Initially, Jane Austen called her book “First Impressions.” Why do you think she later changed the title to “Pride and Prejudice?”

 

There are several theories about why Jane Austen changed the title of her novel from "First Impressions" to "Pride and Prejudice." One possible reason is that the new title better captures the central themes of the novel, which focus on the destructive effects of pride and prejudice on personal relationships and society as a whole.

Another reason might be that the new title is more memorable and attention-grabbing than the original title, which could have helped to boost sales and increase the book's popularity.

It's also possible that Austen changed the title to differentiate her work from other novels that had similar titles, such as Hannah More's "Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society" and Edward Young's "Love of Fame, the Universal Passion."

Jane Austen changed the title of her novel from "First Impressions" to "Pride and Prejudice" because the latter title better reflects the themes and content of the book. While "First Impressions" is a fitting title for a novel in which many of the characters make hasty judgments about one another based on their first encounters, "Pride and Prejudice" more effectively captures the central conflict between the proud, wealthy Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced, independent-minded Elizabeth Bennet.

Moreover, the title "Pride and Prejudice" is more provocative and attention-grabbing, and it has become one of the most famous and recognizable titles in all of English literature. It suggests the complexity and nuance of the novel's social commentary, which explores the relationship between class, manners, and personal character in early 19th century England. Overall, the change in title was a wise decision that helped to cement the novel's enduring popularity and critical acclaim.

Ultimately, the exact reason why Austen changed the title of her novel remains a matter of speculation, as she did not leave any explicit explanation for her decision.

 

 

URBAN APATHY TO RAPE IN MANJULA PADMANABHAN‘S "LIGHTS OUT"

     A Study by Prosenjit Sarkar 

Manjula Padmanabhan‘s works are contemporary in both theme and presentation. The major focus of her works is the specific problems encountered by a predominantly urban and modern upper middle class section of Indian society. Her plays deal mainly with the concurrent issues in the Indian society. And her well-known play Lights Out (1986) is also not an exception in this case; it presents the upper middle class urban society in the first half of the 1990’s with all its hypocrisy and self-centred ideas. The play has been considered as a case of urban apathy to rape, modern man’s escapism and so forth.

Padmanabhan depicts a trailer of gang rape onstage intentionally to record the dehumanized reactions of men in Lights Out. The play dramatizes the urban apathy for rape and a total reluctance of involving in such uncivilized incident. The play is based on a real life incident of rape of a woman in open during night in 80’s in the Mumbai suburb. The play portrays a gang rape that could probably and possibly have been stopped by the silent, terrified, sympathetic viewers of the upper middle class urban people watching the crime being committed, but they apathetically remains disregarded to the victims. The whole setting as well as the delineation of characters in the play underlines the apathy of urban men towards women.

The issue of urban apathy to rape is revealed through the conversation between Bhaskar and Leela. The drama introduces an urban middle class couple Leela and Bhaskar in their affluent upper-floor middle class flat. What bothers Leela is that every night in a building under construction next to their house a crime is being committed and shrieks of a woman being molested is heard. Her worry for ongoing crime is clearly seen in her expression: “When you were away on tour, I could not sleep at night! And with all the windows shut with all the curtains drawn, with cotton in my ears – the sound still came through! Even in the children’s room, on the other side of the house, I could hear it!”

The play Lights Out exposes the hypocrisy of the urban middle class society and its indifferent attitude towards the crime, going on in the surroundings. Leela, wife of Bhaskar is seen complaining about the crime happening in the neighbouring building. She persistently requests her husband to call the police to settle the matter but he avoids the idea by saying that they should not bother about these little offences. He reacts coldly and calls her idea of calling police “Rubbish”. Instead of fulfilling his duty as a social being, he suggests to Leela a number of ways to avoid the crime: “Leela, the thing to do is not let them disturb you like this. Pretend they’re not there…” Through indifference of Bhaskar, the dramatist exposes the neglect of duty of a social being in these miserable condition and shows urban apathy to rape.

