T.S. Eliot's: 'The Waste Land'

This blog is in response to the task given by Dilip barad sir https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2014/10/presentations-on-ts-eliots-waste-land.html. In this blog I am going to write about my understanding on the modern epic poem "The Waste Land" by T.S.Eliot.

1)Write about allusions to the Indian thoughts in 'The Waste Land'. (Where, How and Why are the Indian thoughts referred?)

One among the many western scholars, who were influenced by Indian philosophy, T.S. Eliot let his understanding become a key factor in his magnum opus, The Waste Land . The dominant poetic voice of the 1920s, Eliot used an essential, allusive and elliptical technique to put across the view that modern western urban civilization was sterile and unsatisfying. He avoided personal emotion in contrast to the more romantic effusions of the Georgian poets. His distaste for romanticism, a desire to treat the poem in isolation from the poet and the cult of traditional classical values went hand in hand with a dislike of the modern world.

The Waste Land appeared in 1922. The poem, which won Eliot the Nobel Prize in 1948, follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. He employs literary and cultural allusions from the western canon, Buddhism and the Hindu Upanishads. The poem shifts between voices of satire and prophecy featuring abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, time and conjuring a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures.

Five sections:

The Waste Land is divided into five sections. The “Burial of the Dead” introduces the diverse themes of disillusionment and despair. The second is “A Game of Chess” and the third, “The Fire Sermon,” shows the influence of Augustine and Eastern religions. The fourth is “Death by Water” and the fifth and final section is “What the Thunder said,” which features the influence of Indian thought on the Poet Laureate.

Eliot became a prominent poet in the aftermath of the chaos and convulsions of the First World War. Europe was home to existential philosophy owing its origin to Kierkegaard. This was a reaction against German idealism and the complacency of established Christianity. 

Dr. Radhakrishnan records how T.S. Eliot, when asked about the future of our Civilization said, “Internecine fighting, people killing one another in the streets.” Civilization to him appeared a crumbling edifice destined to perish in the flames of war. The tragedy of the human condition imposes an obligation on us to give meaning and significance to life. Eliot’s prescription for a new dawn is given in Part V — “What the Thunder Said.”

“Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Then spoke the thunder

DA

Datta: what have we given?

My friend, blood shaking my heart

The awful daring of a moment’s surrender

Which an age of prudence can never retract

By this, and this only, we have existed

Which is not to be found in our obituaries

Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider

Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor

In our empty rooms

DA

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison

Only at nightfall, aethereal rumors

Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

DA

Damyata: The boat responded

Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar

The sea was calm, your heart would have responded

Gaily, when invited, beating obedient

To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore

Fishing, with the arid plain behind me

Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down

Poi s’ascose nel foco che gli affina

Quando fiam uti chelidon — O swallow swallow

Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie

These fragments I have shored against my ruins

Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih”

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad alludes to Prajapathi, the Creator, talking to his three offspring — Devatas, Demons and Men. In the first Brahmana Chapter V, all the virtues are brought together under the three Da’s which are heard in the voice of the thunder namely Dama or self-restraint for the Devas, Danas or self-sacrifice for the humans and Daya or compassion for the Demons. Eliot was greatly influenced by the Bhagavad Gita. See Chapter XVI, Verse 21.

Part V of The Waste Land indicates a turning point. ‘The Word of the Thunder’ offers a ray of hope penetrating the despair that hangs over the rest of the poem. In a letter to Bertrand Russell, Eliot described it as “not only the best part but the part that justifies the whole.” Eliot uses concepts from Sanskrit texts as a framework to give shape to and support the many ideas that constitute the human psyche on a spiritual journey.

What sparked his interest in Vedic thought is not recorded but it is known that he was occupied with Sanskrit, Pali and the metaphysics of Patanjali. The Waste Land reiterates the three cardinal virtues of Damyatha (Restraint), Datta (Charity) and Dayadhvam (Compassion) and the state of mind that follows obedience to the commands as indicated by the blessing Shanti, Shanti, Shanti — the peace that passes understanding.

