Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Arrowsmith was a novel by Sinclair Lewis that was published in  1925. Sinclair Lewis won the Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith though he later declined it. Lewis offers a critical viewpoint of the culture of a scientific society in this novel. Arrowsmith is a progressive novel that offers insight into the problems of scientific culture during that age. Science writer Paul de Kruif greatly assisted Sinclair Lewis in writing this novel. In the novel, Lewis describes many aspects of medical training, medical ethics, and scientific fraud. The novel deals with the experiences of a young idealistic doctor who tries to challenge and improve the existing system of medical practice.

Characters:

Martin Arrowsmith is the titular protagonist of the novel. He is a gifted medical doctor with medical ethics and has a strong interest in medical research. Martin begins with a humble background and through his talent and hard work, he writes his success story from undergraduate medical student to a wealthy and highly successful doctor. However, his success doesn’t satisfy him and he decides to give away all the success he earned for a noble pursuit of purity of purpose within the scientific research branch of medicine. Max Gottlieb is a professor of Bacteriology who is an ideologist and prefers ethical medical practices. However, he faces criticism from the less scientifically inclined people working in the field of medicine for pursuing ethical ideas that appear to be eccentric. Professor Gottlieb strongly influences Arrowsmith. Madeline Fox is a young English graduate whom Arrowsmith meets during his college years and falls in love with her. While Madeline pretends as an intellectual, she lacks knowledge. Arrowsmith is impressed by her pretensions and becomes engaged with her, only to get separated once he realizes that she cannot grasp the depth of medical ethics. Leora Tozer is a young nurse, who is not as well educated as Madeline, but she is committed to her career in nursing. Her true heart attracts Arrowsmith who breaks up with Madeline and marries Leora. Leora dies as a result of pandemic bubonic plague while nursing the patients. Joyce Lanyon is a rich widow woman whom Arrowsmith meets after the death of Leora. They marry and try to settle with each other. Terry Wicket is another medical practitioner who likes Arrowsmith and is interested in medical research.

Summary:

The novel revolves around Martin Arrowsmith, a young promising man with a keen interest in science and medicine. He is born and raised in a small town, Elk Mills, and goes on to become a medical student at college, where he meets Max, Gottlieb, a bacteriologist, who becomes his ideal, mentor. He is a brilliant and dedicated medical student who impresses all. He meets a young girl Madeline Fox, an English graduate. They develop a relationship and get engaged. Soon Martin realizes that Madeline isn’t as intelligent as she pretends to be. Her snobbish attitude and behavior of looking down at those she thinks are beneath her, results in their breakup. Meanwhile, he faces some difficulties at college and eventually insults his mentor, Max Gottlieb, and is suspended from school. He starts again as an ordinary worker. He reaches a small town Wheatsylvania in North Dakota and begins private practici9ng medicines. He gets the support of Leora Tozer, a young nurse, and her family. He finds that Leora Tozer’s kind-hearted soul is just opposite to that of Madeline Fox and falls in love with her. Leora’s family agrees to their marriage as he is the only doctor in the area. Leora's family encourages him to complete his graduation and then Leora and Martin move to Winnemac to begin working as medical practitioners. Meanwhile, Martin engulfs himself in a moral dilemma between the commercialism of physicians and his true love for scientific research.

At Winnemac, he is the local doctor but he fails to gain the trust of people. He is met with dislike, as the townspeople continue to gossip about him, and he also loses a patient of his. Things get complicated in his married life too as Leora suffers a miscarriage. Martin feels as if he is a failure but Leora encourages him and they move out to Nautilus to begin afresh.

In Nautilus, he again faces the same dilemma and unhappiness and fails to gain the trust of people. His major interest is in scientific research and he finds that he has no interest in medical practice as a doctor. He then joins Rouncefield Clinic in Chicago which is an exclusive private hospital that allows Martin to spend some time in research work. Soon he publishes a scientific paper. Max Gottlieb reads that paper and invites him to take a post and work with a wealthy and elite research institute in New York City. Initially, he is happy about pursuing his dream in research but soon becomes frustrated by the constant pressure to complete his research and show results. He is also under pressure to sell his work, but he is reluctant to do so.

