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure—a ghostly couple.
“Here
we left it,” she said. And he added, “Oh, but here too!” “It’s upstairs,” she
murmured. “And in the garden,” he whispered “Quietly,” they said, “or we shall
wake them.”
But it
wasn’t that you woke us. Oh, no. “They’re looking for it; they’re drawing the
curtain,” one might say, and so read on a page or two.
“Now
they’ve found it,” one would be certain, stopping the pencil on the margin. And
then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for oneself, the house all
empty, the doors standing open, only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and
the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm.
“What
did I come in here for? What did I want to find?” My hands were empty. “Perhaps
it’s upstairs then?” The apples were in the loft. And so down again, the garden
still as ever, only the book had slipped into the grass.
But
they had found it in the drawing room. Not that one could ever see them. The
window panes reflected apples, reflected roses; all the leaves were green in
the glass. If they moved in the drawing room, the apple only turned its yellow
side.
Yet,
the moment after, if the door was opened, spread about the floor, hung upon the
walls, pendant from the ceiling—what? My hands were empty. The shadow of a
thrush crossed the carpet; from the deepest wells of silence the wood pigeon
drew its bubble of sound.
“Safe,
safe, safe,” the pulse of the house beat softly. “The treasure buried; the
room…” the pulse stopped short. Oh, was that the buried treasure?
A
moment later the light had faded. Out in the garden then? But the trees spun
darkness for a wandering beam of sun. So fine, so rare, coolly sunk beneath the
surface the beam I sought always burnt behind the glass.
Death
was the glass; death was between us; coming to the woman first, hundreds of
years ago, leaving the house, sealing all the windows; the rooms were darkened.
He left it, left her, went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the
Southern sky; sought the house, found it dropped beneath the Downs. “Safe,
safe, safe,” the pulse of the house beat gladly. “The Treasure yours.”
The
wind roars up the avenue. Trees stoop and bend this way and that. Moonbeams
splash and spill wildly in the rain. But the beam of the lamp falls straight from
the window.
The
candle burns stiff and still. Wandering through the house, opening the windows,
whispering not to wake us, the ghostly couple seek their joy.
“Here
we slept,” she says. And he adds, “Kisses without number.” “Waking in the
morning—” “Silver between the trees —” “Upstairs—” “In the garden—” “When
summer came—” “In winter snowtime—” The doors go shutting far in the distance,
gently knocking like the pulse of a heart.
Nearer
they come; cease at the doorway. The wind falls, the rain slides silver down
the glass. Our eyes darken; we hear no steps beside us; we see no lady spread
her ghostly cloak. His hands shield the lantern. “Look,” he breathes. “Sound
asleep. Love upon their lips.”
Stooping,
holding their silver lamp above us, long they look and deeply. Long they pause.
The wind drives straightly; the flame stoops slightly. Wild beams of moonlight
cross both floor and wall, and, meeting, stain the faces bent; the faces
pondering; the faces that search the sleepers and seek their hidden joy.
“Safe,
safe, safe,” the heart of the house beats proudly. “Long years—” he sighs.
“Again you found me.” “Here,” she murmurs, “sleeping; in the garden reading;
laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure—”
Stooping,
their light lifts the lids upon my eyes. “Safe! safe! safe!” the pulse of the
house beats wildly. Waking, I cry “Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light
in the heart.”
Summary:
A
"ghostly couple" is moving through the halls of a house, opening and
closing doors and sifting through the house’s contents, clearly looking for
something. They roam the house, opening and closing doors and drawing curtains
back. They whisper to one another quietly as they search, careful not to “wake
them.” The living man and woman have no knowledge of a treasure, such as gold
or money, hidden on their property.
When
they were alive, the ghosts had occupied the house more than a century before
the current residents. The woman died first, and her husband left the house to
travel the world soon after that. Eventually, he returned to their old home,
which had "dropped beneath the Downs." The Downs are a range of chalk
mountains along the southeastern coast of England.
After
the man died, he rejoined the woman ghost at the house they once occupied, the
same house where the living man and woman now dwell. As the ghosts search for
their treasure. Although they try not to disturb the living couple, the latter
can hear them now and then.
