B.A. English Literature

B.A.
English Literature‐Fiction
B.A. English Literature
First Year
Core Paper No.II
FICTION
BHARATHIAR UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
COIMBATORE – 641 046
1
B.A.English Literature‐Fiction
2
CONTENT
Lesson PAGE
No.
General Introduction 5
1 Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen 10
2 The Old man and the Sea. By Ernest Hemingway 24
3 The Vicar of Wakefield By Oliver Goldsmith 33
4 Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte 44
5 Things Focal Apart By Chinua Achebe 61
3
(Syllabus)
CORE PAPER II - FICTION
1. Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen

2. The Old man and the Sea. By Ernest Hemingway.
3. The Vicar of Wakefield. By Oliver Goldsmith
4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
5. Things Focal Apart by CHINU A CHEBE
4
FICTION
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
1. Methods of systematically studying the genre of Fiction
2. Methods of analyzing the Text
2.1. Plot
2.2. Character
3. Methods of analyzing Theme
4. Methods of analyzing Style
1. There are mainly three points to bear in mind in studying the genre of
fiction systematically for examination:
1. understand the elements of fiction and look for those elements when
you are reading the text
2. take notes continually as you read
3. ask yourself questions at every point
It is essential for any student to form a habit of systematic study. Have a spare
paper always folded and kept in your edition of the book and write down any
point that comes to your mind. Do not worry if whatever you write down later
turns out to be wrong or irrelevant. The most important thing is not to miss any
of your responses to the text while you are reading and analyzing. This habit will
help you in two ways:
1. This will give you confidence in your capacity to articulate your critical
ideas in written form. The habit of critical analysis will tone down your
inhibitions and fear of saying the wrong things about the work or the
author. Critical skill comes only through regular habits of criticism.
However good or bad first, start to respond to the work and later compare
your responses to authoritative critical commentary and make necessary
corrections. Taking notes on your own reading and later examining your
own responses in the light of other people’s ideas is real education.
5
2. The habit of writing the commentary or your critical responses as you read
the text makes you discover more points in the text than would ever have
come to your mind if you were not taking the notes. Sometimes you find
that you have come across a dimension in the text, which has escaped the
notice of even the great critics on the subject. Taking notes is difficult to
begin with, but later it becomes something natural and creative. The more
you write the more you understand and the understanding creates the
interest in the reading. Reading and writing are interdependent and
interactive. Do not take notes on the margins of the novel. Firstly, it spoils
the text; secondly, you will not have enough space to write all your
responses. Try to use your own words and sentences as far as possible.
Later with the help of the dictionary and other books try to enhance the
effect of your writing. String your responses into a coherent meaningful
whole. Never memorize the answers. You read the fiction not to test your
memory power but enhance your systematic reading, analyzing and writing
skills.
2. Methods of Analyzing the Novel
Take into consideration the various important elements in the making of the
form of novel. Understand their nature and examine how the novelist has used
these elements in the novel. Study the relationship between each of these
elements. This process will help one to understand the meaning of the novel.
Elements of Novel
1. Plot
2. Characters
3. Theme
4. Style
5. Interpretation of life or the author’s vision of life – Meaning
2.1. Plot
Plot is the arrangement of incidents in the novel in a certain order. This gives the
novel its structure. Examine the structure and study the relationship between
each incident.
Unity of structure
The work will have a beginning, the middle and the ending. The event at the
beginning will initiate the action. The middle must follow logically from the
beginning. The end will follow as the inevitable consequences of what has gone
before.
Reversal
The students need look for a reversal in the action of the novel. The reversal
would be a change of fortune, from good to bad or bad to good. This would affect
6
the fortunes of the chief character or characters. There is a change of fortune in

the lives of Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, the vicar in Vicar of Wakefield and
Cathy in Wuthering Heights
Recognition
Recognition of something in a character, goodness or villainy or any other
valuable relationship or object or value that is responsible for the understanding
and enlightenment happens at one point of time in the development of the plot
structure. This changes the characters, their action, and events and brings
about the end. The self- recognition or recognition of a value could be a happy
one or a painful one. For the most part the meaning of the novel depends upon
this.
Irony
Irony is a major stylistic devise to create a gap between what the novel says and
what the author believes in. Irony is the disparity between appearance and
reality, statement and action, intention and result. Critical expose of characters,
society, values and philosophy are done through irony and satire.
2.2. Methods of Analyzing Characters

A novelist would employ three major strategies to portray the characters in a
novel:
1. Characterization by speech and action
The writer would characterize through their speech and action. Therefore, in
analyzing the characters the scholar will have to study closely the statements
and actions of the characters. One has to look for the irony also.
2. Discussion by other characters
We learn about a character from what the other characters say about this
character. One has to be careful in evaluating the statements of the other
characters. The validity of the statements has to be judged on the reliability of
the speaking character.
3. Description and Comment
The novelist would describe the character directly through comments on the
personality and actions of the character concerned. There would be the physical
description also.
The character analysis would involve a close analysis of other strategies of
character portrayal too. The following are some of the devises used by a novelist
for character portrayal:
4. Character Development
There are mainly two types of characters in the novel form namely, static and
round characters.
7
These types have specific purposes in a novel. The ‘flat characters’ do not
undergo changes in the course of a novel. These characters help the novelist to
throw more light on the only one aspect of the human nature that the novelist
wants to criticize or glorify. Such characters are usually used in ‘loose plotted’
novels or picaresque novels where the main purpose of the writer is to criticize
the society. Such types are used in novels of social criticism.
On the other hand, ‘round characters’ (three dimensional) have a logical
connection with the events and actions. They influence the events in the novel,
and the events will have their impact on characters too. In analyzing such
characters, the relationship between the characters and the action has to be
studied for commenting upon the character traits.
5. character relationships and character contrasts

One way of studying a character is by studying the contrast with other
characters. Usually the novelist will offer these contrast characters or ‘foil
characters’ to make their meaning clear.
Another way of studying a character in contrast is to notice the different ways in
which a particular character speaks or behaves to different characters.
6. Humorous characters
Ben Jonson and George Chapman were responsible in creating such satirical
characters of class types. They are representative of a class. The purpose of such
creations is to ridicule the follies of contemporary life.
3. Methods of Analyzing for themes in the novel

Look for a number of ideas, values, attitudes, emotions and feelings that are
significant in the novel around which the events are arranged and the characters
are made to act.
The novelist might have argued for or against certain of these ideas or values.
When the novelist argues against a certain idea or notion, there will be the use
of ironic style. A student of literature must be able to find the irony in situations
and characters and comment on them.
To analyze any theme, select incidents and characters that has relevance to the
particular theme and examines them for its significance.
4. Methods of Analyzing Style

Style has a number of different components:
• Diction: Diction is the choice of words to express ideas. The use of
appropriate diction in the conversations of the characters sets the style.
• Imagery: An author gives meaning and richness to his work by metaphors,
similes and pictorial language.
8
• Irony: Irony is the contrast of seeming and being, of statement and actuality.
• Epigram: An epigram is a witty, pointed saying, often with balanced phrases
or clauses.
Point of View: The angle in which the story is narrated in a work of fiction is
called ‘point of view’. This becomes important for analysis of meaning. The ‘first
person narrative’ means that the central character in the novel narrates the
story (Vicar of Wakefield). Sometimes the novelist narrates the story in the ‘third
person narrative’ (Pride and Prejudice) which will be that of the omniscient
author (the all knowing). Some novels are narrated in multiple points of view
where there is more than one narrator (Wuthering Heights) .
9
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813)

JANE AUSTEN (1773-1817)
CONTENT
1. Introduction
2. Jane Austen
2.1. Jane Austen’ Literary Career
2.2. Literary Background and Contemporary Writers
2.3. Jane Austen’s World
2.4. Jane Austen’s Contribution
3. The Novel
3.1. Structure of the Novel
3.2. Summary
4. Themes
4.1. Love and Marriage
4.2. Illusions and Truth
4.3. Theme of Self- Realization
4.4. Nobility and Craftiness
5. Characters
5.1. Elizabeth Bennet
5.2. Darcy
6. Questions for Study
1. INTRODUCTION
Jane Austen’s contribution to the world of fiction writing is noteworthy and

singular. She has created a new genre called the Novel of Manners like the
Comedy of manners in drama. Her Pride and Prejudice(1813) is a domestic
comedy full of irony and satire criticizing the contemporary manners. She
presents the contrasting worlds of the women and men of the late eighteenth
century representing their foibles, weakness and strengths. One set of
characters come under heavy satire. Austen’s novels revolve around the social
aspect of providing proper husband and wives for marriageable sons and
10
daughters of the socialites. In the six novels published between 1811 and 1817
Austen revealed the possibility of producing domestic literature. She refined on
the existing models to produce novels of social satire. One has to appreciate the
boldness of Jane Austen to differ from the mainstream writing of her times. This
was the age of Walter Scott, who breathed life into the dry bones of history
bringing events and characters from far off times.
Jane Austen’s England between 1775- 1817 was a world of wars, revolutions
and changes in industry and agriculture. The social fabric of England had gone
through a sea of change that one comes across in the works of Dickens, George
Eliot and Thackeray of the 19th century. Jane Austen was born during the
American Revolution, lived through the famous French Revolution and
Napoleonic Wars that lasted until 1815. Though she was quite aware of all these
socio-political-historical events, she chose to represent the social scene that she
had a first hand account. In fact, her brothers served in the Army and Navy. One
of her cousins was guillotined in the French Revolution. However, she does not
indulge in delineating these particular and more historically significant stories,
though she refers to them in her works. Her characters and events are selected
from the narrow range she knew best. Peoples and scenes she knew intimately
and from personal observation found a place in the novels. As such, there is a
heavy sense of authentication in her writings.
2. JANE AUSTEN
2.1. Jane Austen’s Literary Career

When Jane Austen was twenty in 1795, she wrote her first book ‘Eleanor and
Marianne’, a novel in the form of letters. Later, she rewrote it as Sense and
Sensibility. In 1796, she wrote First Impressions, later recast as Pride and
Prejudice. The novel Northanger Abbey, a satire on Gothic novels was
published in 1798.
Mature Writings
Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 after several revisions. ‘First
Impressions’ went through several revisions and was finally published as Pride
and Prejudice in 1813. Mansfield Park was begun in 1811 and was complete
in 1814. She put her facts very accurately and as she was describing the
topography she made enquiries as to whether the Government House at
Gibraltar was there and if so, its exact location. She started writing Emma in
1814. She herself was comparing Emma with Pride and Prejudice and
Mansfield Park in one of her letters:
I am strongly haunted with the idea that to those readers who have preferred
‘Pride and Prejudice’ this will appear inferior in wit, and to those who have
preferred ‘Mansfield Park’ inferior in good sense.
Jane Austen died in 1817 and her work ‘Sanditon’ remains to this day
incomplete.
11
2.2. Literary Background and Contemporary Writers

Jane Austen was writing at the time of transition. The Age of Reason, a literary
movement that stressed on reason and critical attitude that spanned from
1700s( 18th century) of Addison and Steele , Defoe, Richardson, Dryden, Pope
and Dr.Johnson, was slowly waning to give way to the revival of ‘Romantic
movement’ that stressed on sentiments, passion and emotion. Jane Austen,
writing at the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, very
cleverly presents a combination of the sense and sensibility as one of the titles of
her novels ‘Sense and Sensibility’ seems to suggest.
Contemporary Novelists
Miss Burney and Maria Edgeworth were notable women writers who practiced
the ‘Novel of Manners’ genre. Smollet excelled in realism. He mixed realism of
sentiments with the supernatural elements to create the mystery and the magic.
Horace Walpole, Clara Reeve and Anne Radcliffe reveled in the Gothic Romances.
This led to the romantic novels of the 19th century like Jane Eyre of Charlottle
Bronte.
Historical novels also existed at this time. The greatest practitioner of such a
form was Walter Scott. Scott excelled in historical romances, portraying the
contentions between the houses of York and Lancaster. Some of Scott’s novels
captured the entire period of English history.
In Jane Austen, one could discern the critic of romance and the contemporary
manners, which produces the fine satire. Her novels are a reaction to crime and
the nightmare romances. It is primarily a comic version of the gothic romances
and could well be called a burlesque (parody) of the high sentimentality on the
lines of Joseph Andrews. Austen takes a critical view of the manners of her
times and ironically treats the follies and defects in contemporary manners.
The influences on Jane Austen are the female writers and the genre of domestic
satire.
Charlotte Lenox’s The Female Quixote (1752) published in the middle of this
century was a satire on the 17th century French romances. This was one of the
formidable influence on Jane Austen to ridicule sentiments, horror and terror.
The slamming down on false tastes and behavior caused by reading romances
and melodramatic literature. The feminine trivialities that come under attack by
Jane Austen in her novels and especially Pride and Prejudice are self-deception
encouraged by wrong standards and ideals, the attempt to live up to impossible
standards of life, that is far beyond the reach of ordinary people. The romantic
attitude burlesqued in the ‘Female Quixote’ involves an exaggerated vindication
of the rights of women and a rejection of all restraints.
Fanny Burney works Evelina, Cecilia and Camilla generated a frame work of
contrasting characters, one of sense and the other of absurdities. Jane Austen
follows this model and she uses this as a technique to present parody. Many
critics compare Pride and Prejudice to that of Fanny Burney’s ‘Evelina’.
12
Charlotte Smith influenced Jane Austen largely in the use of picturesque and
natural scenes as a background to the novel.
Maria Edgeworth used humor in her novels and it ranged from farce to subtle
suggestion of parody. Jane Austen’s presentation of varieties of human
characters, with a mixture of wit, humor and denigration without sacrificing the
purpose of moralizing on the best social manners, was unmistakably on the
lines of Maria Edgeworth
The feminine point of view decenters the central role so far afforded to the male
characters in the novel. The women novelists, authentically, presenting feminine
perception of the world and men empower women to such an extent that man is
thought of in respect to his position as a husband to a worthy lady. The other
peripherals of a woman’s world, like the feminine dress, gains importance in
such a novel. The novels before the advent of these women writers were written
by men and for men. However, the novels of Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth,
Charlotte Smith and Jane Austen were written for woman readers from the point
of view of women. Naturally these novels contained aspects that interest women.
2.3. Jane Austen’s World

Jane Austen rose to the universal distinction of being acclaimed as the master of
Novel Manners. She was able to attain this by working with the limited materials
at hand provide by her quiet life around her.
She was brought- up in the countryside amid the beautiful natural scenery.
However, her interest lay in the human landscape of her immediate society,
especially her family members. Jane Austen was a great fan of Dr.Johnson,
Cowper and Goldsmith. Her likings for the critical view of social absurdities
forming the core in contemporary fiction started early in her life and continued
until the end, which largely shaped the ironic style in her writings. Jane Austen,
enjoying the company of her sister and a lot of time at her disposal started to
write in the burlesque tradition early in her life. The main purpose of her early
writings was to satirize the false conventions, which governed the attitudes of
the people of her times.
The frequent visits of her family friends and relatives and her stay at their
homes gave her a chance to be acquainted with a wide range of human foibles
and characters. Though the range of her acquaintances comprised of her
immediate friends and relatives, she was able to discern deeply the various
dimensions of their character.
Pride and Prejudice was first written in the letter form (epistolary) entitled First
Impressions in 1798. Jane Austen read the work to her sister Cassandra and
other family members. When it was submitted for publication, it was rejected
and later after several revisions only in 1813, it was published entitled Pride and
Prejudice. Therefore, this particular novel had been thoroughly revised.
The misfortunes in the life of Jane Austen left her depressed and sick until
1809, when she and her sister took over the responsibility raising eleven of their
13
nieces and nephews. She started revising Sense and Sensibility, Pride and
Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. After the publication of these works, she
took up the revision of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Before her death in
1817, she began the comedy Sandition, which to this day remains incomplete.
2.4. Jane Austen’s Contribution

Jane Austen enjoys a very exceptional position in the history of English
literature for her unique qualities a fiction writer. She has combined
romanticism with reason and ridicule to the extent of producing full-length
satirical fiction, par excellence. She has refined and created the genres of Novels
Manners, Comedy of Manners in fiction and domestic Fiction.
Critics view her as having great mastery over characterization and detailed
description of events and topography. The characters and incidents, however,
common they may be, make everlasting impressions upon the readers. Several of
her fictional characters have become elastic characters and their names have
become household names. Elizabeth, Darcy, Emma, Bennet, Bingley and Lydia,
Catherene and William Collins are familiar characters. Commenting on the
realistic moral view of Jane Austen Lord David Cecil(1935) wrote:
……Like all great comedian, she satirizes in relation to a universal standard of
values: her books express a general view of life. It is the view of that eighteenth-
century civilization of which she was the last exquisite blossom. One might call
it the moral-realistic view. Jane Austen was profoundly moral. She thought you
lived only to be good, that it was the first duty of everyone to be sincere,
unselfish and disinterested…..She had little sympathy for romantic imprudence
or credulous good nature; she was impatient of people with hearts of gold and
heads of wood.
Chapman wondering the depth of characterization says:

Returning again and again to Mr.Darcy, one pays Jane Austen the compliment
of deciding that there was more to him than she knew. He was that cloudy
outline important characters should have: does not seem to have been created in
the limited brain-bound sense so much as observed fleetingly out of the corner
of an eye, recollected uncertainly, speculated upon. One takes him to be a
devious, constantly self-regarding and very passionate man- but he soars out of
the picture. In a woman writer’s book, any man, who is intended to be either
important or majestic, ought to have this quality.
3. THE NOVEL
3.1. STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL

In analyzing structure of the novel, one should identify the main action in the
beginning, the middle and the end of the novel. The events and the statements
of the characters that are woven into the story give life to the story.
14
The beginning:
The action of the novel is initiated by the arrival of the two young, eligible
bachelors
(Darcy and Bingley) in the neighborhood Longbourn. Darcy is, initially,

presented as flamboyant and rude whereas, Bingley is sociable. Darcy develops
certain hatred toward Elizabeth and looks down upon her. Further Darcy hurts
Elizabeth’s pride and thus is the cause for her prejudice against him.
The middle:
The action further develops in terms of deepening the prejudice of Elizabeth

towards Darcy and on the part of Darcy there is a reversal of responses towards
Elizabeth.
Several incidents and the statements of characters bring out these aspects. The
novel abounds in a display of wit and wisdom of Elizabeth that justifies the
positive responses of several characters towards Elizabeth, including Darcy.
There is another reversal, this time on the part of Elizabeth. She changes her
opinion of Darcy and realizes her folly of believing Wickham. Several incidents,
turn of events, statements of the characters subtly and delicately draws the
contours of the reversal.
Darcy and Elizabeth love each other but their pride stops them from openly
confessing the truth.
The End:
The successful conclusion of the story is brought about by Lady Catherine’s

negative role. Lady Catherine is against the idea of her nephew marrying
Elizabeth. Therefore, she forces Elizabeth to promise to her that she will not
marry Darcy to which Elizabeth refuses. Unwittingly, Lady Catherine reports
this matter to Darcy by which he comes to know the truth that Elizabeth loves
him. Encouraged by this knowledge, he decides to propose to her. The story
comes to a happy- ending with all the conflicts reconciled.
3.2. SUMMARY
Mr and Mrs. Bennet live in Longbourn, a village in Hertfordshire. They have five
daughters and two sons. Mr.Bennet is the antithesis of Mrs.Bennet. He is
sarcastic, humorous, reserved, quiet, studious and indolent by nature. Mrs.
Bennet is immature, has less exposure to people and their nature, eyes on a life
of comfort, status and leisure. Her primary aim in life is to see to it that her
daughters get married to rich young men of social status and class. The eldest
daughter Jane is beautiful but not so intelligent like her younger sister
Elizabeth. Elizabeth on the other hand is intelligent, witty, and mature. She has
good sense and good manners. She is widely read, exercises good judgment on
15
men and matters, honest, sincere and affectionate. The other three girls are not
as intelligent as Elizabeth. Mary is fond of reading; Catherine and Lydia spend
most of their time in hunting for a suitable husband, especially from the
military.
Mrs.Bennet comes to hear about Mr.Bingley, a person of class and status, who
had come to live in the neighborhood. With a view that one of her daughters
could marry him, she urges Mr.Bennet to visit him. He does not like it but
without anybody knowing it, he pays a visit to him. The Bennets have a chance
to meet Bingley with his friend Darcy at a ball.
Darcy disdains Elizabeth as he does with all women and refuses to dance with
her. Elizabeth is hurt. Bingley, on the other hand, is attracted to Jane and he
moves with every one freely. Lydia is frivolous and self-centered. Jane, later,
confides to Elizabeth her liking for Bingley and describes him as ‘sensible, good-
humoured and lively, with ease and perfect good-breeding’. Elizabeth cautions
her and disagrees to most of the observations of Jane. Darcy and Bingley seem
to be very good friends and Bingley for the most part relies upon Darcy’s
judgment. Darcy emerges as ‘haughty, reserved and fastidious and his manners
though well bred were not inviting.’ The two characters stand in contrast to each
other.
Jane deepens her interest for Bingley. Miss.Bingley and Mrs.Hurst visit
Longbourn. They seem to like Jane and Elizabeth. However, they feel that the
other two sisters are not worth speaking about. Darcy reverses his responses
towards Elizabeth. Darcy starts respecting and liking Elizabeth’s mature
understanding, witty repartee, wisdom, prudence, judgment and reserved
nature. However, Elizabeth refuses to dance with Darcy. She believes that Darcy
is proud and haughty. On the contrary, Darcy becomes conscious of the charms
of Elizabeth.
Mrs.Bennet’s sister is married to Mr.Philips and they live at Meryton.