He manages to make a breakthrough in his research and identifies a treatment for pneumonia and plague. He and Leora then travel to an infected region on the island of St. Hubert to test his treatment. Arrowsmith discovers a phage that can effectively destroy bacteria.

At the same time, Martin learns about the outbreak of bubonic plague on a fictional Caribbean island. He decides to move to that Caribbean island to test the effectiveness of his phage. He settles on the island along with Leora and a few associates. Leora and Martin begin serving and treatings patients suffering from Bubonic plague. Leora suggests that he should use his newly discovered phage to cure the masses. However, scientific principles demand that he avoid its mass use on the Island until thoroughly tested, even at the expense of lives that might be saved. While tests are still going on, Leora suffers from the plague. Only after his wife, Leora, and all the other people who came with him from the institute to the island die of the plague, does he reluctantly abandon rigorous science and begins to treat everyone on the island with the phage. He is too saddened by the death of Leora and decides to forego his phage research. Despite his life-saving, he regards his actions on the island as a complete betrayal of science and his principles.

While on the island, he meets a wealthy widow socialite named Joyce Lanyon. He begins an affair with her. Soon they marry and return to New York where he is heralded as a public hero for his actions on the island. He is first promoted within the laboratory and then offered the directorship of the entire institute. Martin and Joyce soon become parents of a child. While martin wishes to devote all his time to the research work, Joyce is a socialite and wants Martin to accompany her to various parties and social gatherings. Her affluent status and lifestyle bear a constant weight on him. While he has the offer to be the director of the entire research institute in New York, he declines the promotion and abandons his new wife and infant son to work in the backwoods of Vermont

as an entirely independent scientist. He is accompanied by Terry Wickett, another medical practitioner who, like Martin, is more interested in scientific research. In the backwoods of Vermont, they continue with their research, without the pressure of businesses. When his wife finally offers to move to Vermont to be close to him, he tells her that he wants nothing to do with her and she should just go away.

The novel depicts the theme of medical ethics as Martin tries to oppose the commercialization of medical practice. He faces enough temptation to involve in corruption and to be in the race for financial success as the only goal. However, he continues to safeguard his interest in research and his ethical medical code. However, he realizes that the only way to preserve his ethics and avoid corruption is to completely devote himself to the purity of research. At last, he decides to go away from society to the backwoods of Vermont.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

John Dryden | Damatic Works

 John Dryden | Dramatic Works |

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. John Dryden was the most successful author of the Restoration period. He began his career during the rule of Oliver Cromwell and continued after the death of Cromwell, Dryden celebrated the Restoration of Monarchy and the return of King Charles II in 1660. That was the year when the ban on theaters was revoked. Dryden established himself as a poet and began producing dramas too. Dryden turned to dramatically works following the reopening of the theatres at the Restoration; his first attempt, the comedy The Wild Gallant, was presented in 1663 at Drury Lane. It was a comedy that was written in prose. Though the prologue and epilogue of The Wild Gallant were written in verse. It was a derivative work. John Dryden borrowed a lot from Ben Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humour. In the preface of The Wild Gallant, John Dryden wrote “this is the first attempt I made in dramatic poetry.” The play has a prologue, in the opening scene of which two astrologers are featured who make horoscopes for the play’s fortunes for that day and discuss how the play will be performed. They discuss how the play will be received by the audience when it is performed.

In 1664, The Indian Queen was performed. It was a tragic play written by John Dryden in collaboration with Sir Robert Howard. Sir Robert Howard was Dryden’s brother-in-law. This play gained huge success. After this play, Dryden wrote a sequel to it which was titled The Indian Emperor and was performed in 1665. The Indian Queen was a heroic historic tragedy written in rhymed couplets.

John Dryden returned to comedy as his play The Tempest was performed in 1667. The alternative title of this play was The Enchanted Island. John Dryden wrote The Tempest or The Enchanted Island in collaboration with William Davenant. William Davenant was the unofficial poet laureate of King Charle’s I’s court. The Enchanted Island was an opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. William Davenant was considered a foster child of William Shakespeare. The Tempest or The Enchanted Island was written partly in blank verse and partly in rhythmic prose. Dryden and Davenant kept a good amount of Shakespeare’s original verse. However, the tone of the play was brought down. They also added an impressive amount of their own rhythmic pattern and added a few new characters to the play including Hippolitto, a man who has never seen a woman, and Dorinda, the second daughter of Prospero. While Miranda, the girl who has never seen a man except her father falls in love with Ferdinand, son of the Duke of Mantua. On the other hand, Hippolitto falls in love with Dorinda. Another character is the ghostly ethereal Milcha, who is Ariel's girlfriend.

