Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ is a short novel written by Truman Capote which was first published in 1958. The major theme of the novel is freedom versus stability. The story is set in 1940s during the World War II. The story is about a young girl who was trapped in child marriage and decided to break free. She hobnobs with famous people, gets into a lot of trouble, and breaks many hearts along the way, all while struggling to find her place in the world.

Characters of Breakfast at Tiffany’s:

The narrator is an unnamed young writer who befriends a young girl socialite of New York who is an implied homosexual. He becomes a well-known literary success and worldwide traveler in his later parts of years. Holiday (Holly) Golightly or Lulamae Barnes is an 18 years old young girl who befriends the narrator. She is eighteen years old. She is an escort who makes a living as a companion to various wealthy and important men, who lavish her with money and expensive presents. She lives in the same apartment with the narrator whom she refers to as "Fred" because he looks like her brother. Doc Golightly is a veterinarian from Tulip, Texas. He informs that Holly’s original name was Lulama. He unofficially adopted Holly when she and her brother had run away from the foster home they had been placed in following their parents' deaths. A widower with four children, Doc married Holly when she was fourteen and was despondent when she escaped shortly thereafter. Joe Bell is the owner of the apartment where Holly and the narrator live. He is apparently a homosexual with some esoteric tastes who befriends the narrator. Yunioshi is a magazine photographer who is a neighbor of Holly and is attracted to her. ‘African carver’ is an artist from Africa who made a wooden carving that resembles Holly. Sally Tomato is a New York mafia incarcerated in Sing Sing prison on racketeering charges. He runs a drug racket while still in jail with the help of Holly and his lawyer. Holly gets $100 per week for her help. Oliver O’Shaugnessy is lawyer of Sally who is a defrocked priest and gangster. Sapphia Spanella is another neighbor of the narrator who despises Holly. She directs the authorities to Holly when they are seeking to arrest her. O.J. Berman is a friend and talent agent of Holly who helps her and hires a top-notch lawyer Iggy Fitelstein to defend them when she gets arrested. Rusty Trawler is a millionaire who is a companion of Holly but marries her friend model Mag Wildwood. Jose Yberra-Jaegar is a crucial Brazilian politician who aspires to the presidency of his country. He is Mag’s fiancee but develops an affair with Holly.

Summary of Breakfast at Tiffany’s:

The story begins as the narrator gets a call from his old friend Joe Bell who used to be his landlord in the past. Joe Bell asks the narrator to visit his bar. The phone call reminds the narrator of his old time when he was struggling as a writer. He also remembers Holly Golightly with whom he shared the rented apartment owned by Joe. The narrator loved Holly but it was not sexual. The narrator implies that he is homosexual and so was Joe Bell who became his friend. The narrator hasn’t seen Joe or Holly for many years. He visits Joe’s bar and Joe shows him a photograph of a carving that exactly resembles Holly Golightly. Joe informs that he got that photograph from Yunioshi who took the picture in some African country where an African artist had made that carving. Joe says that Yunioshi tried to buy that carving but the artist refused to sell it and said that it is a representation of a young white woman who unexpectedly visited his village earlier that year. He implies that he had an affair with this woman, who later departed just as suddenly as she had arrived. The narrator is not sure if the story is true, however, he says that he too searches for Holly in any place he visits. He has always loved Holly and he wonders where she has gone.

The narrator then recalls his first meeting with Holly at Joe’s Brownstone apartment where Holly was already living. The narrator became one of her neighbors. Holly had a habit of returning home late and buzzing her neighbors, asking to be let in because she has forgotten her keys. The narrator recalls how once she buzzed the doorbell of Yunioshi, who is a magazine photographer. When he got annoyed, Holly promised to let him take her raunchy pictures. Then the narrator informs that he too fell victim to this habit of Holly. One night, she knocked at the window of the narrator and said that a drunk man is annoying her. She brought the man to her house but now she hopes that he will fall asleep. Holly and the narrator pass the time by sharing a drink. The narrator explained that he is a writer and shared a story written by him with Holly. Holly plainly criticized the story and the narrator was hurt but he felt that even in her criticism, Holly has a certain charm. Holly informed that she is an escort who accompanies rich men at parties and gets expensive presents and money in return. She insisted that she is not a prostitute but an American geisha meant only to accompany rich men at parties. While talking, the narrator and Holly fall asleep on his bed and the narrator notices that she is calling out the name ‘Fred’ in her sleep. When she wakes up, she starts crying and when the narrator asks her, she refuses to share the reason. Instead, she runs away through the window. From then, Holly started calling the narrator as ‘Fred.’ When the narrator asked why he calls her Fred, she said that he reminds him of her younger brother whose name is Fred.

One day, Holly invites the narrator to one of her parties where he meets O. J. Berman from California. Berman informs the narrator that he tried to establish Holly as a Hollywood actress but when he succeeded to fix an audition for her, she decided to leave California for New York. Berman says that Holly is a mystery but he loves her. The narrator also meets Rusty Trawler, a divorced millionaire from New York. Rusty is a notorious philanderer and he is dating Holly these days.

The narrator asks Holly about her past. Holly says that she tried to be an actress in California and her feeling of not knowing what she wants to do with her life. She is so uncommitted to anything that she hardly has any furniture and has not named her cat. She says that sometimes she fears this existential crisis and during those moments she visits Tiffany’s jewelry store and gazes in wonder at the expensive items that she cannot buy. Holly says that it is her dream to take breakfast at Tiffany’s which is not possible because Tiffany’s doesn’t sell food. The store is the only place in the world that makes her feel calm.

Mag Wildwood arrives at the party though she was not invited. Holly mentions that maybe Mag is suffering from a venereal disease (S.T.D) and thus her guests should avoid it. Mag gets too angry and drinks too much and then abuses Holly. Holly asks the narrator to take care of Mag who falls unconscious after drinking too much. After the party, Mag sleeps in Holly’s room and after some days, they develop a friendship, and Mag moves in with Holly. Mag is engaged to Jose, a young Brazillian politician who frequently starts visiting Holly’s room to meet Mag.

The narrator succeeds to get a publisher for his story and he shares the news with Holly who encourages him and takes him to lunch to celebrate. While enjoying their time together they pass through various shops and look for their favourite items through the shop windows. The narrator especially liked a birdcage.

On that Christmas, Holly presents the same birdcage to the narrator but insists that he should promise her that he will never keep a living thing in that birdcage. The narrator also presents her with a medal of St. Christopher from Tiffany’s that Holly loves. However, soon their friendship gets strained as Holly maintains her criticism and says that the narrator is wasting his time writing stories about uninteresting subjects. The narrator feels insulted and starts maintaining a distance from Holly.

After some days, the narrator notices a stranger spying on Holly. He confronts him and finds out that the man is Doc Golightly. The man informs that he is a horse doctor from Tunip, Texas where Holly is originally from and her birth name is Lulamae Barnes. He says that her parents died when she was only 10 years old and she was shifted to a foster house along with her younger brother Fred Barnes. The doctor was a widower and lonely, with no child. He adopted Lulamae and Fred. When Lulamae turned 14, he decided to marry her. But Lulamae wasn’t ready for family life and decided to run away and turned her name to Holly, though she maintained her husband’s surname. The narrator helps Doc Golightly in meeting Holly. Holly recognizes him as her estranged husband and spends a night with him but asks him to go back to Texas the next morning, She insists that she will never return to him. Doc Golightly decides to return to Fred. Meanwhile, Mag falls ill as she suffers from sunburn. When she is admitted to a hospital, Holly comes near to Jose and they start flirting with each other. Mag suspects Holly, but she insists that she is a lesbian and wouldn’t care for Jose. Mag doesn’t like lesbians and thus, she breaks her friendship with Holly. However, soon she realizes that her suspicion was true and Holly has in fact developed an affair with Jose who has impregnated him. Nonetheless, the narrator learns that Mag too moved on and got married to Rusty Trawler who used to date Holly.

