Comparative study between two Romantic poets: William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge

Take two Romantic poets and make a comparative study on them

  a. Why their poems are representatives of Romantic period?

  b. Why they are different from each other?

William Wordsworth is the father of Romantic Movement in English literature. He created a new style of poetry and in that poetry we can find a new style not only in topic but also in language. That is why, he is immortal in the history of English literature and of the change that he gave a lot of focus was the subject of poetry. Until him, most poets focused on urban or aristocratic people for their theme. If we study English literature until Wordsworth then we will find that the subject matter is always high people or rich people or many poets only wrote about their beloved. It was Wordsworth who revolutionized the theme of poetry by focusing that the theme should be ordinary person.

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Nature was the most important aspect of Romantic Movement in English literature. It was William Wordsworth who is credited with the starting of the movement but what we often forget is that his close friend S.T. Coleridge had almost equal contribution in the beginning of the Romantic Movement. To Wordsworth, nature was very important and Coleridge did not disagree with this view but he had some differences with Wordsworth about the role of nature in human life and in poetry. In ‘Dejection: An Ode’, Coleridge has tried to talk in details about the relationship between man and nature.

Wordsworth has consistently written about his own life and own ideas.  Sometimes he wrote about his sister, sometimes he wrote about his daughter or the people he met during his life. Sometimes, he even wrote about unknown people that he saw while traveling to another place. So, in many of his poems, we can find autobiographical elements. Even he wrote about his biography in his poem called ‘The Prelude’. He put into practice the idea that the people or the subject of the poetry should be ordinary people. He was a very ordinary person during his time. At first he was a very ordinary person with little success and he suffered a lot of poverty at the early part of his life. It took time for him to get any kind of success as a poet.

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The basic theory of Wordsworth is that the nature has an immense contribution to the flourishing of poetic feeling and nature is very close to the poetic self. According to Coleridge, soul and individual creativity are much more important. Individual creativity and poetic intuition are even more important than nature. Poet’s poem could become more beautiful with individual creativity and enough practice. Coleridge’s opinion is exactly opposite of Wordsworth’s from this point of view as well.

Wordsworth said some important things about poetry. His first major statement was that there was not much difference between poetry and prose. We might think that they are same. Wordsworth emphasized that there is not much difference between the language of prose and the language of poetry because they are quite close. Coleridge did not agree with this statement and he clearly mentioned it in his Biographia Literaria. Hence, it is important when we will discuss about Coleridge’s view on nature and function of poetry.

Coleridge said that poetry and prose are entirely different subjects. At first, the two may appear close for both of them actually work with words. We use words while writing prose and poetry. However, the sequence of words in poetry is different from that of prose. According to Coleridge the function of poetry is different from that of prose. The main function of prose is to present the truth but that is not the same with poetry.

Coleridge believed that the main function of poetry is to provide pleasure to its reader not to present the truth. Poetry may represent the truth but that is not very important. Coleridge seriously discussed on this issue in his Biographia Literaria. Coleridge said that if we look into scientific prose then we would see that they only present what happened but imagination has a major role in poetry. The main difference between poetry and prose lies in the use of imagination in these two forms.  Except novel, there is not much use of imagination in prose. During the time of Coleridge, novel became very popular but many considered poetry equally important. 

Pygmalion is a problem play

George Bernard Shaw’s one of the most notable plays is Pygmalion. In this play, the Irish playwright attempts to criticize the contemporary aristocratic society and shows that even Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl, elevates herself by taking lessons from Henry Higgins, a well-educated person. She is helpless to the class system as she faces several problems created by the class-driven society.

In many ways, Pygmalion can be said to be a problem play as various problems arise at various stages of the play. At first, tutoring a wild, Cockney girl like Eliza was a big problem for Higgins who himself is a phonetician and takes up the challenge of Colonel Pickering that he would make a fine lady out of Eliza and pass her off as a duchess among the aristocrats. He would have to face a lot of challenges to teach her proper pronunciation as well as manners of higher class society.

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During Eliza’s learning process, Mrs. Pearce, the housekeeper of Mr. Higgins, also faces problems due to her stubbornness. It is the duty of Mrs. Pearce to look after Eliza, except her lessons which Mr. Higgins himself takes care of. As Eliza is not acquainted with the lifestyle of ladies with elevated manners, it often becomes a big shock for Eliza to cooperate with Mrs. Pearce.

