Introduction:
Intentional fallacy:
William Kurtz Wimsatt Jr. (November 17, 1907 – December 17, 1975) was an American professor of English, literary theorist, and critic.
Wimsatt is often associated with the concept of the intentional fallacy, which he developed with Monroe Beardsley in order to discuss the importance of an author's intentions for the creation of a work of art.Wimsatt was influenced by Monroe Beardsley, with whom he wrote some of his most important pieces.
Wimsatt also drew on the work of both ancient critics, such as Longinus and Aristotle, and some of his own contemporaries, such as T. S. Eliot and the writers of the Chicago School, to formulate his theories, often by highlighting key ideas in those authors' works in order to refute them.Wimsatt's ideas have affected the development of reader-response criticism.
Wimsatt and Beardsley have made best-known accusations of fallacy found in literary criticism based on writer’s intention and reader's response. Intentional fallacy is a kind of mistake of deriving meaning of the text in terms of author’s intention, feeling, emotion, attitude, biography and situation. It is the error of interpreting a literary work by reference to evidence according to the intention of the author.
Intentional fallacy means the confusion between the poem and its origin. It is the fallacy because an author is not the part of the text; instead, text is public but not private.If a critic interprets text in terms of author’s biography, this interpretation is called subjective interpretation or criticism. But for Wimsatt and Beardsley criticism should be objective and textual, critic should not go beyond the text. Author can't control the text as soon as he writes. It becomes public. The critic should not interpret the allusion in terms of author’s intention.They claim that author's intended meaning is irrelevant to the literary critic. The meaning, structure, value of text is inherent with in the work of art itself; it is an object with certain autonomy.
Now, here there are some work which will interpreted with the use of theory International Fallacy.
All the world's stage
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Interpretation of poem:
This poem describes that life is like a journey and all human beings are travelers. He has cover seven stages to complete this journey. When he completes one stage or goal, he enters into another stage or goal. Everybody in this world performs seven roles and completes the journey of life.
In the first stage, a man appears as a child in the world. As a child, he is a helpless creature. He cries in the arms of this nurse for one reason or the other. He cries and vomits. In the second stage of life, he becomes a school-going boy. He goes to school with a bag hanging around his shoulders. He goes to school creeping like a snail. He goes to the school unwillingly.
In the third stage, a man plays the role of a lover. he grows into a young man full of desires. ambitions and dreams. He becomes a romantic young man. He falls in love and sighs like a furnace In the fourth stage, he becomes a soldier. In this stage, he is emotional and jealous. He is ready to do any task for fame and reputation. He quarrels with others for grace and honor.
In the fifth stage, he becomes a judge. In this stage, he becomes mature and experienced. The heat of his youth completely cooled down and he becomes very realistic. He wants to get money and wants to be rich. he begins to accept bribes and thus adds much to his material comfort. His belly becomes round. He eats healthy fowls and cocks presented to him as bribes.
In the sixth stage, man grows old. he looks quite ridiculous in his movements. He wears glasses because his eyesight is weak. His shoes become wide for his feet. His voice suffers a change. It becomes a shrill and quivering whistle. Then man plays the final role of his life. here we find him turned into a child once again. He seems to forget everything. He becomes toothless. His eyesight weakens and he is deprived of taste. He is ready to leave this world. In this way, man completes the journey of life. This poem is very well described whole journey so it is good poem.
Laa Belle Dame Sans Merci
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
‘I love thee true’.
She took me to her Elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dreamed —Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
Thee hath in thrall!’
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
Interpretation of Laa Belle Dame Sans Merci :
The first three stanzas introduce the unidentified speaker and the knight. The speaker comes across the knight wandering around in the dead of winter when “the sedge has withered from the lake/ And no birds sing.” In this way, we depicts a barren and bleak landscape.
The knight responds to the speaker, telling him how he met a lady in the meadows who was “full beautiful, a faery’s child”. Here, Keats’ language sweetens. The first three stanzas were bitter and devoid of emotion, but the introduction of the “lady in the meads” produces softness in the language of the knight. He reminisces on the lady’s beauty and her apparent innocence – her long hair, light feet, and wild eyes – and on her otherworldliness, as well. Moreover, he describes his sweet memories of the Lady: feeding each other, giving her presents, traveling with her, and being together.
In the eighth stanza, the lady weeps for she knows that they cannot be together as she is a fairy, and he is a mortal. She lulls him to sleep out of which he does not immediately wake. In his dream, the knight sees pale people like kings, princes, and warriors. They tell him that he has been enthralled by the woman without mercy. He wakes up from the nightmare alone, on the cold hillside, and tells the persona that is why he stays there, wandering, looking for the lady. The last stanza leaves the fate of the knight ambiguous. In a way this poem is with full of agony and sadness.
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