Holly and the narrator decide to celebrate his birthday by going to Central Park where they enjoy horse riding. However, the narrator’s horse gets spooked and he fails to control her. Holly saves his life after much effort. Holly announces that she is planning to leave New York as Jose has proposed to marry her and take her to Brazil. The narrator isn’t happy about it but he congratulates Holly. On the same evening, the authorities visit the apartment to enquire about Holly and one of her neighbors Sapphia Spanella who dislikes Holly and calls her a whore because many men visit her room, and direct them to Holly’s room. Holly gets arrested and the narrator comes to know that she had been an associate of Sally Tomato, the notorious imprisoned Mafia leader. He used to run a drug racket despite being in prison with the help of his lawyer Oliver O’Shaughnessy. Oliver appointed Holly to visit the Sing Sing jail every week to offer a ‘weather report’ to Sally Tomato. Holly became an intermediate between Sally and Oliver and through her help, they ran the drug rackett. Holy used to get $100 per week for her services. Holly gets arrested for this charge. The narrator tries to help her but he doesn’t have money to hire a lawyer. He asks for help from Holly’s other friends but none is ready to help her. However, O. J. Berman agrees to appoint a top lawyer Iggy Fitelstein to defend Holly and get her out on bail. As she comes out of jail, she gets a telegram from Doc Golightly, informing her of Fred’s death. She also gets a letter from Jose in which he declares his break up with Holly because he doesn’t want to continue with a convicted criminal as it will harm his political future in Brazil. Holly takes a sigh and informs the narrator that she suffered a miscarriage and lost her child. The narrator believes that it happened because she put extra effort into the horse while trying to save him.

Nonetheless, Holly announces that after this scandal, she cannot afford to stay in New York. She decides to run away from America while still on bail. Since she already has the ticket to Brazil that Jose brought for her, she decides to go to Brazil. She asks the narrator’s help in bringing her suitcase and her cat so that she may leave for Brazil. The narrator isn’t happy about it but promises to help her. He takes the suitcase and the cat to Joe Bell’s bar where Holly is waiting. She takes a taxi and the narrator accompanies her to the airport. On the way, she releases the cat on the road. The narrator chastises her for leaving the cat helpless. Holly gets sad and asks him to relocate the cat and take care of him. Before she leaves, the narrator promises to find her cat. On his return, the narrator finds out the cat and keeps it with him.

After some days, the narrator receives a message from Holly informing him about her stay in Buenos Aires. She promised to keep in touch with the narrator but he never got any other message from her.

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

The Management of Grief by Bharati Mukherjee | Characters, Summary Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘The Management of Grief’ was a short story by Bharati Mukherjee that was published in her short stories collection titled The Middleman and Other Stories in 1988. ‘The Management of Grief’ is a fictional story based on the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 in which all the 329 people aboard, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens, and 24 Indian citizens lost their life. In 1987, Bharati Mukherjee and her husband Clarke Blaise wrote an investigative book on the same aviation tragedy that was titled “The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy”. Despite the majority of the victims of the aviation tragedy of 1985 being Canadian citizens, the government of Canada declared it a ‘foreign’ tragedy. In ‘The Sorrow and the Terror.” Bharati Mukherjee blamed Canada’s official policy of “multiculturalism,” which ostensibly encourages tolerance and equality but effectively fosters division and discrimination across racial boundaries. The Management of Grief is a short fictional story based on the same incident.

Characters of The Management of Grief:

Shaila Bhave is the protagonist and narrator of the story. She is a 36 years old immigrant married woman living in Toronto, Canada who gets the news of the Sikh terrorist attack on Air India Flight 182. She learns that probably all the 329 people aboard the plane died during the terrorist attack. Her husband Vikram and two sons Vinod, and Mithun were on that plane. In shock, anxiety, grief, and fear, she takes Valium while facing the situation. Kusum is another Indo-Canadian lady, a neighbor and friend of Shaila whose husband Satish and younger daughter were also on the same plane. While Kusum is more traditional and rooted in Indian culture, her elder daughter Pam is a Westernized girl who holds no values of Indianness. Naturally, Pam isn’t close to Kusum and blames her for favoring her younger sister who is more traditional. On the other hand, Pam is closer to Shaila. Dr. Ranganathan is a renowned electrical engineer working in Montreal who too lost his entire family in the attack. Judith Templeton is a Canadian government official social worker who is unaware of the political nuances of the Indian diaspora. She asks the help of Shaila to communicate with the relatives of those who were killed in the attack.

Summary of The Management of Grief:

The story begins as Shaila Bhave and Kusum are sitting on the staircase of Shaila’s split-level house, holding hands. Both women are nervous and shocked. They recently heard the news about the air bombing of Air India Flight 182. Initially, they do not know much about what exactly happened. However, Shaila’s both sons, Kusum’s younger daughter, and the husbands of both women were on traveling on the same plane. The radio and TV news informs that the airliner fell into the ocean approximately 190 kilometers off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard. Shaila’s house is filled with solicitous Indian friends who have taken charge: the women are in the kitchen making tea, and the men and boys are tuned to different radio and TV stations, and relaying the latest news and developments. It appears that irrespective of their geographical position, they are in India. Shaila is known as a strong-willed woman who is beyond the initial conflicts of immigration and has settled well in Canada. She doesn’t consider herself Indian anymore but recognizes herself as Canadian in all senses. However, the news of the death of her husband and both sons is too much for her to bear. Thus, she takes valium to maintain a stable appearance, but inside she feels “tensed” and “ready to scream.” The boys murmur that it was a Sikh terrorist attack. Shaila is deeply heart by knowing this. Her family left India to lead a peaceful life. She laments, “We, who stayed out of politics and came halfway around the world to avoid religious and political feuding, have been the first in the World to die from it.”

Kusum, on the other hand, is too disturbed and fails to show her disappointment in having lost her younger daughter whom she preferred more. Her elder daughter is Pam who is a westernized girl. Pam works in Mcdonald's, preferring Wonderland to Bombay, dating Canadian boys, hanging out in the mall, and wearing tight sweaters. Her relationship with Kusum is too strained. However, Pam gels with Shaila well as both are more Western than Indian. In her despair, Kusum tells Pam, “If I didn’t have to look after you now, I’d hang myself.” Pam gets deeply hurt by that remark and says to Shaila, “You think I don’t know what Mummy’s thinking? Why her? That’s what. That’s sick! Mummy wishes my little sister were alive and I were dead!”

Meanwhile, Judith Templeton, the Canadian government’s official social helper visits Shaila’s house to seek her help. Templeton has the job to help the mourners and aid them in moving on with their life. However, she is unable to converse with many of the mourners who barely speak English. She asks Shaila to help her in the impersonal work of processing papers for relief funds to the mourners. Judith says that she has learned that Shaila is hailed as a strong woman with a very calm demeanor in her community. Shaila tries to explain that her seemingly cool, unaffected demeanor is hardly admired by her community, who expect their members to mourn publicly and vocally. She tells her that her calm affect is not a mark of maturity, but of strangeness. Juditch compliments her while she discusses her own idea of grief and says that grief proceeds in orderly stages and that it is an emotion to be controlled rather than given in to. Shaila promises her to help her with the job after returning from Ireland, where she has to go to identify the remains of her family.

