Assignment: Paper 101(Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods)

Assignment Writing: Paper-101( Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods)

This blog is Assignment writing on paper no-101( Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods) assigned by Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

Name: Nidhi Dave

Paper: Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods

Roll no: 16

Enrollment no: 4069206420210005

Email ID: davenidhi05@gmail.com

Batch: 2021-23 (MA Semester - 1)

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English,Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

👉John Donne as metaphysical poet

“In ornament we can say that he is the man who established his poetic style and that’s why he is called a ‘metaphysical poet’.”

Actually the growth and power, loosely it has  such meaning as these difficult, obscure, philosophical, ethereal, involved supercilious, ingenious, fantastic and incongruous.

In metaphysical poetry, if someone’s name is alive even today then it is of John Donne. Everyone knows that John Donne is a metaphysical poet because every element of metaphysical poetry exists in his poems. Every critic appreciated the contribution of John Donne in metaphysical poetry. He was the one who created a new kind of poetry in those days when everyone was following the tradition. Donne’s poetry is remarkable but only metaphysics does not make it remarkable. There are certainly other elements, which are there in his poetry and make John Donne famous among other metaphysical poets of his era. Ben Jonson also belonged to the metaphysical school of poetry yet his name comes after John Donne.

👉Introduction:

             John Donne is the leader and founder of the Metaphysical school of poetry. His poetry is a revolt against the popular current. First of all Dryden used the term ' Metaphysical' for Donne's poetry. He said,' Donne affects metaphysics'. Later on Dr. Johnson called Donne and his followers 'The metaphysical poets'. Since then the word metaphysical has been used for Donne and his followers.

👉John Donne: An English Poet:

John Donne was an English poet, a soldier, and a scholar. He was born on January 22, 1572, in London. His family was recusant Roman Catholic, and at that time, that religion was illegal in the UK. His father’s name was the same as his. Donne received his early education privately. He joined Hertford College, Oxford at 11. He couldn’t get a degree from these institutions because of his religion.Donne began questioning his faith after the death of his brother in prison due to protecting a Catholic priest.He became secretary of Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, but lost his post when he married his niece of Sir Thomas Egerton secretly.

He had twelve children of which five died. His life circumstances were bad and he considered suicide but wrote Biathanatos, in his defence of not committing suicide. His wife died in 1617 after giving birth to a stillborn child. He wrote about loss of his love in his 17th Holy Sonnet.Cambridge University gave Donne an honorary doctorate in divinity in 1615. In 1623, he faced an almost fatal illness and wrote many meditations and prayers for health and sickness. He delivered his famous sermon Death’s Duel before King Charles I, at the Palace of Whitehall in February 1631. John Donne died on March 31, 1631 and was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral in London where he was a dean. John Donne was the most prominent of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. 

👉 What is Metaphysical Poetry?

It is also in our knowledge that “meta” means beyond and “physics” means physical nature. In simple words, metaphysical poetry is that in which a poet remains away from the description of physical intimacy. We hardly see any poem by John Donne, in which he talks about the physical beauty of any woman. In his “Love Poems”, he demonstrates his feelings and emotion by using precise and exact words yet he has never praised any woman’s physical beauty. Moreover, this kind of poetry is away from imagination. Like John Keats, he does not create a world of his own in his mind; instead, he puts reality in front of his readers; nevertheless, his metaphors are far-fetched and complex in nature. Furthermore, there are some elements of metaphysical poetry, which are frequent in every poem of Donne. Following are some attributes, which make John Donne a good metaphysical poet. 

The term in the metaphysical or metaphysics in the poetry is the fruit of the renaissance tree, becoming over ripe and approaching pure science. The term metaphysical can be interpreted as; beyond=Meta, physical nature=physical. The word metaphysical has been defined by various writers. R.S. Hillyer writes,

“Literally it has to do with the conception of existence

With the living universe and man’s place therein.”

Actually the growth and power, loosely it has taken such meaning as these difficult, obscure, philosophical, ethereal, involved supercilious, ingenious, fantastic and incongruous.

👉John Donne as Metaphysical Poet:

John Donne, indeed, is a metaphysical poet but many critics doubt it. It is because Donne’s poetry is limited to emotions, whereas in conventional terms, metaphysical poems are long and poetry of metaphysics is about the philosophical system of the universe. Donne’s poetry is personal in nature; there is no philosophy in it; if it has any philosophy then it is only of love. On the other hand, many critics defended John Donne. For instance, Grierson points out:-

“Donne is metaphysical not only by virtue of his scholasticism but by his deep reflective interest in the experiences of which his poetry is the expression, the new psychological curiosity with which he writes of love and religion.”

                                       Grierson

In his eyes, John Donne has created a new kind of metaphysical poetry, which has psychological curiosity and it is based on personal experiences. Thereby, he considers John Donne a metaphysical poet.

👉Characteristics of John Donne’s poetry

John Donne’s poetry is metaphysical because of uniqueness in his poetry and his search for questions.Wit is dominant in his poetry, and it is vague and makes use of improbable conceits.Let us look at the unique and interesting characteristics of Donne’s poetry.

🖋️ Unique

🖋️Vagueness

🖋️Wit

🖋️Conceit

🖋️Maxims

👉John Donne’s Metaphysical poetry

📌 The Sun rising

📌   The Flea

📌  Death, be not proud

📌  The Dream

📌   The Ecstasy 

👉Major Theme: John Donne's Poems

📌Paradoxes

📌Belittling cosmic forces

📌Religion 

📌Death and the Hereafter 

📌Love as both physical and spiritual

📌Interconnectedness of humanity

📌 Fidelity

Now, let us analyze his poems step by step,

⭐The Flea

     In the very first line of ‘The Flea,’ the poet-lover asks his beloved to observe the flea carefully. She should notice that first, it sucked his blood and then hers, and in this way, their blood mingles in its body, as they do in sexual intercourse. The flea has enjoyed union with her, without any courtship or marriage. Yet this is not considered any loss of honour; there is neither any sin, nor shame, nor loss of virginity in it. In this respect, the flea is superior to them. She can do, i.e. enjoy the pleasure of physical union, which the lovers cannot enjoy prior to marriage.

