CHAPTER - I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. General
“For all of humankind, Jesus’ magnificent, yet militant of egalitarian liberation from
obscurantist faith, authoritarian politics, theological orthodoxy and big business free booting.....
He stood for a higher culture marked by sacred sublime compassionate ethos and a
divinity of humanity that is free from crass class mired materialism and gross, greedy, grabbing
riches ...”
This is the encomium paid by Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer in his commemoratory write up
“Remembering a Glorious Rebel” (‘The Hindu’ dated 24.12.2008) on the Christmas Eve to
admire Jesus Christ. This frame work of encomium suits well to cover the noble character of Poet
Shelley.
The poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on the fourth of August, 1792 in a family of
Squires in Sussex in England. The Shelley family could boast of great antiquity and considerable
wealth. Born in the family of landed gentry, the poet was actually born with the proverbial silver
spoon in his mouth. The poet was named Byshee in compliment to his grandfather and Percy
because of some distant connection with the ducal house of Northumberland.
The family of Shelleys was Whigs in politics and so the young Percy Bysshe Shelley grew
up with ample allowance of liberty in abstract and with no special aversion to the French
Revolution. It was a time when the people world over were hailing the glorious French
Revolution of 1789. People were discussing and feeling the impact of the French Revolution.
Shelley's father, Timothy Shelley, persuaded his father Bysshe to accept a baronetcy from the
Whig Government during its tenure of office in 1806, when the poet was in his fourteenth year of
age.
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1.2. Rebellious Child
From childhood, he had developed hatred towards the tyrannizing established order of the
Church and the State. He was attracted to the writings of Enlightenment Movement@ and
Romantic Movement*. He grew into a stout champion of individual liberty and developed a
rebellious approach towards every incident of oppression or exploitation.
@
Enlightenment Movement
A socio-political trend which tried to correct the shortcomings of existing society to
change its morals, manners, politics and way of life by spreading the ideas of goodness, justice
and scientific knowledge. The Enlighteners addressed their preaching to all classes and strata of
society. Among Enlighteners were Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Herder, Lessing, Schiller
and Goethe. Enlighteners struggled resolutely not only against Church but also against religious
dogmas. They exerted considerable influence upon formation of sociological views in the 18th
century.
*
Romantic Movement
The Romantic Movement was not only a literary movement but also a social one which
agitated against conservative feudal setup which frowned upon changes and treated the working
community as mere commodities and machines for their own progress. The Romantic poets were
not only against political tyranny but also against some of the social institutions which they
thought were setting bounds to the growth of humanity. Among many other aspects of social
freedom, women liberation also is one. Leaders of Romantic Movement refused to accept things
as they were. They were essentially rebels who were sick of the things as they were and were
determined to change them accordingly to what they considered to be right. They rejected the
philosophy “whatever is, is right”.1
Shelley was a child of the French revolution. As a young boy he imbibed the noble ideals
of French revolution- liberty, equality, fraternity. But the English rulers resorted to cruel and
inhuman repressions against innocent people with a view to keeping at bay the ideologies of
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French Revolution. In England Shelley saw in his boyhood days the trials for blasphemy, treason,
suspension of the right of Habeas Corpus, tyranny and misery everywhere. Shelley was sickened
at the selfishness and self aggrandizement that a capitalist society breeds and degradation of
human soul. This was not simply the feature of England; it was practically a European feature.
Right at his boyhood, he had read and absorbed revolutionary philosophy enunciated by Thomas
Paine in his book “Rights of Man”, (1791) William Godwin’s “Enquiry Concerning Political
Justice” –(1793) and in later days he read the book the “Vindication of the Rights of Woman”
(1792) by Mary Wolstoncroft. He is a reformer as well as a poet.
1.3. Budding of a Poet
In Shelley's earlier years, Godwin was the figure who most readily impressed his mobile
imagination. The Revolution, to Shelley was much more than a political upheaval; it was a
spiritual awakening, the beginning of a new life. All that was evil in life, he traced to slavery.2
During his boyhood, poet Shelley steeped himself in revolutionary ideas of the day and
thirsted for freedom and liberty. While at Eton school, he forcefully fought against the system of
fagging. He wanted to usher in a new millennium into the world. He wanted to be the poet of
liberty and the evangel of fraternity. He developed a special passion for reforming the world and
then a far stronger passion for perfection which should give a simultaneous delight to all the parts
of man's nature – moral, intellectual and sensuous in which all the conflicts should be reconciled.