In Ireland, Kusum identifies the body of her husband. Shaila too checks the photographs of the dead bodies but fails to find a match for anyone she knows. Shaila visits the coast with Kusum and Dr. Ranganathan, a renowned electrical engineer from Montreal who too lost all his family in the plane crash. Dr. Ranganathan is an optimistic man and he says that the plane fell into the ocean and it is possible that if someone survived the blast, and if he is a strong swimmer, he might not have died. Shaila remembers that Vinod is a good swimmer and it fills her with hope. An Irish police officer approaches Shaila and shows him a photograph of a dead body which he believes is her older son Vinod. Shaila looks at the photo and sees that because of drowning, the features of the body in the picture were distorted. She doesn’t recognize that picture too. Shaila is unable to accept the death of her family.

Kusum decides to take her husband’s body to Haridwar to offer the last rites. Shaila too decides to accompany her to India. In India, she meets with her elderly parents. Her parents are rich, modern, and progressive. Some of their Sikh friends visit them to offer their condolences. While her parents calmly receive them, Shaila feels a hidden anger against them. Shaila’s grandmother is a traditional woman who got widowed at the early age of sixteen and since then she led an ascetic life considering herself a ‘harbinger of bad luck.’ However, her mother doesn’t approve of such regressive traditions and says that such behavior is mindless mortification. Shaila observes that many widows and widowers of her age are being matched with new spouses. However, she is of an age where nobody is asking her for remarriage and she is relieved by that.

Shaila’s family decides to take her on a tour of India to visit various Hindu temples and shrines so that she may get some diversion. In a deserted Himalayan temple, Shaila has a vision of her husband. He tells her: “You must finish alone what we started together.” Knowing that her mother is a practical woman with “no patience with ghosts, prophetic dreams, holy men, and cults,” Shaila tells her nothing of the vision but is spurred to return to Canada.

Shaila maintains a connection with Kusum and Dr. Ranganathan and learns that Pam is planning to leave Toronto for California to do modeling work or open a “yoga-cum-aerobics studio in Hollywood” with the insurance money of her father. Kusum decides to sell her home in Canada and decides to move into an Ashram in Haridwar. Shaila doesn’t approve of this and says that it is like running away from reality. After returning to Toronto, she maintains a good relationship with Dr. Ranganathan who continues to be a source of comfort for Shaila. Both have not remarried and he calls Shaila twice a week from Montreal. He considers himself and Shaila as “relatives,” joined together by race, culture, and now this mournful event. He takes a new job in Ottawa but cannot bear to sell his house in Montreal that he turns into a shrine of his late family.

Judith visits Shaila again and informs her about her progress with the Canadian Indian mourners. She says that these people are in the second or third stage of their grief which she calls ‘depressed acceptance.’ Judith asks Shaila to accompany her to a particular old couple who barely speak English and cannot understand her. She says that the old couple is too stubborn and is not ready to sign the papers for relief, She further informs them without signing the papers, they won’t get any money which they already lack. Shaila is willing to help but then she learns that the couple is Sikh and says that they may not listen to her because she is a Hindu. Judith insists that their Indianness is enough connection. As they reach the apartment, Shaila feels as if she has visited some old part of India and she doesn't like it. She sees women in sarees waiting for a bus and it reminds her of Bombay. Anyhow, she visits the house of the old Sikh couple with Judith. Shaila explains that if they sign the documents, the government will give them money, including airfare to Ireland to identify the bodies. The husband emphasizes that “God will provide, not the government” and the wife insists that her boys will return. Shaila fails to convince them and returns after thanking them for the tea. Judith gets exasperated and complains about Indian mourners. She says that the next woman whom they had to meet is “a real mess.” Suddenly, Shaila feels that she doesn’t wish to continue with Judith and takes her leave. She says that everyone has their own way of grief and it cannot be formulated in Judith’s sterile, textbook approach to grief management.

Shaila continues her quiet and joyless life in Toronto. She sells her big house at a profit and buys a small apartment. Kusum continues to write to her and informs her that she has seen her daughter’s reincarnation in a Himalayan village. Dr. Ranganathan continues to call her twice a week. One day he informs that he has sold his house in Montreal and has shifted to Texas, America where he wishes to tell nobody about his previous loss and grief. One day, Shaila goes to the mall for shopping and while walking back to her new home with the package of things she bought, she sees a vision of her family for the last time. Her husband tells her, “Your time has come, . . . Go, be brave.” Shaila leaves the package on a nearby park bench and continues walking aimlessly while feeling the freedom that she just gained from the unproductive attachment to her husband and sons’ spirits. She is not clear where this new life will take her, but she is determined that she will mourn no more.

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!

Some Inner Fury by Kamala Markandaya | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Kamala Markandaya was a post-Independence novelist known for the society and self-scene, spiritual quest, modernism, attitude toward feminine superiority, East-West encounter, the conflict between tradition and prevailing modernism, and somewhat historical attitudes. Her second novel was Some Inner Fury which was published in the year 1955. Like her first novel (Nector in Sieve), her second novel is presented in the manner of first-person narrative. ‘Some Inner Fury’ is a novel that deals with political passions prevailing over love and justice. The clash between passion and patriotism is presented in the novel. The title ‘Some Inner Fury’ is suggestive of Indian passion for independence, and the resentment of Indian folks against the oppressive British government, culture, and society. Some Inner Fury is a feministic novel that explores the political upheaval and cultural turmoils that engulfed the nation during the last leg of the Freedom struggle of India in the 1940s. The novel depicts the clash between the Western idea of Individualism, and the Indian idea of ‘society above self’. Another important theme of the story is love and marriage. While love is depicted as the marriage of two hearts, marriage without love is shown as psychological torture.

Characters of Some Inner Fury:

Mira is the main character of the novel and is also the narrator of the story. She is a well-educated modern girl of seventeen belonging to a rich Indian family. She is a mentally liberated woman who can see above caste, creed, and race. Roshan is another female character who too belongs to a rich Indian family. She got her education from Oxford University and then she returned to India to devote herself to the cause of Freedom of India. She runs a pro-Indian newspaper and tries to help Indian folks struggling for Independence. Roshan is a modern and progressive woman who becomes an ideal for Mira and tries to follow her. Premla is the third female character who too belongs to a rich Indian family but she is traditional and rooted in Indian culture. Another important female character is the mother of Mira who is a traditional, wise woman. Kitsamy is the elder brother of Mira who is an Anglophile. After completing his education at Oxford University, he too returns to India but unlike Roshan, he prefers to join the Civil Services as an employee of the British Indian government. Kitsamy was in unrequited love with a British girl Sylvia but his feelings didn’t reach fruition. Back in India, he gets married to Premla whose nature is exactly opposite to Kitsamy. While Premla is a traditional woman who takes pride in Indian culture, Kisamy loves British culture and believes Indian culture is primitive. Govind is the foster brother of Kitsamy and Mira who was adopted by Mira’s parents. Mira’s father wished Govind to join his business after his education but Govind chose the path of revolutionaries struggling for the Independence of India through violent means. Govind hates the British and those who work for the British government. Yet, he loves his family including Kitsamy. Govind starts liking Premla who he knows is being badly treated by Kitsamy. Richard is another important character who is a college friend of Roshan and Kitsamy. After graduation, he comes to India with Kitsamy and Roshan and takes the job of Governor’s A.D.C. Roshan is a British modern man who falls in love with Mira, an Indian girl. Mira too loves him deeply and wishes to marry him. Hickey is another British man who works for an English Missionary who is involved in tempting the naive and innocent Indians into the garb of Christianity.

