Contexts of Pre-Novel Narrative: The European Tradition - Term Paper Example

Contexts of Pre-Novel Narrative: The European Tradition Part I: Identifications Heliocentrism: Nicolaus Copernicus was the one to develop an astronomical model, in which the sun was the center of the planetary system (Skirbekk 158). Heliocentrism is a rational model of the planetary system with the sun in its center. Copernicus’s model contradicted the geliocentric beliefs about the universe before Copernicus. Heliocentrism was simpler than geocentrism and was based on the ideas of the ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus (Skirbekk 159). Despite the importance of the invention, heliocentrism represented a challenge to the previous beliefs about planets and resulted in the crisis of human self-perception. In the history of western thought, heliocentrism was an example of the scientific theory that transformed the human experience and redirected the course of the human thinking toward new rational goals. The Three Unities: The Three Unities represent the basic rule of Latin and Greek drama, in which the stage was the single place from the very beginning to the very end of the action, the plot covered the events of only one day, and all elements of the play contributed to the plot itself. The Three Unities rule requires that the play occurs in one single setting (e.g., in the street), that the action covers no more than one day, and that no scene of the play is a digression. The Three Unities are important to understand in the context of the western literature after 1800 (Eriksen 27). The Epistolary Novel: An epistolary novel is “the novel of letters, when the narration takes the form of letter or journal entries and may even include newspaper reports” (Eriksen 49). An epistolary novel is interesting in the sense that it allows including multiple narrators and creating complex interrelationships between them. It also allows retelling one and the same story from multiple perspectives. The beginning of the 19th century was marked with numerous attempts to revive the epistolary genre, including Stocker’s Dracula. Today, this genre is rarely used but still captures the imagination of readers (Eriksen 49). Deism: The development of western thought after 1800 was marked with the growing attention toward religious texts. Western society sought to explore its roots through the prism of the religious doctrine. Deism is a reasonable belief in God, which rejects that God revealed himself through Biblical writings and does not accept the belief that there is no evidence of God’s existence. The development of deism was the inevitable product of the scientific progress which zeroed the relevance of religious dogma and turned western society toward the new goals of Enlightenment (Skirbekk 92). The Chateau de Versailles: The Chateau (or the Palace) of Versailles used to be the official residence of French kings between 1680 and 1790. The Palace played one of the critical roles during the French revolution. After Napoleon’s advent, Versailles changed its status and turned into the empress’s residence, but later it was given back its status of the national museum and turned into the gathering of France’s glories. In the history of western thought, The Chateau de Versailles was the sign of French prosperity and progress (Skirbekk 80). Deus Ex Machina: Deus Ex Machina is a plot device which became popular in the 1800s and which meant the use of a person or a phenomenon that appears in the plot out of the blue, to help the character solve his (her) problems. Although considered as a poor literary technique, poets and dramatists in the 19th century actively applied to Deus Ex Machina, including Shakespeare. Today, this device is undesirable in professional writing because it usually indicates the lack of the writing skills (Skirbekk 176). Candide and Enlightenment That Candide was written as a satirical representation of the Enlightenment ideas is difficult to deny. In his literary creation, Voltaire sought to reveal the sins and inconsistencies of the Enlightenment philosophy and to depict his society as a disordered coalition of the distant thinkers and reformers, which lacks a single vision and did not have common goals. Nevertheless, Enlightenment was characterized by a number of common features which shape the basis of Voltaire’s Candide. Optimism, Deism, Politics, and Revolutionary Moods became a common thread in the development of Candide’s plot. Optimism as the distinctive feature of Enlightenment became one of the basic satirical targets in Voltaire’s Candide: through the character of Pangloss, Voltaire tries to prove that optimism is nonsense. It should be noted, that optimism at times of Enlightenment was much different from what it is now: enlightened optimists usually kept to one and the same system of beliefs, which included the belief in perfect God, perfect reality, perfect things, and interconnectedness of things and creatures on earth. The first time Candide