30/12

SHAKESPEARE

The life of Shakespeare:

William Shakespeare as he is very famously known as is often called as the father of literature.
Whatever we know about his life is mostly based on guess work. The first thing that we should
know is that He was born on April 23rd, 1564 in the village of Stratford-On-Avon which is a
county in Warwickshire. His father john Shakespeare was the son of a farmer and he shifted to
Stratford in Avon in 1531. John’s wife was Mary Ardon. Here his father started trading and
earned significant dividends. His mother was a farmer’s daughter but she had anglo- saxon and
norman blood in her which brought forth his creativity. Both his parents were illiterate. In
grammar schools he learnt a little bit of latin and Greek but the majority of his learning are his
own lifetime lessons. His works thus correlated very well with the common man through his
emotions, the royalty element etc. It is said that at the age of 14 his father was deep in debts and
he had to stop his education after this age, after which he started working. William Shakespeare
married Anne Hathaway. He often makes references that marriages are mocked upon which
probably show that he had a troubled marriage. Anne was 8 years senior to her. Later, he left
Stratford and went to London to pursue his dreams. In his late age works the mockery of
marriage stopped occurring which indicates that his old age phase had a successful marriage
period.
Between 1857 to 1611 he was in London. Venus and Adonis which he wrote for the Earle of
Southampton in his honor got him rewarded with a title and a part owner of the globe & the
blackfriars theatre. He might have gone through a lot of personal issues after which in 1611 he
purchased a house in Stratford and moved back to his home. His works during this period may
have included his personal pain because the poise with which he wrote this is only possible if
you experience it firsthand.
His last work is the Tempest. Henry the 8th is the work that he couldn’t complete. He died on the
same day that he was born in 1616. Today his tomb is almost a pilgrimage for all those who are
literature followers.
Very important question for subjective and objective (possible 10 mark question)
Q. His poetic and dramatic career has been divided into 4 periods corresponding to the growth
and experience of his life and these divisions are:
 1. Period of early 2. Period of great 3. The period of 4. Period of later
experimentation comedies and great tragedies/ comedies or
(1588 to 1593) chronicle plays. bitter comedies dramatic
(1594 to 1600) (1601-1607) romances
Some of the works that ( 1608 to 1612)
important to mention is The major works: The major works:
1. Titus Andronicus. 1. King John 1. Julius Caesar The major works:
2. Henry the 6th (3 parts) (considered to be a 2. Hamlet 1. Pericles
3. Love’s labour’s lost. strong king at the time. 3. Macbeth 2. Cymbeline
4. Comedy of errors (A Henry was considered 4. All’s Well That Ends 3. The winter’s
hindi picture named weak) Well (a bitter comedy) tale.
Angoor starring Sanjeev 2. Merchant of Venice 5. measure for measure 4. The tempest.
kumar was also made in 3. Henry the 4th (1+2) 6. Antony and Cleopatra ( His last
India) 4. Henry the 5th 7. Troilus & Cressida. complete work)
5. Two gentlemen of 5. The taming of the 8. King leare 5. The unfinished
Verona. shrew. 9. Timon of Athens Henry the 8th.
6. Richard the 3rd, 6. The merry wives of 10. Othello
Richard the 2nd, Windsor. 11. Coriolanus The characteristic
7. Romeo and Juliet 7. Much ado about features:
8. Venus and Adonis nothing. The characteristic This is the period when
9. The Rape of Lucrece. 8. As You Like it features: he came back to home
9. Twelfth Night 1. This is the period of and started farming thus
The characteristic his greatest work. Also, ending his period of
features of these works: The characteristic the period of great struggle.
1. It is extremely slight features: gloom and depression. 1. The bitterness and
in texture i.e. the depth This sadness is depicted gloom of human
is lacking everything 1. Rapid growth in in a poignant manner emotions are now
exists only at the base. development as a writer. but good always came washed off. There is
Indicates that he wrote it 2. Deeper knowledge of out on top. peace in his work. There
at the first go. human life and human 2. His intellectual are no dark sides of
2. Treatment of life is nature. powers, His dramatic human nature. The dark
superficial. 3. The art of powers, his power of clouds have melted
3. There is no depth of characterization is more expression are at his away. There is a tender
thought penetrating i.e. more finest. and gracious stone full
4. There is no depth of thoughtful and thought 3. The drawback is that of wisdom. There is a
characterization provoking. Example- the dark side of human tragic passion as the
5. The art is immature. Portia entering a male experiences is backdrop but the evil is
only court disguised as highlighted. Emphasis no longer allowed to
6. There is youthful
a woman. is more on the dominate over that.
exuberance of
weaknesses of the 2. Here you will find
imagination. human mind. carelessness in
7. Extravagance of construction. There are
language (high flown gaps, characterization is
dialogues) weak quite several
8. Constant use of puns times, there is a decline
 to ridicule people, talk in style.
hypocritically

Conclusion: There are two theories that have been offered to explain the greatness of
Shakespeare:
1. The romantic critics hold that in him all came from within and that he had that over
mastering power because of his genius.
2. Practical and unimaginative people or critics say that for Shakespeare all came from with
out. Thus, stating that he copied a lot of work from other people. They say that he lived in
a play loving age, he studied the crowds, gave them what they wanted and reflected on
their thoughts and views.
3. Of his greatness there is no question but it is certainly shaped and enriched by external
influences i.e. his life in London and the village of Stratford. In Stratford he learnt the
natural environment and the natural things and in London he learnt the superficial and
made up urban things and culture which he then concocted into his own creations.

3/1/20
Merchant of Venice- An Introduction to the Play

Date of Composition: the second period in Shakespeare’s works. Somewhere between 1596 to
1598 he might have composed the Merchant of Venice. If you read the 12th knight and much ado
about nothing are comparatively much better works in terms of quality therefore they might be
the later written works.
Sources of the plot of the play: 3 major stories running in the play: The bond story, the casket
story, the rings story and the love story is the 4th minor story. Shakespeare never claimed that his
works were original and he stated that his stories were an adaptation of him reading other
people’s works.
The bond story- Il Pecorone is the Italian writer whose work was translated into English also and
Shakespeare also had read latin in his schooling.
The casket story- Gesta Romanorum
The ring story: Shakespeare
The Love Story: Thread woven to connect the three.
Mam says no need to write what happened in these stories if asked about the sources.

Tragic Comedy or Romantic Comedy: Some element of tragedy could be found in several of
Shakespeare’s plays. In the Merchant of Venice there is a tragic event associated with Shylock
and Antonio who is the hero of the story (merchant of venice). Romantic comedy comes up
through Portia, Bassanio, Nerissa and Gratiano. ( maybe Lorenzo and Jessica too)
The Themes of the Play:
1. The theme of judgement/justice
2. The theme of mercy
3. The theme of reality vs. Appearance
4. The theory of contrast between two cities in the same country, Belmont and Venice.
5. Theme of wealth and money lending.
6. Moral values and moral ideas such as friendship, sincerity, honesty, religious tolerance etc.
Thus the Merchant of Venice has a wide range/ panorama of themes running in the play.

The characters in the play:

1. Portia
2. Shylock
3. Antonio
4. Bassanio
5. Lorenzo
6. Jessica
7. Gratiano
8. Nerissa
9. Launcelot Gobbo
10. Salerio

In the Bond story the principal characters are Antonio, Shylock and Bassanio.
Portia and Bassanio are the main characters in Casket Story.
Portia, Bassanio, Gratiano and Nerissa and also to a certain extent Antonio in the rings story.
Lorenzo and Jessica are the main characters in the love story then Gratiano and Nerissa also
contributed to it.

The Religious or racial issue:

Shakespeare through the Merchant of Venice through Shylock and Antonio brought out the
contrast between Jews and Christians. At that period of time the Christians harbored prejudices
against the Jews. Jews were not natives of Venice and they were miserly in nature and they were
hoarders of money due to which the Christians used to hate them. Eating of pork was also
another point of contention which was a delicacy for the Christians but the jews never touch it.
This continued on till the world war 2 when the jews were then widely persecuted. Things such
as the concentration camps, ill treatment, mass exile, mass genocide etc all occurred during the
WW2 era. Throughout world war2 and later on efforts such as the making of Israel was made to
facilitate the Jews. The Islamic countries of the middle east opposed this. Only the Strong
support of USA resulted in the Jews standing up on their own. The jews are extremely talented,
sincere, hardworking and highly contributing to various developments in the world. India also
has now started directly involving itself with Israel in terms of the economics, science and social
development.

A Synopsis of the Merchant of Venice

1. The four stories which make up the play: bond, casket, ring and love story. The main
characters of each story should be mentioned for the answer (refer above)
2. Then write about the bond story (refer to internet for more), such as Antonio being a merciful
Christian who lends money to friends in need, and Shylock the jew lends money to people as a
profession and also charges a high rate of interest. Recovery is a must for shylock but not for
Antonio. Shylock is a foreigner to the land of venice. Bassanio needs Three Thousand ducats
who is smart and a spendthrift. Mam says you need not mention the heavy details about why he
needs the money. Antonio’s ships haven’t returned. Shylock was reluctant to give money to
Antonio but then he comes up with a crafty plan of revenge. Shylock says this rather jokingly as
even Antonio is very confident that his ships are going to return.
3A The casket story: Belmont where a beautiful, wealthy, intelligent Portia resides. Portia’s
father leaves the dying wish conditions for marriage. Portrait in the right casket. Whosoever
opens the wrong casket will never ever get married in their life (I cant remember this so pls
verify). Bassanio is a reckless spender of money. State reasons about why he wants to marry
Portia for reasons such as her wealth which is good for a spendthrift.
B Ring story: Antonio bankrupt after marriage, shylock on Antonio’s neck where he now comes
to his terms. The Duke tries to mediate but Shylock is adamant, Bassanio scrambles with the
money but he is late then Portia goes in the disguise. Portia asks for the ring as a fee for her
saving Antonio. Then later on she pretends to be angry for Bassanio giving away the marriage
ring.
C. Love story: Lorenzo and Jessica story. Jessica is Shylock’s daughter. Shylock will be more
worried about his wealth that were for his daughter that will now be taken by a Christian. Later
when he is sentenced a punishment shylock’s savings go the Lorenzo. This is a story which is
made to weave the thread between the different stories.

4. The hatred of Antonio and Shylock for each other: Antonio is a native of Venice while
Shylock is a foreigner in the land of Venice. Antonio is a Christian and Shylock is a jew.
Antonio lends money to people who are needy without charging high/zero rates of interest and
sometimes even doesn’t take back the loan whereas shylock is a professional moneylender who
lends money with a high rate of interest and he will do anything to recover his money. This
religious division is very strongly engraved in the minds of both of the people. This mutual
hatred is only because of religion and not because of personal reasons.
5. The bond signed by Antonio to get a loan from Shylock: Antonio is approached by his friend
Bassanio who needs Three thousand ducats to travel to Belmont (again no need to give reason
why). Antonio cant give it directly as his ships are in the sea but he cant refuse his best friend
Bassanio for whom he has deep affection due to which he keeps his self respect aside and
approaches Shylock who is his rival and a Jew. Initially its Shylock who is also reluctant to give
a loan but then he crafts an evil idea and makes Antonio sign up a bond according to which if he
does not return the money within three months, he has to part away with a pound of flesh from
any part of his body which Shylock likes and the reason is that he wants to kill Antonio who is a
rival and also a Christian.
6. Bassanio’s right choice of a casket and his marriage with Portia: Describe the character traits
of Bassanio and Portia. Portia who lives across the sea before dying has left three caskets one of
gold, one of silver and one of lead with two underlying conditions, one is that whosoever is
going to be a suitor to Portia will not disclose if he opens the wrong casket and the second
condition is that he shall not marry anyone else ever in his life. There are many suitors but finally
only two remain, the prince of Morocco and the prince of Aragon and both fail. Finally, Bassanio
enters the contest, opens the right casket and wins portia’s hand in marriage.
7. Bassanio given a lot of money by Portia to pay Shylock off: Bassanio and Portia happily start
living a married life and forget about the bond as time passes by. Antonio meanwhile is in a
terrible condition as three months are gone and his ships aren’t back. Bassanio who is now
wealthy as soon as he gets news of this sad news takes the money from Portia rushes to Antonio
whose life is very valuable to him.
8. Portia to disguise herself as a man and a lawyer: When Bassanio reaches Venice he finds out
that Shylock has become so adamant of taking the pound of flesh from Antonio’s body and
because he signed it willingly things are not in good shape for Antonio, and the duke is also
struggling to resolve it because he has encountered such a case for the first time, an expert from
Padua named Ballario is called to settle the matter between Antonio and Shylock. When Portia
learns this she approaches Ballario and requests a letter of recommendation with the name of a
man to travel to the court of Venice to settle the matter herself. She gets the letter and disguises
herself as a man and a lawyer with Nerissa disguising as her attendant.
9. Portia’s judgement in Shylock’s case against Antonio: When Portia goes to the court, the
Duke is relieved that the struggle that was on his shoulders is now being shared by a lawyer in
the court and the Duke is relieved with the disguised Portia’s presence. Shylock denies giving
any kind of mercy to Antonio when asked. The mercy denial speech is very relevant even today
and is cited by foreign courts because of the way the emotions are mentioned. Then Portia
demands that exactly 1 pound be extracted, no more and no less and if he exceeds then Shylock
will be punished for the killing of the man thus putting him on the backfoot. Out of his body, not
a single drop of blood should ooze out, with specifically focusing on a single drop of Christian
blood. The Duke was supposed to be unbiased but everyone calls Shylock a jew anyway. The
blood extraction is not mentioned in the bond. Shylock then says that he can take his money and
go away but then it was said by Portia that when he had the chance to do so he denied it very
vehemently. The biggest thing Shylock suffers is victimization in the hands of the Duke who was
supposed to be unbiased but rather he is biased in favour of Christians. The duke in his
judgement puts all his property in the hands of a trust for his child and Antonio, and his religion
shall also be changed from a jew to the Christian because he wanted to butcher a Christian in
open court. Thus somewhere one can sympathize with Shylock because he didn’t impose the
pound of flesh condition rather it was deliberately accepted by Antonio but instead of getting
justice in the form of enforcement of the contract he ends up getting victimized by a biased court.
10. Then write how the judgement turns out out followed by the rings story and the end.

Thanks to Mahima for this contribution

Date:
Major Characters in the Merchant of Venice
 (I recommend checking the internet for some added lines of some characters too mam’s
dictation is missing some points and brevity)
1. Antonio
a. His Temperamental Melancholy – He is wealthy merchant of Venice. He is a leading 1.
citizen. He has a great respect in society. When he is first introduced in the play, He is in
a melancholic mood and he is asked by his friends why he is melancholic? They are
laughing and having fun around him, he says that there is no particular reason, he says it
is his inborn nature, he gives himself reserved. That’s why it is called temperamental as it
is his nature and not due to any particular reason. The ironical part is the people he gets
along with who are always happy go lucky kind of persona. He is suffering from
constitutional melancholy. He keeps thinking of giving up and does not wish to fight for
himself. When everyone is fighting for him, he keeps giving up in Act 4 scene 1.
b. Profound affection for Bassanio – his capacity of friendship, his affection for him. Their
friendship is another romanticized element in the play. It is glorified by Shakespeare.
Bassanio has taken a number of loans from Antonio. Even in bond story Bassanio
approaches Antonio for loan and despite his rivalry and despise for Shylock, he went to
take a loan from Shylock for Bassanio and even put his life at stake in order to get a loan
for his friend. Despite his nature, he feels happy and enjoys Bassanio’s company. His
commitment to Bassanio is complete in all senses. In act 4 scene 1, he even gets ready to
lay down his life for Bassanio.
c. A kind hearted and accommodating man – He is a wealthy merchant who is shelling out
loans to people at very low interest rates, he doesn’t bully people into paying back the
principal amount and asks them to pay back whenever it is possible. Whereas Shylock is
almost opposite to him, and doesn’t treat people with respect, and gives loans on high
flown interest rates.
d. His negative quality: His religious intolerance – the way he hates Shylock, which is a
serious defect, he hates Shylock only because of his religion, i.e. he is a Jew. The extent
of his hatred is that he spit on Shylock’s face, which is not correct. In Act 4 scene 1, he
knows he’s about to die yet he keeps on calling him a “Jew” in a derogatory manner. He
is very insulting throughout the scene. He is party to the decision which says that
Shylock’s religion should be converted from Jew to Christianity. He keeps pointing out
that Shylock is a Jew and he himself is a Christian, thus they should be treated
differently.
e. Deficiency: He lacks sense of humour – his friends joke with him but he gets very upset
instead of taking it lightly. He takes everything personally. He keeps demeaning himself.
He wishes to be dead about everything.

2. Shylock
a. He is a famous Shakespearean Character – a villain deserving some sympathy. He is
known as one of the best-known characters written by Shakespeare. He is a victim of
circumstance. His miserly is a trait of Jews, thus he cannot change it. The conversion of
his religion is very wrong, and he has been victimized. Legally, Shylock is not wrong.
Everyone in court is against him, he is fighting alone against everyone. It is character
which is a masterpiece. You can empathise with him, and the person he is, is because of
his religion. He is not a wrong-doer rather he is a victim of wrong-doing.
b. A hoarder by profession – he is a money-lender by profession. Exploiting people’s needs.
The profession itself is discreditable. It is on his nerves as he takes high interest rates, to
accumulate wealth for himself. He hates Antonio because he gives out interest with low
or no interest rate, thus reducing his customers. He was a typical Jew.
c. His intolerance of Christians and miserly nature – he is completely intolerant of
Christians, and he gets sadistic pleasure of thinking about killing one Christian person
legally. He is so miserly, that he wishes to save his money of meal, when he is invited to
a Christian party, thinking I’ll eat something other than pork, despite his hatred for
Christians. He does not trust his daughter, servants with money, the servants are
mistreated, not paid well and has been starved. When his daughter runs away he laments
for his ducats instead of his daughter.
d. His deceitful and crafty dealings – States the bond story here, as he is exploiting Antonio
and Bassanio’s needs in his own favour, as he was hesitant in the beginning, but he
eventually comes up as a crafty plan and makes him sign the bond which would risk
Antonio’s life.
e. Revengeful and bloodthirsty nature – in Act 4 scene 1, the money is doubled, 10 times,
despite being miserly, he only wishes for the revenge and pound of flesh of Antonio,
instead of money, everyone appeals, but he doesn’t listen, Portia’s mercy plea doesn’t
move him as well.
f. His suspicious nature – he does not trust anyone; the daughter hates him and the servants
detest him. His daughter runs away with a Christian with all his money. His relationships
are not good with anyone.
g. His redeeming quality: He is capable of love & he is champion of his race – He laments
his wife’s death and used to love her immensely, when the daughter gives away the
wife’s piece of jewellery in turn of a monkey he laments it. This means he is capable of
loving. He is the only person who is Jew in a Christian court, yet he holds his ground and
makes his case.
h. He is comical yet fanatic – he has a comical aspect; this is highlighted when he is
lamenting his ducats yet when he sees people are seeing he starts lamenting for his
daughter. He is a bit fanatic as well. Which is a positive trait as he respects what he was
so much, but it is a negative trait as well as he irritates others with that respect for his
religion.
3. Portia
a. Her high position in the gallery of Shakespearean heroines – she creates a powerful
impact on the mind of the audience. She tries to win over the evil plans of Shylock. She
has a number of qualities, she has been created by Shakespeare with reference to the
vices, and she is more likable as she has more redeemable quality than the vices.
b. Her sense of humour and a sparkling wit – when her character is introduced, she is shown
a bit gloomy, but when her servant Nerissa comes to talk to her she comes out of the
gloomy mood in a fraction of second. Throughout the story she is never gloomy or
brooding, she always has a sense of humour and it is very evident in the ring story. She is
very optimistic, and she knew the case was in Shylock’s favour yet she goes out to help
thinking it might change something. She could have ended up marrying an old man or not
marrying at all but she kept her optimism and she did not help Bassanio in picking the
casket as she believed in optimistic outcomes. Her comments on her various suitors to
Nerissa shows her comical sense.
c. Her devotion to her father’s memory – she could have married anyone yet she kept true to
her father’s wishes, she is greatly encouraged by Nerissa in this. Even when she fell in
love with Bassanio, she did not help him this shows her loyalty to her father.
d. Her essential wisdom – her dialogues with Nerissa throughout shows her wisdom,
specially the initial one when she is in a gloomy mood, her wisdom when she attacks
Shylock, her wisdom in the quality of mercy speech, her wisdom when she does not
approach Bassanio straight away.
e. Her compassionate nature – She sends Bassanio with a huge amount of money to save
Antonio, her famous mercy speech also shows her compassion, she says that she is one
who only puts the facts and evidences, and would let the duke decide rather than giving a
judgement herself, she does not pressure the duke.
f. Her modesty, humility and feminity – she has good sense of reasoning, she has great wit
and sense of intelligence, yet she is modest. She is always a graceful woman and dresses
accordingly. The time when Bassanio opens the right casket and she is overcome with
love for him, the way she kisses him and the speech she makes, shows her feminity and
she surrenders herself completely to the man she loves. This is her modesty and humility.
In ring story she doesn’t take the ring and sakes its her duty, when praised by Antonio she
denies that is her modesty and humility, she trusts Jessica and Lorenzo completely with
her estate and assets when she travels. She is a generous disposition and when finding out
about Antonio she tells Bassanio to take as much money as he wants, she is the one who
goes as a lawyer to help Antonio.
g. Her negative traits: she is a Christian to the core – she shows in her speech that she
believes in the difference between Jew and Christians. She is a little intolerant of Jews.
 h. She is the epitome of perfection and graciousness, she is on a pedestal in the story
whereas all the other characters are menial in comparison to her.

3. Bassanio
a. He is the hero of the casket Story – he is not the hero in the absolute in the absolute sense
of play, he is certainly the romantic hero who is able to win the love of the heroine and
marries her.
b. He is a young prodigal who is always in need of money - when he is introduced he is
need of money, he owes a lot of money to Antonio, he despite having so many loans on
his head is shameful to ask for another loan, and he has the gall of saying to Antonio, that
if you give me this loan it will pave way to getting back the previous loans as well. He
wishes to return the money thus he is not a trickster; he is happy go lucky man who goes
around partying with his friends. Antonio’s affection for him shows that he is a good
person who doesn’t trick or exploit people. He came back for Antonio which proves his
good nature.
c. Ardent and Romantic lover with a poetic nature – Bassanio is a romantic Lover having
something of a poet in him and this gets reflected when he talks to Antonio about Portia
when he says that she is fair and fairer than the fairest. He compares her to the most
beautiful women of the earth and says that she is the most beautiful of the beautifullest.
He talks about her beauty, skin etc. The echoes of the love song that he sings in the last
part of the Merchant of Venice makes him an imaginative, poetic and expressive hero.
d. His love for gaiety: Bassanio has a dual nature. It is because he is equally comfortable with a
man as melancholic as Antonio. Antonio makes the other friends uncomfortable and Antonio
also feels uncomfortable around Bassanio’s friends. Bassanio is constitutionally jovial but he
knows how to keep quiet, talk less and understand his psyche. He is extravagant with Salenio,
Gratiano, Lorenzo but jovial and well gelled with people such as Antonio. He spends more than
he has and is extravagant. He never shows any nature which matches Bismal, agonized, painful
or a sad nature. He is very handsome to look at, has exquisite mannerisms and combined with his
excellent humour and witty manner of speaking you shall find Portia starting to love him even
before he makes the right choice of the casket. His prodigality is a very small flaw in comparison
to the qualities that he possesses. Thus Shakespeare has created a character that has his vices
who improves himself, reforms himself over time.
e. Not at all a Shallow man: He is not a trickster and knows that there are loans he has to return.
If he was shallow he would not have chosen the right casket. This was evident during his
speeches when he chose the casket. He knows that appearances can be deceptive and though so
because a woman of Portia’s character will not merely be won by appearances and chooses
bronze even though Portia gave no hints with regards to the casket. He only parts away with the
ring in the end when Antonio urges him otherwise he wouldn’t have given his ring to the
disguised Portia.
f. His sincerity in friendship: He is equally happy when he is with a melancholic Antonio and
knows that he can depend on him. He immediately returns back to Venice, 10 times the amount,
willing to give his life for Antonio even though Bassanio is a young married rich man, helps
Lorenzo settle in Belmont, Supporting Gratiano whom he keeps reprimanding everytime but
doesn’t leave him alone. Friendship of Bassanio and Antonio has been romanticized too and they
stand by each other.