He looked forward to a golden age when all his ideals of liberty and fraternity would be realized.
In spite of his eager impetuosity to reform the world, one could find something soft and attractive
in him. The marvellous gentleness of his disposition endeared him to all his friends. He was the
poet of love. He felt that love alone could save the world and usher in the millennium.
As a poet, there was an intimate relationship between his inner personality and expression
of his poetic thoughts.
He felt sincerely and intensely and poetry was the medium of his
expression. “Shelley exhaled verse as a flower exhales fragrance…….This distinguishes him at
once from his contemporaries.” 3
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Two eternal forms of strains - of rapture of lament and delight in love and beauty, run
through all his poetry. He had contempt for inheritance and tradition. His failures were many; his
disappointments numerous. These, however, could never curb the heroic optimism of his soul.
He was a reformer and a poet. Little interested in the past, mindful only of the present, his
eyes were fixed intensely on the future. To renovate the world, and to bring about the Utopia, was
his constant aim. For this reason he may be regarded emphatically as the poet of the sensitive and
visionary youth and a reformer.
But due to lack of sufficient understanding of his rationality, his zeal for freedom and
liberty, or because of their ideological prejudice, some of his contemporary authors and critics
disliked him for his views conveyed in the pamphlet 'The Necessity of Atheism' and his liberalism
and revolutionary views in his other writings. Matthew Arnold and T.S.Eliot (who were
conservatives in social and political thinking) are some of the critics who underrated Shelley's
works.
Some called him a heretic and anti-Christ; some called him a visionary without basic
commitment, some as an “ineffectual angel fluttering and beating in void his luminous wings in
vain” 4
On the other hand, innumerable writers and critics have admired Shelley's poetic genius
and his social outlook. His contemporary, Poet Byron and critic Leigh Hunt had great admiration
for Shelley. Poet Robert Browning had great admiration for Shelley's poetic works. 5
Many of the critics have found the nicety of his lyrics and magnitude of his imagination
and poetic diction in all his works. There are greater things to be highlighted of his works - liberty
for the downtrodden, hope for the oppressed, peace for the storm-tossed etc. These are the things
that fired his songs and stirred his imagination to its depth.
Shelley’s works were appreciated by Chartist Movement, George Bernard Shaw, Karl
Marx and innumerable social reformers. In India Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi and
Bharathidasan were his ardent admirers and their poetic works contain appreciation of his poems
and views. Above all, Martyr Bhagat Singh was a great admirer of Shelley’s revolutionary views
and poems and his diary contains reference to Shelley’s works.
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As an enlightened thinker, he longed for and struggled for social transformation to an
egalitarian society as he described in the 'Prometheus Unbound' (Act III Proclamation by the
Spirit of The Hour)
“The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains
Sceptreless, free, circumscribed but a man
Equal, unclassed, tribeless and nationless
Exempt from Awe, worship, degree, the king
Over himself, just, gentle, wise..............”
III 3-193 to197
It is the oppressive living conditions of the masses of working people of England created
by the self-aggrandizing, faceless and selfish capitalism, which had conditioned the mind and
conscience of Shelley and turned him to be a rebel, reformer and social revolutionary through his
immortal writings – poetry and prose.
In many details 'The Revolt of Islam' prefigures 'Prometheus Unbound' not only in its
theme of liberty but also in scenery and landscape. The message of regeneration of mankind also
looks forward to the prophecies of the 'Spirit of the Hour' in the later poem and to the birth of a
'diviner day', when love and hope bring their own reward and man becomes 'Equal, unclassed,
tribeless and nationless'. For Shelley this would be an achievement of the ideal revolution and for
a brief moment in the poem, 'good does triumph over evil' as was the case in France in the first
glorious days of 1789.
The same conditions of inequality, exploitation, dehumanisation of working class (as
Mathew Arnold described) continue or rather accentuated the horrors of life and miseries of the
common people of England even after at the stage when Karl Marx entered the national scene in
England twenty five years after the death of Shelley(1822).
