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!

The Dunciad Book 1 by Alexander Pope | Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The first three books of The Dunciad were published in 1728, Forty-six years after the first publication of Mac Flecknoe in which John Dryden crowned Thomas Shadwell, the poetaster as the ruler of the kingdom of poetic dullness. Pope expanded the theme of Dullness to a mock epic. It is a long poem, much longer than Alexander Pope’s other masterpiece The Rape of The Lock. Furthermore, The Dunciad isn’t as closely composed as The Rape of The Lock, yet it is no less satirical. It includes the criticism of individuals and the common trends in contemporary literary circles. In the first edition, Lewis Theobald was satirized as Tibbald, the hero. However, the hero was changed to Bays in the second edition in 1943. Pope based his mock epic on Homer’s Illiad and Virgil’s Aeneid. He even included a dream of the hero going to the Underworld like that in Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid. However, that appears in Book 2 of The Dunciad.

Summary and Analysis of Book 1

The first book is composed of 330 lines all written in Heroic couplets like an epic. The Dunciad was published anonymously in 1728 but Pope was already popular as the most scathing satirical poet of that period and thus, there was no doubt about the authorship. The basic purpose of The Dunciad was to criticize the Grub Street commercial writers and patrons who produced excessively for the market of ephemera and for the literature of mere entertainment.

Lewis Theobald became the center of Pope’s ire when he belittled him with his editorial on Shakespeare’s works. Thus, he became the hero of The Dunciad in 1928. Later on, Colley Cibber acquired that position, who himself was no better than Theobald, yet, was appointed poet-laureate. Despite his mediocre works, Colley Cibber attained the patronage of Queen Carolina and thus she became the inspiration for Dullness.

The poem begins with a proper invocation of muses by the narrator for their help in the success of this mock-epic narrative poem written in iambic pentameters.

“I sing. Say you, her instruments the Great!
Call'd to this work by Dulness, Jove, and Fate”

Thus, the muses for Pope’s work were the Dullness engulfing the intellectual culture and values of English society while he invoked Jove, the king of Roman gods adhering to the tradition of Classical epics. He further invokes Fate as a muse to suggest that the abysmal situation of the arts and literary society of Britain is unavoidable as if decided by fate. Dulness emerges to be the main character of the poem, aided by Fate, which appears to be the major theme of the poem.

Then the poet attacks the patronage system by which rich people used to support the hack-authors to create mass entertainment literature lacking any literary quality. Most of such Grub street writers used to plagiarize and lampoon the earlier great originals to make easy money and thus, the patrons used to gain profit. Pope attacks the commercialization of arts and literature by depicting Dulness as an immortal anarchic Goddess exerting control over the minds of writers, artists, and intellectuals, like the greedy patrons interfering with the minds of authors and guiding them to write cheap thrills lacking any creativity. Then the poet names a few servants of Dulness including writers, publishers, and editors and the first that is mentioned is Pope’s old friend and roommate Jonathan Swift himself.

“O Thou! whatever title please thine ear,
Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver!”

Other writers whom Pope satirized as Dunces included Cervantes, Rabelais, Lintot, and Edmund Curll. The poet praises the goddess of Dulness who is bringing a "new Saturnian age of Lead," or a gloomy, slow, and heavy period for the intellectuals of Britain. He then lampoons Ciber while describing a mythical world of Dulness where Folly holds a throne, Poetry, and Poverty share a cave out of which dull poets flood the literary landscape with new printed works, and Dulness has a college for nurturing these poets who are “Great Cibber's brazen, brainless brothers.” Cibber is the favorite son of Dullness, the poet-laureate of England. Dulness sits on the throne held by Folly and she is protected by four “guardian Virtues” namely, Fortitude, Temperance, Prudence, and Poetic Justice. Folly, being a loyal assistant of Dullness supervises these ‘guardian Virtues.’ Fortitude ascertains that there is no fear of a bad reputation among the Dunces while Calm Temperance and Prudence ascertain the friendship between poverty and poetry. Poetic Justice has the most important job to perform as she weighs Truth with gold in Dullness’s lifted scale, that is, she turns lies into truth for bribes. It weighs “solid pudding against empty praise.”

