The Pit and The Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe | Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. "The Pit and the Pendulum" was first published in the annual journal The Gift, Carey and Hart, Philadelphia, 1843. It is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe with elements of torture and horror. Unlike much of Poe's work, the story has no supernatural elements. The writer focuses on the sensations of a prisoner in an airless, dark unlit dungeon where the narrator is subject to thirst and starvation, he is swarmed by rats, the razor-sharp pendulum threatens to slice into him and the closing walls are red-hot.

The story is set in the early 19^th century during the period of the Peninsular War when the Catholic Inquisition was abolished by French Intervention.

Catholic Inquisition, also known as the Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. The legal authority of the Catholic Inquisition operated in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories including the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in South America and North America. Around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offenses during the three-century duration of the Catholic Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed. However, the Spanish King strictly ordered that the native Indians of the Americas should not be prosecuted by the Catholic Inquisition. The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism. The regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified following the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave Castile, resulting in hundreds of thousands of forced conversions. The Catholic Inquisition was ultimately abolished during the early 19th century at the peak of the French Revolution.

Poe’s story does not critique the ideological basis of the tale’s historical context. Rather, Poe just highlights the torture and horror elements in this tale.

Summary of The Pit and The Pendulum:

The story begins with the shocking statement of the narrator “I was sick—sick unto death with that long agony” which reveals that he is a prisoner. The writer makes it properly clear that the narrator is a prisoner hauled before the Spanish Inquisition. He is too weak and dizzy to understand properly what’s going on around him, however, he knows he is about to be condemned to death, and he has no hopes. The narrator describes the implacable horror of the judges as they announce their decrees, although the narrator himself is too overwhelmed with fear to understand their words. He is hypnotically fascinated by the stark-white lips of his judges and the steady grind of their voices. The narrator tries to distract himself from the impending horror of the death sentence by concentrating on seven white candles standing before him on the table. For a while, he imagines those candles as seven angels who are there to offer solace or even rescue. But soon, he notices that these candles are mere inanimate objects, unfeeling, and uncaring. The narrator falls into a faint while longing for death. Though he is unconscious, the narrator claims that he wasn’t completely unaware as he had some consciousness left and says, “Even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man.” He says that fainting isn’t like sleep or death, rather, fainting is somewhere between those two, putting you closer to the mysterious world of the dead than sleep alone can.

When the narrator gains consciousness back, he finds himself in a completely dark place. He is confused because he knows that the usual fate of Inquisition victims is a public auto-da-fé, or “act of faith”—an execution normally taking the form of hanging. He wonders if he is dead or alive. He tries to remember what happened when he fainted. He dimly recollects being carried down deep into the earth by mysterious figures, the awful slowness of his own heartbeat, a pause accompanied by flatness and dampness, and then a fit of utter madness. He fears that they put him in a tomb, burying him alive. He tries to move a bit d finds that there is space, and is convinced that he is not in a tomb. Though he is aware that he is alive, he continues to feel the immense fear of death as he remembers the rumors of what they do to the prisoners. He thinks that perhaps he is in one of the dungeons at Toledo, an infamous Inquisition prison. Fearful, the narrator again faints, and after he awakes for the second time, he begins to explore the dungeon while wondering what his fate will be. He examines his robe and decides to tear off one of the pieces of the hem of his robe to check how much space is there in that dark dungeon. He decides to explore the dark and places the piece of hem against the wall to count the number of steps he can take across the dungeon cell he is in. He takes some steps and then he trips, falls, and is overtaken by sleep before making a full circuit, and upon waking, he finds that someone has given him a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water. Being too hungry for a long, he eagerly consumes whatever he got and then he resumes his exploration. He estimates that the cell is around 50 yards wide as he can take some 100 paces around. He then decides to walk across the room but when he moves a few steps, the piece of hem of his robe tangles his legs and he trips off. As he falls, he realizes that while his body fell on the wall, his face dangled over an abyss. He realizes that there is a deep pit just a little forward and had he not tripped off, he might have fallen into that pit. He tries to know the depth of the pit by breaking a piece of stone from the wall and throwing it in the pit. He feels that the pit is very deep and it has water at the bottom, like a well. He remembers the rumors he heard about the torturous ways of the Inquisition to kill the prisoners. He mentions the pit as a 'punishment of surprise'. The narrator falls back to sleep and when he wakes up, he finds some more water and bread. He eats it hungrily and after drinking water, he sleeps again. After a while, he suddenly wakes up and notices a dim light in the dungeon that was completely dark a while ago. He notices that the dungeon cell is not as large as he estimated. Perhaps he duplicated his count of steps and made a mistake. He further notices that he is now bound to a wooden log by a long strap wrapped around his body. He finds it difficult to move. He notices that he has been given more food and this time, he has been offered some flavored meat dish, but there is no water. He looks upward and notices the figure of Father Time painted on the ceiling. However, it is not just a painting, rather it is a machine holding a pendulum that is swinging back and forth. The narrator looks around and sees that some rats are coming out of the pit as they smell the meat. He again looks at the figure of Father Time at the ceiling and gets horrified. The figure of Father Time is made in the shape of the scythe and it is moving back and fro. The narrator notices that with each swing, the pendulum is coming down, nearing him while he is bound to the wooden log. He observes that if he doesn’t move, the scythe-like Father Time figure will drop exactly at his chest, above his heart. However, he notices that the scythe is moving downward at a maddeningly slow pace and he has ample time to see his death coming towards him as the trajectory of the figure of Father Time’s swinging motions from his head to toe. The scythe is making a razor-sharp crescent in its downward motion toward him.

The narrator is too much afraid to think right and he hopes for some divine intervention to stop the pendulum from falling over him. But the pendulum continues to come down and when it reaches very near to the narrator’s chest, he suddenly gets an idea of trying to save himself. He picks up the pieces of meat and rubs them over the straps binding him to the wooden log. The rats get mad at the smell of meat and they jump over him to eat and start nibbling over the straps. As the pendulum is just about to drop on his chest, the narrator succeeds in breaking the shackles of the strap and moves away from the pendulum’s swing. As soon as he goes away from the scythe, like a pendulum, the pendulum retracts to the ceiling. The narrator is startled and then he realizes that his captors are observing all his moves.

Suddenly, he starts feeling hot and realizes that the walls of the dungeon cells are heating up and gradually they are turning red. He further notices that the walls are gradually moving toward each other, reducing the space around the narrator. He tries to move away from the nearest wall and realizes that if he tries to save himself from the red burning walls, he will have to go near the pit and ultimately, he will be pushed into the pit that will surely save him from the red burning walls but will push him to another kind of death. He continues to move towards the pit bit by bit and when there remains not even an inch foothold for the narrator, the walls suddenly retract and cool down. However, the narrator is too afraid and he starts losing his consciousness again and feels like he is about to fall into the pit as he is just on the verge of it. Right at that moment, a mysterious person latches onto him and prevents his fall. The French Army has captured the city of Toledo and the Inquisition has fallen into its enemies' hands.

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!

The Masque of The Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe: Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Masque of The Red Death was a short gothic story written by Edgar Allan Poe that was published in 1842. The story is an allegory about man’s futile efforts to avoid death, which is inevitable. The story may also be read as a satire against the Aristocratic class during the period of the Bubonic Plague or Black Death in England and other parts of Europe. The story is about a fictional tyrannical prince who is indifferent to the turmoil and sufferings of the weak peasantry class while his state is suffering an endemic which is commonly known as the Red Death. It is a fictitious disease, an allegorical representation of the Black Death. Historically, feudalism was prevalent when the actual Bubonic Plague devastated Europe in the fourteenth century. The Read Death, on the other hand, may also represent the egalitarian idea, the death of feudalism as it embodies a kind of economic equality and doesn’t discriminate its victims based on their economic class, it kills all.

