Feminism- The Western Concept
 

Every nation has its own creative, artistic, literary and critical turn of mind. Nations' culture and social standard can be reflected through Literature. Analysing a piece of literature in several ways need to apply relevant critical theories. One of the most vibrant theories today to interpret any piece of literature is the feminist point of view. Its strength lies in its ability to uncover and challenge gender biases and power dynamics embedded within texts, both old and new.

Core principles:

Power and representation: Feminist criticism views literature as reflecting and shaping social structures, particularly the power dynamics between men and women. It analyses how female characters are portrayed, how gender roles are constructed, and how these representations contribute to or challenge existing power structures.

Challenging the patriarchy: It critically examines the assumptions and values of a patriarchal society, uncovering sexism, discrimination, and marginalization of women. This critique extends beyond individual characters to the language, symbolism, and narrative itself.

Multiple perspectives: Recognizing the diversity of women's experiences, feminist criticism avoids a monolithic approach. It incorporates various feminist theories, from intersectionality to queer theory, to analyses how race, class, sexuality, and other factors intersect with gender in shaping women's lives and their representation in literature.

Recovery and rediscovery: It actively seeks to unearth and celebrate the works of marginalized women writers throughout history. This not only expands the literary canon but also offers alternative perspectives and voices that challenge traditional narratives.

Benefits of this approach:

Deeper understanding: By applying a feminist lens, we gain a richer understanding of the complexities of gender and its impact on various characters and situations within a text.

Critical thinking: It encourages questioning and challenging implicit assumptions about gender roles and representations, promoting critical thinking and awareness of societal biases.

Celebrating diversity: It recognizes and values the diverse experiences of women, fostering a more inclusive and representative literary landscape.

Empowering narratives: Feminist analysis can highlight stories of female resistance, resilience, and agency, offering empowering narratives that inspire and challenge readers.

 

Well as such the world is organized on the concept of imbalance by patriarchy. The powerful people dominate the powerless, the haves rule over the have-nots, men establish control over women. Most of the societies across the globe are patriarchal. In patriarchy, women have been suppressed, oppressed and considered like a consumer object for over the centuries. The 19th and 20th centuries saw awakening of woman consciousness through popular socio-politico-literary movements. Authors have been trying to portray a realistic picture of social and family structures across the world in their respective texts.

 

Recent literary works project women revolting against their traditional secondary status in family and society. These and the past works have to be analysed from feminist perspectives applying various views and theories

within feminism. The importance of taking into account the development of notion feminism, historically famous theories in feminism are raised in order to acquaint and to apply to any literary text.

 

Women’s struggle against social oppression has a long history, but the Feminist literary theory as a specific, organized school of critical practice has flourished out of the self-conscious, Eurocentric literary-cultural movement of women writers and critics during the 1960s against discrimination and oppression of women in patriarchal social system and their naturalized representation in mainstream, canonical literature and art.

 

While organized feminist theory in literature took off in the 1960s, women writers and thinkers long challenged patriarchal norms and limitations. Figures like Christine de Pizan in the 15th century and Mary Wollstonecraft in the 18th century questioned societal structures and advocated for women's rights.

 

Christine de Pizan and Mary Wollstonecraft: Early Advocates for Women's Rights

While the term "feminism" wasn't formally used until much later, the voices of Christine de Pizan in the 15th century and Mary Wollstonecraft in the 18th century stand out as remarkable examples of early women challenging societal structures and advocating for their rights. Here's a closer look at their contributions:

Christine de Pizan (1364-c. 1430): A well-educated writer and advisor to the French royal court, Christine faced discrimination within the male-dominated literary sphere.

Key works:

"The Treasure of the City of Ladies" (1405): This allegorical work defends women against negative portrayal in literature and argues for their intellectual capacity and moral strength. Christine assembles a "City of Ladies" populated by historical and fictional women of achievement, demonstrating female excellence in various fields.

"The Book of the Three Virtues" (1405): This educational treatise outlines moral and intellectual virtues necessary for women to navigate their roles in society and contribute meaningfully.

Considered a precursor to feminist thought, Christine's work challenged prevailing views of women and advocated for their education, intellectual engagement, and social contributions.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797): A writer and philosopher involved in the Enlightenment, Wollstonecraft championed human rights and social justice, including women's equality.

Key works:

"A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792): This groundbreaking work critiques the way women were educated and raised, arguing that their supposed intellectual inferiority stemmed from societal limitations, not inherent nature. Wollstonecraft advocated for equal access to education for women, believing it would cultivate their reason and enable them to become virtuous and independent citizens.

"Thoughts on the Education of Daughters" (1787): This work addresses the shortcomings of female education, advocating for a curriculum that fosters intellectual inquiry, moral principles, and practical skills to prepare women for meaningful lives.

Wollstonecraft's work provided a philosophical basis for future feminist movements, challenging the existing social order and demanding equal rights and opportunities for women based on reason and justice.

Together, de Pizan and Wollstonecraft, though separated by centuries, laid the groundwork for future feminist thought and activism. Their work highlights the persistent need to challenge gender inequalities and advocate for women's rights throughout history.

As such the concept of Feminism, in general, has been concerned to an analysis of the trend of male domination in the society; the general attitude of male towards female; the exploitation and discrimination faced by females; the need for and ways of improving the condition of women; and, so on.

This literary movement focuses on:

How literature both reflects and challenges gender discrimination.

