In Bangladesh, there are perhaps more NGOs (Non-governmental organization) than most countries in the world. Most of the time, they are non-profit organizations and they try to contribute in the development of the country. I think that it is high time we can have some NGOs that would try for translating Bangla literature. Of course, the first step should be even from digitalization of Bangla texts. In other word, the first step should be to type the texts in Bangla language and then upload them in a website or some websites. When the texts become available in Unicode then anyone who is interested about them can find them easily.
Our NGOs get funds for different projects. May be they can try some projects for translating at least the works of major poets and writers of Bangla literature.
The reality is that there is hardly any money for translating Bangla literature in English Language. Yes, may be there is some money but not in Dhaka or Kolkata. This is the main problem and that is why, there is such a shortage of Bangla poems and novels translated in English. This condition is not going change in near future. Large companies in Bangladesh spend a lot of money on different events. I wish that they could spend some money for this thing. Of course, the companies want profit and this is not a profitable work.
Still, something has to be done and I hope to write about it in the next entry.
As I promised yesterday, I am going to write a series of entries about Bangla literature. Well, I am going to use the two words Bangla and Bengali indiscriminately because I believe that while writing in English the name of the language should be Bengali instead of Bangla. Anyway, this is my opinion and you do not need to agree with me. I studied in English Literature and English Language Teaching for my BA and MA respectively. I wanted to study Bangla literature or journalism but in Bangladesh, studying English means that you are safe in your career because money revolves around this foreign language. I wish it was just only money but there is some kind of status symbol associated with this colonial language. Anyway, whether I like it or not English is the dominant international language and Tagore got intentional recognition after his works were translated in English. After or before Tagore, this kind of international recognition did not come to any other poet or novelist in Bangla literature.
Secondly, Bangla is now one of the top 5 or 6 most widely spoken languages in the world. It also has a rich literature. IN 20th century, it surely had the best literature in South Asia with Tagore and Nazrul. Tagore is the national poet of India while Nazrul is of Bangaldesh. Still, in Internet, you cannot find the complete works of Tagore and Nazrul in English. Thus, it is a matter of regret that we have something really valuable but others don’t know.
I am going to write a series of entries about Bengali Literature in the next few days. I planned to do so in the past but could not do it. This time, I am more hopeful. In the past, the main problem was that I had always lofty goals and always failed. Writing about this topic does not bring money and that is why, I could never dedicate my time for this blog in the last 4 years. I want to start with this topic of money and in the next entry, I will write about this problem. I often wish that I could get some kind of fund for translating Bangla short stories at least. I know that I could do a very good work because although Bangla is perhaps the 5th or 6th most widely spoken language in the world, very few literary works of this language have been translated.
2009 is almost coming to an end. 2010 is going to start after 12 days. It is the time to look back to the last one year and make some plans and goals for the next year. 2009 was a bad year for me. One after another problem made my life very difficult. The worst was the impact of economic recession. I suffered a lot for this matter as far as my income is concerned. So, you may wonder that increasing income should be my first goal for 2010. Well, more than that, I want to write everyday. This year, I could not write regularly and this is my main sadness for the passing year. In 2010, the only goal I have to write for my blogs every day and I want to create content of at least 2000 words per day for the blogs. The more I can create than this target is better.
What are your goals for 2010? Do you the meaning of Kwop Kilawtley? It is a phrase that is driving many people mad.
Don’t get fooled with the word Africa in the name of this laptop. It is a very basic laptop with 7 inches display. So, it may not be idea for most people. However, I think that it can be a very useful device for the writers because first of all, it is very cheap. Almost anyone can afford it any part of the world. Secondly, it is good for browsing Internet. Most writers like basically two things from their laptops: word processing (typing) and browsing Internet. Cherrypal Africa is good for both of these two works. Most of all, its size is very small and you can carry it every where.
Yesterday, I wrote about Jim. He is a good husband and Della is perhaps an even better wife. She is a young girl but she sacrifices all her wishes and focuses on becoming a good wife. She has beautiful and long hair and the hair look very shiny and attractive.
Della is a very supportive woman. She knows that they are poor and she tries her best to adjust with poverty. She is not sad for poverty. Rather, Della tries to make couple life as happy as possible. She is a house wife and she does her duty in the best possible way.
The readers may get the idea that her sale of the long shiny hair is the best gift. However, I think that her best gift to Jim is a happy home. When Jim returns home every night, he finds that his loving is wife is waithing for him eagerly. He also finds that his wife is emotional and passionate and loving and caring. This is what Della makes a great wife.
The Gift of the Magi is one of famous short stories of O. Henry. James (Jim) Dillingham is the hero of this short story. He is a hard working but poor young man. He loves his wife and it is clear in the story that he all the time tries for the happiness of his couple life. He is ready to sacrifice everything for his wife.
Many men perhaps are not like Jim. They do no understand the beautiful part of couple life. You may argue that characters like him can be in literature only and they are not found in real life easily. Yes, may be you are right. However, if we look at his character then we can perhaps realize that becoming like him is not that difficult. It is not that he was a very romantic person in modern sense. He could not afford to take his wife to Opera or sea beach. He even could not give his wife that much time because from morning to night he had to work very hard. Still, he loved his wife from his heart.
If you are a husband then perhaps you can follow this quality of Jim of The Gift of the Magi. Just try to love your wife more from your heart. You can start it from today. It wont cost you any money or even any extra time. It is just a matter of feeling. You can respect her more. You can depend on her more. You can share your feelings and emotion with her more.
The title perhaps clearly says what it is about. If you are looking for a journalism job then you should read it. I found the tips to be valuable and I am sure that after reading it, you will agree with me too.
Some people think that Internet is very easy and all you need perhaps is just to link to something else. Well, it is not like that. The printed newspaper industry is suffering problem everywhere in the West. We hear of job cuts in famous newspapers of USA on a regular basis. Web is the future and if you are a journalist then you should not neglect the Web.