The apathetic attitude of the police towards the victims of crime is revealed by Bhaskar: “Police generally ignores the complaint… [And] I don’t want to stick my neck out, that’s all.” And this is the main cause why people don‘t approach the police with social concern because the agency entrusted the task of protecting its citizens is devoid of any humanity in general.

Like his friend Bhaskar, Mohan’s attitude insinuates the typical urban middle class mentality which prefers to discuss rather to perform. Mohan is curious to know about the horrible incident rather to help the victim. His apathy towards the victim is revealed in his declaration: “Personally, I’m against becoming entangled in other people’s private lives. Outsiders can never really be the judge of who is right and who is wrong.”

Like Leela, her friend Naina is agonized by the sounds while the men Bhasker and Mohan are fascinated and morbidly curious. Exasperated, Leela finally blasts, “It’s a rape, isn’t it?” But Bhaskar apathetically responds, “She could be a whore, you know!”, since “a decent woman would never be with four men at once!” The bizarre sounds and yearnings of the woman screaming for help, “Let me go! Help me!” are successfully manipulated as the subjects of triviality.

Through the play Lights Out, Manjula Padmanabhan not only exposes growing apathy amongst the so called civilized people but also wants to make audience perceive its evil consequences. The drama successfully achieves its aim and certainly inspires audience not to follow the path, adopted by the characters of the drama. Mahesh Dattani aptly observes it as, “a play that deals with urban dilemma”. It is an ugly face of urban society that has been effectively mirrored through this play.




References: ‘Lights Out by Manjula Padmanabhan (Chandra Lakshmi Ed.)’
Internet Resources: http://impressions.org.in/jul10/ar_neeta.html
http://www.trivenijournalindia.com/manjulapadmanabhanslightsoutoct2007.htm

'I am the shadow of sorrow, catalyst of the happiest moment.
Being the companion of all human being, I am the man to probe into Nature.'
 
By »——(¯` Prosenjit´¯)——»
________________________

'Tomorrow will surely come'

A Very Short Introduction of Postcolonial Analysis On the Novel "Robinson Crusoe"

Colonization is a process when one group cannot determine themselves and another group dominates them. The phenomenon of colonization does not happen only in real life but also in written fiction. The example of colonization in the real life is colonization that has done by Dutch to Indonesian people. While, colonization could be found in economics, politics, education, culture and literary work. Daniel Defoe as an English novelist writes colonization process in his novel “Robinson Crusoe”.

Related to the phenomenon above, this research aims to answer two following questions; the first is how the colonization reflected in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and second is how the dominant power dominated the colonized people.

This research is a descriptive qualitative research. The data source of this study is the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The data of this study are all sentences in the form of written dialogues, monologues and expression, which are collected from novel Robinson Crusoe. The steps of data collection are reading and understanding the text, picking up the data dealing with the problems, selecting and classifying the data that were related with the problem of the study. To analyze the data, he presented the data, interpreted the data, evaluated and drew the conclusion.

Based on the findings and discussion of the data, it is concluded that there are colonization that are reflected in Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. The major character has been the major colonizer. Hegemony of Robinson Crusoe was huge. He could determine everything around him in order to be appropriate for his business. There are many ways to dominate “silent other” that are used by the major character, Robinson Crusoe. Hey are controlling communication channel, confiscated proprietary right, and giving a pseudo positive pleasure.

The researcher hopes that this research can give a new contribution to the readers, especially the students who are interested in postcolonial discourse. Furthermore, it is hoped for further researchers to conduct the research, which not only focuses on reflection of colonization but also on the other aspect of postconsonantal.

Source: englishthesiss

 

A Short Summary of “The Guide” by R.K. Narayan

The Guide is the most popular novel of R.K. Narayan. It was published in 1958, and won the Sahitya Akademy Award for 1960. It has also been filmed and the film has always drawn packed-houses.

