Engliterarium

Tragi-comedy is a kind of writing in which comedy is hovering on the brinks of tragedy. O'Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock” is a tragi-comedy although, on the whole, it is a serious and somber play having much destruction and violence. But there are a number of comic elements in the play which would not fit into the pattern of a tragedy. On the other hand, as the comic elements do not outweigh the tragic ones, it would be inappropriate to label the play as a comedy. It means there is a co-existence in the play of tragic and comic elements and so, the best course is to treat it as a tragi-comedy.

The play starts with a graphic description of Boyle’s household. The setting reflects the poverty of the dwellers. Then the news of murder of Robbie Tancred is also very gloomy. Johnny's neurotic condition adds to the tension of the play. But suddenly the mood of the play changes when Captain Boyle and Joxer Daly come in. The description of Mr. Boyle and Joxer’s physiognomy creates laughter. They are in fact grotesques. Mr. Boyle's neck is short and his head looks like a stone ball on top of a gatepost. He carries himself with the upper part of his body slightly thrust forward. His walk is a slow consequential thrust.

We again burst into laughter when we see Juno hiding herself to catch Joxer and Captain Boyle as they make themselves at home. Joxer’s repetition of the words “a darling man, a darling man”, “a darling thing, a darling thing”; his attempt to escape from the situation at the sight of Juno; Mr. Boyle's pretension that he is searching for a job sincerely, are all funny indeed. When jerry Devine enters, the situation becomes more ludicrous. Mr. Boyle is not willing to accept the job opportunity brought by Jerry. His lame excuses produce nothing but laughter.

“Won’t it be a climbin’ job? How d’ye expect me to be able to go up a ladder with these legs? An’, if I get up a self, how am I goin’ to get down agen?”

We are also much amused when Captain Boyle is interrupted while singing first by sewing machine man’s entry and then by the thundering knocks at the door. And when Boyle invites Joxer to a cup of tea Joxer says: 

“I’m afraid the missus ud pop in on us agen before we’d know where we are, somethin’s tellin’ me to go at wanst.”

And to this Boyle replies:

“Don’t be superstitious, man; we’re Dublin men, ……”

We are also greatly amused when we find Joxer Daly and Mr. Boyle discussing about books and history. But their mock-intellectual discussion is interrupted by the voice of a coal vender. Again we burst into laughter when Joxer flies out of the window at learning the voice of Juno.

In fact, this whole episode is very humorous and funny. But in this fun and ludicrous description there is a tinge of pathos as well. For example, at one place, Juno says to Boyle:

“Here, sit down an’ take your breakfast – it may be the last you’ll get, for I don’t know where the next is going to come from.”

Then when there is knocking at the door and Boyle asks Joxer to tuck this head out of the window and see who is there, Joxer replies:

“An, mebbe get a bullet in the kisser?”

Apparently, this remark may be funny but underneath there is a grim tragedy in it … the tragedy of Ireland destroyed and wasted by civil war. Boyle's remark that:

“… the clergy always had too much power over the people in this unfortunate country.”

This again shows the grim situation of Ireland. Thus here we have an intermingling of light and serious elements of a mixture of comedy and pathos.

In act II, too, we have much laughter. For example the changed attitude of Boyle at the prospect of false will, the singing of Juno and Mary, Mrs. Madigan and especially Joxer and Mr. Boyle are amusingly funny. In fact this whole episode is a merry comedy, although on the background we can also perceive the tensions of the funeral.

In act III, where there are much sufferings and destruction even then we find some comic situation there. Joxer’s behaviour at the downfall of Mr. Boyle is very funny. He instigates Nugent, the tailor, to get his suit away from Mr. Boyle. He also stoles away a bottle of brandy from the table and Boyle's indignation at the moment creates laughter.

Actually, on the whole, farce in the play, is verbal – the repartee, the comic catchphrases, the cumulative comedy of repetition. There is the comedy of dialect and mispronunciation; of pompous phrases misused; of ludicrous images. Inflation and deflation both are comic. Captain Boyle's inflation of his fantasies with invention, exaggeration, rhetoric and bombastic and Juno’ facility in knocking him down etc all are comic.

But, despite, so much laughter and comedy, the play is predominantly tragic in theme. For example, the ignorance that prompts Joxer’s and Captain Boyle's mistake makes us laugh at first but is fundamentally tragic; their idleness, drunkenness and deviousness give numerous opportunities for comedy, but are in themselves wasteful and destructive. Tenement life gives rise to farcical situations but is in reality grim. Thus the superficialities of certain circumstances of Dublin life make an audience laugh, whereas, these are tragic if examined in full e.g. heroes become cowards, nationalism becomes jingoism, labour, humanitarianism becomes inhumanity. These are the tragedies of the play, which are mingled with comedy.