Summary of The Masque of Red Death:

In a fictional country, the Red Death is spreading its wings. The Red Death is a bloody disease that causes the death of the patient rapidly with a seizure, sharp pain, dizziness, and bleeding from the pores. While the common public is dying in huge numbers, the ruler, Prince Prospero doesn’t care about them. However, he is worried about his own health and thus, he decides to gather all his friends, knights, and relatives and shuts himself in a safe heaven ornated with all amenities and facilities. His motive is to keep the Red Death away from his safe haven and close circle and to do so, he uses all his wealth and might. The Read Death appears to be a great challenge to his autonomy. Yet, while Red Death easily preys on the lower-class peasants, Prospero’s prosperity is unaffected by this natural calamity. Being shut and safe in the walled abbey with other 1000 nobles, Prince Prospero intends to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut to ensure no one enters or leaves. Prospero’s castle is fabulous he designed it himself.

A few months pass by but the Red Death doesn’t slow down, rather it reaches a new peak as more and more common people die. However, Prospero remains unaffected. He decides to throw a party, a fancy masquerade ball throughout the imperial suit of the castle which has seven rooms. Prospero suggests that all the invites should masque themselves in ghouls and ghosts masks. Prospero has designed these rooms running from east to west. The first room is decorated in blue and the stained glass of the window has a blue hue. The second is purple and so "the panes are purple." And this continues through the green room (third), the orange room (fourth), the white room (fifth), and the violet room (sixth). These windows in the rooms don’t open outside, rather, one can look out onto the hall through these windows. The seventh room is different. It is at the corner of the west. It is completely black but the window panes are not black, they are shrouded in deep blood-red scarlet color. In the whole suite, there are no lights of any kind, but in the corridors that lay behind the windows of the suite, fires blaze. Shapes dance around the walls from the patterns of the flames. The black room with blood-red scarlet color windows appears so gruesome and the strange shapes of the dancing flames make it much more fearsome. There are very few of the nobles who are bold enough to set foot in the seventh room.

Prospero has ornated this black room with an extraordinarily giant clock, which, every hour, strikes with a deep, clear note of very strange pitch. Hardly anyone dares to go to the westernmost corner, to the black room. All the other rooms are magnificently beautiful. The sound of the clock appears merrier and cherishable from the other rooms but it becomes extreme in the black room. With each strike of the hour, the sound of the clock sends the merrymaking masqueraders into a strange reverie.

All the guests are masked and nobody can recognize others. While the nobles in their masks continue enjoying the party in different rooms of different colors, nobody dares to enter the black room.

The party continues throughout the day until midnight when the giant clock strikes. The shrieking sound of the giant clock stops the music and everyone faces the strange reverie again. Suddenly twelve different chimes start producing strange sounds and as the sound stops, everyone in the blue room feels that someone entered the suit from outside. This new entrant is also masked and he is dressed more ghoulishly than all others. His mask looks like the face of a corpse, his garments resemble a funeral shroud, and his face reveals spots of blood suggesting that he is a victim of the Red Death. The rumor of this strange intruder spreads through all six rooms. That time, Prospero was in the blue room. While everyone is fearful of this new entrant, Prospero gets angry. He wonders how someone of his friends and knights with so little humor and levity would join his party in such a dress and mask that reminds them of the Red Death. The intruder is completely masked, from head to foot, as if dressed for the grave and his dress is stained with scarlet. Everyone is so afraid of him that when this intruder starts walking slowly, nobody dares to stop him and question him. Prospero shouts angrily and orders the intruder to be uncovered and hung from the battlements. Everyone hears Prospero’s order throughout the seven rooms. The knights and nobles decide to confront him but nobody dares to seize him and thus, the intruder continues to walk through the room straight upto the prince, sees him, and then goes past him to the other rooms in the west.

Prospero decides to encounter this intruder himself and goes behind him but the intruder continues to walk forward towards the west. Prospero finally catches up to the new guest in the black room with scarlet windowpanes. The masked intruder suddenly turns around and looks into the eyes of Prospero and he dies. The other nobles see Prospero falling on the floor. They gather courage and enter the room to attack the cloaked man, they find that there is nobody beneath the costume. The Red Death captures each dancer, one by one, the clock stops and the lights go out, and the Red Death finally rules over the whole realm.

Analysis of The Red Death:

The symptoms of the disease (Red Death) appear similar to bubonic plague and Europe was feudalistic during the 14^th century when Black Death caused havoc. The seven rooms that Prospero designed for the masquerade were directed from east to west. While the first room was blue colored with blue windowpanes, the last room was black colored with scarlet windowpanes. The setting suggests the cycle of a day. The sun rises in the east and the sky appears blue. The sun sets in the west and everything goes dark, becoming black.

While the Red Death continues to kill hundreds of ordinary people, the happy-go-lucky folly of Prospero's court, foolishly believes they can ignore it. Instead of helping their people find a way, they decide to seclude themselves from the ordinary peasants. Despite his might, health, and wealth, Prospero fails to stand against the Red Death even for a minute. Against the Red Death, he proves to be equally vulnerable as any ordinary citizen. The central theme of the story is mortality. Prospero and all the nobles try to ignore and escape death, preferring to stay focused on living life to its fullest. But mortality can't be avoided, as they are reminded when Red Death literally crashes their party.

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!

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Harper Lee was an American novelist who is known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. To Kill a Mockingbird was published on July 11, 1960, and it became a huge success. The novel is of the South Gothic genre which deals with the issues of racial discrimination from the viewpoint of two little kids. The novel deals with rape, racial inequality, class discrimination, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South during the period of 1930s. The Deep South of the United States included those states that were heavily dependent on plantations and slavery. The story is about two siblings, their extraordinary experiences, and how they grow up while losing their innocence.

The story was based on the real-life experiences of Harper Lee during her childhood. Her father Amasa Coleman Lee was a newspaper editor and a lawyer who once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father, and his son, were hanged. The plot and characters of the novel are loosely based on Harper Lee’s own experiences with her family, friends, and relatives, and an incident that happened in her hometown in Monroeville, Alabama in 1936. Lee's older brother Edwin was the inspiration for the character of Jem. Harper Lee was a childhood friend of Truman Capote and she assisted him in writing his renowned novel In Cold Blood. Truman Capote became the inspiration for the character of Dill. Truman once commented that the character of Boo Radley was also a real man whom he and Harper Lee knew.

Characters of To Kill The Mocking Bird:

Scout or Jean Louise Finch is the narrator and main character of the novel. She is a 6 years old girl with a tomboyish attitude. She has a fierce disposition towards any who challenge her, but at heart, she is innocent, sympathetic, and a believer in goodness. Jem, or Jeremy Finch is 10 years old, the elder brother of Scout. Jem is a quieter and more reserved and innocent child. Dill Harris or Charles Baker Harris is a friend of Scout and Jem. He is around 7 years old with an adventurous and imaginative attitude. After her father’s death, Dill’s mother remarries but Dill fails to adjust to the new family conditions and often tries to escape from it. Thus, he spends his holidays with his aunt, who lives next door to the Finch family. Atticus Finch is a widower, and father of Scout and Jem. He is a lawyer who is highly morally upright and tries to be fair with everyone. After the death of his wife, he raises his children with the assistance of Calpurnia, his black housekeeper and cook. Calpurnia is a motherly figure for Scout and Jem. Arthur “Boo” Radley is a recluse who always remains within his house. He had a difficult childhood and it is rumored that once he attacked his father with a pair of scissors and since then no one has seen him. The townspeople consider him a mad monster. He lives with his elder brother Nathan Radley who is highly controlling. Tom Robinson is a black man who is accused of raping a white girl named Myella Ewell. He asks help of Atticus Finch who agrees to defend him because he believes that Tom is innocent. Aunt Alexandra is Atticus’s elder sister who is a strict traditional woman. She visits Atticus’s house to assist him in raising his kids well. Maudi Atkinson is a friendly neighbor of Atticus Finch. She is a proud and courageous woman who loves gardening and helps the kids gain a proper perspective on the events surrounding the trial. Bob Ewell is the father of Myella Ewell. He is a racist, ignorant, and evil person who belongs to the lowest substratum of Maycomb society. He is a widower with nine children. He caught his daughter kissing Tom, proceeded to beat her, and then forced her to claim Tom raped her. Myella Ewell is a lonely girl of nineteen. Belonging to a poor family, she is despised by whites and prohibited from befriending blacks. Frustrated, she tries to seduce Tom and break a social taboo. However, when she gets caught, she acts cowardly and accuses Tom of rape and perjuries against him in court. Miss Caroline is a school teacher of Scout and Jem. Francis is one of Aunt Alexandra’s grandchildren who spends Christmas leaves with the Finch family and annoys Scout by being boring and cruel. Uncle Jack is Atticus’s brother who is a doctor. Jem and Scout are very fond of Uncle Jack. Mrs. Dubose is a mean old lady who is very sick. She got addicted to morphine. Walter is a classmate of Scout. Mr. Cunningham is the father of Walter whom Scout recognizes in the mob that came to attack Tom and Atticus. Heck Tate is Maycomb Counties' sheriff who is an honest and upright man.

Summary of To Kill a Mockingbird:

The novel is set in the period of the Great Depression during the 1930s. Scout Finch lives with her brother Jem and father Atticus Finch in the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama. It is a small town where everybody knows each other but they have their social connection according to their economic conditions and birth. Atticus is a morally upright lawyer who earns enough to support his family but has to work hard for long hours. He lost his wife and takes care of his children with the help of his black servant and cook Calpurnia who is a motherly figure for the kids. However, Scout feels Calpurnia is too much strict and she favors Jem.

One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer. The three spend much of their time creating and acting out fantasies. Scout and Jem know the neighborhood well. The only neighbor who puzzles them is the mysterious Arthur Radley, nicknamed Boo, who never comes outside. Dill, being too imaginative continues to enquire about Boo and the three kids become obsessed with the house called Radley House where Boo lives with his brother Nathan Radley. Dill learns the story that during his childhood, Boo once stabbed his father’s leg with scissors and since then he has been jailed in that house and never comes out. Jem and Scout have never seen him but they have heard that he is incredibly tall, drools, and eats neighborhood cats and squirrels. Though all children are fearful of Boo, Dill challenges Jem to go and touch the boundary of Radley's house. When Jem does so, Scout says that she saw someone watching them from inside behind a curtain. They try leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill with a fishing pole but are caught by Atticus, who firmly reprimands them for making fun of a sad man's life. However, the kids continue to explore more about Boo.

As the summer vacations end, Dill returns to his hometown. Scout is big enough to join the school. Though she is excited about going to school, she soon starts disliking it. Her teacher Miss Caroline is teaching how to read the alphabet and write but Scout already can read words and sentences. Miss Caroline criticizes her for already knowing how to read and forbids her from writing in cursive. She returns home and complains to Atticus. Her father tells him that Miss Caroline is a new teacher and she will take time in learning how to deal with the eccentricities of various kids. Atticus tells her to understand others’ viewpoints by putting herself in their shoes and thinking like them.

Summer arrives and Dill returns back to Maycomb. The three kids continue their exploration of the Radley house. One night, the three kids decide to jump over the boundary of the Radley house and sneak in through the window. Nathan Radley thinks that some burglar is trying to get in and he fires his gun. The three kids get frightened and run away but while running back, Jem Jem loses his pants in a fence. When he returns in the middle of the night to get them back, they have been neatly folded and the tear from the fence roughly sewn up. The pants were kept folded in the hole of the tree near the Radley house.

The kids continue to inspect the Radley house regularly. Jem and Scout find more presents in a hole in that tree, presumably left by the mysterious Boo. Jem would go to the tree near the fence of Radley's house to get presents such as pennies, chewing gum, and soap-carved figures of a little boy and girl who bear a striking resemblance to Scout and Jem. One day, they decide to leave a thank note to the gift giver. But the next day when Jem goes to the tree, he finds that Nathan Radley has plugged up the hole with cement. That saddens the kids.

Dill returns back after the vacation. The next winter brings unexpected cold and snow. During such a cold, Miss Maudie's house catches on fire. While Jem and Scout, shivering, watch the blaze from near the Radley house, someone puts a blanket around Scout without her realizing it. When the kids find it out, Jem suggests that Boo must have put that blanket on Scout. This horrifies Scout but her father calms her down.

Atticus learns about a criminal case in which Tom Robinson, a young black man is accused of raping Myella Ewell, a nineteen-year-old white girl. Nobody is willing to take the case of Tom as a defending lawyer. The court thus appoints Atticus as Tom’s lawyer. When Atticus meets Tom, he realizes that Tom is innocent. He further enquires and comes to know that Myella Ewell is the daughter of Bob Ewell who is a mean and cringy white man whom nobody likes. Furthermore, Bob belongs to the lowest economic class of Maycomb and hence, nobody really wishes to have any relationship with him. Like Atticus, Bob is also a widower with nine kids and Myella is the eldest of them. He learns that despite being nineteen years old, Myella doesn’t have any friends because the white community of Maycomb despises her for being poor and the daughter of Bob who is a poor and mean person. Any kind of friendly relationship between white persons and black persons is totally prohibited in the society of Maycomb and thus, Myella is lonely and alienated despite being a white girl. When she meets Tom and finds him near her, she tries to seduce him by trying to kiss him while breaking the societal taboo. However, Tom wasn’t ready for any such prohibited relationship and when he tried to push Myella away to avoid the kiss, Bob Ewell suddenly reached home and caught them in the act. In anger, Bob started beating Myella brutally right in front of Tom. Tom got frightened and ran away. Later on, Bob forced Myella to accuse Tom of rape. Though Myella took the first step against the societal taboo, she proved to be a coward against her father’s anger and followed him and agreed to perjury in court against Tom.

Atticus is a morally upright man and he decided to defend Tom in court though he knows that the jury, being predominantly white and prejudiced against the black community will not allow Tom to go free. Yet, he thinks that his efforts in bringing the truth in front will ease the hatred against black people and will reduce the discrimination to some extent. Little does he know that because of his decision, the white community of Maycomb will become his enemy and the enemy of his kids. Meanwhile, Dill Harris also comes to Maycomb as he runs away from the prospect of spending the vacation with his new father whom his mother recently married. Jem and Scout are subjected to abuse from other children, even when they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch’s landing. Francis, one of the grandchildren of Aunt Alexandra teases Scout and tells her that her father brought a bad name and shame to their family by being a “nigger-lover”. Though Atticus urges Scout and Jem to keep calm even when other kids abuse them, Scout fails to control her anger and beats Francis. Francis complains about her misbehavior to Uncle Jack whom every child loves. Scout tries to tell him how Francis abused her and her father but Uncle Jack refuses to listen and punishes her. However, Uncle Jack gives an air rifle to each Scout and Jem which makes them happy. They take their rifles to Atticus and ask him to teach them how to use them. Atticus refuses to teach them how to shoot. While he allows them to play with the rifles, he advises them that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Even Jem, who is much more calm and reserved finds it difficult when Mrs. Dubose starts abusing his father in front of him. Initially, he tries to avoid and ignore Mrs.Dubose but one day when she hurls slurs and insults at him about Atticus defending Tom Robinson. Jem retaliates by cutting the tops off of her beloved camellia bushes. Mrs. Dubose then complains to Atticus about this and demands that Jem should read for her for an hour every day after his school, for a month. Atticus insists that Jem should accept the punishment and he does. Scout suggests that she will also accompany Jem to Mrs. Dubose’s house. Jem and Scout do not realize until after she dies that they are helping her break her morphine addiction. After her death, Atticus reveals that Mrs. Dubose was a brave old and lonely woman who needed someone to help him in getting rid of her addiction. Jem provided her that assistance by reading to her. Calpurnia takes them to the local Black church, where the warm and close-knit community largely embraces the children.

