The image of the West Wind as a destroyer and preserver as you find in the poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’.

The faculty of the visionary and revolutionary zeal was inherent in the mind of Shelley, because he entered in the world of poetry during the storm and stress of the French Revolution. From his earliest years, Shelley found himself in opposition to the convention of the class to which he belonged. So he denounced the existing order of things and assailed the barrier which checked the free development of human spirit. The pain which inflicted his heart was the cruelty of society which instead of hailing him as an intellectual apostle and liberator regarded him as a moral outcast. Ode to the West Wind written under the influence of the French Revolution expresses Shelley’s idea of Revolution.

Shelley believes that both nature and the society of men are suffering from deadly diseases like tyranny, oppression, corruption and injustice. These deadly diseases are like pestilence which can be cured by a miraculous change. This change can be brought about by power and the West Wind has this power because it is a destructive as wet as a creative agent of nature. Shelley has created the image of the West Wind by some technical means such as similes, metaphors, personification, a special verse pattern, music of words etc. The figures of speech lie scattered here and there in the poem. Of them the remarkable ones are in the comparison of the West Wind to a magician (simile), the West Wind is the dirge of the dying year (metaphor), the Mediterranean dreaming of his palaces and towers (personification). To depict the onward and zigzag motion of the wind, the poet has used a special verse pattern known as ‘Terza Rima’ (a b a, b c b, c d c, de d, e e).

In the first three stanzas of the ode, The West Wind is depicted as a force of nature with its influence on land in the air, and on and away the under water. The West Wind drives away the dead and decayed leaves just as a magician drives away a ghost by his magic spell. West Wind also scatters the seeds far and wide and covers with dust to bury them underground where they lie till the advent of the spring when they sprout into plants bearing flowers of sweet smell and attractive colors. In the air the West Wind carries loose clouds which seem to have fallen from the sky just as withered leaves fall from the branches of trees in autumn. The clouds scattered by the West Wind are the bringers of rain and lightning. The locks of the approaching storm are spread on the aery surface of the sky. The West Wind is “the dirge of the dying year”. A huge tomb will be built over the dead body of the year. The darkness of the night which is spreading over the earth will serve as the dome of that tomb. The collective strength of the clouds will be the vault or arched roof of that tomb. From the solid seeming vapors of clouds in the sky will fall rain, lightning and hailstones.

As for the influence of the West Wind on and under water, the poet has drawn the picture of the calm Mediterranean being disturbed by the wind and the Atlantic, thrown into a state of agitation by the same power. The West Wind seems to awaken from sleep the blue Mediterranean, dreaming of old palaces and towers which once stood on its shores. When the West Wind blows on the Atlantic its water becomes restless and mountain like waves role on its surface. Turbulent waves are raised on the surface of the ocean and between these waves great hollows are produced. Before the west wind blew, the surface of the Atlantic was level but now it would seem as if the Atlantic has cut a path on its surface for the West Wind to pass over it. While the West Wind begins to blow on the Atlantic, the plants growing at the bottom of the ocean tremble with fear and shed their leaves.

Thus Shelley has drawn the image of the west wind in its three phases— appearance, action and message. Its appearance and action on land, in the air, and under water are connected with its dual capacity for destruction and creation. Its function on land is noticeable in the change of seasons, autumn, winter and spring. The terrible functions of the West Wind in the air have been made vivid through three images ; (a) vapor rising from ocean to form clouds, the source of rains, lightning and hailstones, (b) the stormy wind in the image of the dancing Maenad in intoxication out of clouds. The image of the Mediterranean and that of the Atlantic under the influence of the West Wind are also terrible forces of nature.

Shelley’s approach to the phenomena of nature was distinct from others. The life of nature to Shelley was as real as the life of man. But his attitude to nature was scientific. Shelley retained or even magnified the true character of a natural phenomenon when he personified it. His West Wind, while he personified it remained a wind, or rather a terrible wind, an agent of destruction and preservation for creating again in nature.

Comment on the theme of colonialism in Defoe’s book Robinson Crusoe.

“Robinson Crusoe is an allegorical journey to imperialism. Comment.

Or,

Discuss Robinson Crusoe as a prototype colonizer.

Or,

What aspects/elements of colonialism do you find in Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe? Discuss in brief.

Or,

Is Defoe’s hero Robinson Crusoe is a colonizer? Give reasons for your answer.

Or,

To what extent Robinson Crusoe is a colonizer in Defoe’s book Robinson Crusoe?

