M.A English Study Material General Notes

M.
A English Study Material English Literature General Notes
English Literature in General

Introduction
Best expression of best ideas reduced to writing is called literature. Literature is one of Fine Arts,
like Painting, as it is meant to give aesthetic pleasure rather than serve any utilitarian purpose. It
consists of great books which, whatever their subject, are notable for literary form or expression. It is
the aesthetic worth alone, or aesthetic worth combined with general intellectual excellence, which
entitles a book to be considered as literature.
In the realms of poetry, drama and fiction, the greatest works are selected on the basis of aesthetic
excellence or the beauty of expression. Books dealing with other subjects, as History, Biography,
Natural Science, Religion, Politics, etc. are considered as literature for their reputation of intellectual
eminence combined with aesthetic worth in the form of style, composition and general force of
presentation. This is a general definition of literature. When we say that a book is not literature, we
generally mean that it has no aesthetic worth; while when we call a book on history, politics, religion
etc., as literature, we mean that it has got aesthetic value. This definition excludes from literature
scientific types of writing in which the writer uses language for a logical, purely intellectual exposition
of matters of fact and generalization from facts. It also excludes utilitarian type of writing in which the
writer uses language for furthering his own or other people’s interests in the business of earning a
living.
There are two types of literature—applied literature and pure literature. The two terms can be
properly explained by studying Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”, and Keats’ “Ode on a
Grecian Urn”.
The Origin of Species has certainly some literary merit in the form of expressive power, as Darwin
has communicated certain information to the reader in an appropriate style. But in this case the
expression is not as important as the information. Darwin expressed himself for the purpose
of putting his readers in possession of a certain body of information and thus
persuading them of the cogency of a certain line of argument. Even if the expression were
clumsy, the information nevertheless might be true and the argument reasonable. The literary quality
of the book has served a certain specific purpose, and there are two elements in the book—the merit of
Darwin’s purpose, and the merit of expressive power, which are easily distinguishable. But these two
elements cannot be distinguished in Ode on a Grecian Urn. It gives us no information which may
be true or false and no argument which may or may not be cogent. In this case the expression
satisfies us simply by existing as expression, and not as a means to an end. Here art
does take us beyond the domain of art. This is what is called pure literature. In applied
literature we have to ignore the purpose of the writer in order to appreciate its
literary value as in the case of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” and Gibbon’s “The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. But in pure literature we need not exclude the author’s
purpose, because here the writer had no purpose except that the expression should exist for the mere
sake of existing itself. Ordinarily when we speak of literature, we refer to pure literature.
Expression thus is the fundamental thing in literature. But what does the author express? It
is his experience of life. Now as experience is the substance of literature, everything that can be
experienced by man in life for the sake of experience becomes the subject-matter of literature. Thus
the scope of literature is illimitable; and wherever there is life, there is the possibility of pure
experience, and so of literature. This experience can be intellectual as well as emotional—the main
criterion is that it must be satisfying in itself, and not cater for something beyond and outside it. In
applied literature the experience of the author has to be excluded or transformed into something
pleasant, in order to enjoy it; in pure literature experience is expressed as enjoyable merely by virtue
of being expressed.
But the mere expression of experience is not enough; it has to be communicated to the reader.
Literature communicates experience. In other words, the experience which lived in the author’s mind
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M.A English Study Material English Literature General Notes
must live again in the reader’s mind. The writer has not merely to give to the reader what he has
experienced, or how the experience has been taken, but he must give to the reader his own experience,
and transplant it from his own mind to the reader’s. In other words, the experience, whole and entire,
must be communicated to the reader. This is not easy to attain, as the writer’s experience is his own—a
part and parcel of his life. It is the very process of his own life, and by no possibility can it be shared by
another person. But the writer can do so by the power of imagination. His experience may be actual or
a sort of day-dreaming, but imagination can transform it into something, as a whole, to the reader. By
means of his imagination the writer can continue the existence of his experience and communicate it
to the reader as if he has recently plucked it out of the flux of life.
In order to achieve this, the writer must arouse the same imagination in his reader, and control it in
such a manner that the reader may also imitate that experience. This he achieves by means of words
which should act as symbols of his experience, so that it can be properly represented to the reader.
The writer must translate his experience in such symbolic equivalence of language,
that the symbol may be translated back again by the reader’s imagination into a
similar experience. It is here that the skill of the artist lies; and his highest artistic power is called
into play, because the medium of language at his disposal is limited, while there is no limit to the
possibility of imaginative experience. His language must not only express his experience, but also
represent the same experience to the reader. The writer has to rely on his reader’s ability to respond to
what his language can only suggest, and for this he must have the sense of language. In fact, it is this
sense of language which distinguishes a literary artist from his fellows.
The Functions of Literature

The value of a work of literature can be assessed, according to Longinus, by introspection on the part
of the reader or hearer: if he is carried away, transported, moved to ecstasy by the grandeur and
passion of the work, then the work is good. The Greek word which it has become traditional to
translate as sublime in English means literally height or elevation, and Longinus, in his essay On The
Sublime, refers to those qualities in a work of literature which instantaneously create in the reader a
sense of being carried to new heights of passionate experience; sublimity is the greatest of all literary
virtues, the one which makes a work, whatever its minor defects, truly impressive. The ultimate
function of literature, and its ultimate justification, is to be sublime, and to have on its
readers the effect of ecstasy or transport that sublimity has. The sublime effect of
literature, for Longinus, is attained not by argument, but by revelation, or illumination.
Its appeal is not through the reason, but what we should call imagination. Its effect upon the mind is
immediate, like a flash of lightning upon the eye.
Sidney voiced the opinion of Longinus when he said that the chief function of literature is to “move”.
Dryden was the next critic who cleared away the ancient stumbling block of criticism—the doctrine
that the aim of the writer is to instruct or “make men better in some respect”. He asserted that the aim
of the writer is, not to teach, but to please, and he distinguished between literature which is art and
literature which is didactic. Instruction may result from the reading of poetry, but it is not the end: for
‘poesy only instructs as it delights”. Referring to the function of literature to delight and to move, De
Quincey made the distinction between the literature of knowledge, and the literature of power—“The
function of the first is to teach” the function of the second is to move.”
Besides giving pleasure or entertaining or moving the readers, literature is supposed to have other
functions as well. One important function is to heighten the awareness of the reader to
certain aspects of life. The dramatic poetry of the Greeks, the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides were created for festival and ceremonial occasions. They reminded the great concourse of
Athenian citizens of the traditional gods and heroes of history. They were a civic drama expressive of
the place and power of the Greek City States and suggested that past history and the powers above
them were with them. In the original sense of the word they were ‘political’. The outcome was to
heighten the awareness of the Greek citizen to what were then regarded as significant aspects of Greek
city life. Again, if we look at the ballad writers and singers at a later date, we see that in their own way
and in their own times, in traditional fashion, each celebrated events of social significance or the so-

called ‘heroic’ exploits. They brought news, recounted history, and reconstructed the past of which
they had learnt by word of mouth passed on from generation to generation. Their original purpose
was to entertain and to receive payment for it; but seen in retrospect their effect, their function was
then regarded as significant and of importance. The same is the case with all great works of literature;
they make us aware of the various aspects of life which lay hidden from us. After reading Hamlet,
Macbeth, King Lear we begin to understand more about life and its intricate problems than we could
do before.
Thus the main functions of literature are to entertain and give pleasure to the reader,
and to heighten his awareness of certain aspects of life. Besides these two primary
functions, literature also performs three subsidiary functions—‘propaganda,’ ‘release’
and ‘escape.’ Propaganda literature’ must be distinguished from mere propaganda in
which there is nothing creative. The writer of mere propaganda is simply concerned to
popularize facts, ideas, and emotions with which he is familiar. But propaganda that is literature is a
creative influence irradiating and transforming the writer’s experience. The idea to be propagated is
still alive and growing in his mind. It is this living and growing idea which the artist communicates to
his reader and thereby transforms his whole attitude to life. He can do so by the direct method of
exposition and exhortation, as Ruskin did, or the indirect method of fiction like Dickens’.
‘Release literature’ is that in which the dominant motive of the writer is simply the
assuagement of starved needs, the release of pent-up forces in the personality.
Romances, detective stories, thrillers, poems etc. which are written with such originality of perception
and expression that they have a quickening effect on the reader, belong to this category. Literature of
the higher sort which is dominated by ‘release’ may be wholesome for the writer and the reader, as it
effects purgation or purification.
Literature also provides ‘escape’ from the grim realities of life, and many people read
to escape boredom. The higher type of literature helps the reader to escape from trivial reality into
significant reality.
To sum up, the primary functions of literature are to delight the reader, and heighten his awareness of
life. The subsidiary functions are ‘propaganda’, ‘release’ and ‘escape’; but they are subordinated to the
primary creative functions of literature.
Relation of Literature to Life

There is an intimate connection between literature and life. It is, in fact, life which is the subject
matter of literature. Life provides the raw material on which literature imposes an
artistic form. Literature is the communication of the writer’s experience of life. But this
connection between literature and life is not as simple as it seems. This problem has been discussed by
some of the greatest literary critics of the world, and their conclusions have been sometimes
contradictory.
Plato, the great Greek philosopher, was the first to give a serious thought to this problem—the relation
of literature to life. In his discussions he referred mainly to poetry, but what he said about poetry can
be equally applied to literature as a whole. He regarded poetry as a mere ‘imitation’ of life, and thus he
condemned the poets. His opposition to poetry was based on his theory of knowledge. According to
him, true reality consists in the ideas of things, of which individual objects are but reflections or
imitations. For example, when we say a black dog, a good dog, a lame dog etc., we are comparing the
dog which we actually see with the ideal dog, our idea of the dog, which is the true, unchanging reality,
while the dogs which we name as black, good, lame etc. are mere reflections and imitations of that
reality. Thus the poet, who imitates those objects which are themselves imitations of reality, is
obviously producing something, which is still further removed from ultimate reality. Plato developed
this argument first with reference to the painter. Painting is an imitation of a specific object or group
of objects, and if it is nothing but that, if reality lies not in apprehending reality, the painter is not
doing anything particularly valuable. Just as the painter only imitates what he sees and does not know

how to make or to use what he sees (he could paint a bed, but not make it), so the poet imitates reality
without necessarily understanding it. Poetry or literature as a whole is an imitation of imitation and
thus twice removed from truth.
There is an obvious error in Plato’s reasoning. Being too much of a philosopher and moralist, he could
not see clearly the relation between literature and life. He is right when he says that the poet produces
something which is less than reality it purports to represent, but he does not perceive that he also
creates something more than reality. This error was corrected by Plato’s pupil, Aristotle. In Poetics he
undertook to examine the nature and qualities of imaginative literature with a view to demonstrating
that it is true, and not false as Plato had shown it. He agreed with Plato that poetry is an imitation of
reality, but according to him, this imitation is the objective representation of life in literature or, in
other words, the imaginative reconstruction of life. Poetry is thus not connected with the outside
world in the simple and direct fashion supposed by Plato. The poet first derives an inspiration from
the world by the power of his imagination; the art of poetry then imitates this imaginative inspiration
in language.
The art of poetry or literature as a whole exists to give shape and substance to a certain kind of
imaginative impulse; the existence of the art implies the existence of the impulse. Now it is just
possible to imagine life exactly as it is; but the exciting thing is to imagine life as it might be, and it is
then that imagination becomes an impulse capable of inspiring poetry. This is true even in the case of
what we call realism in literature; it is true even when the life imagined was originally an actuality of
some highly exciting nature in itself. Imagination may no more than concentrate the actuality, by
dropping out all its insignificant passages. But that will be enough to make the resultant poetry, or
literature, something different from the copy of the world which Plato’s condemnation assumed it to
be. This was Aristotle’s reply to Plato. Art or literature is not a slavish imitation of reality twice
removed from truth. Presenting as it must do individual men or women in the trappings and
circumstances of life, it does not leave them there, but pierces to what is significant in action and
character, expressing through their words and action that is true for all human nature—the poet’s
truth, the universal truth.
The poet is concerned with truth—but not the truth of the annalist, the historian, or the photographer.
The poet’s business is not to write of events that have happened, but of what may happen, of things
that are possible in the light of probability or necessity. For this reason poetry is a more philosophical,
a more serious thing than history. For whilst history deals with the particular only—this event or that
event—poetry deals with the universal. The poet selects from life according to the principle of poetic
unity and poetic truth. He seeks to draw out what is relevant and representative, and to present it
harmoniously, in a self-contained situation. The truth with which he deals is not that which the
anatomist may lay bare on the dissecting-table, but that which a poet divines and translates.
Aristotle, thus, met Plato’s charge that poetry is imitation of an imitation by showing that the poet, by
concerning himself with fundamental probabilities rather with casual actualities, reaches more deeply
into reality than the annalist or historian. Sir Philip Sidney, who next took up the question of the
relation of literature to life also refuted Plato’s contention that literature is a mere imitation of an
imitation. According to him, the poet does not imitate, but creates; it is the reader who imitates what
the poet creates. Taking his material from the actual world, the poet creates an ideal world by means
of his imagination. For Sidney the ideal world of the poet is of value because it is a better world than
the real world and it is presented in such a way that the reader is stimulated to try and imitate it in his
own practice.
The problem of literature’s relation to life was next taken up by Dryden who pointed out that
imaginative literature gives us a ‘just and lively’ image of human nature by representing its ‘passions
and humours’. This point was further developed by Dr. Johnson who expressed the view that the poet
‘holds up a mirror to nature”. According to him, “Nothing can please many, and please long, but just
representation of general nature.” The way to please the greatest number over the longest period of
time, which is the duty of imaginative literature, is to provide accurate pictures of nature. Explaining
his view that the poet is the illuminator of human nature Dr. Johnson wrote:

