Swift's Logical And Dispassionate Tone, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and the play No Exit - Essay Example

Questions NEO ICISM How does Swift's LOGICAL and DISPASSIONATE TONE make his Proposal all the more HORRIBLE and EFFECTIVE? Be specific as possible by dealing with each of the four terms and using examples from the essay. Swift uses logic to create his discussion about the idea of using children who would otherwise be a burden on society as food. His development of his logical argument is based on providing a premise and showing how the arguments that support his premise are rational and valid. It is clear that the subtext of his argument is based on sarcastic commentaries on the complaints of others about the burdens placed on society by the poor. Through developing an argument that would make poor children both useful and absent, he has created a larger argument against those who would complain of their presence. His use of logic, however, is based on a cold evaluation of the problem and a solution that does not take human compassion into consideration. It is his precise dispassionate tone that provides the subtext of the argument. Through discussing what is absolutely logical but unacceptable, he is using a tone that suggests that his solution does not take human compassion into consideration. Swift writes that they should keep a hundred and twenty thousand children to breed them to keep up the stock, with only a quarter of them male. He reasons that this is more than fair because it is more than they allow in other livestock. Through his logical and reasonable conclusions as they are delivered in a manner that is cold to human considerations, he has supported his true point that the masses that are often talked about in dehumanizing terms are indeed human. As Swift takes this farther and creates an outrageous proposal he shows those who would speak of ‘the poor’ or their children in dismissive terms as being equally outrageous. His aim is to take emotion out of his discourse in order to incite others to place it back into his argument. The proposal is horrible because it takes logic and uses it to create an acceptable conclusion, but on unacceptable terms. The real point to his argument is that even though a premise can be supported, it does not mean that its horrific implications are acceptable. An example of this can be seen in current political climates as politicians argue against social reforms without taking into consideration those that it affects. As someone argues against the new reforms in healthcare they are arguing against getting healthcare for those who need it most. However, through dehumanizing the masses, the arguments appear to be logical. An example of this can be seen by a young woman who was discussing how her health insurance is denying her claims for lifesaving medications. She proclaimed “I’m only 24, they can’t just let me die!” However, in discussing this situation, politicians would not talk about the 24 year old who needs medications that are expensive and will die without them. They will talk about matters that are cold and dispassionate, not taking into consideration the horrors they are really discussing. Swift is effective in his arguments because there are no real holes that can be poked in it to declare his reasoning untrue. Swift works on two levels in his work. He first creates a premise with supporting arguments that are logical and reasoned. He works on his subtext by being dispassionate and outrageous, while holding on to his reasoned argument. This is effective because no one could ever truly agree that this is a good idea so no one is going to take him seriously. The clear flaw makes the true point of his writing for the reader. The reader does not take his argument seriously, but sees his point about the human factor in discussing social problems. The writing is brilliant and does not falter in making his real point even while seeming to have a reasonable argument concerning the flaws he sees in the speech of others on the topic. 2) Discuss 3 ways in which the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence and/or the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is (are) neoclassical document(s). The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen are neoclassical documents, first because they reflect classic Roman texts for their tone and intention on the issue of citizenship. The second way in which they support neoclassical writing is through their reflection of Enlightenment values in that they both reflect a return to nature rather than authoritarianism and mythology, as well as a belief in philosophers as the core of human advancements in knowledge. The third way in which the works reflect neoclassical writing is through taking the works of Greek and Roman writers and reflecting their views on beauty, learning and virtue in respect to contemporary perspectives. Through examining the work of the past, the writers of the then current documents took what they considered to be reasoned ideas and recreated them for their modern documents. The Declaration of Independence created justification for revolution that the leaders of the revolt against Britain needed in order to have a specific mission to their cause. Through writing the Declaration of Independence, the theory behind the war was manifested. Peterson writes that “For Jefferson this was a movement from history to theory, from law to nature, from the localism and particularism of the English tradition to the rationalism and universalism of the Enlightenment” (Peterson and Jefferson 13). The humanism that highlighted the Enlightenment period was based on the classic writings, thus this translated into the neoclassicism with which the document was written. At its deepest rudimentary level the Preamble and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen reflect the beliefs of the political theorists of the Roman period. The Romans had defied monarchy as a rule and had put in place a form of citizenship representation. The Preamble declares that the political bonds between the people and their rulers were no longer working for them. The first sentence of the French document makes it clear that the same disconnection had occurred between their people and their monarch. Both of the documents relate aesthetics of the Enlightenment in their development of their arguments for freedom. In the Preamble it states explicitly that “the separate and equal stations to which the Law of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”, thus beginning the discussion of equality. In addition, however, there is the suggestion that Nature is the reality through which the development of government should be created rather than through mythologies about divine rule that so often supported monarchy. The reference to God is through the idea of ‘Nature’s