A Perspective of Human Relationships in Literature - Essay Example

? “ANIMALS” A PERSPECTIVE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIP IN LITERATURE Table of Content “ANIMALS A PERSPECTIVE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIP IN LITERATURE Literature and Human Life 3 Ecocriticism 4 Animal Imagery for Human Life in Literature 4 Shakespeare and Animal Imagery 4 Act 1 5 Act II 6 Act III 6 Act IV 6 Act V 7 John Clare’s Work and Animal Imagery 7 Autumn Birds 7 Little Trotty Wagtail 7 Early Nightingale 7 The Vixen 7 All the Nature has a Feeling 8 I Hid my Love 8 Other Prominent Works 8 Conclusion 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 11 Literature and Human Life 4 Ecocriticism 5 Animal Imagery for Human Life in Literature 6 Shakespeare and Animal Imagery 6 Act 1 8 Act II 9 Act III 9 Act IV 10 Act V 10 John Clare’s Work and Animal Imagery 10 Autumn Birds 11 Little Trotty Wagtail 11 Early Nightingale 11 The Vixen 11 All the Nature has a Feeling 12 I Hid my Love 12 Other Prominent Works 12 Conclusion 15 BIBLIOGRAPHY 16 Literature and Human Life Literature is a broad term. It encompasses all religions, poetries, arts, histories, dramas, fictions and non-fictions. It enhances and reshapes the readers’ perception of life by providing them a wider spectrum through imaginary or factual narrations. It represents man’s relationship to man using images and symbols. As C. S. Lewis debates that “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become"1. Thus, it is not a mere picture of reality rather it is a process of value addition in it; and represents prevailing cultures and norms of a particular society pointing out its various aspects. Literature can be regarded as a wise teacher. It presents examples, illustrations, and incidents in front of the readers to correlate their own lives and draw intellectual conclusions from them. Symbols and images are the most important tools of literature. Image represents reality whereas symbols stand for comparable aspects. The writers use them to create sharp and vivid images in the minds of the readers so that they may see their own worth in comparison to the characters and factors presented. Other than creating sharp fantasies, images serve to offer a deep penetration into the emotions and feelings of the characters in a particular situation. Thus, whenever a character in Ibsen’s plays feel emotional turmoil, he goes straight to the stove or fire. Fielding plays with the images of clothing and nakedness in ‘Joseph Andrews’ to use them as the symbols of human intentions,2 and status; Shakespeare uses them to explain seven stages of human life3 and Tennyson uses them to present facts in disguise. Animals have been a constant, continuous and effective source of symbols and images in English literature. Writers have used animals to represent and symbolise certain features of human nature. For example, Shakespeare refers to snail to explain the pace of a school going child4; Jonathan Swift offered horse-like yahoos5; Alfred Tennyson has used the image of an eagle in his poem ‘The Eagle’ to explain the vigilance and crookedness with which authoritative ruler takes care of his estate6; Wordsworth has referred to Nightingale and cuckoo bird in ‘Solitary Reaper’ to explain the sweetness and thrill of maiden’s song and voice; Sylvia Plath has used bees7; Adrienne Rich referred to Tigers8, etc. For ages, this sort of imagery had been taken as aesthetics of writers. It is only now that cultural criticism is made upon this particular feature to highlight its social, political and religious aspects. This innovative field of critical study is called, ‘Ecocriticism’. Ecocriticism Ecocriticism challenges the study of literature’s relationship to the world. It is a key to the new awareness of life sciences. The main argument in natural sciences states that the natural environment is an exclusive contributor to the human life and social values. Cultural change can be induced by the adaptation to the environment. It can be considered to be derived from anthropology and covers a number of aspects of human society. This what have been thought of by most researches now has been shown by many poets and authors of the literary world long before. Analogies between human actions and nature have been a common source of poetic conception. Animal Imagery for Human Life in Literature Imagery is an important aspect of literature that represents our lives symbolically in the most exciting and meaningful way. Inspired by nature, images present a picture of the personality, emotions and feelings of the characters as well as different themes and settings to the readers to cherish and wonder. One of the most common images used for this purpose is that of animal. Shakespeare and John Clare have used animal imagery in excess in their respective writings to explain the intentions and nature of various characters. Richmond has noticed that, “Shakespeare shows deep empathy with animals as lowly as the hunted hare and the common snail (in Venus