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, an important landmark in the history of English poetry, first appeared in ‘the Dial’ and after winning that Magazine’s Poetry Award, was finally published in book form in 1922. After its publication, it found a resounding and reverberating success in the world literature because of its universal theme and thought content. Eliot’s universalism is the result of his cosmopolitan intellectualism and poetic sensibility which transcends all sorts of barriers ranging from caste, creed, religion and spatial variance. In the Preface to Four Lancelot Andrews (1928), he proclaimed himself to be “‘classist in literature, royalist in politics, and Anglo-Catholic in religion.’” This proclamation is circuitous conscientiously, religiously encompassing the essence of the wisdom of the globe emerging from West and East respectively and making something new out of the alchemical process of poetic creation. Hence, it is plausible to determine abundance of influences on Eliot’s mind and his writings: Indian, Christian, Bradleyean: “‘Eliot presented the credentials of a wide-ranging poetic sensibility by incorporating in his writings not only the ‘best’ of European culture but also of Indian thought’” 

The poet’s mind is a complex mechanism to absorb and to recreate ‘something new and strange.

As regards T.S. Eliot, he was an avid believer in constant study throughout his life, hence the range and variety of his interest was quite amazing. The exploration of different sources and influences on the works of Eliot because of their multifarious layers of suggestions and implications has emerged as a well established and settled routine because his works are thereplica of his ardent and erudite scholarship. The Waste Land, the most influential and deemed over poem of Eliot is not an exception rather bears the impressions of his scholarship. This poem within the space of its four hundred and thirty three lines has quotations, imitations and allusions derived from more than thirty writers ranging from Vigil, Ovid, Dante to Shakespeare, Milton and Spenser etc. Moreover, this is organized round the mythical material drawn from Jessie Weston’s and James Frazer’s books of anthropology: “Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston’s book on the Grail legend: From Ritual to Romance . . To another work of anthropology I am indebted . .  I mean The Golden Bough ”  

Apart from these books, the Indian thoughts especially Hinduism and Buddhism exercised a conspicuous and impressionable influence on Eliot’s mind when he was working upon The Waste Land cannot be overlooked. The ancient wisdom of India had attracted attention of many intellectuals of western countries. In the mid-nineteenth century Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman were greatly influenced by Indian scriptures and they were composing poetry tinted with Indian aura. Hence “[t]here was a deep desire to have first hand acquaintance with Indian thoughts”. In 1884 Lanman was the first to bring forth his Sanskrit Reader and thus he initiated Harward Oriental Series. Thus, he scattered the seeds of Indian thoughts in the soil of Europe: Already enough pioneering work in this direction had been done by European scholars; and then enlightened students of Culture did not close their minds to the winds blowing from India. This was the currents of ideas in which at the turn of the century many Americans found themselves. Possibly the activities of Swami Vivekananda too had a powerful influence in molding this atmosphere.

It is part of both ritual as well as religious activity in Vedic way of living. The words are not automatic, but Eliot wants the universe to be at peace, including peace for the waste landers, those who live in acute atmosphere of awe, fear, doubts and frustration”. To conclude, The Waste Land bears the mark of Indian wisdom to a considerable extent. However, to confine it to sheer Indianness will not be a true justification to this poem which bears universal outlook and Hindu, Vedic and Buddhist religious undertones constitute a part of the poet’s universal attitude.

2) What are your views on the following image after reading 'The Waste Land'? Do you think that Eliot is regressive as compared to Nietzsche's views? or Has Eliot achieved universality of thought by recalling mytho-historical answer to the contemporary malaise?

-T.S.Eliot and Friedrich Nietzsche are quite different in their thinking Nietzsche had proclaimed “God is Dead”; he doesn’t believe in any power like God. He believed in “Superhuman”, who believes in his own self and has great will power; While T.S.Eliot believes in spirituality and religion. In compared to Nietzsche's thought, yes Eliot is regressive but it doesn't mean that he only rises question on his contemporary society, he also tries to give way of solution rather than the answers.

Cycle of time always moving and when History start repeating one must have to look back and try to learn that what are mistakes our ancestor did and now when time comes to us how we will deal with it? It is certain and right that new question's answer we couldn't find in Upanishad, Buddhism and Christianity but the way of living, understanding towards any situation one can develop. So we can conclude that it is also right that problems of contemporary crisis' solution is in faith and self but, the level of faith and understanding of self must be necessary. It comes from reading of mytho-historical and religious thought. Eliot achieved that universality of thought.