Why there are fewer celebrated female writers than male writers.

How male and female writers portray gender discrimination differently.

The interplay between social conditions and literature in shaping ideas about gender.

In simpler terms, this movement examines how literature can preserve or fight against unfair treatment based on gender, why there's an imbalance in recognition between male and female authors, how each gender approaches the topic in their writing, and how society and literature influence each other in shaping views on gender roles.

 

The concept got proper identification in the literary field during 1960s. Before that, feminism was limited to the authorship of female writers and the representation given to women in literature with the help of female characters. Naturally woman is born free, but certain man-made social norms chained her. These chains are obvious in the world of woman. Until 20th century, most of the British literature was written by male writers, and female characters were projected through male perspective. There were very few female writers and Pseudonyms were used by female writers assuming males like Bronte sisters, George Eliot and others.

In the wake of the 20th century Virginia Wolf addressed the issue of female domination by the men: “For we have to ask ourselves, here and now, do we wish to join that (academic) procession, or don’t we? On what terms shall we join that procession? Above all, where is it leading us, the procession of educated men? ”(Woolf: 1963 pp.62-63)

Challenging the status quo: Woolf does not just simply advocate for women joining the academic procession. She asks crucial questions that challenge the very foundation of this established system.

Active choice and agency: By posing the question "do we wish to join?", Woolf emphasizes the importance of women consciously choosing their path rather than passively accepting the existing male-dominated model.

Terms of engagement: She urges women to critically evaluate the "terms" under which they would participate. This implies the need to question and potentially change the existing rules, structures, and power dynamics within academia to truly include women on equal footing.

Scrutiny of the direction: The most insightful part of the quote lies in the final question: "where is it leading us, the procession of educated men?". This prompts readers to critically examine the goals, values, and outcomes of the current academic path. This is not just about women joining the system, but about questioning the system itself and potentially shaping it into something more inclusive and just.

Woolf's perspective can be interpreted in several ways:

Rejection of the male model: Perhaps she suggests that blindly joining the existing patriarchal system reinforces inequalities. Instead, women should create their own alternative paths to knowledge and scholarship.

Reform from within: Woolf could be implying that women need to enter the academic sphere but actively work to change its practices, curriculum, and power dynamics from within.

Need for diverse perspectives: Her questions highlight the importance of incorporating diverse voices and perspectives, including those of women, to enrich and broaden the scope of academic discourse.

Ultimately, Woolf's statement prompts us to critically reflect on the limitations of existing power structures and imagine alternative possibilities for creating a more inclusive and equitable intellectual landscape.

 

Feminist writing and literature: A simplified explanation

Before the 1960s:

Men mostly defined the roles and status of women.

Women had limited rights and opportunities.

Change began with:

The fight for women's suffrage (right to vote) in the early 20th century.

This sparked awareness and hope for addressing women's issues.

While many problems remain:

Women have gained more rights and freedoms, like voting.

Many continue to fight for full equality and address ongoing issues.

The movement:

Gained momentum in the 1960s, with new organizations and protests.

These groups demanded justice and equal rights for women.

Influential feminist writers like Germaine Greer and Kate Millet inspired rebellion against oppression.Feminist writing and literature emerged in the 20th century as women fought for equality and challenged traditional gender roles. While progress has been made, the movement continues to work towards a fairer and more just society for all.Feminist approach is considered the only path to attract the world's attention to the injustice done to women. Feminist movement grew after the year 1960s, although, the origin of feminism can be traced back to the earlier period in France and Netherlands in 1872 and in Britain in 1890.

 

Rise of Feminism

Originally, feminism was a literary trend and then it became socio-political movement. Feminism rose as a result of these events. The theory was western in 1960s and 1970s after that it gained its global significance. The essential issues in feminism were: What does female want? Who is the real feminist? These questions are the most dominant within feminism.

 

The leading Anglo-American feminist critic was Showalter, American literary critic and teacher ( born 1941)  mentioned the main interests in traditional critical concepts like characterization, motifs and theme. Some critics like Derrida believed that the real world is not presented in the literary texts.

Elaine Showalter and traditional critical concepts:

Elaine Showalter is a prominent feminist literary critic known for her contributions to gynocriticism, which focuses on analyzing literature written by women from a feminist perspective. While advocating for gynocriticism, Showalter acknowledged the value of traditional critical concepts like characterization, motifs, and theme.

She argued that these concepts could be reinterpreted and applied from a feminist lens to provide deeper insights into women's experiences and representations in literature.

 

Works

Showalter developed her doctoral thesis into her first book, A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing (1977), a pioneering study in which she created a critical framework for analyzing literature by women. Her next book, The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830–1980 (1985), was a historical examination of women and the practice of psychiatry. She also wrote Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle (1990); Sister’s Choice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing (1991); Hystories: Historical Epidemics and Modern Culture (1997), a controversial exploration of the history of mass hysteria; Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (2001), which follows the evolution of the feminist intellectual from the 18th to the 21st century; Teaching Literature (2003); Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents (2005), an analysis of the academic novel and its relation to real-world institutes of higher education; and A Jury of Her Peers (2009), a survey of women’s writing in the United States from its origins through the 1990s. The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe (2016) is a biography about the American author. Showalter also edited several volumes, including The New Feminist Criticism (1985) and Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin de Siècle (1993).

