Why The Novel Matters| D.H. Lawrence | Summary and Analysis

D. H. Lawrence’s critical essay ‘Why the novel matters’ was published in the collection titled Phoenix in the year 1936. In this essay Lawrence speaks about the importance of the novel and tries to establish the superiority of the novelist above other professions.

In an attempt to illustrate the importance of the novel Lawrence explains the importance of life and the living man. He says that the whole living man, the man alive, is more important than his thoughts, ideas, his mind, or his stomach or liver or kidney or any other parts of his body. Lawrence says that this is what scientists and philosophers fail to understand. According to Lawrence a novel shows life and its characters are nothing but man alive. The novelist understands the importance of life and the man alive. Therefore the novelist is better than the scientist or the philosopher.

Lawrence begins the essay by commenting upon the saying ‘a sound mind in a sound body’. He calls it a funny superstition that people think of themselves as a body with a soul in it. He questions why one thinks of one’s hand as something subordinate to the mind that operates it. The hand has a life of its own. It has knowledge and can think and act for itself. The hand is as much a part of the living man as the mind. The pen held by the hand however is not alive. A man alive extends only to his fingertips. Lawrence says that whatever in a man is alive constitutes the man alive. The hand, skin, freckles, blood and bones are very much alive and part of the man alive. The living body therefore must not be compared to inanimate objects like tin cans or clay vessels.

Lawrence in this essay tries to explain why the novelist is better than the philosopher or the scientist and in order to do so he explains the importance of the man alive. According to Lawrence the novelist possesses an intricate understanding of the man alive more fully than a parson, a philosopher, or a scientist. The parson speaks about souls in heaven and the afterlife. But for the novelist heaven is in the palm of his hand and the tip of his nose which are alive. The novelist is not concerned about life after death. He is wholly concerned about life at present and with the man alive. The philosopher speaks about infinite knowledge possessed by the pure spirit.  But for the novelist there is no knowledge beyond what the living body can perceive. For philosophers nothing but thoughts is important. These thoughts Lawrence says are nothing but ‘tremulations on the ether’. They are not alive. They are like radio signals floating in the air which are meaningless until they reach the receiver – a radio device that decodes the signals into a meaningful message. Similarly when thoughts are received by a man alive they become meaningful and can alter the man’s life. But the thoughts nevertheless are not alive. It is only because the man alive receives them that they become alive. Only a man alive can be stimulated by thoughts. Thus the living body is more important than the message conveyed by thoughts.

According to Lawrence nothing is more important than life. Living things are more valuable than dead objects. A living dog is better than a dead lion but a living lion is better than a living dog. Lawrence says that scientists and philosophers find it difficult to accept the value of the living. For the philosopher nothing but thoughts matter. For the scientist a living man is of no use. He only wants a dead man whom he dissects and observes under the microscope. For a scientist a man is a heart, a liver, a kidney, a gland or a tissue. But for the novelist the only thing that matters is a whole living man. Lawrence refuses to believe that he is a body or a soul or a brain or a nervous system. He considers himself to be a complete whole made up of all these parts, a whole that is greater and more significant than the individual parts. And for this reason he is a novelist and he considers himself superior to the saint, the scientist or the philosopher.   

Having established the importance of the man alive and the novelist Lawrence proceeds to explain the significance of the novel. Lawrence calls the novel a book of life. According to him books are like thoughts - nothing but ‘tremulations on the ether’. They are meaningful only when a man alive receives them. But he says that the tremulations of a novel are more powerful than any other book and it can make a whole man alive tremble. This means that the novel has the capacity to influence a man more effectively than any other book.  For example the ideals of Plato makes the ideal being in a man tremble. Similarly the sermons or the Ten Commandments affect only a part of a man alive. But a novel is capable of shaking the whole of a man alive. This is because a novel deals in nothing else but man alive. In this regard Lawrence calls the Bible a ‘great confused novel’.  All its characters – Adam, Eve, Sarai, Abraham, Isaac – including God are nothing but man alive. For Lawrence, the Bible, Homer and Shakespeare are all great novels because they communicate to the reader. Their wholeness affects the whole of man alive. They do not stimulate growth in a particular direction but shake the whole man alive into new life.