📌Analysis of this poem:

The speaker tells his beloved to took at the flea before them and to note "how little" that thing she denies him. For the flea, he says, has sucked first his blood,then her blood,so that now, inside the flea, they are mingled; and that mingling cannot be called "sin, or loss of maidenhead". The flea has joined them together in a way that, " alas, is more than we would do."

"Cruel and sudden, hast thou since

Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?"

As his beloved moves to kill the flea, the speaker says her hand, asking her to spare the three lives in the flea: his life, her life and the flea' s own life. In the flea, he says, where their blood is mingled, they are almost married no, more than married and the flea is their marriage bed and marriage temple mixed into one. Though their parents grudge their romance and though she will not make love him, they are nevertheless United and cloistered in the living walls of the flea.she is apt to kill him,he says, but he asks that she not kill herself by killing the flea that contains her blood; he says that to kill the flea would be sacrilege, "three sins in killing three." "Cruel and sudden," the speaker calls his lover, who has now killed the flea, "purpling" her fingernail with the "blood of innocence." The speaker asks his lover what the flea's sin was, other than having sucked from each of them a drop of blood. He says that his lover replies that neither of them is less noble for having killed the flea. It is true, he says and it is this very fact that proves that her fears are false: If she where to sleep with him, she would lose no more honor than she lost when she killed the flea.

⭐Death, Be Not Proud

The present Holy sonnet 10 of John Donne deals with the theme of ‘Death’. Death is an inevitable truth of life, one who is born is bound to doe. The poet reduces fear of death in the preset sonnet. The speaker tells Death that it should not feel proud, for though some have called it “mighty and dreadful,” it is not. Those whom Death thinks it kills do not truly die, nor, the speaker says, “can’s thou kill me.”

📌Analysis of this poem:

    “Sleep is a temporary death and,

 Death is a permanent sleep”

The speaker tells Death that is should not be feel proud, for though some have called it "mighty and dreadful," it is not. Those whom Death thinks it kills do not truly die, nor, the speaker says, "can't thou kill me." Rest and sleep are like little copies of Death, and they are pleasurable; thus, the speaker reasons, Death, to rest their bones and enjoy the delivery of their souls. Death, the speaker claims, is a slave to "fate, chance, kings, and deseperate men," and is forced to dwell with war, poison and sickness. The speaker says that poppies and magic charm can make men sleep as merely a short sleep, after which the dead awake into eternal life, where Death shall no longer exists: Death itself will die.

⭐Elegy X: The Dreame

This is a good example of Donne's more erotic poems. It is playful in the sense that we have a short of verbal foreplay situation: playful, but with a serious desire for sexual union afterwards. The poem teases us, too,as readers: is the poet going to get his wish? Or will he have to go to sleep again and just dream he is making love to his lady?

The poem plays with ideas of truth, sexual desire and dreams. He is clearly having an erotic dream when his lady friend wakes him for some reason. Is she going, or is she coming? If the latter, then 'My Dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.' In other words, she can 'make dreams truths', so she is a true lover.

📌Analysis of this poem:

"Dearest, for nothing worth less than you

Would I have woken up from this dream;

For reality was stronger than fantasy."

The speaker or the poet was deep in a dream when he was woken up by his lady love. He states that he is happy his dream was broken by her because he was dreaming about her and now that ‘fantasy’ could be made into a reality, now that she was there. So it was a wise thing that she broke his dream. His lady love was so pure and true that mere thoughts of her were enough to make dreams true and ‘fables histories’. He invites her to embrace him and continue where she left off in his dream.

Donne now compares her to light as in lighting and as in candle light.She knew what he was dreaming and woke him up just as he was about to indulge in excess joy. He says it would be irreverent if he did not see her as someone divine.

"As lighting, or the light of a candle,

Your eyes, and not your noise woke me;"

In the third stanza he is a little disappointed because she came only to leave immediately. She did not stay to fulfil his desires. He feels like her love is weak and therefore she fears him and is about to leave. He had called her pure in the earlier stanza but now doubts it. She is filled with ‘fear, shame, honour’. He compares her to a torch which is lighted just to be tested and then put off. She had dealt with him like that; came to kindle him with excitement and then left leaving him totally dampened in spirit. Now all that he can do is to dream again.

👉Conclusion

John Donne without any doubt is a metaphysical poet. Nevertheless, his poetry is different from other metaphysical poets of his era. He uses conceits; his remarks are witty; there is no artificiality in his poems; his demonstration is fresh and original. In fact, he only presents his emotions and personal experiences of his life. All these elements make his poetry remarkable and him best metaphysical poet of every era. By

Words Count: 2,152

Sources: 

https://www.englitmail.com/2017/11/john-donne-as-metaphysical-poet-dr.html?m=1

https://literaryenglish.com/john-donne-as-a-metaphysical-poet/

http://askliterature.com/poetry/john-donne/john-donne-as-a-metaphysical-poet/

importance of being Earnest

Thinking Activity

"Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde

     

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations.

Q-1,Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?

What is the meaning of the title The Importance of Being Earnest?

The meaning of the title The Importance of Being Earnest is that there is something valuable in being earnest, or honest. This title is ironic, however, because the characters in the play are actually not honest. In the end, Jack remarks, "now I know the vital importance of being earnest," but in reality, he has lied, and his lies simply happened to turn out to be true statements.The full title of the play is The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Wilde told Robert Ross that its theme was the idea:

That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere...

A serious Comedy for Trivial people:

Wilde seems to have been toying with audiences by giving the play a title with more than one meaning. The play’s title can be deceptive. Rather than a form of the name Ernest, the title implies earnestness as a quality one should seek to acquire, as in being honest, sincere, sober, and serious. Throughout the play, Ernest is a name that encompasses qualities of the ideal man: deeply trustworthy, truly loving, honorable and passionate, and absolutely sincere. Gwendolyn says, “We live in an age of ideals . . . and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. . . . The only really safe name is Ernest.” That both Gwendolyn and Cecily dream of marrying a man named Ernest seems more than a coincidence. Cecily admits, “It had always been a girlish dream of mine to love some one whose name was Ernest. There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence.”Indeed, there is almost a worship of the name more than what it represents. “It is a divine name. It has a music of its own,” explains Gwendolyn. “It produces vibrations.” And Cecily describes the man she thinks to be named Ernest as “the very soul of truth and honour. Disloyalty would be as impossible to him as deception.” So, what’s in a name? Would a rose by any other name, as Shakespeare asserts, smell as sweet? Ab solutely not, unless that name were Ernest, according to Oscar Wilde’s portrayal of shallow, yet charming, Victorian women.