5. Gratiano:
a. His copious talk, his wit and his contribution to the comedy of the play: Gratiano is an
extremely talkative, witty person with a keen sense of humour. He has infinite capacity to talk
and cannot keep quiet as he often speaks out of turn. He is never short of words and every
remark that he makes is amusing in one way or the other. Bassanio who is serious and does not
like these types of talks is not able to stand Gratiano’s talks. He finds it like chatter in his ears
and gets irritated by it. Gratiano immensely contributes to the comedy element of the play.
b. His satirical comment on the silent and the reserved man: Gratiano and Antonio are introduced
at the same time on the stage. Gratiano there wonders how could a man be so sad? A man whose
blood is warm should never sit still and emotionless. Gratiano is like a jester on the stage unlike
Antonio and he states that he dislikes those men who like to sit silent to appear thoughtful and
wise. He is also the man who wants others to be quiet when he talks and he talks a lot too. He
dislikes Antonio because of his sad, melancholic nature.
c. His witty promise to Bassanio: When gratiano wants to travel with Bassanio to Belmont and
Bassanio tells him to exercise restraint he says that he will only abuse occasionally, he would try
to put his best and put his grace at the dinner table and he puts up with a poker face. He will
always keep quiet and utter very few words. He does end up doing the opposite though.
d. His bitter, fierce and abusive wit: For example his speeches during the trial, his wit in that
scene was bordering on tragedy. It is ironical and sarcastic. It has an incisive quality which is
supposed to hurt Shylock. There is a lot of mockery and ridicule in this scene. He says that
Shylock should be given a rope to hang himself. His wit is bitter, violent and fierce. He calls
Shylock a damned, cursed dog who must have been a wolf in his previous life in a cunning
womb thus insulting his mother too.
e. The wide range of his wit: He could be funny, witty and could be painfully witty too. He can
be simply jovial and also can be bitterly sarcastic and abusive. He can be wrathful and also
happy. Search more on google.
f. Knowledge of the world and the wisdom resulting therefrom and his marriage with Nerissa:
His visit to Belmont doesn’t go futile. He is able to win Nerissa as his wife and there is no
condition for him the way there was for Bassanio to win Portia. He was just able to persuade
Nerissa to marry him. He is a pleasing man who turns out to be loving, a caring husband to
Nerissa with whom he is very wise while talking. Gratiano also makes certain comments about
his own wisdom. He talks about how a ship sails, how a horse races.
Date:
6. Lorenzo:
a. His achievement in winning the heart of a Jewish girl: Lorenzo is a Christian young man who
is able to capture the heart of Jessica who is the daughter of Shylock the Jew. He is smart,
dashing, handsome with an active mind (not intelligent but active). He is quite daring also
because a christian marrying a jew in that period was a very daring move. He also contributes to
the romance of this play but not at the same level as Bassanio
b. An adventurous man truly in love but not very scrupulous: He dared to fall in love with a Jew
and is willing to face the music because of Jessica. Luring a jewish girl to marry a Christian was
considered immoral. He also agrees to the Jessica’s escape from his father’s house which was
done via a masked procession below Shylock’s house. He isn’t very scrupulous because when
Jessica was taking the money from Shylock’s safe he didn’t discourage her and rather let her take
all the money. There is a worldly and mercenary ingredient in Lorenzo too. Money is welcome to
Lorenzo just as it is to Bassanio. He should not have encouraged Jessica to come with the money
but he has no regard for that. His marrying Jessica which was immoral also shows his
unscrupulous nature.
c. Sense of humor, artistic temperament and wit: He is witty when he talks with his friends, he is
artistic in nature when he is in the love scene with Jessica when he talks about Cressica and
Credo where he shows some poetic skills also. When Gratiano makes the comment about people
actually being the silent type of people who want to show themselves as thoughtful, Lorenzo
says that yes he is the silent man and thoughtful and wise only because Gratiano doesn’t let
anyone else talk. He talks about music and its effect on animals etc during his talks with Jessica
too.
d. His praise of Antonio and Portia’s favourable impression of him: Lorenzo expresses a high
opinion of Antonio though he doesn’t like his melancholic company. Portia also sees Lorenzo as
a gentleman who is a friend of Bassanio and then starts trusting him. Portia leaves Lorenzo with
caretaking her house and property when she leaves Belmont. Overall, he is a very likable person
who contributes to the romantic scene by his love with Jessica and also to the comedic elements
by using his wit and humor.

6. Jessica
a. Her strong dislike for her father’s nature and temperament: Jessica is the daughter of Shylock
but is ashamed of having him as her father. She finds the atmosphere of her father’s home very
suffocating and intolerable. She is a sensitive girl with an artistic temperament. She is not able to
understand the miserly, unforgiving and merciless nature of his father. She runs away with a bag
full of father’s money and jewellery and decides to marry a Christian even though his father is a
shrewd Jew. This is considered to be extreme but the audience is forced to take a lenient view of
it because of Shylock’s nature who is imposing all kinds of restrictions on his daughter and her
movements.
b. A beautiful, wise and faithful girl: Lorenzo is impressed by her Beauty, wisdom and she
appears to be faithful to Lorenzo. She is a charming girl with a strong sense of humour with the
same qualities as Lorenzo; poetic, artistic, sense of humour. Lorenzo is so much in love with her
that he is going to place her in his constant soul for his entire life. For the sake of Lorenzo she
doesn’t mind giving away her own religion and becoming a Christian. Her artistic and poetic
temperament manifests itself in the moonlight scene at Belmont where she is in conversation
with Lorenzo about the beauty of the night. She appears in favourable light because of her wide
knowledge and the way she uses it according to the occasions. She talks in terms of mythological
stories when Lorenzo talks in that manner. Her responsiveness to the music in the play also
shows her artistic nature along with her sensitiveness to other things.
c. Her essential feminity and modesty: She is a modest girl, though she takes initiative in running
away with Lorenzo, the reason is that she is very desperate to get away from her father’s house.
She arranges for boy’s clothes to disguise herself and she feels ashamed when she is in that
costume. She is happy that Shylock cant see him in the darkness and she cant be seen without her
feminine form. She appears to be well dressed, modest and well mannered in her approach. She
has a strong sense of humour and wit which is very clear from the fact that she is in the company
of Launcelot Gobbo who is a servant in her home and she feels sorry for Gobbo as she would no
longer be there. She always makes good jokes with Gobbo and is very witty while talking to him.
d. Arguments against and for her flight from home: There are schools of thought around her
leaving her home. She is guilty of leaving his father and damaging his reputation when Shylock
as a father did not expect her daughter to do so after raising her. She has made his father
ashamed by doing such an act and running away with her money. This was a frowned upon act in
those times. Today women have achieved rights equal to men and have started exerting their
rights. Today a woman wont be stopped by her parent’s will and wants to marry as per her own
choice. Her conversion to Christianity also got very mixed opinions as she could have chosen to
remain a Jew even after marriage.
e. Her contribution to the plot and its atmosphere: She contributes to the romantic element of the
play and she adds to the interesting part of the plot. She is the romantic interest of Lorenzo and is
a key character in the moonlight scene, her personality there was also very eminent. She adds on
to the views of jewish and Christian hatred by running away with a Christian. Her disguising as a
male added to the plot of the story as a significant event and she inspired Lorenzo as a beautiful
and wise woman. She enhances Portia’s image in her eyes as she is totally free of jealousy. She
could be a woman comparable to Portia although not to her extent as Portia doesn’t disregard her
father’s wish while Jessica does. Portia was ready to let go of Bassanio too for the sake of her
father’s will. All and all she is a likable character adding to the variety of cast in the play.

7. Nerissa:
a. A miniature Portia though without Portia’s beauty and wealth: She significantly draws upon
her character from the traits of Portia but lacks her wealth, beauty, stature. Portia and Nerissa can
often be found in dialog with one another with Nerissa participating equally.
b. Her capacity to make aphoristic (something said in a shortened style, in a quotation) remarks:
She is Portia’s witty mistress who speaks in quotational remarks. She can be compared to
Birbal/Tenali Rama from the Indian culture who used to talk less but talk valuable.
c. her sense of humor and wit: Has a strong sense of humor as can be seen in the ring storyline.
Check internet for more.
d. A copy of Portia and a well matched couple with Gratiano: She feels almost as happy as Portia
in acquiring Gratiano in his life. If Bassanio had chosen the wrong casket then even Nerissa
would not have married gratiano. She tends to mimick Portia but with discretion and not very
openly. She is very confidential and has mistress like beauty and modesty. Even in the trial scene
she complements portia by being her maid in attendance and never hesitated in going to the trial
scene dressed as a man.
8. Launcelot Gobbo:
He is a jester in the play who is a fool of a crude quality when compared to Gratiano who is of a
higher quality. Launcelot Gobbo isn’t given much attention in the play. The work that he does
for the play is comparing the Christian household with the Jew Household where he isn’t given
proper meals, salary isn’t given on time and no care is provided. When he transfers to Bassanio’s
house the conditions there are much better. He also connects the pieces in the 4 storylines. His
jokes are very hilarious still and Jessica enjoys them as Jessica lives in a very strict and
depressing environment.

Project Guidelines:

Cover page:-
Title Page: Name of the book, name of the publisher, name of the writer, your name, PRN, class,
division
Acknowledgement:
Plagiarism Report:
Storyline Synopsis
Characterization
The Law Element
Subjective perception of the total story with special reference to the law element.
 MERCHANT OF VENICE 10 MARK AND 5 MARK QUESTIONS

Q1. Tell in your own words the Bond story as it unfolds itself and develops itself in the Merchant
of venice.
Q2. Relate briefly the casket story, pointing out clearly the grounds on which each suitor
particularly Bassanio makes his choice.
Q3. Sum up Lorenzo-Jessica story in your own words and show its inter-relationship with other
plots in MOV.
A. Relationship between Christians and the jews. Extension of Venetian atmosphere to Belmont.
Lorenzo when he reaches Belmont is assigned to take care of Portia’s property. Daredevilry of
Lorenzo has been brought out. Romantic storyline has been expanded by Lorenzo-Jessica which
adds to the romantic elements brought by Portia and Bassanio. The timing. Shylock chooses not
to focus on Lorenzo because he is targeting Antonio.
Q4. Sum up the ring stories and show inter relationship with 2 major stories of MOV.
A. Also extends to minor characters such as Gratiano and Nerissa. When Balthazar demands the
ring from Bassanio as a reward. Bassanio when he says that friendship is very important to him.
Check last scene where Bassanio and Antonio found out that Portia was balthazar.
Q5. How has Shakespeare interwoven the Bond story and the casket story in play.
A. How he gets the money and how he reaches Belmont and how he wins the hand of Portia then
he uses the money of her wife to run and save Antonio.
Q6. How has Shakespeare interwoven the main plots of MOV with sub plots.
A. Sub plots include the trial scene and the Lorenzo Jessica scene.
Q7. Comment on the view that the bond story and not the tale of the caskets is the backbone of
MOV.
A. the Title of the book itself is merchant of Venice thus focusing on Antonio. Bond Story is the
catalyst for the casket story and the casket story in itself is not the backdrop of the play whereas
the hatred between jews and Christians is heavily implied. Friendship. The trial scene is where
the element of suspense is used.
Q8. Why is Antonio feeling melancholy in the opening scene of MOV and what is the dramatic
significance of this melancholy?
Q9. How far do you agree with Portia’s interpretation of the bond and her administration of
justice?
A. according to mam Portia’s interpretation is legally wrong and Shakespeare went off course
with the legal aspects as he was dually focused on comedy and tragic events. When Shakespeare
can make such supreme characters such as Portia and Shylock then shylock must also have been
aware that taking a pound of flesh will amount to dropping of blood and Antonio possibly dying.
Bias towards Christians.
Your own interpretation for this answer may vary.
Q10. Do you agree with the view that the MOV is a plea for religious tolerance?
A. Shakespeare has merely laid down the circumstances in the society of Venice those days
where Venice was the centre of Christianity. Have to praise the strength of Shylock who
throughout all the disrespect and intolerance still maintains his ground. All the write ups of
Shakespeare are written from a Christian perspective.
Q11. Do you think that the title of the play MOV is an apt title? Give reasons.
A. For this you may also suggest alternative titles for Portia, the jew etc.
Q12. How has Shakespeare built up the Venetian atmosphere in MOV?
A. Gondola in which Lorenzo and Jessica ride, the Realto which is the stock exchange. The
hatred for Jews and the heavy Christian mentions. The court setup and The duke who ruled in the
very biased manner regarding how an attempt to the killing of a Christian shall be heavily
punished. The trading ships which are going to different locations such as Lisbon, Mexico etc.
Aristocratic life of Belmont and Venice is highlighted. The music, the art, the luxury, the
galleries are highlighted. Salerio, Gratiano, Bassanio are all typical men of the Elizabethan times
who are also representing the Venetian men of the times. The act 5 which mentions the
Q13. Supposing that you have been engaged as Shylock’s lawyer in the case against Antonio,
how would you defend him against the hostility of the Christians in the Venetian Court of Law?
Q14 imp. According to a critic, the MOV is both comedic and tragic. Whats your opinion?
Q15. Do you agree with the view that in the Mov, we have shakespeare’s criticism of human life
and its institutions? Give reasons.
Q16. In what light do you see Shylock’s character? Do you regard him as a tragic or comic
character?
Q17. Imp. Describe and account for the mood in which Shylock appears in the trial scene. Are
your empathies with Shylock or Antonio?
Q18. What are the grounds on which Shylock is regarded as the villain?
5-mark Questions
Q1. State Shylock’s motives for revenge against Antonio.
Q2. Your assessment of Portia’s character.
Q3. Give your estimate of Portia’s performance at trial?
Q4. Discuss in detail the quality of mercy speech made by Portia.
Q5. Comment on the view that bankrupt Antonio is a poor spirited creation without energy and
strength?
Q6. Would it be right to say that in the love affairs of MOV Shakespeare has depicted strong
women and weak men?
Q7. What procedure does Bassanio follow in asking for a loan from Antonio, what do you learn
about his character from this?
Q8. Critique and evaluate:
i. The role of Bassanio in MOV.
ii. Gratiano’s role.
iii. Nerissa’s role
iv. Lorenzo-Jessica together as a couple and their role in the MOV.

To answer these questions if you read the overall summary and the scene wise summary while
carefully reading the bigger paragraphs for keywords, your answer will be formed.

Date: 21/01
the bluest eyes by morrisson wont be done in as much detail as Shakespeare and durrani.
No text from bluest eyes will come from the paper is what mam is saying. Morrison’s backdrop
is important. Nowhere has she mentioned that the losses suffered by the Africans was due to the
white people in the government. She says it is their own fault. African structure should have been
more strong and their culture should not have changed.
She says that the people of Africa have lost their identity. This is not a rape story but a story of
the africans becoming what they are due to what they have gone through and lost their identity in
the process.
Morrison has been brought up in abject poverty. Her major works will be discussed and also the
major characters in the bluest eyes.

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MORRISON ( important for objective and subjective)

Tony Morrison may well be the most formally sophisticated novelist in the history of African-
American literature. Her single accomplishment is a writer is that she has managed to invent her
own mode of literary representation. Her themes are often of those expected of naturalist fiction.
( which has casteism, poverty, love etc in the backdrop which are naturally persistent in the
society)
. Also, lyrical modernism is an abstract concept that has been used, where you talk about
emotions such as fate, destiny, love,loss which can deeply impact people, and for every era
where the writer is writing about some concepts will vary such as the love as spoken by
Shakespeare and the love as spoken by Morrison.
. Magical realism is the word with which you associate her work as it involves both naturalist
fiction and lyrical modernism. This is also known as magical naturalism.

Personal background:
She was born with the name of Chole Anthony Wolford on feb 18, 1931 in a small town of
Loraine, Ohio and her parents were George and Rahmah Willis Wolford. Her maternal
grandparents had left Alabama and travelled to Ohio in search of better educational opportunities
for their children rather than in search of food and basic income. Tony’s father was a shipyard
welder and a stickler for excellence. She was the second of the four children who grew up in
Loraine during the great depression of the 1930s.

Date: 22/1/20
Major Influences: Life for Morrison was one of poverty because everyone in Loraine was poor.
There was hardly any racial segregation due to the poverty on a class basis i.e. no racial hostility
was present. Her early years in Loraine created a sensitivity in her for the struggling masses of
Loraine and for the African people in general. Her parents George and Ramah were sticklers for
excellence. Her parents drilled in her mind that blacks are the only human race in the world. That
black people were the humans of the globe. Her grandmother Ardelia acquainted her with the
black lore (important for objective and subjective too)and her grandfather Solomon who was a
skilled carpenter and a superb artist in violin instilled in her artistic creativity. Her background
was small black Loraine community, a place where they cared if someone was in difficulty

Educational background and her early professional life

Her educational background and her profession molded her as a creative writer with social and
political consciousness. She was the only black child in her locality who could read. Literature
was her favorite subject and reading was her fondest pastime. She studied latin for 4 years before
graduating with honors from Loraine High in the year 1949. After receiving her BA degree in
English from Cornell University in 1955 she started her teaching career as an English faculty at
Texas Southern University in Houston. During this period, she wasn’t interested in writing
whatsoever. At Random House she worked as an editor and this stimulated her literary
consciousness. At this time, she edited some of the significant works written by Africans and she
became more conscious of the plight confronting her people. One such African ChinWeizu
whose insightful work the West and the Rest of Us explores the nature of African suppression
and exploitation had a considerable impact on her. Particularly his themes of the primary
problem of capitalism and the solution to it in the unity of African people. She was also
influenced by a pictorial she edited that was named the black book (1974), which was a
compendium of news clippings and advertisements chronicling the life of African people in the
US from slavery through the civil rights movement.

Conclude:
Morrison’s fiction emerges from within the universe of a mind which has been shaped by the
African-American culture of childhood expanded by a formal education in English and the
classics in the Harvard and Cornell Universities and forged by her own experiences as an
African-American woman. The African-American environment, her family background,
community, their black folklore, her early professional life and literary works of great writers.
She presents the non- linear African-American socio-historical reality fragmented by a historical
past of disconnections and ruptures and her novels show the victimization of the black people
within the context of racist social order.
( Objective questions from this segment such as the ones underlined may come which includes
her personal life details)

10 Mark question:
The principal works of Tony Morrison:
Make sure to write the books in this exact same order. Theme of every book is important too.
1. The bluest eye (1970)
This is Morrison’s first novel. In this novel the emphasis is on racism. She investigates the
devastating effects of the beauty standards of the dominant culture on the self-image of an
African female adolescent. The role of class has very little meaning and the story is about the
breedlove family which has moved from rural south to urban Loraine, Ohio and the displacement
in addition to the grinding work conditions and poverty that contributes to the family’s
disfunction.
This story is told from the perspective of two sisters, Claudia and Freda Macteer. It is laid down
in four seasons, each season is significant of the change in the psyche of the characters. It traces
the daughters that is Pecola Breedlove’s descent into madness (she is a friend of both). Through
flashback and temporal shifts Morrison provides the readers with the context and history behind
the misery of the breedloves and Pecola’s obsessive desire to have the bluest eye. This work of
Morrison is actually a proof of Morrison’s low level of gender and class consciousness at the
beginning of her writing career when she thought that racism was the main form of oppression of
blacks in white America.

2. Sula (1974)
Both black, both smart, both poor and raised in a small town in Ohio, Sula and Nel meet when
they are 12, wishbone thin and dreaming of princes. Through their childhood years, they share
everything till Sula escapes the bottom, their hilltop neighborhood because of fierce resentment
towards failed crops, lost jobs, thieving insurance men, and bug-ridden flower. She roams the
cities of America for 10 years and when she returns to town she finds Nel married and accultured
to life at the bottom while Sula is considered as the oddity of the community. Morrison’s
emphasis here is on gender, particularly the individualism of African women. She is interested in
the struggle for individual rights in general and women rights in particular. The concept of
gender and its relation to the race and class is very much a part of this novel and the concerns of
class rank third after gender and race.

3. The song of Solomon (1977)

It’s a novel of great beauty and power. The song of Solomon creates a magical world out of 4
generations of black life in America with the birth of Macon Dead Jr. known as milkman, son of
the richest family in a mid-western town. He grows up in his father’s money and death haunted
house and then strikes out alone towards adventure and as the unspoken truth about his family
and his buried heritage comes to light, he embarks towards and adventurous and crucial phase of
life. He undertakes a long journey from the city to the countryside in the quest of his identity. He
goes to Pennsylvania where his father grew up then to Shalimar, Virginia where his grandfather
was born and children still sing the song of Solomon. He deciphers the twin text of history
hidden in the song, and the genology. The novel evokes the history of black immigration and
chain of economic exploitation from village to metropolis and the endpoint of milkman’s journey
is the starting point of the black races’ history in America. Confrontation with the reality of
slavery coming at the end of the novel marks the end of milkman’s penetration into the historial
process.

4. Tar baby (1981)

The life of cultivated millionaire Valerian streets is organized by his fastidious and talented
butler Sydney whose niece Jadine has been educated at Valerian’s expense. One night, a rugged
starving black American street man breaks into the house. Jadine who is at first repelled by the
intruder finds herself moving inexorably towards him. He is a kind of black man she has dreaded
since childhood; uneducated, violent and contemptuous of her privilege. Each becomes
fascinated with the other and the novel deftly reveals how the conflicts and dramas wrought by
social and cultural circumstances must ultimately be played upon in the realm of the heart. Jadine
is a picture of a liberated African-American woman who refuses to choose between the apparent
opposites offered to her i.e. she refuses to internalize an external image either black or white as
definition of self. “I belong to myself” is the theme and she is not ready to impose a dualistic
definition upon her.

5. Beloved (1987)
Beloved draws our attention to the psychological turmoil experienced in the context of slavery.
The entire history of slavery in America is stretched out on a giant canvas here i.e. the inhuman
treatment of slaves both male and female, children and adults as beasts of burden, the sexual
exploitation of black women by white men and beloved a spiritual manifestation of history which
is the embodiment of 6 million of more dead and enslaved Africans. Beloved the character has
returned to reclaim our space and haunts us throughout the narrative with her enigmatic
appearance in the Sethe’s household and the concept is that anything dead coming back to life
hurts. This process of self-discovery and re-memory form an integral part of Tony’ Morrison’s
narration. In fact this quest for identity is true for the entire African-American literature of the
20th century.

6. Jazz (1991)
A novel set in Harlem in 1928 Jazz, is Morrison’s most disturbing novel. It is a disturbing
psychological study of a childless African American couple seeking to come to terms with their
frustrations and aspirations. They fragmented directionless lives, propelling them towards the
absurd. Joe Trace, a waiter who moonlights (part time in the evening) as a door to door salesman
of Cleopatra beauty products shoots to death his lover of three months, the impetuous 18-year
old Dorcas. At the funeral, his determined, hardworking and mentally unstable wife Violet tries
to disfigure the corpse. Rich combining history, legend and re-memory, Morrison captures as
never before the ineffable mood and the complex humanity of black urban life at a moment in
our century we assumed as understood.
7. Paradise (1998)
“They shoot the white girl first”, this is the stark opening of the novel which then coils back and
forth through a century of history to explain who ‘they’ are and why on a dewy Oklahoma
morning in 1976, they felt compelled to storm a decaying mansion and wreck violence on the
handful of women living in it.
Conclusion: Morrison demonstrates a keen awareness of concern for and dedication to African
people in America. Morrison shows that Africans all over the world are one people having the
same history and sharing the same plight since they are seen as one by those outside the African
nation, no matter what their class status might be. Clearly, she wants African people to see
themselves as one people undivided by their class status.
Morrison’s greatness as a novelist lies in her extra-ordinary power of achieving a harmonious
fusion of her social concerns and the demands of novel as an art form. The ultimate solution of
collective struggle to the problem of economic exploitation of the blacks in white America is
offered invariably in terms of fictional art. For the characters as well as the author, these scars of
racial, sexual and class oppression are more horrible on the soul than those on the body.