Mrs.Bennet’s younger daughters, Kitty (Catherine) and Lydia pay their visits to
Meryton and take interest in the news. They show special interest in the
oncoming event of the camp of the regiment of officers at Meryton for the winter.
At home, they keep talking about the army officers. Mr.Bennet does not like it
and comments that they are the silliest of the girls in the neighborhood.
However, Mrs.Bennet approves of their interest in the army officers, hoping that
they might end up hooking one of them.
Jane is sent by Mrs,Bennet to Netherfield with the hope that Bingley’s attraction
for Jane would result in their wedding. She contrives to send Jane on horse
back so that she may catch cold and thus conveniently find a reason to stay
there for sometime. Jane becomes ill with severe cold and Elizabeth rushes to
her help. As Jane’s condition worsens, Elizabeth asks her mother to visit them.
Accordingly, Mrs.Bennet with Lydia and Kitty visits Netherfield. Her offensive
manners and silly behavior earns a bad name. Lydia and Kitty exhibit
themselves as lacking in good sense in sound judgment. On the other hand,
Darcy and Bingley’s family members find Elizabeth to be sensible, intelligent,
16
having a sound judgment of character and pleasant manners. Her behavior

turns out to be natural, sincere and dignified in contrast to Miss.Bingley’s in her
attempt to corner Darcy’s attention. Darcy’s positive responses to Elizabeth
increases further but decides to keep it secret.
Mr.Collins, a foolish and odd character and a cousin of Mr.Bennet,who would

inherit the property of Mr.Bennet as Mr.Bennet did not have any male issues,
visits their house. He is employed by Lady Catherine, the aunt of Darcy, as the
rector of the parish at Rosings. Collins seems to think that his prime objective in
life is to flatter Catherine, his patron. He intends to marry Jane and when he
comes to know that Jane is about to be engaged, decides to marry Elizabeth.
Mrs.Bennet, whose ambition in life is to see her daughters married, encourages
this. Mr.Collins leaves for Meryton with the Bennet sisters. There Lydia meets
her acquaintance called Denny and his friend one Mr.Wickam, an army officer.
Next day at a gathering, every one finds Wickam’s manners very graceful and
pleasing. He does everything with a grace. He creates a favorable impression on
Elizabeth. Eloquent and convincing in his talk, he makes Elizabeth believe that
Darcy is vindictive and jealous and because of him,Wickham has suffered a lot.
Elizabeth tells Jane whatever Wickham has told her. Jane does not think Darcy
as capable of such villainy and warns Elizabeth against believing this story. At
the long expected Netherfield ball, the convergence of the important characters,
Elizabeth, Jane, the Bingley sisters, Bingley and Darcy takes place. Elizabeth,
having developed an interest in Wickam hopes to meet at the ball. However, he
does not turn up and Elizabeth accepts to dance with Darcy when asked for.
While dancing she accuses Darcy of all the wrong doings for Wickham. Darcy
hints that Wickham is not a good person. Elizabeth hears that Wickham has
gone to London on some business. Miss Bingley warns Elizabeth of Wickham.
Collins makes a formal proposal to Elizabeth and she refuses him. Mrs.Bennet
compels her to accept him and she asks her husband to talk to Elizabeth in this
regard. Mr.Bennet refuses to support the foolish Collins. Charlotte Lucas, a good
friend of Elizabeth comes to visit the Bennets at this time and immediately
Collins turns his attention towards her and successfully proposes to her. Jane
receives a letter from Miss Bingley that informs of the likelihood of Bingley
marrying Miss Darcy. Elizabeth’s suspects Darcy’s hand in persuading Bingley
against marrying Jane.Mrs.Bennet’s brother Gardiner and his wife offer to take
Jane and Elizabeth to London. Mrs. Gardiner warns Elizabeth against Wickham.
Elizabeth listens to this good piece of advice.
Collins is married to Charlotte Lucas. Elizabeth and Jane pay a visit to their
house at Rosings. Elizabeth meets Lady Catherine there and understands that
she is not well disposed to her. After some time days Lady Catherine’s nephews,
Darcy and Fitzwilliam pay a visit to Rosings and the vicarage. Fitzwilliam seems
to be amiable whereas Darcy keeps his usual haughtiness. Elizabeth takes an
instant liking to Fitzwilliam. Later on Darcy and Fitzwilliam pay frequent visits
to the vicarage. Elizabeth, in one of her long walks, meets Fitzwilliam and learns
from him that Darcy was responsible for Bingley not marrying Jane. Elizabeth is
quiet angry with Darcy.
17
The next day Darcy pays a visit to enquire about Elizabeth’s health. He comes
towards Elizabeth and expresses his deep love and admiration for her. Elizabeth
is taken aback by this sudden expression of love. However, retaining the
prejudice for his haughty nature and harboring deep resentment for what he has
done to Jane’s happiness, she is very angry with him. Elizabeth confronts him
with several accusations of wrong doings that has robbed people their happiness
and good fortune, including her sister Jane’s. Darcy, surprised at Elizabeth’s
anger, leaves the place.
Next day, Darcy approaches Elizabeth in the course of her morning walk, and
gives a letter to her and walks away. In this letter, he has explained the villainy
and bad character of Wickam. He justifies his act of dissuading Bingley from
marrying Jane by saying that he did not like stupid girls like Lydia, Cathy and
Maria being the relatives of Bingley. As for Jane, he explains that he had
mistaken the serene expression of Jane for aloofness and therefore he thought
that she was not in love with Bingley. Elizabeth reads the letter of Darcy several
times and using her wisdom and good judgment, she arrives at the conclusion
that the justifications Darcy has put forward for his actions were true. Elizabeth
later returns to Longbourn. Back home, Elizabeth found Lydia anxious to go to
Brighton. She wanted her father to dissuade her from going there for she was
apprehensive that Lydia would flirt with the army officers there and bring a bad
repute to the family. However, her father was not interested and Lydia left for
Brighton.
Elizabeth leaves for a tour of the countryside along with her uncle and aunt,
Mr and Mrs Gardiner. On the way tempted by the beauty of Pemberley, the
country- seat of Darcy, they visit the place. Elizabeth is pleasantly surprised to
know newer aspects of Darcy’s character. Mrs.Reynolds, the housekeeper, says
that she knows Darcy from his infancy and he is the sweetest person on earth
with a generous heart. According to her, he is the best landlord and master
possible on earth. As Elizabeth and her uncle and aunt are strolling at the
Pemberley Park, Darcy suddenly appears and invites them home. His usual
haughtiness is gone and his manners are polite and polished. Elizabeth realizes
that her former notions of Darcy were incorrect and that he is really is good and
kind. Elizabeth is very happy.
The next day Elizabeth receives the shocking news that her sister Lydia had
eloped with Wickham. Darcy promises to help and Elizabeth hurriedly leaves for
Longbourn. Mrs.Bennet becomes sick because of the shock and every one at
home is sad and ashamed at the act of Lydia. Elizabeth learns that her father
has already left for London in search of Lydia. Mr.Gardiner leaves for London
and he sends Mr.Bennet back to Longbourn with the promise that he would
search for Lydia and inform them when he finds them. At last, Lydia and
Wickham have been found and to the dismay of everyone Wickham puts several
conditions to marry Lydia. In short, Mr.Bennet should arrange to pay back all
his debts and arrange for a steady income for them. Mr.Bennet is disgusted.
Later they hear that Lydia and Wickham are married and Darcy was present for
their marriage. Elizabeth later learns that Darcy had arranged for the settlement
of Wickham’s debts and has given a considerable amount of money.
18
Bingley arrives at Longbourn and proposes to Jane and they are engaged to be
married soon. At this time surprisingly, Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth and
compels her to promise not to marry Darcy. Elizabeth refuses to make the
promise. Lady Catherine complains to Darcy of Elizabeth’s refusal to comply
with her request. Darcy comes to know that Elizabeth loves him. He comes to
meet Elizabeth and straight away proposes to her. Elizabeth accepts his
proposal. Jane and Bingley, Darcy and Elizabeth get married and Mrs.Bennet
becomes very happy that her daughters are getting married at last and that
Elizabeth marries the richest person in the neighborhood.
4. THEMES
4.1. Love and Marriage

The aspect of getting people engaged and married is one of the important themes
which the novelist takes up for treatment.
The novel sets the tone with the following significant statement:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune must be in want of a wife”
The irony lies in the use of the phrase ‘universally acknowledged’ for it is not
accepted by all but most of the people in the eighteenth century England which
Jane Austen criticizes through the characters of Mrs.Bennet and Elizabeth
Bennet. Jane Austen while capturing the focus of the eighteenth century society
and its concerns with love and marriage had her own deep convictions about
love and marriage. In the depiction of the love and marriage of Elizabeth and
Darcy she makes her statement: Prudence and love are essential in love and
marriage. It is wrong to marry merely for money and meekly for the sake of
marriage. Young men and women should be married for love certainly and that
too in satisfactory conditions. The characters who act against this value are
treated ironically. Several incidents are contrived to show how life becomes
unhappy by committing the folly of non-conformance to the values of life.
4.2. Illusions and Truth
Jane Austen’s novels and especially Pride and Prejudice abound in the
shattering of illusion as a painful process to the discovery of truth. Darcy and
Elizabeth live in delusions because of excessive pride leading to prejudice.
Illusions disappear as the pride that has hidden their vision falls away as the
events unfold.
19
4.3. Theme of Self-Realization

Self-restraint and self-recognition are two virtues, which Jane Austen extols in
her work. Lydia Bennet, the sister of Elizabeth stands as an example of warning.
She neither has any self-control nor understands her own desires. As a contrast
to her the mature and self- controlled Elizabeth wins the heart of every one.
4.4. Nobility versus Craftiness
Elizabeth and Darcy stand as personifications of nobility. Several other
characters like Wickham stand for deception and craftiness. In the process of
interaction between such characters, Darcy and Elizabeth show their strength
and resilience against deception.
5. CHARACTERS
5.1. Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth Bennet, the central character of Pride and Prejudice is a lovable
character. She is full of pride and also prejudice but seasoned with good
judgment and wisdom. Prudence is one of her forte. She is completely devoid of
any ostentation. Jane Austen herself states: “I must confess that I think her as
delightful as ever appeared in print: how I shall be able to tolerate those who not
like her, at least I do not know.” Elizabeth Bennet is clever, witty, lively and
vivacious. She has a gift for quick repartee and perfect command of concise
expression, seasoned with prudence.
She is not as beautiful as her elder sister Jane. At first, even Darcy is not
attracted to her. Slowly to Darcy’s eyes, Elizabeth looks different as he says:
“….the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman
can bestow.” Colonel Fitzwilliam finds her pretty. Miss.Bingley, slightly jealous,
maintains that Elizabeth has ‘no beauty’. However, her manners, quick wit,
sincerity, good sense and natural vivaciousness attract everybody including
Darcy that he says: “… loveliest Elizabeth”.
Elizabeth always displays proper upbringing and social manners whereas her
mother and younger sisters do not know what is right and proper. Lydia is
showy and foolish. Miss.Bingley too stands out in contrast to Elizabeth’s good
breeding. In attempting to rival for the attention of Darcy, she becomes foolish.
Though Elizabeth at a later stage develops love for Darcy, she never condescends
to flatter him. She restrains herself and never loses her balance. This balance
and restraint are indicative of a mature personality. Even her mother
Mrs.Bennet is not as mature as Elizabeth is.
Darcy starts admiring Elizabeth’s honesty and straight forwardness. She is witty
and vivacious tempered with silence and respect. Elizabeth has certain strong
values regarding love and marriage. She believes one should not marry for the
sake of marriage without love and affection. She is of the opinion that money
without human love and affection has no place in one’s life. She does not clamor
20
to get the attention of Darcy just because he is handsome or very rich. She
refuses to marry Collins also though her mother wanted her as that life would
offer Elizabeth a comfortable monetary status. When she found Darcy as a kind,
generous and a good human being worthy enough to be admired and loved that
she could accept his proposal for marriage. She stands an antithesis for her
mother’s values regarding love and marriage.
Miss.Bingley and Mrs. Hurst abuse Elizabeth for having pride, impertinence and
conceit.
Elizabeth herself accepts that she has the habit of laughing at other’s follies:
I hope I never ridicule what is wise or good. Follies and nonsense, whims and
inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can….”(P&P:
Chapter XI)
Elizabeth always is proud of her upbringing and holds on to her status as a
respectable young woman. Elizabeth is well aware of her intellectual
accomplishments and good sense and judgment that naturally breed a sense of
pride. This sense of pride is responsible for her prejudice too. Her pride at
certain points of time seems blown out of proportion in her relationship with
Darcy. Elizabeth is prejudiced towards Darcy and her pride and prejudice are
faults. However, this pride is regarding her family, her upbringing,
accomplishments are worthy of her character and not a mere vanity. Moreover,
her prejudice rightly stems from the behavior of Darcy. Only when she comes to
know of Darcy and understand that he is really worthy of her does Elizabeth
sheds her reserve and starts loving Darcy. Therefore, at that particular point of
time she is justified to be proud and prejudiced.
Hurt by Darcy’s haughty behavior, she develops a strong prejudice against him
to the extent of even wrong judgment of his several actions. This leads even to
her wrong-headed and foolish liking for Wickham, a bad person. She, however,
is sensible enough to take good advice. Mrs.Gardiner warns her of the
imprudent affection for Wickham and Elizabeth takes the advice. Her good
nature and values gives her the right judgment and perceive the goodness of
Darcy.
When Mrs. Hurst and Miss.Bingley first meet Elizabeth at Netherfield, they take
an instant liking for the positive personality of Elizabeth. Her devotion to her
ailing sister Jane and unselfishness earns her admiration of good and worthy
people. Even Darcy, who hated and insulted her in the beginning, starts to
admire and respect her.
Critics debate on the issue of Jane Austen portraying Elizabeth as her own
replica. Somerset Maugham remarks:
If, as some have thought, she was herself the original for her portrait of
Elizabeth: and she has certainly given her own gaiety, high spirit and courage,
wit and readiness, good sense and right feeling, it is perhaps not rash to
suppose that when she drew the placid, kindly and beautiful Jane Bennet she
had in mind her sister Cassandra.
21
5.2. Darcy
Darcy makes a bad impression on everybody, the characters and the readers
alike. He is haughty, reserved and aloof. He has a low opinion on women and
looks down upon them as frivolous and trivial needing no respect or recognition.
As such, he refuses to dance with Elizabeth for the same reason. He is rude to
the extent of insulting Elizabeth. His pride in his own accomplishments and his
prejudice as to the frivolous nature of the female gender makes him to commit
the folly of not understanding the true worth of Elizabeth.
However, the open- minded reader and other characters in the novel are ready to
see the good qualities of Darcy. He is intelligent enough to discern the positive
qualities of Elizabeth and the wile nature of Miss.Bingley. He is humble enough
to make amends for his behavior to Elizabeth, irrespective of her status. He
remains strong and steady in his feelings towards Elizabeth at great odds. He
does not tolerate the silly behavior of Mrs.Bennet, Lydia and Kitty. He is well
disposed to the Gardiners even though they are not very rich and they reside at
Cheapside of London. To a certain extent, he is insensitive to the pain that he
would cause to others by his insolent behavior. Nevertheless, when taught a
lesson he is ready to make amends. He admits his former faults to Elizabeth and
thanks her for teaching him a lesson, “hard indeed at first, but most
advantageous.”
Darcy’s housekeeper at Pemberley, brings out his positive side. She explains
how Darcy is a man who takes care to keep up a fine library, admires a woman
who improves her mind with reading, and is remarkably good- tempered. He is
kind, generous, honest, sincere and affectionate. This is an eye- opener even to
Elizabeth, who is supposed to be wise enough to discern truth beyond the
seeming appearance. Darcy proves in action whatever his housekeeper has
said of him. He is too generous to advance large sums of money in favor of
Wickham and Lydia. He is personally involved in bringing Wickham to marry
Lydia and save her honor.
Darcy is tall, handsome, witty, clever, fastidious, good, sincere, a little haughty
but nevertheless generous and sympathetic. Even Jane Austen could not fathom
his character. Darcy’s character remains to be an outline and the incidents
bring to light only the glimpses of the unfathomable depth. The great critic
Chapman rightly captures this aspect in his comment:
Returning again and again to Mr.Darcy, one pays Jane Austen the compliment
of deciding that there was more to him than she knew. He has that cloudy
outline important characters should have; does not seem to have been ‘created’
in the limited brain- bound sense so much as observed fleetingly out of the
corner of an eye, recollected uncertainly, speculated upon. One takes him to be
a devious, constantly self- regarding and very passionate man- but he soars out
of the picture most of him happens off. In woman- writer’s book, any man who is
intended to be either important or magnetic ought to have this quality.
22
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Show how Darcy is characterized by the author’s descriptions, by the
comments of others, and by his own speech and actions?
2. Show how the pride and prejudice in Elizabeth, influences her responses
towards Darcy.
3. Justify the title ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
4. What attitudes to marriage can be discerned in Jane Austen’s account of Mr.
and Mrs. Bennet, Charlottle Lucas and Mr.Collins and Lydia Bennet?
5. Compare and contrast the views of Elizabeth and her mother on the subject
of marriage.
6. How does Jane Austen bring several view points in the course of the novel/
7. Comment on the irony and satire of Jane Austen.
8. Consider Pride and Prejudice as a ‘domestic novel’.
9. Consider Pride and Prejudice as ‘Novel of Manners’.
10. ‘Jane Austen combines instruction with amusement’- comment
23
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (1952)

ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899- 1961)
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
1.1. The Author
2. Summary
3. The Source
4. Themes
4.1. Religious theme
4.2. Nature and Human Bonding
4.3. No man is an Island
5. Characters
5.1. Santiago
5.2. Manolin
5.3. The Fish – Marlin
5.4. The Sharks
6. Language and Style
1. INTRODUCTION
The Old Man and Sea (1952) is a profound exploration of human relationship
with nature and the human place in nature. Santiago’s role as a fisherman who
must catch fish in order to live presents a situation where his survival is against
the deep love for nature for he has to kill to survive. Hemingway presents, in the
course of Santiago’s ordeal, the surfacing of his extraordinary sensitivity to his
environment and the elements of the environment (the fish). He develops a love
for the fish. In fact, his natural piety is in large part a function of his identity as
fisherman. Santiago has the hard-earned vision of nature.
24
1.1. The Author
Ernest Millar Hemingway (1899-1961) was born on 21 July 1899 in Chicago,

