THE FOUR BROTHERS - WALTER DE LA MARE

THE FOUR BROTHERS  - WALTER DE LA MARE

     Walter De La Mare is one of the most famous modern poets and story-teller. ‘The Four Brothers’ is one of the stories in the volume, “Tales Told Again”. These tales are traditional folk and fairy stories retold with De La Mare’s exquisite craftsmanship.

     Once there lived a farmer. He had four sons. All the four were highly disciplined. One day the father asked his sons to go to different places to learn profitable trades. He asked them to return after four years. The first son met a stranger who taught him nimbleness of fingers. The second son became a star gazer and an astronomer. The third son became an archer. The fourth son learnt tailoring. After four years, they returned home. The father was very happy to see them.

      The father wanted to test their skills, so he took them to a tree. There was a nest brooded  by a bird. The father asked the sons to find out the number of eggs in the nest. By using the spy glass the second son answered that, there were five eggs. Then, the father asked his sons to get the eggs without disturbing the bird. The first son with nimble fingers took all the five eggs without disturbing the bird. Now the father asked the sons to shoot all the five eggs with a single arrow. The third son did the job perfectly. Then the father asked the sons to put cracked eggs together. The fourth son sewed all the broken cells together. Then the eggs were placed in the nest once again. The father was happy with the skills of his sons.

     At the time, a dragon snatched away the Princess of the country.  The king proclaimed that the person who save the Princess could marry her. The father asked his four sons to save the Princess from the dragon. With the help of his spy glass, the second son found that the dragon was living on a rock. All the four brothers went to the place in a ship given by the king. The first brother with his nimble fingers carried away the Princess quietly from the dragon. They were returning in their ship. Soon the dragon found out that the Princess was missing. It flew towards the ship. The third brother shoot it dead. But the dragon fell on their ship and the ship was broken into pieces. In no time, the fourth brother saved them by stitching up a raft with his magic needle.

     The king was very happy to see his daughter. He asked the brothers which of the four brothers was to marry his daughter. The four brothers said that the princess must marry a prince only. The king was very much pleased and gave them a lot of valuables. The  father and the brothers lived happily.

    

THE KING WHO LIMPED - MONICA THORNE

THE KING WHO LIMPED   - MONICA THORNE

     Monica Thorne is a successful playwright. She has written number of plays. Most of her plays are based on humorous themes. “The King Who Limped” is also a humorous play in which the author criticizes the sycophancy of the officials in the palace.

     The main characters in the play are The King, The Prime Minister, The Chancellor, a Courtier and two ladies in waiting. The sub characters are two Heralds, two neighbors, a page and a dog.

     A nation was waiting to welcome its new king. No one had any idea about the new king. At last the king came. He was followed by two men and a page with a dog in his hand. Later the king informed that he had caught the two men for fighting in the street.After his arrival the members of the court greeted the king. The king came limping. To everybody’s surprise he wore a bowler hat on his head. The king said that it was hot outside so he wore a bowler’s hat. The Prime Minister, The Chancellor and The Second lady – in – waiting were sycophants so they gave up their crowns and wore bowler hats.

    It was the custom in the court to kiss the hand of a new king. The Prime Minister went limping and said his leg was cramped. The Chancellor too limped and said that he had rheumatism. The second lady –in- waiting also limped and said that her ankle was sprained. But the first lady-in-waiting and the Courtier were not sycophants so they didn’t limp like others.

    The king’s first administrative function was to solve the dispute between the two men each who claimed a dog being his. In order to solve quarrel, the first lady suggested the king to cut the dog into two and share it between the two men. To please the king, The Prime Minister, The Chancellor and the Second lady agreed with this idea. The first man agreed but the second man withdrew his claims because he didn’t wish his dog to be killed. The wise king concluded that the second man who withdrew his claims was the real owner of the dog.

     After this the king dismissed The Prime Minister, The Chancellor and the Second lady for blindly imitating him. He said that he couldn’t give space to sycophants in his court. He promoted the honest Courtier as his new Prime Minister and the honest lady in waiting to a higher post.

