Rukhaya M.K

A Literary Companion

Month: September 2014 (page 6 of 6)

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame: A Classic Instance of the Theatre of the Absurd

September 7, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame is a statement on the contemporary times as a product of applied science and technology and not vice-versa. It focuses on four major characters who live in an apocalyptic era characterized by stagnation and a sense of nihilism. Originally written in French (entitled Fin de partie), the title refers to the last part in a game of chess. Unlike the introductory part and the middle game, the endgame is worked out by experienced players in advance and the outcome is certain; just as death is an inevitable certainty in the Game of Life predestined by the Invincible Champion.

Hamm is the protagonist of the drama and dictates the other characters on their action. He is at the centre of the room and the centre of the plot. In the Paris Review article “Exorcising Beckett”, the author writes that Beckett stated the names to be as follows: Hamm for Hammer, Clov for clou (the French for nail), Nagg for ‘nagel’ (the German for nail), and Nell because of its resemblance to the English word nail. Therefore, the naming is quite apt: Hamm stands for Hamm as in ‘Hammer’ as he sits at a distance and witnesses the action.…

Poetry Analysis: Edward Arlington Robinson’s “Miniver Cheevy”

September 7, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Edward Arlington Robinson’s “Miniver Cheevy” written in iambic tetrameter quatrains was first published in The Town down the River in 1910. Edward Arlington Robinson deals with characters who are generally disillusioned with life’s turn of events. Miniver Cheevy always found a refuge in the nostalgia of the past. Miniver is hopelessly romantic. The poet opts for a common name to suggest the insignificance of the persona, and a funny one to point to his eccentricity. Miniver prefers romantic idealism to tarnished reality.
Miniver was a “child of scorn” His character seems to have been shaped on the contempt for others. Ironically, it was his wry temperament that invited the wrath of others. He grew lean, and became fragile as he constantly wrestled against the seasons: the diverse circumstances and changing climes. He detested the fact that he was even born. And he had genuine reasons for it. He loved the bygone era, and longed for the pastness of the past. He rather aspired for a Quixotic Yesterday that had valiant men engaged in sword-fight. He was incorrigibly obsessed with a knight in armour. Such thoughts of the medieval romance set him in seventh heaven.
He cherished the thought of the city of Thebes.…

Poetry Analysis: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 131

September 5, 2014 / / 3 Comments

“Sonnet 131” was first published in a 1609 quarto edition entitled Shakespeare’s Sonnets. It belongs to the sequence of the Dark Lady sonnets (127–52). The speaker affirms that the Dark Lady is a typical ‘femme fatale’ and her menacing charm haunts the presence of men and threatens the existence of women. ’Art’ is utilized as a pun here in that it refers to ‘are’ in Shakespearean language and ‘art’ with reference to her art of ensnaring others in her charm. She is also tyrannous in her aggressive seductive powers that imposes more upon than it allures. The poet employs a Petrarchan conceit here to allude to the “power the object’s beauty imposes over the sonneteer and argues for her beauty based on the power she exerts over him.”(Duncan-Jones 2007, 131.13).Her existence is as intimidating as the beauty of others, though she is not beautiful in a conventional manner. She was much of a tormenter as those who tormented others through the exquisite charm of their beauty. She realizes that the speaker dotes on her and takes advantage of the fact by causing him distress with impunity. The lines are reminiscent of the ones in “Sonnet 144” where Man is presented as a ‘better angel’ and the Woman as an ‘evil spirit’.…

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