Jacques Derrida (1930 – 2004) and the deconstruction of reality:

Jacques Derrida, an Algerian-born French philosopher, is associated with deconstruction, a philosophical approach that challenges traditional notions of meaning and representation. Derrida argued that texts are not transparent windows to a pre-existing reality but rather constructed through language and subject to multiple interpretations. In this context, he might suggest that literary texts do not simply "present" the real world but rather offer complex and potentially unreliable representations that are shaped by the author's perspective, language choices, and the historical context.

Reconciling these viewpoints:

Showalter and Derrida represent different, but not necessarily conflicting, approaches to literary criticism. While Showalter emphasizes the importance of analyzing specific elements within texts (like characterization), Derrida focuses on the broader question of how meaning is constructed and interpreted.

 

Feminist critics can engage with both perspectives by using traditional concepts to analyze representations of gender in texts while also acknowledging the inherent complexities and limitations of literary representation. The condition of women in society, in general, got expression through the situations faced by fictional female characters and their responses to these situations. The adoption of the concept by literature in a formal manner led to the study of all the aspects of human life; like social, cultural, educational, professional and financial; with an intent to expose the intentional and unintentional efforts of the society to maintain or intensify the effects of patriarchal superiority. The evolution of feminism as a literary movement could be divided into following stages:

 

First-wave feminism, which led from the 18th century until World War II and was centered on securing basic civil rights to vote and to own property;

British novelist Virginia Woolf is arguably the most significant writer associated with the First-Wave Feminism which, however, predates and prepares the ground for the more rigorous and theory-oriented Second-Wave Feminism of the 1960s and 1970s. Avoiding for herself the tag of a “feminist”, Woolf claims gender-identity to be a relative and reversible social construct, and promulgates the notion of “androgyny” as a gender-neutral sexual ethic that should be adopted in all literary as well as socio-economic discussions. She also advocates for an exclusive, self-conscious writing practice by women that would explore female experience in its own interest. The other most influential figure associated with this wave of feminism is Simone de Beauvoir whose book The Second Sex (1949) distinguishes between sex and gender, marking the latter as a socio-political imposition, and critiques the varied forms of subjugation and oppression of women in patriarchal social system. Her journal Questions féministes (1977-‟80) marks the shift from the first wave towards the second wave of feminist literary movement.

 

Second-wave feminism, which lasted from the end of World War II until the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1980s and centered on achieving equality in the workplace, protecting reproductive choice, and attempting to pass the ERA .

 The Second-Wave Feminism, originated and developed chiefly in France and America, is more rigorously theoretical in its conceptualizations of feminine experience, sexual difference and the politics of reproduction in the domain of literature. Such critics as Kate Millett, Julia Kristeva, Elaine Showalter, Hélène Cixous, Germaine Greer, Toril Moi and Luce Irigaray seek to theorize, in different ways, the nuances and impacts of sexual difference on basis of biology, experience, discourse, the unconscious psyche, and socio-economic conditions. The feminist critics of this phase frequently resort to Marxist, Freudian, Lacanian and Foucauldian discourses to substantiate their own arguments against patriarchal hegemony and conditioning of women.

Kate Millett‟s seminal book Sexual Politics (1970) describes patriarchy as “a political institution”, and locates the cause of women‟s oppression in economic inequality and systematic indoctrination enforced by prevalent patriarchal practices of conditioning and socialization through which certain masculine values and conventions are normalized so as to shape feminine experiences accordingly.

 

Hélène Cixous in her celebrated essay „The Laugh of the Medusa‟ (1976) propounds the notion of écriture féminine as an exclusively feminine discourse for positive representation of femininity by subverting the phallogocentric/masculine symbolic language and creating new identities for women. According to Cixous, formulation of écriture féminine necessitates women to put their bodies into their writing, to write freely about their female experiences in ways of their own, ignoring and refuting the grammatical, semantic, ethical and axiomatic constructs and norms of the phallogocentric language.

 

Other significant books pertaining to the Second-Wave Feminist Criticism are: Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1975) by Juliet Mitchell, The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Sexual/Textual Politics (1985) by Toril Moi.

 

Third-wave feminism, which incorporates racial justice, LGBT rights, and class oppression into the feminist worldview and seek real, practical equality for all women.

What is often designated as the Third-Wave Feminism refers to the more socially and politically oriented form of feminist movement in the USA during the 1990s. It has little to do with literature and criticism, and differs from the first two waves of feminist movement in its sole emphasis on such social issues as intersectionality, sex positivity, gender-equality, women empowerment, rape and sexual harassment. Principal activists of this phase of feminist movement are: Rebecca Walker, Anita Hill, Jennifer Baumgardner and Eve Ensler.

 

Feminist criticism has been concerned not only with the depiction of women and men in a male-determined literary canon and with female responses to these images but also with another topic, women’s writing. Women have had fewer opportunities than men to become writers of fiction, poetry, and drama but even when they have managed to write, men sometimes have neglected their work simply because it had been by a woman.

 

Feminist have further argued that certain forms of writing have been especially the province of women-for instance journals, diaries, and letters; and predictably, these forms have not been given adequate space in the traditional, male-oriented canon.

 

Two most prominent figure in any discussion of the powerful defense of women’s struggle for equality are;

 

i)             John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women(1869) and,

ii)           Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women(1792).