Within the context of the play, add confidence, safety, and gravity to the ideal man named Ernest. But audiences are left to wonder if Wilde meant to use “Earnest” and “Ernest” interchangeably. After all, one is a description and the other is a man’s name. No, Wilde reminds viewers that to be earnest is more important that to be named Ernest. The social deceptions of Victorian England were rampant, and Wilde simply wished to call things as he saw them. One way he did this was through double entendre; however, his use of aphorisms went further in exposing the widespread use of deception among the gentry.

Wilde peppered the play with aphorisms, those pithy witticisms that purportedly derive from exalted thought. Indeed, the playwright spoke in aphorisms on his deathbed when he stated through fevers, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” The following quotes from The Importance of Being Earnest exemplify Wilde’s adept use of aphorisms:

“Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever” (Act 1).

“No married man is ever attractive except to his wife” (Act 2).

“Divorces are made in Heaven” (Act 2)

Wilde mingled truth and humor using tongue-in-cheek and witty repartee, both of which fit beautifully into farce. And his adept use of truth in jest makes The Importance of Being Earnest a perennial favorite of Western theatre audiences and literary critics. The following quotes by characters in The Importance of Being Earnest reveal Oscar Wilde’s clever wit in holding the mirror up to reveal truth and human nature:

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!” (Algernon).

“In matters of grave importance style, not sincerity is the vital thing” (Gwendolyn).

“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only those who can’t get into it do that” (Jack).

The Importance of Being Earnest Trivial Comedy for Serious People:

The play The Importance of Being Earnest has been called by its author “a trivial comedy of serious people”. This is, of course a witty and paradoxical description of the play. Serious people cannot be interested in a comedy. Serious people would be interested in serious matters and not in things which appeal to the comic sense. Again a comedy which derives its whole value form the originality and the brilliance of its wit cannot be called trivial. The word trivial has been used either form a feeling of modesty on the author’s part or in an ironical sense. 

When the play is meant for serious people, perhaps the author expected that even serious people will laugh because of its wit. Perhaps the author is inspiring the serious people to witness the play on the stage so that they may derive from it some food for serious thought. Wilde poses here as a trifle who is capable of thinking and there is often a wonderful suggestiveness in his lightest banter and wildest paradox. For examples, the excessive consumption of wine by servants at parities at Algernon’s voices a well established face that, strictly speaking, romance ends when a proposal of marriage has been accepted, and accepted readily, Besides, the portrayal of Lady Bracknell is an indirect attack on social snobbery and class consciousness. 

The subtitle to The Importance of Being Earnest is ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’. This is an appropriate subtitle as the play deals with a great deal of triviality and nonsense throughout the play. Wilde seeks to mock many aspects of Victorian society in this play. He is parodying the normal views of people in the Victorian era, as they focus more on very minor and unimportant things, highlighting their superficiality. Wilde wanted to make people more aware of the more important things in life, which he does by parodying the Victorian society’s views and ideals such as things like religion and marriage. Religion and marriage are usually two things that are held in very high regards by others, but by mocking them, Wilde is making people aware of how nonsensical they are acting and how stupid they look at times. This is done by the clever usage of epigrams, paradoxes, irony and sarcasm.

The Importance of Being Earnest-" A trivial comedy for serious people" What aspects of late Victorian Society does Oscar Wilde seek to mock and trivialise? Oscar Wilde accepts Victorian values however he seeks to mock and trivialise the late Victorian society in his play- The Importance of Being Earnest. He described the play as exquisitely trivial, and therefore gave it the subtitle- "A trivial comedy for serious people". His intentions were to make people think more deeply and make them more aware of the serious things in life, which should be treated with sincerity, and the trivial things with seriousness.Thus the play is constructal on the strength of pun and the plot towns on a misconception over the name ‘Ernest’. The theme is an attack on earnestness, that is, the Victorian priggishness, hypocrisy and false sense of class-consciousness.

Words :- 1350

The Rover

Thinking Activity

"The Rover" by Aphra Behn

The Rover, published and first produced in 1677, was Aphra Behn’s most successful play. The original full title, The Rover; or, The Banish ‘d Cavaliers, indicates that the play was a tribute to the formerly exiled cavalier and newly reinstated king, Charles II. The Rover is a dark comedy that mixes themes of prostitution and rape with comic buffoonery. The play expresses its author’s objections to the vulnerability of women in Restoration society. Perhaps ironically, it also appeals to the prurient interests of the audience by putting women in morally compromising situations. Based loosely on her contemporary Thomas Killigrew’s 1564 Thomas; or, The Wanderer(1664), Behn’s play is leaner, less lewd, and more profound. The plot follows the fortunes of opposing lovers, one a woman of quality masquerading as a courtesan and one a wandering rake whose philandering days end when he falls in love with her. Several near-rapes and the tragic case of a jilted courtesan, another character in the play, balance the comic treatment of sexual politics in the seventeenth century. The rover of the title is either Willmore, an exiled English sea captain on shore leave to enjoy the carnival, or Hellena, a young woman hoping to experience life and love before being committed to a convent by her brother. These two rovers meet and fall in love amid witty debates and sexual maneuvering. Willmore has many parallels to Charles II, whose exploits during his twenty-year banishment from England were well known. Charles II enjoyed the play so much that he commissioned a private viewing of it. 

Question: 3,Does the use of different terminology to describe prostitutes in the play have an effect on how a given character is perceived, or how the profession as a whole is perceived? Explain.

In The Rover, prostitutes are alternatively referred to as “courtesan” and “whore.” The latter of these terms is stigmatizing, whereas the former lends the profession a somewhat glamorizing tone. Language thus functions in this situation to draw a distinction between the “upper class” and “lower class” prostitutes, and with this distinction comes a variance both in respect and agency. Lucetta, for example, is referred to as a “whore”—which invites the audience or reader to imagine her as a rougher character, one who is perhaps more coarse and conniving. Her actions correspond to this image, as her actions in the play are cold, cruel, and viciously deceptive. Angellica, on the other hand, is alternatively referred to as “mistress” and “courtesan”—terms that have a softer and more dignified feel to them. Her actions are correspondingly more considerate and courtly.