Another important dramatic work by John Dryden was The State of Innocence, published in 1677. Dryden started writing it in 1674 and before writing this work, Dryden met John Milton and asked for his permission to write and adaption of Paradise Lost. The full title of this play is The State of Innocence and Fall of Man, an Opera. Originally, it was titled The Fall of Angels and Man in Innocence: An Heroic Opera. The State of Innocence is a five-act drama, chiefly focusing on Books 2, 4, 8, and 9 of Milton's poem. Dryden wrote this adaptation in Heroic couplet. Dryden was an admirer of Milton's, and described Paradise Lost as "one of the greatest, most noble and most sublime poems which either this Age or Nation has produc'd".

In 1676, Dryden again published a tragic drama titled Aureng-Zebe which was loosely based on the Indian Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and tells the story of his succession to the throne of Delhi. The other important characters of the play included Shah Jahan, Aurang-Zebe’s father, and Morat (Murad Baksh(, the youngest brother of Aurang-Zebe.

John Dryden again published a tragic drama in 1678 which was titled All for Love; or, the World Well Lost. It is a heroic play written in blank verse. It is again an imitation of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Dryden stressed more on the last hours of the life of Antony and Cleopatra. The subtitle of this drama was The World Well Lost. John Dryden took the story of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra in his drama All for Love.

Another important drama by John Dryden was Oedipus which he wrote in collaboration with Nathaniel Lee. Oedipus was published in the year 1679. It was an adaptation of Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles. The full title of the drama was Oedipus: A Tragedy. In the preface of Oedipus, Dryden refers to Sophocles, who wrote the original work, along with Seneca and Comeillie who adapted the subject of Oedipus to create their own works in Latin and French respectively. Dryden then explains why he considers Sophocles’s original work better than Latin and French adaptations.

So we have briefly discussed seven important plays by John Dryden; namely, The Wild Gallant, The Indian Queen, The Tempest, The State of Innocence, Aureng-Zebe, All for Love, and Oedipus: A Tragedy. We will continue to discuss the poetic works of John Dryden. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis | Characters, Summary, Analysis

 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Babbitt is a satirical novel by Sinclair Lewis that was published in the year 1922. It is a contentious novel that satirizes American culture and society, criticizing the folly of middle-class life as well as social pressures towards conformity. The word babbitt refers to a businessman who conforms to prevailing middle-class standards without questioning them. The story satirizes the popular American dream and describes how an individual is forced to conform to the norms.

Characters:

George F. Babbitt is a successful middle-class real estate broker with a wife and three children. Despite his success, he is not satisfied with his life and family. Myra Babbitt is George’s wife, she is matronly, kind, diligent, and uninteresting to almost everyone. She is devoted to her family and tries to please George. She doesn’t even confront him when suspects him of having an extramarital affair. Ted Babbitt is George’s 17-year-old son who is not very bright in his studies. He is a natural mechanic and doesn’t want to pursue higher studies. He elopes with Eunice Littlefield, a neighborhood girl. Tinka Babbitt is George’s 10-year-old daughter, and Verona Babbitt is George’s eldest daughter. She is a filing clerk at the Gruenberg Leather Company offices. She is interested in social work and progressive socialist politics. She marries Kenneth Scott an emerging reporter. Paul Riesling is one of George’s close friends who used to be his classmate and roommate at State University. He wished to be a violinist but ended up being another businessman. He is very resentful of his wife Zella Riesling who is a religious zealot and uses religion as a weapon against him. Paul shoots at her and goes to jail. Tanis Judique is a beautiful middle-aged widow with whom George develops an affair. Seneca Doane is a progressive lawyer who fights the standardization of thought. Extremely liberal socialist, he heads farmer-labor tickets and inspires Babbitt to temporarily turn to political rebellion.