3) Prior to the speech, Gustaf Hellström of the Swedish Academy made these remarks:

What are your views regarding these comments? Is it true that giving free vent to the repressed 'primitive instinct' lead us to happy and satisfied life? or do you agree with Eliot's view that 'salvation of man lies in the preservation of the cultural tradition'?

I am disagree with Eliot. By suppressing the desires or by controlling it the desire get more strong and it also affect at psychological level. It is better to give free vent to primitive instincts as Freud suggest to do. Here I want to give example of movie “Murder 2” in which the villain of movie Dheeraj, have sex addiction and he is also straight man but to control his sex addiction he castrated him self and become eunuch. As now he cant satisfy his hunger he started killing girls and become serial killer. So we can see how suppression leads to the harsh endings. Though Dheeraj has inappropriate addiction which suppose to be controlled but he himself willingly and with understanding should do the needful but he is doing it with the wrong ideas in brain it turns out rude. So the desires which all normal human beings naturally have should not be suppressed. It is better to give free vent to the desires which leads to the happy and satisfactory life. There are other movies based on this kind of concept of desire.

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"For Whom The Bell Tolls": by-Earnest Hemingway.

This blog is in response to the task given by Yesha ma'am. In this blog I am going to write about my understanding on the novel "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Earnest Hemingway. 

In what basic way is Robert Jordan a typical Hemingway hero?

Robert Jordan As A Typical Hemingway Hero In ” For Whom The Bell Tolls”. Hemingway’s heroes have their own brand of uniqueness in their characterization. They are not less than Shakespeare heroes in their unique traits of heroism. His heroes are successful in their presentation of action and adopt themselves as the action follows or proceeds. That’s why, most of the critics dub Hemingway as a successful writer of tragic heroes. The element of pessimism is very much evident in it. He creates his own fiction style in his writing.

Hemingway’ writings because his heroes often fail in their struggle and get nothing in the end. Santiago in The Old man and the Sea, Romero in The Sun also Rises and Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls can be best quoted in this regard.

A tragic hero in the play or novel is that person who achieves greatness at the cost of himself. As it is known that the tragic death of a hero turns a play or novel into a tragedy and it is the death of the hero which mounts the appeal of the tragedy. The hero intentionally does everything for the good of the public and it is his death for the fulfillment of his mission which fills the hearts of the readers, with sympathy and respect. The greatness of the tragedy depends on the bigness of the goal of the hero. In other words, it means to say that the bigger the goal of the hero the higher the tragedy.

In For Whom the Bell Tolls, we see that Robert Jordan plays a role of such character who fights for an ideal in a foreign land. He has a firm belief in the Republican cause because he loves Spain. He is of the views that if there establishes a government of fascists in Spain then the future of this country will be in danger and the country might be spoiled. Moreover, he thinks that in spite of all its flaws a republican form of Govt. It is better than a totalitarian state because an individual feels cramped and suffocated under fascism.

This novel has been written in order to test the quality of Jordan’s idealism and the chain of obstacles in his path forms the basic structure of the novel. As the action of the novel proceeds, Jordan’s task gets more and more complicated. Pablo is absolutely against Jordan’s plan. He takes it impossible to put into practice because it means the destruction of the land. Hemingway’s heroes are always brave in their acts. Jordan is brave enough that he even does not feel fear in his great risky task of blowing up the bridge.

The reason being, Hemingway’s heroes always like to face risks like Santiago in The Old man and the Sea, Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises, Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms and Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Jordan is such a character who does not give any importance to what happens to himself. He accepts the risky task of blowing up the bridge with an open heart and never shows any sign of cowardice. Though General Golz warns him about the difficulty of the assignment yet he gives a promise to complete it within the limit of time. In spit of creating obstacles by Pablo, he balances Pablo’s hostility by Pilar’s support. It was being assumed by some critics that Jordan’s falling in love with Maria might become a threat or obstacle in fulfilling his mission. In spite of this, he does not care and we see with the passage of time that it is his love for Maria which enhances his zest. He keeps the two roles that of lover and that of a dynamiter apart, though towards the end of the play, they merge into one another.