They
tell each other, “Here we left it,” “Oh, but here too!” and decide that thing
they’re looking for must be upstairs—or maybe in the garden.
The
narrator says that “one might” overhear the ghosts but continue to read quietly
as the ghosts carry on their search. When one becomes convinced that the ghosts
have finally “found it,” he or she might set the book down and get up to look
for the ghosts. However, that person would find the house completely empty,
doors all flung open, with the only sounds coming from the birds chirping
outside.
The
narrator asks himself or herself, "What did I come in here for?" and
notes that his or her hands are empty. Going upstairs to look for “it,” the
narrator just finds apples in the loft and heads back to the garden, which is
“still as ever.” Meanwhile, the ghosts have "found it" in the drawing
room, but they are invisible to the narrator. When the narrator enters the
drawing room, trying to catch a glimpse of the ghosts, all the narrator sees is
that an apple has shifted. Meanwhile, “the pulse of the house beat[s] softly,”
saying, “Safe, safe, safe.” Someone or something says “The treasure buried; the
room…” but trails off, and the pulse of the house stops abruptly. The narrator
wonders if “that is the buried treasure.”
A storm
rages in the dark outside, but the inside of the house is bright and still. The
ghosts continue to move through the house, “seeking their joy.” The ghosts
reminisce about their own life in the house as they approach the bedroom of the
narrator and the narrator’s partner, who are sleeping.
The
ghosts stand over the bed, peering down at the sleeping couple for a long while.
The female ghost says, "Here, sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing,
rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure." The narrator,
wakes up due to the light from the ghosts’ lamp and exclaims, "Oh, is this
your buried treasure? The light in the heart."
After
an encounter with the ghost couple in their bedroom, the living couple realize
what the ghosts are seeking. The narration reveals that it is the rediscovery
of the places in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing
their love for each other.
That
the love and joy shared between the couple is the treasure of life.
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Click the above images to get Video explanation for the Play, Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
B.A English Literature
[2nd Year, 3rd Semester]
British Literature
UNIT 3: Drama
3.1. Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
About Author:
Oscar Wilde, in full Oscar
Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, (born in Dublin in 1854 and died in 1900 in
Paris) was Irish wit, poet, and dramatist. Wilde published his fairy tales in
two volumes, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of
Pomegranates (1891).
Some of his
major works are The Picture of Dorian Gray (novel) (1891), The Ballad of
Reading Gaol (poem) (1896), Intentions (critical essays) (1891), his comic masterpieces
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892).
Wilde wrote his
last play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), in three weeks during a
family holiday at a seaside resort. Subtitled as “A Trivial Play for Serious
People.”
He was
imprisoned from 1895–97 because of involving homosexuality. His long
soul-searching letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis, written in 1897.
About Play:
The Importance
of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde.
First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London.Wilde
was satirizing and puncturing the hypocrisy and artificiality of Victorian
society.
The scenes in the play:
ACT I : Algernon Moncrieff’s Flat in Half–Moon Street,
London.
ACT II : The Garden at the Manor House, Woolton,
Hertfordshire, England.
ACT III : Drawing–Room at the Manor House, Woolton,
Hertfordshire, England.
Major Characters:
John (Jack) Worthing:
The central figure of the play, he loves Gwendolen and
wishes to marry her but cannot secure the approval of her mother, Lady
Bracknell. When he is in the city, he goes by the name of Ernest; when he is in
the country, he goes by the name of Jack, which he believes is his real name.
Jack does not know his personal history; he was discovered as a baby in a
handbag in Victoria Station. He is the legal guardian of Cecily Cardew, who lives
in the country and knows him only as Uncle Jack.
Algernon Moncrieff:
He lives in the city and is a
good friend of Jack’s - though at the beginning of the play he thinks that
Jack’s name is Ernest. Algernon lives in an expensive flat in a prestigious part
of London. Algernon invented an invalid friend named "Bunbury"
because it was his way of coping and escaping with his social obligations in
reality. He is the nephew of Lady Bracknell. When he learns about Jack’s
attractive “niece” Cecily in the country, Algernon goes out to visit her. He
falls in love and proposes to Jack's ward, Cecily, while posing as Jack's
wicked younger brother, Ernest.