The novel is set in the 1940s during the period of the Quit India Movement. The whole of Native Indian society is engulfed in the emotions for Independence, while some are supportive of the violent means of Subhash Chandra Bose and others, others support the peaceful yet revolutionary ways of Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi. Despite this difference, a sense of resentment is common in all Indians against the oppressive foreign government. The story begins as Mira sentimentally opens the beautiful silver box engraved with filigree work and gazes at the bit of material covered with dust and blood stains, and her eyes begin to get misty. The blood stains are of the man whom she loved so much and then decided to be with the men who murdered him. She just saw Richard murdered in the mob fury. As her heart cries, her mind drifts into the memories while she realizes that individual fall or suffering is irrelevant in the event of a great cause.

Summary of Some Inner Fury:

Kitsamy is the eldest son of a rich Indian family in a provincial town. His family is partially Westernized and partially traditional. He just returned from London after completing his education at Oxford University and along with him, he brought an English friend named Richard. Mira is the younger sister of Kitsamy who is just 17 years old. She is a modern girl with a liberated heart. She is very open-minded and forward in her manners. Richard is attracted to her and she develops an intimacy with him. Within a few days, Richard and Mira feel that they are made for each other.

After some days, Richard leaves Kitsamy’s house and goes to the capital city to join his assignment as the Governor’s A.D.C.

Meanwhile, Roshan, another friend and classmate of Kitsamy decides to begin a newspaper supporting the Indian cause and struggle for Independence. She is an independent lady who though is Westernized, understands the importance of Indian society and culture. She is a liberated progressive woman who decides to devote herself to the social cause. Though she is unmarried, she claims that she is married and she and her husband parted ways.

Kitsamy too joins the Civil Services and becomes the District Magistrate of his city. He is a completely Westernized and Anglophile Indian man who fell in love with a British girl but couldn’t marry her. Now when he is well-settled, his family decides to marry him to an Indian girl Premla. Kitsamy opposes the marriage because he doesn’t know Premla well but ultimately, they get married. Premla is an Indian girl, who observes the Hindu rituals of society. Unfortunately, Kitsamy fails to understand the Indian traditional and cultured woman, Premala. He tries to Westernize her. Kitsamy likes playing tennis, but Premala does not. He asks her to put on shorts which she does not like. She prizes honesty which for Kitsamy signifies nothing. Her desire of playing on Veena is in contrast with Kitsamy’s lack of interest in classical music. She knows Gita which Kitsamy has forgotten. Their natures are opposed to each other. After his initial tries, he decides to maintain a distance from Premla, his own wife. Premla tries her best to win the love of Kitsamy but she fails and gradually, her love is subdued and is ultimately sublimated to the social cause; when she becomes a helping partner of an English Missionary Hickey in maintaining a school in a village. She adopts an orphan child from the school. Though Kitsamy has no objection to Premla going out and working for social causes, he is suspicious of the missionary as he knows how it tempts gentle and benevolent men and women towards Christianity.

Govind, who is the foster brother of Mira and Kitsamy, refuses to join his foster father’s business. is fired with nationalist fervor and wants to play an active role in the Independence movement. He joins the civil disobedience movement and becomes a votary of violence.

Meanwhile, Mira is restless as she wonders when she will get another chance to meet Richard, her lover. She decides to join Roshan’s newspaper as a reporter. Roshan publishes her newspaper with nationalistic zeal. Roshan is a modern, independent woman who values Individualism, however, she also recognizes her duty towards her society and actively participates in the political movement for Indian independence. Govind meets with Roshan and makes her aware of his policy of freedom. Roshan is sympathetic towards Govind but she doesn’t agree with his ways and says, “Everybody is interested in freedom…only, we do not all agree on the means to the end, as I think you know too.” She further says, “There is no power in violence… only destruction … I am not really interested in destruction.” However, when Govind gets caught while trying to burn a pro-British government newspaper office, Roshan comes to his rescue. Govind learns that all is not well between his brother Kitsamy and his wife. He learns that Premla has started going to educate orphan children at a missionary school. Being a pro-Indian traditional man, Govind starts liking Premla and develops a great respect for her. But he tries to convince her to maintain a distance from other activities of the missionary where she goes to teach orphan kids.

Roshan asks Mira to report on a peasant resettlement in the neighborhood of the city. It is in the course of the visits to this resettlement that she stumbles on Richard and the love affair between the two develops. Indian situations prove harsh for Richard and he falls ill. He takes a six-week leave from his job and decides to visit the Southernmost parts of India. Mira is worried about him and when he asks her to accompany her to Kanyakumari, she decides to go with him. The trip turns out to be their honeymoon as they consummate their love, yet unmarried. After six weeks, they return with dreams of marriage. Richard decides to meet Mira’s parents to ask for Mira’s hand in marriage. Mira’s mother is a traditional woman who is aware of the current times and the tumultuous times ahead shortly. She realizes her daughter’s rebellious behavior and instead of directly opposing Mira’s relationship with Richard, she insists that Mira is still a child and they should wait until Mira turns twenty-one years old. She is a mother who loves her daughter and promises Mira that if Richard decides to return to England before she turns twenty-one, she will not oppose their marriage.

One day, there is an official party at the Government House where Kit is expected to visit Premla, his wife. However, it is the same day when the new building of the missionary school is going to be inaugurated. Premla prefers to go to missionary school. So Kitsamy takes Mira to the party. Meanwhile, the local youth groups are preparing to revolt against the ill practices of Hickey’s missionary as they believe that the missionary is involved with the conversion of Hindus to Christianity either through force or through temptations. Some of the members of these groups are friends of Govind. Govind comes to know that the revolutionary is going to target the missionary school and he gets worried for Premla. He goes to the Government House to ask Kitsamy about Premla.

The party is being held under tight security because it is feared that the hostile public and revolutionaries may disrupt the party. While the party is going on, the light goes off and the people rush into the ball. A melee results. Govind also rushes in and asks Kitsamy where Premala is. Kitsamy tells him that Premala has gone to the school in the village. Govind gets worried and insists Kitsamy immediately go to the village and take Premla to safety. Kitsamy understands the emergency of the situation. Despite his distance from Premla, he feels responsible for her and decides to immediately go there. Mira and Govind accompany him in his official car. When they reach the village, they find that the newly-built school building has already been burnt down by the revolutionaries and that Premala was inside the building. Govind tries to jump in the fire to save Premla but Mira grabs him in her arms. Meanwhile, Kitsamy notices that some of the revolutionaries who were running away are friends of Govind. He confronts them and abuses them but suddenly, a knife is thrown at him which kills him. Soon the police arrive and Govind is arrested along with other revolutionaries. At the court, Hickey gives his testimony against Govind and says that he saw Govind throwing the knife at Kitsamy. Mira opposes his testimony and tells the court that she had thrown her arms around Govind as Kitsamy left, so Govind couldn't have thrown the knife. Richard, being the A.D.C of the governor is also present at the court and he is very sad about his friend’s death. The native people do not believe that the court will offer justice. While the trial is proceeding, the court is mobbed by the slogan-shouting mob and Govind is taken away. Mira also realizes that she can keep herself no longer from her countrymen and goes with them. Richard believes that Heckey is telling the truth and hence, he tries to stop the mob from taking away Govind by force. The mob turns furious and Heckey and Richard are murdered in the ensuing violence. Mira sees all this happening and her heart cries for Richard, but she prefers to be with her countrymen by her own will. She learns the new meaning of Individual liberty and duty towards society. She learns that personal losses do not count for a noble cause.

