American Literature

Whitman’s mysticism and transcendentalism in “Song of Myself”

Mysticism is not really a coherent philosophy of life, but more a temper of mind. A mystic vision is intuitive; a mystic feels the presence of divine reality behind and within the ordinary world of sense and perception. He feels that God and the supreme soul animating all things are identical. He believes that all things in the visible world are but forms and manifestations of the one Divine life.

The self-proclaimed “American Bard” Walt Whitman is undoubtedly a mystic and transcendental poet. He shocked his contemporaries by his embrace of the sensual; “Song of Myself” has been regarded as a prolonged expression of an experience that is essentially mystical. The beautiful sampling of Whitman’s poetry from “Song of Myself” offers a glimpse into the spiritual side of his most radical themes–love for country, love for others and love for self. Whitman seeks to tear down the belief the spiritual resides only in the religious and embraces the idea that nothing is more divine than humankind, nothing greater than individual soul. There is a great deal of sexual elements in Whitman’s poetry; sexual connotations are inseparable from the mystical experience.

In “Song of Myself” Whitman’s overjoyed revelation of union of his body with his soul has been depicted in his mystic expression. Held in the trance-like grip of the soul from beard to feet, the poet has a feeling of fraternity and oneness with God and his fellowmen:

“And I know the hand of God is the promise of my own

 And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own

And that all – of the creation of love.”

As a mystic Whitman believed that there is no difference between Creator and the Creation. His “self” is a universal self. He sees people of both sexes, all ages, many different walks of life; even animals are included. The poet along with the divine spirit not only loves them all; he is also a part of them.

      

In “Song of Myself”, mystical experience is symbolically conveyed through a piece of sensuous experience. Being a mystic poet of his own kind, Whitman gives equal importance to body and soul; he becomes the spokesman of the “forbidden voices” of ‘sexes and lusts indecent.’ He loves his body and is sensitive to another’s touch. Both the lady and the prostitute enjoy equal position in his poetry, for the inner reality, the soul has been created by the same God. Whitman declares: “If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred.” Thus he takes equal delight both in good and bad, noble or ignoble.

Whitman does not reject the material world. He seeks the spiritual through the material. He does not subscribe to the belief that objects illusive. There is no tendency on the part of the soul to leave this world for God. Whitman does not belittle the achievements of science and materialism.

 “Hurrah for positive science!

Long live exact demonstration.”

Whitman praises not merely life, but absolute worth of every particular and individual person. Thus, his comic consciousness is the result of the expansion of the ego. The word “I” assumes an enlarged universal connotation bringing the smallest and the greatest things of the universe within its compass.

James E. Miller considers Whitman’s Song of Myself as “inverted mystical experience”. While the traditional mystic attempts to annihilate himself and mortify his senses in preparation for his union with the divine; Whitman magnifies the self and glorifies the senses in his progress towards the union with the absolute. Although Whitman is influenced by Emerson and oriental mysticism, yet there is a difference between Whitman’s mysticism and the mysticism of Orient. Oriental mystic believes that communication between soul and God is possible only through the mortification or conquest of the senses and the physical appetites. On the other hand Whitman believes that spiritual experiences are possible without sacrificing the physical appetites.

Whitman seldom lost touch with the physical reality even in the mist of his mystical experience. Physical phenomena for him were symbols of spiritual reality. He believed that “the unseen is proved by seen”; thus he makes use of highly sensuous and concrete imagery to convey his perception of divine reality. He finds a purpose behind any natural objects- grass, sea, birds, flowers animals etc.

Whitman is a mystic as much as he is a poet of democracy and science, but a “mystic without a creed.” Song of Myself portrays Whitman's poetic birth and the mystical journey; the poet feels the exhilaration of being no longer bound by the ties of space and time: he is "afoot with" his "vision." He feels able, indeed, to range back and forth over all time, and to soar like a meteor out into space. His entity is unique: he can assume the "gigantic beauty of a stallion" and can turn himself  into a departing air or annihilate himself into a dirt.

The poet does not deny but dismisses his "contradictions," asserting, "I am large, I contain multitudes." In the beginning the poet vows to "permit to speak at every hazard, / Nature without check with original energy." Leaving "Creeds and schools in abeyance" , he goes "to the bank by the wood” and becomes “ undisguised and naked" similarly, at the end, he describes himself as "not a bit tamed," as "untranslatable," as one who sounds his "barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." His journey over and done, he prepares for departure, bequeathing himself "to the dirt to grow from the grass" he loves, and tells the reader: "If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles." At the end, the poet admonishes his readers to "keep encouraged" and continue their search for him, promising: "I stop somewhere waiting for you." 

