Theme of Death in Harry Potter

Name :- Rathod Zindagi V.

Roll no. 13

Sem. –IV

Year -2012-13

Sub. To. – Dr. Dilip Barad

Dept. of English

Maharaja Shri Krishnakumarsinhji Bha. Uni.

Bhavnagar

Paper:- The New Literature 

Topic:-

Theme of Death in Harry Potter

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” 
― Mark Twin 

This writing  examines different attempts throughout the series to master death. It looks at mastering death through immortality, acceptance and sacrifice comparing the attempts of different characters to ultimately accomplish the same goal of mastering death.

“I DON'T CARE!" Harry yelled at them, snatching up a lunascope and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!"
"You do care," said Dumbledore. He had not flinched or made a single move to stop Harry demolishing his office. His expression was calm, almost detached. "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

    The word “ Deathly”  features prominently in our life , you can kind of figure out that death and mortality would play a major role in this book. Basically , Harry is forced to finally confront the specter that’s been haunting him all these years death face to face. While death has always shadowed his life since the murder of his parents, now it’s right up close and personal. From the deaths of many beloved friends to the requirements that Harry Himself shuffle off this mortal coil, generally we readers are constantly forced to try and understand what death is , What is mean, and how to deal with it. From the beginning of the quest, Harry knows that his own death is possibility – but now it seems almost like a likelihood. Here , we see his first thoughts on his fear of death and the unknown.

Along with good vs. Evil, and the burden of being “the one”, death is a looming theme. Dumbledore paints death as a great adventure. Voldemort fears it and seeks to power over it. Throughout the series and especially in this last installments beloved characters die heroic deaths in the battle against Voldemort. Loved ones grieve their loss. This is the nature of Die.

Keeping Faith with the Dead

The only person capable of planning and orchestrating Voldemort’s downfall is Dumbledore, because no one but he has the wisdom or knowledge to piece together what Voldemort has done and figure out how to undo it. And yet Dumbledore knows that this difficult work will only be completed after his death. Not only Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but also Snape, Lupin, Moody, and all the members of the Order of the Phoenix have to keep doing their part after Dumbledore’s death, carrying out his vision. As we have seen, believing in Dumbledore’s quest after he is dead is not easy for Harry, nor is it for any of the others.

In an attempt to gain immortality to go with his quest for absolute power Voldemort tears apart his own soul and commits murders to create horcruxes to house the pieces of his shattered soul. Fear of death motivates a few wizards to choose life as ghosts. Nearly Headless Nick tells Harry “I know nothing of the secrets of death, for I chose my feeble imitation of life.” A ghost is merely an imprint of a departed soul, but having splintered his own this is no longer a possibility for Voldemort.

Although many will claim by the end of the series Harry has mastered death by casting away the temptation of the Hallows and embracing his own death, evidence from the text shows his acceptance of death only prolonged death in certain situations. Harry finally seems to come to this same conclusion at the end of the series when he ignores the Deathly Hallows, a chance to become "master of death". Would the Deathly Hallows have brought Harry closer to immortality, especially after he had already come closer to death than any other character in the series? Probably, but truly mastering death is impossible and after what he has gone through Harry knows this as well as anyone.

   

Theme of Imperialism in Waiting for Barbarians

Name :- Rathod Zindagi V.

Roll no. 13

Sem. –IV

Year -2012-13

Sub. To. – Dr. Dilip Barad

Dept. of English

Maharaja Shri Krishnakumarsinhji Bha. Uni.

Bhavnagar

Paper:- The African Literature

Topic:-

Theme of Imperialism in Waiting for Barbarians

What is Imperialism:- 

A system in which one country extends its power and influence by defeating other countries in war, forming colonies, etc.

J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians is an exploration of a horrific world of oppression, torture, callousness, and human suffering. The novel takes place in a settlement at an unspecified time in an unspecified country in which colonizers and natives have lived for several decades. A Magistrate rules the colony and has lived peacefully with both groups for years. As the novel begins , Colonel Joll, a representatives of the Empire, arrives, spreading fear among the settlers by telling them the natives present a great threat. Colonel Joll’s arrival disrupts the peaceful colony and creates an atmosphere of suspicion and conflict. The settlers and natives, who had coexisted peacefully before, now find themselves pitted against each other. While the Empire deems the natives “barbarous,” in fact it is the Empire itself that becomes increasingly barbarous as the novel progresses, losing all regard for human dignity, spirit, and respect. The quality deemed most odious in the Barbarians – savagery in its many forms – is amply displayed by the actions and attitudes of the Empire’s men.

