Victorian obsession with commodities with reference to Miss Havisham in Dickens' ‘Great Expectations’ and Mrs Tulliver in George Elliot's ‘Mill on the Floss’.

Charles Dickens and George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) are both known to be amongst the most prominent and eloquent writers of the nineteenth century. Their works have showcased the beauty of everyday life, the importance of families and the need for the right love in one’s life.

In "Great Expectations," Charles Dickens demonstrates a profound understanding of character development, wherein certain individuals are imbued with depth to underscore their prominence within the narrative. One such character deserving meticulous analysis is Miss Havisham. Dickens portrays Miss Havisham as an aristocratic lady whose substantial influence significantly shapes the trajectory of the main protagonist, Pip. This formal examination seeks to delve into the multifaceted dimensions of Miss Havisham's character and her pivotal role in the unfolding events of the narrative. When Pip is first introduced to Miss Havisham and her manor house called Satis, which is described to be a huge place with dim lights and dark corridors with unattended gardens; Pip, along with the readers is left with a depressing feeling towards the house. It is only later that one gets to know that the reason for this state of disrepair of the house is that the house itself is a symbol of Ms Havisham and her frustrated expectations.

All throughout the novel, Miss Havisham is described to be a wealthy and an eccentric woman who has certain fixation regarding her belongings. Victorian societies used to thrive on this marked emphasis on social status and material wealth and like everyone else in the story, Miss Havisham is also a product of her times. She is consumed with her desire to preserve her material possessions in the form of her house and her personal belongings.

This obsession is portrayed in the form of her wedding dress which she has worn since the day of her wedding, which never actually took place, as she was left standing on the altar. Thus, the wedding dress symbolises a sense of commodification of love, marriage and her life revolving around the remnants of the past. When Pip first enters her house, he notices that all the clocks have been stopped to a particular time, 8:40 a.m. The stopped clocks symbolise her inability to move on from the past and the betrayal she faced on that day by her fiancé, imprisoning herself in the lust for revenge.

Miss Havisham adopted Estella as a tool to seek revenge on men at large by making her a heartbreaker. She takes delight in this act of Estella, commodifying her pursuit of personal vendettas. Miss Havisham has also kept a number of jewels and jewellery with the intentions of giving them to Estella one day to enhance her beauty; again, preserving her material possessions.

Similarly, in her classic novel, “The Mill on the Floss”, George Eliot has portrayed the symbolism of material wealth and its obsession in her characters. There are a number of characters who have shown their fixation towards their possessions. The titular mill is the most prominent material wealth which is mentioned. The entire fiasco of winning the lawsuit which will preserve Tullivers’ mill is a way of showcasing the importance of money in the form of property. The mill is not just a form of livelihood but also a symbol of social status and economic stability for the Tullivers.

The Dodson sisters are the most significant characters who openly show their love and obsession with their money and wealth. Mrs. Tulliver is the one who is most fixated on her belongings in the Tulliver family. She is the one who is always thinking about the belongings she brought along with her when she got married to Mr. Tulliver.

When Mr. Tulliver lost the lawsuit along with the mill, he lost his senses on his way back from the court because of the fall from his horse. Due to this his daughter, Maggie, was forced to reach out to her brother, Tom in Mr. Stelling’s residence and bring him back home. Everyone in the Tulliver house was in a state of distress. But the reason for Mrs. Tulliver’s distress was not just Mr. Tulliver, or the loss of the mill but her fear of losing the things which she brought from her maiden house, “her laid- up treasures”, things she made on her own, which were her own. 

This being Mrs. Tulliver’s most dreaded situation than anything else is a showcase of her love for material things than physical beings. “And the pattern as I chose myself, and bleached so beautiful, and I marked ’em so as nobody ever saw such marking, —they must cut the cloth to get it out, for it’s a particular stitch. And they’re all to be sold, and go into strange people’s houses, and perhaps be cut with the knives, and wore out before I’m dead. You’ll never have one of ’em, my boy.”

For both Miss Havisham and Mrs. Tulliver, the commodities and belongings they possess serve as extensions of their personal selves, constituting essential components of their identity. Within the thematic framework of their respective narratives, the loss of these material possessions exceeds mere economic implications, manifesting as a deep loss of identity. Within the complex narratives of Dickens' "Great Expectations" and Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss,"

Miss Havisham and Mrs. Tulliver, exhibit a symbiotic relationship with their belongings, thereby elevating them beyond mere material significance to embody the essence of their individuality.

