BRIT LIT

British Literature
Topic #2
11/20/13

The Stages of Development Seen Throughout British Literature

“It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him” – Erik Erikson (Harder)

Erik Erikson came up with the idea that people passed through three different periods from adolescence to adulthood. When he came up with this theory he also noted that before one could move from one stage to the nest, they had to make a successful transition through the earlier phase. Erikson also notes that trauma or loses in some way would reset this process causing you to start over again. (Harder) Erikson’s stages of development can be seen in many of the literature that has been discussed through out the semester. Particularly, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Dr. Faustus, and Gulliver’s Travel all of these stages are presented in some way in these readings. In each of these 3 literary works the main characters find themselves going through these different stages and must learn to successfully transition through one to get to the next one. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the first literary work that was mentioned. This was written in the Middle Ages yet the stages that Erik Erikson came up with are very present through this writing. The main character identified in this poem is Sir Gawain. He is the nephew of King Arthur. He is also a knight. Sir Gawain identifies himself in a negative light at the beginning of the story when the Green Knight first makes his appearance. In his speech to King Arthur, Sir Gawain describes himself by saying, “..[….]…I am weakest of your warriors and feeblest of wit; loss of my life would be least lamented. Were I not your nephew my life would mean nothing; to be born of your blood is my body’s only claim. Such a foolish affair is unfitting for a king, so; being first to come forward, it should fall to me. And if my proposal is improper, let no other person stand blame.” (Norton) It is very apparent that this is the beginning of the identity verses role confusion stage. Sir Gawain does not know who is really is at the beginning of the poem and thinking that he is less than everyone else sitting at the table he agrees to take on the challenge of the mysterious Green Knight. Sir Gawain starts to really find out who he is when he leaves King Arthur’s Court in search of the of the Green Knight. The next stage that Sir Gawain has to go through is the intimacy verses isolation phase. Sir Gawain is isolated when he goes off in search of King Bertilak’s castle. When Bertilak’s castle appears as if by magic in answer to his prayer, still the castle’s artificiality and Sir Gawain’s admittedly natural failure to recognize its connection with his quest emphasis the increasing isolation of the hero and perhaps his potential dehumanization as object of Bertilak’s apparently light-hearted hunt. (Harder) Once at the castle Sir Gawain is greeted by the King, who we know to be the Green Knight also. The King wines and dines Sir Gawain and suggests that he stays at the castle for a few days while he and his men go out hunting. King Bertilak says that at the end of each day they will share their earnings with the other. While at the castle Sir Gawain is tempted by the King’s wife on the first day. Sir Gawain is also brought back to the identity stage also. Gawain’s confusion of identity manifests itself as well in his difficulty in answering the lady’s embarrassing persistent questions about his identity; his answers would have been different had he known who really was. After the year and day have passed it is now time for Sir Gawain to face the Green Knight again. At this point in the poem and especially toward the end Sir Gawain shows the last stage, generativity verses stagnation. By the end of this poem Sir Gawain leaves the other knights with many valuable lessons. He thought them to be truthful and to always do what’s right no matter the consequences or fear of what happens. He leaves a lasting impression with his fellow knights and they even have part of their uniform dedicated to his journey and standing up to the green knight. Sir Gawain was successful in his negotiations and ultimately made him stand out as the heroic knight that he was destined to be. The literary work that was looked at from the Renaissance and Reformation (The Early Modern Period) was Othello. The main character in this story is Othello. Othello goes through many different stages in this story. He is at war with himself and with others. Othello has role confusion at the very beginning of the story. It is evident that his identity is a war hero and that he is very confident in this role. You later see the confusion when he falls in love with Desdemona and he is conflicted with the role of a war leader and a loving husband. Another thing to note with role and identity is that Othello is a black man in a white society. The people loved him as a war leader but when he married Desdemona many people where shocked and some were even upset. Othello makes this speech when asked about his relationship with Desdemona,
“Haply for I am black,
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have; or for I am declined
Into the vale of years—yet that’s not much—
She’s gone. I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapor of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses. Yet ’tis the plague of great ones;
Prerogatived are they less than the base.
’Tis destiny unshunnable, like death.” (III.iii.267–279) (Shakespeare)
Othello with the aide of Iago gets this stage passed as both war hero and husband. The biggest stage that Othello had to transition through was the intimacy verses isolation stage. This stage deals with the way a person connects with other people in a meaningful way, and this is what Othello is all about. He cared more about his reputation and what people thought of him more than he thought or cared about his wife. When the news of his wife’s alleged affair got back to Othello he was furious. He thought he would be known as a cuckoo. A cuckoo is a person whose wife lies with another man. In this stage his rage and temper got the best of him. Othello goes through the last stage during the end of the play. In his jealous rage he has killed his wife thinking that she has committed adultery. Othello’s name has been drugged through the mud and has still come out clean until this point. After killing his wife he soon finds out that she had not committed said act and was nothing except faithful to him. Othello, dismayed at what he has done, makes one last speech before killing himself. With everyone watching Othello says these last words, “Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well,
Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinable gum. Set you down this,
And say besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by th’ throat the circumcised dog
And smote him thus.” (V.ii.341-354) (Shakespeare)
Generativity for Othello was negative. The once great leader that every loved was now seen as a murderer who killed his innocent wife. People started to see Othello for who he really was now. Othello’s was not successful in his negotiations. He failed, and the consequences of his failure were the death of three people. Lastly, in the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, the literary work to focus on is Gulliver’s Travels. In discussion, we only focused on Parts I and IV. In Part I, is where Gulliver went through his identity stage. He was a young man starting out who because of money problems had to switch schools and become an apprentice. He later becomes a successful surgeon and marries Mary Burton. The loss of his wife resets this and he then later goes out to sea for three years to find himself again. On his last journey at sea he loses his crew members and washes ashore where he falls asleep and is essentially captured by the little men. This is the start of Gulliver’s intimacy verses isolation stage. This is evident when after being held so long and the fact that Gulliver was huge compared to them and could have just destroyed their village he stays to help them and learn more about them. Also this is shown in Part IV when Gulliver meets the Houyhnhnms and wants to be so much like then that he forgets about humans and the mere smell of humans made him sick. In this case he was not relating to other people but to the horses. They saw him as one of their own. Part IV is also where we see the generativity verses stagnation stage. Gulliver has made some kind of name for himself by now. All he wants to do is stay with the horses but he is forced to go back to the humans and one can not sympathize with him now. He leaves others thinking that he does not want to be human anymore and wants to frolic with the horses. Ultimately, Gulliver fails in his negotiations, and his consequences is that he is forced to live where he does not want to with humans instead of the Houyhnhnms. In conclusion, it is safe to say that Erik Erikson was more than right when he said that people go through different stages of development. And though we focused on three stages there are many more stages that could have been looked at with all of these literary works. One thing that is very noticeable is that in all of the stories the stages come about in the same manner. Each of the main characters are confused and later found out who they really are and what people feel about them in the end. For some it is a feeling of gratitude and for others it is a negative feeling and for some it is the feeling of death and of what once was.