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 Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Oliver Goldsmith was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, poet, dramatist, and short story writer who was born on 10 November 1728 in Ireland and died on 4 April 1774. Goldsmith is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield which is a book about family endurance. The novel was published in 1764 and it became one of the most successful novels of the eighteenth century and continued its successful run during the Victorian era.

Goldsmith wrote the novel in 1762. Facing financial troubles, he asked for Samuel Johnson’s help in finding a publisher for his novel. Samuel Johnson checked the merits of the novel and agreed to help Goldsmith and sold the novel to a bookseller and publisher for sixty pounds that Oliver Goldsmith used for paying his rent and bills.

Characters of The Vicar of Wakefield:

The Vicar or Dr. Charles Primrose is the protagonist of the novel. He is a virtuous morally upright man with great pride and affection for his family. He believes in the goodness of mankind and lacks the prudence to distinguish bad from good. He is often deceived by the appearances and behavior of those around him. Deborah is Vicar’s wife. She is intelligent and independent but falls prey to her vanity and pretensions of a higher social status. George Primrose is the eldest son of Dr. Primrose who is an educated, brave, and honest but naive young man who fails to find a proper source of income. Olivia is the eldest daughter of the Vicar who is extremely vain and concerned with her social status. She falls for Squire Thornhill, considering his wealth who fools her into a fake marriage and then pushes her to prostitution. Sophia is the younger sister of Olivia who is modest, virtuous, and much less vain than Olivia. She too aspires to regain her higher social status but to a much lesser extent. Moses and Dick are the Vicar’s two younger sons who are honest but gullible. Mr. Burchell is an honest, handsome, brave, and intelligent young man but he is penniless. He saves Sophia who falls in love with him. Later on, it is revealed that Mr. Burchell is in fact, Sir William Thornhill in disguise. Sir William Thornhill is a rich man who led a profligate youth but has reformed. He is the uncle of Squire Thornhill who is the young, handsome, and roguish landlord of the Vicar’s family. He has conned many women into fake marriages and left them to work as prostitutes after having his way with them. He gains the trust of the Vicar’s family and then seduces Olivia and pushes her to prostitution. He further plans to seduce Sophia as his next target. Ephraim Jenkinson is a scoundrel and trickster who initially helps Squire Thornhill in his evil plans but then repents his mistakes. Later on, he becomes the Vicar’s confidante and helps him through the troubles. Soloman Flamborough is an old poor farmer and neighbor of the Vicar who has two daughters. Arabella Wilmot is an elegant and beautiful young girl who is in love with George and is supposed to marry him at the beginning of the novel. But her father Mr. Wilmot breaks the relationship with the Vicar and cancels the marriage of Arabella and George after being insulted by the vicar's opinions of marriage, and learning about the vicar's loss of fortune. Mr. Arnold is an uncle of Arabella. His butler pretends to be Mr. Arnold and invites the Vicar to have dinner at Mr. Arnold’s house. Farmer Williams is another neighbor of the Vicar who has feelings for Olivia and wishes to marry her.

Summary of The Vicar of Wakefield:

The novel begins as the Vicar, Dr. Charles Primrose is leading a serene and virtuous life in his country parish with his wife Deborah, and five children, three sons, George, Moses, and Dick, and two daughters, Olivia, and Sophia. He received an inheritance from a diseased relative and he invested that wealth appropriately thus, his family is leading a wealthy lifestyle. The Vicar is known as a good, virtuous man who donates the £35 that his job pays annually to the widows and orphans of local clergy. His eldest son, Geroge is an educated young man who got his degree from Oxford and he is engaged to Arabella Wilmot, the beautiful daughter of Mr. Wilmot, a wealthy merchant. George and Arabella love each other. One day, the Vicar meets Mr. Wilmot and they engage in a philosophical debate over marriages. The Vicar, being sanctimonious, ignores the points raised by Mr. Wilmot and tries to prove himself correct while insulting Mr. Wilmot. The very next day, Dr. Primrose comes to know that he lost all his money through the bankruptcy of his merchant investor who has left town abruptly. On the same evening, Mr. Wilmot cancels the engagement of Arabella and George, partly because he is angry with Dr. Primrose and mainly because now George is a penniless young man unworthy of Arabella’s social and economic status.

Unable to maintain the same status, the Vicar’s family is forced to move to a more humble area. The Vicar takes the farmland of Squire Thornhill on rent and starts living there while working as a farmer and curate. The new house is comfortable but his wife and daughters are distraught as they find it difficult to accept the lower level of lifestyle they are forced to live now. The Vicar sends Geroge to London so that he may find a job and help the family through his earnings.

The Vicar befriends his neighbors, Farmer Williams and Solomon Flamborough. The Vicar befriends a young handsome man Mr. Burchell who once saved Sophia from drowning. After that incident, Sophia started liking Mr. Burchell but her mother Deborah noticed it and refrained Sophia from making any gesture towards Mr. Burchell. Meanwhile, the Vicar and his wife come to know about their new landlord Squire Thornhill that he is a rich man living on the money of his uncle Sir William Thornhill. Their neighbors warn them that Squire Thornhill is a rouged young man who is a womanizer and conman.

One day, Squire Thornhill visits the Vicar’s new house and he appears to be charming, attractive, genteel, and amiable. He openly shows his interest in Olivia who falls for his rich attitude. The Vicar’s wife hopes that if Olivia gets married to Squire Thornhill, it will bring their old wealthy days back. The Vicar too gets interested in this prospect he starts objecting to Mr. Burchell's attention to Sophia as he does not want her to marry a penniless man. To win Squire Thornhill’s approval for his marriage with Olivia, the Vicar’s family starts pretending to be rich. They leave their simple and frugal ways of living and begin leading a prideful and vain lifestyle. However, their efforts to impress Squire Thornhill bring more embarrassment to the whole family. Once Deborah suggests that they should sell their family horses to buy a new fashionable horse. When Dr. Primrose and his son Moses go to sell the horse, they are duped by a con man named Ephraim Jenkinson.

One day, Squire Thornhill brings two fashionable women appearing very rich with their costumes, to the house of the Vicar. The women impress the Vicar's family and introduce themselves as women of power in the city. Squire Thornhill then suggests that the ladies might help Olivia and Sophia to get high positions in the city. Deborah agrees for sending her girls to the city. However, Mr. Burchell comes to know about it in time and he writes a letter ambiguously threatening the reputation of the girls. Because of this letter, the plan of Squire Thornhill to deport the girls to the city where he may exploit them easily gets spoiled. However, the Vicar and his wife fail to understand how Mr. Burchell saved their daughters. They get angry over him and banish him from entering their house ever again.