The pith and marrow of all this discussion is that, comedy is here, in fact, hovering on the brink of tragedy and so we are apt and just when we call “Juno and the Paycock” a tragi-comedy.

“Won’t it be a climbin’ job? How d’ye expect me to be able to go up a ladder with these legs? An’, if I get up a self, how am I goin’ to get down agen?”

“Blessed Virgin, … … Sacred Heart o’ Jesus, take away our hearts o’ stone, an’ give us hearts of flesh!”

“Ah, you lost your best principle, my boy, when you lost your arm:”

“When the employers sacrifice wan victim, the Trades Unions go wan betther be sacrificin’ a hundred.”

“Ah, what can God do agen the’ stupidity o’ men!”

Sean O’Casey was born in 1880 and died in 1964. So it makes him a contemporary of T. S. Eliot. The play has been written on the background of Irish Civil War, which has been going for centuries. There are many faction involved in the play:

Main Ireland got independence after the 1st World War. Ireland is divided into Southern and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is now called Ulster. The people of main Ireland are Roman Catholic. The majority of Ulster is Anglican. So there is political and religious problem.

In 1916, there was a great uprising and many people were killed. O’Casey felt sorry for them. O’Casey was basically a pacifist (peaceful). He looks for independence but not at the cost of peace and life. This approach is also like that of W. B. Yeats. Both feel sorry for human causalities. To both, war is an evil, fought under any pretext, (excuse). Reality is more important than ideology. Man is more important than patriotism and religious fanaticism. O’Casey is down to earth a realist. He is similar to Shaw and is strongly anti-war writer. He is an anti-war, anti-class, anti-patriotism, anti-fanaticism, anti-trade unionism, anti-dogmatism, anti-ideology and anti-false aristocracy. He is a feministic writer. 

O’Casey has taken the characters of “Juno and the Paycock” from Greek mythology. One very important aspect of European literature is their interest in classical mythology. O’Neill wrote “Electra”, Shaw wrote “Pygmalion”, Yeats wrote about “Byzantium”, Ibsen has created his own myth “Wild Duck” influenced by Greek mythology.

The European writers want to write on contemporary themes. They want to write on mundane level, but now modern themes are trivial. As in this play, though the domestic problems do not have heroic dimensions. Therefore, modern writers refer to classical myths to give a colour of sublimity to their subject. The other reason is that due to contemporary chaos communications have become difficult because there is no share of feelings. Therefore, modern writers seek for some focal point which would be equally meaningful to various people. So, when we talk with reference to the myths of Oedipus, Hamlet, Pygmalion, Byzantium, Electra, the communication becomes easy. In a disintegrated society, myths provide a focus and a centrifugal face. Some writers create their own myths as in the Later Romantic period and in Early Modern period. As Shelley creates the myth of “West Wind”, Keats creates the myth of “Hyperion and Psyche”. Ibsen makes the myth of “Wild Duck” and then O’Casey also uses Greek mythology in the play “Juno and the Paycock”.

Juno is the goddess of household in Greek mythology. She has been presented on riding a chariot driven by peacocks. Juno’s husband was Jove, Jupiter or Zeus, the president of Olympian gods, but here he stands for Paycock i.e. showy and vain. He was the master of the world and he looked after the world but here Juno’s husband Captain Boyle is a very irresponsible and an idle person. This is O’Casey’s art of caricature. On the other hand, Juno is called “Juno” because she was born in June, married in June and begot a child in June.

Juno’s husband, Captain Boyle, has aristocratic airs about him. He hates manual work. He enjoys the company of courtiers like companion and of some sycophant who adores him in flattery and always praises him. Captain Boyle represents the old aristocracy of Ireland which is now in the bas state because of the political upheaval in Ireland. Many English and Scottish interpretive have come to settle in Ireland. They now control the economy of Ireland. Therefore, the real Irish aristocracy hates them. This hatred is primarily for the reason that they are foreign exploiter and the second reason is that they lack Irish culture. Thirdly, they are destroying the culture and the civilization of Ireland. Therefore, they start to hate them and do not want to work under their control.