As Belvile rightly pointed out, “..whatever extravagances we commit in these faces, we own may not be obliged to answer ‘em.” The same freedom furthermore led to a very flawed assumption that all gypsies were available for sex.Hellena who is described as ‘a gay young woman designed for a nun’ persists right from the start on her willingness to select matrimony over nunnery which is rejected by her brother, “Do not fear the blessing of that choice. You shall be a nun." She questioned and opposed the lack of agency with resilience: “Prithee tell me, what dost thou see about me that is unfit for love — have not I a world of youth? a humour gay? a beauty passable? a vigour desirable? well shap’d? clean limb’d? sweet breath’d? and sense enough to know how all these ought to be employ’d to the best advantage: yes, I do and will. Therefore lay aside your Hopes of my Fortune, by my being a devotee,..” Unapologetically, she endeavoured to find a suitable match with whom she could have sexual intercourse. Shattering the stereotypical image of a high-class Puritan woman, she asked: “Why must we be either guilty of fornication or murder if we converse with you men? And is there no difference between left to love me, and leave to lie with me?” 

Britain’s king led his noblemen by example with a hedonistic lifestyle of parties, sex, and extravagant spending. The social and sexual freedom of this “libertinism,” however, did not extend to ladies. Although women might crave higher degrees of autonomy and sexual expression, their lives still fit within the boundaries of three roles: nun, prostitute, or wife. Between the categories of “virgin” and “whore” lay a void, not a spectrum; one could give “the whole cargo or nothing”.Performed in 1677, Aphra Behn’s play, The Rover, speaks to this double standard, which limited her female peers’ sexual desires to the realm of convent, brothel, or home. Set loose in the topsy-turvy world of Carnival, her characters demonstrate the active, complicated game required of women seeking to secure personal happiness. The dangers of the chase and the play’s tidy conclusion, on the other hand, suggest at how ladies neither could nor should stray too far into the masculine roles of wooer and possessor. Late Stuart society, Behn seems to lament, offered no place to the sexually free, libertine woman.

Her virginal sister, Florinda, and the sexually liberated courtesan, Angellica Bianca, adopt similar goals in pursuit of passion. They are nothing like the subordinate females of Puritan propriety, but witty, competent matches for the men they meet. Through their strong personalities, Behn suggests at early British women’s potential to feel and act confidently on sexual feelings, thus " desire” and “[subverting] the construction of woman as a self-policing and passive commodity”.A common prostitute dupes the comic figure, Ned Blunt, despite his comrades warning of possible deception. Florinda’s brother Pedro, along with the English band, becomes so absorbed in the libertine hunt for sexual conquest that he nearly rapes his own sister. The blundering behavior of the English cavaliers speaks to the reason and abilities of women and encourages late Stuart Britain to respect the female libertine as a strong, capable lady, not a whore.

Each woman begins the play bound one of the three fates: Florinda to marriage, Hellena to the nunnery, and Angellica Bianca to well-paid prostitution. Through Carnival, however, these women abandon their prescribed positions with disguises to “be mad as the rest, and take all innocent freedoms,” including to “outwit twenty brothers” . The masquerade serves multiple purposes. First, disguise equalizes the class distinctions, “[blurring, criticizing] and…even [satirizing] the difference between the categories available to women”  . When lost in the festivities, the ladies join all that “are, or would have you think they’re courtesans,” the most sexually liberated women . Their initial costumes as gypsies allow them to approach men in a feminized, desirous way. Gypsies already occupy the role of outcast on the liminal edge of society; by taking on their looks, Florinda and Hellena put themselves and their sexuality outside the confines of cultural expectation. Their decision implies Behn’s opinion that her peers should seek to escape the restrictions that define them.

At the same time, celebrated sisterhood and female expression of feelings and desires and mocked the rigidity of heteronormative gender roles which were blurred in the carnival festivity where identities were unrevealed and cross-dressing, wizarding were used as tools to create bewilderment for smoother transgression.

Words:- 1,189

Hard Time

Thinking Activity:

Hard Time by Charles Dickens

 Discuss the theme of  Utilitarianism with illustration from the novel.

What is Utilitarianism?

utilitarianism, in normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill according to which an action (or type of action) is right if it tends to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if it tends to produce unhappiness or pain—not just for the performer of the action but also for everyone else affected by it. Utilitarianism is a species of consequentialism, the general doctrine in ethics that actions (or types of action) should be evaluated on the basis of their consequences.

Theme of Utilitarianism:

In the novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens connives a theme of utilitarianism, along with education and industrialization. Utilitarianism is the belief that something is morally right if it helps a majority of people. It is a principle involving nothing but facts and leaves no room for creativity or imagination. Dickens provides symbolic examples of this utilitarianism in Hard Times by using Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, one of the main characters in the book, who has a hard belief in utilitarianism. Thomas Gradgrind is so into his philosophy of rationality and facts that he has forced this belief into his children’s and as well as his young students. Mr. Josiah Bounderby, Thomas Gradgrind’s best friend, also studies utilitarianism, but he was more interested in power and money than in facts. Dickens uses Cecelia Jupe, daughter of a circus clown, who is the complete opposite of Thomas Gradgrind to provide a great contrast of a utilitarian belief.

Hard Times is Dickens’ most biting fictional critique of these moral principles and their consequences. The central utilitarian character in Hard Times is Thomas Gradgrind, a school board superintendent and father who forces the children under his mandate to memorize facts and statistics. The children are encouraged to maximize utility through their actions by basing their decisions on selfish, cold calculation. In turn, the children are punished for enjoying artistic entertainment such as storybooks about fairies and watching circus performers. With lives dominated by facts and void of art, the children are frustrated and discontented. Gradgrind’s children ultimately grow to find that the utilitarian system of ethics fails them when they are confronted with the complexity of justice and emotions.

