Lahore University Of Management Sciences

RABIA SOHAIL KHAN

Introduction to English Literature

11020174 12/10/2010

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Introduction to English literature

The master piece short fiction story lady with the pet dog is a contribution towards the treasure of English literature by a renowned Russian writer, Anton Chekov. This was yet another literary jewel out of his closet to pacify the thirst of literature readers to read the work conceived by one of the greatest story writers of the time in genre of love stories. In this story, Chekov broke away with traditional style of love story writing and attempted to present love story in a different way. Whereby the lovers, chained by unwanted marital relation, despite being in love and longing desire to be together they dont say much to each other hence dominant presence of silence is noticed in their meetings. Deep critical analysis of almost all the aspects of this work has been carried out over the course of the time hence giving due credit to the work of a master mind: the setting, theme, motives, and the characters have been analyzed deeply from various angles over time. However complete justice would not be done if the significance of silence recurring at various points in the story is not fully analyzed. Since the silence in the story has power equivalent or even greater than words, understanding this work of a literary giant would not be possible if silence, creeping in during the conversations of Anna and Gurov, is not interpreted. This paper is an attempt to throw some light to a significant aspect of the story which has not been given its true share of importance over time. Silence, as will be discussed, during the meetings of Anna and Gurov dominates the conversation hence giving it the role of something more powerful than words which directs the things the way Anna and Gurov actually want. As despite a lot of room for discussion due to the complexity of the relation, they both chose to remain silent which intrigues the reader hence forcing him to dig into its deeper meaning. Shadowing the reality of their relation, it lets them enjoy the time they are together. Silence
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prevails as discussion about the complexities and future of the relation might dawn the reality unto them hence forcing them to part their ways despite their longing desire to be together. Chekov in this short story narrates the dilemma of two creatures with internal strife due to external constraints binding their relation. Gurov and Anna are both trapped in an unwanted marriage relation, a chain from which they want to free themselves but cannot. Chaining of their life by legal norms makes them lead a secret life: a life they wish to live actually but cannot do so publically due to obvious reasons This paper will attempt to analyze the silence recurring at various points in the story. The idiosyncrasies of the male and female protagonists will be briefly highlighted to set the stage for following in depth analysis of the silence during various scenes. The analysis will give arguments supporting the thesis that silence has more significance than words and directs the things the way Anna and Gurov actually want them to be. Followed by expected rebuttal to the arguments given hence finally concluding the paper with the findings of the paper.

Protagonists
The male protagonist in the story, Gurov, is not happy with his marital life hence takes vocations to break out from the monotony of his real life. Engaging in passing extra marital affairs during these vocations provides him with temporary respite and escape from his wife and life. Though he considers women an inferior race but at the same time he cannot live without them and finds their company much more comforting then any man, even remaining silent with them doesnt bother him. His refusal to accept the importance of women in his life initially and

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later his love for Anna depicts his habit of rejecting the truth about his personality in particular and his life in general. Craving for change in life makes him switch women and take long vocations alone. Disagreeing with his inner personality he considers affair with Anna just another episode of his life. However, gradually as they meet more often and ultimately part their ways, he tends to realize his emotions for her like a typical Chekovs character that gradually undergoes moral transition as story proceeds. Relation with Anna gives stability to him as a person and he accepts the fact that he has fallen for a woman and ultimately wants to live a life as directed by his internal desire with somebody and something he actually wants from life. This development of him as a person makes him worry about serious issues of life, relation and future. Graying of his hair now worries him hence marking it as the climax of the story. Anna is also sailing the same boat, she too is not happy with her marriage and wants to live and live with Gurov but the guilt of betraying her husband catches her every now and then. Her heart wants her to live life to its fullest and with somebody she loves but her moral duty towards her husband disturbs her due to which she is often found repenting ardently in the story. The meager satisfaction they both get from their lives leaves them starving. The conflict, due to external constraints, that is found in these characters renders them speech less at various points during their meetings which makes the reader think that silence has more value than words in this relationship: as relation gets more and more strong with passing time despite the silence during the conversations. As it might be perceived that if they dont have much to share and often indulge in silence then why is the relation continuing at first place. Moreover given the complexities of the relation one might expect them to talk a lot in order to
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work out a solution but they opt for silence instead which intrigues the reader and he sought to conclude that silence has power than words. It is human tendency that they dont want to be told the truth or face it and this phenomenon is explicitly depicted in this story. The silence between the two is for the reader to understand to the fullest the type of relationship Anna and Gurov are enjoying and give life to their emotions.