  

“Mourning Becomes Electra”–Modern Counterpart of Greek Tragedy:

Mourning Becomes Electra” is a continuation of the Greek tradition with Freudian unconscious and Puritan heritage of 19^th century in New England setting. It is rare to find both “Electra” and “Oedipus” complexes in a single work of art. But here we have both as parallel themes. Set in a modern milieu, the plot, the characterization, and the story-line are all reflective of the ancient traditions. In the words of Lawrence A. Johnsen,

“Mourning becomes Electra is a tale of ancient hatreds, illegitimacy, revenge, family secrets and murder.”

 Eugene O’ Neill intentionally changed names and sequence of events to serve his purpose. The substitution shown with the main characters resemble the dramatis personae of Aeschylus’ Oresteia: Ezra Mannon – Agamemnon; Christine – Clytemnestra; Lavinia – Electra; Orin – Orestes; Captain Adam Brant – Aegisthus; Captain Peter Niles – Pylades. Instead of the Trojan War, we have the American Civil War in the background. Like Clytemnestra who found a lover in the form of Aegisthus, Christine has cuckolded Ezra Mannon. But Christine is far more venomous than Clytemnestra. Whereas the latter had some grievance because her spouse had sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia to get favourable wind for his fleet; Christine had no such anger to be redressed. Having fed up with one Patriarch, she wanted to experience the ecstasy of love. Up to this point the story follows Greek play. What happens next is Eugene O’Neill’s own interpretation. In this case the daughter Lavinia too is in love with the mother’s paramour and hence an opponent. Then, there is a strong psychoanalytical stance in the play since Livinia is obsessively preoccupied with “Electra” complex. She is consumed by love for father and is expressively involved in revenge for his death. Lavinia tells Ezra pointedly:m“You are the only man I shall ever love. I am going to stay with you.”

Alongside with Lavinia’s Electra complex, there is another incestuous complex namely mother-son Oedipal complex, both in Orin and Brant. Based on Freudian unconscious, the involvements of Mannons are quite predictable: Adam loves his mother and Christine; Orin loves her mother and Lavinia; Lavinia loves her father, Adam and Orin; Ezra loves both daughter and wife; Christine loves both her son and Adam. Reciprocally, Lavinia hates her mother and Marry Brantome, the rivals of her love; Orin hates his father and Adam Brant, and Adam hates Ezra, Orin and his own father David Mannon, the rivals of his mother’s love. Adam tells Lavinia:

“You are like your mother in some ways. Your face is dead image of hers. And look at your hair. You will not meet another in a month of Sundays. I only know one other woman who had it. You will think it strange when I tell you. It was my mother.”

Christine too is pre-occupied with Lavinia’s Electra complex. She reminds Lavinia: “You have always tried to become wife of your father and mother of Orin. You have always schemed to steal my place.”

Thus both Orin’s Oedipus complex and Lavinia’s Electra complex remain at the core of the story. Orin’s mother complex is developed at some length. He is his mother’s love and his baby. Orin’s love for his mother is always reverential. His greeting on their first encounter in the play has curious juxtaposition: “Mother! God it is good to see you.” Christine deals with him in seductive terms, emphasising physicality in their relationship: “You are a big man now, are not you? I cannot believe it. It seems only yesterday when I used to find you in night-shirt.”

According to Freudian hypothesis each Mannon is drawn by unconscious impulse towards the parent of opposite sex. In Orin and Lavinia this impulse has grown into fixation. The most obvious instance of Freudian complex is Orin’s fixation at her mother. While away at war, Orin dreamt of his mother as an Island of Peace. Supplementary to this dream was the illusion each man he killed at the front resembled his father. The desire to posses his mother and kill his father give him classical Oedipal symptoms. This incites him to kill Adam and the brunt of his hatred falls on his father’s figure. Christine’s presence always has softening effect on him. When he witnesses Christine’s disintegration as a result of Adam’s murder, he pleads her: “Mother do not moan like that! How could you grieve for your servant’s bastard.”

After Christine’s suicide, Orin’s life is shattered. Lavinia takes him to the Islands of East. After a year the reader finds them taking the roles of their father and mother as Orin tells Lavinia: “Are not you see I am in father’s place and you are mother?”

Orin’s complex is made explicit when he makes incestuous proposal to Lavinia: “I love you now with all the guilt in me–the guilt we share. Perhaps I love you much Vinnie…How else can I be sure you will not leave me? You would feel as guilty as I am!”

