CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION. The foregoing study shows that an understanding of. the influences of Freud and the Bible on Dylan Thomas s

Transcription

1 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION The foregoing study shows that an understanding of the influences of Freud and the Bible on Dylan Thomas s poetry is essential for a fuller understanding of his poems. The analysis of his major poems shows that there is in his poetry an evolution from sensuality to sensuousness, and ultimately it reaches a state ifhich is achieved through the sublimation of his senses. Placed beside Biblical references, Freudian associations reveal that the poet has progressed from the libido to a transcendental plane and his vulgar images have been transformed into sublime metaphors. The study of Dylan Thomas s poetry with reference to Freud and the Bible also discloses that Freud s interpretation of human behaviour has undergone an exaltation of meaning in Dylan Thomas s imagery and symbols. For instance, we have observed that fruit, child and ladder which are sexual symbols A in the Freudian analysis of dreams have widened their range of meaning in some of his poems like This bread I break, Ceremony After a Fire Raid and I dreamed by genesis. Even birth*, copulation* and death, three most common events of human life transcend the personal level of life. The idea of birth has been elevated to the concept of genesis in I dreamed my genesis, copulation' has been projected as a 1. Freud, 0. Cit., pp. 392r393, 474, , 472

2 169 different kind of human relationship in All all and all the Dry Worlds Lever? and death has been described as transcended mortality in A Refusal to Mourn the Death by Fire, of a Child in London* This idea of transcended mortality in his poetry has been developed by his conquest of the fear of death. This fearlessness he derives from both success and failure in his sexual experiences. There is, in his poetry a constant conflict between sensuality and sensuousness. The struggle emboldens the poet to expose the dark impulses of the human mind by rejecting all pretences. This overfrankness often makes the poet vulnerable to moral condemnation, but it also focusses light on his marital and extramarital relationship. For instance, the close analysis of I make this in a warring absence with reference to Freud leads its readers to the bedroom scene where a very intimate and personal drama between husband and wife is enacted. Similarly in Into her lying Down Head Dylan Thomas frankly admits his sexual jealousy and discloses his mental obsessions. But his faith in the triumph of life stimulates his energy to evercome these obsessions. From the dark concealment of physical instincts and traumatic obsessions Dylan Thomas moves towards an illuminated state of mental elevation achieved through the sublimation of the physical instincts. A Miltonic sense of

3 170 self-reproach all through his life has been serving as a chastising force. This self-condemnation brings refinement to his thought, and with the exalted feelings the poet travels from darkness to light. But this conflict between / the senses and the sublime makes his poems unintelligible to the common readers. The charge of being unintelligible is often levelled against Dylan Thomas s poetry. It is true that some of his poems would remain unintelligible to the average reader if his reading is not supported by Freudian interpretation. For instance, the Freudian interpretation of Dylan Thomas s birthday poem Twenty-four years reveals to its reader that in spite of a morbid obsession about sex, the poem hints at a moral reckoning. Sex is no taboo for Dylan Thomas, He sincerely believes that perfect knowledge about sex and its acceptance in one s life without any prejudice helps him to conquer the fear of extinction. With this belief the poet announces the triumph of the creative power of man in his poem All all and all the dry worlds lever. The Freudian interpretation of the poem discloses to its reader that Dylan Thomas invokes ecstatically life s highest truth realized through the evolution of sex. He visualizes an eternal cycle of birth and rejuvenation triumphant over the process

4 171 of mortality and extinction. Similarly his poem I dreamed my genesis reveals its meaning to its reader only when it is explained in term's of Freud. Only then the common readers will begin to' see that the concept of genesis has a wider range of meaning than the idea of birth. To Dylan Thomas, birth is no antithesis of death, but a process of regeneration with the vision of New Adam, the symbol of potential manhood. Dylan Thomas's idea of the attainment of manhood hints at the physical and mental difficulties that one has to face in one's adolescence. These difficulties not only disrupt his emotional equilibrium but also depress him with obsessions. His immediate response to the senses brings him close to the temporal world and its violent passions, but at the same time moves him far away from this world of mortality. This swing between depression and elevation is the cause of Dylan Thomas's ambivalence in his poetry. i Dylan Thomas's ambivalence can be best understood through the Freudian interpretation of imagery and symbols of his poems. For instance, the interpretation of his poem If I were tickled by the rub of love with reference to Freud reveals that there is a conflict between the lust for the flesh and the eternal quest for life and its meaning. Dylan Thomas wants Man to be his metaphor through variations of

