Autobiographical Elements in To the Light House by Virginia Woolf

Autobiographical Elements in To the Light House by

Virginia Woolf

             Keyword: Observation, Memories, Childhood, Painting skill, writing skill

            There are several autobiographical elements in the novel to the light house by Virginia Woolf.  Hunnah Williams writes in Transcript of To the Lighthouse as Autobiography as,
“The Ramsay family of To the Lighthouse is meant to portray Woolf's own family, the Stephens”. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is considered one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.

            Though she writes unconventionally but there are several things she seems to experience in real life. She writes as, “children don’t forget” from childhood memories. Such words come from heart and effect on heart. Some lines as “we are in the hands of the Lord” and to say as no happiness on earth can be equal to love are not without having personal experience.

            Characters of Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay represent her parents. Mr. Ramsay is a genius person and no equal in the whole England. He is a prominent metaphysical philosopher and a famous member of literary circle. Her father Sir Leslie Stephen, was a historian, author, an eminent literary figure and the first editor (1882–91) of the Dictionary of National Biography.

            Her mother, Julia Jackson, possessed great beauty and a reputation for saintly. Virginia represents Mrs. Ramsay is beautiful and loving woman, “with the stars in her eyes and the wind in her hair.” She is a dutiful and loving wife but often struggles with her husband’s difficult moods and selfishness. She emerges from the novel’s opening pages not only as a woman of great kindness and tolerance but also as a protector. She cares of all and management is great in her hands is well.

             Through Lily she describes her own difficulties in writing skills as it is very close to painting.  She states her own experience how men don’t accept capabilities women in writing and painting. “Neither women can paint nor write” may be comments by others on her creative work. She admits that painting is not so easy.  

Plot Structure in The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe:

         Plot Structure in The Jew of Malta by

Christopher Marlowe:

         

          Plot structure seems rather loose in the Jew of Malta to some extent. Plot is considered loose and the incident superfluous if by removing it doesn’t exploit story in plot.  As far as concerned the Jew of Malta sometimes it seems condensed with various themes, incidents and events which make the main theme vague.

           Barabas, Abigale and governor are significant characters of the main plot. Barabas worships wealth and in tussle with governor Abigale, his daughter, helps him in collecting wealth from underground. Her character seems strong enough through all this process of planning, acting and getting back the treasure. Later on she is toyed by her father so easily even Ithamore laughs at her on being trapped by her father.

          Barabas announces that he would donate the money to the church while in fact he is not going to give money to anyone, nor to governor, nor to church, not to prostitute, not to Turkish ministry. He doesn’t care of any one and play tricks for the sake of wealth. Even he doesn’t hesitate to play game against his daughter who is his well wisher.

          Some aspects don’t connect with main theme of the play. Ithamore’s interest in prostitute, distort money and deceive Barabas. To remove such things could make the main theme clearer in this respect. Such details cause divert attention of audience and readers in this regard.

          There are many themes in the play which divert audience and readers attention as a whole.  Main theme as Barabas’s love of wealth, love to himself, deceive to others, make criminal plans and his tragic end could justified the play plot.  But some other themes may be boring and entangle story as a whole in the play.

          Another theme also is related with Abigale’s loyalty with her father, her unsuccessful love, entrance in convent first to pretend and then in grief and in last her tragic end. Innocent Abigale blindly believes in her father but is poisoned by him and he seems not worried about it. 

          Besides there are some other themes as religion, political matters, prostitute, servant’s treachery and is tyrannized by Barabas eventually.

The action moves quickly in final act and takes various turns differently. He plays fake his own death, political game for large money, disguise as a lute player leave negative effects on fluency in story as whole.

  

Plot Structure in The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe:

 Plot Structure in The Jew of Malta by

Christopher Marlowe:

         

          Plot structure seems rather loose in the Jew of Malta to some extent. Plot is considered loose and the incident superfluous if by removing it doesn’t exploit story in plot. As far as concerned the Jew of Malta sometimes it seems condensed with various themes, incidents and events which make the main theme vague.

           Barabas, Abigale and governor are significant characters of the main plot. Barabas worships wealth and in tussle with governor Abigale, his daughter, helps him in collecting wealth from underground. Her character seems strong enough through all this process of planning, acting and getting back the treasure. Later on she is toyed by her father so easily even Ithamore laughs at her on being trapped by her father.

          Barabas announces that he would donate the money to the church while in fact he is not going to give money to anyone, nor to governor, nor to church, not to prostitute, not to Turkish ministry. He doesn’t care of any one and play tricks for the sake of wealth. Even he doesn’t hesitate to play game against his daughter who is his well wisher.

