Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Hamlet

Summary of the Play

Prince Hamlet of Denmark is urged by his father’s Ghost to avenge his murder at the hands of the dead king’s brother, now King Claudius; to make matters worse, Claudius has married the widow, Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. Denmark is under threat of invasion from young Fortinbras, who seeks to regain lands lost to Hamlet’s father by Fortinbras’s father. Claudius sends word to the King of Norway (Fortinbras’s uncle) to curb Fortinbras’s aggression. In the meantime, Hamlet feigns madness with his family and friends, including his beloved, Ophelia, sister to Laertes and daughter to Polonius. Both Polonius and Laertes warn Ophelia against Hamlet’s amorous advances. Polonius believes Hamlet’s “madness” to be love sickness. Laertes is given permission to return to his studies in Paris.

Claudius directs Gertrude to try to learn the cause of Hamlet’s odd behavior; they suspect it is the old king’s death and their own recent marriage. Meantime, Claudius and Polonius eavesdrop on Ophelia and Hamlet, who spurns her and appears mad. The King reveals to Polonius his plan to send Hamlet to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Hamlet seizes the opportunity presented by a traveling troupe of players to expose the King’s guilt with a “play within a play.” Soon after, Hamlet delays killing Claudius because the King is at prayer, and Hamlet does not wish to send him to heaven instead of hell. When Gertrude meets with Hamlet as Claudius has directed, Polonius hides behind the arras in Gertrude’s room to eavesdrop on the conversation. Hamlet, suspecting the interloper is Claudius, stabs and kills Polonius.

When Polonius’s body is discovered, Claudius summons Hamlet and tells him he must sail to England for his own safety; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern accompany Hamlet, carrying letters to the English, threatening war unless they kill Hamlet. Hamlet eventually escapes, returns to Denmark, and is met by Horatio.

Ophelia has gone insane after Hamlet’s departure and her father’s death. Laertes returns and vows to avenge Polonius’s death. Claudius contrives a fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, during which Hamlet is to be injured with a poisoned sword tip and poisoned with a drink, thus assuring his death. When news arrives that Ophelia has drowned herself, Laertes is grief stricken. Hamlet and Horatio happen upon the burial site and funeral cortege; Hamlet tries to fight Laertes but is restrained.

Hamlet tells Horatio that he rewrote the papers carried by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and that the letters now call for their own deaths. Osric invites Hamlet to the duel with Laertes; Claudius has supposedly bet on Hamlet to win. Gertrude mistakenly drinks from the cup poisoned by Claudius for Hamlet, and dies; Laertes wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword, and then Hamlet wounds Laertes when they accidentally exchange swords. When Laertes reveals the conspiracy, Hamlet wounds the King and forces the poisoned drink upon him. Laertes and Hamlet reconcile, and Laertes dies; Hamlet prevents Horatio from drinking the poison so that he can live to tell the truth. Hamlet names as his successor young Fortinbras, who arrives and orders Hamlet buried with all dignity.

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ODE ON A GRECIAN URN – JOHN KEATS

ODE ON A GRECIAN URN – JOHN KEATS

The ancient Greeks used to cremate the dead and deposit the ashes in an urn which is then buried. An urn was a generally made of marble or of brass and often the surface of such Urn’s are decorated with beautiful scenes and situations. Keats has discovered such an ancient beautiful marble urn in the British Museum and he was inspired to compose this poem.

Keats addresses the Grecian Urn as an ‘unravished bride of quietness and a foster-child of silence and slow time’. Thus Keats conveys to us the idea of the silent repose and the great age of this piece of Greek sculpture. He also calls the Grecian urn a ‘Sylvan historian’ because of the rural and forest scenes are carved on its surface. He poses a series of questions, which are able to give us vivid pictures referring human beings, gods, beautiful valleys, lovers in passionate mood, and flute players playing wild and ecstasy.

