Function of Poetry
It may be said that Plato did not have a high opinion about poetry or poets. Being a philosopher, he looked at everything from a moral point of view. Therefore, he concluded that poetry took readers away from reality and that poetry does not make man wise and virtuous. He suggests truth as a test of poetry. However, Plato thinks that poetry can play an important role in society. According to Plato, who follows Socrates in these matters, giving pleasure to the reader should not be the main object of poetry or poet. Poetry to be worthwhile must instruct the reader. It must be able to lead the readers to the truth and make them aware of virtue. A poet must also be good teacher. Poetry should mould the character of man and take care of the interest of the state. For Plato pleasure is secondary to instruction. A poet must be able to trace the nature of beauty and perfection and instruct the readers and prompts them to lead a virtuous life. He must be concerned with the ideal forms of justice, goodness, beauty so on. He must write poems in praise of gods and great men and instil a sense of beauty and responsibility in the readers.

Plato’s views on Drama
Like poetry, drama also is a product of imagination so it cannot inculcate any moral values in the spectators. Drama is meant to be staged. Moreover, in order to please the diverse audience the playwright often plays to the gallery and presents quarrels and lamentations in tragedies and the cries of beasts in comedies. Such scenes appeal to the baser instincts in man. He is also aware of the effect of the roles on the mind of the actors. As the actors continuously imitate the actions of criminals, cowards and the like, there is a chance of these bad qualities influencing the actors. They suppress the actual nature of the actors and weaken their character. However if the characters are good they will leave a positive effect on the actors. Therefore, the tragic dramas that portray the noble part of life may be encouraged. Referring to the comic and tragic pleasures Plato says that indulgence in them is harmful to the individual and society. A fool acting as a wise man and a coward acting as a brave man evokes laughter in the audience. It is what the actor is and what he pretends to be that makes people laugh. Plato rightly says that such pleasure is malicious. One should never make fun of a man’s weakness. On the contrary, one should take pity with him. Then one would not laugh. Thus, the nature of tragic and comic pleasure is highly complicated.

“Nineteen Eighty Four”, hailed as a masterpiece of political speculation, appeared in 1949. It was his last work. It secured his position in the world of literature. By the time he came to write it, his health had been deteriorating .Tuberculosis had been carving him out and he had lost all hope of recovery. Gradually a streak of pessimism became apparent in his personality.
‘Nineteen Eight Four’ is about a super sate called Oceania. It is run by four ministries viz The Ministry of Love, responsible for law and order, The Ministry of Peace, to deal with wars, The Ministry of Truth concerned with the news, education, entertainment and fine arts and The Ministry of Plenty which handled the economic affairs. These four ministries are overseen by the Big Brother, an omnipotent figure like God. He is invisible and invincible. Emmanuel Goldstein is another character who never comes in the open. He is said to be hiding somewhere in the country conspiring to overthrow the Big Brother. He appears to be a liberal compare with the Big Brother.
The story unfolds through incidents in the life of Winston Smith, employed in the Ministry of Truth. His job is to manipulate and forge the records as circumstance demands. His duty is to read all the papers, journals, magazines and report ‘the truth’. “The Truth” being variable, he has to be alert and vigilant. He has to erase the past and substitute it with new revelation.
In order to alter and falsify the records, elaborate arrangements have been made. Even a new language called ‘New Speak’ is introduced and taught in schools. Dictionaries containing the words of new speak are published. Through these, the government seeks to control the thought process itself. Orwell says “The purpose of new speak was not only to produce a medium of expression for the world view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible”. As part of this many words in the English language are modified some are stripped of their shades of meanings. Many wards are abolished altogether. Thus antonyms, adjectives, nouns, verbs are all modified to serve the purpose of the Big Brother. “New Speak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought”. Syane, a philologist, a specialist in New Speak claims that the New Speak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.