Lady Bracknell:
The perfect symbol of Victorian earnestness — the belief
that style is more important than substance and that social and class barriers
are to be enforced. Lady Bracknell is Algernon's aunt trying to find a suitable
wife for him. A strongly opinionated matriarch, dowager, and tyrant, she
believes wealth is more important than breeding and bullies everyone in her
path. Ironically, she married into the upper class from beneath it. She
attempts to bully her daughter, Gwendolen.
Miss Gwendolen Fairfax:
Lady Bracknell's daughter, exhibiting some of the
sophistication and confidence of a London socialite, believes style to be
important, not sincerity. She is submissive to her mother in public but rebels
in private. While demonstrating the absurdity of such ideals as only marrying a
man named Ernest, she also agrees to marry Jack despite her mother's
disapproval of his origins.
Cecily Cardew:
Jack Worthing's ward, daughter of his adopted father, Sir
Thomas Cardew. She is of debutante age, 18, but she is being tutored at Jack's
secluded country estate by Miss Prism, her governess. She is romantic and
imaginative, and feeling the repression of Prism's rules. A silly and naïve
girl, she declares that she wants to meet a "wicked man." Less
sophisticated than Gwendolen, she falls in love with Algernon but feels he
would be more stable if named Ernest.
Minor Characters
Miss Prism:
She serves an important role in the play but it is not
apparent. She is a novelist. When Jack was a child, she replaces him with the
manuscript of her novel. Dr. Chasuble loves her. Oscar Wilde has introduced
Miss Cicely Cardew through Miss Prism. Thus, she helps in the discovery of
Jack’s true parentage at the end of the play.
ReverendCanon Chasuble, D.D.:
The rector on Jack’s estate. Both Jack and Algernon approach
Dr. Chasuble to request that they be christened “Ernest.” Dr. Chasuble
entertains secret romantic feelings for Miss Prism. The initials after his name
stand for “Doctor of Divinity.” Oscar Wilde has chosen this character because he
also wants to satirize the religious class along with society.
Lane:
He is Algernon’s manservant. He appears at the start of the
play when Jack and Algernon wait for Lady Bracknell and her daughter. Lane is
the only person who knows about Algernon’s practice of “Bunburying.”
Merriman:
He is a butler at the Mansor House, Jack’s estate in the
country.
Summary:
ACT I :
Algernon Moncrieff’s Flat in
Half–Moon Street, London:
The play begins in the flat of
Algernon Moncrieff, an upperclass English bachelor. He is visited by his friend
Jack Worthing -- though Algernon and everyone else in London know Jack as
"Ernest." Jack says that he has come to town to propose to Gwendolen
Fairfax, the daughter of Lady Bracknell and first cousin of Algernon. Algernon
tells Jack that, as first cousin, he refuses to give his consent for Jack to
marry Gwendolen until Jack can explain why the name Cecily is inscribed in
Jack's cigarette case. The case is engraved with an inscription: “From little
Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.”
After making up a story about
an elderly aunt, Jack finally admits to Algernon that Cecily is his ward who
lives in the country. Jack also admits that his name is not Ernest but rather
Jack, which is what everyone at his country Manor House calls him. Algernon
jokingly accuses Jack of "Bunburying," his own fanciful term for
removing himself from an unpleasant situation in the city, and embarking on a much
more pleasurable occupation in the country. Algernon then determines to meet
Jack’s attractive young ward by posing as Jack’s fictitious brother, Ernest.
Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell
arrive at Algernon's flat for tea. Algernon tells Lady Bracknell that, due to
the illness of his friend Bunbury, he must leave London, and as a result will
not be able to attend her dinner that night. He distracts her in a different
room for a while so that Jack can propose to Gwendolen. Jack tells Gwendolen
that he loves her, and she replies that she loves him too, particularly because
he is named Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence.“
Jack, knowing that his name is
not really Ernest, gets worried, and privately resolves to get baptized and
change his name. Gwendolen, meanwhile, accepts his proposal just as Lady
Bracknell returns; Lady Bracknell announces that Gwendolen may not marry Jack
until she gives her approval.
Algernon and Gwendolen exit
while Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack to determine how suitable a husband he
is. She is pleased with his answers until she asks him about his parents. When
Jack admits that he was abandoned by his parents and found in a handbag by a Mr
Thomas Cardew in Victoria Station, Lady Bracknell is horrified.
