‘The Good- Morrow’, poem is written by John Donne, published in 1633 through the collection of his Sonnet and songs, just after two years of his death. The Good- Morrow is one of his earliest works, he wrote this while studying in college at Lincoln’s Inn. Therefore, this poem is considered to be the first of his collection’s poem in terms of theme and maturity. The poem is written in 21 lines and divided in three stanzas, each consisting 7 lines.
The Good- Morrow the word ‘morrow’ here stands for Morning. The poet has described the awaking lovers and their thoughts perception, according to the poet while waking next to each other is like a nightmare. This poem is stands at the threshold of a new love universe. The nightmarish experience from which the poet comes out is begotten by fear and jealousy that rule the roost in the mind of lovers. The canker of fear and jealousy eats into the tender emotion of love and makes a variable hell of life for lovers.
In the poem, the poet has used Biblical and Catholic writings which is indirectly referring to the legend of ‘Seven Sleepers’and Paul the Apostle’s description of divine, agapic- love as a concept with which is a practicing Catholic, Maybe Donne would have been familiar.
But in this phase of writing poetry the need for watchful jealousy passes, and a sense of serenity comes to the poet who finds himself in perfect rapport with his lady- love.
The Good- Morrow is one of many poems composed by John Donne which celebrates that rare love in which the senses are but vehicles and mating is a marriage of true minds. Also, it has been said that, this poem has behind it the groundswell of John Donne’s mood and calmness in respect of love is evident from the letter he wrote to Anne More.
Theme of the poem
In the The Good- Morrow, the theme is the nature and completeness of the Lover’s world. Donne that everyday idea that lovers live in a world of their own with little sense of reality, and turns right round, so that it is the outside world that is unreal.
Summary
The first stanza refers to the ‘Seven Sleepers’, the Catholic legend of seven Christian children, persecuted for their faith during the rein of the Roman emperor Decius, who fled to the shelter of a cave where they slept for more than two hundred years. Donne, one of six or seven children and a baptized Catholic during a time of strong anti- Catholic sentiment from both the populace and the government, would certainly have been familiar with the story.
The second stanza describes that, the author experiences a sense of wonder, having awaken in bed with his lover; he makes the discovery that their love makes finding “new universe” pale in importance.
In the third stanza, the poet communicates to his lover that they have proceeded from their former “childish” pleasure to this moment, where their souls have finally awakened and something miraculous has happened, because the poet feels the sort of love that Paul the Apostle claimed would only be encountered in heaven. While the version found in songs and sonnets includes this stanza as the last two lines, other manuscripts and a later volume of poetry give the last lines as “if our two loves be one, both thou and love just alike in all, so none of these (love) can die.
The Bennets family- Mr. and Mrs. Bennet including five daughters i.e. Jane, Elizabeth, Mary Kitty, Lydia
The Darcys family- Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Georgiana Darcy, Lady Anne Darcy
The Collins family- Mr. William Collins,
The Binglesy family- Charles Bingley, Carolina Bingley, Louisa Hurst
The Gardiners family- Mr. Gardiner, Mrs. Gardiner
The Lucases – Sir William, Lady Lucas, Charlotte Lucas, Maria
The Wickhams – George Wickham
Character highlights:
Elizabeth Bennet – Main protagonist and 2nd daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, intelligent and more sensible than of her sisters and quick witted by nature
Mr. Darcy – The master of Pemberley and nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Jane Bennet – Elder sister of Elizabeth, sweet, beautiful, gentle and more reserved in nature of her all sisters
Mr. Bennet – Father of Elizabeth, the patriarch of the family and owner of Longbourn estate
Mrs. Bennet – Mother of Elizabeth, foolish and noisy in nature and only goal is to see her daughters get married
George Wickham – A handsome military officer
Charles Bingley – A wealthy friend of Mr. Darcy, genial and well behave gentleman
Georgiana Darcy – younger sister of Mr. Darcy, shy, pretty and pianist
Lady Catherine de Bourgh – Aunt of Mr. Darcy, and bossy rich woman
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner – Mrs. Bennet’s brother and his wife
Charlotte Lucas – Dear friend of Elizabeth
Mr. William Collins – A clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s Property
The theme of the Novel
The novel is based on social class, class distinction and status, also overcoming obstacles for true love, integrity, women’s reputation and strength of family network.
