THE UNIVERSITY WITS

                THE EARLY ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

The university wits/or Pre-Shakespearean Drama/or the drama of Predecessors of Shakespeare or The Early Elizabethan Drama (Elizabethan's Reign 1558-1603) or the pay of Marlowe.

The Pre-Shakespearean Drama is mainly the drama written by the university wits.In the second half of the 16th century,that is,between 1550-1590,a group of English writers who had university degrees chose to write plays for English theatre. Before the university wits,there existed the classical drama of Greece and Rome. English drama lacked in fire and passion.The English drama which was chiefly morality play, was still struggling to be born as a dramatic art. The university wits who had academic training, passion and poetry brought a new life into English drama and paved the way to the emergence and expression of the genius of Shakespeare.
The university wits consists mainly of the dramatists like Robert-Greene,Thomas Lodge.John Lily,Christopher Marlowe,Thomas Nash,George Peele and Thomas Kyd. These dramatists lay a sure basis for the English theatre and provide a fertile period of English dramatic writing. Peele's theatrical work,for example,is diverse in character. He attempts a pastoral, a romantic tragedy,chronicle history etc. Kyd attempts plays on Senecan model and introduces the tragedy of revenge. His plays are full of strong external actions. They are well-constructed. Greene contributes much to the development of romantic comedy,and Lily to the portrayal pf comic characters. But Marlowe's contribution is the most outstanding,clearly,of all these university wits or predecessors of Shakespeare,Marlowe is the most eminent playwright.
Marlowe breaks away slightly from the ancient medieval drama. He substitutes ordinary human beings for the royal personages. Marlowe's Tamburlaine, for example,is a peasant,the Jew is a money lender and Dr. Faustus is an ordinary German doctor and alchemist. Thus, the medieval conception of the tragedy is substituted by the Renaissance ideals. They may be ordinary human beings.But they are ambitious and achieve great heights of earthly power,wealth,knowledge,and glory.They represent English Renaissance ideals of ambition and individual worth. So, A.Nicolls says ;
"The Marlovian approach brings intensity,admiration and wonder into tragedy." Putting the same thing in a different language,A.J.Wyatt and A.S. Collins say;
"Marlowe's conception of tragedy is the classical Greek conception modified by the spirit of the Renaissance."
Again,while medieval conception of tragedy is distinctly moral,Marlowe's conception of tragedy is dramatic and realistic. Though death comes to all his tragic heroes,the essence (of his plays) lies in the struggle of a brave human soul against the forces which prove stronger than it is at the end So,the interest in his plays lies wholly in the presentation of conflict and the personality of the hero. His hero is like a super man with unsurpassed will, strength and sense of adventure. He is a giant figure,the embodiment of consuming passion, coming to ruin,through a struggle between his conquerable soul and physical limitations. But in the plays of Shakespeare he is brought down to the human level.
Other characters in his plays lack in their individuality. They are only puppets moving round the central characters. So,they are less developed and shadowy. There is also a lack of woman characters in his plays.
Another contribution of Marlowe to English Drama is the use of blank verse. Before him,there is, no doubt,blank verse but it is still unformed,artificial and monotonous.It is Marlowe who breaths spirit of poetry in to blank verse.
There are,however,some flaws in his plays. They are not compact and well constructed. Dr. Faustus,for example,is largely a collection of heterogenous scenes loosely linked together.

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The Rivals: Explanation

                                    Explanation

By heavens:I shall forswear your company. You are the most teasing,captious,incorrigible love! - Do love like a man.

                                                        OR

Am not I a lover; aye, and a romantic one too? Yet do I carry every where with me such a confounded farago of doubts, fears, hopes, wishes, and all the flimsy furniture of a country Miss's brain?

ANSWER:-

This passage taken from The Rivals written by Sheridan, Captain Absolute is speaking to Faulkland. In another passage Faulkland calls on Captain Absolute at his first dance in Bath and he is curious to know about his beloved, Julia. Captain Absolute understands Faulkland's anxiety, but he is trying to tease him by withholding the information from him.After taking for some time without informing him about his beloved, he invites Faulkland to a dinner at the hotel but Faulkland is so much curious to know about his beloved that he declined Captain Absolute 's invitation. He tells Captain Absolute that he is not disposed to entertaining himself with nice dinner because of his low spirit. He tells Captain Absolute that his mind is so much full of anxiety that he cannot derive any pleasure from this kind of feasting.
To this reply of Faulkland ,Captain Absolute advises him that he should learn to love a woman like a man. Captain Absolute means to tell that he(Faulkland) should appear to be behaving like a normal man for love is not the only business in a normal man's life.It is one of the many things that a normal has to do.So, the proper thing is that a normal man should as much care of his love as of father's duties in his life.If Faulkland's whole business is only love and thoughts of love, then one can only say that he(Faulkland) is a teasing, capricious incorrigible love. Captain Absolute means that Faulkland is a sentimental lover and his conduct as a sentimental lover is beyond correction.
As an example of a normal lover, Captain Absolute cites his own case. He tells Faulkland that he is also a lover like him and a romantic lover. However love is not the only business in his life. He loves a girl and yet does all his normal duties. Though he also has all kinds of anxieties in his mind, he does not allow himself to be abnormal.
Wherever he goes and whatever duties he does, he does them while keeping love also in his mind.As a normal lover, he has sometimes doubts and fears whether he is going to succeed in his love. So, it is quite normal to have all kinds of belongs and thoughts in the mind of a lover in the same manner as the minds of country girl is full of confessed ideas and miscellaneous thoughts.
Having read the characters of Faulkland and Captain Absolute one may easily say that while Faulkland is a sentimental lover,Captain Absolute is an anti-sentimental lover.    