and Adonis, 674, 1033), and this sensitivity is passed on to a seemingly harsh figure such as Isabella, who can note the death pangs of ‘the poor beetle that we tread upon’ (in Measure, 3.1.78).” Shakespeare and Animal Imagery Animal imagery plays a crucial role in Shakespearean plays. William Shakespeare was a legend in making connection of different animal traits to actual human thoughts and ambitions. It is not possible for anyone to cover all his work that contains animals’ imagery to explain human affairs in one article. So here our main topic of discussion would be his tragedy Macbeth. In Macbeth, Shakespeare has used strong animal imagery to convey the personality, nature, intentions and emotions of various characters throughout its five acts. For instance, Macbeth is symbolised with eagles and lions at the opening and with serpents and ravens towards the end. The main aim, however, is to depict evil, illustrate deceit and portrays fearlessness of the characters that are undeniably paranoid and terrified with unnatural and abnormal events taking place throughout the plot. The gruesome atmosphere of this tragedy is accentuated with the use of significantly diverse animals. Each of these animal images implicates a definite meaning and a definite pitch for the spectators. These images are as disparate as day and night, which is synchronized with the atmosphere of the drama that transforms completely from opening to ending. For example, Lady Macbeth calls relates her husband as a serpent in the very first act: "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it".9 Thus, this animal imagery attaches potent and compelling energy to specific sections of this play that merges with its themes, characterization and structure. An analysis of this particular sort of imagery and its connotations to man’s social, political and religious lives are as follows: Act 1 The play starts with an image of evil spirits and ugliness in the form of cat and toad.10 Witches respond to their particular traits: ‘Graymalkin’ and ‘Paddock’. These animal traits when present in human beings can result in conspiracies and political revolts. In scene two, sergeants have a dialogue about eagles, sparrows, hares and lions11. He uses these images when replying to King Duncan who is asking about the situation of war with two invading groups. He symbolises Generals Macbeth and Banquo as eagles and lions that have defeated the invaders who were like sparrows and hares. Lion and eagle are the savage images of wild, brave and ruthless characters of these two warriors. These traits were respected and admired as being knightly in that time. Thus, these traits were associated to explain raised social status. Even today, people respect those who are brave and fearless hence, it is an important aspect of human life. Scene five sees a political implication in the form of the image of serpent. It is when Lady Macbeth asks her husband to behave like an innocent flower while working underneath like s beguiling serpent12. This allusion to the serpent of paradise that had ruined the heaven of Adam and Eve presents a common two-faced approach adopted by aristocrats and politicians all the time. Shakespeare is exploring another trait of human personality. That is what we see in our daily life where our leaders do dialogues and recompilation with contemporary leaders in front of public but inside they are not sincere and committed to what they are publically saying. This is portraying hypocrisy in human acts. We see them around and encounter them all the time. This image of serpent also gives social and religious implication as they both lived in a society that is Christian. This specific image is an allusion to bible as this couple seemed innocent like the forbidden fruit but cunning like satanic serpent. Act II The second act starts with the regret and remorse felt by Macbeth at killing the king. He mentions an "owl that shrieked"13 to add to the superstitious atmosphere of the play. It was believed in England that owl’s shrieks and scene can cause a man depression for the rest of his life. Even later the witches used the wing of an owl to cook the magical potion that was to devastate Macbeth’s life forever. Moreover the images of shrieking of owl and cries of cricket in this particular scene also give the implication of a society where nothing can be hidden. Macbeth here refers to Malcolm and Donalbain, King Duncan’s two sons, who were wakened up his assassination. Thus, these images hints at the soon to be revelation of Macbeth’s crime in front of the public to cause his downfall. Act III Shakespeare used quite a lot of animal imagery in act three. In this act, different animal images are presented like wool of bat, tongue of dog, and gall of goat to denote the suffering and pain of Macbeth after unlawfully murdering the king Duncan and becoming king in his place. Act IV Act four states: “what, all my pretty chickens and their dam, at one fell swoop” this is after Macduff found that his family is killed by King