If anyone thinks differently and deviates from the declared objectives of the Big Brother, he is accused of ‘thought crime’. The aim of New Speak is to make thought crime impossible. Some of the most important and moist frequently used words in the Newspeak are ‘double speak’, ‘black white’ and ‘double think’. ‘Double speak’ means quacking like a duck. A double speak word has two contradictory meanings. When it is used in reference to an opponent, it is a word of abuse. However, when it is used in reference to an ally it is a word of compliment. Likewise, ‘black white’ too has contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent it means the habit of claiming black is white and white is black ignoring the evidences to the contrary. In reference to a party member it means unwillingness to say that black is white and white is black whenever the party demands. Not only that one must believe that black is white and forget that one believed otherwise.
‘Doublethink’ means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs at once. The person, who does so, does know that he is playing with reality. But he believes that reality is not violated by such an exercise. When one is engaged in doublethink, one must do it consciously for the exercise to be effective or else it would not achieve the intended result. But one has to be unconscious at the same time in order to avoid the feeling of guilt. In Orwell’s words, “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient and when it become necessary again .to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality which one denies all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink”
Besides the linguistic modifications, an ingenious device called ‘telescreen’ is used to keep an eye on the people committing thoughtcrime. Apart from transmitting the views of the government like the television, it serves the government as a device to keep track of the movement of the people. Telescreen is installed all over the country, in houses, on the roads and at other public places. Thus every nook and cranny and every person is put under surveillance.
The tentacles of power have spread everywhere. Even family relationships are not spared. The bond between husbands and wives are so fragile that it could break at any moment. Even the married ones are required to stay away from sexual relations. But they are allowed to produce children to be trained and recruited to spy on their parents. Trust, the basis of relationships between parents and children, is replaced with doubt and hatred. This leads to social disintegration and turns people into paranoiacs and schizophrenics.
Public anger and frustrations are redirected towards a powerful enemy. An authoritarian state never fails to invent enemies. In the case of Oceania, Goldstein is out to grab power from the benevolent Big Brother. Goldstein is said to live somewhere in the country. Even the omnipotent Big Brother is not able to locate him.
What the party of the Big Brother wants is absolute power; He seeks absolute power for the sake of power, not to improve the living standards of the people. They are not all interested in the well-being of the people. The party is not interested in wealth, luxury, long life or happiness. O’brian who represents the Big Brother tells Winston that his government differs from the German Nazis and the Russian Communists in that they did not have the courage to recognise their motives. They pretended, even believed to certain extend. that they seized power to make life easy for the people and create a heaven on earth where human beings would be free and equal. But in Oceania the party believed that no one seizes power with the intent of relinquishing it, “Power is not a means, it is an end”. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution. One makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power”. The power they are after is the power over human beings, Power not only over the body but over the mind also.
Controlling the external reality is not that difficult, O’brian asks Winston to get rid of the 19th century ideas about the laws of nature, “We make the laws of nature”. O’brian tells him. When Winston protests, and points out that the party is not in control over the earth, O’brian replies that the party will bring them under its control at the appropriate moment. I could be done without any effort as all that they have to do is to deny the existence of other countries and declare that Oceania is the world. Later, with the aid of newspapers, double speak and double think, they could convince the people of the authenticity of the claim.
Elaborating the party’s views, O’brian tells Winston that the stars are bits of fire a few kilometres away. “The earth is the centre of the universe. The sun and stars round it!” At times holding these views may have certain disadvantages. To navigate the ocean and to predict an eclipse it would be sensible to believe that the earth goes round the sun and the stars are billions of kilometres away from us etc. It is not at all difficult to interpret physical phenomenon in any manner as the occasion demands as the scientists of Oceania are capable of producing dual astronomy. In the event of any dissent, one would be vaporised- put to death. All references to that person would be removed from the records. This has happened in Russia during the reign of Stalin and in China under Mao. Falsification of records and misinterpretation of history have become common even in democratic countries.
No authoritarian government has yet been able to manipulate the minds of its citizens; Winston and his lover Julia think it impossible to get into the mind. In Julia’s words, “It is one thing they cannot do. They can make you say anything-anything- but they cannot make you believe it. They can’t get inside you”. Agreeing with her Winston says, “They can’t get inside you. If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can have any result whatever you have beaten them”.