By keeping Lavinia, Orin’s desire to possess his mother will be accomplished. When Lavinia shouts at him that he should commit suicide, he hears his mother’s voice: “Yes that would be justice–you are mother now. She is speaking through you…Death is an Island of Peace–mother will be waiting for me there.” Orin’s suicide is return to his mother–death is to peace; it is passage into oblivion.

After Orin’s death, Lavinia’s puritan heritage reclaims itself. Although she tries to break away from the tradition and escape with Peter but her dream crumbles down as she calls Peter ‘Adam’ in a Freudian slip. Afterwards she accepts her fate with Puritan spirit of resignation and locks herself in Mannon house to live with the ghosts of dead in expiation for all their crimes. The Mannon catches Lavinia in the end–being born was starting to die. The Mannon house is sepulchre and her life is living death henceforth.

The play “Mourning Becomes Electra” has much in common with the grand style of ancient Greek tragedy. It is the suffering of human beings that results in an ennobling effect. The characters have complex psychological hang-ups which contribute towards their doom. On the Greek pattern we have a trilogy with three parts: The Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted. Whereas in the Greek cases, the psychological aspect is disguised and barely identifiable, in O’Neill it constitutes the essence of drama.

 Fredrick Henry: Hemingway’s Code Hero

 Lt. Fredric Henry, the protagonist in A Farewell to Arms, exemplifies Hemingway's code hero in several ways. Like a typical Hemingway’s hero he is a wounded man not only physically but also psychologically. He is a man who engages in life, rather than observing it as a bystander. He maintains self-control in the face of overwhelming adversity, and he does not demonstrate self-pity. Like Hemingway’s other code heroes, Lt. Henry is existentially removed from the world. He possesses personal integrity, often feels isolated and remains stoic for most of the time. He is a rationalist and pragmatist who tries to bring everything to the test of experience. Most of all, Lt. Henry functions as a Hemingway code hero because he faces life with courage, and he endures life with dignity.

The character of Lt. Henry is a prime example of a Hemingway’s hero. He shows a general loss in faith and the conventional morality. Henry respects the priest, but he says flat out that he does not believe in God. Rather He immerses himself into the sensual pleasures that surround him.

 In the beginning, his views on life and the war are extremely naive, innocent, and idealistic."Only seven thousand have died" of cholera, he comments early on.  This illustrates his innocent perception of the war because he doesn't acknowledge how many people have actually died. Like a typical Hemingway’s hero, he enjoys much of drinking and love-making in the beginning but undergoes tremendous development during the course of the novel.

“American Tenete” Fredrick Henry is stoic under duress or pain; he is unflappable under fire, he does his work. He is “man’s man” in that his thoughts revolve on women and drink. He is an American who enlists in the Italian army during World War I, a dangerous role he assumes by choice. As an officer who commands an ambulance unit, he serves on the front lines, exposing himself to the greatest danger. Henry endures a lot of pain, but always understates his condition. Even When he is severely wounded in the battle, he does not let his suffering show.

"I...leaned over and put my hand on my knee.  My knee wasn't there."

  He does not freak out and complain, he just realizes it is what it is.

Indigenous to nearly all of Ernest Hemingway’s novels, the “Hemingway man” lives by one simple rule: “Man the player is born; life the game will kill him”. Frederic’s development is enhanced by his relationship with the English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Originally, Catherine is nothing more than an object of sensual desire, but as the novel progresses, Catherine becomes symbolic of Frederic’s final resolution. Having discovered the value of his relationship with Catherine, Frederic returns to the front, only to find the army in complete and utter chaos. Frederic is welcomed by his old friends but is greatly disturbed by their low morale.

As the novel continues, Lt. Henry eventually deserts the army, but this is not as an act of cowardice. Caught up in the chaos and carnage of a military retreat, he leaves the army to save his own life. Frederic no longer feels obligated to serve a country to which he does not belong. His allegiance is shattered when he witnesses Italian officials shooting their own men. He will not sacrifice his life to a senseless death. He no longer feels a part of the war; he feels isolated from it. He declares an individual separate peace and acts decisively to make his way back to Catherine.

Despite the cruelty of the world, Henry is able to find some moments of solace. Reunited with Catherine, and far away from the decimated Italian countryside Lt. Henry enjoys a period of peace and happiness with her as they await the birth of their baby. When she dies in childbirth and the baby dies, also, Lt. Henry is truly alone. Catherine’s untimely death has driven Frederic into a senseless cesspool of babbling thoughts. 

“Get away hell! It would have been the same if we had been married fifty times. And what if she should die? She won’t die. People don’t die in childbirth nowadays. … It’s just nature giving her hell”.

