All literatures are connected with each other. All those works which are already written, those being written and those yet to witten. To understand a work of art, one must have an understanding of this continuity.
Northrop Frye
He developed the theory of Archetypal criticism based on the idea that whole of the literature has oneness of its existence. All literatures shares common DNA or skeleton. There is parallel structure going on in every piece of writting.
Oneness of Literature with reference to T.S Eliot's Wasteland and Anton Chekhov's A Joke
T.S Eliot covers various topics, myths in his long poem "The Wasteland". Every line of the poem carried very deep meaning inside it. There is some lines which holds the theme of Anton Chekhov's short story "A Joke".
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free
Interpretaion
In these lines the girl feels nostalgic about adolescence experience of going in the mountain over the sled. But she gained courage only because of support of her male cousin. Still she trembles when she saw the slope of mountain from height. All time she need courage and then only she did coasting with cousin.
"A joke" by Anton Chekhov is also shows the same structure of story, only the character name has changed. It is Nadia instead of Marie. In this short story the friend of Nadia performed a joke everyday whenever he id doing coasting with Nadia, in the mid of the jorney he used to utter four magical words "I Love You Nadia" in very silent mode. Nadia all time becomes confuse that whether it is true or just an illusion. To listen these words she gained courage to to do coasting again and again. Every time he utters these words. One day Nadia decided to do coasting alone, just to make sure that who is speaking. But she didn't listens anything because she was too much frightened that day because her friend was not with her to give her courage.
Theme of Sexual Perversion
In the story as well as in the lines of Wasteland there is deep meaning inside it. The act of coasting is not just for fun or for other things. It indicates the first lustful act, first attraction. How the first relation made deep effect in one's life. In the end of the story there is a line:-
"That memory is for her the happiest, the most touching, the most beautiful one of her life. But for me, now that I have grown older, I can no longer understand why I said those words and why I jested with Nadia"
These lines indicates that all the things which he has done with Nadia is just a kind of lustful act. And after it both went to their different paths in life. The girl married and boy went to Pitsburg. The main thing for human is to achieve the sexual pleasure and in this way the land turns into the 'Wasteland' with full of waste people. It was not the matter of past, but of present also and will remain forever, there is oneness of the concept which we found in both these works( The wasteland, A Joke)
Hollowness
The four words are meant a lot for the girl. Here we can see the importance of outer things than inner. Only the physical pleasure, butter polished words are remain at the centre.There is hollowness in every human being, no true and pure relation survive in the present time.
Esoteric characteristics
The lines seems easy, as we can understand each and every words, but we are not able to find its deep meaning because of its esoteric quality which is for specific people only, who can understand the concept which was present inside the text.
From Feminist point of view
If we looked at these lines of poem from feminist point of view, we find that a girl was shown as weaker than man, both physically and mentally. Here the man gives her courage and his words are also act as a booster. Without his support Marie or Nadia can do nothing.
Translation
The story of Anton Chekhov's A Joke was translated in Gujrati for one of the column of Gujrat Samachar. But we cannot find a proper Gujrati word for Sled. The Gujrati writer has used the same english word.
Even in the tilte we can notice the big change in translation. The real tile in English is 'A Joke', but in Gujrati it becomes 'small joke' (nanakdi mjak). In this way the translation was not done well. There are many words which cannot be translated because sometimes it loses its essence.
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