Thinking activity: Absolam and Achitophel

 

Thinking Activity

🌼ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL🌼

Hello Beautiful People,

      Today we discuss about 'ABSOLAM AND ACHITOPHEL'.This blog is also part of my thinking activity assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU).

    First we discussed about Which vices are satirised in the poem so as to correct them like explore the poem as satire.

 What is Satire ?

     Satire is a genre of literature and performing art usually fiction and less frequently in non fiction in which vices, follies, abuses and short comings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.

    A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm —"in satire, irony is militant", according to literary critic Northan critics but pardony ,juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to question.

     Satire is found in many artistic forms of expression, including internet memes, literature, plays, commenta music and television shows, and media such as lyrics.

 Definition of satire

    Satire is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society, by using humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles

    The best definition of satire would be: making fun of a human failing in order to educate the reader about an issue. By retelling a certain human failure in new perspective, it will evoke the combination of irony and comedy among the readers.

Satire in Literature

    Satire in literature is a type of social commentary. Writers use exaggeration, irony, and other devices to poke fun of a particular leader, a social custom or tradition, or any other prevalent social figure or practice that they want to comment on and call into question.

Satire remains a powerful tool in contemporary culture. Film and television, in particular, have been important vehicles for satire over the past several decades. There are three main types of satire, each serving a different role.

(1) Horatian satire is comic and offers light social commentary. It is meant to poke fun at a person or situation in an entertaining way.

ü  Gulliver’s Travels, written in the eighteenth century by Jonathan Swift, is an example of Horatian satire in literature. The work is a spoof of the kind of travelogues that were common at that time. Through his invented narrator, Gulliver, Swift takes aim at travel writers, the English government, and human nature itself.

ü  The Onion is a popular satirical online news site that embodies Horatian satire.

(2) Juvenalian satire is dark, rather than comedic. It is meant to speak truth to power.

ü  George Orwell’s famous 1945 novel Animal Farm is a good example of Juvenalian satire. The novel’s intended target is communism and Stalin-era Soviet Union. Animal Farm is also an allegorical satire: it can be read as a simple tale of farm animals, but it has a deeper political meaning.

ü  A modern-day example is the television show South Park, which juxtaposes biting satire with juvenile humor. The show has tackled all sorts of hot-button targets, including abortion, the Pope, Hollywood, and criminal justice.

(3) Menippean satire casts moral judgment on a particular belief, such as homophobia or racism. It can be comic and light, much like Horatian satire—although it can also be as stinging as Juvenalian satire.

ü  Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the best examples of Menippean satire in literature is. The novel pokes fun at upper-class intellectualism but does it with a distinct sense of humour. The ridicule is there, but it is good-natured in spirit.

➤So here I want to share with you original poem "ABSALOM & ACHITOPHEL" 

ORIGNAL POEM

➤And summary of this poem...

Absalom and Achitophel as Satire poem :

        Absalom and Achitophel is "generally acknowledged as the finest political satire in the English language". It is also described as an allegory regarding contemporary political events, and a mock heroic narrative. On the title page, Dryden himself describes it simply as "a poem".

        In the prologue, "To the Reader", Dryden states that "the true end of satire is the amendment of vices by correction". He also suggests that in Absalom and Achitophel he did not let the satire be too sharp to those who were least corrupt: "I confess I have laid in for those, by rebating the satire, where justice would allow it, from carrying too sharp an edge."

        Absalom and Achitophel has inspired a great deal of discussion regarding satire: how satire was defined when Dryden wrote, and how this poem contrasts with the ancient models of Horace, Virgil, and Juvenal. Dryden himself is considered a father of the modern essay, and one of literature's most important critics of the literary form, particularly in his essay "A Discourse Concerning the Original and Progress of Satire", 

        where he writes a history of satire "from its first rudiments of barbarity, to its last polishing and perfection". He also offers a definition of satire:

    Heinsius, in his dissertations on Horace, makes it for me, in these words; "Satire is a kind of poetry, without a series of action, invented for the purging of our minds; in which human vices, ignorance, and errors, and all things besides, which are produced from them, in every man, are severely reprehended; partly dramatically, partly simply, and sometimes in both kinds of speaking; but for the most part figuratively, and occultly; consisting in a low familiar way, chiefly in a sharp and pungent manner of speech; but partly, also, in a facetious and civil way of jesting; by which, either hatred, or laughter, or indignation is moved."

