Waiting for the Mahatma by R. K. Narayan | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Waiting for a Mahatma is a novel by R. K. Narayan that was published in 1955. The novel is set in the fictional town of Malgudi. The story begins during the late 1930s and culminates in Independent India on the day that Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.  In Waiting for the Mahatma, Narayan presented a fictional story with Mahatma Gandhi as a character. Obviously, the whole story revolves around Mahatma Gandhi and depicts that while Gandhi is leading a huge movement, most of the common Indians hardly comprehend his vision. Yet, they are attached to his movement for their own narrow ends. The novel is a light-hearted comic satire depicting the shallow realities of common men captured in the pre-independence rhetoric of freedom and independence and how the ambitious goals of Gandhi’s movement were forgotten or reduced to mere ideals following India’s independence on August 15, 1947. The novel is divided into five chapters in which R. K. Narayan offers a peek into the spirit of nationalism, the champion of nationalism, true and superficial followers of Bapu, and the pangs of Partition.

Characters of Waiting for the Mahatma :

Sriram is the protagonist of the novel. He is a young man in his early twenties belonging to a middle-class, upper-caste family in British India. Sriram is a reckless, lazy, and complacent high school graduate who declined the option of higher studies. He lives with his doting grandmother who is her guardian as he lost both his parents during his childhood. Sriram is an insipid gullible person. While Sriram is a wayward selfish modernist materialist person with no awareness of the freedom struggle, he falls in love with Bharti an orphan girl who was raised by Sevak Sangh, a Gandhian institute as a foster daughter of Mahatma Gandhi. Kanni is a shopkeeper in Malgudi. He is a greedy shopkeeper but doesn’t cheat on Sriram at the time of his nee. Natesh is the corrupt Municipal Chairman of Malgudi. Gorpad is an assistant of Mahatma Gandhi working with Bharti. Jagdish is a hypocrite pseudo-nationalist, a pseudo-Gandhian man who traps Sriram in his petty plans of destruction and robbery while using the name of Subhash Chandra Bose and pretending to be in touch with the Indian Nationalist Army.

Summary of Waiting for the Mahatma :

The novel begins as Sriram, is preparing for the celebration of his twentieth birthday. He is a careless, lazy person who lost his parents during his childhood. His father died as a soldier of the British Army and the regular pension received by his grandmother helped her raise him with love and care. On his twentieth birthday, his grandmother offers him control of the lumpsum cash that she saved in the bank in his name. Sriram is very excited about this money and he decides to withdraw a huge amount of Rs 250. His grandmother realizes that though he is an adult now, he still is reckless and irresponsible and thus, restricts the withdrawal limit to Rs 50 only.

Sriram continues to squander his dead father’s money while he ignores the chance of going to college for higher studies after completing his high school education. Four years pass by and one day, he learns that Mahatma Gandhi is visiting Malgudi. He decides to go and listen to Gandhi’s speech. Sriram fails to comprehend Mahatma Gandhi’s message. When Gandhi raises the issue of untouchability, Sriram remembers how his granny always kept the scavenger a good ten yards away by adopting a bullying tone and how he added fuel to the fire by taunting him; he also recollects that the scavenger went about with his work, unmoved.

During the meeting, he sees a beautiful young girl seeking donations. Sriramis unaware of the purpose of the donation but offers eight Annas (50 paise) in her box and tries to know her age, caste, eligibility for marriage, etc but doesn’t ask her name. The girl goes away after collecting money and Sriram makes it a goal to know everything about her.

A jaggery merchant informs him that the girl’s name is Bharati and she is a member of Sevak Sangh, an organization run by Mahatma Gandhi. Sriram comes to know that Bharati’s parents died during the Satyagrah movement during her childhood and she was adopted by Sevak Sangh as the foster child of Mahatma Gandhi. Sriram is in love with Bharti and thus, he decides to join Mahatma Gandhi’s movement. Bharti takes him to Gandhi who easily reads what kind of person Sriram is. Gandhi tells him, “Before you aspire to drive British from this country you must drive every vestige of violence from your system. You must train yourself to become a hundred percent ‘Ahimsa soldier’.” Gandhi advises him to leave his materialistic self behind and accept a spiritual life.

Sriram follows Gandhi during his visit to the the office of Municipal Chairman of Malgudi, who decorates his office walls with posters of Gandhian leaders to please Mahatma Gandhi and tries to host the Mahatma in his mansion but Gandhi declines. Mahatma Gandhi schedules a visit to the sweeper’s colony and Sriram tails him there too. Sriram notices that Natesh managed to prepare the sweeper’s colony well before Gnadhi’s visit as it appears well managed and free from all the garbage which is usually strewn all over.

Sriram insists that he wishes to become a Gandhian volunteer but comes to know that there are certain requirements like truthfulness and discipline, to become one. Bharti tells him that he may become a volunteer provided his grandmother permits him. Sriram goes home and discusses his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi with his grandmother who is not in favor of the freedom movement and Mahatma’s doctrine of Ahimsa. Sriram realizes that he won’t get permission and thus, he decides to leave home without informing his grandmother. He leaves behind a note of farewell and goes into Gandhiji’s camp.

Soon Gandhi is arrested for raising the Quit India Movement. Sriram is given the task to inform common people and villagers in the nearby areas about the movement. Sriram must paint the words, “Quit India,” on every possible surface across all the villages around Malgudi. Sriram notices that not many people believe in Indians’ capabilities of self-governance. He notices that many people pretend to be supporters and donators of Gandhi’s movement but continue to indulge in deforestation and assistance to the British. He meets some British people too who claim that they are too attached to India and wouldn’t like to leave. Overall, people are confused and continue to follow their double standards to fulfill their needs. Sriram too faces confusion and wonders if wasting ink on other people’s walls will bring independence. Meanwhile, Bharti decides to join Gandhi in jail and asks Sriram to surrender to the police with her. However, Sriram rejects her request and says that he will continue to work for the movement from outside. He asks if she will marry him at the end of all this to which she says that if Gandhi permits, she will.

Now when Sriram is alone, he falls prey to his gullible nature. A pseudo-Gandhian named Jagdeesh starts influencing him. He is a photographer who wears a Khadi and pretends to be Gandhian but continues to say that Gandhi’s Ahimsa cannot bring independence and they need to fight and harm the British government. He takes Sriram to a temple in Mephi hills where he sets his bunker. Jagdish manages a secret radio and pretends to be in contact with Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj. Sriram becomes a robotic slave of Jagdish and follows each of his whims. He engages Sriram in setting fire to the records of a few law courts, derailing a couple of trains, and paralyzing the work in some schools and colleges. He even teaches Sriram how to make a crude bomb. Soon Sriram becomes a ‘Wanted’ criminal while Bharti is in jail. Sriram knows that Gandhi won’t approve of whatever he is doing.

