Absalom and Achitophol by John Dryden.
Hello reader today we will discuss about one poem monarchy story repeate in Absalom and Achitophol.The monarchy has traditionally been practiced in our countries for a long time. Which is mentioned in history. There have been many kings in the past whose history we have seen in the literature within the books. Monarchies were traditionally run in all the countries of the world. But that gradually changed and the monarchy was abolished. Monarchies are still found within a few countries. But democracy is found within most of the country. At the time when the monarchy was running the kings were considered as gods. They had to do what they did and people had to do what they said. Even if they do wrong to someone, it is tolerated. No one can even protest against it. But within the literature the writers make a mockery of it by writing in the literature above it. There are many such literary works. One of them is "Absalom and Achitophol", written by John Dryden.which was published in 1681. It is one of the satirical poem. which also reflected with age of England. so It seems that the Its one of the Allegorical satire poem by John Dryden. Also connect with the charles ll was on the Reign of England.
John Dryden
John Dryden was one of the writer, satirist as well as best critic.In 1668 he was appointed as poet laureate of England.More introduction of john dryden can be seen from the link below.....
His Work :-
Absalom and Achitophel
Introduction :-
Original poem read audio book :-
Absalom and Achitophel as a political allegory:-
Touch the link Political allegory
Absalom and Achitophel, verse satire by English poet John Dryden published in 1681. The poem, which is written in heroic couplets, is about the Exclusion crisis, a contemporary episode in which anti-Catholics, notably the earl of Shaftesbury, sought to bar James, duke of York, a Roman Catholic convert and brother to King Charles II, from the line of succession in favour of the king’s illegitimate (but Protestant) son, the duke of Monmouth.
Dilisir Barad lectures in understood character and allegory character in this poem. .
John Dryden mentions many characters in this poem. He has composed a poem based on the Bible and its characters to talk about the characters that exist today. Which is known as allegory. This poem was written to mock the monarchy that existed in his time. Many characters are mentioned in this poem. In which irony metaphor is used which is called satire. Which apparently seems to be appreciated but in fact condemned.
What is an allegory?
We can say that it is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one .Political allegories are stories that use imaginary characters and situations to satirize real-life political events.
M.H.Abrams his book A Glossary of literary terms defines that,,
"An allegory is a narrative, whether in prose or verse, in which the agents and actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived by the author to make coherent sense on the "literal," or primary, level of significa-tion, and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of signifi-cation."
There are many characters in the poem Absholam and Achitophal. In which John Dryden is ridiculed for being King Charles ll in his timeThis king had no legitimate son. So this king had relations with many other women besides the queen. And from that he also had many sons. Known as the illegitimate son of the king. Since the king did not have a legitimate son, the big question was who he would give his throne to. And many other characters are seen inside this poem doing something to get his throne. In which dryden has satirized above all. In which he talks about those characters in this poem by choosing the characters in another biblical pursuit instead of the names of the characters who were in his present time. The characters are as follows.
Dryden use of Biblical Allegory:-
This work is considered one of the greatest examples of political satire in history, and it accomplishes this through biblical allegory. England was a far more literate country than many others at the time, but even so, if most people actually owned a book, that book was likely to be the Bible. The Bible acted as metaphor for most Christians to a level far exceeding anything else ever published, and Dryden was well aware of that. Therefore, he made the brilliant calculation to not cast his satire as an allegory of ancient myth or British heroes: instead, his satire is situated within an allegorical framework that nearly every reader would immediately understand. Furthermore, Dryden chose as his figures for transforming the contemporary state of the right succession in England what is perhaps the most famous story of succession in the entire Bible. Thus, Charles II is transformed into King David—in the top five of almost every Bible reader’s list of heroes—while the Duke of Monmouth is appropriately cast as Absalom, David’s son. The false Shaftesbury is the false Achitophel, a smart, manipulative, cunning figure.
(Reference of enotes)
The definition of allegory has two senses. The first relates to when an author writes an allegory by design as did Edmund Spenser and John Bunyon. In this sense of allegory the characters are usually given titles rather than names: e.g., the Red Crosse Knight and Mr. Worldy Wiseman. The second sense of allegory depends on the reading given a particular work, passage, sentence, line. In other words, a particular reader may find allegory through his/her reading whereas another reader may not recognize allegory in the same work.
Having said this, John Dryden wrote Absalom and Achitophel as a satire to instigate political reform. The era was that during which a faction in England was trying to seat the illegitimate son of Charles II (after the Restoration) on the throne through a rebellion against Charles II. Dryden used a Biblical tale, that of the rebellion of Absalom against King David, in the humor of satire stated with the sweetening leaven of verse to point out the wrongfulness of a rebellion and the disastrous impending outcome of such a rebellion.
As you can see from the excerpted quote below, Dryden did not style Absalom and Achitophel as an allegory, as did Spenser and Bunyon, but he was certainly casting then contemporary figures in the role of Biblical heroes and villains. Therefore, an understanding of Absalom and Achitophel as an allegory revolves around the second sense of the definition of allegory, which is that a reading of allegory rests with the reader, literary analyst, literary critic.
Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear,
A soil ungrateful to the tiller's care:
Not so the rest; for several mothers bore
To godlike David several sons before.
But since like slaves his bed they did ascend,
No true succession could their seed attend.
Of all the numerous progeny was none
So beautiful, so brave, as Absalon;
Whether inspired by some diviner lust,...
Others quote:-
King David (Charles II) asserts this philosophy in the speech that closes the poem:-
The law shall still direct my peaceful sway,
And the same law teach rebels to obey:
Votes shall no more established power control—
Such votes as make a part exceed the whole:
No groundless clamors shall my friends remove,
Nor crowds have power to punish ere they prove: . . .
(1.2098, lines 991–96)
The last statement of David in the above line is explained. King David says that his power is in his hands, no rebels will be against him now, now all people have to enforce the law of my power. As long as power is in hand it should be fully implemented and people should be motivated to implement it. King David was now able to do much to handle her kingdom.In this last line, Dryden talks about how the king should have an idea of how to try the power on the people. Friends should also be helping. Power is needed to control the set. The group sometimes rebels against the king but it is obligatory to follow certain rules made by the king to keep him under control.Regardless of the popish plot that took place in the last paragraph against Charles the Second, it has been said that if the people are not kept under control, they may revolt against the king.Achitophel and his supporters begin to stoke “the malcontents of all the Israelites” and sway public opinion, and the Sanhedrins, the Jewish high council, becomes “infected with this public lunacy” as well. The Sanhedrins, of course, are a metaphor for the English Parliament, and the “public lunacy” is the Exclusion Crisis. Through his satirical poem, Dryden had hoped the people of England and Parliament would see the Popish Plot and Exclusion Crisis for what they really were—plots devised to keep James II, a Roman Catholic, out of royal succession.
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