After initial lessons of Eliza, Mr. Higgins along with Colonel Pickering attempts to see how she is responding to the lessons. So, that was another small, but significant challenge to get Eliza into a real-life social setting where she would associate with some guests at the house of Mr. Higgins’ mother. That problem is ultimately resolved with Eliza passing that test, even though that incident clearly indicates that she requires more lessons to become a fine lady in a proper sense.

The final and most significant problem shown in the play comes towards the end after Eliza successfully proves herself as an aristocratic lady at an ambassador’s party. Upon arriving home from the party, she discovers that Mr. Higgins and Pickering both enjoy their victory together without even recognizing Eliza’s presence in the same room, let alone giving her credit.

So, Eliza suddenly feels that she has become a fine lady, but she has lost her identity. She is no more a flower-selling girl with Cockney dialect, but she does not even feel herself included in the higher class society. This awakening of Eliza with respect to her identity is the beginning of the problem. She attempts to get hold of someone so that she can find a secured place in the higher class society. In fact, there are many elements for the readers to guess that Eliza loves Mr. Higgins who, on the other hand, treats her nothing more than a student.

Eliza has a suitor in Freddy, though, she does not love him. But, in a way, Freddy is the only realistic shelter for her to get an elevated identity without having to go back to her erstwhile identity of a flower girl from gutter. So, there is a psychological in-fighting within herself which ultimately leads to a heated conversation with Mr. Higgins. Though the play ends with Mr. Higgins and Eliza going their way without giving the readers any trace of resolution to the problem, the play signifies how a girl with good manners and fashion fights for her identity just because she does not belong to an aristocratic family by birth.

Writer's mastery in the development of character in Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations are two very popular novels of English literature. Pride and Prejudice was written in the 18th century, while Dickens’ Great Expectations is a Victorian novel. Naturally, the two novels feature some unmatched elements, representing their contemporary time and issues dealt by the respective authors.

Great Expectations is a coming-of-age novel which portrays how its central characters Pip and Estella grow up together and become matured through several struggles of life and how being stricken by the harsh reality they realize their mistakes and find happiness in the end. Thematically different, Pride and Prejudice deals with morality, marriage and manners, and shows how women at that time were dependent on marriage, and husband, for their future.

Despite these differences, both these novels feature smart characterization. There are some similarities as well as some differences in the manner with which the characterization is done in these two novels. In a broader sense, Dickens’ characterization is based on social class division which typically includes orphan, poor and outcast of the society. Austen, on the other hand, carries out the characterization on the basis of gender discrimination with female or woman characters shown helpless and dependent on man in a social convention.

Dickens uses physical description to create his characters and attempts to provoke sentiment among the readers through his characters, while Austen employs conversation through which her characters are developed and she instead of provoking sentiment appeals to the senses of the readers.

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In Great Expectations, the story revolves around two rounded central characters: Pip and Estella. Pip is an orphan boy, hailing from the backward part of the society. He, from an early age, intends to grow up to become a gentleman, especially to impress Estella, and he sinks into a huge debt in his adult life and fails miserably in this endeavor. Towards the end of the novel, he realizes his mistakes and resort to working hard to pay off his debt with the help of his brother-in-law Joe, and thus, making Great Expectations a perfect coming-of-age novel.

Pip’s love-interest Estella, who is a little subdued character compared to Pip, also come-of-age towards the end when she realizes that Pip really loves her and nobody would be a better match for her than Pip. But she comes to this realization after being struck down by the society several times. She was the subject of abuse by her deceased husband, following an untimely and shocking death of Miss Havisham who had adopted Estella at her childhood. 

Joe and Miss Havisham are two other important characters in the novel. Joe is a kind-hearted man who forgives Pip despite being insulted by him early in the novel and stands beside Pip when he needs him the most. Joe is a flat character who remains a soft, kind, suave and hard-working person throughout the novel.

Miss Havisham is an interesting character who adds diversity to the novel, but faces a tragic end to her life. She is abandoned by her would-be husband on the wedding night, leading her to form a kind of hatred for all men, and throughout her life she looks for opportunities to take revenge against men. Out of this psychology, she encourages Estella to turn down Pip’s proposal, which Estella does without realizing any part of what Miss Havisham is up to. In the end, she meets an untimely and painful death.