Illinois as the second child of a large middle class family. His father Clarence
Hemingway was a doctor with a passion for hunting and fishing which
Hemingway inherited. His mother was an opera singer. At school, Hemingway
was a talented student with special interest in reading and writing. Later he
joined the army service during the First World War. Hemingway went through
the extremes of courage, fear of violent death and on several occasions, he was
on the verge of being killed. These aspects, in fact, were the themes in several of
his writings. By 1930s, he was an established novelist. His involvement with the
Spanish turmoil in 1939 gave the conviction what a writer should do for human
rights and dignity. During the Second World War he was reporting the
happenings as a journalist. Throughout his lifetime, he met with several near
fatal accidents that led him into ill health and depression. In 1961, he
committed suicide.
His profession of being a journalist greatly helped him in developing an objective
and lucid prose style. The various war experiences and civilian trauma all over
the world provided him with the themes for his writings. In his writings, he
attempted recording the events as truly as possible. He believed if he puts down
what actually happened the reader would experience the emotion left out from
the writing.
When he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Hemingway sent an
acceptance message that presents his aesthetics:
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for
something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that
has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with
great luck, he will succeed.
2. SUMMARY
The old fisherman, Santiago, has gone for eighty-four days without catching a
single fish. He is regarded as salao (extremely unlucky) in the Cuban village
where he lives. Manolin, who assists Santiago in this venture, is forced by his
parents to leave Santiago and to go with others for fishing. He does so
unwillingly. However, Santiago is cheerful and goes on with his work undaunted.
After one such return from the sea, Manolin buys him a drink in the café. They
talk about their first expedition and discuss the following day’s plans. Santiago
displays his confidence in his own vast experience in fishing. However, with all
humility accepts the boy’s offer of the bait. Many of the fishermen in the café
make fun of the old man. Santiago never reacts. Manolin further helps the old
man to carry his gear from his boat to his small hut. He fetches food and drink
provided by the café proprietor. The boy himself plans to provide the old man
with soap, towel, water and winter clothes. They sit down to talk of the great
25
baseball players and for the boy Santiago equals these great baseball heroes in
his own field. Santiago goes to sleep when the boy leaves. He dreams of his own
youth, when sailing off the coast of Africa he saw lions playing on the beach.
The next day they carry the equipments for the day’s journey into the sea.
Manolin gives Santiago sardines and fresh bait and the man leaves the harbor
intending to go far into the sea. As he journeys into the sea, he develops
sympathy and love for the creatures of the sea. He feels friendship for the flying
fish, sympathy for the small birds and love for the sea, which he thinks of as a
woman.
He sails along the current and drifts his lines each set at a precisely calculated
depth, baited properly and looped on to a stick to indicate the pull. Santiago
prides himself for the meticulous work and knowledge of fishing and he believes
that he is far more skillful than any other fisherman. He believes that he would
need luck as well as skill if at all he needs to catch a fish. As the day breaks, he
realizes that he has gone far into the sea. After seeing a school of dolphin and
noting plankton in the water, he knew that he is closing in on a big catch.
Looking at a war- ship, he feels sorry for the pain it causes to men but provides
food for the turtles, which in turn are killed by the fishermen.
To keep himself alive and strong, he catches a tuna and eats. He notices to his
surprise that he has fallen into the habit of talking to himself, a habit that began
after the boy has left. Then he feels the pull on the line and sees one of sticks
dip sharply. Santiago waits for the fish to take the bait properly. Judging the
right moment, he strikes with all his strength for the hook to get properly into
the fish. As he starts pulling the fish up, he realizes that the marlin that he has
hooked is too big for his pull. The fish starts towing him into the sea.
The fish continues to swim for several days. Santiago works to make himself
comfortable in the boat to eat, sleep and recoup his energies. He wishes that the
boy could have been with him to help him out of this ordeal. In the night, he
feels the porpoise play around the boat. He feels a sense of brotherhood towards
them. In fact, he starts to pity the big fish that he has hooked. However, he is
reaffirmed of his conviction that he was born to be a fisherman and so he has to
go on with his work. He vows to stay with the fish until he is dead.
At sunrise the next day, he realizes that the fish is not tiring. He starts admiring
the unrelenting fish in its mission of fighting for its survival. He almost loves and
respects the fish. He realizes that for his own part he has to do his job properly
by killing the fish. As time goes by, he starts feeling weak and his body starts
aching. As the fish jerks to let loose, Santiago wishes for the boy to be with him.
The fish relentlessly swims on. Santiago undergoes several disadvantages like
cramps, pain, waning strength and the strength of the fish too much against his
aging spirit and body. However, he resolves to succeed at any cost by fighting off
pain, stress and tiredness and indulges in eating, resting and revamping his
mental strength by revisiting his adventures of his youthful days and dreaming
of great feats. The next day he could feel the fish slowing down. He regarded the
stars as his friend and interestingly, he thought of the fish, which he intends to
26
kill, also as his friend. However, he feels that no one is worthy of eating the meat
of the fish.
The fish maintaining its utmost strength jumps repeatedly, making it very
difficult for Santiago to control it. However, on the third day of the catch,
Santiago’s skill has won over the brute strength and intuition of the fish. He is
able to control the fish and bring it along side the boat. With a supreme effort,
Santiago harpoons the fish. The marlin gives a last leap out of the water,
showing its size, power and beauty, and then falls back dead, discoloring the sea
with its blood. Santiago was amazed at the size of the fish and proud of what he
has achieved. Santiago and the marlin, as brothers, begin their journey back to
the shore.
An hour later, the sharks start attacking the fish, having smelt the blood. The
fearless sharks rip and tear the flesh of the fish. Santiago has no answer to the
fury of the sharks.
He continues to steer home in pain and desperation, constantly fighting off the
sharks, but he cannot save the fish. Feeling beaten, Santiago reaches the shore,
goes to his hut, and sleeps off.
The following morning the boy finds Santiago sleeping in his shack. The other
fishermen gather round the skeleton of the fish and marvel at its gigantic size.
Santiago is happy to find the boy in his shack. They both realize that Santiago
has in fact succeeded in his venture. They plan to fish in the future. Manolin
then goes to get food for the old man.
3. SOURCE
A real incident seems to have formed the base for the story. In his stint as a
journalist, Hemingway has written an article in Esquire in 1936 about such an
incident in the Gulf Stream:
Another time an old man fishing alone in a skiff out of Cabanas hooked a great
marlin that, on the heavy sashcord handline, pulled the skiff far out to sea. Two
days later the old man was picked up by fishermen sixty miles to the eastward,
the head and forward part of the marlin lashed alongside. What was left of this
fish, less than half, weighed eight hundred pounds. The old man had stayed
with him a day, a night, a day and another night while the fish swam deep and
pulled the boat. When he had come up the old man had pulled the boat up on
him and harpooned him. Lashed alongside the sharks had hit him and the old
man had fought them out alone in the Gulf Stream in a skiff, clubbing them,
stabbing at them, lunging at them with an oar until he was exhausted and the
sharks had eaten all that they could hold. He was crying in the boat when the
fishermen picked him up, half crazy from his loss, and the sharks were still
circling the boat.
27
4. THEMES
The major theme of the novel is what Hemingway has written in the novel and
illustrated through the character of Santiago. Hemingway’s dictum runs like this
in the novel: “A man can be destroyed but cannot be defeated” (p.89). From
day one, Santiago faces every ordeal with determination and courage. The
description of Santiago by the narrator right in the beginning of the novel also
stresses this fact:
Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as
the sea and were cheerful and undefeated (p.5). When he returns to the shore
with his catch destroyed by the sharks, he retains his confidence and cheer. The
novel abounds in the details of how, at every point of time when Santiago faces
the tribulations, he recoups his physical and mental strength to fight the great
ordeal.
4.1. Religious theme

Several critics attribute to the work religious significance.
Legends speak of Christ himself as the fish and Christ is known as the Fisher
king. Santiago is named after James, Christ’s apostle. The name Santiago is San
Diego in Spanish and St. James in English. Critics find a parallel to the
incidents mentioned in the gospel of St.Mathew, chapter 4, verses 18-22.
and as such, he is kind and sympathetic to all living creatures. The notions of
pain, suffering, and redemption and central to the life of Christ and these
aspects have echoes in the novel.
Critics also compare the journey into the sea and back to Jesus’ journey to
Calvary.
4.2. Nature and Human Bonding

The work abounds in the philosophy of the bond between nature and
humankind. Santiago’s responses to the creatures in the sea and his immediate
environment are one of love and sympathy. Santiago identifies himself with the
fish very strongly. The psychologists identify this feeling as empathy, which is
stronger than sympathy. When the fish has been hit, he feels that he himself is
hit.
4.3. No man is an Island

The novel extols the value of human relationship and interdependency.
Santiago, on several occasions, feels for the companionship and presence of the
boy, Manolin. On land, the boy helps, encourages and gives confidence that
Santiago very much needed on his fishing expedition. The several conversations
they had and the human companionship that they enjoyed and cherished bear
testimony to this view. They value one another’s faith, loyalty, sensitiveness and
sense of relationship.
28
5 CHARACTERS
5.1. Santiago
Santiago is the embodiment of the qualities that Hemingway admired so much.

Santiago is placed in such a circumstance that is too big for him wherein he is
called upon to display his utmost courage and endurance. Santiago stands to
prove the Hemingway Code that ‘a man can be destroyed but not defeated’. The
resilience of Santiago is unbelievable; however, Hemingway wanted him to go
through such sufferings to show the stringent requirements for survival in a
hostile world.
Santiago’s display of great fortitude and courage is the result of the belief that a
man should always be true to himself. His staunch resolution stems from his
conviction that he was ‘born to be a fisherman and must always fish to the best
of his ability’. Santiago knows that he has the best skill as a fisherman and all
that he needs to do in the crisis is to display such skills. Hemingway creates his
character as a person who is proud to be skillful and happy about it even at the
danger of losing his life. Santiago, unconsciously, compares himself with other
fishermen, and feels proud to be more skillful than them instead of feeling sad
about the situation in which he is placed:
I could just drift, he thought, and sleep and put a bight of line around my tjoe to
wake me. But today is eighty-five days and I should fish the day well.(p.33)
Every time that he sets out to sea, each day is fresh for him and he feels that he
must prove his ability anew like a small boy eager to prove his worth. He feels: “
I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this.”
Santiago has humility and true pride, which enhances his self-esteem. The
dignity and pride in his own ability springs from the realization and knowledge
that he need not be ashamed of himself for whatever has happened and rather
he need only to show the grit he possesses when he is called upon to display.
He is humble and this is shown in his loving relationship with the fish and other
small creatures of the sea. He respects the moods of the sea and admires the
might of the sun, the moon and the stars. He admires the fish and gives it the
due respect. The respect slowly changes to love. He feels sorry that he had to kill
the fish with love. He respects the birds and the small fish, yet he knows he has
to kill the fish and eat for his survival. He shows affection sympathy and
gentleness:
He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean.
He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were
always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought. The birds
have a harder life than we do except for the robber birds and the heavy strong
ones. (p. 22)
Santiago emerges as superior to every one, the other fishermen, the tourists, the
creatures at the sea, the big fish, the climatic and atmospheric changes that
29
plague other fisherman and other human beings. The way he has withstood his
tribulations and the knowledge that he has displayed as a fisherman is
noteworthy. By the end of the story, he has achieved a nobility of character and
the heroic status.
5.2. Manolin – the boy
Manolin, the boy who helps and encourages Santiago, is loyal and affectionate to
Santiago. His role in the story is important as the tenderness that he shows
Santiago heightens the sympathy of the reader for the old man. The
encouragement that the boy gives to the old man is crucial for the achievement.
The boy keeps a balanced mind and his faith in the luck and ability of the old
man to achieve is amazing. It is Manolin, who is very crucial in making the old
man to believe in himself. He also stands as a symbol of youth, like the lions
from which the old man draws inspiration and strength to revive his sagging
spirit.
5.3. The Fish – Marlin
The fish is referred to as able, dignified, fearless and confident. Santiago too
possesses all these qualities. The contest between Santiago and the fish exhibits,
in both of them, the fighting spirit that Hemingway believed in so much. This
similarity in the struggle actually makes Santiago to develop a sort of respect,
admiration and love for the fish. He even goes to the extent of calling the fish his
‘brother’. They rather become allies in the struggle than enemies:
He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were

swimming free. I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with, he thought.
But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife.
But if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we
might have fought them together. (pp.99-100)
The marlin possesses outstanding qualities. It is wonderful, wise and strong and
of great size. The old man at once recognizes its superiority: “Never have I seen a
greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or nobler thing than you, brother”. Its
power of endurance and its sword is described as being ‘as long as a baseball
bat’ bringing to mind the great football players of Cuba. The parallelism between
Santiago and the fish is deliberate for both demonstrate the resistance to defeat,
which is the mark of Hemingway hero.
5.4. The Sharks
The sharks appear at first as evil aspects of the sea. However, they too possess
qualities that Hemingway valued much in life. The Mako shark is not like its
fellow sharks. The other sharks are stupid, hateful and bad- smelling killers.
This shark is able, strong, intelligent and beautiful: “His back was as blue as a
swordfish’s and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome”. It
is an exceptional creature like the Marlin. It is the biggest one Santiago has ever
30
seen. Although it is cruel, it is also fearless and resolute just as the marlin and
the old man. The Mako also refuses to accept death when it is inevitable.
Santiago admires and praises it:
He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is

beautiful and noble and knows no fear of anything.(91)
The shark looks real, natural and at the same time is endowed with the
admirable qualities that humanity should aspire to emulate. Therefore, the
shark stands as a precept for humankind and as a real creature of the sea.
Hemingway presents the natural world with several aspects from which
humankind could learn significant lessons.
6. LANGUAGE AND STYLE
Hemingway is known for his inimitable style of direct, clear writing. He sparingly
uses adjectives. He does not use complicated sentence structures. In rendering
the story, the events are described realistically, taking care to bring in all the
details. However, the experiential plane is missing from the description. This is
where Hemingway gives enough space for the reader to imagine the emotions
and feelings for himself/herself. Therefore, Hemingway gives only the tip of the
iceberg in his writing, leaving much to be submerged. The challenges are many
for the reader in such a kind of style.
In The Old Man and Sea the style is typical of Hemingway. The author stays well
behind the work in narrating the story. The objectivity of a spectator is retained
in the description of the events. Yet the emotions, feelings and the atmosphere
are brought into the story with ample details and clues for the reader to imagine
them in their entirety. The emotions are there and yet they are not directly
described. Any writer would require great ability to do that and Hemingway has
proved that he is truly a master of that art of providing the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
The descriptions are realistic and a sense of immediacy is created as a result.
The reader gets involved in the event described and taking the cue from the
details given in the novel, the reader imagines for himself/herself the emotional
experiences of the character. Hemingway allows enough space for the readers to
form their own opinion. The main feature of Hemingway’s style is the sparing
use of adjectives by which he offers the scope for the readers’ imagination. In
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway does not attempt to elaborate on the
sufferings of Santiago but merely describes the details meticulously:
When he saw the shark, he leaned over the side and punched at him. He hit only
meat and the hide was set hard and he barely got the knife in. the blow hurt not
only his hands but his shoulder too. But the shark came up fast with his head
out and the old man hit him squarely in the centre of his flat- topped head as
his nose came out of the water and lay against the fish. The old man withdrew
the blade and punched the shark exactly in the same spot again. He still hung to
31
the fish with his jaws locked and the old man stabbed him in his left eye, the
shark still hung there. (p.94)
Hemingway believed that the accuracy of the given details would make the
reader respond to the action described in a specific way. He uses the technique
of repetition to gain he vividness of details and t reach the depths of intensity.
Hemingway does not use complex sentence structures as that might prove to be
a barrier to the reader’s involvement in the events. His sentences are short,
simple, direct statements connected mainly by conjunction.
The clarity that one comes across in the work is the result of the use of plain
words, uncomplicated sentences and almost zero use of adjectives. The language
gets its rhythm by the technique of repetition. Many critics feel that this kind of
style creates monotony and proves an understatement of the action in the novel.
Several critics feel that the brevity of language in the conversations of the
fishermen characters prove to be artificial and unnatural. They tend to become
precise and poetic. However, the modern reader would appreciate the clear
writing in Hemingway’s work.
Hemingway’s style has become a specific manner of rendering the experiences
rather that exposition of the events. However, its nature and quality are easy to
grasp. The style avoids complicated syntax ( word order in a sentence). However,
the requirements of extended description are met with the use of conjunctions to
connect the sentence sequences. Sparing use of adjectives and abstract nouns
keeps up the objectivity and clarity. The repetitive technique offers rhythm to the
writing.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Give a detailed account of the old man’s battle against the sharks.
2. By close reference The Old Man and the Sea, describe the character of
Santiago
3. Describe the contributions made by Manolin to The Old Man and the Sea,
indicating the chief qualities of his character.
4. The Old Man and the Sea shows that ‘a man can be destroyed but not
defeated’. What does Hemingway mean by this statement?
5. What religious references can be found in The Old Man and the Sea? What
is their significance?
6. Referring closely to The Old Man and the Sea, give a full description of the
marlin, the fish.
7. What character traits does Hemingway admire? Illustrate your answer by
close reference to The Old Man and the Sea.
8. Illustrate by close reference to The Old Man and the Sea Santiago’s
relationship with the sea and its creatures. In what way do the birds and
fish reflect the old man’s circumstances?
9. What are chief characteristics of Hemingway’s style of writing? Do you
think it is effective?
10. Discuss the theme of man’s dependence on others in The Old Man and the
Sea
32
THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD (1766)

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728- 1774)
CONTENT
1. Introduction
1.1. Social Background
1.2. The Classical Style
1.3. The Augustan Novel
2. The Author
2.1. His Works
3. The Novel
3.1. Significant Aspects of the Novel
3.3. Summary
4. Characters
4.1. Dr. Primrose
4.2. Mr. Burchell
4.3. Sophia
4.4. Olivia
4.5. George
4.6. Deborah Primrose
4.7. Arabella Wilmot
4.8. Squire Thornhill
5. Importance of the Novel
5.1. Didacticism
5.2. The Domestic Novel
5.3. Irony
5.4. Style and Meaning
33
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Social Background

The Vicar of Wakefield could be enjoyable if one understood it well with the
knowledge of the social background in which it was written. The period from
1660- 1780 is known as the Augustan Age or the Age of Reason or Neo- classical
Age. Critical attitude was predominant in this age and reason and logic prevailed
upon sentiments and feelings. Everything was looked upon critically and
analyzed using reason and logic instead of accepting ideas on emotional value.
There was growing interest in man and his relationship to society. All different
aspects of English society were analyzed and commented upon. Whatever
aspects needed to be weeded out from the lives and characters of people, the
writers treated them with irony and satire. Therefore, at this point of time
literary writings abounded with satire and irony. The great satirist like Swift,
Alexander Pope, Dryden, Dr.Johnson and Goldsmith thrived at this time. The
audience of such writings was the common people as they were the people who
needed these lessons from these writings. Therefore, there was a marked
difference between the elite audience of the writings of Edmund Spenser, Milton
and Sidney of earlier period and that of the eighteenth century readership.
Moreover, literary writings had a definite role to play in the society namely, the
didactic purpose or in other words teaching people about men and manners.
1.2.The Classical Style

In this period, truth, refined taste, good sense, elegance and moral law were in
high esteem and the literary works of these times too stressed on these aspects
with the stress on humanism and tradition. Nature should prevail in everything;
nevertheless, it was expected that everything in nature must be submitted to
methodical examination and presented in refined and clear expression.
Correctness of expression and logical and methodological analysis almost made
the writing artificial, lacking in spontaneity.
1.3.The Augustan Novel

The Augustan novel used the actual lives of the people as its material. Therefore,
the contemporary society of the eighteenth century in all its elaborateness and
dimensions found its portrayal in the novels of this age. The plot and character
were developed on cause and effect basis, answering to the stringent and
rigorous calls of logic and reason. Daniel Defoe’s (1720) novels were written in
the Journalistic reporting style banking upon the technique of veri- similitude
(true to life), whereas Richardson and Fielding, in the 1740s, were answering to
the demands of exposition of expected social norms and codes of the times. The
negotiation between actual happenings and moralizing on the norms of behavior
ruled the presentation style of the fiction of these times.
34
Six kinds of novels emerged at this time:

1. Veri- similitude novels of Daniel Defoe- novels deliberately designed to pass
as facts
2. Sentimental Morality- Samuel Richardson (Pamela /Clarissa Harlowe)
3. Realism ( anti-sentimental novels) – Henry Fielding- Joseph Andrews
4. Humor – Lawrence Sterne – Tristam Shandy
5. Journalistic Adventure- Smollet- The Adventures of Roderick Random
6. Novels of Manners-Realism, humor, satire- Jane Austen
2. THE AUTHOR
Oliver Goldsmith 1728- 1774) was of English origin but lived in Ireland for the
most part of his life. He was born on November 10th 1728. His father was a
clergyman. The family was, simple, generous and lacking in thrift. He received
his early education in the village of Lissoy, and later he entered Trinity College,
Dublin as a poor scholar. His poverty caused a great deal of humiliation. As he
was not good-looking, he suffered from an inferiority complex. Despite several
drawbacks, he received his B.A. degree in 1749. He wasted his money and had
no good job to fend for himself and his large family. He tried his hand at
medicine. In 1753, he studied medicine at Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
Later he went on a walking tour of Europe. He went to Flanders, France,
Germany, Italy and Switzerland on foot, earning through odd jobs. During his
travel, he gathered a lot of information, which he later used in his writings. He
had highly placed acquaintances with Dr.Johnson (eminent writer and
lexicographer), Sir.Joshua Reynolds
(painter), Edmund Burke (orator), and David Garrick(actor). He took up writing
for the book- sellers, which really did not call upon his artistic talents.
He died in utter poverty in 1774.
2.1. Works
His works comprised of a great variety of formats:
1. The Citizen of the World- 1760- Essays
2. The Vicar of Wakefield- 1766- Novel
3. The Good Natured Man- 1768- Drama
4. She Stoops to Conquer- 1773- Drama
5. A History of the Earth and Animal Nature- History
6. A History of Mecklanbury – History
7. Animated Nature- Natural History
8. The Traveler- Poem
9. The Deserted Village- Poem
35
2.2. Goldsmith as a Writer