According to Lawrence the strength and appeal of a novel lies in the dynamic nature of its characters which reflects the importance of constant change in the life of a man alive. Nothing is constant and if something is forced to remain constant it loses its value and power along with the passing of time. There are no absolutes. There is only a constant flow and change and even change is not absolute. A man today is different from what he was yesterday and tomorrow he will be different from what he is today. A man loves a woman because of the constant change in her. It is the change that startles and defies and keeps a man and woman in love with each other. Loving an unchanging person is like loving an inanimate object like a pepper pot. But even amidst change one needs to maintain one’s integrity. However Lawrence says that putting a finger on one individual trait makes one as fixed as a lamp post. It seems as if a man has made up an idea about himself and is trying to trim himself down to fit into it. Lawrence says that one can learn about the importance of change from a novel. In a novel the characters do nothing but live. But if they begin to act according to a fixed pattern – always remaining good or bad – the novel loses its life force. Similarly a man in his life must live and not try to follow a pattern or else he becomes a dead man in life. Lawrence however says that it is difficult to define what is living. Different men have different ideas about what they mean by living in life. Some go to seek God while others seek money, wine, and women, yet others seek votes and political reforms. In this Lawrence says that the novel is a guide which helps to differentiate between a man alive and a man who is dead in life. A man may eat his dinner like a man alive or merely chew his dinner as a dead man in life. A man alive shoots his enemy but a dead man in life throws bombs at people who are neither his friends nor foes.

Finally Lawrence says that the most important thing is to be a whole man alive and the novel provides guidance in this matter. A novel helps a man to see when a man is alive and when he is dead in life. The novel helps to develop an instinct for life. This is because the novel does not advocate a right path or a wrong path. The concept of right and wrong vary according to circumstances. A novel portrays this unpredictable and varying nature of life making the reader realize that life itself is the reason for living. The end result of the novel is the whole man alive.  Thus Lawrence asserts that the novel is a book that can touch the life of a whole man alive and that is why the novel matters.   

The Lake Isle of Innisfree | W.B. Yeats | Summary and Analysis

The Lake Isle of Innisfree is a poem by W.B. Yeats. The poem depicts the longing of the poet to escape his life in the city and find peace and solace in the lap of nature. The poet wants to go to Innisfree which is an uninhibited island in Ireland where the poet spent his childhood. He wants to build a small cabin for himself in the island and grow beans and raise honeybees. He wants a quiet and tranquil life which is contrary to the busy life of the cities. The poem is set in the countryside. The poet makes use of imagery to express his feelings and emotions. The images in the poem are both visual and auditory.

In the first stanza, the poet states his resolution that he would go to Innisfree and lead a solitary life in the island. He would make a small cabin for himself and plant beans and raise honeybees. He wants an escape from the busy life in the city. In the second stanza, the poet describes the natural beauty of Innisfree. He describes the morning mist or fog to be a veil where peace would come dropping like dew drops. The veil of the morning also presents an image of the unspoiled beauty of a bride. The poet describes the midnights of Innisfree as glimmering, which implies a golden glowing starlit sky. The noon is described by the poet to have a purple glow. These images present a contrast of colours which aptly describe the unspoiled natural beauty of Innisfree. In the third stanza the poet repeats his resolution to go to Innisfree. He seems to have woken up from a daydream and suddenly realizes the reality of his surroundings. The poet says that he can hear the sounds of the lapping waters of the lake against the shore of Innisfree even while standing on the grey pavements of the city. The memories of the free life that he lived in Ireland are deeply ingrained in his heart. Therefore the poet desires to leave behind the restrictive life of the city and go back to Innisfree and life his life in peace.

The themes that we come across in the poem include a longing for an ideal pastoral island, escape from city life, trying to go back to the past and the idea of individuality and independence. The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab. The poet also makes use of alliteration and assonance in the poem. The tone of the poem is serene, thoughtful and reflective. The poem depicts the balance and harmony of nature.

The Chimney Sweeper | Songs of experience | Summary and Analysis

This poem titled 'The Chimney Sweeper' appears in the collection Songs of Experience by William Blake and is often read as a counterpart of 'The Chimney Sweeper' in Songs of Innocence. Through this poem Blake criticizes the institutions of the society which exploit small children. The tone of the poem is sarcastic. The poem presents the picture of a ‘little black thing’ standing in the midst of snow. This immediately brings to mind the contrast presented by a dirty black thing in the pristine snow. But this ‘little black thing’ is in fact a child, a chimney sweeper who is covered in snow. Blake refers to the child as a ‘thing’ to show the society’s indifference towards these little children. The child is crying ‘weep’ ‘weep’. This is a reference to the cry of chimney sweepers who are often so young that they pronounce ‘weep’ instead of ‘sweep’. Blake days that the child is crying ‘weep’ ‘weep’ in ‘notes of woe’ which means that the child is actually in pain and therefore weeping. Then the voice of a concerned adult asks the child where his parents were. The child replies that they had gone to the church to pray.