Dickens uses Thomas Gradgrind to demonstrate exactly how a basic philosophy of rationality self-interest. Thomas Gradgrind has faith that human nature can be restrained, calculated, and ruled completely by facts. Certainly, his schooling attempts to turn young children into tiny machines. Dickens’s main goal in Hard Times was to exemplify the risks of letting humans become nothing but machines, signifying that the lack of kindness and imagination in life would be intolerable. Louisa balms her father for only teaching her lessons on facts and nothing on life, she feels that that’s the reason she is unhappy in her marriage. “All that I know is, your philosophy and your teaching will not save me. How, father, 

… middle of paper …

 Mr. Gradgrind’s two oldest children, Tom and Louisa, are examples of how a utilitarian method can fail horribly. Tom and Louisa were never given the opportunity to think for themselves, experience an adventurous life, or even use their imaginations. True, they are intelligent human beings but do not have the capability to understand street smarts. Dickens uses irony as a comical device but also to show how ineffective the utilitarian method of teaching is.

Gradgrind first finds his antithesis in Sissy, a girl at his school who is adopted by the Gradgrinds when her circus-performer father abandons her. Sissy is of another world, that of the circus that is governed by art and emotion, which contrasts with Gradgrind’s school and upper-class home, governed by facts, logic and selfishness. Sissy fails, both at school and at home, to comply with the mathematical rationalizations of utilitarianism because she is empathetic and imaginative.

In this novel Dickens Shows how Thomas Gradgrind uses a utilitarian mindset to force facts in the minds of young children. “Stick to Facts” (1) Thomas Gradgrind says. Dickens use Thomas Gradgrind Teachings to show how facts alone are not enough. Dickens connives that you need other factors to consider when creating the perfect human. You need imagination, life adventure and facts alone are not enough

.

Dickens’ ultimate message is to show the value of imagination, art, and human connection in a place dominated by fact and rationality. When Tom Gradgrind’s children, Louisa and Tom face hardship because they followed their father’s utilitarian thinking, it is ultimately Sissy who will be the one who pilots change in the imaginary of the Grad grind. Sissy is a magnetic storyteller, someone who can light the spark in the minds of others that illuminates a new vision of the world. That vision might be a fantastic one of fairies and other forest spirits, or of a different, more compassionate future. We see this in Sissy’s undying hope that her father might still come back home to her one day. She has faith in a better tomorrow that is based on love, not material improvement. Dickens was in fact outlining these anti-utilitarianist experiences in his humanistic stories, and honoring art as the form of defense that can lift humanity out of the dregs of reductivism.

Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded

Thinking Aactivity

Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

         

Here i write a blog on given question, is pamela a reliable narrator? If Yes, then why? If not, then why? 

 

Plot of the novel

Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of conduct literature about marriage. Pamela tells the story of a fifteen-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose employer, Mr. B, a wealthy landowner, makes unwanted and inappropriate advances towards her after the death of her mother. Pamela strives to reconcile her strong religious training with her desire for the approval of her employer in a series of letters and, later in the novel, journal entries all addressed to her impoverished parents. After various unsuccessful attempts at seduction, a series of sexual assaults, and an extended period of kidnapping, the rakish Mr. B eventually reforms and makes Pamela a sincere proposal of marriage. In the novel's second part Pamela marries Mr. B and tries to acclimatise to her new position in upper-class society. The full title, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, makes plain Richardson's moral purpose. A best-seller of its time, Pamela was widely read but was also criticised for its perceived licentiousness and disregard for class barriers. Furthermore, Pamela was an early commentary on domestic violence and brought into question the dynamic line between male aggression and a contemporary view of love. The action of the novel is told through letters and journal entries from Pamela to her parents. Richardson highlights a theme of naivety, illustrated through the eyes of Pamela. Richardson paints Pamela herself as innocent and meek to further contribute to the theme of her being short-sighted to emphasize the ideas of childhood innocence and naivety.

Let's discuss about Pamela is reliable narrator or not.l can say yes Pamela is reliable narrator.

     

One of the drawbacks of first-person voice is that we only hear that person’s view of events. Is Pamela a reliable narrator? Probably Richardson means her to be, since his intention with the book is to present a portrait of how girls ought to act. And not just girls. The last few pages are taken up with reminders to gentlemen, aristocrats, servants, clergymen, etc. of the lessons they should have learned from the story. Yet, it is hard not to wonder if Pamela didn’t plan the whole thing from the start in order to trap Mr. B. into matrimony, and if she isn’t perhaps a bit more wicked than the image she presents to her parents.

Pamela is by her own account a pious and respectable girl whom everyone loves. Unfortunately, her master loves her a bit too much for her comfort and makes unwanted advances which she parries using her feeble weapons: words, fainting fits, and the support of other servants, though that support must be tempered by their fear of and dependence on their master. Thinking about how helpless she was to prevent him if he chose to force himself on her, I was reminded of The Tale of Genji and how such behaviour was considered commonplace. 18th century England is a long way from 11th century Japan, but I was not surprised to find Pamela’s aristocratic neighbours and servants from other houses declaring that Mr. B making her his mistress should be the obvious and ordinary outcome. Even today, with all the strides we have made in enabling women to be our own selves and not some man’s servant or property, there are too many women who are helpless against their abusers.

The first part of the story is a series of letters Pamela writes to her parents relating her problems with Mr. B. and asking for their advice. The second and much longer part is a journal that she keeps, still addressing her parents as though writing a long letter to them, telling them of her trials and assuring them of her determination to preserve her honor. She also tries to analyse people’s motives, including her own.

What kept me reading, in spite of the long lists of rules for right conduct in serving maids and wives, was the tension between the social classes, the niceties of who could sit down in whose presence, the particular amount of authority that a housekeeper might have, what happens when a woman marries a man from a lower class and vice versa. Richardson specifically instructs “lower servants” to “distinguish between the lawful and unlawful commands of a superior”, implying that they should disobey the latter. But, however radical he may be about social class, Richardson promotes a coldly conventional view of women’s roles, where a wife is little better than a servant.

Samuel Richardson did not intentionally create Pamela as a sexually developing woman. Contrarily, his entire design was to praise a realistic woman who had remained virtuous and to encourage all other women to follow her example.Despite Richardson’s intention to create a pure character in Pamela, she can easily be read as a woman discovering her own sexuality. Pamela is somewhat confused about her own social identity. The distinctive forms and features of the beginning and the end of the novel can not only make the narrative techniques of the novel more diversified, but also attract readers' attention to a great extent.At last, the conclusion summarizes the whole thesis, reaffirms the arguments, and emphasizes the major narrative techniques again.

