There are certain characteristics of human life shared by all people of all clip. The celebrated expression of “ This is what life is like ” indicates that life has some qualities of its ain, one of which is the agony. In fact, “ agony ” is a huge word and there could be tonss of contentions on its definition and significance. It has been the topic of assorted literary plants and a affair of argument among the philosophers. Since the word “ enduring “ connotes a terrible trouble and agitation to mind, ” the jobs of life “ is used alternatively when talking about the troubles one face in day-to-day life.
As a affair of fact, people normally differ in their attitudes toward the jobs of life. Some accept the adversity and seek to get by with it while some other enterprise to work out the jobs, to get away from them and even if necessary to contend against the most terrible 1s.
“ tough cat “ as they are informally called, may utilize different “ tactics ” to defy against the curtailing “ force of life ” but something shared by all of them is that they must be careful to take advantage of the weak points of the powerful system.
Andrew Marvell ‘s celebrated work, “ Te His Coy kept woman ” , a 17th century literary piece could be read and interpreted from a post- structuralist position. In this verse form Marvell reflects upon life and its power and the manner to flatten it by defying against the restrictions it brings about for a immature and passionate desire.
The author of this undertaking aims to concentrate upon the subject of “ carpediem ” in the verse form and the general relationship between Marvell ‘s chef-d’oeuvre and the theories of post-modern philosopher Gilles deleuze on the topic of “ going “ to demo how the storyteller of verse form suggests a “ line of flight “ to defy against the dominant power.
Gilles Deleuze: the Philosopher of Flight
The Gallic philosopher Gilles Deleuze is frequently associated with station structural linguistics. However, he has produced a great trade of his plants with Felix Guattari, They encompass a diverse scope of countries from epistemology and ontology, to Freudian depth psychology and semiologies, and treatments on significance.
In A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia ( 1980 ) an ambitious theoretical account of history and of the universe is introduced by these two authors. It describes a struggle between two manners of societal organisation.One prefers order and hierarchy while the other is “ rhizomatic ” and favours an undoing of all such orders and hierarchies. A rootstock is the sort of works root that travels laterally belowground instead than turning up horizontally. “ In contrast to centered ( even polycentric ) systems with hierarchal manners of communicating and preestablished waies, the rootstock is a centered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without an forming memory or cardinal zombi, defined entirely by a circulation of provinces. ” ( Deleuze13 )
Deleuze and Guattari besides introduced in topographic point of the psychoanalytic theoretical account of “ subjectiveness ” , signified by the Freudian theory of Oedipus, the “ anti-oedipal ” status of schizophrenic disorder, in which desire is the free and unstable look of homo who are called by them the “ desiring machines ” .
Indeed, A Thousand Plateaus as Andrew Edgar and Peter Sedgwick explain “ renounces any straightforward manner of logical analysis, and alternatively prefer a point of view which envisages the phenomenal universe in footings of ‘ rhizomatic constructions: it is a quasi-organic machine without beginning, ‘a watercourse without get downing or stop ‘ ( p. 25 ) whose internal construction can merely be delineated in footings of comparative relationships of force [ aˆ¦ ] Any machinic gathering, as ‘a sort of being ‘ , thereby constitutes a series of power dealingss. In bend, Deleuze and Guattari consider these relationships of force in footings of a pure plenty of positively charged Elementss. [ aˆ¦ ] This is a ‘counter meaning ‘ semiotic, which resists the autocratic government of Hebraism, and other setups of control, like the province. Nomadism epitomises going, and its consequence is a ‘line of flight ‘ from the confines of restrictive semiotic systems. Likewise, its rhizomatic nature is a contemplation of the cosmic ‘order ‘ of pandemonium which embodies going. “ ( Edgar and Sedgwick.39 )
The construct of “ lines of flight ” is really what Deleuze and Guattari present as off to get away the setups of control, a manner out of “ being ” toward “ going ” .
“ The line of flight Markss: the world of a finite figure of dimensions that the multiplicity efficaciously fills ; the impossibleness of a auxiliary dimension, unless the multiplicity is transformed by the line of flight ; the possibility and necessity of flattening all of the multiplicities on a individual plane of consistence or exteriority, irrespective of their figure of dimensions ” . ( Deleuze 15 )
“ Te His Coy Mistress ” : Carpediem, Time, Flight
‘Te His Coy Mistress ” is at first glimpse, a verse form about love and its object is seduction. The statement seems to be really witty as if the talker aims to score his lady by satirising her pride and her beauty which is traveling to stop up sometimes. This is a mere flattery on the surface.
The first stanza, in which the ironical tone is the dominant one, implies a disapproving of haughtiness. There is besides a usage of hyperbole, which at times even turns to go declamatory. The talker makes excessively big claims:
“ aˆ¦I would
Love you ten old ages before the inundation
And you should, if you please, garbage
Till the transition of the Jews. “
This means that he would pass a clip every bit long as the history or the Earths ‘ life for praising and loving her!
The storyteller continues:
“ My vegetable love should turn
Vaster than imperiums, and more slow. ”
He could pass “ An 100 old ages ” to praise entirely her eyes and to stare at her brow, so “ two hundred ” more to “ adore each chest “ and “ 30 1000 to the remainder ” . The grasp would take so long, “ an age at least to every portion ” but it can non go on because this requires -as the poet asserts at the really first line: “ Had we but universe sufficiency, and clip ” – adequate clip.