I noticed that I waste a lot of time every day and I do very small amount of writing. I browse Internet, check my stats, watch TV etc etc. Thus, I waste a lot of time and this way, I find very small amount of time to do the actual writing. I am a blogger and freelance writer. So, if I don’t write then I cannot earn money- this is as simple as that. Anyone who is either a blogger or a freelance writer has the same condition like me. Today, I was thinking that one of the biggest problems that I face is that instead of doing the writing, I think about other things a lot.
For example, one of my problem is that I get easily distracted with other things. When I sit to write then I constantly think about the quality of the entry that I am working on. I also think about the length. I am worried whether I am giving the correct information and appropriate analysis. I guess that many writers have the same problem like me.
Doctor Faustus is the hero of Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy. Christopher Marlowe was one of the top dramatists of Elizabethan age and Doctor Faustus is his best drama. In this drama, we can find the hero as an interesting person who has become tired and bored from life because he has mastered every branch of knowledge. So, he became interested to know about the art of black magic and became very powerful. From the point of view of that age, he was surely a bad and an evil man. Faustus wanted to be bad by capturing black magic. What is perhaps very important here to note is that after getting knowledge he became hungry for power not for more knowledge. So, from this point of view he was not a good man.
However, if you look from the renaissance spirit then we will perhaps a very different idea. In renaissance time, there was an attempt to break up the strong hold with of catholic charge in Europe. The catholic charge was totally powerful and the clergies used to often people a lot with their power. The renaissance spirit said that people should look beyond religion and knowledge. From that point of view, Doctor Faustus was perhaps not such a bad person after all. He wanted to go beyond the limitations of human knowledge. Yes, after getting black magic he became bad and perhaps to extant some corrupt. However, at least he knew about the world. Perhaps in our time we can appreciate Doctor Faustus more than the people of Christopher Marlowe’s time. Many of the people who saw the drama perhaps thought that the Doctor Faustus was a very evil man and if you go against the will of god then you will have to suffer. However, in our age we have perhaps a different attitude towards Doctor Faustus. Of course, we can not support his badness but we can surely appreciate his thirst for knowledge.
The Spanish Tragedy is a famous play of Elizabethan age. It was written by Thomas Kyd and it is perhaps the best drama of this playwright. We know that it is mainly a revenge play but at the same time it is full of dramatic irony. In fact, from the beginning to the end, we find a lot of examples of dramatic irony. Before going any further we should try to know about dramatic irony. In dramatic irony, what happens is that the character says something but the reality is different. Ignorance is one factor. Out of ignorance, the character says something and we know that the opposite is happening or has already happened or will happen in future. Secondly, an irony is also something by which we see the character says something but the opposite happens.
In The Spanish Tragedy, in many of the occasions, the characters give some speeches and what we can find is the opposite has already happened or will happen. We can perhaps start the matter of Spanish king. He hears Spain has defeated Portugal in a war and he is very happy for this matter. He expressed his satisfaction but we know that this victory will become very bad for the king. Yes, the king has won the war and he will lose a lot of his family members in the end.
The same thing can be said about the Portuguese Viceroy. The Portuguese viceroy hears that his son has been killed. However, it was not true and in fact his son Balthazar has unfairly and unjustly killed Don Andrea who is the lover of Bel-Imperia. This unfair killing starts some other killings. The Viceroy is very sad with the faults news of a son’s death in war. But the irony is that in the end will get murdered in front of his own eyes. When Bel-Imperia hears the news of the death of Don Andrea, she is at first very sad and then she decide that she would take Horatio as her new lover. She tries to give comfort to herself that with this action she will be able to get some revenge of her first lover’s death. However, what we can see is that the opposite thing happens. In stead of getting revenge, for the death of Don Andrea, the love relationship between Bel-Imperia and Horatio become the cause of Horatio. Not only that, Horatio gets killed while secretly meeting Bel-Imperia.
Bel-Imperia and Horatio met each other secretly in two scenes of The Spanish Tragedy and they are full of irony. They feel that they are safe and good time will come to them. However, their secret meeting becomes the place of their death.
Perhaps the best example of irony is the death scene of Pedringano. Pedringano was a bad person and he killed Horatio after being influenced by Lorenzo. Lorenzo thinks that he must get rid of Pedringano so that in future Pedringano can not source of danger for him. So, Pedringano is taken into court for justice and he is sentenced to death. Lorenzo tells Pedringano that he has arranged pardon for him and for this matter Pedringano was very confident that nothing would happen to him. So, he made fun with the hangman. Until the last moment, he did not understand that Lorenzo betrayed with him. As a result he got killed.
A very big example of dramatic irony is the play within play scene done by Hieronimo. Hieronimo arranges a drama and in it, he got the support of Bel-Imperia. Hieronimo killed Lorenzo and Bel-Imperia killed Balthazar. Then Bel-Imperia committed suicide and Hieronimo told everyone that whatever they saw until now was real. The King and the Portuguese Viceroy and the King’s brother could not understand that everything was real. They praised the acting of everyone that the acting was very real but they did not understand that it was real acting and this is very good example of dramatic irony used by Thomas Kyd in this drama The Spanish Tragedy.
Doctor Faustus is the best play of Christopher Marlowe. Doctor Faustus perhaps shows that why Christopher Marlowe is sometimes compared with William Shakespeare despite the fact that Marlowe wrote much fewer numbers of plays than Shakespeare. The final scene is an interesting one and it is totally different from the rest of the drama. In the final scene we find a very different Faustus and he is ready to repent to god but it is too late. So, it is totally opposite from what we have seen from the beginning until to the last moment in the play. Thus it creates an interesting fact on the audience of the play.
In the final scene, we find a soliloquy of Faustus. He has only one hour to live. It was eleven O’clock at night and after one hour the devil will capture his soul and he will be damned forever. In other words, he will go to hell forever and he will suffer. He understands that whatever he enjoyed will be lost now. So, he became too much afraid. He also losses hope.