The Barbarians are a threatening and potentially   rebellious presence in the eyes of the  Empire. While Joll believes the natives must be held down to prevent an invasion of the Empire’s settlement, the action of the novel makes it clear that it is the Empire itself, which is the invasive, alien force. The natives, called Barbarians by the invaders, in warding off the Imperial troops, stand to lose the most: their identity, their land, their freedom. In efforts to defeat the Barbarians, Colonel Joll and his soldiers burn all the trees by the town’s river in an attempt to destroy anything the natives could use as cover or camouflage. By doing this, they kill untold numbers of animals not quick enough to escape the blaze. The fire also causes the soil along the shore to erode and facilitates the expansion of the desert. The so-called “civilized” soldiers of the Empire are not just battling the natives; they are waging a war against the land itself. The Imperials fail to see the irony of their situation as invaders in the homeland of the Barbarians. They fail to recognize themselves as foreign, and instead assume their superiority, legitimacy, and indisputable right over the natives and the land the natives inhabit.

    Throughout the novel, the qualities that have been attributed to the Barbarians by the Imperials—immorality, filthiness and stupidity, in particular—can be seen as qualities possessed by the Imperials themselves. For example, Joll does not heed the Magistrate’s strenuous warnings against the capture of harmless prisoners from a fishing village, and his ignorance leads to the embarrassing and violent defeat of the foolhardy expedition. Still, Colonel Joll comes rolling back in his carriage from his philistine journey; he never listens and never learns from his errors. Similarly, the squalid living conditions of the natives are shown to be a result of their subjugation. When the first large group of natives is captured and imprisoned by Colonel Joll, they let their waste pile up in the corner of the yard and have to be told to bury it. When one of their babies dies, the mother keeps it under the blanket with her. However, once the Magistrate is imprisoned for helping the woman he loves escape, we see that he too is not allowed to cleanse himself, his clothes, or his room--even of human waste. These conditions become normalized to such a degree that, even when he is released from prison, he has to be forced to clean himself and put on clothes. By being treated as a Barbarian, the Magistrate himself loses the qualities attributed to “civilized” people.

    The most decisively “barbarous” characteristic of the Empire is its rampant immorality, matched only by savage brutality. The imprisonment and interrogation process that the author describes includes beatings, various forms of hanging, starvation, as well as deprivation, isolation, and public humiliation of prisoners.

Tragic Hero & Hamartia

                        

Here I am putting My view regarding :-

                         Tragic Hero & Hamartia

                   According to Aristotle, a hero of tragedy must arouse in audience a sense of pity or fear the change of fortune should be not from bad to good but, reverely from good to bad.

            In My opinion...     Tragic Hero is a person or a character who is designed for the  tragic flow and sufferings. Ex. Othello in Shakespeare’s Othello. As Aristotle said "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall."

The tragic hero is a man of noble stature. He is not an ordinary man, but a man with outstanding quality and greatness about him. His own destruction is for a greater cause or principle.

It should be noted that the hero's downfall is his own fault as a result of his own free choice, but his misfortune is not wholly deserved. Usually his death is seen as a waste of human potential. His death usually is not a pure loss, because it results in greater knowledge and awareness.

 The Common charactiistic of a Tragic Hero

According to Aristotal

·                     Usually of noble birth

·                 
Hamartia
 - a.k.a. the tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall.

·                  
Peripeteia
 - a reversal of fortune brought about by the hero's tragic flaw

·                   His actions result in an increase of self- awareness and self-knowledge

The audience must feel pity and fear for this character.
Hamlet as a tragic hero

Aristotle wrote down these characteristics of a tragic hero for classical Greek tragedy plays. However, Shakespeare plays are often noted for their excellent portrayals of tragic heroes.

Here's an example of a principal Shakespeare character who is regarded as a tragic hero. Hamlet's fatal flaw, as seen by Aristotle, would be his failure to act immediately to kill Claudius. Unlike classical tragic heroes, however, Hamlet is well aware of his fatal flaw from the beginning - he constantly questions himself on why he continues to delay the fulfillment of his duty. His continuous awareness and doubt delays him from acting. (This is slightly different from the Aristotliean classical tragedies such as Oedipus Rex where Oedipus is not aware of his flaw until the very end.)

Dynamics of Human Relationship in Tara

Name :- Rathod Zindagi V.