“The business of the poet is to examine, not the individual, but the species. He must exhibit in his
portraits of nature such prominent and striking features as recall the original to every mind, and must
neglect the minute discriminations, which one may have remarked and another have neglected, for
those characteristics which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness.
“But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he must be acquainted likewise with all the
modes of life. His character requires that he estimates the happiness and misery of every condition,
observe the power of all the passions in all their combinations, and trace the changes of the human
mind, as they are modified by various institutions and accidental influences of climate or custom,
from the sprightliness of fancy to the despondence of decrepitude. He must divert himself of the
prejudices of his age or country; he must consider right and wrong in their abstracted and variable
state; he must regard present laws and their opinions and rise to general and transcendental truths,
which will always, be the same. He must, therefore, content himself with the slow progress of his
name, condemn the applause of his own time, and commit his claims to the justice of posterity. He
must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind and consider himself as presiding
over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as being superior to time and place.”
According to Dr. Johnson, the poet must know the manners and customs of men of all times and
conditions, not because it is his duty to make vivid to the reader the different ways in which men have
lived and behaved, but so that he is not taken in by surface differences and is able to penetrate to the
common humanity underlying there.
Walter Pater, a critic of the later nineteenth century, who discussed the relation of literature and life in
detail, remarked in his essay on “Style”: “Just as in proportion as the writer’s aim, consciously or
unconsciously, comes to be the transcribing, not of the world, not of mere fact, but his sense of it, he
becomes an artist, his work fine art; and good art in proportion to the truth of his presentment of that
sense.”
Thus, according to Pater, the literary artist does not give us a photographic ‘imitation’ of reality, but a
transcription of his vision of it. It is from reality or life from which the artist starts, but he tries to
reconstruct it when he would ‘see it steadily and see it whole’.
Taking into consideration the views of Plato, Aristotle, Sidney, Dryden, Johnson and Pater, we
conclude that the notion that literature is not concerned with real life is wrong. All great pieces of
literature are ‘true to life’. But the literary artist is not content to ‘hold the mirror up to nature’,
because his business, as Matthew Arnold has pointed out, is a ‘criticism, of life’. He concentrates on
those characteristics and aspects of life which are permanent, but which might easily pass unobserved.
He clutches at anything which promises some permanence among what is always fleeting. That is why
he gives us a picture of reality which is more characteristic of life than anything which we discover by
our own day-to-day observation. The images which we are creating by our own observation of life at
every moment of our working experience are hazy, half-finished and unrelated. It is the literary artist
who finishes them, makes them clear and puts them in their wider setting, and to that extent makes
life less obscure, because he knows more about life than anyone can know without regarding life with
his eyes.
Literature: Its Universality
Literature is a picture, more or less true, more or less inspiring, of actual life, Every country has its
own literature which mirrors its life. But every literature is also an expression of emotions, of ideas
and ideals, which have a permanent value and which are of interest for men in every age and country.
This accounts for the permanence and universality of great works of literature left behind by peoples
in remote ages and countries. It is for this reason that Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aenied written in
ancient Greece and Rome are still read and enjoyed. Truly speaking, literature is not of one age but of
all ages, not of one country but of all countries.

Three Major Forms of Literature
Poetry, Prose and Drama are the three major forms of literature. As men and women gradually
learned, through the passing ages, to write down their thoughts, feelings, desires and opinions, they
used many different ways or forms of expressing themselves. It is not very easy to distinguish these
“forms”, if we try to talk of Literature in exact historical order; but we can safely say that it seems as if
men used verse before prose – that is, for their literary works as apart from their everyday speech
when, for instance, they discussed their affairs, or quarreled, or asked other people to supply their
needs. In other words, when man was emotionally moved he used verse: when he wanted to convey
some point of view, he used prose. Drama came at a later stage when action was added to that which
so far had been written down to be read. Dramas can be written both in verse and prose. For example,
Shakespeare uses both verse and prose for his plays, and the plays of both George Bernard Shaw and
John Galsworthy are in prose. But critics like T.S. Eliot are of the view that Drama is a form of poetry.
Drama is dramatic-poetry, just as there is lyric-poetry or epic-poetry. He regards prose drama as
something unnatural and artificial.
Poetry
Poetry then is one of the three major branches of literature. All through the ages efforts have been
made to define poetry, and determine its nature and function: For example, Dr. Johnson, the great
scholar and literary critic of the 18th century, defined poetry as, “metrical composition”, and added
that it is “the art of uniting pleasure with truth by calling imagination to the help of reason.” Poetry,
according to Macaulay is, “the art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of
colours.” Poetry, declares Carlyle, is “Musical Thought”. Poetry, says Shelley, may be defined as the
expression of the imagination; it is, says Hazlitt, the language of the imagination and the passions. In
Coleridge’s view poetry is the antithesis of science, having for its immediate object pleasure, not truth;
in Wordsworth’s phrase, it is “the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge,” and “the impassioned
expression which is in the countenance of all science.” According to Matthew Arnold, it is “simply the
most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach”; it is, “a criticism of life
under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.”
According to Keble it is “a vent for overcharged feeling or a full imagination.” Ruskin defines it as “the
suggestion, by the imagination, of noble grounds for the noble emotions”. Prof. Courthope defines it
as “the art of producing pleasure by the just expression of imaginative thought and feeling in metrical
language.” Mr. Watts-Dunton, says it is, “the concrete and artistic expression of the human mind in
emotional and rhythmical language.”
Poetry: Its Emotional and Imaginative Content
But all such definitions fail to do justice to the nature of poetry, in its very nature poetry cannot be
confined within the narrow limits of a definition. Therefore, it would be more profitable to turn our
attention to the commoner characteristics of poetry, and thus determine the best way of studying it.
The above definitions, however, make it quite clear that the true content of poetry is imaginative and
emotional. Poetry is imaginative and emotional interpretation of life. Poetry deals with facts,
experience and problems of life, but first, it relates them to our emotions, and secondly, it transfigures
and transforms them by the exercise of imagination. It treats reality imaginatively, colours it with
emotion, but it does not falsify or distort it. Imagination and emotion predominate in poetry, they are
the essential qualities of poetry and without them much that passes as poetry, is in reality unworthy of
the name of poetry.
The Diction of Poetry
Metre is an essential part of the perfection poetry, and the use of metre modifies the language of
poetry. ‘Metre’ as Coleridge puts it, “medicates the whole atmosphere”, and makes the diction of
poetry different from the language of prose. Diction means both the choice and the arrangement of
words, both vocabulary and syntax. Though views about a proper diction for poetry may differ, there
can be no denying the fact that the words which a poet uses are different from those used by a writer

of prose, and he also arranges them in a different way. Thus, for example, a poet must avoid the use of
words with harsh, unpleasant sound, and select words which are sweet and pleasant. Not only must
the words which he chooses convey his meaning exactly and precisely, they must also be musical.
Further, the order in which the words are arranged is different from that of prose. The syntax of a poet
is conditioned not by the ordinary rules of grammar but by the requirements of metre. Often inverted
constructions become unavoidable. In “He lived the woods among”, ‘among’ comes after ‘woods’ and
not before, as it should be used according to the rules of grammar. Considerations of rhyme and metre
have necessitated this inverted construction. That is what Coleridge meant when he said that poetry is,
“right words in the right place.” In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth expressed the view
that, “there is no essential difference between the language of prose and the language of poetry”, but
his own practice shows that there is such a difference and this difference is essential, if poetry is to
provide its own distinctive kind of pleasure, i.e. pleasure arising from the use of ordered, musical
language.
Figures of Speech: Their Significance
Not only that, the diction of poetry must also be figurative. Figures of speech are not merely
decorative, they are essential to the emotional and imaginative appeal of poetry. In moments of
intense emotional excitement, man has always tended to express himself in a figurative language. He
has always coloured the external world with his own emotion, or has compared himself and his life
with the objects and phenomena of nature. Simile, metaphor, personification, pathetic fallacy,
hyperbole, etc., are the more common of the figures which have been used by men since the earliest
times. These figures are used by prose-writers as well, but a poet’s use of them is more frequent and
more emotional and more imaginative. Good and effective prose – prose of the highest order – may be
possible without them, but without them poetry loses much of its charm and appeal. There may be
poets who use a bare, bold, unadorned diction, but to that extent their poetry is felt to be less
satisfying. This is so because poetry appeals to the emotions, and a figurative language is conducive to
such emotional appeal.
Kinds of Poetry
Broadly speaking poetry may be divided into two kinds. First, there is personal or subjective
poetry, the poetry of self-expression. In this kind of poetry the poet goes down into himself and
finds his inspiration and his subjects in his own experiences, thoughts and feelings. To this personal
or subjective poetry, the world lyrical is generally applied. Personal or subjective or lyrical poetry is
further sub-divided into (a) the Elegy, (b) the Ode, and (c) the Sonnet.
Secondly, there is impersonal or objective poetry in which the poet goes out of himself
and finds his inspiration and his subjects in the actions and passions of the world
without. In this kind of poetry, the poet deals with the outside world with little reference to his own
personal thoughts and emotions. This impersonal or objective poetry may be either narrative or
dramatic. Narrative poetry is further sub-divided into (a) the ballad, or the short-story in
verse, (b) the Epic, or a long story in verse, (c) the Metrical Romance, (d) the Idyll or
the idealised treatment in verse of simple homely people and their lives. By dramatic we
mean not the actual drama, meant to be acted on the stage, but poetry which, “though not intended
for the stage, is essentially dramatic in principle.” The Dramatic Monologue is the most important
kind of dramatic poetry, and in England Robert Browning is its most important practitioner.
Such are the chief kinds of poetry. But it should be remembered that this division is merely for the
convenience of study, for in practice there is a constant mingling and over-lapping of the various
kinds. Even in the delineation of the outside events and situations, the poet may bring in his own
personal experience and colour what is external with his own emotions. Thus Wordsworth called the
first collection of his poetry Lyrical Ballads, for the poems in the collection have the qualities both of a
lyric and a ballad. The poet deals with external reality, but the external is suffused, coloured and
transformed by his own feelings and emotions. Hence they are aptly called Lyrical Ballads. Such
fusion of genres (types) is common and frequent.