          Some aspects don’t connect with main theme of the play. Ithamore’s interest in prostitute, distort money and deceive Barabas. To remove such things could make the main theme clearer in this respect. Such details cause divert attention of audience and readers in this regard.

          There are many themes in the play which divert audience and readers attention as a whole.  Main theme as Barabas’s love of wealth, love to himself, deceive to others, make criminal plans and his tragic end could justified the play plot.  But some other themes may be boring and entangle story as a whole in the play.

          Another theme also is related with Abigale’s loyalty with her father, her unsuccessful love, entrance in convent first to pretend and then in grief and in last her tragic end. Innocent Abigale blindly believes in her father but is poisoned by him and he seems not worried about it. 

          Besides there are some other themes as religion, political matters, prostitute, servant’s treachery and is tyrannized by Barabas eventually.

The action moves quickly in final act and takes various turns differently. He plays fake his own death, political game for large money, disguise as a lute player leave negative effects on fluency in story as whole.

Confrontation of Barabas and Abigale in Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe:

Confrontation of Barabas and Abigale in Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe:

          Barabas and Abigale are important characters in Jew of Malta, confronts being father and daughter, by Christopher Marlowe. Abigale seems to be loyal to Barabas in the play comparing with Barabas .She is initially dutiful to her father and unwittingly helps him to mislead Mathias and Lodowick

          Abigale, to see Barabas surrounded with political and financial problems helps him in getting back the money he had hidden underground of the house. Though Barabas vows revenge against Governor Ferneze but first he attempts to recover some of the treasures he has hidden in his mansion. They make a plan to get money and his daughter, Abigale, pretends to convert to Christianity in order to enter the convent. Though it was a big job for a woman but she not only pretends to be religious but also gets treasure back successfully and smuggles out her father's gold at night.

          While on the other hand Barabas doesn’t hesitate to trap Abigale into the plan he knitted for the sake of  revenge against governor. He thinks about his wealth and about revenge but not about Abigale and her emotional attachment with her love. He creates misunderstandings between two persons to challenge them for his purpose but not for Abigale.

          Barabas thinks that he can use Lodowick to exact revenge on Ferneze, and so he dupes the young man into thinking Abigail will marry him. Barabas seizes on this opportunity and sends his servant, to deliver a forged letter to Mathias, supposedly from Lodowick, challenging him to a duel where Mathias and Lodowick kill each other in the duel orchestrated by Barabas. At home, he misleads her by giving her false hopes and orders his reluctant daughter to get betrothed to Lodowick. In the end Ithamore reveals all about to Abigale who becomes extreme dishearten and enters the convent.

 On this he again thinks about him and his wealth but not think about Abigale. When Barabas finds out what Abigail has done, he is enraged, and he decides to poison the food to kill nuns including Abigale. He realizes that Abigail has confessed his crimes there and in order to distract the priests he pretends again that he wants to convert to Christianity and give all his money to whichever monastery he joins. Barabas from starting to end deceives his daughter, governor, servant and priests which cause his tragic end. 

Lack of Inner Strength in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Lack of Inner Strength in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

            In the play Doctor Faustus is introduced as a well-respected scholar having vast knowledge of logic, medicine, law, and religion. His proficiency and efficiency was considered in Germany and his ability to discover new things in logic, medicine, law and religion can’t be denied. Certainly a scholar is curious and struggle to get knowledge in depth and leaves behind no doubts. To reveal the layers of subject a scholar also is able to discover his inner strength. He can’t take interest in superfluous things like magic or laugh at other or expose illusions in front of them to be pleased in this respect.

            A scholar has trained his intellectual powers in a way that he becomes never be happy in superfluous things as Mephastophilis and Lucifer keep Dr Faustus busy to please him. It seems not convincing logic to bring in personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins to prance about in front of Faustus, and he is impressed enough to quiet his doubts about leaving his way of knowledge and adopting artificial wrong way to pursue. It seems either Faustus was not a learned and prominent person out of Germany or he adopts magic. There is doubt that he accepts magic as his purpose even on the cost of life and be condemned to hell in the end also. Mephastophilis bestows rich gifts on him and gives him a book of spells to learn magic, make the scholar happy so easily. Between them there are no solid arguments, no discussions, no reference, and no quotations accordingly, while it doesn’t satisfy the scholarly knowledge.

