COMMENTS:
CH (1): p. 2 & 3
The Happy Valley is very wide and full of fruits which supply its inhabitants with the necessaries of life. The king visits this valley once a year. This is ironic because the king doesn't give his sons any company and teach them to be a king. They live in kind of prison. Everything they want is present. There is many kinds of arts, such as musician, dancers…etc, showing their best.
CH (2): P. 4
The title is ironic while the Happy Valley is very happy. The writer shows that the physical comforts are not all the things needed by all people. Some people have other demands. They only know the happiness. They have all the skillful people to entertain them, such as musicians, singers, dancers …etc.
They can go around to the beautiful forest and sleep. They are told that the life outside the valley is bad and full of deceivers. They used to listen every day to songs which praising the Happy Valley. They feel boring of this repetition all of the day.
CH (3): P. 7 & 8
Line 1: The old instructor imagines that Rasselas makes himself having a disease in his mind.
"The old man ………. unhappy"
Rasselas tells the old man that he is not happy and doesn't like the happiness because he lives in a happy place. He retired from pleasure in that place. He knows now what misery is. He doesn't have any interest in what he has. He feels that he is lonely because he is miserable. The old man tells him that he is the first one who complains about misery in The Happy Valley, and he wishes to convince him that his complaints have no real reason. The old man says that he has no work to do and there is no danger to be afraid of. He asks him, how are you unhappy if you want nothing?.
The prince answers that he wants nothing, and that he doesn't know what he wants is the reason why he complains. He says that sleeping will not hide him from himself.
P: 8
'The old man …. to happiness "
The old man is surprised and shocked by the ideas of the young man. He doesn't know what to say, but he is unwilling to be silent, so he tells him that if he sees the miseries of the world, he will happy of his present condition. Here, the prince has something to desire which is seeing the miseries of the world.
CH: ( 4 ) P: 12
From these lines, we know that Rasselas decided to escape from the valley in order to find the desirable happiness.
CH: (6) P: 13
There are many professors who work to please all the people in the valley. Here Johnson is praising the science in his propaganda novel.
CH: (8) P: 18
Rasselas asks Imlac to tell him about his history. He starts by using a proverb " the life… away". He says that the scholar knows how to think, to talk, to read, to learn, to listen to ask and answer his questions. Johnson, here, gives the readers a massage which is a poet should be a scholar but a scholar shouldn't be a poet.
P:20
Johnson repeats the same thing.
(From page 20 to page 27, the lines talk about the characteristic of a good poet)
P:20 " I repent…….thee"
Rasselas is very respectable and a good student.
P: 20 "with this hope…… knowledge"
Knowledge is the most important thing in the 18th century. He has a teacher to teach him.
CH: 9
P: 24 "Having resided…….. their possessions"
Johnson talks about Persia. He is praising it. We can see how the Europeans think of us (the Arabs).They think that we are their slaves.
CH: 10
P:27 "But the knowledge…….. grace of harmony"
Johnson gives us a scientific study about how should the poet be a knowledgeable and scholar in order to be a good poet.
The knowledge of nature is important to the poet in order to estimate the happiness or the miserable life.
The poet is a man of Knowledge and learning. He should know the nature and how to think, to write, to read and to reflect the ideas of his age.
CH: 11
P: 28 "From Persia…… of the globe"
Imlac talks to the prince about his travels and the foreigners in Palestine.
P: 29 "By what means….. supreme being"
The prince asks a very reasonable question which is why can't the African and Asian go to European countries and occupied it?. Imlac says that because the European is more powerful and have knowledge and reason. Here, Johnson is propagating for the European.
P: 31 " They are surely….. to be enjoyed"
Johnson concentrates on Europe and European, and gives us wisdom in the last quotation.
All the human being are facing problems, diseases, miseries and death, but each person must endure and be able to face it if he wants to be happy.
CH: 12
P: 32 "When this though………"
Imlac talks to Rasselas about his history. He praises the ancient civilization because it reflects the source of knowledge for him.
" A man used…………"
Imlac got tired from his own country, and decided to go to the Happy Valley. (OR YOU CAN SAY: when Imlac returns to his country, he feels disappointed. That is because his father is dead, his inheritance divides between his brothers and some of his friends don't know him).
CH: 13
While they are walking, they see some rabbets trying to find a new shelter. Imlac tells Rasselas that we sometimes learn from the manner of animals. So they know how to escape by observing the manners of the rabbets.
"the eyes of the prince………certain"
Rasselas is enthusing to escape from the valley.
CH: 14
Johnson wants to tell the readers that not only men can travel and learn, but also women can.
Rasselas, Imlac and Nekayah want to escape from the valley because all of them feel boring.
Although they are afraid if someone catches them, they escape, get on the ship and travel from Suez to Cairo.
Johnson introduces one of the two female characters in Rasselas, Nekayah.
Nekayah gains the trust of Rasselas through her observation of his scheme to escape the “happy valley.” The happy valley, however, is not forgotten entirely, as will be seen in the concluding chapter of the narrative.
CH: 15
Imlac, Rasselas, Nekayah and Pekuah leave the valley. Imlac advices the prince and the princess to hide their jewels in their clothes, in order to keep them out of danger.
CH: 16
The “choice of life” becomes an identifiable theme in the text. Imlac points out some people will often delight in the trouble of their companions simply because another individual’s woe makes one’s own state bearable.
CH:17
Rasselas looks to men of his own age for insight about the “choice of life.” His moral rectitude and warning to his counterparts make him the object of laughter.
He doesn't find the happiness in the societies of the young men.
CH: 18
Rasselas listens to a “wise and happy man” who preaches about the temperance of the passions. However, when he loses his daughter, the sage fails to take his own advice and he enters into a state of despair.
As the voice of wisdom, Imlac warns “Be not too hasty. . . to trust, or to admire, the teachers of morality: they discourse like angels, but they live like men (80).
CH:19
Rasselas is eager to discover the world outside. He is also eager to visit the hermit and learn from his life and experiences.
CH: 20
Here, the hermit describes to Rasselas his misery although he is rich.
Johnson pays attention to the power struggles in Egypt through the example of the wealthy man living in the woods. Though prosperous, he lives in fear because he is at odds with the Bassa. A Bassa is a Turk of high rank.
CH: 21
The hermit is determined to leave his isolation.
Rasselas meets the hermit who seeks to return to the world he left behind. Solitude is no comfort. The only advice the hermit can offer is to avoid evil.
CH: 22
In his pursuit of the “choice of life,” Rasselas listens to “a wise and happy man,” a rhetor. However, the rhetor he speaks in generalities about following the nature of things. The more Rasselas listens to him, the less clear he is about the rhetor’s point.
CH: 25
Nekayah sees no complete happiness in the homes she has visited.
CH: 27
Rasselas recognizes that civic hierarchies create rivalries between one public servant and another.
Moreover, those people who are virtuous are not necessarily happier than those who are less virtuous. In other words, ills can befall both the good and bad.
CH: 29
Here is a conversation between Rasselas, Nekayah and Pekuah. There is a good advice here which is "choose your life and be satisfied with it".
CH: 30
Imlac interrupts Rasselas and Nekayah, and says to them they are in danger of letting life itself slip through their fingers.
CH:32
In their pursuit of the happiness, the young travellers enter the pyramids. They want to know how to be happy by observing and studying the ancient ages.
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