Representations of Conflict in Douglas and Fingal

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Recommended: Wars effect on literature

In John Home’s Douglas and James Macpherson’s Fingal, the inheritance of war from fathers to sons, infighting between brothers, and a warrior’s incessant craving for glory, induce distress to those left after the battles have ceased. In the finale of both texts, Lady Randolph and Ossian are left feeling dejected and solitary, albeit Ossian still has the ability to recite the songs of his heroes, allowing them to persist. Lady Randolph’s situation, on the other hand, is truly hopeless as she finds no reason to live after Douglas’ death, so she kills herself. These endings are unequivocally caused by conflict, and although it may seem like there—because of the woe felt by Lady Randolph and Ossian—is a clear anti-war mentality in the texts, in fact there are differing, often contradictory views presented. It is crucial to first examine the views of inheritance, infighting and obtaining glory in order to comprehend the effects upon Lady Randolph and Ossian. Only after an analysis of these topics will it be shown that conflict, ultimately, is a destructive force, inflicting pain upon Lady Randolph and Ossian.

Inheritance is not always predicated on something tangible. Instead, as both texts exhibit, a father’s fate is to be his son’s as well, a concept first encountered in the preface of Douglas when the narrator states, “And ev’ry hero was a hero’s sire. / When powerful fate decreed one warrior’s doom” (Home 157). Society has constructed the belief that war is the highest social position possible, so those whose fathers were of military glory also wish for the same glory. Conflicts are transferred from father to son, illustrated infallibly in this passage from Fingal: “My soul brightens in danger . . . I am of the race of steel; my f...

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...n their families and friends away from them. With their pasts erased, they are left to mourn the lives of the fallen, lost in war all too soon.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Home, John. “Douglas, A Tragedy (1756 edition).” English 320: Eighteenth-Century Literature

and Culture. Comp. L Davis. SFU Document Solutions: 2011. 154-205.

Macpherson, James. “Fingal: An ancient epic poem, in six books: together with several other

poems, composed by Ossian the son of Fingal.” English 320: Eighteenth-Century

Literature and Culture. Comp. L Davis. SFU Document Solutions: 2011. 223-266.

Mulholland, James. “James Macpherson’s Ossian Poems, Oral Traditions and the Invention of

Voice,” Oral Tradition 24:2 (2009): 393-414.

Jung, Sandro. “Lady Randolph, the ‘Monument of Woe’: Love and Loss in John

Home’s Douglas.” Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research, 20 (1-2): 16-27.

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