People like Captain Boyle think that if they work under them, they will be promoting the interest of the foreign exploiters. That’s why they degenerate even more. In the play Boyle’s family consists of four persons; Captain Boyle, Juno Boyle, their son “Johnny” and their daughter “Mary”. The son has been crippled in the war. The daughter works in a factory and the factory workers are on strike. She is very much active in trade union. Therefore, now she is jobless. Se has been deceived by her companion and has become pregnant. Boyle also does not work. Thus, the whole burden is on Juno. Juno runs the house. She also symbolizes “Juno” the goddess of household. She is a conventional wife. She has an interesting relationship with her husband. Since she is the earning hand of the family, she dominates and scolds her husband but as a good wife, she also considers her husband as a lord and wishes to serve him. All this creates a very interesting situation. In a way this is a feministic play that Juno struggles handedly to serve her family. She suffers most of all. So, women are weakest of the weak and exploited of the exploits. One very great feature of the play is the realistic depiction of the slump life in Dublin.

Technically, the play is considered one of the most effective plays in English literature. Handling of the myth and contemporary themes is matchless. This has heightened the tragic effects and made trivial family story a great tragedy. The play is very humorous and very tragic at same time. O’Casey is the master of creating humour in tragedy and tragedy in humour. In this art, he is very close to Shakespeare.

O'Casey is not only a great dramatist but also a great humane. Irish characters and Irish civilization constitute basic themes in his plays. O'Casey was committed throughout his life to the liberation of individualism. Being a humanist, O'Casey could never reconcile with the idea of jingoistic patriotism. He was without any exaggeration a great pacifist. He was disillusioned with the Irish republicanism. Though he did not fight in the Easter Rising yet he was imprisoned by English soldiers. He wishes for an independent Ireland but his sympathies were with the non-combatants.

His sympathies were enlarged because of his deep affection for his mother who narrowly escaped during the Easter Rising. He was the member of Irish Renaissance. He unveiled the depraved and highlighted the miseries of poor people during the civil war.

“Juno and the Paycock” also has, like O'Casey’s other plays, war at its background. O'Casey is very much against the war fought under any pretext. He closely observed how war affects the society and the individuals, how war crushes the economy and the system, how war disintegrates the family structure, how it demolishes the psychology of the people and how it creates generation gap. Thus O’Casey condemns the exploitation of man-by-man, man’s inhuman treatment towards man, man’s barbarity against man.

The play begins with Mary's reading a newspaper. The very first information we get form the play is of a gruesome murder.

On a little bye-road, out beyant Finglas, he was found.

O'Casey evidently has sympathies for the poverty stricken and war ridden Irish society. There is nothing predicable in Ireland. Everyone is in extreme danger. They are hanging between life and death.

There are lots of references in the play regarding Ireland's religious and political history. Irish makes many attempts to shake off the foreign yoke. Foreigners are very inhuman to them. In 1916, hundred of casualties and the execution of the leaders are faultless examples of that.

But this inhumanity is not just caused by foreigners. The real problem arises with the killing of Irishman by Irishman. War, or to be more exact, a civil war has no solution to man’s problem; rather it aggravates the miseries of victims. The civil war is not confined to two fractions rather it expands to the whole Ireland. The death of Robbie Tancred and Johnny Boyle are perfect examples of that.

Johnny, who has lost an arm and has a hip shattered in a fight, is at the end dragged away and shot by his former republican commanders because he betrayed comrade Tancred. All this shows that Ireland is preying on herself. Earlier Johnny had undoubtedly behaved heroically but the hellish civil war compelled him to betray his comrade. This means the stupid civil war is turning into traitors because of its nothingness and hollowness and purposelessness.

Juno emerges as a great humanist and realist. She is a true pacifist and is against man’s inhumanity against man. She has an acute observation and knows about the truth of things. She is very realist and anti-idealist. When Mary emphasizes that one ought to stand by one’s principle being “a principle’s a principle” and tries to justify her call of strike, Juno very realistically remarks:

When the employers sacrifice wan victim, the Trades Unions go wan betther be sacrificin’ a hundred.

Being a realist, she has a firm belief in the idea that the fault does not lie with the stars but with the people themselves. She says:

Ah, what can God do agen the’ stupidity o’ men!

The opportunist class represented by Nugent has also been condemned. According to O'Casey this opportunist class is more harmful than even the combatants. They themselves become the cause of civil war and play a double role. Nugent wants other to respect “Irish people national regard for the dead” but stitches suits for the civil guards at night.