When the time of the final trial of Tom comes closer, Atticus’s elder sister Aunt Alexandra comes to know about this, she visits Atticus’s home to help him in keeping good care of the children. Scout doesn’t like Alexandra much because Alexandra is a strict traditional lady who tries to convert Scout from a tomboy to girlish. The night before the trial, Tom is moved into the county jail, and Atticus, fearing a possible lynching, stands guard outside the jail door all night. Jem is concerned about him, and the three children sneak into town to find him. A group of men arrive ready to cause some violence to Tom and threaten Atticus in the process. At first Jem, Scout, and Dill stand aside, but when she senses true danger, Scout runs out and begins to speak to one of the men, the father of one of her classmates in school. Her innocence brings the crowd out of their mob mentality, and they leave.

During the trial, Ewell’s family put forth their evidence. Their statement was that when Bob Ewell was away from his home, Tom came for some household work. Myella was alone at that time and forcibly beat and raped Mayella until her father appeared and scared him away. Atticus argues against this accusation and says that all the marks of bruises on Myella’s face were on the right side of her face, which means she was most likely punched with a left hand. Tom Robinson's left arm is useless due to an old accident, whereas Mr. Ewell leads with his left. Indirectly, he accuses Bob of brutally beating his daughter. The jury notices that Tom’s left hand is useless because of an old injury and there is enough doubt about him being a culprit. People of the black community think that Tom will be freed but after hours of deliberation, the jury pronounces him guilty. Scout, Jem, and Dill sneak into the courthouse to see the trial and sit on the balcony with Maycomb's black population. They are stunned at the verdict because, to them, the evidence was so clearly in Tom's favor. Atticus is still happy that by his logical defense, he forced the jury to take so long for pronouncing the decision. Usually, the decision would be made in minutes, because a black man's word would not be trusted. Atticus thinks about making an appeal and deliberating the jury to reconsider their decision. However, Tom gets frightened of punishment and tries to escape from his prison and is shot to death in the process. Both Scout and Jem are sad about the outcome of the trial as they sense the defeat of their father as the defeat of goodness.

Bob Ewell on the other hand, is angry over Atticus for confronting him and trying to expose him in front of the jury. He decides to take revenge and one night, when Jem and Scout are walking home from the Halloween play at their school, he follows them home in the dark, then runs at them and attempts to kill them with a large kitchen knife. Jem tries to defend themself while Scout, who is wearing a confining ham-shaped wire costume and cannot see what is going on, is helpless throughout the attack. Jem is still a child and cannot do much against Bob Ewell. At the same time, a mysterious man in a black hood comes to the children’s rescue. He snatches Bob’s knife from him and stabs him with that while saving the kids. Jem realizes that the mysterious man is Boo Radley. Boo then take the kids to their home. When Atticus comes to know about it, he informs Hedck Tate, the county sheriff. Mr. Tate Mr. Tate decides to keep Boo's involvement in Mr. Ewell's death quiet. He notes in his file that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife during an alcoholic stupor and thus died. Atticus is not happy about it as he wants Boo Radley to face trial. However, Scout explains to him that Boo Madley is like a mockingbird and that punishing him would be like killing a mockingbird. Scout walks Boo home and imagines how he has viewed the town and observed her, Jem, and Dill over the years from inside his home. Boo goes inside, closes the door, and Scout never sees him again.

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!

Wife by Bharti Mukherjee | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. "Wife" was the second novel by Bharti Mukherjee that was published in 1975. It is the story of Dimple Dasgupta, an Indian girl who faces social and cultural change in the post- Independence India that has made women conscious of the need to define themselves, their place in society, and their surroundings. While Dimple imagines her future as a happily married housewife, she strongly resents her inability to participate in the selection of her husband to be, the arranged marriage has negative consequences for Dimple. Dimple feels treated as property, her feelings totally ignored. Arranged marriage seems to treat the union of husband and wife not as a sacred moment but as a property exchange. She always dreamed of marrying a neurosurgeon but her father chooses an Engineer for her as the bridegroom. Her resentment against the institution of arranged marriage fills her with sadness and a sadistic approach that continues to turn violent and in the end, Dimple kills her husband.

Characters of Wife by Bharti Mukherjee:

Dimple Dasgupta is the main character of the novel. She is a simple Indian girl in her early twenties. She belongs to a middle-class Bengali Brahmin family. She has completed her graduation and is now looking forward to getting married. She hasn’t planned for any career options while her friend Pixie is struggling with typing and shorthand classes to get a job. Dimple hopes of marrying a wonderful man and living a happily married life. While she feels imprisoned at her home, she believes that her marriage will be a liberating experience and after that, she will be having all the fun, partying, and making love with her husband. Dimple’s mother is a traditional Hindu woman who believes in the patriarchial family system and the institution of arranged marriage. She convinces Dimple that her father will find an outstanding husband for her. Amit Basu is a young engineer who has recently got an opportunity to emigrate to the U.S. Unlike Dimple, Amit is a man of serious attitude and philosophical outlook towards life. He is unable to understand the emotional needs of Dimple and expects her to understand her role as a responsible, dutiful wife. Amit is thus, a mismatch for Dimple. Mrs. Basu is Dimple’s mother-in-law who is very critical of Dimple and continues oppressing her. Mrs. Ghose is Amit’s elder sister who is already married. While Amit liked and decided to marry Dimple, Mrs. Ghose makes it clear that Dimple was not the first choice of his family. Jyoti Sen is a friend of Amit in New York City. After migrating to the U.S. Amit and Dimple stay at Jyoti Sen’s home and then they move to an apartment owned by Prodosh and Marsha, who are away on sabbatical. Milt is the brother of Marsha.

Summary of Wife by Bharti Mukherjee:

The story begins as Dimple relishes her girlish fantasy about marriage. She is eager to get married and visions of her prince charming whose amorous advances and glances would drench her with supreme bliss. In Dimple‟s imagination, there is no place for mundane responsibilities and struggle with day-to-day existence like water shortage, electricity failure, and adjustment with in-laws. She believes that marriage will bring liberation to her as she will be free of her mundane virgin life and offer her what she actually wants, parties, glamour, and love. Her friend Pixie is preparing for her professional career as a typist and stenographer. Dimple wants a different kind of life and she values her imagination more than the real life. She dreams to marry a neurosurgeon but as a Hindu girl, Dimple does not have the right to choose her own bridegroom, so cannot guarantee he will come from ―neurosurgeons and architects. She is of average build and she is not very beautiful or fair. Her father, Mr. Dasgupta, an electrical engineer at Calcutta Electric Supply Company, is inclined to look for engineers in the matrimonial ads. Her mother Mrs. Dasgupta keeps convincing her that her father will find an outstanding bridegroom for her. While her parents are hunting for a suitable groom, she starts feeling nervous, sick, and anxious. Her anxieties are also related to the inadequacies of her figure and complexion, as she wants desperately to fit into the slot of an eligible match. She would often write letters to Mrs. Problemwala to provide solutions for her physical and cosmetic problems. But this dream of hers remains unfulfilled as she did not deserve to be the prettiest due to her average beauty. While Dimple is eager to marry and to feel the liberty that she may have after being married, the waiting continues to grow long, and gradually, she starts resenting the idea of marriage when, for prospective match-making, she is displayed as a chattel on several occasions. The condescending discussions regarding her physical features are discussed before her. She feels humiliated and angry but she has to control her emotions.

