Bromides and Sulphites by Gelett Burgess (Critical Analysis of the Essay for ADP/B.Sc English Students)

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ESSAY "Bromides and Sulphites" FOR ADP/B.SC. ENGLISH STUDENTS.

Frank Gelett Burgess was a US humorous and one of the modern American writers. He earned much fame in the field of literature and humorous writings were his specialty. In an interesting and funny manner , Burgess , in his essay “Bromides and Sulphites” , divides people into two large groups i.e. Brimide and Sulphite. All the people of the world fall into one category or the other. The Bromides are in bulk. A bromide is a man of average intelligence and personality. A Bromide is given the name of Philistine , Conservative or bore. He follows the main travelled roads and goes with the crowd. He is predictable in his opinions upon any given subject he follows old customs and wears common costume.

Usually Bromides are greedy and self centered persons. They run after material gains. They are uncultured and uncivilized people. They are dull and uninteresting.

They are also conservative in their clothes , manners and ideas. They obey the law of average. They follow a set pattern of life. They have a dull and mechanical life. They worship dogmas. They follow the things sanctioned by majority.

Usually a Bromide is not innovative. He cannot think about fresh ideas. his train of thoughts can never get off the track. A Bromide is also dull to the sense of beauty. An artist and his work fail to attain an emotional response from him. He always offers dull and routine arguments on every issue of life.

On the other hand , a Sulphite is a genius or an extra ordinary intellectual person. According to Burgess , a Sulphite is a person who does his own thinking. He is explosive. No one can predict his opinion upon any given subject. It is never known , what he will say or do. No one can foresee his doings. He may shock or please us by his sudden or spontaneous actions.

The Sulphites do not exist in large number. However all reformers, cranks and artist all are Sulphites. They not only do ordinary things in unusual ways but they also do unusual things in ordinary ways. He follows his own pattern of behaviour.

In order to illustrate his point , Burgess gives us examples of two classes of people from history and literature.

William Shakespeare wrote a very famous tragedy of Hamlet. Here Hamlet happens to be imaginative and sensitive character. He is a sulphite. As through out the play his actions are unpredictable.

Then Becky Sharp is an imaginative and emotional character of Thackery’s novel “Vanity Fair”. She is Sulphite. Amelia Sedley is another character of the same book. She is original in her thinking. Her actions are quite predictable. More over she follows a set pattern of life. She has no innovation. So she is a Sulphite.

Dr Roosevelt of the USA was  a Sulphite. He was the president of America. He was very popular among the people for his extra ordinary policies. But his predecessor President Herbert Hoover was a Bromide. He was the set pattern and the set policies. He did not give anything new to his people.

G.B. Shaw was a great Irish playwright. He was a Sulphite. He was an original thinker. His plays recollected his brilliant ideas.

Marie Corelli , another writer of G.B. Shaw’s time was a Bromide. His writings were dull and uninteresting.

Dr. Johnson was a Sulphite , but his writings were Bromidic. Lewis Carroll , who wrote “Alice in wonderland” was a Sulphite. He had extraordinary ideas about different characters and situations. But in his private life he was a Bromidic.

Samuel Johnson was a prose writer of great order. But he was Bomidic.

So it means some people are Bromides whereas some are Sulphites. Some people are Bromides where as there work is Sulphitic , and some are Suphites and their works are Bromidic.       

                                                                                            

Bromide 

Dull                                                                                         Sulphites

interesting

Predictable                                                                            unpredictable

Boring                                                                                     interesting

Conservative                                                                         innovative     

Self centered                                                                          wider view

Uncultured                                                                             cultured

Uncivilized                                                                             civilized

Materialistic                                                                          genius