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The Rivals And The Character Of Mrs. Malaprop

                                            MRS. MALAPROP
        A TYPICAL REPRESENTATIVE OF 18TH CENTURY UPPER CLASS
Of all female characters in The Rivals written by Sheridon, Mrs Malaprop's character is the most important,interesting and amusing. She is an elderly lady and a widow. She is the aunt of Lydia Languish. But, as Lydia Languish is still a minor girl, she is in the charge and care of her aunt, Mrs Malaprop.
Mrs.Malaprop objects to Lydia's love for a poor, penniless, beggarly young man called Ensign Beverley . She wants her niece to marry Sir Anthony's Absolute's son Captain Absolute, who is rich and an heir to three thousand a year. She considers the marriage between Captain Absolute and in keeping Lydia as a matching one and in keeping with social reputation and prestige of her family. But as she finds Lydia insistent on marrying Ensign Beverley, she calls her niece a simpleton, a foolish girl who is determined to disgrace her family by lavishing her love on a fellow who is not worth a shilling. As she tells Sir Anthony Absolute;
"There, Sir Anthony, there sits the deliberate simpleton,who wants to disgrace her family and lavish herself on a fellow not worth a shilling."
 But the all in Malaprop's character is that  when she is angry with  Lydia's love for Ensign Beverley,   she herself loves and wants to marry an Irish Baronet Sir Lucius O' Trigger. She carries  her love with him in the name of Delia. When Sir Lucius O' Trigger comes to know that his lovely Delia is Mrs. Malaprop, he rejects her offer of love and marriage saying;
"You, Delia-Pho! Pho! be easy."
He then asks Bob Acres to marry her But Bob Acres also refuses to marry her. At this stage, Sir Anthony Absolute cuts a joke with her saying;
"Come, Mrs Malaprop, don't be cast down-you are bloom yet." Replying to him sharply she says,
"Oh, Sir Antony-men are all barbarous."
This episode of love between Malaprop ans Sir Lucius expresses her hypocrisy and hypocritical character in that what she disapproved in Lydia's case. She appears in her own case.
But the most important trait of her character is to pass as a lady of fashion and culture in the aristocratic society of London and Bath. She gives herself airs of an educated lady of a socially high, elegant and accomplished lady. So, she is famous for her "niece derangement of epitaph." In Julia's light and satirical comment upon Mrs. Malaprop,she is a lady "with her select words so ingeniously misappealed without being mispronounced." To take a few examples of her words which she misapplies without mispronouncing them some of refer to illiterate for obliterate, progeny for boarding, reprehend for comprehend, local language ornacular for vernacular epitaphs .This becomes more evident in the following speech of Malaprop to Captain Absolute as she says to him;
"There, Sir, an attack upon my language, what do you think of that? an aspersion upon my parts of speech! sure I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs."
Mrs. Malaprop's style of speaking , of misapplying words without mispronouncing them, has given birth to a new figure of speech in English called Malapropism.
Commenting upon this aspect of Mrs. Malaprop's character,Robert Herring says;
"Sheridon perhaps overdid this trick of misusing word, and certainly Mrs. Malaprop has received to much attention because of it, but it may be noticed that many of her mistakes, such as her choice of the words, 'locality', 'oracular', and 'malevolance' result is a dramatic irony that is wholly amusing."
Clearly, Mrs Malaprop is an inimitable comic figure. She is the provincial woman desperately trying to live up to the smartness of Bath, and be not too far behind London at the same time.Her vulgarity stands out against the century refinement of Sir Anthony Absolute.
However, she has examples in other female characters in English comedies. Mrs. Malaprop is closely allied to Goldsmith's Mrs. Hardcastle,in She Stoops To Conquer to Fielding's, Mrs. Slipston  and several other characters.
Thus Mrs. Malaprop's character  is lively, comical and delightful. Much of the comic effect,mirth and gaiety will disappear if Mrs. Malaprop is not there in the drama.
So, speaking about Sheridan's art of characterisation, a critic rightly observes;
"The great strength of The rivals is that its characters are admirably contrasted and varied, that the plot is skillfully managed and that the verbal felicities are many and delightful."
A. J. Wyatt and A. S. Collins also observe;

"The main qualities of the play are intellectual; its excellence lies in the amusingsituation, the speaking witness, the lively reproduction of contemporary life, the clear, natural but somewhat superficial characterisation."

1. Question Mrs. Malaprop is atypical representative of 18th century upper class human society. Discuss.
2. Give a character sketch of Mrs Malaprop.
3. Give your impression of the character of Mrs. Malaprop.

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THE RIVALS BY R. B. SHERIDON

          

     PLOT CONSTRUCTION OR SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RIVALS

The Rivals written by Sheridon is a comic treatment of the theme of love of the hero and the heroine-Caption Absolute and Lydia Languish. They are modelled after the Jonsonian type called the comedy of humours.

There is no suggestion of Shakespeare reminiscence here, but the empress of Jonson and of Congrive is amply apparent. The name given to many of the persons such as Sir Lucius O! Triggar ,Sir Anthony Absolute and Lydia Languish take us back to the comedy of humours - -"

               Lydia Languish who is rich,tender, sentimental and fond of Novel reading is a romantic girl. She takes a fancy  for a poor penniless young man called  Ensign Beverly for her lover. She likes him for his poor beggarly look and dress. As Mrs. Malaprop tells Sir Anthony Absolute;

"There Sir Anthony there sits the deliberate Simpleton,who wants to disgrace her family and lavish herself on a fellow not worth a shilling."  

Captain Absolute disguises himself as a penniless Ensign Baverly only to humour the whims of Lydia Languish and wins her love. He knows that she cannot love him in his real identity. Captain Absolute is also very rich and is heir to three thousand a year.

But she is so whimsical and capricious by nature that she cannot love him as a captain Absolute. The truth of Captain Absolute's disguise and the whimsical nature of Lydia Languish is brought early to light by Fag, a servant to Captain Absolute. Fag explains to a coachman;

"Ah! Thomas there lies the mysteryo' the matter Harkee, Thomas my master is in love of a very singular taste of lady who like him better as a half pay Ensign than if she knew he was son and heir to Sir Anthony Absolute a baronet a three thousand a year."
Thus as Fag confirms it Captain Absolute and Ensign Beverly are one and the same person. So, one set of rivals in this drama and perhaps the only real rivals for the love of Lydia Languish is the two different appearances of Captain Absolute himself. For as the plot of the drama develops, we find the two persons of the name of captain as the rivals for the Lydia Languish.
Ensign Baverly is the person whom Lydia Languish loves and wants to marry. But as Ensign Beverley looks poor and beggarly and penniless,Lydia Languish's aunt Mrs. Malaprop does not approve of this match. She arranges Lydia's marriage with captain Absolute and a baronet of three thousand a year Mrs. Malaprop thinks that the marriage of her niece with the son of Sir Anthony Absolute will be proper and matching. This brings an element of conflict in the drama. The conflict is that Lydia Languish wants to marry Ensign Baverly but Mrs. Malaprop does not like and she arranges her marriage with captain Absolute whom Lydia doesn't like. Clearly the conflict between niece and aunt seems to be a conflict beyond all solutions.
There is a similar conflict between captain Absolute and his father Sir Anthony Absolute. Captain Absolute wants to marry Lydia but his father arranges his marriage with a girl whom he doesn't name to him. Their conflict seemingly serious provide much of mirth,joy and laughter in the drama.
The two elements one between Lydia and Mrs. Malaprop and other between captain Absolute and Sir Anthony Absolute and however happily resolved when Lydia,Mrs. Malaprop,Sir Anthony Absolute find to their wonder and amusement that captain Absolute and Ensign Baverly, the rivals of Lydia's love are the one and same person. Similarly captain Absolute also finds that the girl whom his father has chosen for him to marry is exactly the same girl whom he wants to marry. Thus the conflict between the aunt and niece on the one hand and between the father and the son the other hand is resolved to the joy and mirth of all conserned.
The other set of The rivals though not very important consists of Ensign Baverly and Bob Acres. Bob Acres who loves and wants to marry to learn from Lucius O' Trigger that Lydia wants to marry Ensign Baverly on the instigation of Lucius O' Trigger. bob Acres throws a challenge to Ensign Baverly to settle the matter. He sends his challenge to Ensign Baverly to reply to his challenge through a duel and sword fight. Bob Acres finds to a wonder and disappointed  that Ensign Baverly and captain Absolute are the one and the same person and finally makes peace with him.
Clearly, the title The Rivals is very appropriate and significant for the rivalry between Ensign Baverly and captain Absolute for Lydia Languish is central character to the plot and story of the drama. The whole drama revolves round captain Absolute and Lydia Languish. The episode of Julia and Faulk Land is only secondary to the main plot and serves as a contrast between the treatment of love in a sentimental drama and the treatment of love is an anti-sentimental drama of Eighteenth Century.