It recounts the adventures of a railway guide, popularly known as ‘Railway Raju’. As a tourist guide he is widely popular. It is this profession which brings him in contact with Marco and his beautiful wife, Rosie. While the husband is busy with his archaeological studies, Raju seduces his wife and has a good time with her. Ultimately Marco comes to know of her affair with Raju and goes away to Madras leaving Rosie behind. Rosie comes and stays with Raju in his one-room house. His mother tolerates her for some time, but when things become unbearable, she calls her brother and goes away with him, leaving Raju to look after Rosie and the house. 

Rosie is a born dancer, she practices regularly and soon Raju finds an opening for her. In her very first appearance, she is a grand success. Soon she is very much in demand and their earnings increase enormously. Raju lives lavishly, entertains a large number of friends with whom he drinks and gambles. All goes well till Raju forges Rosie’s signatures to obtain valuable jewellery lying with her husband. The act lands him in jail. Rosie leaves Malgudi and goes away to Madras, her hometown. She goes on with her dancing and does well without the help and management of Raju, of which he was so proud. 

On release from jail, Raju takes shelter in a deserted temple on the banks of the river Sarayu, a few miles away from Malgudi, and close to the village called Mangla. The simple villagers take him to be a Mahatma, begin to worship him, and bring him a lot of eatables as presents. Raju is quite comfortable and performs the role of a saint to perfection. 

However, soon there is a severe famine drought, and the villagers expect Raju to perform some miracle to bring them rain. So he has to undertake a fast. The fast attracts much attention and people come to have darshan of the Mahatma from far and wide. On the twelfth day of the fast, Raju falls down exhausted just as there are signs of rain on the distant horizon. It is not certain if he is actually dead or merely fainted. Thus the novel comes to an abrupt close on a note of ambiguity. 

The last pages of Narayan’s best novel, The Guide, find Raju, the chief protagonist, at the end of a lifetime of insincerity and pain. As a professional guide to Malgudi’s environs, he invented whole new historical pasts for bored tourists; he seduced a married woman, drifted away from his old mother and friends, became a flashy cultural promoter, and then tried, absentmindedly, to steal and was caught and spent years in jail, abandoned by everyone. 

His last few months have been spent in relative comfort as a holy man on the banks of a river: a role imposed on him by reverential village folk. But the river dries up after a drought and his devotees start looking to him to intercede with the gods. Raju resentfully starts a fast, but furtively eats whatever little food he has saved. Then abruptly, out of a moment of self disgust, comes his resolution: for the first time in his life, he will do something with complete sincerity, and he will do it for others: if fasting can bring rain, he’ll fast. 

He stops eating, and quickly diminishes. News of his efforts goes around; devotees and sightseers, gathering at the riverside, create a religious occasion out of the fast. On the early morning of the eleventh day of fasting, a small crowd watches him quietly as he attempts to pray standing on the river bed and then staggers and dies, mumbling the enigmatic last words of the novel, “It’s raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs….” 

Characteristically, Narayan doesn’t make it clear whether Raju’s penance does actually lead to rain. He also doesn’t make much of Raju’s decision, the moment of his redemption, which a lesser writer would have attempted to turn into a resonant ending, but which is quickly passed over here in a few lines. What we know, in a moment of great disturbing beauty, is something larger and more affecting than the working-out of an individual destiny in an inhospitable world. 

It is and the words are of the forgotten English writer William Gerhardie, on Chekhov, but so appropriate for Narayan that sense of the temporary nature of our existence on this earth at all events…through which human beings, scenery, and even the very shallowness of things, are transfigured with a sense of disquieting importance. 

It is a sense of temporary possession in a temporary existence that, in the face of the unknown, we dare not overvalue. It is as if his people hastened to express their worthless individualities, since that is all they have, and were aghast that they should have so little in them to express: since the expression of it is all there.

Source: www.shareyouressays.com 

R.K. Narayan's Narrative Technique in his The Guide

Narayan uses the interesting technique of a varied narrative perspective. The story shifts back and forth between first and third person narrative; at times it is Raju, the main character speaking, and at other times the story is told from the point of view of an omniscient narrator. The author also utilizes cinematic elements such as flashbacks and jump cuts.

