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ENG 2004 – Survey of English Literature II Dr. Joan Haar

Spring 2004 Notes

1/21/04 Gulliver’s Travels Initially published anonymously when Swift was 60. He combined several forms of lit. Voyage lit. which was from the time of marco polo, because people liked reading about trips to strange places. Allegory, which is the story that you’re told is just a cover for the real meaning of the story. That means that characters have symbolic values. Their names can be what they represent. Beast fable was a useful form for Swift. The beasts stand in for humans. Most importantly he drew on satire. There is a tradition of satire which presents an ideal to show people how far away they are from that ideal vision. Satire is a story using irony and wit to make fun of a situation. Gullivers letter to the publisher: he’s upset that the story isn’t what he wrote. But it’s talking about a story which you haven’t read yet! That’s because it was only put on the second addition. Swift (or Gulliver) is upset that changes were made to the book which were not authorized. Indeed the publisher made some changes for political reasons. He’s setting the record straight about what he wrote and what he didn’t. He also defends the credibility of his satiric method, to say that humans are as bad as they are meant to be in book 4 where they are most critical. The letter also tells us something about Gulliver himself because it’s in his voice. He’s angry and disappointed because his commentary didn’t produce any affect on society. He assumed he would be able to cure social ills through his writings but he didn’t! This tells us that Gulliver feels that his writing is so powerful it should change people in 6 months. The publisher’s preface is also a fiction. He describes Gulliver’s life and other specifics. These are all fictional facts brought forth to make the reader believe that the story is true. This is most interesting because the story is so absurd and yet at the same time Swift is trying to emphasize the story is very true. Dr. Haar says that the little people in the book are suppose to be real humans. What kind of person is Gulliver? What does his name suggest? Gullible! He pretty much accepts everything that the people tell him. He doesn’t really question and takes everything seriously (like names, titles and status). Gulliver sometimes just doesn’t understand what’s going on. He’s often oblivious to things that happen. For example he defends himself against adultery with a woman in lilliput despite the difficult logistics of the accusation. In the last book, though, he turns into a misanthrope. He’s away from human nature and human custom. All in all he’s a conformist. He assumes the values of the people he’s with. In story 4 it’s the reverse of lilliput and he’s the dwarf. Still he assumes their value norms and assumptions. But it’s important to remember Gulliver isn’t Swift. Gulliver purports to be the author but really isn’t. This is a mask. In book 2, Gulliver’s weaknesses are the generic weaknesses which are common in comedy: we think we can do something which we really can’t. Satiric key in books one and two are about the differences in size, which are often exploited for comic purposes. Someone very small who assumes pride is ridiculous. Book 1: what do the lilluputians represent as little people? Common people or any people. Humans are very small in relation to the universe. Lilluputians represent the Downloaded from: www.yumesorah.com ENG2004HaaNotes1.pdf

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ENG 2004 – Survey of English Literature II Dr. Joan Haar