One day, he goes to meet Bharti who informs him that his grandmother is very ill and he must visit her before she passes away. Sriram goes to his home in disguise but Kanni, the shopkeeper recognizes him. Instead of reporting to the police and getting the reward for helping in catching the ‘Wanted’ criminal, Kanni helps him and informs him that his grandmother is dead. Sriram asks for some money to perform the last rites of her dead grandmother and Kanni offers him all the money needed for that. However, just before Sriram is about to light the pyre, his grandmother revives. He calls a doctor who declares that his grandmother is living and fine. He takes her home but the police get an inkling about his visit to Kabir Street and he gets arrested. Before leaving, Sriram requests Kanni to take care of their grandmother to which Kanni promises he will. Sriram is jailed for a rigorous punishment. His life in jail is difficult as his inmates bully him after knowing that he is a Gandhian. Meanwhile, his grandmother shifts and goes to Benaras while leaving his house in Kabir Street on rent. But Sriram is a criminal prisoner so he isn’t freed. After some days, he learns that India is now free. At last, Sriram is also released from jail as the regime changes. Sriram meets Jagdish who shows him his pictures assisting Gandhi and says that he did so much work for Gandhi but wasn’t recognized and he didn’t get any position of power. Sriram feels guilty for helping such a selfish ego-centric, corrupt person. Jagdish informs him that Bharti was released much earlier than him as she was recognized as a political prisoner while Sriram was a criminal prisoner. He informs that Bharti is in Noakhli in East Bengal where communal riots were on. Sriram writes a letter to her. Bharti answers his letter telling him to meet her on January 14th in New Delhi. Sriram takes a train to New Delhi. On meeting Bharti, Sriram asks if she has taken Gandhi’s permission to marry him. Bharti informs that she didn’t get a chance to talk about it because she and Gandhi were very busy first with the independence movement and then with the sudden break of violence among Hindus and Muslims that resulted in the partition of the nation. At last, she asks Gandhi’s permission for her marriage to Sriram and Gandhi consents to their marriage. Gandhi says that the next day is very auspicious for their marriage and tells them to marry on the very next day and offers to officiate and also give the bride away. After some thinking, he says that he may not be able to attend their marriage but even if he fails to attend, they must marry on the same day.

The night before they plan to be wed, Gandhi is shot and assassinated.

This is it for today. We will keep discussing the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with The Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

An Essay on Man Epistle 1 by Alexander Pope | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. An Essay on Man is a long philosophical poem by Alexander Pope that was first published in the year 1734. The philosophical basis of the poem was based on Henry St. John, 1^st Viscount Boolingbrooke. Pope dedicated the poem to him and mentioned him in the very first couplet of the poem “Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things / To low ambition, and the pride of kings.”

The Design

The poem is written in Heroic Couplet which remained the favorite of Alexander Pope for all his works. Unlike his other satirical works that often depicted the sad pessimistic situations of society (The Rape of the Lock/ The Dunciad etc.) this poem is very optimistic. As the title suggests, the poem is about Man in the abstract, his Nature, and his State. The poem has four verse parts and the beginning prose part. The first part is The Design which is a brief explanation of the aim of the poem written in prose. In The Design, Pope mentions that he chose to write his idea in verse because it is easier to be concise in verse.

John Milton made a claim in the opening lines of Paradise Lost that he will "justifie the wayes of God to men." Pope makes a similar claim in The Design and says that the poem is an effort to "vindicate the ways of God to man." Unlike John Milton, who based Paradise Lost on Biblical events, Pope didn’t mention any of it. An Essay on Man is not a Biblical allegory. Rather it is concerned with the natural order God has decreed for man. Because man cannot know God's purposes, he cannot complain about his position in the great chain of being and must accept that "Whatever is, is right" and that is the theme of the poem. Pope stresses that man has learned about nature and God's creation through science; consequently, science has given man power, but having become intoxicated by this power, man has begun to think that he is "imitating God".

The poem was hugely praised by Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Emmanuel Kant. However, Voltaire satirized the central idea of the poem in his book Candid.

The essay consists of 1304 lines in heroic couplets divided into four parts of Epistles. Each Epistle (or Letter) begins with an ‘Argument’ that establishes the topic of that part and then offers detailed views on it.

Summary of Epistle 1

The subtitle of the 1^st Epistle of the essay is “Of the Nature and State of Man, concerning the Universe,” and that is the central point of the argument to be clarified. It deals with man’s place in the cosmos. The first epistle consists of 294 lines written in Heroic couplets which can be divided into 10 parts beginning with an introduction.

Pope begins the first Epistle and the whole poem with a dedicatory address to Henry St. John and says,

Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things / To low ambition, and the pride of kings. // Let us (since life can little more supply / Than just to look about us and to die) // Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; / A mighty maze! but not without a plan. //

St. John was a political opponent of Robert Walpole and was facing a difficult time thus, Pope addresses him to put aside unimportant and mundane tasks and instead embark on a philosophical quest with him.

Pope suggests that man is nothing special and God has no favorite and thus to justify God’s ways to man must necessarily be to justify His ways about all other things. While Humans have limited abilities and then perceive the world only from their point of view, God certainly has many different worlds, many other points of view, and perceptions to take care of. That is, God is not only responsible for Man, but God is responsible for the whole creation, living and nonliving. Pope further says that often people complain about their weaknesses as they fail to understand the reason for their weaknesses just like they fail to understand why oak is stronger than the weeds beneath it. Then Pope mentions the theme of Hierarchy and order, “strong connexions, nice dependencies, / Gradations just.” This hierarchy is a “Vast chain of being” in which all of God’s creations have a place. Pope contends that Man’s place in this hierarchy is below Angels, but above beasts and birds. Pope says that this chain of beings is too vast and too much ordered which man cannot comprehend. The chain includes organisms too small to see, creatures of the heavens and the oceans, and creatures superior and inferior to people. Despite their positions in Hierarchy, all beings are equally loved by God and all are important for the balance of creation. Even the heavens would fall if the lowest creature were eliminated from the vast chain. Just like all body parts are equally necessary for the proper functioning of our body, every creature in the universe is important to the whole.

The poet says that God keeps the future hidden from humankind for a reason. He suggests that if a lamb knew that it will be slaughtered, it wouldn't frolic happily. Similarly, being unaware of the future is a gift from God to men. This gift can be perceived as ‘Hope’ for a better future. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast," as Pope says.

The poet says that the natural order allows flaws to exist both in nature and in humans. Humans have their capabilities and their limits. The poet says that every creature of this universe has a purpose and if all the creatures are happy with their role in the life cycle, humans should also be happy and they should accept their weaknesses of flaws just like they embrace and cherish their capabilities. If people could do everything they wanted, it would not suffice them and thus, God gifts people with different capabilities and weaknesses. The poet then discusses the issue of ‘Chance’ and says that the Universe is not by ‘Chance’ as man perceives it. Rather, the Universe is highly ordered and thus Chance is rather “direction, which thou canst not see,” that is, even chance or probability is also a highly ordered concept that man is not able to perceive.

Pope says that man should believe in God’s power and acumen since everything exists according to God's plan. A man should submit to God because "whatever is, is right."

