Interdependence of Characters within their Circumstances - Literature review Example

Elements of Literature Order No. 265915 No. of pages: 8 Premium 6530 Introduction Interdependence has always been a human trait and how well we are able to realize our dreams while maintaining good relationships depends very much on our circumstances. In this essay we are about to examine the main characters in relation to their circumstances and see how each react to them. The topics chosen for this analysis are – “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, “A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. In our analysis of these characters we are going to examine how each of these characters is important to the literary work. Robert DiYanni in his scholarly book ‘Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay (1997)’ provides the reasons for the basic need which drives people to read, be it prose, poetry, essays, plays, or any of the genres which constitute this infinite creative process. According to him, stories provide us with pleasure while at the same time informing and enlightening us with their multifarious characters and themes or to put it simply, “they enlarge our understanding of ourselves and deepen our appreciation of life.”(p. 27) The fictional world created by the masters of this craft are peopled by some of the most interesting people we know and who have become the byword for many of the attributes found in people all over the world. Characters whether in a story, play or poem help to move the story forward as much as the action, since what happens to whom, when, where and the characters corresponding response to this situation creates the story. The characters in a story can be dynamic or static depending upon their utility to the action and the insights they provide into the action. A dynamic character is sketched out in great detail and the reader is made privy to their inner thoughts and consciousness through narration in the first person or even through the use of the device of third person focalization. These characters undergo changes in their personality and outlook due to the experiences which they undergo. A very good example of such a character would be that of Louise whose circumstances make her portray herself differently at different times. Before the news of her husband’s death, she is the traditional dull housewife whose dreams are buried deep in her heart. But as soon as the unfortunate news reaches her, she becomes a totally different character who is ready to enjoy her new found freedom and is in fact happy at the turn of circumstances. A static character on the other hand may not show any great degree of transformation but they are necessary to move the action forward. E.M. Forster in his Aspects of the Novel makes another form of distinction between characters when he says that ‘We may divide characters into flat and round,’ (1927, p. 65). A flat character, to give an example maybe Mrs. Micawber from Dicken’s –“David Copperfield” who remains the same throughout the story in spite of the tumultuous changes she and her family encounter. A round character on the other hand is Elizabeth from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, who in keeping with the definition of a round character is three dimensional with a psychological and physical intricacy and reminds us of real people whom we come across in our day to day life. It is this round character who displays that “incalculability of life” and through whom the author “achieves his task of acclimatization” of his story with a certain degree of concord with real life. (Forster, 1927, pg. 25) Kate Chopin’s heroine Louise in the short story titled "The Story of an Hour” is one of those remarkable characters who reveal a gamut of emotions in the short space leased out to her. She flits from happiness to sadness to happiness again, ultimately dying of a heart attack because the sequence of events, in that one single hour is too much for her to take in. In this story the entire narrative hinges on the character of Mrs. Mallard, who takes the story forward through her thoughts and as Nancy Kress in her Dynamic Characters says, “What your character thinks about, helps to create his personality for the reader.’ From her internal thoughts we come to know that while all around her are mourning the death of her husband and her subsequent widowhood, she is glad for this tragedy because this will be free her from the stifling bondage of her marital life. Her sister on the other hand is one of those flat characters who show emotions expected of them and are in a way straitjacketed by their societal positions. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” also shows an apparently straight forward character who is in a dilemma as to which road he must choose when confronted with two diverging paths. The poet, in the course of 16 lines establishes a character full of uncertainties, who swings forth between trying a new path and charting his destiny himself or else taking the well travelled road and conforming to tradition. William George, in an article in Explicator, has in fact referred to this poem as one which includes “three distinct ages”, where the poet in his youth makes a choice, in his middle age sticks to that choice and in his old age ultimately looks back at the consequences of his choice. Here the characters dilemma is brought forward and in this moment of reckoning the narrator has to make that choice which when he ‘shall be telling with a sigh” will show him “that has made all the difference” The character of the poet is revealed through this conundrum, which shows that he was a man more prone to relishing the new experiences which life had to offer rather than to stick to the conventional path which he does not seem to relish. Mrs. Mallard and the narrator of the poem are two individuals waiting for that moment when they can fulfill the wishes and dreams which they secretly nurture in their hearts. They are anxious as well as eager to realize these dreams unencumbered by the constraints of society. The same could be