The goddess of Dulness has employed Metaphors, Tragedy, Comedy, Farce, and so on to gather a chaotic and confusing force to ascertain her rule over the masses.

The goddess of Dulness always remains in a veil of fog, hidden in shrouded clouds. She is a little worried as her old servant and poet laureate Eusden is too old to continue. The irony is, Laurence Eusden became Britain's youngest Poet Laureate in 1718.

Dulness thus decides to choose a new poet laureate, the king of Dunces. There are many Dunces and poets of a high degree of Dulness in their works but the goddess of Dulness seeks the best, the dullest among them and she sets her eyes on Bayes. The word laureate comes from the ancient Greek victory symbol of the bay laurel wreath and thus, Pope chose Bayes as the hero’s name. In the first edition of The Dunciad, the hero’s name was Tibbald based on Lewis Theobald which turned into Bayes in all other editions to attack Colley Cibber, the poet laureate in 1730. Pope did lampoon Lewis Tibbald along with Cibber and John Ozelle in lines (285-286) as “’ Twixt Plautus, Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Corneille// Can make a Cibber, Tibbald, and Ozlle.”

The narrator then shifts focus to Bayes who is troubled by his inner conflict. He is serving the goddess of Dulness with utmost devotion but is anxious if his efforts are enough to please her. Most of his works are incomplete and he is surrounded by “much Embryo, much Abortion lay, / Much future Ode, and abdicated Play." He is sitting in his library full of original works of the poets of the past. He thinks of Shakespeare and Molière whom he has profusely plagiarized in his works. However, he never read any other author and their works and knows nothing about them. Yet, he keeps them in his collection as decor and "serve (like other fools) to fill a room." These works are out of reach of his mental or physical reach as they are kept closed and safe on the upper shelves where he cannot reach them. Bayes is quite frustrated with his inability to complete any work that may impress Queen Dulness and thus, he takes twelve of the original works from the upper shelves and set them above his own petty works to make an altar to worship the goddess of Dulness while thinking of pursuing some other profession. He confesses how he faulted against his service to Dulness and how once a demon stole his pen and "betry'd [him] into common sense." But he asserts that apart from that single incidence, he always remained loyal and devoted to the goddess of Dulness. He wonders if he pleases the goddess Dulness or if should he take some other profession to take up in place of being one of Dulness' poets. He thinks of joining the Clergy, or taking up gambling or "gaming," or becoming a party writer. Finally, he makes up his mind and lights up the altar to send his unpublished incomplete works to the realms untouched where they won't be tarnished by the printers of London.

This extreme step awakens the goddess of Dulness who immediately takes "a sheet of Thule from her bed," and flies down to Bayes, and uses the sheet to put out the fire, rescuing the works. The sheet of Thule refers to some unfinished poem whose ink is still wet, a poem that was so cold, uninspiring, and heavy that it couldn’t be completed.

Queen Dulness takes Bayes back to the most sacred hall of her college and declares the place his new home. She anoints him with opium and puts the symbol of her sacred bird upon a crown which she places on Bayes' head. The Queen declares that Eusden is dead and now, Bayes is the King of Dunces who will now be known as Cibber. It’s no coincidence, the new name of the king poet of Dulness is directly referring to Colley Cibber, Pope’s real-world subject of criticism. As soon as the goddess of Dulness makes the announcement, every Dunce celebrated it with much noise and clamor, "the hoarse nation croak'd, 'God save King Log!'"