At last, Mr. Dasgupta invites Amit Basu, an engineer who recently got a chance to emigrate to the U.S. for prospective matchmaking. Amit visits Dimple’s house with his mother Mrs. Basu, and elder sister, Mrs. Ghosh. Mrs. Basu objected to the name Dimple, which she considered too frivolous and unbengali, and the candidate‟s sister, Mrs. Ghose, felt that Dimple was a little darker than the photograph had suggested. Despite that, Amit liked Dimple, and their marriage was fixed.

The next day, Dimple meets Pixie and informs her about her marriage being fixed with Amit, an engineer who is expected to work in the U.S. Dimple shows Amit’s photo to Pixie and she comments, “Your short dark prince charming.” Her comment hits Dimple hard. She always imagined a tall, fair man in her dreams. However, Pixie is too much impressed by Amit and she says, “What a lucky girl you are! You’ll be in America before you know it. ‘ll still be slogging away at my typing and shorthand.”

After the marriage, Dimple comes into Amit’s home in Calcutta, a three-story building on Dr. Sarat Banerjee Road, a place where they live with Mrs. Basu and Pintu, her brother-in-law.

and on the very first day, his sister, Mrs. Ghosh tells her that though Amit liked her, she was not the first choice of his family. She lived a pampered life at her home but she discovers that at her in-law‟s she will have to fill the water from down below, the flat is quite small and the staircase has no light. The demands of the post-marital role fill her with anxieties which include pleasing everybody around. Furthermore, her mother-in-law proves to be too intrusive and won’t even allow her to choose the colors of the curtains and bedsheets in her and Amit’s bedroom. Life after marriage appears much more restrictive to Dimple now as her dreams shatter. She continued to suffer while repressing her emotions in the hope that soon she will go to the U.S. with Amit where she will have a chance to fulfill her dreams. Amit, on the other hand, is unaware of Dimple’s emotional tussles. Like any traditionally brought-up Indian husband, he does not know how to pay a compliment to his wife. He would like her to reside at home and focus on the household chores rather than go out, work, and earn. The culture he is born in requires of him to earn and grant for the future whatever the cost and he withdraws his love and other emotional attachments from his wife in a recreation of the cultural aims.

However, one day she gets a chance to vent out all her repressed anger as she finds a mouse nibbling on her clothes. She decides to hit the mouse as hard as possible. In an outburst of hatred, her body shuddering, her wrist taut with fury, she smashed the head of the mouse. Dimple noticed that the mouse had a strangely swollen fat belly. She realized that the mouse was pregnant. By that time, she was also pregnant with Amit’s child. However, she doesn’t want to be a mother. She feels that the growing fetus in her womb is a parasite, She feels that there is a property of Basu even in her belly that she cannot accept. She decides to jump rope to escape pregnancy. Symbolically, in her rejection of the pregnancy, she rejects Amit.

At last, Amit is ordered to shift to his office in the U.S. However, Amit doesn’t have a proper arrangement of residence there. Thus, Amit and Dimple stay in Queens and live with another joint family in the flat of Amit’s friend, Jyoti Sen. In the U.S. too, Dimple again fails to find freedom. Furthermore, she is not very fluent in English and she is too rooted in Indianness. Thus, she fails to find any social circle in the U.S. While Amit gets busy with his official work for most of the part of the day, Dimple had nothing else to do but to watch TV programs. Gradually, she develops an interest in TV programs showing murder cases. After some months, Amit and Dimple move to a sophisticated part of New York, Manhattan. They live in a luxurious apartment that belongs to Jyoti’s friends, Prodosh and Marsha, who are away on sabbatical. In this apartment, they are freed from joint family life for a while. However, Dimple now realizes that Amit is no company for her and they are mismatched. For Dimple, life was like a dream of luxuries, fashion, glamour, and love. Amit is more philosophical and pragmatic. He knows he is the bread earner and he has to spend most of his time at his work. He expects Dimple to please her whenever he gets some free time as if she is bound to serve her. Back in India, she still had some ways to vent out her frustrations but in the U.S. she suffers complete loneliness and alienation. The New York life appears to prove particularly destructive to Dimple. Her frustration continues to grow. One day, Milt, an American white man arrives at her door when Amit is at the office. He is the brother of Marsha, the landlady of the apartment where Amit and Dimple are living. In order to feel her freedom, Dimple tries to seduce Milt in her bedroom. She wishes him to do her. However, Milt refuses to indulge and goes away. That same evening when Amit returns from the office, she attacks him with the kitchen knife. She stabs him seven times, each time a little harder. She murders Amit as a symbol of acceptance of her shattered dreams. Killing Amit becomes her way to announce her liberty from Amit’s patriarchal rules.

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

The Tiger’s Daughter by Bharti Mukherjee | Chracters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Bharti Mukherjee was an Indian-born American-Canadian writer who was born on July 27 1940 into a Hindu-Bengali Brahmin family of Calcutta. Her father was a businessman during the British Raj. During her childhood, she visited Europe for a tour with her family and after completing her graduation from the University of Calcutta, she went to the U.S. for higher studies at the University of Iowa. Her first novel was The Tiger’s Daughter which though is a fictional story, resembles much of her own life story. The Tiger’s Daughter was published in 1971. In 1977, Bharti Mukherjee and her husband Clark Blaise published an autobiographical memoir titled “Days and Nights in Calcutta” in which Bharti mentioned her issues and problems as an expatriate Indian who returned to India after many years in Canada and the U.S. In that memoir, Bharti explained why her life in the U.S. is much better and how she now doesn’t like the Indian society and culture which she used to love and miss during her days in America. During her one-year sabbatical leave in 1973 that she spent in India with her husband, Bharti realized that India is infested with a denuded tradition of poverty, squalor, and turbulence. She noticed her issues with the patriarchial family system in her own house and ultimately, she decided to return to the U.S. for her own good.

Similar is the storyline of The Tiger’s Daughter. The main theme of the novel is how an Indian immigrant finds him or herself divided between their native cultural roots and the new cultural ties and habits they have developed in their new world. Bharti Mukherjee asserts that the immigrants who move to America come with the belief that they will have a fair chance to better their lives, as there are ample opportunities if one is willing to work hard. 

Characters of The Tiger’s Daughter:

Tara Banerjee Cartwright is the main character of the novel. Tara is an Indian girl who was born into a wealthy Bengali Brahmin Family. Her great-grandfather was Harilal Banerjee who was a successful entrepreneur during the British Raj and made a vast fortune. Her father is known as the Bengal Tiger because of his temperament. He owns the famous Banerjee and Thomas (Tobacco) Co. Ltd. Though Tara was born in British India, she got the finest education in a convent school, and she spent her holidays in Europe. At 15, Tara is sent to America for higher studies. In the U.S. she faces difficulties because of racism but her experiences with the Belgian nuns of her convent school help her in adjusting to the new circumstances to a certain extent. In the U.S., Tara accidentally meets David Cartwright and falls in love with him. The two get married and start living together. However, Tara still misses her childhood days in India and despite being married to a native white man and being in love with him, she feels alien in the U.S. After seven years of their marriage, she decides to go back to India. However, she finds that her relatives in India find her too much ‘Westernized.’ She fails to assimilate with her own family members who are still traditional and decides to go back to her husband in the U.S. as she discovers that she is no more an Indian but a naturalized American.

