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used to allude to something of expressing the feeling and condition of ‘We’, it
discloses a moral value that through sorrow something beautiful can be revealed. e.
Hamlet and Dante
. . . But we embrace Solitude, in whose Shadow the beauties of Hamlet and Dante arose
Gibran, 1947, stanza 18, line 4-5
The poet uses allusion of William Shakespeare’s masterpieces, Hamlet,
and an Italian famous poet of the late Middle Ages, Dante. Hamlet is a play about a vengeance of Prince Hamlet for his father’s death. According to Jeffrey H.
Hacker in Encyclopedia of Knowledge 199 1: 122, “Hamlet is a vigorous, active
play dealing with murder and revenge − themes that were also treated by such
popular contemporary “revenge tragedies”…”. Then, Dante is one of the poets in Medieval Ages who criticizes the tyrannical government, especially the papal and
Roman Empire, through his works. The allusion of Hamlet and Dante refers to the way of the poet wants to create ‘We’ as rebel as Dante to revenge as Hamlet does.
It is seen in the line “the beauties of Hamlet and Dante arose” Gibran, 1947, stanza 18, line 5. It is described that ‘Solitude’ has its shadow as beautiful as
Hamlet and Dante. This allusion takes a notion that the poet portrays the desire of ‘We’ to fight against ‘You’.
f. Socrates, Paul, Ali Talib, MadhatPasha
You poisoned Socrates and stoned Paul and Destroyed Ali Talib and assassinated
Madhat Pasha, and yet those immortals are With us forever before the face of Eternity
Gibran, 1947, stanza 26, line 1-4
The last allusion is the four well-known persons which are mentioned in this stanza. They are Soctrates, Paul, Ali Talib, and Madhat Pasha. Socrates is a
Greek philosopher and the teacher of the famous Plato. He was killed because of the false accusations so that he got dead punishment by drinking poison. Paul, or
known as Saint Paul the Apostle, is a Christian martyr who died because of his faith. Ali Talib, the Caliph, the leader of Muslim and Madhat Pasha, the Ottoman
vizier were murdered in the hand of rebellions. It is interesting that four persons who come from different era and nation
were killed in the name of truth. Again, it seems like the poet wants to point out the quality of
‘You’. This stanza talks about ‘You’ that are being blamed for the death of those persons. The way of mentioning or referring them makes the idea
that it actually talks about the injustice which is done by ‘You’ as the power
owner of society in the poem. Though they have died as the heroes, their spirits are always with
‘We’. It is seen in the last two lines in the stanza, “…those immortals are, With us forever before the face of Eternity.”
B. Class Struggle Shown in Figurative Language and Allusions
Marxists believe that the contribution of the social class of the author determine herhis works. Because of that, the researcher relates the meaning of
each figurative language and allusions with theory of Marxism and the background of the poet to develop the analysis about the idea of class struggle.
1. The Capitalist Society
It is stated in Kahlil Gibran’s Works and Social Background that the poem
“We and You” was written as Kahlil Gibran’s social protest toward the
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discrimination in his country. This is important to see what kind of society which Gibran had criticized on. Under the Ottoman Empire rule, Lebanon was led by a
Sultan. At that time the Empire had a good connection with Western especially Europe. Based on Encyclopedia of Knowledge,
“Lebanon develops commercial, educational, and religious ties with Europe” Hacker, 1991: 225. Even in
economic system, Ottoman Empire was influenced by Europe. Nevertheless, social economic system in society did no longer belong to feudalism. According
to Immanuel Wallerstein, The Ottoman Empire, at least at the beginning, was a classic case of a
world-empire. It “came into contact” with a capitalist world-economy, that
of Europe. There was trade between the two systems. There was warfare. At some point in time, the European world-economy absorbed the
Ottoman Empire into its ambit. At this latter point, the Ottoman Empire was no longer a world-empire but simply one more state located within the
boundaries of the capitalist world-economy Wallerstein, 1979:391.
Due to the fact that this poem regards as the social protest to the Ottoman Empire, the analysis of the figurative language and allusion can be interpreted as the critic
of the discrimination in capitalist society. The description about capitalism is seen in
allusions ‘Babylon’ and ‘Nineveh’. These allusions can be regarded as a description about ‘You’ as the
ow ner of the means of production and “We” as the labours. The lines “You have
built Babylon upon the bones of the, Weak, and erected the palaces of Nineveh upon, The graves of the miserable
” Gibran, 1947, stanza 14, line 1-3 allude to the capitalist system in which the profit is gained by exploiting the labours as
described by ‘the weak’ and ‘the miserable’.