The under lying subject of the verse form is revealed when in the 2nd stanza the initiating word “ But ” drives back attending to the pre status. Bing immersed in the beauty of likely ageless love, the reader wakens up and is warned against the impossibleness of such a changeless pleasance.
Time is go throughing and so is life. Peoples do non populate everlastingly.they do non hold all “ clip ” and “ universe ” ; they are merely mortal animals. In this manner, the subject of mortality and decease enters the verse form on the 2nd stanza and the treatment from here on is about the inevitableness of decease and the transition of clip.
This is much distinct from what happens in a conventional “ carpediem “ verse form. The difference lies in the manner decease is treated through the verse form.
The alteration of tone is obvious in the 2nd stanza as an deduction of the darkness of the topic. Traditionally in a carpediem verse form such a concrete evocation of decease is non included. ” Time “ is manifested as a “ baleful figure armed with a scythe ” ( Lawrence294 ) and is the responsible of the finitude of life and the cause of decease. In other words, clip base on ballss to inform the terminal of life. It brings decease and prevents the fulfilment of desires. This is presented through the imagination: clip goes by on a “ winged chariot ” at “ back ” of the storyteller like a ace natural “ power ” stamp downing the topics and taking their lives.
These harsh and stiff images of the 2nd portion of the verse form helps the reader gets into the more profound statement of the power of clip over mortal topics. The munificent, playful tone of the first stanza, the “ rubies ” by “ Indian pack ‘s side ” and “ tide ” of “ Humber ” , turn to “ comeuppances of huge infinity ” where the “ beauty shall no more be found ” in the 2nd stanza. There are “ worms ” , “ dust ” , “ ashes ” , and eventually “ sculpt ” alternatively.
Then “ beauty ” is lost and desire is ruined. These all “ supply a macabre and in writing image of decease ” , though it is non common in an ordinary love verse form to name Forth such an image of decease right amidst of seduction.
Consequently, the force felt in the verse form signifies some kind of “ opposition ” . “ Time ” is introduced as the power so the poet-lover calls for standing up against it he is to the full cognizant of the impossibleness of turning over such a power. ‘The grave ” although “ a all right and private topographic point /but none ” he “ believe [ s ] , do at that place encompass ” . These lines explain briefly how “ privateness ” and “ subjectiveness ” are desirable and “ all right ” but non easy gained until traveling t the “ grave ” .
Now that enemy is so powerful, a “ line of flight ” is of a supreme benefit. The manner is blocked ; the best 1 can make is to give other restrictions to do easy jumping over the obstruction. That is why in the 3rd stanza the storyteller urges the lady to give up her pride and to fall in the flight so to allow both hold the desire fulfilled.
The 3rd and last stanza begins with “ Now ‘ therefore ” . This means the statement is traveling to hold a decision. The storyteller after depicting an fanciful status of autonomy and concluding about the world of restrictions, which clip brings about, now is willing to expose a solution. He points out:
“ While the vernal chromaticity
Sits on thy tegument like forenoon dew
And while thy willing psyche transpires
At every pore with instant fire
Now allow us feature as while we may ”
For the 2nd clip a alteration in tone is found in the verse form. The melancholy and indignation of the 2nd portion gives manner to a new temper of earnestness, strength and finding. “ Thy willing psyche ” nevertheless reminding one of the “ desire ” , besides indicates strength and unruliness. Images are much brighter and in contrast with those of the old subdivision. The storyteller comments ; “ allow us feature while we may ” , “ like amative birds of quarry, instead at one time our clip devour / Than pine away in his slow-chapped power ” . “ Sport ” , remembering game and flight intensifies the construct of flight in being able to overreach the power. In add-on, “ Birds of quarry ” is a really appealing metonymy for the “ flight ” . The preying birds non merely wing but besides are strong plenty to “ devour clip ” .
“ Let us turn over all our strength and all / Our sugariness up into one ball ”
The “ strength ” combined with the “ sugariness ‘ is the exact description of the “ lines of flight ” .To talk about the “ flight ” is to talk about the schemes and the techniques used for get awaying from the power, non revolting against it. It is to travel through dictatorship by agencies of humor and drama. Nevertheless, in the last lines the lovers ‘ “ chase of pleasance has become predatory, about despairing: ” devour ” , “ rupture our pleasance with unsmooth discord. ” This violent, wilful submergence in the animal seems a manner of barricading out the confusing vision of mortality. ” ( Lawrence 294 )
Such a scheme recommended by the storyteller of the verse form leads to the thought of “ going ” . The storyteller hints the urgency of “ going ” something suited, fit to last and to fulfill the desire.
The important point about the verse form is that the whole treatment is of class merely a proposal. May be the lover so enthusiast about his suggestion but the inquiry of whether the beloved would hold or non is still non cleared. Possibly she would instead to happen another manner to defy against the encephalon rinsing act of him and to see the impact of this male political orientation more compelling and destructive than the power of clip, decease or life!
Beginnings:
Castle, Gregory. The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Edgar, Andrew and Peter Sedgwick. Cultural Theory: the Key Thinkers.New York: Routledge, 2002
J. Lane, Richar. Fifty Key Literary Theorists. New York: Routledge,2006.
Lawrence, Karen etal. The MacGrew-Hill Guide to English Literature. Vol.1.New York: McGrew-Hill Inc. , 1985
Perrine, Laurence. Literature: The Elementss of Poetry. 2nd erectile dysfunction. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. ,1956.
Rivkin, Julie, And Michael Ryan. erectile dysfunction. Literary theory, an anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 1998.