 

Both books revealed the utter injustice in keeping women oppressed by advancing arguments that were essentially biased and exposed the pretentious nature of social constructions. Mill believed that ‘the liberty of the individual is absolutely necessary for the development of the society’ and viewed that women’s freedom as an essential condition. He pled led for their right to enter any profession or trade and their right to vote. Mill regarded family as a corrupting influence rendering girls miserable and abject the boys selfish. Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest crusades for the emancipation of women devoted all her life and energies to protest against institutions that crushes women’s identity. She strongly put forward that women were exploited and victimised everywhere by virtue of their sex which was sought to be supported by gender-biased men construction of false scholarly pleas. On her ideas it is not difficult to find influences of the thoughts of William Godwin, a radical thinker whom she married and John Locke whose commitment to reason and ‘natural behaviour’ gave strength to her opinions.

The third significant work is Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own which constitutes two-part lecture delivered by her in two colleges in Cambridge. She dwells at length upon various things that a woman in English society has been deprived of simply because she is woman, even the entry to the library of the university, if she is not escorted ‘properly’! It is this image of woman’s dependence on man for almost everything sustained by the society which she protests against. It is a beautiful book written in a style that gives expression to the submerged agonies of a wounded self. Woolf’s book represents the perception that “there is something wrong with society’s treatment of women”.With time feminism became a potential ideological-political force revealing as its strength a number of diverse ideologies and theories that represented various angles of looking at the problem.

 

Fundamental Themes of Feminism:

 

I. Female Aesthetics: Female aesthetics, being emerged by the feminist critics of different countries, has become one of the themes of feminist criticism. It is based on a universal view-a universal woman nature and culture. This general notion was developed because of a special social phenomenon aroused in America, Germany, Italy, and Russia. The feminists who were against the patriarchy, notion of canon formation in literary creation and criticism, formed a distinct movement ‘Women’s Liberation Movement’. The supposition of female aesthetics is that there is distinctive literary awareness of female which is distinct from the male.The movement collects momentum because in the period of 60s, there is the development of ‘Black Literature’ (Negro Literature) in U.S.A. which provided the insights for the development of female aesthetics. According to Black Literature, the Negro has a distinct awareness from the Whites. In this way, ‘female aesthetics’ is the ‘female literary consciousness’as expressed in literature or ‘the female sense of beauty’.

 

II. Gynocriticism: In the theory of female aesthetics we find that it is based on a universal concept, a universal woman nature and culture. On the contrary Gynocriticism regards woman different, in terms of nature, race, culture and nation, and due to this, they cannot be universally studied. It addresses to practical problems only and it is more forward. According to ‘gynocriticism’ it is a peculiar feminist reading-criticism of female’s texts. The main object of ‘gynocritics’ was to read the literature which is being written by female and to present what characterizes the literature of woman as woman.

 

III. Canon Formation: Canon formulation is the reformulation of the literary canon. It was needed to change the marginality of woman. The growth of “female aesthetics” and gynocriticism laid to elaboration of a distinct canon of female writing-literature by woman. Emily Bronte, George Eliot and Jane Austen are excellent female writers throughout the late 18th and 19th century. The effort of feminist critics concentrated in the period of 70’s which results to the idea of woman tradition in literature. Many of the female writers and writings were analyzed in depth, presenting the individuality of woman writers and their writings.

 

IV. Female Subject or Female Identity: In the concept of feminist criticism, the subject is undoubtedly the female author and the subject has a personality. This type of idea, the idea of the character or the author as a personality undertake the belief of the ‘unity of the self’. There is something called ‘unified self’. The subject has a ‘substantive or unified self’.

 

V. Gender Theory: In the later part of the 80’s, one more theme, gender theory was developed. In fact, some of the male critics are talking over the feminist point of view. In this respect, K. K. Ruthvin and his work “The Feminist Literary Studies” are significant. This coming of male critics to the horizon of ‘feminism’ causes a kind of dispute between the female and male critics of ‘feminist criticism’. Because of this entry of male critics into the feminist criticism a slackening comes. Some of the female critics are trying to discover the nature of masculinity in literature. This is a new development. In this respect, “Between Men” (the subtitle-“English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire”) of Eve Sedgwick is noteworthy in the period of 80’s. It is a study of male homosociality in literature. It reveals how the masculine patriarchal ideal gets reflected in literature. Being a gender discourse, it is a new approach to study. In late 80,s, post -colonial group supported a part of the process for coloniality‘race’ is the distinguishing thing and here ‘gender’ is the most significant factor of study. Now literature came to be studied with the expression of both, expression of feminity and expression of masculinity.

Feminist criticism made possible to the world that there is a tradition of female creative writing which has its own right for existence. One more contribution is that feminist criticism has developed a critical practice which might borrow from other critical practices. But it is different in colour ; besides it is anti- patriarchal in practice. It lays bare the woman subject in literature

 

Need to Develop a Model for Feminist

Analysis of Literary Texts

For making an analysis of any literary work it is necessary to have a theoretical model based on a theoretical framework. Authors take different stances in delineating with women and issues related to females. A researcher can develop an appropriate model that fits in to analyze the concerned work. Authors expose the orientation male's world in relationships, at workplace, at home, in organizations, in society oppresses women. The female protagonists and many other female characters exhibited various models of female behavior at works.