        There are many different ways of understanding Dryden's poem Absalom and Achitophel. The most common reading compares "the connections between fatherhood and kingship". 

        Through biblical allusions Dryden connects ancient fatherhood with current events not only to show a precedent, but also to show how it connects with a royal's responsibilities. Dryden uses the fatherly indulgence of David (lines 31-33) to explore the legitimacy of Absalom's succession. Dryden uses an old story, The Prodigal Son, to create a clear picture of how self-indulgent love creates unfair conflict. Throughout the poem the relationship of fatherhood and kingship is united.

        Another way of reading Dryden's poem is through a "mother plot." Susan Greenfield proposes that the mentions of maternity and women are an important part of the poem's royalist resolution. In this reading the blame is transferred to the females, saying that only the female power of life threatens the political order and should be hindered. It is due to female desires and a female's ability to create life that the whole mess is created.

        Within the renaissance philosophers and writers were interested in the idea of superiority of bastards. It was a common idea at that time that bastards were better than their legitimate counterparts.

 

What is the main theme of Absalom and Achitophel?

    Absalom, the illegitimate child of King David was prompted by Achitophel, The Earl of Shaftesbury, to fight for the throne and take over the throne from King David, Absalom’s father. With studied flattery and art, Achitophel begins a long temptation speech to seduce Absalom to this rebellious cause.

    This temptation scene even resembles Paradise Lost by John Milton in some respect. Both employ a great deal of flattery. While in Paradise Lost, Satan persuades Beelzebub and other arch-angels to stand up for the rightful cause, 

    Here Achitophel who is allegorically Anthony Ashley Cooper tempts the gullible Absalom to take over the throne from his father, so that King David does not give the throne to King James, who is King David’s brother and thereby an obvious heir to the throne. He exaggerates the qualities of Absalom:

 

“ The Young-mens Vision, and the Old mens Dream!

Thee, Saviour, Thee, the Nations Vows confess.”

 

    He compares Absalom with God. Achitophel makes Absalom blind for power. Achitophel does so because he was bereft of the Lord Chancellorship position once by King David and so it was Achitophel’s way of ruling through the illegitimate child of King David, who is Absalom. Absalom’s lust for power and disobedience towards his father brings his fall. His innocence is lost because of Achitophel who urges Absalom to "commit a pleasing rape upon the crown".

 

Absalom and Achitophel as a Political satire

        Satire is a form of literature, the proclaimed purpose of which is the reform of human weaknesses or vices through laughter or disgust. Satire is different from scolding and sheer abuse, though it is prompted by indignation. Its aim is generally constructive, and need not arise from cynicism or misanthropy. The satirist applies the test of certain ethical, intellectual and social standards to men and women, and determines their degree of criminality or culpability.

        Satire naturally has a wide range; it can involve an attack on the vices of an age, or the defects of an individual or the follies common to the very species of mankind. Absalom and Achitophel is a landmark political satire by John Dryden. Dryden marks his satire with a concentrated and convincing poetic style. His satiric verse is majestic, what Pope calls: “The long majestic march and energy divine”. Critics have unanimously remarked on Dryden’s capacity to transform the trivial into the poetical; personal envy into the fury of imaginative creation.

    The obscure and the complicated is made clear and simple. All this transforming power is to be seen at the very beginning of Absalom and Achitophel. The state of ‘Israel’ is easy to understand and yet Dryden shows himself a master both of the Horatian and the Juvenalian styles of Satire. He is urbane witty devastating and vigorous, but very seldom petty. Ab & AC : Basically a Political Satire: Dryden called Absalom and Achitophel ‘a poem’ and not a satire, implying thereby that it had elements other than purely satirical. One cannot, for instance, ignore the obvious epic or heroic touches in it.