Summary of The Tiger’s Daughter:

Tara Banerjee is a young Indian girl belonging to an upper-rich class Bengali Brahmin family. She is the only girl in her home and thus, she is being pampered by her parents. Her father is a well-known rich and successful businessman in the city of Calcutta whom people often call the Bengal Tiger. Tara enjoys all perks of being rich and is admitted to a posh convent school where she learns the Western culture and ways with the help of the Belgian nuns of her school. The Belgian nuns had taught her to inject the correct quantity of venom into words like ‘common’ and ‘vulgar.’ For Tara –the daughter of affluent, Bengali Brahmin parents,  the ‘foreignness’ began to a great degree with her privileged Catholic education at St Blaise’s, with Belgian nuns in ‘long black habits’ who taught from a point of racial and moral pre-eminence and with teaching resources from the West.

Being a young child, susceptible to impersonation, Tara starts liking the Western ideas and ways while criticizing the Indian culture and ethos. Yet, her mother is a traditional Hindu housewife who regularly performs Puja and rituals at her home and Tara is learning that too. At the tender age of fifteen, her father sends Tara to the U.S. for higher studies. Tara is not comfortable in her University hostel room in the U.S. She feels alone and alienated when nobody is like her. She faces racial discrimination and within a week, she wants to return home but that is not possible and thus, she tries to adjust to the demands of a different world. Her convent education and the teachings of the Belgian nuns at St. Blaise School in Calcutta helps her during this process. However, she roots in her Indianness and experience and to cherish it, she vehemently takes out all her red silk scarves and hangs them around to give the apartment a more Indian look. She tries to create a Hindu temple in her apartment and starts worshipping Maa Kali every day for strength so that she would not break down before the Americans. Time passes, and despite all the discrimination and alienation she faces in America, she develops some friendly relationships at her University. Gradually her thinking and psyche start accepting American ways.

One day, during an educational tour, she visits the Greyhound bus station (at Madison), and in her anxiety to find a cab, she almost knocked down a young man. This young man is David Cartwright. They develop a rapport and gradually they start loving each other. Tara decides to marry the man and becomes his wife. She informs her family after her marriage. For some months, Tara enjoys her new life as the wife of an American man. She feels she is not alienated anymore and she is a naturalized American. Still, her Indianness keeps reminding her of the good old days of her childhood. To preserve her nativeness she continues to retain her maiden surname after her marriage. Her husband too asks her about her life and family in India and she finds it difficult to explain her cultural roots to him. Gradually, it becomes a burden to her and she decides to return to India.

After seven years, Tara returns to India and is received by her relatives. They greet her by her childhood nickname Tultul to which she gets offended. She now perceives every Indian thing with the eyes of an American. The railway station looks like a hospital with so many sick and deformed men sitting on the bundles and trunks. In the compartment, she finds it difficult to travel with a Marwari and a Nepali. Now she considers America a dreamland. When surrounded by her relatives and vendors at the Howrah railway station Tara feels uncomfortable. She likely hates everyone and everything in India where she was born, brought up and taught many values, all because of her acculturation in America. At her home too, she feels the same alienation that she used to feel during her early days in America. Her mother still continues to follow her daily spiritual rituals. Tara tries to assimilate with her family by entering the house temple and participating in the rituals. Tara feels that she has forgotten many of her Hindu rituals of worshipping icons she had seen her mother performing since her childhood. She is convinced of her alienation when she forgets the next steps of the ritual after the sandalwood paste had been grounded “It was not a simple loss, Tara feared, this forgetting of prescribed actions; it was a little death, a hardening of the heart, a cracking of axis and center.” Her mother is also offended by the fact that Tara married without her family’s consent to an American whom Tara’s mother and all her relatives call Mlechcha. Tara had willfully abandoned her caste by marrying a foreigner. Perhaps her mother was offended that she, no longer a real Brahmin, nor a Hindu, was constantly in and out of this sacred room, dipping like a crow and polluting it. Her relatives follow their general Indian ways and Tara would find ills in them and will voice her opinions. This started offending her relatives too who felt that Americanization has made Tara arrogant. Tara suffers alienation too much and decides to go and stay at a hotel with her friends. However, she gets embroiled in a local riot. The riotous and destructive mob outside the Catelli-Continental hotel is merciless. Jittery, shivery, and encased within a car surrounded by ruthless humanity, Tara feels the vulnerability of mortals. In those nervous moments, she realizes that her reconciliation and assimilation with her Indian roots are meaningless. She finds nothing loveable and appreciable in India which is marred with poverty, diseases, hunger, patriarchal oppression, and communal riots. Thus, she decides to return back to David, her husband in America.

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

The Rambler A Periodical Journal by Samuel Johnson

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Samuel Johnson began his literary career as a contributor for the weekly newspaper The Birmingham Journal which used to be published on every Thursday. Johnson began contributing to the Birmingham Journal in 1733 and in October 1737, Johnson joined The Gentlean’s Magazine as a contributor. While his essays in The Gentleman’s Magazine were of political nature, he began contributing to another magazine titled The Rambler in 1750. The Rambler was published on Tuesdays and Saturdays in London from 1750 to 1752. A total number of 208 articles were published in The Rambler and all but four of them were written by Samuel Johnson. The publisher of the periodical journal was John Payne who paid two guineas to Samuel Johnson for each of his articles. Unlike Richard Steele’s The Tatler (1709-1711), and Steele and Joseph Addison’s The Spectator (1711-1714), the essays of The Rambler were more serious in nature. Obviously, The Rambler didn’t get the same popularity as that of The Spectator, however, The Rambler was widely respected for the quality and power of the writing and the masterful use of language and rhetoric.

The major subjects discussed in the essays of The Rambler were morality, literature, society, politics, and religion. The Rambler didn’t prove to be a financial success but the essays written by Samuel Johnson for The Rambler became a huge success after being reissued, with the essays revised, in volume form in 1753.

Purpose of The Rambler: It was a period when the middle class of Britain was gaining strength. Literacy rates were high in England and the middle-class people were proving to be a strong force in the economy of Britain. As a result, they now had a more vibrant relationship with the upper middle class and aristocratic class of England. While the economic and social differences between the aristocratic class and middle class were diminishing, did not possess the social and intellectual tools to integrate into those higher social circles which required a great understanding of subjects including morality, literature, society, politics, and religion. John Payne and Samuel Johnson decided to write and publish copies of The Rambler in essay form which were made cheaply available for the middle-class people. The purpose was to help middle-class people in understanding the intricacies of varied subjects. Samuel Johnson was already a distinguished Man of Letters and the essays of The Rambler further strengthened his position as an intellectual of the Age of Enlightenment. In the fourth edition of The Rambler, Johnson explicitly commented that the purpose of The Rambler is to provide intellectual profit and literary delight to those who read his work. All these essays were didactic in nature but Samuel Johnson made sure that his essays may not appear as instructive manuals but rather may be read with an explorative attitude.

Initially, all the essays of The Rambler were published under the pseudonym The Rambler. However, in 1753, all 204 essays written by Samuel Johnson for the journal were published under his name. In these essays, Johnson often included his comments on his own experience of universal human anxieties and frustrations: The Rambler is a sage and a moralist, but he is also constitutionally indolent. Taken together these essays embody Johnson's belief that the author as a moralist must improve the world: they have little to do with contemporary political, social, or literary events, but the Rambler's comments on his society and on the human condition are characteristically ponderous, shrewd, ironic, compassionate, wise, and enormously perceptive.