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 by Alexander Pope | Characters, Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Duncias was a mock-epic poem by Alexander Pope that was first published in 1728. Originally, the poem has four books, the first three being published in 1728, and the fourth in 1743. The books are loosely connected, each taking place in a different setting, with little narrative cohesion from one to the next. The title is a pun on the classic epics including Homer’s The Illiad, and Virgil’s The Aeneid, and suggests the mock-epic style. It is a long narrative poem written in Heroic Couplets, that is, most of the lines of the poem are written in iambic pentameter with 10 syllables in each line.

Background and Context of The Dunciad:

The Dunciad follows the mock-epic element of MacFlecknoe by John Dryden in which Dryden satirized Thomas Shadwell as the heir to a kingdom of poetic dullness. Pope had already made acquaintance with Jonathan Swift, Thomas Parnell, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, and Robert Harley. The group was known as the Scriblerus group and they combinedly adopted the pseudonym Marcus Scriblerus by using which, they used to publish satirical works against political ills and other issues including contemporary authors and critics of poor taste. It was a period when the printing press was making huge strides and that created a flood of amateurs authors and writers publishing their books that reduced the quality of literature. The number of people who figured they could, or should be artists, sky-rocketed. Pope was aghast at this turn of events and thus, the Scribelrus group started satirizing the newly emerging authors, poets, and publishers that had no literary quality to be recognized.

In 1925, Alexander Pope edited and published William Shakespeare’s collective works. In 1928, Lewis Theobald published Shakespeare Restored, another edited edition of Shakespeare’s work. Theobald’s edition was better than that of Pope’s in all accounts but the way he tried to belittle Pope was not in good taste. It was proven that Theobald was a better editor than Pope, but Pope was a much better poet than Theobald and he proved this by writing a satire with its main character Tibbald, the favorite son of the goddess of Dullness, based on Theobalt. Pope published The Dunciad anonymously in 1728 and it contained three books. In 1729, he republished The Dunciad Vorarorium anonymously but Tibbalt remained the main character. In 1743, Pope republished The Dunciad in Four Books and this time, he added some new characters and changed the main character from Tibbalt to Bays, the new hero which was based on Colley Ciber. The Dunciad is made of many Dunces but Tibbald remained the king. Primarily, The Dunciad is a satire on hack artists that satirized not only Lewis Theobald, but also Colley Cibber, John Dennis, the Reverend Laurence Eusden, Lord Hervey, and others. Pope tried to portray everything wrong in the literary circles and publishing market. Furthermore, The Dunciad also satirizes the imperial intervention in the literary circle. Pope based the character of the goddess of Dullness on Queen Caroline, as the fat, lazy and dull wife.

Characters of The Dunciad:

The prime character is the goddess of Dullness, the daughter of Night and Chaos who is ruling the world for eternity. Her face always remained covered by a veil of fog. Her favorite son is Tibbalt (Bayes) whom she appoints as the King of Dulness following the death of Eusden, the poet laureate. Dulness is worshipped by all but she has got her share of enemies in form of Order, Arts, and the Sciences. Pope has depicted Dulness as various reigning feminine figures like Virgin Mary at different points by using symbols and imagery such as carnations, and the sleeping Cibber held in her lap like the baby Jesus. The Ghost of Elknath Settle appears as a ghost in a dream of Tibbalt and reveals images of the future to the King of Dulness. The Educator is based on Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus who was infamous for placing too much emphasis on the subtleties of grammar rather than communicating meaningful things. Eliza, the Poetess appears in Book Two. She is the prize of a contest among dull poets. She is gorgeous like Juno, the wife of Jove, and thus, is a great inspiration for men. She reappears in Book IV as the Harlot. Curll appears in Book II as a competitor in many races for the prize of the phantom poet. He is based on Edmund Curll, a bookseller, and publisher. Jove is the most powerful of the Roman gods and goddesses. Jove is used in the invocation of Book I and also appears in Book II, where he may choose to interfere or not on behalf of the contestants. Cloacina is a minor Roman goddess of the sewer system. She is a servant of Jove and a goddess known for protecting sexual intercourse in marriage.

