La-Bella Dame Sans Merci

  John Keats has written this ballad, he was english romantic poet. This poem exist in two version with minor differences between them. This poem is about a Soldier who suffered  in hands of beautiful lady. This poem is written in 12 stanzas which show the suffering of soldier.

       

           In the very first stanza, the Soldier in questioned by a stranger near the river on the cold hill’s side wherein the stranger finds the Soldier in a pathetic condition alone and loitering aimlessly and in second stanza Stranger further questions the Soldier on his condition where the Nature is very beautiful but the Knight is suffering .

       

             The third stanza, the Stranger  talks about his fever and his facial condition as he was looking extremely pale. The Knight start answering the Stranger about how he met a beautiful Lady in the meadow ,who was like fairy’s child with beautiful eyes and long hair. In the next stanza, he talks about how he made garlands and bracelets of roses in love as a gift.

        

            In the six stanza, he talks about how he made her comfortable on her steed and kept looking at her by listening  to her wonderful songs. The seven stanza talks about how he taught  that in her strange language, she kept on speaking, ‘I love you’ and found him roots and honey to eat. Then she took him to the grot wherein she cried and I made her comfortable by kissing her eyes.

       

               In nine stanza, she made me sleep by singing a Lullaby and that is when he saw a dream which was very dreadful and found himself near the hill. In the next stanza, the dream continues where he saw many kings and princes almost dead and were crying “ La Belle Dame Sans Merci”.

       

      In eleven stanza, he found all the Kings, princes, soldier in extremely poor condition and he was awake  all of sudden almost shocked because of bad dream. In the last one , he says that that is the reason why he is “alone and palely loitering on the cold hill’s side”.

                                  “Memories are always painful”

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

         

  Strange case of  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  by the famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson , published in 1886It is associated with the rare mental condition  called ‘Split Personality’where within the same body, exists more than one distinct personality. In this novella, Dr. Jekyll has duel  personality within himself good and evil as Each coin has two sides.He has duel personality but he wants to be civilized  in front of others. So he found the liquid which separates his personality but physically he is one. He create his evil personality that id Mr. Hyde through which he did all evil works and as civilized he lived life as Dr. Jekyll.

    

        In Freudian Theory the thoughts and desires of unconscious mind motivate the behavior of conscious mind. It also explains the Christian concept of hiding evil behind the light.

                                              

                                                Civilized  v/s Savage

                                               Appearance v/s Reality

         

               This theme reminds us of Mary Shelley’s work ‘Frankenstein’ which also deals with the same aspects the inner self and outer appearance through the character of Victor Frankenstein the  creator like Dr. Jekyll and Monster the creation like Mr. Hyde. The only difference between them is  physical separation of one person into two otherwise it directly shows the inner side of Victor through Monster. This is how Dr. Jekyll as a creator refers to his creation as his own darker personality the evil one.

       

          To sum up , one can say that in Dr. Jekyll’s view every soul contains of both good and evil but one dominates as in Jekyll’s case , his good side is dominant at   the beginning but he knows his evil inside him.

Ghashiram Kotwal by Vijay Tendulkar

This is a tragedy by Vijay Tendulkar. It is indeed a great tragedy.

Protagonist or the central character is Ghashiram, a poor Brahmin from Kanauj who had came to Pune for better life. But here he faces humiliations. The city was ruled by Nana who was full of lust. He was married seven times and still continue.

Here Ghashiram works at bavannkhani, a red light area with Gulabi, who entertains Nana. Ghashiram meets Nana here. Nana  joines in dance with Gulabi and hurts his ankle and Ghashiram saves him by offering his back to rest his injured leg. Nana gives necklace in reward. But servants of Gulabi snatches away it and throws him out.

Another time in Dakshina ceremony Ghashiram tries to take alms but other Brahmins throws him out saying that he had theft a purse. He was innocence but punished.

Nobody was ready to accept him a Brahmin. People were saying, where is your shaved head? Where is your holy thread? Where is your pios look? Where is your holy book?