These words show Frederic’s scattered train of thought. He attempts to shield himself from death with these clinches. Frederic even begins to pray to God in one last futile attempt but in vain. Nolan remarks:

“What Hemingway portrays, in fact, is a good, albeit a disappointed and disillusioned man trying to fulfill his various obligations.”

After Catherine’s “murder” by the “Biological Trap”, Henry’s disillusionment is revealed in his last tragic note:

“But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the lights it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue.” He walks away, in the rain. He is isolated in his grief, but he will endure this greatest of all his losses.

To conclude, by the end of the novel Henry’s metamorphosis is complete and he is fitting into the definition of Hemingway’s code hero because he has progressed so much from the beginning to the end.

Significance of the Title ‘A Farewell to Arms’:

A giant in the field of American literary modernism, Ernest Hemingway has long been called an important spokesman for the “lost generation” of disillusioned, war-torn young Americans. In ‘A Farewell to Arms’, Hemingway uses his characteristic unadorned prose, clipped dialogue, and understatement to convey an essentially cynical view of the world.

It is the title of the novel, A Farewell to Arms, itself that first catches the attention. Critics are basically in agreement that there are two straightforward interpretations of ‘A Farewell to Arms’, with a pun on the word “Arms.” The hero, Fredrick Henry, bids farewell to “arms,” as in weapons, and also, when Catherine dies, to the loving “arms” of a human being.

Hemingway consciously borrowed his title from the 16^th century English poet George Peele. He did refer to the Peele’s poem intentionally to pay ironic homage to the war. Since Frederic deserts the Italian army during the retreat, and then flees with Catherine to Switzerland, the title can refer specifically to Frederic’s good-bye to the weapons of war. A Farewell to Arms could also refer to the loss of the loving arms of Catherine, as Fredrick was compelled to say “a farewell” to them by the inevitable fate: death. Thus, on one hand, the farewell voluntary and almost calculated step, while on the other hand, the farewell is not at all, an act of volition.

The title “A farewell to Arms” puts Henry’s disillusionment with the war and love. War is made odious in the very first chapter which discloses the death of seven thousand men. Catherine’s fiancé has already been blown ‘all to bits’ in the battle. Henry himself gets wounded by mortar-shell in the war. War has affected the spirits of Rinaldi and priest as well. The climax of the horror is reached in the account of Caporetto retreat. The scene of the Italian army’s retreat remains one of the most profound evocations of war in American literature.

“In the night, many peasants had joined the column of retreating multitude, and in the column there were carts, loaded with household goods… On some carts women sat huddled from the rain and others walked besides the carts keeping as close to them as they could.

The inhumanity reached its climax when Henry was arrested by the battle-police. Officers were being shot after a summary trial. Ironically Henry comments, "The questioners had all the efficiency, coldness and command of themselves of Italians who are firing and are not being fired on." Henry made for the river and the shots rang after him. He took a support of a timber and drifted along with it. Having immersed in the river he was purified of all the sins. His “anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation." He was already through with the patriotism. He had suffered from exhaustion, hunger and fatigue. All his bravery had been evaporated. He escaped from Italy with his beloved into a neutral country -Switzerland. He had got "a separate peace."

Escaping from the war, what he can do is to turn to Catherine to find his medication. Only from Catherine, Henry can find his spiritual prop. In other words, Catherine means all to Henry. But the reality of Catherine's death destroys Henry's fantasy. Upon this moment, Henry comes to realization that such positive forces as love and courage cannot neutralize the grim reality of life.

Already simplistic throughout the novel, Hemingway is even more taciturn on the subject of death. Indeed, the protagonist is indifferent to death.  As a result of seeing a great number of comrades falling on the battlefield, Henry has come to a crude conclusion about death: only the living counts, and mourning the dead is utterly futile. Shortly after the death of Passini, Henry remains unmoved by his death.  Similarly, the death of Aymo in the latter part of the novel is dealt with the same coldness. Ultimately, it is such a crude perception of death that prevents Henry from mourning the death of Catherine or harbour any funereal feeling. He bids farewell to the dead Catherine as he puts it:

 “It was like saying goodbye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”

The title of the novel is the masterstroke of irony and one must think in terms of offering an ironic interpretation of the novel as well.

Fredrick has always tried to run away from the obligations and responsibilities of life. He did not want to fall in love and yet he fell in love with Catherine. He deserted the army in the hope of leading a idyllic life , yet Catherine’s  death at the end of novel suggests that he cannot escape harsh reality of death and sign a ‘separate peace’.  