BLACKS IN AMERICA:
General introduction: Slavery or trade in human beings dates from prehistoric times. All ancient
civilizations use slaves. In the past Africans were sent as slaves across the Sahara in the
Mediterranean while the Greco Roman traders in the red sea and beyond traded slaves from east
Africa to Egypt and the Middle east. The advent of the European age of exploration in the 15 th
century gave a new dimension to the slave trade. The Portuguese exploring the western coast of
Africa discovered a plentiful source of slaves while at the end of the century Christopher
Columbus discovered what was to become the main market for them. Throughout the ensuing
three centuries European nations vied and fought for control of the lucrative trade of supplying
slaves to the labor intensive plantations in the west African islands of Sao-Tome and Principle,
the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South Africa, the Caribbean and southern colonies of
North America following the development of the plantation system from the second half of the
seventeenth century. The Portuguese dominated the trade in the 16 th century, the Dutch in the
early 17th century while the late 17th century saw a period of intense competition as the French,
the British and the swedes joined in and in the second half of the 18 th century slave trade reached
its peak
African American slaves: A typical voyage for a British ship would involve a triangular course
south to the slave coast of West Africa to pick up a cargo of slaves who were transported across
the Atlantic in the most appalling conditions to the West Indies or the North American colonies
from where sugar, cotton, tobacco, or similar commodities would be shipped home. Estimates
vary regarding the number of slaves removed from Africa and the most reliable figure being
around 12.5 million between 1650 and 1850. The enslavement of African-Americans in what
became the United states formally began in 1630s and 1640s. At this time the colonial courts and
the legislatures made it clear that unlike the white servants, the black servants would serve their
masters for life and that their slave status will be inherited by their children. Slavery in United
states ended in 1860s. Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation of January, 1863 was a
masterful propaganda tactic but in truth it proclaimed free those slaves outside the control of the
federal government i.e. only those slaves in the areas still controlled by the confederacy. The end
of slavery in the nation came in December 1865 when the 13 th Amendment was ratified. So the
history of African American slavery in the United states can be divided into two parts:
1. From 1650 to 1790 which coincided with the colonial years and the 2nd,
2. This lasted from 1790-1865 from the American Independence through the civil war.
Prior to Independence, slavery existed in all American colonies and was not an issue of sectional
debate. With the arrival of independence, the new Northern states, those of New England, along
with New York, Pennsylvania, and new Jersey came to see slavery as contradictory to the ideas
of French revolution which were liberty, equality and fraternity and they then instituted programs
of gradual emancipation.
Working Conditions of Slaves: (Important for 3 and 5mark questions)
Slaves worked in unknown and often dangerous territories beset by disease and sometimes hostile
inhabitants. Clearing land, and performing heavy construction job without modern machinery was
extreme hardwork particularly in hot and humid climatic conditions of the south. They were driven
mercilessly to plant, cultivate and harvest the crops for market. A failed crop meant bankruptcy for the
master whereas a successful crop meant high returns and more labor for the slaves. The philosophy on
which the slave owners worked was ‘it is cheap to buy than to breed’ i.e. it was easier and cheaper to
work the slaves to death than to take care of their lives. The sugar plantations in Louisiana and
Caribbean showed that the life span of a slave from initial purchase to death was only 7 years.

Important for 5 mark: The reason why Morrison focused on the American Culture

It is because America does not have any backdrop to any culture unlike most other civilizations,
she says that the blacks are the backdrop behind the one who actually contributed to the culture
of America. The African American society in the south from 1807 to 1860 was unique among
the new world slave system. This is because in the U.S the slave population not only sustained
itself but also expanded exponentially. In other new world nations slave populations were
maintained by continuous importation from Africa but in the American south it grew by natural
increase i.e. slave mothers had children who also became slaves. As a result, the vast majority of
African Americans in slavery in the U.S were not African captives but native-born Americans
some of whose ancestors had been in this country nearly as long as the oldest white families.
Rich African Heritage in the United States:
The longevity of residence in America did not mean that slaves lost all their rich heritage from
their African origins. White slave owners were frightened by African customs and behaviors that
they could not understand. They forced their slaves to give up African means of communication
such as their own language and their drums (a widely used means of talking across great
distances in Africa for communicating). They were denied their original African names and
made to accept whatever names were imposed upon them. As a result, the southern slaves were
forced into syncretism i.e. the process of mixing divergent cultural elements together to create an
entirely new culture. They had to combine what they could retain of their African culture. With
the new European and native American cultures imposed upon them by their masters. The result
was the first genuinely formed American culture which was part African, part European and part
native American. Thus, this was how the American slavery structured.
(This is also important for a question of why Morrison repeatedly calls herself and her peers
African American, a part in the past written work also mentions her parents stating that the
blacks are the only ones living on the earth, thus this cultural ambiguity was instilled in her)
Morrison’s concerns:
AS a black writer, Morrison is fully aware of the wrongs the blacks suffered and especially of the
womenfolk during the days of slavery. She says that it is a past that only a few African
Americans can forget. Morrison’s writings centered around the predicament in the past as well as
the present but she scrupulously avoids any direct venture of the whites because she is least
interested in racial confrontation and wants to write for the people of her own race in particular
beginning from her debut novel, the bluest eye. Time flows without the restriction of time, past
and the present intermingle as Tony Morrison observes and tries to highlight the sustaining
powers of the blacks to recognize, to rescue those qualities of resistance, excellence and
integrity.
(this part is also important if a question in the exam asks about the impact of black culture in
Morrison’s life that also ended up impacting her work)

Summary of the Bluest eye

Claudia MacTeer narrates the story of her friend Pecola Breedlove who is also the protagonist of
the bluest eye. The story is set in the steelmaking Cleveland which is a suburb of Loraine, Ohio
in 1941. She feels that blue eyes are the talisman of whiteness, of pride, of security and she seeks
them through prayers through the inter session of a spoiled priest who is a ‘reader and an
adviser’ ( sarcasm intended) and it is ultimately through madness when she believes that these
eyes have been granted to her in carrying the reader through the short and tragic story. Morrison
has tried to build the pathos of Pecola and the people around her father Cholly breedlove who is
driven to alcoholism, incest, brutality by a life of appalling oppression and dislocation ; her
mother Pauline Williams is driven into her hard and bitten self by Cholly’s rage and by the
unbearable misery of her life ; Soaphead Church the priest i.e. ‘the reader and adviser’ who turns
up with a godlike power over the lives of the others and Freda and Claudia Macteer whose life is
only marginally less hopeless than the breedloves.
The title pinpoints the focus of her work, Pecola Breedlove in her first years of womanhood is
black who is black, ugly and poor and lives in a storefront and shares a bedroom with her
brother, a crippled mother and a drunken father. Pregnant by her father she goes to Soaphead
church, a man who believes himself possessed of holy powers. What she wants are blue eyes. In
a scene in which a young black on the verge of madness seeks beauty and happiness in a wish for
white girl’s eyes, the author makes her most telling statement on the tragic effect of race,
prejudice on children but the scene occurs late in the novel, far too late to achieve the impact it
might have had in a different construction. For most of the way Freda and Claudia along with
Pecola yield center stage who aside from knowing Pecola and perhaps offering contrast by
themselves being poor and black though from a much happier home, serve little purpose beyond
distraction. Claudia narrates the story through the 4 seasonal divisions of the book, the narratives
branch out to assorted portraits and events throughout the black community of Loraine. Her
mental breakdown when it comes has only the impact of reportage.
There are vivid scenes of Pecola’s first menstrual cycle, a pretty milk brown lady driving Pecola
from her home for killing a cat though this was done by the woman’s own son, the young
Charles breedlove caught during the sex act by white men and being forced to continue for their
amusement. The overriding motive of the book is the desirability of whiteness or as the next best
thing. The imitation of whiteness as a corollary, blackness is perceived as ugliness; a perception
that must surely have given rise in the later years to the over compensatory counter statement of
‘Black is beautiful’.

Character sketch: (Characters in this story lack their characteristic qualities and are
rather dependent on various situations that they faced)
1. Pecola Breedlove: She is the protagonist of the bluest eye. Only by society’s standards she is
ugly. She abandoned by her own other because of this trait of hers even a small act of going to
the candy store for her is filled with resentment and anger because people make fun of her. Her
school treats her the same way like her home. She sits alone on her double desk, her teachers do
not talk to her till everyone has to be addressed. Her classmates tease her and there is a joke
around her, ie., when a girl wants to tease a boy in particulr she would take his name together
like “bob loves pecola” and everybody would break into laughter much into the embarrassment
of the little girl. Once she is encircled by a group of boys who start teasing her and saying
blackimo blackimo and she doesn’t know how to get herself rescued, calaudia helped her. Her
lack of beauty has event intruded her family. She is living in a gruby store front and is taunted by
classmates and beated or ignored by parents, she begins her life t=a the bottom, the moment her
mother brainwashed by the white movie industry decided that her daughter is irreitreabley ugy.
She starts wishing for her blue eyes and fair skin because she feels that had she been pretty her
parents would have focused upon her instead of fighting with each other and she would have
gotten greatest acceptance in the society.her only friends are clausia and fredamactia who are
also in the same situation and can only pray for her. Her adult rolemodels are the 3 uncooth
prostitutes who were looked down by all the women in town. All the men in isolation self blame
and negativity of pecola’s life finally escalates when she is in the kitchen washing dishes and her
father who is extremely drunk becomes overwhelmed with sexual desire and rapes his own
daughtege that rapes her. And the result is that a child who is seeking desperetely for acceptance
friendship and escape is drowned and ripped off becayuse of this act paternal violence. She is
removed from the school, society, when she becomes pregnant and she sllips into madness. She
starts hallucinating, talking to herself in the mirror and when conviced by the village reader and
advisor,the pictures halucinated that she has fair skin and blue eyes. At the end of the book she is
isolated from the town both physica;;y and emotionally. Adults loook away then they see her and
children who are not frightened laught at her outright/ she delivers a stil born baby and dies.
The father drowns his unhappy childhood in the rage of drinksand it is this rage that pecola
inhereits and it is this ra She is ignored everywhere she goes. She is laughed at, mocked at by the
people around her. Morrison has given an incident in the work where an innocent act of going to
the store and buying candy for a little child is an act filled with happiness and anticipation but for
her it turns into one of shame and anger all because she is an ugly, black girl who does not need
the society’s standards. She stands for the triple indemnity of the female black child, the blacks
in general and the females who are devalued in the American culture. She is lead to isolation
because people treat her differently and she sits long hours in front of the mirror trying to
discover the secret of her ugliness which made her be ignored, or despised at in the school by
teachers and classmates alike. She was the only child in the class who always sat alone on a
double desk. She also knew that when one of the girls at school wanted to be particularly
insulting to a boy or wanted to get an immediate response from him. Bobby loves Pecola
breedlove and never failed to get peels of laughter from those in earshot and mock anger from
the accused. She was often left with her own thoughts which mostly consisted of her desire for
blue eyes. It is because she was of the opinion that with blue eyes she would be beautiful and
popular and people would like her and treat her better. Beauty equals happiness for her. Her first
encounter with her lack of beauty comes from her mother. Living in a grubby storefront, taunted
and alienated by her classmates, either beaten or ignored by her parents, she is a tragic figure
who begins life the moment her mother, brainwashed by the white movie industry decides that
her daughter is ugly. Her parents fought frequently and this upset little Pecola and she wished
that she could disappear when this occurred. Her mother used to spend all her energy on her
employer’s home and she left her own children in a cruel, bleak and ugly place. She wished to be
beautiful such that her mother and father would have treated her better. They would have then
paid her more attention and maybe fought less with each other. They may have been less critical
and abusive of her. She is led further into her isolation by the harsh reality that no one
encourages or loves her. Everybody shuns her and she finds solace in her adult role models, the
three uncouth prostitutes who were looked down upon by all women in the town as well as the
men. These women were mis Marie, Miss China and Miss Poland who were not interested in
Pecola’s sufferings but were concerned only for themselves yet they never questioned Pecola nor
treated her as ugly. They themselves were outcasts like Pecola and did not bother to intervene
between Pecola and the destruction visited upon her. Her only real friends were Claudia and
Freda Macteer who are relatively powerless in helping her and her situation. All this finally
escalates when she is in the kitchen washing dishes and her father who is extremely drunk,
becomes overwhelmed with sexual desire and rapes his young daughter. This incestual act does
nothing but bring out more sympathy for the protagonist. This terrible act was brought upon
Pecola by her ugliness and her inability to meet society’s standards of beauty. Charles is full of
rage from his unhappy childhood and his unsatisfied life. He drowns this consciousness of this
rage in drinks. It is this rage that poor Pecola inherits and, it is this rage that rapes her. The result
is that her child who had sought so desperately for acceptance, friendship, escape from the
frightening scene of her parents’ battle is raped by this rage and what voice she had is ripped
apart from her in this tremendous and overwhelming act of paternal violence. She then becomes
pregnant and is asked to leave school and then she slips into madness. She develops an
imaginary friend to whom she speaks about her new blue eyes. She was given these blue eyes by
Soaphead Church, the town psychic and spiritualist who convinced her that if she fed an old dog
some food which actually had poison mixed in it and he had an erratic reaction, then she would
be given the blue eyes. She fed the dog and after convulsing for several minutes, he died and
Pecola feels that she has attained the blue eyes which are not blue enough and her internal
dialoguing does not bring her piece because of this. When she was raped, some people tried to
put the blame on her saying that she didn’t fight her father. The only way in which some
sympathy is expressed is the shaking of the head. Pecola ends up delivering a stillborn probably
as a result of her young age and the beatings she received after her impregnation, she ends up
going crazy and at the end of the book she is isolated from the town both physically and
emotionally. The adults look away when they see her and children laughed at her outright and a
young girl’s life is ruined as a result of society’s placing of beauty on such a high standard and
making that standard and the importance of it known to all.
2. Mrs. Breedlove:
She was born Paulene Williams and she was the 9 th of 11 children on a ridge of red Alabama
clay, 7 miles from the nearest road. When she was 2, a rusty nail pierced her foot, completely
indifferent to the wound she was left with a crooked, arch less foot that flopped when she
walked. The way she lifted her foot made her look crippled. Of all the children she had no
nicknames. There were no jokes or anecdotes about her. Nobody talked about her food
preferences. Nobody teased her and she was not comfortable anywhere. She had a typical habit
to line up things in rose and when someone scattered her roses, she was never angry because it
gave her another chance to rearrange them again. She organized things in neat lines according to
the size, shape or traditions of color. Near the beginning of World War I, her family moved in
search of better prospects where there were mines and mills. Ada and Fowler Williams, her
parents found a 5-room frame house for her family there. Some of her brothers joined the army,
one sister died, two got married thus increasing the living space and the entire house had a feel of
luxury which she enjoyed while taking care of the house and her younger siblings, a pair of twins
called chicken and pie. When the war ended, Paulene was 15 still keeping house but with less
enthusiasm. Fantasies about men and love and touch were drawing her mind and hands away
from work. It is at this time that she comes across Charles Breedlove and both fall in love. He
relished her company and did not look down her crippled foot and both decided to marry and
move over to Loraine where there were steel mills. Both of them were young, loving and filled
with energy. Soon, Charles started working in the steel mills and Paulene started keeping house.
She then started missing her people. She was not used to white people who ignored the blacks
completely. She missed the luxury of a 5-bedroom apartment against the claustrophobic
atmosphere of a two-bedroom house which Charles could afford. In her loneliness she started
depending on Charles and Charles, though kind and considerate at first, later started resisting her
dependence on him and slowly the couple drifted apart. Paulene, like young girls wanted to
dress up and Charles did not have enough money to indulge her. Slowly, their fights increased
and money became the focus of all their discussions. Their marriage was shredded with quarrels
and so Paulene decides to go out and work. She started working for a white family but could not
get along with the mistress. Her mistress was mean and nasty, and she wanted Paulene to leave
Charles and stay with them. She did not pay Paulene her salary when she refused even though
Paulene needed it badly. It is at this time that Paulene discovers that she is pregnant. This made
Charles happy, he began to drink less and less and their relationship became loving again.
Paulene stopped working and her loneliness became a thing of the past. During this period, she
became an avid movie goer, it was really a simple pleasure but it was here that she actually loved
to hate and passed this on to her children. Soon her first child Sammy was born and she became
pregnant again with Pecola. When the children were young, Paulene had to get back to work.
She took up the responsibility of being the bread winner and started working for a white family.
This time she enjoyed her work and was considered an ideal servant. Her habit of arranging
things in proper order made her an important figure in the white household and she enjoyed her
job. She taught her children fear, the fear of being clumsy, the fear of being like their father, the
fear of not being loved by god, the fear of madness like Charles, mother and into her son. She put
up the loud desire to run away and into her daughter, she put the fear of growing up, the fear of
other people and the fear of life.
3. Charles Breedlove:
When he was 4 days old, Sholly was wrapped in two blankets and abandoned in a heap of junk
by the railroad by his mother. He was saved by his great aunt Jimmy who had seen her niece
carrying a bundle out of the backdoor. She beat his mother with a razer strap and would not let
her near the baby after that. His mother who was not right in the head ran away shortly and
Sholly was raised by aunt Jimmy herself. She could not recall his father’s name which was
actually Sampson Fuller and so she named him after her dead brother Charles. He had 6 years of
schooling before he took up a job at Tyson’s field and Grain store as an errand boy. Here he met
blue Jack and the two became friends. Blue Jack would tell him stories about emancipation,
proclamation about how the black people cried and sang, about the women in his life and about
ghosts. He had great times with blue jack and when he was 14, aunt Jimmy died of peach cobbler
(a dish). She had gone to a camp that took place after a rainstorm and the damp wood on the
benches was bad for her. She was confined to bed for 4-5 days and after that she started feeling
poorly. Many remedies were suggested and on a wet Saturday night when she felt strong enough
to get up, one of her neighbors brought her a peach cobbler. The old lady ate a piece and the next
morning she was dead. Relatives and friends came from nearby towns and farms and the entire
home for Charles had a carnival spirit. Discussions for the funeral began and attention then
turned to what Aunt Jimmy had left behind. Her insurance came to a mere 85$ whereas her
funeral was to cost 150$. Her relatives chipped in the rest of the money and everyone talked of
how big the funeral was going to be and it was at this time that Charles got attracted to a young
cousin of his Darlene. While he was involved in a sexual intercourse with her in the open green
fields, he was caught by two white men who forced him to continue the act in their presence for
their amusement. After this, for quite a number of days, due to the embarrassment, Charles kept
on wandering aimlessly and he could only think of the incident. It occurred to him that Darlene
might be pregnant and he had to get away. He knew it was wrong to run out on a pregnant girl
and he recalled with sympathy that his father had done just that. Now he understood that. He
knew then what he must do i.e. find his father who would understand him. So he went to
Jimmy’s house to come across 23$ which he feels is enough to get to Maken. He did odd jobs for
several days during summer and it was only the following October that he could reach town.
When he reached Maken he found his father in a gambling den, a man in a light brown jacket
standing at the far end of a group, looking quarrelsome and agitated. When they faced each
other, Charles was curtly dismissed. It was extreme effort for him to walk away from the place.
Suddenly he was dangerously free and was invited by three women leaning out of two windows.
They fed him, gave him back his manhood which he took aimlessly and started a vagrant’s
incoherent life. It was in this state that he met Paulene Williams and married her. Initially it was
all excitement for him and then it was routine, variety less life that drove him to despair and
froze his imagination. To be required to sleep with the same woman forever was a curious and
unnatural idea to him and what made him totally dysfunctional was the arrival of his children.
Having no idea how to raise children and having never watched raise himself, he could not even
comprehend what such a relationship should be. One Saturday evening, he staggered home drunk
and saw his daughter in the kitchen. First it made him uncomfortable and next he felt the
discomfort dissolve into sexual pleasure. The sequence of his emotion was revulsion, guilt, pity
and then love and he raped his own 11-year old daughter Pecola. When Pecola regained
consciousness, she was lying on the kitchen floor under a heavy quilt trying to connect the pain
between her legs with the face of her mother looming over her.
Paulene williams
She was the ninth of the 11 children on the ridge of red albama clay seven miles from the nearest
road. When she was 2, a rusty nail pierced her foot and complete indifference to the wound left
her with a crooked archless foot that flopped when she walked. Of all the children she had no
nickname, there were no jokes or anecdotes about her, nobody talked of her food preferances,
nobody teased her and she didn’t feel at home anywhere. She liked to line up things in rows and
when somebody scattered she was never angry. Near the beginning of world war 1her family
moved to kentucky in search of better prospects where there were miles and mill work. Her
father fowler williams and ada williams her mother found a 5 frame house for their family there.
Some of her brothers joined the army one sister died and 2 got married increasing the living
space and giving the entire kentucky venture a feel of luxury. Paulene, the eldest girl, now took
care of the house and she minded the two young children, a pair of twins called chicken and pie
who were still in school. When the war ended she was 15, fantasizing about men, music and
changes in weather and it was in this state of affairs that she met charles beedlove and they fell in
love with each other. He seemed to relish her company and enjoy her country ways and lack of
knowledge about city things. For the first time she was not ashamed of her floppy foot and they
decided to marry and move over to lorain ohio where there was steel mills begging for workers.
Charles started working in steel mills and paulene started keeping house. She started missing her
people (bcz the place where she comes from there were only blacks but here there were whites
too who were hostile to the blacks and ignored them completely) the house was very small, there
was no yard to move. Charles initially was kind and considerate but slowly he started resisting
his total dependance on him. She wanted to dress up like the other black women but that needed
money and charles didn’t indulge her so she decided to go to work. Money became the focus of
their discussions, hers for clothes, his for drink. The house she was working for, her mistress was
mean and nasty and she couldn’t get along with anyone. She wanted paulene to stay with her and
leave charles. She didn’t pay paulene her sallary when she refused even though paulene needed
the salary very badly. Charles was pleased when paulene became pregnant. He began to drink
less and come home more often. And it was this time that she became an avid movie goer and
this is where she gets the influence of the white movie industry and expects her children to be the
same. Her first child was samy and very soon after her first child she was pregnant again but by
this time charles, who had never known a family life had become a drunkard and was least
bothered about his responsibilities. So paulene had to go out to work to support her children. She
shifted to the store front and as the housekeeper in a white’s household, she was an ideal servant
(because she was used to arranging things and rearranging them). She became the breadwinner
fo the family. She taught her children fear- of being clumsy, of being like their father, of not
being loved by god, of madness like charles’ mother. into her son she put in the fear and the loud
desire of running away and into her daughter the fear of growing up, of other people and of life.
4. The Three Prostitutes:
The three prostitutes are Miss China, Miss Poland and Miss Marie. They live in the apartment
above the breedlove’s storefront. They are as isolated from the society as Pecola is. They are
branded as uncouth by the society’s standards but Pecola loves them and she runs errands for
them because they do not ignore her, despise her or question her. Whenever Pecola finds her
parents fighting which is quite often, she runs to their apartment and there she finds them
singing, happy and merrymaking. All the three of them make her happy and make her laugh.
They do not question her nor do they advise her. Pecola admires Marie most because she has
more boyfriends than the other two. She has more money also and because she says she helped
the FBI nab a notorious gangster who brought her pretty things and this provided them with good
food and beer. All her memories are centered around food and is no longer poor and dumb the
way she was earlier. They are hardcore prostitutes, not the understanding and sensitive kind and
are as free with Pecola as they are with each other. Apart of Claudia and Freda Macteer’s home
where she finds respite, Pecola spends most of her time with the three prostitutes seeking solace
from her isolation that is set forth by the society on her.