Divisions of Epistle 1

Epistle 1 begins with the introduction (Lines 1-16) in which Pope dedicates the poem to Henry St. John and invites him on a quest to “vindicate the ways of God to man.” 

Section 1 comprises Lines 17-34 in which Pope argues that man has a limited point of view because he can perceive and understand the universe about human systems and constructions alone while he is ignorant of greater dependencies of God’s other creations. Humans can judge "only about our own system."

Section 2 comprises lines 35-76 in which the poet says that even with his flaws, man is perfectly suited for his position in the hierarchy of God’s creation according to the general order of things. That is, despite having limited capabilities and flaws, Man is not imperfect; he has a proper place in creation.

Section 3 includes lines 77-112 in which the poet says that like all other creatures, Man remains ignorant of the future and it is a gift by God as it fills Man with hopes for the future. Present happiness depends on hope for the future.

Section 4 contains lines 113-130 in which Pope claims that the reason for man’s suffering and misery is his pride and ambition to gain more knowledge and pretend to greater perfection. By putting himself in the place of God, judging perfection and justice, man acts impiously which leads him to question his limits as by nature, Man is not perfect.

Section 5 includes lines 131- 172 in which Pope ridicules the idea that the sole cause of creation and the idea that God made man in his own image. Pope says that this wrong perception offers the man a ridiculous expectation of perfection in the moral world that does not exist in the natural world.

Section 6 comprises lines 173-206 in which the poet discusses the result of the flaws of man in his pride and greed for more knowledge and will to imitate God. The poet says when Man tries to be God, he faces his own limitations and then he complains against Providence. Pope says that it is unreasonable to complain against God. If man had the omniscience of God, he would be miserable.

Section 7 includes lines 207-232 in which the poet asserts that a well-defined order or gradation prevails over the whole world which is particularly apparent in the hierarchy of earthly creatures and their subordination to man. Pope says that this gradation appears in abilities of sense, instinct, thought, reflection, and reason. Since Reason is superior to all and Man alone has that ability, he is superior to all other creatures.

Section 8 contains lines 233-258 in which Pope again asserts that despite having the power of Reason, it is absurd to suggest that Man is favored by God because all creatures are important for the whole. All creatures are connected, and the connections cannot be destroyed.

Section 9 contains lines 259-280 in which the poet decries the ill attempts of disturbing or subverting the order of Providence as madness.

Section 10 includes lines 281-294 the poet suggests that to submit completely and whole-heartedly to God’s order and acumen is in the best interest of man because absolute submission to God will ensure that man remains “Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow’r” and if man submits to God, then he must believe in his acumen and accept that “Whatever is, is right.”

Analysis of An Essay on Man Epistle 1

It appears that Pope endorses the idea of fatalism in the first epistle and suggests that all things are fated and designed by God. He further stresses that man should take things, situations, and events as best as they are because everything belongs to God’s greater design that man cannot question. After all, he is just a meager part of the grand creation encompassing all.

Pope ascertains the superiority of Man over beasts, birds, and other creatures based on his rational faculty but states that he is no closure and dearer to God than any other creature, and all creatures are equally important for the balance of creation. This is a stark difference from Milton’s Paradise Lost in which Milton asserted that God created man in his own image. Pope further ridicules the efforts of man to become God or Godlike, he suggests a man should understand, embrace and cherish his limits. Pope states that man’s limited intellect can comprehend only a small portion of God’s order and likewise can have knowledge of only half-truths.

Despite praising this poem Pope as "the most beautiful, the most useful, the most sublime didactic poem ever written in any language,” Voltaire opposed and ridiculed this fatalistic approach in his book Candide.

In Epistle 1, or the whole poem An Essay on Man, Pope didn’t express any new idea of his own, but rather expressed Neoclassical ideas and theories in a very elucidated and attractive manner.

So this is it for today. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock by Wallace Stevens | Structure, Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock is a poem by Wallace Stevens that was first published in 1915 and then included in his poetic collection Harmonium published in 1923. It is a short poem consisting of 15 lines composed in free verse and thus lacks any systematic rhyming scheme or rhythm. Wallace used metaphor, repetition, anaphora, epistrophe, allusion, personification, alliteration, enjambment, imagery, assonance, consonance, and symbolism in this poem.

Themes of Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock :

Like many other poems by Wallace Stevens, this poem can be interpreted in many ways. The most obvious interpretation is the theme of Conformity and Creativity or Imagination. The poet is trying to excite and inspire common people to get rid of their monotonous conformist lifestyle and make their life a bit more interesting, To do so, the poet offers a contrast between the two lifestyles. First is the lifestyle of people living in simple houses conforming to the same ideas and lacking any creativity, imagination, or individuality. They wear similar weary white nightgowns and dream alike. Their dreams are also ordinary and boring. They are so monotonous and disillusioned that they lack the kind of creativity and imagination necessary to add color (that is, excitement and interest) to their lives. The other lifestyle is that of an old sailor, a free person with a free mind. He keeps innovating ways to create excitement in his life. He can color his life with numerous experiences of traveling abroad.

The theme of the poem is the importance of having a meaningful life full of positive experiences and motion. The poet argues that to do so, one doesn’t need to live the life of a sailor, but one needs to think like that sailor, one needs to give importance to their freedom, their individuality, and their imagination that will bring colors, excitement, and happiness in their life. The old sailor signifies a rebellion against conformity. The poet stresses that the boring reality of ordinary men is way too dangerous that the colorful and often reckless dreams of the old sailor. Ordinary men are not poor or middle-class people, and the sailor is no high-class person. Ordinary men are those who lack imagination.

Summary of Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock :

Lines 1-2

The houses are haunted

By white night-gowns.

The title of the poem is Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock. Ten O’Clock suggests nighttime when ordinary people leading a mundane life are at their homes and have had their dinner. They are preparing for their night's sleep and they all appear similarly disillusioned, lacking coherent creative thoughts.

The poet begins with a strangely absurd metaphor and compares these ‘ordinary people’ with “white ‘night-gowns.” The word haunted in the first line offers an expectation of ghosts, but the houses are haunted by white nightgowns. Generally, ghosts are depicted in white clothes and thus it maintains curiosity. Moreover, ordinary people lacking individuality and imagination, lacking any sense of creativity while conforming to the social trends at every instance are no different than the non-living.

The first line offers alliteration with the sound of -h while ‘white’ and ‘night’ offers internal rhyming in the second line.

Lines 3-6

None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.

The next four lines make it clear that the poet isn’t talking of anything paranormal but he is talking about the conformist ‘ordinary people’ who are normal because they adhere to normal conditions. These ordinary people live in houses in every city in the world. They lead the same monotonous life. The monotonicity of their lives is represented by ‘white night-gowns.’ The poet uses ‘white’ color to compare it with the conformist tendency of these ‘ordinary people.’ These nightgowns are the plainest, simplest item an ordinary person may use. ‘Haunting’ is a word with negative connotations and thus, it is clear that the poet is criticizing the conformity of people.

