"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare.

                 

"Julius  Caesar"

          

     

   Shakespeare thought very highly of Caesar. It is strange that while in his Julius Caesar the Caesar he presents is not so great as the Caesar, he refers in his other plays. He considered Caesar as the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times. The heroine of Antony and Cleopatra calls him broad fronted Caesar and Horatio in Hamlet speaks of him as the mightiest Julius.

      We have here in this  play not the great Caesar who was the heroic conqueror of the western Europe but old decaying Caesar. Failing both in mind and body or as Cassius summarily describes him, The Tired  Caesar.

    Yet the Caesar of the play is not quite devoid of greatness. Though his great military genius is but lightly touched upon by Shakespeare, yet he clearly portrays the firm hold which this one man had come to acquire over the Romans.  Cassius bitterly testifies to this unique position to which Caesar had stepped up among the Romans.

    Caesar has the eye whose bend doth awe the world. Antony also says, When Caesar says, "Do this, it is performed" In the senates, too the is addressed by Metellus, most high, most mighty and most Pissant Caesar."

    In short, Cassius beautifully summarize his high position in Rome:-

  "Why man he doth bestride the narrow world  like a colossus ,     and we petty men walk under his huge and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves."

But if in this play Julius Caesar looks great he does not act so greatly he does not show either the true modesty or quite self confidence that are the externals of true greatness on the other hand his . Wisdom is consumed in confidence.

He regards him self almost as God s[peaking of himself in the third person Eg.

"Caesar is turned to hear" or "Caesar doth no wrong."

He is arrogant because he thinks that he spices the rejection of the considerations petition with his superiority complex and says,

"I could be well moved if I Were as you, But I am constant as the northern star."

He is also boastful Eg:

"The things that threatened me, ne'er looked but on my back, when they shall see. The  face of Caesar, they are vanished;"

He makes a show of condemning cowardice, when Culphurnia appeals to him not to go  out, and expressing him own utter fearlessness of death:

"Cowards die many times before their deaths the valiant never taste of death but once of all the wonders that I yet have heard seeing that death, a necessary end will come when it will comes".

 And yet this man who is so arrogant, who makes such, a show of his greatness and fearlessness, this giant who bestrode the world like a colossus is always afraid in his inner most heart. Charles knight remarks about him that he has acquired the policy of greatness to seen what it is not and goes onto say that he is an actor even to his intimate  friends. The mental disease he suffered from was the fear of being thought afraid. He is only posing when he says;-

 " Danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous then he."

Allied with his fear is the element of superstition. He asks Antony to touch Calpurnia while he says the holly course of the Lupercal .

" For our elders say

 The barren touched in this holy chase

 Shake off their sterile curse"

Physically also Caesar is infirm, He is deaf of one ear and is subject to epileptic fits. Even the lean and thin Cassius could swim better than he and we are told that even ordinary fear renders him as helpless as a woman. He cannot withstand the shouts of the crowd and faints in the marked place. Caesar's deafness which is an indention of Shakespeare him self and not to be found in Plutarch of in his history. He speaks to Antony;-

 "come on my right hand for this ear is deaf and tell me truly what thou thinnest of Cassius.

Yet in spite of these moral and physical defects Caesar was a great man who possessed a marvelous influence which continued to exercise its say, even after Caesar call careerism or the "Spirit of Caesar" Brutus wanted to annihilate  the spirit of Caesar with out killing Caesar himself, As he himself says,

"  O;- that we then could come by Caesar's spirit and dismember Caesar."

    But we know that he dismembered Caesar without extinguishing the light that was Caesar's spirit.

 Dowden says;

"It is the spirit of Caesar which is the dominant power of the tragedy..... Brutus who forever errs in practical politics succeeded only  in striking down Caesar's body; he who had been weak now rises as pure spirit strong and terrible and avenges himself upon the conspirators...

It was the errors of Brutus that he failed to perceive where in lay the true Cartesian power."

"She Stoops To Conquer" by Oliver Goldsmith

"She Stoops To Conquer"

      Oliver Goldsmith has shown great skill in constructing the plot of "She Stoop To Conquer". The plot of the play is made up of a main plot and a sub plot and the two are interlinked into one organic whole the main plot Constance of the Marlow- Kate love story. The sub-plot deals with Hasting Constance love-story as well as the casket episode. The two stories are fused into a single whole by the intrigues of Tony Lumpkin the step- son of Mr. Hardcastle. It is he who intimate the action as well as brings it to a successful conclusion.

Commenting on the dramatist skill in plot construction. A. N. Jaffers writer,

"Goldsmith has used his own experience as a school boy in Ireland as the basis of his way a sled for an inn, and been directed by a practical joker to the local squires house."

    What Goldsmith doing in this play is adding colors and  ingredients of comedy to his experience. Though there are a number of intrigues and intrigues the principal intrigues are those of Tony and Kate.

     It is Tony who in confusion with the landlord of the There pigeons sends. Marlow and Hasting to Mr. Hardcastle's  house as an inn in which. The entire action taken place. The title and the sub title of the play are both apt and suggestive.

    The main title "She Stoop To Conquer"  refers to the device of its heroine Kate to Conquer her object of love Marlow, who is one of the most shy and reserved except with barmaids and servant girls.

    The sub title "The Mistakes Of Night" refers to the several mistakes of Marlow committed during the course of a single night.  