Life of Byron

Thinking Activity

Life of Lord Byron 

   

Lord Byron

Born: January 22, 1788

London, England

Died: April 19, 1824

Missolonghi, Greece

The English poet Lord Byron was one of the most important figures of the Romantic Movement (1785–1830; a period when English literature was full of virtuous heroes and themes of love and triumph). Because of his works, active life, and physical beauty he came to be considered the perfect image of the romantic poet-hero.

His beginnings:

George Gordon Noel Byron, sixth Baron Byron, was born on January 22, 1788, into a family of fast-decaying nobility. Captain "Mad Jack" Byron was a "gold digger," marrying Catherine Gordon chiefly for her annual income. After spending most of her money and fathering George, he died in 1791. George was left with an unbalanced mother, the contempt of his aristocratic relatives for the poor widow and her son, and a birth defect necessitating that he walk on the balls and toes of his feet for the rest of his life. All this worked together to hurt the boy's pride and sensitivity. This created in him a need for self-assertion, which he soon sought to gratify in three main directions: love, poetry, and action.

Despite the awkward way he walked and the numerous "remedies" that Byron suffered through, his boyhood was full of play and mischief. His favorite activities were riding and swimming, both sports where he was physically able. But he willingly played cricket, appointing a schoolmate to run for him. At eight years old he fell hopelessly in love with a cousin. At sixteen when he heard of her engagement he reportedly was physically ill. Though said by most of his peers and teachers to have been a genius, Byron was halfhearted in his schoolwork. But he read constantly. He had a strong appetite for information and a remarkable memory. Nevertheless his biography reports Byron as having been the ringleader of numerous school revolts. He spoke of his school friends as "passions."

On the death of his granduncle in 1798, Byron inherited the title and estate. After four years at Harrow (1801–1805), he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became conscious for the first time of the difference between the high goals of idealism (romanticism) and the less important realities of experience. His quest for some genuine passion among the frail women of his world accounts for the crowded catalog of his love affairs. 

Education:

Byron received his early formal education at Aberdeen Grammar School, and in August 1799 entered the school of Dr. William Glennie, in Dawlish. Placed under the care of a Dr. Bailey, he was encouraged to exercise in moderation but could not restrain himself from "violent" bouts in an attempt to overcompensate for his deformed foot. His mother interfered with his studies, often withdrawing him from school, with the result that he lacked discipline and his classical studies were neglected.

Byron spent three years at Trinity College, engaging in sexual escapades, boxing, horse riding, and gambling. While at Cambridge, he also formed lifelong friendships with men such as John Cam Hobhouse, who initiated him into the Cambridge Whig Club, which endorsed liberal politics, and Francis Hodgson, a Fellow at King's College, with whom he corresponded on literary and other matters until the end of his life.

Political career:

Byron first took his seat in the House of Lords 13 March 1809 but left London on 11 June 1809 for the Continent. Byron's association with the Holland House Whigs provided him with a discourse of liberty rooted in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.A strong advocate of social reform, he received particular praise as one of the few Parliamentary defenders of the Luddites: specifically, he was against a death penalty for Luddite "frame breakers" in Nottinghamshire, who destroyed textile machines that were putting them out of work. His first speech before the Lords, on 27 February 1812, was loaded with sarcastic references to the "benefits" of automation, which he saw as producing inferior material as well as putting people out of work, and concluded the proposed law was only missing two things to be effective: "Twelve Butchers for a Jury and a Jeffries for a Judge!". Byron's speech was officially recorded and printed in Hansard. He said later that he "spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest impudence" and thought he came across as "a bit theatrical". The full text of the speech, which he had previously written out, was presented to Dallas in manuscript form and he quotes it in his work.

Two months later, in conjunction with the other Whigs, Byron made another impassioned speech before the House of Lords in support of Catholic emancipation. Byron expressed opposition to the established religion because it was unfair to people of other faiths.

 His Major works:

Hours of Idleness (1807)

Lachin y Gair (1807)

English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809)

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Cantos I & II (1812)

 The Two Foscari (1821)

Cain (1821)

The Vision of Judgment (1821)

Heaven and Earth (1821)

Werner (1822)

Poetic works: 

Byron wrote prolifically. In 1832 his publisher, John Murray, released the complete works in 14 duodecimo volumes, including a life by Thomas Moore. Subsequent editions were released in 17 volumes, first published a year later, in 1833. An extensive collection of his works, including early editions and annotated manuscripts, is held within the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

• Don Juan

Byron's magnum opus, Don Juan, a poem spanning 17 cantos, ranks as one of the most important long poems published in England since John Milton's Paradise Lost. Byron published the first two cantos anonymously in 1819 after disputes with his regular publisher over the shocking nature of the poetry. By this time, he had been a famous poet for seven years, and when he self-published the beginning cantos, they were well received in some quarters. The poem was then released volume by volume through his regular publishing house .By 1822, cautious acceptance by the public had turned to outrage, and Byron's publisher refused to continue to publish the work. In Canto III of Don Juan, Byron expresses his detestation for poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In letters to Francis Hodgson, Byron referred to Wordsworth as "Turdsworth".

• Irish Avatar

Byron wrote the satirical pamphlet Irish Avatar after the royal visit by King George IV to Ireland. Byron criticized the attitudes displayed by the Irish people towards the Crown, an institution he perceived as oppressing them, and was dismayed by the positive reception George IV received during his visit. In the pamphlet, Byron lambasted Irish unionists and voiced muted support towards nationalistic sentiments in Ireland.

• Parthenon marbles 

Byron was a bitter opponent of Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon marbles from Athens and "reacted with fury" when Elgin's agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon, during which he saw the spaces left by the missing friezes and metopes. He denounced Elgin's actions in his poem The Curse of Minerva and in Canto II (stanzas XI–XV) of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.