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Pride and Prejudice tries to show the condition of women in the 19th century England. Jane Austen uses physical descriptions emphasizing mannerisms, short, descriptive representations, except that she relies on conversation rather than physical description as her main device of characterization.

For example, Austen uses Mrs. Bennet's complaints to show us her weak, self-pitying egoism. "I have no pleasure in talking to undutiful children. Not that I have much pleasure, indeed, in talking to anybody. People who suffer as much as I do from nervous complaints can have no great inclination for talking. Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied!"

Other characters in Pride and Prejudice can also be described through their dialogues and mannerism. For example, Mr. Darcy’s arrogance was reflected when he did not show any interest in dancing at the ball party.

At one point, Bingley encourages Darcy to dance with Elizabeth, who is not dancing either, and she overhears Darcy describe her as "tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me." She is understandably outraged, and decides on her ill opinion of him.

Society and Culture in Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations

Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations are considered as classic novels in English literature. Though main themes of these two novels are love and marriage, society and culture of that time were also beautifully portrayed in them. In these two novels, we also can see the issues of dignity of human beings in the society, and among the different social classes and culture of people.

Pride and Prejudice was written during Romantic Age and Jane Austen belonged to that age, but still we cannot find much of similarity between Austen’s works and that of other contemporary Romantic writers including William Wordsworth, Coleridge or Shelley and Keats. One of the reasons behind this is that Jane Austen did not travel that much, so she was not exposed to the other world as much as other Romantic Age writers. Naturally, her knowledge of outer world did not develop to the extent she could write on issues other than those she found in her limited social boundaries. So, she did not find enough of opportunities to associate with many people. She just portrays in her works what she has experienced in her society. 

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The society that we can see in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is the society of middle class people of contemporary England. Here, interestingly the main theme is women’s condition in the society. The story revolves around the condition of five Bennet sisters and they are at the center of all attention in this novel. Bingley’s family is rich but Darcy is the richest among them. Jane Austen has beautifully portrayed the middle class ethos of the society. She shows that how the entire society of middle class people is engrossed in the idea of getting their girls married to good grooms. This very common trait of contemporary middle class England was aptly captured in this novel. Readers can clearly observe the tension of Mrs. Bennet about the marriage of her five daughters. She wants her daughters to get married as early as possible because the entire property of her husband, Mr. Bennet, will go under the possession of a distant relative named Mr. Collins upon the death of Mr. Bennet. A highly discriminating inheritance system of contemporary England did not allow daughters to inherit any wealth or property from their father. This leads Mrs. Bennet to become tensed with the marriage of her daughters. No doubt, this was really an injustice to the women of that time.

When it comes to culture, Jane Austen has clearly shown that not everyone’s culture is good in that society. Mrs. Bennet is the wife of an educated middle class family, still her culture is not up to the mark and lack of education is perhaps the reason. Mrs. Bennet is not that much educated, though Mr. Bennet is highly educated. It is true that education does not always ensure elevated culture as we can later on see in two sisters of Bingley. Though they are moderately educated, they do not possess good culture and they have developed jealousy in their nature. Their elevated place in the society and higher status do not come to of any use due to their lack of good culture. The same thing goes with Darcy’s relative Lady Fitzwilliam. Despite being highly rich, she possesses a culture of low quality and the harshly manner with which she insults Elizabeth cannot be expected from someone of such dignity.

On the other hand, Great Expectations is written and set in the Victorian era. Like many of Dickens’ novels, it also portrays the lives of poor, lower class people as well as their plight and struggles. Pip comes from poor background and luckily comes to the attention of Miss Havisham. He loves Estella from the bottom of his heart, but she mocks at his being poor and rejects his love. Though Pip’s deep love for Estella recurrently comes in the forefront of the novel, the main focus of this novel is put on the social system of Victorian Age. It was a period when the society was going through several changes and formation with the old fading and the new emerging. A new emerging society put several challenges for the people. Rural people were flocking into the cities with the hope of getting work and the structure of both the rural and urban society was going though a huge change. Though Pip gets some money through the imprisoned criminal, he does not get respect upon coming to the city. Neither does he get Estella’s love, nor is he treated with dignity by his city friends.