The works of Shelly only bring to mind what Victor Hugo prophetically stated in the
preface to his ‘Les Miserables’
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“So long as there shall, be reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which in the
face of civilization, artificially creates hell on Earth and complicates a destiny that is divine with
human fatality;
So long as the three problems of the age – the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of
women by starvation and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night – are not
solved;
So long as in certain regions social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a
yet more extended point of view;
So long as ignorance and misery remain on Earth books like this cannot be useless”.
1.4. Statement of Problem
1.4.1. Concept of Shelley’s perception on peoples’ struggles
So far no study has been undertaken on the concept of Shelley’s perception on people’s
struggle with a perspective for socialist society. Hence this thesis will be a pioneer in this quest
for the knowledge on his objective.
In spite of various studies and researches done on the works of P.B.Shelley by eminent
scholars and critics, a lasting impression is created by some critics that Shelley was a romantic
poet, singing about a farfetched romantic world and pining and yearning for things unachievable
and so was an ineffectual angel fluttering on each idea and concept. And some have sought to
depict him a day dreamer and some as a pacifist ready to compromise with the oppressive forces.
In his lyric, Shelley, like Swinburne was not ‘an empty singer of an idle day, He was a
poet as well as a philosopher having a metaphysical and transcendent genius’.
Though ‘Utopia’, which owes its inspiration, basically, to Plato’s Republic, the Greek
philosopher’s dream of an ideal state, is praised as the ‘first monument of modern Socialism’, ‘the
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masterpiece of English humanism’ and ‘the true prologue to the Renaissance’, Shelley’s works
are no less a harbinger to socialistic revolutionary ideas.
A thorough study of his works- prose and poetry – gives a clear picture of him as ‘a man
thinking', sympathizing with suffering humanity and as an uncompromising fighter for
establishing a social order bereft of inequalities, slavery, oppression and hatred. He wanted to
establish a social order where love will rule supreme and serve as the connecting bond of all
human beings. He sought to bring about a society where hunger, poverty and misery would be
totally abolished. He wanted to bring in the millennium that would ensure liberty, equality in
freedom and complete equality in material wellbeing. He considered this the most sacred upon
earth; the improvement of moral and physical state of mankind was the chief reason why he, like
other illustrious reformers, was pursued by hatred and calumny.
Some of the Marxist critics like Sault and Karl Grabo who hold that this great
revolutionary poet has been reduced by our dilettante men of letters to a mere singer and
sentimentalist do not do anything of justice to Shelley’s genius.
All his works reveal a sense of his ardent concern for social improvement. As he himself
had admitted in the preface to “Prometheus Unbound”, he had ‘passion for reforming the world'.
His conviction about the historical inevitability of oppression’s downfall and his vision of
distribution of wealth equitability to all are some of the features of his reform. It meant a change
must take place and one of the consequences of that change would be the wresting of political
power from those who were depositories of power at that time. Whether one can call it a reform
or a revolution, the resultant social order, as he perceived, would be similar to a socialist form of
society. The researcher strives to vivify the perception of Shelley when he called for a struggle of
the people through his call 'rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number’ in his poems
‘The Mask of Anarchy’ and ‘Song to the Men of England’ and in many of his works. This is the
main objective of this work.
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1.5. Shelley’s optimism
Some critics contend that in his personal notes, he is always pessimistic. Though he
suffered many personal miseries, it is obvious to note that he had nonetheless retained absolute
faith in the bright and prosperous future for mankind.
It should always be remembered that Shelley was not pessimistic about the future of the
mankind in spite of his own sufferings, pains, sorrows and disappointments. He was always
hopeful of the future of mankind. He always dreamed of a millennium. He began pessimistically
to observe the condition of mankind – that is true. But he was optimistic about its future is no less
true.
It is so even in the Revolt of Islam where the hero-Laon and the heroine, Cythna have
been defeated in their mission and have failed to bring about the golden age. Shelley has not
surrendered his hopes for the future. His optimism and hope are irrepressible. The same hope is
there in Queen Mab. In Prometheus Unbound and in Hellas, Shelley celebrates the coming of the
Golden Age with regard to the mankind; he is optimistic and In the Ode to the West Wind,
Shelley has the following assertive message to us
“O West Wind …..