Some critics raise objections by saying that sometimes, Jordan appears like a dummy but Hemingway makes him a convincing and imitable personality by his superb art of characterization. So, their objection does not remain for a long time when we see that it is Jordan who fights against many abstractions: liberty, equality, rights of the people, democracy and atrocities of the fascists.

In fact, he is a religiously zealous who fights for a secular ideal. A prominent critic has very rightly said, “He dies for the American dream”. He sacrifices for all the poor people in the world. There is no doubt in saying the fact that his ideals are worth imitating for the people of the rest of the world. He fights for those ideals which are practicable for most of the sensible persons.

Some critics might term it as a flaw in his character that his love for Maria is a weakness in his character. But it is very convincing by his weakness as a human being. His love for Maria is pure and genuine because he loves her by the cores of his heart unlike a boozer or a womaniser. He wants to remain in her heart forever. He tells his philosophy of love to Pilar that he loves the good things of life and he will die only if it is a necessity. It is his love for Maria which makes him more zealous and enthusiastic in his mission. He is well aware of the sufferings of the Spanish people in a civil war. It is Maria’s rape by fascists which compels him to ‘teach a lesson to fascists by blowing up the important bridge. He takes Elsardo’s death as a serious one which reminds him of all other such deaths. By thinking so, he deeply becomes sad and gloomy.

It is worthy to note here that the influence of his father’s profession is very much in his life. His father was a guerrilla in the American civil war, as he is in the Spanish. Just like an ordinary human being, he is totally dominated by Maria’s love. Here we should not forget that he is an ordinary human being and not a supernatural creature or perfect human being. He has a lot of weak points like ordinary and commonplace human beings. He is an American volunteer who fights for the genuine cause of humanity and feels this crusade in his blood and soul. Being a dutiful, he loves Spain. He remained there when the civil war broke up. He joined the war inorder to contribute his service for the welfare of the country.

He is an anti fascist and does not like to give himself any other political label because he only feels proud of being anti-fascist. He loves Spanish people and learns their language in order to teach this language to them as an instructor in Spanish at a small college in America.

In addition to Jordan’s love for Spanish people and their language, Hemingway also shows his love for Spain and its sports especially bull-fighting in his another novel The Sun Also Rises. The Russian General Golz has full confidence in him and regards him as a very high dynamite. That’s why, he assigns him the toughest task of blowing up the bridge within a limited time. Jordan accepts it as a challenge by his open hearts. He carries out the task and justifies the faith placed in him. He is of the views that life is dear but dear than life is the need for the justification of his courage.

One of the best traits of his personality is that he is not : an ordinary hero like other heroes of Hemingway but a complicated one. His complicated nature of psychological vacuum is filled by the dream like love of Maria. He is not a coward like his father who committed suicide. That’s why he idealizes his grandfather more than his own father.

There is no doubt in saying that he becomes a new man after the arrival of Maria in his love and he starts living only for Maria’s sake but it does not mean that his sense of Dutifulness eclipses at any cost. His love for Maria and his risky mission of blowing up the bridge becomes one because fascists have now become his personal revenge for him as they rape his sweetheart. This very thinking of him leads him further to his fight for Republicans and Republic Spain and Maria becomes one for him.

Summing up the above mentioned discussion of the characteristics of Jordan as a tragic hero, we can say in the concluding remarks that at the end; his loyalty becomes personal loyalty and he is just a husband covering the retreat of his wife whom he loves by the cores of his heart. He sacrifices his life for Maria and her people i.e., Pablo and his land. He is justified in his act of sacrifice because his idealism is worth imitating and practicable for many others.

(For more information you can watch this video.)

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William Butler Yeats and His Poems.

 This blog is in response to the task given by our professor Dilip barad sir https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/05/whauden-poems.html In this blog I am going to write about my understanding on the William Butler Yeats and some of his Poems.