These kind of humiliations makes him from good person to evil man. He was angry for the society of hatred, jealousy, immorality, lust, adultery etc. and decided to take revenge of his insults and wants to make the city moral.

It is turning point of the play. Ghashiram comes to know that Nana is womaniser and can do anything for getting woman. So he uses his own daughter Lalita Gauri as a bait. In a religious ceremony Nana sees Gauri and goes mad for her. Ghashiram knows this and deals with Nana that he will give his daughter but he wants to become Kotwal(police) of Pune. Nana agreed and Ghashiram becomes Kotwal of Pune.

Ghashiram does his job sincerely and gives orders like no whoring without permit, no cremation without permit, eat with a lower caste is a crime. These type of rules makes people angry. Ghashiram believes he had bring peace in the city. Now he had power and he thought he will find husband for his daughter and will arrange wedding. But he soon came to know about his daughter's death because she was pregnant by Nana and so he was interested no more and was going to another marriage. Ghashiram shatters. He repents but what can he do now?

The play goes to end when some Brahmins comes to Pune. They were hungry and eat mangoes from the garden without asking Ghashiram. Ghashiram gives order of lock them into jail, but it was very small and twenty two Brahmins dies because of suffocation.

People complaints to Peshwa. Peshwa meets Nana and Nana gives sentence to death for Ghashiram. Ghashiram before dying repents which shows how he was feeling guilty. He says, "I danced on your chests but I wasted the life of my little daughter. I should be punished for the death of my daughter. Beat me. Heat me. Cut off my hands and feet. Crack my skull. Come on. Look! I'm here. Oh, that's good. Very good"

Here tragedy of Ghashiram ends. Themes of the play is revenge, lust for power, politics, search for identity, etc. It follows the rules of Aristotelian tragedy. In this play we have tragic hero who is not thoroughly bad or fully good. He has hamartia like ambition of power, revenge. His position was high in society so his fall affects whole city of Pune.

Othello By William Shakespeare

                   

                                           

                                          Along with Hamlet, king Lear  and Macbeth Othello is one of  Shakespeare's four great tragedies. Othello is unique and often been described as a " Tragedy of Characters". Shakespeare's tragic tale opens in Venice where the villainous Iago plots against othello the Moor. Iago  poisoned othello's ears that Cassio has an illicit relationship with Desdemona. Desdemona is completely innocent and extremely faithful to Othello. Iago gives handkerchief that Desdemona dropped to Cassio then suggests othello that Desdemona gave it to Cassio as asymbol of love. Mad with jealousy, othello kills Desdemona his grief drives him to suicide. Iago arrested but never reveals his true motive for manipulating Othello.

                                        

    Iago's dazzling display of villainy have long fascinated students and critics of the play. the relationship between these characters is another unusual feature of Othello. othello and Iago bears the greater responsibility for the tragedy.      More than anything else what distinguish othello from it's great tragedies peers is the role of it's villain, Iago is a character who essentially writes play's main plot. and takes a key part in it. Written in 1604 othello is one of Shakespeare's tightly constructed tragedies. The fall of proud, dignified man, the murder of loving and graceful woman and the unreasoning hatred of a " motiveless " villain all have evoked  fear and pity in audiences throughout the centuries. 

                                      " OTHELLO THE MAN OF ACTION "

                                      

                                                    if we compare othello with Hamlet then we came across the truth that if we replace both of this protagonist then play must have peaceful and happy end. Because othello kills his wife without thinking even if she was innocent and Hamlet takes much time in thinking even if he knows that Claudius is a murderer.   

From the Amoretti

One day I wrote her name is a sonnet by Edmund Spenser.

The poet starts with romantic scene. He and her beloved are at the strand. The speaker writes her name upon the strand but wave comes and washes that away. But poet again writes now with second hand. But again wave washes it.

After seeing this speaker's beloved tells him that he works in vain to immortalize her. She points out that one day she will die, her body will fall to decay as all living things must in that moment, she says her name will be lost, wiped out as the wave erases the letters in the sand.