Once Faustus actually gains the practically limitless power that he desires, however, his horizons seem to narrow. On the other hand he contents himself with performing conjuring tricks for kings and noblemen and takes a strange delight in using his magic to play practical jokes on simple folks. Negative power has corrupted Faustus’s behavior after he sells his soul and raises him to the level of true wickedness. Gaining absolute power corrupts Faustus by making him mediocre and by transforming his boundless ambition into a meaningless delight in petty celebrity.

Universality in The libation Bearers by Aeschylus:

Universality in The libation Bearers by Aeschylus:

            In The Libation Bearers, the second play of Aeschylus' Oresteia  trilogy, love of siblings and faith in childhood friendship are the fine examples of universality in drama which has been observing from the time immemorial undoubtedly. Though it is not all the same but power of love and faith strengthen the relations which can’t be denied in this respect. Many years after the murder of Agamemnon his son Orestes   returns to Argos with his cousin Pylades, who is also his childhood friend while his sister Electra’s intention is same. Orestes intends to exact vengeance on  Clytaemnestra, as an order from, Apollo, for killing Agamemnon. 

            On the tomb Electra and Orestes are strangers each other as for a long time they have not seen each other. Electra discovers the person who places a lock of his hair none other than her brother .She is also convinced by the signs and tokens that he is her brother. Similarly she is recognized by her brother for mourning garb. Upon arriving the late king’s tomb siblings reunites.  Purpose of Electra and Orestes was to take revenge of their father, king Agamemnon. Electra’s bringing libations to Agamemnon was an attempt to stop Clytaemnestra's bad dreams. They support and strengthen each other to take revenge.

            Shortly after the reunion, both influenced by the Chorus, come up with a plan to kill both Clytaemnestra and  Aegisthus. The death of Agamemnon thus sparks anger in    Orestes and Electra and this causes them to now plot the death of queen Clyaemnestra.

            Orestes then heads to the palace door where he is unexpectedly greeted by Clytaemnestra. In his response to her he pretends he is a stranger and tells Clytaemnestra that he (Orestes) is dead, causing her to send for Aegisthus. Unrecognized, Orestes is then able to enter the palace where he kills Aegisthus, who was without a guard due to the intervention of the chorus in relaying Clytaemnestra's message. Clytaemnestra then enters the room. Orestes hesitates to kill her, but Pylades reminds him of Apollo's orders, and he eventually follows through. Before Orestes is occupied by the passions he feels for his mother Pylades realizes him his mission. He might not be able to kill the queen who was his mother too but faith strengthens him to commit. After, he had no choice but to flee from the palace.

Universality in Agamemnon by Aeschylus:

   Agamemnon is treated as the masterpiece of Aeschylus. In it the action takes place before the palace of Agamemnon in Argos at the time of his victorious return from the Trojan war. Agamemnon is the first play in the Oresteia, which is considered Aeschylus' greatest work, and perhaps the greatest Greek tragedy.

   There are several themes considered of that particular age and the conventional way of presenting the Greek tragedy . As far as concerned the aspects of universality in the play, which are very close to reality as well as universal truths which present almost in every age, in every society and any corner of the world accordingly, besides traditional elements in the play.

            Usually those who are wrong seem to blame others as criminals. They try to give clarifications that others committed wrongs as they were on fault. Clytemnestra blamed the king that he had killed her daughter and in revenge, she killed king Agamemnon. While soon after she joined her lover Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin. They take over the government and the Chorus declared that Clytemnestra's son Orestes would return from exile to avenge his father. Later on she gave clarifications to her son that king had unfair relation with Cassandra while she had unfair relation with King’s cousin.

            Cassandra, a Trojan Princess whom Agamemnon had taken as his slave and entered, was riding in his chariot with her into his palace. The Chorus expressed a sense of foreboding, and Clytemnestra came outside to order Cassandra inside. The Trojan Princess was silent, and the Queen left her in frustration. Then Cassandra began to speak, uttering incoherent prophecies about a curse on the house of Agamemnon. She told the Chorus that they would see their king dead, and she would die as well, and then predicted that an avenger would come. After these bold predictions, she seemed resigned to her fate, and entered the house. Representing the people helpless she couldn’t save her against dominated power. She was helpless and tyrannized.

            The play's mood carried a heavy sense of impending doom. From the Watchman's opening speech through the Chorus' foreboding words and Cassandra's prophesies, the drama prepared the audience for the King's murder. The actual act of violence was occurred off-stage, a traditional practice in Greek tragedy. The violence caused violence. But in a broader sense, it was the source of the ancestral curse that pervaded the trilogy, as one act of violence led to another.