Enlightened Writers and Religion - Case Study Example

ENLIGHTENED AND RELIGION Enlightenment is an imperative term of political philosophy that urges the application of intellect and logicin order to discover truth and reality from the natural and social phenomena. It seeks its roots in liberalism which aims to get man free from the clutches of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, slavery and ignorance. It refutes the very idea of accepting some presumptions and propositions without analyzing their validity through intellectual capabilities and sound examinations, and lays stress upon the significance of doubtfulness about some specific belief or authority. In the same way, it also refuses to accept the authority of a power without examining its validity. Developed in the end of seventeenth and beginning of eighteenth century, enlightenment has its roots in ancient times and takes after Greek philosophy and its principles designed by Thales, Anaximander, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotelian school of thought as its foundation. The enlightened thinkers and philosophers refute to bow before any authority that had its foundations on despotism, cruelty, social injustice and inequality. Medieval and classical philosophers including Descartes, Machiavelli, Kant, Hobbes, Marx, Hegel, Locke, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Mill, Strauss and others had great contributions in respect of illuminating the world by their valuable works, thought-provoking ideas, magnificent intellect and remarkable foresight. All these philosophers and thinkers have focused their attention on human liberty, freedom and equality, and strived for individual respect and equal chances of growth for all members of a society. Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are aptly regarded as the era of enlightenment not only in political scenario, but also it incurred its influence in socioeconomic activities of the individuals at large. Since literature is the reflection, mirror and imitation of real life, the influence of enlightenment can also be observed in the writings and creative pieces of writers, poets and philosophers of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where they have expressed their religious and spiritual beliefs and faith in an elegant, forceful and impressive way. The spirit of enlightenment could be declared as the spirit of observation and preoccupation with details and a systematic analysis of facts, feelings and ideas. In simple words, Dr. Mullik (1999) submits, it was the spirit of science popularized by such great men as Newton, Bacon and Descartes. The writers, philosophers and poets belonging to Romantic, Victorian and Modern eras display their religious background in their works. Since it is in the nature of humans that they look for someone metaphysical and supernatural for the solution their problems and difficulties whenever they feel themselves unable to do the same. It is therefore the institution of religion came into being. Looking into the history of the world at large, it becomes evident that religion existed in all human societies from the most primitive to the most modern ones. Humans have formed their own beliefs (called probability belief in mathematics and science) about the set of unknowable elements of the universe.  They have branded their beliefs about the unknowable as religion. (Acharya, 2006) Since religion is a highly diversified subject, different societies maintain different religious faiths and beliefs. Not only this that it varies from society to society and from one culture to the other, but also one single society contains the followers of different many religions in it. Some people speculate about which mind qualities survive the demise of our physical body, only to reappear in different shapes and in a renewed context. As this issue belongs to the realm of personal faith, it doesn’t make sense to approve, to disapprove or to argue. (Kessler, 2004) History has witnessed various phases of literary development, among which Romantic Era is thought to be one of the most sublime one in respect of the creation of exceptional writings both in prose and poesy. The Romantic Movement was not limited to England only; rather, it seeks its roots all over the Europe of late eighteenth century. Though few of the critics exclude him from the list of Romantic Age, William Blake is considered as one of the precursors of the Romantic Era, whose philosophy, poems, paintings and prose reflect his religious beliefs in an eloquent way. The poems, in his Songs of Innocence and Experience, including The Lamb, The Shepherd, The Nurse’s Song, Holy Thursday and others, have been created on the basis of Biblical stories and themes, which depict his religious values and sound belief in Christianity. His The Shepherd symbolizes Christ as the shepherd, who looks after his lambs (followers) in this world as well as in the Hereinafter out of sheer love he contains for them. Similarly, in The Little Black Boy, Blake portrays the ethical values of Christianity, where all humans are equal, and race and complexion has not the sign of superiority or inferiority of one community or ethnic group to some other. His later works, especially paintings, where he draws out the images of Adam, Eve, Abel, Heaven and angels on the foundations of Biblical themes and imaginations, prove him true follower of the puritan ethics and pure follower of Christianity. In some later works such as the Everlasting Gospel, he wrote with those fragrant intuitions, which awaken the human mind to its own best and most innocent vision of itself. (Evans 1990) Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are attributed as the pure romantic poets. Influenced by the mighty