He tries to pray to god but he can not. He has done so big sin that it has become impossible to pray to god or get the forgiveness from god. He also tries to pray to Jesus Christ but he understands that his heart can not do it very well. After thirty minutes gone then he became more afraid. He thinks of Pythagorian philosophy in which it is stated that after the death of a person the soul enters into the life of a beast. He hopes that this philosophy was true and this way he would not suffer but his soul would go to the body of a beast. He thought that the beasts have no pain and no suffering. They have no sorrow. This way he wanted to save himself at any cost.
Whatever Doctor Faustus tried, he grew more desperate and he lost more hope. He understood that there is nothing for him and he must suffer. However, it is difficult for him to accept it. Here, Marlowe has shown that every man has the same mentality. We all are afraid to die. Even the person who knows that he has only six months left is afraid to die and does not want to die. We all think that we can live and we don’t want to think of death. However, for Faustus, it was very tragic and it was very painful. He knew when he would die. One of the good parts of human being like us is that we do not know when death will capture us. This way, there is an uncertainty and we can remain happy and we can feel that may be death will not this year or next year. However, for Faustus it is quite opposite. His perhaps the greatest punishment was that he knew when he would die.
Christopher Marlowe here has dealt with psychology of Faustus very well. The knowledge of Faustus was the source of his all happiness. He got power and all knowledge became under his capacity. However, in the end, the knowledge of the timing of his death became the ultimate source of his sadness.
After Doctor Faustus dies, the chorus gives us the moral lesson of the play. Moral lesson is that we should not be too much obsessed with illegal things and we should try to follow religion. Here, by religion, the chorus has meant Christianity not any other religion. Any way, Christopher Marlowe has perhaps accepted Christianity but at the same time he showed the renaissance spirit when Doctor Faustus talked about the philosophy of Pythagoras. We know that one of the renaissance elements was Greek classical philosophy and literature. Doctor Faustus knows he will die and when he is dying he praises to god and Jesus Christ but at the same time he remembers Greek philosophy.
The soliloquy of Faustus is perhaps one of the best in Elizabethan drama. Here, we find very good analysis of human psychology by Christopher Marlowe.
Doctor Faustus is the most famous play of Christopher Marlowe and this play alone has perhaps made that his name will be mortal in the history of English literature and English drama. This play shows that he was of high skilled as a playwright and he could write very good drama. It is a tragedy of Doctor Faustus that is the main point of this play.
Before moving on further, we should discuss about the definition of a tragic hero. A tragic hero is obviously a hero of a tragedy drama. However, this is not enough. Perhaps the first tragic hero in history of drama is Oedipus in ‘Oedipus Rex’ of Sophocles. There we could find that Oedipus in the end suffers tragic consequence but he was higher than ordinary people. This matter is very important. A hero of the tragedy should not be an ordinary man but should be some higher and extra ordinary. He is exceptional than other people.
From this point of view, perhaps we can say that Doctor Faustus is a good example of tragic hero. If we look at the opening scene then we will notice that he was unhappy because he grew tired of life. He was a scholar and he wanted new knowledge. He got all the knowledge but except black magic. He realized that he did not have all the knowledge and there was something missing. So, he sought the new knowledge and he was not afraid of it. He was also not afraid of anything a deal with Lucifer and Mephistopheles.
After Doctor Faustus could make a deal with Mephistopheles then he started to enjoy all the knowledge but the main problem is that instead of gaining more knowledge, he became hungry for power. He wanted to be the boss of everyone and he wanted that other obey him. This is the thing that ultimately leads him into the tragedy. This is the thing that perhaps also takes away the sympathy from the audience.
I think that the main problem of Doctor Faustus is that he was proud and he was greedy. Although, he was thirsty for knowledge but in his character, there was a mixture of knowledge and power both. He was not happy along with knowledge but he wanted to become the dominant person. That is why, I think that his tragic flow was pride and thirst. He was also very proud and not satisfied with the things he got. His pride makes him abnormal and this way he wanted to make a deal with the devil despite knowing after a certain period of time his soul will be captured and he will suffer eternal damnation. The last scene perhaps disappoints the audience because there we can find that Doctor Faustus hopeless and desperate. He wanted to get back his belief on god and Jesus Christ. He regretted a lot why he made the deal with Lucifer. He perhaps wanted another chance from god. It is clear that if he got another chance or opportunity from god then he would not waste it and he would denounced Lucifer and come back into the way of god.
I think that Doctor Faustus is a renaissance tragic hero. Like many other people in renaissance time, he had the desire to go beyond the limit of knowledge and religion. He also challenged religion but in the end he could not win over religion. The struggle between religion and the new class of educated people who were secular by nature is perhaps the main theme of renaissance. Thus, I think that Doctor Faustus was a renaissance tragic hero.
Doctor Faustus is the most famous drama of Christopher Marlowe. Christopher Marlowe belonged to the Elizabethan age and he was one of the top dramatists of his age. He did not write a lot of plays but all his plays are of high quality and he can be easily compared with his contemporary Williams Shakespeare. If you read Doctor Faustus then you will understand that he was in no way a lesser dramatist than Shakespeare. In Doctor Faustus, we can find renaissance elements and many people think that Doctor Faustus is a renaissance man. I think that it has both renaissance and anti-renaissance elements. However, mostly it has renaissance elements and just one or two anti-renaissance elements.
The word renaissance means rebirth. Here, it means rebirth of classical knowledge of Greece and Rome. What happened is that after the Roman Empire got destroyed, Europe fell into Dark Age and then, the Christian Church was the dominant force. There was no good education and knowledge. Ordinary people did not have any scope of gaining knowledge and this way superstition became more common in the society. The Catholic Church became very powerful. However, in the 12th and 13th century, in Italy the renaissance movement started. The main goal was to find out the books of ancient Greece and Rome and again study them and discover the knowledge. It was like breaking the darkness of medieval Europe. There was a conflict between religion and knowledge and in the end the scholars could become the winner. Religion did not lose its importance totally but there was new protest against Catholic ideas of Christianity. The supremacy of Pope was challenged by the Protestants. In Doctor Faustus, renaissance has come in many ways. Here, I am going to discuss about the renaissance elements in Doctor Faustus.