Legacy and influence:

Byron is considered to be the first modern-style celebrity. His image as the personification of the Byronic hero fascinated the public, and his wife Annabella coined the term "By Romania" to refer to the commotion surrounding him. His self-awareness and personal promotion are seen as a beginning to what would become the modern rock star; he would instruct artists painting portraits of him not to paint him with pen or book in hand, but as a "man of action. "While Byron first welcomed fame, he later turned from it by going into voluntary exile from Britain.

Biographies were distorted by the burning of Byron's memoir in the offices of his publisher, John Murray, a month after his death and the suppression of details of Byron's bisexuality by subsequent heads of the firm (which held the richest Byron archive). As late as the 1950s, scholar Leslie Marchand was expressly forbidden by the Murray company to reveal details of Byron's same-sex passions.

The re-founding of the Byron Society in 1971 reflected the fascination that many people had with Byron and his work. This society became very active, publishing an annual journal. Thirty-six Byron Societies function throughout the world, and an International Conference takes place annually.

Byron exercised a marked influence on Continental literature and art, and his reputation as a poet is higher in many European countries than in Britain, or America, although not as high as in his time, when he was widely thought to be the greatest poet in the world. Byron's writings also inspired many composers. Over forty operas have been based on his works, in addition to three operas about Byron himself (including Virgil Thomson's Lord Byron). His poetry was set to music by many Romantic composers, including Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Carl Loewe. Among his greatest admirers was Hector Berlioz, whose operas and Memoirs reveal Byron's influence.

Byronic hero:

The figure of the Byronic hero pervades much of his work, and Byron himself is considered to epitomize many of the characteristics of this literary figure. In July 1823, Byron left Italy to join the Greek insurgents who were fighting a war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. On 19 April 1824 he died from fever at Missolonghi, in modern day Greece. His death was mourned throughout Britain. His body was brought back to England and buried at his ancestral home in Nottinghamshire.

The use of a Byronic hero by many authors and artists of the Romantic movement show Byron's influence during the 19th century and beyond, including the Brontë sisters. His philosophy was more durably influential in continental Europe than in England; Friedrich Nietzsche admired him, and the Byronic hero was echoed in Nietzsche's superman.

The Byronic hero presents an idealized, but flawed character whose attributes include: great talent; great passion; a distaste for society and social institutions; a lack of respect for rank and privilege (although possessing both); being thwarted in love by social constraint or death; rebellion; exile; an unsavory secret past; arrogance; overconfidence or lack of foresight; and, ultimately, a self-destructive manner. These types of characters have since become ubiquitous in literature and politics. 

Click here and read full details about what is Byronic Hero in my blog: http://nidhidave05.blogspot.com/2021/10/byronic-hero.html

His Death:

In July 1823, Byron left Italy to join the Greek insurgents who were fighting a war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. On 19 April 1824 he died from fever at Missolonghi, in modern day Greece. His death was mourned throughout Britain. His body was brought back to England and buried at his ancestral home in Nottinghamshire.

Religion and OMG: Oh My God! Muvie

Thinking Activity

As a part of thinking Activity of a Tale of tube by Jonathan Swift , here I write a blog about religious controversy in movie Oh My God! 

Identify any one movie/web series/song/poem/novel which talk about the sensitive topic like religion. Write in brief about it and explain what kind questions are raised through that work.

 So much about religion is spoken every day in India. But it somehow still doesn’t seem enough. While it started as a personal connection to the divine power, religion has become rather commercial in the modern times. Age old customs are still in practice today even though times have now drastically changed. Some religious practices result in discrimination amongst gender, race, color and more.

This is seriously a massive issue that exists in our society and over the past few years, we have seen many Bollywood films address the issues. Obviously, many of these films faced protests and a lot of pressure across the nation from political parties and religious groups.

OMG – Oh My God! is a 2012 Indian Hindi language satirical comedy-drama film written and directed by Umesh Shukla, The film's core plot is based on 2001 Australian film The Man Who Sued God, and produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, S Spice Studios, Grazing Goat Pictures and Playtime Creations. The storyline is based on a Gujarati stage-play entitled Kanji Virudh Kanji, originally written by co-writer Saumya Joshi, with Bhavesh Mandalia as an additional co-writer. The film features Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar in the lead roles, along with Mithun Chakraborty, Om Puri, Govind Namdeo, Poonam Jhawer, Puja Gupta and Mahesh Manjrekar in pivotal roles.

OMG- Oh My God! Movie Official Trailer

                     

In a country like India that is widely God-fearing, a film like OMG Oh My God, that fearlessly and unwaveringly raises fingers at the commonplace commercialization of religious customs, is certainly an audacious attempt. Oh My God shouldn’t be mistaken to be a film that endorses atheism. Rather it questions blind faith.

             

Storyline of the  movie Oh My God!

Kanji Lalji Mehta (Paresh Rawal), a middle-class atheist, owns a shop of Hindu idols and antiques in Mumbai. He makes fun of religious activities around him and one such day, a low-intensity earthquake hits the city, and Kanji's shop is the only shop that is destroyed. His family and friends blame this on his atheism.

At the insurance office, Kanji learns that the disaster claim does not cover any damage caused by natural calamities classified under "Act of God". Running out of options, he decides to sue God but fails to find a lawyer for such a lawsuit. Hanif Qureshi (Om Puri), a poor Muslim lawyer, helps him file the case after Kanji decides to fight on his own. Legal notices are sent to the insurance company as well as to religious priests, Siddheshwar Maharaj, Gopi Maiyya, and their group's founder, Leeladhar Swamy (Mithun Chakraborty), summoning them to court as representatives of God.

As the court case commences and gains traction for its bizarre quality, Kanji finds himself facing armed fundamentalists and harassment, with his mortgage bank occupying the house, and his wife and kids leaving him. He is rescued from all of this by Krishna Vasudev Yadav (Akshay Kumar), who claims to be a real estate agent originally from Gokul, Uttar Pradesh, but appears to do fantastical tricks not possible for a human.

In a steadfast devout nation, this film has the nerve to openly point out how religious traditions like pouring milk on idols in temples or offering sheets of flowers in mosques or burning candles outside churches are merely moneymaking gimmicks, devised in the name of God. The film rightly points out how devotees, without a second thought, would make divine donations but hardly even consider charity for the needy. 