She refuses to let her daughter marry a man with no knowledge
of his own parentage, and suggests to Jack that he "acquire some relations
as soon as possible." Gwendolen returns, having heard of Lady Bracknell's
disapproval, and agrees to meet Jack at his country estate to figure out what
to do. He gives her the address, which is overheard and copied down by
Algernon.
Act II:
The Garden at the Manor House,
Woolton, Hertfordshire:
At Jack's country estate, Cecily, his ward is learning
German and geography at the hands of Miss Prism, a tutor who once wrote a long
novel that mysteriously disappeared. Miss Prism in between teaching Cecily,
likes to flirt with the neighbourhood Rector, Dr Chasuble. While she is taking
a walk with him, Algernon, pretending to be Jack's brother Ernest, arrives to
meet Cecily. The two show an immediate romantic interest in one another, and go
into the house to get some food. As they leave, Prism and Chasuble return from
their work and meet Jack as he arrives back home from the city. He is dressed
in mourning in order to keep up the ruse that his brother, who does not
actually exist, has died. While speaking with Chasuble and Prism, Cecily comes
out of the house and sees Jack, and quickly informs him that his brother has
returned.
Jack is shocked and angered
when his "brother" Algernon comes out of the house. After the others
exit to allow the two reunited brothers time to resolve their differences, Jack
tells Algernon that he must leave the house at once. Algernon replies that he
will leave only if Jack changes out of his morbid mourning clothes. As Jack
exits to do so, Cecily returns. Algernon proposes to her, and she agrees,
although she tells him that she particularly loves him because he is named
Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence.“ Cecily, in
fact, has been pretending in her journal to be engaged to "Ernest"
ever since she first found out that her guardian had a brother. Algernon grows
secretly worried about the fact that he is not named Ernest; he resolves to get
rechristened.
After Algernon exits, Gwendolen
arrives to see Jack, but in the meantime she chats with Cecily, whom she has
never met before. Gwendolen is surprised to hear that "Ernest" has a
ward but has never told her about it. Cecily is confused when Gwendolen says
that she is engaged to Ernest, and things become heated as, in the confusion,
they believe they may be engaged to the same man. Both try to refute the
engagement claims of the other, and when that fails, they sit in silent
hostility until Algernon and Jack re-enter. The two men confess that they lied
about their names and that neither of them is named Ernest. The two women are
shocked, and because both are engaged to someone named Ernest, they retreat
together into the house to await the appearance of this brother named Ernest.
Meanwhile, Jack begins to panic while Algernon sits back and stuffs himself
full of muffins.
Act III :
Drawing–Room at the Manor
House, Woolton, Hertfordshire:
Algernon and
Jack enter shortly after the act begins. Algernon tells Cecily that he lied to
her about having a brother so that he could spend more time in the city with
her. The women are satisfied, although they still cannot accept marrying the
men because neither one is named Ernest. When the men reply that they are
scheduled to be christened that afternoon, all seems well, until suddenly Lady
Bracknell arrives. She again refuses to give her consent to the engagement of
Gwendolen and Jack. Algernon tells her that he is engaged to Cecily, and when
Lady Bracknell learns that Cecily is extremely wealthy thanks to her father's
estate, she gives her consent. However, as Cecily's legal guardian, Jack will
not give his consent to the marriage unless Lady Bracknell approves of his
engagement to Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell again refuses and prepares to leave
with Gwendolen.
Dr. Chasuble enters and learns
that a christening will no longer be necessary, so he resolves to return to
Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell, suddenly realizing that she once employed a Miss
Prism to take care of her sister's baby, asks to see Miss Prism, who readily
appears. Lady Bracknell demands to know what happened to the baby, which we
soon find out disappeared twenty-eight years previously when Miss Prism was
supposed to be taking it for a stroll in the perambulator. Miss Prism confesses
that she accidentally put her three-volume novel in the perambulator and the
baby in her handbag, which she mistakenly left in the cloakroom at Victoria
Station. Jack, suddenly realizing that he was that baby, fetches the handbag in
which he was found, which Miss Prism confirms as being hers.