The poet says that all people in all the houses are wearing white night-gowns and none of them is using green, purple with green polka dots, green with yellow polka dots, or yellow with blue polka dots. All the gowns are simplest, colorless, lifeless, and funless. There is no diversity and all appear the same with no difference, no distinction, no individuality, and imagination of their own.

The words ‘none’ and ‘or’ offer more negative connotations to the mundane life of these people who resist any colorful imagination for their conformist ideas. They are all ordinary, no one is strange. The poet uses Anaphora (lines 4-5-6 begin with ‘Or’) and Epistrophe (lines 4-5-6 ends with ‘Rings’).

Lines 7-11

None of them are strange,

With socks of lace

And beaded ceintures.

People are not going

To dream of baboons and periwinkles.

The dresses of these people are not only of the same white color but they are made exactly the same way, with the same design. There is no strangeness, no abnormality, all of them are eerily normal. Nobody has decorated their “white night-gown” with socks of lac or beaded ceintures or decorative buttons, they all wear plain white night-gown as a symbol of uniformity, and collectivism. None respects individualism and the poet is disappointed by that. The poet is sure that even if all the night-gown were white with no other color, still, if the people had different designs, and different decorative accessories with their gowns, he would have appreciated it, what he is criticizing is slavery to conformity, uniformity, slavery to collectivism. And then, the poet offers the ill-effect of that conformity, the ill-effect of lack of imagination

Even if these white nightgowns had different designs and simple decorative accessories, the people might have had simple rudimentary dreams of baboons and/or periwinkles. They could have dreamt though not very vividly and enthusiastically. But since there is no distinction, no strangeness, they are not able to have these rudimentary dreams and visions too.

Lines 11-15

Only, here and there, an old sailor,

Drunk and asleep in his boots,

Catches tigers

In red weather.

In these lines, the poet says that despite all this gloominess in these haunted houses by “white night-gowns,” there occurs a slim ray of hope occasionally. Among all these duplicitous conformist ‘ordinary people with no individual essence or imaginative creation, there are a few interesting people, like the old sailor. He is abnormal, he doesn’t adhere to conformity. He drinks and sleeps in his boots. He dares, he imagines, he hopes, and he dreams. And his dreams are way too different than those rudimentary dreams that these ordinary people could have had they accepted some distinction, some respect for individual imagination and creativity. This old sailor doesn’t see a foolish baboon or periwinkle. He sees vivid, daring, romantic dreams of red weather in which he courageously catches tigers. The sailor faces all sorts of dangers courageously and this lets him have a rush of adrenaline in his dreams, and that is what life is all about.

The poet says that to have a better, more meaningful, satisfactory life, the only thing one needs is a sense of individual existence, imagination, and creativity. The only limit on a person's life is a weak imagination.

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 Guide by R. K. Narayan | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Guide is a novel by R. K. Narayan that was first published in 1958 and won the Sahitya Academy Award for English literature in 1960. The novel is set in the fictional town of Malgudi. It tells about a flamboyant young man, a tourist guide who is confident in himself and doesn’t indulge in self-conflicts. He knows what he wants and desires and does not think much about the goodness or badness of his deeds. He is an endearing but corrupt tour guide with lofty dreams. He is highly hypocritical with no sense of right and wrong. He cheats on his customers to earn petty profits. During his life, he learns the futility of self-centeredness and turns towards self-realization. That leads to his transformation from a petty selfish tour guide to a spiritual being.

Characters of The Guide by R. K. Narayan :

Raju is a young, endearing but corrupt tour guide of Malgudi whom everyone likes. Raju is very enthusiastic about his work. Being a tour guide, he takes a deep interest in his customers and recognizes them by their faces. Gaffur is his assistant guide.

An archaeological writer Marco visit Malgudi for the excavation of an ancient site of historical importance. Marco is too dedicated to his job and doesn’t care much about anything. He is married to Rosie. Marco is from Madras and as soon as he reaches Malgudi, his whole attention turns towards the archaeological site so much so that he forgets his wife. Rosie's mother was a devadasi. It was difficult for Roasie to get a nice husband considering her social status. She married Marco not out of love but out of reverence for his social and intellectual status. She loves dancing more than anything else but she cannot dance because Marco married her only on the condition that she will stop dancing after their marriage. However, she aspires to perform on stage. For her, marriage appears to be imprisonment especially because Marco doesn’t pay much attention to her. Velan is a villager who finds Raju near the temple of his village and mistakes him for a great saint. Raju tells him about his past but Velan believes that he visited their village to solve their problems. Mani is the secretary Raju appoints as a manager of Roasie when she becomes a celebrated dancer.

Summary of The Guide by R. K. Narayan:

R. K. Narayan developed the plot of the novel in a biographical manner in which the present and the past continues to overlap each other. The novel vacillates between first-person narrative (Raju) and third-person narrative.

Raju is the only son of a petty shopkeeper in Malgudi. He witnesses the wave of modernism transforming his town during his childhood when a railway line connects Malgudi to Madras and other big cities. His father decides to shift his shop nearby the new railway station and it proves to be a profitable decision. However, his father suffers a sudden death and Raju is thus forced to take responsibility for the shop. He is very enthusiastic at whatever he does and soon he gains a good number of customers because of his charming personality and decent behavior. However, he is a hypocrite and a cheat. Often he would cheat the buyers. His profits continue to soar while his mother continues to try to bring him to the right side of morality. Malgudi becomes a famous town with many ancient monuments and archaeological sites and as Raju grows up, he realizes that he can earn much more profits as a tourist guide. He shuts his shop and starts offering services as a tourist guide. He brings his enthusiasm, hard work, and innovativeness to this new profession too, and soon he becomes the most famous and sought tourist guide of Malgudi. Everyone likes “Railway Raju”, the best guide of Malgudi. He appoints Gaffur as his assistant. However, Raju has brought his innate cheating attitude to this new profession too. Often he would cheat the tourists and tell them fabricated stories and blatant lies about ordinary old buildings suggesting them as of great historical value. Yet, he is loved by everyone because of his good sense of humor and charming attitude.

One day, Marco Polo visits Malgudi for surveying a few new archaeological sites at Malgudi. Marco Polo is a serious studious archaeologist and writer. He appoints Raju as his guide and Raju tries to play his tricks on Marco too but Marco is a well-learned archaeologist. He debunks Raju and Raju starts feeling an impulsive dislike toward him. Marco is haughty and dominating by nature and he has a patriarchial mindset. He is married to Roasie, a daughter of a devadasi. Rosie had a great interest in dancing and she desired to perform on big stages. However, her mother wished her to marry and settle. Being a daughter of a devadasi, it was not easy for her to get a good match. Roasie married Marco not out of love but because of reverence for his social status and intellect. Marco agreed to marry her only on the condition that she will never dance after their marriage. He dismisses Roasie’s passion for dance, calling it a shallow profession for harlots. Roasie agreed but found that the marriage is no better than a cage for her. Rosie loved to dance more than anything but she had to sacrifice it for marrying Marco but Marco never gave any attention to her. He is too busy with his archaeological surveys and studies. Marco finds a new archaeological project in Malgudi and decides to stay in the town for a while. His wife Roasie arrives in Malgudi after a few days and Raju gets attracted to her.