But the poet knows how to make her name immortal. He says that other things may die and rot, but she will live by fame. He will make her name immortal by writing her poems, he will immortalize her so that long after her death, even the heavens will remember her glorious name.

So the poem speaks about the power of verse. It has power to make someone immortal.

She walks in Beauty

She Walks in Beauty is an eighteen line poem written in 1814 and published in 1815. This poem is not a love poem, but a celebration of a woman's beauty. The speaker never says he is in love with the lady, but he thinks she is really beautifu

In this poem, the speaker is enlisting different qualities of his beloved, viz. aspect, eye, face, grace, cheek, brow, smiles, mind, thoughts and love. This technique of enlisting is known as blazon. By using blazon, he is giving a verse-compliment to his beloved. Likewise, giving a verse compliment to a lady is a cavalier tradition which the poet has borrowed from romanticism. Using the tradition, both from cavalier poetry and neo-classical poetry, he defines beauty. For Lord Byron, beauty is both inner beauty and outer beauty. Mind at peace, pure thoughts and innocent love emphasize the mental, psychological or inner beauty. Likewise, aspects like eye, face, grace, cheek and smiles represent the outer or physical beauty. For Byron, both inner and outer qualities constitute the beauty. Thus, he defines beauty in totality.The poem continues the tradition of neo-classical tradition of form in poetry. Closed form and use of iamb are its examples. In the first sestet of the poem, the speaker compares his beloved with the night of cloudless climate and starry skies. This simile brightens the combination of the best aspect of the day and light. Bright and dark color have been harmoniously combined in her eyes and aspect to make her pleasant in appearance. Highlighting her mellowed appearance, he inversely compares her with the day, which lacks that beauty. The second stanza carries on contrasting between light and dark, day and night, to describe her beauty. The third stanza concludes that she's not just beautiful, she's "good" and "innocent," too.

The speaker has forgotten everything in the beauty of this lady. The speaker admires the effortless harmony of a woman's beauty, and tells us that it's all about the perfect balance of light and dark in her whole face and figure. He never says he's in love with her, but the reader can guess that he's attracted to her — after all, he can't stop talking about her hair, her eyes, her cheeks. By the end of the poem, it seems like the speaker is protesting a little too much. By insisting repeatedly that the lady is pure and that her "love is innocent," it is hard not to suspect that he perhaps wishes that weren't the case.

As we observe the description of the lady we realize the inclusive definition of beauty in the poem. For Byron, beauty is both physical and spiritual. Eye, face, cheek, brow, and smiles represent the physical beauty whereas mind, heart and thought to represent the spiritual beauty.

The poem is divided into three stanzas of six lines each, with an ABABAB rhyme scheme, in iambic tetrameter with the Pyrrhic form that bring variation. The contrast between night and day, and dark and light, is the image that sets up the whole poem. If we observe the form of this poem, neo-classical tradition has been continued. It shows that the neoclassical tradition has not completely lost during romanticism. It has somehow been continued, especially by Lord Byron.

Among the cavalier poets, there was the tradition of giving a verse compliment to a lady. The cavalier poets used to forget everything seeing the beauty of their beloved. The same tradition of giving a verse compliment to a lady is continued by Lord Byron. The subject matter of this poem is borrowed from cavalier poetry and format from the neoclassical poetry.  It is said that the poem is inspired by actual events in Byron’s life when he met a beautiful woman at a ball. She was his cousin by marriage. But some other critics claim that the beautiful lady might be his half-sister Augusta. Some consider this poem as the tribute to the beauty of the art.

The technique of enjambment has been used in this poem. In this technique, the first statement is presented without any punctuation marks and is followed by another line to clarify the aforementioned statement. The reinforcement of the imagery of light and dark in the poem justifies the good and bad aspects of any work of art, but still it is beautiful. Art is represented as the combination of both qualities of life. Art has contrasting parts, yet the whole art is beautiful and meaningful. In terms of the lady, she is inwardly beautiful and outwardly too, she is charming, but she may have some follies which are shadowed by her soft nature and innocent face. Byron accepts the concept of beauty as a whole that consists of both bright and dark aspects of life.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz. 

Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo. As he travels to Africa and then up the Congo, Marlow encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native inhabitants of the have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents.

Marlow arrives at the Central Station, run by the general manager, an unwholesome, conspiratorial character. He finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. His interest in Kurtz grows during this period. The manager and his favorite, the brickmaker, seem to fear Kurtz as a threat to their position. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays in repairing the ship all the more costly. Marlow eventually gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents (whom Marlow calls pilgrims because of their strange habit of carrying long, wooden staves wherever they go) and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the river.

They reaches at the area surrounded by a dense fog. When the fog clears, the ship is attacked by an unseen band of natives, who fire arrows from the safety of the forest. The African helmsman is killed before Marlow frightens the natives away with the ship’s steam whistle. Not long after, Marlow and his companions arrive at Kurtz’s Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a half-crazed Russian trader, who meets them as they come ashore, assures them that everything is fine and informs them that he is the one who left the wood. The Russian claims that Kurtz has enlarged his mind and cannot be subjected to the same moral judgments as normal people. Apparently, Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and has gone on brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. The pilgrims bring Kurtz out of the station-house on a stretcher, and a large group of native warriors pours out of the forest and surrounds them. Kurtz speaks to them, and the natives disappear into the woods.

The manager brings Kurtz, who is quite ill, aboard the steamer. A beautiful native woman, apparently Kurtz’s mistress, appears on the shore and stares out at the ship. The Russian reveals to Marlow, after swearing him to secrecy, that Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer to make them believe he was dead in order that they might turn back and leave him to his plans. The Russian then leaves by canoe, fearing the displeasure of the manager. Kurtz disappears in the night, and Marlow goes out in search of him, finding him crawling on all fours toward the native camp. Marlow stops him and convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river the next morning, but Kurtz’s health is failing fast.

Marlow listens to Kurtz talk while he pilots the ship, and Kurtz entrusts Marlow with a packet of personal documents, including an eloquent pamphlet on civilizing the savages which ends with a scrawled message that says, “Exterminate all the brutes!” The steamer breaks down, and they have to stop for repairs. Kurtz dies, uttering his last words—“The horror! The horror!”—in the presence of the confused Marlow. Marlow falls ill soon after and barely survives. Eventually he returns to Europe and goes to see Kurtz’s fiancee. She is still in mourning, even though it has been over a year since Kurtz’s death, and she praises him as a paragon of virtue and achievement. She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her that Kurtz’s last word was her name.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Moby Dick, novel by Herman Melville published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or The Whale. It is dedicated to Nathanial Hawthorne. Moby Dick is generally regarded as Melville's magnum opes and one of the greatest American novels.

Moby Dick famously begins with the narratoriak invocation "Call me Ishmael". The Narrator like his biblical counterparts is an outcast. Ishmael, who turns to the sea for meaning, relays to the audience the final voyage to the Pequod, a whaling vessel. Amid a story of tribulation, beauty and madness, the reader is introduced to a number of characters, many of whom have names with religious resonance. The ship's captain is Ahab, who Ishmael and his friend Queequeg soon learn is losing his mind. Starbuck, Ahab's first mate, recognizes this problem too, and is the only one throughout the novel to voice his disapproval of Ahab's increasingly obsessive Mody Dick. The Pequodsets sail, and the behavior. This nature of Ahab's obsession is first revealed to Ishmael and Queequeg after the Pequod's owner, Peleg and Bildad, explain to them that Ahab is still recovering from an encounter with a large whale that resulted in the loss of his leg. That whale's name is Moby Dick. The Pequodsets sail, and the crew is soon informed that this journey will bw unlike their other whaling mission: this time, despite the reluctance of Starbuck, Ahab intends to hunt and kill the beastly Moby Dick no matter the cost.

Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst. After he recovers, the coffin becomes a replacement lifeboat that eventually saves Ishmael's life. Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member. Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst. After he recovers, the coffin becomes a replacement lifeboat that eventually saves Ishmael's life. Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member informing him of his future death, which he ignores. Moby Dick is spotted and, over the course of three days, engages violently with Ahab and the Pequod until the whale destroys the ship, killing everyone except Ishmael. Ishmael survives by floating on Queequeg's coffin until he is picked up by another ship, the rachel. The novel consists of 135 chapters, in which narrative and essayistic portions intermingle, as well as an epilogue and front matter.

Reflective blog on Andy Goldsworthy's Documentary

We had screening of a documentary " Rivers and Tides" by Andy Goldsworthy at Dept of English, MKBU. "Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy working with Times" is the most spiritually literate documentary. It won the Golden Gate Award Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the 2003 San Francisco International Film Festival. 

It is such a wonderful documentary about nature and its art. Andy Goldsworthy used wind and water to create art, he did not use any kind of readymade materials or tools to make art but he used nature itself as tool. He also recorded time with art that how natural art keep on destroying and creating with the passes of time. There are many things like: iron oxide chalk, raw sheep’s wool, flower blossoms, leaves and grass, feathers, random sticks and stones, broken rocks, pieces of icicle, green iris blades and red berries, thorns, bracken, or handfuls of snow through which he makes very wonderful piece of art, there is nothing like canvases or paint brush or any kind of readymade colors. 

There are many great artists across the world but after watching this documentary we come to know that that is only skill that artist draw or sketch but the real art is when it has some kind of philosophy. So, Andy Goldsworthy's documentary considered as great piece of art because of the deep philosophy behind the art. That everything is mortal in the nature. And also many lesson we can learn from this documentary that never give up, do not worry about failure in the life, work hard one day you will be success.

Here some pictures which Goldsworthy created in the leap of nature with natural things.

Thinking activity: Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Hello readers,

                          This blog is a part of thinking activity given by professor Dr.Dilip Barad sir to write our views regarding below questions. To see professor's blog click here

1. How do we understand the concept of suicide with reference to your reading of literature ranging from Renaissance play Hamlet, 20th century Existentialist philosophy and this 21st century novel Sense of an Ending?

Ans. "Once suicide was accepted as a common fact of society not as a noble Roman alternative, nor as the mortal sin it had been in the Middle Ages, nor as a special cause to be pleaded or warned against but simply as something people did, often and without much hesitation, like committing adultery, then it automatically became a common property of art" - Duaz 1971

People have different concept about suicide, rational thinkers like literary writers look suicide as an art and religious people look as a sin. Suicide is very interesting element in literature, for other people like doctors and businessman suicide is like failure of life and escaping from terrible experiences. While for literary writers suicide is Philosophical answer of life. If we see the Saussure's sign, signifier and signified then we come to know that it is all about language which create different meaning of death and suicide. Suicide is beyond the death, it is transcendental idea of writers. From the age of enlightenment the idea of suicide came into the canon of literary work. There are many suicidal events in the work of William Shakespeare, for instance 'Hamlet' in which Prince Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be" was very significant about suicide. He did not committed suicide because he had faith in the divinity but somehow Hamlet also thought about philosophical answer of the life. In twentieth Century After the world wars and scientific theories cause of spiritual degradation in people's life. In addition, theory of Existentialism asked the question about existence and meaning of life. Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, the theorists of Existentialism gave the philosophical idea of suicide and said that suicide is beyond the death, it is not about failure in the life and escaping but it is all about transcendental idea of death, meaninglessness of life and absurdism. Further, in 21st century's 'Sense of an Ending' by Julian Barnes also have two episodes of suicide. There are two characters who committed suicide but it is not reliable facts that why they done suicide because it is said by other people, so we can say that Adrian's suicide is somehow seems philosophical but not reliable. However, psychologists say that it is all about Thanatos and Eros which are drive us into the life and death.  

There are many writers who committed suicides to see the list of writers who committed suicide click here

2. How do you understand memory and history with reference to your reading of this novel

Ans.  After reading the novel, we can say that memory and history are interrelated. I agree to the given definitions of history in the novel  that:

 'History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation'.