God’, suggesting that the many mythologies that defied reason should be eliminated in order to support the idea of a God who was rooted in Nature, and through that nature no one man would have dominion over others. This reasoning spirit is one of the defining aspects of neoclassicism as it was modernized through Enlightenment thinking. The documents both discuss the importance of creating frameworks through which to support the welfare of all. This is reflective of classic philosophies about human importance and individual importance. The modern philosophers of the time, Bacon, Locke, and Newton on whose works was the philosophy of Enlightenment founded, all contended that there were natural laws through which individuals had ‘unalienable’ rights. In addition however, there was a need to develop the concepts of learning, beauty, and virtue, which can be summed up by placing order on the chaos of human interactions between government and the people. Through developing these ideas as they were primarily presented through Locke, the ideologies that defined the new governments that were proposed were expressed. ROMANTICISM 1) In Keat's Odes we see the poetic expression of the Romantic sensibility. Discuss "Ode to a Nightingale" and show specifically how it is "romantic". It may help to contrast the details with the neoclassical mindset. The term romanticism is based on the validation of emotion as a resource from which the development of ideas emanated. Nature was a powerful part of romanticism, the untamed nature of the living world rife with emotion and expressions of anarchy in contrast to the restrained order of the Enlightenment. The development of romanticism was in response to the idea of order, the abandon with which nature was enjoyed a great part of the ideas that were at the core of romantic arts. The emotions and mythologies of the medieval period were revived and paganism in compliment with Christianity formed many of the themes of the time. The influence of urbanization was driving people back to nature in order to escape the industrialized world of dark smoke and consistent dependable sounds of machinery. Spontaneous production of art, both in poetry and music was idealized, with narrative and story being at the heart of the concepts that were developed during the period. John Keats’ poem ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is a work that embraces the ideas of the Romantic period. Although love and expressions of affections are a part of the idea of Romance, they by no means rule it. The wild abandon of nature and the chaotic, tumble of glory that reflects beauty without morality is at the heart of the Romantic poem. At one point Keats emotes “Tasting of Flora and the country-green/Dance, and Provincial Song, and sunburnt mirth!” (Keats). This is not just about the emotions of the work, but of the complete freedom of all shame, restraint, and sense of order. Keats expresses romanticism through pure emotion that is without restraints of reason. Both Enlightenment and Romanticism are interested in Nature, both insisting on capitalizing it and often personifying it, even if only through shadows and implications of human identification. Both create an entity out of Nature and give it attributes, but where the Enlightened thinkers saw Nature as a system in which the function of the components were intended for order, the Romantics see nature as pure expression. The moment is now and the consequences are immaterial. Keats writes “Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes/Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow”. The work leaves the morality of tomorrow to later thought, the event of the day without a feeling that it matters. A word that can be used to describe the works of the Romantics, both in literature and art, is tumultuous. The paintings are filled with movement and the expression of emotion is full of the entire rumbling undercurrent that exists within the experience of teenagers. It is as if those within the works had never fully grown up and embraced maturity and all of its dampening of the expressions of joy and sorrow. The work uses high levels of descriptive language to paint a very vivid picture. The poem reads in color, with splashes of the exotic and broad strokes of all that is intense in the emotional experience. The use of paganism and creatures of mythology brings the sense of the exotic into higher levels of exaltation. The poem exists in a natural setting that includes the wings of Poesy and the debauchery of Bacchus. There are descriptions of the use of alcohol and the ability to leave behind all that burdens in this world. The world in which he exists when in that poem is somewhere that he cannot easily identify. He is unsure whether he dreams in sleep or in a waking state, but he knows that it cannot be real. What he has imagined has lost all sense of order, so completely devoid of morals and structure that it is in high contrast to the writing that sought nothing but order in the Enlightenment. NO EXIT 1) Sartre's idea of relationships is that all involve conflict. This is particularly true of the love relationship in which one can play one of three roles. Name the three possible roles and then show how in the play each of the three characters plays each of the roles. Be sure to give specifics to illustrate your ideas. The three roles that a person can play in a love relationship are Master, Slave, and Indifferent/Outsider. The ways in which people love are based upon conflict, according to Sartre, and by this he means that because his social freedom and identity is based upon being the subject of hold by another. This means that another person has the ability to define one’s identity and to create what they can out of their position in an individual’s life. In other words, a man may create what he wants of his wife through the hold that he has over her in his commitment to her. The same is true in reverse. In most relationships, one will act as the Master over the couple identity which will overshadow the individual identity and often wipe it out completely. The third party is the observer who is indifferent to any meaning that the two individuals may have laid upon how they become in the context of their relationship. The three main roles in the play are Joseph Garcin, Inez Serrano, and Estelle Rigault. Joseph Garcin, while he might seem to be the Master because of his gender and because of his aggressive manners at times, is actually the slave. He needs the approval of others and his identity does not exist unless someone else defines it for him. He seeks the approval of Inez who is cruel and holds power over him and Estelle through her cruelty. Garcin would do anything to please her, even though he works to get the approval of Estelle who is only interested in men who are manly enough for her. Garcin seeks that approval, but