If we look at the character of Doctor Faustus then the first thing we can find about him is that he was a scholar. He valued knowledge more than everything else. He was not satisfied with the knowledge he acquired. He wanted to gather more knowledge. This thirst in him is a very important renaissance element. Renaissance spirit was to gather knowledge, people should sacrifice their life.
Renaissance also praised individualism in stead of society. Faustus was an individualistic type of hero. He did not care for what others thought or what the society said. In stead he wanted to have his own ideas and challenge others. It is not that he was always right but he had individualistic ideas all the way in the drama.
I have stated earlier that renaissance challenged the supremacy of Catholic pope in Vatican. The same thing can be seen by Doctor Faustus. He has challenged Christianity and taken the support of the evil. Mephistopheles was evil and he wanted to take the soul of Doctor Faustus. Well, Doctor Faustus exchanged his soul for gaining more knowledge and Mephistopheles promised that any kind of knowledge will be within the power of Faustus.
A very important renaissance element was an appreciation of beauty and art. When Faustus became very powerful then he wanted to have a very beautiful wife and he selected Helen from Greek mythology. We know that Helen was the most beautiful woman in Ancient Greece and for her the battle between Troy and Greece was fought. Also, it is clear from the drama that Faustus had good appreciation about art. Here, I like to say that in renaissance Italy, painters and sculptures like Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael produced some great piece of works and thus changed the history of human civilization. Doctor Faustus had the same spirit about beauty.
There are some anti-renaissance elements that we can see in Doctor Faustus. Well, what we can see is that after he became very powerful he started to use his power for very small things. For example, he started to use his power to often nonsense and useless people. He turned the people he did not like as animals. This was not a good thing. He also became greedy for money and luxury. He did not give that much importance for knowledge for which his soul is sold. In stead, he spent his life for luxury and this is against the renaissance spirit.
Perhaps the most anti-renaissance element in Doctor Faustus is the death scene. When he was dying, he became very coward and he forgot everything and he wanted to get the forgiveness of god. He wanted to again come back to religion and Christianity. It was he who fought against the Christian ideas and made fun with religion but when death came to him he became very afraid.
Of course, it is natural because when a person is dying then he becomes very afraid. And secondly, if he was shown that he was not afraid of death and accepted death easily and did not care of Christianity then the audience of Christopher Marlowe’s time would become angry. Christopher Marlowe would have suffered from the Church that he was against Christianity. So, we have to think of the time that Christopher Marlowe wrote the drama.
In conclusion, I like to say that Doctor Faustus was a renaissance man and we have to remember the contribution of the scholars who dedicated their lives for bringing renaissance in Europe.
I have heard this thing from many people that their best time of writing is at night. I do not know the reason but I think that they may feel that at night, nature is quite and there is less sound pollution to deal with if you live in a city. As for me, I am more of a night worker. I don’t know how I can change my sleeping habit. I wish that I could do it but it is very difficult. At day, interruptions are easier to happen. For example, a guest may come to your home. You may have to do the shopping and cooking. Then there is the sound of cars all the time if you live in a busy neighborhood like me. However, at night, there is less distractions. In fact, it is now 5 AM my time in my city and there is no sound at all. So, I can concentrate on my writing better. The only problem is that I have started to feel sleepy.
I don’t think that night is the best time for writing. I think that if possible you should try to work at day time because it is the natural thing to do. If you are awake at night all the time then you just make your health weaker day by day.
When you want to take writing as a profession, you may think at first that it has a lot of freedom. You get free from 9-5 job. Yes, it is true but at the same time, you have to work more. The only good part is that you can work anytime you like. You don’t need to go to office and work 9-5. On the other hand, you can work in your home. Sometimes, you have to go library for research. Thanks God that Internet has done this part much easier. In the past, to check something, I had to go a library that has Encyclopedia Britanica other reference books but now thanks to Internet, I can find any information any time.
Well, I have to say that Internet has given us best opportunity. Anyway, coming back to the original topic, just remember that you have to work at least 8 hours or even more. Sometimes, I feel that I want to write but it is difficult to sit so long time. However, then I have to find another field. Writing is a serious work. You should not neglect it at all.
It was perhaps my good luck that in college, we had to study the short story The Gift of the Magi written by O. Henry. It my most favorite short story and I have ready it many many times. I first read it in 1990 and that was 19 years ago. My enjoyment of reading it has not diminished at all and has increased over the years. That time, I was a teenager boy and the story profoundly affected. I dreamt that someday, my own couple life will be like this. Thanks God that it has been even perhaps better. However, for the idea of happy couple life, I think that I owe a lot from The Gift of the Magi.
The plot of the story is very simple. Jim and Della are a loving and happy couple. Their economic condition is not good. It is the day before Christmas. Jim had no money to buy any gift for his wife and vice versa. He had a gold watch which he inherited from his family and he sold it to buy a set of expensive combs so that Della can take better care of her lovely hair. Della has extraordinary hair and they are long and shiny. She sold the hair to buy a chain for that gold watch of Jim. This way, what they bought became useless but they understood that they are the happiest couple.
This short story created the thrust in me to find a girl like Della in real life. Fortunately, I found one and she was in Internet in another country. Even we did not have the same language and she was very weak in English. Still, we love each other a lot and we waited for each other in Internet for nearly 4 years. Many people around me laughed at me that I was wasting my time for an Internet girl. I came from a lower middle class family and even saving enough money to visit her country was impossible for 4 years.
It was my good luck that I read The Gift of the Magi at a very early age and it surely influenced me a lot. All I can tell you is that if you have not read the short story then do it right away. You can read it free in Internet here: http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html
It gives me a lot pleasure to inform you that ICCWorld Cup Cricket 2011 will start from Bangladesh- my country. This will be the biggest event for this country. We have never hosted any sporting event bigger than perhaps SAF Games. So, it is nice to see that the opening ceremony will take place here and also the opening match. The first match will be between India and Bangladesh. In World Cup 2007, Bangladesh caused a major upset by defeating India. So, we are hoping that the same thing may happen in 2011.