 

Some women accept the reality whereas the other revolt against the system and custom was charting out a new place for themselves. Males have been treating women as an object and hence they are disturbed and find themselves in a dilemma. All these issues in the relevant works can be discussed using a concrete theoretical paradigm. Different feminist writers' have applicable views in analysing feminist novel. The views of Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex are applicable to what overall female characters experienced. As Mary Ellmann, ElaineShowalter and Betty Friedan have suggested that a new woman tries to chart out her own identity in the course of time as communities advance. Hence, feminist critical theories have become fruitful to analyze the female characters, their existence, experience in the families and societies which the author give expression to.

 

Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal book The Second Sex (1949) is the first great book which has voiced basic questions of modern feminism with great clarity. The importance of this book can be gauged from the fact that it is called as ‘feminist Bible’. This books influence is felt even in the 21st century which underlies the greatness and importance of the book. The first English edition of The Second Sex appeared in 1953. In the book Simonede Beauvoir criticizes the patriarchal nature of human society and the inferior status given to women in social, political and religious spheres of life. The book has a very broad historical perspective which details injustice done to women from the historical times.

 

She makes a plea for equal opportunities and equal vocation for men and women irrespective of their sex. She argued strongly against the demotion of women to second place that have happened historically and it was still happening in the 20th century. She challenges the political, social and existential theories underlying woman's demotion in the society. The myths and definition of woman and womanhood had been used by patriarchal, male dominated society throughout the centuries to exploit women. Simone de Beauvoir says that one is not born a woman but becomes one through socialization. Women must break free from social and cultural constructs of womanhood to realize their full potential and get freedom from patriarchal society.

 

“One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.”

 

Simone de Beauvoir declares boldly in this book and this statement startled the readers when it was first published in her native France in 1949, 70 years later, it continues to have the same effect. In some more than 700 pages of analysis Beauvoir scrutinizes the facts and myths of women’s lives, using disparate methodologies of literature, history, biography, and philosophy. She not only examines the problem women encounter but also the possibilities open to them.

 

Initially the book created a shock and hostility for the author, but gradually she broke through the defense of the bourgeoisie, of the church, the businessmen , the wright- winged defenders of Napoleonic glory and the hired press. She was at once, the most hated and the most loved women in France. The book has been translated in various languages. Book one is a historical overview that she called ‘facts and myths’ about women. These she further divides into three separate sections called destiny’, ‘history’ and ‘myth’ all of which are further divided into individual chapters. ‘Destiny’ discusses the condition of women through biology, psychoanalysis and historical materialism. ‘history’ follows women through nomadic societies, as early tillers of the soil, and from time of the patriarchs and classical antiquity through Middle ages, the enlightenment, the French revolution and granting of French suffrage in 1947. In ‘ myths’ she speaks of dreams, ears and idols, then follows the mythical women created by five different male authors. Four are French – Montherlant, Claudel, Breton, and Stendhal ; the 5^th is English, D.H. Lawerence. She follows this with a discussion of ‘Myth and Reality.’

In the second volume or Book two, she deals with ‘ women’s life today’, which following form, she also divides into three sections: ‘ the formative years’, ‘situation’ and ‘justification’ .These are followed by a conclusion called ‘VII- toward liberation’ . here she is both contemporary and personal, as she writes of childhood, adolescent, maturity and old age.

As she filled in details of her ambitions outline, the word ‘other’ becomes increasingly important in her vocabulary. Humanity is male and men defines not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidence, the in essential as opposed to the essential. He is the subject, he is absolute- she is the Other.............

                   * Lecture prepare for Ph.D students 

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea – Excelling Hardships of Time and Circumstances.

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea –

Excelling Hardships of Time and Circumstances.

 

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), is one of the most debated and discussed personalities of 20^th-century American writers. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21^st,1899. His father was a doctor and although his family owned a cottage on a lake, he liked to spend much of his time rowing out across the water and sleeping out in the tent, and reading. He graduated from Oak Park High School in 1917 and then started working as a reporter in a newspaper. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.

Hemingway’s 62 years of life were packed with excitement and anticipation. Living through adventure after adventure, he wrote stories of his life and love on the Left Bank of Parise, of death and bull-fights as he saw in Spain, and also the fierce beasts he haunted in the African jungle, the two world wars in which he played a part in Europe, and a giant fish he battled off the coast of Cuba. But then his writings were more than just adventure stories. He is a pioneer of modern novels, as he enabled to set the style for the modern novel. His lean, muscular prose and dramatic plots, have perhaps, been copied more than any other modern author’s and his work has been translated into all the world’s major languages. He was perhaps the most influential and dominant writer of his generation and other writers attempted to adapt his tough, understated prose to their works, usually without success. As Clinton S. Burhans, Jr., noted: "The famous and extraordinarily eloquent concreteness of Hemingway's style is inimitable precisely because it is not primarily stylistic: the how of Hemingway's style is the what of his characteristic vision."

As such, influenced by Ezra Pound and particularly by Gertrude Stein, Hemingway published Three Stories and Ten Poems in 1923 and In Our Time in 1925. He carried out the style and attitude of his short-stories into his first great novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1927), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (1952).

During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also Rises (1926). In this novel, Hemingway invites the readers to enter the hedonistic lives of the post first World War European elite, a world of parties, sex, and drama. Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an American ambulance officer’s disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter. The novel narrates the first-person account of an American lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army, during the first World War. Here the author provides us with insight into the pains caused by a war-ravaged world and challenges perceptions of war. 