Soaphead Church:
It is the name given to a cinnamon eyed West-Indian with lightly brown skin who lives in the
black neighborhood of Loraine and is the descendant of a British nobleman Sir Whitcomb, who
had introduced the white strain into the family in the 1800s and his children and grandchildren
were highly accomplished academically. Over the years, through intermarriage this white strain
was lost and some of the Whitcombs became eccentric. One such Whitcomb was Elihne
Whitcomb and his father, Micah Whitcomb, a schoolmaster known for his precision and control
in violence who married a half Chinese girl who died after giving birth to Elihne. Elihne met
Vehna when he was 17, a girl 3 years his senior and who wanted to get him out of his depression
and moroseness. She was a happy go lucky girl who married him only to discover that he was
suffering from invincible melancholy. Soon she left him but he could never come out of this
depression and desertion. He was saved from visible shattering by the steady hand of his father
who reminded him of the family reputation. Elihne then decided to enter the ministry and came
to America to study psychiatry, sociology and physical therapy. He finally settled down in
Loraine in 1936 palming himself off as a minister and inspiring awe with the way in which he
spoke English. The women of the town discovered his celibacy and not being able to
comprehend the rejection which decided that he was extraordinary.
He became the reader, adviser and interpreter of dreams. His income was small and he had no
taste for luxury but was rather interested in old, worn, inanimate objects. However, he was
subject to rare but keen sexual cravings. He did not relish any physical contact with women nor
was he interested in homosexuality. His interest was limited to small girls and he was very fond
of fondling them. He was called soaphead church wherein nobody knew where the church part
came from but everyone knew what soaphead meant. The tight curly hair that took on and held
as sheen(shine) and waved when it was palmated with soap lather. He had rented a small
backroom apartment from a deeply religious old lady named Bertha Reese who was close to total
deafness. However, he did not like the old dog Bob she kept. He was revolted by the presence of
the dog. He even brought poison for the dog but could not administer it. He was however
stumped by a pitifully unattractive girl with a slightly protruding belly i.e. Pecola who comes to
him requesting for blue eyes. Initially he denies saying that he is not a magician but then he
comes up on a plan and he tells her that if she serves meat to Bob and if the dog convulses and
dies, blue eyes will be granted to her which only she could see. Pecola does so and he tells her
that blue eyes have been granted to her. In the end, Soaphead Church meets his death and on his
desk is a letter addressed to god which says that evil existed in life because god has created it. He
has designed an imperfect universe and he has done a poor job. He feels that he could have done
better than god and it was a pity that god has not sought his advice. He talks about his fascination
for little girls and feels that god was unjust to Pecola and he had created a miracle by giving her
blue eyes. So he himself as can be clearly seen is a champion of madness.

Q1. Write a note on the obsession of beauty in Tony Morrison’s books. (including other things
such as Paulene and Pecola mention the dog who died because he was ugly)
Q2. Tony Morrison’s biographical sketch.
Q3. Principal works of Morrison
Q4. Characters in the novel of the bluest eye.
Q5.The condition of blacks in America and the existence of African American culture as
significantly portrayed by Morrison in bluest eye.

Date: 10/02/2020

John Galsworthy (Mam recommends reading the provided justice book as it highlights a
lot of themes)
Mam’s verbal discussion: He Has written a number of works with the motive of social reforms.
He has never gone out to preach any of his reforms. Whatever he expected of the society he went
out and preached them. He was very shy and introvert. His work was later on brought to the
limelight by the influential people such as the media to bring widespread attention to his causes.
There are no heroes, heroines or villains that Galsworthy has created in his books unlike
Shakespeare. He is also compared to Shakespeare because both have created a vast number of
tragedies. Galsworthy has given situations that have given rise to the characters instead of
straightforward character traits.

Main Types of Tragedies (10-mark question)

There are mainly 3 types of tragedies but with the coming of Galsworthy another category of
tragedies was added thanks to the kind of work and concern raised by Galsworthy which created
a 4th segment of tragedy. The first type of tragedy is:
1. Classical tragedy: All types of classics that end up in a tragedy. An example of this is
Oedipus’ life in Sophocles’ Oedipus. This is a story that bears a lot of similarity to the birth of
Krishna except it devolves into a very different, tragic outcome. In classical tragedy we have a
hero who is a man of eminent rank or dignity, huge proportions, and he is generally a man of
monarch who violates some divine law and comes into direct conflict/clash with fate. He may do
this either due to ignorance like in the case of Oedipus or there would be some flaw in his own
character or because of chance, unconsciously or deliberately obeying the dictates of some divine
law opposed to the one he has violated. But in both the cases, immediate retribution follows. The
anger of the gods thus falls on the hero. He is doomed to fail and the tragedy follows. In
Sophocles’ Oedipus, Oedipus who slays his own father ignorantly then marrying his own mother
leading eventually to the birth of his children followed by the death of his mother, his children’s
sufferings and his own life. This is an example of Classical tragedy. Technically this kind of
tragedy has strict adherence to the three unities (unity of time, place and action i.e. everything
happens in the same life of the person and not beyond a certain time period, thus there is no
passage of time in the works)
2. Romantic Tragedy: Supernatural is replaced by human elements in the form of a villain and a
hero. There is no role of fate, instead of fate you get a villain and human agents become the
actors and the actresses, there are no gods or goddesses involved. The hero and villain are clearly
defined to an intelligent understanding too. The hero stands for the good and the evil for the evil.
The intrigues (secret schemes) of the villain lead to the death of the hero and at the same time his
spiritual sublimation. The best example is Othello and Iago where Othello is the protagonist and
Iago is the antagonist where both are in conflict with each other and the intrigues of Iago lead to
the death of Othello.
3. Psychological Tragedy: The focus is not on the external world of supernatural but rather shifts
to the internal world of the soul or the mind of the hero himself i.e. the conflict continues
between the good and the evil. Thus, the conflict is now within the individual regarding the
abstract forces of good and evil. It is in short, the tragedy of divided self. Example: Hamlet and
Macbeth. Hamlet is paralyzed by a lack of resolution and has a very bad cast of thought.
Macbeth is tore between ambition and hospitality to the guest.
4. The social tragedy: Galsworthy is the one who brought social concerns through his work. He
saw the dismal condition of these people and since he never lived their life(unlike Morrison who
lived the life of her books) he could never truly understand their plight and yet he very skillfully
brought forth the concern of the people. This is a newly added element, initially when Milton,
Chaucer and Shakespeare were there Galsworthy was overshadowed but the kind of concern and
works that Galsworthy brought forth made him stand at the same level as the legendary writers
of the time who wrote very tragic comedies.
Here the conflict is shifted from the divide in self to the divides present in the society or
community that lead to a conflict and a clash between the character. It is no longer in the mind,
through divinity, through a hero and a villain rather, the society itself is the hero and the villain.
Capitalism, labor are the concerns that Galsworth has dealt with in his works. In his works
different classes of people have been shown as pitted against each other by the conditions that
their people face. There is no mutual sympathy, harmony or spirit of coordination between
different groups in the society. The result of this is friction, wastage of life and resources, chaos
and havoc and this is where Galsworthy shines and he is thus regarded as the chief exponent of
modern, dramatical literature.

Chief Characteristics of his works:

1. External Fate: There is no role of any external fate in Galsworthy’s works. Everything is
situational and circumstantial.
2. Hero: There is no hero and no place for a hero. There might be a character that is a protagonist
due to the situation that he is put in but there is no clear emphasis upon the heroic characteristics
of any character.
3. Villain: Society, situations and circumstances act as the villain.
4. Victims of Injustice: Yes there are several victims of injustice in the works of Galsworth.
5. End: Normally the ending of the stories are tragedies such as death of the protagonist, the
heroines and other key characters. Can be compared to Othello and Macbeth in this aspect.
6. Universality: His universality is the impotency of man before the social forces. The unseen
forces of modern existence against what the poor mortals have to feel who don’t have any other
option but to pitifully cry out in desperation is what makes his work connect with everybody.
7. Tragedy of situations: Galsworthy has the firm belief that situations are more important than
characters and characters get evolved out of situations. Shakespeare on the other hand did it the
other way around with the character personality first and the tragedy later.
8. Waste: Waste of life (such as the character of Falda), life is a very important resource that is
wasted by the actions of the society where it pushes you into situations where you don’t want
yourself to be in which end in acts of desperation by the helpless and ultimately, death.
John Galsworthy: His life and career
He belonged to a rich, modern, aristocratic family of Devonshire. He was born in 14 august,
1867 in Surrey. He received his education in Harrow public school and oxford university where
he took the degree of law. In 1890 he was called to the bar i.e. he qualified as a barrister and this
gave him the power to conduct cases in the higher courts of law. Because he was from a very
rich family there was no requirement for him to work as a lawyer due to which he never
practiced law in the courts. After his education he spent a lot of his life drifting away through the
world. (Wikipedia says that he went abroad to conduct his father’s shipping business though.) He
went to various voyages and during a sail he met Joseph Conrad, who was a great writer and a
English novelist and they became lifelong friends. It is after this that he came back from his long
voyage. His father sent him to the slums to collect money where he came across the dismal life
of the poor people. Here he fell in love with Ada Galsworth who was a married and affluent
woman. Even 10 years later they maintained their secret love affair because she couldn’t get a
divorce and he didn’t want to perturb his father. In 1905 after the death of his father he married
her. Since Ada was divorced, she was looked down by the society especially because of the
standard of living that he lived in. This social pressure that was brought down to him made him
start writing his works. Ada started typing and editing his manuscripts. His work was thoroughly
revised, edited and then published. Both of them were very fond of music and Ada was also a
skilled pianist. With the passage of time when his works started being published his popularity
started growing. He was rejected earlier and now he was welcomed. He was given honorary
degrees and doctorates from various colleges. He was also given the title of Knighthood which
he refused but he did end up accepting the title of Order of merit which was conferred upon him.
(this is the highest british honor). He also won the nobel prize in 1932 and the money which he
received with it was entirely donated to an organization named P.E.N which was an international
fellowship for writers for which he was the first president himself.
His first published work was ‘from the 4 winds’ which was brought out in 1897 and was a total
failure followed by other failures. Success came to him through his 3 rd novel ‘the island Pharises’
which was published in 1904, ‘the man of property’ in 1906 and his 4 th novel which dealt with
the Forsyte Saga. He wrote 19 novels between 1900 to 1933 alongside many short stories. His
fame rests on the humorous and tragic forsyte saga in which he put a modern comedy put in the
year 1929. This was a collective edition of his works and the end of chapter was published in
1935. His novels have compassion for the poor and oppressed but he was unable to comprehend
them. His plays number around 20 plus a number of short plays. Apart from this he wrote
volumes of verse, essays and lectures and addresses delivered by him from time to time.
Galsworthy was rather weak and timid in nature and he disliked being the center of any
controversies. He liked to play from the shadows rather than being in the spotlight. He had a
likeness for animals including dogs and horses. He died in the year jan 31st, 1933.
Date: 20-02-20
Galsworthy and the themes of his plays (5-mark question for sem or asked objectively)
Includes 15 plays

1. The Silver Box: It is nothing but disparity between the haves and the have nots and the
helplessness of the latter before law.
2. Joy: Joy is the growth of an adolescent girl going through emotional conflicts into a lover and
a woman.
3. Strife: The traditional conflict between the capitalists and the working class.
4. The eldest son: The class-conscious prejudice of an old English Baronet family against the
marriage between the eldest son of the family and the serving maid.
5. Justice: It is the mighty criticism of the existing legal institution with special reference to
solitary confinement of the convicts in English prison houses.
6. The fugitive: The widely spread and common problem of an unhappy marriage and the
tragedy of a lady neither hardy nor coarse fibred enough for the crosswinds of life.
7. The pigeon: It’s the futility of attempts of a social thinker and social outcast.
8. The mob: A critical study of an idealist who opposes the unjust war.
9 A bit O’ Love: the presentation of a person, the conflict and the forgiveness of a person that is
idealistic and spiritual.
10. The Foundations: It is an analytical study of industrial class relationships.
11. The Skin game: It is the depiction of conflict of interest between the nobles and the fast-
rising manufacturing class of English society.
12. Loyalities: It is the depiction of protest and a close examination of the abstract idea of
loyalty.
13. A family man: It is the study of destructive effects of unimaginative, narrow minded,
domestic tyranny.
14. Windows: It is the discussion of the problem of groupism in the society and the need of
mutual understanding, sympathy and tolerance.
15. The forest: The spread of unconscientious financial speculation in the commercial world of
today.

Mam says that please do read both the justice and Tehmina Durrani completely for the semester.
Tehmina has confirmed questions in end sem.

JUSTICE
(important for 10-mark question)
Enduring popularity and universal appeal of the play:
Introduction- Justice was first staged in the year 1910. Since then it has been very popular
universally. This is because it has been read, enjoyed by people particularly those who speak
English across the globe. That impact was to such an extent that the masses and the legislators
were so strongly influenced that reforms were made in jail administration in 1913. As a result,
solitary confinement was restricted to a month for the most heinous and grievous cases. There
was mitigation in the regressed state of prison life.
A more beneficial result was the formation of the Centrally Discharged Prisoners Aid Society
and the reformatory and refugee union, both of which provided work and food for ex-convicts.

Aptness of the Title: The title of the play is apt as it is suggestive because it deals with the
problem of failure of justice in the modern world. In spite of the fact that the law is administered
with the best of motives, justice is not done to the underprivileged sections of society and it
results in suffering and misery for the victims of the present-day social organization.
The Setting: Justice is a play in 4 acts. Act I is laid in the office of a firm of solicitors James
How and Walter How. Act II is laid in the court of law where Falder, the victim of social
injustice is tried and sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment for forgery. Act III is laid
in the prison where Falda undergoes a term of solitary confinement and his spiritual agony and
that of other prisoners is movingly and vividly depicted. *It is the only act which has 3 scenes*
Act IV is again laid in the office of James and Walter How where Falder once served and where
he comes after his release from jail in search of employment. The play closes in desperation
when he jumps down the stairs and commits suicide.

Characters: (only discussing major ones here)

1. Falder: He is the protagonist i.e. the central character of the work, Justice. He is a junior clerk
in a firm of solicitors which belongs to James and Walter How.
. James doesn’t take the mistake of forgery very lightly. James says that once a crime is done
then a punishment must follow.
. Walter How is the son of James who wants to convince his father that Falder made his first
mistake and that he should be forgiven. Ultimately even though James is convinced it turned out
to be too late as Falder makes the jump that kills him.
2. Ruth Honeywill: She wants to escape her depressing and torturous marriage and marry Falder
with whom she is truly in love but the prevailing societal conditions prevent her from doing so.
This includes her father whom she doesn’t want to harm and the toughness of getting a divorce
back in that period.

The Main plot: The plot of the play is very simply as it moves directly and swiftly. There are
two actions that are directly associated with each other. One is Falder who alters a cheque of 9
pounds to 90 pounds and is arrested. He is tried in the court of law and is sentenced to three
years of rigorous imprisonment. As a result of this he suffers a lot. After being released from the
jail due to embarrassment he initially chooses not to go back to his original employer’s office but
ends up forging documents to go to another office but then when caught he comes back to his
employer after which the police is onto him. Since he realized that he cannot go back to his old
life he ends up committing suicide. The sub plot of the play is the love plot. Ruth is the long-
suffering wife of a tortious husband who even tried to strangle her. Ruth and Falder had planned
to escape and go abroad. It was only for the sake of Ruth that Falder commits forgery due to
which he suffers a lot. Ruth also pops up and flashes in certain parts of the play. The day that
they plan to elope is the day that Falder is caught and she begs a lot for the welfare of Falder.
Ruth resorts to prostitution to feed her stomach and becomes pregnant. After spending time in
jail when Falder meets Ruth he realizes that she is pregnant. The woman for whom he committed
forgery is pregnant due to prostitution and this further weighs down on the life of Falder. This is
also another reason why he commits suicide because according to him he failed to do much for
the love of his life as he was sent to jail and was caught on the day that they were planning to
elope.

Realism and strange directions in the play:

It is realistic because it is laid in the contemporary society of the time with humanlike characters
with individual faults and cracks in their nature. Justice is nothing but a realistic representation of
the situations and concerns of the society. The characters in the play are like normal humans thus
it manages to connect to the reader. There are no heavy romantic and poetic elements and is
rather prosaic where simple proses are used to convey the story. For every act you shall find that
stage directions are very minutely provided thus showing how well a play of Justice can pan out
the theater viewers. Thus both the reader and the viewer will be able to connect to the plot. It is
in some opposition to Shakespeare where Shakespeare was more poetic in expression with heavy
romantic elements.
A great Social tragedy:
Justice is a very moving social tragedy. This is an example of a social tragedy. (explain this in
detail referring to above notes of types of tragedy) The conflict here is between the individual
and the society.
Tragical Irony:
One good example of a irony taking place is: right when Ruth and Falder planned to elope and
run abroad, the police came up and caught Falder. Justice shows the tragic irony of situation that
takes place in everybody’s lives. Another example is when falder finds out that Ruth is pregnant
because she had to resort to prostitution to feed her stomach. All of this leads to Falder
committing suicide because his life got ruined thanks to doing forgery just for the sake of his life
with Ruth.
A great Problem play:
This is because he posed a lot of problems. First is the problem of justice and administration of
criminal law. All the judges, lawyers etc. are working to the best interest of society yet it doesn’t
have the right impact on an individual who is suffering due to the judicial system. Second is the
immoral relationships, who is the society to judge what is moral and what is immoral? What
does society have to do with branding a relationship being moral or immoral. This is what
happened with Ruth and Falder where Ruth did not want to distress her father and divorce was
not easy to achieve back then.
Solitary Confinement:
Why does solitary confinement need to exist for petty crimes? Putting a human who depends on
communication into a prison with no one to talk to where you can’t even stretch your legs will
really impact a person. A prison environment is very dark and dismal.
Women who are in loveless marriages being treated mercilessly by husbands and why can’t
they divorce to come out of such marriages?

It is a great classic as all great elements of a classic that Shakespeare did and his work did not
need any further editing and interpretation. The work also connected very well with the reader
and the viewer alike and all the themes were portrayed very emphatically.

Date:

Justice as a problem play

The nature and function of Justice itself is heavy characterized as a problem play:
1. In case of Galsworthy the problem is presented, the problems are clear but the solutions are
wanted. A problem play is both thought provoking as well as entertaining. The purpose of every
problem play is a reform. He has portrayed the society against the individual and thus
Galsworthy presented himself as a playwright of problem play.
2. Failure of justice: The central problem in justice. The administration of criminal law. The
gross injustice that has been done to the weak and the downtrodden people of the society. The
law aims for good things but what it ultimately delivers to poor people ends up being injustice. In
the end it is the society that is pitted against the individual. The concept of individual versus
society is shown.
3. Problem of Rehabilitation: Why are the people who come out of jail not being taken care of
with regards to job and rehabilitation. Why does Faulder have to resort to forgery to get a job?
4. The problem of jail administration and divorce: The problems with solitary confinement. Why
should a woman leave with a merciless husband and suffer agony in the hands of a wrongful
husband? Why can’t she be made/ independent? Divorce was made easy only with the cases of
adultery otherwise it was so hard. The immorality of relationships is also talked about through
the Faulda’s relationship with Ruth which happened mostly due to a bad marriage and true love,
why is such kind of love not a matter of the 2 lovers and a matter of the judgmental society?
5. The problem of immoral sexual relations: Faulder and Ruth were branded immoral due to the
marriage of Ruth. Instead Faulder should be appreciated for the kind of concern and empathy he
shows for Ruth. He should be praised for understanding and dividing the pain of women like
Ruth. Purity of relationship should be extended to men also. Why does a woman have to sell
herself in flesh trade to earn money? Laws were actually amended after the success of this novel.
6. This is a forceful and a moving play: It hints at a number of socially significant problems.
Such was the impact on the masses that major changes came into picture. Later on divorces
became more comfortable, prison welfare societies etc. were formed (check above somewhere
for more)

Date: 26/2/20
Major and Minor Characters in the Play

Major:
1. Falder
2. Ruth
3. James How
4. Walter How
5. Cokeson
Minor:
1. Wister
2. Mr. Justice Floyd
3. Cowley
4. The governor
5. The chaplain
6. The doctor
7. Wooden
8. The three convicts
9. Harold Cleaver
10. Frome
11. The Office boy
Mam says read Justice thoroughly because an extract-based question might come asking for the
characters involved in the extract.

Major characters:
1. Falder: He is a typical human figure who is a young clerk working in a firm of solicitors
named James How and Walter How. He is a weak and a timid man and is unlike common
people in this situation. He also lacks the moral stamina to resist a given circumstance and a
situation. He is a man who knows whatever he will do will have consequences but he cannot
control his impulses. He loves an already married woman Ruth which is considered immoral in
the society. Due to this he commits a crime which he regrets later but by then it is too late. He is
the protagonist of Justice. He takes the money because of his concern for Ruth with whom he
plans to run away from the city. Ruth’s hopeless situation is a deep concern in his heart and that
is what propels him into writing off 9$ as 90$ thus committing forgery.
Unheroic like most of us:
There are no extraordinary powers given to characters like Falder unlike Bassanio in Merchant of
Venice who was given some supernatural powers by Shakespeare due to which he was able to
open the right casket. He is not the hero yet he occupies the central place in the play. His life is a
life of suffering and pathos and normally it is hard to find a hero with these traits. He is not
brave, strong or physically powerful. He has a weak will and is easily excitable. He is nervous
too. (quoting lines along with these traits will get extra marks) Sometimes his behaviour is
almost neurotic and he is easily excitable. He has been pointed out by the prosecution lawyer that
the weakness in him is written all over his face. He is fickle minded and morally unstable. He is
not very resolute as a criminal yet he ends up committing the crime and gets caught due to lack
of certainty.
Nobody hates him as there is no hatred element in the play but it is his own actions that cost him
a lot.
The emotional drive:

Falder does commit a crime but neither is he wicked nor criminal minded. He only does this
because he lacks in moral stamina, his willpower is rather feeble. He has submitted to a
momentary impulse and feels sorry immediately after but he did it because he was in urgent
requirement of money and that too not for himself but for a helpless woman whom he loves and
whom he wants to save from the brutal attacks of a drunken and brutal husband. She cannot
divorce her husband and he wants to take her out of England to the far distant South America and
he forges the cheque on temptation from 9 to 90$ by putting a 0. This is because of the emotions
that he has for the woman he loves.

His agony and Pathetic suffering:

The second mistake that he does is trying to put the mistake on Davis who was innocent and who
left England two months ago. After this he is sentenced to three years of rigorous punishment
due to which he suffers from all the dreads of solitary confinement. After release from jail he
gets the job but gets taunted by his fellow colleagues. To get another job he forges a letter of
reference which gets detected. Finally he commits suicide and he suffers terribly for his
momentary acts of terrible impulse for which he has to pay with his life.

Nobility and purity of his love for honeywill:

He is not wicked and is not a criminal although he did commit a crime. He is not immoral either
although he loves a married woman. Society regards him as immoral because he has deviated
from the norms set by it. Society takes him to be a violator of peace and is regarded as a breaker
of marriage. He is also held responsible for ruining the lives of others including Honeywill’s
family. There is also no physical intimacy in this relationship and there is no lust involved in the
relationship. This is considered as an admirable quality by the defence lawyer. The blot of
immorality gets washed up because of this but this is ultimately not taken into consideration by
the judge.

Fear Complex and his love for Ruth:

When the defence lawyer Frome tries to emphasize the nobility and the grandeur of Falder’s
love, it is dismissed in the court as an attempt to put a romantic glow over the commonplace act
of forgery. He sacrifices to the fear of society, fear of immoral persons, and his love for Ruth
which is pure, noble and generous and also self-sacrificing, free from any lust is taken to be of no
accord. In the end he finds that Ruth is not faithful to him and is with a child. His face in this
situation is marked with such a distress that even James is touched by it. Finally, he has nothing
more to look to. He is now a broken man and suicide is the end of his life which has become
useless and empty.