I can imagine that Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur will be packed with the spectators and there will be huge support for Bangladesh national team. Bangladesh will play all the group matches in front of their home crowd. The matches will take place in February and March and at this time of the year, weather is excellent. There is almost no possibility of rain despite the fact that Bangladesh has one of the highest rainfalls in the world. When it comes to security concerns, I think that of all the 3 countries hosting the event, Bangladesh has most peace and least amount of violence. So, you can think of coming here that time.
Today, I got an email from a reader that in the Feedburner, I claimed that it is a blog about Bangla or Bengali literature but where is any information about it. I replied the reader through email and here, I would like to just remind the readers that in the achieve of this blog, you can find content related to Bangla literature. You can also do some search too. One of the things that discouraged me from continuing about it was the lack of response from the readers. I wish that I could get some dedicated readers who would visit daily and put comments and thus we can have good interaction. I started this blog out of passion about literature not to earn money. So, if we could get some interested readers then writing would have been enjoyable for us.
Hopefully, someday we can give more time and more people would visit here. I started this blog 3 and half years ago and still I cannot find a lot of information about Bangla literature in Internet.
The Spanish Tragedy is the most popular and successful drama of Thomas Kyd. Thomas Kyd was a dramatist of Elizabethan age and The Spanish Tragedy is often called as revenge play. It is deeply influenced by the roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca. That is why, we can find many Senecan elements in this drama.
Before going into details about the Senecan elements it is better we try to discuss something about Seneca and his life and his ideas. Seneca was a politician in Roman age. However, he was also a scholar but he was perhaps unlucky in life because in Roman history at a time when there were too many conspiracies. Court life was always dangerous and Seneca for most of his life had to deal with many dangers in his life. In fact, his own personal life was full of tragedies and in the end he was forced to commit suicide because he king suspected that he was against the king. In Senecan tragedies, we can find many bloodshed and violence. Horror and super natural elements are also present. As I have already said that he was in Roman Empire court and that is why he often talked about kings and queens.
The Spanish Tragedy starts with the murder of Don Andrea by Don Balthazar and Don Andrea was a Spanish noble man. It was a battle between Spain and Portugal and Don Balthazar was the Portuguese prince. After death Don Andrea went to the second life and there he met with the character of Revenge. The Revenge promises that he would help Andrea to take revenge for the unfair death that he suffered. Thus, from the start we can understand that their will be super natural elements and there will be a lot of bloodshed in this drama.
The presence of super natural elements is anther Senecan element. In The Spanish Tragedy, the revenge is a super natural character and he is present though out the drama. In fact, he talks and speaks like a human being in stead of his super natural elements. He promises to Andrea and he keeps his promise.
Horatio is the friend of Don Andrea and he was a brave soldier. He showed a lot of bravery by capturing the Portuguese prince and this way the king of Spain was very happy with him. Don Andrea was in love with Bel-Imperia and Bel-Imperia was the niece of Spanish king. Horation came to Bel-Imperia and told her that Andrea was murdered. Bel-Imperia became very sad and got very angry with Balthazar that he unjustly murdered her lover. However, we see that Bel-Imperia soon falls in love with Horatio and she think that Horatio was a good man. Then the two had good relationship. This matter was not like the brother of Bel-Imperia Lorenzo. Lorenzo was a evil character and he was a Machiavellian character. He understood that the Portuguese prince had fallen in love with Bel-Imperia. So, he makes even plan and arranges that Horatio is murdered.
The murder of Horatio makes two persons very angry. However, I should write here that Lorenzo hires some people to murder Horatio. Then Lorenzo himself thought that if these two people betrays him in future or reveals that Lorenzo is the main villain. So, he arranges that these two murderers of Horatio get killed. Thus, we can find that Lorenzo is a very bad character. Both Hieronimo and Bel-Imperia understand that Lorenzo and Balthazar were the murderer of Horatio and this matter made them very angry. The mother of Horatio is Isabella and because of this great loss of the death of her son she becomes mad and she commits suicide.
Hieronimo makes a plan to get revenge and he seeks the help of Bel-Imperia. Bel-Imperia happily agrees to help her because Bel-Imperia is also angry for the death of both Don Andrea and Horatio. In the end, Hieronimo arranges a drama to be staged and this drama is a drama within a drama. The drama was arranging in a way that Bel-Imperia kills Balthazar and kills herself. Before that Hieronimo kills Lorenzo and in the end Hieronimo could commit suicide. So, within a short time the audience can see that four deaths happened in the stage. Murder and violence is perhaps nothing new in drama. When there is a tragic play, naturally there will be death and sometimes murder and bloodshed. However, in the dramas that have Senecan elements like The Spanish Tragedy, violence and bloodshed are in extreme level. They create horror in the mind of the audience. The people get killed in a short time is perhaps more melo dramatic than tragic.
It will be unwise to say that The Spanish Tragedy is only a drama about revenge. It is perhaps more than revenge. There is a question of deniable justice. Don Andrea is murdered unjustly. Horatio is murdered in a very bad way. Hieronimo wanted to seek justice from the king of Spain but he could not. The king did not listen to him properly and this matter force Hieronimo and Bel-Imperia too only become more angry and murdered both Lorenzo and Balthazar.
Here, I like to say something about political matter. The Spanish Tragedy was written at a time when Queen Elizabeth was very powerful in England. The British parliament was still not so powerful and there was no democracy. England was still a monarchy in which the king or the queen was extremely powerful. Perhaps people like Thomas Kyd understood that if there is no democracy then justice can never take place. When justice is dependent on the whim of only one person like the queen or kind then ordinary people would suffer. Horatio was not an ordinary man. He was the sun of Hieronimo who was the chief Marshal and a very high positioned officer in the royal court of King of Spain. Still because Horatio was got killed by the nephew of the king, his father Hieronimo could not get any justice. So, I think that Thomas Kyd has symbolically staged that democracy is more important if we want to ensure justice in society.