French Revolution of 1789, the Romantic school focused upon enlightenment, freedom of thought and action, justice and equality in their works. The revolution especially impressed the earlier Romantics i.e. Wordsworth and Coleridge. A spirit of revolt and indignation against all social iniquities pervaded Wordsworth for years, together with a sympathy, which never left him, for the poorer and humbler members of the community. (The Cambridge History of English & American Literature) His famous poem under the title Guilt and Sorrow expresses his passion for the Revolution that destroyed the foundations of inequality. In his words: “The gathering clouds grow red with stormy fire, In streaks diverging wide and mounting high; That inn he long had passed; the distant spire, Which oft as he looked back had fixed his eye, Was lost, though still he looked, in the blank sky.” (Lines 19-23) Coleridge also maintains religious beliefs that can be observed by studying his works. In his masterpiece, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge clearly defines his belief in the nature’s avenge in reaction of hurting the innocent creatures for nothing. The same was happened with the mariner after shooting the albatross, and the avenge nature took in a weird way: “Water, water everywhere, ne single drop to drink; The very deep did rot: O Christ! That ever this should be!” (Lines 122-125) Though Coleridge was not an orthodox man, yet he always welcomed French Revolution with open arms that brought the message of social justice in its wake. The Romantic poets and writers were influenced by the works of great French enlightened philosophers including, Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. The main objective behind the enlightenment was to liberate the people from imitating fantasies, traditions and mythology. It submits to state that unconditional surrender before an authority as well as blind faith in a set of belief is an awkward form of permanent slavery that is the vital cause of promoting inequality and injustice prevailing in the social set up. Only empirical analysis and pragmatic generalization make people understand the realities of life on the one hand, and phenomena of nature on the other. It is enlightenment that lays stress on discovering the truth with the help of logic, personal experiences and critical analysis on the basis of gifted perception and observation bestowed upon man by Nature. Unexamined, untested and blind faith not only keeps man ignorant of the latest developments being made in the world, but also drags him towards the slavery of powerful stratum of society. Countless cruelties have been exercised and crimes have been committed in the world in the name of religion and God. It is therefore, the enlightened philosophers and writers suggested reforms in political, religious and social life of humans. Descartes and Nietzsche as well as other philosophers of their creed, refute the concept of God presented and prescribed by the so called theologians. The thinkers and philosophers awoke the people from deep sleep of ignorance and made them realize that all their political, social, religious and cultural exploitation was because of their own false notions and unflinching belief on the sets of laws designed by the rulers, clergy and nobility which had been articulated to keep them their slaves forever. Philosophers and thinkers are always the rebels of their contemporary society. The foundations of their philosophy are erected on human welfare. Since philosophy is the in-depth and systematic study of the nature and emotions of human mind, it is philosophers that led humans from the darkness of ignorance towards the light of wisdom and vigilance. Before the mighty French Revolution it were philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau and others who awoke the sleeping nation and fought for the noble cause of equality and justice by their wonderful writings. The philosophical theme behind the literature of that time paved the way towards equal distribution of power, pelf, possession and prestige for all strata of French Society. Voltaire is one of the most influential French philosophers of Romantic Age, who played decisive role in bringing the great French Revolution of 1789 and destroyed the very foundations of the centuries-old social inequality and despotism from the very face of his society. Born in 1694 in a respectable middle class French family, Voltaire maintained critical approach and logical views since his childhood. Being a distinguished essayist, writer and an analytical thinker, Voltaire had divergent opinion about social life in comparison with the common people of his time, and observed and perceived the values and norms prevailing in his surroundings, with some different angle. He did not see eye to eye with the religious and royal traditions and looked for the implication of social reforms to build a society in the foundations of freedom, equality and justice. Like Machiavelli, Hobbes and Locke, Voltaire also strived for a system governed by the will and representative of all the social classes existing under a political authority. If one wants, Machiavelli opines, to preserve a city that is accustomed to being independent and having free institutions, it is more easily held by using its citizens to govern it than in any other way. (Quoted in Porter, 1997: 226) Voltaire declares exploitation of the people by the authoritative group as the major cause of creating instability in society and stands for the eradication of the major causes of hostilities between existing social groups, in order to perpetuate harmony in the societies. Voltaire’s purpose of writing was to dethrone the mere pretenders to greatness and put the real great men in their place. (Thomas & Thomas 1997) He takes the rule of equal law as most significant thing to combat conflicts and lays stress on the permanent implication of rule of law on equal basis to avoid any hostility, conflict and turmoil. Jean Jacque Rousseau was the most influential philosopher of Romantic Era. He declares all societies as the artificial ones and states religious and political organizations as the exploiters of common man. (Mahajan 1998) He submits the famous notion that man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains. Like other philosophers including Descartes, Nietzsche and Voltaire, Rousseau also believes in the exploration of the true concept of God. He disclaimed the traditional idea of God, church and the king, and in an ironical way conveys the message that the truth, validity and legitimacy of these concept require comprehensive intellectual analyses to guide the humanity to move towards right direction. The later Romantic poets including Shelley and Keats adopted his philosophy while creating their works. Rousseau’s sentimental influence touched Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats. P. B. Shelley is often called as the child of the revolution; it is therefore, the subject-matter of his poems was the hopes and aims of humanity. He was essentially a poet of the future as Keats was the poet of the past as well as ancient Greece. Though Shelley’s work is often thought to be Utopian, yet it contains seriousness and graveness in it. Influenced by the Puritan ethics, Shelley made his hero arch-rebel and compared him with Satan of Milton’s Paradise Lost in his Prometheus Unbound. “Victory! Victory! Earth’s remotest shore, Regions which grown beneath the Antarctic stars, The green lands cradled in the roar, Of Western waves, and wildernesses.” Like poetry of era, the Romantic novel also lacks dogmatic sets of belief in its full swing. Though, the writers and novelists, including Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott and others, strictly observe ethical values and moral values, described and determined by the religion they followed, yet they did not expose their religious identity to the great extent. The most prominent novelist of the era, a highly illuminating, brilliant and trend-setting writer, who left indelible imprints of her modest diction and distinctive manners in the history of English Literature is undoubtedly Jane Austen (1775—1817). Her innocent thoughtfulness, command over situations, deep sense of observation and transcendent imagination make her an inspirational authoress of Romantic age. Her novels including Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey---all depict her concentration at a life-style that divulge sophisticated manners, love for literature, taste for riding and dance, respect of elders, strong family bonds, care for others and much more. Northanger Abbey, aptly said to be a burlesque of Gothic novel maintains all the qualities of a sophisticated and refined piece of writing----- neatness, cohesion, climax, dialogue, characterization and sobriety. Jane Austen not only learnt the art of novel writing from his predecessors, but also introduced her own. She got realism from Defoe and psychological insight from Richardson. Also, her comic attitude reflects her study of Fielding, while her sophistication and characterization of well groomed hero and heroine remind us of the characterization of Alexander Pope. Though she always observed morality, yet did not confine herself to some specific sets of faith. Hence, her profound observation and command over the subject makes the novel really remarkable and a lively piece of prose and therefore is categorized as “sublime” in Burke’s words. Named after Queen Victoria of England (1838-1901), the nineteenth century literary development is called as the Victorian literature. The era produced great writers and poets including Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, Carlyle, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Ruskin, Bronte sisters, Tennyson, Browning Arnold and others. The era strictly observes moral values in it, particularly during the first half of nineteenth century. Alfred Tennyson is regarded as the greatest poet of Victorian era. Like John Keats, Tennyson has also focused on classical Greek mythology while creating his poetry, and he represents the intellectual and spiritual life of his era, yet there is least influence of religious beliefs in it. Since, it was the age of science and industrial revolution, Tennyson was aware of the socio-cultural changes taking place around him, and he produced the poems like Lockslay Hall Sixty Years After (1866) Tennyson gives expression to the feelings of revolution aroused as the reaction of new scientific discoveries which threatened the very foundations of religion. (Mullik 1990) Hence, social problems and moral values were given special significance throughout the era. The strong faith in Almighty remained the essential part of literature, and moral values were depicted as an essential element both in prose and poetry. Even then, the element of religion could not be excluded from literature altogether. The dramatic monologues, produced by Robert Browning, including fra Lippo Lippi, the Bishop Orders His Tomb, My last Duchess and others, are strongly based on the Christian faith and the excesses committed by the clergy in the name of religion. The great achievement of Robert Browning (1812-1889) was to break away from the post Keatsian handling of sensory images and bring back to a colloquial vigor to English poetry. (Daiches 1997, 1002) In dramatic monologue, there is generally one speaker, and one or more listeners. The poems My Last Duchess and Bishop Orders His Tomb serve as a satire on the hypocritical attitude of