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Pip develops a kind of arrogance in his character after coming to the city and he begins to feel inferiority complex due to the social background he belongs to. So, in the beginning, he neglects Joe which eventually turns into hatred. It is really frustrating because when Pip sinks into huge debt and faces imprisonment, it is Joe who stands beside him and saves him from going to jail by paying off his debts with all his savings. So, we can see that there existed a kind of instability in the contemporary society which Charles Dickens delicately portrays.

About culture, what we can learn from Great Expectations is that there is no certainty that people with good fortune or high education would possess elevated culture. People may have huge wealth or are highly educated, but still they could have culture of low quality. Rich people may have better means or standard of living, may enjoy abundant of food, may have good taste for attire, but when it comes to personality or mannerism they often lag behind those coming from the middle class or poor background. For example, the kind of culture Joe exhibits is unmatched to Dickens’ any other characters in the novel. Though Pip makes many mistakes, commits several wrongdoings, he still has the power to correct himself and the will to get changed which is definitely a praiseworthy quality. This is also an essential part of good culture. On the other hand, Estella or Miss Havisham gets spoilt with Pip’s money and they have no intention to change themselves. However, Estella towards the end realizes her past mistakes and attempts to correct herself by finding the true meaning of life, but the reality is that we find most of the characters of Great Expectations lacking elevated culture. Their sense of good culture is limited to maintaining a good standard of life by enjoying good food, good living condition and having good quality of attire. Dickens though this novel criticizes the contemporary society which is mostly devoid of qualities like good personality, mental will to become good and some other moral qualities and he proves that these are all essential elements of a good and elevated culture.

In their novels Jane Austen and Charles Dickens attempt to prove and justify that culture should not be limited to having good fortune or higher education. The contemporary society of England was not an ideal place for good, honest and cultured people. In fact, those wanted to follow the path of honesty and goodness failed miserably and became the victim of harsh reality in a society which itself was corrupt and lifeless. People did not have right attitude towards life and often they used to act abnormally. That is what we see in Pride and Prejudice where many people dislike Elizabeth despite her honest and elevated personality. In terms of quality, there can be no comparison between Elizabeth and the two sisters of Bingley, but what we see in reality is that both the sisters do not let go even the slightest of opportunity to poke fun at Elizabeth just because of their financial power. On the other hand, in Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, Pip upon realizing his mistakes tries to correct himself, but still he does not get the due respect from the society. The reason is same: his poverty-stricken background.

Both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, through the characters of Elizabeth and Joe, attempt to say that a person’s dignity in the society should be measured by his or her personality and characteristics, not by wealth. 

Jute-made polythene bag has started its journey

Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has signed an agreement with a private company of the UK to start producing polythene (Jut poly) from jute on a commercial basis.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today on Tuesday at the secretariat office in the presence of the State Minister for Textile and Jute, Mirza Azam MP, and the senior secretary of Textiles and Jute Ministry, Md Faizur Rahman Chowdhury. 

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In this MoU signing ceremony held at the assembly room in Textiles and Jute Ministry, BJMC Secretary AKM Tareque and Futamura Chemical Company General Manager Graeme Coulthard signed on behalf of their respective organizations. At this time, BJMC Chairman Dr. Md Mahmudul Hassan and the inventor of polythene from jute, Dr. Mubarak Ahmad Khan were present.

In the MoU signing ceremony, Mirza Azam MP said, “In the next 6-9 months, the production of polythene from jute will be started commercially. Initially, the price of this polythene will be little bit higher compared to the normal polythene. But if the production is increased, the price will be adjusted.”

Dr. Mubarak Ahmad Khan invented the Jute polymer bag. BJMC has signed an agreement with Futamura Chemical Company of the UK for its commercial production. Mirza Azam MP said, “Name of this bag made from jute will be ‘sonali Bag’. This name has been given by the Prime Minister herself. This jute-made polythene bag will be known in this name all over the world.”

The minister said, “When we took charge of the government, the number of products produced from jute were 35. At present, the number of products produced from jute is 285. This jute, which was once known as golden fiber, will be known as golden bar in the future.”

Responding to a question of the journalists, the minister said, “The demand of Sonali Bag will be huge in the market. If we can produce 500 tons of Sonali Bags everyday then it is possible to market 500 tons.” Dr. Mubarak Ahmad Khan, who invented polythene from jute, said, “This Sonali Bag is environment friendly and can be reproduced.” 

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