In conclusion, I like to say that The Spanish Tragedy is a very good drama and it is full of Senecan elements.
I would not blame you if get shocked from the title of this entry. There is no relationship between online transaction and Bangla literature. However, since I started this blog on Bangla literature almost 4 years ago, I realized that this is a field in which earning money is almost impossible in Internet. So, if you cannot earn money then you have to take it as a hobby and I did it. As a result, I have not been able to publish even just 100 entries related to Bangla Literature in this blog because I simply don’t have the time and motivation.
Today, Bangladesh Bank has issued a circular and through it has legalized online transaction in Bangladesh. Thus from now, people in Bangladesh would be able to buy and sell something in Internet. Well, I think that it has opened a new opportunity for Bangla Literature. Now, if someone wants to send some money online to me then it is possible. It does not have to be 1,000 taka. Just imagine that if someone sends just 10 taka after reading this blog or any website about Bangla literature then it will perhaps encourage people like me to give more effort. It does not matter to me if I can get money but I am sure that this announcement of online transaction in Bangladesh would create a lot of opportunities. Bangla literature will be benefited as a result.
I have been using Internet since 1997. At first, there was almost nothing to do and it was very expensive. Then, I got a second chance in 2002 and I have been using Internet almost every day since December 17 2001. The dot com boom was over by that time and there was nothing for me to do. I live in a country in which still there is no means of online transaction.
Anyway, when I saw Web 2.0 emerging in 2006, I became very happy. There was blogging. There was online writing opportunities. And now, perhaps we are heading for Web 3.0 in which many printed newspapers and magazines will be closed and opportunities will increase Internet. I consider myself lucky because I am perhaps an early adopter of online writing. I flourished in Web 2.0 and I think that I can find good success in Web 3.0.
The economic recession did a lot of damage for writers and journalists. Many journalists lost their jobs and many freelance writers found that the projects got dried up. Now, it seems that the economic recession is coming to an end. Things now look much better than a year ago. Well, in the last few days, we saw that Microsoft, Google and Apple all made handsome profit and it shows that the US economy is moving on. So, there can be new hope for writers.
I am not that much optimistic because the recession is not yet completely over. Secondly, the days of printed newspapers and magazines are going to be numbered and more and more advertisement dollars would get shifted to Internet. And in Internet, you are on your own. It does not matter if you are a highly skilled freelance writer with 2 decades of experience. You have to compete with bloggers like me. We all want a pie of that market and anything goes here. Most of all, you have to make sure that your entries are read by many people. When you are writing for a newspaper or a magazine then you don’t have to bother about this part. However, in Internet, you have to give a lot of effort for it.
It does not matter if you are a blogger or a writer- just don’t go for spam and junk content. If you want to go for it then I do not have the power to stop you- in fact no body can stop you. Just remember that it is a foolish thing to do. You may gain something in the short run but then sooner or later you will suffer. I am writing this entry because you see we cover mainly 3 topics in our blog: South Asia, Laptops and Sports. In all of these fields we can see that many bloggers try to produce very low quality content and fill them with keywords and then try to cheat search engines. They say something in the title but when you go beyond the title then there is hardly any substance.
Some of them even copy paste from other websites and this way, they even do not need to give any time for it. In our blogs, we try to cover the topics as much as we can. I am personally against any kind of short cut formula and thanks God that all the other bloggers with me have the same idea. So, sometimes, it gives me a lot of frustration to see that some websites ranking better than us in a sporting event or a laptop model search in Google. However, I have noticed that in the last 3 years, many websites came and vanished but we survived.
We have seen consistent growth in our blogs. The economic recession could make a dent to our revenue but could not decrease our traffic. It is nice to see that many people care to give link to our content and we get encouraging comments on a regular basis. Thus, I am now more hopeful about the future than ever before.
On the other hand, if you want to make a living with junk and spam content then be sure that you would suffer in future. Google is trying its best to fight against junk and spam and I salute them for it.
Caroline Bingley or Miss Bingley is perhaps one of the most annoying characters in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. She is a very good example of a flat character- she does not change at all from the beginning to the end. She is a very selfish and rude girl. The funny thing is that Miss Bingley always tries to show others that she comes from a good family and she is a noble lady with good qualities. Well, she is like an empty vessel who indeed sounds too much. When she comes to the area of Elizabeth, she always thinks that she is higher than any girl on that area.
Miss Bingley is not even a smart girl. She really lacks IQ. Her only work is to show off and she was determined to get married to Mr. Darcy in anyway. It seems to me that at first Mr. Darcy likes her but the more time passes he understands the true nature of Miss Bingley and he tries to avoid her. She is such a foolish girl that she even does not understand the simple thing that Mr. Darcy wants to avoid her.
Caroline is also example of a shallow person. She is a hypocrite. She at first she pretended that she liked Jane Bennet and she was her friend. However, later we can find that she turned against Jane and she tried to convince her brother to leave Jane and become interested about Miss Darcey.
It is clear that Jane Austen did not like the character of Miss Bingley at all. She must have in real life met such characters who came from rich families but were shallow, surface and selfish. The readers do not feel any sympathy towards her because Miss Bingley is always a bad person without any good quality.
It is now 6:16 AM in my city. The city is becoming alive gradually and I will go to sleep. Well, today, I felt sleepy much earlier compared to other days. However, something caught up my attention when I was going to sleep. It was the Apple Earnings for the fourth quarter. Well, if we look at the year 2009 then it is third quarter but you should know that in USA, financial quarters are counted in a different way. So, Apple has made record profit at the time of recession and naturally, the people who bought shares of the company are very happy now.
I felt to write about it and spend a long time reading and then wrote the entry in another blog.