 W.B.Yeats:

Born in Dublin, Ireland on June 13, 1865, William Butler Yeats was the son of the well-known Irish painter, John Butler Yeats. He spent his childhood in County Sligo, where his parents were raised, and in London. He returned to Dublin at the age of fifteen to continue his education and to study painting, but quickly discovered that he preferred poetry. Born into the Anglo-Irish landowning class, Yeats became involved with the Celtic Revival, a movement against the cultural influences of English rule in Ireland during the Victorian period, which sought to promote the spirit of Ireland’s native heritage. Though Yeats never learned Irish Gaelic himself, his writing at the turn of the century drew extensively from sources in Irish mythology and folklore. Also a potent influence on his poetry was the Irish revolutionary, Maud Gonne, whom he met in 1889, a woman equally famous for her passionate nationalist politics and her beauty. Though she married another man in 1903 and grew apart from Yeats (and Yeats himself was eventually married to another woman, Georgie Hyde Lees), she remained a powerful figure in his poetry.

Yeats was deeply involved in politics in Ireland and, in the twenties, despite Irish independence from England, his verse reflected a pessimism about the political situation in Ireland and the rest of Europe, paralleling the increasing conservatism of his American counterparts in London, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. His work after 1910 was strongly influenced by Pound, becoming more modern in its concision and imagery, but Yeats never abandoned his strict adherence to traditional verse forms. He had a life-long interest in mysticism and the occult, which was off-putting to some readers, but he remained uninhibited in advancing his idiosyncratic philosophy, and his poetry continued to grow stronger as he grew older. Appointed a senator of the Irish Free State in 1922, he is remembered as an important cultural leader, a major playwright (he was one of the founders of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin), and as one of the greatest poets in any language of the twentieth century.

W. B. Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923 and died in 1939 at the age of seventy-three.

His Famous Works:

1.The Countess Cathleen (1892)

2.The Land of Heart's Desire (1894)

3.Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902)

4.The King's Threshold (1904)

5.Deirdre (1907)

6.The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

7.Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)

8.The Tower (1928)

9.The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

10.Last Poems and Plays (1940)

-He Wrote more than 100 poems in his whole life.

The Second Coming

The Second Coming" is one of W.B. Yeats's most famous poems. Written in 1919 soon after the end of World War I, it describes a deeply mysterious and powerful alternative to the Christian idea of the Second Coming—Jesus's prophesied return to the Earth as a savior announcing the Kingdom of Heaven. The poem's first stanza describes a world of chaos, confusion, and pain. The second, longer stanza imagines the speaker receiving a vision of the future, but this vision replaces Jesus's heroic return with what seems to be the arrival of a grotesque beast. With its distinct imagery and vivid description of society's collapse, "The Second Coming" is also one of Yeats's most quoted poems.

At the time of ‘The Second Coming’ being written, much of the world had grown disillusioned with the turn of the century. From ushering in new and wonderful inventions – the motorcar, small aircraft, and others – it had gone to fray apart. In different parts of the world, a revolution brewed and broke out: the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Easter Uprising of 1916, and, of course, the First World War (1914-1918), the most horrific, bloody battle that anyone in Europe had ever seen, totaling a death rate that had since been unmatched in history. With all these events behind, it was no wonder that poets, writers, and artists of all kinds felt as though there was a great shift in the world happening, and that it would soon come to an end.

The Second Coming’ was William Butler Yeats’ ode to the era. Rife with Christian imagery, and pulling much inspiration from apocalyptic writing, Yeats’ ‘The Second Coming’ tries to put into words what countless people of the time felt: that it was the end of the world as they knew it and that nothing else would ever be the same again. The First World War had shaken the foundations of knowledge for many, and scarred from the knowledge of the ‘war to end all wars’, they could no longer reconcile themselves with a time before the Great War. This poem is the literary version of that: a lack of ability to think of a time before the war.

Historical Background:

W.B. Yeats was an Irish poet born on the 13th of June, 1865. He is considered a largely Irish poet, although he ran in British literary circles as well, and he was a big part of the resurgence of Irish literature. In 1923, he was to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry, as the first Irishman. This was shortly after Ireland had finally gained independence from England.

This Poem we can better understand after this Corona Pandemic. In Corona Pandemic we can see that people they believe in God their believe broken when their near and dear one die.