Answer: Daniel Defoe’s world-class masterpiece Robinson Crusoe is a powerful adventure story of a seafaring person. The book tells the tale of a marooned individual who through relentless efforts ‘builds his own empire in a deserted island. But, it is not an adventure story only; it can be read at multiple levels. Brett C. Mcinelly comments in this regard:

 “Spatially, Robinson Crusoe illustrates that the vastness of the globe can bring a corresponding enlargement, rather than shrinking, of the venturing self and can produce close self-reflection of a kind not easy to achieve in “civilized” society. Religiously, the novel demonstrates that a spiritual awakening can take place in isolation from society and can be crystallized when an Englishman subordinates and converts a non-European Other. Economically, Defoe’s novel functions as an argument for the expansion of trade. And psychologically, Robinson Crusoe shows that relations with an alien Other can hone an ego that can master both its own selfhood and the destiny of others.”

That Robinson Crusoe features a British trader as the hero and the novel is set on a distant Caribbean island cries out for interpretation of the text in the colonial contexts. On the surface, the novel is a powerful adventure story which deals with the fortune of a strong-willed and shipwrecked man and his subsequent struggle for survival in a deserted island. But, on another level, the book can be interpreted as an allegorical journey to imperialism. In fact, Robinson Crusoe is commonly regarded as the prototypical colonial novel of the eighteenth century. Critics have pointed out colonial elements in the book. In this regard, Edward Said’s comment is noteworthy; he says that Robinson Crusoe is “a work whose protagonist is the founder of a new world, which he rules and reclaims for Christianity and England”

Colonialism is one of the important aspects of the novel Robinson Crusoe. The adventure story of the book is related in a realist way. Robinson Crusoe and his life story are at the core of Defoe’s novel. Ian Watt in his book The Rise of the Novel identifies Robinson Crusoe as the first novel precisely because of the detailed attention Defoe gives an “ordinary” individual. The story apparently is an ordinary one. Crusoe’s journey begins on precarious grounds–he is nearly swallowed by a storm, enslaved by Moors, and shipwrecked on an uninhabited island frequented by cannibals and located in the middle of the Spanish Empire–Crusoe gradually learns how to assert himself over land and people. In short, the colonial setting facilitates Crusoe’s individualism as he comes to recognize the unique place he occupies as a British Protestant in a world in which he is surrounded by religious and cultural Others.

Brett C. Mclnelly comments that “Robinson Crusoe stands as an allegory or figure of colonialism Defoe transforms colonialism through the power of fictional representation into the adventures of a single man who masters an island, his native companion, and himself. His formal realism works to enfold the myths of psychological and economic self-sufficiency in a texture of convincing detail.” As we read the novel, its protagonist, Crusoe gradually unfolds to us as a prototype colonizer. After being stranded in a deserted island Crusoe through relentless efforts establishes his control over the island and thus shapes his own empire. In the novel Crusoe takes on significance as a character because he stands as a stable and coherent subject in the wake of an expanding empire. He possesses the mindset of a colonizer. He is a fighter who struggles hard to establish his self-importance and dominance. On the island, Crusoe constantly faces physical peril, both real and imagined. He finds himself in a landscape that could easily overpower him. But, Crusoe responds positively to confirm his self-importance. Surveying his circumstances on the island, Crusoe imagines himself “Lord of the whole Mannor; or if I pleas’d, I might call myself King, or Emperor over the whole Country which I had possession of”. Instead of shrinking in terror in an alien environment Crusoe imagines himself in grandiose terms — as a “King, or Emperor”. This shows that Crusoe saw himself as the founder of this island; and according to law in the eighteenth century, Islands i of the sea belonged to the first inhabitant. As the book progresses it s obvious that Crusoe starts to think of himself as the absolute ruler or lawmaker of the island.

Crusoe refashions himself and the island. His way of establishing gradual control over the island and his treatment of Friday make him an archetype of colonization. Crusoe not only takes physical control of things but he also confirms linguistic and cultural dominance too. He makes laws for the island, gives names to different places and things on the island and by doing so he both creates and assumes control over his island home. “By renaming [Friday],” Novak states in his article “Friday: or, the Power of Naming,”, “Crusoe assumes possession of him in the same way that Columbus assumed possession of the land by his namings.”