The poet goes on to say about the music of the flute-players depicted on the Grecian urn cannot be actually heard but to be imagined. ‘Unheard melodies are sweeter than heard melodies’. These unheard melodies are sweeter than the melodies that we actually heard. Besides the flute players, on the other side of the urn a lover who is trying to kiss his beloved on the urn will always be seen in the same mood of passion. In the real life, love and beauty decline and fade, but the love and beauty depicted on the urn will remain fresh and forever.

In the other side of the urn the season of spring is depicted. In real life, spring is very short, after the season the trees must shed their leaves and become bare. Similarly, in real life a musician will at least feel tired of playing music and will stop for while. The enjoyment of the pleasures of love in real life is followed by disgust and satiety. But the trees depicted on the urn never shed their leaves, the melodist will never stop his tunes and the heart of the lovers will always throb with passion while the beauty of the beloved will never fade.

Then follows another picture of a crowd of people is going to some place of worship. A priest leads a heifer which has been decorated with garlands and that is to be offered as a sacrifice. The worshipers have come from some little town situated close to a river or on a sea-shore or at the foot of a hill on which stands a fortress. The town which is been emptied of its people, will always remain desolate, because the people shown on the urn will always be seen going away to the place of worship but never returning to the town. 

The poet then addresses the urn as ‘Attic shape’, ‘Fair attitude’, and ‘Cold pastoral’. These expressions convey the beauty and the poise of the urn and also refer to the rural scenes depicted on it. The urn awakens overwhelming feelings in the poet’s mind when he thinks of its eternity. The urn, says Keats, will always a friend to man. The generations of men will come and pass, and will perhaps undergo sufferings and sorrows of which we have no notion at present. But the urn will have a valuable message for generations namely, Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty. The knowledge of this great fact is of supreme importance and this fact represents the essence of wisdom. Having this knowledge, mankind needs no other knowledge.

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ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER - JOHN KEATS

 On First Looking into Chapman's Homer - John Keats

John Keats, the youngest of the romantic poets, was born on 31 October 1795 in London. He was educated at Enfield School. His was a tragic story in the sense that he suffered many calamities during his very short life. In 1804 his father was killed in a riding accident, and six later his mother died of consumption which in those days was an incurable disease. In 1818 his brother George along with his wife emigrated to America. A few months later another brother Tom died of consumption. His disappointment in love with Fanny Brawne whom he loved passionately aggravated the family disease to which he himself had fallen a prey. After his boyhood he never had home of his own and had to move from one lodging to another. Finally to regain his lost health he went to Italy where he died on 23 February 1821. 

Some of his famous poems are ‘Endymion’, ‘Lamia’ and the fragmentary ‘Hyperion’. More famous are the odes of which five are often referred to as the ‘great odes’. They are To a Nightingale, On a Grecian Urn, To Psyche, To Autumn and On Melancholy. The most famous of his sonnets is ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’. However ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ is considered to be his most perfect poem.  

Poem:

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne:

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes

He stared at the Pacific – and all his men

Lool’d at each other with a wild surmise –

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

I have read quite a lot of literature. I have in particular read the works of many west European authors. I had heard much about Greek literature and its greatest poet Homer. But I did not have the good fortune to read his great works for the obvious reason that I did not know the language. I was able to read Homer only in George Chapman’s English translation. It was really a free ad beautiful translation. After reading the translation I was overcome with joy and wonder. My joy was similar to that of an astronomer who discovered a new planet after watching the sky, through a telescope, for hours together. To use another comparison, my joy was like that of Cortex when he saw for the first time the great Pacific Ocean. He saw the ocean standing on a peak in Darien.

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ULTIMA THULE - JOHN GALSWORTHY

Ultima Thule - John Galsworthy

John Galswothy, the narrator of the story recalls his old friend Ultima Thule and tells us about his story.

Ultima Thule, an old man always came in Kensington Gardens in the afternoons accompanied by a little girl. They moved about playfully. His dresses did not indicate any great share of prosperity but his face was quite interesting. It had a special sort of brightness with waves of silvery hair and the blue eyes. His cheeks were drawn in and his lips withered.