Marco is too busy and enthusiastic about his archeological surveys and fails to find any time for her. She feels too lonely and abandoned especially because she is restricting herself from pursuing her own passion for dancing. Raju notices that Roasie is feeling lonely so he takes her on a tour of local sites. Raju takes her to a snake charmer where she sees the king cobra dancing to the music of the flute. While observing the snake, she starts dancing like a cobra as she couldn’t resist her passion for dance anymore. Raju notices her devotion to dance and the weakness of her marriage. He realizes that she just married Marco because of his social and monetary status. He sees a chance for attaining another means of his pleasure and starts using tempting words on Roasie. Marco is totally disinterested in her and continues to devote himself only to his work. He soon notices that Raju is trying to woo Roasie. He confronts Roasie and they had a loud argument over it. Marco accuses her of having an illicit relationship with Raju and tells her “You are not my wife. You are a woman who will go to bed with anyone that flatters your antics.” Part of this accusation comes because Roasie is a daughter of a Devdasi. Marco decides to go back to Madras for writing about his surveys at Malgudi while he leaves Roasie in the town. Raju tempts Roasie to develop a sexual relationship with him. Rosie is still rooted in her marriage with Marco but succumbs to Raju’s charm because she finds a way in attaining completion of her passion for dance through Raju’s help. Raju always appreciates Roasie’s dance. He suggests that Roasie should change her name to Nalini, the dancer. With his efforts, talent, and impressive marketing skills, Roasie becomes a famous stage dancer by the name of Nalini. Raju decides to start living with Roasie but Raju’s mother doesn’t approve of this and she ultimately leaves the house to go live with her brother.

Throughout his life, Raju always does his best according to whatever people require him to do. He was the best shopkeeper in Malgudi, then became the best tourist guide, and now he is the best celebrity manager a stage dancer could attain. However, he continues to drag his bag of fraud, lies, cheating, and corruption. He continues manipulating the account books. As she reaches higher heights of fame, he starts feeling insecure. This sense of insecurity increases when Mani, his assistant brings a book for him. The book is written by Marco about the cultural history of South India. Marco attained his own success as an archeological writer. Raju decides to hide the book from Roasie. However, Mani informs her about the book. Nalini demands the book from Raju and after seeing it, she feels happy about her husband’s success. This further increases Raju’s insecurities. After some days, Raju receives a letter from a bank demanding the signature of Nalini for the release of a box of jewelry deposited in the bank’s safe custody in her name. Raju surmises that Marco must have sent some jewelry to Nalini and he decides to hide that too. But then greed engulfs him and he forges Roasie’s signature to acquire the box of jewels.

The box never arrives but one day, when Nalini was performing on stage, the police arrive with a warrant against Raju. He is arrested for forgery and fraud. Raju realizes the graveness of his mistake and feels extreme self-pity. When Roasie asks why is Raju being arrested, he tells her all that he did. Roasie takes it calmly and says that she had an inkling that he is doing something wrong. She assures him of paying back all his debt but declares that their relationship is over. Raju is sent to 2 years of rigorous jail term. Roasie never visits to see him.

In the jail, Raju again spreads his charm and soon becomes the favorite of all the inmates. He finds a strange solace in the peace and regularity of the jail. Mani keeps visiting him in the jail and shows him newspapers of Roasie’s performance who has now settled in Madras. After the completion of his jail term, he decides not to go back to Malgudi but he has nowhere else to go. He keeps wandering aimlessly and reaches a village named Mangal situated on the banks of River Sarayu. Raju feels very tired and decides to sit along the bank near a temple. A villager named Velan notices him and mistakes him to be a sage. He pays his respect to him and asks him to help him manage his adamant sister who is refusing to get married to the good match that he and his mother has decided for her. Raju tells him that he is no saint and he cannot help him anyways but Velan insists that he can see the spiritual glory on his face. At last, Raju decides to talk to Velan’s sister. Being an expert sweet-talker, marketeer, and manager, he convinces Velan’s sister to accept her family’s decision. Raju’s success in pacifying Velan’s rebellious half-sister leads the villagers to believe in his powers as a holy man, or spiritual guide. Raju decides to don this new role for him and continues living in the temple of the village. He still has that bag of hypocrisy and corruption with him. Gradually, he takes all villagers in his confidence and he actually starts liking this position as a spiritual guide. One day, the villagers ask him to help them fight against the persistent famine due to the lack of rain. They ask him to pursue a two-week fast and cheer the gods to bring rain to their village. Realizing the enormity of the sacrifice that the villagers expect him to undertake he is afraid. He decides to disclose his charade. He calls Velan and tells him everything about his past. He honestly confesses all the cheating and crimes he committed in his past to Velan and tries to convince him that he is no holy man and he cannot bring any rain. Velan believes every word said by Raju but still continues to respect him and calls him “Swami” or the holy man. Velan says that anyone may commit mistakes but he is convinced of Raju’s spiritual abilities and will always respect him like that. Astonished by Velan’s belief in him, Raju feels a sudden change in himself. He feels very light-hearted as the burden of lies, fraud, and cheating has been overthrown by him. He earnestly starts the two-week-long fast to bring the rain. He always succeeded in his endeavors and now when the villagers require him in the role of a holy man, he decides to take it but this time, with utmost honesty. Soon the news of his fast spreads all around like wildfire and people start gathering in greater numbers every new day on the banks of the river to pray along him for the rain. On the early morning of the eleventh day of fasting, a small crowd watches him quietly as he attempts to pray while standing on the river bed and then staggers and dies, mumbling the enigmatic last words of the novel, “It’s raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs….”

The author doesn’t make it clear if there actually was any rain. But Raju’s transformation from a corrupt tour guide to an honest and earnest spiritual guide is clear. This change asserts that a person’s past is not entirely what defines them and an ordinary person can be destined for great things without even realizing it.

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

The Dunciad Book 4 by Alexander Pope | Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Alexander Pope published The New Dunciad in 1742 which was a sequel to the first three books he first published in 1728. In 1743, just six months before his death, he published The Dunciad in Four Books containing a revised version of the original three books and a slightly revised version of the fourth book with revised commentary and arguments at the beginning of every book. Pope dedicated this mock epic to his friend Jonathan Swift, a great satirist who had worked with Pope as Marcus Scriblerus in the Scriblerus Club.

Book 4 contains 656 lines composed in end-rhyming heroic couplets. Pope used metaphors, allegories, allusions, caesura, anaphora, imagery, symbolism, personification, and chiasmus to perfection. In Book 3, the poet mentioned that in the future, Queen Dulness will rule not only the Operas, Theatres, poems, and other literature, but her significance will be deep enough to affect the court. In Book 4, he mentions that effect and alludes to Robert Walpole too.