Like an ideal colonizer Crusoe establishes his cultural dominance on the island too. He establishes the supremacy of his religion. Though the sincerity of Crusoe’s conversion and his religious commitment have been debated by critics, in Robinson Crusoe Defoe creates a Protestant who is tolerant, committed to essential practices, keenly evaluative of his own behavior in relation to his religion, intensely personal in his encounter with God, and committed through acts of interpretation to seeing God’s hand in everything. In the novel Crusoe develops a complex relationship with Friday, his find Friday willingly submits to Robinson’s orders in gratitude for having being rescued. Friday voluntarily accepts a lifelong servitude under a mutual verbal agreement. Indeed, Robinson exercises total authority on Friday; who must obey and be useful to his master. Regarding Friday, Crusoe comments: “I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke….” It reveals Crusoe’s objective of teaching Friday English language, Western habits, and the new name of Friday With which the savage is reborn are obvious attempts for establishing cultural and linguistic dominance. Friday’s conversion to Christianity is another important aspect of colonization. The rescue of Friday, a “wild creature”, supposes to undertake a religious conversion and to educate him into civilized habits. The event further reinforces the theme of colonialism in the novel.

Robinson Crusoe is more than just a story about a man shipwrecked on an island. The island is only a paradoxical place, because it simultaneously becomes a heaven and a threat. It will overwhelm and conquer Crusoe if he does not make it his paradise. It depicts a man’s journey of Christianity and how his faith gives him a sense of power which he pushes upon others. Simultaneously, the novel does not only portray the allegorical journey of spiritual development, it also portrays categorically Crusoe’s allegorical journey to colonialism. The novel shows that Crusoe by mastering his own self masters his destiny; by mastering his destiny he masters others; and by mastering these he masters the economic contingencies of life.

Robinson Crusoe conveys an economic doctrine. Do you agree? Elaborate your answer.

The economic framework of the novel Robinson Crusoe is the essential dimension of it. Defoe portrays Crusoe as a ‘homo economics’ or an economic man. The action and movement of Robinson’s voyage seems to be the work of a businessman, who involves in the transaction of money and wealth. His life both begins and ends as a tradesman. The economic implication of the novel will come out, if we discuss the major events of Crusoe’s life.

Robinson Crusoe pursues money very methodically, keeping account of his profit and loss. This is a characteristic feature of a modern businessman. We find Crusoe’s worldliness and monetary motive at the beginning of his voyage to Guinea. While they were on the voyage, the Captain gave Robinson advice to buy some toys and trifles and to earn some profits by selling them. This voyage made Robinson both a sailor and a merchant. Robinson says, ‘This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my adventures and which I owe to the honesty and integrity of my friend the Captain.” The speech is evident of Crusoe’s interest in money. He buys goods, sells those, and finally earns profit. He acts like a trader.

Robinson Crusoe abandons his parents’ advice and chooses the seafaring, life. He desires to be a prosperous and wealthy man. In this way, he wants to rise above the middle status of his life. The novel states the miserable condition of then middle class family of England. Crusoe is trying to be well off in economic aspect of his life and it is the general tendency of the bourgeois family of England. This is the reason Karl Mark attacks the novel in his Das Kapital. Robinson Crusoe possesses a capitalistic tendency in his life. He becomes a true materialistic man. His economic individualism prevents him from paying heed to the familial ties.

Again, Robinson’s economic motive makes him a commercial traveler. Whenever he gets opportunity, he involves in trade and commerce as a means of profit. When he escapes from the Moors, the Portuguese captain sets him up with a little capital, with which Crusoe intends to run his trade. Even, he becomes heartless in selling his slave Xury to the captain. He becomes the owner of above 5000 pounds.”These are the examples of the economic implications of the novel.Robinson considers his voyage to Brazil an economic success. He learns about sugar plantation there. He finds that sugar-planters grow rich, so he becomes a planter. He imports labours from Guinea. Crusoe’s activates in Brazil becomes typical of a white colonizers who were used to set up plantation in a far off land. The only aim of these planters was to make money in a very short time. Thus, the voyage of Robinson Crusoe illustrates the economic aspect of colonialism.

Even in his desolate condition in the remote island, Crusoe does not forget his monetary consideration. He regards himself as the master of the island and a rich man. This materialistic note is evident when Crusoe says, “The Island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects.”

When Robinson reaches Lisbon and meets the Spanish captain of the ship, he takes all the account of his property from him. He declares that he will give one-third of his wealth to the king and two third to St. Augustine, which will be spent for the benefit of the poor and the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith. Crusoe becomes ecstatic for lots of money all around him.