Arguments
The following sections of the paper will tend to analyze the conversations between the Anna and Gurov, where silence seeps in to replace words hence expressing their emotions to the fullest; in the order they take place in the story.

The very first interaction or round of chat between Anna and Gurov was in a restaurant while having their dinner: Excerpts from the story: "And I have already dragged out a fortnight here. There was a brief silence. Then both continued eating in silence

Gurov had been noticing Anna for a while and wanted to know her, he found an opportunity in a restaurant while having a dinner. He tried to talk to her and after exchange of few sentences short silence followed and then they started conversing again. Silence at this stage doesnt have any deep meaning upfront but seems to be due to the initial awkwardness between the two. Despite the strangeness the silence have greater meaning to it. It shows that they want to know each other more that is why Anna does not turns down his initial effort to acquaint with her, rather after a pause they continue with the chat. Silence during this initial exchange of dialogues depicts that
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they want to say a lot more and be friends with each other but situation and the level of frankness does not allows them to do so. Moreover as will be shown later Anna is careful about her image and does not want to give an idea to someone that she is just another women looking for a friend to pass time. Hence refrains from talking much initially despite her desire to know Gurov.

A week of acquaintance has passed and they were on the pier to watch the streamer come in. Here again she talked excessively and then stooped into silence. She talked a great deal and asked disconnected questions Anna Sergeyevna was silent now, and sniffed the flowers without looking at Gurov. She made no answer

It can be seen here that she talks frankly when they had people around or the talk was random but when it was time for them to be alone and get close, silence dominated their time together. Silence here, like other occasions is representative of the inner conflict that both the characters are facing. When the inner voices of the two characters become too loud, silence takes over outwardly. Though there are contradictions within themselves but they at the same time want to enjoy the time together to the fullest. So despite talking they prefer silence so that their inner conflict is subsided for a while and as mentioned they enjoy a quality pleasure time. They are enslaved by their inner desires and hence let the silence seep in to direct the things the way they actually wish. However this has nothing to do with the sincerity on the part of Gurov to the relationship as he may not love her but wants to be close to her for different reasons then Anna. She, on the other hand, is filled with love for him hence wants to be close to him despite her guilt conscious. Therefore they want to be close to each other for different reasons mentioned above.
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Same day in hotel room: There followed at least half an hour of silence.

Here Anna is experiencing remorse and repentance while Gurov on the other hand is indifferent to her feelings. She asks Gurov questions to make herself feel better but becomes silent as Gurov does not reciprocate her feelings. She wants answers from Gurov but finds solace in silence instead. Gurov on the other hand is indifferent to her feelings and that is why they let silence takeover as argument might dawn the reality on them, which they are hiding from themselves. Yet here again silence overpowered their conversation, so as to leave things the way they want them to be.

They visited the sea later and here again they allowed silence to take over and make the things the way they want on the surface. At Oreanda they sat on a seat not far from the church, looked down at the sea, and were silent "There is dew on the grass," said Anna Sergeyevna, after a silence. Yes, It's time to go home." Silence has more power to communicate then actual words. They dont want to ruin the pleasure time they are enjoying by letting their inner conflict to take the form of words to disrupt them and dawn the reality of their relationship on to them.

They met frequently after that and enjoyed the relationship without thinking about the reality. As they both are birds of different cages and can never meet. After some time Anna left for her town
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on the pretext of letter from her husband; they both thought that this would be the end of their relationship however the things turned otherwise as Gurov realized that he couldnt live without her and left for her town to see her.