Summary and Analysis of The Dunciad Book 4

Book 4 depicts the situation after the thorough win of the goddess of Dulness over science, logic, reason, wit, maths, rhetoric, morality, and order, and now the Night, Chaos, and Dulness rule over the world. The narrator is witness to all these changes and he is a subject of Chaos. He is not sure if he will be favored by Chaos and thus, he invokes Chaos and the Night as his muses to get support. "Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night! ... Suspend a while your force inertly strong, / Then take at once the Poet and the Song" The narrator understands his tenuous position. It is the era of the tyranny of Dulness and Chaos, it is the period of Night and there is a threat even to the telling of the story of Dulness.

At the end of Book 3, Cibber got pensive and threatened as he observed the future from Mount of Vision in the Underworld and listened to the prophecies by the monsters of Chaos and beasts of Night. Now all those prophecies have come to pass.

King Cibber is sitting in the lap of the goddess Dulness who appears much more strong. Science is chained near her feet and she uses Science as her footrest. Wit is sitting near her foot in complete silence fearing torture and exile. Logic has been chained and gagged and Rhetoric is lying naked on the ground. There’s the naked dead body of Morality that has been killed after being “drawn” or stretched at either end of her body by ropes. Chaos overwhelmed and defeated Order and imprisoned Science, Wit, Logic, Morality, and Rhetoric. All the prisoners fear and comply with Queen Dulness and who doesn’t dies like Morality. Math is still untied but only because Chaos has already drawn her mad. All the Muses of arts and science have been imprisoned and Chaos and Night rule over arts culture, and sciences now. Pope personifies Science, Maths, Virtues, and Arts as servants of Order and signifies the importance of the past. While all of them die or become powerless, History remains sober and optimistic towards the future “But sober History restrain'd her rage, / And promis'd Vengeance on a barb'rous age.”

Eliza, the voluptuous poetess is now a Harlot of Chaos who announces that soon the stubborn and resistant Muses will be tortured into submission and then Chaos shall reign fully. However, she is worried about Music, the most seductive muse of all. She warns that dangerous Music may seduce Sense and Order to raise a rebellion and thus, she advises the goddess of Dulness to ban great musicians like Handel (George Frederick Handel) from the shores of Britain. Dulness appreciates the Harlot for her vision and bans Handel. The Harlot gathers all the Dunces and compels them to discourage and abort the spread of the arts and sciences.

The Dunces then capture the souls of writers and thinkers who were yet free from the clutches of Dulness like Shakespeare, Jonson, and Milton. Pope uses allegory to attack the over-analysis of the works of these writers by his contemporaries that degrade the artfulness of their works.

Dulness then orders a new decree to “revive the Wits” (University Wits) so that they may be attacked by her army of Dunces and critics to be murdered and cut into pieces. “When Dulness, smiling — "Thus revive the Wits! / But murder first, and mince them all to bits.” Pope uses chiasmus here. "Whate'er of mongrel no one class admits, / A Wit with Dunces, and a Dunce with Wits."

In the court of Queen Dulness, a huge crowd wishes to address her and this creates a conundrum as all are in a chaotic spell. Dulness comforts them and says that she will listen to all. A young, pale boy gets the first chance to offer respect to Dulness. He praises the grammar school burdening young minds with mere jargon and words. This keeps people of intellect remain confused in words and thus, they get no chance to learn anything meaningful. Sans true knowledge, they remain dull and dwell within the Goddess’ grasp for the rest of their lives.

“To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence, / As Fancy opens the quick springs of Sense, // We ply the Memory, we load the brain, / Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain,// Confine the thought, to exercise the breath; / And keep them in the pale of Words till death.//”

The goddess is pleased by his speech and wishes that the teachings of grammar schools may reach and affect each University and Institution, each court, senate, and throne.

Next comes Aristarchus, the representative of Universities. He informs that in Universities, scholars are not only being burdened by mere words but are forced to pine over tiny details of spelling, grammar, and history. Thus they suffer much more confusion and burden on their minds and never get a chance to attain any knowledge. Soon a group of young men from abroad comes forward and informs that they went to attain knowledge but they have learned nothing, lost much of their earlier knowledge, and have succeeded only in broadening their palates as opposed to their minds while abroad. Dulness is too happy to know all this. She wraps him in her veil and blesses him with “Want of Shame.”

Pope offers an irony here. Aristarchus was a brilliant scholar, the first to raise the issue of the heliocentric structure of our solar system. Copernicus himself credited him for the heliocentric model.

Then Dulnesses notices many lazy young men scattered around her appearing confused about what to do next. Annius then comes forward and excels in crafty duplicity of antique items. He requests Dulness to allow him to make those men skilled in his duplicitous work. However, Mummius, a competitor of his interrupts and claims that he should be the one attaining those new apprentices. Dullness isn’t impressed by any of them and she appeases them with other chaotic talks. They go away without having any new apprentices.

A few people from a strange tribe visit her court and one of them says that he had a beautiful flower named Caroline that enchanted him and all others. But one other man from his tribe killed Caroline. He demands the murderer of Caroline must be punished by Dulness. The other person however defends himself well and says that he was just pursuing a beautiful butterfly that humped from one flower to another. Dulness then calms both of them down and asks them to take those lazy confused young men in their wings and teach them the intricacies of such small bits of nature from flower to butterfly. However, she warns them both to not let these young men learn anything important other than those dull bits of nature so that they may never get time and enthusiasm to learn anything important.

A Clerk of the group of ‘Minute Philosophers and Free Thinkers’ comes forward and begs Dulness for the death of Morality and Faith so that Dunces may establish themselves as creators of all. Then Silenus comes forward with a group of young men ready to be in service of Dulness. She calls for her high priestess Magus who comes with a cup containing a mixture that will rid the drinker of all of their obligations and duties to those he has once known. Every one of the group drinks it and then Dulness “confers her Titles and Degrees” upon her servants including priests, botanists, Freemasons, and others.

The goddess of Dulness then yawns and nobody could ignore her yawn as it brings the complete destruction of Order and the whole world under the rule of Chaos and the poem ends as “universal Darkness buries all.”
“More she had spoke, but yawn’d—All nature nods: / What mortal can resist the yawn of Gods?” As Dulness yawns, she puts everyone in slumber (people at the churches, chapels, and schools, soldiers in the army, and, in general, the whole nation).

“Even Palinurus nodded at the helm,” Plarimus is a figure from Ovid’s The Aeneid who was the helmsman in Aeneas’ ship. While driving the ship he falls asleep at the crossing. Pope uses Palinurus as an allusion to Robert Walpole who, being the Prime Minister was the “helmsman” of England at that time. However, there is resistance, some people are still sane and oppose Dulness with their wit. The poet’s wit is keeping the readers awake against the ill-effect of Dulness.

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 Dunciad Book 3 by Alexander Pope | Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The subtitle of The Dunciad was A Heroic Poem. Alexander Pope had all the abilities for writing the highest genre of poetry: an epic. Instead, he wrote a poem better suited to his unheroic times: a mock epic. Book 3 consists of 340 lines, all written in end-rhyming heroic couplets. Alexander Pope not only mimicked Homer’s The Illiad and Virgil’s The Aeneid (and thus the title The Dunciad), but also he mimicked John Milton’s Paradise Lost. As Aeneas, Cibber still has to visit the Underworld and that is the topic of Book 3.

