Department of English,
M.k.BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Name :- Upadhyay Mansi M.
Roll no :- 23
Enrollment no :- 2069108420190042
Email id :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Department :- M.A. English department
Submitted To :- Dr.Prof.Dilip Barad
(Head
of English Dept.M. K. S.
Bhavnagar University)
Paper :- (3) (Literary Theory and
Criticism)
1) Dryden’s
defence of English tragicomedies.
Introduction:-
John Dryden (9 august 1631 – 1 may
1700) was a prominent English poet, critic, translator, and playwright who
dominated the literary life of the
restoration age; therefore, the age is known as the age of Dryden. He was a
Cambridge scholar literary genius and critic, considering his extraordinary
literary contribution was credited with the honour of poet laureate of england
in 1668.
He was a critic of contemporary
reality. His critical observation of contemporary reality is reflected in
macflecknoe (1682). Dryden’s mature thoughts of literary criticism on ancient,
modern and English literature, especially on drama, are presented in dialogue
forms in an essay on dramatic poesy. In an essay on dramatic poesy there are
four speakers. Each one argues strongly as to which one is better, “ancient or
modern, and French or English?”
Dryden as a critic :-
Dryden was both a
writer and a critic and he had rather a dogmatic bent. Most of his critical
interpretations are found in the prefaces to his own works. In Dryden we find
an interest in the general issues of criticism rather than in a close reading
of particular texts. We call Dryden a neoclassical critic, just as boileau.
Dryden puts emphasis on the neoclassical rules. His best-known critical work,
an essay on dramatic poesy, partly reflects this tension in dryden’s
commitments. Its dialogue form has often been criticized as inconclusive, but
actually, as in most dialogues, there is a spokesman weightier than the others.
Dryden carried out his critical thoughts effectively, stating his own ideas but
leaving some room for difference of opinion. Neander’s overall statement on the
literary standards is that, the norms can be added to make the work ideal, but
the norms will not improve a work which does not contain some degree of
perfection. And as Dryden believes, we may find writers like Shakespeare who
did not follow the rules but are nevertheless obviously superior to any
“regular” writer. shakespeare disconcerts Dryden; he recognizes his superiority
but within himself he would feel closer affiliations with ben jonson. In
Dryden, then, we find a “liberal” neo-classicist, although he is most coherent
( a trait of classicism) when he is dealing with that which can be understood
and reduced to rule.
Dryden’s defence on
tragicomedy :-
“tragicomedy is a literary
device used in fictional works. It contains both tragedy and comedy.”
- Incident or series of incidents
- Mixed tragic and comic character
- Tragicomedy- combination of tears and smiles
- Drama dealing with ordinary life and delightfully combine tears and smiles
- Continue gravity depresses the spirit, though mirth gives the refreshment
- Mirth doesn’t destroy compassion or kindness
- Therefore soul can move from tragic to the comic
- Dryden’s views on tragicomedy- classicism, greatness, shrewdness and penetration as a critic
- Dr. Johnson accepted dryden’s views – “mingling of the tragic and comic provides dramatic relief”
- Theory of tragicomedy is given in his essay “of dramatic poesie” in 1668.
“ tragicomedy is truer to
nature, for in nature is also good and evil, joy and sorrow, mingle in
countless ways” so, Dryden is more liberal in his attitude towards the mingling
of the tragic and comic.
“A play ought to be a just
and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humors, and the
changes of fortune to which it is subject for the delight and instruction of
mankind.”
Tragicomedy is a literary
genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in
dramatic literature. The term can variously describe either a tragic play which
contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play
with a happy ending (Wikipedia).
In Dryden’s criticism, “tragicomedy” refers
to a play containing two plots, one comic and the other serious. The serious
plot should not be regarded as truly
tragic, since Dryden implies that the genre calls for a happy ending. He
sometimes refers to the comic action as an underplot, and recommends that it be
“subservient the chief fable,” though we shall see that in his own practice
this subordination is not always observed. Probably the most important element
in dryden’s conception of tragicomedy, however, concerns the separation of the
two plots: he repeatedly mentions the need to preserve the integrity of the
comic and serious moods; thus for Dryden the plots should not mingle freely,
but progress in alternate scenes.