In conclusion, both Miss Havisham and Mrs. Tulliver exemplify the Victorian obsession with commodities in different ways. While Miss Havisham fixates on her past, Mrs. Tulliver’s concerns revolve around the economic stability of her family and the loss of her belongings. Even though these women belong to different classes and different status (Miss Havisham being an aristocrat and Mrs. Tulliver being married in a working-class family), the one thing in common between them is the obsession with their material wealth and commodities.

Illustrating how Pope ‘at once’ delights in and lashes out at a pretentious 18th century society in The Rape of the Lock.

 

Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”, masterfully uses satire to both delight in and lash out at the pretentious society of 18th-century England. Born in 1688, Alexander Pope is considered to be one of the most prominent English poets during the Enlightenment era. First published in 1712, Pope in this mock- heroic narrative, critiques the shallowness, vanity and misplaced priorities of people of the upper class through his witty and extremely critical poetic style. In his poem, Pope effectively combines humour and irony to expose the social follies and useless exaggerations or hyperboles of his contemporary poets and writers. According to Jonathan Szwec, “Enlightenment writers Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, used several mediums of satire, several types of logic, and several targets of ridicule in order to shine a light on separate aspects of British society, providing much-needed criticism of the profuse moral corruption of a society that sometimes seemed to forget the true ideals of its age.”

The poem starts with Pope’s highly exaggerated invocation to the Muse, where he positions a stolen lock of hair, a very trivial matter, treating it as an epic event. This intended irony and initial light- hearted tone establishes Pope’s intentions to delight in the silliness of his subject matter while simultaneously criticising the society who indulges itself into such insignificant subjects. The poem's excessive descriptions of Belinda's toilette, where mundane actions are raised to such grandeur, showcases Pope's delight in satirising the excessive vanity of the upper- class. His depiction of the upper-class society's obsession with material possessions, like the diamond-encrusted snuff box, serves as a sarcastic commentary on their materialistic values and the significance they attach to such extravagant items.

Furthermore, Pope humorously portrays the social gatherings and card games as ridiculous and shallow. In Canto II, the Sylphs' activities during the game are depicted in a comical way, emphasising on the shallowness of their concerns. The description of the ‘disastrous’ consequences of cutting a card, which leads to an epic battle between the Baron and Belinda, satirises the exaggerated emotions and the sense of honour prevalent in society. Pope’s use of this mock- epic genre adds to the delight of the satire. Him presenting the characters in an exaggerated heroic- manner, like comparing both Belinda and the Baron to "Thalestris" and "Thirsty Priam" respectively, heightens the humour by juxtaposing trivial matters with grandeur. Pope both mocks and entertains the readers by subtly exposing the absurdity of their pursuits.

Pope’s delight in the follies of the society is accompanied by a hard criticism of their wrongheaded values. The central event in the poem, the "rape" of Belinda's lock of hair, serves as a metaphor for the violation of her social status and the loss of her honour. Through this incident, Pope highlights the society's obsession with appearances and their overreaction to seemingly insignificant matters. A part that is most heavily laden with sarcasm is the ending in which Pope writes,

“When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,

And all those tresses shall be laid in dust;

This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,

And ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name!”

Pope also criticizes the role of women in society. Belinda is shown to be a coquette figure, who is always preoccupied with her beauty and the adoration of men. Pope exposes the objectification of women, emphasizing how they become mere accessories in the social game of the upper class. This is evident with the characters of Sir Plume and Baron, who treat Belinda’s lock of hair as a trophy that is to be won and displayed. Pope does not even leave the Catholic Church and its rituals from his satire.

In Canto III, the elaborate Sylphic rituals, presented as parodies of religious ceremonies, highlights the absurdity of society’s fixation on trivial subjects. Pope criticises the misplaced priorities of his contemporaries who give more importance to superficial subjects while neglecting the spiritual and moral values.

In conclusion, Alexander Pope, brilliantly balances between delighting in and lashing out the pretentious eighteenth-century society. Through his skilful satire, he showcases the extravagance and simultaneously, the superficiality of the upper- class people and sharply critiquing the upper- classes’ vices. By blending humour, sarcasm and criticism, Pope creates an entertaining, yet thought- provoking piece of literature that exposes irrationalities of his contemporaries and which reflects on the values and behaviour of the then English society as a whole.

INTERSECTION OF GENDER AND DISABLITY IN MAHESH DATTANI’S ‘TARA’

Can we truly say that we live in a society free of discrimination based on gender and disability?

Mahesh Dattani in his play Tara, has very skilfully tackled the knotted issue of disability and gender based oppression. In the play he has accomplishes the goal through the device of conspicuous conjoined twin protagonists, Tara and Chandan.

His deep pre- occupation with gender issue results in the emergence of the thought of the dual side of oneself – quite literally embodies in one and therefore the separation that follows.