To force Squire Thornhill to express his desire to marry Olivia, Deborah tells him that she is considering of marrying Olivia to Farmer Williams. Squire Thornhill feels jealous of the farmer but he makes no effort to propose. Deborah then starts preparing for the marriage of Olivia with the farmer. However, Olivia is not at all willing to marry Williams and thus, she decides to elope with Squire Thornhill right before her wedding to Williams. This breaks the Vicar’s heart. He decides to pursue and search for Olivia, hoping to save and forgive her. First, he goes to see her at Squire Thornhill's house who is alone at his home. Then the Vicar suspects that Mr. Burchell might have abducted his daughter. But he finds that his suspicion is false. He continues to search for Olivia and goes far away from his home. He continues to travel and look for Olivia for three days and nights and then he falls ill. During his return journey, he meets an acting company and accompanies them. When they reach the next town, an intelligent person, appearing to be a man of repute befriends him and invites him to his home for dinner. When the Vicar visits his home, he gets astonished by the man’s magnificent mansion. However, soon it is revealed that the man who invited him is not the owner of that mansion but he is a butler of Mr. Arnold, the actual owner of the mansion. The Vicar meets Arabella at the mansion who greets him and informs that Mr. Arnold is her uncle. The Vicar comes to know that Arabella still loves George and hopes to marry him but her father, Mr. Wilmot has arranged for the marriage of Arabella with Squire Thornhill. The Vicar is still ill and Arabella insists he stay for a few days in the mansion till he regains his health. Meanwhile, they visit to see a drama by a new acting company in the town and find out that George is working with the acting company. Geroge is happy after meeting Arabella and his father. He informs them how his efforts at finding a job failed and how he ended up working with the acting company. Arabella invites George too at her uncle’s mansion but on the same evening, Squire Thornhill too visits there. Squire Thornhill is surprised to see the Vicar and George at the mansion. He notices that Arabella is favorable towards George and thus, he procures a job for George in West Indies so that he may go far away. Geroge and his family desperately need money and thus George accepts the job opportunity.

After a few days, the Vicar returns to his home. One night, he stops at an inn and gets startled when he sees Olivia there. He embraces Olivia who is sobbing. She informs him how the Squire seduced her and duped her into a fake marriage and after using her, he left her in a de facto house of prostitution where she met the women who visited their house with the Squire. Olivia informed the Vicar that those two women are prostitutes who tried to bully her into the profession but she somehow escaped their clutches and has since lived at the mercy of the innkeeper. After thanking the innkeeper for safekeeping his daughter, the Vicar brings Olivia back but instead of taking her directly to their home, he leaves her in a nearby inn so that he may prepare the other members of the family to forgive her and embrace her back. When Dr. Primrose reaches his home, he sees it burning in huge flames with his two younger sons trapped in the fire. He jumps into the fire to save his sons and although he saves them, his both hands get severely burnt. He then informs Deborah of Olivia’s whereabouts. The family is not ready to bear any more accidents and hence they bring back Olivia back with them.

While the Vicar’s family is trying to mend their burnt house and bring it back to normalcy, they hear about the engagement of Arabella with Squire Thornhill. This enrages Dr. Primrose who now knows how Squire Thornhill fooled and disgraced his daughter. One day, when the Vicar sees Squire Thornhill, he confronts him and openly insults him. Squire Thornhill gets enraged and vows to take revenge. The next day, he sends two police officers to collect the rent for his land. Since the Vicar has no money, he fails to pay the rent and gets arrested by the officers. His family decides to go with him. While Deborah, Olivia, and Sophia stay at an inn nearby the prison, Moses and Dickjoin the prison cell of Dr. Primrose. In the prison, the Vicar meets Ephrain Jenkinson who fooled him and his son and robbed his horses. He finds that Jenkinson is a changed man who has repented for his previous crimes. Vicar forgives him and they become good friends. In the jail, Dr. Primrose realizes the importance of patience and fortitude and starts to offer sermons to his fellow prison mates. When the Vicar tells Jenkinson how the Squire ruined his daughter’s life, Jenkinson informs him that he used to work for the Squire in the past. He tells him that he will help him in whatever way he can. The Vicar writes a letter to Sir William Thornhill, informing him of the misdeeds of Squire Thornhill.

Though the Vicar now knows the importance of patience, he is still very angry at Squire Thornhill and refuses to compromise with Squire Thornhill. One day, Jenkinson informs him that Olivia has died because of ill health and starvation. This breaks Dr. Primrose who realizes that he needs to get out of jail to help his family. He sends a letter of compromise to Squire Thornhill who refuses to compromise because of the letter the Vicar sent to his uncle. On the same day, the Vicar learns that Sophia has been abducted by a hooligan. After some time, he sees George being brought into the prison as a criminal and learns that after learning about the shame of Olivia, he challenged Squire Thornhill for a duel but the squire sent his officers to beat him and imprison him. The Vicar gets horrified by these incidences and believes that nothing worse could happen. He then feels his own inner strength and offers a sermon on fortitude to the entire prison.

Right after the sermon, Moses informs Dr. Primrose that Mr. Burchell has rescued Sophia. Mr. Burchell brings Sophia to the prison to meet her father. The Vicar apologizes to Mr. Burchell for his previous ill behavior against Mr. Burchell and says that though Mr. Burchell is penniless, he is the best possible lifemate for Sophia. As the Vicar offers Sophia’s hand to Mr. Burchell in marriage, he accepts it and orders a great feast for the whole of the family and all the prisoners and jail staff.

During the feast, the Vicar learns that Squire Thornhill has arrived at the occasion and he wishes to meet Mr. Burchell. The Vicar gets frightened that Squire Thornhill will again do something bad to his family, Mr. Burchell reveals that they need not worry because he is William Thornhill, uncle of Squire Thornhill and he will not let him do anything wrong. Sophia then described the man who abducted her and when Jenkinson listens to her, he realizes that he knows that man. He asks for the jailer’s help to catch the abductor. The jailer sends two policemen with Jenkinson and they apprehend him. The abductor informs that he abducted Sophia on Squire Thornhill’s order who planned to mock-rescue her so he could then seduce her. Meanwhile, Sir William Thornhill comes to know about George and lectures him about fighting. He then realizes how George might have felt when he came to know how Squire Thornhill ruined his sister’s life. William Thornhill forgives George. Meanwhile, Arabella learns about the arrest of the Vicar and she visits him in the jail along with her father Mr. Wilmot. Mr. Wilmot is sorry for the misfortunes of the Vicar and embraces him. Arabella immediately declares that she is ending her engagement with Squire Thornhill. However, the squire isn’t worried about it because he has already signed the contract for Arabella’s dowry. Arabella and George don’t care about it. They are overjoyed and plan to marry anyway.

At that moment Jenkinson reveals that Olivia is still alive and he lied about her death to convince the Vicar to compromise and make peace with Squire Thornhill. He also says that he disguised himself as a priest in what Squire Thornhill believed was his fake marriage with Olivia. However, he says that it was a real and legal marriage and he is willing to offer proof for it. This ruins Squire Thornhill’s plan as being married to Olivia, he couldn’t engage with Arabella legally and hence he can have no claim on her dowry. Now when his wrong deeds are open in front of his uncle Sir William Thornhill, he cannot expect any help from him too. He begs mercy from his uncle who insists that he should accept Olivia as his legal wife and take care of her and then he will allow him some allowance and a home to live peacefully to which Squire Thornhill agrees.

Mr. Wilmot agrees to the marriage of George and Arabella while Sir William Thornhill marries Sophia. Meanwhile, the rouge merchant who ran away after swindling the Vicar’s money also gets caught and the Vicar’s fortune gets restored.

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!

A Hymn to Pillory by Daniel Defoe | Life and Early Works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Daniel Defoe was an English pamphleteer, journalist, and writer who was born in the year 1660 and died on 24^th April 1731. Defoe is known for his novel Robinson Crusoe which was published in 1719 and is considered the first English novel that established realistic fiction as a literary genre. Along with Aphra Behn and Samuel Johnson, Daniel Defoe popularized novels as the modern form of literature in Britain. His other noteworthy novels include Captain Singleton, Memoirs of a Cavalier, A Journal of a Plague Year, Colonel Jack, Moll Flanders, and Roxanna: The Fortunate Mistress. Defoe’s parents were Presbyterian Dissenters and he got his education in dissenting Academy of Presbyterians at Newington, Green. Dissenters were those British Christians who didn’t accept the authority of the Anglican church and had their own churches. It was a period when the English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the Anglican Church.