Thus, materialism and capitalism lie at the heart of the novel Robinson Crusoe. Robinson seems to be a capitalist and an ‘economic man’. Certainly, the novel conveys an economic implication.

“The Rape of the Lock” as Heroic-Comical Poem

            Alexander Pope, in his poem, “The Rape of the Lock”, uses the mock-heroic technique to raise and ridicule his subjects in order to create a satire to the society for its emphasis on ordinary matters. Pope’s description of the “Rape of the Lock” as a heroic-comical poem makes the subject look ridiculous by placing it in a framework entirely inappropriate to its importance. The mock-epic is a poetic form which borrows the structure from epic but on a reduced form and it has subject which is trivial. Acknowledged as one of the foremost British authors and satirists of the eighteenth century, Pope builds his reputation on the strong foundations of a sharp satirical tone and a love of bringing classical Greek and Roman literature to the modern works.

Heroic or epic poems, according to Maynard Meck, are poems like the “Odyssey”, the “Aeneid”, and “Paradise Lost” dealing with man in his exalted aspects. Their aspects are weighty, their personages are dignified and their style is elevated. In heroic epic, gods and demons take active part in human affairs and guide the destiny of their chosen participants. This work is the one which takes the form of a classic Greek or Roman epic like Homer’s “Odyssey”, but with a satirical note which consequently invite ‘mock’. Satire is one of the literary forms which use exaggeration and ridicule to mirror out the reflection of the society. The oxforddictionaries.com defines satire as, “The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”

In the poem, “Rape of the Lock”, Pole presents the satire from classical epic ‘Homer’ but he is really telling a story that is incredibly trivial. In this poem, Pope encapsulates subversion of the epic genre. Lines 11-12 juxtapose grand emotions with unheroic character-types, specifically “little men” and women.

In tasks so bold can little men engage

And in soft bosom dwells such mighty rage

The technique of pairing epic characteristics with lowly human characters helps this poem to be a heroic-comical poem.

            The main character here is Belinda, a beautiful woman called the ‘Fairest of the mortals’ by Pope in the first canto, which might sound a little bit like Helen of Troy. Since this epic is weaved on the basis of Homer, Belinda gets some supernatural help comes from someone named Ariel, her guardian Sylph-basically as ‘air spirit’ that Pope use as a satirical equivalent of a major god and goddess who mediates in the hero’s life-like Athena. Likewise, the dream seen by Belinda provides the mythic structure of the poem. Through Belinda’s dream, Pope introduces the supernatural forces that affect the action of the poem same like the gods and goddesses of the Iliad would influence the progress of Trojan War. Just like Athena protects Diomeder and Aprodite supports Paris during the Trojan War, in this poem as well, Ariel too have power to protect Belinda. In the Canto I, Belinda forgets Ariel’s warning of possible dangers upon receiving a billet-doux (a love letter). Although, Ariel seems to protect Belinda’s virtue, it cannot protect her from the danger of love, he becomes failure to distract her even from a billet-doux. In Belinda’s dream, Ariel indicates all women have patron spirits: depending on their personality type. Ariel explains that when women die, their spirits return “from earthly vehicles” to “their first elements” (50, 58). Each personality type scolds, undecided women, prudes, coquettes become a Salamander, Nymph, Gnome or Sylph respectively. These four personality types are linked with the four humors and four elements.

            In first Canto, Pope explores the role of Coquette. Here, Belinda herself is a coquette and it is this aspect of feminity with which Pope is most concerned about. Furthermore, Pope says that woman priorities are limited to personal pleasures and social aspirations. Having been “light Coquettes” as human women, the Sylphs are most closely affiliated with Belinda. Pope, during the description of sylph in dream sequence, enumerates coquettish vanities. As human, these women valued their “beauteous mold” and enjoyed frivolous diversions, which they continue to take pleasure in as spirits (48).  The “Joy in gilded chariots” explains desire for superficial grandeur and external signifiers of wealth (55). Likewise, their “love of Ombre”, a popular card game featuring elements of bridge and poker suggests a desire for fashionable entertainment. Through these inferences Pope depicts a society which gives priority to external appearances rather than moral principles. This focus of appearance extends to attitudes towards honour and virtue. Society dictates that women remain chaste while enticing suitable husbands. Yes, it is true that if a woman seemed to compromise herself, society would censure her s though she had lost her virtue. This very concern about the female sexuality represents the underlying anxiety in “The Rape of the Lock”: the theft of the lock creates the appearance of lost virtue. At this point, Pope seems to depict Belinda not as a coquette but as a powerful figure, same like the male heroes of epic poetry. Here, Pope presents the Belinda’s morning routine as a hero’s ritualized preparation before battle. Her toilette commences as a religious rite in praise of a goddess. Belinda’s reflection in the mirror becomes the image of the goddess while her maid is the “inferior priestess; worshipping at the altar” (127).