  On Being Asked for a War: 

On Being Asked for a War Poem’ is a poem by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), written in 1915 and published the following year. It’s one of Yeats’s shortest well-known poems, comprising just six lines, and sets out why Yeats chooses not to write a ‘war poem’ for publication. Before we analyze ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’, here’s a reminder of the text of the poem.

In summary, ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’ is a poem about refusing to write a war poem when asked to produce one. This odd act of refusal-as-assent – writing a poem, but a poem which takes a stand against writing a certain kind of poem – has the air of irony about it, and Yeats probably intended his poem to be taken as a brief ‘thanks, but no thanks’.

In terms of its form, the poem is written in iambic pentameter, rhymed abcabc. The final two lines are the only ones which might cause some real head-scratching from readers (and critics), but Yeats appears to be making an appeal to the broad readership that poetry (including his poetry, by 1915) enjoyed: young girls might enjoy his romantic verses about old Ireland, while an old man might enjoy the ballads.

Why did Yeats refuse to write a ‘war poem’? In February 1915, Yeats had written to his friend Lady Gregory: ‘I suppose, like most wars it is at root a bagman’s war, a sacrifice of the best for the worst. I feel strangely enough most for the young Germans who are now being killed.’ Yeats goes on to say that the ‘bespectacled’ Germans he has seen remind him more of himself than the English soldiers (‘footballers’) or the French troops.

In a letter of the same year, sent to John Quinn, Yeats wrote that the First World War was ‘merely the most expensive outbreak of insolence and stupidity the world has ever seen and I give it as little thought as I can.’ These remarks leave us in little doubt about how Yeats viewed the conflict, and help to explain why he wrote ‘On Being Asked for a War Poem’.

This is my Understanding about these poems and I hope this blog will be helpful to you.

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Robert Frost-Group Task.

 This Blog is in response to the task given by Megha Ma'am.

-Here is Presentation which all Ten(10)students participated equally. We all classmates collaboratively work in this Presentation based on Robert Frost.

Robert Frost presentation .pptx from DrashtiJoshi21

-Here is Recorded Video Of this Presentation. 

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Frame Study Of 'Great Dictator': by Charlie Chaplin.

This blog is in response to the task given by our professor Dilip barad sir https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2020/09/charlie-chaplin-modern-times-great.html In this blog I am going to write about my understanding on the Zeitgeist of the 20th Century: From Modern Times to the era of Great Dictators Films by Charlie Chaplin. Also I am going to write about Frame study of both films.

I made another blog of 'Modern Times' by Charlie Chaplin.https://drashtijoshi.blogspot.com/2022/12/frame-study-of-modern-times-by-charlie.html. You can refer to this blog to read about Charlie Chaplin and Frame study of Modern Times.

Frame Study Of 'Great Dictator':

Today, if you watch any of the rallies Hitler addressed it’s easy to see how dangerous he was or would become. At the same time, he comes across as a raving madman. He exhibited a style of delivery and  espoused a form of dogma which characterizes most despots. It almost looks comical from the outside, but it’s impossible to understand the impact it would have had at the time. In many ways The Great Dictator was a searingly prescient film.

During World War I, a Jewish Private (Chaplin) fighting for Tomainia heroically saves the life of a wounded pilot (Reginald Gardiner). They subsequently crash and when the former barber awakes he can’t remember a thing. Twenty years later  he’s returned to his profession in the (Jewish) ghetto, still suffering from amnesia. Tomainia is now a dictatorship governed by the iron will of Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin).

The Great Dictator was Chaplin’s first ‘talkie’, bringing the mannerisms and comedy of the ‘little tramp’ and placing them against a character based on the embodiment of evil. It was a brave move, especially considering filming started just after Germany invaded Poland, but one which really pays off. Featuring great supporting performances from Paulette Goddard and Jack Oakie, it’s incredibly funny and piercingly clever. It works wonderfully, but The Great Dictator will perhaps be remembered most fondly for Chaplin’s moving closing speech.

Let's read the frames of the movie:-

First thing first, I found full movie of 'The Dictator':

Frame-1:Beginning of the Film:

The beginning of the film says that any resemblance between dictator and barber is purely co-incidental. We can compare this with the allegorical character of 'Hitler'.