The contribution of Goldsmith to English literature stands out as praiseworthy.
His works bringing out the picture of the contemporary eighteenth century
England in broader perspective and lucid and concise style has added to the
greatness of English literary writings. He has mixed successfully realism,
sentimentality, anti- sentimentality, moral aspects, humor, humanism, didactic
elements and the domestic life and values of the eighteenth century England.
His prose style is inimitable for its conciseness, complexity, smoothness and
verbal technique.
3. THE NOVEL
3.1. Significant Aspects of the novel
• The Vicar of Wakefield is widely popular and still read as a masterpiece of

18th century novel.
• The Vicar Wakefield is a work on which Goldsmith fame as a writer and
satirist rests. In Goldsmith’s own day, the work was very successful.
• The characters appear to be too good, naïve and sweet, almost touching the
point of artificiality.
• The plot seems to be cramped with too many turns and misfortunes that
the end almost seems to be forced.
• Dr.Primrose’ character is presented with a touch of irony.
• The ironic styles posits the work delicately between sentimental and anti-
sentimental tradition. If interpreted as ironic the work and the characters
become hilariously comic, denigrating the overdose of melodrama and
sentimentality. If it is taken as real, then the characters are too good and
the events are too melodramatic to be real. The first person narrative adds
to this complexity.
3.2. SUMMARY
Dr.Primrose, a village vicar and his wife Deborah have six children. The elder
daughter Olivia and the younger one Sophia and his eldest son, George are the
most important characters. Both the girls are very beautiful. The vicar’s family
lives a very quiet life. They enjoy honored position among the local society with a
comfortable financial position.
George falls in love with Arabella Wilmot, a rich lady from the neighborhood.
Arrangements are made for the marriage. Unfortunately, the argument between
the vicar and Arabella’s father, Mr.Wilmot, on the question of monogamy leads
to the animosity to the extent of the proposed marriage being cancelled.
Mr.Wilmot is on the verge of marrying for the fourth time and Dr.Primrose is
disgusted with this and feels that it is beyond all decency. He strongly defends
36
his views on monogamy and he could not compromise his position on this aspect
even though his strong stand leads to the disaster. The rift between the two
families leads to the cancellation of the marriage of George with Arabella. Adding
to the misfortune, Dr.Primrose hears the news that the vicar’s broker has
cheated them and has absconded with his money.
The vicar’s family has lost everything, and to live within the means they migrate
from Wakefield. On the way to the new place the vicar comes across one
Mr.Burchell, whose kindness to the fellow travelers attract the vicar’s attention.
He takes a liking for him. Misfortunes continue in the life of the vicar. Sophia,
unfortunately, falls down from the horse into the stream and Mr.Burchell saves
her. Mrs.Primrose feels very grateful to Mr.Burchell and encourages his visits to
the Primrose household when they settle down at their new place.
The vicar’s family arrives at their new home in the estate of rich and young man
called Squire Thornhill. He seems to have earned a bad reputation in the
neighborhood for his weakness for young girls. Nevertheless, Deborah, the
vicar’s wife decides to give in marriage one of her two daughters to the wealthy
Squire Thornhill. Incidentally, Squire Thornhill is attracted towards Olivia and
pays frequent visits to the vicar’s household. Mrs.Deborah encourages the visits
eyeing on him as her prospective rich son-in-law.
Olivia, however, makes objections to Squire Thornhill’s advances. Meanwhile
Mr.Burchell also pays visits to the Primrose’s household and falls in love with
Sophia and she reciprocates Mr.Burchell’s interests. The vicar does not approve
of him as his prospective son-in-law as Mr.Burchell’s social and economic status
being not very good.
Meanwhile two well-to-do ladies visit the vicar’s household and take a liking for
Olivia and Sophia. They propose a position for both the girls in their rich
household as their companions. The girls welcome the move and their parents
approve of it. Olivia and Sophia look forward to the idea of leading a
sophisticated life in the city. When they prepare to leave for London, a letter
arrives informing their parents that some anonymous person has made
slanderous allegations against the two to the city women and as such, the
women have declined to take Sophia and Olivia as their companions. The
Primroses learn that Mr.Burchell is responsible for the mischief. They
immediately order Mr.Burchell to leave their home.
Olivia is perturbed with the visits of Squire Thornhill. He does not intend to
marry her but visits her often. The vicar, who is not sure that the squire really
wants to marry his daughter, suggests that Olivia may consider a local farmer
Mr. Williams as her husband. The Squire does not ask for Olivia’s hand in
marriage and therefore, Olivia consents to marry the local farmer. However, to
everybody’s shock, just four days before the marriage, Olivia runs away from
home and her whereabouts remain a mystery. The vicar sets out in search of
this daughter.
37
While the vicar searches for his daughter, he falls sick and is bedridden for three
weeks in an inn. The sufferings seem to be heaped over him. When he recovers,
he decides to return home. On his return journey, he meets Arabella, who
enquires about George and his well- being. Squire Thornhill, who now is
courting Arabella Wilmot, makes enquires of Olivia. At this point of time, George
returns home poor and downtrodden. Squire Thornhill seems to feel sorry for
George, grants him a commission in the army, and sends him away again.
However, before George leaves, Arabella tells him that she will wait for him.
The vicar proceeds in his journey back home. Interestingly, he finds his
daughter Olivia in an inn. She tells him the story of the deceit of Squire
Thornhill with whom she has eloped. Olivia says that Squire Thornhill has
deceived her by arranging for a false marriage ceremony conducted by a fake
priest and seduced her. He has left her, after he grew tired of her. Dr.Primrose
takes Olivia with him and they return home. As they draw near their house, they
see their house go in flames with all their worldly possessions. The neighbors
help the vicar and his family and arrange for a temporary home in one of the
buildings in the estate.
At this time, it is rumored that Squire Thornhill is going to marry Arabella
Wilmot and that makes the vicar very angry. The squire has the audacity to offer
to find a husband for Olivia with the intention that she can live within the
visiting distance of the squire. The vicar is furious and asks him to get out of his
house. Squire Thornhill, not taking it well, demands the vicar’s quarterly rent.
The vicar is unable to pay because of the recent disaster.
Dr.Primrose ends up in the debtors’ prison for default of payment. The vicar
comes across another misfortune. George, who hears about the villainy of the
squire, attacks him physically and as a result, he is arrested and sentenced to
death for attempt of murder. Dr.Primrose learns that his daughter Sophia has
been kidnapped. Though his miseries increase in leaps and bounds, he firmly
believes that virtue, truth and honesty would triumph at last and win over evil
forces. Accordingly, Mr.Burchell saves Sophia and that every one comes to know
Mr.Burchell is really Sir.William Thornhill, the virtuous uncle of Squire
Thornhill. Olivia is relieved from the guilt of shame, when she comes to know
that she has not gone through a fake marriage but the priest who solemnized
the marriage is really a priest. Sophia and Squire William Thornhill get married.
George and Arabella are married too. Dr.Primrose is happy and looks forward to
a life of peace and serenity. To make his happiness more, the cashier, who
disappeared with his money, is captured and the money is recovered. The vicar,
once more, is wealthy and happy.
4. CHARACTERS
Goldsmith has created his characters more as types than individual characters.
Several of the characters have predominant aspects in their personality. For
example, Dr.Primrose stands for perserverence and willingness to accept God’s
38
great design. Mr.Burchell stands for goodness and helping tendency. Squire
Thornhill stands for villainy. Several events in the novel stand to exemplify these
predominant traits in the characters.
4.1. Dr.Primrose
Dr.Primrose is the typical eighteenth century English vicar. He is kind, generous
and holds deep belief in Christian morality. He cherishes strong views on the
subject of monogamy. He has written several sermons on this subject and has
maintained the position that a priest of the Church of England cannot be not be
allowed to take a second wife. He does not swerve from his firm belief even at the
danger of his son’s marriage being cancelled with the rich Arabella Wilmot.
The good life of the vicar is presented as the fine blend of the religious practice
and the domestic complacency. Dr.Primrose is typical of the Anglican clergyman
who in the eighteenth century led lives of quiet domesticity without being
disturbed or disturbing others. They spend their lives, “in a moral or rural
amusement.” They spend most of their evening in front of the fireside. The vicar
is very hospitable to neighbors and visitors. Most of their guests happen to be
the poor people of the parish. The vicar lives in contentment.
Dr.Primrose makes it a point to render his service to the children of God, the
people of his county. The vicar, though financially well placed and contented in
his life, does not spend an ideal life. He is so good-natured that he feels it his
duty to serve the people of the parish and relieve them from the worldly pains.
The vicar is personally acquainted with every man in the parish. He preaches the
importance of temperance to the married men and of matrimony to the
bachelors. In short, he did service to the people and the people respected him.
Dr. Primrose himself as the narrator of the story tells about his own life:
We were generally awaked in the morning by music, and on fine days rode a-
hunting. The hours between breakfast and dinner the ladies devoted to dress
and study: they usually read a page, and then gazed at themselves in the glass,
which even philosophers might own often presented the page of greatest beauty.
At dinner my wife took the lead; for, as she always insisted upon carving every
dish……Walking out, drinking tea, country dances, and forfeits, shortened the
rest of the day.
He is a very loving, dutiful and sympathetic father of his children and a
committed family man. He is against all kinds of vanity and finds fault with his
wife and daughters when they indulge in such vagaries. As a typical parson,
even at home he is fond delivering several lectures on temperance, virtue, and
forthrightness, and in this respect he is again drawn as the typical country
parson.
Goldsmith also presents the character with a certain amount of foolishness. He

seems to have already made the epitaph for his wife at the event of her death to
show how he loves her and that he is a strict monogamist. He is also presented
as the good- natured fool who can be easily duped by villains. The excessive
interest he shows in money and worldly comforts along with the precept of
39
leading a life of Christian simplicity gives a slight satiric touch to his character.
However, he is really a character to be enjoyed as a good, lovable man, prone to
be cheated and endowed with a fair share of human foibles.
4.2. Mr.Burchell
Mr.Burchell is in reality Sir William Thornhill. He is extremely generous, with a

certain amount of whimsical nature that gives the tinge of a humorous
character. He shows his quality as good-natured person in helping Dr.Primrose
and his family from time to time without revealing his identity.
4.3. Sophia
Sophia is modest and an appealing personality. She is beautiful and yet very
unassuming. Her strength lies in being innocent and good. As the novel
progresses her inner beauty as lovable person emerges.
4.4. Olivia
She is the eldest daughter of the vicar. She is very beautiful and is very
conscious of her beauty. She is too much obsessed with her beauty that she is
easily duped by the villainy of Squire Thornhill. She is remorseful when she
learns about the way that Squire Thornhill had deceived her. However, she
easily forgives Squire Thornhill. This leads one to wonder how far she is serious
about anything.
4.5. George
George is the eldest son of the vicar. He is oxford educated but not very
successful in getting any good occupation. Critics say that Goldsmith has
portrayed George’s character in his own resemblance. The ironic and satiric
elements present in other characters are not there in the presentation of
George’s character. The long description given on George’s failures almost is
similar to Goldsmith’s own misfortunes in his own life. The novel presents
George as a, “light-hearted vagabond”.
4.6. Deborah Primrose
Deborah Primrose, the vicar’s wife is a good person, a faithful wife and a devoted
mother. She is a typical eighteenth century house- wife. However, Goldsmith
uses little bit of irony in presenting several follies that lurk under the personality
of a good- natured person. On several occasions, she displays unscrupulous,
ambitious, and even cunning traits, which suggest that she is not merely the
ideal person of Augustan matronly virtues.
40
A typical eighteenth century mother, her main interest is in getting her

daughters married. However, she is quite willing to use several unorthodox
methods to achieve her design. She displays vanity. She is revengeful and wants
to take revenge for the deception practiced on her daughter Olivia.
4.7. Arabella Wilmot

Arabella, the daughter of a local clergyman, is innocent, good and loyal in her
affections.
She is too innocent that she falls as a victim to the evil designs of Squire
Thornhill. However, her loyalty and faith restores her to George.
4.8. Squire Thornhill
Squire Thornhill is the villain in the story. He has all the bad qualities and
stands as an anti-thesis to William Thornhill. He is handsome, unscrupulous
and lecherous. He commits a serious of crimes against the virtuous people and
ruptures the good social fabric that the vicar has tried to weave.
5. IMPORTANCE OF THE NOVEL
5.1. Didacticism
The eighteenth century English literature was didactic in nature, which means
that it taught lessons to the people. The Vicar of Wakefield also has woven its
message in the simple story of the vicar and the tribulations he comes across.
The central message is that good predominates evil. The other precepts that
come down are that perseverance in the will of God, a cheerful view toward
work, patience in the face of adversity, and an indulgent, forgiving attitude to the
failings of others.
The novel brings home the truth that the distress of human beings are of less
importance, compared to God’s eternal love for humanity. The vicar’s ultimate
belief in the good makes him to sail through his misfortunes with fortitude. The
quality of virtue the characters posses, prepares them to face the onslaughts of
evil forces, yet leaving them with courage and conviction. One might suffer or
even be destroyed but can never be defeated.
5.2. The Domestic Novel

The Vicar of Wakefield is a remarkable novel for it achievement of presenting the
universal concepts within the 18th century country life and that too centered in
the familial life of the vicar. The novel is a simple work of domestic life.
41
The Vicar of Wakefield treats the universal theme of the triumph of good over evil
in a domestic setting. The central character is the simple parson, Dr.Primrose
and the story takes place around the parson and his family members. Within
this gamut of characters and incidents, Goldsmith treats the eternal truths of
human life and character. The human foibles are balanced with the virtues.
Squire Thornhill, is presented as a thorough villain, but all other characters
have their good and bad side. This makes the characters interesting and
realistic.
5.3. Irony
The novel abounds in gentle irony. For example, in the very first page of the book
one comes across the description of the vicar’s wife as, “a lady of good breeding.”
However, the next sentence explains what her good breeding is as the vicar in
his first person account says:
She could read any English book without much spelling; but for pickling,
preserving, and cookery, none could excel her. She prided herself also upon
being an excellent contriver in housekeeping: though I could never find that we
grew richer with all her contrivances.
The irony also arises from the situations. The vicar to show his excessive good
breeding and his staunch belief in monogamy has prepared the epitaph (a piece
of writing that honors the dead person) for his wife even while she is alive. In
this epitaph, he has praised her prudence, economy, and obedience until death
and hung the epitaph over the fireplace.
5.4. Style and Meaning

The novel abounds in the Augustan sensibility of methodical writing and this
could seem to be heightening the artificiality for a modern reader. If taken as
ironic and satirical of the day’s embellished writing, then Goldsmith is truly
striking a double shot of satirizing the sentimental and at the same time the
overstressing the Augustan reason and logic.
The novel in fact has various levels of meaning. At one stroke, it captures the
panorama of transition period in the last decade of18th century and satirizes it.
At another level, Goldsmith is truly sympathetic of the vicar and his family. The
universal conflict of good against the bad is brought out in the series of
sufferings that the vicar and his family are placed. The dictum that good are
rewarded and the bad are punished, truly finds a place in the novel with the
happy resolution to the tribulations of the vicar’s family.
Goldsmith has written in the formal and heightened prose. The balanced
rhetoric that the central character uses is quite natural as Dr.Primrose is an
educated theologian endowed with a heightened sense of philosophy. The
rhetoric elevates the situation and the character, while the satire focuses on the
folly and ruptures the philosophical weave. The counter turns to the formal tone
gives life to the language and synchronizes the matter and manner.
42
Another aspect of this style is the vicar’s affection for aphorisms (short moral
statements) other wise called the epigrammatic style. The following are some of
the examples from the text:
• What we place most hopes upon generally proves most fatal
• Disproportioned friendships ever terminate in disgust
• There is no character more contemptible than a man that is a fortune hunter
• That virtue which requires to be ever guarded, is scarce worth the sentinel
• We should never strike one unnecessary blow at a victim over whom
Providence holds the scourge o its resentment
• We are not to judge of the feelings of others by what we might feel if in their
place. However dark the habitation of the mole to our eyes, yet the animal
itself finds the apartment sufficiently lightsome
[Taken from chapters Six and Five – Find similar aphorisms in the novel]
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Discuss the structure of The Vicar of Wakefield.
2. Comment upon Goldsmith’s reliance upon coincidence as a narrative
technique in The Vicar of Wakefield.
3. The characters in The Vicar of Wakefield lack individual identity – Discuss
4. Bring out the use of irony in the character portrayal of the vicar.
5. The vicar embodies the moral precepts of the eighteenth century-
Comment.
6. Bring out the didactic elements in The Vicar of Wakefield.
7. Comment on the worldliness of he vicar.
8. Comment on the theme of matrimony and wealth in The Vicar of Wakefield.
9. ‘By having the vicar himself tell the story, the author achieves his artistic
purpose of focusing on the character than the events’- Do you agree?
10. Comment on the style of Goldsmith in The Vicar of Wakefield.
43
WUTHERING HEIGHTS(1847)
EMILY BRONTE(1818-1848)
1. INTRODUCTION
Emily Bronte’s life and Works – Emily Bronte, poet and novelist, was the
daughter of Patrick and Maria Bronte. She was born on 30th July 1818, at
Thornton in Yorkshire. She was the sister of Charlotte and Anne Bronte. From
the age of seven till sixteen she was never away from Howarth, and in the last
seven years of her brief, life only once and then but for a few days. Little is to be
gathered of her personality, though much of her opinions, from Charlotte’s
portrait of her Shirely. She died on 19th December, 1848. At that time of her
death she was only thirty years of age. She had seen less of the world than even
Charlotte; her excessive reserved confined her still more narrowly within the
narrow circle that was open to her; and finally, her own nature was unyielding
and had closer kinship with the harsh natures around her than her sister’s. Her
character was rather repellent than attractive; but yet it won the unstinted love
and devotion of her sister. And however little Emily might be loved, hers was a
nature that commanded respect. Her prude was morbid: it is painful to read now
in her last illness even her sister’s dared not notice in her last illness even her
sisters dared not notice in her failing step and laboured breathing and her
frequent pauses as she climbed the stair-case. But this pride, when it took the
form of courage, was magnificent.
It is said that Emily died standing up in the barlor, refusing to go to bed, but
leaning one hand upon the table. Literal truth or not, this expresses Emily’s
resolute spirit, and reveals in her an almost unexampled capacity for suffering.
It is these qualities that are transferred to her book, and male Wuthering
Heights’ if not supreme among’ English novels still defiantly unique.
In the girls’ childhood writings, Emily was the another of the ‘cycle’ of Gondal’.
She contributed to poems, by currer, Ellis and Altiou Bell (1846). And hers are
by far the best. Last Times and Remembrance are among her finest poems. She
was a great mystic poet and resembled Blake in her mysticism. Like Blake she
was beyond ‘Good and Evil”, repudiating restraint and law, relying upon freedom
and passion and the unfettered imagination. Blake had said that “no bird soars
too high if it soars with its own wings’, and Emily rose to the empyrean upon her
own strength. That will be acknowledged by anyone who has read such poems
as The Prisoner, Remembrance, The old stoic, The Visionary and No Coward
Soul is Mine. There is no evidence that she was deeply read in the literature of
mysticism, but there is equally no doubt that she was mystic. It seems from the
testimony of her poems that Emily had attained that mystical experience in its
entirety only in early youth, possibly only once. Later it returned fitfully and
more dimly. The memory of that early union with the Divine is the ‘rapturous
44
pair’ the grandest poems; no human lover has lain for ‘fifteen wild Decembers’
‘cold in the earth’ (Remembrance). In other poem she exclaims:
Speak, God of visions, plead for me,
And till me why I have chosen the!
This “God of Visions” is the “strange power” for whose return she looks at
twilight and whose might she trusts as she bids him trust her cantancy (The
Visionary). In The Prisoner the crude Gondalian Gothicism is merely the frame
for the central description of the ecstatic vision. As in the case of Blake, so in her
case there is neither room nor need to discuss here the explanations of the
mystical phenomena. All that requires insistence is that in her case as in his
there can be no question of the sincerity of the passionate conviction of their
authenticity.
2. THE STORY OF ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’
In 1801 Mr. Lockwood became a tenant at Thurshcross Grange, an old farm

owned by Mr. Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights. In the early days of his tenancy
he made two calls on his landlord. On his first visit he met Heathcliff, an abrupt,
unsocial man, surrounded by a park of snarling barking dogs. When he went to
Wuthering Heights a second time, he met the other members of that strange
household; a rude, unkempt but hand-some young man named Hareton
Earnshaw and a pretty young woman who was the widow of Heathcliff’s son.
During his visit snow began to fall, covering the moor paths and making travel
impossible for a stranger in that bleak country-side. Heathcliff refused to let one
of the servants go with him as a guide, but said that if he stayed the night he
could share Hareton’s bed or that of Joseph, a sour, canting old servant. When
Mr. Lockwood tried to borrow Joseph’s lantern for the homeward journey, the
old fellow set the dogs on him, to the amusement of Hareton and Heathcliff. The
visitor was finally rescued by Zillah, the cook, who hid him in an unused
chamber of the house.
That night Mr. Lockwood had a strange dream. Thinking that a branch was
rattling against the window, he broke the glass in his attempt to unhook the
casement. As he reached out to break off the branch outside, his fingers closed
on a small ice-cold hand and a weeping voice begged to be let in. The unseen,
tried to force a way through the broken casement and Mr. Lockwood screamed.
Heathcliff appeared in a state of a great excitement and savagely ordered Mr.
Lockwood out of the room. Then he threw himself upon the bed by the shattered
pane and begged the spirit to come in out of the dark and the storm. But the
voice was heard no-more only the hiss of swirling snow and the wailing of a cold
weird that blew out the smoking candle.
Ellen Dean satisfied part of Mr. Lockwood’s curiosity about the happenings of
that might and the strange household at Wuthering Heights. She was the
45
housekeeper at Thrushcross Grange, but she had lived at Wuthering Heights.