One can compare Samuel Johnson’s essays in The Rambler with those of Francis Bacon’s Essays Civil and Moral. Samuel Johnson often included quotes and ideas from Renaissance humanists such as Desiderius Erasmus and René Descartes in his Essays for The Rambler and this is why his writings in The Rambler are considered neoclassical in nature.

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

Irene a Neoclassical Tragedy by Samuel Johnson | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Irene is a Neoclassical tragedy play written by Samuel Johnson that was first performed on 6^th February 1749. It is the only play that Samuel Johnson wrote and though he continued revising the play for a long period, he concluded that the play was a disaster after it was performed. He began writing the play in 1726 and he dedicated the play to his wife Elizabeth Johnson who was also known as Tetty who liked the play and believed that it will be a success. Samuel Johnson wrote the play in blank verse. Johnson completed the play in 1736 but couldn’t find a patron for its performance. In 1737, the British government announced the censorship act on theatres and it became difficult for Johnson to arrange the performance of his play. Irene was first performed in 1749 when Johnson’s former student and friend David Garrick decided to stage it. Many critics comment that the play might have worked well had Johnson chosen to write it in rhyme and not in blank verse which makes the play a moral preaching.

The play is based on the history of the Ottoman Empire and concerns the fate of Irene, a Greek slave loved by the emperor Sultan Mahomet. Johnson used Richard Knolles’s General Historie of the Turks as a reference that was published in 1602. He also used material from George Sandys's Relation of a Journey...containing a Description of the Turkish Empire (1615), Herbelot's Bibliothèque Orientale (1697), and Humphrey Prideaux's Life of Mahomet (1697).

The original documents suggested that the Ottoman Sultan Mahomet invaded and conquered Constantinople in 1453 and imprisoned a Greek Christian named Irene. He was enchanted by her beauty and decided to make her his mistress. He got so enamored by her that he began neglecting his duties and responsibilities as a monarch. He would spend most of his time with Irene, pursuing her romantically. The neglect of his duties resulted in riots and rebellion among his subjects. To bring order back, he murdered Irene by himself to prove his dedication towards his people.

Samuel Johnson fictionalized this incident to offer a view of Irene’s temptation.

Characters of Irene:

The main character of the play is Irene, a Greek Christian young girl who is captured by Ottoman invader Sultan Mahomet. Irene is a devoted Christian but the temptation of life and power persuades her to change her faith. Sultan Mahomet is an able administrator and a warrior. Aspasia is another Greek Christian girl, a friend of Irene who is also captured by the Ottomans. She is a devout Christian and maintains her faith. Cali Bassa is the prime Visier of Sultan Mahomet who warns him about the deteriorating administrative situation. Mustafa is a Turkish Aga honored by Sultan Mahomet. Abdalla is a military officer of Sultan Mahomet and he likes Aspasia and wishes to marry her but his love remains unrequited. Demetrius is a Greek nobleman whom Aspasia loves. He and Aspasia conspire against the invaders. Though Demetrius succeeds in freeing Aspasia, their conspiracy to topple the empire fails.

Summary of Irene:

The play begins as the Ottoman army celebrates its victory over Constantinople. The Ottoman emperor Sultan Mahomet is the new ruler of Constantinople. The Ottoman army has captured some Christians as prisoners and Irene is one of them. When Sultan Mahomet sees Irene, he finds her extremely beautiful and decides to keep her as his mistress. While he intends to use her as his personal slave, Irene with her beauty and intelligence, impresses him too much and he falls in love with her. He continues spending most of his time with her as he is romantically involved with her and wishes to marry her. However, Sultan’s too indulgence with a Christian slave creates tension among his subjects. His prime Visier Cali Bassa and Aga Mustafa do not like Irene because she is the reason why the Sultan is now neglecting his duties as the emperor. Meanwhile, Sultan’s military officer Abdalla falls in love with Aspasia, another Greek Christian prisoner who is a friend of Irene. He takes the help of Irene in pursuing Aspasia. When Irene informs Aspasia about Abdalla’s interest in her, Aspasia clearly says that she would prefer a life of celibacy in a convent rather than becoming a mistress of a Turk. Aspasia ridicules Irene for falling for worldly charms while ruining her faith.

Meanwhile, Mustafa and Cali Bassa engage in a power tussle to gather more political power among the subjects as Sultan Mahomet is ignoring his official duties. This power tussle creates mismanagement and the Ottoman administration bears the burden in the form of riots among citizens. Demetrius, the Greek nobleman and lover of Aspasiaplans takes advantage of the situation and he creates further tension among the people. As situations worsen, prime Visier Cali Bassa earnestly requests the Sultan to take care of his regime or he will face a revolt. Mahomet finally decides to take control of the situation. He offers Irene a proposal that if she accepts Islam, he will make her his queen. Irene is tempted to accept the proposal as she will be the queen of the strongest empire she knows of. She discusses the matter with Aspasia who again ridicules her and breaks all her friendly relationship with her. Irene gets enraged. She curses Aspasia and declares that she will accept Islam and will be the queen of Sultan Mahomet while Aspasia may continue with her faith and languish in prison.

Sultan Mahomet fulfills his promise and Irene becomes his queen who has accepted Islam. However, Vissier Bassa and Aga Mustafa are against this marriage and consider it immoral. They conspire against Sultan Mahomet and take the help of Demetrius in fanning the fire of riots in the city areas. Abdalla and Mustafa present inform Sultan Mahomet about the riots in such a manner that suggests that Irene is conspiring against him with the help of Demetrius and his associates. Sultan Mahomet is convinced that Bassa, with Irene's complicity, is plotting against him. This enrages him and fills his heart with hatred for Irene. He decides to punish her. Two of Abdalla’s captains attack Irene but before she dies, she succeeds in meeting Sultan Mahomet. In her dying moments, she reveals that she never conspired against him. She makes it clear that Bassa had conspired against the Sultan with the help of Demetrius and Aspasia whom Demetrius loved. Demetrius helped Bassa to get Aspasia back. She informs him that Demetrius and Aspasia have safely escaped from the prison. Mahomet investigates all the claims made by Irene and confirms that she was telling the truth but now she is dead and he is distraught by knowing that she was loyal to him.

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

The Murders in The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Edgar Allan Poe is known as the inventor of detective fiction. He created the first fictional detective character named C. Auguste Dupin who first appeared in his short story The Murders in The Rue Morgue which was published in 1841. Dupin reappeared in his two other stories The Mystery of Marie Roger (1842), and The Purloin Letter (1844). Poe created the character of Dupin much before the term ‘detective’ was coined. Dupin displays many traits that were later copied by subsequent fictional detectives including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

The Murders in The Rue Morgue is a short story and is the first published detective story and the first locked room mystery ever that was published in 1841 in Philadelphia literary journal Graham's Magazine and then in Poe's own 1845 short story collection Tales of Mystery and the Imagination.

Characters of The Murders in The Rue Morgue:

Monsieur C. Augustus Dupin is a young man of considerable intellect and creative imagination. He is living in Paris. He is not a professional detective but he has a desire for truth. He is a master of analytical reasoning who solves crimes by examining everything and by placing himself in the mind of the criminal. The unnamed narrator is an expatriate who is on an extended visit to Paris where he meets C. Auguste Dupin who happens to be his roommate. He becomes a close friend of C. Auguste Dupin. The narrator is intelligent but does not have the same insight as his associate. He chronicles the mysteries in a way that displays admiration for his friend's abilities. Madame L'Espanaye is an old woman who becomes a victim of a double murder at the Rue Morgue. She is found with her throat deeply slit and her body mangled. She has a daughter named Camille L'Espanaye who is found strangled and stuffed into a chimney in the double murder. Adolphe Le Bon is a bank clerk who once helped Dupin. He recently delivered four thousand francs to the L'Espanayes three days before their brutal murder. He is arrested despite a lack of evidence, and Dupin chooses to help him because he helped him in the past. The Sailor is a Frenchman from a Maltese ship, and he shows up at Dupin's door in answer to Dupin's ad seeking the owner of a lost Ourangutan. Monsieur G. Is the Perfect (high officer) of the Parisian Police. He is not as imaginative as Dupin. When Dupin offers him assistance in solving the double murder case, he accepts his help. Although he is not appreciative of the help.