Lady Bracknell tells Jack that
he is the son of her sister and the elder brother of Algernon. A search through
the military periodicals of the time reveals that their father's first name was
Ernest, and because first sons are always named after the father, they realize
that Jack's name has, indeed, all along been Ernest. Overjoyed, Jack realizes
that he has been telling the truth his whole life even though he thought he was
lying.
In the end, he gets together
with Gwendolen, Algernon gets together with Cecily, and although Lady Bracknell
accuses Jack of triviality, he retorts that he has only just discovered
"the vital Importance of Being Earnest."
Click the above images to get Video explanation for the Poem Journey of the Magi by T.S.Eliot
B.A English Literature
[2nd Year, 3rd Semester]
British Literature
Unit -1
1.5. Journey of the
Magi by T.S. Eliot
About
Poet:
Thomas
Stearns Eliot was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
He was a poet, verse dramatist and
literary critic who grew up in America and studied at Harvard, the Sorbonne and
Oxford. He settled in England in 1914.
His first collection of poems, Prufrock
and Other Observations, in 1917.In 1922
Eliot wrote The Waste Land, one of the most influential and important poems of
the 20th century. He became the editor of the literary journal The Criterion,
which published The Waste Land in 1925. He became a British citizen in 1927.
The Four Quartets, a collection of four
long poems, published in 1943. He won Nobel Prize for literature in 1948.
He died
from emphysema in January, 1965.
About
Poem:
"Journey
of the Magi" is a 43-line poem written in 1927 by T. S. Eliot, first
published in 1927 in a series of pamphlets related to Christmas.
It
is one of five poems that Eliot contributed for a series of 38 pamphlets by
several authors collectively titled “Ariel” poems and released by British
publishing house Faber & Faber.
T.S. Eliot’s dramatic monologue focuses
upon the famous biblical story.
Poem
Theme:
Journey
of the Magi is a poem that explores the journey the wise men took when
following the star to Bethlehem where the Christ child was born. It is a
metaphorical poem, representing both birth and death, renewal and spiritual
rebirth.
The speaker's voice is that of a magus,
one of the three travelling 'wise men' or Persian priests (or Zoroastrian
astrologers) and the narrative is split into three separate sections:
Stanza
1 - the frustration and doubt of such a journey (the journey to the birthplace
and the doubt).
Stanza
2 - the anticipation and understated satisfaction upon arrival (the arrival,
the prefiguring and satisfaction).
Stanza
3 - the reflection on birth and death and alienation (the reflection and
acknowledgement of a new faith).
Poem:
“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
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Click the above images to get Video explanation for the short story “The Dead” by James Joyce
BA English Literature
[2nd Year, 3rd Semester]
British Literature
UNIT 4: Short Story
4.1. “The Dead” by James Joyce
About
the author:
James
Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in the town of Rathgar, near Dublin,
Ireland. Joyce began to work on the story that would later become A Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man. Published in serial form in 1914-15. James Joyce
died in Zurich on January 13, 1941 of an ulcer.
About
Story:
The
Dead was the last one to be composed for the collection, when Dubliners has
been already finished. Along with Dubliners it was first published in 1914. The
Dead is the longest story in the book and differs from the other fourteen stories
due to the positioning as the last one of the cycle, the length and the tone of
the story.
Characters:
·Gabriel Conroy – (the main character of
the story) a teacher and part-time book reviewer.
·Kate Morkan and Julia Morkan – Gabriel
and Mary Jane's aunts. They are elderly sisters who throw a party every year
during Christmas time.
·Mary Jane Morkan – niece of Kate and
Julia Morkan. Her father Pat died and her aunts took her into their care
·Lily – the caretaker's daughter.
·Gretta Conroy – Gabriel's wife.She reveals the story of her first love, Michael Furey, to
Gabriel on the night of the party.
·Molly Ivors – a long-time acquaintance
of the family.
·Mr Browne – only Protestant guest at
the party.
·Freddy Malins – an alcoholic and friend
of the family.
·Mrs Malins – Freddy Malins' mother.
·Bartell D'Arcy – a tenor.
·Patrick Morkan - Gabriel’s grandfather
who owned a starch mill. Gabriel recounts the story of his grandfather’s horse,
Johnny, who walked in circles around King Billy’s statue.
