"ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHIL"

Hello viewers...😇☘️🌺

         I am Maya Batiya, I'm a student of  Department of English , MKBU.

 

        In this blog , I want  to share John dryden's famous poem "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL".

   _Assigned by Dilip Barad sir..

 Q.(1)  write on the theme of your choice . write 'quotes from the poem' in support of the theme you are writing about.

Ans :

  

 ∆ Introduction :

                             Absalom and Achitophel is "general acknowledged as the finest political satire in the English language". It is also described as an allegory regarding contemporary political events, and a mock heroic narrative. On the title page, Dryden himself describes it simply as "a poem".

∆ About John Dryden :

         

     John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. 

         

   

      

         John Dryden born was 19 August 1631, Aldwincle, United Kingdom. He was died  12 May 1700, London, United Kingdom.

   

   ∆ Themes :

     

      1. "The Legitimacy Of Monarchy Vs Mob Rule" :

      One of the greatest political questions in Dryden’s time was whether England should maintain a traditional monarchy or whether the more radical democratic ideas of the Civil War era should prevail and establish a permanent commonwealth. In “Absalom and Achitophel”, Dryden refers to the anti-monarchical ideas that were openly professed during the Civil War era and which remained a threat to the restored monarchy: “These Adam-wits, too fortunately free Began to dream they wanted liberty” (Lines 51-52). Dryden mocks those who dream of more democratic rule, and the poem depicts democracy as regression instead of progression. The poet claims that such men simply wish to revert to a more primitive and anarchic state, since they “thought that all but savages were slaves” (Line 56, italics mine). Instead, Dryden sides explicitly with the traditional forces of monarchy, defending the king’s prerogative and depicting more democratic ideals as nationally destabilizing—King David’s more sensible Jewish subjects, he claims, “curst the memory of the civil wars” (Line 74) and accept that it is better to remain loyal to the king. By the same reasoning, the poet implies that sensible Englishmen should do the same.

  

2.) "The Malleability and Malcontentedness of the People ":

              

         Dryden does not have a lot of positive things to say about the people of England (who are the Jews in the poem). They are fickle, self-interested, foolish, and easily swayed. As Achitophel knows well, "Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well, / Were strong with people easy to rebel" (214-15). They are a "Solymaean rout" (513) who are "In godly faction, and in treason bold; / Cow'ring and quaking at a conqu'ror's sword" (514-15). They fall for weak and specious arguments, they are swayed by emotion and sentimentality, and, ultimately, "the most may err as grossly as the few" (782). The strong, legitimate ruler should use 

his power to quell their unrest and punish those who step out of line.

 

∆ conclusion :

       That the poem is accidentally inconclusive because it projects its ending into the future: "shoud . . . conclude . . . with the Reconcilement of Absalom to David." These propositions together constitute the legend of the unsuccessful ending of Absalom and Achitophel.

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