Roll : 13

Part :- I Sem. II

Paper:- E-C-202: Indian Writing in English – Post Independance

Topic:-   Dynamics of Human Relationship in Tara

Submitted To,  Dr. Dilip Barad

                         Dept. of English

                          Bhavnagar University

                           Bhavnagar

Topic :- Dynamics of Human Relationship in Tara

                    Mahesh Dattani freauently takes  as his subject the complicared dynamics of the modern urban family. His characters struggle for some kind of freedom and happiness under the weight of tradition. Culture construction of gender, and repressed  desire. In his plays, Dattani takes on what he calls ‘Invisible issues’of  Indian society. Dattani challenges  the  constructions of ‘Indian ‘ and ‘indian’ as they have traditionally been defined in modern theater.

                    Tara cenres on the emotional separation that grows betreen two conjoined twins following the discovey that their physical separation was manipulated by their mother and grandfather to fovour the boy over the girl. Tara , a fiesty girl who isn’t given the opportunities given to her brother. Dattani sees Tara as a play about coming the gendered self, about coming to terms with the feminine side of oneself in a world that always favors what is ‘male’ many people in India see it as a play about the girl child . it is important to note that all of Dattani’s writes plays to be seen and heard,literature to be read.

                    Tara is throughout a tragic play and its difficult to point out only few points for its tragedy, but even then I would say that besides Tara and chandan’s physical and mental sound, Bharati is more tragic in comparison to Tara and chandan. Tara is a story of girl who  wants  to twinkle and shine, just like her name. Dattani using the themes like gender  identity,discrimination,middle class life,revelation etc. He through these themes has beautifuliy shown the agony of a girl in typical Indian society.

                  These are stereotypical gender roles and Dattani makes is when Tara explains to Roopa about the conversation between Father and son,

“ The men in the house were

Deciding on whether they

Were going to go hunting

While the women looked

After the cave.’’

                                        Dattani very cleverly the light to highlight the action wherever he wants at any level without any breaks for chance of scene. It is this the gives the play the feeling of unity of action music is so well  used that it also creates and enhance the mood of character Issues of gender discrimination ‘Tara is a riveting play that question the role of society that treats the children of the same womb in two different ways.Dattani’s  ‘Tara’is a poignant play about a boy and girl who are joined together at the hip and have to be separated surgically.The fact that it is  women who continues the chain of injustice. Tara is not just the story of protagonist of the play ‘Tara’, but it is the story of even girl child born in ‘Indian’family whether urban or rural.

                                              It is a bitter example of child abuse present in the Indian societies. Every girl child born an Indian family does suffer some kind of explotation propounded to the son.the play revolves around the simese twins,chandan and Tara patel, throughtout the play we can feel that she beares some kind of aversion with outside world and her world consists of only her parents and her brother whom she was ever close to the play explores besides exposing the typical Indian mind set which has from time immemorial preferred a boy child and to a girl child.

                 It looks at the triumphs and the failures of an Indian mind set which has from time immemorial preferred and the failures of an Indian family. Shashi Deshpande communicates  ‘Roots and Shadows.’

“women’s  lives, they have told me,

Contained no choice the women had

No choice but to submit and accept

I had often wondered…they have been

Born with out wiils, or have their wills atrophied

Through a life time of disuse.’

                                  Tara , a feisty  girl who isn’t given to her opportunities as were given to her brother eventually wastes away and dies. His plays deal with cotemporary issues. They are plays of today sometimes as actual as to cause-times as actual as to cause controversy,but at the same time they are plays which embody many of the classic concerns of world drama.thus, to conclude Everyone in the play is trying to prove his or her superiority.   

MULTIPLICITY OF THEMES IN MIDDLEMARCH

Name :- Rathod Zindagi V.

Roll : 13

Part :- I Sem. II

Paper:- E-C -204: The Victorian Literature

Topic:-   MULTIPLICITY OF THEMES IN MIDDLEMARCH 

Submitted To,  Dr. Dilip Barad

                         Dept. of English

                          Bhavnagar University

                           Bhavnagar

 THE MAJOR THEME

Middlemarch is a complex work of art and a number of themes and ideas are woven into its complex fabric. One of its major themes, however, is the frustration of noble ideals and lofty aspirations by meanness of opportunity. In Middlemarch the theme has been studied with reference to a number of characters. And has been universalized in this way.

Middlemarch subtitle is “a study of provincial life”, this means that Middlemarch. Represents the spirit of nineteenth-century England through the unknown, historically unremarkable common people. The small community of Middlemarch is thrown into relief against the background of larger social transformations, rather than the other way around.