But at the end both of them are proved wrong, O’brian crushed Winston’s mind by physical torture and brainstorming. One day O’brian asked Winston to have a look at his own body in the mirror. He was shocked to see his emaciated body. He was pale and thin. His stamina had drained off. O’brian claimed, “We have beaten you Winston. We have broken you up. You have seen what your body is like. Your mind is in the same state. I do not think there can be much pride left in you. You have been knocked, flogged, and insulted, you have screamed with pain. You have rolled on the floor in you own blood and vomit. You have betrayed everybody and everything. Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you?”
Winston understood. He decided to educate himself. Then he wrote, “Freedom is slavery, two and two make five, god is power” etc.
The picture of the super state that Orwell presents, send shivers down one’s spine. And on second thought one starts to doubt the possibility of such a state ever coming into existence. Because a committed bureaucracy is required to implement the policies and programmes of the state. Bureaucracy is generally inefficient everywhere in the world. As Atkins says “Administration in large scale enterprise is always more inefficient and wasteful”
The pessimism that pervades Nineteen Eighty Four could be traced to Orwell’s deteriorating health. He knew very well that there was no chance for recovery and perhaps even that his days had been numbered.

“Animal Farm” Orwell’s first political allegory came out in 1945. Its publication provoked the critic Bernard Crick to state, “Orwell is the best polemical writer in English since Swift”. Atkins also notes, “It is the work by a man whose literary personality has evolved into maturity and good temper even when dealing with matters about which he feels keenly”.
Animal Farm has many planes. Children can read and enjoy it as a fable. Nevertheless, a discerning reader can see it as an assault on Stalinism in Russia, which was being passed off as scientific socialism.
Mr. Jones, a human being owned the Manor Farm. There was an old major, a middle white boar who was held in high esteem by the other animals. Once he had told his comrades that man was their real enemy. He exhorted the animals to remove man from the scene, as he was the root cause of the hunger and poverty in the farm. He said in his last speech, “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk , he does not lay eggs he is too wreak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits, yet he is the lord of the animals’ He said that it was the duty of the animals to make man remove from his pedestal.
Even after the death of the major, his influence on the animals remained. The leadership fell on the pigs as they were the cleverest of all the animals. Napoleon and Snowball were the leaders. Snowball was a vicious pig who had the gift of gab. He was also more inventive than Napoleon. Another promising figure in the farm was a small fat pig named Squealer with round cheeks and twinkling eyes. he was a brilliant talker and had a shrill voice. It was said that he could turn black into white.Napolean, Snowball and Squealer sat together and shaped old major’s ideas into complete system of thought, which they named “Animalism”
This trinity exhorted others to rise in revolt against Mr: Jones. The revolt was easier than they had expected. The manor Farm was renamed Animal Farm. Moreover, it was reorganised based on the view that all animals are equals. The seven commandments of Animalism were inscribed in big letters on the wall of the Animal Farm.
Snowball and Napoleon stand for Trotsky and Stalin. And the revolt of the animals stands for the Russian Revolution of 1917. Although the Russian peasants joined under the able leadership of Lenin, Trotsky etc, they did not know exactly how the country was going to be ruled after the revolution. Being illiterates the peasants could not make out much of what the leaders preached. They just trusted their leaders who promised them a society sans exploitations. For the benefit of the illiterates, Snowball coined a slogan “Four legs good two legs bad”. The sheep was very much impressed with the slogan and they kept repeating it.
They had to face so many hurdles along the way. But they over came them by sheer hard work. Every one worked according to one’s capacity. No one made any complaints or asked any questions. To look after the affairs of the state committees were formed and decisions were taken after prolonged deliberations. However, Napoleon was not interested in Snowball’s committees. He argued that the education of the young was most important. One day it was declared that the pigs needed to consume more milk than others did. Squealer explained that though they did not like milk and apples they had to have them in order to keep themselves healthy, for the welfare of the farm depended on the well-being of the pigs, the brainworkers.