If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
1.6. Review of Relevant Literatures
Following are some of the important studies undertaken on Shelley’s works:
1. Arnold, Matthew – Essays in Criticism Second Series
2. Browning, Robert – Essay on Shelley 1855
3. Dawson, Paul M.S. – ‘The Unacknowledged Legislator : Shelley and politics’ - Oxford
Clarendon Press, 1980
4. Hoagwood, Terence Allen – ‘Skepticism and Ideology’ – University of Iowa Press, USA,
1988
5. Jones, Steven.E – ‘Shelley’s Satire’ - Northern Illinois University Press, USA, 1994.
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6. Reiman, Donald H and Neil Fraistat- Ed – ‘Shelley’s Poetry and Prose – Norton critical
edition. W.W. Norton & co., New York, 2004.
7. Woodcock, Bruce – The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley’ - Wordsworth Poetry
Library, London, 2002.
Matthew Arnold, speaking of Shelley’s lyricism, says that “there are two sides of
Shelley’s lyric inspiration –
First the personal lyrics which include such poems of eternal loveliness as The Cloud, To
a Skylark, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Ode to the West wind.
Secondly, on the humanitarian side, the record is given in such works as Queen Mab, The
Revolt of Islam, and Prometheus Unbound which fulfill his enthusiasm for liberty, his love for
men and his passion for reforming the world. The change of passion which we note as we pass
from the personal to the humanitarian poetry is very significant. The personal poetry is often
profoundly melancholic, but the melancholy disappears the moment Shelley ceases to think of his
own little life and assumes the role of leader of mass and prophet of a Golden Age to come” 6
In the Ode to the West Wind and To a Skylark, the poet expects a bright future to follow
the bleak present, and the world at last to listen to him, but as the world went on as before,
Matthew Arnold called him an ‘ineffectual angel, beating in the void of his luminous wings in
vain’. “It is his poetry above everything else which for many people establishes that he is an
angel. Of his poetry, I have not space now to speak. But let no one suppose that a want of humour
and a self delusion, such as Shelley’s have no effect upon a man’s poetry. The man Shelley, in
very truth, is not entirely sane and Shelley’s poetry is not entirely sane either. The Shelley of
actual life is a vision of beauty and radiance, indeed, but availing nothing, affecting nothing. And
in poetry, no less than in life he is a beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his
luminous wings in vain” - Mathew Arnold’s commentary. 7
Robert Browning presents a warm appreciation of the poetic works of Shelley. He
contends that Shelley had mistaken Churchdom for Christianity. He was against the establishment
of Church – not against Christ. Browning hoped that had Shelley lived he would have finally
ranged himself with the Christians.
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1.7. Aims and Objectives of the Study
The present work envisages the following objectives:
1. To describe Shelley’s perception on the peoples’ struggles with the help of evidences and
incidents gathered from his literary works.
2. To portray the society and ongoing struggles of his time through his ideological slant as
revealed in his works.
3. To critically analyse the literary works of his admirers as well as critics.
4. To refute the adverse comments made by some critics and bring forth the positive
contribution of the poet in inspiring the peoples' struggle against oppression, exploitation
and so on.
1.8. Relevance of Study
1.8.1. Social Relevance
The critical analysis of Shelly’s poetical and prose work provides an understanding of the
state of affairs of the then people’s troubles and struggles. It creates intense awareness in the
minds of the readers, which will ultimately help strengthen democratic thinking. His spirited call
‘to rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number’ is a clarion call to the exploited /
oppressed people to rise up against slavery, exploitation and oppression. This will enable the
people to unite against oppression and ill treatment.
1.8.2. Academic Relevance
Its objective is to draw explanations and generalizations from the past trends in order to
understand the present and to anticipate the future. The past contains the key to the present and
the past, and the present influences the future. This study helps to visualize the society as a
dynamic organism and its structures and the functions as evolving, steadily growing and
undergoing changes and transformations. In turn, the academia with the help of the present work
can have a comparative perspective of the present with the social struggles of people of earlier
periods.
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1.9 Research Methodology
It is a historical research, studying the literary works of the poet, his past records and the
upcoming criticisms. All these are descriptive in nature. The data have been collected from the
following sources:
i.