Four of Dryden’s plays
exhibit this rhythm of Serio- comic alternation quite clearly: secret love
(1667), marriage a- la- mode (1672), the Spanish friar (1680), and love
triumphant (1694). Another play, the rival ladies (1664), should be included
among dryden’s tragicomedies, even though its comic scenes- while removed from
the serious action- derive from the complicated main plot, rather than
comprising an independent underplot. These five tragicomedies divide themselves
readily into three chronological groups. The rival ladies differs from all that
follow in its single- minded imitation of the Spanish intrigue play; secret
love and marriage a- la- mode are not only more sophisticated in thematic
development, but show a higher conception of the possibilities of tragicomic
structure; while the final two plays offer a more farcical humor, and show a
comparative loosening of the close bond between theme and structure found in
the middle group.
Despite the shifts in
dryden’s practice of tragicomedy, his criticism displays a few consistently
held opinions about the genre which can alert us at the outset to the problems
he encountered and the pleasures he hoped to offer his audience by writing
tragicomedies. Three conclusions about his critical remarks are in order:
Dryden makes no broad theoretical inquiry into the nature of tragicomedy; his
comments on technical issues suggest what was probably the genre’s greatest
fascination for him; and his habit of thinking in doubles predicts an affinity
for constructing the dualities and antitheses essential to clarifying the form
of the genre, as he seems to have intended during the middle of his career.
Dryden never indicates that
his tragicomedies are written to express some view of human experience for
which the genre is peculiarly fitted. To be sure, he occasionally describes the
benefit of mixing comedy and seriousness to produce a more pleasurable
theatrical experience, as in Neander’s well- known speech in the essay of
dramatic poesy (1668):
Dryden is more liberal in
his attitude towards the mingling of the tragic and the comic. In this respect
he, “ceases to be a classicist and goes over to the other camp”. He defends
tragicomedy on the following grounds:
- Contrast when placed near, set off each other.
- Continued gravity depresses the spirit, a scene of mirth thrown in between refreshes. It has the same effect on us as music. In other words, comic scene produces relief, though Dryden does not explicitly say so.
- Mirth does not destroy compassion, the serious effect which tragedy aims at is not disturbed by mingling of tragic and comic.
- Just as the eye can pass from an unpleasant object to a pleasant one, so also the soul can move from tragic to the comic. And it can do so much more swiftly.
- The English have perfected a new way of writing not known to the ancients. If they had tragic- comedies, perhaps Aristotle would have revised his rules.
- It is all a question of progress of the change of taste. The ancients cannot be a model for all times and countries, “what pleased the Greeks would not satisfy an English audience”. Had Aristotle seen the English plays “he might have changed his mind”. The real test of excellence is not strict adherence to rules or conventions, but whether the aims of dramas have been achieved. They are achieved by the English drama.
- Example of tragicomedy :-
Samuel Beckett’s “waiting
for Godot” can be also considered as one of the great example of tragicomedy.
- Written – originally in French – 1948
- Main subject – tragicomedy
“The merchant of Venice” is a
16th – century play written by William Shakespeare in which a
merchant in Venice must default on a large loan provided by a jewish
moneylender, shylock. It is believed to have been written between 1596 and
1599. Though classified as a comedy in the first folio and sharing certain
aspects with Shakespeare’s other romantic comedies, the play is most remembered
for its dramatic scenes, and it is best known for shylock and the famous “hath
not a Jew eyes?” speech on humanity. Also notable is portia’s speech about “the
quality of mercy”. Critic Harold bloom listed it among Shakespeare’s great
comedies.
Conclusion :-
Dryden’s view on tragicomedy
clearly brings out his liberal classicism and his greatness, shrewdness and
penetration as a critic.
Dr. Johnson (“preface to
Shakespeare”) accepted Dryden’s view that mingling of the tragic and the comic
provides dramatic relief. But he makes a further point, which is foreshadowed
in Dryden, but which has been clearly stated – his appeal to nature. Dr.
Johnson asserts tragicomedy is truer to nature, for in nature is also good and
evil, joy and sorrow, mingle in countless ways. Dryden himself hinted at this
very truth to nature, while defending the irregularities of the English drama
and in speaks against the cold formalities of the French stage. “They are
indeed the beauties of a statue, but not of a man.”
THANK YOU
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