Ben Jonson did not possess Marlowe’s
poetic power, but his career on the whole was more productive and better
rounded. One of the best of his plays is
Volpone. It is a harsh and scathing
exposure of human greed in terms which are at the same time horrifying for
their baseness and yet mockingly humorous.
The rich and avaricious Volpone, aided by his wily servant, Mosca (The
Fly), pretends that he is dying. He
tricks his equally greedy friends into giving him costly gifts of gold and
jewels, leading each one to believe that he has a chance of becoming heir to
Volpone’s great wealth.
When the friends have been bled, one
of them having disinherited his son in Volpone’s favour, another having offered
him his wife, Volpone spreads the rumour that he has died, and confounds the
hopefuls/candidates by a will making Mosca his heir. Mosca, seizing the upper hand, tries to keep
Volpone legally dead, but succeeds only in bringing the house of cards down
upon the heads of the whole unsavoury crew.
Volpone is an impressive play,
similar in quality and texture to the almost forgotten plays of
Machiavelli. In 1928 the Theatre Guild
produced it in an adaption for the modern stage by Stefan Zweig, and it has
since been made into a French film.
What is the dramatic function of the
Good and Bad Angels in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus?
Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in its use
of the personified Good and Bad Angels reveals the influence of the older
morality play tradition. Morality drama
was allegorical and didactic, and usually dealt with the struggle of an
everyman-type figure against the forces of evil represented frequently by the
Seven Deadly Sins. Man’s victory emphasized the positive forces
of grace and a life following religious and ethical teachings. The negative aspect, or man’s defeat, was the
reverse of this movement, and dramatists found this appealing because it
offered the moral lesson that retributive justice punished sin. Obviously there is a close relationship
between tragedy and this latter process, and Doctor Faustus is a type of
reverse morality play because it is concerned with spiritual defeat and not
victory.
In Doctor Faustus the Good and Bad Angel, as in
the morality play, contend for Faustus’s soul.
They represent in an exterior way the interior conflict of Faustus
between good and evil. The Good and Bad
Angel appear repeatedly throughout the play to show the recurring torment
within Faustus’s soul. The Good Angel
signifies the presence of grace, and repeatedly urges Faustus to repent. The Bad Angel represents evil and the forces
leading Faustus to damnation.
Dramatically, these personified figures offered Marlowe a way, other
than the soliloquy, to present Faustus’s spiritual struggle.
SONNET FORTY NINE Against that time (if ever that time come) When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Called to that audit by advised respects, Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye, When love converted from the thing it was Shall reasons find of settled gravity; Against that time do I ensconce me here Within the knowledge of mine own desert, And this my hand, against my self uprear, To guard the lawful reasons on thy part, To leave poor me, thou hast the strength of laws, Since why to love, I can allege no cause.
SONNET THIRTY EIGHT How can my muse want subject to invent While thou dost breathe that pour'st into my verse, Thine own sweet argument, too excellent, For every vulgar paper to rehearse? O give thy self the thanks if aught in me, Worthy perusal stand against thy sight, For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee, When thou thy self dost give invention light? Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth Than those old nine which rhymers invocate, And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth Eternal numbers to outlive long date. If my slight muse do please these curious days, The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise.
SONNET THIRTY SIX Let me confess that we two must be twain, Although our undivided loves are one: So shall those blots that do with me remain, Without thy help, by me be borne alone. In our two loves there is but one respect, Though in our lives a separable spite, Which though it alter not love's sole effect, Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight. I may not evermore acknowledge thee, Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, Nor thou with public kindness honour me, Unless thou take that honour from thy name: But do not so, I love thee in such sort, As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
In the beginning Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl from the slums of London. She is ignorant, dirty and full of terrible Cockney dialect which even the taxi driver can't understand. After six months this same girl becomes a young beautiful Duchess who charms everyone at the Ambassador's garden party.
Even in the first scene on the portico of St.Paul's church, on that rainy night we get the impression that Eliza is not just an ordinary flower girl. She is bold, confident and even a little impudent. There she confronts Freddy, the people standing there. She calls Higgins a man stuffed with nails. When Pickering and Higgins sing a song with various rhyming names she asks them not to be silly. Prof.Higgins develops her this self confidence and transforms her into a lady. But even then she can lose her temper and even throw his slippers at Higgins' face.
The girl who walked into the Wimpole Street was a poor nervous girl, but at the same time one who had determined to become a lady or at least an assistant in a flower shop. The fact that she was prepared to pay Higgins the fee for this work shows her individuality. In a short time Eliza becomes so indispensable that when she threatens to leave, Higgins complains that he can't find anything and can't remember his appointments. She becomes an efficient personal assistant to Higgins and Pickering.