Summary of The Dunciad:

It is a mock epic by Alexander Pope to criticize and satirize the literary and artistic world in England of his times. Pope depicts it as a period when the world is taken over by unoriginal, insipid, and boring work meant for the masses by writers, poets, and critics. Thus, England appears like a mythical realm of despair where the goddess of Dulness rules.

Following the epic style, the narrator calls for his muses for the success of this epic. His muses are “The Mighty Mother and her son who brings/ The Smithfield Muses to the ear of Kings.”

The narrator then declares that the work is inspired by Dulness, Jove, and Fate and establishes a relationship between the three powers with his work. The suggestion is that the intellectual culture of England is being ruled by Dulness while Jove represents the Classical element in the poem. Fate suggests that whatever bad is happening, is the fate that cannot be changed, or challenged.

After the death of the poet-laureate, she is looking for a new successor to be her right hand, her King, to help her bring about true chaos and darkness in England. A competition is held for the title of most boring poet. Bayes (or Tibbalt), a young poet competes but he is doubtful of his caliber and thus, he assumed that he failed to impress the goddess of Dulness. He decides to burn all his writings and makes an altar of them so that he may pursue some other profession. As he is about to light the fire, the goddess of Dulness appears and stops him from doing so. She is too impressed by Bayes. She takes him to her realm of Dullness and announces him as her heir, her righthand, King Ciber. All the Dunces, the followers of Dulness thus start following King Ciber. Book 1 ends here.

To commemorate the coronation of King Ciber as her heir, Dullness declares a competition that 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. While all Dunces are present at the ceremony, Dulness keeps his eyes on Ciber, her favorite son. During the last segment of the competition, all dunces fall asleep including King Ciber.

The goddess of Dullness then approaches him and takes him to her throne in her arms. As she sits on her throne, she takes the new King Ciber in her lap and anoints his eyes with dew, and wraps him in her veil. As he sleeps Cibber dreams that he is being transported to the Underworld. Book 2 ends here.

In his dream, King Ciber reaches Underworld where he is guided by Sibyl who takes him to Bavius, the place where souls are made dull before being sent to Earth. King Ciber is awestruck by observing the huge number of dull souls gathered at the bank of River Styx and waiting for their turn to be sent to the Earth. He is the ruler of all these souls and many more. At Bavius, he meets Eknath Settle’s departed spirit. It is the ghost of the previous Nobel laureate whose death resulted in the coronation of the new king. The ghost of Eknath Settle takes King Ciber to the Mount of Vision to understand the history of Dulness and how she became such an invincible force. As the new king, Ciber must also understand his kingdom's weaknesses. 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. Then the ghost offers him a vision of the future and Ciber finds himself amid some very beautiful and fantastical creatures and prophetic figures. King Ciber is told that this is the chaotic world that the goddess of Dullness aims to acquire. He is told that he must help the goddess of Dulness to usher in the chaotic world and establish herself as the ruler among Chaos and Night. King Ciber is overwhelmed by the grand planning of the goddess of Dullness and he wakes up from his dream, finding himself in the lap of the goddess. Book 3 ends here.

Book Four begins as all the prophecies and visions suggested in Book III to king Ciber have come true. The goddess of Dullness has acquired all her lost land by beating Order, Arts, and Science. She has enslaved all the supporters of Order and Reason along with the Muses, the Sciences, Religion, History, and others. The goddess of Dullness appoints her stooges to spread her effect in various parts of Britain. All the servants of Dulness, from students to teachers to tribes and so on, arrive to address her and explain how they have carried out her will. The goddess f Dullness is impressed by their work and offers a celebratory drink to them as their prize. As her servants take the drink, it makes them free and oblivious of any sense of duty and obligation to their fellow man, morals, virtues, or art. The goddess of Dullness is convinced that now she will not be opposed by anyone and will easily gain power over all. She offers Titles and Decrees to her followers and invites Chaos and Night to reign over them along with her. The Dunciad ends with this emphatic victory of Dullness over Order, Arts, and Sciences.

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