5 172 Ms ego. TMs variation of the poet s ego is a result of his ammvalent attitude to body and soul. Freudian ideas help the reader to understand the ambivalence embedded both in 2 his poetry and in his letter to his wife Caitlin. Such an interpretation also resolves many of the contradictions of Dylan Thomas*s married life - the contradiction between the contest and its resolution. The experiment with thesis and antithesis of life is an important characteristic of Dylan Thomas s poetry. This experiment not only influences his married life but also motivated the themes of his poems. These poems in which Dylan Thomas has directly involved his wife Caitlin, when explained in terms of Freud expose to the reader the poet s contradictions. They give the reader an idea about the climax of the contest and the anticlimax of the consensus in Ms married life. The contest of the body involves hatred, jealousy and suspicion but the consensus of the mind hopes for an enduring peace. The Freudian interpretation of his poems written after his marriage reveals that the poet in his married life struggled his way through turmoil in search of tranquillity.this struggle forms the basis of Dylan Thomas s sexual love in his poetry. 2. FitzGibbon, Ojd. Cit., p. 223

6 Dylan Thomas*s attitude to sexual love and his worries for the security of its sacred vows and the solemn pledges are best understood by the reader through Freudian interpretation of his p'oem On a Wedding Anniversary * The poem which is analysed with reference to Freud*s pleasure-principle and x reality-principle *' provides the reader of the poem with an image of the state of psychosis. In this obsessed mind love grows sick with the horror s of death caused by war. Dylan Thomas condemns war as a severer of all ties of affection, and believes that the intense and passionate feelings of a man for a woman and vice versa need to be kept free from obsessions. As Freudian interpretations help in this reading of Dylan Thomas s poetry, the Biblical associations undoubtedly enlighten the readers with the knowledge of the poet s attitude to man and his religion. In spite of the profanation of human love Dylan Thomas s trust in Man and his faith in God remain unshaken in his poetry. It is with this awareness the poet looks back to the period described in Genesis in his poem Once below a time. With the help of the Biblical associations, the poet envisages Man s conquest of Nature through ages not only justifying the ways of God to Man, but also confirming the 3«Freud, Ojd. Cit., p. 163

7 174 beginning of Man s hardship and grief. In Dylan Thomas s poetry the image of grief is both physical and spiritual, and grief in its acuteness connotes time. In his elegiac poem A grief ago the poet not only regrets the loss of a flower, but also anticipates its resurrection. It communicates to its readers the poet s ultimate faith in the multiplicity of life triumphant over death. It has been stated earlier in this chapter that in Dylan Thomas s poetic vocabulary, death is a form of transcended mortality. But-the variations of the poet s attitude to death are best understood when they are explained with reference to the Bible. The inevitability of death is acknowledged in Dylan Thomas s poetry. Sometime' the loss of simple life is regretted as the loss of entire humanity, but sometimes death is defied as well through emphatic negation and eulogized as a fraternal tie of enduring comradeship. The image of the Child beyond cockerow in Ceremony After a Fire Raid is transformed into the image of London's daughter in A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a child in London. In both the poems, the words, images and the symbols derived from the Bible have enhanced their aesthetic effectiveness. Without a reference to Bible many of the images in his poetry may appear to be confusing and meaningless.

8 175 The Bible references also illuminate Dylan Thomasf s attitude to conventional religion. His non-conformity and over-frankness have often made the readers of his poems sceptic about his religious faith. His attitude to conventional religion in his poetry has been misinterpreted as his agnosticism. But his apparent rebellion against the religious authority in his poem It is the sinners* dust tongued bell is neither directed against Christianity nor against the Bible which embodies Christian principles. It is in fact aimed at opposing the sin of iniquity perpetuated in the Church. The explanation of the symbols and imagery of the poem derived from the Bible convinces the reader that instead of denigrating the Church or Christianity, the poet is fighting against religious pretensions. The poet s sympathy for the community of Man has prompted him to beg mercy of the Lord to redeem his fellow-beings. Dylan Thomas has said prayers not only for himself but also for all men and women of this world in his poem The Conversation of Prayer. The poem which has been explained with reference to the Bible informs its readers that human love is never vanquished by the lure of the flesh, and the earnest prayer is the best medium for communicating with God.

9 176 An understanding of Freudian and Biblical references helps immensely in the final rehabilitation of Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomases biography tells us that the poet suffered from unbearable poverty. Because of this hardship for the bare necessities of life, his poems are sometimes touched with a mood of depression, but the love of man prevented the poet from being a cynic. The agony of suffering has been transformed into the ecstasy of creative activity. Similarly, because of his excessive love for wine and women, Dylan Thomas is often rejected as vulgar without having any moral reckoning in his poetry. His deep regard for aesthetic values helped him to transcend his physical senses. In spite of this the credibility of his humanism has been repeatedly questioned; and his faith in Christianity has often been doubted. A large part of this misgiving about the poet and his works when approached through the Bible and Freud is likely to be removed, and this may be considered as a distinct gain for critical approaches to his poetry.