2. Ruth:
Keynote of her character:
She is a young mother married to a brutal and drunken husband who treats her most cruelly and
does not hesitate to inflict even the most gruelling attacks upon her. She appears in the play at
the very beginning. She is young and pale looking but dignified and self-respecting. Her external
appearance shows her character and the circumstances of her life. She is poor and in an illicit
love affair with the friend in Falder but throughout the drama, she maintains her dignity. Her
disposition as a witness in the trial scene (Act 2) is truthful, direct and decorous. Her mannerisms
are grave and calm. This is what strikes to the audience the most when she is introduced.
A long-suffering married woman:
She is one of those helpless women who is suffering in a bond of marriage which she cannot
break and all because of the false notions of morality, she can’t find quick relief in her marriage
which because of the social norms cannot be resolved. Those were the times when divorce could
only be granted on the grounds of adultery and not on cruelty. Thus as a result, women like Ruth
lived in constant fear and lived in constant state of fear and outmoded social and mental
conditions.
Dignity and Determination
She is both a type and an individual. As an individual you have the keynotes of her character
mentioned above (including being very resolute). Her standing alone with her children after the
arrest of her father shows how resolute she is as an individual. She is a type because she has been
mentioned in the play as one who uses her feminine charms to get her job done. She is also a
type because she is representing those women who are in loveless marriages who are being
cruelly treated and have no escape. The author wants to point out that if men can commit
adultery then why is it considered immoral only for women. She is seen using her smile to
Cokeson when she manages to get some one on one talk time with Falder during the
proceedings.
An affectionate mother and her courage:
She faces life courageously with determination and stoical resignation when Falder undergoes
imprisonment. She does not go back to her husband but lives the part with her children. She tries
her best enough to support her children and maintain herself. She does sewing work and labours
day and night. She is not able to make her two ends meet. She is an affectionate mother who
cannot bear to see her children starve. She is forced in the circumstances to sell her body. She
becomes the mistress of her successive employers. This fall of hers is not immoral but pathetic
and heart rending. She is not immoral but is just a victim of circumstance and the false notions of
social immorality. She is crushed down just as Falder is crushed down. Through her, Galsworthy
has made a powerful plea for a more humane and considerate treatment of the victims of a
marriage which sends such women to doom. Thus, he is pleading for more just divorce laws to
enable women like Ruth to get quick relief in parting.

Her love for Falder, noble and pure:

She is self-sacrificing who has decided not to live with a poor husband. She is also ready to
withdraw herself from the relationship with Falder and this is what she promises to James and
Cokeson when she requests for re-employment of Falder. She is also seen to be concerned and in
love with him when he commits suicide and she kneels down near his body and laments ‘my
dear, my pretty’.
Not responsible for Falder’s tragedy
She cannot be held responsible for Falder’s tragedy as she is not aware of the fact that Falder has
committed forgery to get the money for their voyage to South America. She cannot even dream
of such a possibility. If she had known it, she would never have permitted him to do the crime.
She is too noble, too generous, too self-sacrificing to grind her own acts through means and at
the cost of others. She would have preferred to bear the brutality of her husband to Falder’s
becoming a criminal for her sake.
3. Cokeson:
( Question of Cokeson as a comic figure may come)

His appearance:
He is the managing/head clerk in the office of James and Walter How. He is about 60 years of
age and has been in the service of the firm for over 29 years. He appears before us in the play in
the very beginning and his personal appearance is described in detail. His face is the most
distinctive feature of his personality and his face is similar to that of a Pug dog. A pug dog is
nothing but a breed of a dog, flat faced and a dog with a short nose. Such dogs are ugly in looks
but they are courageous homeguards. With cokeson it is suggested that he is an honest guard of
the reputation of the firm and its prosperity.
A Watchdog:
As a watchdog he has great regard for the reputation of the firm. He considers himself as the
watchdog of the sanctity of the firm. He looks upon the law office as a sacred temple of honesty
and purity. He is proud to be the keeper of the firm’s good name and is a man of stiff moral
attitude and vanity which is the source of amusement and comicality in the play. He considers
himself superior to Walter How. He thinks that James holds a very high position in the firm
because of his age and connects it to his own age and experience. Just as James considers Falder
to be guilty Cokeson also feels him as guilty. He says that a man with as much experience as
James cannot be incorrect in his judgement. Galsworthy has also made a pun on his purity saying
that lawyers can never be pure and honest.
Regard for Authority:
When Walter approaches Cokeson to not let the Falder’s fault reach James’ office, he denies the
same as he treats the authority of James very highly. He views the law, its administrators and the
judge to be too sacred to be examined by the layman. He has an excessive regard for the firm
where he is employed and considers it to be holy. This is what lends a touch of comicality to his
character.

Comic trait:
Comicality is the sense of importance as a managing clerk that he gives to himself. This makes
him pompous and vain (proud). His attitude towards the son i.e. Walter How is one of patronage
and regards him as a novice and feels like he is very learned due to his experience. He frowns at
Ruth when she comes to the firm to privately talk to Falder after which he starts behaving
erratically because Ruth can’t do any such acts at the sacred office. He is learnt a few legal
phrases which he doesn’t truly understand but he keeps using them in incorrect grammar at odd
places. His conduct is the most amusing in the witness box. He has a ridiculous passion for
precision, exactness and truthfulness in the court of law. He tries to show himself as wiser than
the defence counsel. He tries to show his legal knowledge by his mispronounced Latin terms and
phrases and wonders at his own superior performance.

Simple and good natured:

He uses slangs that are not required in a professional place, he also uses them incorrectly. Funny,
jolly, jumpy are some of the words that he keeps using very commonly. When it is questioned by
the court when he says that Falder is funny and jumpy the judge thinks that Falder is insane but
that was not what he meant.
Helpful and generous:
He is good natured, kind hearted, generous. At the very end he sympathizes with Ruth. His heart
is touched by her pathetic condition. He is so obsessed that everything in the firm is so sacred
with him as the manager. He has high notions of social morality and the sanctity of law. He goes
and talks to James with Walter requesting him to not get Falder arrested but he doesn’t really
listen to Walter. He pleads that it is his first offence and he should not be punished. He even goes
to the jail and tells the governor to treat Falder with kindness because he felt that solitary
confinement was too much for the poor Falder.

An Angel:
He goes to James and fearlessly pleads that Falder should be brought back to service and not be
punished again. His high standards of morality are offended at learning about Ruth’s life but he
supports her due to the tough life of her and her children after the arrest of Falder. When Falder
commits suicide, he gives a remark that he is safe in the gentle Jesus’ hands and again
sympathizes with Ruth.

Conclusion:
He is different from the other characters in that he has his oddities and eccentricities. He
provides humour and is a well-marked individual. He can be gracious and stupid in his own ways
of expression. By the end he becomes the most likeable character because of the humane and
understanding personality given to him.

4. James How and Walter How:

1. James is the father of Walter.
2.James How is conservative whereas Walter How is liberal and modern in outlook. Both are the
owners of a soliciting firm.
3. Both are subordinate characters
4. Both are efficient and honest in their profession but the difference is that James is orthodox,
conventional, rigid while Walter is sympathetic, kind, considerate.
5. James is a rule rider who goes by the norms, he is a morality stricken man whereas Walter is
full of human kindness. Walter is more good natured and gentle as compared to his father. None
of them are presented as individuals but rather as a type.
6. Physical features: James How is a shortish kind of a man with white side whiskers, abundant
grey hair, shrewd in appearance while Walter How is a young man of 35, refined looking,
pleasant, almost apologetic voice.
7. James is the age-old conventional type having age old ideas that he cannot bypass with a rigid
sense of morality. He doesn’t like Falder’s commission of crime. Also, he doesn’t like his
relationship with Ruth. Particularly because she hasn’t obtained any divorce whereas Walter is
totally unconventional and modern. Unlike his father he thinks from his heart and not always
from his mind.
8. Their opinions on mercy: James decides to prosecute Falder. Walter begins to plead on his
behalf. He is of the opinion that this is Falder’s first chance of crime and he should be given
another opportunity but James is just the opposite showing mercy for such a crime is out of
question for him.
9. James has a view that individual consideration should be overlooked in the society and
offenders should always be prosecuted. Walter is just the opposite of this and feels that it is the
temptation of the moment to which James feels that a man with a clean mind and habit will not
give in to such temptations.
10. James takes a serious view of crime; Walter is opposed to prison. Walter is against prison.
Walter hates the very idea of sending Falder to prison because he knows that it will do him great
harm. He even urges his father to place himself in the position of the young man. James feels that
society should take care of such crimes and punish people like Falder. Falder and Cokeson both
plead on behalf of Falder but to no avail. James is also against the relationship between falder
and Ruth, a married woman. He feels that Falder’s private life is very shady whereas Walter
offers to help Ruth get a divorce if required.
11. James not cruel in his approach: James is not a cruel man; he is conventional not unkind.
At the end when Falder is a broken man and when he listens to the pathetic story of Ruth he is
also moved and when he wants to save him its too late so it can be said that to his hard exterior
he has a soft heart like his son but the foil is the hard boiled experienced man of the world which
hides his softness such that it is not wrongly used.

Next are 11 minor characters for whom the situations will be given in the
external so don’t cram their character basics everywhere

5. Wister: He is a detective i.e. a policeman. He has been called in the office of James and
Walter due to a reported crime, thus he has come to check up on the commission of forgery.
When he is introduced, he is known to be a man of Scotland yard. He is a square medium sized
young man, clean shaven, a typical policeman, unmoved by any human feelings. He is just an
official nothing more. When he does come to you, he is in his service blue boots and blue suit.
He receives a telephonic call which tells him about the forgery and second time when he is
introduced to you, he is misled by James but Falder is still nabbed by him and tortured and
Falder escapes him, jumps from the top floor and commits suicide. Everybody except him feels
moved in the situation. In fact,it might be because of his professionalism and stoic nature that
made Falder further feel that he has nowhere to go, no one to appeal to, which might have
pushed him further. No place for sentimentality and partiality. He is more like a tool which is a
part of the huge administrative machinery and he is just doing his duty.
6. Mr. Justice Floyd: He comes in the trial scene in act II. He has strong notions about law. He
does not pay any attention to the argument of stress of human situation where stress can alter
human emotions and thought process (the resulting distorted mental state). He sits at the bench
(of court room) as though he is the sole custodian of law and morality. The human aspect of the
case is overlooked by him. As per him justice cannot be tampered with mercy. He is the
personification of sincerity and in his charge to the jury, he lays emphasis on points which
particularly prove that Falder’s crime was premeditated. His judgement is an example of uncouth
platitudes. He censures (cuts out) on the immoral implications of Falder’s relation with Ruth. He
is therefore unable to justify to his conscience, a plea for mercy which has a basis which is a
destroyer of morality. He typifies the worst side of British law course, the way in which law is
allowed to overrule human considerations.
Law to him is a majestic edifice, sheltering all of us, each stone of which rests on another and he
is only concerned with its administration. Thus, he acts by law and sends Falder to the prison to
serve penal servitude for three years. he acts by law and sends Falder to the prison to serve penal
servitude for three years.

7. Cowley: He is the clerk in the bank who verified the forged cheque. He is there in the play
only for a few minutes. He identifies Falder as the man who has cashed the cheque and is ready
to give evidence if required.
8. Governor: He is the governor of the jail. His full name is Captain Danson V.C. He is a neat,
grave looking man with a trimmed, fair moustache, eyes of a theorist. He has grizzled (curly,
rough) hair receding at the temple (from the back of his head). He comes before us first standing
close to his writing table looking at a sort of a rough saw made of some kind of metal. The hand
in which he holds it is gloved and two of his fingers are missing. He is a kind hearted man who
bears no ill will against any prisoner. His attitude towards criminals is not vindictive. He is
always ready to help them within his official limits. Their miserable conditions move him a great
deal but he is a servant of the law. He has an unpleasant duty to perform but that doesn’t make
him inhuman. Sometimes in the play his ironic reflections (on various things of the play such as
the depressing atmosphere) are very refreshing.

9. Chaplain Hugh Miller:

The prison chaplain is the reverend Hugh miller, a dark haired and artistic man belonging to the
clerical (related to clergy) cadre. His face is peculiarly tight lipped. His speech is cultured. He
calls the prisoners having extraordinarily perverted willpower, some of them, nothing to be done
till it is broken. About the prisons he says if it was not for drink and women the prisons might be
closed, he regards solitary confinement as good for criminals. He says that criminals can convert
to righteous life because of this. He is full of pity without being pious. His religion is to flatter
the big and bully the small. He attaches greater value to religious show than to its real practice.
He lacks human feelings and is only a pretender of religion.

10. Edward Clements

He is the prison doctor. Medium sized good-looking man with a quick eye. He is also an official,
about Falder’s condition and solitary confinement he says that it is not doing Falder any harm, he
has not lost any weight, his mind is alright, he is nervous rather than melancholic, and there are
no signs of anything more and he has been watched carefully. He knows the malody but doesn’t
suggest any remedy.
11. Wooder:
Chief warden of the prison. Tall, thin military looking man of 60. Grey moustache, melancholic
monkey like eyes, stands very upright. He is also sympathetic to the prisoners and calls them as
poor devils. Of prisoners he says they are just like dumb animals at times.

12. 3 convicts i.e. O’Cleary, Clipton and Moaney

Moaney is an old hand. It is his 4 th term of imprisonment. That rough saw of the governor made
of a piece of metal is made by him. He is a raw bone fellow aged around 56 years having
remarkable bat like ears. He has fierce staring steel coloured eyes. He is proud of coming jail
time and again and he is aware of the fact that after his release he shall be back to the jail soon.
Old Clipton is called a philosopher by the governor. He is a small, thick, oldish man, has almost
a shaven head and smouldering dark eyes behind smoke spectacles.

O’Cleary is an Irish man who is like an animal in the jail, broad faced, middle aged, has a
wide, thin, flexible mouth, little holes under his high cheekbones and considers themselves to
be very experienced in matters of jail.

13. Harold Cleaver: An old advocate who works as the counsel for the crown. He is an expert in
his art. His cross examination is keen and pointed. He takes joy in driving home his points. He
tries to stress upon the jury that Falder’s committed act is sort of an undesired, underhanded
wrongful act. He is an astute lawyer who knows how to tear into shreds the case built up by the
defence.

14. Hector Frome: He is the counsel for the defendant i.e. Falder. His cross examination is
aimed to bring out the circumstances which might mitigate the crime in the eyes of the jury. He
tries to get around law as Cleaver says and mentions and lays emphasis on all favourable points.
As a defence counsel he tries to save Falder and Ruth and he persuades the judge to keep his
name out of publicity. He is a young, tall man, clean shaved, in a very white dress.

15. The Office boy Sweedle: He is just a minor character. When he is first introduced, he is a
plain youth of 16 with spiky hair. After 3 years he has grown a sprouting moustache. (He was
used as a transition guy when enacting a play)

The critical opinions on the next page are 5-mark worth questions. Only attempt if you are good
at mugging up because each and every word with commas, capital and small words should be
written as it is for full marks

CRITICAL OPINIONS

1. The tragic atmosphere of the play by A. Nicholl:

“We do not feel pity for the fate of Falder so much as we feel awe in contemplating the mighty
milestones of justice, grinding exceeding small, ruthless and fateful in their silent power. Tragic
atmosphere dominates the play; tears are useless and vain. The heroes of Galsworthy’s dramas
are the unseen fates of the modern existence, against which we, poor mortals, can but pitifully
cry out in moments of desperation and horror!”

Date: 11/03/20

2. From a magazine The Magistrate:

“During Mr. Churchill’s time at the home office, a notable contribution was made to the cause of
penal reform by Mr. John Galsworthy. His sympathy with the under-dog and his sense of social
injustice led him to have a deep feeling about the prison’s system. He was given special
opportunities of visiting prisons: and he had consultation both with Mr. Churchill and the prison
Commission. He wrote a play called justice which portrayed with lurid emphasis the terrible
effect of a separate confinement on a person of highly-strung temperament. In addition, he with
his able pen wrote many letters in the press which directed public attention to the harm done by
those elements of the prison system which were still at that time thought to be necessary for the
purpose of deference.”

(can mention this^ in the questions on universal appeal of Justice too)

Vijay Tendulkar
Silence: The court is in session

Indian Theatre: Origin and Development (possible 10-mark question)

Theatre is a living art form and therefore it changes continuously. The origin and development of
theatre in India may be broadly divided into three phases:

1. The first phase is marked by high quality Sanskrit, dramatic literature. Imaginative staging
styles as well as profound theatrical reflection as in NatyaShastra.
2. You find a decline in the classical Sanskrit theatre and the emergence in all the regional
languages of India, varied forms of popular but innovative theatre marked by the transformation
of the classical theatre in the changed socio-political conditions. (This was due to different ruling
kings of different regions and the difference in prevailing thought processes of the place)
3. The encounter of Indian theatre with the west in the 19 th century and this was the cause of
growth of a new kind of theatre in urban centres weakening links with tradition and intensifying
the urban-rural divide.

The First Phase:

The roots of theatre in our country are certainly very old and deep. Broadly speaking we can say
that for a few centuries’ theatre formed a part of the life of common people as ritualistic music
and dance and maybe storytelling (in king’s court for entertainment etc on special occasions).
This was normally centred around the upper strata of the society. This was continued as such for
more than 1000 years. Some of this has come down to us as Sanskrit drama and theatre. Even
today many tribes in different parts of the country perform rituals related to birth, death, puberty,
marriage, food gathering, hunting, battles, pleasing gods (such as dancing in front of goddess
Durga) in order to ward off a danger, the tribes mimic and identify with imagined situations and
individuals through ritualistic dance movement, suggestive sounds and instrumental music.
There are frequent references in the Vedic literature to song, dance, props and people connected
with these activities such as the gandharva, sailush, apsara, Veena player etc. (gandharva style of
art still works today)
Later, with the baled singing and musical rendering to the life of the heroes (stories of gods,
goddesses) and other prominent personages of the community or just ordinary storytelling, most
of the requirements of the early dramatic forms began to appear. Some examples include
Valmiki’s Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagwad purana, Markandeya purana. By the time we
reached the historical period, we find that the buddhist and the jain monks were prohibited from
watching dramatic performances because that would affect their concentration. So there was a
period where you will find a gap but still it did not die and continued in areas not governed by
these religions and in the Arthashastra of Kautilya and ashtadhyayi of Panini in the 4 th century
B.C you have references of performances, dancers, music and people who made their living from
theatre. On the basis of these references it can be safely ascertained that some kind of theatrical
activity with elements of music, dance, acting had been in vogue in this country for atleast a
1000 years before the Christian era. The language of literary expression was Sanskrit. It was the
measure of importance of drama and theatre in Indian life that Natyashastra has been given the
status of the 5th veda. Natyashastra is the primary and most important source of fundamental
principles and ideas not only about drama and theatre but also about other performing arts such
as music, dance and poetry. This is the reason why its impact has been so far reaching that even
after 2000 years it is still relevant and useful. This is because it isn’t just the one but rather the
work of multiple across generations incorporating their accumulated experience, knowledge and
ideas. It also suggests continuous and regular theatrical activity in different parts of the country
during the centuries when it was compiled because without any direct experience it would not
have been possible to think of those ideas as discussed.
Besides presenting the specific Indian worldview, it reveals in a picturesque manner how a
human being with his distinct temperament, capacity and objective, passes through a variety of
situations with all the ups and downs, exultations and disappointments fulfils his duties and
achieves equilibrium and harmony which is a desirable goal which gives meaning to his life.
Plays like Urubhanga, Pratima, Shakuntala, Ratnawali, Kundamala, Utra Ram charitra,
madhyama, yoga etc. are glorious works of literature because they have a keen insight, delicate
aesthetic sense, structural skill, variety, excellence in poetry and great writers like Kalidasa,
Vishakhadapta, Bhavabhooti coming into the world recognition.

But this theatre, established on such a strong basis of theory and practice had disintegrated
gradually by the 10th century A.D. Subsequently, a few Sanskrit plays were certainly written and
occasionally also performed in princely states and their courts but they were merely literary
exercises with little relation to dramatic performance or genuine theatre. There are many reasons
for this decline some of which are:
1. Social and political instability created by foreign invasion and internal conflicts
2. Loss of creative energy in the Sanskrit language gradually confined to a very small group of
elites.
3. Fall in the standard of dramatic writing due to the lack of talent.
4. Loss of appeal for common spectators.

Slowly, for the next 1000 years there was a gradual shift from Sanskrit Language to regional
languages like Tamil, Kannada and other languages of the south which were already languages
of creative expression. This did not mean that theatrical performances in Sanskrit altogether,
there were still performances in Sanskrit such as jaideva’s geet govinda on a mixture of Sanskrit
and regional language, like the kutiyattam, but slowly their numbers became small and
eventually they stopped. In every region almost the entire theatrical activity was confined to the
regional language which continues even today.

Date: 12/03/20

The Second phase:

This phase of Indian theatre is spread over a period of about 1000 years and still we have some
parts of it flowing into the present century. Possible 5-mark question:* The entire activity of
these 1000 years is often called as folk theatre because unlike the town based classical Sanskrit
theatre, it has flourished in the countryside. The nomenclature is misleading for a number of
reasons. During this long and extended phase of our theatrical pursuit, many dramatic modes and
styles developed in different regions and languages having innumerable elements of classical
arts. So, it is improper to call them folk theatre mainly in imitation and due to the influence of
the western historians, sociologists and academicians because they have been preserved and
developed in our rural communities. Also, a large number of them are not spontaneous or simple
like the songs, dramas, dances or pictorial representation of any tribal, agricultural or rural
community. The structure and technique of many of these theatrical expressions are complex.
They require prolonged training and practice. In order to acquire excellence in them, it is
necessary to learn from a guru or a teacher like other classical arts of the country and that is why
many serious scholars of these theatrical modes or natyas keeping their special characteristics in
mind have increasingly come to call them traditional rather than folk. This new description is a
little wide but compared to folk it is nearer to the distinct characteristics of these theatrical modes
and at the same time it separates Sanskrit from modern theatre. In India especially due to
different cultures of regions such as the northern and southern culture calling it the traditional
theatre makes more sense.

(*Related question that can be asked is: Is calling the second phase of theatre as folk theatre
misleading and incorrect? Justify. )

In fact, it can be said with reasonable certainty that even at the time when Sanskrit theatre was at
its zenith, different regions of the country have their own local performances with their own
styles and structures nearer to the life of the common people which were important means of
their entertainment. So, the natya shastra itself speaks of 4 broad styles or mannerisms according
to south, north, west and east. This started from the 10 th, 11th century till the 19th century. A
remarkable feature is that not a single dramatist emerged from each regional language whose
work could be considered creative or worthy enough of mentioning in Sanskrit plays. The
emphasis was basically on music and dance and less on the writing part. This situation persisted
for about 8 to 9 centuries and then, with the coming of the 14 th to the 17th century with the
coming of the Bhakti movement with the upsurge of the devotional fervour. It produced many
great poets in many great regions and languages but that still didn’t lead to the creation of a
creative genius. During the 15th to the 17th century the bhakti movement inspired a number of
new theatrical modes or renovated the existing ones. For example, the Bhagvata mela of Tamil
Nadu, the krishnattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, Dashavtar of Maharashtra,
Raasleela and ramleela of Uttar Pradesh are very clearly Vaishnava religious rituals in which the
performers are regarded not as ordinary human beings but Swaroopas or incarnations of god and
were worshipped as such during the performance. This is very clearly evident in the theatrical
modes of Rasleela and Ramleela of UP which are based on the creative works of great poets like
Surdas and Tulsidas, deeply submerged in devotional attitude of the authors. By the end of the
17th century, the Vaishnava Bhakti movement was replaced by Shaiva and the Shakta cult (shiv
followers) in many dramatic forms, especially the Jatra(yatra) in stories like chandimangal,
haraparvati etc.
With the advent of political, social and individual life and its stability, these intensity and
sharpness of struggle of religious identity gradually weakened and the religious theatre began to
lose its purity and religion was replaced by culture. Now religion came along with social,
political and economic themes where religion was there but as the backdrop of a bigger concept
of society. So, features of theatre such as Tamasha, Khayal, Swang, nautanki, nakal, bhaandpatra
(the performers were called bhand and as different from normal humans) came into being. So,
the stories of Satyavadi Harishchandra, Prahlad, nala damyanti, episode from Ramayana had
political themes alongside either a social or a religious backdrop. You also had plays like jasma
odan, raja bhartari, devar bhojai, shirin farhad, amar singh rathore, sultana daku each with their
own message that were presented and were indicative of the growing variety of themes in
traditional theatre.
,
At this time the parsi theatre written in Hindi speaking region during the 19 th and the 20th
centuries in spite of their great success and popularity on stage, have failed to become significant
as dramatic literature. By acting in them many performers became famous but nobody wants to
read those plays today because in spite of their effective and attractive presentation, they are not
in themselves considerable for any creative excellence.