As time went on Snowball and Napoleon disagreed on almost everything. At the meetings, Snowball was able to win the support of the members of the committees, as he was an accomplished orator. However, at times Napoleon managed to get better of Snowball with the support of the sheep. Snowball put forward a proposal to build a windmill to produce electricity for the farm. But Napoleon ridiculed the scheme.
Napoleon said that a windmill would not solve anything. Snowball with his eloquence could swing the people in his favour. At this napoleon ordered his dogs to drive Snowball out of the farm. Later napoleon announced that there would be no Sunday meetings any longer, for it was useless to discuss everything with the illiterate and ignorant folk after all Napoleon knew what was good for the farm. Boxer said, “If comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right”.
On the third Sunday after Snowball was expelled from the farm Napoleon announced that he was going to build a windmill. No explanation was given for the change of mind. Squealer explained that Napoleon had not in fact opposed the construction o f the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who advocated it for the first time. But Snowball cheated Napoleon and stole his plans. When Napoleon spoke against the windmill, he was actually pretending. It was his tactics to trap Snowball. At last, the windmill was constructed under napoleon’s leadership.
The windmill collapsed one day as it was badly constructed. After a survey, Napoleon declared that snowball was responsible for the tragedy. After that whatever went wrong at the farm snowball was held responsible. In January, food was scarce and corn ration had to be reduced. But it was declared that it would be made up by extra potato ration. But it was found that the potato crop had been frosted in the clamps as they had not been covered. For days the animals had nothing but chaffs to eat.
Human being spread rumours about the situation in the farm that the production had fallen and that the animals are starving so on and so forth. Mr Whimper the agent was taken to different parts of the farm to see the situation for himself. Before that, Napoleon had ordered the empty bins to be filled with sand to the brim. The grain was used to cover the top of the bins. As Mr: Whymper passed along the barn; the sheep were talking about the increase in ration. Impressed Mr: Whymper reported o the world outside that there was no food scarcity in the farm.
Changes were made in the original seven commandemends from time to time as the situation demanded. For instance, the sixth one had earlier been that “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause”. And it was not that difficult to cite causes when one was done away with. This alluded to the purges that Stalin carried out in the Soviet Union. It is widely believed that Stalin had put about ten lakh people to death during his reign of terror.
As time passed, the pigs began to live in style but life became hard for the common animals. As compensation, they were given more songs, speeches and processions. Spontaneous demonstrations were held each week to celebrate the struggle and triumphs of the animal farm. And indeed the animals lapped up all of them, for the merrymaking made them forget their hunger and thirst.
The population of the farm grew slowly and gradually. A new generation who did not have first hand experience of the revolution came into being. They were stupid enough to believe whatever they were told about Animalism and the Animal Farm. The farm had grown richer than before, but the riches were in the hands of the pigs and dogs which outnumbered other animals while the common animals toiled in the fields. The pigs and dogs busied themselves with ‘files’, ‘reports’,’minutes’ and ‘memoranda’.
One day the pigs began to move about on their hind legs. Some of them could walk steadily. Some managed somehow. “Napoleon himself walked majestically upright, glancing haughty glances from side to side and with his dogs grumbling around him”. He had a whip n his trotter. Seeing this, the sheep bleated out “four legs good but two legs better”. The first commandment that, “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy” had been rewritten. The Ten Commandments had vanished and a single one had appeared which said, “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others”.
A party was arranged to celebrate the new developments. Neighbours of the farm were invited to the party. Mr: Pilkington of the Fox wood said that he was happy that all the misunderstandings between the animal farm and others had been cleared. He declared that, “If you have your animals to content with, we have our lower classes”. Napoleon in his speech said that he was happy too that the enmity had ended. He went on to add he never attempted to stir up rebellion in the neighbouring farm. Then he announced that the original name of the ‘Animal Farm’ i.e. ‘Manor Farm’ was being restored. Concluding his speech, Napoleon declared, “Gentleman, I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim Gentleman; here is my toast to the prosperity of the Manor Farm”. After the feast, a game of cards started and soon there were shouts. The other animals peered through the window. They looked from pigs to man and from animal to pigs and from pig to man again but already it was impossible to say which was which”.