When we first encounter Raju, he is about to meet Velan, and he is seen at this point from the perspective of an omniscient narrator. Then Raju takes over the narrative chores and relates his progress from sweetmeat seller to jailbird to Velan. In between, the omniscient narrator punctuates Raju's narrative by showing him dealing with the villagers as a holy man.

The Guide divided into two parts, narrates Raju’s childhood, love affair, imprisonment (first part) and growth into a swami (second part). Though the streams move simultaneously, the first part is set in Malgudi. Raju’s past and the second part is set in Mangla, Raju’s present. While Raju’s past in Malgudi is narrated by Raju himself, his present in Mangla is narrated by the author.

R.K. Narayan is a novelist of common people and common situations. His plot of The Guide is built of material and incidents that are neither extra-ordinary nor heroic. The Guide is a story of Raju’s romance, his greed for money, his sin and repentance.It is also the story of everyman’s growth from the ordinary to extra- ordinary, from the railway guide to the spiritual guide.

For most of his life Raju had managed to manipulate other people's emotional needs for his own advantage, but the novel shows him going beyond himself to do a genuinely disinterested act at the cost of his life.

Raju begins his professional life as the owner of a sweetmeat stall at the railway station in a region of India that has become a popular tourist attraction. He soon discovers that he has a knack for telling people what they would like to hear and becomes a fulltime guide. This profession leads him into an affair with one of his clients, Rosie, the neglected wife of an anthropologist Marco. Rosie has a passion for dancing which Marco doesn't approve of. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and walks out on her husband. Raju becomes her stage manager and soon with the help of Raju's marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control Rosie. Gradually, the relationship between Raju and Rosie becomes strained. Marco reappears and Raju inadvertently gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a two year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passing through a village when he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guide). Reluctant not having to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he stays in an abandoned temple. Raju satisfies the demand of villagers of Mangala. Slowly and gradually, he becomes the spiritual guide of the villagers who come to get all sorts of issues resolved by him. They start to trust and listen to him and soon he earns their respect and turns into a guru or god like person for them.

Everything is running smoothly till the time the village is afflicted by a major drought and one of the villagers mistakes Raju’s comments to be a vow to keep a fast for 12 days in order to please the rain gods. Raju has no other option but to comply by his vow. The role that he took unhappily and forcibly in the beginning becomes very dear to him as time passes. He starts believing in his role and feels that for the first time in his life he is doing something for the people, selflessly, out of humanity and not lust for money or any other material goods. The news of his fasting spreads throughout the country like wildfire and a huge crowd of curious onlookers from other places starts gathering round him. As he can no longer take the fasting, his legs give away, he collapses dreaming or visualizing the rain drops somewhere in the hills. The novels ends with a question still unanswered whether he dies and whether the rain actually comes.

In Narayan’s plot there is a mixture of the comic and serious, the real and the fantastic. So is the case with The Guide.Raju, the poor becomes the rich, the convict gets the reputation and regard of the saint, the holy man and the swami. There is squalor, poverty and misery in the life of Raju on the other side there is relief, which is beautiful and charming Rosie.

Another technique Narayan uses is imagery and symbolism which is rooted in Indian culture but has universal appeal. At the end of the story, where Raju is drowning, his eyes engrossed towards the mountains as a brilliant sun rises and villagers look on. By juxtaposing the simple background of the Indian village at sunrise with the suicide scene, Narayan effectively communicates Raju's death as an image of hope, consistent with the Indian belief in death and rebirth.

Narayan’s has a gift of sketching pen pictures that bring scenes and characters vividly to life without taking recourse to ornate or excessive description. Narayan’s simplicity of language conceals a sophisticated level of art. Narayan handles language like an immensely flexible tool that effortlessly conveys both the specific as well as symbolic and the universal. The tone of The Guide is quite and subdued.

Thus the use of flashback, common lifestyle, comedy, language and the double perspective, Raju’s and the novelist’s make the novel fresh stimulating, provocative and interesting.

Source: Literary articles