Third Phase

India’s encounter with the west during the 19 th century had wide ranging political, economic,
social and cultural consequences. In the field of theatre, however, the encounter changed
everything. It changed its form, direction, the pacing. But during the previous 2000 or 3000 years
it had taken new forms according to our own worldview on the basis of our own social and
political conditions or because of one or the other aspect of culture. The fundamental form and
the aesthetic basis was almost the same for the entire country in the phase of Sanskrit theatre and
also for the entire community in different language regions in the phase of the medieval
traditional theatre even though the theatrical activities even in these periods were not always
entirely similar in their complexity, refinement or methods. But the new theatre which emerged
in our country under the impact of western culture was totally different in all these aspects.
According to the Indian view of life, the purpose of drama and theatre was to create a feeling of
pleasure or bliss(raasa) that is the isolating different situations, mental state and feelings of
human beings. But the purpose of Western drama was to reveal the struggles of life in their
various forms so there was always a conflict between the gods and the man, man and man, man
and emotions, man and nature, desires and tendencies within man, and the western drama and
theatre entered our country as the elements of the culture of the conquerors who in a well
planned manner deliberately tried to prove that compared to the west, the Indian culture was
inferior, trivial and underdeveloped. The British rulers introduced a new education system which
devalued Indian history and cultural traditions and on the other side made the most outstanding
aspects of the western culture and literature more and more familiar to the Indian elite and the
newly emerging middle classes in the urban centres. Since then, till today the Indians receiving
this new western education have been learning that Sanskrit drama is not only inferior to the
dramatic works of the Greek, the Shakespearean or the other European playwrights, but is in fact
no drama at all and at best could be considered as ornate and exaggerated dramatic poetry.
Thus, the new theatre which began in our country in the middle of the 19 th century was if not a
total imposition, almost entirely an imitation of the western theatre. Its patrons and practitioners
were those aristocratic Indians who had enthusiastically accepted not only the political
domination of the Englishmen but also their social and cultural domination. As a result, they
started initially staging some English plays in English and then their translations and adaptations
into their own languages culminating finally in plays based on Indian themes written and staged
in imitation of the Western plays.
It is also important to note that this theatre started, continued and was accepted only by the newly
educated Indians in the cities. Very few professional theatre companies reached a few small
towns and theatre here was also appreciated. But it did not reach the rural side and here only the
traditional theatre was more popular. Moreover, this new theatre began and developed primarily
in those cities or settlements which were founded by the English merchants and the British rulers
or where their commercial, industrial and administrative centres were located. They got new
encouragement especially from cities such as Kolkata, Bombay and to an extent Madras. With
the spread of the British rule it reached almost all parts of the country. As a result, its
achievements, whatever they were have different levels in different languages and regions of the
country. The most popular was the Bengali and the Marathi theatre and the modern Bengali
theatre began in large palaces, sprawling garden houses and it gradually spread to different
sections of Bengali societies and even today it has its existence. There is no presence of Sanskrit
or traditional theatre and it banks more towards the western culture. Many playhouses got
constructed and its only in Calcutta that an urban residential theatre on the modern of the
Western world especially of London came into existence and has survived. As a result, many
talented actors emerged who were also playwrights, directors and managers of their companies.
By 1940, highly gifted actors named as Girish Chandra Ghosh, Ardhendhu Mustafi, Amritlal
Basu, Amritlal Mitra, Surendra Nath Ghosh, Shishiv Bhadhuri etc. were the ones who carried
Bengal theatre to the pinnacle of its glory. Because of the residential character, Bengali theatre
was the first to attract women performers. Another feature that is notable of Bengali theatre is
that on account of its special nature and partly because of the influence of English dramatic
literature, the written text and playwrights got central importance in this new theatrical activity.
From the very beginning, the Bengali poets and prose writers were drawn towards playwriting.
Rabindranath Tagore, Sachin Sen Gupta, Manmath Ray, D.L Roy, Girish Chandra Ghosh etc. are
some of the prominent writers who have written hundreds of plays which is based on
Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw, Epson etc. The stories of these plays are drawn from Indian
mythological episodes, folktales, historical events plus contemporary social, political situations
or legends.

Another development in this period was Marathi theatre. This new model began in the 19 th
century, remember that unlike the Bengali theatre Marathi theatre was more or less traditional
theatrical performances with strong elements of music and dance. The first Marathi play Sita
Swayamvara written by Vishnu Das Bhave is one such example. The next most important writer
was Vasant Panduranga aka Anna Sahib Kirloskar and his plays that became very famous were
Shakuntala and Saubhadra and this was staged through an independent theatre company but
slowly, the western influence crept in. The Shakespearean structure or adaptations of the
Shakespearean plays could be seen in the contemporary works of this time. Govind Balal Deval
and Kaka Saheb Khadeenkar were contemporary to Vasant Paduranga and they came up with
works like Keechak Vadha and Manapamana and these works have Shakespearean structure and
it is ironical that Khadeelkar who accepted the English model in his plays was an important
nationalist freedom leader who opposed the British rule or domination. His plays were
considered to be anti-government such as Keechak Vada which were banned by colonial rulers.
Bengali theatre was mostly residential but not Marathi theatre. This is because Bombay was not
only dominated by the Marathas but also by the Parsees and the Gujaratis. For this reason,
centralizing it totally to Maratha culture became difficult. In south, plays based on the western
model were written in the cities of the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam language areas
and companies performing them were also established. P. Samband Mudalier in Tamil, Tiger
Vardha Chaar in Kannada, Dharmavaram Krishnamachari in Telugu can be mentioned as some
of the works. The stories of these plays were from mythology, history and social events and it
was based on Shakespearean model.
In the north there was hardly any impact because the rulers were sceptical of the people living in
the area. Due to this they didn’t introduce much social reforms in the North. However, Bhartendu
Harishchandra in the middle of the 19th century made a remarkable effort for providing theatre to
this region. He was a poet, a playwright, an actor and a manager of a group all rolled into one.
Unfortunately, he died at a very young age of 35 and left the field open for Parsi commercial
theatre. Playwrights like Jaishankar Prasad could not make any impact.

IPTA (Indian people’s theatre association) AND Prithvi theatre (belonging to

Prithvi Raj Kapoor)

Around 1940 with the freedom struggle gaining mass momentum, most of the theatre companies
closed down and the actors became jobless and it appeared that theatre had no future in India.
Though the traditional theatre continued in the rural areas but in urban areas it became totally
stagnant. In 1943-44 came IPTA. This brought some life and gave some strength and direction to
theatre. IPTA was basically west oriented and it could not correlate with the traditional theatre of
the country but it did inspire a number of talented theatre workers in many regions and languages
who became pioneers of very significant and creative theatre work. Soon because of narrow
attitude it was marginalized.
Another similar attempt in Hindi named the Prithvi Theatre was started by the notable actor
Prithvi Raj Kapoor in 1944 in Bombay with nationalistic and socialistic orientation on plays
modelled more or less on Parsi theatre began and collapsed around 1960. It was in 1953 and 54
that the urban theatre got some life again and a new calibre/level of theatre in the 5 th decade of
the 20th century, a few years after independence was launched. Complete translations of western
playwrights began to be staged like Sophocles, Euripides, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Camus etc. Many
individuals got attracted to the theatre as a means of creative expression and not as a source of
profit. Theatre now was not merely a pastime for them but a means of life of exploring reality
and existence. Directors like Habib Tanvir, Sombhu Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Satyadev Dubey, Arvind
Deshpandey, Vijay Mehta, Jabar Patel, Rajendra Nath came to the forefront. Works like Putul
Khela, Agra Bazaar by Habib Tanvir, Ashadh ka ek din by Mohan Rakesh, Andha Yug, even
king lear, king Oedipus, Shaantata court chalu aahe(silence the court is in session by vijay
Tendulkar), Angaar by Utpal dutt was an artistic achievement.
The scene today in the 1990s was that there seemed to be a real fear that the electronic media
would sound the death knell of theatre but today when one looks at the theatre, the fears seem to
be unfounded. Theatre audience has grown, the performances and publicity has grown, there are
times when it becomes difficult to get tickets for the play. Also, one man one woman shows have
reduced, more people have joined in and it has given actors more scope to express themselves. In
the hands of an intelligent actor, a script can acquire multi layered meaning and also one
remarkable feature of theatre is the emergency of women directors which has given a new
sensitivity and sensibility and vocabulary to theatre. Thus, there are more women writers, more
women actors and more performers than ever before and this has changed the theatre to a great
extent.

Vijay Tendulkar

He was a contemporary playwright and his full name was Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar. He was
born in a lower middle-class Brahmin family in a chawl in Mumbai. His father was a head clerk
with a British publishing firm ‘Orient Longman’. He was a sickly child with a persistent cough
and asthamatic wheezing and this made his parents overprotective for him. He had two much
older (Raghunath and Leela) and two younger siblings but he was the favourite of his parents.
Tendulkar’s father was an enthusiastic writer, director and actor of Marathi plays and it was
those times when men also played female roles. For him at the age of 4 that theatre was magic.
He saw characters changing as per the requirement on the stage, men transforming themselves
into women, dressing like them, modulating their voice into them and Raghunath his elder
brother also acted in such plays which his father wrote. Every Sunday it was routine for him to
go with his father to a shop owned by his and to a shop where he would get engrossed in books.
He was also often taken to watch English movies on Sundays and this had an abiding influence
on his career as a writer. He was educated at Mumbai, Kolhapur and Pune. Most of his time was
spent in the school library and his two role models were Dinkar Balakrishna Mokashi and
Vishnu Vinayak Bokil. Dinkar Balakrishna Mokashi was a radio mechanic but a fine writer and
Vishnu Vinayak Bokil whose stories were turned into films in Marathi was Tendulkar’s Marathi
teacher at school. Both of them were famous Marathi literature writers of their times but
Tendulkar is above these two in terms of his works.
His first job was in a printing press. Then he took up a job as a sub editor with a Marathi weekly
Navbharata, published from Pune followed by working as the executive editor of Vasudha and
Deepawali. Again later he was a sub editor in the daily Maratha. He also spent a few years as a
public relation officer at the Chawgule group of industries before he was appointed as the
assistant editor of the daily Lok Satta in 1968. He was in his early 20s when he wrote the first
play Grihasth in 1955. This flopped. Then he wrote his second play Shrimant and this established
him as a playwright. In films he has written original scripts for renowned filmmakers like Shyam
Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Jabbar patel. He has also contributed greatly to the Indian theatre and
can be called the cornerstone of modern Indian theatre with famous people like Badal Sarkar,
Girish Karnad, Mohan Rakesh etc. safar was his last work in 1992.
His concerns were for the underprivileged and remember though he never made them look
pitiable or noble. He took on themes that were not spoken on in those times, various taboo
themes of sexuality, violence within the family and outside, treatment of women in the Indian
society. There was a huge scandal, protest and ban when his historical play Ghasiram Kotwal
was showcased. This also built his image nationally and internationally as enfant terrible of the
theatre or the Indian theatre. This play was banned for many years and now it is considered a
landmark play. It is translated into several languages and has been staged innumerable times
down the years. He has written 32 odd full length plays and 23 one act plays and nowhere is he
conventional. He has also written film scripts like Aakrosh, Ardhsatya, Samna, Sinhasan,
Umbartha, Nishant, Manthan, Aaghat, and normally these were centred around violence at all
levels, social and emotional. His works also include plays for children, short stories, novel,
essays and translations.

Principle works of Tendulkar

1) Manus Navache Bet (an island called man 1958) : it gave expression to the
tormenting solitude and alienation of a modern individual in an urbane
industrialized society. The plays that followed were Madhyalaya Bhinti (the walls
between, 1958), mi jinklo mi haarlo ( I won I lost, 1963), Kavalanchi
shala( school for crows), sarikas sari ( rain o rain 1964), which set the tone for the
Marathi theatre. With shantata court chalu aahe, he became controversial and the
angry young man of marathi theatre, who is identified as a rebel against the
established values of fundamentally orthodox society. A theatre group arrives at a
suburban village of Mumbai to stage a play on the trial of American president
Johnson for producing nuclear weapons, members of the group represent the sub
strata of society and their spiteful attitude towards the sphincter school teacher
Leela benaare, the protagonist of the play, reflecting their malicious nature. A
well targeted conspiracy is hashed against her. In the name of a mock trial, they
expose and dissect her personal life. This reveals her basic hypocrisy and double
standards.
2) Daampadwipcha Mukabla,( encounter in umbugland) 1968 : the play court which
followed the above stated court play, is totally different in nature, it is essentially
a political allegory that is not devoid of human dimensions. It is easy to trace
reflections of the political situation in India in the late 1960s and early 1970s in
the royalist regime of umbugland. The play is not merely topical, it unveils the
essential nature of the game of politics and also the basic craving of power in
human nature. The powerful satire that Tendulkar weaves, exposes the political
intrigues, calculated to attain positions of authority and the corruption involved in
holding them. It is easy to identify in this 3 act play, the characters with political
figures that held ministerial positions in that period. Encounter tries out in
fascinating form, departing totally from his other plays, employing folk theatre,
music, verse and an interesting chorus that churns out even much like today as
newspaper headlines. It is not a coincidence that the ruler Vijaya resembles Mrs.
Indira Gandhi, the then PM of India.

3) Ghasiram kotwal,1970: chronologically the next play to be written and produced.

Ghasiram kotwal is important historically because it broke 2 moulds of Marathi
theatre at one go, the traditional sangeet natak mould and the modern realistic
 theatre mould and demonstrated how folk theatre elements could be integrated to
achieve contemporary significance. It reintroduced dance, which was lost with the
bhavaya school and songs were reintegrated. It is the story of the rise and fall of a
kannauj brahmin in pune called Ghasiram. It begins and ends with his dishonour
and the disgrace of his daughter. The state of affairs in the city, the lifestyle,
malfunctioning of the administration are communicated through Ghasiram who
comes in search of better needs of livelihood. He discovers reality soon as he
seeks employment with a court, he is dishonoured and kicked out. In one stroke
however, Ghasiram wins the favour of Nana sahib and comes to occupy the
central stage. The spotlight is now turned on him and he starts calling the shots as
If he has become the kotwal.

4) Gidhadhe (vultures) 1970: it is an entirely different kind of work that underlines

the astounding range of Tendulkar’s work the play is a ruthless dissection of
human nature, revealing its inherent tendencies to violence, averseness,
selfishness, sensuality. It does not have the humour of the court play It is
extremely morbid in its portrayal of his character and action. The degeneration of
individuals is exposed to the interaction of his members of the family. Ramakant
and Umakant’s greed and viciousness, their father’s vicious nature, their sister
manik’s gross sensuality all add up to the realistic description of the baser aspects
of human nature. The beating up of father by his own children. The 2 brother’s
forcible abortion of their sister’s child. The mutual distrust and hatred amongst
the members of the society underline the fundamental human character. However,
the character of Rama, Ramakant’s wife, Tendulkar is able to create a sensitive,
naturally kind and good-natured individual

5) Sakharam Binder, 1972: even more controversial than Gidhadhe and is probably
Tendulkar’s most intensely naturalistic play. The play has been stated by
Tendulkar is around the character of Sakharam, a book binder, who though a
brahmin is an antithesis of the generalized idea of brahmin. Through Sakharam,
lust and violence in a human being is explored. He unveils the feelings and
emotions of 2 characters, Lakshmi and champa, without any moralising and
judgement to demonstrate the basic and essential complexity of human nature
which is neither black nor white but varying shapes of grey. Sakharam ridicules
the double standards of middle class and is straightforward while dealing with
women like Lakshmi . In this play the issue is sexual power, when that power is
threatened, the protagonist is confused and lashes out viciously taking a life. The
equations change in an interesting round of musical chairs that tilts the balance off
and on and each character seems to reflect the role of another. The protagonist is a
remarkable creation, admittedly based on someone Tendulkar once heard of.

6) Kamla 1981: another play in the realistic mode as of dampadwipcha. Inspired

from real life incident reported in the Indian express by a journalist who actually
bought a girl from a rural flesh market and presented her at a press conference. At
the centre of kamala is a self-seeking journalist, Jai Singh Jadhav who treats the
woman he purchased in the flesh market as an object who can buy him promotion
 in job and professional reputation. He never stops to think what will happen to
kamala. The problem comes home when the woman is juxtaposed with his wife
and there is hardly any difference between the two. Ultimately, Jai Singh loses his
job. All the other equations remain the same, the total setting finds Tendulkar
making a rare comment through his protagonist’s plight. Generally, he leaves
these things to the audience.

7) Kanyadaan, 1982: a complex play about the cultural and emotional upheavals of a
family. It deals with violence in the sub conscious of a Dalit poet who is married
to the daughter of a naïve socialist. In this play, Tendulkar considers an act of
social upliftment and unlike other playwrights sets out clearly, the chaotic
consequences of disturbing existing social conditions.

8) A friend’s story, 1982: it is about a lesbian and her confrontation with the society,
her thwarted love and confusion.

9) Safar (the cyclist),1991: an allegorical statement of some sort of one’s travel

through life. Different from Tendulkar’s other plays, it cannot but remind us of
absurd plays with the main character going off on a world trip on his bicycle.
When the journey of life is ultimately cyclical, all the furious peddling is taking
you nowhere when there is no escaping from fear that our lack of knowledge
ensures, then what else is there to do but nothing.

10) Fifth Woman,1992: it is a prequel to Sakharam binder, this play works brilliantly
as a play about a foul mouthed, hard drinking, womanizing binder of the play that
Tendulkar wrote in 1972. The humorous play about binder and a woman who dies
on him, Tendulkar manages to comment on hospitals, social/sexual relations,
belief systems, friendships, Brahminical structure. The play is equally unsparing
as the cyclist on its comments on life and the way we have organized our time on
this earth of ours. Tendulkar can be called a complete playwright in the tradition
of Shakespeare. There is a total experience of life and he holds up a heightened
reflection of society without offering any backed resolutions, he carves his
characters with care so that they live and the audience is able to draw on them in
totality and offer them as examples when confronted with similar real-life
situations. Not many playwrights can claim such an achievement.

Silence the court is in session

1st staged in Marathi, but not received well but later when Rangayan presented it, the play made
its impact on the audience. Later when it was staged in Hindi by Satyadev Dubey at a drama
festival, it won the sunabha Deshpande award for best acting and best direction. Tendulkar
bagged the kamala Devi Chattopadhyay award. And this play was adjudged as the play of the
year in the 90s and bagged the kamala Devi Chattopadhyay award that it got for its creator, The
sangeet Natak academy award for playwriting. tripti mitra, the celebrity Bengali actress ---- and
the play was filmed by Satyadev Dubey with help from the national film development
corporation. It was 1st staged in English in Chennai in 1971.
Based on a real-life incident; the play which brought Tendulkar recognition on a national scale is
inspired by a particular incident. The motivation came from a group of amateur players on its
way to stage a mock trial in ville parle, the Mumbai suburb where Tendulkar lived. The bits of
conversation he heard as he guided the members to their destination provided the groundwork for
the play. in another sense, one could say silence the court is in session brought in a parting
change in the way. His works before this were written. The change was possibly a result of a
deep personal experience on one hand where he created unleashed characters in a state of
collision with accepted norms and all the other it revealed the ineffectual middle-class types with
an ugly and brutal sneer lurking under the surface.

A game; the play is conceived as a game and the idea that all that is happening at the stage is part
mock and part earnest, gives the play its theatrical edge, the mock element pervades all through
the play. What we are witnessing is a mere enactment or what is rehearsal of some sorts of
nothing more than a mock trial to be staged later in the evening. The game sequence lifts the
performance somewhat since it offers much scope for unconstrained physical movement for fun.
The play in structure revolves wholly around the idea of the game and includes the ingredient of
reversal. Miss Benare who is on the offensive in the beginning finds herself trapped at the close
of the play. The claustrophobic atmosphere which initially begins with fun loving attitude
becomes the kind of setting where social mark was stripped off.
The title; the words of the title are very common in law courts where the honourable judge
pronounces the words to bring order and decorum if the parties concerned or the mob in the court
becomes unruly or creates chaos or commotion, in other words, the very words, silence the court
is in session indicate the absolute authority of the judge in the court room to decide upon the
manners of others. The judge also has the final authority to pronounce contempt of court in case
there is a breach of discipline, in a civilized society, the court system is invoked for the sake of
justice. Judiciary is considered to be one of the main pillars of democracy. In the present play,
Tendulkar chooses the term of judicial register as the title to make a powerful comment on a
society with a heavy patriarchal bias that makes justice impossible and that converts the august
judicial system into an instrument of oppression for women and vulnerable sections of the
society. If the judge and the judicial system are objectively detached but the same objective
detachment can become the face of a very repressive and dehumanized system. If the persons
involved in the process of justice are themselves devoid of human values and compassion.
The players; the members of the group enter the room; they half anticipate banter and cordiality
as amongst colleagues and friends. There is banter no doubt but alongside runs a streak of
battiness. Perhaps, for them theatre activity has reduced itself to an escape from personal
failures. Miss benare reveals that sukhatme in real life is a lawyer without brief. Here he is seen
exploring and exploding to parade his knowledge of the legal profess. There is balu rokde the
adopted child of kasikars who is more of a slave and ponkse who has failed his science exam but
professors consider him a great scientific genius during the trial. The group unites to ridicule and
crucify leela benare. The name of prof daamle does not turn up – in the air giving rise to some
inexplicable uneasiness.
The mock trial; the members of the group have plenty of time in hand before the performance so
they plan a mock trial to initiate the local samant into the intricacies of the court procedure and
later use him as a replacement. They would try benare as it is nothing more than a harmless game
but soon the game turns serious. They make supposedly mock accusations against benare that are
based partly on conjecture and partly on hearsay but they carry hidden venom and hurt her
deeply, she is alleged to have seduced every male present in the group and lured him into
marriage. Ironically enough it is the local samant who drives the last nail in the coffin. In his
excitement he reads out a passage from the novel he is reading and as if by coincidence, the
details seem to fit into miss benare’s case. She understands that the game has been carried too far
and is becoming hurtlingly personal, she wants to get out of the scene by protesting against the
indecent conduct of her colleagues but, the door latch gets stuck and she is like an animal
trapped. Hat began as a game turns into a hunt. With benare at one end and the group which
becomes judge and the accuser at the other. They pronounce a savage sentence on her that the
illegitimate child in her womb must be destroyed and she must be dismissed from her teaching
job, her only source of sustenance. But as irony would have it, daamle prof, a married man with
children who would’ve been responsible for her pregnancy is let Scott free, in a long soliloquy,
miss banare castigates men who profess love but in fact hunger only for the female flesh but this
soliloquy sounds more like self-justification than knowledge of self.
Cross section of the society: Tendulkar’s characters who come to perform at a suburb at Mumbai
represent a cross section of the orthodox middle society, they are representatives of its different
substrata. Their persona, dialogues, gestures and even mannerisms reflect their petty, marginal
existence filled with disappointments, inhibitions and desires that find expression in their
malicious and spiteful attacks on the spinster school teacher Miss benare who is the only
exception in the setup. Miss benare possesses a natural lust for life and a spontaneous vitality,
she ignores social norms and dictates being different from the others she is easily isolated and
made victim of the cruel game cunningly manoeuvred by her fellow actors. During the game,
cunningly garbed as a mock trial, her personal life is exposed gleefully. Strangely, the charge of
infanticide brought against her at the beginning of the mock trial, turns into a verdict against her
at the end mainly because contemporary insular Indian society cannot allow the birth of a child
out of wedlock. This exposes the double standards of the middle class and the latent sadism of
the kashikars, sukhatme, ponkse even rokde comes to the fore during the mock trial. It is
poignant, sensitive and highly susceptible and vulnerable impression of women in our society.
Naturalistic play: on the surface Tendulkar seems to have adopted a naturalistic drama but the
integration of the play within the play creates an additional dimension where the demarcating
line between reality and illusions is often blurred. Tendulkar’s concern is the relationship
between individual and the society also significant is the manner in which Tendulkar handles the
state courtroom drama and like other playwrights of his genre he makes use of certain symbols of
his play. For example, the door latch which hurts Miss Benare at the very outset, locks her in the
hall, where her tormentors persecute her. The incident itself is an externalization of no escape
plight. She finds herself in real life. There is also a green cloth parrot and the sad lullaby that she
sings both of which assume significance at the end of the play.
Western influences; Tendulkar has been accused of appropriating ideas from western plays and
films and putting them in an Indian garb. The storyline of silence the court is in session is
generally seen as a dramatization of German novelist Duren Matt’s The dangerous game but
while Matt is concerned with existential questions in his novel. It must be pointed out that
Tendulkar is here involved with an issue of social significance, according to the concept,
Tendulkar has himself admitted to being generally influenced in his early days by western films,
mainly Hollywood of the 1940s. Western playwrights like Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams
and JB priestly in particular, he has also state on an occasion that he has consciously and
unconsciously been inspired by just about everything around him, real life experiences, hearsay,
news, films, plays, literature in general but the basic urge has always been to let out his concerns
vis a vis his reality and the human condition as he perceives it.