Meeting in a theatre

After anxiously waiting to meet her, he finds her in the theater where she had come to watch a play with her husband. Silence yet again seeped in as they saw each other for the first time after they parted. Here the silence yet again takes over the role more powerful than words and transmits their internal desire of being together with each other despite the complex reality which renders it impossible for them to be together publically. Both were silent

They met during the interval for a small chat so that this awkward meting could end and they decide a place to meet again and continue their relationship despite its complexities. They continue meeting in private with no future in sight. The worth of being together is much more than the legality of the relationship and the consequences of hiding such a relationship.

It might be argued that silence was just part of the conversations and does not stand to have a body of its own. It might be there as they dont have much to share with each other hence remain silent. If things are taken from this perspective then question arises as to why Anna remains silent in the hotel room when she was weeping out of repentance and expects Gurov to soothe her. Gurov, on the other hand, could have talked out things with her so as to pacify her but refrains from it as this would lead them into a discussion about the reality of their relationship
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might leading to a break up, as they both dont have answer about the future of their relationship. It is clear that at this moment they had a lot to say to each other but then why chose silence instead? When somebody actually has a lot to say they remain quiet and let the silence to do the job. The same argument can be applied to silence during their meeting at the theater. Here again its obvious that they have a lot to say to each other but Gurov prefers to be silent and lets it transmit the message that he wants to be with her despite all the odds of their relationship .Hence it could be concluded that silence has more power than words hence it dominated their conversations so as to lead the things the way they actually want.

CONCLUSION
In short, this paper attempted to analyze the silence that took over the conversations at various points between Anna and Gurov during the course of their relationship. They both allowed silence to overshadow their conversations because it had more power than words to convey their internal desires to each other setting aside the truth which is harsh and might come out if words are allowed to play their role. Though initially Gurov unlike Anna wanted to be close to her without love for her but as the story proceeds he gets to know more about her and his feelings transforms for her hence accepting his love for Anna. Overpowering their conversations, silence helped to strengthen their relationship and conveyed the unsaid desires hence enabling them to continue with a relationship in which there were a lot of complexities and external constraints. (2444 words)

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Introduction to Political Science

Topic: Is Multiculturalism dead? sSubmitted By: RABIA SOHAIL KHAN Roll Number: 11020174 Date: TUESDAY, 6TH APRIL, 2010 Instructor: DR.PARVEEN AKHTAR

ABSTRACT
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This paper will give a brief history of multiculturalism, how it came to the current status it enjoys, where there are mixed opinions about its existence. Then it will touch upon the various conception and themes of multiculturalism namely liberalism, pluralistic and cosmopolitanism. As according to some commentators it is dying while others say that it is still very much existent in the modern day societies and during the course of the paper it will be shown through various examples that multicultural politics is prevalent in the modern day societies and politics. In short the answer to this question in no, its not dead which would be shown in the paper.

Is Multiculturalism Dead?
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Introduction

Multiculturalism is a phenomenon which advocates a society where people from multiple cultures live together harmoniously and everybodys rights are recognized. Multiculturalism the policy or practice of giving equal attention or representation to the cultural needs and contributions of all the groups in a society: special emphasis may be given to minority groups underrepresented in the past, as through bilingual education.(1) Before analyzing the multicultural society and its status in contemporary world, it is appropriate to clear the meaning of culture on whose accommodation and toleration the entire discussion of the paper will be based. A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.(2) And the culture view invented by Herder and later perfected by Boas: It comprehends culture as the collective heritage of a group, that is, as a catalogue of ideas and practices that shape both the collective and the individual lives and thoughts of all members. (3)

Concept of Multicultural Society 13

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In my view society can not be called multiculturalists if it is inhabited by various groups of people only, who might be tolerant towards each other but their rights are not recognized in political policies. Rather a society is multiculturalists in its truest sense when its rights and freedom are accommodated and tolerated through proper political policies and laws hence legitimizing their existence. As Baumann quotes Verma in his book the riddle of multiculturalism that the different ethnic and religious groups making up society have equal power in terms of access to economic and political resources (p.50) (3) Tariq Madood in his book talks about to the corners of multiculturalism i.e. religious, ethnical and national. These are the three facts which form the identity of people and merges in the concept of culture, which should be recognized and accommodated. In addition identity politics varies from society to society as in some societies religion becomes basic element of cultural identity like the Muslim exclusionists debate going on these days hence treating religion as cultural identity of the people or in others nationality takes precedence like the BRITISHNESS wave, which will be discussed later in the course of the paper. Models There are different models of multiculturalism namely liberal, pluralistic and cosmopolitan. Liberal view focuses on the individual rights and dissection of behavior between private and public life. Whereas pluralists view emphasizes recognition of community rights and sees individuals as inseparable part of community. However, cosmopolitans view world as melting pot whereby cultures are heading towards one global culture.