The narrator made his acquaintance with him. But one day the narrator saw him coming alone, looking sad. He sat down on the bench with the narrator and was talking himself in a sort of whisper. “God cannot be like us”. The narrator asked ‘Why?’ The old man said that the landlady’s seven years old girl was dead. When the narrator said that he had seen her looking at the flowers, trees and ducks. He was happy that the narrator had seen her. He said that she was a good companion to him and that they were good friends. He regretted saying ‘Things don’t last”.

Music, he said makes one feel like a bird. He imitated the note of a black bird and it was very perfect. “Birds and flowers are wonderful things”, he said. All the animals seemed to him marvelous things. He told the narrator that he was happy, as he had spoken to him. He added that he made friends of the creatures and flowers.

Next time, the narrator saw him standing by rails of an enclosure holding a cat. He disliked the boys dragging that cat with a string. The cat was badly hurt. He remarked that a cat is one of the most marvelous things in the world. He knew that the cat would die but he wanted to take it home. He thought that a little kindness might do a great deal for that. The narrator accompanied him for some distance. The old man’s face looked so like a mother’s when she is feeding her baby. He hoped that the cat would look quite differently the following day. He said that he would have to get in through without his landlady’s notice. He added that he had two or three stray creatures already at his place. The narrator wanted to accompany him to his room. He agreed.

As they drew nearer home, the old man took a newspaper from his pocket and wrapped that round the cat. “She is a funny woman”, he repeated about his landlady.

When he opened the door, the narrator saw in the hall a short, thin woman dressed in black with sharp and bumpy face. Her voice sounded brisk and resolute. She asked him what he had got with him… (Mr. Thompson?)

Thompson answered: “Newspaper, Mrs. March”. She told him that he could not take that cat upstairs. The old man spoke in a determined voice. The narrator asked her if Mr. Thompson lived there. In the mean while the old man ascended the stairs.

The landlady showing the man going up said that was Thompson. She expressed her dislike and remarked that he was unbearable. She said he was good but he has no sense of anything.  

Mr. Thompson himself was half-starving but he fed the stray animals. The landlady asked the narrator to advise him.

Thompson’s room was fairly large with a bare floor. The place smelt of soap and a little beasts and birds. Besides the new cat, there were three other cats and four birds they were all invalids. The birds in the cage had perched.

Thompson told the narrator that the birds would go after if they were mended. He spoke about them dearly. To him all those birds and cats seemed to be marvelous.

The landlady had stood still at the bottom of the stairs and asked the narrator if he had met Thompson she added that she didn’t know why she kept him of course he was kind to her little girl. The narrator saw tears in the landlady’s eyes.

The landlady had kept him as a tenant but his keeping the stray animals and birds with him in the room was unbearable to her. She knew that she sends him out, but he was nowhere to go, no relations and not a friend in the world. He was a peculiar, strange being, he himself starved but fed the stray animals that were disabled and sick.

The narrator did not see Thompson again in the garden for sometime and one day he went to meet him. At the entrance to his street, the narrator saw a lot of people collected round and watching a yellowish beast was making frantic movements in the cage. It was an amusement for the people.

A man in the audience asked the master of the animal to give him that animal. He bargained and got it paying three pence. Thompson joined that narrator and expressed that he wanted to have that poor bear.  He expressed his regret that even if he could buy the beast, his landlady would not have allowed that. He said that bear is really an extraordinary animal. “It’s a marvelous creation!” he said.

They were passing through the fish shop. Thompson said: “ A fish is a marvelous thing… look at the scales! Do you ever see such mechanism?”  The narrator bought for him five codfish. Thompson carried them in a bag. He was thinking of his cats.

Thompson always talked about his strays and music. The narrator served him food often. He had been out of a job more than ten years. When questioned he asked not to talk about that.

His landlady had a good conscience and had terrible grudges against Thompson and yet she tolerated him. He always collected the strays and discovered the marvels of creation among them. She allowed him to stay in her house. Their hands were joined by that died child.