Summary and Analysis of The Dunciad Book 3:

Except for the goddess Dulness, nobody was able to bear the burden of dull literature during the last segment of celebratory games that were arranged on the occasion of the coronation of King Ciber. As King Ciber falls asleep, the goddess lifts him up in her arms and takes him to her temple where she sits on her throne and lays him to rest on her lap. The love and care of motherly Dulness for her favorite son inspires others including romantics, scientists, politicians, poets, architects, and so on. Dulness is depicted as Maid Mary with baby Jesus resting in her lap.

Hence the Fool's Paradise, the Statesman's Scheme, // The air-built Castle, and the golden Dream, | The Maid's romantic wish, the Chemist's flame, // And Poet's vision of eternal Fame.

Then the fancy flies take him down towards the Underworld on the wings of a dream. As Cibber descends, he sees the ‘Elysian Shade’. In Greek mythology, Elysium Field is the home of the blessed souls after death, the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the pure souls. A “Slip-shod Sibyl” greets Cibber and takes him on a tour of the Underworld. Sibyl, the Greek Prophetess was the guide of Orpheus, the Thracian Bard, who returned from the Underworld untouched by Death. The ‘Slip-shod Sibyl’ is a carelessly mimicked Sibyl serving King Cibber, the favorite son of Dulness, ascertaining his safe return from the Underworld while remaining undead. Elysian Shade is the place of dead dull poets and writers. They are too happy to see King Cibber. John Taylor, the Water Poet paddles King Cibber’s boat across the river Styx. King Cibber meets Shadwell in the Underworld who happened to be the first king of Nonsense and then he sees Bavius, a notoriously bad poet and critic from ancient Rome. Bavius is in charge of dipping the souls of poets into the river occupied by the goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion. Bavius makes sure that the souls of these poets are made dull enough to serve the goddess Dulness upon entering the world. There is a countless number of souls dull enough, waiting to be called to Earth, in service of Dulness. Then Cibber meets the Ghost of Elknath Settle who is appointed by Dulness to guide Cibber, the new king, and make him understand his position in the plan of Dulness. Elknath Settle informs Cibber about the past of Dulness and her prospective future. Settle takes Cibber to the Mount of Vision. In the East of Mount of Vision, Settle says that the goddess of Dulness has conquered most of the land, though Science remains a challenge that has conquered a few territories back in the East. In the South and North, Cibber observes that the force of Science has been halted by vast armies of Dulness, aided by religious movements like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. (His conqu'ring tribes th'Arabian prophet draws, // And saving Ignorance enthrones by Laws. See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep, // And all the western world believe and sleep.)

Eknath Settle informs him that the major enemies of the goddess of Dulness are Order, Arts, and Sciences. He says that in past, the goddess of Dulness lost ground only to the spread of Science and Logic. However, she is winning back the lost ground slowly, but definitively. The ghost of Eknath Settle inspires Ciber to help the goddess of Dulness in winning her lost ground back. Settle says that though Science and Logic have infected some people, the Goddess can bring people to heel. He says that once Dulness heels these infected people, it will bring happiness to dullness all over. However, Settle warns Ciber that as the King of Dulness, he ought to be careful not to dominate so harshly that this fog of contentedness might be corrupted.

As Settle discusses the future plans of the goddess of Dulness with King Ciber, he informs that Dulness has now set her eyes on Great Britain as her most vital target to establish her realm worldwide. He then introduces Cibber to a few servants of Dulness who may prove to be a great help to Cibber in establishing the rule of Dulness in England. Cibber notices that these figures are great destroyers and corrupters of language, science, and order. He decides to appoint them as agents of Dulness in his service. He notices that all of them, like him, are plagiarizers who steal and borrow from great minds like their sons. “Tis yours, a Bacon or a Locke to blame, //
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame: | But oh! with One, immortal one dispense, // The source of Newton's Light, of Bacon's Sense!”

But just like all sons come to hate their fathers for whatever they give them, these plagiarizers hate all those great minds of past and present and thus, are good to be the servants of the goddess Dulness and degrade arts and scholarship. While King Cibber feels strength as he observes these plagiarists, the ghost of Elknath Settle feels a moment of unrest as if a ‘ray of reason’ enters his mind. He harshly shouts at these impoverished souls deft at plagiarism not to hate the great minds from whom they steal and borrow. But the moment passes so fast and goes missing in the fog of Dulness once more.

Then Cibber sees the future as the scene changes and some fantastic creatures of the night and gothic monsters and visions of chaos encircle him. He sees "Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth, / A fire, a jig, a battle, and a ball" and this marks the beginning of the new and stronger reign under King Cibber. However, his dull mind couldn’t recognize what he observed and thus, the Angel of Dulness appears to explain to him that these fantastic beasts and gothic monsters represent prophecies of what is to come under his rule. One may find similarities between the deep philosophical meetings of Adam with Archangel Gabriel in Milton’s Paradise Lost and the meeting of Cibber with the Angel of Dulness in Pope’s The Dunciad.

Settle is too happy to see how things may change in favor of the goddess Dulness in the coming future but he is worried too because he saw similar visions during his own time but they didn’t fructify. King Cibber comes to know that Dulness is the daughter of Chaos and Night and she aims to bring the reign of Chaos into the world so that she may reign in the world and the underworld along with Chaos and Night. Settle shares the prospects of how Dulness might spread across Britain, beginning most strongly in opera and the theaters. Eventually, though, the dream promises that Dulness shall spread as far as court. Cibber feels terrible and threatened as he sees chaos. Bavius reaches him and anoints him again with a poppy plant and then the fantastic beasts of Night and fearsome monsters of Chaos celebrate King Ciber with energy and excitement as Bavious announces King Cibber as the ruler of the Underworld and says, “This, this is he, foretold by ancient rhymes: // Th' Augustus born to bring Saturnian times.” Ciber couldn’t bear the excitement of visions of Chaos. The prophetic visions of Dulness' reign are so overwhelming that Cibber finally cries "'Enough! Enough!" and wakes up abruptly from his dream.

Book 3 offers greater meaning to Pope's struggle against the hack-poets and faulty patron culture of the court. He recognizes that Dulness is the greatest enemy of Reason and Science and Dulness gets ample aid from religion and lethargy. This offers a continuous progression to Dulness despite the efforts of souls like Bacon, Locke, Newton, and Milton. Thus, while Elknath Settle was a great leader of Dulness’ realm, Cibber is greater than him. As Cibber enters the Underworld in the beginning, he sees a huge army of dull souls ready to infiltrate Earth and support Dulness in establishing her reign throughout the world, and by the end of Book 3, Cibber realizes the certainty of victory over Chaos and Night under his realm and this threatens him, like any reader of the poem would feel.