said of the character of Lena Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s play ‘A Raisin in The Sun’ where she keeps all her dreams and aspirations locked away in her heart only to release them when she comes into the insurance money of her dead husband. She not only gives vent to realizing her dreams but also encourages her children Beneatha who seeks to become a doctor and her son Walter who wishes to open his own liquor store. While the poet shows a lifetime’s journey, full of twists and turns, Mrs. Mallard’s life in the space of an hour shows her traversing the distance between joys and sorrows. Robert Frost, in fact acknowledges that while writing the poem, his thoughts were on a friend, who went off to war, and that “whichever road he went” he was going to have regrets. (Bread Loaf Writers Conference, 23 Aug. 1953) ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ is a touching play penned by Lorraine Hansberry which made its debut on Broadway in 1959. This play was the first of its kind to be played on Broadway that was written by a black woman and which had a black director Lloyd Richards. ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ deals with the experiences of a family who was raised in Washington Park Subdivision in the neighborhood of Chicago’s Woodlawn. The author Lorraine Hansberry being a black herself is able to understand the feelings of her African – American ancestors and was successful in poignantly elucidating the despair, disappointment and false hope of this poor black family in their quest for a better life. Her epic story of the Younger family in their escape from the putrid life in the ghetto is heart- wrenching as it brings out the sad plight of failed dreams. Her characters in ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ are not only vivid but captivating and life – like. The play has historical value, in the sense that it portrays the racial attitude that was present during the 1950’s and which continues even today. It reflects the prejudices and disillusionment faced by the Blacks in their struggle for freedom. The chief characters in this play are Lena Younger, mother of Walter and Beneatha Younger, Walter and Beneatha. Lena Younger, the mother of Walter and Beneatha was a deeply religious woman but possessing a very strong will. She believed in the strength of the family and was proud of her children. She was a highly sensitive person who always encouraged her children to take a pride in realizing their dreams. She supports her beliefs and believes in striving hard to make them succeed but within moral boundaries. In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” he speaks of a single character who stands at the junction where the road divides into two. Readers often see the poem literally, as an expression of individualism. Critics typically view the poem as ironic. (William H. Pritchard) The poem is an expression of individualism and is highly inspirational. This can be felt in the narrator’s last lines which say – that taking the road “less travelled by” has “made all the difference.” This sort of inspiration could also be felt in the character of Lena who never gives up- encouraging and inspiring her children Walter and Beneatha to chase their dreams till they achieve them. While Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” and Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun” speak of freedom, inspiration and encouragement, Kate Chopin’s story drips with disillusionment after Louise’s new found freedom after hearing that her husband had died in a train crash. Not being emotionally dependent on her husband, Louise in fact feels glad at her new found freedom and Chopin describes this feeling and how Louise sits with gay abandon in a very comfortable chair and takes a look at the trees just outside her window, describing it in the following words -"that were all aquiver with the new spring life.” The factor of disillusionment can be seen in Louise’s case as well as in all the characters of the Younger family who are highly disappointed when they find out that their house is situated in a colony of Whites. But Louise’s disillusionment of being happy at her new found freedom and then finding out that her husband was not dead after all was something she could not bear and drops dead at the news. The shock of having to return to a life where she was just “the little woman” without an identity of her own was too much to take and she losses control of herself and drops dead on the floor. The disillusionment seen in the play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ is a little more subdued when compared to Louise’s case because it was not as harsh. The Younger family though disappointed at first of not being able to shift from their shabby and dilapidated house still found it in their hearts to be hopeful. Though Beneatha was very angry and disappointed at the action of her brother and slapped him for using her part of the money by investing it in his business of opening his own liquor shop, yet she forgave him for his action and was hopeful once again. All the three literary works in three different genres are excellent in their presentation of facts and makes the reader rather empathetic towards the different characters. This is so, because all these are incidents which we come across with in our daily lives. Though each author has their own style in the portrayal of facts, yet all of them have been successful in making their audiences relate to them on a personal level which makes it a success. References DiYanni, Robert (1997) Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama and the Essay,McGraw-Hill. Kearns, Katherine (1994). Robert Frost and a Poetics of Appetite. Cambridge University Press. Forster, E.M. (1927) Aspects of the Novel, Edward Arnold. William H. Pritchard. On "The Road Not Taken.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of English. Kate Chopin’s – “The Story of an Hour.” www.storybites.com/Chopinhour2.htm Why do we read prose fiction? http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=199050 Read More