First Marlow mistakes the residence of a respectable country squire Hardcastle to be an inn keeper and thirdly he mistakes miss Hardcastle to be a burned fall in love with her. It's all a comedy of errors packed with hilarious fan and laughter.

      Just as Tony's intrigues are essential for the happy conclusion of the sub-plot so also Kate's intrigue is essential for the happy conclusion of the main plot. Her intrigue against Marlow is neither mercenary, nor undertaken merely for fun but, if is essential for the success of her love she stoop to the level of barmaid in order to conquer her love she herself explains to her main the necessity of this intrigue.

"...My chief aim is, to take my gentleman off his guard and like an invisible champion of romance examine the giant's force before  I offer to combat."

     Miss Neville her cousin recognize her lover Hastings and tells him the truth and arrange sober sentimental interview"- with Kate.

Thus Constance and Hastings  intrigue against Marlow who is not told, that the house to which they have come is not an inn, but the residence of Mr. Hardeastle.

      Hasting Constance lo-story constituted. The sub-plot of the play. They plan to elope. Tony in collusion, with miss Neville practices deception upon his own mother. They join hands to keep Mrs. Hardcastle under the illusion that they are in love. The episode of casket which contains miss Neville's jewels forms an integral part of the  subsidiary story and is the source of much complication as well as of much humor. In collusion with Hastings Tony seats and gives if to Hastings But through the bungling of Marlow, they again fall in the hands of Mrs. Hardcastle. The plan of elopement is just on the point of execution when the letter of Hastings. Written to Tony, falls in to his mothers hands. As a punishment for miss Neville's takes her to her aunt pedigree is which is forty miles away.

    Tony undertakes to drive then but instead of driving if forward, he drives if round and round and round ending at the bottom of the house, where Hasting is waiting as arranged clears up the misconceptions. Explanation follow Marlow discovers the identity of his burmaid.

"Tony is his own master and he refuses at once to marry Hastings, and get back her jewels Mrs. Hardcastle suffers complete discomfort."

    Tony Lampkin is another source of the ending popularity of the play. He is the life and the soul of the comedy. He charms, He fascinates and he captivates the readers very much like Shakespeare's Falstaff he is witty in himself as well as a cause of within other. It is he who interlinks the two stories. Thus the whole story begins develops and ends through mistakes. And it is Tony who is responsible for all these mistakes.

     One of the themes is the contrast between appearance and reality. The two stories are further fused into a single whole through an elaborate pattern of parallelism and contrasts. Miss Hardcastle with her during and resourcefulness gives life to one story while Tony with his inexhaustible capacity for fun animates the other.

  "The main plot and the sub-plot both deal with the same theme both represent the story of a woman winning a husband."

     But in the former, it is the woman who chases the  man and in the latter it is the man who chases the woman. The exposition is a masterpiece.  In short if is a great comedy of deceivers and the deceived, of intrigues and counter intrigues. There are different levels of awareness, which provide a lot the entertainment value of the comedy As Collins says,

"A notable merit  of the play is its skillful blend of proud and light comedy . Here the from character  as well as from situation and from incident."

    "In fact it would be hard to find in any comedy s more skillful and varied performance by the comic muse."

     It has been said that there are many improbabilities in the play but, these are felt only in our arm, chair study of the play and not during as stage performance of it-

"The action has been speedy to cover up a number of improbabilities. There is surprise, there is suspense. There is humor and there is not a dual moment anywhere- The play is well constructed with a direct swift and straight forward movement. "

" The Old Man And The Sea" Ernest Hemingway

"The Old Man And The Sea"

       In " The Old Man And The Sea" Ernest Hemingway is regarded as one of the greatest modern. American novelists. He was a brilliant story- teller and his plots sustain the reader's interest in his stories throughout. In his novels, he generally deals with such universal theme as love, war pain, suffering and death. in "The Old Man And The Sea". It is the theme of pain and suffering which dominates over all other themes. Although the novel is packed with action and adventure. When we take an overall view of the novel, we discover that the action is merely on the surface and what is really important is the philosophy of Hemingway that:

"A man can be destroyed but not defeated".

      This is also the central theme of the novel. The old man,s suffering is both physical and mental. in fact what he goes through ultimately eliminates in a kind of martyrdom for Santiago. Philip Young calls the story:

"An epic metaphor for life contest in which, even the problem of right and wrong seems paltry, before the great thing, that is the struggle".

       In all his novel Hemingway has portrayed a protagonist who has been described as the Hemingway Hero or the Code Hero Santiago is also a typical Hemingway Hero. This Hero represents the moral and physical qualities which Hemingway himself cherished such as courage, dignity, sense of honor and endurance. The Hemingway's hero has been brilliants portrayed in the character of Santiago. Although he is an old man whose best days are behind him, he is not afraid to accept a challenge and he uses to give up just because he is threatened by death or disaster. The manner and physical discomfort, turns him into  a hero and his defeat into a triumph. Santiago, like Hemingway himself, strongly believed that:-

"Man is not made for defeat"

    Even when Santiago is completely exhausted, bleeding  and wounded, he does not give up his struggle. At the end of the novel, instead of retiring from his trade, he shows remarkable determination and resolve to fight again. This is both, an important message and an important theme of the novel. We are defeat only when we ourselves accept defeat and have no courage to fight again.

      The man who is neither afraid of the struggle or the outcome ,is never defeat Carlos Baker says-

"Santiago shows certain qualities of mind and heart, which are clearly associated with the character and personality of Jesus Christ in the gospel stories."