She was the housekeeper at Thrushcross Grange, but she had lived at
Wuthering Heights during her childhood.
Her story of the Earnshaws, Lintons and Heathcliff began years before. Where
old Earnshaws was living at Wuthering Heights with his wife and two children,
Hindley and Catherine. Once on a trip to Liverpool Mr. Earnshaw had found a
starving and homeless orphan, a ragged, dirty urchin, dark as a gipsy, whom he
brought back with him to Wuthering Heights and christened Heathcliff. A name
which was to serve the fourteen year old boy as both given and a surname.
Gradually the orphan began to usurp the affections of Mr. Earnshaw, whose
health was failing. Wuthering Heights became a bedlams of petty jealousies;
Hindley was jealous of both Heathcliff and Catherine; caused trouble between
them.
When Hindley Earnshaw returned home for his father’s funeral, he brought his
wife with him. As the new master of Wuthering Heights, he revenged himself on
Heathcliff by treating him as a servant. Catherine became a wild and
undisciplined Loyden who still continued her affection for Heathcliff.
One night Catherine and Heathcliff tramped over the moors to Thrushcross
Grange, where they spied on their neighbours, the Lintons. Catherine, attacked
by a watchdog, was taken into the house and stayed there as a guest for five
weeks until she was able to walk again. Thus she became intimate with the
pleasant family at Thrushcross Grange, Mr and Mrs Linton and their two
children, Edgar and Isabella. Afterward the Lintons visited Wuthering Heights
frequently. The combination of ill treatment on the part of Hindley and
arrogance on the part of Edgar and Isabella made Heathcliff jealous and ill
tempered. He vowed revenge on Hindley Earnshaw, whom he hated with all the
sullen fury of his savage nature.
The next summer Hindley’s consumptive wife, Frances, gave birth to a son
Hareton Earnshaw and a short time later she died. In his grief Hindley became
desperate, ferocious and degenerate. In the mean time, Catherine Earnshaw and
Edgar Linton had become sweethearts. The girl confided to Ellen Dean that she
really loved, Heathcliff, but she felt it would be degrading for her to marry the
penniless orphan. Heathcliff, who overhead this conversation, disappeared the
same might, not to return for many years. Edgar and Catherine soon
married,had taking up their abode at Thrushcross Grange with Ellen Dean as
their housekeeper. There the pair lived happily until Heathcliff’s appearence.
When he returned to the moors, Heathcliff greatly improved in manners and
appearance, accepted Hindley’s invitation to live at Wuthering Heights-an
invitation offered by Hindley because he found in Heathcliff a boon companion at
cards and drink, and he hoped to recoup his own dwindling fortune from
Heathcliff’s pockets.
Isabella Linton began to show a sudden, irresistible attraction to Heathcliff,
much to the dismay of Edgar and Catherine. One night Edgar and Heathcliff
came to blows. Soon afterwards Heathcliff eloped with Isabella, obviously
marrying her only to avenge himself and provoke Edgar. Cathering an expectant
46
mother, underwent a serious attack of fever. When Isabella and her husband
returned to Wuthering Heights, Edgar refused to recognize his sister and forbade
Heathcliff to enter his house. Despite this restriction, Heathcliff managed a final
tender interview with Catherine. Partly as a result of this meeting, her child,
named Catherine Linton, was born prematurely. The mother died a few hours
later.
Isabella, in the meantime, had found life with Heathcliff unbearable. Leaving
him, she went to London, where a few months later her child Linton was born.
With the death of Hindley, Heathcliff the guest became the master of Wuthering
Heights, for Hindley had mortgaged everything to him. Hareton, the natural heir,
was reduced to dependency on his father’s enemy.
Twelve years after leaving Heathcliff, Isabella and her brother took the sickly
child to live at Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff soon heard of the child’s arrival
and demanded that Linton be sent to Wuthering Heights to live with his father.
Young Catherine once visited Wuthering Heights and met her cousin. Her father
had tried to keep her in ignorance about the tenants of the place, for Heathcliff
had been at pains to let it be known that he wished the two children. Cathy and
Linton to be married. And Heathcliff had his way. About the time that Edgar
Linton became seriously ill. Heathcliff persuaded Cathy to visit her little cousin,
who was also in extermly bad health. Cathy, on her arrival, was imprisoned for
five days at Wuthering Heights and forced to marry her sickly cousin Linton
before she was allowed to go home to see her father. Although she was able to
return to Thrushcross Grange before her father’s death, there was not enough
time for Edgar Linton to alter his will. Thus his land and fortune went indirectly
to Heathcliff. Weak, sickly Linton Heathcliff died soon after leavning Cathy, a
widow and dependent on Heathcliff.
Mr. Lockwood went back to London in the spring without seeing Wuthering
Heights or its people again. Travelling in the region the next autumn, he had a
fancy to revisit Wuthering Heights. He found Catherine and Hareton now in
possession. From Ellen Dean he heard the story of Heathcliff’s death three
months before. He had died after four days of deliberate starvation, a broken
man disturbed by memories of the beautiful young Catherine Earnshaw. His
death freed Catherine Heathcliff and Heraton from his tyranny. Catherine was
now teaching the ignorant boy to read and to improve his rude manners.
Mr. Lockwood went to see Heathclif’s grave. It was on the other side of Catherine
Earnshaw from her husband. They lay under their three head stones;
Catherine’s in the middle weather discolored and half-buried. Edgar’s party
moss-grown, Heathcliff’s still bare. In the surrounding country side there was a
legend that these people slept unquietly after their stormy, passionate lives.
Shepherds and travelers at night claimed that they had seen Catherine and
Heathcliff roaming the dark moors as they had done so many years before.
47
3. CHARACTERS
3.1.HEATHCLIFF:
Heathcliff is the hero in Emily Bronte’s only novel, Wuthering Heights. The novel
deals with his love, frustration, late, revengeful passion and his reconciliation
with life. In a word, Heathcliff is the is the story of the novel. He not only acts
and suffers, but causes others to act and suffer. His strength permeates the
story. His power for good and for the evil shocks and surprise us. His deeds and
his reactions from the ghastly beginning to the pastrol close make a correct
whole out of what might have been a chaotic heap.
Wuthering Heights is the land of storm, whereas Thruscorss Grange is the
appropriate home of the clam. The gentle lions. Heathcliff, himself a child of the
storm, is brought to Wuthering Heights. He falls in love with Catherine, herself a
child of storm, but the later developments in the novel his ire and hatred against
Earnshaws and Linton’s. He was embittered by the harsh treatment of the
Hindley and disillusioned by what he considered the treachery of Catherine. The
shock of her infidelity and Hindley’s ill treatment of him disturbed his nature
and then he resolved to settle scores by crushing everyone who had stood in his
way, everyone who had played who had stood in his way, everyone who had
played to thwart his happiness. He was not therefore a wicked man voluntarily
only when he was crossed. He was a natural force which had been frustrated of
its natural outlet, so that it ultimately became devastating. As soon as he was
successful in taking vengeance, he had no longer the will to keep up his
torturing.
He had an exact and handsome figure and his dark skinned gipsy aspect looked
a mighty personality. His checks were sallow, half-covered with black whistlers.
He had lowering brows and deep set strange eyes. He was rather morose and
untidy.
Nothing is known of his parentage. He was brought to the Earnshaw family as
an orphan by Mr. Earnshaw from Liverpool on his business. Although he was
quite helpless yet he strikes one as having a sharp understanding and keen
sense of dignity as a human being. He does not consider himself inferior to
anybody on the basis of material possessions or property. He considers it inferior
to raise himself up to the level of Edgar Linton and assets before cathy – “I shall
be dirty.” If Cathy is to love him she must accept him as he is.
Being brought to Wuthering Heights by Earnshaw and lodged with his family,
Heathcliff was regarded by everyone in the house with abhorrence chiefly of his
colour. But the master, Mr. Earnshaw, was very found of him and liked him
even more than his son, Hindley. The result was that Hindley’s dislike of him
was further more deepend and he began to ill treat Heathcliff and thrashed him
frequently. However, Heathcliff bore the ill, treatment with patience. His
fortitude is boundless which enables him to endure suffering to any extent. He
fell ill more often than not and once came very near denth . But he always kept
48
calm and uncomplaining. True to his name, he was hard as ‘chiff’ all along. This
habit endeared him both to Mr. Earnshaw and his daughter Catherine.
He reacted to injustice and misfortune very strongly but never lost mental
balance. After getting frustrated he did not become reckless like Hindley, nor
submit to the darts of fortune like Edgar Linton. He was a conscious rebel. He
knew that being penniless and lacking physical aid he had to fight his way
through life single-handed. Thus he took stock of things at every sty and devised
a method after careful calculations. He persistently laboured, acquired courage
and strength and then showered blow after blow to make his enemies completely
disarmed. In implementing his plans he acted with skill as may be seen from his
connivance of marriage with-Isabella and take Edgar Linton with Catherine.
The skill with which he wreaks vengeance and the way he succeeds brings us
into the dilemma as to whether he is a normal man or a monster. The questions
that Isabella put to Nelly are noticeable. As a matter of fact, Heathcliff was
himself conscious that he would be considered a demon in human form. He was
inwardly wrestling with a bitter situation and was cruelly tortured, but he acted
friendly. Like in order to show that he had been wronged and that such wrongs
are inhuman. In his strong matrons he becomes the executioner of punishment
to those who insulted him before.
We know that he suffers for he has been wronged. For some time the feeling that
comes against him goes out when in the end he confesses his inability for
destruction. As the spirit of Catherine is perceived pervading everything the
feeling of destruction dies and yearning to meet her increases. In these scenes
he re-conquers our admiration.
3.2.CATHERINE EARNSHAW
“Catherine is the heroine of the novel. She is the bone of contention between
Heathcliff and Edgar Linton. In the symbolic sense the competition represents
the confrontation between the have and the have not forces. Catherine is not a
passive entity. She plays an active role in the life of both the competitors.
Catherine possesses a charming personality. When she came to Wuthering
Heights after her first five weeks “sojurn at the Grange her brother delightfully
exclaimed” – why cathy, you are quite a beauty!’ Guideless, free and fresh, she
was like a flower blooming and blossoming on the dreary heaths.
Free from any tinge of pride she developed before long an attachment to
Heathcliff. Energetic and enduring herself, she recognized Heathcliff. To this was
added her inborn inclination for affectionate relationship and she developed the
tensiest ties with the lad. This tie became more pronounced when she and
Heathcliff became target of Hindley’s torture and tyranny. She made a common
cause with Heathcliff in the later’s revolt against the tyrant. She enjoyed walks
in the company of the Heathcliff and received chastisement for neglecting her
studies. Nothing caused her worry except separation from him, which was the
greatest punishment to her. She had found in him the true companion of her
soul.
49
Inspite of her deep passion for Heathcliff, she deceived herself in believing that
by marrying Edgar Linton she would benefit both herself and Henthchiff alike.
The fact of the matter is that she was tempted to marry Linton under the notion
that marriage with him would ensure for her a respectable social life and status
which was not possible by her alliance with Heathcliff. Nelly was not far from
truth when she remarked about catherine’s love for Linton. It was quite true.
Catherine herself confessed that “if the witched man in there had not brought
Heathcliff so low. I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry
Heathcliff now”. It was betrayal of love because she knew that it would change at
any time. She was trying to resort to a highly erroneous argument when she
exclaimed to Nelly. Prudence cannot compensate passion. Catherine forgot it
and suffered. In the end when Heathcliff makes her realize her folly she begs
pardon and is not happy till she rejoins Heathcliff through as a spirit. She
stooped to folly but did not make a compromise with new situation. She did not
agree to align herself with circumstances though she had to remain miserable
ever afterwards.
She was the only person who would bend heathcliff to her will. Her manner of
Welcome to him at the Grange wrought a transformation in him and he altered
his horrible designs. Had Linton and Isabella been more sensible and discerning,
she might have saved Isabella from the hold of Heathcliff. Undoubted she
understood him fully well. Once she made the mistake, the flood gates of the
elemental fury were opened wide.
3.3.MR. LOCKWOOD
Mr. Lockwood occasionally takes part in the narration of the story of the novel
besides Mrs. Ellen Dean who narrates at length. He was the new tenant at
Thrusheross, Grange He is a man of the world and evinces interest and curiosity
in the tale of Healthcliff.
He was a normal man who now and then took a short holiday from the dull
town-life to enjoy a spell of merriments of the sea-coast or the quite seclusion of
the countryside. He was never over zealous after anything. Being a man of
temperate disposition, he was amazed and even shocked at the inhospitality of
Mr. Heathcliff. Normal in his mode of living and working, he felt rudely shaken
at his abnormal receptions at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff showed no warmth
and dogs became violent at his sight. Other inmates of the house also remained
indifferent. The shock he received became all the more agonizing by the tale that
Nelly told him and he decided to leave the place forthwith and return to London.
He was of mildly romantic disposition and hence prone to exaggerate. While
holidaying in the quite and peaceful seclusions of a place he enjoyed to think of
himself as a misanthropic and as exaggeratedly reserved individual. He took
delight in commenting poet like on the seclusion of the place. The girl that he
liked at the sea-coast impressed him as a goddess. In the matter of love too he
had a romantic bias. He never expressed this sentiment, but his looks expressed
more than his works that he was over head and ears in love. In the same strain
he reflects while coming bark from Wuthering Heights.
50
The love of Mr. Lockwood remained only a mental conception. He dwelt upon it
within his mind without getting overwhelmed by it. In fact he always ran away
from every string attachment. He regarded the girl he saw by the sea coast a
goddess, was happy to receive response in the form of the sweetest of all
imaginable looks. He shrank into himself icily. Similarly, he failed to make any
advance towards Mrs. Catherine Heathcliff although later on when he saw her
with Hauton he regretted.
He possessed a live mind curious to know about strange things. After witnessing
the strange ways at Wuthering Heights and dreaming of the chapel and cathy,
he did not run away in horror but became curious to know the mystery behind
the whole affair. He asked Mrs. Dean, thehousekeeper, to tell something about
the landlord’s family. The curiousity was first roused by the pretty girl widow,
but later on the whole story caught his fancy and geared Mrs. Dean again and
again to narrate it. The mysterious place did not pass out of his mind even after
he left it. The very name Gimmerton kept him excited and he halted in his
journey to see the developments at the stores about the ghosts of Heathcliff and
Catherine and he went to see their graves. It is to thecuriosity of Mr. Lockwood
that we owe the whole story.
3.4.EDGAR LINTON
Just as Thrush cross Grange presents a picture of refinement and order in
contrast to Wuthering Heights, so does Edgar Linton stand in contrast to
Heathcliff. An offspring of middle class parents, he is not ruled by wild passion,
fiery temper and dauntless impetuosity of the latter. The contrast is manifested
at the very outset of the story when Heathcliff says to Nelly-“I’d not exchange for
a thousand lives, my condition here, for Linton’s at Thrushcross Grange’’. It
comes to our notice again and again when we see him as an elegantly and
smartly dressed rival of Heathclif and as a calm and patient husband of
Catherine.
Edgar was much more good looking since he was richer and more refined in
bearing than Heathcliff. Nelly remarked to Catherine that her preference for
Edgar was prompted by these reasons. However, he was not quite as stout.
Heathcliff hammered him with blows when he tried to taunt and insult him.
Being soft and delicate of feeling he could not bear the shock of Catherine’s
death and his health went on deteriorating after her demise.
He was no comparison to Heathcliff in strength and ruthlessness. He was able to
court Catherine because she responded to his address and overtures to which
Hindley lent his support. He would never have been able to make way except by
himself. He dreaded the company of Heathcliff though in the presence of his
protectors he dared to pass taunting remarks on him. But once thrashed he
always avoided to cross Heathcliff’s path.
He was too timid to assert himself even before his wife. Though fully realizing the
implications of allowing Heathcliff to come to Grange he could not muster
courage to contradict Catherine Heathcliff calls him a lamb and rightly so. His
cowardly fears lead him to take the help of servants for turning Heathcliff out. At
51
this Catherine chided him contemptuously saying –“If you have not courge to
attack him, make an apology or allow yourself to be beaten. It will correct you
feigning more valour than you posses. How very detrimental this is to prestige of
a husband from his wife in the presence of his rival.
Perhaps he would have gained in his wife’s esteem if he had been firm and
adamant. But he was not made of such stuff. He was temperate and quiet by
nature. He would nurse her when she fell ill, and would go on quietly withering
away after her death. He would not bear to be buried by the side of her grave in
the family graveyard in order to avoid tormenting his soul by being perpetually
reminded of her company in life. But he would not show his grief by crying
loudly and passionately. He was just like a delicate lily plant and not a stout oak
tree. His love was a soft and simmering flame and not a roaring fire. After his
wife’s death he could seek diversions in books and attend to the upbringing of
his daughter.
He might not be vigorous like Heathcliff whom we admire, but we cannot
withhold our sympathy for Edgar. As a child he was somewhat vain no doubt.
But as a man he conducts himself like a perfect gentleman. His sister fails in
love with his enemy and later elopes with him. But he does not lose patience.
Perhaps he was helpless in the matter. But his ready response to his dying
sister’s request, his tender heartedness towards her only child, Linton and his
loving care for young cathy, reveal the nobility of his heart and we cannot
sympathise with his silent suffering.
As a father, he outshines both Heathcliff and Hindley. Heathcliff’s disgust for
Linton is understandable, but Hindley’s neglect to Hareton is criminal. Edgar
Linton’s conduct is at variance with theirs. He assumed full call and
responsibility for his daughter’s education. In order to prevent her form falling a
prey to evil influences he kept a watch over her. Before his death, Cathy was his
whole and sole care. His anxiety was to know if she would live alone after he was
gone, and he felt greatly relieved on finding that cathy had developed love for
Linton and that they would be married. He tried to ensure additional security to
her life by making changes in his will though Heathcliff foiled his purpose.
3.5. MISS CATHERINE LINTON
Her childhood years – Catherine Linton was ushered into the world under very
unfortunate conditions. She was born a seven month’s baby, weak and
undersized as such babies naturally are. Her mother did not survive for more
than two hours after her birth. For the first six months she remained a source of
worry and vexation to her nurse because she suffered from illness usual to
babes Thereafter she grew like a bright-foliaged larch tree, as Nelly put it, and
within two years she could walk and talk in her own way. Of her beauty, we
have the testimony of Nelly who says-“She was the most winning thing that ever
brought sunshine into a desolate house, a real beauty in face, with the
Earnshaw’s handsome dark eyes, but the Linton’s fair skin and small features,
and yellow curly hair.”
52
Mr. Lookwood, too, was attracted by the charm of her face; “an admirable form,”
he comments, “and the most exquisite little face that I ever had the pleasure of
beholding; small features, very fair, flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging
loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, they
would have been irresistible.”
Her spirits were high, though not rough, qualified by a heart sensitive and lively
to excess in affections. Her father assumed charge of giving her education and
she developed a fondness for books.She was reared in the warm and placid
atmosphere of Thrushcross Grange. Cathy developed a pure and innocent
nature, wholly free from even a notion of evil whatsoever. She was astonished to
learn of the wickedness of Heathcliff and it was hard for her to imagine that a
man could be capable of such dark and devilish designs. Because of her pure
and innocent nature she believed the statement of Heathcliff when he said that
Edgar Linton held him in contempt because he was too poor to marry Isabella.
And she assured him that she would tell him that it was wrong on his part to
think like that and hate him. She liked Heathcliff so much on her first meeting
with him that she called Nelly ‘naughty’ and ‘wicked’ for attempting to prevent
her from going to the Wuthering Heights.
She possessed a reflective and imaginative brain. She cherished a desire to see
the world at large. Her spirit was too agile and lively to be kept confined within
four walls of the Thrushcross Grange. She would observe-“Ellen, how long will it
be before I can walk to the top of those hills? I wonder what lies on the other
side-is it the sea?” Her reading of fairy tales had created in her a sense of
adventure, and on a certain day she actually took an excursion to the Pension
Crag and the Wuthering Heights. More often than not she would ask questions
about flowers leading to the mysteries of death. Her obsessive worry was that
she would be left alone in the world after her father’s death. That death was a
factual reality dawned upon her more particularly when she learnt that her aunt
Isabella, the mother of Linton, who was younger than her father, had died.
–Despite being of a milder and gentler disposition than that of her mother she
possessed a tendency for strong attachment. Having once come to love Linton,
she remained constant without letting her passion suffer an abatement even
when it dawned upon her that he did not deserve that sentiment. In spite of
being frigid, morose, garrulous and selfish, he did not forfeit her love. She went
on bestowing her love on him even against the advice of Nelly and the
disapproval of her father. So profound was her attachment to him that she wept
to think that he would be expecting to meet her and would be disappointed if
that meeting did not materialise. She even believed that she could reform Linton
by her care and devotion. Little did she perceive that there were malevolent
intrigues behind it all.
Her affectionate attachment to Nelly and her father was equally strong and
enduring. When Nelly fell ill she nursed her all through the day. So did she
nurse her father. It was mentally agonising to her that she was at Wuthering
Heights while her father was lying ill at the Grange.
53
She had no violence in her make-up, but when brought face to face with
hopelessly bad conditions by Heathcliff at the Wuthering Heights she reacted by
biting his hand to get the key. She suffered corporeal punishment but did not
stoop to surrender. Finding everybody indifferent towards her at the Wuthering
Heights she isolated herself from all of them and would not let anybody
approach her presence. She did not tolerate Hareton’s sitting near her. As a
result of ill-treatment she received there, she was completely changed and grew
hard hearted, moody and emotionally dry.
Despite all the roughness and misanthropy that she developed and retained her
inherent goodness. When Nelly explained to her how wrong her attitude and
conduct was towards Hareton she at once changed her role. Having realised the
need for company she took the intiative and approached Hareton to apologise.
The individual whom she so far hated and despised was now loved tenderly.
3.6.HINDLEY EARNSHAW
Hindley was the son of Mr. Earnshaw and elder brother of Catherine. From very
childhood he was vain, proud and jealous. Heathcliff’s arrival in the family was
heartily resented by him. Heathcliff being a favourite of his father was obnoxious
to him; and he treated him badly in all possible ways even at the risk of
offending his father. He even entertained a notion that his father was a tyrant.
His father had formed a very low opinion of him as he said to the curate –
“Hindley was naught, and would never thrive as where he wandered.”
In his opinion as above the old Earnshaw uttered only a truism, since the boy
was devoid of all sense of responsibility. After his father’s death he was duty
bound to see to the development of his sister. But he did not fulfil that
obligation. He married clandestinely, keeping every one in the family in the dark,
and in the matter of self-indulgence paid little regard to the feelings of others. A
victim of sensual pleasures, he acted as dictated by his wife and ruined the life
of his sister and Heathcliff both. After the death of his wife he took no paternal
care of his son, Hareton, and doomed his future by losing all his property in
drinking and gambling.
He failed to come up to the level of a devoted husband by neglecting the only
trust of his wife, her surviving infant, and went to the extreme in self-
indulgence. He became rash after her death, took to drinking heavily, and
neglected his son’s upbringing so callously and treated him so abominably, that
the boy developed a veritable scorn for him. He invited Heathcliff to stay at
Wuthering Heights with intent to earn money for his gambling and drinking
needs. In the process he lost all and became a bankrupt. As a sequel to it he lost
his balance and began to think of murdering Heathcliff. But he did not prove
equal to the task and became mad from vengefulness and hatred. He moved
about with a pistol and knife but got no chance to use them. On the contrary, he
had to suffer hammering at the hands of Heathcliff. He died mysteriously, no
one knew what killed him. It may be the result of being thrashed by Heathcliff,
or it may be the outcome of his shame of humiliation and wounded pride.
54
3.7.ISABELLA
Isabella, the sister of Edger Linton, was a tool in the hands of Heathcliff to
torture the latter. She was young, beautiful and romantic. Her romanticattribute
robbed her of all capacity to think and act sensibly. She fell head over heals in
love with Heathcliff. So blind was her passion that she did not pause to consider
whether her sentiment was duly reciprocated. She did not heed warnings to the
Catherine and Nelly. Even her brother’s admonition fell on her deaf ears. She
kept on nursing her sentiment secretly and finally eloped with Heathcliff. But it
was not long before she was disillusioned. It was then that she realised how she
loved her brother and her home.
Of weak and frail physique she could not bear the hellish life at the Wuthering
Heights for long. Losing all hope of the return of agreeable conditions she
wanted to die and provoked Heathcliff to do her to death. She was loathe to
commit suicide because of her Christian sentiment perhaps. But in reality she
was not capable of horrible exit and took the first opportunity to run away from
the place.
Sentimentally made up she lavished foolish fondness on her only child who grew
up to be a weak and sickly lad.
3.8.LINTON HEATHCLIFF
He was the son of Isabella and Heathcliff. He took after his mother more than
his father. He was treated by her with pampering fondness up to the age of
twelve. According to Nelly he was a pale, delicate, effeminate lad who strongly
appeared to be her master’s younger brother but for the sickly peevishness
which Edgar Linton never had.
He cared more for his comfort than for any one else. Hence he was the but of
every one’s hate. At the Wuthering Heights he would always sit by the hearth,
and while wallowing in bed would keep loudly shouting curses at servants whom
he expected to be constantly dancing attendance on him.
Love was an alien commodity with him. For a long time he was not conscious of
the attachment that Cathy cherished for him. Even when he became conscious
of it and of Heathcliff’s designs he did not disclose it to her lest he should be
taken to task for it.
After his marriage to Cathy, what little flame of consciousness of her attachment
to him had flickered in him was extinguished under Heathcliff’s instructions. He
was stupid enough to believe when told that Cathy bore no love for him, that on
the contrary, she hated him and did not want him to become the owner of
Thrushcross Grange. So he declared to Nelly that he would not allow Cathy to go
away, and did not heed Nelly’s admonitions.
Despite all his shortcomings we cannot hate him. He was too weak to merit
hateful treatment. He was like an orphan although his father was alive. But he
received nothing from him except contempt. Heathcliff was ever awaiting his
55
death. The poor soul was not provided with the much-needed medical aid and
was allowed to die. His father declared that he would not spend even a farthing
on him because he was not worth even that much.
3.9.HARETON EARNSHAW
Hareton Earnshaw possessed of a good heart and good looks. Unfortunately, the
vengeful Hrathcliff spoiled him. The neglect of his father drove him into the
camp of the latter’s enemy who took pleasure in making him utterly boorish and
brute. He denounced his father, lived in a dirty, debased manner, so much so
that Cathy felt ashamed to know that he was her cousin. And she was averse to
own him as such.
In spite of all the brutality bred in him, he was not devoid of a sense of self-
respect. He was ever conscious of the fact that he came of a respectable family.
He proudly announced to Lockwood-“My name is Hareton Earnshaw and I’d
counsel you to respect it.” He wanted to associate with Cathy, but when she
spurned his attempts to become intimate the completely remained aloof from her
and she had to make assiduous efforts to get him reconciled. Overwrought with
indignation, he brought out all her books which he had stolen to read and threw
them into fire because on account of them she had insulted him in the presence
of a stranger.
Hareton had a sound and warm heart. For Catherine’s sake he boldly opposed
even Heathcliff. But when she did not recognise his love he became sorely
frustrated. It was he who was prepared to lead Mr. Lockwood through the snow
storm when no one else was ready. Again it was he who let him in on the second
day.
But his love for Cathy bred jealousy in him. He would not tolerate any one
looking fondly towards her. Nor could he tolerate her concer for any person. He
refused to go with Lockwood when he found that Cathy was interested in
him.His inherent goodness, hidden under his rough and rude exterior, was
brought up into action under the sympathetic care of Nelly and Cathy.
3.10.JOSEPH
Joseph, an old servant at Wuthering Heights, is a humorous character in the
novel and draws our attention by his eccentricity. He was a servant in the house
in the days of old Mr. Earnshaw when Hindley, Catherine and Heathcliff were
small children.
He assumed religiosity which impressed and pleased the old Master. He
regularly red the Bible every day, attended church services and sermons, and
himself preached religion to whomsoever he could. But his religiosity was more a
nuisance than benefit to the family he was employed in. On Sundays he made
children uncomfortable by denying them warmth of fire and diversion in games
and made them pour over dull religious literature which was beyond their
capacity to understand. He imposed that tyranny on children to improve their
soul. Every night before the members of the family went to bed he made them
56
say their prayers. In this way he was partly a servant partly a priest to the
family.
He is loyal to the family he is employed in. He was loyal to the old master, and
after his death is loyal to his descendants. He loves Hareton, and after the death
of his father, he is the only person to look after him. He hates Heathcliff and his
son, Linton, because they are the usurpers of the property which rightfully
belongs to Hareton. He takes care of Hareton because he is the last surviving
descendant of an ancient house. When Heathcliff dies he is glad. “The devil’s
carried off his soul,” he cried, what a wicked soul he looks grinning at death!”
Nelly thought that he intended to cut a caper round the bed, but suddenly
composing himself, he fell in his knees, and raised his hands, and returned
thanks that the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their
rights.
He is the only source of humour that exist in the novel. No other character
possesses it. Excepting him, all other characters have a serious role. By making
Joseph, the servant, the only source of the comic in the novel, Emily Bronte
works out Aristotle’s theory that the comic issues from the folly and failure of
the lower people; there is little room for humour in the higher persons whose
mind is set on serious purposes. It is the unlettered and ignorant rustic whose
ignorance and folly are the true source of comic. That is why humour in this
novel, as in many others, issues from a servant.
4. THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF A LOVE THAT NEVER CHANGES IS THE