criticizes the philosophy of optimism is when he encounters a Surinam negro and claims that optimism is “a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell” (Voltaire). Through the prism of Pangloss, Candide tries to prove that optimism is inherently destructive, because people who believe in the better things lose stimuli to grow and are no longer willing to improve their lives. Deism is another topic of satire. Actually, the whole Candide seems to be aimed at the Church and its sins. The Church in Voltaire’s Candide is a combination of inconsistencies and unreligious acts, and only a person attentive in his observations can realize the problems the Church faces in its striving to be the dominant force of society. On the one hand, Candide seeks to persuade the readers that it is better to concentrate on establishing closer relations with the nature and other people than being concentrated on God; on the other hand, Candide depicts the Church as an absurd phenomenon which lacks an arbiter and does not operate in accordance with the basic laws it imposes on its adherents. “Imagine the situation of a Pope’s daughter aged fifteen, who in three months had undergone poverty and slavery, had been raped nearly every day, had seen her mother cut into four pieces, had undergone hunger and war, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers” (Voltaire). The question here is not in why Pope’s daughter experiences these tortures. The question is in how a Pope, with his vow of celibacy, happens to have a daughter. The answer to this satirical and highly complicated question Voltaire leaves to the reader. Another line of reproach is in how hypocritical religions are and what it takes for the Church to teach its adherents the morals of care and humility: “I had an excellent seat, and delicious refreshments were served to the ladies between Mass and the execution” (Voltaire). Obviously, not the Church’s dogmas but the fact of being privileged to belong to some organized church matters to people. Candide is an effective satire over the politics and the revolutionary moods of Enlightenment. Eldorado is used to mock over the inherent materialism of Enlightenment and to create a more realistic picture of the government corruption which, again, provides far reaching implications regarding materialism. Again, Candide’s encounter of a Surinam negro who lost his hand in the millstone and his leg while he was trying to escape shows how high the price of eating sugar in Europe is (Voltaire). Nevertheless, Candide does not try to do anything to save the slave but only cries: this is where the hypocrisy of materialism, Enlightenment, and the care for others which it promotes come out to the surface. Voltaire creates an impression of the enlightened society to disregard the most obvious problems. Populism and hypocrisy, according to Voltaire, rule the society. The description of Eldorado roads that are paved with gold and the “irrational lust for pebbles and dirt found in our soil, and would kill every man of us to get hold of them” (Voltaire) judges and condemns European materialism, which does not leave any room for true human feelings. Voltaire is confident that the era of Enlightenment is closely linked with the sense of domination and unjustified violence against people and nations whom western society considers as inferior. He believed that the Enlightenment made the problem of inequality even more serious. Actually, Candide himself becomes the victim of these violent intentions: after sharing a meal with two Burglars and hearing them say “that’s what men are for, to help each other” (Voltaire), Candide becomes their slave. In a similar fashion, Europe during the era of Enlightenment was enslaved by the ideas and new concepts which Voltaire successfully explored and turned into the object of his satire in Candide. Frankenstein, Enlightenment, and Romanticism Like Voltaire’s Candide, Frankenstein is a sophisticated and mostly ironical criticism of Enlightenment and Romanticism. In terms of Enlightenment, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein reveals the hidden dangers of the public and individual pursuit for knowledge. When it comes to Romanticism, Shelley offers its readers to go deeper into the analysis of the sublime world, sublime nature, emotional spheres, and spiritual renewal. Again, and like Voltaire, Mary Shelley returns to the topic of unreasonable optimism as the distinctive feature of Enlightenment. The whole Enlightenment was about a profound restructuring and the need to challenge the meaning and importance of previous beliefs. Mary Shelley begins her discussion of optimism with the letter which Robert Walton writes to his sister and in which he discusses the scientific optimism of Victor Frankenstein and his expectations. “Success shall crown my endeavors” (Shelley), and this is, probably, the reflection of the unreasonable expectations which those living during the era of Enlightenment held about their own