Frame-2: War Scene:

The movie is set in the period between the two world wars, The period of madness and lack of humanity. It is the very beginning of the movie which displayed condition on the border, constant fight with the heavy weapons, bombs.

Frame-3: Gibberish speech of Hynkel:

In this film Hynkel is an allegorical representation of Hitler. I put this video because we can compare speech given by both 'Dictators'. All who were listening to these speeches shouted "Hail Hynkel or Hail Hitler". They are both doing hardships on Jews. Many mic around Hitler symbolize that no one should hear anything other than Hynkel, every mic is only for Hynkel and every speaker is for his voice.

Frame-4:Pappet of Hynkel:

This video is of a gibberish speech by Hynkel. In this video we see that Hynkel raises hand and everyone will clap for his speech and the minute he will sign to stop everyone will stop. This shows the control of Hynkel. Authoritativeness, dictating nature of an Hynkel. It seems like the public and his officers are ‘Puppets’ in his hand.

Frame-5 Ghetto:

A ghetto, often called the ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city. Versions of the ghetto appear across the world, each with their own names, classifications, and groupings of people. In this film some soldier torched one jew and the Ghetto is where Jews live. 

Frame-6: Bird symbolized Jews:

This Frame shows how Dictators controlled all things like they also controlled people and Jews. 

Frame-7:Upper class V/S Lower class:

This frame describes how the upper class or dictators and Leaders are wasting food. There are people who don't even find food. 

Frame-8: Glob as Play Ball:

Playing with a globe is a maniacal dream sequence of Hitler. The dream of pleasure of ruling the whole world. Sycophant officers give air to their ego and dreams which were dreamt by Hynkel by playing with the globe, Playing the world. 

Frame-9: Ego's of Dictator's:

This frame of film shows the two men compete to have the higher chair while they are being shaved, and to have the more flattering position when they are being photographed.

Frame-10:Last speech by Barber:

The final speech in the movie by the barber is the voice of Charlie Chaplin himself. Speech is considered to be one of the best speeches the speed pleads for peace, tolerance and understanding.

After watching this movie you can also watch some of the other movies which are also based on Hitler's torchers on Jews and also his dictatorship. 

-Films like:

1. Look Who’s Back (2015)

2.Valkyrie (2008)

3.Man Hunt (1941)

4.The Bunker (1981)

5.Triumph of the Will (1935)

6.The Victory of Faith (1933)

7.Inglorious Basterds (2009)

8.The Last Ten Days (1955)

9.The Great Dictator (1940)

10.Downfall (2004)

These are some Movies which you can watch and understand how Hitler was ruling in his time. how he always torched.

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Frame Study of "Modern Times" by Charlie Chaplin.

 This blog is in response to the task given by our professor Dilip barad sir https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2020/09/charlie-chaplin-modern-times-great.html In this blog I am going to write about my understanding on the Zeitgeist of the 20th Century: From Modern Times to the era of Great Dictators Films by Charlie Chaplin. Also I am going to write about Frame study of both films.

Charlie Chaplin:-

Charlie Chaplin, byname of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (born April 16, 1889, London, England—died December 25, 1977, Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland), British comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion-picture history. Chaplin is a comedian but not a comedian.

In truth, Chaplin did not always portray a tramp; in many of his films his character was employed as a waiter, store clerk, stagehand, fireman, and the like. His character might be better described as the quintessential misfit shunned by polite society, unlucky in love, jack-of-all-trades but master of none. He was also a survivor, forever leaving past sorrows behind, jauntily shuffling off to new adventures. The Tramp’s appeal was universal: audiences loved his cheekiness, his deflation of pomposity, his casual savagery, his unexpected gallantry, and his resilience in the face of adversity. Some historians have traced the Tramp’s origins to Chaplin’s Dickensian childhood, while others have suggested that the character had its roots in the motto of Chaplin’s mentor, Fred Karno: “Keep it wistful, gentlemen, keep it wistful.” Whatever the case, within months after his movie debut, Chaplin was the screen’s biggest star

Let's discuss Chaplin movies which represent Zeitgeist of 20th century:

Study of Modern time:

Modern Times is a 1936 American part-talkie satirical romantic black comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a commentary on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression — conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. The movie stars Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford and Chester Conklin. It is notable for being the last time that Chaplin portrayed the Tramp character and for being the first time Chaplin's voice is heard on film.