Summary:

George F. Babbitt is a middle-aged man, a highly successful real estate agent who sells houses at rates that exceed what people are actually able to pay for them. He enjoys his social status and is proud of his house at Floral Heights, as it is standardized from the architecture to the atmosphere, which appeals greatly to Babbitt. But Babbitt is profoundly dissatisfied. His family irritates him, and he generally has the sense that his life is empty. He consistently dreams of a young fairy girl with whom he is happy and free, and he notices every pretty woman he sees. He is greedily devoted to his work. He closes a deal by forcing a poor businessman to buy a piece of property at more than twice its value. This gives him a sense of pride, as he pockets his earnings, feeling that he has done a good job.

To celebrate his success, he calls his old friend Paul Riesling, a talented musician who could have been a successful violinist but was forced to get into the tar-roofing business to provide for his wife, Zilla. Zilla is an eccentric woman who antagonizes other people and then wants Paul to fight for her. She continuously demeans Paul as a coward and irreligious. When Paul discusses his issues with Babbitt, he gets sad and suggests that the two should take a vacation to Maine, away from their wives.

Although he finds the trip refreshing, he reverts to his former habits and uneasiness shortly after returning to Zenith. Although he has always been an upstanding and moral citizen, Babbitt desires to break with social convention and marital fidelity. Meanwhile, Paul gets involved in a heated argument with his wife, and in a fit of rage, he shoots at her for which he is jailed for murdering his wife Zilla. Myra calls Babbitt at his office and informs him about the incident. Babbitt gets shocked and goes to meet Paul at the jail. Meanwhile, Myra goes away to meet some relatives along with the three children. Babbitt feels that his world is collapsing around him, triggering him to go off the rails, adopting a more bohemian and free-spirited way of living. His faith in the almighty dollar has been demolished, and in its place, he has a newfound respect for the importance of living a life of freedom and integrity.

As Babbitt is living alone, he decides to enjoy his freedom to its fullest. He begins an affair with Tanis Judique, an interesting and attractive widow, he begins an affair with her and becomes entangled in her group of bohemian friends. He goes out every night while Myra is away, drinking and dancing until dawn and reveling in his freedom. With the influence of the progressive Seneca Doane, he also frightens and disappoints all of his conservative friends at the Boosters' club by supporting liberal politics and labor union strikes. When he is invited by Vergil Gunch to join the Good Citizens' League and to bring down men like Seneca Doane, Babbitt refuses.

Yet, Babbitt becomes even unhappier when his former associates begin to ignore him and his business begins to suffer on account of his politics and his infidelity. Even his relationship with Tanis loses its appeal when she becomes emotionally demanding.

He severs the extramarital relationship and longs to rejoin the ranks of solid, standard citizens. When Myra falls ill with appendicitis, he has both the motivation and the excuse to renounce his uncharacteristically immoral behavior and return to his more familiar and comfortable lifestyle. He joins the Good Citizens' League, repairs damaged business relationships, shows greater affection for his wife, and renews his membership in the Church. While he returns back to his normal Babbitt life, he appreciates the value of freedom he enjoyed when he was alone. His brief rebellion does slightly change his view of the world. Babbitt discovers that his son Ted has secretly married Eunice, the daughter of his neighbor. He offers his approval of the marriage, stating that though he does not agree, he admires Ted for living his life on his own terms.

Critical Analysis:

Babbitt proved to be a controversial yet successful novel by Sinclair Lewis and became a reason for his Nobel prize in literature. H.L. Mencken hugely appreciated Babbitt and said that this novel was a stunning work of literary realism. Mencken called Lewis “an old professor of Babbittry.” According to H. L. Mencken, George F. Babbitt was an archetype of the American city dwellers who touted the virtues of Republicanism, Presbyterianism, and absolute conformity because "it is not what he [Babbitt] feels and aspires that moves him primarily; it is what the folks about him will think of him. His politics is communal politics, mob politics, and herd politics; his religion is a public rite wholly without subjective significance.

However, many other critics found Babbitt as an exaggeration in Lewis's depiction of the American businessman. Edmund Wilson mentioned that as a prose stylist, Lewis's literary “gift is almost entirely for making people nasty” and the characters unbelievable. Many other critics also criticized and dismissed Babbitt as “a monstrous, bawling, unconscionable satire” and said, “Mr. Lewis is the most phenomenally skillful exaggerator in literature today.”

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.