in a way is only trying to impress Inez by his status in Estelle’s eyes. Estelle is meaningless to the exchange, but only a medium through which to gain his status. Estelle shows no care for anyone other than herself. She is seeking gratification, but is not seeking to give others anything that has meaning. She holds that in to herself and does not provide for the needs of others in her quest to exist. Her only real need is to exist and to have what she wants without having to worry about what it means tomorrow. Even though she sexually aggresses on Gavin, she is not really interested in him. She is only interested in the effect that it has on herself. Her need for Gavin is only framed by her desire to feel like a woman. She is not about love or lust, really, but about satisfying herself in the framework of interpersonal relationships. She is Indifferent and the Outsider who has no real connection in the structure of love. It is Inez who is the Master in the play. She manipulates and is engaged with the effects of her manipulations. She stays in control and even though she is not a part of the pairing efforts between Gavin and Inez she is in control of it for her own purposes. Being a Master does not necessarily mean being cruel, but in this case Inez is very cruel. Her control makes her powerful and her cruelty is what fuels her control. As Gavin begins to realize that Estelle has no meaning for his sense of identity, he sees that it is through Inez that he will lose or gain that which he desires. Inez the Master is that she holds the power to give or take away identity. When Gavin tries to leave he looks to others in order to gain the redemption that he needs to leave. Inez is placed in control of that redemption and because she determines his identity, he is unable to leave. He is a slave to her whims, she is in control of his destiny through her whims, and Estelle is on the outside, having no real influence or sway over what will or will not happen in the search for identity by Gavin. 2) Using the themes of Existentialism, show how any four of these elements play out in No Exit. Give specifics. In his play titled ‘No Exit’, Jean Paul Sartre looks for the meaninglessness of life and provides context for understanding how the world is really an absurd place in which meaning cannot realistically be found (Ansbro 104). Sartre once said “we are condemned to be free” which means that the individual must live within the circumstances that they contrive because they are free to do so (Sartre 2001). In other words, as an example, if one lives in an oppressed state is only because they have given someone else the permission to oppress them, even if it means that they do not know any better. It is through our freedom to choose that we are condemned to live in the way in which we have agreed to exist. In the play ‘No Exit’ the three characters are trapped with one another for eternity and it is their choices to agree to the way in which the others affect them that condemns them to that existence. Gavin is a primary example of this as he tries to become redeemed, but places the control of his redemption in Inez’s hands. He made the choice to do this, rather than having the courage to choose his own redemption by his own hands. He was free to give that power away. The play is based on the absurdity of existence. The three people condemned to remain in the room together have no meaning in their existence and the structure that they allow to exist is absurdly constructed out their beliefs that they deserve this punishment. Their interactions really have no meaning in the end and neither do their choices. No matter what they choose they are still within their own constructed reality which in itself is meaningless. The development of the meaninglessness of life is a theme which is intended to support the idea that it is when we give meaning to something that it has power, not because it innately has power. Inez only has the power that is given and the room only has the power to contain them as long as they believe that they belong there. The ‘otherness’ of everything that is outside of the self defines how and why people are always alone. There is no real meaning to connections because there is no way to circumvent the alienation of others. As Estelle pursues Gavin and Gavin tries to place meaning in the event of their coupling, the real truth is that Gavin as a person has no meaning for Estelle because she wants something from their sexual experience that has nothing to do with him and the same is true for Gavin. They are not connected through a close, spiritual bond, but are connected by the fact that they both are seeking to find identity through validation by using another person. Inez takes an interest in the whole experience in the room only because it fulfills her own needs. Nothing about the interactions is authentic or real, but intended to produce a result that is outside of the concept of a relationship with another human being. The final concept that frames the entire play is that of ‘the look’ (Sartre 2001). The look can be defined by the way in which others impose definitions of identity through their gaze. People tend to give up their freedoms by giving in to the idea of the look. In the play, this is especially important for both Gavin and Estelle, but it also pertains to the structures of existence that Inez creates for herself. It is important to her that she is looked upon as cruel. She does not hide her cruelty nor does she expect that her cruelty will gain or lose anything for her. It simply is who she is and how she wields it is the important center upon which her life is created. Even Inez, then, is not immune to the concept of ‘the look’. Gavin, of course, needs validation about his manliness and redemption through the other two women. Estelle needs to feel female through the touch of a male. None of these needs have anything to do with the others and in giving up this power they have allows those who have no meaning in their lives to hold sway. Works Cited. Abrams, M H. English Romantic Poets: Modern Essays in Criticism. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. Print. Ansbro, John J. Martin Luther King, Jr: Nonviolent Strategies and Tactics for Social Change. Lanham, Md: Madison Books, 2000. Print. Jefferson, Thomas, and Merrill D. Peterson. The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Charlottesville, Va.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1993. Print. Keats, John. “Ode to a Nightingale” Sartre, Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings. London: Routledge, 2001. Print. Sartre, Jean-Paul. No Exit: A Play in One Act. New York: French, 1958. Print. Swift Jonathan. “A Modest Proposal”, pp. 260-262 in author ed. Book name. Place of Publiciation: Publisher, year of publication. 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