Whereas, Hemingway used his experiences and understanding of a reporter during the civil war in Spain as the background for his most striving novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). This great novel is a war-story about an American named Robert Jordan and is based on Hemingway’s real-life pieces of knowledge and experiences of the Spanish Civil War, where he was a journalist and war reporter. The novel explores themes of honor, death, duty, love, nature, amity, innocence, war, modernity, salvation, the value of human life, and man’s motivation.  

Well among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the Sea (1952), the story of an old fisherman’s journey, his elongated and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat. As such, The Old Man and the Sea was his last novel and it depicts the story of Santiago, an old and skilled fisherman. The novel is known for its multi-layered and multi-textural meanings, themes, and motifs, as it explores pride, honor, grandeur, life, death, redemption, martyrdom, and struggle. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and contributed to Hemingway’s Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. 

The Old Man and the Sea is also a parable of man and nature, narrating the story of a Cuban fisherman named Santiago. The story theatrically tells us that after 84 luckless days, rowing his skiff into the Gulf Stream in quest of Marlin, Santiago is ultimately successful in catching a fish. The portrait of an aged and solitary man, who goes far out and hooks a big fish, is quite dramatic and thrilling. But then again we see that as days pass the situation gets very tiring and we see the old man towing his boat all afternoon and night and into the next day. Remembering his youth, he pits his skill and waning strength in the way he once did against a wrestler called El Campeon. And as the second night turns into dawn, he finally harpoons his catch, lashes it to his small boat, and makes his weary way home. Unluckily, as he sails slowly to the port, sharks attack his catch, he fights them as best as he can with a knife lashed to the tiller gripped in raw hands. But unfortunately, as he reached the land, his Marlin is but a skeleton.

You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more? (The Old Man and the Sea)

Proud in defeat, Santiago staggers to his hut, to be found by the boy and other fishermen who marvel at his catch, while the exhausted man sleeps and dreams.

The theme which has been expressed in the apparently simple, yet actually intricately designed plot of Santiago’s adventure with the marlin and sharks, is man’s capacity to withstand and transcend hardships of time and circumstances. Hemingway illustrates before us the difficulties and hardships to which Santiago is subject and how with courage and imagination, he counters the forces testing him. When the marlin takes outline, he pulls in; when he is surrounded by the darkness of night, he dreams of golden and white beaches; when he is threatened by the vision of his own old age, he summons visions of his own youthful strength. Consequently, in this way Hemingway presents the action, not in abstract terms – gain and loss, strength and weakness, youth and age – but in vivid images – marlin and sharks, right hand and left, Monalio and Santiago.

The novel certainly is a beautifully executed parable. Every action and every motif can be interpreted allegorically and the literary and symbolic meaning operate continuously and consistently. The novel is a double allegory, one of the natures of man’s struggle with life and the other, of the artists with the art. By a strange paradox, Hemingway has never written more universally or meaningfully of himself than in this most externalized of all his stories; like Santiago determining to justify his reputation as a skilled fisherman –

The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it. (The Old Man and the Sea)

As such, Santiago’s voyage can be compared to the Ulysses episode in the Inferno. In Dante the voyage of Ulysses, who burns with desire ends in a shipwreck, is interpreted as symbolizing the disaster of thirst for scientific knowledge that is unrestrained by humans and religious feelings. Likewise, Santiago also sails out beyond his limits and his voyage too ends in material disaster. He says –

Half-fish…. fish that you were I am sorry that I went too far out, I ruined us both. (Old Man and the Sea )

But Hemingway, whose exploration of the vices and the valor of humanity is guided by compassion and respect shapes his parable towards a different end –

But man is not made for defeat…A man can be destroyed but not defeated…its silly not to hope, he thought. Besides I believe it is a sin. (Old Man and the Sea)

This kind of hope and faith is evidently very different from Hemingway’s other characters – namely from Nick Adam’s return to illusion and Frederick Henry’s surrender to disillusion. Santiago suffers neither from illusion nor disillusion, he lives as he says. This passage from illusion through various phases of disillusion to the conclusion of sober hope represents Hemingway’s profound spiritual and emotional progress during the thirty years of his career as a writer.

One of the most remarkable and talked about features of Hemingway’s novels is what has come out to be known as The Hemingway Hero. The protagonist of his works so resembles one another that many critics often refer to them in the singular as The Hemingway Hero. This Hemingway Hero appears under different names and pretexts in various books. The first among them is Nick Adams and the last is Santiago, who is in fact the finest and the best. He is best for the reason that he behaves perfectly – even while losing he does not lose his courage. Destruction and loss cannot remodify him. He is always human, always graceful, always full of sympathy and unconditional love for humanity and nature. It is Santiago who brings us the message that, while the man may grow old and be down on his luck, yet he can still dare to persist and win a victory by the very manner of his loss.

The greatness of life lies not in the victory but the struggle. Life is beautiful but not always easy, it has problems, too, and the challenge lies in facing them with courage. Subsequently, Santiago is pitted against the creatures of the sea, some feel that the novel is a chronicle of humanity’s battle against the natural world, but the story is, more truly, the story of humanity’s place within nature. As Santiago’s exhausting and near-endless battle with the Marlin shows, his is a world in which life and death go hand in hand. Everything in the world must die, and according to Santiago, only a brotherhood between humans and creatures can ease the ominousness of that fact. The death of the Marlin serves as a beautiful case in point, for as the fish dies it is not only transformed into something larger than itself, it is also charged with life. Then the fish came alive, with his death in him. In Hemingway’s conception of the natural world, beauty is deadly, age is strength, and death is the greatest occurrence of vitality.