Since the film is primarily argument-oriented, it heavily relies on dialogues and it’s important to point here that the lines are pensively penned, making even the improbable seem persuasive. Kanjibhai draws your attention when he says ‘ Dharm insaan ko bebas banata hain ya antankwadi’ (Religion makes humans either vulnerable or terrorist). Subsequently Krishna enlightens ‘ Tum kisi se uska dharm mat cheeno, phir woh tumhe apna dharm bana lenge’ (If you take away a human’s religion, they will make you their religion). Perhaps one can attribute the sensibility and thoughtfulness of the written material to the Gujarati play ‘ Kanji Virrudh Kanji’ on which the film is based.

           

The lawsuit causes a public outcry. On Krishna's advice, Kanji goes to the media and gets wide coverage. Many people in a similar situation join him in the lawsuit, causing the amount of claims to skyrocket and Catholic priests and Muslim Mullahs to also be summoned as defendants. When the court demands written proof that the earthquake was an 'Act of God,' Krishna steers Kanji toward holy books like Bhagavad Gita, The Quran and The Bible. Kanji reads them and finds a passage in each that says the world and all that happen in it, from beginning to end, is a creation of God and comes from God's will alone. This strengthens his case and increases public support. However, Kanji suffers a stroke in court and is rushed to the hospital where he goes into a coma and is paralyzed. When he opens his eyes after a month, he finds Krishna, who reveals that he is God, and proves it by curing Kanji completely. He further reveals that He created the entire world, animals and humans but religion was created by humans, and he was the one who destroyed Kanji's shop because he sought to punish the godmen who showed his fear to the public, to earn money. He adds that he created the entire world and thus doesn't like to live in temples contrary to what the godmen claims and he is not interested in the offerings he gets from devotees. Instead, he created millions of humans who die of hunger and would be glad if those offerings were given to them instead. He figured out that an atheist like Kanji would end up exposing them if he destroys his Shop, and thus destroyed it by causing the disaster and started to help him with lawsuit by appearing as a human and befriending him, and revealed himself in his true form so that Kanji realizes that although he does exist, he doesn't live in temples, but in every creature he created.

       

Kanji learns that the lawsuit's verdict was in his favor and religious organizations were ordered by the court to pay the compensation to all the plaintiffs; people have begun revering Kanji himself as a god. Leeladhar, Gopi Maiyya, and Siddheshwar have taken advantage of this by opening a temple dedicated to Kanji and accumulating millions in donations. Krishna explains to Kanji that his job as God is to show people right and wrong - people do with it what they will. Kanji decides to fight back. He breaks his own statue, admonishing the crowd about trusting in God-men. He advises them to search for God in themselves and in others, not in statues; that God is everywhere, not just in temples, and faith should come from within. He tells them not to believe in fraudulent God-men, as their job is to turn religion into business.

Krishna looks on proudly as Kanji speaks, then vanishes when Kanji tries to reach him after. Kanji is reunited with his family and sees Krishna's key chain on the ground. When he is about to keep it, he hears Krishna's voice, telling him to get rid of the key chain as fear of God and reliance on religious objects was what he'd fought against all this time. Kanji smiles and throws it away, watching as it disappears in the sky with a flash.

Oh My God is moral science lesson that doesn't sound preachy. This is a film that not only entertainment and inspires but also enlightens.

Lessons to be learnt from OMG - Oh My God

OMG – Oh My God' is an exception from the films that release in Bollywood for the way it tackles a thorny issue and actually leaves you thinking.

The structure of this movie pits an atheist versus god. Now, the very notion of being an atheist in a country with the maximum number of gods is baffling to many Indians. We see God everywhere and want to share our experiences with the divine power with others. Therefore, an atheist always finds himself being the subject of pity. “Poor soul. God’s love and power have yet to touch him,” the believers say to themselves and their neighbors. 'OMG' manages to tell the story of god from an atheist’s point of view by making the latter a strong figure. This is the first film where despite getting pity from others, Kanji Lalji Mehta (Paresh Rawal) does not arouse any sympathy from viewers. He is strong enough to stand by his beliefs even when his life has hit rock bottom.

Nor is Kanji painted out as a weirdo. His arguments are logical and to the point. Pushed against a corner, he knows what he must do and never shies away from the fight. And the fight is huge. Kanji, and the movie, take on the centuries old system of worship in the country, not an easy task by any means. Fair warning if you haven’t seen the film yet: Spoilers ahead.

'OMG' talks about the cause of humanity over idol worship. This is one of the strongest points of the film. It does not shy away from telling that people should help others as and when they can instead of blindly going to religious places and placing their offerings. As a society we are so inured to any suggestion that our faith has gone haywire over so many years that making a stand against idol worship is truly commendable. But if the example of a beggar drinking milk flowing from a gutter that has been filled from worshippers pouring the drink over a shelving to sustain himself doesn’t rouse people, I don’t know what will.

The movie also tackles the thorny issue of Godmen. These ‘agents of God’, who in real life have been accused of amassing property worth crores, being manipulated by politicians and even having sex videos of them circulated in recent years, still have a huge following among their fans. The thinly veiled reference to various Godmen in the movie is nothing short of courageous and the film’s directors deserve applause for bringing out the hypocrisy of this tribe in the limelight. If nothing, at least we should ask these Godmen to be frank and clear about their business transactions. While Kanji comes off as being shrewd and manipulative of other people’s faith in the beginning, it is only towards the end when he himself is turned into a God to be milked money out of, do audiences get a taste of how badly religion has been taken over by vested interests. 

One of the most interesting points of the movie is the difference people need to know between being God-loving and God-fearing. Love of God will mean living in peace and quietude in such a way that their religion will never harm any other human. However, a God-fearing person will be either very shrewd or very angry in case anyone defames his religion. Kanji says that religion gives birth to only two types of people – cowards and terrorists. Truer words were never spoken. The example of Sai Baba, who lived in penury but whose statue is now adorned with gold is a telling example of the state of affairs among us. We shower a part of our ill-gotten gains to God, as if giving him a part of our profits will absolve us our own sins.

It is high time we realized the highlight of the movie and applied it in our lives so that we can spend our lives in peace and not be bothered about terms like Hindu terrorists and Muslim jihadis. For it is true what the movie says, “Where there is Religion, there is no Truth, and where there is Truth, Religion is not needed.”