After many days, I enjoyed blogging again a lot. When I started blogging in 2006, I used to work whole night and at that time, I was 3 years younger and I had a lot of energy. Now, things are not that good but today, I realized that I again got back the passion of the days I started blogging. More than everything I wanted to produce good content that people would like to read. Today, I could do it at last again after many days. Thanks to Google, some people will surely come to read but today, I felt satisfaction that whatever I wrote was good. At least, I enjoyed writing the entries tonight. This is the most important part in blogging. You have to enjoy your work. So, I am going to sleep in a happy and cheerful mood.
If you are a blogger then I would like to give you the same advice. Just forget everything and try to enjoy your work. Success will come sooner or later.
Really, I am in no mood of writing anything today. It is now 3:30 AM in my city and I could not write anything for the whole day. Well, first of all, I am some sick and secondly, I had a very long business meeting for four hours. So, I am physically and mentally exhausted. Fortunately, today, my fellow blogger, Kamrul Hasan updated 6 of the blogs in the network. Thus, some work was done and I do not need to worry that much. This is the good part of a network. However, the problem is that in my network, now 3 of out of 5 bloggers are sick. So, our network is suffering a lot. 2009 is just happened to be a bad year for me and my team. I hope that it finishes in a better way and 2010 can become better. I am praying deeply for the best in 2010.
In my life, I have seen some people who think that if they become a writer then they must spend more time on smoking cigarette and drinking tea or coffee rather than on the writing process itself. I do not agree with them. Well, I have perhaps similar kind of problem. I give more time to reading and browsing Internet than the writing itself. This is the thing I have to overcome and change. Well, writing is a very lonely and boring job. It needs some decent amount of effort and concentration. It is a very active work.
On the other hand, reading is much easier. It perhaps needs less attention and focus. We are more passive when we read. I have learnt that the most important thing to do as a writer is to give more and more time for writing. The best way to do is to set a daily target of writing a certain number of words. It may be just 500 words per day or it can be even 3,000+ words per day. It depends on your time and ability. You should set a daily target and try to achieve it. Don’t think of quality at first. The more you write the easier and better it becomes for you to write better and faster.
Tithonus and Ulysses are two famous poems written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Both of them were written after the death of his best friend Arthur Henry Hallam and they are based on almost similar theme: Journey. In both the poems, the protagonist has grown older and is aware of death as a means of ending their life cycle. Death, a very popular theme of Victorian age, is also captured in both the poems.However, despite these similarities, the poems are different in terms of various aspects.
The first and obvious difference that a reader can notice between these two poems is that Ulysses is a poem of hope and optimism, while Tithonus is a poem of despair and frustration. Ulysses knows that he would die very soon and this is his last sea voyage. He is not afraid to face destiny. In stead, he is eager to get some new adventures as he did in the past seeking more glory. Tithonus in his young age was curious about immortality and he wanted to taste it. However, since he grew older, he lost all the attraction towards immortality. In stead, he has given up on life and wants a quick death. So, as a character Ulysses is full of life and pro-active, while Tithonus is lifeless.
Ulysses has a sense of adventure, but Tithonus is afraid of any new adventure. It is not that Ulysses always had glories and happiness in the past when he visited different places in the past. He also faced adversity of life during his previous journeys, but he enjoyed the moments greatly and he wants to live and die in adventure in what would bring glory and pride for him. On the other hand, Tithonus has experienced the thrill of adventures when he was young, but now after being granted a gift of immortality by his beloved Aurora, the Goddess of dawn, he has now understood his misfortune as he did not ask for immortal youth, in stead of immortal life. Now, he has lost his pride that once he had for his attractive physique, and wants to die in order to get free from the boon. So, he has no temptation left for a new adventure.
By reading the two poems a reader may feel that knowledge is a very important topic present in the two poems. For example, Ulysses always wants to acquire knowledge and he feels that life without knowledge is meaningless:
"How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!"
Tithonus, on the other hand, sought immortality to Aurora, the Goddess of dawn, who fell in love with him, in order to enjoy endless eternal happiness. So, the intention of Tithonus was not to seek knowledge; rather he wanted to enjoy the heavenly comfort with his beautiful wife Aurora. So, he does not care for knowledge. He got the opportunity that Ulyses could not have, but he utilized it seeking luxury and pleasure. When Ulyssess cherishes to acquire life after life for seeking more and more knowledge, Tithonus achieved what he sought, but did not use it for acquiring knowledge. Rather, in the end, Tithonus realizes that the boon, bestowed upon him by the Goddess, has turned into a curse as he lost his youth. Now, he wants to get out of the gift in order to become free from his cursed-life where he does not find pleasure and pride anymore.
Ulysses was a spiritual person who was wise. He likes to think about life and he tries to search insight his own mind. He does not care for luxury and lavishness. So, being a king does not bring him any peace, but even makes him more restless that he has got stuck in same routine. In fact, Ulysses as a character is full of life and pro-active. Tithonus, in contrast, is a materialistic person who cares for earthly and sensual pleasure. The Goddess fell in love with him, and he, in stead of responding with more love for the Goddess, took advantage of the emotion of the Goddess Aurora and gained immortality with her blessing. Tithonus had nothing spiritual inside him. He grew older and lost his charismatic youth with days go on and now he has become a lifeless person in the sense that he only ponders about death now in pursuit of getting free from this painful immortality in an attempt to get free from this painful immortality.
Acceptance of death is another important difference between the two poems. Ulysses wants to get free of death by doing some noble deed, even though he accepts death as an eventual means of ending life. Tithonus, in contrast, is eager to embrace death, even though he knows death would not come to him as Gods and Goddess can not take away their boon once given. So, both Ulysses and Tithonus accept death as part of human life, but they approach death differently.
In the end, I would like to say that the theme of the two poems: Journey- is reflected in two contrasting ways. Ulysses wants to go on his last sea-voyage before death in pursuit of acquiring more knowledge, accepting the eventual death, but willing to do something noble before death. Tithonus, on the other hand, is now desperate to end his journey after experiencing a bitter past. Overall, differences between the two poems are more vivid than the similarities seen in the two poems.
“Ulysses” of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and “My Last Duchess” of Robert Browning are two good examples of Dramatic monologues written during the Victorian age. So, naturally there are some similarities from structural point of view between the two poems. However, I think that there are many differences between them and in this term paper I want to focus on the differences between these two poems.