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Birth and it themes Multicultural concept of society started centuries ago as people migrated and settled into different region due to various reasons. This migration continues till date due to various factors may it be for economic reason or security due to wars like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. This has caused large cross border movement hence refugee csises in countries like Pakistan. It became popular in post colonial era when people became politically assertive and wanted to preserve their identity may it religious, ethnic or national. They refused to accept the imperial culture imposed on them and identity politics started to take shape which propped out of the communitarian view of life. Moreover this concept of society emphasizes that the diversity is something which is not only desirable but should be celebrated as it gives distinctive identity to individuals. In short, post colonialism, identity and diversity are the themes of multiculturalism. Multiculturalists phenomenon came out of the concept of cultural pluralism whereby people from multiple cultures live together harmoniously. Multiculturalism is basically an attempt for recognition, toleration and accommodation of people coming from different cultures. It is move towards particularism from universalism. Universalism is where people of modern societies are heading according to many commentators. So that people do not involve in conflict of difference and become citizen of the world rather than of any particular community or culture for that matter. This new term has taken its birth from globalization where people are closely interconnected and interdependent. And various identities hinder the process of getting a global culture and give way to violence amongst the groups which disrupts this process of economic progress of world aimed by globalization. Though people might have many similar eating, drinking and clothing habits but this does not give us firm grounds to say that multiculturalism is dead and or will die in near future. As it might be possible

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that people are getting westernized in their thinking and habits mentioned above but it is hard to change the genetic and natural tendencies of humans. Which varies considerably amongst races and regions like taste for food of western and the eastern people, the basic human urge for belongingness, the difference in the geographical regions which foster different activities and traits of its people.
Sociobiologists argue that there exists a natural tendency among humans to create in-groups and out-groups, to favour members of your own group and to be hostile towards members of other groups. (10)

As according to Sandell individuals get their meaning of life from the community s/he belongs too. Multiculturalism calls for communitarian view of life against the liberal individualistic societies. Moreover with increasing awareness with education and increased interaction amongst people, thanks to latest technology and media, people are becoming more and more aware about their rights and fight for it. Consequently with this awareness and toleration multiculturalism is an integral part of politics and any law passed against any particular community is looked down upon and captures every bodys attention. Tolerances have also increased in the societies of the developing nations like Pakistan. As previously people in Pakistan rigidly followed the social hierarchies represented by castes/majority religion of the people and ethnocentric feelings with in them to an extent that only higher castes or majority were believed to have right to live and enjoy it; but now with increasing awareness people of lower castes/minorities are given opportunities and not discriminated against their ethnic origins and religions. In addition, Pakistan being a Muslim country celebrates and accommodates minorities like Hindus, Christians etc. It does so to an extent that they are allowed to celebrate their religious rituals and practices which are in direct conflict with Muslim beliefs. Moreover Christians and Hindus are not 16

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discriminated against in the membership of parliament and important public offices like judiciary .Rather they enjoy a fixed quota of seats in all public offices and their students are allowed to give ethics exams in place of Islamic studies in bachelors examination which is the compulsory subject recognized by higher education commission in Pakistan. Hence showing that even in a developing nation like Pakistan where almost 60% percent of the population is illiterate is making an effort to accommodate the minorities, which are bound to increase in future. The same goes for developed nations like Britain where constant efforts are made to make the life of Diasporas, which inhabit the place, convenient. The publication of the cartoons of Prophet (PBUH) of Muslims faced too much criticism and agitation hence leading the British government to make anti blasphemy laws. Another evidence of modern society like Britain as being multicultural is change in the membership requirement of British national Party. The British National Party discriminated for membership against all the non whites, given to the pressure it faced; it had to call off its blatant discriminatory practice: But not anymore. Last month the BNP were told by a central London county court that unless they changed their membership requirements, those state-sponsored crusaders at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) would take them to court under the 2003 Race Relations Act.(5) The availability of the halal food for Muslims students in schools and the burial services in accordance with the Muslim religion in Britain and many other anti racial policies are being practiced to show that multiculturalism is not dead.