Spring 2004 Notes

puniness of human kind. The satirical element is that people over value their own worth even though they are so small. The Lilliputians also have great appetites, ambitions and sins which contrast with their small value. This is an expression of a Christian point of view. 18- definition of the emperor. He calls the king majestic even though he is so small and can stand in his hand. The shows that Gulliver has assumed the assumptions of the people. 33- the letter setting him free. Specifically it’s a satire about England and English political practices. Gulliver is accused of high treason and charges are levied against him (e.g he urinitated on the palace. However, he did it to put out a fire!!) Swift is referring to the fact that he had written humorously in defense of the crown. Swift was a torre and defended the monarchy. However the way he did it angered the monarchy so this is a parallel. Gulliver won’t force the neighbors to take on their religion (at the end of the book when he wouldn’t conquer them). Swift disdained dogma and tyranny. He didn’t want to fight with the French. He’s always looking at the common humanity of people. Swift isn’t a blind patriot. He wanted to learn about national differences. Gulliver was condemned for treason and Swift was attacked for many of his stances. Swift was also a protector of Irish rights and was one of the few Englishmen to do so. How does the satire work? 27-28 Swift adds in lot of detail. Here he is describing an absurd festival. Ministers are more interested in pleasing the king than actually doing their job. In English society you got appointments by pleasing the person who is in charge. He shows how he specifically shares their value system. 38 - The emperoress gives her his hand to kiss and he takes it very seriously. It is all completely real and serious towards him. 58 - the woman defends herself despite the fact the accusation was completely absurd. Here swift draws the ridiculous comparison and then amplifies it to make it more ridiculous. All the detail charms us at first. The little people are meant to be charming and delightful. 49 illustrates this idea. Bottom of 50: there are some laws which are good and beneficial according to Gulliver. Examples: informers are all punished severely. Accusers are punished if the accused ends up being innocent. He looks favorably on some of these laws and thinks they are just. Gulliver, though, begins to see that the people are cruel in disproportion to their size. Then in book 2, Gulliver becomes the lilliput in a land of giants who are satirized for the grossness and ugliness of their bodies. He sees every defect on their bodies even though they are gentle and kindly. The big people are kind but ugly. Here in book 1, Gulliver is ugly but a much better person than the Lilliputians. Both books are focused on pride and to show how puny the people are. 1/26/04 Gulliver in the fourth book attacks human culture but expresses great sympathy for humans themselves. This is similar to book II. Catholic vs. Protestant is an important theme. Downloaded from: www.yumesorah.com ENG2004HaaNotes1.pdf

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ENG 2004 – Survey of English Literature II Dr. Joan Haar

Spring 2004 Notes

Sometimes Swifts references are extremely obscure and difficult to understand. 256 - Gulliver describes the general nature of war. This goes to the question of whether man is a rational animal or an animal able of reason who does not exercise it. Swift has contempt for saying that we are so rational as he demonstrated our so great irrational actions. 258- Then he goes on to talk about lawyers. Here he attacks lawyers and says they oversimplify things. Petrach similarly attacks lawyers. Dr. Haar use language to get their point across and convey the truth. However use language to prove their point for the purpose of their client. It’s about winning or losing. Hence they are not necessarily for the truth. 264- physicians. He goes through the fundamentals of medicine during that time. The idea was that certain systems were imbalanced, so what they did was they would take something out and then put something in. It was all about keeping balance in the body. The list though is satirical because he just adds on completely random disgusting things at the end of the list. By linking them to the real list he’s going to say that everything is absurd. This is a menopian satire that makes a long list to satirize something. This goes to say that doctors were not so respected then because the medicine was not so tested. Reductionism is when he makes a list in which he links a series of incongruities. The other form of satire used in the book is direct attack. The Houyhnhnms directly attack the humans based on what the horses new from Gullivers stories. A good example is 269. Many people said Swift was depraved when he wrote the fourth book .They said that the fourth book was obscene and therefore it shouldn’t be read. Now we see that Swift was a misogynist and was also an exhibitionist in many senses. How are we suppose to understand what’s going on in the book? Are the Yahoo’s meant to be humans? They’re physically similar even though Yahoos are monkey like. On 273 he demonstrated how filthy the Yahoos were. The Yahoos eat flesh or even anything. The things which are specifically named are prohibited as foods in wilderness. To what extent does their behavior resemble human behavior? They have a process through which they do things. Gulliver recognizes similarities. They are greedy and will kill each other for their stones. They get drunk and are really nasty towards each other. How are people different than the Yahoos? Humans wear clothes. Wearing clothes is a symbol of dignity and art. In some ways humans are better than Yahoos and other ways in which they are worse than the yahoo’s. Gulliver himself is not so sure that humans really have reason so that isn’t a distinction. The one thing he knows that distinguishes him from the Yahoos is his clothes and the fact he walks on two feet. That is also why he is worried that his clothes are deteriorating. 238- Here he explains the importance of wearing clothing. Here he shows that the brutes are really the rational animals. Do the whynams also identify a comparison between people and Yahoo’s? The Whynam doesn’t so much think so. Gulliver’s statement of the failure of human beings is when he identifies humans with the Yahoo’s. On 238 he feels a special revulsion to the Yahoos at the beginning. He stresses in the behavior of the Yahoos their excremental function. He talks about their own dung and urine. He stresses their filth and the disgusting aspects of their body. The question is how much is traditional theology manifesting itself? Maybe humans have to recognize the beast in themselves to see how great God is, which is a fundamental belief in Christianity. Downloaded from: www.yumesorah.com ENG2004HaaNotes1.pdf