Middlemarch is a major novel by any standard. The historical canvas is very wide. The several storylines storylines of the multiple plot are traced from their beginning, gradually  combining into a drama which gathers intense human and moral interest. Themes emerge naturally out of believable families and marriages, and final outcomes do not depend upon gratuitous interventions from melodrama or authorial providence. Middlemarch: a study of provincial life is set, like Felix Holt, in a midlands manufacturing town towards 1832.

* DOROTHEA – CASAUBON STORY

Dorothea is the first major character in the novel whose life is a tragedy of frustrated idealism. She has been referred to as a modern st.theresa motivated by an intense desire to do good and make some noble achievement. But Middlemarch society, narrow, stinted and tradition bound, offers little opportunity for the realization of her lofty ideals and noble aspirations. She  seeks to find an outlet for the re-building of the cottages of the poor tenants on the state of a neighboring  baronet and friend of the family. Sir chettam. But the scope for such philanthropy is extremely limited and it bring little satisfaction to this later day Theresa. Thus her lofty aspirations are frustrated by her meanness of opportunity.

*   LYDGATE – ROSAMOND STORY

This  very frustration of noble aspirations by “meanness of opportunity” and “sport of commonness” is also illustrated by lydgate – rosamond  story. Well educated and cultured, lydgate  is an exceptional individual who is keen to promote the cause of medical science by devoting his energies to higher research and study, and not waste  them in earning money like the common fashionable physician. He comes to Middlemarch hoping that in the seclusion of this provincial town be would he able fully to realize his aspirations. But, says Joan Bennett, “lydgate’s promise the promise of a man of exceptional moral and intellectual gifts, was unfulfilled partly because of the obstructive stupidity of the people among whom he worked and the various crosscurrents of religious and political prejudice, professional jealousy and economic difficulty which can impede the progress of medical science. But unfulfillment was to be partly also the result, both of positive and negative qualities in his own character”.

Most character in Middlemarch marry for love rather than obligation, yet marriage still appears negative and unromantic. Marriage and the pursuit of It are central concerns in Middlemarch, but unlike in many novels of the, marriage is not considered the ultimate source of happiness. Two examples are the failed marriages of Dorothea and lydgate. Dorothea marriage fails because of her youth and of her disillusions about marrying a much older man, while lydgate’s marriage fails because of irreconcilable  personalities. Mr. and Mrs. Bulstrode also face a marital crisis due to his inability to tell her about the past, and Fred vincy and Mary Garth also face a great deal of hardship in making their union. As none of the marriages reach a perfect fairytale ending, Middlemarch offers a clear critique of the usual portrayal of marriage as romantic and unproblematic. 

The whole above question depends upon the characters and due to their actions which kind of incidents are taken place in the novel.  The texture of “Middlemarch “ is a very complex one, because it is made up of a number of stories. And each story the author George Eliot has narrated one problem of the English society and of an individual of her time. First there is Dorothea – Casaubon  - ladislaw love triangle, secondly, there is the tale of romance and marriage of lydgate and rosamond. Thirdly story of Fred vincy and Mary Garth. There is also the bulstrode – theme of a murky, discreditable past catching up with the present. Finally there is the story of wealth and avarice connected with the life and death of peter Featherstone. Thus due to such complex plot, Henry James averes.

“A treasure house of detail but an indifferent whole”.

But the novelist has shown great skill in welding this heterogeneous material into a single whole. So that “unity amidst immense variety” characterizes the novel.

This character play significant role. They are not limited to their stories. But they plays their role into other story also for instance ladislaw and lydgate become friends and Dorothea becomes the medical man’s patroness. Further. The various characters and stories are well- integrated with their social environment. For instance, in the provincial Middlemarch  society, birth, class and rank are a powerful determining force. They are shocon as being impediments to the marriage of Dorothea and ladislaw but they act as a magnet to bring about the union of rosamond and lydgate. Another and

Even more important factor is money. It is the cause of lydgate’s entanglement and downfall. Balstrode and his wealth find a parallel in Featherstone. Money is much cause for Garth and for other also. In all these ways. The novelist has closely integrated individual characters and actions with their social medium and has given us a novel which an organic whole. Thus w.j.harvey averses.

“The taproot of her vision, that which howrishes the whole fabric is her concern with what we may call the transeendence of self.”

The typical psychological and spiritual development of her protagonist is the painful struggle to break free from the prison of egoism into a life of sympathy with their fellow men. There are subtle variations of this theme, but the most subtle being the case of Dorothea.