Modern Gallantry by Charles Lamb (Summary & Analysis)

 

Modern Gallantry

by Charles Lamb

(Summary & Analysis)

  

Charles Lamb (1775-1834) is a famous essayist who wrote under his pseudonym of Elia. His sister, Mary, under the severe attack of insanity killed her own mother in 1796. His love affair with Ann Simmons of Hertfordshire was unsuccessful and unfortunate.

He was a well-known letter writer of great charm and quality. Lamb tried to write poetry and dramas also but he is chiefly known for his essays. Lamb’s Essays of Elia appeared in 1823, his most remarkable work, which made him “The Prince of the Essayists”.

Some of his famous essays are:

1. Dream Children: A Reverie

2. The Praise of Chimney Sweepers.

3. Imperfect Sympathies.

4. All Fools’ Day

5. The Old Familiar Faces.

6. A Bachelor’s Complaint Against the Behaviour of Married People.

7. The Old and the new School Master.

8. Poor Relations.

9. Witches, and Other Night Fears.

Most of Lamb’s essays are deeply personal and autobiographical. These essays are a good vehicle for self-revelation. The first-person singular pronoun in the essays stands for the writer and is not a persona. Lamb’s essays are full of wit and homour. He makes fun of himself as well as of others. His wit and humour are usually not full of hatred or personal revenge.

Pathos is closely related to Lamb’s humour. At the back of pathos is lamb’s won tragic life. His essays are full of brief character-sketches. Lamb’s remarkable characterization makes his characters memorable. Some of them are master pieces of humour.

Lamb’s essays are full of anecdotes. In Modern Gallantry also he has conveyed his ideas of regard and respect for ladies through the story of Susan Winstanley and Joseph Plaice. These anecdotes provide a narrative appeal to his essays and become a part and parcel of his essays.

Lamb is considered as one of the wisest persons of his limes. His essays are full of philosophical, terse, pithy, proverbial, aphoristic and didactic lines which can be explained in detail. Lamb provides the wisdom which is expected from a genius. In the essay, Modern Gallantry Lamb has expressed his dissatisfaction over the behaviour and attitude of men towards the women of his age. He has given many examples of his observations on different occasions and in different capacities where men missed the mark of paying respect to their counterpart i.e. females as females. Wealth, beauty, age, rank, relation and circumstances are vital factors which decrease or increase amount of reverence towards the female members of society. Lamb observes the bad habits, not only of men folk but also of the ladies. He suggests the women, to first learn to pay respect themselves and their sex. If this happens, others will also pay respect to them.

What a woman should demand of a man is courtship, after it, respect for her as she is a woman; and next to that – to be respected by him above all other women. Let her first lesson be to reverence her sex.

This is a bitter truth for both the parties – the male as well as the female. Moreover, the essence of the essay has universal appeal for all times to come. This is applicable in every kind of society throughout the world and is away from racial prejudice.

In this essay, Lamb expresses his views about gallantry of his age i.e., the beginning of the 19th Century. Lamb says that his contemporary British congratulate themselves on the point of being more gallant during the modern age. He defines what gallantry means. Gallantry is the social respect, humbleness shown by males towards females as females. People considered that moderns age has become more civilized and cultured and therefore shows more respect to females because they are females.

Lamb does not agree to the idea of being more civilized and cultured in modern times. He cites many situations where people do not show respect to females as females but the respect shown to females depends upon their rank, beauty, wealth, age, relation and many other factors. Thus, according to him, womanhood is not paid respect irrespective of other factors.

The definition at the very beginning of the essay makes the title very clear and the subject matter of the essay can be guessed at the very start. The prose of Lamb is terse, pithy, aphoristic. The essay is didactic one and has universal appeal due to its subject matter and style.

Lamb has written many essays which are autobiographical and reveal his personal life. But this essay is didactic one and has universal appeal. The writer has provided a good advice to the women-folk, if they wish more respect from the men-folk.

The woman in love is usually jealous of others and becomes selfish. She wants more and more respect for herself individually but not for females in general. That diminishes respect for individual female also. According to the essayist, a woman in love should ask for respect for her because she is a woman. Being a woman is her foundation, solid ground on which additions can be made. Those additions are like ornaments. Demand of respect above all other women comes next. If a woman detracts respect from her own sex, she detracts that much respect for herself also. Respect for female should be demanded on the basic ground of being a female, and not because of beauty, rank, age, wealth, position, or any other such factor.

The writer has conveyed his ideas on gallantry in a very precise, brief, aphoristic and terse manner. He had directly advised females how to demand more and more respect from men and that must be the best method for all types of women belonging to any category, rank, society or position.