' History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated'

'History is the lies of the victors'

'History is the self-delusion of the defeated'

Hence, we can say that history is not that particular historian who is witness the historical event or it is not true that history written by victors, there are many histories of looser who defeated by victors. Memory is constructed by people in which they record what is good memory for them. If we deconstruct or see through multi-layers then we can't rely on any documented history because there  can be emotional attachment of the people in the documentary and also in this digital era written documentation can also be constructed or fake. so, accordingly to know the real documentation of the historical events we have to go in deep process and cross check everything.

Harry Potter: Web Quest Activity

                Hello Readers,

                                        This blog is a part of  my classroom activity on Web Quest on Harry Potter series in we have to search three best online sources and give argument and illustration for given point by Dr. Dilip Barad. To know more about Web Quest task click here to read professor's blog.

We had film screening of 8 parts of Harry Potter at the Dept. of English MKBU. Before this screening, I thought that why and what is doing this kind of children fantasy novel in our syllabus but after that I came to know that this novel is  not just for children but beyond than that. In other words we can say that Harry Potter novel is one of the classic literary novels in literature. So, we have following points to ponder like:

1. Feminist reading of Hermione's Character in Harry Potter:

Ans. There are many feminist critics who have different views about feminist reading of female characters of  Harry Potter especially in the character of Hermione Granger. Some critics say that Hermione is much intelligent and capable than Harry and Ron whereas some say that the novel is anti-Feminist because Hermione and other female characters portrayed weak as compare to male character. In many parts Hermione is very strong and very intellectual and also very good in magic in compare to Harry and Ron, we can see in many circumstances that Hermione teaches how to do magic to male friends. It is clear that Harry and Ron would not have survived without her but it feels like she is being used more as a useful tool than a real person. We not find deep character development of Hermione. It is hard to understand what her ambitions are. Family background of Hermione is also not depicted. She belongs to Mud Blood it means lower cast in Magical world.

Female characters are not ambiguous. They are either solely on the good side or the bad side. Mrs. Weasly, Tonks, Professor McGonagall, Aunt Petunia, Luna and Hermione are all placed firmly on this good side. Although they are distinguished characters, they are by no means ambiguous. So, in this way Hermione is very intelligent and knowledgeable but slowly and steadily she become emotionally attached with friends and much careful about relationship whereas Harry looking for his destination and work rather than emotional attachment.

2. Discourse on the purity of Blood and Harry potter

Ans. "You place too much importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of blood! You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!" - Albus Dumbledore's stance on blood status.

There are some kind of racial discrimination in the novel like casteism, racism and class conflict. There are three kind of class Mud blood, Pure blood and Half blood. Blood status also called purity of blood is a concept in the wizarding world that distinguishes between family trees that have different levels of magically-endowed members. It often results in prejudice towards those who have a large numbers of muggles in their families. As Sirius black informed Harry Potter, almost all wizards of their time have Muggles in their family trees, though some claim not to. The concept played a key role in both the first and second Wizarding wars. Families that claim to be pure, to whatever extent they ever really were are dwindling in number.

                                                                Pure Blood

Muggle-born

                                                                             

Half-blood

The families whose ancestors are all magicians are known as pure blood. If one of the parents knows magic and other don't, that child is known as half blood. If person belongs to non magical family that person is called mud-blood. In magical world non magical people are known as muggles and for some of them they are inferior. Some magical families hate mud-blood and believe that they should never be allowed to learn magic. In novel Malfoy family hates and insult mud-blood. Hermione experiences this insult several times. Salazar Slytherin made a chamber of secrets to kill mud-blood students at Howgarts. So, there are politics of races in Harry Potter and it plays important role in the novel.

3. Confronting reality by reading fantasy: 

Fantasy narratives are normality used to stand for a peculiar world that is present and seeable in the society. As one of the best-selling fantasy novels in history J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the philosopher's Stone introduces one of the most loved and traditional hero in the character of Harry Potter. Harry is an ordinary orphaned male child who is first unaware of the complicated hereafter that awaits him in Howgarts' school of Witchcraft and wizardry.