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THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

      

        HARDAY'S VIEWS OF LIFE IN THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE 

While reading Harday's novel like Tess Jude The Obscure,The Woodlanders and The Mayor Of Casterbridge, one faces the inevitable question- what is Harday's view of life? To this question one may answer that it is futile to seek for any coherent systematic philosophy of life in Harday's novel or in any novels presenting a study in the character and situation of human life. For philosophy generally has a root in religion and involves a spiritual or an intense intellectual thought process and expounds the mysteries of life and death and of human existence upon this fevered planet of ours. Clearly, there is no such ambition effort t philosophy in Harday's novels. By Harday's philosophy of life we perhaps mean Harday's attitude to life, The Immortals and the dark sinister force of nature, chance and coincidence acting against the welfare of human beings. In Harday's characters, we find that happiness is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain of life." Clearly, Harday is quite different from Jane Austen and Charles Dickens in his conception and experience of human life and predicament.
Harday's interpretation of the human situation is that man is fatally pitted against an omnipotent and indifferent fate which is hostile to, and works against the malevolent nature which never fails to wreck his happiness. As L.   David Cecil says;
"Man in Harday's book is ranged the impersonal forces, the forces conditioning his fate in The Mayor Of Casterbridge."
Henchard is ambitious wealth and happiness but a turn  of weather ruins his ambition. The weather personifies the  fate. Chance and love are the other personifications of fate,which play a dominant role in the life of his characters Harday, it seems is aware of the presence and dominance of a blind force which is brute and nothing sort of a blackguard.Man to this force is what flies are to wanton boys. All this gives an easy impression of pessimism in Harday's novels. But this is a misnomer or a gross misinterpretation of Harday's presentation of human characters and situations. Clearly, we may call Harday's view of life tragic rather than  pessimistic.
Harday also rejects pessimism in his novels.Replying to the charge of pessimism, Harday says in  his apology to his Late Lyrics  and Earlier;
"What is today alleged to be the present another pessimism is a truth only questioning in the exploration of reality and is the first slip towards the soul's betterment and the body's also."
Thus Harday's concern seems to be with the reality and truth of human situation and character. He places human beings against a particular situation and studies than their character, propensities and emotional reaction. From the very beginning Henchard faces an adverse situation in his life. Poverty struggles and disappoint forces him to sell his wife at Waydon Fair.But as soon as he repeats of his sin and takes a solemn vow not to touch wine for twenty one years to come just to make amends for his sin.Again when Susan returns to him he arranges his re-marriage with her to make up for the earlier moral lapses in his chapter. But she does not live long with him. She dies leaving him alone to plod the weary ways of his life. Donald Farfrae, Elizabeth, Jane, Lucetta all come in his life and desert him one after the other.Whatever Henchard may to do make his life better and happier, all his attempts fail,making him worse than before. Even his attempts in business transaction to succeed and prosper is frustrated by a sudden change of weather. All their event seems to conspire against his welfare and happiness and cause him a deep gloom and despair. Driven by despair Henchard says to himself;
"I am to suffer,I perceive. This much scourging than it is for me."
Though he feels he will suffer, he does not give up his attempts to fight and get over them.He opposes the force of the circumstances and does not yield. As Harday says about Henchard;
"Misery taught him nothing more than defiant endurance of it."
Toward the end of the novel Henchard says to himself;
"If I had only got her with me if only had!Hand work would be nothing to me then; But that was not to he. I can go alone as I deserve an out-cast and vagabond. But my punishment is not greater than I can hear."
Clearly, there is a protest,a rebellion in the tone of Henchard, which suggests that Henchard may break but he will not accept defeat in life. There is no denying the fact that Henchard is a strong man of character, will and passion. He has a courage and patience,a sense of struggle and fight against the situations of his life. He struggles, endeavours, fights and does not submit or yield. He keeps up the spirit of rebellion and endurance till the end of his life. As Walter Allen says;
He(henchard) has innate elementary grandeur. He is like a force of nature whose power is as much destructive as veneficant. He is capable of immense and sustained effort..." 
Again as Professor Pintu says;
"What saves him(Harday) from pessimism in his high and noble conception of human nature.To transform this view of the universe from pessimism tragedy, it unnecessary to show that human beings can resist their destiny,if not physically at any rate,in the spirit.It is this resistance of enduring the blows of fate with courage never to submit or yield, that is the essence of Harday's great novels. Like the tragic drama of Sophoeles and Shakespeare, they leave the readers in no mood of disgust or depression,but rather in one of admiration at this greatness and magnificence of human passion and courage and of awe at the insoluble mystery of human suffering."
Clearly, Harday's view of life is tragic rather than pessimistic. There are no doubt,misery, suffering and futility of human endeavour in the character of Henchard .But there is also a strength of will,character,courage, endeavoring,patience and endurance in him.It is this sense of struggle, endeavour and patience in Henchard that saves Harday  from being pessimistic

  