Social history of the relevant period with its background
ii.
All Literary Works of the poet
iii.
Criticism by various critics and authors
iv.
Articles in journals and
v.
Information obtained from the internet
A study of Shelley’s clarion call ‘In the Song to the Men of England’ will enable the
social workers of the present and the future to understand the need for changing the society and
organize the oppressed people.
While different types, methods, and classifications of research are available, the research
at hand is availed by descriptive study or historical research in English literature.
1.10. Corpus Elicitation
The present study elicited data through textual analysis.
Shelley’s various works
including poetry and prose have been scrutinized very carefully and relevant data pertaining to
peoples’ struggles have been gathered, keeping the objectives in mind. Besides that various
criticisms made on poet Shelley’s works have also been consulted and used as secondary sources.
1.11. Limitations
As the coverage is a vast field of study, considering the limitations of time and resources,
the study confines its purview to the poetic works and limited number of prose works of Shelley
for deeper analysis. They are
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1. Queen Mab
2. The Revolt of Islam
3. Prometheus Unbound
4. The Cenci
5. The Masque of Anarchy
6. Ode to the West Wind
7. Song to the Men of England
8. England in 1819
9. To a Skylark
10. Ode to Liberty
11. The Cloud
12. Epipsychidion
13. Adonais
14. The Triumph of Life
Prose:
1. On love
2. On life
3. A Defence of Poetry.
In historical research precise measurements, verification and replication are not possible.
Nevertheless a thorough and systematic study is of immense use in understanding the past and
drawing inferences for the present and future, which has been done for this work.
In view of the pre-eminent position of Shelley in English literature, there are a vast
number of studies on Shelley from his time to this day viewing his work from different angles and
analyzing it in the context of various issues and spheres of life. It is practically impossible to
access all of them and bring out their essence in this paper. However no effort has been spared in
studying contribution of all major literary figures relevant to the topic.
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1.12. Scheme of Presentation
Chapter 2 ‘Milieu – Socio, economic, political… background’: This chapter presents an
overview of the background which has shaped the mind and thinking of Shelley as a poet.
Chapter 3 ‘Shelley as a Revolutionary’: This chapter analyses various writings of Shelley which
reveal his mindset as a revolutionary and his revolutionary thinking.
Chapter 4 ‘Shelley as a Voice of the Voiceless’: This chapter reveals his basic quality as humane
thinker. He raised his voice against all exploitations and oppressions. He came out as a champion
of the oppressed people.
Chapter 5 ‘Shelley as a Champion of Social Reform’ reveals his writings and thinking as a
social reformer and particularly as a proponent of gender equality and democracy.
Chapter 6 Shelley as a Socialist: Shelley as a champion of equality was a fore runner of modern
socialists.
Chapter 7 Assessment of Shelley: This chapter brings out an objective assessment of the noble
thoughts and deeds of Shelley as a poet and as a man.
Chapter 8 Refutation of His Adverse Critics: A vast majority of critics appreciated his works.
Some critics passed adverse remarks about his work. These remarks are refuted with facts.
Chapter 9 Conclusion: This chapter concludes the argument that Shelley perceived objective of
his works as a social revolution for establishing a society free of exploitation and oppression, and
ensuring liberty, freedom and equality. This chapter is followed by Bibliography and Appendix.
Notes
1) Mahajan, Prof. Vidhyadhar, ‘History of Great Britain’ Chand & Co,Delhi,P. 189
2) Rickett, Arthur Compton, ‘History of English Literature’ – Universal Book Stall,
New
Delhi 1981, P.337.
3) Rickett, Arthur Compton, ‘History of English Literature’ – Universal Book Stall, New
Delhi 1981, P.337.
4) Arnold, Matthew, ‘Essays in criticism - second series – on Shelley’, Macmillan & co,
London, 1964, P.147
5) Browning Robert, ‘Essay on Shelley’ – 1851).
6) Arnold, Matthew, ‘Essays in criticism - second series – on Shelley’, Macmillan & co,
London, 1964.
7) Arnold, Matthew, ‘Essays in criticism - second series – on Shelley’, Macmillan & co,
London, 1964, P.
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