    All the same, the poem originated in the political situation of England at the time and one cannot fail to note that several political personalities are satirized in it. Published in November 1681, the theme was suggested by the king to Dryden. At this time, the question of succession to King Charles had assumed great importance. The Earl of Shaftesbury had been thrown into prison to face a charge of high treason. There were two contenders for the succession. Firstly, Charles’ brother James, Duke of York, a known Roman Catholic; the second contender was Charles’ illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth.

    The Whigs supported Monmouth while the Tories supported the cause of James in order to ensure stability in the country. There was great public unrest on account of the uncertainty of succession. King Charles II saw to it that the Exclusion bill brought before Parliament, to exclude the succession of his brother James, could not be pushed through. The Earl of Shaftesbury, a highly ambitious man, sought to capitalize on this unrest. He also urged Monmouth to rebel against his father. The King, though fond of his illegitimate son, did not support his succession because that would have been against law.

       The Earl of Shaftesbury was arrested on a charge of high treason and lost popular support. Dryden’s Aim in Absalom and Achitophel: The aim of Dryden was to support the King and to expose his enemies. Of course, Charles had his own weaknesses; he was extremely fond of women. But Dryden puts a charitable mantel over his sexual sins. He is mild in dealing with his real vices. The king himself did not think unfavorably of his love affairs. The sexual license was the order of the age and as such, it did not deserve condemnation.

        Dryden has nothing but praise for the king’s moderation in political matters and his leniency towards rebels. Dryden’s lash falls on the King’s enemies particularly the Earl of Shaftesbury. He was a reckless politician without any principles who, “ having tried in vain to seduce Charles to arbitrary government had turned around and now drives down the current”. Dryden dreads the fickleness of the mob and he is not sure to what extremes a crowd can go. However, the king’s strictness and instinct for the rule of law won for him popular support and he was able to determine the succession according to his desire.

        Dryden’s reference to the godlike David shows his flattery of the King and his belief in the “Theory of the Divine Right of Kings”. Political Satire Cast in Biblical Mould: Dryden chose the well known Biblical story of Absalom revolting against his father David, at the wicked instigation of Achitophel, in order to satirize the contemporary political situation. The choice of a Biblical allegory is not original on dryden’s part, but his general treatment of the subject is beyond comparison, as Courthope points out.

    But all the while Dryden takes care to see that the political satire in not lost in the confusion of a too intricate Biblical parallelism. The advantage of setting the story in pre-Christian times is obvious as it gave Dryden had at once to praise the King and satirize the King’s opponents. To discredit the opponents he had to emphasize on Monmouth’s illegitimacy, but at the same time, he had to see that Charles (who was Monmouth’s father) was not adversely affected by his criticism. He could not openly condone Charles’ loose morals; at the same time, he could not openly criticize it either.

    With a masterly touch he sets the poem : “In pious times are priestcraft did begin Before polygamy was made a sin; When man on maultiplied his kind, Ere one to one was cursedly confined…. ” The ironical undertone cannot be missed; Dryden is obviously laughing up his sleeve at Charles himself, who, as a witty patron, could not have missed it, nor failed to enjoy it. Conclusion: Dryden is correctly regarded as the most vigorous and polished of English satirists combining refinement with fervor.

    Dryden is unequaled at debating in rhyme and Absalom and Achitophel displays his power of arguing in verse. It may be said that Absalom and Achitophel has no rival in the field of political satire. Apart from the contemporary interest of the poem and its historical value, it appeals to the modern reader lies in its observations on English character and on the weaknesses of man in general.

    His generalizations on human nature have a perennial interest. Dryden triumphed over the peculiar difficulties of his chosen theme. He had to give, not abuse or politics, but the poetry of abuse and politics.

    He had to criticize a son whom the father still liked; he had to make Shaftesbury denounce the King but he had to see to it that the King’s susceptibilities were not wounded. He had to praise without sounding servile and he had to criticize artistically.

    Dryden achieves all this cleverly and skilfully. Achitophel’s denunciation of the king assumes the shades of a eulogy in Charles’ eyes. Absalom is a misguided instrument in Achitophel’s hands. The poem is certainly a political satire, but it is a blend of dignity with incisive and effective satire.

(words: 4987)