Literary Criticism: Do you also think that epics and novels can only represent the whole truth in literature?

‘Tragedy and the Whole Truth’ by Aldous Huxley is an important text in the literary criticism of English literature. The text discusses two very important issues: one is ‘tragedy’ and the other is ‘whole truth’. We all know more or less about tragedy and many tragic plays and tragic dramas have become world famous. We can take Oedipus as an example. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Hamlet could also come to our mind. Whole truth, on the other hand, can be said to be a fairly new concept because before Huxley, very few people mentioned about this issue.

So, first of all, we need to know what Huxley tires to mean by introducing the term ‘whole truth’. By ‘whole truth’, he implies a kind of truth which is ‘super truth’. It is not ‘two and two makes four’ or ‘the earth travels around the sun’ type of truth or fact. Rather, in respect to literature, expressing every detail means whole truth. We may feel that giving every detail of everything in literature is a modern idea, but it has existed since ancient times. Besides portraying every detail, whole truth also brings forward the reality. Huxley finds such an example of whole truth in a description taken from Homer’s Odyssey. One day, Odysseus and his companions saw a monster swallowing six of their companions alive. Having seen that, other terrified companions moved to a safe place. After reaching ashore, they first looked for a safe place for themselves, instead of crying for their lost companions; and once they got a secured place, they first cooked food and filled their stomach and then started shedding tears for their friends before their exhausted bodies succumbed to sleep. This is a good example of whole truth. Many of us may think that what was the need of showing it and how could they eat food without crying when they saw that the demon chewed and devoured their companions. But Homer was realistic and knew that first they would need food and the question of crying would come later.

Over the ages, authors wrote about the concept of whole truth and Huxley tried to show that. However, whole truth cannot be manifested in tragedy because in tragedy, we shed all the lights on a fragmented part or sorrows and pains of life. So, there is a difference between tragedy and whole truth. Whole truth has been largely popular at present age. As a result, whole truth is perfect for novel.

Two types of literature could gain popularity in portraying whole truth. Epic should come first and here we can consider Homer as the best example. The advantage with epic is that it is, by nature, very long in size and so easier to depict whole truth. If it is a 200-page epic, the author can reveal every detail. Portraying whole truth does not only mean expressing all the details, but manifesting the reality as well. In respect to epic, an incident can be portrayed from each and every angle and all the related elements can be shown perfectly.

Another literary form can successfully show the whole truth and that is novel. Same thing can be said about novel. Novel is very long and most of the novels are around 100 pages. So, an author can beautifully present each and every detail in a novel. Another notable characteristic of novel is that the large span of life can be extensively illustrated in this form of literature. So, novel is ideal for whole truth.

Looking at other literary forms other than epic and novel, we can find drama. Even though drama, especially tragic drama, is long, whole truth can be successfully portrayed because tragedy is built on a serious setting and its sole objective is to direct it towards the end. So, the serious mood of tragedy can be diluted at the introduction of light-hearted materials. If that happens, then perhaps many audiences would not like tragedy that much. I do not see many instances of portraying whole truth in tragedy.

Poem is a very popular form of literature. Depicting whole truth in poem is fairly hard too. The problem in relation to poem is that in poetry, emotion is presented through a few lines or stanzas and there is little scope of portraying every detail in poem. Poets often try to present universal or timeless ideas. To do that or present something serious, it becomes tough to focus on whole truth in poetry. Long poems are often written in epic form and I already mentioned that epics are perfect for beautifully depicting whole truth. However, irrespective of literary forms, be it epic or tragedy or novel, the focus of the author is the most important thing. If he or she wants to put emphasis on whole truth, only then it will become possible to portray whole truth. On the other hand, if the whole truth is not given importance then whole truth cannot be shown even in novel.

Literary Criticism: Compare Tragedy and Whole Truth

How does Aldous Huxley compare tragedy and whole truth in literature?

Tragedy and the Whole Truth is a major work in the field of literary criticism of English literature. Aldous Huxley presented a beautiful analysis of tragedy and whole truth and showed us a new way of thinking. Prior to Huxley, many people believed that tragedy is the best form of literature and only tragedy will survive not whole truth for it is not a good thing. However, Huxley showed that great writers did not neglect whole truth and even while writing tragedy, they presented whole truth.

First we need to know what tragedy and whole truth actually means. By tragedy we mean something sad. In literature, tragedy means tragedy play. Many famous drama of world literature is tragic drama. There are many famous Greek tragedy plays. William Shakespeare, the famous English dramatist, also wrote tragic dramas such as Macbeth and Hamlet, which became very popular. These tragedy plays survived for centuries and provided food for thought to people.

By “whole truth” Aldous Huxley referred to the ordinary matters of our daily lives and presenting them properly. As the instance of whole truth, he mentioned Homer’s Odyssey. Odyssey tells the story of the journey of Odysseus to Ithaca, his homeland. During this journey, he and his companions faced great dangers. Once, a monster ate six of his companions. After reaching to a shelter in the island, Odysseus’ companions, instead of crying, first searched for food and then mourned for them and fell asleep crying.

Tragedy is higher and chemically pure. Because the author presents only one idea meaning, we only see sufferings, losses, pain in tragedy and all these are present in human nature. Hence, any good tragedy has great effect on us and it has a power called “Catharsis” which lightens up the sorrow of human heart. The better the tragedy, the powerful the Catharsis becomes. Catharsis helps us to overcome sorrows. Hence, tragedy is given great importance in all the countries.

On the other hand, whole truth is chemically impure because it contains many more ingredients than tragedy, but Aldous Huxley does not think less of it than tragedy. In his regard, Huxley takes an example from the novel Tom Jones by Henry Fielding where the female protagonist, Sophia Western, falls on the ground while attempting to ride on a Western horse. The incident creates some humors and the way Fielding describes the incident is also very humorous. In tragic dramas, we cannot see a scene like this because it is chemically impure. At the same time, we also understand that whole truth suits novel very well; the main genre of current-day literature. Hence, we cannot neglect whole truth and it is no less inferior to tragedy. What Huxley tried to say is that if whole truth is used properly then it would become richer than tragedy. At the same time, the author can also utilize the artistic features of tragedy.

Huxley wrote this essay at a time when novel became a very popular genre and drama and poem were losing their charm. Cinema has become very popular and by “reading books” people started referring to reading novels.  If we look at our lives we would see that we do not read or watch drama that much and very few people these days read poetry or enjoy reading it. Most of the time, we study novels. From time to time, we watch tragic plays in theatres or on television but they are not so popular. But Aldous Huxley thinks that both tragic play and novel have great importance and very much necessary for human beings.

The absence of these two elements will destroy the balance of the world and a major damage will happen to human through process. Hence, the writers of tragic plays should pay attention to whole truth and writers of novels should learn from tragic plays.