Another description about capitalism is stated in a symbol ‘Palace’ and
‘Grave’. Take a look to the full stanza of these symbols, We build palaces for you, and you dig graves
For us; and between the beauty of the palace And the obscurity of the grave, Humanity
Walks as a sentry with iron weapons. Gibran, 1947, stanza 4, line 1-4
This stanza simply talks about the system of the soc iety. ‘We’ as the working
class people sell their labor power that reflected in “building palaces”. The word
‘palaces’ can be assumed as a symbol of capitalism where the capitalists gain the profit by exploiting the labor. Thus, the word ‘graves’ can be assumed as a
symbol of the marginalized condition of ‘We’. The poet describes also about
‘Humanity’ by being personified as a sentry to explain how capitalism works in society.
2. The Stratified Society
Social stratification is defined as “a hierarchical arrangement of social
groups or social classes or social classes differing in social status with respect to wealth, power, income, education, occupation, cultural interest and achievement,
and various privileges, responsibilities and disabilities ” Wilczynski, 1981:548.
The figurative language and allusions which are used in “We and You” seems to
illustrate the social stratification in the society that then lead to the idea of class struggle. T
he poet uses the symbol ‘Pyramid’ to symbolize the hierarchy or social arrangement. This symbol depicts the form of capitalist system in which the
people have been distinguished into classes. The arrangement signifies the
A
contradiction of both ‘We’ and ‘You’ in terms of quality or characteristics and
social conditions. Basically, social stratification is triggered by economical stuff. It has been
explained in chapter II that Marx sees the social stratification as the impact of economic system in capitalist society. The economic disparity among society is
implied in the symbol ‘Gold’. The symbol ‘Gold’ embodies the wealth of ‘You’ while
‘We’ embracing themselves in their poverty. This is totally a representation of the economic inequality. The huge gap between them economically causes the
stratification in society. Another figurative language which strengthen the idea of economic disparity is
the metaphor “You are the pursuit of earthly, Gaiety” Gibran, 1947, stanza 6, line 1-2. In the previous part, it is explained that this
metaphor means the material things which are bound up to ‘You’. This is a
portrayal of the capitalist who owns the means of production, where they have a great desire in gaining profit from the production. Apparently, the poet uses the
term ‘earthly gaiety’ to romanticize the materialism that is attached to ‘You’. As the impact of the stratification, the society is distinguished into classes
that represent in the characters ‘We’ and ‘You’. ‘We’ and ‘You’ is a description
of two different groups in society. From the explanations about capitalist society and stratified society, some figurative language and allusions such as a symbol
‘Palace and Grave’, allusions ‘Babylon and Nineveh’, metaphor “You are the persuit of earthly gaiety” and a symbol ‘Gold’ clearly show the position of ‘We’
and ‘You’. Thus, it is obvious that ‘We’ stands for the proletariats and
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‘You’stands for the bourgeoisie. ‘We’ as the proletarian people or the “have nots” are being compared with ‘You’ the bourgeoisie or the “haves ones”.
Chris Livesey has explained that basically there are two social groups in society. The first one is a group of people who own and control the production
and the second one is a group of people who not own and control the production. The ownership of the production involves the social position between the classes.
In this poem, ‘You’ are described as the group of people who have higher social
position and ‘We’ have nothing to do with their position as the lower ones. This is
also seen in the symbol ‘Wine Goblets’ that describes about ‘You’ as the ruling
class. It represents the social status of ‘You’. Besides, the poet also gives a comparison by stating ‘We’ as ‘the oppressed weak’.
Since the poet’s social background is significant in Marxist criticism, therefore it is important to see how the poet stands as the member of particular
social class. The pronoun ‘We’ shows that the poet uses first person point of view.
The way he uses that kind of point of view indicates that he belongs to the proletariats as presented by the character
‘We’. It is also proven in the explanation about Kahlil Gibran’s background where he lived in poverty under Ottoman
Empire. The stratification of the society is resulting to the social position of those
classes. Thus, it also brings the contradictions among the classes, indeed. The poet portrays the contradiction by involving at the quality and the condition of each
character ‘We’ and ‘You’.