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Edward II Explanation

                         
             LINES FROM EDWARD II 
"My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow,
Which beats upon it like the Cyclops hammers,
And with the noise turns up my giddy brain.
And makes me frantic for my Gaveston.                                                                                              Ah!had some bloodless fury rose from hell
And with my kingly sceptre struck me dead,
When I was forced to leave my Gaveston."
In this passage king taken from Edward II written by Marlowe,king Edward II  is speaking to himself which is called soliloquy in the drama.
When Edward II the king dismisses Gaveston's banishment from England and recalls him, the Lords,Nobles,Peers etc join together and resent the king's decision.They threaten to rise against the king and take up arms against him.They compel the king to rebanish Gaveston. So under their threat and compulsion,the king banishes Gaveston  again. But the king does it with a heavy heart and deep sorrow. At the same time, the king banishes his wife, the queen Isabella also from his court. The king tells her that she can be allowed to appear at his court only when she succeeds in persuading the lords, nobles and peers to cancel Gaveston's second banishment and recalling Gaveston to England. The queen succeeds in it. But so long as Gaveston does not come back to England and be again the king's dear companion. The king is unhappy and unrestful.
So, expressing his grief and sorrow, the king says that his heart is beating with sorrow and feels as much restless with the noise of his heart as the noise of cyclops' hammers do on the anvil. Anvil is the block on which iron is hammered. Cyclops are mythological characters who are employed to work on an anvil and hammer, the iron to make thunderbolt for Jupiter. Jupiter is a god of the thunderbolts. According to Greek mythology: "When He is angry with anyone, He strikes him with His thunderbolt and kills him."
 Thus,the comparision in between the noise of the beating of the king's heart with sorrow and grief for Gaveston and the noise of hammering upon by the cyclops on an anvil to make thunderbolts for Jupiter.
Expressing his grief further,the king says that his lords,nobles and peers are  like the bloodless Fury. The Furies are the goddesses of revenge and punishment. They are cruel and pitiless. They punish people for their sins without any kindness and pity. Like the Furies the king's, lords,nobles and peers are punishing him for his weakness for Gaveston and have no pity for the sorrows and sufferings of the king.While the king is dying for the love and company of Gaveston, the lords, nobles and peers are celebrating happiness.
Thus, the passage presents the king's grief at his separation from Gaveston with the help of classical imagery drown from Greek mythology.    

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EDWARD II :A RENAISSANCE ELEMENT

             EDWARD II IS A TYPICAL PRODUCT OF ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

Renaissance is a French word employing a sense of rebirth of regenerations of a great outburst of activity in all the fields of human thought and action.As A.J. Wyatt and A.S.Collins observe;

"The new slant was in critical in revolt against authority men started to think for themselves, and to question accepted beliefs. Above all, there was in the air a fresh enthusiasm which urged men to enter into every field of experience."

In English Renaissance, the term signifies an enthusiasm, a spirit of adventure and experiment, an ideal, a delight in beauty, imagination, ambition and power. As F.S Boas Says:

               "For a distinguishing note on the Renaissance ape .......was an uncontrollable aspiration after the ideal, a scorn of earthly conditions, a soaring passion that sought to scale the infinitude's of power,beauty,thought and love."  

16th century or Elizabethan period in English literature  is regarded as the period of English  Renaissance .There is a high spirit of ambition of power, knowledge, wealth, patriotism, friendship prevalent in the writings of Spenser, Bacon, Sidney, Marlowe,Shakespeare etc.

Sir Thomas More's vision of a perfect society,Spenser's pattern of the highest manhood, Bacon's call to the conquest of all knowledge,wealth and friendship,are all Renaissance spirit.
Judged in this light Marlowe's Edward II is a renaissance play.The two most central characters-the character of Edward II and of Mortimer are the obvious characters of Renaissance spirit. If Edward II aims at achieving the highest ideal of friendship,Mortimer aims at achieving the highest ideal of power and authority.They are portrayed with this spirit and vigour . They are drown perfectly in line with Tamburlaine,Dr. Faustus and Barabas. It is a common element in all Marlowe's plays
Edward II is a king of England. He has all power,authority and wealth. But he is not satisfied with them. It is a historical fact that he distinguishes himself as a seeker of the high ideal of friendship with Gaveston. Gaveston is a French and favourite of the king Edward II. He manages to strengthen his hold on the king's affections by ministering to his artistic and musical tastes,and providing him with entertainment of all kinds. Edward II is so much devoted to Gaveston that he begins to neglect his duties as a king and husband. He also makes Gaveston an Earl,Lord Chamberlain, chief secretary and Lord of Men.This favour of the king to Gaveston makes the nobles ,lords,peers and church hostile to the king. They oppose the king and rise in revolt against him. But the king does not care. He only says;
"Make several kingdoms of the monarchy,
And share it equally amongst you all,
So I may have some nook or corner left,
To frolic my dearest Gaveston."
Clearly, the king's only care and desire is to frolic with his dearest Gaveston.
Queen Isabella also opposes her husband's  unnatural association with Gaveston. She treats Gaveston as her rival and feels miserable. As she says;
"Unto the forest, gentle Mortimer,
To live in grief and betrayal discontent,
For now my lord , the king regards we not,
But dotes upon the love of Gaveston."
Clearly, their friendship is impolitic, unnatural and unhealthy. It is suspected to be a homosexual relationship.A.Nicoll deals with"a private story of a homosexual infatuation."
But king does not care for the feelings of his wife and opposition of the nobles and church.He values his friendship with Gaveston as greater than his love for his wife and kingdom. He even says;
"I'll bandy with the barons and the earl,
And either die or live with Gaveston"
As a result of this story a lord of friendship with Gaveston,Edward II loses his queen, kingdom, power and crown and suffers imprisonment and death. He also realizes his fault at the end. As he says;
 "O Gaveston, it is for thee that I am wrong'd."
It is now clear that Edward II is a typical renaissance character. He is of strong will and determination. His notion of the ideal of friendship is so high and aspiring that he does not mind the neglect of his duties as a king and a husband,and willingly suffers his tragic misery and death. This is quite like Tamburlaine and Dr. Faustus.
Another typical Renaissance character in this drama is Mortimer. He is a leader in this drama of the nobles and Lords in there conflict with the King ,Edward II and his friend and favourite Gaveston. He is determined in his opposition to the King and his friend Gaveston. He encourages the Lords to be resolute in opposing the King:
"My lords,now let me all he resolute,
And either have our wills,or lose outlive,"
After winning lords to his side,he wins queen Isabella, and promises to restore her to her rightful position.As he tells her;
"We come in arms to wreck it with the sword;
That England's queen's peace may repossess
Her dignities and honours;and withal-
We may remove these flatters from the king
That havoc England's wealth and treasury,"
Thus, he becomes an accomplice of the queen. He kills Gaveston and wages war against the king's imprisonment and murder of the king.After deposing the king and assuming royal power,he boasts of his authority;
"The prince rule,the queen do I command,
And with a lowly Cong to the ground
The proudest lords solute me as I pass;
I seal, I canal, I do what I will."    
Clearly,Mortimer is ambitious power like Tamburlaine. He often speaks of himself in the true spirit  of Tamburlaine:
tceit and murder. This is why J.C.Maxwell remarks, "the dynamic and ambition element is transferred to the Machiavellian Mortimer."
But this very element in his character makes him a traitor, an illicit lover and a murderer. While receiving punishment of imprisonment and death for all these,he  is no longer repentant and perverted. He is still proud  and ambitious and says that he is like a traveller  who after achieving greatness in his life, goes to discover countries unrenounced.
Needless to add that Edward II and Mortimer are conceived as the typical Renaissance characters. The Renaissance element in Edward II is his ambition of achieving the high ideal of friendship,and in Mortimer the ambition of achieving high power.In achieving their ambitions,they do not care for earthly limitations.They only aim at attaining the unattainable. They attain them even at the risk of suffering tragic misery and death.