future. Throughout the novel, Victor Frankenstein cannot conceal his optimism about his inventions and he persistently keeps himself at a distance from those, who want to criticize his actions. When his mother dies, Victor is no longer willing to concentrate on mourning for the dearest person in his life but, on the contrary, looks forward to following a different path: “I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. […] The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips. […] My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform” (Shelley). By the end of the story when he finally recognizes his scientific failure, he is still wishing the best to everyone, and positive response from these people is more important than positive scientific achievements. Objectively, the pursuit for knowledge is the core theme of Frankenstein, and by creating a monster and evaluating its consequences, Mary Shelley actually tries to evaluate and predict the knowledge consequences of Enlightenment. The author depicts the process of creation in detail and implies that the pain and sufferings that are inseparable from creativity and growth are not worth its consequences and outcomes: “I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion” (Shelley). The irony of the pursuit for knowledge, in Shelley’s terms, is in the results to which they lead; and these results are self-destructive and very tragic to everyone taking part in the process. Victor falls the victim of his own pursuit for knowledge, and this is another side of Shelley’s irony over Enlightenment; however, where Walton is able to learn from Victor’s experience, Shelley’s Frankenstein once again implies the need for people to learn from the “enlightened” experience and to turn their heads toward more reasonable goals. The author makes attempt to assess and forecast the knowledge consequences of Enlightenment. From the romanticism perspective, Shelley seeks to criticize the romantic emphasis on the sublime nature. During the era of Romanticism, the principles of sublime nature presented one of the most controversial notions and one of the most important philosophic elements. The natural world was the source of emotional expression and the instrument of the spiritual renewal for thousands living during the romantic era. When it comes to Romanticism, Shelley presents deep analysis of the sublime world, sublime nature, emotional spheres, and spiritual renewal. Like a true romantic hero, Victor, mourning for lost Justine and William, decides to go to the mountains to feel the moral and spiritual relief, to lift his spirits, and to feel the breath of nature on his skin. “The abrupt sides of vast mountains were before me; the icy wall of the glacier overhung me; a few shattered pines were scattered around; and the solemn silence of this glorious presence-chamber of imperial nature was broken only by the brawling waves or the fall of some vast fragment, the thunder sound of the avalanche or the cracking, reverberated along the mountains, of the accumulated ice” (Shelley). The irony of the case is in that neither applying to nature nor establishing close connections with it can return and revive the lost lives. Nor can it change the nature of the monster and its hideous intentions. Romanticism, as it appears, has no sense for it does not result in real changes. It only aggravates the situation and contributes to the feeling of hollowness and spiritual emptiness. In the context of Enlightenment, Victor’s striving to become a part of nature is understandable, as long as nature exemplifies the source of the unknown and can become an excellent way to satisfy his inner thirst for answers. Nature is also a simple source of happiness, which distracts from the routine thoughts and obligations and helps individuals to create a close sublime bond. Unfortunately, neither bonds nor Victor’s quest for knowledge can save his friends and the rest of his society from the dangers of Frankenstein’s monstrosity. The irony and satire in Mary Shelley’s novel are represented through a unique combination of knowledge pursuit, nature’s sublimity, and monstrosity. These three components form a unique connection and turn into a complex cluster of meanings. They position knowledge and romanticism as the threats to stability. Enlightenment as the era of dramatic quest for scientific discoveries and Romanticism as the time of the utmost commitment to nature are the two extremes which cannot lead to anything good; and the monstrous creation of Victor Frankenstein is just another proof to this assumption. Works Cited Eriksen, R.T. Contexts of Pre-Novel Narrative: The European Tradition. Walter de Guyter, 1994. Shelley, M. “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”, Gutenberg.org. Project Gutenberg, 2008. Web. 21 June 2010. Skirbekk, G. A History of Western Thought: From Ancient Greece to the Twentieth Century. Routledge, 2001. Voltaire. “Candide”, Gutenberg.org. Project Gutenberg, 2006. Web. 21 June 2010. Read More