Thompson became very ill. The landlady shooed his trays out. He had been giving his food away to those animals. She explained how the birds and cats were dirtying her house and how Thompson led a miserable life. The doctor said that he had caught double pneumonia. The landlady nursed him.

He fell back, quiet at once. Presently one cat came stealing in and sat against the walls. The bullfinch bird came to his pillow. The sunlight played on his bed. He said that the sunlight is the most marvelous thing.

Mr. Jackson of the theatre came to see Mr. Thompson. The narrator described to him the situation and about the expectation of Mr. Thompson. Jackson told the narrator that Thompson worked at his theatre for thirty years and never missed a night. He complimented Thompson was the rare flute player. The owner wanted to send out one flute player. Thompson sent in his resignation. After that he could never get a place anywhere. He was kind hearted and never cared for himself. Mr. Jackson decided to take care of all his birds and cats. He handed over a card to the narrator – “ Mr. Cyril Porteous Jackson, Ultima Thule, Wimbledon”.  He spoke about Thompson with affection.

The landlady too had sat there she was gazing angrily at the cat. Mr. Jackson gave the narrator his diamond ring to take care of Mr. Thompson and went out.

The following morning Mr. Thompson died. The bright angel had gone to sleep. The bird had sat on his chest looking into his face.

He had not left money for his funeral. He never thought about himself. The landlady began to cry. A telegraphic message was sent to Jackson and on the day of the funeral the narrator went to his house Ultima Thule to see if he had carried out his promise. He had kept ready an outhouse. In it he placed cushions against the walls and a little trough of milk. He had hung a flit birdcage. The bullfinch was dead too. The cats refused to stay there.

Jackson had named his house Ultima Thule – First rate, the whole place was the last word in comfort. A man must have a warm corner to end his days in. But in Thompson’s ‘Ultima Thule’, the bullfinch had died on a heart that had never known success.

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Benares  - Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was a modern writer who was born in the year 1894 and died in the year 1963. He is a well-known thinker and writer of modern times. He was a rationalist. He has how concern for the moral values and the dread of the top sided development of science.  The present essay ‘Benares’ shows his rationalistic approach in life.

The sun eclipse was about to take place on 14^th of January 1926. It was not to be seen by naked eyes. It was visible from Benares. So Aldous Huxley came to observe it.

On that particular day the city of Benares, a pilgrim place, was crowded with a big populace. Millions of people from all over the country come there to save the sun from being eaten up by a serpent. Huxley observed the orthodox Brahmins with their chants and deeds on the crowded banks of the Ganges, the sacred river of the dirty water. Men, women and children from all walks of life with utensils and new clothes to be touched after the holy dip were carried in on head loads. Huxley observed the ocean of ignorant mankind on the banks of the Ganga, the mother of civilization.

In the mid-noon six persons carried the princess in a palanquin.  A carpet was spread to the barge. The princess in mask went to the river and got into a boat, which was decorated like Noah’s ark.  The boat went into the middle of the stream. The curtains were opened and the princess was to bath away from her poor sisters clamouring on the banks in the crowd.

Later the author, Aldous Huxley, came to the ghats on which he observed three dead bodies were cremating on the pyres of wood. Their feet were stretched out of pyre like the poor man’s out of his little bed.  The body was seen like in the torn out blanket.

The time of climax came in at last. The eclipse was to take place. Suddenly the Brahmins started sitting in a line like cormorants chanting and singing. They were gazing tip of their nose to concentrate their  meditative sleep.  Huxley who was an unorthodox and a non-conformist western man clicked his camera.

Later the author felt extremely sorry for poor India when he came into the city of Benares packed with beggars. He saw a sacred bull eating away the rice from one of the sleepy beggar. He was of the opinion that animals are not intelligent and have no imagination but they are very happy. When the whole mankind was engaged to influence gods for their benefit the bull came with timely care and ate away the rice given to a beggar in charity.

Aldous Huxley regrets the religious ignorance of the Indians. He asks the Indians who were trying to save the sun. Who will save India? Much of their energy is wasted in imbecile superstitions. He says India will not be free unless they give up all their superstitions and try to realize their own state of life.