Figures: Their Nature and Function
A figure of speech is a poetic device which consists in the use of words and phrases in such a manner
as to make the meaning more pointed and clear and the language more graphic and vivid. Figures are
also called images for in them one thing is represented in the image of another. According to Bain it is
“a form of expression that intentionally deviates from the ordinary mode of speech for the sake of
more powerful, pleasing or distinctive effect; it is pictorial or poetic language.”
But it is a mistake to think of figures of speech as simply ornaments of language. They are part and
parcel of the human language in moments of emotional excitement. When his emotions are stirred,
man instinctively tends to express himself through the use of figurative language. That figures are
used naturally and instinctively to express powerful feeling is seen in the fact that children and
primitive, uncultured people habitually use figures of speech.
The world of nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of figures of speech (or images as they are also
called), and poets and writers have always drawn freely from this storehouse. Figures have been used
by poets to decorate their language and to make it more vivid and pictorial, to increase its force and
effectiveness, and to communicate their meaning more lucidly and clearly. By increasing the beauty of
language, the use of figures provides great aesthetic satisfaction to the readers.
The most important figures of speech are Simile; epic or Homeric Simile; Metaphor; Personification;
Pathetic Fallacy; Apostrophe; Hyperbole; Metonymy; Synecdoche; Oxymoron; Antithesis;
Onomatopaeia; Alliteration; and Transferred Epithet.
Figures of Speech Commonly Used in Literature
Simile: The word “Simile” comes from the Latin ‘similis’ – ‘like’ and means ‘likeness’. A simile
is an expression of likeness between different objects or events. It consists in placing two different
things side by side and comparing them with regard to some quality common to them. In other words
there are two essential elements in a simile. First, the two objects or events compared must be
different in kind. Secondly, the point of resemblance between the two different objects or events
compared must be clearly brought out. Such words of comparison as, like, as, so, etc., are always used.
For example:
(a) Errors like straws upon the surface flow.
(b) The younger brother is as good as gold.
Epic or Homeric Simile: It is so called because it was first used by Homer, the great epic poet
of ancient Greece, and ever since it has been made use of by epic poets all over the world. It is also
called the long-tailed simile because in it the comparison is not confined to someone quality but a
number of qualities are compared and the comparison is elaborated and spread over a number of
lines. Homeric simile imparts variety to the narrative and helps the poets to lengthen it out. Milton in
his Paradise Lost and Pope in his mock-epic The Rape of the Lock have made abundant use of such
Homeric similes. For example:
The broad circumference (of the shield of Satan)
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views, etc.
Metaphor: A metaphor is implied simile. The word “metaphor” comes from the Greek, ‘meta –
over; ‘phero’ – carry. It means, literally, “a carrying over”; and by this figure of speech a word is
transferred, or carried over, from the object to which it belongs to another in such a manner that a
comparison is implied, though not clearly stated. Thus a metaphor is a compressed, or implied simile
– simile with the word ‘like’, ‘as’ etc., omitted. For example:

(a) The camel is the ship of the desert.
(b) He is the pillar of the state.
Personification: Personification is really a special kind of metaphor. It is a figure of speech in

which inanimate objects and abstract ideas or qualities are spoken of, as if they were persons or
human beings. Examples of personification are:
(a) Opportunity knocks at the door but once.
(b) Death lays his Icy hands on kings.
(c) “Peace hath her victories.
No less renowned than war”.
In all these instances, life and intelligence have been imparted to lifeless objects or abstract ideas.
Pathetic Fallacy: Pathetic Fallacy is a figure of speech in which human emotions are given to
lifeless objects and abstract ideas. It is a special kind of personification in which the inanimate, the
lifeless, and the abstract, are made to partake of human emotions. For example:
All Nature wept at his death, and the Flowers were filled with tears.
It is usual to begin the name of the personified object with a capital letter.
Apostrophe: It is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas or inanimate objects are addressed as if
they were alive. The word literally means a ‘turning aside’, for in this figure a writer ‘turns aside’ to
address a person absent or dead, or an inanimate object, or an abstract idea, For example:
(a) “O wild west wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being.”
(b) “O Solitude, where are the charms
That sages have seen in they face?”
Hyperbole: The word “hyperbole” (“Hyper” – beyond; “ballo” – throw) literally, “a throwing
beyond”, means exaggeration. This figure of speech consists in representing things as much greater or
smaller than they really are, with the intention of producing a more striking effect than a plain
statement can. For example:
(a) “Here is the smell of blood still; all perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand?”
Metonymy: The word “metonymy”, Greek, ‘meta’ – after; ‘onoma’ – a name, means literally,
“substitution of name”, and the figure consists in “substituting the thing named for the thing meant”;
for example, grey hair may be used for old age, throne for monarchy. Some other examples are:
(a) The pen (author) is mightier than the sword (the soldier).
(b) “Sceptre and crown.
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.”
Synecdoche: This figures of speech is really a special form of metonymy. Its name ‘syn’ – with,
‘ekdoche’ – succession, means literally, “the understanding of one thing by another”. In the figure
there is the substitution of a part for the whole or vice versa, or of an abstract noun for a concrete one

or vice versa, of an individual for a class, or vice versa, or of the name of the material of which a thing
is made for the name of the thing itself. For example:
(a) The rank and file streamed out of the city to see the sight.
(b) There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in his character.
(c) Ishfaq Ahmed is the Shakespeare of Pakistan.
(d) He gave the beggar a few coppers.
Oxymoron: An oxymoron is the association or bringing together of two words or phrases having
opposite meanings. For example:
(a) “James I was the wisest fool in Christendom.”
(b) “That time is past
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures.”
Antithesis: An antithesis, ‘anti’ – against; ‘thesis’ – placing, is a figure of speech in which one
word or idea is set against another with the object of heightening the effect of what is said by contrast.
For example:
(a) “God made the country but man made the town.”
(b) “United we stand divided we fall.”
(c) “Speech is silvery, silence is golden.”
Onomatopoeia: Onomatopoeia, ‘onoma’ – name; ‘poiea’ – make, is the use of a word or words
whose sound itself conveys the sense of the author. Examples of onomatopoeia are:
(a) “It cracked and growled and roared and howled like noises in a swound.”
(b) “The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.”
Epigram: A brief pointed saying expressing antithetical ideas, or exciting surprise, is called
Epigram. For example:
(a) The child is father of the man,
(b) Art lies on concealing art.
Irony: It is the figure of speech in which the real meaning is just the opposite of that which is literally
conveyed by the language used. For example:
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man)
I come to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
Here the use of the word, “honourable” is ironical.
Pun: When we use the same word in two or more senses in order to make the people laugh, we
employ the Figure of Speech called Pun.
An ambassador is a gentleman who lies abroad for the good of his country.

Here there is a pun on the word ‘lies’.
Alliteration: Alliteration consists in the repetition of the letters or syllable, or the same sound at
the beginning of two or more words in a line. In this way language becomes musical. For example:
(a) How high His Honour holds his haughty head.
(b) “The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, the furrow followed free.”
Transferred Epithet: In this figure of speech an epithet or qualifying adjective is sometimes

transferred from a person to an object or from one word to another. For example:
(a) “The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.”
(b) “He tossed from side to side on his sleepless bed.”
In the first case ‘weary’ has been transferred from ‘the ploughman’ to the ‘way’; in the second case
‘sleepless’ has been transferred from ‘He’ to ‘bed’.
Drama
Introduction: Drama is a type of literature usually written to be performed. People often
make a distinction between drama, which concerns the written text, or script, for the performance,
and theatre, which concerns the performance of this script. Many of the most honoured and
influential works of literature around the world have been dramas. They begin with the classical Greek
tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and continue with the plays of such major dramatists
as William Shakespeare in England, Molière in France, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Germany,
Henrik Ibsen in Norway, and August Strindberg in Sweden.
Characteristics of Drama: Most types of literature, including novels, short stories, and poems,
are written to be read, usually in silence by a solitary reader. Although works of drama, called plays,
are also often read in this manner, they are created primarily to be presented in public by a group of
performers, each of whom pretends to be one of the characters in the story the play is telling. Older
plays, such as those written by the Greeks or Shakespeare, consist almost entirely of the words spoken
by these characters (the dialogue). More recent plays usually contain non-spoken material (the stage
directions) that tells the actors when to enter or leave the performance space, gives suggestions about
how to speak their dialogue (their lines), and describes their costumes or their physical surroundings
on stage (the setting).
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who laid the foundations for the critical study of drama,
divided the elements of drama into plot, character, thought, language, and spectacle. Aristotle
considered plot—the basic story and how it is told—the most important of these, and this is indeed
typically the case. However, almost all dramas use all of these elements to some extent, telling a story
by means of the interactions of characters, who express their thoughts through language within a
particular visual setting. The balance of these elements, however, varies from play to play. During
some periods and in some traditions many or most plays emphasize some element other than plot.
Numerous plays emphasize a particular character or a relationship between characters, as does
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Such plays are especially popular because audiences have always been
interested in seeing their favourite actors interpret such demanding roles.
Western theatre also has a long tradition of plays emphasizing thought. Such plays are sometimes said
to treat a particular theme and have been called philosophical plays or thesis plays. Some of the
greatest modern dramatists have emphasized thought or theme, among them George Bernard Shaw of
Britain and Ibsen, who addressed social issues of their day, and Bertolt Brecht of Germany, many of
whose plays criticized capitalism and instructed audiences in his leftist political views.

Language is almost always an important element in drama, and it is occasionally the dominant
element. This is the case in the poetic dramas of English romantic authors of the early 19th century
and in much of what is called high comedy or comedy of manners, which dates back to the 17th
century in England. The latter tradition emphasizes nuances of social class and behaviour and
typically makes prominent use of witty dialogue, puns, and other verbal acrobatics.
The types of drama that have emphasized spectacle include opera, modern musical comedy, 19th-
century melodrama, and court spectacles known as masques that originated in England during the
16th century. Spectacle can include lavish costumes, elaborate sets or stage machinery, and other
elements that serve to enrich an audience’s visual experience of a play.
Kinds of Drama: The most widespread and familiar subdivisions of drama are comedy and
tragedy, a division established by the Greeks. Even today the smiling and weeping masks worn by
Greek actors in comedy and tragedy symbolize the two branches of drama. Traditionally, a tragedy is
dominated by a serious tone, concerns kings and princes, deals with profound issues, and usually
concludes with the death of the leading character. A comedy typically deals with common people, is
dominated by a light tone that encourages laughter (or at least amusement or entertainment), and
ends happily, often with the uniting of a pair of young lovers.
During the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century) other forms of drama appeared, and dramatists
modified the two traditional forms. Shakespeare divided his plays into comedies, tragedies, and
histories, the latter presenting national history in dramatic form. He also departed from classic
practice by putting important comic scenes into his tragedies. In Italy, certain critics and dramatists
began mixing elements and aspects of the two traditional kinds of theater to create a third kind, called
tragicomedy. The mixture of moods would become much more common in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
After the Renaissance the terms comedy and tragedy remained central, but writers subdivided each
type and developed new combined forms as well. Tragedy remained the genre used most often to
explore the profound philosophic questions of good and evil and humankind’s place in the universe,
while comedy emphasized people in their social aspects and personal relationships. This split made
comedy the more appropriate form for social commentary and criticism as well as for simple
amusement. Comedy emphasizing wit and style among the upper classes became known as high
comedy or comedy of manners, as opposed to low comedy or farce. Low comedy traditionally gains its
effects from physical humour that can even turn violent at times and from crude verbal jokes, rather
than from verbal wit or nuances of social behaviour. Farce as a popular, non-literary form can be
traced back to classical Greece. The equivalent form of tragedy with a wide popular appeal, called
melodrama, emerged as a recognized type of theatre in the 19th century (though some modern critics
characterize certain plays by Euripides as melodramas). Like farce, melodrama is associated with
physical action. In the 18th century, as interest grew in the exploration of the emotions, sentimental
comedy developed. It stressed feelings rather than laughter and encouraged audience sympathy with
the characters and their trials. Other new forms included tragedies that dealt with middle-class
characters and serious plays about middle-class life, often called simply dramas. In the 20th century
such middle-class drama replaced tragedy as the major serious form of theatrical writing.
Purposes of Drama: Drama has served a wide variety of functions at different times and in
different places. Roman writer Horace, in one of the most famous statements about the purpose of
literature in general and drama in particular, said it was designed 'to delight and to instruct.'
Sometimes the purpose of drama has been considered to be primarily the first of these, sometimes the
second, but generally at least some degree of both has been present.
From classical times until the Renaissance drama was closely associated with major religious and civic
observances and served to support both. As a result, plays emphasized instruction. The Renaissance
saw examples of theatre that were almost purely instructional at schools and universities, along with
examples that were almost pure entertainment in the popular theatres at fairs and marketplaces, and
a great variety of combinations of the two. Subsequent popular drama stressed entertainment, from