The domestic tragedy, which mainly springs out form pregnancy, is due to the inhumanity of the male. That male chauvinist society cannot tolerate a mistake by a young girl. Whereas on the other hand the idiots like captain Boyle and Joxer Daly are left unaccountable.

Hope for a good time is only due to the courage of women. They are very humane and cooperative. O'Casey’s criticism of life is conveyed through the repetition of significance of deep dialogues. The words of Mrs. Tancred lamentation are pungently recorded by Juno, when she too, is mourning over a slain son.

Sacred Heart of the Crucified Jesus, take away our hearts o’ stone….....an’ give us hearts o’ flesh! ….....Take away this murdherin’ hate … an’ give us Thine own eternal love!

Against the vanity and moral bankruptcy of masculine character, O'Casey elevates the mother figure when Juno plans to work for Mary and her unborn child. Juno suffers the pain of existence but she sustains life.

Thus, we see O'Casey very beautifully depicts man’s inhumanity towards man. O’Casey is at heart a humanist and a pacifist. He considers life mere inevitable and all idealism is subservient to it. He condemns all principles and gives one and the only principle to live all the days of life peacefully.

The tragedy of Willy Loman, says Arthur Miller, is:

“Willy gave his life, or sold it, in order to justify the waste of it…”

Willy represents Every low-man in America. Hence, it is a tragedy of every American. The play is really a challenge to the American Dream because it is the tragedy of a man troubled by the society. Willy believes in American myth that “Success is obtained by being well-liked”. His dream ends up in nightmare. So the play challenges to new American capitalistic concepts.

American dream means the dream of becoming rich overnight. The scale and merit of success is money, big house, a costly car and other material things. Nobility, truth, honesty are not merits. Values have been changed through this dream. Instead of hard work and courage, there is salesmanship. It implies fraud, the ability to sell a commodity regardless of its intrinsic uselessness. The goal of salesmanship is to earn a profit.

So, in these circumstances, man ceases to be man and spiritually he is hollow. He constantly wears a mask hiding his deceptive frauds. The only reality, the only goal is that of material success. The same situation happens with Willy Loman. By this way, Willy, to a large extent, represents Every Low-man in America. His fall, his death reflects the total break down of the concept of salesmanship, an integral part of America setup.

Willy believes that life’s problems can be solved by looking “Well-liked”. But he does not realizes the fact that the age in which he is living, the good looks does not matter, what matters is the wealth you have. By wealth you can buy anything. All relations are useless before almighty dollar. He receives his severest blows when he needs the greatest amount of love and care. He is unable to travel extensive. He makes a request to his young employer to relieve him of such a tiring burden and give him a comfortable job. But, for the capitalism businessman no moral or legal obligation can be biding. To him, Willy is commercially as useless as the peels of a fruit. So, he says: 

In fact, “Death of a Salesman” is a red light for American society. It shows that all Americans adopt one million ideas and dream for success. Everyone wants to become the president of America, but when he fails to achieves his dreams, he becomes frustrated. Willy’s suicide is a caution for such modern values.

“I am going on the theory that the United States, instead of being the most successful country in the world, is the greatest failure”.

In conclusion we can say that Miller in “Death of a Salesman” has tried to show the failure of American dream. Implicitly, he tells us tht man is not a machine, he has emotions too. Thus placing all the values on riches is wrong. The whole situation he sums up in Biff’s remark who says on his father’s death.

Bull fighting is a typical Spanish institution governed by ritual performance, and integrity of matador at one hand and bravery of bull on the other hand. From railway station bulls are left on the road and are directed towards corral. Those who have courage enough of running in front of bulls, run and those who do not have courage enough to run, stand by the roadside. Hence, bulls are brought into corral. In bull fighting, three matadors kill six bulls. Each matador kills two bulls. 

In fact, “The Sun Also Rises” is a tragedy through ritual performance because it is a fight between good and bad. Bull fighting has aspects of tragedy, action, suspense, horror or terror, catharsis and tragic end. In bull fighting a matador fights two bulls. Bulls are led into bull ring where matador is ready to fight against bulls. The atmosphere is full of suspense when the wild bull attacks the matador. As soon as bull or matador is wounded, the whole atmosphere fills with horror, when bull or matador is killed our sentiments reach its peak and relieved latter. Hence, we can observe that “The Sun Also Rises” has requisites of tragedy. 

Hemingway despite of the cruelty of bull fighting sees certain definite actions giving feeling of life and death. He presents these codes through bull fighting.