Women’s reputation in the novel depicts the society in which a woman’s integrity and self- respect is of the utmost important.
The genre of the novel
The genre of the novel is Romance and manners.
About The novel
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular, novel by Jane Austen, published in three volumes on 28th February, 1813. It is a novel of manners. Pride and prejudice shows, two kinds of comedy, which is `comedy of humors` and `comedy of manners`. (which is the basic assumption of upper- class English society)
Pride and Prejudice is a romantic, fiction, and a satire novel by jane Austen. In Pride and Prejudice, jane Austen uses `wit` and irony to describe the cult of sensibility and offering a corrective contractual theme. Hence, the novel is thematically based on verbal, dramatic, situational and irony of characters. The novel has set in Hertfordshire in classical England in the turn of 19th century.
The novel follows the main protagonist Elizabeth, who has dynamic character that learns about the repercussions of hasty judgements and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial and actual goodness of life.
Mr. Bennet who is the owner of Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire who lives in with his five daughters including the main protagonist Elizabeth. His property is entailed and can only be passed on to a male heir.
Mrs. Bennet who lacks inheritance, which means she can’t inherit the property because of Mr. Bennet’s stipulation (a condition that made during an agreement or contract), and only male heir can inherit his estate according to his ‘will’, so the family faces such issue and will become destitute upon Mr. Bennet’s death. Therefore, the situation arises that at least one of the daughters have to marry well to support the others, that is how the plot of the novel moves forward.
Summary and analysis
The novel pride and prejudice follows a linear and chronological structure. Jane Austen has presented two pairs of lovers in the novel in order to show that the concept of individual autonomy, she is invoking is quite a complex and a single pair of characters, that would not give us a fair idea of the full range of human qualities that she wants to put into their relationship. The first pair is Jane and Mr. Bingley and the Second Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.
Moreover, Jane’ s interest is not only to show the struggle for true love but she actually wants to explore the possibilities that whether the meaningful and durable love relationship between a young man and woman do really exist in the society of her time.
Therefore, the plot of the novel, hence revolves around the main protagonist Elizabeth, who struggle for compatible life partner, despite having all the obstacles like; social conventions and her own self- awareness. She encounters many hurdles by her opponent who create obstacles between her and happy marriage. These opponents included her mother who does not understand that what kind of marriage Elizabeth wants. Mr. Collins who try to persuade her but she refuses to marry him, Miss Bingley and Lady Catherine who both try to stop her to marry Mr. Darcy.
In the novel, there is a conflict between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy at ball party, when he refused to dance with Elizabeth by saying that she is not handsome enough to tempt him, here, Elizabeth has created bad perception about his personality. Soon after sometime when plot moves forward, he creates soft feeling for Elizabeth and finds her attractive and proposes her but she refuses. Her rejection of his proposal parallels her previous rejection of Mr. Collins. At this point she believes that Darcy is not a good person also she won’t accept a marriage to a man whom she does not love, no matter what he might offer her. However, the plot takes intense turn when she rejects Mr. Darcy, this rejection leads him to reveal a new information that makes her again question about his personality.
Somehow, by time passes Elizabeth starts growing feelings for Mr. Darcy, but their growing feelings for each other now interrupted by the new conflict Lydia’s elopement, which dominates the novel’s plot until its resolution. Lydia, younger sister of Elizabeth resolved her marriage issue, after that the focus of the plot shifts to Jane’s story, which shows that she reunited with Mr. Bingley. On the other side, Lady Catherine who attempts to keep Elizabeth away from Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth now prepared herself to face this moment, she refuses to back down.
However, all the obstacles has now over, so Mr. Darcy at the end of the novel proposes her second time and this time Elizabeth accepts him. Eventually, the climax followed by some hurdles throughout the novel by the main character ends with happy ending with the preparation of the marriage ceremony.
Therefore, in the novel Elizabeth holds the title of being prejudice as we can see in the novel too that how quickly she judges Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy with too little information. Whereas, Mr. Darcy is the one who stands for pride, as he acts, as if he is superior to the people of Hertfordshire.
Thus, Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ we can say that has describes the world where both expectations and reputations matter the most.
Pride and Prejudice is most loved novel by readers in English literature as it has sold approximately 20 million copies and also inspired many modern literary writers.
The Literary World 