Macbeth. Chicken here may be representing the weakness and helplessness. Act V This play of Shakespeare is about tragedy and evil. Therefore, he uses different animal symbols to denote the evils and tragic events. This play also shows deterioration of the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It shows how a strong relationship fall down after Macbeth commits a deed against his will on the evil desires of his wife lady Macbeth14. John Clare’s Work and Animal Imagery John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet, born to a farm labourer who came to be known for his triumphant demonstration of the English countryside. Along with the peasant themes, Clare is known for the use of animal imagery in his poems. He has rather devoted a number of ballads to animals: ‘Autumn Birds’, ‘The Vixen’, ‘Grasshoppers’, ‘House or Window Flies’, ‘Insects’, ‘Little Trotty Wagtail’, etc. All of these and a number of other poems have made use of animal imagery to express Clare’s ideals and ideas of man’s social, religious and political life. Animal imagery in some of his poems is analysed below. Autumn Birds In his poem ‘Autumn Birds’, Clare gives images of so many birds: Wild duck, heron, crow, white jackdaw, magpie, swan, lark. All of these images are given in the social context as all of they present the hustle and bustle of a community. Little Trotty Wagtail Wagtail is said to be the most favourite of Clare’s animal friends. This poem is one of so many in which he has used the image of a wagtail. He presents the image of this bird going to fetch bread for his family even in the rain and dies in doing so. He has a family, kids and relatives to take care of, and he seems to realize the responsibilities on his shoulder. Early Nightingale This is an interesting poem in which Clare has presented the image of a new comer nightingale in a society. She coos and chirps loudly, till the hearers convey the news of her arrival in the community all around. This image also alludes to that of a new politician who presents himself through debates and declarations. The Vixen In his poem the “The Vixen” he describes the attitude of a fox that is playing with his kids and when any stranger pass nearby she barks until she makes sure her pups are safe. And when the danger goes away, she came out with her kids to catch the white butterfly. If we contrast the behaviour of that vixen to that of human being, we can easily conclude that a parent does the same thing for protecting his child. He manages for their food until they learn to get it by themselves. This poem explains the beautiful relationship between a parent and his child. All the Nature has a Feeling In another poem “All Nature has a Feeling” Clare tries to say that all elements of nature whether trees, plants or animals have their live and feeling. He relates the way natural elements like animals spend their lives to the way we i.e. human beings spend our lives. He argues that elements of nature have all the affairs we encounter in our life like family, social life, norms and rituals, Customs etc. I Hid my Love In the poem “I Hid my Love” he writes that “I hid my love when young till I, couldn’t bear the buzzing of a fly”. Here he might be associating buzzing of a fly with noise. Noise of fly usually irritates us. We commonly use this impression to express our annoyed feeling for a certain noise we don’t like. Other Prominent Works On page three of his novel Mice and Men, John Steinbeck states that “snorting into water like a horse”. This shows the character’s strength as horse is a powerful and big animal. Also on the same page, he says that “Lennie dabbed his big paw”. This may show that he is comparing his character Lennie’s potential with a bear or lion. As bear and lion both are the symbol of power and bravery. He is trying to communicate to the readers’ that his character is strong like a bear or line. There is a quote of page number ten that “I wish to get the rabbits soon”. Through this line he is trying to convey the dreams of Lennie. On page eleven he writes “feeling on it like it was a mouse”. Lennie here compares a girl with his mouse which shows that Lennie is incapable of making logical connections and he does not perceive things like other ordinary men do. Therefore, through this line Steinbeck communicates the difference between the character of his novel and other people. On page twenty two he inscribes “he is as strong as a bull”. He is writing this about his character Lennie. As all we know that bull is a symbol of huge powers. By comparing Lennie with a bull Steinbeck is communication the strength of his character. Also in his novel the “The Pearl”, author used animal imagery in the form where a scorpion stings his defenceless baby and the doctor rejects to give him the treatment. Things fall apart is a famous and widely read novel of Chinua Achebe. It was published in 1958 and very popular in English educational and general community. In this novel Igbo community uses animal images to reflect the tradition and environment