presentations in farce and folk theatres of the 18th century to the offerings of major commercial
theatres today. Much of the more serious, literary drama from the 18th century on has sought to
encourage its audiences to become better informed and more thoughtful about a range of political,
social, and moral issues. It is important to remember that drama is also an art form, and can offer in
addition to relaxing entertainment the often more demanding experience of aesthetic pleasure. In the
early 20th-century the art theatre movement stressed this purpose in particular, by presenting dramas
whose primary goal was neither conventional entertainment nor instruction but an aesthetic or
artistic experience.
Audiences attend plays from a mixture of motivations, including curiosity, pleasure-seeking, and a
desire for knowledge or aesthetic experience. But all of these experiences are intensified by the public
nature of drama. Because drama is a literary form designed for public presentation, writing about
drama has often explored how drama relates to society. Some theorists have argued that, as an art
reflecting social concerns for a group audience, drama is particularly suited to stimulate social change.
Other theorists have argued that the group orientation of drama means that to succeed drama can
never seriously challenge the audience’s general assumptions. Even though critics disagree about
drama's revolutionary potential, most would agree that a central purpose of drama has always been to
provide a means for a society to reflect upon itself and its beliefs.
History of Western Drama
Scholars generally believe that the origins of drama date back more than 5000 years to prehistoric
ritual. Both ritual and drama involve such elements as music, dance, masks, costumes, and repeated
symbolic actions.
Ancient Drama: A number of ancient texts suggest that dramatic performances in ancient
Egypt celebrated royal coronations and major religious holidays. Much more detailed records of
drama come from classical Greece, where beginning in the 6th century BC the state organized annual
dramatic festivals to honour the god Dionysus. A prize was given each year for the best tetralogy, a
series of three related tragedies and a satyr play. The satyr play, which dealt comically or satirically
with gods or heroes, provided a kind of comic relief after the seriousness of the tragic trilogy. The
tragedies, considered then and ever since as preeminent among dramatic forms, took their subjects
from myth and history. Accompanied by commentary on the play’s action by a chorus, tragedies
brought their leading characters through suffering and often to the moment of death so they might
achieve an insight into a higher law beyond normal human understanding. The only complete tragic
trilogy that has survived is the Oresteia (458 BC) of Aeschylus, which tells the story of Agamemnon,
the leader of Greek forces in the Trojan War; his wife, Clytemnestra; and their children Electra and
Orestes.
The most decorated of the Greek tragic writers was Sophocles, who won the prize at the drama festival
about 20 times. His Oedipus Rex (430? BC) is generally considered the greatest Greek tragedy. Its
limited number of characters, concentration of action within a brief period of time, gradual unveiling
of past events, and tone of high seriousness has provided a model for many later dramatists. Only one
complete satyr play has survived: Cyclops (425? BC) by Euripides, the third of the great Greek tragic
authors. In his own time Euripides, who often treated traditional myths in an unconventional or even
irreverent manner, was less respected than Aeschylus or Sophocles, but his work later gained
popularity. Euripides’s Medea (431 BC) is one of the best known of all Greek tragedies.
Comedy was added to the annual drama festivals in Greece about 50 years after the establishment of
annual contests in tragedy. The only surviving comedies from the 5th century BC are by Aristophanes.
These works, now known as Old Comedy to distinguish them from later Greek comedies, are among
the most complex plays ever written. They include broad farce, verbal wit, visual spectacle, elegant
lyric poetry, songs, literary satire, personal attacks, and political and social commentary. The subjects
of the comedies are quite varied: war and peace in Lysistrata (411 BC); education in Nephelai (423 BC;
translated as The Clouds); and literary rivalry in Batrachoi (405 BC; The Frogs). But the structure of
these plays remains fairly constant. In the prologue, an impractical idea for the improvement of

society is advanced and debated. Then, after an interlude provided by the chorus, this idea is tested in
a series of comic scenes, culminating in a final scene that reconciles all the contending forces and
promises revelry and celebration.
Shortly after 400 BC dramatists turned from the social and political concerns of Old Comedy to
mythological burlesque or, more often, to amusing plays of everyday life. No complete examples of
these plays have survived. In the 330s BC this so-called Middle Comedy gave way to New Comedy,
which dealt primarily with the Athenian middle class. The only complete surviving example is
Dyskolos (317 BC; The Curmudgeon) by Menander. The title character is a common type in such plays,
an old man opposing the union of sympathetic young lovers who finally triumph, aided by a clever
servant. This comic structure was later taken up by the Roman comic dramatists Plautus, in Aulularia
(200? BC; The Pot of Gold) and other plays, and Terence, in Adelphoe (160 BC; The Brothers), for
example. Through their influence it became one of the most familiar models of comedy. Almost all of
the surviving Roman tragedies are by the philosopher Seneca. Although they were probably not
performed in his own time, they later played an important role in shaping Renaissance tragedy and
neoclassic tragedy of 17th-century France (for more information, see the Renaissance Drama section
of this article).
The tradition of classical drama disappeared with the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD,
and after almost 400 years a new tradition grew out of the rituals of the medieval Christian church.
Certain sung passages from the liturgy were elaborated into short dialogues based on passages from
the Bible, and these dramas, performed only in churches and monasteries, spread throughout Europe
from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Around 1200 these plays began to be performed outdoors, and
between then and 1350 they became more and more elaborate in size, subject matter, and physical
staging. Instead of single biblical scenes or stories, they often included several stories. In England
religious plays presented major events from the entire Bible in long cycles, from the creation of the
world to the last judgment. Although still sponsored, written, and organized by church authorities,
they involved entire communities in their staging and performance, which sometimes continued for
several days.
The Origin of Drama in England: “Miracle” and ‘Mystery Plays: Drama in England
had its origin in religion; it grew out of the Liturgy (a religious ceremony) of the Church. The early
religious plays were, broadly, of two types: The Mysteries, based upon subjects taken from the Bible;
and The Miracles dealing with the lives of saints. The best of the extant cycles of Miracle and Mystery
plays belong to the 15th century. For example, Abraham and Isaac is remarkable for its pathos. We are
irresistibly moved to tears, this early drama was frankly didactic in nature, its purpose being to
instruct the people in the chief facts of the scriptures, or in the events of the lives of saints.
To begin with, the church had this drama under complete control. It was written by the clergy, and
acted by the clergy within the church; and its language was the Latin of the church service. With the
passing of time, it became more and more secularised. As its popularity increased, and larger and
larger crowds thronged to the church, the venue of performance was first shifted to the porch and then
to the village green to street. Laymen now began to take part in the performances and then write the
plays, while the Latin language was replaced by English, the native tongue. The increase in the
number of fairs, the increase in wealth, power and prestige of the merchant-guilds did much of the
development of the drama.
When the drama was freed from the hold of the clergy, it was staged in the form of pageants. Pageants
were originally platforms on which plays were staged. Sometimes the audience would move from one
platform to another to see the whole play, and sometimes the plays would be mounted on moving
platforms and brought to them. Sometimes the performances continued for several days. The growth
of the drama was hampered as there were no professional actors and playhouses in the beginning.
There was also no suitable poetic medium till the 16th century. They could interpose only brief comic
episodes here and there. They had closely to follow their source. As the story was known, the effect
depended entirely on spectacle.

These religious performances were, of course, crude and poor in literary quality, but they lasted well
on into the 16th century. The earliest known religious plays is Adam which describes the fall of man.
The scene of Eve’s temptation shows great refinement and grace. “Almost all the best features of the
religious drama appear in this early Mystery play”. These plays were often arranged in groups and
named after the town where they were first staged, or the merchant guild which performed them.
Thus we have the Townley Cycle of plays which also belongs to the 15th century. This cycle includes
such plays as Noah and Nativity.
The Morality Plays: The Morality plays mark the next stage in the growth of the drama in
England. These plays were also didactic and religious in nature, but the characters were not drawn
from the scriptures or the lives of saints, but were personified abstractions. Through such
personifications was represented the conflict in the human soul. All sorts of virtue and vices were
personified, and there was generally a place for the Dovil also. A character introduced at a late stage
was the Vice, the humorous incarnation of Evil, and the recognized fun-maker of the piece. The
character is especially interesting, for he is the direct fore-runner of the Shakespearean clown.
Everyman (1490) is finest extant example of this type of play. “Little by little, as the personified
abstractions came more and more to resemble individual persons, the Morality passed insensibly into
comedy” – (Hudon). Everyman has recently been revived in the U.S.A. and made profound
impression on the audience.
The historical perspective of drama before Marlowe
The Greek Drama: In order to fully grasp the rise and content of the English drama, we must
peer into the dim past and retrace our steps to the early days of ancient Greece. The beginnings of
drama in general get lost in the ‘mimes’ or crude performances of the Dorian Greeks in honour of
Dionysus, the God of Wine, whose name stood for carousal, revelry and merriment.
The addition of dialogue to the dumb mimicry marked an important stage, but it required yet the
infusion of action into the dialogue to complete the transformation. This crude drama of the Greeks
was a commentary upon the lives and manners, not of human beings, but of the pantheon of gods and
other mythological persons: it dealt with things of heaven, not with the problems of mundane
existence. But its tone and treatment were generally comic. It was this farcical element that led, by
devious and zig-zag paths, to the rise of the famous Athenian Comedy. The supernatural theme made
room for the human. The ludicrous representation of the heavenly life which they combined to
produce an essentially secular mind, but the religious elements were not altogether done away with.
The drama, we may say, was brought down from the heavenly heights to suit the earthly needs.
In the days of Aristotle, the Greek drama almost completed its process of growth and received some
final touches at the hands of this master-mind. It gathered all those attributes which constitute its
distinctive marks. Two characteristics distinguished it mainly, the Chorus and the Unities. The Chorus
was a band of singers and dancers who played in concert and sang odes to the God of Wine, and
sometimes followed up the music with a lively dialogue. This dialogue came to supplant in the long
run, the musical part of the performance. “The lack of scenery and of stage effect was made up for by
descriptions and explanations sung by the Chorus and the limitations imposed by the three unities
were met in a similar manner. The Chorus served to give a break and relief in the gloomy and often
tragic monotony of the Greek drama. The Shakespearean devices of relieving tragedy by a comic
element would not have been admissible.”
The Chorus was as old as the drama itself, but the rules of the Unities began with Aristotle. He
observed that good plays must conform to these rules and must observe the three Unities of Time,
Place and Action—
(i) The Unity of Time. The duration of the action or story must not exceed 24 hours.
(ii) The Unity of Place. The incidents of the drama must be represented in an unbroken link: the
scene should be invariable and should not be so located that the dramatis personae are unable to visit
it in the time allotted for the duration of the play.

(iii) The Unity of Action. The main interest or plot of the story should be uninterrupted and its
course should not be deflected by side-issues and minor plots or incidents. The unity of action must be
smooth and straight; all characters and scenes must directly contribute to it.
In addition to the ‘Unities’, Aristotle touched upon the form of the drama and divided it into five parts:
—
(i) The Exposition. This constitutes the opening of the play; the characters are introduced to the
audience and are portrayed in their respective situations which gradually work up to the dramatic
action.
(ii) The Rising Action i.e., the development of the dramatic situation from the incidents in the
Exposition and the gradual rise of the pitch in the dramatic plot.
(iii) The Crisis or Climax. This is the highest pitch in the drama, the turning point in the plot. It
represents the effect of the incidents which have already taken their rise in the Exposition and have
passed through the second stage. It marks the culmination of the dramatic action and is followed by a
lowering of the tone in the play.
(iv) The Descending or Falling Action, in which the action is toned down to a lower pitch.
(v) The Denouement or Catastrophe or Solution, where the various forces in the dramatic
action converge towards the solution of the plot.
The Drama and the Christian Church: The Jongleurs: In its days of decadence, the art of
drama fell into the hands of wandering minstrels called Jongleur who travelled from place to place
and visited the courts of kings as well as the village greens. Their art consisted in a crude
representation of the life and manners of that age, but it did not achieve a height of excellence.
In the 9th century A.D. or thereabouts, the dramatic stage shifted from the village green to the altar of
the church. The churchmen saw in the stage an effective means of the propagation of Christianity and
succeeded in substituting a religious theme for the secular art of the Jongleurs. Certain striking
episodes in the life of Jesus Christ were cast into a dramatic form—his Birth, Crucifixion, Resurrection
and many others—and these were represented on the stage on appropriate occasions. The drama thus
became the handmaid of Christianity.
The Altar and the Stage: There was another swing of the pendulum. The church could not keep
up the vigour of the art which the Jongleurs had exhibited and there was a return to the village green.
The Churchmen tried their best to suppress this secular tendency. The village green or the market
square now became the scene of the simple plays, mainly based on Biblical themes, and called the
Miracle and Mystery plays. The Elizabethan drama is usually considered to be a development of these.
“Miracles” and “Mysteries,” and it is more than probable that Shakespeare witnessed the performance
of some of these. The Creation of the world, the Fall of Man, the Deluge, the Birth of Christ, and
Resurrection were some of the commonest themes of these ‘Miracles.’
The Didactic Drama: “Moralities” or Allegorical Plays: The next stage in the growth of the
drama was the change from the religious to the didactic theme. The latter half of the 14th century
witnessed a strong wave of allegorical influence throughout Europe, and the dramatic art could not
but put on the colour and catch the tone of the times. A new type of drama—the Allegorical Plays or
the Moralities—came into being. Characters in these plays were not human beings, but abstract
qualities like Vice, Virtue, Avarice, Pride, Ignorance, Love, Mercy, Justice, Life, Death etc. The object
of the Moralities was wholly didactic: the eternal warfare of evil and good, the struggle of Truth
against Falsehood and a dramatic representation of the interaction of human misery and happiness
formed the theme of these plays. The Moralities had a happy innovation in the shape of comic
element. Satan was represented as a low jocular buffoon who kept the audience in a ‘fit of mirth.’ The
introduction of the seeds of Comedy and the new romantic treatment of the theme were a happy relief