            These “sacred rites” perform a secondary purpose: once the sacraments are performed, the goddess should protect Belinda during her day’s adventures (128). Upon completing of the morning’s ceremony, Belinda begins to array herself, a scene which Pope figures within the epic paradigm as the ritualized arming of the hero. The combs, pins, “Puffs, Powders, Patches” becomes the weapons and armor of this hero as the “awful Beauty (puts) on all its arms” (138, 139). The depiction of Belinda as an epic hero establishes the mock-heroic motifs that occur throughout the poem.

            Likewise, Pope presents the theft of a lock of hair as the abduction of Helen of Troy and launching the Trojan War, which is the basis for a lot of other epic. With this Pope is lampooning this event by comparing it to something huge, like the start of the Trojan War. He also uses the epic style of invocations, lamentations, exclamations and similes and in some cases adds parody to imitation by following the framework of actual speeches in Homer’s Iliad. Although the poem is humorous at times, Pope keeps a sense that beauty is fragile, and that the loss of a lock of hair touches Belinda deeply. He says:

            But since, alas! Frail Beauty must decay,

            Curl’d or uncurl’d, since Locks will turn to grey;

            Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade,

            And she, who scorns a Man, must die a Maid,

            What then remains, but well our Pow’r to use,

            And keep good Humour still whate’er we lose?

            As his introductory letter makes clear, women in that period were essentially supposed to be decorative rather than rational, and the loss of beauty was a serious matter. That’s why a violent fight at the party starts. But at the end, Pope delivers something of a twist. He explains that,

            But trust the Muse, she saw it upward rise,

            Tho’ mark’d by none but quick Poetic Eyes.

It says that the stolen lock of Belinda’s hair is supposed to have ascended to the heavens, the final resting place for all great and beautiful things. Meanwhile, Pope even inserts himself into the proceeding- ‘Poetic Eyes’. Pope at the end says that the lock shall live forever among the stars. This ending also introduces a bit of sympathy to Belinda’s loss because it’s like she gets this consolation prize for losing her temporary beauty, and that consolation prize is pretty grand- that her name will live forever among the stars.

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Nun’s Priest Tale as Mock-Heroic poem or mock-epic

Famous Mock-Heroic “The Nun’s Priest Tale” is one of the 24 tales that can be found in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. A Mock heroic poem or mock-epic is narrative poems which aim at mockery and laughter by using almost all the characteristic features of an epic but for a trivial subject.

“The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is told in the form of a fable. The priest tells of a roster in charge of hens closely relating to his own authority over woman. The fable is a mock heroic, which is a story that relates to an epic, taking a trivial subject and blowing it out of proportion. 

To achieve this style, Chaucer uses allusions or references to people, places, or events in history that appeal to a reader. Chaucer uses references of the Trojan War, the story of Adam and Eve, and cries from Roman matrons to demonstrate the trivial problems of Chaunticleer and Pertelote, face in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”. ↙ The subject in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale is a trivial subject because a cock and a fox can under no circumstances be regarded as having much importance or significance. But the style which Chaucer employs to deal with this subject that makes the Tale a Mock heroic poem. 

The Mock heroic tome is established at the very beginning, with the description of Chaunticleer. The author employs a series of superlatives. The diction used in this description has deliberate courtly overtones. In the dialogue also the Mock heroic tome prevails. 

The narrator heightens the Mock heroic effect of his story by a comic use of lofty similes. The best example is the three-fold simile in the lines which are a climax of the narrator’s last interruption between the fox’s seizing of Chaunticleer and the beginning of the chase the terrified hers produce a loud clamour as they see their master being carried off. This kind of inflation, or false exaggeration, is the secrete of the mock- heroic technique. 

Ash Wednesday ~ T. S. Eliot

In section 1, the speaker is set to reject all worldly things. In the first two stanzas, he rejects the hope of any fulfillment in worldly diversions, any potential for joy in existence, and acknowledges that the “one veritable transitory power” is insubstantial, prone to fading away into thin air.   