Defoe began his business career as a general merchant dealing in hosiery, woolen clothes, and wine. He made good profits and bought a ship and civets to produce perfumes. Being a Presbyterian, Defoe joined the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, and after its failure, he was caught but fortunately, he was pardoned. In 1689, Queen Mary and her husband William III were crowned as joint monarchs of England. Defoe became a close confidante of William III and began spying for him. During this time, his business suffered because of conflicts between France and England and he accrued huge debts that he couldn’t pay. In 1692, he was arrested and kept in the Debtor’s prison.

In 1697, he published his first noteworthy pamphlet titled An Essay Upon Projects in which he wrote about various social and economic plans required for the improvement of the English society. The pamphlet also contained a proposal for a National Insurance Scheme.

Throughout William III’s reign, Defoe supported him loyally, becoming his leading pamphleteer. In 1701, in reply to attacks on the “foreign” king, Defoe published his vigorous and witty poem The True-Born Englishman which became very popular. The poem talked about racial prejudice and how it harms society. The poem defended William III against the xenophobic and racial attacks from his political enemies in England.

The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (Summary)

In 1702, William III died and Queen Anne became the monarch of England. She was strictly against the dissenters and nonconformists. Defoe often used to write pamphlets favoring the dissenters and

wrote tracts advocating greater toleration for dissenters. In December 1702, Defoe anonymously wrote and published a pamphlet titled The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. Daniel Defoe wrote this pamphlet in a satirical manner. In the beginning, he offered a fable of the Cock and the Horses living in the stable. Since there is no perch for the cock, he is forced to live on the ground. As the horses are moving too much, the cock gets frightened of being steppe upon and advises the horses, "Pray, Gentlefolks! let us stand still! For fear, we should tread upon one another!” The author then compares the situations of Dissenters in England with that of the cock.

Then the author mentions the involvement of Dissenters in various notorious and hideous criminal activities during the past century. He mentions the English Civil War and Monmouth’s Rebellion. The author continues to sharpen his accusations against the Dissenters and at one point, the author says, "You have butchered one King! deposed another King! and made a Mock King of a third!" The author says that the previous monarchs from James I to William III have treated the Dissenters very leniently but now they should be punished harshly. The author also offers counterpoints in favor of the Dissenters such as "They are very numerous". The author then says that The Church of England is in grave danger because of these Dissenters. The author argued that the best way of dealing with the dissenters was to banish them abroad and send their preachers to the hangman. The Church of England, it said, is like Christ crucified between two thieves, Papists on one side and Nonconformist sectarians on the other. Very well, let us crucify the thieves. To go on tolerating them is like allowing a plague to continue without medical treatment.

Defoe intended to write this pamphlet as a satire but it came out to be a work of hoax and misused impersonation. In addition, many high churchmen endorsed the ways of punishing the Dissenters as mentioned in the pamphlet. This created a controversy and Queen Anne demanded the arrest of the author. Soon it came to light that Daniel Defoe wrote and published the pamphlet anonymously and an arrest warrant was issued against him. Defoe tried to avoid imprisonment by absconding but a substantial reward was offered for his arrest. Defoe went into hiding and published A Brief Explanation of a Late Pamphlet to say that he had been misunderstood, but it didn’t help him. He was arrested and imprisoned and then a case of sedition was run against him. Defoe pleaded guilty but appealed for mercy on the ground that he didn’t expect the pamphlet to be taken so seriously, he was sentenced to stand three times in the pillory, pay a stiff fine and remain in prison until he could provide sureties for his good behavior for seven years.

A Hymn to The Pillory:

A pillory is a device used for punishment, for the purpose of which a criminal's head and hands are put through holes in a wooden bar, and locked there. Then the criminal is made to stand in front of the crowd. The crowd would often throw rotten eggs, tomatoes, pebbles, or stones at the criminal. Defoe was sentenced to the pillory because he had published some dissenting religious views that the authorities didn't like.

Defoe accepted the punishment but before facing the crowd, bound in the pillory, Defoe wrote a poem titled A Hymn to The Pillory and his supporters and friends distributed the copies of the poem in the crowd.

Defoe was put in the pillory on the last three days of July 1703, for an hour each time in three of the busiest places in London. It was expected that the crowd will through rotten tomatoes and eggs and maybe stones at Defoe but the poem had its effect. All that was thrown at him were flowers while his friends sold the spectators copies of The Shortest Way and A Hymn to the Pillory which he had composed for the occasion.

The poem is an oration addressed to the pillory. The poet begins by addressing the pillory, “Hail! Hi’roglyphick State Machin”; he continues through a long succession of varied metaphorical references to the pillory: human (brows, face), stage (“modern Scenes,” theater), mountain (pinnacles, ridge), military (turrets, counterscarp), scaffold (“Great Monster of the Law”), and numerous others. “Stage” seems to be dominant. Rhetorically he inquires after the secret of the emblematic (“hieroglyphic”) meaning of the pillory. Because of the self-discoveries represented by these references, the speaker works his way through different interpretations of the pillory experience and reaches the startling conclusion that the pillory is an absolute subversion of justice, as is the state. In the poem, Defoe says that poor people like him who've been sentenced to the pillory have much more integrity than the society and the legal system that has condemned them to this punishment. According to Defoe, English society and the English legal system are both corrupt: in England, "justice" is actually about self "interest," laws are "subservient" to those in power, what is "vertue" one day is condemned as "crime" the next.

Defoe wrote the poem in hymn form in highly irregular Pindarics, used both for praise or blame, panegyric or satire. Pindar was a Greek poet known for his ceremonious poems, poems that usually celebrated a famous person. Pindaric odes are structured in a certain way, with a specific meter and rhyme scheme.

Defoe adopted the Pindaric structure for his poem reflecting his inclination towards neoclassicism. In addition, he used the Pindaric structure to offer dignity, not to some famous person, but to those who have been pilloried, and one of them was Defoe himself.

After the punishment, he was sent back to the jail. His business went bankrupt and he was unable to pay the fine. In November, Defoe’s fine was paid out of secret service funds and he was released from Newgate. Defoe had brokered his release in exchange for Defoe's cooperation as a spy for the Tories. He was then employed to publish a newspaper favoring the government and then he was sent to Scotland as a spy in 1706. Meanwhile, he continued to write propaganda for various ministries.

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 Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Purloined Letter was a sh
ort detective story written by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published in 1844. In 1845, the story was then republished in the short story collection ‘Tales by Edgar A. Poe.’ The meaning of ‘Purloined’ is to appropriate wrongfully and often by a breach of trust. Thus, the Puloined letter is a letter of importance whose content may cause huge controversy, mutiny, or disgrace to the Royal king, and that letter has been stolen.

Characters of The Purloined Letter:

The story is again told by the unnamed narrator who is a close friend of C. Auguste Dupin, a private detective and roommate of the narrator. Monsieur G- is the Perfect of the Paris Police who often seeks help from Dupin in various criminal cases though he is not very favorable to Dupin. Minister D- is a clever and cunning minister who steels a letter of importance with the intent to blackmail the owner of that letter and outperforms the Parisian police that tries to retrieve the letter. The unnamed Royal lady is the owner of that letter of importance who is presumably the Queen of France and the Man whom the letter concerned is presumably the King of France.