to the otherwise serious monotony and dryness of the Moralities. (The Cradle of Security, Hit the Nail
on the Head, Second Shepherd’s Play were some of the famous Moralities).
The Morality play was a distinct improvement upon the Miracle play. The Miracle Play was purely
religious in character while the Morality Play was chiefly concerned with human nature. The latter
dealt with morals and the eternal conflict between the forces of good and evil and with the misery that
emanates from vice. The theme of the Miracle Play was superhuman, while that of the Moralities was
mainly human and earthly. The Miracle Play left no room for originality; its subject-matter was
borrowed from the Bible; the rough-and-ready incidents from the Old Testament supplied abundant
material so that the dramatic genius of inventing new plots and sub-plots could not be brought to play.
The Moralities, on the other hand, gave free rein to the fertile imagination of the playwright. He could
invent a new scheme as well as draw upon the old sources. The addition of the comic element proved
the way for the Elizabethan comedy, and provided a short spell of mirth and sunshine in the dull and
irksome monotony of the Miracles. The Miracle Play, however, had one advantage over the Morality in
that the characters who figured in the Miracle Play had distinct individualities, whereas the Morality
dealt with abstractions, the personification of abstract qualities.
Interludes and Comedies (Secular Drama): The importance of the comic element in the
Moralities has been emphasised above. It was at first employed to relieve the dreary monotony of the
play, but soon it outgrew its function and expanded into a regular dramatic composition. This comic
element or the Interlude as it was often called was the mother of the later Elizabethan comedy. The
Interludes were short lively pieces, with characters mostly drawn from real life, though these
characters still represented types rather than individuals. But they formed a happy transition from the
bare abstractions of the Moralities to the clear-cut individualistic characterisation of the
Shakespearean play. The Interludes gave an impetus to the growth of regular drama. They emphasised
the element of diversion just for its own sake and offered a contrast to the religious motive of the
Miracle Plays or the didactic of the Moralities. The range of subjects grew; the life and manners of the
contemporary age came to be reflected truthfully. “Moreover there was now arising the feeling of the
need for division on the classical model into regular acts and scenes, and with the Interludes now
claiming independent existence, a rough and ready division may be made of Tragedy, Comedy, and
plays which are a mixture of both.”
English Drama and the Renaissance: At this time, Europe was animated by a new spirit
and fresh ideals. The wonderful Renaissance Movement kicked the slumbering continent into energy.
The Muses bore the torch of new knowledge to all parts of Europe. This Revival of Learning brought in
its train a passionate zeal for the classical literature of Greece and Rome. It had its influence on the
English stage too. The “Miracles’’, “Mysteries” and the “Moralities” were driven out by a new type of
drama which took its rise in Oxford and Cambridge and derived its inspiration from Greece and
Rome. English dramas came to be written on the classical model; of these all, Gorboduc was the most
striking example. It was based on the tragedies of the illustrious Seneca and it contained all the traits
of the Greek drama—the Chorus, the three Unities and the division of the dramatic action into five
parts. Many plays belong to this period of infancy of the English stage e.g.
(i) Ralph Roister Doister, a comedy written by Nicholas Udall in 1550-51, but actually published in
1566.
(ii) Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex (1562), tragedy.
(iii) Damon and Pythias, (1564) a tragi-comedy by Richard Edwards, based upon the classical
mythology.
The Renaissance, combined with the Reformation, tended to produce the Romantic drama. To this
drama, therefore, we should now turn.
The Romantic Drama of the Renaissance or the Elizabethan Age: The Romantic
drama was a product of the Elizabethan age. The English dramatists, after a few experiments on the
classical model, noted above, altogether discarded the three unities. The classical drama was followed

in two ways: (a) a dignified form and (b) a luxuriant expression. The treatment of the English drama
grew to be romantic rather than classical. The three unities of time, place and action were not
observed, so that an English play of this period could cover an indefinite period of time, the action
could “move from place to place” and subsidiary plots or by-plots could exist side by side with the
main plot. Thus in King Lear, Othello and some other plays we notice sub-plots running along with
the main thread of the story.
A word about Shakespeare’s immediate predecessors. Of these the following names deserve special
mention are Robert Greene, Thomas Kyd, George Peele, John Lyly and Christopher Marlowe
John Lyly was noted for his polished and sweet prose, a facile expression, and happy similes and
witticisms. Shakespeare drew upon his plays to a very large extent. What Lyly did for prose, Peele did
for verse: his verse is balanced and hence tends to be rather monotonous. While Lyly and Peele
succeeded in providing the infant romantic drama with a happy form and expression, Greene
portrayed human passion and action in a masterly style and introduced a romantic spirit into the
English comedy. ‘Over his poetry breathes the fresh air of the English meadows.’ Marlowe’s
contribution was still greater. “His genius was essentially of a tragic cast; from his veins the life-blood
of passion had flowed into the drama of England and forthwith it lost its timidity and was conscious of
strange new force and fire; in his tragedies were first heard upon a public stage, that measure which is
the express voice in our poetry of dramatic feeling—the blank verse.” Marlowe’s art was thus a prelude
to the sonorous music of Shakespeare—a music now gushing and roaring like the tumultuous waves of
mighty deeps, and now flowing, drooping like the whispering ripples of a moonlit and the tinkling of
distant bells at the dead of night. To Shakespeare, therefore, we now turn for “this still sad music of
humanity.”
The Praise of Marlowe among the University Wits: Christopher Marlowe, though the
youngest of the University Wits and the earliest to die, except for Robert Greene, was the most
important among them in the world of drama; he is still regarded as the mighty and wonderful
dramatic genius who gave to the English tragic drama a permanent direction and life. He collaborated
with some of his fellows and most probably was associated with Shakespeare. “It has been suggested
from internal evidence that he was the part-author of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. He perhaps
also wrote parts of Henry VI, which Shakespeare revised and completed, and of Edward III.” Be that
as it may, the four plays, all tragedies that make Marlowe foremost among the predecessors of
Shakespeare are Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II.
Marlowe: A Typical Product of the Renaissance
Renaissance, which literally means ‘re-birth’ or ‘re-awakening’ is the name of a Europe-wide

movement which closes the trammels and conventions of the medieval age and makes for liberation in
all aspects of life and culture.
Though the influence of the spirit of the Renaissance marks all the writers of the latter half of the age
of Elizabeth,—in poetry, drama, and prose romances and novels, that can be seen working with
particular force on Marlowe and his fellows who together are called the University Wits. Of them
again, the writings of Marlowe are the most prominent embodiment of the spirit of the Renaissance.
Generally speaking, Marlowe himself is the spirit of Renaissance incarnate. A reckless Bohemian in
life, a daring atheist setting not much value on moral worth but all value on the Machiavellian virtue,
living a life of imagination rather than of thought, of gaiety full of the zest for life, Marlowe is the
typical product of the Renaissance. In the conception of the central characters of his dramas, he is
impelled by the Renaissance spirit for unlimited power, unlimited knowledge for the sake of power,
unlimited wealth, again, for the sake of power. Aspirations, unbounded desire of love for the pleasures
of the senses, infinite longing for beauty rather than for truth— are the characteristics of the
imaginative life which glittered before his eyes in that great age of daring adventures. On the aesthetic
side, love of physical beauty mentioned above goes in him hand in hand with love of the beauty of
harmony; the high astounding terms of his blank verse, the thrills and echoes of his phrases, the
resounding roll of his declamations, the surfeit of mythological allusions—all these run into excess;

but the excesses only point to the essential ambition of reaching beyond the narrow and the limited
into the infinity of achievement, which is the noblest gift of the Renaissance.
Novel
Novel, long work of written fiction. Most novels involve many characters and tell a complex story by
placing the characters in a number of different situations.
Because novels are long—generally 200 pages or more—novelists can tell more richly detailed tales
than can authors of briefer literary forms such as the short story. Many readers consider the novel the
most flexible type of literature, and thus the one with the most possibilities. For example, writers can
produce novels that have the tension of a drama, the scope of an epic poem, the type of commentary
found in an essay, and the imagery and rhythm of a lyric poem. Over the centuries writers have
continually experimented with the novel form, and it has constantly evolved in new directions.
The word novel came into use during the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century), when Italian
writer Giovanni Boccaccio applied the term novella to the short prose narratives in his Il decamerone
(1353; Ten Day’s Work). When his tales were translated, the term novel passed into the English
language. The word novella is now used in English to refer to short novels.
What is a Novel?
Writers have pushed traditional literary boundaries so that the characteristics of many types of
literature overlap, but looking at certain differences between novels and other literary forms can give
readers a basic guide to the novel’s distinctive traits.
Like the short story, the novel tells a story, but unlike the short story, it presents more than an
episode. In a novel, the writer has the freedom to develop plot, characters, and theme slowly. The
novelist can also surround the main plot with subplots that flesh out the tale. Unlike short stories,
most novels have numerous shifts in time, place, and focus of interest.
Like epic poetry, the novel may celebrate grand designs or great events, but unlike epic poetry it also
may pay attention to details of everyday life, such as people's daily tasks and social obligations. For
example, the epic the Iliad by ancient Greek poet Homer depicts the Trojan War in grand terms but
does not comment on the experience of the common soldiers. By contrast, in his novel Madame
Bovary (1857), French writer Gustave Flaubert shows the main character shopping and worrying
about household expenses.
Like a playwright, a novelist tells a story, but a novelist has more freedom than a playwright to portray
events outside the framework of the immediate story, such as historical events that happen at the
same time as the story. The playwright is more limited in this way because description in dramas is
generally conveyed through dialogue between characters. In a play, rarely does a narrator speak
directly to the audience, as the narrator of a novel can. Novelists can also make smoother changes in
time and place than can playwrights, who must write their works so that they can be performed on
stage.
Like the people in the Bible, the novel’s characters may search for God and have their own particular
dreams and ideals, but unlike many biblical characters, the characters in novels are generally
presented as people without spiritual missions and destinies. For example, in the Bible, the prophets
Ezekiel and Isaiah call on the Hebrew people to live more righteously. By contrast, although the
character Levin in Anna Karenina (1875-1877) by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy is obsessed with the
moral life, he is also a farmer, thinker, husband, and society man who must attend to the needs of
everyday life.
Unlike writers of allegories or parables, novelists do not use characters solely as emblems. The biblical
parable of the prodigal son, which tells of a man who forgives his son for the errors of his ways,
explores ideas of Christian forgiveness but does not investigate the characters of the family members

