The deserted village by Oliver goldsmith
Correct Answer :
Voices revolt of the individual man against institutions
Solution :
The correct option is Voices revolt of the individual man against institutions.
Oliver Goldsmith's famous poem, The Deserted Village (published in 1770), is a poignant commentary on the social and economic changes sweeping through the English countryside during the 18th century.
The poem centers on the decline of a rural village (named Auburn) and the displacement of its working-class inhabitants due to the rise of wealthy landowners, industrialization, and the enclosure movement.
Here is a step-by-step breakdown of why this option is correct:
1. The Individual vs. Institutional Oppression:
The poem focuses on the struggles of the common villager, the agricultural laborer, and the poet himself against powerful institutional forces—namely, the wealthy elite, political policies like the Enclosure Acts, and the commercial trade system that prioritized luxury and profit over human lives.
2. Revolt Against the Corruption of Wealth:
Goldsmith condemns the institutions of his day that allowed single wealthy individuals to purchase entire tracts of land, thereby dismantling traditional village communities. By highlighting the tragic forced emigration of individual families, the poem acts as an emotional and ideological revolt against these systemic institutional injustices.
3. Why Other Options are Incorrect:
• Critiques the rural institutions: While the poem laments the destruction of the village, its core anger is directed outward toward external economic systems, urbanization, and greedy landowners rather than the traditional rural institutions themselves, which it actually idealizes.
• Reflects upon different views on the human soul: The poem is a social, economic, and political critique rather than a theological or philosophical debate about the nature of the human soul.
• Advocates urbanism over rural backwardness: Goldsmith does the exact opposite; he deeply romanticizes the rural past and warns against the moral corruption and overcrowded decay of urban life.
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