 Both Santiago and the Marlin display qualities of pride, honor, and bravery, and both are subject to the same eternal law- they must kill or be killed. Finding hope amid uncertainty, conflict, or loss is the main lesson that the novel teaches. Hope can nurture determination and perseverance. It can accelerate the ability to bounce back and to remain determined despite failures and setbacks -

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

(by Emily Dickinson)

(Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson Edited by R. W. Franklin

Harvard University Press, 1999)

 

As such in Hemingway’s portrait of the world, death is inevitable, but the best person will however refuse to give in to its power. Accordingly, man and fish will struggle to the death, just as hungry sharks will lay waste to an old man’s trophy catch. Death is the unavoidable force in the novel, the one fact that no living creature can escape. But death, Hemingway suggests, is never an end in itself, in death, there is always the possibility of the most vital life. Thus, as Santiago slays the Marlin, not only is the old man revived by the battle, but the fish also comes alive “with his death in him.” Life, the possibility of renewal, necessarily follows on the heels of death.

The novel advocates that it is possible to transcend this natural law. In fact, the very predictability of destruction creates the terms that allow a worthy human or beast to transcend it. Santiago’s pride motivates his desire to transcend the destructive forces of nature. Throughout the novel, no matter how threatening his circumstances become, the old man exhibits a persistent determination to catch the Marlin and bring it to shore. It is precisely through the effort to battle the inevitable that humans can prove themselves. Santiago, though devastated at the end of the novel, is never defeated. Instead, he emerges as a hero, his struggle does not enable him to change humankind’s place in the world. Relatively, it enables him to meet his most dignified destiny.

Unlike, For Whom the Bell Tolls here in this novel there is no glamor of war, love, and death. Yet Santiago is like Robert Jordan who believes in his works, in his discipline, not just for the duration of the war but for his life. He performs what he is born for, unexpected at the risk of his life, all alone, far away from the applauding audience. Santiago demonstrates the necessity and the reality of heroism in everyday life. Hemingway deliberately removes all trappings from Santiago’s worlds, and at the same time subjects him to extremes where he must rely on nothing but his own resourcefulness. Here he is made to fight the biggest fish he has ever encountered and he fights for hours, breaking his tiller, losing his oar, knife, and even the rope and harpoon. On top of this, he is an old man, lacking the youthful vitality of life. Never before has Hemingway gone thus far in baring the stage of his hero’s action to be seen in such allegorical simplicity.

But against all the odds Santiago survives. He tells himself –

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready. (The Old Man and the Sea)

Exactness is preferred to luck. He also convinces himself that there is always hope as long as he can keep his head clear. He may not have the youthful muscle, but he has the wisdom and the skill required to be a good fisherman. He has a sense of duty to his vocation and that is the reason the idea of quitting never occurs to him. These qualities – humility, pride, piety, courage, endurance, persistence, and faith make his character unforgettable.

The character of Santiago is noteworthy also because it stresses what a man can do and in the world as an arena where heroic deeds are possible. It is thus a parable on a public and figurative level, about life, which is the finest and most ambitious things for a parable to be about. Undoubtedly Hemingway has written about life - a struggle against the impossible odds of unconquerable natural forces in which, given such a fact as that of death, a man can only lose, but which he can dominate in such a way that his loss has dignity, itself makes it a victory.

Santiago is also not like Captain Ahab in Melville’s novel Moby Dick, who directly seeks out knowledge about the universe or tries to conquer nature. He is not the dammed Romantic hero, but simply a man struggling to live. In this struggle, he learns to understand and respect his adversaries as well. He loves and understands the marlin. The story of the novel does not at any time in its narration suggest that man is alone in a hostile universe, but rather it points out the fact that man belongs to and is within a natural process. Man’s life is not meaningless, but plays in a larger system of meaning, even though we may or may not understand that system through our normal logical ways of thought, or even by the ways of conventional religion. The story seems to confirm that certain human responses, like pity, anger, determination, practical application, and self-questioning, are not delusive but real, and that they are sustained, rather than destabilized by nature. Luck and endurance seem to be equally important. Someone has justly said that the magic of success is powered by persistence.

In the novel, when a bird unexpectedly lands to rest on the rope that is stretched taut between the old man and the doomed fish, Santiago says – take a good rest, small bird…then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish. The man or bird or fish who takes his chance in life will have to go his way alone. But the rope of agony that connects Santiago and the marlin suggests a strange but vital companionship. Accordingly, The Old Man and the Sea interweaves these two concepts of life; its essential loneliness and its unbreakable togetherness.

Santiago throughout his ordeal is supported by the thought of others. In his relations with the birds and fishes, he democrats that ‘No man is ever alone in the sea’. While during his ordeal, the two phases ‘I wish the boy was here’ and ‘I wish I had the boy’ plays many times across Santiago’s mind. Literary he means it, but he is also invoking by this means of these phrases the strength and courage of his youth. The effect of the invocation is always magical as if employing it, some of the strength of youth has flown into sustaining the limited powers of the age. Even during the night, he sees lions on the beaches of Africa. There is a symbolic connection between the boy and the lions –

He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. they played like younger cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. (The Old Man and the Sea)

In his old age and the time of his suffering, he is supported by the memory of his youth. Living so, in the past, he is happy. This planned continuity of the old man with the double image of the boy and the lions convert the story of Santiago, in one of its meanings, into a parable of youth and age.