In the series of Harry Potter, J. k. Rowling introduces the fantasy universe of Howgarts but the novel also beyond that fantasy because Rowling gives message of real universe like good and evil, love and death and adulthood, morality, power and politics. The fiction character of harry Potter is an 11 year old orphan life with his typical tough of a cousin Dudley Dursiey together with similarity cruel aunt and uncle. Petunia and Vernon Dursley. His charming destiny begins when he is summoned to the Howgarts's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by the school master Albus Dumbledor. As he grows up faces his journey and adventures with his friends Hermione Gramger and Ron Weasley and learnt life lesson through different circumstances and also Rowling used many real things and event in the novel so we can see reality with fantasy elements.

4. The discourse of power and politics in Harry Potter: How does ministry of Magic control the resistance? How do they prosecute the 'Other'?

There are politics, court and their influences also introduced. In chamber of secrets Malfoy says that Daily Prophet don't print about attacks because Dumbledore must have settle it down. This happen in our world also. Powerful institutions and persons can control media also and right news never known to people. There is ministry of magic who control everything. They make laws and punish them who break them. Ministry of magic interrupt school also, they appointed Umbridge to the post of Howgarts high inquisitor to control Howgarts from inside. When Harry told Voldemort has returned ministry of magic don't believe it and tries to stop students from learning magic. So, politics is present in the novel and it affects school affairs.

5. Children's literature and Harry Potter:

Harry Potter is one of the classic works in children's literature. J. K. Rowling's sharp wit, humour and imagination are unrivaled in children's literature. Rowling's Harry Potter is masterpiece children literature, she used magic and fantasy because it is said that we can explore many life lesson from children literature. Rowling explored reality through fantasy. We can connect our day today experiences with the characters of the novel. How to make our own decision, how to overcome our emotional attachment and be ready to  tackle ever problem of life. So, in this way we can say that Harry Potter series is for children to old age people.

6. Speculative literature and Harry Potter:

Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre encompassing fiction with elements that do not exist in the real world, often in the context of supernatural, futuristic or other imaginative themes. This includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, superhero fiction, science fantasy, horror, utopian and dystopian fiction, supernatural fiction as well as combinations thereof. Hence, Harry Potter series also a speculative fiction we can say because it is full of imagination and fabtasy, there are imaginative world of magic which are do not exits in the real world. There many scientific elwment like many kind of liquids are used to change look. So, we can say the novel is best example of speculative fiction.

7. Self help culture and Harry Potter:

The characters of Harry Potter series are struggling to gain something. In a way all are helping themselves with some ideologies. Harry is treated very badly in his guardian home. He learns to stay strong in terrible situation in the life. He fights with the obstacles of the life without other's support. When he lives all alone in he dangerous situation then face all the problem with his ability. There is one scene in the last part when Sirius is killed then Harry saves his body and himself and also from the Dementors, same case with other character like Hermione, Ron who are constantly struggling for their identity. Hermione wants to show her talent that she is best from all the pure blood students. She is intelligent and with her knowledge she defeated everyone and in this way help herself. So, in this way we can get the idea about self-help and how overcome all the problem of life by our own self so from children to man all can learn this from Harry Potter series.

8. Christianity and Harry Potter: 

Harry Potter series directly have no relation with Christianity. Many critics say that the novel is anti-christianity because there are many thing in the fiction are ant Christian like magic. Magic js abondon in Christianity so Rowling written an anti christian work. In addition, there is not any kind of church for prayer even the good fights with powerful evil force though they do not pray to God for survival. All the characters fights and save themselves without any divinity power. But there are couple of scenes which somehow connected with Christianity like Christmas celebration and after the death of Albus Dambledor we see the view like heaven. So, at last we can say that Harry Potter is ant Christian fiction.