-What was Charlie Chaplin's message in Modern Times?

Chaplin's Modern Times criticizes the growing industrial and mechanical nature of society through hyperbolic actions by the main character and varying reactions thereafter.

 Frame Study of "Modern Times":-

First we should know what is Frame study?

-A frame is a single image of film or video. Framing (a shot) involves composing the visual content of a series of frames as seen from a single point of view, i.e., a fixed camera. When framing a shot, the filmmaker creates a visual within the dimensions of the lens just as a painter creates a visual within the dimensions of a canvas. A frame study is the study or understanding of the frame by a camera which is describing or indicating a lot of things to actually understand the meaning behind the fixed camera image.

- In cinematography, framing refers to the way elements are arranged in the frame. Essentially what the camera sees. The way actors are blocked, and move through the scene, and set design, all these things play a role in framing. As we'll see later in this series, framing is also effected a lot by the choice of lens.

Frame-1: Clock controls everything:

When the film starts there is a first frame of clock that shows that clocks are controlling Human Being. In today's time calendar and clock both are controlling human's life . For example, if there is 12 o'clock in the afternoon we have to take our lunch. It shows the Mechanization of Humans. In modern times when job going people want some holiday they have to wait for the weekend. Everyone is waiting for the weekend, no one can get a holiday on a regular day, it shows our mechanization.

Frame-2: shepherd flow:

Second frame of the film is when a herd of sheep running towards the pen and in a fade in transition comes the frame of a people who are moving in a crowd with one destination that is industry. All people going towards their industrial work they all are working like robots in industries.-ગાડરિયો પ્રવાહ:આંખ મીંચી કોઈ કરે તેની પાછળ એજ પ્રમાણે કરતા જવાનું. We called it ગાડરિયો પ્રવાહ in Gujarati. They don't use their own ideology they only follow order of their Leader.

Frame-3: Mind power V/S Muscle power:

In this frame it is showing that upper class people or the leader/ president of that industry playing some puzzle in his leisure time and all other people are working hard. He also gave some instructions to muscle men who were controlling machines.

Frame-4: Man V/S Machine:

In this frame of film it shows that there is lunch time still all workers are doing work until the machines are not stopped.

Frame-5: Control:

At lunch time our hero Trump goes into the washroom and wants to smoke but he can not because the president of that industry was watching him and said "GO BACK TO WORK". All workers are constantly watched by someone. There is no privacy in the washroom also. In modern times CCTV's constantly spy on us and they control our privacy.

Frame-6: protest for unemployment:

In the 20th century industrialization was at the peak in the period that the unemployed working class people had to fight for their Liberation, for their employment. They all are agitating against the  government of that time. Unions are asking for their rights. By chance or we can say accidently our hero became the leader and the police came and caught him.

Frame-7: Happy in cell:

 

The Tramp was happy that at least he is getting food and a place to sleep because outside the jail he was unemployed, riots were going on, strikes were going on. He had no food to eat, no shade to live in which shows the image of the 20th century; the working-class didn't have even the basic amenities of life like Roti, Kapda, Makan.

Frame-8: Poverty:

In this Frame of film it is showing that poverty in the 20th century is common in America. All lower class people steal food to survive. There is a character named Gamin who steals food for her sister's. And after some days her Father died in Accident they all became orphan and there is rule of government or Well-fare state that they will take care of orphan child

Frame-9: Dream V/S Reality:

There is a frame which shows that he was dreaming about his dream house and dream lifestyle of living a fancy life. But we all know that he can not afford all these facilities. The American Dream is always based on 'Food' only.

(Reality of American people's life.)

Frame-10: Optimistic attitude in End:

When this Film ends this end with optimism. They still believe in hope and they are going on.

In Nut-shell:

This is the first time where I had tried the frame study of the movie. watching a movie for the means of entertainment and watching the movie for the understanding of the literary text makes a great difference. 

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I hope this blog was helpful to you.

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