Summary of The Murders in The Rue Morgue:

The story begins as the narrator offers a monologue and discusses the importance of analytical reasoning. To strengthen his argument about analytical reasoning, he offers an example, a story from his past when he was on an extended visit to Paris where he met Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin is a poor young man though he splurges on books. The narrator first met Dupin in a library in Paris where they were searching for a rare book. Both became friends and decided to live together in seclusion in a gloomy old mansion. Since Dupin didn’t have much money, the narrator offered to pay the rent. The narrator was impressed by Dupin’s analytic abilities which Dupin attributes to his understanding of people's thoughts. Dupin shows his mental abilities by exactly guessing the narrator’s thoughts while observing his body language and recalling former conversations.

One day, the narrator sees a news article about a set of murders that had occurred that morning at three A.M. in the Rue Morgue. People heard screams from the fourth story of a house in the Rue Morgue belonging to Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter Camille. When they checked, they found that the house was locked from inside. Somehow, they broke in and they heard multiple angry voices from the upper portion of the house that soon faded away. As they searched the house, they found a locked room on the fourth floor of the house. They broke in and saw that the room was totally destroyed and contained, among other things, a bloody razor, clumps of grey hair, and two bags with four thousand francs in gold. The iron safe was totally damaged but it seemed as if nothing was stolen. Then they saw the fresh corpse of Camille L’Espanaye, the young girl whose body had been forced feet first into the chimney; her face was scratched, and her throat was bruised as if she had been strangled. They found the dead body of her mother, Madam L’Espanaye in the backyard with her throat so deeply cut, probably by the razor, that her head fell off when she was picked up, and with her body extremely mutilated by some heavy, blunt object.

The murdered mother and daughter were rich and very fond of each other. They were living in that house for over six years and they didn’t have any close living relatives. Some men claimed that on the night of the incident, they heard two voices from the fourth floor of the house. One of the voices was gruff, male, and French, and the other shrill, foreign, and strange. A witness confirmed that the French voice shouted, "sacré" (holy), "diable" (devil), and "mon dieu!" (My God!), but he couldn’t understand what the other shrill voice said.

A banker revealed that Madame L'Espanaye withdrew four thousand francs in gold three days before her death. Adolphe Le Bon was the clerk who visited L’Espanaye’s house to deliver the money. The police arrested Adoplhe as a suspect in the double murder despite lacking evidence.

When Dupin came to know about the case, he got very interested because he felt it was impossible and also because he was sympathetic to Adolphe Le Bon, the bank clerk who helped Dupin in the past. He criticizes the Parisian police for arresting Adolphe and decides to meet the Prefect of Police to obtain permission to investigate for himself. The Perfect is Monsieur G. whom Dupin knew well. He allows Dupin to visit the crime scene. Dupin and the narrator visit the Rue Morgue. Dupin examines all the evidence carefully and then they return to their mansion. The next day, Dupin asks the narrator if he saw something strange in the house of L’Espanaye and again criticizes the police for arresting Adolphe who Dupin believes is innocent.

Dupin says that the voices that people heard were not female and hence it could not have been a murder-suicide. He further exclaims that all the witnesses are of different nationalities but all of them identified the shrill voice as a foreign one. None could understand the words of the shrill voice. Dupin then says that the room was on the fourth floor and it was locked from inside. The murderer must have disappeared through the windows in the chamber. He says that the windows must have a concealed spring that allows the windows to fasten themselves. He further says that though it is difficult to climb up the wall for the fourth floor, someone of extraordinary athletic ability could have climbed up a nearby lightning pole and jumped onto a window shutter. He further asserts his belief in Adolphe’s innocence and says that the motive of money is unlikely, since no one took the money, and the bureau's drawers might not actually be missing any articles.

The narrator asks him who could be the murderer to which Dupin answers that the culprit is one with an unidentifiable voice, superhuman power, and agility, a penchant for butchery, and no significant motive. He says that no human could have so much power to stuff the daughter so firmly up the chimney, pull such great clumps of hair from the old lady's head, or slit the lady's throat with so much force from a razor. He also says that the old woman’s body was mangled which might have happened because she fell from the window of the fourth floor to the backyard. The police ignored it because they believed that the window was sealed. The narrator interjects and says that the culprit must be a madman. Dupin then shows him a few hairs that he collected from the fingers of Madame L'Espanaye. He says that the hair is of the culprit that Madam L-Espanaye caught while struggling against her. He says that the hair is not of any man.

Dupin then draws a sketch that exactly depicts the bruises and fingernail marks on the victim's throat. Dupin mentions that the fingernail impressions suggest that the throat of the victim was held and strangled by a huge hand, too large for a man. He then suggests that maybe it was the paw of an Orangutan. Dupin says that when the Orangutan was attacking the ladies, the other man, who probably was the owner of the Orangutan, shouted "Mon Dieu." He must have been horrified and probably tried to stop the Orangutan and save the ladies, but he failed.

Dupin then informs the narrator that he found a ribbon featuring a sailor's knot that is common among the Maltese. He says that the other man must be a sailor from Malta who own an Orangutan. He might have used the sailor’s knot to climb up the lighting pole. Thus, Dupin devices a plan. He issues an advertisement in the newspapers that says that he has taught an Orangutan and the owner may contact him to take the animal back. As expected, the French sailor arrives at the narrator’s mansion. As the sailor enters, Dupin locks the door from inside and then shows his pistol to the sailor and commands him to tell the truth about the deaths at the Rue Morgue. Dupin says that he believes that the Sailor too is innocent but it is a must for the sailor to confess what he witnessed to save Adolphe who has been wrongly accused of the double murder.

The French sailor admits that he caught an Orangutan in Borneo and he was expecting to sell it at a high price. The Orangutan once noticed the sailor shaving his beard by using a razor. On the same night, the Orangutan broke free and was holding the same razor. The sailor tried to control the Orangutan by using a whip but that angered the animal and it ran away. The sailor followed the Orangutan to the Rue Morgue and saw him climbing on the lighting pole from where it jumped into the fourth floor of the house of L’Espanaye. The sailor used a sailor’s knot and climbed up to the window, but he was slow. From the window, the sailor saw that the two women were arranging some papers into the iron safe when the Orangutan appeared and attacked the old woman with the razor and seized her hair. The girl was horrified and she fainted. As the old lady screamed in pain and horror, the Orangutan got enraged and he slit her throat and strangled the girl. The sailor shouted in disbelief and horror but his shout threatened the Orangutan too and in fear, the animal rampaged nervously, damaging the room and dragging the mattress from the bed. The Orangutan then shoved the body of the girl into the chimney and angrily threw the body of the old woman to the window from where the sailor was watching him. The sailor got away and climbed down through the lighting pole. The Orangutan too escaped out from the window before anyone could see it and the windows got locked back when it got out by the spring lock system.

Dupin takes the sailor to the police where he offers his statement. The police notice that neither Adolphe Le Bon, nor the sailor are culprits and they release them both. However, Monsieur G. Is embarrassed and he shouts at Dupin and tells him not to interfere in police matters again. Dupin ignores Monsieur G. and tells the narrator that the police Perfect is too cunning and ingenious, but he lacks analytical ability. Later on, the sailor recaptures the Orangutan and sells it to a zoo.

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!