Ciber sees East, North, and South from the Mount of Vision but he doesn’t see the West, where the sun sets. In classical literature, the West represents death. Pope uses the symbol to assert that the Sun will never set on Dulness and Fate has ascertained that her reign is inevitable.

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 Dunciad Book 2 by Alexander Pope | Summary Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. In Book 1, Pope efficiently used the classical epic element of invoking muses and his muses for The Dunciad are the goddess of Dulness, Jove, and Fate.

Dulness is a lack of imagination, lack of talent, and lack of taste that presided over the efforts of hack writers and bad poets promoted by vain patrons and greedy, ruthless publishers. During Pope’s age, Dulness was becoming the primary color of literature and arts that Pope opposed and satirized in this long mock epic. Like the heroes of Classical epics, Pope’s hero Tibbald (or Bayes) creates an altar to sacrifice his petty incomplete poems to please the goddess Dulness and she is more than pleased. And then she declares him the king of Dunces. The tradition of classical epics demands a huge celebratory competition and prizes for the coronation of King Cibber and that becomes the beginning of Book 2. Book 2 contains 428 lines composed in Heroic couplets.

In Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas declares the competition of athletic games that included a boat race, a foot race, a boxing match, and an archery contest. In Homer’s Odyssey, the games were ordained by the gods and the goddess Thetis proposed the prizes in honor of her son Achilles. Pope brings in the competition and games in his mock epic as the King of Dunces has been proclaimed. Dulness ordains competitions to celebrate the coronation which includes the phantom poet race, a pissing contest, a tickling contest, a diving contest, and finally a challenge to see which critic might stay awake longest while being read incredibly dull work.

Summary of The Dunciad Book 2

All the writers and poets serving the goddess of Dulness are enthusiastic about the celebratory games to be held in honor of King Cibber. Along with them, the publishers, booksellers, printers, and stationers are also present at the celebratory ground to take part in the “high heroic games.” The First heroic game announced is the Phantom Poet Race for which the goddess of Dulness creates “a poet’s form” as a prize for the winner of the race. The perfect dull poet’s form is “a brain full of feathers, a heart full of lead,” and a plump figure connoting commercial success. The goddess announces that all the booksellers, publishers, and printers are allowed to take part in the Phantom Poet race and the winner, the quickest and nimblest poet capable of reaching this effigy that she made of the dullest poet will have the first right on it so that he may print and publish the dullest poet’s work and make profits.

All the printers and publishers drool over the impressive effigy of the dullest poet and among them is “Lofty Lintot” (satirized Barnaby Bernand Lintot) who claims "This prize is mine; who tempt it are my foes; // With me began this genius, and shall end." Lintot didn’t expect any bookseller, printer, or publisher to stand against him and he was right as all the other publishers and printers feared him. But then, he got a challenge from Curll (Edmund Curll) who stood tall and said, "The race by vigour, not by vaunts is won; // ‘So take the hindmost, Hell.’-- He said, and run.”

Lintot is very heavy and fat and thus a strong but slow runner while Curll is very swift and it appears that he will win the race but fate intervenes and Curll slips in a puddle of his wife's waste outside of his neighbor's shop. Curll’s fall reduces his chances of winning the race and thus, he calls Jove, the king of Roman Gods, and begs him for help winning the race. Curll tries everything possible to cajole Jove into helping him and says, “And him and his, if more devotion warms, //
Down with the Bible, up with the Pope's Arms” However, Jove completely ignores Curll as he is disinterested in these competitions. Cloacina, a minor goddess of the sewer system, serving Jove observes the plight of Curll. She feels pity for him and remembers that Curll often honors her with his work. She begs Jove to help Curll. Jove isn’t interested but listens to her and shows the way. She visits him and has him "oil'd with magic juices for the course." The magic juices work wonders and he wins the Phantom race. This is a juxtaposition to Homer’s The Illiad. When Agamemnon takes away Briesis, the captive trophy of Achilles from him, he feels cheated and dishonored. He calls his mother Thetis, a minor goddess, and servant of Zeus, and asks her help in gaining his honor back. Thetis requests Zeus to help Achilles and so he does by allowing the Achaeans to be beaten back by the Trojans. Cloacinna is Thetis’ counterpart while Curll, who just slipped on his wife’s puddle of waste, appears more heroic than Achilles.

When Curll goes to take the effigy of the Phantom poet, it disappears and then reappears again. Curll continues to grab it but fails every time. The Queen of Dulness plays a trick on him. He sees illusions of other dull poets and tries to grab them too but continues to fail. At last, Dulness takes pity on him and tells him that his actual reward is that all decent writers will soon have their work made dull like the works of the poets under the Goddess and he will make a good fortune out of them. Dulness offers him a fine tapestry depicting all her servants, including Curll himself, as the reward for his victory in the Phantom poet race.

Then appears a gorgeous poetess named Eliza. The goddess of Dulness announces the literal pissing contest the winner of which will win the voluptuous poetess. Many publishers and printers take part in the competition including Curll, Osborne, and Eridanus. Despite his efforts, Curll loses this time and Thomas Osborne wins the fair poetess in the pissing contest.

The next is the tickling contest. An extravagant and wealthy-looking man with an impressive entourage comes forward. Dulness announces that the poet who wins the tickling contest will get this wealthy man as his patron. The winner will be determined by "who can tickle best." Leonald Welsted appears to be an expert at tickling but as he is about to win the contest, a young unheard-off poet prays to Venus to help him win the contest as he is in dire need of a patron to survive. Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, listens to him and tells him about the weakness of the wealthy man just like she informed Paris about Achilles’ heal in Homer’s Illiad. Welsted loses and the young poet wins.

Dulness decides to entertain herself and announces a new game of Cat Call. She invites all her servants and worshippers to shout, chant, and make the most chaotic noise possible to determine who is the loudest. All the Dunces enthusiastically take part and chant loudly to please her. She finds that all are equal in their loud and disruptive sound and offers each of them a Cat Call as a gift. Yet, someone should be the winner and thus, she encourages her "Brayers" to make the loudest noises possible. Richard Blackmore wins with his vast loud voice.

The next competition is for journalists, party writers, and gossip writers. All the Dunces gather around the Fleet Ditch for the competition as Dulness announces that the winner will be the diver who can both stay down the longest and also show his love for reveling in the dirt more than any other. She declares that the winning diver will get the weekly journals and a pig of lead. Several Dunces take part in the competition along with a "desp'rate pack" of gazetteers, or pamphlet publishers. William Arnall wins the prize of the weekly journals and a pig of lead as he returns from the depths and claims that he touched the mud-nymphs and witnessed a branch of the river Styx blending into the Thames, the river necessary to cross into the Underworld.

The last is the competition of critics in which all the critics and intellectuals were made to listen to the dullest and most laborious writing possible without falling asleep. The one who could remain awake would win the competition. All of the critics, the audience, and even the readers of these works, despite their best efforts, ultimately fall prey to sleep-inducing literature. Even King Ciber, the dullest of all Dunces couldn’t resist and falls asleep on the Goddess' lap and begins to dream. Dulness wins the competition as she remains awake.

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!