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ENG 2004 – Survey of English Literature II Dr. Joan Haar

Spring 2004 Notes

Are the whynams ideal? 240 Gulliver portrays the horses as sitting on the bottoms and eating from a trough. This is suppose to be funny. He describes their whinnying language like high dutch. Gulliver is immediately full of admiration for everything that he sees. This causes him to learn the language. At the end of the book when he returns to his own land he can’t bear human beings anymore and can only be around horses as seen in 292. Gulliver becomes an enthusiast as can clearly be seen in the prefatory letter where he says he couldn’t correct the Yahoo’s around him. 279 Houyhnhnms are portrayed as a highly rational creature. They seem to repress emotions. But the question is, would humans want to live like this? Their society is very boring and doesn’t have love in it. They have a very simple and functional outlook towards life. They have no science or art, or real learning in general. There’s no vitality in this culture. This barren society is not really being held up as an ideal as swift, just because he’s very against the Yahoo’s. Swift really wants to illustrate the two extremes and tries to show that there is no middle ground with the exception of Gulliver himself. The captain in the fourth book is an example of a human being who means well. 304 Gulliver gets home and he can’t stand anything else. When he came home and his wife kissed him he said he felt nauseas by his wife and his children. He couldn’t even associate with them in any way. He also talks to his horses and they are his best friend. The question is overall how to interpret Gulliver. There was an anonymous poem that came out the year that Gulliver came out. It may be a satire, or maybe meant to show the rational ideal as sterile and unreasonable, which is line with orthodox Christianity. 1/28/04 Part I - 5 id’s do 3. Could be anything. Part II- Given a question or passage. Poetry is made up of meter (metrics or prosity). It is the rhythmical element of poetry. The second is language, both as denotative (meaning) and language that has sound. Then metaphor which is imagery. Rhythm and meter, the musical element is crucial to all poetry written before 1900. Poetry before 1900 is metrical (except for Whitman). In English poetry, metrics is largely a matter of accents and pauses. Pauses can be caused by a line break or punctuation marks. A pause in the middle of a verse line is called a caesura (sp?). End stop line is a line that ends with punctuation. Enjambed lines are run on lines and the line doesn’t end with punctuation, but just the words at the end of the line cause it to gain a certain amount of prominence. The line break usually isn’t completely overridden even if there is no punctuation. In the poem “We Real Cool” the we is put at the end without punctuation. It creates a beat by putting a focus on the We. The subject matter also fits the music being generated by the poem. The people who are speaking in the poem are supposedly very “cool” and the beat goes along with this. The last line “die soon” indicates an element of ambivalence. They “thin gin” goes to indicate that they don’t have much money. There are numerous indications that their lives are more pathetic then they might want to acknowledge. Poets are good at language games. Downloaded from: www.yumesorah.com ENG2004HaaNotes1.pdf

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ENG 2004 – Survey of English Literature II Dr. Joan Haar