the so called civilized society and its established norms during 16th century. The poems maintain a critical viewpoint at the prevailing norms, values and practices in the aristocratic culture by sketching the sixteenth and seventeenth century historical events revealing the inside views and thoughts of nobles and dukes of that time. The satire regarding the dead duchesss character can also be found in the poem, where she had relations with so many suitors around her, as the poem reveals. “She had A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad, Too easily impressed: she liked whateer She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” (Lines 21-24) Hence, the Duke never wanted to let her eyes go astray in search of lovers other than him. The description that she had the habit of seeking pleasures of life, manifestly indicates towards the looseness of her character, which seriously told upon the nerves of the Duke. Emily Bronte, (1818-1848), one of the most brilliant poets and novelists of Victorian age, won magnificent applause, as a distinguished novelist of 19th century. Her imagination, command over creating thought-provoking subjects and her deep insight make her verse elevated, evergreen and exultant for the readers. The poem “No coward soul is mine” was created during the period when the poetess was undergoing serious sickness and was fading day by day till she was caught in the cruel clutches of death! But the poetess refused to surrender before her illness and faced the death very courageously. Bronte’s poems reflect her faith and religious affiliations especially in the poem aforementioned. She died at such a young age of thirty and can be resembled a flower in budding which has been plucked in the prime of youth leaving indelible imprints of her first and the last visit of this world of bitter reality. “Though Earth and moon were gone, And suns and universes ceased to be, And thou wert left alone, Every Existence would exist in thee.” (1846, Lines 21-24) The names of Charles Dickens and George Eliot are also very prominent in Victorian Literature. Both the novelists won applause as modest, moderate and intellectual writers, who focused on morality, social responsibilities, ethical prudence and liabilities towards others, the religion had commanded. Though they were not the imitators of dogmatic principles, and preferred ethics over religious teaching, yet these modest views could be stated as the outcome of the Christian faith followed by both the novelists. Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede and Silas Marner are the masterpieces of George Eliot that determine the future developments of English novel particularly showing the glorious path of dutifulness and obligations of men towards family, friends and other members of society. The Modern Era in English Literature begins with the end of Victorian age from 1900 and the lasts till mid-1960s. The most important characteristics of the Modern age is that it is opposed to the general attitude to religion, life, social set up and problems attributed and adopted by the Victorian age. (Mullik 1990) The modern Era brought the sentiments of alienation in its wake. The changes in technologies, political and economic campaigns and easy ways of traveling revolutionized the very scenario of the world turning it into a small village. It caused rift between divergent communities, classes and groups and gave way to social, cultural, ethnic and racial discrimination. The element of religion was not prominent in the literature anymore; rather, racial and gender discrimination gave birth to new ideologies in the Modern Era. The modern age of enlightenment also gave way to produce protest literature particularly during the first half of twentieth century. Protest literature is usually defined as a literary genre that is produced and created as a reaction to the prevailing cruelties, inequalities and injustices, particularly against some specific community, class, ethnic group, gender or religion. Hence, protest literature serves as a stupendous voice against brutality and malice being exercised by dominant and powerful stratum against the weak and submissive social strata. The poems, novels, essays, plays and stories, indicating the prejudiced behavior and injustices being exercised in society, in a sonorous tone as well as in an angry mood, come under the fold of protest literature. Rising of the Moon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ice Age and Jazz are examples of modern protest literature, which vehemently protest against social injustices, ethnic biased ness and gender discrimination. Thus, protest literature aims to shield and proclaim the human rights bestowed upon man from Almighty God without discrimination. The violation of human rights on biased grounds is emphatically condemned by the protest writers, dramatists and poets. The literature, protecting the rights of African Americans and highlighting their miseries, while living with the White majority in USA, is also considered as a form of protest literature. A piece of art or literature, claiming the additional rights and favors for any group of society, cannot be claimed as the protest form of expression, because it does not fulfill the prescribed criteria. It is therefore, one school of thought does not consider the writings of the African Americans as the true form of protest literature. Larry Neal, American writer and editor, does not believe such substance as conforming to the criteria of protest literature in a comprehensive way and in its true spirit as well. Neals definition in the Notron Anthology states that Black Arts Aesthetic in not equal to protest literature because protest literature appeals to the white culture elite, Black Arts is out to