MOST COMPELLING IS THE MOST COMPELLING AND MEMORABLE
ASPECTS OF THE BOOK.
Catherine and Heathcliff's passion for one another seems to be the center of
Wuthering Heights, given that it is stronger and more lasting than any other
emotion displayed in the novel, and that it is the source of most of the major
conflicts that structure the novel's plot. As she tells Catherine and Heathcliff's
story, Nelly criticizes both of them harshly, condemning their passion as
immoral, but this passion is obviously one of the most compelling and
memorable aspects of the book. It is not easy to decide whether Brontë intends
the reader to condemn these lovers as blameworthy or to idealize them as
romantic heroes whose love transcends social norms and conventional morality.
The book is actually structured around two parallel love stories, the first half of
the novel centering on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, while the less
dramatic second half features the developing love between young Catherine and
Hareton. In contrast to the first, the latter tale ends happily, restoring peace and
order to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The differences between
the two love stories contribute to the reader's understanding of why each ends
the way it does.
The most important feature of young Catherine and Hareton's love story is that
it involves growth and change. Early in the novel Hareton seems irredeemably
57
brutal, savage, and illiterate, but over time he becomes a loyal friend to young
Catherine and learns to read. When young Catherine first meets Hareton he
seems completely alien to her world, yet her attitude also evolves from contempt
to love. Catherine and Heathcliff's love, on the other hand, is rooted in their
childhood and is marked by the refusal to change. In choosing to marry Edgar,
Catherine seeks a more genteel life, but she refuses to adapt to her role as wife,
either by sacrificing Heathcliff or embracing Edgar. In Chapter XII she suggests
to Nelly that the years since she was twelve years old and her father died have
been like a blank to her, and she longs to return to the moors of her childhood.
Heathcliff, for his part, possesses a seemingly superhuman ability to maintain
the same attitude and to nurse the same grudges over many years.
Moreover, Catherine and Heathcliff's love is based on their shared perception

that they are identical. Catherine declares, famously, “I am Heathcliff,” while
Heathcliff, upon Catherine's death, wails that he cannot live without his “soul,”
meaning Catherine. Their love denies difference, and is strangely asexual. The
two do not kiss in dark corners or arrange secret trysts, as adulterers do. Given
that Catherine and Heathcliff's love is based upon their refusal to change over
time or embrace difference in others, it is fitting that the disastrous problems of
their generation are overcome not by some climactic reversal, but simply by the
inexorable passage of time, and the rise of a new and distinct generation.
Ultimately, Wuthering Heights presents a vision of life as a process of change,
and celebrates this process over and against the romantic intensity of its
principal characters.
5. HOW DOES THAT NOVEL PRESENT THE PRECARIOUSNESS OF

SOCIAL CLASS?
As members of the gentry, the Earnshaws and the Lintons occupy a somewhat
precarious place within the hierarchy of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-
century British society. At the top of British society was the royalty, followed by
the aristocracy, then by the gentry, and then by the lower classes, who made up
the vast majority of the population. Although the gentry, or upper middle class,
possessed servants and often large estates, they held a nonetheless fragile social
position. The social status of aristocrats was a formal and settled matter,
because aristocrats had official titles. Members of the gentry, however, held no
titles, and their status was thus subject to change. A man might see himself as a
gentleman but find, to his embarrassment, that his neighbors did not share this
view. A discussion of whether or not a man was really a gentleman would
consider such questions as how much land he owned, how many tenants and
servants he had, how he spoke, whether he kept horses and a carriage, and
whether his money came from land or “trade”—gentlemen scorned banking and
commercial activities.
Considerations of class status often crucially inform the characters' motivations
in Wuthering Heights. Catherine's decision to marry Edgar so that she will be
58
“the greatest woman of the neighborhood” is only the most obvious example. The
Lintons are relatively firm in their gentry status but nonetheless take great pains
to prove this status through their behaviors. The Earnshaws, on the other hand,
rest on much shakier ground socially. They do not have a carriage, they have
less land, and their house, as Lockwood remarks with great puzzlement,
resembles that of a “homely, northern farmer” and not that of a gentleman. The
shifting nature of social status is demonstrated most strikingly in Heathcliff's
trajectory from homeless waif to young gentleman-by-adoption to common
laborer to gentleman again (although the status-conscious Lockwood remarks
that Heathcliff is only a gentleman in “dress and manners”).
6. EXPLAIN THAT REPETITION IS ONE OF THE TACTICS BRONTE’

EMPLOYS IN ORGANIZING “WUTHERING HEIGHTS”.
Repetition is another tactic Brontë employs in organizing Wuthering Heights. It

seems that nothing ever ends in the world of this novel. Instead, time seems to
run in cycles, and the horrors of the past repeat themselves in the present. The
way that the names of the characters are recycled, so that the names of the
characters of the younger generation seem only to be rescramblings of the
names of their parents, leads the reader to consider how plot elements also
repeat themselves. For instance, Heathcliff's degradation of Hareton repeats
Hindley's degradation of Heathcliff. Also, the young Catherine's mockery of
Joseph's earnest evangelical zealousness repeats her mother's. Even Heathcliff's
second try at opening Catherine's grave repeats his first.
Brontë organizes her novel by arranging its elements—characters, places, and

themes—into pairs. Catherine and Heathcliff are closely matched in many ways,
and see themselves as identical. Catherine's character is divided into two
warring sides: the side that wants Edgar and the side that wants Heathcliff.
Catherine and young Catherine are both remarkably similar and strikingly
different. The two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange,
represent opposing worlds and values. The novel has not one but two distinctly
different narrators, Nelly and Mr. Lockwood. The relation between such paired
elements is usually quite complicated, with the members of each pair being
neither exactly alike nor diametrically opposed. For instance, the Lintons and
the Earnshaws may at first seem to represent opposing sets of values, but, by
the end of the novel, so many intermarriages have taken place that one can no
longer distinguish between the two families.
7. BRING OUT THE CONFLICT BETWEEN NATURE AND CULTURE
In Wuthering Heights, Brontë constantly plays nature and culture against each
other. Nature is represented by the Earnshaw family, and by Catherine and
Heathcliff in particular. These characters are governed by their passions, not by
59
reflection or ideals of civility. Correspondingly, the house where they live—

Wuthering Heights—comes to symbolize a similar wildness. On the other hand,
Thrushcross Grange and the Linton family represent culture, refinement,
convention, and cultivation.
When, in Chapter VI, Catherine is bitten by the Lintons' dog and brought into
Thrushcross Grange, the two sides are brought onto the collision course that
structures the majority of the novel's plot. At the time of that first meeting
between the Linton and Earnshaw households, chaos has already begun to
erupt at Wuthering Heights, where Hindley's cruelty and injustice reign, whereas
all seems to be fine and peaceful at Thrushcross Grange. However, the influence
of Wuthering Heights soon proves overpowering, and the inhabitants of
Thrushcross Grange are drawn into Catherine, Hindley, and Heathcliff's drama.
Thus the reader almost may interpret Wuthering Heights's impact on the Linton
family as an allegory for the corruption of culture by nature, creating a curious
reversal of the more traditional story of the corruption of nature by culture.
However, Brontë tells her story in such a way as to prevent our interest and
sympathy from straying too far from the wilder characters, and often portrays
the more civilized characters as despicably weak and silly. This method of
characterization prevents the novel from flattening out into a simple privileging
of culture over nature, or vice versa. Thus in the end the reader must
acknowledge that the novel is no mere allegory.
Review Questions
1. Consider “Wuthering Heights” as a romantic novel.
2. Discuss the treatment of passion in “Wuthering Heights”
3. Discuss revenge in “Wuthering Heights”. In what ways is it connected to the
love?
4. What do the moors come to symbolize in “Wuthering Heights”.
5. Analyze the character of Edgar Linton.
6. What was the nature of attachment between Heathcliff and Catherine?
7. Describe the part of Nelly Dean in “Wuthering Heights”.
8. Briefly describe the last days of Heathcliff.
9. Compare and contrast the characters of Heathcliff and Lockwood.
How did Brontë depicts the clash
60
THINGS FALL APART(1958)

- CHINUA ACHEBE(1930)
1. INTRODUCTION
Africa is no longer a gloomy phenomenon, a ‘dark’ continent and a dense forest.