Spring 2004 Notes

Meter refers to a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Accented and unaccented syllables. We divide poetic lines into feet which are units of stressed and unstressed units. The most common foot is the iamb which is ten beats in a line made of 5 feet which is unstressed then stressed. The reverse of iamb is trochee which is stressed followed by unstressed. For example: Tiger. Then you have unstressed unstressed stressed (anapestic) and stressed unstressed unstressed (dactyl). Spondaic is stressed stressed. Many compound words are spondees. We also have different names for the number of feet in a line. Tetrameter is four etc. Regular rhythm is not a sign of good poetry. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote in blank verse. Modern poetry, though, is significantly different. Modern poetry is often free verse and does not follow directly a fixed rhythm and fixed number of free feet. It’s not poetry as older poetry. One of the revolutions was breaking from the laws of metrical regularity that governed poetry. Whitman was the one who went to free verse earliest. William Carlos Williams founded a school of poetry called imagists. In This is Just to Say he creates an image of the delicious plums. In cummings “l from 95 poems” you have the image of a leaf falling in the poem. Through all the aspects he reinforces the lonliness. It could end onliness, or one, 1, iness. Autumn is always abused as the classic time of being solitary. The visual aspect is central to the poem. The second issue is the language of poetry. Ogden Nash wrote “The Turtle”. Points out a certain element of animal life. But the poem is AABB also. The poem also has a lot of similar sounding words. Repetition of sounds in poetry serves several purposes. Firstly it pleases the ear. It stresses certain words and also comes to give a certain structure to the verb. Rhyme is critical for that purpose. Rhyme is when the last syllable of verbs and consonants sounding the same. There are strong rhymes which are one syllable and weak rhymes which are two syllable rhymes. Some rhymes are slant rhymes, some imperfect lines. When you cut off the rhyme that draws attention to the issue. There are other tools for controlling language, like alliteration. There’s assonance, which is a repetition of internal rhyme sounds in a words and consonance which is a repetition of internal consonants. Onomatopia is when the sound is the word’s meaning (e.g clang, thump). Short words (monosyllables) move slowly. Words beginning and ending with consonants move slowly. This is because you have to articulate consonants. Polysyllabes and words that begin with vowels cause the lines to move very quickly. Pope talks about literary criticism and how we evaluate poetry. Pope is very witty. Terza rima is a complicated rhyme that dante wrote in. Metaphor is the general term used for imagery. We use metaphor to make us feel closer to what’s happening. It livens up the dullness of the poem. It gives a real picture. It arouses our senses. Hamlets monologue about his feeling of despair has several metaphors in it that characterize his life as a battle where he is fighting against nature. The metaphors draw the reader in. The imagery is very important in making us visualize things in different ways and supporting the bare abstraction.

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ENG 2004 – Survey of English Literature II Dr. Joan Haar

Spring 2004 Notes

Metaphor has two meanings. On one hand it’s a general term that means all types of figurative language. Simile is a comparison with “as” or “like” but a metaphor is just a regular comparison: “my roommate is a pig”. Note: we are responsible for all the terminology.

2/2/04 Couplet: two lines of poetry that rhyme. A heroic couplet is a couplet that rhymes. The line itself was introduced by Chaucer. It is called heroic in the late 17th century. In the neo classical period, most poet wrote closed couplets. That means the end of the line coincides with some type of punctuation. The couplet then functions as a type of mini stanza. There’s no enjambment, but is a regular form of punctuation at the end of the line. The balance in the couplet is very often achieved by parralelism or antithesis. These are two types of opposition. The tight rhyme at the end of the couplet is able to finish it off. This is excellent for satire. In RL from lines 7-12 we can analyze this type of structure. In line 8 there are parallels and antithesis. “A well bread lord” and “gentle belle” are parallel. Lord refers to male and belle to female, well bread and gentle are positives, lord and belle are both descriptive. Then in line 9 you lose the positive and it reverses. Now you have the gentle belle coming first and the lord goes second. Now we have reject which is negative. Lines 11 and 12 “soft bosoms” and “little mens” are parallel and “tasks so bold” and “mighty rage” are parallel. This is a chiasma because the parallel crosses on the line. Line 15 has lapdogs and lovers which also alliterate. On 2241 lines 13 and 14. British Queen and Indian Screen are rhyming. This creates a parallel. The parallels and oppositions is enhanced by zeugma which is linking two objects with a single verb. You link them together with a verb and therefore the implication is that they are linked in reality. 2240 for example, on line 105 nymph and china jar are parallel. The zeugma is “stain her honor or her new brocase. Then again at Or lose her heart or necklace. These lines are all parallel and two of them have zeugma. This implies a connection. Pope uses the heroic couplet for a lot of things. The heroic couplet is a very flexible thing to use. Blank verse does not work well with satire. It becomes didactic in an unpleasant way. Rhyme helps us when we want to be funny. Pope had a difficult life. He had spinal tuberculosis when he was young. He therefore only grew to four and a half feet tall and had pains all his life. He was also a catholic in a country which was very protestant. This kept him out of university in the country because to get in...