The first thing that comes to our mind by reading the two poems is that “Ulysses” is a poem about seeking knowledge and physical journey, while “My Last Duchess” is mainly about power and pride. The duke is very powerful and he always reminds others of his power and authority. He expects others to be humble in front of him and obey his every command. The Duchess did not listen to him and he became very angry and killed her.
There is no doubt that Ulysses was a very powerful man of ancient Greece. If we read “Iliad” of Homer, then it is very clear that he was one of the top generals in Greek army and was very clever. More than everything, Ulysses was the king of Ithaca and he was the all in all in his own kingdom. Undoubtedly, he was the most powerful man of Ithaca. On the other hand, the Duke was the Duke of a small area and naturally, there was a king above him. Still, Ulysses acted with politeness to others. We understand this matter from his speech to the sailors:
…..My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
As for knowledge, Ulysses was always dedicated for gaining knowledge and experience. During his time, most people did not give value to this matter and that is why, Ulysses was not satisfied with his countrymen. He said in the openings stanza of the poem that people of his country only knew about eating and sleeping and did not understand him. The Duke showed off to others all the time that he was a man of high culture, but the reality was that he did not have any interest about knowledge.
In “My Last Duchess”, we find a lot of description about renaissance art. It was clear that the Duke was a fan of art and painting. But, I got the feeling by reading the poem that he was interested about painting only to show off to others that he came from an aristocratic family. He knew how to spend money smartly and collect quality paintings and statues, but he did not appreciate art for art’s sake. Art was a device for him to show his authority. He always felt that he was different from others and he had high taste. On the other hand, in “Ulysses”, we can not find any description of any painting or statues but it seems to me that Ulysses himself was an artist of life. He wanted to find true meaning of life and how to live happily. His art was to teach others about the value of knowledge and wisdom.
“My Last Duchess” is a poem about renaissance time and we know that humanity, individualism and freedom are the important features of renaissance age. The Duke is always eager to show that he is a renaissance man and he appreciates art and painting. However, in his heart, he did not have any respect towards humanity, individualism and freedom. In stead, he was power-hungry just like many people during the time of Ulysses. On the other hand, Ulysses had some kinds of renaissance spirit in him and that is why, he gave value to knowledge and experience, although he spent most of his time in fighting. He understood that knowledge is higher than authority. Thus, we find a paradox in these two poems.
The Duke is very possessive. He wanted that his wife only smiles at him and he can enjoy the beauty of his wife alone. However, in return, he was not ready to give any love or emotion to his wife. He only cared for his own pleasure and he was a very selfish husband and a very selfish man in his personal life. He is not ready to sacrifice anything for anyone, but he feels that because he was born in a 900-year-old family, others must obey him without any question. On the other hand, it is clear that Ulysses had sacrificed a lot for his soldiers. That is why, even in old age, they are ready to accompany him in his adventure. There is a strong possibility that all of them would die but still, they are ready to accompany Ulysses in his last voyage. Thus, Ulysses won the loyalty and respect of his fellow sailors by respecting them first.
The idea of civilization is very important in both of these two poems. Ulysses was unhappy with his people because he thought that his countrymen were savage. Even he was not so satisfied with his wife and son. He could easily decide to leave them even at old age. Ulysses believes that he is more civilized and higher than the people around him. However, this kind of feeling did not destroy his politeness. He knows that he has earned this higher status with his own personal efforts. On the other hand, the Duke had done nothing to have this feeling of civilization in himself. He was only born in a rich and powerful family. He could spend freely for art and entertainment. For him, civilization was nothing more than possessing a pretty wife, being the Duke of an area and managing some beautiful paintings.
Ulysses was a spiritual person and he had depth in his personality. On the other hand, the Duke was a surface person. He did not have any spirituality. He did not care to go deep any matter. He did not even try to think which way he could make his wife listen to his wanted. He just knew that his wife must listen to her or she would be punished. Thus, it is natural his wife suffered a lot in married life and death saved her from more torture.
The Duke was a very good example of materialism. He only cared for his own benefit and own consumption. He liked a painting and he must have it. He liked a beautiful woman (The Duchess) and he must have it. He can not think of any other way. He does not care for any good idea. From this matter, Ulysses was just the opposite. He spent all his life not just for his own glory, but also for his ideas. He is the symbol of idealism. Ulysses has some goals in life. He is not satisfied with just ruling his countrymen. He does not like to control other people that much but he wants to bring good things for everyone. He believed that knowledge is supreme and for this matter he is again going out on a sea voyage.
What I feel is that although the two main characters of these two poems are exactly opposite, the two poets had the same goals with their poems. They are both idealists in their message. Tennyson has showed the positive side of human characteristics. His hero Ulysses is full of good qualities. Ulysses is not an ordinary person. He is attractive to many readers and it is true that most of us can not become like Ulysses but still we like his ideas. We know that he is an extra-ordinary man and if possible, we should try to be like him. On the other hand, Browning has created the character of Duke in his poem and the Duke is narrating the whole story. However, Browning does not like the character of the Duke. Browning has used subtle ironies to show his displeasure about the Duke. Although he is the main character in “My Last Duchess”, the readers know very well that the Duke is not a person that we like to follow.
May be, many of us in our personal life are somehow similar to Duke but in the end, we are not proud of this matter. Browning has given us the feeling that the Duke is everything opposite to goodness and idealism. So, Browning has also made the readers aware about idealism and spirituality in life. I feel that Browning has been more successful in giving his message of idealism because he could create a lot of reactions in the mind of the readers. When we read “My Last Duchess”, we know that the Duke is showing off a lot and he is a very bad person. He is all the time saying bad words about the Duchess but the more he says the more readers realize that the Duchess was a noble lady. The readers also understand that the way of the Duke was very bad.
In conclusion, I like to say that with all the contrasting ideas presented in “Ulysses” and “My Last Duchess”, they have almost similar message.