The novels of Chinua Achebe, the major exponent of the modern African novel,
are a new way of looking at tradition to create a different order of reality through
imagination. Achebe has subordinated the anthropology of his novels to the
human condition. He is greatly concerned with two realities of social man-his
individuality and group identity, the legacy of colonialism, and the English
language as the medium of expression of African experience and inspiration
defining the relevance of colonial experience to the present. Achebe has been the
first Nigerian writer to transmute successfully the conventions of the ‘novel’ a
European art form into African literature and to use ‘African things’ and employ
certain native techniques of narration to give authenticity and African flavour to
his novels in order to attract the native audience and overseas readers as well.
The novels of Chinua Achebe speak of Igbo life, culture and history. The Igbo
earlier did not have well established, centralized institutions and powerful chiefs
to constitute a large Igbo ‘tribe,’ but later developed a rich cultural heritage and
a well defined tribal consciousness. There is no rigid hierarchy of power in the
Igbo traditional society. It is a pluralistic system where power is decentralised
and is vested in small groups-priests, diviners, and medicine men represent
religious power and lords of the village, men of title and elders constitute the
temporal authority of the village.
The Igbo traditional society is primarily sociotary. There are no strong rulers;
only rules can regulate the social order. As the rules are not rigid and codified,
some of them are subjected to examination, debate and change. Traditional
society does not encourage individualism. The individual is only a corporate
being, a part of the social pattern and contributes to the communal good. And
the society will take care of the individual crippled by a socio-economic
problems. The Igbo traditional society does not grant much freedom for
individual expression and personal gratification. The Igbo society is mostly rural
egalitarian and achievement oriented. The Igbo exogamy has strengthened the
position of the individual and his society and has promoted affiliation and
affinity with the neighbouring clans. The individual in distress used to look to
his maternal kinsman for comfort and help.
The Igbo religion is not a redemptive one like Christianity and Islam, nor
utilitarian. Igbo’s are irreligious, they are ritually religious. Every activity of life,
society and agricultural season is devoutly punctuated by some religious
exercise or expression or magico-religious rites. Igbo observe a peace week before
planting of yam seed and celebrate pumpkin leaves festival, a ceremony of
61
purification. Igbo’s life follows a culturally rhythmical-pattern from birth to

death-the naming ceremony, ritual of initiation, title-making and the second
burial ritual. Igbo religion is an ‘agrarian cult’. Igbo believe in the worship of
public deities like Ulu, Idemili, Eru etc and ancestors are represented by the
masked Egwugwu in Things Fall Apart. For Igbo’s Chukwu is the Supreme God,
the creator and sustainer. Among lesser deities the goddess of Earth-Ala, Ani, is
considered most powerful. She is the Queen of the underworld and ‘owner’ of
men both death and alive and is responsible for Igbo morality. Her priest and
priestess work for social integration by promulgating her laws and by punishing
offenders. The Egwugwu act as her agents controlling morality and is the Jury of
the Village in Things Fall Apart that settles disputes-personal and with the
neighbouring village. Igbo’s believe in the constant interaction between the two
worlds of the living and the dead, the visible i.e, material and spiritual. Thus the
attitude of Igbo’s to their gods is sometimes ambivalent. The Igbo world-view
sees the land of the spirits as a territorial extension of the human domain. Every
individual is granted by chukwu a ‘chi,’ ‘a soul or spiritual double’ to which his
or her fortune and abilities are ascribed.
Things Fall Apart is a novel of Igbo tradition and is historical in perspective and
has become a classic in modern African writing in English. It is argued that the
real tradition of Nigerian literature in English started with the emergence of
Things Fall Apart as a typical Igbo novel to articulate social change through
cultural encounter and tensions. In Things Fall Apart, the Umuofia traditional
society has a confrontation with the white missionaries who have
enthusiastically tried to civilize the highly superstitious Igbos with their new
faith and new education. Okonkwo, unbending as a man carries with him some
of the Igbo traits and traditional views to tragic excesses. His dilemma becomes
the dilemma of his society and his tragedy at the end of the novel reflects the
collapse of the entire society. The novel records the disintegration of Igbo society.
The novel is not about Okonkwo but about the typical villages - Umuofia and
Mbanta of the lower Niger between 1850-1900 AD. The first part of the novel is a
celebration of the traditional past with its sound hierarchial system contributing
to communal harmony. The second part tells of the arrival of alien forces-foreign
trading and foreign education and the new faith when Okonkwo is banished to
Mbanta by the tribal law. The third part is about the death of the native tradition
which coincides with the suicide of Okonkwo.
Thus, Chinua Achebe, the prolific Nigerian pioneer writer, made rich
contribution to the West African writing in English and popularized Igbo
literature beyond Igbo readership.
2. CHINUA ACHEBE: THE MAN AND HIS WORK
Chinua Achebe has emerged as the doyen of modern African writing in English
with the publication of his first major novel Things Fall Apart in 1958. Achebe
was born on 15 November 1930 at Ogidi near Onitsha in Eastern Nigeria, now
part of Bendel State. His father was looking after the village church and running
62
a school. Chinua’s early education was through this school. Later he proceeded
to the Government college Umuahia, and the University college Ibaden. After his
graduation from the University college at Ibaden in 1954, Achebe joined the
Nigerian Broadcasting corporation as Talks Producer. He resented the massacre
of Igbo’s in Northern Nigeria in 1961 and relinquished his position as Director of
External Broadcasting in the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, to join the new
publishing venture ‘Biafra,’ with christopher Okigbo and others in Eastern
Nigeria. He was awarded the commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1972 for his second
post war books, ‘Girls at war and other stories, (1972). He received the Neil
Gunn Fellowship of the Scottish Arts Council in 1977. Now Achebe is professor
of English at the Institute of African studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
Nigeria and is the editor of Okike, African Journal of New writing.
2.1.Achebe’s Literary Writings

Achebe’s novels Things fall Apart (1958) was awarded the Margaret Wong
Memorial Prize, No Longer at Ease won the Nigerian Trophy for literature, Arrow
of God received the Jack Camphell New Statesman Award for Literature, and A
Man of the People are critiques of colonisation and constitute a chronicle of life
in Eastern Nigeria. The novels depict the Nigerian situation in different eras - pre
- colonial (Things Fall Apart), colonial (Arrow of God), pre-independence (No
longer at Ease) and post-independence (A Man of the people). Achebe’s fifth
novel Anthills of the Savannah depicts the political crisis under military rule and
tries to infuse a new kind of confidence among the native audience for a better
future.
Achebe’s works of stories include “In a village Church,” ‘Polar Under graduate’
(1950), ‘Marriage is a Private Affairs’ (1952), ‘The Sacrificial Egg’ (1959), ‘Uncle
Ben’s Choice’ (1966), Akueke (1962), ‘The Madman’ (1971), ‘The Voter’ (1965),
‘Vengeful Creditor’ (1971), ‘Girls at war and other stories’ (1972), is a collection
of thirteen stories written over a period of twenty years ranging from his early
ingenuous student pieces to the civil war, ‘Civil Peace’ (1971), Beware, Soul
Brother and Other Poems (1971) speaks about the ‘horrible things’ of the Civil
War and its after math. The collection is a moving account of the poet’s
traumatic experience of the war period and poet’s consciousness of his role.
Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975) is Achebe’s volume of cultural and literary
essays covering the period 1961-1974.
3. THE STORY IN OUTLINE
The story of Things Fall Apart is set in Eastern Nigeria. Okonkwo is the hero of
Things Fall Apart. He belonged to the Igbo tribe and lived in the village of Iguedo,
in Umuofia in Eatern Nigeria. The story is set in the times when the whitemen
first came to this part of Africa, introducing Christianity and British
administration, law and justice.
63
Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a lazy man, of artistic temperament, ineffectual

and improvident. He died poor and debt-ridden. Okonkwo had nothing but
contempt for his father. He wanted to be strong, stern, powerful and prosperous.
Okonkwo grew tall and strong, and also was psychologically opposed to his
father’s way of life. He wished to show his ability as an achiever. At the early age
of eighteen he was able to defeat the greatest wrestler in the nine villages at the
annual contest, and brought fame to his own village of Umuofia. By doing hard
work he became a successful farmer. He distinguished himself in the tribal wars.
He married three wives and took two titles. He represented his village in the
court of Egwugwu – men wearing terrible masks and claiming to be the means of
departed ancestors. His ambition is to rise still further.
When a woman of Umuofia was killed at Mbaino, Okonkwo is sent as an
emissary to Mbaino to negotiate for hostages and returns successfully with a
virgin, for a man whose wife has been murdered, and with a boy, Ikemefuna,
was entrusted to the care of Okonkwo till the tribes decided on his fate.
Shortly afterwards, Umuofia began observing the week of peace. It was the
custom to give up all quarrels and violence, before the ceremonial planting of
yams. This is done in order to win the favour of the earth – goddess. During this
week, Okonkwo found his third wife Ojuigo, was not at home, and she does not
send him his food as she had not returned from a visit to a friend. When she
came home, he thrashed her severely. The news spread to the whole village. By
evening, the priest had called Okonkwo to reprimand him. He was bidden to
make any sacrifices and offerings in expiation.
Shortly after, at the New Yam Festival, when his favourite wife Ekwefi, makes a
contemptuous remark he almost shoots her with his gun, after beating her for
plucking some leaves from a banana tree. Luckily Ekwefi, was not wounded.
Nearly three years later, the Orcale of the Hills and Caves orders the death of
Ikemefuna, who has become as a son to Okonkwo. Ezuedu, the old man of the
village, conveyed the news to Okonkwo and advised him not to take part in the
killing of the boy. But to show his fearlessness and impartiality, Okonkwo goes
with them. And when Ikemefuna is struck, but not killed, it is Okonkwo himself
who strikes the final blow and killed the boy himself.
For two days he could not sleep or eat, on third day, he took his meal and paid a
visit to his friend Obierika. They had a talk about the killing of Ikemefuna.
Obierika said that Okonkwo should not have gone with the boy, nor killed him.
He invited Okonkwo for his daughter’s marriage. Ibe, a suitor, came with his
elders and bride price was fixed.
That night Okonkwo fell into sound sleep. But early in the morning Ekwefi came
and reported that her only daughter Enzinma, was seriously ill. She was the
tenth and only child surviving Okonkwo hurried to jungle, gathered some herbs
and made her breathe the vapour from a steaming decoction made from them.
This brought down the fever and cured her.
64
Soon afterwards, Okonkwo acted as a judge in the Egwugwa court. All the
judges wore hideous masks and claimed to be the spirits of departed ancestors.
There were only nine judges, each representing one village of Umuofia.
A few days later, Ezinma was taken by priestess of Agbala, one night saying that
the God wanted to see her. In great fear Ekwefi followed at a distance. When
priestess and Ezinma entered the cave of god, she sat outside and waited.
Okonkwo also joined her sometime later. Early in the next morning, the
priestess came out with Ezinma and returned her to her house. No harm had
come to her.
Next day, an important stage in the marriage of Akueke and Ibe. There was a
great feast. Okonkwo’s wives helped in preparing it. The bride price was paid
and pots of palm wine were presented to the bride’s family. The bride was taken
to bridegroom’s house.
Sometime later, Old Ezuedu died. His funeral was celebrated as that of a great
warrior. There was much dancing and firing of crackers, guns and Cannon were
fired for the last time. Unluckily, Okonkwo’s gun burst and wounded grandson
of Ezuedo. Though the killing was accidental, tribal law demanded that the man
responsible for it must suffer exile for seven years. That night Okonkwo fled with
his family to his mother’s village, Mbanta, Obierika took charge of Okonkwo’s
belonging in Umuofia.
II
Uchendu, Okonkwo’s maternal uncle helped him to start farming in Mbanta. His
uncle found him dejected and told him to be cheerful.
Two years later, Obierika visited Okonkwo. He brought bays of cowries, being
produced in Okonkwo’s farms in his village Obierika, also brought news about
the incursions of whitemen in the neighbourhood. For killing whitemen, the clan
called Abame had been practically destroyed. A few refugees had fleed to
Umuofia.
Sometimes later missionaries came to Mbanta, they were led by Mr. Brown,
whitemen. They communicated with the people through Kiagi, an African
Christian who acted as an interpreter. They asked for a place to build their
church. The elders cynically gave them a part of the ‘evil forest’. This was the
jungle outside the village, where men dying out of diseases like smallpox and
leprosy were buried. The missionaries thankfully accepted the offer and built a
church.
he villagers waited for Christians to die. But nothing happened. After four weeks,
they felt that there was some powerful influence guarding the Christian. Slowly,
the missionaries began to make converts. At first, worst and worthless men
joined the Christians. Then some others too felt attracted towards new faith.
Among them was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s eldest son. When the news reached
Okonkwo, he thrashed Nwoye. The boy left his house and went over to Umuofia
to do missionary work.
65
The church at Mbanta continued to prosper, in spite of the folly of some

fanatics. Once some converts who had abused the old gods were beaten. On
another occasion, a convert killed the sacred phython. The village therefore
excommunicated the Christians. Their women were forbidden to take water from
the river. But luckily for them the killer of the python fell ill and died.
III
When the seven years of exile came to an and, Okonkwo gave a grand feast to
Uchendu and other relatives. Uchendu, thanked him for his dinner. He pointed
out the danger of disintegration. Okonkwo then set out for his home with great
expectations. But he found Umuofia radically altered.
Christianity was flourishing. The White Man has brought in a government with
his own laws. These laws are not the tribal laws, and these laws administer
justice in a totally different way. The missionary
Mr. Brown has made a strong impact on the people, even converting some of the
leaders of the tribe. Okonkwo’s own son, Nwoye has joined them and Okonkwo
disowned him. People had in their minds full of the new religion and the new
government.
Sometimes later, Brown returned home and James Smith took his place. He
advocated a militant type of Christianity. The fanatical converts felt encouraged.
One of them Enoch, committed an act of sacrilege by removing the mask from an
Egwugwu during the festival of earth-goddess. The people felt indignant. There
was a conference of the men who acted the parts of ancestral spirits. It was
resolved to destroy the church. Smith was left unharmed, but the church was
burnt down.
This took place during the absence of the District Commissioner on tour. When
he returned, Smith complained to him. The commissioner arrested six leaders of
the village after inviting them to his office on the pretext of a conference. Among
them was Okonkwo, against the instructions of the commissioner, his
subordinates ill-treated and insulted them. A fine was collected from the village
and the men were set free.
A meeting of the people of Umuofia was held the next day. Okika, one of the
elders who had been arrested, spoke about the danger and humiliation of the
new regime. Even as he was speaking, some court messengers arrived at the
fringe of the meeting. Questioned by Okonkwo, their leader said that he had
orders to stop the meeting stung by fury, Okonkwo cut of his head.
But the people did not rise up and proclaim war as Okonkwo wanted them to do.
They felt shocked and confused. They allowed the other messengers to escape.
Okonkwo knew the fate. He would be arrested, tried and hanged. Rather than
submit to this indignity, he decided to kill himself. That night he hanged himself
on a tree just outside his compound.
66
The District Commissioner at the head of a small platoon or soldiers came to

arrest Okonkwo and found him dead. The villagers could not take him down
from the tree or bury him, for he had offended the earth-goddess by his suicide.
The commissioner’s men brought down his body and they were paid to bury
Okonkwo.
As Obierika said indignantly to the District Commissioner, one of the greatest

men of Umuofia had been driven to death and dishonour by the new regime.
4. THEME
The theme of Things Fall Apart is the disintegration of tribal culture through the
influences of Christianity and British law and justice. But Achebe, Of course, is
not writing history, though he has been accused of being too sociological in this
novel. He studies this fact of historical disintegration as an artist. We see it in its
effect on the personal lives of various men and women. The hero of the novel,
while strongly individualised, is also the representative of the tribal attitude.
The theme of the novel then, is that the age-old way of life, the civilisation of
Africa has been broken into by the forces brought about by the colonisation and
the conversion of the folk of the tribe by the British (Whiteman). This
administration brought what it thought to be truer justice through law, and
wider and more humane administration as well as modernisation. While at the
same time, the missionaries endeavoured to win the people away from what they
considered superstitious and degrading practices. Achebe does not gloss over
the cruelty and superstition that did prevail, and even shows that it was this
element in their way of life that opened the way for the disintegration of the tribe
for their falling apart.
This theme is brought out in two ways: by tracing the life and career of
Okonkwo, the hero of the novel, and by placing his life against the background
of tribal life which was gradually eroded, so that Okonkwo himself becomes a
symbol of the disintegration. In tribal society, the most important factor was the
absolute unity of the members of the tribe and their one mind on all matters,
and absolute obedience to the ruling of the elders and the egwugwu or
ancestors. Once members began to think for themselves, and to see before their
eyes the different values brought to them by the missionaries, tribal unity was
eroded and gave place to increasing openness to western ways of thought and
religion. This theme is shown here as the tragedy of the hero, who hangs himself
at the end. But this tragedy is shared by the tribe which has also fallen apart.
Since it is thus a double tragedy, it is necessary to prepare for the final
denouement by pointing out, a
a) the weakness and mistakes of the hero
b) the weakness such as superstition and cruelty of the tribe,
Thus, the author does with great truth and artistic effect.
67
The tragic failure of Okonkwo is brought about in part by his own defects of
character and in part by the advent of European influences on the tribal scene.
His failure thus synchronises with the disintegration of the traditional way of life
among the African tribes. Christianity and British administration break up the
organic unity of the tribal life. Things Fall apart not merely in the personality of
Okonkwo but also in the society in which he lived.
5. CHARACTERS
5.1.Character of Okonkwo
Okonkwo, the hero of the novel. It is said that the German translation of Things
Fall Apart is called Okonkwo. This shows who the hero is. We see the tribe,
mainly through the rise and fall of Okonkwo. When he is at the peak of his
prosperity, tribal life is unified and integrated. Disintegration starts when he is
in exile. The process is completed when he fails in his attempt to rouse the tribe
against Christianity and the white man’s government. His suicide also seems to
be that of the tribe.
Okonkwo started life under the disadvantage of poverty and a low social status.
His father, Unoka, was lazy and improvident. Okonkwo, as a young boy,
Okonkwo had to support his parents and sisters. At the age of eighteen, he took
the first step of greatness defeating the champion wrestler, meanwhile he had
been working hard as a farmer. Okonkwo had borrowed seed-yams from a rich
man called Nwakibie. He entertained high hopes of making progress, but
unfortunately there was draught and heavy rain, result is his yam crops failed.
He was alert in detecting any signs of weakness in himself or in the members of
the family. He was afraid to show any affection towards his wives and children.
He is very preserving, and continues his efforts as an achiever in spite of
handicaps and drawbacks and the inclement weather restriction. He is strict
with his wives . He only shows some affections for Ikemefuna and Enzinma.
Okonkwo’s fear of being kind or gentle showed at its grimmest in the killing of
Ikemefuna.
Okonkwo despised his eldest son, Nwoye for a tendency gentleness. The boy
seemed to take after his grandfather. Okonkwo could do nothing to alter the
boy’s character, in the end during Okonkwo’s exile Nwoye embraced
Christianity. Okonkwo’s proneness to violence ultimately led him to his doom.
Okonkwo killed one of the messenger who came in order to stop the meeting of
tribes. He hoped that the tribe would rise up as one man and embark on a holy
war against the white man’s religion and government. But the people were only
shocked by what he did. So Okonkwo had to hang himself in order to escape
being hanged by the white government.
68
Okonkwo achieved success by hard work, courage and stern ambition. But his
aggressiveness, having brought him success, led him to his doom. If he had
realised that the softer virtues had also a place in life, he and the people would
have been happier.
5.2.Ekwefi
Ekwefi was the second wife of Okonkwo, as a young girl, she had been called
‘Crystal of Beauty’. She had been an admirer of strength and prowess in men.
She at once fell in love with Okonkwo. In tribes the bridegroom had to pay a
substantial bride-price. Ekwefi therefore found it impossible to marry the man of
her choice. When her elders fixed her marriage to a man called Anene, she had
to agree, though unwillingly. Meanwhile Okonkwo slowly began to flourish. One
day Ekwefi suddenly made up her mind to leave her husband, and she boldly
knocked at the door, of Okonkwo. Okonkwo, understood what she had come for
and took her inside and she became his wife.
She had realized her dream, but fate was to test her badly. She began to loose
her children regularly, only her tenth child was remaining and named her
Ezinma, brought her up mechanically without daring to lavish any affection on
her. Ekwefi showed a considerable amount of independence and individuality in
her domestic life. Ekwefi took liberties with her husband which his other wives
dared to take. When the priestess of Agbala took Ezinma to the shrine of that
god, Ekwefi besides her fear and anxiety, bodly decided to follow the priestess on
a dark and cloudy night.
Efwefi bore patiently the difficulties during her husband’s exile. After his return,
she hoped ardently for a happy marriage for her daughter. Ezinma’s marriage
had been arranged, as a customary visit to bridegroom’s family, the fate struck
her once again, shortly afterwards Okonkwo hanged himself. All the wives felt
the shock of the tragedy. But the grief would have been the keenest for Ekewfi.
She had not been altogether a conventional wife, and this was the end of her
romance.
5.3.Ezinma
Ezinma was the daughter of Okonkwa and his second wife, Ekwefi. She was the
only survivor among the ten children borne by her mother. All the others had
died in their infancy. This had its own effect on the upbringing and character of
Ezinma. The result of this was that Ezinma was brought up in a special way.
She enjoyed various privileges. She called her mother by her name. Her every
wish was like a law to her mother. The relation between Ezinma and Ekwefi were
slightly more complex than those between a mother and her child. Ezinma was
sometimes treated as a companion on equal terms. Ezinma did not became a
spoilt child. Her step-mother found her quite helpful. Okonkwo’s first wife would
frequently address her as ‘Ezigbo’ or ‘the good one’. One, however, she proved
rather willful, and probably enjoyed being so. That was when a medicine-man
decided to discover her iyi-uwa and destroy it.
69
The illness of her childhood did, however, leave some effects on her. Though she
had grown up into a lively girl in her teens she would now and then feel dejected
and irritable. As Ezinma grew up, her stern and undemonstrative father began
to appreciate her more. She was intelligent and she developed a flair for
understanding her father’s unspoken thoughts. He regretted that she was a girl
instead of being a boy.
Ezinma could show initiative in moments of crisis. After her father’s return from
exile, her marriage had been fixed. During her visit to bridegroom’s house, she
heard of her father’s arrest, she at once rushed to her father’s friend Obierika, to
press him to do something to get her father free once again. The suicide of
Okonkwo must have come as a terrible shock to Ezinma. The shadow of the
tragedy would have fallen on the brightness and joy of the marriage of a young
girl.
5.4.Nwoye
Nwoye was the eldest son of Okonkwo. Even as a boy he liked the softer virtues.
The stories he was fond of were those told by his mother and other women in the
family. The adventures of Okonkwo in war did not interest him much. As he
grew older, Okonkwo wanted to train him to be hard like himself. Nwoye
benefited greatly from the company of Ikemefuna, the boy from an alien tribe
entrusted to his father’s care. The softer side in him could not be killed by
Okonkwo’s training. The Killing of Ikemefuna as decided by the oracle of Agbala,
had a similar effect in him. He was confused by a religion which demanded the
cruel abandonment of new-born children and the human sacrifice of a good and
innocent boy like Ikemefuna. When Christianity came to his part of the world,
preaching a loving God and condemning the cruelties of his own religion, he felt
as if he had found what he had been seeking.
Pathos and Pity always moved him to the depths. He felt sure that Christianity
would not tolerate the abandoning of twins or the sacrifice of Ikemefuna. This
was how Nwoye came to accept Christianity. He took time to take this
conclusion. He was naturally timid. But the new religion fascinated him that he
could not keep away from it for long. But he kept his conversion secret from his
family.
Nwoye, went to Umuofia, when his father was in exile, leaving his family, there
Obierika found him. The boy acknowledged that he had become a Christian and
disowned his father. Later, he progressed under the guidance of Brown, the
white missionary at Umuofia. He was given the Christian name of Isaac and he
became one of the earliest students at a teacher’s college in a distance town.
5.5.Obierika
Obierika was a close friend of Okonkwo. Obierika, equable and brave, loyal to
his tribe and religion, while allowing his conscience to function, act as a foil to
Okonkwo’s aggression and harshness. Obierika had not accompanied the party
which sacrificed Ikemefuna. Okonkwo wanted to know why Obierika had kept
70
back from the party. Obierika curtly answered that he had better things to do
and he was free to keep back from the party. He had not been directed to do the
killing. The Sobriety and common sense of Obierika are brought in most of his
remarks. During this discussion with Okonkwo, opportunity came to show that
he was wiser than Okonkwo. Not that Oberika’s common sense was proof
against popular superstitions. He believed whole-heartedly in the magical power
of medicine-men and their “Medicines”.
Obierika remained loyal to his friendship with Okonkwo till the end. When
Okonkwo was exiled, his farms in Umuofia, were entrusted to the care of
Obierika. But Obierika, with his affection unimpaired took part in the
destruction of Okonkwo’s hut. The decrees of gods and goddesses remained to
him inexplicable. But not so the behaviour of men and the workings of social
forces. He clearly understood the way in which the white man’s religion and
government had grown into strength and power from small beginnings. He said
that the white men must be forcibly sent away from their country. Obierika then
pointed out that it would not be difficult to send away the two white men in
Umuofia. But men of the tribe were no longer united. Some of them had taken to
the Whiteman’s religion and many were ready to support the Whiteman’s
government.
Obierika thus realized the hopelessness of any fight with the whitemen. In this
he differed from Okonkwo, who rashly believed that violence could drive out the
Whiteman and restore the unity of the tribe. On the whole, Obierika is one of the
most attractive representative of the tribal way of life. He is not colourful, but he
is full of qualities that evoke affection as well as respect.
5.6. The Two White Missionaries

Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith
The seeds of Christianity were first sown in Umuofia by a White missionary of
the name of Brown. He also helped to found the church of Mbanta. His way of
introducing the new religion to the Africans is made clear. He expressed his
intention of staying with the people. He talked about Trinity. Then he
persistently sought an interview with the elders of the village. He required the
grant of some land for building a church. The elders permitted him to build a
church in the ‘evil forest’. Brow accepted their offer, built the church and settled
his African missionaries. Gradually, Christianity progressed at Mbanta. Brown’s
policy in spreading the gospel was one of moderation. He sought to understand
the local beliefs and customs. He engaged in long discussions with African
leaders on their religious beliefs. He felt that any violent denunciation of the
tribal religion would not be helpful. So he went about his work in a friendly and
gentle way. He started a hospital and persuaded the African to test European
medicine. He began a school and strove hard to get pupils for it. Brown was not
popular among a section of his converts. These were the men who were fanatical
in their zeal for the new religion. The excess of zeal was kept in check By Brown.
Thus he kept friendly relations between the Christians and the other villagers.
71
One of the villagers indeed did him the unusual honour of presenting him with a
carved elephant tusk. This was a symbol of high dignity in the tribe.
Brown was retired on account of ill-health, he was succeeded by James Smith.
The new missionary believed in a radically different policy. His temper was
fervent and combative. He had nothing but contempt for religions other than
Christianity. The believed his mission to be denouncing false religion and
fighting against it. Smith began to take action against such of his followers as
had any belief in any of the tribal superstitions. Smith’s attitude encouraged all
the fanatics in general and Enoch in particular. Smith would not have fore seen
the crisis that Enoch’s folly brought about. Enoch was taken away from his
house and concealed in Smith residence. The leaders of the tribe burnt Enoch’s
house, when they marched to the church, Smith stood his ground, though he
felt afraid. But he could do nothing, and the church was burnt and razed to the
ground.
Smith seeked the help of the District commissioner to avenge the wrong done to
the church. The commissioner used unchristian guile to trap and imprison the
leaders of the tribe. This in turn led to Okonkwo killing a court messenger, and
then committing suicide. Thus, Smith’s policy of spreading the Gospel of the
Prince of Peace erupted in violence everywhere.
6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE, “THINGS FALL APART”
Chinua Achebe’s novel, “Things Fall Apart, deals with the tragedy of Okonkwo of
the Obi tribe, living at Umuofia in Nigeria. That is why the German translation of
the novel is named after him. His doom involves also his people to some extent.
When he dies, they are humiliated and bewildered; their faith, culture and way
of life seem to be near extinction.
The title of the novel is a phrase taken from a poem of W.B. Yeats called “The
Second Coming.” In a stanza the poet describes the destruction of an ordered
whole:
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
This applies equally to the fortunes and personality of Okonkwo and the life of
his tribe.
Okonkwo is animated by the ambition to become a leader of his people. Behind
this ambition lies a subconscious rivalry with his father, Unoka, who was
artistic, peace-loving and improvident. Okonkwo strives to be unlike the futile
Unoka who died in debt. Such an endeavour involves the achievement of a
reputation for sternness and courage, the amassing of wealth and the
development of a dominating personality.
72
Okonkwo takes the first step towards advancement when at the age of eighteen.
Okonkwo steadily advances towards the realization of his ambitions. He slowly
becomes rich, he marries three wives , he is admired for his prowess in war and
his counsels are valued in peace. But when the crown of fulfillment seems within
his grasp, an adverse fate takes it away. He has to suffer exile, and when the
exile ends, he finds himself in a new climate of thought and action. In the end,
he commits suicide to escape being hanged as a murderer by white men.
Okonkwo’s death marks also the complete disintegration of the old tribal order.
Much that is good and beautiful in tribal life perishes. Okonkwo’s great qualities
as well as the cherished values of the old order are involved in the tragic doom.
Thus, “mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” of Okonkwo and his tribe.
7. AFRICAN TRIBAL LIFE AS PORTRAYED IN “THINGS FALL APART”
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has been criticized for being too sociological and
anthropological . In other words, it is charged with representation of tribal
manners and customs to an unwarranted extent.
The theme of the story is the rise of the fortunes of Okonkwo in the days of
integrated tribal life and his fall after disintegration had set in.
Every individual in a tribe is closely linked up with the community. All the
important incidents in one’s life are in some way recognized by the tribe. From
birth to death the individual is observed, admonished, encouraged,
congratulated, punished or mourned by the tribe. Achebe does not describe how
birth is celebrated in the Obi tribe. But there is mention of a festive celebration
when a woman bears three sons in succession. Okonkwo’s eldest wife organized
a celebration when her third successive son was born. When a woman lost many
children, it was supposed to be due to the mischief of an evil spirit. This theory
was that some wicked souls dying as children would re-enter their mothers’
wombs, be born again and die again. The purpose evidently was to tease the
unfortunate mother.
Another important thing mentioned about birth is the treatment of new-born
twins. Their birth was regarded as an offence against the earth-goddess .So they
were abandoned in the forest and allowed to die. This cruel custom is a
frequently referred to in the novel.
As described in this novel , marriage appears to have been celebrated in three
stages. The first stage was the negotiation of the bride-price. The second stage
in the marriage was known as uri, on this occasion , the bride-price was paid by
the suitor. The third stage was marked by a ceremony of confession called isa-ifi.
The women of the bridegroom’s family would ask of the bride whether she had
been chaste.
In connection with the death f Ezeudu, an old and respected leader of Umuofia,
the funeral ceremonies are described at some length. The ekwe drum would
announce the death. Men and women would gather at the house of death.
73
Drums would be beaten and gun fired. There would be fierce and frenzied
dancing and cutting down of trees. Some men with egwugwu masks would pay
visits and speak as if hey were really ancestral spirits. Respected leaders were
buried after nightfall.
The economic activity of the people centred round the yam crop and the alm-
trees. With great care the yam was cultivated. It framed the chief food of the
people along with meat of various kinds. After the harvest, there was a new yam
festival. Palm-wine was the main drink.
The tribe had its own methods of maintaining law and order. Small offences
were immediately dealt with by convention and custom. The religion of the
people consisted of the worship of various gods like those of the sky and of the
thunderbolt. One of the important deities was the goddess of the earth in whose
honour an annual festival was celebrated. The religion of the people was tolerant
to the extent of allowing Christianity to be practiced and propagated, it taught
them to be fair and just, and not to kill people who would not say anything
about themselves. But it was ferocious in demanding human sacrifices like that
of Ikemefuna.
Wrestling was a sport very much in favour with the people. It was an elaborate
affair , with referees and a complicated code of etiquette. Hunting is also
mentioned. Women and children and even men also told stories and listened to
them. Music of various kinds is mentioned. After the harvest, for two or three
months, it was the musical season.
On the whole , the Obi tribe in Nigeria whose life is portrayed in the novel,
cannot be called barbarous or uncivilized. It has an ordered social life and many
of the graces of civilization. Neither its religion nor its moral code deserves
wholesale condemnation. There may be practices and superstitions of which the
modern reason or conscience would not approve. But that is the case with
almost every society and every religion, and the extent of such disapproval is
only relative. As Achebe himself has said one of the purpose in writing is to show
his people that “their past with all its imperfections was not one long night of
savagery from which the first Europeans, acting on God’s behalf , delivered
them”.
8. THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND WHITE MAN’S RULE IN AFRICA
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has for its theme the breakup of tribal ties as a result
f the introduction of Christianity and Western systems of law and justice in
Eastern Nigeria over fifty years ago. The story is told as seen by a strong and
colourful personality. The fortunes of Okonkwo and the Obi tribe to which he
belongs are told together.
The dispossession is the result of the loss of political and social freedom and of
the advent of a new religion. The tribal way of life could not stand this double
attack. Oberika points out in the novel that the white man having gained a
74
foothold with peaceful talks about his religion, proceeded t win converts t his
way of life. And these converts broke the unity of the tribe.
As long as Okonkwo flourished as a prosperous farmer and respected leader in
Umuofia, there was no Christianity there. It was only during his exile ,he came
to know about Christianity. He saw the first attempts of the missionary, Brown
to introduce Christianity to the people f Mbanta.
The leaders of the village took a light-heated and liberal view f the matter. They
offered a part of the ‘evil forest’ it was their hope that the missionary and
African followers would be scared and leave the place .But Brown and his men
built a church in the ‘evil forest’ . The Opposed and the outcast first became
converts. But as the ‘Church seemed to flourish the dark powers of the ‘evil
forest’, others slowly joined. Among these was Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye.
Meanwhile ,Brown had been working at Umuofia also. There he not only built
Church but also schools and hospitals. The school attracted friendly notice
when its pupils began to get lucrative jobs. Slowly even respectable people began
to join Christianity.. One of them was a titled man. When Okonkwo returned to
Umuofia, he found the tribe disintegrating through Christian influence
Another cause for the break-up f tribal cohesion was the introduction of
British law, justice and Commerce. As a result , the self-government of the tribe
was undermined. In civil cases mistaken judgements were given through
ignorance of tribal law and custom. In criminal cases the British penal code was
enforced. The close accord between the missionary and the administrator forced
the tribe into disunity and confusion.
Achebe has taken care to show both the good and the evil of the two ways f life.
The old order had its barbarities in human sacrifices, but the tribal religion was
not fanatic . It tolerated other religions like Christianity.
The tribal administrations and social life had its own merit of simplicity and
impressiveness. Justice was administered according to the opinion of
experienced elders. In important matters, some of the elders wearing the masks
of departed sprits, acted as a court of superhuman judges. Serious offences like
murder called for both religious expiation and some kind of criminal
punishment. Even a minor nuisance like letting a cow into someone else’s field
was dealt with promptly through an immediate fine. Above all, the tribal society
had an integrated way of life and acted as one. But the new order destroyed this
integrity and made the Africans feel as if they had lost their souls.
9. THE TRAGIC FAULTS OR ERRORS OF OKONKWO
Okonkwo’s own success as a self-made man makes him impatient of others who
are not so successful. This is pride. For example at a meeting of the tribe’s
elders , he calls another man-a woman! And is called on to apologise.
75
He is hard and stern with his own family, and particularly with his own son
Nwoye, who does not take after him in strength or will. He is always afraid of
being considered weak like his father. It is inner psychological fear that makes
him proud and hard and an achiever through sheer hard work and effort. He is
also very strict with his wives, and their duty towards him. This is little of the
softer side of human nature seen in him.
He breaks the ‘The Week of Peace’ before the ceremonial planting of Yams by
beating his youngest wife, Ojuigo, unmercifully when she absents herself and
does not send him his third dish of food as required. She had gone to a
neighbour to plait her hair. He is so angry that he forgets time and place. The
sin of anger on the one hand and a breaking of the laws of the tribe by
desecrating the Week of Peace to placate the Goddess of the soil, Ani. So this is
both a personal and a tribal error.
Shortly after ,at the New Yam Festival , when his favourite wife ,Ekwefi makes a
contemptuous remark he almost shoots her with his gun, after beating her for
plucking some leaves from a tree in their yard. This again shows how short
temper and tendency to act on immediate faults that rebound upon him.
The Oracle of the Hills and Caves orders the death of Ikemefuna who has
become as a son to Okonkwo. The boy is led away into the forest., and Okonkwo
is warned by the messenger of the Oracle not to partake in the killing of the boy.
But to show his fearlessness and impartiality , Okonkwo goes with them. And
when Ikemefuna is struck, but not killed it is Okonkwo himself who strikes the
final blow with his machete, even as the boy is calling him ‘father’ . This is a
second offence against the laws of the tribe.
The last incident is however not really hisown fault. At the funeral f the leader f
the tribe Ezeudu, there is much dancing and firing of crackers and guns
.Okonkwo fires his gun, but it explodes, and a fragment of metal kills Ezeudu’s
own son. For this final fault against the tribe-a killing though unintentional –of
one of its members, he is banished for seven years.
10. TWIN TRAGEDY IN THINGS FALL APART
Tragedy is shared by the tribe which has also fallen apart. Since it is a double
tragedy,
a) the weakness and mistakes of the hero
b) the weakness such as superstition and cruelty of the tribe,
Thus, the author does with great truth and artistic effect.
The tragic failure of Okonkwo is brought about in part by his own defects of
character and in part by the advent of European influences on the tribal scene.
His failure thus synchronises with the disintegration of the traditional way of life
among the African tribes. Christianity and British administration break up the
76
organic unity of the tribal life. Things Fall apart not merely in the personality of
Okonkwo but also in the society in which he lived.
Things Fall Apart tells two overlapping, intertwining stories, both of which center
around Okonkwo, a "strong man" of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first story
traces Okonkwo's fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives. It
provides us with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the
individual society. The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient,
concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world through
the arrival of aggressive European missionaries. Unfortunately, Okonkwo did not
understand that societies change. They do not remain unchangeable for ever.
They do change and the attempts to stop the developments are mostly in vain.
These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized and they are modulated by an
awareness capable of encompassing the life of nature, history, and the
mysterious compulsions of the soul. Things Fall Apart is the most illuminating
and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen
from within.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

1. Describe Okonkwo, the protagonist of Things Fall Apart
2. Describe Unoka, Okonkwo’s father. What are Okonkwo’s feelings toward
Unoka, and why?
3. What is the relationship between Okonkwo and the themes of ‘’Things Fall
Apart’’
4. Why did Achebe choose to take the title of his novel, Things Fall Apart,
from William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming”?
5. What is the narrator’s point of view and what values are important
to the narrator?
6. Achebe presents details of daily village life in Umuofia, as well as
details concerning the Igbo culture. Describe the setting of the novel.
7. What is the role of women in the novel?
8. Explain why you think Okonkwo kills himself.
9. In your opinion, what contributes most to things falling apart in
Umuofia? Explain.
10. How are the womanly or feminine qualities of the Igbo culture
important to its survival?
11. Compare the characters of Mr. Brown and Reverend Smith.
77

B.A. English Literature - Fiction

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

B.A. English Literature - Fiction

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

B.A.

1 Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen 10

2 The Old man and the Sea. By Ernest Hemingway 24

3 The Vicar of Wakefield By Oliver Goldsmith 33

4 Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte 44

5 Things Focal Apart By Chinua Achebe 61

CORE PAPER II - FICTION

1. Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen

the fortunes of the chief character or characters. There is a change of fortune in

2.2. Methods of Analyzing Characters

5. character relationships and character contrasts

3. Methods of Analyzing for themes in the novel

4. Methods of Analyzing Style

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813)

Jane Austen’s contribution to the world of fiction writing is noteworthy and

2.1. Jane Austen’s Literary Career

2.2. Literary Background and Contemporary Writers

2.3. Jane Austen’s World

2.4. Jane Austen’s Contribution

Chapman wondering the depth of characterization says:

3.1. STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL

(Darcy and Bingley) in the neighborhood Longbourn. Darcy is, initially,

The action further develops in terms of deepening the prejudice of Elizabeth

The successful conclusion of the story is brought about by Lady Catherine’s

Mrs.Bennet’s sister is married to Mr.Philips and they live at Meryton.

having a sound judgment of character and pleasant manners. Her behavior

Mr.Collins, a foolish and odd character and a cousin of Mr.Bennet,who would

4.1. Love and Marriage

4.3. Theme of Self-Realization

5.1. Elizabeth Bennet

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (1952)

1.1. The Author

Ernest Millar Hemingway (1899-1961) was born on 21 July 1899 in Chicago,

4.1. Religious theme

4.2. Nature and Human Bonding

4.3. No man is an Island

Santiago is the embodiment of the qualities that Hemingway admired so much.

5.2. Manolin – the boy

5.3. The Fish – Marlin

He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were

He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is

6. LANGUAGE AND STYLE

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD (1766)

1.1. Social Background

1.2.The Classical Style

1.3.The Augustan Novel

Six kinds of novels emerged at this time:

2.2. Goldsmith as a Writer

3.1. Significant Aspects of the novel

• The Vicar of Wakefield is widely popular and still read as a masterpiece of

Goldsmith also presents the character with a certain amount of foolishness. He

Mr.Burchell is in reality Sir William Thornhill. He is extremely generous, with a

4.6. Deborah Primrose

A typical eighteenth century mother, her main interest is in getting her

4.7. Arabella Wilmot

4.8. Squire Thornhill

5. IMPORTANCE OF THE NOVEL

5.2. The Domestic Novel

5.4. Style and Meaning

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

2. THE STORY OF ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’