A CONVERSATION WITH SUBTEXTS OF CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT SAYING WHAT THEY MEAN

A CONVERSATION WITH SUBTEXTS OF CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT SAYING WHAT THEY MEAN

Hiralal and Hari, students of Postgraduation moved to the quiet part of the canteen after an exhaustive lecture in a Linguistics class. It was a very interesting class on Semantics. The professor had discussed at great length Semiotics, Syntax and Semantics. He cited numerous examples which gave an insight into the terms like ambiguity, allegory, connotation, denotation and so on. Some of the examples were very humorous and some of the others were serious, but sonorous.

Hari how did you find the Linguistics class exclaimed Hiralal? Well, it was a very interesting, incisive and I am sure there were study materials to inspire majority of the students to desire more of such classes, retorted Hari.

Now taking cue from the terms inspire and desire may I ask you Hari said Hiralal a tricky question. By all means Hiralal assayed Hari. Was it the subject or the handler of the subject for his subjects that tend to inspire and thereafter desire to dig deep into that field of inquiry?

Seriously, if you ask me, you have posed a tricky and weighty question to say the least Hira, and it needs to be explained or understood as an area having numerous layers that would open up sometimes cantankerous and at other times onerous nests or nets if you like.

Now that you have initiated a dialogue deliberating primarily on the subject of subject and the object, I shall attempt to summarize from what I gathered from the Professor’s lecture.

To be fair to him, Hira, Let me recollect the numerous areas he touched upon and substantiated it with examples and citations, which gives the impression that the object is more obvious and the subject less conspicuous. Consequently, we can I am sure come to the conclusion that the subject as an object is what makes the students pursue the field of inquiry instead of handler of the subject even though it has profound impact.

Hiralal you might have also heard and listened carefully as I did the examples he pulled out from his repertoire to clarify initially the oft quoted lines by Naom Chomsky and that is “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” which he further elaborated to state that a sentence may be syntactically correct but semantically absurd. The professor, thereafter moved further ahead with another example by way of a sentence “Flying planes are dangerous” and followed it by asking to the class at large, ignoring a few of the students who were at large, whether the sentence is correct or not. Nobody felt anything wrong with the sentence, me and you Hiralal included, Is it not? Hiralal nodded in the affirmative. And what followed you know very well, a good number of students were surprised and another good number bewildered. The professor as expected asked the students, what does this sentence mean?  Hiralal you were the first to raise your hands to respond to a very simple looking sentence and said “Flying planes are dangerous” means to fly a plane is dangerous.

Without wasting much time a few students who probably were planning to pursue a career in the field of aviation had a different take on the sentence “Flying planes are dangerous”. Aakash was first among them to answer and speak loudly and said the sentence in question means, the planes which are flying are dangerous. Now majority of class were in a confused state of mind. The professor after a while empathized with the students and said all of you are correct but the problem about this sentence is only that it is an ambiguous sentence.

As the air of confusion in the class seemed to have calmed and come to a standstill, the professor again transported the students to another set of examples to sustain the interest of the students and substantiate the argument on the term connotation. Hiralal, do you remember all or at least a few of the examples that the professor deliberated upon. Hari I am quite sure I remember most of them and can also stretch my memory power with some clues without missing maybe any. Okay then Hiralal would you like to share which was the best example that the professor quoted to hammer home the gist of the term Connotation. For me Hari, the example was “He ploughed and she reaped”. A very humorous one as you also would agree that lead to a burst of laughter among the boys and suppressed giggle among the girls. The professor also mentioned specifically here to carefully observe in this sentence, what is said may be what is meant and also what is said is not what is meant. The sentence has sexual connotations or is peppered with sexual connotations or overtones. A sentence which does not appear vulgar but can be vulgarized, if one is hell bent in considering that way.

Hiralal I am of the opinion this was one of the interesting examples but can you recollect an example you find to be more intellectual and enlightening. If you ask me Hari, the examples he quoted from Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and from some of the plays of William Shakespeare is worth considering. Hiralal can you be more specific and let me know, to see if what I could read between the lines were the same that you seem to have read between the lines in those examples.

Hari as far as Milton’s Paradise Lost is concerned, even though the poem dwells on Satan and God in its description of Hell and Heaven on the surface level, it is in fact dealing the political battle or crisis prevailing between the Monarchy and Democracy of that period. Milton takes recourse to the celestial to deal with the terrestrial. What do you say? Have I gathered what was being said between the lines as you seem to have, replied Hiralal, with anxiety? Yes very much came the reply from Hari.

Now what about examples from the works of Shakespeare Hiralal? There were quite a few Hari like lines from Hamlet, Julius Caesar etc., which we can discuss elaborately some other time. Come on now coffee has come let us savour it before it becomes cold reminded Hiralal. You carry on with the coffee while I state what I recollect. Is it okay Hiralal? Sure with pleasure Hari.

The following lines if you remember “frailty thy name is woman” from Hamlet. Shakespeare here through the character of Hamlet and his lines lifts the particular to the domain of the universal.

And of course from the play Julius Caesar – the lines of Mark Anthony – I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. I thrice presented him a kingly crown which he did thrice refuse; was this ambition, and Brutus says Caesar is ambitious. And Brutus is an Honorable Man. As the speech proceeds the term Honorable Man takes a sarcastic tone, meaning the opposite of what is said, as our title of the prompt intends.