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History Of Indian Cinema

History of Indian Cinema

The first time the Indian  audience was introduced to cinema was when the Lumiere Brothers came from France  to present six soundless short films. The screening took place at the Watson Hotel on 7 July on 1896. However, the first experiment with film by an Indian was the production of two short films of Save Dada who exhibited them with the help of Edison’s kinetoscope. Cinema as a new entertainment from, however, took its first steps in India in the 1900's and in less than a century, became the largest film – producing industry in the world .

The man behind the production of India’s first fully indigenous silent feature film , Raja Harishchandra was  Dadasaheb Phalke . He was man a of various talents and he enjoyed a varied and colourful career as a painter, photographer, playwright and magician before he too an interest in films.Dadasaheb Phalke is also known as the father of Indian Cinema for his contribution to the industry. The Dadasaheb Phalke award is the highest award for contribution to cinema and is given at the national film award by the government of India.

This film Raja Harishchandra was an excerpt adapted form the Mahabharta. the titles of the film were both in Hindi and English.

The movie was released on 3 may 1913 at the Coronation Cinema in Mumbai. this laid the cornerstone of what is now known as Bollywood.

most of the films made around this time were adaptations i.e, the stories were taken from already successful novels and short stories that had been published around the time. The films were also often religious in content, drawing events and incident from Indian mythology and folktales.

with the onset of the 1920's, Indian cinema gradually grew into a regular industry, producing silent films. this decade was marked by the arrival of many new filmmakers and production houses. As cinema became a profitable art form, given that it needed to be produced only once and could be presented a number of times and that it charged per viewing, this encouraged filmmakers to further invest their profits in new films and set up infrastructure such as studios, laboratories and theatres that would stilt the industry and take it to the next level.

A momentous event in the history of Indian cinema was the arrival of sound in films in the 1932's. the first such sound film, then known as ‘talkies’ ,was Alam Ara (1931). the talkies soon wiped out the previous tradition of silent films, and longer films with more complex stories started to be made.

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THE KITE:BY W.S Maughan

      Critical Appreciation Of W.S. Maugham's "The Kite"

The Kite written by W. S. Maugham is one of his psychological short stories. Maugham's stories like those of Maupassant generally mark a development of plot and character.He has a rare skill in vesting his tales with a plausibility that sustains the interest of the readers throughout the stories. His stories are largely readable and entertaining.
Though Maugham's stories are deeply psychological like those of Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf,there is a difference between them . For,the stories of Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf lack in plot and neat characterization and seek to active an effect by creating an atmosphere or recording a mood. There is a great deal  of suggestiveness in their stories.A Cup Of Tea by Katherine Mansfield and The Dutches And The Jeweller by Virginia Woolf may be cited as examples.
But Maughan's stories are known for realism,an economy of presentation and a simplicity of style. Maughan's psychological stories have a bias towards neat characterization analysis of human character and provide a deep in sight into the working of human nature and mind.Such stories of  Maughan as Mr. Know-All, The Lavender Scarce, A door of opportunity, The Kite etc. Clearly illustrate the important features of Maugham as short-story writer.
The Kite as Maugham himself says, is an old , unusual story about "the Psychology of the human animal." He attempts to throw some light on the complication of human nature in it. He bases the story upon Freudian theory of obsession and presents the character of a young man whose obsession with kite flying breaks up his marriage and sends him in prison.
The young man in this story is Herbert Sunbury. He is quite good and normal. He works in an office and earns his living. He loves and marries a young lady called Pretty Prevan. But he has courage for kite-flying. He has taken a keen interest in  it since his childhood,and as he has grown in years. His interest has also grown deeper and deeper. It has now become a craze and obsession with him. For he is so much fond of it that he cannot leave it even when he is a grown up man,employed, and married. His wife objects to his habit of kite-flying. But he listens to no arguments. He even quarrels with her and parts from her, and when she smashes his kite to rid from it,he refuses her alimony and prefers imprisonment to having relation with her. He says to the magic state;
"I said I wouldn't pay her and I won't not after she smashed my kite. And if you send me to the prison, I'll go to prison."
Obviously, the story of the life of Herbert Sunbury is a strong story because his love of kite flying is stronger than his love for his wife. It seems difficult to explain his conduct in normal human terms. But it ceases to be strange if it is seen in the light of Freudian assumptions. Freud is a great psychologist and founder of psycho-analysis. His researches have thrown new light on man,his mind and behaviour. He says that when a man develops an abnormal fondness for a thought or an idea,than that thing of idea seized his mind so strongly that he cannot live without it. This seems true of the character of Herbert Sunbury. For he likes kite-flying more than his wife and social prestige. He loves it as deeply as a man loves an ideal.When he flies kite he feels a unique joy born either of his sense of power as he watches  it soaring towards the clouds,or of his sense of mastery over the elements of nature,or of his sense of freedom symbolized by thee kite flying so high and free or of his sense of ideal of adventure. This explains his obsession with kite-flying.
There is also a great deal of the psychology of woman nature. The psychologists says that a normal married demands all attentions of her husband to herself and feels jealous of anything that divides the attention of her husband.
It is in her nature to claim about love,loyally,and attention of her husband to herself. She cannot tolerate her husband going more love and attention to say politics,games or studies. She becomes jealous of the object of passion of her husband and stops at nothing short of complete destruction of that object. This explains pretty Prevan's jealousy of Herbert Sunbury's kite-flying. She notices that her husband is more fond of kite-flying than of her. So she warns him against his habit of kite-flying and when he does not give this habit up,she threatens to desert him. When this does not work,she goes to smash it altogether. As Mr. Sunbury's reports to Herbert Sunbury:
"She did it all right. She told me straight out. She's proud of it . . .the long and short of it - was she jealous of the kite. She said Herbert loved the kite more than he loved her and so she smashed it up and if she had to do it again she said do it again:
Clearly, The Kite by Mangham is a profounbly psychological story,a study in the psychology of human mind and behaviour. Commenting upon this aspect of the story,Derek Hudsen says:
"And the collection demonstrates . . . the new awareness of the lights and shadows within the human mind which has been generated by modern psychology and by the nervous intensity of contemporary life in his compelling story 'The Kite'  Mr. Mangham shows that he has moved in step with the terms."
Obviously modern short stories like modern poetry and drama seek to achieve a close approximation to real life in a style becoming increasingly responsible to human emotion and behaviour.