In “The Sun Also Rises” bull fighting symbolically shows man’s struggle against evil in life, for bull is a symbol of evil and corral is a symbol of life. Group of expatriates does not have courage to fight against evil and Romero sets an example for them by instructing that they can find meanings of life by fighting against evils in life and that they should not be a victim of evils any more if they want to find meanings of life. Hence by fighting against bulls, Pedro Romero shows struggle against evils. 

The theme of Hemingway’s novels, that winner takes nothing in the world, has also been conveyed through bull fighting. Pedro Romero, nineteen years old bull fighter, fights against bull, endangers his life for in fighting either bull or matador is killed. He can't go out of bull ring as it is a coward and disgraceful action for a man. He fights against bulls, kills them but what he gets as a reward is applause of the spectators and two ears of bull which he gives to Brett Ashley. So, it a crystal clear that winner takes nothing in the world. 

Hemingway coveys another theme that pain does not matter to man. Pedro Romero despite being hurt by Robert Cohn, manly fights against bull. Though he feels pain, yet his code demands that he has to fight and kill the bull and he does so not caring for his wounds and pain. 

On the other hand, Belmounte, the other matador also fights against bulls. He is comparatively old and experienced man; he is expected to perform better than him. On not showing superior performance he becomes victim of contemptuous of crowd, they make insulting remarks, throw tomatoes and bottles on him. Belmounte is feeling pain, on the one hand, for his injured hand and on the other hand for insult. But his code demands that he must go through the performance steadfastly. Public may be indifferent to one’s action but it does not matter because only one’s conscience justifies one’s action. 

This is the code that Hemingway has enunciated and his latter heroes will form. The code also implies that only in the face of death one realizes oneself and knows one’s potentialities. 

Hence we can justly say that bull fighting is symbolically depicted. On the one hand it is a ritual performance indicating fight against good and evil and on the other hand it depicts certain Hemingway’s code.

Whether Hemingway wrote in his early style or in his middle style or in his later style, he is unique among modern prose writers because he turns his style to serve his subject matter. In the absence of any code the style itself becomes the code. To use literary heights, Hemingway had his style instead if God.

Ernest Hemingway becomes popular for his direct, pithy, lucid, simple and straight forward style when he was awarded by the Nobel Prize in 1954. He was praised for his style.

This style he had learnt from Gertrude Stein who taught him to cut the unnecessary details in order to focus the reader’s attention on important scenes and events and to adopt the art of repetition of certain words with minor variations.

His style was a revolt against 19th century romanticism. Hemingway’s style emerged as a reply to the crash of values on English literary scene after the First World War.

He is considered the master of dialogues. His style is closely parallel to the code of endurance and stoicism. Though his style looks extremely simple, yet it is really not simple. It requires hard discipline and a very deep understanding of language.

In Hemingway’s style there are a lot of symbols. Hemingway by utilizing the technique of symbolism has added the richness to his bleak and bare style.

Hemingway had a theory called the iceberg theory. He has done away with metaphorical fat because basically in life as well as in literature he has been a sportsman.

Hemingway gains prominence among writers because he has the advantage of being a participant and eyewitness of the First World War. He voluntarily takes part in it as an ambulance driver and work on the Italian front: Hemingway completes his “The Sun Also Rises” in 1925 whereas, T. S. Eliot wrote “The Waste Land” in 1921. Both of these writers lament on the glory of bygone days and the bankruptcy of human ideals in the modern world. The close resemblance between the theme and the treatment of theme of “The Wasteland” and “The Sun Also Rises” compels certain critics to say that “The Sun Also Rises” is the prose version of “The Wasteland”. It is not mush important to investigate whether Hemingway had studied “The Wasteland” or not. The most important factor is that both Hemingway and T.S. Eliot present similar views of their time and use images and ideas in a common context. Therefore, we can enhance our understanding about their common images by comparison.

Both, Hemingway and T. S. Eliot use the idea of a protagonist who is physically sterile. Jake Barnes in “The Sun Also Rises” and Tiresias in “The Wasteland” have a parallel between them because both remain apart from the world around them and both are the passive observers of the sexual encounters taking place before them. The nature of the sexual relationships of the characters in “The Sun Also Rises” has close resemblance with the sexual relationship presented in “The Wasteland”. Both the books witness that sex occupies a very prominent place in modern place and, unfortunately, today sex has become merely an animal urge without any moral or social commitment. In wasteland, T. S. Eliot presents the mechanical approach to sexual relationship.

There is also a similarity between the passage of “The Hyacinth Girl” in the Wasteland and the lost part of the novel where Jake and Brett are all alone in the taxi.