9. Theme of Love and Death:

Love and death are the major themes in J. k. Rowling's fantasy novel and she also said that these series all about death and love. She justifies her point by presenting the characters of Ron and Hermione who are in love from the very beginning even they are fighting with each other. Further, the love between Harry and Dumbledore, Lily's love for Harry, harry's love for his friends, etc. In the other death also a crucial element in the novel. At the very beginning of the story we heart that Harry's parents have died, and in due course both we and Harry learn that they were murdered. The Shadow of death hangs over Harry; he learns that he, too, was intended to be a victim, but spared in a way no-one can explain. He narrowly escapes death again at the close of the first two books, and third is concerned with his pursuit by an escaped murderer. At the end of the fourth book, a school friend is killed before his eyes, and he himself barely escapes again. In the fifth book he loses his newly regained godfather, and in the sixth even his great and seemingly indestructible mentor, Dumbledore. Yes, death is a constant visitor to Harry's world.

10. theme of choice and Chance:

Harry Potter novel says that in life chances and our choices both are important. First, it was only chance that Harry lived. When he needed help, help is always there. He gets invisibility cloak when needed. In Chamber of Secret Phoenix comes to hlep Harry. There are fortune portion alos. When Harry can't find way the fortune potion works. But choices have given same importance. Sorting hat puts Harry in Gryffinder because he wanted. Harry doubts that sorting hat may have put him in wrong house but in answer Dumbledore tells him that it is not our abilities that make us, it is our abilities who define us. Sirius Black also says same things. There are good and bad inside us but what path we choose determine us. In the final part, king cross station chapter when harry meet Dumbledore, Dumbledore says Harry that it is your choice to return or not. So both choice and chance are important in life.

11.  Moral and Philosophical reading:-

Harry Potter series i all about moral lessons and Philosophy of life. Dumbledore used to teach morality and philosophy to Harry Potter. There are many moral lesson that teach us how to become a moral being. The characters like Dumbledore and Harry Potter themselves moral being and philosophers. For instance, we see that Harry Potter who used to help bad people like Malfoy and many others.

12. What is your opinion on this:-

As per the Mitchel Foucault's theory "Power and Knowledge. J. K. Rowling similarly conveys the message that question the power because what is written is not always true in the post truth era. These lines by Rowling is also relevant in the present era, we see in many political leaders and media who keep on speaking lies for remaining in the power and also there are many speeches or write fake history. So, we have to cross check everything rather than follow blindly.

Click here to see Web Quest Worksheet

Click here to see Rubric evaluation

Works Cited

carolyn. Analysis of sexism in harry Potter. 21 October 2017. 14 March 2019 <https://ahundredthousandstories.wordpress.com/2017/10/21/an-analysis-sexism-in-harry-potter/>.

Dewan, Pauline. Harry Potter and the . 14 March 2019 <https://childliterature.net/childlit/fantasy/harry.html>.

Fassler, Joe. Confronting Reality by Reading Fantasy. 5 August 2014. 14 March 2019 <https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/08/going-home-with-cs-lewis/375560/>.

Harry Potter Self-Help. 25 April 2015. 14 March 2019 <https://psychobabblechat.com/2015/04/25/harry-potter-self-help/>.

Love, Samantha. The Politics of Harry Potter: Corrupt Law and Totalitarian Government. 23 May 2014. 14 March 2019 <https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/harry-potter-law.html>.

Mahoney, Kelli. Should Christians Be Reading "Harry Potter?". 5 March 2019. 14 march 2019 <https://www.thoughtco.com/should-christians-be-reading-harry-potter-712316>.

Paul, Megan. Blood purity in Harry Potter. 22 december 2018. 14 March 2019 <https://geeks.media/blood-purity-in-harry-potter>.

RAGSDALE, MELISSA. 6 Meaningful Lessons Hidden In Harry Potter. 6 January 2016. 14 March 2019 <https://www.bustle.com/articles/132784-6-meaningful-lessons-hidden-in-harry-potter>.

Sipal, S. P. beast chaser forum. 22 July 2011. 14 March 2019 <http://harrypotterforwriters.blogspot.com/2011/07/circling-home-to-theme.html>.

Spilsbury, Paul. Love and death in Harry Potter. 3 April 2006. 14 March 2019 <https://www.hp-lexicon.org/2006/04/03/love-and-death-in-harry-potter/>.