in great detail. By contrast, the works of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which also explore
themes of forgiveness, demonstrate the anguish of guilt-ridden men and women. In Dostoyevsky’s
Prestuplanie i nakazanie (1866; Crime and Punishment) a man commits a murder and escapes
punishment from authorities. However, he still suffers because his own conscience is burdened by the
knowledge of the wrong he has done.
Finally, the novel may adapt patterns of mythology, but the novelist does not simply retell the myth.
Instead, the novelist structures the story around the underlying themes of the myth while featuring
unique characters and settings. In Ulysses (1922) by Irish writer James Joyce, the experiences of the
character Leopold Bloom have some similarity to those of the hero Odysseus in the Odyssey by ancient
Greek poet Homer. But Bloom’s experiences take place entirely within his world—the Ireland of his
time. Joyce thus uses the ancient material of Odysseus’s mythical experiences to create a new
interpretation of contemporary experience.
Elements of the novel
To create a fictional world that seems real to the reader, novelists use five main elements: plot,
characters, conflict, setting, and theme.
The plot is the novel’s story and its underlying meaning. Therefore, when a reader describes the plot of
a novel, the reader should describe both what happens to the characters and the meaning of these
events. Plots can be anything the writer dreams up, from narratives so realistic that they seem like
nonfiction to tales of the fantastic, such as science-fiction works that involve distant worlds.
To engage the reader, a novel must feature characters with complex and complete personalities.
Characters do not need to be physically realistic; science-fiction novels often feature aliens as
characters. But meaningful characters usually have hopes, fears, concerns, and ambitions that the
reader can recognize. Well-conceived characters do not simply serve as devices to further the plot;
they convince the reader that they have lives beyond the boundaries of the particular story being told.
The novelist makes the reader care about the story by introducing some sort of conflict. The conflict
can be physical, emotional, or ethical, but it always creates some sort of tension that the characters
must resolve.
Another element that the novelist uses to draw in the reader is the setting of the work—the time and
place that the story occurs. For some novelists, setting is essential and plays a major role in the book’s
theme, as in a novel that is about life in the American South. For other authors, the setting is not as
important—for example, in a book that focuses on the inner thoughts of a single character.
The theme of a novel is the major idea that the novelist is setting forth in writing the book. The theme
gives the novel greater depth than it would have if it were a simple recitation of a series of actions. An
author uses the other elements of the novel to build the work’s theme. For example, to develop a
theme about the current state of the American South, an author might set the book in the South,
feature characters from the South, and have the characters speak in a Southern style. Through these
elements, along with the plot, the novelist conveys the novel’s theme.
Plot: The plot of a novel is the narrative and thematic development of the story—that is, what
happens and what these events mean. English novelist E. M. Forster, author of works such as A Room
with a View (1908) and Howards End (1910), referred to the plot as a “narrative of events, the
emphasis falling on causality.” By this statement he meant that plot is a series of events that depend
on one another, not a sequence of unrelated episodes.
There are several types of plots. An episodic plot features distinct episodes that are related to one
another but that can also be read individually, almost as stories by themselves. Most novels involve
more complex plots, in which the story builds on itself so that each episode evolves out of a previous
one and produces another one. Some plots are based less on the physical action of events than on the
emotional reactions of characters and their efforts to communicate their feelings to others. And some

novelists experiment with plot, interrupting the main story with subplots, moving back and forth in
time, or merging fact with fiction.
Characters: The characters of a book are the fictional figures who move through the plot. They are
invented by the author and are made of words rather than of flesh and blood. Therefore they cannot
be expected to have all the attributes of real human beings. Nevertheless, novelists do try to create
fictional people whose situations affect the reader as the situations of real people would.
Conflict: The plot of a novel unfolds as the novel’s characters deal with conflict. The conflict
may be of various types. It may be physical, as in Red Badge of Courage (1895) by American author
Stephen Crane, in which a young man goes to battle during the American Civil War (1861-1865). The
conflict may be ethical and involve making decisions that affect other people. In All the King’s Men
(1946), American novelist Robert Penn Warren depicts this kind of conflict by focusing on the effect
an ambitious Southern politician named Willie Stark has upon his assistant, Jack Burden, and others.
The conflict in a novel may also be emotional. A Death in the Family (1957) by American writer James
Agee is about a family recovering from the death of a loved one.
Setting : The setting of a novel—the time and place of its action—is crucial to the creation of a
complete work. Physical places such as deserts and outer space, as well as cultural settings such as
hospitals and universities, help determine characters’ conflicts, aspirations, and destinies.
Theme: A novel’s theme is the main idea that the writer expresses. Theme can also be defined
as the underlying meaning of the story.
The theme of a novel is more than its subject matter, because an author’s technique can play as strong
a role in developing a theme as the actions of the characters do. For example, American novelist
Wright Morris explores the interaction of the past and present in his work The Field of Vision (1956),
which is set at a bullfight in Mexico. Morris’s technique is to use the bullfight’s action as a trigger that
causes each of the five characters, all American spectators, to remember events from the past.
Techniques of the Novel
There are several major techniques that novelists employ to make their novels rich in meaning and
rewarding to the reader, including point of view, style, and symbolism. Novelists also use a number of
minor devices such as imagery and irony.
The most important decision an author must make when writing a novel is what point of view to use.
The point of view determines the limitations and freedoms that the author has in presenting the plot
and theme to the reader. Readers will experience a book differently depending on whether they know
everything that is occurring in the story and all the characters’ thoughts, or whether they have a more
limited perspective, such as knowing only what one particular character knows.
A novelist’s style is the approach the writer takes in putting together words, phrases, sentences, and
paragraphs. Style can determine the pace at which the story is told and how directly the author relates
the story to the reader.
Many novelists deepen the meaning of their stories by employing symbolism, the use of objects or
ideas as symbols that represent other, more abstract concepts. With symbols, authors can write scenes
that deepen the reader’s understanding of the theme of the novel. This occurs because the symbols
have an unspoken meaning beyond their immediate presence in the story. Symbolism thus allows the
author to address controversial matters, such as political or religious issues, without openly discussing
these subjects.
Novelists also use many other literary devices, including imagery and irony. By using these devices,
writers avoid the need to state every piece of information they wish to convey. Instead, the literary
devices give readers the opportunity to discover themselves the layers of meaning in a novel.

Point of View: The point of view of a literary work is the perspective from which the reader
views the action and characters. The three major types of point of view in novels are omniscient (all-
knowing narrator outside the story itself), first-person (observations of a character who narrates the
story), and third-person-limited (outside narration focusing on one character’s observations).
Style: Style is the novelist’s choice of words and phrases, and how the novelist arranges
these words and phrases in sentences and paragraphs. Style allows the author to shape how the reader
experiences the work. For example, one writer may use simple words and straightforward sentences,
while another may use difficult vocabulary and elaborate sentence structures. Even if the themes of
both works are similar, the differences in the authors’ styles make the experiences of reading the two
works distinct.
Style can be broken down into three types: simple, complex, and mid-style. Sometimes authors carry a
single style throughout an entire work. Other times, the style may vary within a novel. For example, if
the novelist tells a story through the eyes of several different characters, the use of different styles may
give each character a distinctive voice.
A simple style uses common words and simple sentences, even if the situation described is complex.
The effect of the simple style can be to present facts to the reader without appealing to the reader’s
emotions directly. Instead, the writer relies on the facts themselves to affect the reader.
A complex style uses long, elaborate sentences that contain many ideas and descriptions. The writer
uses lyrical passages to create the desired mood in the reader, whether it be one of joy, sadness,
confusion, or any other emotion.
A mid-style is a combination of the simple and complex styles. It can give a neutral tone to the book,
or it can provide two different effects by contrast.
Some authors use more than one style within a novel. This approach allows the author flexibility in
choosing which style is appropriate at different points in the work, depending on the situation and on
the character or characters being portrayed.
Symbolism: Many novels have two layers of meaning. The first is in the literal plot, the second in a
symbolic layer in which images and objects represent abstract ideas and feelings. Using symbols
allows authors to express themselves indirectly on delicate or controversial matters.
Imagery and Irony: In addition to point of view, style, and symbolism, novelists use many other
specific techniques in their works. Two of the most important are imagery, the collection of descriptive
details that appeal to the senses and emotions of the reader by creating a sense of real experience, and
irony, the reader’s recognition that what is expected from a statement, situation, or action is different
from what actually happens.
Through imagery the writer attempts to embody in images all abstractions and generalizations about
character and meaning.
The difference between imagery and symbolism is that the purpose of imagery is not to embody
meaning but to create an illusion of reality by stimulating the reader’s senses. Nevertheless, an image
may also serve as a symbol when it has special meaning and represents another idea, either to the
reader or to the novel’s characters.
Genres of The Novel:
Novels can be classified into dozens of genres, and novels may belong to several of these categories at
the same time. Distinctions among genres can be drawn in many ways. Such distinctions include the
form in which the works are written, such as epistolary novels, which take the form of letters written
between characters; the settings, such as regional novels, which focus on life in a certain area; and the
purpose, such as propaganda novels, which try to convince the reader to adopt a certain point of view.
Other examples of distinct forms include picaresque novels, which describe the adventures of rogues;

Gothic novels, which describe ghosts and other elements of the supernatural; science-fiction novels,
which portray other worlds or other possibilities for our world; and detective stories, which focus on
mysteries.
A few broad genres of the novel reflect some general tendencies. Social novels tend to focus on the
outward behavior of characters and how other characters react. Psychological novels explore the inner
workings of an individual’s mind. Education novels recount a person’s development as an individual.
Philosophical novels provide a platform for authors to explore intellectual or philosophical questions.
Popular novels usually involve adventure, intrigue, or mystery and appeal to a wide range of people.
Experimental novels are works in which writers make major innovations in form and style.
Social Novel: The social novel focuses on the behavior of characters and how the characters’
actions reflect or contradict the values of their society. The social novel includes two major types: the
novel of manners and the chronicle novel. The novel of manners focuses on a small segment of society.
The chronicle novel paints a broad survey of society as a whole. In both types, the characters’ external
conflicts and interactions with others are the lifeblood of the story.
i. Novel of Manners: In its general form, the novel of manners is concerned with subtle
nuances of behavior and standards of correctness, usually in upper-class life. Novels of manners
describe small encounters and use insights from these incidents to make generalizations that apply to
humanity as a whole.
Pride and Prejudice (1813) by English writer Jane Austen describes bad behavior, ungentlemanly
conduct, and the distinctions between the pride of self-respect and the various forms of arrogance,
willfulness, and self-absorption into which this pride can be twisted. Austen’s novel focuses on the
three Bennet sisters’ attempts to find husbands. The work features characters such as the reckless,
man-chasing Lydia Bennet, the pompous Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the obsequious Mr. Collins, the
snobbish Caroline Bingley, the cynical Mr. Bennet, the inane Mrs. Bennet, and the vulgar Mrs. Philips.
Typical maneuverings are those of Caroline, a young woman who tries to impress Mr. Darcy by
pretending to read a book he is reading. In the novel of manners, such moments, although seemingly
trivial, expose the character of a person.
ii. Chronicle Novel: The chronicle novel takes a broader view than the novel of manners
by attempting to bring the scope of a whole civilization into the work. It also uncovers the meanings,
principles, and social styles that govern people’s lives. The chronicle novel scrutinizes individuals but
at the same time offers an analysis of social classes and groups.
Psychological Novel: The psychological novel’s intent is to reveal its characters’ inner
selves at a particular time in life. In terms of style, many psychological novels feature interior
monologue and stream of consciousness; these are literary techniques that give the reader direct
access to the inner thoughts of characters.
Education Novel: The education novel describes stages in the life of its main character as the
individual develops as a person. For example, in Great Expectations (1860-1861), English author
Charles Dickens describes a boy named Pip as he grows up and the challenges he faces as he comes to
terms with his own actions. The Mill on the Floss (1860) by English novelist George Eliot deals with a
young girl and the consequences of her passions. Maggie Tulliver, although a character of intelligence
and determination, is ultimately defeated by both the repressive society of her time and her own
unwise impulses.
Philosophical Novel: Novelists have always found it relatively easy to include in their
works theories and opinions about society, the universe, ethical values, and other ideas. Novels in
which intellectual exploration is the main purpose are sometimes called philosophical novels. These
works aim to confront the so-called eternal questions about freedom, humanity’s place in the universe,
and the value of human effort.

