Question

What are the 4 myths of Individualism as developed by Ian Watt? What do the four myths have in common?

Answer 1

Hello !

I'm writing the answer below based on my research and knowledge;

Ian watt is rightly regarded as one of the most distinguished members of the very distinguished post-war (world war ll,here) of literary historians and critics.

"Myths of Individualism ",four great reprssentatives of individuals standing in opposition to their environment .The deeper irony is that most of Watt's mythic characters began as anything but exponents of society's "most basic values", at least it's official ones.

Myths began in an age of the world in which individualism has not yet become the focus of any coherent ideology or system of human action.

The 4 myths are ;

*FAUST ,DON QUIXOTE, DON JUAN, ROBINSON CRUSOE*.

FAUSTUS and DON JUAN started out as rebels against the morals and religious code, and QUIXOTE started as a feckless reactionary who, according to me and also as Watt says,confounded his fictional world with the real one .These myths stem from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century,a time when radical eccentricity was not greeted with applause at summer revivals of Man of La Mancha.(This was a musical version of DON QUIXOTE).However ,ROBINSON CRUSOE came along much later, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and his myth was closer, from the start, to it's society's "VALUES ".It was a popular entertainment for citizens of a commercial and increasingly capitalistic country ,people who would appreciate a story about sturdy individuality. Yet there is a values gap even here .The type of sturdiness that allows for survival in an island wilderness is not precisely what people wanted to see in their London business associates.

watt's mythic protagonist were not originally cast as demigods. DON JUAN and FAUSTUS are punished for their rebellion against God.

QUIXOTE's eccentricity is perpetually self-punishing .

CRUSOE regards his exile as punishment for his bad conduct.

Now ,moving to the common element or similarities among the 4 myths;

The characters provide an oppositional representation of values;they show what would be foolish or wrong to do.The characters can be seen taking risk and trying with great intensity to prove their beliefs and individualism. It was this intensity of individual experience that planted them deep in the popular imagination .They strived for freedom of individual choice with certain possible though hardly inevitable ,results of this freedom.

Thankyou, hope this helped.

*=important and the texts highlighted in capital letters are also important .