The Bishop's Candlesticks - Brief Review of the Play

Theme – The power of Kindness and conversion

       The Bishop’s Candlesticks is a fine example of kindness and reformation. The play dramatically depicts how the love and compassion of the Bishop brought about a change of heart in a convict and turned him into a man of promise for a good life. Though, the play being an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, it is much about the value of compassion and its power to transform the hardened hearts. Besides, it is a finger pointed at the life of the high-profile spiritual leaders whose prime concern is expected to be charity.

• Leading Characters

The Convict – Jean Val Jean

         The convict was a happy man before he was jailed but ten years in the prison transformed him into a wild beast. He had lost trust in humanity, faith in the Church and hope in God. He considered him a number that was assigned to him when he lived in the prison. Under the influence of the bishop, he makes a walk back to his past self.

The Bishop

        The Bishop was a kind-hearted man who followed the teachings of Jesus Christ in the true spirit. Besides being a true Christian he was also an ardent humanist. He was ready to sacrifice everything to help the needy people. Even after selling all he had for others, he felt sorry that he could do so little because he believed that the world had so much suffering. He sold his salt-cellars and gave the money to Mere Gringoire so that she could pay her rent to the landlord. The Bishop thought that if the people pretended to be in distress and if they deceived him, it was because they were poorer in spirit and not he. His door was never shut and it was open for every passerby.

Persome

         Persome is a little worldly woman, neither as selfless as her brother nor so noble. She did not like her brother live a life entirely for others ignoring himself. As a mother figure, she thought that people took unfair advantage of his charitable nature so was always on his guard. A woman in her place cannot be entirely blamed for her selfishness and possessiveness for her only brother.

Biblical References

Important Sentences

      The words that moved the convict. Briefly explain what the bishop said to the convict and the effect they had on the convict. Can you write what effects they had in him?

1. “You have got your soul to lose, my friend.”

2. “I want people like you come in that’s why I keep the door open.”

3. “No one will come; but if they do, are you not my friend?”

4. “That is a pity, my son, as the Church does not hate you.”

5. “One must do a great deal for the devil in order to do a little for God.”

6. “I am sorry for thieves.”

7. “I think you are one who has suffered much.”

Central theme of 'The Bishop's Candlesticks'

             “The Bishop's Candlesticks” by Norman McKinnel is adaptation of an extract from the play Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It is about how a simple act of kindness reforms a convicted criminal from a beast to a man. 

        Thus the central theme of the play “The Bishop's Candlesticks” is love, kindness and redemption. It is about how a simple act of kindness reforms a convicted criminal from a beast to a man.

             In the play, a convict comes to a Bishop's house and demands for food, threatening the Bishop’s life in the process. The Bishop offers him not just food and shelter, but his sympathy too. Instead of being grateful, the convict steals the Bishop’s candlesticks, his prized possessions, and escapes. He is soon caught and arrested by a Sergeant, who presents him to the Bishop. The Bishop, however, claims to have given the candlesticks to the convict as a gift and demands him to be released. This simple act restores the convict's faith in humanity and convinces him to go back to leading an honest life.

In short we can say that - The play demonstrates how criminals are not born,but circumstances turn a person into a criminal.

Short Story - Meaning and Characteristics and features of good short story

• INTRODUCTION     

    Like, a novel, the modern short story always shows us something of how people respond to life. The method of the short story is more limited than that of a novel. A novel tries to create a world of its own reality in which its characters developed. In some novels we are apparently shown the ‘whole life’ of a character. As it is impossible to write about every second of that character’s existence, the novelist presents the ‘whole life’ in a series of moments, key incidents that create a strong sense of the kind of persons he or she has invented.

• Depiction of glimpse of individuals:

             On the other hand the short story, presents only a glimpse of individuals – either through a dramatic incident, or by showing them in an everyday situation, or by showing fleeting moments from their lives – from which the reader may gain some, Thus the short story does  not shows an entire impression of characters.  While reading novel we feel that we really know characters in a novel, and may respond to them as to people in real life, like the novel it is really possible to feel the same for a character in short story.

• Lifelike Characters:

                Characters in the short story are closer to the people in real life with which we have fleeting contact, like chance meetings, holiday acquaintances. We share time with them but know little about them, of their past or of what they are really like- and then perhaps loose contact. All that remains in a brief impression based on a few shared moments. Much of the appeal of the short story lies in this incompleteness. It raises questions, doubts, ambiguities. The incompleteness is rather like that of something that is not resolved. More is suggested in a short story than it ever tells us. Our imagination is always creatively engaged.

• Suggestiveness

          Usually the short story raises more questions than it answers. It arouses our curiosity. – Why do certain characters behave as they do? What will they do next? Just as poetry often seeks to communicate feeling or emotion which is often difficult – perhaps impossible – to put into words, so the ‘incompleteness’ of the story can hint at states of mind or feeling common to us all, but difficult to bring out with clarity. 

             Like a poem a short story can rely on a kind of ‘suggestiveness’, for example where it tries to evoke a mood rather than showing it. It certainly shares some qualities with poetry. – It seems no accident that poets like Walter de la Mare, Dylan Thomas and Ted Huges have also written short stories.