Animal farm portrays the Russian society during and after the great October Russian Revolution. It provides a graphic account of how the values cherished by the people were trampled down one after the other after the revolution and the gap between the rulers and the ruled widened as time went on. After the revolution, the agricultural production fell to an all time low and famine stretched all over the country. The leaders of the revolution held the Western nations responsible for all the trouble. They were accused of plotting against the new nation to defeat the glorious revolution. Whenever something turned out to be different from what they had predicted, they invented enemies and blamed it on them. It was made out that the enemies were diabolic, dangerous, and hence difficult to deal with. Then they went on to curtail the freedom of the people and assume more power for the state. This ended up in a dictatorship, which lasted for about seventy long years. Those who dared to question the authority were accused of being spies and sent to labour camps in Siberia. Most of them disappeared without any trace.

Eric Arthur Blair popularly known as George Orwell is one of the prominent satirist of English literature. He was born in Mothihari in India in 1903 to Scottish parents. As a child, Orwell believed that he was born to be a serious writer. He wrote his first poem at the age of five. At the age of eleven, he wrote and published a poem in patriotic vein.
When Orwell was eight years old, he was sent to a preparatory school in the south coast. Atkins has, in his study of Orwell, noted that, “His experiences at this school marked him for his life and he escaped their influence. There were few joys in his school days and he left with what can only be called a deliberately inculcated sense of failure”.
In 1917, he turned 14 and joined Eaton. As he has made only fleeting references to this period we do not know much about his life and activities at Eaton. He has said that he was relatively happy there. However, we can be sure that he busied himself with the study of classics. He also contributed to the various periodicals of the college.
After his education, he joined the police force though he detested authority. He served in the Indian Imperial Police force at Burma from 1922 to 1927.
In 1927, he resigned his job and went to France. There he lived for two years before returning to England. Atkins notes “Even at that youthful age his appearance revealed both innate sincerity of the man and the intense struggle of. However, he had resolved to take writing seriously. In England, he worked as a private tutor, schoolteacher, and bookshop assistant for a living for some time. He also wrote for the periodicals.
“Down and out in Paris and London” an account of is personal search for poverty appeared in 1933. Though the picture of poverty he presents in it is heart rending, never does he attempt to sensationalise it. Next to it came the “Burmese Days’ (1934), his first novel which was inspired by his experiences in Burma. “ Keep the Aspidistra Flying” appeared in 1936. The theme of the novel is lack of money and the resultant poverty. He makes the point that one can never imagine a descent life without money.
In the same year, Victor Gollanz commissioned him to visit Lancashire and Yorkshire where poverty was rampant. “The Road to Wigan Pier” that appeared in 1937 provides a graphic account of poetry he witnessed there.
From 1937 to the end of his life in 1950, he was engaged in political debates. He was of the view that an honest writer could never think of relinquishing his freedom and subject himself to the party discipline.
During the Second World War Orwell worked for the BBC Eastern service from 1941 to 1943. He also wrote for the Observer and the Manchester Evening News. By the time the war came to an end, Orwell had become famous and was earning so much of money .but his health had been worsening for some time.” Animal Farm”, the book that won him worldwide acclaim came out in 1945. “Nineteen Eighty Four” hailed as the “most brilliant satires on totalitarian and the power hungry ever written” appeared in 1949.Soon after the publication on 23 January 1950 he suffered a haemorrhage and died. It has been said that Orwell was a political writer. His works deal directly or indirectly with politics.
Atkins observes, “Orwell’s contribution to modern political thought was the introduction of the despised values which used to be called truth”. The Marxists were concerned with the strategies to adopt to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. To them truth and liberty were mere words devoid of any meaning. They often went to the extent of questioning the very validity of the concepts such as truth and liberty. Orwell viewed it as a dangerous trend and fought it tooth and nail.