in which they were living and to justify what they believe in. in this novel, it has been shown that Igbo’s perception of world is very elementary. They believe that the animal stories are explanations for many natural processes like in the chapter XI about tortoise shell which become rough and uneven. Another novel by Joseph Conrad name “Heart of darkness” which was published in 1902 is another example of the literary work which uses animal imagery to depict different situations and characters. He writes on page thirteen and “And the river was there—fascinating—deadly—like a snake”. This line describes the personality of his character Marlow that how fearless and brave he is. He is a kind of man who likes to play with dangers and always in search of new adventures. Snake itself represents the danger. So we can say that an animal is used here to give a message about adventurous human nature. This line also gives us the description about Marlow’s travel that how much dangers will he be facing throughout his journey to Congo. A novel by Frank Norris published in 1899 name “McTeague” which tells a story about a couple marriage and then murder as a result of materialism, greed and resentment uses animal images to convey various messages. This novel is all about animal desires in human beings and it shows the animal nature of human beings. Novelist Ken Kesey wrote a novel in 1959 which was published in 1962 name “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” is another example of the work that used animal to convey messages about human affairs. That novel was also adapted for the film of the same name in 1963. The film won five academy awards. This novel describes story of a man who fakes insanity to spend his jail sentence in hospital. He continues making trouble in the hospital as well. In the novel he brings the image of nurse as a wolf and all men in the ward as rabbits. Author’s is communicating this message for sure that nurse is holding all the power here. She has a control over the men admitted to her ward. As we all know that wolfs have physical privileges over rabbits. So here Kesey is comparing wolf to power and rabbits to weakness. The theme of putting hens in pens may also symbolize keeping men of the ward into their designated locations. There are many examples in this novel which point up the use of animals to convey messages about human affairs. Above we have discussed some examples from literature to illustrate that how different type of literature uses animal images to convey the messages about human nature, psychology, emotions, relationships and affairs. There is much more to discuss and quote from classical as well as contemporary literature which we are unable to present in one single paper. Conclusion Animals are the part of nature. They experience nature like no other creature on this earth can. Man is said to be a social animal. He possesses many characteristics of animals like loyalty, cleverness; bravery etc. nature has associated particular quality or characteristic with a particular animal. Therefore, we use it commonly to describe human and social situations. In our ordinary, daily life language, we tend to associate various personality traits of our family and friends to animals’ qualities. For instance, for a gentle man we say that he is as gentle as lamb, for a greedy man we say that he is as greedy as a wolf or dog, for a stupid man we tend to say that he is as stupid as donkey and for the people who remain busy and work all the time we say that they remain busy all day like honey bees. Literature is an art which depicts present and future social trends. That is why it uses all the notions that are in use within the present social setup. As major part of the literature concerns with the nature like in poetry and novels. Use of animal imagery in them makes them more sensually vivid. Reader feels more in depth attachment to the material he is reading when he finds such connection to his personality and social setups to that of presented in literature. So he learns and remembers more of it in this. Finally we can say that imagery used to convey various messages about human affairs tend to create a better impact on readers’ minds. BIBLIOGRAPHY Clare, John, ‘Works of John Clare’, ReadBookonline, [online], Available at< http://www.readbookonline.net/books/Clare/334/> [27 February 2011] E-notes, [online], Available at < http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/q-and-a/how-does-shakespeare-use-animal-imagery-trace-38323> [27 February 2011] Kinney, F., Arthur 2001, Lies like truth: Shakespeare, Macbeth and the cultural moment, Wayne State University press, Detroit, Michigan Oak, Manali, ‘Importance of literature’, Buzzle, [online] Available at: < http://www.buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-literature.html> [27 February 2011] Shakespeare, William 1807, Macbeth: a tragedy, Mathews and Leigh Strand. Wood, M. K. 2008, Shakespeare’s use of animal imagery, Helium, [online], Available at [27 February 2011] Read More