Summary of The Purloined Letter:

The story begins as the narrator is enjoying his leisure time in Paris along with his friend C. Auguste Dupin. The narrator is still thinking about the brilliance of his friend Dupin and how he applied reason to solve the mystery of The Murders in The Rue Morgue. One evening, the Perfect G- knocks on the door of the narrator's apartment and calls for Dupin. They invite him in and the narrator lights a candle.

Monsieur G- informs that he visited to discuss a case with Dupin. Dupin then extinguishes the candle as he believes that good thinking is better done in the dark. Also, he doesn’t want any outsider to notice that the Perfect is discussing official work with him. Perfect G- says that the case is very simple yet very odd and the police are finding it difficult to solve it. Dupin suggests that the simplicity of the case might be the reason for the difficulty in the solution. Monsieur G- says that if the narrator and Dupin swear secrecy, he is willing to discuss the case. The narrator and Dupin agree to it.

The Perfect says that a letter of importance has been stolen and the police know who stole the letter. He says that the letter belonged to a certain Royal lady of high regard. When she was first reading it, the man whom it concerned came into the royal apartments. Not wanting to arouse his suspicion, she put it down on a table next to her. At the same moment, Minister D- also visited the royal apartments for some official job and he noted the contents of the letter of importance while the Royal lady was entertaining the Man whom it concerned. Minister D- understood the seriousness of the situation and he quickly produced a duplicate letter resembling the letter of importance. He left the duplicate letter next to the original one as he began to talk of Parisian affairs. After some time, he asked for permission to leave, and before going out, he picked up the letter of importance in place of the duplicate one. The perfect says that now when Minister D- possesses that letter of importance, he is using its content to blackmail the royal lady. The perfect suggests that Minister D- has yet not made the content of the letter of Importance public, otherwise, it might have caused certain circumstances that have not yet occurred; and that D- must have it close at hand, ready to disclose at a moment's notice.

Dupin agrees to it and questions if the police have searched the apartment of the hotel where Minister D- is residing. The perfect informs that the Minister’s residence has been thoroughly searched without success. He recounts the search procedure, during which the police systematically searched every inch of the hotel. In addition, the letter could not be hidden on the Minister’s body because the police have searched him as well. The Perfect says that he is willing to spend more time finding out the letter because he has been offered a huge reward in return. Dupin then asks for the physical description of the letter and then he suggests to the Perfect that they should search the apartment of Minister D- again.

After one month, Perfect G- visits the apartment of the narrator again and informs that they have yet not found the letter. He says that the Royal lady is desperate to retrieve the letter as soon as possible and she has increased the amount of reward. The prefect says that he will pay 50, 000 francs to anyone who obtains the letter for him. Dupin smiles at this and asks the Perfect to write a cheque of 50,000 francs in his name. The Perfect gets startled but he writes the cheque on the spot. Dupin takes the receipt of the check and immediately, he hands over the letter of importance to the Perfect G-. Monsieur G- gets startled as he checks the letter and after being satisfied, he rushes off to return it to its rightful owner. The narrator puzzlingly looks at Dupin and then Dupin explains how he got the letter.

Dupin says that the police have skilled investigators but they work on their own principles and this often leads to their failure. He then discusses a game of ‘even and odd’ played by children. In this game, two young kids keep several small toys or beads hidden in their hands. Each player must then guess whether the number of beads or toys in the hands of others is even or odd. If the guess is right, the player gets one bead or toy from the other. If his guess is wrong, then the boy loses a toy or bead of his own. Dupin then says that a good player of this game does not make guesses on his intuition, rather, he notices the facial expressions of the other player and depends on his knowledge of the other player. When he has to make a guess, he tries to imitate the facial expression of the other player, trying to learn what he must be thinking and this offers him an insight if the other player has kept an even number of beads in his hands, or odd. Dupin says that the Parisian police did not adopt this strategy and hence, they failed in finding the letter.

Dupin then explains that Minister D- is very intelligent and cunning. He already knew where the police would try to locate the letter and hence, he avoided hiding the letter in the nooks and crannies of his apartment. Dupin then explains another game of children in which one player finds a name on a map and tells the other player to find it as well. Dupin says that often people think that trying with a name on the map written in very small letters will make them win but Dupin doesn’t agree with this. Dupin says that the hardest names to find are actually those that stretch broadly across the map because they are so obvious.

Dupin then informs the narrator that he visited Minister D-’s apartment and after surveying his apartment, he noticed a set of visiting cards hanging from the mantelpiece. Among those visiting cards, Dupin observed a letter that had a different exterior envelope that was previously described by the Perfect. But Dupin also noticed that the letter appeared as if it has been folded back on itself to change its appearance. Dupin was convinced that it is a letter of importance. To retrieve the letter back, he created an excuse for returning to the apartment again and deliberately left his snuff box in the apartment of Minister D-. The next day, he employed a man to create a commotion outside the window of Miniter D-’s apartment while he will be visiting there. When Dupin went into the apartment of Minister D- there was a huge uproar just outside his window. Minister D- naturally went to the window and looked outside and during that time, Dupin retrieved the letter of Importance. Not only that, but he also placed a duplicate of that letter backfolded on itself and placed it in the exact place. Thus, though the original letter has already been transferred to the rightful owner, Dupin says that Minister D- still believes that he holds the letter. Dupin then predicts that the Minister will embarrass himself when he acts in reliance upon the letter he falsely believes he still possesses. Then Dupin explains that once, Minister D- insulted him brutally and this will be his revenge against him. He informs that he wrote a few lines of a French poem in the duplicate letter which says, “So baneful a scheme, if not worthy of Atreus, is worthy of Thyestes.”

Analysis of The Purloined Letter:

Poe termed The Puoined Letter as his best story of Ratiocination. It was the third detective story by Poe that featured the recurring character of C. Auguste Dupin, the young French detective, and his friend, the narrator. This story is different from the other two previous detective stories by Poe in the sense that though the previous stories involved gory, brutal murders and elements of fear, The Purloined Letter doesn’t involve any mutilation and gory crimes, rather, it focuses on the relationship between C. Dupin and the French Police and highlights the superiority of the savvy private eye of Dupin against the ineffectual established order.

In The Murders in The Rue Morgue, Dupin was not a professional detective but he pursues the case for amusement and to help the clerk who once helped him. Furthermore, he was interested in revealing the truth. In The Purloined Letter, however, Dupin undertakes the case for financial gain and personal revenge. He is not motivated by pursuing truth, emphasized by the lack of information about the contents of the purloined letter. This suggests his professional attitude towards maintaining the trust of his client (The Perfect directly and the Royal Lady indirectly), who do not wish the content of the letter to be made public.

Dupin describes Minister D- as very intelligent and cunning. He appears to be an equivalent opposite of Dupin. Still, Dupin outsmarts Minister D- because while Dupin is principled and honest, Minister D- is unprincipled and corrupt. Some literary critics suggest that Minister D- is a brother of Dupin (that’s why D-) and that is why Dupin gave the example of Atreus and Thyestes. In Greek mythology, Atreus was the king of Mycenae. His younger brother was Thyestes. Thyestes seduced Atreus’s wife, Aërope. When Atreus came to know about it, Thyestes was outcasted. To avenge this, Thyestes sent Pleisthenes (Atreus’s son, whom Thyestes had brought up as his own), to kill Atreus, but the boy was himself slain, unrecognized by his father. When Atreus came to know about his son’s murder by his own hands, he recalled Thyestes to Mycenae in apparent reconciliation. At a banquet, Atreus served Thyestes the flesh of Thyestes’ own sons, whom Atreus had slain in vengeance.

The example suggests that Dupin is the elder brother of Minister D-.

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!