Outline of silence the court is in session

Introduction: has only 3 acts, a group of amateur actors belonging to the Sonar Moti Tenement,
Bombay, Progressive association’s mock law court. Comes to a suburb village to stage their play
“the trial of US president Johnson” for producing nukes. There are 7 players in the group plus a
local innocent samant who is constant to the call where the play is to be staged in the evening.
The players are miss Leela Benare, a spinster school teacher in her 30s, Mr. Kashikar; a
pompous and sanctimonious social worker, his wife, their adopted son Balu Rokde, a briefless
lawyer sukhatme, a clerk pongse who has failed his science exam twice and karnik, a small-time
actor associated with experimental intimate theatre and 2 more members of the group i.e., Prof
Daamle and Rawate. Rawate is replaced by samant at the last moment.
Miss benare: the 1st to arrive at the venue of performance is Leela, who is escorted from the
railway station by the local samant. She is full of life as she tells samant how good and efficient
teacher she is and how she is devoted to her profession, she also tries to engage in some light
hearted flirtation with samant before the rest arrive. Her uninhibited behaviour puzzles samant
and he withdraws from her.
The mock trial: soon other members of the troop arrive except Daamle and Rawate, they have
plenty of time at their disposal but they do not wish to rehearse the play to be staged in the
evening because they’ve already performed it several times and do not wish to repeat it again. In
order to pass time, they decide to play a game which is to stage a mock trail so as to familiarize
the naïve samant with the intricacies of the court procedure. As miss Benare goes inside to wash
her face, the rest of them gang up to have her as the accused in the mock trial which turns out to
be a play within the main play. When Leela returns, the stage is set for her mock trials on a
charge that is of social significance, infanticide. Mr. Kashikar is to be the judge, Sukhatme the
council for prosecution as well as the defence. Pongse, Karnik, Balu Rokde, Mrs. Kashikar and
samant to be the witnesses. Benare is surprised when she is persuaded to go along with the others
as it is fun. The accused who is addressed as a prisoner by Kashikar and Sukhatme, is charged
under S.302 for killing a new born baby. She was the charge to be changed into something like
Scratching public property. But is over moved by Kashikar, who is an avouch social worker,
they’ve the best interest for the society at heart in whatever they undertake.
Miss benare in the dock: as the trial proceeds, everyone takes turns at exposing Miss benare’s
personal life. Although she is a good teacher, an inquiry has been instituted into her moral
conduct by the school authorities as she is pregnant out of wedlock. She has suicidal tendencies
as she carries a bottle of TIK-20 and insecticide in her purse. She had attempted suicide earlier
when she was barely 14 and was thwarted in love by her own maternal uncle. She has also tried
to seduce and propose marriage to every male present there and that she is to be dismissed soon
on the charge of moral turpitude by the school where she works. Initially she makes light of the
charge of infanticide against her, but as the other charges pore out from her colleagues, things get
too personal for comfort. The mock trial turns into character assassination. Benare is insulted and
humiliated. She keeps quiet at the beginning as she is too stunned to fight back. Then she starts
crying and runs into the inner room to escape her tormentors but she is dragged back by the self-
righteous Mrs. Kashikar and put in a dock with the latter standing guard over her. Everyone
seems to derive vicarious pleasure from her discomfort, she fees like a trapped animal in that
claustrophobic hall as witness after witness reveal something or the other about her.
Pongse and karnik and balu tell the court how Leela tried to seduce them by turns. Sukhatme and
Kashikar, the judge mouths platitude about the sanctity of marriage and motherhood, they are all
against women’s liberation and economic independence which has led to moral depravity in the
society. Kashikar favours reviving the outdated custom of child marriage. Miss benare is stunned
at these pronouncements as she is called public enemy number 1. Her character they say is
appealing, she has perverted all social values and morals she is a lot on the sacred brow of
motherhood, the verdict is that she must be allowed to live but the child in her womb must be
destroyed.
Miss Benare’s defence: in her defence she says that her personal life is her own as long as she
performs her job as a school teacher conscientiously and efficiently, she should be left alone. She
admits having fallen in love with her own maternal uncle at the age of 14 and attempted suicide
when he turned ------ as a grownup she has fallen in love with Daamle’s intellect and offered her
body out of this love. But Daamle already married, with 5 kids was only interested in her flesh
and not hr intellect so she has lost in love twice. The work of school fills the vacuum of her life
and keeps her away from despair, she doesn’t know what to do if she loses her job.
End of the mock trial: Leela contends that she won’t abort her child and bring him up alone,
unable to withstand the shock of her private life, coming out I the open, she collapses on the
table. Others rush to her and cajoles her by saying the mock trial is a mere game for pastime and
to acquaint samant with the court procedure. She manages to stern a little but gives up the
attempt as a song of a sparrow and her parent plays in the background. A few spectators peek in
to find out that whether the Johnson trial play has begun but samant tells them to come later. And
the play comes to end with the Benare mock trial.

Act I:
The troupe of amateur players of belonging to Sonar Moti Tenement progressive association
from Bombay gather in a village hall to stage their play on the trial of the American president
Lyndon. D. Johnson. The name of the original play is “the living law court” on the charge of
producing atomic weapons and encouraging the nuclear race. A local resident samant is there to
help them make arrangements for the show that evening. The players belong to different
professions. They’re headed by Kashikar who has pretentions for social upliftment and
enlightenment through such efforts. In order to while away their time, before the play to be
staged in the evening, they decide to play a game a play within the play, charging the liberated
and cheerful teacher, Miss Benare with infanticide. From her own account, Miss Leela is a strict
and meticulous teacher, whose students are at the same time scared stiff of her and love her. She
is devoted and punctual, she’s a strict disciplinarian. Her popularity with her students has made
her colleagues and management jealous and there’s an inquiry against her, but she isn’t bothered.
Her personal life if her own. She tells samant as she tries to flirt with him an unconsciously
touches her stomach at the same time. It’s a subtle indication that she is carrying someone’s child
without being married. As she enters the hall, her finger is hurt while trying to open the latch,
this indicates her humiliation she is about to be subjected to during the so-called mock trial
Miss benare is otherwise cheerful and lively. Since she has arrived at the venue of the show
ahead of others and with samant, she describes each player in a very light hearted manner to the
local samant. As per her, Kashikar, the leader, is the Mr. Prime objective for he cannot take a
step without defining his prime objective. His wife, Mrs. Hand that rocks the cradle except that
there is no cradle to rock since the couple is childless. They have brought up Balu rokde, an
orphan. They constantly ill treat and bully him. Balu is the mock court’s general factotum who is
miserable by being treated as a slave. She describes Sukhatme, a lawyer, with no brief. He sits in
the courts as well as his tenement swatting flies. Even desperate clients do not engage his
services.
Ponkse, a scientist, with a pipe in his mouth irrespective pf the fact that he has failed his inter
science exam twice and is a clerk in the central telegraph office. She imitates ponkse to the point
of irritating him. She makes fun of Karnik, who is to set the stage, for his frequent visits to the
loo to overcome his nervousness. She is the one who lands herself into trouble by refusing to
rehearse the scheduled play and agreeing for a mock trial to kill time. She is fond of playing
games at school and is now trapped in this conspiracy against her by her fellow actors whom she
has tried to seduced and proposed marriage because she is pregnant with Daamle’s child. Daamle
is already married and has 5 children and obviously has washed off his hands of an infatuated
miss benare, that is why she is desperate for marriage and an inquiry is going on against her at
school i.e., to reason for her defence. She admires the Kashikars for being so full of life she is
also spirited enough to play hop scotch to pass time but is definitely not prepared for the
upcoming mock trial and getting indicted for infanticide. She is stunned and the game has gone
too far for her. The childless Kashikars have a happy married life with him buying garlands for
her hair and she buying readymade bush shirts for him but soon we find out how they snap at
each other over trivial matters. They have brought up Balu but treated him as a slave, making
him miserable and he comments that he is paying for his sins. Mrs. Kashikar is dominated by her
husband and is jealous of Leela, who is independent. She takes exception to miss benare talking
freely to men and taking liberties with them. In sharp contrast, her husband snubs her at every
turn and in everyone’s presence under the apparent bon-home around the members of the troupe
but there are undercurrents of hostility. The men have to say something against benare and
finally they all gang up for the motive on the pretext of familiarizing samant with the court
procedure. The light hearted bon hommie suddenly turns grim with the charges. Miss benare and
the audience is jolted out of their smugness.

Act II

In the beginning Kashikar acting as the judge, in Leela’s mock trial, represents the socially
significant charge of infanticide against the accused. He hardly observes the decorum and
etiquette of the court with which they all had to familiarize the samant. By constantly picking his
teeth and ears then midway Sukhatme cross examining the witnesses, Kashikar leaves and goes
to the inner room to relieve himself. He keeps calling the accused prisoner miss benare
throughout. Although it is a mock trial, a game to pass time before the actual show later in the
evening, the other participants keep chewing Pan masala and smoking throughout the
proceedings. They keep reminding Leela that it is just a game which she should not be taking
seriously at all. Initially, miss benare tries to laugh off the charges against her, she acts seriously
to lend some gravity to the mock court proceedings but later bursts out when it touches a raw
nerve in her. Her request for changing the charge of infanticide to snatching is ruled out much to
Mrs. kashikar’s glee for which she is suitably reprimanded by her husband. He says “can’t shut
up at home, can’t shut up here” though the troupe members do not know much about the
relationship between daamle and Leela, her rage is being linked up with him lets the cat out of
the bag. Their vague suspicions are now confirmed both Kashikar and Sukhatme feel that
something should be done to stem the rot that has set in the society. Being defied by people, like
Miss Benare, Mrs. Kashikar however is envious of her as an independent woman who is not
accountable to her husband. She however derives a secret, joy when Leela’s illicit relationship
with Daamle is discussed and she joins the others in requesting sukhatme to continue the trial
despite miss Benare’s vehement protest till the accused completely breaks down but those
seeking vicarious pleasure through her discomfort decide to continue the trial and now she is
summoned to the witness box, testimony against her own moral conduct that has damaged the
social fabric. They all experience in putting one of their colleagues in the dock.

Act III
It reveals the reality that emerges from the game that the troupe plays to while away time before
the actual play begins. Sukhatme getting under the skin of his make-believe character as a
counsel for prosecution, pounces on his prey, the unsuspecting and hapless Benare she is stunned
by her charge and is not aware of what is in store for her in this mock trial as the eager Mrs.
Kashikar drags her forcibly into the witness box. Leela looks like a trapped animal as she is in
the clutches of the unfeeling and vicious Mrs. Kashikar who resents her financial independence
and lack of inefficiency in her conduct. Tendulkar satirizes the petty vanities and jealousies of all
those involved in this mock trial. They seem to derive vicarious pleasure by torturing Leela and
mouthing cliché written platitudes about marriage, motherhood, woman independence in
traditional societies, in lieu of the serious charges against her. She initially stonewalls all the
attacks only to confess the charges but finally breaks down under pressure as skeleton starts
tumbling out of the cupboard as witness after witness reveals how Leela has tried to come closer,
win their confidence and even propose marriage because she is pregnant which she actually is.
Leela has been in love as a 14yo who had fallen for her maternal uncle and tried to commit
suicide when he turned tail and ran. Now she keeps a bottle of an insecticide in her purse and
threatens to take her life if her proposal isn’t accepted. She almost worshipped Daamle for his
intellect but he has also been after her body. He obviously cannot marry her since he is already
married and has 5 kids but Leela has experienced some blissful moments with him and she
doesn’t want to abort his child even though the mock court orders her to do so. Her replies to all
the charges come out in a long monologue. It is now time for the actual show, everybody is
jolted back to reality but Leela is motionless on stage, a song plays softly in the background as
the curtain falls.

Character of Benare
Leela Benare is the protagonist. She represents the modern emancipated young woman in the
middle-class society today. She is cheerful, lively and vivacious and she seeks to live life on her
own terms. She keeps her professional and personal life apart but isn’t able to do so and has to
suffer for defying the established social norms. The play revolves around the young energetic
and fun loving Leela, school teacher by profession and an actor by choice. She is a leading
member of the amateur drama troupe, the sonar Moti tenement progressive association. She
comes to a suburban Bombay village and is escorted to the village hall where the play “the living
law court” on president Johnson’s trial is to be staged. Our 1 st impression of Leela is that of a
young woman with a zest for life, she tries to flirt unsuccessfully with a local innocent and naïve
samant, who has escorted her from the railway station to the village hall. Although she has hurt
her finger by opening the door latch, she feels wonderful. She is glad that they fell behind and
she had the chance to interact with samant who tells her about himself like he says he earns
enough to keep body and soul together. His regular attendance at various shows held in the hall
--- and the women bhajan group that uses the hall regularly in the afternoons when there is no
show. She is interested in everything samant says and complements him by saying you’re pure
and good and I like you but he is awfully embarrassed. When she tries to move closer, she
realises this and moves away. Others have not yet arrived, so in order to pass time, miss benare
tells samant how devoted and dedicated she is as a teacher. She says in school with the first bell,
her foot is already on the threshold and she has not heard a single reapproach for not being on
time in the past 8 years nor about her teaching, she is never behind hand with her lessons,
exercises character on time too and does not have a room for disapproval and that she does not
give an inch to anyone. She likes the children she teaches and she says that they are so much
better than adults, atleast they don’t have the blind pride of thinking that they know everything.
There is no nonsense in their heads, they don’t scratch till you bleed then run away like cowards.
Her own experiences in love first with her own maternal uncle when she was 14 then with
Daamle who stranded her after impregnating her are at the back of her mind when she speaks
these lines, also the ongoing enquiry into her moral conduct that will lead to her dismissal. When
samant requests her to sit down as she has been standing all this while, she tells him that she is
used to standing while teaching as she never sits in class and that’s how she keeps on an eye on
the class, no one has a chance to play up and the class is scared stiff of her but adore her too. She
says that the children would do anything for her and she would give her last drop of blood to
teach them, this makes her colleagues jealous of her. She says what can they do? There is an
inquiry but she has put her life into her teaching. She says she is a shadow in this job and what
can they do for a slander, she says she has not hurt anybody apart from herself but is that a
reason to fire her? She is vehement of keeping her professional life apart from her private life
and for this she says that who are these people to say what I can do and can’t do, she says my life
is my own and I have not sold it to anyone for a job says that my will and wishes are my own
and no one can kill those, no one. Suddenly she returns to normal and starts singing a song about
her 1st lush of love, samant is baffled. In order to pass time, benare starts describing other
members of the troupe in a typical and in cheap manner to some and she describes each
character. She describes Kashikar as a prime objective and that he cannot step out without a
prime objective. Mrs. Kashikar is the hand that rocks the cradle. Says Mr. prime objective is tied
up with uplifting the masses and the poor hand that rocks the cradle has no cradle to rock. The
description of the childless couple is apt. she also talks about the adopted Balu Rokde who is
treated like a slave and that she doesn’t understand the public display of affection that both of
them keep showing each other. She talks about Sukhatme and Pongse. Sukhatme is a briefless
lawyer and Pongse is a scientist who has not been able to clear his interschool exams. She also
describes her lover Daamle, who impregnated her and has jilted her is also an intellectual. She
says he is someone who prides himself on his book learning. But when there is a real-life
problem, away he runs, hides his head. She says he isn’t here today nor he would come. Initially
she is the one who has suggested the mock trial but little does she know that things are going to
get difficult for her. The game is no longer fun as skeletons start tumbling out of the cupboard
and her suicidal tendencies as well as seducing every male in the troupe and proposing marriage
to him are revealed. Also, the inquiry that has been instituted against her because of her moral
conduct as a result of which she could be dismissed from service, is brought into the court.
Initially she tries to defend her conduct but gives up in the face of unanimous accusations from
her colleagues who seem to derive sadistic pleasure in tormenting her. She becomes motionless
as everyone around has a field day vilifying her. Sukhatme condemns her as public enemy
number one. Who has made a heinous brow on the sacred motherhood which is purer than
heaven itself. And her conduct has blackened all social and moral values. She freezes at 1 st and
then was sound in a long monologue at how her attempts to lead life on her own terms have been
stifled at every step, from her 1 st love affair @14 when her maternal uncle would turn tail and
run, her subsequent attempted suicide and then her affair with Daamle. She does not despise her
colleagues in spite of her disillusionment and she defies the court verdict that the child in her
womb must be destroyed. This explains why she is keen to be married to anyone. Pongse, Karnik
and even Balu Rokde. She doesn’t want her child to suffer who is faultless and then collapses on
the floor. The efforts of her colleagues to assure her that it was a game failed to revive her. The
curtain drops while she lies motionless on the stage with a green cloth parrot that samant had
been carrying. When the participants start playing a game in order to pass time, before the actual
show begins, it was all in fun but soon it turned grim. The accusations against her are partly in
conjecture and partly hearsay but the dart hits her. Samant delivers the final blow, in his
excitement, he reads a passage from a cheap popular novel which he has with him and which he
earlier recommended to Leela. Having created this situation Tendulkar seems to have had no
other option except to allow benare her say. Her inert frame stirs a little to communicate to us
what she knows about men who profess love but in fact hunger only for flesh. Perhaps a
realization such as this also embodies and awareness of the cravings of her own body. As it
stands the soliloquy and the monologue, she utters sounds more like self justification than
knowledge of life,

Mr and Mrs Kashikar

Childless couple which runs the Sonar Moti Tenement progressive association, Bombay of
which Kashikar is the chairman. It is an amateur drama troupe with social purpose of spreading
enlightenment among the masses. It stages plays in the cities and suburbs to bring out social
awareness in the present instance they arrive in a suburban Bombay village to stage the living
law court about the trial of president Johnson for producing nukes. Benare describes Kashikar as
the prime objective. Kashikars display mutual affection like Mr buying garlands for his Mrs and
while she buys bush shirts for him. They brought up an orphan Balu, they ill treat him as a slave
and Balu complains about it to others and says that he is paying for his sins and to fill up the
boredom of their lives, they started this troupe and made Balu in charge of stage properties. Mrs,
is the submissive partner who is kept like a door mat and she is always snapped and snubbed
she’s in aw of her husband. When Leela’s proceedings are going on in the mock trial, she is
reprimanded by Mr, who says can’t shut up at home and can’t shut up here. Initially she appears
to be warm and friendly towards miss benare but gradually turns hostile. as the trial progresses,
she derives sadistic pleasure out of the accused discomfiture and even forcibly drags her to the
witness stand, standing guard over her lest she tries to escape. She encourages Pongse, karnik
and Balu to depose against Leela and is happy when proceedings are warming up. Her anger
against Leela is the latter’s economic independence that allows the spinster to lead her life on her
own terms. She represents the orthodox, tradition bound married woman who cannot stand
modern women earning their own upkeep. This in her opinion gives them unwanted freedom.
She finds something wrong with Leela’s reluctance to her and her husband’s offer to escort Leela
home after a show, one night but leaving out of sight with Daamle. Mrs acts as a foil with Leela
as she is jealous of her for being independent and unaccountable to a male. That is why she joins
others in vilifying and persecuting Leela who refuses to conform to the societal norms.

Sukhatme
A briefless lawyer. Promoted by the socially conscious Kashikar. He is described by benare as an
expert of law. Clients do not go near him. He just swats flies in the barrister’s room in the court
with legal precedents and his tenement, he sits alone killing flies but for today’s trial he is the
great barrister who would perform wonders. He suggests this game to pass time. Everyone agrees
and the trial against Leela begins. He employs all the tricks of the trade to extract data against the
accused from the various witnesses and establish her immoral conduct as an unwed mother. Calls
Leela as public enemy number 1 and so no mercy shall be shown to her. He is also acting as the
defence charges; he does not refute the prosecution’s charges and only pleads for mercy. He
keeps on smoking a beedi and Kashikar keeps picking his ears and teeth with an earpick in
travesty of the court procedure when the aim of the trial was to familiarize samant with the court
procedure

Pongse
A scientist, Leela describes him as inter failed scientist who is a clerk in the central telegraph
office by putting an imaginary pipe in his mouth he serves as a witness against benare. He swears
on the heavy oxford dictionary i.e., brought by Balu. He describes how benare tried to seduce
him and lure him into marriage, she carries a bottle of tik-20 and insecticide inside her purse. She
was pregnant with Daamle’s child and was thus desperate to get married with anyone in lieu of
the inquiry being conducted by the school against her and her possible dismissal. He informs the
court that he refused to such a marriage of convenience. He tells that after this incident, Leela
laughed it off as a joke but had tears in her eyes.

Balu Rokde
Brings the heavy English dictionary instead of the Geeta for the witnesses and gives rise to
humour. He is egged on my Mr. Kashikar. He testifies that he saw Leela with Daamle late one
evening in the hostel room of Leela. He said that she proposed marriage to him and promised to
free him from the bondage of Kashikars. He Is under the thumb of Kashikars. He is helpful in
exposing the desperation of Leela to get married to save her job.

Karnik
A small-time actor, attended a couple of theatre. He looks after the working of stage properties,
keen to avoid last minute problems. There is mention of an incident from the last month ---- balu
reminds him that he laying a minor role in a pandal on the occasion of Ganpati puja but Karnik
gives the impression that he is seriously attached to his craft however minor the role. Testifies
past suicide attempt of Leela, he learnt it from a cousin

Possible questions
Social concerns In Tendulkar’s play
Character sketch of Benare
Picture of women portrayed by Tendulkar
 Sophocles
Greek tragedy:
as the history indicates contained 2 elements choral and dramatic. Oral means the chorus. The
former was expressed in a variety of lyrical meters. Normally accompanied by a flute or any
musical instrument. The number of people in chorus was probably 12 initially but the change
was an increase to 15 by Sophocles. This formed a part of tragedies through the 5 th century and
part of the 4th century BC after chorus’ comedy was discontinued. Principle parts of a Greek
tragedy, contained the following; the prologue. The part before the entrance from the chorus, in
monologue, a dialogue setting forth the subject of the drama and the situation from which it
starts.in the earlier tragedies, the play begins with the entrance of the chorus who set forth the
subject. Two, the song accompanying the entrance of the chorus, three, scenes in which all the
more actors took part with the chorus. The episodes might contain, lyrical passages,
lamentations, incidental songs etc. these songs were originally reflections of emotions evoked by
the preceding episode and after the last chorus song came the final scene.
The Greek tragedy had always a religious background in keeping with its religious character.
The choruses in some cases show the magic of dances intended to avert pestilence. A tragedy
was originally the presentation of a single pathetic situation with little action.

Life and works;

Born 496 BC, died 406BC
Witness to great events: native of Colonus, outskirts of Athens. Living through most of 5 th
century BC he was witness to such important events such as Persian invasion of Greece and
defeat, growth of Athens as an imperial power, centre of culture under the rule of pediculus and
the long war with spartan and his allies. His father, sopalles, owner of an arms factory. Sophocles
took no active part in politics and had no special military gifts in spite of that he was twice
selected strategist, and after the Sicilian disaster of 438BC he was made one of the ‘provouloi’ a
special commissioner. No doubt by reason of his general fame and popularity.

A lovable person:
A man of great charm, handsome, well to do, Herodotus was his friend. Regarded as a figure of
ideal serenity and success, his life spanned in the period of his country’s highest prosperity.
Loved by everybody wherever he went. After his death, worshipped as a hero. Aristophanes
sums him up as contended among living, contended among the dead. Had 2 sons, one legitimate
and the other illegitimate. Always comfortable in Athens and had no temptation to seek his
fortune as like his colleagues.