In the course of the story, repeatedly addresses the fish as a brother. yet at the same time, he is persistently determined to capture and kill it. He exclaims – ‘I did not know he was so big …I will kill him though …in all his greatness and his glory.’ All the qualities that he sees in the great fish – beauty, nobility, courage, calmness, and endurance- are the qualities that he values the most. Paradoxically the only means he has of conforming to them in himself is by exercising them in opposition to the fish.  He must symbolically slay the lord of life in order to achieve a spiritual identity with him.

The Old Man and the Sea mean more than it directly says. Here the mystique of fishing, with its limited triumphs and tragedies, is transported into a universal condition of life, with its success and disgrace, its morality and pride, and potential loss of pride. The story of Santiago stands as a natural parable also. In the story as in life, the battle commences, grows, and subsides between one sleep to another. The story is a parable on the theme of fighting the good fight, and a metaphor for life, a contest in which the greater thing is the struggle and in which even the problem of right and wrong occupies a secondary place. Human life is represented as a struggle against the unconquered forces of the world. Hemingway here shows a reverence of life’s struggle, as he portraits a simple man who is capable of extraordinary dignity and heroism.

Well, Santiago is Hemingway’s code hero who demonstrates the value of life that the author cherished and glorified all his life – courage, hope, dignity, honor, conscientiousness, dedication, and endurance. A person may grow old and be wholly down on his luck, but he still dares and persist. It is this consciousness of heroism that enables a person to face life. Santiago has thus rightly been called the ‘apotheosis’ of the code hero. His character remarkable demonstrates what humans can do. At the end of the story, he is confident and ready for more action and more struggle.

Hemingway’s literary style is today universally recognized as one of the important innovations of 20^th-century literature. The prose is aggressively colloquial and non-literary in its rhymes and textures.  Typically, the sentences are short and declarative. The style is simple, even to the point of monotony. His distinction as a novelist rests upon his brilliant fiction techniques, his short and consisting dialogues, concrete statements, and his concentration of action. This novel no doubt has unanimously been regarded as a triumph of the author, his best work. It is no doubt a novel of affirmation and inspiration.

The novel to the very details of its language – as in its physical settings and symbolical meanings – emphasizes that we are collective as well as unaided in an ambiguous world. We all have our parts to play. Santiago plans his next expedition with better weapons and new tricks and skills. His withdrawal into sleep and dream of lions, in the last scene, is not a movement into dearth, nor an acceptance of the finality of isolation. But it is a moment’s submersion in the deeper spring of the self so that individuality and strength can be reborn; that the past can contribute to being brought to life in the present. The novel gives the message of what in Bhagwat Gita Lord Krishnan tells this to Arjun -

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि I

(Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kada chana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani)

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, Verse 47)

 

Arjuna's Dharma as a warrior was to fight the battle. His Dharma as a human was to work for the betterment of society. Together, his Dharma was to fight the evil forces and help virtuous forces win. Nonetheless, to evade the negative effects of killing others and performing bad karma, Krishna told him to disassociate himself of the karma - by fighting selflessly without expecting victory or loss, fame or disgrace or otherwise. He was told to kill evil forces because it was his dharma, but without having any intention of benefits or loss, i.e. Nishkam karma.  That is to say to do an action but without the illusion that the outcome is going to fulfill oneself or destroy oneself. That is to say to do the duty without concentrating on the result, so the outcome whatever it may be does not change into reaction. For this to happen, it is vital to realize oneself as beyond the body, mind, intellect, and ego. One must realize himself as a form of purity. Once that has happened then the realization comes, that no fruit of any good action can be fulfilled, and at the same time no fruit of any bad action can truly harmful. Once this happens, then one is complete in this moment. Free from greed and also from fear. One has realized that there is nothing to be gained and nothing to be lost. And then, Nishkam karma arises. Once one has realized himself as an Immortal soul and realizes that everyone else is also the same. Then one experiences that everyone is One. Once grounded in this realization, bad actions cannot arise. Even the act of killing is no more done to get revenge or hurt the other, but it is done from a deeper understanding, which is to free one from sin and also to free society from sin.

Santiago is no doubt a karma yogi, doing Nishkam karma, but simultaneously he is doing his Dharam. Nishkam Karma basically means self-less or desire-less action performed without any expectation of fruits or results. As a fisherman it is his duty to go out in the sea and catch fish, he has compassion and love for the fish and the result does not halt or depressed him. He rests and is ready for another day of work.

Accordingly, the protagonist in the novel thus transcending hardships of time and circumstances and the novel ends like the greatest fables in certain memorable images; the skeleton of a great fish, waiting to return to the sea, the inadequacy of words to express the truth, as when the waiter’s ambiguous words mislead the tourist; and the image of the old age joined by youth, and preparing for a fresh start. Another story is about to be written, and we are its plot. Nonetheless, Ernest Hemingway, the greatest writer of his century, a man who had a zest for life and adventure as big as his genius, could not himself get inspiration from his writings, ended his life at the age of 62.

Bibliography

·       Hemingway, Ernest The Old Man and the Sea, SCRIBNER Simon & Schuster, New York. (2003)

References –

·       https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1954/hemingway/biographical/

·       https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Hemingway#ref172598

·     https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/being-ernest-john-walsh-unravels-the-mystery-behind-hemingways-suicide-2294619.html

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