Questions :

• Attempt a critical appreciation of Maughan's The Kite.
• Discuss critically the theme of The Kite.
• Write a note on the art of story writing of W. S. Maughan.

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LIFE IS NOTHING BUT AN EMPTY DREAM

Life is nothing but an empty dream
Dream may succeed,
Only through our deed
But no one cares
No one dares.
Why one ignores,
Why one bemoans,
I tried to find many times
But found it as old regimes.
Life is nothing but an empty dream.
Why no one understands
I could never guess.
Everyone stands
To win one's race.
Be quiet,be calm,
Don't sit with your palm,
Dream may come true
When we follow its clue.
Life is a reward of nature
Don't spend it in flatter
It gives us pleasure
Drive away our tiredness
And convert it into happiness.

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Edward II By Marlowe

       Edward II  And Mortimer As A Tragic Protagonists

Edward II And Mortimer As Tragic Characters      

 Edward II written by Marlowe is a wholly different kind of drama. It is different from his Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta etc.
 As F. S. Boas observes;

"Turning aside from the fortunes of foreign and semi-legendary  personages like Tamburlaine, Faustus and Barabas, he went for his materials to the national history of his own country and selected for dramatic treatment, the tragical career of Edward  II....Thus Edward II  stands on a different level from any of its authors' previous work."
What makes it different kind of drama from Marlowe's dreams is a tragical treatment of the historical figures. It is a history treated dramatically as a tragedy.The important dramatic characters in it are the King Edward II and the king's main opponent,Mortimer.The other important characters like Gaveston and Queen Isabella are only secondary  characters moving round the central character of Edward II  and Mortimer.While Gaveston is on the side of the king Edward II,Queen Isabella is on the sick of Mortimer.
As F.S.Boas says:
"But it is above all in power of characterization that the olay shows most distinctive evidence of growth.Marlowe's earlier dreams are dominated by the commanding figure of the hero which over shadows and dwarfs the other personage. . .In Edward II  this fault is avoided and which the king stands clearly out as the central character.We have other well defined types in Gaveston and Mortimer."
Needless to stress that Edward II and Mortimers are the most central characters in the drama and the conflict between them brings out their tragic noisy and death..
Both Edward II and Mortimer are tragic characters They have each potent tragic trail in fatal flaw in their characters that brings out their downfall and misery.
This story of Edward II's life which is the theme if the drama in the story of his downfall and death brought out by his weakness for Gaveston. As A.Nicoll puts it:
"Marlowe tried his hard at one work of this kind,dealing(Edward II) with a young king whose impolitic and unhealthy devotion to a favourite brings view to ruin."
Gaveston,a French,is the favourite of Edward II.He knows the king's love for poetry and music.So,he manages to strengthen his hold on the king's affections and musical tastes and providing him with entertainment of all kinds. His devices are so successful that Edward II begins to neglect his duties as a king and husband. The king makes Gaveston an Earl Lord Of Man. This makes the nobles,Lords,peers and church to raise in revolt against the king as the king tells then:
"Make several kingdom of the monarchy,And shave it equally amongst you all,So,I may have some nook and corner left,To frolic with my dearest Gaveston."
The king's unnatural love for Gaveston which A Nicoll calls; "a private story of a homosexual infatuation." offends his wife, queen Isabella. She treats Gaveston as her rival.As she says;
 

"Unto the forest, gentle Mortimer,
To live in grief and baleful discontent;
For now, my lord, the king regards me not,
But doats upon the love of Gaveston.
He claps his cheeks, and hangs about his neck,
Smiles in his face, and whispers in his ears;
And when I come he frowns, as who should say,
“Go whither thou wilt, seeing I have Gaveston.”

Edward Kent,the king's brother warns him against his love and liking for Gaveston. He tells the king;
"My lord I see your love to Gaveston will be the ruin if the realm and you,for now,the wrathful nobles threaten wars.And therefore,brother, vanish him for ever."
But the king pays no attention. The king does not mind his neglect of his kingdom and Queen and ignores the protests of his nobles,lords, peers and church.The king expresses his will and determination to live with Gaveston rather than care for kingdom, wife and protests of his noble men.As the king says;
"I'll bandy with the barons and the earls'
And either die or live with Gaveston."
As a result of this weakness of the king for Gaveston, the Queen Isabella sides with the king's hostile noble men led by Mortimer. They together rise n revolt against the king and fight for the Queen's right and farewell of the kingdom. So, Mortimer kills Gaveston and assumes power after the king'S imprisonment.The king is imprisoned and sentenced to death.Now the king realises his fault.As he says;
 "O Gaveston!it is for thee that I am wronged."                                                                      .Thus,Edward II is brought to ruin and tragic death because of his weakness for unworthy Gaveston. He is not like the protagonists of Marlowe's earlier plays. He lacks in Tamburlaine's commanding power and Dr. Faustus' indominatable  will. He exhibits every form of royal baseness.
Another central character in the drama is Mortimer. He is a leader of the nobles in their conflict with Edward II and his favourite Gaveston. He is rough and determined in his opposition to the king. He is jealous of Gaveston. He is an accomplice of Queen Isabella. He kills Gaveston. He defeats the king's army and then orders the  king's imprisonment and death. He usurps the royal power for his own selfish ends and employs vulgar murderers for the murder of the king. Clearly, he is mean, jealous,proud,selfish and ambitious. After deposing the king and assuming royal power,he vacants his authority with despotic arrogance.
"The prince  I rule the queen do I command,And with a lowly conge to  the ground.The proudest lords salute me as I pass;I seal, I cancel I do what I will."
Clearly,Mortiner is ambitious of power like Tamburlaine. He often speaks of himself in the true spirit of Tamburlaine. His lawlessly aspiring ambition make him a traitor. So when prince Edward II that is Edward III comes to know about Martiner's hand in the murder of his father of Edward II he orders Mortiner's imprisonment and death. Mortiner meets his fate with a haughty indifference and without a touch of repentance and regret. As he says:

 " Base Fortune, now I see, that in thy wheel
There is a point, to which when men aspire,
They tumble headlong down: that point I touch'd,
And, seeing there was no place to mount up higher,
Why shall I grieve at my declining fall?
Farewell, fair queen. Weep not for Mortimer,
That scorns the world, and, as a traveller,Goes to discover countries yet unknown.” 
The note in the given passage is what pervades in all Marlowe's tragedy.The note is that of a contempt for earthly limitation and human yearning for attaining the unattainable.This is Renaissance spirit in the character of Mortimer.
J.C. Maxwell rightly says," ..that dynamic and ambition element is transferred to the Machiavelian Mortimer"  But this very spirit in him makes him traitor and ill at lover and a murderer.They are also a tragic trait in him that brings him to ruin and tragic misery and death.
 Clearly Edward II and Mortimer in their characters are doubtless tragic characters.They have each a tragic trait. If Edward II has an unnatural weakness for Gaveston ,which is unworthy of a king Mortimer has an undesirable ambition of power and authority. This tragic trait brings them to ruin and tragic death.

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Question

Question

Write a critical note on the character of Viola?

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MACBETH: THE DRAMA THAT MOVES AROUND THE VILLAINY OF LADY MACBETH

 LADY MACBETH: THE FOURTH WITCH OF THE DRAMA

Lady Macbeth is such a character in the drama 'Macbeth' that attracts all attentions of readers and audiences only towards herself.When Lady Macbeth appears in the drama,she is most commanding and awe-aspiring.She is fired by the same passion of ambition as Macbeth.She plans how she may help Macbeth achieve his promised greatness.She finds his nature to be full of of the milk of human kindness. She finds him to be a man whose ambitions,the will to achieve his ambition. So she but without taken upon herself to prepare him.She appeals to the spirits to help her by changing her sex from a woman to man and filling her body and mind with cruelty.She wants them to take away all her feelings ie. kindness and pity from her heart and feel it with gall and poison.She wants them to cover the night with the darkness of hell.So that her eyes may not see the wound that her hands cause and stop her from committing murder of the king Duncan.
when Macbeth meets her,she rouses him to action.She provokes him for murder of the king.She animates him by picturing the deed as heroic and willfully ignores its cruelty and faithfulness.She uses her sneers and taunts which Macbeth is unable to bear.She tells him;

"What beast was't, then

That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man

And, to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:

They have made themselves, and that their fitness now

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know

How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:

I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,

And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you

Have done to this."

This works  affects upon Macbeth.He tells her-

"Prithee,peace ,I dare do all that may become a man who dares do  more, is none."

Thus,Macbeth is persuaded to commit the deed of murder of Duncan.Clearly she appears to play the role of an accomplice,instigator,a bettor and the wicked woman.So dramatic critics level to call her a Fourth Witch in the drama.As A.C. Bradley comments;

"In the earlier sevens of the many,Lady Macbeth's character is the most prominent.And if she seems invincible,she seems also inhuman.We find no trace of pity for the kind old king,no consciousness of the treachery and fussiness  of the murder,no sense of the value of the lives of the wretched men on whom the guilt is to be laid;no shrinking even from the condemnation or hatred of the world"                      But if one examines her character closely,one finds it to be an unfair judgement of her character. There are quite good  reasons to believe that she may be partly but not wholly responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth.

Firstly,one finds that that Lady Macbeth in the end of the drama is not the Lady Macbeth of the beginning of the drama. She is quite a different woman at the beginning of the drama. She is feared, afraid and weary. She is afraid of darkness. She walks in light (burning candle) by her all the night. She losses her sleep and peace of mind. She turns mad and commits suicide. This shows clearly that she is essentially a woman -weak,cowardly,sentimental,and nervous. Her will and courage at first act is momentary. It is a pretending  and show-done purposefully to get Macbeth to commit murder of the king and persuade him to become the king. Had she been really bold and courageous,she would not have been a weak,suffering woman to die by committing suicide.

Secondly,whatever she does to incite Macbeth for deed of murder is done from a sense of wifely duty to her husband. As a wife she thinks it to be part of her duty to help her husband achieve the glory and greatness of life. Had she not done as she did,then she would have failed in her duty and fallen in the estimation of people.

Thirdly,and the most important reason is that Macbeth,being a man and valiant soldier should have refuse to accept her suggestion. He would have told her sternly that murder is a crime and immoral sin and he would not commit it. But he yields to her. How unreasonable to believe that a soldier who could conquer many battles in life and could not prevail over a woman at the home. But the soldier is not unreasonable. There is an expectation for it. the fact of Macbeth's acceptance of his wife's suggestions makes it clear that the thought of murder of the king and seizing his power and authority has been already in mind it has been there from before. So when Lady Macbeth makes the suggestion he accepts it and acts upon it. The result of his deed of murder is his misery and tragic death.

Again Shakespearean tragedy is a tragedy of character. This means that the tragedy of a Shakespearean hero is all due to some weakness evil passion in his own character. It is never caused by any external power or agent.

As A.C. Bradley says:

"what we do feel strongly . . . is that the calamities and catastrophe follow the inevitably from the deeds of men and that the main source of these deeds is character."

Clearly,Macbeth's tragedy is the result of his vaulting ambition, that blinds him to the resultant consequences of his act and murder. Thus one may say that Lady Macbeth is at least partly responsible for Macbeth's tragic misery and death. Macbeth himself is wholly responsible for the tragic misery suffering and death in his life.

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Question 3

•  Do you think Lady Macbeth is the fourth witch in the drama,'Macbeth'?

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Question 2
Write a critical note on the character of Malvolio?

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your question

Question 

How Far is Lady Macbeth responsible for the tragedy Of Macbeth?

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About My Blog

➤➤Myself  Jeetendra kumar Mishra Present you my short description.I am very much intersted in English literature as it is the key to root out all the miseries of life. Having taken benefit from the literature,I want to share some with you.I hope You will like it after reading my posts.