The whole prayer in Part II introduces paradox as the rhetorical form of the reborn subject, in recognition of the possibility of two truths existing as one. The Rose in the garden symbolizes this state rather well. It is, of course, a traditional symbol, but it helps to think of a real rose as well as the Rose of literary convention. The Rose of literature often symbolizes the perfection of an ideal love. 

Part III of Ash-Wednesday dramatizes the relinquishing of mastery in the figure of the spiral staircase and the ascent of the subject toward a new life. Although the ascent is spiritual, the struggle on the staircase is primarily moral. 

In Part IV he acknowledges that the ‘‘fiddles and the flutes’’ must be borne away. The new regime brings restoration and redemption from pain and despair. But it does not erase the pain. Indeed, in Part IV we are asked to be mindful (‘‘Sovegna vos’’) of the hurt of one in Dante’s Purgatorio (Canto XXVI), Arnaut Daniel, the Provencal troubadour.  

Part V backs away slightly from the personal engagement of the previous four parts to meditate on the status of the word of God, the Word in short, in a world where it is ‘‘unspoken, unheard’’. That the Word is not visibly potent in a secularist world may be a shame, but it is not fatal to the Word itself. The presence of the Word is not harmed by the fact that most are deaf to it. The poem acknowledges both the presence of God, even in his seeming absence, and the Word as revelation of His presence. 

The final part/part 6 poem returns us to the theme of transformation and to the voice of the uncertain supplicant. But instead of the causal relationship suggested by ‘‘Because I do not hope to turn again,’’ the restatement makes a subtle shift in responsibility. ‘‘Although I do not hope to turn again’’ moves from causality to concession. The subject is now better placed to accept the work of grace. He is able to see from ‘‘the wide window’’ something of the beauty of the world and a new lyricism comes into the text, ‘‘white sails . . . seaward flying,’’ ‘‘Unbroken wings’’ instead of ‘‘merely vans to beat the air’’ in Part I.   

The note of hope modulates into a quickening recovery from the despair with which the poem began. The prayer to the ‘‘Blesse`d sister, holy mother’’ asks for help in avoiding the self-mockery of falsehood and suffering of separation. The vision at the end is not transcendental; it cannot be defined as the desire to escape from the world into the pure bliss of the spirit. It was the Incarnation now put forward as the real meaning of faith. We cannot escape our human fate, but we are vouchsafed glimpses of holiness in the midst of the encompassing tragedy. This is not a special trick of the eye, it is what we see as an integral part of the reality we all share, if . . ., if we care to look. And the concrete reality that Eliot faced in the 1930s was not an ideal abstraction invented to house the new spiritual order. It was England and his life there in which the hidden order of grace moved.

Has Sweeny died in “Sweeny Among the Nightingales” by T. S. Eliot? Character of Sweeny.

“Sweeny Among the Nightingales” is written by T. S. Eliot. In this poem Sweeny is a character like playboy who likes to flirt with women. He uses women for his own physical need. When his demand is finished, he left them. 

Eliot talks about a Sweeney whose face is like an ape and he is sitting in a café spreading his knees. A waitress comes to him who wears a Spanish cap. She sits on his knee and wants to seduce him. But Sweeney doesn’t responding to her proposal. Because he thinks that it can be a trap to take revenge from him by falling him in danger.  When realizes about it, he pushes her aways from him. Then waitress feels bored. By her continuous activities to fall him in trap but she fails then she left when Sweeney pushes her away. 

Then second waitress comes to him whom the poet addressed by the name of Rachende Rabinovitch. When she sees Sweeney, she tweaks him. He suspects that Rabinovitch and the waitress with Spanish cape could be in a same group plotting against him. Though he is very drunk, his eyes become very heavy but due to his doubt, he leaves the café and stands outside the window leaning in and starts grinning to think about that he is successful to fail their plan. 

By that time, the pub owner sees that their first plan goes down, then he goes out and to talk Sweeney to let him busy. At that moment the two ladies come out from the café and stand behind Sweeney with knife with full of aggression. 

The poet does not clarify about the death of Sweeney. Here could be raise a question that is Sweeney actually died or not. But there is a hint the poem gives referencing Agamemnon. When Clytemnestra stabbed Agamemnon, he died. As the poet giving the reference of Agamemnon’s death sequence is Sweeney in Sweeney’s death sequence. So, it can be said that Sweeney has died.