Arms and the Man: GB Shah

Arms and the Man is one of the finest anti-romantic comedies on the theme of love and war which comes from the pen of Bernard Shaw, who refused, on the one hand, to believes that soldier are exceptionally heroic and inspired by patriot sentiments. On the other hand, he thought of marriage not as a means of satisfying the personal desire of individual men and women. Thus, as we see these two themes are quite distinct from each other but Shaw has developed his plot in such a way that they are interwoven. Here Shaw’s object is to expose the romantic notion of war with love and marriage.

Death of Salesman: Miller

Death of the Salesman is a personal and social tragedy which shows the cultural change. It may be viewed as a tragedy of a middle class neurotic caught up in a large city by his dreams. Miller’s concept of tragedy is quite different from that of Shaw and Galsworthy. His view of tragedy is different even from the classical view. The Greek heroes are destined to suffer but Miller takes man as a tragic product of dark surroundings. Unlike the Greeks, Miller considers the common man the most suitable subject for the tragedy.

BURLESQUE

BURLESQUE (Ital. burlesco, from burla, a joke, fun, playful trick), a form of the comic in art, consisting broadly in an imitation of a work of art with the object of exciting laughter, by distortion or exaggeration, by turning, for example, the highly rhetorical into bombast, the pathetic into the mock-sentimental, and especially by a ludicrous contrast between the subject and the style, making gods speak like common men and common men like gods. 

Medivial Drama

THE MEDIEVAL DRAMA

For the sake of clearness we have reserved for a separate chapter the discussion of the drama of the whole medieval period, which, though it did not reach a very high literary level, was one of the most characteristic expressions of the age. It should be emphasized that to no other form does what we have said of the similarity of medieval literature throughout Western Europe apply more closely, so that what we find true of the drama in England would for the most part hold good for the other countries as well.

All About H. Hatter: G.V. Desani

Written in 1948, All About H. Hatter is G.V. Desani’s masterpiece. The H. Hatter in the title stands for Hindustanwallah Hatter which is a pseudonym of a fifty-five years person who the orphaned son of European seaman and non-Christian woman from Malaya. The novel is the comic record of the life of this orphan who is constantly threatened, gulled, robbed and bullied in life. The following utterance made by him gives us a true idea bout his character:

“I haven’t had my mother to love me….

I have no relations, don’t you see! I am afraid,

can’t you see?”

Religio Medici: Browne

Religio Medici is an autobiographical work of Caroline prose writer of Sir Thomas Browne who studied medicine at Padua and Leiden, and got his degree in 1633. The book was written in 1635 during his residence at Halifax. Although the book was published twice without his permission yet the Authorized Version was brought up by Andrew Crooke, a publisher of London. Religio Medici which in English means the religion of physician became instantly popular after its authorized publication and was subsequently translated into various languages including Dutch, German, Latin and French. Religion is very core of this work.