He has also explored the ticklish issue of the middle- class preference for the male child which results in an unequal and an unfair operation. The doctors are well aware that the third leg would suit Tara better than her brother Chandan, but they are mute participants in the conspiracy plotted by her family which leaves Tara crippled.

The play privileging of Chandan’s interest over Tara did not end with an unequal surgery. Her parents discriminate against Tara by not allowing her to inherit from her maternal grandfather. Her father, Patel, carries on the patriarchal legacy by not having any plans for Tara’s future while he ensures Chandan’s studies abroad.

The play subtly exposes this embedded attitude of Indian Society that makes elaborate plans for sons but decimates the daughters even in educated families. Dattani has often talked about the cultural construct of gender in India which is invariably biased towards the marginalisation of the female.

There is some truth in the joke Rupa cracks about the Patels drowning their daughter in milk.

“The modern day liberated family”, is still not free from the gender bias practised for ages in the Indian society. The feudal mindset of the Patel family is not very different from the conservative families of ancient societies that practised infanticides by drowning their daughters in milk.

The play offers a powerful discourse or narrative that expresses the destructive discourse of gender discrimination intricately mixed with the disability trope.

The play seems to question the confident and critical gaze of the so called ‘normal’ people of the society like Rupa and Prema who look at Dan and Tara as freaks but in reality they are no less freaks than themselves.

The play is empowering in presenting the perspective of the disabled by directing their ridicule and sparring as seen in the confident attitude of Tara and Chandan.

The playwright has successfully engaged in rigorous questioning of societies discriminatory mindset and attitude through the narrative of our conjoined twins.

Chaman Nahal’s AZADI and the reflection of trauma.

Chaman Nahal's novel "Azadi" provides a poignant depiction of the trauma of partition in India. The novel, published in 1975, is set against the backdrop of India's struggle for independence and the partition that followed, which resulted in the division of the country into India and Pakistan.

Through the stories of different characters, Nahal paints a vivid picture of the human cost of partition, highlighting the emotional and psychological toll that the violence and displacement took on individuals and families. The novel is an important reminder of the need to remember and acknowledge the trauma of partition, as well as the ongoing impact that it has had on the people of India and Pakistan.

One of the key themes of the novel is the idea of identity and belonging. The characters in the novel struggle to come to terms with the new reality of a divided India, and to find a sense of belonging in the midst of the violence and chaos. This struggle is particularly evident in the character of Ishwar Singh, a Sikh who finds himself caught between the two sides of the conflict. As he tries to navigate the violence and displacement of partition, he is forced to confront the question of where he belongs and what his identity is.

The novel also explores the theme of loss, both physical and emotional. The violence and displacement of partition resulted in the loss of countless lives and homes, and Nahal portrays this loss in a powerful and moving way.

Through the character of Lajo, a young girl who becomes separated from her family during the violence, the novel shows the devastating impact that the loss of loved ones can have on an individual. Lajo's journey to find her family serves as a poignant reminder of the ongoing search for closure and healing that many families affected by partition continue to experience.

Another important theme in the novel is the idea of memory and its impact on individuals and communities. The trauma of partition continues to haunt the characters long after the violence has ended, and Nahal portrays this lingering trauma in a subtle and powerful way. The characters are unable to forget the violence and displacement that they have experienced, and their memories shape their lives and relationships in profound ways. This theme is particularly evident in the character of Ishwar Singh, who is haunted by the memory of the violence that he witnessed during partition, and who struggles to come to terms with its ongoing impact on his life.

Throughout the novel, Nahal provides a stark and unflinching portrayal of the violence and displacement that characterized partition. The novel does not shy away from the brutal realities of the conflict, and Nahal's depiction of the violence and chaos is both vivid and disturbing. The novel shows the immense human cost of partition and serves as a reminder of the ongoing need for empathy, understanding, and compassion in times of conflict and upheaval.

At its core, "Azadi" is a deeply human novel, one that explores the ways in which individuals and communities are shaped by the trauma of conflict and displacement. Nahal's characters are complex and multifaceted, and their struggles and emotions are portrayed with sensitivity and depth. The novel is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the ongoing need to remember and acknowledge the trauma of partition.

In conclusion, Chaman Nahal's novel "Azadi" offers a powerful depiction of the trauma of partition in India. Through its portrayal of the emotional and psychological toll that the violence and displacement took on individuals and families, the novel serves as a reminder of the ongoing impact of partition on the people of India and Pakistan. By exploring themes of identity, loss, memory, and resilience, the novel offers a complex and nuanced portrait of this difficult period in India's history, one that continues to resonate with readers today.