The child then speaks about the miseries of his life. He says that since he was happy and played on the heath and ‘smiled amongst the winter’s snow’, his parents sold him as a chimney sweeper. Winter in England is very harsh and is often referred to as a symbol of suffering and death. Blake says that the child smiled even in the winter’s snow which shows the capacity of children to remain happy irrespective of the circumstances. But it does not mean that they cannot feel pain and this is what adults fail to see. So the child says that his parents clothed him in the ‘clothes of death’. This refers to his dress which is black with soot and also to the hazardous occupation of the chimney sweepers which leads to the death of many children. The child says that they taught him to sing the ‘notes of woe’ again referring to the cry of the chimney sweepers which for the child is equivalent to weeping.

Now the child says that since he is happy and sings and dances his parents the adults think that they have done no injury to him. This again goes back to the child’s capacity to remain happy at all circumstances. Although he is now a chimney sweeper and is suffering he does not express it outwardly and all the adults see is a happy child singing and dancing. Blake here points out the unfeeling attitude of the adults towards children and their inability to understand the psychology of a small child. Finally the child says that his parents have gone to the church to ‘praise God and His Priest and King’ who make a heaven out of the misery of the children. In the last two lines Blake attacks the institutions of the Church and the Monarchy. These institutions of society exploit innocent children and enjoy the benefits of their toil. But in turn the children are left uncared for and they live a life of misery.  

The Chimney Sweeper | Songs of Innocence | Summary and Analysis

The poem “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake appears in his collection of poems titled Songs of Innocence. It is written in the form of a story which is narrated by a small child who works as a chimney sweeper. During Blake’s time the English society employed little, almost infant children as chimney sweepers. Their small size made them the perfect tools to go down the narrow chimneys and clean them while the children themselves remained covered in black soot. Many of these children also faced premature death owing to injuries and constant inhalation of the chimney fumes. They were not cared for and lived in hunger and poverty. The poem depicts the innocence of a small child who can still dream about angels in spite of a cruel society which imposes a life of misery upon him.

The narrator begins by telling the story of his own life. His mother died when he was very young and his father sold him as a chimney sweeper when he could barely utter the word ‘sweep’ and cried ‘weep’ ‘weep’ instead. This refers to the cry of chimney sweepers who go down the street crying ‘sweep’ ‘sweep’, offering their services. But they are often so young that they can only pronounce the word as ‘weep’ ‘weep’. Ironically, the word ‘weep’ here also indicates that the child is actually crying out of pain and hunger. The child says that he sweeps chimneys and goes to bed covered in soot.

The child goes on and narrates the story of Tom Dacre, a young boy who is new to the world of chimney sweepers. His curly white hair is compared to the fleece of a lamb reinforcing the idea of innocence as the motifs of a lamb and a child often represent. He cried when his head was shaved. But the narrator, who already has some experience, comforts his new comrade saying that if he does not have any hair on his head the soot cannot spoil his white hair. This again indicates a child’s innocent logic that he uses to look at misery with a positive attitude.

Then the narrator says that on that very night Tom Dacre had a nightmare. He saw thousands of chimney sweepers along with his fellows- Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, locked in black coffins. This nightmare may be interpreted as a result of a claustrophobic experience that Tom Dacre may have faced the very first time he went down a chimney. A black coffin also symbolizes death. This again shows the near death experience that the children undergo while they sweep the chimneys.

However, a child’s imaginative capacity is powerful enough to surpass a nightmare and thus Tom Dacre dreams that an angel comes with a key and liberates them from their coffins. They find themselves upon a green plain and run through it down to the river where they wash off their soot and emerge clean and naked, leaving behind their bags and tools. Nakedness is again a symbol of an innocent and pure state of being. Then the children rise upon the clouds and play with the wind, suggesting an image where the children themselves can be viewed as angels. Then the angel tells Tom that if he is a good boy God will always remain by his side.

Thus Tom Dacre and the other children wake up to a dark and cold morning and collect their bags and brushes to go to work. This brings back the image of the harsh reality that the children live in. But Tom feels happy and warm as he now believes that if he does his duty he need not fear harm. The last line brings the tale to a conclusion by providing a moral as is common in children’s stories. But Blake also uses this line to criticize the hypocrisy if the society. It teaches poor and miserable children to do their duty while it reaps the benefit of their labour and then ignores their plight.