                    The short story is often based around a single key moment or incident in the life of the characters. At times it represents a turning point in a character’s life. It can be a moment that actually triggers tension or conflict between two individuals, or an individual and society. It may be less the moment itself than the characters response to it. In such cases the key moment might already have occurred or been reported. Some moments can be trivial and ordinary; others seem dramatic and quite out of ordinary.

• Dynamic in Nature:

                 The short story can show change in the main character, not though one incident but though several small moments at a significant time in character’s life. While still lacking the space for the full psychological development of the character, this kind of story might look at a period in the character’s life rather than at a specific isolated moment. 

  

 Features of a good short story 

"A good short story reflects life and does not contain black and white characters"

Themes of short story could be topical or universal. Topical themes have a sense of immediacy and particularity. They would be pertinent to a particular place and time. Topical themes evoke greater interest and has immediate and contemporary relevance. 

          On the other hand, there are problems, conflicts, and experiences that man has always faced and would continue to face irrespective of time and place. Such things are as for instance, birth and death, love and hate, good and evil, grief, pain and suffering. They are of universal significance. Such themes have greater depth and endurance. It is said that great stories like symphonies contain more than one theme. 

    The topical subjects may well become 'the rags of time’. But themes of universal significance, artistically well crafted into stories form would be according to W.B. Yeats “Monuments of their own significance, gathered into artifice of eternity.'

             A short story may not deal with a vague or general experience. It is a section of a particular experience, special and isolated. But the particularity of the experience a universality of application in theme and value. The best stories contain both. 

             In James Joyce's words, a short story must have 'epiphany' which means self revelation or getting a sudden vision of life. This is a self awareness and a sense of profound insight, the protagonist or hero is exposed to, towards the end. It is said that a good short story is like a diamond; it has many facets. For example, it may reflects the facets of society, the characters, feelings, life etc.

The Victorian age as the age of Compromise.

      The Victorian age does not begin to year in which Queen Victoria Ruled in England, but Victorianism means an attitude to life and things. . This age was also called as the age of Tennyson, because its limit concedes with the limit of his creative life. He is the most representative writer of his time and the mirror of his age. The Victorian Age was the age of compromise or an age that looked for balance among conflicting forces and divergent tendencies. The Victorians Found a compromise between the employer and employees, between Monarchy and Democracy, between Science and religion and between Romanticism and Classicism

      When the queen Victoria became Queen in 1837, English Literature seemed to have external upon the period of leap years. It lacked the poetic fruitfulness of the Romantic Age. Coleridge, Shelly, Keats, Byron and Scott have passed away and Wordsworth complained:

“How fast brother has followed brother,

From sunshine to the sunless cloud.”

       Tennyson found so much glory and beauty in this age while Carlyle, Ruskin and Mathew Arnold found everything dark and hopeless. But there were some optimist like Browning who declared – 

“God’s in his heaven,

And all right with the world”

       A number of critics like G. K. Chesterton and Lytton were ironical in their assessment of the Victorians. The literary as well as social scene of the age can be described as an era of progress and unrest; and therefore what strikes most in the literature of this period is a search for balance. 

Let’s discuss this age as an age of compromise in detail.

(A) Compromise between Monarchy and Democracy:

       The steady advantage of Democratic ideals greatly influenced the literature of the people for personal liberty resulted in the establishment of democratic and the kings and the lords were left only figureheads. The Industrial Revolution of eighteenth century changed whole structure of the society. The passing of Reform Act and ne factory laws made education available to all people. The class walls were removed and the house commons became ruling power.

(B) Compromise between Science and Religion:

     The Victorian age was an age of scientific advancement and material progress.  The publication of Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Human Species’ changed man’s attitude, religion and life. Old views of religion and old faith had to justify themselves on new grounds. Literature caw to the aid of religion in upholding of idealistic view of life. Thomas Carlyle, Ruskin, Newman, Matthew Arnold and others made serious effects to revive the religious tradition and criticized the growing materialism. Whereas Tennyson and Browning did not lose faith in human virtues. They show in this new development, the birth of grater age. Tennyson’s ‘The Princess’ and ‘In Memoriam’ contain lines which show Tennyson’s faith in the theory of evolution. Again it is this scientific pamper which made the literature of this period critical of this age. Everywhere in the poetry of the Tennyson and Arnold, in the novels of Dickens and Thackeray, in the prose of Carlyle and Ruskin, we get the same note of social criticism. The Oxford Movement was an attempt to recover the lost tradition. From 1530 onwards the struggle between Science and Theology becomes more apparent. But ultimately the practical Victorian mind adjusted itself to the new changes and came to terms with reality.

(C) Compromise between the Romanticism and Classicism or        Between Idealism and Realism

       Side by side with the development of the democratic ideals, scientific advertisement, industrial development, social unrest, religious tolerance and growing brotherhood, the Victorian Age and its literature reflected human interest. The Romantic Revival had shown interest in nature and art as the subject matter of the art. Therefore the Victorian Age displays a very interesting and complex mixture of two opposing elements – Classicism and Romanticism. Basically it was inclined towards classicism on account of its rational approach to the problems of life, a search for balance and stability and a deeply moral attitude. But on the account of its close proximity to the Romantic Revival which had not completely exhausted itself. But it had came to a sudden end of account pre mature death of Byron, Shelly and Keats, the social economic unrest, the disillusionment caused by the industrialization and material prosperity. The spirit of Romanticism also survived and produced counter currents.