·Constantine - Gabriel’s brother.
Summary:
At the annual dance and dinner party
held by Kate and Julia Morkan and their young niece, Mary Jane Morkan, the
housemaid Lily frantically greets guests. Set at or just before the feast of
the Epiphany on January 6, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ’s
divinity to the Magi, the party draws together a variety of relatives and
friends. Kate and Julia particularly await the arrival of their favorite
nephew, Gabriel Conroy, and his wife, Gretta. When they arrive, Gabriel attempts
to chat with Lily as she takes his coat, but she snaps in reply to his question
about her love life. Gabriel ends the uncomfortable exchange by giving Lily a
generous tip, but the experience makes him anxious. He relaxes when he joins
his aunts and Gretta, though Gretta’s good-natured teasing about his dedication
to galoshes irritates him. They discuss their decision to stay at a hotel that
evening rather than make the long trip home. The arrival of another guest, the
always-drunk Freddy Malins, disrupts the conversation. Gabriel makes sure that
Freddy is fit to join the party while the guests chat over drinks in between
taking breaks from the dancing. An older gentleman, Mr. Browne, flirts with
some young girls, who dodge his advances. Gabriel steers a drunken Freddy
toward the drawing room to get help from Mr. Browne, who attempts to sober
Freddy up.
The
party continues with a piano performance by Mary Jane. More dancing follows,
which finds Gabriel paired up with Miss Ivors, a fellow university instructor.
A fervent supporter of Irish culture, Miss Ivors embarrasses Gabriel by
labeling him a “West Briton” for writing literary reviews for a conservative
newspaper. Gabriel dismisses the accusation, but Miss Ivors pushes the point by
inviting Gabriel to visit the Aran Isles, where Irish is spoken, during the
summer. When Gabriel declines, explaining that he has arranged a cycling trip
on the continent, Miss Ivors corners him about his lack of interest in his own
country. Gabriel exclaims that he is sick of Ireland. After the dance, he flees
to a corner and engages in a few more conversations, but he cannot forget the
interlude with Miss Ivors.
Just
before dinner, Julia sings a song for the guests. Miss Ivors makes her exit to
the surprise of Mary Jane and Gretta, and to the relief of Gabriel. Finally,
dinner is ready, and Gabriel assumes his place at the head of the table to
carve the goose. After much fussing, everyone eats, and finally Gabriel
delivers his speech, in which he praises Kate, Julia, and Mary Jane for their
hospitality. Framing this quality as an Irish strength, Gabriel laments the
present age in which such hospitality is undervalued. Nevertheless, he insists,
people must not linger on the past and the dead, but live and rejoice in the
present with the living. The table breaks into loud applause for Gabriel’s
speech, and the entire party toasts their three hostesses.
Later,
guests begin to leave, and Gabriel recounts a story about his grandfather and
his horse, which forever walked in circles even when taken out of the mill
where it worked. After finishing the anecdote, Gabriel realizes that Gretta
stands transfixed by the song that Mr. Bartell D’Arcy sings in the drawing
room. When the music stops and the rest of the party guests assemble before the
door to leave, Gretta remains detached and thoughtful. Gabriel is enamored with
and preoccupied by his wife’s mysterious mood and recalls their courtship as
they walk from the house and catch a cab into Dublin.
At the
hotel, Gabriel grows irritated by Gretta’s behavior. She does not seem to share
his romantic inclinations, and in fact, she bursts into tears. Gretta confesses
that she has been thinking of the song from the party because a former lover
had sung it to her in her youth in Galway. Gretta recounts the sad story of
this boy, Michael Furey, who died after waiting outside of her window in the
cold. Gretta later falls asleep, but Gabriel remains awake, disturbed by
Gretta’s new information.
His
wife is an individual with her own past experiences, and he has played a
relatively small role in her life. Gabriel suddenly senses the world of the
dead, and sees his own life fading, meaningless, into this “grey impalpable
world.” However, Gabriel’s thoughts in the final lines of Dubliners suggest
that the living might in fact be able to free themselves and live unfettered by
deadening routines and the past. Even in January, snow is unusual in Ireland
and cannot last forever. He hears the snow falling outside, indiscriminately
covering all things living and dead.
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