Orwell felt that the zeal for intellectual freedom was declining. The freedoms people enjoy depend on the public opinion. People can influence the decisions and the policies of the government by airing their views without fear. If the public fails in this the government will misuse its power .He believed that it is the duty if the intellectuals to analyse he policies of the governments and inform the public. Orwell felt that with the advent of Marxism intellectuals forsook their duty paving the way for tyrannical regimes. He was horrified by the silence of the Western liberal intellectuals during the trial and purges in Moscow during the reign of Stalin.

Plato is still regarded as one of the greatest thinkers the world has ever seen. He is believed to have been the disciple of the legendary Socrates. He was not a literary critic in the modern sense of the term. He was a philosopher concerned with truth and reality. In the course of his enquiries into reality, Plato found himself faced with many issues. What was known as “imaginary writings”, mainly poetry was one of them. His observations on the nature of poetry are found in his books such as “Ion”, “Republic” so on. Plato says that poetry is the imitation of life. Life itself is not real but a reflection of what he calls, ‘Form’ or ‘Idea’ of life that exists somewhere else. Therefore, the life represented in poetry is not real .It is twice removed from reality. Plato points to the poet’s own admission that they write poetry when they are inspired. So the views expressed in poetry, says Plato, is not the outcome of rational thinking which alone, as he sees it, can lead us to the understanding of reality. Unlike philosophy which is based on cold reasoning. poetry is the product of sudden and momentary impulse. So it cannot improve the character of the citizens. As it is a product of inspiration rather than that of reflection, poetry appeals to emotion holding reason prisoner. To prove his arguments Plato refers to the weeping and wailings in the poetry of his time. Plato further holds that, poetry is not concerned with morality. It treats virtues and vices alike. Sometimes virtue triumphs at other times vice triumphs. Depicting triumphs of vice in poetry will demoralise the citizens and harm the society. The fall of good men depicted in the epics of Homer, in the verses of Hesiod and the tragedies of Sophocles etc disturbed Plato much. Moreover, the picture of Gods and heroes in their poetry are immoral and hence objectionable. Gods are often unjust, cruel and indulged in immoral and vengeful activities. The heroes are often influenced by the passions of pride, anger and grief. Plato felt that this type of poetry could harm the harmonious life of the people. According to Plato “Poetry fed and watered the passions instead of drying them up. People let them rule instead of ruling them as they ought to be ruled with a view to the happiness and virtues of mankind.”

Although the word Literature is commonplace, it is not easy to say what it means. The question ‘What is Literature?” has been asked times without number in the past. And many answers have been given. However’ none of the answers have been satisfactory.
When one hears the word literature, ones mind is flooded with many poems, stories, dramas, novels so on. Though the label literature is appropriate for all of them, they are different forms of literature to be precise. These various forms of literature emerged at different times and different places. For instance, epic, drama etc were produced in the ancient Greece. Novel, the form of literature most of the readers are familiar with emerged in England in the wake of Capitalism in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It may be said without much fear of being contradicted that the different forms of literature portray our life. Having said that, we have to qualify the statement. The life portrayed in literature need not be that of a real person. It can be the life of an imaginary person as well. Robinson Crusoe comes to the mind almost instinctively. Did a person named Robinson Crusoe ever live on the earth? We do not have any concrete evidence to suggest that he did at a particular part of the world. But the author of the book tells us not only the name of a person but a detailed account of his daily life. Then we may ask is there any difference between the kind of life he led and the life of a real person alive or dead? The same question can be framed in a different way. To what extent the life portrayed in the book resembles the life we live? Irrespective of our answer to this simple question, the moment it is answered some other question pops up.
Like I said earlier many have tried their best to explain what literature is, but in vain. The Greeks had their concepts of ‘poetry’, as the term ‘literature’ was not in use at that time. The Romans had their own views. After renaissance and with the arrival of who were later called the humanists a new concept of literature emerged slowly and gradually.
However, it did not last very long. With what is now called the ‘linguistic turn’, almost everything turned upside turn. Literature, literary criticism and everything associated with it were challenged. The last word has not yet been uttered.