Tony Lumpkin
son of Mrs Hardcastle by her first husband (Mr Lumpkin) and stepson to Mr Hardcastle. He is a mischievous, uneducated playboy and a very consumptive figure; a fat, ale-drinking young man who has little ambition except to play practical jokes and to visit the local tavern whenever be has a mind; frightens the maids and worries the kittens. Proves to be good-natured and kind despite his superficial disdain for everyone. do Mrs Hardcastle has no authority over Tony, and their relationship contrasts with that between Hardcastle and Kate.
Tony takes an interest in horses, "Bet Bouncer and especially the alehouse, where he joyfully sings with members of the lower-classes. When Tony comes of age, he will receive 1,500 pounds a year. His mother hopes to marry him to her niece, constance Neville, who is in line to inherit a casket of jewels from her uncle. Tony and Miss Neville despise each other It is Tony's initial ception of Marlow, for a joke, which sets up the plot Tony goes to great effort to help Neville and Hastings in their plans to leave the country because he despises her.
Tony's free-wheeling ways ofdrinking and tomfoolery is probably because of the huge inheritance that awaits him when he comes of age.
The mood is gloomy and sober with a corresponding tone of lamentation and pessimism. There appears to be a shift in tone in the last stanza as he expresses hope but he ends the stanza on a pessimistic note.
As a result of the many years of failed governance, the country experiences all kinds of social problems like violence, robbery, insurgence, kidnapping thus becoming a sabre-toothed tiger/a giant hawk . The youths and elder statesmen refrain from agitation for fear of being persecuted or repressed by government: While infants shudder home/the grizzled ones snatch their gut/from bayonets of tribulation/halting venturous walk at dusk .
In the last stanza, while the poet looks forward to a generation that will take the nation out of its hopeless state toward the shore of possibilities, his hope is threatened by the ravenous nature of the ruling class: The land lies patiently ahead/ awaiting in ambush , ready to devour the future change- agents.
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