In philosophical novels, characters are sometimes used to voice ideas and viewpoints, and they are as
much spokespeople for theories and positions as they are independent figures. However, the
philosophical novel differs from purely philosophical works because it embodies concepts in human
personality and directs attention to the characters who hold opinions rather than just to the positions
themselves.
Whereas most philosophical essays are concerned solely with ideas, the focal point for the
philosophical novel is the consequence of ideas on ordinary lives. For example, Greek philosopher
Plato and French writer Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote works that present ideas of how children
should be raised, but English novelist Charles Dickens in Hard Times (1854) shows how theories
about family life translate into everyday living. In this novel, a theory of education has tragic
consequences for the theorist’s own children.
Brief Historical Survey of English Novel
Considered as an art-form the novel is comparatively recent in origin. Man has always desired to read
for entertainment, and some kind of prose-fiction has always been there to satisfy this craving. In the
Middle Ages there were Romances or long fairy tales and tales of adventure and knight errantry. It has
been a source of inspiration and entertainment to generations of readers and writers ever since.
About the middle of the 16th century the place of the long medieval romances was gradually taken by
Italian prose tales or novella which appeared in English translation in large numbers. These novellas
exercised considerable influence on the pamphlets such as Nash’s Jack Wilton or the Unfortunate
Traveller as well as on such great Elizabethan works as John Lyly’s Euphues and Philip Sidney’s
Arcadia. These works are the precursors of modern novel, in more ways than one.
Another kind of prose fiction referred to as the Heroic Romance, inspired largely by such French
models as D’urfe and Madam Scudery, flourished all through the 17th century, but more specially after
the Restoration. They have no place in the history of the English novel except that their popularity
testifies to the craving for prose fiction. Mention may only be made of Mrs. Afra Behn’s Oroonoco or
the Royal Slave. It is an experiment in the infancy of the novel. It is the first prose story in English
“which can be ranked with things that already existed in foreign literatures.”
Another great name in the history of the English novel is that of Daniel Defoe. Defoe for the first time
makes the novel an exciting and all-absorbing source of passing the time. Earlier prose fiction was, no
doubt, interesting, but it also aimed at instruction and improvement. But Defoe has no other aims
except the entertainment of his readers; his novels can be read again and again, with equal keenness,
interest and excitement.
Another greatness of Defoe lies in his almost endless accumulation of trivial details, incidents and
observations, the combined effect of which is to create in the reader an unconscious acceptance of the
facts and characters presented to him. The method is seen at its best in the building up of Robinson’s
surrounding in Robinson Crusoe but it is used with great effect in novels like Moll Flanders, Roxana,
etc. Defoe is the first of the great magicians who have the peculiar talent of making uninteresting
things interesting, merely by presenting them as though they really existed.
The Picaresque Novel
But Defoe does not rank as one of the greatest of English novelists, because his plots are rather loose.
They are not well-knit and compact. As a matter of fact, his novels are of the Picaresque type. The
word ‘Picaresque’ has been derived from the Spanish word ‘Picaro’ which means a “rogue” and
“knave”. The Picaresque novel is the tale of the adventures or misadventures of a picaro or rogue who
wanders from one country to another, from one setting to another, from the town to the country, from
one inn to another, and in this way the novelist gets an opportunity of introducing a variety of
characters and incidents, of painting society as a whole realistically. The picture may be satiric but the
aim of the novelist is to delight and entertain, and not to reform or improve. In the words of Edwin
Muir, “The Picaresque novel is the tale of a hard worked travelling hero, posting from inn to inn, now

in the country, now in London, knocking at the doors of the great, mixing with rogues and thieves,
languishing in prison, or on board the ship, suffering every vicissitude good or bad, and enduring
them all, not because the novelist has any tender regard for his hero’s suffering or fortunes, but
because he is avid of variety, and is determined to get a pass to as great a number of scenes as he can.”
To Thomas Nash goes the credit of being the first writer of a picaresque novel in English. His the
Unfortunate Traveller or The Life of Jack Wilton, relates the adventures of Jack Wilton, a page of
Henry VIII, who travels through France, Germany, Flanders and Italy. The scenes laid in Italy deal
alternately with the arts and splendour of Italy, and the Italy of courtesans and assassins. Nash
displays the marvels of the land, but also its intrigues, violence and blood-shed. Much space is given to
horror, torture, and violence.
Thomas Nash had no disciples with the possible exception of Richard Hood whose The English Rogue
is also in the Picaresque tradition. However, the next great practitioner of this genre is Daniel Defoe
(1659-1731). His novels are formless and they narrate the adventure of some social outcast or rogue,
who moves from place to place and country to country and has a variety of adventures. They are in the
picaresque tradition and he may be said to have enlarged the scope of the picaresque novel by
depicting the adventures of a dissolute heroine, instead of a dissolute hero. His Moll Flanders
certainly is in the picaresque tradition, but it cannot be called a picaresque novel. Referring to this Ian
Watt says, “It is because her crimes, like the travels of the picaresque novel. The picaro happens to
have a real historical basis – the breakdown of the feudal social order. Defoe, on the other hand,
presents his whores, pirates, highwaymen, shoplifters, and adventurers as ordinary people who are
normal products of their environment, victims of circumstances which anyone might have
experienced and which provoke exactly the same moral conflict between means and ends as those
faced by other members of society. Some of Moll Flanders, actions may be very similar to those of the
picaro, but the feeling evoked by them is of a much more complete sympathy and identification:
author and reader alike cannot but take her problems much more seriously.”
Smollet’s novels also are all in the picaresque tradition. He was well read in the novels of this genre,
but he was specially influenced by the Gill Blas of Le Sage. A picaresque novel is a union of intrigue
and adventure, and the only unity in it is provided by the central figure. Smollett’s novels are
extremely loose in construction. Indeed, they have no plot worth the name. Roderick Random ends in
the manner of Fielding with the marriage of the hero and the heroine, the end is merely mechanical,
being simply a device for stopping somewhere. “When Roderick has made use of his friends, knocked
down his enemies, and generally elbowed and shoved his way through the crowd of adventurers long
enough, Narcissa and her fortune are not so much the reward of his exertions, as a stock and
convenient method of putting an end to the account of them” (Saintsbury). Smollett’s novels are
strings of adventure and personal history, and it is not clear to the readers why they should not end
differently from the way in which they do. Many of the minor characters and minor scenes, some of
them quite capable ones, can be easily dispensed with, without the reader being conscious of any gap
or missing links.
Fielding’s Tom Jones also is built on the picaresque model. It has a strong element of the picaresque.
Its hero, Tom Jones, is a foundling. He is an illegitimate child with no parents to look after him. For
various reasons he is turned out of home by his patron, Squire Allworthy, and then has to shift for
himself. Though he is not a rogue, he is in no way wicked at heart, but he is imprudent and reckless
and is, therefore, involved in a number of misadventures. The novel deals with his adventures and
vicissitudes as he passes through various scenes, meets with various incidents, and comes in contact
with a great variety of characters. He even joins the army, fights several times for a good cause, and is
wounded. He even meets with such strange characters as the man on the hill and the gypsies. The
incidents are thrilling and sensational. The adventures of the hero enable the novelist to present
realistically a complete picture of the life of the times, and to introduce a great variety of characters
from different strata of society.
Despite these strong picaresque elements, Tom Jones differs from a picaresque novel in several
important respects. As already noticed above, its hero is not a rogue. He is essentially generous and

benevolent at heart; and his sexual laxity is merely the imprudence of youth, and not an expression of
wickedness. After every lapse, he suffers from pangs of conscience and is true to his love in thought, if
not in need. Secondly, the aim of the novelist is definitely moral. It is to show that real goodness is of
the heart, and one should judge, not by actions but by motives. Besides, innocence and virtue must
ever be on their guard, as they are often lead astray and ensnared by the wicked and the cunning.
Thirdly, its plot is coherent and well knit, and not a mere series of episodes, having no organic
connection with each other.
Picaresque Novel in the Modern Age: Vertical Climbing: Picaresque novels continue
to be written in the present age also but in a different form. As Edwin Muir in his The Structure of the
Novel writes in this connection, “There is an almost exact parallel to it in contemporary fiction in the
recurring story of the young man who begins in poor circumstances and climbs vertically through all
the social classes until he reaches the top. The counterpart of Smollett’s travelling hero is Mr. H.G.
Well’s climbing hero. Seen from this point of view, and by allowing the word ‘picaresque’ a larger and
wider meaning then the traditional meaning associated with it, we will discover that the Picaresque
note is quite an important element in the novels of Charles Dickens. Great Expectations, Pickwick
Papers, David Copperfield, Olive Twist, are all Picaresque novels in a way. ‘Oliver Twist’ is a
picaresque story humanized and given a realistic setting in the London slums” (W.L. Cross). The
adventures of Pip in Great Expectations are really picaresque adventures. The only difference is that
they take place on a psychological rather than physical plane. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair has also a
strong element of the picaresque. Becky Sharp is not only an unprincipled adventuress who moves
from place to place, from London to the countryside and to various places in Europe, but she is also a
keen social climber. She climbs up vertically with great speed, and her downfall is equally steep.
The picaresque element is strong in a host of modern novels; so many that they cannot even be
touched upon in the limited space at our disposal.
The Panoramic Novel
Henry Fielding, the father of the English novel, is the creator of the panoramic or the epical-novel. In
this kind of novel, the novelist ranges over a wide ground and provides a comprehensive picture of the
life of the times. The picture which he presents of contemporary life, society, dress, habits, and
manners, is epical in its range, sweep and variety. Every aspect of contemporary life has been
presented with rare force and realism, and this makes his four novels, more specially Tom Jones,
important social documents. As Richard Church puts it, “he is the first writer to focus the novel in
such a way that it brought the whole world as we see it, within the scope of this new, rapidly maturing
literary form.” Thackeray is another important practitioner of the panoramic novel.
Tom Jones is constructed on an epic scale. The plot is organic, and it also has epic-range, sweep and
variety. Fielding merely claims to narrate the life-history of Tom Jones, a founding, but in reality he
has given us a comprehensive picture of the life of the times. To the simple tale of the adventures of
Tom Jones, the hero, are added a number of episodes, one episode leading to another, and so on, and
in this way, “is built up a very complicated and elaborate structure.” “In other words, the plot is
complicated; it is episodic, and it is panoramic. The novel holds a mirror to contemporary life. It
reflects faithfully the life in the country, on the roads, in the wayside inns and taverns, and in the city.
Every professional and social group is well represented; no aspect of the life of the times has escaped
the attention of the novelist. And the comprehensive picture it presents is the result of personal
experience and observation of its author as a London Magistrate. Hence it is that the picture is
remarkable for its truth and veracity.
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is also panoramic, and like Fielding’s Tom Jones, makes a comprehensive and
elaborate survey of the Victorian scene. The setting, so far as physical place is concerned, moves from
London to Brighton, to the Continent including Paris, Rome, Brussels, and Pumpernickel, a small
German principality. The reader moves from city-house to country estate, from private Academy to
the sponging house, or debtor’s jail.

The enormous canvas of the novel portrays the conventions and manners of genteel society
realistically and effectively. The novel has an immense variety of character and incident. This makes it
a most valuable social document showing how England in the Victorian era was riddled with
snobbery, and craze for social climbing. The novelist has presented convincingly the immense
panorama of social life in the Victorian vanity fair, and not only has he rendered the social manners of
the age, he has also exposed their folly and vanity. All the characters are shown to be self-deceived
pursing phantoms which elude their grasp, or, when achieved, bringing no satisfaction or sense of
fulfillment.
The Historical Novel
Another important genre of the novel is the historical novel. The historical novel, on the face of it,
seems to be a contradiction in terms. The word novel designates a work of fiction; and facts, we know,
are the underlying basis of history. A historical novel then, must be a combination of bad history and
bad fiction – because it departs from fiction and deviates from facts. This would seem to imply that a
perfect historical novel is impossible. But good historical novels there are in plenty. This only shows
that if history and fiction are correctly understood and made use of it is possible to write a good
historical novel. There should be an equal proportion of facts and fiction. The historical novelist takes
certain events and characters from history and weaves around them a fictitious enchantment. In
making use of facts, the novelist does not follow the method of the historian but of the artist. He
selects facts and arranges them according to his choice. In short, he takes into account what may be
described as the spirit and atmosphere of history. He reconstructs imaginatively the life of the past.
He does not allow historical facts to come in the way of his fiction; nor does he permit his fiction to
violate the significance of historical facts.
Sir Walter Scott is the creator of the Historical novel. He blended into a unity fact and fancy, and
history and romance. It is true Scott alters the facts of history and changes the sequence of events in
the interest of his art. In order to understand Scott’s divergence from history, we must remember that
he regarded the historical novel as a grouping of the facts of history so centralised as to illuminate a
passion, plot or character, as a presentation of historical events so arranged as to form an interesting
picture. From Scott’s stray observations in the prefaces to some of his novels, like Ivanhoe and
Quentin Durward, we may conclude that he seems to have regarded history as related to the historical
novel in the same way as the architect’s elevation is related to the perspective view of an artist. The
historical novel is not mere history, it is rather magnetised history in which every fact leads to some
focal pole of unity.
The range of Scott’s novels is fairly wide and covers three centuries of English, Scottish and European
History. “He was thus an inspired, and exalted, pageant-master, of enormous energy and sparing no
expense, who organised a procession through the ages from the medieval to the 19th century, a
movement in which every degree of humanity played a part, and wore the appropriate costume. Kings
and queens, outlaws, cut-throats, men of law and of war, girls and crones, witches and even ghosts,
took their places in that procession, hundreds of them, winding their way out of the past, making the
recognizable gesture spearing the expected words. Louis XI of France in Quentin Duward, James in
The Fortunes of Nigel, Queen Elizabeth in Kenilworth, these are a few examples of the vivid
imagination. But merely presenting the past was not enough for him. “He boldly projected the present
into the past, and used his knowledge of contemporary life to humanise his old world characters.
Manners may change and fashions alter, but human nature remains constant; and thus we have the
apparent paradox that Scott’s success as an historical novelist lay in his sturdy realism, that he made
the men of Robin Hood’s day and Shakespeare’s day alive and actual by virtue of his acquaintance
with the men that lived in his own day,
There may since have been more accurate interpretations of history, but Scott was an artist, not a
scholar. He violated chronology; he invented situations; he allowed his imagination free play with the
costume cupboard and the makeup box, but in making the past come alive he was gloriously
successful. He saw history as a pageant sweeping by with tableaux, characters, and moments of high
drama. But behind the changing scenes was a movement, a pattern, which he discerned and tried to