One may conclude that the subliminal messages that fill ‘A Farewell to Arms’ make it an exceptional piece of art. It is ironic that whereas Peele’s knight is rooted in the war which he fights, his “duty, faith and love are evergreen”, Hemingway’s hero, on the other hand, casts his doubt upon such romantic ideals as glory and honor. He is “always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice.” He is disgusted with the war, serves his time and does everything he can, to run away from the perils of war.

Symbolism in A Farewell to Arms:

Symbols are considered to be an artistic device. The writers do not convey their thoughts in cheaper words but they use symbols to foreshadow and make their language rich and impressive. A Farewell to Arms depends heavily on Hemingway’s symbolic technique to convey the subjective condition of his characters.

Hemingway’s use of symbols and metaphors is always sublime and subtle. But this does not mean that his symbolism is tinged with obscurity or ambiguity. Rather his idiomatic expressions and under-statements are quite clear and far from being incomprehensible. The writer uses simplicity and naturalness to decorate his narrative and to draw the attention of his reader.

The very title of the novel is itself symbolical. The title bears two-fold symbolic meanings. The hero in the novel bids farewell not only to the war but also to the arms of the woman he loves. He bids farewell to war because he is disgusted with it. But he also bids farewell to the arms of his beloved woman because she has become a victim of her cruel fate. 

Throughout the novel Ernest Hemingway uses water and rivers as metaphors. Rivers are used as symbols of rebirth and escape and rain as tragedy and disaster.

Rivers in A Farewell to Arms represent rebirth. They symbolize a departure from a previous life and an entrance to a new one. Henry already fed up with the war, no longer believes in “war heroism”.  While walking with his fellow soldiers, after the retreat, he is arrested and fears that he will be executed. "He jumps in the river with a splash", allowing it to float him along. Thus he is able to save his life. As a result of this plunge, his “anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation”. When Henry emerged from the river, it was as if he was reborn. 

In the novel, rain serves as a potent symbol of tragedy. Already beginning in the first chapter, the reader learns that "the permanent rain brought the cholera" and that seven thousand men have died of it. The rain degrades the Fredrick’s happiness in the hotel as he awakens to the sound of rain and learns that he will be arrested. Rain also falls during the troop's retreat which is symbolizing a failure. And during their time of escape from Italy to Switzerland it is very windy and rainy. That symbolizes how their escape would definitely be difficult.

The rain in the novel is a constant foreshadowing of the tragedy that soon befalls the lovers.  Hemingway reflects the supreme dominance of death in the novel, and how it looms over all the protagonists’ thoughts. Catherine tells Henry:

"I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it".
This may be interpreted as the rain is an omen of death. It is in the rain that Fredrick loses both his child and his wife, and the book ends with the image of Fredrick, trudging back to his hotel, alone in the rain.

Besides water and rain symbols, the other symbols do play their role in the novel. Mountains symbolize love, dignity, health, happiness, and the good life. On the other hand, the low- lying plains serve as a symbol of indignity, suffering, disease, death and destruction. Snow is natural symbol of beauty and affection. Settled in Switzerland in a small villa in snow covered mountains, Catherine herself becomes the symbol of home, happiness, security, and comfort. Besides, autumn stands as a symbol of destruction and winter a symbol of death. Also cholera refers to both physical and spiritual disease.

In addition to these weather images, Catherine’s hair serves as one of the symbols of isolation and seclusion. During their sweet nights in Milan, Catherine lets down her hair and lets it cascade around Frederic’s head. This lovely description of hair that reminds Henry of being enclosed inside a tent or behind a waterfall stands as a symbol of the couple’s isolation from the world and serves as a sort of security blanket for Henry as he thinks himself sheltered from Italian authorities.

In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Frederick's narration of the burning of ants in a log that he places on a fire is symbolic of the plight of the soldiers in the war. As the ants are attracted towards the fire, they come near and fall into it, and thus become a victim of its heat. Likewise the soldiers, in their infatuation with the war, plunge and throw themselves blindly into the war, and are deprived of their lives. Hemingway uses this symbolic passage of the ants' death to highlight the futility of war.

This burning of ants takes on a symbolic significance. Hemingway uses this analogy to propound his atheistic beliefs. As the ants are falling into the fire, Frederick "remember[s] thinking at the time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to be a messiah and lift the log off the fire ", but Henry will not save the dying ants. In a metaphorical sense, Hemingway questions if there is a God that has control over all those characters in the novel who are surrounded by death.

To conclude, from the first chapter to the last word, the novel is flooded with rain and other images of water. The rain almost always heralds destruction and death; it impinges upon whatever momentary happiness the characters have and turns it into muddy misery.