Higgins training turns out to be a bitter battle for Eliza. Higgins was a severe master he bullied and hectored her. He threatened to drag her around the room three times by her hair if she made a mistake twice. Eliza was a keen intelligent student. She absorbed everything and was very sharp. She learned easily and made rapid progress. In fact for both Higgins and Eliza the process of teaching and learning was a hard task. Later on she confesses that while Higgins taught her how to speak it was Pickering who unknowingly taught her good manners. At Mrs.Higgins' house both the gentlemen are lavish in their praise of Eliza.
Happiness is an elusive thing for Eliza. as soon as she is big enough to earn her own living she is sent out of her home. As a flower girl she struggles to make a living. She lives in a dingy room in a dirty locality. Even after she becomes a lady she is far from being happy. She expected Higgins to like her and propose to her. But for Higgins she was only an object of an experiment.
Higgins' bullying reaches a point where Eliza in desperation hits back. This happens only after she suffers enough. Only Pickering's gentle attitude helps her to carry on. Even after she marries Freddy she depends on Pickering's financial support.
Eliza's relationship with Higgins seems unnatural. But Shaw made it intentionally so. After she becomes Higgin's pupil she comes to know that her master is too strong to be involved emotionally with her as a woman,as he told Pickering a pupil was only a block of wood for him. When she discovers that Higgins can never be a husband she is much chagrined. But she becomes strong enough to find love in Freddy who needed her more than she needed him. In the end Eliza earns the appreciation or even the admiration of Higgins himself. He had made a flower girl a duchess and then changed a duchess into a real woman.
In reading Ibsen's A Doll's House today, one may find it hard to imagine how daring it seemed at the time it was written one hundred years ago. Its theme, the emancipation of a woman, makes it seem almost contemporary and without doubt a play relevant for all time.
In Act I, there are many clues that hint at the kind of marriage Nora and Torvald have. It seems that Nora is a doll controlled by Torvald. She relies on him for everything, from movements to thoughts, much like a puppet who is dependent on its puppet master for all of its actions. The most obvious example of Torvald's physical control over Nora is his teaching her the tarantella. Nora pretends that she needs Torvald to teach her every move in order to relearn the dance. The reader knows this is an act, and it shows her submissiveness to Torvald. After he teaches her the dance, he proclaims "When I saw you turn and sway in the tarantella--my blood was pounding till I couldn't stand it" showing how he is more interested in Nora physically than emotionally. When Nora responds by saying, "Go away, Torvald! Leave me alone. I don't want all this", Torvald asks "Aren't I your husband?" By saying this, he is implying that one of Nora's duties as his wife is to give him physical pleasure at his command. Torvald also does not trust Nora with money, which exemplifies Torvald's treating Nora as a child. On a rare occasion when Torvald gives Nora some money, he is concerned that she will waste it on candy and pastry. Nora's duties, in general, are restricted to caring for the children, doing housework, and working on her needlepoint. A problem with her responsibilities is that her most important obligation is to please Torvald, making her role similar to that of a slave. She too becomes a prey to the existing norms of a patriarchal society.
Many of Ibsen's works are problem plays in which he leaves the conclusion up to the reader. The problem in A Doll's House lies not only with Torvald, but with the entire Victorian society. Females were confined in every way imaginable. When Torvald does not immediately offer to help Nora after Krogstad threatens to expose her, Nora realizes that there is a problem. By waiting until after he discovers that his social status will suffer no harm, Torvald reveals his true feelings which put appearance, both social and physical, ahead of the wife whom he says he loves. This revelation is what prompts Nora to walk out on Torvald. When Torvald tries to reconcile with Nora, she explains to him how she had been treated like a child all her life; her father had treated her much the same way Torvald does. Both male superiority figures not only denied her the right to think and act the way she wished, but limited her happiness. Nora describes her feelings as "always merry, never happy." When Nora finally slams the door and leaves, she is not only slamming it on Torvald, but also on everything else that has happened in her past which curtailed her growth into a mature woman.
In today's society, many women are in a situation similar to that of Nora. Although many people have accepted women as being equal, there are still people in modern society who are doing their best to suppress the feminist revolution. People ranging from conservative radio-show hosts who complain about "flaming femi-nazis," to women who use their "feminine charm" to accomplish what they want are the ones who hold the female gender back. Both of these mindsets are expressed in A Doll's House. Torvald is an example of today's stereotypical man, who is only interested in his appearance and the amount of control he has over a person, and does not care about the feelings of others. Nora, on the other hand, is a typical example of the woman who plays to a man's desires. She makes Torvald think he is much smarter and stronger than he actually is. However, when Nora slams the door, and Torvald is no longer exposed to her manipulative nature, he realizes what true love and equality are, and that they cannot be achieved with people like Nora and himself together. If everyone in the modern world were to view males and females as completely equal, and if neither men nor women used the power that society gives them based on their sex, then, and only then, could true equality exist in our world.