interpret. His view of history was Elizabethan rather than modern; he saw the great struggles as
expressions of moral destiny, not as record of events. The actors in the drama knew their parts and
were impelled to play them. Scott depicted their behaviour but he did not inquire too closely into
causes and motives or attempt for the most part to explore the psychology of his characters. It is on
this point that he differs much from the present-day writer of historical fiction. If he glamourised the
past, it was partly because he saw in the past centuries the values modern life was rapidly destroying.
He loved the spirit of the Middle Ages which he thought bound men in the brotherhood of Christ; he
saw these bonds being cast away in exchange for a soulless greed for money, while in the economic
freedom of laissez faire he saw no individualism but indifference and selfishness. Above all, it was the
poetry of distance that exercised its magic upon him. When he approached the less remote past, the
attraction was warmer and more saddening. He drew near to catch the last flicker of the flames before
the grey ashes cooled for ever.”
Historical Novel To-day: In the 20th century, the historical novel has suffered a decline. The
times are uncongenial to the historical novels of the Scott-type, dealing with romance of knight-
errantry and woman-worship. A historical novel is a mixture of fact and fiction, an imaginative
treatment of history, and such an imaginative treatment which would necessarily select, order,
arrange its material is not congenial to the rational and scientific temper of the age. The modern stress
is on the sub-conscious, on the study of the psyche, on the analysis of motives, while the historical
novel deals with external events and action.
The Novel of Social Reform
The novel of social reform is associated with the name of Charles Dickens. He was the first English
novelist who consciously used the novel-form to focus public attention on the many social evils
prevalent in his age. In this way, he tried to cure some of these evils which caused great suffering to
the poor. In this way, he rendered great service to society, and contributed much to the well-being of
the under-dog of society. Thus he made the novel an instrument of social reform.
His one wish and hope was “to strike a blow for the poor,” and many such blows he did strike right
manfully. Many of the social ills of the day come within the lash of Dickens. The various evils of
Industrial Revolution, specially the employment of child labour, have been highlighted through the
suffering of such children as David Copperfield, employed in various industrial establishment. There
were no factory laws and Trade Unions and so the factory owners were free to exploit tender children
for their own profit. David goes to work at the tender age of ten. He works from early in the morning
till late in the night in the most unhealthy and suffocating environment. He is paid only six or seven
shilling a week, hardly enough to provide him with two full meals a day. The result is he suffers
terribly and David’s suffering is the suffering of man a poor and helpless Victorian child.
The need for prison reform has been stressed through pictures of the squalor and dirt, drinking and
gambling, sorrow and suffering of prison life, which are scattered all over his work. In David
Copperfield there is the realistic picture of kings’ Bench prison for debtors. Prisoners were treated like
dumb, driven cattle, more like wild beasts than human beings. The aim was to inflict social vengeance
on them, rather than to reform them. Dirt, disease and death were the common lot of the prisoners.
Conditions in prisonships, called hulks, were even more appalling. We get a glimpse of the life in the
hulks in Great Expectations and the picture is horrible in the extreme. Through such pictures,
Dickens’ aim was to awaken the conscience of his age.
The educational system of the day has been satirised and its horrors exposed, in one novel after
another. The education was in the hands of private persons and schools were run out of profit motif.
The owners of such schools were educationists only in name; they were themselves uneducated and
did not know how to impart education. Their treatment of the boys was unsympathetic and harsh,
their motto being, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” A clear idea of the horrors of such schools and
the suffering of the boys entrusted to the care of such headmasters can be formed from the life of
David at Salem House. Mr. Crekle is harsh and callous and to inflict pain on the boys is a matter of
pleasure for him. He knows nothing about the principles of education, neither does he care for it.

However, the approach of Dickens in this respect is not entirely negative, in Dr. Strong’s Academy he
has also given us his concept of an ideal school.
Abuses of the legal system, and delays in the meting out of justice, are also criticised by him in “David
Copperfield”. In the novel, we get a detailed account of the working of the courts of the Doctors
Common and their abuses. He had a first hand knowledge of the legal system of the country, and
among the most vivid of his characters are the portraits of the professional figures from lawyer’s
offices. Through such pictures, Dickens succeeded in focusing attention on the many abuses of the
legal machinery of his day. Thus Spenlow and Jorkins are selfish lawyers who exploit the legal
machinery for their own benefit. They have entered the profession to earn money and they freely
exploit the people to further their own ends. As a reformer, often Dickens’ views are unjust as when he
prefers outdoor relief to the relief provided by the work-houses. In one novel after another, he is
sharply critical of Poor Laws and the working of the workhouses. He could never reconcile himself to
the Poor Laws which, despite their shortcomings, were of immense good to the poor.
The Regional Novel
The Regional novel is the novel which depicts the physical feature, life, customs, manners, history etc.
of some particular region or locality. However, this does not mean that regionalism is mere factual
reporting of photographic reproduction. The regional artist emphasises the unique features of a
particular locality, its uniqueness, the various ways in which it differs from other localities. But as in
all other arts, so also in regional art, there is a constant selection and ordering of material. In other
words, regional art is also creative. Through proper selection and ordering of his material the novelist
stresses the distinctive spirit of his chosen region and shows, further, that life in its essentials is the
same everywhere. The differences are used as a means of revealing similarities; from the particular
and the local, the artist rises to the general and the universal. The selected region becomes a symbol of
the world at large, a microcosm which reflects the great world beyond. The greatness of a regional
novelist lies in the fact that he surmounts the bounds of his chosen region, and makes it universal in
its appeal. That explains the continuing and makes it universal in its appeal. That explains of the
continuing and world-wide popularity of regional novels, say those of the Brontes and Thomas Hardy.
The regional novel concentrates on some particular region, and it is remarkable for its vivid and
illuminating presentation of its scenes and sights, of its landscape and geographical features form the
background or setting to the human drama that is enacted in the novel. As the same scenes and sights,
the same geographical features – rivers, hills, dales, etc., - appear and re-appear in successive novels,
the separate works of the novelist are welded into a single whole. His separate novels acquire in this
way a continuity and a wholeness which is not possible for other kinds of novels. Sometimes, the
presentation of the scenic background, of the local details, is so vivid, realistic and life-like that the
fictitious seems to be real and actual. Thus many Hardy enthusiasts have visited his ‘Wessex’ and tried
to locate the various landmarks which appear in his novels like Tess and The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Further, the regional novel is essentially democratic. It deals with the ordinary men and women living
in a particular locality, and shows them going about the business of living very much like average
humanity. They are shown carrying on the professions and occupations, as well as following the
customs and traditions, that are peculiar to the region. In this way, the particular region is
immortalised in the regional novel. Moreover, concentration within a limited region results in
intensity of emotion and passion. The novelist shows that dramas of Sophoclean grandeur may be
enacted within the confine of a small village, and in a humble cottage. It is so in the novels of The
Brontes and the ‘Wessex Novel’s of Thomas Hardy.
Regional Note in George Eliot: The early novels of George Eliot, Adam Bede, Mill on the
Floss, and Silas Marner are realistic and concrete in the presentation of the life of the Midland
Counties of Warwickshire and Derbyshire, which she had intimately known. This particular region,
with its life and characters, comes to life in these novels. In these early novels, George Eliot freely took
her material from her own experience of life, from her personal memories and from the life and
activities of her relatives and friends. In this way she showed that personal experience and memories

could supply all the matter that a novelist needed. Therefore, realism and faithful portraiture of life
and characters known to her are the hallmarks of these novels.
Thomas Hardy and His Wessex: Thomas Hardy is the most important of the regional novelists
of England, and deserves more space and attention. His Wessex stretches from the English Channel in
the South, to Cornwall in the West, and as far as Oxford to the North. It is this limited region which
forms the scenic background to each of his “Wessex Novels.” The same physical features – appear and
reappear in all his works. This imparts to his works a kind of scenic continuity and a touch of realism
difficult to match in any fiction. Every event takes place within this locality. It is seldom that he strays
out of it. It is for this reason that he is a regional novelist.
He had acquired a thorough knowledge of this region. He was permeated with its scents and sounds,
with its scenes and sights. He has described the physical features of his Wessex with great accuracy
and realism. He has expressed the very spirit of this locality in his works. He has immortalized the
land of Wessex which is a living, breathing reality in his novels. That is why many a Hardy enthusiast
and topographer has taken the imaginary for the real and has gone in search of various landmarks
described in the Wessex novels. For example, the description of Casterbridge in The Mayor of
Casterbridge is so realistic that many have taken it to be an exact reproduction of the town of Dorset.
Similarly, all visitors to the Hardy country have testified that the dreary and desolate atmosphere of
Flint-Comb-Ash farm in Tess of the D’urbrevilles is exactly the same as that of the real place.
The Regional Novel To-day: The regional novel to-day is a well established art-form with
some of the greatest novelists of England as its devoted votaries. It could have been rightly expected
that with the obliteration of regional and local differences following the mass use of swift means of
communication – the car, the railways, the aeroplane and the radio and the television – the regional
novel would lose its value and significance, but regional novels of great worth and significance
continue to be written. E.C. Booth, Mary Webbe, Thomas Moult, Sheila Kaye Smith, Constance
Holme, Frances Brett Young, are a few of the more prominent practitioners of this form in the modern
age.
The Psychological Novel
A psychological novelist analyses the motives, impulses and mental processes which move his
characters to act in a particular way. He depicts the inner struggles of his characters and thus lays bare
their souls before his readers. Thus in a psychological novel there is much soul-dissection, as in the
dramatic monologues of Browning, and the novel acquires a broad intellectual tone. Samuel
Richardson, George Eliot, and George Meredith are some of the great, early novelists to be mentioned
in this connection.
The Stream of Consciousness Novel
Coming to modern times, we find a new kind of novel. “The stream of consciousness novel” carries
this probing into the soul, this analyses of motives and mental processes, a step further. It depicts the
flux of emotions and sensations passing through the consciousness of a character, without any
organisation or ordering on the part of the novelist. It is concerned with the pre-speech level of
thought and emotion. The novelist, so to say, places us within the mind of his characters and shows
what is happening in his soul at the sub-conscious or even the unconscious levels. It depicts the chaos
and incoherence, the welter of sensations and emotions, that constitute the human consciousness
before organisation takes place. The action moves backwards and forwards in harmony with the
thought-process, and the complete soul of the characters, at different levels of consciousness, is laid
bare. Henry James, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson etc., have practised this form of
the novel with great success.

M.A English Study Material General Notes

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A English Study Material English Literature General Notes

English Literature in General

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The Functions of Literature

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Relation of Literature to Life

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Literature: Its Universality

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Three Major Forms of Literature

Poetry: Its Emotional and Imaginative Content

The Diction of Poetry

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Figures of Speech: Their Significance

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Figures: Their Nature and Function

Figures of Speech Commonly Used in Literature

(a) Errors like straws upon the surface flow.

(b) The younger brother is as good as gold.

The broad circumference (of the shield of Satan)

Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose orb

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views, etc.

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(a) The camel is the ship of the desert.

(b) He is the pillar of the state.

Personification: Personification is really a special kind of metaphor. It is a figure of speech in

(a) Opportunity knocks at the door but once.

(b) Death lays his Icy hands on kings.

(c) “Peace hath her victories.

No less renowned than war”.

(a) “O wild west wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being.”

(b) “O Solitude, where are the charms

That sages have seen in they face?”

(b) “Sceptre and crown.

Must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.”

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(c) Ishfaq Ahmed is the Shakespeare of Pakistan.

(d) He gave the beggar a few coppers.

(a) “James I was the wisest fool in Christendom.”

(b) “That time is past

And all its aching joys are now no more,

And all its dizzy raptures.”

(b) “United we stand divided we fall.”

(c) “Speech is silvery, silence is golden.”

(b) “The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.”

(a) The child is father of the man,

(b) Art lies on concealing art.

Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,

(For Brutus is an honourable man)

I come to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

Here the use of the word, “honourable” is ironical.

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Here there is a pun on the word ‘lies’.

(a) How high His Honour holds his haughty head.

Transferred Epithet: In this figure of speech an epithet or qualifying adjective is sometimes

(a) “The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.”

(b) “He tossed from side to side on his sleepless bed.”

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