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ADJECTIVES AND THEIR COMPARATIVE MODELS

ADJECTIVES AND THEIR COMPARATIVE MODELS

Adjective	Positive degree	Comparative degree	Superlative degree
Good	as good as	better than	the best
Bad	as bad as	worse than	the worst
Clever	as clever as	cleverer than	the cleverest
Kind	as kind as	kinder than	the kindest
Cruel	as cruel as	crueler than	the cruelest
Attractive	as attractive as	more attractive than	the most attractive
Sharp	as sharp as	sharper than	the sharpest
Easy	as easy as	easier than	the easiest
Hard	as hard as	harder than	the hardest
Great	as great as	greater than	the greatest
Smooth	as smooth as	smoother than	the smoothest
Sweet	as sweet as	sweeter than	the sweetest
Long	as long as	longer than	the longest
High	as high as	higher than	the highest
Heavy	as heavy as	heavier than	the heaviest
Industrious	as industrious as	more industrious than	the most industrious
Young	as young as	younger than	the youngest
Humble	as humble as	humbler than	the humblest
Important	as important as	more important than	the most important
Difficult	as difficult as	more difficult than	the most difficult
Deep	as deep as	deeper than	the deepest
True	as true as	truer than	the truest
Dark	as dark as	darker than	the darkest
Light	as light as	lighter than	the lightest
Clean	as clean as	cleaner than	the cleanest
Short	as short as	shorter than	the shortest
Strong	as strong as	stronger than	the strongest
Bitter	as bitter as	bitterer than	the bitterest
Prudent	as prudent as	more prudent than	the most prudent
Decent	as decent as	more decent than	the most decent
Wild	as wild as	wilder than	the wildest
Wise	as wise as	wiser than	the wisest
Brave	as brave as	braver than	the bravest
Quick	as quick as	quicker than	the quickest
Free	as free as	freer than	the freest

SONG: TO CELIA - BEN JONSON

Song: To Celia – Ben Jonson (1573 – 1637)

Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine;

Or leave a kiss but in the cup,

And I’ll not look for wine.

The thirst that from the soul doth rise,

Doth ask a drink divine:

But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,

I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,

Not so much honouring thee,

As giving it a hope that there

It could not withered be.

But thou thereon did’st only breathe,

And sent’st it back to me;

Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,

Not of itself, but thee!

to pledge: to drink to the health of someone

Jove: Jupiter, chief of Roman Gods               

nectar: the drink of gods that make them immortal    

wreath: a garland                    

wither: become dry     

swear: say a promise (sth) very seriously of solemnly.

To Celia – Ben Johnson

“To Celia” is a typical love lyric begins abruptly with a bold line “drink to me”.  We have no imagine in which the lovers face each other in a moment of intimate passion. There is a passionate appeal inviting the beloved to enjoy the sweetness of love. At the same time, the lover observes the courtly / bold manners of complementing his lover.

The poet asks his beloved to drink abundant quantities of love from his eyes. He says he will ‘pledge’ with his love drinking ‘love from her eyes’. The poet Ben Johnson magnanimously asks his lover to leave a kiss in the cup and he will not look for. His soul wants to taste a divine drink and not ordinary wine. Even if he is offered Jove’s nectar he will refuge it though Jove’s heavenly nectar may assure him immortality. The poet prefers the cup of love offered by his beloved to the heavenly wine/nectar.

In the second stanza Ben Johnson says that he sent his beloved a garland of roses as a token of love. It is not sent with the intention of either honouring her or pleasing her. The beautiful roses wither away soon. He wants his beloved to kiss the roses and prolong their life for some more time. Celia’s kisses have such a rejuvenating effect from them. When she sends the roses back to him, it will and spread its fragrance of Celia’s kisses. This poem is considered as one of the best love poems in English Literature. This poem is the best gift to his dearest Love in which Ben Johnson shows his great love to his beloved. This is really a great loving tribute to his beloved through this poem.

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