ESSENTIAL OF EDUCATION - SIR RICHARD LIVINGSTONE

ESSENTIAL OF EDUCATION  - SIR RICHARD LIVINGSTONE

Introduction

    Sir Richard Livingstone is a famous British Educationist and administrator. The essay  ‘Essential of Education’ is taken from a lecture on ‘The Essentials and Utility of Modern Education’. He delivered it at the American International College in America. This essay presents the clear idea about the aim of education.

Education and Dishes

    The author starts the essay by comparing education with the menu card in a passenger ship or in some American hotels. In both places they offer variety of dishes to the people. A person who goes to these places will be confused of the varieties. Similarly, in education also, we have innumerable subjects, so that people get confused of it.

 What is Education for?

    To this question, the author says, both the parents and students are not aware of value of education. Students go to schools and colleges because of their parents’ wish. Moreover education is a necessary one to succeed in the world and so it has become a compulsory one.

First rate Education

     The aim of education is to help the students to learn what is first-rate in the particular subject which he studies. If it is a course in English, the student should know what is good English; if it is a course in agriculture, the student should know the best methods in farming; if it is a course in cookery, the student should know how to cook really well. This is common to all courses. If we fail to understand, the first rate in the subject we studied then our education will be incomplete and unsatisfactory. We must not limit our scope only to pass examinations and secure degrees but to pursue excellence.

Types of Education

     The only branch of education in which we are entirely successful is vocational education which makes up material civilization such as engineering, medicine, commerce or technology, nursing or hotel keeping etc. An educated man should know what is first rate in those activities which spring from the creative and intellectual faculties of human nature, such as literature, art, architecture and music. The architecture may often be bad, the literature and the music often puerile (silly). We need clear standards about the distinction between first – rate and second rate, between good and bad, in conduct and in life.

Conclusion

     Thus the author concludes the essay by answering the questions in a simple and effective manner.

RESPONSE TO WELCOME - SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

RESPONSE TO WELCOME  - SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

INTRODUCTION

     Swami Vivekananda was born in 1863, in Calcutta. His real name is Narendra Datta. From his childhood, he had an inclination towards spirituality and God realization. His Guru, Ramakrishna taught him Vedantas. He visited nooks and corners in India and he wrote many books about Hinduism. He also conducted many classes to share the greatness of India and Hinduism.

     In 1893, Swami went to America as an Indian delegate to participate in World’s Parliament of Religions held at Chicago. In the Parliament of Religions he delivered his six famous speeches entitled, 1) Response to Welcome  2) Why We Disagree 3) Paper on Hinduism  4) Religion not the Crying Need of India  5) Buddhism the Fulfilment of Hinduism and 6) Address at the Final Session. In all his speeches he stressed the Oneness of God.

Swami’s Response To Welcome

     In his ‘Response To Welcome’ Swami greeted the gathering as ‘Sisters and Brothers of America’. To these words he got a standing ovation from the crowd of seven thousand, which lasted for two minutes. He greeted the nations in the name of the most ancient order of the monks in the world. He presented Hinduism as the mother of religions. Moreover, it has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. He stressed that Hindu religion had accepted all religions as true. He said that he was very proud to be an Indian, because the country had sheltered the refugees of all religions, particularly the Isralites  and the remains of the Zorastrian nation. He quoted a few lines from a hymn which he had been repeating since his boyhood. The hymn said,

“ As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the Sea, so, O Lord the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee”

     Swami also quoted the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita, “Whosoever comes to me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me”

Swami’s Caution

     Swami painfully condemned that Sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendant fanaticism had long occupied this beautiful earth. These things had filled the earth with violence and drenched it often with human blood. It also destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. If these social evils had not been present, human society would be far more advanced. In the end of his speech he gave caution that the ‘death-knell’ of all fanaticism had been tolled either “with the sword or with the pen”

Conclusion

    Swami’s speech was the demonstration of the religious philosophy of Hinduism. Though it was a short speech, its spirit of universality and broadmindedness completely enthralled the whole assembly. The lectures of Vivekandan shook America and the whole world. After the Parliament, Vivekananda immediately became a hero in America.

THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM – T.S.ELIOT

THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM – T.S.ELIOT   (1888-1965)

Thomas Stearns Eliot is a poet- critic like Dryden, Dr.Johnson, Coleridge, etc. He  has an important place in the New criticism. In 1928 Eliot declared himself to be “ a classicist in literature, a royalist in politics, and an Anglo-Catholic in religion”. He was strong supporter of order and discipline, of authority and tradition and of organization and pattern. His chief critical works are The Sacred Wood (1921), Homage to John Dryden (1924), For Lancelot Andrews (1928), Selected Essays (1932), The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933), Elizabethan Essays (1934), Essays Ancient and Modern(1936)

    The essay Function of Criticism 1923, arose out of a controversy. Eliot’s essay Tradition and Individual Talent was published in 1919. Murry challenged the opinions of Eliot in his essay Romanticism and the Tradition. In the present essay Eliot replies to Murry. This essay has been divided into four parts.

i) The first part of the essay deals with Eliot’s views on critic and the critical work of art

ii) The second part of the essay deals with  Murry’s views on Romanticism and Classicism and Eliot’s contradiction with it/

iii) The third part of the essay deals with Eliot’s criticism of Murry.

iv) The fourth part of the essay deals with the relation of criticism with creative work of art.

Part I

     Eliot condemns subjective, impressionistic critics as imperfect critics. According to Eliot, a good critic has well-developed sense of fact. This does not mean that the critic should equip himself with biographical and historical facts relating to a writer. What Eliot expects of the critic is a fairly workable knowledge of technical details about a poem such as its genesis, structure, language etc. He says that the best critic is one who is also a poet. Only a poet- critic understands the poetic process and can communicate his understanding to his readers. Eliot says that comparison and analysis are the main tools of a critic. A perfect critic must know how to compare and what to compare, besides knowing how to analyse. The critic can compare writers of the present with those of the past or writers of one language with those of another. The function of a good critic is to teach readers what they ought to read. Hence, besides interpreting a literary work, the critic has also a moral role to play.

Part II

     Eliot disagrees with Murry’s views on Romanticism and Classicism, because Murry believes that Classicism and Romanticism cannot go side by side. He also says that classicism is the feature of French and romanticism is the feature of England and as he is from England, romanticism is more important for him than the other. Eliot criticizes the orthodoxy of Murry as he does not give significance to classicism. According Murry, a critic should hear and follow a natural instinct that he feels, as it is correct for him. He suggests that rules are made to be broken. Such free play can lead to doing what one likes which means the emergence of violence. Thus Eliot attacks Murry’s attitude for rejecting the dignity of the others.

Part III

    In this section Eliot tell us the reason why he took up for consideration Murry’s comparison of Outside Authority with the Inner voice. Those persons who obey the inner voice will not any meaning in Eliot’s view of criticism and its function. They will not be interested in finding out any common principles for the pursuit of criticism. They depend not on principles but on the dictates of the inner voice, and if they like a thing, that is all they want.

Part IV

     In the fourth section of the essay Eliot says that some intellectually weak people like Arnold and Murry consider criticism better than the creative art. Eliot’s opinion on the relation of criticism in the work of creation is – probably, indeed, the larger part of labour of an author in composing his work is critical labour: the labour of shifting, combining, constructing this frightful toil is as much critical as creative. There are persons who decry this critical toil of the artist, and believe that the great artist is an unconscious artist. But Eliot does not agree with his view and thinks that in more fortunate men the critical discrimination flashes in the very heart of creation.

     Critical Truths, according T.S.Eliot are not permanent and universal. The truths of one age may not be convincing or even profitable to people of another age. But even then the now invalidated truths of the previous ages have a great value because in their absence the critics of the new generation would not have  been able to discover some other and profitable truths for themselves. Every age, therefore, needs new great critics to find out truths for  that age, and tradition helps him greatly in his search.