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The efforts made by British government to get all its inhabitants in the fold British ness are normally questioned and is taken to be anti-multiculturalists. However it needs to be analyzed that this is being done so that people are loyal to British government than their own original identities and do not consider themselves as separate. That is why they are attempting to reform the requirements of citizenship as they are of the view that culture origins are obstacle in the way of achieving social cohesion especially the ones which clash with the BRITISHNESS. Commentators have welcomed this new 'tough' approach to immigrants, arguing that they should make more of an effort to adopt a British identity, learn English, and abandon cultural customs which are unacceptable to the mainstream, in particular religious practices such as female circumcision.(4) Though it may on the front seem that these steps are taken to counter multiculturalism, but actually they are favoring another face of multicultural politics .i.e. the national. They want to maintain and preserve their national identity, which is just another form of multiculturalism. As Trevor Phillips, chairman of the commission of the racial equality says that fostering various cultures is threat to British identity. He argued that multicultural policies risked segregating communities along ethnic lines and prevented second-generation minorities from integrating fully into British society.(4)

In addition these days many other policies, like ban on scarf in France or the Sikhs sword in Italy, are also given the color of anti-multiculturalism. However the ban on Muslim women wearing scarf in public places is not anti-multiculturalism, rather it is just another form of multiculturalism .i.e. liberal multiculturalism. So as to curtail any attempt made to influence other cultures in society by such public

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displays hence threatening other cultural identities. As something good for you may not be good for somebody else. Therefore it cannot be said that wearing scarf is good thing and drinking bear is bad so banning of scarf is a bad thing and banning of bear is good as it is not allowed in your culture. As good is a relative term and varies from culture to culture. Though it is argued that it is against the individual freedom of practicing and doing whatever they want to do according to liberalists. It is agreed that this is an attempt to raid individual freedom and that is why this decision is not made a law as yet and is being reconsidered by the authorities of France on the same grounds. Considering the ban on the use of sword by the Sikh in Italy is not done because of cultural reasons but because of security issues. As we are living in an era of terrorism so we have to be extra vigilant in all our practices. So for the greater good and freedom of the individuals hence societies, giving up a certain right is not something too much to ask for and should not be considered as intolerance or antimulticulturalists for that matter.

Culture is made by man and maintained by him, so if a slight variation has been witnessed in the cultures today; we cannot pass this statement that people are moving towards similar universal culture. It could be that people are modifying their culture in order to fit in the present time which is individual right according to the liberalists. As culture is a dynamic process. Therefore cultures are not dying out rather they are changing due to need of the time in order to accommodate and tolerate others and live in these new multicultural societies peacefully. As previously people use to live an isolated life and hence had developed their cultures like that but now since the societies are inhabited by larger group of people from varying origins and are interdependent. It is the need of time to modify the cultures to tolerate and accommodates other groups: these modifications should not be taken as a move towards

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one universal culture or dying out of multiculturalism. In short, modern day societies are multicultural and this concept is here to stay given the human nature of having a distinctive identity is innate and will never die out. As nurture or society may change but nature cannot.

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References:

1. http://www.yourdictionary.com/multiculturalism

2. http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html

3. The multicultural riddle by Baumann page 100&25

4. http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CA4C4.htm

5. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8189/

6. http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100900561&Issue=NP_LHE&Date= 20100403

7. http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100899542&Issue=NP_LHE&Date= 20100402

8. https://campusmail.lums.edu.pk/owa/WebReadyView.aspx?t=att&id=RgAAAABDh045wbEuRaT TgFpaqCPIBwDBiiW3%2bo1GQoNRsI55ytDUAKDEg54TAADBiiW3%2bo1GQoNRsI55ytDUA0%2b AZS5uAAAJ&attid0=EACGmGx26QU6T7xYNvtpZ0OH&attcnt=1

9. course pack

10. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/5425/

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