ROMANTICISM : DUALITY OF NATURE

A warm welcome to all attentive readers! Let's have a look on how nature has a concept like dualism..

- Task assigned by Vaidehi ma'am

What is duality?

Shows duality, yet binding of both.

Duality can be said : Having a characteristic of splitness that isn't static but evolving, getting dull as time is carried away(looses its charm) and leaps to something unique/new, which transfers an existing mood to another one but live people/person with certain type of experience.

For example : Till now we were used to see life(crop) only on the God blessed Earth, but recently from one of the news an oasis is found on the planet. That may create possible chances of human life there also .

Nature : as a duality.

Nature in itself has elements of duality. As the creature of Earth we experience many tints, shades, shapes, vivid motions along with its specific frequency and its encountering different modes.

If it is benevolent, it also gets transformed into devastation. Sometime it is man-made, sometime it is due to some natural underlying process going on in a natural way. Sometimes it has mixture of two contrasting tendencies, that can be said an evolvement in time (autumn vs. Spring/winter vs. Summer) daylight vs. evening, dawn vs. night.

Four seasons  winter, summer, monsoon and autumn.

How nature of food changes, with only a little bit transition in time!

As we know "vitamin D" is essential for the health of bones of human body as well as when cooked food under heat of sunlight it gives nutrients and proper calcium and vitamin D(which comes from ultraviolet-B radiations) and if any transition in its stipulated time of cooking, it may cause harm to a human body.

Which is positive though its experience differs, when it is existing it is in all capacity to yield aesthetic delight, pleasure, sorrow(which can be said based on person's mood) otherwise it never forgets its duty of playing a specific role as one is assigned to do. But gradually as the time passes it looses its charm and some different tendency is there to take its place, and it goes on in subsequent manner.

Variety of nature can be learnt in a deeper way in terms of human as well as animal nature{e.g. the character of Dr.  JECKYL(The strange case of DR. JECKYL and MR. HYDE)}. It also can be seen in political, sociological, psychological, theological, science & technological terms, only it seeks is carefulness towards each and every aspect.

If I am to say something about what is nature to me, I would go with Wordsworth's and Coleridge's specific views that :

1.  "Man and nature has mutual consciousness": Evaluating it with this view it suggests, it must be based on reaction. As man/woman's or say an animal's any act, its existence, touch or feeling gets interacted with nature and as a human is blessed with the boon of consciousness, it is getting communicated and gradually both are working parallely. Nature like human beings forms many unknown and various subsequent conscious affected parts and so perhaps they are said to be running on equivalent frequency, concerning mutual consciousness.

-William Wordsworth

Evaluating both the writers views with "expressive /mimetic criticism or if a reader through knowing the process of "pragmatic criticism"  may experience as described by the author, a lass. Who is in the field alone, reaping and singing by herself, cutting and binding the grain.

But perhaps here readers might felt that what we are to do with this description?

While it isn't only description but pain or humbleness uttered out from a young woman and whose impact is on "vale" that has become 'intense and profound' that is overflowing. Then the poet has made comparison of the lady's sound with many natural elements and creatures of the Earth.

We had seen here 'a young woman' an extreme conscious character, but as her feeling is conveyed through nature, nature has become lively and interpersonal.

2.  Subsequently Can be agreed on Coleridge's view on nature as he prescribed it "as carrying abstract images"(a possession of senses):

It must be of negative reaction as well as of positive, based on what type of sensitivity and feelings  a person possess! Or can be said as per their characteristic and manner they have particular type of consistency and according to which they are named.

For Example:

To Asra:  "Of all my frame, and fills and changes all,
Like vernal waters springing up through snow".

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Here vernal suggests "youthfulness and spring time". That is placed as an adjective for waters.

As per my view, I would say: "nature is sensitive, which is very empathic, understands what the person/thing/animal wants to gain. That can be said a connection of a conscient language, between the two. If it is to harm it will yield reaction accordingly and if it is for its benefit and with benevolent object, it would deal accordingly. If both are working equivalently then they may have a proper bonding, and when the first step is fulfilled, the parallel knot of rhythm may lead to the enhancement of emotions/feelings and it might lead one to an effective interaction with the blessing things on the Earth.

We may have an example of "gravitational force". How densely it is, it would be able to attract the opposite object with that much force. So is the mutual bonding of human & nature.

We may have an example of a tree, if we have observed: When it is rainy season and after rains, abruptly there is the outcome of sunrays/sunbeams which focuses its Ray's on everything on Earth. Especially concerning trees, we see: it tolerates each and every stroke, whip and force of rains, but under Sunrays it seems as lively as its each leaves starts blinking, unfurling,rattling which gives a sparkling effect to the nature of the tree and also a human being along with animals.

As overflow of water is to devastation sometime, but why we forget destruction also leads to something fruitful. As with this heavy force of water we are having sediment/arid lands, which by immense force of water, gathers all crust/dust/dirt that is in usual form, that gets precipitated onto the lands and our farmers have a fertilized land to grow on it any crop they wanted to.

Trying to evaluate it in romantic era's context, we may see some specific writers of this particular age were fighting against extravagancy of politics but as they were unheard, ignored and exploited they chose to turn back to nature, where they found peace but for a specific time and as we have seen romantic is to nature, Victorian era is once again has resemblance to  neo-classical characteristics and then we finally have 20th century. Which can be said having haphazard, shapeless and void type of characteristics that is contemplated through its various movements(dadaism, surrealism, impressionism, expressionism etc.)

As per my guessing it can be assumed as the romanticists of this particular age were striving for tranquility, but as they were unable to.. Perhaps it was providing them stress, frustration, squeamishness and dullness. But as by abandoning all these manipulative aspects they turned to peace and as there weren't any variation in it solely as usual life so they may be getting bored and thus tried to find a new variation for living and surviving since we are also accustomed to the identical tendency.

Hence we knew here how we have duality in nature interwoven with both aspects: good&bad and how gradually when put into practice looses its charm and something new is about to mark its place. We also learnt about both the nature writers views on nature along with my own view.

Thankyou everyone!

Source: from our first lecture and something from my own understanding.