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TWELFTH NIGHT AND THE CHARACTER OF MALVOLIO

           MALVOLIO IS MORE SINNED THAN SINNING  

MALVOLIO IS  ESSENTIALLY LUDICRUS

Malvolio is the most central character of the sub-plot or the secondary plot in Shakespeare's' Twelfth Night' speaking about Malvolio,F.S.Boas says;

"From love in its sentimental excess and its silent strength,we turn to love in its grotesque insufficiency,born not of the heart,nor even of the fancy,but of inflated self-conceit." 

 F.S.Boas means that Duke Orsino's love is a love born of the fancy and sentimental and Viola's love is a love born of the heart and genuine,Malvolia's love is a care of self - love,and selfish. His self- love is born of a high opinion of himself. As Maria describes Malvolio:

             "The devil a puritan that he is or anything constantly,but a time - pleasure ; an affectioned  ass, that cons state without book and utters it by great swarths : the best persuade of himself, so crammed, as he thinks with excellencies, that it is his grounds, of faith that all that look on him love him; and on that vice in him will my revenge 

                        Clearly Malvolio's  self-love is vice born of his puritanism his puritanical nature and character. He is austere, reserved, serious and rigid. So, he is averse to all cakes and ale and  dislike amusements. This is why he rebukes sir Toby Belch for his midnight revels and Fabian for his love of bear-baitaing.
He also rebukes Feste for his loose sallies and remarks.As a shepherd and manager of opinion  of olivi's estate,he thinks it to his duty to enjore .And for this reason,he rebukes Sir Toby:
"My masters,are you mad?Or what are you?Have you no wit,manners,nor honesty,but to gabble like thinkers at this time of night? Do you make an ale house of my lady's house?"
And again:
"Toby,I must be round with you. My lady bade me tell you that though she harbors you as her kinsman,she's nothing allied to your disorders.If you can separate yourself and your misdemeanors,you are welcome to the house.If not, an it would please you to take leave of her,she is very willing to bid you farewell." 
This is an example of Malvolio's high opinion of himself of his proud and haughty nature and puritan,thought and character,He is a puritan like Ben Jonson's puritan types.Here Shakespeare's intention is not praise but satirize Malvolio's character. Shakespeare treats excessive puritanism or false sense of puritanism as a vice.When there is an excess of it,it becomes a show,a practice to his law vices of gluttony and covetousness(greed).He satirises Malvolio's hypocrisy that is Malvolio's external show of austering and restraint,but internal desire and temptation for the pleasure of the senses and enjoyment.As F.S.Boas observes:
"It is only the last sheer of puritanism that becomes the prey of the selfish desires of the flesh.... that are the most prone to be the victims of the narrow brain and still narrower heart."
It is in this sense, in the sense of exposing hypocrisy of human nature that Charles Lamb says:
"The character of Malvolio is not essentially ludicrous"

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TWELFTH NIGHT AND THE CHARACTER OF VIOLA

                       VIOLA AS A TYPICAL HEROINE OF THE SHAKESPEARE

John Ruskin says,"Shakespeare has no heroes but heroines."He perhaps means that heroines of Shakespeare surpass the heroes in romantic comedies. Whether 'As You Like It' or 'Twelfth Night' or 'The Merchant Of Venice' the heroines are the queens of beauty, wit intellect,wisdom and faithfulness. They are more sensitive to intuition and responsive to emotion.Such a heroine is Viola in 'Twelfth Night.' As F.S.Boas says;"Equally removed from the Duke....and from Olivia....stands the figure of Viola,perfect in its balance of sensibility,gaity and strength. In her,Shakespeare has united qualities,which he usually tends to divide between ftwo different types of women.She has the softness of hero Priavea combined with the resolute will and ready tongue of Portia and Rosalin When Viola's ship is wrecked and she is helpless and shelterless,she decides to shelter in the court of Duke Orsino. But she is a young girl and cannot protect her modesty herself.So,she decides to disguise herself as a boy and assumes the name of Cesario. Clearly, her disguise, iintelligent and clever device to meet her differently.This also points out of her presence of mind,boldness and sharp intellect.

Disguise may be a common devise for most of the heroines of Shakespeare as Portia and Rosalind do,Viola does not use for roguish pleasures. Again though she disguises herself as a boy,she is unable to change her nature and heart.When she listens to Orsino's story of love and sorrow,she moves to pity. Her tender, loving heart goes out for him. She begins to love him without telling him know that she is a woman.Though he finds that she has all the resemblance to a woman, that she has "Diana's lips and a maiden's shrill small voice,"he does not doubt her sex identity.This points out her intelligent handling her situation.

         Viola's love is pure noble and sacrificing.Her love is not the sentimental love of Duke,Orsino for Olivia not the impulsive love of Olivia for Sebastian, nor the sensual love of Sir Toby Belch for Maria, nor the shallow love of Sir Andrew for Olivia, nor the self love of Malvolio. Viola's love is sincere and noble love of the heart. She loves Orsino and never speak of .She suffers in her love when she,goes to woo,Olivia for Orsino. She is not zealous in her love.Her love is a monument of patience smiling at grief. Clearly her love is noble, ideal, and self-sacrifice.

                Viola is sincere, honest and truthful.She performance her duty  to win Olivia for Orsino,              does it honestly and faithfully when she meets Olivia,and Olivia falls in love with her,she tells Olivia truthfully that she will never marry any woman.She tells Olivia;

"I have one heart,one bosom,one truth and that no woman has;nor never more shall mistress him of it,save I alone"

Viola is not ungrateful to anyone.She hates ingratitude.When Antonio charges her with igratitude

she repudiates it saying,"I know of none nor know  you by voice or any feature.I hate ingratitude more in a man than lying vainness..."

Viola is essentially a woman.She may disguise herself as a man,but she has woman's tenderness, pity lack of physical boldness and courage.She is afraid of blood shed and violence. She nearly faint at the

sight of bright swords in the brief comic scene of her fight with Sir Andrew.

           Above all, Viola is witty. She is as strong a wit as any other heroines of Shakespearean comedy. When she meet Olivia for the first time, Olivia asks her if she is a comedian. Viola replies,"I am not that I play." Again when Olivia wants to know about her beauty from Viola,she tells Olivia:                                                            " Lady you are the cruelest

                If you will lead those graces to grave

               And leave the world no copy."

Once again,when Olivia wants to know how much Orsino loves her,Viola says:

                       " With adorations,fertile tears,

                With groans that thunder love,with sighs of fire."

Thus,Viola is typical Shakespearean heroine.She has beauty,wit and honesty,truthfulness,wisdom ,delicacy and tenderness.She has compound of beauty,Portia's wit and Rosalind's loveliness.She is an example of one who is born great and achieved greatness.She is a heroine.Drama is completely in live with other great heroines of Shakespearean comedy.

                                     

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