There is another great similarity in “The Wasteland” and “The Sun Also Rises” as the central character in “The Wasteland” is also seen as the Fisher King while Jake Barnes is an ardent Fisherman. Fisher King is a very sinful king and suffers from drought and famine. According to another legend, the soldiers of the king rape the nuns attached to the chapel of the Holy Grail. As a result of the sin, his kingdom suffered from famine. The King Fisher hopes that one day a knight will go to chapel to perilous and thereafter his land will get fertile. A virtuous knight visits the chapel and the curse on King Fisher and on his land is removed. The same is the case with Jake Barnes who is also the maimed hero in “The Sun Also Rises”. However, his struggles become the basis on which future generations can build a stronger approach to reality, a sounder humanity, which will make the modern world wasteland fertile again.

We can also see another important similarity, which appears both in the novel as well as in the poem that the scene entirely changes between the mountains. Eliot says, “There you feel free” and in “The Sun Also Rises” the mountains of Baguette is the only place where Jake and Bill have their moment of peace.

To conclude, there are also numerous small analogies of detail because both the masterpieces are written in the same age, with the same theme even the usage of images and ideas has the same context. Therefore, it can rightly be said that “The Wasteland” and “The Sun Also Rises” are the two sides of the same coin.

 

When we carefully study the main trends and events of the 19th century it becomes quite clear that the advancement of science and industrial rise transformed man’s outlook and affected every walk of life. Darwin’s epoch-making theory of evolution added fuel to fire which crumbled the powerful roots of Christianity because it challenged the very fundamental teachings of the Bible. During this century mankind enjoyed global peace and stability and almost for one hundred years there had been no large-scale continental war. The scientific and industrial evolution made physical life more comfortable, complacent and social and it as thought that man had conquered the beast in himself and learnt to live with his fellowmen harmoniously. On the other hand, this century is also remarkable for the mass-production of the fatal weapons of war which made modern war no longer a matter of man’s facing his enemy and with the out break of the first world war both the opponent groups do played such horrible weapons which wiped out humanity and devoured Europe like a horde of locusts. Whatever the steps were taken was undone by the unexpected development in the techniques of war because man had no experience of battle against machines. Daily newspapers were full of mass-rapes, child-slaughters and reports of poison gas. So, the men who had entered war with patriotic ideas to assert their honour, courage glory and manhood were stunned at man’s inherent barbarity. When they realized this horrible uncertainty, pettiness and meaninglessness of life, they were desperately disappointed and disillusioned. This generation which had witnessed the utter debasement of life, hollowness and emptiness of the high-sounding slogans of religious and political leaders was called “the lost generation”.

The phrase “The lost generation” got attention when Hemingway used Gertrude Stein’s remark “You are all a lost generation” in the front piece of “The Sun Also Rises”. After his exploits in the First World War Hemingway was unable, like Jake Barnes, to settle down and seek in activity some cure for the loss of faith and idealism. Instead of returning to America, he became an expatriate and settled in Paris, like several other young writers, with thousands of other expatriates who had taken part in World War I. These rootless members of ‘lost generation’ had fought so well but now they had been found useless in peacetime world. They were naturally embittered at the treatment they had received for having risked their lives in combat. They went through heart-breaking anguish and relied upon each other for support because their agony was impenetrate to the comprehension of others. They were fully aware of the illusory nature of social ideals. Having nothing, no code, no belief, which would serve in place of those social ideals, this generation, found itself morally a flout and each member of this generation was trying to create his own ideal or rules of conduct. In Hemingway’s work the meaning of the lost generation is not the generation that is lost in the sense that it is ruined and destroyed but the generation that is unable to find the way and which is in the quest of values. If we want to have a true understanding of The Sun Also Rises, we are to understand the nature of the ‘lostness’ of lost generation. Jean Paul calls this ‘lostness’ as ‘forlornness’ which follows when we understand that:

“Man is forlorn because neither within him or without does he find anything to cling to”.

The Sun Also Rises is mainly opted by this lost generation but the characters are not helpless, profane and dissipated, rather, they constitute a kind of a modern version of man. They assume certain heroic proportion but fall short of any recognizable ideal. Their heroism lies in the extent of their struggle to establish some mode of existence which may fulfill their own vision of good. The Sun Also Rises mainly focuses members of the lost generation who have the courage to see that they are forlorn but they struggle to achieve a way of life that is honourable in the midst of their forlornness.