define its own aesthetic "destroy" white influence. The literature was also produced during the Modern Age to depict the discriminative behavior on the basis of gender. Hence, feminist perspective came into being that demanded equal rights as individuals of society as well as freedom from men’s domination in their individual and collective life. The theory is based on the views of Shulamit Reinharz, Feminist theorist, in her well-known Feminist Methods in Social Research presents the feminist methodology. The four main points of the theory include: Positive social change in society Representing human diversity To reveal the fact that Feminism is a perspective like structural functionalism, symbolic interactionism and Conflict Theory That Woman should be granted equal status as member of society. Feminist writers including Virginia Woolf, Mev Miller and Margaret Drabble produced remarkable works. Woolf’s novels very beautifully depict how a man’s mind works and takes drastic changes in a single moment. Drabble also portrayed the contemporary world and society especially in her famous “ The Ice Age” (1976), in which she has narrated the significant role played by women within the changing scenario of modern society. New classic approach is also one of the most influential theories of modern times. It was the movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and originated in reaction to traditional criticism. Siegel defines the new classicist theory in these words: New critics saw as largely concerned with matters extraneous to the text, e.g., with the biography or psychology of the author or the works relationship to literary history. New Criticism proposed that a work of literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential and verifiable statements about the real world beyond it, than of the presentation and sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form (quoted in Hawkes, pp. 150-151). It is fact beyond doubt that there has always been a permanent situation of conflict between haves and haves-not from the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras to the most modern ones, where the ‘haves’ on the basis of their power, pelf and possessions, have always exploited the deprived strata of society by inflicting their own will and applying their own policies of dictatorship, despotism, absolutism and tyranny in the name of either religion or ethics or the set of so called prevailing laws. The theory of enlightenment serves as man’s deliverance from the clutches of darkness, dullness and drabness of ignorance and unawareness in crude sense, and is stated as a reformative step to abolish the exploitation of humans at the hands of their fellow-beings in popular parlance. Thus, enlightenment is the exploration of mysteries of the universe with the help of wisdom and knowledge. Enlightenment is the product of eighteenth century Europe, which serves as a powerful blow to the despotic powers authorized to the so called kings, emperors, nobility and clergy of that time. Since it challenged the authority of the traditional views of people who considered the emperors, kings and rulers as appointed from God. By this, they accepted and admitted their so called divine right to rule over the people with absolute authority. Thus, according to these divine rights, they could impose any type of pains, sufferings and penalties upon them. Nietzsche strongly believes that the concept of God is the product of society; it is therefore, the quantity, characteristics and nature of God varies from culture to culture and from one set of religious beliefs to the other. The strongest and most evil spirits, Nietzsche submits, have so far advanced humanity the most: they have always rekindled the drowsing passions--- all ordered society puts the passion to sleep: they have always reawakened the sense of comparison, of contradiction, of joy in the new, the daring, and the untried: (1882 4) Hence, he asserts that following of the traditional cult and values are considered as goodness by the followers of a certain belief without seeking evidence regarding its validity. A thing, an idea, a notion, he states, which is quite new and serves as an addition in religious practices, is strongly refuted by the majority of the people declaring it an object of hatred, deformation and transgression as the product of evil and wickedness. BIBLIOGRAPHY Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library.1803 Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful 1757 David Daiches. A Critical History of English Literature Volume I-IV 1995 Ifor Evans. A Short History of English Literature Fourth edition Penguin Books England 1990 Evans, Ifor. A Short History of English Literature Penguin Books London 1990 Kessler, Franz L. Reincarnation and Love Relations. (Retrieved in http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewArticle.asp?id=13163 2004 Mahajan, V. D. History of Modern Europe Since 1789 S. Chand & Company New Delhi 1998 Neal, Larry. The Black Arts Movement 2006 (Quoted in http://www.nathanielturner.com/blackartsmovementlarryneal.htm) Nietzsche, Frederick Wilhelm. The Gay Science 1882 Porter, Jene M. Classics in Political Philosophy. Second Edition. Prentice-Hall Canada. 1997 293-402 Sankarsan Acharya. (2006) Religion, God and Science. (Quoted in prosperity.com/NewsFeed.html) March 17th, 2006 Siegel, Dr. Kristi. Introduction to Modern Literary Theory. 2002 Singh, T. A Short History of English Literature. Vanguard Publishers, Kolkata. 1997 Thomas, Henry & Thomas, Dana Lee. Great Philosophers. (Bhavan’s Book University Bombay 1971) 232-240 The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume XI. The Period of the French Revolution. (Retrieved in http://www.bartleby.com/221/0504.html) Read More