Winner of many contests:

He was an artist of the fondles times showing few traces of discontentment. He learnt music
early in his life and at the age of 16, he led a choir. Wrote around 120 plays and won many
victories in dramatic contests. His 1 st victory occurred in 468 BC when he defeated Aeschylus at
the age of 28. The 1st defeat of a veteran like Aeschylus by the member of a younger generation
gave rise to a lot of bitterness. Thereafter Sophocles, won 1 st position in as much as 24 contests.
Had a good deal in the expression of culture in the theatre which was done along with
performing public duties. A biographer describes his life as a picture of a childhood spend under
the best influences of a prosperous and entitled home. A youth educated in a harmonious,
physical and intellectual discipline and endured with grace and accomplishment. A man who
devoted to the service of the state in art and public affairs and in old age regarded with respect.

Family difficulties:
According to an anecdote, he had family issues at the end of his life, these difficulties were due
to his illicit connection with a woman named theoris. His legitimate son – iophon tried to get a
warrant to administer the family estate on the grounds of his father’s mental incapacity.
Sophocles read to the court a quote from his play Oedipus, which he was then writing. He was
declared to having proved thereby, his general sanity. He died a few months after the death of his
colleague Euripides in whose honour he introduced a chorus in the morning, also called his last
chorus.

Development as a dramatist:
Wrote pretty continuously for 60 years and is believed to have given his own account of his
development. The most important change due to Sophocles took place in what the Greeks called
the economy of drama. He worked as a conscious artist, improving details, demanding more and
smoother tools and making up by skilful construction tacked for scenic arrangement and
avoidance of exaggeration. There was skilfulness in the construction of plot, clear
characterization and uniform good writing then a certain bluntness of moral imagination. there is
found in Sophocles, lack of speculative freedom. Oedipus rex is a marvel construction in which
Every detail fallows naturally and depends on the characters, being exactly what they were and
makes us understand them. One flaw is the Tiresias.

Worthy of admiration:
Sophocles is subject to certain conventional idealism. His language is a marvel of subtle power,
lyrics is uniform and skilful. Few poets besides him could have shaped the works the way he has.
There is a certain depth of calm feeling unfretted by any movement of mere intellect.

His works:
He lacks the speculative courage and settles for sympathy, there is nothing but admiration for
him -plot, characters, atmosphere, his lyrics are uniformly skilful and fine it is a certain depth of
calm feeling unfitted by any movement of mere intellect,

WORKS

OF more than 120 plays of Sophocles known to antiquity only 7 tragedies have survived intact
into the modern Tim’s-
• “Oedipus Rex”
• “Trackers”
• “Philoctetes”
• “Trachinian Women”
• “Electra”
• “Oedipus at Colonus”
• “Antigone“(in our syllabus)
• Ajax”

An ancient anecdote would date Antigone to about 442 BC and Ajax is generally placed between
something earlier for reasons of style.
Phioctetes is known to have been produced in 409 BC and Oedipus at Colnous in 401 BC. The
dates of the rest are uncertain but there are grounds of dating Oedipus Rex to the years
immediately following 430 BC. Three of his extract plays deal with the legend of the themes of
the royal house and they are the two Oedipus plays and Antigone and the main outlines which he
inherited in the 5th century BC both Asylus and Uripedous wrote plays neither of which survived
in the later ages the theme attracted numerous artists among them
Seneca, Corneille, Walter are more famously known but mostly the name of Oedipus is linked
with dramatist Sophocles.

Oedipus rex
Also called Oedipus tirenus is regarded by many as Sophocles’ masterpiece. It was particularly
admired by Aristotle in the Poetics. It deals with that portion of the Oedipus in which he was the
king of Thebes and the husband of Jocasta when the discovery that he is the son and murderer of
liars, his father and son of Jocasta, it leads him to blind himself and Jocasta to her life. This play
illustrates the Greek conception of human impotence in the presence of destiny which may hurl a
man for no fault of his own from the height of prosperity to a terrible misery. a striking feature of
the play is the eagerness with which Oedipus himself pursues the enquiry that is to bring about
his ruining. He learns from the Delphic oracle that a plague that has befallen of Thebes is present
there of the murderer of king Lias. Oedipus called upon all those who have any knowledge of the
matter. Teiresias, the blind prophet is 1 st summoned he knows the truth but at 1 st refuses to
disclose it. Accused by Oedipus of plotting with Creon against him he partly reveals the fact that
it was Oedipus himself who murdered Lias still utterly unsuspicious of his own guilt, he turns
against Creon and tells him that he has planned against him. He is deeply disturbed by Jocasta’s
description of the scene of Lias’ death and the persons accompanying Lias and it matches with
the circumstances of his fight with King Lias. A messenger comes from Corinth to announce the
death of polyomas and the election of Oedipus to succeed him. Oedipus dreading the oracle that
he has to marry his own mother. Shrinks when went to Corinth but the messenger reveals that he
himself brought the infant Oedipus given to him by a fellow shepherd and Merope and polyomas
adopted him. Everything falls in place and immediately Oedipus rushes to the place to find jcosta
has hanged herself.

Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus blind and banished has wandered attended by his daughter Antigone, to Colonus a
dominion of Attica. He has been warned by the inhabitants to depart but having learnt from an
oracle that this is the spot where he is supposed to die and he refuses to go. An appeal is made to
Theseus, king of Athens. the king assured Oedipus of his protection and a burial place in the
Attic soil thereby his spirit will be a protection to Athens. Ismene joins Oedipus and tells him the
dispute between his sons Eteocles, Polemics for throne of Thebes the news makes Oedipus angry
with sons. Creon arrives to seize Oedipus Ismay and Antigone are carried off and Creon is about
to seize Oedipus himself when Theseus intervenes rescuing Oedipus. Meanwhile, polemics has
arrived with expression of repentance asks his father favour in his struggle with his brother.
Oedipus scolds him and invoke on his sons the curse that they’d di at each other’s hands.
Thunder warns Oedipus that his hour is at hand, he blesses his daughters and goes to a lonely
spot and in the presence of Theseus is borne to the gods.

Antigone
Creon is the king of Thebes after Oedipus who has forbidden the burial of the body of
Polyneices. Anyone disobeying his command would suffer death penalty. Antigone makes up her
mind to defy the outrageous command of the king and perform the funeral of her brother. She is
caught doing this and brought before the indignant king. She defends her actions as being in
accordance with the higher laws of God. Creon unrelenting condemns her to be shut alive in a
cave without food or water or allowed to die. Her sister ismene who has refused to share in her
defied act now claims a share in her guilt and in her penalty. But Creon declares her insane.
Haemon is betrothed to Antigone, pleads in vain with Creon. He goes out warning his father that
he will die with her. The prophet Tiresias threatened Creon with the fearful consequences of his
violation of the divine laws. Creon at last moved, sets out hurriedly for the cave where Antigone
is imprisoned. He finds Haemon clasping her dead body for Antigone had hanged herself.
Haemon attacks Creon with a sword but misses him then kills himself. Creon returns to the
palace to find his wife Eurydice dead who killed herself in despair.

Electra
Orestes was the son of Agamemnon, the one who led the Greek expedition to troy leaving his
kingdom of Mycenae in the care of his wife Clytemnestra who was seduced by Aegisthus and the
2 together murdered Agamemnon on his return. Orestes with his sister Electra avenged their
father’s murder.
Orestes arrives at Mycenae with philaids and an aged attendant to avenge the death of his father.
The attendant is sent ahead to inform Clytemnestra that Orestes has been killed in a chariot race
and Orestes and philaids prepare to follow the disguise. An earn with his ashes is sent.
Meanwhile, Clytemnestra warned by an ominous tree has sent her daughter Chrysothemis to
pour libations on the tomb of Agamemnon.
Electra, who is living a rigid life is led by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra on account of loyalty to
her father makes schizothymes and persuades her to substitute for the offerings of Clytemnestra
and Aegisthus. Clytemnestra appears and scolds Electra but is interrupted by the arrival of the
messenger and learns with in conceived joy about the death of Orestes but Electra is topped into
despair. Electra plans to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus herself. Orestes and philaids now
approach and Orestes reveals himself to Electra. He and philaids enter the palace, the dead shriek
of Clytemnestra is heard and immediately Aegisthus approaches. He is lured into the palace to
see what he supposes to be the dead body of Orestes but finds himself to be looking at the body
of Clytemnestra. He is driven at the point of a sword to the room where Agamemnon was slain
and killed and the chorus of the women rejoice at the passing away of the curse.

Trachiniai
it is about Heracles also known as Hercules. Heracles was one of the most famous Greek heroes,
noted for his courage, endurance, good nature and compassion, he was also known for his good
appetite and lust. A large number of campaigns, combats and miscellaneous undertakings are
attributed to him and Trachiniai deals with the death of Heracles, who has been absent from his
home for 15 months. He had told his wife Deanira that at the end of this period the crisis of his
life would come and that he would perish or have rest from all his trouble. Deanira, sense Haines
their son, in search of his father. As she reflects over her anxious lot a messenger announces the
arrival of Heracles nearby. This is soon confirmed by the report of a Herald who brings with him
a trail of captive women taken by Heracles when he sagged the city of his enemy Eurytus.
Deanira discovers that her husband Heracles has transferred his love to one of these women
namely Iole. The daughter of Eurytus. The cantor (monster with body of horse and head of
human being) Nessus Wendie has left her a love charm. With this she decides to win back the
love of Heracles and smears it with the robe and sends it to her husband. Too late she discovers
that the charm is in fact a deadly poison. So, Haines returns and sees Heracles tortured by the
robe and denounces her mother as the murderess. Deanira takes her own life, dying Heracles is
brought home and he begs Haines to carry him on to mount Oeta and there burn him on a pyre
before his agony returns. Then Haines is to marry Iole, he reluctantly consents, bitterly
reproaching the god for pitiless torture of her father.

Ajax
Ajax was the son of telamon the king of salamis. He was the leader of the salamians at the siege
of troy and is depicted by homer as a man obstinate in his bravery to the point of stupidity. After
the death of Achilles, Ajax and Odysseus contended for the Achilles’ arms. When these were
awarded to Odysseus, ajax was maddened by resentment and slaughtered a flock of sheep in the
belief that they were his enemies. Afterwards, from shame he took his own life. The play by
Sophocles centres around these incidents. Ajax demented by resentment because the arms have
been awarded to Odysseus has given went to his wrath by slaughtering a flock of sheep, taking
them for his enemies. He is 1st seen in his madness then after his recovery stricken with grief and
shame while his slave tecmessa and the chorus of the Salaminian sailors tried to sue him. He
calls his son Eurysuces, gives him his shield and leaves his last instructions for his brother
Teucer. He then takes his sword to bury it as he says goes to purge himself of his guilt by the sea.
Teucer has now returned a Forer and has learnt that avert calamity, Ajax who has annoyed the
gods by his arrogance must be kept within his tent for that day but it is too late. Ajax is found
killed by his own sword. His burial is forbidden but Odysseus persuades his burial and ajax is
carried to his grave. The finest things in the play are the hero’s speeches in his distrain and the
portrayal of his mistress tecmessa whom he despises and who is really superior to him in courage
and character.

Philoctetes
He is living wretchedly on lemnos suffering from his own wounds, supporting himself by
shooting birds with his beloved bow of Heracules. Odysseus and Neoptolemus arrive to carry
him to the siege of troy, Odysseus reveals his plan to Neoptolemus. Neo has to pretend that he
has quarrelled with Greek military leaders and is on his way home. He is to heap abuse on
Odysseus and try to possess himself off the bow. Neo though at 1 st unwilling to lend himself to
the deceit, consents. He meets Philoctetes and tells his story. Philoctetes makes a pathetic appeal
to him to take him to Greece and neo agrees but Phil is seized with a fit of pain after which he is
likely to fall asleep. He entrusts his bow to neo. When he wakes up, neo feeling ashamed of his
conduct confesses the plot. He is on the point of returning the bow when Odysseus intervenes.
Ody and neo depart to the ship carrying off the bow. Phil is left lamenting his loss while the
chorus of the sailors try to persuade him to join them. They are about to leave him when Neo
returns, determined to give back the bow but pursued by ody. Phil having regained the bow seeks
to shoot ody but is prevented by neo who again tries to persuade Phil to accompany them to troy.
He fails and reluctantly decides to fulfil his promise of carrying Phil home. at this point
Heracules appears in a vision he asks phil to go to troy and Phil yields to the voice of the one
who he cannot disobey. The play presents a profound situation of Hercules’ divine appearance.
Phil was the man to whom Heracules had given his bows and arrows as a compensation for
agreeing to light the fire on which Heracules wanted to be burnt to death. In course of the
expedition to troy, Phil was bitten in the foot by a serpent and this produced a painful wound,
Phil’s cries were terrible that the Greeks landed him on the land of uninhabited, island of
Lebanon. Sophocles’ play begins sometime after this incident.

The myth of Antigone

She is one of the 4 children of Oedipus and Jcosta. Oedipus was the descendent of cadimus the
man who under the guidance of the oracle of delphie has found the city of Thebes, he gave
Polydorus, from he we got lavdagous, from him we got Lias. Jcosta was Lias’s wife, who
afterwards came to be known as Oedipus. Lias, king of Thebes received information from the
Delphic oracle that his son on growing up would kill him. To prevent this from happening, Lias
and jcosta handed over the child to a servant of theirs, a shepherd, with instructions to abandon
him on a mountain side. Baby’s feet were pierced with an iron pin so that he might not crawl to
safety. The intention of the parents was to let the child perish. The shepherd did not however feel
like abandoning the child to die and passed it on to a fellow shepherd a native of Corinth and
prevailed upon him to take the child beyond the borders of Thebes, the Corinthian shepherd took
the child to his master polyomas king of Corinth and his wife Merope, who being childless
adopted him as his son and gave him the name Oedipus, the name means swollen foot. Oedipus
grew up as a price. He believed himself naturally to be the son of polyomas. But he felt shocked
to learn from the Delphic oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother. To avert this
catastrophe, he fled from Corinth determined never again to see his supposed father for as long
as they lived. His wanderings took him to Thebes and getting involved in a roadside brawl he
killed Lias without knowing his identity as the king of Thebes and his own father. As a reward,
for ridding the city of a deadly monster sphinx, he was given the hand of the widowed queen
Jcosta in marriage. Not knowing that she was his own mother. Thus, the prophecies got fulfilled.
Jcosta and Oedipus spent 15 years in a happy married life neither knowing their true identities.
They had 2 sons and 2 daughters. The life of shame could not be allowed by the gods to continue
indefinitely without the sinners being punished. The real facts at last came to light and the sense
of guilt drove jcosta to kill herself and Oedipus to blind himself. At his own request Oedipus
who is now banished from Thebes by Creon. His daughters remained faithful to him but his sons
proved gallous towards him. Polyneices went to Aragon, where he married the daughter of the
king resolving to launch an attack with the help of Argive army upon Thebes and capture the
throne which Eteocles was hoping to occupy. Oedipus, blind and banished but attended by
Antigone received the news of the strife of Eteocles and Polyneices for the throne and his feeling
of bitterness towards his son gets further aggravated. So, when Polyneices approaches his father
for blessings, Oedipus severely rebuked him and invoked on both his sons the curse that they
would die at each other’s hands. A thunder warned Oedipus of his death, he blessed his
daughters, withdrew to a lonely spot and was borne away to the gods. The strife between the 2
brothers continued. The Argive army besieged Thebes and 7 champions including Polyneices
stormed the 7 gates of the city 7 warriors took up positions to defend the different gates and
Eteocles was one of them. Thebes withstood the invasion and in the last combat Polyneices and
Eteocles killed each other. Creon now became the undisputed king and he issued and order
proclaiming that while the dead body of Eteocles, a true patriot would be buried honourably with
all the rights due to the noble dead. The dead body of traitor Polyneices would be left unburied
on the plain where it lay. According to the order, anybody violating the ban on burial would be
killed and this is where Antigone begins.

Antigone
The play begins with a dialogue between Antigone and her sister ismene, both daughters of
Oedipus who has been dead for some time. Antigone looks anxious and distressed. She tells
ismene that God has once again proved to be unkind to them already they have undergone much
pain, much sorrow, much suffering, much dishonour which they both shared. Now they have to
face another misfortune in the shape of the latest order which Creon has proclaimed in the city.
Ismene says that besides the news of the death of their 2 brothers, she has heard nothing to make
her glad, Antigone says that there is some more news besides what ismene already knows and
that is that Creon has proclaimed in the city that he would be giving funeral honours only to
Eteocles, who will be buried in State with all honourable ceremonies. But their other brother
Polyneices who had died is not to be buried. He would be left to be eaten by flesh eating birds
like Kites and vultures. Antigone says that this order from Creon is directed her and ismene. The
punishment for disobeying the order is death by stoning and she wants ismene to show her
worthiness of her noble blood by performing the last rites of her brother.

Ismene in favour of obeying Creon’s order

Antigone says that she can help bury Polyneices and ismene says how can she do that when
Creon has expressly forbidden it. When Antigone says that she would never desert her dead
brother, ismene reminds her of the misfortune which their parents have suffered and the tragedy
that had befallen on their brother. Their father, says ismene has perished in shame and misery.
When their father had discovered this awful guilt and their mother had hanged herself. Their
brothers died on a single day each slain by the other, now only she and Antigone are left and if
they defy Creon, their end will also be miserable, they are women and it is not advisable for them
to fight against men. Their rulers are stronger than they are, they must therefore obey the orders
and any defiance would be madness. Antigone was still determined to bury Polyneices, she tells
ismene that looking at her attitude she would bury the body of Polyneices herself and would even
sacrifice her life for the same. She says that if ismene wishes to obey the king and defy the holy
laws of heaven, it is her choice but she would not defy the holy laws and she would go and throw
a mound of earth over Polyneices. Ismene advises to do it secretly. Ismene says that Antigone’s
heart is burning with anger while her own heart is frozen by fear. Ismene warns her that it is a
hopeless task to which Antigone replies that Polyneices will hate her for defying him and so
there is no punishment that can deter Antigone against the order.

The chorus of Thebian citizens enter

The appearance of Creon addressing the chorus has important news to communicate to them
knowing that they were loyal subjects when Thebes was ruled by Lias and when Oedipus ruled
the city and they were loyal also to the 2 sons of Oedipus. Creon tells them that now he has
inherited the crown and he holds the view that a king shall never hesitate to seek advice and that
a man who puts his friend above himself damns himself. He declared he shall never regard
anybody as his friend if the man is against the interests of his country. Life has meaning only
when the country is secure and friends have value when the country is safe and with this in mind,
he has issued the proclamation regarding the 2 sons of Oedipus. The chorus offers cooperation to
Creon on his proclamation and they say no one would want to risk their lives by burying
Polyneices. At this time a messenger arrives and tells Creon that Polyneices has been buried by
somebody and has covered him with dirt and disappeared. The messenger doesn’t know who
defied the order. He gives details of the manner of the burial and he also informs Creon that
various guards have been quarrelling among themselves, each accusing the other of having
covered the body with earth. The chorus intervenes and says that this is the act of gods but Creon
dismisses the view by saying that god won’t pay attention to a man like Polyneices who came to
destroy their land and there is somebody else who must’ve done it. Creon warns the messenger
of dire consequences if he fails to find the culprit. They decide to dig the grave of Polyneices and
the same messenger after sometime reappears with Antigone and informs everybody of
Antigone’s guilt. Creon asks the details of the crime and how has she been caught to which the
messenger replies that he had removed the earth that had covered the body of Polyneices and
then caught Antigone red handed. He gives an account by which he and the other guards caught
Antigone after watching her burying Polyneices once again from the hill. Now Antigone admits
the crime and shows no signs of fear. This is how Antigone had been brought to the King. Creon
turns to Antigone as to whether she admits or denies the charge, she admits. The sentry is
dismissed. Antigone says she is aware of the orders of the King and when asked that why did she
defy, she replies that the order had come from God and there is no law of God that forbids the
burial of the dead and any proclamation of a king cannot overrule the unalterable laws of God.
The divine laws did not begin yesterday, they are everlasting and that her acts are in consonance
with divine laws. Creon is now determined to punish her. He says that Antigone shows the
stubborn spirit of Oedipus and she has insulted him. He orders ismene to be brought before him
as he wants to punish accomplices. Antigone enthusiastically asks for her penalty. Creon repeats
the reasons for his order to which Antigone says that everybody is equal after death and deserve
to be buried and says that she shares her love and not hate. Creon says that he would not rule
according to the opinion of a woman. Ismene now arrives, she is questioned of her involvement
to which ismene says that she was involved as much as Antigone and to which Antigone says
that she refused to take part. To this ismene says that though she had denied initially but she
would like to stand besides her sister. Antigone is not prepared to allow ismene to carry any
credit for a deed for which she was alone responsible. Ismene makes a request and Antigone
denies the offer in a harsh language. Ismene now questions Creon whether he would pass the
order of death against Antigone
who his own son Haimon has pledged to marry and would he snatch away Antigone from his
own son. To which he says nothing can save her from the penalty which she has to pay, he then
orders the guards to take away both the sisters and keep a watch on them and the 2 women are
taken away. The first curse on Oedipus does not end and continues to afflict on his children.
Haimon now appears and request his father to change his decision. He pleads before his father
who is of the opinion rule is a rue. And Creon does not pay any heed to Haimon. Haimon says
his happiness is dependent on Antigone. To which Creon ignores. Then there is an angry clash
btw them , to which Haimon says that Creon will be a wonderful king on a desert island after
having lost e=everything. Creon says that Haimon will be never marrying a living Antigone. To
which Haimon says that if Antigone dies then he will also die. Antigone is now in the cave; she
is walled up in a rocky cave at some deserted spot inside the cave she may pray to god to release
her from death. Antigone laments the fact that she has no friend to be then a banishment, she will
be in the cave which will be her everlasting grave, she has to suffer the sin. Of the father, mother,
her brothers. Everything has become scandalous and she also will soon join her parents and
brothers though her loyalty is something commendable but she does not realize this. Her own
self built pride is the cause of her ruin , she bemoans her faith to having her dead, unwedded,
unwept and unbefriend.
Creon now comes to her and tells her to end her weeping and lamenting, she is locked inside the
cave and she doesn’t want to live this kind of live in which she would perish away in a cave so
she hangs herself, Haemon comes over to find the hanging Antigone and is plunged into grief
and Tiresias the blind prophet tries to reason with Creon and advises to withdraw the orders
otherwise things would become difficult for Creon and what he can foresee. Initially Creon
refuses but then he realizes his falling and rushes to the cave to find weeping Haemon, who is
upset attacks Creon with a sword and misses and attacks and kills himself. The news of
Haemon’s death reaches the kingdom and his mother Euridice commits suicide and as a result
everything is lost. Creon feels he has been punished for his error but now it is too late. His wife
has also cursed him before her death. Creon then leaves and the chorus is left to sing its last
song. As per the chorus the greatest part of happiness lies in wisdom and reverence of the gods,
the proud words of an arrogant man are ultimately punished heavy and it is only when
punishment comes, an arrogant man learns wisdom.

Characters
1) Antigone:
2) Creon:
3) Tiresias: blind man with vast spiritual powers and a great insight in the future. By
his divine powers and his gift of prophecy, his advice has proved valuable to
those concerned. In the matter of the ban on burial, the death sentence against
Antigone however his advice is 1st rejected by Creon and later acted upon when it
is too late. His prophecy that Creon will lose his son as a consequence of his
misdeeds turned up to be true. His role is influencing the play though not the
outcome.
4) The sentry: he who 1st reports to Creon the violation of ban on the burial and soon
afterwards produces the culprit for interrogation by the king. He also lends the
comic touch to the 2 scenes in which he appears which are otherwise not only
serious but grim.
5) The messenger: he uprises the chorus, the audience and also Eurydice of certain
events and developments that aren’t actually shown on the screen. He provides
details of the deaths of Antigone and hymen it is he again who brings to Creon the
news of the death of Eurydice.
6) Eurydice: Creon’s wife, brief appearance in the play when she receives from the
messenger the heart wrenching news of the death of Haemon. She immediately
commits suicide
7) Chorus: sings songs at appropriate intervals commenting on the developments of
the plot and characters but the chorus participates also in the dialogue and the play
on atleast one occasion which influences the course of events. It serves as the
actor, spectator and a commentator. It also has a representative capacity which
offers views, opinions and moods of the Thebian citizens.
Sample questions
Who is the real tragic figure? Antigone or Creon or out of the two who do you think is the real
protagonist?
Do you think ismene is important in the play?
What is the basis of conflict between Antigone and creon which makes her say that she would
rather die well than live badly.