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Philosophical Strain in the Works of Joseph Addison

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Seminar Paper
On
PHILOSPHICAL STRAIN IN THE WORKS OF JOESPH ADDISON
Course Code: BHE 402
Course Title: Prose Down the Ages

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Submitted by:
SAMAH RAFIQ
ENROLL. NO. A0706110041

Submitted to:
DR. DIPANKAR SUKUL
LECTURER AT AIESR

AMITY INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH STUDIES AND RESEARCH
AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH

Joseph Addison is considered to be among the most impactful essayists of all time. His essays mainly appeared in the two famous periodicals The Tatler and The Spectator. He has brought out a number of essays during his lifetime (274 for the The Spectator alone) and has touched upon a wide range of topics and themes through the medium of these essays. In this paper, the philosophical strains in …show more content…

He therefore incorporates a lot of philosophical elements in the essay.

In his other essay entitled The Vision of Mirza, Addison takes the pains to translate a highly philosophical Oriental manuscript into English because he believes that every person can greatly benefit from comprehending its underlying philosophy. The essay’s broad subject seems to be the very purpose of life. It is an allegory which has clear connotations of life after death and heaven and hell associated with it. In the essay, Mirza is a Persian who encounters a “genius” on the hills of Baghdad. This “genius” seems to be a representation of a prophet. The essay clearly assumes a contemplative and spiritual tone from the very beginning. The genius is described as one in the habit of a shepherd whose musical instrument yields a music which is exceedingly sweet and makes Mirza wonder whether this is the sound that the “departed souls” of “good men” get to hear upon their “first arrival in paradise.”

Further in the essay, the whole idea is explained through a tide and a bridge. The tide represents time and the bridge represents human life. We find the bridge has about 70 arches which may be taken as symbolic of average life span of an individual. Multitudes of people passing over the bridge are symbolic of the people living their lives. Some people are seen crossing over safely to the other end of the bridge while others fall down into the waters mid-way. All this is again

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